News Story not available This story has been published on: 2022-10-28. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. This story is no longer available on our site. : 9 2013 . 9 . . Mayor Bill de Blasio campaigned on a pledge to tone down the NYPD's practice of turning possession of small amounts of marijuana into a crime, when officially it is supposed to be treated like a traffic ticket. So it may come as a surprise that marijuana arrests are up nearly a third so far this year, the third year of de Blasio's mayoralty, compared to the same period in 2015. To recap: Possession of fewer than 25 grams of weed was decriminalized in New York in 1977, unless the bud is being held or smoked in public view. Under former police commissioner Ray Kelly, arrests for possession of small amounts of marijuana skyrocketed. By 2010, police arrested 50,383 people for the offense (a far cry from the 5,700 arrested in 1995, in part under Bratton's last stint at the helm of the police department). Embarrassed by reports that officers were overwhelmingly arresting African-American and Hispanic New Yorkers for possession, largely on the bogus basis of illegal searches and orders to empty pockets that ended with a joint or baggie in a person's hand, Kelly sent a memo to all officers in the fall of 2011 telling them to stop (i.e. start following the law). The arrests remained enough of an issue that de Blasio raised them again in the heated 2013 mayoral race. They did drop after he took office, with the help of a directive by him and NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton in November 2014 again ordering officers once again to not make arrests unless appropriate. Police made 26,400 weed collars for the year. The latest figures show a nearly 30 percent increase, from 7,236 in the first half of 2015 to 9,331 in the same period this year. Figures like these, and the fact that just 9 percent of those arrested were white, even though studies tend to show that white people smoke pot at rates roughly equal to if not greater than black and Latino people, run counter to the claims of Bratton that his cops police equitably. "It challenges directly Bratton's statement that, 'We don't target communities of color, we target behavior,'" said Robert Gangi, director of the Police Reform Organizing Project, which publicized the latest NYPD figures this week. "Clearly we target community of color." Police Reform Organizing Project director Robert Gangi (YouTube) Last week, Bratton announced that he is leaving the NYPD in September. As the soon-to-be-former top cop toured local news outlets managing his legacy, Gangi found himself unexpectedly singled out as part of the "radical fringe" of protesters whom Bratton encouraged reporters to "investigate" instead of digging into police misconduct. "You've got one character, Robert Gangi, who claims to head some type of activist group that sits in the courtrooms all month long and counts how many minorities come through versus whites in the process," Bratton told NY1's Errol Louis. "Who is Robert Gangi? Who does he represent? Is he appointed by anybody? Does he speak for anybody other than himself?" This isn't Bratton's first outburst by a long shot. The outgoing top cop has said that marijuana should not be legalized because it is the source of "the vast majority" of violence in New York City, among other doozies. Nevertheless, his targeting of PROP caught Gangi off guard. "It surprised me him calling us out singling out me and PROP and the work that we do," Gangi said. "Then I thought about it, and I realized: our work goes directly at the core of NYPD's policing. Not only is it racially disproportionate and it's offensive, but it's racist. The numbers are undeniable." Outgoing NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton (Getty Images) Based on an analysis of court and police costs by the Drug Policy Alliance, PROP estimates that each marijuana arrest costs the city $1,750, or $16.3 million so far this year. Reached about the activist group's latest analysis, the NYPD again denied racial profiling, and attacked Gangi. "The New York City Police Department enforces marihuana laws through observation, in response to a 911 calls [sic], and community complaints," Lieutenant John Grimpel wrote in an email. "Robert Ganjis predictable and repeated attempts to malign the department lack any factual basis. We fight crime where we find it. Any other characterization is Gangjis [sic] failed attempt to garner headlines and gin-up fear. We will continue fighting crimeand we are proud of our record making this the safest big city in America." A spokeswoman for the Mayor's Office repeated the point, saying that the overall decline in marijuana arrests since de Blasio took office is the real story, and part of the administration's reforms that are "strengthening the relationship between police and community while keeping New York the safest big city in America." The spokeswoman, Monica Klein, declined to address why it is that nonwhite people bear the brunt of marijuana enforcement. It's impossible to parse from the data how many of those arrested for marijuana were caught with more than 25 grams, versus those pinched for a smaller amount exposed in an illegal search, or for simply smoking a joint on the corner. Anecdotally, public defenders have said in years past that illegal searches and orders to empty one's pockets constitute a majority of the grounds for pot possession busts. Whatever the case, Gangi said his group believes none of those things should result in a trip to jail. Polls show a majority of New Yorkers (and Americans) agree that marijuana should be legal. In some neighborhoods, it's already much closer to being so, according to Gangi. "I live on the West Side, and it's predominately white and affluent," Gangi said. "When I walk my dog...every once in a while I'll smell marijuana smoke. It's clear that no one is concerned about going to jail for that." The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2016 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. 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Optimization Are you frustrated with a slow pc or a hard disk not performing as it should? Try SLOW-PCfighter to speed up boot time on a slow PC, or try a free scan of FULL-DISKfighter to recover space on a full disk. The latest offering is DRIVERfighter to update your driver updater. Get complete PC optimization and extend the life of your PC with these must-have software tools. STAMFORD The University of Connecticut Board of Trustees is expected vote on an agreement that would approve of a student housing project for its Stamford campus Wednesday. The boards vote was originally scheduled for July 20, but was postponed at the last minute due to a technical issue with the agreement. The long-awaited UConn dormitory project received its final city approval last month when the Zoning Board voted unanimously to move the project forward. The selected site, developer RMSs a mixed-use development next to the Government Center, is about a block from the universitys Stamford campus at Broad and Franklin streets. It was selected out of a pool of 11 applicants after UConn first sought proposals for campus housing in 2014. The university was looking for plans that could house between 200 and 400 students. The UConn Board of Trustees will review a detailed presentation of the project, which consists of 116 units and would house up to 290 students. The board is expected to approve the project as RMS president Randy Salvatore has said that UConn already signed a letter of intent to lease the residential portion his mixed-use building under construction at 900 Washington Blvd. If approvals are granted as expected, UConn would become the operator of the residential portion of the building and students selected for on-campus housing may be able to move in for the fall 2017 semester. The UConn Board of Trustees will conduct its review of the proposed dorms at 9:15 a.m. Wednesday at the universitys Storrs campus. nora.naughton@scni.com; twitter.com/noranaughton This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate STAMFORD An East Side day care owner who pleaded not guilty Tuesday in the death of a 2-month-old baby made a series of panic calls before dialing 911 at least 45 minutes after the child started having trouble breathing, police said. Nydia Carrillo-Maldonado, 34, whose facility has been cited several times for safety violations, pleaded not guilty to first-degree manslaughter and risk of injury to a minor during a brief appearance Tuesday before Judge Auden Grogins. Carrillo-Maldonado, who has no prior arrests, was watching 2-month-old Bella Redondo and her 1-year-old brother on July 12 when the baby girl had trouble breathing, police said. The girl was taken to Stamford Hospital where she died several hours later. An autopsy revealed her death was a homicide caused by blunt-force trauma to the head. The state Department of Children and Families and the state Office of Early Childhood investigated the Wardwell Street facility in the days following the babys death. Carrillo-Maldonado surrendered her license after the state suspended it last month. The investigators found during the July 14 visit that Carrillo-Maldonado lacked several documents, including a valid first aid certificate, a childs health records and a childs enrollment form, according to a report obtained Tuesday by The Advocate. The report also shows inspectors found possible evidence the woman violated state regulations regarding good judgment about safety and supervision. However, details of those violations were redacted from the report since they are still under DCF investigation. In two earlier visits, the Early Childhood office, which licenses and inspects the thousands of day cares in the state, found several safety and health violations at the East Side facility, including a curling iron plugged in next to a sleeping child and fencing wood with nails sticking out in the backyard. The inspector during one of the unannounced visits also discovered the familys dog did not have a current rabies exam and a family member had moved in without completing background checks or medical tests. Carrillo-Maldonado eventually corrected the issues without receiving sanctions. The affidavit detailing the evidence that led to Carrillo-Maldonados arrest remains sealed, but Lt. Diedrich Hohn said at least 45 minutes elapsed from when the baby started to have trouble breathing until Carrillo-Maldonado called 911. Hohn said Carrillo-Maldonado made panic calls to the babys mother, her sister and her husband starting about 2:30 p.m. and then called 911 at 3:12 p.m. Carrillo-Maldonado has maintained she never dropped the baby and had no idea how the child suffered the head injuries, Hohn said. With that said, the only other reason for that injury to manifest itself would have been the result of an intentional act, Hohn said. Hohn said since Carrillo-Maldonado was caring for the child from about 7:30 a.m. that day, she was responsible for the injuries. Police have not released the details of the babys head trauma, but Hohn said the injuries were so pronounced that Carrillo-Maldonado should have known the child needed medical attention. Hohn said police are waiting for the remainder of the medical reports to determine what caused the injuries. However, Christian Bujdud, Carrillo-Maldonados attorney, said the baby didnt suffer the injuries while in his clients care. I havent seen the medical reports, Bujdud said. I want to see what they say about the time frame and nature and scope of these injuries. Bujdud said his client had a long and personal relationship with the Redondo family. He said Carrillo-Maldonados husband, Alexander Corleto, worked for about four years at a waste hauling company with the babys father, Fernando Redondo. Bujdud said the two were friends and his client watched the Redondos 1-year-old son for several months. The Redondos were very comfortable with the care their child had received at the day care, Bujdud said. Mark Sherman, a Stamford attorney who is representing Fernando and his wife, Katy Redondo, described the relationship differently. They werent friends or anything like that, he said. Sherman said the parents are struggling, but grateful for law enforcement working so quickly on this. The Stamford case is one of three infant deaths in home day care facilities this year. A child died in Fairfield in March and another baby died in Sterling two days after the Stamford incident. Carrillo-Maldonado remains held on $200,000 bond and will next appear in court on Aug. 25. Staff writer Nelson Oliveira contributed to this report. jnickerson@scni.com Y ou might be forgiven for thinking that Deutsche Borses takeover of sorry, merger with the London Stock Exchange is all over bar the shouting. Shareholders in both organisations have voted the deal through (after a subtle lowering of the bar by our German friends). And Xavier Rolet, the French chief executive of the LSE, said last week that he expects it to complete in the first or second quarter of next year. But dont be fooled. It is far from done and dusted. And now is the time for the shouting to start. Prime Minister Theresa May and her Chancellor Philip Hammond have yet to pronounce on it. Hammonds predecessor, George Osborne, denied any idea that it was an attempt by Germany to take over the City of London or 1944 by stealth. Boris Johnson, Mayor of London when the deal was announced and now Foreign Secretary, has been uncharacteristically quiet on the subject. May and Hammond should be told that the referendum result which propelled them to power has also fundamentally changed the dynamics of the LSE takeover. For all Rolets insistence that the merged company will be headquartered in London, it is increasingly less likely that will end up the case. The German state of Hesse, in which Deutsche Borse under Carsten Kengeter, is based (in Frankfurt), has made it clear it does not believe its headquarters can be outside the European Union. This is not mere political flag-waving, because Hesses parliament has to approve the deal. In the wake of the Leave vote, the Borse and LSE reassured people that it had created a referendum committee to address any matters arising from Brexit. The six-strong body is made up of three non-executive directors from each company. But the chairman who, crucially, holds a casting vote is none other than Joachim Faber, chairman of Deutsche Borse. So which way is he going to vote when half the committee says the headquarters should be in Frankfurt and the other half says London? I wonder. I would also recommend that May and Hammond take a look at the letters received by EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager on the 24 billion deal. France, Belgium, Holland and Portugal have all raised objections. They strike very similar themes, in particular highlighting access to capital for smaller companies if a single group were to achieve dominance of European capital markets. This is something which matters far more in the UK post-Brexit than it might have before. In London, we have Europes best if not totally perfect smaller-companies stock market, in the shape of AIM. To hand control of that to Germany at a time when this country is having to learn how to stand alone would be madness. It would drive small companies seeking funds back into the hands of banks or worse. Similar concerns have been expressed by European retail investors, who believe the combination will restrict competition and provide less choice for private punters. We do have a backstop in that the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority need to approve the Anglo-German get-together. Both should analyse it from the view of capital-raising in this country, since that is what we may soon be far more dependent upon. May has already called a time-out over the proposed Hinkley Point nuclear plant. The London Stock Exchange is as key a part of our national infrastructure as that, and even more so post-Brexit. Politicians need to inform themselves and be prepared to block this deal. S AVILLS is weathering the Brexit storms despite a collapse in UK commercial property deals in the run-up to the EU referendum, chief executive Jeremy Helsby said today. The property firm whose founder opened its first office in the City of London 161 years ago is relying on its global spread to smooth out the jolts of the historic vote. More than half of revenues now come from outside the UK. Profits on UK commercial property deals dived 54% to 2.7 million as buyers largely stayed on the sidelines. But that was offset by a sharp 37% rise in UK residential profits to 7.4 million, thanks to buyers rushing in ahead of Aprils stamp duty hike. Savills is pushing into the market for cheaper London homes of about 1.5 million in areas such as Primrose Hill and Maida Vale as activity at the top end slows. Shares rose 7.6p to 692.6p as its venture into the US paid off and parts of the business not reliant on dealmaking such as property management performed strongly. We certainly seem to be weathering the Brexit storms, Helsby said. Group pre-tax profits were down 3% to 25.5 million in the first half but the dividend is up 10% and revenues rose 14% to 622 million. The board kept full-year expectations unchanged, with the City inking in profits of around 120 million. T his is the second day of the Southern rail strike and there are another three to come. It is difficult to express the anger and frustration of commuters whose routes are affected by such action but their fury is only likely to increase by the end of the week. London relies on its overground commuter services to function; it is the prerequisite for the citys economy to work. For hundreds of thousands of people to be prevented from going to work or obliged to do so at enormous inconvenience and expense by the action of a single union, or rather some 300 members of that union, is wholly unacceptable. Some 300,000 people from the commuter belt rely on Southern services to get to work. They have no alternative. Granted, Southern is one of the least popular rail operators among passengers, especially after it cancelled some of its services recently, but the RMT is squarely accountable for this weeks disruption. Passengers are not well served by this train service but the strike is the last straw in denying passengers their means of getting to work in order for the RMT to make a point about retaining guards as well as drivers on the trains. The London economy may lose as much as 20 million a day, or 100 million a week, as a result of this strike. Given that transport is a critical service on which the economy depends, the freedom to strike in this sector may have to be qualified. The new Transport Secretary, Chris Grayling, has declared that resolving the dispute is top of his priority list; he will need, then, to become more closely involved in the dispute. The Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, whose constituents in Hastings and Rye are among those who rely on the service, may like to remind him of what is at stake. There are, it seems, moves at Acas, the conciliation service, to close a deal between management and unions; that deal must be expedited. London workers cannot be held to ransom in this fashion; London itself cannot be held to ransom. Weve had enough. Sadiq, ambassador The Mayor, Sadiq Khan, is doing a Boris that is to say, he is acting as de facto ambassador for London abroad. Next month he is in North America to emphasise that London is open for business and to visitors. Among those he will visit are the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the Clintons, the mayor of Chicago Rahm Emanuel and the mayor of New York Bill de Blasio. It is a charm offensive which is especially needful post-Brexit to emphasise to our friends Londons willingness and ability to engage with the world. This is a good exercise in soft power; using Londons appeal as one of the great global capitals to make a case for continued investment and tourism. Much depends in the months to come on our reputation as an open and hospitable city. The Mayors job is to make friends and influence people; hes the right man to do it. And after North America, the same goes for the rest of the world. Barking-Barcelona Barking council has approved a new regeneration scheme for Barking Riverside, or an ambitious development which, it hopes, will rival Barcelona in appeal. This is thinking big: but in pre-Reformation England, Barkings convent was enormously important. The plan is for a new town on 350 acres of brownfield land for 26,000 people living in 10,800 homes, with a promenade, wildlife reserves and a marina with riverboat services to and from central London. This is the way to go for an urban renaissance: Barcelona can look to its laurels. S ome of Britains highest earners enjoyed an unbelievably generous pay increase last year. Thanks to their 10 per cent pay rise, FTSE-100 bosses can now expect to make 5.5 million a year up from 5 million the year before. Meanwhile, at the other end of the scale, the kitchen cupboards of hundreds of thousands of low-earners now resemble those of Old Mother Hubbard. New research published today shows that up to half a million workers every week cannot afford food for themselves and their families. Such a vast and growing gap between those at the top and bottom of the pile will strike most fair-minded people as totally unjust. Most of us hold a natural sympathy for those millions of people who get up early, queue for a bus or train, and put in day after day of hard graft just to try to make ends meet. That a sizeable number of those grafters are hungry while the highest earners gain a further 500,000 each should trigger some soul searching. The political importance of this will not be lost on our new Prime Minister, Theresa May. Against a backdrop of boardroom largesse, the face of a hungry worker is an unacceptable face of capitalism. Indeed, this weeks new findings on the state of working Britain pose a direct challenge to Mays vision for our country. The Prime Minister entered Downing Street with a pledge to deliver fairness in our economy. What levers will she now need to pull to build an economy that delivers fair gains for all of us, and not just a privileged few at the top? A first lever must be pulled to drive up wages at the bottom, as well as in the middle. The Government has already introduced a national living wage a hugely welcome step but even this improved hourly rate, for too many workers, fails to deliver a weekly wage packet that stretches far enough to cover a basket of food. We therefore need a wider strategy for increasing living standards for low- and middle-earners. This will need to be built upon raising productivity among low-paying firms, so that higher wages become affordable without the loss of jobs. May could ask local employment services to play their part by helping low-paid workers extend their hours, gain skills or find better paid work at another firm. The Governments current efforts on this front are limited to a handful of workers on universal credit. But across the labour market there are well over a million people who want to work more hours than they are being given. Likewise, a new points-based immigration system should be designed to restrict the number of overseas workers being imported to this country. This will need to be accompanied by a scaling up of 10-week apprenticeship courses in bricklaying, plumbing and carpentry, for example. A skills acquisition programme for home- grown workers would help fire up the kiln for a national housebuilding programme that pays family wages to young workers. This strategy will also need to include a review of how effectively zero-hours contracts are operating. A review should open up a much-needed conversation on whether to grant workers the right to request a fixed-hours contract which affords them an adequate minimum income without additional support from taxpayers. Likewise on self-employment. One of the FTSE-100 companies, Next, outsources delivery work to the courier firm Hermes. This firm is reported to have been paying its self-employed workers less than the minimum wage and withdrawing work at a moments notice. I have asked May to review this whole sector to see how its current practices square with her vision. Each of these moves, while absolutely necessary to building a fairer economy that raises the whole countrys standard of living, should be viewed only as part of the story. Our focus also needs to extend to the way earnings are decided for those at the top. Clearly May will need to make a direct appeal to top-earners themselves. It should not be left to shareholders alone to find an effective response. Their inadequate powers and historic reluctance to intervene has resulted in a failure to curb boardroom excesses. The model that has emerged over the past 30 years is a con. As a boss, you can have people on the remuneration committee who you have helped appoint to your board. They then recommend increases that match other firms committees, who are often appointed on the same basis. Moreover, such increases appear sometimes to be divorced from the performance of the company, as well as its boss. Some of the top companies, such as BP, have put in disastrous returns, and yet their bosses have had further pay increases. So May should begin by drawing up an honours blacklist for bosses taking generous pay increases without delivering improvements both in their firms performance as well as their lowest-paid workers wages. In addition, both shareholders and workers ought to have a proper say on bosses pay. Increases for bosses should be linked to both a certain multiple of the companys average and lowest wages, as well as the percentage increase in their average and lowest wages. A vote on these proposals should be binding. May should also prompt companies to act by shining a light on their remuneration practices. A breakthrough could be requiring companies to publish in their annual accounts not only the sums paid to their highest earners, but also the number of workers including those contracted to clean the offices who rely on subsidies such as universal credit, tax credits or housing benefit. We cannot have a contented society unless the economy produces fair rewards at the top, middle and bottom. These are the first steps to making the British dream a reality for all of us. Frank Field is Labour MP for Birkenhead B eware the nostalgic comfort of a golden age. Held up to the light, most golden ages do not glister, they prove to be made of base metal. Some former pupils of grammar schools are readily able to attribute their success in later life to the grounding and belief that their schooling gave them: others do not. Add to the ranks of the latter those who felt branded a failure at the age of 11, by dint of their inability to shine at one moment in their young lives, and the picture is not altogether one of gleaming achievement. There are those who speak as though the generic descriptor grammar school offers the solution to educational progress and social mobility; it does not. Over the years I have witnessed schools which have been purposeful and dynamic, the kind of well-led schools that believe in a breadth of experience that is broader than just the academic and seek to find the spark that ignites a fire of enthusiasm in every child. I have also visited exam-obsessed, small-minded, punitive schools that resemble factory production lines. There are grammar schools in both camps. What makes great schools is a culture that conveys the joy of academic rigour while also celebrating a diversity of skills and attributes, including skills that are described, sometimes dismissively, as vocational. This leads to more balanced and interesting students who are more likely to have the wherewithal effectively to navigate the shifting complexities of adult life in the decades to come. I lose track of the number of employers who express concern about the poor quality of graduate applicants to their companies. The academic qualifications glister, they say, but there is not the flexibility, resilience or nous to succeed. The debate over expanding the number of grammar schools is the wrong one to have. Grammar schools are not of uniform quality and there is no strong evidence to suggest that they make a significant impact on social mobility. Schools are at their best when they work in a generous-spirited collaboration with other schools. We have the beginnings of a transformed system with slowly emerging clusters of schools. Let us not tinker with the system yet again but rather focus on what our schools do. For a start, we would benefit from clarity around streaming. Nomenclature can be tricky. Streaming selects students by a broad band of ability for all subjects. I witnessed this in its purest form in a former direct- grant grammar school in the Eighties and it was dreadful. The bottom stream became a band of the disconnected who played up to low expectations. The school had created a vicious circle. The top stream was allowed to become inward-looking and, in its own way, was disconnected, too. Setting, by contrast, places each child in a group for each subject that works at a pace that challenges them and with which they can cope; and there needs to be regular movement between these sets because children develop at different rates and in different ways. It requires teaching of high quality and an ethos that genuinely celebrates an individuals different strengths and faces up positively to weaknesses. This is a route that can be made to work for all children in any good school. Tony Little is a former Head Master of Eton. His book, An Intelligent Persons Guide to Education, is published by Bloomsbury. After several days of criticism aimed at BBC's Helen Skelton's outfit choices during her coverage of the Rio 2016 Olympics, it has emerged that the television presenter's looks have in fact been chosen by celebrity stylist Cobbie Yates. The stylist - who has previously worked with Cara Delevingne, Jessie J and Justin Beiber - has hand-picked a number of outfits for Skelton to wear over the next fortnight, according to The Sun. The former Blue Peter presenter - who is hosting the BBC's coverage of the swimming events - seems unfased by the criticism. Proving her confidence in the looks picked out by Yates, Skelton has taken to sharing her outfits proudly on her instagram page under the hashtag #ootd meaning 'outfit of the day'. Speaking to the Daily Mail, Skelton's father defended his daughter's Olympic wardrobe. "I really can't see what the fuss is about." "We haven't spoken to her but I'm sure she's laughing it off. I'm not bothered in the least. She's a bonny young lass. There's a lot of stuff going on in the world, I can't believe people are bothered about Helen's dress." "We're just happy she's out there doing a good job, doing a difficult job, a job she enjoys. If people are tuning in, aren't they watching the swimming? 'We have absolutely no problem with it whatsoever. I can't believe people are bothered about it." "Anyway, there's somebody advising her on what to wear, it's not her choice." And Skelton's father was not alone in his support, with her mother saying: "I think the thing people aren't getting is that those podiums are quite high. She's in Brazil, what is she going to wear? A tracksuit? Basically, it's just a bit of a hoo ha over nothing. Let's be honest." "I just wish it would stop. It's the Olympics that's important, not what she's wearing. I honestly can't believe the carry on" Rio 2016 Olympic Games Moments - In pictures 1 /80 Rio 2016 Olympic Games Moments - In pictures Usain Bolt is all smiles (again) as he crosses the finish line in the semi-finals of the men's 200m Shaun Botterill/Getty Images Abbey D'Agostino of the United States (right) is helped to her feet by Nikki Hamblin of New Zealand after a collision during the Women's 5000m. Ian Walton/Getty Images German twins Anna and Lisa Hahner hold hands as they cross the finish line in the marathon Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images Strike a pose... Usain Bolt of Jamaica celebrates winning the Men's 100m Final on Day 9 Getty Images Usain Bolt of Jamaica kisses his gold medal on the podium during the medal ceremony for the Men's 100 metres on Day 10 Getty Images Simone Biles of the United States competes in the Balance Beam Final on Day 10 Getty Images Shaunae Miller of the Bahamas dives over the finish line to win the gold medal in the Women's 400m Final on Day 10 Getty Images Jessica Ennis (centre) during the Women's Heptathlon 100m hurdles heat 4 on Day 7 Martin Rickett/PA Team GB's Helen Glover Heather Stanning celebrate winning the gold medal after the Women's Pair Final Patrick Smith/Getty Images Almaz Ayana of Ethiopia poses in front of the scoreboard after winning the women's 10000m final with a new world record at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Diego Azubel/EPA Egypt's Islam El Shehaby (blue) declines to shake hands with Israel's Or Sasson after losing during the men's over 100-kg judo competition Markus Schreiber/AP Philip Hindes, Jason Kenny and Callum Skinner retain Olympic Gold in the Men's Team Sprint Track Cycling Bryn Lennon/Getty Images Victoria Thornley and Katherine Grainger with their silver medals following the women's doubles sculls final A at the Lagoa Stadium. Grainger is now Team GB's most decorated female Olympian Martin Rickett/PA Michael Phelps celebrates winning HIS 4th gold at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in the Men's 200-meter individual medley , taking his overall tally to 22 Gold medals Lee Jin-man/AP Team GB's Laura Trott and Kate Archibald celebrate setting a world record in the Women's Team Pursuit Qualifying Paul Hanna/Reuters USA's Simone Biles strikes her finishing pose on the floor during the women's individual all-around final Mike Blake/Reuters United States Simone Manuel and Canada's Penny Oleksiak tie for Gold in the Women's 100m Freestyle Final Richard Heathcote/Getty Images Team GB's Jack Laugher and Chris Mears hit Gold in the Men's Diving Synchronised 3m Springboard Final on Day 5 of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Adam Pretty/Getty Images Team GB's Max Whitlock poses with his medal on the podium of the men's individual all-around final of the Artistic Gymnastics Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images Kazakhstan's Nijat Rahimov breaks the Men's 77kg Weightlifting contest lifting nearly three times his body weight and celebrates with a dance Julian Finney/Getty Images Great Britain's Sally Conway (right) wins a Bronze medal in the Women's Judo 70kg event Mike Egerton/PA Great Britain's Joe Clarke takes Gold in the Kayak (K1) Martin Rickett/PA Armenia's Andranik Karapetyan releases the weights while injurying himself in the men's 77kg Weightlifting contest /Larry W Smith/EPA Ethiopia's Robel Kiros Habte winning the hearts of many, finishing last by half a lap in the Men's 100m Freestyle heat on Day 4 of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Al Bello/Getty Images Team GB celebrate after they won the silver medal in the Men's 4x200m Freestyle Relay Final during the swimming event at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium in Rio de Janeiro Jeremy Selwyn A general view of Maria Lenk Aquatics Stadium before the Women's Synchronised 10m Platform Final. The diving pool turned a bizarre green colour in a 24 hour period Odd Andersen/AFP/Getty Images Ukraine's Elina Svitolina reacts after defeating Serena Williams Women's Singles Third Round match on Day 4 of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Team GB 's Siobhan-Marie O'Connor wins Silver in the women's 200-meter individual medley Jeremy Selwyn United States Michael Phelps wins the Men's 200m Butterfly Final on Day 4 of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games David Ramos/Getty Images Brazil's Rafaela Silva (centre) is mobbed by supporters after winning Gold in Women's 57kg Judo at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Rafaela Silva was brought up in the favela and is the country's first world judo champion Markus Schreiber/AP Colombia's Oscar Albeiro Figueroa Mosquera finishes off his career in style by taking off his shoes after winning the Men's 62kg Group A Weightlifting on Day 3 of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Pool/Getty Images Daniel Goodfellow and Tom Daley in action during their Men's Synchronised diving event Jeremy Selwyn Great Britain's Tom Daley and Daniel Goodfellow celebrate winning bronze in the Men's Diving Synchronised 10m Platform Final on Day 3 of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre Clive Rose/Getty Images Jamaica's Usain Bolt interacts with samba dancers during a press conference of the Jamaican Olympic Association and PUMA in Barra during the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Michael Kappeler/EPA Louis Smith shows his dejection after falling while competing on the pommel horse Alex Livesey/Getty Images Great Britain's Louis Smith competes on the pommel horse during the men's team final on Day 3 of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Rio Olympic Arena Jeremy Selwyn Egypt's Doaa Elghobashy sporting her hijab in action during a women's beach volleyball qualifying match against Germany Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images Great Britain's players dejected after losing their rugby sevens bronze medal match at the Deodoro Stadium on the Day 3 of the Rio Olympic Games David Davies/PA Great Britain's Johanna Konta plays a forehand during her Women's Singles second round win against France's Caroline Garcia on Day 3 of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games United States Ibtihaj Muhammad is the first American athlete to compete wearing a traditional hijab during the Women's Individual Sabre on Day 3 of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Patrick Smith/Getty Images Great Britain's Ed Ling celebrates a bronze following the Men's Trap Final at the Olympic Shooting Centre on Day 3 of the Rio Olympics Games, Brazil David Davies/PA Team, GB's Adam Peaty wins 100m Breaststroke Gold in Rio Jeremy Selwyn Great Britain's Jazz Carlin with her silver medal after the women's 400m freestyle final at the Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre on Day 2 of the Rio Olympics Games Owen Humphreys/PA Andy Murray and Jamie Murray crash out of the mens doubles against Brazil's Thomaz Bellucci and Andre Sa on Day 2 of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Clive Brunskill/Getty Images Team GB's Galal Yafai is eliminated on a split decision against reining World Champion Cuba's Joahnys Argilagos Perez in Boxing Preliminary Men's Light Fly (49kg) Round of 32 Bout 39 Peter Cziborra/Reuters Team GB's Katherine Copeland and Charlotte Taylor dissapointed finishimg last in their Lightweight Women's Double Sculls heat. They have another chance in the repcage Matthias Hangst/Getty Images Great Britain's Abbie Brown scores a try during their win in the Women's Quarter-Final match vs Fiji at the Deodoro Stadium on the Day 2 of the Rio Olympic Games David Davies/PA Michael Phelps (L) and Caeleb Dressel of USA celebrate their team's victory in the men's 4x100m Freestyle relay final race of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Swimming events at Olympic Aquatics Stadium at the Olympic Park in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Dave Hunt/EPA Team GB's Elizabeth Armitstead arrives in the finish area after finishing 5th in the Women's road cycling race at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Grag Baker/AFP/Getty Images Brazil's Gabriel Jesus in an aeriel battle during their men's soccer match against Iraq at Mane Garrincha Stadium during the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Brasilia, Brazil. Iraq held the host nation to a 0-0 draw. Celso Junior/Getty Images Nepal's Gaurika Singh competes in the Women's 100m Backstroke heat on Day 2 of Rio 2016. Guurika is the youngest Olympics' competitor and Nepal Earthquake survivor Serbia's Novak Djokovic sheds a tear after losing his match against Argentina's Juan Martin Del Potro at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Toby Melville/Reuters Juan Martin Del Potro defeats Novak Djokovic in their singles match on Day 2 of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Clive Brunskill/Getty Images China's Long Qingquan lifts170kg during the men's 56kg weightlifting event at the Rio 2016 Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro Goh Chai Hin/AFP/Getty Images Team GB's Joshua Buatsi (left) gains the first technical knockout against Uganda's Kennedy Katende in their men's light heavyweight 81-kg preliminary boxing match at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Frank Franklin II/AP France's Samir Ait Said is stretchered off after being injured while competing in the qualifying for the men's vault event of the Artistic Gymnastic Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images Serena and Venus Williams leave after losing their match against Czech Republic's Lucie Safarova and Barbora Strycova Toby Melville Team GB's Christopher Froome (left) races during the Men's Road cycling race in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Images South Korea 's Olympic Gymnast Lee Eun-Ju (takes a selfie picture with North Korea's Hong Un Jong (PRK) durign training in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Dylan Martinez/teuters Fireworks explode during the opening ceremony at the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Dylan Martinez/Reuters Follow Lifestyle on Facebook and on Twitter @ESLifeandStyle There are few greater pleasures in life than London during the summer. Yes, there are more tourists and ice cream-fuelled schoolchildren around than usual but theres also the opportunity to drink bucketloads of Aperol on rooftops, turn your nearest patch of grass into your second home and wear the sort of clothes usually filed away under holiday. To be more specific on the latter, this means wearing a kaftan at all times - regardless of whether youre bound for the beach or not. No longer just a scrap of fabric to throw over your bikini, the kaftan has undergone a revival this summer with style-conscious city dwellers embracing the holiday hero as a means to make swanning around London feel that little bit more like sun-soaked Santorini. Among the kaftans biggest ambassadors is former British Vogue editor and stylist Pippa Holt, who launched her line of ultra-luxe and colourful kaftans this year. Ive always loved holiday dressing, says Holt. I felt there was room in the market for more options and Ive always loved the versatility, ease and sense of freedom a kaftan offers in the sun. For Holt, the idea to launch her own line was hatched when she was sweltering in the city, not based on a beach. I fell in love with the work of some weavers I met in Mexico when I was living in Texas, she says. I wore their textiles when I lived in Houston as it was so hot I found that was the only way I could combat the intense heat in the city. People would stop me in the street and ask where my outfit was from. So far Holts designs are proving a bigger hit on Instagram than a giant pink flamingo pool float. Of course, with a comfort factor equivalent to a steaming bowl of spaghetti alla Norma and each one setting you back between 550 and 800 (the price of week in the Costa Del Sol), its little wonder that fashion fans are throwing theirs on every chance they get. Other kaftan connoisseurs include Greek-born, London-based designer Athena Procopiou, whose pleasingly bohemian kaftans are just as at home in Kefalonia as they are in Primrose Hill, and fashion-editor favourite Vita Kin, who employs traditional vyshyvanka embroidery techniques from her native Ukraine for her billowing folk dresses. Sleepwear specialists also make for remarkably good kaftan-makers. The current options from New York PJ label Sleepy Jones, which include striped linen and geometric-print silk, are far too good to keep under the sheets, while luxury lounge and swimwear label Asceno champions a breezy silhouette and a pared back colour palette. For those who wish to channel the kaftan vibe in the office, Hobbss elegant cream maxi manages to strike just the right balance between beachy and boardroom-appropriate, while other high-street hits include Mangos short embroidered style in pristine white cotton and a flowing belted robe by River Island. As for the trends longevity, Holt believes that the kaftan will endure long after weve waved goodbye to the sun. They are incredibly versatile, she says. I wear mine in winter with a crisp white shirt or a roll neck underneath. Long live summer. A n imposing ramp of marble steps rises up to the vast gleaming glass foyer of Shanghais Grand Theatre. Inside everyone is taking selfies as an usher walks through the auditorium with a No photography sign. On the other side of the sign it says Please keep quiet, underlining that, unlike the noisy audience participation of Chinese opera, hushed Western theatre etiquette is expected. Since opening up as an international trading post in the 19th century Shanghai has long been one of Chinas more globally-minded cities, and that is reflected in its enthusiastic embrace of Western art forms. The 1,700-capacity Grand Theatre opened in 1998, specifically to host Western classical music, opera and ballet. It staged the first musical in China Les Miserables, 12 years ago and is filled with visiting shows and concerts heading east after runs in London and Paris. But it also showcases Chinas own versions of Western arts, two examples of which are coming to London: the Shanghai Opera Companys modern opera Thunderstorm, by composer Mo Fan, and Echoes of Eternity, a new work for Shanghai Ballet by German-Nigerian choreographer Patrick de Bana. As the theatres president Zhang Zhe says of the companies: Theyve seen the best quality [art] in the world. Now see what they can produce. Ballet has a long history in Shanghai. It was first introduced in the 1920s by Russian dancers who had fled to China in the wake of the revolution. Chinas own national dance school was founded in the Fifties and became a pet project of Madame Mao. During the Cultural Revolution two model ballets were held up as revolutionary ideals, one of which, The White-Haired Girl, has become Shanghai Ballets signature work it has racked up 2,000 performances to date. But as well as honouring traditions, the 37-year-old company is firmly focused on the future, thanks to director Xin Lili, who has been at the helm for 15 years. Formerly one of Chinas leading dancers and now a warm, intelligent, elegant woman in her fifties, Xin is outward-looking in her approach. We have a style we call Shanghai style, she says. Which means we absorb different international ideas. In other words, taking from the best of what everyone else does and throwing it into the mix. The company has danced ballets by British choreographer Derek Deane and was last seen in London in 2013 with a production by de Bana of Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte is popular in China, it turns out). Its a new de Bana ballet theyre bringing this time: Echoes of Eternity, based on ninth-century poem The Song of Everlasting Sorrow (later a play called The Palace of Eternal Life), about an emperors concubine who sacrifices herself to save the man she loves. De Bana found the book in a shop in Shanghai. I read it in two days and when I finished I said, My god, this is a ballet, he says. I saw it like a Chinese martial arts movie, like Zhang Yimous Hero. Its a story about love. I was not trying to retell a tale which has been told many times already. Im trying to speak about the heart. For the tragic story he is diving into some deep emotions with the dancers, especially the companys leading man Wu Husheng, also known as Tiger. In the beginning it was a little bit more difficult for him to open up, says de Bana. So I was sticking my finger into the wound, slowly, slowly, and now I can ask the impossible. De Bana will push the dancers to get what he needs. I was speaking yesterday to a boy in rehearsals about sadness, he says. After the concubine commits suicide he falls into eternal sadness and dies of a broken heart. While he was dancing I was whispering into his ear, talking to him about sadness, and he cried. He went so deep into it, I thought: This is a real artist. The company has the physical skills to go with that emotional intelligence, says de Bana. They have strength and major discipline. Not severe discipline, like people might think, but they can work for hours and hours and hours, much more than in Europe. I dont know what it is but theyre so hungry for new information, theyre like wolves. De Bana has seriously fallen for Shanghai. The lifestyle in China is completely different. The way they act, they way they talk, the way they move, the way they scream at each other its so different. Its mega-modern but at the same time very ancient, so you can see the combination of those two things in the work. The company studies traditional Chinese dance as well as ballet and in Echoes of Eternity we see a stageful of warriors channelling kung fu power and flying around the stage in a low-lit blur, contrasted with restrained storytelling and delicate, billowing dance phrases from the female leads. Despite still being a niche art form in China, ballet is seen as an essential part of the contemporary cultural mix, both at home and as an ambassador out on tour, and thus gets generous support from the Chinese government. Audiences in Shanghai are still relatively small compared with other art forms and ballet doesnt have the reach of classical music, which has seen a boom in China (apparently 40 million children are learning to play the piano). When principal dancer Fan Xiaofeng (aka Snow) was given a tutu as a gift when she was a child she had no idea what it was. But she started dance classes and now, at just 19, is the companys leading female dancer. My friends and I didnt know what ballet was, she says. Now they know being a ballerina is a really tough job but they admire me because I have a very bright life on the stage. Her dancing partner Tiger, 30, agrees that its hard work but worth it. I love the feeling of dancing on stage, he says. I can dream during the performance. Hes looking forward to dancing in London, he says. Even though the culture is different between China and the West I think the humanity is the same. The emotions, the feeling, the love thats what I want to show. Shanghai Opera Company and Shanghai Ballet perform at the Coliseum, WC2 from Thursday until August 21; eno.org Follow Going Out on Facebook and on Twitter @ESgoingout L ondon is about to get a new foodie hub, just a short walk from Borough Market. Flat Iron Square, near the junction of Union Street and Southwark Bridge Road, will become the centre of the new hub as the railway arches between London Bridge and Waterloo East are developed into restaurants, bars and arts venues. In total the space will feature seven street food kitchens, five bars, three food trucks, two restaurants, one live music venue and a weekly flea market all packed into seven railway arches and 40,000 sq ft of previously unused space. Several businesses are already up and running while the rest will follow in the coming weeks. These include live music venue OMEARA from Ben Lovett, of Mumford & Sons, which promises indie club nights along with talks, comedy and burlesque. Food and drink will be a large part of the billing, creating another eating and drinking hub in the area, not far from Borough Market or Mercato Metropolitano. Included is the first bricks and mortar site from festival favourite Where The Pancakes Are serving stacks of sweet and savoury buttermilk pancakes and buckwheat blinis alongside craft ciders and prosecco. Toppings will include streaky bacon, smoked salmon, blueberries and caramelised pineapple. Bar Douro, a Portuguese wine and tapas bar led by well-known Porto chef Tiago Santos, will serve dishes including croquettes de alheira (Portuguese smoked sausage); octopus with sweet potato and fava beans; pork ribs with ruby port glaze; and milk-fed lamb. Portugals famous custard tarts, pastel de nata, will be among the sweet options. 30 must-try dishes in London restaurants 1 /41 30 must-try dishes in London restaurants Bone marrow on toast with parsley salad at St John Not only has this dish kicked off countless wonderful meals over the course of St Johns 25 years, but it also gets credit for putting British cooking back on the global culinary map. Roasted bone marrow, coaxed out onto toast, cut perfectly with salad of parsley, shallots and capers. A nose-to-tail revolution, and utterly divine. Whole turbot at Brat Tomos Parrys talents with a turbot first came to feverish acclaim at Mayfair restaurant Kitty Fishers, but they are now the star attraction at his Michelin-starred solo spot. This whole fish grilled Basque-style, over hot coals and in a specially designed cage softens as if it has melted, and is basted at the table in an emulsion made with its own juices. Benjamin McMahon Marinara at 50 Kalo di Ciro Salvo Superlatives should be used in moderation but heck it, this might just be Londons best pizza. This under-the-radar London iteration of a Naples pizzeria serves an unrivalled marinara: just tomato sauce, oil, garlic and oregano. No need for any more with a sauce this good and a base so fine and perfectly charred, you can stop mourning your cancelled Italian holiday at first bite. Luciano Furia Clay pot baked pork and crab glass noodles at Kiln When we say Kiln is one of the hottest spots in town, we mean it hang over the counter at the Thai barbecue and youre not far out of range for the odd flame. Baking in the heart of the swirling heat is this must order: shimmering glass noodles, coated with a silky sauce enriched with fatty slicks of Tamworth pork belly and improbably unctuous crab meat. Lamb chops, Melabes Perhaps because its quietly tucked in among its unassuming neighbours down on the wrong end of High Street Kensington, Melabes is often overlooked by Londons food lovers. An unwarranted shame, as this partly Middle Eastern, partly Mediterranean set-up is really very good; it is somewhere to pick and choose from bits and pieces, and put a meal together yourself. The lamb chops, which come all smokey and burnished from the grill, are perfect; pink as a Vegas sign inside, but the fat all soft and dripping and delicious. A must, whatever the order. Steak tartare imperial at Bob Bob Ricard Theres Press For Champagne buttons, lobster in your mac and cheese and anything that stays still long enough gets gilded there is no point in going small at Bob Bob Ricard. Steak tartare is a luxurious pick at the best of times, but the Imperial upgrade here comes with a dollop of caviar even without the finishing touch, the tartare itself is one of the best in the capital. Bacon naan at Dishoom Londoners spent decades believing bacon in a bap with some ketchup (or brown sauce, but lets not have that argument now) couldnt be beaten and then Dishoom came along. This breakfast sandwich fills a fresh naan with bacon, a slathering of cream cheese, a luxurious tomato and chilli chutney, coriander and an oozing fried egg if you feel so inclined. Hangover be gone. Cacio e pepe at Padella Five years ago, you would have thought anyone queuing for pasta in London to have lost their minds this dish changed that. The starlet of Padellas much coveted is this plate of pici hand-rolled fat worms of eggless pasta with a mirror-shine sauce of parmesan cheese and pasta. Simple but unrivalled and itll set you back just 6. Jamon croquetas at Barrafina A dish like this should be elusive it is far too easy to eat seven portions of croquetas in a single sitting, which is why we presume Barrafina makes you queue. Very sensible. As the crunchy coating gives way to the oozing centre, enriched with the flavour of Spanish jamon (the best ham in the business), were already planning our next visit. Biang biang noodles at Xi'an Biang Biang Noodles There are oodles of noodles in the capital, but Guirong Weis triumphant take is one of the finest. First finding followers at her north London restaurant Xian Impression (soon to reopen for dine-in, but not yet), the dish of has inspired a whole spin-off restaurant in Spitalfields. Thick, hand-pulled, chewy noodles soak up all the spice and zing of the special sauce they swim in very special indeed. Souffle Suissesse, Le Gavroche Le Gavroche the street urchin is perhaps not for everyone. It is a Mayfair time machine, a reminder of how things were done once upon a time. Fortunately, it happens that how things were once done was very well indeed, and lunch or supper here is a masterclass in traditional French luxury (and often, happily, includes very large glasses of wine). Staff make the place, anyone who has been gently teased by the twins pretending to be each other will know. A tendency towards the old ways does mean the cooking offers little in the way of evolution or revolution, but new, after all, isnt always better. Michel Roux Jrs cheese souffle, baked on double cream, stuns, so overwhelmingly tasty, utter decadence that clings to the taste buds. Buttermilk Jamaican Jerk Chicken, Around the Cluck / 12:51 James Cochran found his signature dish early on, but its good it should stay with him for the rest of his career. While he has chops, and can do more beyond, theres something special in the way he works with his chicken; hotly spiced, gorgeously crispy, beautifully soft on the inside. A long-standing favourite and, though 12:51 cant operate as it did before, there are tables at his new project Around the Cluck, which is operating out of the same site. Breakfast at Hawksmoor Guildhall Your Full English is not full in comparison to the Hawksmoor breakfast at the steak connoisseurs Guildhall restaurant. The mind-boggling two-person spread swaps bacon rashers for an entire smoked chop, serves its bubble and squeak with short rib, puts trotter meat into its baked beans, and adds grilled bone marrow to all the usual trimmings. Cauliflower shawarma at Berber & Q Its not often that the main event at a barbecue restaurant is the veg, but Berber & Q have achieved just that. The cauliflower shawarma here is cooked on their flaming grill until softened and charred, before being doused liberally in tahini, pomegranate molasses, coriander, pomegranate seeds and a scattering of dried rose petals. BBQ Butter Chicken Wings at Brigadiers Brigadiers is a bold, boisterous sort of place: a labyrinthine City dining room, packed to the rafters with beer and Indian food that is indisputably gutsy. But arguably its finest moment comes in one of its smallest packages these chicken wings may be diminutive, but are mightily spiced, deftly charred and dripping with ghee-fuelled succulence. Beef brisket bun at Smokestak David Carters Shoreditch restaurant occupies itself by giving the entirety of Kansas City a run for its money on a daily basis. The star turn at this lauded barbecue restaurant is its beef brisket bun the meat is soft and juicy, riddled with its fats in the centre, while charred and treacle-like on the outside, paired perfectly with pickled chillies. To remember it is to salivate, we assure you. Snails, LEscargot LEscargot is one of Sohos old aristocrats and in its grand, beret red dining room there is always a mischievous sense of fun perhaps because it is still such a smart, suited, chandeliered place, and people are often drinking themselves rather silly. The clue to good eating is in the name; the snails come still clinging to their shells and submerged in their butter and parsley sauce. Dive in; you will emerge stinking gloriously of garlic. It wont matter a jot; roll on the red wine and settle in for a long, comforting night. Confit potatoes at Quality Chop House Yes, there are some high quality chops on offer at this 150-year-old Clerkenwell restaurant but blimey, leave room for the chips. Fine slices of potato are stacked into architecturally sound wedges, and confited until shatteringly crispy on the outside and devastatingly soft in the centre. They have been much imitated in recent years, but never bettered. Smoked eel sandwich at Quo Vadis Jeremy Lee cooks many things to a legendary level at Quo Vadis his pies could so easily have also made this list but he gets the nod here for his unrivalled take on the fancy sandwich. Smoked eel, horseradish cream and Dijon mustard, served with red onion pickle a combination so popular Lee says he nearly ran out of eel on post-lockdown reopening. Classic bao at Bao London has buns in abundance, but we still bow down to the fluffy superiority of Bao. The Taiwanese restaurant has become a cross-town favourite, thanks to its pleasingly pert rice buns (they are genuinely very pert, no crassness intended) and carefully considered fillings. The classic order comes filled with braised pork, fermented veg, coriander and a dusting of peanut powder. Carol Sachs Potato and roe, Core by Clare Smyth Clare Smyth has a knack that must infuriate other chefs; she is able to take the simplest of ingredients say, a single carrot and a smattering of lamb mince do something devilish with it and charge rather a lot for it; so good are the results, though, that few mind. Smyths sorcery is perhaps best witnessed with her signature, the potato and roe. It is simply a potato on a plate in a little sauce, but then it is also perhaps the best potato dish in the world; it has this wonderful salty richness, a certain seaside intenseness. It is glorious; so too is the smoked chicken that tends to come as an amuse bouche. Youll be treated here. Omelette Arnold Bennett Dont worry, no Arnolds were harmed in the making of this dish. Alongside impeccable service and an arguably perfect dining room, you could add another highlight to your breakfast at The Wolseley by ordering this creamy, haddock-filled dish, named for the writer who inspired its creation while staying at the Savoy. Fish pie, J Sheekey Long an actors favourite, J Sheekeys glamour has never lost its lustre. Its kept its regulars and charmed newcomers with a menu that plays the greatest hits of fine dining favourites. Seafood is Sheekeys thing; simply done sole is beautiful here, crab comes three ways, brill brushed in butter has a meatiness thats beyond satisfying. The fish pie is famous though, and rightly so; beneath the flaking pastry is a sea of cream, mustard and white wine, in it bobbing cod, haddock and salmon. It is simple but never fails; it does on its own for lunch, but is a failsafe at supper, too. John Carey The Ari Gold at Patty & Bun Theres a cheeseburger on every high street in the capital but not all of them are created equal. Patty & Bun has got the classic combination down to a tee with its curiously named Ari Gold burger: a fat, 35-day aged patty is served medium rare, and topped with gooey American cheese, smokey house mayo and tangy pickled red onions. Xiao long bao at Din Tai Fung Few dishes in the capital have been known to cause queues of four hours. Thats exactly what the world-famous xiao long bao dumplings did when top Taiwanese restaurant group Din Tai Fung first opened in Covent Garden. An intricately folded out layer (made by chefs trained for at least 18 months) gives way to succulent meat and a broth you could take on by the bowlful. Pig's trotter, the French House Upstairs in the Soho local, Neil Borthwick is quietly running one of the areas best kitchens. He orders in particularly good oysters, does brilliant things with brill and with his pigs trotter, has a dish that is rich and fatty, but with a beautiful salty cut that makes it madly moreish. The menu tends to change often upstairs in the French, but have this if its on. That little dining room is somewhere to go in early for lunch and stay until late, eventually spilling down into the pub below, to drink pints they do pints now, not just halfs all while merrily reliving the joys upstairs. Peter Clark Dover sole with crab butter at Bentley's Oyster Bar and Grill There are so many delights at Bentleys, its tricky to pick a single one. This could so easily have been a plate of rigorously sourced oysters, the fish pie, the decadent Royal seafood platter (pictured). It is however, the Dover sole that wins. A sublime piece of fish always, expertly cooked without fail choose it either filleted with beautiful crab butter, or grilled and whole for a simple pleasure. Over in the City, Corrigan does similarly brilliant things with lobster at Daffodil Mulligan. Ragu, Lina Stores Sohos Lina Stores the pasta bar, not the longstanding Italian deli it comes from is the sort of restaurant one longs for; small, fun, friendly, not too pricey. They do small plates of near perfect pasta; their ragu, whether lamb or veal, is a gem. A good ragu is hard to find too often theres too little meat, or meat not cooked for long enough but here, they spend the time over it, cooking slowly, carefully. No restaurant can compare with a Nonna, but Lina gets gratifyingly close. Porterhouse steak, the Guinea Grill London is not short of steakhouses, but the Guinea does not number among them. A pub a proper one it is tucked down a Mayfair sidestreet, away from everything and yet still perpetually busy. Besides the small bar is a dining room that looks much as it must have done when the likes of Sinatra was in (or Bette Midler, or Kylie, or Regan, or, or, or), where theyve served prime Aberdeen Angus cooked on a smoking hot grill. The Guinea is all about having a good time pints, red wine, brandies, the lot but they cook beautifully, and their handling of a good piece of beef is second to none. Puree de pommes de terre, Le Comptoir Robuchon The late Joel Robuchon may have been the most decorated chef of his and perhaps any other era, but his signature stayed humble mashed potato. Until youve had it, it is hard to believe it could be quite so good; mash, after all, is mash. No matter the scepticism, it will always surprise; it is almost silly that so little could taste of so much. A side, it will match almost everything on the menu; of which, the lamb with aubergine on the menu of classics is extraordinarily good. Savage Salads, familiar from their Berwick Street stall, will serve its signature gutsy salads along with steaks. Ekachai will serve dim sum and tea. Noodle soup will be served at Tatami Ramen, Baz & Fred will whip-up pizzas, and Mike + Ollie will dish out their much-loved manti Turkish dumplings. Meanwhile The Bar promising to be more creative than its name will serve a range of drinks in a busy European market place environment. Visit flatironsquare.co.uk. Follow Ben Norum on Twitter @BenNorum Follow Going Out on Facebook and on Twitter @ESgoingout A n 11-year-old was struck in the face by a shotgun pellet fired by a man near a childrens playground. The schoolboy is believed to have been hit in the cheek by the pellet which ricocheted from a corner shop across the road from Loxford Park in Ilford, east London. He was tended by his sobbing mother before being rushed to hospital with injuries later described as minor. Police today confirmed the boy underwent surgery to remove the pellet and has now been discharged. A man in his 20s is in a critical condition after being airlifted to hospital with gunshot wounds. Terrified witnesses described scenes of utter panic after two blasts were heard outside the Loxford General Shop at 4.30pm last night. Parents and children fled as the gunman escaped on foot. A large cordon was in place last night as officers from Scotland Yards Trident unit searched for weapons and swept the scene for evidence. A pensioner living nearby said he heard two shots ring out before people started shouting. The man, who asked not to be named, said: Two guys started fighting in the shop and one of them was shot. It sounded like two pistol shots and one of them ricocheted out and hit the child. A mother-of-two, who lives next to the park, ran to where her 13-year-old son had been playing with friends on the slides and swings after hearing gunshots. The 37-year-old, who asked not to be named, said: I was searching everywhere, I was desperate. Its so scary to happen right next to our house. I heard a kid had been shot and I completely panicked. My son came home minutes later. He told me he thought the shots were balloons popping because someone was there selling them. Then people started running out of the park. He saw two big black and gold shells on the floor but police told him to keep moving. In the summer holidays there are always loads of kids there playing, and when the unexpected happens you fear the worst. Detective Constable Ryan Hunter said last night: Until we establish the full facts we have to keep the crime scene as large as possible. When we understand what happened we will begin opening up the road. A Scotland Yard spokesman said the two casualties are not believed to have been known to one another: There have been no arrests. Cordons are in place. Trident and Area Crime Command are now investigating. Inquiries into the circumstances of the incident continue. A former Metropolitan Police marksman has claimed the police complaints watchdog is "treating officers as criminals". Tony Long was cleared of murder at the Old Bailey last year, a decade after he shot suspected armed robber Azelle Rodney. Mr Long said scrutiny was normal but argued that "the problem is the interpretation of the rules and the way in which officers are treated". "Today, the Independent Police Complaints Commission seems to be treating police officers as criminals," he told Radio Times. "My former colleagues are saying: 'We will stand by for a Paris-type attack, but when you want us to go out and do an intelligence-led operation against criminals you might need to satisfy us that the intelligence is perfect, or we're not going out'. I think we're quite close to that situation." Mr Long, who will be featured on Secrets of a Police Marksman on Channel 4 on August 18, added that he was "absolutely confident" he made the right decision to shoot Mr Rodney. Last month official figures revealed that the number of authorised police firearms officers (AFOs) fell for the fourth year in a row. As of the end of March there were 5,639 AFOs in forces across England and Wales as of March 31 - down by eight compared with the previous year when there were 5,647. It means the number has dwindled by more than 1,000 in the last five years. At the time they were published, the government said the figures did not include an "uplift" in armed policing capability to be delivered over the next two years. A drive to boost the police service's firearms capacity was launched in the wake of the Paris attacks. However, rank-and-file leaders have repeatedly questioned where the additional personnel will be drawn from. An IPCC spokesman said: "We recognise the challenging and dangerous circumstances in which firearms officers operate but it is right that when there is a fatality there is an independent investigation. "Our independent scrutiny should not cause any officer to be concerned about taking on a firearms role." Safety issues mitigated, campground reopens The Jumping Creek campground, located adjacent to U.S. Highway 89 north of White Sulphur Springs, re-opened to the public on Aug. 5 after being closed for the past two years due to safety reasons. In 2014, the Forest Service closed the Jumping Creek campground to mitigate the safety hazards posed by the numerous mature trees that were unstable due to disease. The successful removal of the unstable trees was completed in the winter of 2016, followed by the extensive slash cleanup work from May through June. Work will continue within the campground and vicinity to complete this effort; however, nine of the 10 camping sites are now available. The campground fee is $10 per night, and includes two vault toilets and potable water from a hand pump. For additional information, contact the White Sulphur Springs office at 406-547-3361 or Belt Creek office at 406-236-5511. *** After Dinner series is all about elk Elk is the topic for the monthly, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks' free "After Dinner" series on Aug. 17 at Montana WILD. Come join the staff at Montana WILD, to learn everything there is to know about elk. The program will take place outside on the Montana WILD lawn overlooking beautiful Spring Meadow Lake. Bring a blanket or lawn chair and enjoy the outdoors and an educational program. If the weather is poor, the program will be moved indoors to the Montana WILD Yannone Auditorium. The free one-hour program will begin at 7 p.m. at the Montana WILD Education Center, 2668 Broadwater Ave., next to Spring Meadow Lake State Park off Highway 12 West. For more information call 444-9944. *** Bird hunters need to get HIP Everyone who hunts doves, ducks, geese, sandhill cranes, snipe, or coots in Montana must be HIP certified. HIP stands for Harvest Information Program. To get HIP certified, Montana migratory bird hunters are simply asked, in general, how many ducks, geese, cranes, doves, coots and or snipe they bagged last season in Montana. The answers are entered into Montana's Automated Licensing System to help with the management of migratory birds. *** Ask first to hunt on private land Don't wait until it is too late. Hunters who haven't already asked permission from private landowners to hunt need to do so as soon as possible. Montana law requires hunters to obtain permission for all hunting on private land. Whether pursuing upland game birds, coyotes, gophers or any other wildlife, hunters must have permission from the landowner before hunting on private property. Landowners may grant permission in person, over the phone, in writing or by posting signs that explain what type of hunting is allowed and under what conditions hunting may occur on land owned or controlled by the landowner. *** Stop at game check stations State law requires hunters to stop at all game check stations while traveling to and from hunting areas. Failure to stop at a checking station when personnel are on duty is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine. Biological and law enforcement game check stations may be set up together in the same place or in separate locations. This fall, thousands of hunters will provide useful information during these annual game checks, contributing to the management of game animal populations and future hunting opportunities. *** Report poachers at 1-800-TIP-MONT The Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks toll-free hotline for reporting wildlife poaching, property damage, and violations of fish and game laws is in operation 24 hours a day. TIP-MONT is the acronym for Turn in Poachers Montana. Poaching includes: Hunting out of season or at night using spotlights Taking more than one's legal limit Nonresidents who purchase resident licenses Professional and commercial poachers who illegally offer outfitter and guide services. If you witness a fish and game violation, or property vandalism, you can report the crime by calling 1-800-TIP-MONT (1-800-847-6668); or report a violation online at fwp.mt.gov, then click Enforcement. Callers will remain anonymous and may be eligible for a cash reward. *** BLM seeks comment on Marysville plan The Bureau of Land Managements Butte Field Office is looking for comments on its Draft Proposed Action for the Marysville Landscape Restoration Environmental Assessment. The Marysville Planning Area is in Lewis and Clark County, 20 miles northwest of Helena, and includes 14,170 acres of public lands administered by the BLM. The Proposed Action would, among other things, restore and improve forest health in the Marysville area and treat hazardous fuel conditions to provide for the safety of firefighters and the general public. Documents regarding the Proposed Action are available at the Butte Field Office at 106 N. Parkmont in Butte, or on the BLMs ePlanning website at http://1.usa.gov/1t28HMN. Public comments may be used to alter the Proposed Action and/or create new alternatives to be analyzed prior to issuing an Environmental Assessment. Comments should be as specific as possible, including any suggestions regarding resource issues or changes to the Proposed Action. Comments can be sent to the Butte Field Office at 106 N. Parkmont, Butte, MT 59701, or by email to ctuss@blm.gov. Comments will be accepted until Sept. 15. To be considered, all comments must contain the name and address of the submitter. For more information about the project and the Proposed Action, call 533-7634. *** Drawing for hunting camp extensions upcoming The Rocky Mountain Ranger District of the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest will again be accepting applications Sept. 1 for 25 hunting camp extensions in the Beaver-Willow road closure area. To be eligible, applications need to be submitted to the Rocky Mountain Ranger District between Sept. 1-15. The drawing for successful applicants will take place on or after Sept. 16. Applicants will be notified of the results of the drawing no later than Friday, Sept. 23. Interested parties must complete an application form and mail or hand-deliver it, along with the required application/permit fees, to the Rocky Mountain Ranger District by the deadline. All applicants will be required to pay a a permit/monitoring fee of $155, and a non-refundable cost recovery fee of $59. The permit/monitoring fee will be returned to applicants who were not selected. All funds collected will be used to cover the costs of administering the hunting-camp-extensions program. For more information, contact the Ranger District office in Choteau at 466-5341. *** Black bear season license available Hunters may purchase a license at all FWP offices, FWP license providers, or online at fwp.mt.gov, under "Online Services" until Aug. 31. After that date there is a 24-hour wait on the use of bear hunting licenses. Black bear hunters must have successfully completed the Black Bear Identification Test and must present a certificate of completion when purchasing a black bear license. The training and test are available on FWPs website at fwp.mt.gov, under "Quick Links" choose "Education." A paper version of the test may be obtained at FWP offices. Black Bear hunting regulations for 2016 are available on the FWP website at fwp.mt.gov, from FWP license providers and at FWP offices. A 30-year-old London man has been charged with the attempted murder of his pregnant partner. Bulgarian Petar Petrov, from Edmonton, is accused of trying to kill a woman in her 30s and of attempted destruction of her unborn child, police said. The victim is fighting for her life in hospital after suffering head injuries and being stabbed at the couple's home on August 5. Petrov is set to appear at Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court on Wednesday, Scotland Yard said. T ributes were today paid to a man who was stabbed to death as he tried to break up a fight near his south London home. Mohammed Hassan, 35, known to his friends as Bashir, was knifed in the heart in the car park below his block of flats on the Winstanley estate in Battersea, before he stumbled up two flights of stairs and died in his flat. Friends said the removal man, who was originally from Egypt, had been a peacemaker trying to stop a fight when he was attacked. Two other men, aged 32 and 35, were also stabbed in the incident at about 6pm last Wednesday. One flagged down a passing ambulance and the other took himself to hospital. Both have since been discharged. Police have opened a murder inquiry but no arrests have yet been made. Mr Hassans flatmate told the Standard: Bashir was like a brother to me. He was a good guy with a good heart who always just tried to help people. It has come as a huge shock. He had a lot of friends on the estate. I have been told he was just stepping in to break up a fight. Its tragic and we are all upset. He had no family in the UK. I spoke to his cousin in Canada, and his family are devastated. Mr Hassan had lived in Britain for about 16 years after arriving alone in his teens. He learned English at South Thames College and then ran his own man and a van removals business, sending money back to Egypt to help support his mother. Another friend said: He was just a lovely kind man who would always say hello. We cant understand why anyone would want to hurt him. He was just trying to help, thats the kind of person he was. A post-mortem examination confirmed the cause of of death as a stab wound to the heart. The investigation into Mr Hassans killing is being led by Detective Chief Inspector Diane Tudway of the Mets Homicide and Major Crime Command. Police are asking anyone with information to call them on 020 8721 4205 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. T he father of a teenage musician stabbed to death at a house party today paid tribute to his talented and intelligent son, as a 15-year-old was due in court charged with his murder. Leoandro Osemeke was attacked in Colgrove Road, Peckham, at 7.15pm on Friday, a week after celebrating his 16th birthday. His family has been devastated by his death, which came days before they were due to go to Nigeria on holiday. His father Emmanuel said: We are in mourning. We will all miss Leoandro deeply. He was highly talented and intelligent and loved by so many. There have been many people at our home paying their respects. We cannot understand why this has happened. My son was a wonderful boy and never in any trouble. He was heading for a career in music, he was a great writer and a true talent. He wanted to be remembered as a legend and he will be for us. Leoandros mother added: He was an amazing son. Flowers have been left outside the Woodpecker community centre in New Cross, alongside bouquets for Leoandros friend Myron Yarde, 17, who was stabbed to death nearby in April. Stabbed to death: the teenager, who was an aspiring rapper / Fortress Records His godbrother said: People in the community wanted to pay tribute to them together because they were both good friends. We are all asking ourselves why this keeps happening. Leoandro, who released songs and mixtapes under the name Showkey, was a pupil at Addey and Stanhope School in New Cross and had been due to collect his GCSE results this month. He was planning to study music at college and had been tipped for success in the music industry. Dajo Dele-Ojo, one of his former teachers, told the Standard: Im in complete shock. He was a good student and worked hard and had a real talent for music. Stab death scene: the aftermath of the attack in Colegrove Road / PA I remember he was someone who other pupils looked up to, he was incredibly well-spoken, funny and charismatic. Mr Dele-Ojo, 24, added: There were people you worried about in the school but he wasnt one of them. He was an intelligent kid who I expected to excel in whatever he wanted to do, be that music or anything else. Its just tragic this has happened. Leoandro, the sixth teenager to be killed in London this year, had recently released a tribute to his friend Myron, addressing the gangland lifestyle with the lyrics: Is it really worth it? A teenager arrested in connection with Leoandros stabbing was last night charged with murder. He was due to appear in custody at Highbury Corner youth court today. D etectives investigating the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence are following up numerous calls and pieces of information following a fresh CCTV appeal. Scotland Yard released previously unseen footage on Monday of a mystery man spotted close to the spot where Stephen was knifed to death by a gang of six white men in south-east London in 1993. The new clip showed the possible key witness wearing a distinctive V emblem jacket at an off licence just 330 yards from the bus stop in Eltham where the 18-year-old was killed. Images were produced using digital enhancement techniques following a review of the case, three years after grainy images were shown on BBC Crimewatch. Mystery: Police say this man is a possible key witness / Metropolitan Police On Tuesday, Metropolitan Police said on Twitter that officers were now following up numerous calls and pieces of information received about the murder. Issuing the dramatic new appeal Detective Chief Inspector Chris Le Pere said that it was important that police were able to question the man and urged the public to help identify him. Gary Dobson, 37, and David Norris, 36, were jailed for life in 2012 after being found guilty of the attack. A Somali-Norwegian teenager accused of murdering an American tourist in a rampage through Russell Square that left one dead and five injured will stand trial in February next year, the Old Bailey heard today. Zakaria Bulhan, 19, is accused of stabbing to death retired special needs teacher Darlene Horton in front of her husband Richard Wagner the day before they were due to fly home. Mrs Horton, a mother of two from Tallahassee, Florida, was stabbed in the back in the attack in Russell Square on Wednesday, August 3. Five others - Martin Hoenisch, Lillie Selletin, David Imber, Bernard Hepplewhite and Yovel Lewronski were also injured in the attack. Bulhan, wearing a prison-issue green and yellow tracksuit, appeared at the Old Bailey via videolink from HMP Wandsworth, for todays preliminary hearing, holding his hands over his face throughout. Asked to confirm his name, Bulhan said "correct" through cupped hands. He is charged with the murder of Mrs Horton and five counts of attempted murder. Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC, the Recorder of London, set a two week trial date for February 6 next year. Bulhan, who was not legally represented today, was remanded in custody until a plea hearing on October 25. Mrs Horton was in London for the summer with her husband, a Florida State University professor of psychology, who had been teaching summer classes. The couple were regular visitors to London for the art galleries and museums, friends said, and had decided to extend their stay this summer by an extra day when tragedy struck. Among the others injured was Israeli teenager Ms Lewronki, 18, who was stabbed in the hand, and Mr Hoenisch, a retired firefighter from Las Vegas who was visiting London with his wife. He said on Facebook: "Thanks to everyone for reaching out, we're still very saddened about the woman who was killed. "Very unreal experience but we are still having an unbelievable time over here. Thanks and love to you all." Bulhan has not entered pleas to any of the charges. A communication breakdown was a major factor in the deaths of the parents who were stabbed by their son before he killed himself, an inquest heard. Ashraf Amrani, 30, was on bail when his body was discovered on a first-floor roof in Westbourne Park Road, west London, in February last year. When police went to inform his parents the following day, Hassan, 72, and Zohra, 59, were found dead at their flat, which was on the same street. Days earlier, Amrani had been arrested on suspicion of affray, having reportedly pursued a stranger through the street with a large knife. He was taken to St Mary's Hospital by officers after falling ill en route to the station. He was treated by medics at the hospital for taking nine ecstasy tablets. Amrani was released on street bail - when a suspect is bailed without being taken to the police station - in a decision made by Sergeant Sandy Gordon, which he admitted in his evidence he got "very wrong". Coroner Bernard Richmond QC said in his opening statement last week: "There is no suggestion that anyone other than Ashraf Amrani is responsible for the killings." The jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing of both Mr and Mrs Amrani at the inquest into the three deaths being held at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Tuesday. The verdict for Mr and Mrs Amrani read out in court said: "The fact that the jigsaw team and probation service were not informed of their son's arrest and the decision to grant him street bail were both significant contributing factors." Amrani died of multiple injuries with fractures consistent of a fall from extreme height of around 30ft. His body was discovered on a platform above the bin chutes at Mickleton House. The jury decided that he "took his own life while the balance of his mind was affected". Mr Richmond QC said: "I am going to write a report to the Home Secretary asking her to consider ... whether or not there needs to be a national policy in place telling people to inform probation whether they find someone on licence, and whether street bail should ever be given once you become aware someone is on licence. The law requires an answer to that." During previous evidence the court also heard that Amrani had a conviction for rape, for which he served several years in jail, and convictions for possession of cannabis and an offensive weapon. Sgt Gordon admitted in his evidence that he knew about these when granting bail. Amrani discharged himself from the hospital at 3am - despite being told by officers and medics that he needed to stay in their care for 48 hours. Victim: Zohra Amrani The inquest heard that this was not set as a bail condition. Mr Richmond revealed to the jurors after the verdict that Sgt Gordon been through a misconduct hearing with regard to his street bail decision - receiving a written warning from the police force. He added: "You probably saw that what happened had a profound effect upon him (Sgt Gordon)." Amrani, who was known by other aliases, had a history of drug abuse, and traces of cannabis and MDMA were discovered in his system after he died. His father, a retired chef, and his mother, a retired child carer, had sought to get him psychiatric care in the past and his GP said he had reported suicide attempts. Police found Hassan Amrani fully clothed in a bath in the upstairs of the flat with a stab wound to his liver, while his wife was discovered in a downstairs bathroom with a bag over her head. A post-mortem examination determined she had been strangled and her head had also received blunt-force trauma. Police described finding the property covered in blood which was "consistent with a struggle" and found a knife on the bedroom floor. Mr Richmond told the jury that "a lot of people were very affected by what happened". He added: "I am sorry this tragedy is what has brought us all together." D eptfords claim to be Londons newest hipster central destination has been given a boost by the unveiling of a line-up of new independent bars and shops. They will occupy 14 arches underneath Londons oldest surviving railway structure, the restored Grade II-listed Carriage Ramp once used to lift train carriages up to the level of the platform. The tenants of Deptford Market Yard include a new outpost of the Little Nans retro cocktails in teapots bar, the Lomond Coffee cafe, street food specialists Mamas Jerk and Frankie Goes to Bollywood as well as The Cheese Bar, which sells British cheese sandwiches and craft beer. There will also be homewares store Win + Ruby, hand-printed clothing start-up Plain Bear, African-inspired fashion designer Gitas Portal and illustrated clothing entrepreneur Jessica Childs, founder of Childsdraw. Many of the new businesses have previously run street food trucks, pop-up shops and market stalls in the area. They will begin to open towards the end of this month, with all expected to be up and running by early October. Jessica Childs of Childsdraw said: As a local person Im psyched to see a fresh new space for Deptford residents and visitors. L ondons summer supercar season has kicked into gear. Eye-wateringly expensive vehicles with foreign plates were spotted today in Mayfair. The supercars are among hundreds shipped into the capital every summer by wealthy Arab owners from countries including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar. They are imported at huge cost by owners keen to escape scorching temperatures back home. A 250,000 Lamborghini Aventador and a bright pink Rolls Royce were parked next to a dazzling chrome Mercedes-Benz McLaren outside the five-star Dorchester Hotel near Hyde Park on Tuesday. This years season, which sees the cars imported at huge cost, comes after drivers complained a new police crackdown on anti-social driving was treating them like criminals. Met officers now have the power to disperse and even seize the high-powered vehicles after receiving large numbers of complaints about reckless and aggressive driving in previous years. Mohammed Al Madid, 30, who has shipped his white Mercedes AMG63 from Qatar, told the Standard last month: This part of London is famous for luxury and we come here with our luxury cars in order to spend money, and yet we are treated like criminals. Owner of gold supercar fleet hit by parking fines totalling hundreds of pounds Read more: http://ww Another Qatari, Abdullah Al Manah, who drives a white Maserati, said: I have been stopped twice just this weekend purely because my car was too loud, not because I was driving dangerously. I dont understand why some people get so angry; we are here because this is a luxurious city. T his is the moment a family was dramatically plucked from a rooftop to escape a biblical fire which tore through Londons biggest nightclub. A man in his 20s is fighting for life in hospital following the blaze at Club 338 near the O2 in Greenwich which broke out just before noon yesterday. Police investigating the cause of the fire last night arrested fourteen people on suspicion of arson. They were released without charge as investigations continue. Witnesses today told how a hero builder rescued six people, including a young girl, trapped on top of the 3,000-capacity superclub, which has recently undergone a six-figure revamp. The blaze tore through the nightclub in Greenwich (Patrick Swift ) / Patrick Swift Dramatic images show the workman climbing a ladder to rescue colleagues and a young family, thought to live in an upstairs flat, from a wall of raging flames and billowing black smoke. Joe Linyard, 19, who was working opposite, said: There was a bit of smoke and then all of a sudden there was thick black smoke and you could start to see the flames appear. Greenwich Gas Works on Fire The family appeared on the roof and started chucking down loads of bags of their belongings. They were all shouting for help and the builder ran and put up his ladder. He climbed to the top and grabbed the girl, who cant have been more than five years old. He took her down then helped everyone else. The fire was getting more fierce all the time. He was a real hero. He saved them in the nick of time. Then the firefighters turned up and pulled a man from the building. He looked in a really bad way, you could see the top of his head was really badly burnt. He was carried straight to the air ambulance which landed over the road. Firefighters tackle the blaze (Patrick Swift ) / Patrick Swift Thick black plumes of smoke could be seen for miles across the City and south-east London as 15 fire engines and 100 firefighters battled the blaze through the night. The club, which hosts Ibiza-style house and techno nights with the worlds biggest DJs, opened in March 2004 was relaunched this year after major refurbishment to install a glass atrium and an outdoor beach. Club director Dan Perrin, a DJ who previously worked at Cargo, last night said it was too soon to estimate the extent of the damage. A huge plume of smoke towers above the building (Patrick Swift ) / Patrick Swift He said: Although this is of course a very sad and upsetting day for everyone who has worked, performed or partied at Studio 338, right now we have stay positive and strong. I and the awesome team here will do everything and anything to get us all back dancing together as soon as possible Its at times like this that you realise what wonderful people we have involved in Londons dance music community. Things are only finished if you let them be. Our unity and love for music will prevail, I am sure of it. He said it was too soon to assess the impact on upcoming events, adding: Once we have had a chance to at least get an idea of the impact this has had, we will get straight onto what can be done for the near future and pre-booked tickets for events, which may now not be able to go ahead at 338. Promoter Ben Cross, who was due to host a major event at the nightclub later this month, said the blaze was a tragedy for the London music scene. He said: Studio 388 is such a big, brilliant venue. Its such a tragedy because they were becoming such a big presence in the London club scene. A neighbour told the Standard he had suspected arson at the club after seeing homemade firebombs being thrown by teenagers in a nearby park the previous evening. The smoke was visible across London / Sara Ward He said: Weve been having a lot of trouble with kids starting fires. I saw them in the park with firebombs. The venue is beside the Blackwall Tunnel southern approach road, and the fire caused lengthy delays with tailbacks stretching several miles in both directions as thick smoke blew into the highway. Police said the Health and Safety Executive had been informed and enquiries into the cause of the blaze continued with investigators from the London Fire Brigade. A Met Police spokesman said: Police were called to Boord Street, Greenwich, by London Fire Brigade at 11.55am on Monday to reports of a fire in progress. London Ambulance Service was also called to the scene. One man in his twenties was taken to an east London hospital where he remains in a critical condition. Fourteen men were arrested on suspicion of arson. They were taken to various south London police stations. They were subsequently de-arrested. Detectives from Greenwich CID are investigating. Nearby residents were warned to close their windows to avoid being affected by the smoke. Police are appealing for information on 101 or through Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. A n inbound Heathrow flight was targeted by a green laser beam moments before it landed yesterday. Passengers on board the British Airways BA759 flight from Bergen reported seeing a bright light shining on the left hand side of the plane. After landing at around 8.20pm, the aircraft was met at the gate by police officers who took witness statements from passengers on board. Student Will Woodhouse was on board the flight when he noticed a light coming from the window as the plane was coming in to land. The 19 year-old told the Standard: Out of my window I saw something and I realised pretty soon it was a laser. Its quite concerning for the captain and I did feel slightly worried. I fly quite a lot so I realised it was probably idiots. I did feel a bit uneasy because it could have quite easily because it could have quite easily blinded the captain or one of the crew. Mr Woodhouse reported seeing the light to the crew and later gave a witness statement to police. He added that there was no panic on board and the plane landed normally at Heathrow. There was no comment from the captain at all because it might have caused panic but as soon as I got off I spoke to him and the police took a statement from him. The captain said he also saw it and it was pointing at the plane down the left hand side. He said its happening quite a lot and its dangerous, they put out a warning for the plane coming in behind. A Met Police spokeswoman confirmed they received reports of a laser being directed at the plane as it made its final approach to Heathrow. She added that officers from the Hounslow Borough were investigating and no arrests had been made. A British Airways spokeswoman said: The safety of our customers and crew is always our top priority. Our pilots report any incidents so that the authorities can investigate and take appropriate action. We take such matters very seriously. Heathrow is the most frequently targeted airport in the UK for laser pen attacks, with more than one incident occurring every week. Just as Helena Regional Airport is preparing to expand its terminal to accommodate flights that serve the city, its also had a consultant study the potential for expanding service and the problems facing the airport. On Thursday, starting with the weekly 7 a.m. Hometown Helena meeting at the Montana Club, Michael Boyd, chairman of the Boyd Group International, is slated to present the results of his companys study of Helenas air service. Meetings are also slated for various groups during the day and will conclude with a 6 p.m. public meeting in the airport terminals second-floor conference room. Free parking is available in the short-term parking lot next to the terminal. The Boyd Group was hired by the airport in 2012, and the companys chairman was in Helena that November to present the results of a strategic air service study. Jeff Wadekamper, Helena Regional Airport director, described the Boyd Group as one of the top air service consultants in the world. They work with virtually every airline out there, he said. That study stated that as a result of consolidations and changes in the air service industry, there are not many airlines remaining and that limits options for new air service to Helena. It also noted that the nations aviation industry isnt looking toward a growth strategy in air service for small and mid-sized airports although the 2012 study highlighted Helenas strengths, weaknesses and opportunities. The analysis that will be discussed on Thursday based on more recent trends in the industry helped airport officials drill down into national data and then applied the information to Helenas circumstances, Wadekamper said. Also included in the study is what possibilities should the airport pursue for additional service in the future, he added. Getting a seat on flights out of Helena is getting easier as airlines are replacing their 50-seat aircraft with those able to accommodate 76 passengers. Currently, the aircraft serving Helena are generally seeing 80 percent or more of their seats filled on each flight, Wadekamper said. But when it comes to contemplating new destinations, the concern is whether travelers from Helena will fill those aircraft to make the flights profitable for airlines, he noted. Airport officials and community members have to go to those who operate airlines to make the case for new or expanded air service, Wadekamper said. Its a lot more difficult and a lot more complex, he added and said the competition is global, not just regional or national. Airport officials are aware that the fees charged to airlines affect the overall profitability and attractiveness of Helena to airlines. Its a business. Youve got to keep them profitable if you want to keep them here, Wadekamper said and explained that the airports diversification of revenues has been critical to that effort. This years roughly $5.2 million revenue budget for the airport relies on airline fees for about a third of that income, Wadekamper said. Revenue from non-airline aviation, such as from hangar rentals and fees from other aircraft using the field, also produces roughly a third of the overall income. The last third comes from land rental such as from Costco Wholesale, Homeland Security, the Forest Service and Lee Enterprises, which has its printing facility on airport land. So far, the formula has worked well, Wadekamper said. Weve been pretty fortunate. I think what we have is very sustainable. While courting new airlines and additional service from existing air carriers was evaluated, Our top priority, of course, will continue to be that Seattle flight, Wadekamper said of the Alaska Airlines flight that landed late night and then departed early the next morning. Thursdays meeting culminates six months of study of Helenas airport by the Boyd Group, Wadekamper said and noted that the $20,000 cost included helping the airport with its desire to see the second Alaska Airlines flight with service to Seattle restored. Alaska Airlines said it plans to end its second flight that was temporarily restored in June three days a week and ends at the end of August as planned, Wadekamper said. That decision comes after the airport failed to win a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Transportations Small Community Air Service Development Program. Airport officials were notified in June that the $5.15 million in this years allocation was divided among nine other communities that included Missoula, which was awarded $600,000, and Billings that received $750,000. Communities that had proposed new routes were favored in that round of funding, Wadekamper said. Perhaps hindering the local application for those funds was that the airport here wanted to expand existing air service to Seattle by Alaska Airlines. The federal funds would have been used as a revenue guarantee to help reduce the financial risk Alaska Airlines could face by restoring its second flight into Helena. In August 2015, Alaska Airlines discontinued its late night flight into Helena that departed early the next morning and cited a shifting of its resources. In place of that flight and the afternoon flight that also served Helena, Alaska Airlines initiated a midday flight into Helena with nonstop service to Seattle. Helena previously shared its afternoon flight with Great Falls. The loss of the late night arrival and morning departure from Helena meant people who commute to Seattle for work couldnt leave Helena and return the same day. Another concern voiced with the loss of that flight was that those connecting to other flights in Seattle now had to spend the night there before continuing their travels. While Seattle remains the top destination for those taking flights from Helena, Portland has risen to the number two spot, Wadekamper said. Seeking an Alaska Airlines route to Portland with service to Seattle could be a proposal that finds favor with the Small Community Air Service Development Program, he continued. Thats an opportunity were going to talk about, he added. A man has been arrested after a security breach at Buckingham Palace in the early hours of this morning. The 22-year-old from Croydon climbed a fence at around 4.15am but was spotted by officers who were watching CCTV. He was then arrested within a security perimeter on suspicion of trespassing. The man, who had been drinking, was not armed and no Taser was deployed by officers. He is currently in custody at a central London police station. A Met Police spokesman said: At approximately 04:15hrs on Tuesday, 9 August, officers arrested a 22-year-old from Croydon on suspicion of trespassing on a protected site (contrary to section 128 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005) after he climbed over a security fence at Buckingham Palace. The breach is not believed to be terrorism-related. A man has died after plummeting from the upper floor of a south London department store. Emergency services rushed to Debenhams in Sutton town centre just after 4.15pm on Tuesday. London Ambulance Service said a man had fallen from height inside the store at the St Nicholas Shopping Centre. A spokeswoman told the Standard that, despite the efforts of paramedics, the casualty was pronounced dead at the scene. Kent, Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance were also called to the incident. Horrified shoppers and staff members were met with a police cordon this evening as emergency services dealt the incident. A worker at a nearby store told the Sutton Guardian that somebody had jumped from the top floor of the building. A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman said: "At this early stage the death is not being treated as suspicious." A man killed while leaning out of a window on a Gatwick Express service was today revealed to be an engineer and railway fanatic. Simon Brown, 24, from East Grinstead, Sussex, suffered fatal head injuries when he was struck in the head on Sunday afternoon after he lowered an unlocked window to look outside. An investigation is under way into the circumstances surrounding the incident which happened as the Gatwick-bound train approached Wandsworth Common. It is unclear whether he was hit by an oncoming train or an object at the side of the track as the train came into the station. Mr Browns family today paid tribute to a railway fanatic who had recently fulfilled a childhood dream after landing a job as an engineering technician with Hitachi overseeing the introduction of new electric trains on the Great Western mainline. Mr Brown had recently fulfilled his childhood dream of landing a job as an engineering technician working on new electric trains on the Great Western mainline His father, Mike Brown, a former City worker, said: As soon as he could toddle, Simon was into trains. At nine he volunteered with the Bluebell (heritage) Railway in West Sussex and became a station master. He worked on a Great Northern restoration project and left school at 18 to start an apprenticeship with Southern Trains. Hed only got the job with Hitachi a couple of months ago and had moved to Stoke Gifford (near Bristol) to be with his girlfriend. Mr Browns girlfriend Missy Wilson, a student education leader at the University of the West of England, was being comforted by her family at her home in Kilgetty, Pembrokeshire. The pair were photographed smiling together last month following Ms Wilsons graduation ceremony at the university in Bristol. At the age of nine he volunteered with the heritage Bluebell Railway in West Sussex In joint tribute with Mr Browns family, she said: Simon was a warm, loving individual whose unbounded passion and enthusiasm for life and all things related to trains of any kind from model railways through steam to modern day rail transport infected everyone he met. He will be sorely missed not only by his partner, his family and his friends but also by his many colleagues throughout the rail industry. His young sister Sian Brown today flew back from Australia following the tragedy. Mr Browns girlfriend Missy Wilson was being comforted by her family at her home in Kilgetty, Pembrokeshire / Facebook The engineers childhood friend Reuben Smith, 24, said: We have both loved trains ever since we were little kids. He was a lovely bloke. He was always smiling, always happy, not matter what was going on in the world he would always have that smile on his face. He would bend over backwards to help any of his mates. Simon was a great friend and a real light in the railway world. Theres now a massive hole in our close knit community. A funding page has been set up by Mr Smith, who was works as a rail conductor, to help pay for Mr Browns funeral and raise money for a memorial train at Bluebell. To donate visit this link A woman has died and a man is fighting for his life after an early morning crash near Wandsworth Prison. The couple were being chased by police over suspicions that they were flying a drone into the prison before they crashed on Ashcombe Street Emergency services were called to Wandsworth Bridge Road around 3.15am to reports of a collision. It is believed that the car they were travelling in overturned after hitting a wall. An LAS spokeswoman said: "Sadly a woman died at the scene. "A man was taken as a priority to a major trauma centre in south London." Wandsworth Bridge Road remains closed between Kings Road and Townmead Road while police deal with the incident. A spokeswoman for police watchdog the IPCC confirmed investigators were at the scene and were looking into the case. F ormer Labour leader Ed Miliband has urged his party to back Owen Smith in the effort to topple Jeremy Corbyn. In a campaign video posted on YouTube today, Mr Miliband hailed the Pontypridd MP as a "colleague and friend" and said Labour needed a "progressive leader who can unite the Labour Party. He said: Owen Smith is my choice for Labour leader ... I hope he will be yours to." He added Mr Smith was capable of reaching out to all areas of the country and slammed Prime Minister Theresa May who he said speaks the language of the left, [but] could push the country further right. Mr Miliband also said that while he was leader between 2010 and 2015, Mr Smith would urge him to push further and be bolder. Endorsing the hopefuls plans for leadership, should he beat Jeremy Corbyn in the race, he went on to praise Mr Smiths plans to up government spending on the NHS and to introduce a new 200 million British deal. Signing off, the former leader claimed it was Mr Smith's vision, principles and ability to lead that had won his backing. Last week leadership rivals Mr Corbyn and Mr Smith squared up in their first head-to-head clash in the race to lead the Opposition. Mr Smith said the party was failing to provide credible opposition while Mr Corbyn was in charge as the men came to blows in Cardiff during a televised debate. But Mr Corbyn hit back by blaming Mr Smith and others for undermining the party when a string of shadow cabinet ministers resigned in protest against his leadership. T heresa May was today urged to speak out about Chinese human rights abuses as the row grew over Hinkley Point nuclear power station. Tory MP Fiona Bruce, chair of the Conservative Partys Human Rights Commission, said the Government should review its policy on the country. Early indications are that this may be more likely under Mrs May, she said. Of course we must continue to engage and trade with China, but we can and also should speak out more on its appalling human rights abuses. It comes amid broader questions about the future of the close trading relationship with China that David Cameron and George Osborne heavily promoted. China today issued its sternest warning yet that its relationship with the UK stood at a crucial historical juncture over the decision to delay the 18 billion nuclear power station. Chinese Ambassador Liu Xiaoming wrote in the Financial Times that the controversial project, which is receiving major financial support from the Chinese, should go ahead. Mutual trust should be treasured even more. I hope the UK will keep its door open to China and that the British government will continue to support Hinkley Point, he said. His views were echoed by a senior Tory MP who told the Standard that the deal, which also involves French energy giant EDF, should go ahead even if financially flawed. Crispin Blunt, chair of the Commons Foreign Affairs committee, said: If we pull out of the deal now the French and the Chinese have every reason to be extremely annoyed. It would raise the whole question about international good faith if we dont go ahead. Theres a high price to be paid in terms of the reliability of the UK as a partner. Mrs Mays joint chief-of-staff, Nick Timothy, has previously urged caution over security, human rights and trade with China. His comments led to claims that the delay was prompted by concerns over Chinese state-owned companies being allowed to invest in sensitive infrastructure. Meanwhile, official figures showed the UKs manufacturing industry picked up pace in June as the sector showed signs of recovery in the run up to Britains Brexit vote. The Office for National Statistics said manufacturing output fell by 0.3 per cent, stepping up from a 0.6 per cent drop in May, but remaining well below economists expectations. L ondon Heathrow and City airports have been told they need to improve the help offered to disabled passengers in a major report. Luton airport in Bedfordshire is also among those told it must increase measures already in place to help the disabled, according to the report by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). The CAA said the airports need to take steps in order to provide a satisfactory service for people with disabilities or limited mobility. Its investigation into the UKs 30 busiest airports measured factors such as waiting times and customer satisfaction. They were ranked as either very good, good, taking steps or poor, with Heathrow, City and Luton in the third category. Heathrow, the UKs busiest airport, had assistance service ratings below average for a number of aspects in both the CAA survey and the airports own user satisfaction survey. Customer comments highlighted service issues, including a lack of understanding of users assistance needs by frontline staff. The report admits that the size and complexities of Heathrow present inherent challenges, but that the airport is committed to taking steps to improve this area of its performance. It has already introduced some initiatives, including training for senior specialist staff and an increase in the number of welcome hosts at the airport. London City airport was labelled disappointing for its lack of sufficient consultation with disability organisations, while Luton was also criticised for not implementing a performance measurement system for its arrival hosts who look after disabled people. Rankings: each airport was graded on its service for disabled people / Civil Aviation Authority Meanwhile, Gatwick and Stansted both achieved a good rating for consistently meeting performance targets. The CAAs Head of Consumer Enforcement, Matthew Buffey, said: Our research shows passenger satisfaction with special assistance at UK airports is high with 85 per cent satisfied or very satisfied. However, high standards are not always universal, and occasionally things go wrong for disabled people and those with reduced mobility. These passengers are very much dependent on airport staff providing the appropriate assistance so its a really important task for airports to get right. Providing a consistently high quality assistance service to disabled people and those with reduced mobility should be a top priority for the senior management of UK airports, and we do not expect standards to slip. To ensure that this is the case, we will continue to monitor performance standards and, where any issues do arise, take action quickly to protect the rights of disabled people and those with reduced mobility. Only Edinburgh airport received a poor rating, while nine airports were classed as very good, including London Southend, Southampton, Manchester and Newcastle. A spokesman for London City Airport said: London City Airport strives to offer an excellent level of service to all passengers, of all levels of mobility. "We are always looking at ways to improve the service we offer and in the last 12 months have made adjustments to comply with new legislation. "As a result, performance data is now published on our website and we have worked closely with Disabled Go, the leading provider of access information for disabled people in the UK, to develop accessibility guides." London Heathrow and London Luton have been contacted for comment. A taxi driver from Bradford has been jailed for a minimum of 27 years for murdering a Glasgow shopkeeper over his religious views. Tanveer Ahmed, 32, travelled from Yorkshire to the Scottish city to confront Asad Shah at his store about Facebook posts which he claimed disrespected the Prophet Muhammad. Upon arrival on March 24, the father-of-three pulled out a knife and stabbed the 40-year-old to death while his brother and a shop assistant tried to fend him off. Judge Lady Rae told Ahmed ahead of sentencing at the High Court in Glasgow: "There's no justification whatsoever for what you did." She described the killing as an appalling display of merciless violence and a barbaric, premeditated and wholly unjustified killing of a much-loved man. Guilty: Ahmed was sentenced to life behind bars at Glasgow High Court / Police Scotland The Shah family, who moved to Scotland from Pakistan in the 1990s to escape persecution, belong to the Ahmadi sect of Islam whose beliefs differ from the majority of Muslims. Ahmadi Muslims are persecuted in many parts of the world for their views. The court heard their belief that Prophet Muhammad was not the final prophet was a view many consider blasphemous. Mr Shahs family said they never thought they would be in danger in Scotland, but that they were now planning to move as they could no longer cope with their pain and fear. Much-loved: Mr Shah's family described him as a 'pillar of the community' / John Linton/PA The court heard how Ahmed had watched a video of Mr Shah on his mobile in the days before the murder and left a message for a friend, saying: Listen to this guy, something needs to be done, it needs nipped in the bud. In a statement released through his lawyer after the killing, Ahmed, a Sunni Muslim, said Mr Shah had disrespected the prophet of Islam, the messenger of Allah, Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. He added: "If I had not done this others would have and there would be more killings and violence in the world. I wish to make it clear that the incident was nothing at all to do with Christianity or any other religious beliefs. Even although I am a follower of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, I also love and respect Jesus Christ." H undreds of dogs are being put down unnecessarily due to the Dangerous Dog Act, according to the RSPCA. The animal charity has claimed they have had to put down 366 dogs in the last two years based on how they look rather than the danger they pose under the Dangerous Dog Act. Section One of the Act, introduced 25 years ago, bans the keeping of the pit bull terrier, Japanese tosa, dogo argentino and fila braziliero breeds based on their physical appearance. Launching its report Breed Specific Legislation: A Dog's Dinner, the charity called on the Government to drop section one completely. RSPCA dog welfare expert Dr Samantha Gaines said: "The police, the RSPCA and other animal rescue organisations have to deal with the consequences of this flawed law by euthanising hundreds of dogs because legislation is forcing us to due to the way they look, despite being suitable for rehoming. "Not only is this a huge ethical and welfare issue, it also places significant emotional strain on staff." The RSPCA said there was not enough evidence to show that such legislation reduced dog bites and called into question the evidence required to classify a dog as being of a prohibited type. Dr Gaines added: "The RSPCA believes it is paramount for the Government to launch an inquiry into the effectiveness of BSL (breed-specific legislation), assess other options to improve human safety and dog welfare, and ultimately repeal the breed specific part of the legislation." Dog behaviour expert Victoria Stilwell threw her weight behind the campaign, condemning the legislation. She said: "BSL tears apart families while punishing innocent dogs and their guardians solely because of a dog's appearance. Any dog can bite under the right circumstances, so legislation should focus on protecting the public through responsible pet guardianship rather than targeting a particular breed." Last month Battersea Dogs and Cats Home released a report calling on the Government to review the Dangerous Dogs Act, saying current legislation is "flawed" and instead should target irresponsible owners. A woman was crushed to death by a generator which fell off the back of a lorry in Sussex. The 40-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene after the metal generator came off the vehicle and hit her on her walk to work in the quiet village of Etchingham yesterday. A man, 44, was also hit and had to be flown by air ambulance to Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton. He is now in a stable condition. Police confirmed a 42-year-old man from Ashford, Kent, had been arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving. Neighbours said they thought the pair were walking with their dog on the way to the station to commute to work in London, when the portable generator struck them. Ambulance: the woman was announced dead at the scene / Matt Cardy/Getty Images Both the woman and man are thought to be local to Etchingham, which has around 650 residents. A Sussex Police spokesman told the Standard: "Emergency services were called to a report of a generator having fallen off a Ford transit flatbed lorry and hit two pedestrians in Etchingham High Street near the railway station level crossing just before 6.55am on Monday (8 August). "A 40-year-old woman sadly died at the scene. A man aged 44 was also suffered serious injuries and was flown to the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton. He is in a stable condition. "The driver of the vehicle involved, a 42-year-old man from Ashford, Kent, arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving, has been released on bail until Wednesday, 5 October, 2016 while enquiries continue." A Viking returned to Valhalla when Mitch Johnson, husband, father, and friend, died unexpectedly on July 29, 2016. Mitch grew up in Thief River Falls and St. James, Minnesota, moved to Montana in 1978, and lived in the Basin and Helena area the rest of his life. Mitch met his soulmate, Tina, at Intermountain Childrens Home in Helena. They built their scenic mountain home in 1983 and were married in 1984. Nothing made him prouder than watching their two beautiful and intelligent children, Zachary and Emma, learn about the world and the people around them. Mitch loved his family, coworkers, and friends with deep and constant benevolence. He will always be remembered for his dedication to his passions, one of which was the children and families he worked with at Intermountain. Mitch and Tina were seminal in the creation of the revolutionary treatment model that Intermountain still uses. He guided hundreds, if not thousands, of children, parents, and staff toward health; directly caring for them in the early years, and then mentoring others during his 35 years of service. We thank God for Mitchs presence in our lives and he will live forever in our hearts. Mitch is survived by his wife Tina, his children Zachary of Oakland, CA and Emma of Missoula, MT, and his sister Annelle Schofield of St. James, MN. The family is grateful to all who have prayed, cried, and provided support of all kinds. Mitchs Life Celebration will be held at the Johnson home on Saturday August 6th from 3:30 to 7:00 p.m., with a brief remembrance at 5:00 p.m. Memorials may be made to your preferred charitable organization or sent to Mitch Johnson Memorial Fund, Valley Bank, PO Box 5249, Helena MT 59604. T his is the astonishing moment a Ryanair passenger jumped down onto the tarmac at a major airport to chase after his flight when he missed his final boarding call. In a major security breach, the traveller got past boarding gate staff and threw himself from the jet bridge holding onto his hand luggage at Madrids main international airport. He nervously dangles his legs over the edge of the bridge before jumping and landing on his feet on the tarmac eight to 10ft below. The holidaymaker, dressed in a blue shirt and black shorts, is seen slinging his bag over his shoulder and running towards the Boeing 737, which had already pulled away from the terminal. He was eventually stopped by stunned ground crew members, one of whom filmed the incident. The video, which surfaced today, was filmed at the Suarez Madrid-Barajas Airport and posted on Facebook by the Workers Commissions trade union. It is unclear when exactly the incident happened. A spokesman for Ryanair said: Since this video relates to a security breach at Madrid Airport, its a matter for Madrid Airport Police. The Standard has contacted the airport and police for comment. A Google employee was found dead after going for a run in woods near her mothers home in Massachusetts. The body of Vanessa Marcotte, 27, was found by sniffer dogs on Sunday evening in a horrible set of circumstances, authorities said. District Attorney Joseph Early said: People should be concerned, we are asking them to use an abundance of caution. We have a horrible set of facts, horrible set of circumstances and we are going to do everything we can to make sure that this investigation is carried out. Ms Marcotte, who worked for Google in New York city, was discovered with burns on her hands and feet and police are investigating a sexual assault. Much-loved: Ms Marcotte worked for Google in New York City and enjoyed sports A Google spokesman said: Vanessa Marcotte was a much-loved member of the Google team, working in our New York office for the last year and a half, and known for her ubiquitous smile, passion for volunteer work and love of Boston sports. We are deeply shocked and saddened, and our thoughts are with her family and friends. It comes just a week after a similar murder in New York City, where Karina Vetrano, 30, was found sexually assaulted and strangled near her home after going for a run. Her mother Cathy had a chilling message for the fugitive killer at a press conference on Sunday, stating: I guarantee you you will pay forever. Mr Early said there is nothing at this point to connect the murder to that of Ms Vetrano last week, who was also killed while jogging near her home in Queens, New York. D onald Trump lashed out at the failed Washington elite today after 50 Republican national security experts warned he would be the most reckless US president ever if he makes it to the White House. The Republican contenders campaign ran into fresh trouble with the harshly-worded attack on him by a former CIA director and other prominent ex-intelligence and security officials. Mr Trump lacks the character, values, and experience to be president, they said in a scathing statement. None of them would vote for the billionaire property tycoon, though some would also not back Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. However, they added: We are convinced that he would be a dangerous president and would put at risk our countrys national security and well-being. In the Oval Office, he would be the most reckless President in American history. The signatories included former Central Intelligence Agency Director Michael Hayden, former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, former Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte, and former US trade representatives Carla Hills and Robert Zoelick, as well as former senior State Department, Pentagon and National Security Council officials involved in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. But Mr Trump hit back, branding the signatories as members of the failed Washington elite who deserve the blame for making the world such a dangerous place. He added: These insiders - along with Hillary Clinton - are the owners of the disastrous decisions to invade Iraq, allow Americans to die in Benghazi, and they are the ones who allowed the rise of Isis. Mr Trump, though, has plunged himself into controversy by questioning the need for NATO, expressing admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin, and calling for a temporary ban on immigration by Muslims. In a further swipe at Mrs Clinton, he also suggested her emails may be responsible for the death of an Iranian nuclear scientist executed for spying for America. He tweeted: Many people are saying that the Iranians killed the scientist who helped the US because of Hillary Clintons hacked emails. He was referring to Shahram Amiri, who defected to the US at the height of western efforts to thwart Irans nuclear programme. When he returned in 2010 he was given a heros welcome and greeted with flowers by government leaders. Then he mysteriously disappeared. The FBI, though, has said there is no evidence that Mrs Clintons emails were hacked due to her use of a private account and server during her tenure as US Secretary of State. Mr Amiris case indirectly found its way into the spotlight last year with the release of US State Department emails sent and received by Mrs Clinton. Mrs Clintons spokesman said Mr Trump was making up reports of many people saying things. Mr Trump also faced the Republican vote being further split by a former CIA spy, Evan McMullin, entering the race as a conservative rival. K atie Price made a joke about her eldest son Harvey during a karaoke session in Spain. Price, 38, was entertaining guests at McTavishes bar, in the popular resort of Santa Ponsa, Majorca, when she made reference to Harveys disability. Video footage shows the mother-of-five telling the crowd: Im not f****** blind you know, not like my son. After being booed she said: Its the truth. If Harvey was here hed be like woo, go on mum. Price told the crowd she had had too much to drink before launching into a rendition of Whitney Houston's I Have Nothing. The former glamour model who was in Spain to make an appearance at the Bananas and Carwash club stayed silent on social media despite a backlash over her comment. She instead chose to post an inspirational quote. A spokesperson for Price declined to comment. Harvey, 14, was born blind and suffers from autism, ADHD and Prader-Willi syndrome. Price's comment comes months after she took Harvey onto Loose Women to discuss the online abuse that he has faced from trolls who she claimed were making inappropriate comments about him. Katie Price - In pictures 1 /64 Katie Price - In pictures Getty Images Instagram/katieprice Glen Gratton @zoejamesmua PA Wire/PA Images Kris Boyson and Katie Price Instagram @krisboyson Carl Woods and Katie Price @katieprice Jeff Spicer/Getty Images SplashNews.com The Adventures of Katie and Carl Fluffy style Katie at a film premiere in London in February Dave Benett Crisis talks Katie Price and Derrick Pountney after crisis talks via Showbiz Bang Loved up Katie Price with husband Kieran Hayler, who had an affair with her best friend Katie Price Twitter Image Shining in silver The model pictured at a screening of a Lego film which she attended with her children (Picture: Sean Dempsey/PA) Sean Dempsey/PA Wire Extravagant Katie Price poses with a copy of her autobiography - Love, Lipstick And Lies - in one of her famously extravagant attires (Picture: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images) Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images Angel Katie Price at aphotocall to launch her new venture KP Rocks (Picture: Ben Pruchnie/Getty Images) Ben Pruchnie/Getty Images My Little Pony Katie Price wore a strange pink horse outfit for the fifth birthday of her equestrian school PA Riding in Katie riding a horse for a book launch in London Ferdaus Shamim/Getty Images Cooling off Katie Price poses in a bikini in the I'm A Celebrity shower ITV/Rex Features Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Bongarts/Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Price also recenty revealed that police had foiled a plot to kidnap the teenager. She said she was warned by authorities of a plot to stage a car accident, grab Harvey and hold him for a 1million ransom. Speaking about the terrifying ordeal on Loose Women she said: The kids had to be followed to school. These people were going to set up a car accident, take Harvey and ask for a 1million ransom. Katie Price reveals police smashed a terrifying plot to kidnap her son Harvey. Follow @StandardEnts for more news. T om Hiddleston has launched his own Instagram account by posting a picture of himself in character as Loki. The British actor, who has reportedly out of the running to play James Bond, shared his first post on Tuesday afternoon. Sharing a link to the new account on his Twitter, the 35-year-old simply wrote: Hes back! Just minutes after posting his first snap, the actor had clocked up nearly 4000 likes and over 5000 followers. He has some way to go to catch up to girlfriend Taylor Swift, who has an impressive 88 million followers on the photo-sharing site. Hiddleston is currently in Australia to film Thor: Ragnarok, where he was joined for nearly two months by other half Swift. After enjoying some time off together, the pop star jetted back to the US last week while Hiddleston started filming the brand new superhero film. The actor is reportedly no longer in the running to take over from Daniel Craig in the secret service spy franchise. Author Frederick Forsyth recently claimed 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." Taylor Swift's Fourth of July celebrations 2016 1 /9 Taylor Swift's Fourth of July celebrations 2016 Loved up Taylor Swift and Tom Hiddleston make their Instagram debut Brittany Maack/Instagram Girls just want to have fun Gigi Hadid, Cara Delevingne and Taylor Swift take to the water slide Cara Delevingne/Instagram Say cheese Karlie Kloss and Taylor Swift are snapped at the end of the water slide Taylor Swift/Instagram Ready, set...GO Karlie Kloss and Taylor Swift dive down the giant inflatable slide Taylor Swift/Instagram Patriotic Gigi Hadid, Cara Delevingne and Taylor Swift show off their patriotism Taylor Swift/ Instagram Hold on tight Taylor Swift holds on to Tom Hiddleston as they speed down a water slide Cara Delevingne/Instagram Celebrations Taylor Swift and Ruby Rose try to hold on to the American flag Taylor Swift/ Instagram Follow @StandardEnts for more entertainment news. M eryl Streep has said that she is shocked that her friend and former co-star Clint Eastwood is voting for Donald Trump in the Presidential election. The Oscar-winning actress, who starred opposite Eastwood in Bridges of Madison County back in 1995, said she is planning to speak to the actor after hearing the news. Streep, who is a vocal advocate of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, was surprised to learn of Eastwoods political leaning at the DNS. She told Variety: I didnt know that. Ill have to speak to him. Ill have to correct that. Im shocked. I really am. Because hes more I would have thought he would be more sensitive than that. When asked who he would be voting for in a recent interview with Esquire, Eastwood said: Thats a tough one, isnt it? Id have to go for Trump you know, cause [Hillarys] declared that shes going to follow in Obamas footsteps. He also praised him for saying whats on his mind and lambasting Americas politically correct pussy generation. Trump 'Unfit to Serve as President' - Obama What Trump is onto is hes just saying whats on his mind, he added. Sometimes its not so good. And sometimes its, I mean, I can understand where hes coming from, but I dont always agree with it. Streep spoke at the Democratic National Convention last month, praising Clinton for her fire. She said: Hillary Clinton has taken some fire over 40 years of her fight for families and children. How does she do it? Thats what I want to know. Where does she get her grit and her grace? Where do any of our female firsts, our pathbreakers, where do they find that strength? Follow @StandardEnts for more entertainment news. Sen. John Brenden, R-Scobey, who has previously been a good supporter of (Fish, Wildlife and) Parks, is not quite accurate when he said, in his recent guest editorial, that the Park Board voted to close Hell Creek. It sounds more like a campaign piece for the Republican candidate for governor than an informative piece. Hell Creek is not closing, nor did the Park Board vote to close it. Sen. Brenden does a great disservice to say that it is closing. The Park Board wants to keep Hell Creek open and make it accessible for everyone to continue to enjoy. But as so often happens, no one wants to pay for it. The large increase in visitation has pushed the capability of the parks to the limits. To continue, we need some $4.5 million -- almost half of our annual budget. And it is not even one of our most significant parks or our most significant needs. Visitation throughout all 55 parks has increased over the last five years by 32 percent, yet we have to provide the best services we can for the same budget we had five years ago. It is the smallest budget of any park system of the seven states in the Rocky Mountain West, except North Dakota and they only have 13 parks to our 55. We are able to provide only 68 percent of the staffing provided by our peer states in the Rocky Mountain West, and we have more parks. Right now Hell Creek needs $1 million to put in a water system, $286,000 to put in a sewer system, and over $1.2 million to upgrade the electrical system. The staff has identified $1.48 million of high priority needs that must be met just to keep us going because of the health and safety concerns. We cant expand the 71 camping sites until we put in a new water and sewer system. User fees normally only pay for about 29 percent of the costs of upkeep and maintenance. So where do we get the money? Worse, if we had any money, it would have to go to Bannack ($1.5 million) to put in a better fire system -- we cant let the best ghost town in America burn up -- or to Lewis & Clark Caverns ($1.75 million) whose electrical system was installed in the 1930s by the CCC boys and is in danger of causing harm if it is not updated, or to Makoshaka, which needs $1.3 million to provide water to its only camp ground. The first two of these three projects were in the governors long range building program which was defeated by the last session of the Legislature by one vote. Currently Hell Creek is owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and leased to the state to use as a park. The Park Board did notify the Army Corps of Engineers that when the existing lease comes up five years from now in 2021, we may not be able to renew it unless we can find some more money to run it. We had hoped that our landlord, the Army Corps of Engineers, might help us out a little with some money for the infrastructure; doing so would greatly improve their land. So far, the answer has been no. We certainly hope we can find a solution. We have five years to do so. But if we cant get any help from the Legislature or the Army Corps of Engineers or the local community, we may not be able to renew the lease. The Army Corps then will undoubtedly do as they have done in other cases, either contract it out to a concessionaire or run it themselves. I doubt if it will ever close. With 30,000 to 35,000 visitors a year, it is too popular and too important for that. The one group that can help us the most is the Montana Legislature, which is now controlled by Republicans. If Sen. Brenden would allow $4.5 million for the water, sewer, electrical, and other upgrades at Hell Creek in his infrastructure bill and if Sen. Brenden can persuade his Republican colleagues to support it, we will be just fine. Or if Sen. Brenden can persuade his colleagues to support a larger budget for the Parks Division, that would be the best way to make sure the state has the money to keep Hell Creek as a state park when the lease terminates in 2021. The ball is in his court, and there is no reason for him to criticize the governor. If Sen. Brenden is really concerned about Hell Creek as a state park, I invite him to help us in the Legislature. He is in an excellent position to do so. 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. Register for more free articles. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! Already a Subscriber? Already a Subscriber? Sign in Terms of Service Privacy Policy I have been a school counselor at Hellgate High School for the last four years. I am proud to work alongside educators who work tirelessly to educate Montanas future. Montana educators are better able to teach their students thanks to the leadership of Montanas superintendent of public instruction. I strongly support Melissa Romano for this position. Melissa Romano is an award-winning teacher who will advocate for our students. She will fight for resources and training for all educators. She will support needed funding for Montanas public schools. I am passionate about spending time outside with my family, friends, and my dogs. As a member of the Land Board, Melissa will fight to keep our public lands in the hands of the public. Melissa Romano is committed to Montanas students, educators and public schools. That is why she has my vote this November. Jessica Buboltz Missoula Countries & Areas Search for country or area A Afghanistan Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan B Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burma Burundi C Cabo Verde Cambodia Cameroon Canada Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Costa Rica Cote dIvoire Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czechia D Democratic Republic of the Congo Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic E Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia F Fiji Finland France G Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Grenada Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana H Haiti Holy See Honduras Hungary I Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy J Jamaica Japan Jordan K Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan L Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg M Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Morocco Mozambique N Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria North Korea North Macedonia Norway O Oman P Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territories Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Q Qatar R Republic of the Congo Romania Russia Rwanda S Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Sweden Switzerland Syria T Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Tuvalu U Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom Uruguay Uzbekistan V Vanuatu Venezuela Vietnam Y Yemen Z Zambia Zimbabwe In July this year, China s total foreign trade value amounted to $317.158 billion, indicating a month-on-month increase of 1.7 percent and a year-on-year decrease of 7.9 percent, as announced by the Chinese customs authorities on August 8. In the given month, the total value of China s exports amounted to $184.733 billion, up 2.9 percent month on month and decreasing by 4.4 percent year on year, while Chinese imports totaled $132.425 billion in value, up 0.1 percent month on month and declining by 12.5 percent year on year, resulting in a trade surplus of $52.308 billion. In July this year, the value of Taiwan 's iron and steel exports decreased by 6.9 percent year on year to $1.24 billion, according to the preliminary statistics issued by Taiwan 's Ministry of Finance. In the given month, the country's iron and steel import value totaled $717 million, up 0.7 percent year on year. Who's watching the watcher? That's the question a Helena attorney hopes to pose with a legal brief filed Wednesday against Montana's chief political regulator, one that accuses Commissioner of Political Practices Jonathan Motl of unlawfully dismissing, and failing to publicly disclose, a formal ethics complaint filed against him in December. Motl -- who serves as the chief arbiter of such ethical concerns, as well as administrative complaints raised on the campaign trail -- neglected to disclose or avoid conflicts of interest before personally authoring that dismissal, according to the 20-page brief. The filing, submitted by former Montana Republican Party attorney Jim Brown, asks a Lewis and Clark County District Court judge to reverse Motls dismissal and forward the ethics complaint to the Attorney Generals office. It goes on to argue state law required Motl to recuse himself from considering that complaint, filed by Montana Trappers Association President James Buell, and asks the court to impose sanctions on the first-term commissioner for his transgressions of public duty. The brief notes Buells complaint was rejected only one day after it was received, in a gem of a decision written by Motl in the third person and actually referring to himself as Jonathan Motl. In absolving Motl of any wrongdoing based on Motls investigation of Motl, Motls decision goes so far as to refuse to file the complaint for public record -- a highly unusual step, and one without precedent in the law, Brown wrote, referring to the largely redacted complaint notice filed on the commissioners website. Brown -- who has also represented anti-union political action groups targeted in Motl's rulings -- goes on to allege the commissioner ignored Buells request to have his complaint against Motl forwarded directly to the Attorney Generals office. Motl said that office was made aware of the complaint, if only because thats where the filing wouldve landed had he not dismissed it. The commissioner added he had no misgivings about tossing the complaint, citing his own determination that state law does not require him to automatically recuse himself in such cases. Motl, who has bowed out of two decisions over his three years in office, said he didnt shy away from the Buell investigation in part because the costs associated with outsourcing such inquiries could strain his offices limited budget -- the same line of reasoning used to publicly answer some of the half-dozen or more recusal questions he said his office has fielded in the past. The decision to dismiss the Buell complaint was reviewed by the same internal panel that vets the office's other filings, Motl said. He didn't recall anyone raising concerns about the move. (Recusing) isnt responsible, either, Motl added. As commissioner, thats your job, to make decisions. If a commissioner starts recusing, when do you stop? Conflicts denied Wednesdays court filing comes with a bit of a backstory. In 2010, Buell and Motl, who was then working at a private legal practice, found themselves on opposite ends of an anti-trapping ballot measure battle that failed to make the ballot. Four years later, an anti-trapping advocate affiliated with Motls former clients at Footloose Montana filed an administrative political complaint with the Commissioner of Political Practices office against two groups with ties Buell. In September, Motl issued a decision in favor of his former clients, who at the time were represented by his ex-law partners. The commissioner didnt disclose his past ties to those clients or their lawyers in the decision, explaining at the time that he was far enough removed from private practice to avoid conflict-of-interest challenges. In an interview on Monday, Motl said there simply isnt any basis for filing an ethics complaint centered on a commissioners prior business interests. His recusal in another case, which also involved a former client and personal friend in the anti-trapping community, did not go unnoticed by Buells attorney, who referenced the move as evidence the commissioner knew that he was conflicted when it came to acting on matters involving his client. Theres no check on the commissioner, thats one of the problems with his office, Brown told the Independent Record. The whole office needs reform. Reforms proposed Calls for such reforms arent exactly new. Over the past four Legislative sessions, state lawmakers have introduced more than a dozen bills meant to increase, decrease or otherwise revise the powers afforded to the governor-appointed commissioners office. None has succeeded in outright reorganizing the agency, despite some legislators calls to move the office under the umbrella of the Attorney General, or else devolve some its authority to a bipartisan or nonpartisan panel of regulators. State Rep. Ryan Osmundson, R-Buffalo, has twice carried a bill that would have formed a review board to oversee the office. Osmundson suspects those efforts failed in part because both major political parties see the commissioners decisions as a useful campaign weapon. I just look at the structure of (the office) and I dont care who you are, its wrong, Osmundson said in February. The first time I ran (the bill), they told me it wouldnt work because whoevers in power wants to be able to use (the office) as a club against their opponents. I know maybe its idealistic, but in our system of government, you shouldnt have a czar, he said. Osmundson suspects similar bills would have to be introduced as many as a dozen times to gain any traction. Fellow state Rep. Steve Fitzpatrick, R-Great Falls, was inclined to agree. Its been something thats been complained about for some time, he said early this year. But no, I dont think there are the votes to do it. Motl expects to file a formal answer to Buells legal brief by the end of the week. Tuesday, 09 August 2016 11:20:39 (GMT+3) | San Diego DDP loaded truck in US Gulf coast ports The most recently heard ex-Brazil offer to US buyers for hot dipped galvanized (HDG) G40 grade material continues to hold at $756/mt FOB, reflecting no change since our last report a week ago. This price point has been stable since mid-July, sources note, at which point Brazilian steelmakers increased export prices by eight percent. The July price increase was due to an uptick in demand for HDG coil within Brazils domestic market.Offer prices to the US from Turkish steelmakers for 0.012x40.875 G30 coil have also trended sideways week-on-week; sources close to SteeOrbis have confirmed that Turkish 0.012x40.875 G30 coil is still available at a US sales price of $43-$44 cwt. ($948-$970/mt or $860-$880/nt), which is nearly $6.00 cwt. ($132/mt or $120/nt) below US spot market prices. Interest in booking Turkish material continues to trend high, sources note, due to attractive price points.In terms of ex-India HDG offer prices to the US , exporters in that country have revised pricing downward by $10-$15/mt FOB, sources note, bringing the current offer price range to $620-$635/mt FOB. The price revision, however, has failed to garner much interest, as many US buyers are concerned about potential price softening within the US domestic market. At current, buyers are expected to remain cautious when it comes to booking futures until the direction of the US spot market becomes clearer. Tuesday, 09 August 2016 22:57:49 (GMT+3) | San Diego SteelOrbis has learned that import offers for mesh-quality wire rod to the US from Turkey are still trending neutral this week, with prices ranging from $425-$435/mt CFR FO in US Gulf Coast ports. By MARK EVANS mevans@stegenherald.com Bloomsdale will probably host a major fireworks display. The pyrotechnics will not take place until 2024, however. During the Oct. 12 board of aldermen meeting, Kevin Wehner and city officials again discussed the possibility of a July 4 fireworks display at the youth soccer fields on land leased by the city Prayer, not politics, topped the agenda at Montanas Capitol on Tuesday, where evangelist Franklin Graham held a rally meant to encourage Christians to live out their faith at home, in public and at the ballot box. An estimated 2,700 churchgoers, state workers and other curious onlookers packed almost every patch of the Capitols north lawn, snarling traffic on their way to hear a roughly 45-minute speech from Graham, the eldest son of the televangelist Rev. Billy Graham. Three event-branded tour buses parked in front of the Capitol provided the backdrop for the 33rd stop on Grahams nationwide Decision America Tour, one of 50 planned in state capitals around the country. The rally didnt feature any stump speeches or election endorsements, nor candidate appearances of any type. Instead, Graham called on attendees to put their faith in God to help solve the countrys problems. That's not to say the event was short on politics. Even the country band that served as Grahams opening act managed to mix a few muscular lyrical threats aimed at ISIS in among the praise music. Graham himself endorsed no candidate for any office, referring to both major party presidential nominees, Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, as flawed people. But Graham did encourage rally attendees to give special consideration to some of Trumps favorite campaign topics, including efforts to bolster national security and put a stop political correctness. The word progressive, he said, is just a code word for atheist. You need to stand up and you need to be in their face, Graham said as he implored rally attendees to run for office and become more engaged in public life. I'm sorry but you just need to be in their face." You can be a community organizer for God, he added in one of the speeches louder applause lines -- an apparent reference to President Barack Obamas past work as a community organizer in Chicago. The message -- putting prayer ahead of political allegiances -- resonated with Betty Dutton, who made a nearly two-hour trek from Twin Bridges to hear Graham speak. If you have faith in God, he can do anything, Dutton said. The Bible says if you pray to him, he will restore. But you cant just pray. You have to pray for the answers about who to vote for, and you have to do the research on who is most aligned with what the Bible says. The event didn't seem to sit nearly as well with Laurel Hesse, a Montana Democratic Party staffer who donned a Planned Parenthood button on her lapel. It made me sad that I felt like I couldnt hold someones hand during prayer, she said. Someone next to me offered their hand, then took one look at my pin and took it away. Moments earlier, whispers about lesbianism, sodomy and abortion could be overheard as Graham encouraged attendees to confess aloud the sins of our nation. A hand-drawn sign Hesse held aloft during that prayer suggested a few parenthetical additions to the blurb used to promote Tuesdays event on Grahams website: Practice your faith (love, respect, compassion) at home, in public and at the ballot box. The Decision America tour is scheduled to stop Wednesday in Boise, Idaho, and finish the week in Cheyenne, Wyoming. For more information, visit decisionamericatour.com. Updated at 1:34 p.m. DALLAS Travelers on Delta Air Lines endured hundreds more canceled and delayed flights on Tuesday as the carrier slogged through day two of its recovery from a global computer outage. By early afternoon, Delta said it had canceled about 530 flights as it moved planes and crews to "reset" its operation. Nearly 1,200 Delta flights had been delayed, according to tracking service FlightStats Inc. At about 1:30 p.m. Central, the Lambert-St. Louis International Airport website showed nine Delta arriving flights and three departures were delayed, and one evening departure to Atlanta canceled. That followed several cancellations earlier in the day. "We are still operating in recovery mode," said Dave Holtz, the airline's senior vice president of operations. Tuesday's disruptions followed about 1,000 cancellations and 2,800 delayed flights on Monday after a power outage at Delta's Atlanta headquarters tripped a meltdown of its booking, communications and other systems. The airline was back online after a few hours Monday, but the ripple effects could be felt a day later. More than 1,000 people spent the night at Narita Airport outside Tokyo because of the shutdown. While flights resumed in the morning, Delta spokeswoman Hiroko Okada said more delays were expected. Delta also extended a travel-waiver policy to help stranded passengers rearrange their travel plans. The airline posted a video apology by CEO Ed Bastian. And it offered refunds and $200 in travel vouchers to people whose flights were canceled or delayed at least three hours. Delta's challenge Tuesday will be to find enough seats on planes during the busy summer vacation season to accommodate the tens of thousands of passengers whose flights were scrubbed. Airlines have been putting more people in each plane, so when a system of a major carrier crashes, as has happened with others before Delta, finding a new seat for the waylaid becomes more difficult. Last month, the average Delta flight was 87 percent full. Confusion among passengers Monday was compounded as Delta's flight-status updates crashed as well. Instead of staying home or poolside at a hotel until the airline could fix the mess, many passengers learned about the gridlock only after they reached the airport. They were stuck. Delta spokesman Trebor Banstetter said that after the power outage, key systems and network equipment did not switch over to backups. The investigation of the outage is ongoing, but Banstetter said that there is no indication that the problems were caused by a hack or intentional breach of the system. A spokesman for the local electric company, Georgia Power, said the problem started with a piece of Delta equipment called a switchgear, which direct flows within a power system. No other customers lost power, he said. Airlines depend on huge, overlapping and complicated systems to operate flights, ticketing, boarding, airport kiosks, websites and mobile phone apps. Even brief outages can now snarl traffic and, as the Delta incident shows, those problems can go global in seconds. Last month, Southwest Airlines canceled more than 2,000 flights over four days after an outage that it blamed on a faulty network router. United Airlines and American Airlines both suffered outages last year United has struggled with several meltdowns since combining technology systems with merger partner Continental Airlines. Some passengers said they were shocked that computer glitches could cause such turmoil. Others took it in stride. Ryan Shannon, whose flight from Lexington, Ky., on Monday was delayed, said passengers boarded, were told to exit, waited about 90 minutes, then got back on the plane and flew to New York without further incident. "There is always a delay, or weather, or something," he said. "I travel weekly, so I'm used to it." AP radio correspondent Julie Walker in New York, Bree Fowler in Las Vegas, Joseph Pisani in New York and Jeff Martin in Atlanta contributed to this report. WASHINGTON States should force coal companies to set aside collateral to pay for future mine cleanups and protect taxpayers as the industry braces for further declines, a leading federal regulator said on Tuesday. Three of the largest U.S. coal producers, Peabody Energy, Arch Coal and Alpha Natural Resources, have filed for bankruptcy in the past year in an industry shaken by cheap natural gas and falling demand from China. With coal production outstripping demand, the market is not likely to recover until at least 2021, Joe Pizarchik, who heads the Office of Surface Mining and Reclamation Enforcement, told Reuters. Pizarchik's forecast is based on recent data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration that shows continued declines in capacity for coal-fired power plants for the next five years. This has raised concerns because the three bankrupt coal producers have not set aside cash to pay for roughly $2 billion in projected mine cleanups. Instead, they used a federal subsidy known as "self-bonding," which essentially exempts healthy companies from posting bonds or other securities to cover the cost of returning mined land to its natural setting. "We're moving as quickly as we can to help the states do their best to protect the taxpayers," Pizarchik said. "We want to give them the tools to ensure that mined land is reclaimed." Regulators in states with self-bonds should immediately assess whether companies still qualify for the program, he said, noting that those in bankruptcy do not meet the requirement of financial solvency and continuous operations. Last month Bristol, Va.-based Alpha Natural agreed to replace its self-bonds in Wyoming with other guarantees as part of a complex deal to exit Chapter 11, although it will continue to cover reclamation at former mine sites in West Virginia with self-bonds. Peabody, based in St. Louis, and Arch Coal, based in Creve Coeur, hope to exit Chapter 11 in the next six months, and it has been unclear whether self-bonds would form part of their reorganization plans. Peabody alone has $1.14 billion of self-bonds for mine cleanups in four states. Coal-producing states have discretion in accepting self-bonds. Any change to the law, which dates back to 1977, would need congressional approval, a process that could take years. Pizarchik said he would issue a policy advisory with new self-bonding guidance as soon as Tuesday. His agency will also examine agreements between coal companies and states, some of which have already transitioned away from self-bonding, he said. Nineteen states allow self-bonds, while five prohibit them. As of July, there were self-bonds worth $3.6 billion across about 10 U.S. states, Pizarchik's agency said. It recently concluded a 30-day period to hear public concerns about the practice and received some 117,000 comments. Pizarchik said self-bonds could be "appropriate" once production is more in line with demand and states are sure to assess both the current and long-term status of companies' finances. City Alderman Antonio French released a film via Twitter on Tuesday chronicling the protests that followed the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown two years ago. The film clocks in at 48 minutes long. It is made up entirely of short video clips taken by French while in Ferguson. Early in the film, protesters line the sidewalks of the Canfield Apartments in Ferguson with their hands up, while a number of law enforcement officers watch from the street. In the clip, one officer restrains a police dog, a scene that elicited memories from the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. In other scenes, French captured helicopters flying overhead, police in riot gear marching in formation and protesters yelling obscenities at them. Other portions of the video show a man damaging a bus stop with a a large trash can, police driving armored vehicles down West Florissant Avenue and a street filling up with smoke from tear gas canisters. Many of the scenes show images of young people with signs and cameras standing face-to-face with police carrying guns and shields. Many of those scenes shared by Twitter two years ago helped propel Ferguson into the American consciousness as a symbol for broken police-community relations. EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been corrected to reflect that court documents say Jason Stockley's DNA was on a gun found with the man he killed. ST. LOUIS A federal judge ordered Monday that records remain sealed in a shooting that led to a first-degree murder charge against former St. Louis police officer Jason Stockley. Included are police car dashboard video, audio recordings and reports related to Stockleys on-duty killing of Anthony Lamar Smith in December 2011. The evidence had been shared with lawyers involved in a wrongful-death suit on behalf of Smiths daughter, then 1, which resulted in a $900,000 settlement by the Board of Police Commissioners in 2013. The Post-Dispatch filed a motion in May asking U.S. District Judge Jean Hamilton to lift a protective order that applied only to parties of that suit. Days after the newspapers request, Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce filed a first-degree murder charge against Stockley. None of the parties under the protective order objected to it being lifted, but Hamilton asked Joyce, whose office then intervened. Her office told the judge, in part, that Stockleys attorneys could use the release as grounds to seek a change of venue due to pre-trial publicity, and jeopardize both sides right to a fair trial. Hamilton did not state a reason for Mondays decision. Joyce said in a statement, My goal is to hold Mr. Stockley accountable for his actions, and the release of this video prior to trial could hinder our efforts to keep this matter before a city jury. Adam Goodman, deputy managing editor at the Post-Dispatch, said he was disappointed. We believe it is simply wrong to continue to prevent disclosure of the police dashcam video and other documentary evidence that helped bring about a secret, taxpayer-funded settlement in 2013, he said. It has been nearly five years since this shooting occurred with no one charged. We note that the arrest and charges came only weeks after we sought more information through a public-records request with police and only days after we sought to have this protective order lifted. Moreover, Goodman pointed out that in the last two years, the St. Louis police and other departments have promised to publicly release video and other evidence from police shootings even during their ongoing investigations. Other government and court officials here and around the nation have now recognized that a commitment to openness and transparency does not undermine justice, but strengthens it, he said. Al Watkins, who represented Smiths daughter in the wrongful-death case, said he believed Mondays decision erodes the publics trust. It comes on the eve of the two-year anniversary of the Ferguson police shooting that highlighted the need for increased transparency from public officials, Watkins noted. The city had a chance, an opportunity, to be on the cutting edge of the healing process and instead its choosing to be a festering, pus-filled scab, Watkins said. The FBI conducted a nearly year-long investigation into the shooting when it happened, and U.S. Attorney Richard Callahans office declined to prosecute. Stockley had said he fired in self-defense. In court documents, prosecutors said Stockley had told his partner during a chase that he intended to kill Smith, and that the officers DNA was on a gun found with Smiths body. An excavation crew digging a trench for a water line near Rattlesnake Elementary School on Monday discovered the remains of a child believed to have been buried in a graveyard last used a nearly a century ago. Derek Bradley, one of the excavation workers, said the crew was digging under Mountain View Drive around 9 a.m. as part of the renovation and expansion project for the school when they found a roughly 18-inch piece of wood and a metal medallion inscribed with the words Our Darling. He said while workers were unsure of what they had found, all doubt was removed moments later. They took another scoop and a skull tumbled out onto the bank and is looking right at us, he said. Work halted, and police eventually were called shortly before 3 p.m. Lt. Scott Brodie with the Missoula Police Department said the skull is likely from a series of graves that are part of a burial site that dates back to 1880. Brodie said remains also were discovered the last time Mountain View Drive was redone. City documents show that Rattlesnake Elementary sits on the burial ground used by the Missoula County Poor Farm, where transients and poor people lived and worked, and the Pest House, used to quarantine people with contagious diseases. Between 1880 and the 1920s, it is estimated more than 1,000 people were buried in the area. Records are incomplete, but indicate that some graves were transferred to the Missoula City Cemetery. As to the remains found Monday, an anthropologist from the University of Montana will document and remove the skull, Brodie said, adding it was possible it would be eventually transferred to the Missoula City Cemetery. Updated at 9:35 p.m. noting that Blunt and Greitens campaigns did not respond to requests for comment. WASHINGTON Sen. Roy Blunt has again received the endorsement of the National Rifle Association. Blunt's endorsement came in a letter last week from Chris Cox, the NRAs chairman, to Blunt. Cox and NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre are expected to publicly announce the endorsement Thursday in Columbia, Mo., with Blunt in attendance. It will be at 2 p.m. at the shooting, hunting and outdoors retailer MidwayUSA at 5875 W. Van Horn Tavern Road. Blunt, R-Mo., faces Democratic Secretary of State Jason Kander in the Nov. 8 election. Blunt, who has been endorsed in previous elections by the NRA, earlier this year was rated the top recipient of NRA campaign donations of any member of Congress. In his letter to Blunt, Cox said, as a native Missourian, you have always defended the Second Amendment and supported the interests of sportsmen. Cox lauded Blunt for his opposition to President Obama, Hillary Clinton, and former New York Mayor Michael Bloombergs gun control agenda. Cox also praised Blunt for supporting congressional efforts to pass reciprocity laws protecting people with concealed-carry permits to legally carry guns for protection in other states. News of the NRA endorsement came the same day that Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, made comments in North Carolina about the Second Amendment that some interpreted as a veiled suggestion that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton be assassinated. Trump's campaign blamed "dishonest media" for not understanding that he was referring to political power of gun advocates. But former CIA Director Michael Hayden, who was named to the position by Republican President George W. Bush, told CNN that Trump would have been detained as making threats had Trump said the same thing as a spectator at the rally. Blunt has said he supports Trump as the GOP nominee. Six of the 54 Republican U.S. senators say they will not vote for their party's nominee. Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish, the Second Amendment, Trump said in North Carolina. By the way, if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don't know. Trump later issued a statement: "Its called the power of unification Second Amendment people have amazing spirit and are tremendously unified, which gives them great political power. And this year, they will be voting in record numbers, and it wont be for Hillary Clinton, it will be for Donald Trump." Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said that "what Trump is saying is dangerous. A person seeking to be the president of the United States should not suggest violence in any way." "He was talking about unification and coming together," Katrina Pierson, a Trump spokesperson, told CNN. The campaigns of Blunt and Republican gubernatorial candidate Eric Greitens did not respond to requests for comment on Trump's remarks. JEFFERSON CITY The embattled head of the Missouri Veterans Commission is returning to work less than three weeks after a jury found hed harassed and discriminated against a female worker at the agency. Larry D. Kay, who has served as executive director since 2008, had been on paid leave following the Cole County jurys July 21 decision to award former commission employee Pat Rowe Kerr nearly $2.9 million in damages in connection with Kays treatment of her. The decision to bring Kay back came in a closed door meeting of the commission Tuesday. We determined that it is in the best interest of the Missouri Veterans Commission for Larry Kay to come off of administrative leave and return to duty as executive director, said commission chairman Scott Englund. Englund would not elaborate on the decision, but said the commission continues to review the matter. Were aware of the verdict and well continue to monitor legal developments that occur regarding the case, Englund said. Deputy Director Bryan Hunt had been serving as acting director in Kays absence. Kay, who earns $105,300 annually, said she was dismissed because of state budget problems. Following the verdict, Sen. Scott Sifton, D-Affton, called on Kay to resign. He is a member of the nine-member commission that oversees the agency. Englund would not reveal the tally of Tuesday's vote to bring Kay back. Attorney Jerome Dobson, who represented Kerr in the trial, called the decision "disappointing" in light of the amount of the verdict and the fact that it took the jury just four hours to arrive at it. "I think the decision of the commission is very surprising," Dobson said. A review of recent payouts from the states legal fund shows that Kerrs award would be the largest since 2013. She was awarded $1.3 million in actual damages and $1.575 million in punitive damages. Both sides in the case have 30 days to file post-trial paperwork before a final order in the case is issued. Kevin McDermott Kevin McDermott is a member of the Post-Dispatch Editorial Board. Follow Kevin McDermott Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today ST. LOUIS Missouri Democratic gubernatorial candidate Chris Koster's first general-election television commercial last week didn't exactly play up his party affiliation. In fact, there's not one clue in the ad that Koster is a Democrat. Nonetheless, the Missouri Democratic Party is joining the fray on his side, launching an internet-based attack platform Tuesday against Republican gubernatorial nominee Eric Greitens. One week after last Tuesday's Missouri primaries, the party is launching what it's calling a micro-site and online/social media campaign against Greitens. The website, called Wrong for Missouri, is being officially unveiled Tuesday morning. The site is done up in dark shades and features an unflattering picture of Greitens. It hits him on "the out-of-state billionaires and special interests" who funded his primary campaign, and has a media section highlighting negative media coverage of the primary. There was plenty of that. Greitens, a former Navy SEAL and author, won last week's Republican primary after a long, bitter four-way campaign that couldn't be smoothed over for the cameras by the state GOP in the days after the polls closed. Koster, Missouri's attorney general, faced no serious primary competition, and was able to focus on raising money while Greitens was spending it. By election night, Koster was sitting on some $10 million in campaign funding more than 10 times what Greitens had left at that point, records showed. St. Louis television viewers watching Greitens' victory speech last Tuesday that night also saw Koster's debut campaign commercial. Following standard political practice for early in a campaign, Koster's commercial is a positive one, introducing him and highlighting his early experience as a local prosecutor. He's leaving it to the separate Democratic Party effort, for now, to hit at Greitens. What's interesting about Koster's ad is that there's no mention of his party. Someone seeing it cold would have no way of knowing that Koster is the Democratic nominee. That's presumably in deference to the state's generally conservative leanings in recent elections. It may be the first of many interesting twists in the campaign in terms of the partisan roles, with two party nominees who each used to be members of the opposing party, and switched. Koster used to be a Republican; Greitens used to be a Democrat. Greitens' campaign Tuesday issued a statement outlining some of its coming campaign strategy, including a vow to wage a positive, solutions-based campaign. If so, it will be a marked difference from the GOP primary, in which Greitens and second-place finished John Brunner savaged each other for months over tactics and personal issues. The Missouri Historical Society will be 150 years old this week, and the St. Louis institution is holding a public celebration Saturday to mark the occasion. The society, which operates the Missouri History Museum, dates to Aug. 11, 1866, according to a museum news release, when 47 people met at the Old Courthouse downtown to form a historical society for the purpose of saving from oblivion the early history of the city and state. The Missouri Historical Society is the oldest chartered non-profit in Missouri, according to the museum's website. Saturday's free event includes carriage rides, gallery tours, free cake and Ted Drewes frozen custard, musical performances, "scavenger hunts" with chances to win prizes, crafts for children, face painting and a magician. The Missouri Historical Society, which helped attract the World's Fair in 1904, has occupied its current building in Forest Park since 1913. Activities will be held throughout the museum from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Visit www.mohistory.org for more information and updates on Saturday's celebration. WASHINGTON The Latest on the U.S. presidential race (all times EDT): Donald Trump's campaign is saying the Republican nominee was touting the "amazing spirit" of Second Amendment supporters when he suggested they "could do" something to prevent Hillary Clinton as president from overturning the right to bear arms. In North Carolina on Tuesday, Trump said that if Clinton were elected she would "essentially abolish" the Second Amendment. He continued: "By the way, if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don't know." Clinton's campaign manager immediately denounced Trump's remarks, saying that the Republican nominee was trying to incite violence. Robby Mook says: "This is simple what Trump is saying is dangerous. A person seeking to be the President of the United States should not suggest violence in any way." But Trump's communications director Jason Miller says the celebrity businessman was referring to the "power of unification." He said: "Second Amendment people have amazing spirit and are tremendously unified, which gives them great political power. And this year, they will be voting in record numbers, and it won't be for Hillary Clinton, it will be for Donald Trump." Previously: 3:50 p.m. Donald Trump is suggesting that if Hillary Clinton gets to pick federal judges as president, there is nothing that can be done to protect the right to bear arms. But then he adds without elaboration that maybe supporters of the Second Amendment could figure out a way. He says Tuesday at a rally in North Carolina, "By the way if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don't know." It wasn't immediately clear what Trump meant. His spokeswoman didn't immediately reply to a request for a clarification of his remarks. The Republican presidential nominee made the comment Tuesday at a rally in Wilmington, North Carolina. The Second Amendment provides a constitutional right to citizens to own guns. During the event, he said falsely that Clinton "essentially wants to abolish the Second Amendment." Clinton supports some new restrictions on gun ownership, but has not advocated overturning the amendment. 3:35 p.m. Hillary Clinton is calling on Congress to immediately return to Washington and pass legislation to combat Zika. Clinton is asking Republican leaders to bring Congress back to either pass stalled bipartisan legislation or craft a new bill to provide emergency funding for testing, treatment and research on the disease. The Democratic presidential candidate says she's "very disappointed" that Congress left for recess without passing legislation. She also says that Donald Trump's remarks last week that Florida has the epidemic "under control" did a "great disservice" to efforts to fight the disease. Clinton is touring a Miami health clinic close to the Wynwood neighborhood where 21 non travel-related Zika cases have been diagnosed. Florida is an important battleground state in the presidential race. 2:50 p.m. Donald Trump, in North Carolina, is stressing the need for stringent voter ID laws in the wake of a federal court ruling against the state's restrictive voting law. Trump at a rally Tuesday in Wilmington asked "Why are we not having voter ID?" He then told the crowd that he would "never ask you to vote 15 times" but implied that his opponent would. His comments come in the wake of last month's ruling that North Carolina's law was restrictive and targeted black voters. North Carolina is petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay on the ruling. 2:30 p.m. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is fanning the flames of Donald Trump's assertion that Hillary Clinton's hacked emails may have contributed to the death of an Iranian nuclear scientist. The State Department denies there's any connection. Giuliani, introducing Trump in North Carolina, said that Clinton was "extremely careless" and "lied" about not keeping any confidential information on her private email server. And he said that the name of Shahram Amiri appeared in the emails. Iran said Sunday that Amiri was executed. Trump tweeted Monday that "Many people are saying that the Iranians killed the scientist who helped the U.S. because of Hillary Clinton's hacked emails." He didn't say who those people were. Trump's running mate, Mike Pence, has also linked Clinton to the execution. 2:20 p.m. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is making a surprise appearance to introduce Donald Trump Tuesday before a rally in the battleground state of North Carolina. Giuliani called Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, the leader of "a movement" which would defeat Hillary Clinton this November. But Giuliani quieted the Wilmington crowd when it began to shout "Lock her up!" the anti-Clinton chant that has become popular at Trump rallies since it started at last month's Republican National Convention. Giuliani said the nation needed Trump to reform Washington, and that he was the right person to wield "a broom to clean the damn place out!" 1 p.m. The father of the Orlando gay nightclub shooter was spotted at a campaign event for Hillary Clinton in central Florida. Seddique Mateen was standing in a crowd behind Clinton during the Monday night event in Kissimmee, south of Orlando. A campaign official told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he wasn't invited to attend the 3,000-person, open-door public event and that the campaign wasn't aware he was there until it ended. Mateen told news outlets after the rally that he loves "the United States." Omar Mateen fatally shot 49 people and injured another 53 at Pulse nightclub on June 12. He was killed by law enforcement officers following a three-hour standoff. The father says his family has been cooperating with investigators. During her speech, Clinton expressed support for the survivors of the attack and the loved ones of those killed. 12:50 p.m. Hillary Clinton is expanding her presidential battleground map to include Georgia and Arizona, according to officials aware of the plans. A source with knowledge of the campaign's plans says aides at Clinton's New York headquarters spoke Monday with Democratic Party officials in Georgia and Arizona to discuss a six-figure investment across the two states. The source wasn't authorized to publicly discuss campaign strategy. The move comes amid a shift in Clinton's favor since the July party conventions. Polls suggest Clinton has widened her national lead over Republican Donald Trump and positioned herself to compete even in some traditionally GOP-leaning states. Arizona and Georgia have growing non-white populations. That, combined with Trump's struggles among white Republicans, gives Clinton an opening. Both states also have Republican senators up for re-election this fall. By Lisa Lerer 9:05 a.m. The parents of two Americans killed in attacks in Benghazi, Libya, say in a lawsuit that Hillary Clinton is responsible for the deaths of their children. The wrongful death lawsuit against Clinton was filed Monday in federal court in Washington, DC. Clinton was secretary of state at the time of the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks. The plaintiffs are Pat Smith of San Diego and Charles Woods of Portland, Oregon. State Department employee Sean Smith and security contractor Tyrone Woods were among four Americans killed in the attacks. The suit says Clinton's "negligent and reckless" use of a private e-mail server compromised the Americans' security. House Republicans blamed the Obama administration for loose security, but not Clinton personally. Attorney Larry Klayman is representing the parents. Klayman is a longtime Clinton critic. 8:15 a.m. Donald Trump says his plan for the U.S. economy will produce annual growth of at least 4 percent, a figure not seen since the final year of Bill Clinton's presidency. The Republican nominee says that the proposal he unveiled Monday to cut taxes and create jobs makes a 4 percent growth rate "easily attainable and I think even more than that." He was interviewed Tuesday on Fox News' "Fox and Friends." Democratic rival Hillary Clinton has dismissed Trump's plan as offering "super big tax breaks" to huge companies and rich people. The economy's average annual growth rate since the last recession ended in June 2009 is just over 2 percent, the slowest since the 1930s. If there is one topic that a man who claims to be worth $10 billion ought to be good on, its economic policy. But on Monday, in a speech before the Detroit Economic Club, Donald Trump disappointed. Trump won the Republican presidential nomination by combining braggadocio with populist appeals to voters who think the Washington establishment has forgotten them. But with a few exceptions, his hourlong speech was straight from the Republican establishment playbook. In fact, the Trump economic plan looks a lot like the Paul Ryan economic plan, raising the question of why Trump and the Republican House speaker have been feuding. All of the standard GOP ideas from the last 30 years are part of Trumps plan: tax cuts weighted heavily to the wealthy (eliminate the estate tax paid only by multimillionaires and cut the corporate tax rate to 15 percent); reduce the number of income brackets and freeze government regulations, particularly on coal-burning power plants. Trump spiced up this warmed-over supply-side hash with a few populist ideas: renegotiate trade deals and eliminate the carried-interest loophole that lets private equity managers dodge billions in taxes. These ideas probably negated whatever he hoped to gain from the GOP establishment by embracing trickle-down orthodoxy. It suggested Trump doesnt really have a coherent set of economic policies but rather an old Chinese restaurant menu where he picks one from column A and another from column B. A coherent economic plan would come with cost estimates and budget-balancing offsets. Like them or not, Democrat Hillary Clintons proposals come with numbing white papers that contain precise numbers. Trump said his numbers will be along later. Problem is, hes running out of later. The tax cuts that Trump announced Monday were roughly in line with proposals he announced last year. The Tax Policy Center of the Brookings Institution estimated those proposals would cost roughly $9.5 trillion over 10 years. To pay for them, Trump would either have to borrow more, adding to the deficit, or cut spending. This doesnt count the roughly $550 billion in infrastructure spending hes endorsed or the estimated $25 billion for his border wall if he cant get Mexico to pay for it. Its hard to feel sorry for Trump, but hes between a rock and a hard place. He needs GOP establishment backing to have any chance of winning. But by embracing their economic orthodoxy, he thumbs his nose at supporters who liked him better when he claimed hed be beholden to nobody. Trumps slice of the Republican base hasnt been well-served by Republican economic policies. Few of his supporters, for example, have estates worth more than $5.4 million, so why care about estate taxes? Trump offered them simple solutions. There arent any. Just tough choices. In October 2014, Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant, then-president of the business group Civic Progress, told us: Ferguson is the fracture point that fundamentally changes St. Louis, or else everything crystallizes and nothing changes. In our lifetime, you might not ever have another chance to swing at the fences. He made his remarks as Gov. Jay Nixon was announcing formation of the Ferguson Commission. So having taken its best swing, how well is St. Louis doing? Tuesday marks two years since the police shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown touched off months of civil unrest as well as a kind of civic examination of conscience about race relations in St. Louis. The Ferguson Commission did valuable work examining the conditions behind the tension that played out in the streets. It issued 189 calls for action, many of which will take years and a political consensus that does not yet exist. The commissions successor organization, Forward Through Ferguson, is working with civic and business groups to make sure the road map isnt ignored. Their financial and political commitment is admirable and must be sustained. Racial and economic injustice are not unique to St. Louis. We have a sad history here of public policy decisions that made bad problems worse, but something like Ferguson could happen in just about any American city. At a macro level, Ferguson will be fixed as America is fixed. Or not. It is at the micro level, in Ferguson itself, where change is most apparent. The 21,000 residents of that North County suburb are paying a heavy price for what happened two years ago. They face higher taxes to maintain services. Theres been huge turnover at City Hall and within the police department. Fergusons police and court practices were troubling but were no different from those in dozens of other municipalities where city officials, police and a municipal court cabal hassled residents and motorists for revenue. Ferguson, though, wound up with the full weight of the U.S. Department of Justice on its back. The most significant post-Ferguson reform has been the new state law that puts a 20 percent limit on how much of a St. Louis County municipalitys budget can be raised by municipal court fines. That has stressed some city budgets, and some municipalities are challenging the limit in court. The Missouri Supreme Court should help by consolidating the countys 80 municipal courts. As a city and a state, we cant keep doing the same thing and hoping for a different result. This is fundamental: While we work on the big problems of racial equity, dont let people prosper from divisions, black and white, rich and poor. If were going to swing for the fences, we cant keep popping that one up. LONDON MARKET CLOSE: FTSE makes weekly gain but banks weigh on Friday Friday, October 28, 2022 - 17:08 The FTSE 100 managed a weekly gain, despite underperforming peers on Friday, while strong results from oil majors lifted the mood in New York, shaking off poor numbers from Amazon. Central banks move into focus again next week. The Federal Reserve announces its rate decision on Wednesday, with the Bank of England following on Thursday. The FTSE 100 index closed down 26.02 points, or 0.4% at 7,047.67 on Friday, but finished the week 1.1% higher. The FTSE 250 ended down 165.25 points, or 0.9%, at 17,916.67 - closing the week up 4.1%. The AIM All-Share closed down 4.09 points, or 0.5%, at 805.37, finishing 2.7% higher over the past five days The Cboe UK 100 ended down 0.5% at 703.81, the Cboe UK 250 closed down 1.0% at 15,378.84, and the Cboe Small Companies ended down 0.5% at 12,320.39. The pound was quoted at $1.1595 at the London equities close Friday, up slightly from $1.1573 at the close on Thursday. Though sterling's marked rise tempered slightly on Friday, the currency has gained 3.2% over the past week. Markets have so far taken confidence from the new UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. In the FTSE 100, Centrica added 5.2% after it announced the reopening of the Rough natural gas storage facility off the east coast of England. Centrica, which owns British Gas, said the facility is operational for winter. The facility increases the UK's storage capacity by 50% despite it operating at just 20% of its previous capacity. GSK closed up 2.3% after it said its majority owned ViiV Healthcare venture has received the European Medicines Agency's validation for its marketing authorisation application for HIV prevention, and said its MAA for respiratory syncytial virus adult vaccine has also been accepted. NatWest was the worst performer. It plunged 8.3% as it reported strong income growth in the third quarter, boosted by both increased lending and higher interest rates, but the bank warned it is keeping a close on eye on any change in behaviour from its customers. In the three months to September 30, operating profit before tax rose to 1.09 billion from 976 million a year before. Putting a cap on the bank's profit, NatWest set aside 247 million in the quarter to cover an expected increase in bad loans, which is reversed from a 221 million gain the year prior. Lloyds fell 3.3% in negative read across. Glencore fell 1.0% as it trimmed annual guidance for some of its commodities after a disappointing third-quarter performance dominated by supply chain disruptions in Kazakhstan, extreme weather in Australia, and strikes in Canada and Norway. In the FTSE 250, ASOS tumbled 11%. The stock was rocked by a Telegraph report which stated some hedge funds have shorted the stock, just days after retailer Frasers bought a stake. Elsewhere in London, China-focused investment trusts fell. JPMorgan China Growth & Income fell 2.9% and abrdn China Investment dropped 3.5%. Investor sentiment turned sour as Chinese cities doubled down on Covid-19 lockdown restrictions. Stocks in New York were firmly in the green at the London equities close, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 2.0%, the S&P 500 index up 1.7% and the Nasdaq Composite up 1.8%. After disappointment from tech stocks, oil majors put some shine on this week's US corporate earnings calendar. Exxon Mobil revenue in the third quarter of 2022 jumped 52% to $112.07 billion from $73.79 billion a year prior. Attributable net income soared to $19.66 billion from $6.75 billion. The oil major's bottom line rose 10% from $17.85 billion in the second quarter. Chevron posted pretax earnings of $14.80 billion, up from $8.06 billion the year before. Revenue increased to $66.64 billion from $44.71 billion the year before. Exxon shares rose 1.8%, while Chevron was up 0.3%. Amazon slid 10%, after its poor numbers overnight. Wall Street also shook off a higher inflation reading for the US on Friday. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Fed's preferred inflationary measure, the core personal consumption expenditures index, which excludes food and energy, shot up 5.1% year-on-year in September, quickening from a 4.9% hike in August. "The Fed's favoured measure of inflation is heading higher, rather than lower, while employment costs continue to rise at double the rate experienced over the past 15 years. The market is probably right to expect the Fed to slow the pace of rate hikes from December, but this is by no means guaranteed," analysts at ING commented. On Thursday, the European Central Bank on Thursday lifted its benchmark interest rates by 75 basis points, as expected. In European equities on Friday, the CAC 40 in Paris ended up 0.5%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt ended up 0.2%. The euro stood at $0.9943 at the European equities close Friday, lower against $0.9984 at the same time on Thursday. Against the yen, the dollar was trading at JP147.54 late Friday, higher compared to JP145.90 late Thursday. Gold was quoted at $1,640.91 an ounce at the London equities close Friday, down sharply against $1,662.60 at the close on Thursday. The precious metal has an inverse relationship with the greenback, weakening as the dollar strengthens. Brent oil was quoted at $93.34 a barrel at the London equities close Friday, down from $94.75 late Thursday. In Monday's UK corporate calendar, there are full year results from self storage company Lok'n Store and kidney disease-focused diagnostics firm Renalytix. In the economic calendar, the EU will publish its latest GDP and CPI readings. Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. BILLINGS -- The sponsor of a ballot measure to repeal the state medical marijuana program said that counties failed to verify valid signatures and lost thousands of others. The Montana Secretary of State's Office has completed its count of ballot initiative signatures, leaving Safe Montanas I-176 still short of the minimum needed to get before voters. A tally released on Aug. 2 put I-176 at 20,038 verified signatures short of the 24,175 necessary. I-176 would repeal the Montana Marijuana Act and defer to the federal scheduling of the substance as a Schedule I drug. About 13,000 people in the state currently get medical marijuana under the act. For weeks, Safe Montana has been internally reviewing about 8,000 signatures that were rejected from its statewide campaign thats been active since the fall. Were finding that a third of those are incorrect, Zabawa said on Monday. They just kind of pushed through them or didnt take care in finding the registered voter. Office spokeswoman Emily Dean said on Monday that there are no remaining signatures to be tabulated. Zabawa said that county election officials failed to match more than 2,000 signatures with registered voters. Most of this happened in Yellowstone and Flathead counties, he said. Yellowstone County Election Administrator Bret Rutherford said that the records show nearly 70 percent of rejected I-176 signatures were due to unregistered voters. Rutherford said that its common for signatures to be rejected if theyre not legible and unable to be matched with a registered voter, but not on the scale the Zabawa alleged. I find that highly unlikely that theres going to be thousands and thousands of people missed, Rutherford said. Of the rejected I-176 signatures statewide, 66.9 percent were not registered voters, he said. There were 811 people who signed it twice. Rutherford said that the rate of rejection for ballot initiatives this year was typical-- 28 percent for I-176. In addition to the audit, Zabawa said that another 2,000 signatures were lost in Flathead County. He said it amounted to two months of petition work. We turned them in, and we didnt get any credit on any of them, he said. Flathead County Election Administrator Debbie Pierson did not return a call for comment. Recording Manager Monica Eisenzimer said that the alleged lost petitions were not turned into that office. Zabawa said that he is in the process of asking the courts to step in at Flathead County. A competing initiative, I-182, qualified in July for the fall ballot with more than 27,000 signatures. The measure would remove new restrictions on the medical marijuana program, including a limit of three patients per provider and a review of doctors who recommend more than 25 patients. The restrictions also allow for unannounced police searches of medical marijuana provider facilities. These provisions go into effect on Aug. 31, putting some medical marijuana businesses on hold as they wait for the November vote. I-182 is backed by the Montana Cannabis Industry Association, which is supported by providers across the state. The rejection rate for I-182 signatures was higher than that of I-176 33 percent but the net figure still made the cut. Zabawa sponsored a similar measure in 2014 that failed to collect enough signatures for the ballot. He started his campaign earlier in this election cycle and has spent more than $92,000 on the effort. In July, he said that Safe Montana had collected more than 30,000 signatures. He said on Monday that the ballots should be handled more carefully and that his signees were treated like second-class citizens. He added that the people who signed the I-182 petition in favor of medical marijuana were not the same as those who signed Safe Montanas I-176. Theyre not stoned, and theyre pretty good people, Zabawa said. Theyre more accurate with their information than the other initiatives were. He said he hopes to resubmit the internally audited signatures before Aug. 25. IAMGOLD Corporation (NYSE: IAG) announced that it has entered into an agreement with a syndicate of underwriters led by TD Securities Inc., National Bank Financial Inc. and Morgan Stanley Canada Ltd., pursuant to which they have agreed to purchase, on a bought deal basis, 38,850,000 common shares of the Company at a price of $5.15 per common share (the "Offering Price"), for aggregate gross proceeds to the Company of approximately $200 million (the "Offering"). The underwriters will also have the option, exercisable in whole or in part, at any time up to 30 days following the closing of the Offering, to purchase up to an additional 5,827,500 common shares at the Offering Price to cover over-allotments, if any. In the event that the option is exercised in its entirety, the aggregate gross proceeds of the Offering to the Company will be approximately $230 million. The Company plans to use the net proceeds of the Offering to strengthen its balance sheet, by reducing indebtedness, and to fund future growth. The Company will use up to approximately $150 million of the net proceeds to fund its concurrently announced tender offer for its outstanding 6.75% senior notes. The Company intends to use the remainder of the net proceeds to fund internal growth projects, including the expansion of the Sadiola mine, subject to the timely approval of its joint venture partner to proceed, for future debt reduction and for general corporate purposes. The Company expects to file a preliminary prospectus supplement to its existing base shelf prospectus on or about August 8, 2016 and intends to file a final prospectus supplement to its existing base shelf prospectus on or about August 9, 2016, in each case with the securities regulatory authorities in each of the provinces and territories in Canada, other than the Province of Quebec, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). The Offering is scheduled to close on or about August 16, 2016, and is subject to certain conditions including, but not limited to, the receipt of all necessary approvals including the approval of the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. The tender offer is being made on the terms and subject to the conditions set forth in the offer to purchase relating to the tender offer, as such terms and conditions may be amended. The Offering is not conditioned upon the consummation of the tender offer. Nothing in this news release shall be construed as an offer to purchase or a solicitation of an offer to sell any 6.75% senior notes. The Company has filed a registration statement (including the existing base shelf prospectus) with the SEC for the Offering to which this communication relates. Before you invest, you should read the prospectus in that registration statement and other documents the Company has filed with the SEC for more complete information about the Company and the Offering. The Company has also filed the existing base shelf prospectus with the securities regulatory authorities in each of the provinces and territories in Canada, other than the Province of Quebec. You may get these documents for free by visiting EDGAR on the SEC Web site at www.sec.gov or via SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Alternatively, the Company, any underwriter or any dealer participating in the Offering will arrange to send you the prospectus if you request it from TD Securities Inc. in Canada, Attention: Symcor, NPM (tel: 289-360-2009, email: [email protected]), 1625 Tech Avenue, Mississauga ON L4W 5P5; or from TD Securities (USA) LLC in the United States (tel: 212-827-7392), 31 W 52nd Street, New York NY 10019 or from National Bank Financial Inc. by phone at (416) 869-6534 or email at [email protected] or from Morgan Stanley Canada Ltd., Attention: Prospectus Department, 180 Varick Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10014. A copy of the prospectus included in the registration statement filed with the SEC may be found in such registration statement at the link below: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1203464/000119312516530887/d170590df10a.htm S&P Global Ratings raised its overall rankings on Ocwen Loan Servicing LLC (Ocwen) to AVERAGE from BELOW AVERAGE as a residential mortgage primary, subprime, special, and subordinate-lien servicer. As part of the ranking actions, we raised our management and organization subrankings for all four rankings to AVERAGE from BELOW AVERAGE, and we affirmed our AVERAGE loan administration subrankings. The outlooks for all four rankings are stable. The rankings reflect our opinion of Ocwen's strengthened internal control environment, good management and staff experience levels, manageable staff and management turnover rates, improved nonreimbursable tax penalties, and the company's continued monitoring and supervision by the New York Department of Financial Services (NY DFS), California Department of Business Oversight (CA DBO), and National Mortgage Settlement (NMS). On June 18, 2015, we lowered our overall residential rankings on Ocwen to BELOW AVERAGE to reflect weaknesses we noted in the company's internal control environment, as well as regulatory inquiries by the NY DFS and CA DBO. Since our last review, Ocwen has improved its control environment, and it has reduced the number of high-risk internal audit findings. While we continue to observe high- and medium-risk internal audit findings, the number and criticality of the findings, in our view, is now more consistent with other AVERAGE servicers we rank. In addition, management says the NY DFS and CA DBO continue monitoring Ocwen's operations. Management did not disclose any issues to us regarding the NY DFS or CA DBO. We will continue to monitor any developments from both state regulators. The NMS Office of Mortgage Settlement Oversight (OMSO) issued an updated compliance report on Ocwen's progress in April 2016 that identified one outstanding metric. Ocwen says it resolved this metric by completing corrective action plans in August 2015 and March 2016. Additionally, the monitor's report noted that Ocwen completed its $2 billion consumer relief obligation under the settlement. Furthermore, Ocwen reported it received a letter from the SEC in February 2016 requesting information relating to fees and expenses charged in connection with liquidated loans and real estate-owned (REO) properties held in nonagency residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) trusts. We will continue to monitor reports from the OMSO and the SEC as additional details are available. Since our prior review (see "Ocwen Loan Servicing LLC," published Sept. 30, 2015), Ocwen has made these key changes: Created a risk committee at the board of directors level; Created an independent review committee of the board of directors to provide independent review, approval, and oversight of related party transactions, such as the Altisource vendor relationship; Added three new outside parties to the Ocwen Financial Corp. (OFC) board of directors: One was previously a Federal Housing Administration commissioner, the second previously served as the chief of the homeownership preservation office at the U.S. Department of the Treasury (who now acts as the chairwoman of the OFC board), and the third individual was previously a chief risk officer at an investment banking firm; Replaced the chief compliance officer (CCO) and several senior-level management positions reporting to the CCO; Hired 70 additional compliance staff members and further enhanced key components of the compliance management system; Replaced the chief internal auditor position with an existing industry-experienced internal staff member; Implemented a new system application to manage the organization, review, and approval processes of its policies and procedures; Completed the deployment of a governance, risk, and compliance system and tool used by all lines of defense to track and manage identified risk issues across the operations; Developed a mandatory risk management training program for staff; Implemented a model governance system and process to manage models in the origination and servicing operations; Closed the residential servicing customer contact center in Houston; Created an initiative to promote diversity and inclusion throughout the organization and workforce and to focus on its culture; Enhanced employee engagement efforts through surveys and associated management action plans; Implemented electronic signature technology for key loss mitigation application documents; Implemented a mobile phone application to enable customers to take photos and submit loss mitigation application documents; Implemented a case management software tool for complaint tracking and management, designed so customer-facing staff can resolve customer issues more efficiently; and Replaced the vice president of the collateral-based solutions (short-sale and deed-in-lieu of foreclosure) department with an industry-experienced outside staff member. Our outlooks are stable for all four rankings. We believe Ocwen has strengthened its internal control environment and reduced the number and criticality of internal audit findings, and we believe the first and second lines of defense will continue to season to provide adequate risk management. In our view, Ocwen also continues to invest in staff, training, and technology to further develop its operations. The company's executive and senior management appears focused on the continued improvement of Ocwen's internal controls environment and loan servicing performance. However, we believe the regulatory outlook for Ocwen is somewhat uncertain as the NY DFS and CA DBO have yet to resolve their monitoring activities. In addition, the NMS monitoring activities will remain through 2017. We will continue to monitor the internal control environment's progress, as well as developments from the aforementioned regulatory and monitoring bodies. We believe new regulatory or investor issues, an increase in internal audit findings, or a degradation of the internal controls environment and service levels provided to borrowers could negatively affect our current rankings or outlooks, and we will take ranking actions as appropriate. The financial position is SUFFICIENT, and we will add Ocwen to the Select Servicer List. DUBLIN, Ohio, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Community Choice Financial Inc. ("CCFI") will file its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2016 with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, August 11, 2016. CCFI will host a conference call on Friday, August 12, 2016 at 9:00 a.m. (ET) to discuss the results for the quarter. CCFI will make this call available for replay for one month starting approximately two hours after the call has ended. The conference call can be replayed in its entirety by dialing (855) 859-2056 (toll free) or (404) 537-3406 (international) and enter conference ID "84590299". Financials are publicly available at www.sec.gov Conference Call Dial-In Information: International Direct: +1 (937) 203-2407 U.S. Toll Free: +1 (877) 497-9564 Conference ID: 84590299 About Community Choice Financial Inc. Community Choice Financial Inc. is a leading retailer of financial services to unbanked and underbanked consumers through a network of 531 retail storefronts across 12 states and are licensed to deliver similar financial services over the internet in 31 states. CCFI focuses on providing consumers with a wide range of convenient financial products and services to help them manage their day-to-day financial needs including consumer loans, check cashing, prepaid debit cards, money transfers, bill payments, and money orders. Please visit www.ccfi.com for more information. Forward-Looking Statements and Information: Certain statements contained in this release may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of federal securities laws. All statements in this release other than those relating to our historical information or current condition are forward-looking statements. For example, any statements regarding our future financial performance (including, but not limited to, CCFI's ability to execute its long-term strategy and to manage operational efficiencies across its national footprint), our business strategy, and expected developments in our industry are forward-looking statements. Although we believe that the current views and expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, those views and expectations and the related statements are inherently subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are not under our control and may not even be predictable. Therefore, actual results could differ materially from our expectations as of today and any future results, performance, or achievements expressed directly or impliedly by the forward-looking statements. CONTACT: Greyson Eves, 614-798-5900 Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121121/CL17742LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/community-choice-financial-inc-schedules-second-quarter-2016-earnings-release-300311449.html SOURCE Community Choice Financial Inc. CLEVELAND, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Dominion East Ohio is using the calendar date August 11, or 8/11, as a natural reminder that Ohio law requires the general public and contractors to call 8-1-1 at least two business days, but no more than 10 business days, prior to any digging project to have underground utility lines marked. This will help ensure safe excavation. Promoting the Call 8-1-1 and other pipeline safety messages has helped the company reduce third-party dig-ins by 50 percent over the past nine years, company officials say. When calling 8-1-1, the general public and contractors are connected to the Ohio Utility Protection Service (OUPS), the local one-call center, which notifies the appropriate utility companies of their intent to dig. This service is free of charge. Professional locators are then sent to the requested digging site to mark the approximate locations of underground lines and facilities with flags, spray paint or both. Striking a single natural gas, electric, water or telecommunication line can cause injuries, repair costs, fines and inconvenient outages. State law mandates a call to 8-1-1 for every digging project, no matter how big or small. Installing a mailbox, putting in a fence, building a deck, or planting a tree, are all examples of digging projects that require a call to 8-1-1 before starting. The depth of utility lines and associated facilities can vary for a number of reasons, such as erosion, previous digging projects and uneven surfaces. Utility lines need to be properly marked because even when digging only a few inches deep, the risk of striking an underground utility line still exists. Visit www.call811.com or www.oups.org for more information about 811 and the call-before-you-dig process. For additional natural gas safety information, visit www.safegasohio.org . Dominion is one of the nation's largest producers and transporters of energy, with a portfolio of approximately 25,700 megawatts of generation, 12,200 miles of natural gas transmission, gathering and storage pipeline, and 6,500 miles of electric transmission lines. Dominion operates one of the nation's largest natural gas storage systems with 933 billion cubic feet of storage capacity and serves more than 5 million utility and retail energy customers in 14 states. For more information about Dominion, visit the company's website at www.dom.com/. To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dominion-east-ohio-reminds-customers-excavators-august-11-811-is-convenient-reminder-to-call-8-1-1-before-digging-300311526.html SOURCE Dominion East Ohio VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 08/08/16 -- (All amounts expressed in US dollars, unless otherwise stated) Fortuna Silver Mines Inc. (NYSE: FSM)(TSX: FVI) today reported cashflow from operations of $12.7 million, revenue of $44.5 million, and a net loss of $1.4 million in the second quarter of 2016. Jorge A. Ganoza, President and CEO, commented, "We have had a strong operational and financial quarter with solid performance for the first half of the year. With San Jose now in commercial operation at 3,000 tpd, and capital requirements at our existing mines reduced significantly, we are poised to capitalize from the recovery in metal prices." Mr. Ganoza continued, "The Company is now focused on advancing the recently acquired Lindero Gold Project into construction in 2017 with commercial production expected by the second half of 2018." Second quarter consolidated financial highlights: -- Sales of $44.5 million, compared to $38.9 million in Q2 2015 -- Net loss of $1.4 million, compared to net income of $0.2 million in Q2 2015 -- Cash flow from operations before changes in non-cash working capital of $12.7 million and Adjusted EBITDA of $18.6 million, compared to $6.8 million and $12.4 million, respectively, in Q2 2015 -- Cash position, including short term investments, and working capital as at June 30, 2016 were $90.8 million and $90.2 million, respectively -- Silver and gold production of 1,553,217 and 9,365 ounces, respectively -- Cash cost per ounce of payable silver, net of by-product credits was $1.44 -- AISCC(i) per ounce of payable silver was $9.85 (i)All-in sustaining cash cost is net of by-product credits for gold, lead and zinc Second quarter consolidated financial results Three months ended June 30 ---------------------------------- (Expressed in $ millions) 2016 2015 % Chg ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sales $ 44.5 $ 38.9 14% Cost of Sales 28.6 28.5 0% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mine operating earnings $ 15.9 $ 10.4 53% as a % of Sales 36% 27% 34% Selling, general and administrative expenses 12.3 5.5 124% Foreign exchange (0.1) - 0% Operating income 3.6 4.8 -25% as a % of Sales 8% 12% -34% Income before tax 3.2 4.3 -26% Net (loss) income (1.4) 0.2 -800% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- as a % of Sales -3% 1% 0% Operating cash flow before changes in working capital (i) $ 12.7 $ 6.8 87% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (i) a non-GAAP financial measure Net loss amounted to $1.4 million (Q2 2015: $0.2 million income), resulting in a basic loss per share of $0.01 (Q2 2015: $nil). The loss was driven by a $6.3 million impact of mark-to-market effect on stock based compensation charges related to the performance of our share price. Compared to Q2 2015 we achieved higher sales of 14% and higher mine operating earnings of 53% while operating income was 25% lower due to the aforementioned charge. Sales were $44.5 million, 14% above Q2 2015 sales of $38.9 million. Silver ounces sold decreased 7%, gold ounces sold increased 6%, while realized prices on provisional sales for silver increased 3% to $16.81 per ounce and for gold increased 6% to $1,262.72 per ounce. Segmented Results Three months ended June 30 ----------------------------------------------- 2016 ----------------------------------------------- (Expressed in $ millions) Corporate Bateas Cuzcatlan Total ---------------------------------------------------------------- Mine operating earnings $ - $ 4.3 $ 11.6 $ 15.9 ---------------------------------------------------------------- as a % of Sales 0% 27% 40% 36% ---------------------------------------------------------------- Other expenses ---------------------------------------------------------------- Selling, general and administrativ e expenses 10.5 0.6 1.2 12.3 ---------------------------------------------------------------- as a % of Sales 0% 4% 4% 28% ---------------------------------------------------------------- Operating (loss) income (10.7) 3.6 10.5 3.6 ---------------------------------------------------------------- as a % of Sales 0% 23% 37% 8% ---------------------------------------------------------------- Net (loss) income $ (10.9) $ 2.8 $ 6.7 $ (1.4) ---------------------------------------------------------------- Operating (loss) income $ (10.7) $ 3.6 $ 10.5 $ 3.6 Add back: Depreciation, depletion, and amortization( ii) 0.1 1.9 5.0 7.0 Add back: Share-based payments(ii) 8.0 - - 8.0 ---------------------------------------------------------------- Adjusted EBITDA(i) $ (2.6) $ 5.6 $ 15.6 $ 18.6 ---------------------------------------------------------------- Note: Figures may not add due to rounding Note: (i) Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial measure Note: (ii) included in cost of sales or selling, general and administrative expenses Three months ended June 30 ------------------------------------------------- 2015 ------------------------------------------------- (Expressed in $ millions) Corporate Bateas Cuzcatlan Total % Change ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mine operating earnings $ - $ 1.6 $ 8.8 $ 10.4 53% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- as a % of Sales 0% 11% 37% 27% 34% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Other expenses ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Selling, general and administrativ e expenses 3.5 0.8 1.2 5.5 124% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- as a % of Sales 0% 5% 5% 14% 95% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Operating (loss) income (3.3) 0.7 7.4 4.8 (25%) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- as a % of Sales 0% 5% 31% 12% (34%) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Net (loss) income $ (3.7) $ (0.1) $ 4.0 $ 0.2 (800%) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Operating (loss) income $ (3.3) $ 0.7 $ 7.4 $ 4.8 (25%) Add back: Depreciation, depletion, and amortization( ii) 0.1 2.3 4.0 6.4 9% Add back: Share-based payments(ii) 1.2 - - 1.2 567% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Adjusted EBITDA(i) $ (2.0) $ 3.0 $ 11.4 $ 12.4 50% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note: Figures may not add due to rounding Note: (i) Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial measure Note: (ii) included in cost of sales or selling, general and administrative expenses Mine operating earnings increased 53% to $15.9 million (Q2 2015: $10.4 million), while the gross margin (mine operating earnings over sales) was 36% (Q2 2015: 27%). At the San Jose Mine, operating earnings increased 32% to $11.6 million as a result of 20% higher sales and an increase in gross margin of three percentage points to 40%. Gross margins improved as realized metal prices increased. At the Caylloma Mine, operating earnings increased 169% to $4.3 million mostly as a result of lower depletion and 20% lower unit costs. Adjusted EBITDA in Q2 2016 increased 50% over Q2 2015 to $18.6 million, driven by increases at Caylloma and San Jose of 87% to $5.6 million and 37% to $15.6 million, respectively. Cash flow from operations, before changes in working capital (refer to non-GAAP financial measures) increased 88% to $12.7 million compared to the same period in the prior year (Q2 2015: $6.8 million). This is the result of stronger operating results and lower taxes paid. In Q2 2016 income taxes paid amounted to $2.7 million (Q2 2015: $4.7 million) which is all current. Consolidated Operating Results QUARTERLY RESULTS --------------------------------------- Three months ended June 30, --------------------------------------- 2016 --------------------------------------- Consolidated Metal Production Caylloma San Jose Consolidated ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Silver (oz) 318,229 1,234,988 1,553,217 Gold (oz) 119 9,246 9,365 Lead (000's lbs) 8,825 - 8,825 Zinc (000's lbs) 11,202 - 11,202 Production cash cost (US$/oz Ag)(i) (2.89) 2.54 1.44 All-in sustaining cash cost (US$/oz Ag)(i) 6.39 8.62 9.85 (i) Net of by-product credits from gold, lead and zinc YEAR TO DATE RESULTS --------------------------------------- Six months ended June 30, --------------------------------------- 2016 --------------------------------------- Consolidated Metal Production Caylloma San Jose Consolidated ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Silver (oz) 655,313 2,515,300 3,170,613 Gold (oz) 221 18,407 18,629 Lead (000's lbs) 17,932 - 17,932 Zinc (000's lbs) 21,591 - 21,591 Production cash cost (US$/oz Ag)(i) (2.49) 2.45 1.44 All-in sustaining cash cost (US$/oz Ag)(i) 5.73 8.66 9.62 (i) Net of by-product credits from gold, lead and zinc QUARTERLY RESULTS --------------------------------------- Three months ended June 30, --------------------------------------- 2015 -------------------------------------- Consolidated Metal Production Caylloma San Jose Consolidated ------------------------------------ ------------ ------------------------- Silver (oz) 443,553 1,227,756 1,671,309 Gold (oz) 326 8,706 9,032 Lead (000's lbs) 4,770 - 4,770 Zinc (000's lbs) 8,575 - 8,575 Production cash cost (US$/oz Ag)(i) 6.01 3.39 4.08 All-in sustaining cash cost (US$/oz Ag)(i) 12.99 13.07 14.47 (i) Net of by-product credits from gold, lead and zinc YEAR TO DATE RESULTS --------------------------------------- Six months ended June 30, --------------------------------------- 2015 -------------------------------------- Consolidated Metal Production Caylloma San Jose Consolidated ------------------------------------ -------------------------------------- Silver (oz) 979,512 2,324,966 3,304,478 Gold (oz) 698 18,073 18,771 Lead (000's lbs) 9,117 - 9,117 Zinc (000's lbs) 16,109 - 16,109 Production cash cost (US$/oz Ag)(i) 6.33 3.01 3.99 All-in sustaining cash cost (US$/oz Ag)(i) 11.89 11.32 13.15 (i) Net of by-product credits from gold, lead and zinc The Company produced 1,553,217 ounces of silver and 9,365 ounces of gold plus base metal by-products. Silver and gold production for the first six months of the year totaled 3.2 million and 18,629 ounces respectively; being 7% and 10% above the Company's mid-year projection. Fortuna's production guidance for 2016 is 7.0 million ounces of silver and 42.8 thousand ounces of gold or 9.6 million Ag Eq(i) ounces in Q2 2016 (see Fortuna news release dated January 14, 2016). All-in sustaining cash cost per ounce of payable silver for Q2 2016, net of by-product credits, was $9.85 which is below the same period in the prior year (Q2 2015: $14.47) and below our 2016 guidance. (i) Ag Eq calculated using silver to gold ratio of 60:1 San Jose Mine, Mexico YEAR TO DATE QUARTERLY RESULTS RESULTS ------------------- ------------------- Three months ended Six months ended San Jose June 30, June 30, ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mine Production 2016 2015 2016 2015 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tonnes milled 185,080 183,001 364,189 361,648 Average tonnes milled per day 2,152 2,080 2,105 2,067 Silver Grade (g/t) 226 228 233 222 Recovery (%) 92 92 92 90 Production (oz) 1,234,988 1,227,756 2,515,300 2,324,966 Gold Grade (g/t) 1.70 1.62 1.71 1.73 Recovery (%) 92 91 92 90 Production (oz) 9,246 8,706 18,407 18,073 Unit Costs Production cash cost (US$/oz Ag)(i) 2.54 3.39 2.45 3.01 Production cash cost (US$/tonne) 60.47 57.97 59.79 58.87 Unit Net Smelter Return (US$/tonne) 153.11 141.19 149.90 141.89 All-in sustaining cash cost (US$/oz Ag) 8.62 13.07 8.66 11.32 (i) Net of by-product credits from gold Silver and gold production increased 1% and 6% to 1,234,988 and 9,246 ounces, respectively, compared to the same period in the prior year. Throughput increased marginally, and head grades were 1% lower and 4% higher for silver and gold, respectively. Metallurgical recoveries for silver and gold remained stable, as compared with the same period in the prior year. Cash cost per tonne of processed ore was $60.47, or 4% above the cost in the same period in the prior year, and 5% above the annual guidance of $57.40/t. All-in sustaining cash cost per payable ounce of silver, net of by-product credits, was $8.62 (refer to non-GAAP financial measures), and below the annual guidance of $9.10 as a result of higher silver head grades and lower execution of sustaining capital expenditures. Caylloma Mine, Peru QUARTERLY RESULTS YEAR TO DATE RESULTS -------------------- -------------------- Three months ended Six months ended Caylloma June 30, June 30, ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mine Production 2016 2015 2016 2015 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tonnes milled 129,958 115,973 247,149 230,424 Average tonnes milled per day 1,460 1,303 1,388 1,302 Silver Grade (g/t) 89 144 96 158 Recovery (%) 86 82 86 84 Production (oz) 318,229 443,553 655,313 979,512 Gold Grade (g/t) 0.19 0.27 0.19 0.27 Recovery (%) 15 33 15 34 Production (oz) 119 326 221 698 Lead Grade (%) 3.28 2.01 3.50 1.94 Recovery (%) 94 93 94 93 Production (000's lbs) 8,825 4,770 17,932 9,117 Zinc Grade (%) 4.41 3.68 4.45 3.49 Recovery (%) 89 91 89 91 Production (000's lbs) 11,202 8,575 21,591 16,109 Unit Costs Production cash cost (US$/oz Ag)(i) (2.89) 6.01 (2.49) 6.33 Production cash cost (US$/tonne) 71.01 88.55 72.33 86.28 Unit Net Smelter Return (US$/tonne) 116.64 125.78 118.12 127.43 All-in sustaining cash cost (US$/oz Ag) 6.39 12.99 5.73 11.89 (i) Net of by-product credits from gold, lead and zinc Silver production was 0.32 million ounces compared with 0.44 million ounces in the same period of the prior year. Zinc and lead production was 31% and 85%, respectively, above production in the same period of the prior year. Cash cost per tonne of processed ore at Caylloma was $71.01, a decrease of 20% from the same period in the prior year due to lower mining costs related to the shutdown of narrow veins and lower indirect costs related to headcount. Caylloma's all-in sustaining cash cost per payable ounce of silver, net of by-product credits, was $6.39 and below the annual guidance of $12.50 as a result of lower execution of sustaining capital expenditures and lower cash cost per tonne (refer to non-GAAP financial measures). The financial statements and MD&A are available on SEDAR and have also been posted on the Company's website at http://www.fortunasilver.com/s/financial_reports.asp. Conference call to review second quarter financial and operations results Date: Tuesday, August 9, 2016Time: 9:00 a.m. Pacific / 12:00 p.m. Eastern Dial in number (Toll Free): +1.877.407.8035Dial in number (International): +1.201.689.8035 Replay number (Toll Free): +1.877.660.6853Replay number (International): +1.201.612.7415Replay Passcode: 13642320 Playback of the conference call will be available until August 23, 2016 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern. Playback of the webcast will be available until November 9, 2016. In addition, a transcript of the call will be archived in the company's website: http://www.fortunasilver.com/s/financial_reports.asp. About Fortuna Silver Mines Inc. Fortuna is a growth oriented, precious and base metals producer focused on mining opportunities in Latin America. Our primary assets are the Caylloma silver Mine in southern Peru, the San Jose silver-gold Mine in Mexico and the Lindero gold Project in Argentina. The company is selectively pursuing acquisition opportunities throughout the Americas and in select other areas. For more information, please visit our website at www.fortunasilver.com. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD Jorge A. Ganoza President, CEO and Director Fortuna Silver Mines Inc. Trading symbols: NYSE: FSM / TSX: FVI Forward looking Statements This news release contains forward looking statements which constitute "forward looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation and "forward looking statements" within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (collectively, "Forward looking Statements"). All statements included herein, other than statements of historical fact, are Forward looking Statements and are subject to a variety of known and unknown risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those reflected in the Forward looking Statements. The Forward looking Statements in this news release include, without limitation, statements about the Company's plans for its mines and mineral properties; the Company's business strategy, plans and outlook; the merit of the Company's mines and mineral properties; the future financial or operating performance of the Company; and proposed expenditures. Often, but not always, these Forward looking Statements can be identified by the use of words such as "estimated", "potential", "open", "future", "assumed", "projected", "used", "detailed", "has been", "gain", "planned", "reflecting", "will", "containing", "remaining", "to be", or statements that events, "could" or "should" occur or be achieved and similar expressions, including negative variations. Forward looking Statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the Forward looking Statements. Such uncertainties and factors include, among others, changes in general economic conditions and financial markets; changes in prices for silver and other metals; technological and operational hazards in Fortuna's mining and mine development activities; risks inherent in mineral exploration; uncertainties inherent in the estimation of mineral reserves, mineral resources, and metal recoveries; governmental and other approvals; political unrest or instability in countries where Fortuna is active; labor relations issues; as well as those factors discussed under "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Information Form. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in Forward looking Statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. Forward looking Statements contained herein are based on the assumptions, beliefs, expectations and opinions of management, including but not limited to expectations regarding the Company's plans for its mines and mineral properties; mine production costs; expected trends in mineral prices and currency exchange rates; the accuracy of the Company's current mineral resource and reserve estimates; that the Company's activities will be in accordance with the Company's public statements and stated goals; that there will be no material adverse change affecting the Company or its properties; that all required approvals will be obtained; that there will be no significant disruptions affecting operations and such other assumptions as set out herein. Forward looking Statements are made as of the date hereof and the Company disclaims any obligation to update any Forward looking Statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, except as required by law. There can be no assurance that Forward looking Statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, investors should not place undue reliance on Forward looking Statements. This news release also refers to non-GAAP financial measures, such as cash cost per tonne of processed ore; cash cost per payable ounce of silver; total production cost per tonne; all-in sustaining cash cost; all-in cash cost; adjusted net (loss) income; operating cash flow per share before changes in working capital, income taxes, and interest income; and adjusted EBITDA. These measures do not have a standardized meaning or method of calculation, even though the descriptions of such measures may be similar. These performance measures have no meaning under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and therefore, amounts presented may not be comparable to similar data presented by other mining companies. Contacts: Fortuna Silver Mines Inc. Carlos Baca Investor Relations T (Peru): +51.1.616.6060, ext. 0 Source: Fortuna Silver Mines Inc. BOSTON, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Morgan Stanley has taken the first steps towards fulfilling its consumer-relief obligations under the February 11, 2016, settlement agreement with New York State, Eric D. Green, independent Monitor of the consumer-relief portion of the settlement, reported today. The agreement settled potential legal claims against Morgan Stanley that it or its affiliates violated New York law in connection with the creation, packaging, marketing, underwriting, sale, structuring, arrangement, and issuance of mortgage-based securities. Morgan Stanley agreed to provide $550 million under the settlement agreement, including consumer relief valued at $400 million to be distributed in the State of New York by the end of September 2019. In the first of his required public reports on the settlement, Professor Green said that the consumer relief that Morgan Stanley has submitted for credit under the settlement to date consists of forgiveness of the debt that the bank is owed on 19 first-lien mortgage loans, totaling $10,468,806 of reportable credit. This initial batch of forgiveness, representing less than 3 percent of Morgan Stanley's overall consumer-relief obligations under the settlement, provided a "test drive" allowing the Monitor and his team of legal, finance and accounting professionals to assess Morgan Stanley's plan for delivering relief and its methodology for calculating how the assistance qualifies for credit under the terms of the settlement agreement. Based on their initial review, Professor Green said he believes that Morgan Stanley is "employing a logical and appropriate approach to seeking credit for its consumer-relief efforts." "In the coming months, we should get a clearer picture of how quickly Morgan Stanley is delivering on its consumer-relief obligations and how much of what kind of relief is being delivered," said Professor Green, who is a professional mediator and a retired Boston University law professor. Professor Green noted that 11 of the initial 19 loans were for homes located in Hardest Hit Areas, census tracts identified by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as containing large concentrations of distressed properties and foreclosure activities. The average principal forgiven on these loans was more than $430,000. Eighteen of the 19 homes involved were "underwater" before the forgiveness, meaning that the homeowners owed more on their mortgages than the homes were worth. After the debt forgiveness, all 19 homes had loan-to-value ratios of 100% or lower, meaning that the homeowners either had equity in the homes or at least did not continue to owe more than they were worth. The Settlement Agreement also requires that the consumer relief not be implemented through any policy that violates the Fair Housing Act or the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. Professor Green and his team also are monitoring Morgan Stanley's compliance with that obligation. "Morgan Stanley has committed to do its part to help New York residents who are still in their homes but struggling with their mortgage payments," Professor Green said. "I have been charged to monitor and report on how well Morgan Stanley keeps its commitment. I recognize and accept the serious responsibility of my assignment." The initial report is available at the Monitor's website at: http://morganstanley.mortgagesettlementmonitor.com. The website provides further details about the settlement, plus contact information for Morgan Stanley, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman's office, and agencies that provide legal or tax advice to consumers. The Monitor's mailing address is: Monitor of the Morgan Stanley Mortgage Settlement, P.O. Box 10300, Dublin, OH 43017-5900, and the e-mail address is [email protected]. To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/monitor-morgan-stanley-begins-delivering-consumer-relief-under-settlement-with-new-york-state-300311355.html SOURCE Monitor Eric D. Green BEIRUT (Reuters) - The United States delivered 50 armored vehicles, 40 artillery pieces and 50 grenade launchers to the Lebanese army on Tuesday, part of its efforts to bolster Lebanon against a threat from militant groups in neighboring, conflict-ridden Syria. The equipment, worth $50 million, is part of an aid package that has now topped $220 million this year, making Lebanon the fifth-biggest recipient of American military assistance, U.S. ambassador Elizabeth Richard said during the delivery. Fighting between Islamic State and other Islamist militant groups in Syria often flares in the mountains along Lebanon's northern frontier and the violence has periodically spilled across the border. Eight Islamic State suicide bombers targeted a Christian village in Lebanon near the Syrian frontier last month, killing five and raising fears of a new campaign of attacks. Fighters from Islamic State and other groups also stage regular incursions across the poorly demarcated border around the northern Lebanese town of Arsal, which they briefly overran in 2014 before the army drove them out. Lebanon has a weak government and a number of countries support its armed forces as a bulwark against destabilization in a country where around a quarter of the population are Syrian refugees. This year Saudi Arabia, traditionally an important financial backer of the Lebanese state, suspended $3 billion in aid to the security forces over what it saw as growing closeness between Beirut and Iran, Riyadh's main regional foe. Syria once dominated its smaller neighbor, whose own sectarian fissures fueled a 15-year civil war from 1975-90. Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement has fought alongside Syrian government forces in Syria's civil war since 2013. (Reporting by Alaa Kanaan and Angus McDowall; Editing by Gareth Jones) AMERICAN DEPOSITARY RECEIPT FOR AMERICAN DEPOSITARY SHARES representing DEPOSITED ORDINARY SHARES Of CLEANAWAY WASTE MANAGEMENT LIMITED (Incorporated under the laws of the Commonwealth of Australia) DEUTSCHE BANK TRUST COMPANY AMERICAS, as depositary (herein called the "Depositary"), hereby certifies that _____________is the owner of ______________ American Depositary Shares (hereinafter "ADSs" or "American Depositary Shares"), representing deposited ordinary shares, including evidence of rights to receive such ordinary shares, (the "Shares") of Cleanaway Waste Management Limited (the Company), a company incorporated under the laws of the Commonwealth of Australia (the "Company"). As of the date of the Deposit Agreement (hereinafter referred to), each ADS represents twenty Shares deposited under the Deposit Agreement with the Custodian which at the date of execution of the Deposit Agreement is National Nominees Limited (the "Custodian"). The ratio of ADSs to Shares is subject to subsequent amendment as provided in Article IV and VI of the Deposit Agreement. The Depositary's Principal Office is located at 60 Wall Street, New York, New York 10005, U.S.A. (1) The Deposit Agreement . This American Depositary Receipt is one of an issue of American Depositary Receipts ("Receipts"), all issued and to be issued upon the terms and conditions set forth in the Deposit Agreement, dated as of May 12, 2015 (as amended from time to time, the "Deposit Agreement"), by and among the Company, the Depositary, and all Holders and Beneficial Owners from time to time of Receipts issued thereunder, each of whom by accepting a Receipt agrees to become a party thereto and becomes bound by all the terms and conditions thereof. The Deposit Agreement sets forth the rights and obligations of Holders and Beneficial Owners of Receipts and the rights and duties of the Depositary in respect of the Shares deposited thereunder and any and all other securities, property and cash from time to time, received in respect of such Shares and held thereunder (such Shares, other securities, property and cash are herein called "Deposited Securities"). Copies of the Deposit Agreement are on file at the Principal Office of the Depositary and the Custodian. A-1 Each owner and each Beneficial Owner, upon acceptance of any ADSs (or any interest therein) issued in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Deposit Agreement, shall be deemed for all purposes to (a) be a party to and bound by the terms of the Deposit Agreement and applicable ADR(s), and (b) appoint the Depositary its attorney-in-fact, with full power to delegate, to act on its behalf and to take any and all actions contemplated in the Deposit Agreement and applicable ADR(s), to adopt any and all procedures necessary to comply with applicable law and to take such action as the Depositary in its sole discretion may deem necessary or appropriate to carry out the purposes of the Deposit Agreement and the applicable ADR(s), the taking of such actions to be the conclusive determinant of the necessity and appropriateness thereof. The statements made on the face and reverse of this Receipt are summaries of certain provisions of the Deposit Agreement and the Company's constituent documents (as in effect on the date of the Deposit Agreement) and are qualified by and subject to the detailed provisions of the Deposit Agreement, to which reference is hereby made. All capitalized terms used herein which are not otherwise defined herein shall have the meanings ascribed thereto in the Deposit Agreement. To the extent there is any inconsistency between the terms of this Receipt and the terms of the Deposit Agreement, the terms of the Deposit Agreement shall prevail. Prospective and actual Holders and Beneficial Owners are encouraged to read the terms of the Deposit Agreement. The Depositary makes no representation or warranty as to the validity or worth of the Deposited Securities. The Depositary has made arrangements for the acceptance of the ADSs into DTC. Each Beneficial Owner of ADSs held through DTC must rely on the procedures of DTC and the DTC Participants to exercise and be entitled to any rights attributable to such ADSs. The Receipt evidencing the ADSs held through DTC will be registered in the name of a nominee of DTC. So long as the ADSs are held through DTC or unless otherwise required by law, ownership of beneficial interests in the Receipt registered in the name of DTC (or its nominee) will be shown on, and transfers of such ownership will be effected only through, records maintained by (i) DTC (or its nominee), or (ii) DTC Participants (or their nominees). (2) Surrender of Receipts and Withdrawal of Deposited Securities . Upon surrender, at the Principal Office of the Depositary, of ADSs evidenced by this Receipt for the purpose of withdrawal of the Deposited Securities represented thereby, and upon payment of (i) the fees and charges of the Depositary for the making of withdrawals and cancellation of Receipts (as set forth in Article (9) hereof or in Section 5.9 of the Deposit Agreement) and (ii) all applicable taxes and/or governmental charges payable in connection with such surrender and withdrawal, and, subject to the terms and conditions of the Deposit Agreement, the Company's constituent documents, Section 7.8 of the Deposit Agreement, Article (22) of this Receipt and the provisions of or governing the Deposited Securities and other applicable laws, the Holder hereof is entitled to Delivery, to him or upon his order, of the Deposited Securities represented by the ADS so surrendered. ADSs may be surrendered for the purpose of withdrawing Deposited Securities by Delivery of a Receipt evidencing such ADSs (if held in certificated form) or by book-entry delivery of such ADSs to the Depositary. A-2 A Receipt surrendered for such purposes shall, if so required by the Depositary, be properly endorsed in blank or accompanied by proper instruments of transfer in blank, and if the Depositary so requires, the Holder thereof shall execute and deliver to the Depositary a written order directing the Depositary to cause the Deposited Securities being withdrawn to be Delivered to or upon the written order of a person or persons designated in such order. Thereupon, the Depositary shall direct the Custodian to Deliver (without unreasonable delay) at the designated office of the Custodian or through book entry delivery of the Shares (in either case subject to the terms and conditions of the Deposit Agreement, to the Company's constituent documents, and to the provisions of or governing the Deposited Securities and applicable laws, now or hereafter in effect) or through a book entry Delivery of the Shares, to or upon the written order of the person or persons designated in the order delivered to the Depositary as provided above, the Deposited Securities represented by such ADSs, together with any certificate or other proper documents of or relating to title for the Deposited Securities as may be legally required, as the case may be, to or for the account of such person. The Depositary may, in its discretion, refuse to accept for surrender a number of ADSs representing a number of Shares other than a whole number of Shares. In the case of surrender of a Receipt evidencing a number of ADSs representing other than a whole number of Shares, the Depositary shall cause ownership of the appropriate whole number of Shares to be Delivered in accordance with the terms hereof, and shall, at the discretion of the Depositary, either (i) issue and Deliver to the person surrendering such Receipt a new Receipt evidencing ADSs representing any remaining fractional Share, or (ii) sell or cause to be sold the fractional Shares represented by the Receipt so surrendered and remit the proceeds thereof (net of (a) applicable fees and charges of, and expenses incurred by, the Depositary and (b) taxes and governmental charges) to the person surrendering the Receipt. At the request, risk and expense of any Holder so surrendering a Receipt, and for the account of such Holder, the Depositary shall direct the Custodian to forward (to the extent permitted by law) any cash or other property (other than securities) held in respect of, and any certificate or certificates and other proper documents of or relating to title to, the Deposited Securities represented by such Receipt to the Depositary for Delivery at the Principal Office of the Depositary, and for further Delivery to such Holder. Such direction shall be given by letter or, at the request, risk and expense of such Holder, by cable, telex, electronic or facsimile transmission. Upon receipt by the Depositary, the Depositary may make delivery to such person or persons at the Principal Office of the Depositary of any dividends or distributions with respect to the Deposited Securities represented by such Receipt, or of any proceeds of sale of any dividends, distributions or rights, which may at the time be held by the Depositary. A-3 (3) Transfers, Split-Ups and Combinations of Receipts . Subject to the terms and conditions of the Deposit Agreement, the Depositary or, if a Registrar (other than the Depositary) for the Receipts shall have been appointed, the Registrar shall register transfers of Receipts on its books, upon surrender at the Principal Office of the Depositary of a Receipt by the Holder thereof in person or by duly authorized attorney, properly endorsed (in the case of a certificated Receipt) or accompanied by, or in the case of DRS/Profile Receipts receipt by the Depositary of, proper instruments of transfer (including signature guarantees in accordance with standard industry practice) and duly stamped as may be required by the laws of the State of New York and of the United States of America and of any other applicable jurisdiction. Subject to the terms and conditions of the Deposit Agreement, including payment of the applicable fees and charges of the Depositary, the Depositary shall execute a new Receipt or Receipts (and, if necessary, cause the Registrar to countersign such Receipt(s)) and deliver the same to or upon the order of the person entitled to such Receipts evidencing the same aggregate number of ADSs as those evidenced by the Receipts surrendered. Upon surrender of a Receipt or Receipts for the purpose of effecting a split-up or combination of such Receipt or Receipts upon payment of the applicable fees and charges of the Depositary, and subject to the terms and conditions of the Deposit Agreement, the Depositary shall execute and deliver a new Receipt or Receipts for any authorized number of ADSs requested, evidencing the same aggregate number of ADSs as the Receipt or Receipts surrendered. (4) Pre-Conditions to Registration, Transfer, Etc . As a condition precedent to the execution and delivery, registration, registration of transfer, split-up, subdivision combination or surrender of any Receipt, the delivery of any distribution thereon or withdrawal of any Deposited Securities, the Depositary or the Custodian may require (i) payment from the depositor of Shares or presenter of the Receipt of a sum sufficient to reimburse it for any tax or other governmental charge and any stock transfer or registration fee with respect thereto (including any such tax or charge and fee with respect to Shares being deposited or withdrawn) and payment of any applicable fees and charges of the Depositary as provided in the Deposit Agreement and in this Receipt, (ii) the production of proof satisfactory to it as to the identity and genuineness of any signature or any other matters contemplated in the Deposit Agreement and (iii) compliance with (A) any laws or governmental regulations relating to the execution and delivery of Receipts and ADSs or to the withdrawal or delivery of Deposited Securities and (B) such reasonable regulations as the Depositary may establish consistent with the Deposit Agreement and applicable law. The issuance of ADSs against deposits of Shares generally or against deposits of particular Shares may be suspended, or the issuance of ADSs against the deposit of particular Shares may be withheld, or the registration of transfer of Receipts in particular instances may be refused, or the registration of transfer of Receipts generally may be suspended, during any period when the transfer books of the Depositary are closed or if any such action is deemed necessary or advisable by the Depositary or the Company, in good faith, at any time or from time to time because of any requirement of law, any government or governmental body or commission or any securities exchange upon which the Receipts or Shares are listed, or under any provision of the Deposit Agreement or provisions of, or governing, the Deposited Securities or any meeting of shareholders of the Company or for any other reason, subject in all cases to Article (22) hereof. A-4 (5) Compliance With Information Requests . Notwithstanding any other provision of the Deposit Agreement, this Receipt, the constituent documents of the Company and applicable law, each Holder and Beneficial Owner agrees to (a) provide such information as the Company or the Depositary may request pursuant to law (including, without limitation, relevant Australian law, any applicable law of the United States, the constituent documents of the Company, any resolutions of the Company's Board of Directors adopted pursuant to such constituent documents, the requirements of any markets or exchanges upon which the Shares, ADSs or Receipts are listed or traded, or to any requirements of any electronic book-entry system by which the ADSs or Receipts may be transferred) regarding the capacity in which they own or owned Receipts, the identity of any other persons then or previously interested in such Receipts and the nature of such interest, and any other applicable matters, and (b) be bound by and subject to applicable provisions of the laws of Australia, the constituent documents of the Company and the requirements of any markets or exchanges upon which the ADSs, Receipts or Shares are listed or traded, or pursuant to any requirements of any electronic book-entry system by which the ADSs, Receipts or Shares may be transferred, to the same extent as if such Holder and Beneficial Owner held Shares directly, in each case irrespective of whether or not they are Holders or Beneficial Owners at the time such request is made and (c) without limiting the generality of the foregoing, comply with all applicable provisions of Australian law, the rules and requirements of any stock exchange on which the Shares are, or will be registered, traded or listed and the Company's constituent documents regarding any such Holder or Beneficial Owner's interest in Shares (including the aggregate of ADSs and Shares held by each such Holder or Beneficial Owner) and/or the disclosure of interests therein, whether or not the same may be enforceable against such Holder or Beneficial Owner. Each Holder and Beneficial Owner of ADSs further agrees to furnish the Company and the Depositary with any such notification made in accordance with this Article (5) and the Deposit Agreement and to comply with requests for information from the Company or the Depositary pursuant to the laws of Australia, the rules and requirements of any stock exchange on which the Shares are, or will be registered, traded or listed, and the Company's constituent documents, whether or not they are Holders and/or Beneficial Owners at the time of such request. The Depositary agrees to use its reasonable efforts to forward upon the request of the Company, and at the Company's expense, any such request from the Company to the Holders and to forward to the Company any such responses to such requests received by the Depositary. (6) Liability of Holder for Taxes, Duties and Other Charges . If any present or future tax or other governmental charge shall become payable by the Depositary or the Custodian with respect to any Shares, Deposited Securities, Receipts or ADSs, such tax, or other governmental charge shall be payable by the Holders and Beneficial Owners to the Depositary and such Holders and Beneficial Owners shall be deemed liable therefor. The Company, the Custodian and/or the Depositary may withhold or deduct from any distributions made in respect of Deposited Securities and may sell for the account of the Holder and/or Beneficial Owner any or all of the Deposited Securities and apply such distributions and sale proceeds in payment of such taxes (including applicable interest and penalties) or charges, with the Holder and the Beneficial Owner hereof remaining fully liable for any deficiency. In addition to any other remedies available to it, the Depositary and the Custodian may refuse the deposit of Shares, and the Depositary may refuse to issue ADSs, to deliver ADSs, register the transfer, split-up or combination of ADRs and (subject to Article (22) hereof) the withdrawal of Deposited Securities, until payment in full of such tax, charge, penalty or interest is received. Holders and Beneficial Owners of American Depositary Shares may be required from time to time, and in a timely manner, to file such proof of taxpayer status, residence and beneficial ownership (as applicable), to execute such certificates and to make such representations and warranties, or to provide any other information or documents, as the Depositary or the Custodian may deem necessary or proper to fulfill the Depositary's or the Custodian's obligations under applicable law. A-5 Holders understand that in converting Foreign Currency, amounts received on conversion are calculated at a rate which may exceed the number of decimal places used by the Depositary to report distribution rates (which in any case will not be less than two decimal places). Any excess amount may be retained by the Depositary as an additional cost of conversion, irrespective of any other fees and expenses payable or owing hereunder and shall not be subject to escheatment. (7) Representations and Warranties of Depositors . Each person depositing Shares under the Deposit Agreement shall be deemed thereby to represent and warrant that (i) such Shares (and the certificates therefor) are duly authorized, validly issued, fully paid, non-assessable and were legally obtained by such person, (ii) all preemptive (and similar) rights, if any, with respect to such Shares, have been validly waived or exercised, (iii) the person making such deposit is duly authorized so to do, (iv) the Shares presented for deposit are free and clear of any lien, encumbrance, security interest, charge, mortgage or adverse claim and are not, and the ADSs issuable upon such deposit will not be, Restricted Securities and (v) the Shares presented for deposit have not been stripped of any rights or entitlements. Such representations and warranties shall survive the deposit and withdrawal of Shares and the issuance, cancellation and transfer of ADSs. If any such representations or warranties are false in any way, the Company and Depositary shall be authorized, at the cost and expense of the person depositing Shares, to take any and all actions necessary to correct the consequences thereof. (8) Filing Proofs, Certificates and Other Information . Any person presenting Shares for deposit, any Holder and any Beneficial Owner may be required, and every Holder and Beneficial Owner agrees, from time to time to provide to the Depositary or the Custodian such proof of citizenship or residence, taxpayer status, payment of all applicable taxes or other governmental charges, exchange control approval, legal or beneficial ownership of ADSs and Deposited Securities, compliance with applicable laws and the terms of the Deposit Agreement and the provisions of, or governing, the Deposited Securities or other information, to execute such certifications and to make such representations and warranties, and to provide such other information and documentation, in all cases as the Depositary deems necessary or proper or as the Company may reasonably require by written request to the Depositary consistent with its obligations under the Deposit Agreement. The Depositary and the Registrar, as applicable, may withhold the execution or delivery or registration of transfer of any Receipt or the distribution or sale of any dividend or other distribution of rights or of the proceeds thereof or, to the extent not limited by Article (22) hereof or the terms of the Deposit Agreement, the delivery of any Deposited Securities until such proof or other information is filed, or such certifications are executed, or such representations and warranties made, or such other documentation or information is provided, in each case to the Depositary's and the Company's satisfaction. The Depositary shall from time to time on the written request advise the Company of the availability of any such proofs, certificates or other information and shall, at the Company's sole expense, provide or otherwise make available copies thereof to the Company upon written request thereof by the Company, unless such disclosure is prohibited by law. Each Holder and Beneficial Owner agrees to provide any information requested by the Company or the Depositary pursuant to this paragraph. Nothing herein shall obligate the Depositary to (i) obtain any information for the Company if not provided by the Holders or Beneficial Owners or (ii) verify or vouch for the accuracy of the information so provided by the Holders or Beneficial Owners. A-6 (9) Charges of Depositary . The Depositary shall charge the following fees for the services performed under the terms of the Deposit Agreement; provided, however, that no fees shall be payable upon distribution of cash dividends so long as the charging of such fee is prohibited by the exchange, if any, upon which the ADSs are listed: (i) to any person to whom ADSs are issued or to any person to whom a distribution is made in respect of ADS distributions pursuant to stock dividends or other free distributions of stock, bonus distributions, stock splits or other distributions (except where converted to cash), a fee not in excess of U.S. $ 5.00 per 100 ADSs (or fraction thereof) so issued under the terms of the Deposit Agreement to be determined by the Depositary; (ii) to any person surrendering ADSs for withdrawal of Deposited Securities or whose ADSs are cancelled or reduced for any other reason including, inter alia, cash distributions made pursuant to a cancellation or withdrawal, a fee of up to U.S. $5.00 per 100 ADSs (or portion thereof) reduced, cancelled or surrendered (as the case may be); (iii) to any holder of ADSs (including, without limitation, Holders), a fee not in excess of U.S. $ 5.00 per 100 ADSs (or portion thereof) held for the distribution of cash dividends; (iv) to any holder of ADSs (including, without limitation, Holders), a fee not in excess of U.S. $ 5.00 per 100 ADSs (or portion thereof) held for the distribution of cash entitlements (other than cash dividends) and/or cash proceeds, including proceeds from the sale of rights, securities and other entitlements; (v) to any holder of ADSs (including, without limitation, Holders), a fee not in excess of U.S. $ 5.00 per 100 ADSs (or portion thereof) issued upon the exercise of rights; and (vi) for the operation and maintenance costs in administering the ADSs an annual fee not in excess of U.S. $ 5.00 per 100 ADSs (or portion thereof), such fee to be assessed against Holders of record as of the date or dates set by the Depositary as it sees fit and collected at the sole discretion of the Depositary by billing such Holders for such fee or by deducting such fee from one or more cash dividends or other cash distributions. In addition, Holders, Beneficial Owners, persons depositing Shares for deposit and persons surrendering ADSs for cancellation and withdrawal of Deposited Securities will be required to pay the following charges: (i) taxes (including applicable interest and penalties) and other governmental charges; (ii) such registration fees as may from time to time be in effect for the registration of Shares or other Deposited Securities with the Foreign Registrar and applicable to transfers of Shares or other Deposited Securities to or from the name of the Custodian, the Depositary or any nominees upon the making of deposits and withdrawals, respectively; A-7 (iii) such cable, telex , facsimile and electronic transmission and delivery expenses as are expressly provided in the Deposit Agreement to be at the expense of the person depositing or withdrawing Shares or Holders and Beneficial Owners of ADSs; (iv) the expenses, fees and other charges incurred by the Depositary in the conversion of Foreign Currency, including, without limitation, the expenses, fees and other charges imposed by any Affiliate (which may, in its sole discretion, act in a principal capacity in such transaction) that may be utilized in connection therewith; (v) such fees and expenses as are incurred by the Depositary in connection with compliance with exchange control regulations and other regulatory requirements applicable to Shares, Deposited Securities, ADSs and ADRs; (vi) the fees and expenses incurred by the Depositary in connection with the delivery of Deposited Securities, including any fees of a central depository for securities in the local market, where applicable; and (vii) any fees, charges, costs or expenses that may be incurred from time to time by the Depositary and/or any of the Depositary's agents (including, without limitation, Agents), including the Custodian, and/or agents of the Depositary's agents (including, without limitation, Agents) in connection with the servicing of Shares, Deposited Securities and/or American Depositary Shares, the sale of securities (including, without limitation, Deposited Securities), the delivery of Deposited Securities or otherwise in connection with the Depositary's or its Custodian's compliance with applicable law, rule or regulation (such fees, charges, costs or expenses to be assessed against Holders of record as at the date or dates set by the Depositary as it sees fit and collected at the sole discretion of the Depositary by billing such Holders for such fee or by deducting such fee from one or more cash dividends or other cash distributions). Any other charges and expenses of the Depositary under the Deposit Agreement will be paid by the Company upon agreement between the Depositary and the Company. The Depositary reserves the right to utilize and retain a division or Affiliate(s) of the Depositary to direct, manage and/or execute any public and/or private sale of securities under the Deposit Agreement and to engage in the conversion of Foreign Currency thereunder. It is anticipated that such division and/or Affiliate(s) will charge the Depositary a fee and/or commission in connection with each such transaction, and seek reimbursement of its costs and expenses related thereto. Such fees/commissions, costs and expenses, shall be deducted from amounts distributed and shall not be deemed to be fees of the Depositary under Article (9) of this Receipt or otherwise. All fees and charges may, at any time and from time to time, be changed by agreement between the Depositary and Company but, in the case of fees and charges payable by Holders or Beneficial Owners, only in the manner contemplated by Article (20) of this Receipt. The Depositary may make payments to the Company and/or may share revenue with the Company derived from fees collected from Holders and Beneficial Owners, upon such terms and conditions as the Company and the Depositary may agree from time to time. A-8 (10) Title to Receipts . It is a condition of this Receipt and every successive Holder and Beneficial Owner of this Receipt by accepting or holding the same consents and agrees, that title to this Receipt (and to each ADS evidenced hereby) is transferable by delivery of the Receipt, provided it has been properly endorsed or accompanied by proper instruments of transfer, such Receipt being a certificated security under the laws of the State of New York. Notwithstanding any notice to the contrary, the Depositary may deem and treat the Holder of this Receipt (that is, the person in whose name this Receipt is registered on the books of the Depositary) as the absolute owner hereof for the purpose of determining the person entitled to distributions of dividends or other distributions or to any notice provided for in the Deposit Agreement and for all other purposes. Neither the Depositary nor the Company shall have any obligation or be subject to any liability under the Deposit Agreement or this Receipt to any holder of this Receipt unless such holder is the Holder of this Receipt registered on the books of the Depositary. (11) Validity of Receipt . This Receipt shall not be entitled to any benefits under the Deposit Agreement or be valid or obligatory for any purpose, unless this Receipt has been (i) dated, (ii) signed by the manual or facsimile signature of a duly authorized signatory of the Depositary. Receipts bearing the manual or facsimile signature of a duly-authorized signatory of the Depositary who was at any time a proper signatory of the Depositary shall bind the Depositary, notwithstanding the fact that such signatory has ceased to hold such office prior to the execution and delivery of such Receipt by the Depositary or did not hold such office on the date of issuance of such Receipts. (12) Available Information; Reports; Inspection of Transfer Books . As of the date of the Deposit Agreement, the Company publishes information in English required to maintain the exemption from registration under Rule 12g3-2(b) under the Exchange Act on its Internet Web site (www.cleanaway.com.au) or through an electronic information delivery system generally available to the public in its primary trading market. Should the Company become subject to the periodic reporting or other informational requirements under the Exchange Act, it will be required in accordance therewith to file reports and other information with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The Depositary does not assume any duty to determine if the Company is complying with the current requirements of Rule 12g3-2(b) under the Exchange Act or to take any action if the Company is not complying with those requirements. The Depositary shall make available during normal business hours on any Business Day for inspection by Holders at its Principal Office any reports and communications, including any proxy soliciting materials, received from the Company which are both (a) received by the Depositary, the Custodian, or the nominee of either of them as the holder of the Deposited Securities and (b) made generally available to the holders of such Deposited Securities by the Company. The Depositary or the Registrar, as applicable, shall keep books for the registration of Receipts and transfers of Receipts which at all reasonable times shall be open for inspection by the Company and by the Holders of such Receipts, provided that such inspection shall not be, to the Depositary's or the Registrar's knowledge, for the purpose of communicating with Holders of such Receipts in the interest of a business or object other than the business of the Company or other than a matter related to the Deposit Agreement or the Receipts. A-9 The Depositary or the Registrar, as applicable, may close the transfer books with respect to the Receipts, at any time or from time to time, when deemed necessary or advisable by it in connection with the performance of its duties hereunder, subject, in all cases, to Article (22) hereof. Dated: DEUTSCHE BANK TRUST COMPANY AMERICAS, as Depositary By: _____________________________ Vice President The address of the Principal Office of the Depositary is 60 Wall Street, New York, New York 10005, U.S.A. A-10 [FORM OF REVERSE OF RECEIPT] SUMMARY OF CERTAIN ADDITIONAL PROVISIONS OF THE DEPOSIT AGREEMENT (13) Dividends and Distributions in Cash, Shares, etc . Whenever the Depositary receives confirmation from the Custodian of receipt of any cash dividend or other cash distribution on any Deposited Securities, or receives proceeds from the sale of any Shares, rights securities or other entitlements under the Deposit Agreement, the Depositary will, if at the time of receipt thereof any amounts received in a Foreign Currency can, in the judgment of the Depositary (upon the terms of the Deposit Agreement), be converted on a practicable basis, into Dollars transferable to the United States, promptly convert or cause to be converted such dividend, distribution or proceeds into Dollars and will distribute promptly the amount thus received (net of applicable fees and charges of, and expenses incurred by, the Depositary and taxes and governmental charges) to the Holders of record as of the ADS Record Date in proportion to the number of ADSs held by such Holders respectively as of the ADS Record Date. The Depositary shall distribute only such amount, however, as can be distributed without attributing to any Holder a fraction of one cent. Any such fractional amounts shall be rounded down to the nearest whole cent and so distributed to Holders entitled thereto. If the Company, the Custodian or the Depositary is required to withhold and does withhold from any cash dividend or other cash distribution in respect of any Deposited Securities an amount on account of taxes, duties or other governmental charges, the amount distributed to Holders on the ADSs representing such Deposited Securities shall be reduced accordingly. Such withheld amounts shall be forwarded by the Company, the Custodian or the Depositary to the relevant governmental authority. Evidence of payment thereof by the Company shall be forwarded by the Company to the Depositary upon request. The Depositary will forward to the Company or its agent such information from its records as the Company may reasonably request to enable the Company or its agent to file necessary reports with governmental agencies, such reports necessary to obtain benefits under the applicable tax treaties for the Holders and Beneficial Owners of Receipts. Any Foreign Currency received by the Depositary shall be converted upon the terms and conditions set forth in the Deposit Agreement. If any distribution upon any Deposited Securities consists of a dividend in, or free distribution of, Shares, the Company shall cause such Shares to be deposited with the Custodian and registered, as the case may be, in the name of the Depositary, the Custodian or their nominees. Upon receipt of confirmation of such deposit from the Custodian, the Depositary shall, subject to and in accordance with the Deposit Agreement, establish the ADS Record Date and either (i) distribute to the Holders as of the ADS Record Date in proportion to the number of ADSs held as of the ADS Record Date, additional ADSs, which represent in aggregate the number of Shares received as such dividend, or free distribution, subject to the terms of the Deposit Agreement (including, without limitation, the applicable fees and charges of, and expenses incurred by, the Depositary, and taxes and/or governmental charges), or (ii) if additional ADSs are not so distributed, each ADS issued and outstanding after the ADS Record Date shall, to the extent permissible by law, thenceforth also represent rights and interests in the additional Shares distributed upon the Deposited Securities represented thereby (net of the applicable fees and charges of, and the expenses incurred by, the Depositary, and taxes and governmental charges). In lieu of delivering fractional ADSs, the Depositary shall sell the number of Shares represented by the aggregate of such fractions and distribute the proceeds upon the terms set forth in the Deposit Agreement. A-11 The Depositary may withhold any such distribution of Receipts if it has not received satisfactory assurances from the Company (including an opinion of counsel to the Company furnished at the expense of the Company) that such distribution does not require registration under the Securities Act or is exempt from registration under the provisions of the Securities Act. To the extent such distribution may be withheld, the Depositary may dispose of all or a portion of such distribution in such amounts and in such manner, including by public or private sale, as the Depositary deems necessary and practicable, and the Depositary shall distribute the net proceeds of any such sale (after deduction of taxes and/or governmental charges and fees and charges of, and expenses incurred by, the Depositary) to Holders entitled thereto upon the terms of the Deposit Agreement. Whenever the Company intends to distribute a dividend payable at the election of the holders of Shares in cash or in additional Shares, the Company shall give notice thereof to the Depositary at least 30 days prior to the proposed distribution stating whether or not it wishes such elective distribution to be made available to Holders. Upon timely receipt of a notice indicating that the Company wishes such elective distribution to be made available to Holders upon the terms described in the Deposit Agreement, the Depositary shall consult with the Company to determine, and the Company shall assist the Depositary in its determination, whether it is lawful and reasonably practicable to make such elective distribution available to the Holders. The Depositary shall make such elective distribution available to Holders only if (i) the Company shall have timely requested that the elective distribution is available to Holders of ADRs, (ii) the Depositary shall have determined that such distribution is reasonably practicable and (iii) the Depositary shall have received satisfactory documentation within the terms of Section 5.7 of the Deposit Agreement including, without limitation, any legal opinions of counsel in any applicable jurisdiction that the Depositary in its reasonable discretion may request, at the expense of the Company. If the above conditions are not satisfied, the Depositary shall, to the extent permitted by law, distribute to the Holders, on the basis of the same determination as is made in the local market in respect of the Shares for which no election is made, either cash or additional ADSs representing such additional Shares, in each case upon the terms described in the Deposit Agreement. If the above conditions are satisfied, the Depositary shall, subject to the terms and conditions of the Deposit Agreement, establish an ADS Record Date according to Article (14) hereof and establish procedures to enable the Holder hereof to elect the receipt of the proposed dividend in cash or in additional ADSs. The Company shall assist the Depositary in establishing such procedures to the extent necessary. Subject to the Deposit Agreement, if a Holder elects to receive the proposed dividend in cash, the dividend shall be distributed as in the case of a distribution in cash. If the Holder hereof elects to receive the proposed dividend in additional ADSs, the dividend shall be distributed as in the case of a distribution in Shares upon the terms described in the Deposit Agreement. Nothing herein shall obligate the Depositary to make available to the Holder hereof a method to receive the elective distribution in Shares (rather than ADSs). There can be no assurance that the Holder hereof will be given the opportunity to receive elective distributions on the same terms and conditions as the holders of Shares. A-12 Whenever the Company intends to distribute to the holders of the Deposited Securities rights to subscribe for additional Shares, the Company shall give notice thereof to the Depositary at least 60 days prior to the proposed distribution stating whether or not it wishes such rights to be made available to Holders. Upon receipt by the Depositary of a notice indicating that the Company wishes such rights to be made available to Holders, the Depositary shall consult with the Company to determine, and the Company shall determine, whether it is lawful and reasonably practicable to make such rights available to the Holders. The Depositary shall make such rights available to any Holders only if the Company shall have timely requested that such rights be made available to Holders, the Depositary shall have received the documentation required by the Deposit Agreement, and the Depositary shall have determined that such distribution of rights is lawful and reasonably practicable. If any of such conditions are not satisfied, the Depositary shall sell the rights as described below or, if timing or market conditions may not permit, do nothing thereby allowing such rights to lapse. In the event all conditions set forth above are satisfied, the Depositary shall establish an ADS Record Date (upon the terms described in the Deposit Agreement) and establish procedures (x) to distribute such rights (by means of warrants or otherwise) and (y) to enable the Holders to exercise the rights (upon payment of the applicable fees and charges of, and expenses incurred by, the Depositary and taxes and/or other governmental charges). Nothing herein or in the Deposit Agreement shall obligate the Depositary to make available to the Holders a method to exercise such rights to subscribe for Shares (rather than ADSs). If (i) the Company does not timely request the Depositary to make the rights available to Holders or if the Company requests that the rights not be made available to Holders, (ii) the Depositary fails to receive the documentation required by the Deposit Agreement or determines it is not lawful or reasonably practicable to make the rights available to Holders, or (iii) any rights made available are not exercised and appear to be about to lapse, the Depositary shall determine whether it is lawful and reasonably practicable to sell such rights, and if it so determines that it is lawful and reasonably practicable, endeavor to sell such rights in a riskless principal capacity or otherwise, at such place and upon such terms (including public and/or private sale) as it may deem proper. The Depositary shall, upon such sale, convert and distribute proceeds of such sale (net of applicable fees and charges of, and expenses incurred by, the Depositary and taxes and governmental charges) upon the terms hereof and in the Deposit Agreement. If the Depositary is unable to make any rights available to Holders or to arrange for the sale of the rights upon the terms described above, the Depositary shall allow such rights to lapse. The Depositary shall not be responsible for (i) any failure to determine that it may be lawful or practicable to make such rights available to Holders in general or any Holders in particular, (ii) any foreign exchange exposure or loss incurred in connection with such sale, or exercise, or (iii) the content of any materials forwarded to the Holders on behalf of the Company in connection with the rights distribution. Notwithstanding anything herein to the contrary, if registration (under the Securities Act and/or any other applicable law) of the rights or the securities to which any rights relate may be required in order for the Company to offer such rights or such securities to Holders and to sell the securities represented by such rights, the Depositary will not distribute such rights to the Holders (i) unless and until a registration statement under the Securities Act (and/or such other applicable law) covering such offering is in effect or (ii) unless the Company furnishes to the Depositary at the Companys own expense opinion(s) of counsel for the Company in the United States and counsel to the Company in any other applicable country in which rights would be distributed, in each case satisfactory to the Depositary, to the effect that the offering and sale of such securities to Holders and Beneficial Owners are exempt from, or do not require registration under, the provisions of the Securities Act or any other applicable laws. In the event that the Company, the Depositary or the Custodian shall be required to withhold and does withhold from any distribution of property (including rights) an amount on account of taxes or other governmental charges, the amount distributed to the Holders shall be reduced accordingly. In the event that the Depositary determines that any distribution in property (including Shares and rights to subscribe therefor) is subject to any tax or other governmental charges which the Depositary is obligated to withhold, the Depositary may dispose of all or a portion of such property (including Shares and rights to subscribe therefor) in such amounts and in such manner, including by public or private sale, as the Depositary deems necessary and practicable to pay any such taxes and charges. A-13 There can be no assurance that Holders generally, or any Holder in particular, will be given the opportunity to exercise rights on the same terms and conditions as the holders of Shares or to exercise such rights. Nothing herein shall obligate the Company to file any registration statement in respect of any rights or Shares or other securities to be acquired upon the exercise of such rights. Whenever the Company intends to distribute to the holders of Deposited Securities property other than cash, Shares or rights to purchase additional Shares, the Company shall give notice thereof to the Depositary at least 30 days prior to the proposed distribution and shall indicate whether or not it wishes such distribution to be made to Holders. Upon receipt of a notice indicating that the Company wishes such distribution be made to Holders, the Depositary shall determine whether such distribution to Holders is lawful and practicable. The Depositary shall not make such distribution unless (i) the Company shall have timely requested the Depositary to make such distribution to Holders, (ii) the Depositary shall have received the documentation required by the Deposit Agreement, and (iii) the Depositary shall have determined that such distribution is lawful and reasonably practicable. Upon satisfaction of such conditions, the Depositary shall distribute the property so received to the Holders of record as of the ADS Record Date, in proportion to the number of ADSs held by such Holders respectively and in such manner as the Depositary may deem practicable for accomplishing such distribution (i) upon receipt of payment or net of the applicable fees and charges of, and expenses incurred by, the Depositary, and (ii) net of any taxes and governmental charges withheld. The Depositary may dispose of all or a portion of the property so distributed and deposited, in such amounts and in such manner (including public or private sale) as the Depositary may deem practicable or necessary to satisfy any taxes (including applicable interest and penalties) or other governmental charges applicable to the distribution. If (i) the Company does not request the Depositary to make such distribution to Holders or requests not to make such distribution to Holders, (ii) the Depositary does not receive satisfactory documentation within the terms of Section 5.7 of the Deposit Agreement, or (iii) the Depositary determines that all or a portion of such distribution is not reasonably practicable or feasible, the Depositary shall endeavor to sell or cause such property to be sold in a public or private sale, at such place or places and upon such terms as it may deem proper and shall distribute the proceeds of such sale received by the Depositary (net of (a) applicable fees and charges of, and expenses incurred by, the Depositary and (b) taxes and governmental charges) to the Holders upon the terms hereof and of the Deposit Agreement. If the Depositary is unable to sell such property, the Depositary may dispose of such property in any way it deems reasonably practicable under the circumstances for nominal or no consideration and Holders and Beneficial Owners shall have no rights thereto or arising therefrom. A-14 (14) Fixing of Record Date . Whenever necessary in connection with any distribution (whether in cash, Shares, rights or other distribution), or whenever for any reason the Depositary causes a change in the number of Shares that are represented by each ADS, or whenever the Depositary shall receive notice of any meeting of or solicitation of holders of Shares or other Deposited Securities, or whenever the Depositary shall find it necessary or convenient, the Depositary shall fix a record date ("ADS Record Date") as close as practicable to the record date fixed by the Company with respect to the Shares (if applicable) for the determination of the Holders who shall be entitled to receive such distribution, to give instructions for the exercise of voting rights at any such meeting, or to give or withhold such consent, or to receive such notice or solicitation or to otherwise take action, or to exercise the rights of Holders with respect to such changed number of Shares represented by each ADS or for any other reason. Subject to applicable law and the terms and conditions of this Receipt and the Deposit Agreement, only the Holders of record at the close of business in New York on such ADS Record Date shall be entitled to receive such distributions, to give such voting instructions, to receive such notice or solicitation, or otherwise take action. (15) Voting of Deposited Securities . Subject to the next sentence, as soon as practicable after receipt of notice of any meeting at which the holders of Shares are entitled to vote, or of solicitation of consents or proxies from holders of Shares or other Deposited Securities, the Depositary shall fix the ADS Record Date in respect of such meeting or solicitation of such consent or proxy. The Depositary shall, if requested by the Company in writing in a timely manner (the Depositary having no obligation to take any further action if the request shall not have been received by the Depositary at least 30 days prior to the date of such vote or meeting), at the Company's expense and provided no U.S. legal prohibitions exist, mail by ordinary, regular mail delivery (or by electronic mail or as otherwise agreed by the Company and the Depositary in writing from time to time), or otherwise distribute to Holders as of the ADS Record Date: (a) such notice of meeting or solicitation of consent or proxy; (b) a statement that the Holders at the close of business on the ADS Record Date will be entitled, subject to any applicable law, the provisions of the Deposit Agreement, the Company's constituent documents and the provisions of or governing Deposited Securities (which provisions, if any, shall be summarized in pertinent part by the Company), to instruct the Depositary as to the exercise of the voting rights, if any, pertaining to the Shares or other Deposited Securities represented by such Holder's ADSs; and (c) a brief statement as to the manner in which such instructions may be given. Voting instructions may be given only in respect of a number of American Depositary Shares representing an integral number of Shares or other Deposited Securities. Upon the timely receipt of instructions of a Holder on the ADS Record Date of voting instructions in the manner specified by the Depositary, the Depositary shall endeavor, insofar as practicable and permitted under applicable law, the provisions of the Deposit Agreement, the Company's constituent documents and the provisions of or governing the Deposited Securities, to vote or cause the Custodian to vote the Shares and/or other Deposited Securities (in person or by proxy) represented by ADSs evidenced by such Receipt in accordance with such voting instructions. A-15 If the Company shall have timely requested that the Depositary distribute materials to the Holders in connection with a meeting at which the holders of Deposited Securities are entitled to vote, to the extent voting instruction cards are not so received by the Depositary from any Holder, the Holder shall be deemed to have instructed the Depositary to give a discretionary proxy to a person designated by the Company and the Depositary shall endeavor insofar as practicable and permitted under the provisions of or governing Deposited Securities to give a discretionary proxy to a person designated by the Company to vote the Deposited Securities represented by the American Depositary Shares evidenced by such Holder's Receipts as to which such instructions are so given, provided, however, that no such instruction shall be deemed given and no such discretionary proxy shall be given (i) with respect to any matter as to which the Company informs the Depositary (and the Company agrees to provide such information as promptly as practicable in writing, if applicable) that (x) the Company does not wish to give such proxy, (y) the Company is aware or should reasonably be aware that substantial opposition exists from Holders against the outcome for which the person designated by the Company would otherwise vote or (z) the outcome for which the person designated by the Company would otherwise vote would materially and adversely affect the rights of holders of Shares, provided, further, that the Company will have no liability to any Holder or Beneficial Owner resulting from such notification and (ii) unless, with respect to such meeting, the Depositary has been provided with an opinion of counsel to the Company, in form and substance satisfactory to the Depositary, to the effect that (a) the granting of such discretionary proxy does not subject the Depositary to any reporting obligations in Australia , (b) the granting of such proxy will not result in a violation of applicable law, rule, regulation or permit, (c) the voting arrangement and deemed instruction as contemplated herein will be given effect under Australian law, and (d) the granting of such discretionary proxy will not result in the Shares represented by the American Depositary Shares being treated as assets of the Depositary under Australian law. Neither the Depositary nor the Custodian shall, under any circumstances exercise any discretion as to voting, and neither the Depositary nor the Custodian shall vote, attempt to exercise the right to vote, or in any way make use of for purposes of establishing a quorum or otherwise the Shares or other Deposited Securities represented by ADSs except pursuant to and in accordance with such instructions from Holders. There can be no assurance that Holders or Beneficial Owners generally or any Holder or Beneficial Owner in particular will receive the notice described above with sufficient time to enable the Holder to return voting instructions to the Depositary in a timely manner. Notwithstanding the above, save for applicable provisions of Australian law and in accordance with Section 5.3 of the Deposit Agreement, the Depositary shall not be liable for any failure to carry out any instructions to vote any of the Deposited Securities, or for the manner in which such vote is cast or the effect of any such vote. A-16 (16) Changes Affecting Deposited Securities . Upon any change in par value, split-up, subdivision cancellation, consolidation or any other reclassification of Deposited Securities, or upon any recapitalization, reorganization, merger, amalgamation or consolidation or sale of assets affecting the Company or to which it otherwise is a party, any securities which shall be received by the Depositary or a Custodian in exchange for, or in conversion of or replacement or otherwise in respect of, such Deposited Securities shall, to the extent permitted by law, be treated as new Deposited Securities under the Deposit Agreement, and the Receipts shall, subject to the provisions of the Deposit Agreement and applicable law, evidence ADSs representing the right to receive such additional securities. Alternatively, the Depositary may, with the Company's approval, and shall, if the Company shall so request, subject to the terms of the Deposit Agreement and receipt of an opinion of counsel to the Company, furnished at the expense of the Company, satisfactory to the Depositary that such distributions are not in violation of any applicable laws or regulations, execute and deliver additional Receipts as in the case of a stock dividend on the Shares, or call for the surrender of outstanding Receipts to be exchanged for new Receipts, in either case, as well as in the event of newly deposited Shares, with necessary modifications to this form of Receipt specifically describing such new Deposited Securities and/or corporate change. Notwithstanding the foregoing, in the event that any security so received may not be lawfully distributed to some or all Holders, the Depositary may, with the Company's approval, and shall if the Company requests, subject to receipt of an opinion of counsel to the Company, furnished at the expense of the Company, satisfactory to the Depositary that such distributions are not in violation of any applicable laws or regulations, sell such securities at public or private sale, at such place or places and upon such terms as it may deem proper and may allocate the net proceeds of such sales (net of fees and charges of, and expenses incurred by, the Depositary and taxes and governmental charges) for the account of the Holders otherwise entitled to such securities upon an averaged or other practicable basis without regard to any distinctions among such Holders and distribute the net proceeds so allocated to the extent practicable as in the case of a distribution received in cash pursuant to the Deposit Agreement. The Depositary shall not be responsible for (i) any failure to determine that it may be lawful or feasible to make such securities available to Holders in general or any Holder in particular, (ii) any foreign exchange exposure or loss incurred in connection with such sale, or (iii) any liability to the purchaser of such securities. (17) Exoneration . Neither the Depositary, the Custodian or the Company shall be obligated to do or perform any act which is inconsistent with the provisions of the Deposit Agreement or shall incur any liability to Holders, Beneficial Owners or any third parties (i) if the Depositary, the Custodian or the Company or their respective controlling persons or agents (including, without limitation, Agents) shall be prevented or forbidden from, or subjected to any civil or criminal penalty or restraint on account of, or delayed in, doing or performing any act or thing required by the terms of the Deposit Agreement and this Receipt, by reason of any provision of any present or future law or regulation of the United States or any state thereof , Australia or any other country, or of any other governmental authority or regulatory authority or stock exchange, or on account of the possible criminal or civil penalties or restraints or by reason of any provision, present or future of the Company's constituent documents or any provision of or governing any Deposited Securities, or by reason of any act of God or war or other circumstances beyond its control, (including, without limitation, nationalization, expropriation, currency restrictions, work stoppage, strikes, civil unrest, revolutions, rebellions, explosions and computer failure), (ii) by reason of any exercise of, or failure to exercise, any discretion provided for in the Deposit Agreement or in the Company's constituent documents or provisions of or governing Deposited Securities, (iii) for any action or inaction of the Depositary, the Custodian or the Company or their respective controlling persons or agents (including, without limitation, Agents) in reliance upon the advice of or information from legal counsel, accountants, any person presenting Shares for deposit, any Holder, any Beneficial Owner or authorized representative thereof, or any other person believed by it in good faith to be competent to give such advice or information, including, without limitation, in determining if a proposed distribution, action or transaction under Article IV of the Deposit Agreement is lawful, (iv) for any inability by a Holder or Beneficial Owner to benefit from any distribution, offering, right or other benefit which is made available to holders of Deposited Securities but is not, under the terms of the Deposit Agreement, made available to Holders of ADS or (v) for any special, consequential, indirect or punitive damages for any breach of the terms of the Deposit Agreement or otherwise. Every Holder and Beneficial Owner agrees to, and shall, indemnify the Depositary, the Company, the Custodian and each and every of their respective officers, directors, employees, agents (including, without limitation, Agents) and Affiliates against, and hold each of them harmless from, any claims with respect to taxes, additions to tax (including applicable interest and penalties thereon) arising out of any refund of taxes, reduced rate of withholding at source or other tax benefit obtained for or by such Holder and/or Beneficial Owner. The Depositary, its controlling persons, its agents (including, without limitation, Agents), any Custodian and the Company, its controlling persons and its agents may rely and shall be protected in acting upon any written notice, request, opinion or other document believed by it to be genuine and to have been signed or presented by the proper party or parties. Neither the Depositary nor the Custodian shall be liable for the failure by any Holder or Beneficial Owner to obtain the benefits of credits on the basis of non-U.S. tax paid against such Holder's or Beneficial Owner's income tax liability. No disclaimer of liability under the Securities Act is intended by any provision of the Deposit Agreement. A-17 (18) Standard of Care . The Company and the Depositary and their respective directors, officers, Affiliates, employees and agents (including, without limitation, Agents) assume no obligation and shall not be subject to any liability under the Deposit Agreement or the Receipts to Holders or Beneficial Owners or other persons (except for the Company's and the Depositary's obligations specifically set forth in Section 5.8 of the Deposit Agreement), provided, that the Company and the Depositary and their respective agents (including, without limitation, Agents) agree to perform their respective obligations specifically set forth in the Deposit Agreement without gross negligence or willful misconduct. Without limitation of the foregoing, neither the Depositary, nor the Company, nor any of their respective controlling persons, directors, officers, Affiliates, employees or agents (including, without limitation, Agents), shall be under any obligation to appear in, prosecute or defend any action, suit or other proceeding in respect of any Deposited Securities or in respect of this Receipt, which in its opinion may involve it in expense or liability, unless indemnity satisfactory to it against all expenses (including fees and disbursements of counsel) and liabilities be furnished as often as may be required (and no Custodian shall be under any obligation whatsoever with respect to such proceedings, the responsibility of the Custodian being solely to the Depositary). The Depositary and its agents (including, without limitation, Agents) shall not be liable for any failure to carry out any instructions to vote any of the Deposited Securities, or for the manner in which any vote is cast (provided that any such action or omission is in good faith) or the effect of any vote. The Depositary shall not incur any liability for any failure to determine that any distribution or action may be lawful or reasonably practicable, for the content of any information submitted to it by the Company for distribution to the Holders or for any inaccuracy of any translation thereof, for any investment risk associated with acquiring an interest in the Deposited Securities, for the validity or worth of the Deposited Securities or for any tax consequences that may result from the ownership of ADSs, Shares or Deposited Securities, for the credit-worthiness of any third party, for allowing any rights to lapse upon the terms of the Deposit Agreement or for the failure or timeliness of any notice from the Company. In connection with the sale of securities, including, without limitation, Deposited Securities, the Depositary shall not have any liability for the price received in connection with any such sale, the timing thereof or any delay in action or omission to act nor shall it be responsible for any error or delay in action, omission to act, default or negligence on the part of the party so retained in connection with any such sale or proposed sale. The Depositary shall not incur any liability for any action or non action by it in reliance upon the opinion, advice of or information from legal counsel, accountants, any person presenting Shares for deposit, any Holder or any other person believed by it in good faith to be competent to give such advice or information. The Depositary and its agents (including, without limitation, Agents) shall not be liable for any acts or omissions made by a successor depositary whether in connection with a previous act or omission of the Depositary or in connection with any matter arising wholly after the removal or resignation of the Depositary, provided that in connection with any previous act or omission by the Depositary the issue out of which such potential liability arises the Depositary performed its obligations without gross negligence or willful misconduct while it acted as Depositary. The Depositary is under no obligation to provide the Holders and Beneficial Owners with any information about the tax status of the Company. The Depositary shall not incur any liability for any tax consequences that may be incurred by Holders and Beneficial Owners on account of their ownership of the American Depositary Shares, including without limitation, tax consequences resulting from the Company (or any of its subsidiaries) being treated as a "Passive Foreign Investment Company" (as defined in the U.S. Internal Revenue Code and the regulations issued thereunder) or otherwise. In no event shall the Depositary or any of its directors, officers, employees, agents (including, without limitation, its Agents) and/or Affiliates, or any of them, be liable for any indirect, special, punitive or consequential damages to the Company, Holders, Beneficial Owners or any other person. A-18 (19) Resignation and Removal of the Depositary; Appointment of Successor Depositary . The Depositary may at any time resign as Depositary under the Deposit Agreement by written notice of resignation delivered to the Company, such resignation to be effective on the earlier of (i) the 90 th day after delivery thereof to the Company (whereupon the Depositary shall, in the event no successor depositary has been appointed by the Company, be entitled to terminate the Deposit Agreement as contemplated under the provisions of the Deposit Agreement), or (ii) upon the appointment by the Company of a successor depositary and its acceptance of such appointment as provided in the Deposit Agreement, save that, any amounts, fees, costs or expenses owed to the Depositary under the Deposit Agreement or in accordance with any other agreements otherwise agreed in writing between the Company and the Depositary from time to time shall be paid to the Depositary prior to such resignation. The Company shall use reasonable efforts to appoint such successor depositary, and give notice to the Depositary of such appointment, not more than 90 days after delivery by the Depositary of written notice of resignation as provided in the Deposit Agreement. The Depositary may at any time be removed by the Company by written notice of such removal which removal shall be effective on the later of (i) the 90 th day after delivery thereof to the Depositary (whereupon the Depositary shall be entitled to terminate the Deposit Agreement as contemplated under the provisions of the Deposit Agreement), or (ii) upon the appointment by the Company of a successor depositary and its acceptance of such appointment as provided in the Deposit Agreement save that, any amounts, fees, costs or expenses owed to the Depositary under the Deposit Agreement or in accordance with any other agreements otherwise agreed in writing between the Company and the Depositary from time to time shall be paid to the Depositary prior to such removal. In case at any time the Depositary acting hereunder shall resign or be removed, the Company shall use its best efforts to appoint a successor depositary which shall be a bank or trust company having an office in the Borough of Manhattan, the City of New York. The Company shall give notice to the Depositary of the appointment of a successor depositary not more than 90 days after delivery by the Depositary of written notice of resignation or by the Company of removal, each as provided in this Article (19) and the Deposit Agreement. In the event that a successor depositary is not appointed or notice of the appointment of a successor depositary is not provided by the Company in accordance with the preceding sentence, the Depositary shall be entitled to terminate the Deposit Agreement as contemplated under the provisions of the Deposit Agreement. Every successor depositary shall execute and deliver to its predecessor and to the Company an instrument in writing accepting its appointment hereunder, and thereupon such successor depositary, without any further act or deed (except as required by applicable law), shall become fully vested with all the rights, powers, duties and obligations of its predecessor. The predecessor depositary, upon payment of all sums due it and on the written request of the Company, shall (i) execute and deliver an instrument transferring to such successor all rights and powers of such predecessor hereunder (other than as contemplated in the Deposit Agreement), (ii) duly assign, transfer and deliver all right, title and interest to the Deposited Securities to such successor, and (iii) deliver to such successor a list of the Holders of all outstanding Receipts and such other information relating to Receipts and Holders thereof as the successor may reasonably request. Any such successor depositary shall promptly mail notice of its appointment to such Holders. Any corporation into or with which the Depositary may be merged or consolidated shall be the successor of the Depositary without the execution or filing of any document or any further act. A-19 (20) Amendment/Supplement . Subject to the terms and conditions of this Article (20), and applicable law, this Receipt and any provisions of the Deposit Agreement may at any time and from time to time be amended or supplemented by written agreement between the Company and the Depositary in any respect which they may deem necessary or desirable without the consent of the Holders or Beneficial Owners. Any amendment or supplement which shall impose or increase any fees or charges (other than charges in connection with foreign exchange control regulations, and taxes and/or other governmental charges, delivery and other such expenses), or which shall otherwise materially prejudice any substantial existing right of Holders or Beneficial Owners, shall not, however, become effective as to outstanding Receipts until 30 days after notice of such amendment or supplement shall have been given to the Holders of outstanding Receipts. Notice of any amendment to the Deposit Agreement or form of Receipts shall not need to describe in detail the specific amendments effectuated thereby, and failure to describe the specific amendments in any such notice shall not render such notice invalid, provided, however, that, in each such case, the notice given to the Holders identifies a means for Holders and Beneficial Owners to retrieve or receive the text of such amendment (i.e., upon retrieval from the Commission's, the Depositary's or the Company's website or upon request from the Depositary). The parties hereto agree that any amendments or supplements which (i) are reasonably necessary (as agreed by the Company and the Depositary) in order for (a) the ADSs to be registered on Form F-6 under the Securities Act or (b) the ADSs or Shares to be traded solely in electronic book-entry form and (ii) do not in either such case impose or increase any fees or charges to be borne by Holders, shall be deemed not to materially prejudice any substantial rights of Holders or Beneficial Owners. Every Holder and Beneficial Owner at the time any amendment or supplement so becomes effective shall be deemed, by continuing to hold such ADS, to consent and agree to such amendment or supplement and to be bound by the Deposit Agreement as amended or supplemented thereby. In no event shall any amendment or supplement impair the right of the Holder to surrender such Receipt and receive therefor the Deposited Securities represented thereby, except in order to comply with mandatory provisions of applicable law. Notwithstanding the foregoing, if any governmental body should adopt new laws, rules or regulations which would require amendment or supplement of the Deposit Agreement to ensure compliance therewith, the Company and the Depositary may amend or supplement the Deposit Agreement and the Receipt at any time in accordance with such changed laws, rules or regulations. Such amendment or supplement to the Deposit Agreement in such circumstances may become effective before a notice of such amendment or supplement is given to Holders or within any other period of time as required for compliance with such laws, or rules or regulations. A-20 (21) Termination . The Depositary shall, at any time at the written direction of the Company, terminate the Deposit Agreement by mailing notice of such termination to the Holders of all Receipts then outstanding at least 90 days prior to the date fixed in such notice for such termination provided that, the Depositary shall be reimbursed for any amounts, fees, costs or expenses owed to it in accordance with the terms of the Deposit Agreement and in accordance with any other agreements as otherwise agreed in writing between the Company and the Depositary from time to time, before such termination shall take effect. If 90 days shall have expired after (i) the Depositary shall have delivered to the Company a written notice of its election to resign, or (ii) the Company shall have delivered to the Depositary a written notice of the removal of the Depositary, and in either case a successor depositary shall not have been appointed and accepted its appointment as provided herein and in the Deposit Agreement, the Depositary may terminate the Deposit Agreement by mailing notice of such termination to the Holders of all Receipts then outstanding at least 30 days prior to the date fixed for such termination. On and after the date of termination of the Deposit Agreement, the Holder will, upon surrender of such Holder's Receipt at the Principal Office of the Depositary, upon the payment of the charges of the Depositary for the surrender of Receipts referred to in Article (2) hereof and in the Deposit Agreement and subject to the conditions and restrictions therein set forth, and upon payment of any applicable taxes and/or governmental charges, be entitled to delivery, to him or upon his order, of the amount of Deposited Securities represented by such Receipt. If any Receipts shall remain outstanding after the date of termination of the Deposit Agreement, the Registrar thereafter shall discontinue the registration of transfers of Receipts, and the Depositary shall suspend the distribution of dividends to the Holders thereof, and shall not give any further notices or perform any further acts under the Deposit Agreement, except that the Depositary shall continue to collect dividends and other distributions pertaining to Deposited Securities, shall sell rights as provided in the Deposit Agreement, and shall continue to deliver Deposited Securities, subject to the conditions and restrictions set forth in the Deposit Agreement, together with any dividends or other distributions received with respect thereto and the net proceeds of the sale of any rights or other property, in exchange for Receipts surrendered to the Depositary (after deducting, or charging, as the case may be, in each case the charges of the Depositary for the surrender of a Receipt, any expenses for the account of the Holder in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Deposit Agreement and any applicable taxes and/or governmental charges or assessments). At any time after the expiration of six months from the date of termination of the Deposit Agreement, the Depositary may sell the Deposited Securities then held hereunder and may thereafter hold uninvested the net proceeds of any such sale, together with any other cash then held by it hereunder, in an unsegregated account, without liability for interest for the pro rata benefit of the Holders of Receipts whose Receipts have not theretofore been surrendered. After making such sale, the Depositary shall be discharged from all obligations under the Deposit Agreement with respect to the Receipts and the Shares, Deposited Securities and ADSs, except to account for such net proceeds and other cash (after deducting, or charging, as the case may be, in each case the charges of the Depositary for the surrender of a Receipt, any expenses for the account of the Holder in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Deposit Agreement and any applicable taxes and/or governmental charges or assessments). Upon the termination of the Deposit Agreement, the Company shall be discharged from all obligations under the Deposit Agreement except as set forth in the Deposit Agreement. The obligations under the terms of the Deposit Agreement and Receipts of Holders and Beneficial Owners of ADSs outstanding as of the effective date of any termination shall survive such effective date of termination and shall be discharged only when the applicable ADSs are presented by their Holders to the Depositary for cancellation under the terms of the Deposit Agreement and the Holders have each satisfied any and all of their obligations hereunder (including, but not limited to, any payment and/or reimbursement obligations which relate to prior to the effective date of termination but which payment and/or reimbursement is claimed after such effective date of termination). A-21 (22) Compliance with U.S. Securities Laws; Regulatory Compliance . Notwithstanding any provisions in this Receipt or the Deposit Agreement to the contrary, the withdrawal or delivery of Deposited Securities will not be suspended by the Company or the Depositary except as would be permitted by Instruction I.A.(1) of the General Instructions to the Form F-6 Registration Statement, as amended from time to time, under the Securities Act. (23) Certain Rights of the Depositary; Limitations . Subject to the further terms and provisions of this Article (23), the Depositary, its Affiliates and their agents, on their own behalf, may own and deal in any class of securities of the Company and its Affiliates and in ADSs. The Depositary may issue ADSs against evidence of rights to receive Shares from the Company, any agent of the Company or any custodian, registrar, transfer agent, clearing agency or other entity involved in ownership or transaction records in respect of the Shares. In its capacity as Depositary, the Depositary may (i) issue ADSs prior to the receipt of Shares (each such transaction a Pre-Release Transaction) pursuant to Section 2.3 of the Deposit Agreement and (ii) deliver Shares upon the receipt and cancellation of ADSs that were issued in a Pre-Release Transaction, but for which Shares may not have been received. The Depositary may receive ADSs in lieu of Shares under (i) above and receive Shares in lieu of ADSs under (ii) above. Each such Pre-Release Transaction will be (a) subject to a written agreement whereby the person or entity (the "Applicant") to whom ADSs or Shares are to be Delivered (1) represents that at the time of the Pre-Release Transaction the Applicant or its customer beneficially owns the Shares or ADSs that are to be Delivered by the Applicant under such Pre-Release Transaction, (2) agrees to indicate the Depositary as owner of such Shares or ADSs in its records and to hold such Shares or ADSs in trust for the Depositary until such Shares or ADSs are delivered to the Depositary or the Custodian, (3) unconditionally guarantees to deliver to the Depositary or the Custodian, as applicable, such Shares or ADSs and (4) agrees to any additional restrictions or requirements that the Depositary deems appropriate; (b) at all times fully collateralized with cash, U.S. government securities or such other collateral as the Depositary deems appropriate; (c) terminable by the Depositary on not more than five (5) Business Days' notice; and (d) subject to such further indemnities and credit regulations as the Depositary deems appropriate. The Depositary will normally limit the number of ADSs and Shares involved in such Pre-Release Transactions at any one time to thirty percent (30%) of the ADSs outstanding (without giving effect to ADSs outstanding under (i) above), provided , however , that the Depositary reserves the right to disregard such limit from time to time as it deems appropriate. The Depositary may also set limits with respect to the number of ADSs and Shares involved in Pre-Release Transactions with any one person on a case by case basis as it deems appropriate. The Depositary may retain for its own account any compensation received by it in conjunction with the foregoing. Collateral provided pursuant to (b) above, but not earnings thereon, shall be held for the benefit of the Holders (other than the Applicant). A-22 (24) Ownership Restrictions . Holders and Beneficial Owners shall comply with any limitations on ownership of Shares under the constituent documents of the Company or applicable Australian law as if they held the number of Shares their ADSs represent. The Company shall inform the Holders, Beneficial Owners and the Depositary of any limitations on ownership of Shares that the Holders and Beneficial Owners may be subject to by reason of the number of American Depositary Shares held under the constituent documents of the Company, or applicable Australian law, as such restrictions may be in force from time to time. (25) Waiver, Jurisdiction . EACH PARTY TO THE DEPOSIT AGREEMENT (INCLUDING, FOR AVOIDANCE OF DOUBT, EACH HOLDER AND BENEFICIAL OWNER AND/OR HOLDER OF INTERESTS IN ADRS) HEREBY IRREVOCABLY WAIVES, TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, ANY RIGHT IT MAY HAVE TO A TRIAL BY JURY IN ANY SUIT, ACTION OR PROCEEDING AGAINST THE DEPOSITARY AND/OR THE COMPANY DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE SHARES OR OTHER DEPOSITED SECURITIES, THE ADSs OR THE ADRs, THE DEPOSIT AGREEMENT OR ANY TRANSACTION CONTEMPLATED HEREIN OR THEREIN, OR THE BREACH HEREOF OR THEREOF (WHETHER BASED ON CONTRACT, TORT, COMMON LAW OR ANY OTHER THEORY). Holders and Beneficial Owners understand, and holding an American Depositary Share or an interest therein, such Holders and Beneficial Owners each irrevocably agree that any legal suit, action or proceeding against or involving the Company or the Depositary, arising out of or based upon the Deposit Agreement, American Depositary Shares, Receipts or the transactions contemplated hereby or thereby or by virtue of ownership thereof, may only be instituted in a state or federal court in New York, New York, and by holding an American Depositary Share or an interest therein each irrevocably waives any objection which it may now or hereafter have to the laying of venue of any such proceeding, and irrevocably submits to the exclusive jurisdiction of such courts in any such suit, action or proceeding. Holders and Beneficial Owners agree that the provisions of this paragraph shall survive such Holders' and Beneficial Owners' ownership of American Depositary Shares or interests therein. A-23 The Company, the Depositary and by holding an American Depositary Share (or interest therein) Holders and Beneficial Owners each agree that, notwithstanding the foregoing, with regard to any claim or dispute or difference of whatever nature between or involving the parties hereto arising directly or indirectly from the relationship created by the Deposit Agreement, the Depositary, in its sole discretion, shall be entitled to refer such dispute or difference for final settlement by arbitration (Arbitration) in accordance with the Commercial Arbitration Rules of the American Arbitration Association (the Rules) then in force The arbitration shall be conducted by three arbitrators, one nominated by the Depositary, one nominated by the Company, and one nominated by the two party-appointed arbitrators within thirty (30) calendar days of the confirmation of the nomination of the second arbitrator. If any arbitrator has not been nominated within the time limits specified herein and in the Rules, then such arbitrator shall be appointed by the American Arbitration Association in accordance with the Rules. Judgment upon the award rendered by the arbitrators may be enforced in any court having jurisdiction thereof. The seat and place of any reference to arbitration shall be New York City, New York, and the procedural law of such arbitration shall be New York law. The language to be used in the arbitration shall be English. The fees of the arbitrator and other costs incurred by the parties in connection with such Arbitration shall be paid by the party or parties that is (are) unsuccessful in such Arbitration. A-24 (ASSIGNMENT AND TRANSFER SIGNATURE LINES) FOR VALUE RECEIVED, the undersigned Holder hereby sell(s), assign(s) and transfer(s) unto ______________________________ whose taxpayer identification number is _______________________ and whose address including postal zip code is ____________________________, the within Receipt and all rights thereunder, hereby irrevocably constituting and appointing ________________________ attorney-in-fact to transfer said Receipt on the books of the Depositary with full power of substitution in the premises. Dated: Name: ________________________________ By: Title: NOTICE: The signature of the Holder to this assignment must correspond with the name as written upon the face of the within instrument in every particular, without alteration or enlargement or any change whatsoever. If the endorsement be executed by an attorney, executor, administrator, trustee or guardian, the person executing the endorsement must give his/her full title in such capacity and proper evidence of authority to act in such capacity, if not on file with the Depositary, must be forwarded with this Receipt. SIGNATURE GUARANTEED 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. DECATUR Bryan Brummett, 30, of Decatur was sentenced to three years in prison, after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter for beating a 38-year-old woman to death. Jacqueline Crenshaw-Green was pronounced dead Feb. 14, after Brummett, who is 5 feet, 9 inches tall, weighing 300 pounds, repeatedly punched the 5-foot, 4-inch woman in the face, head and body at the home they shared during a Valentine's Day party. Brummett's twin brother, who also lived at the house on the 2300 block of East Finch Drive, was Crenshaw-Green's girlfriend, according to a police statement. Brummett was arrested the following day and held in the Macon County Jail on $1 million bond. He pleaded guilty July 11 to one count of involuntary manslaughter, a Class 3 felony punishable by three to seven years in the Illinois Department of Corrections. At his sentencing hearing Thursday, Circuit Judge Thomas E. Griffith silently read a victim impact statement from Crenshaw-Green's father. Not sure why this Bryan Brummett wasn't charged with murder, Robert L. Crenshaw wrote in his statement. Just don't understand that, but he should spend the rest of his natural life behind bars for what he done. He wrote that his wife suffered from strokes and brain damage, and she was partially paralyzed. He said that after she heard the news she was hospitalized for seven days. I can't explain the hurt that my wife and I feel and the empty world we will have for ever, and how can anyone say how Jackie feels, or what she would say as she's dead forever and we, her family and friends are at a loss from being with Jackie as this Bryan Brummett took her life. Autopsy results showed that Crenshaw-Green died of a subdural hematoma, a brain bleed, resulting from blunt trauma to the head. She also suffered facial bruises, as well as multiple bruises to the top of her shoulders, arms, left hand, knuckles and right side of her abdomen. Brummett, who had no prior adult criminal record, was recommended by the court for impact incarceration, a boot camp designed for nonviolent offenders, which could shorten his sentence to about eight months. Jacqueline Crenshaw-Green, whose nickname was Smiley, served as a certified nursing assistant for 21 years, according to her obituary. Her survivors included her three children and three siblings. If you care about clean water and the environment then Fish & Game is urging you to stand as candidates in your local council elections this year. The local body elections are being held in October and nominations for candidates to become councillors on regional and district councils close at noon this Friday, August 12. FORSYTH Despite the district's financial concerns, the Maroa-Forsyth School Board decided Monday to work with a search firm in its upcoming superintendent search. The board is planning to work with BWP and Associates at a cost not to exceed $17,000. The decision came as the board scheduled a special meeting for 7 p.m. Monday, Aug. 15, at the grade school in Forsyth to discuss larger-than-expected classes and whether the district can afford to hire additional teachers. This will be the most important decision the board makes, Board President Russ Corey said about the superintendent search. We need to do it right. The board wants to search the entire state for the best candidate, and it doesn't matter where that person comes from, Corey said. Superintendent Mike Williams submitted his resignation in May, effective after the end of the upcoming school year. Some community members have been asking why Williams is leaving. With the district's attorney Susan Nicholas present at the meeting, board members refused to discuss the reason for Williams' resignation in detail, saying it is a personnel issue. Until recently, the attorney has not been regularly present at board meetings. Board member James Keith said the opinions of community members who have been most vocal aren't necessarily the only ones the board is receiving. Don't presume you're the majority, just because they're not standing up to talk, Keith said. The community feeling is it's time for a change. The board instead moved forward with discussion about how to proceed with the search process. In addition to the BWP proposal, it was also considering a proposal with a $7,900 search fee from the Illinois Association of School Boards. Corey said the district could miss out on the prime part of the hiring season for superintendents if it delays the search to consider other options, including with the board conducting the search on its own and gathering input from all stakeholders such as staff and community members. Board member Chad Ruwe said the board needs to ensure the district is in a better place a year from now when the search is completed. The superintendent is in charge of a multimillion-dollar operation, which Ruwe said emphasizes why the search needs to be done in the best way possible. We don't have the right skills or experience to guarantee we'll be in a much better place, Ruwe said. As a board, I don't think we're ready to handle it. Interviews could be conducted in November and a new superintendent hired in January if the search stays on track, board member Lindsey Wise said. The district did not conduct a formal search process when Williams was hired. When questioned about how he was hired, Williams said he was approached and asked if he was interested in the position. Board member Rhonda Braden drew applause from those in attendance during the meeting when she expressed an objection to hiring a search firm. I do not think we can spend money on this, Braden said. A lot of money is going to this when it is needed other places. The board plans to discuss class sizes during the upcoming special meeting. Following registration, class sizes for third and fourth grade could exceed 30 students, with three teachers for each grade. Keith said the board will need to determine where the money would come from if new teachers are hired. The district is already facing a tight budget, as the board is planning to ask voters to consider providing additional funding through a referendum in the November election. The proposal is seeking a 50-cent tax rate increase, 10 cents higher than one voters rejected last year. The 50-cent increase is projected to generate $963,000 at a cost of $167 for a $100,000 home or $333 for a $200,000 home. Additionally, as the school year is about to begin next week, the search for a new high school principal continues. The board approved the resignation of Scott Adreon effective Aug. 1 as he left to become principal at Dunlap High School. Keith said several options are being explored to fill the vacancy in a cost-efficient manner. Further discussion about the high school principal position could come during the special meeting. The team of international experts who worked so hard to rescue the orca calf found alone in Tauranga Harbour have packed up and left Ongare Point, exhausted and disappointed that they were unsuccessful. Known by a number of nicknames including Tiger, Bob and Tama, the orca died in a land based pool in the early hours of Saturday morning, after being placed there for intensive care on Wednesday. WASHINGTON 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 that there is already "widespread voter fraud," Stone said Trump should say that "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 One and use whatever legal means they can to prevent government from functioning. At worst, they will conclude that their white-male dominated America is lost forever, and take extra-legal 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 that 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. And Connie Jagger reasoned that a Trump defeat would necessarily mean a stolen election because Trump's crowds are bigger than Clinton's. This 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. A video montage published this week by the New York Times captures the rage at Trump rallies: Trump supporters proclaiming "(expletive) those dirty beaners," "(expletive) Islam," "(expletive) that (derogatory term)," "hang the bitch"; and various scenes of pushing and shoving of demonstrators. Slate's Ben Mathis-Lilley has a tally of 20 violent incidents at Trump events by Trump supporters, and protesters, including protesters hit with pepper spray by Trump backers, and instances of demonstrators being sucker-punched, shoved and choked. 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 when in trouble, he continues to get more and more outrageous. "I worry that all he knows how to do is double down," Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, 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. Syracuse Orthopedics Specialists.JPG Syracuse Orthopedic Specialists and Family Practice Associates have begun site work for a new medical office building at 8324 Oswego Road (Route 57) in Clay. The two practices have applied for $2.15 million in tax exemptions for the building. (Rick Moriarty | rmoriarty@syracuse.com) Clay, N.Y Two town officials, a school official and a county official urged the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency during a public hearing Tuesday to reject a request for $2.15 million in tax breaks for a new medical office building. Clay Town Assessor Robert Bick said all other taxpayers in the town and the Liverpool Central School District would have to pay extra to make up for the taxes that Syracuse Orthopedic Specialists and Family Practice Associates do not pay on the building. "All these businesses are doing is combining into one facility," he said. "They may or may not create the 12 jobs that are promised." County Comptroller Robert Antonacci praised the quality of the medical care SOS gave to him (hip replacement), but he said the business would likely build the new building in Clay even without the tax breaks. "I don't think SOS can go to Tennessee and ship their patients to Tennessee," he said. A bulldozer clears dirt from the site of a planned new medical office building at 8324 Oswego Road (Route 57) in Clay. The building will house Syracuse Orthopedic Specialists and Family Practice Associates. Antonacci said granting the tax breaks would violate the "anti-piracy" provision of state law that prohibits the granting of tax benefits to recruit businesses from one part of the state to another part of the state unless there is evidence the businesses would otherwise move out of the state. "This is simply rearranging the deck chairs," he said. SOS and Family Practice Associates plan to build a 40,000-square-foot, two-story building at 8324 Oswego Road (Route 57), next to the Clay Eye Center. They have applied to the industrial development agency for $1.24 million in property tax discounts over 10 years, plus $824,000 in exemptions from sales taxes on construction materials and an exemption, worth $90,000, from the state mortgage recording tax. The total cost of the project is estimated to be $11.59 million. The two businesses plan to close their offices further south on Route 57 in Clay and on Willett Parkway in nearby Lysander when the new office is built. But the practices say they will employ 12 more people in the new building than they do in the four offices that will be closing. James Rodems, assistant superintendent for management services for the Baldwinsville Central School District, said the district opposes the tax breaks because the project will result in the two businesses moving out of the district. "This is just taking a practice from my school district and moving it to Clay," he said. Rodems noted that the county in recent years has stopped sharing its sales tax revenues with school districts and towns, a decision he said has put added pressure on their already tight budgets. "It's almost like the county is at war with the other governments," he said. Rodems also took the opportunity to criticize the development agency's policy of granting property tax exemptions to suburban apartment projects under some circumstances. Clay Town Council member David Hess and a local resident also spoke against the tax breaks. No one spoke in favor of the tax exemptions. The hearing was held by Steven Coker, an economic development specialist for the county and public hearing officer for the industrial development agency. No member of the agency attended the hearing. Cocker will provide a report on the hearing to the agency before it votes on the requested tax breaks. The agency consists of a seven-member board appointed by the chairman of the County Legislature. SOS and Family Practice Associates began site work on the project a week ago. Contact Rick Moriarty anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 315-470-3148 Oswego Fire Department Oswego city firefighters are seen talking to people after a fire on Liberty Street in Oswego after a fire that destroyed the home in 2011. (File photo by Dick Blume | The Post-Standard) OSWEGO, N.Y. -- Oswego Mayor Billy Barlow is proposing a $47,886,284 budget for 2017 that could cut 16 firefighter positions and one police lieutenant from the city's payroll. The mayor's budget proposal also would increase property taxes by 3.87 percent next year. Barlow explained Monday night how the city had been receiving $1 million a year for the last 20 years from the sale of a water tunnel. City of Oswego lawmakers in 1996 agreed to the 20-year deal that guaranteed Onondaga County the right to draw up to 93 million gallons of water a day from Lake Ontario forever. But that revenue, paid for by the Metropolitan Water Board, will dry up at the end of this year, the mayor said. Retirement and health care costs also continue to rise, he said. And city taxpayers have seen their taxes increase by 55 percent over the last five years, Barlow said. "We can't continue to increase taxes without any effort to try to make the city sustainable and pay our own bills," he said. By eliminating the police lieutenant position, in which someone is retiring from, the city would save $106,000. The 16 cuts to the Oswego Fire Department payroll amount to $970,000, but the fire chief and firefighters' union president ask: At what cost? "It's devastating to the whole department," Oswego Fire Chief Jeff McCrobie said. "It's devastating how it's going to affect our services, but we're going to try like crazy. It's our job to provide the service and protection to the people." The Oswego Fire Department currently has 58 members, not including the chief and assistant chief. If the proposed cuts go through, the last 15 firefighters hired would lose their jobs and the department would not fill one more position that was recently vacated from a retirement. Those 16 positions account for 27 percent of the fire department's staff. "I don't know how you're going to compensate," said John Geraci, president of the Oswego Firefighter's Association Local 126. Currently, there are four shifts of 14 members. But with injuries, vacations and other circumstances, there are typically 10 firefighters working at a time. Four of the 10 employees per shift are assigned to two ambulances. Within the last five years, the fire department has lost eight firefighter positions through attrition, Geraci said. If the mayor's proposed cuts go into effect, Geraci said it would be like playing a "game of Russian roulette" with the staffing levels. "When you get a call for a working structure fire, we already find ourselves scrambling with 10 people on duty," he said. There's already no guarantee that the people assigned to the ambulances aren't on another call, he said. "These are severe cuts," Geraci said. On Sunday during Harborfest, Oswego firefighters received a call for a structure fire with three people trapped. Three new city firefighters, just out of the fire academy -- and on the list of cuts -- rescued a father and his two children from the burning house, Geraci said. "What happens when those three guys aren't there?" Geraci asked. "What happens when those positions are cut from the daily staffing. Every person makes a difference on a scene of a fire." Barlow said he has proposed that the Oswego Fire Department rehire firefighters who would be laid off Jan. 1, but as part-time employees with no benefits. The mayor said this would allow the city to "provide the same services" and also "eliminate virtually all overtime" within the fire department. Even so, the Oswego Firefighter's Association Local 126 is planning a public rally Thursday to protest the proposed cuts. Union officials said they want the city administration to "examine how these cuts will impact public safety." They also want city residents to contact council members and the mayor "to give serious consideration to restoring these positions." "These cuts represent a 27 percent loss in available staffing on a daily basis, which will dramatically impair our ability to protect the public," the union wrote in a news release. "Operationally, this will mean significantly fewer firefighters available to perform all of the jobs required on an emergency scene. Cuts this severe will make it impossible for us to continue to provide the same services you have come to expect from YOUR Fire Department." While Geraci and other firefighters said they were shocked to learn of the mayor's proposed cuts to their department hours before Monday's Common Council meeting, the fire chief said he found out a couple weeks ago and has been in discussions with the mayor. "We know the pickle the city is in," McCrobie said. "No one is going to vote to increase the tax rate ... so the mayor is forced to make cuts, but it's gut-wrenching to (possibly) have 15 people lose their jobs. No one saw it coming." The Oswego Common Council is scheduled to approve a final budget at 7:10 p.m. Aug. 22 at City Hall. Frank Whaley Frank Whaley reacts to the crowd at the "Luke Cage" panel on day 1 of Comic-Con International on Thursday, July 21, 2016, in San Diego. (Al Powers | Invision | AP) The first full-length trailer for "Luke Cage" shows the bulletproof superhero defending New York City from bad guys. In the first five seconds of the clip, Luke Cage protects a bloody Det. Rafael "Rafe" Scarfe, played by Syracuse native Frank Whaley, and nurse Claire Temple (Rosario Dawson) from being hit by a truck. In fact, he does it by literally standing in front of the truck with his super strength and unbreakable skin. Mike Colter returns as the Marvel superhero after appearing in "Jessica Jones," but has left Hell's Kitchen for Harlem. Trouble still finds him, though, forcing him to step forward and become the hero the city deserves. The cast also includes Mahershala Ali ("House of Cards") as Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes, looking villainous in front of a Notorious B.I.G. painting; Alfre Woodard as Mariah Dillard; Simone Missick as Misty Knight; Theo Rossi as Shades; Dawson and Whaley. Little is revealed about Whaley's character, but the Henninger High School graduate told syracuse.com earlier this year that he's a "hard-nosed" cop in the N.Y.P.D. He and Knight, who in the comics has a bionic arm built by Stark Industries (as in "Iron Man" Tony Stark), are partners in the investigation into Cage. Whaley, who's had memorable roles in "Pulp Fiction," "Career Opportunities" and "Swing Kids," joked at the San Diego Comic Con last month that he was cast in the show because "they needed sex appeal." After "Luke Cage," Netflix has "Iron Fist," "The Punisher" and "The Defenders" lined up, plus a second season of "Jessica Jones" and a third for "Daredevil." Cage, Jones, Daredevil and Iron Fist will all team up in "The Defenders," but it's unclear how many supporting cast members like Whaley will be included. All episodes of "Luke Cage" begin streaming Friday, Sept. 30 on Netflix. OSWEGO, N.Y. -- Community leaders in Oswego County are rejoicing over the announcement that the FitzPatrick nuclear plant will remain open. Exelon Generation has agreed to purchase the nuclear plant from Entergy, its current owner, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced this morning at a rally. The agreement is worth $110 million, officials said. Oswego County Legislature Chairman Kevin Gardner said it took a lot of hard work by a lot of people to make this deal happen. The deal will save more than 600 jobs. If the plant closed, Central New York would have lost $500 million, Cuomo said. "It is a great day for Oswego County," Gardner said. "I am so happy for the employees of Entergy. I am happy for Oswego County." In addition to the hundreds of FitzPatrick employees, community members and local leaders, the Mexico High School marching band was also at this morning's rally outside the plant. "Exelon's decision to purchase FitzPatrick is an enormous victory for FitzPatrick employees, their families and our entire community," said Mexico Academy and Central School District Superintendent Sean Bruno. "The uncertainty with FitzPatrick has made for a very difficult year. Today's announcement is cause for celebration and certainly will make for a much happier school year." State Sen. Patty Ritchie, R-Oswegatchie, also praised the deal. "With today's news that Exelon Generation will purchase FitzPatrick from Entergy Corporation, the hundreds of hardworking men and women employed by the plant and their families, as well as our entire region, can breathe a sigh of relief," Ritchie said. Ritchie also praised Cuomo for his efforts to keep the plant open. "Since day one, he has understood how devastating the closure of FitzPatrick would be -- and I am so grateful for his willingness to listen, and for his leadership," she said. Gov. Cuomo says Fitzpatrick nuclear plant saved: Whole state should be smiling Gov. Andrew Cuomo announces Fitzpatrick Nuclear Plant to Exelon New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announces a deal to keep the James A. FitzPatrick nuclear power plant open Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016, saving hundreds of jobs in Oswego County. The plant had been scheduled to close in January 2017. Dennis Nett | dnett@syracuse.com (Dennis Nett) SYRACUSE, N.Y. - For months, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo talked about saving 615 high-paying jobs at the James A. FitzPatrick nuclear plant while trying to put together a deal to keep the power plant open. But when Cuomo visited Oswego County on Tuesday to announce a historic nuclear plant bailout, he didn't mention that more than 10 percent of the "high-skilled, well-paying jobs" are no longer filled. The FitzPatrick plant's employment dropped to about 545 this summer, according to Tammy Holden, a spokeswoman for FitzPatrick owner Entergy Corp. Since Entergy announced in November 2015 that it planned to shutter FitzPatrick, about 70 employees left for other jobs, said Ted Skerpon, president of IBEW Local 97, the union which represents the plant's workers. "Some of them sought employment elsewhere and were successful," Skerpon said, adding it will be up to the new owner, Exelon Corp., to determine whether the open positions should be filled. An existing contract between Entergy and IBEW Local 97 runs through 2019, and will transfer to Exelon as part of the bailout deal brokered by Cuomo's office, Skerpon said. Exelon officials say they don't expect changes in the workforce before the deal closes in the second quarter of 2017. "We don't anticipate any immediate change in staffing levels at FitzPatrick station," said Marshall Murphy, speaking for Exelon Corp. Skerpon, the IBEW president, said ultimately it's possible some FitzPatrick jobs will be eliminated when Exelon takes over because the company already operates the neighboring Nine Mile Point 1 and Nine Mile Point 2 nuclear plants in Scriba. "You don't need everything to be redundant if you run three plants," Skerpon said. "In the near future, we expect to sit down with Exelon and talk about what needs to be done to make the three plants run efficiently." Contact Mark Weiner anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 571-970-3751 SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Watchdog groups warned Tuesday that New York may be giving up too much by transferring $700 million from a public fund to Exelon Corp. as part of the deal to keep open the James A. FitzPatrick nuclear plant in Oswego County. Under terms of the deal announced Tuesday, the state will transfer the cash from a New York Power Authority trust fund -- set aside to pay for the eventual decommissioning of the FitzPatrick plant -- to Exelon Corp. Two watchdog groups who track the nuclear power industry say they are concerned about the transfer from public to private hands. Jessica Azulay, program director for the Syracuse-based Alliance for a Green Economy, said the unprecedented deal announced Tuesday gave too much control to Exelon. "Governor Cuomo has truly given away the store," Azulay said in a statement. "As if the billions of dollars of consumer money gifted in subsidies to the nuclear industry weren't enough, now we find out that another $700 million in public assets will be handed to Exelon in order to sweeten the deal for their purchase of FitzPatrick." Money in the state's decommissioning fund is set aside to make sure that FitzPatrick and its nuclear waste will be safely handled and cleaned up when the plant reaches the end of its useful life and is taken off line. Tim Judson, executive director of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service in Takoma Park, Md., said now the public will lose control over that process. "Public ownership over FitzPatrick's decommissioning fund provides a safeguard to prevent Exelon from misusing money New Yorkers paid to ensure a responsible cleanup, and for the state to have some control over when and how that cleanup will happen after it retires," Judson said. "Most states are not so lucky to have a way of reigning in nuclear owners who plan to mothball nuclear sites for decades, leaving the contamination and the waste to fester," Judson said. "It is folly for New York to give up this fund over to Exelon." A spokesman for New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo defended the move to transfer the trust fund. "No matter what, this fund is to only be used in the event the plant is actually shut down, a process closely monitored by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission," said spokesman Rich Azzopardi. "That was true when NYPA owned the plant, when Entergy had a contract with NYPA to access these funds for those activities and now under this agreement with Exelon." He added, "We know some fringe groups wanted FitzPatrick mothballed sooner rather than later, but we made no apologies for saving 600 good paying Central New York jobs and keeping this state on track to meet our aggressive emissions standards to fight climate change." Any deal between the state, Exelon and FitzPatrick's existing owner, Entergy, would still have to be approved by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Justice Department and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Under terms of the deal, the New York Power Authority will transfer the decommissioning trust fund and liability for FitzPatrick to Entergy, Cuomo's office said earlier Tuesday. If regulatory approvals are obtained and the transaction closes, Entergy would then transfer the trust fund and associated liability to Exelon. Contact Mark Weiner anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 571-970-3751 2016-03-10-JohnKatko.JPG U.S. Rep. John Katko, R-Camillus, won the endorsement of the Manufacturers Association of Central New York in his re-election bid against Democrat Colleen Deacon, of Syracuse. Katko chairs the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Transportation Security. (U.S. House of Representatives photo) (House of Representatives) WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A Central New York group that represents local industry on Tuesday endorsed John Katko in his bid to be re-elected to Congress, saying his agenda will help businesses grow. The Manufacturers Association of Central New York had declined to make an endorsement in the 2014 race when Katko, R-Camillus defeated former Rep. Dan Maffei, D-Syracuse. The Syracuse-based association, which represents about 330 businesses and organizations, planned to announce the endorsement Tuesday morning at G.A. Braun Laundry Equipment in North Syracuse. MACNY's political arm said it considered issues such as health care, domestic energy production, free trade, taxes, and regulations before deciding to endorse Katko over his challenger, Democrat Colleen Deacon of Syracuse. Randy Wolken, MACNY's president and CEO, said Katko has demonstrated a willingness to help local industry during his first term in office. "The past two years, John has exemplified a pro-jobs and pro-business representative and has voted in favor of many of the pieces of legislation that are critical to foster growth and a better business climate for manufacturers," Wolken said in a statement. Wolken was among eight Republican candidates who sought the 24th Congressional District nomination in 2014, but the party united behind Katko to avoid a primary battle. Wolken also briefly ran for Congress in 2008, but dropped out of the race after a month to unite the GOP behind Dale Sweetland. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which usually endorses Republican candidates for Congress, also planned to announce its support for Katko over Deacon at a joint news conference with MACNY today. Contact Mark Weiner anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 571-970-3751 Hillary Clinton Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at a rally at the Coliseum in St. Petersburg, Fla., Monday, Aug. 8, 2016. (Andrew Harnik | AP) The father of Orlando shooter Omar Mateen was spotted at Hillary Clinton's rally Monday night. Photos and video show Seddique Mateen standing in the crowd behind the Democratic presidential candidate in Kissimmee, Florida, roughly 20 miles from where his son opened fire in the Pulse nightclub in June. Mateen told WPTV he supports Clinton and wanted to attend the event that was open to the public. "Why should they be surprised? I love the United States, and I've been living here a long time," he told the NBC affiliate. "Hillary Clinton is good for United States versus Donald Trump, who has no solutions." Mateen also showed a sign he made, saying Clinton is "good for national security" and "gun control laws." In a statement released Tuesday, the Clinton campaign said that the rally was a 3,000-person, open-door event. "This individual wasn't invited as a guest and the campaign was unaware of his attendance until after the event," the campaign said. The Orlando Sentinel reports Mateen declined to comment on the investigation into his son's mass shooting, only saying his family has been cooperating. No arrests have made in the deadly attack that left 50 dead, including Mateen, and 50 more injured. The Daily Beast reports Seddique Mateen is a Muslim and Afghan nationalist who has both praised and condemned the Taliban in videos on YouTube. Analysts say he may be "delusional," declaring himself the president of a "transitional revolutionary government" for Afghanistan that will subvert Pakistani influence and claims ties to U.S. Congress. Mateen has condemned violence repeatedly, telling WPTV he wished his son had "joined the Army and fought ISIS. That would be much better." According to Mediaite, reporters first noticed Mateen was in the audience when he was spotted cheering for Clinton during her speech about gun control. Clinton met with victims' family members during a visit to Orlando in July, and spoke again about the massacre Monday. "We can't ever let that kind of hatred and violence break the spirit and break the soul of any place in America," she said. If You Go The kickoff meeting will be conducted in the meeting room off to the left of the entrance of the New Braunfels Public Library at 700 W. Common St., at 7 p.m. Wednesday and the public is invited. This Page Is Under Construction - Coming Soon! Why am I seeing this 'Under Construction' page? This Melbourne Wawa station opened in May. The grand opening of the Stuart Wawa is set for Sept. 15. Wawa officials have said they plan to open about 15 stations on the Treasure Coast in the next 15 years. (KELLY TYKO/TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS) By Kelly Tyko of TCPalm UPDATE: The Fort Pierce Planning Board approved Wawa's site plan at the Aug. 9 meeting. This story was originally posted on Aug. 8. FORT PIERCE The Wawa craze might be coming to the Sunrise City. Weeks before the Treasure Coast's first Wawa is set to open in Stuart, the popular Pennsylvania-based chain has filed plans to build a Wawa gas station and convenience store at 5575 Okeechobee Road. The 6,199-square-foot Wawa with 16 gas pumps would replace a Goodyear Tires, which is currently at the spot on the southeast corner of Okeechobee Road and Jenkins Road. The Fort Pierce Planning Board will review the plans at a public meeting 6 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall in the commission chambers. If the site plan is approved, the plans will go to the City Commission for approval, which is tentatively set for the Sept. 6 meeting, Fort Pierce Planning Director Rebecca Grohall said in an email. The gas station chain has a cult following and has had customers get married in its stores, plan trips based on where Wawa stores are along their routes and even get Wawa tattoos. Well-known for its soft pretzels, coffee, made-to-order hoagies and large food selection, Wawa opened its first Florida station in July 2012. The grand opening of the Stuart Wawa, at the southeast corner of Kanner Highway and Monterey Road, is set for Sept. 15, Wawa spokeswoman Lori Bruce said Monday in an email to Treasure Coast Newspapers. An Indian River County station under construction at the southeast corner of U.S. 1 and 12th Street is expected to open later this year. The land has been cleared for St. Lucie County's first Wawa in Tradition but construction hasn't yet begun. Wawa officials have said the company's goal is to operate 300 stations in the state in the next 15 years, including 14 to 15 locations on the Treasure Coast, with six to seven stations in St. Lucie County and about four each in Indian River and Martin counties. Bruce said she was unable to confirm the proposed location until the permitting process is completed. It makes sense that Fort Pierce would be in the company's plans. PLANNING MEETING What: Fort Pierce planning board meeting about proposed Wawa site plan When: 6 p.m. Aug. 9 Where: City Hall commission chambers, 100 N. U.S. 1, Fort Pierce More info: The meeting will be broadcast on Comcast's Channel 27 FPTV and can be streamed live on Cityoffortpierce.com. If you can't see the map click here. Pat Ground of Sebastian is seeking help in finding the earring she recently lost that matches this one. (JANET BEGLEY/SPECIAL TO TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS) By Janet Begley, Special to Treasure Coast Newspapers SEBASTIAN One of the small silver coins lost in the 1715 wreck of the Spanish fleet off the Treasure Coast is lost again. Pat Ground of Sebastian wore her pair of silver coin earrings to the Pirate Festival in Vero Beach at the end of July and was heartbroken to find she lost one of the pair somewhere in Riverside Park. She was viewing a collection of coins from the wreck in the treasure tent at the festival when she discovered the earring was missing. "When I put on the earrings that morning, I thought the plastic back seemed a little loose," Ground said. "But never did I think the earring would fall off during the day." The Pirate Festival was extremely hot July 30, so Pat removed one of the two shirts she was wearing. She thinks the earring could have snagged on the shirt when she removed it and pull off her ear. Ground and her husband, Ray, retraced their steps through the park but could not find the earring, a coin set in gold wire with a scallop shell on the top of the post. She still has the other earring, which is similar to the one she lost. Although she doesn't remember exactly when she acquired the coins, Ground lived in Key West in the 1970s through the early 1990s and remembers there was great excitement around Mel Fisher and his treasure hunting in the area. "I was working as a waitress one night and two kids came in and told me their dad was a treasure hunter," Ground said. "Later, I learned they were Dirk and Kane Fisher, two of Mel's sons." Nicole Abt from the Mel Fisher Museum in Sebastian and one of Mel's grandchildren, examined a photograph of Ground's remaining earring and said she can tell by the markings it is a Mexican minted coin, and probably was discovered along the Treasure Coast. Similar coins of the same size, 1R (reale), would retail for about $250 without the gold setting, Abt said. It's not the monetary loss of the earring that upsets Ground, but rather the sentimental value of the earring, which was a gift from her husband. "I don't hold out much hope that I will ever see it again," Ground said. "But if someone has a metal detector and would be willing to help me hunt through Riverside Park that would be great. I'd be very happy to do anything to get my earring back." HOW TO HELP It's been two weeks since Pat Ground's 1715 silver coin earring was lost at Riverside Park. If you have a metal detector and would like to help search for the earring, call Ground at 772-589-7509. SHARE TUESDAY'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. 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. Friends of the Library Used Book Depot: Paperback book sale: 4 for $1. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Aug. 8-13. 1670 14th Ave., Vero Beach. 772-562-0043. 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. TUESDAY'S RECURRING EVENTS CHILDREN/TEENS Baby Story Time: 10 a.m. Sept. 13-Dec. 13. North IRC Library, 1001 Sebastian Blvd., Sebastian. Ages: birth-18 months. 772-589-1355; www.irclibrary.org. Craft Hour: 4-5 p.m. Sept. 13-Dec. 13. Gifford Library, 4875 43rd Ave, Vero Beach. Ages: 1-5 year olds. 772-569-5563; www.irclibrary.org. Crazy 8s Math Club: "Getting crazy" with math through fun experiments and activities. 4 p.m. Sept. 13-Nov. 1. Port St. Lucie Library, 180 Prima Vista Blvd., Port St. Lucie. Grades K-2. 772-871-5450; library.stlucieco.gov. Pre-School Story Time: 11:15 a.m. Sept. 13-Dec. 13. North IRC Library, 1001 Sebastian Blvd., Sebastian. Ages: 3-5 year olds. 772-589-1355; www.irclibrary.org. CLUBS The Rotary Club of Vero Beach Oceanside: 5:30-7 p.m. Indian River Shores Town Hall, Community Room, 6001 N. A1A & Fred Tuerk Drive in Vero Beach. DANCE Ballroom Dance Class/New Season: 6:30 p.m. 2369 N.E. Dixie Highway, Jensen Beach. Ages: 16+. $9 pp. per class. Register: 772-529-3325; sdancer516@aol.com. EXERCISE/HEALTH Intermediate Qigong and Tai Chi: Next level qigong exercises with linking form Tai Chi. 11 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. The Cloudwalker Place, 703 17th St., Vero Beach. All ages. $15 per class/$80 per month. 772-217-2887; www.thecloudwalker.com. Knock Out Parkinson's: 11 a.m. Sebastian Karate Fitness & Self Defense Center, 13248 U.S. 1, Sebastian. $185/10 Classes. Register: 772-538-1753; Trainhard@att.net. Massage Therapy Consultation: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Advanced Motion Therapeutic, 2965 20th St., Vero Beach. Reservation: 772-567-8585; Info@amtvero.com. Orthopedic Rehabilitation Consultation: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Advanced Motion Therapeutic, 2965 20th St., Vero Beach. Reservation: 772-567-8585; Info@amtvero.com. Pickleball University Open Play: 8:30 a.m. Pocahontas Park, 2140 14th Ave, Vero Beach. All ages and Levels. $2/annual membership $24. 772-50-15685; vbpickle@gmail.com Facebook: Pickleball University. Pilates Reformer Group Class: Reform your body, strengthen your core. Joseph Pilates Techniques. 5:30 p.m. The Club at Spine and Sport, 1345 36th St., Vero Beach. Adults. $90 for 6 weeks. Reservation: 772-559-0866; namaste5@yahoo.com. Silver Sneakers Chair Yoga with Carmen: 9 a.m. The Cloudwalker Place, 703 17th St., Vero Beach. All ages. $10 per class. 772-217-2887; www.thecloudwalker.com. Yoga with Carmen: 8 a.m. The Cloudwalker Place, 703 17th St., Vero Beach. All ages. $10 per class. 772-217-2887; www.thecloudwalker.com. GAMES ACBL Certified Duplicate Bridge Games: Open and 0-199 games. 1 p.m. Vero Beach Bridge Center, 1520 14th Ave., Vero Beach. $7 for members, $9 for guests. 772-562-3008; verobridge.com. Bar Bingo: 1 p.m. Sebastian Eagles Aerie 4067, 9606 Trade Center Drive, Sebastian. Adult. $1 per card. 772-589-6573; empresslp234@gmail.com. Duplicate Bridge Club: Duplicate Bridge: ACBL sanctioned, stratified, friendly Duplicate Bridge Games. 12:30 p.m. Vero Beach Community Center, 2266 14th Ave., Vero Beach. Ages: 18+. $6. 772-589-3741; nch143@aol.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. Group Eco-Tours: Your choice, kayak/ SUP. Snack/water provided. 9 a.m. McWilliams Park, Vero Beach. Please call for details. Reservation: 772-299-1286; www.orchidislandbikesandkayaks.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 Adventures in Meditation: 7-8 p.m. Aug. 2. Radiance by Misty Dawn, 805 Sebastian Blvd. Suite 3, Sebastian. $7. RSVP: radiant.spirit@yahoo.com. Off-Leash Dog Park Small Dog Orientations: 3 p.m. Dogs For Life, Inc., Off-Leash Dog Park, 1230 16th Ave., Vero Beach. Ages: 6 months +, dogs must be inoculated, neutered & social. $100. Register: 772-567-8969; dogsforlifevb.org. Pre-School Story Time: Story time pre school. 11 a.m. IRC Main Library, 1600 21st, Vero Beach. Ages: 3-5 yrs. old. 772-770-5060; www.irclibrary.org. TOPS (Taking Off Pounds Sensibly): Come and See how to lose weight sensibly and affordably. 6 p.m. First Christian Church of Vero, 1927 27th Ave., Vero Beach. $32 dues per year/$5 per month. 772-562-8148; www.tops.org. WEDNESDAY'S SPECIAL EVENTS VNA Blood Pressure and Blood Sugar Screenings: 9-10:30 a.m. Aug. 10. VNA Hidden Treasures Sebastian, 11646 U.S. 1, Sebastian. The Power of the Inbox: Five easy steps to stand out from inbox clutter. 3 p.m. Aug. 10. IRC Chamber of Commerce, 1216 21st Street, Vero Beach. www.indianriverchamber.com/. 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. Ribbon Cutting Ceremony: 5:30 p.m. Aug. 10. Vintage to Vogue Holidays and More, 1621 U.S. 1, Sebastian. WEDNESDAY'S RECURRING EVENTS CHILDREN/TEENS 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. Crazy 8s Math Club: 5:30-6:30 p.m. Sept. 7-Oct. 26. North IRC Library, 1001 Sebastian Boulevard, Sebastian. Ages: K-2nd. 772-589-1355; www.irclibrary.org. 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. CLUBS Exchange Club of Indian River: Men's and women's service club working for child abuse prevention. Noon-1 p.m. Culinary Capers, 737 22nd St., Vero Beach. Adults. $15 for lunch. 772-766-5722; www.exchangeclubofindianriver.org. Indian River Model Sailing Club: Remote control model sailboat racing. 1-3 p.m. Hobart Lake, 77th St., between 58th Ave. and Dixie Highway, Vero Beach. 772-581-8300. Vero Beach Sunrise Rotary: 7 a.m. Grille on the Green, Vista Royale, 100 Woodland Drive, Vero Beach. DANCE Beginner Line Dancing: 10-11:30 a.m. American Legion Post 189, 807 Louisianna Ave., Sebastian. $5. 772-589-8710; happyhooferldt@bellsouth.net. Youth Ballroom & Latin Dance Classes: Ballroom Latin Dance Classes for middle and high school youth. 5-5:45 p.m. Royal Ballroom, 713 U.S. 1, Vero Beach. $80 per student/$120 for 2 family members, per month. Register: 772-299-5772; royalballroomdance@gmail.com. EXERCISE/HEALTH Balance and Gait Therapy Consultation: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Advanced Motion Therapeutic, 2965 20th St., Vero Beach. Reservation: 772-567-8585; Info@amtvero.com. 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. 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. Vero Beach Pickleball University: Pickleball Lessons, Pickleball 101 Equipment provided. 5:30 p.m. Pocahontas Park, 14th Ave., Vero Beach. Ages: 50+. Register: 772-501-5685; vbpickle@gmail.com; Facebook: pickleballuniversity. 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 Bingo: Benefits all Elks charities. Noon Sebastian Elks Lodge, 731 S. Fleming St., Sebastian. 772-589-1516. Bridge Classes: Basic bidding review class. Open to public. 9:30-11:30 a.m. Vero Beach Bridge Center, 1520 14th Ave., Vero Beach. $15. 772-562-3008; verobridge.com. Duplicate Bridge: Stratified Open Pairs game. 1 p.m. Vero Beach Bridge Center, 1520 14th Ave., Vero Beach. $7-$9. 772-562-3008; verobridge.com. Vero Beach Bridge Center: 0-499 Stratified Pairs game. Masterpoints awarded. 9 a.m. Vero Beach Bridge Center, 1520 14th Ave., Vero Beach. $7-$9. 772-562-3008; verobridge.com. MEALS Dinner: Pizza, pasta and more. 4:30-7 p.m. Italian American Club, 1600 25th St., Vero Beach. Open to the public. Meals starting at $7. 772-778-1522. Dinner and Karaoke: 6-10 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, every day. Round Island Park, South Highway A1A, Vero Beach. $50 adult, $25 child. Reservation: 772-567-0522; paddleflorida.com. Motorized Kayak Adventures: A relaxing evening on the lagoon in a motorized kayak. 1 hour before sunset, Daily. Round Island Park, 2201 Highway A1A, Vero Beach. All ages. $35. Reservation: 772-380-6815; www.motorizedkayakadventures.com. Tours through the Mangrove Forests: Motorized Kayak Adventures. Varies based on tides, daily. Stan Blum Boat Launch, 613 North Causeway Drive, Fort Pierce. $48-60; Group discounts offered. Reservation: 772-380-6815; motorizedkayakadventures.com. OTHER All About Coloring: All About Coloring-the latest stress-reducing activity. 2-3 p.m. Brackett Library, 6155 College Lane, Vero Beach. Adults. 772-226-3080; www.irclibrary.org. Karaoke: 7-10 p.m. Vero Beach Elks Lodge, 1350 26th St., Vero Beach. 772-562-8450; veroelks.com. LaPorte Farms: Self guided tours, pony rides. 8 a.m.-2 p.m. daily. LaPorte Farms, 7700 129th St., Sebastian. Donations. 772-633-0813; laportefarms1@aol.com. Registered Nurse Retired: Monthly luncheon with guest speaker. 11:30 a.m. CJ Cannon's, 3414 Cherokee Drive, Vero Beach. RSVP: Rita Richardson 772-562-3158; ka4aem@aol.com. Wednesday Open Mic Nights: 8:30 p.m.-Midnight. Kilted Mermaid, 1937 Old Dixie Highway, Vero Beach. 772-569-5533; KiltedMermaid.com. LOOKING AHEAD VNA Blood Pressure Screenings: 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Aug. 11. VNA Hidden Treasures Vero, 656 21st, Vero Beach. Success Training for Employment Orientation: Learn about job training and employment placement program. 10 a.m. Aug. 12. UP Center Indian River County, 2746 U.S. 1, Vero Beach. Ages: 18+. 772-564-9365; jobs@upcenters.org. 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. Vero Beach Veterans Club Dinner: Music. 6 p.m. Aug. 13, 20, 27, Oct. 6. Vero Beach Veterans Club, 2500 15th Ave., Vero Beach. Reservation: 772-778-1299; verobeachveterans.com. 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. Video Bible Study: Do You Believe. 6 p.m. Aug. 14, 21, 28. First Baptist Church of Wabasso, 4720 86th St., Wabasso. 772-589-5256; firstbaptistwabasso.org. 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. Canine Games-My Dog Can Do That: This fun filled board games provides fun for all dogs. 5:30 p.m. Aug. 15, 22, 29. Humane Society of Vero Beach. 6230 77th St., Vero Beach. $75. Register: 772-978-7863; www.hsvb.org. 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. Theatre-Go-Round Dinner Theatre: "From Sea to Shining Sea". 4:30 p.m. Aug. 21, Sept. 18. Quilted Giraffe Restaurant, 500 South U.S. 1, Vero Beach. Reservation: 772-252-9341; theatregorounddinnertheatre.com. 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. American Legion Auxiliary LUAU Party: LUAU Party with pork dinner. 4 p.m. Sept. 10. American Legion Post 189, 807 Louisiana Ave., Sebastian. $12. 772-882-7352; avondaisy44@aol.com. By Marine Madatyan, Narek Aleksanyan A section of the Haghtanak neighborhood in the Armenian capital of Yerevan, has gone without a sewer system for the past twenty years. Local resident Vardan shows us around and jokes that we might come across a giant anaconda in one of the pools of tepid waste water. Politicians only talk about the non-existent sewer system when elections roll around. They have made promises never kept. Sewer pipes only reach the first street in the neighborhood. Astghik Eliazyan said she didnt know the area lacked a sewer system when she moved in nine years ago. Those that did know and purchased or built a house, just assumed that the problem would be taken care of by the municipal authorities. Some home owners just build a large hole for the waste material, hiring workers to clean it out when necessary. There like primitive septic tanks without the filtration. Home owners say they spend around $100 every time for cleaning. The other, more civilized solution, is to dig down deep into the substrata and then install a pipe to carry the wastes away. This entails digging a minimum of 20 meters at a cost of 15,000 AMD per meter ($32). This is no long-term solution either. According to resident Arman Manoukyan, the pipes sometimes get clogged and can no longer be used. There are families in the neighborhood that have spent thousands on drilling wells and laying pipe, with mixed results. Children are taught at an early age to steer clear of above-ground waste water. Parents are concerned that waste water flowing through the streets can serve as an incubator for a variety of diseases. Home owners living on the side streets now connected to the main sewer pipes say they are willing to cover the cost of getting hooked up to the system. Mr. Manoukyan says that residents and Yerevan Municipality officials jointly discussed the problem two years ago and estimated that it would take 40 million AMD to get the homes hooked up to the system. It was agreed that the homeowners would pay out 200-300,000 apiece to get the work done. Manoukyan says that the plane was later scrapped by the municipality. Resident Vardan Khalatyan told Hetq that officials from the district council then showed up and walked around the neighborhood. Out of the blue, they estimated that the work would cost double; 80 million AMD. They hiked the figure just so they could get their cut. Hetq wrote to the Yerevan Municipality asking if an official cost assessment of the job had been drafted and if any expenditures had been included in the budget. We also asked if the municipality had considered the proposal of residents to extend the sewer pipe to the main street, after which they would pay for hook-ups. Yerevan Waters contract to operate and service the water distribution and removal systems for Yerevan ends in December 2016. This company has operated and serviced the water systems for the past eleven years. While the company and the Yerevan Municipality periodically sing the praises of their cooperation in the sector, it turns out that there are some neighborhoods who havent seen much tangible from that cooperation. They remain without sewer service. At first, the Communal Services Division (CSD) at the Yerevan Municipality, in response to a Hetq inquiry, merely said that the list of those neighborhoods without sewer service was long, and that because of its scope, they couldnt provide it. But we persisted and they were forced to reply and do the work they should have been doing from the start. Not to have such data is a gross oversight on their part. The reason for the delay, according to the CSD, was that they didnt have the necessary data in order to reply. Their delay violated the obligation for a public service to provide information within one month of receiving a valid inquiry. It was due to Hetqs investigation and persistence that the municipality confessed that entire neighborhoods and streets have gone with water drainage and sewer systems for years. After months of cooperation, Hetq was able to draft a map of the eleven administrative districts of Yerevan and approximately specify those streets not yet serviced by local sewer systems. The information provided by the CDS shows that 18 Yerevan neighborhoods and 14 streets have no sewer service at all, and that partial service exists for 11 streets. The work done by the CDS is so amateurish that we cannot provide specific coordinates as to where service doesnt exist. For example, the CDS, in its reply, states that sewer service doesnt exist In the section above building 43 on Gai Avenue, or Opposite the bakery on Minsk Street. Given this situation, one wonders how the municipality goes about allocating the millions it receives in loans and credits to modernize the citys water removal and sewer systems. The Yerevan Water website says that Yerevans waste water removal system is made up of 220 kilometers of non-urban pipes and 950 kilometers of urban pipes. This data says nothing regarding what the company has done over the past eleven years. Annually, the National Statistical Service (NSS), issues a report on the state of Yerevans utility infrastructure. According to the NSS, the urban sewer system has seen the construction of a mere 45 kilometers of pipe in the last eleven years. The CSD told Hetq that the overall problem can only be discussed when a new company wins the contract now held by Yerevan Water. Millions in Credits Invested in Improving Yerevans Water Distribution and Sewer System Since 2005 April 15, 2005: US$ 22 Million World Bank project. Completed 2011 2014: 27.3 Million Project (French government issues 24.9 million loan at favorable rates and Armenian government kicks in 2.4 million Euros) P.S. Hetq has only listed those credit projects designed for Yerevan proper improving both the water distribution and removal systems. SHARE TUESDAY'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. Barn Theatre Auditions: Barn Theatre Auditions for "The Haunting of Hill House". 7 p.m. Aug. 9. The Barn Theatre, 2400 S.E. Ocean Blvd., Stuart. www.barn-theatre.com. TUESDAY'S RECURRING EVENTS ARTS/CRAFTS Alizarin Crimson Art Studio: Over 30 years of Fine Art Instruction Painting Classes-All Levels. 9:30 a.m.-6:30 p.m. Cedar Point Plaza, 2611 S.E. Ocean Blvd., Stuart. All ages. 772-287-7030; Alizarincrimsonstudio.net. Professional Teaching Staff: Georgia Abood, Kate Wood & Jennifer Pollack. All Ages Oil Painting: Individually tailored oil painting classes with Kate Wood. Join anytime. 4:30-6:30 p.m. Alizarin Crimson Studio, 2611 E. Ocean Blvd., Stuart. All ages. $25. Register: 772-287-0835; katewoodartist@comcast.net. Art Classes: Learning to paint for beginners or improve existing skills. 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m./1-4:30 p.m. Kane Center, Salerno Road, Stuart. Adults. $25/$20 members. Register: 772-221-7640; brendaleigh737@gmail.com. Painting Class: For Beginner Students. 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Kane Center, 900 S.E. Salerno Road, Stuart. Ages: 50+. $20/$25. 772-223-7800; www.kanecenter.org. Painting Class: For Experienced Students. 1-4:30 p.m. Kane Center, 900 S.E. Salerno Road, Stuart. Ages: 50+. $20/$25. 772-223-7800; www.kanecenter.org. Peggy's Art Studio: Enjoy 3 hours of uninterrupted painting. Noon-3 p.m. MCP&R Log Cabin Senior Center, Langford Park, 2369 N.E. Dixie Highway, Jensen Beach. Multigenerational. $3. 772-334-2926; zcarter@martin.fl.us. Children/TEENS Family Story Time: 10 a.m. Ages: 0-12 months. Hoke Library, 1150 N.W. Jack Williams Way, Jensen Beach. 772-463-2870; library.martin.fl.us. Family Story Time: 11 a.m. Ages: 1-4 years-old. Hoke Library, 1150 N.W. Jack Williams Way, Jensen Beach. 772-463-2870; library.martin.fl.us. Family Story Time: Weekly story time designed for families. 10-10:30 a.m. Robert Morgade Library, 5851 S.E. Community Drive, Stuart. Ages: 0-3 years and up with parent. 772-463-3245; library.martin.fl.us. "Music & Movement": Parent/child classes designed to enhance child's growth and development. Ages: 19-26 months. 9-10 a.m. Florida Arts & Dance Studio, 938 S.E. Central Parkway, Stuart. 772-288-4150. "Music & Movement": Parent/child classes designed to enhance child's growth and development. Ages: 27-60 months. 10:15-11:15 a.m. Florida Arts & Dance Studio, 938 S.E. Central Parkway, Stuart. 772-288-4150. "Music & Movement": Parent/child classes designed to enhance child's growth and development. Ages: 3-11 months. Noon- 1 p.m. Florida Arts & Dance Studio, 938 S.E. Central Parkway, Stuart. 772-288-4150. "Music & Movement": Parent/child classes designed to enhance child's growth and development. Ages: 12-18 months. 1:15-2:15 p.m. Florida Arts & Dance Studio, 938 S.E. Central Parkway, Stuart. 772-288-4150. Preschool FUNdamentals: 10:30-11:30 a.m. Peter and Julie Cummings Library, 2551 S.W. Matheson Ave., Palm City. Ages: 3-5 years. 772-288-2551; library.martin.fl.us. 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. Ballroom Dance Class/New Season: 6:30 p.m. 2369 N.E. Dixie Highway, Jensen Beach. Ages: 16+. $9 pp. per class. Register: 772-529-3325; sdancer516@aol.com. Dance Classes: Ballroom, Latin, Swing, Country and Club group and private classes. 1-9 p.m. Jensen Beach Ballroom, 881 N.E. Jensen Beach Blvd., Jensen Beach. Discounts available. Register: 609-356-2973; www.JensenBeachBallroom.com. 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 Basic Yoga for Inner Peace: One hour basic yoga poses and half-hour of guided meditation. 10-11:30 a.m. Unity of Stuart, 211 S.E. Central Parkway, Stuart. Adults. $10. Register: 772-214-0892; www.unityofstuart.org. Gentle Chair Yoga: Gentle Chair Yoga. 11 a.m.-noon. Kane Center, 900 S.E. Salerno Road, Stuart. Ages: 55+. $8/$10. 772-223-7800; www.kanecenter.org. Hip Pop Fitness: Dance your way to fitness. River Walk Center, 600 N. Indian River Drive, Fort Pierce. 6:30 p.m. Ages: 18+. 772-224-4506; chrystalismoments16@gmail.com. Zumba Gold: 5:30-6:30 p.m. Kane Center, 900 S.E. Salerno Road, Stuart. Ages: 50+. $4/$6. 772-223-7800; www.kanecenter.org. OTHER Carpro Autospa Night Car Show: 6-8 p.m., weather permitting. Lowe's Stuart, 3620 S.E. U.S. 1, Stuart. 772-285-3320. Piano Instruction: Beginners to concert level. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. Shirley Heifetz, Jensen Beach. Ages: 8+. Registration: 772-934-6812. Seniors Vs. Crime: Group to assist senior citizens. 9 a.m.-noon. St. Lucie West Courthouse Annex, 250 Country Club Drive, Port St. Lucie. 772-871-5350; SeniorsVsCrimePSL@gmail.com. WEDNESDAY'S SPECIAL EVENTS 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. Town Hall Meeting: Martin County District 3 Commissioner Anne Scott hosts, following the NAC meeting. 6 p.m. Aug. 10. Civic Center, 15675 S.W. Oseola St., Indiantown. WEDNESDAY'S RECURRING EVENTS ARTS/CRAFTS Alizarin Crimson Art Studio: Over 30 years of Fine Art Instruction Painting Classes-All Levels. 9:30 a.m.-4 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. Imaginative Drawing Class: 4:30-7:30 p.m. The Artists Nook, 43 S.E. Kindred St., Stuart. Ages: 15+. $30-$360. paradigm_shiftin@mac.com. Rendering in Mixed Media: Learn to Draw colorfully with more than just a pencil. 7:30-10:30 p.m. The Artists Nook, 43 S.E. Kindred St., Stuart. Ages: 16+. $30-$360. paradigm_shiftin@mac.com. CHILDREN/TEENS Family Story Time: 10:30 a.m. Ages 1-3 years. Peter and Julie Cummings Library, 2551 S.W. Matheson Ave, Palm City. 772-288-2551; library.martin.fl.us. Family Story Time: 11:30 a.m. Ages: 0-12 months. Peter and Julie Cummings Library, 2551 S.W. Matheson Ave, Palm City. 772-288-2551; library.martin.fl.us. 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-$300 per month per person. Register: 609-356-2973; gloriana@jensenbeachballroom.com. Ballroom Dancing: 4-5 p.m. Kane Center, 900 S.E Salerno Road, Stuart. Ages: 50+. $8/$10. 772-223-7800; www.kanecenter.org. Broadway Style Tap Dance Classes: 10 a.m. Dance Academy of Stuart, 333 Tressler Drive, Stuart. 772-286-9671; rbetteboo@aol.com. Dance Classes: Ballroom, Latin, Swing, Country and Club group and private classes. 1-9 p.m. Jensen Beach Ballroom, 881 N.E. Jensen Beach Blvd., Jensen Beach. Discounts available. Register: 609-356-2973; www.JensenBeachBallroom.com. Dancing and Karoke: Music and Dancing at the Elks with Permanent Affair, open membership night. 6-10 p.m. Stuart-Jensen Elks Lodge 1870, 1001 S. Kanner Highway, Stuart. Ages: 21. 772-287-0277; elks1870@bellsouth.net. 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. Yoga: For caregivers, family, cancer survivors hosted by How Big is Your Brave. 6-7 p.m. 2026 S.E. Ocean Blvd., Stuart. Reservation: www.howbigisyourbrave.org/programs. Zumba Gold: 9-10 a.m. Kane Center, 900 S.E Salerno Road, Stuart. Ages: 50+. $4/$6. 772-223-7800; www.kanecenter.org. OTHER Citizenship Class: Free citizenship application assistance and preparation for the citizenship test. 6-8 p.m. Robert Morgade Library, 5851 S.E. Community Drive, Stuart. 772-463-3245; library.martin.fl.us. Life Skills Discussion Group: Have you got something you would like to discuss? 1-3 p.m. MCP&R Log Cabin Senior Center at Langford Park, 2369 N.E. Dixie Highway, Jensen Beach. Multigenerational. $2. 772-334-2926; zcarter@martin.fl.us. Lighthouse Sunset Tour: View the spectacular sunset atop the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse. Time varies by sunset. Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse and Museum, 500 Captain Armour's Way, Jupiter. Children must be at least 48" to climb. $20 or $15 for Members. Reservation: 561-7478380; www.jupiterlighthouse.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 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. Treasure Coast Macintosh Users Group: monthly meeting. Learn about iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, Apple Watches, iMacs. 5 p.m. Aug. 18. Children's Services Council of Martin County, 101 S.E. Central Parkway, Stuart. 772-283-5646; tcmug.net. 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. SHARE Timothy Zech, 28, Berwick, Pennsylvania; warrant for violation of probation, possession of cocaine, possession of heroin. Raquel Wesley, 28, 2100 block of Northeast Rustic Way, Jensen Beach; grand theft. Jonathan Gregoris, 30, 1300 block of Southwest Fleming Way, Stuart; fraudulent use of credit cards. Veronica Trapp, 36, Miami; warrant for failure to appear, possession of a fake driver's license. Bianca Sanchez-Riscajche, 22, 6100 block of Southeast Michael Drive, Stuart; possession of a controlled substance (cocaine). Raymond Fortugno, 53, 2200 block of Southeast Indian Street, Stuart; delivery of cocaine within 1,000 feet of a convenience store; possession of a controlled substance (heroin). Nicholas Kuehne, 25, 1100 block of Southeast Asterwood Place, Stuart; warrant for criminal mischief. Sarah Serrano, 36, 15000 block of Southwest Pratt Whitney Road, Stuart; possession of heroin. Kelly Callahan, 41, 800 block of North River Shores Street, Stuart; aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill (domestic). Shawn Lance, 26, 2400 block of Southwest Hideaway Lane, Stuart; leasing with intent to defraud; giving false information to a pawnbroker. William Damron, 47, 1100 block of Southwest 30th Street, Palm City; sale of oxymorphone within 1,000 feet of a church; possession of oxymorphone. Maria Birkbeck, 37, 2700 block of Northeast Savannah Road, Jensen Beach; possession of amphetamine and dextroamphetamine. Austin Burkholder, 33, Grand Prairie, Texas; grand theft of a motor vehicle. Carwin Pettis, 33, Riviera Beach; grand theft of a motor vehicle. Jose Valdez, 19, 500 block of Southeast Madrid Street, Stuart; possession of a controlled substance (cocaine). Lorenzo Nunez-Florez, 49, Hialeah; warrant for grand theft. Joseph Aiken, 32, 2100 block of Southeast Broward Terrace, Port St. Lucie; possession of marijuana over 20 grams; possession of cocaine; possession of marijuana with intent to sell; possession of methamphetamine; possession of MDMA. Jeffrey Rankin, 30, 7300 block of Southeast Seagate Lane, Stuart; possession of cocaine with intent to sell. Jamie Solis, 36, 4200 block of Gator Trace Avenue, Fort Pierce; possession of methadone; introduction of contraband into a correctional facility. Devante Anderson, 23, Fort Lauderdale; warrant for violation of probation, burglary of an occupied dwelling. Jose Davila, 48, Loxahatchee; child neglect. Michael Ginger, 25, no street address/city; burglary of an occupied dwelling. Ryan Horton, 34, 1100 block of Southeast 12th Street, Stuart; robbery with a firearm; aggravated assault with a deadly weapon; kidnapping/false imprisonment of adult. Arrested in St. Lucie County. SHARE Michael Harding, 28, Miami; warrant for sexual battery on a child under 12, by perpetrator, 18 or older, lewd or lascivious exhibition by offender over 18. Patrick Finnegan, 30, 100 block of Pecan Place, Fort Pierce; out-of-county warrant, Manatee County, violation of supervised release. Shantonio Rolle, 21, 200 block of North 40th Street, Fort Pierce; giving false ownership information on pawned items; dealing in stolen property. Nafredrick Robinson, 24, 900 block of Fra Mar Place, Fort Pierce; battery by a person detained in prison or jail facility. William Lindsey, 68, 300 block of Olive Avenue, Port St. Lucie; commit domestic battery by strangulation. Antonio Papageorge, 28, 700 block of North 23rd Street, Fort Pierce; warrant for court order to revoke bond, driving while license suspended, resisting an officer without violence, fleeing or eluding with lights and siren active. Nigel Prescott, 21, 1300 block of Laconia Lane, Port St. Lucie; out-of-county warrant, Broward County, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Melissa Girvin, 33, 300 block of Southwest Butler Avenue, Port St. Lucie; warrant for failure to appear, assault of an officer, assault on an officer, resisting an officer without violence. Carrington Taylor, 19, Hallandale; out-of-county warrant, failure to appear, possession of a Schedule II substance. Devarius Wyche, 38, 1900 block of Grand Club Boulevard, Fort Pierce; driving while license suspended. Michael Miller, 51, Boynton Beach; out-of-county warrant, Palm Beach County, grand theft. Walter Lance, 43, 1900 block of Southeast Westdunbrooke Circle, Port St. Lucie; battery. Lance Chmura, 43, 1900 block of West Dunbrooke Circle, Port St. Lucie; battery. Raheem Lee, 22, 400 block of North 21st Street, Fort Pierce; re-admit, driving while license suspended. Peterson Camille, 21, Lake Worth; hold, Palm Beach County, failure to appear, sale of heroin. Joseph Aiken, 32, 2100 block of Southeast Broward Terrace, Port St. Lucie; possession of marijuana over 20 grams; possession of cocaine; possession of marijuana with intent to sell; possession of methamphetamine; possession of MDMA. Arrested in Martin County. Jamie Solis, 36, 4200 block of Gator Trace Avenue, Fort Pierce; possession of methadone; introduction of contraband into a correctional facility. Arrested in Martin County. St. Lucie Lock and Dam, Lake Okeechobee discharges, Lake Okeechobee, water, aerial, aerials, Army Corps of Engineers, Indian River Lagoon, St. Lucie estuary (LEAH VOSS/TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS) TAKEN: Monday, April 4, 2016 SHARE By Isadora Rangel of TCPalm Florida Senate President-Designate Joe Negron will announce a plan to reduce Lake Okeechobee discharges Tuesday in Stuart, his office said. That plan, which he plans to present to the Legislature next year, is based on information he gathered from meetings he held last week with environmentalists, government agencies and other stakeholders, Senate spokeswoman Katie Betta said. Details about Negron's plan weren't made public Monday. He seemed focused on buying land south of the lake, said Audubon Florida Executive Director Eric Draper, who met with Negron. That land would be used to build reservoirs to send the water into the Everglades instead of into the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers. "That was clearly his major focus," Draper said. Negron, R-Stuart, pushed to fund a 2015 University of Florida Water Institute study that found 11,000 to 120,000 acres of additional storage south of the lake are needed to significantly curb discharges. He sponsored a law this year to use money from Amendment 1 for Everglades restoration with a focus on projects that reduce discharges. Voters approved the amendment in 2014 to set aside dollars for land and water conservation. Negron, who didn't return calls for comment Monday afternoon, will preside over the Senate in 2017-18. Negron told Treasure Coast Newspapers in May he was asking these questions to conservationists, the agriculture and businesses communities: what's the best way to reduce discharges; why is their proposal feasible and how much will it cost? Draper said he suggested to Negron last week the state should use 16,000 acres it currently leases to sugar company Florida Crystals in Palm Beach County to store more lake water in the short term. Nonprofit One Florida Foundation founder Don Voss, who also met with Negron, said he suggested the state invest more in storage north, east and west of the lake in addition to south. If you go What: Announcement on Lake Okeechobee discharge reduction plan When: 11 a.m. Tuesday Where: Flagler Place, 201 S.W. Flagler Ave., Stuart Port St. Lucie City Hall (FILE PHOTO) By Nicole Rodriguez of TCPalm PORT ST. LUCIE In such a congested race for the District 2 City Council seat, candidates are touting their diverse resumes and innovative ideas to foster smart growth and manage the city's debt to distinguish themselves from the rest of the pack. Six candidates are vying for the seat, being vacated by Councilwoman Michelle Berger, in the primary election on Aug. 30. If one candidate doesn't receive a majority of the vote 50 percent plus one the top two vote-getters will advance to the general election on Nov. 8. Candidate John Carvelli the lone candidate with political experience says his 16 years on the St. Lucie County School Board set him apart from his opponents. "I understand how to make government move," said Carvelli, who hopes his time on the School Board can influence the St. Lucie County School District to implement Port St. Lucie-proposed and market-driven educational programs into its curriculum to improve school ratings and prepare students for the workforce. As far as the city's nearly $900 million debt, Carvelli said the city must set aside more money to refinance and pay off bonds early on bad investments such as Digital Domain and City Center. This will allow for lower taxes and a cushion for the next economic challenge. "If we are not careful and the economy takes a downturn, we cannot afford to heap the cost of operating the city on the backs of the citizens," Carvelli said. Former Wall Street executive and financial adviser Linda Gausten said her resume speaks for itself. "My experience and skills in the financial sector, to me, is better than any other candidate out there," Gausten said. "The city's backbone is municipal bonds and I'm an expert in municipal bonds." Like Carvelli, Gausten proposes the city keep more money in its contingency fund, boosting Port St. Lucie's credit rating which took a hit due to the Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute of Florida's collapse last year. And cash incentives aren't the way to go to foster smart growth, she said. "I would be reluctant to give financial incentives unless there were a tremendous amount of jobs being offered and it made sense and it certainly wouldn't be cash," said Gausten. "It would only be in the way of tax abatements for a period of years." Candidate and St. Lucie County Fire District firefighter and paramedic James Pucci said his profession alone is a standout quality. "I serve the people as a firefighter/paramedic, so I see firsthand what the people are going through, whether it be a lack of sidewalks, children getting hit by cars or senior citizens that don't have enough financial stability and if the city ever raises taxes on them, they can't afford it," Pucci said. Performance-based tax breaks are a good way to attract new businesses with little impact on the debt-ridden city, he said. "(Incentives) should be contingent on how many citizens they employ and contingent on the more they can hire and keep employed, then we can renew (the tax abatement) the following year," Pucci said. Candidate and former New York Police Department officer Armando Rodriguez said he's the only candidate active in the community this campaign season which distinguishes him from his opponents. "This is a civil service job. You have to meet the community and be in the community to know what's going on in the community," Rodriguez said. Rodriguez is aiming big when it comes to economic development. He's started searching for a private developer to build a downtown with outlet stores in the Tradition area, he said. "You have the Mets stadium right there and of course women don't want to sit for two or three hours at a game," Rodriguez said. "They'd rather go to the mall and spend some time or get together and have lunch or something make an event out of it." Retired Marine Chauncelor Howell also has a large vision for the city's economy. "If we were able to tap into Tesla setting up a satellite location here then that would be attractive (in) bringing in industry and allowing people to get jobs," Howell said. The electric automaker already has a charging station in St. Lucie West, Howell pointed out. He said his service in the Marine Corps has instilled leadership qualities in him no other candidate possesses. It also makes him the ideal advocate for veterans and the stalled veterans nursing home planned for Tradition. "If (my opponents) had to go to Tallahassee or Capitol Hill to lobby on behalf on veterans, they wouldn't really have a clue nothing against them but I'm a disabled veteran myself, so I know firsthand the needs and necessity for a nursing home here, " Howell said. Running a small business makes candidate Robert Joseph unique, he said. Joseph, who owns and operates ReMed Pharmacy in Port St. Lucie, wants to implement proactive community and police programs to improve relations between the two. "Those things don't happen in Port St. Lucie, but we have to prevent those things," Joseph said of a recent rash of police-involved shootings. To foster smart growth and save the cash-strapped city money, Joseph says the permit process for small businesses needs to speed up and work bids must be scrutinized to save taxpayers' money. Local companies should be given priority for city projects, too, Joseph said. FILE PHOTO Vero Beach Power Plant. (ERIC HASERT/ TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS) By Colleen Wixon of TCPalm VERO BEACH Florida Power & Light Co. wants Vero Beach to make a decision on whether to sell the Indian River Shores portion of its customer base by Aug. 25. But Mayor Jay Kramer considered the swing vote on whether the Vero Beach City Council accepts FPLs $30 million cash offer for the 3,500 Vero electric customers living in the Shores made clear Tuesday morning he would reject the offer, saying it will lead to higher rates for the remaining Vero Beach electric customers. Vero Beach previously valued the Indian River Shores portion of its operation at $42.4 million. The city also has to consider about $5 million in contingencies, such as a change in the price of gas or if something happens to the Florida Municipal Power Agency projects, City Manager Jim OConnor has said. I will not vote for this deal. It is a no for me, Kramer told the Vero Beach Utilities Commission at its Tuesday meeting. Utilities commissioners, however, voted unanimously to recommend the City Council accept the offer. I view this as the first step in selling the utility, Utilities Chairwoman Laura Moss said after the meeting. The best way to keep the city whole is to sell the whole thing. This is the first step in fulfilling the will of the people. FPLs offer initially came without an expiration date. It now ends at 5 p.m. Aug. 25, five days before the Aug. 30 primary election in which Kramer is vying for a County Commission seat against incumbent Bob Solari. It is important to note that this process has been going on for many years and is consuming significant FPL time and resources. Therefore, we would like to bring this proposed transaction to a successful conclusion as soon as practicable. To that end, we are imposing a deadline on our offer to take the politics out of the equation, Sam Forrest, FPL vice president of energy marketing and trading, wrote in a letter to Kramer dated this past Tuesday. The Vero Beach City Council is expected to consider the offer at its Tuesday meeting. Kramer said last week he wanted to first request an impact study before making a final decision. FPL revised its offer in the letter by removing its request for utility assets such as transmission lines and a substation. FPL wants to move forward as quickly as possible with the city to make the acquisition a reality, Forrest wrote in the letter. Vero Beach council members Randy Old and Dick Winger have voiced opposition to the partial sale by saying they want to ensure the remaining Vero Beach electric customers remain unaffected by the sale. Council members Pilar Turner and Harry Howle have voiced support for the sale. Its a very solid offer. Its more than fair, Turner said. WHAT'S NEXT? April 16: Vero Beach City Council to consider Florida Power & Light Co.s $30 million offer for Indian River Shores customer base. Aug. 25: FPLs offer expires. Whats next? Tuesday: Vero Beach City Council to consider Florida Power & Light Co.s $30 million offer for Indian River Shores customer base. Aug. 25: FPLs offer expires. SHARE By Tory Dunnan, WPTV KISSIMMEE Hillary Clinton spoke to a crowd in Kissimmee Monday. She was supposed to be talking jobs, but started the speech off paying tribute to those affected by the Pulse Nightclub shooting. MORE | Complete coverage of Omar Mateen "I know how many people, families, loved ones, and friends are still grieving, and we will be with you as you rebuild your lives." WPTV happened to notice the man, who has a mustache and was wearing a red hat, behind Clinton. It was Seddique Mateen, the father of Orlando mass shooter Omar Mateen. TCPalm.com learned Tuesday morning from the Clinton campaign that Seddique Mateen wasn't invited as a guest, and the campaign wasn't aware he was attending the rally until after the event. The rally was a 3,000-person, open-door event for the public. Seddique Mateen answered the door at his Port St. Lucie home Tuesday morning, but declined comment. Read more at WPTV. It has been a wild and woolly election season. Nationally, the donnybrook between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton hasn't even begun in earnest. Locally, though, there has been a lot to write about good, wacky and ugly and things won't get better before the Aug. 30 primary. Here are a few things you might not have heard about: The good Our editorial board meeting with Indian River County Commission, District 1 candidates Susan Adams and Richard Gillmor was as cordial as any I've attended. At the end, the candidates acknowledged mutual respect. "We've always worked well together," Adams said, noting that after the election, she would still see Gillmor after church. "It's so much easier this way." The wacky I was surprised to get a mailer with a picture of green algae from the campaign of Vero Beach Mayor Jay Kramer, running against County Commission Chairman Bob Solari in District 5. The mailer cited Kramer's efforts to help the Indian River Lagoon. A few days later I asked Kramer where he got the picture. After all, green algae in the lagoon was confined largely to Martin County. Kramer said it was a stock picture from a campaign agency, but he had heard reports of algae in Indian River County. The next day he sent me a text of what appeared to be brown algae in the canal outside his home. Sure enough, Indian River County's section of the lagoon is fouled just not with green algae. Update In early July, I asked Kramer why the website bobsolari.com redirects users to votejaykramer.com. Kramer didn't seem that amused. "We are trying to have this redirection stopped," said Kramer, adding he knew nothing about it. "Should this persist we will file a (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) notice to GoDaddy to get the domain name's owner and contact them to stop the redirection." It has been more than a month and nothing has changed. The ugly It's not quite Trump-Clinton, but the Senate District 17 race between Florida House members Ritch Workman and Debbie Mayfield is one of the nastiest I have ever seen. The ongoing, negative mailers full of half-truths and demeaning Twitter accounts, websites and Facebook ads are ridiculous. The forgotten candidates in this race are Mike Thomas, a physician assistant and state GOP committeeman from Brevard County (running against Workman and Mayfield in the Republican primary), and Amy Tidd, a Democrat and Brevard community advocate. Will Thomas and Tidd get votes because of the mass negativity coming from supporters of Workman and Mayfield? Thomas and Tidd are almost reminiscent of Gary Johnson and Jill Stein, respective presidential candidates for the Libertarian and Green parties hoping to cash in on the Trump-Clinton negativity. Piece of Workman From filing a bill to allow dwarf-tossing to moonlighting as an Uber driver, this Senate candidate isn't afraid of going outside the proverbial box. Take these pieces of campaign mail: A card to my wife, and probably other state employees: In it, Workman states he has "worked to ensure the stability of" Florida's retirement system and would appreciate her vote. He reformed the pension system, in part by requiring my wife and others to contribute toward their retirement. The state's pension system is too expensive for taxpayers particularly for elected officials. If elected, I hope Workman continues reform targeting elected officials who get about three times the benefit of a rank-and-file state employee. A letter from his ex-wife: In it, Tiffanie Lande defends Workman from claims of a political action committee targeting him. The letter talks about how she and Workman introduced Mayfield to her new husband, adding they vacationed together. "They were like family," Lande wrote. "This has been very difficult to realize that people that I held in such high regard could stoop so low for the sake of politics." Mayfield has denied a connection to the political action committee targeting Workman. A mailer sponsored by Uber: It touted Workman's record on public safety and economic opportunity. What other unusual election tactics will be next? On July 27, volunteers from the Greater Palm Beach & Martin County Chapter of the Red Cross South Florida Region responded to a commercial fire at the 800 block of South Colorado Ave., Stuart. SHARE Maria Locklar, Martin County Volunteer Disaster Action Team Responder; Robin Nunley, Executive Director; and Amy Stroud, Martin County Volunteer Disaster Action Team Dispatcher By Robin Nunley On July 27, volunteers from the Greater Palm Beach & Martin County Chapter of the Red Cross South Florida Region responded to a commercial fire at the 800 block of South Colorado Avenue, Stuart. The team of Red Cross volunteers provided food and hydration to over 65 first responders from the Stuart Police and Fire and Martin County Fire Rescue. "The Red Cross responds to nearly 66,000 disasters each year, and as part of our mission, our volunteers respond and support First Responders with food, water and mental health services when needed," said Robin Nunley, Executive Director for Greater Palm Beach & Martin County Red Cross Chapter. "Red Cross volunteers on the scene are members of the chapter's Disaster Action Team, a group of specially trained volunteers who respond to the scene of a local disaster when called upon at any time of the day or night." How you can help? Visit RedCross.org/homefires to find out more about how to protect yourself and your homes from fire; become a Red Cross volunteer by visiting RedCross.org/Volunteer; or donate to Red Cross Disaster Relief by visiting RedCross.org, calling 1-800-RED CROSS or texting the word REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation. Donations to Disaster Relief will be used to prepare for, respond to and help people recover from disasters big and small. Melanie Forget, Ann Decker and Wendie Berardi SHARE Gina Thompson and Brittany Balcer Lauren Koff, Suzanne Horstman and Mindi Fetterman Roxanne Wells, Monte Kosoff and Jo Anne Knight Front: Lucy Corley, Tammy Calabria and Tracy Levy; back: Nancy Perry and Lisa Peterfruend By Monte Kosoff Members of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), FL Treasure Coast Chapter gathered last Wednesday at Manero's Restaurant in Palm City for the quarterly Educational Presentation and Luncheon. The Association of Fundraising Professionals represents more than 30,000 members in over 240 chapters throughout the world, working to advance philanthropy through advocacy, research, education and certification programs. Locally, the association was chartered in 1994 and represents approximately 50 nonprofit organizations in Martin and St. Lucie counties. The luncheon's guest speaker was veteran fundraiser and AFP Master Trainer Peggy Calhoun, ACFRE, President & CEO of Miller, Calhoun & Company a firm that has been involved in over 200 campaigns and raised over $1 billion for a variety of institutions and organizations large and small. With over 35 years of experience and founder of two AFP Florida chapters, Ms. Calhoun discussed the history of philanthropy and current fundraising trends, includingwhat organizations can do now to prepare for the next 10 years. AFP FL Treasure Coast Chapter President Monte Kosoff, Vice President of Development and Marketing for United Way of St. Lucie County, shared exciting details of the chapter's upcoming National Philanthropy Day Awards Reception to recognize outstanding achievement by individuals, foundations and corporate philanthropists. This year, the awards will be presented during an evening cocktail reception on Wednesday, November 16 at the Santa Lucia River Club at Ballantrae, Port Saint Lucie. The chapter is offering sponsorship opportunities and taking reservations for this signature event, which was a complete sellout last year. Nominations are due by August 31. Learn more and/or download a nomination form at AFPTreasureCoast.org. Two more police employees have been officially charged with hindering journalists from carrying out their duties while covering the #Electric Yerevan protests on June 23, 2015. Armenias Special Investigative Service has not provided their names. This brings the number of police charged with violating the rights of journalists covering the electricity rate hike protests to four. Earlier today, a police lieutenant-colonel and a captain were similarly charged. Delta Air Lines reportedly canceled 300 flights Tuesday morning, a day after a mammoth outage that forced it to temporarily ground thousands of flights worldwide and ultimately cancel more than 400 of them. Although an update posted at 10:00 p.m. ET Monday night warned that there would be more than 100 flight cancellations and roughly 200 delays Tuesday morning, the actual numbers appeared considerably worse. The disruption began with a power outage that took place around 2:30 a.m. on Monday at the airlines Atlanta headquarters, according to Delta and Georgia Power. Delta CEO Ed Bastian apologized to customers later Monday in a video message taped live from the airlines operations and customer center, saying the carrier was engaged in an all hands on deck effort to restore service. Mea Culpa I apologize for the challenges this has created for you with your travel experience, Bastian said in his video message.The Delta team is working very, very hard to restore and get these systems back as quickly as possible. The company instituted system-wide waivers, he added, which would allow customers to rebook their flights or get refunds without penalty. Those waivers were available through Delta.com and the companys reservations agents. The airline was investigating the cause of the outage, Delta spokesperson Traci Messier told TechNewsWorld on Monday, noting that it had not yet discovered the exact cause. A hack may have been responsible, early media reports suggested, but that hypothesis remains unconfirmed. Georgia Power responded to the outage, which appeared to be related to Delta equipment that interconnects with Georgia Power, which serves more than 2.4 million customers in the state, according to spokesperson John Kraft. The utilitys other customers were not impacted by any power problems, he said, adding that Delta has been a great customer of Georgia Power for a long time. Delta issued a number of updates on Twitter and its corporate website, noting that there were lag times on the flight arrival and departure screens at the airport and on its reservations site and mobile app. Mondays failure was one of a very few major outages at Delta in many years, according to Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst at Atmosphere Research Group. Delta generally has a strong record with handling technology issues, he noted. Clearly something extraordinary happened today, Harteveldt told TechNewsWorld on Monday. What Im curious about is why the backup systems didnt kick in to make sure the flights werent canceled. Delta responded admirably to the outage, which appeared to be limited to departure control systems, he said. The airline was able to get flights from Europe and Asia back on track and also was able to maintain its mobile app and website functionality. Southwests Meltdown The Delta outage followed by about three weeks an hour-long outage at Southwest Airlines, which was due to the failure of a notebook-sized router that didnt know it had failed, said Melanie Jones, a spokesperson for Southwest. So it broke, but did not trip a backup, she told TechNewsWorld. It kept bringing traffic into itself for processing. That outage, which caused the cancellation of 2,300 flights, required Southwest to reboot all of its systems, which took hours to complete. Southwest Airlines responded to its outage like the Keystone Cops, according to Atmosphere Research Groups Harteveldt, who said it was embarrassing to watch. Southwest had failed to make necessary upgrades in technology, he maintained. Two major unions at Southwest called for the ouster of CEO Gary Kelly after that outage. However, the company pushed back, criticizing the statement as a negotiating tactic. Southwest has taken action to shore up its technological defenses, according to spokesperson Jones. First, we have developed a backup procedure for this router brown out condition, should it ever recur. The router in question is an older model, and we will soon have upgraded all routers that will be more reliable and not subject to a brown out, she explained. Beyond addressing the immediate problem, Southwest will continue on our journey of updating, enhancing, replacing and modernizing our software, systems and technologies, said Jones. We are also replacing, upgrading and modernizing our entire primary data center, currently housed in Dallas across the street from TOPS, she added. Thats the place where we store and run our vast array of computers that provide the systems we use to support our customers every day, Jones said. We have a complete remote data center as a backup to our primary data center, and we run redundant systems and networks even in our primary data center. Delta has made healthy investments in its technology over the years, Harteveldt said. The airline two years ago signed an agreement with Travelport to reacquire its data and intellectual property rights, which are critical for passenger service and flight operations. The agreement made Delta the only major carrier to have direct control over those systems, the company said. Under that agreement, Travelport continued to host the Delta platform of its Atlanta data center. Delta previously was the owner of the Worldspan global distribution center, which Travelport acquired in 2007. GDS systems historically have been used by travel agencies to book reservations for airline flights, hotels, car rentals and cruises. Facebook last week carried out the first full-scale test flight of Aquila, a high-altitude solar-powered unmanned aircraft designed to provide Internet access to remote regions. The company had flown a one-fifth scale version of the airplane for several months. The full-sized craft has the wingspan of a Boeing 737 46 yards but reportedly weighs less than 900 pounds fully laden, thanks to the carbon fiber materials used in its construction. The goal of last weeks test flight was to verify Facebooks operational models and the overall aircraft design. The flight originally was scheduled to run 30 minutes, but its successful performance allowed engineers to extend it to a 90-minute run. The ground crew was able to verify several performance models and components, including aerodynamics, batteries, control systems and crew training. In our next tests, we will fly Aquila faster, higher and longer, eventually taking it above 60,000 feet, said Jay Parikh, global head of engineering and infrastructure at Facebook. When complete, Aquila will be able to circle a region up to 60 miles in diameter at a height of more than 60,000 feet. It will use laser communications and millimeter wave systems to provide connectivity. Facebook Connectivity Lab researchers have proposed using an optical detector coated with fluorescent materials for free-space optical communications. They demonstrated a detector that achieved data rates of up to 2.1 Gbps. The companys plan is for the Aquila drones to fly over remote regions and deliver connectivity for up to three months at a time. This will require significant advancements in science and engineering to achieve, Parikh noted, adding that the current world record for a solar-powered unmanned flight is two weeks. Facebook will have to work closely with operators, governments and other partners to implement the program. The company reportedly wants to have a fleet of about 10,000 Aquila aircraft flying to areas where and when they are needed. Theyd need a lot of traffic controller work, said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group. The drones will fly at heights of more than 60,000 feet in order to avoid commercial aircraft, according to Facebook, but military planes especially spy planes fly higher, and they dont have traffic controllers either, he told TechNewsWorld. Further, with a fleet of 10,000 planes, a one-in-a-thousand chance of failure would give us 10 failures, on average, Enderle estimated. Command and control for 10,000 craft would be a problem, said Michael Jude, a program manager at Stratecast/Frost & Sullivan. To put this in perspective, 10,000 drones are more than all the militaries of the world are currently flying, he told TechNewsWorld. The Economics of the Plan Some of the economic aspects of Facebooks plan also raise questions. Considerable engineering and scientific work needs to be done, as Parikh acknowledged, which means Facebook likely will have to invest millions of dollars in getting Aquila to the point where it can remain in the air reliably for three months at a time. It also will have to spend lots of time and money negotiating with governments, regulatory authorities and commercial partners, and it will have to obtain all the necessary permits. Im still trying to figure out how they will convince governments these arent really spy planes or flying ballistic deathtraps, Enderle said. Not all countries have been on board with Facebooks Internet access plans up to now. India and Egypt banned Free Basic, the low-cost Facebook service that Aquila airplanes will enable. Whether Facebook can recover the costs from its target customer base largely people with little discretionary income remains in doubt. This does seem improbable, said Frosts Jude. This is one of those ideas that sounds interesting on the surface but becomes less compelling the closer you look. Amazon, which has appealed to U.S. regulators for years for permission to test package delivery with aerial drones, last week announced a new partnership with the UK government to launch a pilot program there. A cross-government team, supported by the UK Civil Aviation Authority, has granted Amazon permission to begin testing beyond-line-of-sight operations in suburban and rural communities; performance of sensors designed to make sure drones can identify and avoid obstacles; and the feasibility of allowing a single person to operate multiple highly automated drone vehicles. Amazon has been investing in Prime Air research for quite some time, said Paul Misener, vice president of global innovation policy and communications at Amazon. The deal moves the company closer to its goal of delivering packages in 30 minutes or less to customers in the UK and other parts of the world, he noted. Using small drones for delivery of parcels will improve customer experience, create new jobs in a rapidly growing industry, and pioneer new sustainable delivery methods to meet future demand, Misener added. Long Slog Amazon has struggled for years to maintain logistics support and keep costs down during peak shopping periods, such as the Christmas holiday season, through traditional delivery channels like UPS, the U.S. Postal Service, and other major delivery operations. It launched Prime Air in 2013 in preparation for its plans to begin making deliveries in multiple markets across the globe using drones that weigh less than 55 pounds and fly at altitudes of under 400 feet. Amazon has Prime Air development centers in the U.S., Israel, Austria and the UK. Delivery services are struggling to differentiate in a competitive market, Paul Teich, principal analyst at Tirias Research, told the E-Commerce Times. How can packages be delivered faster and more efficiently than the current two days from anywhere, or one day from a local warehouse benchmarks? The reason for delay in the U.S. is largely due to the lack of an adequate safety regime, said Michael Blades, senior industry analyst for aerospace and defense at Frost & Sullivan. The biggest issue is not the technology its the unmanned traffic management construct and collision-avoidance standards, he told the E-Commerce Times. There are dozens of companies working on collision-avoidance systems using LIDAR, RADAR or cameras in various combinations that have to be tested before a delivery system can be approved for beyond-line-of-sight operations, Blades noted. Drop the Slurpee! Amazons UK announcement came just days after 7-Eleven teamed up with startup company Flirtey and the Nevada Institute for Autonomous Systems to complete a historic drone delivery test in Reno, Nevada, the first ever FAA approved drone delivery to a customers home. The deliveries included Slurpee drinks, a chicken sandwich, donuts, hot coffee and candy. Amazons UK tests will help put pressure on regulators in the U.S. to speed the process for a more innovative drone delivery regime in the U.S., said Michael Drobac, executive director of the Small UAV Coalition. The problem in the U.S. was a lot of people didnt think this was real, he told the E-Commerce Times. I think we were narrow-minded in how we approached this. The Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Transportation recently finalized rules for small UAVs to fly with a certified remote pilot, as long as the vehicle remains within the line of sight of the operator. Amazons drone delivery ambitions have drawn criticism from skeptics. There are still way too many risks and potential liabilities involved, particularly drones making improper delivery drops, collisions, or even the risk of terrorism by a remotely operated vehicle, warned Paula Rosenblum, analyst at RSR Research. Maybe Im missing something, but I think all of the above make it way, way too risky, she told the E-Commerce Times. Id probably take delivery as long as Amazon made it completely clear Id be held harmless in the event of any of the above. Apple is well-known for keeping a tight lid on its behind-the-scenes activities. That's why, when it announced last summer that it would be launching a public beta program for iOS, many were surprised by the move. As it turns out, there's a perfectly good explanation for the iOS public beta program. In 2012, Apple experienced what went down as one of its biggest blunders in recent memory. I'm of course referring to its decision to replace the venerable Google Maps with its own mapping app in iOS 6. The problem wasn't so much the decision but Apple's failure to vet the data for which its app relied on. Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet software and services, said in a recent interview with Fast Company that to everyone who privately tested the Maps app in Cupertino, everything seemed great. Not testing the app outside of their Cupertino bubble, however, proved to be a critical misstep. The early Maps app was so bad that Tim Cook personally apologized for it shortly after launch, going so far as to recommend users try third-party apps like Bing, MapQuest or Waze as they worked to fix it. Shortly after, it was announced that Siri and Maps boss Scott Forstall was leaving the company. Cue said that the reason customers are now able to test iOS is because of Maps. Image courtesy Denys Prykhodov, Shutterstock A recently discovered bug in Samsung Pay could allow hackers to intercept tokens generated by the contactless payment system and use them to make fraudulent payments. A proof of concept exploit was detailed by Salvador Mendoza during a Black Hat talk in Las Vegas. The problem lies within Samsung Pay's tokenization process, in which credit card data is obfuscated in order to ensure it's not shared with the merchant or with Samsung itself during a purchase. These tokens are automatically generated when the user initiates the purchase. However, if the purchase is not completed, the token will still remain active for 24 hours even after the session ends. If the user initiates a new purchase a new token will be generated. In the video below Mendoza demonstrates how it's possible to use a concealed skimming device to obtain the token as it's generated. He then loads it into a tool called MagSpoof, which he uses to make a purchase with on a vending machine. Of course, in a typical situation a token would only be useful for a few seconds before it is used to authorize an actual payment. Samsung acknowledges the problem but says such attacks are "extremely difficult" to pull off because of this. However, in a targeted attack, all it takes is some social engineering to get a user to unsuspectingly generate a token by authenticating but not completing a payment. Mendoza suggests that a hacker might trick the user by asking for a demo of Samsung Pay. Or with a little more access by setting up a fake payment terminal in a shop. What's more, Mendoza claims Samsung Pay follows a pattern to generate tokens and once the initial payment token is intercepted, a user's future tokens can be guessed and generated elsewhere. Samsung is refuting this last part noting "Samsung Pay does not use the algorithm claimed in the Black Hat presentation to encrypt payment credentials." Didi Chuxing, the dominant ride-hailing service in China, has announced that it will buy Uber's operations in the country. The deal between Uber and Didi is valued at $35 billion, putting an end to stiff competition between the two companies in China. The San Francisco-based Uber will have 5.89 percent stake in Didi. Travis Kalanick, Uber's CEO, will join Didi's board, while Cheng Wei, the founder and chairman of Didi, will join Uber's board. "Sustainably serving China's cities, and the riders and drivers who live in them, is only possible with profitability. This merger paves the way for our team and Didi's to partner on an enormous mission, and it frees up substantial resources for bold initiatives focused on the future of cities - from self-driving technology to the future of food and logistics," says an internal message sent to Uber's staff. Following the deal, both the companies will retain their individual apps, brands as well as business operations. However, the managerial expertise and technological knowhow will be integrated as part of the merger. Uber is operating in over 60 cities across China and the company is serving about 40 million rides per week. However, Uber's operations in China are not as big as Didi's. Jean Liu, the president of Didi, says that there are more than 15 million registered drivers in the country and over 300 million registered users of its ride-hailing services. "With the addition of the strong talents and experience of the Uber China team, Didi Chuxing will be even better-positioned to serve the Chinese people. Didi Chuxing will also continue to expand its international strategy. We look forward to working with our partners at home and abroad to create more value for drivers, passengers and communities," says Liu. Although Didi has a dominant position in China, the company is also partnering with many other companies to expand its reach outside China. Didi has agreed to work in the United States in partnership with Lyft. The company wants to partner with Ola in India and with Grab in Southeast Asia. These collaborations can get slightly complicated with Didi's deal with Uber in China. Market experts suggest that China is a tough market in terms of culture, competition and regulations. Uber is not the first company that is selling its Chinese operations to a domestic player. In 2005, Yahoo also sold its operations in the country to Alibaba. Competition in China has led to losses for Uber. However, a deal with Didi may help the company to reduce losses and prepare itself for an initial public offering soon. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. It's highly possible for large quantities of energy and matter to survive entering a black hole and come out on the other side, suggests a team of researchers from the Universities of Valencia and Lisbon. Studying black holes can be tricky because laws of physics don't apply to them. It has been believed that when massive amounts of energy and matter become concentrated in an infinitely small space known as the gravitational singularity, they are destroyed, as space-time curves toward infinity. However, in a study published in the journal Classical and Quantum Gravity, Gonzalo Olmo and colleagues beg to differ. According to Olmo, black holes are great for testing out new concepts about gravity, acting like a theoretical laboratory. In this particular study, he applied geometric structures like a graphene layer or crystal, which are not usually used for describing black holes as they better match what occurs inside the space object. In the same way that crystals feature imperfections within their microscopic structure, Olmo explained, a black hole's center can be considered a space-time anomaly calling for new elements to more precisely describe them. As such, the researchers exhausted all possible options, relying on facts observed in nature for guidance. With the help of the new geometric elements, the researchers were able to come up with a way of describing wormholes where the center is a tiny spherical surface. According to the researchers, this surface is a sign that a wormhole exists within a black hole. Olmo said their theory naturally resolves several problems in the interpretation of electrically charged black holes, adding that the existence of a "door" at the center of a black hole points to a way for space and time to continue. The wormhole predicted by the study is smaller in size than an atom nucleus but it grows bigger as more energy is consumed and stored by a black hole. In theory, if a traveler enters a black hole, they would be "spaghettified," which allows entry into a wormhole. Once they exit the wormhole, however, they would return to their normal size. The researchers acknowledge that it is unlikely for a star to survive a trip through a wormhole but the model they used propose that only a change in form would occur. Matter will not be lost but it will be expelled out to the other side, finding its way to another portion of the universe in the process. Additionally, the black hole back doors the researchers are referring to will not require exotic sources of energy to create wormholes. Aside from connecting two points in the universe through space-time doors, there is interest in wormholes in theoretical physics to help in explaining phenomena like quantum entanglement. Photo: Hubble ESA | Flickr 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. I am a Canna What Flower Are You? table width="145">"You stand up for what you believe in, even if it gets in the way of what other people think. You are proud of yourself and your accomplishments and you enjoy letting people know that." Passengers of Delta Air Lines will continue to face flight cancellations and delays on Tuesday morning after a power outage caused the airline's computer system to bog down. The system failure at the carrier's head office in Atlanta led to the cancellation of more than 870 flights on Monday, stranding tens of thousands of local and international travelers. The entire Delta Air Lines network, from the mobile app and website to the check-in systems at airports, went dead for a total of six hours starting at 2:38 a.m. ET. And, although flights have resumed and the airline is now fully operational, the cancellations could continue to produce a domino effect. The number of affected passengers could increase, heading into early Tuesday morning, the airline company says. Delta predicts that more than 100 flights are still expected to be canceled and another 200 delayed in the morning following the system failure, even with recovery efforts now in place and rolling out overnight. Officials are now investigating what sparked the outage and why network equipment and critical systems failed to switch over to the airline's backup mode. Electric utility company Georgia Power is pointing at an equipment called a "switchgear" bogging down and affecting only Delta, CNN Money reports. Passengers who are scheduled to fly on Tuesday are advised to check their flight status through the Fly Delta App or on delta.com, where they can also opt to rebook their flights. Delta is also offering accommodations to some stranded passengers who have been forced to stay overnight, and compensation to those who have been "significantly affected." Still, other options exist for flyers, such as asking for a refund or to be placed on a rival airline. Ed Bastian, Delta CEO, has expressed his regret over the disruption and assured customers of the company's "all hands on deck effort." "The Delta team is working very, very hard to restore and get these systems back as quickly as possible," Bastian says in a video posted by the Delta News Hub on Twitter. At the biggest airports across the country, from San Francisco to New York, thousands of Delta passengers were forced to sleep on the floor, at lounges and near boarding gates, awaiting word on their flight status. Flights coming into the U.S. from London, Rome and Tokyo suffered similar delays, according to passengers who took to Twitter to air their grievances. Observers estimate Delta, which is the world's second largest airline company with a revenue of $40 billion, will face losses of up to tens of millions of dollars and could take about a week to go back to normal operations. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 with 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of internal storage may hit the shelves in China in early September. The smartphone maker launched the highly anticipated Galaxy Note 7 on Aug. 2 and claims that the Galaxy Note 7's CPU is 31 percent more powerful and its GPU is 58 percent more capable. "Galaxy Note 7 brings several upgrades on board from a faster and more adept processor to a better GPU. With this kind of muscle under the hood, as well as 4 GB of RAM, you have the power to do more, go far," says Samsung. However, many customers were disappointed as the handset packs in 4 GB of RAM as opposed to the expected 6 GB of RAM. A previous Tech Times report pointed that a Galaxy Note 7 model with 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of internal storage appeared on GeekBench, which excited many fans, but this model is expected to be launched only in China. Samsung has not revealed any detail about a Galaxy Note 7 with bigger RAM and more internal storage, but latest rumors now suggest that preorders of this version will start in China on Aug. 26 and hit the shelves on Sept. 2. The regular Galaxy Note 7 with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage will be priced at 5,688 yuan in China, or $854. Rumors claim that the 6 GB model of the phablet will have a slightly steeper price tag of 6,088 yuan or $914. Fortunately, other hardware specs such as the processor, battery and camera remain the same in the 4 GB and 6 GB models of the Galaxy Note 7. A number of smartphones with 6 GB of RAM such as the OnePlus 3 and ZTE Axon 7 have made their way to the market in 2016. All previous mobile phones in the Galaxy Note series included the best specs and customers were hoping that the Galaxy Note 7 would be at par with these handsets. Smartphones are used to perform a number of tasks and high RAM is preferred by customers for uninterruptible experience. It is worth noting that phones with 4 GB of RAM are swift enough to offer a seamless user experience. As Samsung has not confirmed any detail about a Galaxy Note 7 with 6 GB of RAM, rumors should be treated with a pinch of salt. However, if Samsung indeed launched a Galaxy Note 7 with 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB internal storage in China, then customers would hope the handset manufacturer also releases the model in other regions in the near term. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Samsung took the wraps off the successor of its Galaxy Note 5 the stylus-equipped Galaxy Note 7 phablet on Aug. 2 and opened the preorders for the handset a day later in many parts of the United States. The preorders for the Galaxy Note 7 opened in Samsung's home country South Korea on Aug. 6, on local network operators KT Corp., SK Telecom Co. and LG Uplus Corp. Barely two days after the booking for the Galaxy Note 7 phablet was made available in South Korea, the preorders have touched 200,000 units, most probably buoyed by the excitement for the device. This number not only bears testament to the popularity of the Samsung phablet, but also gives the Galaxy Note 7 the distinction of having twice the number of preorders placed on the Galaxy S7. The preorders are also the highest ever for a Galaxy smartphone in South Korea. "Samsung Electronics' new smartphone Galaxy Note 7 saw more than 200,000 preorders over the past two days, double that of its S7 sibling, industry data showed on Aug. 9," revealed publication Korea Herald. So what gives the Galaxy Note 7 an edge over previous Galaxy smartphones? The top-end features and specs of the Galaxy Note 7, in tandem with aggressive marketing tactics from Samsung, are reportedly responsible for luring more consumers. Unlike previous Galaxy Note models, the latest version of the phablet boasts an enhanced S Pen stylus, which is not only water-resistant, but also boasts higher pressure sensitivity when compared to older iterations. Moreover, Samsung has also introduced a dual-edge curved display for the Galaxy Note 7 a first for the series. The phablet is now dust and waterproof for the first time and houses an iris scanner, which is bound to draw many consumers. In another first, the Samsung phablet offers support for USB Type-C charging. Samsung is not leaving any stone unturned when it comes to marketing the device. If the attractive features of the 5.7-inch Galaxy Note 7 were not sufficient to entice buyers, the company is also throwing in the Gear Fit 2 activity tracker worth $177 for free for consumers in South Korea who preorder the handset. Samsung sweetens the deal by promising buyers a 50 percent discount on the repairing charges for the Galaxy Note 7 in the event the display of the device ever breaks. That is not all, the marketing mavens at Samsung have come up with the ploy of offering buyers a gift card worth 100,000 won or $90, which is usable at the Samsung Pay Mall. The company also has 2,800 experience zones where one can get hands-on time with the phablet across its home country. By comparison, Samsung had 2,000 experience zones for sibling Galaxy S7. The response to the Galaxy Note 7 in its home ground will be welcomed by Samsung. It will be interesting to see if the preorders break more records in the days to come, but whether the Galaxy Note 7 can replicate this success in other parts of the world remains to be seen. The Samsung phablet will hit the global shelves on Aug. 19. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. In a letter sent to the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ), the legal defense team of purported Kickass Torrents (KAT) ringleader Artem Vaulin is pushing to have the charges dropped and Vaulin released from prison. The torrent scene started heading down a bleak path when alleged KAT owner Artem Vaulin was arrested and charged with copyright infringement, among other charges. KAT, the world's largest torrent site, ceased operations recently, spelling trouble for the torrenting world. Not long after, Torrentz shut down without any explanation, bidding farewell after 13 years of serving as the world's largest torrent search engine, further heralding a dark period for torrenting. The alleged KAT owner has been in prison since his arrest but has hired Ira Rothken as his lead legal counsel, significantly boosting his chances of release. Rothken successfully managed to keep Megaupload's Kim Dotcom free for years and is expected to pull off a similar victory for Vaulin as well. Without wasting any time, Vaulin's legal defense team now urges the DOJ to release Vaulin at once and drop the charges against him. According to the defense, Vaulin cannot be held criminally responsible for the pirated copyrighted material potentially downloaded by KAT users. The defense argues that allegations against Vaulin are baseless and the charges don't hold up. TorrentFreak has shared a letter (PDF) from Vaulin's defense team to the DOJ, requesting the authorities to release Vaulin from prison as soon as possible and dismiss the criminal complaint against him, albeit not mentioning whether Vaulin is indeed the owner of Kickass Torrents. As expected, one of the main issues the defense raises is the fact that the potentially infringing actions were performed by KAT users and Vaulin cannot be held criminally liable for that as indirect or secondary copyright infringement does not have a statute under U.S. law. "This alleged criminal copyright case arises out of an erroneous theory of criminal copyright law advanced by the United States that attempts to hold Artem Vaulin criminally liable for the alleged infringing acts of KAT's search engine users," Vaulin's legal defense team argues. The KAT website only stored torrent files, but did not actually host any infringing content, the lawyers further highlight. In this context, any potential copyright infringement would occur once KAT users left the site. "Defendants cannot be held criminally responsible for what users do after they leave the KAT search engine behind. The Copyright Act does not criminalize secondary copyright infringement," adds the defense. Furthermore, the lawyers point out that several irrelevant, misleading and incorrect allegations made their way to the affidavit, misinterpreting how KAT and BitTorrent technology worked. The affidavit also falls short when it comes to listing specific examples that would link Vaulin to the allegedly infringing downloads. Pouring more gas onto the fire, the lawyers point out that the only relevant infringement referenced is the one performed by a Homeland Security Investigations agent. The fact that there are no specific allegations linking Vaulin to the infringements indicates that the purported KAT ringleader was not directly tied to the copyright infringing, highlights the defense team. Considering that the criminal charges hold no merit, Vaulin's attorneys see no reason why the defendant would not be released from prison immediately, with the charges dropped. Lastly, the letter to DOJ urges authorities not to interview, interrogate or question Vaulin, but to allow the defense team to speak with their client in prison at once. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Google Search To Help Order Food, Reserve Table On Swiggy And Zomato | TechTree.com Google Search has introduced a new feature that would enable smartphone users to either reserve a table on Zomato or order food on Swiggy while searching for nearby restaurant. Google confirmed the same through a blog post that read, when people search for a nearby restaurant on their phone, theyll see an option to Place an order in the search results. Just tap that and choose your favourite delivery service like Zomato or Swiggy and youll be taken to their website to complete the order. Users will be able to order food via Zomato and Swiggy, and make restaurant reservations with Dineout and Bytplus using Google Search and the Google app on your Android or iOS devices. Google has stated that its keen on adding more partners to help users benefit from the new feature. Zomato had recently partnered with Freecharge to enable users across 10 cities to pay online for their orders. Swiggy won the People Startup of the Year Award at NDTV Unicorn Start-Up Awards 2016 and has its presence across 8 cities across India. TAGS: Swiggy, Zomato, Google, Google search, iOS, Android Phones running with Qualcomm processors beware! Quadrooter, a security flaw in phones with that brand of processors, allows hackers to take control via 4 essential routes. According to Check Point software technologies, who informed of the vulnerabilities, mentioned in a blog post, "If exploited, QuadRooter vulnerabilities can give attackers complete control of devices and unrestricted access to sensitive personal and enterprise data on them. Access could also provide an attacker with capabilities such as keylogging, GPS tracking, and recording video and audio," reported TOI. What makes the situation even more tricky is that the vulnerability is exposed by a malicious software that would hardly need any permission of the user to work, which would not generate any suspicion on part of the phone user. According to the details in the Check Point blog post, Quadrooter directly affects a smartphone's drivers which control the communication between different chipset components. The issue further becomes weak as the vulnerable drivers are generally pre-installed by phone makers during the manufacturing process, so to combat the issue currently, the phone makers need to send in security patches for a cover up. Hence, Check Point has recommended that users download and use the latest Android updates as and when they become available, avoid APK files and also read app permission requests with care before installing and usage. Some of the more prominent handsets which have been lent vulnerable include Samsung Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 Edge, OnePlus 3, Google Nexus 5X, Nexus 6, Nexus 6P, LG G4, LG G5 , LG V10, OnePlus One, OnePlus 2, OnePlus 3, apart from a few others. Even before the plane left the runway, it was clear the crew of researchers examining the fallout from Californias historic drought would not return with good news.A column of gray smoke from a smoldering brush fire was visible from McClellan Airfield outside Sacramento, a reminder of the threat that the hot, dry weather posed for the states forests the subject of the high-flying mission.The four crew members were halfway through two weeks of flights over landscapes shifting ominously from green to brown, and already theyd begun to draw their conclusion: The mind-boggling number of trees that have died in California due to drought an estimated 66 million over five years is only the beginning.The death toll will probably rise by tens of millions of trees, even if heavier rains come this year, said Greg Asner, head of the team from Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C.Using technology that has diagnosed problems in the Amazon rain forest and the jungles of Borneo, the researchers are learning that Californias unprecedented tree die-off is moving well beyond its origins in the southern Sierra Nevada and along parts of the southern coast. Its creeping farther north, and to higher elevations, not only providing tinder for wildfires, but also obstructing the forests fundamental ability to provide clean water and absorb carbon dioxide.Its not just the numbers of trees lost. Its the implications, said Asner, who works out of Stanford University when hes not in the air. The scientist in me is quite happy that we have a predictive capability, but the human in me and the naturalist in me is quite shocked.On this particular day, late last month, the plan was to jet south from Sacramento to ground zero of the epidemic, then turn and head north, where the flyover would yield a clearer picture of just how high and far the problem extends.Youre not really seeing anything yet, said Asner, as he peered out the window at a splash of amber in an otherwise green canopy of trees shortly after takeoff. Wait until we get farther along.Flying in the Carnegie Institutions 54-foot, custom-built, twin-turboprop plane can be unnerving.Its not that the scientific instruments take up so much room that theres no bathroom, requiring six hours of discipline on the part of crew members. And its not the turbulence, because the ride is surprisingly smooth, much like a small commercial aircraft. A sign in the cockpit reads, No acrobatic maneuvers, including spins, approved.Whats daunting is the remarkable ability of the plane to collect data on nearly every tree it flies over from 7,700 feet above and use the information to foretell the grim future of the forest.Aboard the Carnegie Airborne Observatory is a one-of-a-kind imaging spectrometer that uses sunlight to measure the molecular composition of trees. By determining water content, the researchers can pinpoint which trees are becoming too dry to survive, even when they may appear perfectly healthy.Even though it looks green to the naked eye those trees are departed, theyre gone, said Asner. Youre in the presence of technology that many people dont think exists.The crews forecasts have proved extraordinarily accurate. Last year, when the team flew a similar mission in California, the researchers identified 58 million trees that were dead or close to dying, just shy of the 66 million casualties cited in a U.S. Forest Service count released this summer.I was told by a lot of people that it wouldnt ever spread as far, said Asner, as he mapped the die-off on his onboard computer with crewmate Joseph Heckler. But look what were flying over. Most of this was all fine last year.As the aircraft pushed to the southern Sierra, not far from Fresno, clover-green hillsides gave way to sprawling patches of yellow, orange and cinnamon. High-elevation lakes, like Shaver Lake in Fresno County and Bass Lake in Madera County, were almost completely surrounded by dead trees. Wooded canyons in Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks appeared rust-colored. Mountains east of Bakersfield were bronze.The plane veered toward the coast, flying over the Los Padres National Forest near Santa Barbara. It was more of the same.On this particular afternoon, the skies were unusually smoky above Southern California. Airspace had been closed near Los Angeles to accommodate planes doing battle with a 41,000-acre blaze north of the city. The Carnegie Airborne Observatory was forced to make a slight change to its flight plan.The potential for catastrophic wildfire, Asner said, is the most immediate danger presented by dying trees.The U.S. Forest Service and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, which fight the bulk of the states wildfires, are helping fund the Carnegie Institutions flights, along with the National Park Service and David and Lucile Packard Foundation.Prediction will give the agencies a chance to be less reactive, said Asner, noting the ability of fire officials to start prescribed burns and forest thinning in more vulnerable areas.But the repercussions of the tree die-off dont end with fire.Rivers and lakes whose water is naturally filtered by forests are likely to become more degraded as trees perish, potentially hurting water supplies. Meanwhile, the carbon stored in trees is released into the atmosphere when they die, contributing to the buildup of greenhouse gases and global warming.Ultimately, the magnitude of tree mortality may signal a wholesale transformation of the forest. Some scientists speculate that woodlands, in many areas, will disappear and give way to brush and grasses that are more tolerant of hotter, drier weather.Noah Diffenbaugh, a climate expert who works with Asner at Stanford, sees the drought as the beginning of a future full of similarly arid periods, which could reshuffle the geography of plants and animals.Theres mountains of evidence that climate shifts have led to changes in ecosystems, Diffenbaugh said.As the plane curled back toward the Sierra, Asner wondered aloud whether the forests had already begun to radically change.The die-off that started with mostly ponderosa pine at roughly 6,000 feet, along with cedar and oaks, is moving to trees at higher elevations such as sugar pine and red and white fir. Little of the forest appears immune, he said.Is it a drought or is it a mega-shift? Asner asked.The trees are not only compromised by thirst, but also a lack of strength to fend off beetle attacks, which are responsible for a great deal of the deaths. The trees are several years short of water, according to the researchers, so dry that they need the nourishment of at least two or three wet years to begin reversing the decline.The latest species experiencing problems is the western white pine. The crew recently found stands of those trees as high as 8,000 feet struggling.Before the plane climbed to survey a tall mountain pass, pilots Don Koopmans and Devon Woodward slipped on their oxygen masks.I dont know if those trees are going to die, said Asner, having recorded the water content of a number of white pines. But theyre stressed.One of the few trees that remains unaffected by drought is the giant sequoia. The titans of the forest can live 3,000 years, and theyve seen plenty of dry periods before.While few parts of California have escaped the die-off, the vast tracts of dead trees visible in the southern Sierra are not as prevalent to the north. The Bay Area, for example, has seen relatively little damage.Still, as the plane sped along the western edge of Yosemite National Park, back to McClellan Airfield, Asner pointed to several brown areas.What were seeing is a movement of the wave of tree mortality up north as you go up the Sierras, he said.Asners crew recently found swaths of lifeless trees around Lake Tahoe, and the water measurements suggest more will emerge. Even trees near Mount Shasta and along the northern coast are dying, though in smaller numbers.Asner anticipates his research will show the impact of the drought and beetle infestation to be double what it was last year not necessarily twice as many dead trees, he said, but twice as much stress on forests. The extent of the problem will be detailed in a paper that Asner plans to write after the flights, which concluded Friday.The spreading of dead trees has been much faster than I thought would happen, he said, before the plane began its final descent.By the end of the day, news emerged that the states budding wildfire season fueled by dying trees had claimed its seventh life when a bulldozer overturned in a firefight along the Big Sur coast.Gov. Jerry Brown has streamlined funding to remove dead and fire-prone trees under an emergency order issued last year. But the few hundred thousand that have been felled so far will have limited benefit. The cutting isnt likely to keep up with the die-off.If it doesnt rain or snow, it will just keep going, Asner said. Im not optimistic. Finding Secret Command In DOS Could Fetch You $100,000 In Prize Money For long, there have been rumors floating around that Microsoft copied CP/M to create MS-DOS for the IBM PC. So, in 2012, IEEE Spectrum used the services of Consultant Bob Zeidman who used forensic tool to examine the code. In his investigation, he found that there were no signs of copying, which he also mentioned in Did Bill Gates Steal the Heart of DOS? After the examination of the code was done by Zeidman, the previously unavailable source code for MS-DOS was donated by Microsoft to the Computer History Museum. Zeidman has used QDOS to do his original analysis. Later, the museum also traced and released a more complete version of the CP/M source code. Zeidman re-ran his analysis, and presented the results at the Vintage Computer Festival West on August 6. So, what was the conclusion of the analysis? According to the investigation, there was no evidence of copying code nor the proof to back-up a long-running rumour that there is a secret command in MS-DOS that can be called to print out a copyright notice in Gary Kildalls name. For those unfamiliar, Gary Kildall was an American computer scientist and microcomputer entrepreneur who created the CP/M operating system. While it was confirmed that there were signs of copying code, however, Zeidman did find out that no less than 22 system calls were copied from CP/M to MS-DOS, which had the same function and function number. The system calls are the commands used to request an action, like reading from a hard disk or sending text to a printer. According to Zeidman, Kildall might have had a copyright claim for the system calls that it could have litigated against Microsoft. On the other hand, there is a good chance Microsoft could have beaten such litigation by claiming it was a fair use. Zeidman has had a lot of pushback in the meantime since his original article was published, partly because it seems that at the time, he had an open consulting contract with Microsoft. However, Zeidman claims that it was an old and inactive contract with Microsoft and he has since cut off all ties. Therefore, he has declared a prize money of $200,000, of which $100,000 is for anyone who can use accepted forensic techniques to prove the copying, and another $100,000 for anyone who can determine the secret Kildall copyright function. His full analysis of the code and supporting documents are here. Source: IEEE Spectrum Japanese Doctors Use AI To Detect Rare Leukaemia Artificial Intelligence (AI), which is looked upon as a threat to humans, as they are rumoured to take place of humans in factories, industries, etc. in the coming years turned saviour for a patient suffering from leukaemia. Yes, you heard it right! A team of Japanese doctors turned to IBMs AI system, Watson for help after the treatment for an 60-year-old woman suffering from leukaemia proved unsuccessful. The AI was successfully able to find out that she actually suffered from a different, rare form of leukaemia, as the disease had gone undetected using conventional methods by the doctors. Arinobu Tojo, a member of the medical team, told Efe news on Friday that the University of Tokyos Institute of Medical Science has successfully used the new method of diagnosis, which includes a computer programme capable of studying a huge volume of medical data. Watson, which has been jointly developed by the US IBM and other firms, looked at the womans genetic information and compared it to 20 million clinical oncology studies. It later determined that the patient had an exceedingly rare form of leukaemia and recommended a different treatment which was successful. Originally, the woman had been diagnosed with, and treated for, acute myeloid leukaemia; however, she failed to respond to the traditional treatment methods, which confounded doctors. The conventional method of diagnosis for different types of leukaemia is based on an evaluation by a team of medical specialists after studying the genetic information of patients as well as the clinical studies available; an enormous task owing to the huge amount of data to be gone through. Satoru Miyano, a Professor at the University of Tokyos Institute of Medical Science, points out that this is proof enough of the ability that AI likely has in the coming years, to change the world. This is the nations first case of an AI saving someones life, emphasizing that this is the most practical application in the field of medical and health care for artificial intelligence, added Seiji Yamada, of the National Institute of Informatics and chairman of the Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence. What was remarkable was that the AI was able to diagnose the condition in just 10 minutes. Whether we would be able to see AI as a regular feature in the hospital in the coming years only time will tell. Elecciones presidenciales El pais mas grande de la region elige este domingo a su proximo mandatario. Tras no lograr hacerse con la mayoria de los votos en los comicios del 2 de octubre, Luis Inacio "Lula" Da Silva y Jair Bolsonaro se disputan la Presidencia en una balotaje que enfrenta tendencias y valores contrapuestas. Con equipos en el terreno, Telam presenta una cobertura exclusiva con noticias, analisis, opinion, fotos y mas. O Globo will broadcast the last presidential debate on Friday night. Voting intention surveys show that Lula da Silva is the favorite to win the ballot. | Read More Kien Giang police have arrested three Vietnamese men accused of abducting six Cambodian people and demanding ransoms from their families. Police said the Cambodian group entered Vietnam to find jobs a month ago. Three weeks later when they were about to return home, they met a Vietnamese man known only as Cuong. Cuong reportedly promised to help them find work for VND300,000 (US$14) a day. He then drove the group from HCMC to Kien Giang Province where he handed them over to Ly Hong Sinh, 56, Nguyen Van Dung, 51, and Tran Van Duong, 46. Cuong allegedly took VND18 million from the trio and left. The trio then locked the Cambodian group in a hotel room after failing to force them to work as offshore fishermen. They then made the abductees to call their relatives for ransoms of VND3 million each. A neighbor contacted the police after noticing suspicious activities. All the victims have been rescued. Police are hunting for Cuong. Part of the forest in Lam Dong Province which has been destroyed by illegal loggers. Photo: Lam Vien A forest protection officer in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong was killed on Monday, allegedly in an attack by illegal loggers. Police said Nguyen Ai Tinh, 49, died with a cut on his neck during a patrol on Monday afternoon. His two colleagues have been hospitalized with severe injuries. Investigators believed Tinhs team found a group of people cutting down pine trees in a protected area. The group then called around 100 others to come over and assist them, bringing canes and weapons. The rangers requested backup, but Tinh died quickly after police arrived. The case is now being investigated and no arrest has been made. Vietnam has lost a total of 2,689 hectares (6,644 acres) of forest so far this year, including 694 hectares due to illegal logging, according to the agriculture ministry. The Central Highlands region, famous for its lush scenery, lost 14 percent of its forest area to illegal logging between 2008 and 2014. While some forest rangers have been fighting a losing war against the large number of rampant loggers, many officials have been criticized for condoning the crime. The Ministry of Investment and Planning has voiced concern over the quality of pipes that Hanoi will buy from a Chinese company to fix a major water line in the city, following 17 ruptures over the past four years. A statement from the ministry's Bidding Assistance Center said several projects in Vietnam have used the same ductile iron pipes supplied by Xinxing Pipes International Development Company and they have not satisfied the customers. The company's customers overseas also showed a lack of satisfaction, it said, as cited by news website VnExpress. The center released the statement after Viwasupco, the water utility subsidiary of construction firm Vinaconex, chose Xinxing as the supplier of ductile iron pipes for its Song Da water pipe system, whose existing fiberglass pipes kept broken. Viwasupco said it has surveyed Xinxing customers in Vietnam and all the responses were positive. Nguyen Van Ton, general director of Viwasupco, told local media on Wednesday that it received bidding applications from two Chinese companies, a French and an Indian one. Ton said Xinxing won the contract for being the only one meeting technical and financial requirements. Xinxing set its price at US$26.3 million, 12 percent less than the cost approved for the pipe supply package. The company will deliver the pipes this May, according to Viwasupco. The new pipe line, which will cost a total of $53.7 million to build, will run 21 kilometers to provide tap water for nearly 200,000 families in Hanoi. Local media counted that the current system, which cost $70 million, has broken 17 times since 2012, three years after the pipe was installed, although it was supposed to last at least 50 years. Nine former executives from Vinaconex have been prosecuted as the ruptures affected around 70,000 families every time. A disc duplicator at the facility of the piracy ring busted in Ho Chi Minh City on August 7. Photo credit: Nguoi Lao Dong The Ministry of Public Security on Sunday raided a facility in Ho Chi Minh City suspected of making thousands of CDs and DVDs of pirated movies and music every day. Police caught many workers duplicating discs illegally at the site in District 12, hidden behind a scrap metal shop. The workers confessed that the business had been running for several years using equipment worth "millions of dollars." They usually worked from 8 p.m. until early morning in soundproof rooms to avoid getting caught. The group allegedly produced about 15,000 CDs and DVDs a day, which would then be distributed to wholesalers. Police are now looking for the owner. They have not taken any measure against the workers. Song Da water pipeline in Hanoi has broken many times since 2012. File photo It is like a leak that cannot be controlled easily. Just when Hanoi was getting ready to move past a mortifying water pipe scandal that had seen multiple criminal charges, new controversies began to flood in. Soon after a Chinese company won a contract to provide new pipes for the rupture-prone system, local officials now question if it's even the right choice. The central government on Wednesday agreed to the city's request to intervene and delay the purchases from the company to conduct more thorough quality tests. Viwasupco, the water utility subsidiary of construction firm Vinaconex, last month chose Xinxing Pipes International Development Company as the supplier of ductile iron pipes for its Song Da water pipe system, whose existing fiberglass pipes kept broken. But t he city believed Viwasupco should do more research after the Bidding Assistance Center at the Ministry of Investment and Planning said ductile iron pipes supplied by Xinxing for several projects in Vietnam have not satisfied customers. The center said there have been negative responses about the quality from some customers in other countries as well. A Hanoi spokesman said the city has suggested that Viwasupco hire a capable international consultant to assess Xinxings pipes again. If the result is not satisfying, it has to restart the bidding process to select a new supplier. Lack of transparency Amid the growing concern, there have also been claims that the tender process lacked transparency. A statement from Viwasupco last month said Xinxing won the contract to supply pipes for the project, beating out other 20 companies. Xinxing set its price at US$26.3 million, 12 percent less than the cost approved for the pipe supply package, it said. The company was supposed to deliver the pipes this May, according to Viwasupco. A source from Jindal Saw-Newtatco, the Indian company that lost the contract to Xinxing in the final round, said it was not happy with the bidding process. There seemed to be a lack of transparency, the source told Tuoi Tre newspaper, pointing out unusual developments. Only four companies submitted bidding application forms, including Jindal Saw, another Chinese company Hydrochina Corporation and French Saint-Gobain PAM, although 21 bought the forms in the first place. The other two were eliminated soon after that as they were said to have not provided enough documents. Jindal Saws source said the other bidders are experienced companies and such mistakes were hard to explain. The new water pipe line, which will cost a total of $53.7 million to build, will run 21 kilometers to provide tap water for nearly 200,000 families in Hanoi. Local media counted that the current system, which cost $70 million, has broken 17 times since 2012, three years after the pipe was installed, although it was supposed to last at least 50 years. Nine former executives from Vinaconex have been prosecuted as the ruptures affected around 70,000 families every time. Song Da water pipe in Hanoi has been broken many times. Photo: Ngoc Thang State-owned construction firm Vinaconex has backed out of a deal to use pipes from a Chinese company to fix an unreliable water supply system in Hanoi amid concerns over the quality of the replacement. Viwasupco, the water utility subsidiary of Vinaconex, said in a new statement that it has canceled the plan to buy ductile iron pipes from Xinxing Pipes International Development Company for its Song Da water pipe system, whose existing fiberglass pipes kept broken. Xinxing was named the supplier for the project in March, beating out 20 other companies by setting its price at US$26.3 million, 12 percent less than the cost estimate. But after that, the Bidding Assistance Center at the Ministry of Investment and Planning said Xinxings ductile iron pipes have received negative feedback from some customers in Vietnam and other countries as well. Hanoi authorities thus asked Viwasupco to conduct further research and the request was supported by the central government. It is unclear what Viwasupco has found about Xinxing's products and whether there is any penalty for calling off the deal. Vinaconex will have to choose a new supplier for the pipe system. The new water pipe line, which will cost a total of $53.7 million to build, will run 21 kilometers to provide tap water for nearly 200,000 families in Hanoi. Local media counted that the current system, which cost $70 million, has broken 18 times since 2012, three years after the pipe was installed, although it was supposed to last at least 50 years. The latest rupture was last month. Nine former executives from Vinaconex have been prosecuted as the ruptures affected around 70,000 families every time. A court in Hanoi on Tuesday sentenced a man to seven years in prison for human trafficking after his victim escaped a brothel in China and reported the case to the police. Investigators said Tang Dinh Loc, 35, had promised the 38-year-old woman to help her find a job at a shop in Lao Cai Province near China. After winning her trust, he then brought her to a sex ring organizer in Lao Cai in February 2015 and got paid VND2 million, or less than US$100. The woman was then taken across the border and forced to work in a brothel, serving around ten clients each day. The victim managed to escape several days later and received help from Chinese police. She then returned to Vietnam. Loc was arrested last January. Human trafficking has been on the rise in Vietnam in recent year with more reports of women and children, almost always from poor areas, being trafficked into slave labor and prostitution in neighboring countries. A report from the Ministry of Public Security last month showed that nearly 4,500 victims were rescued in the last five years. The number of trafficking cases busted by the police during the period increased nearly 12 percent from the previous five years to 2,200. The luxury mooncake collection at Park Hyatt Saigon This autumn, Park Hyatt Saigon proudly presents an exclusive high-end mooncake collection, perfect for family gatherings and gifts during the meaningful Mid-Autumn Festival season. The Park Hyatt Saigon mooncake collection consists of four cakes in four different shapes, combining traditional and contemporary flavors. Pure Lotus Double York, consisting of pure lotus paste and double golden premium salted egg York, is cover with a Cantonese pastry skin. The cake is perfect for yolk lovers who crave for traditional flavor. Those who are in love with contemporary mooncakes can enjoy premium green tea with the lotus paste which provides a unique aromatic experience. The mixed nuts with Cantonese pastry skin is a mixture of varieties of nuts including almond, walnut, melon kernel seed that makes this mooncake even more tasting. Last but not least, the brand new Red bean Marmalade Mung Bean which consists of red bean paste with melon kernel seeds and marmalade mung bean and orange peels inside a Cantonese pastry skin will definitely bring you a special taste that you have never tried before. Park Hyatt Saigon also offers three different elegant and luxurious mooncake boxes. In addition to the classic box of four mooncakes, a second box offers an assortment of cookies and a bag of traditional green tea. The third box contains mooncakes, assorted cookies, green tea and a bottle of Muscat Beaumes De Venise dessert wine imported from France. These exquisite mooncakes will be available at Park Hyatt Saigon in limited quantities beginning 20th of August. For orders and more information, please call +84 8 3824 1234. Thursday Jazz evening at Park Lounge For the jazz lovers out there, starting this August: get ready to chill out to the smooth and soulful rhythm of Peche A La Mouche in the welcoming ambience of the Park Lounge at Park Hyatt Saigon. The French gypsy jazz band, founded in Ho Chi Minh City four years ago, will take you back to Paris in the middle of 1930s with the relaxing melody of the famous Django Reinhardt and his Hot Club de France Quintet. The gypsy genius Django Reinhardt created this music style and all along the twentys century was born his offspring made of talented and virtuosos musicians as Bireli Lagrene, Stochelo Rosenberg, Angelo Debarre, Evan Christopher, etc Featuring classic guitars by Nicolas Caumont and Indy Laville and the signature soprano saxophone of Olivier Dubois, Peche A La Mouche will bring you a relaxing time with a traditional French jazz repertoire every Thursday evening from 8:30 pm to 11:15 p.m. Let yourself be charmed by elegant and sensual jazz swing, and inflamed by the gypsy souls strings in one of the best lounges in town. For further information, please contact saigon.park@hyatt.com or call +84 8 3824 1234. Get the party started at 2 Lam Son Drawing a mix of international jet setters and fashionable Ho Chi Minh locals, 2 Lam Son bar serves a variety of premium beverages from vintage wines to refreshing signature cocktails. Located above the illuminated glass bar is a mezzanine floor that offers a cozy lounge seating area for more privacy. This month, spice up your night with our signature Spicy lemongrass fried chicken wings, perfectly paired with Lemongrass Martini in the stylist atmosphere of 2 Lam Son Bar. For further information, please contact saigon.park@hyatt.com or call +84 8 3824 1234. Savor the lobster dinner from Sandegna at Opera Chosen by many as a summer and beach destination, Sandegna, or best known as Sardinia, is famous for the clear and pristine waters, awarded time after time, and for the variety of its coasts. It is popular for the Emerald Coast, able to offer a mix between green clean waters by day and jet-set and fun by night, but it is likewise popular for the hidden coves and the wildest shores. Traditional home cooking in Sardinian calls for pastas served with rich sauces. They are also famous for fishing skills. Their signature seafood includes tuna from Carloforte, mullet and lobsters from Alghero. This month, Chef Matteo at Opera will take you to the beautiful island Sandegna and experience its cuisine especially made with lobster. Starting with Insalata di astice, also known as lobster salad, you will enjoy the mixture of lobster, leaves, orange, pine nuts, pecorino and honey chili dressing. The journey gets more tasteful with the Fettuccine affogate allastice, or you can simply call it the Fettuccine with pan roasted lobster, featuring cherry tomato and lobster bisque. Then, Chef Matteo will bring you the lobster plate, named as Astice alla piastra, which will truly excites you with grilled lobster, spring onion, crispy and soft potato. Please do not forget a sip of 2013 Frescobaldi Pomino Bianco from Tuscany to enhance the dinner flavors. For reservation or further information, please email opera.saiph@hyatt.com or call +84 8 3520 2357. When in Vietnam, dine as the Vietnamese do Vietnamese style of dining is not very different from other Asian countries. Different dishes are placed in the center of the table and each person will help him or herself to a serving. Traditional Vietnamese dining style is considered a way of sharing and connecting people when all family members gather for a dinner and create a bond among generations. When you are Vietnam, dine as the Vietnamese do. There is no better way to explore and understand a culture than through its cuisine and dinning style. Therefore, this month, Square One is proud to present two dinner set menus which are served at table with traditional Vietnamese family style. For those who are in love with local taste, you can enjoy the Vietnamese sharing menu for two. The dinner starts with five color vegetable salad, assorted spring rolls and bo la lot (grilled beef in piper lolot leaves) as appetizer. Then you will try the signature dishes including whole fried tilapia, charcoal chicken and thien ly flower, perfectly served with steamed rice. At the end of the journey, do not to treat yourself to a special house made sorbet and ice cream and a sip of freshly brewed coffee, tea or herbal infusion. Square One is well-known for Western food as well. This month, you can also enjoy a special sharing menu featuring local and Western cuisine. Some key highlights to mention are assorted spring rolls and pan seared crab cake as appetizer, whole fried tilapia and sliced US NY strip steak with grilled vegetables and mashed potato as main courses. To complete the dinner, you are free to pick two scoops of homemade sorbet and ice cream to enjoy with freshly brewed coffee, tea or herbal infusion. For reservation or further information, please email squareone.saiph@hyatt.com or call +84 8 3520 2359. Former Philippine President Fidel Ramos speaks to journalists during a trip to Hong Kong, China after the Hague court's ruling over the maritime dispute in South China Sea, August 9, 2016. Former Philippines President Fidel Ramos on Tuesday named the head of a Chinese government think-tank among the experts and officials he hoped to meet on a trip to rekindle ties with China soured by a maritime dispute in the South China Sea. On July 12, an arbitration court in the Hague ruled that China had no historic title over the busy waterway and had breached the Philippines' sovereign rights there, infuriating China, which had dismissed the case. "I've always been a very optimistic person, always looking for the best results," Ramos told reporters in Hong Kong. "But of course that also depends on the attitude of the Chinese officials." Ramos gave no details of his itinerary or of those he planned to meet, except for Wu Shicun, who heads the National Institute for South China Sea Studies think-tank, based on China's southern island of Hainan. Asked about others, such as China's former deputy minister for Foreign Affairs Fu Ying, Ramos said he did not know yet. "They all have links with Beijing, because some of them are already retired but elevated to the parliament as chairman of this and that committee." Ramos said he sought to improve economic and tourism links, such as by allowing "more fishing in the common fishing ground" of the Scarborough shoal in the Philippines' exclusive economic zone. "The idea is to use the South China Sea as a place to save lives, but not to kill people or to destroy lives," he added. China's 2012 seizure of the Scarborough Shoal, denying Philippine fishermen access, was among the factors that prompted Manila to seek arbitration. But China has ignored the court's ruling that none of its reefs and holdings in the Spratly Islands entitled it to a 200-mile exclusive economic zone. China claims almost the entire South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion of trade moves annually. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims in the sea, believed to be rich in energy deposits. Ramos, 88, who described his role as an "icebreaker", is known for an impromptu duet of Elvis Presley's 'Love Me Tender' with former Chinese president Jiang Zemin at a 1996 banquet. His trip represents "the first concrete step" in engagement for both sides and "could open a new chapter in settling disputes", China's state news agency, Xinhua, said in a commentary. Ramos was Philippines president from 1992 to 1998, when China occupied the submerged Mischief Reef. Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks to the Detroit Economic Club at the Cobo Center in Detroit, Michigan August 8, 2016. Fifty prominent Republican national security officials, including a former CIA director, on Monday called party nominee Donald Trump unqualified to lead the country and said he would be "the most reckless president in American history." The statement was the latest repudiation of Trump's candidacy by veteran Republican national security specialists, and was remarkable for the harshness of its language. "Mr. Trump lacks the character, values, and experience to be president. He weakens U.S. moral authority as the leader of the free world. He appears to lack basic knowledge about and belief in the U.S. Constitution, U.S. laws and U.S. institutions, including religious tolerance, freedom of the press, and an independent judiciary," the statement said. "None of us will vote for Donald Trump," said the statement, which noted that some signatories also have doubts about Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. "From a foreign policy perspective, Donald Trump is not qualified to be president and commander in chief," said the statement, which was first reported in the New York Times. "Indeed, we are convinced that he would be a dangerous president and would put at risk our country's national security and well-being." The signatories, some of whom worked for more than one Republican president, included former Central Intelligence Agency Director Michael Hayden, who also headed the National Security Agency; former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff; former Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte; and two former U.S. trade representatives, Carla Hills and Robert Zoelick. Other signatories included former senior State Department, Pentagon and National Security Council officials who helped plan and oversee the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. Trump has harshly criticized the Iraq operation, although when radio host Howard Stern asked him in 2002 if he favored invading Iraq, Trump said he guessed he did. The statement was organized by Philip Zelikow, who served as a top adviser to former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Trump responded with a statement deriding the signatories as members of "the failed Washington elite" who "deserve the blame for making the world such a dangerous place." These insiders along with Hillary Clinton are the owners of the disastrous decisions to invade Iraq, allow Americans to die in Benghazi, and they are the ones who allowed the rise of ISIS," he continued, using an acronym for the Islamic State militant group. Response to Trump's remarks The statement did not cite specific comments by Trump, but it clearly was a response to a series of remarks he has made questioning the need for NATO, expressing admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling for a temporary ban on immigration by Muslims, and inviting Russia to hack Clinton's private email server - which he later said was a joke. Many of the signatories had declined to sign an open letter disputing Trump's national security qualifications that was published in March. The statement said many Americans are frustrated with the federal government's failure to solve domestic and international problems. "But Donald Trump is not the answer to Americas daunting challenges and to this crucial election," the statement said. "We are convinced that in the Oval Office, he would be the most reckless President in American history. Some Democratic foreign policy experts called the statement a reminder of the divisions the New York real estate developer's nomination has sown within the Republican Party. This letter is signed by those who remain in the internationalist wing of the party many were former advisors to candidates who lost the primary fight to Trump," said Brian Katulis, a fellow at the Center for American Progress and a Clinton campaign adviser. Calling Trump unqualified to be commander in chief is tough, but also asserting that hes lacking in character and understanding of our basic values is really pretty amazing," said Tommy Vietor, a former National Security Council spokesman in Democratic President Barack Obama's administration. "That said, I think its unlikely to influence many voters, but it could give cover to Republican members of Congress and donors who want to cut the cord and move on from Trump. Thailand will hold a general election in 2017, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said on Tuesday, seeking to allay concerns his military government might delay plans for a return to democracy, days after the country endorsed a military-backed constitution. Sunday's referendum was seen as the biggest test yet of public opinion on the rule of Prayuth, who seized power in a May 2014 coup he said was aimed at ending years of political turmoil in the Southeast Asian nation. Under the junta's "roadmap" to restore democratic rule, Prayuth has previously said a general election will be held in 2017. A democratically elected government will take power at the earliest in 2017, a senior official said on Monday. Prayuth's comments followed urging by the U.S. State Department on Monday for Thai authorities to take steps to restore an elected, civilian government as soon as possible. "Please have confidence in the roadmap," Prayuth told reporters at Government House ahead of a cabinet meeting, in his first public comments since the referendum. "An election will take place in 2017, I have never said anything different to this." Analysts say a desire for greater political stability drove Sunday's "yes" vote, with 61 percent in favor, preliminary results show, from among a voter turnout of about 55 percent. Thailand has been rocked by more than a decade of political turmoil that has stunted growth, two military takeovers and deadly civil unrest. Critics, including major political parties, had criticized the constitution before the vote, saying it would constrict democracy, and give unelected lawmakers, including those appointed by the military, veto power over elected governments. There has been no sign of unrest since the referendum. Members of the anti-junta opposition say they are biding their time until the 2017 election, when they can try to scrap the military charter, if a party they back takes power. Photo provided by U.S. Distric Court -- Fans low into cells in death row at the Louisiana State Penitenary at Angola. Some inmates have complained about the conditions at the prison. With south Louisiana's summer heat and humidity kicking into high gear, the legal battle rages on over how to best protect three ailing condem Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. State authorities are deep into a criminal investigation of officials at the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, focused among other things on the potential misuse of government-issued credit cards and money from a BP grant. The probe was first reported last week by the political newsletter LaPolitics, which cited unnamed sources saying that a public report from the state inspector general and legislative auditor is expected in the coming weeks and that officials in the department would be shocked if there arent arrests. LaPolitics said that at least two whistleblowers had come forward with distinct allegations and that investigators are probing how the department spent a $8.6 million seafood testing grant awarded by BP after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill. Authorities also are examining contracts and possible nepotism, as well as improper purchases of clothing and other personal items with state money, the newsletter reported. Inspector General Stephen Street confirmed the probe in a telephone interview with The Advocate but said he could offer few details about its substance. Legislative Auditor Daryl Purpera confirmed he has a multi-disciplinary team of auditors on the job and said he expects a report within two months. East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore confirmed to The Advocate that he had received a letter from Charlie Melancon, secretary of the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, warning him that an investigation had uncovered possible criminal violations at the department. Moore said he wrote Melancon back seeking more information. Moore said he could not provide copies of the letters to The Advocate because the investigation is ongoing. LaPolitics reported that Melancons letter said there may have been misappropriation of public funds and assets by the previous administration of this agency. Purpera confirmed that the allegations being explored date from the previous gubernatorial administration. The department was headed by former state Sen. Robert Barham during former Gov. Bobby Jindals administration. Melancon, a former congressman, was appointed by Gov. John Bel Edwards. Barham now works as assistant secretary of the Office of State Parks, which is under the umbrella of Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser's office. In a telephone interview Wednesday, Barham said he had been interviewed by auditors for about two hours, but not by investigators with the Office of Inspector General. He said the process was not unlike the audits the agency undergoes annually. Among the questions he recalled auditors asking was why the department had purchased used boats in some cases instead of new ones. Barham said he did not typically get involved in such low-level decisions, as long as each section of the department stayed within its budget. Toby Gascon, Melancons chief of staff, said he couldnt divulge much about the probe. But he said that upon taking office, Melancon ordered a full review of spending with state-billed credit cards. Since then, he said, new checks and balances have been instituted to guard against improper purchases, and the number of credit cards issued to Wildlife and Fisheries employees has been cut by half. Editor's note: This story was updated Aug. 10 to include comments from former Wildlife and Fisheries Secretary Robert Barham. Advocate staff photo by TRAVIS SPRADLING -- Louisiana Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne, left, the chief budget architect for Gov. John Bel Edwards, talks with Sen. Sharon Hewitt, R-Slidell, in the last legislative session. FILE - In this May 9, 2011 file photo, the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola is seen in West Feliciana Parish, La. U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson expressed frustration as he questioned why prison officials won't spend roughly $1 million to install air conditioning on death row, since the state has already spent much more to fight this in court. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File) Advocate photo by J.T. BLATTY-- in New Orleans, La. Thursday, June 30, 2016. St. John Parish Sherriff Mike Tregre speaks during a press conference regarding new developments, motives, and additional arrests in the investigation concerning the murder of Taylor Friloux, 21, shift manager at the Raising Canes on Williams Boulevard in Kenner. Kenner Police Chief Michael J. Glaser stands to the left, and U.S. Marshal Jenny Mae to the right. Some doctors and nurses at Boston hospitals are less than thrilled with Epic Systems' health records software, based on their comments in a front-page story in the Boston Globe Tuesday. A coronial inquest in October will look at the circumstances surrounding the death of Oxley's Tim Smith-Brown. The inquest for Timothy Smith Brown, 24, is also set to look at whether ACT police followed guidelines when they pursued his car on the evening of September 4 last year. An inquiry into the death of a driver who fled police moments before a horrific three-car smash at Kambah will examine the impact of drugs in his system at the time, a court has heard. Police said Mr Smith-Brown sped off when they tried to pull him over and they called off a pursuit shortly before the collision. The wreckage from the fatal crash at Kambah in which Tim Smith-Brown, 24, died in September 2015. Credit:Jeffrey Chan Mr Smith-Brown's pregnant partner, Felicity Jessop was rushed to hospital and gave birth to a boy she named Tim later that night. A Kambah man, 66, and his wife, 64, were badly injured in the crash. Their two granddaughters also sustained injuries. The circumstances surrounding the crash are set to be explored in an inquest before the ACT Coroner's Court. Chief Minister Andrew Barr accused the Liberals of having "job cuts in their DNA" as he defended Labor's costings analysis during a raucous question time on Tuesday. The debate was sparked by reports on Tuesday morning that Labor had relied on a flawed analysis to state the Liberals would need to cut 2000 public service jobs if they took office. Chief Minister Andrew Barr, pictured last year, used Tuesday's question time to attack the Liberal party's record on public sector jobs. Credit:Jeffrey Chan Labor says the Liberals would need to spend $400 million to fulfil their election pledges and act on their various criticisms of government in the past four years. It said that would require them to cut 2000 jobs to recoup the money needed for spending. "There's a very rapidly closing window of opportunity. The current facilities are only just holding and if you delay this sort of infrastructure any longer it may well mean the wheels will come off the cart and the hospital won't cope ... The hospital is at breaking point." "It's a bloody fantastic initiative, it is just really a great piece of policy and we would really like to support this," ACT president Professor Stephen Robson said. It is the centrepiece of the Liberals' campaign for election, and has been greeted enthusiastically by the Australian Medical Association. An artist's impressions of the new Canberra Hospital building promised by the Liberals. The Liberals have revived Labor's plan, which was deferred in 2013 by then chief minister Katy Gallagher. Labor had planned a $800 million hospital, and after it was shelved, Labor commissioned a report on how to stage the rebuild instead. That resulted in a 2014 a "proof of concept" report led by architects Silver Thomas Hanley. The report, which the government never released, sets out a five-stage rebuild with a total cost of $1.2 billion. Work was supposed to have started in mid 2016. Mr Hanson is promising the first stage. It was costed at $375 million and he has added $20 million, plus $8 million a year for extra staff once the new hospital is operating in 2019. The five-storey block, to be built beside the main reception block, would become the main entrance, facing Yamba Drive. The ground floor would house an emergency department, which, at 5800 square metres, would be about 60 per cent bigger than the temporary, expanded, emergency department nearing completion. Above would be floors housing medical imaging, space for 20 operating theatres, of which 10 would come on line immediately, an intensive care unit with 48 beds compared with the current 31, and day-patient space. The 2014 report projected demand for emergency beds, day surgery and dialysis beds would fall well behind demand each year until the new building was ready in 2021-22, with demand in emergency rising from 69 beds in 2013-14 to 97 beds by 2020-21, but supply well behind, with just 57 beds available. A man in a balaclava who held up a club in Canberra's south escaped with cash through the back door, ACT Policing has said. The man entered the Mawson Club on Heard Street in Mawson about 4am on Monday, when he threatened two staff members with an undisclosed weapon. A man in a balaclava threatened staff at the Mawson Club on Monday morning. The staff members complied with the man's demands for cash before he ran away through the back of the building and into the car park, carrying a red cooler bag. Police have released a CCTV image that shows the man, clothed entirely in black except for a pair of white gloves, examining the contents of the bag. Police are hunting for two males who went on a "senseless" graffiti spree spraying obscene words and images on school buildings, businesses and cars in Isabella Plains. ACT Policing has released video footage of the vandals behind the "appalling property" damage which happened at the St Mary Mackillop College in Isabella Plains as well as businesses and cars in the area on Saturday. A CCTV still of one of the males who went on a "senseless" graffiti spree at Isabella Plains on Saturday. Credit:ACT Policing. When police arrived at the school on Saturday morning, they found extensive graffiti on the front entrance doors, tiles, external walls and windows. The vandals also damaged cars and businesses at the Isabella Plains shops on Kadina Street. When it comes to clashes against North Melbourne, Hawks star Jordan Lewis knows what will be coming. The blueprint for Saturday afternoon's match that neither team can afford to lose for very different reasons has been left dog-eared from one hard-edged battle after another between the teams. Lewis and his skipper, Luke Hodge, copped bans for striking after their round five encounter last year. "We expect that from North Melbourne," said Lewis on Tuesday of the Kangaroos' physicality. "Especially against us. They like to try to get under our skin. Malcolm Turnbull likes to quote a John Howard maxim: that politics is relentlessly driven by the laws of arithmetic. It's usually pretty hard to argue with, given the relentlessly faithless way parliamentarians tend to respond to bad polling data. Usually, but not at the moment. In the wake of this election, the laws of arithmetic have been open to pretty broad interpretation. While not the popular view right now, the case can be made and history may yet show that the result was a minor triumph for Malcolm Turnbull, who claimed a victory that looked highly unlikely under Tony Abbott. On the other hand, it was an electoral disaster in which he gambled and lost both more than a dozen MPs and authority in the Coalition party room. Bill Shorten took the ALP to the brink of an improbable victory while struggling to the second-lowest Labor primary vote in 70 years. The Greens overtook major party candidates to put a swag of inner-city Melbourne seats within striking distance next time but failed to pick up any of them, went backwards in the Senate and slumped into factional acrimony in NSW. Andrew Thornley North Parramatta So the much vaunted online census crashed at peak time. Is anyone really surprised? Now let us brace ourselves for online voting. Or maybe they will learn that latest, digital and cheapest is not always best. If something ain't broke don't fix it; just resource it adequately. Greg McCarry Epping Asking millions of people to log on to a single website in one night simply doesn't make sensus. Peter Fleming Ryde It's a pity that the opening night of "Census Online" was such a flop. Hopefully, there will be more rehearsals before "Election Online" opens. Carolyn Wills Cremorne Gold in the Census Olympics!! Hard copy 1 Internet 0. June Dibbs Mona Vale Well, I've handled the census form alright, but to maintain the euphoria of coming up with the right answers to myriad intrusive questions, can we have a few other similar form-filling recreations? How about a same-sex plebiscite in September, a referendum on indigenous inclusion in the Constitution in October, a cabinet tossing out of Malcolm Turnbull in November, followed by a nice wrap up to the year with a Christmas election to get things sorted once and for all in Canberra? Rosemary O'Brien Georges Hall Reminds me of the debacle years ago when the UK put online the enumeration schedules of the 1901 census, after they had been "closed" to public access for a hundred years. Much anticipated by family historians around the world, the site collapsed within a couple of hours and did not go live again for several months! Graham Lewis Lindfield I'm told that due to cyber-fraud, passwords are now safer on a post-it note under your keyboard, then stored on your PC. Perhaps the ABS should print out the census results and delete the online data. Tim Schroder Gordon ABS A Breathtaking Shambles. Pasquale Vartuli Wahroonga If the Government wants to promote some new policy that makes them look good, they spend millions in advertising it. If they really do need to inform the public about an important program like the census, there's not a cent to spare. Ian Shepherd Elizabeth Bay In our house we are civic minded; we don't mind paying tax. We like elections. We love census night. Since we cannot log on tonight because it's too busy, tomorrow will feel like we've missed Christmas. What a way to incense us. Nicholas Benson Newtown On the ninth day of August, the government sent to me, a link to the census website. Twelve willing completers Eleven "server not responding" Ten settings checked out Nine internet connections queried Eight mobile phones tried Seven calls to helpline Six laptops checked (again) Five quirky ringtones downloaded Four hours of life wasted Three iPads locked out Two family conflicts And a fine for a night of our lives Deborah Tait Gosford I've just lost control of my census. Steve Baker Engadine Back to snail mail for me. David Hackforth Willoughby Listening to the head of Census 2016 trying to convince Australians that its hacked computers weren't really hacked was as excruciating as John Hewson lecturing Mike Willesee on GST charges on cakes and George Brandis tying himself up in knots over metadata. Where is there a train to throw yourself under when you really need one? Paul Miles Gorokan Strangely enough, my paper copy of the census form did not crash while I filled it out at the diner table last night. True, I was worried that at some stage my black ballpoint pen might give out, but following technical advice I had a back-up. Rob Wills Point Lookout (Qld) Will Turnbull do an Abbott and shirt-front those pesky international hackers? Rod Tuck Katoomba The census fiasco was Labor's fault. Joan Kunze Penrith Making most of luck requires taking risks Ross Gittins provides a stimulating insight into wealth creation in his article ("Judged on merit, you better be lucky", August 10). Luck is certainly important but Ross failed to mention the even more important factor of personal attitude to risk. Luck can't work if you're afraid to throw the dice. So many successful people have been prepared to take more than their fair share of risk. Some succeed and some don't but the successful ones usually have the resilience to take even more risk if luck fails them the first time. There are many studies which seek to explain different attitudes to risk. The origins can be as wide-ranging as hormonal, genetic, environmental and learned. Many successful people get their first apparent break early in life when they're more willing to take risks. Evolution has left older people happier to remain home by the fire. William Lloyd Denistone Ross Gittins is half right. "Luck is as important as hard work", but more important is what you make of the good luck and of the bad luck. Often the possibilities of good luck can be frittered away. Similarly with bad luck. It all depends on the interpretation. A bad fortune moment for some, will be seen as good fortune by others. The now-dead passenger, elated by his luck at being the last person able to squash onto the crowded train that crashed, could be seen as unlucky. But he may have been lucky. He had not yet been told of his incurable illness that would result in a painful drawn-out death. In hindsight, his unlucky mate, unable to work his way onto the train, no matter how hard he tried, considered himself quite lucky. Some are lucky, some are unlucky. There is good luck and bad. Interpretation depends on your point of view. Life is what you make of it. Joy Cooksey Harrington Bullying a sign of the times? Interesting how the increase in the harassment of special needs students ("Schools accused of failing children with disability", August 10) coincides with the introduction of the department's Every Child, Every School policy which sees these students integrated into mainstream classes. I wonder if there was this amount of bullying when there was extra funding for small, special-needs classes? Peter Miniutti Ashbury It is about time private schools, which generally exclude vulnerable students and, except for the wealthiest, receive more government money per student than public schools for disadvantaged students, were made to report their bullying and abuse in the same way that public schools must. Using the MySchool data we can then compare resources available and cohorts taught. Let's not bash the public system unless we have the evidence from the private system too. Brenton White Mosman Dads honoured Very nicely put, Gina Williams. I doubt if any reader could have put it better ("Dad hashtag hammers cheap shot", 10/8). Cheap shots are easy, they might get a laugh, and the moment passes. Deep hurt lasts a long time and one has to learn to live with it, move on, and remember the good that's in your life. I had an adopting father also, his name was Feliks, he married my single mother after World War II and we couldn't have asked for a better human being to have come into our lives. He was a good man, he worked hard as a manual labourer after we came to Australia and never belittled anyone. I try to honour him in my writing, and that's the secret. Celebrate the life of Cyril in your songs. I hope you get nominated for Australian of the Year. Peter Skrzynecki Eastwood Thank you Gina Williams for your heart-warming and fitting riposte to Bill Leak's atrocious cartoon. His support of the #indigenousdads hashtag does not excuse his poor taste originally. Andrew Macintosh Cromer Warped priorities "Minister Wiranto is the new co-ordinating minister for security so Australia will seek to have a close and co-operative relationship with him," trumpets Justice Minister Michael Keenan ("Minister ignores alleged Timor war crimes", August 10). So our support for a man who is alleged to have facilitated severe human rights violations using the Indonesian military and government-backed militias, and was indicted for crimes against humanity by the UN-sponsored East Timor Serious Crimes Unit in 2003, is in our "national interest"? Sad. Mark Paskal Clovelly Balibo is a name I cannot forget yet various governments since 1999, in order to curry favour with Indonesia, have chosen amnesia over reality. I grieve for our "lost" reporters ("Minister ignores alleged Timor war crimes", August 10). Alastair Browne Cromer Heights Food for thought With all the glum and depressing international news around at the moment it is good to see the media release showing Italian police comforting an elderly couple in Rome. The police were apparently responding to neighbours concerns after they heard crying ("Italian police solve elderly couple's distress with some home-cooked pasta", August 10). What a stroke of luck that there happened to be a photographer handy to capture the moment. Food for thought or tacky police PR in action. Bob Harris Sawtell Time of no moment No extra time to examine unique Indigenous artifacts at the Randwick light rail depot site ("Delay to construction of $2.1b CBD light rail line", August 10). No extra time to consider any changes that might save more of Moore Park's iconic trees. But hey presto! An extra five months can be added to the City project schedule to sort out some wayward utilities without any delay to the completion date of the CBD-eastern suburbs light rail project. Almost as good a trick from the state government as adding a one-kilometre tunnel to WestConnex at no extra cost. Doug Walker Baulkham Hills Roberts out of line Can Malcolm Roberts program a computer, make a television? (Free-speech fundamentalists break free of good conscience", August 8.) Can he invent Wi-Fi, make a Sat Nav work using the theory of relativity, or discover fundamental particles using the Large Hadron Collider? If, as I suspect, the answer to all these questions is "no", then on what basis does he have the effrontery to challenge the scientists who have given us everything in the modern world. The overwhelming scientific evidence supports human-induced climate change. If he chooses to accuse scientists of conspiracy on this subject perhaps he would like to stop benefiting from all their inventions too. Averil Drummond Brunkerville E-tag rip-off It's worse than the e-tag people just trousering our interest Dave Horsfall (Letters, August 10).Any company worth its salt offers at least 10 per cent off for paying upfront (which is what we are all obliged to do with e-tags).Not necessary, it seems, when your company basks in near-monopoly status. Lloyd Swanton Wentworth Falls Joke's on us too How can Australians possibly criticise Americans for selecting Trump as a presidential candidate when we elect Derryn Hinch and Malcolm Roberts to the Senate. ("Tough diplomacy ahead if Trump prevails," August 10.) John Walsh Watsonia Scale of Olympian heights Who really is the Greatest - Muhammad Ali or Michael Phelps? ("Michael Phelps makes it to 21 gold after two hours in the pool", smh.com.au, August 10.) Paul Hunt Engadine Share your opinion on this topic by sending a letter to the editor to tctvoice@madison.com. Include your full name, hometown and phone number. Your name and town will be published. The phone number is for verification purposes only. Please keep your letter to 250 words or less. Australians who failed to fill out the census because of the hours-long website outage will not be fined, and have until September 23 to complete the survey, the federal government says. Labor is demanding the minister responsible for managing the census, Assistant Treasurer Michael McCormack, resign over the embarrassing website crash, which the Australian Bureau of Statistics said hours earlier could not happen. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Mr McCormack both tweeted that they had successfully completed the form online, which Mr Turnbull described as "very easy to do". Crossbench senators pledging not to comply with rules for the census will be treated like any other citizen and risk fines of $180 per day, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday. Hours before millions were expected to complete questions for the national statistical snapshot, chief statistician David Kalisch said there was no chaos around the process and public figures should have sought facts from the ABS before making critical comments. Tasmanian independent senator Jacqui Lambie said she would delay participating until the Turnbull government answered her questions about data security and exemptions for Australians with protected identity status. Senators including Nick Xenophon, Scott Ludlam and Sarah Hanson-Young have said they will withhold their names and addresses because of ABS plans to extend the period it holds the information from 18 months to four years. Nearly 50 doctors accused of violating "sexual boundaries" are still seeing patients Australia-wide under a controversial chaperone system that allegedly failed three patients last year. Fairfax Media can also reveal that Dr Andrew Churchyard, a neurologist working in Victoria, had allegedly molested more than 35 patients over 13 years and was able to continue practising despite a complaint to the Medical Board as long ago as 2007. Victorian Health Minister Jill Hennessy is calling for a review of the national use of chaperones for doctors accused of sexual misconduct. All of Dr Churchyard's alleged victims were male, and many had serious neurological conditions such as Huntington's Disease and Tourette's Syndrome. One was only 14, but they ranged in age up to 40. It is about 9.30am when closed circuit television footage shows notorious double killer Adnan "Eddie" Darwiche and another man walk briskly towards the maximum security cell inside Cessnock jail. Inside is Fadi "Ricky" Shamoun, a 33-year-old Iraqi refugee with close ties to the Assyrian Kings gang in western Sydney who is seven years through a maximum 27-year stretch for murdering a man in front of his wife in their bedroom over a business dispute. Adnan "Eddie" Darwiche being arrested in 2003. Credit:Channel 7 Shamoun had only been moved to the same wing as Darwiche and the second man, who can not be named for legal reasons but is currently facing a murder charge, the previous afternoon after a punch-up with a no-name prisoner in another part of the 800-inmate strong prison. It had played into the hands of Darwiche, a notorious member of the Lebanese crime family serving two life terms for two murders. Sydney siege gunman Man Haron Monis took out flood insurance for his top-floor unit because he hoped to receive a huge payout when a woman was murdered and her body set fire to there, a court has heard. But the brutal killing did not go according to plan, with the woman stabbed up to 18 times and her body set alight in the hallway of the unit block in Werrington, in Sydney's west, in April 2013. Amirah Droudis, pictured at the Downing Centre in December 2014, is to spend at least 33 years in jail for murdering Man Haron Monis' former wife. Credit:AAP Monis' partner Amirah Droudis, who he was in a relationship with for several years and "married" in a religious ceremony, has been charged with the murder of the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons. Monis was facing charges of being an accessory to the murder, before he was killed by police when they stormed the Lindt cafe during the siege in December 2014. The Crown's case is that Ms Droudis had "totally subjugated her will" and was "dominated" by Monis, carrying out the "ritualistic" murder at his behest. A community is in mourning after an assistant principal was killed in a head-on crash near Bathurst in the NSW central west at the weekend. Kerri Parkes, 53, who taught at Bletchington Public School in Orange, was the passenger in a car driven west by her husband along the Mitchell Highway at Vittoria on Sunday. Kerri Parkes died in a car crash on Sunday. About 12.45pm, a white Holden Commodore driving eastbound swerved into their lane and hit them, police said. Emergency services rushed to the scene but could not save Mrs Parkes, an organiser of community fundraisers and other events, who wrote and directed the school production in 2015. A man has been rushed to hospital after he was stabbed on a Gold Coast footpath on Tuesday afternoon. Police said the man, 34, was walking along the footpath on Marine Parade in Labrador when a 4WD stopped beside him just before 3.45pm. Part of Marine Parade was closed. Credit:Nine News Gold Coast Initial investigations suggest two men jumped out of the vehicle and began attacking the man. The victim managed to free himself and ran along Marine Parade however his attackers caught up to him and stabbed him the back. A high school in Melbourne's west was put in lockdown after reports of a bomb threat, which turned out to be a hoax. Police were called to Maribyrnong College on River Street about 1.15pm on Tuesday amid safety concerns. Maribyrnong College was in lockdown after a reported bomb threat. The school enacted its emergency management response. "Police have concluded their safety checks and no issues were detected," a Victoria Police spokesperson said. A North Fitzroy chef viciously bashed by two thugs who chased him from a tram stop near his house in Melbourne's inner north says he is now fearful of using public transport. Police are hunting for the offenders after the vicious assault on one of Melbourne's busiest tram lines left a young father with a fractured skull. The 27-year-old victim was waiting for a tram on Nicholson Street, close to the Brunswick Road intersection, to head into the city and see friends around 9.20pm on 13 May. He noticed two men in a Toyota Supra at nearby traffic lights, and suspects they were watching him for some time. Controversial former AFL player agent Ricky Nixon has told a court he plans to sue Civic Compliance Victoria over what he claims is a traffic infringement bungle. Mr Nixon, 53, appeared before Judicial Registrar Samantha Dixon in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Tuesday to appeal a speeding ticket. Mr Nixon claims he wasn't behind the wheel on July 23 last year when a company car was detected travelling at 109 km/h in a 100km/h zone on the corner of Craigieburn and Oherns Road in Epping. He told the court he had written to Civic Compliance Victoria, the state government department that processes and manages fines, to let them know he had not been the driver, but they had lost his form. You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close The 'reading wars' have been reignited by claims that primary school teachers are still not teaching students how to read and write properly. Around two thirds of nearly 500 Victorian Catholic schools are still teaching Reading Recovery, a program which was found to be ineffective for most students in a recent NSW Education Department report. Westgarth Primary School students learn to read using phonic sounds. Credit:Justin McManus But Catholic Education Melbourne's executive director, Stephen Elder, who confirmed the figure, said that Reading Recovery was used "as just one of a range of literacy programs". It comes as research shows that a majority of 78 Victorian primary school teachers had "limited" knowledge about fundamental components of literacy and language instruction, including phonics a teaching method that matches letters and sounds. The head of the collapsed Viking Group has been jailed for 11 years for his role in defrauding one of Australia's biggest banks of $33.5 million and trying to trick another bank out of even more money. Steve Iliopoulos, the owner and chief executive officer of the transport and logistics company that went into liquidation in 2011, was in May found guilty by a Supreme Court jury of 11 counts of obtaining a financial advantage by deception, related to conning the Commonwealth Bank out of $33.5 million between 2008 and 2011. The Viking Group trucking company went into liquidation in 2011. Credit:Jason South He was also found guilty of one charge of attempting to defraud Westpac out of $53 million, a crime averted when a Westpac staffer noticed discrepancies in the Viking Group's account books. Iliopoulos, 54, was on Tuesday jailed for 11 years, and ordered to serve seven years before being eligible for parole. An online folder containing leaked nude images of Perth women and teenage girls has resurfaced after being shut down by police in February. The Google Drive folder contains a number of subfolders listing photos of women allegedly from Western Australia, each labelled with a female name. A Google Drive folder of nude and semi-nude pictures of women across Australia has resurfaced. Credit:Daniel Acker It is thought many of the individual folders contain up to 30 photos each and some of the images may have been collated from social media accounts such as Snapchat and Facebook. WA Police on Tuesday night removed the link. A West Australian woman has been charged with sexually assaulting a nine-year-old boy. Police claim the 27-year-old woman, from a south metropolitan suburb, sexually assaulted the boy who was known to her between October and November last year. The Andrews government will unveil new laws that will include giving police fresh powers to search the homes of sex offenders. She has been charged with one count of sexual penetration of a child under 13 years of age and one count of threats to injure, endanger or harm any person. The woman was due to appear in the Mandurah Magistrates Court on Tuesday. Twenty-two puppies and seven adult dogs are being rescued from a West Australian backyard breeder. RSPCA WA says the animals will be medically examined and treated when they arrive at the RSPCA Animal Care Centre in Malaga on Tuesday. The puppies were rescued by the RSPCA from a West Australian backyard. Chief Inspector Amanda Swift is expected to speak to the media in relation to the treatment of the animals once they've been examined. - AAP Just another day in WA? Well, not anymore if you're on a cruise ship or touring the sights of the state. Indeed there's a little more fun on the menu out west after gambling restrictions on cruises were lifted and WA tourism operators were given a green light to offer visitors alcoholic beverages. The changes seem radical for the nanny state of WA but are in line with the status quo around Australia and most of the world. Tourism minister Colin Barnett said gaming floors would now be open when cruise ships travel between WA ports or within 12 nautical miles of the coast. Jakarta: The Australian Government has closed the book on war crimes in East Timor allegedly committed by Indonesia's new chief security minister, stressing it needs to pursue what is in Australia's national interest in 2016. Justice Minister Michael Keenan and Attorney-General George Brandis will this week meet Wiranto, Indonesia's newly appointed Co-ordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, at a counter-terrorism summit in Bali. Wiranto is Indonesia's Co-ordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Credit:Getty Images Mr Wiranto, a former general who was Indonesia's armed forces commander during the referendum on East Timorese independence, was indicted for crimes against humanity by the UN-sponsored East Timor Serious Crimes Unit in 2003. Human rights organisations both within and outside of Indonesia have criticised his surprise appointment in a cabinet reshuffle last month, arguing it called into question Indonesian President Joko Widodo's commitment to pursuing accountability for past human rights violations. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 09/08/2016 (2271 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. The Steinbach Chamber of Commerce is now accepting nominations for the 2016 Business Excellence Awards. The public can nominate businesses in five categories: Business of the Year, Customer Service, Community Involvement, Future Leader, and, new this year, Non-Profit Excellence. Nominations are accepted online at the chamber website, until August 31. Nominations can also be submitted by filling out a nomination form at the chamber Office. The public will be asked to go to the Chambers website again, Sept. 1-21, to select the business they feel is most deserving of the customer service award. A selection committee will choose winners from the nominees for the other four categories using specific criteria. The winners will be announced and awards presented at the chambers annual general meeting held on November 3. MADISONNei-Turner Media Group Inc., a publisher with offices in Fitchburg and Lake Geneva, announced Tuesday it has acquired Brava Enterprises, publisher of Brava magazine in Madison. The purchase includes Brava magazine, a monthly womens publication; the Madison Womens Expo held each November; the Madison Kids Expo in March; and Bravas Thrive series of events, which includes the Thrive Conference, Thrive Career Workshops and Thrive Luncheons. Terms of the deal, which closed on Aug. 5, were not disclosed. Michelle Reddington, co-owner of Brava Enterprises, will maintain her role as publisher and said it will be business as usual. Nei-Turner loves what we have created and we will continue to function business as usual and keep producing a top-quality magazine and events for Madison-area women, Reddington said. Brava is a perfect fit for Nei-Turner and the acquisition is a great opportunity for Brava to continue to grow, now having access to a greater depth of resources and colleagues available with a larger company. Brava Enterprises employed eight full-time workers and four part-time employees prior to its acquisition. Reddington said three of the part-time positions were eliminated as part of the purchase and those job functions were absorbed by Nei-Turner staff. Brava launched in 2002 as Anew magazine, owned by Erickson Publishing. The name changed to Brava magazine in 2006. Erickson ceased publishing in April 2009 and at that time Brava Enterprises purchased its assets and relaunched Brava magazine and the Madison Womens Expo in August 2009. Brava took over the Madison Kids Expo in 2011, and in 2013 launched its Thrive series of events. Reddington said the purchase allows her business partner Brad Zaugg to pursue other business interests. He owns Zerorez Carpet Cleaning in Madison. Zaugg will assist with the transition but once that is finished he no longer will be involved with Brava, Reddington said. Bill Turner, president of Nei-Turner, said his firm specializes in niche publications, which made Brava a perfect fit for our portfolio with their specific focus on women. Nei-Turner will consolidate its Madison locations and its Fitchburg-based staff to Bravas office in Verona. Nei-Turner Media Group publishes regional guides and magazines for tourism organizations and trade associations, including the Greater Madison CVB, Tavern League of Wisconsin and Madison Area Builders Association. The companys magazine portfolio includes Lakeshore Living Madison, At the Lake magazine for Lake Geneva, Experience Wisconsin, Experience Michigan and Wisconsin Meetings. Its not just Marco Rubio who opposes abortion rights for Zika-infected pregnant women, several of the nations largest pro-life organizations stand behind the controversial comments. The Florida senator told Politico on Saturday that a lot of people disagree with my viewbut 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, he said. But if Im going to err, Im going to err on the side of life. His comments came shortly after the CDC confirmed local transmission of the tropical virus in Rubios home city of Miami, and a few weeks before he is expected to shake off the final serious Republican challenger for his Senate seat in the Florida primaries. But although many were shocked by Rubios remarks, the incumbent GOP senator has near-universal support from the nations most notable abortion opponents. Senator Rubio is absolutely right, said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, in a statement. Zika should not be used as a springboard for a search-and-destroy mission against disabled babies. Exactly right were the words that Clarke Forsythe, acting president of Americans United for Life (AUL), used to describe Rubios position, adding: We should value all human lives, refusing to devalue people based on prejudices against their mental or physical disabilities. American Life League (ALL) President Judie Brown told The Daily Beast, We agree with Senator Rubio because regardless of the alleged condition confronting a preborn child, there is never a reason to kill that child. Instead of killing human beings, born or unborn, because they have a disability, I would hope that this nation would extend mercy and compassion to them, said Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC). Kill the virus; kill the mosquito. Dont kill the baby. This position puts pro-life leaders and Rubio at odds with the majority of Americans, according to the results of a recent STAT-HARVARD poll. Fifty-nine percent of respondents to that poll said that women should be able to have an abortion after 24 weeks in the event of Zika-related microcephaly, which can result in small head size and brain underdevelopment. This includes many Americans who would otherwise support 24-week-bans, like the majority of the 48 percent of Republicans who said they would be willing to make an exception for Zika. That willingness is largely due to the high emotional and financial cost of the condition. In many cases, microcephaly severely limits a childs life expectancy. And CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden has estimated that lifetime health care costs for a microcephalic child can fall between $1 and $10 million. According to the CDC, 15 children in the U.S. have been born with Zika-related defects so far. These potential consequences issue are no longer hypothetical for Rubios constituents. The CDC recently warned pregnant women not to travel to a small neighborhood in Miami to prevent that number from climbing higher. But even with Zika at his doorstep, Rubio is toeing the pro-life line. Obviously, microcephaly is a terrible prenatal condition that kids are born with, he told Politico. 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 pro-life. And Im strongly pro-life. Rubios tough stance does not come as a surprise given his record on the issue. Once hailed by TIME as the Republican Savior and repeatedly referred to as a moderate in news coverage of his political campaigns, Rubio has been anything but moderate when it comes to abortion. In 2012, he told an SBA List gathering that Roe v. Wade was bad constitutional law, and the most egregious and devastating example of the Supreme Court making a policy decision. There [are] pure logical public policy reasons why abortion is bad for America, bad for our society, and bad for our people, and why Roe v. Wade should be overturned, he continued. In Congress, Rubio has supported bills that would ban abortion after 20 weeks and require fetal ultrasounds for women seeking to end a pregnancy. And although he has voted for abortion restrictions that contains rape and incest exceptions, Rubio was careful to tell Chuck Todd on Meet the Press last year, What Ive never done is said I require that [legislation] must have or not have exceptions. In the aftermath of Rubios remarks, pro-life groups told The Daily Beast that lawmakers should focus on Zika prevention efforts instead of abortion. The best way to confront the Zika virus is preventive, Forsythe told The Daily Beast. Deal with the public health needs, eradicate the mosquitoes causing the infections with an active campaign to educate people about addressing mosquito-borne infections. American scientific research should be focused on a vaccine to prevent Zika rather than focusing on the killing of the innocent preborn, Brown agreed. As Politico noted, Rubio has indeed been vocal in his support of Zika prevention, asking fellow Republicans to take preventative funding more seriously in June and calling for emergency legislation in early August after the Miami outbreak. But so far, federal funding packages have stalled and Congress remains on summer vacation. But although Rubio was willing to break rank with the GOP over Zika prevention, but hes still a rank-and-file abortion opponent. [T]here is going to be, for lack of a better term, a total freak out in the United States about what we are going to do, Rubio warned Congress in June. Team Clinton has gained some prominentand unlikelybackers in this wild election. While a growing number of big-name Republicans have refused to support Trump, many have also taken the additional step of pledging to vote for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton instead. Heres a list of top Republican politicians, operatives, and prominent supporters who openly back Clinton for president and when they went "with her." August 2016 Rosario Marin, former U.S. Treasurer under President George W. Bush, has refused to support Trump due to the candidates controversial comments about immigrants.I have been a loyal, trusted and fiery fighter for every Republican presidential candidate, Marin wrote in an op-ed for Univision published August 17. I have been a delegate to the previous five Republican conventions. But since July 2015, when a certain candidate, upon entering the political arena, showed his contempt for Mexican immigrants by stating they were drug dealers, rapists and murderers, I have voiced my disgust and have warned one and all of the perilous threat he was to our party, our nation and the world. Marin concluded, My party and its standard bearer leave me no choice; on November 8, I will vote for Hillary Clinton. The Clinton campaign announced a group of endorsements by prominent Republicans on August 10. The announcement included Carlos Gutierrez, a former commerce secretary under George W. Bush; former national director of intelligence John Negroponte; former Maryland Rep. Connie Morella; and former Connecticut Rep. Chris Shays. Shays wrote in an op-ed for CNN, "Donald Trump lost me a long time ago." Shays added, "Clinton, the Democratic candidate for president, will be getting my vote, not reluctantly, but with a strong conviction that she will be a good president." Also listed on the Clinton campaign's website as supporting the Democratic presidential nominee: Ruben Alvarez, former policy adviser to GOP Gov. Jane Hull of Arizona; Ambassador Robert Blackwill, who advised Bush 41 and 43 on national security; Ohio businessman and longtime Republican Merom Brachman; Former Minnesota Senator David Durenberger; Scott Evertz, appointed by George W. Bush as the first openly gay director of the Office of National AIDS Policy; VSCO CEO Joel Flory; former IRS Commissioner Fred Goldberg; former Florida regional Deputy Attorney General Cindy Guerra; former Rudy Giuliani press secretary Matt Higgins; former U.S. Trade Representative Cara Hills; Ambassador Richard Holwill, who served under the Reagan administration; Maine Senator Angus King; James Kunder, former USAID official under George W. Bush; Jennifer Pierotti Lim, Director of Health Policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and co-founder of Republican Women for Hillary; William Sanchez, a former senior counsel for the U.S. Department of Justice; Timothy P. Stratford, former assistant U.S. Trade Representative for China; Shirin Tahir-Kheli, former special assistant to President George W. Bush; Ambassador Pete Teeley, who served under George H.W. Bush; Daniel Twining, former staffer to President George W. Bush and Senator John McCain; and Matthew Waxman, former NSC official under George W. Bush. David Nierenberg, a former national finance chair for Mitt Romney, endorsed Clinton on Aug. 19. I have decided to endorse and support Hillary Clinton for president, even though everybody else I will vote for this November will be a real Republican, Nierenberg wrote in an op-ed on CNBC. Major Republican donor and Hollywood mogul Harry Sloan said in a statement that Trump does not embody the values that have made me a lifelong Republican. The former MGM CEO added, "As a businessman, a father, and a conservative it is clear to me that Hillary Clinton is the right choice in this election." Two former Republican heads of the Environmental Protection Agency say Trump has a profound ignorance of science. William D. Ruckelshaus (who served under Nixon) and William K. Reilly (George H.W. Bush administration) publicly endorsed Clinton on August 9. Reagans former White House political director, Frank Lavin, criticized the mogul and declared his vote would go to Clinton in an op-ed for CNN. Lavin hit Trump for his business record as well as temperament: The bankruptcies reflect a man who either lacks reasonable business judgment or reasonable business ethics. Lezlee Westine, former White House aide to George W. Bush, issued a statement of her support for Clinton but did not specify why she opposes Trump. She did, however, praise Clinton for being able to provide steady and experienced leadership. Former Michigan Governor William Milliken said Trump does not reflect the ideals of tolerance, civility and equality, and added that he would be supporting Clinton for the presidency. New York Rep. Richard Hanna was the first Republican in Congress to openly support Clinton, as reported by The Washington Post. In an op-ed by Hanna published on August 2, the Congressman rebuked Trump for both his personality and talking points that alienate minority groups. I found him profoundly offensive and narcissistic but as much as anything, a world-class panderer, anything but a leader, wrote Hanna, who is retiring at the end of his term. Meg Whitman, former CEO of HP and former California gubernatorial candidate, said she will vote and try to raise money for Clinton. Whitman called Trump a dishonest demagogue in an interview with The New York Times. Sally Bradshaw, Jeb Bushs top adviser not only pledged to vote for Clinton if the race in Florida is close, the longtime Republican has also left the Republican party and now identifies as an independent. Bradshaw told CNN that the GOP is "at a crossroads and have nominated a total narcissist a misogynist a bigot. Maria Comella, former spokeswoman for Chris Christie and Rudy Giuliani, said Trump is playing on people's anxieties with loose information and salacious rhetoric. Comellas support for Clinton is somewhat ironic, since her former bosses Christie and Giuliani are two of Trumps biggest supporters. July 2016 Charles Fried, former U.S. solicitor general under Reagan, is voting for the Democratic presidential nominee for the third consecutive time. It is to [Mitt] Romney's credit that this year, like John Paulson and George Will, he is standing up against the brutal, substantively incoherent, and authoritarian tendencies of Donald Trump, the current Harvard Law professor said. June 2016 Peter Mansoor, a retired Army colonel and former aide to David Petraeus, thinks that a president Trump could endanger Americas national security. [Clinton] will be the first Democratic presidential candidate Ive voted for in my adult life, Mansoor told The Washington Post. Larry Pressler, former South Dakota Republican senator, came out in support of Clinton after the mass shooting in Orlando. Pressler accused Trump and the Republican Party of obstructing much-needed gun reform, and said he supported Clintons gun safety proposals. If someone had told me 10 years ago I would do this, I wouldnt have believed them, the three-term senator told The Hill. Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen seemed to criticize Trumps anti-immigration proposals and openly backed Clinton at a technology conference in San Francisco. [Silicon] Valley wouldn't be here, we wouldn't be doing any of this if we didn't have the amazing flow of immigrants that we've had in the last 80 years. And the idea of choking that off just makes me sick to my stomach," Andreessen said. Richard Armitage, former deputy secretary of state to George W. Bush, is one of the highest-ranking former national security officials to support Clinton. He doesn't appear to be a Republican, he doesn't appear to want to learn about issues, the retired Navy officer told Politico. So, Im going to vote for Mrs. Clinton. Former Minnesota Republican governor Arne Carlson raised his issues with Trump in an interview with City Pages in June. Donald Trump has taken campaigning to a new low, Carlson said, citing incidents when Trump mocked a disabled reporter and insulted John McCain over his war record. Carlson later expanded his support for Clinton in an interview with a local television station, citing her willingness to work with others. Brent Scowcroft, a national security adviser who served under four Republican presidents, is one of the most prominent Republicans to ditch Trump. "The presidency requires the judgment and knowledge to make tough calls under pressure, Scowcroft said in a statement. Clinton has the wisdom and experience to lead our country at this critical time." Hamid Moghadam, CEO of Prologis and an Iranian immigrant, said in a statement, "Our country is about tolerance and inclusion and that's why, as a lifelong Republican supporter, I endorse Hillary Clinton for president in this election." Dan Akerson is a former chairman and CEO of General Motors. Serving as the leader of the free world requires effective leadership, sound judgment, a steady hand and most importantly, the temperament to deal with crises large and small. Donald Trump lacks each of these characteristics. Hillary Clinton has the experience and judgment to serve as an effective Commander in Chief, the former Navy officer said. Jim Cicconi, former aide to Reagan and George H.W. Bush, warned that a Trump presidency would set our nation on a very dark path. Cicconi, currently senior executive vice president at AT&T, added, "Hillary Clinton is experienced, qualified and will make a fine president. Henry Paulson, former treasury secretary for President George W. Bush, wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Post that Trump represents a brand of populism rooted in ignorance, prejudice, fear and isolationism. Paulson added, When it comes to the presidency, I will not vote for Donald Trump. I will not cast a write-in vote. Ill be voting for Hillary Clinton. Kori Schake, former George W. Bush national security official, told Politico that Trumps comments about women and minorities are unconscionable. Schakes sister, Kristina, is deputy communications director for Hillary Clinton. "For the first time ever @KoriSchake and I are casting our vote for the same candidate -- She is voting for @HillaryClinton," Kristina Schake tweeted. Former top adviser to John McCain, Mark Salter, wrote in an op-ed for RealClear Politics that Clinton is the lesser of two evils. He possesses the emotional maturity of a 6-year-old, Salter wrote of Trump. Salter then went on to describe Clinton as, "an adult," who, "understands the responsibilities of an American president." Tony Fratto, a former deputy press secretary to President George W. Bush, told The Hill that Trump is not fit for office. The former Republican aide added, If I was the last vote, if my vote was going to make a difference, Id prefer to have Hillary Clinton in the White House than Donald Trump. May 2016 Mike Treiser, who worked on Mitt Romneys presidential campaign, backed Clinton with a statement on Facebook: In the face of bigotry, hatred, violence, and small-mindedness, this time, Im with her. Alan Steinberg, regional EPA administrator during the George W. Bush administration, worked with Clinton when she was New York senator. Steinberg backed hardline conservative Ted Cruz in the primaries but now says he will vote for Clinton. "She can work with people on the opposite side of the political aisle," he said. Lobbyist Craig Snyder is parting ways with his former colleagues, ex-Trump adviser Roger Stone and Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Snyder, former chief of staff to then-senator Arlen Specter, said Trump is unfit to be president. He has founded the group Republicans for Hillary 2016. William Oberndorf, a California-based investor and major Republican donor, told The New York Times that he supports Clinton because he thinks Trump is an unacceptable candidate. Oberndorf has given over $3 million to Republicans since 2012. Doug Elmets, former spokesman for Reagan told CNN in May, "I'll vote for my first Democrat when the ballots come out in November. I could live with four years of Hillary Clinton before I could ever live with one day of Donald Trump as president." Elmets later spoke in support of Clinton at the Democratic National Convention. March 2016 More than one hundred foreign policy operatives signed an open letter declaring that Trumps national security proposals would make America less safe. Some of the letters signatories have taken the additional step of openly supporting Clinton: Dr. Patrick Cronin, a senior official at USAID during the Bush administration told The Daily Beast in June, Only one candidate has thought through Americas challenges, understands policy, has a positive and inclusive vision, is smart about the world in which we live, and is ready to be president, and I intend to vote for herHillary Clinton." Ken Adelman, U.S. arms control director under Reagan told The Daily Beast, "Yes, I will vote for Clinton, simply because to not vote, or to vote Libertarian, would be a half-vote for Trump." And Max Boot, an adviser to GOP presidential candidates and senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. "I'm a registered Republican and I'm voting for Hillary primarily on foreign policy grounds because that's the most important area for any president, the one where the commander-in-chief has the greatest discretion," Boot told The Daily Beast. He added that while he disagrees with Clinton "on a number of issues," he could "sleep at night if she takes command of the nuclear arsenal." Robert Kagan, a former State Department official under the Reagan administration, has criticized Trump repeatedly in op-eds for The Washington Post. For this former Republican, and perhaps for others, the only choice will be to vote for Hillary Clinton, Kagan wrote. December 2015 Billionaire Mike Fernandez, who has given $4 million to Republican candidates in recent elections, backed Clinton after his preferred candidate Jeb Bush dropped out of the race. Im choosing Hillary. Shes the lesser of two evils," he said. On Aug. 6, the Chinese government sent a stealth invasion force sailing into the disputed waters surrounding traditionally Japanese-occupied islands in the East China Sea. But there wasnt a single Chinese naval warship among the nearly 250 vessels that swarmed the Senkaku Islands, around 250 miles southwest of Japan. Instead, Beijing deployed 13 coast guard ships, some of them armed, along with an estimated 230 fishing vessels operated by government-sponsored maritime militiamen. China has sent ships into disputed waters before, but never on this scale. The latest developments do seem to be a potentially significant escalation, Christopher Hughes, a professor of international politics at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom, told The Japan Times. Beijings heavy reliance on civilian militia is equally noteworthyand, for Chinas rivals, potentially very worrying. These little blue men, as U.S. Naval War College associate professor Andrew Erickson has dubbed them, have become the main combatants in Chinas undeclaredand so far mostly bloodlesspseudomilitary campaign of expansion into the East and South China Seas. Ericksons nickname for Chinas maritime militia references the so-called little green men, or incognito soldiers, that Moscow sent into Ukraine to back pro-Russian separatists. There are clear advantages to mobilizing civilian paramilitaries for what amounts to a military mission, Erickson said. In deploying government-controlled fishermen, Beijing gets the bonus without the onus as it tries to forcefully cement its claim to huge, fish- and mineral-rich swathes of the western Pacific. After all, if China sent heavily-armed warships into waters that another country claimed, the other claimant could respond in kind, deploying armed warships of its own and forcing a confrontation that, at the very least, would get the whole worlds undivided attention. But in sending fishermen, China both maintains credible deniability regarding its true intentions and has the opportunity to portray the other side as overly forcefulor indeed to turn the tables, and cast the defender as the attacker. The little blue men have popped up across the China Seas, in waters that China, Japan, Taiwan, The Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia claimas well as in the undisputed national waters of Indonesia and Malaysia. Anyone seeing a pattern here? Erickson quipped on Twitter. In 2014, Indonesia began seizing and blowing up intruding Chinese trawlers. And, after a fleet of nearly 100 Chinese trawlers invaded Malaysias exclusive economic zone the government there threatened to start sinking Chinese fishing boats it catches in its own waters. Malaysia and Indonesia are trying to head off Chinese campaigns of maritime expansion before they gain momentum and any degree of international legitimacy. In other regions, China has moved quickly to take advantage of the little blue mens presence in disputed waters. In late 2014, Chinese dredging ships followed a fleet of little blue men to the Spratly Islands, just west of The Philippines. Beijing and Manila both claim the Spratlys, but that didnt stop the Chinese government from piling sand atop several delicate reefs, creating artificial islands and, consequently, killing the reefs. Within a year, Beijing had built airfields, seaports, and military installations on seven new, artificial islands. Manila took Beijing to court, and in July of this year, an international tribunal rejected Chinas claim to the South China Seas. But by then the deed was done. The Chinese military shrugged off, and even mocked, the tribunals verdict, and began flying bombers and fighter jets over the islands. And when the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Lassen sailed through international waters near the Spratlys in October, trawlers crewed by little blue men maneuvered dangerously close to the warship, even crossing in front of its bow, risking a collision. Twice in May and June, Chinese fighter planes intercepted U.S. military reconnaissance planes flying in international air space in the East and South China Seas. The Americans crews claimed the Chinese pilots flew dangerously close to the U.S. planes. When the Pentagon protested, the Chinese foreign ministry shot back. The Americans aerial reconnaissance undermines Chinas maritime security, ministry spokesman Hong Lei said. In a foreboding message to the Chinese people in the aftermath of the tribunals ruling on Chinas South China Seas claims, Chinese defense minister Chang Wanquan called for a peoples war at sea in order to preserve Chinese sovereignty. Japan is clearly worried that Beijing could move on the Senkakus, which the Chinese call the Diaoyus, the same way Beijing successfully occupied the Spratlys. The Senkakus are currently uninhabited but have, over the last couple of centuries, periodically hosted some small Japanese commercial enterprises. Japan formally reiterated its claim on the islands back in 2012. It certainly didnt help calm Japanese officials nerves when, in early August, their forces detected a radar aboard a Chinese oil rig positioned near disputed waters in the East China Sea. Japanese media described the rig as a potential military base. A day after the mixed fleet of Chinese coast guard ships and little blue men swarmed the Senkakus, Japans vice minister of foreign affairs Shinsuke Sugiyama lodged a protest with Cheng Yonghua, Chinas ambassador to Japan demanding that Chinese vessels depart the Senkakus. China is conducting unilateral activities that further raise tensions on the ground, the Japanese foreign ministry stated. Chinese incursions cannot be accepted whatsoever, the ministry added. But Japan has not yet sent its own ships to try dislodging the Chinese fleet. If the current invasion of little blue men represents an effort on Chinas part to definitively seize the Senkakus, then so far, it could be working. Beijing perhaps underscored its intentions in the East China Sea with a nice bit of military propaganda. On Monday, Chinese censors let leak a clear photo of Chinas first homemade aircraft carrier, currently under construction at a shipyard in northern China. Once complete, the carrier could be the most powerful non-American warship in the Pacific. The photo serves a reminder that China is growing in power and influenceand that its building a fleet to match its aspirations. But when Beijing wants to take over an island without starting a war, it doesnt need a fleet of warships. The little blue men can do the job. Donald Trump went looking for political gold, and he may have found it in a proposal to make all childcare costs deductible from taxable income. His recent slide in the polls has been attributed to the defection of college-educated men, plus women in all demographics, and if theres one issue that is near and dear to these voting groups, its the high cost of caring for their children while theyre working. It will help the upper middle class, declared California Rep. Brad Sherman. A tax lawyer before entering Congress, Sherman, a Democrat, pointed out that three-quarters of taxpayers dont itemize their deductions and would not benefit from a new deduction. Democrats push for credits that tend to phase out once you hit $150,000 income, and Republicans tend to like deductions, which disproportionately benefit those at the upper end of the income scale, he said. What Trump has proposed is a far cry from underwriting universal quality childcare, which is what Ivanka Trump promised her father would do in her convention speech last month. In his address to the Detroit Economic Club on Monday, Trump offered no details on his childcare proposal, other than to say he was working on it with Ivanka, who has three young children, including an infant, and his economic team, which he of course said is the very best. The immediate response to Trumps proposal from those who study the issue was negative in terms of its viability, and those it would benefit. Mr. Trumps proposal will do nothing for those most in need. And we cant afford it, said Robert Doar with the American Enterprise Institute, a right-leaning think tank. There are better, more effective ways to help struggling families through targeted tax credits for low-wage working parents. Ron Haskins, the former Republican House staffer who helped design the welfare reform bill of the 1990s and is now with the Brookings Institute, said that on the surface, it looks like Trump is offering a family-friendly policy, but the only way to include the 50 percent of Americans who dont earn enough to pay taxes would be to make their childcare refundable, making the program even more expensive. You can spend 20 billion a year before you bat an eyelash, and more than that if youre talking about quality, he said. It could be very, very expensive. Doar of AEI said his first reaction to Ivanka Trumps proposal at the convention was pretty negative. It seemed to come out of nowhere. He hadnt seen anything about the issue in the campaign, or on the website, and he doubted Trumps conviction and consistency. It sounded to him like a blanket commitment that has a big phony component to it. Trumps speech in Detroit didnt lessen his skepticism. Its also not very cost effective, and it doesnt really help the people most in need, he said. Targeted efforts at the most vulnerable are most successful. Hillary Clinton has said that no family should pay more than 10 percent of its income for high quality childcare. She has proposed a combination of tax credits and government funding, but she has not costed it out the way she has other programs. Theres a reason for that: its expensive, and its unlikely a gridlocked Congress would take it up as a first priority. Families spend an average of $10,000 a year on childcare, and under current law, can deduct up to $6,000 from their federal taxes to cover childcare costs. Doar is from New York and says hes had exposure to Trump and the way he does business. He will buy off a problem as opposed to solve it, he told The Daily Beast. These are hard issues, the work supports we put in place, and how they work. I dont think he has any kind of depth on the issue. Clinton has made a big commitment too, and theres a bit of over-promising, but she has greater depth and knowledge of the way things really work. Shes also a Democrat, and she comes from the desire to expand government. According to a report prepared by the CAP Action War Room, an arm of the liberal Center for American Progress, Trump, when asked about childcare programs in the past, has ducked the issue, saying that instead of a federal policy, private companies could provide it easily on site with some blocks and swings. Trumps play for the working dads and moms vote may be opportunistic, but it marks a societal change in cultural norms. The last serious effort to get government-funded childcare occurred 45 years ago, in 1971, when congressional Republicans and Democrats alike banded together to pass the Comprehensive Child Development Act to create federally funded childcare centers across the country. Women were entering the work force in big numbers for the first time, and the centers would have been open to all children with tuition subsidized by the government for those who qualified. The cost was $2 billion a year for the first two years, which is the equivalent of some $10 billion today. The co-sponsors were John Brademas of Indiana and Walter Mondale, the future vice president. The Senate passed the Brademas-Mondale bill 67-17, and President Nixon vetoed it. Then Special Assistant Pat Buchanan wrote the message of Nixons veto. saying it wasnt good for America to embrace the Communist form of child rearing. Nixon warned of a long leap into the dark with a program to commit the vast moral authority of the National Government to the side of communal approaches to child rearing over the family-centered approach. We have come full circle with Trump, led by his daughter into the 21st century to recognize the reality of most peoples lives, and where they look to government for help and support. It may not happen this cycle. Trump may not be serious, and his proposal wouldnt help the people who need help the most. But its probably a signal that universal childcare is coming, and it wont take another 45 years. A Mexican buffet is getting ready to open on Monona Drive in the former home of Jengs Asian Kitchen. La Rosita Mexican Buffet could open as early as the end of August, if the inspections go well, said Beatriz Manjarrez, who will manage the restaurant, and translated for owner Juan Perez. As far as Perez knows, La Rosita will be the only Mexican buffet in the area. "I don't think anybody's serving food the way we are planning to," he said. Perez describes the food as "home-style," with beef and chicken fajitas, enchiladas, carnitas, pozole, menudo and mole. There will be pico de gallo, guacamole, and different types of salsas, he said. They are still figuring out how much to charge. Perez, 34, who is from Michoacan, Mexico, first came to Glendale Heights, Illinois, where he lived for almost 15 years. He moved to Madison five years ago and opened La Rosita Latina grocery at 6005 Monona Drive, with a taqueria inside. The new restaurant will be next door at 6001 Monona Drive and needs minimal renovations, Manjarrez said. A new sign is expected this week. The grocery and taqueria will remain open. Perez wanted to expand from the taqueria inside La Rosita, and will be doing some of the cooking himself, Manjarrez said. Jeng Tong Vue closed Jengs Asian Kitchen July 29 after eight months in business, saying that people voted with their feet. "If they don't come, they don't come. You do your best and that's all you can do," he said Donald Trump likes to cite a certain labor-allied think tank to bolster his economic messageand they couldnt be more embarrassed. The Economic Policy Institute, or EPI, and its researchers are Organized Labors favorite wonks and no friend of the right. Mainstream, corporate-friendly conservatives regularly butt heads with them over questions about collective bargaining and free trade. In fact, they proudly consider themselves the premiere policy shop for progressive economics. And they are not happy to be a part of Trumps rhetorical arsenal. Larry Mishel, the think tanks president, said he isnt thrilled with the association. No one wants to be associated with a bigot, he said. And, he added, Trump fits squarely in that category. Trump is absolutely a bigot and misogynist and hes changed my view of White America, which is a much scarier group than I earlier believed, he said. Mishel added that he doesnt think Trump really shares the groups values. Most of his speech in Detroit focused on reducing regulations and cutting taxes, Mishel saidpolicies intended to tickle the fancy of the Chamber of Commerce and all the Republican donors hes now courting. But Trump seems blithely aware of any incongruity andjudging by how often he quotes themthinks they are great. The vast majority of political candidates, including Trump, rely heavily on think tanks research to make the case for their policy ideas. And politicians are usually pretty predictable about who they trust; Republicans often cite the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, and Manhattan Institute, and Democrats frequently turn to the Brookings Institute and the Center for American Progress. Trump, however, hasnt stayed in his lane. On the campaign trail, he frequently touts EPIs researchapparently blissfully unaware that its board of directors includes some of the most powerful figures in American organized labor, including AFSCME president Lee Saunders, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, and American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingartenall of whom have endorsed Hillary Clinton. And it receives a substantial portion of its funding from unions, as its 2015 donor disclosure page indicates. EPI also received a grant for $200,000 in 2013 from the Open Society Foundations, a group that George Soros founded. And its site notes that it received between $100,000 and $250,000 from Soross group in 2015. Activists on the right feel the same way about Soros as activists on the left feel about the Koch Brothers; they seem him as a malevolent, insidious force looking to quietly undermine the U.S. in pursuit of his own ideological agenda. In fact, in 2013 Trump tweeted a link to a Breitbart News story about Soross support for a group that supported the Gang of 8 immigration reform effort. And Trump praised the site for exposing the left wing financing behind amnesty. Its not that Trump has used this unusual source just oncehe cites them a lot. A perusal of his emailed press statements from the last two months shows he name-checked the group more than a dozen times. The Heritage Foundation, meanwhile, got fewer than half as many mentions. And Trump doesnt relegate EPI to the footnotes of his press releases. In his major address on the economy that he delivered in Detroit on Monday, he mentioned the group twice. He also mentioned them in a speech he delivered at the end of June on tradeand the footnotes to that speech flagged their research a whopping 20 times, more than any other source. Trumps views on trade and globalization are far from Republican orthodoxy. Though most elected Republicans reflexively support free trade agreements, like the Trans-Pacific Partnership and NAFTA, Trump made his opposition to them a signature campaign issue. And yes, thats despite the fact that his own running mate, Mike Pence, has eagerly boosted both deals. Because Trumps views on trade are outside the Republican mainstream, he had to leave Conservatism Inc. to find scholars that shared them. Thats how he ended up constantly broadcasting the research work of a Soros-backed think tank with Big Labors biggest leaders on its board. For their part, the group has tried to distance themselves from Trumps campaign. Trump fans who decided to check out its website after hearing Trump mention it were greeted with a homepage headline titled Trump is wrong on trade. When Donald Trump shits on the floor, theres a horde of people waiting to put his mess in a doggy poop bag. But no matter what they do, the stench remains. On Tuesday, the sanitizing brigade had their work cut out for them when Trump suggested that Second Amendment diehards might be the only ones who can stop Hillary Clinton, if she makes it to the White House. Trump made the comments during a rally in Wilmington, North Carolina, on Tuesday, after an extended riff about the dangers of Hillary Clinton appointing liberal Supreme Court justicesthen he said his fans could do something to stop that. By the way, if she gets to pick her judges, Trump said. Nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I dont know. Was he saying people who bear arms can go kill the president? Was he saying that they could just go kill Supreme Court justices? Or was it a bigger argument about the rights of NRA voters to be heard in the electoral process? Or just a macabre joke? According to the Trump campaign, its all or none of the above. Of course, each and every time Trump says something that would sink any other candidate, there is never an apology. Instead, his supporters just trot out the excuse that the precious liberal media misinterpreted him. The first statement that emerged from the Trump campaign came from Senior Communications Adviser Jason Miller, a recent addition and a veteran of Ted Cruzs campaign. Its called the power of unification2nd Amendment people have amazing spirit and are tremendously unified, which gives them great political power, Miller wrote. And this year, they will be voting in record numbers, and it wont be for Hillary Clinton, it will be for Donald Trump. That is all well and good but it doesnt get at the central issue in Trumps statement. The Republican candidate for president was discussing actions that people could take after Clinton was elected, not how they could be mobilized to prevent her from becoming elected. Then Trumps national spokesperson Katrina Piersonwho recently exacerbated the candidates dispute with the Gold Star Khan family by saying President Obama was responsible for their sons deathtried her hand at an explanation on CNN. Mr. Trump was saying exactly what he said, Pierson began. He was talking about Hillary Clinton and gun control, essentially, which is something that has been talked about a lot on the campaign trail. Hillary Clinton is a gun-grabber and everyone knows that if shes in a position to appoint Supreme Court justices, she will do everything that she can to remove the Second Amendment. Now not only does this this not explain Trumps statement, it also perpetuates a false assertion that the candidate has been making, which is that Clinton wants to abolish the Second Amendment. Jake Tapper followed up by correctly saying that Trump was referencing what could be done after Clinton had won. Well thats actually not what he was talking about, Pierson said, despite video evidence to the contrary. Just before that he was saying what could happen, as you just said, what could happen. He doesnt want that to happen. And in order to stop that, people that support their Second Amendment rights, need to come together and get out there and stop Hillary Clinton from winning in November. To further add to the confusion, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, who was opening up for Trump at both of his North Carolina rallies today, blamed the entire situation on the Clinton campaign. The Clinton people, Giuliani said. They spin out that what he meant by that was, that it was a joke and that what he meant by that was that they would kill her. To buy that, you have to be corrupt because if you said that to me, I would say to you: Are you out of your mind? He went on to say that the press is mostly in the tank for Hillary Clinton. But how is any honest reporter supposed to interpret what happened when the Trump campaign and its surrogates cant even properly explain or answer direct questions? Every single time Trump makes a self-inflicted error, there are no mea culpas and somehow the campaign manages to turn a small ditch into the Mariana Trench. It happened with the Khan family (they shouldnt have attacked Mr. Trump!). It happened with the Melania Trump plagiarism (this is all Clinton spin!). It happened with Trump telling Russians to release hacked emails (hes obviously joking!). The problem with this pattern of mistake/lash out/deny is that Tuesdays remarks follow a recent pattern from others in the Trump orbit of calling for Obama, Clinton, and their supporters to be killed. Al Baldasaro, the Trump campaigns veterans adviser, recently said that Clinton should be executed by firing squad for treason. (Trump personally thanked Baldasaro at a rally over the weekend for his service in the campaign.) A former adviser for Trumps campaign, operative Roger Stone, also said that if Trump is denied the presidency through the rigged political system that there will be a bloodbath in the streets. Not to mention Trumps butler took to Facebook earlier this year to say that President Obama should be hung for treason. And remarkably, Trump is not the first candidate to make such a statement about violence against a political opponent. Nevada Republican Senate nominee Sharron Angle in 2010 talked about using Second Amendment remedies to stop the tyranny of Democratic rule. (She later claimed she was speaking broadly about the Constitution.) Angle also implored people to take Harry Reid out. Afterwards, Angle insisted she meant take him out of office. At the very least, Angle tried to address her own words directly as opposed to Trump and his campaign, which has completely glossed over what he actually said. While Trumps verbal-spewing strategy worked in the primaries with a crowded field, it doesnt seem to be playing out for Trump in the general election so far. With three months to go, he is woefully behind Clinton in many swing states, has not demonstrated an equivalent ground game, and has been witness to a host of Republicans fleeing in fear to Clintons side. Just how much more of his shit can hit the fan? Remember a couple months ago when Reince Priebus tweeted that electoral college map showing how he thought Donald Trump could get to 270? The RNC chairman had Trump winning Ohio and Pennsylvania. And Michigan. And Wisconsin. And Minnesota. Yes, Minnesota. Which is going to be such a blowout that no ones even polled it since April. There was lots of chortling about all that, as you might expect. But the chortlers missed what was by far the most interesting thing about Priebuss map: He ceded Virginia. The chairman of the Republican Party acknowledged that Virginia is gone. Itll still elect Republican governors, of course, but for presidential election purposes, Virginia is now blue. To give you an indication of how blue: Hillary Clinton has temporarily stopped running ads there. This week, Clinton is starting her week out in Florida. You know what they say about Florida: must-win state. The urgency is there even in the way they say the word, is it not? Close your eyes now and conjure with me the image and sound of Wolf Blitzer saying: And breaking news from the must-win state of Flo-rida... Actually, its only a must-win for Republicans, as Ive noted before. Democrats have plenty of paths to 270 without Florida. Republicans, none. You will also hear them say a kajillion times until Election Day that Florida is a swing state. Well, yes. It has been historically. But the combination of massive demographic changes since 2012 and Trumps anorexic performance among college-educated whites makes me wonder if Florida is a swing state this year at all. And while the Republicans might nominate a normal candidate in 2020, the states demography is galloping away from the GOP. In sum, 2016 could be the year that Florida stopped being a swing state. First, demography. Floridas minority population is now above 40 percent, with the Hispanic population at around 25 percent (PDF). In addition, Hispanics are registering to vote in large numbers, and theyre heavily Democratic. This is partly because younger Cubans lean strongly Democratic, an obviously sharp departure from their grandparents. All South Florida Cubans support the normalization of relations with Cuba, for example, except those older than 65, and even among them its awfully close. And the change is also because of a huge influx of Puerto Ricans into the state. There are now about 1 million Puerto Ricans in Florida. (Cubans, at 1.2 million, now barely outnumber Puerto Ricans.) And remember, Puerto Ricans are American citizens. They can vote quite easily. And they vote roughly 80 percent Democratic. Or against Trump, more. Barack Obama and Mitt Romney roughly split the states Cuban vote in 2012, and Obama won the overall Latino vote about 60-40. Clintons not going to do far better than that against Mr. Theyre Bringing Rapists? One recent Florida poll put Trump at 13 percent among the states Hispanics. If thats close to right, Clinton gets 80 to 85 percent of the fifth of the overall vote thats Latino, and 95 percent of the 14 percent thats African American. Thats 30 percent right there, and it would mean shed need only around 35 percent of the white vote to win, maybe even a little less. Obama got 37 percent of Floridas white vote. Given Trumps awful numbers among whites with college degrees, a group Republicans always win but among whom Trump now often trails, Clinton should certainly do better than Obama. If she were to get, oh, somewhere in the low-to-mid 40s of the white vote, which hardly seems undoable, Florida wont be especially close. She could be winning it by eight or 10 points, and they could be calling it by 9:30 p.m. Now, obviously, a lot can happen. But even saying thatin essence, saying that it will take an unusual occurrence for Trump to have a good shot of winning Floridais significant. Its basically saying that at least in presidential yearsclearly not in off years, until Democratic constituencies vote in larger numbersFlorida leans blue. And although the Republicans presumably wont nominate a sociopath in 2020, the demography is just going to be that much worse for the white peoples revenge party. There are two morals here. The first has to do with the media. No single electoral talking point is more important than the road to the White House goes through Florida. Why? Because everybody knows that if Florida is over, the race is over, and no ones going to care, and ratings will suffer, and ad revenues will tank. So its of vital importance, to the cable news nets especially, that Florida be held in the too close to call category for as long as possible, which means thatyouve seen this movie beforethere may be six polls showing Clinton up by seven to 12 points, but when that one comes along showing it at four, itll get 17 times the airtime as the other six combined. The second moral has to do with the Republican Party and Reince Priebus. Just as I was finishing up this column Monday afternoon, I saw that the chief spokesman of the Florida GOP, a son of Honduran immigrants, was quitting his post to pursue a new opportunity to continue promoting free-market solutions while avoiding efforts that support Donald Trump. So old Mr. Autopsy, after having allowed his party to be taken over by a candidate who seems for now to have taken it out of the running in the single biggest must-have GOP state in the country, is now forced to stand and watch as Florida Latino Republicans quit their jobs. The cowardice of Priebus and the whole GOP establishment this past year has richly earned them defeat in Florida. Once upon a time, the GOP at least came close enough in Florida that they could steal it, banana-republic style. Looks like those days may be gone. Hillary Clinton supposedly has Parkinsons disease, syphilis, brain damage, a brain tumor, autism, a degenerative disease that is giving her seizures and/or strokes, and a blood clot, according to InfoWars writer Paul Joseph Watson. Oh, and he says she has a drug problem. All of these diagnosessave for Parkinsons, which commanded a separate full-length articlecame in a single one of Watsons YouTube videos released on Thursday. It now has over 1.6 million views at press time. Weird seizures. Psychotic facial tics. Over-exaggerated reactions. Coughing fits. Strange lesions on her tongue. Is Hillary on the verge of a mental breakdown due to stress, or are her strange outbursts linked to a medical condition? Watson posits. Watsons compendium of illnesses began on the fringe and quickly made its way into the talking points of Trump surrogates over the weekend. The Drudge Report posted a photo of Clinton tripping up the stairs above the tagline 2016: Hillary Conquers the Stairs, along with references to a blood clot in 2012 and a broken elbow in 2009. The photo, which went unnoticed at the time, was taken in February. The National Enquirer posted a story dubbed Hillary Clintons Secret Health Crisis on Monday. Donald Trump said in March that you cant knock the National Enquirer when the tabloid aimed to tie Ted Cruzs father to the JFK assassination, and the GOP candidate has written op-eds for the paper in the past. By midday on Monday, the No. 2 trending Google search about Hillary Clinton was: Is Hillary having health problems? Fox News Sean Hannity devoted a section of his program to the rumors of bad health Monday night. CNNs Jeffrey Lord then doubled down on national TV, saying that Donald Trump is willing to point out other things people have been pointing out for years when asked about Clintons health. Those "people" are, in this case, writers like Watson, who certainly isnt the first to question Hillarys health in the last few monthsTrump supporters have created YouTube compilations of each time shes coughed at campaign eventsbut is one of the most prominent. Watson is a writer at InfoWars and sometimes cohost of InfoWars creator Alex Jones radio and YouTube shows. His own offshoot website, PrisonPlanet, runs a YouTube channel with nearly a half-million subscribers. Within minutes of posting to Youtube, Watsons video was at the top of /r/The_Donald, a heavily moderated Reddit community that serves as a clearinghouse for pro-Trump talking points and conspiracies against Clinton. Since Trumps Ask Me Anything Q-and-A on the subreddit two weeks ago (in which thousands of users were banned for asking policy questions), the site has been overrun with conspiracy theories about how FRAIL HILLARY is PHYSICALLY UNFIT for the presidency. When asked if Clinton could really have all of the diseases that he claims she is currently fighting, Watson told The Daily Beast via email that he wasnt sure. I dont know what she has, I am not a neurologist or a psychiatrist, I merely pointed to the statements of people who are, he wrote. Several of them have argued that Hillary is physically sick, while virtually everyone who has the guts to talk about how Hillary behaves in private says she acts like a sociopath, has no emotions, is completely cold, rude and is supremely arrogant. Isnt this, then, the equivalent of WebMDing yourself for perceived symptoms and coming up with the wildest fantasy imaginable? I didnt WedMD anything. I spoke to health experts in private and I collated statements made by health professionals that were already part of the public record, he said. One of the rare experts Watson cites on record is Martin Shkreli, the pharmaceutical executive who raised the price of the lifesaving HIV drug Daraprim by over 5,000 percent overnight and is currently out on bail after being indicted on charges of securities fraud. Shkreli, who resigned as the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals in December, is the lone source in the article Pharmaceutical Exec: Hillary Clinton Has Parkinsons Disease. Shkreli does not have a medical degree, but does have a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from Baruch College. Watsons article appeared on InfoWars.com, which has run with a series of conspiracy theories about Clintons health this week. Stories like Proof Hillary Clinton Unfit to Be President, Hillary Loses ItSeems Like Momentary Blackout or Dizzy Spell and Hillary Clinton Is Disintegrating Before Our Eyes littered Infowars homepage on Tuesday. In December, Donald Trump appeared on a video podcast for InfoWars, which regularly publishes stories alleging that mass shooting events like the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre are elaborate ploys by the government to take away Americas guns. Your reputations amazing. I will not let you down, Trump told InfoWars Alex Jones. You will be very, very impressed, I hope. I think well be speaking a lot. Watson does, in fact, cite a real health problem for which Clinton was hospitalized four years ago. I also highlighted the fact that Hillary admittedly had significant health problems back in 2012, Watson said. Clinton suffered from a blood clot in December of 2012, from which doctors say she fully recovered after surgery. At the time of the surgery, both GOP campaign strategist Karl Rove and noted pro-Trump ally and conspiracy theorist Roger Stone immediately seized on the blood clot as proof she wouldnt or shouldnt run for president. "@HillaryClinton not running for health reasons, Stone tweeted in 2012. Remember you heard it first from the#StoneZone. This week, Stone said that Clinton and her aide Huma Abedin are connected to the 9/11 attacks. New rumors began popping up about the fitness of candidates on both sides of the aisle over the weekend. While prominent rightwing blog Gateway Pundit guessed that Hillary Clinton was somehow covertly injected with a Diazepam pen to control a seizure during one of her speeches (Secret Service agents were really stepping onto the stage to protect against a protester), comedian Patton Oswalt shared a story about speaking with a therapist friend who claimed Trump has borderline personality disorder. I would suggest that Hillary is more of a sociopath than Trump, Watson wrote. Trump may be an egomaniac, but he didnt support policies in Iraq, Libya and Syria that led to the deaths and displacement of hundreds of thousands of people, three failed states and an international migrant crisis. And he didnt laugh about it on video either. Of course, Trump supported military intervention in both Iraq and Libya long before he didnt. But, to Watson, those facts are just part of the establishment conspiracy to take down Trump. After all, last Thursday, Watson published an InfoWars article dubbed New Establishment Smear Campaign to Declare Trump Mentally Unfit to Be President. His very next story? Experts: Hillary Is a Sociopath and Could Have Brain Damage. That expert is not named in the article. Every day at 5 p.m., the Pentagon releases a list of that days contracts worth more than $7 million. On July 27, buried in the daily email was an eye-catching detail: Military contractors would be working inside Syria alongside the roughly 300 U.S. troops already deployed there. This appears to be the first time the Pentagon has publicly acknowledged that private contractors are also playing a role in the fight against the so-called Islamic State inside Syria, and its one more signal that the U.S. military is deepening its involvement in the fate of the country. The contract announcement said Six3 Intelligence Solutionsa private intelligence company recently acquired by CACI Internationalwon a $10 million no-bid Army contract to provide intelligence analysis services. According to the Pentagon, the work will be completed over the next year in Germany, Italy and, most notably, Syria . Beyond this, details are scant. For example, it is difficult to say, given how little information is available, how many contractors might have to go into the country under this contract. It could be just a few (presumably well-paid) intelligence analysts augmenting a military unit or it could be many more. The Pentagon and CACI would not elaborate on the kind of work Six3 would be doing either, other than intelligence analysis services, which encompasses a broad spectrum of activities. But Sean McFatea professor at Georgetown Universitys School of Foreign Service, the author of Shadow War, and a former gun-for-hire himselftold The Daily Beast: This is no ordinary contractor Six3 Intelligence Solutions is a private intelligence company, and the fact that we outsource a good portion of our intelligence analysis creates a strategic dependency on the private sector to perform vital wartime operations. Six3, which gets the bulk of its work from the intelligence agencies, specializes in biometrics and identity intelligencefiguring out who people really areas well as cyber and reconnaissance. Its former CEO has said that 95 percent of the companys staff has the highest level of security clearance. An archived version of Six3s website says this about the companys biometrics division: Our expertise ranges from finger, palm, face, and iris examinations to exploitation and forensic analysis. Fewer of its contracts are with the military, but it has previously provided intelligence services in Afghanistan and Europe, as well as supporting the Counter-Insurgency Targeting Program, and related intelligence and operational support for the Army National Ground Intelligence Center and U.S. forces in Afghanistan, according to a search of the Defense Departments contracts archive. Recognizing this is an ever-expanding field, CACI acquired Six3 Intelligence Solutions, which had only been around for four years, for $820 million in 2013, describing it as the biggest deal in CACIs 51-year history. At the time of the purchase, CACI CEO Ken Asbury said he thought Six3 would open up an additional $15 billion in contract opportunities. CACI has been providing the U.S. military contractor support for years, including interrogators assigned and working at Abu Ghraib prison at the time of the abuse scandal. Contractors do a lot more than drive trucks and cook meals; they do intelligence, pull triggers, and support Special Operations forces, McFate said. So far, there has been no mention of private contractors going inside Syria with U.S. troops, but military contracting and special operations experts said it is safe to assume that Six3 isnt the first. Ive long said, the military looks at professional services contractors like the old American Express commercial, i.e., they dare not leave home without them, said David Isenberg, author of Shadow Force: Private Security contractors in Iraq. The intelligence community is particularly reliant on contractors today, he added. But due to the highly sensitive and dangerous nature of the mission in Syria, little information is unclassified. In Iraqwhere there are just over 4,000 U.S. troops on the groundthe Pentagon is more transparent. Since last summer, the number of contractors working for the Defense Department had just about doubled from 1,300 to 2,500. The number has ticked up as the number of U.S. troops on the ground steadily increases and bases grow to house them. Private companies are providing everything from meals to perimeter security at Iraqs Besmaya Compound and Camp Taji , both sites where U.S. troops are training Iraqi soldiers to fight ISIS. In 2015, only 98 people were on the ground in Iraq providing base support. Today, that number is 390, and includes American contractors, third country nationals and local Iraqis, according to a July report from U.S. Central Command. These are just the Pentagons numbers. The U.S. governmentincluding the U.S. Embassy in Baghdademploy far more contractors. The Central Command report says there are approximately 7,100 contractors supporting U.S. government operations in Iraq. Theyre washing laundry, cooking meals, and providing security, to name a few of the jobs the U.S. government outsources. Contractors encourage mission creep because they allow the Administration to put more people on the ground than they report to the American people, McFate said. Last weeks clue that contractor support is growing in Syria suggests something similar might be happening in that country. The Pentagon first announced in November that 50 U.S. commandos were deploying to northern Syria to advise forces battling the Islamic State there. Before that, the CIA was believed to be operating in the country, arming rebel groups as part of a separate clandestine program. Needless to say, if contractors were supporting the CIA mission, those details were classified. In April, the U.S. military presence in Syria expanded when President Barack Obama announced that an additional 250 special operations forces would deploy to help local fighters as they battled ISIS. With more troops on the ground, local infrastructure is quietly being built or improved to support them and the local fighters they are there to advise. For example, the length of an airstrip in Hasakah, a town in northern Syria controlled by Kurdish forces, is being doubled to receive larger planes, CNN reported in February. While the battle against ISIS continues, Iraq and Syria will continue to offer opportunities to defense contractors, but the big money will come when reconstruction begins. The U.S. spent $60 billion in Iraq on reconstruction efforts and so far, over $110 billion in Afghanistan. Last week, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter signaled that after ISIS is pushed out of towns and cities across Iraq and Syria, there will be an opportunity for private contractors. There will be towns to rebuild, services to reestablish and communities to restore, Carter told troops July 27 in Fort Bragg, N.C. Thats not a principally American job. We will play a role in it, but remember the more than $2 billion in pledges that we got last week will mostly be executed through civilian agencies and frequently theyll use contractors to do that, he said later that day, speaking to reporters. Its going to be a big job. David Harbour never thought he was going to get the lead role of Chief Jim Hopper in this summers Netflix sensation Stranger Things. The 42-year-old character actor, who has consistently been the most compelling presence in a string of blink-and-youll-miss-them network dramas, was positive that the shows creators, twin brothers Matt and Ross Duffer, would want to cast a big star. But there was something about Harbours uniquely sinister and sympathetic energy they just couldnt resist. Speaking to The Daily Beast by phone from his home in New York City, where hes currently spending a lot of time on the couch after tearing his Achilles tendonwhile playing Achilles in the Shakespeare in the Park production of Troilus and CressidaHarbour reflected on what has turned into an undeniably game-changing role for his career. After nearly two decades playing mostly villainous boyfriends, husbands and fathers, Stranger Things has given Harbour the chance to show the world that he too can be a heroif you just give him a chance. Its a journey not dissimilar from the one his character, Hawkins Police Chief Jim Hopper, embarks on over the course of the shows increasingly terrifying eight episodes. With his excessive cigarette smoking and beer swilling, Hopper seems like the last person who would rise to the occasion and save his town from an otherworldly threat. But give him time, and he will prove you wrong. How did this part first come to you? I had done a show for NBC that just got cancelled. And I talked to my television agent and she asked, what would you be interested in doing? And I was like, I would love to play a broken, flawed, antihero character. And the script just came to me through the casting director. It was the best pilot script Id ever read. It was very subtle in the way it worked its magic, but I thought there was true magic in it. I was blown away by the character. It was the guy Ive always wanted to play and I thought, well, Ill never get cast in this, so I may as well read it and enjoy it, but Im sure theyre going to want a big star for this, because its a real flashy role. And then apparently the [Duffer brothers] were really interested in me. They had known some of my other work and were really interested in me, so I made a little tape and it was on. But I was very surprised that I was even being consideredand then thrilled to get the part. You describe Jim Hopper as an antihero, which is definitely the impression you get of him at the beginning. But he evolves into much more of a true hero as the show goes on. How did you approach that? One of the things I really like about the character is that hes a difficult guy. When you meet him, a lot of the audience response to him, a lot of people I talk to, say they didnt really like him in the beginning. I love taking people on that journey, which I feel like can open them up to seeing human beings a little more complexly. People that you originally dont like, maybe they have reasons for the way they are, and maybe we can start to understand each other a little better as opposed to being quick to judge and dismiss people. And so, in a weird way, I kind of wanted you to try to dismiss him in the beginning and then earn your empathy and love as the series went on, because I knew he was going to do a lot of really cool stuff later on. So I felt like in the beginning I didnt have to soften any of the edges that he has. Hes a jerk to people. Hes a jerk to [Winona Ryders character] Joyce, hes shut down, he sleeps around, he drinks, he makes fun of people, he doesnt really care about his joball these wonderful colors. Im used to playing a lot of villains, so I could play him as almost like a bad guy, and then later on know that the turn was going to come; that once he started realizing what was going on and started seeing that people were lying to him, it could really galvanize him to go on this journey. Right. By casting you in this role, the audience that recognizes you as a villain says, Maybe hes not such a great guy. Was it fun to play with those preconceptions about yourself? Exactly. At the end of the day, what I try to bring to villainous characters is a sense of humanity. I did this movie A Walk Among the TombstonesI truly play a horrible, horrible individual in thatand I would occasionally go to the theater and watch what peoples responses were and they would laugh. He makes jokes and people would respond to him in a human way. Then Ive really done my job if Ive humanized a really horrible person. And so in the same way, when you play a hero, its just that they make different choices. [Hopper] makes heroic actions, but he has the same feelings of loneliness and being misunderstood and being angry at the world, because hes had tragedy in his life; its just that he chooses to make a nobler choice. In a sense, human beings are human beings. Their feelings of aloneness, of brokenness, their feelings of hurt and disappointment, are universal. Its the ways they choose to act on their feelings that separates them. The Duffer brothers recently told us they thought you had been waiting too long for this opportunity. Does that ring true to you? Thats sweet of them to say. Yeah, I certainly dove in head first, so maybe that implies a certain, like, Its been too long, come on, lets do this! I really did embrace and relish in it, which you know, who knows? If I had been 30, maybe I wouldnt have. So yeah, theyre right. I have been waiting for that moment where I could really step into a leading man-type role. Its been a long time coming. But part of the benefit of that is Ive really been able to develop my craft, develop what it is that I want to say, and have enough life experience to understand people much more so than I did in my twenties or thirties. So, in a way, its kind of a gift to be able to start to play this in my forties. And youre working with someone who had massive success when she was young, Winona Ryder. What was it like to play off of her? Shes amazing. When I first met her, I used to have a crush on her from all those movies like Heathers and Beetlejuice. I was in high school when she was a big movie star and she was probably the most beautiful woman Id ever seen. So I had to get over that. And once I did, shes really a live wire. She does not hold back, she is wildly committed to her art and to her acting. And I am too, so we just dove in head first with each other. I work with a lot of different stars and Ive never seen a star so willing to go to personal places with me and make the work really intimate. We got really angry with each other and we sort of fell for each other, we were really intimate with each other in a way that is rare for me with big stars like that. I was really grateful for that. There are so many allusions to 80s movies throughout the show. Were those things discussed on set during filming? We would joke about it, but it wasnt something where we were trying to recreate. The interesting thing about the series is that while there are homages left and right, it still feels to me like a truly original story. Even that scene where Im ripping apart my trailer, its a lot like Gene Hackman in The Conversation. But at least the stuff I was doing was always seen through the lens of this being Hoppers story. Our conversations might start with the homage, but they would always come back to Hopper. You had that great Indiana Jones moment when you rescue the kids on the bus near the end of the series. Yeah, that was funny. One of the things I really like about Hopper is hes sort of unapologetically angry through a lot of it. Even with those kids at the end, hes like, Cmon! And with Joyce when theyre going off to look for the kids, theres a little moment where Im by the car and shes saying goodbye to Jonathan and Im like, Joyce, cmon! I just love that about Hopper, that he has that old school, leading man quality. I feel like weve gotten a little more sensitive or something with our leading men. Indiana Jones, he and Marion were really at each others throats through a lot of the movie [Raiders of the Lost Ark]. I really liked bringing that quality to him. It was really fun and liberating to be able to embrace that side of a leading man. We get a little bit of his sensitive side in the flashbacks to your characters daughter. You did a Reddit AMA recently in which you teased that there might be more to the story of Hoppers daughters death, which appears to be from cancer. Can you expand on that at all? Were going to see where we go with it, but the Duffers and I talked a lot about that backstory, and even where her cancer came from and Hoppers guilt around the whole situation. He really kind of died on the inside and I think theres a lot more to that story. There are little Easter eggs throughout. So I dont want to give too much away, but I will say there is more onion to be peeled back in terms of Hoppers backstory and what hes been through. And his daughters cancer was a lot more complex than what it seemed. Theres also the moment at the end where you leave the Eggo waffles in the woods. Is there more to that story as well? I was obviously very interested in that moment. And we talked a little bit about what was going on there. Basically, Hoppers story at the end of the pieceafter the hospital, he gets into this car, which presumably has to do with the Hawkins lab people, and then we time-cut a month later to when hes leaving the Eggo waffles. So the deal that he made with Dr. Brenner to go into the rift to go find Will and then getting in the car and telling Joyce, Whatever happened here, erase it from your memory. Whatevers going on with the lab, Hoppers involved a little more deeply than we realize. And part of that may be that he has some sort of understanding of this upside down world that other people dont have. And in that way, he may understand that Eleven exists in some form. And so hes got this box out in the woods where he gives her food. But again, these are all questions that we will start to explore when we see where season two takes us. Theres a lot of talk about season two even though it hasnt formally been announced yet. What do you think the chances are for that and is it something you would be excited to do? I feel like it looks pretty likely. I feel like people are pretty psyched about the show, so I cant imagine that they wouldnt do it. But you know, stranger thingsI dont mean to use the titlebut stranger things have happened. I really do hope that we get another season only because I want to play this guy more. And I feel like there are so many more colors to him and so much more story with him. And we can see him in a broader context. Also I just really enjoy punching people in the face, so if we get another season, I assume there will be a lot more of that. Was it presented to you at the beginning as a one-off miniseries or was that door always open for more? When I first originally came on, it was treated as if it was going to be a one-off thing, but perhaps they would continue and jump like 20 years and the kids would be grown up. But I think people convinced them that people would fall in love with these characters and want to see more from them. And I think thats whats happened. And Im really happy about it because I think there is so much more we can do with these characters and they are so iconic in many ways, and yet so multi-dimensional. So I feel like people want more and I think we want to give them more, so its all a win-win. The feedback youve been getting has been amazing, both critically and from obsessive viewers, who are sending you fan art, and things like that. That must be kind of a new experience for youthat outpouring of love. It was initially a little overwhelming. I got a bit scared, because, honestly, I didnt read a single bad word about the show. So I would just troll Twitter to find negative comments and it was all just people loving itand loving it for all different reasons. After hours and hours and days and days, I did find one really negative tweet and I saved it on my phone. I was so happy, I took a picture of it. I felt like there might be a backlash, that certain critics or fans were taken in but then people would be like, Its not that great. But Ive yet to see the other shoe drop. Its very gratifying to feel like people are so moved by what theyve seen. All Ive ever wanted to do as an actor since I was a kid is move people and I feel like we have. The Yom Kippur War, which began on October 6, 1973 and would become the most intense military clash in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict, is usually thought of as a surprise attack. Yet for a full week before Egypt and Syria went to war, Israeli Military Intelligence (MI) had detected a dramatic increase in unusual military activity on Israels borders along the Golan Heights and the Suez Canal. Growing evidence that war was imminent, however, was dismissed by the director of MI, Maj. Gen. Eli Zeira, who remained convinced that despite indications on the ground, Syria would never attack without Egypt, and Egypt would never attack without the weapons needed to neutralize Israels air superiority. As the chief interpreter of intelligence for Israeli decision-makers, he made sure his opinions were shared, emphatically, with Defense Minister Moshe Dayan and Prime Minister Golda Meir. And then, on Thursday, October 4, the USSR began an emergency airlift to evacuate thousands of Soviet officers and their families from Egypt and Syria. Israeli leaders held a series of emergency meetings in Tel-Aviv the following daythe eve of Yom Kippurin which Golda Meir expressed her alarm about a possible Arab attack. Zeira, however, stuck to his guns. Believing that prior to any Arab attack they would get clear warnings, the cabinet reached a compromise: The regular army was put on its highest state of alert, but there would be no mobilization of reserves, who constituted 80 percent of the IDFs ground forces. As the sun headed to the sea and thoughts turned to the coming day of prayer and fasting, Israels leaders hoped they had averted disaster. They had not. Ashraf Marwan, the son-in-law of the late Egyptian leader Gamel Abdel Nasser and aide-de-camp of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, had secretly provided intelligence to the Mossad since 1970. For some time now, he had been warning the Israelis that Sadat wasnt bluffing about a massive coordinated attack. But after too many leaks of Sadats previous plans, Sadat had kept the precise day and time of the attack almost entirely to himself. Understanding that war was close, Marwan, who was traveling in Paris on Thursday, October 4, signaled to his handler in the Mossad, whom we know only as Dubi, demanding an urgent meeting in London with the chief of the Mossad, Zvi Zamir. Zamir took the first flight to London the next morning. Marwan made his way to London as well. There he learned from a friend who worked for EgyptAir that the airline had received orders to reroute their civilian aircraft to safer locationsorders that were then abruptly rescinded. This was all Marwan needed to hear. From his hotel room he made a few calls to colleagues in Egypt, and by noon on Friday he was certain that the attack plans had finally been set in motion. The secure arrangement of a meeting with the Mossad chief and Dubi, however, would take some time. The hours ticked away on Friday, October 5, into the night of Yom Kippur. From The Angel: The Egyptian Spy Who Saved Israel: It was close to 10 p.m. London time when Dubi and Zamir reached the apartment where the meeting would be held. Mossad agents, who had been in place for several hours, gave the area around the building a final once-over. Dubi and Zamir went in and waited. It was a long wait. Marwan had rarely been late before. Slightly after 11:30 p.m., they finally heard a knock on the door. Dubi opened it, and in walked the Angel. Handshakes and formalities were exchanged. Dubi took a seat near the large dining table, notebook open and pen in hand. Marwan sat in an armchair by the coffee table, facing Zamir. This was the first meeting between Marwan and his handlers since the failed attack on the El Al jet in Rome a month earlier. The Israelis wanted to make sure their source hadnt been compromised, and they wanted him to know they were concerned. This is why Zamirs first line of questioning was about whether any suspicions had been raised after the Italian forces raided the apartment in Ostiaa raid that clearly was based on advance warningand whether Sadat had shown any interest in the question of how the Italians knew about the attack. Marwan reassured them that the episode had not caused him any trouble. Sadat probably figured that Marwan had tipped the Italians off; since the terror attack wasnt in Egypts interest anyway, this in itself was unlikely to trouble the president. But nobody suspected he had said anything to the Israelis. From the abrupt manner in which he deflected Zamirs questions, however, it was clear that Marwan had something more pressing on his mind. Marwan was tense. I have come here, he announced, to talk about the war, and nothing else. I came late because I have spent the entire evening at our consulate in Kensington. Ive been on the phone with Cairo, trying to get the most up-to-date information. He [Sadat] intends to go to war tomorrow. From the way Marwan expressed himself in what followed, one gets the sense that he thought the Israelis already knew about it. It was a belief held widely by the Egyptians that the Israelis would know about the attack two full days before it was launched. But it is also possible that he was trying to gloss over the fact thatdespite presenting himself to the Israelis as the oracle of all knowledge worth knowing in Egypthere he now was, less than 24 hours before the attack, having learned about it only a few hours earlier. Zamir was taken by surprise. He had come to the meeting worried because from the latest information he had, especially the Soviet evacuations, he could see that Egypt and Syria were heading for war. But he had not imagined that the attack would be launched in less than 24 hours. And he was also worried that, just as with past warnings, this one, too, would prove a false alarm. So his immediate response was, On what do you base your assertion? For Marwan, who had previously given false alarms of war, both his credibility in the eyes of the Israelis and his image as a central player in Cairo were obviously important. Nor is it clear where he got his informationto whom, in other words, he had made those phone calls throughout the evening. And because his information was based on telephone conversations rather than face-to- face meetings, it is fair to assume that what he heard had been phrased cautiously or even ambiguously. He had not spent the crucial days before the war in Sadats presence, so he couldnt know what the atmosphere was like in the presidential offices, where there were people who already knew the secret. The dissonance between the information he had received, in whose credibility he had no doubt, and his intimate knowledge of Sadats psychethe president had changed his mind many times about the date of attackhad its effect on him. The more Zamir pressed him to give his own independent take on whether war would in fact erupt the next day, the more Marwan grew agitated, at least once raising his voice. How should I know? he shouted. He [Sadat] is crazy. He can march forward, tell everyone else to march forward, and then suddenly march backward. Marwan was giving voice not only to his frustration at his inability to give a straight answer to the most important question of his career as a spy, but also to his personal aversion toward Sadat, his inclination to disrespect him and see him as unreliable. Zamir was less worried about Marwans inner conflict than about whether or not a war would start the next day. He had been a senior IDF officer in 1959, when a poorly thought-out military exercise involving an unannounced, emergency mass call-up of reserves instilled fear in an entire nation, triggered the call-up of reserves in Egypt and Syria in response, and ratcheted up tensions in the whole region. The affair, known as the Night of the Ducks, brought an end to the military careers of the commander of the IDFs operations branch, Maj. Gen. Meir Zorea, and the chief of military intelligence, Maj. Gen. Yehoshafat Harkabi. Images of that episode flashed through Zamirs mind as he spoke with Marwan. The Night of the Ducks, he realized, would look like childs play compared with a mistaken emergency mobilization for war in the middle of Yom Kippur. He could see the worldwide reaction to the IDF pulling tens of thousands of reserve soldiers out of the synagogues and sending them to the front to await an Arab onslaught that never came. The price would be incalculable. Now was the time, Zamir knew, to press his source as hard as possible, to make sure the warning was well grounded. Marwans discomfort did little to quell Zamirs concerns. He quickly realized that hed have to rely on his own experience, which was much greater than Marwans, to formulate his own opinion. Zamir didnt know what had happened in Israel since his departure to London, but he had no reason to think that the reserves had already been called up. He understood that a clear warning that war would be launched the next day would leave the decision makers without any alternatives to a full-blown emergency call-up. And so, despite his being the chief of the Mossad and not the prime minister and her cabinet, he suddenly felt the full weight of the governments decision on his shoulders. But Zamir was himself a former general, having previously served as the chief of the IDF Southern Command, and he fully understood the implications of trying to fend off an Arab assault without calling up reserves. By the end of the meeting, he had already made up his mind. He would send back to Israel an unambiguous warning that Egypt and Syria planned on launching a full-scale attack the next day. This decision would alter the course of the Yom Kippur War. But he wasnt finished with Marwan. Next, he grilled him about the war plans. Marwan hadnt brought any documents with him, but most of the key details of the latest battle plans were burned in his memory and had just been reconfirmed by his contacts in Cairo. Nothing had changed since the last time hed passed the most recent version of the war plans to his handlers several weeks before. Egyptian infantry divisions would cross the Suez Canal and move farther east up to six miles. He went into some detail about the air and commando raids aimed at blocking IDF reinforcements heading for the front. Marwan also confirmed that the Egyptian air force would send its Tupolev Tu-16 bombers armed with Kelt missiles to strike the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv. This, too, had appeared in the plans he had previously passed along. Zamir also asked about the precise hour of attack (H-hour), though he didnt consider it such a pressing question. In all of the Egyptian battle plans that Israel had seen for years, H-hour was precisely sunseta time that left just enough daylight to carry out a major air assault on the Sinai, before darkness came to preclude an effective response by the Israeli Air Force. According to Marwans report, that would be the plan this time as well. On October 6, 1973, the sun would set at 5:20 p.m. Israel time. What neither Marwan nor his handlers knew, however, was that two days earlier, the Egyptian war minister had met with the president of Syria and had agreed to launch the attack at 2 p.m., as a compromise between Syrian and Egyptian operational needs. The meeting lasted more than two hours. Marwan returned to his hotel, with Mossad agents keeping tabs on him. The next day, Saturday, he went back to Egypt. Zamir and Dubi, who had spent the whole meeting writing down every word, went directly to the home of the Mossads London station chief, a ten-minute walk. On the way, Zamir wondered aloud what would happen if he sent a warning of immediate war and the war never came. He didnt need to wait for Dubis answer, however. He had already made up his mind. They reached the apartment of Rafi, the station chief, who was waiting for them. Zamir took a few minutes to carefully craft, longhand, the coded message that he would send to his chief of staff, Freddy Eini, who waited at home in Israel. Also present was Zvi Malhin, who was responsible for security for the meeting with Marwan. When Malhin saw the message Zamir had written, he reminded him of the Night of the Ducks of 1959, as if Zamir needed reminding, and what happened to those responsible. But Malhin, too, was convinced that war was coming: A few hours before war started, he called his wife in the Afeka neighborhood of Tel Aviv, and told her to find a neighbors house with a bomb shelter where she could take cover. Their own house didnt have one. Zamir called Freddy Eini. By 1973, direct dial had been introduced between London and Israel, and there was no need for an international operator. It was now close to 3 a.m., exactly 24 hours after Eini had called Zamir to tell him that the Angel wanted an urgent meeting in London to talk about chemicals. It was extremely important to Zamir that Eini now understand every word he said, and that he move as quickly as possible to implement what was included in the message. When Eini answered, Zamir first told him, Put your feet in cold waterthat is, be wide awake, right now. Once Eini had assured him he was fully alert, Zamir dictated to him the message as he had written it down. It read as follows, in full: The company, it turns out, intends to sign the contract today before nightfall. It is the same contract, with the same conditions with which we are familiar. They know that tomorrow is a holiday. They think they can land tomorrow before dark. I spoke with the manager, but he cannot put it off because of his commitment to other managers, and he wants to keep his commitment. Ill update you on all the conditions of the contract. Because they want to win the race, they are very afraid that it will be made public before the signing, for there may be competitors, and then some of the shareholders will think twice. They have no partners outside the region. In the Angels opinion, the chances of signing are 99.9 percent, but then again, he is like that. Meanwhile Dubi prepared a communique about the meeting. When he was done, he went to the Israeli embassy at Palace Green in central London in order to send it via the code room. According to some accounts, because of Yom Kippur no one was on duty in the code room, and they had to wait for someone to show up. In truth, however, the station chief was there waiting for him, and the report was sent to Mossad headquarters in Tel Aviv during the early morning hours. The communique repeated Zamirs alert that war would commence later that day and added that the source had said that Sadat might change his mind at the last minute. Beyond this, the main message was that the Egyptian war objective was limited only to capturing territory up to six miles east of the Suez Canal, and that at this stage there was no intention to advance to the Mitla and Gidi Passes. Dubi went back to his apartment. His wife, Ronit, was waiting. She was used to his unpredictable schedule, but his long absence in the middle of the night of Yom Kippur was unusual even for him, and it suggested something serious. She didnt have to ask many questions. With her, he could be explicit. Its war. The bar mitzvahs off. Their son Ofer had come of age, and his bar mitzvah celebration, which was supposed to take place soon after, was one of Israels first, if least painful, casualties in the conflict that would begin in just a few hours. Later that morning, utterly exhausted, Dubi finally went to bed. The Angel: The Egyptian Spy Who Saved Israel by Uri-Bar Joseph 2016 by Uri Bar Joseph. Excerpted with permission of Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Uri Bar-Joseph is a professor of political science at the University of Haifa, Israel, and one of the worlds experts on Israeli intelligence, having served for more than 10 years as an active-duty and a reserve-duty intelligence analyst in the IDF (Israeli Defense Force) Intelligence/Research Division. He earned his Ph.D. from Stanford University. Ever enjoy a delicious cocktail made with fresh-squeezed juices and premium spirits by a bartender dedicated to the craft of mixology? You have Dale DeGroff to thank. The drinks legend kicked off the modern cocktail revival back in the 80s at New Yorks famed Rainbow Room, where he served long-lost classics to a never-ending parade of celebrities and other famous diners, earning in the process the nickname King Cocktail. For his efforts, DeGroff won a James Beard Award for Outstanding Wine & Spirits Professional. Hes also published two books (The Craft of the Cocktail and The Essential Cocktail, became the founding president of the Museum of the American Cocktail and mentored countless talented bartenders as a partner in the Beverage Alcohol Resource training program. Naturally, he keeps on top of the local Big Apple cocktail scene, and I got DeGroff to share his current three favorite drinks to have in Manhattan. Garibaldi at Dante The Garibaldi is nothing more than Campari and orange juice. Then why are cocktail geeks going nuts over it? Because of the way barman Naren Young makes it here. Fresh oranges are run through a high-speed Breville juicer, which adds a lot of air, giving the drink a frothy, almost Orange Julius texture, says DeGroff. Young worked all over the world for more than two decades before settling down last year in the West Village as the managing partner of Dante. Old Cuban at Pegu Club Among DeGroffs many disciples, Audrey Saunders might be the biggest success story. She kickstarted her career by taking a seminar from the man himself back in the 90s, and since 2005, Saunders has presided over Pegu Club, her Soho boite styled after a 19th-century British officers club in Southeast Asia. DeGroffs favorite drink there is the classic Old Cuban, essentially a Mojito topped with Champagne: Whether July 4th or New Years Eve, this one is right at home on either date, he says. Lively Up at Sons & Daughters The brand-new Sons & Daughters brings some pretty out-there cocktails to the Meatpacking District, like the Lively Up, a tiki tipple that uses armagnac, of all things, as its base spirit. Theres also a Girl Scout drink made with gin, creme de cacao and minty Branca Menta, garnished with an actual Thin Mint cookie. The spot features culinary and mixological talent from several of the citys top spots, including Leo DeGroff, who created this drink. Yep, thats Dales son, and hes been working in bars since he was 18. And so, the DeGroff cocktail legacy continues. Check out our complete Three Drinks travel guide to cocktails Karina Vetranos father found her body face-down in the marshes 20 feet from the jogging path, her teeth knocked out, her hands still clenching the tall weeds that now choke the neighborhoods crumbling park. She had been murdered less than two hours after leaving home for a run. Vetrano was killed in a Queens, New York, park last Tuesday. But during a town hall meeting six days later, her close-knit community of Howard Beach had little more information than they did the day of her slayingonly anger and anxiety over a park that has long been a sore spot for the neighborhood. Its official name is Spring Creek Park, a sprawling 17-acre parcel wedged between the ocean and the Queens neighborhood of Howard Beach. But locals call it the Baja, or even more commonly the Weeds, named for the 11-foot reeds that encroach on the narrow jogging path and river. In a community of trim one- and two-story homes, the unruly Weeds stand out as a dumping ground, usually for trash, but all too often for bodies. People in Howard Beach remember Vetrano as kind, and well-liked. The 30-year-old was that kind of person, and Howard Beach is that kind of neighborhood, where people introduce themselvesas one did Monday nightas the boyfriend of the cousin of the deceased. This is basically an Italian immigrant community. Close-knit. People have each others backs, resident Cathy Brancatel told The Daily Beast. Everybody on every block knows somebody. Family and neighbors knew Vetrano as a nature lover, an unstoppable force. She kept the words self-respect taped above her bedroom mirror. She was close with her family, jogging with her father, Phillip, nearly every day until he was sidelined by a back injury. And she loved butterflies, the kind that flew in the Weeds in summer. Footage from around 5:30 Tuesday evening shows Vetrano jogging into the Weeds. Her father had cautioned her not to jog there alone. Few locals would just go there for a stroll, Howard Beach resident Anne Mastropietro said. The area is a haven for teenagers on dirt bikes, homeless encampments, and religious sects performing ritual chicken sacrifices. Technically a national park, the Weeds are outside the purview of the local parks department, which means locals requests for security cameras, better lighting, and fewer weeds have been ignored by national agencies. The border fences have been wrenched apart. Litter and weeds grow virtually unencumbered. Police patrol the reed-lined paths approximately once a week. Once Vetrano entered the Weeds, authorities arent sure what happened. Their only footage comes from surveillance cameras mounted outside the park and its impenetrable weeds. Someonemaybe one person, maybe multipleconfronted her on the jogging path, NYPD Deputy Chief Michael Kemper said Monday night. Vetrano was sexually assaulted, strangled to death, and left in the overgrown areas off the track. They have no strong suspects, no persons of interest, only some possible DNA leads, Kemper said. The lack of leads has sparked anxiety among some Howard Beach residents. How safe are our children? one woman asked Chief Kemper during the Monday town hall. But the Vetrano family says their daughters killer or killers will face justice. In a Sunday press conference outside her home, Vetranos mother, Cathy, addressed her daughters killer directly, in words many grieving mothers might feel, but few have the strength to voice. Whoever you are, Cathy Vetrano said, Im here to remind you in case you dont already know, that now its the whole entire world against you. The whole entire world knows what a pathetic, puny, weak piece of filth you are. The whole world knows that. And soon, I know, theyre all gonna know your face as well. Soon were gonna have a face to the dickless piece of garbage that you are. And above and beyond all, you know that my daughter was a force to be reckoned with, and I guarantee you, I guarantee you, you motherfucker, that you will be reckoning with that force not only for the rest of your pathetic life, but for the rest of eternity as you fucking burn in hell. I guarantee you that. My daughter was a big believer of karma, and as you can see, shes magical. The whole world knows shes magical. And I guarantee you, you will pay forever. Other Howard Beach residents, especially women, say they feel less safe, or are taking extra safety precautions in the usually low-crime neighborhood. At the Monday town hall, multiple people mentioned the brutal assault of a young woman in the nearby neighborhood of Rockaway. The case remains unsolved and the young womans mother, in attendance at the town hall, said her daughter remained traumatized, their family helpless without new information. Other attendees mentioned a 27-year-old New York woman who was similarly assaulted and murdered during a jog in Massachusetts on Sunday. (Kemper said there appeared to be no relation between the attacks.) A woman at the town hall, also named Karina, also a frequent jogger in the Weeds, said she had stopped running there since Vetranos body was discovered there. Im asking for a petition for the Weeds to be transformed, she said. Not just into a wildlife preservation, but into a park. Other residents said theyd be just as happy closing down the troubled parkland. Just kill em, one woman at the town hall shouted when a National Parks official cited a half-million-dollar price tag just for mowing the thick weeds once. Burn em down. Fear of crime keeps many Howard Beach residents out of the Weeds, which has a dark reputation as a dumping ground for bodies. Last August, local construction worker Gary Russo was found hanging in the Weeds of apparent suicide. With a voice that earned him the nickname Second Ave Sinatra , Russo was famous for singing during lunch breaks on construction sites. He made national headlines in 2011 when a passerby filmed him singing Sinatra classics in his hardhat. After a 2013 brushfire in the Weeds, local officials found the bodies of two young men in the overgrown area. Both had been shot to death and hidden in the low-traffic park, where police say the brushfire might have been started to destroy their remains. In 2006, graduate student Imette St. Guillens body was deposited near the park in a high-profile murder case. In the 1930s, the park was rumored to be a mass graveyard for victims of the Gambino mafia family, and by the Murder Incorporated crime organizations. Its too much, Brancatel said. Its not someplace youd go to have a picnic, I tell you that. A former State Capitol Police officer was sentenced Monday to four years of probation, with 10 months in jail as a condition of probation, for the theft of a painting from the Governors Mansion in 2011 and an unrelated 2015 forgery case. Im humbled and Im sorry and I want to make everyone whole to the best of my ability, said Travis Sackett, 32, now of Tempe, Arizona. Sackett, who was a Capitol officer from 2009 to 2011, pleaded guilty in June to felony theft for stealing a 1968 painting by Wisconsin artist Aaron Bohrod called Gold Fantasy Box, which had been in storage at the Governors Mansion. He also pleaded guilty to unrelated counts of forgery, misuse of someone elses identity, identity theft and misdemeanor bail jumping. While Dane County Circuit Judge Nicholas McNamara remarked Monday that stealing the painting was one thing, he said the more sophisticated act was the fraud, in which Sackett created a look-alike lien satisfaction document intended to fool the Dane County Clerk of Courts office into believing that he had paid off restitution he owed for a 2012 theft case. The public trust was what really was stolen in both of these cases, McNamara said. Sackett blamed the crimes on an addiction problem that he tried to solve by himself and the effects of a later head injury he sustained. The painting was discovered missing during an audit in January by the state Department of Administration, and turned up for sale at Don Barese Fine Art and Antiques in Hamden, Connecticut. Barese told police he bought the painting from Sackett in March 2011 for $1,800. The sentence was recommended by Assistant District Attorney Paul Humphrey and Sacketts lawyer, David Bolles. In addition to the time in jail and other conditions, Sackett was ordered to repay Barese and to pay about $13,000 for restitution in the fraud case. An Oregon woman escaped injury early Sunday morning when a passenger in a car on the Beltline allegedly started shooting at her while she was driving. The incident apparently started when the shooter and the woman had a disagreement over money at an East Side gas station, Madison police said. It happened at about 2:30 a.m. Sunday on the Beltline near Park Street. The 51-year-old woman told police she was shot at while driving, with the shooter appearing to be a passenger in a car that was following her. "She said the vehicle he was in had been following her after she got into a dispute with that car's passenger over money," said police spokesman Joel DeSpain. The two initially made contact at a gas station on East Washington Avenue. "It was not clear what triggered the disagreement over cash," DeSpain said. The woman's car had fresh damage to it but she didn't know if it was caused by bullets. No description of the suspect was given. Update: The child's motorized wheelchair taken from a residence has been returned. The two men who took it thought it was scrap, but when they saw the police information about the theft on Facebook, they returned the chair to the owner. Beloit police are looking for information regarding the theft of a child's motorized wheelchair on Sunday, the wheelchair stolen from the child's home. The home is on Hackett Street, police said. Witnesses told police the wheelchair, which is black and pink in color, was loaded into a light blue-colored Chevy Cavalier. "A male white subject in his mid-20s driving a black truck assisted in loading the chair into the Cavalier," police said. Anyone with information about the stolen wheelchair is asked to call Beloit police, 757-2244. January 14, 1926 - August 6, 2016 Blessed with a sweet and childlike spirit, our brother, uncle and friend, Willie Salcido Garcia, passed away on Saturday, August 6, 2016. He was 90 years young. Born on January 14, 1926, in Caldwell, to parents Francisco and Luisa (Salcido) Garciaa cotton farmer and a homemaker, respectivelyWillie was the fourth of nine children. His living siblings include: Margarito Garcia (and wife Celia), Mary Garcia Hernandez and Robert Garcia (and wife Betty). Willie was also predeceased by four brothers and one sisterSabino Romo, Juan Garcia, Raymond Garcia, Joe Garcia and Francisca Garza. Safely in the center of this devout Catholic family, Willie felt loved and nurtured as he looked for ways to laugh and have fun. From a young age, Willie discovered his passion for music, and that in playing the guitar, a feeling of peace resonated with him. While he never married or had a family of his own, Willie was much loved by those who appreciated his kind soul. His dark eyes were deep and understanding as they shone from underneath the brim of his favorite fedora, and when he looked at someone, they could sense his inner wisdom and quiet strength. Always helpful and courteous, Willie had a gift for being happily content with life's simplest pleasures: a smile, a kind word from a friend, a hug or kiss on the cheek from a loved one, a favorite song, even his favorite vanilla ice cream. He especially enjoyed getting together to sing and play guitar with his brothers. Additionally, Willie was an important and unforgettable member of his parish who regularly worshipped at Santa Teresa Catholic Church of Bryan. He loved his rosary and was instinctively faithful, devoted to God and to serving God's children here on Earth. In turn, the Garcia family would like to thank those who also loved and served Willie in challenging times, especially his church familyfellow parishioners at Santa Teresaand Brazos Valley Hospice for their tender care, as well as Nicole and Lupe Garza for their unfailing love and support of Willie. Willie is survived by his sister, his two brothers and three sisters in law: Mary Garcia Hernandez, Margarito & Celia Garcia, Robert & Betty Garcia and Angelina Garcia. He was predeceased by his parents, as well as five siblings. Willie is now remembered by an abundance of nieces, nephews, close friends and his loving church family. Join us in celebrating the remarkably sweet life of Willie Garcia, beginning with Visitation from 6-8pm and Recitation of the Rosary at 7pm on Wednesday, August 10, 2016, at Hillier Funeral Home in Bryan. A Mass of Christian Burial will then be held on Thursday, August 11th at 10am at Santa Teresa Roman Catholic Church in Bryan, followed by interment at Mt. Calvary Catholic Cemetery in Bryan. Please share memories of Willie, and leave condolences at www.hillierfuneralhome.com. College Station impact fees are a way to hurt disabled, senior citizens Beware of the proposed city of College Station impact fees. This is just another ploy by the city council to find a back-door means of increasing taxes on College Station residents. They are very similar to skimming a portion of our utility charges by calling it a "utility transfer fund," which is in reality a tax increase for projects not worthy of actually raising your taxes. City taxes are deductible from our federal income taxes and impact fees are not. Disabled and senior citizen taxes were frozen by an overwhelming margin of 63 percent through a petition in 2008. The proposed impact fees are aimed directly at disabled and senior citizens. The purposes of impact fees for roads, water, and other utility services are tailor-made for municipal bonds which are supported by taxing residents of College Station. Our council is determined not to increase taxes and will resort to any means possible to avoid doing so -- even it is more costly to taxpayers through fees Our disabled and senior citizens should have a strong memory of this during upcoming elections. JIM KEBLINGER College Station Do we really want Trump to represent us to the world? Beyond the usual ideological arguments, and by any measure one wishes to choose, Donald Trump simply is unfit to serve as president of the United States. He has neither the knowledge nor the intelligence to navigate the dangers and complexities of our rapidly changing globalized world. Even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell publicly admitted on June 10 that "it's pretty obvious he [Trump] doesn't know a lot about the issues." Can anyone seriously desire for America's interests and well-being in the world arena be entrusted to someone so ignorant? Does anyone really think that either our friends and allies or the likes of Vladmir Putin or Kim Jong Un will be impressed with Trump's braggadocio and incessant focus on himself? Now more than ever, in this time of racial fears and tensions, the symbolic role of the president takes on tremendous importance: Anyone occupying the Oval Office must put on mantle of dignity, forbearance and grace. Trump, however, repeatedly has shown himself to be petty, vindictive, insensitive and boorish, not hesitating to insult a wide variety of individuals, including Gold Star parents and John McCain. Do we really want such a person responding to the next national crisis or tragedy? How we could even contemplate entrusting such a man with the nuclear codes is simply beyond comprehension. NATHAN BRACHER Bryan Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel announced Monday that he has demoted the longtime head of the Department of Justice environmental protection unit. Thomas Dawson, who once worked as a state intervenor for environmental protection, now is an assistant attorney general in the unit he directed since 2003, DOJ spokesman Johnny Koremenos said. After Schimel appointed a new director, Dawson announced he will retire in January, Koremenos said. Dawson said he wasnt authorized to discuss the changes. Schimel named Assistant Attorney General David P. Ross as director of the environmental unit. Ross has extensive experience in positions dealing with environmental regulations as a private attorney in Washington, D.C., and as a public employee for the state of Wyoming. Leaders of conservation groups said Ross had big shoes to fill. It would be hard to find anybody with a better knowledge of environmental laws in Wisconsin or a better record of upholding them than Tom, said Keith Reopelle, a senior policy director at Clean Wisconsin. Its pretty difficult to view this as anything but a continuing softening of that office of environmental protection. Schimel, a Republican who took office in 2015, has faced criticism from conservationists and Democrats for his environmental stances and what they see as excessive partisanship. This year, he issued a formal opinion that had the effect of rolling back state powers to protect water from high-capacity wells. Meanwhile, the environmental protection units staff this year shrunk to its smallest size in 25 years, continuing a long-term trend as state regulators sought fewer fines from polluters. In announcing Dawsons replacement, Schimel said DOJ cares about environmental protection. The Department of Justice takes seriously its role in environmental enforcement and the addition of Dave Ross to my leadership team will offer a new management perspective, and two decades of environmental litigation and consulting experience, Schimel said in a statement. As Ive said before, we are stocking the pond at DOJ with some of the very best legal minds in the country, and Dave Ross is certainly no exception. Ross LinkedIn profile indicates he joined DOJ several months ago after working two years for Wyomings attorney general as a senior assistant attorney general in the water and natural resources division enforcing laws and defending regulators. An Appleton native and 1994 UW-Madison graduate, Ross received his law degree and a masters in environmental law with honors from Vermont Law School in 2001. Working for a series of law firms, mostly in Washington, D.C., Ross helped developers, businesses and trade associations determine how to comply with environmental regula- tions. Ross defended major homebuilders accused of violating storm water regulations, and represented clients involved in litigation over the Clean Air Act and over water quality standards for Florida, the Chesapeake Bay and the Mississippi River Basin, according to his profile. Schimels announcement noted that Ross had represented green energy developers and investors. Ross LinkedIn profile indicated he defended a permit allowing a wind-energy facility to impact endangered species habitat, performed environmental due diligence for wind energy investors, and evaluated offshore wind developments for the federal government. Unit shrank Last year, Schimel had six attorneys assigned to the DOJ environmental protection unit compared to 10 as recently as 2008, according to data the department released showing a decrease over 25 years. Koremenos said in July he couldnt explain the decrease, but outside attorneys who have worked closely with the unit said it may be a symptom of the dwindling number of pollution cases the state Department of Natural Resources has referred for legal action. The DNR sent between 105 and 179 violations to environmental protection unit lawyers annually between 1989 and 2009, according to the DOJ data, but the number has exceeded 100 only once since then. Fines hit low point Last year, fines against polluters fell to their lowest point since at least 1994, dropping below $1 million for only the second time in that period, the data show. Dawson joined DOJ in 1976 and held the position of public intervenor, an assistant attorney general position that was abolished in the 1995 state budget. Public intervenors advocated for public rights related to natural resources in court, in agency rule-making and in legislative hearings. State intervenors lobbied agency administrators and legislators, and sought agreement among industry and other groups. Dawson worked in DOJs civil litigation unit until 1997, when he took a three-year leave to head the Wisconsin Strategic Pesticide Information Project, a nonprofit formed to enact legislation aimed at tracking pesticide sales and use. He teaches environmental law at UW Law School and the UW-Madison Environmental Toxicology Center. Chhith Sam Ath, says: "The Don Sahong Dam is an ecological time bomb that threatens the food security of millions and a population of critically endangered Mekong Irrawaddy dolphins. The dam will have disastrous impacts on the entire river ecosystem all the way to the Delta in Vietnam.'' The Mega-First Corporation claim they have come up with an engineering solution to divert fish away from the Sahong channel to Hou Xang Phuek and Hou Saddam - two much smaller channels that have been artificially deepened. However, Dr So Nam, from the MRC fisheries unit, reports that MRC technical experts have concluded "Hou Saddam and the Hou Xang Phuek channels cannot compensate for fish losses from Sahong and there will also be an impact on the Khone Falls." HAS THE MEKONG RIVER OMMISSION FAILED TO PROTECT THE MEKONG ECOSYSTEM? The 1995 Mekong Agreement that created the MRC (The Mekong River Commission) was based on the four-member states Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. All decisions were to be made by consensus, hence Mekong dam projects are not subject to any veto and the MRC secretariat is really only an advisory body. Increasingly the Mekong has become an arena of unilateral water grabbing' for the sole purpose of hydro-dam construction by China and Lao, with scant regard for good governance in water sharing or for the protection of the rich biodiversity of the longest river in SE Asia. The six dams built on the Upper Mekong by China were built without any consultation (Beijing has never joined the MRC). The MRC has a detailed consultation process, but it failed to curb the zealous drive of the developers and the determination of the Lao Government to ride roughshod over all the objections and protests over the two dams launched on the Lower Mekong. The Xayaburi Dam was launched in 2012 and this year the Don Sahong Dam. Construction started and in both cases building commenced before the MRC consultation process had been completed. The new MRC chief Pham Tuan Phan explained, "The MRC is not a regulatory body for the management of water-related resources. Nor can it approve or disapprove any development projects such as hydropower development." The Lao regime steamed ahead against of a tide of opposition from Cambodia, Vietnam, civilians and riverside communities that was expressed during the six months MRC-run consultation process known as the PNCPA [MRC public consultation process Procedures for Notification, Prior Consultation and Agreement.) MRC leaders have passively watched the ongoing erosion of the Mekong River's unique biodiversity with the apparent justification "we have no regulatory powers" to stop the rush to build dams. Many critics say this is an all too glib excuse for not accepting a greater responsibility as an advisory body, with considerable scope for advocacy based on their own research. Dr Philip Hirsch the director of the Mekong Research Centre (University of Sydney) told the Ecologist "The MRC's fisheries programme has produced reports that advised against proceeding with Don Sahong (dam). Yet the MRC leadership has not used these scientific reports to make a proactive recommendation against the dam. The Secretariat and its CEO have played an overly cautious game in which fear of offending governments, has taken precedence over its duty of care for the river." Cambodian fisheries expert Chheng Phen is depressed by the looming prospect of more dams and shrinking fish stocks. If the cascade of nine dams on the Lao side of the Mekong goes ahead, which the HDI Delta Study projects a 55% loss of fisheries if 11 dams go ahead. "I am very disappointed in the failure of the MRC consultation process. They have failed to protect fisheries, I feel very sorry for Cambodian people who rely on fish." The MRC has a stock response to such criticism. "We understand certain stakeholders have different expectations about the role of the MRC that go beyond our mandate under the 1995 Mekong Agreement. Unfortunately, it's very challenging to balance everyone's interests and impossible to satisfy all parties." But the MRC mandate does in fact clearly refer to protection of the environment. There is nothing in the 1995 Agreement that prohibits the CEO and the secretariat from expressing stronger concerns about the destruction of the Mekong, dam by dam. The fact that a clear majority of Mekong citizens have clearly rejected the two Lao dams as documented by the MRC consultation feedback from riparian stakeholders in Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam, could be used as mandate for the MRC to raise concerns about reckless dam development much more stridently. The CEO can readily cite article 3 (mandate for environmental concern) and article 7 of the Mekong Agreement (which specifics that where harm is done to the river calls for a suspension of projects can be made) www.internationalrivers.org/blogs/263/changing-tides-for-a-common-futur Has the MRC forgotten the landmark SEA Report (the Strategic Environmental Assessment Report) that concluded that the only way to protect the Mekong was to declare a moratorium on all dam-building for 10 Years? http://www.mrcmekong.org/about-mrc/programmes/initiative-on-sustainable-hydropower/strategic-environmental-assessment-of-mainstream-dams/ commissioned this independent study on the environmental impacts of the 11 scheduled dams on the mainstream Mekong but has never endorsed it. The recommendation to suspend all dams clashed with the pro-business tilt of "sustainable hydro-power" and the political agenda of the Lao PDR to utilise its part of the mainstream Mekong for maximum profit by selling electricity to Thailand, regardless of the environmental cost to the Mekong itself. Dr Hirsch points out that the SEA "expressly warned against using the Mekong mainstream as an experimental site for untested mitigation approaches". Vietnam has endorsed the report but the Lao team threatened to "walk out" if it was ever brought up again by the secretariat. A former CEO capitulated to this threat. And the dams go on being built. DESTROYING THE MEKONG DAM BY DAM Two more dams on the mainstream Mekong are currently being readied for construction. Altogether a total of nine dams are being planned by the Lao Ministry of Energy. During this year's drought when the Mekong river hit its lowest point for 100 years, downstream countries could only get some trickle of relief, if China turned on the tap and released water from its six dams. And nobody needed to ask who is the new overlord and master of the once mighty Mekong? China's geo-political power has been greatly enhanced by its cascade of dams, and its control over water resources. It has even set up its own Lancang-Mekong committee to deal with Mekong affairs posing a challenge to an already weak MRC suffering major budget cuts. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2016-03/15/c_135190799.htm But climate change scientists warn this is the worst of times to build new dams, when the vital glaciers of Tibet - the common source of many great rivers including the Mekong - are melting. Water flow is diminishing year on year. And by the time more dams in Laos come online, the water flow maybe insufficient to drive the turbines which means, in effect, the Mekong River's rich biodiversity may well be needlessly sacrificed to build ineffective dams that can no longer deliver the promised supply of electricity. If future dams become unviable, there is no technology in the world that can recover the lost biodiversity and reverse the damage done to the Mekong. Machinery can be restored but the fragile ecosystems and nature can never be resurrected. Vietnamese scientists are increasingly aware of this developmental madness. Wetlands scientist Nguyen Huu Thien, a participant in the SEA environmental report on dam impacts toldme: "If all the Mekong dams go ahead, then Vietnam will cease to be a rice exporter, and the delta denied sediment flow will no longer be able to support 18 million population. Social unrest, migration and other problems should not only concern Hanoi but all the Asian governments." The failure of the MRC should motivate other international agencies, not only Asian. The collapse of the Mekong ecosystem has global implications and several UN agencies UNDP, FAO and WFP that regularly buy Mekong rice for humanitarian missions would be directly affected by this impending disaster. At a recent conference in the Delta capital of Can Tho, Dr Tran Dinh Thien director of Vietnam's Institute of Economics declared: "We can only save the Mekong by shedding the narrow pond mentality of making profit from the river in the name of development" adding "there must be a Mekong River Protection Fund to protect the flow and a global movement to protect the river as an ecological and cultural asset of the world" https://youtu.be/TPXRVe35h7c This Author: Tom Fawthrop has previously reported on dams, ecology, human rights, rebellions and military coups in the South East Asia for Al Jazeera TV, The Economist, the Guardian and The Ecologist. He is also a documentary filmmaker and has directed two films about dams on the Mekong and the Salween (Eureka films). More by Tom Fawthrop on The Ecologist. So I'm trying now to think through this critical review process from Greg Clark's point of view, from what little I know of him as a conscientious, focussed politician of the kind that we've seen far too little of since 2010. And I would imagine that the officials already charged with oversight of the review will be looking at three big areas: technology, security and affordability. 1. Technology Greg Clark has always been a moderniser, and although he has dutifully signed up to the Conservative Party's support for nuclear power, it's never been 'an article of faith', or a matter of ideological conviction, as it seems to have become for some people. So he will know that, with Hinkley Point, we've thrown in our lot with the worst possible nuclear option: the EPR. Its track record is so bad (at Olkiluoto in Finland, Flamanvillein France, and even in China) that it's impossible to imagine how anyone might suppose things are going to improve at Hinkley Point. One enthusiastic pro-nuclear engineer has described the EPR as "unconstructable" - which may explain why no other nation on Earth (including France!) has committed to any more EPRs after the current round of construction. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Greg Clark isn't much more enthusiastic about Small Modular Reactors - not my cup of nuclear tea, I have to admit, but far more promising (and future-oriented) than the EPR. He'll also be aware of the gamut of breakthroughs unfolding on a regular basis in the fields of renewables and storage - if not (as yet!) of Artificial Photosynthesis. There's a consistent and hugely promising story everywhere you look: costs down and efficiencies up, with systemic synergies (surrounding electric vehicles, for instance, or smart meters) moving rapidly off the drawing-board into early prototyping and rollout. To all intents and purposes, the EPR is dead - and that's not just the judgement of anti-nuclear advocates like me, but of almost all independent experts, almost all informed investors, almost all the rest of the nuclear industry - and at least 50% of key decision-makers in EdF itself! 2. Security These days, security has a double meaning: first, security of supply, as in the contribution that any electricity generation option can make to meeting our energy needs here in the UK - ensuring that the lights really don't go out, to use that increasingly hackneyed cliche. Second, security against external threats, be they hostile nations, terrorists, cybercrime or whatever. Regarding security of supply, Hinkley Point is a big deal, theoretically providing up to 7% of the UK's electricity when it eventually comes on line. If Hinkley Point were to drop out of the future generating portfolio, it really will be a huge challenge to ensure that the lights don't go out. But it's a completely do-able challenge - just so long as we don't waste another decade dickering around with today's prevailing nuclear fantasies! And the starting point here has to be energy efficiency and demand management. Contrary to the myths so successfully pedalled by the Electricity Supply Industry, energy demand in the UK is not rising. Indeed, final energy consumption in 2014 was no less than 21% lower than it was in 2000, and continues to decline today - partly because of the shape of our economy, and partly because businesses have got better and better at saving themselves huge amounts of money. But unlike Germany, the UK has never prioritised energy efficiency and demand management. With 'Industrial Strategy' now formally in his departmental remit, Greg Clark could build a completely new vision of a low-carbon UK, based on resource efficiency and smart energy systems. And he'll have pretty much a tabula rasa on which to draw out such a vision; when he reviews the policy carnage in this area (on the built environment, zero carbon buildings, fuel poverty etc etc), I think he'll be appalled at just how much ground has been lost since he was Shadow Secretary of State in 2010. Regarding security against those who would do us ill, the debate has been galvanised by the dramatic surfacing of a set of concerns that have been 'bubbling under' ever since EdF realised it couldn't deliver the project without a massive infusion of investment from China's General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN). The man responsible for that surfacing effect is Nick Timothy, Theresa May's new Joint Chief of Staff. In October last year, he published an article on the Conservative Home website, giving voice to some of the intense anxiety of UK security experts at the prospect of the Chinese getting access to a critical part of the UK's national energy infrastructure - and indeed, in due course, to the operating code of all those reactors it will be co-invested in: Hinkley Point, Sizewell and Bradwell, where it's scheduled to provide two-thirds of the up-front investment. Suffice it to say, this stuff is for real. However offended the Chinese may be at the concerns now being aired about security risks here, it remains the truth that China deploys massive financial and human resources to maintain its supremacy in the world of cyber defence - and cyber attack. 3. Affordability This one is so obvious as to require barely any scrutiny by Greg Clark's officials. The deal offered to EdF (at 92.50 per MWh in 2012 pounds, now worth almost 100) is so egregiously beyond any known pale of rationality that only George Osborne's 'desperate desire' to do a deal offers itself as an explanation. It's consumers who will pay for that, every year, for 35 years, index-linked! And during those 35 years, every other source of secure, low-carbon generation will become more and more competitive. Offshore wind, for instance, will come in at no more than 80 per MWh by 2025 (the very earliest point where Hinkley Point will start generating anything anyway), with both onshore wind and solar being subsidy-free (ierequiring no support at all) by 2020 at the latest. It's a fair bet than even Artificial Photosynthesis will be cheaper than nuclear power by 2025! And tidal energy certainly will be. Greg Clark is a man of principle. For him to repeat Amber Rudd's despicable lies that this was a deal done "with the interests of the UK's hardworking families" at its heart would be uncountenanceable. And that's not the end of the hit on UK citizens. At the moment, we're being reassured that all the risks associated with the construction of the reactors themselves will be borne by EdF and CGN. But guess what happens when (not if, mind you, but when!) the unconstructable reactors at Hinkley Point hit the same problems as have been experienced at Olkiluoto and Flamanville? At that point, with 7% of our electricity supply at risk, UK taxpayers will find themselves coerced by the government of the day into an endless, rolling bailout with literally no upper limit. And another thing: Greg Clark wants to make 'localism' real These three are the principal areas of concern that Greg Clark will be instructing his officials to look at. But there's one further area of interest for Greg Clark that has received little coverage in our media. On the basis of his past record, he's a genuine advocate of localism, as part and parcel of his core Tory beliefs. He believes it to be of fundamental importance to the health of our democracy that people and communities are empowered to take responsibility for neighbourhood plans and for managing community assets. In that regard, I suspect that there were few people in the Tory Party more sickened by the ignominious collapse of David Cameron's 'Big Society' initiative. Why is this relevant? In energy terms, we're on the cusp of dramatic breakthroughs in community energy, enabled by smart meters (on which we're already spending billions here in the UK), local area grids, ever more cost-effective self-generation (PVs on roofs, for instance, plus domestic storage systems), and the emergence of electric vehicles. There are literally hundreds of cities all around the world already seizing hold of this kind of empowering transformation - and it's hard to suppose that Greg Clark isn't aware of this emerging revolution. Large-scale, massively costly, unyieldingly inflexible nuclear power stations are not necessarily incompatible with that emerging revolution - but they will act as a massive brake on its practical implementation. In fact, there's no clearer example of the deadweight of yesterday's energy paradigm potentially killing off some of the most exciting aspects of tomorrow's paradigm. So here's how I see all this. If Greg Clark was still in Opposition, as Shadow Spokesperson for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, he would carefully weigh all that up - and in measured terms accuse the government of the day of an absolutely grotesque dereliction of duty in persevering with Hinkley Point. Given that we don't actually need Hinkley Point, that we can't afford it, and that it will fundamentally undermine the UK's transition to a genuinely secure, affordable, low-carbon energy future, it's difficult to imagine any other conclusion emerging from a review of this kind. But Greg Clark is obviously not in Opposition - he's in Government! So the politics becomes infinitely more complex, with any decision in the autumn to back out of Hinkley Point at this point bringing down on our heads the wrath both of the French (on whose goodwill we are now uncomfortably dependent in our Brexit negotiations) and of the Chinese (on whose readiness to invest in the UK we are equally uncomfortably dependent). Is a real energy strategy finally about to emerge? So, for me, everything hinges on whether this review is basically just providing a breathing space for Theresa May to consult further with our security forces, while simultaneously testing out the possibility of negotiating an even marginally less humiliating financial deal, or whether there's an appetite for starting out to explore - in earnest - what plan B would actually look like - in other words, a UK energy strategy without Hinkley Point. This is, of course, a theme to which I will be returning at a number of points over the next couple of months. In the meantime, all I can do is offer Greg Clark very genuine best wishes as he wrestles with a decision that could have as big an impact on the fate of our nation over the next 50 years as any other that the new Government will be taking in the immediate future. Jonathon Porritt is Founder Director of Forum for the Future. His latest book, 'The World We Made' is available from Phaidon. This article was originally published on Jonathon's website. 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. What we know so far about alleged Iowa serial killer Donald Studey Sheriff's deputies were often called to the home in Fremont County, Iowa. This year, Donald Studey's daughter reported him as a serial killer. NORWALK People living near Fodor Farm soon could get relief from flooding that strikes their neighborhood every time it rains heavily. On Tuesday evening, the Common Council will consider hiring M. Rondaro, Inc., for a sum not to exceed $365,495, to install storm drainage improvements at Fodor Farm, Aviation Court and Soundview Avenue. The Storm Drainage Improvement Project at Fodor Farm, Aviation Court and Soundview Avenue is a flood relief project that is being done to eliminate the flooding of private properties on Pogany Street, the City owned parcel of property known as Fodor Farm and to eliminate flooding within the City Right-of-Way on Pogany Street and Aviation Court, wrote Paul L. Sotnik, the citys senior civil engineer, in a memorandum provided to the council. This area is one of the six (6) areas of the City that was studied as part of the 2013 Norwalk Drainage Study prepared by Milone & MacBroom. Under the proposed contract, M. Rondano would build a stormwater detention basin on Fodor Farm near Pogany Street, an outlet control structure, approximately 795 feet of storm drainage pipe of various sizes, and a manhole and catch basins on city streets within the city right-of-way and on the Fodor Farm parcel. Sotnik said the area floods during heavy rainfall. If you get three-quarters of an inch of rain in 15 minutes, its going to look like this, said Sotnik, pointing at photos of flooding on the property at 7 Pogany St. near Fodor Farm. M. Rondano was one of three Norwalk companies to submit bids for the drainage improvement project. AMEC Commercial, LLC, proposed performing the work for $499,283. Deering Construction, Inc., offered to build the improvements for $476,395, according to the Norwalk Department of Public Works. Pending council approval, M. Rondano would begin the storm drainage improvement project this fall and hopefully complete it by years end, Sotnik said. In 2013, the Common Council approved a $300,000 drainage study to help alleviate flooding in six Norwalk neighborhoods. Under the approval, Milone & MacBroom, Inc., of Cheshire, evaluated the storm drainage systems in six areas of Norwalk. The areas were the Betts Brook watershed as well as the Oak Hills, Lloyd Road, Lawrence Street Pump Station, Park Hill and Jackson Drive, and Fodor Farm neighborhoods. Grand Island police are currently not looking for anyone in the early Sunday morning shooting death of Marvin Rafael. Rafael, 25, was pronounced dead at CHI Health St. Francis following a shooting at his home, 1018 W. 11th St. Police were called to the scene at 2:39 a.m. Capt. Dean Elliott said on Tuesday that the investigation is continuing, but no one is being sought. "We talked to everybody that was present. There is nobody outstanding that we are looking for, to talk to at this point in time," he said. Police are not ready to classify Rafaels death as a suicide, an accident or a homicide. "Im not ruling out anything at this point," Elliott said. "I cant guarantee that its not a homicide. I cant guarantee that its not suicide. I cant guarantee that its not accidental." All the pieces of the puzzle have not yet been assembled to lead one way or another, he said. Police still planned to talk again to at least one neighbor about yelling sounds she heard, he said. An autopsy was performed on Monday in Omaha. Cursory results from the autopsy arent expected for several days. The toxicology report could take between two and six weeks, Elliott said. The shooting did take place in the backyard of Rafaels house, Elliott said. Police talked to people who were present both inside and outside the house at the time of the shooting. A party took place earlier in the evening, but he believes it was over by the time of the shooting. There were still some close friends around and kids sleeping in the house at the time of the shooting, he said. Based on interviews theyve conducted, at least one person witnessed the shooting, Elliott said. In addition to children sleeping in the house, Elliott said no more than half a dozen adults were around when the gun was shot. The Nebraska State Patrol was called in to assist with reconstruction of the scene. If the death was clearly a suicide, police probably wouldnt have called in the State Patrol. That investigation was done in case more information comes to light "because you can only investigate it once at the scene. So we have to have due diligence and take our time and process the crime scene," Elliott said. "If it comes to the point that we need to pursue criminal charges against somebody, we need to make sure that our ducks were in a row from the start." In 2013, the Supreme Court weakened the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by removing federal oversight of state elections to monitor any type of interference with voting on the basis of discrimination. In Shelby v. Holder, the court, in a 5-4 decision, reasoned that the oversight was based on 40-year-old facts having no logical relation to the present day. The Supreme Courts assessment of lack of present day discrimination in voting regulations was misplaced as lower court rulings are now showing. In recent rulings courts blocked or loosened voting restrictions in North Carolina, Wisconsin and Kansas. Earlier, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals found a Texas voting law to be discriminatory and ordered it to be weakened. These rulings involved requiring photo identification, strict citizenship requirements, same day registration and restrictions on absentee ballots. All of these laws implemented by certain states were done under the claim of protecting against voter fraud. However, the courts said that little to no evidence of voter fraud had been presented. These voter measures have come before the courts on different levels, in different parts of the country, but all possessing a common factor the Constitution. When supporters of these individual states laws were called upon to present evidence there was no evidence of rampant voter fraud and the courts found that the restrictions to cast a vote were targeted toward minority communities and citizens. These rulings are starting to give states some guidance. It seems that some form of a photo ID requirement should be allowed, as long as there are few exceptions to what kind of ID is acceptable and that a state makes available at no cost the opportunity to get a state issued ID. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals blocked North Carolinas law because it limited the number of acceptable photo IDs to six. Also, requiring proof of citizenship seems reasonable as long as the required documentation is not burdensome. Any requirement also must not have a negative impact on minority voters. Its important that equality and one person/one vote prevail. Sadly, the Supreme Courts 40-year-old facts of racial discrimination to suppress minority citizens voting rights are still present. The Voting Rights Act and its protections need to be reinstated. Voting requirements should be above politics. No political party should seek to gain from voting laws. A citizens democratic, constitutionally-protected right to cast an equal vote must be protected. Legislation before Congress to end birthright citizenship says nothing about revoking the citizenship of children who are already here (anchor babies, HR 140). Rep. Steve King and the 31 co-sponsors must read Article 14, Section 1 and Section 5 of the U.S. Constitution. Kings HR 140 proposes that anchor babies are to be grandfathered in. This does not solve the problem of their parents who are here illegally and are to be deported according to due process. Enforce the law. Deport them however long it takes. Enforce the law. If they have a child here, they can take that child with them to their country of origin. Its the parents responsibility; no one elses. The next president must enact an immigration act on strict quotas across the board. There is a precedent for this. The 1924 immigration law stayed in place until 1965. In the 1930s, President Herbert Hoover ordered all Mexicans deported, Mexican Repatriation. Two million were deported. They were allowed to take their personal belongings and given a one-way free train ride back to Mexico. President Dwight Eisenhower in 1954 ordered illegal Mexicans deported. The program was named Operation Wetback. Over 1 million were deported. The law was enforced. In 1980, Jimmy Carter banned Iranians from entering the USA, and let the Cubans enter with no ID or background checks and gave away the Panama Canal. Trumps proposal to ban Muslims from the USA, I agree with. They are to go to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. The U.S. military draft ended Jan. 27, 1973, under Richard M. Nixon. By July 1, 1973, the draft had been eliminated. Today the U.S. armed forces is an all-volunteer force. Toll free number to Congress members: 866-220-0044. No amnesty for illegal aliens. No to HR 140. A new memorial to recipients of the Purple Heart medal opened Sunday in the collection of military monuments operated by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. The official dedication took place on national Purple Heart Day in Springfields Oak Ridge Cemetery. The memorial honors all Illinois recipients of the medal, which is awarded to military personnel killed or wounded in combat. The memorial was built by the Hayes-Krell Memorial Chapter 159 of the Military Order of the Purple Heart with assistance from Staab Monument Co., Massie Massie Landscape Architects and Siciliano Inc. It was then turned over to the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, along with an endowment to support its upkeep in years ahead. The Purple Heart Memorial stands amid state-operated monuments honoring the men and women who served in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. We hope this memorial reminds the people of Illinois of the tremendous sacrifices made by military personnel in all conflicts. We owe them a huge debt, said Heidi Brown-McCreery, director of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. Our thanks go out to the Military Order of the Purple Heart and to the businesses who made this memorial possible. Oak Ridge Cemetery, location of the Lincoln Tomb State Historic Site, receives more visitors each year than any other cemetery except Arlington National Cemetery. The Purple Heart is Americas oldest military award, tracing its roots back to medals authorized by Gen. George Washington in 1782. Nearly two million have been awarded since World War I. The memorial is operated by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. IHPA protects the states historic resources, which contribute to education, culture and the economy. IHPA sites include ancient burial mounds, forts and buildings erected by settlers, and homes connected to famous Illinoisans. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin IGB. Dharma Agastia (The Jakarta Post) Singapore Tue, August 9, 2016 Defending the nation-state is not only about being able to fire a live rifle at outsiders. It should also be about educating citizens to appreciate the states of peace and war themselves. Carl von Clausewitz was one of the most prominent philosophers of war. His work remains one of the essential readings for militaries worldwide. In its entirety, Clausewitz's On War is not only a manual describing the intricate mechanisms of war, but also a guideline on what one should expect at the end of a war. At the risk of oversimplifying Clausewitz's message, the adage Si vis pacem para bellum captures his idea of the ideal war. To achieve peace, one must prepare for war. Like many great ideas, Clausewitzs ideas on strategy can be made to fit the situation of the government of the nation-state. Indonesias grand defense strategy is not an exception. Last year, a hot-button issue emerged in public discourse. The Defense Ministry proposed to implement the Bela Negara program of compulsory state defense education. The proposal was further consolidated in the 2015 Defense White Paper (DWP), released several months ago, which dedicated a whole chapter to the issue. The ambitious program, which somehow outshined the acclaimed Global Maritime Fulcrum, is concerned with two things. First, instilling values of patriotism, national awareness, belief in Pancasila as the countrys ideology, willingness to sacrifice for the nation [sic] and having the basic capability to defend the nation. Second, the program aims to bolster reserves by 100 million cadres over the next decade. The DWP does not specify exactly how and in what values the cadres are expected to be educated. This ambiguity gave rise to controversy the previous year, with people, from citizens to politicians, arguing whether or not the education of values would be akin to the late president Suhartos Pendidikan Moral Pancasila indoctrination program. Additionally, the program was also suspected to be an attempt to increase the militarys grasp on civilian life, a move which could strain Indonesias civil-military relations. We have passed the point where debate on the effectiveness or urgency of the program is relevant. Bela Negara has already begun and it is likely to continue. However, that does not mean we cannot improve on it. Thus, I would propose Bela Negara to not only consist of marching drills, physical training and listening to lectures about the importance of nationalism. Keeping the physical aspect intact, Bela Negara should rather educate cadres on the importance of war and peace. Forget the traditional indoctrination of nationalistic values consisting of hours of sitting in class during PPKN listening to the schoolteacher drone on about the importance of being a patriot. What Bela Negara cadres should be taught is the important role of strategy specifically, military strategy in war and peace. Cadres should be taught briefly of past wars and the essential discourse on war to establish an understanding of the nature of war. It is only fair that cadres, who have willingly signed up for the Bela Negara program, should know the situation that they might (and will) end up in, at least within the possible limits of the artificial environment of the training room. Cadres should be taught that wars are fought for a political reason - in this case, the integrity and sovereignty of the nation-state. To such an end, the facilitators of Bela Negara should be able to clearly define and convey what constitutes the Indonesian national interest during peacetime and wartime. Having such knowledge would at least provide the cadres with an inherent sense of responsibility; they would know what and why they were fighting, should the need to do so arise. Drawing on Clausewitz, cadres should be well equipped to know that war is inherently chaotic and a situation to be avoided if possible. War in itself is a mess of violence. The fog of war and friction further complicate the conduct of war. Preparedness for war lies not only within the physical and tactical realms, but also in the mind and in strategy. Furthermore, teaching cadres strategy and military history would also equip them with the necessary tools to form their own thoughts and opinions, which would be beneficial for democracy. Emerging from Bela Negara, a cadre should not only be able to recite by heart the five principles when prompted, but also be a more critical and active citizen in society. This is essential for a functioning and enlightened democracy. The ideal Indonesian Bela Negara cadre would be one who is physically and mentally equipped to fight a war and also sustain peace. One needs only converse with a Singaporean who has completed his two-year national service. Aside from being physically fit, he is capable of appreciating the current state of peace. Knowledge of the nations political interests that would be at stake during a war increases his determination to fight for the nation-state, effectively increasing his effectiveness. However, just because one can fight a war does not mean one should go looking for one. Bela Negara may still be an undercooked program. But that does not mean we can improve on it. It can and should be used as a means to form citizens that are not just able to shoot on command, but also think and appreciate the state of war and peace. *** The writer is a postgraduate student at S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Singapore, majoring in strategic studies. His research interests are maritime security, civil-military relation, and future warfare. He can be reached on Linkedin or by email. --------------- We are looking for information, opinions, and in-depth analysis from experts or scholars in a variety of fields. We choose articles based on facts or opinions about general news, as well as quality analysis and commentary about Indonesia or international events. Send your piece to community@jakpost.com. For more information click here. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Tony Keusgen (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, August 9, 2016 An exciting thing happened in Indonesia in May we crossed 100 million internet users. That is four times the number of people in Australia, making Indonesia the fifth-largest internet population in the world. A joint Google-Temasek report recently predicted that, at this rate, Indonesia will have 215 million internet users by 2020, making it the fourth-largest globally. Every day thousands of people across the archipelago are coming online for the first time. And since their introduction to the internet is through a smartphone, they are not necessarily thinking about the internet in the same way as people in the US or Japan. They are demanding and creating a new internet that works best with their own specific needs. India and Indonesia are projected to be only two countries over the next five years that will expand their share of the worlds online population. So Indonesia is not just joining the internet: The entire internet is in the process of becoming more Indonesian. That new internet will work on Indonesians terms, on their phones, for their budget, in their towns, in their languages. And with these powerful smartphones in their hands, they will communicate their unique needs more clearly than ever before in the history of the country. Meeting those demands will create completely new segments of the economy. For example, Indonesia has already become one of the most important countries for e-commerce on the planet, with local companies not just serving Indonesians but also becoming a leader for the region. A Google study with Temasek estimates that Indonesia will be a US$46 billion e-commerce market by 2025, the largest in Southeast Asia. The startup, hijup.com, is now a global pioneer in Muslim fashion ecommerce, growing from two employees managing 14 womens fashion brands in 2011 to now having 150 employees and carrying over 200 brands. Small businesses are doing amazing things, but global tech companies can also play a big part in supporting this movement and helping Indonesia create the internet that Indonesia wants. An early step for us has been keeping up with consumer demands by making our own products more relevant for Indonesians. For example, Google just launched a partnership with TransJakarta to provide real-time update on bus arrival times in Google Maps. What is also critical, however, is making sure that Indonesian startups, entrepreneurs and small companies know how to use the most cutting-edge platforms and tools so that they can expand their businesses and offer world-class services. We love what we see already: Companies popping up to sell traditional foodbatagor or pempek online and Go-Jek scooters skirting traffic to drop off packages. The developer Own Games ID from Bandung turned the local dish tahu bulat into a game that that hit #1 in downloads on Google Play. To create more companies like that, we are currently engaged on a company-wide program to train 100,000 more Indonesians developers. Meanwhile video creators, like Bayu Skak, are not just creating popular web videos but doing it their own native languages like Javanese. Technology is also transforming more traditional industries. The websitekecipir.com uses the internet to help small-scale farmers bring organic produce to market in major urban centers like Jakarta, whilememeflorist.com, a small company in Central Java, is using the internet to help local florists around Indonesia sell flowers in their cities. Sahabat Aqiqah sells goat meat online for religious holidays and other occasions. Hoping to work more closely with Indonesian companies, we are holding an event tomorrow called Google for Indonesia, where executives from our headquarters in California will announce new initiatives and features that will help Indonesia do even more with the internet. So 100 million internet users in Indonesia is an exciting moment but just the beginning. The country is on its way to becoming Southeast Asias digital powerhouse, and we cant wait to see what the talented entrepreneurs of this nation come up with. *** The writer is country head, Google Indonesia. --------------- We are looking for information, opinions, and in-depth analysis from experts or scholars in a variety of fields. We choose articles based on facts or opinions about general news, as well as quality analysis and commentary about Indonesia or international events. Send your piece to community@jakpost.com. For more information click here. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Simon Tay (The Jakarta Post) Singapore Tue, August 9, 2016 The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) has again come under criticism, this time for failing to refer in a joint communique to the recent judgment by the Permanent Court of Arbitration on competing claims in the South China Sea. Cambodia has been singled out as the ASEAN member that blocked consensus during the ASEAN foreign ministers meeting in Laos. In contrast, the US and her principal allies in the region Japan and Australia issued a joint statement openly chiding China for its reclamation and military activities in the contested seas and called on Beijing and Manila to abide by the tribunal ruling, which invalidated Chinas expansive claims in the strategic waterway. In view of these developments, some observers have voiced concern about ASEAN unity and its capacity to act on key security issues, called for action against the Hun Sen government and suggested changes be made to the decision-making process in ASEAN so that statements can issued even without the agreement of all 10 members. But on many counts, the widespread criticisms of ASEAN are wrong headed. ASEAN in fact reached a good compromise in a difficult situation. What it has done has helped the situation more than if, as critics wish, the group had issued a statement that was harsh on China. Heres why. First, ASEANs statement was not silent on the South China Sea issue. It contained references to key principles such as preserving freedom of navigation and over flight and the peaceful resolution of disputes, and urged for a binding code of conduct to manage the South China Sea dispute. In another statement issued after the groups dialogue with China, there was a call to peacefully solve territorial disputes through negotiation in accordance with international laws, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. While there was no explicit mention of the court decision, let no one doubt that a message was delivered to Beijing clearly, even if not loudly. This is the essence of quiet diplomacy a tool that ASEAN has traditionally used and with better effect on this occasion than just weeks ago when the two sides met in Kunming. What would a stronger statement achieve? The criticism voiced by the US and her allies has been met with outright rebuttal by China. Beijing has now announced joint patrols with Russia. The US will continue with its freedom of navigation patrols. But this tactic depends not on the force of principle but the force of the American naval presence. If ASEAN had voiced similar protests without military heft, its words might risk sounding hollow. Second, the primary responsibility to deal with the issue lies with China and the Philippines, which brought the case to the court. Consider how Manila responded. In the past, when ASEAN was stymied from siding with the Philippines against China, the previous Aquino government openly expressed disappointment. On this occasion, Manila more readily accepted the group stance. Being somewhat detached from the court proceedings undertaken by his predecessor, President Rodrigo Duterte has an opportunity for a new approach to reach a compromise. Trumpeting the court decision too stridently might not help but rather hinder flexibility. Much also depends on the attitude of Beijing towards negotiations, coming after a court decision that it did not expect and now derides. Given domestic expectations, no Chinese leader can be seen to be weak and capitulate to ASEAN, let alone the Philippines. In this setting, ASEANs statement gave space for the two governments to manoeuver towards potentially more conciliatory positions. ASEAN processes are far from perfect and, even with the ASEAN Charter, there are gaps and inefficiencies. But on what basis are there calls after these meetings for Cambodia to be chastised or to change the consensus principle in ASEAN decision-making? The consensus approach helps to manage the diversities and differences among the 10 members of the group. It gives assurance to small states that their views will be taken into account. Another system for decision-making could be easily dominated by larger countries. Those who seek to understand and support ASEAN cannot call for unity when it suits them and discard it when it doesnt. There is a balance between wanting to preserve ASEAN unity and trying to make the group better able to act on key issues. Centrality for ASEAN is often talked about but often not well understood. It is remarkable that this group could convene key meetings when there are so many major powers with interests in the region as well as other middle powers like India, Australia and South Korea. This role demands that ASEAN does more than provide the venue and deal with logistics. Centrality means that ASEAN must also be expected to set an agenda that includes key and even sensitive issues, and steer substantive discussions. The acceptance and indeed trust of major powers is essential for this and ASEAN needs to maintain or even help build up trust among the different major powers. To be central, ASEAN must be a fair interlocutor on key issues but not take on an adversarial tone. In this context, the approach ASEAN took in the last week is not a signal of failure. It was rather a balance between many different considerations, including unity within the group and maintaining the trust of so many different major powers. Even as some continue to urge stronger words and action, ASEAN must continue to seek to strike that balance in new ways that are both principled and practical. *** The writer is chairman of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs and associate professor at the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law. --------------- We are looking for information, opinions, and in-depth analysis from experts or scholars in a variety of fields. We choose articles based on facts or opinions about general news, as well as quality analysis and commentary about Indonesia or international events. Send your piece to community@jakpost.com. For more information click here. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, August 9, 2016 The Indonesian community living and working in London enjoyed a traditional angklung music performance from the 40 Days in Europe group on Sunday as part of Independence Day celebrations. Held at Indonesian Ambassador to the UK and the Republic of Ireland Rizal Sukma's official residence in London, the 40 performers from West Java played traditional songs such as Jali Jali, Angin Mamiri and "Bengawan Solo". Group coordinator Maulana M. Syuhada revealed that the group had ended up having to rent equipment for the show after its own equipment was left behind at its previous destination in Scotland. We havent had the chance to take a break, or even bathe, he told Antara news agency. (Read also: Maulana M. Syuhada: Exploring the world with music) Prior to coming to London, the group performed at the Aberdeen International Youth Festival in Scotland and is set to continue its journey to France, Belgium, Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland to participate in other festivals including the International Folklore Festival in Cerveny Kostelec in the Czech Republic and the International Festival of Highland Folklore in Zakopane, Poland. The story of Maulana and his students performing around Europe, which sprang from a passionate desire to revive the long-abandoned traditional instrument from West Java, was published in a 2007 book entitled 40 Days in Europe; a movie with the same title is slated for release this year. (kha/kes) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ni Nyoman Wira (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, August 9, 2016 Noted Indonesian writer Eka Kurniawan has been included on the shortlist of the FT/OppenheimerFunds Emerging Voices Awards 2016 in the Fiction category for his renowned book Man Tiger (Lelaki Harimau). The winners, as well as runner-ups, will be announced at the New York Public Library on Sep 26. For me, the award gives a great appreciation for my work, said Eka Kurniawan to The Jakarta Post via email. Prior the FT/OppenheimerFunds Emerging Voices Awards, Man Tiger was also nominated for the Man Booker International Prize 2016. Both of [the nominations] came unexpectedly. I have never thought that I would be nominated for the awards. Eka said that he never enrolled or submitted his works for the awards. He also never asked his publisher to do so. It seems that the one who can directly submit the work is the publisher, he says, I think the publishers have their own initiatives. If they have faith on the works they have published, it is only natural for them to send the works [to be nominated]. (Read also: Eka launches new novel after entering man booker list) Regarding the winner announcement event that will take place in the US, Eka hopes to attend, I will be in Europe from the middle to end of September for the launch of my novel in German, Poland and Norway, he explains. America is relatively close to Europe, so perhaps I can go straightly from there. FT/OppenheimerFunds Emerging Voices Awards returns for its second year with recognitions for outstanding artists in fiction, film-making, and the arts. This year the organizers selected over 790 submissions from more than 60 emerging-market countries. The winners will be eligible to receive a cash award of US$40,000, while the runner-ups will get $5,000. (Read also: Review: O a dangerous tale on the law of the jungle) Born in 1975, Eka Kurniawan has published four novels, four short-stories, and a non-fiction work. One of his books, Man Tiger, has been translated into six different languages. Meanwhile, an earlier novel, Love and Vengeance (Seperti Dendam, Rindu harus Dibayar Tuntas) is being adapted into a film where Eka is the co-scriptwriter. The films shooting process is planned to start in 2017. His latest novel, titled O, was released in March 2016. (asw) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Hello Sehat (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, August 9, 2016 There are many sexually transmitted diseases you may know, but did you know about scabies? Here are some facts to help you understand more about scabies and how to protect yourself. What is scabies? Scabies is a condition of very itchy skin caused by tiny mites that burrow into your skin. The itching is caused by an allergic reaction to the mites. Scabies spreads very easily from person to person. It can affect people of all ages and from all incomes, social levels and living situations. With treatment, the scabies mites die and the itching goes away over a period of days to weeks. Without treatment, the mites continue to reproduce under the skin, causing more sores and itching. How is scabies spread? Scabies mites spread from person to person by close contact, such as sleeping in the same bed or touching someone's skin. The mites can also be spread by sharing towels, clothing and other personal items. Scabies often affects several household members at the same time. You can spread it to another person before you have symptoms. What are the symptoms? Scabies has two main symptoms : - Severe itching that is usually worse at night. Small children and older adults tend to have the worst itching. - A rash with tiny blisters or sores. Children tend to have worse skin reactions than adults. Areas where symptoms are more likely to occur : - Between the fingers and on the palm side of the wrists. - On the outside surfaces of the elbows and in the armpits. - Around the waistline and navel. - On the buttocks. - Around the nipples, the bra line and the sides of the breasts (in women). - On the genitals (in men). In babies and small children, itching and skin irritation may also occur on the scalp, neck, and face and on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet. If you have many scaly, crusted sores, you may have a rare form of scabies called crusted scabies or Norwegian scabies. If this is the first time you have had scabies, it may be several weeks before you have itching and skin sores. But if you have had it before, symptoms will probably start in a few days. (Read also: Turmeric, one of nature's most powerful healers) How is scabies diagnosed? Usually a doctor can diagnose scabies based on your symptoms. Scabies is especially likely if you have had close contact with other people who have had the same symptoms. Sometimes you may have a test to confirm that you have scabies. For example, the doctor may gently scrape some dry skin from an affected area and look at it under a microscope for signs of mites. How is it treated? Scabies won't go away on its own. To get rid of it, and to keep from spreading it to others, you need to use a special cream or lotion that a doctor prescribes. These products contain permethrin or another medicine. In severe cases, your doctor may also give you pills to take. Most creams or lotions are applied to the entire body from the neck down. The medicine may also be applied to the scalp, face and neck, taking care to avoid the area around the mouth and eyes. In most cases, you leave the medicine on for 8 to 14 hours and then wash it off. Children can usually return to day care or school after treatment is completed. Some scabies medicines aren't safe for children, older adults and women who are pregnant or breast-feeding. To avoid dangerous side effects, be sure to follow your doctor's instructions carefully. If you have scabies, you and anyone you have close contact with must all be treated at the same time. This keeps the mites from being passed back and forth from person to person. Until scabies has cleared up, you should avoid close contact with anyone and make sure not to share any personal items. To make sure that all the mites are killed : - Wash all clothes, bedding and towels that you used in the three days before you started treatment. Use hot water, and use the hot cycle in a dryer. Another option is to dry-clean these items, or seal them in a plastic bag for three to seven days. - Clean and carefully vacuum the room or rooms used by the person who had scabies. After treatment, the itching usually lasts another two to four weeks. It will take your body that long to get over the allergic reaction caused by the mites. Antihistamines (such as Benadryl), steroid creams, or, in severe cases, steroid pills can help relieve itching. Before you use these medicines, talk with your doctor about what is best for you (or your child). If you still have symptoms after four weeks, you may need another treatment. (kes) Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Wahyoe Boediwardhana (The Jakarta Post) Jember, East Java Mon, August 8 2016 Daily maintenance: A farmer removes buds from a tobacco plant in Sukowono village, Jember, East Java. Farmers in the regency have expressed concerns that the La Nina weather phenomenon, which has caused a wet summer for the country, could shrink local plantation areas for kastuari tobacco by 40 percent, to around 8,400 hectares, until the end of the year. (JP/Wahyoe Boediwardhana) Indonesias cigarette makers may need to surrender to more imports next year as tobacco crops countrywide suffer amid the effects of La Nina, which has spurred a wet summer this year. The Indonesian Tobacco Society Alliance (AMTI) estimates that tobacco plantation areas have shrunk by 30 percent in the worlds fifth biggest tobacco producing country. Replanting has been done in around 25 percent of tobacco plantations throughout the country. Such an effort was not enough as the country is still short of tobacco supplies, a situation that will force cigarette makers to import more tobacco for their businesses, said AMTI spokesperson Hananto Wibisono. The current supply would only be sufficient to serve cigarette factories for this year, he added. Cigarette producers need around 363,000 tons of tobacco to keep their businesses moving. The production in 2015 was only around 164,000 tons of tobacco, which was dominantly provided by plantations in East Java. East Java plantations produce up to 74,241 tons of tobacco per year, followed by plantations in West Nusa Tenggara with 39,771 tons per year and Central Java with 31,715 tons per year. The La Nina weather phenomenon, which has caused a wet summer for the country, could shrink the plantation areas for kastuari tobacco in Jember, East Java, by 40 percent to around 8,400 hectares until the end of the year. Kastuari tobacco is used as a taste enhancer for kretek (clove cigarettes). The shrinking crop area in Jember has led to tobacco growers in the region only producing around 1.6 tons per ha, said Eko Hariyanto, the manager of tobacco buyer PT Sadhana Arifnusa, which supplies HM Sampoerna, owned by the worlds largest tobacco company Philip Morris. Apart from La Nina, farmers lack of knowledge in terms of making the most of planting methods and fertilizers, as well as their lack of access to the market, have contributed to the low productivity. Indonesian tobacco farmers productivity averaged between 0.7 tons and 0.8 tons of tobacco per ha, lower than the ASEAN average figure at around 1 ton per ha. Meanwhile, the need for tobacco in cigarette production has increased by 23.78 percent in the last five years, according to Center for Indonesian Taxation Analysis (CITA) data. Sampoernas head of regulatory affairs, international trade and communications, Elvira Yuanita, said the company would wait until September to determine whether or not it would increase the amount of imported tobacco. Elvira said Sampoerna was trying to leverage existing partnerships with local tobacco growers so that the firm could obtain a sustainable supply for its cigarette-making business. Since 2009, Sampoerna has forged partnerships with 27,000 tobacco farmers who have 22,700 ha of land. We prefer to use local tobacco than imported, which is costlier in terms of production costs. We only use imported tobacco for producing the SPM [machine-made white cigarettes], which is our export commodity, Elvira said. She added that industry players needed to team up with local tobacco growers, so that the latters planting activities could be more definitive. Cigarettes are widely consumed in Indonesia, where 67.4 percent of males over 15 years old smoke, making the product a top contributor to state revenue through excise payments and labor-intensive industry. However, earlier this year, tobacco farms across the country were highlighted by Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a report titled The Harvest is in My Blood: Hazardous Child Labor in Tobacco Farming in Indonesia. The report, which included interviews of 132 children aged 8 to 17 in major tobacco producing regions in Indonesia, said child labor could have brain-damaging and illness-causing effects due to nicotine poisoning and toxic pesticides, as well as dangerous physical work. ---------------- to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Panca Nugraha (The Jakarta Post) Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara Tue, August 9, 2016 Three Malaysian citizens, one of whom is a pregnant woman, have been arrested by customs and excise officers at Lombok International Airport on allegations of attempting to smuggle 1.9 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine onto the island. They allegedly attempted to smuggle the crystal meth by hiding packages of the drug inside their underwear. We took the three Malaysians into custody shortly after they arrived at the airport via an AirAsia flight serving the Kuala Lumpur-Lombok route. They were found with 1.9 kg of crystal meth worth around Rp 3.5 billion [US$266,565], Mataram Customs and Excise Office head Himawan Indarjono said on Tuesday. He said the three suspects, comprising two men and one woman, and the confiscated drugs had been handed over to the West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) Police. The suspects have been identified as Koo Jia Jiat, 21, Leslie Chung Wai Nam ,24, and Wong Yin Ching alias Winnie, a 21 year-old woman later found to be pregnant. Himawan said the drug smuggling attempt was aborted after custom and excise officers at the airports arrival terminal grew suspicious over the movements of the three Malaysians. Their luggage passed the X-ray checks. However, their movements triggered suspicions so they were all asked to undergo a body screening. It was later found that they hid packages of meth in the crotch area of their underwear, he further said. During interrogation, Himawan said, the suspects admitted they had smuggled meth into Lombok several times, with the last operation taking place in July. The West Nusa Tenggara Polices narcotics divison director, Sr.Comr. Agus Pradjito, said his side would investigate the case further. (ebf) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Andi Hajramurni (The Jakarta Post) Makassar, South Sulawesi Tue, August 9, 2016 The South Sulawesi Police have investigated 32 police control unit (Sabhara) officers allegedly involved in a brawl with Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) personnel at the Makassar mayors office early on Sunday. Five of the 32 people, identified as DR, MH, AC, LB and HI, have been detained at the South Sulawesi Police office for allegedly committing criminal acts. The remaining 27 officers reportedly committed ethical and disciplinary violations. Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Frans Barung Mangera said sanctions imposed on the 32 personnel, who were mostly second brigadiers, were based on evidence, including CCTV footage from the mayors office. Barung said, however, that they had not yet been named suspects. We are still investigating the case further. Let the investigation team members, from both the South Sulawesi Police and the National Police headquarters, look deeper into the case, he said. Meanwhile, 25 Satpol PP personnel from the Makassar administration have been questioned. As of Tuesday, one person was still being detained at the Makassar Police office while five others were subject to mandatory reports at the office. They have not yet been named suspects. The fight between the police officers and Satpol PP personnel at City Hall was triggered by a quarrel at Losari Beach in Makassar on Saturday evening, which led to an attack on a police officer from the South Sulawesi Polices Sabhara. Several hours later, dozens of police officers attacked the mayors office. Satpol PP personnel fought back, leading to a large brawl between the institutions personnel. One police officer, Second Brig. Michael Abraham Rieuwpassa, died of a stab wound to his lower back. Meanwhile, Satpol PP member Hamzah is being treated at Stella Maris Hospital in Makassar for a stab wound to his back that entered his lung. (ebf) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Fadli (The Jakarta Post) Batam Tue, August 9, 2016 A terror cell in Batam linked to Islamic State (IS) movement member Bahrun Naim has become active in recent years, with members allegedly beginning to train with firearms and preparing for suicide missions, a top police official said on Monday. The terror cell, dubbed Khatibah Rahmat Dewa, and its leader Gigih Rahmat Dewa have allegedly been actively developing their network, Riau Islands Police chief Brig. Gen. Sambudi Gusdian said. The group had been working to expand in recent years, he said. Members allegedly facilitated Chinese Uighurs and Batam residents traveling to Syria. The group also recruited new members and prepared brides (suicide bombers) for attacks, Sambudi said, adding that no potential bombers from the group had been seen yet. The group has been regularly practicing shooting in Nongsa forest. The training is aimed at introducing firearms to the members, he said on Monday. The National Police's antiterror squad Densus 88 arrested six suspected militants on Friday who had allegedly plotted to attack Singapores Marina Bay using a rocket. The police later released one man but named the other five as suspects, including Gigih. Based on preliminary investigations prior to the arrests, the police suspected Gigih of leading the pack while other members had different roles, Sambudi said. Of the suspects, Trio Syafrido was allegedly a field coordinator and Hady Gusti Yanda was treasurer, while Tarmidzi and Eka Syahputra allegedly assembled guns and conducted training, respectively. The group is linked to Bahrun Naim, who hails from Surakarta, Central Java. He is believed to be in Syria and is suspected of masterminding a terror attack in Sarinah, Central Jakarta, that killed four civilians in January. (rin) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Tangerang/Banten Tue, August 9 2016 Price check: Newly appointed Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita (second right) and property firm Sinar Mas Land managing director Dhony Rahajoe (right) speak with fish vendors at the Pasar Modern BSD, South Tangerang, Banten, on Sunday. Enggartiasto visited the market in an effort to monitor the stability of staple food prices. (JP/Donny Fernando) Local cattle breeders and feedlots have agreed to team up to cut the industrys notoriously lengthy supply chain, which often results in high beef prices for consumers. Newly inaugurated Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita said big industry players would buy cattle directly from local producers in rural areas in an attempt to cut out the many middlemen between breeders and consumers, which can consist of six to seven stopping points. To shorten the supply chain and stabilize prices, we want to see big industry players buy cattle directly from local players in rural areas, Enggartiasto said after a meeting with representatives of the Indonesian Meat Producers and Feedlot Association (Apfindo), the National Meat Processors Association (Nampa) and the Indonesian Beef Cattle Businesses Association (Gapuspindo), on Sunday in Tangerang. Feedlot companies will grow the parent stock and give the calves to local breeders to be fattened up over a four-month period. The breeders will then resell the cattle to the companies before they are distributed to sellers in big cities across the country, he added. With the partnership, all feedlot operators, including PT Tanjung Unggul Mandiri (TUM) in Tangerang, are expected to provide guarantees for local cattle breeders to secure bank loans to help them grow their businesses. Indonesias beef supply chain issues have been in the spotlight recently after beef prices soared to Rp 140,000 (US$10.64) per kilogram during Ramadhan, far higher than the governments target of Rp 80,000 per kg, due to the late issuance of import licenses at the beginning of the year that resulted in beef shortages. Many feedlot companies appeared to have deliberately hoarded supplies to fix prices, with the Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU) recently fining 32 feedlot firms a total of Rp 107 billion for price-fixing and withholding supplies from the market in Greater Jakarta during the 2012-2015 period. To eradicate the feedlot mafia countrywide, the Trade Ministry has agreed to exchange data and information, as well as teaming up with the Agriculture Ministry, Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM), customs and excise director general Heru Pambudi, KPPU head Muhammad Syarkawi and National Police chief Gen. Tito Karnavian. We will closely monitor the mafia and help to stabilize prices by securing the supply chain of food, Tito said. Meanwhile, Gapuspindo welcomed the feedlot-cattle breeder partnership idea, as a similar practice was implemented a few years ago, when the Australian government banned live cattle exports to Indonesia in 2011. Indonesia has become the largest importer of Australian live cattle, with total imports standing at 523,675 head of cattle last year, worth up to $357.6 million, according to the Geneva-based International Trade Center (ITC). The problem is the supply figure of local cattle is yet to be clarified. Then if we cant find enough domestic supply, it could lead to a massive hike in beef prices, Gapuspindo chairman Hafid Wahyu said. Since the 2011 ban, he said some players had tried to fulfill demand by getting in touch with local breeders across the country. However, the move led to a simultaneous increase in beef prices, including a Rp 10,000 hike in live cattle prices and a Rp 30,000 hike in beef prices. In the meantime, Enggartiasto called on beef industry players to submit a five-year road map on beef supplies to the Trade Ministry within the next two weeks for the government to take into consideration in designing an optimal national road map as soon as possible. (vps) --------------- to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Anton Hermansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, August 9, 2016 The Creative Economy Agency (Bekraf) is promoting the construction of smaller, movable cinemas, which are cheaper and can be moved from place to place, to facilitate the growth of the domestic cinema industry. Bekraf head Triawan Munaf said the growing Indonesian cinema industry needed to reach out to larger audiences, as the number of cinemas was stagnant: In the 1960s, Indonesia recorded 890 screens nationwide, and that number has grown to only 1,117 screens today. The agency has received proposals from Indonesian investors for digital domes, movable single cinemas with a capacity of 30 to 45 adults; another proposal is to rejuvenate old factories into small cinemas. The level of service need not be the same as at large cinemas - projectors are now cheaper and for smaller rooms, a medium sound system is enough, Bekraf head of infrastructure Hari Sungkari told thejakartapost.com during a The Jakarta Post event entitled Accelerating Infrastructure Development on Monday. Triawan said the number of Indonesian cinemas nationwide was more or less the same as that in Beijing alone. It is the same as the number of cinemas in Beijing, while South Korea has around 5,000 screens, Triawan said. South Korea has a population of around 50 million population, Beijing 11 million. Data gathered by Bekraf show that cinema audiences in Indonesia are growing quickly. Recent release London Love Story, for example, attracted audiences of 1.1 million, Rudy Habibie 2 million, Koala Kumal (Shabby Koala) 1.6 million, My Stupid Boss 3 million and Ada Apa Dengan Cinta 2 (Whats Up with Cinta 2) 3.7 million. The record is held by Laskar Pelangi (Rainbow Troops) with 7.1 million. (evi) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Anton Hermansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, August 9, 2016 State housing lender Bank Tabungan Negara (BTN) will join other state banks appointed to absorb repatriated funds in the tax amnesty following the Finance Ministrys approval for the bank to be issued a license to manage investment accounts. The government requires all designated banks to offer at least one of three services, namely trustee, custody or investment accounts (RDNs). BTN will offer RDNs and is expected to accommodate the repatriated funds through several instruments, including bonds and negotiable certificates of deposit (NCDs). BTN president director Maryono said his bank expected to receive Rp 50 trillion (US$3.81 billion) in repatriated funds. (Read also : BTN to become trustee bank in August for tax amnesty program) "We will use deposit certificates, asset-backed securities with a form of participant letter (EBA-SP), government retail bonds (ORIs) and government sukuk," Maryono said on Monday. He added that repatriated funds would be used to finance real estate and property projects in addition to the provision of cheap loans for developers. (dmr) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Takashi Nakagawa, Ryosuke Okada (The Japan News/ANN) Tokyo Tue, August 9, 2016 Chinas provocative actions toward Japan have been escalating around the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea through the use of Chinese coast guard vessels and other means. On Sunday, the number of Chinese government vessels that entered the contiguous zone around the Senkakus, reached 13 the highest ever for a single incident. The situation is unprecedented because several hundred Chinese fishing boats have been sailing close to the Chinese government vessels. The Japanese government is considering how to deal with the situation, based on the assumption China is trying to promote its proclaimed sovereignty over waters near the Senkaku Islands by having its government ships protect the fishing boats and render the situation a fait accompli, according to sources. It is totally unacceptable that the Chinese side has taken unilateral actions that further raise tensions in the area, despite the fact that our government has strongly protested a number of times, said Shinsuke Sugiyama, vice minister for foreign affairs. Sugiyama was making his second protest on Sunday to Chinese Ambassador to Japan Cheng Yonghua over the intrusion of Chinese government vessels into Japans territorial waters. Japan protested to China for three consecutive days starting Friday. Despite this, the number of Chinese government vessels spotted within the contiguous zone increased three on Friday, seven on Saturday and 13 on Sunday. According to Japan Foreign Ministry sources, the number of Chinese fishing boats operating near the Chinese government vessels also increased. One source said they numbered about 230 on Saturday and increased to about 400 on Sunday. The Japanese government has increasingly been on alert over Chinas activities, now on an unprecedented scale, in the East China Sea. A senior Foreign Ministry official said Sunday: Such a large number of vessels rushing into the sea around the Senkaku Islands is unprecedented. We must consider new measures for coping with Chinas aggressive actions. In the wake of a court of arbitration ruling on Chinas sovereignty claims in the South China Sea, Japan has repeatedly demanded China accept the ruling and resolve territorial disputes peacefully. Japan has asked other countries to support this view on various occasions, including international conferences. Many in the Japanese government believe China is escalating its actions in the East China Sea to take revenge there for the South China Sea and to pressure Japan not to take further actions that irritate China. Prof. Yoshihiko Yamada of Tokai University, an expert on marine policy and Chinas maritime advancement, said: Following the court of arbitrations ruling on the South China Sea, China apparently aims to demonstrate its aggressive stance in the East China Sea to prevent criticism from erupting domestically that Beijing has become weak-kneed in its maritime advancement policy. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Haeril Halim and Apriadi Gunawan (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta/Tanjungbalai Tue, August 9, 2016 Life suddenly went steeply downhill for Meliana, a woman of Chinese descent living in Tanjungbalai, North Sumatra, when she complained about the volume of a mosques adzan (call to prayer) in her neighborhood last week. Blamed for causing a riot that left a dozen of temples ransacked, she is currently being housed at a local police station, and has controversially been reported for blasphemy not by residents but by the police because of her complaint, which the police have deemed was the trigger for the riot. The children of the 41-year-old woman have also been forced to leave town for fear of being attacked by angry neighbors, leaving her husband as her sole support at the Tanjungbalai Police office. She was reported as being physically fit as of Monday, but it appears that she is suffering severe stress after being evacuated from her home when the furor erupted over a week ago. It remains unclear how long Meliana will have to stay at the police station and there are fears she will be detained after the police collect evidence to name her a blasphemy suspect. She looks very depressed, unlike her husband who appears to be bearing up, Tanjungbalai Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Ayep Wahyu Gunawan told The Jakarta Post, adding that the police had sheltered Meliana and her husband to protect them from being attacked by a mob. None of Melianas relatives have had the courage to visit her at the police station. Only the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) and Tanjungbalai Mayor M. Syahrial have paid her a visit. In their move to charge Meliana, the police will summon experts from North Sumatra University to determine whether her complaint constituted an act of blasphemy. Meliana, who has been living in the port city for eight years, has expressed remorse and apologized to local people for her actions. She hopes that she can return home and live harmoniously with followers of other religions in her neighborhood. The polices decision to report Meliana for blasphemy has led to concerns that they are trying to placate angry Muslim residents, as those arrested and charged for their role in the rioting, which saw the burning and looting of several viharas and pagodas, are thought to be mainly Muslims. Meanwhile, in a surprise move the police released on bail 19 people suspected of looting and torching temples during the riot, after receiving requests from their families, although two suspected provocateurs remain behind bars. Seven of the 19 released are underage. The legal process against the bailed suspects is still ongoing, said Ayep, who denied that the release was made after the police came under pressure from local people, local legislators and members of the House of Representatives. It is justified under the law that a suspect does not have to be locked up during the investigation period, Ayep added. Local residents reacted angrily against Meliana after she complained about the mosques loudspeaker volume, allegedly in an inappropriate manner. Angry mobs decided to burn temples after they were prevented by the police from ransacking Melianas house. Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) chairman Maruf Amin deplored the fact that local people chose to burn temples to express their anger against Meliana, adding that it was acceptable to lower the volume of loudspeakers if people in the neighborhood were bothered. Although [Meliana] expressed her complaint angrily, such an act should not be replied to with anger. Both parties should sit together to discuss her concerns, Maruf said. Meanwhile, secretary-general of the countrys second-largest Islamic organization Muhammadiyah, Abdul Muti, said that it was important to ensure that mosques kept their loudspeakers at a low volume. I agree with the calls made by Vice President Jusuf Kalla, who is also the chairman of Indonesian Mosque Council, that mosque loudspeakers should be regulated, Muti said. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Agnes Anya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, August 9 2016 The city administration will review its internship program after the alleged sexual assault of a 17-year-old by three civil servants at the Central Jakarta mayors office. Governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama said the internship system should be evaluated as it allowed interns to work without the presence of any other students and, therefore, could provide opportunities for sexual assaults to occur. Hence, if you want to open recruitment for interns, you should hire interns in groups and they have to work in groups as well, Ahok said on Monday. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Callistasia Anggun Wijaya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, August 9, 2016 The Jakarta Transportation Agency says it will continue to crack down on cars operating without proper documentation under mobile ride-hailing apps Uber, Grab and Go-Jek. The agency had recommended in August that 5,357 vehicles undergo roadworthy tests, but only 1,809 of the 1,987 vehicles that underwent the tests passed. The agencys recommendation was given to vehicles operated by the Indonesian Car Rental Businessmen Association (PPRI), Grabs partner, Trans Service Joint Venture (JTUB), Uber's partner and Panorama Mitra Sarana, Go-Jeks partner. "We facilitated them to test their vehicles roadworthiness, but they were reluctant to do so. So we will cite the vehicles that continue to operate, Transportation agency head Andri Yansyah said on Tuesday. The agency has stopped 11 cars found to have not passed the roadworthy tests. In response to the crack down, hundreds of drivers took to the streets last week to protest the law enforcement. They called on the government to revoke a transportation ministerial regulation requiring the cars to pass roadworthy tests. Andri advised the companies to require all drivers, who are also owners of the vehicles, to take part in the roadworthy tests before operating their vehicles. He said that his agency was not against the crack down, as it was only fair that cars operating under mobile ride-hailing apps comply with regulations. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Corry Elyda (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, August 9 2016 Jakarta Governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama has permitted 11 buildings to break the floor area ratio (KLB) limit, allowing them to build more stories by paying Rp 3.88 trillion (US$294.88 million) in compensation. Ahok said he granted the proposals of the 11 companies because their buildings were near planned Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) or Light Rapid Transit (LRT) lines. We have regulated that only buildings situated near MRT, LRT or primary commercial zones are allowed to propose building more stories in their buildings, the governor said last week. The city administration, Ahok said, wanted to develop a compact city. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Andi Hajramurni (The Jakarta Post) Makassar, South Sulawesi Tue, August 9, 2016 The first batch of haj pilgrims from the haj embarkation point at Sultan Hasanuddin International Airport in Makassar, South Sulawesi, departed on Tuesday afternoon after a seven-hour delay due to technical faults. The flight took off at around 5:17 p.m. local time, said Dian Ediono, the manager of national flag carrier Garuda Indonesias branch office in Makassar. Dian said the flights departure was delayed as a result of the detection of a number of technical problems relating to the aeroplane's flight navigation system and emergency exit. The plane, which was carrying 450 haj pilgrims, was initially scheduled to take off at 9:40 a.m. before the airline decided to delay its departure. The haj pilgrims were then brought back to their haj dormitory to rest while waiting for their plane to be repaired. South Sulawesi Religious Affairs Agency head Abdul Wahid Tahir said the technical glitches were detected only after haj pilgrims and officials were all on board. There had been no notification from Garuda. Thats why we took the haj pilgrims to the airport, in line with our schedule. It was only after they had entered the aircraft that the airline management told us that the plane had some technical problems and that the departure would therefore be delayed, said Wahid. According to Wahid, Garudas management officials claimed they had checked the Airbus aircrafts airworthiness from Monday evening to Tuesday morning. They said the plane was in flyworthy condition and had no problems. But when it was about to take off, they found its flight navigation was not functioning properly, said Wahid. According to the South Sulawesi Religious Affairs Agency, 11,963 haj pilgrims are set to depart from the Makassar haj embarkation point. They are from eight provinces, namely Gorontalo, Maluku, North Maluku, Papua, South Sulawesi, Southeast Sulawesi, West Papua and West Sulawesi. The province with the highest number of haj pilgrims is South Sulawesi, which is sending 5,791 people. The pilgrims who departed in the first batch on Tuesday afternoon were from Makassar and Soppeng, both in the province. (ebf) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Lita Aruperes (The Jakarta Post) Manado, North Sulawesi Tue, August 9, 2016 A fish that looks like a shark measuring 60-centimeters-long was found on Kalasey Beach in Minahasa regency, North Sulawesi by a police officer. Adj. First. Insp. Jeffry Nggala, an officer with the Wanea Police in Manado, North Sulawesi, said Tuesday that he found the fish on Sunday when he was on the beach with his children. At first I thought it was a dugong. When we found it, it was very weak. I tried to save the fish, Jefrry said. He placed the fish in a cooler and put some ice in it. He said fishermen on Kalasey Beach he met said they had never seen such fish before. I posted the picture on Facebook. Many people commented and wanted to buy the fish, but I dont want to sell it. I want it to be researched by a scientist, Jeffry said. Jeffry posted a video of the fish on Facebook and added a comment that it was "Oxynotus bruniensis" or a prickly dogfish. A Wikipedia entry for the species says the fish inhabits temperate Australian and New Zealand waters. It is a poorly known species. Edwin Donny Ngangi, a lecturer at the School of Fisheries and Oceanography at Sam Ratulangi University in Manado said the fish likely lived in the deep sea. We need to carry out research to identify its species, he said. He said his team would gather Tuesday to start a simulation to research the fish at a biotechnology lab at the biology department in the universitys School of Natural Sciences. If the simulation runs well, we will start researching on Wednesday. To determine the species we need more time. DNA results will perhaps be available in two weeks, he said. (evi) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, August 9, 2016 The government intends to make the new Terminal 3 at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten, a major gateway for tourism, a top official said Tuesday. We understand that the government is currently boosting efforts to welcome a higher number of tourists. We will step up efforts, especially in catering to international flights, and hopefully Terminal 3 can be a leap in service for Indonesian and international tourists, Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said as quoted by Antara news agency while inspecting the new terminal. Budi expressed hope that the new terminal would be used as a transit airport by foreign tourists. (Read also : Soekarno-Hatta's new Terminal 3 to open Aug. 9) Currently, more than 15 million tourists [to and] from Australia travel to China, India and other destinations. If we could tap into the number by attracting, say 5 million to transit here [in Jakarta], we might entice 1 million of them to come to Indonesia, Budi added. Terminal 3 officially started operations on Tuesday by welcoming Garuda Indonesia passengers from Jayapura. (dmr) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Agus Maryono (The Jakarta Post) Cilacap Tue, August 9 2016 Eleven fishermen have been reported missing since Wednesday after sailing off the coast of Teluk Penyu Beach in Cilacap, Central Java, amid months of high waves along the coasts of Java and Sumatra. The boat carrying the 11 was swept away by the tides and discovered overturned in the waters of Pangandaran, West Java, about 50 kilometers from where the boat launched. None of the crew members were found with the vessel. The fishermen left Teluk Penyu on Wednesday afternoon on board the Kapal Pisang VI, a long line-type fishing vessel usually used for tuna fishing; they were noted missing on Thursday night. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Callistasia Anggun Wijaya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, August 9, 2016 Trade Union Rights Center (TURC) researcher Surya Tjandra said enforcing a law on workplace safety had become even more pressing following a fire at the construction site of the 27-story Swiss-Belhotel in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, on Sunday, which killed two workers and injured 12 other people. The law regarding work safety should be enforced without negotiation. If there are companies that cannot provide work safety, they deserve punishment, Surya told thejakartapost.com on Tuesday. According to health and safety provisions, companies must provide optimal protection equipment to all workers. However, Surya pointed out that government monitoring was weak. Surya said in countries where public pressure was high, such as Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea, governments paid more attention to the issue. In those countries, unions erected memorials for victims of workplace accidents, he added. In Indonesia, news about workplace accidents usually receives a lukewarm response from the public. In Suryas words, such accidents are treated as normal. Jakarta Manpower and Transmigration Agency head Priyono said the agency was still working on a case report. We cant reveal much about the case now because were still making a report about it. However, the victims are all covered by the Health Care and Social Security Agency, Priyono said on Tuesday. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, August 9, 2016 The Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPUD) has announced that no independent ticket has met the requirements to take part in the Jakarta gubernatorial election next February, particularly the 532,213 vote-pledge requirement. No independent ticket will take part in the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election, said KPUD chairman Sumarno as reported by kompas.com on Tuesday. Registration for independent candidates took place from Aug. 3 to 7 Previously, Sumarno said seven pairs visited the KPUD to express their intention to take part in the election. Incumbent Governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama's volunteer group, Teman Ahok (Friends of Ahok), previously announced that it had collected more than 1 million vote pledges, but Ahok later decided to run with political party backing. Ahok is supported by the Golkar Party, the NasDem Party and the Hanura Party, which together have 24 seats on the City Council. (bbn) . Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, August 9, 2016 Over 100 indigenous peoples from across the country gathered at the National Museum of Indonesia on Tuesday to celebrate International Day of the Worlds Indigenous Peoples. At the museum, they called for the establishment of customary schools. All of them wore their traditional costumes and in such a crowd, traditional languages were heard from all corners. Despite these differences, the national anthem united the people, and they sang it together solemnly. This years theme is Indigenous Peoples Right to Education, and the attendants said there should not be discrimination in education toward indigenous peoples and the government should provide proper education for the new generations. I can understand if the government cannot provide lessons on local culture, traditional languages and local handicrafts in formal schools, Ferdi Danse, from Loge Adak Indigenous Peoples community in Flores, West Nusa Tenggara, told The Jakarta Post. However, he expected that the government provide facilities and infrastructure in regions for customary schools. Echoing Fredis statement, Ludia Metansan from Moi Moya tribe in Raja Ampat, West Papua, said customary schools were needed to ensure that culture, tradition and the local crafts of indigenous peoples did not disappear. She further said such things could be taught after students finished their lessons in formal schools. Culture and Education Minister Muhadjir Effendy earlier said such forms of education were needed to instill local traditions into the minds of young people. Local traditions, and diversity, the minister went on to say, constituted an important part of Indonesias national identity. (wnd/bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, August 9, 2016 Hepatitis remains one of the leading diseases in Indonesia, affecting around 2.9 million people. However, hepatitis can be prevented by improving healthy lifestyle awareness, analysts have said. David Handojo Mulyono from the Committee of Indonesian Hepatitis Experts at the Health Ministry said hepatitis had not been a major focus for the ministry in the last 15 years. However, he said, it had taken a step forward by including the disease on its agenda following the adoption of a historic commitment to eliminate viral hepatitis by 2030 by World Health Organization member states in May 2016. We need to address challenges we are still facing in overcoming hepatitis in Indonesia, such as poor awareness and a lack of hepatitis experts, David said during a discussion in Central Jakarta on Tuesday. He referred to the 69th World Health Assembly on May 28, during which 194 member states, including Indonesia, unanimously voted for the adoption of the first ever Global Hepatitis Strategy, which has become the greatest global commitment in eradicating viral hepatitis to date. Meanwhile, a hepatitis expert from the Indonesian Liver Researchers Association (PPHI), Irsan Hasan, said every disease was curable, including hepatitis. Moreover, vaccine producers had distributed products for hepatitis patients to hospitals across the country. However, prevention is the best medicine. Keeping our environment clean is one of the crucial prevention efforts, Irsan said. The two experts were speaking at a seminar on hepatitis held by the Health Ministry in collaboration with health-care company Johnson and Johnson to celebrate World Hepatitis Day, which falls on July 28 every year. Every year, 1.4 million people with suspected hepatitis die around the world, David said. (rez/ebf) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Wahyoe Boediwardhana (The Jakarta Post) Surabaya Tue, August 9, 2016 Indonesian haj pilgrims have been told to prepare for extreme heat while in Saudi Arabia, as temperatures there could reach 54 degrees Celsius, compared to conditions in Indonesia, where temperatures reach 30 degrees Celsius. Dont forget to take an umbrella and wear black sunglasses to protect your eyes, said head of the religious affairs agency in East Java, Mahfud Shodar, when seeing-off 454 haj pilgrims at Juanda International Airport in Surabaya on Tuesday. The pilgrims from Madura Island departed on a Saudi Arabia Airlines Boeing 747. They were accompanied by five officers. Meanwhile, the officers also distributed sunblock and spray bottles to help haj pilgrims endure the heat. They are also advised to carry water bottles filled with Zamzam water. The officers have told us how to use the distributed items, said Wardiah, a haj pilgrim from Sumenep, the capital of Madura regency. Shodar said from the total of 27,323 had pilgrims from East Java, the Saudi Arabian Embassy had issued 14,000 visas, including 310 visas for haj officers. It means that there will be no problems for haj pilgrims, whose departure is from Aug. 8 to 21, Shodar added. Indonesia kicked off the haj season on Tuesday by seeing off 4,459 out of 168,800 of the countrys haj pilgrims. Home to the largest Muslim population in the world, Indonesia is the country with the largest number of haj pilgrims. There is a 15-20 year haj waiting list in Indonesia. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Anton Hermansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, August 9, 2016 A leading Indonesia telecommunication operator has claimed that if network sharing was allowed by the government, it could reduce investment costs by 40 percent. The Communications and Information Ministry had prepared at the beginning of the year to allow network sharing with the Multi-Operator Core Network (MOCN) scheme, despite a regulation permitting the scheme had yet to be issued. We have been waiting the rule to be implemented. With the MOCN scheme we can reduce investment costs, President director Dian Siswarini told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of a Post event, Accelerating Infrastructure Development, on Tuesday. Dian said XL Axiata had cooperated with Indosat Oreedoo to share a 4G LTE network in four cities using Muti Operator Radio Access Network (MORAN). One radio transmitter handling two operators resulted in 20 percent cost efficiency. The quicker the rule is issued, the quicker we can plan. We need to reach 50.2 percent internet penetration by 2019, Dian said. (dan) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Kupang Tue, August 9 2016 Five F-16 fighter aircraft from Squadron 16 from the Pekanbaru airbase have arrived at the hangar of the El Tari airbase in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) for combat exercises. They were joined by a Puma SA88 helicopter of Squadron 8 from the Atang Sanjaya airbase in Bogor, West Java, and Hercules A1327 and A1318 transport aircraft of Squadron 31 from Jakartas Halim Perdanakusuma airbase. The fleet of aircraft from the Indonesian Air Force is here for a combat training [exercise] code-named Chakra and Kilat and scheduled to take place from Monday until Friday, El Tari Airbase commander Col. Jorry Koloay told journalists on Monday. According to Jorry, the exercise will include a simulation in which the F-16s will force down foreign aircraft entering Indonesian airspace. The five F-16s just completed a joint exercise with the Australian Air Force in Darwin, said Jorry. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ayomi Amindoni (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, August 9, 2016 Ayomi The government is going all-out to promote the tax amnesty program, with President "Jokowi" Widodo leading the second-day campaign in Semarang on Tuesday to convince prominent businesspeople to take part in the program. Jokowi will meet with entrepreneurs in Semarang, Central Java on Tuesday to discuss the governments flagship program to repatriate Indonesian assets parked overseas and increase tax revenues, following a similar campaign in Bandung, West Java, on Monday. Businesspeople that repatriate their assets will enjoy a redemption rate ranging from 2 to 5 percent of the assets, while those who declare their assets will get a 4 to 10 percent rate. As of Tuesday morning, Rp 10.9 trillion (US$829.84 million) in assets has been declared from 1,580 taxpayers during its three weeks of implementation, with redemption of Rp231.44 billion induced to tax revenue, or only 0.1 percent of total tax revenues targeted on this program at Rp 165 trillion, according to the latest data from the Taxation Directorate General. Jokowi believes more people will take part in this program as the Finance Ministry has completed a Finance Ministerial Regulation to support the program. "Two supporting regulations have already been delivered by Finance Minister. So indeed we have issued supporting regulations, but they have not accommodated taxpayers who want to repatriate their funds," said. Jokowi estimated that capital flows will increase at the end of August or at the beginning of September ahead of the end of the period with lowest redemption rate by the end of September. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Bekasi Tue, August 9 2016 A lack of attention from the Bekasi, West Java municipality on conserving the citys Betawi culture has urged people to initiate efforts on their own. Unlike Jakarta, where both the administration and municipalities show their concern for Betawi culture by funding cultural events, there are almost no reported Betawi events in Bekasi funded by the local municipality. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Farida Susanty (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, August 9 2016 A recent strike staged by Lion Air pilots has opened the lid on the previously closed box of the woes of local airline pilots. Twenty-two year old Anggi Tayanza is not a frequent user of Lion Air, but his last two flights with them, both in 2015, were marred by horrendous moments. On one occasion, he had to wait for over five hours for his flight from Jakarta to his hometown of Bengkulu. Meanwhile, 43-year-old doctor Tri Saputra said on Sunday he frequently used Lion Air because of its low fares compared with other carriers. I couldnt afford the price of seven tickets [for wife and five children] if it was not with Lion, Tri said, chuckling. Flight delays have spoiled a number of Tris flights with the carrier as well. Last year, he was forced to wait for around five hours for a flight from Jakarta to Jambi. Flight delays, a poor safety record and breaches of aviation standards have landed Lion Air, the countrys largest low-cost carrier, in hot water several times. In February last year, hundreds of passengers ran amok at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, frustrated by numerous delays to their flights. On May 10, the airline also made headlines for passenger mishandling at Soekarno-Hatta and widespread flight delays in several airports caused by a walkout by 300 Lion Air pilots. The latter incident led the Transportation Ministry to ban Lion Air from launching new domestic routes for five months. On Aug. 3, the airlines management announced that it had laid off 14 pilots considered to be behind the strike, including Eki Andriansjah, the leader of the Lion Air pilot union (SP-APLG). The management has also chosen to sideline the SP-APLG. It has also reported the pilots to the National Polices Criminal Investigations Unit, accusing them of defamation, which carries a maximum sentence of nine months behind bars according to Article 310 of the Criminal Code. The pilots lawyer, Oky Wiratama, said on Sunday that the companys move to dismiss her clients was illegal because of a lack of dismissal letters issued to the laid-off pilots. She said the airline provided no rationale for the move. Oky, who is a public lawyer with the Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH Jakarta), said she was mulling whether to report Lion Air to the police for alleged union busting and for purportedly criminalizing her clients without legal basis. In a separate statement, Lion Air said the management regretted news that highlighted the alleged disharmonious relations between the management and pilots. It said pilots were bound by a working agreement and that the strike was a violation of that agreement. In the wake of escalating conflict, the Indonesian Pilot Association (IPI) claims that the problems of pilot rights are widespread and involve more than just one airline. The IPI estimates that up to 60 percent of the 8,000 currently licensed pilots in Indonesia are working under temporary working contracts, rather than being permanent employees of the airlines. There are pilots who have worked for 18 years under just working contracts [not as permanent employees], with enormous penalties [if they resign], IPI first chairman Captain Rama Valerino Noya told the press on Monday. It claims such practices contravene the Labor Law. The law stipulates that a working contract can only apply for three years, after which a person should either be promoted as a permanent employee or discharged. The association also says that many pilots work more hours than stipulated in International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) regulations. Were really asking for the Transportation Ministry to closely monitor airline practice on pilot working hours, IPI founder Captain Rudolf Albert Rooroh said. (mos) --------------- To receive comprehensive and earlier access to The Jakarta Post print edition, please subscribe to our epaper through iOS' iTunes, Android's Google Play, Blackberry World or Microsoft's Windows Store. Subscription includes free daily editions of The Nation, The Star Malaysia, the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Asia News. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, August 9, 2016 The controversial full-day school plan proposed by Cultural and Education Minister Muhadjir Effendy might never see the light of day following mounting public criticism. The ministry will cancel the plan, which would extend elementary and high school hours, if the public is opposed to the idea, Muhadjir said on Tuesday. "If it can't be implemented yet, I will withdraw the plan and look for other approaches," he said as reported by tempo.co. Under the plan, the extra hours at school will partly be used for character-building activities. Furthermore, it will also purportedly guarantee students safety until their parents finish work. The system could also help teachers gain extra credits for their certification requirements. The idea of full-day school system came from Finland, which according to Muhadjir is home to the best human resources as students are given character-based education. The ministry is currently assessing which schools are ready to implement the school hour extension, he said. The ministry also studied other aspects of the plan, such as the budget, which will be further discussed by the schools committee. "If they don't approve it, it's okay," said the newly appointed minister. Parent Deddy Mahyarto Kresnoputro set up an online petition on Change.org opposing the minister's plan, saying that the plan would limit children's interaction with their parents. As of Tuesday evening, the petition had garnered 29,052 pledges of support. (rin) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, August 9 2016 New Culture and Education Minister Muhadjir Effendys plan to extend school hours for elementary and high school students has drawn derision from education experts and psychologists, who argue that doing so would increase the burden on everyone involved in the education system. Education expert Seto Mulyadi said that staying at school for 12 hours, as Minister Muhadjir envisions, would rob children of their precious time growing up outside of the formal education system, especially time spent with their families. Many children already complain about staying at school until 1 p.m. because they feel tired and overworked. Not to mention that some of them receive private tutoring after school and have to finish their homework, Seto said, adding that teachers would be ill prepared for such a scheme. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, August 9 2016 Negative sentiment toward lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual (LGBT) people has grown, with government officials showing greater tendency to stigmatize the group, according to LGBT activists. People often assume that transgender people are sex workers, the chair of LGBT rights organization Arus Pelangi, Yuli Rustinawati, said on Monday, adding that people often discriminated based on trivial indicators such as Facebook profile pictures. Yuli explained that transgender people usually lived in groups inside rented rooms, and that in two or three cases in Jakarta this year, letters had been sent to the homeowners calling for their eviction. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ganug Nugroho Adi (The Jakarta Post) Surakarta, Central Java Tue, August 9, 2016 Four stupas found in separate locations in Nepen village, Boyolali, Central Java, have yet to be adequately preserved. Possibly dating back to the ninth century, the stupas, which are similar to those at the iconic Buddhist temple of Borobudur in Yogyakarta, lie unattended in cemetery and plantation areas. One stupa has been found in complete condition, measuring around 1.5 meters in height and with a diameter of around 1 meter. The other three stupas are wheel-shaped featuring bolts in an octagonal shape. One of the stupas is half buried. No ancient inscriptions or other information have been found to explain more about the presence of stupas in the area. These stupas have been here since I was a child. Local people here dont dare to move or damage them because they are ancient objects. Unfortunately, they are not treated well, village officer Muhtadi, 40, said on Monday. Meanwhile, the Boyolali Culture and Tourism Agencys museum division member Surojo said the discovery of the four stupas was important as they were from the ancient Buddhist period. Most of the ancient objects discovered in Boyolali are from the Hindu era. Another special thing about this discovery is that these stupas are still complete. All this time, only a few stupas have been discovered still in complete condition, he said. Surojo said his institution had asked the Central Java Cultural Heritage Preservation Agency (BPCB) branch office in Yogyakarta to carry out excavations because it was possible that other ancient objects from the Buddhist era could be found in the area. Surojo said many temples were buried when Mount Merapi erupted in 1006. They were located across Central Java, including in Magelang, Muntilan, Yogyakarta, Klaten and Boyolali. (ebf) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, August 9, 2016 The Golkar, NasDem and Hanura parties have denied that any of them had withdrawn support for incumbent Jakarta Governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama in his reelection bid in 2017. The denial was made by representatives of the three political parties as reported by kompas.com on Tuesday. The chairman of Hanuras Jakarta chapter, Dadang Rusdiana, said the decision to support Ahok was made after a comprehensive study and it was unlikely that any of the three parties would withdraw their support. He was responding to a statement by acting chairman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggles (PDI-P) Jakarta chapter, Bambang DH, that one of the political parties could withdraw from the coalition and join the PDI-P-led coalition. (Read also : Jokowi warned against risky independent path: Ahok) Golkars Jakarta chairman Fayakhun Andriadi also assured that supporting Ahok was the final decision of the three political parties. He said their support was made official through a written declaration signed by the three parties. It is an era of making sudden maneuvers like withdrawing support. Jakartans are smart; they know that such move would be unethical, he added. Meanwhile, NasDem deputy chairman Suryani Chaniago said the party would not withdraw its support for Ahok, adding that the coalition of the three parties was solid, while another coalition led by PDI-P was questionable in solidity. She hinted that another party from PDI-P-led Family Coalition could join the three parties to support Ahok. The Family Coalition comprises the PDI-P, the Gerindra Party, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), the United Development Party (PPP), the Democratic Party, the National Awakening Party (PKB) and National Mandate Party (PAN). (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, August 9, 2016 Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi has called on state-owned port operator Pelindo I to expand Sibolga Port in North Sumatra to facilitate growing flows of people and goods at the port. "Sibolga Port plays an important role for the connectivity of people living in North Sumatra and Aceh," Budi said in a statement on Sunday. Pelindo I said earlier it had prepared budgetary allocations for the expansion of the port. The construction activities would begin in 2017, it further said. Budi said it was expected the Sibolga Ports operator could improve services at its passenger terminal. "The terminal is inappropriate for passengers as it is located too close to a fish market," he said. (rez/ebf) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Haeril Halim and Tama Salim (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, August 9 2016 A number of its citizens having fallen victim to rampant piracy in the Sulu Sea in recent months, Indonesia has asked Malaysia and Philippines to intensify patrols in the waters pending a maritime pact coming into force. The call was made following the kidnap of Indonesian national Herman Manggak, captain of a Malaysian fishing vessel, by armed militants off the coast of Sabah on Wednesday, the fourth case of kidnapping involving Indonesians since March 24. The latest incident was reported exactly 24 hours after the defense ministers of the three countries signed a maritime treaty in which the countries agree to conduct coordinated patrols in the perilous waters, notorious as the home base of the Abu Sayyaf militant group. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Arya Dipa and Prima Wirayani (The Jakarta Post) Bandung/Jakarta Tue, August 9 2016 As prospects dim over the repatriation goal of the tax amnesty, President Joko Jokowi Widodo appears to be turning up the heat on the middle class to offset the slow progress. Mira Lestari, not her real name, is jittery. The 40-year-old is unsure of what to do after hearing news of the governments call to participate and declare wealth under the tax amnesty. I dont have a lot of assets, but I do have a few things that I didnt include in my previous SPT [tax return], she said on Monday, adding that she was worried that the lack of information on those additional assets would take a toll on her finances. Lucky, 37, a marketing officer at a printing company in Bandung, expressed a similar view, saying he needed further explanations regarding his taxation liabilities. Their concern is shared by other middle-class people, who are increasingly feeling targeted by the program. Center for Indonesia Taxation Analysis (CITA) executive director Yustinus Prastowo said many such people had confided in him. I call this middle-class anxiety. They feel targeted because they are part of the taxpayer target that the government wants to reach. Unfortunately, the government is not trying to reach out to them as it tries to reach out to tycoons. In an attempt to promote the tax amnesty, the government has held events in three cities: Surabaya in East Java, Medan in North Sumatra and Bandung in West Java. The last event occurred on Monday and two morein Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, and Makassar, South Sulawesiare to follow suit. At each event that was attended by thousands small taxpayers, Jokowi has tried to convince attendees to apply for the tax pardon, declare their wealth and even bring their assets that are kept overseas back to Indonesia, an action referred to as repatriation. This is a one-time chance. Those who want to use it, go ahead. Those who dont, be careful, Jokowi stated during the programs launch last month. The government is hoping to see Rp 1 quadrillion (US$76.08 billion) in repatriated assets. However, as of Monday, repatriated assets stood at Rp 669 billion or just 0.07 percent of the target. Offshore declarations stood at Rp 1.43 trillion, while domestic declarations amounted to Rp 8.81 trillion. The combined figure was only Rp 10.24 trillion, equal to 0.25 percent of the declaration target of Rp 4 quadrillion. Tax revenue collection from penalties also remains well below target, standing at Rp 231 billion, while the target has been set at Rp 165 trillion. Yustinus said the government should offer incentives to the middle class, instead of brandishing possible punishments to coerce them into participating. Meanwhile, Jahja B. Soenarjo, the deputy chairman of the West Java chapter of the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo), acknowledged that his colleagues wished to join the amnesty program, but were hesitant over several matters. They need investment certainty in Indonesia not only for this year, but also in the future, Jahja said on the sidelines of the tax amnesty event in Bandung. He expressed hope that the government would not simply save seminars, but also work with private banks to actively approach businesspeople and persuade them to repatriate their funds. As of Monday, the West Java tax office recorded Rp 458.61 billion in repatriated assets from the total declaration worth Rp 1.41 trillion. Penalty payments, meanwhile, stood at Rp 29 billion. Concerns over data and information confidentiality remain, although the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK), the National Police and the Attorney Generals Office (AGO) have signed an agreement that they will not use tax amnesty data or information in any investigation. The law is also in legal limbo as several groups have filed judicial review petitions with the Constitutional Court to challenge it. The government has announced 19 banks, 18 investment management companies and 18 securities firms as gateways for fund repatriation. The gateways are financial companies that will serve as the pools and managers of repatriated assets. Please go ahead with the repatriation, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani said in Bandung. ______________________________________ To receive comprehensive and earlier access to The Jakarta Post print edition, please subscribe to our epaper through iOS' iTunes, Android's Google Play, Blackberry World or Microsoft's Windows Store. Subscription includes free daily editions of The Nation, The Star Malaysia, the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Asia News. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, August 9, 2016 The Democratic Party has declared its endorsement of former Tangerang mayor Wahidin Halim and Golkar Party politician Andika Hazrumy as a pair to run in the 2017 Banten gubernatorial election. The Dems secretary-general, Hinca Panjaitan, said Monday that the party had been in communications with three other parties to endorse the pair, namely the Golkar Party, the Hanura Party and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS). We are ready to form a coalition but are also ready to compete. When the party has decided on something, all party members have to work to make it a success, he said as quoted by kompas.com. Wahidin, who was Tangerang mayor for 10 years from 2003, promised that if elected, he would focus on education, infrastructure and tourism revitalization. We have some historical sites that can be promoted, he said. The legislator with the Dems also aims to revive religious spirit in Banten. During his tenure in Tangerang, he issued a controversial bylaw on prostitution containing an article that allowed his administration to arrest women suspected of soliciting sex in public places. In 2006, his administration arrested a restaurant worker, Lilis Lindawati, who was waiting for a public minivan on the street. She was accused of prostituting herself in a public trial during Tangerangs anniversary celebration along with dozens of other women. Andika is the son of former Banten governor Ratu Atut Chosiyah, who was sentenced to seven years in prison for corruption. He is a legislator at House of Representatives like Wahidin. Atut is the daughter of Banten businessman and political leader Haji Tubagus Chasan Sochib, who died in 2011. Banten has been known to be controlled by Chasans dynasty, with family members holding positions in municipal and regental administrations, as well as on the legislative councils throughout the provinces. (evi) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Anton Hermansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, August 9, 2016 Telecommunications company XL Axiata is seeking a partnership with a bank to develop its e-money XL Tunai, which is estimated to have the potential to serve its 25 million customers. Currently the e-money can be used for micro transactions such as billing payments, credit top ups, and e-commerce transactions, said XL Axiata president director Dian Siswarini. Operator-owned e-money is lacking a feature to cash in virtual credit, as the government is yet to give licenses to the operators to manage cash transactions, she told thejakartapost.com on the sidelines of The Jakarta Posts seminar Accelerating Infrastructure Development in Jakarta on Monday. E-money has been booming in Indonesia since 2007 with the launch of BCAs Flazz and Telkomsels TCASH. Since then, banks and operators have been in a race to develop their own e-money including XL Axiata with XL Tunai, launched in 2012. In terms of technology, operators are better but banks have more access. Instead of going into competition, they should cooperate. Banks can use operators technology and operators can use the access provided by banks, Dian said. (ags) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Joseph Kaos JR (The Star/ANN) Putrajaya, Malaysia Tue, August 9, 2016 Heads of missions in Malaysia will be given a special briefing by the Home Ministry following concerns over security threats in the country. Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who is also Home Minister, will kick off the session Tuesday morning. Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar is then expected to give a briefing on the current security situation in the country behind closed doors. A dialogue session will be held after, which is expected to be chaired by Ahmad Zahid, said a ministry official. Last week, Deputy Home Minister Nur Jazlan Mohamed told reporters that the briefing was to give the foreign missions an assurance that the situation in Malaysia was under control. There is no need to worry as we are taking all the necessary safety precautions, he said. This is the not the first time the Home Ministry has given a security briefing to foreign missions. The last one was held in April and chaired by Nur Jazlan, who briefed 221 representatives from 90 embassies on the latest security situation and measures taken by the Government to tackle terrorist threats. During that session, Nur Jazlan also told the Australian and British governments to withdraw their travel advisories, claiming the security situation depicted in the advisories was unjustified. In July, the police arrested 14 people in several states with suspected links to militant group Islamic State. Several weeks prior, two men were arrested for allegedly throwing a grenade at the Movida bar in Puchong, injuring eight people. Authorities confirmed that it was the first successful attack by the IS group in Malaysia. The two have been charged in court with attempted murder and committing a terrorist acts. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, August 9, 2016 More than 90,000 visitors from Indonesia and overseas attended the Dieng Cultural Festival last weekend. The event was a success. If we calculate all the tourists that came, there were more than 90,000 travelers. Tickets were sold out; all the hotels were fully booked. The festival is indeed a blessing for the people living around Dieng, Dieng Pandawa tourism community head Alif Fauzy said on Sunday as quoted by kompas.com. Held annually in the Dieng Plateau in Banjarnegara, Central Java, as a community celebration, the festival presents a variety of art and cultural performances including a unique ceremony where local childrens dreadlocked hair is cut off by customary leaders. (Read also: Dieng dreadlocks get ceremonial chop) This years ritual involved 11 children and featured music performances and a wayang (puppet) show. Seeing the potential, Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo has stated that improvements will immediately be made to further boost the destinations potential. "[This destination] must be managed properly. In addition to Banjarnegara and Wonosobo regencies, we will add more entry points from Batang regency and manage Dieng as a tourism area," said Ganjar. (tif/kes) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, August 9, 2016 The government has revealed plans to develop surrounding areas of Borobudur temple in Magelang regency, Central Java as new tourist destinations, including Bener district, Salaman and Tritis. Among the new destinations in the development concept are Bener district in Purworejo regency, Salaman in Magelang regency and Tritis in Kulonprogo regency, said Central Java Tourism Agency head Prasetyo Aribowo last week as quoted by Antara news agency. (Read also: Borobudur to offer pilgrimage tour) The concept aims to lure tourists arriving at Yogyakarta's new airport in Kulonprogo to visit the aforementioned destinations prior to visiting Borobudur temple, which attracts around 3.5 million tourists every year. Therefore, people will not just come to Borobudur, but they will also enjoy other destinations, he said, adding that a new road would be built from Kulonprogo airport to the temple to support the plan. (tif/kes) Plan for high upfront costs Dont miss your enrolment appointment! Check you are getting all the money you are entitled to Avoid payday loans Go easy at Christmas time However, every experience sadly has a price and the risk of running out of money can suddenly become very real when you manage your finances haphazardly. Anne Chawk, a Senior Student Finance Adviser at the University of Bedfordshire, lists five common pitfalls to avoid.Starting university brings a number of upfront costs that can eat into your student loan quickly. Deposits on rental properties, hall accommodation fees, down-payments on travel season tickets and buying core text books can all make a dent in your finances. Plan for this with some sort of financial cushion, either from income gained from paid work over summer or with an attractive interest free overdraft that comes with most student bank accounts.Enrolment is a key date in getting your finances sorted. The Student Loans Company will only authorise payment of the first instalment of your loan once you have enrolled. It is vitally important that you make your enrolment appointment remembering to bring any required documentation with you as putting this back could delay the payment of your loan by a number of days. Its always worth taking enough cash to tide you over for the first few days of university just in case your loan payment is delayed for any reason. This is very rare,but if it does happen your university will be more than happy to check over all of your paperwork and liaise with the Student Loans Company to get it sorted quickly.In addition to student loans, a range of means-tested support grants are available from the Government, for single parents or those with adult dependents, for example. Your university may additionally offer a number of bursary or scholarship schemes that you may be eligible for. For instance, the University of Bedfordshire offers a welcome package giving eligible students 300 towards the costs of purchasing core text books in their first year of study, which can really help take some of the financial pressure off in the first term. Remember that many of these grants can be applied for retrospectively, so its worth double checking what support is available to you when you arrive at universityFrom time to time you may find yourself a little bit short of cash. At this point it can be tempting to take out a payday loan to see you through the shortfall. However, payday loans are an exceptionally dangerous way of borrowing money. As they are aimed at people with regular income can be an expensive game to play for students waiting until January for an additional loan payment. If you find yourself in debt, its best to speak to your university, who may be able to assist you to spread the cost of studying or provide a debt repayment plan to help you put your finances back together.Youve made it through your first term at university, congratulations! With Black Friday and Christmas sales everywhere it can be tempting to treat yourself to a few things, but with the cost of presents for friends and families too, December can quickly turn into a rather expensive month. While its nice to buy gifts its important to watch your credit card balance and make sure you can pay this off in a reasonable time frame. Considering hand-made gifts for your family and asking for vouchers as presents from others can help make January a bit more friendly on your finances and your return to university free from money worries! Even if we don't have one, we'd probably all recognise the little blue cards carried in the wallets of local students. These are the membership cards of the National Union of Students, a fanatical organisation that's been hitting the headlines recently. Most of us have membership cards for a litany of reasons: for lunch deals at Co-Op, as a day pass for some local colleges, or a few quid saved when buying textbooks. Leaving the National Union of Students may seem out there, but it is an idea whose time has come. Successive generations of students have seen the wildly throttling hands of insanity grip ever-more tightly on the neck of the NUS. No longer is this an institution that represents the wishes or interests of students, but a bureaucratic mess. The NUS is a cacophony of quacks; a tyranny of twerps; a platform for no-platformers; a walking, seething, breathing contradiction, presiding over a Reign of Error. It is now so far removed from the wishes of Britain's student body as to be irreparable; the decline is irreversible. The list of charges against the NUS is long. Firstly: it's increasingly a megaphone for frauds and anti-Semites, masking themselves as anti-Zionists. The recent election of Malia Bouattia has proven this. In addition to the litany of outrageous statements Bouattia has made, it's incredible to think that she has been elected by four hundred delegates, representing a tiny minority of UK students. No longer is the NUS a democratic institution, standing up for the rights of students, regardless of race, class, creed, or gender; the modern NUS is propped up on discrimination, hateful rhetoric and whackjob ideas that have spiralled into lunacy because they cannot be debated under NUS ruling. Why can they not be debated? Because the iron fist of the NUS has crushed student-led debate. Only a few outposts of liberty continue to stand for the right to discuss ideas. But a spate of no-platforming across the country denies students the right to hear contrary views, clasping the manacles of undemocratic consensus onto students everywhere. Thankfully, students up and down the country are cottoning onto this. Oxbridge is holding a referendum on NUS membership; an open letter at Durham Uni calls for disaffiliation; a number of other universities like York are considering abandoning this ridiculous institution altogether. Good riddance. Students throughout the region must follow these examples. Let the NUS bureaucrats understand that their hard-left agenda is too far-reaching. It is beyond salvation. A conscientious, reasonable student who gives a damn about freedom of speech must surely agree: we must smash the NUS, and begin anew. A fresh, more perfect union must be formed. This union must condemn censorship of reasonable opinions, and promote debate on campus no more no-platforming in this organisation. Instead of passing resolutions all afternoon, this union must reconnect with students. One student must have one vote in this union and then we may call it democratic. A few years ago, I might have disdained the NUS, but I could have hoped for its rejuvenation and improvement. I can say this no longer. The NUS has sailed longer than it needs to. A crash is heard; the ship hits the iceberg; freezing water enters the hull. The NUS, at last, is sinking. We must get to the lifeboats whilst we still can. via GIPHY Chinese man, 67, dies after be found unconscious in water on Phi Phi trip PHUKET: A 67-year-old Chinese man died at Phi Phi Hospital this afternoon (Aug 9) after being taken there when he was found unconscious in the sea at Loh Mudee Bay, Koh Phi Phi Don. accidentsdeathChinesetourismmarine By Eakkapop Thongtub Tuesday 9 August 2016, 06:07PM Speedboat crew members bring the 67-year-old Chinese man to shore. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub Phi Phi Polices Lt Santipoj Nuanreang was notified at 1:30pm that a group of people including tourists had rescued a Chinese tourist who they had found unconscious in the water at Loh Mudee Bay in Ao Nang. The man was in a critical condition police were told. Phi Phi Police, Krabi Marine Police and Tourist Police arrived at the area where they saw a group of more than 10 people surrounding the unconscious man, named as Chinese national 67-year- old Mr Tang Hongzhu. Rescuers and tourists helped carry Mr Tang onto a speedboat which took him to Phi Phi Hospital where he was pronounce dead upon arrival. Lt Santipoj said,We were told that Mr Tang came with 25 tourists (20 adults and five children) on the Trip Nisa tour boat. The captain of Trip Nisa, Mr Theerawat Changnam, 18, told us that he picked up the 26 people from Koh Lanta and took them, together three crew members to Phi Phi this morning. When they arrived at Loh Mudee Bay at around 11:17am Mr Tang went into the water for a swim with his life jacket on, he said Mr Theerawat said he heard other tourists shouting a man has drowned, so he went into the water to help along with his crew. Mr Theerawat added, We administered first aid to him while waiting for help to arrive. Lt Santipoj continued, Doctors at Phi Phi Hospital said that Mr Tang had a sudden health issue while swimming causing him to fall unconscious. Tourist Police are notifying the Chinese Embassy to let them know of the incident and assist the victims family, he said. Cops widen rail-smuggler crackdown BANGKOK: Police are expanding a campaign against illicit drug smuggling on trains to cover all rail routes across the country after operations targeting selected train journeys proved successful. crimedrugstransport By Bangkok Post Tuesday 9 August 2016, 09:01AM The effort is part of the Police in Train campaign aimed at cracking down on illicit drug smuggling on trains. Photo: Bangkok Post Col Torsak Sukwimon, head of the police commando division, said his unit has worked closely with railway police in searching and providing a presence on trains running along the main northern and southern routes. The effort is part of the Police in Train campaign aimed at cracking down on illicit drug smuggling on trains and boosting passenger safety. Of the northern and southern trains targeted, the route connecting Bangkok and Chiang Mai has received particular attention because it is one of the main transport routes favoured by drug smuggling gangs, he said. Police targeted suspects wanted on arrest warrants for drug offences, Col Torsak said, adding that 54 wanted suspects were arrested last year and 59 others on warrants have been apprehended so far this year. Police are now expanding operations to cover rail routes across the country to stamp out drug smuggling activities, particularly those in border provinces, Col Torsak said. Smugglers usually pose as tourists and take the drugs from the border areas to Bangkok on trains, Col Torsak said. Many of the drugs are destined for a third country, so Bangkok is just a transit point, he added. Drugs from the far North destined for Malaysia pass through Bangkok, so the journeys are long which means many smugglers usually travel on a long-haul sleeper trains, police said. They also switch smuggling routes often, making it difficult for police to hunt them, police said. The arrest of more than 100 drug suspects over the past two years underscores the success of the Police in Train campaign, Col Torsak said. One successful case was the arrest of Malaysian drug smugglers by the Central Investigation Bureau in March with 226kg of crystal meth (ya ice) and 8kg of heroin, worth over B3 billion, in their possession. Read original story here. Grandma dies watching Thai soldier win bronze at Rio SURIN: The 82-year-old grandmother of a Thai army athlete who won a bronze medal this morning (Aug 8 Thailand time) in the 56-kilogramme weightlifting division of the Olympic Games collapsed and then died while watching him win the medal, reports said. deathmilitary By Bangkok Post Monday 8 August 2016, 12:04PM Sinphet Kruaithong competes during the mens 56kg weightlifting event at the Rio 2016 Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro. Photo: AFP Sinphet Kruaithong won a bronze medal in the second day of competition in the 2016 sporting event. A crowd of local people had gathered in front of the television at the home of the Thai weightlifter in Ban Phon Muang of Chumphon Buri district of the northeastern province of Surin to cheer him on. The crowd included Sinphets father Thongdam Kruaithong, 56; mother Chan Kruaithong, 48, and grandmother Subin Khongthap, 82. While watch the live telecast of the contest from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Mrs Subin collapsed during the excitement as Sinphet competed in the 56-kilogramme division. She was rushed, unconscious to Chumphon Buri Hospital, where she was pronounced dead about an hour afterwards. According to reports, she did not see him win the medal a short time later. Mrs Chan, Sinphets mother, said that while she was saddened by the sudden loss of her mother, she was glad her son had won a medal for his country. Read original story here. MH370 plunged into ocean at high speed AUSTRALIA: MH370 plunged into the ocean at high speed up to 20,000 feet a minute reinforcing analysis that the missing Malaysia Airlines jet crashed in the current search zone, a report said today (Aug 9). accidentstransport By AFP Tuesday 9 August 2016, 04:57PM HMAS Perth searches for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH 370 in the southern Indian Ocean in April 2014. Photo: AFP The Boeing 777 disappeared on March 8, 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people onboard. An extensive underwater hunt in the southern Indian Ocean has not yet found the crash site, fuelling speculation it may be outside the current search zone, particularly if someone was at the controls at the end of the flight. A manned plane could have been glided down, allowing it to enter the water outside the 120,000 square kilometre area being searched, some experts have suggested. But extensive testing by aircraft manufacturer Boeing and new Australian defence department data analysis both suggest that regardless of the possible actions of one or both of the pilots the jet dived into the ocean at high speed, The Australian reported. Once MH370 ran out of fuel and the engines flamed, it slowed before plunging down towards the water in a series of swoops dropping from 35,000 feet at a rate of between 12,000 feet a minute and 20,000 feet a minute, Boeing said, according to the report. The sharp dive was confirmed by a new data analysis by Australias defence department involving signals sent automatically between the plane and a satellite, the head of the agency leading the MH370 hunt said. Australian Transport and Safety Bureau chief Greg Hood said this supported the view MH370 was likely to have crashed in the 120,000 square kilometre area now being searched, the paper said. The area was defined under the ATSBs most likely scenario that no-one was at the controls and the plane ran out of fuel. The Australians leading the search do not doubt that the pilot may well have been responsible for the jets disappearance but they say critics of the search strategy are wrong to assume that means they are looking in the wrong place, the report added. Malaysian officials said last week that one of the pilots used a home-made flight simulator to plot a very similar course to MH370s presumed final route, but warned this did not prove he deliberately crashed the plane. Thursday Pool Parties @ Centara Grand West Sands Resort & Villas Phuket Start From: Thursday 11 August 2016, 05:00PM to Thursday 8 September 2016, 09:00PM Mon. Tue. Wed. Thu. Fri. Sat. Sun. Thursday Pool Parties Are Here! Every Thursday from 5pm to 9pm at the main Centara Grand West Sands Resort & Villas Phuket Pool the one beside the beach -- were hosting our beloved Pool Parties. Live DJ, Pool and Poolside Activities, Great Food and Happy Time Prices. Wear your Board Shorts and Bikinis. Check in with us for specific themes a new one every week. Centarahotelresorts.com/cgwp or call (0) 76 372 000 for details. 11AAA semis will be awesome and more from HS football quarterfinals The Class 11AAA high school football playoffs should be awesome, and 11B and nine-man teams also offer plenty of excitement. We are gathering information for the 2022 general election. On desktop, click "election information" on the right side of this pag... Patnaik's close aides say that to understand him, one has to understand his empathy By Pratul Sharma/Photos Sanjay Ahlawat Only nine per cent of Dawoodi Bohrasmembers of a small Muslim sect in Indiaare okay with the continuing practice of khatna on their daughters according to an online survey conducted by Sahiyo. The survey conducted on 385 women from all over the world shows that there has been an increasing opposition to the practice within the community in recent times. Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is the practice of partially or wholly removing the external genitalia of women for non-medical reasons. The Dawoodi Bohra community follows a long-standing tradition of circumcising girlskhatnabetween the ages of six and nine years. The World Health Organization has categorised this practice as type 1 Female Genital Cutting (FGC). The exact origins of the practice are not known, but it is widely believed that FGM originated in east Africa and predates the beginning of Christianity. Considered to be a rite of passage, it is shrouded in secrecy and carried out in a household setting usually with the consent of the mother or other female family members. The physical consequences of FGC include infections, excessive bleeding and burning sensation during urination. It also results in mental trauma and affects the sexual health of the survivor who may develop an aversion to sex or physical intimacy. The practice has been considered as human rights violation by WHO, UNFPA and UNICEF. Of the 385 participants, 80 per cent had experienced khatna, 66 per cent were between the ages of six and seven years when it was performed and 67 per cent participants revealed that their mothers took the decision. The survey also showed that even those who have not experienced khatna want the practice to end. The survey was conducted by Sahiyo, a group of five women who have been working to end the practice in the community. It is a first-of-its-kind organisation and a platform to talk about the issues related to khatna which has always been practiced in secrecy, sometimes even without letting the men know, says Insia Dariwala, co-founder of Sahiyo and who is making a feature film on the subject. She says the survey was conducted in order to understand how the community feels about the practice. The findings of the survey reveal that many women in the community do not want khatna to continue. Mariya Taher, co-founder of Sahiyo, who has been working on a legislation to criminalise FGC said, There is pluralistic ignorance related to practice and even though many members oppose the action, they do not speak up thinking they are the minority. Mariya said, until recently women in her family had never discussed about khatna amongst themselves. Sahiyo conducts several activities to create a platform for dialogue on the issue. Recently, it conducted an online I am a Bohra photo campaign where women members of the community spoke out against the harmful traditional practice. The group also received, Daughter of Maharashtra award by Nari Samta Manch, Pune, in July this year. Manipur's iron lady Irom Sharmila, who ended her 16-year long hunger strike, broke out into tears after her nasal tube was removed. She broke her fast with water, honey and a vegetable soup which she had in the hospital. Sharmila was shivering in pain when she was tasting the food made of some local vegetable. After recovering, she began taking on the Union government. Sharmila said Kashmiris should be given the right to self-determination, but stopped short of claiming the same for the people of Manipur. She demanded that the people of Manipur be given maximum right to run the state. Read more: The life and times of Irom Sharmila Noting that politics is a dirty profession, she said she is a symbol of revolution. She urged the CM of Manipur to make a positive sense about AFSPA within a limited time. She said although she is not well-educated, she is confident of making her own mark in politics. Re-iterating what she told THE WEEK a year back, Sharmila said, No one should take away my happiness. I am a normal person who would like to lead a normal life. This is my right to choice of life, adding that she can never forget AFSPA. She further said she does not want to live like an icon. Read more: Irom Sharmila to end 16-year hunger strike; wants to live a 'normal life' She threatened to topple the state government with 20 independent members of the Manipur Assembly. "Yes talks are on. I am asking all of them to support me. We will topple the Manipur government," she said. Iconic political activist Irom Sharmila on Tuesday told the Imphal district court that she will end her fast, which she began 16 years ago demanding the repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). At around 11 am when she was produced before the court, she moved her bail petition saying, I want to end the hunger strike today and want to be freed as there would be no reason for my detention. She further said, I feel extremely isolated. I will continue to fight for my cause, but in a different way. The court, granting her bail on personal bond, slated the next hearing in the case for August 23. Following the court proceedings, Sharmila returned to judicial custody and was taken back to the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Hospital, where she would be given food under medical supervision as she hasn't eaten for nearly 16 years. Representatives from major political parties, including BJP, JD(U) sans Congress, were present at the court on Tuesday to meet Sharmila and convince her to join their party. However, they were unable to meet her. Sharmila, on July 26, had announced that she aspires to enter politics and contest next year's assembly elections as an independent candidate from Imphal. Once she is granted bail and is discharged from the hospital, where Sharmila would stay? She has proposed three places, where she would like to stay, including the same hospital where she has been held in custody and was being forced-fed through a nasal tube for more than 14 years. Her choice to stay in the hospital shows the relationship she has developed with the doctors and nursing staff, who took good care of her and kept her alive all these years. The other two places in Sharmila's list are a children's home and the Iskcon temple in Imphal. The Manipur government, however, would decide on it. On the other hand, she does not want to return home and meet her mother, Sakhi Devi, who had once refused to meet her. What can we do, if she does not want to come back? In fact my mother also don't want her to return home without fulfilling the promise she made 16 years ago, said Singhajit Singh, Sharmilas eldest brother. Coming out of the court, Sharmila said, I want to live a normal life. There should not be any restriction on my freedom of speech and expression. None should gag me and should allow me to express my views. And, yes I want to get married. But, the man she wants to marry, Bruno Coutinho, was missing from the court premise. In fact, he is said to be the reason behind Sharmila's decision to quit her epic fast. There were grumpy faces in the court as many activists were unhappy about Sharmila's decision. They blamed Coutinho for putting an end to one of the finest agitations in the world. He would not be able to enter Imphal, for sure, said W.K.Singh, an activist. The idea for a new Parliament building, which was lying in cold storage since last year, has got a fresh leash of life. The Union government has, reportedly, backed Speaker Sumitra Mahajan's proposal for a new building. By 2026, her office said, the building will be bursting at its seams because of a clause in Article 81, which determines representation on the basis of population according to the latest census (possibly 2021 census). Former speaker Meira Kumar, too, had called for a new structure to replace the weeping monolith because of leaking walls and damp walls. While the parliamentarians keep their fingers crossed, hoping to move into a swanky building, let's take a peek into what to expect in the future...: The new Parliament building might be built across the Vijay Chowkthe road where the Beating the Retreat parade takes place every year on January 29. Another location is the area near the Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Road. If everything goes as per plan, there might be a tunnel under Vijay Chowk connecting the existing building with the new one. The day-to-day activities in the new building will be rendered paperless using the latest technology available. and the building's history: The foundation stone of the Parliament House was laid on February 12, 1921, by the Duke of Connaught. Built at a cost of Rs 83 lakh, it was inaugurated in January 1927. The 88-year-old building was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and Sir Herbert Bakerthey designed New Delhi, too. It is a circular structure 171m in diameter. While Lutyens designed viceroy's house (now Rashtrapati Bhavan), Baker designed the parliament building and the secretariat. It was the positioning of the viceroy's house and the secretariat buildingsthe North Block and the South Blockthat led to the fallout between Lutyens and Baker. Lutyens wanted only his creation to occupy the Raisina Hill but Baker managed to convince him to accommodate the secretariat buildings, too. Lutyens agreed but discovered later that the gradient of the road was such that only the dome of the viceroy's house would be visible as one approached the hill. He tried to persuade Baker to change his plan but in vain, making Lutyens term the colossal artistic blunder his Bakerloo. The present seating capacity of the House was 550, though it was designed for 180 members only. It has a circular central hall, which is crowned by a 90 feet-high dome. It was in this hall the British handed over the reins of administration to India on August 15, 1947. Around this hall are three semi-circular halls, two for the legislatures and one for the Princes' Chamber, which is now a library that can accommodate three million volumes. The Parliament House covers nearly six acres. (Sources: Delhi By Patrick Horton, Hugh Finlay, Richard Plunkett, The Millennium Book on New Delhi, edited by B.P. Singh and Pavan K. Varma, and agencies) The Mumbai police, which was probing the alleged provocative speeches of Islamic televangelist Zakir Naik, has submitted its report to Maharashtra Home department, a senior official said on Tuesday. The report is more a study in personality tendencies and a peek into the world of half-truths and falsehoods that the controversial televangelist had been resorting to. The report mentions that Naik was often found to instigate and fan trouble by dishing out his brand of inflammatory speeches, which often, though not always, verged on half-baked justifications about Islam as a preferred way of life. A few attackers in the Dhaka seige attacks claimed they were influenced by the way the Mumbai televangelist chose to address issues in Islam, often tallying them with those in other religions. In fact, the Mumbai police report dwells more on the near-magnetic personality of Naik and his ways of reaching out to the masses than anything else. Naik has been portrayed as a clever televangelist who is given to keeping issues "open-ended." "He talks in clever couched language and keeps every issues he talks about open. In doing that he leaves himself exposed to a bevy of interpretations, while at the same time does not allow himself to get bogged down or restrained by any one strand of interpretive explanation," said a senior security official. "The interesting thing here is that in the case he is challenged on one count he always had the privilege of an escape hatch to steer clear of a densely complex religious matter claiming that he never said so in as many words. While in some cases he was found to stick to his master narrative of sorts claiming that anything in the name of Islam is justified," the official added. The report talks about how Naik over the years managed to cast his sway over a vast multitudes of illiterate and semi-illiterate individuals seeking quick-fix solutions to problems mostly about Islam and also occasionally about other religions. It has been mentioned that Naik resorted to a "lot of half-truths about Islam and other religions too. Naik has a tendency to parade half-baked facts as truths, and, parallel with this, cultivated an innate knack for running down other religions". The report, in fact, does not talk about any action by the law enforcement agencies against the controversial preacher at this point in time. The reason being that Naik might "cry martyr" and claim that he had fallen victim to a cruelly vindictive media and security witchhunt. Naik was under the scanner of various central agencies after reports that his messages inspired some of those involved in Dhaka terror strike on July 1, 2016. The report will be sent to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for further action. The police were asked to probe Naik's past speeches available online, to see if any of them could have inspired youths to join terrorist organisations. They are also conducting a joint inquiry (with other probe agencies) into the functioning of Naik's Islamic Research Foundation (IRF), to scrutinise the finances it has received from various parts of the world. In a spate of events post Dhaka-seige, Indian security officials arrested two members of Naik's Islamic Research Foundation (IRF)Rizwan Khan and Arshi Quereshifor working toward radicalising young impressionable Muslims across the country. In fact, Quershi was picked up as part of a joint operation by the Mumbai and Kerala police, after inputs emerged that he was facilitating "instrumental motivation" for a section of willing Muslims in southern India and elsewhere. Earth Overshoot Day, an annual event marked by a US-based environmental think tank, assesses on how quickly humanity is consuming resources without a plan for the future. It is the day in the year when humanity overshoots its demand for resources by replenishing the stock for the year. This time, Earth Overshoot Day fell on August 8. We will be borrowing from next year's quota to get us through the next five months. The exact day is determined through a formula that involves the amount of natural resources available on the planet and the ecological footprint produced by the world. Global Footprint Network, which reports on sustainability, has declared the day every year since 2006. How has humanity fared since then? Not too good. In 2006, the Overshoot Day was in October. Last year, it was August 13. This time, it is five days earlier. But we only have one planet In the GFN National Footprint Accounts 2016, a chart displays how many 'Earths' would be required if all of humanity lived like one single country. The variations come about because of differences in the amount of resources produced and consumed, standards of living and population of each country. For instance, if the world lived like the people in the United States, we would use up 4.8 Earths in one year. Australia topped the list at 5.4 Earths. Switzerland, South Korea and Russia came third, consuming 3.3 Earths. Japan (2.9), China (2.0) and Brazil (1.8) seemed to consume lesser, while India could do with 0.7 Earths. In total, the world uses 1.6 Earths every year. Is India's rating a good thing? India is still not at par with developed countries such as the US and Australia, and has a long way to go. The low rating is because of India's abysmal standards of living (more than half of the country lives in poverty), and scarcity of resources. It leaves one to wonder what would happen eventually, as India gradually moves towards the top. In a UN report, Global Material Flows and Resource Productivity, developed nations in the North America and Europe contributed to double the ecological footprint as compared with nations in Africa and Asia. The report also said that within India itself, there was a huge difference in the per-person ecological footprint production based on how much one earns. Those in the top 1% of the financial ladder produced 17 times more negative footprint than 40% of those at the bottom. In 2008, it was introduced to the industry. By 2015, it was voted The Coolest Car. This September, it could be yours. Ever saw a sleek car gracefully turn the corner and wonder what is that car? And how do I get it? If it had flat, silver door handles, a low, pleasant hum and a T-shaped emblem, chances are it was a Tesla. One of todays most popular cars, manufactured by the worlds first successful American car startup since 1903, the year the Ford Motors Company was founded. But whats a Tesla? And why should you want it? In 2003, Tesla Motors created a revolutionary sport electric car. It was fast, it was smooth, and it was fuel-efficient. Test drive a Tesla S and youll experience 0-60 mph in only 3.9 seconds. This puts Tesla in the category of supercars, comparing them to million dollar cars. But thats not all. Almost 98% of Tesla S owners are proud Tesla owners, the highest auto satisfaction ratings in the industry. Teslas age well, in fact, they get better with time. With automatic, over-the-air, updates, your car improves overnight! Teslas dont lose resale value with a company guarantee, and the Model S resale value is higher than the value of standard cars. Ready to glide around in your own Tesla? The Chicago Chesed Fund chose to raffle off the industrys most popular car so you can help us drive our tremendous $5 million dollar yearly budget. This raffle, is a small way for us to give back to you, our generous donors from around the world for helping share in our mission and support our vital cause! Joining the raffle not only gives you a chance to experience luxury, more importantly, it earns you a share in the Chicago Chesed Funds vital mission: to help local families in need with discretion, dignity, and respect. The drawing will be held this Labor Day, September 5, 2016. Butwere only raffling off 3,999 tickets, which greatly increases your chances of winning. So dont wait too long, the more tickets you purchase, the greater your chances of winning! Read more about The Chicago Fund Tesla Raffle and purchase tickets here! Driving the future, one chesed at a time. The parents and family of IDF Lt. Hadar Goldin, who was killed in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge and his body taken by Hamas, explain Tuesday, 5 Menachem Av, marks two years since his death. They asked that during the course of the week and before Shabbos, to recite the tefilla for the return of his body and that of Sgt. Oren Shaul HYD. The tefilla in the photo has been approved by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, explaining it may be recited by an individual and as a tzibur. The family of Goldin is calling on the public at large to attend the yahrzeit at the kever in the Kfar Sava military cemetery to show Hadar he is not forgotten in Rafiach. We are convinced the Israeli public will prove to the Government of Israel that it remembers Hadar by participating on Tuesday. They feel the government ministers have abandoned them. We have grown tired of the empty words and phrases by government officials insisting that they are doing everything possible to bring Oren and Hadar to burial in Israel stated Mr. and Mrs. Goldin. They concluded We are about to mark the second anniversary since Protective Edge and the actions of the government prove that our sons have been forgotten in Rafiach and Sajaiyeh. (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) A local Elad newspaper advertised an evening program addressing the rights of women employed in the education system. The evening is sponsored by the organization, which enjoys the support of local rabbonim. Officials from the organization explain they have their backing for the evening because they feel the battle of these women is justified and the women must learn what their rights are to permit them to stand up for them. Spearheading the evening event is Michal Zernowitski, who ran for the Elad city council in the 2013 election. However, rabbonim have learned that The Social Economic Academy for Progressive Change in Israel organization is behind Zernowitski, and the Social Economic Academy, a left-wing organization with ties to the New Israel Fund, as explained on the website. This has rabbonim in Elad fearing Zernowitski may actually be seeking to advance here left-wing agenda under the guise of hosting a womens rights event, using it as a platform to advance her political agenda, one they do not find in line with their hashkafa. Organizers of the evening explain it is most unfortunate there are people trying to sabotage the evening because they are afraid the women will learn their rights and demand them in their respective place of work. They explain the evening is just what it is advertised to be, to enlighten women as to their rights and women unable to attend may have a pamphlet describing their rights sent to their home. (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) A poll released earlier this week shows that if elections were held today, the Yesh Atid party would climb from 11 to 22 seats and Yahadut Hatorah from 6 to 11 seats. Health Minister Yaakov Litzman on Monday morning 4 Menachem Av spoke with Galei Tzahal (Army Radio) host Razi Barkai. He was asked to comment on the poll released on Sunday. Commenting on the poll, Litzman, stated he is confident Yair Lapid will not climb to 22 seats as Yahadut Hatorah will not reach 11. In addition, he also believes the Machane Tzioni party will receive more than 8 seats, adding [Machen Tzioni party leader MK Yitzchak] Herzog has what to worry about, but he will not be that bad off. Litzman feels the results of this latest poll are far from realistic. (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) Population Registry agents were surprised to learn that the chareidi woman detained for questioning is a foreign worker from Ukraine. The woman, in her thirties, was taken into custody. The preliminary investigation reveals she entered the country as a tourist and remained long after her visa expired. (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid on Monday 4 Menachem Av met with leading rabbonim of the Tzohar Rabbonim organization including Rabbi David Stav, Rabbi Yuval Cherlow and Rabbi Rafi Feuerstein. The talks surrounded the need to maintain a dialogue between all Jews, including throughout the Diaspora. Lapid announced it was an excellent meeting, thanking the rabbonim for their time. He added he spoke of the need of a new national statesman and how the nation is becoming fractured into segments and the need to unify Jews in Israel and abroad. He stated My biggest fear is that one day, thousands of Jews will rise up as they will no longer wish to bear the burden alone and leave the country. We will find ourselves a shattered society. Tzohar is the largest rabbinical organization in Israel. It is a leading organization that does not have political aspirations but remains interested in influencing matters connected to the Jewish People. (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) Mrs. Chavah bas Ayelet HaShachar Mark, who was critically injured in the shooting attack near Otniel that claimed the life of her husband, Rabbi Miki Mark HYD, underwent complicated brain surgery on Monday. Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital spokesperson Hadar Elboim reports doctors feel the surgery went well and Mrs. Mark remains in satisfactory condition. Chief of Neurosurgery Prof. Yigal Shushan reports the surgery was complicated and related to her injuries sustained in the terror attack. She emerged successfully from the procedure and is communicating with her surroundings. The family calls on the tzibur to continue being mispallel for their mother bsoch kol cholei yisrael. (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is playing the China-bashing card in an attempt to rescue his falling poll numbers but has no real ideas to resolve the two nations differences, Chinas official news agency said Tuesday. Responding to a speech Monday in which the candidate accused China of breaking trade rules in every way imaginable, Xinhua said such inflammatory rhetoric was meant to appeal to blue-collar Midwestern voters. It called the remarks dangerous and said they offered nothing of substance to improve bilateral relations. Trump played the China-bashing card once again in his latest attempt to rectify his falling popularity, Xinhua said in an editorial. Trump accused China of illegally subsidizing exports, manipulating its currency and stealing intellectual property, all recurring themes in his campaign. Trumps criticism has focused almost exclusively on trade practices with few mentions of Chinas authoritarian political system or human rights abuses. At the center of my plan is trade enforcement with China. This alone could return millions of jobs into our country, Trump said in the speech that focused on economic policy. Xinhua said Trump had not only betrayed traditional Republican support for free trade, but also ignored the importance of China to his own business. Trump has claimed to have done major deals with Chinese customers, but given few specifics. Items in his Trump-branded clothing line have been produced in China. China-bashing is a recurring theme every four years, and by now its become quite dull, Xinhua said. Lets hope the next time around that future presidential (contenders) have something more substantial to say about Americas relationship with China. U.S. voters deserve better. (AP) The Defense Ministry issued an apology to the United States on Monday evening 4 Menachem Av, seeking to repair the damage that resulted from the harsh statement against Americas agreement with Iran. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Friday compared US President Barak Obamas agreement with Iran to the Munich agreements of 1938. The timing is especially fragile as the Americas are in the near final stages of approving the next military aid package to Israel. The statement released on Monday read, In light of the mistaken meaning attributed by the media to the Defense Ministry statement on Friday, we wish to clarify: The state of Israel and the Israeli defense systems will continue to work closely with full cooperation with the US, in mutual respect and deep appreciation The Foreign Ministry continues to point out that Iran is violating the agreement and continues to openly call for the destruction of the State of Israel. (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) In a major step towards permitting chareidi bnei Torah apply for a civil service position in local government, it has been decided to recognize years of Torah study as an equivalent to an academic degree. Until now, a chareidi ben Torah could not apply for a local government position without earning an academic degree. Speaking with Kol Chai Radio on Tuesday morning 5 Menachem Av, Interior Minister Aryeh Deri told Betzalel Kahn he has been working on this since his first tenure some 25 years ago. He questions why a person obtaining a liberal arts bachelors degree would be more qualified for a job than a ben Torah but this is going to change. According to the new arrangement reached with the Interior Ministry and the Civil Service Administration one is qualified under the new arrangement providing one meets the requirements as listed below; One who has Yoreh Yoreh semicha from the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, Documentation to prove he learned in a yeshiva gedola and/or kollel for at least six years after the age of 18, One who has passed three of the semicha exams towards Yoreh Yoreh given by the Chief Rabbinate Deri explains there are currently thousands of chareidim with semicha from the Chief Rabbinate and this opens many new job opportunities for them. Deri adds that continuing to study Torah is always the best option but for those who have to being earning a parnasa, this he feels will provide new opportunities that were not an option in the past. (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) A young Chabad camp counselor working with girls in Ukraine was flown to Israel from Berdichev after sustaining a serious head injury in a vehicular accident. Her family flew from the United States to Israel to remain at her bedside. The accident took place on Monday, 4 Menachem Av on the way to Berdichev when a vehicle struck the vehicle carrying the three female camp counselors. It is reported the vehicle they were in unknowingly entered between police and a vehicle being pursued. Their vehicle was stopping to permit police to pass, which led to the vehicle being struck in the rear. The young lady with the head injuries was taken by helicopter to a local hospital and after consultation, it was decided to fly her to Israel. Bchasdei Hashem the reports signal improvement in her condition and she is listed as stable. (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) NRG correspondent Zeev Kam reported on Monday 4 Menachem Av that a letter was sent to Bayit Yehudi party leader Naftali Bennett from Tzfat Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu Shlita decrying Bennetts actions during the episode involving Rabbi Yigal Levinstein. Instead of backing Levinstein as head of the nations dati leumi party, Bennett gave him mussar, disagreeing with his actions and statements. Rabbi Yigal Levinstein of Yeshivat Bnei David in Yishuv Eli, used the forum given him at a major rabbinical assembly to attack IDF policies vis-a-vis toeiva, women combatants and other anti-religious policy in the IDF headed by the Education Corps. It is reported that Bennett tried his best to hide the letter from Rabbi Eliyahu, to prevent the media from picking up on it. His efforts were assisted by Rabbi Chaim Druckman Shlita. After the condemnation against Rabbi Levinstein from Bennett, the left-wing and others, over 300 prominent dati leumi rabbonim signed a petition backing Rabbi Levinstein. Rabbi Eliyahu told Bennett that if he feels he must fight, then dont fight against the cream of the crop in our camp but direct your energies to the left-wing and those like them who have overrun the IDF. Fight those who try to weaken the police force and the IDF. Instead of fighting them, you fired into the armored personnel carrier at the commander, one who has certified the soldiers and who takes responsibility for them. Rabbi Eliyahu calls on Bennett to apologize to Rabbi Levinstein as the leader of the dati leumi party, adding he cannot continue in this position without doing so. In his conclusion Rabbi Eliyahu says it is actually worse, stating you did not fire into the armored personnel carrier, but threw a grenade at us all, for we are all Rabbi Levinstein and we are all fighting for the character of the nation, of the public areas, of the values of the IDF, and if you want to be the leader of Bayit Yehudi, you must apologize to him. (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) [COMMUNICATED CONTENT] By: Julie Ahn Distinguished legislative leaders and local business executives eagerly gathered at the Empire Meadowlands Hotel for the Hudson County Jewish Business Alliances second annual legislative luncheon. The atmosphere was dynamic and bustling, the Alliance clearly having grown and strengthened since last years event. The HCJBA, founded and directed by David Rosenberg in 2015, is a unique and powerful networking tool that provides its members with opportunities to forge relationships not only with other business executives, but also with top NJ officials and legislative leaders. The event formally began with remarks from Ezra Friedlander, CEO of The Friedlander Group, who welcomed the remarkable firepower in the room. Friedlander not only thanked them for their laudable contributions to the states economic engine, but also for their responsible and compassionate conduct, and commitment to the community. Friedlander deferentially introduced David Rosenberg, who opened up by summing up the sentiment of the Alliance: The HCJBA is here for you, to help your business. This year, they came out with an alliance directory, an invaluable tool to further help connect members with one another. Rosenberg thanked and recognized the event host, Thomas Rosenberg of Rosdev Hospitality. He also graciously thanked the events co-chair sponsor, Gel Spice, and corporate sponsors: Investors Bank, United Hatzalah, United Rescue, and Jersey City Medical Center. Other sponsors also included: Kedem, North Hudson Community Action Corporation, New Jersey City University, and Margules Properties. Jason Sobel, Of Counsel to Sills Cummis & Gross Real Estate Department, introduced Assemblyman Raj Mukherji, D-33. Mukherji humbly accepted the Excellence in Leadership Award, and gave a cogent, thought-provoking speech, highlighting that NJ epitomizes religious freedom for all people, and core values such as ethnic pluralism and tolerance and democracy. Mukherji is a co-sponsor of a bill that prohibits NJ state pension funds from investing in companies that support the BDS movement against Israel. Recognizing Israel as one of NJs largest trading partners, Mukherji shows his true support of Israel: It is a 2 billion dollar relationship one worth fighting for. Former NJ Governor Jim McGreevey, the current Executive Director of Jersey City Employment & Training Program, introduced Jersey City Medical Center and United Rescue, who both received the Lifesavers Award. Joseph Scott, president and CEO of JCMC, accepted the award alongside Mark Gerson, the chairman of United Hatzalah and United Rescue. Scott poignantly explained the philosophy behind his work: We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give. United Rescue, an innovative system that came to Jersey City last year, trains and dispatches community members to medical emergencies before the ambulance are able to arrive. Gerson started the program in Israel, where more than 2,500 trained volunteers respond to more than 200,000 emergencies a year. Gerson hopes this program will be implemented at JCMC as successfully: Our goal is to have the best survival rate in the country. Michelle Siekerka, president and CEO of the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, followed by delivering a rousing and inspiring keynote address entitled Strategic Tips on How to Advance Your Business in New Jersey. Siekerka spoke fervently and passionately about New Jersey, describing that their goal is to advance the collective and competitive excellence in the state of New Jersey. Siekerkas address was inspiring and motivating, highlighting NJs talented successful workforce, and NJs status as a leader in education and the capital for infrastructure. For these reasons, Siekerka explained that the federal government recognizes that New Jersey is significant in supporting the financial success not just of the Northeast, but of the entire United States. As this marks the Alliances second seamless and successful legislative luncheon, it is clear that the Hudson County Jewish Business Alliance will only continue to strengthen and flourish, and continue to enhance the quality of life in Northern Jersey. For more information, contact [email protected] Sainsburys Bank has cut the rate on its personal loans as part of a temporary rate sale, bringing the cost of borrowing 7,500 to 19,999 to a table-topping 3.2 per cent. The supermarket giant has shaved 0.1 percentage points off its mid-sized loan rate to bring it in line with existing market leader, challenger bank, Ikano which offers the same rate on amounts between 7,500 and 15,000. The new rate is reserved for Nectar card holders repaying over two to three years - those without the loyalty card or needing longer to repay will be charged a rate 0.1 percentage points higher (3.3 per cent). Home improvements: Mid-sized loan rates are at all time lows of 3.2 per cent The new low rate is only available for a short time as part of a rate sale lasting until 10am on Thursday 6 October 2016. Amounts between 7,500 and 15,000 Nectar card holders will pay 3.2 per cent on amounts between 7,500 and 15,000 if they repay between 12 and 36 months. This means the total cost of a 10,000 loan over three years would be 10,501, with monthly repayments of 291.69. Non-Nectar cardholders will pay 292.14 a month and repay a total of 10,516.90. That is a difference of 15.90 compared to the someone borrowing the same amount with the supermarket loyalty card. As it costs nothing to apply for the Nectar card, it could therefore be worth getting one to make the most of the rate sale deal. You can apply online and once you have the Nectar card, holders must simply swipe it in store or use it online within six months of applying for the loan, to qualify for the deal. The rate when repaying over more than five years is the same for both non-Nectar card holders and those with the rewards card, costing 5.3 per cent. Amounts between 15,000 and 19,999 If you have a Nectar card and can repay within two or three years you will still get the best buy rate of 3.2 per cent. Applying for the same loan without a Nectar card will incur a rate 0.1 percentage points higher at 3.3 per cent. Again, if you need longer to repay the rate does increase. Paying back your borrowing over four to seven years comes at a rate of 3.3 per cent. TOP RATES FOR BORROWING BETWEEN 7,500 AND 15,000 Lender Rate Extra Info Sainsbury's Bank 3.2% Nectar card holders borrowing between one and three years Ikano Bank 3.2% HSBC 3.3% Amounts between 7,000 and 15,000 M&S Bank 3.3% Zopa 3.3% Lend-to-save/peer-to-peer loan provider Sainsbury's Bank 3.3% Rate open to anyone borrowing between one and five years Cahoot 3.4% Tesco Bank 3.3% Clubcard holders only Nationwide 3.4% The building society also pledges to knock 0.5 per cent off the rate if you can prove you have been offered a cheaper like-for-like loan. Source: This is Money. Correct as of 8 August 2016. Will rates drop even further? Over recent years, rates on mid-sized personal loans have tumbled to record lows. In fact, the cost of a 7,500 loan for the average borrower has dropped from 7.3 to 5.1 per cent since 2006, according to figures from Moneyfacts.co.uk. Borrowers have never had it so good, largely thanks to the Bank of England base rate sticking at 0.5 per cent since March 2009 until last month - and now it's even lower. While loan rates have not been dramatically slashed, there has been a constant battle between providers to offer a best buy rate, with lenders shaving 0.1 percentage points off their loans her and there repeatedly, slowly driving down the cost. Last week, the Bank of England announced a cut of 0.25 per centage points to the base rate - so could this mean a flurry of cuts to personal loan rates? Rachel Springall, finance expert at Moneyfacts.co.uk, says: 'Personal loan rates are set to fall further thanks to the bank base rate cut, this is because lenders are already keen to offer deals to new customers so now they have another reason to price their loans more competitively. 'How low rates will go will largely depend on how much the provider is prepared to cut to compete in the market some deals will only need a small cut of 0.1 per cent to become a market-leading rate. 'Anyone considering a personal loan would do well to keep in mind that rates are subject to application and that they are not guaranteed to get the advertised rate.' I would like to book a trip to Spain for a week in October, but after the recent failure of holiday firm Lowcostholidays I'm worried about what will happen if the company I book with goes bust. What protection is in place if this happens? Will my travel insurance cover me or do I need to make sure the holiday has ATOL protection? Will the ATOL scheme protect the cash I've spent if the firm I booked with goes bust? Rebecca Rutt, of This is Money, replies: You've booked the holiday, bought your new swimming costume and have been checking the weather daily and then disaster strikes and the company you booked your holiday through goes bust. It's a nightmare scenario and after the recent collapse of Lowcostholidays weve had an influx of emails from readers asking us what holidaymakers can do if this happens to them. Many people often mistakenly believe their travel insurance will cover them if a holiday company goes bust. But unfortunately while it covers most other circumstances, such as if you fall ill and have to cancel the holiday, or your bags are stolen while abroad, it isnt common for insurance policies to cover a company failing financially. To make sure any money you've spent on your holiday is safe, and to be certain you'll be able to get home if the company you've booked with goes bust, it's important to check your holiday is protected - before you pay for it. For package holidays, which include a flight and a hotel booking, bought through a UK company, by law the holiday should have whats called ATOL protection which stands for the Air Travel Organisers Licence. The scheme is run by the run by the Civil Aviation Authority and is funded by travel companies that pay 2.50 to the scheme for every person who books a holiday through them. Its been in place since 1973 and originally covered charter flights and package holidays. In 2012 changes were made so that it now covers a number of different scenarios. Will my travel insurance pay out if the firm I've booked my trip with goes bust? All holidays where a flight and accommodation have been booked together through a UK travel company are covered. It covers any trip booked with a single UK company which includes the following; flights and accommodation, flights and hire care, or all three of these elements. For travellers who book flights through a third-party company and dont receive the tickets straight away, such as for charter flights or discounted scheduled flights, and not via the airline, the cover is also in place. If your package holiday includes at least one flight to or from the UK, if youve gone to France on the Eurostar and are flying back home for example, or if it includes UK domestic flights youll also be covered. To check the holiday youre booking will be covered look for the ATOL logo or ask the company if theyre covered before you book. Paying for a holiday with a credit card will give you extra protection if it's more than 100 Once youve booked the package you should also be given an ATOL certificate to show youre covered. The reason customers with Lowcostholidays were left in the lurch is because in 2013 it relocated to Spain so was therefore no longer covered under the scheme. If you're holiday isn't covered by ATOL, there are two other options available for those left stranded when a company goes bust. If you paid on credit card for the holiday and it was more than 100 you can contact your credit card provider and ask for a refund. In 2013, I claimed against Barclaycard for a mis-sold payment protection insurance (PPI) policy. My claim was rejected, and I accepted this. But then, in September 2015, I received a letter from Barclaycard stating my claim had been reviewed I was awarded 1,887.84. However, the letter was sent while I was on holiday, so there was a slight delay in my replying, and I've never received the payment. I've written to Barclaycard on four occasions, with no response. I have also called three times but, despite all the information being provided, they still do not reply or pay my money. D. P., Spain. Although Barclaycard contacted a reader to say it owed him 1,887.84. in PPI it hasn't been forthcoming with the cash This is the second letter I have received recently regarding unpaid PPI compensation. It is also the second in which the bank has tried to fob off a customer, but been forced to review the case. Barclaycard says the issue was caused by a mismatch of addresses on its file. I'm guessing it had a UK address while you now live in Spain. A spokesman says: 'We would like to offer our sincere apologies for the time taken to settle this claim, which was caused by us needing to verify the address we held on file. This took longer than it should have done and we have investigated the reasons why to prevent it happening again.' Barclaycard has paid you the 1,948.46 due (it has grown a little because of interest) and given you a 100 goodwill gesture. In February 2014, I moved into a property with a pre-payment gas meter. But I didn't know the previous tenant had left a debt and each time I put cash on the pre-payment key, a proportion was being used to repay this. When I realised what was going on, I arranged to have an ordinary meter installed and pay by direct debit. This happened in April 2014, and I was told by my supplier Npower I'd be reimbursed for any money used to repay the debt. I moved out in February 2015 and paid my final bill. But this April, I received a bill for 427.98. I called to dispute it and was instead given a bill for 137.70. I called again but, on April 29, received a letter saying Npower was going to pass my account to a debt collection agency. I then got another one saying I'd be taken to court. G. H., Warwickshire. It's understandable that a large organisation makes the odd error. But when a customer calls again and again to rectify the mistake, it should sort things out. Yet, instead of escalating your complaint, Npower escalated the threat in its letters. When I made contact, it addressed the situation within hours. A spokesman says: 'I'm sorry to report we are completely at fault here.' When your pre-payment meter was changed to a normal meter, it seems that the account was not properly updated. Thus began the farce. I'm happy to report it's now ended, with Npower writing off the 137.70 bill and offering you a 50 goodwill gesture. It has contacted you to apologise and reassure you it won't be asking for any further money. YOU HAVE YOUR SAY - CANCELLING CONTRACTS Every week, Money Mail receives hundreds of your letters and emails. Here's what you had to say about how tricky it is to cancel everything from your phone contract to insurance policies . . . Today, I called an insurance company and the phone was answered immediately. I told the girl I wanted to amend an existing policy and was given another number to ring. I waited 44 minutes hearing 'your call is important to us' over and over again. Is it policy to have numerous staff on the new business line and just one on the line for loyal customers? W. T., Glasgow. Boy, did you have it easy! It took me five months, 50-plus emails and four phone calls one lasting 37 minutes to cancel a contract with an internet provider. They refused to accept anything I said. D. J., via email. I don't want to have to continually change providers I want simple loyalty to be rewarded. If companies can still make money from discounted start offers, they could give the same discount to loyal customers and save on the administration costs of chasing the customers they lose. J. M., Edinburgh. 'Press 1 for this', '2 for that', '3 for the other' and 'hang on while I take your details again'. I think most people simply give up as they just can't be bothered. S. S., Doncaster. It should be the law to offer the same methods to cancel as are offered to sign up. So if you can sign up online, you should be able to cancel online. K. P., Liverpool. No one should be tempted to simply cancel their direct debit. Depending on the agreement you signed up to, firms can charge you through the nose for cancelling the mandate without speaking to them first. If you still owe them anything and never just assume that you don't they can pass on your account to a collections service, with its own set of headaches. K. L., Newcastle. It really annoys me when I phone to cancel and a firm decides to call me by my first name when it has no clue who I am. This nonsense came in a few years ago to make you feel as if you're talking to your best friend. I find it cheeky and irritating. M. T., Plymouth, Devon. At the end of July last year, I requested self-assessment tax returns for myself and my husband. We didn't receive a reply. On August 24, we sent details of the interest paid on our savings accounts so we could reclaim overpaid tax. We heard nothing, but did not worry, as we knew the tax office was behind, and were expecting refunds. We went away for two months from January 15 and, on returning, each had a letter for a 100 penalty. We both appealed. We then went away again and returned in April to find letters stating that our appeals had been refused. We have proof of posting for the original tax information, but HMRC won't accept this. I am 78 and could do without all this. B. B., Scarborough, N. Yorks. This is a case of misunderstanding, compounded by a heavy-handed approach by HMRC. The only reason you were contacting HMRC was to claim back tax that had been taken from your savings interest. Basically, interest had been taken at 20 per cent, but your modest incomes meant you were entitled to be charged at the 10 per cent rate. All you needed to do was fill in form R40. However, you thought you needed a tax return. When HMRC didn't respond in a timely fashion, you instead wrote to it declaring how much interest you had earned and how much tax had been paid. You also had a certificate of posting. Surely someone at HMRC could have acted on this and picked up the phone? Instead you were caught in a maelstrom of malevolent mail. This started when a tax return was finally sent in September. You ignored this, as you thought you'd supplied the information needed. But when it didn't receive the return by the January 31 deadline, HMRC issued a fine on February 17. You appealed, explaining that you had already sent income details. STRAIGHT TO THE POINT I have a Vodafone pay-as-you-go phone to use in emergencies. I normally send a text every few weeks, but I've been in hospital and haven't used it in months. It's now not working, and I still had credit on it. What can I do? M. H., Norfolk. Mobile phone firms disconnect lines that haven't been used for six months, so it's important to use it every now and then. Make sure the phone is charged at least once every few weeks, as companies send a text to warn you before you're disconnected. Luckily, Vodafone hasn't yet recycled your number and has agreed to reconnect it. It has also given you a 20 top-up. I took out annual travel insurance with Tesco Bank in December 2014. We were due to travel on January 27, but my wife fell ill and we had to cancel our trip. Tesco Bank said we weren't covered as our policy didn't start until the first day of our trip. P. B., Eastleigh, Hants. The Financial Ombudsman looked carefully at your case and found in favour of Tesco Bank. It said that when you took out the policy online, you were asked when you wanted the cover to start and there was a clear warning that you would not be covered for cancellation costs until that date. This was also clarified in the policy documents posted to you. I'm afraid that you'll have to write this off. I have heard it is possible to claim a proportion of the state pension before my official retirement age. Is this correct? T. H., Newmarket, Suffolk. No. You can't claim any state pension before the official state retirement age, which is 65 for men and 63 for women and rising. While there have been calls from charities for savers to be allowed to take some of their pension early if they suffer ill-health, this is not yet law. My wife and I applied for the new Marriage Allowance, but HM Revenue & Customs told us we were not eligible to receive it because we were already receiving something called Married Couple's Allowance. Can you explain? A. D., Frome, Somerset. It is highly confusing, but there are two tax breaks in place for couples and you can claim only one or the other. The Marriage Allowance was launched in 2015 and allows couples to transfer 1,100 of their tax-free personal allowance between them. They can save 220 in total. The Married Couple's Allowance is more generous, and reduces your tax bill by as much as 835.50. However, one member of the couple must have been born before April 6, 1935, to claim. This was another opportunity for HMRC to exercise common sense. Instead, you were sent a most objectionable letter, dated April 18, threatening further penalties of up to 1,600. In bold, it said: 'Previously we treated your lack of response as an oversight, now we will be treating it as a deliberate choice. We will be monitoring your response.' What a nasty, bullying letter to send to pensioners who have simply misunderstood the system! Naturally, you appealed, but then received a further 'jobsworth' letter on April 22, saying HMRC could not consider your appeal, as it had not received a tax return. On May 31, a further letter threatened: 'The more you delay, the greater the penalty.' When yet another letter was sent to you on June 1, you contacted me. HMRC has now explained all you needed to do was fill in form R40. It has sent you forms for the 2015/16 tax year, closed self-assessment records for you and your husband and cancelled all the penalties. Under new rules that came in this April, both you and your husband will be able to earn 1,000 of interest tax-free from April this year. (For higher-rate taxpayers, it's 500). This is on top of the up to 5,000 a year you are allowed to receive tax-free from interest if your income is below 17,000 a year. The strong performance of investment trust share prices post-Brexit has led to a fall in the proportionate level of income they can pay out. Between May 23 and August 8, the number of trusts paying a dividend yield of more than 4 per cent fell from 19 to 14 - while at the start of the year there were 21. To add more misery for income-hunters, two of the trusts making it into the category have already flagged they are in line for a dividend cut. BlackRock World Mining is gearing up for payout cuts from its underling companies The boards of BlackRock Commodities and BlackRock World Mining have both signalled they are likely to lower the income they pay this year. In the case of the latter, this is a reflection of reduced dividend payouts from the mining companies the trust invests in. However, both trusts will continue pay out a dividend of more than 4 per cent. While the second-highest yielding trust on the table, European Assets, is not in line for a dividend cut, the Stifel analysts note that the 7.4 per cent yield is mainly funded through return of investors' capital, rather than through income-generating investments. Four of the high-yielding trusts invest primarily in UK-based assets. Merchants Trust, managed by Simon Gergel, focuses on FTSE 100 and is paying out an impressive 5.7 per cent, compared with a 3.7 per cent average for companies in the index. At the same time, its shares are trading on a 4 per cent discount to their net asset value. This is close to the widest discount they have traded on all year, and means that an investor buying in now could get the shares for less than their intrinsic value. Also focusing on UK assets are Aberdeen Asset Management's Dunedin Income Growth - which has a historical yield of 4.8 per cent - and Murray Income, which has a yield of 4.4 per cent. Both saw their net asset value outperformed the FTSE All Share in the first half of the year. Which trusts still yield more than 4 per cent?* Investment trust Dividend yield (%) Market cap () Discount BlackRock Commodities 8.2 (prospective 6.8) 86 5.3 European Assets 7.4 356 2.5 BlackRock World Mining 6.9 (prospective 5.2) 535 14.7 Henderson Far East Income 5.9 383 2.1 Merchants 5.7 462 4.0 Dunedin Income Growth 4.8 360 9.5 Murray Income 4.4 487 8.0 Aberdeen Asian Income 4.4 366 7.5 Murray International 4.4 1,365 2.4 Value and Income 4.3 110 15.1 JPMorgan Global EM Income 4.3 339 3.4 BlackRock Latin American 4.1 156 12.7 Schroder Income Growth 4.0 177 8.1 City of London 4.0 1,304 Premium 1.9 * Market cap of 80 million or above. Source: Datastream Meanwhile, Schroder Income Growth, run by Sue Noffke, just makes it on to the analysts' list with a payout of 4 per cent. The trust's dividend is fully covered by revenue earnings and is trading on an 8 per cent discount to NAV. It 'has seen good outperformance in recent years', the Stifel analysts noted. Unlike open-ended funds, investment trusts build up a cash buffer they can dip into to bolster their dividend payments if necessary. The analysts suggest this makes the dividend offered by investment trusts more reliable than their open-ended counterparts. 'While dividend cuts cannot be ruled out in the UK equity sector in the next year, we do think that by using revenue reserves these investment trusts should be able to deliver a more robust level of dividend than similar unit trusts that do not maintain reserves.' Eastern promise: Aberdeen Asian Income's biggest country weighting is to Singapore Three Asia and emerging market trusts also make it on to the list, after an extended period of volatility in these regions gave way to stronger performance. 'There has been a strong recovery in the performance of Asian and emerging markets in recent months and there are a number of funds investing in these regions offering high yields,' the analysts note. They include Henderson Far East Income, which pays a yield of 5.9 per cent from a portfolio made up primarily of equities. Meanwhile, Aberdeen Asian Income pays out a yield of 4.4 per cent, coupled with a 32 per cent growth in net asset value over the six months to August 8. Meanwhile, JPMorgan Global Emerging Income offers a yield of 4.3 per cent and has seen NAV growth of 24 per cent over the past 12 months. Elsewhere, one trust that has enjoyed a significant rebound in performance is Aberdeen Asset Management's Murray International. In the six months to August 8 the trust's share price has risen by 39 per cent, while the trust is paying out a strong 4.4 per cent dividend yield. Gamma Capital Management has been given a licence by the Financial Conduct Authority Its banks were blamed for many of the woes of the banking crisis but now finance firms from Iceland are back. An Icelandic company has been granted permission to operate in the UK for the first time since the crisis began in 2008. Gamma Capital Management won approval from the Financial Conduct Authority to operate as a stand-alone business in the UK, where it will offer services to investors. Gisli Hauksson, Gamma's chief executive, said: 'Iceland is coming in from the cold and we believe that the strong economic outlook for Iceland creates exciting opportunities for foreign investors.' The launch of the firm will be greeted with trepidation in some quarters. Around 350,000 British savers lost millions when a series of Icelandic banks collapsed in the crisis. Firms such as Icesave, run by Landsbanki, and Kaupthing Edge, an internet bank run by Kaupthing, became high street names for offering high savings rates. But in 2008 Iceland's three biggest banks collapsed with debts of about 70billion and the failure of Icesave in particular left savers fearing their money was lost. Citizens Advice is cashing in on pensioners and hard-up families by charging them premium rates to call for advice, the Daily Mail can reveal. Some local branches of the charity are charging desperate callers to speak to experts about their money troubles despite claiming to protect consumers by always advising them for free. Some callers who use the service for help with their pensions and in battling rip-off firms are being billed more than 12 for a 20-minute conversation, an investigation found. Citizens Advice is cashing in on pensioners and hard-up families by charging them premium rates to call for advice, the Daily Mail can reveal (File photo) Two years ago Citizens Advice promised to stop using premium 0844 numbers, which charge callers up to 62p a minute. The service claims to give free, confidential advice and has led campaigns about rip-off phone lines in the past. Its website even offers extensive guidance on how to report firms operating premium rate lines. The government-backed organisation, used by millions, promised to switch its national lines to cheaper 034 numbers by September 2014 using taxpayers money to do so. But two years on, a survey by the Fair Telecoms Campaign has found that at least 19 Citizens Advice centres are still running costly 0844 numbers. The premium rate bureaux are in some of Britains most deprived areas, including Whitechapel, Lewisham and Hackney in London as well as Salford, North East Doncaster and South Tyneside. Last night campaigners and MPs accused the organisation of hypocrisy. David Hickson, of the Fair Telecoms Campaign, said: This is a scandal of grave proportions since those likely to dial these numbers are often less well off or are in need of urgent, detailed and often lengthy advice over the phone. 'To charge for advice services is contrary to the stated principles of Citizens Advice and offensive to the volunteers who make up a sizeable proportion of its workforce. Labour MP Steve McCabe, a member of the Commons work and pensions select committee, said: Ill be asking the chairman of the select committee to authorise an inquiry into this heinous activity, which undermines the whole basis of the help and support that the Citizens Advice Bureau has been associated with over the years. Bureaux using premium rate lines receive a service charge of 7p per minute per call. Callers also incur an access charge set by their telephone company, typically 11p per minute from a landline and up to 55p per minute from a mobile phone. This means a premium rate call from a mobile is charged at up to 62p per minute. Citizens Advice is made up of a network of 316 independent charities offering to assist people with a range of problems, including money, legal and consumer queries. Some 60 per cent of its funding is understood to come from the Government with the rest coming from donations and local fundraising. Citizens Advice Director of Operations Michele Shambrook said: We delivered on our commitment to change our national phone lines from 084 numbers to 034 numbers by September 2014. On top of that 94 per cent of local Citizens Advice charities have also changed to 034 numbers. Sign up for our amNY Sports email newsletter to get insights and game coverage for your favorite teams By Naeisha Rose Residents of the Central Queens advocacy group, Friends of the QueensWay, and The Trust for Public Land, a non-profit that constructs and conserves green space, held a workshop for other inhabitants to participate in the Phase One design of a pedestrian park that could cost up to $120 million. The two organizations want to have an esplanade built where the defunct LIRR Rockaway Beach Branch line used to run. The QueensWay Metro Hub is being proposed as a greener community and business-friendly version of the Highline in Manhattan and a respite for the 322,000-plus people who live within a mile radius, according to their estimates. The meeting, which drew about 100 people, at first seemed like a tale of two cities, but it was actually a tale of three, if not four. Many participants who knew of both projects wanted neither to happen. Even more people, mostly homeowners and renters who live the closest to the proposed park had no interest or knowledge of the train reactivation plans and were outright skeptical with QueensWay after learning about it up to three days ago. Still they took part in the discussion. Andy Stone, the director of the trust, championed the QueensWay. There is a growing interest in linear parks, but in New York they are mainly concentrated in Manhattan and in Downtown Brooklyn, he said. It will be a park of the 21st century for the borough. The 47-acre land mass stretches 3.5 miles from the tip of the Rockaways to Rego Park. In between those neighborhoods are Forest Hills, Glendale, Richmond Hill, Woodhaven and Ozone Park. You would have this complete bike trail from North to South Queens and connect neighborhoods so that you can really experience the diversity of all the cultures, said Stone. The trusts website claims that everyone is on the same page, but that is not the case for members of the Queens Public Transit Committee. Some members of the community and the Rockaways would prefer to have the old rail line reactivated rather than creating a public park along the tracks. If you look into the history of the rail line, it was a direct route from Penn Station to the Rockaways, said Phil McManus, chairman of the QPTC. Imagine if you can get a train from here to Midtown in less than 35 minutes, said McManus. No one is going to want to ride almost four times as long on a bike, get sweaty and then end up in need of a shower at work. For the students who attend the 12 schools nearby, QueensWay is being presented as a safe stomping ground. I love to explore places, but it is not safe, said Elizabeth Goldstein, 14, who attends the Metropolitan Expeditionary Learning School in Forest Hills, where the meeting was held. Travis Terry, 41, a volunteer for QueensWay, agrees with Goldstein about the beautification of that zone. I live here, and always noticed this abandoned structure that was a blight on our community, said Terry, a strategic consultant who helped create the group in 2011. Im thinking of it as a place that we can play and have a Little League. Spiritually speaking, this is the most diverse place on the planet, and we can bring all these arts and culture activities from around the world here for everyones kids to our seniors. For McManus, the QueensRail is a quality-of-life issue for his locality. If you do not have a train, you cant get anywhere, and the Rockaways is a very neglected area that is treated like a literal dump, he said. We are suffering from racism and classism here. They put the poor, the unskilled, the old and the mentally ill in the Rockaways and that created crime, fear, and resentment, said McManus. A fellow QPTC member who went to the meeting as McManus protested outside the school found QueensWay to be a ridiculous notion. I think its one of the stupidest ideas because everybody knows that Queens has no park space, right, asked Eugene Falick, ironically. What Queens needs is north-south transportation, and they dont want that, He doesnt believe that QueensWay intends on making more green space. I asked what they are going to do for a footpath? They said they are going to pave it with permeable paving. I suggested grass, and they said the grass is terrible, so thats the people who are doing this. They are taking a scarce resource for a park, and I dont think that is reasonable, Falick said. When asked about noise pollution from QueensRail, McManus mentioned a third alternative he said he proposed to QueensWay before the proceedings. He cited the Virginia Rail Express train proposal that had a roof deck for a park on top and Gov. Andrew Cuomos recent smart train plans. If I said tomorrow we will build walls so that you wont even feel or hear that train, they would say, oh, no, we want the park! They want the park to keep people away from South Queens, said McManus. 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Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe Fifty senior Republican national security officials have issued a stinging rejection of their party\s White House nominee Donald Trump, warning he would be "the most reckless president in American history" if elected. The group, some of whom already announced they would not vote for Trump, included former homeland security chiefs, intelligence directors, senior presidential advisors and a former US trade representative. They served under Republican presidents from Richard Nixon to George W. Bush. "We are convinced that he would be a dangerous president and would put at risk our country\s national security and well-being," they wrote in a statement published in The New York Times on Monday. Their disavowal of the Republican presidential candidate was followed by another setback for Trump, when influential US Senator Susan Collins said Tuesday he was "unworthy" of America\s highest elective office, and will not receive her support. "I will not be voting for Donald Trump for president. This is not a decision I make lightly, for I am a lifelong Republican. But Donald Trump does not reflect historical Republican values nor the inclusive approach to governing that is critical to healing the divisions in our country," Collins wrote in an op-ed article appearing in Tuesday\s Washington Post. While the US security experts did not say they would vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton indeed they expressed "doubts" about her they were clear in stating that "none of us will vote for Donald Trump." They essentially declared the brash billionaire unfit for office, echoing Clinton\s criticism by saying that Trump "lacks the character, values, and experience to be president" and displays "alarming ignorance of basic facts" of international politics. The New York real estate mogul also has shown no willingness to learn about foreign affairs or national security threats, "acts impetuously" and lacks self control, the statement said. "He is unable or unwilling to separate truth from falsehood," the group wrote, saying Trump possesses a set of "dangerous qualities" that should disqualify him from the presidency. "We are convinced that in the Oval Office, he would be the most reckless president in American history." They warned that the political neophyte\s "erratic behavior" has alarmed America\s closest allies, adding that he fails to recognize the indispensable nature of such diplomatic relationships. The signatories include Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff, the first and second homeland security secretaries under president George W. Bush, former director of National Intelligence John Negroponte and Bush-era CIA director Michael Hayden. Also in the group are former US Trade Representative and World Bank president Robert Zoellick and Eric Edelman, former national security advisor to vice president Dick Cheney. Trump issued a sharply worded reprimand of the group, painting them as "nothing more than the failed Washington elite looking to hold onto their power" and saying they should be "held accountable" for making the world less safe. "These insiders along with Hillary Clinton are the owners of the disastrous decisions to invade Iraq, allow Americans to die in Benghazi, and they are the ones who allowed the rise of ISIS," Trump said. "I offer a better vision for our country and our foreign policy one that is not run by a ruling family dynasty." The anti-Trump Republicans join members of the security establishment who have already come out against the nominee, including former CIA director Michael Morell, who last Friday accused Trump of being an "unwitting agent" of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Collins, who represents the state of Maine in the US Senate, was no less scathing about Trump in her opinion piece particularly with regard to his bullying of those less powerful and less prominent. "I have become increasingly dismayed by his constant stream of cruel comments and his inability to admit error or apologize," the US senator wrote. "But it was his attacks directed at people who could not respond on an equal footing - either because they do not share his power or stature or because professional responsibility precluded them from engaging at such a level - that revealed Mr. Trump as unworthy of being our president." SOURCE: AFP These real PA creatures could become cryptids if we don't save them Wichita County Commissioners may be getting closer to locking up a deal with consultants to plan a new justice center. The court met with representatives Jeff Bradley and Curt Parde of HOK consulting services. The group, with a team in Dallas, specializes in municipal justice buildings including jails, courthouses, law enforcement offices and support facilities. The need for new county jail facilities, and possibly a justice center addition downtown, has been in talks for at least six years. Bradley and Parde said they took a tour of the Wichita Falls facilities two weeks ago and cited a long list of problems with the current facilities. The HOK team would look at jail population projections, current conditions, available properties in the county, roadways and infrastructure. The commissioners have already been working with local architects Harper Perkins for many of their recent projects, including the Sprague Annex, juvenile justice center, and renovations at both jail facilities. After failing a state jail commission inspection in June 2015, the county spent more than $200,000 in fixes to both facilities. Harper Perkins representatives have said the jail conditions are dire, courtrooms and sheriff's offices are in poor shape, so the time has come for a major overhaul. HOK said they can create a detailed plan with defendable accounting so the court can trust that they will have a project with a good chance of approval from the public. Bradley said in the end it's the people who pay for projects like this through their tax dollars so an important factor in creating a passable bond is keeping the public informed. HOK has worked with multiple counties throughout Texas and across the nation creating new jail facilities, courthouses, civil courts and justice centers. County Judge Woody Gossom said they have at least two other bids for this part of the project so they will be making a decision in the next couple weeks so work can begin as soon as possible. HOK's bid for the first four months of work, master plan and conceptual design was $49,500. The team said if their group was chosen this month, they could begin work as soon as the middle of September. Work on a master plan and finalized concept would continue through mid-January. If the county and consultants come up with a final cost, the next step would be funding the project. The court is considering a bond or certificates of obligation in May or November 2017 to pay for the jail project. Kell House renovations cement historic building's future The Kell House celebrated the completion of renovations to the over a century old home. Secretary of State John Kerry extolled 'diplomacy's power' in January when Iran freed several imprisoned Americans, including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian. But was it the power of diplomacy that cinched the release or was it the might of $400 million in cash? Brief background: In January, the U.S. dispatched a cargo plane loaded with $400 million in foreign currency to Iran, The Wall Street Journal reports. This happened just as the Iranian nuclear deal with the West kicked in and economic sanctions lifted. The payment was portrayed by the U.S. as a partial settlement in a decades-old Iranian claim over a soured deal to buy U.S. military equipment. But the timing of the payment prompted senior Justice Department officials to object, according to the Journal. 'People knew what it was going to look like, and there was concern the Iranians probably did consider it a ransom payment,' one official told the paper. That's exactly how senior Iranian defense officials have reportedly described it publicly since then. President Barack Obama denies a quid pro quo, citing longstanding policy that the U.S. doesn't pay ransoms. But, Jonathan Tobin writes in Commentary magazine, reality may be different: 'Paying ransoms to terrorists or terrorist regimes is a practice that, at least in theory, the U.S. opposes. But like Israeli governments who also talk tough about not negotiating but then agree to lopsided deals, American leaders usually pay up if that is the only way to gain the release of U.S. hostages.' But this deal's done. The money's safely in Tehran, where it may help the mullahs bankroll terrorists around the globe. The recriminations over whether it was or wasn't a ransom payment likely will subside. What remains important: n Iran took Americans as de facto hostages. They were innocents arrested and held on trumped-up charges; Rezaian was convicted in a secret trial. n The $400 million that the U.S. paid to help settle the claim or to gain the release or both is a pittance compared with the frozen billions released to Iran in the nuclear deal, and the billions more that could flow into Iran's economy as Western companies return there in force. But Iran isn't satisfied. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is now furiously backpedaling from the deal he once embraced. He accuses the U.S. of 'breaching' its pledges and 'obstructing and damaging Iran's economic relations with other countries.' Khamenei's gripes aren't new. In April, he demanded that the Obama administration help make Tehran's financial dealings with foreign companies and banks easier by allowing transactions involving dollars in certain circumstances. We argued against that relaxation because Iran hadn't earned any favors from the U.S. It still hasn't. Today, Iran is struggling to find financing from foreign banks still skeptical about doing business with the repressive regime. Deals for Iran to buy more than 200 jetliners from Boeing and Airbus are up in the air after the U.S. House passed a bill in July aimed at blocking the sales. The price of oil, Iran's lifeblood, is down. One unfortunate solution to economic doldrums? Iran has taken yet more Americans captive in recent months and demanded the release of another $2 billion. The new victims include Reza 'Robin' Shahini, of San Diego, who went to Iran to visit his ailing mother in May. On July 11, he was arrested on suspicion of crimes against Iran, The Washington Post reports. Two other U.S. citizens and several dual nationals from Britain, Canada and France are also being held, the paper says. So don't be surprised if the mullahs press their new demands and take still more Americans prisoner. They did get the $400 million. Chicago Tribune Among the conversations parents need to have with an offspring heading for the wilds of campus life for the first time is one that is increasingly necessary but may be difficult to articulate. It's sort of like 'the birds and the bees' lecture every mother and father dreads but knows is necessary even though we now live in a world where youngsters see, read and hear far more about that sort of biology than their parents and grandparents ever did. Despite the poet Ogden Nash's cynical admonition that, 'Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker,' it would be wise for parents to emphasize that in today's volatile college atmosphere, nothing will get you in trouble quicker than mixing sex with alcohol. Actually, it probably would be best for young men and women to lay off both while enjoying for the first time freedom from the restraints of home if that is possible under the pressure of raging hormones. I told my son that he should include that warning in his speech to his oldest boy, who is heading to college as a highly recruited athlete. A prominent criminal attorney in his community, my son quickly agreed, having on occasion defended young clients against serious allegations of rape and assault stemming from too much partying. The slightest sexual inference can now be wind up being classified as unwanted, possibly resulting in severe reaction from college officials pressed by authorities all the way to the White House. Male students are particularly vulnerable to accusations that can leave them without normal legal protections and scarred for life. In he-said-she-said accusations, there is a tendency to take precipitous action immediately against the accused. The infamous and ultimately discredited Rolling Stone article about fraternity gang rapes that actually never took place is dramatic evidence of that. It was all made up, apparently in an attempt by an activist to promote her agenda. Rape complaints, not taken seriously enough for a long time by administrators who held a boys-will-be-boys attitude that held back victims from speaking out on expectations they'd be ignored, are up on nearly every campus. But now, in acknowledging a need for a diligent response, the rights of the accused are being subverted in too many cases. The principal of 'innocent until proven guilty' has disappeared in far too many of these instances. The infamous Duke University debacle stands out as a dramatic example of perjury and malfeasance by everyone in the affair except the lacrosse players charged by an ultimately disbarred prosecutor and a university administration that acted too quickly without consideration for the accused. The star chamber aspects of the campus prosecutorial procedure in which the alleged victim has all the rights and the accused none are not only disturbing but are also lost in the federal government's demand for swift action. If the victim says it happened, it may or may not have, but the campus authorities treat the allegations as accurate and unquestionable, a decided difference from the old days, which weren't perfect either, by the way. Much of this new emphasis on college campuses stems from Title IX, which extends rights of women in all aspects of campus life, including their civil rights. There's certainly nothing wrong with that. But with the changes has come a sudden withdrawal of the same rights for male students, many of whom are athletes in revenue producing sports. Protecting them or even the appearance of doing so has cost several top university presidents their positions, sending a strong message throughout academe that the old indulgence is over as it should have been long ago. Still, one must wonder if a girl who drinks too much and finds herself in an untenable situation in a dorm room or fraternity house too late doesn't bear some of the burden, especially when the accused may be as drunk as she is. That is said at the risk of almost certain denouncement by those who claim rapes are as common as coke dates on our campuses. I simply don't believe that. There are as many reasons for making a claim as there are for failing to do so. Every complaint should be thoroughly investigated with an eye to the rights of both parties. My son recalled that his late law partner, my brother, came away from defending a young man at a major university flabbergasted at the guilty-until-proven innocent atmosphere. The pendulum that for many years swung too far one way has now swung back too far in the other. Dan Thomasson is an op-ed columnist for Tribune News Service and a former vice president of Scripps Howard Newspapers. Readers may send him email at: thomassondan@aol.com. Albany A security breach at a company that supplies identification cards for health insurers may expose the personal information of about 3.3 million people, including those covered by Albany-based Capital District Physicians' Health Plan and Latham-based BlueShield of Northeastern New York, as well as about a dozen other organizations. The company, Albany-based Newkirk Products, posted a notice about the breach on its website Friday. Information on the ID cards of more than a half million CDPHP members and about 70,000 BlueShield members was potentially accessed. The information on these cards included name, mailing address, type of plan, subscriber and group ID number, and names of covered dependents. More Information For more information www.newkirkproductsfacts.com 1-855-303-9773 See More Collapse Not accessed, according to Newkirk and the insurance companies, was other sensitive data such as Social Security numbers, date of birth, financial information, medical information or information on insurance claims. The health insurers systems' were not hacked, they said. Newkirk discovered the breach on July 6, the company said. Unauthorized access to the personal information appears to have first occurred on May 21, according to its initial investigation. The company has so far found no evidence that the data has been used fraudulently. A forensic investigation is continuing. Newkirk was acquired by Long Island-based Broadridge Financial Solutions on July 1 from Kansas City-based DST Systems, a software development firm. The data breach at Newkirk did not compromise Broadridge's computer systems, the company said, because the Newkirk network had not been integrated into the Broadridge system. No other Newkirk or DST system has been found to have been compromised either, according to the Newkirk website. Newkirk is offering free identity protection services to affected individuals for two years, through AllClear ID. People affected by the breach will be notified by mail. Newkirk will not call or email policyholders, so customers are cautioned against providing information to anyone who contacts them through these methods. Other health insurers have been the victims of cyberattacks in the last year or two, including Rochester-based Excellus BlueCross BlueShield and Anthem BlueCross BlueShield, the parent of Empire BlueCross BlueShield. chughes@timesunion.com 518-454-5417 @hughesclaire This Sunday, 22-year-old gymnast Aly Raisman began her journey in Rio for a second chance at gold. As in past competitions, Raisman's parents Lynn and Rick were there to cheer her on and provide some much-needed support. As the gymnast began her uneven bar performance, the camera panned to her parents, showing them on the edge of their seats. Their facial expressions were tense and they mimicked Raisman's every move, while swaying back and forth, and grabbing each other tightly for moral support. Schenectady As the folks in Monty Python used to say, "And now for something completely different..." Mona Golub has been at the helm of the free Music Haven concert series for 27 summers now, and from the start the motto has been "traveling the world one concert at a time." And she's definitely lived up to it, so it's somewhat surprising that before Sunday night, she had never presented a concert featuring the music of Eastern Europe. Fortunately, that all changed with the dazzling, thoroughly intoxicating performance by DakhaBrakha, a quartet of inventive and entertaining musicians from Kiev, Ukraine, who describe their music as "ethno-chaos." More Information Review Dakha Brakha with Tavche Gravche When: 7 p.m. Sunday Where: The Music Haven, Central Park, Schenectady Length: DakhaBrakha 75 minutes; Tavche Gravche 40 minutes The crowd: Small at the start, but steadily growing as the evening wore on See More Collapse Blending traditional Ukrainian folk tunes with a wide variety of contemporary musical genres, the foursome one man and three women sporting traditional costumes from their homeland utilized imaginative arrangements to coax the most from what might at first appear to be a limited musical palette of cello, accordion, concertina and a variety of drums and percussive instruments. At times, the music sounded like some strange mash-up of Steve Reich and Gogol Bordello. At other times, it sounded like Bjork-goes-to-Morocco. Sometimes Nina Garenetska's cello playing took on a decidedly Indian classical influence. Sometimes drummer-accordionist Marko Galanevych sang in a James Blake-like falsetto. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and features with our afternoon newsletter. "Torokh" was a smoldering Peggy Lee-like jazz ballad, while "Divka-Marusechka" broke into an a cappella section sung by Garenetska, drummer Olena Tsybulska and drummer/concertina player Iryna Kovalenko. The most surprising performance was a tune that Garenetska explained was about a woman "who is trying to find a good husband it's a very long story," as the band launched into a spot-on slice of Carpathian Mountains hip-hop. The NYC-based trio Tavche Gravche clarinetist Vasko Dukovski, guitarist Dan Nadel and acoustic bassist Daniel Ori opened the night with Gypsy swing, Balkan folk and klezmer that stretched from the traditional Macedonian folk song "Turli Tava" to the more adventurous contemporary jazz original "In My Mind" by Ori. Not long ago, my wife had occasion to briefly discuss politics with a young man sporting a Bernie Sanders badge. Her interlocutor said he would vote for the Green Party this fall, as he could not abide Hillary Clinton. Fair enough, but voters favoring the perfect over the merely experienced and compromised might reflect for a moment. In November 1932, the Nazi party got 33 percent of the vote in the last free elections Germany would know until 1949. The Nazis became the governing party in Germany because multiple left and center parties were split several different ways. World cataclysm followed. Tom Toles The editorial cartoon depicting Roger Ailes and Fox News as a punctured hot air balloon about to crash with its GOP passenger is hyperbolic (Tom Toles, Washington Post, July 26). Fox will continue to seduce its many avid followers after Ailes has left the scene. And, if they can propel Donald Trump into the White House, he is likely to appoint Ailes as his minister for propaganda. ABP Nenagh was celebrating success this week following the Great Taste Awards, the worlds largest and most trusted food and drink awards. Winners of the highly respected seals of approval were revealed after the products were put to the test by a panel of over 450 experts. In total, ABP Ireland collected four of the prestigious awards with product from ABP Nenagh instrumental in the success. Over 10,000 products were entered to the awards and winners were whittled down by expert judges in a blind taste test. The panel of judges is made up of top chefs and restaurateurs as well as retail buyers, acclaimed cooks, food writers and journalists, cake experts, cheese makers and farmers. Foods carrying the coveted Great Taste logo have a confirmed status as proven fine foods. Speaking about the award, Don OBrien, general manager ABP Nenagh, said: ABP beef is sold in over 100 Michelin-starred restaurants across Europe and these awards are a further endorsement of the quality and flavour of the meat produced in Nenagh and across the rest of our Irish sites. I would also like to acknowledge the great work carried out by the team here in Nenagh and the wider supply chain in helping us to achieve this success. Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content. Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist. If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider contributing and/or subscribing to our free daily Newsletter . Support our mission and join our community now. The Post Polio Support Group (PPSG) has been presented with a painting of the distinguished Irish Patriot and Revolutionary, Sean Mac Diarmada, Proclamation Signatory, member of the Provisional Government and Polio Survivor. To acknowledge the special link between Polio Survivors and Sean Mac Diarmada, the artist Carol Quinn Wallace has donated a painting of Sean Mac Diarmada to the Post Polio Support Group, to assist us in raising awareness and funds in support or Polio Survivors in Ireland, of which there are thought to be 7,000. Sean MacDiarmada was one of the leaders of the Irish Volunteers who instigated the 1916 Rising; he was one of the seven signatories of the Proclamation which was read out by P.H. Pearse outside the GPO in 1916. In July 1911, after organising opposition to the visit of King George V in Dublin, Sean contracted Polio a rampant and feared disease at the time. He spent four months in the Mater Hospital. The illness had a devastating effect on him and aged him considerably so much so that friends did not identify him in the street. Polio affected his right leg and he hobbled about on a cane or sometimes used a Hurley stick for support. Overnight, Mac Diarmada went from a vigorous man of 29 years to one who, according to Madge Daly a cousin of Tom Clarkes wife Kathleen, looked like a delicate, bearded, middle aged man walking on a crutch. He spent the rest of his life with a walking stick. On the morning of the rising, Easter Monday 1916, Sean, because of his infirmity took a taxi from Liberty Hall to the GPO and thus started his Revolution. He was possibly the only world revolutionary to go to war in a taxi! Sean wore no uniform nor fired a shot but he was present in the GPO as a member of the Provisional Government. Thursday May 12th 2016 was the centenary of the execution of Sean Mac Diarmada and it was a singular honour for the Post Polio Support Group to be invited to, and be recognised, by the Department of Social Protection in its formal tribute to Sean Mac Diarmada, at Aras Mhic Dhiarmada. PPSG were also delighted to meet some of the family of Sean Mac Diarmada, who are still living in Ireland. The presentation of the Carol Quinn Wallace portrait of Sean Mac Diarmada was made at the launch of an exhibition of paintings by the artist called A Nation Rises, at The National Maritime Museum of Ireland, in Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin. This collection celebrates and features the key participants in the 1916 Rising, being beautifully rendered, with a wealth of colour and warmth, often missing from the black and white photos of the time in short, Ms Quinn Wallace brings the personalities to life. We are extremely grateful to this talented artist for this gesture, which should assist us in our fundraising and publicity endeavours. The exhibition runs for the next two months in the Maritime Museum. The Post Polio Support Group is working to raise awareness of the continuing difficulties faced by those who survived the original virus in Ireland in the 50s and 60s, during the polio epidemics. 7,000 Survivors of Polio are estimated to live in Ireland today, with many people still living with disabilities brought on by the disease. Others are suffering from the late effects of Polio, also known as Post Polio Syndrome, significantly increasing their disability and causing pain and fatigue later in life. About the Post Polio Support Group The Post Polio Support Group was established for Polio Survivors by Polio Survivors in 1993. We are the only organisation in Ireland providing practical support (and sometimes more importantly a listening ear) to those unfortunate enough to have contracted Polio when babies or young children. We provide stair lifts, callipers, bespoke footwear, electric scooters and wheelchairs. We also help Survivors access Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy and Respite Breaks, as well as other supports. The group works to raise awareness, provide information on Polio and its late effects and to ensure Polio Survivors can live with dignity. For further information: www.ppsg.ie Post Polio Support Group, Unit 319, Capel Building, Marys Abbey, Dublin 7, 01 8898920. This years tenth annual Famine 1848 Walk was the largest ever in Ballingarry. People from Ballingarry and the surrounding parishes and indeed as far away as Dublin were represented. The local schools marched behind their school banners. The Walk began at the Young Ireland 1848 and national flag monument in the village of The Commons. The Walk Leader was Madam Cohen, the French Chargee dAffaires. The French Ambassador who was looking forward to leading the Walk was called to France at short notice and he was represented by Madam Cohen. (The Chargee dAffaires heads an embassy when the Ambassador is away.) She began her opening remarks in French on how honoured she was to be able to join with the attendance in commemorating all those who suffered and died in the Famine and the 1848 Rising. To the strains of the Moycarkey Pipe Band she then led out the Walk on the mile and a half journey to the Famine Warhouse where another large crowd awaited. A group photograph was taken in front of the house. On behalf of the organizers of the Walk, the Ballingarry 1848 Society, Dr Thomas McGrath noted that this years Walk in the centenary year of the Easter Rising celebrated the many links between 1848 and 1916 and between Ireland and France. He stated that the Irish national flag had French origins in 1848 and he recalled how the IRB which was responsible for the 1916 Rising was founded by men who were present in Ballingarry in 1848. He also drew attention to the twenty five Ballingarry men who died fighting in France in World War One. The Walk actually passed the locations where two of these men lived: Patrick Delaney of Kyle who died on 1 July 1916 on the first day of the Battle of the Somme in northern France and William Sullivan also of Kyle who died on 28 June 1916. Superb posters pointing out this fact marked the sites of their houses and Madam Cohens attention was drawn to them as she led the Walk. Dr Mc Grath on behalf of the attendance sympathised with Madam Cohen on the recent terrorist attacks in France. Madam Cohen thanked the audience for its expressions of solidarity with France. In a wide-ranging speech Madam Cohen covered Franco-Irish relations over the centuries from St Columbanus. She pointed in particular to French influence on the United Irishmen and the attempted invasions of Ireland by France in the 1790s. She also commented on the significance of the Irish tricolour being brought from Paris in 1848 by Thomas Francis Meagher and on Irish support for France in World War One. Madam Cohens engaging and friendly manner was much appreciated by her audience. In a symbolic exchange of tricolours, Martin Maher, Chairman of the Ballingarry 1848 Society, presented the Irish national flag to Madam Cohen. The Irish national anthem was played by the Moycarkey Pipe Band. Madam Cohen presented the French tricolour to Clare McGrath, Chairman of the OPW, for permanent display in the Famine Warhouse. The French national anthem was played by a local group of musicians led by Nicky Brewer and Noel OBrien. A bouquet of flowers was presented to Madame Cohen by Marie Barry. Light refreshments were then served to all in the courtyard of the house. Trainee priests from the Cashel and Emly Diocese and Killaloe Diocese will continue to be sent to Maynooth following a split in the Church over claims of a 'gay subculture' at the seminary. Killaloe Diocesan Communications Officer Fr Brendan Quinlivan said that to the best of his knowledge students from the Killaloe Diocese would be returning to the 200 year old seminary this September and they would not be taking on board the decision of Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin to send students to the Irish College in Rome. As far as I know, our students that are in Maynooth are very happy there and are returning there in September. Certainly our experience of Maynooth has been very positive and our experience of the formation team there has been very positive and our students that are there are very happy. The decision of Archbishop Diarmuid Martin certainly hasnt changed our opinion of the seminary in Maynooth, he told the Tipperary Star. Similarly Archbishop Kieran OReilly stated that the Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly will continue to send seminarians to St. Patricks College, Maynooth to pursue studies for the priesthood. However he would not comment further on the issue. At present there are no seminarians for the Cashel and Emily Diocese while the Killaloe Diocese has three trainee priests all situated in St. Patrick's College, Maynooth. Last week the Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin said he would not be sending would-be priests to the training college in Kildare, instead choosing to send trainees to study in Rome. As Titusville Area School District transitions from the traditional Industrial Age approach to education to the Mass Customized Learning model >> Several Pleasantville residents are being told by Oil Creek Township that they must hook in to the townships sewer expansion project [August 09, 2016] CES 2017 Music Contest: Open Call for all Musicians and Artists Building on the success of the inaugural CES (News - Alert) 2016 contest, the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) is once again hosting a contest for artists to have their music featured as the soundtrack for the CES 2017 opening keynote video. The competition runs through September 1, 2016. "Creative minds use consumer technology to shape and produce their art. Technology enables and enhances music, so we want to use our platform to help the career of a yet-to-be recognized musician," said Gary Shapiro (News - Alert), president and CEO, Consumer Technology Association. The winning individual or group will be publicly announced during CES Unveiled New York on November 10, 2016 and receive worldwide recognition as well as a $5,000 cash prize, a two-night stay in Las Vegas during CES 2017 and the opportunity to perform their winning song live on-stage prior to the opening keynote address. CES 2017 runs January 5-8, 2017 in Las Vegas, NV. Eligible applications must be submitted by 11:59 PM EDT on Thursday, September 1, 2016 and meet the following criteria: Music must be an original piece Music must be at least 90 seconds in length Any lyrics cannot be offensive All genres of music are welcome The individual or musical group submitting the music must own the rights to the music and be willing to license the music to CTA in perpetuity for use in the keynote opening video, online distribution and for promotion purposes Individuals or groups submitting music must be 18 years old or have written permission from a legal guardian to submit the music be 18 years old or have written permission from a legal guardian to submit the music Individuals or groups submitting must be legal U.S. residents Music submitted by stock or royalty free music suppliers WILL NOT be accepted Since winning last year's contest, exie Hayden's song "When I'm With You" has been featured in sorority Alpha Delta Pi's national philanthropy video. Lexie now lives in Nashville, Tennessee where she is working on new music and performing in the area. The previous keynote video can be found on CES.tech featuring the CES 2016 winner's music. Questions should be directed to [email protected]. Note to Editors: The official name of the global technology event is "CES." Please do not use "Consumer Electronics Show" or "International CES" to refer to the event. About CES: CES is the world's gathering place for all who thrive on the business of consumer technologies. It has served as the proving ground for innovators and breakthrough technologies for almost 50 years-the global stage where next-generation innovations are introduced to the marketplace. As the largest hands-on event of its kind, CES features all aspects of the industry. Owned and produced by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)TM, it attracts the world's business leaders and pioneering Check out CES video highlights. Follow CES online at www.CES.tech and on social. About Consumer Technology Association: Consumer Technology Association (CTA)TM is the trade association representing the $287 billion U.S. consumer technology industry. More than 2,200 companies - 80 percent are small businesses and startups; others are among the world's best known brands - enjoy the benefits of CTA membership including policy advocacy, market research, technical education, industry promotion, standards development and the fostering of business and strategic relationships. The Consumer Technology Association also owns and produces CES - the world's gathering place for all who thrive on the business of consumer technologies. Profits from CES are reinvested into CTA's industry services. UPCOMING EVENTS Innovate! and Celebrate - Register September 20-22, San Jose, CA (News - Alert) CES Unveiled Prague - Register October 20, Prague, Czech Republic CES Unveiled Paris - Register October 25, Paris, France CT Hall of Fame Dinner November 9, New York, NY CES Unveiled New York November 10, New York, NY CES Unveiled Las Vegas January 3, Las Vegas, NV CES 2017 January 5-8, Las Vegas, NV CES Asia 2017 June 7-9, Shanghai, China View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160809006293/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [August 09, 2016] Comdisco Holding Company, Inc. Files Form 15 with the Securities and Exchange Commission Comdisco Holding Company, Inc. (OTCQB: CDCO) and (OTCQB: CDCOR) ("Comdisco") announced today that: (i) on August 5, 2016, Comdisco made its final distribution to holders of its common stock and contingent distribution rights ("CDRs") and consequently, cancelled all of its outstanding common stock and contingent distribution rights and closed its stock transfer books; and (ii) on August 8, 2016, it filed a Form 15 with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC (News - Alert)") terminating the registration of its securities under Section 12(g) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (as amended, the "Exchange Act"). As a result of such filing, Comdisco is no longer obligated to and will not file any further current or periodic reports with the SEC. About Comdisco Comdisco emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings on August 12, 2002. The purpose of reorganized Comdisco was to sell, collect or otherwise reduce to money in an orderly manner the remaining assets of the corporation. Pursuant to its First Amended Joint Plan of Reorganization (the "Plan") and restrictions contained in its certificate of incorporation, Comdisco was specifically prohibited from engaging in any business activities inconsistent with its limited business purpose. Accordingly, Comdisco has reuced all of its assets to cash and made its final distribution of all available cash (net of amounts withheld for estimated liabilities) to holders of its common stock and contingent distribution rights in the manner and priorities set forth in the Plan. Once all the administrative tasks are completed, the company will cease operations. The company filed on August 12, 2004 a Certificate of Dissolution with the Secretary of State of the State of Delaware to formally extinguish Comdisco Holding Company, Inc.'s corporate existence with the State of Delaware except for the purpose of completing the wind-down contemplated by the Plan. On July 12, 2016, a Final Decree was entered in the bankruptcy case of Comdisco, Inc. authorizing Comdisco to take various steps, including those announced above, to close the case. Safe Harbor The foregoing contains forward-looking statements regarding Comdisco. They reflect the company's current views with respect to current events and financial performance, are subject to many risks, uncertainties and factors relating to the company's operations and business environment which may cause the actual results of the company to be materially different from any future results, express or implied by such forward-looking statements. The company intends that such forward-looking statements be subject to the Safe Harbor created by Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The words and phrases ''expect,'' ''estimate,'' and ''anticipate'' and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. Certain factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements are listed from time to time in the company's SEC reports, including, but not limited to, the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2015 and its most recent quarterly report filed on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended March 31, 2016. Comdisco disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160809006115/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [August 09, 2016] Conrad N. Hilton Foundation Announces The Task Force for Global Health as 2016 Recipient of $2 Million Hilton Humanitarian Prize The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation announced today that a distinguished panel of independent international jurors has selected The Task Force for Global Health (The Task Force), an Atlanta-based international organization dedicated to addressing large-scale health problems primarily affecting people living in extreme poverty, as this year's recipient of the Hilton Humanitarian Prize-the world's largest humanitarian prize. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160809005850/en/ A boy helps Samuel Nicol (age unknown), who was blinded by river blindness, walk through the village of Gbonjeima, Sierra Leone, on Saturday, July 14, 2012. The Task Force for Global Health is working with partners to eliminate river blindness by 2025. Copyright: Olivier Asselin, courtesy of the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases. The Task Force has been a pioneer in global health since its founding 32 years ago, and it currently reaches hundreds of millions of people in 151 countries through programs focusing on neglected tropical diseases, vaccines, field epidemiology, public health informatics, and health workforce development. The organization collaborates with partners in diverse sectors, including pharmaceutical companies and health agencies in other countries, on comprehensive disease control and elimination programs. Major funders include governments, foundations, and corporations. "The Task Force is about compassion, collaboration, and smart solutions," said Hilton Foundation President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Peter Laugharn. "The organization and its partners roll up their sleeves and solve massive global health problems, and they do it without fanfare. This is an organization that, with its partners, is on track to help eliminate three diseases in the next decade. That is something we should all celebrate." The Task Force will receive $2 million in unrestricted funding and join 20 other distinguished nonprofit organizations that have received this Prize during the last two decades. We are deeply humbled and honored to receive the 2016 Hilton Humanitarian Prize, and to join the ranks of prestigious organizations that have helped alleviate human suffering," said David Ross, ScD, President and CEO of The Task Force. "We have long believed collaboration is essential to solving large-scale health problems. No one organization has the resources or expertise to address these issues. It is through our partnerships that we have been able to have an extraordinary collective impact." The Task Force was founded in 1984 by Dr. William H. Foege, a renowned epidemiologist and former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director who is credited with developing the strategy that led to the eradication of smallpox. The Task Force originally focused on a single health issue-low childhood immunization rates in developing countries. By 1990, The Task Force had raised these rates from 20 to 80 percent worldwide. Since this early success, The Task Force has worked with hundreds of partners to control and eliminate neglected tropical diseases and increase access to medicines and vaccines for multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, polio, influenza, and cholera. Beginning with the Mectizan Donation Program, The Task Force is credited with working with the pharmaceutical industry to donate billions of dollars annually in essential medicines for the control and elimination of neglected tropical diseases. Collaboration, health equity, and social justice are the cornerstones of all Task Force programs. The organization is a major partner in the global effort to eliminate three neglected tropical diseases by 2025-blinding trachoma, river blindness, and lymphatic filariasis-which collectively threaten hundreds of millions of people each year with blindness, disfigurement, and even death. The Task Force has begun examining how it might help address the growing epidemic of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), which have eclipsed infectious diseases as the major causes of death for people in developing countries. Dr. Ross said that the organization's expertise and experience in getting vaccines and essential medicines to developing countries may be useful in helping to address some aspect of NCDs. The Hilton Prize money will support the acquisition of a larger headquarters in Atlanta that will enable The Task Force to move into NCDs and meet the growth needs of its existing programs. The Task Force and their achievements will be honored at this year's international Humanitarian Symposium, sponsored by the Hilton Foundation, which will take place in New York City at the Waldorf Astoria on Sept. 30. The focus of the symposium will be on the future of humanitarian action, with speakers offering their visions of success in tackling some of the world's most pressing issues, such as the growing refugee crisis. Featured speakers include: Mary Robinson, president of the Mary Robinson Foundation-Climate Justice, former President of Ireland, and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights; as well as Zainab Salbi, Iraqi-American author, women's rights activist, humanitarian, social entrepreneur, and media commentator, who is the founder and former CEO of Hilton Prize Laureate Women for Women International. Each year, the Foundation reviews hundreds of nominations from notable nonprofits across the globe, and an independent, international panel of distinguished jurors makes the final selection after a rigorous vetting process. Nominations for the 2017 Hilton Humanitarian Prize will be accepted from Sept. 15 - Oct. 15, and should be submitted through the Hilton Foundation website. About the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation was created in 1944 by international business pioneer Conrad N. Hilton, who founded Hilton Hotels and left his fortune to help the world's disadvantaged and vulnerable people. The Foundation currently conducts strategic initiatives in six priority areas: providing safe water, ending chronic homelessness, preventing substance use, helping children affected by HIV and AIDS, supporting transition-age youth in foster care, and extending Conrad Hilton's support for the work of Catholic Sisters. In addition, following selection by an independent, international jury, the Foundation annually awards the $2 million Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize to a nonprofit organization doing extraordinary work to reduce human suffering. In 2015, the Humanitarian Prize was awarded to Landesa, a Seattle-based land rights organization. From its inception, the Foundation has awarded more than $1.4 billion in grants, distributing $107 million in the U.S. and around the world in 2015. The Foundation's current assets are approximately $2.5 billion. For more information, please visit www.hiltonfoundation.org. About The Task Force for Global Health The Task Force for Global Health is an international, nonprofit organization that works to improve health of people most in need, primarily in developing countries. Founded in 1984 by global health pioneer Bill Foege, The Task Force consists of programs focused on neglected tropical diseases, vaccines, field epidemiology, public health informatics, and health workforce development. The Task Force works in partnership with ministries of health and hundreds of organizations, including major pharmaceutical companies that donate billions of dollars annually in essential medicines. Major funders include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, World Health Organization, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, de Beaumont Foundation, U.S. Agency for International Development, Sightsavers, Pfizer, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, and GSK. The Task Force team consists of 120 scientists, program experts, logisticians, and other global health professionals. It is affiliated with Emory University, headquartered in Decatur, Georgia, and has regional offices in Guatemala and Ethiopia. The Task Force currently supports work in 151 countries. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160809005850/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [August 09, 2016] EQUITY ALERT: Rosen Law Firm Announces Filing of Securities Class Action Lawsuit Against Embraer S.A. Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, announces the filing of a class action lawsuit on behalf of purchasers of Embraer S.A. securities (NYSE:ERJ) from April 16, 2012 through July 28, 2016, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"). The lawsuit seeks to recover damages for Embraer investors under the federal securities laws. To join the Embraer class action, go to the firm's website at http://rosenlegal.com/cases-929.html or call Phillip Kim, Esq. or Kevin Chan, Esq. toll free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] or [email protected] for more information on the class action. NO CLASS HAS YET BEEN CERTIFIED IN THE ABOVE ACTION. UNTIL A CLASS IS CERTIFIED, YOU ARE NOT REPRESENTED BY COUNSEL UNLESS YOU RETAIN ONE. YOU MAY ALSO REMAI AN ABSENT CLASS MEMBER AND DO NOTHING AT THIS POINT. YOU MAY RETAIN COUNSEL OF YOUR CHOICE. According to the lawsuit, throughout the Class Period defendants issued false and misleading statements to investors and/or failed to disclose that: (1) Embraer had paid bribes to officials in the Dominican Republic to secure contracts for the sale of aircraft; (2) Embraer's President and Chief Executive Officer ("CEO"), Defendant Frederico Pinheiro Fleury Curado ("Curado") was aware of the bribery scheme; (3) the foreseeable consequences of the bribery scheme would cost Embraer hundreds of millions of dollars; and (4) as a result, defendants' statements about Embraer's business, operations, and prospects were false and misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than October 7, 2016. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation. If you wish to join the litigation, go to the firm's website at http://rosenlegal.com/cases-929.html for more information. You may also contact Phillip Kim, Esq. or Kevin Chan, Esq. of Rosen Law Firm toll free at 866-767-3653 or via email at [email protected] or [email protected]. Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160809006077/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [August 09, 2016] PLI Online Game for Lawyers Wins ACLEA's Top Technology Award NEW YORK, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Practising Law Institute (PLI) received the Award for Outstanding Achievement in Technology at this week's Association for Continuing Legal Education (ACLEA) meeting in Seattle. Dr. JC Kinnamon, Director of the Office of Research and Development at PLI, accepted the award at the ACLEA award ceremony on August 2nd. This is the second consecutive year that PLI has earned the top technology award. The award was given in recognition of PLI's Internal Investigation Game, an immersive online experience that challenges attorneys to plan and conduct an internal investigation as members of a fictional law firm. Developed in a partnership with &ranj, a Dutch serious gaming company, the Internal Investigation Game challenges players to perfect a variety of legal skills, including planning and conducting witness interviews, fact gathering and reporting findings to company management. The Internal Investigation Game is now available free On-Demand as part of PLI's Interactive Learnin Center, a growing library of online interactive courses. PLI is working on a follow-up game that helps lawyers work with financial statements and is slated for release later in 2016. About Practising Law Institute (PLI) www.pli.edu Practising Law Institute is a nonprofit continuing legal education and professional business training organization, chartered by the Regents of the University of the State of New York. Founded in 1933, PLI is dedicated to providing the legal community and allied professionals with the most up-to-date, relevant information and techniques, through seminars and workshops, live Webcasts, and On-Demand learning. PLI also publishes comprehensive treatises and practice-focused Course Handbooks in print and online through its searchable online research database, Discover PLUS. PLI holds programs in its offices in New York and California, and elsewhere throughout the U.S., as well as in London and Hong Kong. PLI annually awards more than 60,000 scholarships to its programs, and its more than 4,000 volunteer speakers include the most prominent lawyers, judges, investment bankers, accountants, corporate counsel, and U.S. and international government regulators. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160809/396758 Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160809/396759 Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120423/DC92468LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pli-online-game-for-lawyers-wins-acleas-top-technology-award-300311131.html SOURCE Practising Law Institute [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [August 09, 2016] Schlichter, Bogard & Denton Files Class Action Lawsuits Against Three Universities for Excessive Plan Fees Schlichter, Bogard & Denton, a leading national law firm based in St. Louis, today filed separate class action lawsuits against three universities on behalf of over 60,000 employees in their defined contribution retirement plans. The complaints, David B. Tracey, et al., v. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, et al.; Dr. Alan Sacerdote, et al., v. New York University, et al.; and Joseph Vellali, et al., v. Yale University, et. al., were filed in the U.S. District Courts of Massachusetts, the Southern District of New York, and the District of Connecticut, respectively. "We contend that these universities, as fiduciaries, have breached their duties under the law to protect the retirement assets of their employees and retirees," Jerry Schlichter of Schlichter, Bogard & Denton, the attorney for the plaintiffs stated. "These university employees deserve the same right to build meaningful retirement assets as employees of for-profit companies," Mr. Schlichter added. Common to all three complaints are allegations that each of these universities, as employee retirement plan sponsors, breached their duties of loyalty and prudence under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) by causing plan participants to pay millions of dollars in unreasonable and excessive fees for recordkeeping, administrative, and investment services of the plans. The complaints further allege that the universities breached their fiduciary duties by selecting and retaining numerous high-cost and poor performing investment options compared to available alternatives, which substantially reduced the retirement assets of the employees and retirees. In the cases of New York University and Yale University, both 403(b) type plans, the complaints allege employees paid excessive recordkeeping fees in addition to selecting and imprudently retaining funds which historically underperformed for yers. The complaints also state that in contrast to actions by prudent fiduciaries of other similarly sized defined contribution plans, these universities each used multiple recordkeepers, rather than a single recordkeeper. Consequently, by using multiple recordkeepers, the universities caused plan participants to pay duplicative, excessive, and unreasonable fees for plan recordkeeping services. In the case of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a 401(k) plan, the complaint alleges that MIT's (News - Alert) close relationship with Fidelity Investments led to its selection as plan recordkeeper, without any competitive bidding process in violation of the university's duty to act in the exclusive interest of its employees and retirees according to the complaint, Abigail Johnson has been a member of the MIT Board of Trustees for years and is also CEO of Fidelity, which her family controls. It also alleges that MIT placed over 150 Fidelity funds, including high priced retail funds in the plan, in spite of the plan being a $3.5 billion plan able to command lower fees. This has caused participants to pay unreasonable administrative and investment management expenses. "The universities do not have high priced retail mutual funds in their multi-billion dollar endowments, yet they have them in their employees' retirement plans, resulting in the employees paying excessive fees and diminishing their retirement savings," added Mr. Schlichter. Schlichter, Bogard & Denton, based in St. Louis, MO, pioneered excessive fee 401(k) litigation on behalf of employees and retirees and to seek remedies. Since 2006, the firm has filed 20 such complaints and secured 9 settlements on behalf of employees. In 2009, the firm won the only full trial of an 401(k) excessive fee case against ABB. The firm's Tibble v. Edison is the first and only 401(k) excessive fee case to be argued in the Supreme Court. On May 18, 2015, the firm won a landmark unanimous 9-0 decision in which both the AARP and the Solicitor General wrote supporting briefs for the employees. Jerry Schlichter and his firm have been referred to by federal judges as "preeminent "in the field of 401(k) fee litigation; as demonstrating "extraordinary skill and determination"; as making "a significant, national contribution," having "educated plan administrators, the Department of Labor, the courts" about fees and fiduciary obligations; and has been referred to by federal judges as a "private attorney general," causing fees to come down in the entire 401(k) industry. About Schlichter, Bogard & Denton, LLP Schlichter, Bogard & Denton, LLP, of St. Louis is a national law firm that represents individuals, including victims of financial abuse and 401(k) plan investors, whose plans suffer from excessive fees or imprudent investment options. Its attorneys are dedicated to helping financial abuse victims, and helping employees and retirees secure the retirement benefits they deserve. More information can be found at: http://www.uselaws.com or call (800)-USE-LAWS (873-5297) Copyright 2010-2016, Schlichter, Bogard & Denton, LLP. All rights reserved. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160809005951/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [August 09, 2016] Sunrise Senior Living to Bring its World-Class Senior Care to Welltower's New York City Development Project Sunrise Senior Living has been named operator of Welltower's senior living community being developed in Midtown Manhattan. The project, in collaboration with international real estate firm Hines, is planned for the northeast corner of 56th Street and Lexington Avenue. Slated for a late 2019 opening, the residential community will promote wellness for its senior residents in need of high-quality assisted living and memory care services. "We believe Sunrise is an ideal partner for us to work with to revolutionize the concept of senior living and meet the needs of the underserved aging population on the island of Manhattan," said Thomas DeRosa, CEO, Welltower. "Leveraging Sunrise's world-class memory care programming and services, this new community will distinctively benefit those with Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia, including residents in the early stages of memory loss. Further, Sunrise's approach to care will help ensure all residents receive highly individualized service." Sunrise currently serves residents at approximately 30 communities throughout the New York City metro area and has 35 years of experience in the assisted living and memory care industry. Welltower's portfolio currently includes 72 seniors housing communities in the New York tristate area including properties in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. "Throughout the world, Sunrise is known for its premium product, including our innovative programming and personalized approach to care. We are perfectly positioned to provide our services in a location like Midtown Manhattan, complemented by prime access to healthcare facilities, retail, restaurants and cultural institutions," said Chris Winkle, Chief Executive Officer for Sunrise. "This purpose-built residence will be the first of its kind and will allow seniors to continue to call Manhattan home while receiving the high-quality care they need." The Manhattan development will support the underserved senior demogrphic. By the year 2030, the city's 60+ population will make up one in every five New Yorkers.1 There are few senior living communities on Manhattan, which has fewer than 75 beds that are fully licensed by the New York State Department of Health to provide assisted living and memory care services. The 15-story building, with 125,000 square feet of living space, is inspired by the classic style of Park Avenue apartments. The physical space will promote a local feel with large windows that take in city views, smaller neighborhood touches throughout different areas and floors, and outdoor living spaces that provide a comfortable transition for current city-residents. To promote local community engagement, Sunrise will help residents take advantage of city living by offering its evidence-based programming that encourages seniors to engage, express, learn and grow. The community will be integrated into the greater neighborhood by building local partnerships, opening its doors to volunteers and creating intergenerational relationships with nearby schools. Sunrise continues to collaborate with Welltower and Hines on design plans so that the new property is built and beautifully appointed with seniors' unique needs in mind, including the incorporation of sensory elements for those with memory loss, carefully choosing colors that are best for aging eyesight and creating comfortable, safe spaces for all residents to enjoy. About Sunrise Senior Living Sunrise Senior Living, a McLean, Va.-based company, employs approximately 31,000 people. As of August 1, 2016, Sunrise operated 310 communities in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, including 16 Gracewell Healthcare communities, with a total unit capacity of approximately 27,600. Sunrise offers a full range of personalized senior living services, including independent living, assisted living, care for individuals with Alzheimer's and other forms of memory loss, as well as nursing and rehabilitative services. Sunrise's senior living services are delivered by team members who are trained to encourage independence, preserve dignity, enable freedom of choice and protect the privacy of residents. For ongoing information about Sunrise communities and senior-related topics, read The Sunrise Blog and follow us on Facebook. To learn more about Sunrise, please visit SunriseSeniorLiving.com. About Welltower Welltower Inc. (NYSE:HCN), an S&P 500 company headquartered in Toledo, Ohio, is driving the transformation of health care infrastructure. The company invests with leading seniors housing operators, post-acute providers and health systems to fund the real estate infrastructure needed to scale innovative care delivery models and improve people's wellness and overall health care experience. Welltower, a real estate investment trust ("REIT"), owns more than 1,400 properties in major, high-growth markets in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, consisting of seniors housing and post-acute communities and outpatient medical properties. More information is available at www.welltower.com. Forward-Looking Statements and Risk Factors This press release contains "forward-looking statements" as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. When Welltower uses words such as "may," "will," "intend," "should," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "project," "estimate" or similar expressions that do not relate solely to historical matters, it is making forward-looking statements. In particular, these forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, those relating to Welltower's ability to complete the Manhattan development on currently anticipated terms, or within currently anticipated timeframes; the expected performance of Welltower's operators/tenants and properties; Welltower's expected occupancy rates; and Welltower's ability to access capital markets or other sources of funds. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that may cause Welltower's actual results to differ materially from its expectations discussed in the forward-looking statements. This may be a result of various factors, including, but not limited to: the receipt of regulatory approvals and third-party consents in connection with the Manhattan development; the respective parties' performance of their obligations under the Manhattan development agreements; the receipt of applicable healthcare licenses and governmental approvals; unanticipated difficulties and/or expenditures relating to the Manhattan development; the status of the economy; the status of capital markets, including availability and cost of capital; changes in financing terms; competition within the health care and seniors housing industries; negative developments in the operating results or financial condition of operators/tenants, including, but not limited to, their ability to pay rent and repay loans; operator/tenant or joint venture partner bankruptcies or insolvencies; the cooperation of joint venture partners; and other risks described in Welltower's Annual Report on Form 10-K and in its other reports filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Finally, Welltower undertakes no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events or otherwise, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements. 1 New York City Department for the Aging View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160809006360/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [August 09, 2016] UMass Memorial Health Care Breaks Down Health Care Silos through Partnership with PatientPing BOSTON, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- PatientPing, a groundbreaking health technology company that allows health care providers to get notified in real-time when their patients receive care elsewhere, announced today that it is partnering with UMass Memorial Health Care on a data-sharing initiative in the state of Massachusetts. This partnership represents a massive step forward in achieving higher quality care through better patient care coordination in a state whose efforts thus far have been challenged by competitive barriers. "The relationship between PatientPing and UMass Memorial showcases our stance as an innovator that adopts technology that we know will improve care coordination efforts for both our patients and our caregivers," said Eric Dickson, MD, UMass Memorial Health Care president and CEO. "This is an exciting time in health care, and we are thrilled to be at the forefront of the conversation in Massachusetts." PatientPing aims to enhance medical information transparency between once disconnected health care providers by implementing its technology to improve patient care. Upon joining PatientPing, providers receive "pings," or real-time notifications, whenever their patients receive care at a wide range of facilities in Massachusetts and beyond. At the facility where patients are getting care, providers receive care instructions that include contact information for others on the patient's care team as well as patient visit histories. By sharing this information in real time, providers can seamlessly coordinate their patient's care. "UMass Memorial has demonstrated outstanding leadership and commitment to improving quality of patient care by removing the data silos between itself and other health care providers that serve its patients," said Jay Desai, co-founder & CEO, PatientPing. "This represents a key turning point in health data-sharing conversation. We are starting to see once-competitive providers let down their walls so they can work together on shared patints. Massachusetts patients will benefit tremendously through this improved care coordination. For example, we'll avoid duplicative procedures and ensure that patients receive timely follow-up care when they are discharged from the hospital." Early data shows that a significant number of patients who receive care at UMass Memorial member hospitals also receive care from providers scattered throughout New England. Since the partnership began, over 200 New England provider organizations, stretching from Vermont to Connecticut, have cared for over 3,000 patients who have also visited UMass Memorial member hospitals. The PatientPing technology bridges the silos between all of these unaffiliated providers, allowing them to collaborate to provide better care at lower cost. PatientPing's nationwide community includes more than 15,000 providers and has a presence in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Vermont and New Hampshire. PatientPing is backed by Google Ventures, F-Prime Capital (the VC funds of FMR LLC, the parent company of Fidelity), and First Round Capital. PatientPing is rapidly accelerating its nationwide expansion so that any two or more providers that share patients anywhere in the country can simply coordinate with one another. About UMass Memorial Health Care UMass Memorial Health Care is the largest not-for-profit health care system in Central Massachusetts with more than 12,900 employees and 1,670 physicians, many of whom are members of UMass Memorial Medical Group. Our member hospitals and entities include Clinton Hospital, HealthAlliance Hospital, Marlborough Hospital, UMass Memorial Medical Center and Community Healthlink, our behavioral health agency. With our teaching and research partner, the University of Massachusetts Medical School, our extensive primary care network and our cancer, diabetes, heart and vascular, and musculoskeletal programs, UMass Memorial delivers safe, high-quality and compassionate care. Call 855-UMASS-MD (855-862-7763) for all your health care needs. Visit umassmemorialhealthcare.org. About PatientPing PatientPing is a Boston-based health technology company that is building a national community of engaged providers who are sharing information, coordinating care, and working together to get patients healthier faster. By joining the PatientPing community, providers get notified in real-time when their patients receive care elsewhere and are able to share care instructions with other providers. PatientPing's national care coordination community includes physicians, nurses, case managers, and care coordinators across hospitals, emergency departments, accountable care organizations (ACOs), physician practices, skilled nursing facilities, home health agencies, inpatient rehabilitation centers, payers and other providers. By connecting care teams through real-time information sharing, PatientPing enables providers to deliver higher quality and more cost-effective care, improving patient outcomes and experience. For more information, please visit www.patientping.com. Dominic Amenta | DPA Communications 781-789-5074 | [email protected] To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/umass-memorial-health-care-breaks-down-health-care-silos-through-partnership-with-patientping-300310454.html SOURCE PatientPing [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [August 08, 2016] City Of Columbus Fiber Forum COLUMBUS, Ohio, Aug. 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- CNX is hosting a forum discussion with the City of Columbus and broadband service providers to discuss their experience leveraging Columbus fiber to accelerate broadband availability in the community. The City of Columbus' new Director of Technology, H. Samuel Orth, III, will give introductory remarks. Brian Mefford, CEO of CNX, will talk about building successful public private partnerships, followed by a forum discussion about leveraging City fiber. Time: Tuesday, August 9, 2016 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM Location: Strongwater Columbus 401 West Town Street Columbus, OH 43215 About CNX Connected Nation Exchange (CNX) accelerates community broadband by automating market analytics, asset management and property lease transactions through a proprietary software as a service platform. CNX helps cities unlock the value of their properties that are useful for broadband network expansion, including buildings, rooftops, towers, utility poles, signage, water tanks, rights of way, and fiber optics. To learn more visit www.CNX.io, or call us at 866-881-9425. Contact: Tracie Rotermann Tel. 866-881-9425 Email: [email protected] Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20151124/290706LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/city-of-columbus-fiber-forum-300310822.html SOURCE Connected Nation Exchange (CNX) [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [August 08, 2016] IGEM to Leverage on ASEAN's 23% Renewable Energy Target KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The International Greentech & Eco Products Exhibition & Conference Malaysia (IGEM 2016), which aims to leverage on ASEAN's commitment to achieve a regional fuel-mix target of 23% renewable energy (RE) use by 2020, aptly themed Green Business for Sustainability, is attracting positive response from global green corporations. International players such as Huawei, JA solar, Hanwha Q Cells, Trina Solar, Jinko Solar and Sun Benefit LLC as well as trade organisations such as EU-Malaysia Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Korea Environmental Industry & Technology Institute and Japan External Trade Organisation have confirmed participation. To be held from 5th to 8th October, the booths for IGEM 2016 are fast filling up, with a few prime spots still available on a first-come-first-serve basis. As ASEAN's largest green technology business and innovation platform, IGEM 2016 targets business leads of US$370.9 million, 30,000 trade visitors and 350 exhibitors from over 30 countries. Organised by the Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water (KeTTHA) and co-organised by Malaysian Green Technology Corporation (GreenTech Malaysia), IGEM has since 2010, generated US$2.18 billion in business leads, with 2015 recording the highest at US$490 million. Overall, IGEM has attracted over 300,000 visitors from 50 countries including delegates, dignitaries and corporations from China, Germany, Japan, Norway, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Urging corporations to seize the opportunity to grow their green business in the region, Ir. Ahmad Hadri Haris, Group Chief Executive Officer of GreenTech Malaysia said, "We are very pleased to have secured global brands, leading corporations and trade organisations who recognise IGEM as a reputable event, which brings together innovative exhibiors, insightful conferences and breakthrough business matching programme." "With the recently announced green incentives by the Malaysian government in the form of Investment Tax Allowance and Income Tax Exemption, companies can reduce their net investment cost of green assets by half. This, coupled with other attractive incentives offered within ASEAN, gives companies another reason to be at IGEM and explore how to capitalise on these green incentives to expand their business in the region," he added. Recognising increasing growth potential in solar energy, IGEM will, for the first time, feature a dedicated Solar Energy Zone, led by the Malaysian Photovoltaic Industry Association (MPIA) and the Asian Photovoltaic Industry Association (APVIA) under the green energy pillar. There will also be four other pillars including Green Transport, Green Building, Waste Technology and Management as well as Clean Water Technology and Management, which offer numerous green technology solutions for companies to incorporate. President of MPIA, Ahmad Shadzli Abdul Wahab said, "We are pleased to be collaborating with KeTTHA and GreenTech Malaysia to be part of the region's largest green technology exhibition. There is immense potential for further growth of the solar sector particularly within the ASEAN region. As such, for the very first time, we are hosting the Solar Energy Zone in conjunction with IGEM." "We are working together with APVIA to maximise this opportunity, bringing in exhibitors and trade visitors from countries such as China, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia. We are very enthusiastic about this upcoming event and are leaving no stone unturned to make the Solar Energy Zone a great success. We urge all industry leaders and entrepreneurs to sign up and be part of IGEM 2016," he added. In addition to the exhibition, IGEM will also feature the Solar PV Conference from 5th to 6th October, which aims to encourage discourse on the challenges and opportunities faced by the solar industry, and explore ways to further unlock growth opportunities within the sector. Themed Bridging Key Performers, the Conference will bring together 30 international speakers, allowing for exchange of knowledge on the latest global developments, including challenges, opportunities and success stories within the industry. For more information about IGEM 2016, the five pillars and the Solar PV Conference, please visit www.igem.my. About the Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water The Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water (MEGTW) (Kementerian Tenaga, Teknologi Hijau dan Air -- KeTTHA) was established on 9 April 2009. KeTTHA is responsible for formulating policies, establishing legal frameworks and regulating development project in the Energy, Green Technology and Water sectors which are under the purview of the Ministry. About GreenTech Malaysia Malaysian Green Technology Corporation or GreenTech Malaysia is an organisation under the purview of the Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water Malaysia (KeTTHA), charged with the development and promotion of green technology as a strategic engine for socio-economic growth in Malaysia. About MPIA Established in 2007, the Malaysian Photovoltaic Industry Association (MPIA) is a non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting the use of solar PV as mainstream source of energy in Malaysia. It has now become one of the leading dialogue partners with the Malaysian Government and its various ministries and agencies in ensuring right policies and incentives are in place that will benefit the people, industry and the country. MPIA also conduct continuous competency training course and seminars to increase competency among MPIA members and also increase public awareness on the technology, legal and environmental aspects of solar PV industry. For media enquiries, please contact: GreenTech Malaysia Tel : +60-3-8921-0870 Fax : +60-3-8921-0801 Email: [email protected] Photo - http://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20160808/8521605042 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [August 09, 2016] Virtual Health Appoints New Vice President of Sales to Support Growing Demand NEW YORK, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Virtual Health, the pioneering provider of next generation health care technology for value-based care, today announced the appointment of Sue Powers as senior vice president of sales. In this role, Powers assumes responsibility for promoting the development of the sales team and spearheading the company's rapid expansion. "Virtual Health is experiencing explosive growth, with recent backing from Edison Partners and new partnership plans in the works. Adding Sue to our executive cadre is a crucial next step in continuing to scale the company. This is the first of a number of key hires we will be making to ramp up our sales team," said Don Yish, executive vice president of sales at Virtual Health. "Having previously worked with Sue, I have witnessed first-hand her unique ability to build a customer-centric organization and create a high-performance culture." Powers will take the dual responsibilities of developing and mentoring Virual Health's sales staff and tapping into her extensive experience with value-based care to identify new business opportunities for the company's groundbreaking technology platform. Additionally, Powers' keen business acumen will enable her to provide critical strategic counsel to the executive team. Powers looks forward to fostering customer engagement by leveraging her strong health care operations and technology background, knowledge in market research and skills in building strong client relationships. "I am pleased to start the next chapter of my career with such an innovative and disruptive company in the health care space," said Powers. "The Virtual Health team has a true passion for improving health care delivery and helping customers realize tangible results in terms of both outcomes and cost savings. I look forward to helping bring the company's valuable technology to the customers and populations who can most benefit from its adoption." Powers brings 24 years of experience in sales and 14 years of experience in health care operations. She previously held sales and management positions at Array Health, Edifecs, Quovadx, Vitria Technology, and Loudcloud. About Virtual Health Virtual Health is the first true population health management platform; an end-to-end ecosystem, purpose built for the transition to value-based care. Virtual Health offers a vast range of functionalities, including interdisciplinary clinical workflows, electronic health record aggregation, behavioral health management, broad spectrum telehealth, care team collaboration, real-time and predictive analytics, quality metrics, patient engagement and customizable reporting. Virtual Health empowers health plans, managed care organizations, government agencies, and accountable care organizations to provide patients with a better quality of life and enhanced outcomes while maximizing efficiency, improving transparency and lowering costs. For more information, visit www.virtualhealth.com. Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150213/175561LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/virtual-health-appoints-new-vice-president-of-sales-to-support-growing-demand-300310899.html SOURCE Virtual Health [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [August 09, 2016] Woundtech, Wound Management Technology Company, Closes $40 Million Series A Funding Round By Aldrich Capital Partners FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Woundtech (Podicare Services, Inc), a wound management technology company, today announced it has closed a $40 million investment by Aldrich Capital Partners ("Aldrich"). The investment will be used to fuel Woundtech's growth and expansion to provide wound care management, services and workflow software-as-a-service ("SaaS") solutions to healthcare providers and patients. The Fort Lauderdale-based company provides wound management services to over 35 major health plans and over 250 Managed Services Organizations (MSO), Independent Practice Associations (IPA) and large medical groups representing over 4 million insured patients in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. "This investment highlights our view that wound management services is a rapidly growing 50 billion dollar a year industry in the U.S. and expected to grow to over 200 billion dollars in the next several years," said Mirza Baig, a Partner at Aldrich. "Like other telemedicine and analytical platforms from the last decade, Woundtech is bringing a new level of service and management to an industry still reliant on misaligned hospital-based programs and expensive and inappropriate therapies. We are proud to be a long-term partner of the Company." Over the past two years, Woundtech has aggressively grown its client base, while introducing new solutions including technology portals and distributed support across five states and over 4 million patients. "Woundtech has lowered direct costs to healthcae payers by an average of 70%, reduced wound related hospitalizations by 95% and reduced expensive unproven treatment modalities by over 95%," said Jeffrey Galitz M.D., DPM, FACFAS, DABPS, the CEO and founder of Woundtech. "We do all of this while increasing access to care for patients by treating patients where ever they reside such as in the comfort of their own home. "Aldrich's investment will allow Woundtech to further expand our rapidly growing footprint and add additional related service lines. Woundtech's partnership with Aldrich will also allow us to focus on health care systems outside of the US where wound care is a significant driver of costs and hospitalizations," Dr. Galitz said. "We are energized to have the support of Aldrich to redefine woundcare." About Woundtech Woundtech, a Ft. Lauderdale, FL-based company, provides comprehensive wound care, via a telehealth-based platform, to health plan and medical group patients residing in private homes, Skilled Nursing, and Assisted Living Facilities. Woundtech's solution brings the wound care center to the patient utilizing Woundtech's wound care specialists on the ground along with a telemedicine platform and proprietary analytics and software. Woundtech's focus on improved outcomes, lower costs and advanced data reporting has propelled its rapid growth. Woundtech employs physicians, podiatrists, nurse practitioners and physician assistants who utilize Woundtech's advanced treatment platforms. About Aldrich Capital Partners Aldrich Capital Partners ("ACP") is a private equity firm that focuses on investing in growing entrepreneurial companies in the healthcare IT, FinTech, business services and enterprise software sectors. ACP works closely with entrepreneurs and executives to grow private businesses and utilize our network of relationships, resources and expertise to help company owners achieve their growth objectives. Mirza Baig and Raz Zia lead ACP and have a proven track record of successfully helping build innovative businesses. These companies have been taken public, sold to strategic investors or been successful as ongoing standalone entities. ACP's partners have led investments in multiple franchise-defining companies including BenefitFocus, iHealth Technologies, Imaging Advantage, TrialCard, Streamlined Medical and CambridgeSoft. For more information visit: www.aldrichcap.com. Contact: Jeff Rutherford 413-475-0087 Email To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/woundtech-wound-management-technology-company-closes-40-million-series-a-funding-round-by-aldrich-capital-partners-300311015.html SOURCE Woundtech [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Registration Now Open for the First IEEE International Conference on Rebooting Computing IEEE (News - Alert), the world's largest professional organization advancing technology for humanity, invites early adopters, established innovators, students, and technology forward-thinkers to register for the first International Conference on Rebooting Computing (ICRC 2016). ICRC 2016 is the flagship event established as part of the IEEE Rebooting Computing (RC) initiative. IEEE ICRC 2016 will be held 17-19 October 2016, at Hilton San Diego in Del Mar, California. The goal of ICRC 2016 is to discover and foster novel methodologies to reinvent computing technology, including new materials and physics, devices and circuits, system and network architectures, and algorithms and software. A distinguished panel of keynote speakers will explore these topics aimed at determining fundamentally new ways to compute. Highlights of the agenda include sessions on brain-inspired neuromorphic computing, quantum and optical computing, reversible and adiabatic computing, and other novel approaches. There will be great opportunities for discussions, sharing latest results, and exchanging novel ideas. Register for ICRC 2016 online at http://bit.ly/RegforICRC. IEEE ICRC 2016 kicks off a week of engaging and robust live experiences where attendees from academia and industry will contribute to an in-depth exchange from a broad technical community. Beside the conference itself, there are also satellite workshops on related future computing topics, sponsored by the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency (IARPA) and the International Roadmap for Devices and Systems (IRDS). These workshops are also open to conference registrants. Additionally, the fourth IEEE Technology Time Machine 2016 (IEEE TTM) symposium will take place 20-21 October 2016 in San Diego, California with the theme Making the Future. IEEE TTM 2016 will provide an overview of future technologies and explore how they may be leveraged through research, products and services. To register, visit the registration page. Registration for the events, IEEE ICRC 2016 and IEEE TTM 2016, are now open with an Early Bird discounted rate through 1 September 2016. Both IEEE ICRC and IEEE TTM are organized by the IEEE Future Directions Committee (FDC), where the FDC is an incubator for emerging technologies. Co-sponsors of ICRC include the IEEE Computer Society and the IEEE Council on Superconductivity. ICRC Patrons include Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IARPA, and IBM (News - Alert). To learn more about the IEEE Rebooting Computing initiative, join the IEEE Rebooting Computing Technical Community, follow us on Twitter, connect with us on LinkedIn, and visit us on Facebook. About IEEE IEEE, a large, global technical professional organization, is dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. Through its highly cited publications, conferences, technology standards, and professional and educational activities, IEEE is the trusted voice on a wide variety of areas ranging from aerospace systems, computers and telecommunications to biomedical engineering, electric power and consumer electronics. Learn more at http://www.ieee.org. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160809005750/en/ [August 09, 2016] Consumers Saved $646 Million in 2015 from Energy Efficient Set-Top Boxes Consumers saved approximately $646 million in energy costs in 2015 as a result of the award-winning voluntary set-top box energy conservation agreement among pay-TV providers, consumer technology manufacturers and energy efficiency advocates. A new report by independent auditor D+R International found that more than 3.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions were prevented in 2015 through a 15.94 percent reduction in national energy consumption from set-top boxes, even as their functionality increased. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160809006074/en/ Over the past three years of the Voluntary Agreement, the independent auditor found that consumers have saved nearly $1.2 billion in energy costs and avoided 6.5 million metric tons of CO 2 emissions. The energy saved over three years is the equivalent of the energy used by all of the homes in both Washington, DC, and San Francisco combined, for one year. In addition, energy savings have increased over the past three years, doubling in 2014 and then increasing by another 82 percent in 2015. The Voluntary Agreement was recently named "Project of the Year" by Environmental Leader, a leading daily trade publication covering energy, environmental and sustainability news. "The pay TV industry and its suppliers are beginning to make a real dent in the high energy use of cable, satellite and telephone set-top boxes. Thanks to improved efficiency, we've seen more than $1 billion in consumer savings. While there's still much more to do, that's real progress," said Noah Horowitz, director of the Center for Energy Efficiency Standards at the Natura Resources Defense Council. "In fact, new DVRs, the main set-top box in most homes, now use 36 percent less energy annually than in 2012. And due to the magic of the cloud and Internet-connected TVs, some televisions are receiving pay TV service via an 'app' that eliminates the need for a set-top box altogether." To provide more transparency and information to consumers, regulators and other stakeholders about the progress of the Voluntary Agreement (and a similar agreement related to home Internet equipment), the participants in the Voluntary Agreement have launched a new website, www.energy-efficiency.us. The website includes links to individual pay TV and Internet provider websites so consumers can learn more about the equipment that each company offers. The Voluntary Agreement was signed in 2012 with the goal of increasing the energy efficiency of set-top boxes while continuing to innovate and introduce new features. In 2013, leading energy efficiency advocates joined with the pay television industry in an expanded version of the Voluntary Agreement. Signatories now include all of the major multichannel video service providers representing more than 92 percent of the U.S. multichannel video market (AT&T/DIRECTV, Comcast, Charter/Time Warner Cable/Bright House Networks, DISH, Verizon (News - Alert), Cox, Cablevision, and CenturyLink), major manufacturers (ARRIS/Pace, Technicolor, EchoStar Technologies) and energy-efficiency advocates (Natural Resources Defense Council, American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), and the Appliance Standards Awareness Project (ASAP). Additional progress verified in the 2015 annual report includes: 99.5 percent of New Set-Top Boxes Meet ENERGY STAR (News - Alert) Efficiency Standards. Under the Voluntary Agreement, the service provider signatories committed that 90 percent of the set-top boxes they purchased after December 31, 2013, would meet the energy efficiency standards of ENERGY STAR Version 3.0. In 2015, 99.5 percent of set-top boxes purchased met these standards. Under the Voluntary Agreement, the service provider signatories committed that 90 percent of the set-top boxes they purchased after December 31, 2013, would meet the energy efficiency standards of ENERGY STAR Version 3.0. In 2015, 99.5 percent of set-top boxes purchased met these standards. Whole-Home Systems. Multi-room DVR, network and cloud offerings by cable, telco and satellite providers have continued to expand. In the past three years, the signatories have purchased more than 27 million "thin clients," each of which can deliver DVR functionality to a TV without requiring a more energy-intensive DVR for each TV. A consumer that uses two thin clients in place of two additional DVRs saves approximately $30 per year in electricity. Multi-room DVR, network and cloud offerings by cable, telco and satellite providers have continued to expand. In the past three years, the signatories have purchased more than 27 million "thin clients," each of which can deliver DVR functionality to a TV without requiring a more energy-intensive DVR for each TV. A consumer that uses two thin clients in place of two additional DVRs saves approximately $30 per year in electricity. Reduced Power Modes. Most new set-top boxes now include energy-saving features that enable the devices to use less energy when not in use, such as light sleep and automatic power down. One large provider has now launched next-generation power management features that enable parts of a set-top box to go into a deep sleep reduced-power consumption mode when not in use, and other providers are developing and trialing next-generation power savings plans. Most new set-top boxes now include energy-saving features that enable the devices to use less energy when not in use, such as light sleep and automatic power down. One large provider has now launched next-generation power management features that enable parts of a set-top box to go into a deep sleep reduced-power consumption mode when not in use, and other providers are developing and trialing next-generation power savings plans. Reducing the Number of Set-Top Boxes. The use of apps to watch pay TV programming on tablets, smartphones, smart TVs and other devices (without set-top boxes) has skyrocketed in growth. About Consumer Technology Association: Consumer Technology Association (CTA)TM is the trade association representing the $287 billion U.S. consumer technology industry. More than 2,200 companies - 80 percent are small businesses and startups; others are among the world's best known brands - enjoy the benefits of CTA membership including policy advocacy, market research, technical education, industry promotion, standards development and the fostering of business and strategic relationships. The Consumer Technology Association also owns and produces CES (News - Alert) - the world's gathering place for all who thrive on the business of consumer technologies. Profits from CES are reinvested into CTA's industry services. About NCTA (News - Alert): NCTA is the principal trade association for the U.S. cable industry, representing cable operators that deliver advanced digital services to consumers and businesses throughout urban and rural America, and more than 200 cable program networks that produce TV's most creative and popular shows. The U.S. cable industry is the largest provider of high-speed Internet access, serving more than 56 million customers, after investing $230 billion since 1996 to build robust fiber optic networks that reach 93 percent of American homes. The cable industry supports 2.7 million American jobs and there are at least 300 cable employees in every congressional district. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160809006074/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [August 09, 2016] GCC Insulators Market to Reach $ 409 Million by 2021, Says TechSci Research NEW YORK, August 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Anticipated expansion and upgrading of power transmission and distribution networks to boost GCC insulators market through 2021 According to TechSci Research report "GCC Insulators Market By Rating, By Type, Competition Forecast & Opportunities, 2011 - 2021", insulators market in GCC is projected to reach US$ 409 million by 2021, on account of increasing investments in power projects driven by expanding population base, growing manufacturing sector, and rapid expansion of infrastructure projects such as railways, sea ports, etc. Insulators are widely used in transmission and distribution networks to prevent energy loss by acting as a barrier between current carrying cables and supporting towers. Over the next five years, anticipated expansion of transmission and distribution networks in GCC nations to supply power from source of generation to demand location is projected to drive demand for insulators in the region. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140117/663730 ) Power Generation Capacity in GCC Countries, 2013 (Megawatts) Power Generation Capacity in Country Megawatt Saudi Arabia 53.62 United Arab Emirates 27.23 Kuwait 14.7 Qatar 7.95 Oman 5.81 Bahrain 3.94 Browse 15 market data Tables and 36 Figures spread through 143 Pages and an in-depth TOC on "GCC Insulators Market" https://www.techsciresearch.com/report/gcc-insulators-market-by-rating-low-voltage-medium-voltage-and-high-voltage-by-type-porcelain-composite-and-glass-competition-forecast-and-opportunities-2011-2021/751.html On the basis of ratings, GCC insulators market is categorized into low voltage insulators, medium voltage insulators and high voltage insulators. Low voltage insulators segment accounts for the largest share in the region's insulators market on account of rapid expansion of low voltage distribution lines to cater to the growing electricity demand from the residential segment. Saudi Arabia dominates GC insulators market due to growing housing sector and increasing inclination of the country to diversify into non-oil sectors such as manufacturing, real estate, infrastructure, etc. Insulators market in the GCC region is dominated by global electrical equipment manufacturers such as ABB, NGK insulators and Toshiba Gulf FZE. "Growing infrastructure developments and increasing focus of GCC nations to develop their manufacturing sector is projected to boost demand for electricity in the region over the next five years. Moreover, growth of real estate markets in the region is driven by rapidly growing population base in these countries. In order to cater to rising need for housing, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have initiated several housing and real estate projects. Moreover, in order to address the rising demand for electricity, various major GCC countries have announced massive investments in power sector projects, particularly in power transmission and distribution segment, which would drive demand for insulators in the coming years." said Mr. Karan Chechi, Research Director with TechSci Research, a research based global management consulting firm. Download Sample Report @ https://www.techsciresearch.com/sample-report.aspx?cid=751 Customers can also request for 10% free customization on this report. "GCC Insulators Market By Rating, By Type, Competition Forecast & Opportunities, 2011 - 2021" has evaluated the future growth potential of insulators market across the GCC region and provide statistics and information on market structure, industry behavior and trends. The report includes market projections and demand forecasting. The report is intended to provide cutting-edge market intelligence and help decision makers take sound investment evaluation. Besides, the report also identifies and analyzes emerging trends along with essential drivers, challenges and opportunities available in the insulators market in the GCC region. Browse Related Reports GCC Switchgear Market By Type, By End User, Competition Forecast and Opportunities, 2011 - 2021 http://www.techsciresearch.com/report/gcc-switchgear-market-by-type-low-medium-and-high-voltage-by-end-user-utilities-residential-industrial-and-others-competition-forecast-and-opportunities-2011-2021/645.html Saudi Arabia Electric Motors Market By Type (AC and DC), By End User, By Application, By Rating, Competition Forecast and Opportunities, 2011 - 2021 http://www.techsciresearch.com/report/saudi-arabia-electric-motors-market-by-type-ac-and-dc-by-end-user-residential-manufacturing-commercial-real-estate-etc-by-application-pumps-compressors-fans-etc-by-rating-competition-forecast-and-opportunities-2011-2021/615.html Saudi Arabia Power & Distribution Transformers Market Forecast & Opportunities, 2020 http://www.techsciresearch.com/report/saudi-arabia-power-and-distribution-transformers-market-forecast-and-opportunities-2020/584.html About TechSci Research TechSci Research is a leading global market research firm publishing premium market research reports. Serving 700 global clients with more than 600 premium market research studies, TechSci Research is serving clients across 11 different industrial verticals. TechSci Research specializes in research based consulting assignments in high growth and emerging markets, leading technologies and niche applications. Our workforce of more than 100 fulltime Analysts and Consultants employing innovative research solutions and tracking global and country specific high growth markets helps TechSci clients to lead rather than follow market trends. Contact Mr. Ken Mathews 708 Third Avenue, Manhattan, NY, New York - 10017 Tel: +1-646-360-1656 Email: [email protected] Connect with us on Twitter - https://twitter.com/TechSciResearch Connect with us on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/techsci-research [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [August 09, 2016] DataSpan Boosts Presence in Atlanta with New Account Executive DALLAS, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- DataSpan, a nationwide provider of technology solutions to the Fortune 1000, announced that Keith Warren has joined the company as a Senior Account Executive covering the entire State of Georgia and Eastern Tennessee. Keith brings nearly two decades of experience to the role. Prior to joining DataSpan, he was a Senior Account Executive and Senior Technology Specialist for Staples Technology Solutions and Corporate Express. Prior to that position, he was the Senior Account Manager for Service Technologies, and the Executive Account Manager/Partner for Ultimate One Logistics Services. Keith has significant experience in providng customized data center and IT solutions to customers in the healthcare, education, retail, and financial services industries. He is a two-time recipient of Hewlett-Packard's Partner Sales Excellence award. While at Staples, Keith was consistently ranked among their top 10 sales professionals. "We are confident that Keith has the ability to solve our customers' business challenges by delivering customized technology solutions and look forward to his success," said Paul Zaidins, Chairman and CEO. "DataSpan is focused on national growth, and Keith will be instrumental in achieving that mission by expanding our presence throughout the State of Georgia and Eastern Tennessee." About DataSpan DataSpan's team members are empowered to solve their customers' business challenges by delivering customized technology solutions. Since 1974, DataSpan has been a trusted partner to more than half of the Fortune 1000. DataSpan offers solutions for data center infrastructure, storage management, information technology infrastructure, data security services, and instant communication. For more information, visit www.dataspan.com. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160809/396797 Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150114/169074LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dataspan-boosts-presence-in-atlanta-with-new-account-executive-300311215.html SOURCE DataSpan [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [August 09, 2016] CPI International Announces Third Quarter 2016 Financial Results PALO ALTO, Calif., Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- CPI International Holding Corp., the parent company of CPI International, Inc. (CPI), today announced financial results for the fiscal year 2016 third quarter ended July 1, 2016. "As anticipated, our business has continued to strengthen as the year has progressed. In the third quarter of fiscal 2016, CPI delivered higher sales and profit results than in the same quarter of last year and in the previous two quarters of this year," said Joe Caldarelli, chief executive officer of CPI. "Although we are still seeing delays in the release of certain orders, particularly in programs dependent on government funding, our third quarter results demonstrate that we have sufficient resources and backlog to be able to efficiently generate profitable sales in a less than optimal environment." Orders and Sales CPI booked orders totaling $349 million in the first nine months of fiscal 2016, a four percent increase from the $336 million generated in the same period of the previous fiscal year. Orders in the communications market increased to the highest third quarter year-to-date level recorded in the company's history, while orders in the defense and medical markets decreased. The decrease in defense orders was primarily due to timing considerations. CPI generated sales totaling $130 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2016, an 18 percent increase over the $110 million generated in the same quarter of the previous year. Communications sales increased to the highest quarterly level in the company's history and defense sales also increased; sales in the medical market decreased modestly. CPI's results for the first nine months and third quarter of fiscal 2016 include contributions from its new ASC Signal Division, which was acquired in September 2015. The acquisition of the ASC Signal operations broadened CPI's portfolio of advanced antenna offerings for communications and radar customers globally. In the first nine months of fiscal 2016, CPI ASC Signal Division contributed approximately $33 million in orders and approximately $32 million in sales to CPI. The significant majority of these orders and sales were in the communications market. Net Income and Adjusted EBITDA CPI generated net income totaling $4.5 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2016, a significant increase from the $1.2 million generated in the same quarter of the previous year. Adjusted EBITDA totaled $26.3 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2016, a 46 percent increase from the $18.1 million recorded in the same quarter of the previous year. The increases in the most recent quarter's net income and adjusted EBITDA were primarily the result of higher sales volume, a favorable mix of product shipments, the inclusion of contributions from the ASC Signal operations and beneficial changes in the exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and the Canadian dollar. As stated previously, CPI expects its financial results to continue to improve as the year progresses. The net income and adjusted EBITDA results reported for the third quarter of fiscal 2016 represent increases over both of the prior two quarters. CPI reported a $1.2 million net loss and adjusted EBITDA of $16.3 million in the first quarter and net income of $0.5 million and adjusted EBITDA of $18.4 million in the second quarter. Communications Market In the communications market, CPI's orders increased 29 percent to $160 million in the first nine months of fiscal 2016. CPI ASC Signal Division's orders for commercial and military communications programs accounted for of the majority of this increase; however, the company also benefitted from higher orders for commercial satellite communications programs, particularly fixed satellite services applications, and continued demand for advanced tactical common data link (TCDL) antenna products for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) programs. Communications sales increased 41 percent to $57.6 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2016. Contributions from CPI's ASC Signal Division provided approximately 70 percent of this increase. The remainder of the increase was primarily due to higher sales for military communications applications. Defense Market In the defense market, CPI's orders decreased 14 percent to $116 million in the first nine months of fiscal 2016. This decrease was primarily due to the timing of orders for certain naval radar programs and an airborne radome program for which the company typically receives multiyear orders. Defense sales increased seven percent to $48.8 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2016. This increase was primarily due to higher sales to support a variety of radar programs and the inclusion of sales from the ASC Signal operations. Orders and sales for CPI's largest recurring defense program, the Aegis radar systems, were essentially unchanged during the most recent periods. Demand for products to support this long-running and stable program remains very strong, and the first nine months of fiscal 2016 included CPI's highest year-to-date sales for this program in the company's history. Medical Market In the medical market, CPI's orders decreased six percent to $53.3 million in the first nine months of fiscal 2016. This decrease was primarily due to lower orders of x-ray imaging products for foreign customers, largely resulting from challenging global economic conditions, as well as lower orders of MRI products. Orders for radiation therapy applications increased. Medical sales decreased five percent, or approximately $0.8 million, to $14.7 million. This decrease was primarily due to lower sales of x-ray imaging products for foreign customers, largely resulting from challenging global economic conditions, as well as lower sales of MRI products. Sales for radiation therapy applications increased. Cash Flow As of July 1, 2016, CPI's cash and cash equivalents totaled $39.2 million. For the 12-month period ending on that date, cash flow from operating activities totaled $16.5 million, free cash flow totaled $9.8 million and adjusted free cash flow totaled $18.5 million. Financial Community Conference Call In conjunction with this announcement, CPI will hold a conference call on Wednesday, August 10, 2016 at 11:00 a.m. (EDT) that will be broadcast simultaneously on the company's Web site. To participate in this conference call, please dial (800) 649-5127, or (253) 237-1144 for international callers, enter conference ID 54500822 and ask for the CPI International Third Quarter 2016 Financial Results Conference Call. To access the Web cast, please visit http://investor.cpii.com and click "Events." About CPI International Holding Corp. CPI International Holding Corp., headquartered in Palo Alto, California, is the parent company of CPI International, Inc., which is the parent company of Communications & Power Industries LLC and Communications & Power Industries Canada Inc. Together, Communications & Power Industries LLC and Communications & Power Industries Canada Inc. develop, manufacture and globally distribute components and subsystems used in the generation, amplification, transmission and reception of microwave signals for a wide variety of systems including radar, electronic warfare and communications (satellite and point-to-point) systems for military and commercial applications, specialty products for medical diagnostic imaging and the treatment of cancer, as well as microwave and RF energy generating products for various industrial and scientific pursuits. Non-GAAP Supplemental Information EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, EBITDA margin, adjusted EBITDA margin, free cash flow and adjusted free cash flow presented here are non-generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) financial measures. EBITDA represents earnings before net interest expense, provision for income taxes and depreciation and amortization. Adjusted EBITDA represents EBITDA further adjusted to exclude stock-based compensation expenses, certain acquisition-related expenses and sponsor management fees, as well as certain other items. EBITDA margin represents EBITDA divided by sales. Adjusted EBITDA margin represents adjusted EBITDA divided by sales. Free cash flow represents net cash provided by operating activities minus capital expenditures and patent application fees. Adjusted free cash flow represents free cash flow further adjusted to exclude certain acquisition-related items and sponsor management fees, net of any tax benefits, and cash received for prior year transfer pricing audits, as well as certain other items. CPI believes that GAAP-based financial information for leveraged businesses, such as the company's business, should be supplemented by EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, EBITDA margin, adjusted EBITDA margin, free cash flow and adjusted free cash flow so that investors better understand the company's operating performance in connection with their analysis of the company's business. In addition, CPI's management team uses EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA to evaluate the company's operating performance, to monitor compliance with its senior credit facility, to make day-to-day operating decisions and as a component in the calculation of management bonuses. Other companies may define EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, EBITDA margin, adjusted EBITDA margin, free cash flow and adjusted free cash flow differently and, as a result, the company's measures may not be directly comparable to EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, EBITDA margin, adjusted EBITDA margin, free cash flow and adjusted free cash flow of other companies. Because EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, EBITDA margin, adjusted EBITDA margin, free cash flow and adjusted free cash flow do not include certain material costs, such as interest and taxes in the case of EBITDA-based measures, necessary to operate the company's business, when analyzing the company's business, these non-GAAP measures should be considered in addition to, and not as a substitute for, net income (loss), net cash provided by (used in) operating activities, net income margin or other statements of income or statements of cash flows data prepared in accordance with GAAP. Certain statements included above constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking statements provide our current expectations, beliefs or forecasts of future events. Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual events or results to differ materially from the results projected, expected or implied by these forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to, competition in our end markets; our significant amount of debt; changes or reductions in the U.S. defense budget; currency fluctuations; goodwill impairment considerations; customer cancellations of sales contracts; U.S. Government contracts; export restrictions and other laws and regulations; international laws; changes in technology; the impact of unexpected costs; the impact of a general slowdown in the global economy; the impact of environmental or zoning laws and regulations; and inability to obtain raw materials and components. These and other risks are described in more detail in our periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. As a result of these uncertainties, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. All future written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to us or any person acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements contained or referred to in this section. New risks and uncertainties arise from time to time, and it is impossible for us to predict these events or how they may affect us. We undertake no duty or obligation to publicly revise any forward-looking statement to reflect circumstances or events occurring after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events or changes in our expectations. CPI INTERNATIONAL HOLDING CORP. and Subsidiaries CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME (All dollar amounts in thousands unaudited) Three Months Ended Nine Months Ended July 1, 2016 July 3, 2015 July 1, 2016 July 3, 2015 Sales $ 129,612 $ 109,645 $ 360,579 $ 328,283 Cost of sales, including $0, $0, $906 and $0 of utilization of net increase in cost basis of inventory due to purchase accounting, respectively 89,820 79,831 259,411 236,978 Gross profit 39,792 29,814 101,168 91,305 Operating costs and expenses: Research and development 4,001 3,813 12,236 11,370 Selling and marketing 6,368 5,518 19,426 17,018 General and administrative 7,650 7,572 23,132 23,234 Amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets 3,299 2,546 10,414 7,637 Total operating costs and expenses 21,318 19,449 65,208 59,259 Operating income 18,474 10,365 35,960 32,046 Interest expense, net 9,800 9,119 29,308 27,312 Income before income taxes 8,674 1,246 6,652 4,734 Income tax expense 4,161 27 2,875 1,402 Net income 4,513 1,219 3,777 3,332 Other comprehensive income (loss), net of tax Unrealized income (loss) on cash flow hedges, net of tax 818 876 3,077 (688) Total other comprehensive income (loss), net of tax 818 876 3,077 (688) Comprehensive income $ 5,331 $ 2,095 $ 6,854 $ 2,644 CPI INTERNATIONAL HOLDING CORP. and Subsidiaries CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (All dollar amounts in thousands, except per share data unaudited) July 1, 2016 October 2, 2015 Assets Current assets: Cash and cash equivalents $ 39,168 $ 37,514 Restricted cash 1,811 1,681 Accounts receivable, net 58,830 61,750 Inventories 115,926 103,276 Prepaid and other current assets 6,677 6,200 Total current assets 222,412 210,421 Property, plant, and equipment, net 74,439 78,592 Intangible assets, net 250,891 263,273 Goodwill 216,505 215,434 Other long-term assets 3,906 3,424 Total assets $ 768,153 $ 771,144 Liabilities and stockholders' equity Current liabilities: Current portion of long-term debt $ 3,100 $ 3,100 Accounts payable 30,971 30,349 Accrued expenses 29,973 44,106 Product warranty 6,082 5,304 Income taxes payable 2,563 1,154 Advance payments from customers 15,390 13,037 Total current liabilities 88,079 97,050 Deferred tax liabilities 88,863 91,227 Long-term debt: Principal, less current portion 542,925 545,250 Less unamortized discount (3,056) (4,400) Less unamortized debt issuance costs (8,969) (11,084) Long term debt, net of discount and debt issuance costs 530,900 529,766 Other long-term liabilities 6,168 6,384 Total liabilities 714,010 724,427 Commitments and contingencies Stockholders' equity: Common stock ($0.01 par value, 2 shares authorized: 1 share issued and outstanding) Additional paid-in capital 27,137 26,565 Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) 1,082 (1,995) Retained earnings 25,924 22,147 Total stockholders' equity 54,143 46,717 Total liabilities and stockholders' equity $ 768,153 $ 771,144 CPI INTERNATIONAL HOLDING CORP. and Subsidiaries CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS (All dollar amounts in thousands unaudited) Nine Months Ended July 1, 2016 July 3, 2015 Cash flows from operating activities Net cash provided by operating activities $ 13,579 $ 17,687 Cash flows from investing activities Capital expenditures (4,873) (4,695) Acquisition, net of cash acquired (363) Net cash used in investing activities (5,236) (4,695) Cash flows from financing activities Payment of contingent consideration (4,300) Payment of debt issue costs (64) Repayment of borrowings under First Lien Term Loan (2,325) (2,325) Net cash used in financing activities (6,689) (2,325) Net increase in cash and cash equivalents 1,654 10,667 Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period 37,514 50,617 Cash and cash equivalents at end of period $ 39,168 $ 61,284 Supplemental cash flow disclosures Cash paid for interest $ 21,249 $ 19,531 Cash paid for income taxes, net of refunds $ 3,071 $ 4,311 Decrease in accrued capital expenditures $ 464 $ 9 CPI INTERNATIONAL HOLDING CORP. and Subsidiaries NON-GAAP SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA (All dollar amounts in thousands - unaudited) Three Months Ended Nine Months Ended July 1, 2016 July 3, 2015 July 1, 2016 July 3, 2015 Net income $ 4,513 $ 1,219 $ 3,777 $ 3,332 Depreciation and amortization 6,561 5,812 19,930 17,540 Interest expense, net 9,800 9,119 29,308 27,312 Income tax expense 4,161 27 2,875 1,402 EBITDA 25,035 16,177 55,890 49,586 Adjustments: Stock-based compensation expense (1) 127 244 617 737 Acquisition-related expenses (2) 257 1,074 1,444 3,823 Purchase accounting expenses (3) 99 1,203 Veritas Capital annual management fee (4) 818 586 1,847 1,748 Total adjustments 1,301 1,904 5,111 6,308 Adjusted EBITDA $ 26,336 $ 18,081 $ 61,001 $ 55,894 EBITDA margin (5) 19.3 % 14.8 % 15.5 % 15.1 % Adjusted EBITDA margin (6) 20.3 % 16.5 % 16.9 % 17.0 % Net income margin (7) 3.5 % 1.1 % 1.0 % 1.0 % (1) Represents compensation expense for Class B membership interests by certain members of management and independent directors in the company's parent, CPI International Holding LLC. (2) Represents transaction costs related to the evaluation, negotiation, closing and integration of acquisitions. Costs include fees for attorneys and other professional services, as well as expenses related to the integration of operations into those of CPI and charges for an increase in the fair value of the Radant Technologies contingent consideration liability. (3) Represents non-cash charges for utilization of the net increase in cost basis of inventory and net decrease in deferred revenue that resulted from purchase accounting in connection with acquisitions. (4) Represents a management fee payable to Veritas Capital for advisory and consulting services. (5) Represents EBITDA divided by sales. (6) Represents adjusted EBITDA divided by sales. (7) Represents net income divided by sales. CPI INTERNATIONAL HOLDING CORP. and Subsidiaries NON-GAAP SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION Free Cash Flow and Adjusted Free Cash Flow (All dollar amounts in thousands - unaudited) Twelve Months Ended July 1, 2016 Net cash provided by operating activities $ 16,476 Cash capital expenditures (6,713) Free cash flow 9,763 Adjustments: Cash paid for acquisition-related expenses (1) 8,469 Cash paid for Veritas Capital management fee (2) 2,376 Tax benefit from acquisition-related expenses and Veritas management fee (3) (1,955) Cash received for prior year transfer pricing audit (4) (154) Total adjustments 8,736 Adjusted free cash flow $ 18,499 Net income $ 5,384 (1) Represents transaction costs related to the evaluation, negotiation, closing and integration of acquisitions, and payment of a contingent consideration to the former owners of Radant Technologies. Costs include fees for attorneys and other professional services, as well as expenses related to integration of acquired operations into those of CPI. (2) Represents a management fee paid to Veritas Capital for advisory and consulting services. (3) Represents the tax benefit from acquisition-related expenses and the Veritas Capital management fee. (4) Represents the net of income tax refunds, partially offset by payments, with respect to an audit by the Canada Revenue Agency ("CRA") of Communications & Power Industries Canada Inc.'s ("CPI Canada") purchase of the Satcom Division from the Company in fiscal years 2001 and 2002. The Company determined that this item should be excluded from this calculation as it pertains to prior years. Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20060426/CPILOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cpi-international-announces-third-quarter-2016-financial-results-300311354.html SOURCE CPI International Holding Corp.; CPI International, Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] 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. You have reached a premium content area of Transitions. To read this entire article please login if you are already a Transitions subscriber. Not a subscriber? Subscribe today for access to: Full access to the website, including premium articles videos, country reports and searchable archives (containing over 25,000 articles). iPad Pro 2022 3 reasons to buy and 2 reasons to skip The iPad Pro 2022 seems like the best iPad yet. But should you consider purchasing it? Here are 3 reasons you should buy it, and 2 reasons you shouldn't. LAS VEGAS Unmanned aerial drones equipped with electronic-warfare devices could jam radio frequencies and knock out wireless communications at restricted-access industrial facilities such as power plants and refineries, a security expert said at the Black Hat 2016 security conference here last week. (Image credit: PixOne/Shutterstock) Operators of factories, refineries, power plants and similar large facilities, which increasingly rely upon wireless sensors and communications, know how to defend against ground-based adversaries, said Jeff Melrose, a technology strategist with Yokogawa Electric, a Japanese maker of industrial sensors and controls. But these industrial facilities aren't ready for drone attacks. "An attacker normally has to get close, and we have a two-mile fence around our plant," Melrose said. "But even hobbyist drones can travel three miles, can tailgate people and can maneuver inside buildings." MORE: Best Drones To illustrate the dangers of electronic jamming and powerful electronic signals, Melrose cited previous known incidents. In the late 1980s, powerful radar scanners at a Dutch naval base triggered a nearby gas pipeline to rupture; a large valve had been opening and shutting in sync with the radar's frequency. In 1999, U.S. Navy radar tests disrupted water and gas distribution valves in the city of San Diego. Eight years later in 2007, the same city was subject to accidental electronic attack when a Navy radio-jamming exercise in the harbor made cellphones, pagers, GPS systems and even ATMs fail. In 2013, the FCC fined a New Jersey truck driver who had unintentionally disrupted flight takeoffs and landings at Newark Airport for months. The driver didn't want his boss to know he was taking naps in his truck, and had used an illegal GPS jammer to disable his truck's tracker. Except for the New Jersey one, all these involved powerful transmissions at significant distance. However, Melrose pointed out, a drone with a much weaker transmitter could achieve similar results at short range. He calculated that at about 25 feet, a pocket-sized jammer (illegal in the United States, but available overseas) could have the same effect on a wireless device as the 2007 naval test did upon the city of San Diego. It's pretty hard for a person with a jammer to hop a fence and move about an industrial facility's grounds without being detected. But, Melrose said, the DJI Phantom 4 drone, released in March, can travel at 45 mph for up to 25 minutes and be controlled for up to three miles away. It would be difficult to stop one flying over the fence and moving rapidly toward a target on the grounds. "For the people in my industry," Melrose said, "these things are just showing up, and they just don't know how to deal with them." One drawback for the drone operator is that the jammer can knock out the drone's own GPS navigation and radio controls. But that's easily solved, Melrose said: just put the jammer on a tether that's long enough to dangle out of effective range below the drone. He showed video clips in which a drone dangling a tethered object hovered still above stationary objects on the ground, or tracked and followed moving vehicles and individuals. Another scenario might be to fly a small drone over a facility, land it on a rooftop or someplace else on the grounds where it might be hard to spot, and only then turn on the jammer. If properly positioned, the jammer would be able to knock out transmissions from two or more transmitters until plant security was able to locate it. "One weakness of drones is that they're loud and sound like drones," Melrose admitted. "But there's a problem with listening for them people in plants are often wearing ear protection routinely." To defend against possible electronic-jammer drone attack, Melrose recommended that plants put wireless devices on mesh networks rather than the traditional hub-and-spoke networks. Mesh networks, in which nearby devices communicate with each other instead of only with a central base station, are more robust and quicker to "heal." He also recommended wireless repeaters to increase range, and even using reflective surfaces such as storage tanks to bounce signals around. King Of The Norths debut effort Sound The Underground was one of the most exciting rock releases of the past decade. Explosive, riff-driven and raw, Andrew Higgs and Danny Leo created a sound so colossal that it was nigh impossible to believe that it was coming from just two musicians. Recorded live in its entirety, Get Out Of Your World preserves all the raw garage charm and relentless energy of its predecessor. However, its less of an all-out assault and more of an eclectic and gripping rock adventure. What is immediately noticeable when listening through Get Out of Your World is the broad spectrum of influence the album projects. From the spellbinding desert rock vibes of opener Rise, through to the riff-packed instrumental No Stone Left Unturned, each track seems to have a distinctly different feel and pack a unique set of surprises. The raucous bluesy vocals of Higgs also carry versatility, often lending themselves to a Kyuss flavouring (see Down To The Devil), whilst other times carrying Zeppelin vibes on tracks such as Hard Days Are Done. Key tracks include two fantastic collaborations. With lead single Burn, Higgs invites Cogs Lucius Borich to the drum stool and the pair create jagged beer-raising jams, building throughout to culminate in a series of machine gun riffs. On The Mountain, mammoth stoner grooves make way for an enthralling spoken-word verse by John Scott from The Mark Of Cain. Title track Get Out Of Your World is another highlight, containing an ethereal interlude and lyrically serving as a rallying cry against hatred and bigotry. A cover of Jimmy Hendrixs Manic Depression closes out the album in true King Of The North class with an extended high-octane jam of the original. The drumming is predictably on-point throughout, bittersweet considering the recent departure of Danny Leo following the albums completion. However, with new drummer Steve Tyssen in tow, its going to be exciting to see how King Of The Norths sound progresses moving forward. As a whole, Get Out Of Your World manages to build heavily on its predecessor, polishing the overall sound whilst greatly pushing the boundaries of what the duo have delivered in the past. Impressively, despite its many elements, the album doesnt fall into the trap of becoming musical alphabet soup, blending cohesively to deliver a solid and enjoyable listen from start to finish. Simply put, Melbournes King Of The North have again delivered the goods with one of the strongest rock releases of the year. Get Out Of Your World is out August 5 on Dirty Rock Records. Deakin University Professor Peter Miller wants to put lockout laws back on the table in Victoria after conducting a secret study on Melbournes nightlife. As ABC News reports, while Millers proposal does not actually include locking out patrons from bars and clubs, he has called for a last-drink scheme which would see no more alcohol served after 3am. According to Miller, patrons experience an 11 per cent increase in intoxication for every hour after midnight. But despite the findings, Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews will not consider lockout laws or licensing restrictions. We certainly dont need to be doing what Sydneys done which is smash their nightlife and cost jobs and hurt the economy, the premier told News Corp earlier this week. The Premier has come out numerous times denying any chance of lockout laws in Melbourne. Lockout laws? Nope, the Premier tweeted back in February. Andrews acknowledged in a press conference in February that while alcohol related violence has not gone away, Melbourne is a much safer city than it was in 2008 when the original lockout laws were trialled. Speaking to theMusic, Jon Perry, owner of iconic music venue The Tote said there was no need for radical change to Melbournes liquor laws. Melbournes late-night economy employs 3,000 people and is valued at upwards of $655 million a year. Its no surprise then that the Andrews-led Labor Government will try hard to protect an industry with such a large employment sector. The Baird Government in New South Wales, however, has seen venues close their doors permanently due to the states harsh lockout laws. With Queensland now introducing new lockout laws, lets hope Daniel Andrews sticks to his word and maintains Melbournes reputation as the Music Capital of Australia. Having put homegrown favourites Skegss and UK maverick Rat Boy on the path to stardom, Dune Rats have now announced the latest addition to the roster at Ratbag Records, the label the trio founded last year. The latest signee to Ratbag Records are punky Danish trio Molly. The Australian slash New Zealand release of their self-titled album will go down on 16th September and is preceded by the release of lead single Bagu Bagu. The Dunies met Molly during the formers European tour last year. We met Molly when they opened for us in Denmark. The club was the grossest wed played in to date, and because they were still scrubbing blood/other fluid from the previous nights show off the walls, we had time to burn before we were needed for sound-check, the band recount. These three guys in the corner we assumed were the opener offered to take us into Christiania, the drug district (literally), to score some weed. The night started and finished with partying above the venue, and in the morning some of these dudes were still there drinking. We asked them if theyd come to Sweden in the van for one show and no money they said yes, and thats the first time we met Molly. The band ended up joining Dune Rats for every show of their next European tour. Check out the video for Mollys Bagu Bagu below. You may not know this, but this year marks the 200th anniversary of the invention of the fabled bain marie which has of course become a staple of Australian cuisine, heating everything from the humble dim sim to your all-you-can-eat Sizzler buffet. Recognising this, Sydney and Melbourne are joining together to celebrate with The Bain marie Invitational, featuring two of Australias foremost fuzz-rock outfits: the appropriately-named Food Court from Sydney, and The Pretty Littles from Melbourne. Taking the opportunity to don their journalist caps for some hard-hitting questions, the two bands have interrogated each other about various pertinent issues both food-related and otherwise below. Two of our faves, theyll be teaming up to play Melbournes Yah Yahs this Saturday August 12th with Chillers on support duties, and will hit up Sydneys Botany View Hotel on Saturday August 27th with Nick Nuisance & The Delinquents. Food Court Interrogate The Pretty Littles Can you name one thing Sydney does better than Melbourne? Slaughtering pigs. Way way way better than us. Is it Mr Crackles? The place on Oxford St? Surely theyd rip through about 300 pigs on a good Saturday night. Inspiring stuff. In Melbourne we only have pig substitute a mix of human piss, shredded paper and MSG. If you pay top dollar you can get pretty good stuff but generally its all just okay. Is Jack a full-time model or do banks and buses just love him to bits? You know he doesnt actually get paid for the modelling work? And the banks/buses barely tolerate him. Its all just part of his god complex, the guy cant survive without the masses see his mug at every turn. In all seriousness, the 4 of us did the latest *undisclosed bank with the greatest loans and personal/business account options, visit a branch today to find out more* ads as a band, but since the rest of us look like dog shit on camera Jack was the only one that got picked for the billboards. Sucked in. Was recording your debut album awesome or shithouse? Please explain either in 27.5 words or less. All the recording so far has been pretty good. As long as the studio musos dont fuck it up too much and we dont run out of heroi- Poached or Scrambled? Blundstones or Hush Puppies? Pride or prejudice? Dan or Nic? Raw, one thong, anything but pride, which ones the front man again? He once sent us/me some toe nail clippings and a signed photo of his abs If Bain Marie was a) A display of hot food or b) A hot French lawyer or c) A Melbourne craft beer which would you take home to meet your parents? My alcoholic swinger parents would love it if I brought home b or c. But like screw those narks like you know Im a friggin grown up I mean come on. From now Im only looking out for number one. The display. The Pretty Littles Fire Right Back At Food Court Alright here we go Hows it going? Yeah nah. No seriously. I feel like whenever I ask about your feelings you close yourself off from me. Are we cool? Do we need to talk about us? When I saw your sexy face, come towards me with a little cheeky smile if you were a phone id pick you up and dial the fire brigade or zero zero zero, then you stopped me in my tracks and I said mmm hchello hchello (Refer to Q.3 pls) Whats your favourite Cat Empire song? They are all good aye. More importantly we heard you guys were supporting Chumbawumba for their world tour so we feel a large congratulations is in order. Im thinking about getting myself taxidermied. Who did the bear in your For The Morning clip? Actually the bear wasnt taxidermied. He was a close family friend actually. His name was Barry and he has been dead for 18years. He doesnt smell too good anymore and we all vommed between takes. Our art always comes first. Always. How many bain-maries would you have in your ideal food court, and what would be the hero dish? Its not a numbers game! Ideally a complete circle of Bain-Maries. Like a culinary Stonehenge. And hero food? A thin bag of prawn crackers any day of the week. Can I have 5 bucks? Yeah, nah. Fast becoming one of Australias most eagerly anticipated events on the annual music festival calendar and a go-to destination for the New Years holiday, the Beyond The Valley 2016 lineup has finally arrived. Folks heading to Lardner Park in Warragul this year will be treated to performances from the likes of Chance The Rapper, Alex Lahey, DZ Deathrays, Sticky Fingers, MSTRKRFT, What So Not, SAFIA, and many more. Best of all, organisers promise this is just the start. They say they have around 66 acts up their sleeves in total and there will be more great acts announced as we roll into summer toward the biggest NYE party yet! This years Beyond The Valley will be a four-day event with four-day tickets starting at $420, three-day tickets available for $380, two-day tickets starting from $340, and single-day NYE tickets coming in at $150. Beyond The Valley 2016 Alex Lahey Bag Raiders (LIVE) Bakermat Chance The Rapper Dena Amy Dune Rats DZ Deathrays Eats Everything Emma Louise Giraffage GoldLink Harts Hermitude Highasakite Hot Chip (DJ set) Hudson Mohawke Japanese Wallpaper Jarryd James JME Kllo Kolsch (DJ Set) Ladyhawke Lastlings Lunice Montaigne Motez MSTRKRFT Oliver Huntemann Paces Pachanga Boys Phantogram Running Touch Ryan Hemsworth SAFIA Skream Slumberjack Sonny Fodera Sticky Fingers Thundamentals Tokimonsta Total Giovanni Vera Blue Wafia What So Not ZHU Wednesday, 28th December 2016 Sunday, 1st January 2017 Lardner Park, Warragul Tickets: Beyond The Valley Loving live music isnt just about attending music festivals and seeing an international artists massive arena show. Even the biggest of big-name headliners started in the trenches, on the sticky carpets and bandrooms of your local bars and pubs which is exactly where you should be if you want to discover your new favourite band or venue. Here are our picks for this weeks best local gigs from Aussie talent from Perth to the East Coast and all for the price of a good meal. Silent Jay & Jace XL Where: Mojos Bar, Fremantle WA When: 8pm Friday August 12 Why: After a long week, theres no better way to let off some steam then dancing out to soul rockers SilentJay and Jace XL. The two artists already well-known for their work in Hiatus Kaiyote are throwing a night of soul, rhythm and blues alongside supporting act Casual Sets. Tickets & Info: $15 on the door, more info here. ORB Where: The Tote, Melbourne VIC When: 8pm Friday August 12 Why: This three-piece Geelong outfit, will pierce your earholes with some heavy riffs and distorted psychedelica as they kick off your weekend at one of Melbournes most iconic music venues. The group will be launching their latest record Birth so grab a ticket and dont miss out! Tickets & Info: $13.30, more info here. Mallrat Where: Wooly Mammoth, Brisbane QLD When: 7:30 Thursday August 11 Why: Who doesnt love a midweek boogie? Lauded newcomer Mallrat offers a range of fun electro-dance-hop that is sure to end your midweek blues, as she launches the Maroochy Music & Visual Arts Festival with some great bands in support. Better yet, its cheap or even free! Tickets & Info: Free for members / $5, Wooly Mammoth, Brisbane QLD7:30Who doesnt love a midweek boogie? Lauded newcomer Mallrat offers a range of fun electro-dance-hop that is sure to end your midweek blues, as she launches the Maroochy Music & Visual Arts Festival with some great bands in support. Better yet, its cheap or even free!Tickets & Info: Free for members / $5, more info here Skegss Where: Rocket Bar & Rooftop, Adelaide SA When: 8pm-3am Thursday 11 August Why: This Byron Bay rock outfit recently signed to Dune Rats label after winning and since have produced a hard hitting rock album that the Dunies would surely be proud of. Skegss are already making headway in the Aussie music scene, winning Triple J Unearthed Splendour in the Grass competition dont miss out on these up and comers, supported by Dumb Punts. Tickets & Info: $15 + $1.50 b/f, more info here. Palace of the King Where: Cherry Bar, Melbourne VIC When: 8pm Saturday August 13 Why: Palace of the King are unleashing their latest single Beyond the Valley at iconic rock venue, Cherry Bar. The local Melbourne bands latest album stays true its classic metal roots and owns it. Tickets & Info: $13 on the door, $13 on the door, more info here Drunk Mums Where: The Foundry, Brisbane QLD When: Saturday August 13 Why: Drunk Mums are known for their heavy hitting garage rock sound, and are a band you dont want to miss live. The self-proclaimed rock n roll yobos are coming to Brisbane to play some of their latest hits. Tickets & Info: $12.75, The Foundry, Brisbane QLDDrunk Mums are known for their heavy hitting garage rock sound, and are a band you dont want to miss live. The self-proclaimed rock n roll yobos are coming to Brisbane to play some of their latest hits.$12.75, more info here. Terrible Truths Where: The Curtin, Melbourne VIC When: 8pm Saturday August 13 Why: Terrible Truths now reside in Melbourne after moving from Adelaide and Brisbane. For the first time ever, these Aussie rockers will be playing their latest album back-to-back in full. With Primo and Wet Lips opening the night up its sure to be a cracker. Tickets & Info: $12, Terrible Truths now reside in Melbourne after moving from Adelaide and Brisbane. For the first time ever, these Aussie rockers will be playing their latest album back-to-back in full. With Primo and Wet Lips opening the night up its sure to be a cracker.$12, more info here Nutrition, Rebell Yell & More Where: The Foundry, Brisbane QLD When: 2pm Sunday August 14 Why: The Foundry co-hosting with Control present to you On Lock Club which is trying to find new and invigorating ways to showcase Brisbanes live music scene following the new lockout laws. Make sure you head down to this afternoon-to-night party and support Brissys local acts. Tickets & Info: $12.75, more info here. Love Pierce Brothers? Get the latest Pierce Brothers news, features, updates and giveaways straight to your inbox Learn more JOIN Witch Hats Where: Bridge Hotel, Castlemaine VIC When: 8pm Friday August 12 Why: These local alt. rockers will be launching their latest LP Deliverance this weekend. The LP is a solid piece Australian rock, and with supporting act Leon & the Freedom Cage opening the night, its surely not one to be missed. Tickets & Info: $10/$12 on the door, more info here. Lazy Colts Where: Lowbrow Gallery & Bar, Canberra ACT When: 7pm Saturday August 13 Why: Continuing their nation-wide tour, Lazy Colts are hitting Canberra this weekend to celebrate the release of their new album Trojan. Mixing up their sound, their latest music has been produced by Arcade Fires very own Mark Lawson. Tickets & Info: more info here. Running Young Where: Ding Dong Lounge, Melbourne VIC When: 8pm Saturday August 13 Why: Melbourne rock quintet Running Young sold out last years EP launch at Ding Dong, and the launch of their new single Not The Same will be another excellent night of vintage indie rock at Ding Dong. Tickets & Info: $12.75, more info here. Melbourne 6-piece Palace Of The King are one of the hardest working bands in the rock n roll scene, with two EPs, two albums, and over two hundred shows under their belt. With the sheer amount of touring theyve done in the last few years, there was a wealth of experiences to use as inspiration on their second full-length, Valles Marineris, guitarist Matt Harrison explains. When we were writing this record we had two to three years worth of touring experience under our belt. Through the process of touring and writing this album, weve developed a lot more confidence and conviction in approaching songs as a result. First single Beyond The Valley was a psychedelic, Sabbath-influenced jam, and the rest of the album hasnt altered this formula drastically although there are a few surprises thrown in for good measure. The big riffs and old-school hard rock sound associated with the first record certainly hasnt gone anywhere, Harrison says. There are also a couple of songs on there that would probably surprise a lot of people as theyre the ones we jumped in the deep end with a little bit more. He explains how extra confidence in the studio has led to more experimentation in the recording process. Weve reached the point where were now totally comfortable jumping into the studio together, which has ended up taking some songs in a totally different direction than usual. Different tones, techniques and tunings, theres a much wider palette on this album than on previous albums. With the rapid rise in technological innovation in the last five to ten years, there has also been a radical shift in popularity of electronically produced music. Contrary to the oft-stated idiom however, Harrison is quick to debunk the myth that rock n roll is dead in Australia. Theres a lot of great rock n roll bands in Australia, particularly Melbourne, that are flying along at the moment. Its great to see bands like King Of The North, Dallas Frasca and Dead City Ruins putting out great records and touring all over the world themselves. In that sense, the rock n roll circle is really fertile and still ticking along really nicely. The relevance of Australian rock n roll crosses the international border too, with strong interest from Europe if recent interviews are anything to go by. Doing a lot of European press lately with the release of this record, those guys are always keen to hear about Australian music and other bands that we can turn them on to, Harrison states excitedly. Spain in particular has a reputation for embracing Australian rock music. Describing one particularly memorable gig in Cangas, a small town in the Northwest region of Spain, Harrison relays a story that would have every Aussie rock band reaching for their passports. We went over there expecting a hell of a lot cos everyone had said the towns crazy and they go nuts for Australian rock n roll. At one point, Gilps (Andrew Gilpin), our bass player, handed his bass over to Tim (Henwood) while he crowd surfed to the bar, helped himself to a beer and then crowd surfed his way back to resume duties on the bass. It was insane! With three shows recently announced to support their current single as well as three more lined up in September to support the album, Harrison says the band is excited to unleash the new songs in a live setting. Were particularly looking forward to the album launch shows themselves. By that point, the album will have been out for six weeks and people will have had time to live with the songs and the new record. Were really hoping itll be an all round celebration of the new music and hopefully people are digging what were doing. Palace Of The King are officially launching their new single Beyond The Valley in August, and their sophomore album Valles Marineris in September. For tour dates, check out their Facebook page here. Chastain gives final notice to KCMO City Attorney, Bill Geary, over his attempt to poison the light rail election. City Attorney, Bill Geary, you deliberately tried to poison the upcoming light rail election by falsely stating before the Council's Finance Committee (July 20) that the light rail ballot question "could be illegal" and thus grounds for the council to repeal it, if approved by voters.Mr Geary, you made this false empty legal threat against the light rail petition even though...(1) You never presented to that committee any legal argument to back up your false, damaging, and phony assertion.(2) You never communicated to the attorney for the Light Rail Committee of Commissioners, Jeff Carey, that the revised light rail petition submitted to the city "could be illegal" and thus grounds to be repealed, if approved by voters;(3) You cited to our attorney numerous problems you had with the original petition and we addressed all of your concerns (in a revised petition) before we began circulating it. We even added numerous phrases into that revised petition language including ""if possible," "at or near," "to fund as much of as is possible," etc. in order to give the city much flexibility in trying to implement the plan.Mr.Geary, on top of all that evidence against your phony charge, you even advised our attorney not to attend that council hearing because you told him, "it might inflame the council." How deceptively thoughtful of you.Mr. Geary, you set us up, and without our attorney there to legally defend the light rail petition before that public city council hearing against your spurious charge, you were conveniently unopposed and free to disperse your poison and blindside the light rail petition.Of course, your false and damaging assertion was printed in a major KC Star news story the next day. This has resulted in alienating the council against the light rail ballot question, scaring voters, confusing the media (see KCPT's "Ruckus" show in which host Mike Shanin was nonchalantly suggesting that the council could repeal another light rail vote of the people based on your assertion the petition "could be illegal"), and otherwise clouding the light rail election.A side note...On that same Ruckus show even panelist and attorney, Steve Mirakian, did not understand to what legal argument you were citing in asserting the light rail petition "could be illegal."Mr Geary, in the last 10 years you have been working for a dictatorial acting government that has...(1) overturned 75,000 light rail petition votes in 2007;(2) sabotaged and blocked a light rail petition election in 2015;(3) undermined (with underhanded tactics) a light rail petition election in 2016!Mr Geary, all I want is a fair and open debate on the merits of the proposed light rail plan itself. Nothing more and nothing less. Then, let the voters decide.But you Mr. Geary, and the arrogant acting and manipulative government you work for, continue to play dirty and act in bad faith to torpedo any valid petition from the people.Mr Geary, I will not allow your bogus legal threat against the light rail petition to stand, cloud, and otherwise poison this light rail election.Mr Geary this is your final notice...Send out a press release by tomorrow at noon retracking your false and damaging statement to the council that the light rail petition "could be illegal" and thus grounds for the council to repeal it, if approved by voters.Failure to do so, will result in our filing a discipline complaint against you with the Missouri Bar Association, sending them a copy of this press release, and possibly taking further legal action.Clay Chastain...Degreed electrical engineer, KCMO registered voter and part-time resident of KCMO, and the leader, member, and spokesperson for the Light Rail Committee of Petitioners.############ A 25-year-old Kansas City man, a felon convicted of robbery in 2008, has been charged in a weekend morning coffee shop robbery in midtown Kansas City, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker announced today. The suspect faces Robbery in the 1st Degree, two counts of Armed Criminal Action, Attempted Robbery in the 1st Degree and two counts of Unlawful Possession of a Firearm.* According to court records, the suspect approached some people sitting outside a coffee shop in the 2900 block of McGee, pointed a black handgun at them and took a wallet from one person. He attempted to a take a purse from another victim. He ran to a nearby car, then sped away. Photos taken of his vehicle, and its license plate, allowed police to find Wesley at his home address. Police found a black handgun in his vehicle. Prosecutors requested a bond of $100,000. A bit of morning news that's apropos given that the day doesn't start without this signature Kansas City stimulant in spite of increased java threats . . .Deets:###########That's most likely thewhich is pretty sweet coffee place, very trendy and wherein patrons probably helped catch the suspect via mobile phone pix.Developing . . . "Mike Sanders . . . Listens to remarks from the Sugar Creek Board of Aldermen after he was installed as the new city attorney at Monday's board meeting. Sanders, who announced his resignation in December as Jackson County Executive and also has been County Prosecutor, recently joined the Independence law firm Humphrey, Farrington & McClain. The board also approved a contract with that firm Monday . . . " They used to call him "Skippy" as an insult but it's also a tacit admission that a winning attitude and some important connections will continue an impressive career in the face of adversity.Also, it's always been kinda strange that this guy walked off the job in the middle-of-the-night amid X-mas time and never got any heat for betraying the trust of voters who didn't elect him to quit in one of the most mysterious events the local political events we've seen since we all agree to stop asking questions about the Rock Island Corridor vaporware toy train . . . That has yet to make much progress . . . Still.Anyhoo, here's an update on the adventures of a local legal eagle slowly on the return path to public life:Deets:You decide . . . "Police said Caleb Schwab, 10, was found dead at the end of the ride in a pool. Police said Schwab died of a neck injury . . . Police were notified of the incident at about 2:30 p.m. Sunday when an off duty officer working at the park notified police dispatch that an incident had occurred on Verruckt." "Caleb was reportedly riding the slide with two adult women, with whom he was matched on the raft. The women are from north of Hays, Kan. One suffered a broken jaw, and the other a broken bone in her face and had to have stitches in her eye. The husband of one of the women says they are also suffering emotionally. He says the women do not know exactly what happened because it happened so fast. One of them had her eyes closed. One described it as the worst day of her life. "Police say they will not be conducting any interviews or news conferences related to this incident at this time. The family's pastor, Clint Sprague, held a news conference at 5:30 p.m., on Monday at Life Mission Church, 16111 S. Lone Elm Rd." Dead Tree Media Columnist Mary Sanchez Argues For Less News: In Schlitterbahn tragedy, as in others, please keep your morbid fascination in check Channel 9: Deadly water slide accident prompts questions on safety inspections Thanks to the. . . We'rehelping cut to the heart of the issue on this important public safety issue . . . Credit to Channel 9 for following our lead . . .Another report:Amid mostly memorial reporting, check the more important links regarding public safety and the effort to quiet the situation . . .Developing . . . OUR TKC BLOG COMMUNITY BLASTS KANSAS CITY MAINSTREAM MEDIA FOR FAILURE TO FOCUS ON IMPORTANT DECAPITATION DEETS WHICH PROVIDE AN ESSENTIAL COMPONENT TO THE TRAGIC SCHLITTERBAHN VERRUCKT SLAUGHTERHOUSE STORY IMPACTING PUBLIC SAFETY!!! KANSAS CITY HEADLINES FOCUS ON THE RIDICULOUS "NECK INJURY" LINE FROM POLICE WHILST BRITISH NEWS ORGANIZATIONS DID MUCH BETTER IN REVEALING THE NEWSWORTHY DETAIL!!! Witness Esteban Castaneda told ABC 7 that he heard booms coming from the slide and then saw a body wash down the slide just after the raft. He said the body appeared to be decapitated. Kansas City Police have released more information about the tragic incident, saying the young boy suffered a fatal neck injury at the end of the ride. Don't get it twisted, it's not sensationalism but a serious element of the tragic water slide story that's being disregarded in Kansas City for the sake of politeness that only exists in the minds of lazy so-called "journalists" content to play filter for information that's already freely available on the Internets. Furthermore, THIS KIND OF DETAIL HELPS THE FAMILY IN FUTURE SETTLEMENT CLAIMS and might just prevent another horrific accident like this from ever happening again . . . Local media rejecting the essential decapitation detail simply shows that newsies in this town have fallen victim to the shallow, scared and incompetent ethos that rules Kansas City in most every other aspect of public life. LIKE IT OR NOT, REPORTING A POLICE 'NECK INJURY' EUPHEMISM IS NOT JOURNALISM AMID WIDESPREAD EYEWITNESS DECAPITATION TESTIMONY!!! Once again in our relentless bloggy purist of the scoop we find ourselves at odds with so many effete middle-class "journalists" who seems to prize keeping the public ignorant and misinformed for the sake of politeness and in return for so many political favors.To wit . . .Moreover . . .Here are just a few examples . . .Previously . . .Thankfully, some American publications provided the same level of journalistic investigative coverage:Accordingly . . .In conclusion, we've noticed. . .The fact is thatis often comprised of uncomfortable, painful and tragic deets which Kansas City newsies want to keep away from headlines and opening paragraphs but instead lament vaguely on social media.By contrast, our blog community has tackled this tragic subject head onand guided by the hope that dealing with this info will help provide a greater perspective about the horrific reality in this and every news story and hopefully inspiration to avoid tragedy in the future.You decide . . . The Financial Services Board (FSB) of South Africa and the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to enable greater collaboration on regulatory matters and facilitate the exchange of information to promote the robustness and maintain the integrity of the financial industries in both countries. The agreement was signed by Advocate Dube Tshidi, executive officer of FSB, and Richard Teng, chief executive officer of ADGM FSRA. Tshidi said: We are looking forward to working with the ADGM. This MoU presents both institutions with an opportunity strengthen cross-border ties, thus promoting integrity, efficiency and financial soundness through effective regulation of their respective jurisdictions. The FSB has developed and maintained a strong, effective presence in the regulatory field, in South Africa and internationally, while working closely with its counterparts in other parts of the world to establish solid regulatory frameworks. Signing this MoU not only attests to the aforementioned but is also an indication of the FSBs commitment to ensuring a sound financial investment environment. Teng added: We are pleased to establish this new partnership with FSB South Africa. The MoU recognises our shared ambition to foster greater investor protection and support the continuous development, innovation and supervision in financial products and activities in both our financial sectors. One of the key objectives of this partnership is to develop relevant cooperative arrangements and cross-border collaboration that enable the growth and meet the business needs of companies and businesses in our jurisdictions. We look forward to working closely with FSB to maintain an efficient, responsive and well-regulated financial environment for our stakeholders and investors." The MoU sets in place a framework for mutual assistance and cooperation between the authorities to enforce or secure compliance with laws and regulations of their respective jurisdictions. This underpins their commitment to uphold the highest international regulatory standards and practice in both jurisdictions, the statement said. - TradeArabia News Service Applications are now open for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for the Use of Information and Communication Technologies in Education. The theme of the 2016 prize is the use of ICT to further the education of disadvantaged groups, Bahrain's Embassy in Washington said announcing the prize. Disadvantaged groups include refugees, internationally displaced persons, socioeconomically disadvantaged learners, individuals with disabilities, cultural, ethnic and religious minorities, and vulnerable women and girls. Organisations or individuals that use innovative practices to leverage ICTs to expand educational access for these groups are invited and encouraged to apply for the award, it said. Equity in education is a key pillar in Sustainable Development Goal 4. Since 2005, the King Hamad Prize has recognised innovations in teaching and learning that leverage technology to improve educational outcomes, working to move global educational development forward. The director-general of Unesco will select two winners, based on recommendations made by an international jury of five independent and recognised experts in the area of ICTs in education from each region. The prize will be awarded on February 21, 2017 at a ceremony held at the Unesco headquarters in Paris. Winners will receive $25,000 each, along with a certificate of recognition signed by the director-general and the chairperson of the international jury of independent experts. The deadline for submission is September 30, 2016. More information and applications can be accessed at http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/themes/icts/ict-in-education-prize/. Individuals can also contact the Cultural Office at the Embassy of the Kingdom of Bahrain, Washington DC for more information, it said. - TradeArabia News Service Top industry players from across the region will discuss latest technologies and strategies for continuous improvement of safety procedures in the region at the Gulf Safety Forum, to be held in October, in Doha, Qatar. The event will take place on October 30 and 31 under the patronage of HE Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani, Prime Minister and Minister of Interior of Qatar. Organised by Euro Petroleum Consultants and the Gulf Organization for Industrial Consulting (GOIC), the event will see experts discuss strategies for continuous improvement of safety procedures as well as share successful case studies and roadmaps towards achieving the goal of zero accidents, said a statement. International safety experts and providers of safety tools and technologies will also present the latest methodologies which can assist companies to achieve these goals, it said. The event will gather representatives from diverse industry sectors including oil, gas, petrochemicals, construction, manufacturing and transportation. Qatar Rail, which was recently awarded the Gold Award for Health and Safety by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) and which will be represented at the event by Paul Stanley Williams, health and safety senior manager. He said: Our organisation is pleased to be taking part in the forum as we have a strong culture of collaboration which enables learning and sharing of positive health and safety practices. Franco Polli, principal consultant for operations, DuPont Sustainable Solutions, said: We believe that the forum is a very well recognised and visible platform to share new points of view and stimulate the discussion around ways to improve safety. Workplace safety remains a critical issue within the GCC, and we are pleased to contribute to the conversation about how to drive improvement, he added. The events keynote speakers include world renowned process safety expert Dr Sam Mannan, regents professor and director of the Mary Kay O'Connor Process Safety Center at Texas A&M University; as well as Dr Laurence Cusco, head of international unit at the UKs Health and Safety Laboratory, it said. Other organisations who will be presenting at the event include Oryx GTL, Qatalum, Qafac, Kuwait Oil Company, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, AspenTech, Honeywell, PTAI and Dekra Insight, it stated. Abdulaziz bin Hamad Al-Ageel, secretary general of GOIC, said: The Gulf forum provides a unique arena for key industry stakeholders to present their experiences and share front line developments for the benefit of all participants. The event is designed to share the very latest strategies for driving safety excellence with a blend of international and local expertise, he said. Safety is an essential and integrated part of the quality infrastructure in the industrial sector, he added. TradeArabia News Service Turkey recently urged Qatari investors to support it with investments and develop the trade relations between the two countries, following recent events, a report said. Ahmet Demirok, Turkeys ambassador to Qatar, reassured the Qatari business community in the presence of Muhammed bin Ahmed bin Towar Al Kuwari, vice chairman of Qatar Chamber, that the elected government of his country was fully in control and in a position to ensure that trade and business could be carried on as normal, added the Peninsula Qatar report. Banking was among one of the main areas of bilateral co-operation and it had great potential for investments by Qatari businessmen, it said. According to official data, one of the countrys main exports to Qatar is iron and steel products. Electrical machinery and equipment, motor vehicles and parts, home textile products, furniture and food are the other exports. Turkeys main imports from Qatar are natural gas, plastics, plastic products and chemical derivatives. Turkish investments in Qatar are focused mainly in the construction sector and consultancy services, added the report. Kuwait's armed forces placed a firm order worth more than 1 billion ($1.1 billion) for 30 Airbus Caracal military helicopters, the French defence ministry said. The deal signed on Tuesday is part of 2.5 billion ($2.77 billion) in French defence contracts announced last year by the Gulf emirate. The long-range H225M tactical transport helicopters, each seating 28 troops in addition to crew, are destined for the Kuwaiti army and national guard, the French ministry said, with deliveries to begin early in 2019. Airbus confirmed the order in a statement. The Kuwaiti order is a much-needed boost for the Airbus Group's helicopter division, which has been hit by weaker demand from the oil and gas industry. It has also suffered in the wake of April's fatal crash of a H225 Super Puma, the model's civilian version, blamed on gearbox metal fatigue in a preliminary report. Reuters An oil leak at a drilling site in Kuwait's Al-Ahmadi oil field has had no impact on production, a spokesman for Kuwait Oil Company said on Tuesday. The spokesman, Emad Sultan, said in a statement that specialised teams were trying to stop the leak. "There was no fire as a result of the leak and we are still trying to bring it (the leak) under control," Sultan said. Kuwait is a major member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), pumping around 3 million barrels per day. - Reuters A general view shows the check-in hall on the first day of operations of the new Terminal 3 Ultimate at the Soekarno-Hatta airport in Jakarta, Indonesia, 09 August 2016. Garuda Indonesia's airplane was the first plane to take off as the new terminal building officially opened to public. EPA/Mast Irham Gulf residents travelling abroad to enjoy summer breaks are being drawn to Southeast Asia with direct air routes, the affordability factor, cooler temperatures and an ample choice of accommodation options all coming into play, a leading hospitality group has revealed. According to Preferred Hotels & Resorts, Thailand, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Malaysia hold sway as some of the most popular destinations for Middle East travellers with healthy inbound tourism figures in 2015, and strong demand in 2016 to date. UNWTO and World Travel & Tourism Council figures put Southeast Asia tourist arrivals growth ahead of the rest of the world in 2015, up 7.9 per cent year-on-year, outpacing India and China in 2015, said Saurabh Rai, executive vice president of Preferred Hotels & Resorts, the worlds largest independent hotel brand. We are definitely seeing this reflected in demand for our member hotels in the region as well as positively impacting traveller spend. Further, MasterCards Asia Pacific Destinations Index 2015 report listed eight Southeast Asian countries in its top 20 Asia Pacific ranking of most popular destinations in terms of arrival numbers, which is great news for Preferred Hotels & Resorts as we continue to expand our regional portfolio, he added. Tourism Authority of Thailand data recorded over half-a-million visitors from the Middle East last year, led by tourists from the UAE followed by Oman, with an average stay of just under 12 days the year previously and daily spend of $171 versus just 9.8 days and $148 from other nationalities. Preferred Hotels & Resorts Southeast Asian partner properties include The Siam, one of Bangkoks most luxurious five-star hotels, set in three acres of landscaped greenery on the Chao Phraya River. The hotel offers guests access its own private boat shuttle, spa, unique Art Deco-inspired decor, and 24/7 butler service. Despite subdued tourism performance over the last couple of years, Malaysia continues to attract visitors from the Gulf countries, largely due to its halal tourism offering, making it the preferred Southeast Asian destination for almost 100,000 Saudis in 2015 according to the Malaysia Ministry of Tourism & Culture, followed by the UAE with 15,769 visitors. Popular with high-end travellers to Malaysia, the boutique Bunga Raya Island Resort & Spa in Kota Kinabalu is home to just 47 timbered villas fronted by a pristine white sand beach and coral reef for the ultimate tropical paradise getaway. The Middle East enjoys excellent air connectivity with key Southeast Asian destinations and although Europe is always a popular option for summer travel, the cost-value equation can make it expensive, especially for family travel. Heading eastwards means that travellers can splurge on a luxury hotel stay while enjoying all the benefits of affordable activities including excursions, shopping and dining, in some of the regions most dynamic cities or ultra-relaxing beach resorts, said Rai. Other destinations high on the demand radar include Singapore, a hub for both business and leisure travel, which saw 3.9 per cent growth from UAE visitors in 2015, reaching 78,693 arrivals, according to its tourism board. Just six years old, The Fullerton Bay Hotel is one of Singapores top ranked luxury hotels, and enjoys a prime waterfront location in the citys heritage district with panoramic views from every room and award-winning dining venues. Closer to home, the Maldives and India retain their leisure appeal for Middle Eastern travellers, with Saudi and UAE residents topping the regional arrivals list in 2014, and visitors to India from Oman almost double that of the UAE in 2015 at 103,740 and 55,818 respectively, as per Indias Ministry of Tourism data. Luxury island living is the mantra at Coco Bodu Hithi in the Maldives. An all-villa property with both beachfront and over-water stilted options, the resort boasts seven acclaimed restaurants and a full schedule of activities including diving, snorkeling, seaplane excursions and sunset cruises. And rounding out Preferreds regional portfolio, the Leela Palace in Udaipur, India is a majestic grande dame standing watch over the stunning Lake Pichola. With just 80 guestrooms and five suites housed in a bastion of bygone opulence and grandeur, the multi award-winning hotel features a 900-square-metre spa, lakeside pool and Araveli Mountain views. - TradeArabia News Service Search News Archive : Fast Travel News Promotion Via Search, Social Media + Email Follow Us On : ENJOY CALIFORNIA WINE MONTH AT CARMEL'S ONLY WINE-THEMED HOTEL Industry: Events The rich history and spectacular scenery of California's wine country will be celebrated throughout the month of September -- California Wine Month -- with special packages and promotions at Carmel's only wine-themed hotel. (TRAVPR.COM) USA - August 9th, 2016 - Carmel, CA, August 09, 2016 - The rich history and spectacular scenery of California's wine country will be celebrated throughout the month of September -- California Wine Month -- with special packages and promotions at Carmel's only wine-themed hotel. Vendange Carmel Inn and Suites has partnered with 15 Carmel Valley wineries to create a unique guest experience, celebrating the bounty of Monterey Countys vineyards. Each winery sponsors one room or suite, providing its own creative touches to the famous charm of Vendange, a bed and breakfast nestled just minutes from one of the world's most-spectacular beaches. From the McIntyre Vineyards room, with its impressive, 100-year-old section of grapevine, to J. Lohrs wine barrel on the balcony, every winerys room at Vendange offers a signature luxury experience. Participating wineries -- each of which are only a short, scenic drive from the hotel, include Blair, Cima Collina, Dawns Dream, Galante, Holman Ranch, J. Lohr, Joullian, Manzoni, McIntyre, Otter Cove, Tudor, Twisted Roots and Ventana. The rooms at Vendange feature sleek, modern bathrooms, with imported Spanish marble. Sleeping areas have memory foam-top beds, deluxe linens, and high-definition flat screen televisions. The separate Cottage Suite -- perfect for a honeymoon or romantic getaway -- offers 650 square feet of space, with a California King bed, a 50-inch, high-definition television, and kitchenette. Located at 24815 Carpenter Street, Vendange is only a short walk from the charms and delights of Carmel, which are not easily experienced in a single day . Book a second night, Monday through Thursday, for an additional $35, and receive a $50 gift certificate to Carmels popular seafood restaurant,? #?FlahertysSeafood Grill & Oyster Bar, or ?#?AndresBouchee, the chic French bistro with a ?#?California coastal flair. (This special California Wine Month offer, valid through September 30th, can only be booked through our website at vendangecarmel.com while supplies last.) Book three nights in Vendange King Deluxe rooms and receive a complimentary bottle of Holman Ranch or Twisted Roots award-winning Monterey County wine to help us celebrate California Wine Month. This package is only available Sunday through Thursday throughout California Wine Month, from September 1 through September 30. Use this code -- LoveWine -- to book this very special package. ( Wine will be selected by the manager on duty upon arrival, based on availability.) Vendange is located a short drive from the Monterey Peninsula Airport, just off scenic Highway 1, with free parking for guests. The hotel is only minutes from downtown Carmels famous shopping and fine dining, scenic 17-Mile Drive, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Telephone 831- 624-6400; email: reservations@vendangecarmel.com Contact: Marci Bracco Cain Chatterbox PR Salinas, CA 93901 (831) 747-7455 http://www.vendangecarmel.com ### Please contact the person or company listed above for information regarding the content of this press release. TravPR.com are not the issuers of this press release and are not responsible for the accuracy of the content. Share Release : CONTACT INFORMATION Name: Marci Bracco Cain Company: Chatterbox PR Phone: (831) 747-7455 Email: pr@straightlinepr.com Web: PRESS RELEASE TAGS Enjoy unforgettable experiences with Northeast Honeymoon Packages. Darjeeling, Gangtok and Kalimpong are perfect for holidays with your loved one. (TRAVPR.COM) INDIA - August 9th, 2016 - Boasting of lush greenery, snow-clad peaks, and pleasant climate, man-made wonders, exciting culture and more, North-east India truly is one of the most popular romantic destinations in India. The region, every year, allures, a decent number of honeymooners from all around. Indian Holiday Pvt. Ltd. offers unforgettable Northeast Honeymoon Packages, starting as low as INR 23,250 (per person). The packages offer the best of sights and sounds of popular North-eastern destinations such as Darjeeling, Gangtok and Kalimpong etc. These place are known for their scenery, weather, ambiance, experiences, and magnetism. Details of Northeast honeymoon package: Duration: 7 Nights / 8 Days Destinations covered: Darjeeling, Gangtok, Mirik and Kalimpong. Inclusions: Accommodation in varied categories of hotels, as per budget Transfers for the guest convenience Sightseeing in chauffeur-driven vehicle Three different meal plans Your honeymoon to this romantic and serene part of India surely has to offer innumerable memorable experiences to you. Enjoy a stroll in the verdant tea estates of Darjeeling. Treat your eyes to the views of the rising sun from Tiger Hill. Pay homage to the Buddhist religious sites of Darjeeling including Ghoom Monastery and Peace Pagoda. Go on a days excursion to Mirik, known for its natural wonders. Also visit the largest monastery of Kalimpong, Durpin Monastery. Hike up to the Deolo hill to enjoy breathtaking views of Mount Kanchenjunga. Visit Hindu religious sites of Kalimpong- Mangal Dham and Hanuman Mandir. Gangtok too has so much to offer including sacred sites of Hanuman Tok, Do Drul Chorten, and Enchey Monastery. One of the days is also scheduled for a visit to the beautiful Tsomgo Lake, and legendary Baba Mandir. Both of you can also enjoy yak rides. Shopping would be one of the things to do during the package. Treat your taste buds to sumptuous delicacies of north-eastern delicacies. For further details about the honeymoon package in north-east, you can click on http://www.indianholiday.com/tours-of-india/northeast-honeymoon-tour.html. ### Tribune News Service Amritsar, August 9 In order to raise voice against the exploitation and discrimination with Junior Commissioned Officers (JCOs) and Non Commissioned Officers (NCOs) at the hands of their senior officers in the Army, the Voice of Ex-servicemen Society started a foot march from Amritsar here today, which will culminate at Jantar-Mantar in New Delhi. Members of the society started the march from Gateway of India at Attari, paid obeisance at the Golden Temple and also paid tributes at the Jallianwala Bagh during the foot march. BK Jha, national spokesperson of the society, said they would pass through various areas in Punjab and Haryana and culminate the march at Jantar-Mantar on August 25. He said the main motive behind this foot march was to raise the issue of discrimination and exploitation of low- rank officers in the Army, which was considered as a disciplined force. Officers in the Army still suffer with colonial mindset as they force low-rank officers to polish their shoes, take their pet dogs for walks or made to do other household works, Jha alleged. He said after retirement, the JCOs, NCOs and other officers faced discrimination and rude behaviour in canteens, sainik rest houses and sainik welfare offices. He alleged that there was discrimination while allotting gas agencies, CNG pumps, petrol pumps, etc, after retirement as a part of officers rehabilitation programme. Veer Bahadur Singh, president of the society, said after the third pay commission, the pension of 97 per cent jawans and JCOs was reduced from 75 per cent to 50 per cent on the pretext of poor economic conditions and now, on the OROP issue, they were completely ignored by the government as well as those so called leaders who fought for it. New Delhi, August 9 The government today slapped anti-dumping duty on imports of hot-rolled steel products from six nations, including China and South Korea, in a bid to shield domestic manufacturers against cheaper inward shipments. An anti-dumping duty of $474-557 per tonne was imposed on hot-rolled flat products of alloy or non-alloy steel import from China, Japan, South Korea, Russia, Brazil and Indonesia, the Department of Revenue in the Ministry of Finance said in a notification. The duty would be in force for six months till February 7, 2017. The anti-dumping duty was imposed on recommendation of the Directorate General of Anti-Dumping and Allied Duties(DGAD). An anti-dumping duty of $474 per tonne was imposed on imports of hot-rolled flat products of alloy or non-alloy steel of a width up to 2,100 mm and thickness up to 25 mm from Korea and Japan. Korean firms attracting the anti-dumping duty are Hyundai Steel Company and POSCO. Three Japanese companies JFE Steel Corp, Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal Corp are on the list. A similar anti-dumping duty was slapped on imports of similar products from China, the exporter company being Angang Steel Company Ltd and Zhangjiagang. Hot-rolled flat products of alloy or non-alloy steel not in coils of a width up to 4,950 mm and thickness up to 150 mm imported from Korea, Japan, China, Russia, Brazil and Indonesia would attract $557 per tonne anti-dumping duty. PTI Vishal Joshi Tribune News Service Kurukshetra, August 9 The Advertising Standard Council of India (ASCI) has upheld a complaint filed by a Kurukshetra-based educator against the advertiser of Aquawhite toothpaste for airing a sexually suggestive commercial. Admitting that the commercial was in a violation of the code of ASCI ethics, the council yesterday asked the advertiser to withdraw the objectionable commercial or modify its contents. Censuring the commercial, the council concluded: In the context of an advertisement for toothpaste, deliberate use of such dialogues used in the TVC is distasteful. Parveen Sharma, 33, a teacher of communication skills at a private school here, filed a complaint to the ASCI on June 6. I noticed the advertisement on a leading news channel. I find the commercial distasteful where two women are featured communicating in double-meaning dialogues, Sharma told The Tribune. He said the media houses should have an in-house mechanism to check publicity campaigns used from their platforms. Lauding his initiative, the ASCI has decided to feature Parveen Sharma as its ambassador on councils social media pages. Announcing its decision yesterday, the ASCI said the advertiser was given enough time to reply to the objection raised by a viewer. The advertiser representatives did not seek a personal hearing in the case. The Consumer Complaint Council, an organ of the ASCI, also received no response from the advertiser. Rajinder Nagarkoti Tribune News Service Chandigarh, August 9 While city Mayor Arun Sood has given the reason financially not viable for the closure of the citys first multi-level parking lot, he was attacked by his own senior party leaders and councillors for taking all decision on his own. Former Union Minister and senior BJP leader Harmohan Dhawan said there was no discussion with traders, party leaders and councillors in connection with the inauguration and now the closure of the citys first multi-level parking lot. Without naming the Mayor, Dhawan said there were 15 councillors of the BJP-SAD alliance in the MC, but only one person was taking all decisions, which had dented the partys image in the city. Dhawan demanded that people responsible for the wastage of public money should be taken to task. Echoing similar view, Senior Deputy Mayor and BJP councillor Davesh Moudgil said the speed at which the multi-level parking was inaugurated, at the same speed it was shut down. There was no policy in place how the citys first multi-level parking would run. There was no participation of councillors, traders and public for the inauguration and closure of the parking lot. No discussion took place at the party or councillors level. It was only one-man show, Moudgil said. Moudgil also targeted the Congress and said when the agenda of multi-level parking of Rs 47 crore was passed within three minutes by the Congress-ruled MC in 2012, at that time also he had opposed the idea and said discussion should take place but to no avail. Now the result was in front of everybody, Moudgil said. Similarly, another BJP councillor Satinder Singh said there was no planning on the part of the MC. In the last three months, no councillor was taken into confidence on the issue of opening and closing of the multi-level parking lot. I fail to understand what was the hurry to inaugurate and now close the lot, Satinder Singh said. Rajinder Nagarkoti Tribune News Service Chandigarh, August 9 A day after the closure of the first multi-level parking lot at Sector 17 in the city, Mayor Arun Sood today decided to re-open the facility. Talking to Chandigarh Tribune on the phone, Mayor Arun Sood, who was on his way to Chandigarh from Barabanki in Uttar Pradesh, where he, along with the MC Commissioner, had gone to visit a waste to energy plant, said the multi-level parking lot would be reopened to the public. He said it was wrong to term it closure as it was shut temporarily to come out with a financially viable policy to run the parking lot. He said the tender process for a new contract had been stopped for a few days and the final decision would be taken at the Finance and Contract Committee (F&CC) meeting on August 12. As the UT Administration has rejected advertisement rights for surface parking and allowed advertisement only in the basement, The Mayor said tomorrow he would personally meet UT Adviser Parimal Rai over the issue. He would try to convince the Adviser that advertisements would not disturb the aesthetic value of Sector 17. If the Adviser agrees, the MC can earn revenue from the facility, otherwise the MC will use its funds to run the multi-level parking, he said. The Mayor said tomorrow, they would deploy staff to run the multi-level parking for the public. Meanwhile, today it was free for all as people parked their vehicles on the surface of the multi-level parking. Nearly 150 vehicles were parked there. The MC had suffered a loss of Rs 15 lakh in three months at the lot. The three-month contract was given to MAAC Infra on May 9 and the contract period ended yesterday. Against the 800 vehicles daily, which the multi-level parking got in the first three days, later only 100 to 200 vehicles were being parked on an average daily. The multi-level parking can accommodate 931 vehicles. Tribune News Service Chandigarh, August 9 The first Mayor of Mohali, Kulwant Singh, along with 10 councillors of his Azad Group, including his son Sarabjit Singh, will rejoin the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) tomorrow. SAD president and Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal will formally welcome them on their ghar wapsi at the head office of the party in Chandigarh. Real estate baron Kulwant, in his mid-50s, has, meanwhile, ruled out any plans to contest the next Assembly poll, due early next year. I will not contest the next Assembly elections, Kulwant told Chandigarh Tribune, while confirming that he and his 10 fellow councillors would formally rejoin the SAD tomorrow. Having already served as the president of the Mohali Municipal Council, the owner of one of the leading real estate firms of the region, JLPL, which has already developed two independent sectors in Mohali, townships in Ludhiana and Kharar, and Kasauli and Handli in Himachal Pradesh, with an annual turnover exceeding Rs 1,500 crore, was expelled from the SAD in the run-up to the 2015 maiden elections to the Mohali Municipal Corporation. Later, he floated the Azad Group to contest the MC poll, in which he won 11 seats. In the absence of an absolute majority to any party, Kulwants Azad Group, with the support of 15 Congress councillors (including Mohali MLA Balbir Singh Sidhu as ex officio member) and two Independents, was elected the first Mayor of Mohali in August last year. Believed to be a close aide of Sukhbir, Kulwant had unsuccessfully contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from the Fatehgarh Sahib seat. Saurabh Malik Tribune News Service Chandigarh, August 9 Now, you have a say in the Save Sukhna case. In a significant move, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today made it clear that suggestions on saving the lake could flow from residents. The development is significant as the High Court had, way back in 2009, taken suo motu cognisance of a letter written to the Chief Justice by a local resident on the deteriorating condition of the lake and the apathy of the Administration towards its maintenance. The High Court had treated it as a petition in public interest and appointed advocate Tanu Bedi to assist the court. Besides the Chandigarh Administration, the High Court made Punjab and Haryana a party to the case. Since then, a lot of water has flown. Besides other things, the flow of waste water from houses in villages around the lake has been blocked. The latest in the case is liberty to residents to send their suggestions on what more can be done. As the case came up for resumed hearing this morning, a Division Bench of the High Court asserted that the suggestions coming from residents could be forwarded to senior advocate Manmohan Lal Sarin and the amicus curiae or the friend of the court, Tanu Bedi. For making it easier for residents to forward their suggestions, the Bench has included Tanu Bedis email ID in its order. The states have been asked to give wide publicity to the orders. Before parting with the case, the Bench of Justice Ajay Kumar Mittal and Justice Ramendra Jain directed Haryana to make arrangements for preventing the entry of litter and sewage from Saketri into the Sukhna choe. Bedi had earlier brought the flow of filth to the notice of the Bench. This is not the first out-of-the-ordinary order passed by the Bench in the case in the recent past. Just three days ago, Justice Mittal and Justice Jain had visited Sukhna Lake to get first-hand information. The purpose behind the visit was to inspect the area, among other things, for dipping water levels, sanitation concerns and de-weeding. For nearly four hours, Justice Mittal and Justice Jain visited the catchments area of the lake. They started the visit from the road in front of the Secretariat, proceeded towards the Kansal village side, the Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary, inspected the check dams and went to the 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. Tribune News Service Chandigarh, August 8 Two head constables of the Punjab Police have been arrested by the Chandigarh Police after an undertrial, who was under treatment at the PGI, fled from the hospital. The police said the undertrial had 14 cases registered against him in Punjab. According to the UT police, an ASI of the Punjab Police complained to them that an undertrial, Malkit Singh, a resident of Tarn Taran district, who was lodged at Central Jail, Amritsar, was admitted to the PGI from where he escaped. Two head constables, Balraj Singh and Dilbag Singh, were on duty at the hospital to keep tabs on the undertrial. The police said due to the head constables negligence, the undertrial fled on August 6. For a day, both policemen tired to locate the undertrial and later informed the UT police. A case under Sections 223 (escape from confinement or custody negligently suffered by a public servant) and 224 (resistance or obstruction by a person to his lawful apprehension) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered against Malkit Singh by the police at the Sector 11 police station. Both policemen were arrested for negligence. They were later released on bail. Ramkrishan Upadhyay Tribune News Service Chandigarh, August 8 The Chandigarh Administration has sought an extension for Sukhchain Singh Gill, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), and is awaiting the nod of the Ministry of Home Affairs. Gills three-year term ends in December this year. Sources said the case of his extension was pending with the ministry and the Administration was waiting for the final decision to be conveyed to it. (Follow Chandigarh Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) The requirement of a fresh panel of officers for the post would hinge on the decision of the ministry. An officer said it would all depend on whether or not the ministry gives approval to Gills extension. The Administration is also awaiting a panel of PCS officers from Punjab after one of the PCS officers selected recently by the Administration declined to join. The sources said a request for sending a panel of officers had already been sent to the Government of Punjab. An officer said after five officers from Punjab and Haryana joined the UT, the shortage of officers in the Administration had been reduced, but the requirement of some more officers was still being felt. Gill had joined as the Chandigarh SSP on December 11, 2013. A 2003-batch Punjab-cadre Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, Gill had done MBBS from Government Medical College in Amritsar. The Administration is also awaiting an order for the post of SSP (Traffic). It has recommended the name of Ashwin Shenvi for the post, but the final order will come from the Ministry of Home Affairs after approval from the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet. Vivek Katju THIS year marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of Kabul to the Taliban and its subsequent expansion to almost all parts of Afghanistan with Pakistani and Al-Qaeda assistance. It also marks the 15th anniversary of 9/11 and of the Taliban defeat and subsequent withdrawal into Pakistan. However, the Taliban is today a potent and deadly force, which as per a recent US official report, is in control or influence in almost 35 per cent of Afghan territory, up by about 5 per cent over the past year. There is little doubt that the US and its NATO allies and the Afghan security forces have failed in their military objective of rooting out the Taliban. The failure on the military front has compelled the Afghan authorities and the international community to attempt a political reconciliation between the Taliban and the Afghan government. That endeavour is going nowhere. The Taliban is in no hurry to engage a weak and politically unconsolidated Kabul under the current National Unity Government led by President Ashraf Ghani though it desires formal international acceptance. For the latter purpose, it has softened its position on gender issues. The loss of its founder Mullah Omar and his main successor Mullah Akhtar Mansour have not diluted its attachment to the ideal of an Islamic Emirate which casts doubts on its interest in sharing power under Afghanistans Islamic Republic constitution. Why has the situation come to this sorry pass? Why did the US and its allies fail to effectively neutralise the Taliban and the Afghan political class fail to establish a consensus that would have driven the Taliban to the social and political margins? Above all, are there any lessons for India in the developments that have taken place in Afghanistan in the past 15 years? The failures of both US policy in Afghanistan and of Afghan political actors beginning with former President Hamid Karzai have been many. The US failed to recognise that the Taliban had the potential to become a factor of continuing instability in Afghanistan. This was mainly because the purpose of its war in Afghanistan was to so emasculate the Al-Qaeda that it could never again launch a major operation on the US mainland or US interests worldwide. In this it has largely succeeded but at the cost of allowing Pakistan to nurture the Taliban in numerous sanctuaries within the country. It is also true that the US had per se no problems with the Taliban. Its view till 9/11 was that the Taliban was an authentic Afghan group that was a factor of stability. It is ironic that after two decades, Taliban participation is being considered necessary for stability in Afghanistan. The fact that the Taliban has killed over 2,000 US soldiers is simply forgotten. The Afghan political class post the Taliban defeat had the formidable task of healing the wounds of almost three decades of civil conflict and of navigating through endemic ethnic cleavages and theological and ideological dissensions. It did not succeed in meeting these grave challenges. However it is also a fact that a damaged body, social and political, needs space to begin the processes of healing and Pakistan through the Taliban did not provide Afghanistan that space. Pakistans historic fear is of Indian encirclement through an India-friendly Afghanistan government. That this apprehension is grossly exaggerated has been of little consequence to Pakistani security policy controllers in the army. It has however led to an unyielding desire to exercise effective influence over Kabuls engagement with India. For the five years of Taliban rule, Pakistan was assured that India would have no role in Afghan affairs. It simply wants that kind of assurance again. The establishment of an interim administration under Karzai with key Northern Alliance figures, with whom India had an excellent understanding, rang alarm bells in Rawalpindi. Karzai diligently sought to dispel Pakistani fears of allowing India space to use Afghanistan for fomenting trouble. But he was unwilling to give Pakistan a veto over his countrys India policy. Pakistan wanted just nothing less. This contributed to Pakistan fully sustaining the Taliban to ensure that Kabul was unable to put in place or invigorate state institutions, particularly in the Pushtoon-dominated areas in the western and southern parts of the country. The US was unwilling to drain the Taliban swamp in Pakistan and fought it largely on Afghan territory, including through airstrikes that resulted in substantial collateral loss of life and property. This diminished Karzai who appealed to the Taliban for direct negotiations. The Taliban turned a deaf ear with quiet Pakistani encouragement. Karzais relations soured both with the US and Pakistan as he helplessly watched the neighbours interference through Taliban that was acting as its virtual proxy. Immediately on assuming office, Ashraf Ghani reached out to Pakistan, including through an unprecedented gesture of calling on the Pakistan army chief in his office. He publicly, though indirectly, signalled his willingness to downgrade ties with India, especially in the security sector. In return, he sought Pakistan to use its influence to control Taliban violence and bring it to the negotiation table. The US, and more significantly China, asked it to do the same. Pakistan did not heed the first request but did arrange to get a group of the Taliban to meet with Afghan representatives on its soil. When the Afghans asked for assurances that the representatives had the authority of Mullah Omar, it revealed that the Afghan leader had been long dead though all this while this crucial fact was not revealed to Kabul. That broke Ghanis trust. He told a NATO summit in Warsaw last month, Our regional initiatives with neighbours are beginning to yield significant cooperative dividends. The clear exception is with Pakistandespite clear commitments to a quadrilateral peace process their dangerous distinction between good and bad terrorists is being maintained in practice. On other occasions, his language on Pakistani interference has been more robust. The critical question is could Kabul have done better despite Pakistan using the Taliban as its proxy? Perhaps yes; but it certainly could not have stabilised the country as long as the contaminant continued to uninterruptedly flow which it would do even now under the new Taliban chief Haibatullah. The lesson for Afghanistan and the US is that stability will elude the country as long as Pakistani intrusiveness is not eliminated. That has to be done by raising the costs of interference for Pakistan. Therein lies a lesson for India in J&K. The writer is a former Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs Hasan Suroor The collapse of the Soviet Union and its allied Communist regimes in Europe was hailed as the ultimate triumph of Western liberal democracy and capitalism. Francis Fukuyama, the American academic, called it the end of history arguing that the West had finallyand for goodwon the battle of ideologies. Scenes of joy swept Western capitals; darkness at noon had lifted! Hallelujah. Anyone caught expressing scepticism or urging humility risked ridicule and humiliation. Twenty-five years later, we seem to be looking at another end of history episode. Except that this time it is playing out not in Moscow, Budapest and Warsaw but in the heartland of Western democracy and capitalism London, Washington, Paris, Rome and Berlin. The same remorseless cycle of ideological boom and bust that brought about the demise of Communism is now paying a visit to the capitalist West. Liberal democracy and capitalismthe two great pillars of self-proclaimed Western supremacyare in deep crisis, spawning in its wake a politics of rage and hate on either side of the Atlantic. Its by far the gravest crisis since the Second World War, and threatens the post-War political and economic stability the West has come to take for granted. Economy is already in a tailspin and political and social stability hangs in the balance. Theres a worrying erosion of public confidence in the political class and democratically elected representativesin effect in parliamentary democracy itself. Demagogues are taking over, prompting fears that power might be shifting from Parliament on to the streets, reminiscent of the 1930s Germany. That may be an exaggeration, but its hard to escape a growing sense of public contempt for mainstream politics and a desperate search for alternatives even if it means plunging into unchartered waters. Large swathes of middle-class Americans and Europeans are willing to take a punt on anyone who doesnt sound like a conventional politician. The Trump-isation of American politics, the Brexit vote, and the increasing appeal of populist right-wing figures such as Marie Le Pen in France, Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, and groups like Alternative for Germany (APD) in Germany are a manifestation of this crisis. According to The Economist, populist, authoritarian European parties of the right and left now enjoy nearly twice as much support as they did in 2000, and are in government or ruling coalition in nine countries. This is no mid-summer madness that has suddenly seized millions of people; nor is there a right or left-wing conspiracy to destabilise the West. So, how did it come to this? It is a culmination of years of pent-up grievances exacerbated by the fall-out of the 2008 financial crash whose worst victims were the poor. But what happened next was like rubbing salt into the wound. While millions of middle and working class people lost their jobs and had their homes repossessed, pushing them further into poverty for no fault of theirs, those responsible for the crashbankers and their cronies in government and elsewheregot away with it. There was much hand-wringing, mea culpas, and talk of market reforms. A new 21stcentury brand of capitalism with a human face was promised, but nearly a decade later it is pretty much business as usual with obscene salaries and bonuses still very much the norm in the corporate sector. Meanwhile, globalisation has failed to work for the vast majority of lower, middle and working classes. Its promised benefits have bypassed them while benefitting big corporations and a small urban elite. Globalisation was sold to the public as a bold mission to bring the world closer to the mutual benefit of everyone, by breaking down trade barriers and promoting the idea of effectively a single world market. But it was really always about developed nations gaining access to lucrative new emerging markets in Asia and elsewhere. And about Western companies being able to save labour costs by outsourcing jobs to low-wage countriesIndia, China, Bangladeshi, Sri Lanka, etc. Even Labour Partys ultra-Left leader Jeremy Corbyns campaign T-shirts, which sell for up to 17 a piece, were made by slave labour in Bangladesh who were paid just 30 pence an hour. Globalisation has also led to increased economic disparities and a widening of the rich-poor divide as its benefits have not been equitably distributed; and blue-collar workers especially find its gains outweighed by losses. This has got conflated with anger over other issues like racial discrimination, immigration (the Brexit vote was driven solely by concerns over large-scale immigration from other EU states), and corruption in high places completing the image of a system that is not working for ordinary people. A big factor in the anger and frustration that people are feeling today is the realisation that regardless of who is formally elected, an insular ruling elite is actually in power, pursuing a technocratic agenda that serves the interests of rich and well-connected insiders rather than the public, wrote Steve Hilton, a former adviser to David Cameron, in The Times. So, when an insurgent pretender promises to bring our jobs back home, bring down immigrant numbers, and crack down on corporate greed, people cheer them seduced by the idea that someone is listening to them and speaking their language. (We had a glimpse of it in India in the 2014 elections.) In Europe, the anti-establishment mood has been fuelled by European leaders strutting and confused response to the Eurozone and refugee crisesthe former resulting in massive job losses and welfare cuts; and the latter igniting xenophobia. Like globalisation, the EU is also deemed as a failed project. Both have had the opposite effect of their intended aim. As Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz has argued, the EU was intended to foster unity and a sense of shared interests but, instead, it has ended up causing distrust and grievances. Ironically, even its poorer constituents (the ex-Communist East European nations) which have benefited enormously from their EU membership by way of subsidies and the right their citizens enjoy to settle and work in other member states are not happy, accusing Brussels of bullying. But to cut to the chase, trying to find specific causes for the crisis gripping the West is to miss the wood for the trees. The short point is that an exhausted West has run out of tricks in the face of a new emerging global order; and an increasingly assertive citizenry not willing to be taken for granted. There is a feel of decay that it cannot remain business as usual for too long. If someone, somewhere is contemplating an End of History 2.0 thesis, time to rush it out. The writer in an independent London-based commentator. THAT the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti had to travel all the way to New Delhi to invoke the Vajpayee Line should suggest that the ground of commonality between her party, the PDP and the BJP, is shrinking rather fast. Perhaps she has not noticed that the Vajpayee line no longer animates the new generation of the BJP leaders, even though the former Prime Minister is conveniently and, sincerely enlisted in explaining this concession or that compromise. The BJP takes its cue from the hard-liners in Nagpur, and those overseers are convinced that the separatist crowd need not be given any disproportionate attention or importance. The Nagpur crowd is rather inclined to believe that the 'trouble' is confined to only five or six districts and that the situation was manageable and within 'control.' The JK Chief Minister's invocation of the Vajpayee mantra in the face of New Delhi's feel-macho-feel-good triumphalism vis-a-vis Pakistan was an act of desperation. On his part the Prime Minister did well to reiterate his government's belief in Atal Bihari Vajpayees mantra of insaniyat, jamhuriyat, and Kashmiriyat. For good measure he also worked in dialogue as a preferred instrument of political process. That the Prime Minister made these helpful noises at a rally in distant Madhya Pradesh points to his government's complicated internal equations. The Home Minister is all fired up after a visit to Islamabad. And even while the Prime Minister was being conciliatory, the Foreign Secretary was summoning the Pakistani High Commissioner. There does not seem to be enough elbow room or sufficient inclination to engage with Pakistan. Nor would the pro-government electronic media allow the Modi government to get off its high-horse of 'tough message.' The Prime Minister's belated attempt to address himself to the sullen mood in the Valley should send out a message that the Indian democracy was capable of dissolving resentments and grievances. That, of course, is a necessary requirement of statecraft in New Delhi. The people of Kashmir also need to be given a credible fig leaf to spurn the separatist's fake righteousness. Deepender Deswal Tribune News Service Hisar, August 9 Acting on the basis of a complaint by a farmer of the Deria village in the district, the deputy director (Agriculture) Vinod Phogat has directed the banks to stop withdrawal of premium from the bank accounts for crops not covered under the insurance scheme. Satyawan Pannu, a farmer, had alleged the Union Bank of India deducted premium of Rs 1,263 and Rs 1,146 for guar and moong crops that were not notified under the scheme. However, BK Dhingra, bank manager, said the bank insured the crops as per the cropping pattern they had adopted previously. He said, If any farmer has changed the cropping pattern then he/she should intimate the bank about it, otherwise, the bank would automatically insure the crops as per the previous information. Sources said of the 1.25 lakh farmers eligible to be covered under scheme, about 60,000 of them owning 80,000 hectares had been insured. The government has set August 10 deadline for enrolment in Prime Minister Crop Insurance Scheme. Sushil Manav Tribune News Service Chandigarh, August 9 The Haryana School Education Department appears to have stirred a hornets nest by shifting more than 10,000 teachers through an online process. Even three days after Additional Chief Secretary (School Education) PK Das clicked the mouse to transfer 10,431 postgraduate teachers (PGT), hundreds of them aggrieved by the stations allotted to them thronged Shiksha Sadan in Panchkula today. Sources said hundreds of teachers had been shifted to places they had not applied for because of errors in the software. A case in point is of a woman teacher from Rohtak district. The mother of a 10-month-old daughter had opted for Rohtak district and a neighbouring district. The department, however, transferred her to a village near Ambala Cantonment. Aggrieved teachers have been asked to join the station allotted to them. Once they do so, the department will try to adjust them to some other station. The teachers grievances will be redressed soon, said Virender Singh Sehrawat, Additional Director, School Education. As for 774 teachers, who did not wish to be shifted but transferred nevertheless through the online system, they have been asked their choice of station. They, too, have been asked to join their new place of posting, Sehrawat said. On Monday, hundreds of teachers from across the state continued visiting the directorate in Panchkula throughout the day; many of them staged a dharna in the night. New Delhi, August 9 The Enforcement Directorate (ED) questioned former Member of Parliament Pratibha Singh, wife of Himachal Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, on Tuesday in connection with alleged corruption case against her, Singh and some others. The agency had asked Pratibha to appear before it on Tuesday. Official sources said the agency will record her statement under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). She has sought exemption from appearing before the agency twice citing personal reasons. She then approached the Delhi High Court seeking protection from arrest until August 24, when the case will be heard next. The ED told the high court on Monday that it did not intend to arrest Pratibha for now. Sources had earlier said the questioning the Chief Ministers wife was "essential" to the case after LIC agent Anand Chauhan, whom the agency arrested last month, made some "revelations". The agency also attached assets worth about Rs 8 crore against the Chief Minister earlier this year. Singh has denied wrongdoing. The ED had filed criminal charges for money laundering on the basis of a complaint filed by the CBI in September last year. It had also conducted searches in Delhi, Maharashtra and West Bengal last year. The agency is investigating allegations against Singh and his family of having illegally Rs 6.1 crore between 2009 and 2011 while he was Union Minister of Steel. CBIs First Information Report had named Singh, Pratibha, Chauhan and his brother CL Chauhan and charged them under the Prevention of Corruption Act. CBI claims that Singh allegedly invested Rs 6.1 crore in life insurance policies in his and his family members' names through Chauhan between 2009 and 2011 period and masquerading the money as agricultural income. PTI Dinesh Manhotra Tribune News Service Jammu, August 9 A day after the conclusion of the high-profile Patnitop conclave, the BJP has started sending feelers to other political parties of the country to iron out differences so as to unitedly face the prevailing turbulent situation in the Kashmir valley, which has been witnessing protests for the past one month. BJPs national general secretary Ram Madhav, who was the brain behind holding the two-day conclave at Patnitop, today observed that Valley-based separatist groups were united against the country but consensus eluded national parties on Kashmir. In Kashmir, the separatists are united against country. In the country we, the national parties, are utterly divided on Kashmir. What an irony!, Ram Madhav, who was instrumental in forming the PDP-BJP government in J&K, tweeted on Tuesday afternoon. Ram Madhavs tweet assumes importance because he has indirectly urged all parties to evolve a consensus on the vexed Kashmir issue so as to take some initiative to break the deadlock on dialogue. And more importantly, Ram Madhav has tweeted after Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti stated on Monday that there was a need to take bold and tangible initiatives to reach out to the people of the state. She had called for a productive dialogue process by reviving the confidence-building measures and the peace process. As reported earlier, the participants at the conclave had emphasised on the need to evolve a consensus at national-level, especially among all parties, to move forward on Kashmir. Ram Madhavs tweet is first step towards reaching out to the national parties for taking some steps to stop the vicious cycle of violence. Highly placed sources said it was suggested in the conclave that all parties of the country must be taken on board before taking any step. The participants had suggested that there should be national consensus to defeat designs of anti-national forces. Officially the BJP leaders are hesitant in openly supporting dialogue process with all stakeholders, including Hurriyat, but they are repeatedly quoting the Agenda of Alliance for initiating talks. In the Agenda of Alliance, the document for running coalition government in J&K, it is clearly mentioned that the PDP-BJP government would follow the dialogue process initiated by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee by including all groups, including the Hurriyat Conference, in the talks with the spirit of Insaaniyat, Kashmiriyat aur Jamhooriyat. Seema Kaul Tribune News Service New Delhi, August 9 Shocked by the Prime Ministers silence on Kashmir, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad told The Tribune on Monday that as the head of the country, the Prime Minister has to console the wounded Kashmiri people and reach out to them. The Kashmir situation is being discussed inside and outside the country. A large number of countries have shown concern. Only one person who has not shown concern is the Prime Minister, and this is shocking, Azad said, accusing Modi of not being bothered about the well-being of Kashmiris. According to the police chief of Jammu and Kashmir, 5,000 injured civilians and 3,300 injured security personnel is a huge number, he said, emphasising the gravity of the situation in the state. As many as 1,500 persons have been operated upon during this one month and 1,000 eye injuries received because of pellet guns, he said, adding that 1,000 persons were in jail. The Prime Minister should come forward and open his heart during the all-party meeting. We want to know what he is planning to do to resolve the situation, he said. He sought an all-party meeting on Kashmir chaired by the Prime Minister and a delegation to meet and console people. The Government of India should know that it is not a normal law and order problem. It is a political and economic problem as well, he said, adding that those who thought that Kashmir could be dealt with by guns did not know the ABC of Kashmir. Pointing out that the Centre would have to lend a helping hand to the state, Azad said, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti is well-meaning, but she is too raw. It has just been two months for her as Chief Minister. She was the Chief Minister for one month when it started. Expecting a one-month-old Chief Minister to resolve an issue as complex as Kashmir is asking for too much, he said. No political representative, whether MLA, MP or minister, has been able to go to the public. It is a very precarious situation. For one month, they have not been able to meet people in their constituencies. One or two have tried. But their security is at stake, said the Congress leader, talking about attacks on houses of state ministers like Naeem Akhter. R Sedhuraman Legal Correspondent New Delhi, August 9 The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Jammu and Kashmir Government to investigate the murder complaint against Deputy Superintendent of Police Yasir Qadri without suspending or arresting him. A Bench comprising Justices PC Ghose and Amitava Roy also asked the police to submit the investigation report to the court on August 12. In the meanwhile, the Bench stayed Jammu and Kashmir High Courts order for registration of a fresh FIR against the DSP on a complaint by a man whose 26-year-old son Shabir Ahmad Mir was allegedly shot dead by the police officer. Srinagar Judicial Magistrate had ordered registration of a fresh FIR on July 18. The high court had rejected the state government's plea against the magistrate's order, forcing it to approach the Supreme Court. Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said the murder complaint would be investigated as part of the first FIR on violent incidents following the killing of Hizbul Mujahedeen commander Burhan Wani. Fresh FIR would demoralise the police forces, which was the intention of the separatist elements, the Attorney General said. New Delhi, Aug 9 Following persistent demand by a united Opposition, the government on Tuesday agreed to have a debate on the prevailing Kashmir situation in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday with Home Minister Rajnath Singh seeking support from all sections to resolve the complicated issue. Opposition leaders, including those of the Congress, CPM, SP and JD (U), expressed concern over the continuance of curfew in the Kashmir valley for over a month. They sought a stop to the use of pellet guns on protesters, sending of a parliamentary delegation there to talk to all sections of people and an all-party meeting. As they raised the issue during Zero Hour, Rajnath walked in to the House and promptly concurred with Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad for a discussion on the issue on Wednesday. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien said there was no problem as both sides had agreed to discuss the matter. Earlier, Azad referred to the situation saying curfew has entered 31st day in Kashmir. We dont want to accuse the government of creating this situation; rather, we are ready to help control the situation there. Innocent women and children are dying. Your security forces are dying. Why are you shying away from the debate? Why are we witnessing a tamasha? he asked, adding that no doubt there was a bad situation in Kashmir in 2008 and 2010 when he and Omar Abdullah, respectively, headed the government there. Convene an all-party meet in Delhi in a day or two and send a delegation to Kashmir as the whole nation is watching, Azad said. Sitaram Yechury (CPM) asked why are you not sending a delegation to Kashmir...Send it on August 12 itself and for heavens sake, make an announcement to stop the use of pellet guns. He also stressed the need for starting a political process to end the turmoil in Kashmir. Sharad Yadav (JD-U) sought to know the governments strategy on Kashmir saying the whole country was concerned. He also demanded immediate stopping of the use of pellet guns. Ram Gopal Yadav (SP) said the people can question us as to what we did. We want a delegation to be sent to Kashmir as a part of the country is burning and it is impacting the entire nation. BSP supremo Mayawati also demanded a debate on Kashmir in the House in the presence of the Prime Minister. Sukhendu Sekhar Roy (Trinamool) said the situation in Kashmir had worsened due to mismanagement by the government and it is still alarming. Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, however, said they had asked the Home Minister and a debate could be held on Wednesday as the government also wanted to bring Kashmir developments to the mainstream. Kurien said, I concede that it is a very important issue. I am directing Naqvi to contact the Home Minister and convey his availability on Tuesday or Wednesday, to which Naqvi said the Home Minister had already consented for Wednesday. Naresh Agarwal (SP) sought to know as to why it was not taken up despite the government agreeing to it on Monday. Amid the din, Yechury said the delay was resulting in loss of lives of innocent youths in Kashmir. When CPM member TK Rangarajan said the debate could be initiated in the presence of other ministers, the Deputy Chairman said he, too, wanted a debate on the issue but felt that the Home Minister should be present. What is the point in the Defence Minister or Civil Aviation minister giving a reply on the issue? he asked. At this juncture, Azad agreed that there would be many things which only the Prime Minister and Home Minister would be privy to. The follow-up action after the discussion would also have to be taken by the Home Minister, Azad said, suggesting that rather than have Zero Hour and Question Hour, the Kashmir situation should be discussed from 11 am. The Home Minister said he believed that the J&K situation is serious and that he would not claim that he could resolve this complex problem alone. We will resolve it through everyones cooperation, he told the Upper House. PTI R Sedhuraman Legal Correspondent New Delhi, August 9 The Supreme Court today advised the Jammu and Kashmir government and the police to have a humane approach while handling the current unrest in the Valley following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani. You should be seen to be treating the people with love and affection, a Bench comprising Justices PC Ghose and Amitava Roy told Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi and Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta. The Bench made the remark while directing the state government to investigate the murder complaint against Deputy Superintendent of Police Yasir Qadri without suspending or arresting him and submit its probe report in a sealed cover on August 12. Mehta, however, pleaded that anti-national elements were instigating people to file false cases of murder against police personnel to demoralise the security forces. The security personnel were dealing with a difficult situation and their modus operandi was in the national interest, he contended. The Bench was hearing an appeal by the state government and the police, challenging an order of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court upholding Srinagar Judicial Magistrates directive for filing an FIR against DSP Qadri. The apex court stayed the High Courts order for an FIR on a complaint by a man whose 26-year-old son Shabir Ahmad Mir was allegedly shot dead by the police officer. Attorney General Rohatgi said the murder complaint against the DSP would be investigated as part of the first FIR pertaining to the violent protests against the killing of the Hizb commander. The registration of a fresh FIR would demoralise the security forces and would amount to playing into the hands of those inimical to the national integrity, Rohatgi pleaded. The state had also challenged the High Courts move to initiate contempt proceedings against top policemen for failing to register an FIR against the DSP. The apex court stayed this order as well. Mona It was as if everything had to fall in place for Karuna Singh. Blessed with good looks, a supportive family, a guide to spot her talent and lo and behold! This Chandigarh girl wins the top slot at Gladrags Megamodel contest! The shimmering crown sitting proudly on this daintily girls perfectly blown hair, familymum-dad, uncle, dada-dadi and brother by her sides, this 19-year-old cut a pretty picture as someone just waiting to claim her fair share under the sun. And, no, despite everything working in her favour and she being the winner of this prestigious contest, it was not an easy task. Hear it from her... The support system I am pursuing business economics from University of California, Irvine. The thought would not have occurred to me to apply for Gladrags here but it was Maureen Wadia, the woman behind the show, who reached out to me. Since I was Teen Miss India, I got a direct entry in the show. I turned to my parents to ask if it made sense and my dad counselled me not to miss this opportunity. I turned to my professors next, who were encouraging as well and with a promise to submit my assignments on time online, I headed to Mumbai. The journey For two months, we were groomed and trained under the watchful eyes of Maureen mam. Huge learning experience that it has been, yet at the same time very, very challenging. I would finish the shoots, rush to do the assignments, video conference with my guides as not to miss out anything on study front. My mum stayed all this while with me in Mumbai to support me through my gruelling schedule. Not easy, but now, that I have won, it was one phenomenal experience. The hurdles There was this moment when I thought that I would have to leave the show midway. My exams were due and at no cost I was going to miss that. For a model, and, eventually if one gets a chance to be an actor, is all a time bound thing. However, as an entrepreneur the scope is massive, so studies at the moment are my priority. But then Maureen mam let me go for 10 full days and finish my exams; my sheer luck that finale did not fall in that period. A city of beautiful Chandigarh sure has a good run in glamour industry, the credit rests with our genes. Blessed to be beautiful with just the right amount of tradition and modernity, city youngsters shine in this field. I am not much of a fitness person, just did the regular aerobics and exercises that were part of the two-month grooming. Yet, everyone lost weight. More because all were conscious what they were eating. You should have seen boys, who were surviving just on boiled chicken and eggs! I cannot do all that. Everything in moderation works for me just fine, and then my blessed genes... Finding role models I have been a huge fan of Tyra Banks. Not only has she been a top model but a super successful businesswoman. In Bollywood, its Priyanka Chopra. Heading on What next? I am completing my studies. And if an opportunity comes my way, I am not letting it go...have a good run girl! mona@tribunemail.com Simran Sodhi Tribune News Service New Delhi, August 9 Days after Home Minister Rajnath Singhs unceremonious visit to Islamabad, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar today summoned Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit and issued him a strong demarche over Pakistans continued support to cross-border terrorism. The demarche pointed out that the continued infiltration of terrorists was contrary to assurances given by the Pakistani leaders at the highest level. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) The India-Pakistan relations, since the January Pathankot attack, have moved from bad to worse. The Kashmir issue is back at centrestage since the killing of Hizbul militant Burhan Wani on July 8. While Pakistan tried to use it as an opportunity to globalise the issue, India has sought to stick to the line that Kashmir remains a bilateral issue. The demarche made specific reference to LeT terrorist and Pakistan national Bahad-ur Ali, who was apprehended recently, MEA spokesman Vikas Swarup said. Ali was arrested in Jammu and Kashmir on July 25 with weapons, communication equipment and other material of Pakistani/international origin. The demarche states that Ali has confessed that after training at Lashkar-e-Toiba camps, he infiltrated into India, with instructions to carry out terror attacks. India today also said it was ready to grant Pakistan High Commission consular access to Ali. According to the demarche, Ali has written to the High Commissioner requesting legal aid and assistance to meet his family. New Delhi, August 9 Former Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Kalikho Pul was found dead on Tuesday in a case police suspect to be that of suicide. Pul, 47, was found hanging from a ceiling fan of his bedroom at the chief minister's official residence that he had still to vacate by one of his three wives. The circumstances of his death are still unclear. Doctors say Pul died between 7 and 7:30 am. His family said he had met no outsiders in the past seven days. Chief Minister Pema Khandu told reporters that the inquiry was ordered to investigate whether there was any "foul play". Video: Former Arunachal Pradesh CM found dead "We have also recovered a suicide note from the room where the former Chief Minister committed suicide. However, I am not in a position to divulge much at this moment," a senior police officer said. However, sources in the Ministry of Home Affairs claim no such note was found and attributed the death to depression. As soon as the news of Pul's death spread, scores of his supporters gheraoed Chief Minister Pema Khandu's bungalow in Niti Bihar and demanded investigations into what they dubbed as "unnatural" death. Supporters also did not allow Puls body to be taken out of the official residence as they demanded that he be buried on the premises. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) The crowd also set a coffin brought from outside on fire. Some supporters then went to the official residence of Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein less than 100 metres away and damaged the outer wall and at least 10 vehicles parked on the premises. They also set an unfinished building of the states deputy chief minister on fire. Protestors also damaged the official bungalow of Industries Minister Tapang Taloh. No casualty was reported from the incidents. The state government sent police and ITBP to the high-security area where the ministers' residences were located. Pul's body will be kept at his bungalow to enable the public to pay respects, official sources said. Pul, a Congress rebel, was sworn in as chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh in February after a power tussle in the state. Also read: PM, Sonia, Rahul condole Puls death It is sad and really unfortunate that Kalikho Pul is no more with us, former chief minister Nabam Tuki said in a statement after the news broke. I am really shocked. I dont know what lead to this. He was staying at the CM's House. Maybe loneliness crept over him. When your mind is empty, it is a devils workshop, Congress leader Ninong Ering said. In my last conversation with him, he was positive about the state. He said he was sure people would choose him again. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi tweet on Tuesday said: Shocked and deeply saddened at the untimely demise of Kalikho Pul ji. My heart goes out to his family & loved ones. The state had found itself in a crisis after the state government, which had 47 MLAs in the 60-member assembly, was reduced to a minority after 21 of its MLAs rebelled against Tuki's leadership and sought to form government with the support of 11 Bharatiya Janata Party lawmakers. On January 26, the central government dismissed Tukis government and ordered Presidents rule in the state citing political crisis. Pul staked claim and was sworn in on February 19. The BJP lawmakers lent him outside support. After becoming Chief Minister, Pul and his supporters joined the Peoples Party of Arunachal (PPA), a regional political outfit. However, on July 13, the Supreme Court restored the previous Congress government, ending Puls rule in the state. Congress leader Pema Khandu was sworn in as chief minister on July 16 in a move aimed at placating rebels. Pul, who represents Hyuliang constituency in eastern Arunachal Pradesh, returned to the Congress soon after and supported Khandu. The former chief minister has served in various capacities in the Arunachal Pradesh cabinet including as the finance minister, power minister and tribal affairs minister. Agencies Toronto, August 8 After Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's apology in the House of Commons in May for the tragic 1914 Komagata Maru incident, Canada officially recognised its venue as a site of national historic significance. Canadian Defence Minister Harjit Singh Sajjan unveiled a commemorative plaque on Sunday at the venue of the Komagata Maru episode in Vancouver over 102 years ago. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) The Komagata Maru was a Japanese ship hired by wealthy Sikh Gurdit Singh from Malaysia to bring 376 persons, mostly Punjabis, from India to Canada to challenge the racist laws of the time. The ship anchored in Vancouver in May 1914, but the passengers were not allowed to disembark. The ship was forcibly returned to India after two months of stand-off. On arrival in Kolkata, 20 passengers were killed by British Indian police. "On this day, 102 years ago, the Canadian Government shamefully turned away 376 immigrants because of their country of origin. Today, as a representative of the Canadian Government, I am honoured to stand with the South Asian community and recognise the Komagata Maru incident as an event of national historic significance which helped shape the values, including multi-culturalism, that have become a source of strength for our country today," Sajjan said at the inauguration of the plaque. The statement said the designation of the Komagata site provides an opportunity for all Canadians to learn more about India's varied history, rich diversity and the lessons we have learned. IANS Ajay Banerjee Tribune News Service New Delhi, August 9 The government on Tuesday introduced a new motor vehicle bill that promises to make roads and national highways safer by proposing new road parametres and stringent fines for violaters. It could be taken up by the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari introduced the bill after Speaker Sumitra Mahajan overruled objections from the Trinamool Congress and the Congress that the bill had not been circulated among MPs as mandated. Gadkari made an emotional appeal to the House saying if the bill was not passed this session it would delay matters. He said some 1.5 lakh road accidents occurred daily and the bill would introduce new measures that were needed. Simran Sodhi Tribune News Service New Delhi, August 9 Ahead of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yis visit to India on Friday, the Chinese state-run media today cautioned India not to get unnecessarily entangled in the South China Sea dispute. In another article, the Chinese media labelled Indias business visa policy a pain in the butt. Both articles in the Global Times (GT) come ahead of Wangs visit here where he is expected to meet External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and also lay the groundwork for PM Narendra Modis visit to China in September for the G20 Summit. India may want to avoid unnecessary entanglement with China over the South China Sea debate during Wangs visit if the country wishes to create a good atmosphere for economic cooperation, which would include reducing tariffs on made-in-India products exported to China amid the ongoing free trade talk known as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, an article said. Nikhil Bhardwaj Tribune News Service Jalandhar, August 9 The police are scanning the CCTV footage of places frequently visited by RSS leader Brig Jagdish Gagneja (retd), who was shot at by unidentified assailants on Saturday. The police are suspecting that accused might have done recce of the area before the attack. Sources, however, said the footage of over a dozen CCTVs was being thoroughly scanned to trace the route followed by the assailants after committing the crime. Gagneja, a resident of Deep Nagar near cantonment, has a share brokerage office at Nirmal Complex, near Namdev Chowk. He also used to visit a gaushala at Lambra, RSS office Peeli Kothi at Gopal Nagar, besides going for morning and evening walk in the cantonment area and visiting places for RSS activities. It was a planned attack. The assailants might have done recce of the area. Considering the RSS leaders routine, we have procured CCTV recordings from several places, but nothing vital has been found, a senior police official said. So far we only know that two bike-borne assailants had come from Phagwara side. They were captured by a CCTV while crossing a dhaba on the Phagwara road, which also leads to the residence of the leader. Another footage showed them near the spot where the leader was shot at. The accused were masked and could not be identified. We want the footage of accused with clear faces, which can provide a vital clue, he said. Foreign exchange dealers under scanner Suspecting that the accused might have received funds from abroad, the police are scanning the records of forex dealers in Jalandhar, Nawanshahr and Phagwara. Suspected fund receivers could be questioned. The police are also tracking the activities of some hardliners and sleeper cells, who they believe could be behind the attack. AIIMS doctors examine Gagneja Ludhiana: Two specialists from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, examined injured RSS leader Brig Jagdish Gagneja (retd) at the Hero DMC Heart Institute here on Tuesday. Dr Subodh Kant and Dr KD Soni also had discussions with the team of local doctors. "The doctors are satisfied with the ongoing treatment, even as Gagneja's condition has not improved," a DMC doctor said. The AIIMS doctors were sent by the Union Health Ministry on the directions of the Prime Minister's Office. Local Bodies Minister Anil Joshi and Punjab Congress spokesperson Nimisha Mehta visited the hospital and enquired about the RSS leader's health. TNS Tribune News Service Chandigarh, August 9 The Union Home Ministry is keeping a watch on the developments in Punjab in the aftermath of the attack on RSS leader Brig Jagdish Gagneja (retd). Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh gave this assurance to a delegation of Punjab BJP leaders who called on him today. A day after state BJP leaders met Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on the same issue, the party chose to call on the Home Minister also. They also met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. A party press release said Rajnath told the leaders that the Home Ministry was in touch with the state government and was monitoring the situation on a daily basis. Rajnath himself spoke to the CM and Deputy CM Sukhbir Badal and assured them of every possible help, said state party president Vijay Sampla. The release said Sampla called on the leaders to apprise them of the latest situation in the wake of the attack on Gagneja. Ruchika M Khanna Tribune News Service Chandigarh, August 9 The Punjab Government has decided to do away with the 2 per cent stamp duty on the sale of property through the General Power of Attorney (GPA). Official sources said the proposal had been cleared by the Revenue Department, even as the stamp duty collections in the state have dipped. It is likely to be presented before the Council of Ministers by the month-end. Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia told The Tribune that the move had been discussed with Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal. He said the imposition of stamp duty had not made much impact on the revenue collections. The decision to impose duty on GPA was taken three years ago, in an effort to ensure that the state earned revenue on such property transactions. If a property is registered in a womans name, 2 per cent stamp duty and 2 per cent registration fee and infrastructure cess is payable. In the case of men, 6 per cent stamp duty and 2 per cent registration charges and infrastructure cess are levied. The government had made the transfer of property among blood relations free of cost last year. The collector rates in all major towns have also been brought down. Jupinderjit Singh Tribune News Service Chandigarh, August 8 Anguished over the murderous attack on its state joint president Brig Jagdish Gagneja (retd), the RSS today met Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal even as district-level RSS leaders and workers poured into the streets and submitted strongly-worded memoranda to DCs, demanding that Gagnejas attackers be arrested immediately. The Punjab BJP core committee, that met the CM and the Deputy CM separately, sought decisive action against the assailants. Led by state president Vijay Sampla, the leaders demanded that the matter be looked into by the CM himself. State DGP Suresh Arora, who was present, reportedly shared information on the attackers. Edit: Peace under attack The police has provided a security cover to prominent RSS leaders even as Gagnejas condition remains critical. He was shot at in Jalandhar on Saturday night and shifted to DMC, Ludhiana. The DMC vice-principal, Dr GS Wander, said none of the three bullets had been removed from his body. The RSS sees the attacks on its cadres as a political conspiracy. In 2009, its state chief Rulda Singh was gunned down in Patiala. A few months ago, an RSS shakha in Ludhiana was attacked. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) Rameshwar, the Pracharak Pramukh (North Zone-RSS), adopting a sterner posture than the BJP leaders, minced no words while expressing displeasure at the government failure to solve earlier such cases. A statement issued by the RSS media wing later in the day read, The RSS delegation in unequivocal terms conveyed its displeasure over the deteriorating law and order situation in the state. Whether it was the attack on a shakha in Ludhiana or the daylight murder of Mata Chand Kaur or the incidents of kidnapping, snatching, etc, the common man on the streets is feeling insecure. The Chief Minister, later in the day, visited the DMC to enquire about Gagnejas health. He said a neighbouring country could be behind the attack on the RSS leader. Deputy CM Sukhbir Badal, who holds the Home portfolio, said he was confident the culprits would be nabbed soon. Centre to send 15 BSF, RAF companies Chandigarh: The probe agencies are working on the theory that the attack could well be the handiwork of a foreign-backed agency. As a result, it has decided to step up vigilance at the International Border. The Centre has agreed to send 15 companies of Border Security Force and Rapid Action Force (about 3,000 personnel) to Punjab, after Home Minister Rajnath Singh called up Deputy CM Sukhbir Badal and discussed the situation. Ruchika M Khanna Tribune News Service Dehradun, August 9 The state government has started several schemes for strengthening child rights. Chief Minister Harish Rawat stated this while addressing a workshop on child rights organised by the State Child Rights Protection Commission in Dehradun today. The Chief Minister said his government had launched the Palana scheme under which it would adopt abandoned children. Dimilarly, Annaprashan and Khilti Kaliyan schemes were launched to control malnutrition among weak children. He added the Uttarakhand Police had launched Operation Smile to find and restore missing children to their families. He said the modern lifestyle was leading to break up of families, adversely affecting children and pushing them to the world of crime. Police personnel were being trained to provide necessary counselling to work towards reuniting affected families in cases where break up was imminent considering the future of children, he added. The Chief Minister called upon people to start a mass campaign to end malnutrition, poverty and crimes against children and other anti-social practices. We should take inspiration from freedom fighters of our country who started the Quit India movement against the British imperialism on August 9, 1942. We need the same spirit and collective efforts today, he added. He said his government was making all efforts to improve the health of mothers and children through various health programmes. Local foodgrain mandua, which is rich in iron and magnesium, was being distributed to expectant mothers across the state to end iron deficiency in them. Further, to remove protein deficiency, local black soybean (kala bhat) was also being provided to them. The Chief Minister honoured Dehradun City Magistrate Lalit Narayan Mishra, Dehradun SP Mamta Bohra, Sub-Inspector Manju Pandey and Sanjeev Mamgain for their contribution to protection of child rights. State Child Rights Protection Commission Chairman Yogendra Khanduri was also present on the occasion. Tribune News Service Haridwar, August 9 Farmers staged a protest in the Narsain block of the district here today and blocked the National Highway 58 along the Uttar Pradesh border alleging discrimination by the state government against hill region farmers. The farmers, under the aegis of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Tikait), blocked the highway at various stretches, including Narsain and Roorkee, affecting traffic flow for almost four hours. BKU (Tikait) national spokesperson Rakesh Tikait said due to the indifferent attitude of successive state governments, farmers in hill districts were being forced to leave agriculture as well as their native villages, which was a major cause for concern. Tikait said the recent Chinese incursion in the border area Barahoti area of Chamoli district was a result of migration of farmers from border hill districts for which both state and Central governments were responsible. The government should provide more facilities and subsidies to these farmers so that they stay there as it is vital for national security. Government should give transport subsidy to hill farmers as it is quite difficult for them to bring their produce to towns and mandis situated in lower areas, he said. Garhwal divisional president of the BKU Sanjay Chaudhari raised the issue of delayed sugarcane payment to farmers. He said many farmers had not been paid till date for the last years produce while another season of sugarcane crops was nearing. The government should make a comprehensive and mandatory policy for sugarcane payment as every year this issue proves a bone of contention between the farmers and the government. Instead of working in fields, we are forced to stage protests, Chaudhari said. The farmers warned of a statewide agitation on September 7 if their demands were not met and hill farmers were not given due attention and subsidy. A memorandum was submitted to Joint Magistrate Mayur Dixit demanding speedy action. SP, Rural, Pramendra Dobhal said due to protests by farmers, route diversion was done on the Haridwar-Delhi and Dehradun stretchs. Vehicles were directed to ply from Rampur Tiraha via Deoband, Mangalore to Roorkee and traffic from the Dehradun and Roorkee side towards Delhi was diverted towards Deoband. Adequate police force was deployed at Mangalore, Narsain and Roorkee considering the protests. Farmers had put up tractor trolleys on the national highway and adjacent stretches during the blockade, Dobhal added. R Sedhuraman Legal Correspondent New Delhi, August 9 The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain a petition seeking a court-monitored probe into the alleged leak of the question paper of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for medical admissions for the academic session 2016-17. A Bench comprising Justices Anil R Dave and L Nageswara Rao, however, granted liberty to the petitioner to approach the Uttarakhand High Court, where the alleged leak took place, with the same plea. The apex court passed the order after the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) opposed the plea, contending that the "leaked" paper didn't tally with the actual paper. CBSE had brought the alleged leak to the notice of the Justice RM Lodha panel, which was monitoring the functioning of the Medical Council of India. The Lodha panel also felt there was no leak, CBSE pleaded. Appearing for the petitioner, senior counsel Sanjay Hedge pleaded that the CBSE had taken a premature decision on the basis of initial report from the Haldwani police, Uttarakhand, instead of waiting for the final full report of the investigation which was still on. NEET became a reality because of the apex court intervention and as such its purpose should not be allowed to be defeated like this, Hedge contended. The Bench said it didn't want to be loaded with such work. Further, the CBSE was interested in protecting its reputation. Hegde contended that last year also CBSE had resisted such a plea, but ultimately the leak had come to light on Supreme Courts orders. Unconvinced, the Bench asked the petitioner to go to the high court if he had sufficient material to show there was a leak. According to the petitioner, 300 students from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and a few northeastern states had gathered at a resort in Haldwani and were sharing the questions and the answers. About 30 of them were nabbed. Washington, August 9 Fifty top Republican national security experts, including veterans from Nixon to Bush administrations, have come out openly against party nominee Donald Trump, who they say would make the most reckless President in American history if elected. The reality TV star lacks the required character, values and self-control, said the group as it listed dangerous qualities in an individual who aspires to become President and Commander-in-Chief, with command of the US nuclear arsenal that could the countrys safety to risk. None of us will vote for Donald Trump, said the group that includes former homeland security chiefs, intelligence directors, senior presidential advisers and a former US trade representative, in a major blow to the 70-year-old real estate tycoon-turned politician from the party itself. They signed an open letter declaring that the reality TV star lacks the character, values and experience to be President and would weaken the US moral authority. From a foreign policy perspective, Trump is not qualified to be the President and Commander-in-Chief. Indeed, we are convinced that he would be a dangerous President and would put at risk our country's national security and well-being. The letter has been signed by individuals who served in senior national security and foreign policy positions in Republican administrations from Richard Nixon to George W Bush. The letter questions his knowledge of and belief in the US Constitution, and says he has demonstrated repeatedly that he has little understanding of the countrys vital national interests, its complex diplomatic challenges, its indispensable alliances and the democratic values on which the foreign policy should be based. It further laments that Mr Trump has shown no interest in educating himself. In its statement issued yesterday, the group said Trump appears to lack basic knowledge about and belief in the US laws and US institutions, including religious tolerance, freedom of the press and an independent judiciary. He lacks self-control and acts impetuously. He cannot tolerate personal criticism. He has alarmed our closest allies with his erratic behaviour. All of these are dangerous qualities in an individual who aspires to be President and Commander-in-Chief, with command of the US nuclear arsenal, they said. Trump hit back at the stinging rejection, calling the group "nothing more than the failed Washington elite looking to hold onto their power" and saying they should be "held accountable" for making the world less safe. He said they were the reason the world is a mess. The major setback for Trump was followed by top Republican Senator Susan Collins saying she would not vote for him as he lacks the temperament required for the post. PTI Benghazi victims kin sue Hillary Relatives of two men killed in the 2012 attack on a US consulate in Benghazi (Libya) have filed a lawsuit blaming the deaths on Hillary Clintons reckless handling of classified information in her private email server Parents of two US security agents at the consulate in their wrongful death suit against Clinton allege that terrorists were able to determine the mens whereabouts because of her use of a private server Trump behind rising intolerance: Khans Canberra, August 9 Australian defence scientists who analysed signals from missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 have revealed that the Boeing 777 fell very fast before crashing into the Indian Ocean off the coast of Western Australia. Australian media reported on Tuesday that data analysis and manufacturer simulations showed it was likely that the aircraft lost engine power before falling out of the sky at a rate of up to 20,000 feet per minute on March 8, 2014, Xinhua news agency reported. An aircraft attempting a regular landing--or a crash-landing in water--would descend at a rate of around 2,000 feet per minute, raising doubts over previous predictions that the plane landed intact in the water before breaking up, the analysts said. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) Australian scientists believed that prior to its final moments, the jet made a number of automated handshake signals with satellites on the ground near Perth in Western Australia. After six of those handshakes, a seventh, out-of-sequence signal came from the jet, indicating engine failure likely from lack of fuel. The data gives life to the theory that the MH370 fell out of the sky, and did not glide to a final crash-landing spot in the Indian Ocean. Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) chief commissioner Greg Hood said the scientists analysis of the signals closely matched a flight scenario in which there was no pilot at the controls at the point of impact--in contrast to previous theories about how MH370 went down. Hood said the signal data meant MH370 likely crashed in the 120,000-square-km search area now being combed by Australian authorities. If the aircraft had glided to a final resting place--as previous theories had hinted--the plane may have gone down outside of the current search area. MH370 was a scheduled passenger flight from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing. It had 239 passengers and crew on board when it disappeared on March 8, 2014. IANS Tehran: A court in Iran has sentenced a prominent journalist to three years in prison on charges of insulting authorities and spreading propaganda against the ruling system. Isa Saharkhiz, who was detained in November, got two years for insulting authorities and one year for spreading propaganda. His detention came amid a campaign that saw the arrests of other cultural figures critical of Irans clerical system. He had been released in 2013 after serving nearly five years in prison on similar charges. AP QUETTA, August 8 The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing that killed at least 70 people and wounded more than 100 in an attack on mourners gathered at a hospital in Pakistans southwestern city of Quetta on Monday, a day after a faction of the Taliban already admitted to having been responsible. The bomber struck as a crowd of mostly lawyers and journalists crammed into the emergency department to accompany the body of a prominent lawyer who had been shot and killed in the city earlier in the day, Faridullah, a reporter who was among the wounded, said. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) Abdul Rehman Miankhel, a senior official at the government-run Civil Hospital, where the explosion occurred, said more than 112 people were wounded. Islamic State's Amaq news agency reported the Middle East-based movement was behind the atrocity. If true, it would mark an alarming development for Pakistan, long plagued by Islamist militant violence but most of it locally-based. "A martyr from the Islamic State detonated his explosive belt at a gathering of justice ministry employees and Pakistani policemen in the city of Quetta," Amaq said. Jamaat-ur-Ahrar, a faction of the Islamist militant Pakistani Taliban group, earlier said it had carried out the attack. The movement at one time swore fealty to Islamic State's Middle East leadership, but later switched back to the Taliban. "The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Jamaat-ur-Ahrar (TTP-JA) takes responsibility for this attack, and pledges to continue carrying out such attacks," said spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan in a statement. Only last week, Jamaat was added to the United States' list of global terrorists, triggering sanctions. It remains unclear what ties Jamaat retains to Islamic State, whose leadership is a rival to both the Taliban and al Qaeda over claims to represent the true Islamist Caliphate. In September 2014, Jamaat-ur-Ahrar rejected the Pakistani Taliban during a leadership struggle and swore allegiance to Islamic State, also known as Daesh. By March 2015, however, the group was again swearing loyalty to the main Pakistani Taliban umbrella leadership. The reason for its return to the fold remains murky, but Jamaat also never specifically disavowed Islamic State either. The White House condemned the attack. "We remain resolute in joining with the people of Pakistan in confronting terrorism in Pakistan and across the region," it said in a statement. Monday's attack was the deadliest in Pakistan since an Easter Day bombing ripped through a Lahore park, killing at least 72 people. Jamaat-ur-Ahrar also claimed the bombing. Quetta has long been regarded as a base for the Afghan Taliban, whose leadership has regularly held meetings there in the past. In May, Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed by a US drone strike while travelling to Quetta from the Pakistan-Iran border. Agencies Saint Petersburg, August 9 Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan today promised to reinvigorate ties after their first meeting since Ankara shot down a Russian warplane last November. Erdogan's visit to Putin's hometown of St Petersburg is also his first foreign trip since the failed coup against him last month that sparked a purge of opponents and cast a shadow over Turkeys relations with the West. We lived through a very complicated moment in the relations between our states and we very much want, and I feel our Turkish friends want, to overcome the difficulties, Putin told journalists at a joint press conference after the encounter. The Kremlin leader insisted it would take painstaking work and some time to return to previous trade levels as Russia looks to roll back a series of economic sanctions against Ankara, but both sides said they wanted to restart major energy projects hit by the crisis. Erdogan said he hoped Russian-Turkish relations would become more robust and stressed how important it was that Putin offered his support after the coup. We will bring our relations back to the old level and even beyond, both sides are determined and have the necessary will, he said. The shooting down of a Russian fighter jet by a Turkish F-16 over the Syrian border last fall saw a furious Putin slap economic sanctions on Turkey and launch a blistering war of words with Erdogan that seemed to irrevocably damage burgeoning ties. But in a shock reversal late June, Putin accepted a letter expressing regret over the incident from Erdogan as an apology and quickly rolled back a ban on the sale of package holidays to Turkey and signalled Moscow would end measures against Turkish food imports and construction firms. Putin was one of the first foreign leaders to phone Erdogan offering support after the coup attempt. AFP Washington, August 9 A top national security advisor to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has said the US will treat Pakistan "harshly" and "cut off" assistance if it continues to be the "safe haven" for terror groups like Taliban, Haqqani and al-Qaeda. "We need to have some tough love conversations with the leaders of countries who pretend to be our friends, but who also collaborate with our enemies," Lt General (retd) Michael T Flynn, has said in his latest book How We Can Win the Global War Against Radical Islam and Its Allies that hit the book stands last week. "Countries like Pakistan need to be told that we will not tolerate the existence of training camps and safe havens for Taliban, Haqqani, and al-Qaeda forces on their territory, nor will we permit their banks and other financial institutions to move illicit funds for the terror network," said Flynn. In the war against terrorism, he listed India as one of the countries with which the US needs to strengthen its relationship. "Diplomacy alone will not be sufficient; at the moment, nobody takes us seriously. We will have to demonstrate the ability and the resolve to crush our enemies. We should start with strengthening our relationships with Israel, Jordan, and Egypt," he said. "We will also need to revive our working relations with countries such as Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, India, and Argentina," Flynn wrote. Flynn who served as the director of the Defence Intelligence Agency, commander of the Joint Functional Component Command for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance and chair of the Military Intelligence Board is one of the few top Pentagon leadership to have supported Trump. Among those shortlisted for Trump's vice-presidential pick, Flynn is considered close to Trump and his top national security advisor. "They are going to have to choose and if they continue to help the jihadis, we are going to treat them harshly, cutting them off from American assistance, and operating against enemy safe havens," Flynn said, adding that the same tough approach applies to the financing of the jihadi network. "Over the years, the terrorists have raised a lot of money from individual donors (sometimes contacted in person, other times online), but criminal activities are a much more important source of money. Some of the best intelligence work carried out by the American government has been done in this area," he said. PTI Image: California State Transportation Agency The release of the final version of Californias Sustainable Freight Action Plan has been met with harsh criticism by two groups representing Golden States truck-fleet operators. According to the California Air Resources Board, the revised document is similar to the draft issued back in May. However, CARB claims it reflects new input provided by industry, labor, regional and local government, and community and environmental group stakeholders. The plan is important to trucking as the agency regards it as a blueprint for making the states freight transport system environmentally cleaner, more efficient, and more economically competitive. However, key trucking stakeholder associations in the Golden State argue that the plan doesnt take into account the realities of the trucking industry, especially the billions truckers already spend to eliminate harmful emissions from the vehicles they operate in California. We listened to stakeholders, incorporated changes, and we will continue to consult with them as we put the Plan into action, said California Air Resources Board Chair Mary D. Nichols. This dialogue -- and a commitment to shared responsibility for and ownership of this plan-- is the underpinning for the successful transformation of our freight transport system and the multiple benefits it will bring to our environment, communities and our economy. Developed in response to an executive order issued by Governor Jerry Brown, the plan was prepared by no fewer than seven state agencies. Governor Browns senior jobs adviser Mike Rossi noted that the plan builds upon ongoing efforts to modernize the freight industry while reducing emissions and keeping it competitive through commercially viable and affordable technologies." The ambitious plan includes a long term-2050 vision and guiding principles for Californias future freight transport system along with these slightly more near-term, albeit arguably vague targets: Improve freight system efficiency 25 percent by 2030 Deploy over 100,000 zero-emission vehicles/equipment and maximize near-zero by 2020 Foster future economic growth within the freight and goods movement industry Per CARB, the plan also identifies opportunities to leverage freight transport system investments made by the State of California; pinpoints actions to initiate over the next five years to meet goals and lists possible pilot projects to achieve concrete progress in the near term. The agency said the final plan also puts more focus on partnerships and includes a discussion of toxic hot spots. Changes have also been made to clarify and emphasize collaboration between the responsible agencies and other regional planning efforts, including funding. CARB said that, going forward, state agencies will continue working with federal, state, industry, labor, regional, local and environmental and community-based partners to refine and prioritize the strategies and actions outlined in the plan. State agencies have also been charged with creating collaborative stakeholder working groups on competitiveness, system efficiency, workforce developments, and regulatory and permitting process improvements. All these efforts will lead to state agencies establishing work plans for chosen pilot projects by next July, CARB stated. In statement on the finalized action plan, Shawn Yadon, CEO of the California Trucking Association, said that for California to spur innovation in zero and near-zero emission technologies, the state must make a business case for new investment from the trucking industry, which is already spending $1 billion a year to bring about a more sustainable freight system. Broad expansion of regulations targeting freight facilities will impede this progress by discouraging the investment needed to achieve California's environmental and economic goals. Yadon told HDT that CARB and other air-quality agencies in the state continue to signal that they intend to expand regulation to cap emissions at freight hubs, which they contend are [toxic] hot spots despite the billions the trucking industry is spending to eliminate emissions throughout the state If the true intent of this program is to advance zero and near-zero emission technology, then California must make the case for billions of dollars of new private investment in the state, he added. Continuing to signal that draconian new rules are on the horizon will only hurt this effort. Joe Rajkovacz, director of governmental affairs and communications for the Western States Trucking Association, reacted even more vehemently to the final plan. Despite what the news release from CARB states about the inclusive nature of the process, as usual it is nothing but gross hyperbole, he told HDT. The whole document is really a manifesto outlining future interference in the goods-movement marketplace by bureaucrats intent on maintaining their command and control over a sector of the economy. Its newsworthy to the point that it telegraphs the direction of future policy decisions by CARB. Rajkovacz also said that WSTA has known for quite some time that California move forward with inducements towards the adoption of zero-emissions technology in heavy duty trucks. I have been told by CARB bureaucrats they never wanted a repeat of forced mandates similar to what occurred with the Statewide Truck and Bus rule. The roadmap here will be financial inducements to adopt zero- emissions trucks in specific market segments. That being said, he added that all the news of Class 8 electric trucks possibly entering the marketplace in some commercially viable way is going to be interesting if it really happens. Those as yet fantasy trucksI havent seen any being beta-tested on highway yet, just concepts-- will be exactly what CARB wants in the California marketplace. At least until some public researcher comes up with a theory that even those trucks somehow are contaminating the environment. Related: California Aims to Regulate Sustainability into Freight System WASHINGTON In the public imagination, no industry better symbolizes the downfall of U.S. manufacturing than steel. Shuttered plants dot the Midwest. Since 1973, steel employment has dropped 76 percent, from 610,700 to 147,300 in 2015. Moreover, the culprit seems clear trade and its influence seems pervasive: Manufacturing as a whole lost about 5 million jobs from 2000 to 2015. No wonder both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have jumped on the anti-globalization bandwagon. Globalization seems guilty as charged except that the popular indictment is wildly misleading. Though trade has helped reshape U.S. manufacturing, it is only one force of many. The appeal of making it the prime villain is political and psychological. We can blame manufacturings problems and dislocations on foreigners and disloyal American multinational firms. If they behaved better, the American economy would improve. There is some truth to this, but it is hardly the whole truth as the case of steel shows. Despite plummeting industry employment, U.S. steel production is roughly where its been for decades, between 90 million and 120 million tons a year. Imports generally represent 20 percent to 25 percent of domestic consumption. True, dozens of steel plants have closed. But dozens of more efficient plants have opened. Productivity (aka, efficiency) has increased dramatically. The industrys largest change of the past half-century is the rise of so-called mini-mills. There are now two dominant ways of making steel. The traditional way is to start from scratch: Iron ore, limestone and coal are melted to form pig iron; then the pig iron is boiled in a basic oxygen furnace to make molten steel, which is formed into various finished products (sheet for cars, beams for construction and the like). Mini-mills are the second way. Their raw material is scrap steel, which is melted in electric arc furnaces to make molten steel. The mini-mills have a big cost advantage over the older vertically integrated mills. From 1970 to 2015, their share of total U.S. steel production went from 15 percent to 63 percent, reports the American Iron and Steel Institute, an industry group. This has huge implications. In a recent study, economists Allan Collard-Wexler of Duke and Jan De Loecker of Princeton found that the spread of mini-mills with their greater efficiency explained most of the industrys job loss. Put differently: If there were no foreign trade in steel, most of those jobs would have vanished anyway. The least efficient vertically integrated plants were forced to close. The decisive competition has been domestic, not foreign. To be sure, steelmakers face some legitimate trade issues. Theres a global steel glut, mainly because China sharply expanded its industry on the unrealistic assumption of continued strong economic growth. The numbers are breathtaking, according to a report by analyst Lucy Lu of the Peterson Institute. Since 2005, global steelmaking capacity has increased by three quarters, with China accounting for 78 percent of the gain. China now represents 50 percent of world production, up from 31 percent in 2005. The consequences were predictable. Prices have plunged, as China and others have tried to export some of their surplus capacity. American producers are now, to some extent, protecting themselves by filing trade complaints against steel imports being illegally dumped or subsidized by foreign governments. But this is a short-term expedient. Whats needed is a global agreement that reduces the worst concentrations of excess capacity, starting with China. American steelworkers and companies cannot compete against foreign subsidies. Still, we shouldnt lose sight of the larger picture. The standard story about the fate of American manufacturing is incomplete. It blames the loss of U.S. factory jobs mainly on foreign imports and the move of American firms abroad. Thats part of the problem, but a larger cause is as with steel rapid productivity growth, argues Harvard economist Robert Lawrence. Better manufacturing methods and technologies mean that fewer workers can produce the same output. This is a good thing, even if it initially involves fewer jobs, because higher productivity promotes higher living standards. Compared to other high-income economies [that is: excluding China], writes economist Marc Levinson of the Congressional Research Service in a report, the United States has performed well in manufacturing. ... From 1990 through 2014, the only high-income countries with faster growth [were] a handful of smaller economies, including Finland, Israel and Sweden. We are being fed a largely false narrative on globalization. It is not the source of most of our problems. All dynamic economies experience constant disruptions from changing technologies, shifting consumer tastes and inevitable business cycles. Some instabilities come from abroad; most for the United States originate at home. What matters is the economys ability to offset the losses with new jobs and opportunities. That is the ultimate test. During the Energy Chamber's Post AGM Event at the Hyatt Regency hotel Wednesday evening, the Finance Minister Colm Imbert offered an insight into how going to the supermarket has been for him since he announced the increase in the prices of gasoline and diesel in the 2023 Budget. Veteran TV executive Ian Johnson has parted ways with the Seven Network, after 13 years. Johnson exited on the same day as David Leckie. Industry chatter suggests his contract was not renewed. Seven advised his consultancy ended in June. Johnson is legendary in Melbourne media. He joined Seven as managing director of HSV7 in 2003, with 5 years in the role before being succeeded by Peter Lewis, and becoming Chairman of Channel Seven Melbourne. Prior to Seven he ran GTV9 for many years, where he was instrumental in kicking off The Footy Show and bringing Eddie McGuire to Nine. He also ran Nine in Sydney for 12 months after David Leckie departed before a new CEO was appointed. At Seven he worked closely with Kerry Stokes to secure the AFL for Seven and brought Daryl Somers across from Nine for Dancing with the Stars. Highly-regarded by the Packer family, he even ran Crown in Melbourne for a few years. A true gentleman of the television industry, one well-placed source told TV Tonight, Jonno is loved by everyone. 60 Minutes reporter Michael Usher has quit Nine to join Seven. In the latest blow to Nines current affairs programme, Usher leaves the network after 23 years. A graduate of the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts, he joined National Nine News following a stint at the Golden West Television Network in Bunbury. Seven Network Director of News and Public Affairs Craig McPherson said: We couldnt be more pleased to have Michael joining Australias number one news team. Widely regarded as one of the countrys foremost investigative journalists, his passion and experience will further strengthen our dedicated team. Michael will be instrumental in future news programming including presenting the Seven News Investigates series currently in production. Usher recently fronted 60 Minutes to tell viewers We made mistakes, following its debacle in Lebanon. At Nine he has also been a US correspondent, Nightline presenter and occasional A Current Affair presenter. The Australian Film Television and Radio School has announced a five-year vision following a national industry skills survey. The school commissioned Screen Audience Research Australia (SARA) to undertake nationwide research, consulting with more than 500 Australian practitioners. The survey found that there are skills gaps in business skills and entrepreneurship, new technologies, practical training in the creativity and craft of storytelling and multi-skilled new entrants. It also concluded marketing and social media will be critical to realising future opportunities. The school has announced a five year strategic plan built on outreach, talent development and industry training, as a result. Our purpose is clear to find and empower Australian talent to shape and share their stories with the world by delivering the most future-focused education, research and training, said AFTRS CEO, Neil Peplow. AFTRS Chair, Professor Julianne Schultz AM FAHA, said This is an exciting time for the School, we have had many internal and external discussions over the last eight months to ensure the School meets the future needs of the industry, and the Australian creative community. It was crucial to undertake this nationwide survey of industry needs, the survey data has informed and is at the heart of AFTRS evolution. SARA CEO, Peter Drinkwater, said The industry is rapidly changing: tighter budgets and greater time pressures mean less acceptance of failure. The role of training is therefore paramount, with 90% of the industry wanting access to more training opportunities in the future. Outreach will help the school connect with a broad audience across Australia. This will be achieved through a number of channels, such as developing materials for teachers in classrooms to teach filmmaking skills within the context of Australian screen and broadcast culture and working with arts and cultural community based organisations around the country to provide training. Partnerships will be a critical tool to help the School reach a wider and more diverse audience, and in ensuring the success of new and inclusive initiatives around Australia. Talent Development: AFTRS will offer the highest standard of industry-focused education and training in order to develop new talent. Its merit-selection processes will be adapted to ensure the most creative students from the most diverse range of backgrounds study at AFTRS. Once at the School, students will be supported through the education pathway and mentored into the industry through formal programs that work for both student and provider. Mr Peplow said this included reintroducing its high-level professional focused two year MA that will act as a fast track into industry. The MA Screen program will recruit six exceptional students a year into eleven discipline specific cohorts. The current BA will continue to evolve to ensure graduates are taught to leverage the latest technology and techniques, becoming creative entrepreneurs able to generate and engage audiences through all platforms and genres of content. AFTRS is also looking to work with partners to support emerging talent through talent labs and mentoring schemes. Industry Skills: The Schools 2016 Industry Skills Survey has provided a wealth of information about the training needs of the Australian screen and broadcast industry, and identified training and development gaps that AFTRS will look to fill. Short courses and diplomas both online and face-to-face were identified as the most suitable training methods for people currently in industry. Mr Peplow said that the foundations of these pillars outreach, talent development and industry training will be underpinned by research and inclusion. The School will drive innovation in the screen and broadcast industry and in practice-based education. Its industry research will focus on new technologies, business and audience engagement, such as the recent VR Noir project which demonstrated how virtual reality narratives can engage audiences in a radically different way to traditional film and television. To ensure AFTRS reflects Australian society, diversity will be supported across all the Schools activities. AFTRS has embarked on new research to uncover the best practice in diversity initiatives around the world and will apply the findings of this research in its own activities and measure their impact against its strategic goals. AFTRS reinvigorated Indigenous Unit will be further supported and expanded to nurture potential filmmakers and broadcasters through a variety of pathways into the School. The Schools Scholarship program will also be expanded to allow as many individuals as possible to access the education, training and employment opportunities the School has to offer. The Schools responsibility is to the Australian story. We need to open the school doors wide, increase our reach and nurture and excite the next generation of talent that will ultimately impact the screen and broadcast industry both culturally and commercially here and around the world, Mr Peplow said. Disclaimer: AFTRS advertises at TV Tonight. NITV will host of the biennial gathering of the World Indigenous Television Broadcasters Network in Sydney in November. Bringing together 8 Indigenous broadcasters from around the world, the event is held every 2 years. The inaugural gathering was held in New Zealand in 2008, followed by Taiwan, Norway and Canada. WITBN Chairperson and NITV Channel Manager, Tanya Denning-Orman, said: Its fitting to announce the meeting in Australia on the International Day of the World Indigenous Peoples a day which celebrates the diverse cultures of the world and an opportunity to shine a spotlight on the injustices and challenges Indigenous people continue to face across the globe. Its something each of our members work hard to achieve on a daily basis through our own networks and the reason why Indigenous television is so important. Its an honour for NITV to host WITBN in Australia, the home of the worlds oldest continuous culture. We will focus on next steps for WITBN projects including our daily news exchange, co-production and program exchange, as well as showcase our unique Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture to our visiting members. WITBN was founded in 2008 with a vision to preserve and promote Indigenous languages and cultures worldwide. A not for profit organisation, WITBN is an alliance made up of members from around the world including NITV Australia, Maori Television New Zealand, Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) Canada, Taiwan Indigenous Television (TITV), TG4 Ireland, BBC Alba Scotland, Oiwi TV in Hawaii and NRK Sapmi in Norway. Hi, my name is Scott C. Waring and I wrote a few books and am currently a ESL School Owner in Taiwan. I have had my own UFO sighting up close and personal, but that's how it works right? A non believer becomes a believer when they experience their first sighting. You witnessed it, your perceptual field changes, so now you need to share it. I created this site to help the UFO community get a little bit organized. I noticed that there was a lot of chaos when searching for UFO sighting reports, so I hope this site helps. I wanted to support those eyewitnesses who have tried to tell others about what they have seen, yet were laughed at by even closest of friends. More and more each day the governments of the world leak bits and pieces of UFO information to the public. They have a trickle down theory in hopes of slowly getting citizens use to the idea that we are not alone in universe and never have been. The truth is being leaked drop by drop until one day we look around and find ourselves neck high in it. The discovery of alien species in existence is the most monumental scientific event in human history, suppression of that information is a crime against humanity. About me: I live in Taiwan. I OWN MY OWN ENGLISH SCHOOL, AND ONCE HAD 5 SCHOOLS. Am Former USAF at SAC base (flight line). Age: 42 Educ: BA in Elem ed. Masters in Counseling ed. I had two UFO sightings, (30+bus size orbs) in military and in 2012 personally saw the UFO over Taipei 101 building on New Years Day (and recored it). Russian-backed militants launched 47 attacks on positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Donbas over the past day. This is reported by the ATO Headquarters press center. The tensest situation was observed in Mariupol area, where the Ukrainian servicemen came under 122 mm artillery fire in Marinka (35 km south-west of Donetsk) and Krasnohorivka (29 km west of Donetsk). The terrorists used mortars and grenade launchers to fire at Vodiane (16km north-west of Donetsk). In Donetsk area, Russian-backed militants slammed two dozen heavy artillery shells into Luhanske (59km north-east of Donetsk) and Mayorske (45km north of Donetsk). ish The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has dismissed Maksym Mykytas as president of the Ukrainian State-Run Building Corporation UKRBUD. This decision is stipulated in a government resolution, No.569-r as of August 8, 2016, according to the government's official website. To dismiss Maksym Mykytas from the post of president of Ukrainian State-run Building Corporation UKRBUD in line his earlier submitted letter of resignation, iy Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Sergiy Kyslytsya met with Ambassador of Equatorial Guinea to Ukraine (with residence in Moscow) Filiberto Nguema on the occasion of completion of his diplomatic mission. The press service of the Foreign Ministry reported. During the meeting both sides spoke in favor of further development of relations between the two states, in particularly in trade, economic and educational spheres. Two parties underlined the necessity to maintain dialogue and to continue constructive cooperation within international organizations. ish In the first half of this year, consular offices in Poland issued more than 565,000 visas to Ukrainian citizens. This has been reported by the Polish Foreign Ministry on request of an Ukrinform correspondent in Poland. In the first half of this year, Poland issued more than 565,000 visas to Ukrainians, it is almost a quarter more than during the same period last year (over 433,000). At the same time, the number of visa denials in comparison with the previous year decreased from 5.8% to 4%. During the first half of this year, six consulates of Poland in Ukraine (Kharkiv, Kyiv, Lviv, Lutsk, Vinnytsa and Odesa) issued 250,500 Schengen visas (type "C") to Ukrainians and 314,500 national visas (type "D"). In comparison with the same period of 2015, the number of issued "Schengen" visas increased by 20% and national visas by 26%. ish Green Industry Conference 2013 The third Green Industry Conference (GIC) was held in Guangzhou, China, from 7 to 9 November 2013. The two and a half-day event, under the theme "Promoting the rapid uptake of green industry in harmony with the Earths ecosystems", was organized by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the Peoples Republic of China and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). The Conference highlighted both success stories and outstanding policy challenges. Participants included high-level government officials, representatives of the private sector, and academic and civil society experts in the field of Green Industry. It showcased and assessed concrete examples of the application of green industry concepts to manufacturing processes. The innovative management and technology approaches presented demonstrated the commercial viability of applying green policies and practices and explored specific challenges and opportunities for different sectors and regions. Read press release here Click here for more details Green Industry Conference 2011 The second Green Industry Conference (GIC) was held in Tokyo, Japan, from 16 to 18 November 2011. The conference is a follow-up to the Asian Green Industry Conference held in the Philippines in 2009 and aims to scale-up and mainstream green industry policies, methods and techniques. The three-day event was organized by the Government of Japan through its Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). Some 500 participants representing countries predominantly from within the Asia and Pacific region gathered in Tokyo to discuss Green Industry progress: the application of environmental and resource conservation techniques and practices to the benefit of business, the environment and climate, new job creation, as well as for communities and consumers. Read press release here Watch the video below Green Industry Conference 2009 The first Green Industry Conference (GIC) was held in Manila, Philippines, from 9 to 11 November. The three-day event, under the theme Managing the Transition to Resource-Efficient and Low-Carbon Industries, brought together some 1,000 decision makers, business leaders and experts. It was hosted by the Philippines Government in cooperation with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). The conference endorsed the Manila Declaration on Green Industry in Asia that outlines the steps needed to reduce the resource intensity and greenhouse gas emissions of industries in Asia and track progress towards a low-carbon industrial future. Read press release here Watch the video below There is one way to earn a doctorate degree these days. Lucky are those celebrities who received doctorate degrees with out even stepping inside a classroom. For some celebrities like Batman's Ben Affleck, he was able to get a higher education degree for being honored due to his accomplishments in acting. The tenured actor, according to Business Insider, was honored for his work in the arts. Affleck, who is an American actor and filmmaker, started out as a child actor in PBS. Later on, he moved on to bigger films and eventually earned his name. He gained fame for his work in "Good Will Hunting." But he started out as a high school student in Cambridge Rindge and Latin with Matt Damon. Later on, he was accepted by the University of Virginia but did not take that route. He moved to Los Angeles and took Middle Eastern affairs at Occidental College. In the end, he dropped out when a creative writing professor ridiculed an early draft of the "Good Will Hunting" screenplay. So he started out in child acting and wrote "Good Will Hunting." Moving forward in his career, he took the role of a leading man in many films. But it was in 2003 that his career took a downward spiral because of "Gigli." In 2006, his career picked up as a director for "Gone Baby Gone." In 2013, the Academy Award winner was honored by Brown University. He was given the honor of a Doctorate Degree of Fine Arts during the 2013 commencement. It was his work for "Argo" that earned him the appreciation. He starred in "Argo" and directed the movie too. Now, he is known for his role as Batman in the recent "Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice" movie. He is set to make his own stand-alone film as "Batman" and joins the "Justice League" in the next few years under DC. His way of giving back? Check out this video of Affleck surprising fans: Jason Bourne, or rather the actor behind him, lives a secret life. Matt Damon is secretly very smart. While he is known for his role in multiple films such as the Jason Bourne films, Ocean's franchise, The Martian and many more, he is actually an intellectual individual. Hollywood loves to put people like Damon on the platform for their acting achievements. They get honored with Golden Globes, Academy and Emmy awards. Back then, Brit has it that Damon dropped out of university to pursue various acting opportunities. Brit describes him as having the book smarts. Though he did not have the honorary degree, Damon earned his mark in the world. At a young age, he attended Cambridge Alternative School. The school is now called Graham and Parkes. He then attended Cambridge Ridge and Latin School with his friend Ben Affleck. He started his acting career in high school theater. After high school, Damon attended Harvard where he was a resident of the Lowell House. He did not finish his degree because he opted to take a lead role in the movie "Geronimo: An American Legend." Before he left, however, he wrote a draft with Affleck for "Good Will Hunting." It was homework for an English class that became a huge hit. In his time, he was the smartest and most talented. Although he dropped out early to pursue his dream in acting, that does not mean he did not use his time in university wisely. He excelled in theater and acting. Now, aside from the awards he received from his acting and producing days, he also received his own Hollywood Star on the Hollywood walk of fame. "A few times in my life I've had these experiences that are just kind of too big to process and this looks like it's going to be one of those times," says Damon. For some Jason Bourne and Matt Damon humor, check out this video below of Damon pranking people: Back in April, Yale University president Peter Salovey confirmed that the institution was keeping the name of Calhoun College. There were protests about how John C. Calhoun, a 19th-century alumnus and with whom the building is named after, was an ardent supporter of slavery. ABC News reported that Yale University has announced last Monday, Aug. 1, that it is reconsidering the decision to preserve the name of a residential college. "Many faculty, students, alumni, and staff have raised significant and moving concerns about that decision, and it is now clear to me that the community-wide conversation about these issues could have drawn more effectively on campus expertise," Salovey said. There has been a lot of controversy around the name of Calhoun College. It gained new attention last year, though, when protesters on various campuses across the country urged universities to address the legacies of historical figures. John C. Calhoun was a member of Yale's 1804 class. He was a U.S. vice president and senator from South Carolina. Salovey added that he has created a new committee to create guidelines for proposals to remove historical names from university buildings. Petitions will be reconsidered after the committee's work has been completed. Meanwhile, according to The Wall Street Journal, instead of focusing on Calhoun, Yale University should start at the top - with Elihu Yale. Apparently, the philanthropist who helped found the institution was notorious for slave trade. It was noted that Yale always made sure that ships leaving his jurisdiction for Europe carried a minimum of 10 slaves. The publication suggested that the Ivy League university's committee, the Committee to Establish Principles on Renaming, start by renaming the school's name, not just its buildings. Other Ivy League universities such as Princeton, Stanford, Georgetown and Harvard, among others, have also faced protests on buildings, programs and legacies that should be renamed to accommodate modern sensitivities. Amherst College dropped Lord Jeffrey Amherst as its mascot for being unkind to Indians while the University of Missouri students made a petition to remove a statue of Thomas Jefferson for being a "racist rapist." The upcoming movie "The Sea of Trees" from Gus Van Sant starring Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey unexpectedly received negative reviews. Nobody could have predicted that a film, which has all the makings of a major awards contender, would end up as the biggest movie disaster of the year. The Cannes premiere of the movie would be much of a nightmare. The film earned 'abysmal' reviews. Eric Kohn even called "The Sea of Trees" from Gus Van Sant, the 'worst movie ever', IndieWire reported. The reviews left many people asking if the movie would ever make it to the big screens. Lionsgate and Roadside had purchased the distribution rights for "The Sea of Trees" before its premiere. However, the bad press had them rethinking about releasing the movie. A24 now, rescues the film by releasing a new trailer that would allow the audience to take a first look inside the film. Mcconaughey stars as Arthur Brennan, an American professor who travels to Japan to contemplate inside the Aokigahara, also known as "The Sea of Trees". Arthur then finds Watanabe's character, the injured Takumi Nakamura, who also lost his way. The two of them begins a journey of survival and reflection which changes Arthur's dying mindset and affirms his will to live. The film is directed by Gus Van Sant who is nominated for an Oscar Award Twice already. Starring in this film is the recent Oscar winner, Matthew McConaughey. The movie also features Ken Watanabe, Katie Aselton, and Jordan Gavaris, ComingSoon reported. "The Sea of Trees" is produced by Gil netter, Ken Kao and Kevin Halloran. Also producing the movie are F. Gary Gray, Allen Fischer, Chris Sparling, and Brian Dobbins. The original screenplay is written by Chris Sparling, who also wrote for the film "Buried". "The Sea of Trees" will open in theaters and digital platforms on August 26. August 9 2016 Dumfries & Galloway Council are seeking additional funding for the conversion of Kirkcudbright Town Hall into an art gallery showcasing the towns history and heritage as one of only two recognised artist colonies in the UK.The Kirkcudbright Common Good Fund is being asked to contribute 200k toward the scheme which has been designed by ARPL Architects for anticipated delivery by the end of 2016.This follows support from the Heritage Lottery Fund toward the 3.1m project which will give a long term future to the at-risk building whilst improving access, care and interpretation of paintings, drawings, print-making, furniture, photographs and ceramics currently in the councils care.Key exhibits in a collection of over 300 artworks will include works by members of the Glasgow Boys and Scottish Colourist artists such as SJ Peploe as well as a hoard of Viking treasure. UW Adult Wellness Program Offered Fall Semester Campus Recreation will offer a 12-week wellness program for University of Wyoming employees Monday, Sept. 12-Friday, Dec. 2. The program will include an instructor-led fitness component. Workout sessions are available Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from noon-1 p.m. and from 5:30-6:30 p.m. in the Half Acre Recreation and Wellness Center. Anyone interested in participating in the program should plan to attend one of the informational meetings Tuesday, Sept. 6, at either noon or 5:30 p.m. in the classroom at Half Acre. Sign-up sheets and forms will be handed out at the meetings. Interested individuals also can sign up for the program at the Half Acre front desk pinch point. For more information, visit www.uwyo.edu/rec/group-fitness/adult-wellness.html, or contact Erin Kyle, Campus Recreation fitness coordinator, at 766-6843 or eheffron@uwyo.edu. UW Energy Resources Council to Meet Aug. 19 The University of Wyoming Energy Resources Council (ERC) will meet at 8 a.m. Friday, Aug. 19, at the BP Collaboration Center in the Energy Innovation Center on the UW campus. Council members will hear updates on strategic priorities, coal research and the High Bay Research Facility. The council will reconvene after lunch as the Advanced Conversion Technologies Task Force (ACTTF) to hear information about the Integrated Test Center, technology commercialization and updates on the School of Energy Resources Centers of Excellence. The ERC was established by the Wyoming State Legislature in 2006. Made up of representatives from industry, state government and academia, the council advises the School of Energy Resources (SER) on priorities for research and outreach. The ACTTF consists of the voting members of the Energy Resources Council; it awards funds for advanced conversion research. SER provides undergraduate and graduate education, conducts research on existing and emerging industry resources, and disseminates scientific, engineering and economic information to support Wyomings near- and long-term energy future. People with disabilities requiring special accommodations to attend this meeting should call the SER at (307) 766-6897. Information about the SER is available at www.uwyo.edu/SER. If there's any creed out there that would do humanity proud, it would be kids. This young boy gave out nearly 600 pairs of shoes to the kids who were in need. By India Today Web Desk: A 10-year-old from Wilmington, US, has set out to make a difference in this world, one pair of shoes at a time. STUNNER GUNNER For the last three years, Gunner Robinson has been asking for shoes as gifts for his birthday. Concerned about the kids who don't have the means to buy new shoes for their new school year, Gunner collects footwear and gives them to the children who may need it. advertisement His efforts have not been slack as he has already given out 600 pairs of shoes to children in need. "I've always got shoes, like new shoes for school, nice ones, and I want other kids to get them too," Gunner said. EVERY PAIR COUNTS On Saturday he purchased more than 30 new pairs at US footwear retailer Shoe Carnival. He even collected donation money to buy these new shoes. And Shoe Carnival is giving a discount to those who mention "Gunner's Runners" this weekend. The cult of Gunner is expanding. "Words can't even describe how proud we are of him because it was his idea, his doings," mother Kristi Robinson said. "It just makes me feel better for other kids because they're getting new shoes for the new school year," Gunner said. NEW SCHOOL YEAR WITH NEW SHOES Once the collection is done, Gunner's family will hand it over to the social worker who will distribute the shoes to kids before they start their new school year. --- ENDS --- On being questioned about Kumar's alleged involvement in the case, Capt Amarinder Singh said riot victims in Delhi gurdwaras had named him (Kumar) along with HKL Bhagat, Lalit Maken, Dharam Dass Shastri and Arjan Dass. By Manjeet Sehgal: Former Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Tuesday welcomed the Central Bureau of Investi gation (CBI) appealing against the acquittal of Sajjan Kumar by a lower court in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case. Replying to a question on CBI appealing against the acquittal of Sajjan Kumar in the anti-Sikh riots case of 1984, Amarinder said, "It was a welcome move as justice must be done and guilty punished. The case must be thoroughly investigated without any delay and hoped that justice will be finally done". advertisement When asked about Kumar's alleged involvement in the riots, the Congress leader said when he met the victims in Delhi gurdwaras immediately after the riots on November 1, 2 and 3, 1984, they named him (Kumar) along with HKL Bhagat, Lalit Maken, Dharam Dass Shastri and Arjan Dass. Speaking to media persons at Sardoolgarh, Mansa, the former Punjab chief minister also hinted that some sitting party MLAs may be dropped in the coming elections depending on their performance and winnability. CWINNABILITY TO BE ONLY CRITERIA FOR SELECTING CANDIDATES Talking to reporters along the sidelines of the 'Halqe vich Captain' programme in Chandigarh today, the PCC president said, the party had already started the process of identifying the candidates. He said, various surveys by independent agencies were being carried out to assess the performance and winnability of the ticket aspirants. Replying to a question whether all sitting MLAs will be renominated, he said, it will all depend on the winnability and if some sitting candidates will need to be replaced they will be. He made it categorically clear that winnability will be the sole criterion for the nomination of the candidates. VILLAGES, PANCHAYATS TOP AMARINDER'S PRIORITY LIST Earlier, replying to questions from the general public during the 'Halke vich Captain' programme, he announced that after the Congress forms the government, all those villages and panchayats with Congress majority, which have been ignored and discriminated against by the Akalis, will get priority and preference in the allocation of development funds and grants. At the same time he said, when he was the chief minister, his government never discriminated against any village, panchayat or constituency irrespective of the fact of being Congress, Akali or BJP supporters. "For me, every Punjabi is the same irrespective of which party he belongs to and I don't like to discriminate against anyone", he said. Responding to the demands for avenging the vendetta resorted to by the Akalis against the Congress workers, Amarinder said, "I will avenge each and every case of victimisation and vendetta and it is my fight as I will not let anyone who victimised my people, to go scottfree". advertisement He said, whether it is the Akali Jathedars or the overenthusiastic policemen, everyone who harassed and victimised the Congress workers, will have to account for it. "I will pay them back in the same coin and the same measure", he said amidst thunderous applause from over 5000 audience that had gathered to interact with him. ALSO READ: Sajjan Kumar instigated mob to kill Sikhs: 1984 riots witness --- ENDS --- Betty Berry Q: A family member has been diagnosed with a terminal illness and while not needed at this particular time I am beginning to think about hospice services. When looking into this type of care what should I consider when selecting a hospice provider? A: I commend you on preparing for future needs. It is something most of us fail to do and then when faced with the actual problem must act in haste sometimes requiring us to make ill-informed decisions. Most Americans know very little about hospice care. They aren't aware that it provides pain relief for the terminally ill, that it is an option for end-of-life care and that Medicare covers most of the cost. When selecting a hospice provider you should learn all you can about their particular program. Ask exactly what services they have the ability to provide not only to the patient but also what kind of support is available to the primary caregiver and other family members. Ask what roles the patient's physician and the hospice physician play in the care plan and day-to-day care. Inquire about the role of hospice volunteers and determine how emotional and spiritual needs are met. You certainly want to know how the hospice keeps the patient comfortable and how the services are provided after hours, weekends and in case of an emergency. Who do you call and what response time can be expected. If the patient is receiving hospice services at home but conditions require a move to an assisted-care or long-term facility can this hospice continue its services at the facility of your choice. Payment for these services is certainly a concern. Medicare, private insurance and some new long-term policies cover most hospice services. To be eligible for Medicare coverage the patient must have Medicare Part A coverage. The patient's doctor and the hospice medical director must certify that the patient is terminally ill. The patient must sign a statement choosing hospice care instead of standard Medicare benefits for the terminal illness. The care must be provided by a Medicare-certified hospice provider. For coverage provided under private insurance and long-term care policies you should check with your insurer to determine eligibility requirements. Hospice care is provided through a team effort. It supplements the caregiving provided by families and other loved ones. The team consists of a medical director, an attending physician, registered nurse, social worker, chaplain, home health aide and volunteers. The medical director certifies the attending physician's prognosis and leads the team in developing a plan of care. The patient's primary care physician remains as the patient's attending physician. The registered nurse makes regularly scheduled visits, coordinates the care plan and teaches the family about proper patient care. The social worker assesses the needs of both patient and family and assists with coping and anxiety. The home health aide provides the direct personal care. Spiritual support is provided by the chaplain who works with the family's choice of clergy. He or she is also available to assist with funeral and memorial preparations. Volunteers provide friendly visits, respite to caregivers and general emotional support. When the quantity of one's days is limited hospice emphasizes the quality of life. It is a special way of caring for both the terminally ill patient and their family. Hospice care cannot add days to life but it can add life to the remaining days. HAPPENINGS Aug. 17: 1:30-3 p.m. Seminar "Navigating the Medical Arena What you Need to Know" at Westlake Civic Center, 31200 E. Oak Crest Drive in Westlake Village. For information call the Advocate's office at 495-6250. Aug. 17: 12:30-2:30 p.m. OSHER Life Long Learning Institute Speaker Series "Contemporary Flash Point: Legal and Policy Issues in the South China Sea for reservations call 437-2748. Aug. 21: 2-3:30 p.m. Music Comes Alive "Mirage Visions of Fleetwood Mac Band" at Goebel Adult Community Center, 1385 E. Janss Road in Thousand Oaks. Tickets are $5 and available at the center. Aug. 23: 1:30-3 p.m. Seminar "Will You Pass Your Next Driving Test?" at Moorpark Active Adult Center 799 Moorpark Ave. in Moorpark. For reservations call 517-6261. Betty Berry is a senior advocate for Senior Concerns. The advocates are located at the Goebel Adult Community Center, 1385 E. Janss Road, Thousand Oaks or call 495-6250 or email betty@seniorconcerns.org (please include your telephone number.) You are invited to submit questions on senior issues. ROB VARELA/THE STAR Darian Moin (left) takes a picture with his older brother, Ryan, on his first day of kindergarten at Brookside School in Oak Park on Tuesday. Oak Park was the first school district to start classes in Ventura County this year, with students returning Tuesday morning. The area's 19 other districts will start over the next three weeks, so expect more traffic on your way into work. The last districts to start are Hueneme, Oxnard Union and Pleasant Valley, which all open on Aug. 30. Moorpark, Oxnard and Ventura community colleges start classes Aug. 17. CSU Channel Islands starts on Aug. 29 and California Lutheran University on Aug. 31. SHARE CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Kevin Hogrefe By Marjorie Hernandez of the Ventura County Star A judge denied a motion to move a trial out of the county for a Camarillo man accused in the DUI death of a sheriff's deputy in 2014. Kevin Hogrefe, 26, appeared before Ventura County Superior Court Judge Matthew Guasco on Monday for motions. Authorities said Hogrefe was under the influence and driving a vehicle that hit and killed Ventura County Sheriff's Office Deputy Yevhen "Eugene" Kostiuchenko, 41, on Oct. 28, 2014, as the officer walked back to his patrol car after an unrelated traffic stop on the shoulder of Highway 101 near Lewis Road in Camarillo. A grand jury indicted Hogrefe in December 2014 on charges of second-degree murder and felony fleeing the scene of an accident involving death. During Monday's hearing, Senior Deputy Public Defender Justin Tuttle argued the trial should be moved because his client cannot get a fair trial because of the close ties among various law enforcement agencies. Tuttle said top officials such as Sheriff Geoff Dean and Deputy District Attorney Greg Totten have appeared in the audience at hearings before other judges regarding this case, while deputies were seen wearing commemorative pins for Kostiuchenko. "The deep infection in the county of Ventura cry out this case should go to a different county," Tuttle said. "I place myself in my client's parent's shoes seeing all of this. This case has no business in this courthouse. It's completely obscene. It needs to be out of here." Tuttle said while there are other memorials for Kostiuchenko, such as the one erected on the north and southbound Highway 101 in Camarillo were, Hogrefe has received death threats and negative coverage in the media. Aron Miller, a senior investigator with the Public Defender's Office, testified Monday that Hogrefe received a letter in the mail that included a picture of a coffin and the words "scumbag" written on Hogrefe's forehead. Tuttle said the county District Attorney's Office did not investigate the threats. However, Senior Deputy District Attorney Rebecca Day said those claims were never brought to authorities. Tuttle also argued continued news coverage, some with "strong emotional content," could raise bias from potential jurors. Day said while the charge Hogrefe faces is "certainly serious," it is an aspect of the case that will follow the defendant no matter where the case is tried. Day said any bias from a potential juror could be identified during the voir dire process, where jurors are asked to fill questionnaires and are questioned by both sides and the court. "I think in this case, while Deputy Kostiuchenko was known among his peers as a dedicated officer who was well-qualified and was an exceptional officer, he didn't have a more prominent status among the community than any other officer," Day said. "Certainly there are potential bias with any of these factors, but what we have not seen is any evidence that there is a bias or a reasonable likelihood that the defendant can't get a fair trial." Guasco called Tuttle's "scathing indictment" of the court "disappointing." "There is no oath that I take more seriously than the obligation I have to both parties ... in every case ... and to assure that this is going to be a fair and impartial trial with a fair and impartial jury," Guasco said. Guasco said he found there was insufficient evidence to show that pretrial coverage has affected the probable jury pool. Guasco said pretrial publicity was "largely factual" for the first nine months and has not been "intensely emotional or sensational," with the exception of an article on Kostiuchenko's funeral and another on the annual Ventura County Peace Officers Association memorial in 2015. "Jury selection will be the ultimate proof on whether to what extent the pretrial publicity has embedded fixed ideas, biases or prejudices in the jury," Guasco said. The judge also said the potential for bias because of Kostiuchenko's status as an officer would be the same if the case was moved to a different county. "Weighing and balancing each and all of these factors, the court finds the defendant has failed to meet his burden of demonstrating that it is reasonably likely he cannot receive a fair and impartial trial in this county," Guasco said. Guasco, however, said Hogrefe can renew his change of venue motion during jury selection. The judge also set Aug. 25 as another date for any additional pretrial motions. Jury selection is scheduled to begin Sept. 7. Hogrefe remains free on $500,000 bail, but could receive a maximum sentence of life if convicted. By PTI: Jaipur, Aug 9 (PTI) Seven persons died in rain related incidents in Rajasthan today even as heavy showers affected normal life in Chittorgarh, Bhilwara and Pali districts where Army has been deployed for relief and rescue work. Six children were among the seven persons killed. The children, aged 8 to 12 years, were grazing cattle and playing near a pit filled with rainwater when they accidentally slipped into it in Barmer district here, police said. advertisement In another incident, a 25-year-old man was swept away by heavy flow of water on the bank of a river in Pali district here, police said. Extremely heavy rainfall occurred at isolated places in Chittorgarh while Udaipur, Kota, Ajmer and Jodhpur divisions received heavy to very rain since yesterday. Begu in Chittorgarh recorded maximum of 34 cm rain followed by Chittorgarh city (26 cm), Gangrar (22 cm) and (20 cm), the Met department said. Secretary of the Disaster Management and Relief department Rohit Kumar informed that Army, NDRF and SDRF teams has been deployed in Chittorgarh, Bhilwara and Pali and arrangement have also been made as a precautionary measure in Jhalawar and Kota districts. "We are fully prepared and people in affected areas are being evacuated and shifted to safe places," he said. As part of the rescue operation, the Air Force airlifted 16 people yesterday in both Chittorgarh and Pali districts. Several hundred affected people have been shifted to safer places since yesterday by the rescue teams. "Nearly 500 people have been shifted to safer places and as a precautionary measure, Army and NDRF teams have been deployed in the district today for rescue and relief work," Inderjeet Singh, District Magistrate, Chittorgarh, said. "Water level in rivers is high and dams are also filled to capacity therefore the situation is alarming but since there is no heavy rains since yesterday, the situation is likely to improve soon," he said. In Bhilwara, Mandalgarh recorded 18 cm rain followed by Pali which received 20 cm of rainfall. "Water logging is in several areas and many villages are cut off from the district headquarters," District Magistrate (Bhilwara) Tina Kumar said, adding affected people were evacuated and shifted to the safe places. 2.23 lakh cusec water has been released from Bisalpur dam to Banas river here, District Magistrate (Tonk) M P Sharma said. Jodhpur recorded maximum of 153.6 mm rainfall while Ajmer, Kota, Barmer, Dabok and Churu received 12, 9, 7.4, 2.2 and 0.2 mm of rain respectively, the Met department. advertisement The department has predicted heavy rains in the state during next 24 hours. PTI SDA FAR ZMN SRY --- ENDS --- File photo Rincon Island SHARE By John Scheibe of the Ventura County Star Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara, is urging the California State Lands Commission to terminate the lease of an oil company that operates on Rincon Island, saying it is in default of its lease obligations. Rincon Island Limited Partnership "has not produced oil or gas on Rincon Island since October of 2008," Jackson stated in her letter. State Lands commissioners are scheduled to meet at 11 a.m. on Tuesday in San Pedro. The meeting, along with Jackson's letter, come nearly four months after the commission notified the company that it is in default under its state oil and gas leases. In an April 11 letter, the commission told company officials that they had 60 days to fix a list of problems found by state regulators at the site, located off shore from Mussel Shoals northwest of Ventura. The letter also stated that should the company fail to fix the problems by the June 10 deadline, commission staff would recommend to commissioners that they terminate the leases to operate around the Rincon Island area. Commission staff found that "there is an increased risk of an oil spill due to a natural increase in well pressure that has caused oil to flow without mechanical assistance," Jackson wrote in her letter. "Despite being warned of this and other issues on Rincon Island on numerous occasions including deteriorated wellheads and a lack of regular maintenance RILP has consistently failed to meet milestones for remediating the problems on Rincon Island that pose a serious risk to the environment and public health." When contacted on Monday, a company official referred all questions to Susan Whalen, a senior vice president for the company as well as its general counsel. She could not be reached for comment. Whalen said in April that the company had just recently received the notifications from the state. "Following our review, we will be responding" to the state, she said in April. Inspections by state regulators "have revealed a failure to perform the required maintenance over a number of years on the wellheads, piping, tankage and safety systems," in the area, Mark Meier, chief counsel for the commission, said in a letter to the company. SHARE CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/VENTURA COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT A strike team with the Ventura County Fire Department helping protect homes in Placerita Canyon during the Sand Fire. By Cheri Carlson of the Ventura County Star Tinder-dry brush has become the norm in Ventura County and throughout Southern California. The warnings are nothing new. Hot, dry months sap vegetation of moisture, increasing the risk of wildfires. But now, five years of drought conditions have left the state with millions of dead trees, vulnerable brush and what some call "unprecedented" fire behavior. That might mean fighting fires a little differently than in the past. "Fires are burning more intensely, hotter and quicker," said Division Chief Ted Smith with the Ventura County Fire Department. Flames spread faster from dry grass to even drier shrubs and trees. Fire burns at night like it typically would in midday heat. And, it can happen with little or no wind. "The fuel and topography have been driving fires as if they've had wind on them," Smith said. In his 37 years with the department, he has seen volatile fire behavior. But not this early and not without strong wind. "It's unprecedented," Smith said. Officials call in additional personnel and equipment that can attack a fire on the ground and by air, when humidity drops, brush dries out and winds pick up. That's not new and happens whenever weather and conditions warrant the increase. But this year, it has happened earlier and more often, Smith said. Hot, dry weather has been fairly routine much of the past couple of months. "This summer, we've seen very dry conditions day after day after day," National Weather Service meteorologist Eric Boldt said of the dry conditions. Vegetation samples from Ojai, Thousand Oaks, Malibu and Simi Valley show the brush reached critical levels for ignition last month. That typically happens months from now, when the brush is at its driest. Forecasts call for fuel moisture levels to hover near record lows throughout the summer and into fall. In those conditions, strategies will have to change to keep firefighters safe, Smith said. "We're always trying to put out the fire as quickly as possible," he said. "We try to throw a lot at it very quickly." That's why they have increased staffing more often and are having chiefs call for more resources sooner than they would have in the past. But when a fire does grow, lines cut around a blaze to control it probably will be bigger, because the fires are burning more aggressively. "They (firefighters) may have to fall back a little more to try to find a better spot to control the fire," Smith said. So far this summer, more than two dozen large fires have burned in California, some bordering Ventura County. In June and July, more than 300 local firefighters were sent to help out on big fires burning outside of the county, officials said. Close to three dozen went to the Sand Fire, which grew to 22,000 acres in just over a day and ultimately burned more than 41,000 acres and damaged homes in Los Angeles County. "That burned very aggressively for this time of year," said Ventura County Battalion Chief John McNeil, who led a strike team of five engines on the Sand Fire. All of the fuels from trees to thick brush have become vulnerable, McNeil said. "Stuff that wouldn't have normally burned and carried fire ... is now igniting." Authorities urged residents to be prepared in case of a fire. "Be cautious. Be smart. And if you see something, say something," Smith said. For information about protecting homes and other fire safety tips, go to http://vcfd.org/Ready-Set-Go. SHARE With students heading back to classes this month, we want to ask a little favor of teachers, principals and other educators at public and private elementary, middle and high schools alike: Please spend some time this school year teaching our children about water conservation, if you are not already. Because despite some mixed signals from water regulators lately, a severe drought continues in Southern California, and water education is more important than ever. The same goes for all our local water agencies, regardless of whether they're getting more water from the state because of a decent rainy season this winter in Northern California. You may drop mandated conservation, but your message needs to stay on point: Water is a limited resource in our state, and all of us should be trying to conserve every day. State officials last week released a report showing Californians conserved less water in June when compared with a year earlier. What's especially concerning is that officials were expecting the drop, because they had eased statewide drought restrictions after the heavier precipitation in the north, which supplies most of California's water. Statewide water consumption was down 21.5 percent in June when compared with 2013. Sounds good, except we used 27.3 percent less water in June 2015. Gov. Jerry Brown declared a drought emergency in 2014 and the state ordered required cutbacks of up to 25 percent compared with 2013. Since June, however, water districts that could show they have enough supply to get through three more years of drought could avoid the strict conservation orders. The news is still generally good in the latest report. The state has cumulatively reduced water use by 24 percent over the last 13 months. But some areas are better off than others. For example, communities that rely on Lake Casitas and not state or federal water, like Ventura and the Ojai Valley, face a bleak future if the drought continues. Wells in the Ojai Valley have run dry, and Casitas water levels have dropped to their lowest point since the lake was filled in the 1960s. The lake now stands at 38.4 percent of capacity, and we've got at least two more months before our rainy season arrives. The U.S. Drought Monitor last week reported 43 percent of the state was considered to be in an extreme or exceptional drought situation. Ventura County was in an exceptional drought, the driest category. Pete Kaiser, board president of the Casitas Municipal Water District, told The Star in April that if the drought continues, "Worst-case scenario we have a mudhole in just over four years; best case, a little bit over six years." The Metropolitan Water District, which sells imported water to districts in Ventura County and elsewhere, slashed deliveries by 15 percent last year but rescinded that cut in May. Metropolitan, however, is still stressing folks to "be water wise," as we believe all water agencies should regardless of their individual drought situation. It's all about helping consumers develop good habits, which gets us back to our schools. A child who learns how to save water will take those habits home to his or her family, and later in life, in our increasingly mobile society, to high-drought-risk places like Salt Lake City and Nashville. The California Department of Education points out that "schools are in a unique position as centers of community, and as educational institutions, to lead by example and to educate the public on what can be done to stretch the supply of water." A host of public and private groups offer a variety of water education programs for use in the classroom, including some aligned with the new Common Core academic standards and listed at water.ca.gov/education. We encourage everyone to take a look and ask how their schools are teaching water conservation. Pakistani lawyers move an injured colleague after a bomb explosion at a government hospital premises in Quetta, on August 8, 2016 AFP/Banaras Khan "The last information we had was 40 dead but it may increase," said Saleh Baloch, health minister for Balochistan province, after the blast in the provincial capital Quetta. "There were around 40 people injured when we were shifting them to hospitals. But now mobile jammers have been activated and so we don't have updated information." Graphic video footage from the scene showed bodies strewn on the ground, some still smoking, among pools of blood and shattered glass as shocked survivors cried and comforted one another. A large burn mark against white brick appeared to indicate where the explosion occurred. The blast came after mourners including journalists and lawyers gathered at the hospital following the fatal shooting of a senior local lawyer, officials said. Many of the dead appeared to be wearing black suits and ties. "A number of lawyers and some journalists had gathered at the hospital following the death of the president of the Balochistan Bar Association in a separate shooting incident early this morning," Akbar Harifal, the home secretary of restive Balochistan province where the explosion occurred, told AFP. The lawyer, Bilal Anwar Kasi, was targeted by two unknown gunmen as he left his home in the morning for work. There were no immediate claims of responsibility for either attack. Balochistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, has oil and gas resources but is afflicted by Islamist militancy, sectarian violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims and a separatist insurgency. In another incident of security breach at the Parliament, Rs 30,000 were stolen from Trinamool office locker. By Kumar Vikrant Singh: Trinamool Congress has alleged theft of Rs 30,000 cash from the party of office in one of the most secure zones in the country - the Parliament building. The incident has raised several questions about the security arrangements in Parliament days after AAP MP Bhagwant Mann faced the heat for sharing a video that allegedly exposed the Parliament security apparatus. advertisement According to party workers the amount was a part of the party's welfare fund. Trinamool MP Ratna De Nag had collected Rs 2,000 each from the members to raise funds for the party. She said that the sum was kept locked in the party office. However, it was stolen from the locker moments later. DILEMMA OVER COMPLAINT Members of the Trinamool party were in a dilemma on filing the complaint. While many feared that the incident will tarnish the image of the party, some even feared the wrath of party supremo Mamata Banerjee. In fact, the wary party members even refrained from letting the media know about the incident. Eventually the party workers filed a complaint with the authorities. Also read: AAP MP Bhagwant Mann barred from Parliament till 9-member panel submits report in live-stream row --- ENDS --- "Khau nhuc", a special dish of the Nung. The Nung grow both regular rice and glutinous rice. Steamed rice is the main food in the daily meal, which also includes wild vegetables and beans. In the summer they often have porridge for lunch. The Nung prefer to fry vegetables and roots rather than boil them. After frying, they may add water to make soup. They eat pork, chicken, and fish, not beef or and buffalo meat. At festivals they prepare steamed glutinous rice and cakes with a special flavor for each ceremony. Nung cuisine is well represented by their typical New Year feast, which is considered a meal to counteract risks. The year-end party of the Nung Phan Sinh in Lang Son province includes many dishes made from different kinds of meat, bamboo shoots, and vegetables. Luong Van Bach, a Nung man who lives in Lang Son, said: The Nung Phan Sinh in Lang Son have upheld their traditional New Year celebration. They prepare various dishes that include duck. They believe eating duck will banish bad luck and they will enjoy a lucky New Year. Roasted ducks is popular among ethnic groups in Lang Son Province. Duck is part of several different dishes. The most popular dish is duck with sour bamboo shoots. Khau nhuc is a kind of braised pork belly seasoned with several kinds of herbs, such as cinnamon, anise, pepper, chili, and basil. Khau nhuc is always served to guests and at parties for weddings, funerals, and longevity celebrations. Seasoned with leaves of mac mat, a local sweet and aromatic plant, roasted duck and pork are two other popular dishes of the Nung and other ethnic groups in Lang Son, Cao Bang, and Bac Can Province. Nong Van Chi of Lang Son said: Mac mat leaves are indispensable with roasted pork and duck. The leaves are aromatic. We also stuff mac mat fruit inside a suckling pig to bring out its flavor. Rice wine is always part of a festival, wedding, funeral, or birthday party. The Tay, Nung, and Thai groups in northern provinces drink wine with their arms intertwined to show they will remain close to each other forever. Over the years, Nung culture and cuisine have become tourism trademarks of Lang Son Province. Between July 20, 2015 and July 20, 2016, foreign investors channeled a total of US$2.948 billion into contributing capital to, or purchasing stocks at, 3,141 businesses in the country, according to the agency. This is the first time the Foreign Investment Agency has publicized information related directly to capital contributions and stock purchases by foreign investors outside of traditional reports on foreign direct investment (FDI). Of the amount, nearly $1.9 billion has been focused on 1,709 companies whose foreign capital contribution has exceeded 50 percent of the charter capital or that operate within conditional investment sectors. The rest has been directed to companies where foreign capital contribution accounts for less than 50 percent of the charter capital. Real estate remains the most attractive destination for foreign capital, with a total foreign capital contribution of $350.1 million, accounting for 23.1 percent of the sectors total. Retail occupies second place, with 57 projects and a total foreign capital contribution of $318.9 million, or 21 percent of the entire amount. Experts said that the statistics show a burgeoning rise in foreign capital contributions and stock purchases. After the new Law on Investment came into effect on July 1, 2015, foreign investors have chosen capital contributions and stock purchases in order to enter the Vietnamese market quickly and develop their projects. The state has pledged to aid businesses on the way to fulfilling 2016s expectations-Photo: Le Toan At last weeks government-led cabinet meeting, the first of the new government recently elected by the 14th National Assembly, the Ministry of Planning and Investment reported to the government three growth scenarios for 2016. In the first scenario, the GDP will grow 6.83 per cent for the years second half -balancing out the 5.52 per cent of the first half - making for a rate of 6.27 per cent for the whole year. This rate seems readily achievable. In the second scenario, the target rate for the second half will be 7.23 per cent, meaning 6.5 per cent for the year, which may be reached. In the third scenario, the target will be 7.57 per cent for the second half, and 6.7 per cent for the year in full. This rate will be difficult to hit. However, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc stressed that the government would do its utmost to weather all difficulties and ensure the targeted economic growth rate of 6.7 per cent for 2016. This target will not be revised down. To support these goals, Phuc said that we will have to radically remove all obstacles in favour of enterprises. Business development and innovation must be considered prime priorities. From now until the years end, the government will concentrate on speeding up administrative reform, with a specific focus on improving the quality of legal documents in favour of enterprises. All unsuitable sub-licenses have to be annulled, with all business conditions being made transparent and feasible, Phuc stressed. Private enterprises have to be considered an important growth impetus of the economy. Investment from multi-national groups will continue to be lured, in connection with the development of local enterprises and supporting industries. Pham Phu Quoc, a National Assembly deputy representing Ho Chi Minh City, said that the growth rate of 6.7 per cent will be difficult to reach. I think it would be good if the economy grows only 6 per cent, he said. But I still agree with the prime ministers view that it is unnecessary to adjust the 6.7 per cent target, but very necessary to focus on helping enterprises out of difficulties. The government should not pursue high growth at all costs. It should instead concentrate on improving the growth quality. Echoing this view, Vu Tien Loc, chairman of Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), looks forward to the prime ministers orders translating into action. Businesses are now finding it hard to access bank loans. If they can, they have to pay very high rates, Loc said. He also cited problems with local implementation. Though the government had enacted a clear plan for bettering the local business climate, he said, many ministries and localities failed to obey this order. For instance, two years after Resolution 19 [declared in 2014] on improving the national business climate was enacted, only 13 out of 63 cities and provinces, and four out of 22 ministries, have sent their reports on the implementation of the resolution to the government, Loc said. According to a VCCI survey, he added, 60 per cent of local enterprises reported either no profit or losses. Since early 2015, about 120,000 businesses have had to stop operation. Some international organisations recently reduced their growth forecast for Vietnam, but remain quite optimistic about the economys growth potential. For instance, in its mid-July update on Vietnams economic developments, the World Bank lowered its projection on the countrys 2016 growth rate from the 6.2 per cent rate it had forecast in April down to 6 per cent. Vietnams medium-term outlook remains positive, underpinned by robust domestic demand, in turn reflecting strong private consumption and investment growth, said the update. The Asian Development Bank recently raised its forecast for Vietnams economic growth this year to 6.7 per cent, from the 6.6 per cent projected last September. In their projections, the economys growth will decline slightly to 6.5 per cent next year. Many of the firms are struggling to get back on their bikes after suffering spectacular falls Locally-owned Tin Thang Company said it was hard resuming production after the duties of 34.5 per cent on average were lifted in mid-July, 2010 after five years of enforcement. Tin Thang was among companies hit by the duties which include foreign-backed firms like the Always Co. Ltd. and Vietnam Dheng Fa Company in Ho Chi Minh City, the Asama Yuh Jiun Intl Vietnam and High Ride Bicycle in Binh Duong province and the Dragon Bicycles Vietnam and Liyang Vietnam Industry in Dong Nai province Before 2005, there were no duties and Tin Thang could export 500,000 bicycles to the EU. However, the companys director Ngo Vi Hung said, since the duties were imposed, Tin Thang had to reduce the number of workers 10-fold. The company is now finding it hard to recruit new workers because former workers have already found other jobs. We have been able to recruit only 10 workers since mid-July but we want 500 new workers, he said. It is calculated that between 1995 to mid-July, 2010, bicycle-makers in Vietnam exporting their products to the EU experienced a 50-fold fall in exports, down from more than one million units in 2005 to more than 21,000 units last year. In 2007 and 2008, Vietnams bikes accounted for only 0.6 per cent and 0.4 per cent, respectively, of the EUs total bike imports. Chau Vi Chi, director of Binh Duong province-based Asama Yuh Jiun, said before 2005, his company could churn out 300,000 bicycles per year, of which 200,000 were exported to the EU. We had to remarkably reduce employees when suffering from the duties. Now, it is hard for us to call them back and recruit new ones, Chi said. Vietnam Auto Motorcycle Bicycle Association (Vamoba) reported that before 2005, the bicycle industry's total number of employees was 210,000 and had reduced to only 5,000. Hung said that difficulties would continue facing local bicycle-makers in the coming time. It would take at least one year for them to export bicycles. But, it is likely that made-in-Vietnam bicycles will have to face competition from Chinese ones. He said after five years, EU consumers habits and bicycle model trends had changed. The EUs standard requirements have also become more stringent. The allowed ratio of imported equipment used for production is now 30 per cent, down from 40 per cent as previously. This means localisation pressure is increasingly higher while we possess old technologies. How is Siemens making progress in the area of digitalisation? For Siemens, digitalisation is much more than a business field. Its our biggest growth driver, with which we intend to lead the company to a successful future. With our broad range of offerings along the automation and electrification value chain combined with our IT expertise, were ideally positioned for the era of digitalisation and to participate in market growth. For example, our industrial data analytics platform is an excellent example of how digitalisation can benefit our customers. It can be used to develop data-driven services. All these together ensure higher availability and reliability in the system than with traditional maintenance contracts thus helping the customers to minimise and optimise the downtime of their power plants. Will Vietnam be able to benefit from Siemens investment in digitalisation? I am very confident that this will be the case. Today, vertical software has already been introduced in Vietnam through a number of key customers such as Samsung, Canon, Nike and Cho Ray hospital. For instance, Syngo.via is helping the radiology department of the Cho Ray hospital to optimise clinical workflow in imaging diagnostics, resulting in much higher patient throughput and improved quality with the same resources. This is of utmost importance for emerging countries like Vietnam with a limited number of trained medical personnel and constrained budgets, allowing them to optimally utilise available skilled resources. Notably, we are also focusing in realising Industry 4.0, also known as digital factories, where virtual worlds merge with real production to create competitive advantages for our customers. The Siemens Electronics Factory in Amberg, Germany and its sister factory in Chengdu, China are among the most advanced electronics plants in the world and are the best examples of digital enterprise. Vietnamese customers are very welcome to try our digital factory offerings, which significantly help reduce time to market by increasing productivity and flexibility. Siemens digitalisation is to help spur Vietnams growth What is Industry 4.0? Industry 4.0 is a concept developed by the German government for the automation industry in Germany. It signifies the latest industrial revolution. The real and virtual worlds are now beginning to merge in production, which is why were talking about Industry 4.0. The goal is to develop a forward-looking strategy which prepares the German manufacturing industry for the internet age. As a result of Industry 4.0, in the future, billions of machines, systems, and sensors worldwide will communicate directly with each other and share information. So what digital technology trends do you think will be dominant in the decades ahead in Vietnam? Digitalisation is a mega-trend, already affecting various industries and markets today. In fact it already affects our daily life and has created completely new business models. Just think about Amazon, Facebook, Google, Uber, and Spotify, which have entirely re-defined our way of communicating and interacting. Digitalisation will evolve also in the manufacturing industry and significantly change the method of production. This will create greater efficiency resulting in higher quality and productivity. What can Vietnam do as a country to develop a sturdy digital technology industry? Changes must be based on progressive evolution, commencing with small pilot projects implemented step-by-step in reasonable doses which can be implemented without harming conventional plant operations. Siemens aims to support customers, no matter their starting point, to identify barriers and provide solutions for streamlining shop-floor to top-floor operations and communication. The first step is to ensure production data transparency before going further on the journey of digitalisation. Vietnam also needs to invest in educating skilled IT specialists, who are the key pre-requisite for growing the IT industry and for attracting foreign investment to Vietnam. Vietnam has a great chance to become a centre of competence in IT within the ASEAN region. Freshmen to universities with financial autonomy have called on the universities to publicise tuition fees so that they and their families can manage the sum actively.- Photo zing.vn A local newspaper on Friday reported that some universities forget to publicise tuition fees, which made students and their families confused and worried about transparency at the universities. Tran Thu Hien, from Ha Nois Soc Son District, said on the Tien Phong (Vanguard) newspaper her daughter was enrolled in Electric Power University but her family was not sure about the tuition fees there. Some volunteer students told me about it when we arrived at the university for the first time, she said. Another mother Tran Thi Ngoan from northern Hung Yen Province was astonished when hearing about the tuition fee of VN13 million (US$584) per year, and that it will possibly increase yearly at the Viet Nam University of Commerce where her son would study. We do farming. The tuition fee will add a financial burden we have to manage, she said. In the middle of last month, second-year students at the National Economics University were shocked when the university announced a 30 per cent increase in tuition fees in the coming academic year. The universitys vice principal Pham Hong Chuong said that the university that has been granted autonomy can adjust tuition fees to balance its funding and spending. He admitted that tuition fee information was posted on its news board, but not yet on its website. A Government resolution in 2014 allows 14 public universities nationwide to join a pilot autonomy programme until 2017 including Electric Power University, Ha Noi University, HCM City Economic University, the Foreign Trade University and the National Economics University. Universities with autonomy, for example, have the right to use tuition fees as well as funds from enterprises and the Government without asking permission from the Ministry of Education and Training. The universities also have the right to make decisions on human resources and organisational structure. They were allowed to collect higher tuition fees than tertiary institutions without autonomy. The newspaper reported that few universities posted tuition fee information online or in brochures despite the fact that students are encouraged to apply for university courses online. By PTI: Thane, Aug 8 (PTI) Anti-Corruption Bureau today filed a charge sheet against 10 people in connection with the Balganga irrigation scam, before a district court here. The alleged multi-crore scam is related to construction of a dam on Balganga river in Raigad district of Konkan region. Those named in the chargesheet are: Fateh Mohammed Khatri, Nisar Khatri, Abid Khatri and Jahid Khatri of FA Enterprises who have been charged with criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery, among other charges. advertisement The chargesheet also names KIDC (Konkan Irrigation Development Corporation) former officials Girish Babar, Balasaheb Patil, Ramchandra Shinde, Anand Kalukhe, Rajesh Rite and Vijay Kasat. They are charged with corruption, criminal misconduct, cheating etc. The ACB slapped various sections of IPC for cheating and fraud, besides the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 against the accused. On August 25 last year, the ACB had registered an FIR against 11 accused under the Prevention of Corruption Act for allegedly causing a loss of Rs 92 crore to the government through misconduct in connection with the construction of the dam. It is alleged that the original cost of the project escalated from Rs 353 crore to Rs 1,220 crore during the rule of Congress-led UPA government. After assuming power in 2014, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had ordered ACB to conduct an open enquiry in this regard. PTI CORR NSK SMJ BAS --- ENDS --- You have permission to edit this collection. Edit Close remaining of Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. Cambodia has announced it will shutter the office of the inter-governmental Mekong River Commission in Phnom Penh, relocating its functions to neighboring Laos. Prime Minister Hun Sen made the announcement on Monday following a meeting last week in Vientiane with his Laotian counterpart. Currently the commission has two secretariats, in Phnom Penh and the Laotian capital. Hun Sen said that the minister for water resources, Lim Kean Hor, would oversee the arrangements, which he added were intended to cut down on the amount of travel officials needed to make to fulfill their duties. Now if they need to work with the secretariat, they [officials] have to go to Vientiane and return to Phnom Penh, or come to Phnom Penh and return to Vientiane. So we agreed to relocate to Vientiane, he said. The commissions center for flood reduction, however, would remain based in Phnom Penh, he said. Kean Hor could not be reached for comment. Te Navuth, secretary general of the Cambodia National Mekong Committee, said a decision about whether to relocate the commissions 30 staff in Phnom Penh had not yet been made. The Mekong River Commission was established to manage the Mekongs water resources sustainably. It has four members: Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. A Cambodian court on Monday denied an appeal lodged by the lawyer of National Election Committee member Ny Chakrya, who is being held on suspicion of bribery in a case that critics have labeled politically motivated. Chakrya was jailed on bribery-related charges along with four human rights workers for allegedly giving money to Khom Chandaraty, the supposed mistress of opposition deputy leader Kem Sokha, to persuade her to keep quiet about her alleged affair with Sokha. Sam Sokong, a lawyer for Chakrya, lodged the appeal on August 3, but he said after the hearing yesterday that the appeal had been rejected by the judge. Touch Tharith, a court spokesman, said Sokong could take the case to the Supreme Court if he disagreed with the decision. The panel decided to reject the case of Chakryas lawyer. They upheld the decision of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court. Sokong said he would indeed file a case with the Supreme Court. Sok Sam Oeun, a legal expert, said the conditions Chakrya and the rights workers were being held in, which reportedly includes sleep deprivation, was mental punishment. Ohio residents Art Ledger and John Meehan disagree often: on whether to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, on how to address gun violence, and, yes, on whether the United States is ready for a female president. In online communities and dining rooms across the country, disagreement on any sensitive topic seems to have the power to fracture or destroy relationships. One doesn't have to look past the comments section of any web article to witness the vitriol. Many avoid discussing politics altogether, preferring to seclude themselves with like-minded individuals in an insular safe zone, free of criticism. But Ledger and Meehan don't fall into either category. No topic is off limits, and no disagreement can tear their friendship apart. "We've both been on the front lines together," Meehan said. "Get along or die," added Ledger. WATCH: Neighbors Make Peace with Conflict The two are Vietnam veterans and neighbors in an economically depressed Cleveland neighborhood called International Village, situated in a voter-rich swing state that could well determine the future role and leadership of the country. Meehan, a white retired tax preparer, will vote for Donald Trump in November because he sees the Republican nominee as better able to keep Americans safe from terrorism. Meehan registered as a Republican for the first time last year. Ledger, on the other hand, is a lifelong Democrat and a proud Hillary Clinton supporter. The self-proclaimed "first black taxidermist in America" and best man at Meehan's wedding says Trump's rhetoric has divided "our brown brothers against our black brothers and our white ones." The two friends argue at the Veterans of Foreign Wars hall "and a few people get upset," Ledger said. "'Those guys are mad at each other!' No, we're not, but we [vehemently] talk about what we believe in, what we stand for." "And we're not ashamed to say what we say," added Meehan. "We do it within a boundary." Meehan, outside the door of his house, saw Ledger poking around his bushes, just a few yards away. "Quit messing with my blackberries!" he said, smiling. "You got one sweet thing around here that's black," quipped Ledger, "and now you don't want the Democrat eating them. Oh, boy!" Polarized representatives While many Americans echo Ledger's and Meehan's divergent views on this year's election issues, research on the polarization of the U.S. electorate is inconclusive. A 2014 study by Pew Research Center, conducted among 10,000 U.S. adults nationwide, found that "92 percent of Republicans are to the right of the median Democrat, and 94 percent of Democrats are to the left of the median Republican." The study also found that the number of people holding negative views of the opposite party had more than doubled over 10 years. But Americans on the whole are not as polarized as their congressional representatives, said political scientist Chris Tausanovitch, citing his research with colleague Seth Hill that uses data from the American National Election Studies. "Looking at 67 different policy questions, we don't find any evidence that Americans are giving us more extreme answers or fewer moderate answers than they were in 1956," said Tausanovitch, an assistant professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), in an email to VOA. "At the same time, there are now almost no legislators in Congress who occupy the middle of the political spectrum. Forty years ago, moderate legislators were common." WATCH: Neighbors Make Their Case For, Against Tausanovitch describes this year's general election as a national phenomenon, but one that should not be taken out of context. "We can't blame people for believing that 50 percent of the country has truly radical views that they disagree with. But the reality just isn't so," he said. "We should keep in mind that much less than 15 percent of Americans have cast a vote for Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump combined so far, probably under 10 percent. Yet it seems like those are the only voters that we hear about." Friendly, heated exchange On their way to a VFW meetup at a local bar, Meehan and Ledger debated Trump's proposal to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. "Let me ask you this question," Meehan challenged. "Do we not have a border patrol down there? Do we not have fences down there?" "Yeah" "To keep those from coming in illegally?" "Yeah," Ledger repeated, unswayed. He looked down, concentrating on lighting a cigarette. "So what's the difference between that and a wall? It's just the terminology. We're doing it already!" "That's a way to explain it off," Ledger replied. "When we're talking about my Mexican brothers, next thing you know, he wants to build a wall and kick my ass out of America!" "Whoa, whoa, whoa." But no matter their differences, when it comes to their personal friendship, both men speak of trust and respect. "You have to respect each other's views," Meehan said. "When you start losing that respect, and you think that everything you're about is the only thing that's out there ..." "Then you're lost." Ledger interrupted. Meehan nodded in agreement. "Then you're lost." A splinter group of Nigerian oil militants accuses former President Goodluck Jonathan and other politicians in the oil-rich Niger Delta of sponsoring attacks on oil installations that have slashed the West African nation's petroleum production. Jonathan denied the allegations Monday and, through a spokesman, said the militants want to kill him. On Sunday, the Reformed Niger Delta Avengers published names of 20 alleged sponsors of the Niger Delta Avengers, the group it broke away from, including former and current governors of southern states. Politicians long have been accused of backing the oil militants. Southerners are accused of trying to destabilize the government of President Muhammadu Buhari, a Muslim from the north. The southerners, who are predominantly Christian, have accused politicians backing Buhari of sponsoring the militants as a ploy to militarize their region. Buhari made himself even more unpopular in the south by suspending stipends under a 2009 amnesty program for 30,000 ex-militants who were paid to halt attacks. Buhari's government last week resumed the payments and said it is negotiating with the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, which negotiated the amnesty. But that group has been denounced as corrupt by the Niger Delta Avengers, a new group responsible for this year's devastating attacks that have cut oil production by up to 45 percent. It has refused to negotiate without foreign mediation. The Avengers want the withdrawal of multinational oil companies responsible for massive pollution and want locals to control production. In a separate development, residents of Jonathan's home state of Bayelsa said unidentified men dressed as priests Monday gunned down three soldiers at a military checkpoint in Nembe town. A farmer and a trader spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. Kabir Ahmed shared a post on Facebook which is going viral, telling his experience and how his Muslim name might have gotten him in trouble. By India Today Web Desk: How does one feel if he has to lie about his name because he is a Muslim and there are people who are ready to 'beat them black and blue'? A question that we have to ask in times like these when the racial hate is getting bigger and worse. Kabir Ahmed was asked questions about his beard, his religious orientations, his name, when a man told him, 'Every time I see a Muslim, I want to beat them black and blue'. advertisement To keep himself safe, he had to lie about his name and cook up a story that got him out of the trouble. An incident to send chills down your spine. THE HORROR Bangalore-based photographer Kabir Ahmed was coming back from Hampi and stopped to relieve himself when he noticed three other men doing the same. Looking at him with 'utter disdain', one of the men asked him about the style of his beard. "No style, and all guru. I simply let it grow," Kabir responded but instantly realised that the man hated Muslims. It did not stop there as the man still wasn't convinced and asked him again about his beard. This time, Ahmed cooked up a story telling him he want to go on a 'sanyaas' and that is why he's been growing his beard. Dodging these questions and making up stories was his only option as the man clearly did not appreciate his ethnicity, and realising that it could him in trouble, he lied. The man, ever so persistent in his ways, asked Ahmed's name and he lied again. "I instantly say Ragul," he told him. THE RESPONSE When Ahmed tackled these questions, it baffled him and as a natural response he asked the man, why he was so angry. "He said because they have ruined everything and continue to, the b***ards, and everytime I see a Muslim, I want to beat them black and blue, without mercy, kill them off one by one. The two other men hanging around the mirror, vehemently agree," he wrote the response he got from the man. THE POST ESCAPING TROUBLE The man dropped the case and got out of Ahmed's way when he lied about his name. Ahmed's wit and ability to converse in the local language also helped him dodge the trouble. "One of the reasons why I got away was because I could manage a conversation in Kannada. I shudder to think what would have happened if it was someone, who didn't speak it," he wrote. advertisement --- ENDS --- The suicide bombing in Pakistans southwestern city of Quetta on Monday that killed 70 people may have targeted the legal community in order to multiply the impact of the attack, according to some lawyers and analysts. In light of available information, they are going after soft targets, and lawyers are a very important community, said Ejaz Haider, editor for national security affairs at a television channel called Capital TV in Pakistan. Lawyers in Pakistan are considered a well-organized, vocal community that gets plenty of media glare, especially since a lawyers movement from 2007 to 2009 partially led to the downfall of the former military leader of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf. Multiplier effect Ihsan Ghani, the man in charge of Pakistans National Counter Terrorism Authority, said targeting a particular community has the effect of multiplying the impact of the attack by rallying a whole community, a large group of people around the country, who all come out and raise their voices. When you blast a bomb in a bazaar, everyone still feels sad, but the reaction is not the same, he said, although he thought it was too early to jump to the conclusion that they wanted to target lawyers per se. They wanted to target a community, and that community can be Hazaras [a Shi'ite minority group frequently targeted], Christians, Shi'ites, lawyers or students, he said. Jamaatul Ahrar, a splinter faction of the Pakistani Taliban, told VOA how it planned the dual attacks, by first assassinating the president of the provincial bar association near a hospital of its choosing, knowing full well that his body would then be taken to that hospital and many lawyers and senior officials would gather there. JuA spokesmen said the group already had deployed a suicide bomber at the hospital, ready to strike once the crowd became large enough. The impact of the attack was devastating at least 70 dead, about two dozen still in critical condition and more than 160 wounded. More to come The group promised more attacks would follow. Last week, the United States added this group to its list of global terrorist organizations. The same group had taken responsibility for an attack in March in Pakistans second-largest city, Lahore, in which more than 70 people were killed. That attack, it claimed, was against the Christians celebrating Easter Sunday in a busy public park. It also claimed the assassination in Quetta last week of two men of the Hazara community, but there was no way for VOA to independently verify these claims. There is a pattern to these things, according to an advocate in Pakistans Supreme Court, Salman Akram Raja. Various segments of society have been put under pressure in the past, have been made to feel insecure, and it could be a continuation of that dark strategy of making the society generally fearful and less confident as people go about their daily lives, he said. The other objective of this attack could be symbolic, Raja and various others said. Critical of legal system Multiple Islamist militant groups have claimed that Pakistans legal system is un-Islamic, and have demanded it be replaced with a more Islamic version. Whatever the reason, Haider of Capital TV said the timing of the attack was crucial. The force multiplier effect is a lot, especially with celebrations planned for August 14 by Southern Command, he said. Pakistan celebrates August 14 as its independence day, and Southern Command is a portion of Pakistans military deployed in the southern part of the country and headquartered in Quetta. The Brazilian Senate Tuesday will begin voting on whether or not to begin an impeachment trial of embattled President Dilma Rousseff that could officially hand over power to her former vice president current interim president Michel Temer. Despite predictions that debate could stretch into the early hours of Wednesday morning, it seems increasingly likely that the Senate will vote to try the unpopular leftist president, as a simple majority of Senators is all that is needed. The Senate suspended Rousseff in May after allegations emerged that she illegally fudged the numbers on the countrys budget to make it seem like a slump in the economy wasnt as bad as it actually was during her 2014 re-election campaign. Throughout the impeachment process, Rousseff has maintained that she did nothing wrong and called it a coup. Rousseff has denied she broke budget laws and maintains she is the victim of a right-wing conspiracy to overthrow her government that advanced the interests of Brazil's poor. In her written defense last month Rousseff said Brazilians knew an honest woman was being put on trial and she called the impeachment proceedings a "farce" and her alleged crimes no more than "routine acts of budgetary management." Her conviction would end her 13-year reign over Brazil, and leave the largest economy in Latin America in the hands of her conservative former vice president. Since the Senate suspended Rousseff on May 12, Brazils stock market and currency have strengthened based on investor speculation that Temer, who has laid out policy proposals that favor private business, will be better for the economy. Temer has implored the Senate to move quickly, saying that the "people need to know who the president is." If the impeachment vote passes, a trial will be held starting around August 25 and lasting for five days. If Rousseff is found guilty, Temer will become the president until the next election is held in 2018. The U.N. Committee against Torture is expressing "grave concern" about reports that four Burundi lawyers are facing disbarment as retribution for giving information to the group. A statement by the committee Monday urged the Burundian government to provide "urgent reassurances" that no lawyers or activists would face reprisals for cooperating with the committee. It said the four lawyers Armel Niyongere, Lambert Nigarura, Dieudonne Bashirahishize and Vital Nshimirimana contributed to a report by Burundian nongovernmental organizations for the U.N. committee about alleged torture. Following the lawyers' participation, a Burundi prosecutor asked the president of the Bujumbura Bar Council to disbar them, alleging numerous offenses, including being involved in an attempted coup. On the same day, the U.N. committee said Burundi's government announced it would not participate in future dialogue with committee members. The committee will publish its findings Friday. Burundi has been in turmoil since President Pierre Nkurunziza announced plans in April 2015 to run for what many viewed as an unconstitutional third term, which he won. Since then, more than 450 people have been killed and 270,000 have fled to neighboring countries. Last month, the U.N. Security Council authorized a 228-member international police force to deploy to Burundi to prevent human rights violations and provide stability for an intra-Burundian dialogue. The United Nations has called for an urgent cease-fire Tuesday in the Syrian city of Aleppo where infrastructure is crumbling in the face of violence. Up to two million residents have been left without running water or electricity, the U.N. said Tuesday. As Syrian rebels continue to fight to break the Assad governments siege on Aleppo, medical workers told U.N. diplomats Monday of the hell Syrias largest city has become. The children in Aleppo have no baby milk; the doctors have severe shortages of medicines, blood, sutures and ventilators; and people have no bread, meat or cooking gas, Dr. Zaher Shaloul of the Chicago-based Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) told members of the Security Council. Dr. Samer Attar, who also works with SAMS, showed council members pictures of children with amputated legs and brain injuries. He said Aleppos hospitals look more like bunkers, surrounded by sandbags and barrels to offer some protection against near daily bombings. He said at one hospital where he worked, patients were treated in the basement because the upper floor was too susceptible to attack. You live your life here one massacre, one slaughter at a time, Attar said. He scolded the council for its lack of action and urged it to do more. This body does have the power to make all of this stop. This body has the power to save lives and limbs on a scale that doctors cannot, he said. A representative of the Syrian White Helmets civil defense force participated via a prerecorded video, during which a constant barrage of shelling and gunfire played in the background. Khaled Harah spoke of the 250 people who had died in the past month in Aleppo, and the targeting of White Helmets as they have tried to save the injured. He said the international silence about the siege of Aleppo was shameful. There are some areas in Aleppo that look like an apocalyptic wasteland, Attar said. Shaloul told council members that their resolution authorizing cross-border humanitarian aid had helped. It is one of the reasons that Aleppo is still alive, he said. Shaloul, however, warned that a Russian initiative for humanitarian corridors to evacuate people, which has helped 400 civilians and 90 rebels leave the city, would be more difficult to sustain. "How can you trust a government that is bombing your children and your hospitals?" he asked. Also Monday, U.N. humanitarian officials called for a pause in fighting in Aleppo in order to allow for repairs to the city's water and electricity networks that have been severely damaged by violence during the past week. A statement from Yacoub El Hillo, U.N. resident coordinator for Syria, and Kevin Kennedy, regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syria crisis, said more than two million people in Aleppo were without power or public water access. "Water available through wells and tanks in Aleppo is not nearly enough to sustain the needs of the population," they said. "The U.N. is extremely concerned that the consequences will be dire for millions of civilians if the electricity and water networks are not immediately repaired." U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power reiterated concerns about the toll of the conflict, saying that even with "the overwhelming force" of pro-government fighters it is clear there will be no quick military win for either side in Aleppo. "Yet the longer the fighting drags on, the more civilians will be caught in the middle, the more that they will pay the highest price," she said. Less than three months before election day, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is trying to reset his struggling campaign and regain momentum after a difficult period marred by controversy and sliding poll numbers. But even as Trump attempts a reboot, he is also faced with more prominent Republican defections that threaten to undermine his effort. Trumps latest attempt to pivot away from his recent troubles included a renewed focus on the economy, which many voters say remains their top concern this election year. We are ready to show the world that America is back, bigger and better and stronger than ever before! Trump said in a speech Monday to the Detroit Economic Club. Economic plan Trump outlined his plans to cut taxes, spur job growth and renegotiate trade deals; but his address was interrupted more than a dozen times by protesters, who were then escorted out of the venue. Trump remained stoic as the protesters were removed, a departure from past rallies when he would often call for their swift removal. Trumps speech included an attack on Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clintons economic agenda, which he said would lead to higher taxes and more government regulations. There will be no change under Hillary Clinton, only four more years of weakness and President Obama! he said. Trump is hoping to turn his campaign around after a difficult week that saw Clinton surge into big leads in some national and key state polls. Trump surrogates, such as former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, tried to calm jittery Republicans on ABCs This Week. I remember George (H.W.) Bush ... being 16 points down to (Democratic presidential nominee Michael) Dukakis (in 1988) going into September. So, everyone should calm down about it," Giuliani said. Clinton in Florida Clinton took her campaign to the key battleground state of Florida where she urged voters to be skeptical of any Trump reboot, arguing that there is only one Donald Trump who is by now well-known to voters. At a rally in Kissimmee, Florida, Clinton also sought to counter what she said is Trumps pessimistic view of the future of the country. And I am proud to be on the side of those who want to build a positive, optimistic future, who want to get the economy working for everybody and not just those on the top, she said. A number of experts said Trumps best chance to alter the dynamic of the race may not come until the presidential debates, which are set to begin in late September. I continue to believe that this is going to come down to the first debate, which is at Hofstra University on Long Island (New York) on September 26th, said veteran analyst Tom DeFrank of the National Journal. I think by the end of that week we will probably know who the next president is going to be. DeFrank was a guest on VOAs Issues in the News program. Analysts and several Republican strategists also said Trump should avoid repeating some of his recent missteps that have fractured his support, like his feud with the parents of U.S. Army Captain Humayun Khan, who died in the Iraq War. They are the sorts of things that might turn off a small but significant part of the Republican electorate, particularly those who might be more internationally-focused and who might think that Trump just has too many rough edges to be president, said Kyle Kondik of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. Even as Trump moves to reset his campaign, he is also dealing with more Republican defections, including Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who wrote in The Washington Post Tuesday that he is unworthy of being our president. In addition, 50 former national security officials under previous Republican administrations signed a letter warning that Trump would be the most reckless president in U.S. history. Among those who signed the letter were former CIA director Michael Hayden and two former Homeland Security secretaries, Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff. Experts noted that at a time when Clinton is trying to expand her base by appealing to independents and even disenchanted Republicans, Trump still has work to do to unify his party and win over many in the Republican establishment who remain dubious about his candidacy. The death toll from weekend protests in Ethiopia has climbed to nearly 100, by some accounts. Hundreds of people have also reportedly been arrested and many have been injured. Protests in the Oromia and Amhara regions on Saturday and Sunday left dozens dead and hundreds injured. Amnesty International puts the number of fatalities at 97. Opposition parties and human rights groups say Ethiopian security forces opened fire on anti-government protesters who were unarmed and peaceful. The government tells a different story, saying some protesters carried lethal weapons, including explosives, and that the opposition was organizing unauthorized protests by forces of violence. Different grievances Despite their simultaneous demonstrations, the Oromo and Amhara do not have the same grievances, says Fisseha Tekle, a human rights researcher at Amnesty Internationals regional office. In Oromia region, the immediate cause for the protest was about the master plan, that expanded the border of the city to Oromia. And in Amhara region, it is about the unrest of the five members of the Wolqait Identity and Self-Determination Committee. These are the immediate causes that have sparked the demonstration and the opposition rallies. In the Oromia region, people began protesting in November 2015 against a government master plan that would annex parts of their land to Addis Ababa, the capital city. The plan was officially put on hold, but people have still been demonstrating. In the weekend violence, Amnesty International says at least 67 people were killed in 12 cities and towns. In the Amhara region, reports suggest at least 30 people were killed in the capital, Bahir Dar, over the weekend. The opposition had cancelled a planned rally after saying officials did not give authorization, but protesters still came out to support the Oromia people and ask the government to address local issues. One grievance had already surfaced in July, when security forces tried to arrest a leader of the Wolqait Identity and Self-Determination Committee on alleged terrorism charges. The Wolqait administrative district was formerly part of the Amhara region until 1991, when the ruling party took charge. In subsequent years, it has demanded reintegration. Fred Nyabera works with child anti-poverty group Arigatou International. He believes that the common bond between the Oromo and the Amhara is their inability to express the grievances to the government. I think partly, according to my thinking, is that theres been a shrinking space for civil society organizations and alternative voices in Ethiopia generally. And people might have different grievances but they dont have a place to air it out, he said. Coming together Awol Allo, a fellow in human rights at the London School of Economics, says that the groups are now starting to come together, after historically being pitted against one another. But what really happened over the course of the last one year is that people on both sides tried to come together and sort out the things that prevent them from having a conversation with one another so there are already very interesting expressions of solidarity between the Oromos and the Amharas, said Allo. But no one, including Amnestys Fisseha Tekle, is quite sure what the future will hold. It depends on the government. If the government is going to let the people demonstrate, and express their opinion, the situation will kind of improve. If the government is going to continue the use of excessive force, the situation will remain dire or it may even degenerate, said Fisseha Tekle, The government continues to warn against protests, which it says could lead to destabilization. Fifty former Republican national security advisers, intelligence chiefs and trade representatives have signed a letter saying, "None of us will vote for Donald Trump." They have served every U.S. Republican president from Richard Nixon to George W. Bush, and include former CIA Director Michael Hayden, former Homeland Security Directors Michael Chertoff and Tom Ridge, former Trade Representative Carla Hills and a number of ex-deputy secretaries of state. It is some of the bitterest commentary on the Trump campaign by members of his own party to date. 'Most reckless' The strongly worded letter not only says Trump is unqualified to be president, but that he would be a dangerous commander-in-chief and "the most reckless president in American history." "He lacks the character, values and experience ... he weakens U.S. moral authority ... he lacks self-control and acts impetuously. He cannot tolerate personal criticism. He has alarmed our closest allies with his erratic behavior." They accuse Trump of displaying "alarming ignorance of the basic facts of contemporary international politics" and say he shows no willingness to learn. "All of these are dangerous qualities in an individual who aspires to be president and commander-in-chief with command of the U.S. nuclear arsenal." Trump was equally as harsh, calling the 50 part of the "failed Washington elite" insiders who, along with Hillary Clinton, made "disastrous decisions to invade Iraq, allow Americans to die in Benghazi and ... allowed the rise of ISIS [Islamic State]." But his focus Monday was on the economy, and he unveiled his latest plans in the struggling Midwestern city of Detroit, headquarters of the U.S. car industry. Trump's plans include large tax cuts for individuals and corporations, suspending regulations he says stifle business, and reviving the controversial Keystone oil pipeline that would run from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Trade deals He also said he would rewrite the North American Free Trade Agreement and pull the United States out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which the Senate has not yet passed. He calls both trade agreements bad deals that give all the advantages to all signatories except the U.S. "We now begin a great national conversation about economic revival for America," Trump said. "It's a conversation about how to make America great again for everyone ... especially for those who have the very least." In a rare moment at a Trump rally, the sharp-tongued candidate stood by quietly as police escorted protesters out of the hall, instead of his making wisecracks and encouraging the audience. In St. Petersburg, Florida, Democrat Hillary Clinton assailed the Trump plan, saying he is trying to make "old tired ideas sound new." 'Trickle-down economics' She said Trump is repackaging "trickle-down economics," a term used for benefits for the wealthy and corporations with the view that they will help the middle and lower class by reinvesting in the economy and creating jobs. Historians say trickle-down economics has never worked, and Clinton cited economists who believe Trump's tax breaks for the wealthy would bring back recession. Clinton plans to release her economic plan later this week. She already has said she would create millions of jobs by focusing on rebuilding crumbling infrastructure and making the rich pay "their fair share" of taxes. Also Monday, a former CIA official and Republican congressional aide announced plans to run for president as what he calls a conservative alternative to Trump. "America deserves much better than either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton," Evan McMullin said Monday. He will struggle to get his name on the ballot in many states, including some so-called battleground states where he could siphon votes away from Trump. It is unclear what party, if any, McMullin would represent. The first U.S. ambassador to Somalia in 25 years has arrived in Mogadishu and presented his credentials to the Somali government. Ambassador Stephen Schwartz, who met Tuesday with Foreign Affairs Minister Abdisalam Omar Hadliye, is tasked with helping Somali officials stabilize the country after decades of civil war and the al-Shabab insurgency. "The appointment of an ambassador to Somalia is a sign of the strong bonds between the two countries," Schwartz said after the meeting. "... I am pleased to have this opportunity to help the people of Somalia build a peaceful nation with a stable democratic government." Schwartz praised Somalia's progress over the last eight years and urged Somali's leaders to deepen their commitment to improving the lives of Somali people, including women and youth, according to a statement from the Somali Foreign Ministry. Why US closed embassy in 1991 State collapse is the main reason for the long U.S. diplomatic absence from Somalia. In 1991, the U.S. embassy in Mogadishu closed after the regime of Mohamed Said Barre was overthrown and violence erupted between warring clan militias. In late 1992, President George H.W. Bush deployed U.S. troops to Somalia to support a U.N. aid mission aimed at relieving mass starvation. But 10 months later, 18 American soldiers were killed in Mogadishu by rebels who shot down two U.S. helicopters, in the "Black Hawk Down" incident. The United States withdrew its troops the next year. After two decades of war and chaos, it was only in 2012 that Somalia achieved some measure of stability with the creation of an internationally-backed government. Security issues remain But security remains a problem, as the militant group al-Shabab continues to launch attacks in Mogadishu and elsewhere, a situation noted by the new envoy. On Tuesday, Somali leaders ended a meeting in Mogadishu aimed at making final preparations for the upcoming elections. Leaders endorsed a new timetable announced by the Somali Federal Electoral Implementation Team (FEIT) that sets October 30 as the date for presidential election. Lawmakers will elect the president, after officials agreed it was not possible to hold one-person one-vote elections across the still-volatile country. President Hassan Mohamud has said he will seek re-election. Indian human rights activist Irom Sharmila has ended a 16-year hunger strike, vowing to continue her fight against a law that grants military immunity by entering politics. Sharmila broke her fast in front of reporters Tuesday by licking honey from her hand. "I will never forget this moment," she said. Earlier on Tuesday, a judge granted her bail after she assured him that she planned to resume eating. The rights activist had been hospitalized and force fed through a tube in her nose after beginning her strike in November 2000. She said she plans to run for office in the next elections in the remote northeastern state of Manipur, where she is from. Sharmila began her fast after security forces, given wide powers under the immunity law, killed 10 people in the state, which has been long plagued by violent government crackdowns and separatist violence. "I will use everything that I have for the positive change of the society," Sharmila said. "The foremost thing will be the removal of this draconian law." She was charged with attempting suicide, which is a crime in India. Her decision to end the protest comes as the federal government has asked its security forces to exercise restraint in responding to protests in the disputed Kashmir region. The Armed Forces Special Powers Act gives forces the right to kill suspected rebels without fear of prosecution and detain militants without warrants. The privately-run American University of Afghanistan (AUAF) in Kabul has formally announced its campus operations will remain temporarily suspended after Sunday's kidnapping of two of its foreign teaching staff members. Afghan authorities say unknown gunmen Sunday evening abducted the lecturers, an American and an Australian, from Darulaman Road near the university. There have been no claims of responsibility. Campus operations have been temporarily suspended and we expect that operations will resume on August 10, 2016, AUAF said in a statement posted on its Facebook page on Tuesday. It added that the university is in close contact with Afghan authorities as well as relevant diplomatic missions in Kabul and everything possible is being done to ensure their immediate and safe return. We are devastated by the news and will remain vigilant to ensure the safety and security of all university personnel and students the statement quoted AUAF President Mark English as saying. Out of respect for the families and for reasons of privacy, the names of the persons involved are being withheld pending notification of next-of-kin," he said. Kidnapping for ransom incidents have lately become a major challenge for authorities amid intensified Taliban insurgent attacks in Kabul and elsewhere in Afghanistan. Last week, a group of U.S. and European tourists were ambushed and attacked by the Taliban in the western Afghan province of Herat. Six tourists and their Afghan driver were injured in the rocket attack that destroyed their minibus. An Indian aid worker was released last month weeks after she was kidnapped while returning home from work in Kabul. An Australian woman was abducted in the eastern city of Jalalabad in April and she remains unaccounted for. The whereabouts of five Pakistani crew members and their Russian navigator also remain unknown after they were taken hostage by unknown gunmen on Thursday shortly after their helicopter crash landed in the Afghan province of Logar. Pakistani authorities say the Russian-made MI-17 helicopter was on its way to Uzbekistan for routine maintenance at a Russian-run facility when it went down after taking off from the northwestern city of Peshawar. Both the Afghan Taliban and fugitives linked to the Pakistani Taliban have so far distanced themselves from the incident. Russian media however have quoted a foreign ministry statement in Moscow as saying that there is no threat to the lives of hostages, talks on their release have been scheduled. It gave no other details. Pakistani civilian and military leaders have asked their counterparts in Afghanistan to help in recovery of the hostages. By PTI: Jaipur, Aug 9 (PTI) Army and NDRF teams have been deployed in Chittorgarh and Bhilwara district which have been hit by floods. Several hundred affected people have been shifted to safer places since yesterday by the rescue teams. "The situation has slightly improved as the rainfall is not incessant now but as a precautionary measure, Army and NDRF teams have been deployed in the district today for rescue and relief works," said Chittorgarh district collector, Inderjeet Singh. advertisement Singh informed that that nearly 500 people in urban areas were shifted to places like schools, inn and community halls and were provided food and water. "Water level in rivers is high and dams are also filled to capacity therefore the situation is alarming but since there are no heavy rains since yesterday, the situation is likely to improve soon," he said. As part of the rescue operation, the Air Force airlifted 16 people yesterday in both the districts. "Water logging is in several areas and many villages were cut off from the district headquarters," said Bhilwara collector, Tina Kumar. Affected people were evacuated and shifted to other places, Kumar added. The officials informed that there is no report of any untoward incident due to rainfall. PTI SDA EMY RG EMY BSA --- ENDS --- Increased U.S. airstrikes in Libya could be the start of an effort to smother the Islamic State terror group as it tries to cling to a key North African stronghold. U.S. Africa Command announced eight new strikes Tuesday against IS positions in Sirte, a key coastal city that has served as a base for the terror groups operations. The U.S. has now carried out a total of 28 airstrikes against IS as part of Operation Odyssey Lightning, which began August 1 following a request from Libyas Government of National Accord (GNA). A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told VOA that U.S. special forces are also in the area doing some coordination, though the official was unable to elaborate. USAFRICOM spokesperson Robyn Mack said the U.S. effort is "limited to strikes and information sharing to support those strikes" at the request of the GNA. "As we have said, U.S. personnel have periodically gone in and out of Libya to exchange information to strengthen the fight against ISIL in Libya and that will intensify under this new approach," Mack said. Forces loyal to the GNA had been making solid progress against IS fighters, pushing them back into the center of Sirte before the advance started to encounter heavy resistance and began to stall. But aside from the U.S. airstrikes, it remains unclear how much more help will be coming. Waiting for GNA The U.S., Britain and France have all had special forces on the ground in Libya in preparation for increased cooperation. But each country, as well as Italy, has pinned any additional help to specific requests from the new Libyan government. We are keen to support the new Libyan government, a British official told VOA. So far they have made no such request." The official also said British diplomats have been meeting more regularly with counterparts in the GNA in recent weeks. Still, there are no plans for British planes to join in the anti-IS airstrikes. Another Western diplomatic official also acknowledged mixed signals from the GNA. They are keen on having our support, the official said, adding the new Libyan government also wanted to make sure any help even shared intelligence would be low key in order to avoid any public backlash. French special forces Late last month, the death of three French special forces in a helicopter crash set off a series of Islamist-backed protests across Libya, prompting the GNA to summon the French ambassador. Libyan officials may also have been emboldened by the initial success of the forces loyal to the GNA, which has cut the number of IS fighters in Libya from an estimated 6,000 to just 1,000, including several hundred still holed-up in Sirte. Yet, there have been persistent concerns from U.S. and Western officials that Libyas new government will need help to eradicate the IS threat, and fears that a reticence to ask for that help could prove costly. The Islamic State is definitely receding but it is far from over, the Western diplomatic official told VOA. Daesh has surprised us before in its ability to move people, the official said, using the Arabic name for the terror group. Theres definitely a possibility that they see the fight is lost in Sirte and theyve gone somewhere else." Bells tolled in Nagasaki, Japan Tuesday to mark the 71st anniversary of the city's atomic bombing by the United States, bringing an eventual end to World War II. Thousands of people stood in silent reflection at the city's Peace Park as the bells tolled at the precise moment (11:02 a.m. Nagasaki time, 0202 GMT) an atomic bomb dubbed "Fat Man" detonated over the city just moments after being dropped from an American B-29 bomber. Over 70,000 people were killed instantly, with thousands more dying months, even years later from radiation sickness. The attendees included aging survivors of the August 9, 1945 attack, as well as representatives of over 50 nations, including several nuclear powers. Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue urged world leaders to "bring together as much of your collective wisdom as you possibly can" to permanently eliminate nuclear weapons, and urged them to visit his city to learn first hand the aftermath of a nuclear attack, using President Barack Obama's historic visit in May to Hiroshima as an example. Obama was the first U.S. president to visit Hiroshima, which was attacked three days before Nagasaki. "Knowing the facts becomes the starting point for thinking about a future free of nuclear weapons," he said. Taue also called on Japan's national government to legalize the country's long-standing principles of neither producing nor possessing nuclear weapons, and banning the entry of such weapons on Japanese soil. Six days after the Nagasaki attack, Japan's imperial government surrendered to Allied forces. The Philippines has posted a record number of new HIV infections, prompting campaigners to call on authorities to step up efforts to battle the potentially deadly disease. A total of 841 new cases were recorded in June, the highest ever monthly figure since the country's first reported case in 1984, according to the health department's latest statistics released this week. Over 90 percent, or 777 cases, were transmitted through sexual contact, the majority of them among men who have sex with men. Injecting drug users accounted for 60 new cases and the remaining four were cases of mother-to-child transmission. New cases of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) which can lead to AIDS have been rising in the Philippines, bucking the international trend which shows new infections falling. "This is a cause of concern for us," Gerald Santos from Manila-based campaign group Project Red Ribbon told the Thomson Reuters Foundation on Tuesday. "But to look at it with the glass half full, it also shows awareness is at an all-time high, meaning more people are aware of HIV and are getting tested." However, he said the actual number of new infections could be higher, as stigma associated with HIV prevents at-risk group from getting tested. "The government should double their efforts in spreading awareness about HIV before it is too late," added Santos, the group's treasurer. The Philippines saw new infections double between 2001 and 2012, according to a U.N. AIDS agency (UNAIDS) report in 2013 which showed the epidemic was also expanding in Indonesia and Pakistan. Increasing infections among injecting drug users sharing contaminated needles combined with low condom use and high fertility rates have raised concern over "downstream" HIV infections - when the virus spreads to people not typically at risk of HIV, like children who acquire the virus through mother-to-child transmission. There have been 34,999 HIV cases in the Philippines since record-keeping started in 1984, with 83 percent diagnosed in the last five years, according to the health department. Globally, some 36.7 million people are living with HIV, according to UNAIDS. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump lashed out Tuesday at his critics within the party, saying they have made a mess of the country, even as another survey showed the advantage growing for his opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton. Trump's attack came as Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine, two former chiefs of the country's Environmental Protection Agency, and 50 former national security and foreign policy officials who served under previous Republican administrations said they cannot support Trump. "I am running against the Washington insiders, just like I did in the Republican primaries," Trump said on his Twitter account. "These are the people that have made U.S. a mess!" He told one television interviewer, I think that my temperament has gotten me here. Ive always had a good temperament and its gotten me here. We beat a lot of people in the primaries and now we have one person left, and were actually doing pretty well there, but well see how it all comes out. Numerous U.S. political surveys show Clinton, a former secretary of state, pulling further ahead of Trump, a real estate mogul seeking his first elected office. The weekly NBC News/Survey Monkey poll released Tuesday showed Clinton with a 51 to 41 percent edge over Trump, up from an 8-point gap a week ago and the biggest spread between the two candidates since the television network started polling on the matchup in early May. Quinnipiac University said its polling in three election battleground states showed Clinton with the slimmest of leads over Trump, 46-45, in the southeastern state of Florida, with a 49-45 edge in the Midwestern state of Ohio, and with a substantial advantage in the eastern state of Pennsylvania, 52-42. Quinnipiac pollster Peter Brown noted that large numbers of voters in the three states said their decision hinged more on their rejection of the other candidate rather than support for the candidate they would vote for. Trump's critics Collins, in an opinion piece in The Washington Post, said Trump does not represent Republican values or the "inclusive approach to governing" the country needs. Collins, who was elected to the Senate in 1996, said Trump, once the host of a television reality show, "lacks the temperament, self-discipline and judgment required to be president." She said that in part she views Trump as unfit for the presidency based on his disregard for the principle of treating other people with respect. "Instead, he opts to mock the vulnerable and inflame prejudices by attacking ethnic and religious minorities," Collins said. She also expressed the worry that if elected, Trump's "lack of self-restraint and his barrage of ill-informed comments" would make the world more dangerous. Meanwhile, two former U.S. environmental protection chiefs, William Ruckelshaus and William Reilly, said that while Republicans have broadly supported environmental protection, Trump "threatens to destroy that legacy." They attacked his rejection of climate change. "That Trump would call climate change a hoax -- the singular health and environmental threat to the world today -- flies in the face of overwhelming international science," the former environmental officials said. National security officials The group of former Republican national security and foreign policy officials opposing Trump includes one-time Homeland Security chiefs Michael Chertoff and Tom Ridge, former CIA chief Michael Hayden, and former Director of National Intelligence and Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte. The officials said they know what it takes to be president and that Trump lacks the character and experience for the job. "Mr. Trump has demonstrated repeatedly that he has little understanding of America's vital national interests, its complex diplomatic challenges, its indispensable alliances, and the democratic values on which U.S. foreign policy must be based," the officials' letter said. "At the same time, he persistently compliments our adversaries and threatens our allies and friends." The former officials wrote that Trump shows "an alarming ignorance of basic facts" about today's international politics and no desire to educate himself. Trump's campaign said those who signed the letter deserve "the blame for making the world such a dangerous place." "They are nothing more than the failed Washington elite looking to hold onto their power, and it's time they are held accountable for their actions," the campaign said. It attributed the decision to invade Iraq in 2003 and the rise of Islamic State to the group, as well as to Clinton. Clinton sued over Benghazi Clinton's campaign also issued a statement Monday after the families of two Americans killed in the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, filed a lawsuit against her. Patricia Smith, the mother of Sean Smith, and Charles Woods, father of Tyrone Woods, filed the wrongful death suit saying it is highly probable Clinton's use of a private email system while secretary of state left sensitive information open to militants. "As a direct result of defendant Clinton's reckless handling of this classified, sensitive information, Islamic terrorists were able to obtain the whereabouts of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and, thus, the U.S. State Department and covert and other government operations in Benghazi, Libya, and subsequently orchestrate, plan and execute the now infamous September 11, 2012, attack," the suit alleges. The attack killed Stevens, Smith, Woods and Glen Doherty. A two-year, Republican-led investigation in the U.S. House of Representatives ended in June with no new allegations that Clinton did anything wrong related to the attack. Clinton campaign spokesman Nick Merrill said in a statement in response to the lawsuit that, "While no one can imagine the pain of the families of the brave Americans we lost at Benghazi, there have been nine different investigations into this attack and none found any evidence whatsoever of any wrongdoing on the part of Hillary Clinton." The NBC News survey showed Trump losing support from men, who usually support Republican candidates. In previous weeks of the poll, he held a wide advantage among men over Clinton, who is seeking to become the first female president in the U.S. But Trump's edge among male voters slipped to 5 percentage points in the latest poll, while Clinton's lead among women grew 10 percentage points to a 24-point cushion. The poll also showed Clinton gains among voters without college degrees and those who consider themselves to be Christian evangelicals. The e-cigarette market is suddenly getting more crowded. Makers of the "vaping" devices launched a flood of new products in the United States ahead of new federal regulations, taking effect on Monday, that require companies to submit e-cigarettes for government approval before marketing them, according to company officials and industry experts. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which announced the regulations in May, will allow e-cigarette devices introduced before the regulations came into force to be sold for up to three years while companies apply and await regulatory review. The regulations also ban the sale of e-cigarettes to anyone under age 18. The multibillion-dollar industry had sought to delay the new rules through lawsuits and proposed legislation in the U.S. Congress. At the same time, many of the smaller players hedged their bets by releasing new products during the three-month period between the announcement of the regulations and their effective date. "I would be surprised if there was any other period when so many products were introduced," said Bryan Haynes, an attorney with the firm Troutman Sanders who represents several e-cigarette companies. Not of all the new products may be available immediately to consumers. Many companies beat the regulatory deadline with only limited shipments and product prototypes. "There are scores of new products getting out ahead" of the deadline, said Oliver Kershaw, founder of the website e-cigarette-forum.com that tracks the industry. "They've been put quietly into the market. Some of them are just brand refreshers. Some are quite interesting products," Kershaw said, referring to such innovations as "pods" capsules that can be inserted into the devices - that are prefilled with flavored nicotine. The FDA regulations for the first time bring regulation of e-cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco and hookah tobacco in line with existing rules for cigarettes, smokeless tobacco and roll-your-own tobacco. The rules require companies to submit these products for government approval, list their ingredients and place health warnings on packages and in advertisements. Cigar makers also rushed new products to the market to beat the regulations. "We have attempted to do in 90 days what we usually do in three years," said Eric Newman, president of J.C. Newman Cigar Co, in business since 1895. "If it wasn't so serious, it would be comical to see the hoops we're going through." Big companies may benefit E-cigarettes are handheld electronic devices: metal tubes that heat liquids typically laced with nicotine and deliver vapor when inhaled. The liquids come in thousands of flavors, from cotton candy to pizza. Using them is called "vaping." Reynolds American Inc, Altria Group Inc and Fontem Ventures, a subsidiary of Imperial Brands Plc, are among the leading manufacturers of the devices. Their use has grown quickly in the past decade, with U.S. sales expected to reach $4.1 billion in 2016, according to Wells Fargo Securities. The healthcare community remains divided over the devices. Some experts are concerned about how little is known about their potential health risks and about growing use by teenagers, fearing that a new generation will become hooked on nicotine. Others support them as a safer alternative to tobacco for smokers unable to quit. The FDA regulations are expected to shutter many "vape shops" that make their own products and cannot afford undergoing the approval process. The rules may benefit the big manufacturers, especially tobacco companies like Reynolds and Altria, which have the checkbooks and experience to navigate regulatory agencies. Despite the new rules, France's leading manufacturer of "e-liquids" used in the devices started doing business in the United States last month. The company said it hoped the new market could help double its current sales of about $55 million. "The vaping consumer is going to be drowned in a lot of new products," said Arnaud Dumas de Rauly, president of Gaiatrend USA, referring both to new devices and to types of liquids. Reynolds, which makes the top-selling VUSE, did not introduce any new products this summer. Altria launched new flavor varieties including Menthol Ice and Smooth Cream. Altria's Nu Mark e-cigarette company "has a robust pipeline of products and takes a disciplined approach to introducing those products to understand adult smoker and vaper acceptance," Altria spokesman Steve Callahan said. Callahan said the company was also mindful of the requirements of the new regulations and complying with the timelines the FDA established. Mistic E-Cigs had planned to introduce sometime this year a new product called the Mistic 2.0 POD-MOD personal vaporizer, which has pods prefilled with liquids, but said its staff worked 14-hour days to ensure it was ready before the regulations took effect. "We got a little lucky but we had to work a little extra hard," said Justin Wiesehan, Mistic's vice president of regulatory affairs. South Africa's president, speaking to mark the nation's Women's Day on Tuesday, avoided making any reference to an anti-rape protest against him on live television days earlier. Others did not. On Saturday, four women stood in front of President Jacob Zuma and held up signs protesting his acquittal for rape 10 years ago, while he spoke at an announcement of election results. The municipal elections were the worst-ever showing at the polls for South Africa's ruling party, which was hurt by multiple scandals around Zuma. On Tuesday, his ex-wife and African Union Commission Chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said other African leaders were calling her to ask if the country's situation was as bad as it looks. If the leaders of South Africa are weak, the continent is weak,'' she said. She said women must continue the struggle against sexual violence. Saturday's protest infuriated some officials in the ruling African National Congress, who hesitated to stop it because it was being televised live. The women stood during the entire speech by Zuma, who appeared not to notice their signs. On Tuesday, the ANC women's league leader, Bathabile Dlamini, said women should fight patriarchy'' but not in the way people saw Saturday. But a surviving leader of a landmark women's protest 60 years ago against South Africa's restrictive pass laws had praise. Today you can stand in high offices like the [election commission] and demonstrate there. And that is a good thing,'' Sophia Williams-De Bruyn told local media. Zuma on Tuesday instead focused on other issues underlying his party's stumble in the elections, such as high unemployment and the lack of services like water and electricity in some communities two decades after the ANC took power. The government will not rest until decent basic services reach all our people,'' he said. The United Nations warned Tuesday that more than 2 million people in the Syrian city of Aleppo have no access to running water or electricity, and it called for a halt to the fighting to repair the damaged infrastructure and deliver humanitarian aid. We have supplies ready to roll: food rations, hospital supplies, ambulances, fuel for generators, water supplies and more, U.N. humanitarian chief Stephen OBrien told reporters in New York. We can deliver these within 24 to 48 hours if we have safe access. U.N. agencies have repeatedly called for weekly 48-hour humanitarian pauses to provide desperately needed aid to Aleppos residents and evacuate them, but these have not materialized. OBrien called on the U.N. Security Council to use its influence to make the pauses a reality. Attacks this week have severely damaged Aleppos electric and water infrastructure, while the main supply routes to both the eastern and western parts of the city have been cut in recent weeks, making an already severe humanitarian situation much worse. Humanitarian pauses Council diplomats were supportive of the humanitarian pauses, but it was not clear what immediate steps they would take to make them happen. OBrien warned that the humanitarian situation across the country is dire. Conditions across the rest of Syria are difficult and increasingly difficult, he said. UNICEF spokesman Christophe Boulierac warned children and families in Aleppo are facing a catastrophic situation. These cuts are coming amid a heat wave, putting children in Aleppo at a grave risk of waterborne diseases," Boulierac said. "And that getting clean water running again cannot wait for the fighting to stop. UNICEF warns Aleppos residents face an increase of diarrhea and malnutrition among children unless water pumping is restored soon. U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura also briefed council members. In a private discussion held by video link, diplomats said de Mistura wants to restart the talks as soon as possible, but that the right environment must exist. De Mistura said last month that he hoped to resume the third round of intra-Syrian talks at the end of August. But the escalation in Aleppo has cast doubt on that possibility, with several western diplomats saying there could not be substantive negotiations without a stop to the fighting. Russias U.N. envoy, Vitaly Churkin, said that while Moscow hopes the situation in Aleppo will improve, we do not believe that there need to be any preconditions for talks. Fighting surges on Meanwhile, the Syrian government has reportedly sent several thousand reinforcements to mount a counterattack south of Aleppo, in a bid to recapture territory taken by rebel factions in recent days. Syrian state TV broadcast an urgent plea for volunteers, amid reports the army and its Lebanese Hezbollah allies were bringing in reinforcements to try to retake a strategic corridor south and west of Aleppo. Heavy fighting took place along Aleppos southern outskirts of Khan Assel, Khan Toman, Atareb and Sarmada, and there were reports of heavy government and Russian airstrikes of rebel forces defending a supply corridor into the city. According to Syrian government media, the Syrian military and its militia allies stopped rebels from advancing through a destroyed housing complex south of the city, demolishing dozens of armed vehicles. However, Hilal Khashan, who teaches political science at the American University of Beirut, discounted any major advance by the government or rebels in Aleppo. I dont believe that either side will prevail in the battle for Aleppo, despite the recent attack or the counterattack by government forces or their allies, Khashan said. He argued that a decisive victory by either party precludes the possibility for a negotiated settlement, and said an equilibrium will need to be maintained, whereby all local allies will be losers and their regional and international backers will have to reach a negotiated settlement for the distribution of the spoils. Japan says relations with China are "remarkably deteriorating" over the continued appearance of Chinese naval ships sailing near a group of disputed islands in the East China Sea. The Foreign Ministry in Tokyo issued a statement Tuesday saying Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida issued the warning Tuesday when he summoned Chinese ambassador to Japan Cheng Yonghua to issue a formal protest. The ministry says Kishida accused Beijing of trying to unilaterally "change the status quo" over the islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. Cheng told reporters after the meeting that he told Kishida that it was natural for the ships to operate in the waters near the islands. "With regards to the current situation in relevant waters, both countries need to work together to control the situation, avoid escalating and complicating the situation and eventually resolve the problem properly, following the spirit of the four-point consensus that China and Japan reached in November 2014," said Cheng. Chinese coast guard and fishing vessels have been spotted sailing near the islands over the past several days, despite Cheng's being summoned last Friday by Vice Minister Shinsuke Sugiyama over the issue. Relations between Japan and China, two of the world's biggest economies, have been plagued for decades by territorial disputes, aggravated by China's lingering bitterness over Japan's aggressive behavior during World War II. Officials in Texas say a baby whose mother traveled to El Salvador while pregnant has died shortly after birth, in a case attributed to the Zika virus. Dr. Umair Shah, executive director of Harris County Public Health, announced Tuesday that the infant, who died a few weeks ago, had microcephaly, a medical condition linked to the Zika infection. Test results Friday confirmed the mother's Zika infection. Texas health officials say there have been no reported cases of Zika transmitted by mosquitoes in Texas. This was the second Zika-related death in the United States. The first was an elderly man who died in Utah in June, while battling a Zika infection, as well as other health conditions. The man is believed to have been infected with the virus while traveling abroad, although health officials have not specified where. In Florida, where Zika also is a concern, Governor Rick Scott says four new cases, suspected to have been transmitted by mosquitoes, have been reported in Miami. The four cases all are in an area of less than 2 square kilometers. Scott said Tuesday that the number of locally transmitted cases is 21. He has called on Congress to return from summer recess to approve emergency funding to help Florida deal with the health crisis. U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has echoed that call, saying Tuesday during a visit to Miami that Congress should return and either pass the legislation that was not decided on before it left for recess, or create a bipartisan compromise bill allocating funds to fight the disease. In the Cayman Islands, national health officials say they have confirmed the first locally contracted case of Zika virus. The patient is a man who first reported Zika symptoms in late July. He had not traveled to any countries where Zika is known to be present. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is playing the China-bashing card in an attempt to rescue his falling poll numbers but has no real ideas to resolve the two nations' differences, China's official news agency said Tuesday. Responding to a speech Monday in which the candidate accused China of breaking trade rules in every way imaginable, Xinhua such inflammatory rhetoric was meant to appeal to blue-collar Midwestern voters. It called the remarks dangerous and said they offered nothing of substance to improve bilateral relations. Trump played the China-bashing card once again in his latest attempt to rectify his falling popularity, Xinhua said. Trump accused China of illegally subsidizing exports, manipulating its currency and stealing intellectual property, all recurring themes in his campaign. Trump's criticism has focused almost exclusively on trade practices with few mentions of China's authoritarian political system or human rights abuses. At the center of my plan is trade enforcement with China. This alone could return millions of jobs into our country, Trump said in the speech that focused on economic policy. Xinhua said Trump had not only betrayed traditional Republican support for free trade, but also ignored the importance of China to his own business. Trump has claimed to have done major deals with Chinese customers, but given few specifics. Items in his Trump-branded clothing line have been produced in China. China-bashing is a recurring theme every four years, and by now it's become quite dull, Xinhua said. Let's hope the next time around that future presidential [contenders] have something more substantial to say about America's relationship with China. U.S. voters deserve better. Two leopards were killed in separate incidents in Gujarat and Bihar. While one died after jumping on a transformer, the other died after being ensnared in a trap in Bihar. Leopard died after it jumped on a transformer in Mithapur village of Gir Somnath district in Gujarat. By Sujeet Jha: It was a bad day for leopards today, as two of the animals were killed in separate incidents in Bihar and Gujarat. In Bihar's Chaparan district, a leopard was killed after it got entangled in a trap laid by farmers near Valmiki Tiger Reserve (VTR). In another incident, a leopard was electrocuted after it jumped on a transformer in Gujarat's Gir Somnath district during a bid to hunt a peacock. advertisement While the incident in Gujarat was as an accident, locals claimed that the leopard near VTR died due to the carelessness of the rescue staff from forest department. Locals near VTR spotted the leopard grappling for life inside a trap. They informed forest department officials who rushed to the spot. FIVE-HOUR LONG OPERATION A five-hour long operation was carried out to rescue the leopard, found ensnared in sugarcane field, but the big cat succumbed. According to locals, the forest department officials tried several ways including crude methods of using of sticks and rods to save the female leopard. Leopard killed near VTR of Bihar's Champaran district. Leopard killed near VTR of Bihar's Champaran district. The leopard death has yet again exposed how poorly equipped forest departments are. Despite investments amounting to crores by the government to protect endangered animals, forest departments across the country face an acute shortage of rescue equipment. Sources said that the sprawling VTR, spread across 849 kilometres, did not have any means to tranquilise animals. Villagers said if the rescue workers had tranquilisers with them they could have saved the animal. FOREST DEPARTMENT OWNS UP "Villagers here place traps to prevent wild boars from entering the fields. The leopard fell into one such trap. We tried relentlessly to save the animal but it could not be saved," said district forest officer Amit Kumar. Meanwhile in Gujarat, the leopard died from shock after it accidentally jumped on a transformer. Locals said that that it landed on the transformer while pouncing on a peacock. The incident took place in Mithapur village of Veraval taluka in Gujarat's Gir Somnath district. The owner of the residence near the transformer informed the fire brigade and forest officials after he spotted the dead leopard. With inputs from Gopi Maniar. Also read: Drowning leopard rescued from 60-feet deep well in Maharashtra --- ENDS --- Turkey on Tuesday warned the United States that if it fails to extradite Fethullah Gulen, the Pennsylvania-based cleric Turkey accuses of planning a failed coup attempt, it would cause great harm to relations between the countries. "If the US does not deliver [Gulen], they will sacrifice relations with Turkey for the sake of a terrorist," Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said during a televised interview. The Turkish government has repeatedly tried to pressure the U.S. into handing over Gulen since shortly after the failed July 15 coup attempt. Last week, lawyers representing Gulen said the Turkish government had provided no evidence to prove his involvement in the coup, and that Gulen should not and will not be extradited. One of the attorneys, Reid Weingarten, added that three Turkish ministers who visited the U.S. last week to try and seek Gulens extradition only served to intensify the complexity and absurdity of the conspiracy allegations lodged against Gulen. "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. Washington has said that in order for the extradition process to begin, Turkey would need to provide solid evidence of Gulens involvement in the coup attempt. Bozdag said during the interview Monday that more than 26,000 people had been detained in connection with the coup attempt many of whom were members of the military, journalists and academics. Of those, he said more than 16,000 people had been formally arrested. Weingarten said the mass detainment in Turkey shows that Gulen wouldnt get a fair trial if he were extradited. 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 died and thousands were wounded as mutinous soldiers commandeered fighter jets, helicopters and tanks in the failed attempt to topple the government. Gulen has denied any involvement or knowledge of the failed coup attempt and has condemned it. The United States summoned the envoy of its close Asian ally, the Philippines, on Monday to clarify insulting and "inappropriate comments" made by President Rodrigo Duterte about U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg, according to the State Department. "We have asked the Philippine charge to come into the State Department to clarify those remarks," said Elizabeth Trudeau, the department's spokeswoman. She declined to elaborate on conversation details between senior U.S. officials and Patrick Chuasoto, the charge d'affaires of the Philippine Embassy in Washington. Duterte, in his meeting with soldiers at a military base last week, was reported to have singled out Goldberg and lashed out with personal attacks. Goldberg has been critical of Duterte's remarks about sexual violence. Meanwhile, Washington is alarmed by reports of extrajudicial killings as a result of Duterte's anti-drug campaign. Get-tough image The new Philippine leader, who developed a get-tough-on-crime image as mayor of Davao City, took office in May. Since then, media reports say, hundreds of people with suspected drug links have been killed, some allegedly at the hands of vigilantes, and half a million have surrendered. "We are concerned by these detentions, as well as the extrajudicial killing of individuals suspected to be involved in drug activity in the Philippines," said Trudeau. She added, "We strongly urge the Philippines to ensure its law enforcement efforts comply with its human rights obligations." A spokesperson from the Philippines' presidential office said the United States has committed $32 million in the form of training and "law enforcement" since U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with Philippine President Duterte in late July. Washington's assistance came after various reports of extrajudicial killings in Duterte's war on illegal drugs. But the Obama administration clarified that the financial aid was cumulative funding previously appropriated, and that all the U.S. security assistance to the Philippines was subject to proper vetting to promote human rights. "All of our security assistance promotes human rights through training content and by promoting professionalism, due process and rule of law," said Trudeau. The Beitbridge border post remained a ghost of itself on Tuesday on the second day of a protest against an import ban on some goods with shops and other businesses closing down on either side of the border post. South African police again Tuesday dispersed protesters who had gathered on the Musina border post to put pressure on Zimbabwean authorities to reverse the ban. The protesters say they will continue calling for a boycott of commercial activities at the countrys border posts until the authorities back down. One of the organizers of the protest Dennis Juru of the International Crossborders Association told Studio 7 that haulage truck drivers are pleading with them to lift the blockade so that they resume work. Said Juru: At the moment the border is quite because normally you find queues right up to the weigh bridge. Meanwhile, analysts say the protest at the border post will have a negative impact on Zimbabwes attempts to generate revenue for national fiscal purposes, including the payment of civil servants salaries, which it has been failing to pay on time. Due to the closure of companies and the lack of investor confidence on the country the government is heavily relying on revenue generated from its borders, especially Beitbridge, one of the busiest border crossings in the sub-region. For perspective Studio 7 reached economic commentator, Masimba Kuchera, who said civil servants salaries will be heavily impacted by inactivity at the border. Well its going to have a massive impact, look, the impact may not be felt immediately because the revenue is tallied every month. We know that in the past few months the government has been failing to meet its target, said Kuchera. The family of political activist Itai Dzamara of Occupy Africa Unity Square, who was abducted by unknown assailants 17 months ago, is expected to hold a public ceremony at the Square on Wednesday in remembrance of the former journalist-cum-activist. According to Itais brother, Patson, a large number of Zimbabweans are expected to attend the event. It's exactly 17 months today (Tuesday) since Mr. Mugabe's failed gang presided over the abduction of my brother Itai Dzamara. Tomorrow we shall show them that they can't abduct an idea whose time has come. We now have many Itai Dzamaras. See you at the Itai Dzamara Square at 9am sharp tomorrow. Government has already dissociated itself from the abduction of Itai Dzamara claiming that it is investigating his alleged abduction by suspected state security agents. Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa once appealed for information on the whereabouts of the father of two, whose wife, Sheffra, is now struggling to raise their family. The High Court ordered the state to search for the political activist and make fortnightly reports to relevant authorities. Dzamaras family claims that this has not been the case as the state security agents have not made the reports as required. Some Zimbabweans have dismissed as misdirected claims by the government and defence forces chief general Constantine Chiwenga that local people are abusing social media. Several state officials have been of late attacking Zimbabweans protesting against the current social and economic problems saying they are using social media to allegedly cause chaos in the country. President Robert Mugabe, like some of the senior government officials and General Chiwenga, claim that Pastor Evan Mawarire of #thisflag, Tajamuka-Sesijikile Campaign and other entities fighting for wide-ranging reforms want to bring regime change through the social media sphere. They have cited some cases of cyber bulling, insults targeted at the president and his government, recent public protests and videos of some people with weapons of war threatening to overrun Zimbabwe, as examples of social media abuse. Zanu PF lawmaker Joseph Tshuma told Studio 7 that social media is being used by some Zimbabweans to abuse the sitting president, state officials and some innocent Zimbabweans. "It's unfortunate that some of our people have tended to be very uncultural and have actually become criminals of the cyber space. People are abusing social media everyday not only for the politics of the day. Dr. Alex Magaisa, a law lecturer and political commentator based in Britain, noted that it is unfortunate that the government is attempting to control peoples freedoms on the internet. "What is happening is that Zimbabweans have found space on social media in order to articulate their views because previously they have been restricted to traditional media which is quite restricted and as you know radio is controlled by Zanu PF. "So, people have not been able to express themselves in the way they would have wanted to over the years and suddenly social media has become an important platform to express those views and the government is not used to it and that is why they are panicking." Kumbirai Mafunda, chairman of the Zimbabwe chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa, concured, adding that there are laws that can be used in Zimbabwe for redress if anyone feels abused in the social media sphere. He said it is unfair for the state and army general to accuse the people of abusing social media. Information Technology Minister Supa Mandiwanzira was not reachable for comment. The government is drafting a cyber security law designed to curb cyber crime and related issues. American Horror Story: Red Herring? FX networks and FX productions CEO John Landgraf warned the audience at a Television Critics Association panel on Tuesday that Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and the other masterminds of the American Horror Story franchise are being particularly cagey about this seasons theme because they thought it would really be fun to keep it a mystery. To make it even harder on fans, what [FX marketing president] Stephanie Gibbons and her team, with Ryans help, did is they went out and made many more trailers for hypothetical seasons of American Horror Story; different genres and different places, he said. One of them is accurate and the others are all misdirects. So were just having fun with it, and we just thought it would be fun after five years of doing it one way. Of the new season, premiering September 14, he said there is a theme and a setting and a place and a time, but were not going to reveal it because we think it will be fun for the audience to be surprised. Perhaps those fictitious trailers may not go to waste and can be resurrected in the future? Landgraf added that he sees no end date for the anthology series. By PTI: From Anisur Rahman Dhaka, Aug 8 (PTI) Bangladesh police have raided the office of a news website and detained three journalists for allegedly spreading rumours about the death of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasinas son in a plane crash, days after the government shut down over 30 online portals in a crackdown on media. Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) personnel raided the office of banglamail24.com last night and detained its editor Shahadat Ulla Khan, executive editor Maksudul Alam and reporter Pranta Palash. They also seized a computer from the office. advertisement "We have detained the three to be questioned on allegations of spreading rumours...we are yet to decide if they will be freed or arrested," a RAB official told newsmen. According to journalists of the online newspaper, the website ran a story published by an obscure news portal called Todaynews71 claiming that the Premiers son was killed in a plane crash along with its own comments criticising the "baseless report". They said the RAB men raided their office after they ignored a request by the Premiers office to retract the story from the site, which remained unupdated since their detention. The raid came days after Sheikh Hasina government blocked over 32 news websites, including some pro-opposition news portals, for carrying "objectionable contents". The government also banned live television coverage of terror attacks following the last months deadly assault on a cafe here in which 22 people were killed. PTI AR PMS --- ENDS --- the national interest This Is Not the Political Violence That Should Scare Us This Is Not the Political Violence That Should Scare Us Trump, Kramer, and Roth. Photo: Getty Images Author, playwright, and activist Larry Kramer is putting pressure on the real-estate mogul Steven Roth to withdraw his support for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Days before his Monday speech outlining his economic plan in Detroit, Trump had announced a list of his economic brain trust a list of 13 men that was light on economists and heavy on billionaires, including one Steven Roth. In an open letter to Roth published on his Facebook page, Kramer excoriated Roth for becoming a part of the Trump campaign. Kramer begins by thanking Roth for his support in producing Kramers play about the AIDS crisis, The Normal Heart, on Broadway in 2010, as well as complimenting Roths son Jordan, who is gay, before lobbing criticism. I dont know why but I was incredibly shocked and disappointed when it was announced that you had become one of Donald Trumps billionaire brain trust, Kramer writes. I could not believe that you could support a candidate, a vice-president, and a party that threatens many of the things that you hold most dear. The platform of the Republican Party is the most homophobic one in recent memory. Its candidates spout nothing but hate for your extended family. Known as a firebrand, Kramers language is more disbelief than outrage at Roth, but he doesnt hold back against Trump. I cannot accept that such an intelligent and gifted man as I know you to be can believe that Donald Trump is anything but strange and scary, an indigestible cauldron of rotten and poisoned ingredients, writes Kramer. I challenge you to leave his orbit. The very health and existence of your extended family is in peril. You can read the whole post here. Simone Biles. Photo: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images NBCs rough first week of 2016 Rio Olympics coverage continues: After one commentator had to apologize for giving undue credit to Hungarian swimmer Katinka Hosszus husband for her gold-medal performance, another is expressing his regret after offending those who are adopted. In his Sunday coverage of the U.S. womens gymnastics team qualifier, NBCs Al Trautwig described gold-medal favorite Simone Biless parents as her grandfather and his wife. The problem with that phrasing? Biless maternal grandfather, Ron Biles, and his wife, Nellie Biles, legally adopted Simone and her sister Adria in 2000 after theyd been in foster care meaning they are her parents, full stop. The profile NBC aired of Biles that same night referred to Ron and Nellie as her mother and father, while Trautwig noted that Biles calls them mom and dad. When the adoption community called Trautwig out on Twitter for the error some wondering whether or not he simply misspoke Trautwig responded that his refusal to acknowledge Biless adoptive parents as her parents was intentional. The AP reports that NBC ordered Trautwig to delete his tweet. And in a new statement, Trautwig has now expressed his regret over his poor choice of words, both on-air and online. I regret that I wasnt more clear in my wording on the air. I compounded the error on Twitter, which I quickly corrected. To set the record straight, Ron and Nellie are Simones parents. So, how many more days until Leslie Jones gets to Rio? Amanda Knox. Photo: Stephen Brashear/Getty Images Werner Herzog peering into a bunch of volcanoes? A true-crime doc about Amanda Knoxs trial? An undercover expose on the ivory trade executive produced by Leonardo DiCaprio? Oh, Netflix has got you pegged. The streaming service announced four new fall documentaries today, all of which are set to premiere at the Toronto Film Festival September 8 through September 18, and all four of which you should start scheduling your plans around now. Netflix previously announced these upcoming nonfiction films: Ava DuVernays The 13th; a documentary about sexual assault, Audrie & Daisy; a bio-doc of the titular fireworks artist Sky Ladder: The Art of Cai Guo-Qiang; and the documentary short Extremis, which explores end-of-life medical decisions. Joining the slate are: The White Helmets (September 16) A Netflix original short by Oscar-nominated director Orlando von Einsiedel and producer Joanna Natasegara, The White Helmets follows three rescue workers in Aleppo, Syria, and Turkey in 2016, exploring both the personal challenges facing those who work in areas of armed conflict and the reality of day-to-day life for Syrians who remain in their country. Amanda Knox (September 30) An in-depth exploration of Knoxs conviction and acquittal for the 2007 murder of roommate Meredith Kercher, Amanda Knox is directed by Rod Blackhurst (Here Alone) and Brian McGinn (Chefs Table) and produced by Mette Heide (Indias Daughter). Into the Inferno (October 28) Werner Herzog and volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer visit Indonesia, Ethiopia, Iceland, and North Korea to explore the myths, philosophy, and history of the worlds volcanoes, as well as the communities that live beside them. The Ivory Game (November 4) A feature expose on the global trafficking of elephant ivory by directors Richard Ladkani and Kief Davidson, who spent 16 months undercover with intelligence operatives, undercover activists, passionate frontline rangers and tough-as-nails conservationists to unearth the black-market network of ivory poachers and purveyors. Visibly disturbed over the police crack down on its own men, the Bihar Police Men's Association has now threatened to go on mass leave if the suspension of all the 10 SHO's was not revoked before 28th August. Police headquarters acting on the suspension also announced that the SHOs will not be given posting as station in-charge for next 10 years. By Rohit Kumar Singh: There is huge unrest simmering within the Bihar police force over the suspension of 10 Station House Officer's (SHO's). These senior police officers were suspended on Friday for not enforcing prohibition law in their area since April this year when complete prohibition was imposed in the state. The police headquarters acting further on these erring police officers had also announced that they will not given posting as station in-charge for next ten years. advertisement REVOKE SUSPENSION, THEY DEMAND The police crackdown has taken place on SHO's of Masaurhi (Patna), Makhdumpur (Jahanabad), Chand (Kaimur), Dihri (Rohtas), Maranga (Purnea), Rupauli (Purnea), Sultanganj (Bhagalpur), Mufassil (Motihari ), Runni Saidpur (Sitamarhi ) and Bairganiya ( Sitamarhi ). Visibly disturbed over the police crack down on its own men, the Bihar Police Men's Association has now threatened to go on mass leave if the suspension of all the 10 SHO's was not revoked before 28th August. The Association has submitted a memorandum to the state DGP P.K.Thakur over the suspensions. "We have requested the DGP to look into the matter and revoke the suspension of the 10 SHO's failing which we will go on mass leave. Such kind of action of police officers has created fear amongst the force and many SHO's are writing to their SP's in districts to relieve them of their duty", said Mrityunjay Singh, President of Bihar Police Men's Association. STRIKE NOT PERMISSIBLE UNDER POLICE LAWS The Association has convened a meeting on 28th August to discuss the contentious issue and then may decide to go on mass leave as going on strike was not permissible under police service rules. The top cops of Bihar police maintained that despite prohibition law in place for the last four months, these police officers did not take any step to crack down on manufacturing on illegal and country made liquor in their areas and also repeatedly machines and liquor manufacturing units were being unearthed by the Excise officials. Bihar CM Nitish Kumar had last week passed the new Bihar Prohibition & Excise Bill, 2016 and provided more teeth to the already existing law to ensure that the prohibition law is strictly enforced in the state. --- ENDS --- Bihar government is going all out to ensure that CM Nitish Kumar's ambitious prohibition law is strictly followed across the length and breadth of Bihar. By Rohit Kumar Singh: A move which is being viewed as a grim reminder of the excesses during the British Raj in the country, the Bihar government has begun imposing collective fines on villages in the state which are repeatedly violating the liquor prohibition law. Till now mass fines have been imposed on five villages. Shocking as it may sound, but this is true. Bihar government is going all out to ensure that CM Nitish Kumar's ambitious prohibition law is strictly followed across the length and breadth of Bihar, whichever means possible. FINED IMPOSED ON VILLAGES advertisement The villages on which collective fines have been imposed are Musahari Tola in Patna district, Beldari Tola in Sheikhpura district and Karodi Bazaar, Deewan Pokhar and Makaspur in Bhagalpur district. "We have sent a report to the DM of Sheikhpura for imposing fine on the village since this village was repeatedly flouting prohibition law", said Vikesh Kumar, Excise Superintendent of Sheikhpura. The government also believes that stringent crackdown like these will be sending a strong message to the other villages in the state and will act like a deterrent. Cops also believe that the situation of collective fines imposition arose as people of these villages were repeatedly flouting the law. "To send a strong message, collective fines are being imposed on villages in the state", said Sunil Kumar, ADH Headquarter. OPPOSITION REACTIONS The Opposition NDA in Bihar is alleging that the prohibition law now has become draconian and reminds one of the excesses witnessed during British Raj. BJP leader Sushil Modi said such draconian law should be abolished as it will become a tool to frame innocent people. "It is strange that all the villages on which fines are being imposed are Dalit populated villages. This is a black law and this kind of collective fines was witnessed during British rule" said Sushil Modi, BJP leader. It may be noted that Bihar CM Nitish Kumar in a bid to strengthen the prohibition law got the new Bihar Prohibition & Excise Act, 2016 passed in the Assembly last week thereby paving way for imposing such collective fines. "Someone has to take responsibility for flouting prohibition law and if no one does then action has to be taken", said Nitish Kumar, Bihar CM. The Bihar govt doesn't seem to be in a mood to relent. In fact the govt has also suspended 10 SHO's in the state who failed to enforce prohibition in their areas. This kind of action only speak volume about Nitish Kumar's govt intent, prohibition at all cost. --- ENDS --- advertisement A call center in McGregor that fields inquiries from health insurance customers is hiring nearly 500 people, which will increase employment there to nearly a thousand. C3/CustomerContact-Channels, which is celebrating its fifth anniversary of leasing a facility from the city of McGregor, needs customer service agents and nearly 20 supervisors to meet the needs of growing insurance clients. About 100 of the positions already have been filled, said Suzette Mansfield, C3 site director. We have been awarded additional work by one of our national health insurance companies and therefore have a need to ramp up hiring fast, Mansfield said. She said new hires who work the phones start at $10 an hour, but can make more through the companys incentive program. C3 opened its facility in McGregor in August 2011 and has seen employment fluctuate as the demands of its clients change. Establishing a customer contact center in the Waco area turned out to be a great move for our company, because the talent pool here is exceptional, said Rick Ferry, C3 chief operating officer for the Florida-based company. We have been fortunate enough to be able to hire thousands of people in the region and make them part of a team that loves what they do for a living and loves giving back to the community. Thats the cornerstone of our culture. Mansfield said C3 will find most of the employees it needs from the Greater Waco and Temple areas. She said those hired will receive six weeks of classroom training and two weeks of on-the-job instruction before taking insurance-related calls about coverage, physicians included in networks, prescription drug coverage and the like. Operations manager Chris Koch said he thinks C3 will have little trouble meeting its goal of filling 400 to 500 new positions. Were not just going after those without jobs, he said. Some are underemployed and want to join a culture where you work hard and love what you do. While some call centers are allowing staffers to work out of their homes, C3 assigns employees to its state-of-the-art call center in McGregors industrial district. The building had been vacant about nine months when C3 moved into the building in 2011. The city of McGregor spent about $1.2 million on upgrades that made the 52,000-square-foot facility not only suitable as a customer-contact center but as a data center that can house computer systems and associated components. C3 pays $37,500 a month on its lease, which is about to expire but likely will be renewed, City Manager Kevin Evans said. The 1960s-era structure received an overhaul from the city when it became vacant shortly after the turn of the century. Crews removed asbestos and mold and installed climate controls to make it attractive to Austin-based Dell Inc. The computer giant spent $4 million to make the building a modern call center, but it left in 2007. Cincinnati-based Convergys signed a three-year lease for $324,000 a year with Dells departure, but it did not renew its contract, choosing to let employees work at home. Thats when C3 arrived, promising it would employ nearly 500 people in a matter of months, a figure it now is poised to double. In its latest round of hiring, C3 is looking for motivated people to handle inbound customer calls, the company said in a release. Candidates must have exemplary communication skills and be computer-proficient. Prior experience is a plus, but C3 offers training for those who are new to the industry. Koch, the operations manager, said the company promotes from within, adding that he was hired as an agent but shortly thereafter was assigned to management. C3 operates other contract centers in Nevada, Idaho, Arizona, Utah and Oklahoma, and in the Philippines, Bulgaria, Guatemala and China outside the U.S. At least 16 companies in Greater Waco have call centers or divisions devoted to making or taking calls, creating 4,106 jobs. ----- At a glance Local companies with call center operations: American Income Life Insurance Co., 541 employees, 28 in call center American Amicable Life Insurance Co., 158, 20 Atmos Energy, 295, 224 Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, 150, 150 Central Freight Lines, 180, 12 Convergys, 150, 150 C3, 1,000, 1,000 Examination Management Services, 850, 850 General Dynamics Information Technology, 1,000, 1,000 National Lloyds Insurance, 105, 7 Spenco Medical Corp., 100, 48 Oncor, 200, 200 SourceAccess Inc, 50, 48 Support Services Group, 75, 64 WRS Group, 100, 5 Source: Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna told former Waco Police Chief Brent Stroman that he could stand in front of a jury and prosecute 177 bikers arrested after the Twin Peaks shootout, but it was ultimately Stromans decision to arrest them all, Stroman and Reyna testified Monday. Reyna, Stroman and other Waco police officials testified at a hearing in Wacos 54th State District Court in which bikers Ray Nelson, a Cossack, and Matthew Clendennen, a Scimitar, sought to disqualify Reyna from prosecuting their cases. Clint Broden, who represents Clendennen; and Abigail Anastasio, who represents Nelson, allege Reyna has a conflict because he, Stroman and others are being sued by 15 bikers in Austin federal court and he has a financial stake in getting convictions in the cases. They also want Reyna replaced because they claim Reyna, not Stroman, called the shots the evening of May 17, 2015, that resulted in the mass arrests of bikers after the Twin Peaks shootout that left nine dead and more than 20 injured. They allege Reyna stepped from his role as prosecutor and became more of a police officer, possibly becoming a witness and losing his prosecutorial immunity from civil rights lawsuits at the same time. Judge Matt Johnson did not make a ruling after the daylong hearing. He instructed attorneys on both sides to file briefs on the issue and to resolve questions about Reynas potential financial exposure to the civil lawsuits. The judge could set another hearing in September or make a ruling based on the briefs and testimony he heard Monday. Reyna testified for about 45 minutes, telling Johnson that he realized when he got to the chaotic scene that there was a huge, gaping hole in the communication between officers at the crime scene and those who were identifying and interviewing bikers who had been bused to the Waco Convention Center for processing. Reyna said he remained at Twin Peaks for five or six hours before going to the convention center with his assistants. Reyna said he was told a busload of bikers had already been processed and released before he got there. Once Reyna got to the convention center, the release of bikers ended, Waco police officials testified Monday. Reyna said it was Stroman who made the call that there was sufficient probable cause to arrest the bikers en masse, but it was Reyna and his assistants who decided to charge them all with engaging in organized criminal activity. Stroman said he was out of the state when the Twin Peaks shooting occurred, but he kept up with what was happening by phone. Stroman said one of his assistant chiefs, Robert Lanning, told him that Reyna wanted to arrest everybody, but then scaled it back to those with ties to rival groups, the Bandidos and Cossacks, or their support groups. He said he was hearing talk of a capital murder investigation and didnt hear about the engaging charges and $1 million bonds for each one until he returned to Waco. Stroman said that in nearly eight years as chief, he cant recall Reyna going to another crime scene. After making the decision to arrest the bikers, Stroman said he asked Reyna and his assistants to help draft affidavits to support the arrests. Reyna said his assistants wrote the affidavits based on information they gathered from the large array of law enforcement officers there that day. One allegation included the erroneous claim that the Cossacks were listed on state databases as a criminal street gang. Biker complaints Waco police Detective Manuel Chavez, who swore out the biker complaints, said the DAs office prepared the affidavits and he reviewed them before seeking the warrants. He said he did not attempt to verify the information in the affidavits and said he doesnt know if bikers fired at police, as alleged in the complaint. If you cant trust the DAs office to give you the factual information for the warrant, then who can you trust? Anastasio asked. Chavez hesitated a moment, then said he trusts his fellow officers to give him correct information. Chavez, recalled as a witness after Reynas testimony, told the attorneys that he never spoke with Reyna that night. That contradicted Reynas long narrative about how he pulled Chavez aside and instructed him to read each word of the affidavit carefully and to verify any part that he questioned because it was going to be Chavez who had to stand in front of a judge to swear it was all true. Reyna testified he was not concerned about the federal civil rights suits because he did the right thing and will continue to do the right thing. He said he doesnt think he is liable personally for any potential judgments against him or for his legal fees, testifying that the Texas Association of Counties risk pool will pick up the first $500,000 and, presumably, county taxpayers would pick up anything more than that. Lanning, who was acting chief that day in Stromans absence, characterized the shootout and its aftermath as organized pandemonium. He said it was the departments initial intent to identify and interview the bikers and then to release them for further investigation unless they had pending charges. Later, he said, those plans changed on the recommendation from Reyna that all bikers wearing colors be taken to jail. Later, that changed again to all bikers with ties to the Bandidos or Cossacks, Lanning said. None of the top high-ranking police officials on the scene that night wanted to arrest all the bikers, Lanning said. Lanning said he told Stroman that if all the bikers were going to be arrested, it needed to be the chiefs call because he thought a decision of that magnitude was above his pay grade and would have far-reaching and long-lasting implications. Part of my decision was made on the fact that this was unprecedented, nothing like this had ever happened before, Lanning said. I dont think I fundamentally disagreed with the charge, or I would have said so. What was so unprecedented was the sheer number of those arrested. Residents in West have varying memories from April 17, 2013. Some say its the sound that sticks with them. For others, an indescribable feeling. For Kim Woodard, a high school teacher who lost the lives of friends as well as her home that day, it was the sight. I was outside looking that way when it happened, Woodard said. I can remember the fire going, and the mushroom cloud going. Then, everything was dark. As she and other teachers on Monday weighed the past three years, from the day of the deadly fertilizer plant explosion that killed 15 people, injured hundreds more and left the town including the school districts campuses in ruins, to moving in and out of portable buildings, to the start of school in a brand-new campus just two weeks away, one thing was certain: Their hearts are full, and theyre ready to see their students again. It took Woodard about three or four months, after seeing footage on television again and again, to remember that it wasnt nighttime when the explosion happened, she said. The little things that happened in those three or four months, and the years that followed, are what helped West rise up out of the ashes and into the light, the teachers said. Those little things are what excite them and are what they hold onto now as they begin unpacking boxes and decorating their new classrooms at what they call their new home, they said Monday morning. The new West High School and Middle School, 1008 Jerry Mashek Drive, is expected to open Aug. 24, two days later than most other districts so officials can wrap up any last-minute construction issues. Teachers began moving into the campus this week, and said they have felt two distinct emotions as they see the campus for the first time and become comfortable in their new home. Theres a very big high of joy, but youre bringing back a lot of the things weve gone through over the years that we made it through, and weve made it through stronger, Woodard said. You balance those with faith. Thats all there is to it. Move-in day started about 8 a.m., with a few teachers waiting in the parking lot, not ready to walk into the building by themselves, they said. Most of their classroom supplies and books were already in boxes, moved over by staff earlier. A few, like high school English teachers Chelsey Lauer and Donna Sexton, brought decorations from home to line the walls. As they unpacked, box by box, Lauer pulled out a students handwritten note from each, saying she put one in the top of every box to remind herself why she does what she does. Lauer, who instructs freshmen, wasnt in West at the time of the explosion. She came afterward from Waco, with her first year at one of the temporary buildings, she said. My son has cystic fibrosis, and my students are so great about it, she said through tears, placing a note back into one of the boxes. They are so loving, and want to help raise money for a cure. Theyre already going through so much. As she and Sexton blasted 80s music across their adjoining rooms, she said she was overwhelmed by how much she had to unpack and hadnt decided if she will hang the notes on one of her walls. But it could be a good place to start, she said. Their classrooms are similar to others throughout the campus, with a sliding whiteboard wall that combines or separates some rooms for collaboration. Each room also has a whiteboard wall with a projector to give students more interactive capabilities. The campus, divided by a main hall down the middle separating the middle school side from the high school side, is two stories tall. It has a library and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) lab, two practice gyms and a competition gym, collegelike lounge and study areas, a large cafeteria, a two-story auditorium and more. At a cost of about $52 million, the campus was paid for through insurance funds and money from the Texas Education Agency and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Thats one of the best parts local taxpayers didnt have to pay a dime to rebuild part of West ISD, Superinendent David Truitt said. Building both halves of the school to be basically identical will help students transition smoothly from middle school to high school, said Michele Scott and Don Snook, principals of the middle school and high school, respectively. Its permanent, and thats such a good term, said Jacqueline Uptmore, a sixth-grade English/language arts and reading teacher. Im just excited. It was hard the last couple days in the portables, but we all walked out of them and took that last step together. Theyll miss the breakfasts and lunches given by the community, the teachers said. Theyll miss the prayers and embraces from those wanting to help with recovery efforts. They may even miss having middle school and high school students share a gym, but flexibility and patience have been the defining factors throughout the transition, Woodard said. When we moved into the portables the first year, we didnt have our buildings. They werent ready yet, said Woodard, who teaches several computer-related courses, referring to her and a fellow teachers plight. They werent ready for us until seven weeks into the school year, so we both had computer classes we were teaching with no computers. We were drawing on paper instead of a computer. The kids just rolled with it. There are things the teachers wont miss about their previous accommodations, though, like the long walks to use a restroom or visit an administrative office, or worry about shoes catching on wooden walkways, they said. But the teachers and administrators will take that flexible skill set with them, because thats what brought everyone close together, they said. Theyre even excited about having water fountains to fill up water bottles again, they said. As the West community figures out how to navigate the new campus together, the educators are eager to see the reactions when their students walk in the door on that first day. I cant wait to see the little things the kids are going to enjoy hearing them laugh and get excited about coming in a room and being in a hallway, said Sexton, a sophomore English teacher. My daughters going to be a senior, and theyve been in portables for three years. They get to spend their senior year at a school. I cant wait to hear them when they walk in. I want to be at the front door. I think theyll squeal, and I think some are so sensitive theyre going to cry. And Ill cry that first day. I didnt lose my house, but I lost friends. My daughter was calling (Woodards) daughter the entire night, and could never get her. Reliving all that? I think some of them are going to cry, and were just going to have to be there to give them hugs. EDITORS WARNING: Some details in the following report are graphic and may be upsetting to some readers. The autopsy report of a veteran AT&T worker who was killed in late spring confirms the brutal nature of the slaying, specifying details of injuries to the head and neck, including at least 13 stab wounds. The autopsy of Kenneth Cleveland, 61, completed by Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences at Dallas, was returned Monday after Clevelands body was found April 22. Police initially thought Cleveland may have been electrocuted while working behind a home in the 500 block of Novelty Street. But after investigation, police determined Clevelands death was a homicide. In the 15-page autopsy report, injuries including blunt-force injuries to the neck and head, 13 stab wounds in the head and neck, and 11 incised injuries to the neck, head and left thumb were noted to be the cause of death. In the graphic report, six chop wounds, or wounds caused by a heavy weapon or instrument with at least one sharp cutting edge, in Clevelands head and face also were noted as traumatic injuries. Clevelands body was found by residents in the neighborhood about 11:30 a.m. April 22, about two hours after authorities think he was attacked, according to a search warrant obtained by the Tribune-Herald. Residents began seeing smoke in the area about 9:30 a.m., when Clevelands body was set on fire after he was fatally attacked. According to the autopsy, Clevelands body was set on fire after he suffered the fatal stab wounds to the right and left sides of his face and other areas of his head. Abrasions to Clevelands upper back, extending to his left shoulder were apparent. After police determined Clevelands death to be a homicide, it became the second of 2016 after Unekeyia Shanta Walker, 29, was found dead from strangulation and blunt-force trauma in February. No arrests have been made yet in either homicide. We are a mess. None of us have picked up life right now, said Amber Cleveland Hicks, the youngest of Clevelands seven daughters. I guess I cant understand the sheer evil of what happened. These are just numbers, but I cant even imagine what he felt or what he was thinking when this was happening (to him). Hicks looked at the completed autopsy report for the first time Monday and said she and her family are still struggling with the loss of their father. Hicks said her father was aiming to retire after 43 years working for AT&T and after his 62nd birthday in June, but she cannot imagine anyone who would want to hurt him. Just to know that someone was capable of that kind of evil and now, to have it on paper, we know that this actually happened, Hicks said. It will become more brutal when I can go through the details and actually piece it together, but knowing that one (stab wound) wasnt enough. They just had to keep going. In the autopsy diagram, no notable injuries were specified below Clevelands neck other than one incised injury to his left thumb. In the autopsys conclusions, the report states that Cleveland was killed as a result of homidical violence, including blunt-force injuries, sharp- force injuries and chop wounds. AT&T officials are offering a $60,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or people responsible for the death of the longtime technician. Anyone with information about Clevelands death is asked to contact Waco police at 750-7589. In 1980, Democratic pollster Peter Hart warned Gaylord Nelson, Wisconsins champion vote-getter as governor and senator, that he was going to lose. Hart saw a Republican wave coming. Ronald Reagan would defeat President Jimmy Carter and carry other GOP candidates to victory as well. The opposite of the wave effect in elections is the 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 for victory. Democrats talk of a possible wave; Republicans see a no-coattails election since Clinton herself remains unpopular. Of course, the race could change. Trump could get his act together or there could be a crisis or a Clinton contretemps. Most wave elections, such as Democrats victories in 2006 and Republican gains in 2010, are in non-presidential years. Exceptions: in 1964, when Lyndon Johnson trounced Barry Goldwater, and in 1980. An encouraging note for Republicans: The only time in the modern era that an incumbent party ran successfully for a third presidential term, 1988, the makeup of Congress remained virtually the same. But even a mini-wave could affect the Senate, where 24 of the 34 seats up for election are held by Republicans. The Democrats need a net gain of at least four seats to take control. It might take a tsunami to capture 30 seats and win the House. All 435 seats may be in play, but with redistricting and population patterns, Democrats have to win the overall vote by seven percentage points to take it back, David Wasserman of the Cook Political Report estimates. The latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll showed Democrats with a four-point advantage in the general matchup. Nevertheless, almost daily another House Republican says he or she cant vote for Trump. Last week Colorado Rep. Mike Coffman ran a commercial declaring, Honestly I dont care for him much, and vowed if Trump is elected: Ill stand up to him. Plain and simple. Some Republicans say that differentiating their congressional candidates from the nominee may not be hard. One great thing for many Republican candidates is that Donald Trump is unusual hes not a generic Republican, says Kristen Soltis Anderson, a Republican pollster. In a state like Ohio, voters will be able to distinguish between Trump and Rob Portman. Sen. Portman is locked in a tight race. Some endangered Senate incumbents like Mark Kirk of Illinois have flatly declared they wont vote for Trump. Most others are trying to straddle to avoid offending the fervent Trump followers, while not alienating more independent-minded centrists. New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte says shes supporting Trump but isnt endorsing him. Some of Ayottes supporters want her to distance herself further, especially since Trump gave her an opening last week when he called her weak. Few Republicans are suffering as much as Arizonas John McCain. Privately he has contempt for Trump. But the senator faces a right-wing primary challenge this month when many Trump supporters will turn out. Thus even when Trump took a shot at him too last week, McCain held his fire, saying he always supports the party nominee. Democrats today are more optimistic that these wider margins are possible, noting that in this polarized environment, ticket-splitting is less prevalent. And waves, as Gaylord Nelson discovered in 1980, usually break late. Al Hunt is a Bloomberg View columnist. Donald Trump, the man who defied every political rule and prevailed to win his partys nomination, has taken 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 wasnt a mistake. It was a revelation. Its that he cant 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 didnt, but thats another matter) and a bromance was born. A Mexican judge rules against Trump, which makes him a bad person governed by prejudiced racial instincts. House Speaker Paul Ryan criticizes Trumps attack on the Gold Star mother so Trump mocks Ryan and praises his primary opponent. On what grounds? That the opponent is an experienced and tested leader? Not at all. Hes a big fan of what Im saying, big fan, attests Trump. Youre a fan of his, hes 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 Trumps 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 as it sustains and inflates him. Most politicians seek approval. But Trump lives for adoration. He doesnt 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 followed. But this may all now be jeopardized by the Gold Star gaffe. It has put a severe strain on the patched-over relationship between the candidate and both Republican leadership and Republican regulars. Trumps success normalizing the abnormal is beginning to dissipate. When a Pulitzer Prize-winning liberal columnist (Eugene Robinson) and a major conservative foreign policy thinker under Ronald Reagan (Robert Kagan) simultaneously question Trumps psychological stability, indeed his sanity, theres 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 entrust the nation to him. Trump badly needs to pass that threshold. If character is destiny, he wont. Post columnist Charles Krauthammer is also a commentator for Fox News. By India Today Web Desk: After touring half the world, from Maldives to Bali to Madrid to Barcelona and back to Mumbai, newlyweds Bipasha Basu and Karan Singh Grover are finally together in the maximum city, and if we are go by Bipasha's latest Instagram picture, yes, they're enjoying it to the maximum as well. SEE PICS: These photos of Bipasha and Karan Singh Grover holidaying in Bali will make you go green with envy advertisement ALSO READ: Karan and I might go for a longer honeymoon, says Bipasha Basu Grover Bipasha had a great time with her husband and 2015's Alone co-star Karan Singh Grover in Bali. The Raaz actor shared a throwback picture on Instagram of her times with Karan in Bali where she is seen soaking in the sun while Karan swims in the pool. Soaking in the Sun in Bali and now Soaking in the rains in Mumbai ?? #throwback @fsbali #fourseasonsjimbaran A photo posted by bipashabasusinghgrover (@bipashabasu) on Aug 8, 2016 at 10:46pm PDT While they were on their honeymoon, Bipasha and Karan's Instagram feeds were filled with pictures of them hugging each other, having sumptuous dinners and travelling in several picturesque locations. Bipasha and Karan's pictures over the last one month would give one some serious travel goals. The actors got married on April 30 this year. Bipasha and Karan met on the sets of their 2015 film Alone and since then the two couldn't stop gushing about each other. In her first interview to Times of India post her shaadi, Bipasha revealed that no man has given more love and respect to her than Karan. And she is lucky that she found a life partner in Karan. On the work front, Bipasha is still awaiting a good script, while Karan will be seen in 3Dev. --- ENDS --- Black on black on black! Among the two, which black saree look gets your vote? By Hemul Goel: A black saree is always a timeless addition to any wardrobe. Come what may, the garment never fails to make you look gorgeous. And, that is exactly what we felt when we saw actresses, Vidya Balan and Madhuri Dixit Nene don one. Also read: Madhuri, Parineeti, Jacqueline: All-black looks that are just too damn hot for the summer advertisement Attired in a playful patterned Ekaya Banaras saree, Madhuri's look was finished with silver jewellery while she was in attendance at an event organised by UNICEF, wherein the actress was seen promoting breastfeeding. The mother-of-two also launched the MAA campaign along with the Health & Family Welfare Minister J P Nadda, for which she is the brand ambassador. The MAA or the Mother's Absolute Affection campaign is a nationwide programme launched in order to promote breastfeeding. Madhuri Dixit in her Ekaya saree. Photo: Yogen Shah Vidya Balan on the other hand was spotted at the the GJF Fashion Nite organised by the All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation. The actress wore a black saree at the event paired with loads of gold jewellery that included a multi-layered gold necklace, jhumkas, a statement bangle and a ring. Also read: 18 saree-wearing rules we learned from birthday girl Sonam Kapoor Finished with a black bindi and gajra, as much as the look worked for the actress, we wish she had chosen to finish it with jewels. Vidya Balan took to the runway in her black and gold number. Photo: Yogen Shah Also seen walking the runway at the same event, was Angry Indian Goddeses actress Sarah-Jane Dias. Sashaying down the ramp in two looks, it's definitely the lehenga that we are veering towards. What about you? Which look of Sarah-Jane Dias gets your vote? Photos: Yogen Shah --- ENDS --- A trip to Germany turned into a nightmare for this hapless Chinese man. The man was not just mugged but he also landed up in Germany's migrant influx by mistake. He was stranded in a refugee asylum for two weeks. By India Today Web Desk: Chinese backpacker, known as Mr L, was touring Germany. He was mugged in the tourist town of Heidelberg. The 31-year-old who spoke nothing but Madarin, tried to seek help to trace his wallet. But things took an unexpected turn when he unwittingly signed an application that got him stranded as a refugee for two weeks in the country. He filled out a wrong form while filing the complaint and ended up getting embroiled in a web of chaos. advertisement Authorities ceased his passport and gave him refugee documents. He was then transported to a reception centre in the western city of Dortmundin, and then a further 50 miles north to Dulmen, near the Dutch border. The man tried to communicate the fact that he was just a tourist but failed and went ahead to complete all the standard procedure for refugees. He allowed fingerprints to be taken, underwent a medical examination and accepted pocket money. Red Cross officials soon noticed the fact that he was rather well-dressed for an asylum seeker. A German Red Cross worker, Christoph Schlutermann, was the first to notice there may have been a mistake. He went to seek help from a local Chinese restaurant, where they advised him to use a Mandarin smartphone translation app. He then found out that the named Mr L wanted to travel to France and Italy. Twelve days into his stay in Germany, the man was able to set off for the next leg of his journey. Reports state that nearly one million refugees have arrived in Germany in the last year, fleeing war and poverty in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. However, Chinese asylum seekers have constituted only a minority over the years. --- ENDS --- Your Ultimate Investing Toolkit Sign up for MarketBeat All Access to gain access to MarketBeat's full suite of research tools: Portfolio Monitoring Top Stock Lists Premium Reports Stock Screeners Live News Feed Premium Support Free for your first month. 27 minutes ago Elon Musk takes over Twitter but where will he go from here? Elon Musk has taken control of Twitter after a protracted legal battle and months of uncertainty. The question now is what the billionaire Tesla CEO will actually do with the social media platform. Musk gave one indication of where he's headed in a tweet Friday, saying no decisions on content or reinstating of accounts will be made until a content moderation council is put in place. Read Article Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company provides solutions that allow customers to capture, analyze, and act upon data seamlessly in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and Japan. The company offers general purpose servers for multi-workload computing and workload-optimized servers; HPE ProLiant rack and tower servers; HPE BladeSystem and HPE Synergy; and solutions for secondary workloads and traditional tape, storage networking, and disk products, such as HPE Modular Storage Arrays and HPE XP. It also offers HPE Apollo and Cray products; and HPE Superdome Flex, HPE Nonstop, HPE Integrity, and HPE Edgeline products. In addition, the company provides HPE Aruba product portfolio that includes wired and wireless local area network hardware products, such as Wi-Fi access points, switches, routers, and sensors; HPE Aruba software and services comprising cloud-based management, network management, network access control, analytics and assurance, and location; and professional and support services, as well as as-a-service and consumption models for the intelligent edge portfolio of products. Further, it offers various leasing, financing, IT consumption, and utility programs and asset management services for customers to facilitate technology deployment models and the acquisition of complete IT solutions, including hardware, software, and services from Hewlett Packard Enterprise and others. Additionally, the company invests in communications and media solutions. It has a partnership with Striim, Inc. to offer high performance and mission-critical solutions with real-time analytics. It serves commercial and large enterprise groups, such as business and public sector enterprises; and through various partners comprising resellers, distribution partners, original equipment manufacturers, independent software vendors, systems integrators, and advisory firms. Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company was founded in 1939 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas. 58 minutes ago Elon Musk takes over Twitter but where will he go from here? Elon Musk has taken control of Twitter after a protracted legal battle and months of uncertainty. The question now is what the billionaire Tesla CEO will actually do with the social media platform. Musk gave one indication of where he's headed in a tweet Friday, saying no decisions on content or reinstating of accounts will be made until a content moderation council is put in place. Read Article By PTI: Phulbani (Odisha), Aug 9 (PTI) Congress today launched a five-day padyatra in Kandhamal and accused Naveen Patnaik Government of shielding those responsible for the death of five tribals during anti-Maoist operation a month ago. Braving rains, Congress supporters joined the rally christened as "Kandhamal Adhikar Yatra" to protest alleged inaction of the state government in the tragedy that took place at Gumudumaha on July 8. advertisement The padayatra is scheduled to conclude on August 13 at Balliguda with a day-long demonstration. Inaugurating the yatra at Gumudumaha, state Congress president Prasad Harichandan accused the BJD government of failing to take any concrete action against the culprits though one month has elapsed since the killing took place. Instead of booking those involved in the incident, the government is trying to shield the culprits in the name of conducting probe by a special investigation team (SIT), he alleged. He charged the Neveen Patnaik government with working against the interest of the tribal people. Harichandan also alleged that the state government has failed on all fronts and is making false claims about bringing development in the state. The padyatra organised by the party is aimed at making people aware of the "misrule and misgovernance" during the BJD Government, he said. PTI COR SKN NN SNP --- ENDS --- Phillips 66 operates as an energy manufacturing and logistics company. It operates through four segments: Midstream, Chemicals, Refining, and Marketing and Specialties (M&S). The Midstream segment transports crude oil and other feedstocks; delivers refined petroleum products to market; provides terminaling and storage services for crude oil and refined petroleum products; transports, stores, fractionates, exports, and markets natural gas liquids; provides other fee-based processing services; and gathers, processes, transports, and markets natural gas. The Chemicals segment produces and markets ethylene and other olefin products; aromatics and styrenics products, such as benzene, cyclohexane, styrene, and polystyrene; and various specialty chemical products, including organosulfur chemicals, solvents, catalysts, and chemicals used in drilling and mining. The Refining segment refines crude oil and other feedstocks into petroleum products, such as gasolines, distillates, aviation, and renewable fuels at 12 refineries in the United States and Europe. The M&S segment purchases for resale and markets refined petroleum products, including gasolines, distillates, and aviation fuels primarily in the United States and Europe. This segment also manufactures and markets specialty products, such as base oils and lubricants. The company was founded in 1875 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas. Donald Trump had it all figured out. Throughout the Republican primaries, he kept his wallet closed while his opponents threw millions of dollars into traditional advertising. Trump relied instead on massive volumes of news coverage, pioneering a free-media strategy that not only allowed him to campaign on the cheap but also drowned out the voices of his 16 Republican challengers. Donald Trump's free-media strategy is shaping up to be a disaster in the general election. Credit:AP In that environment, Trump's pattern of "say something crazy, capture the news cycle, get a bump in the polls" was a winning strategy. But with the conventions over and the general election now in full swing, Trump's free-media strategy has transformed from asset to albatross. To be clear, this strategy is a choice. The Trump campaign doesn't have to operate on free media alone any more. After months of flaccid fundraising efforts, the campaign pulled in more than $80 million in July. That's enough money to hire some staff, run some ads, and if the campaign cuts down on payments to his children and his businesses maybe even hire a new campaign manager to replace the one he fired in June. Prestigious western suburbs schools in Perth are on alert after an attempted abduction of a student in the area last Friday. Presbyterian Ladies' College confirmed to WAtoday that a man purporting to be a friend of a student's father had tried to convince the girl that he had been summonsed to take her home. An attempted abduction at a western suburbs school has students, parents and teachers at PLC on alert. News of the incident - which did not happen at PLC but at a nearby school - was quickly spread to surrounding schools Iona (Mosman Park), Scotch (Swanbourne), Christ Church (Claremont) and MLC (Claremont). It's understood two parents of PLC students had originally learnt of the abduction attempt after an alert was sent out at St Hilda's (Mosman Park). PLC principal Dr Kate Hadwen subsequently sent a warning to her staff, students and their parents about the attempted abduction. Wichita, Kansas: The US government accidentally sold a bag carried to the moon aboard the Apollo 11 spacecraft and used for the first sample of lunar material, and is now in a legal fight to recover it. The white bag which was flown to the moon on Apollo 11 in June 1969 and has lunar material embedded in its fabric is "a rare artifact, if not a national treasure," the government said. The bag was collected during an investigation of former director of the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Centre, Max Ary, who was convicted in November 2005 for stealing and selling museum artifacts. At issue in his prosecution were hundreds of missing space artifacts and memorabilia. Some were on loan from NASA to the Cosmosphere. The lunar bag was discovered in 2003 during the execution of a search warrant in a box located in Mr Ary's garage. Neighbours were worried after they heard crying. Police found a husband and wife who weren't in danger, just old, sad and lonely. Their solution? Some good food and a sympathetic ear. When police were called to the home of an elderly couple in Rome who had been heard in hysterics, they found a 94-year-old man and his 89-year-old wife in tears, overcome by loneliness and despair over all the world's terrible news. Police prepare pasta for an elderly Roman couple. The Roman officers stayed with them and asked about their long lives together. The couple spoke of their isolation, especially in the summer months, when their neighbours go away. Delhi has seen a rise in the number of dengue cases with the figure now 171, the highest in last five years. By Astha Saxena: Erratic rainfall and humid temperature have led to a spurt in dengue cases in Delhi, putting the tally to 171, the highest figure in last five years. Medical experts said with humidity levels increasing, the cases of dengue may rise further. "The humid weather is bad for dengue fever. With humidity levels rising, the cases will also go up," said Dr SP Byotra, senior consultant and head of department of Internal medicine, Sir Ganga Ram hospital. advertisement In 2015, a total of 119 cases of dengue were reported from Delhi. The data released by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi shows the number of houses tested positive for mosquito breeding this year so far is 66,095 while it was 97,416 last year. ADMIN BETTER PREPARED THIS TIME? State health officials said the administration was better prepared to deal with the outbreak. "This year, we are one step ahead in terms of taking preventive measures. The government took these steps in July this year," said Dr SM Raheja, additional director general of health services (ADGHS), Delhi government. He said state health department was also conducting regular awareness program in the city. The government has prepared a list of sensitive areas in Delhi where high level of breeding was found last year. The survey has marked 15 sites in New Delhi district and 14 in South district as sensitive. "This time, we are specifically focusing on the preventive measures. We are ensuring that there is no stagnant water in these areas," added Dr Raheja. Experts say treatment of dengue is symptomatic with no specific cure, so if patients use pain medicines indiscriminately there is a risk of them becoming resistant. Also Read: Dengue claims 11 lives in Bengal Delhi government issues ad regarding prevention, control of dengue --- ENDS --- By PTI: New Delhi, Aug 9 (PTI) The Centre has asked the Uttarakhand government to "enquire" into the issues surrounding Patanjali Ayurvedas controversial Putrajeevak Vati medicine, the Rajya Sabha was told today. Minister of State for Health Faggan Singh Kulaste said in a written reply to a question that "the Ministry of AYUSH has requested the government of Uttarakhand to enquire into the matter and send a report." advertisement The reply comes after an inquiry committee set up by the Uttarakhand government to examine the controversial medicine produced by Ramdevs pharmacy submitted its report. The report is said to be "not in favour" of the yoga guru. Kulaste said the Uttarakhand government is yet to submit its report to the Centre. The state government had formed the three-member committee last year to probe Putrajeevak Vati, an ayurvedic medicine which allegedly promises a male child. Reports said the product courted controversy when Rajya Sabha MPs led by JD(U)s K C Tyagi demanded a ban on it and sought stringent action against the manufacturer. PTI TDS ABH ZMN ABH --- ENDS --- The Opposition wants him to give up the charge of home department alleging that he is not able to devote much time for the crucial portfolio. By Kiran Tare: A week later Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who also hold the home portfolio, assured that no one involved in a serious crime would be spared an elderly couple from Kolhapur were found murdered today. The couple, Pradnya and Uddhav Kulkarni, both medical practitioners, was found lying in the pool of blood in their residence as their throats were silted. advertisement With 6,226 rapes, 17,234 molestation and 3,771 murder cases were registered between January 2015 and June 2016 Fadnavis, who took reigns of the state in October 2014, is being dubbed by his opponents as a failed home minister. In other words, the state has witnessed 10 rapes and 30 molestations every day during this period. The police had registered 42,871 overcall crimes against women in 2015. The number was 37,168 in 2014. This year till June end, overall 20,301 crimes against women have been registered. They include murder, attempt to murder, rape, molestation, theft, abduction, and domestic violence. KOPARDI RAPE AND MURDER CASE Fadnavis is already facing wide criticism after the police's apathy in taking timely action against four people accused of brutally raping and killing a 15-year-old student at Kopardi in Ahmednagar district. Apart from brutality of the crime the police's apathy had made the villagers angry. They were taken aback on finding the victim's limb broken. Her both arms were dislocated from the shoulders and there were number of human bite marks on her body. What added salt to the wounds was the police's warning. "Don't register a complaint otherwise you will also be booked under the prevention of atrocities act," the station officer said pointing that the accused Jitendra Shinde, Santosh Bhawal and Nitin Bhailume were Dalits. On July 28, three drunken policemen at Bhambora in Ahmednagar refused to pay attention to the villagers' complaint that three youths had tried to abduct and rape a minor girl student. The angry villagers locked the policemen as a protest and released them only after district superintendent of police Saurabh Tripathi arrived at the scene. Later, Tripathi suspended them for dereliction of duty. Only a week before the Kopardi case the state's consciences was shaken when it came into light that two teachers, Yash Borundia and Amol Kshirsagar, at Yavatmal Public School in Yavatmal near Nagpur had sexually assaulted 17 girl students studying in kindergarten and primary classes. In this case too the police tried to shield the accused at initial stage. They had booked chairman of the school management committee Kishor Darda, relative of former Congress MP Vijay Darda, for failing to report the incidence as well as under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 but delayed his arrest allegedly under political pressure. They nabbed Darda from Nagpur three days after the case was filed only after parents of the victims came on the street, vandalised the school property and clashed with the police. FADNAVIS SHOULD BE SERIOUS: PAWAR advertisement NCP chief Sharad Pawar says there is need to look into the home department on a serious note. "I won't say the CM should not hold the home portfolio because I used to do the same when I was the CM. However, there is a need to look into the home affairs sincerely," he says. Former CM and senior Congress leader Narayan Rane blames Fadnavis for leaving the law and order situation at the police officers' mercy. "Such brutal crime can't take place without political patronage," Rane says. "Fadnavis is more interested in delivering speeches, inaugurating seminars and clearing files at the behest of his bosses in Delhi." Charge of home department was not on his mind when Fadnavis took oath of the office. As a studious leader he is more interested in policy making and financial matters. He wanted to head urban development and finance departments. However, as a senior leader Sudhir Mungantiwar, who was chosen to lead the home department, refused to take up the thankless job Fadnavis took the responsibility to himself. Fadnavis admits that the number of crimes against women is on rise but does not blame the police for the same. "You can see the numbers rising because we have broadened the ambit of rape. Now, incidences of eve teasing are also treated on the lines of a rape." He also claims that the rate of conviction in the cases of crimes against women has gone up from 8 per cent in 2012 to 14 per cent in 2015. "In 97 per cent of rape cases registered last year the accused was known to the victim," he says suggesting that the increasing number of rapes is not a fall out of deteriorating law and order situation. advertisement FADNAVIS IS DIRECTIONLESS His team members, however, are not ready to buy the theory. According to a senior IPS officer Fadnavis looks confused while running the department. "It is clear that home department is not his priority," the officer says. "That he is directionless is evident in his policy to transfer senior officers arbitrarily. He has failed to boost morale of the force." Shiv Sena legislator Neelam Gorhe says Fadnavis' simple nature and leniency is the reason why he has not been impressive as the home minister. "He is honest and sincere. He has appointed good officers too but the simple CM does not have a mechanism to check whether these good officers are really doing good work," says Gorhe, who also runs an NGO, Stri Adhar Kendra for the suppressed women in the society. advertisement Leader of opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil of the Congress says the state needs a full time home minister. "Law and order is not an issue to be dealt weekly or fortnightly," he says. "Fadnavis is not able to spare time to deal with the home issues. He should hand over the work to a full time minister for the sake of the state." A senior minister says Fadnavis does not want to lose the most important key a home minister possesses, a power to initiate inquiry against anyone in any case. Fadnavis has allowed the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) to conduct discreet and open inquiry against Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders Ajit Pawar and Sunil Tatkare in the multicrore irrigation scam. The Crime Investigation Department (CID) under him is probing the role of Dhananjay Munde, NCP's leader of opposition in the legislative council, in the financial irregularities in Beed district cooperative bank. "Everyone in a government wants this power. It is possible that he (Fadnavis) is enjoying it," the minister says. In his role as CM Fadnavis might be able to attract investors to the state but as an underperforming home minister he would be unable to secure them. Is it high time to give up the double role? THE INADEQUATE MEASURES Bharari (Flying) Squad: The government has formed a special squad comprising 500 women officers to tackle crimes against women. The number of officers with this squad is inadequate for a population of 12 crore. Pratisad App: The police in 2015 launched a mobile app called Pratisad for the women users. It has a facility to alert the nearby police station if a woman presses the panic button. Most of the women, however, are unaware of the app. Only 50,000 women have downloaded it so far. Police Didi (Sister) : The Mumbai Police have begun an initiative to train teenage girls on how to recognise undeserved touch by relatives or strangers. The useful initiative has not yet reached all over the city. The other parts of the state too are not covered. THE UP CRIME THE DOWN CRIME Rape 6,226 up by 0.70 per cent Murder 3,771 down by 1.11 per cent Attempt to murder 4,140 up by 3.24 per cent Robbery 11,592 down by 26.70 per cent Riots 14,092 up by 2.33 per cent Chain snatching 5,054 down by 51 per cent THREE BLUNDERS Promotion of an eyesore: In opposition Fadnavis had demanded in 2010 suspension of IPS officer Parambeer Singh who was number two in the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) then for physical and mental torture of Sadhvi Pragya Singh. Fadnavis had alleged that Singh had forcefully extracted statement from Pragya regarding her involvement in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case. Soon after he took charge of the office Fadnavis promoted Singh as Commissioner of Thane on the outskirts of Mumbai bypassing seniority of three other officers. It sent out a signal that his action does not match with his words. Appointment of tainted: In 2015, Fadnavis created a post of Joint Commissioner of Police to accommodate IPS officer Dhananjay Kamlakar as head of Mumbai Police's economic offences wing. Kamlakar stands accused of failing a plan by R&AW to use shooters of Chhota Rajan gang to hit at fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim in Karachi, Pakistan. His appointment at a prominent position made other officers feel uncomfortable. Finally, Fadnavis removed Kamlakar from the position after allegations of land grabbing against his son Rohit. Humiliation of commissioner: Fadnavis removed then Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria in 2015 from the post 17 days before his due date of promotion blaming that he was taking too much interest in investigation of Sheena Bora murder case. The humiliating treatment to an upright officer did not go well among the force. It has led to a rift between officers who consider Maria as a role model and those who see him as a competitor. ALSO READ: India Today Impact: Will act against those involved in water mafia, says Fadnavis --- ENDS --- The following is an Aug. 8 news release from Cubic Global Defense: SAN DIEGO -- Cubic Global Defense (CGD), a business unit of Cubic Corporation (NYSE: CUB), on Monday announced it received a contract modification award worth more than $52 million from the U.S. Army Contracting Command to support rotational and pre-deployment training exercises at the U.S. Army Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC) in Fort Polk. Cubic was given the cost-plus-award-fee incrementally funded contract to fulfill option year-nine of its current Mission Support Contract in support of the JRTC with an expected completion date of June 30, 2017. Under the contract, Cubic will continue to assist the JRTC with integrating U.S. and allied forces into rotational training exercises through scenarios focused on Decisive Action and theater-specific operational environments. These types of exercises are conducted for units targeted for deployment in support of ongoing military operations overseas and include situational training, live fire, force-on-force and integrated live, virtual and constructive (LVC) training. Cubic also provides expanded Role Play, technical support for combat training instrumentation, battlefield effects, video and cultural role players (foreign language speakers) for added realism. JRTC is a critical element in the militarys Joint National Training Center initiative with its goal of training joint force units, said Dave Buss, president of Cubic Global Defense. Cubic is committed to maintaining JRTCs excellent reputation of offering realistic training to our warfighters and will continue to fulfill the Armys requirements in providing mission readiness services to better prepare them for actual battlefields. JRTC is one of the U.S. Armys Combat Training Centers that is focused on providing realistic, enhanced collective training experiences at the Brigade Combat Team level. The center trains light infantry, air assault, airborne and special operations units, including rangers; and hosts various rotational training exercises involving all other U.S. military forces. Cubic has served the JRTC since 2001, assisting the Army in training over 138 brigade combat teams and over one million soldiers. Cubic received an initial five-year contract in 2001 and won the competitive bid in 2007 for one-base year with nine renewable option years. About Cubic Corporation Cubic Corporation designs, integrates and operates systems, products and services focused in the transportation, defense training and secure communications markets. Cubic Transportation Systems is a leading integrator of payment and information technology and services to create intelligent travel solutions for transportation authorities and operators. Cubic Global Defense is a leading provider of live, virtual, constructive and game-based training solutions, special operations and intelligence for the U.S. and allied forces. Cubic Mission Solutions provides networked Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) capabilities for defense, intelligence, security and commercial missions. Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah today said that the political unrest in Kashmir will last until the Centre addresses the injustice perpetrated when Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah was ousted on August 9, 1953. By Naseer Ganai: Three days after former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said that New Delhi has declared a war on the people in Kashmir, his father Dr Farooq Abdullah today said it was important for the Centre to acknowledge that the genesis of the Kashmir turmoil lies in the "injustice of August 1953 when the then Prime Minister of J&K, Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah, was illegally overthrown to suppress the political sentiment in Kashmir." advertisement Farooq Abdullah said while it was heartening to see that certain leaders in the Centre were now talking about the political nature of the problem, it was a pity that the same leaders chose not to lend their voice of support when the Interlocutors' Report and the Sagheer Committee Report was available for discussion and implementation. In December 2009, the working group on Centre-State Relationship of Justice Saghir Ahmad had stated that the issue of the Article 370 should be settled and the demand of autonomy for the state should be examined in light of Kashmir Accord. GET TO THE ROOT CAUSE Dr Abdullah said those leaders in Delhi who are advocating a political solution to the Kashmir issue today have traditionally acquiesced with the conventional, tried and tested formulations of an operational handling of the issue. "Their stand today is welcome and a positive development and I hope they don't go back to the conventional policy of validating an operational handling of the issue when seeking a political resolution might become less expedient for them", Dr Abdullah said. "Every phase of political unrest in the Valley - including the current one - is a manifestation of a prolonged, systemic erosion of faith in Kashmir. What happened on August 9, 1953 continues to remind the people of Kashmir about how New Delhi has chosen to either suppress the political sentiment here or deal with it through an operational prism with a perpetually short-sighted, fire-fighting policy. Unless the root cause of the political instability and alienation in Kashmir is addressed constitutionally and politically, crushing the sentiment by use of force is not only futile but also highly counterproductive", he said. ITS ABOUT THE PEOPLE AND THEIR POLITICAL ASPIRATION Dr Farooq Abdullah, while welcoming parliamentary discussions on the current situation in Kashmir said the Parliament needs to acknowledge and understand the root cause of alienation and unrest in the Valley and accepting the criminal nature of the injustice perpetrated against the people of J&K on August 9, 1953 would be a good start to an open-ended, broad-minded introspection at the national level. advertisement "Prevarication and deflection of responsibility won't help anymore. The problem in Kashmir is about the people and their political aspirations - neither about any other country nor about terrorism. New Delhi has to engage with the people of Kashmir - who are the primary stakeholders in the political issue and also the rightful final arbiters of their destiny. A sustained, comprehensive political dialogue on Kashmir between New Delhi and Islamabad is equally indispensable - not only for a feasible and long-lasting resolution of the vexed Kashmir Issue - but also for the cause of sustainable peace and stability in the subcontinent", Dr. Abdullah said. Dr Farooq Abdullah said the Prime Minister should personally lead an initiative of political outreach towards the people of Kashmir and realize how every passing day of silence and inaction pushes the youth of Kashmir further away from the idea of India and fuels the growing sense of disenchantment in their hearts and minds. "This is perhaps the most prolonged and complicated political dispute in the entire world and can be outsourced to neither the Home Ministry nor the Defense Ministry nor the bureaucracy in New Delhi. The Prime Minister is morally and politically obligated to deal with this issue personally and politically - with a sense of justice, history and empathy. There can be no alternative to the issue being addressed by the Prime Minister directly", Dr Abdullah added. advertisement The National Conference president said there has been a clear pattern of an excessive use of lethal force against protesters. "The situation is saddening and heart-rending and is worsening with each passing day. A prolonged phase of political inaction could lead us to disastrous consequences", Dr Farooq Abdullah said. On Saturday former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah accused New Delhi of waging war against people of Kashmir saying every appeal being made asking New Delhi to engage with Pakistan and the people of Kashmir through a sustained, comprehensive dialogue to resolve the political issue is falling on deaf ears. "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. Thousands of youngsters have sustained injuries in this unrest. 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 youth of the Valley and that is the basis of this unrest", National Conference working president said on Saturday. advertisement Also Read NC chief Omar Abdullah asks if New Delhi has declared a war on Kashmir --- ENDS --- Story Saved You can find this story in My Bookmarks. Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right. Email To : Multiple e-mail addresses must be separated with a comma character(maximum 200 characters) Email To is required. Your Full Name: (optional) Your Email Address: Your Email Address is required. Advertisement By West Kentucky Star Staff Aug. 06, 2016 | MURRAY, KY By West Kentucky Star Staff Aug. 06, 2016 | 11:28 AM | MURRAY, KY Murray Police are still investigating a shooting incident that occurred Friday night. In a press release Monday afternoon, Murray Police said they are seeking information from the public and are following up on leads as they receive them. Two people received gunshot wounds during the incident, and the shooter is still on the loose. According to the Murray Police Department, the shooting took place just before 10 pm Friday on Brooklyn Drive. Police say they discovered two victims with apparent gunshot wounds. Both were transported a local hospital and then airlifted to Nashville hospitals. The Murray Police Department still says they believe the shooting is an isolated event. If you have any information you are encouraged to contact the Murray Police Department at 270-753-1621 right away. By The Associated Press Aug. 08, 2016 | 06:55 PM | DETROIT, MI Donald Trump has been looking to put a rough campaign stretch behind him today, with an economic speech that included a blistering attack on Hillary Clinton's approach to the economy. Speaking to the Detroit Economic Club, Trump promised to provide deep tax cuts, and to jolt middle class workers back to prosperity. He offered a few new policy specifics, but trained much of his attention on Clinton -- saying that her policies would punish people for "working and doing business in the United States." Trump said no business should pay more than 15 percent of its income in taxes, a major drop from the current 35 percent corporate tax rate. He revamped his previous proposal, unveiled during the GOP primary, by increasing the amount that the highest-individual income earners would pay. Meanwhile, Clinton is replying to Trump's economic address on Monday by saying it would benefit rich corporations and the wealthiest Americans at the expense of the working class. She's promising to raise taxes on the wealthy because, she says, "that's where the money is." During a campaign swing through St. Petersburg, Florida, Clinton wryly advised her supporters: "Don't let a friend vote Trump." Clinton says his scripted speech amounts to Trump scrambling to do "damage control" with a steadier performance designed to reassure Republicans who had grown nervous after a disastrous week. She says, "Don't be fooled," adding, "There is no other Donald Trump." Clinton is expected to deliver an economic address in Detroit on Thursday. Aides are billing the speech as a response to Trump's remarks. By The Associated Press Aug. 08, 2016 | 07:48 PM | FRANKFORT, KY A state judge says he wants more information about University of Louisville's accreditation and the political and racial makeup of the school's board of trustees. Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd issued an order last month at the request of Democratic Attorney General Andy Beshear to temporarily block Bevin's decision to abolish and replace the University of Louisville board. On Monday, both sides were back in court to discuss scheduling for the case. Shepherd said the university's accreditation is "an extremely important issue" and said he does not have enough information about it to make a permanent decision. Shepherd also said he is concerned the old board of trustees may violate state law because it does not have proper political and minority representation. The Health Ministry is promoting flavoured tablets for the National Deworming Day. "The medicine comes in a tablet form which is sweet and chewable. It comes with different flavours like strawberry, vanilla, mango, etc," said Priya Jha, India Country director at Evidence Action. By Neetu Chandra Sharma: The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is promoting flavoured tablets for the National Deworming Day that will be held on Wednesday in a bid to make children consume deworming tablets easily. Worldwide, Albendazole tablet is used for deworming. "The medicine comes in a tablet form which is sweet and chewable. It comes with different flavours like strawberry, vanilla, mango, etc," said Priya Jha, India Country director at Evidence Action. advertisement "In the first National Deworming Day held on February 10, 2015, we used a few flavours and children really liked them. We have decided to introduce more flavours this time because it will make easy for us to win children owing to its good taste," she said. Evidence Action along with World Health Organization and National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) is providing technical assistance to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in National Deworming Day. "As the medicine is sourced and distributed locally, the availability of the flavours might not be uniform across the country but children will really like and consume it easily without much persuasion as per our experience. It is very safe and has very few side effects. When side effects occur, they are typically a sign of high infection which makes taking the treatment all the more important. Side effects are mild such as nausea and diarrhea and pass quickly," said Jha. The second edition of National Deworming Day hopes to combat the threat of parasitic worm infections in India among all children aged 1-19 in schools and preschools (anganwadis). Children would be given albendezole 400 mg chewable tablets at government, government-aided, and private schools, and anganwadis. DEWORMING TABLETS AT ANGANWADIS TOO Out-of school children will be administered the deworming tablet at anganwadis. WHO indicates that India has the highest burden of soil-transmitted helminths (STH) in the world, with 220 million children aged 1-14 estimated to be at a risk of worm infection. Officials said this time; there is a greater emphasis to include children from private schools in the National Deworming Day. According to the Annual Status of Education Report, in 2014, 30.8 per cent of all 6-14 year old children in rural India are enrolled in private schools. Also, five states in India now have private school enrollment rates in the elementary stage that are greater than 50 per cent. These are Manipur (73.3 per cent), Kerala (62.2 per cent), Haryana (54.2 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (51.7 per cent), and Meghalaya (51.7 per cent)."We have approached private schools. It will not be possible for this year due to shortage of time, but we have plans to include them next year," said Jha. advertisement Also Read: Exporting Ayurvedic medicines? Get the Ayush Premium mark Pharmaceutical drugs' abuse on rise, chemists near schools, colleges under scanner --- ENDS --- Rita Redmond was a true lady who felt that every pupil had something to gift to the world Loading... Don't come to Edinburgh this year during August if you're a new singleton. Heartbreak seems to be a theme running through the Fringe. The number of shows I've seen so far with either a rocky new relationship or an unhappy old one is increasing day by day. At the Traverse, Rob Drummond's In Fidelity explores whether we are programmed to be faithful whilst also setting up audience members on a first date. Daffodils, a piece with songs from New Zealand, tells the story of a marriage, from start to finish. Travesty - a new play by Liam Williams which I've heard good things about - also does a similar thing. Even Growth, Luke Norris' new comedy, seems to be about testicular cancer but is really a story about a guy being dumped and trying to put his life back together. Let's not forget the brilliant Love, Lies and Taxidermy, a hilarious piece from Alan Harris on at the Roundabout stage at Summerhall. In fact, that piece a co-production between Sherman Theatre, Clwyd Theatr and Paines Plough has tapped into another subject that has popped up repeatedly, for me at least, over the first weekend of the Fringe: lies. Political debate is always pretty healthy in Edinburgh over the month of August, but in theatre offerings this year it is the feeling of betrayal - of having been monumentally lied to - which characterises much of the political commentary. Mark Thomas calls the referendum a campaign of lies' in The Red Shed, while Katie Bonna in All The Things I've Lied About is prompted by the political deception of recent months to look at just how truthful a person she is. Where Bonna focuses more on her personal relationship with lies, muso-theatre-comedy duo Johnny and the Baptists aim for the jugular and mercilessly rip it out of politicians up and down the country while they perform their raucous, melodious show Eat The Poor about the poorest people in society. Honestly though, even if you are heartbroken, the fringe is so vast that you would be able to find a play on pretty much anything (Dolphins? Gorillas? Babies?). And on Sunday heartbroken, angry, betrayed, and soggy festivalgoers came together 27,000 of us, to be exact to watch the opening event of the Edinburgh International Festival. We gathered in our kagools, our rucksacks on our backs, to look up at Edinburgh Castle and Castle Rock as brightly lit projections and lasers were blasted all over them to a soundtrack by Mogwai. Deep Time was a monumental, awe-inspiring work created by 59 Productions. The piece was a carefully curated series of images and animations relating to time, to history, to Edinburgh's volcanic past. The rocks that tower over this remarkable city came alive with movement. We saw dinosaurs, David Hume and the city's current residents, we saw rivers of lava, fossils, faces and shapes towering over us. It reminded us that the biggest shifts in this land were not really made by man, but by rocks. By the earth itself. Though there is something quite scary about that, there is something quite hopeful about it too. A magical start to the festival. Very soon, those drinking in beaches, highways and other public places of Goa might be fined up to Rs 10,000. By India Today Web Desk: There's a hardly any traveller who doesn't like Goa. Even the ones who haven't been there want to be there at some point of time. And those who have been there don't mind travelling to the place time and again. After all, everyone's in love with the sea, the beaches, the forests and the nightlife of Goa. And also, who doesn't like the reasonably priced beer and other alcoholic beverages at this place? advertisement But things are going to get tough for travellers very soon. After receiving several complaints regarding the nuisance caused due to people drinking in several public places, the Goa government has introduced a Bill on Monday that proposes to declare 'no alcohol consumption zones'. Also read: No more music festivals in Goa during the Christmas-New Year period Introduced by Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar, the Goa Excise Duty (Amendment) Bill, 2016 has the provision to impose a fine of any amount between Rs 1,000 to Rs 10,000 on anyone who's found guilty of drinking in a 'no alcohol consumption zone'. Stating the main purpose behind such a law, the bill states, ""Upon consumption of liquor the bottles and cans are strewn around causing environmental degradation and causing harm to pedestrians accessing the area". It further adds, "Such persons, after being in an inebriated state, cause nuisance to general public, disturb peace in the area and cause general local tension, thereby posing a law and order situation on regular basis." Although this might come across as a major disappointment for a lot of tourists, such a rule will definitely make sure that the Goa we love is kept clean and environment friendly at all times. (With inputs from IANS) --- ENDS --- By PTI: wants PM to break silence New Delhi, Aug 8 (PTI) The Opposition in the Rajya Sabha today urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to break his silence on the unrest in Kashmir with the Congress saying "Hindustan ka Taj jal raha hai"(Indias crown is burning) and demanded that the Centre initiate a political process. As curfew in Kashmir continued for an unprecedented 3Oth day, the Opposition parties also demanded stopping the use of pellet guns by security forces on protesters. Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the government was open to discussion on the Kashmir situation and that it can be scheduled tomorrow or on Wednesday, noting there should be no doubt about its commitment towards the state. Raising the issue in Zero Hour after his notice under rule 267 seeking suspension of business to discuss the Kashmir situation was disallowed, Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said no state in independent India has seen 30 days of continuous curfew that has paralysed the administration, shut down educational institutions and led to near zero attendance in government offices. "In such circumstances, we want to awaken the government ... We feel the government and the Prime Minister are watching the situation deteriorate like a silent spectator," he said, adding he wanted to know why Modi has not spoken on the grave situation in Kashmir so far. "Hindustan ka Taj jal raha hai, par uski garmi Delhi tak nahi pahuchti (Indias crown is burning but the heat hasnt yet reached Delhi)," Azad said. Over 8,000 people, including security personnel, have been injured while 410 eye surgeries and 1,650 other surgeries are reported to have been conducted because of the use of pellet guns on protesters, he said. Observing that 1018 incidents have been reported, he said over 1000 youth are in prison. "Please do not consider this as a law and order issue," Azad told the government. Citing social media comments on Modi not making any statement on the Kashmir unrest, he said people are eager to listen to his views on the situation. He asked the Prime Minister to call an all-party meeting where political leaders can offer solutions and express their sympathy with the people of Kashmir. This should be followed up with an all-party delegation visiting Kashmir to assuage the feeling, the senior Congress leader added. Expressing anguish and pain at the continuous 30-day curfew, Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M) said there was nothing working in the Valley except armed forces. "More than 1000 incidents of firing have happened. More than 8000 are injured and 60 dead," he said describing the use of pellet guns and "inhuman" and "criminal". Stating that even Israel does not use pellet guns against Palestinians, he said the situation cannot be solved by law and order machinery. "Our remaining silent is deepening the alienation of the Kashmiris," Yechury said, adding "we have heard the silence of the Prime Minister (on Kashmir). His silence is more eloquent than words." The Prime Ministers silence is "sending a message that this government does not care," he said. PTI ANZ ARC GSN GSN --- ENDS --- advertisement Mumbai Police arrested Hiranandani hospital's CEO along with three doctors in connection with a kidney racket case. By Mustafa Shaikh: The CEO of Mumbai's famous Hiranandani hospital was today arrested along with three doctors in connection with a kidney racket. The police said that the arrests were made on the basis of the report of an appropriate authority. All the accused, including CEO Sujeet Chatterjee, will be produced in the court on Wednesday. The accused have been arrested under Section 12 and 21 of the transplantation act 1994. This is the 12th arrest in the case so far. On July 15, Mumbai Police busted a kidney racket at LH Hiranandani Hospital in Powai after receiving a tip off. advertisement An end-stage kidney failure patient, Brijkishore Jaiswal, who was a resident of Surat, was to receive a kidney from one Shobha Thakur. However, in the hospital documents, Thakur was shown as Jaiswal's wife Rekha Devi. But Thakur actually was selling her kidney in exchange for money. The state health department instituted a three-member committee to inquire into the role of the hospital and doctors involved in the transplant. --- ENDS --- Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 09/08/2016 (2271 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Exchange Income Corp. shares hit a new high Monday after the announcement of the acquisition of a small Nova Scotia software company. In and of itself, the $17-million purchase of CarteNav Solutions of Halifax was likely not what pushed the share price up 52 cents to $34.97. At one point Monday, EIC reached the $1-billion market capitalization milestone. The strong price performance is partly driven by analysts expectations of more solid results when the Winnipeg-based diversified, acquisition-oriented company releases its second-quarter results today. CarteNav develops software for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and situational awareness solutions with defence, security, and commercial clients in 30 countries around the world. It is one of the few specifically strategic acquisitions EIC has executed. Mike Pyle, chief executive officer of EIC, said CarteNav is expected to accelerate the growth of EICs Provincial Aerospace Ltd. (PAL) division it acquired in January 2015. Among other things, PAL provides maritime surveillance work in Canada, the Caribbean and Middle East. CarteNav is a specialist in information technology that lets you stream data between various types of equipment for both land and maritime applications, he said. It will enable us to move PALs whole platform forward much quicker than we otherwise would have been able to ourselves It puts that whole department on steroids. It will provide PAL more firepower to contribute as part of a consortium bidding on a $3-billion, 25-year, fixed-wing, search-and-rescue contract with Public Works and Government Services Canada expected to be awarded later this year or early next year. Pyle said the CarteNav deal will be profitable for EIC regardless of any specific work it will help PAL win. In addition to maritime applications, its software covers land and air environments. The purchase was paid in cash and financed through the companys existing credit facility. Its the kind of deal that has made EIC a favourite of the investment community. While the company keeps making acquisitions in the aviation/aerospace and manufacturing sectors, it is able to continue to increase its dividends which it has done 11 times in the last 12 years. Pyle said hitting the billion-dollar market cap was an important achievement for the company. It is a huge thing to go from nothing in 2004 to $1 billion in market cap today, he said. Even more impressive than that is that we have raised about $450 million (in share offerings) and paid out over $200 million in dividends in that time, so shareholders net investment is about $250 million. That means in 12 years we have created over $750 million of value for our shareholders. In her preview for second-quarter results released late last month, prior to the CarteNav deal, Mona Nazir, an analyst with Laurentian Bank Securities, was anticipating another period of solid results with a target price of $37.50. We have seen EICs stock price go from the low $20 range (in January) to hitting new 52-week highs around $35. Its not just the history of the company that investors look at, but really what can drive results going forward, she said in an interview. Its diversification strategy has brought with it strong and consistent results that have ultimately reduced downside risk while the board has increased the dividend 11 times over the last 12 years. With 5.7 per cent dividend yield, the stock price even at this level continues to look compelling and investors are expecting those dividend increases to continue. In May, with the release of the first-quarter results, the company increased its dividend for the third time in the previous 18 months, up five per cent to an annualized $2.01 per share, giving the stock a sturdy six per cent yield, putting it around the top 25 dividend stocks on the TSX. martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca Delhi has numerous 'illegal dairies' which unleash their cattle, including cows and buffalos, on the streets every morning. For the owners of these illegal dairies, cows are only a way of making money. By Baishali Adak: Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have given a clarion call for 'gau raksha' from plastic and garbage, but this is an issue Delhi has been wrestling with for decades now, unable to find a solution. The National Capital of India is infested with 'illegal dairies' which unleash their cattle on the streets every morning. As per the 19th Livestock Census of India (2012), Delhi has about 3.5 lakh bovine population. This includes cows, bulls, calves and buffaloes. advertisement Only a fraction of them are housed in the city's 10 'legal dairy colonies' in the outskirts - Kakrola, Goela, Nangli, Jharoda, Bhalaswa, Gharoli, Ghazipur, Shahbad, Madanpur and Masoodpur. Rest are packed in thousands of smaller illegal dairies spread across the city. LAL-DORA AREAS HAVE NUMEROUS COWS One can spot them in 'lal dora' areas, meaning rural belts of Delhi or unauthorised colonies such as Kotla Mubarakpur, Sangam Vihar, Govindpuri, Munirka, Mahipalpur, etc. Sometimes, these appear even in the middle of posh colonies. Owners of such illegal dairies are greedy and milk their female cattle twice a day. They are unwilling to invest on even the basics for their 'cash cows'. The animals are let loose and forced to forage on trash for food. The three municipal corporations, meanwhile, sit twiddling their thumbs citing grey areas in the existing laws. Mukesh Yadav, spokesperson, South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), told Mail Today, "Large-scale commercial keep of cattle is allowed only in our designated dairy colonies which are on the border areas of Delhi. In the 'lal dora' belt or villages in our jurisdiction, each family is allowed to keep only one cow or buffalo." Dr Hari Lal, director of Veterinary, East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC), however, underlined the confusion in the law, saying, "Lal Dora is still determined by our SDM/Revenue records which identify an area as 'agricultural land.' However, since many of them have turned into unauthorised colonies over years, we are seeking 'lal dora' certificates from SDMs for giving out 'cattle keeping' license. It is a difficult process." COWS MADE TO STARVE, SUFFER IMMENSE PAIN Rajdeep Datta Roy, a gaushala owner, said, "It is extremely sad how these bovines are made to starve and suffer immense pain. Unlike dogs, cows don't have claws to tear open packets. On finding food in dhalaos (garbage sheds), cows consume polybags full of food as a whole. This keeps collecting in their rumen till they can't eat anything." "Only few organisations in India conduct an operation called Rumenotomy, through which plastics are surgically removed. These include the Karni Mata Gaushala in Bikaner and Panna Lal Dhamarastra Gaushala in Jodhpur. Several thousand cows die each year of 70-100 kgs of polybags in their system," he said. Khushboo Gupta of NGO, World Animal Protection, said, advertisement "If the illegal dairies kill their cattle in one way, legal dairies do it another way. They keep cows and buffaloes in dingy, dark rooms. These poor animals suffer from diseases like Mastitis (infection of the udders). Even at that time, they are milked." Also Read: India Today expose: How Gau Rakshaks turn into extortion mafias Cattle battle: Cows of Benaras tell us what 'gau-mata' really wants --- ENDS --- Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 08/08/2016 (2272 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. The chief medical examiner who ordered inquests into the high-profile deaths of Brian Sinclair, Drianna Ross and Craig McDougall has retired. For nearly two decades, Dr. Thambirajah Balachandra has investigated sudden or unexplained deaths, testified at pivotal court hearings and made the final decisions on whether to call judicial inquests into fatalities. At the helm since 1998, Balachandra retired June 30, according to a recently released provincial order in council. DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Dr. Thambirajah Balachandra held the post of Manitoba Chief Medical Examiner for 18 years. Dr. John Younes, a pathologist who has been the deputy chief medical examiner since 2013, has been named as Manitobas acting chief medical examiner. It was Balachandra who ordered the inquest into the 2008 death of 45-year-old double amputee Sinclair, who died after waiting 34 hours at Winnipegs Health Sciences Centres emergency room without treatment. Balachandra also testified at the inquest, saying he hopes the inquest leads to changes in emergency-room procedures and reduces wait times. Im not saying doctors are bad we have world-class doctors, he testified in 2013. But theres something wrong somewhere. Its no ones fault, but the system has to be rejigged. The inquest resulted in a 200-page report with 63 recommendations to improve Manitoba emergency rooms. It is the chief medical examiners job to decide whether an inquest a court hearing to examine the facts surrounding a death should be called. The decision is based on whether the general public will benefit from the information being made public during such a hearing. Inquests are typically called in Manitoba when someone dies at the hands of police, in custody or when under the care of the provincial government. Balachandra was also involved in high-profile court cases such as Andrea Giesbrecht, the woman accused of concealing six infant remains. He clashed with Giesbrechts lawyer, who wanted to bring in Dr. Peter Markesteyn, the former longtime provincial medical examiner, to give an independent opinion of all medical evidence in case. Balachandra refused to allow him entry unless he had a court order. Drianna Ross, of Gods Lake First Nation, was two months old when she died at the Thompson General Hospital in November 2011. An inquest was ordered by Balachandra, under the Fatality Inquiries Act, after her parents repeatedly took her to the local nursing station and she was never once seen by a doctor. A nurse prescribed Tylenol to bring down her fever. Nine recommendations were included in the 41-page report, which suggested changes to the way nursing stations and hospitals treat northern patients. The inquest into the 2008 death of McDougall by a police shooting made headlines on Monday after the long-awaited inquest into his death was delayed when new witness information came to light. McDougall, a 26-year-old Oji-Cree man, was shot and killed by police outside his family home on Simcoe Street in 2008. The example of the McDougall case is why Balachandras position is one that was very important and very difficult, explained Minto MLA Andrew Swan. Swan served as the justice minister and attorney general for five years under the NDP Selinger government. When there is a criminal case pending, the inquest gets postponed. I know that is frustrating for families and the public, but it is a system in which the chief medical examiner works, Swan said. He is asked to make decisions on a number of different situations where death occurs and in general, I think Dr. Balachandra has done the citizens of Manitoba good service. A spokeswoman for Justice Minister Heather Stefanson said she would not comment until the Free Press had spoken to Balachandra. A request for comment to Balachandra was not returned. The chief examiner is also responsible for investigating all unexpected and violent deaths in the province; some medical doctors throughout Manitoba are appointed as medical examiners and carry out investigations on behalf of the Chief Medical Examiners Office. kristin.annable@freepress.mb.ca Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 09/08/2016 (2271 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. OTTAWA The chairman of the board of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights has resigned and the federal government hasnt begun the process of replacing him, as plans for a new application-based appointments process have slowed cabinet appointments almost to a halt. Eric Hughes stepped down as chairman of the board for the Winnipeg-based national museum at the end of June after more than 41/2 years in the role. Hughes, a Calgary oil executive, told the Free Press that, after spending seven years on the board, the first 21/2 years as vice-chairman, he was ready to move on. I am enormously proud of what we have accomplished, Hughes said in a phone interview from Calgary. It was a very time-intensive thing. I really felt I had given it my all. Melissa Tait / Winnipeg Free Press files The vacant position at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights is just one of many positions the federal government has yet to fill. Hughes was eligible for a second term, but said chairing the board through the construction and opening of the museum was more demanding than most similar board chairperson roles. Pauline Rafferty, vice-chairwoman of the CMHR board and former CEO of the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria, is holding the interim-chair role for the time being. Heritage Minister Melanie Joly is to recommend the permanent replacement, but as of Monday nothing had been done on that front, even though Hughes made known he would be stepping down a year ago. His term was to expire Nov. 21, 2015, but he agreed to stay on until June 30 to allow time to find a replacement. As of Monday, the job had not been advertised. Documents obtained through an access to information request show the CMHR chairperson position is one of more than three dozen vacancies in cabinet appointments in Jolys portfolio alone. That is more than one-fifth of the appointments that are her responsibility. As the government works on its plans to implement a new application-based government appointments process, the list of vacancies is growing. I listen to what they say theyre going to do and I say good luck, Hughes said. Theyre just not staffed to do it effectively. In February, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced plans to make more transparent the 1,500 cabinet appointments to government boards, commissions, tribunals, crown corporations and agencies. The new process is to include posting all vacancies online, seeking applicants and making selections based on how well applicants fit the skill requirements, as well as gender and diversity balance. Previously, many of these jobs were doled out for patronage reasons. I am enormously proud of what we have accomplished. It was a very time-intensive thing. I really felt I had given it my all Eric Hughes, former chairman of the CMHR board Despite being told in December there were 20 vacancies in her departments appointments, and another 17 would be vacant within six months, Joly has made just one appointment since taking office. That was to the Canadian Cultural Property Review Board. Its not known how many positions in other departments are currently or about to become vacant. Pierre-Olivier Herbert, Jolys press secretary, didnt specifically address the growing backlog. Our government has announced a more rigorous approach when it comes to political nominations in order to make them more transparent, less partisan, reflect our Canadian diversity and respect the principles of indigenous representation and gender parity, he said in an emailed statement. All appointments are now available through the Governor in Council website where all Canadians have an opportunity to apply. Vacant positions will be filled once the selection process for each position has ended. However, there is only one Heritage appointment currently listed among 13 on the website. Herbert said he expects the posting for the CMHR chairperson to be posted soon but couldnt say when. One source close to the museum doesnt think the CMHR will get a new chairperson until the Canadian Museum of History does. The chairperson of that museum, in Gatineau, Que., died in April 2015, and has not been replaced. That job was advertised in June 2015 and interviews were conducted at the end of July 2015, with the appointment being delayed when the election was called. It has not been filled and, like the CMHR job, it is not posted online. WAYNE GLOWACKI/WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Eric Hughes, former chair of the Canadian Museum of Human Rights board of trustees. Hughes said the museum can manage without a permanent chair with Rafferty being quite capable of handling the role. However, the CMHR board is currently down two members from its 11-member allocation. These vacancies come just as the museum is in the midst of negotiating a new financial deal from the federal government. Its current federal appropriation agreement for $21.7 million a year runs out in March. It has already been extended by a year to allow the museum to get a better sense of own-source revenues once the facility had been open for at least a year. Hughes is a close personal friend of former prime minister Stephen Harper, helped run both of Harpers leadership campaigns and reportedly did his personal taxes. Hughes made known his desire to step down during the early days of the election campaign last summer. mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 09/08/2016 (2271 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Emergency workers know from grim, front-line experience its crucial to have adequate blood supplies to save the lives of people injured in vehicle crashes. Thats why first responders in Winnipeg and the surrounding area are asking the public to join them in donating blood as part of their Sirens for Life campaign with Canadian Blood Services. The call for more blood comes less than two months after STARS air ambulance announced it would carry blood on board to all calls to stabilize trauma victims upon arrival. If STARS wouldnt have been there to stabilize me and rush me in, I dont even want to think about where I, let alone my family, would be today, Paul Neufeld said at a press conference on Tuesday. WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES STARS air ambulances in Manitoba will now travel with blood on board. Neufeld was driving in the left eastbound lane on Highway 44 near Garson in November 2012 when a vehicle carrying two seniors was travelling westbound on the wrong side of the divided highway. The elderly man and woman died at the scene and Neufeld was left in critical condition with brain bleeding, a punctured lung, two broken legs, a crushed left foot and ankle and several cuts and bruising. If you dont believe in God or angels, nows a good time to start, Neufeld said, recalling the aftermath of the crash. Neufeld, along with members of Winnipeg Police Service, Manitoba RCMP, Health Sciences Centre, Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service and STARS air ambulance asked the public in a news conference Tuesday to donate more blood to save lives. It takes just one person who is seriously injured in a car crash to need up to 50 blood donations to save their life, said Tracy Smith, director of donor relations in Manitoba for Canadian Blood Services, during the Sirens for Life mid-year update. The emergency workers are having a little fun with the donation process each service is competing to see who can recruit more donors within their organization. The challenge, of course, is to see which group can bring in the most donations over the summer while raising awareness for the need for donors, Smith said. Its been a really close race. Combined as of today, weve had about 60 donations that have come in over the month of July and we have the RCMP currently in the lead. RCMP Insp. Scott McMurchy said first responders know firsthand why donating blood is so important. We really encourage everyone to give blood and remind them to do so on behalf of those that they love and our community, he said. Winnipeg police Const. Rob Carver said Sirens for Life is significant to officers, and he believes his team still has a chance to pull ahead with more donations over the next month. This has always been an important event for us, Carver said. I know at the beginning of this event, the RCMP really laid down the gauntlet. Theyve been doing very well. I think were a little behind the eight ball. Its going to be a very busy August if were going to be able to catch them. I send out a challenge to all our members to step it up and see if we can close this gap. bailey.hildebrand@freepress.mb.ca Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 09/08/2016 (2271 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. The long-delayed Fort Rouge residential project adjacent to the southwest transit corridor is back on track after a change in developers. Sunstone Resort Communities has taken over the project at the Fort Rouge Yards from controversial developer Andrew Marquess and his firm, Gem Equities. Sunstone is actively promoting the project which has been rebranded as Jubilee, South Osborne on its website. SUPPLIED Artist rendering of first 40 townhouse units, now under construction by Sunstone Resort Communities, at the former Fort Rouge Yards near Rathgar Avenue. Were assisting in developing and executing the relaunch of the entire site, said Sunstone CEO Bill Coady. Sunstone was approached six months ago by First National Financial LP a partner with Gem Equities and the projects financial backer to take over and begin construction. Sunstone started work on a 40-unit townhouse condominium development near Rathgar Avenue and Argue Street four months ago. Coady said its actively being marketed now and expects the units will be ready for occupancy by April or May. Coady said First National Financial instructed Sunstone to rebrand and remarket the project, adding he expects Sunstone will be involved in the construction of the remaining units as the projects rolls out. At the time, it was all about execution, getting the thing going and getting some positive air under the wings of the project, Coady said. Marquess could not be reached for comment. Marquess and his firm, Gem Equities, acquired the former Fort Rouge rail yards property in 2008. He proposed a 900-unit townhouse, condominium and commercial development alongside the Southwest Rapid Transit Corridor. Its not certain how Marquess and Gem Equities were removed as developer. The Federation of Canadian Municipalities agreed to lend Gem Equities $14.7 million, and Winnipeg city council voted in October 2011 to guarantee $10 million of it. To reduce the financial obligation to city hall, Gem Equities agreed to build a bus station along the rapid-transit corridor lowering the value of the loan guarantee to $7 million. While former mayor Sam Katz defended the loan guarantee at the time and said there was no risk for the city, senior finance officials conceded the city could be on the hook if Marquess were to default once construction began. At the March 2015 meeting, city council took steps to remove that potential financial liability by approving an indemnity agreement with First National Financial that assures city hall will not be responsible for any debt if Marquess is unable to complete the project. In return, the agreement authorized First National Financial to take whatever legal action is required to cover any potential loss. First National Financial could not be reached for comment. MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Large development signs dot the weed-filled Fort Rouge Yards. There had been little visible development on the site before Sunstone got involved. Marquess told the Free Press a year ago the delay was the result of his obligation to city hall to first build a bus station for the transit corridor and then construct underground geothermal infrastructure necessary for the residential components. Earlier this year, he appeared ready to start construction on the residential units. Marquess is also the developer for another transitway-related project on property south of Taylor Avenue known as the Parker lands. Sunstone is the firm that built the Mere Hotel on Waterfront Drive and converted the adjacent former harbourmaster facility on the Red River into Cibo Waterfront Cafe. The firm has built condos and apartments across the city. Gem Equities had pre-sold about 20 of the townhouse units. Coady said Sunstone has since contacted all the buyers and about 12 have decided to remain with the project. The onsite display centre will be reopened in about two weeks, he said, to coincide with a marketing relaunch. Marquess had a reputation as one of the citys most ambitious and innovative developers, known for incorporating geothermal heating and cooling systems and other energy-efficient features into many of his projects, and pursuing rental projects when few others are doing so. He launched the conversion of the former downtown Sheraton Winnipeg into rental apartments later sold to another firm and renovated several other downtown properties. But his financial troubles are well-documented in court records, and another of his companies, B&M Land, has been sued for non-payment at least 13 times since 2009. Six companies eventually dropped their lawsuits, but B&M Land was ordered to pay at least $1.59 million. When city council signed off on the loan guarantee, bylaw officers tried to get Marquesss company to bring three derelict apartment buildings up to par. More recently, he was criticized and penalized for misleading city officials over the location of recreational space on a McPhillips Street condo development. aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 09/08/2016 (2271 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. A 24-hour vigil for a prisoner who died in the Remand Centre continues until 2 p.m. Wednesday. Bradley Errol Greene, 26, died in custody May 1 after suffering an epileptic seizure. His aunt, Janet Ellison, said Greene was denied his epilepsy medication while in custody. He was a father of three, and his wife, Rochelle Pranteau, is pregnant with their fourth child. PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Protesters at a 24-hour vigil for Bradley Errol Greene, 26, who died in custody May 1 after suffering an epileptic seizure. The vigil in front of the Law Courts on Kennedy Street started Tuesday, which marked the 42nd anniversary of International Prison Justice Day. A handful of people gathered with candles, holding up a large poster stating, Justice for Errol Greene. Ellison said this is the third vigil that has been held in Greenes memory. Theyre not giving us any answers, she said of the Remand Centre. No one has said anything to us. The coroner said that it would take three months for an autopsy; I dont know why it would take that long. But we still havent heard from him. We would like to know exactly what transpired in there from the time he had a seizure to the time that he ended up at the hospital, she said. Ellison said the family is speaking with a lawyer and plans on asking for the release of security footage from the Remand Centre. She said if the family doesnt receive answers, they intend to sue. If this can help other people that are in prison, this will be good because Errol wouldnt have died in vain, she said. Manitoba Corrections issued a statement: Our condolences go out to the family members who are participating in the vigil. The chief medical examiner is advised of all inmate deaths as required by legislation. The CME will review all of the available information and will make a decision about the need for an inquest. Corrections is awaiting the decision of the CME. alexandra.depape@freepress.mb.ca Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 09/08/2016 (2271 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Senator Murray Sinclair has been named the recipient of the 2016 Award for Excellence in Aboriginal Relations by the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business (CCAB). Sinclair, the former Justice for the Queens Bench of Manitoba, will be honoured on Sept. 22 at the CCABs 14th annual dinner in Vancouver for his distinguished record of public service and work leading the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Canada. The award recognizes an individual, aboriginal or non-aboriginal, who has contributed, through professional and voluntary commitments, to building bridges between Aboriginal peoples and Canadian society, making a substantial impact across all sectors, socially, culturally, and politically. It highlights the efforts of people who have been ambassadors in working with Aboriginal peoples and communities, a press release stated. Adrian Wyld / The Canadian Press Senator Murray Sinclair smiles as he waits for a television interview to begin in the foyer of the House of Commons, Tuesday, April 12, 2016 in Ottawa. Senator Murray Sinclairs work leading the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is a shining example of his commitment to Aboriginal people and bringing all Canadians to the forefront and understanding of a national tragedy and injustice, JP Gladu, President and CEO of CCAB, said in a statement. For six years Senator Sinclair travelled to communities across Canada to listen to the stories of First Nations, Inuit, and Metis students who were put through Canadas residential school system. Reconciliation is the key to creating a new relationship, one based on mutual respect and understanding and we are truly humbled to celebrate his lifes work. Sinclair also was a co-commissioner of the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry, which studied the impact of the criminal justice on Aboriginal peoples in Manitoba and also conducted a six-year inquiry into the deaths of 12 children that resulted in a study that led to changes in pediatric heart surgery in Canada. He has also served as an adjunct professor at the University of Manitoba and was appointed to the Senate in 2016. ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca Opinion Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 09/08/2016 (2271 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. There are several inaccuracies that need to clarified in the wake of the news the Port of Churchill has been closed and along with it, rail traffic slowed. In his July 28 article (Lack of vision behind Churchill closure), Lloyd Axworthy suggests there were no local Manitoba businesses interested in acquiring the rail line, so it was sold to Denver-based Omnitrax. However, that is not accurate. I was part of a group of interested businesses and individuals who approached Axworthy in 1995 when he was a cabinet minister during the discussion about privatizing CN. At that time, our group urged him and the federal Liberal government to take the Bay Line out of the impending privatization. As CN had never done anything to make the line profitable, it was a forgone conclusion it would be abandoned once it was privatized. Our appeal was ignored, and in November 1995, CN was privatized; however, Axworthy did encourage us to form a corporation and attempt to buy the line. This was an obviously daunting task. Why would CN sell a piece of track that had the potential of taking traffic away from them? We did proceed with the formation in 1996 of GNTS Gateway North Transportation System with the full support and encouragement of both the federal Liberals and the Manitoba Provincial Conservative governments. The provincial government in particular was very supportive, lending us the almost full-time participation of the assistant deputy minister of Highways and Transportation. We acquired the participation of a large heavy construction contractor, a well-established short-line railway operator, knowledgeable northern individuals such as the mayor of Churchill, the manager of the Port of Churchill, the most knowledgeable permafrost stabilization contractor in Canada and many others who recognized the importance of this valuable asset to Canada. We spent in excess of one-million dollars setting up offices, doing market research, seeking support from producers, negotiating with CN and pitching to potential investors. It has long been common knowledge the railbed needs to be stabilized. A very successful test site to refreeze the permafrost had been done a few years earlier using thermosyphons, but CN had never further capitalized on this technology. It was our intention to do so. Our research told us we must acquire the line as far south as Hudson Bay Junction so we could have interchange agreements with both CP and CN Rail. The line only as far south as The Pas, which CN agreed to sell, made the project untenable, as CN would control the amount of traffic available to the line. The stipulation that we acquire the line far enough south to have access to CP lines was unacceptable to CN and they refused to deal with us. So rather than support our efforts, and understand the importance of both the interchange agreements and railbed stabilization, the two governments went shopping and found Omnitrax. Our research further showed that properly run, the venture could be a profitable one, with no support required from governments. I understand that since that time, under Omnitrax, the governments have put a further $130 million into the line and port. Omnitrax knows nothing about permafrost and their rail maintenance program was very similar to what CNs had been, with the obvious results. Axworthy states he chaired the Churchill Gateway Development Corp, charged with track and port improvements and marketing. Given that the thermosyphon test site was very successful, and our firm is the only company in Canada to do this permafrost stabilization work, I am wondering why we never heard from him. It tells you something about their efforts. He goes further. Axworthy suggests the failure of Omnitrax lies with the provincial government. While it was the province which eventually pulled the carpet out from under us, it was the federal Liberals that were in charge of CN, then a crown corporation. They certainly had the power, when privatizing CN, to take this valuable national piece of infrastructure out of that transaction. Lets lay blame where it is due. To compound the errors made by both levels of government, there seems to have been no effort made to have the seller agree to track as far south as Hudson Bay Junction to give the new operator control of the enterprise. Nor does there seem to have been any effort to compel the new owner to implement any proven roadbed stabilization programs. Our extensive research had highlighted these two conditions to be critical to the successful operation of the line, and that research was shared with both levels of government. Bill Watt is one of the principals of Arctic Foundations of Canada. Opinion Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 09/08/2016 (2271 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Notwithstanding the U.S. Democratic Partys sop to socialist Bernie Sanders in the crafting of its left-leaning policy platform, the partys foreign policy is unapologetically right-of-centre. After all, Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential candidate voted in favour of a Congressional resolution backing the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2002. Few recall just how hawkish Clinton was in the 2008 presidential primary season in stark contrast to the dovish Barack Obama. Journalists have been told unofficially she regards President Obama as unnecessarily weak on matters of global affairs. When it came to Cuba, Clinton campaigned on taking a much harder line toward Cuba and the U.S. economic blockade than Obama. She had precious little time for the Castro brothers, their record on political and economic rights and freedoms, or any loose talk about the normalization of bilateral relations. MIKHAIL METZEL, POOL / ASSOCIATED PRESS files Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Vladivostok, Russia in 2012. Clinton says as president she will stand up to Putin. When she was part of the Obama foreign policy team, she tended to eschew the virtues of diplomacy in favour of a more hard-nosed approach based on pressure tactics. For her, rivalries with Russia, China and Iran are not something to be finessed, but are inevitable realities of global politics and a struggle for power. As U.S. Secretary of State, one shouldnt forget that Clinton backed the Honduran military in the 2009 overthrow of a democratically-elected leftist government. She also urged Obama to stick by Egypts embattled Hosni Mubarak during the early 2011 Arab Spring. And she has, to the delight of conservative-minded commentators, been known to be less than bullish on Obamas 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. Its not entirely surprising, then, to have the neoconservative punditocracy rallying to Clintons side rather than jumping on board Republican presidential candidate Donald Trumps isolationist bandwagon. They obviously feel more comfortable with a more internationally engaged Clinton White House as opposed to Trumps espousal of a Fortress America organizing principle. For one thing, many of the neocons believe that Clinton will trumpet American exceptionalism and place the United States at the centre of world politics, embrace the use of military force, seek the removal of brutal dictators and strive to spread democracy throughout the world. Take leading neoconservative thinker Robert Kagan of the Brookings Institution, who recently opined: I would say all Republican foreign policy professionals are anti-Trump. I would say that a majority of people in my circle will vote for Hillary. Max Boot of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations was even more blunt. Donald Trump does not have a serious foreign policy thought in his mind. He has no ideas, he only has impulses. He went on to tell the New York Times: I would rather vote for Joseph Stalin than Donald Trump. Brent Scowcroft, a neocon lite and someone who served as a national security adviser to President George H.W. Bush, has also endorsed Clinton. She brings deep expertise in international affairs and a sophisticated understanding of the world, which I believe are essential for the commander in chief, he explained. Many neocons are convinced that Clinton will remain firmly committed to Western Europe and the NATO Alliance. And that she will keep the tough sanctions in place on Putins Russia, call for the unconditional return of Crimea and continue to back the beleaguered Ukrainian government. Furthermore, they welcomed Clintons support for the 2011 U.S. military intervention against Muammar Gaddafi. Their support for a tougher response against Bashar al-Assad in Syria and IS militants is also consistent with the Clinton foreign policy mindset. While it is true Clintons evincing of a more robust foreign policy is designed to bring disgruntled Republican voters into her camp, she needs to be mindful of not offending the Democratic Party base of liberals and progressives. Moreover, given Trumps clear lack of experience and understanding of international affairs recall his nonsensical statements about Russian President Putin, Saddam Hussein, the president of Iraq, Turkeys Recep Tayyip Erdogan and even the use of torture this is not an area she needs to hammer home to pull a winning coalition together for Novembers presidential election. But if the past is any indication, a victorious Clinton is likely to conduct a U.S. foreign policy that is driven mainly by domestic political imperatives, a determination to avoid international entanglements and a sharp eye toward re-election in 2020. Peter McKenna is professor and chair of political science at the University of Prince Edward Island in Charlottetown. Opinion Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 09/08/2016 (2271 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Altitude apparently goes to Pope Franciss head. It always seems to be on an aircraft that he says something radical or provocative, often getting into trouble and obliging his staff and apologists to explain that he was misunderstood, mistranslated or just missed. And usually giving cause for the Catholic left to rejoice and Catholic right to despair. This time, on a flight home from Armenia, he announced he had set up a commission to consider whether women could be made deacons. Oh, the humanity. A group of experts discussing whether, after a couple of thousand years, Roman Catholicism might give half the population the chance of having just a little authority within the oh so male hierarchy of the Church. Let me make a bold prediction here. It wont happen. The Pope speaks a good game but plays rather a bad one. There are two types of deacon. One group is composed of men who are on their way to the priesthood; the position is merely temporary. The other is the diaconate, where men can be married, and have a mere fraction of a priests authority. It is the latter for which women are being considered. Already the more conservative elements within the Catholic Church are performing a liturgical dance of anger and incredulity. They regard the Pope as a relentless liberal hes not, actually, and has changed hardly anything at all and see even the consideration of female deacons as downright heresy. Its the first step, they say, and next will be married clergy and then those damned females telling us what to do. Theyre wrong. Even if women are made deacons and as I say, its incredibly unlikely the change could and would go no further. Catholic theology believes the prime role of the priest is to represent Christ at the Mass and, as Jesus was a man, no woman can fulfil this position. But Jesus was also Jewish, spoke Aramaic and was born of a virgin. Try as I might, I have never found an Aramaic-speaking, Jewish priest born of a virgin serving mass in Canada. Mind you, I dont get around as much as I used to. Its obviously a pretty flimsy argument and the chances are the vast majority of North American Catholics are either unaware of it or reject it. But there is, of course, more going on here. Male privilege, fear of women and of female empowerment, and sometimes downright misogyny are sadly abundant in Catholic circles. While Queen Elizabeth led England in the 16th century, Catherine the Great transformed Russia in the 18th and nations as diverse as India, Israel and Germany have elected women as premiers, the Roman Catholic Church sees women as mothers, nuns and, very occasionally, theologians. The Madonna always knows her place. This anachronistically male culture not only distorts reality and, indeed, the teachings of Jesus but also allows reactionary and naive ideas about sex, contraception, divorce and reproductive choice to dominate Catholic teaching. I am also convinced the abuse crisis could not have happened, or would have been exposed far earlier, if women had more influence within the Catholic power structure. It was women who first saw the resurrected Jesus and told their doubting male comrades, women who featured so large in the most memorable of stories concerning Jesus and His ministry, women who still to a very large extent sustain organized Christianity. But a male pope tells male cardinals who tell male priests what is true and what not. Good old boys, often with their own sexual struggles and obfuscation, being good old clerics. Gender exclusivity is morally and spiritually stifling, and when enforced celibacy is added to the mixture the result is, alas, not only damaging but positively dangerous. The Catholic Church is going to have to ask itself some very challenging and profound questions in the coming years, about issues the secular world and even other churches have already embraced and resolved. The longer it denies and pretends, the more irrelevant it will become to the emerging generation and that, I believe, will be a great shame. Perhaps the Pope needs to go flying again I suppose hes closer to God up there. MIchael Corens latest book is Epiphany: A Christians Change of Heart & Mind Over Same-Sex Marriage. mcoren@sympatico.ca Opinion Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 09/08/2016 (2271 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Sunny ways and open-handed spending from the federal government should eventually stimulate more business activity in Canada and create more jobs for Canadian workers. The latest economic reports, however, showed no sign of any such thing. On Friday, Statistics Canada reported employment in July fell by 31,200 from the previous month. Full-time employment fell by 71,400, with the loss offset by the increase of 40,200 part-time jobs. The unemployment rate rose 0.1 percentage point to 6.9 per cent. When you look around the world, thats not so bad compared with China, Japan or most countries of Europe. But the economy most similar is that of Canadas main trading partner, the United States. Last weeks report on jobs showed July employment in the U.S. rose by 255,000 and the unemployment rate (the way the U.S. measures it) held steady at 4.9 per cent. That was just the kind of employment report the governing Democratic party was praying for with the approach of the Nov. 8 presidential and congressional elections. ADRIAN WYLD / THE CANADIAN PRESS Finance Minister Bill Morneau Prosperity helps re-elect governments. The Canadian job market, by contrast, looked pathetic. Over the last seven months, total employment increased by a mere 12,400 jobs much in part-time work. Full-time work in Canada has been essentially stagnant for a year. That is the kind of economic environment that gets governments kicked out of office. Fortunately for the ruling Liberals, they need not face the voters for another three years. Its not just the labour market. Canadas volume of imports rose in June and prices of its imports also rose, while export volumes fell. Canadas trade deficit with the rest of the world, as a result, widened to $3.6 billion in June from $3.5 billion in May. Canada continues to enjoy a trade surplus with the U.S., but that surplus narrowed to $1.8 billion in June from $2.6 billion in May. As an open economy and a trading nation, Canada needs to pay its way in the world by trading successfully with the United States. Even with heavy traffic in automobiles and parts, even with a 76-cent dollar keeping export prices low for U.S. buyers, Canada is not getting the job done. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau aim to boost the economy by financing infrastructure projects and topping up family bank accounts through the Canada Child Tax Benefit. But families who buy U.S.-made products and construction firms that buy U.S.-made equipment will add to Canadas imports and will do nothing for the trade deficit. Canadian manufacturers are going to have to come up with something they can sell to the U.S. The government will have to encourage them to expand production and hire workers to serve export markets. The government has opened the coffers, budgeted for a deficit, poured out social benefits and promised a great deal more infrastructure spending. It has nothing to show for it by way of employment growth or economic expansion. That may be just because these things take time or it may be because Canadian families and companies who have money to spend spend it first of all on goods and services imported from the U.S. Before throwing more money into social benefits and public works, the government should find out why Canadian manufacturers are hesitant to invest in their own production facilities, modernize their plants and hire workers to increase output. Help for industry lacks the political appeal of help for families, but Canada has to have something to sell to the world in order to keep its citizens in the style to which we have become accustomed. By Samonway Duttagupta: Only travellers would understand how important long weekends are. We pray for them. And when the rest of the world is busy planning the new year parties, we open up the holiday list and mark them on our new travel calendars. Then begin the days of research and charting out several itineraries. But, these weekends also don't fail to disappoint us with the maddening tourist rush in most places. advertisement Also read: Make the most of these long weekends in 2016 The weekend is just around the corner and my sympathies lie with those who haven't been able to figure out where to go. I can understand the pain of finding the best hotels booked and the flights costing a fortune. But trust me, be it this long weekend or any other, I manage to crack the best travel deals. And guess what? I travel really cheap. Don't think I go backpacking every time; I manage to stay in luxury hotels and still manage to round off a four-day trip in less than Rs 10,000. Want to know the secret? Just follow these few simple steps: Choose your destination wisely: This four-day long weekend is towards the end of March. What kind of destination would you prefer? Most likely, you will opt for Shimla or Mussoorie or Nainital, or even Manali. Or any other hill station in the north, simply because they promise a great escape from the summer heat. Bad choice. Just think about it -- unending traffic jams on the slopes, maddening crowd at every beautiful spot and everything expensive. Your long awaited getaway will be nothing less than a bundle of troubles and needless exhaustion. Ditch the hills. Or I would rather say, simply avoid following the herd. Choose a place which is going through an off season. Don't worry about the weather -- it won't be hot enough to sweat the life out of you. You can easily hang around in a tee and bear the occasional heat waves. Consider places like Jaipur, Mahabalipuram, Goa, Mandu, Gwalior, Jodhpur and a few wildlife sanctuaries like Jim Corbett or Kanha. This is a great time to experience these destinations that are otherwise flooded with hordes of tourists. Also read: Getting stuck planning your weekend getaway? These 5 simple tricks will help Download a few apps: Don't forget you are living in a generation of smartphones and limitless internet access. So, stop wasting your time looking for deals on your desktop, and turn to your phone for the best travel deals. All you need to do is download the right apps. We recommend Goibibo, MakeMyTrip, TripAdvisor and Trivago. Now, don't get confused; I am here to suggest how to put all of them to good use. Let me take you through the hotel booking steps first: (a) The moment you download Goibibo, you will get a GoCash of Rs 2,000. Generate your referral code and ask two of your friends to download the app using that code. You will get Rs 1,000 for each referral. This way, you will have a total of Rs 4,000 as GoCash and you can use that for your bookings. advertisement (b) When you're done with this, open TripAdvisor for zeroing down on the hotel based on the reviews done by real travellers. This app will also give you an idea of how much a night will cost in the hotel. (c) Now open Goibibo and search for that hotel. You are likely to get a 'Promocode' that offers a certain amount of discount for the property. Apply this code and you will get your discount. Use GoCash on the discounted amount. And voila! Your final price might end up being 50 per cent of the actual tariff, inclusive of the taxes. (d) If you are booking for more than one night in a hotel, book each room separately. It will help you get a better deal. (e) After you get your final price, compare the same on Trivago. This app lists out the best prices offered by the hotels in a particular place. Taking a look at this, you can verify if you are getting the best deal. advertisement (f) Try and book a deal that offers at least one complimentary meal in a day. This will save a lot of money. Booking the flight: (a) Search your flights on MakeMyTrip. The flight listing on this app is really cool -- vital information related to the time, cost and carrier are visible at a single glance. You can make your choice in less than two minutes. (b) After making the choice, check out the deals and cashbacks that MakeMyTrip usually offers on flight bookings. (c) Compare the same flight on Goibibo. Check how much it is costing you after applying the GoCash. Now, compare the final price to the cashback that is being offered by MakeMyTrip. Choose the one you like, and you are all set! Book different hotels: Every hotel offers heavy discounts during the off season, including the four and five star properties. After all, the market is competitive and each of them wants to attract most of the tourists. Take advantage of the situation and divide your duration of stay in different hotels. Pick out two or three hotels, avail the discounts each of them offers and save thousands of bucks. Also, this will give you a refreshing change on every single day -- different days, different stays, different experiences. advertisement Eat local meals: If you manage to include at least one meal a day in your hotel deal, eat the other ones outside. Avoid the big restaurants -- they are there in your city as well. Try the local food offered in the Non-AC dhabas. You will get to experience the authentic flavours of the region and at the same time, end up saving a lot of money. Drive out: No need to get into the hassle of booking flights or getting bothered about not getting train tickets. Although there's enough time to go far, but it's better to spend time in exploring one place than to spend most of your time travelling and getting tired. Simply choose a destination that's a drive away and you are sorted. It's wiser to spend your money in filling up your fuel tank twice rather can booking expensive flights and paying the local taxi charges. Besides, it offers the convenience of moving around at will and at the same time, provides the freedom to have loads of fun with your near and dear ones. The writer tweets at @SamonwayDg --- ENDS --- Tuesdays the day residents across Minnesota and Wisconsin will line up at the polls for the primary to decide on which candidates to send to the 2016 general election. Locally, voting will focus on who will stay in the running for Winona mayor and 4th District Winona County commissioner. WINONA RACES Four are in the primary for the citys highest elected official, including incumbent Mark Peterson, who is seeking his second mayoral term. John Skalitzky is returning to the race after being defeated in the 2008 and 2012 primaries. Connie Tropple and Alan Masyga are both first-time candidates hoping to make it into the general election. Three candidates will appear on the ballot for the 4th District Winona County Board of Commissioners seat, despite one being ineligible for election. Incumbent commissioner Greg Olson is seeking his third term. First-time candidates Brian Conner and Norman Kostuck both registered, but Kostuck does not live in the district and wouldnt be allowed to serve. Kostuck was unable to remove his name in time after initially not knowing he needed to live in the district in order to run, he said. 3RD JUDICIAL DISTRICT JUDGE Dan Moulton of Chatfield and Tim Guth of Caledonia are challenging 3rd Judicial District Judge Carmaine Sturino, who was appointed to the bench in October after the retirement of longtime Judge James Fabian. Sturino previously worked in Winona County as a public defender, private practitioner and as the assistant Winona County attorney. 3RD CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT WISCONSIN In a race that mirrors national tensions in the Democratic party, 3rd Congressional District voters in Wisconsin will choose between a self-described Berniecrat outsider and a well-funded moderate incumbent. Myron Buchholz, a retired high school teacher from Eau Claire, is running as a progressive with a focus on trade. Hes hoping to unseat Ron Kind, a moderate from La Crosse seeking an 11th term in office. With no Republican or third-party candidate registered for the November general election, the winner of the Tuesday Democratic primary will be the only name on the November ballot. It is Kinds first primary challenge since 2006, when he easily fended off La Crosses Chip DeNure. It will be the first uncontested general election for Wisconsins 3rd District in 90 years. 92ND STATE ASSEMBLY Deborah Bork of Independence and Treig Pronschinske of Mondovi will run against each other for the Republican seat in the 92nd District Assembly primary. Bork, secretary of the Republican Party of Trempealeau County, and Pronschinske, mayor of Mondovi since 2014, share many of the same values and concerns and would like the chance to represent their districts. The primary winner will run against Democratic incumbent Chris Danou in November. 1ST CONGRESSIONAL MINNESOTA The endorsed Republican for the 1st District congressional seat, Jim Hagedorn, is facing Steve Williams to determine who will take on five-term Democratic incumbent Tim Walz in the November general election. Williams, a former Independence Party candidate, made a brief splash when he announced his Republican candidacy and triggered the primary against Hagedorn, but admitted to not putting in full-time work covering the district and campaigning, the way Hagedorn has done for years in pursuit of the seat. Hagedorn ran for the seat in 2014 and lost 54-46 percent against Walz, after upsetting the endorsed candidate in the Republican primary that year, Aaron Miller. HOURS All Minnesota and Wisconsin polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. Those hours have some exceptions in rural parts of counties, including in Winona County, with the following exceptions: Fremont Township, Mount Vernon Township, Whitewater Township and Wiscoy Township: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Norton Township: 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saratoga Township: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. REGISTERING AT THE POLLS To register to vote at Minnesota polls, just bring one of the following with you to your designated location to prove residence: Valid Minnesota drivers license or identification card with current address Tribal ID College identification card with one of the following: list of college dormitory residence or a college-issued document showing that the student lives in the precinct he or she plans to vote in Notice of Late Registration card Witness/voucher: a pre-registered voter may take an oath stating that you live in the same voting precinct on Election Day. Vouchers also may include voters who register on Election Day. A voter who is vouched for is not allowed to vouch for others Photo ID with utility bill Approved IDs: Minnesota drivers license or identification card, U.S. passport, U.S. military ID, student ID Approved utility bills: cable TV (Charter or HBC), electric/gas (Tri-County Electric, Xcel Energy), water/sewer (city of Winona), solid waste (Waste Management, J&J Rubbish, etc.), phone (HBC or Charter). The discussion continues on the proposed frac sand ban in Winona County. The Winona County Planning Commission continued a string of public meetings Monday night on a proposal that would ban sand mining for use in fracking, with conversation touching on health, land use, legal issues and jobs, with points for and against. Most of the information, and several of the speakers, have been repeated over the past several public hearings. Monday, the commission heard from 10 speakers, including Winona County employees, and will continue its hearings Thursday evening before being expected to make a decision Aug. 15. Speakers ranged from industry advocates for mining and farming, doctors, lawyers and environmental advocates, with their comments breaking predictably. For instance, Peder Larson, an attorney speaking on behalf of the Minnesota Industrial Sand Council, claimed that the county would be opening itself up to litigation and would be in a weaker position than the county attorneys office and ban advocates claim. Larson said the county would be interfering with interstate commerce by restricting the sale of silica sand and had no rational basis for the ban given that there are alternatives through regulating individual sites. We ask you to regulate the industry based on good science and according to the law, Larson said. Conversely, Ed Walsh, a lawyer and Winona County landowner who is involved with the Land Stewardship Project and has advocated for the ban, said that the county would be in fine shape. This county undeniably has the authority to prohibit industrial sand mining, Walsh said. He also derided the constant threats of litigation as disingenuous ways of preventing progress. Litigation threats are just that, theyre hypothetical and theyre just threats, Walsh said. The discussion oscillated similarly on topics of the health matters, with advocates of a ban saying particulates are proved to be harmful and opponents of the ban saying there is no proof. The most concrete information at the meeting regarded the commissions obligation to providing a recommendation to the Winona County Board of Commissioners. Previously, there had been discussion of whether the commission could simply decide not to deliver a decision on frac sand mining. Assistant Winona County attorney Stephanie Nuttall said the commission could only recommend to approve, disapprove or modify the ordinance. Failing to make a recommendation is not an option for the planning commission, Nuttall said. The county attorneys office also cleared up that the planning commission, at some level, would have to make the best decision they could based on the information theyve been collecting. In response to questions about a likelihood of the county defending a ban against litigation, Winona County attorney Karin Sonneman said the commission and the county board were both responsible for establishing the record to defend the ban in court. After that, its in the courts hands. There is no set formula, there is no set answer, Sonneman said. Every case has to be examined on its own facts. Other testimonies heard included Glen Groth, Winona County Farm Bureau president, and Tony Tomashek, vice president of Mathy Construction Co. Groth maintained that frac sand would have no adverse effect on farming operations, while Tomashek said a ban worries people involved in other mining operations. Were not in favor of a ban on any industry; it sets a bad precedent, Tomashek said. Opponents of frac sand mining have been advocating for the ban for several months through a variety of methods, including speaking regularly at county board meetings. In response, the county kicked off the process April 26, when the board instructed planning staff and the county attorney to develop language for a ban on silica sand mining related to its use in fracking operations elsewhere in the county. The amendment draws from several examples, including Goodhue Countys Florence Townships ban on silica sand mining for fracking and the Land Stewardship Projects proposed language for a ban created earlier in the spring. It also clarifies the distinctions between restrictions on different types of mineral excavation, extraction and land alteration by defining some as commercial minerals compared to industrial minerals. The amendment would establish a ban, as opposed to just regulating the mining through conditional-use permits issued by the county. One person was injured when a vehicle rear-ended a motorcycle just after noon on Sunday in Winona County. Patrick Adam, 48, of Mazeppa, Minn., was westbound on Interstate 90 when he struck the back of a motorcycle driven by Paul Buelow, 49, of Nashotah, Wis., according to the Minnesota State Patrol. Buelow was uninjured, but his passenger, Debra Cooley, 44, of Hartland, Wis., was transported to Gundersen Health n La Crosse with non-life threatening injuries. Adam was cited for following too close, according to the Winona County Sheriffs Department, which assisted at the scene. MADISON (AP) Political rookie Paul Nehlens longshot bid to unseat House Speaker Paul Ryan will be the unexpected highlight of the Wisconsin primary. Ryan rarely even has a primary challenger, but Nehlens unexpected boost from Donald Trump made the race one to watch just in case the unthinkable happens and Ryan on Tuesday becomes the first House speaker to lose a primary. Another big race is in the Green Bay area, where several Republicans are vying in a primary for the seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Reid Ribble. There are two Democrats on the ballot in the 6th Congressional District, which includes a portion of Dodge County. The winner will face incumbent Republican Glenn Grothman in the November election. Sarah Lloyd of Wisconsin Dells and Michael Slattery from Manitowoc County are the Democrats. Some things to know about the primary: Speakers challenge Ryan vs. Nehlen is a blowout on paper. Nehlen, from Williams Bay, is running his first campaign and hes doing it against the highest-ranking Republican in the country. Ryan has outraised him 17-1 and is endorsed by the National Rifle Association, Wisconsin Right to Life and all 16 GOP legislators in the district. But Nehlen, the senior vice president of water filtration company Neptune Benson, got plenty of national attention last week when Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump praised him and said he wasnt ready to endorse Ryan. Trump relented a few days later. Upsets happen. Just ask Eric Cantor, the House majority leader who was knocked off in his 2014 primary by a tea party challenger. Still, a Nehlen victory would be nothing short of shocking; Ryan is immensely popular in his district. ___ MELEE IN THE 8th Three candidates are vying for the GOP nomination in northeastern Wisconsins 8th District after incumbent Republican Reid Ribble decided not to seek a fourth term. They are state Sen. Frank Lasee, of De Pere; Terry McNulty, a Forestville surveyor; and Mike Gallagher, of Green Bay. Gallagher, who served as national security adviser for Gov. Scott Walkers short-lived presidential campaign, had a huge money advantage, raising more than $1 million between January and late July. Lasee raised $323,000 and McNulty just $6,240 over the same period. Democrat Tom Nelson, the Outagamie County executive and a former state representative, awaits the winner in the November general election. ___ OTHER RACES Three congressional incumbents, an ousted senator looking to make a comeback and a prominent state lawmaker are locked in their own primary fights. In western Wisconsins 3rd District, Democratic Rep. Ron Kind faces former high school history teacher Myron Bucholz of Eau Claire. Kind, a 10-term incumbent from La Crosse, raised $1.7 million over the first half of 2016, compared with Bucholzs $27,000. Democratic Rep. Gwen Moore faces convicted felon Gary George in southeastern Wisconsins 4th District. Moore, a five-term incumbent, easily beat George, a former state senator, in 2014. The winner will face Libertarian Andy Craig, of Milwaukee, in November. Republican Rep. Sean Duffy, who starred on MTVs The Real World before running for Congress, will face Donald Raihala in a GOP primary in northern Wisconsins 7th District. Mary Hoeft and Joel Lewis square off in a Democratic primary. Russ Feingold has been running for months against GOP Sen. Ron Johnson in a rematch of their 2010 Senate race, but on Tuesday he needs to get past Scott Harbach to nail down the Democratic nomination. The legislative primary slate features a bid by Democratic state Rep. Mandela Barnes of Milwaukee to unseat Sen. Lena Taylor, a member of the powerful budget-writing committee. In the Assembly, Rep. Josh Zepnick, a Milwaukee Democrat convicted of first-offense drunken driving last year, is trying to fend off Marisabel Cabrera. ___ THE LOGISTICS Voters must show photo ID. Two federal judges have ruled people who cant obtain IDs can vote by affidavit or with a special receipt from the state Department of Transportation, but those decisions wont take effect until November. Polling place locations are available at https://myvote.wi.gov . The primary is open, which means people dont have to be registered members of a party to vote in that partys primary. But people cant vote in both parties primaries. The polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. Beaver Dam Area Community Theatre managing director David Saniter and BDACTs Tell-A-Tale Childrens Theatre coordinator Judy Pearce recently received a check of $200 toward the theaters building campaign from Persephone McDougal, daughter of Dr. Effie Siomos and David McDougal. To meet critical space and access needs, BDACT plans to renovate the former Catholic school on Maple Avenue. A studio theater that will serve BDACTs Tell-A-Tale Childrens Theatre division is part of that renovation plan. Persephone, who will be a fifth grader at Washington School this fall, asked those who attended her recent birthday party to offer dollar donations for the campaign rather than traditional gifts. She has performed in several Tell-A-Tale productions, including this summers production, Musicville. She is also the third-place winner of BDACTs 2016 Star Search competition. Persephone is hoping others will follow her lead to help make BDACTs new theater center a reality. She said, Theater has been a great experience for me and my friends and I cant wait for the new building. Along with its campaign for pledges and donations, BDACT is currently conducting an appeal for donations of stone floor tiles for the lobby entry into the main auditorium and for theater seat nameplates in the auditorium. The entire renovation project includes a main auditorium; the studio/Tell-A-Tale theater; classroom, meeting, and rehearsal space; elevator access to all floors; a serviceable lobby and a scene shop. The current campaign is approaching $1.6 million. BDACT is making a concerted campaign effort to complete its $2.4 million goal so that renovation can begin in 2017. For more information see www.bdact.org. Are your books sitting alone on a dusty shelf? Do they need a loving home where someone can enjoy reading them? The Friends of the Columbus Public Library will hold its Fall Festival Book Sale on Sept. 17 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The Friends will welcome any donations of used books for this sale or any time. Drop off donations at the library or call 623-5910 to make arrangements for pickup. No magazines or encyclopedia sets, please. A Mauston man had second thoughts while allegedly trying to rob the Bank of Mauston, and wound up walking right into a police officer. Chad A. Bevan, 21, is charged with attempted robbery of a financial institution. According to the police report, on Aug. 4, officers arrived at the bank due to the panic alarm being activated. As the arriving officer observed the situation, he saw Bevan exit the bank. When asked what he was doing, Bevan asked if he could just sit in the officers squad car. He then said, I was trying to rob the bank. He told the officer he had second thoughts, and then decided to leave the bank. Bevan reportedly handed a bank employee a note that stated, give me the money. The bank employee had Bevan fill out a withdrawal slip in the amount of $1,000. Bevan wrote and signed his name on the slip. The worker told Bevan she didnt know if she could get that amount, and Bevan said he would take $200. The worker then told Bevan to wait in the hall while she went to see if she could give him money. In further interviews, Bevan told the police he wanted the money so he could buy a car to go to Chicago and purchase heroin to sell around Mauston. Bevan is due in court at 2:45 p.m. Aug. 11 for his preliminary hearing. People from across the country can assemble at specific locations and write messages for soldiers. The ministers will then carry these messages to the soldiers. By Gaurav C Sawant: The Narendra Modi government is all set to launch a 'Tricolour-anthem' for the men and women who protect our borders on the 70th anniversary of independence as part of special celebrations that will be held across the country. According to sources, people across the country can assemble at specified locations and write messages for the brave men in uniform guarding our borders. Ministers in the government will then travel to the far flung borders and carry those messages to our soldiers. advertisement SMRITI IRANI BEHIND THE INITIATIVE Union Textile minister Smriti Irani is spearheading the initiative and her ministry is organizing camps in 70 cities, where people can come and write messages for the forces. "It is colours of independence celebrations. It is a celebration where the country comes together to honour the sacrifices made for independence and to thank those who are protecting it," sources said. Irani is also expected to travel to the highest, coldest and costliest battlefield, Siachen, with messages of a grateful nation for soldiers after Independence Day, sources in the ministry of defence told Mail Today. WOMEN MINISTERS TO CARRY RAKSHA BANDHAN MESSAGES TO SOLDIERS Smriti Irani is likely to be the first woman union minister to visit the Siachen glacier since the army launched operation Meghdoot in April 1984. "In all, there are 70 camps being organized in places where the Textile ministry has its centres. The Members of Parliament (MPs) of those areas - irrespective of their political party are being invited to participate in the independence day festivities and message writing events," sources said. Then different women ministers of the government on Raksha Bandhan will carry these messages to the soldiers. This is not restricted just to the armed forces but to all men and women who defend our independence where ever they may be deployed and whatever their task may be. These messages will be recorded on khadi - a cloth 8 feet by 7 feet will be put on a stage and in colours of independence people can write their messages. Also Read: PM Modi wants a week-long Republic Day-like Independence Day Principal, teachers of Allahabad school quit after being denied permission to sing national anthem --- ENDS --- An analysis touted by Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton says her economic blueprint would create 187,000 jobs in Wisconsin during her first term, compared to 61,000 jobs lost in the state under a competing plan from Republican nominee Donald Trump. It came as part of Clinton's rebuttal to a speech by Trump in Detroit, trumpeting his jobs plan. Surrogates for Clinton, in a conference call with Wisconsin reporters, also blasted Trump for making some of his products, such as clothes and furniture, overseas. They called that a contradiction to Trump's vow to bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. "In all his businesses, when given the option, he sent jobs overseas," said Neera Tanden, an economic advisor to Clinton. Participants in the call included Tanden and two Wisconsin business people: Kyle Weatherly, an investor and former president of Solaris, a suburban Milwaukee medical device maker; and Milwaukee-area venture capitalist John Miller. The analysis cited by Clinton was conducted by Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, who advised Democratic President Barack Obama and the 2008 presidential campaign of Republican John McCain. It says the Clinton plan would create 10.4 million jobs over the next four years. A Zandi analysis of Trump's plan says it would cost the country 3.4 million jobs during the same period. Trump's jobs proposal calls for massive tax cuts on individuals and corporations, a moratorium on new federal regulations on businesses and a trade plan that would threaten China and other trade partners with tariffs if they don't renegotiate trade guidelines with the U.S. It also would roll back restrictions on certain forms of energy, such as coal, and repeal Obama's health care law. Clinton proposes a different course. Her 100-day jobs plan would boost spending on infrastructure, including broadband internet, schools, freight transport and airports. It calls for a vast expansion of clean energy production in the U.S., especially solar power. And it would target companies that outsource jobs by forcing them to pay back tax breaks they previously received or pay an "exit tax" before taking jobs overseas. U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin is again urging the Senate leader for a vote to provide permanent funding for a bipartisan opioid addiction prevention and treatment bill passed 94-1 in March in the Senate. Coming off of a weekend of events including an appearance in Milwaukee with vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine and visits on Saturday to John Muir County Park in Marquette County and Columbia County Democratic headquarters in Portage, Baldwin, a Democrat from Madison, released a statement urging support for the LifeBOAT Bill. Congress recently passed the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act as a critical first step, Baldwin said in a press release. However, Washington needs to act immediately to provide emergency investments for local prevention, treatment and recovery efforts. The CARA Act authorizes $181 million each year in funding for programs and grants similar to the federal Substance and Mental Health Services Administration grant that funds Columbia and Sauk counties Medication Assisted Treatment Programs. That funding though, needs to go through the Senate appropriations process each year. The Opioid Addiction Treatment Act, or LifeBOAT, calls for a one cent per milligram tax on prescription opioids to provide permanent funding for CARA programs. The bill, introduced by Baldwin and Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, Jeanne Shaheen, D-New Hampshire, Angus King, I-Maine, Heidi Heitkamp, D-North Dakota, and Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, would raise between $1.5 billion and $2 billion from the pharmaceutical industry. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2010 enough painkillers were prescribed to medicate every American adult 24 hours a day for a month. The attorneys generals offices of states including New Hampshire and Connecticut are investigating whether the makers of drugs like Oxycontin knowingly downplayed the risk of addiction while marketing the painkillers. A common thread among those describing the spread of heroin addiction throughout the country has been the introduction to opioids through prescription medication whether through prescription for an injury or chronic pain, or recreationally, with sources being those with prescriptions that are unwanted or unneeded. Although overdose deaths from heroin are shocking because of name recognition and the visceral imagery that comes with it, according to the Columbia County Sheriffs Office, prescription medication remains the more likely risk by a wide margin. A major barrier that those suffering from opioid addiction face is insufficient access to substance abuse treatment, Manchin said at the bills unveiling. This legislation will bridge that gap and make sure that we can provide treatment to everyone who makes the decision to get help. I look forward to working with my colleagues to get this bill passed so we can take another step forward in the fight against opioid abuse. The most specific target of Baldwins renewed call is Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, asking him to schedule a vote on the legislation. Fighting this nationwide epidemic is a shared responsibility; everyone has a role to play in addressing this crisis. The drug companies that have profited from selling large quantities of opioids over the years are no exception, said Baldwin. As communities continue to struggle with this epidemic on a daily basis, Washington needs to act by actually making investments for prevention, treatment and recovery efforts. I am proud to support this bill because it is bold solution that will help us address a big problem. A Sun Prairie man was arrested on Saturday, accused of selling alcohol to a 19-year-old, the most recent in a suspected series of sales to underage buyers. Rajan Talwar, 33, was arrested on suspicion of six counts of alcohol sales to underage persons. The arrest, according to the Columbia County Sheriff Dennis Richards, was part of an investigation that began in May. Law enforcement received numerous complaints from parents about the ease with which their children had been able to acquire alcohol and additional suspicious activity at the Portage Super Stop BP gas station in the town of Pacific. Officers investigated through increased patrols in the area and undercover purchases from the store. Over the course of roughly the next three months officers issued 27 traffic violation warnings, 30 traffic citations, nine underage alcohol possession citations and 15 criminal arrests ranging from drug and paraphernalia possession to operating while intoxicated and drugged driving. Talwar was earlier charged with selling alcohol to a minor on April 22, when a witness spoke with the Columbia County Sheriffs Office and Portage police, telling officers about having bought from Talwar about 10 times before, then while wearing a recording device, bought alcohol with $100 of buy money from law enforcement. The informant reportedly went into the store and asked Talwar for a 30-pack of beer and a bottle of vodka. After giving Talwar $42 the witness went back to his car, where another employee met him and put the Busch Light and Skyy Vodka in the trunk. The informant asked the employee for a cigarette and the employee reportedly told the informant that he wasnt smoking anymore. After his arrest, Talwar was released on a $300 cash bond. Talwar was convicted of selling alcohol to a minor in November 2014 as a first offense, entering a plea of no contest on Jan. 5, 2015, resulting in a $395 fine. If convicted, Talwar faces a possible $500 fine and 30 days in jail. He is scheduled to appear in court for return hearing on Aug. 17. A Cazenovia resident will be one of several outstanding alumni honored this fall at the University of Wisconsin-Richland Center. Retired pastor John Sumwalt graduated from the campus in 1971. He said he went on to the University of Wisconsin-Madison and graduated from the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary in 1978. He has served as a minister within the United Methodist Church for more than 40 years. He said he has worked across the state during his career including in Kenosha, Wauwatosa, Janesville and Montello. Sumwalt, who is recovering from Lyme disease, retired two years ago to focus on overcoming his illness and work on his second passion writing. He has penned several books ranging from short fiction to collections of mystical experiences. He is also a religious columnist; his columns have appeared in multiple Capital Newspapers publications. He has dedicated three books to the visions experienced by people of faith and is in the process of collecting more stories. Since he started his visions series, Sumwalt said he has been approached by readers whove had visions of deceased loved ones, angels and Jesus Christ. Others told him they have been visited by or felt the presence of angels. Many people are afraid to come forward for fear the public will find them crazy. Sumwalt said he occasionally encounters a suspicious tale but most accounts seem genuine and sincere. I thought more people ought to hear these stories, he said. He said he has gathered between 200 and 300 stories about mystical experiences. The project started through email in 2000. Today submissions from across the world come in through both email and social media. When he was well he would listen to stories while making appearances for his books. Once he has recovered Sumwalt plans to return to the book tour circuit to speak and tell stories. He said hed also like to travel to Italy to see the artwork. He is also actively seeking stories submissions through his Facebook page. Anyone who has had a faith-based mystical experience is invited to contact him. Inspiration Sumwalt doesnt just draw his ideas from experience and education. Hes also an avid fan of the outdoors and takes time to get outside. He said he almost always sees some kind of wildlife, be it pheasants, deer or turkeys. He said he usually doesnt suffer from writers block. One works through it, he said. You go for a walk or sleep on it and whats been eluding you comes. UW-Richland Sumwalt added that hes pleased to be honored by the UW. He said UW-Richland Center made sure he was prepared for UW-Madison. He said the UW system is one of Wisconsins best features. He said its disappointing to see how the university system has lost funding through legislative action. In his retirement he hopes to do what he can to support the schools. UW-Richlands fall alumni day and brunch will be held Oct. 1. Sumwalts books can be found online at retailers such as Amazon.com. The Global Times said that India may want to avoid unnecessary entanglement with China over the South China Sea debate during Wang's visit if the country wishes to create a good atmosphere for economic cooperation. By Press Trust of India: India should avoid "unnecessary entanglement" in the South China Sea dispute during Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi's visit to New Delhi to prevent it becoming yet "another factor" to impact bilateral ties, a state-run Chinese daily said today. "India may want to avoid unnecessary entanglement with China over the South China Sea debate during Wang's visit if the country wishes to create a good atmosphere for economic cooperation, which would include reducing tariffs on made-in-India products exported to China amid the ongoing free trade talk known as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership," an article in the state-run Global Times said. advertisement "India is expected to allow only moderate tariff reduction on made-in-China products under the talks in a bid to preserve its domestic industries. If India wants China to be more generous in terms of tariff reduction, it would be unwise for the country to let its relationship with China deteriorate further at this moment," it said. KEY HIGHLIGHTS The daily said it is puzzling that India is focusing on the South China Sea issue at this moment, a move which it said might risk "unnecessary side effects" to bilateral ties and potentially create obstacles for Indian exporters hoping to increase their presence in China, the world's second largest importer. Underlining that tensions between China and India have been increasing in recent months owing to a series of political incidents, it said, "Considering that India does not face territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea, is it worth letting the South China Sea issue become another factor that will impact India's cooperation with China? India should consider this." Amid unease in ties, Wang will arrive in India to hold talks with his counterpart Sushma Swaraj on August 13 during which key regional and bilateral issues will be discussed, including the NSG issue. His visit comes ahead of the G20 Summit scheduled to be held in the Chinese city of Hangzhou next month in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to take part. Following the ruling by an international tribunal last month which rejected Beijing's claims over much of the disputed sea area, China is campaigning against the issue to be raised in G20 Summit saying it is a matter to be resolved between parties concerned and outsider has no role. "In fairness, after dozens of countries have expressed support for China's stance in the South China Sea, India's attitude toward the issue may not be as important as the nation had imagined," the article said. "While many Indian people have been focused on the South China Sea ahead of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi's upcoming trip to the country, less attention has been paid to the recent fall in exports of made-in-India products to China," it said. It said that India should move its focus from geopolitical competition to economic issues to stop a further decline in exports to China. ALSO READ: New images suggest China has built hangars on South China Sea islands Japan warns China of worsening ties over East China Sea dispute --- ENDS --- Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar summoned Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit after a strong demarche was issued by New Delhi on the continuous cross border terrorism backed by Islamabad. By Smita Sharma: Just days after Home Minister Rajnath Singh's visit to Islamabad to attend the SAARC interior ministers' meeting was mired in controversy, India has upped the ante on Pakistan. Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar summoned Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit today. Basit was handed a demarche to lodge the Indian government's strong 'protests against the continued infiltration from Pakistan of trained terrorists into India with instructions to carry out attacks'. advertisement INDIA ISSUES DEMARCHE ON ARREST OF LASHKAR TERRORIST BAHADUR ALI The demarche was handed following recent arrest of a Pakistani national Bahadur Ali, the Lashkar-e-Taiba operative who was arrested by security forces during an counter in Jammu and Kashmir. He didn't name us: After Rajnath's hard-hitting message on terror, comes Pak's barefaced response In a statement, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Vikas Swarup said, "A Pakistani national Bahadur Ali alias Abu Saifullah, son of Mohd. Haneef, resident of Village Jia Bagga, Tehsil Raiwind, District Lahore in the State of Punjab, Pakistan, born on December 17, 1995 in the village of Jia Bagga, was arrested by Indian authorities in the State of Jammu & Kashmir on July 25, 2016 together with weapons (AK-47 rifle, live rounds, grenades, grenade launcher, etc.) as also sophisticated communication equipment and other material of Pakistani/international origin." Swarup further added, "Bahadur Ali has confessed to our authorities that after training in Lashkar-e-Taiba camps, he was infiltrated into India. He was thereafter in touch with an 'operations room' of LeT, receiving instructions to attack Indian security personnel and carry out other terrorist attacks in India." India told the Pakistani envoy that these continued infiltration 'is contrary to assurances given by the Pakistani leaders at the highest level.' INDIA WILLING TO GRANT ACCESS TO BAHADUR ALI Foreign Secretary Jaishankar also informed the envoy that India is willing to grant consular access to Bahadur Ali. Ali reportedly has sought legal aid and assistance to meet family in a letter addressed to the Pakistan High Commissioner in New Delhi. Though official sources believe that Pakistan might not seek consular access to Ali, as it refused to own up Ajmal Kasab - the lone surviving terrorist captured during the 26/11 attacks and later hanged to death after end of trial and legal processes. Islamabad also refused to accept bodies of other terrorists killed in 26/11 attacks or the Pathankot terror strikes, denying their Pakistani links. India though still awaits consular access to be granted to its national Kulbhushan Jadhav lodged in Pakisani jail since March 3 without any legal representation. A former Indian naval officer, Jadhav has been accused by Pakistani authorities of spying and fomenting trouble in Balochistan at the behest of Indian agencies advertisement HAFIZ SAYEED's TAQREER MOTIVATED BAHADUR ALI? Meanwhile, as per extracts of the Bahadur Ali's reported confession to the intelligence agencies, accessed by India Today, Bahadur Ali joined Lashkar formally in May, 2013. He then reportedly attended training for 15 days at a camp known as K-2 in Manshera, Pakistan. As per sources, one Bilal of Hafeez Sayeed-run Jamaat-ud-Dawah took Bahadur Ali along with three more boys from his village. They were imparted physical training and the handling of AK-47. They had paid Bahadur Rs 2000 to bear the expenses on way back home. The confession report claims that Bahadur Ali also attended training camps at Muzaffarabad in September-October, 2014 and a thirty day training later in camp Tabbok, also in Muzaffarabad, in May-June this year before he was infiltrated into India in June. Hizbul Mujahideen chief Salahuddin threatens nuclear war between India, Pakistan Sources also point out that in his confession Bahadur Ali allegedly said that at their detachment point before being infiltrated, they were repeatedly showed videos of Hafiz Saeed whereby he gave taqreers of the "ultimate importance of waging Jihad and attaining Shahadat." advertisement "After infiltrating into India, Bahadur Ali continuously changed his locations and kept in touch with his control centre, code named Alpha 3, located in Pakistan who then gave him further instructions to the next grid reference code/location," says the confession report. BAHADUR ALI INFILTRATED TO FUEL FIRE IN VALLEY? The confession report further claims that Alpha 3 finally asked Bahadur Ali to meet with a particular person at a specific location and 'to mix with the crowds and then throw grenades at the security forces and police'. The aim, according to the report, was to fuel the agitation to further deteriorate situation in the Valley. However, a day prior to the meeting with the individual detailed by Alpha 3 , Saifullah alias Bahadur Ali was picked up by the local Jammu Kashmir police on July 25. Pakistan has been seeking international intervention on the Kashmir crisis while the Indian leadership has blamed Islamabad for exporting terror and fomenting trouble in the Valley which has been under curfew for more than a month now. At least 58 deaths and thousands of pellet injuries have been reported so far from the state. The Kashmir issue will also come up for discussion in Rajya Sabha at 11 am tomorrow (Wednesday) following suspension of question hour on Tuesday. This after the government drew much flak from the opposition for its handling of the situation in the state. advertisement ISLAMABAD REFUTES INDIA'S ALLEGATIONS In response to a media question regarding summoning of Pakistan's High Commissioner and the demarche handed over by South Block, the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson said, "We strongly reject Indian claim of any cross-LOC infiltration. Pakistan remains committed to the policy of not allowing its territory for any terrorist activity against anyone." On the issue of alleged LeT operative Bahadur Ali and India's willingness to grant consular access, the spokesperson replied, "It is necessary to establish veracity of the Indian claim. Details in this regard will be gathered." Also Read: Pakistan blacks out Rajnath Singh's tough talk on terror at SAARC meet India to confront Pakistan with fresh terror dossier on captured LeT terrorist --- ENDS --- By PTI: New Delhi, Aug 9 (PTI) India is in discussion with Switzerland to enter into an agreement for implementation of Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) between the two nations, Parliament was informed today. "The government is in discussion with the government of Swiss Confederation to enter into an agreement for the implementation of AEOI between the two countries," Minister of State for Finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha. advertisement Once this agreement is signed, it will be possible for India to receive, from 2018 onwards, financial information of accounts held by Indian residents in Switzerland on automatic basis, Gangwar added. India has double taxation avoidance agreement (DTAA) with Switzerland under which information is obtained in specific cases on request basis. The minister said the government has taken several effective measures by way of policy level initiatives as well as through effective enforcement action on the ground, to address the issue of black money, particularly black money stashed abroad. PTI BKS ANU --- ENDS --- Irom Sharmila, who was protesting against the AFSPA, ended her 16-year-long fast today. By India Today Web Desk: Iron Lady Irom Sharmila, who was protesting against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Manipur, ended her 16-year-long hunger strike today. Addressing the media she said, "From today on wards I have ended my fast," adding "I want to join politics as I've been called the Iron lady of Manipur & I want to live upto that name." advertisement She said, "I don't understand why some radical groups are against me wanting to get into politics?" WHAT SHE SAID Mr Prime minister you indulge in violence. India is ranked 105th in the happines index but what we need is non violence. I want to invite 20 indenpendent candidates to fight with me and defeat Manipur Okram Ibobi Singh. If they want change and feels that killing me will change and let them come and kill me. Will use everything I have for a positive society,foremost thing will be removal of this draconian law. But I want to convince our people that my power will shower upon people, and without sense of defensive and possessive nature. I know nothing about politics, and about academic line also. My education is very very low. I am being the real embodiment of revolution, and I want to be the CM of Manipur to help people. Let them kill me the way people killed Mahatma Gandhi with accusation of anti-Hindu. Meanwhile, the 44-year-old activist, who was produced at the District and Sessions court, Imphal today, also signed a bond worth Rs 10,000. However, the court is yet to pass a release order. "I am being viewed as a strange women, why can't I be seen as a normal person?" Irom Sharmila told the court. Sharmila was forcibly fed through a nasal tube since 2000 at Imphal hospital where she was kept for 16 years. On November 2, 2000, an Assam Rifles battalion reportedly killed 10 civilians in a village near Imphal. Three days later, Irom Sharmila embarked on her fast demanding revocation of AFSPA, which allows security men to even kill a person on suspicion without the fear of facing a trial in court. #WATCH: Irom Sharmila ends her fast after 16 years. She was on hunger strike, demanding repealing of AFSPA.https://t.co/ndGmoEuZu8 ANI (@ANI_news) August 9, 2016 Also read: All you need to know about Irom Sharmila Confusion, bemusement, anger over Irom Sharmila's decision to end fast --- ENDS --- Early in the morning, at around 7 am, Irom Sharmila, a sprightly 44, all things considered, can be found walking outside a pale blue building in Imphal's Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences (JNIMS) hospital. She has been held here for most of the past 16 years, a thin nasal-gastric tube famously fastened to her nose so that she can receive the nutrients necessary to keep her alive. On this August morning, though, the clouds hanging low over the humpbacked hills in the distance, she is accompanied on her stroll by armed guards. It is out of the ordinary, local journalists and activists insist. Sharmila's morning walk is the time to sneak in a few informal words, inquire after her health, offer support, and news. The authorities have clamped down, a guard says. Looking the other way while a journalist asks a question or two might result in a suspension, and the guards don't intend to find out. Sharmila is due to appear in court on August 9, at which point it is expected that she will do as she has announced, and give up one of the longest hunger strikes in history. It is a decision the central government will want her to stick to, hence the guards with guns. If the guards are nervous, taut with responsibility, Sharmila appears relaxed, turning to give a cheery wave before she is escorted through metal gates to her room in the 'special' ward. advertisement Her decision to end her fast and participate as an independent candidate in Manipur's assembly elections early next year has created widespread confusion, bemusement, even anger. "No one," as the human rights activist Onil Kshetrimayum points out, "has the right to tell her what to do or to interfere in her personal affairs." But, Kshetrimayum, dressed in a well-worn white 'Repeal AFSPA' t-shirt, concedes, "some of her supporters are disappointed that the decision was so sudden, so unilateral, without any discussion or consultation." A popular local figure in human rights and NGO circles, he has worked closely with Sharmila, been a trustee of an organisation created from her prize money, and even helped facilitate contact between her and her boyfriend Desmond Coutinho, a Briton of Goan origin by way of east Africa. Kshetrimayum says his initial feelings when he heard about Sharmila's decision to break her fast were of relief, of "happiness for her that she had chosen to move on with her life, to stop what was a kind of harakiri mission". Those feelings of relief were quickly overwhelmed by worry-worry about how she would adapt after 16 years without swallowing a morsel of food or drop of water; worry about her entry into the murk of local Manipuri politics; worry about the future she appears to have mapped out for herself with such impulsive haste. In November, 16 years ago, Sharmila's decision to begin her hunger strike was as unexpected, as seemingly impulsive, as her decision a couple of weeks ago to end that strike. In the meantime, she has become an icon, an internationally recognised prisoner of conscience. Babloo Loitongbam, a prominent human rights campaigner, says Sharmila's capacity to surprise remains unchanged: "When she came to me all those years ago to tell me she had begun a hunger strike, my first reaction was to say 'hang on, this is too big a thing for you to take on', but she had made up her mind, had already taken her mother's blessings." As Loitongbam remembers it, no one imagined Sharmila, a quiet 28-year-old volunteer remarkable only for her diligent attendance, could be capable of such a resolution. Sharmila was, everyone says, a quiet girl. "She would wait," Loitongbam says, "till after a meeting was finished to ask questions and seek clarifications and always privately." She was born on March 14, 1972, in Kongpal Kongkham Leikai in Imphal East, not far, incidentally, from JNIMS. The youngest of nine children, Sharmila was, her brother Singhajit says, adored, the apple of the family's collective eye. After finishing school, at Ibotonsona Girls Higher Secondary, she became a committed volunteer, attending public meetings and working for social causes throughout the 1990s. In 2000, 0Sharmila was volunteering with Loitongbam's human rights organisation, riding her bicycle from house to house helping to collect and document stories of gangrape, torture, beatings, and killings. advertisement She began her fast after the indiscriminate shooting, in November that year, of 10 people waiting for a bus in Malom. The wild gunfire was in response to an Assam Rifles convoy being hit by an IED, though only one truck suffered any lasting damage. Yambem Laba was on the State Human Rights Commission at the time and he remembers being told by a doctor at JNIMS that he could keep Sharmila alive only for another day. It was a few days into her fast and the police had already arrested her under section 309 of the Indian penal code for attempting suicide. According to Laba, a fit 61-year-old with a rakish goatee who punctuates every anecdote with elaborate swearing and high-pitched hoots of laughter, he came up with the suggestion to feed Sharmila through a nasal drip. "I told the doctor," Laba says, a huge moth-eaten Alsatian at his feet, "that if he were to allow Sharmila to die, Manipur would burn and he would be the first to be set alight. That got the bugger's attention." advertisement The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act came into force in 1958; by 1980, all of Manipur, which became a full-fledged state in 1972, had been declared a "disturbed area". The act is an update of a British colonial exigency intended to control the Quit India movement. AFSPA allowed army officers to essentially act with impunity. Soldiers stopped and searched as they liked, entered homes without warrants, shot people on the basis that it was necessary "for the maintenance of public order". It was initially used to control insurgency in the Naga hills, gradually being extended to cover the entire northeast. AFSPA was used in Punjab between 1983 and 1997 and has been in use in Jammu and Kashmir since 1990. Late in the evening, at his desk in the threadbare offices of the Imphal Free Press, where reporters and subeditors work till midnight to put the next day's edition together, Pradip Phanjoubam, the paper's highly-regarded editor, wonders rhetorically "what it says about India that it trusts, after seven decades of Independence, neither its people nor its police". Raj Kadyan, a retired lieutenant general who was the AAP Lok Sabha candidate from Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan, has asserted in interviews that "without AFSPA insurgencies cannot be controlled, the ceasefire between the government of India and Naga separatists in 1997 could never have been negotiated". Three panels, Phanjoubam counters, set up by the central government, including the Justice Jeevan Reddy Commission, have had their recommendations ignored: "There is, it appears, a powerful lobby that includes both the military and members of the Indian intelligentsia that believes the country cannot hold together without the use of its military on its own people." advertisement Sharmila's fortitude, her cussedness, has made her the face of the movement to rid Manipur of AFSPA. Despite her stature and the public nature of her protest, there seems little political will to repeal AFSPA in Manipur. Okrom Ibobi Singh has led the Congress to three election victories in the state; in 2012, the party won 42 out of 60 seats. Each year, Singh extends AFSPA and his electoral prospects appear to suffer no damage. He says that AFSPA has already been removed from the seven assembly segments in Imphal and that there are other more pressing issues that affect the state. Both the BJP and Aam Aadmi Party say that removing AFSPA is part of their platform for assembly elections. But few analysts believe Sharmila's single issue platform will be compelling enough to Manipuri voters made cynical by party politics. "I wouldn't be surprised," Laba says, "if Sharmila's supporters ask even her for Rs 500 or Rs 1,000 in exchange for their votes. It is the tragedy of Manipur." Phanjoubam is not sure Sharmila has thought all that hard about her political future; he thinks she might fade away as a public figure, might seize the opportunity for private, domestic bliss. In 2004, dozens of women in their 30s stood naked before the iron gates of the Kangla Fort, the old seat of the Meitei rulers being used as the headquarters of the Assam Rifles, to protest the rape and murder of Thangjam Manorama. 'Indian Army rape us too', read their signs. Many of the women who participated in that protest are now part of Sharmila Kanba Lup, a group of ardent, hardcore supporters who operate out of a wooden hut slapped together on the side of a road close to JNIMS. These were the women who, in December 2014, attacked Coutinho, Sharmila's 'fiance'. Coutinho is a polarising figure. Most supporters are careful to say they do not begrudge Sharmila her right to happiness. But it is evident they do not trust him. Many still believe the Indian establishment encourages his attentions, facilitates his contact with Sharmila because it weakens her resolve. He sometimes communicates with her through videos stored in pen drives he sends along with the soft toys that brighten her grim JNIMS quarters. She responds in kind, using the web cam on the laptop he bought her. There is no questioning the strength of Sharmila's feelings for Coutinho but many long-time supporters believe he preys on her loneliness, on emotional instability exacerbated by years in confinement. The resentment is mutual. Just over two years ago, Sharmila accused her brother Singhajit and other supporters of "acting like the Taliban" and making "honour killing threats". In his modest house, a few narrow alleys from JNIMS, Singhajit is reluctant to dredge up the past, however recent. He is, he says, "as surprised and shocked as anyone" by his sister's desire to break her fast and become a politician. "I feel hurt," he says, "and so does my mother." They supported her cause, Singhajit says, and until they hear from her they don't know what to think about her decision to abandon that cause. Some of what Singhajit says reflects what many of Sharmila's supporters in Manipur feel, that she has sacrificed so much for the cause of repealing AFSPA that she cannot give up now. Renu Takhellambam, who lost her husband to what she describes as an extra-judicial killing, also feels that way. She now believes other activists must assume their share of the burden. Takhellambam is the president of EEVFAM, an organisation comprising widows and families of victims that seeks to persuade the Supreme Court of 1,528 instances of "extra-judicial executions", of innocent people killed by soldiers under the cover of AFSPA. The group takes cautious solace in the Supreme Court's declaration last month that the army cannot use "excessive force" even in so-called disturbed areas. EEVFAM hopes the court process will lead to a Special Investigative Team being formed to investigate the killings and the eventual prosecution of those responsible. The movement to repeal AFSPA, Loitong-bam says, has developed a momentum independent of Sharmila. By entering politics, he fears, Sharmila is risking the moral capital she has accrued. For parties preparing for assembly elections, though, the prospect of Irom Sharmila on a campaign poster is mouthwatering. The Aam Aadmi Party, for one, is certainly salivating. Though by the looks of its Manipur operations-a single, decrepit room up a rickety flight of stairs at the back of a rundown hotel-AAP needs Sharmila, her status and instant recognition, far more than she needs them at this point. Instead, many Manipuri analysts argue, the BJP might provide a more suitable, if implausible, stage for her political ambitions. But such speculation is perhaps to misunderstand Sharmila. She has taken a leap, as she did 16 years ago, into the unknown. It is characteristically brave, even foolhardy. What it is not is calculated. Sharmila, argues Imphal Free Press editor Pradip Phanjoubam, should not be railroaded into martyrdom. It is not sainthood she wants, it is life-the unruliness of love and politics. --- ENDS --- China News on Women Sorry, the page you requested was not found. If you're having trouble locating a destination on Womenofchina.cn, try visiting the Womenofchina Home page Sweden-based Livets Ord (Word of Life) is planning to bombard ISIS held areas in Iraq with mini electronic Bibles. Smoke rises over Syrian town of Kobani after an airstrike, October 18, 2014. (Photo: Reuters By India Today Web Desk: While international forces involving countries like the US, France and Russia continue to barrage the Islamic State in its stronghold in Iraq and Syria with air strikes, a Swedish church group is planning to launch its own 'assault' on the banned terror group. Sweden-based Livets Ord (Word of Life) is planning to bombard ISIS held areas in Iraq with mini electronic Bibles. The group says that it will be using drones, flying at high altitude, to drop the Bibles. advertisement "The Bibles are the size of pill boxes and have a display. They require no electricity, but work on their own," UK's Telegraph quoted Christian Akerhielmm, the mission's director, as saying. "Our ambition is to pass on the hope and love of the Christian gospel to a population living in closed areas where they are being denied human rights," Akerhielmm wrote on the church's website. ABOUT WORLD OF LIFE Founded by Ulf and Birgitta Ekman, Word of Life was established in 1983. World of Life is an evangelical church based on the lines of the Pentecostal movement in the US. TWO YEARS OF US-LED AIRSTRIKES IN IRAQ AND SYRIA The US-led coalition estimates that since the airstrikes began on Aug 8, 2014, ISIS has lost more than 40 per cent of the territory it once held in Iraq. But while coalition airstrikes paved the way for Kurdish and Iraqi ground forces to retake territory, in many cases the result is a ruined prize. The Pentagon claims 55 civilians have been killed in Iraq and Syria since the air war against ISIS was launched. However, human rights and humanitarian aid groups insist that number is vastly underestimated. Across Iraq, more than 3.2 million Iraqis remain displaced from their homes, according to information gathered by the International Organization for Migration. Also Read: ISIS leader Al-Baghdadi killed in US-led air strike US backed forces advance inside ISIS held city ISIS preparing to attack India, reports US daily --- ENDS --- Exelon to buy Fitzpatrick nuclear plant 09 August 2016 Share Exelon is to assume ownership and operation of Entergy's James A Fitzpatrick nuclear power plant in upstate New York after the two companies reached an agreement worth $110 million following the state's adoption of a Clean Energy Standard (CES) supporting the continued operation of nuclear capacity. Fitzpatrick (Entergy) Under the agreement, Entergy would transfer Fitzpatrick's operating licence to Exelon, which already operates Nine Mile Point and Ginna. Subject to regulatory review and approval by state and federal agencies, the transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2017. Entergy had previously announced plans to close the single-unit 838 MWe in January 2017 for economic reasons. The CES adopted last week by the New York Public Service Commission explicitly recognises the carbon-free generation provided by New York's upstate nuclear power plants - two units at Nine Mile Point and single units at RE Ginna and James A Fitzpatrick - as critical in enabling it to meet its climate change targets. It provides a mechanism to ensure that the units, at risk because of the economic challenges from the short-term nature of the deregulated market they operate in and competition from low-cost gas and federally subsidized wind power, to remain in operation. Exelon has already indicated that approval of the CES means that it will invest millions of dollars into the upstate plants. The company has now committed to refuelling Fitzpatrick in January 2017. "We are pleased to have reached an agreement for the continued operation of FitzPatrick," Exelon CEO Chris Crane said. Entergy CEO Leo Danault said the pending sale was in the "best interests" of all the company's stakeholders, and both companies cited the adoption of the CES for helping to facilitate the transaction. "We would like to thank New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and his administration for being progressive in placing a value on the carbon-free attribute that nuclear power plants provide," Danault said. Crane added: "We thank Governor Cuomo and his administration for their part in facilitating an agreement to save Fitzpatrick. His leadership on the CES and preserving zero-emissions assets has truly positioned New York as the nation's leader in clean energy." Researched and written by World Nuclear News Related topics Hinkley legal bid fails as China urges government decision 09 August 2016 Share The High Court of Paris on 5 August rejected a request by EDF's Central Works Council to suspend the final investment decision for the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant project in the UK. Meanwhile, China's ambassador to the UK has called for the UK government to make a prompt decision on the project. In a statement, EDF said it welcomed the court's decision. The Central Works Council submitted its request to the court on 28 July - the same day as the EDF board of directors agreed to go ahead with the 18 billion ($23.6 billion) project to construct two EPR reactors at Hinkley Point in Somerset. In addition, EDF said its chairman and CEO, Jean-Bernard Levy, plans to bring legal action against the Sud Energie union which claimed he was aware ahead of the board meeting that the UK government planned to conduct a further review of the Hinkley Point C project. EDF said the union issued a statement on 5 August which "inaccurately claimed that he had lied to journalists when he confirmed he had not known before the meeting". However, the company said an internal email of 2 August from Levy to members of the executive committee "confirms unambiguously" that neither EDF nor Levy had any knowledge of the UK government's intention to conduct a further review. "All that was known before the press statement issued by the British government on 28 July was that the signing ceremony originally proposed for Friday 29 July would be postponed," EDF said. "This potential date of signature had not been confirmed, and therefore had not been communicated either to the board nor the market. There was therefore no requirement to communicate its postponement." In a 29 July letter to staff, EDF Energy CEO Vincent de Rivaz said, "The very good news is that we are ready. The board's decision means that when the government is ready to go ahead, we are ready too." He noted, "Inevitably critics of the project will continue to be vocal in the intervening weeks." Chinese ambassador calls for decision Liu Xiaoming, China's ambassador to the UK, said in a letter published in the Financial Times yesterday that the UK government must come to a decision on the Hinkley Point C project as soon as possible. He pointed out that nuclear energy - with its "low operational costs, mature maintenance technologies and steady output - is a significant option for meeting the UK's demand for electricity". Liu also noted that the Hinkley Point C project "is not the result of some whimsical idea or rushed decision. It is the considered outcome of a mutually beneficial tripartite partnership between Britain, France and China." He also said the UK "could not have a better partner" than China General Nuclear, which has agreed to take a 33.5% stake in the project. "Right now, the China-UK relationship is at a crucial historical juncture. Mutual trust should be treasured even more," Liu said. "I hope the UK will keep its door open to China and that the British government will continue to support Hinkley Point - and come to a decision as soon as possible so that the project can proceed smoothly." Researched and written by World Nuclear News Related topics Grey: it didn't feel appropriate to me Jennifer Grey admitted she turned down a role in ABCs Dirty Dancing television remake, citing that it didnt feel appropriate. The actress starred in the original 1987 flick alongside the late Patrick Swayze. She revealed to The Hollywood Reporter: I was asked to do something on that show and I was flattered because I always want to be asked because its nice to want to be included. But for me, it would be sacrosanct for me to do it because it didnt feel appropriate to me. It feels like if youre going to do your own thing, do your own thing. I wouldnt say [what role was offered] but I will tell you, it wasnt Baby! 20-year-old Abigail Breslin will take the role of Baby in the new movie, and Grey says she looks forward to seeing how this new version turns out. I am always interested in any iteration of something where they feel theres more to be gotten and I would love to see what it is that they come up with. I think theyve got wonderful actors in it. Im going to be watching it and Im excited. My only advice is to own it for yourself because we all just do our interpretation and Im only flattered and excited for people who are excited enough to put their stamp on it and see what they make of it and how they make it their own, Grey stated. The actress also took the time to acknowledge her late co-star, who died in 2009 at the age of 57. She added: He was really strong and he was very protective and his heart was very much in it. He was a great dancer and he was fearless. His fearlessness with my fearfulness like his lack of Jewishness and my super Jewishness together was like a marriage where you have two opposites. Hed do anything and Id be scared to do anything. Train (illustration) By: Mahesh Sarin (Scroll down for video) A young train passenger tragically died after being struck by an oncoming train while leaning out a window, according to police in the United Kingdom. The British Transport Police said that the 24-year-old man was traveling on the Gatwick Express to London Victoria from Gatwick Airport. Around 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, the man leaned out the window while the train was traveling at a high speed. Unfortunately, the manas hit was hit by an oncoming speeding train. Paramedics who arrived at the scene, attempted to save the man, but they were unsuccessful. He was pronounced dead at the scene. aWe have responded to an incident at the Wandsworth Common today. Sadly, a person was pronounced dead at the scene by the doctor from LDN air ambulance,a police wrote on Twitter. By India Today Web Desk: Ekta Kapoor has found a new person to be miffed with: A Flying Jatt actor Jacqueline Fernandez. If reports are to be believed, Ekta was left fuming at the launch of the song Beat Pe Booty from A Flying Jatt, when Jackie didn't turn up. WATCH: Tiger Shroff and Jacqueline Fernandez in the teaser of Beat Pe Booty from A Flying Jatt advertisement WATCH: Tiger Shroff and Jacqueline Fernandez twerking in Beat Pe Booty is bootyful Jacqueline was supposed to have been the cynosure of the event, given that the track is more to do with her and her jaw-droppingly hot moves. However, her absence left Tiger entertaining the people at the launch with his moves instead. Fernandez is said to have told her director Remo D'Souza that she was unwell, says a report in DNA. While that was initially believed, the same evening, Fernandez was snapped at an endorsement event. This left Balaji Telefilms' Ekta Kapoor, the producer of A Flying Jatt, massively irked. A source close to the film informed the tabloid, "While Remo and Tiger have taken their leading lady's absence at a crucial song launch in their stride, Ekta is not one to tolerate such snub." The director later said, "Jackie was there at two other cities where the song was released, but got delayed in reaching the venue in Mumbai. She was to arrive by a chartered flight, which got delayed because of the weather. And the press was waiting, so we didn't want to delay it more." Ever since the video of Beat Pe Booty was released, Jacqueline's fans have been grooving to the tunes of the song. The actor will be seen alongside Tiger Shroff in A Flying Jatt, which is slated for an August 25 release. And in case you still haven't watched the video of Beat Pe Booty, here: --- ENDS --- Ann Mbaithe (left) By: Tanya Malhotra A woman was arrested on a charge of murder after allegedly stabbing her husband in the chest because he came home late from work, according to police in Kenya. Kiambu police said that they arrested Ann Mbaithe, after being accused of fatally stabbing 30-year-old Daniel Githuka, in front of his mother, following a dispute over his coming home late and drunk. According to the police investigation, the couple had been married for five years and had a 4-year-old child together. The mother of the victim, Elizabeth Wanjiku, lives in the apartment building near her son and daughter-in-law. On Saturday around 11:30 p.m., Wanjiku heard her daughter-in-law screaming so she went outside to investigate. She then watched her son arguing with his wife about coming home from work late while under the influence of alcohol. When Githuka insisted that he can come home whenever he wants, Mbaithe pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the chest. Githuka was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Mbaithe was arrested at the scene. Gary Wallace By: Feng Qian A man of the United Kingdom, stabbed his mother while she protecting her other son from being stabbed in the head. 29-year-old Gary Wallace was found guilty after stabbing his mother on the day of her daughteras wedding. The Liverpool Crown Court heard that Wallace became very angry when his brother, Tony Igoe, criticized him for not showing up to their sisteras wedding and instead, he went on a drinking and drug binge. Wallace, who lives with his mother and brother, allegedly admitted to doing drugs for about 24 hours, instead of going to his sisteras wedding. Their mother, Cheryl Wallace, was already sleeping when she heard her son screaming that his brother was holding knife. The mother woke up and went to stop the fight. She stood between her sons to prevent Gary from stabbing his brother. However, when Gary tried to stab Tony, Cheryl picked up her hands to protect his head. That is when she was stabbed several times on the hand and forearm. Defense attorney John Weate said that his client suffers from depression, and went on aoccasional bingesa with drinks and drugs. Wallace pleaded guilty to wounding his mother and attempted wounding his brother. Judge Steven Everett sentenced Wallace to 6 years in prison. He received a 5 year restraining order, banning him from contacting his mother or brother. Tensions between Asia's two largest economies have risen since Japan saw an increasing number of Chinese coastguard and other government ships sailing near the disputed islets, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, over the past few days. By Reuters: Japan warned China today that ties were "deteriorating markedly" over disputed East China Sea islets, and China's envoy in Tokyo reiterated Beijing's stance that the specks of land were its territory and called for talks to resolve the row. TENSION BETWEEN JAPAN AND CHINA Tensions between Asia's two largest economies have risen since Japan saw an increasing number of Chinese coastguard and other government ships sailing near the disputed islets, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, over the past few days. advertisement Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida called in Chinese ambassador Cheng Yonghua for the second time since Friday and told him that China was trying to change the status quo unilaterally, a Japanese foreign ministry statement said. It also said Kishida told Cheng that the environment surrounding Sino-Japanese ties was deteriorating markedly. Cheng said after the meeting that he told Kishida the islands were an integral part of China's territory and that the dispute should be resolved through diplomacy and dialogue. "I told him that ... it is natural that Chinese ships conduct activity in the waters in question," he told reporters. "I also told him both countries need to work on dialogue through diplomatic channels so as not to make things more complicated and escalated," Cheng said. Kishida summoned Cheng after the latest flare-up in tensions over dozens of Chinese vessels that sailed near the islands at the weekend. Cheng was also called in by Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Shinsuke Sugiyama on Friday. The flurry of Chinese incursions into the waters follows a period of sustained pressure on China about its activities in the South China Sea, and Chinese criticism of what it saw as Japanese interference in that dispute. US QUESTIONS CHINESE LAND RECLAMATION The United States, its Southeast Asian allies and Japan have questioned Chinese land reclamation on contested islands in the South China Sea, particularly since an international court rejected China's historic claims to most of that sea last month. China has refused to recognise the court ruling on a case brought by the Philippines. Japan called on China to adhere to it, saying it was binding but Beijing warned Japan not to interfere. Ties between China and Japan, the world's second and third largest economies, have been plagued by the territorial row, the legacy of Japan's wartime occupation of parts of China and regional rivalry. Also read: New images suggest China has built hangars on South China Sea islands China continues aggressive stand on South China Sea --- ENDS --- Wrexham College Awarded 4m Funding to Create New Industry Standard Technology Centre This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Aug 9th, 2016 A Wrexham College has been awarded a multi-million pound investment to create a new industry standard technology centre. Coleg Cambria is to receive 4.125 million of Welsh Government funding to develop a state of art technology centre at their Bersham Road Campus. The match funding was confirmed by Education Secretary Kirsty Williams today, bringing the total cost of the project to 8.25 million. In March Wrexham.com reported that the college had submitted a planning application to significantly redevelop and enhance the facilities at the Bersham Road campus. As well as refurbishing and demolishing some existing buildings, the money will be used to build a new, two storey technology building on the Colleges existing Bersham Road Campus. The new building will provide an improved industry standard learning facility for construction, engineering, motor vehicle and manufacturing and provision. The new build area, due to be competed by September 2017, will accommodate over 500 learners, with another 500 plus learners accessing the refurbished facilities. Funding has been allocated as part of the 21st Century Schools and Education Programme, a collaboration between the Welsh Government, the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) and local authorities with the aim of creating a generation of 21st education infrastructure in Wales. The programme focuses resources on the right schools in the right places, for early years through to post-16. Kirsty Williams said: The building will provide new state of the art facilities to enhance the Colleges curriculum offer for meeting the current learner and employer needs. The demand for something new and different in post-16 provision is not just about raising levels of achievement and skills; it is about driving the wider Welsh economy which depends on these things. You can read our earlier report about Coleg Cambrias new technology centre, here. Hailing from the remote Anjaw district of Arunachal Pradesh bordering China, Kalikho Pul trekked a long way in his political career to become the eighth chief minister of the state - a position he could hold only for six months. When news came that Pul committed suicide, it shocked everyone in the state. Sources said, he was suffering from depression and stayed indoors for the past 15 days. The revelation surprised many because he was a fighter who reached to that stage in public life after long struggle. advertisement HUMBLE BEGINNINGS Starting his career as a carpenter, Pul, went on to become a 'chowkidar' in a school and then earned the distinction of being the longest serving finance minister of the state under various chief ministers, including Gegong Apang, Mukut Mithi and late Dorjee Khandu. Pul will be remembered as the most short-lived head of Arunachal Pradesh. He had taken over the reins of the state on February 19 this year after two months of political crisis, but last month the Supreme Court removed the government in power and ordered that Arunachal be restored to the charge of the Congress. Pul, who was with the Congress till December 2015, had rebelled and became chief minister with the backing of the BJP in February. However, the Supreme Court termed the appointment as illegal. Later Nabam Tuki was reinstated who then made way for Pema Khandu as the 10th Chief Minister. POLITICAL JOURNEY Born in July 20, 1969 to Tailum Pul and Koranlu Pul at Walla Village under Hawai circle of Anjaw district, Pul had pursued his graduation in humanities from Indira Gandhi Government College at Tezu in Lohit district. His political innings started in 1995 when he was elected as an MLA from Hayuliang constituency and became the minister of state for Finance in the Mukut Mithi government. There was no looking back for Pul as he won from the constituency consecutively for five terms and served minister of state for Power, Finance, Land Management. POPULAR LEADER Pul began as deputy minister for finance (1995-97), then became minister of state for power (1997-99), MoS for finance (1999-2002), MoS for land management (2002-03), and finally minister for finance (2003-05) before he was made chairman of a high-powered committee and simultaneously adviser to the CM for about a year. In 2006-09 he once again served as minister for finance, then minister for rural works (2009-11), and then health. Between 2011 and 2014, he was also made adviser to the CM, then again made a minister in 2014. He was also the executive member of Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee for 13 years and Pradesh Election Committee Member for 7 years. Pul had special interest in social service, community service and attending to poor and destitute persons. advertisement ALSO READ: Violence in Itanagar following former CM Kalikho Pul's death Kalikho Pul, removed as Arunachal Pradesh CM last month, found dead --- ENDS --- US-backed militias fighting against the Syrian government of Bashar al Assad have broken through the Russian and Syrian government encirclement of their positions inside the war-ravaged northern Syrian city of Aleppo, according to Western media. During fierce battles over the weekend, the US-backed, Islamist-led militia coalition known as Jaysh al Fateh overran military bases in southwest Aleppo and secured an access road connecting the city to the rest of the country. Russian war planes and Syrian and Iranian ground forces counterattacked Sunday, targeting the anti-Assad forces with aerial bombardments and artillery. According to Syrian opposition leader Anas al-Abdah, the Islamist offensive has achieved almost a miracle, leaving the anti-Assad forces poised to break the siege and move into a stage where we are talking seriously about liberating the city. The offensive has carved out a slim corridor linking Aleppo to rebel-held areas, raising the possibility of resupply operations for the desperately besieged Western-backed forces. The encirclement of Washingtons extremist groups inside Aleppo, who have been reduced to a diminishing pocket in the citys north and western sectors, in the face of a redoubled Syrian offensive backed by Russian air power and Iranian ground forces, came as a humiliating reversal for US imperialism. Washington has orchestrated a relentless civil war in Syria since 2011, killing hundreds of thousands of Syrians, without achieving its aim of toppling the Damascus regime and installing a neocolonial puppet government. During the opening phases of the US-NATO orchestrated war, the anti-Assad militias seized control of large areas of the city, which they sought to utilize as a base of operations and object of plunder. Prior to the outbreak of the war, Aleppos population numbered between 1 and 2.5 million, according to varying estimates. Today, some 50,000 civilians are estimated to eke out an existence amid the rubble. The city as a whole has been without electricity and running water for more than a year, and entire neighborhoods are completely razed to the ground. In recent weeks, with the Turkish government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan withdrawing support for the rebels, in retaliation for Washingtons involvement in the failed July military coup attempt, the American-backed militias have faced the imminent possibility of defeat. It is not coincidental that the ferocious US-backed assault is unfolding on the eve of Turkish President Erdogans trip to St. Petersburg, for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, on Tuesday. There are well-grounded fears in American ruling circles that Erdogan will reach a broad-based agreement with Putin, one that would close off all remaining supply routes necessary for sustaining the war against Damascus. The cause of the sudden reversal in the fortunes of the anti-government forces, who, if US media reports can be believed, have seized the initiative from the jaws of total defeat, was quietly acknowledged in reports published by the New York Times on Saturday and Monday, titled Military Success in Syria Gives Putin Upper Hand in US Proxy War and Rebel Offensive in Syria Challenges Government Siege of Aleppo. As Saturdays Times piece noted, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been supplying the Al Qaeda-linked militias with virtually unlimited supplies of sophisticated antitank missiles and other weaponry. The US-backed rebel coalition, which has been dominated by the Al Nusra Front, would receive new shipments of the antitank weapons as soon as the missiles were used, according to comments from a rebel commander made in 2015, and quoted by the Times Saturday. We ask for ammunition and missiles, and we get more than we ask for, the anti-Assad commander said. In contrast to the Obama administrations assertions that the shipments were being curtailed and funneled exclusively to moderate forces, in reality the CIA has been surging support for the encircled anti-Assad militias in Aleppo, foremost among which are the Al Nusra fighters. As the Times update on Monday forthrightly acknowledged: A vital factor in the rebel advance over the weekend was cooperation between mainstream rebel groups, some of which have received covert arms support from the United States, and the jihadist organization formerly known as the Nusra Front, which was affiliated with Al Qaeda. The infinite mendacity and hypocrisy of both the Times and the American imperial policy it defends could hardly find sharper expression. The newspaper presents the change in name and formal disaffiliation of Al Nusra from Al Qaeda as some distant memory, when it was, in fact, announced barely a week and a half earlier. Like most of the Western media, the Times now cheers on the supposed battlefield successes of the so-called rebels, who, until the end of July, swore allegiance to Al Qaeda, supposedly the main target of Washingtons 15-year-long war on terrorism. Moreover, in recent weeks, as US intelligence outfitted the surrounded Al Qaeda rebels in preparation for a new bloody offensive, Americas top diplomat, Secretary of State John Kerry, has touted steps toward a US-Russian military cooperation pact in Syria, the centerpiece of which would supposedly have been joint strikes against Al Nusra. While Kerry was pledging military cooperation with Moscow, along with joint counterterrorism operations, the CIA was giving weapons hand over fist to the Al Qaeda-affiliated forces, dumping fuel on a simmering US-Russian proxy conflict, with the potential to engulf broad areas of the Middle East and Europe in all-out war. The downing of a Russian Mi-8 transport helicopter over Syrias Idlib province Monday, which produced the largest single death toll for Russian forces operating in Syria since Moscow launched its intervention last year, grimly illustrated the lethal dynamics being unleashed by American imperialisms ever more reckless pursuit of unchallenged hegemony over the strategic Levantine nation. The US media celebrations of the rebel victory cannot be taken at face value, and must be weighed against reports from the Syrian government side, which have presented the scope of the rebel counteroffensive in more modest terms. Whatever the true extent of the rebel advances on the ground, it is already clear that the intensified fighting will serve as the political basis for a major military escalation by Washington. In an interview with Fox News this weekend, Democratic presidential frontrunner, Hillary Clinton, issued bellicose threats against Russia, stating that the facts raise serious issues about Russian interference in our elections, in our democracy. Clinton has made clear her intention to pursue a massive escalation of the Syrian war and the broader US war drive against Russia if she wins the White House, saying during last years Democratic Party debate, We have to stand up to his [Putin] bullying and specifically, in Syria. While the Obama White House prefers to delay a major escalation until after the elections, the weakness of the American position on the ground is forcing the administration to consider direct strikes against Damascus. Former Obama administration adviser, Dennis Ross, suggested last week that the White House should begin speaking in a language that Mr. Assad and Mr. Putin can understand, and employ direct cruise missile and drone strikes against Assads military infrastructure. In the event that the government crushes the rebel attack, powerful factions within the US establishment can be counted on to press for the most aggressive measures against Assad, to be launched in the name of salvaging the American proxy forces, which have been built up at a cost of billions in CIA-supplied cash and weapons. Even should the Al Qaeda-linked forces complete the breakout, and reassert control over Aleppo and the surrounding region, this will only set the stage for a massive government counterattack, and thus provide a suitable political pretext for further escalation by Washington. Beneath the fog of war in Syria, the only certainty is the constantly growing tendency toward a US-Russian clash that poses the gravest dangers for humanity. A computer outage led Delta Airlines, the second largest air carrier in the US, to cancel hundreds of flights internationally Monday. Although the problem appeared to be resolved by the afternoon, the impact of the problem continued to cascade through the international transportation system, causing delays worldwide. There is currently no detailed explanation for the breakdown. Delta blamed a power failure in Atlanta where its headquarters are located. A spokesman for Georgia Power said the shutdown was caused by the failure of a piece of equipment called a switchgear. A Georgia Power spokesman told the New York Times, We believe that Delta Air Lines experienced an equipment failure overnight that caused their outage. We are working closely with the team at Delta as they repair that equipment. The chaos caused by the computer malfunction is a product of the absurdity of the capitalist profit system, where four major airlines and about a dozen smaller rivals compete for air service in the United States. In response to the breakdown at Delta there appears to have been no serious effort by other airlines to step in and help reroute the stranded passengers, who were by and large left to fend for themselves, as were stranded pilots and flight crews. In relation to the outage itself, at this time it is difficult to sort through the competing accusations of malfeasance and incompetence. There does not appear to be an issue of sabotage or outside computer hacking involved. An electrical engineer with the local Atlanta-based power company contacted by the World Socialist Web Site said, Each company will try to blame the other. Georgia Power is saying it had something to do with Deltas equipment. They insist that other companies in the area did not lose power. I am pretty positive it wasnt a power outage. There were no storms in the area. According to Delta it happened at 2:38 a.m., an outage is unlikely to happen at that time. It generally happens during periods of peak loads, for example around 5 p.m. in the afternoon. Many times big companies will own their own electrical equipment. They get their power in bulk from a transmission line and then it has to be stepped down using transformers. Switchgear is a general term. They probably mean a circuit breaker. It is just like a big fuse. It is not clear who owns the transformers or the switchgears involved. According to a report by Reuters, The carrier was probably running a routine test of its backup power supplies when the switchgear failed and locked Delta out of its reserve generators as well as from Georgia Power That would result in a shutdown of Deltas data center, which controls bookings, flight operations and other critical systems Even if a power system failure on the part of Georgia Power is isolated as the cause, it does not remove responsibility from Delta for failing to have a functional backup power supply. US power systems, for the most part privately run, are notoriously prone to failure as workers in most urban areas can testify. The system-wide breakdown points to a broader neglect of infrastructure on the part of airline management. It appears likely that in the wake of Deltas merger with Northwest, the different computer systems have still not been synchronized. According to one travel expert, some airlines are still running systems dating back to the 1970s and 1980s. The computer failure at Delta follows a similar breakdown at Southwest Airlines last month that led to the cancellation of more than 1,000 flights. The continuing problems point to a number of failures, including poor planning and the lack of adequate backup systems. Computers handle all facets of airline operations, including scheduling, ticketing, flight tracking and reservations. As the systems take on more and more functions they become more complex and interconnected. Thus, a problem in one area can have an impact throughout the network. It is not as though Delta is not flush with cash to deal with such issues. The equipment breakdown comes at a time when Delta and other major airlines are experiencing a boom in profits, due to relatively low fuel prices. Deltas net income for the second quarter of 2016, $1.55 billion, was up 4 percent from a year ago. The same day as the Delta computer failure, Southwest Airlines flight attendants at nine airports set up informational pickets to protest deteriorating working conditions. Audrey Stone, president of the Transport Workers Union, the bargaining agent for the flight attendants, cited the recent near shutdown of Southwest Airlines, due to the computer failure, as one of many contributing issues leading to falling employee morale. "Over the past several years, Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly and COO Mike Van de Ven have failed to recognize and adequately fix the operational failures that continue to plague our airline, including our flight attendant contract. Our flight attendants, along with other frontline employees, end up bearing the brunt of these failures." During the Southwest shutdown thousands of crew members were left stranded, with no hotel rooms to accommodate them. Meanwhile, some 12,800 Delta pilots are seeking a 40 percent compounded pay increase to compensate for concessions they surrendered when the company went into bankruptcy in 2005. The pilots rejected a tentative contract negotiated by the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) last July by a 65 percent margin. It provided for an inadequate pay increase of an immediate 8 percent followed by 6 percent, 3 percent and 3 percent over the next three years. The proposal would have reduced profit sharing and imposed a new, draconian, sick leave policy as well as work-rule changes. Last month ALPA opened a strike center in Atlanta. The union said the move was to coordinate activities should a strike become necessary. Federal law places severe restrictions on the right of airline employees to strike. To reach a legal strike position, workers must navigate a series of steps including mediation. Further, the US president can issue an order blocking a strike under provisions of the Railway Labor Act. Terrebonne Parish Sheriffs deputies conducted a home raid in South Louisiana last week as part of an effort to uncover the identity of a police officer who writes for a local anti-corruption blog. The self-described underground watchdog group blog, ExposeDAT, had repeatedly linked Sheriff Jerry Larpenter to corruption and fraud as part of a series of short articles published in June that detailed rampant criminality among local politicians and business figures. The target of the raid was Houma Police Officer Wayne Anderson, a former Terrebonne Parish deputy, now suspected by Sheriff Larpenter to be the author of the blog. Anderson, however, has denied any involvement with ExposeDAT. Im not sure if they believe Mr. Anderson is actually the author of such work, stated Matthew Ory, Andersons attorney. One is given the sense that in addition to the extraordinary nature of the raid itself, the department may not even have the right man. Citing a bogus criminal defamation statute, Larpenters deputies were able to obtain search warrants to seize evidence from Andersons house and from Facebook. Six deputies raided the home, taking two laptop computers, one of which belonged to the officers children, and five cell phones. The cited defamation statute was overturned by the US Supreme Court in 1964, ruling it as an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment. Explaining his reasoning to WWL News, Larpenter admonished: If youre gonna lie about me and make it under a fictitious name, Im gonna come after you. On its webpage, ExposeDAT states its intention is to explore the relationship between certain Public Officials and the flow of money in South Louisiana. The author, writing anonymously under a pen name, describes the dealings between politicians and businessmen as incestuous. Each article dealt with different members of the local political and business community of Terrebonne Parish, using legally obtained public records to link them to various shady dealings. The articles posted on the blog have accused multiple public officials and business owners in Terrebonne Parish of nepotism, tax evasion, pollution and misuse of government funds. The Sheriffs office justified the raid with the claims that the blog had criminally defamed Tony Alford, the Parishs new insurance agent. The blog also pointed out that Sheriff Larpenters wife managed Alfords office, and alleged that Larpenter gave Alford the sheriffs office insurance contract. In a blog post titled Gordon Dove and Tony Alfords Radioactive Waste Dumping, the author uncovered information concerning a trucking company co-owned by Alford and the Parish president Gordon Dove. The trucking company had been cited for dumping radioactive waste in eastern Montana, originally reported by a local newspaper in Missoula, Montana. Dove had recently been appointed to the Louisiana House Natural Resource Committee by previous Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal. He now presides as chairman of the committee, which was tasked with raising awareness of coastal erosion and attempting to reverse the trend of receding barrier islands and coastal wetlands. Sheriff Larpenter explained in a public statement that his department would investigate the blog with every intention of prosecuting its author(s). He indicated he would then hand over the investigation to District Attorney Joseph Waitz for prosecution. Waitz, who is also featured on ExposeDAT, represents yet another conflict of interest to a just proceeding of the case. It is clear that Anderson has become the center of a witch-hunt. Even though there is little chance of a successful criminal prosecution against him, he is, for all intents and purposes, ruined. Houma Police Chief Dana Coleman suspended Anderson from the force indefinitely, placing him on paid administrative leave. The official paperwork on the suspension has not yet been sent, though the chief cited a failure to uphold the law and that he had committed conduct unbecoming of an officer. The department has not elaborated any exact wrongdoing by Anderson. It is no coincidence that the decision came a mere hour and a half after the raid by Sheriffs deputies. Jerri Smitko, Andersons attorney, offered a damning indictment of the entire case. When decent, law abiding citizens try to speak out on matters of public importance, theyre treated like criminals, Smitko remarked. If this is what happens to a police officer with 12 years of impeccable service what the hell kind of justice do criminals get? While the charges are likely to be dropped due to lack of a legal basis, the raid should serve as a warning to the working class. This is not an isolated incident, but a particularly acute expression of a broader process taking place within the American ruling class as it moves toward more authoritarian forms of rule. The witch-hunt organized by Sheriff Larpenter is an act of intimidation meant to disrupt the lives of anyone who offers even the slightest opposition to the widespread criminality entrenched within the American political system. The witch-hunt of Anderson is not simply an isolated issue of corrupt small-town politics. The petty corruption detailed by ExposeDAT is a pale shadow of the criminality at the highest levels of the American ruling elite, which in just the last 15 years is responsible for the deaths of more than a million of people across the Middle East, and has funneled hundreds of billions of dollars to Wall Street following the 2007-2008 financial crash, while driving down living standards and stripping the working class of health care and pension benefits. The highest levels of the American political establishment are far less clumsy and far more ruthless than local Terrebonne Parish officials in their approach to the suppression of democratic rights and social opposition. The brutal treatment of whistleblower Chelsea Manning and the witch-hunts against Julian Assange and Edward Snowden underscore their open embrace of police state rule. On Saturday, at its convention in Houston, Texas, the Green Party of the United States officially nominated Dr. Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka as its presidential and vice presidential candidates in the 2016 election. The event, held at the University of Houston from August 4-7, was streamed live over YouTube, drawing over 4,500 viewers at its peak. The convention also involved the passing of several amendments, with the most significant one falsely labeled anti-capitalist. Steins 35-minute acceptance speech, in which she denounced the war policies of the governmentalbeit without mentioning the names of Barack Obama and Hillary Clintonwas a rhetorical shift to the left by the Green Party. The Greens are attempting to win the support of radicalized workers and youth disillusioned by the abject capitulation of Bernie Sanders to Clinton, in order to divert them back into the safe channels of bourgeois politics. The left rhetoric of Stein and the Greens does not correspond to the reformist and pro-capitalist character of the partys origins, history and program. In reality, it is a nationalist, bourgeois political party, based on sections of the upper-middle class, which fully supports capitalism, opposes Marxism and is hostile to the political independence of the working class. Where Green Parties have achieved influence or come to power, notably in Germany, they have supported austerity measures against the working class at home and war abroad. The nationalism of the Greens was in plain view to those watching online Saturday, as the American flag emblazoned the screen during breaks at the convention. Following the path laid by Sanders and Donald Trump, the Green Party promotes the scrapping of the Trans Pacific Partnership from a protectionist stance, with many delegates holding signs that read No TPP! In their pragmatic maneuvers, the Greens have formed an alliance with various pseudo-left organizations such as Socialist Alternative, which formerly supported Sanders run within the Democratic Party, and the International Socialist Organization. At the Democratic National Convention, held in Philadelphia in late July, hundreds of Sanders delegates from the so-called Bernie-or-Bust faction left the convention, and many have gone on to support Stein and the Greens. Roughly half of the 500 attendees at the Greens conventionthe largest in the partys historyregistered in the aftermath of Sanders backing of Clinton. Speaking directly to this new layer of supporters, Stein said, On the day that Bernie Sanders endorsed Hillary Clinton, the floodgates opened in our campaign for more volunteers, more ballot access drivers, more funding. We are a different campaign than we ever have been in history for having joined forces with you. Stein began her acceptance speech by demagogically shouting, We are what democracy looks like! Lets go all of us! We are what democracy looks like, and we are what political revolution looks like! In co-opting Sanders call for a political revolution, which he himself claims is now being carried forward by Clinton, the Greens are trying to have it both ways. They are simultaneously presenting themselves as an alternative to Sanders and as the continuation of his campaign, as though his complete integration into the Democratic Party and self-abasement before Clinton and the Democratic establishment had nothing to do with the real content of his so-called political revolution. This cynical and false perspective obscures the basic fact that Sanders political revolution was from the very outset, as the World Socialist Web Site warned, an attempt, initiated on behalf of and supported by sections of the bourgeoisie, to head off and derail a growing political radicalization of workers and youth. In adopting Sanders rhetoric, the Greens are in fact exposing themselves. Steins phony anti-war rhetoric Toward the end of her speech, Stein addressed the issues of foreign policy and war, declaring, In this election, we are deciding whether we will have a world or not going forward into the future. The day of reckoning is coming closer and closer On the count of climate [change], and on the count of nuclear weapons and this insane nuclear arms race that we are once again headlong plunging into, and on account of these endless and expanding wars that are blowing back at us all around the world, we cannot afford to sit this one out. The anti-war rhetoric of the Green campaign is largely a recent innovation, as Stein for the most part has remained silent on foreign policy during her campaign up to now. In contrast to Steins denunciations of war and even the threat of nuclear war, the Greens platform document, adopted in 2014, is mostly silent on these fundamental issues, which are not mentioned in the Call to Action, the Preamble or the Ten Key Values sections and do not merit a single sub-heading in the remaining 66 pages of the platform. While in other parts of her speech Stein mentions war crimes committed by Saudi Arabia in Yemen and war crimes and occupation committed by the Israeli government in Palestine, she makes no specific references to the past quarter-century of endless war mounted by American imperialism throughout the Middle East and North Africa, instead ambiguously criticizing these endless and expanding wars. Stein conspicuously omits the names of any leading politiciansincluding Obama, Clinton and Bushwho have overseen these wars, which have led to over one million deaths in Iraq alone, and hundreds of thousands more across Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, Pakistan and other countries. Her vague reference to an insane nuclear arms race obscures the central role played by the US, which is militarily encircling Russia and China and continuously escalating the threat of a nuclear third world war. Here, Stein also made no mention of the McCarthy-style attempt to brand Trump as an agent of Putin, and the anti-Russian hysteria being whipped up by Clinton and the Democratic Party. In a recent campaign statement, Stein calls for a 50 percent cut in the dangerously bloated military budget, advanced as a supposedly anti-war position. If she is accepting the governments vastly underestimated annual military budget figure of roughly $500 billion, it would mean that Stein would evidently advocate instead a mere $250 billion annual budget. Perhaps the greatest exposure of Steins pro-war perspective is her unreserved support for Sanders, whom she invited last month to join the Green Party and take her position as its nominee. Over the course of his presidential campaign, Sanders repeatedly stressed his support for Obamas war policiesincluding the drone assassination programand his belief that the United States should have the strongest military in the world. Ecological socialism and the Greens hostility to state ownership of production Speaking on domestic issues within the US, Stein again adopted seemingly left rhetoric, characterizing American society as embroiled in an unprecedented crisis. She proclaimed, Were told its a recovery, but in fact it is still an emergency. Those good jobs we lost have been replaced by part-time, low-wage, temporary, insecure jobs. A generation of young people is locked into predatory student loan 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 [] So, we are in revolt! While noting some of the horrendous conditions in the US, Stein and the Greens present solutions that amount to little more than milquetoast liberalism. Nowhere in her speech did Stein mention the words working class, class struggle, capitalism, or socialism. No speakers at the convention called for public ownership of the means of production or the expropriation of the wealth of the financial aristocracy, two basic socialist principles. The Green Party program does not suggest that there should be a significant redistribution of wealth, focusing instead on the supposed overconsumption of the population as a whole. At their convention, the Greens passed Amendment 8-35 to their platform, the so-called anti-capitalist amendment. In reality, the amendment is merely intended to give the Greens a radical veneer, while doing nothing to significantly challenge the existing property relations under capitalism. The amendment replaces an existing paragraph of their program that promotes small business, responsible stakeholder capitalism, and broad and diverse forms of economic cooperation, Yet, at the convention, there was no critique of their former stance promoting stakeholder capitalism. The adopted amendment reads, The Green Party seeks to build an alternative economic system based on ecology and decentralization of power, an alternative that rejects both the capitalist system that maintains private ownership over almost all production as well as the state-socialist system that assumes control over industries without democratic, local decision making. We believe the old models of capitalism (private ownership of production) and state socialism (state ownership of production) are not ecologically sound, socially just, or democratic and that both contain built-in structures that advance injustices. Instead of seeking to unite workers internationally, the Greens seek to revert backwards from nationally-based economies toward utopian, locally-based communalism along the anarchist model. They write in the amendment, We will build an economy based on large-scale green public works, municipalization, and workplace and community democracy. Some call this decentralized system ecological socialism, communalism, or the cooperative commonwealth. The amendment makes clear that the Greens are fundamentally opposed to central economic planning, as well as state ownership of the means of production. Their claim that state socialism inevitably becomes authoritarian is based on the historically false argument that the Russian Revolution inevitably produced Stalinism. While being presented as anti-capitalist, the amendment is in fact a declaration of opposition to socialism and a tacit defense of capitalist property relations. The Democratic Party and identity politics In contrast to the Sanders campaign, which claimed that the Democratic Party could be reformed from within, the Greens political strategy is to serve as an external pressure group on the two major parties, in particular the Democratic Party, channeling growing opposition back into the framework of bourgeois politics. This perspective is elaborated by the Greens themselves in their party platform, where they state: The United States is locked in a vicious circle, in which it has become increasingly clear that the bipartisan political duopoly will drift further rightward at an increasing pace without a true opposition party as a counterweight, as both corporate parties seek to better serve their 1 percent masters. In other words, the successes of the Green Party as a true opposition party will supposedly reverse the rightward shift of American politics. This perspective is no less bankrupt than that of Sanders, and indeed the two coincide, as evinced by Steins repeated praise for the Democratic Party candidate. Like the Democratic Party and its pseudo-left satellites such as the ISO and Socialist Alternative, the Greens have embraced identity politics in its most extreme forms. Almost every speaker Saturday proclaimed racial and gender divisions to be central forces in American society, with multiple denunciations of white and male supremacy and white privilege. In her speech, Stein framed the issue of police violence, which affects all sections of the working class, as based entirely on racist policing, which she suggested could be resolved through the creation of police review board[s] in every communityproposals that in fact will do nothing to end the reign of police killings throughout the country. Speaking before Stein on Saturday, former Sanders supporter and activist YahNe Ndgo presented racism as ubiquitous and immutable. She declared, I would like all of the people in here who are racists to stand up. After a number of people rose, she pressured the others to do the same, arguing, Now all of you people who are sitting down, you have work to do. Youve got work to do, because you cant be growing up in this system here and not be racist. Its not possible! With her audience of Green delegates swayed by this extreme racialist logic, Ndgo proclaimed, It's not your fault, but you cant do anything to transform it if you cant even acknowledge it. I need you to say, Hello, my name is _____, and I am a racist! I need you to say it! She went on to argue that through the efforts of the media, films and schools, all Americans have been programmed to be racist against each other and against ourselves. Ndgos statements are the logical extension of the racialism being spewed on an almost daily basis by the New York Times, and which the Democrats utilized at their own convention last month. Such reactionary sentiments aim to divide the working class and shift attention away from the fundamental issues of economic inequality and the drive to war. According to recent polls, the Greens are projected to receive roughly five percent of the vote in November, and 16 percent among those under 30, significant increases from their 2012 campaign. The Green Party will continue to grow in the coming months, as many workers and youth look for a way to oppose the right-wing campaigns of Clinton and Trump. Those seeking a genuine alternative, however, must see through their phony, fake-left rhetoric and take up the struggle for genuine socialist internationalism. The Socialist Equality Party is running Jerry White for US president and Niles Niemuth for vice president to fight for this perspective and provide the necessary leadership for the coming struggles against war, social inequality and attacks on democratic rights. The Labour Partys National Executive Committee (NEC) saw its attempt to prevent 130,000 members voting in the upcoming leadership election overturned by a high court judge Monday. The NEC declared that it will appeal this ruling in order to defend the NECs right, as Labours governing body, to uphold the rule book, including the use of freeze dates. The NEC had ruled that only members who joined before January 12 would be allowed to participate in the election. Five party members challenged the arbitrary NEC cut-off point in the high court, which was aimed at excluding supporters of leader Jeremy Corbyn from Septembers ballot. Corbyn is being challenged by Owen Smith. The contest, precipitated by right-wing Blairites in the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), has been the occasion for a series of anti-democratic measures aimed at overturning the result of last Septembers leadership election, which saw Corbyn win by a massive majority. Initially, the right wing hoped to force Corbyn to stand down through mass resignationsfirst of 60 members of the shadow cabinet and then a motion of no confidence backed by 172 MPs, together with a media witch-huntled by the Guardian slandering his supporters as bullies and thugs. Such methods were necessitated by the fact that the right have little chance of winning a leadership contest. When this campaign failed to dislodge Corbyn, efforts were made to rig the election. The NEC meeting on July 12 voted narrowlyby 18 to 14that, as the incumbent, Corbyn had an automatic place in the leadership contest. Many in the PLP had insisted that Corbyn would require the 51 nominations of any potential challenger. This would have effectively barred him from the contest, as he does not have the support of 51 MPs. However, the same NEC meeting agreed to ban new members of the party from voting in a leadership contest. Those who had been party members for less than six months were to be excluded, unless they were prepared to pay a 25 fee (up from 3) to be a registered supporter and to do so within a specified two-day window. This could have disenfranchised 130,000 members. The NEC took this decision after Corbyn and several of his supporters had left the meeting. Labour membership stood at 388,407 on January 10, with more than 120,000 people having signed up as party supporters to back Corbyn in the earlier leadership challenge. Since January, membership has risen again to 515,000, with 129,726 people joining between the June 23 referendum on UK membership of the European Union (which resulted in a majority for Leave) and July 8. Most are thought to be Corbyn supporters, angered by the moves to remove him in the wake of the Brexit vote. This is higher than the increase in Labour support under the leadership of Tony Blair, but with the important difference that many of those who signed up then did so as supporters of his efforts to shift Labour further to the right. In contrast, those joining Labour over the last period believe in Corbyns pledge to be reclaiming the party for the left. This accounts for the continued efforts to restrict the ballot. On July 28, High Court judge Justice Foskett threw out a legal challenge brought by millionaire Labour donor and Blairite Michael Foster to the NECs decision to allow Corbyn onto the ballot. Foskett ruled that the NEC was right to conclude that Mr. Corbyn was entitled to be on the ballot paper without the need to obtain any level of nominations. Referring to the relevant clauses in Labours constitution, which refer only to a challenger requiring nominations, Foskett said they reveal a natural and ordinary meaning that seems to me to be entirely clear. The latest high court challenge was made by five party members: Christine Evangelou, the Rev Edward Leir, Hannah Fordham and Chris Granger; the fifth person was named only as FM as he is under 18 years of age. The legal fees to bring the challenge were crowd-funded, raising more than 30,000 so far towards the 40,000 costs. A statement explains that all five are Labour members since January 12. They had originally called on the party to to reconsider its decision to deny new members a vote in the forthcoming leadership election, but when this failed decided that the only way we can retrieve our rights is by taking the Party to court. When we joined the Party, the web site said, As a member, youll be a key part of the team. Youll be eligible to vote in leadership elections, they explained, calling on all those concerned by democracy in the Labour Party to help us take on this battle for the rights of the 130,000 excluded members. Stephen Cragg QC, representing the five, asked Mr. Justice Hickinbottom to rule that the NEC had misapplied party rules and that the appellants were entitled to vote in the poll. Anyone going by Labours web site or its rule book would have concluded that they had the right to vote in the leadership election upon joining the party, Cragg said. Instead, the five paid their dues and found to their surprise they had been excluded from the present election. We say they have been wrongly excluded by breach of contract from the right to vote. We say there is nothing in the Labour Party rule book that suggests a limit on the members who can take part in the leadership election. Lawyers for the Labour Party and General Secretary Iain McNicol argued that the NEC had specific power to impose the bar as part of its duty in drawing up an election timetable and there had been no contractual breach or misrepresentation. In his 95-paragraph written judgement, Hickinbottom rejected the NECs claim, ruling that it was not within its rights to impose such a restriction, which represented an unlawful breach of contract. It would be extremely surprising if the rule book gave the NEC the power to disenfranchise one quarter of the party membership as it purported to do, the ruling states. In my firm judgement, the rule book gives it no such power. At the time each of the claimants joined the party, it was the common understanding as reflected in the rule book that, if they joined the party prior to the election process commencing, as new members they would be entitled to vote in any leadership contest. That was the basis upon which each claimant joined the party; and the basis upon which they entered into the contract between members. For those reasons the claimants claim succeeds. He further ordered the NEC to repay three of the claimants 25 fee. Hickinbottom reluctantly granted the NEC leave to appeal by Thursday but warned, I have taken the firm decision that the rules do not give NEC the power to restrict the voting rights of members as it purported to do. I am not sure I am convinced that the contrary is arguable. Labour now faces potential legal costs of hundreds of thousands of pounds should its appeal fail. Not only would it have to pay all legal costs for both sides, but it would have to refund the 25 supporters fees paid by the 130,000 in order to vote, more than 3 million. Once again Corbyn and Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell held out an olive branch to the right. McDonnell called on Smith to join with us in backing party members and calling on the Labour Party not to appeal and attempt to disenfranchise members. The Labour Party bureaucracy must now act sensibly and play by the rules for rest of this leadership election, he said. Corbyn, to no avail, launched a petition urging the NEC not to appeal the decision, telling party members, We need you! Lawyers representing senior police commanders in the state of New South Wales (NSW) have insisted that the officers had no direct role in the 16-hour Lindt cafe siege in central Sydney in December 2014. The self-serving assertions are part of ongoing efforts at the NSW coroners inquest to prevent any exposure of the official lies about the ISIS terror attack. Over the past two months, police lawyers have been fighting off demands from the lawyers of hostage victims Tori Johnson and Katrina Dawson for Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione, his deputy Catherine Burn and Deputy Commissioner Jeff Loy to testify. Police barrister Ian Freckelton QC rejected these calls, telling the inquest in early July that the commissioners did not give any orders, directions or provide any guidance or advice in respect of the conduct of the siege on the day We cannot identify any forensic utility to you in hearing from them. To claim that NSWs most senior officers had no role in the huge police operation surrounding the cafe siege, which was deliberately inflated into a major international terrorist incident, is absurd. Deputy Commissioner Burn is specifically responsible for counter-terrorism in NSW. In fact, the inquest had already established that Burn phoned assistant police commissioner Mark Jenkins, who was in charge of the polices Forward Operations Command from about 9.30 p.m. on the night of the siege. Seven minutes later, Jenkins was contacted by Commissioner Scipione. The two men reportedly discussed the possibility of a deliberate action plana full-scale police assault on the cafe. The cafe siege was not a terrorist attack, but a hostage-taking incident by a mentally unstable individual, who was well-known to Australian intelligence and police and already facing serious criminal charges. While Man Haron Monis claimed to be acting in the name of ISIS, he had no connections to any terrorist group. Rather than defuse the siege, the Abbott Liberal-National coalition government, backed by the Labor Party and the corporate media, exploited the situation to set in motion an already-prepared national anti-terror operation. Within 90 minutes of Monis taking hostages in the Lindt cafe at 9.44 a.m. on December 15, the population was subjected to a non-stop, all pervasive barrage of newspaper, television and radio coverage, hysterically portraying the incident as a full-scale terrorist attack. These deliberate lies were broadcast globally. Central Sydney was locked down, thousands of people were evacuated and hundreds of heavily-armed police and military personnel were mobilised, including in the states of Victoria and Queensland, hundreds of kilometres away. The siege ended the next day at 2.14 a.m. when heavily-armed police stormed the building after Monis shot the cafe manager Tori Johnson. Monis and Katrina Dawson, were killed and four others wounded in the hail of police bullets. Since it began in early 2015, the NSW inquestone of three official inquiries into the incidenthas taken evidence in four separate blocks. The first examined Moniss personal history, the second his bail on sexual assault and accessory to murder charges, the third heard in camera testimony from the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) about its relations with Monis, and the fourth focussed on the NSW police response to the siege. In April this year, when the inquest turned to the NSW police operation, lawyers for the police argued that any examination of their actions should be held behind closed doors. In the face of widespread public suspicion and many unanswered questions, this proved untenable. The coroner ruled there should be open testimony but all issues dealing with police methodology should not be made public. The coroner, on the recommendation of his senior counsel Jeremy Gormly, has issued 80 non-publication orders40 since April. These directives have ensured the suppression of the names of all but a handful of the most senior NSW police officers involved. The coroner also reduced the number of witnesses called to testify about police operations, from 40 to 17. Testimony thus far has been given by anonymous NSW police negotiators, members of the anti-terror squad that stormed the cafe, senior officers in charge of the operation and witnesses called by lawyers for the Johnson and Dawson families. While tightly restricted, the evidence extracted from police witnesses by the hostage family lawyers has thoroughly undermined official statements made during the siege by senior state police and NSW Premier Mike Baird that negotiations were being conducted by world class negotiators. It was a lie. There were never any direct talks with Monis, who had offered several times to release some of the hostages if he were given an ISIS flag, the siege officially acknowledged as an ISIS attack and he permitted to have an on-air conversation with Prime Minister Tony Abbott. Monis later asked for the street lights outside the cafe be turned off. None of these limited demands, which were suppressed by the media under police orders, was negotiated. Moreover, hours of recordings between negotiators and the hostagesfrom the beginning of the siege at 9.44 a.m. until 1.16 p.m.and hand-written notes have been supposedly lost or destroyed. One of the negotiators attempted to justify this extraordinary lapse by telling the coroner he was not real good with technology. In testimony last month, international negotiation expertsDr Andrew Brown and British Police Chief Superintendent Kerrin Smithcommissioned by the Johnson and Dawson family lawyers, criticised the NSW police for not making any serious effort to negotiate with Monis. Brown noted that no attempt was made to open talks on any of Moniss demands and suggested several obvious options that could have been used. Previous evidence has revealed that several lower-ranking police officials called for some of Moniss demands to be granted in order to defuse the situation. These suggestions were over-ruled by senior officers. Smith said someone with a personal or professional relationship with Monis could have been used to try and secure direct communication. But as the inquest has heard, NSW police categorically rejected offers from people who knew Monis and whom he trusted. These included Keysar Trad, two of Moniss previous lawyersMichael Klooster and Manny Conditisand the Grand Mufti of Australia. The lack of negotiations was not a mistake or due to incompetence, but a decision taken at the top levels of the state apparatus and government. The last thing that the state and federal governments wanted was for the siege to end quietly with Monis arrested. Such an outcome would have immediately called into question the huge anti-terror operation that was set in motion. It would also have led to a criminal trial in which the unstable Monis could have blurted out details of his relations with ASIO and the police. The terrorist attack was very convenient politically. It came in the wake of the federal Coalition governments decision to send Australian military forces to the new US-led war in the Middle East and the introduction of a swathe of new anti-terror laws. A previous terrorist scare in September 2014 involving 800 police and ASIO agents in early morning raids in Sydney had been exposed. Lurid claims of a planned beheading turned out to be based on the discovery of a plastic sword. The concerted efforts to limit any public questioning of the police operation are above all aimed at preventing any exposure of the political machinations that were going on behind the scenes in Sydney and Canberra. If top NSW police officers are cross-examined then their discussions with ministers, state and federal, as well as communications with military, intelligence and federal police, could come to light and raise the issue of them all being called to testify. Two weeks ago the coroner, in response to the continued insistence of the Johnson and Dawson family lawyers, finally directed that Scipione, Burn and Loy should publicly testify. The three were due to appear on August 23 but the inquest was suddenly adjourned when Gormly, senior counsel assisting the coroner, said he had forgotten to give the family lawyers a dossier of crucial police documents. The dossier included emails, SMS texts and handwritten notes, as well as cabinet-in-confidence material from Deputy Commissioner Burn when she personally addressed the NSW cabinet following the siege. The inquest is now due to resume in mid-August, when the commissioners are scheduled to appear. Three months before the US presidential election, the military-intelligence apparatus is engaged in an unprecedented public campaign on behalf of Democrat Hillary Clinton, denouncing her Republican opponent Donald Trump and declaring him unfit and unacceptable for the position of commander-in-chief. Former acting CIA Director Michael Morell fired the first shot against Trump last Friday, in an op-ed column in the New York Times. Fifty former national security officials of Republican administrations followed Monday with an open letter denouncing Trump, also published by the Times on its web site. The language of the open letter is caustic and unequivocal: Trump would be a dangerous President; he has little understanding of Americas vital national interests; he persistently compliments our adversaries and threatens our allies and friends. The 50 signatories declare that some will vote for Clinton, others will not, but none will vote for Trump because they are convinced that in the Oval Office, he would be the most reckless President in American history. The letter describes Trumps character in the harshest terms: He is unable or unwilling to separate truth from falsehood. He does not encourage conflicting views. He lacks self-control and acts impetuously. He cannot tolerate personal criticism. He has alarmed our closest allies with his erratic behavior. All of these are dangerous qualities in an individual who aspires to be President and Commander-in-Chief, with command of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. The list of signatories includes officials of Republican administrations going back to Richard Nixon, with a heavy representation of former top-level officials of the George W. Bush administration. These include former CIA and NSA director Michael Hayden, former director of National Intelligence John Negroponte, former secretaries of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff and Tom Ridge, and former deputy secretary of state Robert Zoellick. Joining them are a large number of officials responsible for some of the worst crimes of American imperialism, particularly the 2003 invasion of Iraq (supported by Clinton) and the subsequent US occupation: Robert Blackwill, Eliot Cohen, Eric Edelman, Peter Feaver, James Jeffrey, Meghan OSullivan, Kori Schake, Kristen Silverberg, William H. Taft IV, Dov Zakheim, and Philip Zelikow, among others. These gentlemen and ladies have much blood on their hands. They held high positions in the Bush administration, which routinely trampled over democratic and constitutional principles, as well as international law, launched the war in Iraq based upon lies, built up the framework of a police-state, and embraced kidnapping, torture and a network of secret prison camps, as well as beginning the drone-missile assassination campaign that has become a major focus of the Obama administration. This background renders absurd the letters claim that those signing it believe that Trump should be disqualified because he appears to lack basic knowledge about and belief in the U.S. Constitution, U.S. laws, and U.S. institutions, including religious tolerance, freedom of the press, and an independent judiciary. It is not democratic scruples that cause them to attack Trump. They may view his fascistic politics as an undue risk at this time, potentially provoking upheavals that could destabilize the US political system. But they are not opposed to such methods on principle, since they backed military dictatorships and fascist death squads overseas when it served the interests of American imperialism. There are, however, significant differences with Trump on foreign policy. In his op-ed last week, Morell denounced Trump as an unwitting agent of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The open letter published Monday makes no mention of any country or world leader, confining itself to a blistering critique of Trumps character and personality. But the subtext is the same. Morell, Hayden, Negroponte & Co. speak for the deep state of unelected military and intelligence officials whose influence and control continues regardless of which party controls the presidency and Congress. They recognize Clinton as a reliable political advocate for their interestsfollowing in the footsteps of Bush and Obamawhile Trump is seen as erratic and inflammatory, and out of step with the drive by the US ruling elite towards military confrontation with either Russia or China, or both. Morell followed up his op-ed column with an appearance on CBS News Monday night, where he called for more aggressive action by US-backed rebels in Syria against the government of President Bashar al-Assad, which is backed by Iran and Russia. We need to make the Iranians pay a price in Syria, he said. We need to make the Russians pay a price. I want to go after things that Assad sees as his personal power base. I want to scare Assad. I want him to think, This is not going to end well for me. In other words, Assad should contemplate the fate of Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi, both lynched after the US-backed overthrow of their regimes. So much for the professed concern for democracy and human rights! The intervention of Morell and of the 50 Republicans, in and of itself, constitutes an unprecedented public effort by the military-intelligence apparatus to influence the outcome of a presidential election. This has enormous historical significance, demonstrating the deep crisis of the US political system, in which the tensions generated by extreme social inequality, prolonged economic slump and endless war abroad are short-circuiting normal democratic processes. Donald Trump is one manifestation of this tendency. The billionaire demagogue is not an aberration, but the product of the promotion and cultivation of ultra-right, racist and fascist elements within the Republican Party over many decades. The Republican establishment was happy to encourage such tendencies and make them its electoral base, only having second thoughts when the most politically-deranged faction began to take over. Clinton is another manifestation of this historical crisis of American democracy. Following the capitulation of Bernie Sanders, whose self-proclaimed political revolution has found its culmination in support for a Wall Street bagwoman, Clinton has turned sharply to the right, appealing to billionaires, Republican reactionaries, and retired generals and spies to unite behind her campaign, while letting it be known that she will accelerate the drive to war in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and the Far East. The breakdown of basic bourgeois-democratic norms is evident in every aspect of the two-party presidential campaign. The two camps speak the language of civil war, denouncing each other in terms which effectively deny the legitimacy of the other party. Trump and his top aides have begun denouncing the election as rigged, 90 days before votes are cast, while threatening a bloodbath on a Clinton inauguration day. At the same time, former national security officials warn of a crisis in civil-military relations in the event of a Trump victory. In other words, they are preparing in advance the justification for a preventive military coup. The savage infighting within the ruling elite is the hallmark of an historic political crisis, in which the working class must not align itself with either of the right-wing factions. Neither the fascistic Trump nor the militarist Clinton offers a way forward to defend the interests of working people: jobs, decent living standards, democratic rights and an end to imperialist wars. The central issue in the 2016 campaign is the struggle for the political independence of the working class from the reactionary filth of capitalist politics. This requires a break from the two-party system and a political struggle against capitalism. This is the focus of the presidential campaign of the Socialist Equality Party and our candidates, Jerry White for President and Niles Niemuth for Vice President. Whatever the outcome of the 2016 elections, whether President Hillary Clinton, as now seems more likely, or President Trump, or some unexpected alternative representative of the US ruling class, the next government in Washington will be the most reactionary in US history. The decisive question is the preparation of a political movement of workers and youth, which clearly understands the need to oppose the new administration from the very beginning, to intensify the class struggle against corporate America and its political defenders, both the two major parties, Democrats and Republicans, and political satellites like the Libertarians and Greens. Everything depends on the building of the independent, revolutionary socialist party of the working class: the Socialist Equality Party. We call on all readers of the World Socialist Web Site to support and build this campaign and to join the SEP. Hundreds of people gathered in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to demand answers Sunday night outside the home of 20-year-old Earl Pinckney who was shot and killed by police the same evening. The young man was pronounced dead shortly after being shot. The Harrisburg police officer who shot Pinckney, whose name has yet to be released, has been placed on administrative leave with full pay. That cop needs to be in handcuffs, one bystander who asked that their name not be used told Pennlive.com shortly after the body was taken away from the scene. Its to the point we dont know if the cops are gonna keep us safe. A women who identified herself as the mother of Pinckneys child was prevented from seeing him, and police declined to answer her questions about what happened. Harrisburg Police Chief Thomas Carter arrived on the scene but also refused to tell upset residents what had happened. At a press conference held Monday morning, police officials began the cover-up, claiming that police were responding to a domestic disturbance, and that when police arrived, Pinckney was holding a knife to his mothers throat in the homes bedroom. The police claim that when Pinckney refused to drop the knife after being ordered, his mother tried to pull away and one of the four officers in the room opened fire, fatally wounding the young man. The District Attorneys office for Dauphin County, which includes Harrisburg, has said they will conduct an investigation. However, they are already repeating the police version of events and stating that the use of deadly force is permitted when another persons life is in danger. The mother of Pinckney, Kim Thomas, disputed the police version of the events, saying her son was bipolar and that she was in the process of defusing a family argument. She said police knew her son was bipolar but not dangerous. They killed my son. They shot my son, Thomas told Pennlive.com. We had a little fight, argument, like families have arguments. Thomas said her son, his sister and her niece were arguing. They were arguing. They got a little rustling, Thomas said. I stopped it. I told everybody to get out of the house. I held my son. I was talking to my son. I know how to control my son. He was calming down. Everything was getting fine. Thomas denied that her son was holding a knife, and she showed her neck to reporters revealing no marks or bruises. She, however, showed reporters a rug burn on her knees that she claimed resulted from police officers efforts to forcibly remove Thomas from her home. Marques Thomas, Pinckneys older brother, told Pennlive.com that more than a dozen police descended on the house, entering the home as well as climbing onto the porch roof. Thomas reported that police shot Earl through a window before ever entering the bedroom. The median household income in Harrisburg, the capital city of Pennsylvania, is just $32,476, or about 60 percent of the national average. Over one third of all people live below the official poverty rate, and nearly one in two children grow up in poverty. The official unemployment rate, 6.6 percent, is well above both Pennsylvania and the United States as a whole. Pinckney was one of at least three people killed by the police across the country on Sunday and into Monday. Jawari Porter, age 25, was killed by Cincinnati, Ohio, police early Sunday morning. Police say that Porter had robbed a grocery store 20 minutes earlier and was armed with a knife. Early Monday morning, two Louisville, Kentucky, police officers shot and killed 57-year-old Darnell Wicker when he reportedly approached them holding a knife and another unidentified weapon. Pinckney was the 701st person killed by the police so far this year, according to the website killedbypolice.net. This is slightly less than the 722 people killed by police at the same time last year. A total of 1,207 people were killed by the police in all of 2015 according to the site. No official figures are recorded of police killings; killedbypolice.net gathers its reports from news accounts and postings on social media. In all three deaths, police have not claimed the victims posed an immediate threat to them, and only in Earl Pinckneys case are police even claiming he represented a threat to another personin this case, his mother. In cases in which killedbypolice.net identified the race and gender of the victims, 299 were white men, 167 black men 116 Latino men, 13 Native American and the others Asian, Pacific Islanders or not identified. Forty-two women have been killed so far this year: 23 white; 10 black and nine others Latino, Native American or not identified. While proportionately black men are three times more likely to be murdered by police than white men, what unites the majority of the dead is their class. Overwhelmingly, the victims are members of the working class, low income or unemployed. Sheikh belonged to the banned outfit Deendar Anjuman, which carried out the bomb blasts in Bengaluru, Wadi and Hubballi in 2000. By Aravind Gowda: The Karnataka CID police arrested a terror suspect in connection with the blasts that rocked several churches in the state in 2000. The accused Sheikh Amir Ali (36), who was on the run for the last 16 years, allegedly planted the bomb at a church in J J Nagar in the city. Sheikh belonged to the banned outfit Deendar Anjuman, which carried out the bomb blasts in Bengaluru, Wadi and Hubballi in 2000. Sheikh was in hiding in Nalagonda district in Telangana from where he was apprehended. advertisement 29 CONVICTED, 5 ARE PAKISTAN NATIONALS So far 29 people have been convicted in the case while five accused are said to be in Pakistan. The police tracked down Sheikh on the basis of leads provided by the Telangana police. A resident of Bengaluru, Sheikh went absconding after other activists of the outfit came under the police's radar. PROBE UNDERWAY The police are interrogating Sheikh to ascertain the whereabouts of others involved in the serial blasts. --- ENDS --- Train conductors employed by Southern began a five-day strike Monday. Southern, a private franchise owned by Govia Thameslink (GTR), plans to impose Driver Only Operation (DOO) on its routes by August 21, threatening conductors jobs and livelihoods. Train conductors perform safety critical roles, including the operation of train doors. Under the system of Driver Only Operation (DOO), these duties would be forced on the driver, with conductors downgraded into becoming full-time revenue collectors, with no job security. The strike, the latest in the dispute, is the longest rail stoppage in England in 50 years, since a 12-day walkout in 1968, when the state-owned British Rail operated the UKs rail network. Southern is the main rail operator for the counties of Sussex and east Surrey and runs vital services to London, Kent, Hampshire and Buckinghamshire. GTRs attacks are being spearheaded at the highest levels of government, as the official policy of the Conservative government is for DOO to be introduced nationally. Just before standing down as Prime Minister, David Cameron used Prime Ministers Questions to make a high profile attack on the Southern conductors. In response to a request from a Tory MP that he condemn the strike, not over jobs, not over wages, but over who gets to press a button [to open and close doors], Cameron replied, I condemn any industrial action that disrupts the travelling public, and rail passengers will not thank the RMT and ASLEF [rail unions] for their recent unnecessary disruption. As the strike began, a tweet from the office of Camerons successor, Theresa May, read Downing St: The Prime Minister strongly condemns the strike action. We are deeply disappointed. In an article in the Conservative-supporting Telegraph, David Leam, infrastructure director at London First, a lobby group for the capitals businesses, denounced the strike as ludicrous, shameless and wrong. Leam was a Special Adviser to three Secretaries of State for Transport under the 1997-2010 Labour government. In a statement which could apply to any worker, Leam stated, The underlying issue here is the prevalence of outdated working practices, which contribute to the high-cost culture of Britains railways. The railways have been tremendously successful in attracting new passengers they have been much less so at improving their efficiency, he continued. The attacks on conductors jobs were necessary as, Workers in all walks of life need to adapt and change as new technologies emerge. Modern trains no more need a guard to close doors than they need a fireman to shovel coal or be preceded by a man with a red flag to alert fearful passers-by. Urging the government to go on the offensive, Leam said the dispute raises the question whether government is, in fact, being too timid. In reality, Southern GTR is the worst performing private rail franchise in the UK and its entire operation is an indictment of the privatisation of the rail network. It has the worst cancellation rate of any franchise and has not recruited the necessary staff to run an operation vital to the economy, responsible for facilitating 165 million passenger journeys per year. Reports have emerged that because of constant cancellations and delays, a number of commuters have ended up losing their jobs. Service has been so threadbare that commuters have protested regularly. Despite relentless company and government propaganda against conductors, many passengers support the strikes. By July, Southern was already cancelling around 250 trains a day. The service had collapsed to such an extent that Southern was forced, in agreement with the government, to committee to a basic level of service. An emergency timetable was introduced, with fully 350 trains a day cancelled from its service. As a result of the emergency timetable, under legislation favourable to the privatised franchises, Southern receives no financial penalties for cancelled services while passengers continue to suffer. In response to the reduction of services, commuters organised further angry protests against Southern. The unions, however, oppose mobilising their members against this politically-led offensive against both rail workers and commuters. In an August 5 statement, the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) noted that GTR is being set up as a testing ground for a national union-busting experiment. However, the RMT played down the significance of this, stating, That nonsense should be stopped right now and the union allowed to get back to normal industrial relations, free from outside interference. In preparation for DOO, Southern have already advertised for on-board supervisors, with no responsibility for train safety and a much-reduced rate of pay. The 393 members of the RMT at Southern supported the strike by a massive majority. On an 81 percent turnout, 306 workers voted to strike, representing 77 percent of the total membership. The determination of conductors to oppose the companys plans was seen in their solid support for the strike. The stoppage caused widespread disruption with Southern stating that 946 trains out of 2,242 services (40 percent) would be cancelled each day of the strike. Southern have also drafted in many managers to run trains in a pre-planned strikebreaking operation. There is evidence that the strike had a deeper impact than the company admits. A number of routes, including the line from Hurst Green to Uckfield and between Redhill and Tonbridge, did not operate any service at all. The only reason that any services are running at all on Southerns network is because the rail unions have already previously agreed that DOO services can be run on many lines now under Southerns control. In this, the rail unions are implementing official Conservative government policy. The attack on conductors roles stem from the 2012 McNulty recommendations; the Lord hired by the last Labour government to slash 20,000 jobs, impose backbreaking productivity increases and remove the assumption of automatic annual pay increases. The Tory government adopted the report as policy in 2014. The RMT has suspended scheduled strikes against DOO on a number of occasions. Once again, in the days leading to the Southern strike, they did everything possible to ensure this weeks strike did not go ahead. First off, the RMT agreed to hold talks with management under the auspices of the ACAS arbitration service. Last week it suspended strike action by workers employed by ScotRail over DOO, after reaching an initial agreement with the company. It then offered the same deal to Southern. On Friday, two days after boasting of suspending all ScotRail industrial action, RMT leader Mick Cash wrote to Southern managing director Charles Horton, pleading, The offer this union is making to Southern is as agreed with Abellio Scotrail this week, an agreement that enabled us to suspend our industrial action. Cash said the deal guaranteed a Conductor on every train, that the Conductor will retain their full competency (rules, track safety, evacuation) and that ScotRail confirmed that trains operating these services will not run without a competent Conductor on board. But the union stressed, These proposals, including the above guarantees, are subject to ScotRail and the RMT entering into discussion about, and agreeing to, a method of train dispatch for these services. Once this proposal and the method of dispatch are agreed it will be adopted for the Abellio ScotRail franchise and will apply beyond. This would be the thin end of the wedge as talks over the method of train dispatch can result, on the basis of further union collaboration, the removal of the responsibility of the conductor from train door operations and eventual elimination of their role. According to a study published in 2013 by McNulty, around 30 percent of all UK rail passenger services are DOO. The percentage is certainly higher today. The rail unions have already agreed to this with London Overground (LO) in an operation that saw the elimination of 130 conductors from its trains serving 112 stations. As well as LO, many DOO services operate in and around London on some of the busiest routes in the UK. GTR run entirely DOO operations on its Thameslink and Great Northern routes. Twelve-car DOO trains now operate on Great Northerns busy commuter line between Londons Kings Cross and Peterborough. This attempt by the union to end the dispute on terms favourable to the company followed a July 8 open letter to Horton from Cash in which he pledged, The RMT will suspend calling any further industrial for the next three months if you will also suspend your proposals for a similar period. Rail workers throughout the UK are facing the brunt of an onslaught attacking their jobs, wages and conditions. Along with the ScotRail and Southern disputes, workers on the Merseyrail local franchise around Liverpool are also currently in dispute over DOO. Train drivers on Southern trains and Gatwick Express services are balloting for strike action against the imposition of new rosters and 1,000 station and ticket office staff are balloting over the closure of ticket offices and imposition of a new role of station host. A referendum in Thailand on Sunday formally endorsed a new anti-democratic constitution, which effectively enshrines military rule, even if elections are held. The document was written by the military junta, known as the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), which seized power in May 2014. The country has had 20 constitutions and more than a dozen coups since the end of the absolute monarchy in 1932. The new charter allows the prime minister to be an unelected official, such as a general, appointed by the two houses of parliament. It will make the senate 100 percent appointed by the military, while weakening the powers of the lower house. Elected MPs can be removed easily by powerful anti-corruption bodies. According to the Election Commission, with 94 percent of votes counted on Sunday, 61.4 percent voted for the constitution, while 37.9 percent rejected it. Turnout was low, however, at just over half Thailands 50 million eligible voters. Big business welcomed the result, which sent the Thai stock exchange up 1.55 percent on Monday to its highest level since April 2015. Carl Berrisford, an analyst at UBS CIO Wealth Management in Hong Kong, told Reuters the outcome might be a vote of confidence in the junta. Tsutomu Soma from Tokyo-based SBI Securities said: Stability in Thailand is likely to remain, which should encourage inflows to continue for now. Claims that the result represents a democratic endorsement of the constitution are a sham. Self-appointed prime minister and coup leader Prayuth Chan-Ocha had threatened that if voters rejected the constitution, the military would simply draft another. Elections promised for next year would then likely be delayed again. The junta is determined to maintain its grip on power and prevent the return of parties linked to the Shinawatra family, which have won every election since 2001. The military ousted the billionaire Thaksin Shinawatras government in a coup in 2006. A Thaksin-linked government elected in 2007 was removed in what amounted to a judicial coup in 2008. The Pheu Thai Party government of Yingluck Shinawatra, elected in 2011, was overthrown by the military in 2014. The military and royalist elites were bitterly hostile to Thaksins attempts to open the economy to more foreign investment, cutting across entrenched interests. The Pheu Thai Party won a base of support among the urban and rural poor through its limited reforms, including a subsidy scheme for rice farmers. The NCPO intends to permanently outlaw such policies, which it labels corrupt and vote buying, and impose the full burden of the countrys economic crisis on the workers and farmers. In the lead-up to the referendum, the NCPO banned public criticism of its draft constitution. At least 120 people have been arrested for activities such as distributing leaflets calling for a No vote. If found guilty, they could be jailed for up to 10 years. The number of people detained could be higher. Since the coup, more than 500 people have been arrested and 68 charged lese majeste, that is, insulting the monarchy. According to the group Fortify Rights, a further 1,300 people, including some No campaigners, have been taken to military-run camps for attitude adjustment courses. Media censorship was strengthened ahead of the vote. Peace TV, run by supporters of the Pheu Thai Party, was shut down. At the same time, army cadets were mobilised throughout the country to encourage a Yes vote. On polling day, 200,000 police were deployed in anticipation of protests. At least 10 bomb blasts targeting power lines in the southern Narathiwat province over the weekend were used as a further pretext for the security clamp-down. On polling day, the Nation reported a schoolteacher was killed and two policemen injured when their convoy transporting referendum ballot boxes was hit by a roadside bomb. No suspects have been identified. In the impoverished northeast region, police launched a major anti-crime operation over the weekend, which may well have been timed to intimidate opposition in the referendum. According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), police arrested 240 people for possessing weapons, 1,908 on drugs charges and a further 1,488 people for gambling. A majority of voters in the northeast, a base of support for the Pheu Thai Party, voted against the proposed charter. According to the Nation, several people are being investigated for tearing up their ballots at 30 polling booths in 18 different provinces. One activist, Piyarat Chongthep, was arrested in Bangkok for tearing his ballot and shouting: May dictatorship fall, may democracy prosper. Last month, ambassadors from the US, Canada and European Union countries issued a letter criticising the prohibitions on the peaceful public expression of views ahead of the referendum. However, they did not criticise the anti-democratic character of the new constitution. The US considers the Thai military an important regional ally. The NCPOs crackdown reflects fears in the Thai ruling elite that the escalating social crisis caused by its policies will spark unrest. In 2010, tens of thousands of pro-Thaksin protesters, drawn mostly from the urban and rural poor and led by the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD), marched on Bangkok against the unelected military-backed government led by the Democrat Party. On May 19 2010, soldiers opened fire, killing more than 80 unarmed protesters and injured 2,100. In 2014, thousands of people again protested against the preparations for a coup. The UDD leaders, however, subordinated the movement to the Pheu Thai government as it desperately tried to reach a deal with the armed forces to stay in power. At every point, the UDD promoted illusions that the military would not carry out a coup, even after it declared martial law. Underscoring their prostration before the junta, Pheu Thai and the UDD accepted the legitimacy of the referendum, making only muted criticisms of the NCPOs crackdown. Acting Pheu Thai leader Wirot Pao-in told the media: The reason most Thais accepted the constitution is because they want to see a general election quickly. All sides must now help move the country forward. According to AFP, leading UDD member Thida Thavornseth blamed the masses for the result, saying: It seems that right now people trust the military more than politicians. Such statements underline the fact that the UDD and Pheu Thai represent rival factions of the ruling class that are just as fearful as the military of any independent movement of the working class in defence of living standards and democratic rights. The Undercover Policing Inquiry (UPI) chaired by Lord Pitchford has rejected an investigation into police spying on the Workers Revolutionary Party (WRP). The decision confirms that the UPI is a damage limitation exercise, concerned with cleaning up the fall-out from several high-profile court cases rather than conducting an independent investigation of anti-democratic measures against political organisations and individuals. The UPI would never have been set up if it had not been for investigations by activists targeted by undercover policing, lawyers and a handful of journalists that led to reports in the media emerging in 2010. They revealed that undercover police officers from the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) and the National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU) had infiltrated hundreds of political groups since 1968, using a wide range of deceptive techniques. These included using the names of dead children, forming long-term relationships and even fathering children to unsuspecting individuals as part of building their cover story, and then suddenly disappearing. The resulting court cases led to the Metropolitan Police Service admitting abuses of human rights and paying millions in compensation. The issue of police spying on the WRP resurfaced last week when actor Ricky Tomlinson called on Pitchford to overturn his decision to refuse him core participant status in the inquiry. Tomlinson says he and others, known as the Shrewsbury 24, were wrongly prosecuted for their activities in the 1972 building workers strike when he was a plasterer and union activist. Tomlinson was given a two-year sentence, Des Warren three years and four others lesser sentences. The strikers were blacklisted by employers and unable to work in the building industry again. Pitchford refused to designate Tomlinson a core participant on the grounds that he has failed to demonstrate that an undercover officer (CHIS) cultivated a relationship with him or the organisations he associated with that resulted in conviction and blacklisting. In a classic Catch-22, the terms of reference of an inquiry meant to uncover secretive police operations rules out participation on the basis of suspicion or hearsay or evidence of non-undercover activitiesfor example, the use of a plain-clothed police officer as a spotter or observer engaged in surveillance and intelligence. There is, therefore, no requirement for the police to reveal operations they instigated, only for their victims to prove they took place. Pitchford also rules inadmissible complaints made relating to the convictionthat the prosecution was politically motivated, that an ITV programme Reds Under the Bed, broadcast on the day the prosecution case concluded, prejudiced a fair trial, and that the catch-all charge of conspiracy to intimidate [levelled against the Shrewsbury pickets] was an inappropriate one. Reds Under the Bed was broadcast in 1973, at a time of mass industrial unrest, claiming to show the influence of militants and Marxists in British politics, industry and trade unions. In making his decision, Pitchford singles out for special treatment Tomlinsons demand that the inquiry investigate the role of undercover policing in political groups and Tomlinsons declaration that it was inconceivable that the WRP were not infiltrated by [a] CHIS [Covert Human Intelligence Source]. Ignoring well-documented information revealed by ex-MI5 agents Peter Wright, David Shayler and others that indicate that the WRP and its predecessor, the Socialist Labour League (SLL), the British section of the International Committee of the Fourth International until it broke with Trotskyism in 1986, were targets of long-running undercover police operations, Pitchford accepts as gospel the testimony of another police spy whose claims of WRP violence, by implication, place it outside the pale. Speaking in a 2002 BBC documentary series, True Spies, Special Branch officer Tony Robinson declares that the Workers Revolutionary Party, which had been supported by Mr Tomlinson, were not reticent in promoting violence in support of their aims. Those aims included subversion of the democratic system of government. In a subsequent section he develops the WRP-violence-Tomlinson amalgam, declaring Mr Tomlinson was, he accepts, a union activist who spoke at public meetings in support of the Workers Revolutionary Party. He was charged with conspiracy to intimidate in February 1973. Effectively refuting charges of violence, Pitchford elsewhere in his deliberations refers to the fact that, There were no arrests or complaints made on the day of the picketing in Shrewsbury and that it was Five months later, on 14 February 1973, allegedly at the instigation of the Shrewsbury employers and the Home Office, 24 individuals, including Mr Tomlinson and Mr Des Warren, were arrested on suspicion of unlawful assembly, intimidation, affray and the common law offence of conspiracy to intimidate, in connection with their visit to Shrewsbury. Tomlinson declared Pitchfords decision absolutely ludicrous. Why not give us the benefit of the doubt? Why is [it] always in the establishments favour? He added that the police play a game. We have got to find the evidence to give to them to say that a foul has been committed. They have the evidence and they do everything in their power to stop you getting it. Tomlinson is correct. It is virtually impossible for those suspecting police infiltration to identify exactly who is involved because the police will Neither Confirm Nor Deny who the culprits are and refuse freedom of information requests about their activities. Documents deemed to affect national security and the intelligence services are locked up for 30 years or more. As a result nearly all the cases being accepted for core participant status are those that are already in the public domain and only came to light because the names of some undercover operatives were either disclosed by the agents themselves or uncovered by their victims. Pitchfords remarks show how the Trotskyist movement and the dangers of its revolutionary perspective being adopted by the working class is a vital concern for the ruling class. The case of the Shrewsbury 24 took place against the background of escalating confrontations between the working class and the Conservative government of Edward Heath, which culminated in the 1974 miners strike. Heath was forced to call a snap election on the basis, Who runs the country, the government or the unions? but lost, leading to the return of a minority Labour government, which refused to overturn the sentences. The SLL/WRP was in the forefront of the struggles in this period, including against the imprisonment of Tomlinson and Warren. Following his release from prison, Warren joined the WRP, which in 1982 published his book The Key To My Cell, in which he condemned the trade unions leaders as paid mercenaries and traitors to the working class, and his abandonment by the Communist Party. The continuing sensitivity of the Shrewsbury/WRP case is evident in other recent events. Last year Cabinet Office minister Oliver Letwin confirmed the withheld documents would not be released until 2021 at the earliest. In May this year human rights organisation Amnesty International revealed that in 1975, following repeated UK government intervention, it dropped Des Warren as a prisoner of conscience without informing him or his solicitors. The pressure came from Labour Home Office minister Alex Lyon. At the time Amnesty secretary-general was Martin Ennals, whose brother David Ennals served alongside Lyon as a Foreign Office minister in Harold Wilsons government. Amnestys capitulation meant it was open season on Warren, who died in 2004 from Parkinsons disease, blamed on the liquid cosh of drugs given him in prison. The Criminal Cases Review Commission has still not decided whether to send the Shrewsbury 24 case to the Appeal courts four years after the campaign group submitted its request. In its submission to the Pitchford Inquiry, the Socialist Equality Party rejected its terms of reference, which means that hardly any political organisations have been designated as core participantswhich is especially peculiar, given that the focus of the inquiry is the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) which was specifically created as part of high-level political operations against the left. The SEP submission demanded the immediate release of the names of all undercover police operatives, especially those active in the Workers Revolutionary Party (and its forerunners and successor organisations), their pseudonyms and dates of operation. On Sunday, August 7, millions of people gathered throughout Turkey in the latest round of demonstrations against the failed coup of July 15. In an unprecedented show of unity, the largest demonstration was organized in Istanbuls Yenikap parade ground with the participation of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), the main opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP) and the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), along with their follower organizations and numerous NGOs. The Democracy and Martyrs Rally was organized upon the call of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. It was apparently the largest rally in Turkish history. The state-run Anatolian Agency and Istanbul Police Department gave the number of participants as close to five million, while Reutersand many European news agenciesreported participation by more than one million people. According to the authorities, some 7,000 municipality buses and more than 200 boats and passenger ships provided participants free transport service. However, the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party (HDP), the third-largest party in Turkey, was not invited to the rally, on the grounds that it maintained its links with the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is waging a guerrilla war against the Turkish state. One of the main features of the rally was, for the first time in the history of the country, the participation of the command echelon of the Turkish army in a rally along with the political parties. Gen. Hulusi Akar, chief of the Turkish general staff, said in his speech at the rally that the people behind the attempted coup, the Fethullah Terrorist Organization or FETO, should be sentenced to the heaviest penalty. MHP Chairperson Devlet Bahceli, who was the first to provide open support to Erdogan and his government against the coup attempt, called the rally a fresh chapter in history, saying, A new voyage begins from Yenikap. In his address to the rally, CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said that the defeat of the July 15 coup attempt marked a new beginning for the country. The July 15 coup attempt has opened up a new door of compromise. After July 15 there is a new Turkey. If we can carry this power and the culture of reconciliation even further, we will leave a better Turkey for our children, he said. Emphasizing that all political leaders should take lessons from the attempted coup, Kilicdaroglu repeated the points he made at his Republic and Democracy Rally of July 24 in Istanbul. He expressed nominal support for the republic and for democracy, for equality before the law, for the importance of the parliamentary system, and called for an independent media. He declared that politics should be left out of mosques, barracks and courthouses in the post-coup Turkey. Since the failed putsch, carried out by sections of the military and with the undoubted acquiescence of WashingtonTurkeys Incirlik Air Base, which hosts thousands of American soldiers and is the main base for the US-led bombing campaign against Syria and Iraq, was the organizing center of the coupthe AKP government has arrested or detained over 60,000 political opponents, closed at least 15 universities and over 1000 private schools. Also a large number of news agencies, television and radio stations, newspapers and magazines and publishing houses allegedly close to FETO have been shut down. Describing the coup attempt and popular resistance against it as Turkeys second war of independence, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim praised the leaders of CHP and MHP for their support for the national will and democracy. He quoted from the poems of well-known right-wing, left-wing and Islamic Turkish poets and vowed to maintain and boost the atmosphere of reconciliation between the government and the opposition. We will do our best to maintain this historic unity, he said. In his speech to the crowd, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan weighed an attempt to present an air of compromise and unity with harsh words for Turkeys Western allies, saying, Our presence today upsets our enemies just like it did on the morning of July 16. Erdogan harshly criticised the German government for preventing him from addressing the rally of some 40,000 people, who gathered last week in Cologne to denounce the coup attempt in Turkey, via a video link. Where is democracy [in Germany]? he asked, claiming that the German authorites had permitted the PKK to broadcast a video conference from the Qandil Mountains in Iraq. Let them feed the terrorists, they will hit them back like a boomerang, he said. He reiterated his stance that the decision on a reinstatement of the death penalty in Turkey would be left up to Turkish lawmakers, saying, I will approve reinstating the death penalty if the parliament approves. The Democracy and Martyrs Rally in Istanbul has drawn media coverage in the US and Europe. However, in line with their governments, the media largely focused on the post-coup investigations and suspensions, and Erdogans show of strength after the coup attempt (Reuters). The international media outlets have hardly dealt with the reasons and far-reaching consequences of the attempted coup, which cost hundreds of civilian lives and was defeated by mass opposition. Largely isolated from their Western allies, Erdogan and his government effectively use mass opposition to the coup to strengthen their position against the US and Germanythe powers, that apparently backed the coup attemptby promoting nationalism. Thus Prime Minister Binali Yildirim stated that the attempted coup had unified the country. Every coup which does not kill us, makes us stronger. Just like here and now, he said, while Erdogan referred to the faith and determination of this nation. Today, (August 9), Erdogan will visit Russia to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time after the shooting down of a Russian military aircraft by Turkish fighters last November. Following the replacement of then Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu by Binali Yildirim in late May, the AKP government has sought to reorient the countrys foreign policy, especially in the Middle East. Soon after he took office, Yildirim said that he had the aim of increasing the number of Turkeys friends, while reducing the number of its foes. He quickly attempted to improve Turkey's relations with Russia and Israel in late June and expressed his willingness to do the same with Iraq, Egypt and even Syria. However, a possible rapprochement between Istanbul, Moscow and Damascus is not acceptable to the Western powers. Turkey has played a key role in the US-backed war for regime change in Syria and NATOs aggression against Russia in the recent period. That support is now under threat, warned the Wall Street Journal in a recent article. According to the newspaper, many of the top Turkish military and intelligence officials involved in funneling money and arms to assist the largely Islamist rebels in Syria, including the commander of Turkeys 2nd Army responsible for the borders with Syria and Iraq, have been arrested for their involvement in the coup. The generals who were leading the Turkey-Syria policy and the Turkish policy on Syrian Kurds are all in jail now, and we now see the crumbling of the Turkish security establishment, said Gonul Tol, director of the Center for Turkish Studies at the Washington-based Middle East Institute. This makes Turkey very vulnerable and weak, and will make it less confrontational. A West Virginia coal miner has died from burns sustained in a fire July 29 at a Wyoming County mine notorious for accidents and safety violations. According to the state Office of Miners Health, Safety and Training, mine maintenance supervisor Donald Workman was welding with another miner at the surface of the underground Road Fork #51 mine when the shaft below suddenly ignited. A statement from the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) detailed that the two miners were performing welding repairs on a dewatering pump located on the surface near a shaft. The miners were welding threaded blocks that would be used to fasten guarding for the shaft. The miner who was with Workman told investigators he heard a roaring noise and moved away from the pit, but Workman was in the direct line of the blast. The survivor said a large blue flame blew out of the shaft. Workman, 58, of Gilbert, West Virginia, suffered second- and third-degree burns. He was transported to a local medical facility where he died August 4. He had been the maintenance supervisor at Road Fork #51 since 2004. Workmans death brings to seven the number of coal miners killed on the job in the US this year. It is the third fatality in a West Virginia mine since January. Road Fork #51 is operated by Spartan Mining Company, which is a subsidiary of Alpha Natural Resources, one of the largest coal producers in the US. The operation employs 156 miners, mostly underground. Unlike other mines in the region, the pit has been increasing its output in the past few years. MSHA data indicates that in the past five years, as the rest of the industry has been decimated, Road Fork #51s annual production has more than doubled. In 2010, the mine produced 291,581 tons for the year. In the first six months of 2016, miners extracted 367,286 tons. The ramping up in production has not coincided with a proportionate increase in employment, let alone an improvement in conditions. The mine, located between the towns of Pineville and Wyoming, has a history that predates MSHA records, and has changed hands numerous times, from Consol Energy up to the mid-1970s, National Mines Corp. until 2005, and Massey Energy until it was acquired by Alpha Natural Resources. In June 2011, Alpha purchased Massey in a $7.1 billion deal. Alpha later agreed to a $210 million settlement with the Justice Department, in exchange for immunity from criminal liability for the deaths of 29 miners at Masseys Upper Big Branch Mine or accidents at other former Massey mines, including Road Fork #51. The companys immunity was based on assurances to the Obama administration that Alpha would improve safety conditions at the Massey mines. In a series of blitz inspections in May 2012, MSHA inspectors found that not only were improvements not implemented at Road Fork #51, the hazards were egregious enough to warrant immediate evacuation of the mine. In fact, MSHA officials arriving at the mine for an inspection found management attempting to locate the source of thick smoke emanating from the site while miners were still underground. Smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and fire suppression systems were inoperable, and explosive coal dust had accumulated in layers of up to 18 inches thick in places. When MSHA issued an imminent danger order to the mine, the Obama administration swiftly intervened on Alphas behalf to keep operations running. US attorney Booth Goodwin praised the companys substantial progress in improving safety, declaring, The company has made great strides in addressing the systemic problems it inherited after the merger. Likewise, the West Virginia Office of Miners Health, Safety, and Training downplayed the dangers in the mine, claiming that the thick smoke incident MSHA inspectors had witnessed had produced no fire and no CO and only a light coating of rock dust was on the belt. In reviewing the data, it is clear that the occurrence of a fatal accident was only a matter of time. Near misses and injuries are reported with alarming frequency. Injuries have increased sharply in the mine over the past year. In the first six months of 2016, MSHA records indicate at least 11 injuries, for an incidence rate of 14.15compared to a national injury incidence rate of 3.56 for comparable mines. The mine also far exceeds the industry average on MSHAs Injury Severity Measure. So far this year, the mine has been cited 145 times for safety violations, including for inadequate roof supports, inoperable fire detection and suppression systems, and neglect of other basic safety measures. In the past 12 months, the mine has been issued 65 significant and substantial citationsa designation reserved for life-threatening hazards. Although this exceeds MSHAs threshold of 50 such citations determining a pattern of violations that would trigger higher scrutiny of the mine by inspectors, the federal agency does not consider Road Fork #51 as a pattern violator. Like other major coal producers, Alpha declared bankruptcy in 2015 in order to carry out a restructuring at the expense of the jobs, wages and pensions of miners. Last January, a federal bankruptcy judge approved Alphas request to pay 15 high-ranking executives up to $11.9 million in bonuses during 2016. India will not show any mercy to those who turn pick up guns against the state, a top official said. By Abhijit Majumder: India would strictly play it by the book in Kashmir, exercising utmost restraint in dealing with peaceful citizens but showing no mercy to those using violence against the State, one of the topmost persons in the national security establishment has told Mail Today. "Every stratum of security has been asked to exercise complete restraint in dealing with citizens. But terrorists will not be spared. In fact, the desperation of separatists is triggered by systematic elimination of terrorists in the Valley. Action against terror will continue, and in that, security forces have a free hand," he said, requesting that he not be named. advertisement RISING INFILTRATION Admitting that infiltration from across the border has risen, he said so has elimination of terrorists. The central and state governments have started quietly reaching out to people from all sections of the Kashmiri civil society to calm their nerves, he said. This comes at a time when parts of Kashmir have erupted with protests and violent clashes after security forces killed local Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in a shootout. So far, 55 people including two CRPF men have died in the ensuing turmoil. Some have started comparing the situation with the bloody and turbulent 1990s, when militancy reached its peak and Pandits were cleansed from the Valley. "This is not even remotely close to what happened in the '90s," said the senior government official. "But even supposing it were so, should we be intimidated? Has any group or individual achieved anything in independent India through violence?" He said, "The basic right of every organism, individual, and even a nation is the right to self preservation. INDIA ACTING IN SELF-DEFENSE India has the right to act in self-preservation against terrorists sent or sponsored by Pakistan and we will do it." Will the State stop using the much-vilified pellets guns? "We are perhaps the only country which uses non-lethal weapons against mobs using stones, guns and grenades. Imagine the casualty if we had used bullets instead of pellets," he said. State Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti was in for praise. 'POINTLESS SPEAKING TO SEPARATISTS' Taking considerable political risk, Mufti has been doing a little more than what any other J&K chief minister would do to defuse the situation, he said. He ruled out speaking to separatists. "It is pointless speaking with people who have no power to take decisions, who have a gun held to their heads by Pakistan." The senior official said the media needed to stop either being hyper-nationalistic or taking the separatists' line. "In our jingoism, we often pit India against Kashmiris. We forget they are our own people, and only a very small section is working in Pakistan's interest. advertisement Such coverage deepens faultlines and places citizens against citizens." According to the official, incidents of violence have been reported in nine of the state's 22 districts and recruitment for terror is happening in five or six districts, mainly in south Kashmir. "An overwhelming majority of Kashmiris is disgusted by all this. Many of them - some of them local imams - are being bullied by terrorists at gunpoint to join protests," he said. "We need to empower this majority." Also Read: Kashmir unrest: Centre likely to hold talks with all stakeholders Hizbul Mujahideen chief Salahuddin threatens nuclear war between India, Pakistan --- ENDS --- A police official said, that the syndicate installed a chip to read the ATM numbers and a camera that discloses the pin number. The investigation team has identified three foreign nationals who had withdrawn money. Photo: PTI By Jeemon Jacob: Kerala is shocked after a global syndicate secured the pin number of many people and withdrew money from their bank accounts without their knowledge. Kerala police has issued directives to customers of State Bank of India, Federal bank and of other banks who had withdrawn money from five ATMs in Thiruvananthapuram where the robbers used skimmers and cameras to get the password of customers who had used the ATMs on June 30, July 3 and 4. advertisement HOW DO THEY DO IT According to Additional Director General of Police B. Sandya, operation was simple, "The looters installed skimmers and web cams in the ATMs and sourced the pin numbers of people and withdrew money from Mumbai." Kerala police designated Inspector General (I.G) of Police Manaj Abraham to head the investigation on high tech bank loot by the crime syndicate. According to ADGP Sandya, the investigation team has identified three foreign nationals who had withdrawn money. A police official said, that the syndicate installed a chip to read the ATM numbers and a camera that discloses the pin number. POLICE SHOCKED "We have never come across such a crime operation in Kerala. It reveals the chinks in banking security application. Rs 4.5 laks reported to be lost," the senior police official said. Kerala has been a hot spot for cyber crimes for sometime now, especially bank frauds. Earlier it was lottery scams that looted many people. "They paid money to unknown people who mailed them that they had won mega lotteries. Most of the victims were literate and highly educated persons including wives of retired civil servants. Greed has no limit, a police official said. "But the ATM scam is totally different. And the tools are different," he added. --- ENDS --- NEW YORK (AP) - Delta Air Lines is the latest airline forced to scramble following a crippling technological outage. The airline cancelled hundreds of flights and more than 1,000 were delayed worldwide following a power outage in Atlanta. Here's a quick rundown of other days that proved trying for both airlines and passengers. 2016: -July 20 - Southwest Airlines had a computer router failure that forced the cancellation of about 2,000 flights and the delay of about 7,000 more flights over three days. The company suffered a similar outage in October of 2015 that delayed 800 flights. -July 8 - United Continental grounded all of its flights worldwide for two hours, citing issues with a router. The airline had a similar issue in June. -January 14 - JetBlue delayed flights after power was disrupted during maintenance operations at a Verizon data center. The data center hosts the airline's systems, including its website, mobile app and check-in systems. 2015: -October 29 - Alaska Airlines delayed about 20 flights because of a computer glitch. The problems impacted programs for check-in and pre-flight departure paperwork. -September 17 - American Airlines halted flights to several major U.S. hubs for about 2 hours because of connectivity issues. The glitch prevented passengers in Dallas, Chicago and Miami from checking in for flights, and customers may have been unable to make reservations. -August 15 - A technical failure at a flight control center in Virginia prompted widespread flight delays and cancellations throughout the northeastern U.S. (Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.) VALDOSTA, GA (WTXL) -- A two alarm fire at El Potro Mexican Restaurant is still under investigation, according to the Valdosta Fire Department. Crews responded to the fire at 1173 St. Augustine Road just after 8 a.m. Monday. The fire was under control around 10:30 a.m., said the department. When crews arrived they could see flames and heavy smoke coming from the building. A total of 15 fire units and 35 fire fighters battled to put out the fire. Nobody was inside the business at the time of the fire. At this time the cause of the fire is still under investigation. MARIETTA, Ga. (AP) - Authorities say a former Cobb County Republican Party chairman has been indicted on child molestation charges. The Atlanta Journal Constitution (http://on-ajc.com/2aVJ5Jv ) reports that jail records show 71-year-old Joseph Russell Dendy was arrested in May at his West Cobb home where on separate occasions he allegedly molested two boys, ages 4 and 12. According to the indictment, Dendy faces 13 charges including child molestation, first-degree cruelty to children and aggravated sexual battery. Prosecutors at his June bond hearing said Dendy has been molesting children over a span of 55 years. Dendy served two, two-year terms as leader of the Cobb GOP and was succeeded last year by his vice chair, Rose Wing. Dendy is being held at the Cobb County jail without bond. It's not clear if he has an attorney. TALLAHASSEE, FL (WTXL) -- Leon County has its first case of the Zika virus, but officials say not to worry. The Florida Department of Health in Leon County was made aware of the case Friday. This is not a case where the virus was transmitted locally. Rather, it was contracted through travel. However, the county took action over the weekend. Leon County Mosquito Control canvassed the neighborhood where the virus was located Saturday. "They went door to door from the properties, and they provided spraying services upon request," said Mathieu Cavell, public information officer of Leon County. "They also educated citizens on how to control mosquito breeding in their area, 'drain and cover,' and then, they also dumped out standing water for those citizens, too." The county health department is not providing more details about the individual with the virus or the neighborhood that was canvassed. Governor Rick Scott announced last week that all county health departments in the state would provide zika testing to pregnant women free of charge. *An earlier version of this story said that the pipeline would go from Taylor County to Wakulla County. The pipeline will only be in Taylor County. TALLAHASSEE, FL (WTXL) -- Commissioners from two north Florida counties are working together to stop a controversial pipeline from being built. They claim it would pour toxic waste into the Gulf of Mexico. Joy Towles Ezell is a sixth-generation Taylor County resident. She says the Fenholloway River had been safe and clean for years -- prior to the Foley Cellulose Mill. "Before that, we had been swimming in the river," she said. "It was crystal clear. The boys dove for pennies in the river. It was that clear." But since the mill was built, Towles Ezell says the river hasn't been the same -- springs have dried up and dead fish have been spotted floating in millions of gallons of toxic waste called "effluent." "The Fenholloway -- it's my river, and when I finally became grown, I decided that I had to do something to help clean it up," she said. "It was my duty." She's not alone. Tuesday, Wakulla County commissioner Howard Kessler and Leon County commission chair Bill Proctor said they worry about the river, too. "We boat there. We recreate there," Proctor said. "That's very important, so there is a stake in what happens in keeping this area habitable, desirable." The mill, operated by Georgia-Pacific, is trying to build a pipeline in Taylor County where it can dispose of the effluent. "If you allow that pipe to just take its effluent now and put it to the gulf, we're going to be hurting our environment, our economy," Kessler said. Kessler and Proctor wrote a letter to U.S. Senator Bill Nelson, urging him to encourage the Army Corps of Engineers to deny Georgia-Pacific its permit. The commissioners are also calling for an immediate shutdown of the Foley plant and requesting a comprehensive marine impact study. "Georgia-Pacific is one of the worst polluters in the state of Florida," Proctor said. "They have a track record that is long and very clear -- that they do not care about the environment." Towles Ezell says the pipeline would harm thousands in the area -- if the plan goes through. "My feelings are for the river," she said. "They're for the Gulf of Mexico. They're for my neighbors in Wakulla County and Leon County and Jefferson County -- and all the counties that touch the Gulf of Mexico. Everybody who owns property there or fishes or scallops or gathers oysters or grows oysters is going to be affected by this pipe if they build it." Kessler says a public meeting about the pipeline will be held Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at the Wakulla Springs Lodge for anyone interested in sharing concerns about the plan. Senator Nelson's office has confirmed it has received the commissioners' letter and is currently reviewing it. Georgia-Pacific provided WTXL with the following statement: "The administrative order requires Foley Cellulose to commence construction of the pipeline by March 6, 2019, after completing significant improvements to the effluent treatment system. Over $100 million in mill process improvements have already resulted in significant water quality improvements in the Fenholloway River. Foley Cellulose will complete significant improvements to the effluent treatment system by March 6, 2019, and then relocate the treated effluent away from the fresh water portion of the Fenholloway river to the tidal portion of the river at mile marker 1.5 by March 6, 2021 at a cost of $70-$100 million. The primary reason for relocating the discharge to the tidal portion of the river is to address the salt content of the treated effluent. Salinity will not pose a concern at the relocation point because the salt content of the treated effluent is less than that of the brackish water in the lower reaches of the river. Upon completion of complete project, the entire Fenholloway river system will meet Class III standards, acceptable for recreational use. Georgia-Pacific and its Foley Cellulose mill are committed to meeting clean water standards, and improving and protecting the quality of the Fenholloway River." WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Florida health officials say they're investigating a case of Zika virus infection in Palm Beach County that was likely contracted in the United States. Gov. Rick Scott said in a news release Monday that the Florida Department of Health is working to determine the source of the infection. The infected person had recently traveled to Miami-Dade County, where more than a dozen non-travel-related Zika cases were discovered last week. The release says health officials still believe active transmissions of the mosquito-borne virus are only taking place within an area smaller than 1 square mile in Miami-Dade County. With the new school year starting, the release also says Scott has directed state health and education officials to work together in providing Zika prevention guidance and resources to students, parents and educators. CUMMING, Ga. (AP) - Authorities are continuing to search for a missing Florida man who fell out of a boat on Lake Lanier. The Times of Gainesville (http://bit.ly/2azDkAy ) reports that search crews were using sonar equipment Monday morning to try to find 23-year-old Kevin T. Husum of Panama City, Florida. Georgia Department of Natural Resources spokesman Mark McKinnon says Husum fell from a pontoon boat in the Three Sisters Island area of the lake Saturday afternoon and did not resurface. Officials say the water in the search area is between 40 and 80 feet deep. Authorities say the boat's operator, Kenneth Toller of Cumming, was arrested on charges of boating under the influence. It's unclear whether he has an attorney. ___ Information from: The Times, http://www.gainesvilletimes.com (Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.) Krishna Raj Kapoor is in hospital, but is stable and doing fine now. Krishna Raj Kapoor is likely to be discharged from the hospital on August 10 By India Today Web Desk: Krishna Raj Kapoor, wife of late filmmaker-actor Raj Kapoor, has been admitted in a south Mumbai hospital. But she is stable and fine, said her son and actor Randhir Kapoor. ALSO READ: Randhir Kapoor talks about Kareena Kapoor's pregnancy ALSO READ: What Randhir Kapoor has to say about daughter Karisma's divorce "She is in the hospital now, but she is stable and doing fine. There is nothing to worry. She will get discharged by tomorrow," Randhir told IANS on August 9 (Tuesday). advertisement Randhir, father of actors Karisma and Kareena Kapoor, earlier told Mumbai Mirror, "My mother complained of breathlessness because of which we got her admitted. Doctors are continuously monitoring her health. Her condition is stable now and she should be discharged by Wednesday. She underwent a few tests and the results were normal. She is being given routine medication." The Kapoor matriarch was hospitalised earlier this year too. --- ENDS --- You are the owner of this article. USA's Lilly King had slammed Russian Silver medallist Yulia Efimova for being caught "drug cheating" and stated that she was "not a fan" of the Russian swimmer. By Indo-Asian News Service: American swimmer Lilly King has apologised to Russia's Yulia Efimova for not congratulating her on winning a Silver medal in the women's 100 metres breaststroke at the Rio Olympics. (RIO 2016 FULL COVERAGE) King slammed Efimova on Sunday for being caught "drug cheating" and stated that she was "not a fan" of the Russian swimmer, reports Sputnik. advertisement Finishing first in the women's 100m breaststroke on Monday, King did not congratulate Efimova but hugged fellow American swimmer Katie Meili, who won Bronze. "If I had been in Yulia's position, I would not have wanted to be congratulated by someone who was not speaking highly of me. So if she was wishing to be congratulated, I apologise," King told reporters. She also congratulated Efimova on a "fantastic swim" as well as expressed her readiness to compete with the Russian swimmer in the future. On the eve of the Rio Olympics, Efimova was cleared by the International Swimming Federation to take part in the competition, successfully winning her appeal against a doping ban imposed in July. --- ENDS --- Authorities on Wednesday arrested Kevin Zyph, a suspect in a July shooting at the Toppenish Yakamart, after a multi-county chase in Idaho. Submit An Obituary Funeral homes often submit obituaries as a service to the families they are assisting. However, we will be happy to accept obituaries from family members pending proper verification of the death. Go to form Sinh, his estranged wife Manoranjana and a chartered accountant allegedly entered in criminal conspiracy to cheat Canara Bank (Janpath Branch) by availing loan of Rs 7.5 croer on the basis of forged documents in 2005 for setting up a music channel in Guwahati. By Shivendra Srivastava: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a charge sheet against former Union Minister Matang Sinh and 10 others including his erstwhile company NE Television Network Pvt. Limited (then based at Gole Market) for allegedly cheating Canara Bank to the tune of Rs 7.5 crore. The chargesheet has been in the Court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Patiala House Courts, New Delhi, today. advertisement THE CONSPIRACY CBI sources said Sinh, his estranged wife Manoranjana and a chartered accountant allegedly entered in criminal conspiracy to cheat Canara Bank by availing loan of Rs 5 crore and over draft facility of Rs 2.5 crore on the basis of forged documents in 2005 for setting up a music channel in Guwahati. The employees of the company allegedly diverted the funds sanctioned on the basis of forged/ fake proforma invoices, invoices, bills of fictitious/on paper companies and misused the same. Sinh is also facing CBI probe in Saradha ponzy scheme case. --- ENDS --- One of the fastest-growing markets in recent years is the dental industry, with an annual turnover of several billion. According to a study conducted by the Israel Export Institute, there are more than 100 Israeli companies working in the industry, a 50 percent increase compared to a decade ago. Their exports are similarly impressive, with more than $540 million generated in sales abroad in 2013-2014. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter About two months ago, the Israel Export Institute launched its dental industry department, similar to other departments already operating in the organization, such as homeland security, automotive, oil and gas, life sciences, and more. The aim is to help Israel in becoming a global industry leader also in terms of exporting advanced technologies and solutions in the field of dental health. Within the dental industry the leader is implants, but in addition, the industry includes other dental health fields in which Israeli companies are active, says Raphaele Moog, Manager of the new Dental Technologies Department at the Israel Export Institute. According to her, the institute realized that the new industry should be developed, and therefore needed its own designated department due to the sharp increase in Israeli companies working in the industry. Currently, more than 100 companies are represented, many of which are looking for a way to break into the international market. Photo: Shutterstock Based on a study we conducted, we realized that the industry exported more than half a billion dollars worth of goods in 2013-2014. There is not only a gradual increase in the number of companies in the industry, but also in their export figures. Furthermore, the most important datum is that, of the total number of Israeli companies in the field, some 40 percent are in the initial stages of exports, and another 40 percent are in various stages of development. This is a new Israeli industry and, as such, it is important that the Israel Export Institute promote it. Helping companies export Dror Kanion (49), VP of Research and Business Development at Meodental, represents one such company the Export Institute helps with exports. The company, established nine years ago, developed a teeth whitening product based on a technology Marcel Halberstam created, allowing hydrogen peroxide to be stabilized without the use of heavy metals, in a completely ecological way, making the product a standout in its category. In recent years, the company has participated in the International Dental Show held every other year in Cologne, Germany, exhibiting its wares in the Export Institutes national pavilion. Photo: PR Our company is almost exclusively devoted to exports; thats our goal, says Kanion. We develop our products in Israel, and manufacture them both here and abroad, all using our own formulas. Currently, the company exports to 20 countries, mostly in Europe, Africa, and Asia, as well as Australia. Recently, the company signed a contract with a US supplier, too with the help and support of the Export Institute. The Export Institute doesnt limit its help to newcomers. Several of the large companies in the field also receive help to develop new markets. One such company is AB Dental Devices, which devotes itself to research, development, and providing complete solutions to oral and mandibular medicine, and exports to 61 countries around the world. These days, we talk not only about exporting dental implants, as we did in the past, but focus more on providing complete solutions, says Orna Bar-Shalom, a co-owner of the family business. "From the stage at which we generate a treatment plan for a patient, through planning the actual implant using 3D technologies, to printing the stents, dental implants, and even the tools the dentist will use to implant them. Photo: PR The company also receives support from the Chief Scientists Office when it comes to its research. Early on, it also participated in the IDS trade fair as a member of the Export Institutes pavilion. When we grew, we were forced to leave the shelter of the Export Institute. In recent years, we turn to them for information about new export markets and access to their various databases, Bar-Shalom adds. One-third of our sales are local, while the rest go to exports. The Israeli market is considered to be more advanced in the field, and our future lies in exports. In recent years, weve made a point of expanding the infrastructure required to realize that goal. Lucrative exits in the dental industry In recent years, some Israeli companies have also made some lucrative exits in the dental industry, Raphaele Moog notes. This is especially true of implant companies that were bought up by some large global firms. The quality of Israeli industry sells well in the world, and giant international and multinational conglomerates have bought Israeli companies in recent years for hundreds of millions of dollars. Such companies include Urident, which developed caps for children and was bought about ten years ago by Dentsply for $95 million. In 2008, AlphaBioTec, was bought by Nobel Biocare for $95 million. Cadent too, which developed a technology for 3D scans, was bought in 2011 by Align Technology Inc. for $190 million. The record was set last year when MIS Inc., an Israeli implant manufacturer, was bought by Dentsply Sirona for $375 million. This article was co-written by the Israel Export Institute. WASHINGTON- Fifty prominent Republican national security officials, including a former CIA director, on Monday called party nominee Donald Trump unqualified to lead the country and said he would be "the most reckless president in American history." The statement was the latest repudiation of Trump's candidacy by veteran Republican national security specialists, and was remarkable for the harshness of its language. "Mr. Trump lacks the character, values, and experience to be president. He weakens US moral authority as the leader of the free world. He appears to lack basic knowledge about and belief in the US Constitution, US laws and US institutions, including religious tolerance, freedom of the press, and an independent judiciary," the statement said. "None of us will vote for Donald Trump," said the statement, which noted that some signatories also have doubts about Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. "From a foreign policy perspective, Donald Trump is not qualified to be president and commander in chief," said the statement, which was first reported in the New York Times. "Indeed, we are convinced that he would be a dangerous president and would put at risk our country's national security and well-being." UNITED NATIONS - Experts painted a graphic portrait of barrel bombings, attacks on medical facilities, chemical weapons use and the ongoing suffering inside the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo, shaming the international community for its inaction at an informal Security Council meeting Monday organized by the United States. Dr. Zaher Shaloul, a Syrian-American doctor from Chicago, said medical facilities in eastern Aleppo are routinely targeted, creating a situation where people are dying from treatable conditions for lack of medical care and basic supplies. Shaloul, who last visited Aleppo in July, said he asked a nurse there what she wanted most from the United Nations and she replied that she wanted help evacuating a 10-year-old girl named Shahd who was wounded by a barrel bomb and is now dying due to a shortage of medicine. "We don't need condemnations, prayers or pointing fingers, we had enough of that. I ask you to meet the people of Aleppo and see them as humans. I have one request, besides saving Shahd, visit Aleppo yourself and meet with its doctors, nurses and patients. If three doctors from Chicago were able to do that, you can do it," Shaloul told diplomats. MK Itzik Shmuly (Zionist Union) criticized on Tuesday morning a bill proposal by Likud MK David Amsalem that would protect the prime minister from criminal investigations over minor offenses while in office. "This is a new level of disrespect to the public and undermining of the rule of law," Shmuly said. "The Likud has crossed another red line today on its way to turning Israel into a monarchy." He added that "at this rate, Israel's citizens will aspire to be like Erdogan's Turkey." Contractors beyond the Green Line do not need to worry about being sanctioned for safety hazards at their constructions sites, because the Economy Ministry's Institute for Occupational Safety and Hygiene does not operate in the West Bank. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The ministrys absence has resulted in an increase in the number of work-related accidents in the area. In addition to not being subject to any inspection, contractors at West Bank construction sites are also not required to report work accidents to the institute, unlike their counterparts inside the Green Line. On Tuesday, July 12, a 22-year-old construction worker from Si'ir, near Hebron, fell from a height of three meters at a construction site in the settlement of Beitar Illit in Gush Etzion. He suffered injuries to his head and back as a result and had to undergo surgery in his back. This accident was not reported to the Economy Ministry's Institute for Occupational Safety and Hygiene. A week and a half ago, a photo made its way online of a construction worker standing on a concrete skip in mid air, which was being lowered by a crane to pour concrete. The dangerous incident occurred at a site managed by the construction company Y. Stern in Modi'in Illit, an ultra-Orthodox settlement. The construction worker standing on the concrete skip in Modi'in Illit (Photo: Forum for the Prevention of Work Accidents) The photo, posted on a Facebook page dedicated to the prevention of work accidents, elicited angry reactions from professionals in the field. "As a crane operator, I am ashamed. As a crane operator, I call to revoke (the operator's license). As a crane operator, I call for the closure of the construction site," one such professional wrote. To demonstrate the extent of unsupervised construction beyond the Green Line, Ynet's sister publication Yedioth Ahronoth found that 2,372 apartments were built between 2013 and March 2016 in Modi'in Illit, Beitar Illit and Ariel alone. "Everyone was in shock to learn that there is no supervision there, as if it's another country," said a construction worker at a site in Modi'in Illit. Meanwhile, the Institute for Occupational Safety and Hygiene explains that the responsibility of supervising work sites in the West Bank belongs to the IDF. Y. Stern said in response: "The company has conducted a comprehensive internal investigation and several actions have been taken: Stopping work at the site, fining the sub-contractor, changing the crane operator and rebuking those involved in the incident." For several minutes on Monday, Orit Muki, Sagi's mother, wept from her home in Netanya after her son lost his battle for an Olympic bronze medal to the Lasha Shavdatuashvili from Georgia. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter "As far as I'm concerned, Sagi didn't lose," said the proud mother. "You have no idea how he suffered in the weeks before the Olympics because of a back injury." The emotional mother added, "People don't know, but two weeks ago I was the one who put his socks on for him. He just couldn't because of the pain. Muki is a determined boy, and at a difficult weight of 73 kilograms, he won three fights and gave his all despite intense pain." Sagi's parents (Photo: Dana Kopel) His father Rahamim also enlisted family members at the Menachet Mordechai synagogue near the family home to pray and send strength to Sagi so he could win a medal. After the loss, the disappointed father said: "We really wanted him to win, but even though he lost, he had an amazing result." Sagi's mother went on to say that she was not disappointed with the final result. "Sagi outdid himself. People don't understand that he had an ankle injury and the moment he started to recover from that, he injured his back. He was beset by some bad luck, but he still outdid himself. I saw he wasn't in a good mood and he was struggling with the injuries, but he still fought like a lion and we are very proud of him for his incredible journey at the Olympics." Sagi Muki following his loss (Photo: Oren Aharoni) Following his loss, Sagi spoke about the back injury he sustained from and the long day of fights. "At the start of the day, I felt good, but fight after fight my back hurt more and more and I knew that's the way it would be. I didn't feel in top shape, and three weeks out of the last month I didn't train and my preparation got messed upI was suffering from two slipped disks," Sagi said. "I didn't give up. Regardless of the back injuries I knew I was worthy of a medal. It's a shame it went wrong in the end. I'm happy that at least I fought, I didn't give up because it isn't in my nature to do so and that is how I was brought up. I will keep fighting in the next Olympics too. I hope I didn't disappoint anyone," the young fighter concluded. Shortly after the loss, Muki also posted his feelings on his Facebook page: "I am pleased with the fight despite the problems. I proved to myself that no matter what, I can handle anything." Echoing the words of his mother, he added, "I handled the injuries like a lion. I will rest a little and come back healthy and strong for the next journey: Tokyo 2020." Judoki Sagi Muki (Photo: AFP) The mayor of Netanya, Miriam Feirberg-Iker, praised Sagi as well, despite the loss and said "the residents of the city of Netanya are proud of Sagi Muki's achievement and praise this talented and wonderful athlete." Israel's General Security Service (Shin Bet) and the Israel Police arrested a Palestinian employee of the United Nations in Gaza who is suspected of exploiting his position at the UN Development Program (UNDP) to provide material assistance to Hamas, it was cleared for publication on Tuesday. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Waheed Abdallah Borsh , a 38 year old from Jabalia in northern Gaza, allegedly abused his position at the UNDP, which implements, among other things, rehabilitation and development projects for the Gaza population with a particular emphasis on restoring homes destroyed during Operation Protective Edge in 2014. Photo: Shin Bet Borsh, who was arrested on July 16, worked as an engineer in the UNDP since 2003 and was mainly responsible for the demolition of houses damaged during the armed conflict and the removal of waste from the demolition sites. The Shin Bet investigation found that Borsh was instructed by a senior Hamas official to use his position at UNDP to extract maximum benefits for the terror organization. The investigation revealed that Borsh carried out a number of different activities which benefited the terror organization. In addition to other abuses, in 2015 he helped build the marine docks for the military wing of Hamas in the northern Gaza Strip, using resources provided by UNDP. It also emerged that in 2015, Borsh used the tasks entrusted to him to provide preferential rehabilitation efforts in areas in which Hamas officials resided. According to the Shin Bet, Borsh confessed to the charges leveled against him. He was indicted on Tuesday at a civilian court in Be'er Sheva. Furthermore, he divulged the details of cases in which Hamas would flagrantly exploit the UNDP to its benefit. For example, when weapons or terror tunnels openings were discovered in homes being handled by the UNDP, Hamas would confiscate the weapons and take control of the sites. Hamas military site obliterated during IAF strike after organization fires rocket into Sderot (Photo: AFP) Moreover, Borsh revealed details about Hamas tunnels and military bases which he had been exposed to during his work. One of the most important details provided by Borsh was that other Palestinians working in international aid organizations are secretly working for Hamas. The Israeli Foreign Ministry released a statament on the matter: "Israel updated the UN secretary-general's office and the heads of the UNDP in New York on the arrest and the charges (against Borsh)," the statement read. "We expect the UN, and particularly the UN's aid organizations, to unequivocally condemn Hamas for the exploitation of the aid mechanisms, and to take concrete action to ensure humanitarian aid reaches those who need it and not the heads of Hamas." The revelations come just days after it became public knowledge that the Shin Bet had arrested Mohammad El Halabia senior official in the international aid orgaization World Visionwho stands accused of siphoning off $7.2 million of humanitarian funding to Hamas. The incident disgraced World Vision causing Australia and Germany to suspend the charity's activities. LONDON - A British man who killed a fellow Muslim because he felt he had disrespected Islam has been sentenced to at least 27 years in prison. Tanveer Ahmed admitted stabbing and beating shopkeeper Asad Shah to death at his Glasgow convenience store in March. Prosecutors said Ahmed, 32, told police his actions were motivated by Shah's "disrespect (for) the Quran, the Prophet Muhammad, Allah and faith." Shah was a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community, which differs from mainstream Islam in that it doesn't regard Muhammad as the final prophet. Ahmed did not know his victim but had seen statements he had posted online. Judge Rita Rae sentenced Ahmed Tuesday to life with no chance of parole for 27 years. She said he committed a "barbaric" crime and had shown no remorse. An Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) Heron 1 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) crashed during a training flight near Umm al-Fahm in northern Israel on Tuesday afternoon. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The UAV crashed into a house in the village of Zalafa in Wadi Ara, causing a fire to break out. As a result, seven people who were in the house at the time, among them five children, suffered from smoke inhalation. The seven were taken to the HaEmek Medical Center in light condition. The site of the crash (Photo: United Hatzalah) The site of the crash The IAI said it was investigating the causes of the crash. The Transportation Ministry initially reported that the UAV crash landed on an abandoned house. Barring a last minute change, come Thursday, doctors at government hospitals in Israel will go on strike over plans by the Ministries of Health and Finance to prohibit senior doctors, who are department heads, from carrying out surgeries in private clinics. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter As part of the strike, hospitals will work according to Shabbat protocols, wherein all nonessential treatments and surgeries will be postponed. The strike is expected to increase the workload in hospitals and thus extend already prolonged waiting periods. Mother of an intern (Photo: Dana Kopel) The Israel Medical Association declared the strike following disputes last week. "We're talking about offensive behavior that is unilateral and lacking good faith on the part of the government. The goal of the strike is to create dramatic changes in the working conditions, salaries, and statuses of doctors," said the IMA. "We are protesting the intention to prohibit the right of doctors to perform private work or practice. These rights have been in place for decades and have been enshrined in collective agreements and civil service regulations," the statement continued. Another reason for the strike relates to government plans to limit the tenure of hospital administrators and department managers. The Association for State Hospital Doctors also joined the strike, whose chairman Dr. Nimrod Rahamimov said, "we are at a point where our backs are against a wall and we are fighting for the soul of Israeli medicine. It is a war of necessity. We will not allow Treasury officials to ruin our lives." IMA chairman, Dr. Leonid Eidelman, protested the "implications for the doctors, which restrict their professional judgment and harm their ability to maintain their professional and ethical obligations." Photo: Shutterstock Health system officials have expressed surprise at the decision of the doctors to strike. "It appears as if the doctors aren't particularly worried about the public health system, but rather more their own pockets. The goal of the Ministry of Finance is to strengthen the public health system, and we would expect senior doctors to welcome that." Mirsham, the organization of medical interns in Israel, said in response that "for two months already, interns who are carrying the public health system on their backs, have been leading a hard struggle against the difficult conditions in which they work and against the service Israelis receive in hospitalsand the IMA, which is supposed to represent them, has not made a sound. Now they are declaring a labor dispute and striking against hospitals and the steps taken by the Ministry of Finance. It is too little too late. Where were they until now, when for years interns and public health were being harmed?" By PTI: From Aditi Khanna London, Aug 9 (PTI) A 19-year-old suspect, charged with the murder of an American national during akniferampage in central London last week, was told today that he would face trial in the case in February. Zakaria Bulhan, a London-based Norwegian national of Somalian descent who is charged with the murder of 64-year-old Darlene Horton and the attempted murder of five other people, was told he will stand trial at the Old Bailey court in London from February 6, 2017. advertisement The trial date was set by the recorder of London, Nicholas Hilliard, and is expected to last two weeks. Bulhan, who appeared via video-link from his police custody prison cell, covered his mouth with his hands throughout the hearing and spoke only to confirm his name. Prosecutor William Emlyn-Jones told Hilliard that Bulhan had no representation in court. A plea hearing for the case has been set for October 25. Horton, a retired teacher, had been visiting London with her husband Richard Wagner, who was teaching summer classes in Britain. Two women and three men ? Yovel Lewronski, Lillie Selletin, Martin Hoenisch, David Imber and Bernard Hepplewhite ? were also injured in the attack at Russell Square in central London on Wednesday. Once charges have been framed against a suspect in the UK, reporting restrictions come into place to ensure a fair trial. PTI AK SUA AKJ SUA --- ENDS --- Captain Shadi Bashir, a commander in a bedouin brigade, has been arrested on suspicion of stealing a large amount of ammunition and weaponry from a bunker in the Rimon brigade base, it was cleared for publication on Tuesday afternoon. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Another soldier, Adi Zoabi who serves as a driver, was also arrested along with his father Mohammed. The Military Police are currently investigating the case in which the two are suspected of breaking into the bunker and stealing 77 frag. Grenades, 13 LAU missiles and a MATADOR missile designed to strike buildings in times of war. According to the suspicion the soldier and his father sold the weapons to criminals. In addition two residents of Umm al-Fahm in the Haifa district were arrested for suspected links with crime families. The district court in Beer Sheva discharged these two individuals on Monday however but extended the arrest of Mohammed Zoabi by a week. Bashir and Adi had their arrest extended by three days. Mohammed Zoabi (Photo: Chaim Hornstein) In May soldiers in the elite Rimon brigade discovered that their bunker had been broken into and that a significant amount of military equipment had been taken. Accordingly, the Criminal Investigations Division (CID) and the police began gathering evidence from the area before discovering that Bashira 24-year-old resident of Zarzir near Nazarethand Zoabi used their responsibility of guarding the bunker to steal the equipment in a military vehicle. The investigation also revealed that the two transferred the weapons to Adis father, who already has a criminal record and is known to the police. The police say that the commander has confessed to the charges leveled against him and even reconstructed events. They added that during the week an indictment will be issued against Bashir, Adi and his father. However, Bashir insisted that he attempted to stop the theft from taking place at the time but was threatened with his life and therefore forced acquiesce in the crime. LAU missiles (Photo: Israel Police) Bashir also claimed that he did not know the criminals who acquired the weaponry and that he did not receive a single shekel for any sales. The secret investigation included wire taps. The arrest of the three suspects was made possible by the undercover investigation conducted over the past few months by the CID and the police which included bugging the suspects. The police believe that the weapons were intended for settling scores in the criminal underworld. The defense attorneys representing Bashir have said that their defendants case is different to that of the other suspects. He did not take part in the theft and he is not a collaborator in it. Our client acted under threats to his life and to his family and he was therefore unable to stop the conspiracy. The defense team added, his version of events is known to the investigators from the different investigative units. It is regrettable that they are continuing to tarnish his name and the good name of his family, all the children of which serve in combat units in the IDF. The lawyer representing Adi Zoabi and his father also said, The two deny the charges against them. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. We will solidify our defense after receiving the material pertaining to the investigation. The IDF spokespersons unit released a statement on the case praising the investigative efforts and results which it yielded. As part of the IDF activities which include preventing the theft of military equipment, the CID and the Israel Police conducted a wide scale investigation which concluded with the capture of those involved in the theft and the transfer of different weapons to criminals. There have been numerous studies on the relationship between Islam and peace in addition to Islam and liberty. Beyond the smoke and mirrors that mainstream media and politicians feed public opinion, there is strong evidence to suggest that a triangle of incompatibility constrains these three forces. In other words, there can be domestic peace and civil liberties without Islam; civil liberties and Islam without domestic peace; or domestic peace and Islam without civil liberties. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter This triangle of incompatibility is evident on a global scale. Of the 49 predominantly Muslim countries in the world, only Tunisia and Senegal are classified as free societies by the Freedom House Institute which monitors political and civil liberties throughout the world. This means a whopping 96% of predominantly Muslim states are partially authoritarian or entirely totalitarian. Among predominantly non-Muslim countries the percentage of free societies is proportionately 14 times greater. These indicators show that the Islamic world lags behind the non-Muslim world in its political evolution - thus suggesting that democratization ought to be a desirable next step. However the chaos and bloodshed following the ouster of autocrats during the Arab Spring suggests that this democratization was ill-advised. Indeed, domestic peace crumbled when political liberalization encountered Islamic politics. Egyptian police during demonstration of Journalist Association (Photo: AP) The sole Middle Eastern countries that have not succumbed to strife nor been riveted by terror attacks following the Arab Spring have been those like Jordan, Algeria, Morocco or the Gulf States where elections are not free and civil liberties are curtailed. This triangle of incompatibility could be just another paradigm to understand Middle Eastern politics. Unfortunately, this paradigm also highlights the difficult choices that will need to be made by Europe and the United States during the coming decade. For example, Israel secured a modicum of domestic peace and civil liberties after Independence by pushing the bulk of its Islamic population beyond its borders through the so-called Palestinian Nakba. From 1967 until the Oslo Agreements, which led to the establishment of the Palestinian Authority, Jews in the West Bank enjoyed relative peace, because the political freedoms of the local Islamic population were curtailed. As soon as political rights were granted to this population, a recrudescence of violence cost thousands of Jewish and Arab lives throughout Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. China and Putins Russia have enjoyed relatively high degrees of domestic peace while hosting huge Islamic populations. This has been achieved by restricting civil liberties via draconian limitations on religious rights and freedoms of expression. The pressing question is: How can the West maintain civil peace now that it hosts burgeoning Islamic communities coaxed by radical preachers and the heavenly rewards Islam promises to its martyrs? The triangle of incompatibility suggests that Europe and the United States can either espouse the anti-Islam policies promoted by Trump and far right-wing parties in Europe in order to secure long-term domestic peace and civil liberties; adhere to civil liberties and sacrifice domestic peace in order to accommodate Islam; or curtail civil liberties to quash the threat to peace posed by Islamists on one end and nativist reactionaries on the other end. Right now, the Obama administration and the moderate politicians running European governments have chosen to jeopardize domestic peace by pretending that traditional Western rights and liberties can be reconciled with the presence of growing Islamic communities. The recurrent coordinated and lone-wolf terror attacks in the USA and Europe suggest this course is not sustainable. Given the vastness and complexity of the problem, it is unlikely that the path the West selects will be clear-cut: Domestic peace, civil liberties and Islam will each be constrained to differing degrees in different countries. Some countries, particularly in Eastern Europe, will prefer to constrain Islam to secure greater spaces for domestic peace and civil liberties; more progressive societies such as those in Western Europe will opt to sacrifice spaces of domestic peace and civil liberty in order to co-exist with Islam. Indeed, authorities in particularly progressive Sweden and Germany have already resorted to censorship of media articles and social networks to hush voices that link Islamic sub-cultures to rape attacks, crime and terrorism. Under these circumstances, the best outcome we can hope for is for the non-Muslim world to juggle domestic peace, civil liberties and the religious rights of Muslim minorities more wisely than the Muslim world. This could convince a critical mass of Muslims that respect for domestic peace and civil liberties not fealty to Islam are the keys to a brighter future. An Israeli app has managed to near the top of the paid iPhone app list and take in millions of dollars. Photomyne, a startup in Bnei Brak, developed an app to scan old photos from albums and digitalize them for smartphone users. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Photomyne was founded a year and a half ago by Nir Tsemah (the CEO), who was one of the founders of LabPixies, which Google acquired in 2010; Omer Shor, who previously made an app to process photos; Natalie Verter, formerly a user-experience designer at HP, and Yair Segalovitz, who comes from the field of finance and business development. In addition to them, the company employs eight employees in Bnei Brak, close to the Ayalon Mall. The app was launched a year ago. It sought to solve the following problem: Every family has photo albums that are digitally inaccessible. Segalovitz explained, "The average family in the US has more than 3,000 photos in albums. Scanning services tend to be very expensive. Nir and I agreed that this situation didn't make sense." Contrary to other apps, Photomyne doesn't require the user to photograph each picture individuallythe user can photograph the entire album page on their smartphone, and the technology successfully isolates and crops the pictures from the background, saving the photos individually. The app is available on the Apple App Store in two versions: the basic, free version and the full version costing $5. Deciding to charge is a rare: Most app developers choose to share their apps for free. Segalovitz admitted, "A lot of people told us that there's no chance that anybody would pay." L-R: Yair Segalovitz, Nir Tsemah, Natalie Verter & Omer Shor Today, a year after the app's release, 20 million photos have already been scanned using Photomyne by the 1.2 million persons who downloaded, more than half of whom have chosen the paid version. Apple takes a 30% cut from each purchase, so the company has made a profit thus far of 2-to-3 million dollars from downloads. While not a huge sum, it's a rare feat for a young app from Israel. As of Monday, Photomyne was 14th on top list for paid apps in the US App Store and in third place for the photo and video category. In March, the startup raised $2.6 million in funds from Israeli investors, and it is recruiting new employees. The app is currently only available on the iPhone, but the Android version is expected to be released in the coming months. Regarding plans for the future, Segalovitz said that they don't want "to remain just a scanning tool. In the end, we'll be able to become an historical data storage service with old pictures from around the world." SANAA- Airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition bombed a food factory in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa early on Tuesday, killing 14 civilians working on an overnight shift, according to a factory official and medics. Five women were among those killed in what effectively was the resumption of heavy bombardment by the Saudi-led alliance targeting Yemen's Shiite rebels and allied forces loyal to Yemen's ousted president. The resumption comes after UN peace talks on Yemen collapsed over the weekend in Kuwait. The airstrikes also signal the end of a fragile truce declared by the United Nations in April to pave the way for peace talks. BEIRUT- The United States delivered $50 million worth of military assistance to Lebanon's army to help it battle against Muslim extremists near the border with Syria on Tuesday. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter US Ambassador to Lebanon Elizabeth H. Richard told reporters at Beirut's port that the latest assistance is in "an entire ship full of military equipment." A US Embassy statement said the shipment includes 50 armored Humvees, 40 Howitzers and over 1,000 tons of ammunition. The US has been speeding up delivery of ammunition to help Lebanon's military combat jihadi groups near the border with Syria. Soldiers from the Lebanese Armed Forces on the border with Syria (Photo: AP) "This year alone, we provided over $221 million in equipment and training to the Lebanese security forces," Richard said. "I'd also like to point out that Lebanon is the 5th largest recipient of United States foreign military financing in the world." In March, Washington delivered three Huey II helicopters, raising to 10 the number of such US- made aircraft in Lebanon's fleet Washington has provided more than $1 billion in military assistance to Lebanon since 2006. Saudi Arabia previously had a deal to send $3 billion in aid to the small Levantine nation,but suspended the aid package following Beirut's failure to condemn attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran in February. Following the success of the Mabet 2000 security camera system in the Old City of Jerusalem which takes live feeds from cameras all over the Old City and feeds them into a central video bank the Jerusalem Police have decided to widen the scope of the program over the rest of the city of Jerusalem. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The Jerusalem Police will be able to continuously watch over the entire city, and quickly dispatch police forces to any area in the event of a disturbance. Eventually, street light cameras and cameras on the Jerusalem Light Rail will be incorporated into the central situation room. The system of cameras in the old city has helped security forces during security breaches, investigations, and in the search for terrorists. They have also helped in solving criminal cases. Inside the Jerusalem Police Operations Room (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg) Over 400 cameras are operating at all times in the old city, helping to find terrorists who carried out stabbing attacks during the recent wave of terror. The cameras have been able to follow terrorists as they flee deep into the old city, helping direct security forces to where the terrorist was hiding. The police commander in charge of the Old City, Commander Doron Turgeman, said that "we are approaching 95% coverage there's nothing like it anywhere else. It's something every police commander dreams of." The situation room is full of dozens of screens with live feeds from the cameras, showing everything that happens in the Old City in real time. "All of our forces are in the field, and all of them receive the same situation reports in real time. We know how to stop an attack before it happens," the Turgeman said. An additional 193 cameras will be positioned around the city, and will record 24/7. The live feeds will be sent to a central operations room at the Jerusalem Police Department Headquarters, and the people monitoring the feeds will be able to get a general picture of what's happening in their areas of responsibility. There will also be several cameras which will be able to read license plate numbers by the end of the year. The Jerusalem Police Operations Room (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg) The additional cameras being set up will include cameras on the Jerusalem Light Rail, and the flashpoint neighborhoods of Silwan, Wadi Joz, Isawiya, as well as throughout west Jerusalem. Interior Security Minister Gilad Erdan talked about the initiative during the launch of a pilot project to equip Israeli Police Forces with body cameras. He said that all of the cameras both in Jerusalem and on the bodies of police officers is part of an overarching technological vision for the police. Even though I've never voted for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, I feel obligated to defend him when others do him an injustice, as they frequently do. He's not Putin, not Trump, and certainly not Erdogan. Such foolishness usually comes from the camp that regales us with warnings of "the end of democracy," "the budding of fascism," and "the 1930s." Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter In the framework of this parade of foolishness, the New York Times published an op-ed last week called " How Benjamin Netanyahu Is Crushing Israels Free Press ." Just in the past fortnight, I've published three articles in Hebrew that have justified part of the claims from the right, and I refuted allegations expressed against the prime minister. I intended to write another article in this never-ending debate, this time in response to the American piece, and I started checking the factual allegations published there. But this time, unfortunately, it was a bit different. It turned out that one facta very significant onewas correct. According to the article, the prime minister applied pressure to get a certain piece taken off a news site. The piece remains, but the pressure produced a result: The title was changed, and Netanyahu's name was removed. Now, imagine that Netanyahu's connections with the tycoons who control the media are causing him to exert pressure. This is a free market? Minister of Communication/Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Photo: Amit Shabi) When somebody applies pressure of this sort, more than damaging the freedom of expression, there's an extraordinary level of stupidity. Because instead of not very damaging headline, Netanyahuand Israelearned a defamatory article in one of the world's most important newspapers. This harm outweighs the dubious benefit in a superfluous semantic headline modification. You don't need to be an avid Netanyahu aficionado to know that he's also had considerable achievements. I've covered them, and I will continue to do so. So I'm allowed to directly address Netanyahu: Hey, are you crazy? Your speech on Jabotinsky and the free press was honey-lipped, but the pressures that you're exerting are the antithesis to what you preach. Isn't it obvious to you that that any involvement from you will reach the world's leading media within hours or days? Is it worth it to you? It's not you who's making the phone calls. It's beneath you. It's two of the people nearest to you. You know whom I'm talking about. It's possible that they're doing things here and there of their own volition, but the responsibility is yours. If a serious journalist in Israel, not one of your haters, has to deal with pressures coming from your direction, then the "end of democracy" camp will have to thank you. You're trying to prove him right. I'm a strong advocate of fair and balanced public media. Some of the right's claims, I have written and I will continue to write, are correct. But when they're not matter-of-fact allegations, but rather the communication minister, who is also the prime minister, who is applying pressure on the media, the matter-of-fact becomes less relevant. It's not just a blow to freedom of expression. It may just be marginal. The problem is with your judgment or with that of those acting in your name. And if we're not careful, this marginal harm may become serious. And it is definitely worrying and raises the concern that initiatives such as that of MK David Bitan to close the Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) are actually your suggestions. Closing the IBA at this stage is not a repair and not the free market, but rather an attempt to intimidate. If your model for a free press is a press that is dependent on your decisions, then there's a problem here. Mr. Netanyahu, every statement of yours from now on will be judged not by its words, but also by the behind-the-scenes deeds. The ball's in your court. KHARTOUM- Talks to secure a lasting ceasefire in Sudan's three war-ravaged regions began on Tuesday, a day after an opposition coalition signed on to a roadmap for ending hostilities and achieving political reconciliation. There has been fighting between the Sudanese army and rebels in the southern regions of Kordofan and Blue Nile since 2011, when adjacent South Sudan declared independence. Conflict in Darfur began in 2003 when mainly non-Arab tribes took up arms against the Arab-led government based in the capital Khartoum. The roadmap, brokered by the African Union, marks the first time the country's major opposition groups have signed a deal with the government since regional fighting reignited in 2011. MAKHACHKALA- A gas explosion in a restaurant in southern Russia during preparations for a wedding dinner has now led to the deaths of eight of the 28 restaurant workers injured in the blast. Health officials in Russia's Dagestan region said Tuesday three more workers have died of burns suffered Aug. 1, bringing the death toll to eight, while 12 remain hospitalized. The explosion occurred in the Layli restaurant in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, before the wedding party arrived. An indictment was filed today in the Petach Tikvah Magistrates' Court against 24-year-old Eliraz Fein of Yitzhar in Samaria (near Nablus) for incitement to violence. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The Ministry of Justice said that Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit authorized the indictment in light of the nature of the crimes attributed to the defendant "that touch on freedom of expression." The indictment was filed by Roi Weiss of the Central District Attorney's Office. It claims that, following the forced evacuation and destruction of illegal buildings in Yitzhar in 2014, a discussion took place on a Google group called "Yitzharnikim." The discussion focused on the legitimacy of throwing stones at Israeli security forces. Hours after Fein posted that she supported the violent act, stones were thrown at Yasam (riot police) units in the city. Eliraz Fein (Photo: Gil Yohanan) The indictment further stated that following the kidnapping and murder of the three teenage boys in Gush Etzion in 2014, the lynching of Mohammed Abu Khdeir in 2014, and the arson attack in Duma that killed three members of the Dawabsheh family in 2015, Fein posted to Facebook calls for violent acts or terrorism against Palestinian and Israeli Arabs and messages condoning the reported acts. The charges allege that Fein did the above after she had already been questioned under caution and arrested for previous, similar posts. In July 2014, on the murder of Abu Khdeir, the accused allegedly wrote to her approximately 800 friends on Facebook, "I'm proud and happy to discover there there are Jews who couldn't stand by and be silent! I send strong and courageous blessings to those arrested (who I don't know at all) accused of murdering the Arabs from the Abu Khdeir family." In June 2015, following the arson attack on the Church of the Multiplication, Fein allegedly wrote, "Hey, happy people, good morning! This time a church to take into consideration the Muslims' feelings, Ramadan Kareem to you too." After the arson attack in Duma with Molotov cocktails, Fein allegedly wrote on Facebook in August 2015, "Terrify them and make them understand that Jewish blood is not worthless, for murder the enemy will be bathed in blood," "I see this as a right and proper act," and "It's very appropriate and honorable in my eyes to damage Arab property." Fein replied to the indictment, "It's weird that only today the DA 'remembered' to update me, put out messages to all the media and even prevented me from the hearing that I'm entitled to according to the law. Like I already said at the arrest, I say again that we love all IDF soldiers, we embrace them and support them with everything that we have. Dozens of soldiers have enjoyed cakes that I've made, I have many brothers and relatives in the IDF, some of them in select reconnaissance units, and I never thought about hurting IDF soldiers." After NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has now named former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar in the multi-crore irrigation scam chargesheet. By Kamlesh Damodar Sutar: After NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has now named former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar in the multi-crore irrigation scam chargesheet. India Today has exclusively accessed the copy of the chargesheet. The Thane Anti-Corruption Bureau on Monday had filed a 30,000-page chargesheet in multi-crore Balganga irrigation project scam in Raigad. Though Ajit Pawar's name is not in the list 10 persons allegedly involved in the irregularities during the proposed construction of Balganga Dam, the chargesheet has sought further permission to probe the deals that directly involves Ajit Pawar. THE CHARGESHEET SAYS: advertisement "We have written to the principal Secretary of Irrigation dept on 27/7/2016 regarding Policy decisions taken by erstwhile Irrigation Minister Ajit Pawar in connection with Balganga dam. The matter needs to be further probed?" Raising big question about the finance provided by the City and Industrial Development corporation (CIDCO) for the project even before getting a green signal by Pawar's department. The chargesheet says: "Even without getting approval from the Maharashtra Water Resources Regulatory Authority for the Balgana project, it got finance from the CIDCO. No permission was taken from the state government to sign a MoU between CIDCO and Konkan Irrigation Development Corporation. Finance given by CIDCO and the MoU aspect also needs to be probed into." The chargesheet has also termed the tender process for survey of the Balganga Project as "completely suspicious" and calls for further probe. The chargesheet reads, "The tender process worth 52,28,226 of allotting survey work to Pioneer Foundation is completely suspicious and needs to be probed." THE BALGANGA PROJECT The Balganga project was one of the 13 projects that the Maharashtra government had asked the ACB to probe in January 2015 following a public interest litigation filed in the Bombay high court alleging of corruption in several irrigation projects. A senior ACB Official told India Today, that with a thorough probe, there is a possibility of proofs emerging in the case. This could mean that a supplementary chargesheet may also be filed and since the permission is sought to probe these crucial developments related to Ajit Pawar, the possibility of names adding up in the supplementary chargesheet cannot be ruled out. This could spell trouble for the former deputy CM and nephew of Maratha strongman Sharad Pawar. Ajit Pawar headed the water resources ministry for over a decade since 1999 and had allegedly cleared cost escalations of 32 irrigation projects by more than Rs17,000 crore. After the case was registered, ACB had apparently grilled Ajit Pawar for two hours in the alleged irrigation scam. In a span of six months after the Balganga Dam project in 2009 was approved by the Konkan Irrigation Development Corporation which came under Pawar's minsitry, the cost soared from Rs 414 crore to Rs 1,600 crore. Following the allegations, Pawar had to step down. --- ENDS --- advertisement Reservists and active-duty Airmen from the 442nd Fighter Wing, Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, and Guardsmen from the 185th Air Refueling Wing, Iowa Air National Guard, completed a flying training deployment to Amari Air Base, Estonia, August 8. The training, which included eight A-10 Thunderbolt IIs from the Air Force Reserve Command and one KC-135 from the Air National Guard, focused on maintaining joint readiness while building interoperability capabilities and was in support of Operation Atlantic Resolve, which demonstrates the U.S. commitment to the safety and security of the European region. We were able to fly 90 sorties and accomplish air to ground combat training with multiple nations, said Maj. Lance Orr, 303rd Fighter Squadron pilot, operations project officer for Estonia FTD. The Estonians have been very supportive and helped coordinate a more unique mission which was the highway landing. Its really important to familiarize the ground support personnel with U.S. aircraft, said Lt. Col. Toomas Kuiv, Amari Air Base acting commander about the FTD. The greater value actually lies in personal contacts which have been developed during this deployment. . This FTD further developed the relationship the U.S. has built with Europe over the past 70 years and displayed the capabilities of the USAF and other ally forces. The data gives life to the theory that MH370 fell out of the sky, and did not glide to a final crash-landing spot in the Indian Ocean. MH370 was a scheduled passenger flight from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing. It had 239 passengers and crew on board when it disappeared on March 8, 2014. Photo: Reuters By Indo-Asian News Service: Australian defence scientists who analysed signals from missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 have revealed the Boeing 777 fell very fast before crashing into the Indian Ocean off the coast of Western Australia. AIRCRAFT LOST ENGINE POWER Australian media reported on Tuesday that data analysis and manufacturer simulations showed it was likely the aircraft lost engine power before falling out of the sky at a rate of up to 20,000 feet per minute on March 8, 2014, Xinhua news agency reported. advertisement An aircraft attempting a regular landing - or a crash landing in water - would descend at a rate of around 2,000 feet per minute, raising doubts over previous predictions that the plane "landed" intact in the water before breaking up, the analysts said. BEFORE CRASH, SENT SIGNALS Australian scientists believed that prior to its final moments, the jet made a number of automated "handshake" signals with satellites on the ground near Perth in Western Australia. After six of those handshakes, a seventh, out-of-sequence signal came from the jet, indicating engine failure likely from lack of fuel. MH370 FELL OUT OF SKY The data gives life to the theory that MH370 fell out of the sky, and did not glide to a final crash-landing spot in the Indian Ocean. Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) Chief Commissioner Greg Hood said the scientists' analysis of the signals closely matched a flight scenario in which there was no pilot at the controls at the point of impact - in contrast to previous theories about how MH370 went down. Hood said the signal data meant MH370 likely crashed in the 1,20,000 square km search area now being combed by Australian authorities. If the aircraft had glided to a final resting place - as previous theories had hinted - the plane may have gone down outside of the current search area. MH370 was a scheduled passenger flight from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing. It had 239 passengers and crew on board when it disappeared on March 8, 2014. --- ENDS --- By Indrajit Kundu: Hours before Manipur's Iron Lady Irom Sharmila breaks her epic 16-year-long fast protesting against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), opinion on the ground remains clearly divided. While there are those who continue supporting her blindly, others have begun questioning her move. In Malom village, just outskirts of Imphal, Sharmila is revered like God. It was after the massacre of 10 innocent civilians in Malom that the then 28-year-old little known rights activist began her satyagraha. One that 15 years down the line has propelled her to international acclaim. advertisement RECALLING THE INCIDENT As 70-year-old Samarendra Singh overlooks the empty courtyard of his house, his eyes moisten as he recounts the horror of losing his 17-year-old son in the massacre on November 2, 2000. On his way to his physics tuition classes, Shanti Kumar and his friends were waiting at the local bus stop when Assam Rifles personnel allegedly opened fire indiscriminately following a blast in the area. 10 innocent civilians lost their lives in the incident which remains infamous as the Malom massacre. "I'm quite surprised by her move but maybe she wants to gauge the public mood so she made such announcement," Singh says, adding that it is her personal decision and people still regard her highly. Her sacrifice can 'never be wiped away', says the septuagenarian. THE FAST BREAKING While Sharmila's announcement to break her fast may have come as a surprise, the biggest shock for her supporters is her intention to join politics. "We have placed her at a pedestal above gods. She is above politics. A politician only thinks of the next election but a statesman like her thinks of the next generation, so why does she wants to join the politicians?" questions Singh. Sharmila today carries the burden of an entire generation desperate to move on, to progress. She became their 'Meira Paibi', their torch bearer in the struggle against the excesses of the Indian state. But their collective mistrust for the political class has made them apprehensive of Sharmila's personal transition from social activism to mainstream politics. The change they say is shocking .Though most respect Sharmila, they are unsure about what lies ahead. Sinam Chandrajini lost two of her sons in the Malom massacre. Chandramani , her younger son was a national bravery award winner who was gunned down by Assam Rifle personnel over mere suspicion of being a militant. He was unarmed, and all of 17. KIN OF MALOM VICTIM MENACE "We feel distraught at her decision. Though we still expect her to carry on the fight against AFSPA, we still believe in her for what she has done but we are not sure what will happen if she joins politics," says Chelsea, Chandramani's sister. advertisement Many have attributed Sharmila's latest move to her love interest, Desmond Coutinho. A Goa born British citizen, who has been an integral part of Sharmila since 2009, many feel he is the reason behind Sharmila's sudden retreat from her Satyagraha. "Desmond Cutinho is a spy of the Indian govt. Rather than helping Sharmila move ahead in her campaign he is destroying her movement", says Ima Ngambi. 65-year-old Ngambi is herself a legend in Manipur's fight against AFSPA. In 2004, she along with several other women protested naked against the brutal rape and murder of Thangjam Manorama in front of the Kangla Fort in Imphal. Last week when Sharmila publicly spoke out about her personal life and aspiration, many were taken by surprise. It was a shock for those who had put her up on a godly pedestal, realizing that she too, was a human after all. Social observers like Professor M.C Arun, who have closely followed Sharmila's journey over the years, feel that she became a choice by default for the civil rights movement in Manipur. For years the movement lacked a face and Sharmila helped propel the issue at an international stage. advertisement "It's her personal decision and she is entitled to it. The fight existed even before she began her fast. And it shall continue even after she ends it. People of Manipur will carry forward the movement," he explains. WATCH VIDEO --- ENDS --- Included in the new legislation is the allowance for an entire strata scheme to be sold if 75%, rather than 100%, of owners agree to the sale, which real estate services firm CBRE believes will be big news for Sydneys property market. Rich Gell, residential development manager at CBRE believes the easing of sale requirements will be particularly welcomed by owners in residential and commercial strata agreements who face increasing maintenance and repair bills. The changes will promote the urban renewal of dated and near obsolete strata complexes throughout metropolitan Sydney, which are approaching the end of their physical life, Gell said. As Sydney entrenches itself as one of the world's most green, global and connected cities, there is a greater requirement to create sustainable communities for people to reside, particularly in light of forecasts that the city's population will be circa 6 million by 2031, he said. In particular, the change could have a significant impact on the market in the Sydney CBD as development opportunities are becoming increasingly scarce and Daniel Courtnall of CBRE's Sydney strata office team believes developers are likely to become more proactive. The Sydney CBD is a very tightly held precinct and opportunities to secure freehold buildings or development sites are rare, Courtnall said. The implementation of these laws will create new offerings for developers or purchasers to approach strata owners with proposals that would have been considered too hard or a waste of time and money previously due to the need for a unanimous decision, he said. According to CBRE, locally based developers and investors have already approached them and identified assets they are interested in and they believe foreign investors and developers, in particular the Chinese will soon do the same. While the changes may make it easier for strata sites to be sold and redeveloped, it wont make it a free for all. If 75% of owners in a strata agreement do agree to the sale, it will then be referred to the Land and Environment Court to ensure the process has been done correctly and all owners are receiving the appropriate level of compensation. Dobra, k. Szczecina 900 m2 40 miejsc parkingowych Atut: Dodatkowe dochody z paczkomatow InPostu, a juz niedugo i z myjni samoobsugowej. Tradycyjny zakup nieruchomosci, mozliwosc wykupienia uzytkowania wieczystego. The co-founder said, that the delivery of one's ashes for lunar interment would be based on a "payload" price of USD 3 million per kilo. There have been no private space missions so far beyond Earth's orbit and only state agencies have performed outer space missions. Moon Express is the first company to get approval to carry commercial cargo to space, including human remains. Photo: Reuter By Press Trust of India: A private firm co-founded by an Indian-American and licensed to launch a spacecraft and land on the moon, plans to take human remains to the Earth's satellite at USD 3 million per kilo, according to a media report. THE MOON EXPRESS Moon Express, co-founded by Naveen Jain, was last week granted a license by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to launch a spacecraft and land on moon in 2017, becoming the first private company to get such an approval. advertisement The breakthrough US policy decision provides authorisation to the company for a maiden flight of its robotic spacecraft onto the Moon's surface, the company had said. The New York Post reported that the Moon Express's plans for commercial cargo include taking human remains to the moon. "LONG LIST ALREADY" Jain told the New York Post that the delivery of one's ashes for lunar interment would be based on a "payload" price of USD 3 million per kilo. "Since the cremated remains of adults generally weigh between 4 and 6 pounds, the indicated price range is USD 5.4 million to USD 8.1 million," the Post said, adding that the demand for such a service is high. "We already have a long list," it quoted Jain as saying. There have been no private space missions so far beyond Earth's orbit and only state agencies have performed outer space missions. SKY IS NOT THE LIMIT, SAYS CO-FOUNDER "The sky is not the limit for Moon Express, it is the launch pad. Space travel is our only path forward to ensure our survival and create a limitless future for our children," Jain had said following the announcement by FAA. "In the immediate future, we envision bringing precious resources, metals, and moon rocks back to earth," he had said. The company was co-founded in 2010 by space visionary, Bob Richards, Jain and serial entrepreneur and artificial intelligence and space technology guru, Barney Pell, with the common vision to be at the forefront of commercial space exploration and innovation. --- ENDS --- Arizona News Kingman, Arizona - Attorney General Mark Brnovich announced today a member of the Aryan Brotherhood criminal street gang has been sentenced to life in prison for First Degree Murder. The Arizona Attorney General's Office obtained an indictment against David Evan Bounds in October 2011 charging him with First Degree Murder, Conspiracy to Commit First Degree Murder, Participating in a Criminal Street Gang, and Misconduct Involving Weapons. This morning, Bounds pled guilty to First Degree Premeditated Murder. Immediately following the acceptance of the plea, Honorable Judge Billy K. Sipe, Jr. sentenced the defendant to life in prison with eligibility for parole only after Bounds had been incarcerated for 25 years. In April 2006, David Bounds, along with another white supremacist gang member, arranged to meet Christopher Robin Gromberg in the parking lot of Lake Havasu Island Mall in Lake Havasu, AZ. Bounds used a ruse to lure Gromberg into meeting up by claiming he wished to attend a concert with Gromberg that night. Bounds told Gromberg he and the second gang member would drive to Kingman from Phoenix on April 14, 2006, and Gromberg was to drive the rest of the route to the concert. Bounds never had any intention to attend a concert. Instead, Bounds sought to meet with Gromberg for the sole purpose of murdering him. Shortly after meeting Bounds in the parking lot, Bounds positioned himself in the back seat of the car directly behind Gromberg who was in the driver seat. Bounds then shot Gromberg twice in the back of his head using a .22 semi-automatic handgun. Bounds fled the scene, leaving Grombergs body in the driver seat, and returned to Phoenix. At the time of the murder Bounds believed Gromberg had cooperated with law enforcement in the homicide investigation of a fellow white supremacist gang member. Assistant Attorneys General Brett Harames and Shawn Steinberg prosecuted this case. Arizona News Rogers, Connecticut - Rogers Corporation, a global leader in engineered materials solutions, announced today it will relocate its global headquarters from Rogers, Connecticut to Chandler, Arizona. The move will build upon Rogers presence in Arizona, where it already has major business and manufacturing operations. Bruce D. Hoechner, president and CEO of Rogers, said that the decision supports the companys long-term strategy and is an integral part of its plans for growth and expansion. Relocating our corporate headquarters to Arizona improves our access to the growing business and technology centers on the west coast, Hoechner said. The company also considered characteristics of the Phoenix metropolitan market, including its business climate, university system and transportation infrastructure in its decision. We welcome Rogers Corporations Global Headquarters to the state, said Governor Doug Ducey. With every company that chooses to start and grow their business in the state, and every new job created, were proving that Arizona is open for business. Rogers Advanced Connectivity Solutions business segment, headquartered in Chandler, Arizona, has been manufacturing in the area for 50 years and currently employs more than 400 people. The new corporate headquarters will be home to approximately 70 corporate employees who support Rogers in areas such as human resources, information technology, finance and supply chain, among others. Rogers has been part of the Connecticut community since its founding in 1832 and employs several hundred people in the state in manufacturing and research and development positions. Those roles are not affected by this announcement. Rogers Elastomeric Materials Solutions business segment, which is headquartered in Rogers, Connecticut, will also remain there. Hoechner states, Rogers, Connecticut will always be a place we call home and a strategic element of Rogers Corporation in the years ahead. We have enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship with the Connecticut communities in which we operate and we will continue to support community services in the area. Latest News Washington, DC - The FTCs recent action against Volkswagen focused on the companys clean diesel claims, which were rendered false by VWs installation of a defeat device that cheated on emissions tests. The history-making $10 billion settlement will offer eligible car owners choices to compensate them for the deception. But there is concern that others including some dealers may be using a different kind of defeat device that could mislead owners about their options. Details of the settlements are available at VWCourtSettlement.com (link is external). Owners can register there to check out the specifics of what VW is offering: an all-cash buyback for more than the cars current replacement value or the possibility of a technical modification to the car and a separate cash payment. Buybacks could start in late fall of this year and emissions modifications will begin once approved. However, it appears that other companies have been reaching out to owners with alternate offers. Its unwise for anyone including independently-owned VW dealers to make separate offers that: 1) falsely imply that the offer is part of the pending $10 billion settlement; 2) falsely tell owners they have to spend compensation under the settlement on a new VW or Audi; or 3) use Act now! tactics to lock owners into a separate deal before owners have the full picture of what they stand to gain as part of the $10 billion settlement. The ultimate choice is the owners, of course. Our advice to them is to investigate their options before making a decision. A key part of that process is registering at VWCourtSettlement.com (link is external), where they can learn how much compensation to expect. We also have some advice for companies that are sending out the solicitations weve been seeing: Make sure your separate pitches dont deceptively lead people to think they are official offers that are part of the VWCourtSettlement.com (link is external) action. To assess their next step, owners need an accurate 360 view of their options both what youre offering and what they can get through the settlements. Thats why dealers who want to win back customers goodwill will help owners comparison-shop by telling them about the VWCourtSettlement.com (link is external) registration process. People who own VWs that were falsely advertised as clean diesels have already been injured once. FTC staff will be watching closely to ensure the compensation process proceeds unsullied by deception. Devendra Fadanvis said that the government will press for extradition of Islamic preacher Dr Zakir Naik if he does not return on his own from abroad By Vidya , Sahil Joshi, Kamlesh Damodar Sutar: The much-awaited Mumbai Police's inquiry report ordered by Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadanvis on Islamic preacher Dr Zakir Naik and Islamic research foundation has only been able to find him in spot over his inflammatory speeches which he has made over the period of last 10 years. On this count, Devendra Fadanvis today said that the government will press for extradition of Naik if he does not return on his own from abroad. advertisement After examining Zakir Naik speeches on his PEACE TV and social media, the Mumbai police report in his report said that his speeches create prejudice regarding other religions. THE REPORT SAID: Dr. Naik's opinion about other religions are extreme. His statements are against religious harmony and peaceful coexistence. Report prepared by additional Police Commissioner claims that Dr Naik's focus is on to prove how Islam is the only supreme religion. Holy Quran is the supreme holy book. How Teachings of other religious book are contrary. This spreads religious intolerance and extremism. His speeches examined were found to be justifying violence in the name of Jihad. Further report claims that Muslim youths are being attracted towards Dr Zakir Naik's ideology. Report also took cognizance of Feroz Abdul Latif Ghaswala, who was a suspect of the 2005 Delhi blast, statement to Mumbai Police in 2006. In his statement before crime branch Mumbai he had stated that "I went to attend Zakir Naik programme at Srinagar. After attaining his programme I searched for militant contacts which would help me in joining militancy." Police in its 70-page report has also taken cognizance of the fact that Dr Zakir Naik is banned in United Kingdom for the protection of their people, social security and national security due to his controversial speeches. Police hasn't gone in to financial assistance and funding to Zakir Naik's Islamic research Foundation and Peace TV as Union Home Ministry is investigating the same. Based on specific complaints, the Economic offenses wing is investigating foreign funding angle of IRF. CASES AGAINST NAIK The Mumbai Police is also trying to analyse cases filed against Naik for his controversial remarks against the Gods of Hindu religion like Shankar and Ganapati. Several cases are filed in Kurla Vengurla, Sawantwadi and outside Maharashtra Police station against him. Although Dr Naik has filed an application in Supreme court demanding all these cases to be investigated by one agency and the case is pending in SC. Looking at this background Mumbai Police has requested opinion of Department of Law and Justice for taking Legal action against Dr. Naik for his inflammatory speeches hurting religious sentiments and microscopic study of his speeches for banning him. Mumbai Police sources said that they have also found some statements of him prima facie justifying terrorists and terrorism activities of some organisations. advertisement On this count, the police is seeking opinion from the Department of Law and justice whether the crime falls under section of 13(1), (B) and Section 39(1), (B) (III) Unlawful Activities prevention act (UAPA), 1967. To support this claim police has also received complaint from the father of the missing Kerala youth who allegedly joined ISIS Abdul Majid that Arshi Qureshi of the Islamic research foundation was instigating his son Ashfaq and sent him to Islamic State. A case has been registered in Nagpada police station. Crime Branch, Mumbai is investigating the case. Arshi has already been arrested by Kerala Police in this regard. Although while preparing this report Mumbai Police did not question Dr Zakir Naik or any of the members of IRF, police was likely to decide the future course after receiving legal opinion. IRF on other hand has again claimed that it is a research body that promotes greater awareness of Islam and its tenets and Dr Zakir Naik is an expert in comparative religion and has been conducting well-researched talks on Islam and other religions across the world. IRF has also tried to clarify that conversion is not an objectives of IRF and it only spreads the message of Islam and clears misconceptions. Thus they deny all the allegations against Dr Naik and the organization . advertisement IRF's Lawyer Mubin Solkar said "Zakir naik has been making speeches in India since 1991. And Mumbai police has never given any such report. It is only after the Dhaka attack that the media trial started and police has given this report under pressure." Solkar said that they will wait for the Maharashtra government to take a legal action on the report and see if they take any action." ALSO READ: IRF says Mumbai police report on Zakir Naik made under media pressure Reports indicate Zakir Naiks speeches inspired some --- ENDS --- 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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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!

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!

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.!

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).

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.

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?

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.

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. Pranay Sawant, a former BSP contestant said that the cost of search and rescue operations that are currently underway should be incurred by the responsible departments. By Vidya : Pranay Sawant, a former BSP contestant in the 2014 elections has filed a public interest litigation in the Bombay High Court asking for a case of murder to be registered against the structural auditors of the bridge that had collapsed last week in Mahad. National Highway Authority of India and Maharashtra Government Public Works Department are the defendants in this case. advertisement COST INCURRED BY RESPONSIBLE DEPTS In his petition which is up for a hearing on Friday, Sawant said that the cost of search and rescue operations that are currently underway should be incurred by these officers. The petitoner claims he had been corresponding with various government departments since 2012 asking for the stoppage of traffic on the old bridge as it was not fit for transport. However he was later told that after repairs, the bridge was fit for use. PERSONAL LOSS Sawant also hoped that either the Supreme Court or Bombay High Court monitor the structural audits all bridges the government has now undertaken since the tragedy. He also lost a relative who was travelling to Mahad at the time of the untimely collapse. 26 BODIES RECOVERED So far, 26 bodies have been recovered during the search and rescue operations which was launched a day after two State transport buses and some other vehicles fell into the swollen Savitri river. The bridge collapsed on the night of August 2. Also Read: After Mahad, spotlight on ageing bridges in Mumbai --- ENDS --- San Francisco: An American couple married for over six decades has proven that even death is not strong enough to keep the loved ones separated. Henry and Jeanette De Lange, who married 63 years ago, both died on Sunday within 20 minutes in the same room at a nursing home in South Dakota, reports Xinhua news agency. "We`re calling it a beautiful act of God`s providential," Lee De Lange, one of their five children told KSFY, a CNN affiliate. Suffering from Alzheimer`s disease, 87-year-old Jeantte had been living in the nursing home since 2011, while her husband, 86-year-old Henry, visited her every day. After being diagnosed with prostate cancer and suffering a few falls, Henry too moved to the nursing home where he shared a room with his wife. On July 31, the family was told that both of them were not doing well. At 5.10 pm, Jeanette passed away, and 20 minutes later, Henry died. A while after their deaths, Lee noticed something strange about the clock on the wall, according to local media. "I looked at the clock and it stopped at 5.30, the exact time dad passed away," Lee said. Washington: A leading mental health advocate and former Democratic Congressman has asked Americans to stop calling Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump "crazy" as it demeans those who suffer from real mental health issues. "We can reject Trump without resorting to making baseless diagnoses of his mental health," Patrick Kennedy, a member of the famous Kennedy family, wrote in an op-ed in The Washington Post. The founder of the Kennedy Forum said perpetuation of stigmatising, outdated stereotypes makes it harder for those experiencing mental illness to seek the treatment they need. He said that rhetoric surrounding the 2016 election discourages anyone suffering mental health issues from seeking help. Kennedy, who himself struggled with mental illness and addiction, co-authored a book on his experience called "A Common Struggle." "Is Donald Trump experiencing a mental illness? That's the question making the rounds these days. The answer is: I don't know. And neither do the commentators, tweeters and psychiatrists both licensed and armchair who've diagnosed him from afar as 'crazy', a 'psychopath', not 'sane', having 'narcissistic personality disorder' and a 'screw loose'," he wrote. "What I do know is that we ought to stop casually throwing around terms like 'crazy' in this campaign and our daily lives," Kennedy wrote. The president of the American Psychiatric Association has said that even for professionals, these sorts of diagnoses, made from afar, are "unethical" and "irresponsible." And they only serve to demean and undercut people. "Crazy is never uttered with compassion. I have never heard it used in the context of trying to get someone the treatment they need. When that language is commonplace, it becomes that much harder for those experiencing mental illness to openly seek treatment that works," he said. Kennedy also said that stopping Trump from becoming president should be a high priority. "He lives in a world divided by us and them, weak and strong, winners and losers. His grim vision for America is not one that I recognise or want for my children," he said. New York: Republican Donald Trump is suggesting that rival Hillary Clinton's emails may be responsible for the death of an Iranian nuclear scientist who was executed for spying for the United States. Hours after an unusually disciplined speech on his economic plan for the country, Trump, using the "people are saying" sentence structure he often favors to make accusations, tweeted Monday night: "Many people are saying that the Iranians killed the scientist who helped the U.S. because of Hillary Clinton's hacked emails." He didn't say which people he meant. The FBI has said there is no evidence that Clinton's emails were hacked due to her use of a private account and server during her tenure as secretary of state. Tweeted back Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill:"'Many people are saying'='I made this up.'" Merrill added that after Trump's morning speech to the Detroit Economic Club and sticking closely to his script "the muzzle was bound to come off." Trump's speech was designed in part to reassure Republicans unnerved by a disastrous week of self-inflicted feuds with an assortment of people, from grieving Muslim American parents to the leaders of Trump's own party. Clinton's campaign cast his tweet Monday night as evidence that, in the words of spokesman Josh Schwerin, "There's just no resetting Donald Trump." Trump isn't the first to suggest there could be a link between Clnton's emails on her private server and the execution of Shahram Amiri. Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton said on CBS's "Face the Nation" Sunday that there "were on Hillary Clinton's private server, there were conversations among her senior advisers about this gentleman." "That goes to show just how reckless and careless her decision was to put that kind of highly classified information on a private server," he said. Amiri, an Iranian scientist, defected to the U.S. At the height of Western efforts to thwart Iran's nuclear program. When he returned in 2010, he was given a hero's welcome and greeted with flowers by government leaders. Then he mysteriously disappeared. Amiri's case indirectly found its way into the spotlight last year with the release of State Department emails sent and received by Clinton. One 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." Washington: The economic policy unveiled by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will benefit the rich by cutting their taxes and do little to create jobs or boost the economy, his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton has said. "He has given these kinds of plans or policies that don't really deserve that name. Basically, it's cut taxes on the wealthy, get out of the way and let the wealthy do whatever they want," Clinton said at a well-attended election rally in Florida, a key swing State. Referring to the Trump's economic policy speech, Clinton said there wasn't a lot in it for most Americans. "He's got, he announced a few days ago that he's got a dozen economic advisors. Let's see, he's got three Wall Street money managers, an oil baron, a former chief economist at one of the big banks at the heart of the financial crisis, he's got six men named Steve, and they all care about the same things he does, about how to avoid paying their fair share," she said. "I intend to make the wealthy pay their fair share to build this economy. He wants to roll back regulations on Wall Street. I want to tighten them and make them cover more people so that we don't ever end up in the ditch we were in with the Great Recession. He hasn't offered any plans about infrastructure except building a wall and making Mexico pay for it," Clinton said. Trump yesterday unveiled his economic policy in which he promised major tax reforms while asserting that he would adopt a tough posture against China and promote 'Americanism' not 'globalism'. Trump offered major tax sops across the board. Trump said his policies would benefit working families while ensuring the wealthy pay their fair share, dramatically cut taxes for everyone and streamline deductions while presenting the biggest tax reform since Ronald Reagan. "And so everybody who's independent, I don't care whether they're Republican, Democrat, independent anybody who just looks at his plans has concluded that it?s not going to work. And one particular economist who looked at his plans, somebody who advised John McCain back in 2008," she noted. She said that one such analyst said that his policies would cost 3.5 million jobs. "He's an independent economic analyst, and he basically said if Trump were able to implement what he's proposing, heaven forbid, it would cost 3.5 million jobs. He would actually reduce jobs. And then to be fair, he looked at what I'm proposing, and he said what I'm proposing would create at least 10 million new jobs in the first four years," she said. Earlier at the 3 Daughters Brewing in St Petersburg, Clinton spent the first stop of her Florida Jobs Tour laying out her vision of bolstering small businesses and building an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top. Clinton plans to cut red tape, make it easier for small businesses to have access to credit, and help aspiring entrepreneurs with their student debt, in order to help small businesses create more jobs. Vijayawada: A mob of "gau rakshaks" allegedly beat up two Dalits in East Godavari district after they skinned a cow which had died due to electrocution, police said on Tuesday. The incident took place at Janakipeta in Amalapuram town of the district in Andhra Pradesh. According to police, after the cow died following electrocution, its owner, a farmer, engaged the two Dalits, who were brothers, for skinning the animal before it was buried last night. On getting to know of the skinning, the "gau rakshaks" (cow vigilantes) went to the place and beat up the duo, identified as Mokati Elisha and Lazer, suspecting that they had killed the animal. The two were admitted to a hospital in Amalapuram for treatment and Elisha's condition was said to be serious. "We have registered a case under SCs/STs (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against some persons, who are yet to be identified. We are investigating the case and gathering clues about the suspects," a police official said over phone from Amalapuram. The incident has taken place when the flogging of a Dalit family at Una in Gujarat last month created a countrywide uproar over cow vigilantism. Three days back, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his first public denouncement of cow vigilantes, had said that he felt enraged at such "anti-social elements", who indulged in crimes by the night and masqueraded as cow protectors by the day. A day later in Telangana, Modi had asked people to beware of "fake" cow protectors as they were trying to create "tension and conflict" in the society and said that "if you have to attack, attack me" but stop attacking "my Dalit bretheren". Phnom Penh: With its regular live broadcasts, routine tirades and daily -- often curiously intimate -- photo posts, the Facebook page of Cambodian strongman Hun Sen has won a remarkable five million fans. But a surge of "likes" from countries including India and the Philippines has reignited allegations that his digital adoration is purchased from so-called "click farms". The 64-year-old prime minister, a once self-confessed tech dinosaur who tolerates little dissent, has embraced Facebook with gusto in the last year after opponents used the platform to reach out to younger voters. He has vowed to remain prime minister until he is 74 with the next elections due in 2018. To do so he will need the support of Cambodia`s youth -- a huge, tech-savvy demographic who voted in droves for the opposition at the last polls, wearied by the endemic corruption, rights abuses and political repression seen as the hallmarks of Hun Sen`s rule. With loyalists controlling nearly all of Cambodia`s mainstream media outlets, Hun Sen was initially wary of social media. But in the last year he has embraced the digital sphere -- while ramping up prosecutions against people for online comments. His slick page now documents everything from live broadcasts of speeches and meetings with villagers, to more personal moments like the premier kicking back in a white bathrobe or sporting a wet, see-through singlet at the beach. But that success has been dogged by allegations that a significant chunk of fans come from "click farms" -- networks of fake and real users controlled by digital middlemen who sell likes. In recent months, opposition groups, local media, analysts and even many of Hun Sen`s own Facebook followers have all remarked on the unusual and erratic surges in likes his page receives.An AFP analysis of Hun Sen`s Facebook followers over the last six months using data from SocialBakers.com shows two periods when overseas likes have dramatically spiked -- the most recent in the last three weeks. Only 55 percent of Hun Sen`s five million Facebook followers now come from inside Cambodia. Many of the likes originate in countries notorious for hosting click farms such as India, Indonesia and the Philippines. In contrast, 82 percent of followers for Sam Rainsy -- the country`s most prominent opposition politician -- are Cambodian. That has led Rainsy, who currently lives in self-exile in France, to accuse Hun Sen of buying friends. "In his deceitful but childish logic, Hun Sen needs to push his popularity on Facebook in order to justify his repressive policies," he told AFP by email. India now accounts for the largest chunk of overseas love for Hun Sen`s page -- some 562,000 fans, or 11.4 percent, dwarfing even neighbouring Thailand where there is a huge diaspora of Cambodian workers. In March and April, Indian likes tripled from 175,000 to 517,000. Then from early May the rate of likes dipped slightly, only to once more rebound between July 4 and August 1 taking the number from 512,000 to 560,000. Similar patterns have taken place this year with fans from the Philippines and Indonesia. Between February 15 and May 9, Indonesian likes more than tripled from 42,000 to 150,000 and then stopped. Hun Sen`s page then garnered a sudden 35,000 further likes over the last three weeks. Philippine likes also tripled over the same period, levelling off until mid July, since when they have surged from 207,000 to 259,000.Hun Sen has repeatedly denied allegations his fans are purchased. "I think it is a pride for our nation that foreigners pay attention to the leader of our government through modern technology," Sok Eysan, a spokesman for the ruling Cambodian People`s Party, told AFP. "If we have money we will build roads, wells and health centres for the people, we would not spend money on buying Facebook likes," he added, saying the click farm allegations were being fuelled by "jealous" opposition politicians. The page itself has become a matter of personal pride to Hun Sen, who frequently refers to its success and the fact he passed Rainsy in the digital popularity stakes earlier this year. His posts portray him as an avuncular and accessible man of the people. In one recent video that went viral, Hun Sen gave a motorbike taxi driver a ride on his own bike before handing the man $1,000. "Now you can change your motorbike, but don`t change your wife," Hun Sen told the man with a chuckle. Ou Virak, an independent political analyst, said there were "very limited reasonable explanations" for why Hun Sen`s Facebook account has seen such time-limited surges in overseas likes. But he added that it was no surprise he and other politicians had flocked to social media in a country where two thirds of the population are under 30. "It makes sense they are chasing their constituents," he told AFP. jta-suy/apj/ds/ceb Pudukottai (Tamil Nadu): The Sri Lankan Navy detained as many as four Indian fishermen from Pudukkottai district of Tamil Nadu along with their boats on Tuesday morning.On July 7, they had apprehended 16 Indian fishermen along with three boats. Earlier, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to intervene and secure immediate release of the Tamil fishermen and their fishing boats apprehended by the Lankan Navy. Fishermen from Tamil Nadu protested by standing waist deep in Sea in Rameswaram urging the immediate release of fellow fishermen from Lankan jail.The fishermen are shocked that country boat fishermen were also apprehended by Sri Lankan Navy. Jayalaithaa in her letter to Prime Minister Modi sought a lasting solution to the Tamil fishermen issue. She pointed out that traditional rights of fishing in Palk Bay are being denied for the Indian fishermen as Sri Lankan Navy is apprehending them. Fifty seven fishermen from Tamil Nadu are languishing in Lankan jail. Sri Lanka has also impounded 98 fishing boats which are getting damaged over the time.Sri Lanka normally releases apprehended fishermen as goodwill gesture but fishing boats are detained.The local fishermen are urging the government to secure the immediate release of fellow fishermen and 94 detained fishing boats. Islamabad: Pakistan`s top lawyers said they will boycott court proceedings throughout much of the country Tuesday in protest after a suicide bomb killed 70 people in Balochistan, including many from the legal profession. Monday`s attack on a hospital in the southwestern city of Quetta was one of the deadliest in the country`s long battle against militancy. The explosion came as some 200 lawyers along with journalists had gathered at the Civil Hospital to mourn the fatal shooting of a top provincial lawyer, with witnesses describing horrific scenes as medics battled to save scores of wounded. "Lawyers throughout the country will boycott court proceedings on Tuesday in protest against the killing of lawyers in Quetta yesterday," said a statement from the Pakistan Bar Council, adding that provincial and district bar councils would follow suit. Balochistan government spokesman Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar said schools in the province would also be closed Tuesday "to mourn the loss". Funerals have already been held for many of the victims, he said. "Those who were living in and close to Quetta city have already buried their loved ones, while those belonging to far flung areas will be buried today," he told AFP. On Monday officials had put the number of wounded at 112. Twenty-seven of the critically injured were airlifted to Karachi, where a spokesman for the Aga Khan Hospital said they are "out of danger now". The attack has been claimed by both a faction of the Pakistani Taliban called Jammat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), and the Islamic State group (IS). JuA, which formed in 2014, has also claimed responsibility for Pakistan`s deadliest blast so far this year, a bombing in a crowded Lahore park on Easter that killed 75, among other attacks. The US State Department designated JuA as a terrorist group last week in a statement that described it as "a splinter group of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) based in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region". Hours after the JuA claim the Islamic State group also claimed the attack, saying it had killed 200 people, according to the SITE monitoring group. Middle Eastern jihadist group IS has been scrabbling for purchase in Pakistan, largely due to competition from well established extremist groups such as the Taliban. Balochistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, has major oil and gas resources, but is afflicted by Islamist militancy, sectarian violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims and a separatist insurgency. In a tweet, Pakistan`s army said the attack was "specially targeting CPEC", referring to China`s ambitious $46 billion project to build an economic corridor through Pakistan. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is set to culminate in the Baloch Arabian Sea port of Gwadar, south of Quetta. Pakistan`s powerful military chief has previously accused arch-enemy India of "openly" challenging CPEC by trying to destabilise Balochistan. Kathmandu: The newly elected Nepali Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal "Prachanda" on Tuesday expressed his commitment to amend the Constitution to address the demands of all indigenous communities. Addressing a programme organised by the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities here to mark the 22nd International Day of the World's Indigenous People, Prachanda said the government will put maximum efforts to make the Constitution acceptable to all quarters of society, Xinhua news agency reported. "Nepal is moving ahead in a critical time, but the government will make an honest attempt to address the sentiments of people in the Constitution through amendment," Prachanda said while commiserating with the indigenous nationalities, who have been demanding the amendments to the Constitution in order to address their rights and demands. The Prime Minister promised that the International Day of the World's Indigenous People will be celebrated jointly by the government and the federation from the next year. Stating that the Constitution promulgated in September last year is incomplete, the indigenous nationalities have been demanding the identity based federalism to be incorporated in the statute. Locally known as aadivashi-janajati, the nationalities, which have distinct language and lifestyle, are legally recognised by the National Foundation for Development of Indigenous Nationalities Act, 2002. However, they are in continuous struggle demanding the enforcement of agreements made in favour of the rights of indigenous peoples and seeking the guarantee of proportional representation in every state apparatus. AAP minister accused LG Najeeb Jung of "speaking the language of the Viceroy and Churchill". By Indo-Asian News Service: Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Tuesday accused Lt Governor Najeeb Jung of "speaking the language of the Viceroy and Churchill" by suggesting that the Delhi Assembly can be scrapped. Jain, a confidant of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, also opposed the Lt. Governor's reported order to senior officials in the Delhi government to send to him files that needed his signature. advertisement "We have always known how much he (Jung) believes in democracy," Jain told the media, referring to his purported comments. "He has never fought any eletion, yet he has reached the top. It is but natural he will say this." Jung reportedly told an interviewer that he was willing to consider a suggestion to do away with the Delhi legislative assembly in the wake of the Delhi High Court's decision to give the Lt Governor the supreme say in matters of administration in the national capital. "The (British) Viceroy also used to say that India cannot be given complete independence," Jain said. "Winston Churchill used to say Indians cannot govern themselves. "The Lt Governor is speaking the language of the Viceroy and Churchill." Referring to an order reportedly issued by the Lt Governor to the heads of departments in Delhi that files be directly sent to him, Jain said this was "unconstitutional". "In no way can the LG communicate directly with any officer. We will certainly abide by the (Delhi High) Court order. And the LG has the right to seek any file. "But the files have to go through proper channels. He cannot order for any file directly and take any decision on his own," Jain said. --- ENDS --- Bengaluru: As a demolition drive is underway in several parts of Bengaluru, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) commissioner N Manjunath Prasad has said that criminal cases would be filed against civic officials who allowed encroachment. Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had ordered the BBMP officials to clear encroachments on lake beds and Rajakaluves or Storm Water Drains (SWDs), after the city witnessed flooding in several parts due to heavy incessant rains last week. Notably, Siddaramaiah had on Monday vowed action against the violators. "However influential or big they may be, merciless action will be taken against all those who have encroached upon storm water drains, whether they are builders or developers, Siddaramaiah had told reporters. Meanwhile, The Hindu quoted Civic Commissioner N Manjunath Prasad as saying that criminal cases will be booked against civic officials who allowed encroachers to flourish. Around 100 houses have been demolished across the city, making a number of families homeless. The BBMP has zeroed in 1,923 encroachments, some of which have already been razed to the ground in earlier drives. Recently, incessant rains had inundated streets, crippling normal life in several parts of the city. Overflowing lakes and drainage systems coupled with uprooted trees compounded the people's woes. Low lying areas, particularly Kodichikkanahalli and Bilekahalli, where water entered houses, were worst affected. On Saturday, the BBMP had begun the demolition drive at Avani Sringeri Nagar in Bommanahalli, Kasavanahalli in Mahadevapura and Shivanahalli in Yelahanka. Biharsharif: The district administration of Nalanda on Tuesday imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on every household in Kailashpuri village as a collective penalty for violating the prohibition law in Bihar. This is probably the first instance of the application of the tough prohibition law in the state by imposing the 'collective fine' as incorporated in the amended law. District Magistrate Tyagrajan SM said the collective fine has been imposed on all the 50 households of the village in Islampur block following the recovery of liquor bottles. The administration of Nalanda, the home district of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, has repeatedly appealed to the villagers to keep off liquor which is banned since April 5 in the state, but liquor business has continued in the area. As per the various amendments introduced in the Bihar Excise and Prohibition Law that got the Bihar Legislature's nod during the monsoon session recently, a collective fine can be imposed on the entire village or town if a group of people repeatedly violate the prohibition law. As per the law, there is a provision to impose a fine of up to Rs one lakh if the law is violated, the DM said. Besides, the district administration has also initiated the process to confiscate assets of three hotels from where liquor bottles were found, the DM said. The DM said 189 persons have been arrested between April 1 and August 7 in Nalanda district while 1,083 litres of the country made liquor, 1,527 litres of IMFL, six litres of beer and 109 litres of toddy were seized during this period. He appealed to those engaged in the hotel business to abide by the prohibition law as their properties would be confiscated if found indulged in the liquor business. Patna: It may sound strange but as per a media report, Bihar cops are refusing promotion offers. NDTV quoted sources in Bihar Police Association (main administrative body for cops) as saying that more than 200 officers have in writing refused to take charge of police stations. The report said that it was supposedly because of tightening the screws on already-strict laws that ban alcohol in Bihar. Earlier last week 11 SHOs were suspended for 10 years after the discovery of equipment and utensils apparently used to brew liquor in the areas where they were charge of. "Instead of being rewarded for doing a good job, policemen are being punished on flimsy grounds," Mritoynjay Kumar Singh, Secretary of the Bihar Police Association was quoted by the media house as saying. The association reportedly wants cops accused of dereliction to be investigated by their seniors before being suspended. Moreover, as per the report, the police officers say that the new prohibition laws risk their careers. This is because power has been skewed towards excise department officials, according to them. On their part, the excise officials, cite massive unrelenting pressure to prove that the ban on alcohol is successful. Meanwhile, The district administration of Nalanda on Tuesday said that it had initiated the process to impose a fine of Rs 5,000 on every household of Kailashpuri village as collective penalty for violating the prohibition law in Bihar. This is probably the first instance of application of the tough prohibition law in the state by imposing the 'collective fine' as incorporated in the amended law. District Magistrate Tyagrajan SM said the process has been started to impose collective fine on all the 50 households of the village in Islampur block following recovery of liquor bottles. The administration of Nalanda, the home district of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, has repeatedly appealed to the villagers to keep off liquor which is banned since April 5 in the state, but liquor business has continued in the area, as per PTI. As per the various amendments introduced in the Bihar Excise and Prohibition Law that got the Bihar Legislature's nod during the Monsoon Session recently, a collective fine can be imposed on the entire village or town if a group of people repeatedly violate the prohibition law. As per the law, there is a provision to impose a fine of upto Rs one lakh if the law is violated, the DM said. (With Agency inputs) Raipur: A 60-year-old woman was allegedly raped at an old age home in Chhattisgarh's Raipur district, police said. The accused, identified as Sapan Pramanik (49), was arrested on Tuesday, station house officer of Mana police station Virendra Shrivastav told PTI. The incident took place on August 6, when last rites of another woman inmate who committed suicide were being held. While others were attending the rites, the accused found the victim alone in a room and allegedly raped her, the SHO said. Pramanik had recently moved into the shelter home for destitute families which stands on the premises of the old age home with his wife and child. The victim told police that she was in a state of shock after the incident and therefore did not tell anybody about it. But later she felt she must report it so that it does not happen with any other inmate. Pramanik has been booked for rape under section 376 of the IPC. Probe is on. New Delhi: Seconding Delhi High Court`s decision of rejecting Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal`s argument that his claim to Delhi is superior to Centre appointed Lieutenant General, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national vice president Shyam Jaju said the Government works on the decorum given by the Constitution adding that no government work based on stubbornness. In a veiled attack to Kejriwal, Jaju said that anyone trying to work over passing Lieutenant General, Najeeb Jung is illegal. "Working over passing the Lieutenant General is illegal and unconstitutional. Based on that, LG has asked an explanation from the Delhi government about the appointments, transfers made without his knowledge. Anyone who runs the government should take note of the Constitution. The Government works on the decorum given by the Constitution. Government cannot work based on stubbornness," Jaju told ANI. Following the court`s decision last Thursday, Jung has asked for all files related to decisions taken by AAP since taking charge in Delhi in February last year. Meanwhile, the Delhi Government has said that it will challenge the verdict in the Supreme Court. New Delhi: For the second year in a row, around half of the first year students at Delhi University's law faculty have failed in at least one subject, leading to protests by them. The students alleged there was some problem with the results that were declared yesterday as some of them have been marked absent even though they appeared in the exam, while the scores of a few others were revised later. The Faculty of Law has three centres - Law Centre I (LC I), Campus Law Centre (CLC) and Law Centre II (LC II). CLC usually admits the highest scorers of the entrance test. A total of 882 students out of 1944 students have failed in at least one subject in the semester examination. "There seems to be some goof up in the result because I have failed in a subject I was very confident of scoring well. I will apply for rechecking," said Ruchika Bhatt, a first-year student. Another student Ritika Thakur said, "I am surprised to see the results, there has been some problem for sure, I will get my paper re-evaluated and find out what went wrong". Faculty of Law Dean, SC Raina, denied any mistakes and maintained that the students' performance has been evaluated accurately. "The papers have been checked properly and moderation is done following proper methods...What can go wrong? What can the faculty do if students don't study and write their exams well," Raina said. Meanwhile, law faculty aspirants are agitated over a delay in admission counselling as well as the Bar Council of India's recommendation to reduce the colleges' seat intake by scrapping evening classes. At least hundred aspirants had yesterday protested at Delhi University and the Delhi High Court against the delay. The recommendation has been made after a committee of BCI, the apex regulatory body for legal education and the legal profession in India, submitted an adverse report about the infrastructure and quality of education being imparted at the centres of DU's law faculty. In an unprecedented move, BCI had in 2014 decided to derecognise DU's law course after it failed to seek a timely extension of the affiliation of its three centres. It was granted a provisional extension of affiliation for the 2014-15 session after DU had proposed to shift to a new building which it claimed "had adequate space" for the faculty to run properly. However, after a fresh inspection by a BCI panel, the council had issued it a show-cause notice to DU to explain the "illegalities" in its functioning including more than permissible student strength, lack of infrastructure and faculty. The council had in January communicated to the university to shut down colleges offering law courses in evening shifts, saying such programmes do not ensure proper quality of legal education. New Delhi: Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Tuesday accused Lt Governor Najeeb Jung of "speaking the language of the Viceroy and Churchill" by suggesting that the Delhi Assembly can be scrapped. Jain, a confidant of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, also opposed the Lt Governor`s reported order to senior officials in the Delhi government to send to him files that needed his signature. "We have always known how much he (Jung) believes in democracy," Jain told the media, referring to his purported comments. "He has never fought any election, yet he has reached the top. It is but natural he will say this." Jung reportedly told an interviewer that he was willing to consider a suggestion to do away with the Delhi legislative assembly in the wake of the Delhi High Court`s decision to give the Lt Governor the supreme say in matters of administration in the national capital. "The (British) Viceroy also used to say that India cannot be given complete independence," Jain said. "Winston Churchill used to say Indians cannot govern themselves. "The Lt Governor is speaking the language of the Viceroy and Churchill." Referring to an order reportedly issued by the Lt Governor to the heads of departments in Delhi that files be directly sent to him, Jain said this was "unconstitutional". "In no way can the LG communicate directly with any officer. We will certainly abide by the (Delhi High) Court order. And the LG has the right to seek any file." "But the files have to go through proper channels. He cannot order for any file directly and take any decision on his own," Jain said. New Delhi: Triggering a fresh controversy, Lt Governor Najeeb Jung has said he was not averse to mulling over scrapping the Delhi Assembly if such a proposal was brought before him, evoking a strong reaction from AAP which alleged Delhi was being used by the Centre as a "testing" ground for possibly imposing Emergency in the country. Jung, who has openly attacked the AAP government after last week's Delhi High Court order ruling that the LG was the city's administrative head, also said an apology was due from Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for him "calling names". The AAP said Jung has "perennial hatred" for Arvind Kejriwal and that such political comments by a person occupying a constitutional post amounts to "undermining" the Constitution. When asked during an interview whether he is open to the idea of doing away with the Delhi Assembly, Jung said, "As a thinking human being, as a citizen of Delhi, why would I be not open to giving thought to anything that involves Delhi. "Of course, I am not unwilling to think of anything. We are all human beings and all kinds of thoughts come to us. So, if somebody were to ask me in writing that will you give an opinion, then of course, I would think about it. I am not a robot that I don't think." When asked about Kejriwal's usage of strong words to attack Modi in the past, Jung told a TV channel that in a democracy one can criticise the Prime Minister's policies "but you cannot call names". AAP leader Kumar Vishwas came down hard on Jung for his comments on the assembly and dared the Centre to bring in a legislation to dissolve it. AAP has an overwhelming majority in the assembly with 67 MLAs in the 70-member house. Panaji: Yoga would be taught in primary schools in Goa, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar on Tuesday told the Legislative Assembly. "We have decided to introduce yoga at primary level. For this we have decided to appoint 60 master resource persons," he said on demands for grants for the education department. The Chief Minister, who holds the education portfolio among others, also said the ratio of students in primary schools (total number of children born in the state against those enrolled in schools) is 103, which means even the migrants who arrive here enrol their children in schools. Stating that his government took a holistic view of the education, the CM said infrastructure facilities in primary schools were upgraded. "In the last two years, 204 government primary schools were repaired and refurbished, spending Rs 41 crore," he said. The government is concerned about the declining number of students in state-run primary schools, but hopes that with upgraded infrastructure more students would enrol, he said. London: In an unusual case in the UK, an online troll was sentenced to 180 hours of unpaid work and a 12-month community order for posting "grossly offensive" anti-Muslim comments on a police Facebook page. Stephen Bennett, 39, made inflammatory remarks on Greater Manchester Police's Facebook page, in response to an appeal for information in a sex case with an Asian suspect. One comment he made concerned Asian women, another was likely to be offensive to Muslims, the Manchester Evening News reported. Bennett, of Wythenshawe, also wrote, "Don't come over to this country and treat it like your own. Britain first." He made the comments despite his mother-in-law and sister-in-law being Muslims, his lawyer told the court. The response sparked outrage from Facebook users who feared his remarks would set people against each other. When Bennett was arrested by officers, he said, "Is this about that Muslim thing on Facebook? I'm getting locked up for sticking up for my own country." Bennett later admitted an offence under the Malicious Communications Act. His Manchester Crown Court sentencing hearing was told that he was a dad-of-seven who was finding it "difficult to cope" at the time because of the loss of his job, but was now back to work as a cleaner. His lawyer added that his mother-in-law and sister-in-law were Muslims and that he was not racist. But web users who read his posts felt his remarks would fuel tensions. Sentencing, Recorder Andrew Long told Bennett he found it "impossible to believe" he would have posted the "grossly offensive" comments unless he was "at least a sympathiser" with those who expressed such views. The judge said "running the risk of stirring up racial hatred in the present climate", was "very serious" describing it as "conduct capable of playing into the hands of the enemies of this country". Sentencing him to a 12-month community order, with 180 hours' unpaid work, the judge said, "Your remarks damaged the community in which you live, and it?s the community that you must repay." Babul Supriyo and Rachna Sharma have been in a relationship for two years By India Today Web Desk: Union minister Babul Supriyo tied the knot this evening with air hostess Rachna Sharma. The two have been in a relationship for the last two years. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was part of the glittery wedding ceremony at The Ashok, New Delhi. ALSO READ: All about Babul Supriyo and Rachna Sharma's fairytale love story advertisement IN PICS: Rachna chale Babul ke ghar - Who's who of Indian politics attend The musician-turned-politician's wedding saw the presence of the who's who of politics. From Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, the ceremony was a star-studded affair. Among the people who attended the wedding ceremony were Rajnath Singh, Digvijay Singh, LK Advani, Jyotiraditya Scindia, etc. Music composer Anu Malik was also present at the ceremony. Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Babul Supriyo and his parents Supriyo and Rachna had a low-key engagement two months ago. The couple's love story is nothing less than the script of a Bollywood film. For the union minister, Cupid struck 35,000 ft above sea level. Rachna, a Delhi-based air hostess with Jet Airways, was on the flight Babul had once boarded from Kolkata to Mumbai. On board the flight, Babul struck a conversation with the air hostess, and thus began a journey which has now reached the altar. In June this year, Babul revealed the whats and hows of his relationship with Rachna. He said, "For the last two years, my fate seems to have been circling in the air. Strange things are happening 30-35,000 ft above the sea level. Seems like someone is sitting up there and writing the script of my life." Babul also spilled the beans on what he loves the most about his wife-to-be back then. "Complete simplicity. In my complex life, this is the only X-factor," said the musician-turned-politician. Babul and Rachna Supriyo have the next five years of their life planned. Their first anniversary celebrations are to take place in Kolkata, and the fifth anniversary will be celebrated in Mumbai. Given that their fates were decided on board a flight from Kolkata to Mumbai, the celebrations in these two cities are but understandable. Babul was earlier married to Rhea, with whom he has a daughter, Sharmilee. (Photos: Wedding Twinkles and Blackstreet PR) --- ENDS --- Panaji: Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar on Tuesday said he has come to know about drugs being sold outside reputed educational institutes in the state, and said the government is taking steps to tackle the menace. "It is high time that we should act against the sale of drugs. I have heard that such things are going on outside the educational institutes, it is happening outside some of the most reputed educational institutes," Parsekar said in the state Assembly, replying to a question by BJP MLA Carlose Almeida. "Drugs are sold in small kiosks or even by some taxi operators outside the educational institutions. I have already spoken to police. We need to tackle this menace. Our youth will be destroyed if this continues," the Chief Minister said. Parsekar said when Almeida had asked a written question before the start of the Assembly session, there was not a single case of drug peddling reported in Vasco town for last three years. "But when the question was taken for reply from the (police) department, within three days two cases were registered. I know it cannot be a coincidence that during last three years there was no case and suddenly two cases were registered in three days," he said. Almeida had alleged that police were hand in glove with drug peddlers in Vasco city. The CM said he has asked police to be strict in dealing with the drug menace. "I am taking it as an important task for the state of Goa," he said. New Delhi: The judicial custody of LIC agent Anand Chauhan, arrested in a money laundering case against Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, was on Tuesday extended till August 22 by a special court here. Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Kumar extended Chauhan's custody after Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is probing the matter, submitted that the case was still being probed and his custody should be extended. Chauhan was arrested from Chandigarh on July 9 under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as he was allegedly not cooperating with the investigating officer. ED had claimed in the court that during Chauhan's interrogation, it was revealed that as an LIC agent, he had entered into a modus operandi to launder disproportionate assets by investing in LIC policies. The agency had submitted that Singh "while serving as a Union minister, invested huge amounts in purchasing LIC policies in his own name and that of his family members through Chauhan". "Virbhadra Singh, while functioning as a Union minister during the period from May 28, 2009, to June 26, 2012, acquired assets, disproportionate to his known sources of income to the tune of Rs 6,03,70,782 and further tried to justify the same in the form of agricultural income. "Pratibha Singh, wife of Virbhadra Singh, Chauhan, with whom Virbhadra Singh had signed the alleged MoU for managing his apple orchard and Chunni Lal Chauhan, proprietor of M/s Universal Apple Associates, who purportedly showed purchase of apples from Shrikhand Orchard, have facilitated in justifying the disproportionate assets of Virbhadra Singh and thereby abetted the offence," the ED had alleged. Imphal: Manipuri human rights activist Irom Sharmila on Tuesday ended her 16-year-long fast and expressed desire to enter politics. From today onwards I have ended my fast, Sharmila said in Imphal, the capital of her home state Manipur where she had been on a hunger strike since 2000 demanding the removal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act [AFSPA]. Sharmila (42), also called the Iron Lady of Manipur, got emotional and broke down as she licked some honey to mark the ending of her fast, the world's longest hunger strike. I will never forget this moment, she said. I want to join politics as I've been called the Iron Lady of Manipur and I want to live upto that name, she said further at a press conference. I know nothing about politics, and about academic line also. My education is very very low. But I want to convince our people that my power will shower upon people, and without sense of defensive and possessive nature, Sharmila said. I will use everything I have for a positive society... foremost thing will be removal of this draconian law (AFSPA), she added. "I am not a goddess, I want to be a human being. I want to be Chief Minister of Manipur to make a positive difference," she said further. Sharmila said she was unable to understand why some people were oposing her entry into politics. I don't understand why some radical groups are against me wanting to get into politics? she said. Let them kill me the way people killed Mahatma Gandhi with accusation of being anti-Hindu, the Manipuri activist said while commenting on the death threats she had been receiving. I, being the real embodiment of revolution, want to be the CM of Manipur to help people, she said further. Asked to comment on the ongoing protests in Jammu and Kashmir, Sharmila said, "Let the Kashmiris have the right of self-determination." Meanwhile, Sharmila was taken to a hospital after she ended her 16-year-long fast. #WATCH: Irom Sharmila ends her fast after 16 years. She was on hunger strike, demanding repealing of AFSPA.https://t.co/ndGmoEuZu8 ANI (@ANI_news) August 9, 2016 Earlier in the day, Sharmila had said that she wants to become the chief minister of Manipur so that the AFSPA can be removed from the state. She will contest the 2017 Assembly Elections from Khurai Assembly constituency as an independent, she said. Sharmila, who has been on fast unto death since November 4, 2000, told a court today that she wanted to end her fast. She was then released on bail by L Tonsing, chief judicial magistrate, Imphal west, where she was produced. Later, she signed a bond for Rs 10,000. Sharmila had begun her hunger strike in November 2000 following the killing of 10 civilians by security forces. She was arrested by the Manipur government the same year on charges of attempting to commit suicide. She has always denied the charge, saying she is using the fast as a weapon. As the prosecution failed to prove that she was trying to kill herself, the Chief Judicial Magistrate had ordered on February 29, 2016 that she be freed. She was rearrested on the same charge as she continued the fast. Sharmila has been appealing to all sections of the people to support her cause. But except for some reporters, there is nobody to meet her when she goes to the court every 15 days. (With agency inputs) New Delhi: It seems Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal is all talk and no action as far as the issue of women safety and law & order situation in the national capital is concerned! According to an RTI reply, Arvind Kejriwal has never called a meeting either on the law and order situation or on the safety and security of women in the national capital, since assuming office as Delhi CM. This was revealed in an RTI reply filed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Harish Khurana, citing the response he received from the Chief Ministers office, Delhi Police Commissioner Alok Kumar Verma and Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung. The RTI filed by Khurana from the period of February 14, 2015, to June 9, 2016, seeking details of the meetings called by Kejriwal on the law and order and women security stated that no such details are available within the records of the Delhi Government. Referring to the RTI response which he received from the respective offices after Kejriwal took charge as the Chief Minister of Delhi on February 14, 2015, Khurana claimed that Kejriwal never met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi, or Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung on this particular issue. Escalating his attack on Kejriwal, Khurana said, The RTI shows how serious Arvind Kejriwal is towards the law and order situation in Delhi and on the issue of women security in the capital. Khurana said that Kejriwal always criticised the Central Government for not giving him power, but he never exercised the available constitutional powers vested with him. In his RTI, Khurana sought details on whether the AAP Government had ever summoned Delhi Police Commissioner Alok Kumar Verma to discuss the law and order situation or women security. The Chief Ministers office in its reply on July 6 said, The information sought is not compiled and hence, not available on record. Surprisingly, the Lieutenant Governors office refused to provide any details of the meeting with Kejriwal on the issue of women security and law and order, saying: The information sought attracts various provisions of exemptions from the disclosure of information under the RTI act. However, the reply also says the RTI seeking the particular details has been sent to the concerned authorities i.e the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and Lieutenant Governors Secretariat in Delhi and Delhi Police headquarter for further details. The Delhi Police and law and order doesnt fall under the elected government in Delhi as it remains a Union Territory and has no say in the policing issues. At several occasions, the Chief Minister has said that his government cant interfere in police issue as it is not under his ambit. An RTI was also sent to the Police Headquarters seeking specific details as to when Kejriwal summoned or called the Delhi Police Commissioner to discuss the law and order or women security issue. The response issued from the Delhi Police Headquarters said, No such letter regarding calling of the Commissioner of Delhi Police by Delhi Chief Minister was received in the office of CP/Delhi during the period from Feb 14, 2015 to June 7, 2016. However if any letter/references issued from Delhi Chief Ministers office in connection regarding the women security and law and order situation in Delhi, the complete reference number and date of the same may be intimated to enable us for proper reply. (With agency inputs) New Delhi: Ministry of Women and Child Development has launched a social media campaign to mark the Daughters' Day to be celebrated on 11th August 2016. The idea behind the Daughters' Day is to encourage people to treat their daughter-in-law as their own daughter. The government says This Daughters' Day, August 11, make your daughters (in-law) feel grand and grand-daughters feel grander. The coming week will be celebrated by the Ministry of Women and Child Development as Daughters' Week, as part of the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao programme. Through social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter etc, users from across the country will post photographs online with their Daughters, Daughters-in-law and Granddaughters using the hashtag #BBBPDaughtersWeek. To make the initiative more popular, Maneka Gandhi has posted her picture with her daughter-in-law and grand-daughter on Twitter. Itanagar: In a shocking incident, former CM of Arunachal Pradesh Kalikho Pul was found dead on Tuesday. Reportedly, he allegedly hanged himself at his official residence in Itanagar on Tuesday morning. He was yet to vacate the bungalow. Pul was suffering from depression, media reports said. It is yet to ascertained that why he took the extreme step. Also, no suicide note has been found from the spot. PM Narendra Modi has also offered condolences on Pul's demise. "My thoughts are with the family & supporters of Kalikho Pul on his sad demise. His service to Arunachal Pradesh will be remembered: PM (sic)," PMO tweeted. My thoughts are with the family & supporters of Kalikho Pul on his sad demise. His service to Arunachal Pradesh will be remembered: PM PMO India (@PMOIndia) August 9, 2016 Reacting the unfortunate incident, ex-CM Nabam Tuki said, "May God give strength to his family; a loss for entire Arunachal Pradesh. Congress family is with his family in this moment of grief." He was a Congress rebel in Arunachal Pradesh who was briefly chief minister for around four months after the state was placed under President's Rule following a series of dramatic developments. Pul had been chief minister in early 2016, but had to resign in the wake of an adverse Supreme Court verdict in July 2016. He had become the 8th chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh on February 19, 2016. He was just 47. New Delhi: A video has surfaced on the social media showing a husband behaving in an unbelievable manner after his wife left for her parental home. Holding a glass and a bottle of liquor in his hands, the man is seen celebrating his `freedom` by dancing to the tune of a funny number. Watch the video here: New Delhi: Acting tough, Indian Foreign Secretary Jaishankar, Tuesday, called in Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit and issued strong demarche on continuing cross-border terrorism from Pakistan. The demarche made specific reference to Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorist and Pakistan national Bahadur Ali who was apprehended recently by security forces after a fierce gunbattle in Kashmir. The Demarche reads: A Pakistani national Bahadur Ali @ Abu Saifullah, son of Mohd Haneef resident of village Jia Bagga, Tehsil Raiwind, District Lahore in the state of Punjab, Pakistan born on 17, 1995 in the village of Jia Bagga was arrested by Indian authorities in the state of Jammu and Kashmir on July 25, 2016 together with weapons (AK-47 rifle, live rounds, grenades, grenade launcher etc as also sophisticated communication equipment and other material of Pakistani/international origin. It further read that Ali received training from Pakistan-based LeT camps and infiltrated into India. Demarche made specific reference to LeT terrorist and Pak national Bahadur Ali who was apprehended recently (2/2) pic.twitter.com/uYwEyCQokM Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) August 9, 2016 During interrogation, the 22-year-old terrorist confirmed to the NIA that he was trained by LeT in guerilla warfare and has met Jamaat-ud-Dawaah (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed twice. Ali said that he was in regular touch with a Control Room established in PoK, where his handler Walid was instructing him. Itanagar: Ex-Arunachal Governor JP Rajkhowa had described Kalikho Pul as the undisputed leader when the latter was sworn-in as the eighth chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh on February 19. Pul had established himself as a popular democratically elected leader of the state. At the age of 13 months, he lost his mother, at six years his father. Pul went on to learn carpentry and sell furniture. Also, he served as a casual night watchman at merely Rs 212/month. Moreover, he used to sell paan and beedi to attend a night school. Kalikho was from Hawai, Anjaw district and belonged to Kaman Mishmi ethnic group of the state. Pul had served as minister for 22 of his 23 years as MLA. He described himself as a good contractor who never compromised on quality. In 1995, the Congress gave him assembly poll ticket. He won and became minister too. He became Arunachal Pradesh's CM after the central government recommended that President`s Rule be lifted from the state. "Under Pul's astute leadership together with his long experience and political acumen as an able legislator spread over long 25 years at a stretch, most pristine and picturesque Arunachal Pradesh would march forward along the road to peace, prosperity and all round sustainable development," Rajkhowa had said about Kalikho. Dissident Congress leader Kalikho Pul was on Feb 19 sworn in as chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh after more than two months of political crisis, shortly after the Supreme Court paved the way for government-formation and Presidents rule was lifted from the state. Pul had led a revolt against the leadership of former chief minister Nabam Tuki. A revolt by Congress dissidents led by Pul triggered political crisis in the state that finally led to imposition of Presidents rule on 26 January. During his CM tenure, Pul had said the priority of his government would be to improve the law and order situation and to streamline education, health and power sectors besides improvement in delivery system of essential services to the people without any discrimination. Pul was found hanging at his official residence in Itanagar on Tuesday morning. He was just 47. New Delhi: Taking a stern action against cow vigilantism, the Home Ministry on Tuesday asked states and union territories not to tolerate any incidents of attack on individuals in the name of protecting cow. The Home Ministry's advisory came two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for punishing fake "gau rakshaks" (cow protectors). The advisory said historically cattle have a very special, respected and venerated status in Indian culture and history and even the father of the nation had stated that 'cow protection to me is not mere protection of cow, it means protection of that (which) lives, is helpless and weak in the world'. However, that does not entitle any individual or group of persons to take action on their own to prevent the alleged slaughter or punish the alleged wrong doers. "Recently, some incidents have been reported where certain persons or groups have taken law into their hands in the name of protecting cows and have committed crimes in pursuance thereof. This is not an acceptable situation." "The states are, therefore, enjoined upon, and expected to ensure that any person who takes law into his/ her own hands is dealt with prompt, and punished as per law. There should be no tolerance at all for such persons and full majesty of law must come to bear on them, without exception," it said. The advisory said no person can, under any circumstances, take the law into their hands and any person, or persons, doing so have to be dealt with strictly under the relevant laws, and brought to justice in the quickest possible fashion, for the strictest punishment. The recent issue of flogging of four Dalits by cow vigilantes in Gujarat's Una town on July 11 has put the BJP in a troubled spot. The Modi government and BJP have also faced flak over incidents of violence against Dalits and Muslims by cow vigilantes in other states such as Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Quoting the Directive Principles of State Policy, which provides for the preservation of cows, the Home Ministry advisory said the state shall endeavour to organise agriculture and animal husbandry on modern and scientific lines and shall in particular, take steps for preserving and improving the breeds, and prohibiting the slaughter of cows and calves and other milch and draught cattle. Entry 15 of the State list of the 7th Schedule allocates the work of 'Preservation, protection and improvement of stock and preservation; veterinary training and practice' to the states, it said. Consequently, laws pertaining to cow preservation on prohibition of slaughter vary from state to state. "In states where slaughter of cows is prohibited by law, such slaughtering would be in violation of law and an offence." "However, that does not entitle any individual or group of persons to take action on their own to prevent the alleged slaughter or punish the alleged wrong doers," it said. The advisory said Section 39 of the CrPC requires that any person aware of the commission of certain offences or intention thereof, is required to give information to the nearest magistrate or police officer of such commission or intention. "Therefore, if an offence is committed, or about to be committed, such an offence, or possibility of offence is required to be brought to the notice of the concerned police authorities or magistrate for appropriate action as per law," it said. Modi's comments against cow vigilantes had evoked sharp reactions from 'gau rakshaks' and many right-wing organisations across the country. On a visit to Telangana, Modi had on Sunday - for the second time in 24 hours - called for protecting Dalits and for isolating and punishing fake "gau rakshaks" (cow protectors), saying they were destroying the country. Earlier, 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. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has also urged people not to get influenced by these anti-social elements. "The freedom that every Indian has also belongs to every Kashmiri. We want the same bright future for every youth in Kashmir," Modi said while launching the fortnight-long celebrations of India's 70th Independence Day in Madhya Pradesh. By India Today Web Desk: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said that the freedom that is cherished by every Indian also belongs to the people in Kashmir. He said India loves Kashmir while some people are trying to cause the region harm. "The freedom that every Indian has also belongs to every Kashmiri. We want the same bright future for every youth in Kashmir," Modi said while launching the fortnight-long celebrations of India's 70th Independence Day in Madhya Pradesh. advertisement "Kashmir, which we give so much love to... some people there are causing it a lot of harm," Modi said in comments aimed at calming the situation in the Valley, which has been on the boil for more than a month over the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani on July 8. "Boys who should be holding laptops, bats, balls in their hands and dreams in their hearts are the ones carrying stones today," Modi said in Bhabhra in Madhya Pradesh's Alirajpur district. MODI INVOKES VAJPAYEE'S DOCTRINE Modi invoked former Prime Minister AB Vajpayee whose doctrine of 'insaniyat (humanity), jamhuriyat (democracy) and Kashmiriyat' had succeeded in bridging the divide between the Valley and India more than a decade ago. "We are the people who walk the path that Atal Bihari Vajpayee took when it comes to Kashmir. My government believes in Atal Bihari Vajpayee's mantra," Modi said. On Monday, in her meeting with Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti had asked the Centre to remember Vajpayee as the government faced allegations of high-handedness by the security forces in Kashmir. Appealing for peace in the Valley, Modi said his government was looking for developmental solutions to people's problems. "Be it the Jammu and Kashmir government under Mehboobaji or the central government, we are finding solution to all problems through development," he said. Also read: Ready to discuss Kashmir in Rajya Sabha tomorrow: Rajnath Singh State BJP asks Jammu and Kashmir govt to deal Kashmir situation with iron hand --- ENDS --- Islamabad: Needling India yet again, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday said that he was "obliged" to become the voice of the "oppressed" people of Kashmir and would "leave no stone unturned" to make the world understand the "plight" of the people in the Valley. Sharif chaired a preparatory meeting for the upcoming UN General Assembly (UNGA) attended by his foreign affairs advisor Sartaj Aziz, special assistant on foreign affairs Tariq Fatemi, foreign secretary Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry, Pakistan's permanent representative in the UN Maleeha Lodhi, and Pakistan's ambassador to the US Jalil Abbas Jilani and other senior officials. The meeting reviewed the agendas to be included in the next session of UN General Assembly in which the premier is expected to participate, said a statement from his office. "It is an obligation for me as Prime Minister of Pakistan to become the voice of Kashmiris who have been oppressed in Kashmir. I will leave no stone unturned to make the world understand the plight and the legitimate struggle of the people of Kashmir," said Sharif. The meeting observed that "Kashmir remains an unfinished agenda of the UN and accordingly India must realise that Kashmir is not its internal matter, rather it is a matter of regional and international concern". Sharif said that the denial of right of self-determination for Kashmiris is one of the persistent failures of the UN. "The right of self-determination is the basic right of Kashmiris and we will make every effort to make Kashmiris a captain of their own ship," the statement quoted Sharif as saying in the meeting. Last week, Sharif had said Kashmir was witnessing a "new wave of freedom movement" and asked his country's diplomats to apprise the world that Kashmir was "not an internal matter of India". Islamabad: Pakistan on Tuesday rejected India`s claim of cross-LOC infiltration after Pakistani envoy was summoned and served a "strong demarche" against the issue, as bilateral ties took another dip. In response to a media question regarding summoning of Pakistan`s High Commissioner to India to protest cross-LOC infiltration, a Pakistan`s Foreign Office spokesperson said, "We strongly reject Indian claim of any cross-LOC infiltration. Pakistan remains committed to the policy of not allowing its territory for any terrorist activity against anyone." "However, it is necessary to establish veracity of the Indian claim. Details in this regard will be gathered," the spokesperson added. Days after India and Pakistan clashed over the turmoil in Kashmir at a Saarc meet in Islamabad, Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar summoned Pakistani High Commissioner Abdul Basit and "issued a strong demarche on continuing cross border terrorism from Pakistan" a Ministry of External Affairs statement said. The demarche made specific reference to LeT (Lashkar-e-Toiba) terrorist and Pakistan national Bahadur Ali who was apprehended recently, MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup said. The demarche stated that Pakistani national Bahadur Ali alias Abu Saifullah was arrested by Indian authorities in Jammu and Kashmir on July 25 along with weapons, including an AK-47 rifle, live rounds of ammunition, grenades and grenade launcher, as well as sophisticated communication equipment and other material of Pakistani and international origin. It said Bahadur Ali, born on December 17, 1995, is son of Mohammed Haneef, a resident of Jia Bagga village in the Lahore district of Pakistan`s Punjab province. "Bahadur Ali has confessed to our authorities that after training in Lashkar-e-Toiba camps, he was infiltrated into India," the demarche said. "He was thereafter in touch with `operations room` of LeT, receiving instructions to attack Indian security personnel and carry out terrorist attacks in India." The demarche said India "strongly protests against the continued infiltration from Pakistan of trained terrorists with instructions to carry out attacks". This was contrary to assurances given by Pakistani leaders at the highest level, it added. It also said that Bahadur Ali wrote to the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi seeking legal aid and assistance to meet his family. "We are prepared to grant the Pakistan High Commission consular access to Bahadur Ali," the demarche concluded. The Indian action comes less than a week after a Saarc ministerial meet in Islamabad saw the bilateral tensions over Kashmir come to the fore. Pakistani Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had slammed the "use of excessive force", referring to the unrest in Jammu and Kashmir, while Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh criticised the "glorification of terrorists as martyrs". Both sides did not hold a bilateral meeting, and Rajnath Singh also did not stay for a lunch for the Saarc interior ministers as his Pakistani counterpart, despite giving the invite, left early. Pakistan had also observed a Black Day last month to protest the deaths in Jammu and Kashmir and also termed Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani a "martyr". The killing of Wani on July 8 has led to a spiral of protests and violence in Kashmir, leaving over 50 people dead in clashes with security forces. Srinagar: The BSF Tuesday said the encounter in Macchil sector in north Kashmir, in which three BSF personnel and a militant were killed, was an attempt by Pakistan's Border Action Team (BAT) with support from Pakistani army to infiltrate militants into the Valley. "Yesterday early morning, there was an encounter. Apparently, it seems, a BAT (Border Action Team) action where the Pakistani army has given fire support to infiltrate some of the militants," Additional DG BSF Arun Kumar told reporters here. He said the attack was part of a series of such incidents on the borders in both the Kashmir Valley as well as in Jammu region. "One of them (infiltrators) was killed. He was carrying one AK 47 and a grenade. When our company commander rushed and spotted him, he exchanged fire. In addition to our three martyrs, some of our other soldiers have suffered minor injuries and this is in a series of incidents where, under the operation of army and BSF, infiltrators are being neutralised in encounters both at the Srinagar and Jammu frontiers," he said. "In Rajouri also, just a few days back, we killed three of them. So, I think, this seems to be in series of that," the Additional DG BSF said. Kumar said the infiltrators took advantage of the low visibility amid bad weather to reach the BSF post. "The fencing around our posts has broken at many places and it is a less distance from the posts. They also took advantage of bad weather during early morning when the visibility is low," he said The officer said the forces responded in an brave manner to thwart the infiltration attempt. "We got one body that was on our side but how many casualties are on the other side, that we will know. I hope there has been more damage to them," he said. Kumar said surveillance at the border has been increased in view of the "desperate" infiltration attempts by militants. "The surveillance has been increased. We work under the operational command of the army. Naturally, what happens is that when the snow melts the activity increases and we take precautions to make their attempts unsuccessful," he said. "The intelligence sources have warned us. There are people sitting on another side and are trying their best to infiltrate to this side. I think, the way things are happening, they cannot succeed without the active support of Pakistan army," he said. Three BSF personnel, including an officer, and a militant were killed yesterday in an operation in Macchil sector near the Line of Control in Kupwara in Kashmir. New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday hailed other political parties, especially Congress, for speaking in one voice on the Kashmir issue and called it the strength of India. "We would like to move forward with this strength," PM Modi said. PM Modi, who was speaking at Bhabhra in Madhya Pradesh, reached out to people of the restive Kashmir and indicated willingness to hold dialogue in the spirit of of 'insaniyat (humanity), jamhuriyat (democracy) and Kashmiriyat', enunciated by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Asserting that the state government, in which BJP is a partner, along with the central dispensation, is working towards the state's development, he said his government would do everything in this regard and will help lawyers, doctors, those depending on tourism and apple growers in their endeavours. "Our Kashmir is heaven for the countrymen. Every India has a dream to travel to Kashmir sometime. But we can see that a handful of people in Kashmir, which is loved by India so much, a few misled people are harming this great tradition," he said before invoking Vajpayee's mantra. "The common man in Kashmir wants peace," he said. His government wants to take Kashmir to new heights of development, empower its panchayats and give job opportunities to its youths, he said. The Prime Minister congratulated Mehbooba Mufti for ensuring that the Amarnath yatra continue despite the 'malicious intentions' of a few people. "Peace, unity and harmony in Kashmir... And I will especially call upon the youngsters of Kashmir that my friends we should together keep Kashmir as the heaven in the world. We should keep this dream," he said. He also used the occasion to make an appeal to Maoists and militants to lay down their arms, asking them to reflect if violence has given them anything even though they lost so much. Addressing the people of conflict-hit Kashmir, he said, "Governments of India and Jammu & Kashmir, besides 125 crore Indians, wish you well. They want your development. Whatever India has to give for your development, we are ready to give." In Kashmir, there has been no dearth of people willing to die for the country, he said, asking the people to join hands in nation-building. The valley has been hit by violence following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani on July 8. Over 55 people, including two policemen, have been killed during clashes between protesters and security forces. Large parts of Kashmir have been under intermittent curfew during the period. Modi was here to kick off a 15-day exercise, '70 Saal Azadi-Zara Yaad Karo Kurbani', a BJP move to commemorate the Independence Day. Speaking on the day Mahatma Gandhi had given Quit India call to the British in 1942, the Prime Minister asked the countrymen to take up a cause and develop the country to the ideals of freedom fighters. The Valley has been on the boil for over a month now following the killing a Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani on July 8. New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday appealed for peace in Jammu and Kashmir and said that his government was looking for developmental solutions to people's problems. The Prime Minister made these remarks shortly after arriving in the Alirajpur district of Madhya Pradesh the birthplace of freedom fighter Chandrashekhar Azad from where he formally inaugurated the fortnight-long celebrations of India`s 70th Independence Day. Here is what PM Modi said:- -PM Modi concludes his speech. -Our flag inspires the people to change the future of India. It inspires desh-bhakti in us: PM Modi -Kashmir wants peace. Whatever Kashmiris want for betterment of their livelihood, the Centre will help. We want development for J&K: PM -Whether it is the J&K Govt under Mehbooba ji or the Central Govt, we are finding a solution to all problems through development: PM -I want to thank the nation, I want to thank Congress that we all very maturely made attempts to deal with the situation in Kashmir: PM -Boys who should be holding laptops, bats, balls in their hands & dreams in their hearts are ones carrying stones: PM Modi -The freedom that every Indian has also belongs to every Kashmiri. We want the same bright future for every youth in Kashmir: PM Modi -We are the people who walk the path that Atal Bihari Vajpayee took when it comes to Kashmir: PM Modi -Kashmir, which we give so much love to, some people there are causing it a lot of harm: PM Modi -After 70 years of Independence, isn't it essential that all villages in India get electricity? We still have villages with no electricity: PM -But at least we have the honour to live for the nation, even if we didn't get to die for its freedom: PM Modi -Many of us were born in a free India. But the freedom fighters got the honour to sacrifice their lives for the nation: PM -It is my good fortune to be here, and bow my head at the birthplace of Chandrashekhar Azad: PM -On 8th Aug, 75 years back, Mahatma Gandhi asked the Britishers to "Quit India": PM Modi -PM Narendra Modi speaking in Bhabhra, Alirajpur. The Prime Minister earlier paid homage to the freedom fighter in his native village. Madhya Pradesh: PM Narendra Modi pays floral tribute to Chandrashekhar Azad in Alirajpur pic.twitter.com/qhb0ylsURI ANI (@ANI_news) August 9, 2016 MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan earlier addressed the rally and thanked the PM for his support to the state. CM @ChouhanShivraj speaking at the launch of nationwide campaign 'Aazadi 70 Saal - Yaad Karo Kurbani' at Bhabra. pic.twitter.com/SO0SH4f7dC BJP (@BJP4India) August 9, 2016 Senior minister Venkaiah Naidu had earlier said all ministers "without exception" will visit the birthplaces of national icons and places associated with India`s independence movement, such as Jallianwala Bagh (Punjab), Chauri Chaura (Uttar Pradesh), Cellular Jail (Andaman islands), Sabarmati Ashram and Dandi (both in Gujarat) etc. He said the places each minister will visit have been finalised. The government has planned an elaborate fortnight-long programme, being called `70 Saal Azadi -- Zara Yaad Karo Qurbani` (70 years of Independence -- Let`s recall the sacrifices) to commemorate the country`s 70th Independence Day. #Aazadi70saal , Remembering the great leaders of Indian Freedom Strugglehttps://t.co/2xvVy0mdiJ PIB India (@PIB_India) August 8, 2016 Naidu said the 15-day event will showcase the plurality and diversity of India through various modes and platforms and incorporating the voices and sentiments of the people. PM Modi to address public programs in Bhabra, MP. LIVE at https://t.co/Sfv9Z4rn3d | Dial 02245014501 to listen LIVE. pic.twitter.com/kmxEC8b1cu BJP LIVE (@BJPLive) August 9, 2016 He had requested all the political parties to participate in the programme. On August 18, the Rakshabandhan day, all women Union ministers and BJP Mahila Morcha members would tie `rakhis` on the wrists of soldiers deployed in border areas and other places, he said. Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah will visit Kakori in Uttar Pradesh where the revolutionaries looted a train carrying government money on August 9, 1925. With IANS inputs New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday appealed for peace in Jammu and Kashmir and said that his government was looking for developmental solutions to people's problems. The Prime Minister made these remarks shortly after arriving in the Alirajpur district of Madhya Pradesh the birthplace of freedom fighter Chandrashekhar Azad from where he formally inaugurated the fortnight-long celebrations of India`s 70th Independence Day. Here is what PM Modi said:- -PM Modi concludes his speech. -Our flag inspires the people to change the future of India. It inspires desh-bhakti in us: PM Modi -Kashmir wants peace. Whatever Kashmiris want for betterment of their livelihood, the Centre will help. We want development for J&K: PM -Whether it is the J&K Govt under Mehbooba ji or the Central Govt, we are finding a solution to all problems through development: PM -I want to thank the nation, I want to thank Congress that we all very maturely made attempts to deal with the situation in Kashmir: PM -Boys who should be holding laptops, bats, balls in their hands & dreams in their hearts are ones carrying stones: PM Modi -The freedom that every Indian has also belongs to every Kashmiri. We want the same bright future for every youth in Kashmir: PM Modi -We are the people who walk the path that Atal Bihari Vajpayee took when it comes to Kashmir: PM Modi -Kashmir, which we give so much love to, some people there are causing it a lot of harm: PM Modi -After 70 years of Independence, isn't it essential that all villages in India get electricity? We still have villages with no electricity: PM -But at least we have the honour to live for the nation, even if we didn't get to die for its freedom: PM Modi -Many of us were born in a free India. But the freedom fighters got the honour to sacrifice their lives for the nation: PM -It is my good fortune to be here, and bow my head at the birthplace of Chandrashekhar Azad: PM -On 8th Aug, 75 years back, Mahatma Gandhi asked the Britishers to "Quit India": PM Modi -PM Narendra Modi speaking in Bhabhra, Alirajpur. The Prime Minister earlier paid homage to the freedom fighter in his native village. Madhya Pradesh: PM Narendra Modi pays floral tribute to Chandrashekhar Azad in Alirajpur pic.twitter.com/qhb0ylsURI ANI (@ANI_news) August 9, 2016 MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan earlier addressed the rally and thanked the PM for his support to the state. CM @ChouhanShivraj speaking at the launch of nationwide campaign 'Aazadi 70 Saal - Yaad Karo Kurbani' at Bhabra. pic.twitter.com/SO0SH4f7dC BJP (@BJP4India) August 9, 2016 Senior minister Venkaiah Naidu had earlier said all ministers "without exception" will visit the birthplaces of national icons and places associated with India`s independence movement, such as Jallianwala Bagh (Punjab), Chauri Chaura (Uttar Pradesh), Cellular Jail (Andaman islands), Sabarmati Ashram and Dandi (both in Gujarat) etc. He said the places each minister will visit have been finalised. The government has planned an elaborate fortnight-long programme, being called `70 Saal Azadi -- Zara Yaad Karo Qurbani` (70 years of Independence -- Let`s recall the sacrifices) to commemorate the country`s 70th Independence Day. Naidu said the 15-day event will showcase the plurality and diversity of India through various modes and platforms and incorporating the voices and sentiments of the people. PM Modi to address public programs in Bhabra, MP. LIVE at https://t.co/Sfv9Z4rn3d | Dial 02245014501 to listen LIVE. pic.twitter.com/kmxEC8b1cu BJP LIVE (@BJPLive) August 9, 2016 He had requested all the political parties to participate in the programme. On August 18, the Rakshabandhan day, all women Union ministers and BJP Mahila Morcha members would tie `rakhis` on the wrists of soldiers deployed in border areas and other places, he said. Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah will visit Kakori in Uttar Pradesh where the revolutionaries looted a train carrying government money on August 9, 1925. With IANS inputs Washington: Amid reports of provocative remarks against India by Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin, the US has said such rhetorics are "unhelpful" for regional safety and security and emphasised the need for talks between India and Pakistan. "What I would say is I have seen reports, and anything that does not lead to a calm and peaceful and moderate resolution of differences is not helpful," the State Department Spokesperson, Elizabeth Trudeau told reporters during her daily news conference. "We believe that for regional safety and security, it is the responsibility of the two countries not only to speak directly to each other but also to have that support within the broader international community," Trudeau said. She was responding to questions on reports that Salahuddin threatened to wage a nuclear war against India over the Kashmir issue. "I am not going to respond to every piece of rhetoric that I have seen coming out of that. Of course violence is a concern to us, but what I would say is that issues like this are best resolved through dialogue between those countries," Trudeau said. Asked about the yesterday's terror attack in Pakistan's restive Balochistan province in which 75 people were killed, he said the US stands with Pakistan in the fight against terror and reminded Islamabad of its commitment to go after all terrorist groups. "What I will say is that Pakistan has said that they will go after all terrorists regardless of affiliation. I don't want to politicise this terror attack. This is reprehensible. What I will say is that we stand with Pakistan as they move forward on this fight against terror," Trudeau said. New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Subramanian Swamy on Tuesday yet again pointed fingers at Congress MP Shashi Tharoor in connection with Sunanda Pushkar death case. The firebrand BJP leader tweeted a report of All India Institute Of Medical Science which says that Tharoor was admitted to AIIMS on 18-01-2014. Notably, his wife's post-mortem was done on the same date in the premier institute. With his tweet, Swamy questioned whether Tharoor was admitted to AIIMS on the same day to make Sunanda's death "natural". Tharoor in AIIMS on post mortem day. Why? To make Sunanda's death "natural". Patriot Dr Gupta refused to oblige pic.twitter.com/RVLGTsz60u Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) August 9, 2016 The Rajya Sabha member has been pushing for speedy investigation into the case. Sunanda was found dead inside her suite at a five-star hotel here in January 2014, a day after she was involved in a spat with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar on Twitter over the latter's alleged affair with Tharoor, the Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram. Her viscera samples were sent to the FBI lab in Washington DC in February last year to determine the kind of poison that killed her after an AIIMS medical board identified poisoning as the reason behind her death. The FBI had endorsed the AIIMS report on poisoning and also said that a "dangerous chemical" was present in her body that may have killed her. New Delhi: Seconding Prime Minister Narendra Modi`s remarks on atrocities against Dalits by `cow vigilantes`, RSS ideologue Rakesh Sinha said the right-wing Hindu nationalist group have being doing its best services to integrate Dalit societies into the main stream adding those attacking Dalits are anti-national. "The Prime Minister has rightly warned those elements who are engaging in violence against Dalits. RSS has been doing its best services to integrate Dalit societies into the main stream, social campaign through philanthropic activities and through creating consciousness in the society," Sinha told ANI. Talking about the flogging of Dalit youths at Una in Gir Somnath district last month, Sinha reiterated that RSS was first to issue statement after the incident."RSS leadership reached Una. There was a big conference in Una in third August organised by RSS. So, those who conduct violence against the Dalits, they are not serving any cause of Hindutva," he added. He said that those attacking Dalits are disturbing the nationality of the country."Anyone who is attacking Dalits, he is not attacking a Dalit, he is attacking the Hindu society. Those who are engaged in violence against Dalits, they are anti-Hindu. They are anti-Hindutva, they are anti-national. They are disturbing the nationality of the country. With Dalit, the Hindu society cannot be imagined," he said. He, however, asserted that there should be a social campaign, convincing people and letting them realize that cow protection is there moral, spiritual and democratic duty. He remained of the opinion that states are not doing their moral duty to prevent the cow slaughters."There are 30, 000 illegal cow slaughters houses in this country. At the same time while campaigning for the cow slaughter as RSS has been emphasising right from the beginning that anti-cow slaughter movement should be a democratic movement, non-violent movement," he added. Earlier, Prime Minister Modi addressing a public rally in Hyderabad on Sunday expressed concern over the recent attacks on people from Dalit community and urged the opponents to stop politicising in the name of Dalit. He also asked the assaulters to attack him instead of Dalits. His remarks come at a time when questions are being raised on his silence amid the spate of recent attacks on Dalits in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh. Srinagar: Curfew in some parts and restrictions in rest of Kashmir remained in force for the 32nd day on Tuesday even as the situation across the Valley showed signs of improvement with the army assisting the police and paramilitary personnel in keeping troublemakers at bay. "Curfew is in force in police station areas of Nowhatta, Khanyar, Rainawari, Safakadal, Batamaloo and Maharajgunj in Srinagar city and Anantnag town in south Kashmir," a police official said. He said restrictions on assembly of four or more people were in force in rest of the Valley as a precautionary measure to maintain law and order. The official said the situation across the valley has showed signs of improvement since yesterday as army personnel were helping police and paramilitary forces at many places to keep troublemakers away from roads. "There were minor incidents of stonepelting yesterday and so far, no untoward incident has been reported today," the official added. Violent protests rocked Kashmir a day after Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani was killed in an encounter with security forces on July 8. As many as 55 persons including two cops were killed and several thousand others were injured in the clashes between protestors and security forces. Normal life in the Valley remained affected for the 32nd consecutive day due to the curbs imposed by the authorities and separatist sponsored strike against the killing of civilians in the security forces action. Schools, colleges, business establishments, petrol pumps and private offices were closed while public transport remained off the roads. The attendance in government offices and banks was also thin, the official said. Mobile internet services remained snapped in the entire Valley where the outgoing facility on prepaid connections is also barred. The separatist camp has extended the shutdown call in Kashmir till August 12. By Anil Kumar: Despite several setbacks on the international platform, Pakistan has once again taken up the Kashmir agenda. Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's office today issued a press release stating that Kashmir is still an unfinished agenda for the United Nations, and it is the PM's duty to take up the issue as the voice of Kashmiris has been oppressed by India. advertisement Nawaz Sharif, during the preparatory meeting for the upcoming United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) meeting, said, "It is an obligation for me as prime minister of Pakistan to become the voice of Kashmiris who have been oppressed in Kashmir. I will leave no stone unturned to make the world understand the plight and struggle of the people of Kashmir," Sharif said. He also said that the denial of right of self-determination for Kashmiris is one of the persistent failures of the United Nations. "The right of self-determination is the basic right of Kashmiris and we will make every effort to make them captain of their own ship," Sharif added. The meeting observed that Kashmir remains an unfinished agenda for the United Nations, and accordingly India must realise that Kashmir is not its internal matter, rather it is a matter of regional and international concern. The preparatory meeting was attended by foreign affairs advisor Sartaj Aziz, prime minister's special assistant Syed Tariq Fatemi, foreign secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, Pakistan's permanent representative at the UN Dr Maliha Lodhi and the country's ambassador to the United States Jalil Abbas Jilani. The meeting reviewed the agenda to be included in the next session of United Nations general assembly in which Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is expected to participate. Also Read PM Modi on Kashmir unrest: Kashmiris have the same freedom that any other Indian does Kashmir unrest: Youths raise pro-Pakistan slogans in the Valley --- ENDS --- Jammu: Kashmiri Pandit (KP) employees in the Valley on Tuesday accused the Centre and the state government of being "insensitive" to their problems. The ongoing protest of hundreds of KP employees, who have refused to return to work in the Valley after alleged stonepelting at their transit camps, today entered the 27th day. "The state and the central governments have become insensitive towards our problems. A high-level committee, which can take decision on behalf of the government, should be formed to hold talks with us," said Promod Kumar, one of the protesters. Raising slogans against the Jammu and Kashmir government for being "insensitive" towards their woes, the protesters claimed that not a single official or representative of the government had paid them a visit to listen to their grievances. "Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti urges the Prime Minister to hold talks with separatists who are out to disintegrate the country, but she is quiet on the issues of those who keep the tricolour aloft in Kashmir," chairman, All Party Migrant Coordination Committee (APMCC) Vinod Pandit, who has extended his support to the agitators, said. He said the KP employees, employed in the Valley under the Prime Minister's rehabilitation package, were forced to leave "once again" after their transit camps were attacked by stonepelting mobs. "They did not come here to stage a protest willingly. They were forced to leave their jobs in Kashmir after their camps were attacked by stonepelters, a fact acknowledged by the CID chief of Kashmir," claimed Pandit. The protesting KP employees have also accused the BJP, the coalition partner of the PDP in the Jammu and Kashmir government, of "rubbing salt" on their miseries as the four-member panel formed by the party to hold talks with them had "not done anything". Inclement weather conditions here have not been able to deter the protesters as they have pitched tents outside the office of the Relief Commissioner. The protesters, under the banner of All Migrant Employees' Association, Kashmir, are demanding placement in Jammu till a comprehensive plan for their return and rehabilitation is worked out. "We have given our blood to the soil of Kashmir and do not want to die there. The government should review the employment packag and accommodate us here in Jammu as it is not possible for us to return to Kashmir under the current circumstances," said Manoj Kaul, one of the protesters. Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir's ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Tuesday welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement on the Kashmir situation and expressed hope that it would mark a fresh beginning in a sustained dialogue process to address the issues. "We welcome the Prime Minister's intervention and hope that it will mark a fresh beginning in a sustained dialogue process for addressing the issues confronted by the state," senior PDP leader and Education Minister Naeem Akhtar said. Akhtar, who is also the spokesman of the PDP-BJP government in the state, said while similar initiatives in 2008 and 2010 were not carried forward, they expected that the Prime Minister's initiative on dialogue will be taken ahead. "We want the dialogue process to continue. We want it to gain momentum even when the present crises are resolved and things return to normalcy in the coming days," he said. The Prime Minister's statement would help in a long way to make things better in Kashmir and pacify the people's anger, he said. Akhtar said his party believed that dialogue is the only way to get Kashmir out of this crisis and allow its people to witness peaceful times. "We have always strived for the resumption of the dialogue process to get things back in order. It has been our long pending demand. We want dialogue to take place in the most conducive manner," he said. Meanwhile, opposition Congress said the Prime Minister's intervention on Kashmir situation was "late". "The Congress expects the Prime Minister to respond to the debate and discussion being held tomorrow in Parliament. Finally, the Prime Minister spoke on Kashmir, but it is late. "We feel that Prime Minister should have spoken on the current unrest early, besides expressing sympathies and his concern for the people of Kashmir," a state Congress spokesperson said in a statement. "The Prime Minister should also have spoken on the agenda of alliance between his party (BJP) and the PDP, besides assuring that the agenda of alliance finalised at the time of formation of the government in the state would be implemented in letter and spirit, besides ensuring an atmosphere of friendship between the Centre and the people of Kashmir," the Congress leader said. Breaking his silence on the 32-day turmoil in Kashmir, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at a public rally in Bhabra in Madhya Pradesh, today advocated a path of "democracy and dialogue" to restore peace in the spirit of 'insaniyat (humanity), jamhuriyat (democracy) and Kashmiriyat'. Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala police has sought the help of Interpol to nab some foreign nationals suspected to be behind the fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 2.50 lakh from ATMs using duplicate cards. Additional Director General of Police B. Sandhya on Tuesday visited an ATM of the State Bank of India located in the heart of the city. "Scientific evidences is being collected. We have got in touch with other state police and have also sought the help of Interpol," Sandhya told reporters. Some Russian and Kazakh nationals, who were in the state capital for 10 days, are suspected to be involved, according to police. The matter came to light after 50 complaints were registered by city residents of their money being withdrawn fraudulently. All of them used to frequent the SBI ATM at Alathara here. The police, after initial probe, said the gang had fixed an electronic device that looked like a smoke alarm in the ATM kiosk, and an ATM card reader. The police said the electronic device took a picture when the customer keyed in his secret PIN number, while the device placed in the card reader got the information of that particular card. The gang made a duplicate card and withdrew money from ATMs located outside the city. The visuals of two foreign nationals working on the 'smoke alarm' inside a SBI ATM was shown on TV channels on Tuesday. "I was surprised to get an SMS alert on Sunday when I was home that there were two withdrawals of Rs 10,000 each in a space of two minutes. I rushed to the ATM and when I took a statement of my account, I found out that I had lost money. Later I came to know that the withdrawal had taken place in Worli in Mumbai," said an SBI customer. Meanwhile, a special team has been formed under IG of Police, Manoj Abraham, to probe the incident. A group of officials has already left for Mumbai. "The state police chief has informed all bank officials to see that they conduct an immediate inspection of all ATM kiosks to ensure that everything is fine," Abraham told reporters. The police has also advised people to change the PIN of their ATM card to prevent any foul play. Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday indicated that "there are many indictments" in the reports the police have submitted on controversial NRI televangelist Zakir Naik. "Many unlawful activities have been pointed out pertaining to the organisation (Islamic Research Foundation) of which Zakir Naik is the leader. Certain activities are attributed to him as well," Fadnavis said in a series of tweets. He said the government is studying the report on the Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) and would soon share the contents with the Union Home Ministry to decide on further action. "In consultation with MHA, we will decide the further course of action which we need to take," Fadnavis added. However, the IRF denied media speculations on the report, submitted by Police Commissioner D Padsalgikar to the state government. "IRF wants to reiterate that the allegations are false and baseless. Zakir Naik firmly believes in promoting peace and harmony and has been doing that for decades," an IRF spokesperson said on Tuesday evening. The IRF spokesman said it has not received any notice from the MHA or any governmental agency and would not comment on anything now, and stressed that the outfit is a research body promoting greater awareness of Islam and its tenets. Naik is an expert in comparative religions, conducting talks on these topics around the world, the spokesman said. "Naik emphasizes on the teaching of Islam, which is not unconstitutional, and preaching and propagating one`s religion is allowed under Article 25 of the Indian Constitution," he said. He pointed out that conversion is not an objective of IRF which only spreads the message of Islam and clears misconceptions. Naik shot into prominence after an accused allegedly involved in a terror attack in Bangladesh last month claimed he was inspired by Naik`s preachings and teachings. After that, the Mumbai police examined several of Naik`s sermons, speeches, and IRF literature to ascertain if he was using provocative or inflammatory language that had the potential to create a communal rift. The televangelist is on a tour of some Arab and African countries since the past couple of months and addressed Mumbai media via teleconferencing on July 15. Mumbai: The Mumbai Police Tuesday arrested the Chief Executive Officer and four other doctors of the L H Hiranandani Hospital here in connection with an alleged kidney racket which came to light last month. Mumbai Police's spokesperson DCP Ashok Dudhe said the five doctors were arrested late this evening. CEO Dr Sujit Chatterjee, medical director Dr Anurag Naik, Dr Mukesh Shetye, Dr Mukesh Shaha and Dr Prakash Shetye were arrested under the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, he said. The racket came to light when the police were tipped off that a kidney transplant operation had been scheduled on July 14 at the privately-run Hiranandani Hospital where donor and recipient were not related. The operation on Brijkishor Jaiswal, the recipient, was stopped as police found that the woman who was donating him the kidney was not his wife, contrary to the papers submitted by the duo. The woman had pretended to be his wife only to be able to donate the kidney to Jaiswal, according to the police. Police then started probing if anybody else had received kidney using similar subterfuge and if the hospital authorities were involved. Mumbai: The Mumbai Police has filed a case against two suspected Islamic State sympathisers Arshid Qureshi and Rizwan Khan -- alleged to be close to controversial preacher Zakir Naik of the Islamic Research Foundation (IRF). The duo were picked up in Mumbai last month in a joint operation by the Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) and the Kerala Police. Also, the Mumbai Police on Monday submitted a report to the Maharashtra government on Naik's speeches amid reports that his sermons inspired one of the terrorists involved in the attack on a restaurant in Dhaka. Qureshi and Khan were arrested after a police complaint was raised by Ebin Abraham, brother of Kochi resident, Merin alias Mariyam, who along with her husband, is reported to be missing and is alleged to have joined the Islamic State. The two have not admitted that they had forcibly converted Merin. They have also denied any knowledge of about 19 other youths including women and children who have mysteriously disappeared from Kerala. However, both the men have been booked by the Mumbai Police for forceful conversion and radicalisation, reported The Indian Express. At present, they are currently under the Kerala police custody. We have registered a case under Section 13 and 38 of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act read with Section 120 (B) of IPC against four people, including Qureshi and Khan, The Indian Express quoted Joint Commissioner of Police ( Crime) Sanjay Saxena as saying. Names of the other two people booked havent been disclosed as yet. As per Hindustan Times, the case was filed after Mumbai Central resident Abdul Majid Abdul Kader lodged a complaint against Qureshi and Khan, alleging that his son Ashfaque, one of the 21 youths went missing in Kerala, was radicalised by the two men. The case has reportedly been transferred to Mumbai Crime Branch. If Naiks name surfaces, he will also be questioned, The Indian Express quoted a source as saying. Reports had earlier said that Qureshi has claimed that 700 persons from Kerala had been converted to Islam. Itanagar: Former Arunachal Pradesh CM Kalikho Pul allegedly committed suicide at his official residence on Tuesday, weeks after he was ordered by the Supreme Court to step down after a brief stint, sparking violent protests by his supporters. The body of 41-year-old Pul, which was hanging from the ceiling fan of his bedroom, was first spotted by one of his three wives this morning. Pul, a Congress rebel, was yet to vacate the official residence. Pul, who is survived by three wives and four children, had not met any outsider for the past seven days, his family claimed. The untimely demise of Pul, who had served as the chief minister from Feburary 19 till July 13 this year, shocked many and the state government announced a magisterial inquiry into the death. Chief Minister Pema Khandu told reporters that the inquiry was ordered to investigate whether there was any "foul play". Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled the death of Pul, saying his services to the state will be remembered. The state government after a cabinet meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Pema Khandu, declared a three-day state mourning and decided to accord a state funeral to the deceased. As news of the death of Pul, a Congress rebel, spread, scores of his supporters and well-wishers gheraoed Chief Minister Pema Khandu's bungalow in the Niti Bihar area and demanded a probe into the 'unnatural' death. They told the media that they would not allow Pul's body to be taken out from his bungalow at ESS sector and insisted that he be cremated inside the premises. The coffin, which was brought from outside, was damaged and set on fire by the crowd before the assembled media. A section of the mob headed towards the official residence of Deputy CM Chowna Mein, less than 100 metres away, damaged the outer wall and at least 10 vehicles parked in the premises. Kalikho Pul, who rebelled against chief minister Nabam Tuki in late 2015 along with a large section of party legislators, was sworn in as Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh with the support of 18 dissident Congress MLAs, two independents and 11 BJP legislators. The BJP legislators gave him outside support in the 60-member Assembly. Pul's appointment was preceded by days of turmoil which saw Nabam Tuki dismissed after 21 of the 47 Congress MLAs--including Pul-rebelled against him. This was followed by President's Rule imposed on January 26. The Supreme Court last month had ruled the appointment as illegal and reinstated the Congress government. Agartala: West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday attacked the Manik Sarkar government in Tripura over its "failures" and called upon the people to bring a 'Ma-Mati-Manush' government in the state. Alleging that there has been no development in Tripura during the prolonged CPI(M)-rule, she said, "Manik babu (Tripura CM Manik Sarkar) did you set up a single hospital here in last 23 years? You get 90 percent central assistance. We set up 41 super speciality hospitals in Bengal in the last five years. What has the CPI-M done here?" She claimed the people of Tripura go to West Bengal and elsewhere for treatment because "they don't get it here". "You did nothing for the state. Only delivering lectures will not do anything," she said. Banerjee said a people's government was formed in West Bengal after ousting the Left Front and another people's government would also come in Tripura. "People have to come forward braving all fears," she said addressing her first meeting here organised by TMC's state unit. "Time has come for CPI-M to leave the throne of power. Entire Bengal would be with you in your struggle to oust them (CPI-M) from power. We must oust this corrupt government in the 2018 elections," she said. The TMC supremo raised the issue of "huge loan" taken by the previous Left Front government in West Bengal and said, "They had left a huge debt burden and we turned into a pauper by repaying that debt". "Whatever I promised to you I will do for you and will never vacillate. We want development and good governance. All these would be possible if we can oust CPI-M from the helm of affairs," she said. Banerjee alleged that a huge number of people are unemployed in Tripura, students are not getting proper education, health care for common people is in a shambles and price haver skyrocketed due to "bad governance". "All this has happened due to bad governance here. I heard that a kg of potato is sold at a price of Rs 36-40. I am surprised what the Left Front government is doing here. In West Bengal if the price of potato goes above Rs 14 we arrange to sell it in fair price shops to stop black marketing," she added. Banerjee said CPI-M was boasting it had brought rail up to Agartala but "the project was sanctioned when I was the union Minister for railways in 2010." She said despite the huge debt burden in Bengal "we are distributing rice at Rs 2 per kg, giving stipends to girls and students, creating livelihood for the poor. "There is no job, no work, no agricultural facilities, no university and no teacher (in Tripura). There is only loot, conspiracy, false assurance, no justice. So why should people vote them ?" she asked. Banerjee said the day Sudip Roy Burman, the erstwhile leader of Opposition in Tripura, and some of his colleagues decided to quit Congress protesting against the party's alliance with CPI-M in West Bengal, it started paving the way for the ouster of CPI-M from the N-E state. Roy Burman along with five other Congress MLAs had joined TMC after the Bengal Assembly polls and it became the main Opposition in Tripura. Attacking BJP, she said "It is a useless party, which cannot do anything. We (TMC) had to give it full support to pass the GST bill in Parliament." West Bengal ministers Firhad Hakim and Arup Biswas, MP Mukul Roy, and Tripura TMC leader Sudip Roy Burman also spoke at the rally. Itanagar: Situation is tense in Arunachal capital city after supporters gheraoed the Chief Minister`s Residence, where former CM Kalikho Pul was found dead. Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has spoken to Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu on Pul`s death. Sources with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) confirmed that no suicide note was found from Pul`s residence, adding that depression could be the possible reason behind his death. Expressing his solidarity, former Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Nabam Tuki in a statement said, "It is sad and really unfortunate that a young leader Kalikho Pul is no more with us. May God give strength to his family. It is a loss for the entire state of Arunachal Pradesh. The entire Congress family is with his family in this moment of grief." Pul was the chief minister for around four months after the state was placed under President`s Rule following a series of dramatic developments, which witnessed the Congress government being voted out by party rebels along with the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In February, Pul was sworn-in as the Arunachal Pradesh chief minister with the support of 18 dissident Congress legislators, two independents and 11 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs who gave him outside support in the 60-member Assembly. Nabam Tuki, who was earlier the chief minister, was dismissed following days of turmoil, after 21 of the 47 Congress MLAs - including Pul - rebelled against him. Arunachal Pradesh was placed under President`s Rule on January 26. Last month, the Supreme Court ordered the restoration of the earlier Congress government in Arunachal.In a separate judgment, the apex court had also set aside the Assembly Deputy Speaker`s order quashing the Speaker`s decision to disqualify 14 rebel Congress MLAs on December 15, 2015. New Delhi: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday expressed shock at the untimely and tragic demise of former Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Kalikho Pul. Extending her condolences to Pul's family, Gandhi prayed for peace of the departed soul. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi also expressed his condolences. "Shocked and deeply saddened at the untimely demise of Kalikho Pulji. My heart goes out to his family and loved ones," he tweeted. Pul was found dead at the Chief Minister's official residence in Itanagar earlier today. Expressing his solidarity, former Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Nabam Tuki in a statement said, "It is sad and really unfortunate that a young leader Kalikho Pul is no more with us. May God give strength to his family. It is a loss for the entire state of Arunachal Pradesh. The entire Congress family is with his family in this moment of grief. "Pul was the chief minister for around four months after the state was placed under President`s Rule following a series of dramatic developments, which witnessed the Congress government being voted out by party rebels along with the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In February, Pul was sworn-in as the Arunachal Pradesh chief minister with the support of 18 dissident Congress legislators, two independents and 11 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs who gave him outside support in the 60-member assembly. Nabam Tuki, who was earlier the chief minister, was dismissed following days of turmoil, after 21 of the 47 Congress MLAs - including Pul -rebelled against him.Arunachal Pradesh was placed under President`s Rule on January 26. Last month, the Supreme Court ordered the restoration of the earlier Congress government in Arunachal. In a separate judgement, the apex court had also set aside the Assembly Deputy Speaker`s order quashing the Speaker's decision to disqualify 14 rebel Congress MLAs on December 15, 2015. By PTI: From Shirish B Pradhan Kathmandu, Aug 9 (PTI) Nepal wants to develop trilateral relations with its two big neighbours - India and China, the countrys new Prime Minister Prachanda said today. Prime Minister and CPN-Maoist Centre chairman Prachanda, during a meeting with delegates from China Institute of Contemporary Relations at the Prime Ministers official residence here told them that he was "keen to welcome the Chinese President Xi Jinping," who is expected to visit Nepal in a couple of months. advertisement "Nepal wants to develop a reliable and long lasting friendship with the northern neighbour," Prachanda said, adding "he wants to develop trilateral relations with the two big neighbours India and China". The delegates from the state-run Chinese think-tank told Prachanda that "China wanted to establish a constructive and sustainable relations with Nepal," according to a statement issued by the Prime Ministers office. They also expressed desire to exchange experience and knowledge regarding the post-earthquake construction, to extend cooperation and to help Nepal in mega projects. The delegation also asked the Government of Nepal to build infrastructure to bring in more Chinese tourists in Nepal, the statement said. The 61-year-old Prachanda was elected Prime Minister on Wednesday for the second time after his brief stint with premiership came to an end in 2009. He was Prime Minister from 2008 to 2009 before a disagreement with the President over his attempt to sack the army chief brought his period in office to an early end. PTI SBP SUA AKJ SUA --- ENDS --- Jodhpur: The Rajasthan High Court on Tuesday rejected the bail application of self-styled godman Asaram Bapu, who is facing rape charge. This was the ninth regular bail application of Asaram to be rejected. An interim bail plea was rejected by the high court last month. While rejecting the bail application, Justice Nirmal Jeet Kaur said since the trial of the case has reached its fag end, it was not appropriate to grant the bail. Prosecution counsel P C Solanki said the court also rejected the argument of defence that the trial of the case was taking long. A teenage girl had accused Asaram of sexual assault at his ashram in Manai village near Jodhpur. The girl belonging to Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh was a student at the ashram. Following her complaint against Asaram, he was arrested by Jodhpur Police on 31 August, 2013 and has been in jail since then. Jaipur: In a horrifying incident, a private school bus fell into the swollen Palki river in Bhilwara district here on Monday. Thankfully, all the children on board the bus are safe. The incident took place when the bus was on its way to the senior secondary school in Bijolia. The driver drove over the inundated bridge and due to heavy water flow, the bus plunged into the river, SHO (Bijolia) Panchu Ram said. People present in the area came to the rescue of children, he said. "There were around 40 children including both girls and boys in the age group of 10-15 years. All the children are safe now," he said, adding a case has been registered against the bus driver. (With PTI inputs) Chennai: The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) on Tuesday welcomed preliminary enquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigating (CBI) into the alleged seizure of Rs 570 crore cash ahead the Tamil Nadu Assembly election and said that it is good of the investigative agency to commence a probe as the ruling dispensation would have never instigated a fair inquiry. DMK Spokesperson Saravanan Annadurai said that the whole matter is perplexing and as the money was transferred during the elections time the matter needs to be investigated. "It is a welcome move that the CBI has initiated a preliminary enquiry in to this 570 crore issue. Because it is perplexing the way money was transferred and it is unbelievable that the money belongs to the SBI. Because we know if even 1000 rupees is credited extra in to our accounts how the bank managers turn things upside down to get that credit back," said Annadurai." When 570 crore is being caught and is flashed all over the media none of them claimed it for 18 long hours, so all this creates a large amount of suspicion. And if such huge sum is transferred during election time it has to be inquired and definitely we cannot expect a fair inquiry by the present government, that why our leaders have sought a CBI enquiry and we welcome the move," he added. The CBI yesterday registered a preliminary enquiry into the matter. The matter was handed over to the CBI on the directions of Madras High Court. According to reports, it is alleged that around midnight of May 13, 2016, Election Commission Surveillance team stationed at Tirupur seized three tanker lorries with Rs 570 crore in cash. The seizure made three ahead May 16, 2016 when Tamil Nadu was scheduled to go for polls. The DMK has alleged that the seized cash was hawala money. Sangareddy: Three persons were today killed and 12 others injured in a road accident in Medak district of Telangana, police said. According to Venkataiah, Circle inspector of Jogipet police station, the mishap took place near Danampally village in the wee hours when two families from Maharashtra were on their way to Tirupati and their vehicle rammed into a tree while the driver tried to avoid collision with an auto coming from the opposite direction. The victims hailed from Wadi and Shikhar villages in Nanded district in the neighbouring state. Three persons died on the spot. The deceased were identified as Phulia Bhai, Laxmi Bhai and Bheem Rao, police said. The injured were admitted to government area hospital in Jogipet from where four were shifted to Gandhi hospital Hyderabad in a critical condition, they said. A case has been registered and further probe is underway. Lucknow: After nearly a week-long chase, the Uttar Pradesh Police arrested the main accused in the Bulandshahr gang-rape case and the kingpin of the notorious Bawaria gang on Monday evening. Salim Bawaria, who was on the run since the horrific gang-rape of a Noida-based woman and her teenage daughter, was arrested by the Special Task Force of the Uttar Pradesh Police. Salim, whose arrest was earlier confirmed by the UPDGP Javeed Ahmed, was nabbed along with two other accused in the case from Meerut. Addressing a press conference today, IG Meerut Zone Sujit Kumar Pandey said, ''After chasing him for close to a week, we had arrested Salim, the main accused in the case, and his two close aides Pervej and Sajid from Meerut yesterday.'' We have, by now, arrested six accused in the case. However, a person called Fati is still absconding, he added. Giving more details about the crime, Pandey said, ''The planning for the crime took place in Kithore area of Meerut.'' Before committing the crime, the Bawaria gang members had consumed alcohol, he said. A large number of arms, including several country-made pistols, and jewellery belonging to the victims were seized from them, the IG said. We had formed 18 teams which were sent to 28 locations to nab the culprits, IG Sujeet Pandey added. After the crime, the gang members had split and fled to different locations. Two of them even fled to Bihar and Jharkhand, Pandey said. Pandey also informed the media that the victims have identified all the accused arrested in the case. However, the top cop committed a faux pas by naming the victims in the Bulandshahr gang-rape case. Though not detailing the full details regarding Salim Bawaria's arrest, Pandey said that Salim's exact location was traced through his mobile phone. The UP Police had earlier picked up 11 persons closely linked to the Bawaria gang-members and extracted crucial information regarding Salim's possible whereabouts. The arrested Bawaria gang members were under electronic surveillance and, based on the information provided by them, the police made efforts to trace Salim's location through his call details. Interestingly, Salim, who was using different SIM cards to contact his gang members, had kept his mobile phone switched off and made only important calls. His last call to one of his close aides, who was nabbed by the police on Sunday, provided the much-needed info to the police officials and finally led to his arrest from Meerut. After his arrest, Salim Bawaria was taken to Hapur where he was formally interrogated. It is being said that Salim broke down after the third degree treatment given to him by the police and narrated the whole sequence of events after the Bulandshahr incident. He was interrogated by IG Zone Sujit Kumar Pandey and Bulandshahr SSP Anees Ahmed Ansari during which he confessed his role in the heinous crime. On July 31, 35-year-old woman and her 13-year-old daughter were brutally gang-raped at gunpoint on NH-9 near Bulandshahr. The women, along with their family, are from Noida. The family was driving to a funeral in Bulandshahr on the night of July 31 when their car was stopped by the Bawaria gang of robbers The family was first robbed and thrashed. The gang later tied up the men and gang-raped the woman and daughter for three hours. Lucknow: A woman and her minor daughter who were gang-raped at Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh identified on Tuesday the three persons arrested from Meerut. The three include Salim Bawaria, the kingpin of the gang and the prime accused. Police on Monday midnight claimed to have arrested the accused in the case. Police officials said 10 teams had been formed to crack the case and catch the culprits. Meanwhile, Inspector General (Meerut) Sujit Pandey courted controversy on Tuesday when he revealed the name of the victim's father. He later tried to cover his tracks by saying that even the media covers such incidents and interviews the victims and family members. He also said that no rule book barred him from doing so. The mother and daughter were raped on July 29 on a highway while going with other family members to attend a ritual at a relative's house. Seven police officials were suspended and the Allahabad High Court had taken suo motu cognisance of the incident. Lucknow: Several villages in Gonda district of Uttar Pradesh have been flooded and dozens more are threatened following the breaching of Elgin-Charsari embankment by the swollen Ghaghra river, officials said on Tuesday. About 38 villages with a population of 65,000 people are at the risk of flooding by the collapse on Monday of the 52-km long embankment, which starts from Elgin Bridge in Barabanki district to Charsari village in Gonda district, they said. People have been asked to leave their houses and go to safer places or flood relief camps set up by the district administration, the officials said. "The breach took place between the 9th and the 14th kilometre. The work of engineers and technical experts is over as the embankment has already been washed away. So, now we have pressed the staff into rescue mode," Gonda`s District Magistrate Ashutosh Niranjan told IANS. He said a team of army personnel from the Dogra Regiment stationed in Faizabad has surveyed the area and are on a stand by. A team of 35 people from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) with their equipment is camping in the region to ensure that there is no loss of lives. A platoon of Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) flood division is also in Gonda and another is on way from Chitrakoot, Niranjan said. Senior officials of the state irrigation department led by the principal secretary have visited the area and are monitoring the situation. "We have 10 boats, and eight motor boats of the NDRF and PAC are also here. We will use them as and when required," Niranjan said. Interestingly, the administration had spent Rs 5 crore on repairs and maintenance of the embankment earlier this year. The Ghaghra river had also breached the Elgin-Charsari embankment in 2010 at kilometer 15, affecting 150 villages and 2.5 lakh people in Barabanki and Gonda districts. Mathura: Taking exception to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent remarks over cow vigilantism, the Shankaracharya of Goverdhan Peeth on Tuesday sought an apology from him in three days, failing which he threatened to take legal recourse. "Modi's comment has hurt the prestige of cow protectors. He either express regret publicly within three days or we shall seek redressal from high court or apex court by filing a defamation suit," Swami Adhokshjanand Saraswati told reporters here. He said Modi has forgotten 'Gau' (cow), 'Ganga' and 'Geeta' which enthroned him to this position. He said instead of making efforts to save thousands of cows stuck in a Goshala in Rajasthan, the prime minister has commented against the cow protectors. Modi had recently lashed out at "fake cow protectors" calling them "anti-nationals", who indulged in crimes by the night and masqueraded as cow protectors by the day. Modi's remarks came after the brutal flogging of four Dalit men by a group of cow vigilantes in Gujarat. Sanaa: Saudi-led coalition air strikes on a food factory in Yemen`s rebel-held capital Sanaa killed 14 workers on Tuesday, medics said. Factory director Abdullah al-Aqel gave a higher toll of 16 killed and 10 wounded, adding that all the victims were workers. The Al-Aqel factory, which makes potato chips and is near a military equipment maintenance centre targeted in the raids, was struck during working hours, he added. Advocate ML Sharma alleged that the entire incident was orchestrated on December 16 night by a politician in connivance with the victim's male friend "to score political mileage". M L Sharma, who represents Mukesh and Pawan, now alleged that the entire incident was orchestrated on the night of December 16, 2012 by a politician in connivance with the male companion of the victim "to score political mileage". Photo: AP By Harish V Nair: A week after his outrageous offer to pay Rs 10 lakh reward to anyone who can prove that the victim was violated with an iron rod, the lawyer representing two of the death row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape case appeal in the Supreme Court was at it again. Continuing with his arguments laced with atrocious claims, advocate M L Sharma, who represents Mukesh and Pawan, now alleged that the entire incident was orchestrated on the night of December 16, 2012 by a politician in connivance with the male companion of the victim "to score political mileage". advertisement YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT HE SAID Sharma alleged, "After paying Rs 10,000 to his brother Ram Singh (one of the accused who committed suicide in Tihar jail during the trial) the politician and male companion of the victim assured him of protection from all problems, but they ditched him. Being frustrated, Ram Singh decided to reveal everything to the trial court and the media. After this information reached these persons they got him killed. But it was called a suicide. His brother Mukesh too was under fear for being killed like Ram Singh. Mukesh was regularly being tortured and it resulted in him speaking the police version in court". "Mukesh now knows that he is sure to be hanged. So he wants to disclose all facts. Till now he did not dare to do so due to fear of being killed." But a bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra told Sharma that he should stick to the evidence already placed before the lower courts and no new evidence can be permitted. "Whatever evidence is on record you argue only on the basis of that. Just because we are permitting you sufficient time does not mean that you can say whatever you want," he said. Also Read: Nirbhaya gangrape: Rs 10 lakh award if iron rod theory is proved, says defence lawyer 'How many Nirbhayas does Delhi want?' Raped Dalit teen, forced to drink acid, dies --- ENDS --- Beijing: China on Tuesday condemned the terrorist attack at a hospital in Pakistan and said that it stands behind its ally in the fight against terrorism and its efforts to maintain stability. "Deeply shocked and saddened by the terrorist attack which caused grave casualties in Quetta, Pakistan," Spokesperson of Chinese Foreign Ministry Hua Chunying said in a statement. "We express our strong condemnation. Our hearts go out to the families of those killed and injured, and we mourn for the lives lost," Hua said. "The Chinese side opposes all forms of terrorism. We will always stand behind the Pakistani side in its fight against terrorism and its campaign for stability of the country and security of the people," she said. Seventy people were killed when a suicided attacker blew himself up at a hospital in Quetta in restive Balochistan province. Washington: Despite losing its case at an international court in The Hague, China appears in no mood to let go of its claims in the disputed South China Sea. The New York Times reported that recent satellite photographs made public by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank - show China having built reinforced aircraft hangars on its holdings in the Spratly Islands. The hangars constructed on Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief Reefs, part of the Spratly Islands have room for any fighter jet in the Chinese air force. However, there were no military aircraft stationed in the hangers at the time when the photos were taken. "They are far thicker than you would build for any civilian purpose," Gregory Poling, director of CSIS's Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, told the Times. "They're reinforced to take a strike." China claims most of the South China Sea despite the claims made by The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei over their share of the waters. The images have emerged about a month after an international court in The Hague ruled against China's sweeping claims in the resource-rich region, a ruling emphatically rejected by Beijing. The United States has urged China and other claimants not to militarise their holdings in the South China Sea. China has repeatedly denied doing so, saying the facilities were for civilian and self-defence uses, and in turn criticized US patrols and exercises for ramping up tensions in the region. With agency inputs United Nations: The United Nations Security Council has been unable to condemn the launch of a missile by North Korea that landed near Japan because China wanted the statement to oppose the planned deployment of a U.S. anti-missile defence system in South Korea. North Korea launched a ballistic missile last Wednesday that landed in or near Japanese-controlled waters for the first time, the latest in a series of launches by the isolated country in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions. The 15-member council held a closed-door meeting on the same day, but has been unable to agree on a U.S.-drafted statement to condemn the launch, which was almost identical to two previous statements issued by the council on North Korea (DPRK). China proposed that the statement also say "all relevant parties shall avoid taking any actions which could provoke each other and escalate tensions, and shall not deploy any new anti-ballistic missile stronghold in Northeast Asia with an excuse of dealing with threats of the DPRK nuclear and missile programs." Beijing has said Washington`s decision last month to deploy a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system would only worsen tensions on the Korean peninsula. China`s U.N. mission also did not want the statement to express concern that the missile landed near Japan, telling council diplomats in an email, seen by Reuters: "We believe that the response of the council is based on violation of Security Council resolutions, not the place where the missile impacted." Japan and the United States said they could not accept the proposed changes to the draft by China and on Tuesday dropped the bid for a Security Council statement. "To propose that this council should criticise purely defensive steps that states have taken to protect their people from the DPRK`s clear and repeated ballistic missile threats ... would be manifestly inappropriate and would send entirely the wrong message to the DPRK," the U.S. mission to the United Nations told council diplomats in an email. After the Security Council meeting last Wednesday, U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power rejected suggestions the decision to deploy the anti-missile defence system in South Korea had provoked ballistic missile tests by North Korea. North Korea has been under U.N. sanctions since 2006. In March, the Security Council imposed harsh new sanctions on the country in response to North Korea`s fourth nuclear test in January and the launch of a long-range rocket in February. Tokyo: Japan summoned China's ambassador on Tuesday after the country's ships were spotted near disputed East China Sea islands for a fifth straight day. Foreign minister Fumio Kishida called in Cheng Yonghua, Beijing's envoy to Tokyo, the foreign ministry said -- the second such summons since Friday. "The situation surrounding the Japan-China relationship is markedly deteriorating," he told Cheng, according to the ministry's statement on its website. "We cannot accept that (China) is taking actions that unilaterally raise tensions." The two countries are locked in a long-running dispute over the uninhabited islets known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China. The move comes after repeated protests by Japanese foreign ministry officials since Friday over what Tokyo calls "intrusions" by Chinese ships in the territorial and contiguous waters of the rocky islands. Cheng was also summoned on Friday by vice minister Shinsuke Sugiyama after two Chinese coast guard and fishing vessels entered Japan's territorial waters. On Tuesday morning, the Japan Coast Guard said it spotted Chinese ships in the country's territorial waters surrounding the islands and about a dozen others nearby. The Japanese coastguard a day before caught sight of 15 Chinese coast guard ships near the islands -- the highest number ever spotted. Some 230 Chinese fishing vessels and seven coast guard ships, including four apparently carrying weapons, sailed into waters close to the disputed island on Sunday. It is rare for so many Chinese fishing vessels to be seen in the disputed waters. Tensions over the islands have been a frequent irritant and have strained bilateral relations, though tensions had markedly relaxed over the past two years as two sides took steps to ease the pressure through dialogue. But the fundamental divide over the islands remains unresolved. Japan's Kyodo News reported Monday that Japan wants "high-level" talks with China over the incursions as they have not stopped despite Tokyo's protests. Citing a government source, it said that Japan wants to bring up the issue in talks between the country's leaders and foreign ministers. Japan protested in June after it said a Chinese navy frigate sailed close to territorial waters near the islands for the first time. Aden: At least 15 workers of a food factory including six women, were killed and eight wounded in a series of Saudi-led airstrikes in Sanaa on Tuesday. The airstrikes destroyed two food factories in Nahda quarter near the information ministry in downtown Sanaa, Xinhua news agency reported. Sanaa is under the control of the Shia Houthi group and allies of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The main mountain bridge road linking Sanaa and the southern provinces was destroyed, cutting off travel and food supplies between them. Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen`s conflict in March 2015, nearly six months after the Houthi group and Saleh forces stormed Sanaa and drove out the internationally recognised government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to exile. The intervention triggered a more devastating civil war that has so far claimed over 6,400 lives and displaced more than two million people. The deadly military escalation came four days after the UN peace talks in Kuwait between Yemeni parties broke down. Manila: Philippines tourism officials on Tuesday said a threat by an Islamic State-related group to bomb the Miss Universe beauty contest was "serious", but insisted the country would be ready to hold the pageant next year. A pro-IS social media channel tracked by the terror-monitoring SITE Intelligence Group showed a video on how to "create a bomb for Miss Universe", referring to the beauty pageant to be held in Manila in January 2017. The video, posted on Monday, appeared to show how to make an explosive belt for suicide operations. "We consider this as serious," said the tourism department, which last month announced it won the contest to host the 2017 pageant. It cited the country`s successful hosting of Pope Francis last year, as well as world leaders for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, as proof that it was ready for the expected influx of visitors for Miss Universe. The threat would be referred to an intelligence group assigned to the pageant, national police spokesman Senior Superintendent Dionardo Carlos told AFP. "That`s going to be looked at," he said, without giving details. Filipino Muslim militants operating in the south of the country have in recent years pledged allegiance to the IS, though security officials and analysts said they were more focused on raising ransom from kidnappings than propagating an ideology. Jerusalem: Israel said on Tuesday it had arrested and charged a United Nations employee for allegedly aiding Islamist movement Hamas, in the second such case involving a humanitarian worker in a week. Engineer Waheed Borsh, who has worked for the UN Development Programme (UNDP) since 2003, was arrested on July 16 and indicted in a civilian court in Israel on Tuesday, a government statement said. Hamas, which has run the Gaza Strip since 2007, denied the allegations. The statement said 38-year-old Borsh, from Jabaliya in northern Gaza, had been recruited by "a senior member of the Hamas terrorist organisation to redirect his work for UNDP to serve Hamas` military interests". It said he had confessed to a number of charges, including helping to build a jetty in the northern Gaza Strip, with UNDP funding, that was later used by Hamas` naval forces. In 2015 he allegedly persuaded managers to focus on rebuilding houses in areas where Hamas members lived, after the group put pressure on him. No figures were provided on how much aid money he is alleged to have diverted. Hamas said in a statement that the allegations were "incorrect and baseless". It said they were part of a wider Israeli effort "to tighten the siege of the Gaza Strip by prosecuting international relief organisations." The Israeli government said that Borsh admitted during the investigation that "other Palestinians who work for aid organisations are also working for Hamas"."This is not an isolated case, but rather a troubling trend of the systematic exploitation by Hamas terrorists of UN organisations," the Israeli ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, said in a separate statement. The formal charge sheet was not publicly available. UNDP said that it would respond to the allegations soon. It comes days after the Gaza head of US-based NGO World Vision was charged with passing millions of dollars of international aid money to Hamas. According to the Shin Bet internal security agency, Mohammed al-Halabi diverted $7.2 million (6.5 million euros) each year since 2010 to Hamas and its military wing, though his charge sheet does not specify an amount. Halabi is also accused of recruiting an individual from another international NGO, Save the Children, to Hamas. World Vision International on Tuesday questioned the allegations, suggesting the numbers may have been exaggerated. Its president Kevin Jenkins said in a statement the organisation was conducting an investigation into the allegations but "have not seen any of the evidence". "World Vision`s cumulative operating budget in Gaza for the past ten years was approximately $22.5 million, which makes the alleged amount of up to $50 million being diverted hard to reconcile," the statement read. Since 2008, Israel has fought three wars in Gaza with Hamas, which is branded a terrorist organisation by Israel, the United States and the European Union. More than three quarters of the population of the Strip, which Israel has blockaded for a decade, are reliant on some form of aid, according to the United Nations. Jerusalem: Israel said on Tuesday it had arrested and charged a United Nations employee for allegedly providing "material assistance" to the Islamist movement Hamas. Engineer Waheed Borsh, who has worked for the UN Development Programme (UNDP) since 2003, was arrested on July 16 and indicted in a civilian court in Israel on Tuesday, a government statement said. He is the second humanitarian worker to be charged by Israel in the past week with aiding Hamas, which has run the Gaza Strip since 2007. The statement said Borsh, 38 and from Jabaliya in northern Gaza, had been recruited by "a senior member of the Hamas terrorist organisation to redirect his work for UNDP to serve Hamas` military interests". It said he had confessed to a number of charges, including helping to build a jetty in the northern Gaza Strip, with UNDP funding, that was later used by Hamas` naval forces. In 2015 he allegedly persuaded managers to focus on rebuilding houses in areas where Hamas members lived, after the group put pressure on him. No figures were provided on how much aid money he is alleged to have diverted. During the investigation, the statement said, Borsh admitted that "other Palestinians who work for aid organisations are also working for Hamas". The statement said the charges demonstrate "how Hamas exploits the resources of international aid organisations at the expense of the civilian population of the Gaza Strip". The formal charge sheet was not yet publicly available. UNDP told AFP it would be releasing a response very soon. The government announcement follows the charging on Thursday of the Gaza head of US-based NGO World Vision with diverting millions of dollars of international aid money to Hamas. According to the Shin Bet internal security agency, Mohammed al-Halabi diverted $7.2 million (6.5 million euros) each year since 2010 to Hamas and its military wing, though his charge sheet does not specify an amount. Halabi is also accused of recruiting an individual from Save the Children, another international NGO, to Hamas. World Vision International on Tuesday questioned the allegations, saying the numbers suggested may have been exaggerated. Its president Kevin Jenkins said in a statement the organisation was conducting an investigation into the allegations but "have not seen any of the evidence". "World Vision`s cumulative operating budget in Gaza for the past ten years was approximately $22.5 million, which makes the alleged amount of up to $50 million being diverted hard to reconcile," the statement read. Since 2008, Israel has fought three wars in Gaza with Hamas, which is branded a terrorist organisation by Israel, the United States and the European Union. More than two thirds of the population of the Strip, which Israel has blockaded for a decade, are reliant upon some form of aid, according to the United Nations. Tokyo: Japan summoned China`s ambassador Tuesday after the country`s ships were spotted near disputed East China Sea islands for a fifth straight day. Foreign minister Fumio Kishida called in Cheng Yonghua, Beijing`s envoy to Tokyo, the foreign ministry said -- the second such summons since Friday. "The situation surrounding the Japan-China relationship is markedly deteriorating," he told Cheng, according to the ministry`s statement on its website. "We cannot accept that (China) is taking actions that unilaterally raise tensions." The two countries are locked in a long-running dispute over the uninhabited islets known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China. The move comes after repeated protests by Japanese foreign ministry officials since Friday over what Tokyo calls "intrusions" by Chinese ships in the territorial and contiguous waters of the rocky islands. Cheng was also summoned on Friday by vice minister Shinsuke Sugiyama after two Chinese coast guard and fishing vessels entered Japan`s territorial waters. On Tuesday morning, the Japan Coast Guard said it spotted Chinese ships in the country`s territorial waters surrounding the islands and about a dozen others nearby. The Japanese coastguard a day before caught sight of 15 Chinese coast guard ships near the islands -- the highest number ever spotted. Some 230 Chinese fishing vessels and seven coast guard ships, including four apparently carrying weapons, sailed into waters close to the disputed island on Sunday. It is rare for so many Chinese fishing vessels to be seen in the disputed waters. Tensions over the islands have been a frequent irritant and have strained bilateral relations, though tensions had markedly relaxed over the past two years as two sides took steps to ease the pressure through dialogue. But the fundamental divide over the islands remains unresolved. Japan`s Kyodo News reported Monday that Japan wants "high-level" talks with China over the incursions as they have not stopped despite Tokyo`s protests. Citing a government source, it said that Japan wants to bring up the issue in talks between the country`s leaders and foreign ministers. Japan protested in June after it said a Chinese navy frigate sailed close to territorial waters near the islands for the first time. Tokyo: Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida on Tuesday summoned Chinese Ambassador Cheng Yonghua to protest the continued incursions by Beijing in its territorial waters surrounding the disputed Senkaku islands. In what is the first direct protest against Beijing by a Japanese cabinet member, the minister asked the Chinese ambassador to explain the continued intrusions and expressed concern over the movement of Chinese fleet in its waters, Efe news reported. Kishida told the media here that he urged China to move its ships from waters near the Senkaku islands and said that bilateral relations have deteriorated deeply due to Chinese actions. Kishida added despite several protests, the situation remains unchanged and Japan cannot accept China's unilateral actions as they are aggravating regional tension, reported public broadcaster NHK. Kishida lodged the protest after a Chinese patrol boat and six fishing vessels intruded into waters close to Senkaku islands. A fleet of 15 Chinese ships, the largest marine contingent from China detected near Senkaku, was also spotted by the Japanese Coast Guard near the disputed area. The Chinese ambassador justified the presence of its ships in the area on grounds that the Senkaku Islands (called Diaoyu in Chinese), administered by Tokyo, are part of its territory, reported the Kyodo news agency. Located in the East China Sea, about 150 km northeast of Taiwan, the uninhabited Senkaku islands have a total surface area of about 7 sq.km and are reportedly rich in marine and energy resources. By PTI: Cuttack, Aug 9 (PTI) The Orissa High Court today allowed the bail application of senior IPS officer Joydeep Nayak, arrested for alleged corruption. Granting bail, Justice Shatrughna Pujahari asked the suspended officer of Tripura cadre to submit his passport with the special (vigilance) court here. He was granted bail after furnishing bail bond of Rs one lakh with two solvent sureties and a property bond of Rs 50,000. advertisement The IG-rank officer was arrested by Odisha vigilance police from Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh on July 23 on corruption charges and sent to Choudwar jail here the next day. Since the high court orders and the relevant documents could not be produced before the jail authorities today, Nayak is likely to walk free from jail tomorrow, said his counsel Siddharth Mishra. Nayak, on an inter-cadre deputation here between 2011 and 2016 and while officiating as IG in Human Rights Protection Cell (HRPC) had allegedly embezzled Rs 88 lakh meant for computer skill development of SC and ST students. Four others, including a senior Odisha Police Service officer are also arrested in the same case. PTI COR SKN KK ZMN --- ENDS --- Bouches-du-Rhone: A Marseille waterpark has cancelled plans to host a private event for Muslim women wearing burqinis -- full-body swimsuits -- after they sparked outrage in secular France, authorities and the park said Tuesday. "Neither Speedwater Park nor the town of Pennes-Mirabeau (a Marseille suburb) wish to be the site of public disorder," they said in a joint statement. The event was the brainchild of Smile 13, a women`s association catering for Arabs in the southern port city, whose population of nearly two million includes around 220,000 Muslims, mainly of Algerian origin. The association had not confirmed its reservation or paid a deposit for the event pencilled in for September 10. Politicians on both the right and the left slammed the plan as provocative, with left-wing senator Michel Amiel, the mayor of Pennes-Mirabeau, saying he would seek a ban. "Extreme ideological positions are taking advantage of the controversy over this event to address conflicts in which Speedwater Park and the city of Pennes-Mirabeau do not wish to be involved," the statement said. Smile 13 said on its Facebook page it was "stunned and saddened" by the extent of the controversy. It said that it had received threats -- including bullets sent to it in the mail -- and had informed the Collective against Islamophobia in France. The waterpark initially said it "understands" why the plan "is of particular interest to the media during an emotionally difficult period" in the wake of two jihadist attacks that rocked France last month, including an attack with a truck that killed 84 people as they celebrated Bastille Day in the Riviera resort of Nice. But the waterpark noted that as a private company it had a right to hold a private event. Islamic dress is a hot-button issue in France, where the full-face veil is banned in public places. Senator Stephane Ravier of Le Pen`s National Front said the planned burqini day showed that despite assurances from the Muslim community following the terror attacks, "a certain number of Muslims voluntarily set themselves apart from... our society." Last month`s attacks -- the Nice truck massacre, followed by the grisly knife murder of a priest near the northern city of Rouen less than a fortnight later -- led to an outpouring of inter-faith solidarity. Sydney: MH370 plunged into the ocean at high speed -- up to 20,000 feet a minute -- reinforcing analysis that the missing Malaysia Airlines jet crashed in the current search zone, a report said today. The Boeing 777 disappeared on March 8, 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people onboard. An extensive underwater hunt in the southern Indian Ocean has not yet found the crash site, fuelling speculation it may be outside the current search zone, particularly if someone was at the controls at the end of the flight. A manned plane could have been glided down, allowing it to enter the water outside the 120,000 square kilometre area being searched, some experts have suggested. But extensive testing by aircraft manufacturer Boeing and new Australian defence department data analysis both suggest that -- regardless of the possible actions of one or both of the pilots -- the jet dived into the ocean at high speed, The Australian reported. Once MH370 ran out of fuel and the engines flamed, it slowed before plunging down towards the water in a series of swoops -- dropping from 35,000 feet at a rate of between 12,000 feet a minute and 20,000 feet a minute, Boeing said, according to the report. The sharp dive was confirmed by a new data analysis by Australia's defence department involving signals sent automatically between the plane and a satellite, the head of the agency leading the MH370 hunt said. Australian Transport and Safety Bureau chief Greg Hood said this supported the view MH370 "was likely to have crashed in the 120,000 square kilometre area now being searched," the paper said. The area was defined under the ATSB's "most likely" scenario that no-one was at the controls and the plane ran out of fuel. "The Australians leading the search do not doubt that the pilot may well have been responsible for the jet's disappearance but they say critics of the search strategy are wrong to assume that means they are looking in the wrong place," the report added. Malaysian officials said last week that one of the pilots used a home-made flight simulator to plot a very similar course to MH370's presumed final route, but warned this did not prove he deliberately crashed the plane. New York: A New York City teenager accused last year of conspiring to provide support to Islamic State was sentenced on Tuesday to 20 months in prison after pleading guilty to a non-terrorism charge. Imran Rabbani, 19, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Margo Brodie in Brooklyn after pleading guilty in April to having conspired to impede federal officers by force, intimidation and threat. Rabbani, who was just 17 when he was arrested, agreed to the plea deal in exchange for dropping an appeal of a ruling that allowed him to be tried as an adult on a prior charge of conspiring to provide material support to Islamic State. Rabbani, who will receive credit for the time he has served in custody since his June 2015 arrest, was also sentenced to a term of three years of supervised release following his release. "I think it was a fair and just sentence by a thoughtful and careful judge," said his lawyer, Richard Willstatter. More than 100 people have been charged since 2014 in U.S. federal cases related to the Islamic State militant group, which has seized control of parts of Iraq and Syria. Rabbani was one of six young men in New York and New Jersey charged in 2015 in the investigation of a group of alleged Islamic State supporters. Those individuals included Munther Omar Saleh, a student at a college in the borough of Queens, who prosecutors say obtained instructions to build a pressure cooker bomb and planned to carry out an attack. Prosecutors in court papers said Rabbani repeatedly met with Saleh and "espoused support for violent Islamic extremist ideology." He also had withdrawn an abnormal amount of cash, according to prosecutors, who said the bomb-making instructions in Saleh`s possession advised buying materials with cash. In June 2015, law enforcement officials were following Saleh and Rabbani when the two got out of their vehicle and ran at the agents` surveillance vehicle, prompting their arrest, prosecutors said. Rabbini denies being an Islamic State supporter. In a letter to Brodie, he said he had made a mistake by hanging around someone who "would lavish hate with so called `reason` and present it as such." Saleh has pleaded not guilty. Four other men have also been charged in connection with the investigation, including three men in New Jersey who have pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to Islamic State. District of Columbia: US Republican lawmakers, governors, advisors and former officials have come out against GOP nominee Donald Trump, saying he lacks the judgment, character and experience to be president. Some have said they will cast their vote for his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, while others are aligning with third party alternatives like Libertarian Gary Johnson. As Trump looks to refocus his campaign following recent weeks of missteps, including clashing with the parents of a Muslim American soldier killed in action, here are several major Republicans who have announced their opposition to the brash billionaire. The US senator from Texas and vanquished presidential hopeful stunned last month`s Republican National Convention when he declined to endorse Trump, instead calling on fellow conservatives to "vote your conscience." He was booed off the stage, but is already being discussed as a potential 2020 candidate. Ohio`s governor, the last Republican to drop out of this year`s primary race, snubbed Trump last month, declining to attend the Republican convention held in Kasich`s home state. The former Florida governor and Republican presidential candidate clashed bitterly with Trump during the primaries. Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush are abstaining from commenting on the 2016 race, but Jeb`s son, Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, has urged Republicans to support Trump. The moderate senator from Maine on Tuesday became the latest among half a dozen Senate Republicans to jump from the listing Trump ship, criticising his morality, character, lack of experience and his propensity to "slash and burn and trample anything and anyone he perceives as being in his way." In June, after Trump repeatedly stated that a federal judge`s Mexican heritage made him unfit to preside over Trump-related cases, Senator Lindsey Graham called on Republicans to pull their support. "If anybody was looking for an off-ramp, this is probably it," he told The New York Times. The 2012 Republican presidential nominee has been among the staunchest Trump critics, calling him a "fraud" and warning that "his imagination must not be married to real power." The ex-CIA director was among 50 Republican former national security officials who issued a statement Monday saying they would not vote Trump, warning he would be "the most reckless president in American history" if elected. The group included two former Department of Homeland Security chiefs, a former US trade representative, and dozens of senior presidential advisors and department aides. The deputy secretary of state under George W. Bush and deputy defense secretary under Ronald Reagan said he will back Clinton, in part because Trump "doesn`t appear to want to learn about issues." Paulson served as Treasury secretary under George W. Bush, after previously running Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs. He backed Clinton last month "with the hope that she can bring Americans together" to strengthen the US economy. "To my Republican friends: I know I`m not alone." Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin and British Prime Minister Theresa May spoke by phone on Tuesday and agreed to meet "in the near future" to try to improve poor relations between Moscow and London, the Kremlin said in a statement. Both leaders are due to attend a G20 summit in China early next month, giving them an opportunity to meet for the first time since May became prime minister. Relations between Russia and Britain are strained by differences over Ukraine and Syria as well as by what London says is a sharp increase in flights by long-range Russian bombers near British air space. The Kremlin said Putin and May had agreed to try to work to ensure that the two countries` intelligence services communicated with one another properly and to improve air safety, a reference to Russian military flights. Both leaders had expressed dissatisfaction about the current state of Russian-British relations, the Kremlin said. It said the phone call had taken place at Britain`s initiative. Ankara: Turkey warned the US on Tuesday not to sacrifice bilateral ties over Pennsylvania-based preacher Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara blames for the July 15 failed coup and wants to see extradited to face trial. "If the US does not deliver (Gulen), they will sacrifice relations with Turkey for the sake of a terrorist," Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag told reporters during a televised briefing in the capital Ankara. Turkey has repeatedly pressed Washington to extradite the 75-year-old cleric to face trial over the attempted putsch, which saw a rogue military faction try to oust President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Gulen strongly denies Ankara`s accusations and his lawyer last Friday said Turkey had failed to provide "a scintilla" of proof to support its claim. Bozdag asked rhetorically how the United States would react if a person responsible for violence in their country was being hosted by Turkey. "What if there was an attempted assassination of (President Barack) Obama while he was on holiday with his wife and children, if the White House was bombed, if tanks were driven over people, if soldiers shot at people from helicopters and the terrorist head responsible for all this was in Turkey?" The coup took place while Erdogan was on a family holiday in southern Turkey and saw both the parliament and area around the presidential palace bombed from the air. Bozdag said that if the US did not extradite Gulen, relations between the two would be negatively affected despite being "two friendly countries" at present. The minister added that anti-US sentiment had reached its peak in Turkey over the Gulen issue and urged Washington to act before it became hatred. "It is in the hands of the US to stop Turkish anti-US feeling becoming hate," he said. US Secretary of State John Kerry, who could visit Turkey in late August according to Ankara, said just days after the coup attempt that Turkey must present "genuine evidence" and "not allegations" against Gulen for his extradition. Damascus: More than two million people in Syria`s Aleppo are in danger of coming under total siege, the United Nations has warned, calling for immediate access to the heavily bombed city. Ferocious fighting has rocked divided Aleppo in recent weeks, with rebels and regime forces seizing rival access routes and cutting off residents. In a statement on Monday, the UN`s top humanitarian official in Syria, Yacoub El Hillo, and regional coordinator Kevin Kennedy called for a "humanitarian pause" in the hostilities. Two million people in the city are living in fear of besiegement, including up to 275,000 people trapped in east Aleppo, the statement said. The fighting in Aleppo is reported to have killed at least 130 civilians since the end of July, and has damaged hospitals, clinics, and the city`s power and water networks. "The UN stands ready to assist the civilian population of Aleppo, a city now united in its suffering," the statement read. "At a minimum, the UN requires a full-fledged ceasefire or weekly 48-hour humanitarian pauses to reach the millions of people in need throughout Aleppo and replenish the food and medicine stocks, which are running dangerously low." Fighting in Aleppo, Syria`s former economic powerhouse, flared in late June when government forces closed in on the Castello Road, the last route into rebel-held parts of the city. The road was severed in mid-July, sparking food shortages and skyrocketing prices in the eastern districts. In a major push last week, a coalition of rebels, Islamists, and jihadists cut off the regime`s own main access road on the southern edges of the city. Each side has used their newly acquired territory to bring food and other supplies into neighbourhoods of the city they control, but the roads are still not safe for civilians to use. "When used to intentionally deprive people of food and other items essential to their survival, siege tactics constitute a war crime," the UN statement said. More than 290,000 people have been killed since Syria`s conflict erupted in March 2011. Washington: The United States has approved the possible sale to Saudi Arabia of up to 153 tanks, hundreds of machine guns and other military gear in a deal worth $1.15 billion, the Pentagon said Tuesday. The announcement coincided with news that Saudi-led coalition warplanes had resumed air strikes on Yemen`s capital for the first time in three months, killing 14 people and shutting the airport after UN-brokered talks were suspended. State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said she was "very concerned" by Tuesday`s reports of casualties in Yemen, but she did not directly comment when asked if the State Department worried US weapons being sent to Saudi Arabia could be used against civilians. "We regularly talk to our partners and our allies around the world. You know, civilian casualties are obviously of grave concern to us," she said. According to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), Riyadh had requested the possible purchase of up to 133 American M1A1/A2 Abrams tanks that would be configured to Saudi needs, plus another 20 to replace damaged tanks in their fleet. Additionally, the deal would include 153 .50-caliber machine guns, 266 7.62mm M240 machine guns, smoke grenade launchers, armored recovery vehicles and a range of other hardware. The US State Department has approved the "possible" sale and notified Congress on Monday, the DSCA said. "This proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of a strategic regional partner which has been and continues to be a leading contributor of political stability and economic progress in the Middle East," the DSCA said in a statement. "The addition of these tanks and recovery vehicles to the (Saudi military`s) inventory will enhance Saudi Arabia`s ability to support its soldiers in the field and to defend the Kingdom`s borders." The Pentagon announcement made no mention of the conflict in Yemen, where the Saudi coalition intervened in March last year after Shiite Huthi rebels and allied forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh overran Sanaa. Saudi Arabia also forms part of the US-led coalition fighting Islamic State jihadists in Syria and Iraq. Washington: A former CIA officer and congressional staffer on Monday launched a long-shot bid for president, a Republican billing himself as a conservative alternative to Donald Trump who disenchanted voters can rally around. There is virtually no chance that the newly announced candidate, Evan McMullin, could win and only a slight chance he will even be able to get his name on the ballots of key states. McMullin has no name recognition across the country and was not even well known in the Capitol where until Monday he was the chief policy director for the organizational body of all Republicans in the House of Representatives. But that will not stop some conservatives from pitching him as an option in the Nov. 8 election for those who never warmed to Trump and remain adamantly opposed to Democrat Hillary Clinton. "Donald Trump appeals to the worst fears of Americans at a time we need unity, not division," McMullin wrote in a letter announcing his candidacy. "With the stakes so high for our nation and at this late stage in the process, I can no longer stand on the sidelines." McMullin`s campaign was first reported by MSNBC and BuzzFeed. He could not be immediately reached for comment. Trump was formally anointed his party`s nominee last month after beating 16 rivals in the state-by-state primary contests. But many Republicans have been concerned about Trump`s policies, such as his proposal to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the country, and his free-wheeling, often insulting rhetoric. McMullin has never held public office. In addition to lacking a quick source of campaign cash, he will face immediate hurdles to try to get his name on enough ballot papers to make himself a serious candidate. Texas, for example, requires third-party candidates to get more than 79,000 signatures from residents who did not vote in either the Republican or Democratic primary. And the deadline for that was in early May. Deadlines to get on the ballots have also lapsed for North Carolina, Illinois and Florida, all large states that also could be pivotal in the election. The best McMullin could likely hope for would be to simply play spoiler to Trump in a handful of states, eating away at the New York real estate developer`s ability to win states that are generally reliably Republican. McMullin would join two other third-party hopefuls - Gary Johnson, who was nominated by the Libertarian Party, and Jill Stein, who will represent the Green Party. In recent polls that included Trump, Clinton, Stein and Trump, the two third-party candidates have both struggled to get above 10 percentage points in the polls. McMullin, who according to his LinkedIn profile worked in Congress since 2013, has been a frequent critic of Trump on social media, calling him an authoritarian and criticizing his stance on civil rights as well as his refusal to release his tax returns. Prior to working in Congress, McMullin spent 11 years as an operations officer for the Central Intelligence Agency. Trump, meanwhile, was seeking to reset his campaign with a big economy policy speech on Monday after a rough patch last week. He was widely criticized, including by some senior Republicans, for engaging in a public dispute with the parents of a Muslim American soldier killed in Iraq. Saint Petersburg (Russia): Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan jets into Russia today for his first meeting with counterpart Vladimir Putin since the two strongmen leaders began healing a bitter feud over Ankara's downing of a Russian warplane. Erdogan's visit to Putin's hometown of Saint Petersburg is also his first foreign trip since the failed coup against him last month that sparked a purge of opponents and cast a shadow over Turkey's relations with the West. "This visit seems to me a new milestone in bilateral relations, beginning with a clean slate, and I personally, with all my heart and on behalf of the Turkish nation salute Mr Putin and all Russians," Erdogan said in an interview with Russian state media. The shooting down of a Russian fighter jet by a Turkish F-16 over the Syrian border last November saw a furious Putin slap economic sanctions on Turkey and launch a blistering war of words with Erdogan that seemed to irrevocably damage burgeoning ties. But in a shock reversal in late June, Putin accepted a personal expression of regret over the incident from Erdogan as an apology and immediately rolled back a ban on the sale of package holidays to Turkey and signalled Moscow would end measures against food imports and construction firms from the country. Now in the wake of the failed July 15 coup attempt in NATO-member Turkey, ties between the two sides could be bolstered even further -- with Erdogan bluntly making it clear he feels let down by the United States and the European Union. Putin was one of the first foreign leaders to phone Erdogan offering support and, unsurprisingly, sharing none of the scruples of EU leaders about the ensuing crackdown. "While Turkish-Russian ties are subject to their own uncertainties, this deterioration of relations with Western powers could accelerate a Turkish-Russian rapprochement," said analysts from the European Council on Foreign Relations. Relations between Turkey and Russia -- two powers vying for influence in the strategic Black Sea region and Middle East -- have never been straightforward and their predecessor Ottoman and Russian empires fought three centuries of war. Yet before the plane crisis, Moscow and Ankara managed to prevent disputes on Syria and Ukraine harming strategic cooperation on issues like the TurkStream gas pipeline to Europe and a Russian-built nuclear power station in Turkey. Those projects were all put on ice with trade between the two countries falling 43 per cent to USD 6.1 billion in January-May this year and Turkey's tourism industry seeing numbers from Russia fall by 93 per cent. By PTI: Srinagar, Aug 9 (PTI) The BSF today said the encounter in Macchil sector in north Kashmir, in which three BSF personnel and a militant were killed, was an attempt by Pakistans Border Action Team (BAT) with support from Pakistani army to infiltrate militants into the Valley. "Yesterday early morning, there was an encounter. Apparently, it seems, a BAT (Border Action Team) action where the Pakistani army has given fire support to infiltrate some of the militants," Additional DG BSF Arun Kumar told reporters here. advertisement He said the attack was part of a series of such incidents on the borders in both the Kashmir Valley as well as in Jammu region. "One of them (infiltrators) was killed. He was carrying one AK 47 and a grenade. When our company commander rushed and spotted him, he exchanged fire. In addition to our three martyrs, some of our other soldiers have suffered minor injuries and this is in a series of incidents where, under the operation of army and BSF, infiltrators are being neutralised in encounters both at the Srinagar and Jammu frontiers," he said. "In Rajouri also, just a few days back, we killed three of them. So, I think, this seems to be in series of that," the Additional DG BSF said. Kumar said the infiltrators took advantage of the low visibility amid bad weather to reach the BSF post. "The fencing around our posts has broken at many places and it is a less distance from the posts. They also took advantage of bad weather during early morning when the visibility is low," he said The officer said the forces responded in an brave manner to thwart the infiltration attempt. "We got one body that was on our side but how many casualties are on the other side, that we will know. I hope there has been more damage to them," he said. Kumar said surveillance at the border has been increased in view of the "desperate" infiltration attempts by militants. "The surveillance has been increased. We work under the operational command of the army. Naturally, what happens is that when the snow melts the activity increases and we take precautions to make their attempts unsuccessful," he said. "The intelligence sources have warned us. There are people sitting on another side and are trying their best to infiltrate to this side. I think, the way things are happening, they cannot succeed without the active support of Pakistan army," he said. Three BSF personnel, including an officer, and a militant were killed yesterday in an operation in Macchil sector near the Line of Control in Kupwara in Kashmir. PTI SSB MIJ AQS RG SRY --- ENDS --- advertisement Leningrad Oblast: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday promised to reinvigorate ties after their first meeting since Ankara shot down a Russian warplane last November. Erdogan`s visit to Putin`s hometown of Saint Petersburg is also his first foreign trip since the failed coup against him last month that sparked a purge of opponents and cast a shadow over Turkey`s relations with the West. "We lived through a very complicated moment in the relations between our states and we very much want, and I feel our Turkish friends want, to overcome the difficulties," Putin told journalists at a joint press conference after the encounter. The Kremlin leader insisted it would take "painstaking work" and "some time" to return to previous trade levels as Russia looks to roll back a series of economic sanctions against Ankara, but both sides said they wanted to restart major energy projects hit by the crisis. Erdogan said that he hoped Russian-Turkish relations would become "more robust" and stressed how important it was that Putin offered his support after the coup. "We will bring our relations back to the old level and even beyond, both sides are determined and have the necessary will," he said. The shooting down of a Russian fighter jet by a Turkish F-16 over the Syrian border last fall saw a furious Putin slap economic sanctions on Turkey and launch a blistering war of words with Erdogan that seemed to irrevocably damage burgeoning ties. But in a shock reversal late June, Putin accepted a letter expressing regret over the incident from Erdogan as an apology and quickly rolled back a ban on the sale of package holidays to Turkey and signalled Moscow would end measures against Turkish food imports and construction firms. Now in the wake of the failed July 15 coup attempt, there are fears in Western capitals that NATO-member Turkey could draw even closer to Moscow -- with Erdogan bluntly making it clear he feels let down by the United States and the European Union. Putin was one of the first foreign leaders to phone Erdogan offering support after the coup attempt and shares none of the scruples of EU leaders about the ensuing crackdown.Relations between Turkey and Russia -- two powers vying for influence in the strategic Black Sea region and Middle East -- have historically not been straightforward. Yet before the plane downing crisis, Moscow and Ankara managed to prevent disputes on Syria and Ukraine harming strategic cooperation on issues like the TurkStream gas pipeline to Europe and a Russian-built nuclear power station in Turkey. Those projects were all put on ice with trade between the two countries falling 43 percent in January-May this year to $6.1 billion and Turkey`s tourism industry seeing visitor numbers from Russia fall by 93 percent. Now with Russia mired in economic crisis due to Western sanctions over Ukraine and low oil prices along with Turkey`s outlook flagging, both men want to get business started again. Erdogan said that he now wanted to see the TurkStream project "done as fast as possible", while Putin said construction could start "in the nearest future". The Turkish leader also insisted that the two sides were once again targeting a very ambitious trade turnover of $100 billion by 2024.The earlier uptick in relations between Turkey and Russia was built on a macho friendship between Putin and Erdogan, two combative leaders in their early 60s credited with restoring confidence to their nations in the wake of financial crises but also criticised for clamping down on human rights. But after such a bitter dispute -- which saw Putin accuse Erdogan of stabbing Russia in the back and profiting from an illegal oil trade with the Islamic State group -- it will take a lot for the pair to reheat relations. The two strongmen leaders conspicuously skirted one major issue dividing them and that lay at the heart of their falling out -- the war in Syria. Putin and Erdogan said they would start discussing the conflict after the press conference but the Russian leader insisted both sides were committed to finding a peaceful solution. Russia is flying a bombing campaign in support of President Bashar al-Assad while Turkey is fiercely opposed to the Syrian leader. Erdogan insisted in an interview with Russian media ahead of the talks that Assad must still go -- a position opposed by Putin -- but said that the conflict could now become the focus for renewed cooperation between the two sides. The Pondicherry University ABVP students today protested the release of the university's magazine, which they have termed as anti-national. By Akshaya Nath: The Pondicherry University ABVP students today protested the release of the university's magazine, which they have termed as anti-national. Last week both the student's Union, which had published the magazine, and the ABVP protested against the stand taken by one another. Ram Kishore Singh, an ABVP representative at the University said, "We will continue to protest if the magazine is circulated. College magazine is not a platform to propagate their personal ideologies." advertisement The ABVP has pointed out that the magazine carries slogans like 'Lal Salam' which they claim is propagating personal ideologies and also Naxal and Maoist groups. "They are also trying to create differences using communal and religious angle and ABVP condemns this act. Moreover, they are calling Suicide victims as martyrs what kind of message are they trying to convey?" Questions Manish Mahapatra another student in the university. Meanwhile, the Ambedkar student Association and members of Students Federation of India have a different stand. "The ABVP is just trying to grab media attention. There is no anti national content in the magazine and I am confident about it," says Anjali Ganga the editor of the magazine. "The ABVP never had a voice in this university and they are trying to create issues to grab attention, and this is really sad," said another student. On July 5, the dean of student's welfare who was the chief editor of the magazine was removed from the post by the university and on the very same day the key to the locked student union room, which had the 4000 published copies of the magazine Widerstand was kept, was returned. The student union has resumed to distributing the magazine and now the ABVP has began a protest and are demanding that the Vice Chancellor of the university be removed. In their message they said, "Massive protest by ABVP Pondicherry University demanding the MHRD to remove the Vice Chancellor(i/c) and appoint regular Vice Chancellor with good credentials." As unrest continues in the university it needs to be seen what the central government's next action will be as the UT government has already washed off their responsiblity. During an interview with India Today, Pondicherry CM Narayanswami had said, "Pondicherry University is the central government's responsibility so we can't do anything." --- ENDS --- BLOG ARCHIVE Jul 18 (1) Feb 08 (1) Jan 27 (1) Jan 06 (2) Jan 04 (1) Dec 26 (1) Dec 25 (1) Dec 21 (1) Dec 17 (1) Sep 22 (53) Aug 26 (1) Aug 22 (1) Aug 20 (2) Aug 19 (2) Aug 18 (2) Aug 17 (3) Aug 16 (1) Aug 15 (3) Aug 13 (2) Aug 12 (4) Aug 02 (2) Aug 01 (2) Jul 31 (2) Jul 30 (2) Jul 29 (1) Jul 28 (1) Jul 27 (3) Jul 26 (1) Jul 25 (1) Jul 24 (3) Jul 23 (1) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (1) Jul 20 (3) Jul 19 (5) Jul 18 (1) Jul 17 (1) Jul 15 (1) Jul 14 (2) Jul 13 (4) Jul 12 (3) Jul 11 (2) Jul 10 (1) Jul 09 (2) Jul 08 (2) Jul 07 (1) Jul 05 (1) Jul 03 (1) Jul 02 (2) Jul 01 (1) Jun 30 (1) Jun 29 (1) Jun 17 (2) Jun 16 (1) Jun 15 (2) Jun 13 (1) Jun 12 (1) Jun 10 (2) Jun 09 (1) Jun 07 (1) Jun 06 (2) Jun 05 (1) Jun 04 (3) Jun 03 (1) Jun 01 (1) May 31 (1) May 30 (1) May 29 (1) May 28 (1) May 27 (1) May 26 (1) May 25 (2) May 24 (3) 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tax due from big commercial complexes who default on paying taxes. By Rohini Swamy: Pay up your property taxes or face the stink! That is the warning that has been given by the Bruhar Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike (BBMP) to the IT giant Intel. This is part of the special drive to collect property tax due from big commercial complexes who default on paying taxes. GARBAGE ON DOOR When the employees of Intel reached their offices, they were shocked to see a line of garbage trucks filled with waste standing at their doorstep. The BBMP officials had blocked the gates of the IT major. The civic body has been cracking the whip on several tax defaulters and had moved the high court too. advertisement DEFAULTED ON PAYMENT OF RS 34 CRORE The BBMP said that the standing committee on taxation and finance had found that the company had defaulted tax payment between 2007 and 2008 to the tune of Rs 34 crores. Intel did challenge this in court. Repeated notices to Intel were not taken seriously and finally the BBMP with the help of valid documentation managed to convince the court how Intel defaulted. The court directed the IT giant to cough up Rs 17 crores which is half the amount that the company owes as an interim measure by July 25. Since several warning were ignored, the BBMP decided to land with garbage trucks at Intel's doors forcing the company to make an assurance that they would pay it up soon. INTEL HAS FOUR MONTHS The Joint Commissioner of the Mahadevapura zone, BBMP Muniveerappa said that the company had been calculating its taxes on the basis that it was not an air conditioned office, but the reality was that it was centrally air conditioned. Further he said, 'Intel had assessed their building at Rs 2 per sqft for parking areas and Rs 4 per sqft for others areas but the BBMP has contested his stating that since the company was centrally air conditioned and so the calculations should have been made as Rs 4 per sqft for parking spaces and Rs 8 per sqft for others areas. Recently, the BBMP won a case against Manyata tech park and is on a major driver to collect the Rs 350 crores that is due in terms of property taxes from 73 commercial enterprises. The Chairperson of the BBMP standing Committee for Taxation and Finance, M Shivaraju said that they released a sample of 10 defaulters after conducting a survey. 'We will soon begin process of issuing notices and then when the notice period is over we will be taking steps like seizure and foreclosure until the money is deposited,' he said. Intel has moved court and have sought time of four weeks to pay their dues. advertisement Earlier too, BBMP had resorted to innovative measures as part of their drive against tax defaulters. In 2013, when Wipro defaulted paying Rs 19.28 crores to the civic body, the palike officials arrived with a team of hired drum-beaters who stood under the Wipro signboards and drummed away leaving the officials of Wipro red faced. --- ENDS --- STEPANAKERT, AUGUST 9, ARMENPRESS. Overnight August 8-9 Azerbaijan violated the ceasefire agreement 16 times along the Nagorno Karabakh-Azerbaijan line of contact. Azerbaijani forces fired more than 120 shots from various caliber small arms at Armenian positions. The Defense Ministry of Nagorno Karabakh told ARMENPRESS the Defense Army forces refrained from taking countermeasures and confidently continued monitoring the borders. YEREVAN, AUGUST 9, ARMENPRESS. There is an increased risk of Oidium fungus disease spread in vineyards due to drastic rise of temperatures in Armenia. The Ministry of Agriculture urges to use antifungal agents to prevent the spread of disease. Watering of the vineyards is advised to carry out in evenings of overnight. The Ministry also urges to wear appropriate head gear to shield from sunlight during daytime field works. YEREVAN, AUGUST 9, ARMENPRESS. The Iranian and Azerbaijani Central Banks plan to set up a joint regional bank for the development of financial cooperation between the two countries, Iranian Central Bank Governor Valiollah Seif said on Monday, Sputnik News reported. The meeting of the Iranian and Azerbaijani central banks' chiefs took place on the sidelines of the trilateral meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin, his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev and Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani which was being held in Baku on Monday. "We made this proposal to deepen relations between the banks and to facilitate transactions, this idea was the subject of our agreement. We intend to take necessary steps to establish this bank in the future," Seif said, as quoted by IRNA news agency. Focusing on regional economic and trade development, the project should give special attention to security of transactions carried out by tourists and businesses, Seif added. YEREVAN, AUGUST 9, ARMENPRESS. With more than two million people impacted by the fighting in and around war-ravaged Aleppo, where wide swaths of the area are now without power and water supplies are dwindling, the United Nations today urgently called for a humanitarian pause in the hostilities to enable immediate access to repair the electricity and water networks, and provide assistance to people in need, UN reported. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), an estimated 250,000-275,000 people have remained trapped in east Aleppo since early July following the closure of Castello road, the last remaining access route into the area. Since 6 August, Khanasser road, the main access route into west Aleppo has also been cut, bringing the total number of civilians living in de facto fear of besiegement to over two million. A press statement from Yacoub El Hillo, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Syria, and Kevin Kennedy, Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syria Crisis, noted that over the past few weeks, communities in both east and west Aleppo have borne the brunt of the vicious conflict, with countless civilians dead or injured. The targeting of hospitals and clinics continues unabated, seriously jeopardizing the health and welfare of all citizens of Aleppo, they said, adding that attacks on civilian infrastructure this week severely damaged the city's electric and water infrastructure, leaving more than two million residents of Aleppo without electricity or access to the public water network. The two senior UN officials explained that water available through wells and tanks in Aleppo is not nearly enough to sustain the needs of the population. The UN is extremely concerned that the consequences will be dire for millions of civilians if the electricity and water networks are not immediately repaired, they underscored. The UN stands ready to assist the civilian population of Aleppo, a city now united in its suffering. At a minimum, the UN requires a full-fledged ceasefire or weekly 48-hour humanitarian pauses to reach the millions of people in need throughout Aleppo and replenish the food and medicine stocks, which are running dangerously low, said the officials. Civilians, including the sick and wounded, must be reached through the most effective way both through cross-line and cross-border operations from Turkey. They must be assisted without discrimination and wherever they are located. All parties must guarantee the security, safety and dignity of all civilians and civilian infrastructure in accordance with international humanitarian and human rights law. The UN reiterates its call for the immediate lifting of all sieges. When used to intentionally deprive people of food and other items essential to their survival, siege tactics constitute a war crime, the officials said, concluding their statement. YEREVAN, AUGUST 9, ARMENPRESS. The chancellor at University of California Berkeley has an exit plan in case student protesters storm his office, Fox News reported. Nicholas Dirks, the school's chancellor, installed a $9,000 escape hatch in a hallway outside his office to "provide egress" if potential student protesters descend on the administration building, according to the campus newspaper, The Daily Californian. The emergency exit -- built late last month -- was ordered in response to an April 2015 protest during which students stormed the chancellors suite and staged a sit-in outside his office, the paper reported. Students reportedly banged on desks and chanted loudly before being escorted out of the building, some in handcuffs. Campus spokeswoman Claire Holmes confirmed construction of the door inside California Hall, telling the paper it was installed as a safety measure to "provide egress to leave the building." The new door did not sit well with some students at the public university. "There has to be other ways to handle student concerns and protests than simply building ways to avoid them," ASUC Senator-elect Chris Yamas told the paper. "The chancellor seems elitist and out of touch and inaccessible to the students," Yamas said. Student protests have erupted on the grounds of the California university for decades, but none ever resulted in a chancellor being physically harmed, Yamas said. Funds for the escape hatch were approved by the school's president under Be Smart About Safety, a university-wide pool of money set aside for risk prevention. The door was also roundly criticized in an Aug. 1 staff editorial published by the school paper. "The money used to construct the exit, while not substantial relative to other UC construction projects, came from a pool of funding to be allocated toward risk services, including protections for campus employees," the editorial said. "Its concerning that, at a time when campus safety is a national issue and UC Berkeley affiliates are frequently the victims of crimes on and near campus, campus is focusing risk prevention efforts at the uppermost level." The new escape door was installed four months after the school finished building a $700,000 security fence around University House, Dirks' private residence, to keep out student protesters. The Daily Californian reported that student activists protesting for workers rights marched to the chancellors house last November and jumped over the fence while it was still under construction. The protesters proceeded to vandalize the property -- with some throwing burning torches. University officials, meanwhile, have insisted that he door was requested by the staff, not Dirks, according to multiple reports. University spokesman Dan Mogulof told The Guardian that the term "escape hatch" was a "concoction of a 19-year-old headline writer." "Its a door," Mogulof told the website. YEREVAN, AUGUST 9, ARMENPRESS. Inter Milan have appointed former Ajax boss Frank de Boer as manager, after parting company with Roberto Mancini, BBC reported. Mancini's position had been in doubt because of his reported misgivings over Inter's transfer business. "I'm very happy to be here, and I hope to see you soon," De Boer, 46, said in a message on Inter Milan's Twitter. Inter, who were bought by Chinese retail giant Suning in June, were beaten 6-1 by Tottenham in a pre-season match on Friday. They announced Mancini's departure "by mutual agreement" on Monday. De Boer has signed a three-year contract. The former Manchester City boss returned to Inter for a second spell as manager in 2014 but was unable to guide them back into the Champions League, finishing fourth last season. High-level discussions took place with the club's new Chinese owners in New York last month and, after a third pre-season defeat, they have parted with Mancini just two weeks before the new Serie A season. Former Netherlands international De Boer left Ajax earlier this summer and had been linked with the Southampton and Everton jobs. He led the Amsterdam club to four successive Dutch titles but lost out to PSV Eindhoven on the final day of last season. YEREVAN, AUGUST 9, ARMENPRESS. Russia and the United States are holding consultations in Geneva on Syria to discuss the issues of providing humanitarian assistance to civilians in Aleppo, Russias envoy to the UN office and other international organizations in the Swiss city, Aleksei Borodavkin, has told TASS. The consultations focus on "strengthening the ceasefire regime and joint fight against terrorism," the diplomat said stressing that "the issues of providing humanitarian assistance to the civilian population in Aleppo are discussed in detail." Borodavkin said these are "regular consultations" that have been held in Geneva since July 29 following the visit of US Secretary of State John Kerry to Moscow earlier that month. The delegations meet and then return to their capitals for consultations, and then "come again to work" in Geneva. "This work has good prospects as we see and they [consultations] will continue," the diplomat said. YEREVAN, AUGUST 9, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan held a meeting on August 9 with Kuwaiti Ambassador Bassam Muhammad Al-Qabandi, who is completing his diplomatic mission in Armenia. The Presidential Administration told ARMENPRESS the President thanked Ambassador Al -Qabandi for his work during the diplomatic mission and appreciated the Ambassadors consistent efforts aimed at development of bilateral ties during more than four years, due to which the Armenian-Kuwaiti relations have been raised to a qualitative new level. The President expressed hope that the next Kuwaiti Ambassador to Armenia will work with the same dedication and enthusiasm for the broadening and deepening of relations between the two friendly countries. Serzh Sargsyan wished Bassam Muhammad Al-Qabandi success in his further activities and ensured that he will always be Armenias friend. The Ambassador thanked President Sargsyan for the hospitality, as well as for the appreciation of his activities. He noted that the successes in bilateral relations between the two countries would be impossible without the assistance of the President of Armenia, the Armenian Government and his other colleagues. The Ambassador also said he has learned a lot from the Armenian people during his tenure. During the meeting the importance of trade-economic relations between Armenia and Kuwait and further opportunities of development was stressed. YEREVAN, AUGUST 9, ARMENPRESS. The 7th Pan-Armenian educational conference completed its works. As result of the conference, a resolution has been adopted, which will be a guideline for the Ministry of Education and Science in the upcoming two years. According to the resolution, a number of proposals were made during the conference, in particular the accreditation of teachers of Diaspora was elaborated, mechanisms on monitoring educational activities, and continuing training of teachers in Armenia and abroad by modernizing educational programs. The Ministry of Education and Science told ARMENPRESS a proposal was made to use the countrys opportunities for trainings of teachers on local level. In addition, options of organizing exams in Sunday schools on Armenian subjects in Diaspora educational institutions was proposed. According to another proposal, it is scheduled to organize lectures for parents, taking into consideration their demands in Sunday schools, as well as reinvent the role of Sunday schools, by not only focusing on literacy of students, but also comprehensive development. The resolution suggests creating a committee on educational issues of Diaspora schools, provide free educational opportunities in cultural professions. A proposal was made to create programs of knowledge expansion in Armenia for students studying Armenian in foreign universities and to contribute to the publications in foreign languages of Armenias experts of Armenian language. YEREVAN, AUGUST 9, ARMENPRESS. Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan met with representatives of the public administration sphere on August 9 and discussed issues related to the doctrine of the constitutional reforms. As Armenpress was informed from the press service of Artsakh Presidents Office, the President highlighted such meetings noting that broad discussions give opportunity to consider various opinions and ideas, which was demanded especially during the course of constitutional reforms. NKR National Assembly chairman Ashot Ghoulyan and other officials took part at the meeting. By PTI: Nagpur, Aug 9 (PTI) A group of pro-Vidarbha activists, demanding statehood for the region, today protested outside Union minister Nitin Gadkaris residence here. The activists took out a rally, under the leadership of former Legislator Wamanrao Chatap of Vidarbha Rajya Andolan Samiti, which ended at Gadkaris residence located in Mahal area in the eastern part of the city. advertisement "A large number of farmers, students, women and youngsters from across various districts of Vidarbha took part in the protest march, which was aimed at reminding Gadkari of his promise on a separate Vidarbha state," Ram Neole, a leader of Samiti said. Before being elected as an MP from Nagpur Lok Sabha constituency, Gadkari had openly espoused the cause of separate Vidarbha. However, he has been maintaining silence on the issue since his induction into the Union cabinet, Neole alleged. "If Gadkari decides, he can deliver on the demand for separate state. The Centre has the discretion to carve out a new state without the consent of the Maharashtra Legislature," he added. A memorandum in support of the separate statehood was submitted to Gadkaris staff as he was away in New Delhi to attend the ongoing Parliament session. PTI JOE NP SMJ SRE --- ENDS --- YEREVAN, AUGUST 9, ARMENPRESS. Public Services Regulatory Commission of the Republic of Armenia officially informs that the information announced by the chairman of the Consumers Union of Armenia NGO Armen Poghosyan during a press conference on August 9 over the increase of electricity tariffs after 3 months does not correspond with reality and is deprived of any economic or legal grounds. Armenpress reports PSRC Armenia issued a report running as follows, Particularly, the existing electricity tariffs entered into force on August 1 of the current year and according to article 22 of the law of the Republic of Armenia on electricity, they cannot be reviewed for at least 6 months. Besides, the Commission defined the existing tariffs based on annual indexes and no revision of the tariffs is planned until August 1, 2017. A computer-generated image released by EDF Energy on July 28, 2016 shows the firms two proposed nuclear reactors at Hinkley Point in southwest England China's ambassador to Britain urged London on Tuesday to approve a Beijing-funded nuclear power plant as soon as possible, warning that relations between the two countries were at a critical point. "Right now, the China-UK relationship is at a crucial historical juncture. Mutual trust should be treasured even more," Liu Xiaoming wrote in an article in the Financial Times newspaper. "I hope the UK will keep its door open to China and that the British government will continue to support Hinkley Point -- and come to a decision as soon as possible so that the project can proceed smoothly." On July 28, Britain's new government said it was delaying final approval of the 18-billion (21-billion-euro, $23 billion) project to build Hinkley Point, the country's first new nuclear plant in a generation. China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN) is due to take a 6-billion stake in the project, which will be led by French energy giant EDF. Analysts warned the delay could jeopardise ties between Britain and China, the world's second biggest economy, at a time when London needs to build strong trade ties following its june vote to leave the European Union. Chinese official Xinhua news agency had reacted to the delay by saying it "adds uncertainties to the 'Golden Era' of China-UK ties" -- but the ambassador's comments went further. The delay on a final decision, which is now expected in September, appeared to mark a change in attitude by Britain's new Prime Minister Theresa May. Her predecessor David Cameron, who stepped down after the Brexit vote, had made ties with Beijing central to his economic policy. There are questions in Britain over whether Hinkley Point represents value for money and regarding its environmental credentials. One of May's top aides has also previously raised the issue of a potential threat to Britain's national security. The project is also controversial in France, dividing the top management of EDF and sparking strong opposition from trade unions, which fear it might bankrupt the utility, in which the state has a 85-percent stake. French President Francois Hollande backs EDF's involvement, but a statement issued by his Socialist party late Monday suggested a cooling of support. Noting the importance of the project for EDF's future prospects, it said "all questions and reservations should be resolved before going further". Thousands of taxi drivers upset at Uber's threat to their livelihoods blocked key roads in and near Costa Rica's capital on Tuesday, with dozens arrested amid clashes with police, officials said. Anti-riot officers intervened to prevent protesters from cutting off access to the country's main airport northwest of San Jose. In the east of the city, a violent confrontation with police resulted in the arrest of four taxi drivers. TV news images showed a police officer with his face bloodied. At least 70 other taxi drivers were arrested in other parts of the city for blocking roads, the government said. Police seized some 20 taxis. The head of Costa Rica's police force, Juan Jose Andrade, said on Twitter that police found nails strewn across one road. The taxi drivers called the protest to demand the government block Uber's smartphone app. The US-based internet ride-hailing company operates in Costa Rica without government authorization. It responded to the taxi protest against it by offering fare discounts to passengers in San Jose. Uber has grabbed around 35 percent of passengers from taxis in Costa Rica since entering the country mid last year, according to a recent survey by the Cid Gallup company. UC Berkeley, birthplace of the Free Speech Movement, installed an emergency exit door between Chancellor Nicholas Dirks' office and his conference room so he can escape if protestors violently storm his suite. From the Daily Californian: Construction of the door was requested about a year ago in response to a protest in April 2015 when protesters stormed the chancellor's suite (photo above). During the protest, students staged a sit-in outside Dirks' office where they banged on desks and chanted loudly. They were eventually escorted out of the building, some in handcuffs, by UCPD officers. Later that day, protesters marched from Sproul Hall to the area in front of University House, the chancellor's residence. ASUC Senator-elect Chris Yamas said there have been many protests on campus throughout the tenure of several different chancellors, but no instances when a chancellor was physically harmed. "There has to be other ways to handle student concerns and protests than simply building ways to avoid them," Yamas said. "The chancellor seems elitist and out of touch and inaccessible to the students." Putting a face to an online business can help ease shoppers wariness about scams and fraud, according to a new paper. Research set to be published in the September issue of the Journal of Retailing presents hypothetical online shopping situations to undergraduate business students, who were then questioned about their attitudes. In one of the studies, participants were presented with several forms of a website of a fictitious jewellery vendor and asked to buy diamond earrings. One group of students was shown a site that featured a photo of the owner: a stock photo of a middle-aged man in a business suit working at a computer. Others were shown sites with an image of a nondescript office building and another group went to mock shopping sites with no photos of the owner or location at all and were told the retailer was entirely virtual. Participants were also told the vendor was either local or about 2,400 kilometres away. The researchers found that the business students preferred to buy the earrings from the sites that showed the owner or a building. The implication is that any such suggestion of physical or social reality associated with the online retailer boosted new customers confidence in that business, said the press release. Purely virtual vendors, who lack a physical presence, or those with a geographically distant retail location, are at the greatest disadvantage in selling their wares online, partly from the psychological distance felt by customers. The authors suggest that putting a face on the business may be helping to ease many online shoppers' fears about fraud and scams. A 2014 study by Microsoft, which polled 1,006 Americans between the ages of 18 to 74, found that 60 per cent of respondents were concerned about being swindled when shopping online. And these fears may be merited. A 2013 study by Pew also found that 11 per cent of internet users have had personal information stolen, such as their social security number, credit card or bank account information, and a further 6 per cent have fallen victim to such scams and lost money. In order to connect customers to their businesses and allay these fears, the authors suggest that online retailers need to make an effort to show shoppers that their stores do physically exist through imagery, and to familiarize them with the owner. These strategies are cost-effective ways small retailers can use to circumvent the constraints of distance and anonymity, and encourage consumers to purchase online, said the press release. A pair of Vancouver realtors are in hot water after they mailed this sympathy note to a recently widowed man. (Facebook) Two Vancouver real estate agents are apologizing for a sympathy note they mailed to a recently widowed man, offering to help him sell his home when the time is right. Linda Shaver and Leanne deSouza of HomeLife told CKNW that theyre sorry for causing any harm to the family of Launi Bowie, who shared the note on Facebook in a post that has been shared more than 2,300 times and sparked harsh criticism among commenters. Bowie originally put the note on social media Sunday, saying that her father had received the sympathy note from two ambulance-chasing vultures just three weeks after her mothers death. So this is what our real estate market has come to, she wrote in the post. On what planet does someone think this is ethical, or even remotely acceptable? The letter, which was included in the post along with deSouza and Shavers business cards, reads: So sorry to hear of your wifes passing. Please let us know if we can help in any way with your real estate needs when the time is right. Bowie wrote that the realtors did not know her mother and the note absolutely devastated her father. Absolutely disgusting and misguided in the worst way, wrote Bowie, saying she planned to visit the HomeLife offices. Shaver and deSouza told CKNW they regret sending the business cards with the note, but deSouza said they actually spoke to Bowies father while door knocking in the area. deSouza said the pair talked about the value of his home, which is when Bowies father revealed his wife had recently died. Pretty much from the moment he said his wife had suddenly passed, the conversation we pretty much decided we were out of there because obviously he was grieving for his wife and we happened upon a family in a terrible circumstance. The real estate agent said the initial thought was that the business cards would remind him of who they were, but in the end, it was a mistake to include them. TORONTO (Reuters) - Agrium Inc's operations at its Vanscoy potash mine in the province of Saskatchewan could be halted for days, a union official said on Tuesday, the day after a worker was injured. An Agrium spokesman said in a statement that the company was working on a plan to restart the western Canadian facility and did not expect any "material disruption." Agrium gave no timeline for resuming operations at the mine. A worker was injured Monday and is in critical condition in the hospital, said Darrin Kruger, president of United Steel Workers union's Local 7552 division. Kruger said the incident was under investigation by a provincial workplace safety body and that the facility was expected to reopen after that concludes. A Saskatchewan spokeswoman said the province does not comment on open investigations and has no standard timeline for them. (Reporting by Ethan Lou in Toronto and Rod Nickel in Winnipeg, Manitoba; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Lisa Von Ahn) Reuters There is a greater chance of the U.S. Federal Reserve raising interest rates too far and tipping the economy into a recession, strategists and fund managers told the Reuters Global Markets Forum (GMF). "The biggest risk is that the Fed overdoes it since inflation tends to react quite slowly to higher rates, likely even more so this cycle given still not fully understood distortions to the economy caused by the COVID pandemic," said Nick Brooks, head of investment and economic research at ICG. While rate futures markets are still pricing in a 75-basis-point hike at the Fed's meeting next week, they now expect only a half-point increase in December and no more than a half a point further over the next two meetings. Sanjay Dutt and Salman Khan might both say that all is well between them, but they might have had a HUGE fight in Madrid. By India Today Web Desk: Sanjay Dutt, on his birthday this year (July 29), told the media that everything was well between him and Salman Khan. The grapevine was abuzz with tales of Salman and Sanjay having had a fallout. The two actors were said to have fought over Reshma Shetty, Salman Khan's manager. ALSO READ: Salman Khan is like my younger brother, says Sanjay Dutt on 57th birthday advertisement ALSO READ: Are Salman Khan and Sanjay Dutt upset with each other? After Sanjay Dutt walked out of jail after finishing his sentence this February, Salman apparently told him to hire Reshma to revive his post-imprisonment career. But things did not work out with Reshma on board, and the two parted ways professionally. This is said to have caused a rift between Salman and Sanjay. On his 57th birthday, however, Sanjay Dutt cleared the air about all rumours. Dutt told India Today, "Salman's like my younger brother, who fights with their brother? He called and wished me." However, a report in Spotboye.com says how during the IIFA (International Indian Film Academy) Awards in June this year, in Madrid, Sanjay and Salman had apparently had a huge fight. A source told the website that Salman had dropped in to visit Sanjay Dutt and his family at their hotel in the Spanish capital. The conversation supposedly took a nasty turn after Salman began advising Sanjay on how to rejuvenate his career. Soon, Khan began getting on Dutt's nerves. Sanjay, the source informed the website, told the Sultan star to leave his suite. Dutt and his family didn't attend the extravaganza, following the altercation. They apparently took off for a family vacation instead of being at IIFA. Both Salman and Sanjay, however, have said that there's no bad blood between them. --- ENDS --- A company formed by India-based Essar Global announced Tuesday that it has submitted an offer to buy U.S. Steel Canada. A press release from Ontario Steel Investments Limited says that the offer includes the company assuming the former Stelco's pension plan "in totality," and a "commitment to provide substantial post-employment benefits" to the company's active and retired employees. "We are very excited to put this bid forward for Stelco; it is another important step in advancing our vision of creating a true Canadian steel champion," the company said in a statement. "Our offer is the culmination of 18 months of discussions with all of the key stakeholders to find the best outcome for the business. "It will provide maximum benefit to all involved, most importantly Stelco's active and retired employees who depend on their pensions and post-employment benefits, as well as a more secure day-to-day operating environment." The total proposed purchase price wasn't disclosed. The offer includes the assumption at closing of $954 million of employer liabilities under U.S. Steel Canada's pension plans, and a commitment to contribute $25 million a year to benefits for active and retired employees, which is not full funding. Essar, or Ontario Steelworks, has been the preferred bidder from the union's perspective for both the former Stelco plants. Ontario Steelworks is also bidding for Essar Algoma in Sault Ste. Marie, and says it has plans to combine both companies. "What we've said constantly about Essar, is that they're meeting our three big demands," said Local 1005 president Gary Howe. That includes pension obligation, ongoing benefits for retirees and a commitment to keep the Hamilton plant alive. "The concern for us (in the sale process), is 'What's going to happen in Hamilton?'" Howe said. "I honestly believe there's a lot of potential." Story continues The company submitted the offer in the U.S. Steel Canada process on Aug. 5. Both offers would require an agreement with the United Steelworkers, which has current and retired members at both Ontario steel companies. "Ontario Steelworks remains in active discussions with the United Steelworkers Union regarding its Offer for Stelco, and we look forward to continuing discussions with the Province of Ontario to ensure the long term interests of the community and the environment are protected," the company said in a statement. MONTREAL (Reuters) - A lion bit a Canadian zoo worker in the back on Monday as it was being prepared for exhibition and has been put in isolation until the zoo decides what to do with it, an official said. The worker at the Granby Zoo east of Montreal had a fracture, but was conscious and in stable condition in hospital, director general Paul Gosselin told reporters. Gosselin said the zoo keeper was bitten in the back. "At this point we don't have the exact diagnosis," he said. It was not immediately clear how the attack occurred, though Gosselin said the employee had been preparing the female lion for exhibition before the incident. The zoo worker is in her 20s and has been with the organization since 2011, Gosselin said. He said the zoo would be contacting experts in the United States before making a decision about what to do with the lion, which is one of three kept by the zoo. All three lions had been isolated and were made unavailable for public viewing after the attack. When asked whether the zoo considered killing the lion during the incident, Gosselin said that was not necessary as another employee was able to get it away from the victim by spraying it with a water hose. A zoo spokeswoman declined to identify the zoo keeper or the lion. Police said the investigation would be handled by Quebec's workplace safety board, which could not be immediately reached for comment. Two other attacks by animals drew public attention in recent months. In June, an alligator snatched away a 2-year-old boy in front of his family at Walt Disney World in Florida. The boy died. In May, a 3-year-old boy fell into an enclosure with a gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo. Zookeepers killed the gorilla to protect the child. (Reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal; Writing and additional reporting by Ethan Lou in Toronto; Editing by Grant McCool) Grants Norfolk State Awarded $25,000 Grant to Expand Green Tech The grant will go toward expanding an engineering program at NSU that studies the application of small instruments to enhance energy lighting, solar cells and internet speeds. Norfolk State University in Virginia was recently awarded a $25,000 grant to expand its teaching in the field of of emerging green technologies. The Dominion Foundation, the philanthropic arm of energy production company Dominion Resources, provided NSU with the grant to continue NSUs instruction and research in microelectronics, optoelectronics and microfabrications. Students at the university are conducting research with devices so small in size that millions can fit on the head of a pin, according to a news release. At NSUs Micro- and Nano-technology Center (MiNaC), students learn how to design tiny devices for energy generation and lighting. The cleanroom lab is a 6,000-square-foot facility that enables students to work hands-on with green energy devices like LEDs and solar cells. I have been working on the design of photo detectors and monitoring undergraduate students fabrication of solar cells, said Pallay Kanukuntla, a graduate student at NSU, in a statement. This research could be revolutionary in green technology for communications, leading to improvements such as greater efficiency and faster internet speeds. "Thanks to this Dominion Foundation grant, we are able to expand training capabilities for students to learn the fabrication process which uses green technology to improve electronic communications, energy generation and lighting," said Demetris Geddis, director of MiNaC and an associate professor of engineering, in a statement. Further information is available on the MiNaC site. MADHU AGRAWAL Any minister in a state should automatically lose his/her ministerial portfolio and membership of legislature on even filing nomination for any of the House of Parliament. Likewise a Parliamentarian being appointed a minister (or Chief Minister) should automatically lose his/her membership of Parliament on taking oath as a minister (or Chief Minister) in a state. A controversial vote of the then Orissa Chief Minister Girdhar Gomango pulled down Atal Bihari Vajpayee government by his single vote putting nation to costly mid-term elections. Irony is that same Girdhar Gomango responsible solely for defeat of BJP-led Atal Bihari Vajpayee government at the centre has now joined BJP. A former Speaker of Lok Sabha rightly observed that constitution-makers never imagined such a scenario of impropriety, and Constitution was drafted by gentlemen for gentlemen! Frequent elections can and should be avoided by reducing or extending terms of state-assemblies by up-to say one year to hold any elections only once in a year in a month considered best suited by various aspects. Any by-election or even regular civic or panchayat election may also be held in this election-month. Since a person cannot represent two constituencies or become member of both Parliament and state-assembly, no person should be allowed to contest from more than one constituency or for both Parliament and state-assembly. A sitting MP/MLA should resign first from his earlier post before filing nomination for the other seat.Sanwarlal Jat continued to remain a minister in Rajasthan government for so many months despite his having been elected as member of Lok Sabha! It is significant that Sanwarlal Jat resigned from his seat in state-assembly from Nasirabad constituency to contest Lok Sabha polls from Ajmer. Even by-election to Nasirabad assembly-seat was later held with Congress having snatched the seat from ruling BJP. The East Godavari SP M Ravi Prakash told India Today that two Dalits and one auto driver were assaulted by 7 men when they were skinning a dead cow at a deserted place. By Ashish Pandey: In yet another attack on Dalits involved in cow skinning business, three men were beaten up by alleged vigilantes in Andhra Pradesh's Amlapuram. Acting swiftly the police has arrested 2 accused involved in attack while 5 other are said to be absconding. The East Godavari SP M. Ravi Prakash told India Today that two Dalits and one auto driver were assaulted by 7 men when they were skinning a dead cow at a deserted place. advertisement Key developments According to the police, 57 year old Mokati Yelisha and his brother Rajam, who are a resident of Jankipeta area of Amlapuram town, were called to dispose of a dead cow by a farmer on Monday evening, at around 7.30pm. They took the dead cow in an auto rickshaw to a open area nearby the village and started skinning. In between few men found them suspicious and attacked them. Speaking to India Today SP Ravi Prakash said "7 people attacked them thinking that they have killed the cow. Soon after receiving the information the local police intervened and admitted the two injured in Amlapuram hospital for treatment" Police booked the 7 accused under SC/ST atrocities act and under section of 341 and 324 of the IPC. The police has arrested two men and are searching for the other 5 other accused. ALSO READ: Stop shedding crocodile tears for Dalits and act: Congress to PM Modi --- ENDS --- VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Aug 8, 2016) - Fortress Paper Ltd. ("Fortress Paper" or the "Company") (FTP.TO) reported 2016 second quarter operating EBITDA of $6.3 million, an increase of $5.2 million and $2.2 million over the previous quarter and prior year comparative period, respectively. The Dissolving Pulp Segment generated operating EBITDA of $3.2 million and the Security Paper Products Segment generated EBITDA of $4.7 million. Corporate costs included in operating EBITDA were $1.6 million. The Company is also pleased to announce the addition of Ezra Gardner to the Board of Directors (the "Board"). "Management is pleased to report another positive quarter of operating EBITDA, our best consolidated operating EBITDA result since the restart of Thurso after its conversion to a dissolving pulp mill," stated Yvon Pelletier, Chief Executive Officer. "Overall results are much improved over the prior quarter and prior year. Although the second quarter results at Thurso were below management's expectations, the trend is positive and encouraging. Despite a decline in average realized US dissolving pulp prices and unfavourable US exchange rates in the second quarter compared to the first quarter, operating costs contributed to a much improved result. The costs were in the low $800 range for June and July with cogeneration revenues back on track for the third quarter. We look for continued improvements at the mill from our lean six sigma project teams, which are already improving costs and reliability at the mill. Landqart continues to meet management's expectations. The Landqart sale leaseback of land and building combined with the LSQ sale have provided for improved balance sheet flexibility to manage obligations and seek opportunities for growth." Second Quarter 2016 Segment Results Dissolving Pulp Segment generated operating EBITDA of $3.2 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2016 representing an increase of $1.9 million when compared to the first quarter of 2016. The results for the quarter ended June 30, 2016 were favourably impacted mainly by improvements in productivity. Operating EBITDA results for the second quarter of 2016 increased by $1.1 million compared to the second quarter of 2015. The results of the second quarter of 2016 compared to the second quarter of 2015 were impacted by higher dissolving pulp prices and favourable foreign exchange rates on sales. During the quarter ended June 30, 2016, the FSC mill sold 39,931 ADMT of dissolving pulp compared to 31,762 ADMT and 39,664 ADMT in the previous quarter and prior year comparative period, respectively. Security Paper Products Segment operating EBITDA was $2.9 million higher when compared to the first quarter of 2016 and $1.3 million higher compared to the second quarter of 2015. The Landqart mill sold 2,714 tonnes of security paper in the second quarter of 2016, compared to 2,655 and 2,745 tonnes of security paper sales in the first quarter of 2016 and second quarter of 2015, respectively. Security paper production includes banknotes, which result in varying degrees of costs and margins depending on the complexity of the security features included. Management's Outlook Dissolving Pulp Segment Dissolving pulp prices began improving in May 2016; yet still remain below trend pricing which continues to impact results. However, management believes that improving market conditions, a relatively favourable foreign exchange rate to the US dollar and further anticipated improvements in production costs will add to the positive momentum at the FSC mill. The viscose staple fibre ("VSF") and rayon filament markets, which are key drivers in dissolving pulp demand, have experienced improved supply and demand balance and improved pricing since bottoming in 2015. The price of rayon filament has maintained consistent pricing in 2016, which is 7% above its 2015 lows. VSF prices in August 2016 are higher by approximately 21% over the prior year and approximately 32% from the 2016 low in January. Management continues to focus on cost reductions, production improvement and power generation to improve margins at the FSC mill. The Lean Six Sigma program, recently implemented at the FSC mill, resulted in both the elimination of the blockage issue experienced during the first quarter of 2016 and uptime improvements in the digester area of the mill. The Lean Six Sigma program will now focus on mill efficiency improvement for the winter months. The collective agreements with unionized employees at the FSC mill expired on April 30, 2016. Bargaining negotiations are completed and the union membership has voted in favour of the new collective agreement. During the second quarter of 2016, the Company signed an asset purchase agreement providing for the sale of the buildings, equipment and other ancillary property relating to the non-operating pulp mill and sawmill, as well as the energy generation, connection and transmission plant and related equipment, located in Lebel-sur-Quevillon, Quebec for an aggregate purchase price of $15.4 million. The purchase price comprised of: (i) a $7.0 million secured note; (ii) the assumption by the purchaser of up to $7.5 million of the liabilities under an environmental trust agreement; and (iii) certain other liabilities totaling approximately $0.9 million. The transaction completed in July 2016. Concurrent with the sale, the Company assigned and transferred the $7.0 million note to a lender of the Company as early repayment of principal amounts due in 2017 in respect of its outstanding loan at the FSC mill. In addition, as consideration for such early repayment of principal and a guarantee of the note provided by the Company, the lender has agreed to defer an aggregate of $6.3 million of quarterly principal payments otherwise payable September 30, 2017, December 31, 2017 and March 31, 2018, without penalty or interest accruing on such amounts for one year. The remaining principal amount will be amortized in equal quarterly installments commencing June 30, 2018 over the remaining term of the loan. Security Paper Products Segment The Landqart mill continues to build on a strong order book for the remainder of 2016 and 2017, comprised of a mix of new and repeat orders. Results at the Landqart mill for the quarter ended June 30, 2016 were higher than the first quarter of 2016 and consistent with management expectations. A new piece of equipment for the finishing line has been ordered to eliminate the main bottleneck at the mill in order to increase finished product capacity by up to 15%, depending on product mix, by the third quarter of 2017. Capital expenditure for the project is estimated at CHF 4.0 million of which the majority is financed on favourable terms. During the second quarter of 2016, the Company entered into a sale and leaseback agreement for the sale of its land and buildings relating to its security paper business in the Security Paper Products Segment for the aggregate purchase price of CHF 44.5 million (approximately CDN $59 million), which completed in July 2016. The agreement provides for the leaseback to Landqart of such lands and buildings pursuant to a 20 year triple-net-lease, which is renewable for an additional two 10 year periods on the same terms and conditions with Landqart having certain repurchase rights. For a summary of significant developments please refer to the Management's Discussion and Analysis for the three and six month periods ended June 30, 2016 (available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com). Selected Financial Information The selected financial information presented herein is qualified in its entirety by, and should be read in conjunction with, the Company's unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements as at and for the three and six month periods ended June 30, 2016 and the related notes thereto and Management's Discussion and Analysis, which are available on SEDAR. Reference is made in this news release to operating EBITDA (defined as net income before interest, income taxes, depreciation, amortization, non-operating income and expenses and stock-based compensation), which the Company considers to be an indicative measure of operating performance and a metric to evaluate profitability. Operating EBITDA is not a generally accepted earnings measure and should not be considered as an alternative to net loss or cash flows as determined in accordance with IFRS. As there is no standardized method of calculating this measure, the Company's operating EBITDA may not be directly comparable with similarly titled measures used by other companies. Reconciliation of operating EBITDA to net loss reported in accordance with IFRS is included below. Selected Financial Information and Statistics (thousands of dollars, except shipments, unaudited) Q2 2016 Q1 2016 Q2 2015 Sales 87,993 80,012 74,028 Operating EBITDA(1) 6,307 1,055 4,051 Net income (loss) 6,893 (13,041 ) (7,497 ) Paper shipments (tonnes) 2,714 2,655 2,745 Pulp shipments (ADMT) 39,931 31,762 39,664 (1) See Net Loss to Operating EBITDA Reconciliation. A conference call to discuss the financial results for the second quarter 2016 will be held on August 9, 2016 at 9:00 a.m. (PDT). To participate in the conference call, please dial one of the following numbers: 604-681-8564 Vancouver 403-532-5601 Calgary or International 780-429-5820 Edmonton 416-623-0333 Toronto 613-212-0171 Ottawa 514-687-4017 Montreal Toll Free Dial in Number: 1-855-353-9183 from Canada and USA Participant pass code: 15086# Conference Reference Number: 1202168# A replay of the conference call will be available until midnight, September 8, 2016. To access the replay, listeners may dial 1-855-201-2300 from Canada or the USA or dial 403-255-0697 from local Calgary or International. The conference reference number is 1202168# and the participant pass code to access the replay is 15086#. A presentation to complement our first quarter earnings conference call is available under the "Investor Relations" section at www.fortresspaper.com or by sending a request to info@fortresspaper.com. Financial Reconciliations Net Loss to Operating EBITDA Reconciliation: (thousands of dollars, unaudited) Q2 2016 Q1 2016 Q2 2015 Net income (loss) 6,893 (13,041 ) (7,497 ) Income tax expense 5 5 46 Foreign exchange loss (gain) 561 852 (53 ) Net finance expense 5,229 5,179 4,676 Amortization 7,672 7,882 7,270 Change in fair value of marketable securities 288 137 (518 ) Stock based compensation 34 41 127 Reversal of impairment on property, plant and equipment (14,375 ) - - Operating EBITDA 6,307 1,055 4,051 Appointment of New Director Fortress Paper is pleased to announce the appointment of Ezra Gardner to the Board of Directors of the Company. Mr. Gardner is a co-founder and a partner of Varana Capital Partners, LP, a New York based investment partnership. Prior to founding Varana in 2009, Mr. Gardner was Lead Project Manager and Managing Partner at KCPS/Omnium Capital Management, a $500 million asset management fund based in Tel Aviv, designed to develop the fund management industry in Israel. Mr. Gardner also held the position of Head of Equity Proprietary Trading within UBS' New York based Fundamental Investment Group and served as a member of the U.S. Trading Committee, where he managed a team of portfolio managers and support staff and over $1 billion of investments. Mr. Gardner also held roles at MSD Capital (Michael Dell's family office) and JP Morgan Investment Banking focusing on M&A and capital markets. Mr. Gardner holds Bachelors of Arts degrees in Economics (with honors) and International Relations from Brown University. The Company Fortress Paper operates internationally in two distinct business segments: dissolving pulp and security paper products. The Company operates its dissolving pulp business at the Fortress Specialty Cellulose mill located in Canada, which has expanded into the renewable energy generation sector with the construction of a cogeneration facility. The Company operates its security paper products business at the Landqart mill located in Switzerland, where it produces banknote, passport, visa and other brand protection and security papers. Forward-Looking Information This news release contains certain forward-looking information that reflects the current views and/or expectations of the Company with respect to its expectations, beliefs, assumptions, estimates and forecasts about its business and the industry and markets in which it operates. The reader is cautioned that forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors which are difficult to predict and that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information, which is qualified entirely by this cautionary statement. Examples of such forward-looking information contained in this news release include statements relating to: the growth and future prospects of the Company's business; market conditions for dissolving pulp; expectations relating to the renewal of collective agreements; and the benefits that may accrue to the Company as the result of certain dispositions and cost reduction and production improvement initiatives. Assumptions underlying the Company's expectations regarding forward-looking information contained in this news release include, among others: that the Company will be able to effectively market its products; the ability of the Company to realize significant cost-savings from production improvements, cost reduction initiatives and the cogeneration facility at the Fortress Specialty Cellulose Mill; that equipment will operate at expected levels; that labour relations will remain positive; and that the Company's assumptions relating to dissolving pulp markets will be accurate. Persons reading this news release are cautioned that forward-looking information represents predictions only, and that the Company's actual future results or performance are subject to certain risks and uncertainties including, without limitation: that market conditions for dissolving pulp will not improve or will worsen; the Company will not realize anticipated cost savings from its cost reduction initiatives; equipment will not operate as intended; that work stoppages or other disturbances may occur as a result of delays in or the failure of negotiations of new collective agreements; and other risk factors detailed in the Company's most recent Annual Information Form and other filings with Canadian securities regulatory authorities. These risks, as well as others, could cause actual results and events to vary significantly. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking information, except as required by applicable securities law. By Venus Wu HONG KONG (Reuters) - Former Philippines President Fidel Ramos on Tuesday named the head of a Chinese government think-tank among the experts and officials he hoped to meet on a trip to rekindle ties with China soured by a maritime dispute in the South China Sea. On July 12, an arbitration court in the Hague ruled that China had no historic title over the busy waterway and had breached the Philippines' sovereign rights there, infuriating China, which had dismissed the case. "I've always been a very optimistic person, always looking for the best results," Ramos told reporters in Hong Kong. "But of course that also depends on the attitude of the Chinese officials." Ramos gave no details of his itinerary or of those he planned to meet, except for Wu Shicun, who heads the National Institute for South China Sea Studies think-tank, based on China's southern island of Hainan. Asked about others, such as China's former deputy minister for Foreign Affairs Fu Ying, Ramos said he did not know yet. "They all have links with Beijing, because some of them are already retired but elevated to the parliament as chairman of this and that committee." Ramos said he sought to improve economic and tourism links, such as by allowing "more fishing in the common fishing ground" of the Scarborough shoal in the Philippines' exclusive economic zone. "The idea is to use the South China Sea as a place to save lives, but not to kill people or to destroy lives," he added. China's 2012 seizure of the Scarborough Shoal, denying Philippine fishermen access, was among the factors that prompted Manila to seek arbitration. But China has ignored the court's ruling that none of its reefs and holdings in the Spratly Islands entitled it to a 200-mile exclusive economic zone. China claims almost the entire South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion of trade moves annually. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims in the sea, believed to be rich in energy deposits. Ramos, 88, who described his role as an "icebreaker", is known for an impromptu duet of Elvis Presley's 'Love Me Tender' with former Chinese president Jiang Zemin at a 1996 banquet. His trip represents "the first concrete step" in engagement for both sides and "could open a new chapter in settling disputes", China's state news agency, Xinhua, said in a commentary. Ramos was Philippines president from 1992 to 1998, when China occupied the submerged Mischief Reef. (Writing by James Pomfret; Editing by Clarence Fernandez) Speaking at a rally in North Carolina this afternoon, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump appeared to suggest that if Democrat Hillary Clinton were elected president, his supporters only recourse to prevent her from appointing judges would be some sort of armed response by Second Amendment people. The suggestion that people use firearms to prevent Clinton from filling seats on federal courts came in what appeared to be an off-the-cuff aside, seemingly meant as a joke. However, Trumps willingness to even suggest such a thing opened the floodgates of anger on social media among many people who interpreted his remarks as being about the assassination of a US president or, perhaps, of a Supreme Court Justice. Related: The Trump Delusion: GOP Candidate Says Everythings Just Fine His precise words were: If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although, the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I dont know. Trump had just been discussing his oft-repeated claim that Clinton would appoint judges who would essentially abolish the right to bear arms enshrined in the Second Amendment, leaving some of his supporters room to argue that he was talking about the lobbying power behind gun rights groups like the National Rifle Association, not actual gun-toting citizens. However, Democratic groups were not inclined toward a charitable reading of Trumps words. Priorities USA, a political action committee supporting Clinton quickly sent out a blast email with the subject line, Donald Trump Just Suggested That Someone Shoot Hillary Clinton. Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said in a statement, This is simple -- what Trump is saying is dangerous. A person seeking to be president of the United States should not suggest violence in any way. Related: Trumps Economic Plan: Spend Like a Democrat, Regulate Like a Republican Trump spokesman Jason Miller, in an email to reporters with the subject line Trump campaign statement on dishonest media sought to tamp down what appears to be the latest in a long string of statements by the candidate that have taken over media cycles. Story continues Its called the power of unification, Miller wrote. Second Amendment people have amazing spirit and are tremendously unified, which gives them great political power. And this year, they will be voting in record numbers, and it wont be for Hillary Clinton, it will be for Donald Trump. Top Reads from The Fiscal Times: NASSAU, Bahamas, Aug. 8, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Southwest Airlines has connected The Bahamas to additional markets throughout the United States with the introduction of its new daily non-stop service between Fort Lauderdale and Nassau. On August 7, 2016, Bahamian pilot Sean Smith proudly flew the 143-seat Boeing 737 into Lynden Pindling International Airport, officially declaring the route active. Before takeoff to Nassau on Sunday, passengers aboard Boeing 737 were treated to Bahamian food, drinks and music. The aircraft was sent off in grand style with a water cannon salute before takeoff and was greeted at LPIA with another ceremonial water salute. The new route is part of Southwest's plan to not only boost traffic from Florida, but also to connect The Bahamas with the vast Southwest network. The popular low cost carrier enplaned approximately 145 million customers during 2015, an average of more than 12 million passengers per month. Steve Goldberg, Southwest's Vice President of Ground Operations, said the new route opens The Bahamas up to several new markets. "People all over the Southwest network will be able to connect into Ft Lauderdale for a quick flight over to The Bahamas. We are really excited about that," Goldberg said. We're building a five-gate international terminal [at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport] that will be ready next spring, and we're excited about the potential this new route will give us with the traffic coming here to The Bahamas." According to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport's June 2016, Southwest is the third busiest carrier with 18.2 percent of passenger traffic. Minister of Tourism, the Hon. Obie H. Wilchcombe, is also confident that the addition of the low cost carrier on the Fort Lauderdale/Nassau route will lead to higher tourism demand to Nassau/Paradise Island from cities on Southwest's route network. "Beginning this international flight from the Fort Lauderdale area is very significant. It represents history, it represents The Bahamas again making that important step to cause further growth in visitor arrivals by connecting with the Florida market," Wilchcombe said. Earlier this year, Southwest launched a very aggressive advertising program throughout the United States to promote the new service to Nassau out of Fort Lauderdale. This campaign included billboards, radio, and television advertisements. The tourism minister also encouraged Southwest officials to explore other islands of The Bahamas as possible destinations for non-stop flights. "We want to introduce you to other markets in The Bahamas. We are seeing growth in our islands such as Exuma, Abaco, Bimini, and we want you to take a look at Grand Bahama," Wilchcombe said. The new daily flight from Fort Lauderdale leaves at 11:30 a.m. for arrival in Nassau at 12:30 p.m. It departs Nassau at 2:35 p.m. for arrival in Fort Lauderdale at 3:35 p.m. About The Islands Of The Bahamas The Islands Of The Bahamas have a place in the sun for everyone from Nassau and Paradise Island to Grand Bahama to The Abaco Islands, The Exuma Islands, Harbour Island, Long Island and others. Each island has its own personality and attractions for a variety of vacation styles with some of the world's best scuba diving, fishing, sailing, boating, as well as, shopping and dining. The destination offers an easily accessible tropical getaway and provides convenience for travelers with preclearance through U.S. customs and immigration, and the Bahamian dollar at par with the U.S. dollar. Do everything or do nothing, just remember It's Better in The Bahamas. For more information on travel packages, activities and accommodations, call 1-800-Bahamas or visit www.Bahamas.com. Look for The Bahamas on the web on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Photos accompanying this release are available at: http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=41043 http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=41044 English Finnish MARTELA CORPORATION HALF YEAR FINANCIAL REPORT 9 August 2016 at 8.30 a.m. MARTELA CORPORATION HALF YEAR FINANCIAL REPORT 1 Jan30 June 2016 During the first half year, revenue and operating result improved slightly on last year and the strategy was perfected Key figures: 4-6 4-6 1-6 1-6 1-12 EUR million 2016 2015 2016 2015 2015 - Revenue 31.9 30.0 59.7 56.6 132.8 - Change in revenue, % 6.3 -12.0 5.4 -16.9 -2.3 - Comparable operating result* 1.2 0.2 1.0 -1.1 4.1 - Comparable operating result, %* 3.6 0.8 1.7 -1.9 3.1 - Operating result 0.6 0.2 0.4 -1.1 4.1 - Operating result, % 1.9 0.8 0.8 -1.9 3.1 - Earnings / share 0.03 0.01 -0.05 -0.35 0.61 - Return on investment, % 7.3 2.5 2.8 -6.1 12.1 - Return on equity % 2.1 0.7 -1.7 -14.7 11.6 - Equity-to-assets ratio % 41.9 35.7 40.9 - Gearing ratio, % -0.9 46.3 16.6 The Martela Group anticipates that the Martela Groups revenue will slightly decline compared to previous year, however the Groups IFRS operating result will remain at the level of 2015. Due to normal seasonal variations, the Groups operating result accumulates mainly during the second half of the year. * Martela applies the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) guidelines on disclosing alternative performance measures. The guidelines took effect on 3 July 2016. Martela discloses alternative performance measures to illustrate the financial performance of its business operations and to improve intra-period comparability. The alternative performance measures should not be considered as substitute for the IFRS performance measures. The reconciliation of the ESMA performance measures with the most directly reconcilable IFRS-based items has been presented in the financial statements information of this half year financial report. CEO Matti Rantaniemi: Martela Corporations first half year went according to plan. The increase in revenue and decrease in costs thanks to our cost-saving programmes have led to an improved operating result. Our customers have warmly welcomed Martelas approach of offering tailored work environments that meet each customers needs. During the review period we continued to perfect our Lifecycle strategy and as a result will in the future focus our business operations more strongly on the Nordic countries and pull out of sales operations in Poland and Russia. Putting these changes into practice is likely to slightly depress the result for the rest of the year. I am confident, however, that implementing these changes will sharpen the companys focus and accelerate the implementation of the Lifecycle strategy. This will improve our ability to further enhance the groups profitability. We are happy with the companys financial performance in the first half year: Second quarter revenue increased by 6.3 per cent on the previous year. Revenue for JanuaryJune increased by 5.4 per cent, with especially strong growth recorded by the Business Unit Finland & Sweden, the overall revenue of which increased 12.1 per cent on last year. The Groups comparable second quarter operating result was EUR 1.2 million (0.2) in the second quarter and EUR 1.0 million (-1.1) in the first half year. The cash flow from operating activities in JanuaryJune was EUR 5.7 million (-1.2). The cash flow was strengthened by a decline in working capital during the review period. Our revenue increased in the first half of the year but we estimate that the second-half revenue will be lower than in the previous year due to the discontinuation of sales operations in Poland and Russia and the timing of larger projects. In the future we will continue to focus on implementing the Lifecycle strategy in the Nordic countries and improving our profitability." Market The market situation in the second quarter was similar to that of the first quarter. The Finnish economic situation continued to be challenging although small signs of recovery could be seen in late 2015 and early 2016. Britains exit from the European Union may also have a negative impact on the budding growth of the Finnish economy. In Sweden the economy continued to develop favourably. On the Finnish market, the need for many companies to adjust their operations to new business realities has generated an often-substantial need to effectively develop working environments. The Martela Lifecycle model responds well to such needs, even when companies are faced with significant changes in their business. As a result, the Finnish market has still performed moderately well from Martelas perspective, despite being challenging. The positive performance of the Swedish economy offers Martela an opportunity to increase its business there. In addition, in Sweden the Martela Lifecycle model is seen as a good fit with market needs since as in Finland, Swedish companies also see the importance of shaping and developing working environments to meet new business needs and challenges. The demand for Martelas products and services has been fundamentally affected by the general economic situation and by the extent to which companies need to use their office space more efficiently and make their working environments more functional. The annual change in a countrys gross domestic product (GDP) can be regarded as an indicator of general economic development. Finlands 2016 GDP is forecast to slightly increase. However, recent developments in Europe also add uncertainty to the outlook of the Finnish economy. Consolidated revenue and result Consolidated revenue for the second quarter was EUR 31.9 million (30.0). In JanuaryJune, consolidated revenue was EUR 59.7 million (56.6), an increase of 5.4 per cent on the comparison period. Revenue was at the previous years level in Finland in the second quarter, but for the JanuaryJune period it was slightly down on the previous year. In Finland, the revenue was generated mainly by small and medium-sized deliveries. In Sweden the second-quarter revenue increased substantially, as it did in the first quarter. A few major customer deliveries were made in Sweden in the review period and, as a result, good growth was attained in this market area. Similarly large individual customer deliveries are not expected to take place during the remaining part of the year in Sweden. Thanks to the success in Sweden, the overall revenue of the Business Unit Finland & Sweden increased 12.1 per cent on last year in JanuaryJune. In contrast, under the Business Unit International, Polands revenue declined clearly and Norways slightly during the review period. Russias revenue continued to decline and was rather minor. Conversely, other international revenue increased significantly. As a whole, the revenue of the Business Unit International decreased in JanuaryJune by 28.2 per cent on the previous year. As a consequence of the discontinuation of sales operations in Poland and Russia, revenue from these market areas will decrease substantially in the latter half of the year and sales will in practical terms cease. Nevertheless, the positive performance of Business Unit Finland & Sweden means that the consolidated revenue grew slightly in the review period. The Groups comparable second quarter operating result was EUR 1.2 million (0.2) in the second quarter and EUR 1.0 million (-1.1) in the first half year. EUR 0.6 million was recorded in costs affecting comparability from the discontinuation of the Polish and Russian sales operations. As a result, the consolidated second-quarter IFRS operating result was EUR 0.6 million (0.2) and the half-year IFRS operating result was EUR 0.4 million (-1.1).The operating result was boosted by the increase in revenue and the significant reduction in the Groups fixed costs as a result of the implemented savings programmes. At the same time, the sales margin of the Groups products was slightly lower than a year earlier, due to the composition of the revenue in the review period. Measures to improve supply chain efficiency continued to in the review period. The operations of Martelas logistics centre in Bodafors, Sweden, is being improved and as a result of co-determination negotiations a decision was made to reduce the staff at the Bodafors logistics centre by 16 persons. The purpose of the measure is to create a more flexible supply chain in response to a changed and more varied customer demand and to implement the Martela Lifecycle strategy more effectively. In addition to improving the supply chain, the planned measures target a EUR 0.5 million reduction in annual costs. The savings are part of the EUR 4.0 million savings programme Martela announced in April 2015. With the measures to be implemented in Sweden, the entire programme has now been completed. About one third of the savings were achieved in 2015 and about half will be achieved in 2016, with the remainder being realised during 2017. A decision was also made in June to further perfect the Groups Lifecycle strategy, as a result of which the Nordic countries will in the future be the companys main market area. As a result, Martelas brand and market focus will in the future be more clearly Nordic since the Nordic countries have a shared cultural background and needs and are in the forefront in adopting activity-based offices. Consequently Martela will pull out of its own sales operations in the Polish and Russian markets. The Warsaw production and purchasing unit will nevertheless continue operations and as an integral part of Martelas Customer Supply Management organisation. The planned changes will sharpen the Groups focus and accelerate the implementation of the Lifecycle strategy and improve the companys future profitability. The changes are estimated to cause a maximum of EUR 0.7 million in non-recurring expenses, of which EUR 0.6 million was incurred in the review period. User-oriented activity-based offices are an increasingly popular solution for corporate offices in the Nordic countries. Martela has introduced many new solutions for activity-based office environments and continues to focus on developing modern solutions and services. The Group has also invested heavily in competence in the specification, design and maintenance of working environments. This helps it to offer even more carefully specified working environments that are a good fit for customer needs. With proper specification and design customer companies can create cost-efficient working environments that increase job satisfaction. Martelas full half year financial report for January - June 2016 is included in PDF format as an attachment to this release. Martela Oyj Board of Directors Matti Rantaniemi CEO ATTACHEMENT: Martelas half year financial report January June 2016 For more information, please contact Matti Rantaniemi, CEO, tel. +358 50 465 8194 Distribution Nasdaq Helsinki Main News Media www.martela.com NEW YORK, Aug. 09, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ITG (NYSE:ITG), a leading independent broker and financial technology provider, today announced the launch of new Close algorithms for Brazilian and Mexican equities. The Brazil Close and Mexico Close algorithms incorporate order imbalance information and adapt to changing intra-day market conditions to help capture the substantial liquidity available late in the trading session and in the closing prints of these key markets. In Brazil the closing auction frequently represents 9-10% of total daily trading volume, while in Mexico the closing print is often 6-7%. These algorithms draw upon ITGs deep expertise in efficiently sourcing liquidity in volatile or rapidly changing market conditions, said Ben Polidore, Head of U.S. and Latin America Algorithmic Trading at ITG. We have adapted our techniques to local market structure to deliver an innovative solution for our institutional investor clients. In addition to the new Close algorithms, ITG is preparing to launch electronic direct market access (DMA) for Colombian equities this fall. These capabilities build on ITGs current suite of execution services for Latin America, including POSIT Alert on-exchange block crossing for Brazil and Mexico, algorithmic trading for Brazil, Mexico and Chile and single-stock trading for Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Peru. The Brazil Close and Mexico Close algorithms are key additions to the electronic, portfolio and single-stock trading services we provide across all of the countries included in the MSCI Latin America Index, said Eric Blake, Managing Director at ITG. We are committed to helping our clients solve operational problems and achieve best execution worldwide. ITGs Latin America algorithms are available via ITGs award-winning Triton execution management system and also via FIX connection to ITG from third-party trading systems. ITG's global execution services platform includes industry-leading algorithms in 40 markets across the Americas, Asia Pacific and the EMEA region and POSIT crossing in 36 markets worldwide. For more information about ITGs Latin America trading capabilities please call the New York sales desk at +1-212-588-4198 or contact us at info@itg.com. About ITG ITG applies technology and trading expertise to reduce implementation costs, helping clients improve investment performance. ITG provides liquidity, execution, analytics and workflow solutions to leading asset management and brokerage firms. Investment Technology Group, Inc. (NYSE:ITG) has offices in Asia Pacific, Europe and North America and offers trading services in more than 50 countries. For more information go to www.itg.com. Shah Rukh Khan is in love with Karan Johar's Ranbir Kapoor-starrer Ae Dil Hai Mushkil's music, he says the film's 'riff' is to die for. By India Today Web Desk: Shah Rukh Khan might have been unimpressed by the rushes of Karan Johar's upcoming directorial Ae Dil Hai Mushkil starring Ranbir Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Anushka Sharma, but he sure is in love with its music. ALSO READ: Shah Rukh Khan is not pleased with his buddy Karan Johar's Ae Dil Hai Mushkil advertisement ALSO READ: Is Amitabh Bachchan miffed with his daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai Bachchan's steamy scenes with Ranbir? ALSO READ: Meet Imran Abbas, Anushka Sharma's brother in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil The 50-year-old star tweeted a picture of himself, on Tuesday (August 9), where he is seen relaxing with Ae Dil Hai Mushkil's director Karan Johar and its star Ranbir Kapoor. Simple,happy & innocent. Had so much of it with Ranbir, Karan & Jitesh tonite. Aye Dil hai Mushkil Riff is 2 die for pic.twitter.com/hfedoFPITC Shah Rukh Khan (@iamsrk) August 8, 2016 King Khan had earlier praised the music of the romantic drama film songs have been composed by Barfi! music director Pritam. Karan was moved to tears on hearing his close friend Shah Rukh's praise for the music of the film. "Shah Rukh's opinion matters to me the most. I was moved to tears when he said that," said the My Name Is Khan director. Speaking on the film's music, Karan's frequent collaborator Shah Rukh said, "I have heard three songs and they are amazing. I have heard the title track, it is one of the most nicest ballet... it is fantastic." Ae Dil Hai Mushkil is based around love, relationships and according to the writer-director is a film that has come most organically to him. The film is slated for release on October 28 this year, while the first look might be unveiled in August. --- ENDS --- VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 09, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Asante Gold Corporation (CSE:ASE) (FRANKFURT:1A9) (the "Company") announces that the Special Committee of the Board has reached agreement with Goknet Mining Company Limited (Goknet) to close the acquisition of the Kubi Mining Leases on terms as substantially contained in the Kubi Definitive Option Agreement dated 28th February 2015. See: http://www.asantegold.com/news/kubi-gold-project-ghana-option-agreement. Asante will acquire the Kubi Mining Leases by issuing seven million treasury shares and reserving for future delivery to Goknet a total of 8,000 ounces of gold, and thereafter reserving for Goknet a 2% Net Smelter Return royalty (the Kubi NSR). Royal Gold, Inc. of Denver holds a 3% Net Proceeds of Production royalty, and the Ghana Government a statutory 10% free carry equity and 5% NSR royalty interest. Asante plans to further explore and if warranted develop Kubi as a custom milling and direct shipping underground operation. It is located on major deep seated auriferous structures associated with AngloGold Ashantis 66 million ounce* Obuasi Gold Mine and Perseus Mining Limiteds 6.6 million ounce* Edikan Gold Mine (* pre-mining resource, source company annual reports). In addition the Company will acquire Goknets interests in eight prospecting licenses: two totaling 38 sq km adjoining to the west of the Kubi Mining Leases; and six contiguous licenses totaling 270 sq km located on the Asankrangwa Gold Belt 15 km to the south west and along strike of the Asanko Gold Mine. Each of these licenses has had considerable exploration work completed and many have drill ready targets outlined. These licenses are in the process of being transferred to Goknet from a third party, subject to the consent of the Minister of Lands, Forestry and Mines. To purchase the licenses, the Company will issue up to a maximum of three million treasury shares. Shares will be issued pro-rata on a license by license basis if as and when valid title is registered in the name of the Company. Goknet will retain a 2% Net Smelter Return royalty on each license acquired by the Company. Douglas MacQuarrie, President & CEO states, Acquiring Kubi at a cost of circa $18 million or US$40 per ounce of NI 43-101 gold resources1, is a major step forward for the Company. Kubi has near term development potential, an excellent location and considerable grade and resource ounce upside. Share dilution has been minimized by using gold forward and NSR royalty payments. The addition of the southern half of Goknets highly prospective Ashanti II concessions to our current Betanase Option and Fahiakoba concessions give us exceptional discovery upside and growth opportunities. Our immediate focus is to complete a financing to commence the driving of a decline at Kubi for the resource to reserve upgrade drilling and to fund aggressive exploration on our other holdings. By Order of the Board, "Douglas R. MacQuarrie" President and CEO 1 Current NI 43-101 resource estimate for the Kubi Main gold deposit was completed by SEMS Exploration Services Ltd. of Accra, Ghana: Measured Resources 0.66 million tonnes @ 5.30g/t for 112,000 ounces; Indicated Resources 0.66 million tonnes @ 5.65g/t for 121,000 ounces; and Inferred Resources 0.67 million tonnes @ 5.31g/t for 115,000 ounces, and is filed on SEDAR. Scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Douglas R. MacQuarrie, P.Geo. (B.C.) Geology & Geophysics, the President and CEO of the Company, who is a "qualified person" under NI 43-101. Neither IIROC nor any stock exchange or other securities regulatory authority accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. 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 SpiceJet has just launched the Great Independence Day Sale that is offering domestic flights at a starting price of Rs 399. By India Today Web Desk: Seems like a really good time ahead for Indian travellers. Leading budget airline SpiceJet has announced a three-day sale to celebrate India's 70th Independence Day. And guess what, the airline is offering one-way airfares starting at Rs 399, excluding surcharges and taxes, for travel to select destinations in its domestic network. Titled as the Great Independence Day Sale, the sale will be open for bookings made till the midnight of August 11, and is valid for the travel period from August 18 to September 30, 2016. advertisement Also read: Coming this winter: Delhi to San Francisco in 17 hours, thanks to Air India's daily flight! Some of the most popular routes on which the base fare of Rs 399 is applicable include Jammu-Srinagar, Mumbai-Goa, Mumbai-Hyderabad, Ahmedabad-Mumbai, Amritsar-Srinagar, Bengaluru-Chennai, and Bengaluru-Kochi among others. As far as the international routes are concerned, a base fare of just Rs 2,999 is being offered by the airline for routes like Dubai-Delhi and Dubai-Mumbai. Seats are available on first-come-first-served basis and cannot be combined with any other offer. Besides, the sale is valid only on non-stop flights and fares vary from sector to sector depending on the travel distance and flight schedules. --- ENDS --- By PTI: Bhubaneswar, Aug 9 (PTI) Veteran journalist and author Barendrakrushna Dhal died at his residence here today, his family members said. He was 77 and is survived by two daughters and a son. Dhals wife had passed away in January this year. Dhal, who was suffering from renal and cardiac problems for some time, fell inside the bathroom this morning and passed away, his son said. advertisement A large number of journalists, politicians, writers and others paid tribute to the noted columnist at his residence. Born on March 25, 1941 in Cuttack district, Dhal began his journalistic career in Matrubhumi in 1960 and worked there for about 25 years. He worked in different language newspapers like in Odia, English and Bengali. He was the state correspondent of Bengali daily Aajkal till the last. He was editor of Odia daily Swaraj for a brief period. He was also elected as the president of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ). Dhal started the Bhubaneswar Bookfair in 1984 and received Sahitya Akademi award in 1993. His last rites will be performed at Swarga Dwara in Puri tomorrow, his son said. PTI COR AAM KK BSA PD --- ENDS --- By Kaushik Deka : Violence erupted in Arunachal Pradesh's capital Itanagar, following the death of former chief minister Kalikho Pul today. Pul was reportedly found hanging from a ceiling fan in one of the bedrooms of the chief ministerial bungalow of Arunachal Pradesh. Though he had stepped down as chief minister on July 13, he was yet to vacate the CM residence as his home was being renovated. advertisement Pul's followers first objected to the low quality of coffin brought by the state government to keep his body. They shouted slogans against Chief Minister Pema Khandu, who has replaced Pul, and later vandalized Home Minister Chowna Mein's residence. There were also attacks on several other ministers' home. SUPPORTERS DEMAND CBI PROBE According to sources, Pul has left behind a suicide note in his diary though the state home ministry has not confirmed this yet. His supporters claim that it was a political murder and have demanded a CBI probe. Pul was supposed to be in Delhi today to meet his lawyers as he had been contemplating to file a review petition in the Supreme Court against the verdict, which had declared his tenure as chief minister unconstitutional. Kalikho Pul was with the Congress till late 2015 when he rebelled along with 22 MLAs against the then CM Nabam Tuki. The Congress has 42 members in the 60-member Arunachal Pradesh Assembly. In February, Pul formed the government with the support of 22 rebel Congress MLAs and 11 BJP MLAs. On July 13, the Supreme Court dismissed Pul's government and asked Tuki to prove his majority within a week. To win back its rebels, the Congress decided to replace Tuki by Pema Khandu, a minister in Pul's Cabinet. Khandu also happens to be son of former CM Dorjee Khandu who died in a helicopter crash in 2011. ISOLATED WITHIN POLITICAL CIRCLE After being dismissed as chief minister, Pul was increasingly feeling isolated in the political circles of the state. He was also feeling betrayed by BJP which was not keen to back the legal battle he was planning against the apex court verdict. During his six-month tenure, Pul emerged as a popular chief minister who often breached protocols to make him accessible to common citizens. Pul was born in Hawai, Anjaw district in 1969. He belongs to the Kaman Mishmi ethnic group. He started his political career by contesting assembly election from the Hayuliang constituency in 1995 and never lost from that seat till 2014. He first became a minister in 2003 in the Gegong Apang cabinet. Chief minister Pema Khandu has announced a three-day state mourning. The government has also decided to give him a state funeral. --- ENDS --- advertisement Actor Shreyas Talpade's much-delayed film Wah Taj, ran into controversy when the promotional posters claimed that Taj Mahal will be closed from September 23, following a court judgement in the Tukaram case. By Siraj Qureshi: The promotional posters of Shreyas Talpade's upcoming film Wah Taj created widespread confusion among the tourists in Agra. Hordes of tourists were left baffled when the posters claimed that the Taj Mahal will be closed for tourists from September 23, 2016, following a court judgement in the Tukaram case. The posters were distributed around Agra. ALSO READ: Salman Khan, Sanjay Dutt say all's well. But did they have an UGLY fight in Madrid? advertisement ALSO READ: Pink trailer- A vicious Amitabh Bachchan vs a feisty Taapsee Pannu in this dark thriller According to Tourism Guild Vice President Mahatim Singh, the tourism-related agencies had to toil hard to clear this confusion as they were approached by several tourists and agencies, seeking clarification. When it was learned that it was the poster of Wah Taj, which is to be released on September 23, the industry breathed a sigh of relief. He said that such petty attempts to release a movie which has been lying in the box for more than 2 years, could only be called insane as the producers of this movie did not realize how much damage they could have caused to the Indian tourism industry by this silly prank. He said that the tourism industry is thinking about taking legal recourse in this matter as this was a shameful attempt at cheap publicity by the movie producers. Meanwhile, Bhartiya Muslim Vikas Parishad president Sami Aghai filed a criminal complaint with the Superintendent of Police Agra Satish Dhule, charging the producer, director and the actors in the movie for spreading misinformation and damaging the image of the Taj Mahal and the country. Advocate Madan Mohan Sharma told India Today that the SP (City) has assured them of a strict action against all those named in the complained. A movie produced by Pen India Pvt. Ltd. and SpyderWeb, the movie Wah Taj is to release on September 23, featuring Shreyas Talpade and Manjari Phadnis in lead roles. Directed by Ajit Sinha, the movie has been presented by Jayantilal Ghada, all of whom have been named in the complaint filed by Aghai. The movie completed its shoot in 2013, while it was expected to be released in November 2014, but it didn't happen. --- ENDS --- Amitabh Bachchan is a menacing lawyer who is hell bent on proving Taapsee Pannu, an alleged victim of sexual violence, as a liar in the dark, intense trailer of Pink. Watch! By India Today Web Desk: After a stellar turn as grieving but vengeful grandfather in Birsa Dasgupta's TE3N earlier this year, Amitabh Bachchan is back, now as a mean-spirited lawyer hell bent on proving that Taapsee Pannu, a victim of sexual violence, is lying about her misfortune in Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury's Pink. ALSO READ: Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan to team up for the first time in YRF's Thug advertisement ALSO READ: While shooting Pink, Amitabh Bachchan roamed about in the streets of Delhi unnoticed The trailer for Pink, which was released today, has been produced by Shoojit Sircar who earlier directed Bachchan in 2015's hit film Piku. Pink stars Taapsee Pannu as a young woman from Delhi who survives an attack of sexual violence following which, along with her roommates, she must fight a judgemental, patriarchal society that questions the veracity of her complaints. Amitabh Bachchan stars as the lawyer is the hurdle that Taapsee and her friends will have to cross, if they have to be proved innocent. Amitabh looks really menacing in the trailer while South Indian actor Taapsee Pannu, for the first time in her two films-old Bollywood career, has a strong, meaty role in a Hindi film. Speaking on the issue of rapes and slut-shaming, Bachchan at the trailer launch said, "Bharat varsh rape se free ho" (I want India to be free of rapes). The 73-year-old actor added, "It is extremely disgusting and as a nation we at times hang our heads in shame reading these several incidents that have happened which should not have happened. All of us as Indians and individuals need to educate ourselves to give importance the women in our lives and to understand their contribution and presence in a society is equally important as men. We need to have strong laws. There are many ways in which you and me would want to educate. Lots of people say put the rapists out in the market and we will deal with him. But that doesn't go according to the law of the land. There is a law and you have to follow it. Sometimes you feel disillusioned by the outcome, sometimes you feel that the due procedure has been followed and this will continue but what is the base of all this. The base is somewhere we are losing respect for the female gender. And that can be remedied through education, and through films like Pink to give them the respect and honour and their right place in the society. That's what we are all working towards. It will take time but it will happen." advertisement Pink has been written by veteran screenwriter Ritesh Shah who has, in the past, written films like Madaari, Airlift, Kahaani, TE3N, etc and has been directed by Bengali filmmaker Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury best known for directing the National Award-winning Bengali film Antaheen (2009) starring Rahul Bose and Radhika Apte. Watch the trailer: The film is scheduled for release on September 16 this year. --- ENDS --- By India Today Web Desk: Veteran writer-producer Panchu Arunachalam passed away today (August 9) in Chennai. He was 75 and is survived by his wife, two sons and two daughters. He is the nephew of the legendary Tamil lyricist Kannadasan and introduced an array of talents in the Tamil cinema industry. Notably, Panchu Arunachalam introduced music director Ilayaraja in his Anakili. ALSO READ: Veteran actor Jyothi Lakshmi passes away ALSO READ: Happy Birthday Mahesh Babu- 5 best films of Prince you need to watch advertisement With scores of films either as a writer or a producer, Panchu Arunachalam made blockbusters films with today's superstars Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan. He's known for his frequent collaboration with director SP Muthuraman and worked in films including Priya, Engeyo Ketta Kural, Adutha Vaarisu and Guru Sishyan to name a few. Speaking about his demise, director SP Muthuraman was quoted by The Hindu as saying, "He is also adept at writing comedy dialogues and Guru Sishyan bears testimony to his talent." SP Muthuraman also said that he was the pillar of their unit. Panchu also penned numerous songs in films which includes Manamagale Marumagale Vaa Vaa in Sharada and Ponnezhil Poothathu Puthu Vaanil in Kalangarai Vilakkam and Poopola Poopola in Naanum Oru Penn. He gave the much-needed breakthrough for Rajinikanth with the film Aarilirunthu Arubathu Varai, in which actor Rajinikanth effortlessly proved his ability to perform. Panch also worked with Kamal Haasan in films like Kalyanaraman, Japanil Kalyanaraman, Michael Madhana Kama Rajan, Singaravelan and Apoorva Sagodharargal. --- ENDS --- Fifth Grader Wins Ohio's 2016 Severe Weather Awareness Poster Contest The winner of the annual statewide contest was recognized Aug. 6 at the Ohio State Fair for her tornado safety poster. Grace Draeger, who was a fourth grader in Sandusky County during the 2015-2016 school year, was named the winner of the Ohio Committee for Severe Weather Awareness' annual severe weather awareness poster contest when she was recognized Aug. 6 at the Ohio State Fair. Her poster on tornado safety is a watercolor illustration of a tornado with the message, "When the tornado siren whines, Eyes to the sky and look for signs!" The committee seeks to educate Ohioans about natural disasters and encourages state residents to prepare for severe weather before it happens. The organization, in coordination with the governor, promotes statewide severe weather safety campaigns twice per year: in the spring, usually during the last week of March, and late fall, generally during the third week of November. And a statewide tornado drill is conducted during the Spring campaign, with county emergency management agencies testing their warning sirens. The committee chose Draeger's poster as the most informative, accurate, and creative entry. She received a check to go toward a $100 U.S. Treasury Direct savings bond, a letter of congratulations from Gov. John Kasich, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Weather Radio, a smoke detector, a trophy, a Community Emergency Response Team backpack and disaster supply kit, and other prizes. This fall, her school will receive an engraved "traveling" trophy to showcase for the remainder of the school year, and the committee will feature her poster throughout the year. Six other students, one from each elementary grade, were announced as state-level winners and received prizes and awards as a total of 38 students from 20 Ohio counties were honored as regional winners. Three Ways Mobile Solutions Safeguard Employee Health & Safety Regulations and laws mandate that employers provide a certain level of security in the workplace. Within the scope of environmental, health & safety (EHS) regulations, certain standards are set in place to ensure that employee safety is established and maintained. However, as technology progresses, so do EHS reporting practices, which provide opportunities to set and achieve higher safety standards. EHS breaches can lead to lawsuits, regulatory penalties, or, at the very least, a tarnished company brand, with all outcomes dealing a blow to the bottom line. Serious safety breaches can deliver a hit so hard that a company may have to spend years salvaging its reputation if there is a reputation left to salvage. Following any accident or lawsuit, faults and errors in reporting are often at the forefront of questioning. In retrospect, looking back at captured data can reveal how the devastating error could have been avoided and lessons learned can be applied to future processes. Mobile reporting solutions have equipped an array of organizations, from SMBs to large enterprises, to reach and even exceed stringent compliance standards. Here are three ways that mobile solutions safeguard employee health & safety. 1. Mobile solutions allow for the efficient capture of rich and accurate data. Antiquated, paper-based data collection processes are vulnerable to inaccuracies and don't allow for the capture of rich multimedia data. Solving critical, time-sensitive EHS issues requires detailed and accurate data, which the supposedly "tried and true" method of pen and paper may fail to deliver. Leading mobile solutions are equipped with an array of features designed to expedite data collection and raise accuracy, such as buttons and drop-down menus with pre-populated responses. Sometimes, only pictures are able to fully convey issues and concerns found during an inspection. Leading mobile forms solutions allow EHS field teams to capture site photos and annotate on top to pinpoint any problems, with the final images seamlessly integrated into the mobile forms. Inspectors often can gauge the health of a piece of equipment just by the sound it makes. Some higher-caliber solutions allow field workers to capture audio and integrate the files into their mobile reports for later review. Mobile solutions also clear the haze of uncertainty inherent in manual data collection by eliminating the simple act of deciphering penmanship from various team members. Relying on outdated processes means that office administrators are tasked with manually inputting data recorded on paper forms into a back-office system. Field notes may be incomprehensible to anyone but the team member who recorded them. But the process of digitally inputting information ensures that a "0" will never be confused for a "9" a seemingly minor mistake that could have devastating ripple effects. While not the cure-all answer, the digitization of EHS processes has been proven to mitigate workplace incidents due to increased accuracy and the ability to provide more detailed data, offering stakeholders a clear picture of the current situation. 2. Instant form submission and decision-based logic ensure stakeholders quickly receive crucial data. Manual records are difficult to track and maintain throughout the data collection process. With the evolution of cross-country offices and international teams, data recorded on paper is vulnerable to loss during transit. According to a report by Visioneer, Inc., an average of 7.5 per cent of all paper documents are lost altogether. When critical EHS data is misplaced, it puts your company at risk of not meeting industry compliance and, worse, puts your employees' safety at risk. Once any required paper document is lost, it's imperative that the team recreates and recirculates the information. Because the main goal of these forms is to guarantee the safety of employees, the information is top priority. However, it takes time to recreate the data accurately, ultimately hindering the productivity of the entire team. Digital forms circumnavigate the need to recreate lost records. Leading mobile solutions allow field workers to easily send EHS reports to multiple destinations with the touch of a button, eliminating constant trips back to the office and ensuring that not a single form is lost. Field workers don't have to manually select individual recipients as each form can be pre-configured to automatically submit to your back-office system, specific personnel, and your analytics engine. If an inspection yields a potential issue, that form can be automatically sent to an EHS professional who specializes in that area. Inspection forms can also be scored to rank the issue's severity and whether it should be dealt with immediately or filed away for later. If a critical safety breach is discovered, SMS notifications can call key stakeholders to action. 3. Analytics identifies common EHS shortfalls. Many EHS teams strive to achieve zero serious safety incidents. Target Zero may seem like an elusive goal, but you stand a better chance of reaching it if you replace your subpar reporting practices with a sophisticated mobile alternative. Paper-based processes are not only sluggish and inaccurate; they fail to help easily identify common EHS shortfalls, which is critical to achieving Target Zero. Antiquated manual processes leave supervisors with limited insight into trends in submitted data. While they can import that information into a software program or review at a later date, the constant ebb and flow of information often results in outdated data. Modern analytics tools now allow companies to leverage large amounts of data to drive compliance. Analytics drills down to identify compliance challenges by region, work group, site, or even individual employees. Analytics dashboards provide a clean visual summary of historical EHS data. With little more than a glance, EHS workers can spot the common safety shortfalls plaguing their business. Teams are able to quickly provide prescriptive analysis with the data, which results in more beneficial and cost-effective courses of action. Proving compliance is nearly as important as actually being compliant. When regulators or other stakeholders request EHS data, you have to deliver. Analytics provides quick access to data that can be used to confirm compliance to address legal, regulatory, or other requests from partners and/or management. Safety incidents decline as compliance tools evolve. An independent study by BLR reported that nearly half of EHS professionals still use paper forms. While pen and paper have sufficed throughout history, this method does not allow for clear and comprehensive data, efficient data delivery, and intuitive analytics. Evolutions in technology and the work environment have reduced the number of workplace accidents. In 1970, an average of 38 workers were killed every day in workplace accidents in the United States. In 2014, that number was down to 12 a day. However, that doesn't mean the train needs to stop there. The changing world mandates the adoption of new technology to stay competitive. Through digitization, companies can continue to thrive while decreasing the number of workplace safety incidents. With all these powerful digital tools at your disposal, why settle for the status quo? Mark Scott ([email protected]) is vice president of marketing for ProntoForms Corporation, a company based in Ottawa, Canada. He brings more than 20 years of marketing experience to the leadership team at the company. He has written multiple white papers on the topic of mobilizing businesses processes with smartphones and tablets for leading companies, including Apple, AT&T, Samsung, and Panasonic (Toughpad), and is also a contributor to Forbes on the topic of mobile applications for business and industrial use. Saudi-led coalition warplanes have resumed air strikes on Yemen's capital for the first time in three months, killing 14 people Tuesday and shutting the airport after UN-brokered talks were suspended. The coalition intervened in March last year after Shiite Huthi rebels and allied forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh overran Sanaa the previous September. They later tightened their grip on power and forced President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi to flee in February 2015. Hadi is now based in Riyadh, as are members of his internationally recognised government who travel between Saudi Arabia and Yemen's temporary capital Aden in the south. Coalition spokesman General Ahmed Assiri confirmed that the air strikes against the rebels had restarted and led to the closure of Sanaa airport, saying warplanes hit military targets "around" the city. Medics there told AFP that 14 people were killed in coalition strikes which residents said hit a food factory in central Sanaa. Factory director Abdullah al-Aqel gave a higher toll of 16 dead and 10 wounded, and said all the victims were workers. The Al-Aqel factory, which makes potato chips and is near a military equipment maintenance centre targeted in the raids, was hit during working hours, he said. Six charred bodies were removed from the area, residents had said earlier. Huthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam, writing on Facebook, accused the coalition of "committing heinous crimes" by targeting a food factory. - Tattered ceasefire - He also spoke of other strikes in the rebel strongholds of Saada, Hajja, and Ibb. The raids come less than 72 hours after more than three months of UN-brokered peace talks in Kuwait were suspended following the appointment by the rebels and their allies of a council to run Yemen. The talks made no headway, but UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed refused to call the negotiations a failure and said he would continue to consult with both sides to arrange further meetings. A ceasefire that started on April 11 failed to hold as the parties traded accusations of violations. Assiri said the coalition had respected the truce for three months but had resumed operations because of increased violations by the rebels and the failure of the Kuwait talks. In July, the rebels rejected a UN peace plan and announced the creation of the governing council, a move that strengthens their control of Sanaa. Despite being backed by coalition air power, government forces have so far failed to retake Sanaa and other parts of northern Yemen. Authorities are also struggling to assert control on southern parts of the country they have recaptured since last year as Al-Qaeda and Islamic State group militants exploited the conflict to expand in these zones. Coalition aircraft have also been targeting Al-Qaeda and IS jihadists. A security official said on Tuesday that coalition strikes have forced Al-Qaeda out of Azzan, a key town in the southern province of Shabwa. - Flights suspended - Azzan lies on the highway between Shabwa's provincial capital Ataq and Mukalla, capital of the vast desert province of Hadramawt and which was under Al-Qaeda control for a year until April. In Sanaa, flights were suspended on Tuesday for at least three days. "Operations are ongoing, and this could endanger flights," Assiri told AFP. Sanaa airport director Khalid al-Shayef said the facility would be shut for 72 hours from Tuesday morning, at the order of Saudi Arabia. Abdulsalam said that Saudi authorities did not allow the rebel delegation's flight from Kuwait, which made a stopover in Muscat, to leave for Sanaa on Tuesday. It was postponed for more than 72 hours after coordination with the United Nations, he said. The UN says that more than 6,400 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Yemen since the coalition air campaign began last March. Children's agency UNICEF said Tuesday that "four children were reportedly killed and three were injured" on Sunday in Nihm, northeast of Sanaa. Local sources in the area, where fighting had been non-stop since months, confirmed to AFP that a coalition air strike that day on a market killed 13 civilians. "UNICEF deplores such acts and urges all parties to exercise maximum caution and avoid civilian infrastructure," said the UN agency which estimates that more than 1,100 children have been killed since March 2015. Meanwhile, the official sabanew.net website reported that pro-Hadi chief-of-staff General Mohammed Ali al-Maqdishi has spoken to the president of "great victories" in Nahm, adding that "Sanaa is close to being liberated". The army is making "significant advances with support from the Arab coalition forces", Maqdishi said. When a government handily provides a tail wind for an industry, it is usually a safe bet to expect high growth for that sector, and the stocks in the sector will tend to rise. This basic idea is pretty universal, and certainly Singapore is no exception. Accordingly, the data centre business in Singapore, which is heavily promoted and supported by the government, is likely to enjoy high growth, and related shares could do well. Singapore is the largest provider of data centres in Southeast Asia, by a significant margin, and accounts for just under 2/3 of the entire market in the region. The size of the market is reported to have reached approximately US $1.2bn last year. There are now over 50 data centres in the country, with another 7 or so planned for the rest of 2016. Singtel is the largest player with 7 data centres, and has over 40% of the domestic market. Of the top 10 in the sector, 4 are local companies. Although Singapore does not have a lot of space, this is more than offset by just the right mix of stable power supply and at least 15 underwater cable systems. Moreover, the seeming lack of space ensures that all the data centres being built or expanded are highly efficient, and are supported by government environmental policies. In other words, Singapores infrastructure provides the country with an edge in this business. A number of large multinationals including Google, Microsoft, and Amazon now have data processing and storage facilities in Singapore. Google, which built its first data centre in Singapore in 2013, is working on another facility on a plot of land adjacent to its existing site in Jurong. The total investment the tech giant has committed in Singapore now stands at $675 million. The world-leader in data centres, Equinix, has announced the launch of its third data centre in Singapore. Other companies looking to expand operations in the country include OneNet, Global Switch, Telecom Indonesia, and StarHub. Keppel, another industry heavyweight, already has three data centres, and is planning a fourth. The new facility will have about 183,000 square feet of gross floor area, and an initial phase is expected to be commissioned this year. New York-listed Digital Realty recently launched a $200 million second data centre in Singapore. The new facility spans a massive 177,000 square feet. The companys Asia Pacific managing director, Daryl Dunbar said about Singapore, It is a very easy place to do business, there is a lot of very good support from the Government and industry for technology companies such as ourselves. While it is well known that government agencies in Singapore have given substantial assistance, including financial subsidies, to the local information technology industry, there is less awareness of their efforts made on behalf of the data centre sector. Initial impetus came from the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) of Singapore, which published a Green Data Centre Standard in 2011. Subsequently, the IDA partnered with the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) to develop the BCA-IDA Green mark for Data Centres, aimed at establishing Singapore as a gold standard for the industry in the Southeast Asian region. When the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) introduced the Technology Risk and Management Guidelines for financial institutions in 2013, it further ensured that financial services companies increased their utilisation of data centres. A number of the banks, including OCBC and Citi, now have their own storage facilities in Singapore, while others, including BNP Paribas and DBS, are using Singtel. Additionally, the establishment of the Multi-Tier Cloud Security Standard for Singapore has helped cloud providers by laying down internal procedures and security safeguards. Cloud giants, ranging from Amazon Web Services and the Microsoft Azure and Office 365 family of services, have all adopted these highly effective and useful procedures. Today, the rapidly expanding data centre industry in Singapore serves clients ranging from multinationals to operators in the giant Chinese market, as well as providing cloud services to other countries around Asia. The coming years are expected to only bring more good news. (By Celia Kawakami) Related Articles - Five of Singapores most exciting startups - Uberization wave hits the financial sector - Is Singapore about to embrace the electric vehicle trend? American special operations troops have for the first time started directly supporting Libyan forces battling the Islamic State group in their key stronghold of Sirte, The Washington Post reported Tuesday. US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Post the commandos were working from a joint operations center on the outskirts of Sirte. The Pentagon last week announced it had started an air campaign in Sirte following a request for help from the Libyan Government of National Accord. The Post said the US forces are operating alongside British troops, and are helping to coordinate American airstrikes and providing intelligence to partner forces. The Pentagon would not comment on the specifics of the Post story, but has previously acknowledged small US teams are helping gather intelligence in Libya. "The US is providing unique capabilities -- notably intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and precision strikes -- that will help enable GNA-aligned forces to make a decisive, strategic advance," Pentagon spokeswoman Henrietta Levin said in a statement. "A small number of US forces have gone in and out of Libya to exchange information with local forces, and they will continue to do so as we strengthen the fight against ISIL and other terrorist organizations," she added, using another acronym for the IS group. The Pentagon said the Libyan government has established joint operations rooms, but stressed they are away from the front lines. Citing unnamed officers allied with the Libyan government and Western security officials, the Post also said American and British "personnel" in body armor and wearing military fatigues had been seen in Sirte several times. French President Francois Hollande last month announced that three French troops had died in a helicopter accident while taking part in "dangerous intelligence operations" in an undisclosed location in Libya. Libyan sources said the aircraft had been shot down. The troubled North African nation spiraled into chaos after longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi was ousted and killed in October 2011, with two governments vying for power and armed groups battling to control vast energy resources. Exploiting Libya's power vacuum, IS jihadists established a foothold in Libya, especially in Sirte. The Pentagon estimates fewer than 1,000 IS fighters are in Sirte. It has been seven years since Lee Rozee, Ian Blackburn and a few others starting grafting away at a small sliver of land between a grit depot and a factory, cleaning up the used syringes and dodging smackhead eggs to create the DIY spot which would become affectionately known as Needleside. By the end of that summer a few of us were working whenever enough people had the time off and there was money for concrete, building what could be built in such a confined space and ending up with a spot which became a regular stopping point on skate trips. Big Push missions saw pyromaniacal quarterpipe sessions, Navarette did QP-assisted streetplants during a Creature UK trip and the needles, faecal matter and general underworld lurker detritus began to thin out before too long. Eventually a fence went up, which did little to stop sessions despite other DIY projects in Leeds coming to fruition, but it appears that whoever owns the land has finally tired of the space not being used for bodily effluent and intravenous drug use and the spot has now sadly been demolished completely. Anyway, seven years is a long time for a DIY spot to survive so, with the help of top Leeds-based lensman Reece Leung, weve put together a compilation of photos he has shot there over the years from Rozee charging, to Paul Silvesters ambidextrous wall-crawling, to the final session with Blinky and Martyn vs. rubble strewn wallrides. Raise a glass, open wide for Needleside and then go build your own PS: Parfitts Patio was the scariest obstacle. The human gut is a complex and amazing system, and the more we learn about it, the more amazed we are. It turns out By Denis Dumo JUBA (Reuters) - South Sudan plans to ask China for a $1.9 billion loan - a sum equal to more than a fifth of its national output - to be used for infrastructure projects such as roads and bridges, its foreign affairs minister said on Tuesday. South Sudan's economy, which the World Bank values at $9.015 billion, has taken a hammering from a two-year civil war that ended in 2015, leading to a fall in oil production, its main source of revenue. Oil has accounted in the past for most of government expenditure, while it has also taken loans from Chinese companies, offering to pay for them with future oil proceeds. Weak global oil prices have also badly hurt the economy. Foreign Minister Deng Alor said the government was in talks with the Chinese government for the new loan. "We (usually) present a list. Anything below $40 million, we ask the Chinese government for it to be a grant and anything above 50 million to be a concessional loan. So we are asking for $1.9 billion," Alor told news conference in the capital Juba. "We want to focus and use this money, the loan that we are going to get from China, on infrastructure like roads, bridges." Alor did not give more details on when the money was expected to be disbursed. The two years of civil war that erupted after President Salva Kiir sacked Riek Machar as vice president in 2013 has killed more than 10,000 people and displaced more than two million, many of whom fled to neighbouring Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya and Sudan. Machar returned to the capital Juba in April after a shaky peace deal was signed last August but left again last month when new clashes broke out. Kiir replaced Machar as vice president in late July with Taban Deng Gai, after Machar ignored Kiir's request to return to Juba. (Writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Gareth Jones) Reuters Unsold shares left with underwriters in Monte dei Paschi di Siena's (MPS) capital increase are expected to total less than 100 million euros ($100 million), two people close to the transaction said. A group of eight banks led by global coordinators Bank of America, Citigroup, Credit Suisse and Mediobanca, plus London-based fund Algebris have agreed to absorb up to 857 million euros in unsold stock. To offset expected losses given the small discount MPS offered on the new shares due to its shrunken market value in relation to the cash call's size, the underwriters are being paid much higher fees than normal. BEIRUT (Reuters) - More than 150 civilians, mostly women and children, left besieged eastern parts of Aleppo through a safety zone that Moscow and its Syrian ally say they have set up to evacuate people trapped in opposition-held areas. Syrian state television on Saturday showed scores of mostly women gathered in a government-controlled area of the city, saying how conditions in rebel-held areas were difficult and chanting praise for Syrian President Bashar al Assad. Russia's defence ministry said that 169 civilians had left since Thursday through three safety crossings. The ministry also said in a statement that 69 rebels had handed themselves in to the army. Syrian state news agency SANA said 169 civilians, mostly women over the age of forty, had arrived at the Salah al Din checkpoint. There was no footage of people at the actual crossing and it was difficult to verify the information independently. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government and its Russian allies declared a joint humanitarian operation for the besieged area on Thursday, bombarding it with leaflets telling fighters to surrender and civilians to leave. But the United Nations has raised misgivings about the plan and U.S. officials have suggested it may be an attempt to depopulate the city - the most important opposition stronghold in the country - so that the army can seize it. The Syrian opposition has called it a euphemism for forced displacement of the inhabitants, which it said would be a war crime. The 250,000 civilians trapped for weeks inside the besieged rebel-held sector of Aleppo have by and large stayed away so far from the "safe corridors" that Moscow and Damascus are offering to those who want to escape. With rebel-held areas running out of food and medicine after the only supply route into the city was cut by the army after months of heavy Russian and Syrian aerial bombing, many vulnerable civilians are desperate to leave, while being suspicious of the plan. The Russian defence ministry said Syrian authorities had prepared six humanitarian aid centres capable of accommodating more than 3,000 people. Residents in these areas who were contacted said many were hesitant to enter into government-held areas for fear of arrest by government forces with no presence of any U.N. body or NGO's to oversee the evacuation. They also said the journey to the frontline where the crossings were located was fraught with danger with snipers from both sides at times shooting at civilians. Aleppo, Syria's biggest city before the war, has been divided since 2012 into government and rebel sectors. Seizing control would be the biggest victory for Assad in five years of fighting, and demonstrate the dramatic shift of fortunes in his favour since Moscow joined the war on his side last year. (Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Additional reporting in Moscow by Lidia Kelly; Editing by Richard Balmforth) * PermaKat Eleonora Rosati received the 2022 Adepi Award * PermaKat Eleonora Rosati listed as one of the World Intellectual Property Review's "Influential Women in IP" of 2020. * PermaKat Eleonora Rosati listed as one of the Managing Intellectual Property magazine's "Fifty Most Influential People" of 2018. * IPKat founder and Blogmeister Emeritus Jeremy Phillips listed as one of the Managing Intellectual Property magazine's "Fifty Most Influential People" of 2005, 2011, 2013, and 2014. * Recommended by the European Patent Office as reading material for candidates for the European Qualifying Examinations, 2013. * Listed as "Top Legal Blog" in The Times Online, March 2011. 2010 ABA Journal 100. * One of the only two non-US blogs listed in the Blawg100. * Court Reporter Top Copyright Blog award winner, November 2010. * Number 1 in the 2010 Top Copyright Blog list compiled by the Copyright Litigation Blog, July 2010. * Selected by the United States Library of Congress for inclusion in its historic collections of Internet materials related to Legal Blawgs as of 2010. * Top Patent Blog poll 2009: 3rd out of 50 in the "Favourite Patent Blog" poll and 2nd out of 50 in the "Most-read" poll. Blog of the Year, 20 August 2008. * ComputerWeekly IT Law and Governance, 20 August 2008. The campaigners have called on the UK government and its Western allies to categorically condemn these acts. The strike takes place just over a year after a number of UK MPs from various parties and the Middle East experts came together to take part in a parliamentary conference at Westminster Hall in the House of Commons. During the conference, they expressed their concern about the state of democracy and freedom in Iran. The committee was organised by the British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom (BPCIF). The activists highlighted the fact that these executions took place on the anniversary of the 1988 state-induced executions in Iran, where thousands of political prisoners were tortured and killed without a fair trial. Many campaigners have concerns that a similar execution may emerge again, under the presidency of Hassan Rouhani. Hossein Abedini, a spokesman for the National Council of Resistance of Iran, told in an interview with Metro newspaper that The situation in Gohardasht and other parts of Iran has really worsened There is a lot of concern about the brutal hangings and torture. He stressed the importance for recognising the 1988 acts as crimes against humanity and calls for measures to be introduced to prevent executions and torture happening in Iran right now. Shahram Ahmadi, one of the victims of the recent executions, who endured 33 months of torture before he was hanged, wrote on July 5, 2016: I hope that I am tried like a human being, like an accused, in a just court. As well as calling on the UK government to take action, the hunger strike activists are also calling on the UN Security Council and UN Human Rights Council to work together to create a just court of an international scale, which would prosecute those responsible for the death of Ahmadi and many, many others. Many websites marketing unproven stem cell therapies directly to consumers are popping up even in developed nations where laws have been passed to protect patients from false medical advertising, a new study suggests. Ireland, Singapore, Australia, Germany, Italy, Japan and the U.S. have the highest per capita number of clinics engaging in direct-to-consumer marketing of stem cell therapies, according to the study published in Cell Stem Cell. The direct-to-consumer marketing of stem cells especially for aging and skin rejuvenation is a multi-billion dollar industry so its attracting many dubious claims, said senior study author Dr. John Rasko of the University of Sydney. The public hears almost daily about legitimate research advances in stem cells and correctly equates these cells with the bodys own natural mechanisms of repair, Rasko added by email. But these marketers then co-opt such ideas beyond whats proven here and now and make claims that the cells can somehow transfer wellness, rejuvenation and anti-aging these are claims that cannot be sustained by current scientific evidence. To analyze online promotions for stem cell therapies, Rasko and colleagues reviewed 417 English language sites, most of which offered adult stem cells. Overall, direct-to-consumer marketing sites were most common in the U.S., with 187 clinics promoting treatments online, followed by India with 35, Mexico with 28, China with 23, Australia with 19 and the U.K. with 16. But once researchers accounted for the number of people living in each country, Ireland led the pack with 11.2 such sites for every 10 million citizens, followed by Singapore with 10 sites per 10 million citizens and Australia with 8.1 sites for every 10 million citizens. Most often, the websites promoted anti-aging or skincare stem cell therapies, suggesting that the marketers are targeting lifestyle or aesthetic desires rather than medical needs, the authors conclude. Some patients may also fall prey to false advertising because they want relief from a rare disease with few treatment options, said Leigh Turner, a researcher at the University of Minnesota Center for Bioethics who wasnt involved in the study. It seems likely that some clients of stem cell clinics are propelled by a mixture of hope and desperation, Turner said by email. Part of the problem is that regulations in many countries havent kept pace with advances in technology, said Paul Knoepfler, a researcher at the University of California, Davis, who wasnt involved in the study. There arent necessarily consistent loopholes as a result, but in general regulators have not kept pace with the growth of the clinic industries, Knoepfler said by email. The general trend however seems to be toward requiring less data before the experimental stem cells are sold to patients, which I think is unwise. There are a number of pitfalls for patients, noted study co-author Douglas Sipp of Keio University School of Medicine in Tokyo. It is a problem for patients because there are inevitable risks in any invasive procedure, the vast majority of stem cell treatments being advertised online show exceedingly poor evidence of efficacy, they are costly and not reimbursed by most insurance, and more generally, the waste of time and resources on over-promoted quack remedies diverts these away from investment and use of in scientifically credible medicine, Sipp said by email. (Reuters) Source: www.businessworld.ie About us Published On Aug 09, 2016 06:28 PM By Alshaar Looking to counter the blanket ban imposed by the Supreme Court on diesel cars in the Delhi-NCR, Mercedes-Benz has offered to pay an environmental cess to resume sales in the region. The Apex court, on Monday, agreed to hear a plea from the Chakan-based carmaker that has taken this step in exchange for the ban to be waived off. The lawyer representing the luxury carmaker, Mohan Parasaran moved the motion before a bench comprising of Chief Justice TS Thakur and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud. The bench approved the plea to be heard on Friday, August 12, after Mercedes finally gave in to paying one percent of the ex-showroom price of the cars as green cess. The cars in question are diesel vehicles that have engine capacities of 2000cc or more. Supreme Court had banned the registration of any such new cars in the NCR till March 31, 2016. The ban was extended further for in the coming weeks. On July 4, the court had indicated that the registration of these cars might be resumed, subject to the payment of an added environmental cess by the carmakers. The Ministry of Heavy Industries, which supported the cause of the auto industry, though, has been opposing SCs demand of the added cess. Mercedes is not the only carmaker adversely affected by this mandate. Japanese carmaker Toyota had also announced recently about reconsidering any fresh investment in India. With more norms, such as the phasing out of ten years or older diesel cars in the NCR, propping up for the regions fight against pollution, carmakers are in for testing times in the National Capital. Youth, the Future of our Country: The future begins today. By Mawete Bona, Victoire Youth House in Kinshasa. Build Progress: For positive and constructive civic participation by the young for the enduring development of the DRC. By Papy Aganze Tchigoha, Goma Youth House. Young Democrat, I Participate: Space for civic values, work, conscience, integrity, self-consciousness, patriotism, and democracy for the good of my country, the DRC. By Christian Baruti Monga, Kintambo Youth House in Kinshasa. THIRD PRIZE, KINSHASA. Rejecting Bad Values: In our school, we are the craftsman of peace; we advocate against war. By Rodrigue Muladika, Victoire Youth House in Kinshasa. Right to Vote: My voice counts towards the transformation of my country. Hence, I vote purposely. By Obam Mupepe Mukatshung, Kintambo Youth House in Kinshasa. Collective Action: Together for concrete citizenship geared toward active and positive participation in public affairs. By Bufflon, Goma Youth House. Protecting It: Protecting our constitution from bad weather! By Ngemba Lapojo, Victoire Youth House in Kinshasa. FOURTH PRIZE, KINSHASA. Rise Congolese: Together for a new Congo. Prosper for love of the nation and hard work. By Felicien Kakule Kasungu, Goma Youth House. THIRD PRIZE, GOMA. For Female Leadership: Together, lets value the young girl. Educating a girl is educating a nation. By David Muyisa, Goma Youth House. SECOND PRIZE, GOMA. Freedom of Expression: Against repression of the freedom of expression. Lets protect it all the way! By Gibson Kitoko, Kintambo Youth House in Kinshasa. SECOND PRIZE, KINSHASA. Rejecting Bad Values: No to bad values. Yes to values. By Rodrigue Muladika, Victoire Youth House in Kinshasa. FIRST PRIZE, KINSHASA. Building the Congo: Civic engagement for the construction and protection of the DRC. By Katsivake Tsongo, Goma Youth House. FIRST PRIZE, GOMA. As the Democratic Republic of Congo edges toward its next national election slated for November, though the timing is in question one thing is clear: The nations young people will play an important role. The Carter Center wants to make sure its a positive one. Traditionally, young people have been associated with violent protests, said Elysee Sindayigaya, director of the Centers Human Rights House in DRC. Youth unemployment is high, as is their skepticism of government. Politicians often take advantage of that, sometimes even paying them to demonstrate in the streets. We wanted to find ways to empower young people as nonviolent agents for democratic change. And so in March of this year, with the aid of a grant from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, the Human Rights House launched a three-month pilot in the cities of Goma and Kinshasa to educate young people about electoral processes and encourage constructive democratic participation. The team created Citizen Cafes, bringing governmental officials and politicians together with young people for a series of discussions. It organized democracy bees in local high schools. And it arranged site visits to some key political institutions a town hall, a provincial assembly, regional election commissions, and police headquarters (where the national chief of police engaged in an incredible eight-hour Q&A session with the youth). The democracy bees were great, said Sindayigaya, because the winners in each classroom then competed in schoolwide elections to be chosen as their schools representative in an area-wide contest. The elections were organized just like DRCs national election. The goal was to show that an election can be held peacefully and that winners must be held accountable for their promises. The pilot also included artistic workshops and contests, which allowed youth ages 15-30 to use drawing, singing, writing, and theater as tools to advocate for nonviolent democratic participation. The winning entries in the drawing competition are featured in a slideshow on this page. Some of the best submissions in other artistic categories can be found at http://www.jeunesenparlent.org. These include a letter written by democracy to the government. Dear Beautiful Government, it begins. Its me, your wife, Democracy. I dont recognize you anymore In all, nearly 3,000 young people took part in some aspect of the Centers youth programming. Its a promising start. As Congolese Senator Moise Nyarugabo told young participants in a Carter Center-organized Democracy Day conference: The shift to good, democratic governance in the DRC requires the involvement of all citizens; but one person, a special youth with strong political will and an understanding of human rights, can change the whole situation. Consumers obviously like to give and receive gift cards. It allows the recipient to get what he or she wants and isn't nearly as tacky as cash. In fact, giving a gift card from a particular retailer allows the giver to personalize it a bit, choosing a retailer the recipient happens to like. But beyond personal preferences of retailers, which retailer does the best job with its gift card program? That's a question RSR Research asks each year in its annual study of best gift card practices. The survey ranks the digital gifting experiences of 100 of the nations top retailers, restaurants, and for the first time this year airlines. The retailers are judged on how well they utilize the mobile platform, and include omni-channel payments, bulk buying, and the ability to purchase cards with credit card loyalty program points. Sephora is number one Earning the top spot this year is Sephora, which racked up 55 out of a possible 66 points. Starbucks was second with 50.5 points, followed by The Home Depot (46.5 points), Dunkin' Donuts (44.5 points), and Amazon (43 points). Sephora is honored to be ranked top once again in the RSR Benchmark study, said Lisa Kueffel, vice president of client experience at Sephora. Gift cards are a key element of our digital strategy focused on delivering excellent omni-channel experiences to our clients. Working in partnership with CashStar has helped us to grow our program and achieve our goals. CashStar President and CEO Ben Kaplan says a number of its clients are represented in the upper ranks of the survey. We are pleased to see that merchants are investing more in digital gifting and striving to improve the experiences they provide to consumers, he said. The survey authors note that Sephora got high marks for scoring well in the top three criteria: discoverability, purchase experience, and recipient experience. Importance of digital gift cards This year, 81 of the 100 merchants in the judging offered digital gift cards. RSR said it updates its criteria each year to focus on capabilities that set retailers apart. These criteria evolve each year so it keeps retailers on their toes. Consumers are increasingly engaging with retailers through digital channels first, creating a demand for the retailer to be where the customer is, said Nikki Baird, managing partner at RSR Research. That, she says, requires retailers to be able to handle all the things a customer wants from them in the digital space, and that includes gift cards. Weve learned over the years just how complex digital gifting is on the desktop. This year leaders excelled at mobile, Baird said. However, too many of those evaluated are continuing to struggle with mobile optimization of their programs. Gift cards continue to be a bigger part of the holiday shopping season, as well as becoming the go-to gift for grandparents who have a hard time keeping up with grandchildren's evolving tastes. Gift cards now account for more than $100 billion in sales each year. About 93% of consumers either give or send one. Want to know how Credit Union CEOs can support member retention and growth? Heres 5 ways.. 1) Shift Your Mindset As weve explained time and again, consumer behavior is shifting, and the Credit Union approach to relying on branches and traditional marketing needs to shift along with it! As CEO, its likely that you look at your CU branches as valuable assets; they require maintenance and care, and the same should go for your website. CEOs and boards should consider the Credit Union website as a digital assetrather than an expense. After all, your website sees a lot more traffic than any of your branches ever will! Upgrading your website or investing in a mobile app should not be looked at as a one time expense, it should be looked at as an investment. People are changing the way they bank. They want to be able to open an account online or transfer money at any time. If your credit union falls too far behind with technology, youre going to lose members. Action should be taken against the guilty in scam committed by Pashchim Maharashtra Devasthan Samiti by conducting inquiry in time-bound period ! MLA Rajesh Kshirsagar, Shiv Sena Congratulations to MLA-Shri. Rajesh Kshirsagar who has been constantly raising voice against corruption ! Mumbai : Inquiry into scam committed by Pashchim Maharashtra Devasthan Samiti (PMDS) should be conducted within certain time-limit and prompt stringent action should be taken against the guilty, was the demand made by Shiv Sena MLA Shri. Rajesh Kshirsagar through a representation submitted to the Chief Minister (CM) Shri. Devendra Fadanvis on 5th August. PMDS has control over 3067 temples including Shri Mahalakshmi Temple which is one of the 3 and half Shakti-peethas in Maharashtra, Jyotiba Devasthan and other temples from Sangli, Kolhapur, Sindhu-durga districts. The CM had issued an order on 8th April 2015 in reply to a question asked during Legislative Assembly session for conducting inquiry through State Crime Departments special investigating team (SIT), into the scam of PMDS. MLA Shri. Kshirsagar has stated in the representation that, 1. Out of 25000 acres of land with PMDS, there is no account of 8000 acres of land which is the main issue under land-scam. Also for 35 years, from 1969 to 2004, no audit has been carried out by PMDS of its accounts. 2. No record has been kept by PMDS on the gold and silver ornaments donated at every Devasthan and their value; excluding Shri. Mahalakshmi Devasthan and Kedarlinga Devasthan but in case of Shri Mahalakshmi Devasthan, there has been fraud in hundreds of kgs of silver, in making of silver chariot. 3. There is no provision for royalty for mining work involving millions of rupees. The Government has no knowledge as to who gave permission for undertaking mining work. Many such malpractices were brought to the notice of the District Collector and the Chartered Accountant during investigations but they have been paying no attention to the same and it has been deliberately overlooked. 4. It has been more than 15 months but no information has been disclosed on findings during inquiry conducted in this matter. As a result, all offenders are roaming freely everywhere. 5. In case of Tuljapur Devasthan also, such delaying tactics are used and inquiry is going on for years; therefore, millions of devotees have doubt that the scam might have been suppressed. Many persons have expressed such doubt when they met me personally. 6. Sanjaykumar, the Chief of investigations into the scam of Devasthan comes to Kolhapur and promptly discloses information on other cases but he keeps quiet on this scam, so what is the problem ? 7. Devasthan-scam has become a very sensitive issue and is related to sentiments of millions of devotees; therefore, information should be given on the progress in investigations; what action has been taken by SIT, who have been interrogated and action proposed to be taken against offenders ? 8. In fact, the CM should personally look into the matter. He should take review of the status of investigations every month and set a time-limit for investigations so as to take action against the guilty. The guilty should be sent to jail, is our demand. Source : Dainik Sanatan Prabhat Popular Summer Program Develops Student Leaders Aug. 9, 2016 BLOOMINGTON, Ill. For the 12 students in Illinois Wesleyan Universitys Summer Enrichment Program (SEP), Wednesday became their favorite day of the week. On Wednesdays the students selected for SEP came together to hear guest speakers, discuss current events and debate questions such as do women have to possess masculine characteristics to be considered effective leaders? Students learned about professional development from experts and talked about their SEP internships. SEP is a longtime Illinois Wesleyan program for students of color and was extended to international students two years ago. The 10-week summer program focuses on academic, professional and personal growth. Participants complete a paid internship, learn from formal training workshops and work together on a service project in order to enhance students team building and leadership skills. This years theme was Women at the Intersections which complemented Illinois Wesleyans annual theme of Womens Power, Womens Justice for 2016-17. The programs highly regarded reputation inspired Ayrren Calhoun '18 to apply. I just felt like it would be a really good fit for me, said Calhoun, noting SEP has exceeded her expectations. A cherished SEP tradition is lunch each week at a different ethnic restaurant in the Bloomington-Normal area. Its a really inspiring and really encouraging program, said Calhoun, an International Studies major from Homewood, Ill. She said the group interactions during SEP Wednesdays opened her eyes to varying points of view held by those from different backgrounds or ethnicities. Internships are an important component of the program. An aspiring attorney, Calhoun interned at local law firm Allison & Mosby-Scott. She secured the position with the help of her Titan Leadership Program mentor, attorney Matt Majernik 07. Calhoun said shes grateful for the opportunity to get an inside view of a legal practice, but has also discovered family law is not the area for her. I just dont have the heart for it, she said of the specialization, but thats what the learning experience is about, determining what you like and what you dont like and following your passion. Students also noted they learned from each other. Emani Johnson 18 said she recognizes that her views as a black woman will differ from those of her peers of a different race, gender or culture. Everyone has some type of privilege, so its been very eye-opening to hear from other people in acknowledging that privilege, whatever it may be. I like the fact that we talk openly about those things, said Johnson, a sociology major from Berkeley, Ill. SEP Wednesdays also served as an opportunity for students to lift up each other. On a recent Wednesday, students were encouraged to give a tap on the shoulder to a peer who has had an impact on their lives in some way. (Top row, from left) Alani Sweezy '19, Anuvrat Baruah '18, Meri Brown '18, Hunain Anees '19 (Middle row, from left) Emani Johnson '18, Ayrren Calhoun '18, Shravya Bommaveddi '18, Ruby Garcia '17, Tung Nguyen '17 (Bottom row, from left) Nancy Qu '17, Lupe Hernandez '18, Cindy Basilio '17 (Photo by Kim Hill) For Hunain Anees 19, a simple tap on the shoulder turned out to be something that had a tremendous impact on his entire summer. I was very surprised by the number of taps I received and I felt very happy about it, said Anees, an accounting and economics double major from Karachi, Pakistan. I later realized we all can make a change in peoples lives in more ways than we can imagine. The 2016 group of SEP participants are: Hunain Anees19, accounting and finance double major, Karachi, Pakistan Anuvrat Baruah18, economics and financial services double major, New Delhi, India Cindy Basilio 17, mathematics major, Streamwood, Ill. Shravya Bommaveddi 18, biology major, Bloomington, Ill. Meri Brown 18, accounting major, Chicago Ayrren Calhoun 18, International Studies major, Homewood, Ill. Ruby Garcia 17, Hispanic Studies and educational studies majors, Evanston, Ill. Guadalupe Hernandez 18, business administration and computer science double major, Chicago Emani Johnson 18, sociology major, Berkeley, Ill. Tung Nguyen 17, International Studies and political science double major, Hanoi, Vietnam Nancy Qu 17, art major, Changshu, China Alani Sweezy 19, philosophy and political science double major, Chicago 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. LifeStyle The best LifeStyle shows are right here, from Australia and around the world. Catch up with the experts on home design and interiors, food and cooking, the property market, and get fresh ideas with the savviest of renovators. Whether you need inspiration for cooking up a storm, to refresh a tired room, or tips to sell your property, Foxtel LifeStyle will always something new for you to watch. Enjoy your favourite experts like Andrew Winter and Neale Whitaker, or Deb Hutton and Jamie Oliver live or On Demand. Get Foxtel Were excited to announce that metalbulletin.com is now part of fastmarkets.com. A new look and an improved experience means you can still stay ahead of this fast-moving metals market with price data, news and market intelligence right here on Fastmarkets. Discover more than 2000 prices, news and analysis in primary and secondary metals markets. We cover base metals, industrial minerals, ores and alloys, steel, scrap and steel raw materials. If you already have a Fastmarkets account, youll still have uninterrupted access to your markets by logging in with your current details. [August 08, 2016] Fitch Affirms Wentworth-Douglass Hospital (NH) at 'A'; Outlook Revised to Positive Fitch Ratings has affirmed the 'A' rating on approximately $87.8 million of New Hampshire Health and Education Facilities Authority Series 2011A bonds issued on behalf of Wentworth-Douglass Hospital (WDH). The Rating Outlook has been revised to Positive from Stable. SECURITY Debt payments are secured by a pledge of the gross revenues of the obligated group and a mortgage. KEY RATING DRIVERS SUSTAINED OVERALL IMPROVEMENT: The Positive Outlook reflects WDH's multi-year trend of improving profitability and strengthening balance sheet metrics. WDH generated a 12.8% operating EBITDA margin in fiscal years 2014 and 2015 and is on track to post similar results in 2016. The Positive Outlook is also supported by robust days cash on hand (DCOH) of 309.8 days as of June 30, 2016. As the debt load moderated and liquidity increased, cash-to-debt improved to 210.5% as of June 30, 2016 from 152.5% in fiscal year end 2013, comfortably above the 143.7% category median. EXPECTED BENEFIT FROM ACQUISITION AGREEMENT: WDH and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) entered into an agreement on July 21 for the acquisition of WDH by MGH. The acquisition will not be finalized until it receives the necessary approvals from various regulatory agencies, a process which is expected to take at least until the end of the year. If approved, Fitch expects the agreement to yield significant operational advantages for WDH in the future. WDH has had a successful clinical affiliation with MGH for the past eight years. IMPROVED LEVERAGE POSITION: With the refinancing of the Series 2011B bonds and a note payable in March 2016, maximum annual debt service (MADS) decreased to $9.9 million. Consequently, MADS coverage increased to 4.4x as of fiscal year end 2015 and measures at 4.0x for the six months of fiscal 2016 (June 30), which is comfortable for the rating category. MANAGEABLE CAPITAL PLANS: WDH's five-year capital plans reflect increased investment in an ambulatory expansion as well as an EPIC installation in 2018 and 2019. Fitch expects the increased capital targets (ranging from approximately $27 million to $43 million annually) to be relatively manageable given the average annual $42 million in EBITDA over the past three years and the system's adequate cash position. The ambulatory expansion is still under consideration as management is conservative in managing the system's balance sheet strength. PHYSICIAN COMPENSATION: An important strategy for WDH has been to continue growing its employed physician group, which now numbers 116 employed providers. The group is a key contributor to the revenue growth at WDH, but the physician losses remain high. As WDH continues to grow the employed practice combined with future revenue pressure from changing payor contracts, minimizing the loss per physician will be an important determinant of future profitability. RATING SENSITIVITIES OPERATING PROFILE ELEVATED BY ACQUISITION: Fitch expects that Wentworth-Douglass Hospital's (WDH) planned acquisition by Massachusetts General Hospital will be accretive and will provide WDH greater access to clinical and data analytic expertise that is needed as payments continue to transition to value-based reimbursement. The acquisition should also provide branding opportunities and operational savings. Even without the acquisition, WDH has demonstrated steady improvement in its metrics, which Fitch expects will continue in 2016 and 2017 and may be the basis of a possible upgrade consideration in a future rating review. CREDIT PROFILE WDH is a 178 bed acute care hospital located in Dover, NH, which is situated in the center of the Seacoast region of New Hampshire, approximately 60 miles from Boston, MA and Portland, ME. Along with WDH, the other obligated group member on the bonds is Wentworth-Douglass Physician Corporation, which employs over 100 Family Practice, Internal Medicine and Specialty physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners. Fitch's analysis is based on the full consolidated Wentworth-Douglass Health System (WDHS). SOLID OPERATING HISTORY The 'A' rating and Positive Outlook are supported by strong operating EBITDA margins and comfortable balance sheet metrics. The solid operating performance and liquidity levels offset Fitch's concerns regarding WDH's small revenue base for an 'A' rated credit and presence in a market where there are other similarly-sized providers. The cometitive environment in the Seacoast region is reportedly limited by the fact that most of the area's hospitals operate within their own discrete markets. WDH employs almost all its primary care medical staff but specialists do split their referrals between WDH and its closest competitor, Frisbie Memorial Hospital. Fiscal 2014 and 2015 yielded improved results as utilization stabilized or increased in most clinical lines, uncompensated care decreased with the ACA and Medicaid expansion in New Hampshire, and the hospital received additional disproportionate share (DSH) revenue as a result of a settlement between the state and hospitals on the distribution of Medicaid Enhancement Tax (MET) program funds. Due to the settlement, Medicaid DSH payments to WDH increased significantly from -$158.6 thousand in fiscal 2014 to $4.8 million in fiscal 2015 and a projected $6.9 million in fiscal 2016. The current agreement extends through 2019, but early expectations are that the final settlement after 2019 will not deviate significantly from the current terms for the distribution of MET funds. For fiscal 2015, the consolidated financial results yielded a 5.1% operating margin, 12.8% operating EBITDA margin, a 24.2% cushion ratio and 200.2% cash-to-debt. Unrestricted cash and investments grew again to $240.5 million (303.9 DCOH). These metrics comfortably exceed Fitch's 'A' category medians. STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENTS In preparation for risk contracts and population health, WDH has continued to focus on building its employed physician network in recent years. Also, through its membership in Granite Health (a collaboration with four other New Hampshire providers) WDH has begun to explore and gather data needed for the shift to value-based contracting. In addition, WDH participates in a captive insurance and as a member/owner for a health plan, the Tufts Health Freedom Plan, with its Granite partners. This small plan was launched in 2015 and is and primarily made up of the employees of the member organizations (approximately 15,000 lives). In order to better prepare for population health as well as increase its access to tertiary clinical education and support, WDH has pursued a full acquisition by one of its existing clinical partners, MGH. The parties are planning a conservative, gradual approach to the acquisition with WDHS maintaining its local board and legal independence for an initial period. MGH would be the parent organization, but WDH would not initially join MGH's obligated group. Given the more cautious approach and test period of the proposed agreement, Fitch does not expect to see an immediate impact or change in WDH's financial profile even if the acquisition is approved. However, Fitch does expect that if the acquisition is successful, it will yield long-term opportunities in savings and marketing for WDH as MGH is a recognized tertiary provider with a strong brand name. WDH is planning to build an ambulatory presence in the Seacost market as well as convert to the EPIC system in 2018 and 2019 ($30 - $35 million project). WDH expects to open a physician practice site with imaging and lab in Portsmouth in the fall of 2016. DEBT PROFILE WDH's debt structure is conservative with 81% fixed-rate debt and no defined benefit plan liability. The system refinanced its Series 2011B bonds with the $16 million direct bank purchase of Series 2016A bonds, thereby addressing the LOC that was due to expire in April 2016. The 2016B bonds ($6 million, direct bank purchase) repaid a note payable that was previously outstanding to Bank of America. Two fixed payor swaps, each for $9.9 million, serve as hedges for the variable rate Series 2016A bonds. WDH has no collateral posting requirements. DISCLOSURE WDH provides annual and quarterly financial information to the market through EMMA. Quarterly statements include a balance sheet, income statement, and utilization statistics. Additional information is available at 'www.fitchratings.com'. Applicable Criteria Revenue-Supported Rating Criteria (pub. 16 Jun 2014) https://www.fitchratings.com/creditdesk/reports/report_frame.cfm?rpt_id=750012 U.S. Nonprofit Hospitals and Health Systems Rating Criteria (pub. 09 Jun 2015) https://www.fitchratings.com/creditdesk/reports/report_frame.cfm?rpt_id=866807 Additional Disclosures Dodd-Frank Rating Information Disclosure Form https://www.fitchratings.com/creditdesk/press_releases/content/ridf_frame.cfm?pr_id=1010118 Solicitation Status https://www.fitchratings.com/gws/en/disclosure/solicitation?pr_id=1010118 Endorsement Policy https://www.fitchratings.com/jsp/creditdesk/PolicyRegulation.faces?context=2&detail=31 ALL FITCH CREDIT RATINGS ARE SUBJECT TO CERTAIN LIMITATIONS AND DISCLAIMERS. PLEASE READ THESE LIMITATIONS AND DISCLAIMERS BY FOLLOWING THIS LINK: HTTP://FITCHRATINGS.COM/UNDERSTANDINGCREDITRATINGS. IN ADDITION, RATING DEFINITIONS AND THE TERMS OF USE OF SUCH RATINGS ARE AVAILABLE ON (News - Alert) THE AGENCY'S PUBLIC WEBSITE 'WWW.FITCHRATINGS.COM'. PUBLISHED RATINGS, CRITERIA AND METHODOLOGIES ARE AVAILABLE FROM THIS SITE AT ALL TIMES. FITCH'S CODE OF CONDUCT, CONFIDENTIALITY, CONFLICTS OF INTEREST, AFFILIATE FIREWALL, COMPLIANCE AND OTHER RELEVANT POLICIES AND PROCEDURES ARE ALSO AVAILABLE FROM THE 'CODE OF CONDUCT' SECTION OF THIS SITE. FITCH MAY HAVE PROVIDED ANOTHER PERMISSIBLE SERVICE TO THE RATED ENTITY OR ITS RELATED THIRD PARTIES. DETAILS OF THIS SERVICE FOR RATINGS FOR WHICH THE LEAD ANALYST IS BASED IN AN EU-REGISTERED ENTITY CAN BE FOUND ON THE ENTITY SUMMARY PAGE FOR THIS ISSUER ON THE FITCH WEBSITE. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160808006252/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] In Nigeria, marriage is definitely a big deal considering the kind of money and energy people invest into it to make it happen. That is the period where every bride gets to feel like a queen because of the way they are celebrated. It is usually a royal event and depending on how big the wedding is, you will be shocked to find the important dignitaries in the society there. READ ALSO: Man proposes to girlfriend in style at Shoprite Marriage is treated with great respect and as such some cultures in Nigeria ensure that whoever comes to marry their daughters fulfill all the traditional rites to the latter. In most cases, these traditional rites can be termed as expensive cultures to marry from and so are dreaded. Although the most expensive cultures to marry from in Nigeria is not restricted to just a geographic region or tribe in Nigeria, but of course the eastern part of Nigeria- the Igbo speaking region of Nigeria and also some states from the Southern part of Nigeria can be said to be some of the most expensive cultures to get a wife. These are the 10 most expensive cultures to marry from in Nigeria: 1. The Annang People of Akwa Ibom state The Annang people are found in Akwa Ibom state and they are the second largest ethnic group in Akwa Ibom state. Any groom who intends taking a bride from the Annang people must be ready to meet fulfill the traditional marriage rites which is indeed expensive because of the loads of stuff and fees that the groom is expected buy and pay for. 2. The Ogoja People of Cross Rivers state The Ogoja people are found in Ogoja Local Government Area of Cross Rivers State. The major communities in Ogoja are Ekpogrinya,, Nwang, Esham, Nnang, Egbong, Ewinimba and Banasara. Marrying an Ogoja lady is expensive because of all that is required for the groom to fulfill before the bride can be handed over to him. 3. The Ibibio People of Akwa Ibom state The Ibibio people are found in Akwa Ibom state and they are known to be hardworking people especially when it comes to the Agricultural sector. The requirements from any man who wants to take an Ibibio woman is a wife can be said to be expensive because of the numerous components that makes up the list. 4. The Efik People of Cross Rivers State The Efik people have a rich culture and marriage is not left out. A groom is expected to organize a carnival like event for the traditional marriage especially if he is getting married to the daughter of an influential person in the town. 5. The Ngwo People of Enugu State The Ngwo culture requires that any man that wants to marry their daughter must be willing to prove that he can take care of their daughter by first meeting their requirements which often is expensive. 6. The Ikwere People of Rivers State The Ikwere people are found in Rivers State and they are generally considered to be Igbo people because of the similarities in both their language and culture of the Igbo people. Taking a bride here is in excess of one million naira, hence it is amongst the most expensive cultures to marry from in Nigeria. 7. The Mbano People of Imo State Mbano is a community that is located in the Southeastern part of Nigeria and they are part of the Igbo people of Nigeria. The groom must fulfill all that is listed in the marriage list, and in some cases, if the groom is wealthy, he might even be required to build a house for the brides parents as part of the marriage requirements. 8. The Mbaise People of Imo State The Mbaise people are found in Imo state part of Nigeria and they occupy three local government areas in Imo State (Aboh Mbaise, Ahiazu Mbaise and Ezinihitte Mbaise). The Mbaise people are known for their quest for higher education, hence the large numbers of graduates and professionals amongst them. The Mbaise culture is amongst the most expensive cultures to marry from in Nigeria because of the numerous components that make up their traditional marriage list. As a matter of fact, the more educated the bride is, the more expensive the marriage list becomes. 9. The Ngwa People of Abia State The Ngwa people are found in Abia state of Nigeria and they constitute the largest and most populous sub ethnicity or clan in the whole of the south eastern part of Nigeria. The culture of the Ngwa people is said to be amongst the most expensive cultures to marry from in Nigeria because of the many things the groom is expected to do for the brides family and for the entire community where the bride hails from. 10. The Nkpa People of Abia State The Nkpa people of Abia state are found in Bende local government of Abia state. Marrying an Nkpa lady is truly expensive especially if you are not from Nkpa. The list for the traditional marriage rite is designed in such a way that it is cheaper for and Nkpa man that is getting married to an Nkpa lady; but if a man who is not from Nkpa is seeking for the hands of an Nkpa lady, he must be ready to organize a marriage ceremony that accommodates the entire community, and also must buy gifts not only for the parents of the bride, but also for all the kinsmen (Umu nna) and their daughters (Umu Ada). You have seen it all. This will prepare your mind for your big day! Source: Legit.ng [August 08, 2016] Results from Merck's Phase 3 Study Evaluating ZEPATIER (elbasvir and grazoprevir) in Patients with Chronic Hepatitis C Receiving Treatment for Opioid Dependence Published in Annals of Internal Medicine Merck (NYSE: MRK), known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada, today announced the publication of results from C-EDGE CO-STAR. C-EDGE CO-STAR (News - Alert) is a Phase 3 trial evaluating the use of ZEPATIER (elbasvir and grazoprevir) 50mg/100mg tablets in patients with chronic hepatitis C (HCV) genotype (GT) 1, GT4 and GT6 infection receiving opioid agonist therapy (OAT) (methadone and buprenorphine), commonly used to treat opioid addiction. The results, recently published online in the Annals of Internal Medicine, showed treatment with 12 weeks of ZEPATIER resulted in high rates of sustained virologic response 12 weeks after the completion of therapy (SVR12, considered virologic cure based on undetectable HCV RNA levels). These results and full study design were previously presented at The Liver Meeting in November 2015. "C-EDGE CO-STAR is the first phase 3 clinical trial dedicated to evaluating direct-acting antiviral therapy for chronic hepatitis C infection in patients on opioid agonist therapy without excluding patients actively using drugs with high abuse potential," said Dr. Alain Litwin, professor of medicine and psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York. "This study demonstrates that people who inject drugs can be effectively treated with direct-acting antiviral therapy." The published efficacy results from the randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled C-EDGE CO-STAR trial showed 92 percent (184/201) of patients receiving ZEPATIER for 12 weeks in the study's immediate treatment group achieved SVR12, with comparable rates across GT1a (94%, 144/154), GT1b (93%, 28/30) and GT4 (92%, 11/12) patients; in the limited number of GT6 patients, SVR12 was 20 percent (1/5). These results classify patients who cleared their baseline infection but subsequently acquired a new infection as treatment failures; previously presented results from this trial considered these patients as treatment successes, according to the study protocol. A supportive analysis showed that the vast majority of patients were adherent to therapy, despite ongoing use of drugs of potential abuse (e.g., cocaine, heroin, amphetamines) by the majority of patients throughout the trial. The rates of adverse events were generally comparable between active treatment and placebo groups, with the most common adverse events (greater than 10%) in both groups including fatigue (16%, 20%), headache (12%, 13%) and nausea (11%, 9%), respectively. Secondary efficacy endpoint (SVR24) and reinfection analyses were presented at The International Liver Congress in April 2016. "Merck continues to take a leadership role in exploring the potential to treat chronic hepatitis C infection in underserved and undertreated patient populations, including those who continue to use illicit drugs," said Dr. Eliav Barr, vice president, infectious diseases, Merck Research Laboratories. "These findings contribute to the robust body of evidence supporting the efficacy and safety profile of ZEPATIER in a broad range of patients with chronic hepatitis C genotype 1 or genotype 4 infection." About ZEPATIER (elbasvir and grazoprevir) 50mg/100mg Tablets ZEPATIER is a fixed-dose combination product containing elbasvir, a HCV NS5A inhibitor, and grazoprevir, an HCV NS3/4A protease inhibitor, and is indicated with or without ribavirin (RBV) for treatment of chronic HCV GT 1 or 4 infection in adults. ZEPATIER is not indicated to treat chronic HCV GT6 infection. Selected Safety Information about ZEPATIER ZEPATIER is not for use in patients with moderate or severe hepatic impairment (ChildPugh B or C). ZEPATIER is also not for use with organic anion transporting polypeptides 1B1/3 (OATP1B1/3) inhibitors (e.g., atazanavir, darunavir, lopinavir, saquinavir, tipranavir, cyclosporine), strong cytochrome P450 3A (CYP3A) inducers (e.g., carbamazepine, phenytoin, rifampin, St. John's Wort), and efavirenz. If ZEPATIER is administered with RBV, healthcare professionals should refer to the prescribing information for RBV as the contraindications, warnings and precautions, adverse reactions and dosing for RBV also apply to this combination regimen. Elevations of alanine transaminase (ALT) to greater than 5 times the upper limit of normal (ULN) occurred in 1% of subjects, generally at or after treatment week 8. These late ALT elevations were typically asymptomatic and most resolved with ongoing or completion of therapy. Healthcare professionals should perform hepatic lab testing on patients prior to therapy, at treatment week 8, and as clinically indicated. For patients receiving 16 weeks of therapy, additional hepatic lab testing should be performed at treatment week 12. Patients should be instructed to consult their healthcare professional without delay if they have onset of fatigue, weakness, lack of appetite, nausea and vomiting, jaundice or discolored feces. Healthcare providers should consider discontinuing ZEPATIER if ALT levels remain persistently greater than 10 times ULN. ZEPATIER should be discontinued if ALT elevation is accompanied by signs or symptoms of liver inflammation or increasing conjugated bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase, or international normalized ratio. The concomitant use of ZEPATIER with certain drugs may lead to adverse reactions or reduced therapeutic effect due to drug interactions. Certain strong CYP3A inhibitors may increase the plasma concentration of ZEPATIER, leading to possibly clinically significant adverse reactions. Moderate CYP3A inducers may decrease the plasma concentration of ZEPATIER, leading to reduced therapeutic effect and possible development of resistance. Coadministration of ZEPATIER with these drugs is not recommended. Physicians should consult the Prescribing Information for potential drug interactions. In subjects receiving ZEPATIER for 12 weeks, the most commonly reported adverse reactions of all intensity (greater than or equal to 5% in placebo-controlled trials) were fatigue, headache and nausea. In subjects receiving ZEPATIER with RBV for 16 weeks, the most commonly reported adverse reactions of moderate or severe intensity (greater than or equal to 5%) were anemia and headache. Selected Dosage and Administration Information for ZEPATIER (elbasvir and grazoprevir) ZEPATIER is a single tablet taken once daily. The recommended dosing is 12 or 16 weeks with or without RBV, depending on HCV genotype, prior treatment history and, for patients with genotype 1a infection, presence of certain baseline NS5A resistance-associated polymorphisms. See Prescribing Information for ZEPATIER for specific dosage regimens and durations. Refer to RBV prescribing information for RBV dosing and dosage modifications when ZEPATIER is given with RBV. To determine dosage regimen and duration of ZEPATIER for genotype 1a patients, testing for the presence of virus with one or more baseline NS5A resistance-associated polymorphisms at positions 28, 30, 31, or 93 is recommended prior to initiating treatment. About Chronic HCV Infection and Injection Drug Use Injection drug use is responsible for the majority of new and existing HCV infections in high-income countries. It is estimated that 60 to 80 percent of people who inject drugs are tested positive with chronic HCV infection. Merck's Commitment to HCV For more than 30 years, Merck has been at the forefront of the response to the HCV epidemic. Merck's chronic HCV clinical development programs have included more than 135 clinical trials in approximately 40 countries and have enrolled nearly 10,000 participants. As part of our longstanding leadership in infectious diseases, Merck collaborates with the scientific and patient communities to develop and deliver innovative solutions to support people living with chronic HCV worldwide. About Merck For 125 years, Merck has been a global health care leader working to help the world be well. Merck is known as MSD outside the United States and Canada. Through our prescription medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies, and animal health products, we work with customers and operate in more than 140 countries to deliver innovative health solutions. We also demonstrate our commitment to increasing access to health care through far-reaching policies, programs and partnerships. For more information, visit www.merck.com and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn. Forward-Looking Statement of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, N.J., USA This news release of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, N.J., USA (the "company") includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of the company's management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. There can be no guarantees with respect to pipeline products that the products will receive the necessary regulatory approvals or that they will prove to be commercially successful. If underlying assumptions prove inaccurate or risks or uncertainties materialize, actual results may differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. Risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to, general industry conditions and competition; general economic factors, including interest rate and currency exchange rate fluctuations; the impact of pharmaceutical industry regulation and health care legislation in the United States and internationally; global trends toward health care cost containment; technological advances, new products and patents attained by competitors; challenges inherent in new product development, including obtaining regulatory approval; the company's ability to accurately predict future market conditions; manufacturing difficulties or delays; financial instability of international economies and sovereign risk; dependence on the effectiveness of the company's patents and other protections for innovative products; and the exposure to litigation, including patent litigation, and/or regulatory actions. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Additional factors that could cause results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements can be found in the company's 2015 Annual Report on Form 10-K and the company's other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC (News - Alert)) available at the SEC's Internet site (www.sec.gov). # # # Please see Prescribing Information for ZEPATIER (elbasvir and grazoprevir) at http://www.merck.com/product/usa/pi_circulars/z/zepatier/zepatier_pi.pdf and the Patient Information for ZEPATIER at http://www.merck.com/product/usa/pi_circulars/z/zepatier/zepatier_ppi.pdf View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160808006260/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [August 09, 2016] N-Dimension Selected by Fayetteville PWC to Help Meet NERC CIP Compliance N-Dimension Solutions, a market leading Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) with innovative solutions that protect smart energy networks from cyber threats, announced today that Fayetteville Public Works Commission (PWC) is now an N-Sentinel Monitoring customer. The utility installed N-Sentinel Monitoring next to their SCADA firewall to add an additional layer of cyber threat vigilance, contributing towards its goal of meeting NERC (News - Alert) CIP compliance. Fayetteville PWC is a community-owned utility in North Carolina that delivers power, water and wastewater services throughout Cumberland County. It is the largest municipal utility in the state with nearly 80,000 electric customers and approximately 600 employees. Fayetteville PWC was recognized earlier this year by the American Public Power Association (APPA) as a Diamond Level Reliable Public Power Provider (RP3) utility through its outstanding efforts to deliver safe reliable power to the community in addition to completing system improvements and quality employee training. The utility identified cybersecurity as one its top strategic priorities to address over the next few years. As part of this initiative, the SCADA operations team for the power network drove the idea of adopting NERC CIP v5 as best practices to improve their cyber defenses. While not a requirement at this time for the utility, the team wanted to be better prepared for the future should compliance become a mandate and given the increase within the utility industry in cyber threat activity. Fayetteville PWC selected N-Dimension's N-Sentinel Monitoring, which combines timely threat detection and analysis, utility community threat insights and access to cybersecurity experts. With information and guidance from N-Dimension, they have stayed updated about potential cyber risks and have used the information to fine-tune their security system parameters to reduce risk. "Without continuous threat monitoring it's easy to get a false sense that your security systems are already protecting you when they may not be," said Joel Valley, manager, substations and electric support servies for Fayetteville PWC. "To know how to protect your network you first need to know what's attacking it and that's where N-Sentinel Monitoring has really helped." "Cybersecurity has become one of the top concerns of power utilities as threat activity has continued to accelerate," said Tom Ayers, president and CEO, N-Dimension. "In addition to working directly with utility customers, we are working closely with the APPA and NRECA as they build cybersecurity strategies for their constituency." Upcoming events in which N-Dimension will be participating include ElectriCities of North Carolina Annual Conference (August 11-13); NCAEC 2016 Technology Conference (August 17-19); 2016 MPUA Annual Conference (September 14-16); and APPA Business and Finance (September 18-21). About N-Dimension Solutions N-Dimension is a market leading Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) with innovative solutions tailored to protect smart energy networks from cyber attacks, improving system reliability and safeguarding critical infrastructure, data and assets. The company's N-Sentinel line of services delivers vigilance, detecting and alerting on cyber threats. It combines cloud-based security intelligence and cybersecurity experts to deliver actionable guidance that enables utilities to take timely, preemptive action to protect themselves against cyber threats and vulnerabilities. Company headquarters are in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada and U.S. headquarters are located in Addison, Texas. N-Dimension is the exclusive cybersecurity partner Hometown Connections, the utility services subsidiary of the American Public Power Association (APPA), an associate member of the APPA, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) and Electricity Distributors Association (EDA). For more information about N-Sentinel and to request a free demo, visit our website at www.n-dimension.com. Please follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn; check us out on YouTube and CrunchBase. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160809005211/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Esri Observes the United Nations' International Day of the World's Indigenous People with Tribal Story Map Challenge The United Nations' International Day of the World's Indigenous People is observed each year to promote and protect the rights of the world's indigenous population. This year's theme is right to education, and in honor of this, Esri partnered with seven tribes in a friendly competition to create Story Maps using the ArcGIS platform. The Story Maps bring attention to many different issues that affect tribal nations including climate change, forest resiliency and data sovereignty. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160809005401/en/ The United Nations' International Day of the World's Indigenous People is observed each year to promote and protect the rights of the world's indigenous population. This year's theme is right to education, and in honor of this, Esri partnered with seven tribes in a friendly competition to create Story Maps using the ArcGIS platform. (Photo: Business Wire) Story Maps are a way to tap into and explore ideas. Through interactive maps, Confederated Tribes of Umatilla, Seneca National, Santa Clara Pueblo, Coeur d'Alene Tribe, Navajo, the Grand Ronde Tribe, and Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate (SWO) shared powerful narratives that educate viewers of the issues at hand. Joseph Robertson, head of The Impact of Data Sovereignty on American Indian Self-Determination, created a story map discussing the impact of data sovereignty on American Indian self-determination. Robertson is pursuing his PhD at South Dakota State University and his dissertation is teaching tribal governments and stakeholders how to integrate not only GIS data systems, but fully centralized data systems using the Esri platform. Robertson is changing his computational statistics PhD framework in real time to take advantage of the breakthrough GIS provides for a nation building by using the ArcGIS bridge with R. Now stakeholders can learn the basics of R for statistical learning and also use this approach for higher education. Esri's technology will also teach tribes about the power of how a fully integrated GIS platform intersects the power of pure spatial statistics and analysis through theory and American Indian Law and Policy. Regarding his implementation, Joseph Robertson said, "I am confident we can make an impact in showing Indigenous communities what is possible in a data driven world through the eyes of an Indigenous person with the skill set to make this possible." Explore the meaning of the International Day of the World's Indigenous People using this Story Map. Learn more about how Esri helps create a sustainable world for all people, visit go.esri.com/pr-susdev. About Esri Since 1969, Esri has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS technology, Esri software is used in more than 350,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. Esri applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world's mapping and spatial analysis. Esri is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit us at esri.com/news. Copyright 2016 Esri. All rights reserved. Esri, the Esri globe logo, GIS by Esri, esri.com, and @esri.com are trademarks, service marks, or registered marks of Esri in the United States, the European Community, or certain other jurisdictions. Other companies and products or services mentioned herein may be trademarks, service marks, or registered marks of their respective mark owners. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160809005401/en/ 18-year old Praise Adelakin narrates her experience at the hands of kidnappers who took her from Ife in Osun state, to Ilorin in Kwara state. According to reports, 18-year-old Praise Adelakin, a 300-level Law student of the Obafemi Awolowo University, had a run in with kidnappers on her way home from school. She had boarded a bus that was supposed to take her from Ile-Ife to Ibadan in Oyo state, but what happened to her after her journey began, will keep her awake for many nights on end. Praise Adelakin Sharing her experience with a reporter, here's what Praise said: Weve been on strike for some weeks. Meanwhile, freshers had resumed three weeks before the strike, but due to the action, they were also sent back home. On July 23, I decided to go to school to check if my things were still intact and probably whether they had allocated my space (at Moremi Hall) to someone else. I got there and saw that my things had been scattered; my mattress had also been taken away with my buckets and other things, so I had to go round the rooms to gather them together. When I did that, I put them in my locker and locked them up. When I finished all that, I decided to return home and that was around 4pm. I had arrived in school by 11am. So I went to the Mayfair Motor Park in Ife to get a bus back to Ibadan. Its a popular motor park in the town because its a public one. When I got there, there were only two passengers in the bus and the driver was hanging around somewhere. All the same, I entered the bus to wait until we had enough passengers to take off. As of 7pm, we were only nine in the 18-seater white Mazda bus. It was getting dark, so everyone started complaining. We begged the driver to take off and told him that while on the way, it was possible he would get more passengers. He agreed and we took off. PAY ATTENTION: Get the latest gossips on Naij Gossip App There is a university outside Ife town called Oduduwa University. A few minutes drive past it, our driver said he wanted to pass through a short-cut. He said because it was weekend, there was traffic in front. So he took us through the route. When we turned to pass through the so-called short-cut, we saw a bus in front of us and there was another bus behind us. It was a bushy path, but we were not so afraid because of the other two buses which were also taking the route. We thought it was a route which would take us to Ibadan faster. As we were going through the path, we got to a junction where we saw that the bus which was in front of us was already parked. The passengers had disembarked. As we got there, we were also flagged down by a group of about five men; our driver stopped and he himself ordered us to get down. Everyone was shocked and we wondered what was happening, but nobody talked. We were all just looking. The bus behind us was also stopped and all of us passengers in the three buses were up to 40. They asked us to lie face down. At that point, I became afraid as I knew something was wrong. As I lay down, I quickly sent a message on my phone to my dad, reading, Dad, I am held hostage and I dont even know where we are. I think I am in danger. Please pray for me. I could use my phone to send the message because when they ordered us to lie down, the men went for a meeting at a nearby bush, together with our driver. My dad called me back after a few minutes, but I couldnt pick it. The phone rang out. When they heard that my phone rang, they came back and collected my phone and others. After collecting our phones, they went back to their meeting. READ ALSO: Notorious cult leader says no gunshot can penetrate his body After a while, they returned and surprisingly, they asked the passengers in my drivers bus to get back in. They instructed our driver to go and dismiss us off. I was afraid. I thought dismissing us meant killing us. Our driver looked disappointed, so he shouted at us to get in; he was now holding a gun. Everybody kept quiet. Then he drove away inside the bush till it was really dark. When it was around 10pm, he started dropping us one by one. He would drive for about 10 minutes, drop a passenger and give him or her their phone and bag, then drive for another 10 minutes, drop another passenger, and on and on like that. He would spread the phones out and ask the person to pick their phone. It finally got to my turn and I think I was the sixth passenger to be dropped, I cant remember full well because at that point, I had become so confused. He stopped me at a T-junction and gave me my phones, but they were already dead, so I couldnt contact anyone. When he dropped me, he told me I was at Share (Kwara State). I didnt know where Share was then. It was very dark, around 11pm. The village was quiet. Anywhere I turned to, it was forest all around me. I got to know later that Share was very close to Niger State. Its a border town between Kwara and Niger states." While still in her confused state, she heard the sound of an approaching bike. Here's what she said: I flagged down the rider and he stopped. I asked him, I was told this is Share. Please, where is the nearest town or somewhere where I can get help from? The man simply said, Ilorin. I know Ilorin quite well because my grandparents stay there, I once schooled there and my aunt still lives there. I got on the motorcycle and he took me from the jungle to Ilorin. When he dropped me, I could recognise the area and found out that the place was actually close to my aunts house, around Basin area. I asked him how much I should pay him. He just nodded his head and zoomed off. He didnt utter a word or ask for money. Meanwhile, I was lucky my phone came up again, so I quickly called my dad that I was in Ilorin and that I was near my aunts place. He quickly notified my aunt that I was coming. READ ALSO: Militants Kidnap senator in Cross River Praise was later picked up from her aunt's house by her parents, but has admitted to being traumatized by her experience. Here's what she said:I was dumbfounded. From where the motorcyclist dropped me, I trekked to my aunts house for some minutes and when I got to the door, around 12 am on Sunday, I knocked. She was a bit scared because she was expecting no one. She asked who was knocking. I replied, Its me, Praise. She retorted, Which Praise? I said, Praise Adelakin. She asked again, Praise Adelakin from where? We often talk and so she recognised my voice. She then said someone should open the gate for me. She just didnt know what to do when she saw me in the middle of the night. I wouldnt know what happened to the other passengers in the two other buses. Im still trying to get over it because Im still scared of boarding buses right now. I used to enter any bus as long as I see people inside it, but my experience has taught me to be more conscious. I am still amazed. It was not the first time I would board a bus from the park, and it is even a public park. It wasnt a lift. My parents came over to Ilorin to pick me up on Sunday to return to Ibadan. They said they immediately started praying for me when I sent them the message. They also told me they went to the police station in Ibadan and contacted another one in Ife to report the incident, but the police said they couldnt do anything about it. The police said they should go to MTN office to track my phone to know where I was. MTN said they needed a police report, which the police couldnt give because they didnt know about the incident. Everything was complicated. They said they had to resort to prayers throughout the night. I just thank God I am still alive to tell this story. I dont know what would have happened to the passengers in the two other buses. I will be back to school this weekend as the strike has been called off. When asked to describe the driver of her bus, here's what she said: I didnt hear their conversation because they really went far away, but they could still monitor us. They talked in low tones. I cant really describe the area but I know its a few minutes drive after passing the Oduduwa University that he branched into the bush. Our driver was wearing an ankara dress that day; he has an average height and dark-complexioned. Except one old man, almost all other passengers were students. I suspect that the drivers of the other two buses too belong to the gang because they all held the meeting together. READ ALSO: 54-year-old man abducts, defiles 11-yr-old girl for one month Praises father, pastor Timothy Adelakin, narrated how he felt when he got the news: I just thank God for how He acted in the situation. When she was about leaving Ife that day, she called to say she was returning home and I thought she should be home two hours later. We were attending a prayer meeting in the church; we were rounding off when her message came in that I should pray for her. She said they were held hostage and she didnt know where they were. When I got her text, I told the church members what had happened. I called other pastor colleagues to pray for us. We prayed again till 11pm. Around midnight, her aunt called me and said, Speak to Praise. The next voice I heard was hers. I was filled with joy. I would like the authorities to investigate this incident because it is surprising that a driver from a public park could do this. They must have been doing it before. Praise told me the passengers of their bus and the two other buses were mostly students, so I am worried what would have happened to her colleagues. I have already instructed her never to board private cars and she doesnt do it. But with something like this happening in a public park, it is worrisome. When the chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, Ife 1 Branch, Mr. Gbadegesin Asiyanbi, was contacted, here's what he said: There are no kidnappers in our motor park. I have never heard of anything like that. There is no way such thing can happen, we know ourselves, our members are true drivers. We lower our flag by 4pm and as you can see for yourself now (around 5:30pm when Saturday PUNCH visited on Thursday), there are no vehicles on queue, so anybody who boarded a vehicle between 6pm and 7pm here and is claiming they boarded it from our park is either ignorant or telling lies. Hmmm...Thank God for her life. Source: Legit.ng - A militant group has vowed to destroy refineries within 48 hours - The group urged all workers in the Niger Delta region to vacate - It accused the federal government of only negotiating with Ijaw militants A militants group, Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate has issued a deadly warning to the president Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government that in a few days, refineries in the region will be destroyed. The region has been a hub of activities by militants who have vandalised oil and gas pipelines. Vanguard reports that the group threatened to blow up refineries in the region because it noticed that the federal government was negotiating with Ijaw terrorists and ignoring others. READ ALSO: B'Haram has been defeated, never more to rise again - Buratai In a statement signed by Gen. Aldo Agbalaja who is the spokesperson of the group, he urged oil workers in the region to evacuate as the level of violence it will commit in the coming days will be enormous. Read the full statement below: File photo of Niger Delta militants We have keenly watched developments in the country in recent times, developments that are most depressing, very much depicting the marginalization and subjugation of the hapless people of our region. We have thought very deeply about the ongoing shenanigan and play-acting going on between the federal government and some self-styled Niger Delta agitators and thought if we fail to make our own statement now, then there will be no future for the larger Niger Delta region. Continuing in the statement, he said; for the avoidance of doubts, the Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate is not in the mold of the various criminal gangs that have so far paraded themselves as fighting for the interest of the people of the Niger Delta, but who indeed have been engaged in fight for personal enrichment. We are not one of them. We are out to tell the world that there is a Niger Delta that is made up of many tribes and tongues, the people of whom have so far suffered both local and national oppression. READ ALSO: Buratai condemns killing of soldiers on duty We have come at this point to ensure that our oppressors, being the federal government, the state governments in the six core Niger Delta states who have received billions of dollars over the past years but have brought little or no development to the region and the so-called super-ethnic nations, who have yielded to greed and wickedness and have exposed the rest of us in the oil-rich, but deeply impoverished region, to crippling squalor. Federal government and the oil multinational companies have been making a very grave mistake by equating the interest of the Ijaw people as that of all the tribes of the region. Indeed, this is a mistake that is about to take a more devastating toll than has ever been seen or experienced in the history of Nigeria. Any moment from now, we shall be making a loud statement which we believe should be loud enough for all to see and take seriously and then afterwards state our demands. We have considered this coming statement reluctantly inevitable because of the recalcitrance of federal authorities, as well as oil giants; they both have decided to ignore calls to reason and have made violence the only option. Just as in the 2009 experience, the federal government and oil companies have started yet another round of negotiation with the Ijaw front, in the name of all the people of the Niger Delta. This will not work. Since they do not regard the assets in our areas important enough to be protected, we shall root them all out of the length of the Niger Delta. We dont want to make this mistake any longer, violence pays as it has become the only voice that government gives hearkens to. READ ALSO: Soldiers seize Bayelsa town where three soldiers died Finally, we are asking all the oil multinationals still in the upland of our region; AGIP, TOTAL, SHELL, MOBIL, SHORELINES, NECONDE, E.D WESTERN, SEPLAT and others to commence the evacuation of their personnel from the region, especially in the Ogba/Egi axis of Rivers state, Urhobo/Isoko/Ndokwa axis of Delta state and other upland oil producing areas, within the next 48 hours. We also want to bring it to the attention of the federal government and the NNPC that the refineries in Warri (Urhobo land) and Port Harcourt (Eleme) and the gas plant in Otorogun will all come down in few days from now. We just hope that the Nigerian government will continue ignoring us so that we can perfect what those in the riverine area started. Source: Legit.ng - MEND has stand by its allegation that Goodluck Jonathan is responsible for the Avengers - The group accused the former president of failing to act when necessary - It exonerated President Buhari of any wrong-doing The Movement for the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has replied Goodluck Jonathan and insisted he is responsible for the activities of the Niger Delta Avengers. The Avengers has claimed responsibility for series of bombing of oil and gas pipelines in the region but during the weekend, a splinter group, Reformed Niger Delta Avengers released a list of its alleged sponsors and named the former president as one of them. READ ALSO: Okah is after my life - Goodluck Jonathan cries out Jonathan through his media aide denied the accusation and said it was plat of a plot to assassinate him. According to Sahara Reporters MEND in a reply to Jonathan insisted that he was responsible for the formation of the infamous group by failing to deal with them when he had the opportunity. MEND exonerated President Muhammadu Buhari of any wrong doing. Read the full statement below: The attention of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has been drawn to a statement issued by one Ikechukwu Eze, on behalf of former President Goodluck Jonathan purporting to dissociate the former President from the allegation leveled against him by the Reformed Niger Delta Avengers (RNDA) that, the former President was the Grand Patron of the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA). With all due respect, the entire statement was deeply provocative and embarrassingly misconceived as it woefully failed to address the core the issue of whether or not; the former President was indeed, the Grand Patron of the NDA. Rather, the statement employed diversionary Tactics which dwelt extensively on sour grapes! Any follower of events in Nigeria and the Niger Delta who was privileged to read the statement released by Mr. Jonathan would immediately observe that the former President had a score to settle with the Okah brothers as well as with MEND who have since May 30, 2014, stopped attacks on Nigeria's oil and gas assets; and are currently engaged in dialogue with the Federal Government to find sustainable ways and means of ending the festering Niger Delta crises which were exacerbated by the former President's ineptitude, incompetence and corruption during the 6years he governed the country. READ ALSO: Niger Delta group confirms Jonathan's meeting with militants Indeed, the problem in the Niger Delta today has nothing to do with the current Administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. Far from it! The problem is simply, the failure of Mr. Jonathan to address the root issues confronting the region when he was at the helm. Even though he was from the impoverished region; and had, by his own admission in numerous electioneering campaigns, experienced the utter poverty and abject neglect of the region foisted by successive Nigerian Governments and the International Oil Companies since the discovery of oil in 1958 at Oloibiri (a few meters away from his native Otuoke) in Bayelsa state, Mr. Jonathan disappointingly frittered away the opportunity to rescue his people when the Nigerian Presidency fortuitously landed on his laps, virtually on a platter of gold. For 6 whole years, Mr. Jonathan was busy drinking, making merry and generally chasing shadows at the State House. Such a fellow deserves to be ostracized from the assembly of reasonable men; because the Nigerian Presidency might never comeback to the Niger Delta region as cheap as it came to Mr. Jonathan; perhaps, in the next 100 years. Lest we forget, MEND was at the forefront of the armed struggle back in 2006/2007 which forced the then Government of President Olusegun Obasanjo to consider the option of drafting an Ijaw into the mainstream of Nigerian politics. That was how the perpetually timid and naive Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan became Vice President and later, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. When he assumed the reins as President, he did the unthinkable; he tracked down perceived MENDleaders and promptly got them imprisoned on a trumped-up charge of attempt to assassinate him. Up until today, Mr. Jonathan is still suffering from an assassination paranoia complex (APC). Secondly, a substantial portion of Mr. Jonathans statement, unfortunately, dwelt on judicial matters which are pending in various courts in Nigeria and South Africa. For instance ,Mr. Henry Okah's Appeal in South Africa's Supreme Court is due for Hearing this August; while his brother, Charles' ongoing trial in Nigeria is pending before Hon. Justice Gabriel Kolawole of the Federal High Court in Abuja. The former President's statement was therefore, most highly contemptuous, injurious to the credit of MEND and the Okah brothers; and, above all, prejudicial to the eventual outcome of the ongoing trials in South African and Nigerian courts, respectively. Consequently, both brothers shall, on account of the former President's prejudicial statement, institute legal action against him in South Africa and Nigeria within 60 days, commencing from today, August 9, 2016. Accordingly, they have briefed their respective Solicitors to formally engage the former President in litigation. READ ALSO: Jonathan denies sponsoring Niger Delta Avengers Back to the core issue. MEND cannot hold brief for the RNDA who pointedly accused Mr. Jonathan of complicity in fueling the ongoing Niger Delta crisis ;and patronizing the NDA, apparently for political reasons. We are however ,quick to point out the fact that, the RNDA has merely vindicated MEND's belief and conviction that, the former President and his cronies who lost the 2015 Presidential election were using the illegal and treasonable NDA platform to destabilize President Buhari's Government. 9. Finally, MEND is committed to working with the current Administration to bring peace, stability and development to the Niger Delta region. The process has since commenced with the constitution of the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT-MEND AARON TEAM 2, Dialogue, Peace and Development Initiative. Between August 22, 2016 and October 7, 2016 the AaronTeam shall embark on a tour of the Niger Delta region. The proposed tour is code-named "OPERATION MOSES." The key focus of the tour is to persuade militants to ceasefire and support President Muhammadu Buhari in his determined and sincere effort to develop the region. The tour shall also help to boost Nigeria's oil production capacity as well as improve host community relations with oil and gas companies in the country. Meanwhile, Chief Ayiri Emami has urged President Buhari to critically investigate Goodluck Jonathan and other persons named as sponsors of Niger Delta Avengers. He said: The revelation by the splinter group of Niger Delta Avengers about the sponsors of Niger Delta Avengers has vindicated my earlier position that some corrupt politicians running away from justice are the brains behind the criminal group. Nigerians should not take the report by Saharareporters with a pinch of salt and President Muhammadu Buhari should ensure that the fresh revelation is properly investigated with a view to bringing all those behind the economic and political sabotage to book. I say so emphatically because these failed and corrupt politicians are determined to bring down the economy of Nigeria and rubbish the President Buharis administration before gullible Nigerians. Source: Legit.ng By: Independent Business Association of Wisconsin Steve Kohlmann Headshot Contact Judi Murphy ***@marketingwithmurphy.com Judi Murphy End -- The Independent Business Association of Wisconsin (IBAW) will host its monthly business meeting on Friday, August 19, 7:00 am 9:00 am, at the Wisconsin Club, 900 W Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, Wis. A plated breakfast will be served.The meeting will feature Mike Wabiszewski, president & CEO, Maynard Steel Casting Co., speaking on "Building a Powerful Advantage in Steel."Steve Kohlmann, Executive Director of IBAW, said, "Maynard Steel is a story of American manufacturing, innovation, and true grit determination. This is a unique opportunity for our members and guests to hear from a generational Wisconsin-based business that, despite challenges to their industry, has persevered."A three-generation family business started in 1913, Maynard Steel Casting Company is a full service, ISO 9001:2008-certified, non-union foundry that combines state-of-the art technology technical experience, craftsmanship, and a strong tradition of family pride to produce high quality castings.Maynard can produce a one-of-a-kind casting weighing up to 65,000 pounds or several thousand castings weighing as little as 25 pounds.The IBAW membership encompasses manufacturing, service, distribution, healthcare, technology, financial, consulting and others. A statewide, non-profit association, IBAW members and sponsors employ thousands of Wisconsin workers.Since 1973, the Independent Business Association of Wisconsin (IBAW) was formed for small business owners to engage in conversation relating to legislation which impacts the bottom-line costs of businesses throughout the state of Wisconsin. IBAW is a venue for high level CEOs, CFOs, COOs, other upper management and entrepreneurs to network, exchange business ideas and become educated and involved on issues which impact their business.The mission of the IBAW is to advance business prosperity through insightful programming, executive networking and member-driven public policy and advocacy.For additional information, contact Steve Kohlmann, IBAW Executive Director, via email at IBAWOffice@gmail.com . To register, go to www.IBAW.com The rich history and spectacular scenery of California's wine country will be celebrated throughout the month of September -- California Wine Month -- with special packages and promotions at Carmel's only wine-themed hotel. By: Chatterbox PR Contact Chatterbox PR ***@straightlinepr.com Chatterbox PR End -- The rich history and spectacular scenery of California's wine country will be celebrated throughout the month of September -- California Wine Month -- with special packages and promotions at Carmel's only wine-themed hotel.Vendange Carmel Inn and Suites has partnered with 15 Carmel Valley wineries to create a unique guest experience, celebrating the bounty of Monterey County's vineyards.Each winery sponsors one room or suite, providing its own creative touches to the famous charm of Vendange, a bed and breakfast nestled just minutes from one of the world's most-spectacular beaches.From the McIntyre Vineyards room, with its impressive, 100-year-old section of grapevine, to J. Lohr's wine barrel on the balcony, every winery's room at Vendange offers a signature luxury experience.Participating wineries -- each of which are only a short, scenic drive from the hotel, include Blair, Cima Collina, Dawn's Dream, Galante, Holman Ranch, J. Lohr, Joullian, Manzoni, McIntyre, Otter Cove, Tudor, Twisted Roots and Ventana.The rooms at Vendange feature sleek, modern bathrooms, with imported Spanish marble. Sleeping areas have memory foam-top beds, deluxe linens, and high-definition flat screen televisions.The separate Cottage Suite -- perfect for a honeymoon or romantic getaway -- offers 650 square feet of space, with a California King bed, a 50-inch, high-definition television, and kitchenette.Located at 24815 Carpenter Street, Vendange is only a short walk from the charms and delights of Carmel, which are not easily experienced in a single day . Book a second night, Monday through Thursday, for an additional $35, and receive a $50 gift certificate to Carmel's popular seafood restaurant,?#?FlahertysSeafood Grill & Oyster Bar, or ?#?AndresBouchee, the chic French bistro with a ?#?California coastal flair. (This special California Wine Month offer, valid through September 30th, can only be booked through our website at vendangecarmel.com while supplies last.)Book three nights in Vendange King Deluxe rooms and receive a complimentary bottle of Holman Ranch or Twisted Roots award-winning Monterey County wine to help us celebrate California Wine Month. This package is only available Sunday through Thursday throughout California Wine Month, from September 1 through September 30. Use this code -- LoveWine -- to book this very special package. ( Wine will be selected by the manager on duty upon arrival, based on availability.)Vendange is located a short drive from the Monterey Peninsula Airport, just off scenic Highway 1, with free parking for guests. The hotel is only minutes from downtown Carmel's famous shopping and fine dining, scenic 17-Mile Drive, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium.Telephone 831- 624-6400; email: reservations@vendangecarmel.comContact:Marci Bracco CainChatterbox PRSalinas, CA 93901(831) 747-7455 With the assignment of Shariyah Review Bureau, Zaman bank seeks to deliver a new set of Sharia compliant financial experiences to retail customers in the Republic of Kazakhstan. zaman Bank Media Contact m.asif@shariyah.com End -- The one and only regional banking institution in Kazakhstan - Zaman Bank, renowned for its commitment to pioneering new banking experiences for its customers today announced the engagement of Shariyah Review Bureau (SRB) (http://shariyah.com/creative-works-6/) as it seeks to grow across CIS states.Zaman Bank will facilitate Sharia compliant auto and home financing, SME finance, credit programs, deposits and refinancing of conventional loans to Islamic for its customers. The new established Islamic Finance Development unit based out of Almaty will leverage the strength of SRB's global experience and help support enterprises with their complex business requirements. With a strong potential of delivering outstanding value added services, Zaman Bank demonstrates a sound awareness of customer priority."With the opening of Islamic operations in the Republic of Kazakhstan we are seeing superior dispersion in the performance of financial services. This makes the current environment well suited for more quality banking products and services" said Mrs. Yelena A. Gupalo, Chief Executive Officer of Zaman Bank. She further commented "We are committed to bringing high value for the retail customers, offering contemporary Islamic banking to the Kazakhstani market."The services will be managed by Zaman Bank's Deputy Chairman team, led by Mr. Diar N. Smagulov, who has Islamic and conventional experience, global network and local capabilities. "We have received positive feedback from both the retail and corporate marketplace regarding Islamic financial products." Speaking on the assignment of SRB, Diar said, "The constant growth of new financial trends is continuously changing the way the Islamic industry is functioning. And in today's rapidly-changing markets, outsourcing Sharia Committee, Certification and Sharia Audit services to establishments like SRB is an essential solution for businesses. We are proud to have partnered with them as they will manage the complete Sharia Compliance requirements thereby allowing us to remain focus on the increasing complexity of Islamic banking while achieving best service and growth for our customers.""This is another key milestone for SRB in Kazakhstan" stated Yasser S. Dahlawi, Founder and CEO of SRB. "The need for better, faster, reliable, lower costs and more collaborative Sharia Advisory services will continue to drive the context of Sharia Compliance within businesses, and hence outsourcing will need to ensure that it can continue to meet the growing demand." "We are proud to be working with a dynamic banking establishment like Zaman Bank and believe that our services will be resource-intensive allowing them to break out for new growth." Yasser adds.Writing from Bahrain office, Mansoor M. Ahmed, overseeing the Quality Assurance at SRB, writes, "We are pleased to be working with Zaman Bank to create superior Sharia compliant products, which puts the customer first, and makes their financial lives better." "Offering innovative expertise in Sharia Board and structuring solution has helped us bring global institutes closer to Islamic Finance." He also writes "We're equally excited to serve the customers of the Republicof Kazakhstan in a Sharia compliant manner." Event held as part of strategy to raise complete IT & Security Governance to customers in the region End -- Security Management Technology Center (SMT) , a leading reseller for providing Security Solutions & Services, with the participation of its distribution partner, Bulwark Technologies, recently held the COBIT5 Event for customers from leading banking & financial institutions across Jordan.The event held under the theme: 'How to adapt to COBIT5, a leading framework for management & governance of enterprise IT & secure your business to keep up with the unceasing IT world changes. The event intended to refresh and update customers on all-round security solutions and discuss and enlighten on how to maintain and safeguard their business critical IT operations using solutions like Privileged Identity Management, Change Auditing, Data Access Governance, Advanced Malware Detection & Managed File Transfer.'The COBIT5 event was attended by 60 customers from the major banks & financial institutions across Jordan.The event was successfully organized by SMT.Bulwark Technologies and vendor, ARCON participated in the event, held on 4August 2016.Mr. Jose Thomas Menacherry, Managing Director, Bulwark Technologies said: "The event created business opportunities & for networking and provided a complete insight on creation of a robust strategy for IT & Security governance and to resolve any concerns affecting the current Security landscape in the region.''Mr. Samir Abu Tahoun , CEO, SMT: "The event provided an occasion for us to express our commitment towards our customers in the region, by addressing their concerns, besides apprising them of our existing product portfolio and new Security product offerings.''The event concluded on a lighter note with a raffle draw sponsored by SMT and Bulwark. The winners walked away prizes comprising of iStorage Encrypted Disc Drives & Luxury Wireless Access Points.Security Management Technology Center (SMT) consists of highly qualified consultants, certified and well trained technical engineers, who are capable of understanding customer needs, in order to make sure providing them right technologies and world-class services, surrounding today's IT Technologies that allow large, mid-sized and smaller companies to maintain and safeguard their business operations. For more information, please visit: http://www.smt-center.com/Bulwark Technologies is the leading provider for IT Security and Information Communications & Technology (ICT) products in the Middle East region. Headquartered in Dubai, Bulwark serves the entire region with innovations from more than 20 technology vendors and works with more than 250 partners, with the aim of bringing the best in technology to the Middle East. Customers from various sectors including Banking, Finance, Government, Manufacturing, Hospitality, Medical, Education, Petroleum and more rely on solutions distributed by Bulwark for securing and managing their IT infrastructure. Bulwarkhas won numerous industry awards for leadership in IT sales and support, and has been rated as the best VAD in the region. For more information, please visit http://www.bulwark.biz/ Ms. Sonali Basu Roy | Marketing ManagerPhone: +971 56 5083225 | E-mail: sonali@bulwark.biz www.bulwark.biz [August 09, 2016] BoxWorks 2016 to Feature Innovative Leaders Diane Greene, Werner Vogels Box (News - Alert) (NYSE: BOX), a leading enterprise content management platform, today announced BoxWorks 2016, the company's sixth annual enterprise software industry conference. BoxWorks will be held September 6-8 at The Moscone Center in San Francisco. The event will explore the changing nature of work and how today's top businesses are driving digital transformation. Registration for BoxWorks, including the free expo pass, which provides access to the general session and concert information can be found at www.box.com/boxworks/. This year's BoxWorks lineup of keynote and panel speakers include: Diane Greene, Senior Vice President, Google (News - Alert) Werner Vogels, Chief Technology Officer at Amazon Peggy Johnson, Executive Vice President of Business Development at Microsoft Michael Lewis, financial journalist and New York Times best-selling author of The Big Short, The Blind Side and Flash Boys Kim Scott, co-founder and CEO of Candor, Inc. and author of Radical Candor IT leaders from Allergan, Citi, Coca-Cola, DLA Piper, Golden State Warriors, ntuit, McKinsey, Nationwide, PwC, Toyota, Slack, Uber, Western Digital (News - Alert) and Western Union Box partners: IBM, Illumina, Okta, Palo Alto Networks, and others Box's Chief Strategy Officer and SVP of Platform, Jeetu Patel, will kick-off Thursday, September 8, with a keynote showcasing Box Platform and discussing how Box customers and partners are delivering transformative innovation in their businesses. BoxWorks 2016 will also include an invitation-only CIO specific event that will feature a Fireside chat with Travis Kalanick, CEO and co-founder of Uber, as well as a broad range of breakout sessions, a puppy pit from the SFPCA, and a developer focused track, BoxDev, which will bring together thousands of developers building on Box to create the next generation of enterprise apps. Today, more than 62,000 businesses, including 59% of the Fortune 500 rely on Box for secure content management and collaboration. Multinational businesses like AstraZeneca, General Electric, P&G and Schneider Electric (News - Alert) have teams spanning the globe that require secure international collaboration to be successful. To learn more about BoxWorks, register and view the full agenda, please visit: www.box.com/boxworks/ and stay tuned for the announcement of our award-winning musical artist. About Box Founded in 2005, Box (NYSE: BOX) is transforming the way people and organizations work so they can achieve their greatest ambitions. As a leading enterprise content management platform company, Box helps more than 62,000 businesses, including General Electric, KKR & Co., P&G and The GAP securely access and manage their critical information in the cloud. Box is headquartered in Redwood City, CA (News - Alert), with offices across the United States, Europe and Asia. To learn more about Box, visit www.box.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160809006100/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] "Rosatom can start to work on the construction of the second and third nuclear power units of NPP Bushehr in Iran this year", said Alexander Novak, Minister of Energy. Contact RosatomAsia ***@rim-pn.ru RosatomAsia End -- "The contract for implementation of the second and third units of NPP Bushehr is already singed. Right now the preliminary works are underway as well as coordination of certain aspects. Iranian colleagues reconfirmed that participation of Rosatom in the realization of this project is very important for the Iranian side, - said the minister."The successful experience of the first unit has shown that Russian technologies and Russian competence are at the highest level. In fact, Russia is ready to continue to build unit 2 and 3. I think that in some short term we will start construction these units. I hope this year", he said.Earlier, the President of Russia Vladimir Putin reported in an interview with the Azerbaijani state news agency "AzerTaj" that Russia and Iran have agreed on the construction of eight new nuclear units.In the beginning of April, the Iranian news agency Mehr reported that the head of the Organization of Atomic Energy of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi said during the meeting with his colleagues that the start of construction works of the second stage NPP Bushehr postponed due to technical issues and different views on some of the indicators.In the middle of March, A.Novak informed the journalists that after negotiations with members of the Iranian government, the construction of the second and third units in Bushehr could begin in the next 1-2 months.In January, Iranian media reported that Iran plans to start the construction work on the site of the second unit of NPP Bushehr in March, and the works on the third unit are scheduled to begin in next two years. The construction of two units, each with capacity of 1050 MW, will cost $11 billion.On November 11, 2014, it was reported that Russia and Iran signed a protocol to the intergovernmental agreement on the construction of nuclear power plant in Iran. According to the document, the sides intend to cooperate in the construction of 8 power units with VVER reactor "turnkey" in Iran (4 power units at the site of NPP "Bushehr" and 4 blocks at another site). At the same time, the contract on the construction of the second stage of NPP Bushehr, comprising the construction of two nuclear power units with the possibility of extension up to 4 units, was signed.On September 23, 2013, Russia handed over the first unit of NPP Bushehr with capacity of 1,000 MW to Iranian customer. The act of acceptance of the provisional station been signed. At the end of June 2013, NPP Bushehr has been put in 100% power.The construction of the station been launched in 1974 by German concern Kraftwerk Union A.G. (Siemens / KWU). On 8 of January, 1995 a contract for the completion of the first unit of NPP Bushehr with VVER-1000 reactor was signed on the basis of an agreement between Russia and Iran. According to the supplement to the contract of 29 August 1998, Russian side has committed to complete the construction of power unit on a "turnkey" conditions and to train Iranian operational stuff. License to input nuclear power plant in operation been received in October 2010. Since 2012, the combined company "NIAEP" "ASE", implements the project. PlantOGram.com working together with actress Garcelle Beauvais supporting Fonkoze a program to help better the women of Haiti. Contact Vernic Popat PlantOGram ***@plantogram.com Vernic PopatPlantOGram End --Locally owned PlantOGram.com announced today that it will be supporting the annual Fonkoze Gala by providing high quality fruit trees for silent auction as well as a signature Madam Francis Mango Tree for purchase on their website. 20% of the sale will be donated to Fonkoze. The event will be held on Saturday, November 19, 2016 from 6:30pm to 11 pm at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, CA.PlantOGram.com, CEO Mitesh Popat said "I know that the live trees that we provide at this silent auction will be the wow and center of attention at this Gala the trees that will be presented will not only represent PlantOGram but also every woman in Haiti."The signature Madam Francis Mango Tree is currently on the PlantOGram.com website. For every purchase 20% of the proceeds will go to Fonkoze. This Madam Francis Mango Tree in a 3 gallon container wrapped in premium burlap with a silk like red bow. The traditional dessert mango is bright yellow color with and interior being dark orange with a hearty fibrous flesh is soft, juicy with a rich, spicy sweet flavor that speaks of the Caribbean. This is Haiti's most talked about mango. http://plantogram.com/product/mango_madam_francis/More information is expected to be released in September 2016PlantOGram provides high quality exotic fruit tree gifts from all over the globe. Founder Mitesh Popat said "A gift shouldn't be something that you keep for a couple of days, weeks and then discard. A Gift should hold a special place in your heart and remind you of your recipient and makes a great story for generations"Fonkoze was founded in 1994 by Father Joseph Philippe, a Haitian priest who wanted to enable the rural poor in Haiti to organize themselves economically.He chose to focus on Haitian women, who are considered the poto mitan ("backbone") of the Haitian economy. 44% of all Haitian households are headed by single women, and they dominate the landscape of small commerce.In 1995, Fonkoze was recognized as an official Haitian foundation. With three volunteers working from a borrowed building, Father Joseph began the process of providing financial services to Haiti's rural poor.Since then, Fonkoze has grown into a globally recognized institution with 45 branches covering every area of Haiti, providing both financial and development services including education and health to support our 60,000-plus microfinance borrowers.To learn more about this event, please contactVernic PopatP.O. Box 1173Windermere, Fl. 34786Office: 877-378-4836Fax: 877-329-8384Vicky@plantogram.com Contact Pioneer Expeditions ***@pioneerexpeditions.com Pioneer Expeditions End -- How would you like to join us for the ultimate 'off the beaten track' adventure? This September we can offer you an exclusive opportunity to experience North East of Madagascar.Trip Duration: 11 days, 10 nightsOffer price: full board, excludes international flightsGBP 1695 NO SINGLE SUPPLEMENTGroup Departures 2016: 12 SeptTailormade / Private Departures: Mar - DecMadagascar is unique; there is no other place like it. Its landscapes, animals and plants are simply fantastic! Near the equator with an astonishing array of habitats, ranging from rainforests to deserts and from mountain tops to mangrove swamps, it is one of the most important countries for biodiversity on the planet. We will see much of the unique flora and fauna of Eastern Madagascar on this great tour - which combines wildlife with canoeing and trekking.During this bespoke trip, we trek approximately 50km in 3 days through spectacular, remote rainforest, camping overnight in clearings, before reaching the little rafted Sahatandra river, where we spend the next few days riding the rapids. Our trip takes you to the really wild, the one and only Madagascar.Visit http://www.pioneerexpeditions.com/ index.php/east- coast-ma... Book here http://www.pioneerexpeditions.com/ index.php/quick- booking/ Inspire, Empower & Eliminate Obstacles for African-American Harlem Women Entrepreneurs By: Harlem Business Alliance Harlem Business Alliance Announces The Lillian Project Media Contact Karen Taylor Bass ***@thebrandnewmommy.com 917-509-3061 Karen Taylor Bass917-509-3061 End -- The Harlem Business Alliance (HBA) of Harlem, New York has always been on the forefront for leading community economic development. Harlem Business Alliance has launched, The Lillian Project, to create an incubator for Harlem women to educate, empower and eliminate the challenges that are unique to low-income and minority business entrepreneurs. The project will facilitate and teach an intensive entrepreneurial program for 100 native-born, African-American low income Harlem women, through July 2018. Applications for the project are available on the website, http://www.thelillianproject.org and due by August 23, with finalists selected by August 30.The project is supported with a $300,000 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation of Battle Creek, Michigan."The Harlem Business Alliance under the direction of executive director, Regina Smith, is a gem in this community. The positive effect the organization has had on individuals and businesses is immeasurable, however, The Lillian Project is extra special in that is it laser focused on a specific demographic. This is about a community of black women charged to put the lives of other black women on a trajectory for success; women who may not have had the opportunity without this program, it's a game changer for all involved," says Gina B. Ramcharan, project director of The Lillian Project.With five dollars and a dream, Lillian Dean Harris aka 'Pigfoot Mary' became one of Harlem's wealthiest entrepreneurs, at the turn of the 20century. Ms. Harris is the inspiration behind the The Lillian Project. Educate and mentor skills needed to start and grow a business while providing hands-on support with strategic planning, business development, financial aptitude and implementation. Provide intensive master classes needed to ensure that women who operate home-based businesses expand into a storefront or office, that more of the small-scale food manufacturers export their products beyond New York. Expand the types of industries women owned businesses operate, especially in the technology sector; help women entrepreneurs obtain financing from sources other than traditional banks.The Harlem Business Alliance has pledged its service as an advocate for the preservation and retention of Harlem's business community for over 36 years. Programs include but are not limited to: Harlem's first co-working space; first adult stem program; 10,000 entrepreneurs served through programs and services; 2,000 entrepreneurs received 1-1 counseling and over 1,200 workshops.Ramcharan added, "We have raised the bar and expectations in how business is done. The success of our entrepreneurs to open businesses, showcase their products at tradeshows, secure finance, garner media awareness and win numerous awards speaks volume about the dedication and professionalism of the staff at the Harlem Business Alliance. With this grant, we are able to bolster, build and shape confident women into entrepreneurs providing them with a pathway out of poverty. We all know that once a black woman gets started, she is unstoppable."###The Harlem Business Alliance (HBA), was founded in 1980 by a group of prominent Harlem business leaders who recognized the void that had resulted from years of disinvestment and abandonment in Harlem and the critical need to mobilize the existing businesses and organizations to come together as a collective voice. Incorporated in 1990 as a class 402 501(c)(3) corporation, HBA has worked diligently to establish Harlem as an economically self-sustaining community. For more information, visit www.hbany.org.The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF), founded in 1930 as an independent, private foundation by breakfast cereal pioneer, Will Keith Kellogg, is among the largest philanthropic foundations in the United States. Guided by the belief that all children should have an equal opportunity to thrive, WKKF works with communities to create conditions for vulnerable children so they can realize their full potential in school, work and life.The Kellogg Foundation is based in Battle Creek, Michigan, and works throughout the United States and internationally, as well as with sovereign tribes. Special emphasis is paid to priority places where there are high concentrations of poverty and where children face significant barriers to success. WKKF priority places in the U.S. are in Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico and New Orleans; and internationally, are in Mexico and Haiti. For more information, visit www.wkkf.org. Brooke Ferguson has joined Phillips Staffing, one of the region's leading staffing providers, as its new Director of Business Development. The Greenwood, South Carolina native has over a decade of experience in economic development and sales. By: Phillips Staffing Ferguson Joins Phillips Staffing End -- Surging demand for top talent and human capital solutions by manufacturing and logistics organizations across the Southeast has ledPhillips Staffing, one of South Carolina's largest staffing and human capital solution providers, to add Brooke Ferguson as Director of Business Development on its rapidly growing team.Mrs. Ferguson joins Phillips with 14 years of experience working in economic development, city and regional planning, and market research. Prior to joining Phillips she worked for the Greenville Area Development Corporation, the economic development arm of Greenville County, for four years where she served as Development Manager. While with the GADC, Mrs. Ferguson handled a broad array of business retention and expansion, recruiting and workforce development assignments, and also managed The Matrix, Greenville County's 1,100-acre industrial park.A native of Greenwood, South Carolina, Mrs. Ferguson attended Wofford College where she obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Economics and Government, and later earned a Master in Science degree in Community Development from Kansas State University. She is a member of the South Carolina Economic Developers Association, Urban Land Institute, American Planning Association and American Institute of Certified Planners. She is AICP-certified.With Phillips, Mrs. Ferguson will work with both corporate and branch office leadership to identify and pursue opportunities for growth across the Phillips Staffing Southeastern footprint."We are so pleased to welcome a talented professional like Brooke to the Phillips family," said Ed Parris, President of Phillips Staffing. "She brings extensive experience and credentials to our organization, along with a strong drive to see our company grow even more. We couldn't be more excited to have her on board."Launched in 1968, Phillips Staffing today is a full-service staffing, payroll management, professional placement and HR consulting firm with 68 team members in 10 offices across South Carolina and Georgia, and nearly 2,800 temporary employees on assignment for clients across the Southeast on any given day. Headquartered in Greenville, Phillips Staffing remains committed to delivering superior talent, outstanding client service, innovative solutions, being active community leaders, and operating with the highest integrity.For more information, visit the company at http://www.PhillipsStaffing.com By: Collier Child Care Resources Contact Dianne Reed, Director of Communications Collier Child Care Resources ***@collierchildcare.org Dianne Reed, Director of CommunicationsCollier Child Care Resources End -- Collier Child Care Resources (CCCR) has announced the appointment of Gail Mishler as Director of Program Administration for its new early learning center, Little Wonders, scheduled to open on Aug. 15. Mishler will direct the new center ensuring best practices for the early childhood education program, which will serve up to 68 children daily and is located within Emmanuel Lutheran in Naples. In addition, Mishler will oversee CCCR's Professional Development Program that serves Collier County's early childhood educators.Mishler holds a Master of Science degree in Early Childhood Education from Southern Connecticut State University; a Master of Science degree in Instructional Technology and Digital Media Literacy from the University of New Haven; and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business & Economics with a Management Concentration from Albertus Magnus College. Mishler held the position of Project Site Director for New Haven Public Schools, School Readiness classrooms from 2007 to 2016, in addition to having taught at Goodwin College and Albertus Magnus College, as an adjunct instructor.Mishler is instrumental in opening Little Wonders, which is inspired by the Reggio Emilia philosophy of early childhood education. Mishler says, "I am so excited by the progress we are making toward opening day and the teaching talent we have hired for Little Wonders. Young children are bursting with potential and curiosity. Our goal is to inspire the children, igniting their curiosity and sharing their wonderment. It is our responsibility as parents, caregivers and teachers to nurture young children, guide them, facilitate their learning and model how to care for themselves, their families, friends and communities."Collier Child Care Resources (CCCR) operates four early learning centers in Collier County. Two centers located in Naples include Child's Path and Little Wonders for children ages two to five. Many of the children enrolled, who are from working families that fall below the Federal Poverty Level and cannot afford the cost of quality care and education, receive partial tuition assistance. A Step Up Child Development Centerslocated at Golden Gate and Immokalee High Schools, are for children ages birth to five years, serving teen parents in the TAPP program, Collier County Public School teachers, and county employees.Applications for enrollment at Little Wonders are being accepted and partial tuition assistance is available for those who qualify. To learn more about Collier Child Care Resources (CCCR), volunteer, or make a donation, visit www.collierchildcare.org or call 239-643-3908.Collier Child Care Resources (CCCR) is a private, non-profit child care agency. Serving Collier County exclusively, it is devoted to providing exceptional child care services to the children and families who need them most. At CCCR, the mission is to provide high quality early childhood care, education and resources to children, families and early learning professionals in Collier County. While CCCR serves over 275 children in several programs annually, many are at-risk and come from lower-income working families. The programs' educational approach, the Reggio Emilia philosophy of education, recognizes the uniqueness of each child. With local area offices since 1991, CCCR is known for the centers it operates and the professional development services and training it offers to early learning professionals. To learn more about Collier Child Care Resources visit www.collierchildcare.org or call 239-643-3908. Savills, on behalf of Aviva Investors has sold a Small Business Unit type warehouse and 3.5ha development land situated in odz Business Park the primary industrial location within city borders of odz. The buyer was Panattoni Europe. odz Business Park consists of two buildings A1 and B1 developed in [] XL Catlin has signed a lease agreement for office space at UBMs Pegaz complex in Wrocaw. The tenant was represented by Cushman & Wakefield. Located in the very heart of Wrocaw, Pegaz comprises two 5-storey buildings, offering 21,000 sq m of leasing area and 360 parking spaces. This unique project [] With the purchase of the shopping centre Diagonal Mar for a total of 493m, Deutsche Asset Management (Deutsche AM), through its Iberian real estate investment business in Madrid led by Carlos Manzano, announces the highest single transaction on the Spanish retail market. The second largest shopping centre in Barcelona [] Hochtief Development Austria has sold two of its five office buildings at the Marximum business park in Vienna to the Austrian insurer, Ergo Versicherung Aktiengesellschaft. The company has acquired Units 1 and 3 on a sub-lot with an area of some 6,000 square meters. The parties agreed that details of [] [August 09, 2016] Roll-to-Roll Printing Market for Flexible Devices Worth 35.79 Billion USD by 2022 PUNE, India, August 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the new market research report "Roll-to-Roll Printing Market for Flexible Devices by Material & Equipment, Technology (Flexography, Screen Printing), Application (Flexible Electronics, Photovoltaics), End User (Consumer Electronics, Industrial), & Geography - Global Forecast to 2022", published by MarketsandMarkets, the market is expected to grow from USD 16.31 Billion in 2015 to reach USD 35.79 Billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 11.04% between 2016 and 2022. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 ) Browse 88 market data Tables and 50 Figures spread through 165 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Roll-to-Roll Printing Market" http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/roll-to-roll-printing-market-13173263.html Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report. The roll-to-roll printing market for flexible devices is expected to grow substantially because of the advantages of using flexible devices in the electronics industry, the high speed of fabrication using roll-to-roll printing, and the fast-growing market for flexible screens. The market for inkjet printing expected to grow at the highest rate during the forecast period Inkjet is expected to dominate the market in the future owing to the benefits it offers such as non-contact printing, increased scalability, and potential to meet the rising market demand for customized flexible electronics solutions. Inkjet printing also facilitates the small feature size with less weight and is suitable for applications such as manufacturing flexible devices such as photovoltaics and sensors. Its features such as drop-on-demand and continuous printing, speed of execution, and compatibility with both low- and medium- scale production are further expected to add to the growth of the inkjet printing market in the near future. Application in flexible electronics held the largest share of the roll-to-roll printing market for flexible devices in 2015 Flexible electronics have a huge demand from consumer electronics, commercial, and industrial sectors, which is further expected to significantly grow in the near future as well. To achieve large-scale commercialization, a number of &D activities are already being undertaken in the field of flexible electronics and products prototypes are being designed for the final product development, which are the key drivers for the growth of the flexible electronics market in the near future. North America held the largest market share in 2015 The North America held the largest market in 2015, followed by Europe and Asia-Pacific. The U.S. held the largest share of the North American roll-to-roll printing market for flexible devices owing to the continuous technological development in the U.S., followed by Canada and Mexico. Asia-Pacific offers potential growth opportunities owing to the increasing adoption of roll-to-roll printing method for flexible devices. Inquiry Before Buying: http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_Buying.asp?id=13173263 Major players in this market include Konica Minolta Inc. (Japan), Sumitomo Electric Industries Inc. (Japan), GSI Technologies LLC (U.S.), 3M Company (U.S.), LG Display Co., Ltd. (South Korea), Thinfilm (Norway), Linxens (France), Multek Corporation (China), E Ink Holdings, Inc. (China), Fujikura Ltd. (Japan), and Nippon Mektron Ltd. (Japan). Browse Related Reports Flexible Electronics Market by Components (Display, Battery, Sensor, Photovoltaic, Memory), Circuit Structure (Single-Sided, Double-Sided, Rigid) Application (Consumer Electronics, Healthcare, Automotive, Energy and Power), & by Geography - Analysis & Forecast to 2014 - 2020 http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/flexible-electronics-market-50634885.html Printed Electronics Market by Material (Substrates & Inks), Technology (Screen, Gravure, Inkjet & Flexography), Application (Displays, Sensors, OLEDs & PVs), and Geography- Analysis and Forecast to 2013 - 2020 http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/printed-electronics-market-197.html Know More About our Knowledge Store @ http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Knowledgestore.asp About MarketsandMarkets MarketsandMarkets is the largest market research firm worldwide in terms of annually published premium market research reports. Serving 1700 global fortune enterprises with more than 1200 premium studies in a year, M&M is catering to a multitude of clients across 8 different industrial verticals. We specialize in consulting assignments and business research across high growth markets, cutting edge technologies and newer applications. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. M&M's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "RT" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. The new included chapters on Methodology and Benchmarking presented with high quality analytical info graphics in our reports gives complete visibility of how the numbers have been arrived and defend the accuracy of the numbers. We at MarketsandMarkets are inspired to help our clients grow by providing apt business insight with our huge market intelligence repository. Contact: Mr. Rohan Markets and Markets UNIT no 802, Tower no. 7, SEZ Magarpatta City, Hadapsar Pune, Maharashtra 411013, India Tel: +1-888-600-6441 Email: [email protected] Visit MarketsandMarkets [email protected] http://www.marketsandmarketsblog.com/market-reports/electronics-and-semiconductors LinkedIn @ http://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsandmarkets [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] After the hearing today, Supreme Court of India has upheld the diesel vehicle ban in Delhi and NCR. This means, for the next three months, people will not be able to buy or register diesel vehicles which have 2000 cc or above engine. The worst affected car manufacturer by this ruling is Mahindra in the mass market while Mercedes Benz in the luxury segment. Almost the entire line-up of vehicles of both these manufacturers has been banned in Delhi for the next three months. Apart from this, Supreme Court also upheld the other rulings which charges pollution cess from heavy commercial vehicles which are entering into Delhi. Supreme Court has also asked all government officials in Delhi to replace their diesel cars which are older than 5 years. The reason for these new rulings is the rise in pollution in Delhi. Research has revealed that one of the major reason behind rise in pollution is the BSIV fuel. Govt of India is aiming at replacing the BSIV fuel with BSVI, which will emt up to 80% less pollutants as compared to the BSIV fuel. Govt of India plans to directly introduce Bharat Stage VI norms for all vehicles by 2020. Earlier it was planned that the shift from BS IV to BS V would be completed by 2019-20 while BS VI norms would be introduced in 2021-22. Reasons to fast forward these norms is in view of rising pollution specially in cities such as Delhi and pressure on the Government of India to speed up and bring in better and more environmentally compliant fuels. An inter-ministerial meeting is being conducted to look into this matter which will assess views from various departments, representatives from petroleum and heavy industries prior to arriving at a decision and fixing timeline for adoption of BSVI norms. Also Read List of diesel cars banned in Delhi, NCR Total 50 cars banned BS norms in India are based on the same Euro emission grading system which was introduced across Europe. The focus now shifts to India where the Supreme Court has already cracked down on larger diesel powered cars. However, while the Indian auto sector welcomes in more stringent environmentally friendly fuel norms, the timeline seems rather unreasonable. President of SIAM, Vinod Dasari has said that BS V norms itself would considerably reduce pollution levels by 80% where heavy commercial vehicles are concerned and by 90% in the case of passenger cars where PM 2.5 is concerned. NOx will also be reduced by 60% in the case of Heavy Commercial Vehicles and by 64% in the case of passenger cars. This being the case, Oil Manufacturing Companies will have to invest at least INR 60,000 crores for upgradation of fuels to BS VI norms. Mercedes Benz India, the No 1 luxury car maker in the country has sought Supreme Court intervention into the diesel vehicle ban issue. The German car brand has stated that they are ready to pay environment cess of 1 percent on each of their diesel cars being sold in the banned region. This move comes from the German automaker on Monday while hearing is scheduled for August 12 2016. NGT has banned the sale of diesel cars with engine larger than 2,000 cc in some Indian cities. This has affected Mercedes Benz India to a large extent as a majority of their cars are powered by diesel engine larger than 2,000 cc. In order to be future ready, Mercedes Benz has also indicated that the company will be launching more petrol versions of all its models sold in India. Diesel ban has affected Mercedes Benz and Toyota the most in India. The ban was introduced in December 2015 and was initially for a period of three months but was subsequently extended with no deadline announced. Various automakers have sought legal recourse to relax this ban. The Supreme Court is yet to decide on this appeal. In the meantime, the Environment Pollution Authority for the National Capital Region has recommended a steep cess of 20-22 percent on diesel vehicles which the automakers are also appealing against. Also Read Delhi diesel ban limits Mercedes Indias sales growth in H1 2016 Toyota says diesel ban unfair; may not launch new models in India Pay 1% Interim Green Cess to sell diesel cars SC to Mercedes, Toyota Royal Enfield sales increased by 23 percent in October 2019 to 67,538 units as compared to sales of 54,858 units sold in September 2019. This was due to the positive effect seen during the festive season and a silver lining to Royal Enfield sales which had been facing some constraints over the past few months. From among the company lineup, it was the RE Classic 350 and Bullet 350 which contributed to over 80 percent of total sales. There were a total of 38,936 units of the Classic 350 and 15,454 units of the Bullet 350 sold in the past month. Though sales of the Classic 350 dipped 15.63 percent from 46,148 units sold in October 2018, it rose 32.5 percent as compared to 29,376 units sold in September 2019. Bullet 350 sales saw a significant increase of 34.96 percent when compared to 11,451 units sold in October 2018 and a 24.64 percent increase as compared to 12,399 units sold in September 2019. The Classic 350, the companys highest selling product is now offered with single channel and dual channel ABS and new colour options along with various customisation options to draw even more attention from buyers in its segment. The Royal Enfield Electra 350 and Thunderbird 350 featured at Nos. 3 and 4 on the list of best selling models in the company lineup with sales at 5,613 units and 4,108 units sold respectively in the past month. The 2020 Royal Enfield Classic and 2020 Royal Enfield Thunderbird have been spied in production ready guise and will come in with BS6 compliant engines as well as some improved styling. Royal Enfield Interceptor 650 and Continental GT 650, launched last year, was at No.5 with sales at 1,724 units in the past month, down 7.11 percent as compared to 1,856 units sold in September 2019. Last month, Royal Enfield also introduced some minor cosmetic changes to the RE 650 Twins with no increase in prices. The Royal Enfield Himalayan saw total sales of 1,172 units in the past month, down 16.52 percent as compared to sales of 1,404 units sold in September 2019 but marginally higher as compared to 1,089 units sold in October 2018. Royal Enfield is readying an updated BS6 Himalayan for January 2020 with new colour schemes and minor feature updates and an increase in price to Rs.1.90 lakhs as against a current price of Rs.1.81 lakhs. Royal Enfields Classic 500, Thunderbird 500 and Bullet 500 were at the bottom rungs of the sales charts in October 2019 as was a similar case in September 2019 while it was only sales of the Thunderbird 500 which increased marginally while the other 2 models noted a significant dip in sales. A recent report by PTI has demystified the constantly changing tax structure for the petrol and diesel fuels in India. In the last one year alone, the government of India has hiked the excise duties on fuels five times. The most recent hike on excise duty came last week (INR 1.6 per litre on petrol and 40 paise on diesel). This hike means, the taxes you pay for a litre of petrol is higher than the actual cost of the fuel itself! In Delhi, a litre of petrol costs INR 60.70 at the pump but actual cost of production of petrol based on the foreign exchange rates in the later part of October and average crude oil prices is just INR 24.75 litres. Taking into account the margins for the refineries and other costs (logistics), a litre of petrol is sold to the petrol pump dealer for INR 27.24 per litre. The increase in exercise duty is aimed at compensating for the governments fiscal deficit. [Image FawnConsulting][/caption]With this base price, INR 19.06 central excise duty, a dealer margin of INR 2.26 and VAT or sales tax of INR 12.14 are added to arrive at INR 60.70 per litre. Similarly, a production cost of a litre of diesel is INR 24.86 for the refinery and its sold to the petrol pump at INR 27.05. Central excise duty, dealer commission and VAT or sales tax for diesel stand at INR 10.66, 1.43 and 6.79 respectively, taking the price to INR 45.93 in Delhi. Also read Private cars to get costlier in Delhi due to increase in one time parking charge The recent hike in excise duty was absorbed by the oil companies and hence there is no change in the fuel prices. The government received a revenue of INR 99,184 crores in excise collections from the petroleum sector in 2014-15. In the first quarter of 2015-16 fiscal, the excise collections from the sector stood at 99,184 crores. (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = //connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, script, facebook-jssdk)); Understanding Petrol Prices in India Understanding Petrol Prices in India Posted by RushLane on Thursday, February 4, 2016 Video via InShorts In a new study researchers from Sweden and Italy show what happens when magma meets limestone on its way up to the surface. Magma-limestone interaction might help explain why volcanoes like Vesuvius in Italy and Merapi in Indonesia are particularly explosive and, moreover, it helps us to understand another source of natural carbon released to the atmosphere by volcanoes. 'When we find volcanic rocks in nature with particular chemical signatures, it might signal that CO 2 was released from the upper crust. These new results are exciting because in the future they may help us to identify additional pathways in the carbon cycle', says Frances Deegan, researcher at the Department of Earth Sciences at Uppsala University. Carbon makes its way out of Earth's interior and into the atmosphere mainly by CO 2 emissions from volcanoes. This is especially so in subduction zones, where material that was once at Earth's surface is forced downwards into Earth's interior and is partly remobilised at depth to feed volcanoes at Earth's surface. During this process, carbon is released from the down-going rocks and enters magma deep in Earth, which then rises upwards and releases its carbon load as CO 2 at subduction volcanoes. At least this has been our general picture so far. But this is not all. Researchers from Uppsala University, the Swedish Museum of Natural History, and the National Institute for Geophysics and Volcanology in Italy have recently discovered what happens when magma is on its journey upwards through the crust and encounters rocks containing large amounts of CO 2 , such as limestone or marble, which rest only a few kilometres beneath Earth's surface. Researchers at the joint CSIC-University of Valencia Institute for Integrative Systems Biology, Cristina Vilanova and Manuel Porcar, have proposed a change in the way massive sequencing studies into the microbial composition of biological samples are carried out. Their article, published in Nature Microbiology, posits that the data should be crossed with innovative culture criteria and interpreted from the ecological viewpoint. It is the first time that such a holistic approach has been proposed for microbiome studies, which analyse the microbial composition of an ecosystem (earth, water, faeces, etc.) using DNA sequencing on the kind of massive scale permitted by technology today. Indeed, sequencing techniques are currently so powerful that they provide more information than research teams are able to analyse. "More and more data is being stored in databases that are just not being interpreted," Vilanova tells us, in the article stating that "the challenge is to reduce complexity to improve understanding." The idea behind their approach, then, is to make sense of the masses of data recorded in a way that goes beyond having infinite lists of species present in a given sample, extracting relevant conclusions of ecological interest. It is known, for instance, that microorganisms do not live in isolation. The application of ecological parameters to the data makes it possible to detect and study these natural associations or microbial corsortia. By doing so, these microbiome studies become much more useful for environmental studies and even studies related to human health. Scientists in their preliminary findings suggest signs of life from under Mars' surface may not survive in rocks excavated by some meteorite impacts. Scientists analysing samples from Mars' surface have so far not conclusively detected organic compounds that are indigenous to Mars, which would be indicators of past or present life. The inconclusive results mean that researchers are now suggesting that a good place to find these organic compounds would be deep underground -- from rocks that have been blasted to the surface by meteor impacts. This is because such rocks have been sheltered from the Sun's harmful radiation and from chemical processes on the surface that would degrade organic remains. Now, a team of scientists from Imperial College London and the University of Edinburgh has replicated meteorite blasts in the lab. The aim of the study was to see if organic compounds encased in rock could survive the extreme conditions associated with them being blasted to the surface of Mars by meteorites. The study, published in Scientific Reports, suggests that rocks excavated through meteorite impacts may incorrectly suggest a lifeless early Mars, even if indicators of life were originally present. In the study the team replicated blast impacts of meteorites of around 10 metres in size. The researchers found that the types of organic compounds found in microbial and algal life -- long chain hydrocarbon-dominated matter- were destroyed by the pressures of impact. However, the types of organic compounds found in plant matter -- dominated by aromatic hydrocarbons -- underwent some chemical changes, but remained relatively resistant to impact pressures. Meteorites often contain organic matter not created by life, which have some similarities in their organic chemistry to land plants. The team infer that they also should also be resistant to blast impacts. Their study could help future missions to Mars determine the best locations and types of blast excavated rocks to examine to find signs of life. For example, it may be that meteorite impacts of a certain size may not destroy organic compounds or scientists may need to concentrate on rocks excavated from a certain depth. Professor Mark Sephton, co-author of the research from the Department of Earth Science and Engineering at Imperial College London, said: "We've literally only scratched the surface of Mars in our search for life, but so far the results have been inconclusive. Rocks excavated through meteorite impacts provide scientists with another unique opportunity to explore for signs of life, without having to resort to complicated drilling missions. Our study is showing us is that we may need to be nuanced in our approach to the rocks we choose to analyse." Dr Wren Montgomery, co-author of the study from the Department of Earth Science and Engineering, added: "The study is helping us to see that when organic matter is observed on Mars, no matter where, it must be considered whether the sample could have been affected by the pressures associated with blast impacts. We still need to do more work to understand what factors may play an important role in protecting organic compounds from these blast impacts. However, we think some of the factors may include the depths at which the rock records are buried and the angles at which meteorites hit the Martian surface." Previous in situ analyses of the Martian terrain have found inconclusive evidence for the existence organic compounds -- so far only finding chlorinated organic matter. The issue for scientists has been that it is not easy to look at simple chlorine-containing organic molecules and determine the origin of the organic compound components. NASA's Viking landers in 1976 detected chlorine-containing organic compounds, but they were thought to be chemical left-overs from cleaning procedures of Viking's equipment before it left Earth. Later, the Phoenix Mission in 2008 discovered chlorine-containing minerals on the Martian surface, but no organic compounds. In 2012 the Mars Science Laboratory Mission detected chlorinated organic matter, but they thought that the analysis process, which involved heating chlorine containing minerals and carbonaceous material together, was producing chlorine-containing organic compounds. Working out whether the source of the carbon found on Mars was carried once again from Earth or was indigenous to Mars remains frustratingly difficult for scientists. The team carried out their research by subjecting the different types of organic matter to extreme pressure and temperature in a piston cylinder device. They then did a chemical analysis using pyrolysis-gas chromatography mass spectrometry. The next steps will see the team investigating a broader range of pressures and temperatures, which would help them understand the likely effects of a greater range of meteorite impacts. This would enable them to identify the specific conditions under which organic material may escape the destructive effects of blasts -- even when excavated from deep underground by violent events. This could help future Mars missions further refine the types and locations of rocks that they can analyse for signs of past or present life. Teenagers who regularly play online video games tend to improve their school results, according to new research from RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. But school students who visit Facebook or chat sites every day are more likely to fall behind in maths, reading and science. Associate Professor Alberto Posso, from RMIT's School of Economics, Finance and Marketing, investigated the results of testing by the globally recognised Program for International Student Assessment. PISA tested more than 12,000 Australian 15-year-olds in maths, reading and science, as well as collecting data on the students' online activities. Posso said video games could help students to apply and sharpen skills learned at school. "Students who play online games almost every day score 15 points above the average in maths and 17 points above the average in science. advertisement "When you play online games you're solving puzzles to move to the next level and that involves using some of the general knowledge and skills in maths, reading and science that you've been taught during the day," he said. "Teachers should consider incorporating popular video games into teaching -- so long as they're not violent ones." Posso said teenagers who used Facebook or chat every day scored 20 points worse in maths than students who never used social media. "Students who are regularly on social media are, of course, losing time that could be spent on study -- but it may also indicate that they are struggling with maths, reading and science and are going online to socialise instead. "Teachers might want to look at blending the use of Facebook into their classes as a way of helping those students engage." Posso said it was important to recognise that other factors could have a major impact on teenagers' progress. Repeating an academic year or skipping classes could be as bad or worse for scores than high use of social media. Indigenous students or those from minority ethnic or linguistic groups were also at greater risk of falling behind than those using Facebook or chat every day. The research, "Internet usage and educational outcomes among 15-year-old Australian students" has been published in the International Journal of Communication. [August 09, 2016] Mirantis Partners with SUSE to Deliver Complete Enterprise Linux Support MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. and NUREMBERG, Germany, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Mirantis, the pure-play OpenStack company, and SUSE, a pioneer in Linux and open source solutions, today announced a joint collaboration to offer Mirantis OpenStack customers support for enterprise Linux. Both companies will collaborate technically to establish SUSE Linux Enterprise Server as a development platform for use with Mirantis OpenStack. The companies will also collaborate to support Red Hat Enterprise Linux and CentOS, making Mirantis a one-stop shop for OpenStack support on the leading enterprise Linux distributions. SUSE and Mirantis will explore collaboration options to further optimize SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for Mirantis OpenStack and contribute all changes to the respective Open Source projects. Mirantis offers a pure-play OpenStack solution by offering customers the flexibility to choose which operating system, and even hypervisors, they want based on workload or skill set. Mirantis will now offer support, patches and updates for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server as well as Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and CentOS online. Priority subscriptions are available in single or three-year terms and include security and other updates plus 24x7x365 email and phone-based support with guaranteed one-hour response time. Support is available for current versions of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, RHEL and CentOS. "Many of our larger customers run two or three different Linux flavors. Now OpenStack users can get support for their major Linux distributions in one place from Mirantis," said Mirantis co-founder and CMO, Boris Renski. "Thousands of enterprises worldwide across major industries count on SUSE because they offer enterprise-grade, high reliability bet-your-business service level agreements. Partnering with SUSE gives Mirantis customers access to this support as they build their private cloud." "At SUSE, we believe in openness and choice for our customers and our partners," said Michael Miller, president of strategy, alliances and marketing at SUSE. "That's why SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is the most interoperable and robust platform for mission-critical computing and the smart choice for OpenStack private clouds. And now Mirantis customers can benefit from SUSE's enterprise-grade Linux solutions for their private cloud." Availability and pricing To learn more, visit www.mirantis.com/partners/suse. About SUSE SUSE, a pioneer in open source software, provides reliable, interoperable Linux, cloud infrastructure and storage solutions that give enterprises greater control and flexibility. More than 20 years of engineering excellence, exceptional service and an unrivaled partner ecosystem power the products and support that help our customers manage complexity, reduce cost, and confidently deliver mission-critical services. The lasting relationships we build allow us to adapt and deliver the smarter innovation they need to succeed today and tomorrow. For more information, visit www.suse.com. About Mirantis Mirantis is the pure play OpenStack company, delivering all the software, services, training, and support needed for running OpenStack. More customers rely on Mirantis than on any other company to get to production deployment of OpenStack at scale. Mirantis is among the top three companies worldwide in contributing open source software to OpenStack, and has helped build and deploy some of the largest OpenStack clouds in the world, at companies such as AT&T, Saudi Telecom, Shenzhen Stock Exchange, Symantec, Telstra and Volkswagen. Mirantis is venture-backed by August Capital, Dell Ventures, Ericsson, Goldman Sachs, Intel, Insight Venture Partners, Sapphire Ventures, Siguler Guff & Co., and WestSummit Capital, with headquarters in Sunnyvale, California. Follow us on Twitter at @mirantisit. Copyright 2016 SUSE LLC. All rights reserved. SUSE and the SUSE logo are registered trademarks of SUSE LLC in the United States and other countries. All third-party trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150622/224623LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mirantis-partners-with-suse-to-deliver-complete-enterprise-linux-support-300311287.html SOURCE SUSE [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] A study that sent twice-weekly text messages to a million people in India advising them to exercise, eat less fat, and eat more fruits and vegetables increased these health behaviors known to prevent diabetes, reports new research from Northwestern Medicine and Arogya World, a global health non-profit organization. This effort is the first to use the power and reach of mobile phones to change diabetes risk behaviors in a large number of people from different parts of a vast country like India. It has implications for diabetes prevention in low and middle-income countries. In India, the diabetes burden is very high. An estimated 66 million people live with the disease, and 1 million die from it each year. Indian Americans also are hard hit with diabetes. The diabetes prevalence in this population is four times higher than among Caucasians in the United States. Researchers compared composite scores of the experimental group's fruit, vegetable and fat intake and exercise with the control group. While people in both the experimental and control group improved their health behaviors over six months, the experimental group improved significantly more. Almost 40 percent more people improved their health behaviors as a result of the texting (299 showing improvement in the experimental group versus 185 in the control group), based on data in the paper. The study will be published August 8 in the Journal of Medical and Internet Research. advertisement "Noncommunicable diseases, one of the leading health and development challenges of the century, demand simple, proven, cost-effective prevention solutions that can be easily deployed at the population level," said Nalini Saligram, founder and CEO of Arogya World. "Our mDiabetes study suggests mobile health technology is a smart solution and has broad implications for diabetes prevention at the population level in low and middle-income countries." "This shows the potential for even the most basic of mobile phones to be used as a viable tool to deliver public health messages on a large scale across a diverse population," said lead study author Angela Fidler Pfammatter, research assistant professor in preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "And you just need a basic mobile phone. This can make an impact." Bonnie Spring, director of the Center for Behavior and Health at Feinberg, collaborated on the research. Sandhya Ramlingam of Arogya World implemented the behavior change study. The study gathered responses from nearly 1,000 people who received text messages as part of Arogya World's mDiabetes initiative and compared them to responses from a similar number of people who didn't receive the text messages. The randomly chosen 1,000 individuals, who were surveyed by phone in the language of their choice, were considered a representative sample of the one million participants. The study scored for fruit, vegetable and fat consumption as well as exercise in participants at baseline and six months. There were 943 people in the control group, 982 in the experimental one. advertisement Arogya World partnered with Nokia during 2012-2013 on mDiabetes to send text messages on diabetes and its prevention in 12 languages, twice a week for six months, to 1 million of its subscribers from all over India who opted in. The 56 text messages were developed with Emory University and culturally adapted for India with extensive consumer feedback. Northwestern University researchers contributed to the study design and data analysis. Using rigorous statistical analysis to correct for baseline differences, and by scoring each study participant on positive and negative behaviors, the authors showed clear health behavior differences between those who received the text messages and those who did not. Noncommunicable diseases include heart disease, diabetes, cancer and chronic lung diseases. According to the World Health Organization, 80 percent of heart disease, 80 percent of type 2 diabetes and 40 percent of cancers are preventable with three lifestyle changes -- avoiding tobacco, eating healthy foods and increasing physical activity. Indians get diabetes in their 30s and 40s, 10 years earlier than most Americans. Two-thirds of the population of India is under age 35. Mobile phone use is widespread throughout India, making this an ideal way to deliver health messages. In addition to the text message program, Arogya World has developed a mobile app, myArogya, to help working Indians prevent chronic disease Older adults in assisted-living facilities experience limits to their rights to sexual freedom because of a lack of policies regarding the issue and the actions of staff and administrators at these facilities, according to research conducted by the Gerontology Institute at Georgia State University. Though assisted-living facilities emphasize independence and autonomy, this study found staff and administrators behave in ways that create an environment of surveillance. The findings, published in the Journals of Gerontology: Social Sciences, indicate conflict between autonomy and the protection of residents in regard to sexual freedom in assisted-living facilities. Nearly one million Americans live in assisted-living facilities, a number expected to increase as adults continue to live longer. Regulations at these facilities may vary, but they share a mission of providing a homelike environment that emphasizes consumer choice, autonomy, privacy and control. Despite this philosophy, the autonomy of residents may be significantly restricted, including their sexuality and intimacy choices. Sexual activity does not necessarily decrease as people age. The frequency of sexual activity in older adults is lower than in younger adults, but the majority maintain interest in sexual and intimate behavior. Engaging in sexual relationships, which is associated with psychological and physical wellbeing, requires autonomous decision-making. While assisted-living facilities have many rules, they typically lack systematic policies about how to manage sexual behavior among residents, which falls under residents' rights, said Elisabeth Burgess, an author of the study and director of the Gerontology Institute. "Residents of assisted-living facilities have the right to certain things when they're in institutional care, but there's not an explicit right to sexuality," Burgess said. "There's oversight and responsibility for the health and wellbeing of people who live there, but that does not mean denying people the right to make choices. If you have a policy, you can say to the family when someone moves in, here are our policies and this is how issues are dealt with. In the absence of a policy, it becomes a case-by-case situation, and you don't have consistency in terms of what you do." The researchers collected data at six assisted-living facilities in the metropolitan Atlanta area that varied in size, location, price, ownership type and resident demographics. The data collection involved participant observation and semi-structured interviews with administrative and care staff, residents and family members, as well as focus groups with staff. The study found that staff and administrators affirmed that residents had rights to sexual and intimate behavior, but they provided justifications for exceptions and engaged in strategies that created an environment of surveillance, which discouraged and prevented sexual and intimate behavior. The administrators and staff gave several overlapping reasons for steering residents away from each other and denying rights to sexual and intimate behavior. Administrators emphasized their responsibility for the residents' health and safety, which often took precedence over other concerns. Family members' wishes played a role. Family members usually choose the home and manage the residents' financial affairs. In some instances, they transport family members to doctor's appointments, volunteer at the facility and help pay for the facility, which is not covered by Medicaid. They are often very protective of their parents and grandparents and are uncomfortable with new romantic or intimate partnerships, according to staff. Administrators often deferred to family wishes in order to reduce potential conflict. Staff and administrators expressed concern about consent and cognitive impairment. More than two-thirds of residents in assisted-living facilities have some level of cognitive impairment, which can range from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer's Disease or other forms of dementia. They felt responsible for protecting residents and guarding against sexual abuse, even if a person wasn't officially diagnosed. For the first time in Brazil, a particular antibiotic resistance mechanism conferring resistance to the important antibiotic, colistin, has been detected in a human. It was in a strain of Escherichia coli that was isolated from a diabetic patient's foot infection. The mechanism, called MCR-1, was incorporated into a plasmid, a short piece of DNA that exists independent of the genome, which can jump from one bacterium to another, spreading the resistance. The research is published ahead of print August 8 in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology. In earlier research, these investigators showed that E. coli harboring the mcr-1 gene had been present in food-producing livestock in Brazil since at least 2012. "In spite of this, we had previously recovered no isolates from humans that were positive for mcr-1," said coauthor Nilton Lincopan, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil. The research was motivated by the investigators' desire to track the spread of the resistance gene. They feared it might be spreading into Brazil from abroad, and they worried that it could also spread in the opposite direction. Lincopan noted that Brazil is the most populous country in South America, with more than 200 million inhabitants, many of whom travel abroad. Additionally, Brazil receives large numbers of foreign visitors (most recently for the Olympics). The patient in the study had no history of travel abroad, suggesting that the plasmid was already in Brazil. Further abetting possible spread, Brazil is a major producer and exporter of chicken meat, and agribusiness there, as in much of the world, commonly uses large quantities of antibiotics, including colistin, to promote growth, said Lincopan. Prior to this study, the particular mcr-1-harboring plasmids had been identified in E. coli and in Klebsiella pneumoniae in Europe, Asia (China), North America, and in South Africa. "Surprisingly," the investigators concluded, the plasmids bearing the mcr-1 gene "are highly similar in the plasmid backbone sequences," despite having been found in different species of bacteria, on different continents, and isolated from different clinical conditions. "This strongly suggests that the self-transmissible IncX4-type plasmids may be contributing to the intercontinental spread of the mcr-1 gene," said Lincopan. In the past few years, optical atomic clocks have made spectacular progress, becoming 100 times more precise than the best caesium clocks. So far, their precision has been available only locally, since frequency transfer via satellite cannot provide sufficient resolution. This has recently changed thanks to a new direct optical connection between France and Germany, established by joint work of Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) in Braunschweig, Systemes de Reference Temps-Espace (LNE-SYRTE) in Paris, and Laboratoire de Physique des Lasers (LPL) in Villetaneuse. High-precision optical frequencies can now "travel" through a 1400 km optical fiber link between LNE-SYRTE and PTB, where the most precise optical clocks in Europe are operated. The first comparison between the French and German optical strontium clocks confirms the high expectations placed in the connection. It represents the first frequency comparison of its kind across national borders: the fully independent clocks agree with an unrivalled fractional uncertainty of 5 x 10-17 . The scientists report their results in the current issue of Nature Communications. Their successful collaboration is a first step towards a European network of optical clocks providing ultrastable high-precision optical reference signals to diverse users. This will benefit various research areas, with applications in fundamental physics, astrophysics and geoscience. Comparisons of clocks at the highest resolution allow a wide range of very sensitive physical experiments, for instance, the search for time-dependent changes of fundamental constants. Also, the apparent rate of a clock depends on the local gravitational potential: comparing two clocks measures the gravitational redshift between them, and thus yields their height difference. Such measurements provide data points for the geodetic reference surface, the so-called "geoid." This research approach is pursued jointly by physicists and geodesists in the Collaborative Research Centre 1128 ("geo-Q") of the German Science Foundation (DFG). Today's most precise atomic clocks are based on optical transitions. Such optical clocks can provide a stable frequency with a fractional uncertainty of only a few 10-18 . This is approximately 100 times more precise than the best caesium fountain clocks, which realize the unit of time, the SI second. However, clock comparisons using frequency transfer via satellites are limited to a frequency resolution near 1016. For this reason, scientists from PTB and from two French institutes in Paris (Systemes de Reference Temps-Espace, LNE-SYRTE and Laboratoire de Physique des Lasers, LPL) have been working for several years on an optical fiber connection between the German and the French national metrology institutes, PTB and LNE-SYRTE. The 1400 km long link is now completed: it is based on standard telecom optical fibers and optical power losses of 200 dB (1020) are compensated by means of specially developed amplifiers. Furthermore, frequency fluctuations added during the propagation along the fiber are actively suppressed by up to 6 orders of magnitude. This allows the transmission of optical signals with very high stability. The German part of the link uses commercially rented optical fibers and facilities of the German National Research and Education Network (DFN). The French part of the link uses the network for Education and Research RENATER, operated by the GIP RENATER. Approximately midway, signals from LNE-SYRTE and PTB meet at the IT Centre of the University of Strasbourg, so that the clocks of the two institutes can be compared there. The partners involved are: Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Institut fur Erdmessung (IfE) der Leibniz-Universitat Hannover, Laboratoire de Physique des Lasers (Universite Paris 13/Sorbonne Paris Cite/CNRS), LNE-SYRTE (Observatoire de Paris/PSL Research University/CNRS/Sorbonne Universite/UPMC Univ. Paris 6/Laboratoire National de Metrologie et d'Essais), and the GIP RENATER (CNRS, CPU, CEA, INRIA, CNES, INRA, INSERM, ONERA, CIRAD, IRSTEA, IRD, BRGM, and the MESR). In a first comparison using the most stable optical clocks of PTB and LNE-SYRTE, the link lived up to the high expectations. Frequency fluctuations between the two strontium optical lattice clocks of less than 210-17 were observed after only 2000 s of averaging time, and the link itself supports fast clock comparisons with an uncertainty below 10-18. As both clocks are based on the same atomic transition they should theoretically supply exactly the same frequency -- except for the gravitational redshift due to the 25 m difference in height between the two institutes. This was indeed confirmed within the clocks' combined uncertainty of 510-17, corresponding to a height uncertainty of only 0.5 m. The partners consider this successful collaboration the first important step towards a European network of optical clocks connected by optical fiber links which could successively be joined by the optical clocks of further European metrology institutes. This should place them in a leading role for the dissemination of optical reference frequencies. As a long-term perspective, such a network may provide ultrastable high-precision optical reference signals (like those currently available from metrology institutes) to a broad range of users. Various research areas will benefit from this, including fundamental research (to test the fundamental laws of physics), geoscience and, last but not least, metrology. This work also clears the path towards a redefinition of the unit of time, the SI second, through regular international comparisons of optical clocks Anders K. Krabberd had been stooping over his microscope for hours, looking for a tiny radiolarian rascal by the name of Sticholonche zanclea, and was close to giving up. Suddenly, Kate Bush appeared in his headphones, singing "Don't give up." The postdoc Anders K. Krabberd at the University of Oslo's Department of Biosciences has a long list of arguments for studying the tiny radiolarians, one of the reasons being that they are beautiful and somewhat alien. Their complex exoskeletons are built from silica or strontium sulfate and can take on a myriad of strange forms. The German zoologist Ernst Haeckel's detailed drawings of radiolarian exoskeletons from the 1870s is as much art as science. Radiolarians are really tiny creatures, usually between 0.1 and 0.2 millimetres in size. Most of the time, they are drifting around in the oceans as zooplankton, eating for instance bacteria or other species of plankton even smaller than themselves. Dead radiolarians sink to the bottom of the ocean and are transformed into a siliceous ooze, covering a large part of the ocean floor. Geologists appreciate the radiolarian ooze very much, because the alien-looking creatures have lived on our planets for approximately 500 million years. Therefore, fossil radiolarians are very useful for dating geological structures. advertisement Shedding new light on tumors Another and more important reason for studying radiolarians, is that Krabberd had to make himself an expert on a novel DNA technology in order to analyse the genetic relationship between different species in the group. In the old days, scientists needed access to hundreds or maybe thousands of individual cells in order to obtain enough DNA to analyse such kinship. Krabberd has instead used a new method for transcriptome analysis of single cells. The method was developed by the Italian scientist Simone Picelli at the Sandberg Lab at the medical university Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. "The method can start with tiny amounts of RNA, even from only one cell, and transform it to DNA before running it through a genetic "copy machine." Thereafter, we can use well-known technology in order to analyse the DNA sequences in the material. The copying in itself is surprisingly fast, the most time-consuming part of the job is actually to find the actual radiolarian cell and extract RNA from it," explains Krabberd, who was a PhD student when the study was made. advertisement The new technology was originally developed for use in healthcare, where personalized medicine or precision medicine is the new buzzword. Personalized medicine is about analysing the genes of patients in order to find the best treatment for their diseases. When Krabberd has used the technique for analysing the genes of radiolarians, he is only a small step away from analysing also the genes of for instance cancer tumors or cells in the human immune system. Rewriting the radiolarian genealogy Until now, it has not been possible to establish the genetic kinship between the ca. 4000 known species of radiolarians, because nobody has managed to grow them in the laboratory. Thus, it was impossible to acquire the hundreds or thousands of cells necessary to analyse their DNA. But Anders Krabberd has been able to use the new transcriptome method in analysing more radiolarians genes than any other scientist has done before him, and nobody else has worked with such a big and representative selection of species. This led to discoveries that suggest the genealogy of the little creatures should be rewritten. "Ernst Haeckel and other former natural scientists classified the radiolarians according to their morphology, that is their appearance in a broad sense. But it is not always true that organisms are genetically related even if they have a similar appearance," Krabberd explains. Has proved that morphology falls short For example, it might be tempting to assume that a big, round radiolarian with two spikes is more closely related to a small, round radiolarian with two spikes, than with a cone-shaped species with no spikes. In any case, that's what Haeckel imagined, and Krabberd's DNA studies have proven the old German right in some of these cases. But in other cases, Krabberd has proved that morphology falls short. "Haeckel divided radiolarians into four groups, but it has later been shown that one of his groups, thePhaeodaria, are not radiolarian at all. In addition, I have found that also the species Sticholonche zancleais not a radiolarian. Instead, it seems to be the common ancestor for both extant radiolarians and another group known as foraminifera," says Krabberd. In order to determine the genetic kinship between different radiolarian species, and between radiolarians and other living creatures, you need a lot of computing power. Anders Krabberd used nearly 350 CPU years on the University of Oslo's computational resource, the Abel computer cluster, in order to perform his calculations. "I was actually the largest university user on Abel for a period. They were just about to lose their patience with me," Krabberd admits. Hunting for Sticholonche Anders Krabberd has lost count of all the hours he spent stooping over his microscope, using a home-made tool for delicately turning radiolarians and other creatures around in the petri dish. The tool was made from a chopstick and had a tiny thread from a Japanese toothbrush glued to its tip. "I needed something very thin and fine for picking at the radiolarians, and Japanese toothbrushes are made with much thinner threads than the Norwegian ones. You can learn a lot from having colleagues from other parts of the world!" The hunt for Sticholonche proved to be especially exhausting. The approach for catching radiolarians is to pull a fine-meshed scoop net with a mesh size of 50 micrometres through the waters of the ocean. This causes the radiolarians to collect at the bottom of the net, together with myriads of other strange things. Anders Krabberd had acquired the porridge-like result of one such expedition in the Oslo Fjord, and was looking for Sticholonche in his microscope. He needed this particular species in order to use the new transcriptome method, and he was almost certain that some individuals should be there, somewhere in the porridge. But they wouldn't show themselves. Krabberd's back was aching, his eyes were very tired, and he was staring in fiasco's face after hours of searching that only gave him tiny creatures he wasn't looking for. In his own time, Krabberd plays the electric bass in the progrock band Panzerpappa. In the end, his interest in music came to the rescue. "I was listening to the Peter Gabriel album "So" in my headphones, and was close to quitting. But then, Kate Bush suddenly started to sing "Don't give up!." The song inspired me to continue, and from then, it didn't take long before I finally found Sticholonche." The remaining mysteries Already around 1870, Ernst Haeckel discovered a photosynthesizing algae living in colonies together with radiolarians, in a common gel secreted by the radiolarian hosts. Organisms living together like this are calledsymbionts. Anders Krabberd has, by using DNA analysing techniques, shown that several marine species in the protistan alveolate group also seem to be living as symbionts with radiolarians, but these are hiding themselves inside the siliceous exoskeletons of certain species. The alveolates are probably not performing photosynthesis, it is instead more probable that they are parasites. Even if Krabberd has revealed some of the radiolarians' secrets, there is a lot that remains to be explained. "Among other things, we just don't know how they procreate. Ernst Haeckel observed that if you keep them in a petri dish long enough, they come to a point where the cells start sending out thousands of very tiny "swarmers" in a cloud. The hypothesis is that these swarmers constitute the reproductive phase, but we don't know if they are spores that can grow asexually into a new individual. Maybe they instead are sexual gametes who must meet another gamete to mate with before they can start growing," explains Krabberd. Set to outlive humans Radiolarians are exclusive salt water species and can be found in every ocean on Earth. Some of them have pseudopodia -- "false feet" -- that can be used for different purposes. "One Japanese colleague has filmed a species with a pseudopodium several times the length of the cell itself, and it is being used as a fishing rod. But the ecology of radiolarians is pretty much uncharted territory, we don't even know if they have any natural enemies. So there is a lot of interesting science just waiting to happen." "Radiolarians have been around for hundreds of millions of years, and it is a safe bet to predict that they are going to outlive us humans by a wide margin. They are namely very robust creatures -- you would be surprised to know how much I struggled to break their exoskeletons in order to get at the cell material with DNA inside them," admits Krabberd. The health systems of six Latin American and Caribbean countries have made substantial progress toward universal coverage -- providing free or subsidized healthcare to the majority of their populations -- but continue to face challenges managing more complex health needs such as those related to cardiovascular disease, cancer, stroke and depression, a new study from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and the Inter-American Development Bank finds. Though the health systems in Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Jamaica, Mexico and Panama have considerable strengths, citizens still reported gaps in the way primary care is organized, financed and delivered in those countries. People reporting greater problems accessing primary care also reported receiving effective and timely healthcare or basic preventive measures such as blood pressure and cholesterol checks less often. People's experience of primary care also translated to their assessment of the entire health system; those who had better experiences at the primary care level were less likely to say that their health system needed major reforms. "The fact that these countries are facing an increased burden of chronic conditions will ultimately affect their economies without continued social investments and that can be a challenge during the current economic slowdown," said James Macinko, professor in the departments of health policy and management and of community health sciences at the Fielding School and the study's lead investigator. The study appears in the August issue of the peer-reviewed journal Health Affairs. Frederico Guanais, lead health specialist at the Inter-American Development Bank and the study's co-principal investigator noted that while there is "no one right way" to organize a health system, investments in universal health systems with a strong emphasis on primary care have been shown to result in better health and more equitable outcomes across population groups. He added, however, there is still little research into the effectiveness of different health systems' approaches toward managing chronic conditions. "These countries represent very diverse approaches to health systems, from national health services in Brazil and Jamaica to social security and public insurance schemes in Mexico and Colombia," Macinko said. "There are certainly lessons to be learned that each of these countries may be able to adapt from each other. It's also likely some of these experiences could be adapted to improve care in the United States and elsewhere." Adapting a version of the 2013 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey, 9,000 participants from both rural and urban areas in the six countries were asked about primary care accessibility, continuity, patient-centeredness, problem resolution, and coordination of care. Overall response rates ranged from 29 percent in Colombia to 44 percent in El Salvador. Health system strengths Less than 10 percent of individuals were uninsured or uncovered by their health system -- 42 percent were covered by their respective national health system, 40 percent were covered by social security, and the rest had private insurance. Two-thirds believed that their health systems did not need major reform. About 40 percent rated the quality of care from their general practitioners as very good or excellent. Nearly 80 percent reported no major barriers to doctor visits or prescribed treatments due to cost or scheduling problems. 55 percent reported no communication problems with their doctor. 61 percent could schedule an appointment by phone. Two-thirds said that their primary care doctor knew their medical history. 72 percent said that the doctor gave time to ask questions. 74 percent said their doctor explained things well. 59 percent thought their regular doctor could solve most of their health problems. Health system challenges More than one-third of respondents had at least one chronic condition. Nearly 20 percent rated their health as fair or poor, with no significant differences across countries. Only about 50 percent had a regular or usual source of care 75 percent said that it was difficult to receive primary care on weekends Only slightly more than one-third were up to date with basic preventive exams. Nearly 50 percent went to the emergency department for a condition they considered treatable in an ambulatory care setting. Nearly one-quarter were readmitted to the hospital. Almost one-third had to wait eight weeks or more to see a specialist or wait more than five days for a primary care appointment. Only 39 percent reported their doctor helped coordinate their care. The study has some limitations. For instance, it was a cross-sectional study based on self-reported data, so the researchers could not assess causality between the peoples' experience of primary care and aspects of their health systems; response rates were reasonable but somewhat low; country comparisons might have been complicated by different perceptions of the need for healthcare; and recent economic and political crises may have influenced people's responses. Still, the survey uncovered substantial gaps in primary care among six very different health systems, the authors write. "Moreover, respondents' reports of primary care experiences were strongly associated with assessments of how their health systems function, protect them from financial hardship, and deliver high-quality and appropriate health care. These gaps require urgent attention as the population of Latin America and the Caribbean continues to age at an unprecedented rate." Civil Defence Minister Nikki Kaye is travelling to Samoa today for a three-day visit, focused on affirming the strong ties between New Zealand and Samoa around disaster risk management. The ever present risk of natural hazards is something that both New Zealand and Samoa understand very well, says Ms Kaye. This risk is part and parcel of living in the Pacific. Were surrounded by the Ring of Fire, which makes us susceptible to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, while our geographies and climates also make us vulnerable to events such as cyclones, storms, floods and droughts. New Zealand and Samoa have a long and close relationship, and sharing expertise and experience on managing hazards and responding to disasters plays a central part in this relationship. During my three days in Samoa I will meet with the Prime Minister, Hon Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, and attend a range of meetings with senior government ministers and officials. These meetings will include a roundtable on disaster preparedness. Topics discussed at this will include lessons learned from previous disasters in Samoa, and New Zealands contribution towards strengthening Samoas risk management capabilities. I will also visit key disaster risk management facilities and initiatives, including the National Disaster Management Office operations centre, the meteorological monitoring station at Mulinuu and the emergency siren network on the south coast of Upolu. At Lalomanu I will view areas devastated by the 2009 tsunami, as well as work done since then to prevent future loss of life and property damage. While in Samoa, I will also hold meetings related to my other portfolios. These include a youth roundtable, where Im looking forward to meeting some of Samoas upcoming young leaders and hearing their aspirations and thoughts on topical issues, including innovative approaches to disaster preparedness. I will also attend a meeting on Samoas accident compensation scheme, which will include discussion on building communication channels with ACC in New Zealand. Samoa is a close friend with whom we have a strong and affectionate bond, and I am looking forward to strengthening this relationship during my three-day visit. Source: Office of Nikki Kaye. Angus the bear has all the time in the world to savor the little things in life. Especially when they're made of tough rubber and smell like peanut butter. At a sanctuary in Vietnam run by Animals Asia, he's the king of Kong - those famously indestructible toys usually seen clenched in the teeth of a dog. Animals Asia But seven years ago, he was just a prisoner. When he was a cub, Angus was captured by a poacher in Vietnam and sentenced to life on a bile farm. Considered one of the cruelest industries for animals, bile farms keep bears in tiny, sunless cages, where their bodies are yoked for a single purpose: the lifelong harvesting of bile. Animals Asia Dodo Shows Foster Diaries This Pregnant Pittie Foster Story Is The Happiest Thing Ever Animals Asia Pierced with a tube to extract the product, Angus would have become little more than a living, breathing factory. But Angus was rescued on his way to that dark place. Wildlife authorities arrested the poacher and handed Angus over to Animals Asia, where he lives among 150 bears rescued from the same fate. These days, Angus likes to sprawl on his back in a grassy enclosure, and ponder the deepest mysteries of a Kong ball. Animals Asia Dog owners will no doubt be familiar with these mighty mounds of rubber. The bear version is no different. "The Kongs are exactly the same as those used by people with dogs at home," Heidi Quine, a veterinarian team director at Animals Asia, tells The Dodo. "We like to use the ultra-durable black kind here at the sanctuary and they have always proven to be an incredibly popular toy." Indeed, Angus isn't the only bear at this sanctuary, whose road to a new life seems paved in chewy, plastic balls. Staff members have been doling out Kongs - donated from the company - to its residents as part of an enrichment program. The late Jasper, for example, liked to fish his toy out of the pool. Animals Asia And there's Rain, who seems almost dwarfed by his toy. Animals Asia And Layla, who's notorious for throwing her Kong across the enclosure after she has pried out the treat. Animals Asia For these bears, the toys seem like tough, rubbery Rubik's Cubes - the perfect way to wile away a day. And sanctuary staff adds a tantalizing prize to the mix. "We stuff them with delicious and nutritious treats like oats, rice, dried fruit and even peanut butter and then hide them throughout our bear enclosures," Quine explains. Animals Asia Sometimes, staff will dangle a Kong high up in a tree to encourage a bear to stretch a little. Animals Asia Or bury the toy in the ground to put the animal's foraging claws to work. It all adds up to fun for animals who often arrive at the sanctuary "frightened, sick and angry," Quine says. Animals Asia Jesus in Love supports lesbian, gay, bi, trans and queer (LGBTQ) spirituality, with an emphasis on art and literature. It promotes artistic and religious freedom and teaches love for all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. It is based on these beliefs: God loves all people, including sexual minorities. The creative process is sacred. The queer visions, especially the gay Jesus and LGBT saints, will free people to experience the divine in new ways and lead to a more just world. Jesus in Love was founded by lesbian Christian author Kittredge Cherry as her personal project. It is her gift to the world. Many thanks to everyone who supports her vision. Keeping love alive in a long-distance relationship isn't always easy. But for this stray pup who fell head over heels for a woman who lives half a world away, his persistence and determination more than paid off. Flight attendant Olivia Sievers frequently travels from her home in Germany to Argentina for work, though on one such visit she made a friend. Little could she have guessed at the time that he'd be a friend for life. Earlier this year, while walking around Buenos Aires near the hotel where she was staying, Sievers encountered the friendly street dog, who'd been known to wander the area. She gave him some food and they played awhile, and afterward he insisted on staying by her side. Dodo Shows Little But Fierce Pocket-Sized Kitten Grows Up To Be A Wild Woman "I tried to change my way because I didn't want that he follow me back to the hotel," she told Noticiero Trece. "But it was not possible. He always came back and followed me. I tried one hour, but he always watched me and followed me. He was really happy that somebody gave him attention." For the dog, it had been love at first sight. He proceeded to settle in at the entrance of Sievers's hotel. Taking pity on the pup, whom she named Rubio, Sievers gave him an airline blanket to keep warm in at night. Rubio had found his soul mate - even if she didn't know it yet. It wasn't long before Sievers was on a plane back to Germany, and Rubio returned to wander the streets. Clearly, though, he never forgot her. When Sievers was in town the next time for work, staying at the same hotel, Rubio appeared at the door to greet her for a cuddle. Then, sure enough, he continued to wait out front for their next date. In Rubio's mind, this was far more than a passing fling. Incredibly, as Sievers flew back and forth for work over the months that followed, Rubio would always be found waiting for her at her hotel (almost as if he knew her work schedule). But still she always had to leave him. On one occasion, Sievers even made arrangements for a rescue group to adopt Rubio out to a loving home, but he escaped and was soon back at the door waiting. His mind had been made up, and it was then that Sievers's was too. The flight attendant decided to make Rubio her pet. She filled out the necessary paperwork to bring him back home with her to Germany. Last Friday, he flew to his new home, where Sievers was waiting for him. It has only been a few days now since Rubio has put the streets of Argentina behind him to enjoy his new life in Germany with his new mom and family ... ... It was clearly worth the wait. The sad truth is that kitten factories - also called kitten farms and kitten mills - are a huge problem worldwide because they're often more easily hidden from view than puppy mills. According to Animals Australia, a "lack of transparency, regulatory oversight, and the actions of unscrupulous breeders all combine to create what can be, at best, a life of deprivation and chronic boredom for cats and their kittens or, at worst, a living nightmare." Kitten farms are spread across the U.S. - and people say they're just as bad as puppy mills. Dodo Shows Little But Fierce Pocket-Sized Kitten Grows Up To Be A Wild Woman Companion Animal Protection Society (CAPS) is a nonprofit dedicated to protecting companion animals from cruelty in pet shops and puppy/kitten mills through investigations, legislation and rescue. "We've investigated breeders who have puppy mills without knowing that they had cats, or not being able to gain access to the cats," Deborah Howard, president of CAPS, told The Dodo. "If we don't get access to the entire facility, the cats would be the hardest to see because they are completely indoors." Kitten mills that are USDA-licensed can sell their live products to the pet shop industry. And even in these facilities, cats "are crammed into dirty cages, covered in matted fur and sleeping in overflowing litter boxes." CAPS sends investigators into kitten mills, and what investigators find "look just like puppy mills - but with cats. Mothers are bred until they drop. Kittens are sick and dirty. Cats are kept in feces-stained pens, with no physical or mental stimulation." CAPS did an undercover investigation of one USDA-licensed kitten factory run by a woman in Nebraska, and what they found was horrifying. "When I was there, I saw 25 cats and 15 kittens living in small cages and pens," a private investigator of these facilities, who goes by "Pete," wrote on the CAPS website. "The pens had food, water and litter boxes, but the litter boxes were overflowing with feces. Urine stained the floors. Fur and dirt were everywhere." The woman running the facility even admitted the place was a mess, telling Pete, "I'm lucky you weren't a state inspector because of the way those pens look. Or USDA." Breeders who sell cats and dogs to pet stores are required to be licensed and inspected by the USDA, but according to the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), the inspection reports show that breeders are often guilty of repeated violations of the Animal Welfare Act "for crowded and dirty conditions" - and the consequences are inadequate. In February, the woman CAPS investigated was fined $5,000 and put on probation for a year, which means that USDA inspectors will be visiting her facility and fining her more money for every sick cat they see. But she still has her breeding license.

Facebook/Destin Log

This sea turtle couldn't have picked a more perfect person to swim by. On Sunday, the loggerhead was stuck in a troubling predicament: He had a fishing line wrapped around his neck and tangled in his flipper. The line was attached to a fishing rod that was dragging behind him. He was spotted by Phillip Beck, an employee of Excel Watersports in Destin, Florida, who was on a jetski pulling along a group of guests. "It was gasping for air," Christ Trafton, owner of Excel Watersports, told NWF Daily News. Dodo Shows Foster Diaries This Pregnant Pittie Foster Story Is The Happiest Thing Ever Beck knew he couldn't simply leave the turtle on his own. "My kids were on a banana boat ride when the driver of the jet ski that was pulling them saw this turtle in need of help," Dalan Savage wrote in a Facebook comment about the rescue. "This man quickly turned off the jet ski, dove into the water, [grabbed] this turtle and brought the turtle back to shore." Beck was cut up by barnacles on the turtle's shell, but didn't let that deter him from helping out. Linda Hermann, who happened to be visiting the beach that day, managed to capture pictures of the rescue. "From the looks of the turtle's back and the pole, that turtle had been dragging that pole around for several weeks, if not more," Hermann told local outlet The Destin Log. Once the turtle was cut free, he was released and swam back out into the sea.

AWARE Trust

Nearly two months ago, Pretty Boy, an elephant, found himself in quite a bit of trouble - but he knew exactly how and where to get help. In June, Pretty Boy, who lives and roams around Mana Pools National Park in Zimbabwe, had been shot in the head and then walked around with his wounds for several weeks. There was a prominent hole where the bullet had entered. AWARE Trust When veterinarians from the Animal and Wildlife Area Research and Rehabilitation Trust (AWARE), a wildlife conservation organization, heard the news, a team immediately went out to track down the elephant in order to give him the medical assistance he needed. Dodo Shows Dodo Heroes Woman Devotes Her Life To The Stray Dogs Of Bali AWARE Trust However, the AWARE team didn't have to do much searching at all. AWARE Trust "He made himself available for examination within half an hour, coming right up to their car," AWARE wrote on Facebook. AWARE Trust Pretty Boy happened to be an incredibly gentle and relaxed elephant, allowing veterinarians to tranquilize him, examine him and patch him up before sending him on his way. Pretty Boy post-treatment | AWARE Trust Even the morning after his surgery, Dr. Lisa Marabini, director of AWARE, and others were still amazed that they were able to get so close to Pretty Boy without him showing any signs of aggression - describing him as a "perfect gentleman." He's been doing more than well ever since, and getting up to the same antics that saved his life in the first place. Pretty Boy, who stands out from the herd with his sloping back, was seen recently by Moira Whitaker, a local, during a visit to Mana Pools. Pretty Boy, more recently | Moira Whitaker Whitaker saw Pretty Boy eating happily with another male elephant, the hole in his head healing nicely. Despite the harm inflicted upon him by humans in the past, Pretty Boy continued to prove that he's unafraid of people - and on some level, doesn't even mind mingling with them. Moira Whitaker "Pretty Boy was browsing at a tree close to the road," Whitaker told The Dodo. "As we always do when we approach an elephant, we stopped a distance away to watch him. He looked at us and started ambling down the road toward us. Although he looked perfectly happy and relaxed, we reversed to give him space to go to the next tree." Instead, Pretty Boy moved past the tree and continued to walk toward Whitaker and her husband. "We got the feeling that he wanted to walk up to us, but as we didn't know his nature we reversed again," she said. "He eventually stopped to eat right near our car and we were able to watch him for a long time before we continued with our game drive. He was completely relaxed at all times." Moira Whitaker Whitaker's close encounter with Pretty Boy matches the same amazingly gentle demeanor he exhibited to the veterinarians who rescued him months ago. "I never usually feel totally comfortable getting very close to a wild elephant," Marabini told The Dodo at the time. "But he literally emanated serenity. There were no aggressive vibes coming from him whatsoever." Moira Whitaker

Rescue Dogs Rock NYC

Two puppies who'd never met were taken in by shelters in New York City only days apart. Both puppies were scared and alone - and somehow ended up together in the same foster home. PJ was given to someone as a gift, but unfortunately had to be surrendered only days later because his new owner was allergic. Giving a pet as a present is never a great idea, and you should always make sure that a family is ready to take care of an animal before giving them one. Rescue Dogs Rock NYC PJ was taken in by the Brooklyn Animal Care and Control (ACC), which contacted Rescue Dogs Rock NYC shortly after his arrival. The rescue happily took PJ in and immediately transferred him to a foster home. Only a few days later, another tiny puppy, named Brando, was found wandering the streets all alone in Queens and was taken to the Queens ACC. The shelter contacted Rescue Dogs Rock NYC again and the group agreed to take Brando. PJ's foster family then stepped up and offered to foster him too. Dodo Shows Cat Crazy Fluffy Cat Wants To Sit On His Dad At All Times Rescue Dogs Rock NYC Being abandoned and then taken to a shelter is no doubt a terrifying ordeal, and both Brando and PJ were a little nervous with their new life at first - but as soon as they were together, everything was better. Brando and PJ were best friends from the very moment they met, and are now never apart. They do absolutely everything together, and seem to make each other feel safe. Rescue Dogs Rock NYC "At first they were a little nervous being abandoned at a shelter alone, but once they were brought together there was an instantaneous bond," Stacey Silverstein of Rescue Dogs Rock NYC told The Dodo. "They absolutely love each other and all the adult dogs in the foster home." Rescue Dogs Rock NYC Brando and PJ are no longer nervous, and are getting quite comfortable in their foster home. They love hanging out with their foster family ... Rescue Dogs Rock NYC ... going for car rides ... Rescue Dogs Rock NYC ... exploring the house ... Rescue Dogs Rock NYC ... and, of course, cuddling. Lots and lots of cuddling. Rescue Dogs Rock NYC Both puppies had a rough start to life, but now that they have each other, they're not scared of anything anymore. "They are doing very well now, happy puppies that are loving life," Silverstein said. Rescue Dogs Rock NYC

Instagram/Smiling Brinks

Someone's stray dog quickly became another man's most treasured friend. Twelve years ago, Brinks' previous owner decided that he didn't want the pit bull anymore. He was only a puppy, between 10 and 11 months old. "Apparently he had been left at the school playground the night before by somebody," Jon Bozak, Brinks' rescuer, told The Dodo. "He was never mistreated. Somebody just decided to give him up. My neighbor told me years later that he had seen Brinks wandering that night." Dodo Shows Wild Hearts Guy And Wild Shark Have Been Best Friends For Decades Bozak met Brinks the next day. He was leaving his New York City apartment that morning, which was situated right in front of the private school where Brinks had been abandoned. "There was this big pit bull across the street," Bozak said. "He saw me and my dog, Demo, then came trotting over." Bozak wasn't in the market for another dog - he felt that he already had his hands full with Demo, who was an older pit bull. Furthermore, Bozak said, Demo could be finicky about which dogs he got along with. But when Brinks approached Demo, the two greeted each other by smiling at one another in the way dogs do, and Bozak realized they would get along well enough. There was another thing about Brinks that Bozak noticed very quickly as well. "As soon as I put him in the car, he sat in the front seat, pretty much ignoring me," Bozak said. "He was just looking out the window. Then he started smiling. I was like 'This is crazy, this dog is grinning. This is nuts.' I didn't want another dog. I figured another 65-pound pit bull was going to be a lot to handle. But Brinks was too awesome to be true." After putting up flyers around the neighborhood to make sure someone wasn't desperately looking for Brinks - and getting no response - Bozak decided to become Brinks' new dad, making him a permanent member of the family. "Honestly, he really does smile and grin," Bozak said. "It's definitely a submissive type of grin. But it's also a happy grin at times. If you put a treat in front of him, he's going to grin. If he's sleeping next to you, he's got a grin on his face while he's sleeping." Bozak noted that Brinks is a very communicative dog - and his smiles say it all. He lived with Bozak's other dog, Demo, for six years before the older dog passed away. Now Brinks is an "only child," but Bozak doesn't worry too much about how Brinks is faring. The pit bull will be turning 13 years old in December and he's as joyful as ever. "He's the most confident dog I've ever been around," Bozak said. "Brinks has the best life and I think he appreciates it. It's nice to have a dog who's so happy." Scientists say that the increased numbers of walruses beaching themselves is an effect of global climate change. Walruses turning up in record numbers can put them in closer contact with human industry. For example, ships could disrupt the walruses if they shift their habitat closer to shipping routes. Dodo Shows Foster Diaries This Pregnant Pittie Foster Story Is The Happiest Thing Ever "If they're more frequently going to be on shore with their young and with the increased human activity in those waters, the risk of a disturbance is increased," Andrea Medeiros, a spokeswoman with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, told PBS News earlier this year. Walruses are just one type of animal that depends on ice to survive. Mother polar bear leads her cub across thin ice in Norway. | Shutterstock The Adelie penguin, which eats krill, a kind of crustacean that lives under the ice, is also at risk of extinction. As the ice melts, the krill have nowhere to live, and so Adelie penguins have a harder time finding food. Adelie penguins | Shutterstock "As a whole, the planet has been shedding sea ice at an average annual rate of 13,500 square miles since 1979, the equivalent of losing an area of sea ice larger than the state of Maryland every year," found a study released last year by NASA . The first mammal to go extinct as a result of climate change was a long-tailed, whiskered rat, called the Bramble Cay meloymys, who lived on an island in the Great Barrier Reef. Rising water levels engulfed the tiny island he called home a few years ago. With the regulatory process on the Energy East pipeline underway, the countdown to what could become Canadas next big existential crisis is officially on. As of this week and until the end of the year, the National Energy Board is hearing from proponents and opponents of TransCanadas plan to link Albertas oil sands to the Atlantic coast via a 4,600-km pipeline. From New Brunswick the panel will be moving on to Quebec, Ontario and points west over the next four months. But the process is only a warm-up act for an expanding national debate that could rival for its length but also its divisiveness the constitutional wars of the early 1990s. Reconciling the economic aspirations of some regions with the concerns for their ecosystems of many of the others will not come easily. If anything, the NEBs recommendation will pave the last stretch of the way to a high-stake political fight that could impact the future of some of Canadas leading elected figures. At the top of the list is British Columbia premier Christy Clark. She will take her ruling Liberal party to the polls in about nine months. Between now and then, the federal cabinet is scheduled to decide whether to give the green light to Kinder Morgans plan to expand its Trans Mountain pipeline. The project has elicited stiff municipal opposition in the Greater Vancouver area as well as within the aboriginal community. Although her government came down against the project over the course of the NEB hearings, Clark has kept her options open possibly in the hope of negotiating trade-offs that could bolster her partys case on the hustings. If the federal government gives Trans Mountain the nod later this year, the issue stands to make the B.C. election the must-watch event of the 2017 political season. Few would be following a pipeline-driven B.C. debate more closely than Quebecs Philippe Couillard. He is to next face voters around the time the NEB is expected to make its recommendation to the federal cabinet on Energy East in 2018. Couillard might not have become premier if the last Quebec election had not turned into a referendum on the Parti Quebecois sovereignty agenda. He might not fare as well in a plebiscite-style vote on a controversial pipeline development. In Alberta, the provinces first NDP premier has staked her pro-pipeline agenda on a more rigorous climate change policy. Rachel Notley is betting it will make her provincial counterparts more amenable to facilitating the transport of Western Canadas oil to tidewater. If only to counter opposition charges that the NDP is not economically competent, she needs a win on the pipeline front. At the same time, a strong contingent of federal NDP activists would like the party to step in front of the anti-pipeline parade nationally. But that would come at the cost of an open break with the partys only provincial government and, potentially, with other provincial wings that have power in their sights. It did not help Thomas Mulcairs cause to be caught in the crossfire at last springs party convention. His dismissal did little to resolve the larger issue of the NDPs place in the pipeline debate. The Conservatives are increasingly divided on the necessity of putting to a price on carbon. Under Stephen Harper, the notion was considered a heresy. But in his new capacity as Ontario Tory leader, ex-Conservative MP Patrick Brown has been arguing for carbon pricing. In Alberta, Harpers former go-to minister and now provincial Tory hopeful Jason Kenney has taken the opposite tack. In a future that could see each of them lead his respective province, it would make for an interesting conversation. And then there is Justin Trudeaus government. It has been sitting on a fence whose pickets can only become more uncomfortable over time. As prime minister, Trudeau has nodded in the direction of more pipelines on a number of occasions. But little could do more to diminish his appeal to the left-leaning voters who have abandoned the NDP for the Liberals including many of the Quebec and B.C. voters who have been key to his majority victory than forcing a pipeline through either province. For the record, the last time an issue caused internal tensions in so many different provincial and federal political quarters, the Meech Lake constitutional accord was on the table. Read more about: SHARE: Beautiful. Confusing. Expensive. Dangerous. Those were some of the conflicting descriptions Torontonians applied to Queens Quay when it reopened in June 2015 after an extensive renovation. The $128.9-million, three-year construction project was intended to transform the 1.7-kilometre stretch of the lakeshore into a showpiece waterfront boulevard, and when it was unveiled the public was confronted with an entirely new kind of street designed to give equal consideration to motorists, cyclists, pedestrians, and public transit. But enthusiasm for the project was quickly diluted by signs that many people didnt know how to use the new street. Reports abounded of disoriented drivers narrowly avoiding collisions, pedestrians wandering into the path of streetcars, and cyclists rushing headlong into dockside crowds. Star columnist Edward Keenan was so concerned he warned: If changes arent made, people are likely to die. More than a year later, Waterfront Toronto, which was in charge of the redevelopment, has made tweaks to Queens Quay and road users have had time to get used to the street. The agency says the road is safe and, for the most part, functioning as it should. Its working really well. I stood at Lower Simcoe yesterday for an hour, and I watched everyone doing what they were supposed to do. Its kind of great, said Mira Shenker, a Waterfront Toronto communications manager, as she led the Star on walk along the street last week. The modifications include signs asking cyclists to slow down for pedestrians as they approach mixed zones at intersections, and LOOK markers embedded in the sidewalk that tell pedestrians to watch for bikers. Additional traffic lights have been added at the intersection next to the Harbourfront Centre, where many drivers were making dangerous and illegal left turns. Weve been trying to be responsive to how people are responding to the street, said Pina Mallozzi, Waterfront Torontos project manager of design for Queens Quay, who acknowledged that some of the modifications probably should have been included in the original plan. Aside from a pinch point just east of Bathurst St. where the pavement between the street and the lake is too narrow to accommodate the bike trail, Waterfront Toronto isnt planning on making any major physical changes. There, the agency plans to widen the pavement by decking over the water, which will allow it to complete the trail connection. Despite the additional markers, its clear that many road users still arent obeying the rules. Shenker and her colleagues hadnt walked a full block before a reporter pointed out a delivery truck parked on top of the bike trail just east of York St. Moments later a speeding pickup truck leapt over the streetcar right-of-way. Shenker said that type of behaviour shouldnt be blamed on the street design, but on the driver. If you go probably on any street downtown youre going to see people doing crazy maneuvers, right? But locals say that many drivers still dont know any better. From behind the counter at his gift shop at Queens Quay and Rees St., Hanif Ladha said he sees drivers accidentally rolling down the streetcar right-of-way every half an hour. He thinks it would be helpful if police deployed officers at intersections to help manage traffic, particularly during crazy times like Blue Jays games at the nearby Rogers Centre, when crowds of thousands descend on Queens Quay. But Ladha, who has worked in the area for 20 years, said hes supportive of the redesign because it has attracted people to the waterfront. Good for business, good for the area, he said. The redesign has received less glowing reviews from the TTC. The agency says that round trips on the 509 Harbourfront streetcar now take almost 18 per cent longer 40 minutes, instead of 34. The right-of-ways location on the side of the road instead of the middle means that the streetcars encounter more stoplights, and TTC management has also advised operators to go slowly to reduce the risk of hitting pedestrians and cars. At a July meeting of the TTC board, commission service planner Scott Haskill suggested the Queens Quay overhaul had been driven by public realm and urban design considerations, at the expense of transit planning. There is physical separation on the new Queens Quay, but mostly just from cars, and not from all the other road users. And so we do see friction with road users, he said. Deputy Mayor Denzil Minnan-Wong, who is a member of both the TTC and Waterfront Toronto boards, said the delays to transit are unacceptable. Hes frequently pointed to Queens Quays $35.7-million cost overrun as evidence that the revamp was too expensive and overdesigned. One would think that if youre going to redesign a streetcar route, that you would make it better, which would mean that it would be more efficient and faster, he said. TTC data show that while streetcars are moving more slowly, theyre not getting into accidents at a higher rate than on other streets. The redesign is popular with riders the city reported last fall that 6,000 cyclists used the Martin Goodman Trail in a single day, a figure the transportation department called a record high. Thevishka Kanishkan, communications manager for Cycle Toronto, said by that measure the trail is a massive success. But she said its design could be improved, particularly in the mixed zones where the trails blacktop disappears. It creates conflict where people are not sure who has the right of way, she said. Simple design changes would go a long way. Waterfront Toronto says it takes criticism of its marquee project seriously, and has used public feedback to make the street better. As the city contemplates replicating the complete streets model in places like King St. and Eglinton Ave., Shenker said Queens Quay was bound to come under the microscope. So for better or for worse whether or its not fair these complete streets are asked to prove themselves more than your standard street. Youre asking a complete street to show that its safer, that its more efficient, that its better, in order to justify balancing out that space and giving space to all the users. SHARE: An Immigration and Refugee Board judge who makes decisions on the future of some of societys most vulnerable has been placed on administrative duties while she fights an assault charge against her. Iris Kohler, 53, was charged with assault by York Regional Police after an alleged incident involving a woman in Richmond Hill on May 13, according to documents filed with the Ontario Court of Justice. Kohler did not appear in the Newmarket court Tuesday, but Jody Berkes, her lawyer, said his client will vigorously fight the charge. The court document names the alleged victim as Monica Mlinarski. A refugee board spokesperson said Kohler has been employed by the board since 2001 and as a member of the immigration division tribunal since 2007. The Immigration and Refugee Board is an independent tribunal that hears refugee protection claims, and immigration and refugee appeals, conducts detention reviews and holds admissibility hearings. Board members earn between $108,200 and $127,200 a year. Kohler is currently not assigned to any case files and is currently working on professional development projects, said IRB spokesperson Melissa Anderson. The IRB is aware of the criminal charge but does not publicly comment on human resources matters or the personal affairs of our employees, Anderson added. A pre-trial hearing is scheduled for Sept. 20. Read more about: SHARE: Most babies are born in the hospital. But it took the almost-certain death of a deer, the destruction of his dads Chevy, and the benevolence of a mysterious Good Samaritan for little Gunner to get there. Its a story that will follow him all his life. Darlene Wall, 26 years old and ready-to-burst pregnant, woke up at 4 a.m. on Aug 1. She rolled over and shook Shane, her husband of six years. She wakes me up like: Hey, its go time! Shane, 26, recalled a week later. With three-year-old daughter Emma at Shanes moms house, the Steinbach, Man., couple hopped in their Chevy Equinox and headed for St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg. They drove for more than half an hour, with Darlene having contractions in the passenger seat. Ten minutes outside the city, a deer sprung out of a grassy ditch and leapt onto the road. A former semi truck driver, Shane said he knew how to handle this. He didnt swerve. He didnt slow down. He drove right into the animal, the front right corner of his vehicle buckling as it hit the animal. Were they startled? A little bit, Shane admitted. Whatever. Ive hit deer before . . . I was just hoping (Darlene) was OK; she kind of just screamed a little bit because the seat belt tightened against her stomach. Shane said the deer was flung off the road by the force of the collision. He pulled his smoking SUV to the side of the road as the vehicles temperature gauge rapidly climbed. Neither of them panicked, Shane said, but they were still on the edge of Winnipeg and time was running out. He waved down the first car to come along, but it was packed full of people no room for a pregnant woman and her husband. They didnt speak English, so that didnt help. The next vehicle that pulled over was a pickup truck, driven by a middle-aged man with his 18-year-old son. My wifes going into labour, Shane told him. We need to get to St. Boniface Hospital as soon as possible. Any way you can help us out? Shane concedes that this was a tough request to turn down. Part of me felt a little bad, like a typical Canadian, because you cant really say no when someone flags you down and says their wife is in labour, he said. The man rearranged some baggage in the back seat Shane said he was on the way to the airport, to fly to northern Ontario to do concrete work and the frantic couple climbed inside. Shane said he thanked the man about 50 times on the way to the hospital. The man told him his kids were born there, too. When the Good Samaritan pulled up Shane and Darlene darted through the hospital doors but neither of them caught his name. The doctors at St. Boniface performed some tests to make sure the collision didnt hurt the baby, and Gunner Isaac Wall was born that day at 4:31 p.m. He weighed seven pounds, 10 ounces and both mom and baby made it through the ordeal in fine health. Shane assumes the deer was killed, but said his newborn son will always have a story to tell about how he came into the world. As for the Chevy, its a write-off. Read more about: SHARE: Brace yourselves. Environment Canada has issued a heat warning for Tuesday until Friday a period which might wind up as the longest and most significant heat wave of the summer so far. Tuesday afternoon will see highs in the mid-30 C range, which is not unusual for this summer. Overnight, however, a humid air mass moving north from the U.S. is expected to crank up the mugginess dial to 11. Starting Wednesday, Toronto could see some truly intense heat and humiditywhich, for those without A/C, will feel somewhere between the high 30 C and low 40 C mark. The coldest Toronto will feel over the next few days is somewhere in the low 20s, and perhaps only briefly during the morning chill. According to Environment Canadas current forecast, a weak cold front is expected to move through Toronto on Friday night, bringing with it a chance of rain and storms, along with some relief. Environment Canada and the city both list the ill, the young, those on certain medications and those who are marginally housed as being the most at risk during heat waves. Toronto doesnt have a heat alert in effect at the moment. The city tends to make those announcements in the morning, so check back for more details. SHARE: Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz has resigned as chairman of a Panamanian government commission set up to investigate the countrys offshore financial industry in the wake of the Panama Papers scandal, saying the panel was not given full independence.z Stiglitz and Mark Pieth, a Swiss anti-corruption expert, wrote Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela on Friday that they were pulling out of the study committee because they fear government officials will limit the panels freedom to investigate and keep its final report secret. They wrote that government officials had declined to commit to public release of the panels report and instead had insisted the groups findings would be the property of the government and that Panamanian authorities would have sole responsibility for any public announcements. Such restrictions, they said, made no sense. How can a group allegedly committed to transparency write a report that is not transparent? It would undermine our own credibility, Stiglitz said in telephone interview Friday afternoon. Evidently they wanted us to be part of a charade to convince people they were serious when in fact they werent. A government spokesperson said Panamanian officials regretted Stiglitz and Pieths exit from the panel, adding that the government understands both resignations are related to internal differences. In their resignation letter, Stiglitz and Pieth urged that the committee disband. Stiglitz said he and Pieth will likely issue their own separate report. Panamanian authorities established the panel appointing four members from Panama and three from outside the country in April. Varela called for the creation of the committee after a group of journalists from the Toronto Star, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and more than 100 other media partners revealed how the Panama-headquartered law firm Mossack Fonseca set up hard-to-trace shell companies for politicians, professional athletes, organized crime figures and money launderers from around the world. Amid the resulting media firestorm, Varela said that he was committed to bulletproofing Panamas financial services sector against threats from people and groups who want to use it for illegal activities. The commission is supposed to recommend changes to make it more difficult for foreigners to use Panamas financial sector for illegal purposes. Pieth said in an interview Friday with Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger that he and Stiglitz decided to resign after a government official recently sent them a letter saying the government wouldnt commit to releasing the report. Pieth told Tages-Anzeiger that he and Stiglitz agreed that we dont write secret reports. If you want to have a clean financial centre, transparency is the top priority. Stiglitz, a professor at New Yorks Columbia University, shared the 2001 Nobel prize in economics. Pieth is a professor of law and criminology at Basel University. He spent more than 20 years as the chair of the OECDs working group on corporate bribery. Later Friday afternoon, Panamanian officials distributed a nine-page document that describes itself as the committees July 2016 interim report. The document recommends more reporting requirements for offshore companies and suggests other changes in the countrys regulatory practices. It says Panama should try to reduce and, if possible, eliminate all forms of illicit money flows. Stiglitz and Pieth, however, said they had played no role in writing the document. Had they done so, they said, they would have made recommendations that go far beyond those that appear in the document. They added that it appears strange and nontransparent that a report of the committee be submitted without approval of Stiglitz, the committees chair. SHARE: On Aug. 21, 2015, a man armed with an AK-47 and a pistol attempted set out to attack passengers on board an express train heading from Brussels to Paris. Three American tourists Air Force Staff Sgt. Spencer Stone, National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos and their childhood friend Anthony Sadler sprang into action, subduing the attacker with the help of a British consultant, Chris Norman. Another man who tried to stop the attacker, Mark Moogalian, was injured. The Americans tell their story in the new book The 15:17 to Paris Alek starts moving back through the train. The only notions occupying his thoughts now are tasks that need completing; advancing to the next level. He feels logical, as clear as hes ever been, a computer operating without noise, silently running a single program. He is not thinking it does not feel like thinking it is ratcheting down a checklist. He moves into the next train car, following the terrorists path in reverse, moving past the bathroom where the attack began. He walks through Carriage 13: empty. The cafe car: empty. He registers the detritus of fleeing commuters: open laptops, cell phones, iPads, books. It looks like a place from which people have dematerialized in the middle of whatever they were doing. A marooned plastic cup, lolling on a table after falling from a hand that has disappeared. Another empty car, then another. Then, in the last two cars, a site that nearly bowls him over. Every single person huddled together, hundreds of them. For the first time, the gravity of it strikes him. All these people. If that man hadnt been stopped in the front if we hadnt stopped him and hed made it back here with all that ammo, to all these people, confined in one small place with no way to escape the immensity of it pulls him from his state. Is anyone hurt? He goes back to the second train car from the front. He begins clearing the AK-47 when a train employee comes to him with damp paper towels to help clean up blood. The train employee is trying to be useful. It enrages Alek. Alek has shifted into a military kind of perception, dividing labour, triaging tasks; his level of adrenalin is still high, only now its mixed with the emotional tidal wave that started to swell when he saw the huddled passengers at the back of the train. He is not prepared for a distraction from the tasks that need to be done. This man is disordering a to-do list and Alek is too amped up to accommodate disorganization. Things in their order. Its not time to clean up thats a step whose turn has not yet come the employee is throwing it all out of order. Alek tries to ignore him. He asks Chris to ask the man for some space. Chris has an innate ability to speak sense into people. Chris whispers to the man and the man retreats. Alek finishes emptying the weapon, places it on a seat, moves to Spencers side. He asks Spencer if he can help. Spencer is trying not to move, trying to keep the bleeding man from moving, but Mark is groaning, and his wife is insisting Mark got shot in the chest. Alek knows Mark did not get shot in the chest, but he does not know how he knows. Spencer seems to agree, but he says, Check anyway. Alek takes the box cutter from the terrorist and slices open Marks shirt. He does a blood sweep, running his hands all over Marks torso to see if blood comes up, which would mean there was another wound. He doesnt find any. He stands up. He looks at Anthony, who has a look on his face like hes just witnessed some ridiculous slapstick accident, a man and a banana peel. Alek doesnt know whats funny. Did he do something? Say something? Is there a smudge on his face? And then he understands. All of it. There is a terrorist tied up on the ground, Spencer is bleeding in a million places, and meanwhile the train is whirring along quietly, a big smooth machine oblivious to the menagerie inside it. Alek is on the same page now. He stands next to Anthony, this friend he had not seen since middle school, a person he was surprised was coming at all, a person he didnt totally get, and the two of them, without even really needing to say anything, know they are thinking exactly the same thing. It is all absurd and ridiculous, and together they stand there and laugh. Excerpted from The 15:17 to Paris: The True Story of a Terrorist, a Train, and Three American Heroes. Copyright 2016 by Anthony Sadler, Alek Skarlatos, Spencer Stone and Jeffrey E. Stern. Published by PublicAffairs. In stores Aug. 23. SHARE: Baluchistan is a place that desperately needs lawyers. Pakistans largest province by area, it is the home of a decades-old separatist insurgency, fuelled by real grievances over neglect and lack of political representation. It is also increasingly the target of Sunni extremists, who bomb and kill its Shiite minorities. What leaders the province has are widely considered corrupt. Dozens of local journalists have been kidnapped in the past few years. It is nearly impossible for foreign reporters to enter Baluchistan. Lawyers are almost all that give the province a semblance of justice. About 60 of them were killed in one attack on Monday in Baluchistans capital, Quetta. They were packed into an emergency room where the body of another slain colleague lay, riddled with gunshot wounds. A widely circulated video showed lawyers milling about the hospital before an enormous explosion. A Pakistani Taliban offshoot claimed the attack, as did Daesh, also known as ISIS and ISIL, though analysts say the latters claim is dubious. A week earlier, another lawyer was fatally shot. In June, the principal of the provinces law college was, too. A generation of lawyers has been wiped out in Quetta, and it will leave Baluchistan, in more ways than one, lawless. On Tuesday, the Pakistani bar association called for an indefinite boycott of the courts. But so few lawyers are left in Baluchistan that it will be years, probably, until its legal community recovers. The global response has been muted. Ban Ki-moon, Hillary Clinton and other international figures issued brief, tired statements. Pakistans leaders did much the same. No officials have been held responsible for the security breakdown at what should have been a highly guarded scene. The website of Dawn, Pakistans most reputed English-language newspaper, had only a day-old story and photo gallery about the attack on its home page on Tuesday evening. Barkhurdar Khan, a member of the Baluchistan Bar Council, was one of the few lawyers who survived the attack. He has practiced in Quetta for nine months. After the attack, Khan offered his singular perspective in a heart-rending stream of posts on social media. All, I repeat ALL Senior practicing lawyers and Barristers died today, he wrote. The number of junior lawyers, who are the sole bread winners of their homes and who are now unemployed runs into hundreds. Most of those who died were first gen educated. The scenes of misery and loss cannot be put into words. The bent shoulders of their fathers, the broken backs of their brothers. Their kids, still oblivious to their own loss, playing and hoping, Khan continued. Every lawyer that has ever given me a lift home is dead, except for one, Naveed Qambrani, he is critical and was airlifted to Karachi. Heart wrenching is an understatement. Read more about: SHARE: LOS ANGELESA notorious rapist who muffled his victims screams with a pillowcase was back in custody Tuesday, two years after he was released from a psychiatric hospital over the protests of prosecutors and women who feared he would attack again. Christopher Hubbart, 65, was taken into custody, said Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles district attorney. Robinson did not specify why Hubbart was returned to custody. Hubbart, who was dubbed the pillowcase rapist, has been in and out of prisons and state psychiatric hospitals since his first rape conviction in 1972. He has acknowledged raping at least 40 women, several following stints behind bars. After reoffending and serving more time, Hubbart was declared a sexually violent predator in 2000 and committed to a state-run psychiatric hospital. A Northern California judge in 2013 ordered Hubbart released after doctors said he had completed treatment and was fit to live in the community. The judge ordered that he live in Southern California near where he grew up, though his notoriety made it difficult to find housing. When he was released in 2014, he moved into a small house in the desert on the outskirts of Palmdale. Prosecutors had fought his release, and angry residents of the Antelope Valley about 64 kilometres north of Los Angeles had protested and burned effigies outside. Hubbart had been living under guard and had to comply with strict conditions that included wearing a monitoring device around his ankle, attending therapy and undergoing lie detector tests and random searches of his home. Prosecutors tried to have him returned to custody last year after the batteries in his ankle monitor twice ran too low. A judge denied the request. Robison had no other information about why Hubbart was picked up and referred calls to the Department of State Hospitals. A state hospitals spokesman could not confirm Hubbart was in custody because of state and federal privacy laws that prevent the release of patient information. A call to Hubbarts defence lawyer was not immediately returned. SHARE: The Chinese ambassador in London said the Hinkley Point nuclear power plant represents a crucial historical junction for relations between Britain and China, which has a minority stake in the $30 billion Cdn. project. In an opinion piece published in Tuesdays Financial Times, Liu Xiaoming, said the cancellation of the plant could affect trade with Britains second-largest trading partner outside Europe. The comments, an unusually forceful intervention in a domestic policy decision, come as Prime Minister Theresa Mays government considers whether to proceed with Britains first nuclear reactors in more than 20 years. Before May took office, one of her closest allies had questioned whether allowing China a role in U.K.s nuclear industry posed a national security threat. Mutual trust is the very foundation on which bilateral co-operation is built, Liu said. Hinkley Point, designed to replace aging atomic plants and help Britain meet carbon-reduction targets, has been criticized for its expense. Electricite de France SA, the French utility leading the project, approved the plants construction at a board meeting last month, but the British government said it needed more time to think, delaying the final investment decision until September. In a blog post written last year before becoming Mays chief of staff, Nick Timothy exposed additional concerns about energy security. He warned that involvement by Chinese partners in the project could allow them to shut down Britains energy production at will. Liu pointed to a 30-year track record of safe nuclear operations at home and his countrys membership in the International Atomic Energy Agency. Thanks to safeguards of international standards, there has never been a concern that foreign companies might control Chinas nuclear reactors, he wrote. China has invested more in U.K. over the past five years than Germany, France and Italy combined. President Xi Jinping said that they were in a golden era of bilateral relations during his visit last year, which secured deals valued at 70 billion Cdn. The ambassador asked for clarification in the role of nuclear in the countrys energy policy and that Chinese companies are considered to be good partners. He also said that he hopes that the U.K. government will come to a decision as soon as possible. Britains decision to subsidize power generated from Hinkley Point at about twice the current market rate for electricity, or $157 Cdn. a megawatt hour, has prompted criticism at home and abroad. There are lots of other things we can do with the Chinese which are much positive and are economically, socially useful, Legal & General Group Plcs Chief Executive Officer Nigel Wilson said Tuesday in an interview on Bloomberg Television. He favours abandoning Hinkley in favour of smaller power generation units Britain rolled out the red carpet for Xi during a lavish state visit in October, complete with a stay at Buckingham Palace as the guest of Queen Elizabeth II. The visit also saw protests by pro-Tibet and human rights demonstrators concerned about the British governments lavish welcome for the Chinese leader. And there was later embarrassment when the queen was caught on microphone saying Chinese officials had been very rude to the ambassador while the visit was being organized. Includes files from Associated Press Read more about: SHARE: KISSIMMEE, FLA.Hillary Clinton offered a simple reply to Donald Trumps economic address Monday: Dont let a friend vote Trump. At a rally in St. Petersburg, Florida, Clinton said the plans Trump outlined earlier in Detroit would push the country back into recession, warning that his plans benefit the rich and do little to create jobs or boost the economy. His tax plans would give super big tax breaks to large corporations and the really wealthy, Clinton said, characterizing the proposals, which include substantial tax cuts, as trickle-down economics. You know that old saying: Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me, she said. Clinton countered with her own economic proposals, saying she wants to invest in public works projects and more educational opportunities and will tax top earners to pay for her plans. She is expected to speak to the Detroit Economic Club on Thursday. I have said throughout this campaign I am not going to raise the taxes on the middle class, but with your help we are going to raise it on the wealthy, said Clinton. At a rally later in the day in Kissimmee, Florida, Clinton continued her criticism, saying that Trump hasnt offered any plans on infrastructure besides building a wall and having Mexico pay for it. She also stressed her commitment to small businesses, asking would you rather have a president who says youre fired or youre hired? Earlier Monday, Clinton toured a brewery as a way of highlighting her commitment to small businesses. She plans to campaign in Miami Tuesday, as part of a two-day tour through battleground Florida, home of 29 electoral votes. Clinton is focusing on jobs and the economy at campaign events. Aides say they hope to build on polls showing Clinton gaining ground on economic issues, which have made up the core of Trumps campaign message. We are not interested in economic plans that only help the top 1 per cent, Clinton said in St. Petersburg. Clinton is putting a heavy focus on Florida with travel and television advertising. President Barack Obama narrowly won the state in 2012. At her Kissimmee event, she pledged to support Puerto Rico, saying she would do all she could to put it back on a path of prosperity. While there, Clinton also plans to meet with health professionals combating the Zika virus. She said she would meet with people on the front line of Zika on Tuesday. Washington cannot keep ignoring the needs of the families of Florida, Clinton said. The Republican-controlled Congress left Washington in mid-July for a seven-week recess without approving any of the $1.9 billion (U.S.) Obama requested in February to develop a vaccine and control the mosquitoes that carry the virus. Abortion politics played a central role in the impasse. Read more about: SHARE: Daesh has looted or destroyed a considerable portion of the Tal Ajaja archeological site in northeastern Syria, according to Agence France-Presse. Khaled Ahmo, director of antiquities in Hasakah province, where the ancient mound is located, told AFP that more than 40 per cent of Tal Ajaja was destroyed or ravaged by the extremist groups fighters. The militants had overrun the area in 2014, but in recent months they were chased out of whole stretches of Hasakah by a campaign led by Kurdish militias. In the wake of the departure of Daesh, also known as ISIS and ISIL, the extent of the damage the militants have wrought is being steadily discovered. Tal Ajaja, about 48 kilometres from the border with Iraq, is one of a series of vast Mesopotamian mounds rich in artifacts and relics going back about three or four millennia. In 2014, video emerged of Daesh militants smashing Assyrian statues at the site. According to the extremist groups apocalyptic creed, representations of deities and sites of pre-Islamic worship are worthy of destruction. As the groups fighters wreaked havoc on the civilian populations caught up in their onslaught, they also pulverized what they could of the regions supposedly apostate history. Moreover, Daesh developed a lucrative, illicit trade in smuggling the antiquities it chose not to smash. This also was the case in Tal Ajaja, where the militants dug tunnels in previously untouched areas of the site and unearthed hitherto unknown treasures most of which have disappeared. They found items that were still buried, statues, columns. Weve lost many things, Maamoun Abdulkarim, head of Syrias antiquities department, told AFP. He added: These barbarians have burnt pages of Mesopotamias history. In two or three months, they wiped out what would have required 50 years of archeological excavations. Its one of the many bitter ironies of the moment that Daesh an outfit driven by a puritanical zeal and a nihilistic penchant for violence has taken root in one of the most archaeologically rich parts of the world. The stretches of northern Iraq and Syria where the group has seized territory are home to many layers of history and the ruins of dozens of ancient civilizations, including some of the worlds first urban societies. The regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad has used Daeshs razing of the past and ransacking of museums as part of its propaganda. After regime forces recaptured Palmyra, a UNESCO World Heritage site, with Russian support this year, the government held a concert in the sites Roman-era amphitheatre. Russian President Vladimir Putin beamed in via video conference and declared the liberation of Palmyra from Daesh a sign of hope in the battle against terrorism. Read more about: SHARE: DALLASTravellers on Delta Air Lines endured hundreds more cancelled and delayed flights on Tuesday as the carrier slogged through day two of its recovery from a global computer outage. By late morning, nearly 400 Delta flights had been scrubbed and more than 700 delayed, according to tracking service FlightStats Inc. The disruptions followed about 1,000 cancellations and 2,800 delayed flights on Monday after a power outage at Deltas Atlanta headquarters tripped a meltdown of its booking, communications and other systems. The airline was back online after a few hours Monday, but the outages were so widespread that it was still dealing with the ripple effects a day later. Chief Operating Officer Gil West says that the airline is seeing slowness in a system used to check in and board passengers and dispatch planes. West is giving the airlines most detailed description yet of what happened Monday to trigger a global outage of its computer systems. He says a piece of power equipment failed, causing a loss of power. Key systems and equipment then did not switch over to backups. More than 1,000 people spent the night at Narita Airport outside Tokyo because of the shutdown. While flights resumed in the morning, Delta spokeswoman Hiroko Okada said more delays were expected. Delta also extended a travel-waiver policy to help stranded passengers rearrange their travel plans. The airline posted a video apology by CEO Ed Bastian. And it offered refunds and $200 (U.S.) in travel vouchers to people whose flights were cancelled or delayed at least three hours. Deltas challenge Tuesday will be to find enough seats on planes during the busy summer vacation season to accommodate the tens of thousands of passengers whose flights were scrubbed. Airlines have been putting more people in each plane, so when a system of a major carrier crashes, as has happened with others before Delta, finding a new seat for the waylaid becomes more difficult. Last month, the average Delta flight was 87 per cent full. Confusion among passengers Monday was compounded as Deltas flight-status updates crashed as well. Instead of staying home or poolside at a hotel until the airline could fix the mess, many passengers learned about the gridlock only after they reached the airport. By the time I showed up at the gate the employees were already disgruntled, and it was really difficult to get anybody to speak to me or get any information, said Ashley Roache, whose flight from Lexington, Kentucky, to New Yorks LaGuardia Airport was delayed. The company could have done a better job of explaining ... what was happening. Delta spokesman Trebor Banstetter said that after the power outage, key systems and network equipment did not switch over to backups. The investigation of the outage is ongoing, but Banstetter said there is no indication the problems were caused by a hack or intentional breach of the system. Georgia Power, which controls the system where the outage began, said it appears that a failure of Delta equipment caused the airlines power disruption. No other customers lost power, a spokesman said. Airlines depend on huge, overlapping and complicated systems to operate flights, ticketing, boarding, airport kiosks, websites and mobile phone apps. Even brief outages can now snarl traffic and, as the Delta incident shows, those problems can go global in seconds. Last month, Southwest Airlines cancelled more than 2,000 flights over four days after an outage it blamed on a faulty network router. United Airlines and American Airlines both suffered outages last year United has struggled with several meltdowns since combining technology systems with merger partner Continental Airlines. Some passengers said they were shocked that computer glitches could cause such turmoil. Others took it in stride. Ryan Shannon, another passenger on the Lexington-to-New York flight, said passengers boarded, were asked to exit, waited about 90 minutes and then got back on the plane. Once Delta cleared flights to take off, we boarded and didnt have any problems. There is always a delay, or weather, or something. I travel weekly, so Im used to it, Shannon said. SHARE: Hes a prominent billionaire politician with a reputation for provocative comments, vulgar insults and sexual innuendo, to say nothing of a hairstyle that cant be ignored. Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president? Yes, but Italians could be forgiven if they had someone else in mind. The description could easily be applied to their former prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi. Tocca a voi is a comment Italians often make to Americans these days, which translates as, It is your turn. Europeans have been fascinated by Trumps high-voltage campaign, but they are also concerned about it. An international poll taken last spring and published in June by the Pew Research Center found that 85 per cent of those polled in 10 European countries had no confidence in Trumps ability to do the right thing on the world stage. Just last week, President Francois Hollande of France said the Republican candidates excesses make people want to retch. And yet, at least in relative terms, Italians were slightly more willing to express confidence in Trump when it came to world affairs than people elsewhere in Europe 21 per cent in Italy, compared with 9 per cent in France and 6 per cent in Germany. Much has been made in Italy of the similarities between Trump and Berlusconi: Both glorify their success in business, both dominate the media landscape (Berlusconi had the advantage of owning much of it in his country), both boast about their sexual prowess and both seem to enjoy insulting people and other nations. Berlusconis vulgarity was an embarrassment for many Italians, just as Trumps is for many Americans mostly Democrats, but also some Republicans. Yet there is an argument to be made that their boorishness is a key to their popularity. Both are deliberately transgressive, breaking through the tedium of politics-as-usual by using vulgar language, insulting and shouting down opponents, adopting simple catchy slogans and making off-colour jokes and misogynistic remarks, Alexander Stille, a journalist and author of books on Italy, wrote in The Intercept. Trump has insulted Mexicans, Muslims and women. Berlusconi congratulated President Barack Obama on his tan and accused the Germans of not recognizing the existence of Nazi death camps. Call it politically incorrect, or call it barroom macho talk. Either way, it seems to work with domestic audiences fed up with what they see as the ineffectual platitudes offered by mainstream politicians. Berlusconis escapades clearly resonated with Italian voters, who kept him in office longer than any other leader since the Second World War. As former Italian president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi once told the German magazine Der Spiegel, Italians preferred to laugh at Berlusconis bawdy behaviour than discuss the budget deficit. In the United States, some commentators have suggested that Trumps tough talk appeals to older white men his core voting bloc because it speaks to their frustration with a changing world that has robbed them of their ascendancy. Trump and Berlusconi are also united in their admiration for another man: President Vladimir Putin of Russia, also known to resort to crude language, as when he invited a French reporter to undergo a circumcision. Given his consistent popularity at home, Russians dont seem bothered by Putins rough manners, which are in keeping with his combative challenge to the West. Many see his aggressive behaviour as appropriate payback for the humiliation they felt after the collapse of the Soviet Union. According to the Pew poll, these three leaders all share a degree of popularity in Italy. Not only were Trumps most favourable ratings in Italy found among former Berlusconi supporters, but they also corresponded with positive views of Putin. Among those in Italy who have confidence in Putin to handle world affairs, 44 per cent express confidence in Donald Trump, the survey concluded. Crude behaviour and insulting language are not the only reasons that Trump, Putin and Berlusconi have enjoyed popular support, but they certainly havent hurt. Read more about: SHARE: With Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine announcing shes not voting for Donald Trump, the time has come to ask: Have we reached a turning point in the Republicans relationship with their nominee? Is this a moment well look back on as the beginning of the end for Trumps support in the party? My unsatisfying answer to that: It depends how you ask the question. Lets break it down into three categories to get a better sense of whether we are indeed in a turning point with Trump and the Republican Party. 1. How many Republicans are un-endorsing Trump? Depending on how you count their sometimes-vague answers, somewhere between 10 per cent and 20 per cent of Senate Republicans have said they wont support Donald Trump for president. A handful of House GOP lawmakers have said the same, and at least one said hes voting for Hillary Clinton. (Though New Yorks Richard Hanna is retiring.) Top Republican donors and figures past and present are endorsing Clinton on a near-daily basis now, and they add up to more than two dozen, by the count of the Washington Posts Aaron Blake. Two dozen-plus might sound like a lot, but thats nowhere near a majority of the Republican Party. In fact, in our latest Washington Post/ABC News poll, 83 per cent of Republican registered voters said theyll be voting for Trump over Clinton. But! Even this percentage of defections is historically unusual, said Robert David Johnson, a history professor at Brooklyn College. Cross-party endorsements are rare in modern-day politics, especially when theyre coming from across party lines that are so ideologically divided. In a period where the parties are so ideologically grouped, having this many non-endorsements from legislators is almost inconceivable, he said. And so it does suggest there is something really, really unusual going on here. 2. Why are they un-endorsing Trump? Then theres the motivation factor. When trying to assess whether the Republican Party is turning on its nominee, why people decide to speak out against him is a critical factor. Its also one thats tough to pin down without getting inside their heads. Are the Republican figures past and present coming out against Trump now doing so because hes suddenly proven himself an untenable candidate to them? Or are they simply voicing opposition theyve held since the primaries? Or is there another, more personal motivation? To try to answer that last question, its not difficult to see how un-endorsing Trump could actually benefit some Republican politicians in moderate states. A politician from a moderate state where Trump isnt that popular, like Collins, whos not up for reelection until 2020 (or, if she wants to run for governor of Maine, 2018), might be betting she has a much better chance of being reelected if Trump loses in November. Assuming future Trump is as unpopular as present Trump, weve already seen a glimpse of how Trump could drag down vulnerable Senate candidates in his party. The Posts James Hohmann noticed a trend about these un-endorsements that he wrote in his political newsletter, The Daily 202: Every Republican who has bucked Trump can be pretty easily categorized. A clear pattern emerges: The less directly and immediately accountable to Republican base voters an elected official is, the more likely he or she is to break with Trump. Its also notable that some Republicans seem to be questioning Trump as the party is already locked into its nominee. Short of death, coma or Trump just deciding not to run, theres nothing in the rule books to keep him from staying Republican nominee in November. So what good can coming out against him in August do, other than hurt his chances and perhaps boost others? 3. Is this hurting Trump in the court of public opinion? Finally, we look at the publicity factor of this steady drip drip of Trump un-endorsements. And thats probably the most difficult to measure. Nearly every day, it feels like theres someone high profile expressing his or her displeasure with Trump. On Friday it was the former CIA director. Over the weekend it was a retiring Virginia congressman, who said hed vote Libertarian. On Monday it was 50 former GOP national security officials. On Tuesday it was Collins (and a handful of former Bush administration officials). To anyone paying even the slightest attention to political news, it certainly feels like the party is abandoning Trump. Thats not a good storyline for Trump to start the general election with. When he endorsed Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, Trump signalled that party unity is indeed important to him (although hes also said he thinks he could win without it). These defections risk driving the narrative about Trump that hes unfit to be president. But how much of this is internal party politics and merely background noise to the rest of voting America? Does the average voter know or even care who Michael Chertoff (former Homeland Security secretary) or William Reilly (former EPA administrator) or even Collins the most prominent un-Trump supporter so far is? And once they find out, will it affect how they vote? Thats the million-dollar question. Besides, if youre to believe Trump himself, all press is good press. By that definition Trump has the full attention of the Republican Party and the U.S. public. And by that logic he is winning, not losing. By most standard measures, he is not. I personally think its less clear whether the Republican Party has reached a turning point with its nominee, but the fact were talking about this at all is a significant political moment. Read more about: SHARE: BUCHAREST, ROMANIAThe body of Anne of Romania, the wife of the countrys ex-king, was to be flown to Bucharest Tuesday for the biggest royal funeral in almost 80 years. Anne married King Michael six months after communists forced him to abdicate in December 1947, and did not visit Romania until she was almost 70, nor did she speak the language. Her Aug. 1 death in Switzerland aged 92, however, has provoked an outpouring of grief in the East European country. A day of mourning has been proclaimed in Romania and neighbouring Moldova. Known for her wit, modesty and down-to-earth attitude, Romanians link Anne to the respected Michael, now 94, the last of the countrys four kings. The first, Carol 1, ruled from 1866, and the monarchy lasted until 1947. Romanian monarchs were animated by deep patriotism, not like (the government) we have now, Theodor Paleologu, a former culture minister and professor, told The Associated Press. Paleologu, who belongs to an ancient Romanian princely family, first met Anne in Paris when he was 17. His father Alexandru Paleologu, was Romanias first post-communist ambassador to France. He recalls her drinking beer with bodyguards and giving candies to children and her total lack of affectation. Explaining the deep feeling for Anne, he cited her 68-year marriage to Michael, Romanias last king: without this cycle we would not exist as a nation. Annes coffin flies from Switzerland Tuesday afternoon to great fanfare. Michael, who has cancer, will remain at the family home in Switzerland and miss the funeral on the advice of medics. Four of the couples five daughters will be in Romania for the funeral. Later Tuesday, Anne will be laid in state in the Peles Castle in the mountain resort of Sinaia and later in Bucharest. She will be buried at the Curtea de Arges cemetery of the royal family on Saturday. SHARE: NEW YORKRepublican Donald Trump is suggesting that rival Hillary Clintons emails may be responsible for the death of an Iranian nuclear scientist who was executed for spying for the United States. Hours after an unusually disciplined speech on his economic plan for the country, Trump, using the people are saying sentence structure he often favours to make accusations, tweeted Monday night: Many people are saying that the Iranians killed the scientist who helped the U.S. because of Hillary Clintons hacked emails. He didnt say which people he meant. The FBI has said there is no evidence that Clintons emails were hacked due to her use of a private account and server during her tenure as secretary of state. Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill tweeted back: Many people are saying = I made this up. Merrill added that after Trumps morning speech to the Detroit Economic Club and sticking closely to his script the muzzle was bound to come off. Trumps speech was designed in part to reassure Republicans unnerved by a disastrous week of self-inflicted feuds with an assortment of people, from grieving Muslim-American parents to the leaders of Trumps own party. Clintons campaign cast his tweet Monday night as evidence that, in the words of spokesman Josh Schwerin, Theres just no resetting Donald Trump. Trump isnt the first to suggest there could be a link between Clintons emails on her private server and the execution of Shahram Amiri. Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton said on CBSs Face the Nation Sunday that on Hillary Clintons private server, there were conversations among her senior advisers about this gentleman. That goes to show just how reckless and careless her decision was to put that kind of highly classified information on a private server, he said. Amiri, an Iranian scientist, defected to the U.S. at the height of Western efforts to thwart Irans nuclear program. When he returned in 2010, he was given a heros welcome and greeted with flowers by government leaders. Then he mysteriously disappeared. Amiris case indirectly found its way into the spotlight last year with the release of State Department emails sent and received by Clinton. One 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 wont be able to do anything anyway. If he has to leave, so be it. Another email, sent by Sullivan on July 12, 2010, which appears to obliquely refer to the scientist just hours before his appearance at the Iranian-interests section at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington, 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. Clintons decision to store her emails on a private server in her New York home sparked an FBI investigation and has become a dominant issue in the presidential campaign. Read more about: SHARE: MOSCOWAgainst a backdrop of rising tensions between Turkey and the West, Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey have pledged to repair relations after nine months of open antagonism. Although Tuesdays meeting in St. Petersburg produced little beyond vows of friendship and co-operation, the symbolism of the two former antagonists coming together for a friendly talk had to be enough to raise alarms in western capitals. Besides being a member of the NATO alliance, Turkey is vital to Europes efforts to stanch the flow of refugees from Syria and Afghanistan. The governments in Washington and Ankara, long at odds over the United States support of the Kurds in Syria and Iraq, have had a series of problems lately. Anti-Americanism has been on the rise in Turkey, amid accusations that the U.S. played a role in the failed coup in Turkey and widespread resentment of the White Houses criticism of the resulting crackdown. Turkish officials have been further infuriated by U.S. President Barack Obamas reluctance to hand over Fethullah Gulen, a reclusive Muslim cleric living in Pennsylvania whom Erdogan has accused of leading the coup attempt. For Putin, who has made little secret of his ambitions to weaken NATO and crack European unity, the opportunity to forge a new and closer relationship with a humbled Erdogan was probably deeply satisfying, and a vindication of his decision to intervene militarily in Syria. No one predicted a radical shift in relations, at least not an immediate one. Russia and Turkey have been on opposite sides of the Syrian conflict, and the two leaders had been at each others throats since November, when Turkey shot down a Russian warplane that it said had briefly violated its airspace on the Syrian border, with one pilot killed by ground fire after ejecting. After the jet was shot down, Putin called Erdogan a back-stabber and demanded an apology, which was refused. That episode drew an angry response from Moscow, which banned most fruit and vegetable imports from Turkey and halted the flow of millions of Russian tourists. Although Russian gas sales to Turkey continued, the countries $30 billion in annual trade decreased by 43 percent, Putin said. It is true that we lived through a complicated moment in our interstate relations, Putin said at a joint news conference televised from St. Petersburg. But we all would like to and we feel that our Turkish friends want the same overcome those complications. Feeling increasingly isolated this summer, Erdogan wrote a letter in June offering the apology Putin had demanded for the downing of the Russian jet. With that out of the way, steps could begin toward a normalization of relations. However, efforts to restore ties accelerated after the July 15 coup attempt in Turkey, after which Putin was the first leader to call to offer support. It was very important from a mental perspective, this kind of psychological support, Erdogan said. Any future agreements between the two countries could have significant repercussions for the Middle East and Europe. Erdogan most probably hopes to use the leverage of better relations with Russia to force a better deal with Europe over the migrant crisis. European leaders have joined the U.S. in criticizing the sweeping arrests that followed the failed coup. Closer ties with Russia also carry the potential to create tensions within NATO that Putin would be happy to exploit. Ultimately, Moscow would like to draw Turkey into its orbit and into the security and trade organizations it is promoting in Asia, although nobody envisions such a shift anytime soon. Erdogan can use Russia as a trump card in his negotiations with the West, said Alexander D. Vasilyev, an expert on Russian-Turkish ties at the Institute for Oriental Studies in Moscow. For him, the main goal is the West, not Russia. In the bleak days, planning was suspended on the Turkish Stream pipeline meant to deliver Russian gas to Europe, as well as on the Akkuyu nuclear power plant that Russia is building in southern Turkey. On Tuesday, the two leaders said they were planning to restart all that, with Erdogan repeating their pre-crisis pledge to eventually increase annual trade between the countries to $100 billion. Read more about: SHARE: Mel Hurtig was a force of nature. I first met Mel in the fall of 1985, when he invited me to a series of meetings to discuss the coming Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement. There I met the people I most admired in our country Bob White, Grace Hartman, David Suzuki, Pierre Berton, Walter Gordon, Sheila Copps, Mel Watkins, Stephen Clarkson, Christina McCall, Stephen Lewis, Duncan Cameron, Doris Anderson, Margaret Atwood, and many others, all concerned that a deal with Ronald Reagans America would threaten our social programs, our ability to control our natural resources and culture and our right to an independent foreign policy. How could you not love a man who rented a Twin Otter airplane to drop a Canadian flag on the American icebreaker Polar Sea when it entered the Northwest Passage without permission from our government? Mels passion for Canada was forged in his early years as an Edmonton bookstore owner and publisher. He was shocked to find how little space there was for Canadian literature, films, books and music and how shallow the teaching of Canadian culture and history was in many schools and universities. This passion led him to help form the Committee for an Independent Canada (which in turn influenced Canadian cultural policy), create the fabulous Canadian Encyclopedia and write a series of bestselling books, the last a scathing account of the Harper years in power. Together we founded the Council of Canadians, whose mandate included support for Canadian culture, a Canadian industrial strategy, reduced foreign ownership, better and more careful use of natural resources, and a progressive foreign policy that included multilateral (fair) trade, a strengthened United Nations, de-escalation of tensions between the superpowers, and a global arms control deal. Although I took over the role of chair in 1988, Mel continued to act as friend and mentor for many years, helping to create what is now one of Canadas most vibrant social and environmental justice organizations with more than 100,000 members and supporters. Mel continued to cross this great country, speaking to thousands of people, increasingly addressing another passion that of the growing inequality in Canadian society. Just as he predicted when we founded the council, our social security net became frayed and Mel was deeply affected by the poverty, especially among the young, he saw on his travels. His 1999 book, Pay the Rent or Feed the Kids, was a cry from his heart asking how child poverty could exist in a county as blessed with wealth as Canada. We had our disagreements, of course. I did not support the founding of the National Party in 1992, fearing a split of the anti-NAFTA vote in the upcoming election. I felt our movement needed to remain non-partisan and attempt to influence policy-makers across the board. I also moved the Council of Canadians away from its nationalist roots, to one critiquing economic globalization, making common cause with people and communities struggling for justice around the world. I would point out to Mel that not all aggressive corporations were American and remind him that Canadas mining companies operating in the global south have the worst reputation in the world for human rights and environmental violations. Where we never differed was in our views on free trade and how these deals serve the interests of transnational corporations and limit the right of governments to protect workers, communities or the environment. Those who extol the benefits of NAFTA can never explain the dramatic loss of manufacturing jobs, the growing income gap or Canadas continued trade deficit since that deal was signed. A recent poll found that only one-in-four Canadians support NAFTA, and resistance to the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) is very strong in Europe. Both major U.S. parties now oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a deal Mel was fighting right up to the end of his life. Mel Hurtigs passion for justice never left him. I love the fact that hours before his death in a Vancouver hospital, his daughters, Barbara, Jane, Gillian, and Leslie, told their father that the Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women had finally been announced. Mel smiled and said, Bravo! Its about time. Mels legacy is his challenge to all of us who live in this country: if, with all our natural wealth, financial resources, and educated population, we in Canada cannot create a truly just and sustainable society, who can? His spirit lives on to guide us to this path. Maude Barlow is the National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians. She is touched that Mels family has asked that, in lieu of flowers, people donate to the council or the political party of their choice. SHARE: When a person dies behind bars, the government has a clear moral duty to be sensitive and transparent with the loved ones left behind. Yet a recent report from prison ombudsman Howard Sapers suggests Correctional Service Canada (CSC) is consistently failing to fulfill that duty. Sapers report, In the Dark, paints a picture of an insensitive agency that too often obscures the truth around the circumstances of prison deaths, skirting public scrutiny and compounding the anguish of grieving loved ones in the process. It is required by law that when an inmate dies from non-natural causes, an investigation be conducted and a report issued. But in several cases, Sapers found CSC redacted portions of reports, altering or obscuring their meaning. Of particular concern was a tendency to black out details that might implicate correctional officers for failing to follow policy or worse. The examples Sapers provides are deeply troubling. In one report about a death that occurred between 2013 and 2015, any mention of the fact that the prisoner in question had threatened to kill himself was excised from the report. But this was information essential for evaluating the conduct of the correctional officers involved. Another family whose loved one died during the same period received an 88-page report that had 44 pages blacked out. Its not just at the report stage that the agency is apparently secretive. CSC withholds as much information as possible at all points from notification of death through the investigative process, Sapers said. And, according to the report, when it does communicate with families, it often does so inhumanely. In one case a family member arrived to view the body of his loved one at an appointed time, but was informed the inmate had already been cremated. Later, without warning, the prison couriered the ashes to the family. Sending someone in the mail . . . its just not right, a family member told Sapers office. While some of the agencys redactions are no doubt legitimate, such as those that protect the privacy of a prisoners cellmate, Sapers found that many appeared to be a misuse of the access to information and privacy laws. That harms not just the families of those who die in government custody, but also the public. CSC has the discretion, Sapers notes, to release information in the public interest. That ought to be the default. In recent years, prison deaths tied to Canadas cruel overuse of solitary confinement have finally started to come to light. The problem, and others like it, must not be allowed to recede into the shadows. Those affected by our penal policies have little public voice. It is on issues like the humane treatment of prisoners, whose plight might easily be ignored, where government opacity can be most damaging. Ottawa should take a close look at Sapers recommendations for reform and act quickly to fix this unjust, anti-democratic practice. Read more about: SHARE: NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The price of oil rose slightly higher early Tuesday morning to $43 per barrel, on hopes that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will agree to cut production, Fox Business' Ashley Webster reported on "Varney & Co." this morning. "The reason it's gone higher is because of this belief that OPEC is going to get together and actually agree on cutting back production. It's not going to happen," Webster predicted. The reason the price of oil has been on recent declines is because of supply glut concerns. "Who said it's not going to happen?" Fox Business' Stuart Varney asked. "Me," Webster stated. Webster does not foresee Saudi Arabia agreeing to a production cut. "They don't want to give up market share," he explained. Meanwhile, Webster does think the correlation between equities and the price of oil is "back in place." Crude oil (WT) and Brent crude prices fell again late this morning. NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Array BioPharma (ARRY) were sinking 22.69% to $3.44 in late-afternoon trading on Tuesday after the Boulder, CO-based pharmaceutical company's partner AstraZeneca (AZN) said its Phase III lung cancer drug trial failed. AstraZeneca owns the rights to the drug from Array. The London-based pharmaceutical and biologics company said its Phase III trial of selumetinib, in combination with docetaxel chemotherapy as a second-line treatment in patients with KRAS mutation-positive locally-advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer, failed to meet its primary endpoint. Array received $26.5 million in upfront and milestone payments for the drug and could earn as much as $70 million more in milestone payments and royalties, MarketWatch reports. As a result of the failed trial, Piper Jaffray lowered its price target on the stock to $7 from $9 this morning. While the trial could have brought in a substantial revenue stream for Array, the firm said it is more confident in the Phase III Columbus trial of wholly-owned binimetinib+encorafenib out this quarter, TheFly reports. Piper Jaffray maintained its "overweight" rating on the stock. Recently, TheStreet Ratings objectively rated this stock according to its "risk-adjusted" total return prospect over a 12-month investment horizon. Not based on the news in any given day, the rating may differ from Jim Cramer's view or that of this articles's author. TheStreet Ratings has this to say about the recommendation: We rate ARRAY BIOPHARMA INC as a Sell with a ratings score of D. This is driven by several weaknesses, which we believe should have a greater impact than any strengths, and could make it more difficult for investors to achieve positive results compared to most of the stocks we cover. The company's weaknesses can be seen in multiple areas, such as its deteriorating net income, weak operating cash flow, generally disappointing historical performance in the stock itself and feeble growth in its earnings per share. You can view the full analysis from the report here: ARRY ARRY data by YCharts Jack Ma is using the difficulty of breaking into China as a selling point for Alibaba's (BABA) AliCloud service. The Chinese e-commerce company announced new programs that would aid partners like SAP (SAP) and Check Point Software (CHKP) in "overcoming common obstacles that international companies have when expanding into China," a statement said Tuesday. Alibaba can tout its growing cloud business when it reports results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2017 on Thursday, Aug. 11. Wall Street expects the company to post adjusted earnings of 62 cents per share from $4.52 billion in sales in the quarter, according to FactSet. Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Youssef Squali noted that estimates have varied significantly. Alibaba closed the purchases of Chinese video streaming company Yokou Tudou and Southeast Asia e-commerce group Lazada during the period, Squali observed, and analysts differ on whether to include the units in their forecasts for the quarter. Starting this quarter, investors will have a clearer view of AliCloud and other units of Alibaba. Alongside its core online marketplace business, the company will provide greater detail on the finances of the cloud business; a newly formed mobile media and entertainment unit; and other initiatives such as the YunOS operating system and mapping and navigation unit AutoNavi. AliCloud is already a fast-growing business. Cloud revenues increased 175% in the fourth fiscal quarter of 2016 to 1.07 million renminbi ($165 million). "As China grows into its potential as a consumer economy, we think the demand for IT infrastructure will boom," MKM Partners analyst Rob Sanderson wrote in an earnings preview. Many companies will bypass traditional IT infrastructure and deploy their systems in the cloud. Alibaba "is best positioned for this opportunity," Sanderson wrote. The company has bolstered its cloud capacity to handle China's Nov. 11 "Single's Day," a tribute to single people that Alibaba has turned into a sales bonanza. Last year, Alibaba's Chinese and international markets handled 91 billion renminbi worth of transactions on single's day alone. Mobile revenues, however, are the "key business model metric," Sanderson wrote. "The shift to mobile has been the primary headwind on the business since the IPO," he observed. Another hot topic is Alibaba's emerging advertising business. "There are many Pinterest-like activities, influencers to follow, recommendations from friends, etc," Sanderson wrote. "These social activities provide a great opportunity for brand marketing." Counterfeiting could be a major theme on the call. Ma brought the issue into focus during a June investor call. Addressing Alibaba's efforts to root out counterfeit goods, Ma told investors that "the problem is that the fake products today are of better quality and better price than the real names," during the presentation. Aquatic plants have an important role in the pond ecosystem. They produce the majority of dissolved oxygen for use by fish and other aquatic animals. These plants also serve as escape cover for young fish and provide food for some aquatic animals. Problems arise when plants become so numerous in a pond or lake that they interfere with fishing, boating or swimming. When this situation occurs, we often want to remove the problem weeds. Aquatic plant management takes careful thought and planning. You need to monitor for excessive growth and then identify the type of plants growing in the pond before management strategies can be developed. As a rule of thumb, a pond supporting a population of fish should have aquatic plants covering about 20 to 40 percent of the surface area. When vegetation gets above the 40 percent range, the plants can interfere with the ponds intended use. Management of the vegetation can follow three broad options, which include mechanical, biological and chemical control. Chemical control is probably the most common approach that is used; however, the management process can actually begin as a pond is being constructed. The edges of a pond should be constructed so that shallow areas, with less than 3 feet of depth, are minimized. Ideally, deeper areas should be interspersed with shallower areas, which will isolate patches of aquatic plants, providing the best of both worlds. While chemical control of aquatic plants is a commonly used management option, this control method should be done early in the growing season, and no later than July 1. If herbicides are applied after this date to the entire pond area, it may lead to a fish kill because of high water temperatures and lower dissolved oxygen levels. If you are going to use chemicals to control vegetation, it is critical to identify the type of plants you have in your pond. Aquatic herbicides are not all created equal, in that they control only certain types of plants. The Illinois Department of Resources fisheries webpage is a great resource to help you identify and manage aquatic vegetation. Their webpage can be found at www.ifishillinois.org. The Aquatic Vegetation Identification and Management publication that can be viewed and downloaded at the website. The University of Illinois Extension Unit 19 office will host a Pond Management Seminar to help you better understand your aquatic resource from 6-8 p.m. on Aug. 23. The seminar will be held at the 4-H Center located on the Coles County Fairgrounds at 150 E Street in Charleston. Dave Shiley, U of I Extension, will present information on pond ecology, vegetation management, and basic fisheries management. There is no charge for this workshop, but advanced registration is requested. If you would like more information, or would like to register; contact the University of Illinois Coles Extension Unit at 217-345-7034 or visit the Extension website at: http://web.extension.illinois.edu/ccdms/ For more information, contact Dave Shiley at 217-543-3755. For more information on University of Illinois Extension programming in Coles, Cumberland, Douglas, Moultrie and Shelby counties, visit http://web.extension.illinois.edu/ccdms/index.html or call 217-345-7034. Blueberry and Chive Risotto; find the recipe link below. (Dixie D. Vereen/For The Washington Post) Im not normally drawn to purple food, but one afternoon I was served a plate of risotto made with fresh blueberries at a restaurant called Pillhof, in the Italian Alpine region of Alto Adige. My encounter with purple rice was not love at first bite, but with each forkful, as I wrapped my brain around the incongruous flavors, my affection grew exponentially. Before I was halfway finished, my thoughts drifted away from the table. I was having a double Proustian memory of both the ripe summer fruit of my childhood and my clumsy, novice attempts to master the art of risotto making namely to impress a girl who remained woefully unimpressed. Blueberry risotto may be a strange dish to inspire a madeleine moment, but then Alto Adige is a peculiar place, a corner of Italy where the locals speak German (and call the area Sudtirol or South Tyrol) and where people still feel nostalgic for the Austrian Empire, to which they belonged until World War I. Likewise, I am peculiar. Every year, for a stretch of July and August, I become almost fruitarian. There have been days when I reach dinnertime and realize I have eaten nothing but fresh melons, stone fruit and berries all day. And sometimes I want fruit for dinner, too. So the idea of using fruit in savory cooking always appeals to me, and I am on a hunt for recipes year-round. I love grilled peaches and melon gazpacho and citrus salads and pappardelle with lemon-basil sauce. One of my favorite tapas is Jose Andress nectarines topped with anchovies, and one of my favorite local pastas is the strawberry-tomato spaghetti from Roses Luxury. So the idea of making risotto with not just berries, but also cantaloupe or midsummer peaches or late-summer pears, seemed deeply appealing. However much I like to experiment, though, I am also a neurotic about tradition and authenticity. In years of traveling around Italy, I had never seen a berry risotto. But when my lunch companions in Alto Adige told me the dish is typical in the Italian Alps, I was intrigued. I immediately found several recipes for strawberry, apple and blueberry risottos in the classic, best-selling cookbook Il Cucchiaio dArgento (The Silver Spoon) essentially Italys Joy of Cooking. I also discovered a spate of fruit risottos in Italian cooking magazines from the late 2000s. Yet as I delved deeper, asking around to Italian-food friends, I soon learned that the topic of fruit risotto is a fraught one. Most shut down the discussion immediately. Preposterous! some said, grimacing and holding their stomachs. When I pressed further, several acknowledged that berry risottos had had a minor moment of popularity a few years ago, on well-watched television cooking shows in Italy. But Ive never tasted it, each of them said. It sounds very strange. One friend, a winemaker named Stefano, grew so incensed at the idea of fruit risotto that he uttered a common vulgar slang that I will not translate here, except to say that it basically means thats awful. Peach and Pancetta Risotto. (Goran Kosanovic/For The Washington Post) [Make the recipes: Peach and Pancetta Risotto; Risotto Vegetable Broth] Amid such mixed messages, I arrived at the conclusion that fruit risotto is definitely a thing, but its the sort of thing that most Italians wont talk about. Perhaps fruit risotto is sort of like, say, television celebrity David Hasselhoff might be for Americans. And much like a quest involving Hasselhoff, going to a German-speaking place to get to the bottom of things seemed like the right thing to do. I returned to Alto Adige (Sudtirol), where I had originally eaten blueberry risotto, to investigate. Even in the Italian Alps, I faced evasiveness. I initially emailed IDM Sudtirol, an agency that promotes the regions products and tourism, to ask about fruit risotto. A spokesman declined even to address it, responding, Id suggest risotto with speck which is what reflects our local cuisine. I had better luck with a food writer named Yrma Ylenia Pace, an editor for the lifestyle magazine La Casa in Ordine, who published a recipe for risotto with wild berries on her blog A Fiamma Dolce. That recipe won an award for most beautiful risotto with Italian ingredients at Milans Expo 2015, in a contest sponsored by a large rice company. Ylenia Pace lives in Alto Adiges neighboring Alpine region of Trentino, where she says berry risotto is common. Its a recipe that plays on a very attractive contrast, acid and sweet on the palate, creating an emotion, she says. Pear, Gorgonzola and Pistachio Risotto. (Goran Kosanovic/For The Washington Post) [Make the recipe: Pear, Gorgonzola and Pistachio Risotto] Ylenia Paces enthusiasm bolstered my own experiments at home. These were not sweet, dessertlike dishes. I made tasty, successful risottos with peaches, cantaloupe and pears, respectively. In all cases, I introduced a significant savory element: pancetta with the peaches, nuts and Gorgonzola with the pears, and the classic pairing of prosciutto with the cantaloupe. I also always make my own vegetable broth to add to the rice, a recipe using lots of leeks and root vegetables that create an earthier, more flavorful yet lighter broth than you can buy. When I used stone fruit and melons as though they were tomatoes, including fruit in risotto and with pasta began to make a lot of sense. As for tradition, everything is relative. Remember that the ubiquitous tomato (a fruit, of course) did not appear in an Italian pasta recipe until 1839, centuries after people were eating macaroni. Melon and Prosciutto Risotto. (Dixie D. Vereen/For The Washington Post) [Make the recipe: Melon and Prosciutto Risotto] Finally, after Id made many fruit risottos, I got a chance to revisit Pillhof, the restaurant where Id discovered blueberry risotto. On that day, they served their blueberry risotto with halibut. Traditional? No, said Daniel Sanir, Pillhofs chef. But I like to make something new. As with any classic dish, there is plenty of room for debate on technique and preparation. In this case, the main sticking point is when to add the fruit. Sanir insists, for his blueberry risotto, that you need to put the fruit in at the start of the 20-plus minutes of risotto cooking. Ylenia Pace, on the other hand, suggests putting the berries in near the end. I lean more toward Ylenia Paces approach. While I definitely dont want chunks, most fleshy fruit breaks down and cooks into a sauce fairly quickly and easily. What may be less easy is persuading traditionalists to try your fruit risotto. Sanir says it can be a challenge, but the recipes typically win people over: Sometimes the customers think, I dont know, this is strange with the berries. But then they eat it, and 90 percent of them like it a lot. Wilson is author of the new Kindle Single Spaghetti on the Wall. He will join Wednesdays Free Range chat at noon: live.washingtonpost.com. From left: The Clintons and Diane Blair and her husband, Jim Blair, in 1979. (University of Arkansas Special Collections/ ) Hillary Clinton was first lady when an influential legal journal featured her in its spring volume, drawing tributes from such luminaries as Elie Wiesel, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and the Queen of Jordan. But the most intimate portrait came from Diane Blair, a woman Clinton befriended in Arkansas who was not a Nobel laureate or legal scholar and never held elected office. Through 30 years of friendship, Blair knew more than perhaps anyone about Clintons private struggles as she became the governors wife, moved to the White House and transformed herself into the most famous woman in American politics. In her tribute to Clinton in the 1995 Annual Survey of American Law, Blair portrayed her friend as a female crusader, setting an example at great personal cost. When I was a schoolchild I was both fascinated and horrified by stories of the canaries who were carried down into the mines as early warning systems for the miners; if poisonous gases started seeping into the mine-shafts, the canaries would quickly expire, thereby giving warning to the men in the mines. I wonder now whether Hillary is playing the risky part of national canary for the women of America, Blair wrote. Clinton wrote back to Blair in the summer of 1995, calling her a fellow canary. We flap our little wings harder and harder, while chirping as loudly as our voices permit about whats happening around us, she said. Sometimes we even are heard outside our cages! Diane Blair and Hillary Clinton were close friends for 30 years. Over the decades, Blair amassed a collection of letters that give intimate insight into the pairs relationship, and the life of the presidential candidate. (Deirdra O'Regan/The Washington Post) Blair never sought the limelight, but she became one of Clintons closest confidantes as the first lady wrestled with what she saw as a legion of political detractors and a hostile press. Clinton turned to Blair with her fears that her husband was ruining himself and the presidency because he had no strategy to fight back at his enemies. Blair, who died of cancer in 2000, left behind a written record of their friendship that today offers one of the most comprehensive portraits of the woman who last month became the first female presidential nominee of a major American party. Blairs papers, archived at the University of Arkansas, include public statements and policy memos, as well as private correspondence and journal entries. They show Clinton determined, with Blairs help, to craft a positive image before she left the White House an elaborate attempt to negate years of bad publicity. In Blair, Clinton found a collaborator who shared her belief that women remained constricted, if not literally caged, in American politics. Like minds in a small town Hillary Rodham and Diane Kincaid were both outsiders in the small university town of Fayetteville, 200 miles northwest of Little Rock. Diane arrived in 1963 from Washington with her first husband, attorney Hugh Kincaid. She thought she was moving to the end of the world. And to some extent, was, said her second husband, Jim Blair. You couldnt buy a bagel anywhere in Fayetteville. Diane earned a masters in political science from the University of Arkansas and took a teaching job there. Soon, she met Bill Clinton, who joined the faculty fresh from Yale Law School and whose girlfriend, Hillary, was in Washington working on the House Judiciary Committees Watergate investigation. Bill persuaded her to move to Arkansas in 1974, and they married the next year. Hillary taught at the law school and met Jim Blair, then the outside counsel to Tyson Foods and a onetime professor. They played tennis and had lunch, and as Jim and Diane became involved, the two couples double-dated. The two women immediately connected, Jim Blair recalled. Hillary founded a legal-aid clinic and was dealing with the judges who . . . didnt have very much sympathy for a woman lawyer, he said. Diane was chair of the governors Commission on the Status of Women. Then-Gov. Bill Clinton, far left, officiated the wedding of Diane Kincaid (Blair) to Jim Blair in 1979. (University of Arkansas Special Collections) (University of Arkansas Special Collections/ ) Diane Kincaid married Jim Blair in 1979, and then-Gov. Bill Clinton officiated. On this day, the day of your marriage, you stand somewhat apart from all other human beings, he told them. You stand within the charmed circle of your love. The couples remained close, and when Bill Clinton decided to run for president in 1992, Diane Blair was an adviser. After he was elected, she traveled frequently to Washington, staying in a third-floor residence quarters bedroom with butterflies on the wallpaper. As she wrote in 1992: It was my job to catch the grenades being hurled in non-stop, from all sides, and toss them back out again before they exploded in BCs face. She said it was a dirty job. But, as she wrote in a letter, I know how necessary it was to keep them from ever scoring a fatal hit on BC or Hillary, and I guess I was uniquely qualified to do it. She dwelled in particular on Hillary Clintons role. The world is going to find out just how smart a smart woman can be, she wrote. Hillary Clinton was appreciative. One of the best gifts Ive ever received was the love youve given me through good times and recently, Hillary wrote to the Blairs in November 1994. You and Jim are two of the reasons Im glad that fate led me to Fayetteville in 1974, she wrote them in August 1995, just as the infrastructure for her husbands reelection campaign which Blair again joined was falling into place. Troubled times In the spring of 1994, Hillary Clinton was pondering how she would be remembered. The administration had been besieged by troubles. The death of White House deputy counsel Vince Foster, Hillarys friend and Little Rock law partner, had been devastating. An independent counsel was probing the Clintons investments, subjecting the couple to unrelenting scrutiny. Clinton asked Blair to reconstruct her first hellacious year in the White House. Blairs account, which she called Hillyear, is a dizzying report on a woman pushed close to the brink, juggling family responsibilities with high-level political battles. She was concerned with her teenage daughter, her parents health and the hunt for an appropriate wardrobe. But she also had assumed an unprecedented role in public policy, leading a task force to transform the health-care system. Clinton, who had read 43 biographies of her predecessors, was still unprepared for the blowback she would face on her health-care plan. The early work had been conducted in secret, an approach that incensed the opposition. Clinton felt she was being watched and being listened to, Blair wrote. By February, Blair said Clinton told her she wished she hadnt taken on health care, which was defeated in the summer of 1994. Throughout the lobbying efforts, Clinton put on a positive face for the president, according to Blair. She tried to signal to him what a mess health care is, Blair wrote, while also saying sweetly, Dont worry. She was baffled by DC ways and took comfort in walks on the Mall with Blair. In March, crisis struck again when Clintons father, Hugh Rodham, suffered a stroke. Her decisions about life support for her father were complicated by watching press, seemingly a perpetual stance for the first lady. Rodham died in April. Bill Clinton, meanwhile, was really on theme of being spied on, taped, watched, imprisoned, Blair wrote. He also regretted his inattention to his wife, Blair said, a sense that he hadnt had time to really take care of her. Diane Blair and first lady Hillary Clinton, date unknown. (University of Arkansas Special Collections) Enemies in the press Clinton blamed some of her travails on the news media, and Blair fed her disdain, often railing against journalists for their portrayals of the Clintons. One particularly impassioned rebuke was of a piece in the New York Times Magazine that was critical of Bill Clintons gubernatorial record. The president called Blair to complain, saying the press is trying to make me personally unacceptable, as Blair recalled. The thing none of us could ever have predicted is that they could make this character issue stick, she wrote. Blair mounted a full-scale counteroffensive to retell the story of Bill Clintons early years, his political awakening, his accomplishments as governor. She sent directly to the first lady her rebuttal challenging the buckets of vile and venom now being hurled on both Clintons. She also marshaled a letter of complaint from then-Sen. David Pryor, an Arkansas Democrat, who denounced the Times piece as mean-spirited and wrong. By January 1995, Blair and Hillary Clinton discussed a project to exert more control over the record. Blair wanted Clinton to secretly tape open and candid interviews with members of her staff, describing why they came to work in Hillaryland and how they viewed her accomplishments. The friends pondered how history can ever be written when those who do the contemporary stuff are so wrong. Clinton told her there was hardly a news story that she couldnt totally refute, Blair wrote. Her concern was, How does one arrive at the truth? From left: President Clinton, Diane Blair and first lady Hillary Clinton in April 2000 during a visit to Fayetteville, Ark. (University of Arkansas Special Collections/ ) A noticeable streak of silence Clintons longing for an oral history conducted by Blair owed in part to her view that the people working for her husband were just not good enough, Blair wrote. This included staffers who had started out with the president in Arkansas or on his campaign but had exceeded their capacity, such as Mack McLarty, the White House chief of staff, and Dee Dee Myers, the White House press secretary. At least in campaign, Blair wrote, she and Betsey Wright, an embattled aide to the Clintons, had fought back against sleaze; kept bad things from happening. Wright was Gov. Bill Clintons chief of staff for seven years and deputy chair of his 1992 campaign, largely responsible for containing stories about the politicians extramarital activities. Attempts this week to contact Wright were unsuccessful. Blair remained in the Clintons inner circle, but Wright became a problem, the papers show. Two days after the 1992 election, Blair seeking to protect the newly elected president and first lady wrote to Wright, putting on paper what I have wanted to speak to you for months. She accused Wright of harboring resentment and rage that could harm the Clintons. Wright later aired her own grievances to Blair, saying the Clintons tossed me out like a used tissue. She said she felt like a leper to potential employers and wondered whether she could ever forgive Bill Clinton for his behavior with women and for never learning his lesson. Some day i hope hillary will understand why bill and i developed such a tense relationship, she wrote. I guess her understanding will be my vindication, but that sure has to wait for quite awhile. Notably, Blairs papers offer insight into how Hillary Clinton reckoned with the public fallout from news of her husbands relationship with Monica Lewinsky. As Bill admitted to maintaining an inappropriate relationship with the White House intern in grand jury testimony, Hillary Clinton fell silent. For days, she didnt return Blairs calls, according to Blair. When they finally spoke, in early September, they discussed books John Banvilles The Untouchable and Arthur Goldens Memoirs of a Geisha. They talked about Blairs upcoming trip to Washington. Finally, they addressed the scandal. Blair said that Clinton partly blamed herself: She thinks she was not smart enough, not sensitive enough, not free enough of her own concerns and struggles to realize the price he was paying. She wouldnt leave him, Blair wrote, partly because shes stubborn; partly her upbringing; partly her pride . . . she really is okay. Part of Hillary Clintons frustration was that the White House was not hitting back hard enough at detractors, Blair said. On the congressional front, where they were getting killed, Blair wrote, Hillary Clinton was urging hard ball. For instance, she was angry that the North American Free Trade Agreement took legislative priority over health care. She complained that most senators were diseased from egomania, according to Blair. She refused to tolerate incompetence or dissimulation. She was dumbfounded, Blair wrote, by people who look her in the eye and lie to her. Month after month, Clinton was in despair, her friend wrote, that nobody in the White House was tough and mean enough. On my own terms Throughout the White House years, amid the turmoil that buffeted the Clintons, Hillary Clinton gained a greater sense of her own strengths, Blairs notes suggest. She shared with Blair her frustrations with her lack of real power. Blair said Clinton told her, Id be happy in a little office somewhere thinking up policies, making things happen, refining them. She stated this preference during a phone conversation in which the two women mused about the role of the first lady and its association with a healing, mourning, empathetic presence, Blair wrote. What the Clintons presented was a role reversal, with Bill supplying empathy, she wrote, and Hillary seen as the harder tougher disciplined one with an edge. Blair said Clinton told her in one conversation: Im a proud woman . . . Im used to winning, and I intend to win on my own terms. On her death bed, Blair wrote, her friend wants to be able to say she was true to herself. Blairs notes distill the oft-expressed claim among Clintons inner circle that only her close friends truly understand her. The two women remained close until Blairs death, her final months buoyed by a daily phone call from Clinton, Jim Blair said. Like everybody else in America, I have some strong opinions about HRC, Diane Blair wrote in a typeset document with an all-caps header, BUILDING A FIRST LADYSHIP TO THE 21ST CENTURY. She continued that, unlike most Americans, however, she enjoyed personal knowledge of Clinton. The portrait of Clinton as a malevolent, power-mad, self-aggrandizing shrew has been mystifying, she wrote. Few of us today have the luxury of choosing this or that, homemaker or professional, wife or worker, Blair wrote. We are all those things, because they all msut [sic] be done. Clinton was merely the first woman to claim this complexity so openly, and well, and without apology. Hillary, like most of us, her friend wrote, represents something in between. Dear Heloise: I have files on categories of items such as Outdoor Equipment, Electronics, Computers, Personal, Household Small Appliances, etc. I file the owners manual in the appropriate file when I get an item. I never have a problem finding the manuals when I need them, and if I sell the item or give it to someone, I can include the original papers with it. Linda L. in Louisiana Linda L.: You sound very organized! For those shaking their heads, thinking, Well, just go online to find the manual, not every manual is online trust me! Dear Heloise: I learned this from a nurse during a recent visit to my doctors office. The aftertaste or belching problem when taking fish-oil supplements is a problem. The nurse told me to freeze the supplements and take them frozen, and you will not experience the issue associated with these supplements. I have tried this, and it works. Darlene A., Omaha Darlene A.: Well, the research is a little fishy on this one. Some people find that freezing helps with burping, while others see no difference. Look for supplements that are odorless or burpless to prevent the problem. Dear Heloise: When canning, I hated the scale that built up on my water bath canner and periodically scrubbed it off, which is hard work. I also didnt like the way the canning jars sometimes acquired that whitish haze. I discovered that after adding a small amount of white vinegar to the water, the scale did not form in the canner. No white haze formed on the jars, and even the wire racks, from which I had never tried to remove scale, came out sparkling. Susan M., Middletown, Va. Susan M.: Once again, vinegar proves to be a top safe and cheap cleaner. There are just a gazillion good things about vinegar. You can learn more of my hints for using it with my vinegar pamphlet. Simply order at Heloise.com, or send $5 and a long, self-addressed, stamped (68 cents) envelope to: Heloise/Vinegar, P.O. Box 795001, San Antonio, TX 78279-5001. Burnt-on food in a pot? Soak in full-strength apple-cider or white vinegar for 30 to 45 minutes, scrub and wash as usual. Dear Heloise: I take pills in the morning and at night. My sweet wife always gets my meds together for me. She puts them in one of those small, plastic dosage cups that come on the cap of a bottle of cough syrup. Keeps me from dropping them, and makes it easy for her to count and verify that we have all of them. John A., via email Dear Heloise: Traveling with a pet requires planning and smart packing. My hint is to pack a couple of old butter/margarine tubs to use for food and water. They are lightweight and take up little space in the car. Josh D. in New Mexico Josh D. in New Mexico: For larger bowls, use round, plastic takeout containers. Heloises column appears six days a week at washingtonpost.com/advice. Send a hint to Heloise , P.O. Box 795000, San Antonio, Tex. 78279-5000, or email it to Heloise@Heloise.com. John Olivers 19-minute riff about whats become of local newspapers made me laugh. Parts of it also made me want to cry. But it did not make me want to complain even for one second about the comedians acerbic commentary on journalism in his Last Week Tonight show Sunday on HBO. Because the whole Oliver piece was a pitch-perfect ode to how important newspapers are to their communities, and how troubling it is that they are fading. But being ticked off at Oliver was indeed the reaction of David Chavern, the president and CEO of the Virginia-based Newspaper Association of America. Chavern wrote a post Monday on the NAA website, the headline of which accused Oliver of petty insults and stating the obvious. He wrote that Olivers making fun of experiments and pining away for days when classified ads and near-monopolistic positions in local ad markets funded journalism is pointless and ultimately harmful. Actually, no. What Oliver did was precisely nail everything thats been happening in the industry that Chavern represents: The shrinking staffs, the abandonment of important beats, the love of click bait over substance, the deadly loss of ad revenue, the truly bad ideas that have come to the surface out of desperation, the persistent failures to serve the reading public. Oliver who is, after all, in the comedy business did indeed make fun of Tronc, the renamed Tribune Co., whose incomprehensible corporate jargon thoroughly deserves the drubbing its been getting in recent months. And he took some well-deserved shots at medias addiction to content that generates digital traffic, particularly ever-weirder stories about cats. And Olivers final sequence was a brilliant send-up of the movie Spotlight as it would be in the new newspaper environment. In short, Olivers piece widely read and talked about on Monday, not only in media circles but among lots of nonjournalists who value good journalism was pretty much a love letter to newspapers. And those who saw it might even realize, more than ever before, that they have to do something about this demise something involving opening up their wallets. Chavern, whose organization represents nearly 2,000 newspaper publishers, came to NAA last year after 10 years at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He is not, therefore, a newspaper guy and it shows. (For the record, he did say, in passing, that he liked parts of the Oliver piece, but that was very much not the point of his response.) After crumpling up Olivers love letter and sneering at its author, he had a suggestion for his next installment. I would just ask Mr. Oliver to spend more time talking about what the future of news could be, he wrote, and less time poking fun at publishers who are trying to get there. And I, in turn, have a suggestion for Mr. Chavern. When someone hilariously and poignantly celebrates the industry that you are paid to defend and protect, you ought to laugh at the funny parts and then simply say thank you. Or maybe nothing at all. Washington Post executive editor Martin Baron interviewed Amazon.com chief executive and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos May 18 at Transformers, a live event by The Post about pushing the boundaries of knowledge. (Washington Post Live) For more by Margaret Sullivan visit wapo.st/sullivan Clarification: An earlier version of this story misspelled the last name of museum spokesman Alexander Golya. The story has been updated. At Berlins museum on the Kennedys, visitors can experience President John F. Kennedys famous Ich bin ein Berliner speech. (Camera Work) In a hip Berlin neighborhood bustling with art galleries, restaurants and trendy cafes, President John F. Kennedy lives. His voice echoes from inside the Kennedys museum, where visitors can experience the famous Ich bin ein Berliner speech that JFK gave on June 26, 1963, nearly two years after East Germany erected the Berlin Wall. In a time of political-speech saturation, heres one worth listening to. If it seems odd to encounter a museum almost entirely dedicated to a speech, keep in mind that the same quirky Berlin neighborhood of Mitte holds a Ramones museum honoring the American punk rock band and a middle school named for the Beatles John Lennon. At the Kennedys, visitors can travel back in time to the day when the president came to Berlin. A film of the speech plays on a continual loop in black-and-white inside a darkened room. Around the perimeter are photographs and memorabilia in glass cases, including the black crocodile Hermes briefcase JFK carried to Berlin and used until the day of his assassination; Jackie Kennedys Persian lamb pillbox hat; and most movingly the handwritten note where he spells out the phonetic pronunciation of the line in German, ish bin ein Bearleener. (That item, by the way, is the only facsimile in the collection; the original notecard is in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston.) [Bamberg, Germany: A city of just 70,000 people but nine breweries] Even without hearing those words in the film, its easy to imagine the line read in Kennedys Boston accent. But why does Berlin have a museum devoted, in essence, to one speech, however historic? West Germans at the time were unsure that the United States would support them, says Alexander Golya, a spokesman for the museum. There were rumors that the U.S. would step back its support and give up West Berlin to the Soviet Union, he says. Making that speech especially the words Kennedy spoke in German was the best possible way to tell Germans the United States would have their back. It was a big relief, Golya says. Around the perimeter of the museum are photographs and memorabilia in glass cases, including this photo-booth portrait of JFK and Jackie Kennedy. (Courtesy of Camera Work) The museum boasts that its the second-largest Kennedy museum in the world (after the presidential library and museum in Boston), with a collection of more than 1,000 documents, 2,000 photographs and several hundred artifacts. (Courtesy of Camera Work) Its especially moving, he says, to meet older Germans who were living in West Berlin at the time and either went to the speech or saw it on television. Many of them have tears in their eyes, Golya says. It was a sentence that would go into history. A large plaque on one wall quotes from a letter Jackie Kennedy wrote: How strange it is. Sometimes I think that the words of my husband that will be remembered most were words he did not even say in his own language. (By the way, the oft-told anecdote that Kennedy really said I am a jelly doughnut is wrong, Golya adds. Germans knew exactly what he meant. There are a lot of American visitors who try to convince us that JFK wanted to make a joke, Golya says.) [Dusseldorf vs. Cologne: My two rounds of a friendly German beer bout] The museum boasts that its the second-largest Kennedy museum in the world (after the Boston museum), with a collection of more than 1,000 documents, 2,000 photographs and several hundred artifacts. Some 400 photos and 100 artifacts are on display today. It got its start after Camera Work, a gallery specializing in photography, mounted a 2004 photo exhibit about the Kennedys. The interest was so tremendous, Golya says, that it seemed like a good idea to create a museum. Now, the goal is to have a big part of the Kennedy legacy in one collection, rather than seeing it dispersed to private collectors, he says. Some 400 photos and 100 artifacts are on display. Pictured, JFKs briefcase on view at the museum. (Courtesy of Camera Work) The museum goes beyond JFKs visit to Berlin, with exhibits on the entire Kennedy family and a room dedicated to Robert Kennedy, including stunning photographs of bereft onlookers lining the tracks for RFKs funeral train in 1968. Many of the photographs are new even to those who grew up seeing the iconic photos of young John F. Kennedy Jr. saluting his fathers funeral procession, or of JFK and Jackie on the family sailboat in Hyannis Port. Theres JFK and Jackie, windblown, as they are about to get on a plane. Or JFK sitting in a convertible in Berlin. The young family standing alongside Caroline as she sits atop her pony Macaroni. The fresh-faced young Kennedys posing in a photo booth. [Germanys Christmas markets take yuletide spirit to another level] The brick building that houses the museum has its own story. Like so many places in Berlin, it has a dark past. In 1930, it opened as the Judische Madchenschule, a Jewish girls school. The stark New Objectivity-style building was designed by Alexander Beer, a Jewish architect who later perished in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. In 1933, German laws blocked Jewish children from attending German public schools, so 1,000 girls crowded into a building that formerly held 400. Many Jewish families were deported in 1938 and all Jewish schools were closed in 1942, when most of the remaining students and teachers were sent to concentration camps. A photo of Ethel Kennedy reaching over to touch her husbands arm is on view at the museum. (Courtesy of Camera Work) The building later became an East German school and was finally closed in 1996. The museum moved to its current location in 2012. Plaques in the hallways today trace that history, with photographs showing young women writing in Hebrew on a blackboard and girls frolicking in the courtyard. For visitors who can pivot from that to other things (which is pretty much the description of any visit to Berlin today), the building also houses one of Berlins 20 Michelin-starred restaurants. Pauly Saal offers fixed-price lunch, dinner, a more casual menu, and if the weather is nice dining at umbrella-covered tables in the brick courtyard. Theres also Mogg & Melzer, a New York-style deli with respectable pastrami sandwiches, matzo ball soup and a New York cheesecake. [In Berlin, its a whole new city, but the Walls traces remain] Also in the building are several galleries, including CWC Gallery, also owned by Camera Work, which features a freakily realistic sculpture of a frumpy security guard, arms crossed, standing at the gallerys door. One thing visitors will not find in the museum is much attention to JFKs assassination, even though it happened just a few months after his Berlin speech. Camera Work decided it was more important to focus on Kennedys life and legacy, Golya says: We do not want to put his death into focus, but his life. Bruno is a freelance writer in Washington. More from Travel: In New Yorks picture-perfect Hudson Valley, the right balance of art, presidential history and food This isnt Darwins Galapagos: The wildlife-rich islands are more tourist-friendly than you think How to avoid the worst seat on the plane this summer Anya Pfeiffer, 17, and Riittisha Choudhary, 16, discuss the website they are building together on Friday during a coding camp for girls in the District. (Perry Stein/The Washington Post) One group created a website to help sexual-assault survivors. Another launched an online forum to engage teenagers in politics. And then there was the educational game that spewed out facts about the environment as players progressed. The Web coders behind the projects? All teenage girls. These ideas emerged from a seven-week Girls Who Code Summer Immersion Program a camp aimed at encouraging more women to enter technology fields and challenging the stereotype that computer programming is just for men. By 2020, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates there will be 1.4 million computer science job openings but just 400,000 people with the skills to fill them. Girls Who Code, a national nonprofit organization, says girls are on track to fill just 3 percent of those jobs. The growing organization hopes to close this gap, and it has provided coding instruction to more than 10,000 high school girls in camps and after-school programs nationwide since its founding in 2012. Kristin Marshall, 15, experienced the excitement and energy of coding that the organization hopes others will see when they use their new skills to make something tangible. Girls Who Code, an organization offering summer and after-school clubs for girls to learn about coding, released this video making fun of some of the absurd stereotypes about girls in the tech field. (Girls Who Code) It's amazing, Kristin said, explaining how she used coding to launch a website that will help users find the proper makeup for their skin type. Weve been working on this for two days, and we literally just got it a few minutes ago, and it was the best feeling. [These girls are the coders of the future, and theyre already solving problems] The D.C. camp, which drew 120 teens this year from the city and its Maryland and Virginia suburbs, is free for all students to attend. Corporate sponsors, including BSA (The Software Alliance) and Lockheed Martin, pay for staff salaries and field trips. Georgetown University donates space for the camp in its downtown continuing-education building. I am firmly of the view that if we have more girls coding, and more girls working in software development, that our coding will be more innovative, more creative and more secure, said Victoria Espinel, BSAs CEO. By the time these girls have gone through the seven weeks, they have learned how to build websites, theyve created apps, theyve made robots dance. Throughout the seven-week course, the students took fields trips to Capitol Hill and Symantec Corp., a cybersecurity firm. Female speakers from Microsoft, IBM and NASA also came to the classes to share their experiences. Coding was never something that was a train of thought for me because I always wanted to be a psychologist, said Willitta Cooper, a rising junior from Montgomery County. But now I see how I can use coding in that by creating programs for kids. The program culminates with students breaking into small groups and creating websites, apps and programs of their own from scratch. The groups had about a week to complete their projects. Teachers and teacher aides, who are primarily female college students studying computer science, are on hand to help. Students learned how to code in various languages, including JavaScript, CSS and Python. Kristen Elvis, 16, looks over the coding of the website she made with a small group for her final project at Girls Who Code camp. (Perry Stein/The Washington Post) The hardest part was just making our project into an app because we didnt learn the languages of an app, said Rachel Kondrat, 17, who was part of the team that made the makeup app. So we spent a lot of time learning the language. Now, were excited to get to the aesthetics of it. Students could choose to create a website or app on any topic they wished. They will present the final product during a graduation ceremony this week. Were the next generation, so why not start now to make changes, said Riittisha Choudhary, a 16-year-old who was part of a team that created PoliTeens!, a forum and call to action for teens who feel voiceless in the political process. MATTOON -- The school board is scheduled tonight to hear a presentation on the proposed balanced budget for fiscal year 2016-17. In addition, the board will consider placing a referendum on a proposed 1-percent county school facility sales tax on the ballot for the Nov. 8 general election. The board will meet at 7 tonight in the unit office, 1701 Charleston Ave. District Assistant Superintendent for Business Tom Sherman said the tentative $35 million budget for 2016-17 is balanced and is approximately the same size as the current 2015-16 budget. He said this proposal takes into account continuing uncertainty about the level and availability of state funding for education. After hearing a presentation on the tentative budget numbers for 2016-17, the board will vote on scheduling a public hearing at 7 p.m. Sept. 13 on the proposed budget. The board will vote on the budget after this hearing. Regarding the proposed referendum, district Superintendent Larry Lilly said the increased revenue from the 1-percent county school facility sales tax could only be used for facility construction and maintenance projects and for related bond payments. Lilly said if the referendum is approved, the increased revenue would help the Mattoon school district offset declining state funding. He said the district has lost approximately $1 million dollars in state funds per year during the last six years, for a total of $5.8 million. "We have had to defer maintenance during these times," Lilly said of the district's need for increased revenue. He said the district is also paying off bonds for the construction of the two elementary schools and for the installation of new roofs at the middle school and high school buildings. Lilly said a 2014 proposal for a countywide school facility sales tax for the Mattoon, Charleston and Oakland districts failed to win voter approval in 2014, but this referendum was on the ballot during a primary election. He said there will be a much larger turnout of voters for the general election. Nearly 40 counties in Illinois have adopted similar sales taxes for school funding, Lilly said. He added that these counties include Douglas, Shelby, Champaign and Macon. THE DISTRICT Man is fatally shot near recreation center A man was fatally shot Monday night in a parking lot near a recreation center on Georgia Avenue NW, police said. The victim, identified as Donald Stephen Johnson Jr., 45, was shot about 7:10 p.m. in the 5700 block of Georgia Avenue NW, behind the Emery Recreation Center. He had addresses in Bowie and Mitchellville, both in Maryland. Peter Hermann Anti-Semitic graffiti is found on crosswalk Anti-Semitic graffiti was found for the second time in a week marring a crosswalk near the Gallery Place-Chinatown Metro station in downtown Washington, according to D.C. police. Police said the graffiti was discovered Monday night and was still there Tuesday morning. A spokeswoman for the D.C. Department of Public Works said the graffiti has since been removed. The graffiti the word Jew on an image of a rat on a crosswalk at Seventh and H streets NW first appeared Aug. 3. The rat is one of several images depicting the symbols of the Chinese zodiac. Peter Hermann Police identify man slain near Md. border D.C. police have identified a man who was shot and killed early Sunday in Northeast Washington, the department said in a statement. Police said Matthew Walker, 26, was killed about 1:25 a.m. in the 900 block of Eastern Avenue NE, along the Districts border with Maryland. Peter Hermann Man shot, killed in Northeast Tuesday A man was fatally shot Tuesday night in Northeast Washington, in the citys third homicide in a little more than 24 hours. The shooting was reported about 7:20 p.m. in the 4500 block of Quarles Street police said. The site is east of the Kenilworth Aquatic Garden. It is northwest of the Deanwood Metro station. . Martin Weil Former U-Md. leader to head state panel The former chancellor of the University System of Maryland will head a state education commission that will examine whether state formulas in education are equitable and adequate to provide students with the tools they need to be ready for college and the workforce. William E. Kirwan, who served as chancellor for 13 years before retiring last year, will chair the Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education. Gov. Larry Hogan (R), Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller (D-Calvert) and House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) announced Kirwans appointment Tuesday. The General Assembly passed a bill this year to create the commission, which will offer a preliminary report in December and issue a final report in December 2017. Ovetta Wiggins MARYLAND Two men wounded in shooting in Hyattsville Two men suffered life-threatening gunshot wounds Tuesday in Hyattsville, authorities said. The shooting occurred in the 5800 block of 35th Place about 12:30 p.m., and the men were found in a car about half a mile away, in the 3100 block of Hamilton Street, Hyattsville officials said. THE DISTRICT Suspect is charged in slaying in Shaw A man who was fatally shot in the head last week in Northwest Washingtons Shaw neighborhood was attacked while playing dice in a parking lot, D.C. police said in an affidavit filed along with documents regarding the arrest of a suspect. Marcus Martin, 19, of Southwest Washington was charged with first-degree felony murder and was ordered detained by a D.C. Superior Court judge at a hearing Monday. Martin is charged with shooting Derryk Johnson, 19, of Northwest on Aug. 3. around 10 p.m. in the 600 block of N Street NW. Police said in an affidavit that the gunman and two others had been driving around the District looking for people to rob when they the dice game. Peter Hermann Four vehicles are struck with rocks D.C. police said four vehicles were struck with rocks Monday on Suitland Parkway. They said a juvenile threw rocks at cars near the Parkway and Stanton Road SE. No injuries were reported. Justin Wm. Moyer MARYLAND Police say intruder was carrying a knife The man shot after breaking into the home of an off-duty police officer in Laurel on Sunday afternoon was armed with a knife, Prince Georges County police said. David Bartholmew, 31, has been charged with home invasion, attempted first-degree assault and related charges after he forced his way into the home of a police officer for the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, police said. The incident began about 1 p.m. in the 8000 block of Briarcroft Lane, police said. The officer, whom authorities have not named, heard a loud noise in his home and retrieved his duty weapon, police said. He discovered Bartholmew and identified himself as a police officer, authorities said. Police said Bartholmew, who was holding a knife, moved toward the homeowner. The off-duty officer fired one shot, they said. Bartholmew ran and was apprehended nearby, police said. He suffered an arm wound. Lynh Bui VIRGINIA Crash at McDonalds kills 1, hurts another One man died and another was critically injured after a 69-year-old driver crashed into a McDonalds on Monday morning in Fairfax City, police said. At about 6:45 a.m., the mans vehicle struck the north-side wall of the McDonalds at 3924 Old Lee Hwy., Fairfax City police said in a statement, trapping two people between the tables they were sitting at and the wall. Harold Skeins, 78, of Fairfax died of his injuries, the statement said. Another man, whose name was not released, was in critical condition at a hospital, according to the statement. Justin Wm. Moyer NAACP leader arrested in voting rights protest The national president of the NAACP was arrested Monday in a protest over voting rights protections at the Roanoke office of Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), who chairs the House Judiciary Committee. The NAACP said Cornell William Brooks refused to leave Goodlattes office during a sit-in with other protesters. He was arrested on a charge of trespassing, said Capt. Rick Morrison of the Roanoke police. In a statement, the civil rights group said it had urged Congress to restore protections of voting rights against laws enacted by states with a history of voter suppression and discrimination. The group is responding to a 2013 Supreme Court ruling that eliminated a key provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The NAACP said Goodlatte was not in his office Monday. Martin Weil Fox bites two in same Fairfax County area Two people were bitten by foxes Monday in the Springfield area of Fairfax County, the county police said. An 81-year-old woman was bitten in the 8600 block of Kenilworth Drive, and an 84-year-old man in the 5600 block of Ventnor Lane, the police said. Both victims went to hospitals for medical treatment. Animal protection officers searched and placed traps. However, no fox was caught. Republican activist Robin Ficker delivers signed petitions to the Montgomery County executive's office in Rockville on Monday in a bid to place a charter amendment on the November ballot limiting officials to three terms. (Bill Turque/The Washington Post) Robin Ficker was quite clear after he delivered petitions for a term-limits ballot question to Montgomery County officials on Monday: he had no assistance from Help Save Maryland, an organization that has been designated a nativist extremist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Alabama-based non-profit that monitors extremist political activity. Council member Nancy Navarro (D-Mid-County), one of five council members who would be barred from running for re-election under Fickers proposal, had charged that Ficker worked with Help Save Maryland to collect the 10,000 signatures required to place the measure on the ballot. Asked about the alleged collaboration on Monday, Ficker said: I never got any [signatures] collected by Help Save Maryland. But Brad Botwin, executive director of Help Save Maryland, said Tuesday that he collected hundreds and hundreds of signatures, if not more than that. [Term-limits signatures delivered to county] Nancy Navarro, the first Latina to serve on the Montgomery County Council, has accused organizers of the term-limits campaign of targeting her. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post) Botwin, who denied that Help Save Maryland is a hate group, said the organization supports the Ficker amendment because it would bar re-election of Navarro, County Executive Isiah Leggett (D), and four other council members, all of whom he described as supportive of undocumented immigrants. The measure would limit elected officials to serving no more than three consecutive terms. Ive been out collecting signatures for almost a year, Botwin said, and turned them in to Ficker or some of the people working for him. Help Save Maryland describes itself on its website as dedicated to preserving Marylands counties, cities and towns from the negative effects of illegal aliens. In January Botwin posted a notice on the website urging members to get in touch with him so they could sign Fickers petitions. Lets send an important message to our elected officials, he wrote. Asked again about the issue on Tuesday, Ficker, said Botwin collected signatures at Republican party events, but added that he never saw the words Help Save Maryland displayed. Dont let a far fetched, McCarthy-like Guilt by Association argument be made up, Ficker wrote in an email. [Opposition to term limits amendment begins to form] Botwin said he opposes the countys status as an immigrant sanctuary and Leggetts 2014 announcement that the county would no longer honor requests by federal immigration authorities to detain prisoners beyond their scheduled release dates without probable cause. Navarro, the councils only Hispanic member and the first immigrant woman to serve, accused Ficker of targeting her with the charter amendment. Navarro won a 2009 special election before winning full terms in 2010 and 2014. Ficker was among the opponents she defeated. Help Save Maryland also spoke out against Navarro in 2009. Navarro has close ties to CASA of Maryland and the illegal alien community. She is also a founder of Centro Familia, another front group for illegal aliens funded by Montgomery County tax dollars, the groups site said. I guess the Trump factor is in full-effect in Montgomery County, Navarro said on her Facebook page Monday evening. The Baltimore County Republican Central Committee voted late Monday to recommend Joe Cluster, executive director of Marylands Republican Party, to fill the legislative seat vacated this month by his father, former House of Delegates member John W.E. Cluster Jr. (R-Baltimore County). The elder Cluster has accepted an appointment to the states parole commission. Gov. Larry Hogan (R) is expected to act within a month to appoint his replacement, who would serve until the term expires in January, 2019. Joe Cluster, 37, is a lifelong Maryland resident who became executive director of the state GOP in 2013. He has been active with the party since 2000, running the organizations field operation when Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) was elected governor in 2002, serving as its political director in 2004 and working as head of external affairs for Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele (R) from 2004 to 2007. He helped lead the state party to historic victories in 2014, when Hogan became only the second Republican to win the governorship in nearly half a century and the GOP picked up nine seats in the Democratic-majority General Assembly seven seats in the House and two in the Senate. Ive been able to serve the governor as executive director of the party, and I look forward to working with him in the legislature, Cluster said. Its tough to fill my fathers shoes, but Ill try my best. Two other Republicans applied for the central committees recommendation. They were Norma Secoura, who is a member of the committee, and Patrick OKeefe, a marketing specialist who graduated from Florida International University two years ago and served as president of the schools student governing body. Party committees often send the governor three options for filling a vacant legislative seat, naming only one as a preferred candidate. The Baltimore County GOP decided after a long discussion Monday to send only Clusters name to Hogan. Al Mendelsohn, the groups chairman, said the younger Cluster is a great political mind, but more important to me and the people of this district, he understands the issues associated with the district. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks with a pregnant woman who works at Borinquen Health Care Center in Miami on Aug. 9. (Andrew Harnik/AP) To hear the presidential candidates tell it, the future for African Americans and Latinos will be great. More jobs. Better schools. Affordable housing. Fewer inmates. Less killing. More equality. But hardly anyone ever asks how they intend to make it happen. Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton told a group of black and Latino journalists in Washington last week that she had proposed a comprehensive new commitment to African American and Latino communities to make serious, sustained investments to create more good-paying jobs. But exactly how will she create these good-paying jobs just for African Americans and Latinos? Remember Sen. Barack Obamas Reclaim the American Dream campaign speech in 2007? Its time that we had leadership that worried as much about Main Street as it does about Wall Street, he said. But then he chose to bail out Wall Street instead of Main Street, and blacks and Latinos paid the steepest price of all. Now, I believe that President Obama doesnt get the credit he deserves for leading us out of the Great Recession, Clinton told those gathered at the journalists convention. That got a round of applause. And I like to remind people he had nothing to do with creating it in the first place, she added. More applause. At the time Obama took office, however, Wall Street had ripped off Main Street to the tune of $13 trillion in family wealth with African American wealth cut by half and Latino wealth by 66 percent. Relatively little of that money has been recovered some losses are still being incurred even though Wall Street is once again raking in money hand over fist. Telemundos Lori Montenegro pushed Clinton to explain why Latinos should trust her on the issue of immigration. How will you get immigration reform, something that President Obama was not able to do, so that Latinos can believe that something is going to happen? That their vote, again, is not being taken for granted? Montenegro asked. Clinton replied, Its a great question. Her answer: I am working hard to ensure a victory will send a clear message to our Republican friends that its time for them to quit standing in the way of immigration reform. In other words, there was no reason for Latinos to believe that something is going to happen. So what makes Clinton think that she can accomplish what Obama could not? Her Republican rival, Donald Trump, declined to attend the convention. But that shouldnt mean he gets a pass on the issues. In accepting the nomination as the Republican presidential nominee last month, Trump pledged to rebuild our inner cities. He declared, Every action I take, I will ask myself: Does this make life better for young Americans in Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, Ferguson who have as much of a right to live out their dreams as any other child in America? Then what? He, too, must offer more than its all going to be great. Coincidently, the National Urban League held its convention in Baltimore last week, where the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, Sen. Tim Kaine (Va.), echoed Clintons message before a largely black crowd. This also happened to be the 40th anniversary of the National Urban Leagues State of Black America, which amounts to a statistical portrait of how little has changed for African Americans the past 40 years. Turns out, who the president is hasnt mattered. Black unemployment: still double the rate the whites. Black wealth: down to one-thirteenth of the average white household wealth. Black teens high school dropout rate: five times higher than for white teens. Blacks homicide rate: 12 times as high as for whites. In an essay accompanying the 40th anniversary issue of the report, MSNBC national correspondent Joy Reid noted: But with so many disparities and gaps in attaining the fruits of full equality, Black Americans face the prospect of pressing the next president for the kinds of targeted solutions that were rarely demanded of Obama. Clinton also noted the lingering racial disparities for black and Latino people. For me, these arent just economic issues. Theyre part of a long, continuing struggle for civil rights. Rosa Parks opened up every seat on the bus. Now weve got to expand economic opportunities so everyone can afford the fare, and we have to make sure the bus route reaches every neighborhood and connects families with safe, affordable housing and good jobs. But how? Maybe the next president could start with an actual plan of action instead of platitudes. To read previous columns, go to washingtonpost.com/milloy. Anti-Semitic graffiti has been found for the second time in a week marring a crosswalk near the Gallery Place Metro station in downtown Washington, according to D.C. police and the Department of Transportation. Police said it was discovered Monday night and was still there Tuesday morning. A spokeswoman for the D.C. Department of Public Works said the graffiti has been removed. The graffiti the word Jew written on an image of a rat decorating a sidewalk at Seventh and H streets NW first appeared Aug. 3. The rat is one of several images depicting the symbols of the Chinese zodiac. Police opened a criminal investigation but no arrests have been made. Authorities urge anyone with information to call the department at 202-727-9099. D.C. police have identified a man who was shot and killed early Sunday in Northeast Washington as a 26-year-old, according to a statement from the department. Police said Matthew Walker was killed about 1:25 a.m. in the 900 block of Eastern Avenue NE, along the border with Maryland. Police said Walker was pronounced dead on the scene. Authorities did not provide an address for Walker. No arrest has been made and police did not comment on a possible motive. The speculation started within days of Seth Rich being gunned down in what D.C. police believe was an attempted robbery near his townhouse in the Bloomingdale neighborhood of Northwest Washington. Some on the Internet wondered if Rich was killed because of his work as a staffer with the Democratic National Committee, even suggesting he had handed WikiLeaks the 20,000 emails that embarrassed the DNC and forced the ouster of its chairwoman. Others suggested he was helping the FBI expose wrongdoing in the presidential election, and that made him a target. On Tuesday, WikiLeaks shoved those conspiracy theories into the mainstream when it announced on Twitter a $20,000 reward for information leading to a conviction in Richs killing on July 10 in the 2100 block of Flagler Place NW. It adds to a $25,000 reward offered by D.C. police, customary in all District homicides. [DNC staffer killed in apparent robbery in Northwest Washington] Richs father, Joel I. Rich, said he was offended by what he termed bizarre reports that are circulating on Internet discussion and message boards. Rich and his wife, Mary Ann, who live in Nebraska where their son grew up, visited the location of the shooting last week and appealed for help in finding the killer. Seth Rich was shot and killed July 10, 2016 in Washington, DC. (Family Photo) (N/A/Family Photo) On Tuesday, Joel Rich said that the WikiLeaks reward seemed to legitimize the rumor mill. I dont think I want to comment, he said at first, then added, I hope the additional money helps find out who did this. But, he said, I dont want to play WikiLeaks game. Assistant D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham said that at this time we dont have any information to suggest a connection between Richs killing and the WikiLeaks data or other theories raised online. Newsham also said, We are very pleased if anyone is going to assist us with the giving of reward money. [Hundreds attend vigil for slain DNC staffer] Rich was shot twice in the back as he walked to his townhouse about 4:20 a.m. Nothing was taken, but police have said attempted robbery is their leading theory for a motive, noting a spike in robberies in the neighborhood in the preceding weeks. WikiLeaks released the trove of emails later that month, on July 22. Rich, 27, had worked for the DNC for two years and helped develop a computer program to make it easier for people to find polling places on Election Day. After his death, the DNCs then-chairwoman, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.), attended a vigil for Rich in front of his home, and Hillary Clinton, before she was nominated in her run for president, evoked his name during a speech in which she advocated for limiting the availability of guns. A spokesman for the DNC did not comment on WikiLeaks or the speculation about Rich. Wasserman Schultz, who was ousted as DNC chair after the embarrassing emails became public on July 22, did not respond to questions given to her spokesman. An official with Clintons campaign and some cybersecurity experts have said Russia may be behind the email hack. Seth Rich came to D.C. to pursue a career in politics and most recently worked at the Democratic National Committee. Rich was shot dead in his Northwest Washington neighborhood on July 10. Here is what's known about the murder. (Claritza Jimenez/The Washington Post) [Parents of slain man appeal for help finding killer] The editor of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, said in a statement issued through an intermediary that he would not confirm or deny whether Rich or any person was a source for the organization, which over the years has obtained and released massive amounts of internal emails and other documents from the military, the State Department and other agencies. The statement says that policy also covers alleged sources who were deceased. We treat threats towards any suspected WikiLeaks sources with extreme gravity, the statement says. This should not be taken to imply that Seth Rich was a source to WikiLeaks or that his murder is connected to our publications. We hope our efforts will contribute to the familys calls for information and to the separate reward issued by police. We have a history of obtaining information that has significantly contributed to many legal proceedings, including successful prosecutions. Metro workers continue repairs on the rails of the outbound Orange and Silver Line tracks July 22 in the Ballston area of Arlington. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post) A damning federal report on systemic problems with track maintenance at Metro has shaken the confidence of the agencys board members, who have received little from leadership by way of explanation and some of whom believe the Federal Transit Administration should have forced Metro to address problems that put riders at risk. Most of all, board members have questions: Who approved the decision to delay repairing a stretch of track that later caused a derailment? Why didnt Metro officials communicate their inability to complete inspections in a regular, timely manner? And what happened to the new era of safety before service heralded by the arrival late last year of General Manager Paul J. Wiedefeld? On Tuesday, 11 days after a train carrying 75 passengers derailed at East Falls Church, Metro declined to answer questions related to the crash investigation or make Wiedefeld available for an interview on the findings of reports released by FTA and the National Transportation Safety Board. [Metro officials may have known of track defect in 2009, NTSB officials say] The Federal Transportation Administration issued a report targeting Metro's SafeTrack program, citing the recent rail car derailment in Falls Church, Va., as just one example of its systemic safety deficiencies. (Video: WUSA9 / Photo: Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post) As he has demonstrated, Paul is committed to holding people accountable. In order to do that, the investigations must be thorough and fact based and that does take time, Metro spokesman Dan Stessel said in a statement. Some of the questions were not directly related to the derailment. The agency, for example, declined to say whether it has beefed up its track inspection regimen after federal officials pointed out that inspections were being carried out once monthly instead of twice weekly as prescribed in Metros guidelines. Metro also declined to say whether it has inspected track widths systemwide since the derailment. The derailment was caused by a defect known as wide gauge, in which the two sides of the tracks are too far apart and cause the wheels to lose contact with the rails. Following the July 29 incident, Metro said it would inspect all interlockings that would be used heavily during SafeTrack. The FTA said Metro has made it clear to federal officials that it will follow a robust inspection regimen in areas surrounding SafeTrack going forward. Federal officials also noted that the specialized vehicle Metro uses to identify track defects is out of service. The transit agency declined to say when the vehicle will be working again, or specify what was wrong with it or what is being used to inspect tracks in its absence. Metro Board Chairman Jack Evans said he is concerned about the lack of information about how, and when, Metro plans to ramp up the inspection schedule. He said he expects to get some of those answers Wednesday, when he is scheduled to meet with Wiedefeld and new members of his executive team, all of whom started their jobs in recent weeks: chief safety officer Patrick Lavin, chief operating officer Joseph Leader and general counsel Patricia Lee. What is the state of the track system out there? Its still a wreck, Evans said Tuesday. Thats the ongoing question I have. Still, he said, Wiedefelds new high-level staff may yet instill major changes for a quick turnaround. An inbound Metro train passes work on the tracks July 22 in Arlington. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post) Were still building this team to address these problems, Evans said. The Federal Transit Administrations report, released Monday, focuses on the confusing regulations, inconsistent procedures, and lack of a regular schedule or robust training that hinders Metros ability to efficiently and reliably perform inspections and conduct repairs on the tracks. [In scathing report, FTA blasts Metro track maintenance program] Its the first in a series of deep dives that the regulatory agency plans to release by the end of the summer, all aimed at addressing systemic issues within Metro: One will look at red signal violations, and another will address the traction power electrification system. Among the most notable conclusions of the report released Monday: FTA staff members had pushed for Metro to include an interlocking close to East Falls Church station in its SafeTrack parameters, but Metro decided to wait on those repairs to continue operating single-tracking throughout the safety surge. Degraded tracks at that interlocking caused the July 29 derailment of two cars of a Silver Line train. Repairs along the stretch of the track where the derailment occurred between East Falls Church and Ballston had originally been scheduled to take place later this year, during a 23-day period in November and December. After the FTA forced Metro to alter the schedule, SafeTrack coordinators moved the dates for that work on the Orange and Silver lines so that they would be completed sooner, splitting it between two safety surges in June and July. The FTA signed off on the final plan. [Federal safety officials demand last-minute scheduling changes in an extensive subway-rebuilding plan] Some board members asked why, if the FTA could force Metro to significantly change its SafeTrack schedule, it couldnt have forced Metro to include the dilapidated tracks in the plan. But federal officials blamed the derailment squarely on Metro. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority is in charge of inspecting its track, with FTA operating in an oversight capacity, an FTA spokesman said in a statement Tuesday. That the crossover failure was not found, by WMATA, prior to the July 29, 2016 derailment further illustrates exactly what the new FTA report on track integrity suggests is a systemic problem: Metro has inspection and safety rules that it does not consistently follow. The agency pointed to the 12 corrective actions it issued as a way it will compel Metro to address systemic deficiencies in the inspection, maintenance and repair of track. FTA will continue to monitor WMATAs efforts to ensure this is done not only in surge areas, but systemwide, it said. But Metro Board member Michael Goldman said FTA isnt blame-free. Weve been at this with the FTA for a year, and we still dont seem to be getting the practices and protocol and manuals in place so we can run a safe and reliable railroad, he said. I dont know how much of this is that the FTA is being sufficiently on [Metros] backs . . . but Im not seeing this as the FTA has done a great job about this. Im seeing this more as a breakdown on both sides. The revelations in the FTA report may have long-term impacts on the future of the year-long SafeTrack program, and other issues affecting Metro. In recent weeks, District officials have fought a proposal to make a moratorium on late-night service permanent. But their battle to have the service restored at the conclusion of SafeTrack may be hampered by conclusions reached by the FTA, which in its report says that track workers do not have enough uninterrupted time on the tracks to properly conduct inspections. In the report, FTA officials paint a picture of just how challenging it can be for workers tasked with scrutinizing miles of underground track for signs of imminent problems or misalignment. [7 alarming findings in the new FTA report on Metro track maintenance] Visibility is poor; installed tunnel lighting is often dim or obscured by dust, the FTA wrote about the challenges of underground inspections. Direct fixation track, characteristic of underground sections, is more complicated to inspect. The underground corridors in the Metrorail system typically have higher train frequencies and elevated catwalks, which makes clearing the track a more arduous process. Evans said he agrees that Metro workers need more time on the tracks, especially in light of the FTA report. Still, he said, that time may not necessarily have to come at the end of a weekend night. Maybe an interruption in mid-afternoon service on Sundays would be better, he suggested. We have to get creative, Evans said. And Metros not good at being creative. Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner and the General Assembly have saved the states fledgling medical cannabis program, at least for now. The pilot program, which initially struggled to get off the ground because of excessive regulation and up-front costs, was recently extended until July 2020 under legislation signed by Rauner. That makes it easier for the growers and dispensaries to justify the investments in facilities, and security, required by the law. The new law also adds two qualifying health conditions: post-traumatic stress disorder and terminal illness. The new process also includes a provision that a physician can certify a patients diagnosis without recommending marijuana as a treatment. In addition, terminal patients have the opportunity to receive marijuana treatment at no cost. Those changes are expected to help a program that has grown steadily, but has been somewhat hampered by investment costs and the high cost of the products. Sales for July were at an all-time high of $2.9 million, while the new provisions are expected to impact sales in August. Getting into the program as a patient still isnt easy and can be costly. Patients must be diagnosed by a doctor and then apply for identification cards that are valid for three years and cost $300. Patients have to receive the marijuana treatment from a dispensary; the cost of the treatment is not covered by insurance. "Patients are seeing these numbers and are scared about how they're going to pay for access," Joel Erickson, a Chicago-based patient advocate told The Associated Press. "That's a car or rent payment without any help from insurance. There needs to be alternatives for low- or fixed-income patients to be able to afford access." Making the program accessible, yet secure, and keeping costs reasonable are challenges the program has faced in its infancy. The original program was the strictest and most secure of any program approved in the United States. While its comforting that the state isnt allowing dispensaries to be lax, the fact is that marijuana is not a particularly dangerous drug. Patients who need the relief cannabis offers may also be faced with paying the costs for the legal drug, or taking their chances buying the substances illegally. Patients at the dispensaries are under a doctors care and receive a "prescription" that fits their needs. Thats the best possible solution, but the cost is an issue that cant be ignored. An unfortunate aspect of the U.S. long-time ban on marijuana has been less research on the substances medical value. In large part, the medical community is still assessing the best use of the drug. The results are definitely encouraging for many patients, but a lot more needs to be learned. Thats why extending this pilot program is significant. It will give the growers and dispensaries a better opportunity to achieve a return on their investment and it will give patients and physicians more experience with what appears to be a promising medical alternative. -- The (Bloomington) Pantagraph Former Virginia governor L. Douglas Wilder outside the Capitol in Richmond in 2015. (Timothy C. Wright/For the Washington Post) At least one Virginia Democrat isnt daydreaming about filling Sen. Tim Kaines shoes if he becomes vice president. My name is out, trust me, former Virginia governor L. Douglas Wilder said Tuesday. At 85, Wilder still teaches at Virginia Commonwealth University, promotes an autobiography he wrote last year and weighs in on state and national politics. But hes not looking to start a new chapter in Washington. Yet Wilder does have an opinion on who should. If Hillary Clinton wins the presidency and her running mates Senate seat becomes open, Wilder thinks Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) should fill it with Rep. Robert C. Bobby Scott (D-Va.). Wilder called The Washington Post on Tuesday to read a statement to that effect. [Doug Wilder: The Virginia maverick is still bucking] Like many people, particularly in our commonwealth, I am pleased and proud to see Tim Kaine being picked by Hillary Clinton to be her running mate. And I have many times made that known, he said. The reality of the times makes it necessary to consider his replacement in the United States Senate should he be elected vice president. Though several names have been mentioned, I would consider Bobby Scott to be that person, as deserving as any, and many would say most deserving of all. I include myself in that latter category. This would be good for the commonwealth, good for the Democratic Party, of which Bobby has been most supportive, and great for our nation. Listing those qualifications for those responsible for his appointment would be superfluous here, as they are so well thereto known. McAuliffes pick would probably serve for about a year before a special election in 2017. He or she would then have to compete for a full six-year term the following year. [If Kaine wins, McAuliffe gets to pick his successor in the Senate] It is unclear how much weight McAuliffe will give Wilders advice. The former governor has, at times, been a vocal critic of the current one. McAuliffes spokesman, Brian Coy, said talk of filling the seat is premature. The governors been pretty clear about this process. Hes focused on winning the commonwealth and turning Virginia blue for Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine, Coy said. These machinations about Senate seats are only relevant if they win. So thats what hes focused on, and he has not given much thought to what would happen after that. Scott is frequently mentioned as a contender for the seat, as are the states two other Democratic congressmen: Gerald E. Connolly, former chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors; and Don Beyer, a former lieutenant governor and ambassador. Other names in the mix: state Del. Jennifer L. McClellan (D-Richmond); Molly Ward, McAuliffes secretary of natural resources; and Levar Stoney, a former McAuliffe cabinet secretary currently running for Richmond mayor. Wilder and Scott are trailblazers. Wilder was the first African American in the nation to be elected governor, while Scott was the first elected to Congress from Virginia since Reconstruction. Wilder, who endorsed then-Sen. Barack Obama in 2008 but withheld his support four years later, said his preference for Scott is unrelated to race. The issue is having the best qualified [senator], Wilder said. If he doesnt fit that role now, whoever will? Its not a matter of race. . . . The way I look at it, we dont have these kinds of opportunities come along that often. And I dont want to see this wasted. Fairfax County Mayor Richard Scott Silverthorne, was charged with felony distribution of methamphetamine and misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia on Aug. 4, 2016. (Fairfax County Police Department/Reuters) A closed-door meeting of the Fairfax City Council on Tuesday night triggered complaints from several residents who said they wanted to listen in as local elected officials weighed their response to Mayor R. Scott Silverthornes arrest last week on charges of trying to trade methamphetamines for group sex. As the council adjourned, several of the roughly 50 residents in the audience shouted Shame on you! and accused the council members of trying to manipulate the process of selecting a new mayor. Others threatened to vote the entire council out of office. This is embarrassing, Becky Stoeckel, a city resident since 1993, said after the council members left the dais to discuss legal options with the city attorney. Its cronyism, and theyre circling the wagons at this point. And its putting the city in a bad light. What are they hiding? Silverthorne plans to resign Thursday. He faces a felony charge of drug distribution and is scheduled to have a preliminary hearing in October in Fairfax Countys General District Court. [Will Mayor Silverthorne face jail time? Maybe.] After coming out of the closed session Tuesday night, council members announced that they are scheduling another meeting for Aug. 16, when there will be a public hearing on when to schedule a special election to replace Silverthorne. At that meeting, the council will also discuss whom to appoint as interim mayor. Silverthornes arrest has drawn national attention to the normally quiet Washington suburb. City officials have issued terse statements about plans of action and refused to answer questions about Silverthornes legal problems. In an announcement Monday, Fairfax Citys website had said the council would convene a special meeting Tuesday evening that would be televised on the citys cable TV station but immediately go into a closed session. The meeting is not a public hearing and there will not be an opportunity for the public to speak, the notice said. City Council member Jeffrey C. Greenfield, whom Silverthorne appointed acting mayor last week, said the closed session was held to discuss legal concerns surrounding the mayors resignation. Silverthorne, 50, was recently elected to a third term as mayor of the Northern Virginia city of about 24,000 residents. A son of former mayor Frederick W. Silverthorne, he was elected to the City Council at age 24 and served nine terms there before becoming mayor. He was arrested in an undercover sting operation, set up by Fairfax County police detectives, after allegedly handing an officer two grams of methamphetamine in a Crowne Plaza hotel parking lot in Tysons Corner with the expectation that the drugs were in exchange for participating in an orgy. Police launched the operation after receiving a tip in July that the mayor was involved with an illicit website. Nancy Loftus, a former Fairfax City council member, said she would have argued for most of Tuesday nights meeting to be held in public. The optics are terrible, Loftus said, arguing that if council members plan to consider what theyre legally mandated to do after the mayors resignation, it should be an open discussion. Thats something everyone in Fairfax City needs to know and wants to know about, she said. This isnt about Scott anymore. Now this is about the city moving forward. Now the discussion is where are we going from here, and that discussion needs to be in public with the citizens. NORTH CAROLINA Mother: Son slain near party was Safety 101 A young black man shot to death while leaving a house party allegedly by the hosts white neighbor was described by his mother Tuesday as loving, funny, and so careful that his family called him Safety 101. Kouren-Rodney Bernard Thomas, 20, was killed early Sunday when a man living two doors down from the party called police to complain of hoodlums in his neighborhood, and then fired a shotgun out of his garage, according to authorities and 911 tapes. The suspect, Chad Cameron Copley, 39, has been charged with murder and is being held without bond. This man took my babys life, the victims mother, Simone Butler-Thomas, said in a phone interview from her home in Louisburg. Thomas and a friend, David Walker, were walking back to a car parked along the street early Sunday when the shot came from the suspects house, said Butler-Thomas, who said she talked with friends and witnesses to find out what happened. She said the young men had arrived at the house party to find it had spilled outside, and decided to leave after about 15 minutes because the friend heard there were no girls there. He didnt deserve this. No child deserves it, she said. Associated Press ILLINOIS Ex-governor to serve full 14 years, judge says A federal judge on Tuesday upheld Rod Blagojevichs 14-year prison sentence on corruption counts, setting aside pleas for leniency by the former Illinois governors wife and daughters during his resentencing hearing. U.S. District Judge James Zagel said it is an unfortunate reality that Blagojevichs innocent family members are made to suffer the consequences of his actions. As the judge announced his decision, Blagojevich (D) could be seen on screen from a Colorado prison, bowing his head. In the courtroom, his two daughters sobbed, the younger one placing her head on her mothers shoulder. Blagojevich, known as Inmate No. 40892-424 since he went to prison in 2012, appeared on a courtroom video in prison-issued clothing, his once dark hair now white. He was eligible for resentencing after an appeals court threw out some convictions related to his alleged attempt to sell or trade an appointment to President Obamas old Senate seat. Associated Press NORTH DAKOTA Sioux-warrior road signs being replaced The state Transportation Department was threatened with a civil rights complaint in the months before it decided to drop its nearly century-old image of a famous Sioux warrior from thousands of highway signs. Department officials said the possible complaint played no part in their decision, but emails released to the Associated Press in response to a public records request showed that top officials closely monitored the complaint as well as a talk-radio show where callers offered opinions on the image. The Transportation Department this summer began replacing more than 4,400 state highways signs bearing the silhouette of Marcellus Red Tomahawk in favor of an outline of North Dakota. Transportation Director Grant Levi said the change was done to pay tribute to the agencys 100th birthday next year and get in step with other states signage. Associated Press Babys death linked to Zika: The death of a newborn in the Houston area has been linked to the Zika virus, Texas public health officials said Tuesday. The infants mother had traveled to Latin America during her pregnancy and was infected with the virus there, according to the Department of State Health Services. Her baby acquired the virus while in the womb and was born with microcephaly, a rare congenital condition that can cause an abnormally small head and underdeveloped brain. Thousands of microcephaly cases have surfaced in countries wrestling with the Zika virus, Brazil being most notable. Michael Brown memorialized: Michael Browns death opened the eyes of the world to concerns about U.S. law enforcements treatment of black people, Browns father said Tuesday during a memorial service marking the second anniversary of the shooting. A few hundred people gathered for the service and moment of silence along Canfield Drive in Ferguson, Mo. the spot where the black, unarmed 18-year-old was fatally shot Aug. 9, 2014, by a white officer, Darren Wilson, after a confrontation. No state inspection of slide where boy died: The water slide in Kansas City, Kan., on which 10-year-old Caleb Schwab died Sunday had not been inspected by the state since it opened two years ago, government records show. Responsibility for inspecting Schlitterbahn water park rests primarily with its owners, not any state or federal agency. Schlitterbahn officials say they inspect the ride daily. But Schlitterbahn is not required to routinely forward its inspection reports. From staff reports and news services ISRAEL U.N. employee accused of assisting Hamas Israel said Tuesday that it indicted a Palestinian U.N. employee in the Gaza Strip, accusing him of assisting the territorys Islamist militant Hamas rulers, just days after it charged the Gaza manager of the international charity World Vision with funneling millions to the group. Israels Shin Bet internal security agency said 38-year-old Waheed Borsh has worked as an engineer for the U.N. Development Program for 13 years. It said he was arrested last month and confessed to using his position to help Hamas. He was indicted two weeks ago, it said. The Shin Bet said that Borsh used UNDP resources last year to build a jetty for Hamass naval forces and that, at the groups request, he persuaded his managers to prioritize the reconstruction of houses damaged in conflicts with Israel in areas where Hamas members lived. Hamas spokesman Hazem Qasem denied the allegations, calling them baseless. The UNDP said in a statement that it is greatly concerned by the allegations and that it has zero tolerance for wrongdoing in its programs and projects. The agency said it is conducting a thorough internal review. The accusations are less severe than those aimed at Mohammed el-Halabi, World Visions Gaza office project manager, who last week was charged with diverting about 60 percent of the organizations yearly budget to Hamass armed wing. The allegations against Halabi and Borsh, if proved correct, would bolster Israels arguments for maintaining its blockade of Gaza, imposed after Hamas seized power in the coastal strip in 2007. Associated Press 14 civilians reportedly killed in Yemen airstrikes: Airstrikes by a Saudi-led coalition struck a food factory in the Yemeni capital, killing 14 civilians, according to a factory official and medics. It effectively marked the resumption of heavy bombardment by the Saudi-led alliance targeting Yemens Shiite rebels and allied forces after peace talks collapsed over the weekend. The airstrikes also signal the end of a fragile truce between the government, which is backed by the coalition, and the rebels. Pakistani investigators to hold American for 3 more days:A court in Pakistan has allowed investigators to hold an American for three more days to investigate how he reentered the country despite being barred from it. Matthew Barrett was arrested in Islamabad this past weekend. The 33-year-old was first arrested in May 2011 near a secret military research facility and was barred from returning to Pakistan. But he obtained a visa from the Pakistani Consulate in Houston and cleared the airport immigration counter. Barrett had lived in Pakistan for four years, married a Pakistani and had two children. Iraqi court drops charges against parliament speaker: A Baghdad court dropped corruption charges against Iraqs parliament speaker, citing insufficient evidence. During last weeks parliamentary session, Defense Minister Khaled al-Obeidi said speaker Salim al-Jubouri, four lawmakers, one former lawmaker and two parliamentary officials had tried to persuade him to secure contracts and to reinstate employees fired because of corruption. Iraqs Higher Judicial Council said the court dropped the charges against the speaker because of lack of evidence. It did not mention the other accused. Maldives to criminalize defamation: The parliament in Maldives cleared legislation that criminalizes defamation and allows jail terms and steep fines for media outlets, journalists and social-media users, despite concern that it will curb free speech. The measure puts the burden of proof on defendants and allows for revoking the licenses of media companies convicted of defamation. The proposed law is headed to the president for ratification, which is expected soon. Maldives has been mired in political unrest since Mohamed Nasheed, its first democratically elected leader, was ousted in disputed circumstances in 2012. Thai junta leader says elections set for late 2017: Thailands junta leader said he will hold elections in November 2017 under a newly approved constitution that ensures the militarys control over the next government. Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, the army chief who took power in a coup in 2014, had said before that he would hold elections in 2017 but had not specified a month. The announcement came two days after the new constitution was approved in a referendum by a clear majority. From news services THIS SUMMER, for the first time in 22 years, 12,000 prison inmates can use federal funding to take college courses a change that could ease their transition to civilian life and reduce the chances they will commit crimes again upon release. A two-page bill in the House and Senate would offer the same opportunity to hundreds of thousands more. In 1994, Congress banned Pell Grants for prisoners. The rule remains in place, but last year the Obama administration announced a pilot program in partnership with 67 colleges and universities to let some prisoners earn a degree while they serve their sentences. The program launched last month, but allowing all inmates to benefit is up to Congress: Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) introduced legislation to strike the prisoner prohibition last year, and recently Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) brought a matching proposal to the Senate. Both should pass. Legislators made a mistake two decades ago. They decided that educating prisoners for free would reward bad behavior at the expense of law-abiding students who struggle to pay tuition. But prisoner education encourages good behavior; inmates who make the effort should be encouraged. And the expense is modest: In 1993 and 1994, funding for prisoners took up less than 1 percent of Pell Grants. The backers of the restorations legislation say Congress could reinstate inmate eligibility without depriving students outside of the prison system. In fact, programs that reduce recidivism save money. Right now, 68 percent of prisoners end up back behind bars within three years of release. Recidivism rates decrease to less than 14 percent when prisoners receive associates degrees and to less than 6 percent when they earn bachelors degrees. Every dollar spent on educating prisoners saves $5 in reincarceration costs, a Rand Corp. analysis found. Those dollars also can change lives. Inmates leave prison to find a world different from the one they left. They struggle to reunite with families, rejoin communities and rebuild their lives. Without education, the adjustment is harder and joblessness more likely. As a result, too many prisoners reenter the outside world only to find themselves serving another sentence after just a few years, and too many other Americans are hurt by their crimes. In two pages and fewer than 1,000 words, Congress could change that. The following is a facsimile of a letter I sent to our "leaders" in Springfield on June 7, 2016. Only one, the Governor has replied, and it was a form letter. Four others, two Democrats and two Republicans, have opted not to respond. Dear ___________________: Are you oblivious as to the impact that the Illinois Legislature's and Governor's decisions and unwillingness to compromise are having on residents and communities throughout Illinois? My alma mater, Eastern Illinois University, and that of four other members of my family, is in dire financial straits due to your inaction. Student enrollment is down, unemployment is rampant, rental property sits vacant, real estate prices are lower, restaurants, retailers and services are all feeling the impact of near-depression times. As a long-time resident of this state, I am dismayed, disgusted and angry, that you, our elected officials, are treating your constituents with such disdain. Are we merely pawns in your quest to pursue your personal venues? The taxpayers of this state deserve better. Your reply is respectfully solicited. Sam Taber, Charleston Khairuldeen Makhzoomi works in his office in Berkeley, Calif., in April. The University of California student says he was unfairly removed from a flight at Los Angeles International Airport because a fellow passenger was alarmed by an innocent conversation he was having in Arabic. (Haven Daley/Associated Press) MUSLIM PASSENGERS are escorted off U.S.-based airlines with alarming frequency these days, and while the circumstances of each incident vary, there is also a sameness to them. More often than not, someone on the plane a seatmate, a passenger a few rows away, a flight attendant feels uncomfortable. The trigger for that discomfort is a passenger who looks or seems to be from a Muslim-majority country (even if the person happens to be Italian). And the outcome, as far as is generally known, is a bland statement from the airline setting forth its policy of nondiscrimination. In fact, public acts of discrimination, especially against Muslims, have spiked along with Donald Trumps venomous campaign rhetoric in this election season. That, coupled with travelers anxiety about the threat of terrorist attacks, has yielded repeated episodes of baseless suspicion on airplanes in other words, profiling. Prodded to say something, passengers and airline personnel are quick to see something, but too often what theyve really seen is a person whose skin color or attire or language is a trigger for unfounded accusation. The airlines have to do better. That means you, Delta Air Lines, for having removed a Pakistani American couple who were returning home to Ohio from a romantic 10th-anniversary trip to Europe on July 26. In Paris, a member of the flight crew said she felt uneasy at the gate because the woman, Nazia Ali, wearing a headscarf, was using her phone and her husband, Faisal, was sweating. It means you, American Airlines, for having been involved in repeated instances of apparent ethnic and religious profiling. Those include an Italian economist from the University of Pennsylvania who was escorted off a plane in Philadelphia in May after his seatmate, convinced that his intent scribbling was Arabic, reported him to the flight crew. In fact, what she saw was math a differential equation. It means you, Southwest Airlines, for having evicted a University of California at Berkeley student from an airplane in Los Angeles in April after another passenger heard him speaking Arabic on the phone. The student, an Iraqi refugee named Khairuldeen Makhzoomi, said a Southwest employee demanded to know why he had been speaking Arabic on the plane. That small sampling of recent senselessness raises the question of whether airline employees are getting the message from management that discrimination based on race, religion or national origin is unacceptable and illegal. If any airline employees have been disciplined for having mishandled passengers either by indulging the prejudices of some or training groundless suspicions at others the airlines arent saying. To the contrary, its fair to ask, as advocacy groups representing American Muslims have done, if the airlines, with a wink and a nod, are tolerating the occasional ugly and unjustified conduct of some employees and passengers. The unfortunate truth is that, in the absence of no-nonsense enforcement policies by the airlines, deplorable acts of profiling are likely to proliferate. Its up to the airlines to ensure that blameless passengers can travel freely, without fear of harassment, removal or reckless accusations. The writer, a Republican, represents Maine in the Senate. I will not be voting for Donald Trump for president. This is not a decision I make lightly, for I am a lifelong Republican. But Donald Trump does not reflect historical Republican values nor the inclusive approach to governing that is critical to healing the divisions in our country. When the primary season started, it soon became apparent that, much like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Mr. Trump was connecting with many Americans who felt that their voices were not being heard in Washington and who were tired of political correctness. But rejecting the conventions of political correctness is different from showing complete disregard for common decency. Mr. Trump did not stop with shedding the stilted campaign dialogue that often frustrates voters. Instead, he opted for a constant stream of denigrating comments, including demeaning Sen. John McCains (R-Ariz.) heroic military service and repeatedly insulting Fox News host Megyn Kelly. With the passage of time, I have become increasingly dismayed by his constant stream of cruel comments and his inability to admit error or apologize. But it was his attacks directed at people who could not respond on an equal footing either because they do not share his power or stature or because professional responsibility precluded them from engaging at such a level that revealed Mr. Trump as unworthy of being our president. [When it comes to Trump, a Republican Treasury secretary says: Choose country over party] The number of influential Republican officials saying that they can't vote for either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton is growing as Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) pledges she won't vote for Trump. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post) My conclusion about Mr. Trumps unsuitability for office is based on his disregard for the precept of treating others with respect, an idea that should transcend politics. Instead, he opts to mock the vulnerable and inflame prejudices by attacking ethnic and religious minorities. Three incidents in particular have led me to the inescapable conclusion that Mr. Trump lacks the temperament, self-discipline and judgment required to be president. The first was his mocking of a reporter with disabilities, a shocking display that did not receive the scrutiny it deserved. I kept expecting Mr. Trump to apologize, at least privately, but he did not, instead denying that he had done what seemed undeniable to anyone who watched the video. At the time, I hoped that this was a terrible lapse, not a pattern of abuse. The second was Mr. Trumps repeated insistence that Gonzalo Curiel, a federal judge born and raised in Indiana, could not rule fairly in a case involving Trump University because of his Mexican heritage. For Mr. Trump to insist that Judge Curiel would be biased because of his ethnicity demonstrated a profound lack of respect not only for the judge but also for our constitutional separation of powers, the very foundation of our form of government. Again, I waited in vain for Mr. Trump to retract his words. Third was Donald Trumps criticism of the grieving parents of Army Capt. Humayun Khan, who was killed in Iraq. It is inconceivable that anyone, much less a presidential candidate, would attack two Gold Star parents. Rather than honoring their sacrifice and recognizing their pain, Mr. Trump disparaged the religion of the family of an American hero. And once again, he proved incapable of apologizing, of saying he was wrong. I am also deeply concerned that Mr. Trumps lack of self-restraint and his barrage of ill-informed comments would make an already perilous world even more so. It is reckless for a presidential candidate to publicly raise doubts about honoring treaty commitments with our allies. Mr. Trumps tendency to lash out when challenged further escalates the possibility of disputes spinning dangerously out of control. [Ghazala Khan: Trump criticized my silence. He knows nothing about true sacrifice.] I had hoped that we would see a new Donald Trump as a general-election candidate one who would focus on jobs and the economy, tone down his rhetoric, develop more thoughtful policies and, yes, apologize for ill-tempered rants. But the unpleasant reality that I have had to accept is that there will be no new Donald Trump, just the same candidate who will slash and burn and trample anything and anyone he perceives as being in his way or an easy scapegoat. Regrettably, his essential character appears to be fixed, and he seems incapable of change or growth. 1 of 14 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad These Republicans refuse to vote for Donald Trump View Photos And theyll tell you why. Caption And theyll tell you why. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell General Powell said at a meeting of the Long Island Association that he would be voting for Hillary Clinton, a spokeswoman confirmed Oct. 25. Powell added in an interview that he picked Clinton because I think shes qualified, and the other gentleman is not qualified. Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue. At the same time, I realize that Mr. Trumps success reflects profound discontent in this country, particularly among those who feel left behind by an unbalanced economy and who wonder whether their children will have a better life than their parents. As we have seen with the dissatisfaction with both major- party nominees neither of whom I support these passions are real and the public will demand action. Some will say that as a Republican I have an obligation to support my partys nominee. I have thought long and hard about that, for being a Republican is part of what defines me as a person. I revere the history of my party, most particularly the value it has always placed on the worth and dignity of the individual, and I will continue to work across the country for Republican candidates. It is because of Mr. Trumps inability and unwillingness to honor that legacy that I am unable to support his candidacy. At the NABJ-NAHJ conference on Aug. 5 in Washington, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton reiterated her stance that she didn't send or receive classified emails while serving as secretary of state. (Reuters) At the NABJ-NAHJ conference on Aug. 5 in Washington, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton reiterated her stance that she didn't send or receive classified emails while serving as secretary of state. (Reuters) One of the most unintentionally revealing moments of Hillary Clintons campaign so far came during her recent, unconvincing explanation of the email affair: I may have short-circuited it and for that I, ah, you know, will try to clarify. Most of the resulting ridicule has focused on the short-circuited portion of the statement, which seems a particularly gentle euphemism for prevarication. But it is the latter portion of her quote that exposes a serious political disability: an ingrained, almost automatic recourse to guile. The moment really should be watched in order to be properly appreciated. Clinton launches her sentence with I may have short-circuited it and for that. . . . If this were an SAT question, the natural completion would be . . . and for that I sincerely apologize. Clinton looks as though she is headed in that direction, but stops herself. The result: . . . and for that I, ah, you know, will try to clarify. Then she proceeds with the opposite of clarification: I have acknowledged repeatedly that using two email accounts was a mistake. And I take responsibility for that. But I do think . . . having him [FBI Director James B. Comey] say that my answers to the FBI were truthful and then, I should quickly add, what I said was consistent with what I had said publicly. And thats really sort of, in my view, trying to tie both ends together. The complexity of Clintonian knots is one reason that only 34 percent of Americans in a recent poll judge her honest and trustworthy. In the email scandal, we have seen deceptions used to cover deceptions; then a minimalist apology, filled with caveats, which themselves must be revised; and then a fuller apology, long after it appears cynical and forced. Hillary Clinton speaks at the 2016 National Association of Black Journalists and National Association of Hispanic Journalists Hall of Fame Luncheon in Washington on Aug. 5. (Andrew Harnik/Associated Press) It is amazing how many problems are caused, in politics and in life, by the inability to sincerely apologize. I am not referring here to the harder and richer form of apology and forgiveness required, say, in post-genocide Rwanda or post-apartheid South Africa. In such cases, the public acceptance of guilt by wrongdoers, the expression of regret, the recognition of terrible harm allow whole societies to affirm a new set of moral norms and begin the process of healing. I have met Rwandans who live peacefully on the same street with people who murdered their family members. Such forgiveness, when you encounter it, is heroic. It is, as political theorist Hannah Arendt argued, the only reaction which does not merely re-act but acts anew and unexpectedly. No, my concern is public apology in a normal, everyday political setting. Some people find the whole process to be bunk. But forgiveness is the only force that allows flawed men and women to change their minds and reconstruct their lives on firmer ground. It preserves the possibility of moral progress. For most of us, getting what we truly deserve appealing to standards of justice alone would not be pleasant. We know we should show forgiveness to others because we so often have need of it ourselves. When an official makes a sincere apology, it can paradoxically improve his or her public standing. The authentic admission of wrongdoing involves a type of courage. It shows vulnerability and humanity. The qualities that turn people into successful politicians self-confidence, ambition, persistence, thick skin seem to work against them in situations that require humility and genuine self-criticism. Those virtues, by any historical standard, are dramatically lacking in the 2016 presidential nominees. Clinton seems to have drawn all the wrong lessons from a lifetime of scandal management. Her determination to avoid partisan scrutiny resulted in actions keeping personal control of her emails and destroying a bunch of them that have invited massive partisan scrutiny and confirmed preexisting suspicions about her character. The ritual of apology and forgiveness has an unavoidably moral root. It is inextricably linked, according to theologian L. Gregory Jones, to a commitment to change the behavior that would lead to a different way of life. A sincere apology can be redemptive. What Jones calls spinning sorrow is among the lowest of political acts. When Clinton mouths the words I am sorry and surrounds them with a thick cloud of self-justification, we are convinced only that she regrets being caught. Rather than making her look vulnerable and human, it makes her seem devious and supremely political. Does anyone really believe the Clinton way of politics has changed? This is the American emergency: an acute shortage of public integrity at the highest level of our politics. Read more from Michael Gersons archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook . Sen. Bernie Sanders exits the stage after addressing the New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont delegation breakfast at the Democratic National Convention on July 27 in Pennsylvania. (Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images) Here they come. While the media focuses on the spectacle of Donald Trumps implosion, what Jane Sanders calls the next chapter of the Sanders political revolution is already beginning. Last week, Pramila Jayapal, one of the rising stars of the Bernie Sanders movement, won a decisive victory in the primary race for Washingtons 7th Congressional District. She will advance to the November general election, where she is favored to win. She is not alone. Jamie Raskin, a progressive state legislator and leading constitutional authority on civil rights and voting rights, won his primary to fill an open Democratic seat in Maryland. Zephyr Teachout, who literally wrote the book on political corruption and challenged New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) in the gubernatorial race two years ago, is running a brilliant campaign in an uphill battle for a Republican-held seat in New York. These are not corporate or Blue Dog Democrats. These are small d democrats running movement campaigns. They arent running for powers sake; they are running to change America. The vision has to be to fundamentally change the system, Jayapal says, carrying the Sanders message that corporations and special interests have their voice in Congress, and they have too many members scared of their power. What Congress needs is a progressive voice who is unafraid to take on these powerful interests who is willing to fight for all Americans, not just the wealthiest 1 percent. Added Sanders: When you think of the political revolution, I want you to think about Pramila. Jayapal is a true organizer. An immigrant from India, she has been a leader in Seattles progressive community for more than a decade. After 9/11, she started what became the civil rights advocacy group OneAmerica, organizing in immigrant communities for basic rights, while helping to lead Seattles fight for $15 hike in the minimum wage, building coalitions to empower workers and holding corporations accountable. Jayapal and Raskin will lead a progressive surge in Congress as the Sanders movement becomes a challenge to reactionary Republicans and corporate Democrats. Sanders and his supporters are intent on giving these efforts institutional backing. The Vermont senator has announced the formation of Our Revolution, which will support progressive candidates up and down the ticket. Organizers from the Sanders campaign have launched Brand New Congress, an ambitious effort to run 400-plus populist candidates for Congress including independents and Republicans as well as Democrats in 2018, with a single, unified campaign with a single plan, and centralized crowd-sourced financing small donors contributing to a national pool in a historic effort to transform a Congress that is corrupt and dysfunctional. These new efforts will augment progressive groups like the Working Families Party, MoveOn.org, Democracy for America, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Peoples Action, all of whom are growing in energy and ambition in the wake of the Sanders campaign. Berniecrats.net, a website listing all active candidates at every level who endorsed Sanders in the primary, already has some 480 entries. Most of these are long shots running shoestring campaigns. But if the more than 2 million individual Sanders campaign supporters do move in large numbers to support Our Revolution and other offshoots in 2016, these challenges will get more serious in 2018 and 2020. One example of the potential is Tim Canovas upstart challenge to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the former head of the Democratic National Committee, in Florida. Wasserman Schultz, the epitome of a corporate Democrat pro-Trans-Pacific Partnership, pro-Wall Street, pro-big-money politics has never had a primary challenge in her previous six races. Canova got into the race to expose her traditional money politics: She has been taking millions of dollars from the biggest Wall Street banks and corporations and I started looking at her voting record and it is lined up with these corporate interests, he said. With Sanderss support, Canova now has raised a stunning $2.8 million, largely in small donations, just shy of Wasserman Schultzs $3 million. The district voted for Clinton by more than 2 to 1 in the Democratic presidential primary, so Wasserman Schultz is still the overwhelming favorite. But she is feeling the Bern, and other Democrats in the Wall Street wing of the party are likely to get the message as well. What is clear is that the Sanders revolution is only beginning. His campaign forced Democrats to have a real debate about ideas. He mobilized volunteers and inspired enthusiasm, particularly among the young. He raised unprecedented sums in small donations. Now he and his supporters are moving to build the political revolution that too many in the media mocked at the beginning of this year. This wont be easy. Big-money interests still dominate. Political participation remains low. Elected officials who are not scandal-ridden are hard to displace without massive mobilizations that change opinion and turnout. Some delegates for Bernie Sanders had a hard time accepting the end of their candidate's campaign during the four days of the Democratic National Convention. (Alice Li,Jayne Orenstein/The Washington Post) Vice President Biden commented recently that Bernie did more to change the party than the party did to change him. That remains to be seen. What is clear is that Sanders and his supporters are moving to prove just that. Read more from Katrina vanden Heuvels archive or follow her on Twitter. Regarding the Aug. 9 front-page article Trump lays out economic vision: Commentators and politicians are calling on Republicans such as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (Wis.) to repudiate Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump as a matter of conscience. Both men have differed with Mr. Trump because of his many outrageous comments but appear to believe that, as president, he would help them advance a conservative agenda. When a top Jeb Bush adviser, Sally Bradshaw, left the Republican Party because of Mr. Trump, she said it was a matter of choosing country over party. Both of these reasons to oppose Mr. Trump miss the mark, though Ms. Bradshaws decision is the more admirable. The issue ought to be whether Mr. Trump would advance the conservative agenda. I think not. It is easier to look at his inconsistent positions and knee-jerk reactions and determine that there is no Trump philosophy that can be called conservative or liberal. He believes in his own instincts and whatever comes out of his mouth at a given time. Depending on him to support the GOP legislative package is folly. Having this conservative as president would serve Republican congressional leaders right. Bob Blaemire, Bethesda The writer is a Democratic political consultant. The GOP presidential nominee is out on the trail ahead of the general election in November. The GOP presidential nominee is out on the trail ahead of the general election in November. It may be hard to imagine, but I fear this election campaign is going to get worse maybe a lot worse before it gets better. By the time its done, the whole nation may feel like it needs a shower. I base this depressing prediction on three assumptions: Polls showing the Obama coalition coming together behind Hillary Clinton are correct; Donald Trump does not want to be embarrassed as a massive loser; and the Republican Party cares more about keeping its majority in the House than about Trumps tender feelings. Any of these premises can be wrong, but I think theyre sound. The logical result is not pretty. Those who believed this campaign hit rock bottom long ago should keep in mind one of Sen. John McCains (R-Ariz.) favorite sayings: Its always darkest before its totally black. First the polls: After the two conventions, Clinton has taken a clear lead over Trump. The RealClearPolitics average of recent national polls has her at 47.3 percent and Trump at 40.1 percent, by any measure a healthy advantage. Moreover, in the swing states that will decide the election, Clinton leads Trump by decisive margins in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Virginia and New Hampshire; and by a smaller but significant margin in Florida. Ohio and North Carolina are seen as essentially tied. But a recent Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll had Clinton leading Trump by four points in Georgia, a red state that Democrats havent won since 1992. And a recent CBS News/YouGov poll showed Clinton within two points of Trump in Arizona, which has voted for a Democrat only once since 1948. In other words, if the election were held today it would be what is technically called a butt-kicking. Closer examination of the polls suggests the coalition that twice elected Barack Obama as president led by women and minorities is reassembling for Clinton; and that college-educated whites, who narrowly favored Mitt Romney, are moving into Clintons column as well. The Trump campaign may be hoping for some sort of deus ex machina game-changer more embarrassments from the Clinton emails, say, courtesy of Russian hackers or WikiLeaks. But thats not a plan. It seems to me that there are two things Trump can do. One is to raise questions in voters minds about Clinton. Having already called her Crooked Hillary and questioned her mental competence, its hard to imagine how the attacks could get much nastier. But Im afraid they will. Trump can also try to bring non-college-educated whites his strongest demographic out to vote in unprecedented numbers. Theoretically this might allow him to pick off a Rust Belt state or two, although its a long shot. I love the poorly educated, he said in February. He needs even more of them to love him back. So I expect Trump to double down not just on his attacks against Clinton but also on the two issues that won him his white working-class following: immigration and trade. That means more bigotry, more xenophobia and more totally unrealistic promises about the miracles that he and his team of rich-guy economic advisers will magically perform. It doesnt help him that the Clinton campaign has bought time during the Olympics broadcasts for an ad in which Trump acknowledges that his Trump-branded shirts are made in Bangladesh and his neckties in China. Does it even occur to Trump that anyone might ever expect him to practice what he preaches? Sorry, that was a rhetorical question. Meanwhile, the implications of the recent polls are not lost on the GOP leadership. If Clinton defeats Trump soundly, Republicans probably will lose their majority in the Senate. But if she wins in a landslide, the party could lose control of the House as well. The number of influential Republican officials saying that they can't vote for either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton is growing as Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) pledges she won't vote for Trump. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post) If we fail to protect our majority in Congress, we could be handing President Hillary Clinton a blank check, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan wrote in an urgent fundraising appeal Thursday. Coming after a disastrous week in which Trump had attacked the parents of a Muslim U.S. Army captain killed in Iraq, Ryans words were seen by many who follow politics as a recognition that the time may have arrived for damage control. Some Republicans will be under increasing pressure, either from their constituents or their consciences, to distance themselves from Trump and perhaps even rescind their endorsements. How will Trump react to such betrayal? Surely by lashing out, which is how he deals with any perceived slight. This ought to be a debate about the nations future. Thanks to Trump, it promises instead to be an unedifying brawl with kicking, biting and gouging allowed. Read more from Eugene Robinsons archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook. You can also join him Tuesdays at 1 p.m. for a live Q&A. Hillary Clinton offered a predictable and comfortable response to Donald Trumps economic speech: Its just more Republican trickle-down economics. What she has yet to address fully are Trumps non-Republican views on trade and whether she agrees or disagrees with his sharp critique of globalism. Trumps economic speech at the Detroit Economic Club was policy in two parts. The first was orthodox Republican economics. Among other things, he called for tax cuts on individuals and businesses, tax simplification and the paring back of federal regulations. This was the easiest target for Clinton as a way of drawing traditional distinctions with her Republican rival. She said Trump had tried to make these old, tired ideas sound new, adding, His tax plans will give super-big tax breaks to large corporations and the really wealthy. . . . He wants to basically just repackage trickle-down economics. [Trump tries to reset with economic speech but faces new resistance in GOP] Trumps tax and regulatory proposals played well with the Republican establishment and in particular with those in the congressional wing of the party. The speech was a bow to those in the party who continue to hope that their nominee will sound and act more like a conventional Republican even though his views on issues such as entitlement reform and the size and scope of government appear at odds with their views. Speaking at a rally in Wilmington, N.C., Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said that foe Hillary Clinton wants to "essentially" abolish the Second Amendment. Trump slammed Clinton's ability to pick Supreme Court justices if she wins, saying, "nothing you can do, folks." (The Washington Post) The second part of Trumps plan, which repeated his views about trade, offered the other side of Trump. It was far from GOP orthodoxy. The headline on a Wall Street Journal editorial about the speech said, Progress on taxes and regulation but his trade policy is a jobs killer. Yet trade policy, more than tax policy, has animated Trumps thinking for decades. It was part of his first speech as a candidate and has been a core economic message throughout the campaign. His Monday speech was another full-throated assault on the trade policies of presidents from both parties that date back decades. [Fact-checking Donald Trumps speech to the Detroit Economic Club] At one level, Trump and Clinton are in agreement on trade. He opposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and after championing the idea of such a pact while she was secretary of state, Clinton, too, opposes it. Her opposition represents a clear break with President Obama, who noted last week that, wherever she stands, he still wants to see it approved before he leaves office. Clinton came out against the agreement last year to put herself in alignment with Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont during the primaries and also to associate herself with the views of liberal activists, whose hostility to trade agreements is a long-standing policy and whose influence in the primaries represented a threat to her candidacy. But in doing so, she put herself at odds with the views enunciated by her husband, Bill Clinton, when he was president, and raised questions about whether her change of heart was mere political expedience. Which is why her position on trade and global economics has remained suspect to those on the left so much so that when Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) suggested during the Democratic convention that she would reverse herself and find a way to support the TPP after the election, her team rushed to squash the controversy. [McAuliffe fuels new distrust of Clinton over her position on trade] Shes anti-TPP now and anti-TPP after the election, they said, and McAuliffe, long one of the Clintons closest friends, retreated. That got her safely through the convention, but it did not answer all the questions about her views about trade and globalism. Before the conventions, Trump delivered a speech devoted almost solely to issues of trade and global economics. Coverage focused heavily on his break with Republican policy, but it was notable for another reason. It was not simply an anti-trade message but one of the most direct assaults on the net effect of globalism delivered by a major party candidate. Trump denounced globalism as something that has benefited Wall Street and elites but that has left workers behind. Globalization has made the financial elite who donate to politicians very, very wealthy, he said. The view of most politicians who support big trade agreements is that, on balance, globalism is good for the world economy and nations. According to this view, there are winners and losers in a global economy, but the benefits outweigh the costs, and there can and should be policies to cushion the effect on those who have been harmed by the movement of jobs and capital. Trump seems to take the opposite view, that on balance globalism has produced more losers than winners, or at a minimum that those who have gained the most have ignored those who have been harmed. He has tried to turn the debate upside down, seeming to reflect the views of his core constituency of white, working-class voters whose wages have stagnated and many of whom have seen their jobs moved elsewhere. What does Clinton really think about this aspect of economic policy? How do her views today square with what she has thought and advocated during her public career? If there is a difference, how substantial are the changes in her views and what produced a change of heart? Those are issues about which she has so far been relatively silent. She found a safe zone during the primaries by putting herself close to Sanders and was not pressed to articulate broader views about trade and international economics much beyond that. Trump has presented her with a challenge; is she is prepared to take it up? Her husband never shrank from this challenge, either as a candidate campaigning in favor of the North American Free Trade Agreement in front of union audiences bitterly opposed to it, or as a president who needed Republican votes to pass the agreement over the opposition of many in the congressional wing of the Democratic Party. Obama, too, has been a strong advocate of trade and globalism, as his comments about the TPP last week indicated, just as Sanders and Trump have been consistent opponents of a string of trade agreements and of the overall effect of globalism. Where exactly is Clinton in this debate? In her responses to Trumps Detroit speech, Clinton did not address what the GOP nominee said about trade. Its difficult to believe that was an oversight. Her comments instead focused on taxes and regulation and included criticism of his team of economic advisers as a bunch of wealthy financiers who would benefit from the tax policies he outlined. No doubt Democrats believe there is much to question about Trumps economic views. Clinton will make the most of the areas where she thinks he is most vulnerable. On his assertion that he will make sure goods are produced here at home, she has chosen to belittle him over how, as he complains about jobs being shipped overseas, the clothing that bears his name has been manufactured abroad. But she has not said whether she think his overall views about trade and about globalism are as abhorrent as she thinks his tax and regulatory policies are, even if they are currently in the same place on the TPP. Nor has she indicated whether she believes that, on balance, the benefits of globalism significantly outweigh the costs. Trump has put down a clear marker on these issues, however controversial. Does Clinton not owe the public a fuller explanation of her views on a topic that her rival has made central to his candidacy? With barely 90 days until the election, Donald Trump touched down Tuesday for a pair of rallies on the outskirts of eastern North Carolina, where tobacco was once king and conservative Democrats determined statewide elections. Trumps trip illustrated both his challenge and opportunity in the Tarheel State, where booming cities have given Democrats new hope for a win but where deeply conservative swaths, including the eastern third of the state, remain fertile ground for Republicans. The trouble for Trump is that he has largely ignored these rural conservatives until Tuesday. Its more evidence of the unconventional nature of his presidential bid, which has relied heavily on big rallies and free media exposure and less on the state-by-state strategy and field operation that characterize most presidential campaigns. Hes coming here? Well, thats good, I guess, said Herman Bohne, 75, as he bundled his McDonalds dinner into a brown paper bag, preparing for a torrent of rain on the way to his car here. Were used to being ignored. Eastern North Carolinas clout has waned, but the fact that it has taken so long for either major-party candidate to get here has left strategists for Democrats and Republicans here scratching their heads. Trumps avoidance of such a conservative swath is especially hard to explain; until this week he has stuck mostly to events in Charlotte and Winston-Salem, and his field operation is outgunned here by Democratic nominee Hillary Clintons. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton leads her Republican opponent Donald Trump by eight points in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. The poll also found a majority of voters see both candidates as dishonest. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post) I dont think the urban areas are going to go heavily for Trump, said Marc Rotterman, a veteran GOP consultant in North Carolina. So you have to get an overvote in eastern North Carolina. Its essential that they turn out that vote. [Clinton expands battleground map with push into Arizona, Georgia] Rotterman said eastern North Carolina is tailor-made for Trump and is essential to his chances of carrying a must-win state where the major cities of Charlotte and Raleigh have increasing voter clout and lean increasingly toward Democrats. He noted that Trumps rallies Tuesday in Wilmington and Fayetteville, his first in the region since becoming the GOP nominee, were a good start at making inroads here. Trump set off a controversy during his speech in Wilmington, where he appeared to urge defenders of the Second Amendment to take action against Clinton if she becomes president. Mostly, though, Trump stuck to his talking points, calling Clinton inept and saying that only he could safeguard American opportunity. He also dwelled on the states importance to his victory in November, saying, Gotta win North Carolina and promising, Were going to be coming to North Carolina a lot. A ripe area for Republicans The hardscrabble region, which in some pockets has lost population as the states major cities have boomed, remains home to many residents who feel the economy has forgotten them, who are wary of a wave of Latino immigration and who take pride in the regions military bases. In other words, these are Trump voters ready for the taking. Bohne, a registered Democrat and former route salesman for Coca-Cola, said he plans to vote, somewhat reluctantly at this point, for Trump. Like many longtime residents of the region, Bohne was a fan of Jesse Helms, the Republican senator whose conservative Democratic followers east of Interstate 95 were dubbed Jessecrats, as well as President Ronald Reagan, whom Helms championed. Both men, Bohne said, spoke their minds, a characteristic that Trump shares, he said. The real estate mogul has focused on the issues that matter most to Bohne: government corruption, economic globalization and, above all, a prevailing sense that things are terribly amiss. Democratic strategists agreed that Trump has missed an opportunity to run up support in rural parts, but they take the argument a step further by suggesting that his visits to larger cities could be doing him a disservice. The urban areas in this state have turned very Democratic, and I dont know that he helps himself when he comes to Raleigh and Charlotte, said Scott Falmlen, a former executive director of the North Carolina Democratic Party. Underscoring the importance of the state, Trump has now made at least six stops since June in North Carolina, all in relatively large cities. Last week, his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, campaigned in Raleigh. While the rallies Tuesday in Wilmington and Fayetteville were technically in eastern North Carolina, both were in population centers, and both were well over an hours drive away from where rural residents such as Bohne live. Advisers to the Clinton campaign here said that she and her running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), will make it to destinations in eastern North Carolina, which is also known for its hog farming and its own style of vinegar-and-pepper-based barbecue. But the Clinton campaign is banking more on longer-term trends in the state that it sees working in its favor: an influx of college-educated professionals along an urban and suburban corridor that stretches from Raleigh to Charlotte, and an uptick in the African American share of the electorate that is part of the legacy of President Obamas campaigns. Obama poured resources into North Carolina in 2008 and eked out a victory over Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.); he went on to lose by a narrow margin in 2012 to Mitt Romney. Prior to Obamas 2008 victory, the last Democrat to carry the state in a presidential election was Jimmy Carter, in 1976. There have been few public, nonpartisan polls of late in North Carolina, but the few that are out there suggest a very close race this fall. Clinton has targeted the state with television advertising and has invested in a large field staff through a coordinated campaign with the state Democratic Party. In a move that has bewildered even some allies, Trump has yet to go on the air in the state, and his North Carolina campaign just underwent a staff shake-up, resulting in a new state director. The Clinton campaign has also been buoyed by last months federal court ruling that struck down much of North Carolinas voter-identification law, which judges said unfairly targeted black voters. In addition to requiring residents to show identification before they could cast a ballot, the 2013 law eliminated same-day voter registration, seven days of early voting and out-of-precinct voting. During an appearance last week in Greensboro, Kaine predicted that the ruling could result in an additional 100,000 people going to the polls in the state in November. In both of Obamas races, the outcome was decided by fewer than 100,000 votes. Many of those votes are likely to come from the states four largest urban areas surrounding Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro and Winston-Salem; together, those regions account for nearly 1 in 4 of North Carolinas residents. Dissatisfaction on both sides But the battle for the state in November might still be determined on the margins, in regions such as eastern North Carolina. And Trump is not the only one with work to do there. Besides white, blue-collar residents, the region is also home to the largest concentration of black residents outside the states urban centers. And interviews here suggest that Clinton must still shore up her base, too. If I had to vote, itd be for Hillary Clinton, said Brodrick Clark, a plumber who is African American. But do I plan to vote? No. He said he is not sure he trusts a woman to be president a view he said was grounded in his Christian faith. Some African American residents in this part of the state did not share the sense of outrage at Trumps incendiary rhetoric that, in national polling, has driven a gulf between the two candidates among minorities. Thirty miles south of Wilson, in Goldsboro, 30-year-old Darius Adams said he voted for Obama in 2008 but for Romney in 2012. Now hes thinking of voting for Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate. Even some residents in the region inclined to vote for Trump see drawbacks, worried that his pugilistic tone does not square with their more conservative social principles. [Why these prominent Republicans are breaking up with Trump now] Many say they see Trump as a tough and effective outsider who would shake up Washington. But they question whether he would be a steady leader. And they do not think he shares all of their values, an impediment in a part of the state where social issues can scramble partisan loyalty. Lenora Mullelly gave voice to that conflict. Working the front desk at a Wilson campground owned by her sister, she said neither party represents her. I like his backbone, she said of Trump. Hes a go-getter, and hell do something about our state, our United States. But the way he goes about it scares me. Wed go to war the way he runs his mouth. Mullelly, 64, said it is time to remove the bigwigs running Washington and install someone whos poor. Trump is wealthy, she acknowledged, but her sister, Sherron Prillaman, chimed in with a view at odds with the businessmans large inheritance from his father: He wasnt born with his money. Trumps temperament is equally decisive for Luke Chandler, a minister here who is repelled by the scandals associated with Clinton but nervous about Trumps freewheeling, anything-goes approach. He said he was horrified when Trump said he did not like to have to ask for Gods forgiveness. Trump boosters, including Chris Millis, a state legislator whose eastern North Carolina district touches the Atlantic coast, said the Republicans standing could be shored up by more visits like those on Tuesday. Millis said he is hopeful that future visits from Trump and Pence will include more rural destinations in the region, where the tickets message should resonate with voters concerned about overreach of the federal government, among other issues. Making time to come to the eastern side of the state is a big deal, Millis said. Coming to the Wilmington area is definitely big news for eastern North Carolina. Wagner reported from Washington. Protesters shoes lie scattered on a sidewalk in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Aug. 6 after demonstrators were arrested and taken away by police. (Paul Schemm/The Washington Post) The shoes lay scattered on the sidewalk as the detained protesters walked barefoot through the rain, escorted by grim-faced police officers who casually beat them with batons to keep them moving. In nearby Meskel Square here in the heart of the Ethiopian capital, police kicked around the remnants of protest signs. Just 10 minutes earlier, 500 people had gathered at the site, shouting slogans against the government before being beaten, rounded up and carted off by police. In Ethiopias countryside, however, it was a bloodier story. Rights groups and opposition figures estimate that dozens were killed in a weekend of protests that shook this key U.S. ally in the Horn of Africa. The government had switched off the Internet over the weekend, apparently to prevent demonstrators from organizing, so it was only by Monday that word spread of the extent of the violence across the Oromia and Amhara regions. [Ethiopia confronts its worst violence in years] Just a year ago, Ethiopia was basking in the worlds spotlight after a visit from President Obama and global accolades for its decade of double-digit growth and enviable stability in a dangerous region. Since then, however, this country of nearly 100 million has been hit by a widespread drought that has halved growth, and anti-government protests have spread across two of its most populous regions. The local weekly Addis Standard estimated that at least 50 people were killed over the weekend based on phone calls to protest hot spots. Amnesty International put the toll at about 100, citing sources across the country. On Monday, the government announced that the situation was under control and that the attempted demonstrations were orchestrated by foreign enemies from near and far in partnership with local forces. Merera Gudina, chairman of the opposition Oromo Federalist Congress, told The Washington Post that an estimated 50 people died in the Oromia region Saturday and 27 were killed Sunday in Bahir Dar, the capital of the Amhara region and a major tourist destination. The government is responding in the same way it has responded to such incidents for the last quarter of the century, he said by phone from Washington during a visit with the Ethiopian community there. They want to rule in the old way, and people are refusing to be ruled in the old way. [History repeats itself in Ethiopia] Protests began in November in the Oromia region, a sprawling state the size of Nevada that is home to the Oromos, the largest ethnic group in the country. It is also home to the capital. As a booming Addis Ababa expanded and Ethiopia brought in foreign investors, more and more land from the surrounding Oromia region was confiscated. People also complained of corrupt administrators and, with little recourse to justice, began to stage demonstrations. The government response was harsh. Human Rights Watch estimated that at least 400 people were killed in protests over the next several months. The official Ethiopian human rights council put the figure at 173. In the face of the repression, the protests slowly quieted in Oromia, only to erupt last month in the neighboring region of Amhara, the historical ethnic center of the Ethiopian state and home to spectacular rock-cut churches and medieval castles that attract tourists. A botched government attempt to arrest activists in the northern city of Gondar in mid-July led to two days of rioting that left 11 members of the security forces and five civilians dead. Two weeks later, tens of thousands held a peaceful demonstration over land issues and government repression. Protesters in Amhara declared solidarity with the Oromo people and their opposition to the government, which many say is dominated by the minority Tigrayan ethnic group. Activists abroad then called for demonstrations across the two regions this past weekend a call to which thousands responded despite the Internet shutdown. It is clear Ethiopia has a potentially serious and destabilizing unrest on its hands, said Rashid Abdi, the Horn of Africa project director at the International Crisis Group. What started off as isolated and localized protests in the Oromia and Amhara regions has now morphed into a much broader movement covering a large swath of the country. He said the government has to move swiftly to defuse the crisis by engaging in talks with the communities and addressing the root causes of the dissatisfaction. Despite Ethiopias impressive economic gains, the growth has not been enough to keep pace with rising social inequality and unemployment, he said. Opening these lines of communication, however, may be difficult because of a lack of leadership. Opposition parties have been repressed the ruling coalition won 100 percent of the parliamentary seats in elections last year and local officials are often mistrusted or viewed as corrupt. Seyoum Teshome, a university lecturer in Woliso, a town in Oromia where protests also occurred, said people have taken to the streets because they do not feel they have any other choice. They have no other option other than protests to explain their grievances, he said. They have nothing. Gudina, the opposition leader, said his party has been so curtailed by authorities that it has little control over what has been happening in Oromia. Most of the partys leadership was imprisoned when the protests began last year. He said that unless the government eased its repression, the violence would worsen. These protests are at the level of an intifada people in their own ways are resisting the government pressure and demanding their rights, he said, using an Arabic term that means uprising. I dont think its going to die down. Read more: Ethiopia shuts down social media to keep from distracting students Obamas trip to Ethiopia alarms some human rights activists They fled Ethiopia amid war. An economic boom is bringing them home. Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world ST. LOUIS -- Warmer weather back in the spring and a strong surge in earnings from its Illinois utility helped give Ameren Corp. a sizzling second quarter. St. Louis-based Ameren reported operating revenues of $1.43 billion which, while actually missing Wall Street estimates by $20 million, still generated net income of $147 million, or 61 cents a share, which blew past Street expectations by 9 cents. Ameren Corp said that $147 million profit was off slightly from the $150 million earned this time last year, but the 2015 numbers included results from discontinued operations. The Ameren Illinois utility contributed core earnings of $45 million, up a huge 45 percent from the 2015 second quarter core earnings of $31 million. Ameren Corp said increased air conditioner usage with the early onset of hot spring temperatures buoyed the results. Ameren Illinois also benefitted from healthy returns on major investments in electricity transmission and distribution infrastructure in the state, along with higher rates for natural gas distribution. Now feeling upbeat about the rest of the year and with the results from the hottest months still to come Ameren Corp. increased its 2016 earnings guidance from a range of $2.40 to $2.60 per share to a range of $2.45 to $2.65 per share. Our team continued to successfully execute all elements of our strategy, said Warner L. Baxter, Ameren Corp's chairman, president and CEO. That performance drove solid second quarter earnings results, which also benefitted from warmer-than-normal early summer temperatures. Ameren Corp's other state utility, Ameren Missouri, didn't fare so well, with core earnings fading 11 percent to $92 million from a high this time last year of $104 million. The utility says its earnings were hit by the costs of refueling a Missouri nuclear power station and lower sales to the Noranda company, whose aluminum smelter is the utility's biggest customer. Ameren Corp, which has a reputation as one of the top dividend-payers in the utility industry, had announced in April a quarterly dividend of 42.5 cents a share, payable June 30. Ameren Corp shares finished Monday at $50.94, down 6 cents or 0.12 percent. The leaders of Turkey and Russia pledged Tuesday to restart key energy projects and roll back sanctions, seeking to rebuild ties as Turkey looks beyond its NATO partners for support following a failed coup attempt last month. In his first trip abroad since the attempted takeover by the military, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan openly courted Russia in vivid contrast to recent and bitter hostilities with Moscow, especially over Syrias civil war. Erdogan called Russian President Vladimir Putin my dear friend Vladimir at talks in the Konstantinovsky Palace near St. Petersburg. The Turkish leader repeatedly thanked Putin for his rapid offer of aid following the coup attempt, and called for relations between the two countries to return to their pre-crisis level, or even higher. This is our principled position. We always categorically oppose any anti-constitutional actions, Putin told journalists, referring to the attempted military takeover. But the negotiations are likely to elevate concerns in the West over Turkeys political direction as it employs increasingly authoritarian measures in the wake of the coup attempt. Erdogan has criticized the West for what he viewed as tepid support after rogue military officers seized combat aircraft and fired on parliament and protesters, killing more than 250 people. He has demanded that the United States extradite a U.S.-based Turkish cleric who he says inspired the putsch. [Hes 77, frail and lives in Pennsylvania. Turkey says hes a coup mastermind.] The two presidents met face-to-face for the first time since Turkish fighter jets shot down a Russian Su-24 warplane over the Syrian border last September, bringing the regional rivals to the brink of war and sparking a political crisis. While Erdogan and Putin emphasized their renewed economic cooperation, they avoided topics that could undercut the high-level outreach. Those included the conflict in Syria, where Moscow is backing President Bashar al-Assad and Turkey supports his enemies. Also sidestepped in public: compensation that Russia wants Turkey to pay for the death of its Su-24 pilot. In discussions he called constructive, Putin said that Russia would gradually lift economic sanctions from Turkish companies, seek to resume charter flights to take tourists to Turkey, consider resuming imports of Turkish agricultural products and pursue other steps to repair economic cooperation. Erdogan, in turn, said he would resume talks on a natural gas pipeline from Russia to Turkey and grant special status to a planned nuclear power plant that will be built by Russia. In a climate of heightened anti-Western sentiment, Erdogans move to warm relations with Russia may cement Turkeys alienation from its traditional allies, analysts say. The meeting between Putin and Erdogan is a big deal. . . . Turkish foreign policy now stands at a crossroads, said Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. For the first time in recent memory, there is serious discussion of Turkeys NATO membership, he said. And some Turkish officials , he said, are questioning whether Turkey should move toward Russia. Erdogan could easily accomplish this pivot, Cagaptay said, especially given the reduced state of the Turkish military. The armed forces have the strongest interest in maintaining NATO ties, he said, but are damaged after undergoing thousands of arrests since the coup attempt. [Was the U.S. behind a failed coup? Many Turks think so.] Russia slapped Turkey with harsh economic sanctions in January as punishment for the downed fighter jet, including a ban on Turkish produce and charter flights to Turkey. Turkey had been the largest supplier of agricultural products to the Russian market, according to Crisp Consulting, a clearinghouse for Russian food marketing and logistics news. The two sides had also shelved plans for a natural gas pipeline that would run from Russia to Turkey under the Black Sea. Even as the leaders on Tuesday discussed rolling back some of the sanctions, analysts said their ability to establish a personal relationship might be more important. Both leaders have built a personalized and authoritarian style of governance, according to Asli Aydintasbas, an expert on Turkish foreign policy at the European Council on Foreign Relations. And their shared traits probably will help boost ties. The personal aspect is very important, Pavel Shlykov, an analyst with the Institute of Asian and African Studies at Moscow State University, said in an earlier interview. The political relationship between the two countries is very dependent on the basis of personalities, on Erdogan and Putin, and the initiatives start from them, he said. In June, Erdogan sent a personal apology to Putin for the downed warplane. Putin had called the attack a stab in the back by the accomplices of terrorists a reference to Erdogans support for Syrias rebels. But Putin accepted the apology and appeared to signal a detente. Now the flow of events has swayed Erdogan even closer, said Sergey Karaganov, an influential Russian foreign policy thinker and a dean at Moscows Higher School of Economics. Building relationships with Russia for him is a normal step, Alexei Malashenko, an analyst at the Moscow Carnegie Center, said of Erdogan. And Im sure Erdogan will repeat [to Western leaders]: If you refuse to help me or respect me, dont forget about my good relations with Putin. Cunningham reported from Istanbul. Zeynep Karatas in Istanbul contributed to this report. Read more: How the rivalry between Russians and Turks shaped the world Turkish president apologizes for downing of Russian warplane last year NATO faces new Mideast crisis after downing of Russian jet by Turkey In quest to punish coup plotters, Turkey squeezes out room for dissent Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world The 168-foot Kansas City water slide where a 10-year-old boy died on Sunday was repeatedly delayed from opening in 2014 due to glitches including one issue that caused water rafts to fly off the slide and into the air, prompting a slew of additional safety precautions, according to a documentary about the building of the amusement ride. Investigators are working to uncover exactly what happened to Caleb Schwab, the 10-year-old son of Kansas lawmaker Scott Schwab, on the 17-story Verruckt water slide at Kansas City's Schlitterbahn water park. In an episode chronicling the ride's construction and opening on the Travel Channel's Xtreme Waterparks, rafts were seen flying off a test model of the slide which was half the size of the finished ride. Tests of Water Slide Where 10-Year-Old Died Showed Rafts Could Fly Off Ramp| Death, Real People Stories Tests of Water Slide Where 10-Year-Old Died Showed Rafts Could Fly Off Ramp| Death, Real People Stories Tests of Water Slide Where 10-Year-Old Died Showed Rafts Could Fly Off Ramp| Death, Real People Stories During early testing of the ride, even rafts holding sandbag occupants were launched off the slide at a section called the "Hill," an at least 5-story high point where riders are weightless, USA Today reported then. "We had many issues on the engineering side," Jeff Henry, Verruckt creator and Schlitterbahn co-owner, told USA Today at the time. "A lot of our math was based on roller coasters at first, and that didn't translate to a water slide like this. No one had ever done anything like this before." To remedy the flying raft issue, officials added an extra five feet to the already 55-foot hill and reduced the ride's slope to decrease speed. Additional safety precautions added include a net enclosing the chute to retain the raft, velcro seatbelts and weight restrictions. Tests of Water Slide Where 10-Year-Old Died Showed Rafts Could Fly Off Ramp| Death, Real People Stories Half of the slide was torn down with corrections costing $1 million, USA Today reports. Schlitterbahn officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment from PEOPLE, but officials released a statement on the park's website. "We are saddened to share that a young boy died on Verruckt this afternoon," the statement reads. "Given that safety is our first priority, we have closed the Kansas City park today and Monday and have closed the ride pending a full investigation. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family during this difficult time." "We Honestly Don't Know What's Happened" Schwab was with his family at the park during an event for elected officials when tragedy struck. The exact circumstances surrounding Caleb's death are unknown at this time, but a Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department spokesman tells PEOPLE that the boy was "on the ground" when officers arrived at the scene at around 2:30 p.m. A GoFundMe campaign was started to help the Schwab family cover funeral costs. Tests of Water Slide Where 10-Year-Old Died Showed Rafts Could Fly Off Ramp| Death, Real People Stories "We honestly don't know what's happened," Winter Prosapio, director of communications for Schlitterbahn, told reporters, according to The Kansas City Star. "That's why a full investigation is necessary a To be honest, this is not something we've experienced." Prosapio said that the park's rides are inspected daily by an "outside party," the Associated Press reports. "It's a Safe Dangerous Now" The ride was set to open in May 2014 but didn't start taking riders until July, according to KMBC 9. Henry, the ride's creator, praised the ride ahead of its opening and warned that Verruckt isn't a "family ride." "It's dangerous, but it's a safe dangerous now," Henry told USA Today. "Schlitterbahn is a family water park, but this isn't a family ride. It's for the thrill seekers of the world, people into extreme adventure." The Verruckt (German for "crazy" or "insane") was named the world's tallest water slide by Guinness World Records in 2014. Riders, required to be at least 54 inches tall go down the slide in multi-person rafts that hold up to 550 pounds, according to the Star. Riders climb 264 stairs to the top there are call boxes along the way for emergencies and the rafts hit speeds of up to 70 mph, the Star reports. Henry and another man were the first people to test the ride, and he joked to USA Today then that he was "still recovering mentally." "It's like jumping off the Empire State Building," he said. "It's the scariest thing I've done." 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 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. The U.S. News Short List, separate from our overall rankings, is a regular series that magnifies individual data points in hopes of providing students and parents a way to find which undergraduate or graduate programs excel or have room to grow in specific areas. Be sure to explore The Short List: College, The Short List: Grad School and The Short List: Online Programs to find data that matter to you in your college or grad school search. Those looking to balance a career with a legal education might consider a part-time law program to help them juggle their responsibilities. Among the 98 schools that submitted these data to U.S. News in an annual survey, Georgetown University topped the list of law schools that received the most part-time applications in fall 2015, at 1,509. Georgetown's part-time law program ranked No. 1 in U.S. News' 2017 Best Law Schools, with an overall rank of 14. [Learn the do's and don'ts of putting together a law school application.] Georgetown's part-time applicant pool was significantly larger than the average among the top 10 on the list -- 652 -- as well as that among all schools that submitted these data, at 204 applications. The other nine schools on the list each received fewer than 850 part-time applications last fall. The three next highest -ranked part-time law programs -- Fordham University in New York, at No. 2; George Washington University in Washington, D.C., at No. 3; and George Mason University in Virginia, at No. 4 -- were also among the 10 that received the most part-time applications last fall. [Ask these questions to determine whether law school is the right move.] Prospective law students looking for a part-time program in Washington, D.C. or New York might be up against more applicants than elsewhere. These two cities each had three part-time law programs among the schools on the list. Below are the 10 law schools that received the most applicants to part-time programs in fall 2015. Unranked schools, which did not meet certain criteria required by U.S. News to be numerically ranked, were not considered for this report. Note that the William Mitchell College of Law in Minnesota has merged with the Hamline University School of Law in Minnesota to become the Mitchell Hamline School of Law, though the two schools appear separately in the 2017 rankings. Story continues Don't see your school in the top 10? Access the U.S. News Law School Compass to find admissions data, complete rankings and much more. School officials can access historical data and rankings, including of peer institutions, via U.S. News Academic Insights. U.S. News surveyed 205 schools for our 2015 survey of law programs. Schools self-reported myriad data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News' data the most accurate and detailed collection of college facts and figures of its kind. While U.S. News uses much of this survey data to rank schools for our annual Best Law Schools rankings, the data can also be useful when examined on a smaller scale. U.S. News will now produce lists of data, separate from the overall rankings, meant to provide students and parents a means to find which schools excel, or have room to grow, in specific areas that are important to them. While the data come from the schools themselves, these lists are not related to, and have no influence over, U.S. News' rankings of Best Colleges, Best Graduate Schools or Best Online Programs. The application data above are correct as of Aug. 9, 2016. Jordan Friedman is an online education editor at U.S. News. You can follow him on Twitter or email him at jfriedman@usnews.com. They still face a fight for their rights, but women have begun to break through the glass ceiling and join the select group of global political leaders. Here are 10 of the most powerful women in the world: - Angela Merkel - Merkel, 62, became Germany's first woman chancellor in 2005 and has led the biggest economy in Europe ever since, winning a third four-year term in 2013. She is a key world leader whose opinion carries weight during financial and economic crises, on political issues and the question of global migration. She has a physics doctorate and was named the world's most powerful woman in 2015 by Forbes magazine. - Theresa May - May, 59, became Britain's second woman prime minister -- after Margaret Thatcher -- on July 13, following the resignation of David Cameron. He quit after Britons voted to leave the European Union. Interior minister since 2010, May, who cautiously campaigned for remaining in the EU, will be responsible for negotiating an extremely delicate divorce from the union. - Hillary Clinton - Clinton, 68, a former US first lady (1993-2001), New York State senator and secretary of state under President Barack Obama, now eyes the White House herself, having become the first woman to win a major party's nomination in the 2016 presidential election. - Aung San Suu Kyi - The 71-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate, a democratic icon in Myanmar, was barred from becoming president by a constitution inherited from the country's military junta. Instead, after years under house arrest and landmark November 2015 elections, she became state counsellor, the de facto prime minister, and placed a man from her inner circle in the presidential role. - Ellen Johnson Sirleaf - Dubbed the "Iron Lady", Liberia's Sirleaf, 77, made history when she became Africa's first elected woman president in November 2005. She then also won the Nobel Peace Prize. The economist, a former international civil servant and finance minister, won a second term in 2011. Story continues - Michelle Bachelet - Chile's Bachelet, 64, is the only woman leader now in power in Latin America. A former opposition leader who was tortured under the regime of Augusto Pinochet, she was also the region's first woman defence minister before serving as president of Chile from January 2006-2010. In December 2013, Bachelet won a second term. - Christine Lagarde - Lagarde, 60, is the first woman to head the International Monetary Fund, taking over in 2011 in the midst of a debt crisis. She has just been reappointed as head of the IMF. A former corporate lawyer, Lagarde was also France's first woman finance minister. - Janet Yellen - Yellen, 69, was named in 2013 as head of the US Federal Reserve, a post held exclusively by men until then. A former Harvard University professor, she was also former US president Bill Clinton's chief economist. - Irina Bokova - Bulgarian Bokova, 64, became in 2009 the first woman to head the UN cultural organisation UNESCO, which deals with education, cultural heritage and freedom of expression. Re-elected in 2013, the career diplomat has put UNESCO at the centre of the fight for women's equality. She is on the short list of candidates for the post of UN secretary general. - Margaret Chan - A 68-year-old physician who headed Hong Kong's health department during bird flu and SARS epidemics, Chan is director-general of the World Health Organization and has made women's health a priority for that UN body. A group of Tennessee girls' pleasant day at the county fair turned ugly this week when they plummeted some 40 feet from a Ferris wheel. The three victims were at the Greene County Fair on Monday when authorities say the basket they were riding in overturned, dumping them to the ground. All three required immediate medical treatment. Read: Lawmaker's Son, 10, Suffered 'Fatal Neck Injury' On World's Tallest Water Slide, Cops Reveal Two of the children were alert and talking after they fell from the attraction. A third child has a head injury and is in the ICU at a Johnson City hospital, according to WVLT. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has been called in to investigate the incident. All the fair's rides that are operated by Family Attractions Amusement Company will remain closed until a third party inspector deems them safe to operate. Read: Teen Dies With Instructor in Tandem Skydive As His Family Watches From the Ground A message left with Family Attractions was not immediately returned. Another photo of the ferris wheel at the Greene County Fair, where three riders fell 40-50 feet this evening. pic.twitter.com/zkpS0AhFGA Darren Reese (@GSunDarrenReese) August 8, 2016 The accident occurred just a day after the 10-year-old son of a state lawmaker suffered a fatal neck injury on a slide at a water park in Kansas. Back in May, an 11-year-old Nebraska girl was partially scalped when she slipped in her ride seat at a carnival run by a different company and her hair was caught in a spinning mechanism. Watch: Brother Remembers Newlywed Victim Killed In Deadly Balloon Crash Related Articles: Goldman Sachs Asset Management is renowned as one of the worlds leading financial management companies. The company delivers investment and advisory solutions along with risk management expertise to help institutional and individual investors achieve their financial goals. With its global multi-product platform, it offers its clients innovative investment solutions that come with working with a large firm. With more than $1 trillion assets under management, Goldman Sachs Asset Management prides itself in having more than 2,000 professionals across 33 offices worldwide, since its inception in 1869. Below we share with you three top-rated Goldman Sachs mutual funds. Each has earned a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and is expected to outperform its peers in the future. Investors can click here to see the complete list of Goldman Sachs mutual funds, their Zacks Rank and past performance. Goldman Sachs International Equity Insights A GCIAX seeks long-term capital appreciation. GCIAX invests a major portion of its assets in equity securities of companies that are organized outside the U.S. or whose securities are mostly traded outside the U.S. Dividends and distributions from net capital gains are declared and paid annually. Goldman Sachs International Equity Insights A returned 2.6% over the past three years. As of April 2016, GCIAX held 256 issues with 2.64% invested in Roche Holding AG Dividend Right Cert. Goldman Sachs Bond A GSFAX invests the majority of its assets in bonds and other fixed income securities such as securities issued by the U.S. government, corporate debt securities, fixed rate mortgage loans, asset-backed securities and high yield non-investment grade securities, to name a few. GSFAX seeks total return consisting of capital appreciation and income. Goldman Sachs Bond A returned 4% over the past three years. Jonathan Beinner is one of the asset managers of GSFAX since 2006. Goldman Sachs Large Cap Growth Insights R GLCRX seeks long-term growth of capital. GLCRX invests a large portion of its assets in a broadly diversified portfolio of equity investments in large-cap U.S. issuers and non-U.S. issuers traded domestically. Goldman Sachs Large Cap Growth Insights R returned 12.6% over the past three years. Story continues As of April 2016, GLCRX held 161 issues with 4.68% invested in Apple Inc. To view the Zacks Rank and past performance of all Goldman Sachs mutual funds, investors can click here to see the complete list of funds. Want key mutual fund info delivered straight to your inbox? Zacks free Fund Newsletter will brief you on top news and analysis, as well as top-performing mutual funds, each week. Get it free >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Get Your Free (GLCRX): Fund Analysis Report Get Your Free (GCIAX): Fund Analysis Report Get Your Free (GSFAX): Fund Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. On August 9, 1974, Gerald Ford officially became President in the most unusual of circumstances, as Richard Nixon left Washington in disgrace and the trusted Ford took office without the benefit of direct election to office. At 12:30 p.m., Ford took the oath of office just three minutes after he escorted Nixon and his family to a helicopter on the White House lawn. Ford became the first, and so far the only, person to become President without winning a general election for President or Vice President. The 25th Amendment to the Constitution allowed Ford to assume the presidency after he was selected by Nixon to replace Spiro Agnew, the Vice President elected on the 1972 Republican ticket who was forced to resign in an unrelated scandal. Section 2 of the 25th Amendment gave the President the power to name a new Vice President, if that office became vacant, with the permission of Congress. Nixon nominated the popular Ford, who was the House minority leader, to take Agnews position on October 12, 1973. The Senate voted 92 to 3 to confirm Ford on November 27, 1973, and on December 6, 1973, the House confirmed him by a vote of 387 to 35. Ford quickly acknowledged the situation after taking the presidential oath administered by Chief Justice Warren Burger. The oath that I have taken is the same oath that was taken by George Washington and by every President under the Constitution. But I assume the Presidency under extraordinary circumstances never before experienced by Americans. This is an hour of history that troubles our minds and hurts our hearts, Ford told a national audience. My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over. Our Constitution works; our great Republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here the people rule. Ford had served in the U.S. House of Representatives with distinction for 25 years and he was a member of the Warren Commission that investigated President John F. Kennedys assassination. Ford also served as House minority leader for eight years before becoming Vice President. Story continues Ironically, one of Fords most noticed statements as minority leader was on the subject of impeachment. In 1970, Ford made a notable comment as the House considered charges against Supreme Court justice William O. Douglas for alleged financial improprieties that were never proven. An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history, Ford said, in a blunt statement that is part of an on-going debate over the process. More Constitution Daily Watergate Stories 10 fascinating facts about Watergate four decades later Watergates biggest mysteries remain unsolved The legacy of Watergate: Five ways life changed after the scandal The lesson of Watergate and Nixons resignation Actresses sporting a bikini in movies was considered as a taboo a few years ago, but it is no big deal now. And now, there are some Bollywood actresses, who slip into a bikini during their beach vacations, and set the mercury level rising with their sexy bikini bods. Here are five such actresses, who dazzled in a bikini on their holiday! Sonam Kapoor: The style diva posted a picture of herself in a bikini while holidaying at an undisclosed location. Sonam will start shooting for her sisters production Veere Di Wedding after returning from this vacation. In the picture, the actress can be seen floating on the surface of water in a sexy black two-piece. Jacqueline Fernandez: Jacqueline is on a roll with her professional commitments. After Dishoom, she is currently shooting for the dance reality show Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa and has A Flying Jatt lined up for release. She took some time off in Morocco and posted a stunning picture of herself in a bikini bra, with a book propped in her lap. Nargis Fakhri: Nargis has just returned from her much-needed vacation with friends in Greece, and will now get on with the promotions of her upcoming movie Banjo. The actress posted many pictures of her vacay, and looked dazzling in a bikini. Lisa Haydon: No one can rock a bikini like Lisa Haydon! The sassy model-cum-actress has a bikini figure that can make any girl jealous and make men skip a heartbeat. She has posted several pictures of herself sporting a bikini and looks every bit bold and beautiful. Lisa, who is currently hosting and judging the second season of Indias Top Model, will be seen in a cameo in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. Bipasha Basu: Talk about turning heads on your honeymoon. After she slayed with her enviable bikini bod on her first honeymoon in Maldives, Bipasha flaunted her curves again in a bikini during her second honeymoon in Bali. The dusky beauty is reportedly doing a travel show and a youth reality show with hubby Karan Singh Grover. Price-to-earnings (P/E) is by far the most popular metric used by investors to work out the fair value of a stock. Many prefer to take the P/E route in their pursuit of a portfolio of stocks with attractive prices. In fact, the idea of chasing stocks with a low P/E is ingrained in the minds of many value investors. However, even this easy-to-compute, widely used metric is not without its pitfalls. EV/EBITDA is a Better Approach, Heres Why No doubt P/E enjoys great popularity among value inventors. But a more complicated and less used metric called EV/EBITDA is sometimes viewed as a better alternative as it offers a clearer picture of a firms valuation and its earnings potential. EV/EBITDA is the enterprise value (EV) of a stock divided by its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA). EV is the sum of a companys market capitalization, its debt and preferred stock minus cash and cash equivalents. Essentially, it is the entire value of a company. EBITDA, the other component of the ratio, gives the true picture of a companys profitability as it removes the impact of non-cash expenses like depreciation and amortization that depress net earnings. It is also often used as a proxy for cash flows. Usually, the lower the EV/EBITDA ratio, the more appealing it is. A low EV/EBITDA ratio could imply that a stock is potentially undervalued and vice versa. Also referred to as the enterprise multiple, EV/EBITDA takes a more complete approach to valuation. It takes into account the debt on a companys balance sheet that P/E ratio ignores. This is the reason why EV/EBITDA is typically used to value potential acquisition targets. It shows the amount of debt the acquirer has to bear. Stocks boasting a low EV/EBITDA multiple could be seen as attractive takeover candidates. Another flaw of P/E is that it cant be used to value a loss-making firm. Moreover, a companys earnings are subject to accounting estimates and management manipulation. On the contrary, EV/EBITDA is less susceptible to manipulation and can also be used to value firms that have negative net earnings but are positive at the EBITDA level. EV/EBITDA also determines the total value of a company while P/E solely considers its equity portion. EV/EBITDA is also a useful tool in measuring the value of companies with highly leveraged balance sheets and substantial depreciation and amortization expenses. It also can be used to compare companies with different levels of debt. However, EV/EBITDA is too not devoid of drawbacks. The ratio varies across industries (a high-growth industry typically has higher multiple) and is usually not appropriate for comparing stocks in different industries due to their diverse capital expenditure requirements. So, instead of solely banking on EV/EBITDA, you can combine it with the other major ratios such as price-to-book (P/B), P/E and price-to-sales (P/S) to achieve the desired outcome. Screening Criteria Here are the parameters to screen for value stocks: EV/EBITDA 12 Months-Most Recent less than X-Industry Median: A lower EV/EBITDA ratio represents a cheaper valuation. P/E using (F1) less than X-Industry Median: This metric screens stocks that are trading at a discount to their peers. P/B less than X-Industry Median: A lower P/B compared with the industry average implies that the stock is undervalued. P/S less than X-Industry Median: The lower the P/S ratio the more attractive the stock is as investors will have to pay a smaller price for the same amount of sales generated by the company. Estimated One-Year EPS Growth F(1)/F(0) greater than or equal to X-Industry Median: This parameter will help in screening stocks that have growth rates higher than the industry median. This is a meaningful indicator as decent earnings growth always adds to investor optimism. Average 20-day Volume greater than or equal to 100,000: The addition of this metric ensures that shares can be traded easily. Current Price greater than or equal to $5: This parameter will help in screening stocks that are trading at a minimum price of $5 or higher. Zacks Rank less than or equal to 2: No screening is complete without the Zacks Rank, which has proven its worth since inception. It is a fundamental truth that stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or #2 (Buy) have always managed to beat adversities and outperform the market. Value Score of less than or equal to B: Our research shows that stocks with a Style Score of A or B when combined with a Zacks Rank #1 or 2 offer the best upside potential. Here are five of the 10 stocks that passed the screen: Amkor Technology, Inc. AMKR is a leading provider of semiconductor packaging and test services. Moreover, the company is one of the leading developers of advanced semiconductor packaging and test technology. This Zacks Rank #1 stock has expected year-over-year earnings growth of 29.4% for 2016 and 40.9% for 2017. Comfort Systems USA Inc. FIX is a national provider of comprehensive heating, ventilation and air conditioning installation, maintenance, repair and replacement services. This Zacks Rank #2 company delivered an average positive earnings surprise of around 28.2% over the trailing four quarters. Celestica Inc. CLS is one of the largest electronics manufacturing services company in the world, serving the computer, and communications sectors. This Zacks Rank #2 stock has expected year-over-year earnings growth of 26.5% for 2016 and 3.5% for 2017. OFG Bancorp OFG is a financial holding company that conducts its business activities through its subsidiaries, primarily in Puerto Rico. This Zacks Rank #2 stock has expected year-over-year earnings growth of a whopping 379.7% for 2016. Principal Financial Group Inc. PFG is a leading provider of retirement savings, investment and insurance products and services. The company carries a Zacks Rank #2 and has an expected EPS growth rate of 6.5% for 3 to 5 years. You can get the rest of the stocks on this list by signing up now for your 2-week free trial to the Research Wizard and start using this screen in your own trading. Further, you can also create your own strategies and test them first before taking the investment plunge. The Research Wizard is a great place to begin. It's easy to use. Everything is in plain language. And it's very intuitive. Start your Research Wizard trial today. And the next time you read an economic report, open up the Research Wizard, plug your finds in, and see what gems come out. Click here to sign up for a free trial to the Research Wizard today. Disclosure: Officers, directors and/or employees of Zacks Investment Research may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material. An affiliated investment advisory firm may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material. Disclosure: Performance information for Zacks portfolios and strategies are available at: https://www.zacks.com/performance. Zacks Restaurant Recommendations: In addition to dining at these special places, you can feast on their stock shares. A Zacks Special Report spotlights 5 recent IPOs to watch plus 2 stocks that offer immediate promise in a booming sector. Download it free Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report OFG BANCORP (OFG): Free Stock Analysis Report COMFORT SYSTEMS (FIX): Free Stock Analysis Report AMKOR TECH INC (AMKR): Free Stock Analysis Report PRINCIPAL FINL (PFG): Free Stock Analysis Report CELESTICA INC (CLS): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. In the warmer months, there's something enchanting about listening to live music in the great outdoors. Whether it's the excellent acoustics, the chance to commune with Mother Nature or take in fresh air and dramatic landscapes, outdoor concert venues offer a memorable experience -- and not just for music lovers. Here are nine can't-miss open-air spots to catch live music and festivals around the country this year. [See: 10 Must-See Underrated Cities to Visit This Summer.] Town Park Telluride, Colorado Telluride, a small Colorado town that's surrounded by the soaring Rocky Mountains, offers a breathtaking backdrop. At Telluride's entrance, you'll find an open meadow; at the other end of town, you'll discover Colorado's tallest free-falling waterfall. In the heart of town sits Town Park, a modest park with unbeatable mountain vistas. Town Park plays host to many events throughout the year, including the Ride Festival, a two-day music event. Pearl Jam took the stage at the July event; up next in Town Park is the Telluride Blues & Brews Festival from Sept. 16-18, which will include rock, indie, blues, funk, soul and gospel performances, along with a variety of family-friendly events, food and craft stands and, of course, top American microbreweries serving a diverse assortment of beers. Gorge Amphitheatre Quincy, Washington Widely known as one of the most gorgeous outdoor music venues, the Gorge Ampitheatre in Quincy, Washington, overlooks the Columbia River and offers spectacular gorge views. "The stage sits near the edge of a plateau with miles of canyons, valleys, hills and water in the countryside," says Nathan Barber, a New York City resident who works at LingPerfect, a translation service company. "It is always warm with some of the best performances I have ever seen in my lifetime," he adds. Fans can camp before the show and choose from designated seating in the pit area or lawn seats, which offer a 20,000-person seating capacity. The venue has hosted the likes of Coldplay, the Police and Nickelback with the Dave Matthews Band, and will debut the Magnifique Festival on Sept. 17, which will include performances from Kaskade, Chromeo and Mija, among other artists. Story continues Jay Pritzker Pavilion Chicago The Jay Pritzker Pavilion is perhaps one of the funkiest outdoor music venues across the U.S. Located near the famous Chicago Bean in Millennium Park, the pavilion's eye-catching metallic design by architect Frank Gehry was completed in 2004 and includes a steel trellis of crisscrossing pipes that extends above the audience and supports the venue's sound system. The first of its kind in the country, the high-tech sound system is designed to imitate the acoustics of an indoor concert hall by equally distributing sound over the entire audience. The 11,000-seat pavilion plays host to performers like Idina Menzel and Hozier throughout the summer months and offers incredible Chicago skyline views. Central Park New York City New York City's iconic Central Park is a must-visit outdoor venue for audiophiles. The park has featured famous concerts from the likes of Simon & Garfunkel, Garth Brooks and Diana Ross, among others. And while Central Park hosts several areas for live music, the most popular is Rumsey Playfield's SummerStage off the 5th Avenue and 69th Street entrance. The venue hosts free concerts in the warmer months; this September, the Beach Boys and Band of Horses will take the stage for SummerStage Benefit concerts. [See: What City is Your Music Soul Mate?] Snowpark Outdoor Amphitheater Park City, Utah Blue skies, evergreens and dramatic mountains paint a picture-perfect landscape at the Snowpark Outdoor Amphitheater at Deer Valley Resort in Utah. The stage hosts multiple shows each week during the warmer months, featuring everything from local musicians to world-renowned artists. The venue also hosts a variety of festivals and major acts such as the Steve Miller Band and Trace Adkins. Even better, you can pre-order a Deer Valley Resort picnic basket -- filled with vegetarian, gluten-free and vegan options, as well as Deer Valley cheeses made at the resort -- to enjoy during any event. Hollywood Bowl Los Angeles There's nothing quite like a concert with the Hollywood sign in view. That's what you'll get at Los Angeles' famous Hollywood Bowl, the largest natural outdoor amphitheater in the U.S. This classic venue, known for its curved stage shell with nine arches, is actually a public park with 14 picnic grounds. No matter which music genre appeals to you, you'll likely to find it at the Hollywood Bowl, which hosts a variety of acts, ranging from classical to pop and rock. Over the years, world-renowned musicians, including Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones have performed on its stage. During your visit, make sure to stop by the Hollywood Bowl Museum, where you can walk backstage and learn about the history of the venue. Artpark Lewiston, New York A stone's throw from Niagara Falls, Artpark is a 150-acre open-air venue overlooking the Niagara River Gorge. A National Historic Landmark with several archeological sites and a state park, Artpark opened in 1974 to provide a variety of visual and performing arts to local residents. During the summertime, the Mainstage Theater and adjacent lawn offers Broadway musicals, concerts and festivals. Past performers have included Ben Folds, Dolly Parton and Melissa Etheridge. Artpark is set within thick green woods; between concerts, you can hear the gorge's rushing water. Red Rocks Park and Ampitheater Morrison, Colorado You haven't heard music until you've heard it at the only naturally-occurring, acoustically-perfect amphitheater in the world: Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater. Set between two 300-foot rocks, known as Ship Rock and Creation Rock, which are millions of years old, the spot is also a treasure trove of dinosaur fossils and tracks. A favorite venue for many of the world's most well-known musicians -- from Sting to the Beatles -- Red Rocks is also a hot spot for exercise enthusiasts. Active types fill the amphitheater's bench seating when concerts are not taking place, running up and down the seats for the ultimate workout at more than 6,000 feet above sea level. Whether enjoying a concert or taking in the surroundings with a challenging workout, the Red Rocks' geologically-formed acoustic setting is simply magical. Grace Potter, Bonnie Raitt and Jimmy Buffet are some of the musicians lined up to perform through the end of the year. [See: 9 End-of-Summer Travel Deals to Book Now.] Sun Valley Pavilion Sun Valley, Idaho Surrounded by sweeping mountains at Sun Valley Mountain Resort in Idaho, the Sun Valley Pavilion is a compact, but lovely venue. The free-flowing roof, designed to fit within its natural setting, covers 1,600 seats with additional space for concert-goers on the lawn. The home of the Sun Valley Summer Symphony, the largest privately-funded free-admission symphony in America, the pavilion hosts free concerts throughout the summer and offers alpine views of Trail Creek Canyon, Dollar Mountain and Bald Mountain, also known by locals as "Baldy." Dr. Donna Kornhaber and Dr. Ellen Christine Scott have been named 2016 Academy film scholars by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Their respective book projects focus on female screenwriters in the early years of American cinema and the representation of slavery in classical Hollywood films. The Academy's Educational Grants Committee will award Kornhaber and Scott the scholars' $25,000 grant awards on the basis of their proposals. "Both Kornhaber and Scott are brilliant scholars who will bring their expertise to these important but underserved topics," said Academy grants committee chair Buffy Shutt. "Their unique perspectives will help illuminate and support the Academy's mission and we're thrilled to be supporting them. We all look forward to seeing the fruits of their research once they have completed their projects." Kornhaber is an assistant professor of English at the University of Texas at Austin. Her project, Women's Work: The Female Screenwriter and the Development of Early American Film, is a book-length study of the diverse group of women writers who played an outsize role in shaping the American film industry during the silent era. Scott is an assistant professor of cinema and media studies at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. Her project, Cinema's Peculiar Institution, is a comprehensive film-centered study exploring the evolution of censorship systems and patterns of representability that shaped the image of slavery on screen. Kornhaber and Scott join 13 Academy film scholars who are currently working on projects and 15 other scholars whose works have already been published. Academy film scholars with projects in progress are Jane Gaines, Charles Musser, Emily Thompson, Stuart Liebman, John Belton, Anne Friedberg, Harlow Robinson, Cari Beauchamp, Patrick Keating, Dan Streible, Thomas Schatz, Laurence Kardish and James Naremore. Established in 1999, the Academy Film Scholars program is designed to support significant new works of film scholarship. The Academy's cultural and educational wing - the Academy Foundation - annually grants $550,000 to film scholars, cultural organizations and film festivals throughout the U.S. and abroad. Through the Foundation, the Academy also presents screenings and other public programs each year. By Mohammad Stanekzai LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan (Reuters) - The Taliban are tightening their noose around the capital of disputed Helmand province in southern Afghanistan which has seen sustained fighting, residents and local officials say. Security officials and local leaders offered differing assessments of the risk of the city of Lashkar Gah falling, with military commanders asserting that the situation has stabilized. But officials in the besieged city are increasingly pessimistic. "If we dont receive support from the central government, the province will collapse soon," said provincial council chief Karim Atal. The Taliban are seeking to make Lashkar Gah the second provincial capital they have captured since their extremist Islamic rule was toppled in a U.S.-led campaign in 2001. The insurgents briefly held the northern city of Kunduz last October before being driven out by U.S.-backed Afghan troops. Atal said Afghan security forces in the province, which have undergone major reorganization this year, are capable but he said there was a lack of attention from leaders in Kabul. As part of its national strategic plan, much of the Afghan government's focus in the past month has been on a campaign against Islamic State militants in eastern Afghanistan. "If the government does not support Helmand, we will call on our people to grab weapons and fight against the Taliban," Atal said. Lashkar Gah continues to be flooded with civilians fleeing the fighting that has nearly surrounded the city. The Taliban have seized some areas only a few km from the city center, said Omar Zwak, spokesman for the provincial governor. A major highway between Lashkar Gah and Kandahar has been closed on and off for days by Taliban checkpoints and roadside bombs, he said. Many in the city point to U.S. air strikes as a decisive factor in preventing the Taliban from overrunning the whole province. In the past two weeks U.S. warplanes have conducted around 25 air strikes in the province, while hundreds of coalition advisers try to bolster Afghan troops. Fighting has consumed much of Nawa-i-Barakzayi district immediately to the south of Lashkar Gah, district police chief Ahmad Shah Salem said. "Contact has been lost with police in some places," he said. "The Taliban have conquered some of our checkpoints. So far we havent received reinforcements, as well as food and ammunition. If we do not receive reinforcement soon, the district will collapse." Officials from the Defense and Interior Ministry visited Lashkar Gah on Tuesday. Provincial police chief Brigadier General Aqa Noor Kentoz said reinforcements were scheduled to arrive soon. The commander of the army's 215 Corps, General Maiwand Faqir, said counter-offensives against the Taliban have been complicated by hundreds of roadside bombs and the presence of civilians, but he said his troops had everything they needed. (Writing by Josh Smith; Editing by Janet Lawrence) On 3-5 October 2017 Kyiv is going to host the Space and Future Forum to network international experts and youth, many of whom will also participate at the first CosmoHack in the world. Joinfo provides media coverage of the Forum, and some of its topics were already discussed ... Fierce fighting in Helmand has sent thousands of Afghans fleeing to the capital of the southern opium-rich province, sparking a humanitarian crisis as Taliban insurgents besiege the city despite intensified US air strikes. The Taliban advance on Lashkar Gah has compounded fears that the city was on the brink of falling into insurgent hands, even as US and Afghan officials insist that they will not allow another urban centre to be captured. Local officials warned on Tuesday that the provincial capital was struggling to cope with an influx of people fleeing the fighting across Helmand, seen as the focal point of the expanding insurgency. "Around 30,000 people have been displaced in Helmand in the past several weeks. Most of them are coming to Lashkar Gah," Omar Zawak, the provincial governor's spokesman, told AFP. "It difficult for the city to contain all of them. Families, children, women, all have to sleep on the streets. There is a shortage of food and clean water. We need urgent support." The turmoil in Helmand, blighted by a huge opium harvest that helps fund the insurgency, underscores a rapidly unravelling security situation in Afghanistan. The defence ministry on Monday confirmed that heavy fighting had flared in Nad Ali district, where government troops sought to dislodge insurgents who overran a neighbourhood only a few kilometres from Lashkar Gah. Militants have also carried out attacks in Nawa district, just south of Lashkar Gah. - 'Great fear' - Panicked Lashkar Gah residents voiced fears that the city could fall, saying insurgents had heavily mined the roads from neighbouring districts and exhausted soldiers were running out of food supplies. "The Taliban are in control of all the roads leading to Lashkar Gah," resident Haji Qayum told AFP. "The police checkposts are falling one by one. There is a great fear the capital may fall to the Taliban." The Taliban briefly captured northern Kunduz city in September last year, the first city to fall to the insurgents in their biggest victory in 14 years of war. Story continues The Taliban effectively control or contest 10 of the 14 districts in Helmand, the deadliest province for British and US forces in Afghanistan over the past decade. The insurgents are flushing an elite new commando force into Helmand, which they call "Sara Khitta" -- the Red Brigade in Pashto. "They are a highly-trained, well-armed unit with modern equipments including night vision goggles," a Taliban commander in Nad Ali district told AFP, without revealing their exact number. An Afghan security official in Kabul confirmed the existence of the new Taliban unit in Helmand, but played down their impact on the battle field. Meanwhile, the US has stepped up air strikes supporting Afghan forces on the ground, highlighting the intensity of the battle in Helmand. "The situation down there remains tense and somewhat contested," NATO said in a statement. "It remains an ongoing security concern and there has been fighting down there for the last several weeks. We remain confident that the Afghan forces are fighting effectively and that they will continue to secure Lashkar Gah." NATO officially ended its combat mission in December 2014, but US forces were granted greater powers in June to strike at the insurgents as President Barack Obama vowed a more aggressive campaign. The US has deployed several hundred troops in Helmand in recent months. Image credit: AP A shop owner from Kelantan, Malaysia, has been instructed by the local council to take down the obscene ads displayed in his store, which also included a Longines ad featuring Bollywood beauty Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. According to The Star, the shop owner tried to defend in vain saying that the posters were supplied by the manufacturers; nonetheless, he had to remove them, and also had to pay a moderate fine. The 42-year-old Bollywood actress had been a brand ambassador of luxury watch brand Longines since 1999. The disputed poster had Aishwarya in a strapped black dress showcasing her watch, which looks far from being deemed suggestive. What amounts to obscenity varies with countries. Kelantan, ruled by the Islamic Part of Malaysia (PAS), is regarded an extremely conservative state. The shops there arent allowed to display provocative photographs. Muslim-majority Malaysia is among the worlds most morally conservative countries, according to a survey conducted by Pew Research Center a think tank based in Washington, D.C two years back. HONG KONG, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd is offering to help international technology firms such as SAP SE to enter China, a market where foreign tech companies face increased government scrutiny. Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Alibaba Group, said in a statement on Tuesday it aims to assist technology firms overcoming business obstacles in China. It said it's offering foreign firms joint ventures and partnerships through its cloud computing programs. The company said its AliLaunch program has signed up 11 partners including German software maker SAP, Hitachi Data Systems - a unit of Japanese industrial group Hitachi Ltd - and AppScale Systems Inc of the United States. The move came at a time when China is becoming increasingly wary of foreign technology and authorities are openly pushing for the use of more Chinese and less foreign-made technology. (Reporting by Yimou Lee; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell) HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd is offering to help international technology firms such as SAP SE to enter China, a market where foreign tech companies face increased government scrutiny. Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Alibaba Group, said in a statement on Tuesday it aims to assist technology firms overcoming business obstacles in China. It said it's offering foreign firms joint ventures and partnerships through its cloud computing programs. The company said its AliLaunch program has signed up 11 partners including German software maker SAP, Hitachi Data Systems - a unit of Japanese industrial group Hitachi Ltd - and AppScale Systems Inc of the United States. The move came at a time when China is becoming increasingly wary of foreign technology and authorities are openly pushing for the use of more Chinese and less foreign-made technology. (Reporting by Yimou Lee; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell) This is the fifth and final installment in an investigative series on the federal government's loan modification program. On a cool evening in early November 2014, a Rolls Royce pulled up to Joseph Clarkes modest home in Brooklyn, New York. Two men stepped out, approached the front door and bluntly announced they were the propertys new owners. Clarke, 65, and his wife, Jacqueline Knights, 64, were stunned. Just hours earlier, Clarke had been at the offices of a local foreclosure rescue firm where a lawyer handed him papers to sign documents Clarke, who had lost income due to an injury, said he believed would save his home of 15 years from being taken over by the bank. Instead, the owners of the firm tricked him into authorizing a short sale of the property to a company they also ran, Clarke and Knights alleged in a lawsuit filed last year. I took what they said for granted, Clarke said in an interview. He said he was told the lawyer was present to represent his interests, which he trusted. I assumed they knew what they were doing, said Clarke, a retired driver for United Parcel Service. Since the nations housing bubble burst nearly a decade ago, tens of thousands of distressed homeowners have alleged they were cheated by foreclosure-prevention and mortgage-reduction firms, in which attorneys often have played pivotal roles. A Center for Public Integrity investigation links tens of millions of dollars in consumer losses to firms that participated in a government-backed mortgage-reduction program called loan modification. Over the years, many schemes have apparently targeted minorities, charging thousands of dollars for help in reducing their mortgage payments or for other services the firms never delivered. The scams continue to this day. In Brooklyn, alleged abuses of the federal loan-modification initiative have proven even more costly in some cases taking peoples homes. One group of foreclosure specialists in the New York area, where housing prices have soared, has been singled out for allegedly targeting minorities and immigrant homeowners with financial troubles and wresting away their property through short-sale scams or other fraudulent deed transfers. Story continues Theres kind of an insatiable thirst for property in New York City. It cant be quenched, said Jennifer Eisenberg, a staff attorney with South Brooklyn Legal Services, who represents Clarke and Knights in their court battle. The couple is suing Homeowner Assistance Services of New York and related companies. Their case is one of more than a dozen civil suits filed by aggrieved homeowners since 2013 that allege wrongdoing by the foreclosure group or its associates. Related: Low bar sig Related: Strapped homeowners say theyve been cheated by lawyers This story is part of Finance. The latest investigations about U.S. financial reform, corporate accountability and consumer finance. Click here to read more stories in this investigation. Don't miss another Business investigation: Sign up for the Center for Public Integrity's Watchdog email. Many homeowners tell similar stories of unwittingly signing over deeds to their property and then facing harassment or an eviction notice, or both, from the new owners. New York City property records show the groups operated mainly in neighborhoods that are more than 70 percent minority, and include many immigrants with limited understanding of legal and property issues. Three men associated with Homeowner Assistance Services and its related companies, such as Launch Development LLC, also are facing criminal charges. Amir Meiri, Mario Alvarenga and lawyer Rajesh Maddiwar were indicted in May 2015 by a federal grand jury in New York on conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and telemarketing fraud charges. All have pleaded not guilty. Three others associated with Launch Development have also been charged in the case. Property Sharks Real estate developer Meiri, who has lived in a $4.8 million home in Great Neck, New York, began trolling for the property of less fortunate homeowners as early as January 2013, according to an FBI complaint filed to support the criminal case. It says Meiri instructed Launch Development employees to search online for distressed properties in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx on propertysharks.com, a website that provides ownership and financial details on residential and commercial properties. Launch Development then sent owners mailers offering foreclosure relief services using the letterhead of Homeowner Assistance Services of New York, or HASNY. Telemarketers followed up by inviting the homeowners to a meeting at HASNY offices in the Hollis neighborhood of Queens to hear more about steps to avoid foreclosure. HASNY also pitched its services on a website that said: Homeowners unable to make their mortgage payments can look for alternatives to avoid foreclosure. Let us work on your situation and preserve your dream of homeownership. One of the alternatives HASNY touted was loan modification, created by federal officials in 2009 to encourage lenders to voluntarily reduce mortgage payments to a more affordable level. Related: Targeting minorities Don't miss another Business investigation: Sign up for the Center for Public Integrity's Watchdog email. Federal officials expected loan modification to keep millions of Americans from losing their homes. But almost from the start, the program has been marred by scam artists who charged thousands of dollars for services they never delivered. Since 2010, the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law has collected more than 46,000 complaints alleging losses topping $100 million from scams, which often attracted customers through misleading, if not downright false, promises made by telemarketers, deceptive mailings or websites. Losses have been the highest in minority communities, complaint data show. Federal prosecutors allege that HASNY and its affiliates dangled the possibility of a loan modification to lure many homeowners whose property they later made their own. The FBI complaint cites the experience of a woman who thought she was applying for a loan modification at HASNYs office in Hollis, but wound up selling her home to Launch Development. The woman, who is identified only as Victim-4, had fallen behind on mortgage payments on her Brooklyn home and in December 2013 asked HASNY to arrange a loan modification. After a meeting in early 2014 at the HASNY offices she met Rajesh Maddiwar, who was said to be there to act as her attorney. The woman signed papers, some of which were blank, which Maddiwar allegedly told her was normal and typical for loan modifications, according to the FBI. In actuality, she had just sold her home to Launch Development for about $335,000. Thats less than half of what she paid in October 2006, according to the FBI, which added that the woman moved out in August 2014, after the new owners began eviction proceedings. Just how many people lost their homes is not clear. The FBI found, however, that Launch Development had targeted 219 properties in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens by filing bogus Uniform Commercial Code liens indicating that the homeowners owed the company a debt. This was done to discourage the propertys sale to any party but Launch Development, authorities said. The governments forfeiture motion says that at least 58 properties were obtained as part of the scam, including the 9,400-square-foot home in Great Neck and the HASNY office building in Hollis. The forfeiture motion seeks those properties, or the proceeds from their sale. Seventeen of the properties were sold for nearly $9 million, according to the government. Related story: Low bar: How lawyers profit off desperate homeowners I Got Tricked Joseph Clarke bought the two-story frame house on East 95th Street in Canarsie, a neighborhood in southeastern Brooklyn, in 1999. He liked the off-street parking, good-sized backyard and the upstairs apartment. Thats a common feature in neighborhoods where many owners rely on tenants to help with hefty mortgage payments. But in early February 2013, Clarke was in default on the mortgage and threatened with foreclosure. He said he was unable to get a stable tenant and had an injury that kept him off the job, cutting his income. In late 2013, Clarke took a call from a HASNY representative who claimed she could help him refinance his loan and stay in the house. He said he felt comfortable dealing with the woman because he could tell from her accent that she also was of Guyanese descent. But after months of reviewing paperwork he submitted, HASNY told him that his credit was shot, according to the lawsuit, and his best option would be a short sale. Clarke said he was told he could buy back the property and would never have to leave. In November 2014, Clarke signed forms in HASNYs conference room, documents that he said he didnt understand. What he signed turned out to be a deal to sell his property for $210,000, according to the suit. He had never met lawyer Elliot Bakst, who was said to be there representing Clarkes interests, nor did the lawyer offer to answer any questions. According to the lawsuit, Bakst didnt explain to Clarke what he was signing and told him he wouldnt need copies of these documents. About a month after the closing on Clarkes home, the Supreme Court of New York suspended Bakst from practicing law for misconduct involving other unrelated real estate transactions. He has since been disbarred. A few hours after the closing, when the two men first showed up at his door, Clarke realized his mistake. When the guy comes and says hes the new owner, thats when I realized I got tricked, Clarke said in an interview. Clarke said the men told him he could buy the house back in 90 days with a down payment of $20,000. When he refused to sign more papers, the men said he would have to move out within 10 days or start paying rent of $5,600 a month, an impossibly high figure. Don't miss another Business investigation: Sign up for the Center for Public Integrity's Watchdog email. Appearance of Legitimacy During the next few months, neighbors saw the Rolls Royce and a Lamborghini parked outside with men watching the home, according to the complaint. Clark and his wife, Knights, said the new owners stepped up harassment to pressure them to move out, but they refused. At one point, four men tried to change the locks on an interior door, but three of them left after Knights called the police. A man who remained told police the home had new owners. When police asked to see the deed to the property, and neither the man nor Knights could immediately produce it, officers advised Knights to contact an attorney and told the man to leave, according to the lawsuit. Eviction papers were served on the couple in February 2015. In April 2015, Clarke obtained a temporary restraining order blocking the eviction, but the title to the home is still in dispute. Ever since then we have been afraid that we will be forced out of our home, with no place to live. Our home is our only asset and an important source of income, Clarke wrote in a discrimination complaint he filed in April of this year with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Clarkes lawyers at South Brooklyn Legal Services argue the case reflects a pattern of obtaining title to homes through a pattern of deception and fraud. The suit seeks to invalidate the sale by claiming it was fraudulent. Clarke never would have signed the papers had he known it could have led to an eviction. Attorney Bakst never explained that simple fact, according to the complaint, and his presence was nothing more than a sham to lend an appearance of legitimacy to a fraudulent scheme, according to the suit. Other suits against Launch Development make similar accusations, such as the case filed by Milton Shaw, also an immigrant from Guyana, who lost a brownstone in Bedford-Stuyvesant. In early 2014, Shaw, then 66 and an unemployed bindery worker, thought he would lose his home to foreclosure. HASNY promised him he could re-establish his mortgage, according to the suit. Instead, he signed documents that sold the property for $350,000 to Launch Development. At the time, his home was worth about $850,000, and Shaw owed about $615,000 on the mortgage. But the short sale wiped out the equity, according to the suit. Shaw also said he was put at ease by the presence of Maddiwar, the attorney charged in the criminal case. According to the lawsuit, Maddiwar kept passing documents to Shaw for his signature, but did not explain the nature or consequences of these documents. Maddiwars attorney, Michael L. Soshnick, had no comment. Soshnick said in a January court hearing that Maddiwars arrest had devastated his law practice and we just want him to be vindicated as quickly as possible. Other property owners caught in the same circumstances are keeping an eye on the criminal case, though they arent sure how it will end for them. Federal prosecutors filed legal papers in May seeking the forfeiture of dozens of properties owned by the firm, including homes they took from Clarke and Shaw. Nicholas Biase, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorneys Office in New York, said prosecutors contend the properties on the forfeiture list were fraudulently acquired. In an email, Biase wrote: We decline comment on what would happen to them other than that, if the government prevails, the properties would be forfeited. He said the case is set for trial in early 2017. Clarke said he hopes that if the government gets the deed to the house, officials will give it back to him. After 17 years in that house, its a part of me, Clarke said. This story is part of Finance. The latest investigations about U.S. financial reform, corporate accountability and consumer finance. Click here to read more stories in this investigation. Related stories Copyright 2016 The Center for Public Integrity. This story was published by The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C. (Adds details from decision, comments, case citation, byline) By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK, Aug 9 (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday upheld the dismissal of nationwide antitrust litigation accusing banks and commodity companies of conspiring to drive up aluminum prices by reducing supply, forcing them to overpay. By a 3-0 vote, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said so-called commercial end users and consumer end users lacked standing to sue because their alleged antitrust injuries were too far removed from the alleged misconduct. The plaintiffs had accused Goldman Sachs Group Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co, the mining company Glencore Plc , and various commodity trading, metals mining and metals warehousing companies of having colluded from 2009 to 2012 to rig prices by hoarding inventory. This allegedly caused big delays to fill orders, leading to higher storage costs at warehouses in the Detroit area and elsewhere, which in turn inflated aluminum prices and the cost of producing cabinets, flashlights, strollers and other goods. Regulators in the United States and Europe have also examined aluminum price-fixing allegations. Lawyers for the plaintiffs and the defendants did not immediate respond to requests for comment. Circuit Judge Dennis Jacobs said the plaintiffs "did not (and could not) suffer antitrust injury" because they neither participated in a market affected by anticompetitive conduct, nor showed that their injuries were "inextricably intertwined" with injuries that the defendants intended to inflict. Jacobs said the plaintiffs did not claim to store aluminum or buy aluminum stored with the defendants, or trade aluminum futures contracts with the defendants, or allege that aluminum they bought underlay the defendants' futures trades. "The injury Consumers and Commercials claim was suffered down the distribution chain of a separate market, and was a purely incidental byproduct of the alleged scheme," he wrote. Story continues Claims alleging violations of state consumer protection and unfair trade laws were also dismissed. The decision upheld August 2014 rulings by U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest in Manhattan. She allowed so-called "first-level" metals purchasers to pursue their own antitrust claims in a separate ruling the following March. The case is In re: Aluminum Warehousing Antitrust Litigation, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Nos. 14-3574 and 14-3581. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Bernard Orr) This Wednesday on American Gothic (CBS, 10/9c), nurse Bethany Joy Lenz and a fun fact about frogs bring a tiny ray of light to Cams rehab world. RELATEDNew Big Brother Season to Air This Fall on CBS All Access In the summer series eighth episode, titled Kindred Spirits, Cam (played by Justin Chatwin) meets a Rogers Cube superfan in the form of rehab nurse April (One Tree Hill alum Lenz). When she seeks scoop on whats next for his cartoon creation, Cam discloses that without drugs, he cant draw. Is he damned by druggie genetics? Press play above to hear the wisdom that the enchanting April offers. RELATEDFall TV 2016: Your Handy Calendar of 90+ Premiere Dates Elsewhere in the episode, Jack is lured into a dangerous adventure by a new friend, Garrett and Alison work to silence a local reporter and Brady makes a bizarre breakthrough in the Silver Bells Killer case. Want more scoop on American Gothic, or for any other show? Email insideline@tvline.com and your question may be answered via Matts Inside Line. Related stories Report: Thomas Gibson Suspended From Criminal Minds In Wake of Physical Altercation With Producer Star Trek: Discovery: 'Prime' Setting, Gay Character, Heavy Alien Presence and 11 More Spoilers About CBS Reboot Laverne Cox on Groundbreaking Doubt Role: 'It's Wonderful to Be a Black Transgender Woman on CBS' KABUL (Reuters) - The American University of Afghanistan is expected to reopen on Wednesday, days after being closed in the wake of the kidnapping of two teachers, administrators said. The two faculty members, one Australian and one American, were abducted at gunpoint from a road near the university in Kabul on Sunday evening, Afghan officials said. Since then, the campus has been closed while senior management reviewed the security situation, the university said in a statement online on Tuesday. "We are devastated by the news and will remain vigilant to ensure the safety of all university personnel and students," university president Mark English said in the statement. University officials are in "close contact" with Afghan security agencies and foreign embassies, the university said. "Everything possible is being done to ensure their safe return." Both the American and Australian embassies confirmed their citizens were involved, but did not provide further details. Kidnapping is a major problem in Afghanistan with Afghans the most affected, although a number of foreigners have also been abducted in recent years. An Indian aid worker was released last month after being abducted from downtown Kabul in July. At least two other foreigners were kidnapped in Kabul last year and later released. At least one Australian woman remains unaccounted for after being kidnapped in the eastern city of Jalalabad in April. (Reporting by Josh Smith; Editing by Robert Birsel) Americans are still adding debt. Household debt which includes things as varied as mortgages and credit cards increased to $12.29 trillion in the second quarter of 2016, an increase of $35 billion, or 0.3%, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit. "Overall household debt remains 3.1% below its 2008 Q3 peak of $12.68 trillion, but is now 10.2% above the 2013Q2 trough," the report said. The biggest increases came from auto debt and credit-card debt, which ticked up by $32 billion and $17 billion. Mortgages, the largest section of household debt, actually decreased in the second quarter, according to the New York Fed. "Mortgage balances shown on consumer credit reports on June 30 stood at $8.36 trillion, a $7 billion drop from the first quarter of 2016," the report said. "Balances on home equity lines of credit (HELOC) also dropped by $7 billion, to $478 billion." The decrease in mortgage debt seems to be driven by more people paying down their balances, as new mortgage debt continued to tick up. "New extensions of credit were stronger in the second quarter," the report said. "Mortgage originations, which we measure as appearances of new mortgage balances on consumer credit reports and which include refinanced mortgages, were at $427 billion, an increase from the first quarter." Student-loan debt decreased by $2 billion, to $1.259 trillion, though the second quarter is usually a time of low originations because most classes start in the first and third quarters. US debt 8 9 16 COTD NOW WATCH: Watch the Air Force drop 8 armored Humvees out of a plane from 5,000 feet More From Business Insider By Ben Hirschler LONDON (Reuters) - Global pressure on health spending is forcing the $1 trillion (770.12 billion)-a-year pharmaceutical industry to look for new ways to price its products: charging based on how much they improve patients' health, rather than how many pills or vials are sold. In the United States, both parties are promising fresh action on drug prices whoever wins the White House. In Europe, economies are stalled, squeezing state health budgets. And in China and other Asian markets, governments are getting tougher with suppliers. Pricing drugs based on clinical outcomes is one way to ensure that limited funds bring the most benefits to patients now and pay for the most promising medical advances in future. Some experiments in pricing have already been made. But shifting the overall industry to a new model requires improvements in data collection and a change in thinking, say drug pricing experts. "Eventually, we are going to get there," said Kurt Kessler, managing principal at ZS Associates in Zurich, which advises companies on sales and marketing strategies. "But it is a long, tough slog because it's difficult to get the right data and agree on what the right outcomes are to measure." In the past, governments and insurers made room in their budgets for new drugs by switching to cheap generics as patents expired on older drugs. But today generics already account for nearly nine out of every 10 prescriptions in key markets like the United States, and fewer big drugs are going off patent. That leaves little headroom for pricey new medicines for cancer and other hard-to-treat diseases, even as they come to market in growing numbers. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has already approved 16 new drugs this year. Investors got a wake-up call on the issue last Friday when $10 billion was lopped off the market value of Novo Nordisk (NOVOb.CO) as the world's biggest diabetes firm warned of falling U.S. prices. Pharmacy benefit managers administering U.S. health plans are pushing back hard by excluding some drugs deemed too expensive - including Novos - leading to a crunch in areas like diabetes, a disease that now accounts for 12 percent of global healthcare spending. Story continues The Danish group has an unusually high exposure to the U.S. market, but it is not alone in signalling tough times ahead. The chief executives of Novartis (NOVN.S), Eli Lilly (LLY.N) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L) have all warned recently that pricing will become increasingly challenging across the board. Accounting for 40 percent of global drug sales, the fate of the U.S. market is front and centre in the minds of drug company executives, some of whom privately admit to preparing for a "confrontational" period in relations with politicians. Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have suggested new measures to curb prices, including allowing imports from lower-cost countries, while individual U.S. states, starting with Vermont, are working on transparency legislation that would require firms to disclose costs to justify drug prices. Novartis CEO Joe Jimenez believes drugmakers must develop value-for-money pricing models, like the performance-based deal the Swiss drugmaker recently struck with two U.S. insurers for its new heart failure drug. Under that deal, payments for Novartis' Entresto pill are to be calculated in future based on the proven reduction in the proportion of the insurers' patients admitted to hospital for heart failure, not on the number of pills they consume. The aim is a flexible pricing system that rebates healthcare providers when a drug doesnt work as planned and charges more when it works well. EUROPE IN VANGUARD Europe is in the vanguard of such moves. Britain agreed an early performance-based deal for a Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) blood cancer drug back in 2007 and Italy also uses patient data to pay for cancer drugs based on actual patient responses. GSK CEO Andrew Witty sees this outcomes-based approach slowly becoming the norm in more disease areas and geographies. "Whoever wins the election in the U.S., and also in Europe, we will see those conversations play out over the next few years," he told Reuters. "I am not particularly expecting anything dramatic in 2017. I would say it is worth keeping an eye open for evolution of change, probably in 18 and 19." The pharmaceutical industry's European trade association is already discussing ways to shift to outcomes pricing, following price curbs in Germany that have caused some companies to pull products off the market, and effective rationing in Britain, where strict cost-effectiveness rules apply. Authorities in Asia's two biggest markets, China and Japan, are also intervening in new ways to cap runaway costs. Dani Saurymper, manager of the AXA Framlington Health fund, believes the issue is going to move up the agenda for investors, not least with the arrival of gene and cell therapies. These could cure diseases like haemophilia and certain cancers, but at a cost of hundreds of thousands or even $1 million a patient. "Pay for performance is going to become much more relevant," he said. Still, the obstacles are formidable. Drug companies and healthcare providers will need to work together to develop systems that capture and prove a medicine's clinical value, ideally using computerised systems that are only just emerging. There are also potential legal pitfalls, given the need to establish clear-cut clinical outcomes for patients and determine how much of an effect should be attributed to the medicine or other healthcare inputs. "Overall, it is the right direction but there are many practical difficulties," said Helen Roberts, a specialist in healthcare at law firm BonelliErede. "There may well be legal challenges if there is disagreement as to whether an outcome has actually been achieved." (Additional reporting by Simon Jessop) [Photo: Getty] The fact that post-baby weight loss is a such well-known phrase says it all; society has an unhealthy obsession about losing post-partum weight. Anne Hathaway certainly thinks so too, as a recent Instagram post of hers delivered a powerful message on the subject. At first glance, the image is just of a pair of denim cut offs, until you read the caption. [Photo: Instagram/Anne Hathaway] It reads: There is no shame in gaining weight during pregnancy (or ever). There is no shame if it takes longer than you think it will to lose the weight (if you want to lose it at all). There is no shame in finally breaking down and making your own jean shorts because last summers are just too dang short for this summers thighs. Bodies change. Bodies grow. Bodies shrink. Its all love (dont let anyone tell you otherwise.) Peace xx #noshame #lovewhatyouhavebeengiven. [Photo: Getty] Hathaway hits the nail on the head - bodies do grow and change, and must during the incredible thing that is pregnancy. So why punish them and ourselves? Blake Lively is totally on the same wavelength too, as she recently hit out against the pressure for new mothers to lose weight ridiculously quickly on Aussie news outlet Sunrise. She said: I think a womans body after having a baby is pretty amazing. You dont have to have be Victorias Secret-ready right away. [Photo: Getty] "Youve just done this incredible miracle that life has to offer. She points out that instead of focusing on how much weight a new mum has or hasnt lost, how about we celebrate the incredible thing their body has achieved instead? You gave birth to a human being - I would really like to see that celebrated. What do you think about Hathaway and Livelys messages? Tweet us at @YahooStyleUK. Mother Delivers Her Own Baby In Hospital Entrance After Just Seconds Of Labour Sarah Silverman Has The Best Response After Being Caught Wearing The Same Dress Three Times Tim Cook New A new rumor about an Apple health gadget is spreading out of Taiwan, and it could be a new product that is separate from the Apple Watch. Apple is talking to suppliers about a new product that is packed with sensors and can collect data like heart rate, pulse, blood sugar, and other biometric statistics, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reports (via Apple Insider). Apple is reportedly in talks with a slew of manufacturing partners, including TSMC, Foxconn, TPK, Zhen Ding Technology, and others. The device would launch at the same time as the 2017 iPhone, according to the report. Rumor has it that Apple has been working on a sensor that can measure blood sugar since before the Apple Watch launched. But Alphabet's Verily has reportedly had trouble building its own "noninvasive" glucometer integrated into a contact lens, and biotech professionals have told me the technology isn't ready for prime time. Apple will need its sensors to be noninvasive, meaning they won't require users to draw blood or break the skin. Apple clearly has long-term plans in health. The company has hired doctors and nurses and also runs around-the-clock biometric labs. A device separate from the Apple Watch would be surprising, though Apple CEO Tim Cook has talked about a separate health product that could require approval from the Food and Drug Administration. He has also talked about adding more sensors to the Apple Watch, most notably at a conference earlier this year. "I love the Watch," Cook said. "One day, this is my prediction, we will look back and we will wonder: How can I ever have gone without the Watch? Because the holy grail of the watch is being able to monitor more and more of what's going on in the body." "We've gotten into the health arena," he said in another interview. "We started looking at wellness, and that took us to pulling a string to think about research; then we pulled a string a little further, and it took us to some patient care stuff; and we pulled a string that's taking us into some other stuff." Story continues NOW WATCH: How to find Pokemon in 'Pokemon Go' More From Business Insider Ariana Grande's Arianators are pushing past some of music's biggest fandoms because they're just so into her. The pop diva's army barely made their way to this week's semifinal round of Billboard's Fan Army Face-Off, thanks to a few hundred fans. Fan Army Face-Off 2016: Meet the Final 4 In their fight to put the "Dangerous Woman" on top, Arianators first dominated round 1 with 207,284 votes, beating out Meghan Trainor's Megatronz. In round 2, the pop world collided with the hip-hop world as Arianators faced Nicki Minaj's Barbz. The victory was smaller in comparison to their round 1 wipeout, but the pop artist's fans still managed 40,000 more votes than the Barbz. In their closest face-off, Grande's fandom took on Demi Lovato's Lovatics. The Arianators were on "Honeymoon Avenue" after proving themselves as more devoted, but only with 260 votes. The following round, Grande's fans had no time to rest as they took on Beyonce's Beyhive. After going back and forth for the lead, Arianators came in full force in their final moments, winning by 623 votes. Billboard's Fan Army Face-Off : Vote! In the current round of Billboard's Fan Army Face-Off, the Arianators will have to beat out Thirty Seconds to Mars' charitable Echelon. Pre-semifinals, the Echelon has casted 708,924 votes in comparison to the Arianators' 595,124. Grande's fans have also lost momentum along the way, with 207,284 votes in round 1 and only 81,834 votes by round 4. The pop star does famously sing "'Cause if you want to keep me, you gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta, got to love me harder," but will Arianators listen? There are eight days left in this week's round of Billboard's Fan Army Face-Off -- vote for your fave now! Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f168656%2fa0a3b53e7c594221b4875086c3fd47eb An non-profit organization wants to bring the wonder of the universe to people around the world. Astronomers Without Borders founded in 2006 launches various projects to try to bring the science of planets, stars and galaxies a bit more down to Earth. In the past, the organization has collected photos of the transit of Mercury and helped fund a telescope project in Tanzania. Now, Astronomers Without Borders is hoping to help bring the magic of a solar eclipse to school children across the African continent. SEE ALSO: Stunning photos of the solar eclipse The organization is asking amateur astronomers and space fans of all stripes to donate to a crowdfunding effort, aimed at raising money to deliver thousands of eclipse glasses to kids across Africa before the cosmic event on Sept. 1. The eclipse itself will be an "annular" solar eclipse, meaning that the moon will pass between the Earth and the sun, casting a shadow on the planet and making the sun look like a "ring of fire" in the sky for those lucky enough to be in the shadow's path. Nigerian students watch the eclipse in 2013. Image: astronomers without borders Although about 97 percent of the sun's light will be blotted out by the moon during the eclipse, it will still be very dangerous to look directly at the sun with unprotected eyes, and that's where the eclipse glasses come in. If students have the chance to safely view the eclipse with their own glasses, it might just lead to a lifetime interest in science. "Astronomy enthusiasts know how everyone is excited by the field, the power of special events like this to grab attention, and how astronomy can spark an interest in all STEM [science, technology, engineering and math] fields," Astronomers Without Borders co-founder Mike Simmons told Mashable via email. In total, Astronomers Without Borders has raised $4,533 (at the time of publishing) of its $37,000 goal that will allow the organization to hand out up to 37,000 eclipse glasses to students in Rwanda, Ghana, Sao Tome and Principe, Tanzania, Gabon, Nigeria and Zambia. For every dollar donated, a student in one of those countries will get a pair of glasses. Story continues According to Simmons, more schools will be put on the list if more funds come through in this crowdfunding effort. "If my students can get these glasses, it would be like the laboratory and the field trip have been brought to our backyard. It's so rare that an experience like an eclipse will be visible from your school, and is really a great opportunity to give these kids the experience of a lifetime," Ryan Lemon, a Peace Corp volunteer teaching physics in Rukwa, Tanzania, wrote in an email Simmons shared with Mashable. "They have the chance [to] experience a real application of the physics they learn in the classroom, on a monumental scale." Students in Nigeria watching the eclipse. Image: astronomers without borders The crowdfunding campaign has about five more days to go, and any money contributed will go toward the eclipse glasses effort, even if they don't hit their ambitious goal. This crowdfunding effort is a more expansive version of another campaign launched by Astronomers Without Borders in 2013, which delivered about 13,700 eclipse glasses to children in Africa for an eclipse that year. Learn more about the Astronomers Without Borders crowdfunding effort and donate directly through the funding page. Multiple women taped their conversations with former Fox News chief Roger Ailes, according to a report in Vanity Fair. Those tapes could be a key factor in forcing 21st Century Fox and Ailes to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit with ex-Fox & Friends host Gretchen Carlson, possibly for as much as eight figures, the report states. Ailes was forced to step down as chairman and CEO of Fox News Channel last month, just weeks after Carlson filed her lawsuit alleging sexual misconduct. Several more women have since come forward, both anonymously and using their names, to claim harassment by Ailes stretching back 40 years. In agreeing to go, Ailes was awarded a reported $40 million the amount left on his current contract. Vanity Fair reports that Fox is asking Ailes to contribute to a settlement with Carlson. Ailes representatives have strongly denied any misconduct. Also Monday, New York Magazine reported allegations that yet another Fox host, Andrea Tantaros, was taken off the air after complaining about Ailes harassment. Tantaros attorney told the magazine that she complained to Bill Shine, Foxs executive vice president, as well as senior vice president Suzanne Scott and general counsel Dianne Brandi. She believed the complaints were not investigated. Tantaros was demoted and ultimately suspended from the network. Fox told New York that Tantaros was suspending for failing to allow the network to vet her book before publication. Tantaros alleged that Ailes made sexually charged comments to her in late 2014 and early 2015. On the first occasion, he allegedly told her to twirl for him and she refused. A few months later, he tried to give her a hug. On a third occasion, he asked about her workout routine and said she must really look good in a bikini. When Tantaros filed a complaint, Shine allegedly told her that Ailes is a very powerful man and advised that she should not fight this. According to the Vanity Fair report, Foxs internal investigation has expanded from a review of Ailes behavior to include the conduct of other executives. Story continues Related stories Veteran TV Producer Shelley Ross Accuses Roger Ailes of Sexual Harassment Roger Ailes Used Fox News Funds to Fight Personal Battles (Report) 21st Century Fox Beats Earnings Estimates on Strength of Higher Ad and Affiliate Revenues SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's national census, which provides a snapshot every five years of the country's people, from religion to income, has become an unlikely flashpoint over privacy concerns. Australians are being asked to fill in a host of details about themselves online for the first time in the 105-year history of the census, leading some politicians and privacy advocates to partially boycott the survey. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said the information gathered is important because it helps set public policy. The census covers every inhabited corner of Australia's 7.7 million square km (3 million square mile) landmass, as well as 8,600 islands, the bureau said. But worries over data security and changes to the way names and addresses are collected and retained - they will now be held for four years rather than 18 months - have privacy advocates concerned. "Rather than being a snapshot of the nation, this census will now morph into a mobile CCTV that follows every Australian," Senator Nick Xenophon said in a statement. "The ABS has failed to make a compelling case why names must be provided, and stored for four years." He has support from across the left, centrist and right-wing minor parties elected to parliament in a recent general election. Bill McClennan, Australia's chief statistician from 1995 to 2000, said the retention of names was "the most significant invasion of privacy ever perpetrated on Australians by the ABS". Cabinet minister Christopher Pyne dismissed such fears as far-fetched. Nevertheless, Xenophon and three fellow senators have said they will not write their names on the census forms, on pain of an A$180-per-day fine. Names and addresses have always been part of census questionnaires and improve the quality of the data, allowing better public policy, Australia's head statistician, David Kalisch, told reporters on Tuesday. "The ABS shares the same concern about your privacy as privacy advocates and has an unblemished record of keeping census data safe," he said. The data will be collected from Tuesday. People have until Sept. 23 to fill in the forms and the data will then be crunched by 38,000 staff. Findings will be published from April. (Reporting by Tom Westbrook; Editing by Robert Birsel) Bachelor in Paradise challenged two contestants to a hot pepper kiss off and it was super awk Bachelor in Paradise challenged two contestants to a hot pepper kiss off and it was super awk This week, things heated up in Paradise after the agitation around Chad settled down. Relationships were tested, as Josh and Leah came to Paradise, and some relationships got awkward. Evan and Carly had quite a night, and they were sent on one of the weirdest dates in Paradise history. They ate habanero peppers and then made out for 90 seconds. Eating peppers No, its not a joke. As they wandered to their date, Chris Harrison ambushed Evan and Carly with a live audience. He explained that, for their date, they would be eating habanero peppers and then kissing for 90 seconds, in order to break the Guiness World Record for Longest Habanero Pepper Kiss. Its even weirder, because Carly and Evan started their date in kinda a weird place. Carly Evan cute The night before, they were hanging out. Then they kissed. Now, Carly is one of our favorites in Paradise, because in a group where people are usually parsing their words or trying to be nice, Carly tells it how it is. And she and Evan had VERY different reactions to the kiss. Evan was looking at Carly with stars in his eyes. Evan googly eyes Kissing Carly for the first time was incredible, he said. Carly was not feeling quite so starry-eyed. Terrible Kiss Of course, the next day, Evan got a date card, and he asked Carly. Carly laughing 2 This reaction is one of the main reasons we love Carly. She does not hold back, but even though she wasnt feeling the fireworks, Carly was still curious enough to say yes to the date. Little did Carly realize the literal hotness that was in store. Looking at peppers We could see it all over Carlys face that the last thing she wanted to do was kiss Evan in front of a huge crowd for 90 seconds. And the whole hot pepper challenge made it all the weirder. The challenge led to a spicy kiss that felt super awk. Pepper Kiss But they held it together and made it to 104 seconds, officially breaking the World Record. Celebration After the whole experience, Carly went and barfed in the bathroom. Carly face I just want to clarify. I didnt just throw up from the pepper. It was also from the kiss. Well done, Bachelor in Paradise, on the World Record for Most Awkward Date! The post Bachelor in Paradise challenged two contestants to a hot pepper kiss off and it was super awk appeared first on HelloGiggles. Sarah White is using her title of Mrs. West Virginia to try to pass legislation that will help improve medical treatment for others with breast cancer. (Photo: Courtesy of Sarah Holbrook White/Facebook) Receiving a breast cancer diagnosis can be undeniably traumatic. But Sarah White, a special-education teacher in West Virginia, refuses to let her affliction distinguish her spirit. In October 2015, after being diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer which had metastasized to her chest wall, spine, and lungs White did what most people would probably never do: She entered the Miss All-Star United States Pageant, according to Fox News. And she won. White now holds the title of Mrs. West Virginia, and last month, she competed for the national title. Although shes fulfilling her childhood dreams, thats certainly not Whites only motivation for becoming a beauty queen at age 36. Related: Muslim Fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad and the Challenges Athletes Face Competing in Hijab For one, White wants to set an example for her two children one of whom she gave birth to just six months before her diagnosis. Im trying to teach my kids that no matter what happens good and bad things happen, there are winners and losers, people get cancer, other people dont get cancer its a part of life, White told FoxNews.com Im hoping that by being the way I am that Im teaching my children to be strong. White first battled (and beat) breast cancer in 2013. Photo: Courtesy of Sarah Holbrook White/Facebook. Another reason for Whites foray into pageantry is simply to boost her self-esteem. She knows that when you look good, you feel good in fact, White actually volunteers monthly for the American Cancer Societys program Look Good Feel Better. There she teaches beauty techniques, such as drawing on eyebrows and tying scarves, to other cancer patients. It seems her confidence is contagious too. I show up [to the volunteer program] with my wig and I take it off. When I show them that, the relief on their faces is unbelievable, she told Fox News. Of course, White is only human, and when she first received her diagnosis in October, she admits that she fell into a funk, and understandably so. White is battling triple-negative breast cancer, which tends to be more aggressive than other types of breast cancer and yield lower survival rates, according to Breastcancer.org. Triple-negative breast cancer is also higher grade than other types of cancer meaning there are more cancer cells present and doesnt respond to commonly used hormonal chemotherapy. Story continues Related: 5 Women on Why They Never Wear Makeup About 10 percent to 20 percent of breast cancer patients get a triple-negative diagnosis. But White doesnt want to hear about numbers. When her doctor told her told her last year that if her chemo stopped working shed have two to five years to live, she refused to let the prognosis define her. [The doctor] put me as a statistic, and I am not a statistic. I am a person, White told Fox News. And it seems her confidence has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. White participates in a clinical trial, in which she receives a drug (not a placebo) that isolates and kills cancer cells while leaving healthy cells intact. So far, her body has been responding incredibly. We saw near-complete disappearance of her lesions in the bone and lung and chest wall. Its really working for her now, said Jame Abraham, MD, director of the breast oncology program at the Cleveland Clinic and Whites doctor, according to FoxNews.com. Photo: Courtesy of Sarah Holbrook White/Facebook White is well aware that her pageant title gives her the platform to spread awareness about and educate people fighting breast cancer and thats the point. One of the reasons I did the pageant was obviously to have something to focus on, but another reason is if I was standing on the street without a sash and without a crown talking about self-checking and breast cancer awareness or whatever, I might get two people who might listen to me, maybe five, she told Fox News. But if I have a sash on you get a following, and people will listen. White is using her platform to promote proposed legislation in West Virginia to improve the standard of care for patients with aggressive forms of breast cancer, increase mammogram coverage for women who are at high risk, and to prevent minors from using tanning beds. Though beautiful on the outside, Whites incredible determination and inner beauty undoubtedly helped her earn her title of Mrs. West Virginia. She truly does not let her illness hold her back or stop her, said Tammy Johns, national director of the Miss All-Star United States Pageant, to Fox News. She graced the stage with poise and elegance. Sarahs attitude and endurance is wonderful a true queen. However far Whites newfound beauty pageant career leads her, though, she knows that her spirit makes her a winner and an inspiration. I dont have to lay down and die, she said of her diagnosis, according to FoxNews.com. I could walk into the Cleveland Clinic and wear my PJs, and Id look like death and feel like death, or I could put on a wig and my jeans and my Michael Kors sandals and lipstick. Lets keep in touch! Follow Yahoo Beauty on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. When Camilla Nielsen told her family she was pregnant again, they were worried. Really worried. Nielsen has muscular dystrophy, an inherited disease that progressively weakens her muscles. Her first pregnancy had been physically gruelling and this time she was expecting twins. Italian photographer Claudia Gori s documentary project "My Name is Camilla and I Love My Life" takes us inside 33-year-old Nielsens world five months after her daughters Esther and Agnes were born in 2014. I put a call-out through the Danish Muscular Dystrophy Association. I originally wanted to do something about sexuality but it was hard to find a couple, Gori told Refinery29. When I met Camilla, I knew immediately that hers was the story I wanted to tell. In the pictures ahead, we see the everyday struggles of early motherhood, made all the more demanding by Nielsens condition. Unable to lift her children on her own, she needs constant support. But despite the challenges, the mood of the photographs is gentle and uplifting. She might be much more exhausted than the average sleep-deprived mum but, as Nielsen feeds, bathes and soothes her children, you can feel the tenderness between them. Diagnosed with her disability aged three, Nielsen used a wheelchair at primary school but trained herself to manage without it through intensive physiotherapy. After university, she went to work as a nutritionist in a health centre in Randers, Denmark, where she lives with her boyfriend Jesper, their elder daughter Ella, three, and the baby twins. Shed always wanted to be a mother. When I show this work to people, most of them are impressed with Camillas bravery but some say, I dont understand why she put her children at risk, said Gori. Because Muscular Dystrophy is a genetic condition, theres a chance that it could have passed on to the girls. Of course she hoped that everything would be alright, that the children would turn out to be healthy. But if not, then theyd have a life like her and her life is beautiful. Story continues For the first six months Camilla had a nanny, paid for with funding from the Danish government, helping her for 12 hours a day until Jesper, her boyfriend, came home from work, Gori told Refinery29. When I went back to visit her in January 2016, all three girls were in kindergarten so now she needs help only in the afternoon, when they come home from school. Photographed by Claudia Gori. When Jesper and I moved in together, we found a 10-year-old diary of mine, where I wrote my concerns about whether I would ever find a boyfriend who would see me as I am, and not worry too much about my handicap, wrote Nielsen in a personal journal that she put together for Gori. Photographed by Claudia Gori. Camillas oldest daughter, Ella, is already so independent, said Gori. I told Camilla, Oh my God, shes like an adult. Kids understand everything, even though you dont explain, they know. She was always helping her mother and shes also very caring with her younger twin sisters, she helps look after them. I think the children of disabled parents grow up more aware. Photographed by Claudia Gori. Because of her condition, Nielsen cant pick up her baby girls so when she wants to hug them, she lays down on the floor beside them. When I took this picture I was really touched, said Gori. It must be sad for a mother not to be able to follow your child around. You cant run or jump with them, you cant play its physical but its also psychological. Photographed by Claudia Gori. Its not that often I think about my own future and my dystrophy, or about whether I might end up in a wheelchair again, which I think I will, wrote Nielsen. A few years ago a thought like that would have terrified me like hell because it would mean losing my independence but now I think if it gives me more energy to be around my girls and Jesper then I can sit in a wheelchair. Photographed by Claudia Gori. Camillas proud to be a mother, to be a woman, to be a girlfriend, Gori stressed. Shes very proud of her life in general. Through the project I think she wanted to say to other disabled women and to society that its possible to have a family, to take risks and be happy. Photographed by Claudia Gori. I spent three weeks in 2014 shooting these pictures with Camilla, sometimes staying over at her apartment. I was like one of the family, Gori recalled. This was during her maternity leave so she was at home almost all the time. It was really challenging for me as a photographer because I had just one context to work with. I decided to focus on her body, on her gestures and on the space of the house. Photographed by Claudia Gori. The only time I think its a problem that I dont know my exact diagnosis is when I think about the future of my girls. I dont think any of them has a dystrophy like me, but maybe they carry the genes of the disease so their children might get it, wrote Nielsen. Photographed by Claudia Gori. I have my off days and its OK to have days like that if you manage to get up again, wrote Nielsen. But Ive learned to focus on the things I can change and not the things that are impossible to change. Photographed by Claudia Gori. One time Camilla was going to have a shower. It was the second day I was there so I was a bit shy to ask her whether I could come into the bathroom too, said Gori. She just looked at me and said, Come on, Im having a shower, this is one of the most challenging things for me to do. You should take pictures.'" Photographed by Claudia Gori. During the pregnancy my body was like an enemy who fought against my organs. My pregnancy with Ella was also hard on my body, muscles, liver and kidneys, wrote Nielsen. After Ellas birth, the doctors told us that these things would probably happen if I got pregnant again. Photographed by Claudia Gori. Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here? Meet Team USA's First Trans Athlete The Problem With Kim Kardashian's Idea Of "Positive Body Image" Week 3: Steroids, Hair Loss, Fear By Steve Bittenbender LOUISVILLE (Reuters) - A black Kentucky judge was suspended without pay for 90 days after admitting on Monday that he should not have made racially charged comments, including complaining on Facebook that a prosecutor had deliberately sought all-white juries. Judge Olu Stevens was accused by a state commission of eight counts of violating Kentucky's judicial code of conduct after he criticized Commonwealth's Attorney Tom Wine on social media and in a speech, among other statements. "I recognize how serious it is to accuse someone, either expressly or implicitly, of racism," Stevens said in a statement released Monday as part of a settlement with the commission, which had investigated a complaint filed by Wine last year. "I do not believe Tom Wine is a racist." In 2014, Stevens dismissed an all-white panel after a black defendant complained about the panel's makeup. Another jury, this time with four black members, eventually found the defendant not guilty. Stevens also dismissed an all-white panel in another case. Those instances prompted Wine to ask the state if Stevens' conduct was appropriate. Stevens complained in Facebook postings about Wine's tactics and questioned whether they were racially motivated. He also spoke about the case in a presentation to the Louisville Bar Association. In his statement on Monday, Stevens said he had been wrong to accuse Wine of advocating for all-white juries. An attempt at mediation failed to resolve the issue, which led to the state's involvement. The commission also charged Stevens with misconduct based on comments he made during a 2015 sentencing. In that instance, Stevens said he was offended by the burglary victims impact statement, which indicated the victim's 3-year-old daughter had grown afraid of black men as a result of the home invasion. The unpaid suspension takes effect immediately, said Jimmy Shaffer, the commission's executive secretary. Stevens had been under an indefinite paid suspension during the investigation, Shaffer said. In a statement, Wine said he accepted Stevens' apology and harbors no animosity toward him. (Reporting by Steve Bittenbender; Editing by Sharon Bernstein) Since the 2011 Egyptian revolution, political instability and a tourism decline have led to widespread looting of archaeological sites with deadly consequences. Children forced to work in dangerous conditions to pillage historical sites have died. Antiquities guards were gunned down within an ancient tomb they were trying to protect. Mummies have been left out in the sun to rot after their tombs were robbed. And looting pits have pockmarked ancient sites in such vast numbers that words cannot adequately describe. A Live Science investigation found that not only were these horrific events happening but that an enormous amount of potentially looted Egyptian artifacts had made their way into the United States. These artifacts include a vast number of gold coins. [See Photos of the Looting in Egypt] Documents obtained from the US Census Bureau by Live Science reveal that since 2011, more than $143 million worth of artifacts have been exported from Egypt to the United States. The artifacts were brought into the United States for personal or commercial use, rather than temporary display in a museum, the documents say. The documents also show that the vast majority of the artifacts were shipped to New York City, where many auction houses, antiquities dealers and art galleries are based. However, detecting a shipment of looted artifacts and proving that they were looted is very difficult, researchers and government officials told Live Science. The influx of Egyptian artifacts into the United States shows no signs of abating. In the first five months of 2016, about $26 million worth of artifacts were exported from Egypt to the United States, the Census Bureau documents say. Since 2011, more than 45 lbs. (20 kilograms) of antique gold coins have been exported to the United States from Egypt that's about twice the weight of Tutankhamun's famous golden death mask. Between 1998 and 2010 only 4 pounds (less than 2 kilograms) of gold coins were exported from Egypt to the United States the documents say. [In Photos: The Life and Death of King Tut] Story continues Deaths in Egypt Photos provided by Egypt's Heritage Task Force, which has been tracking looting in Egypt show children working at Abusir el-Malek, a village south of Cairo that holds an ancient cemetery with thousands of burials. In the photos, the children can be seen carrying artifacts and rummaging around in pits and shafts. The photographs show how narrow and deep the holes get, creating dangerous working conditions that have led to the deaths of children researchers have found. The photos show that the landscape the children work in is scarred by these pits and is strewn with the bones of ancient mummies. "Children have been used primarily to reach small burial shafts and tunnels. Unfortunately, many children have lost their lives in the process," wrote Monica Hanna, an Egyptologist working with Egypt's Heritage Task Force, in a paper she published in the book "Countering Illicit Traffic in Cultural Goods" (ICOM, 2015). In fact, more than 25 children, employed by professional antiquities gangs, died last year in shafts in Abusir el-Malek, Hanna told Live Science. Little of the money from the sale of artifacts goes to the children's families, Hanna said. Instead, most of it ends up in the pockets of antiquities dealers and middlemen, who smuggle it out of Egypt and into other countries, such as the United States. "Many of them [the middlemen] are part of the international mafia that smuggles drugs and arms in the region," Hanna said, according to her research and that of her colleagues. Hanna said buyers of Egyptian antiquities should know that "the object you buy does not only have a child's blood on it, but also [that] looting activities have completely destroyed the site similarly to what ISIS does to other archaeological sites in the region." [Reclaimed History: 9 Repatriated Egyptian Antiquities] Children working in the shafts are not the only ones being killed in the looting. Two guards Mustafa Ali, 36, and Asrawy, 56 were gunned down by a group of robbers on Feb. 20, 2016, while inside a 4,000-year-old tomb at the site of Dayr al-Barsha,according to a team of archaeologists working at the site. Both guards left behind families, including a wife pregnant with twins. (A GoFundMe page was set up by the archaeological team working at Dayr al-Barsha to help out the families of the two killed guards.) They died in a hail of bullets. "Over 20 bullet holes impacted in the relief decoration on the walls of the exterior room and two large blackened blood stains on the floor indicate the spots [in the tomb] where Asrawy and Mustafa were murdered," the archaeological team wrote in a statement on the web page. Tricky to catch It can be very challenging to find looted artifacts that are being exported to the United States, sources tell Live Science. "It is extremely difficult to prove that any single artifact that arrives in the U.S. has been looted," said Erin Thompson, a professor of art crime at the City University of New York. "Middlemen are experts in making looted and smuggled antiquities look like they are part of the legitimate market by cleaning and restoring them and creating forged paperwork that makes it seem like Egypt gave permission for its export." "Suddenly, an artifact that was ripped out of the ground last month is indistinguishable from one that's been in a private collection for decades, and which is entirely legal to export and sell," Thompson added. Furthermore, U.S. Customs doesn't check all shipments; a spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection told Live Science that the agency conducts audits of antique shipments but declined to say how often this is done. The spokesperson also said that it is the responsibility of the person importing the shipment to declare the shipment's value. This means that the $143 million is simply the value of the imported Egyptian artifacts being declared by importers; the actual resale value could be higher. Additionally, the documents obtained by Live Science show only shipments that made it to the U.S., the Census Bureau spokesperson said. Because the documents don't include shipments that Customs agents stopped and impounded, the amount of Egyptian antiquities reaching the United States could be even higher. Golden treasure Many of these artifacts are simply declared by importers as being "antiques" that are over 100 years old, although some are labeled more specifically. The antique gold coins are the largest category of identified artifacts recorded in the documents. The data show that before 2009, few gold coins were brought into the United States from Egypt. The number grew in 2009 and surged in the years following the 2011 Egyptian revolution. Coins have been minted in Egypt for more than 2,000 years. Some of the earliest Egyptian coins were minted by the Ptolemies, a dynasty of rulers descended from Ptolemy Soter, one of Alexander the Great's generals. Alexander conquered Egypt in 332 B.C., and the Ptolemies ruled the country until 30 B.C., when Cleopatra VII, the last Ptolemaic ruler, died by suicide after the Battle of Actium. After Cleopatra's death, Egypt was incorporated into the Roman Empire. One explanation for the abrupt increase in imported gold coins comes from satellite research conducted by a team led by Sarah Parcak, an anthropology professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. After examining satellite images of Egypt from the past two decades, her team found that the looters prefer portable objects from sites dating to periods after minted coins were invented. "Overall, 55% of the affected sites were of Late Period (Dynasties 26-30) to Roman-period date," Parcak's team wrote in a paper published in February in the journal Antiquity. Some of the gold coins coming into the United States could also be forgeries, Hanna told Live Science. "A lot of local jewelers fake gold coins and sell them as antiquities," she said. Original article on Live Science. Editor's Recommendations Copyright 2016 LiveScience, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. In what seems to be a setback for Bank of America Corporation BAC, the Department of Justice (DOJ) is seeking to reverse the ruling that dismissed the $1.27 billion penalty on the bank in May 2016. The fine is related to the sale of risky residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) by Countrywide Financial Corp. (acquired in 2008). Evidences Overlooked While filing the papers with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan last week, the DoJ prosecutors pointed out that the three judge bench had overlooked a wealth of evidence at the time of dismissing the imposed penalty. Specifically, the DoJ said the Appeals Court ignored the contract terms that showed that Countrywide continued to make representations about the quality of loans and not just at the time of contracting. Additionally, the court overlooked other misleading statements, which were made by Countrywide about the loans when they were being sold. Further, the prosecutors insisted that the court should at least reconsider the lawsuit for new trail, so that the DoJ can present evidences. Background The $1.27 billion fine was levied in Jul 2014 by the U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff, after a jury held BofA accountable for selling defective loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from Aug 2007May 2008 via Countrywide. The bank was accused of selling loans underlying these RMBS without properly assessing the creditworthiness of borrowers. The Federal prosecutors indicted Countrywide for creating the program 'high-speed swim lane' or 'Hustle,' which rewarded employees for the quantity rather than quality of loans. These loans, worth approximately $2.96 billion, were bundled and sold off to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. BofA was sued under the Financial Institution Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989. The act permits the government to pursue civil charges against any party for fraud that affects any federally insured financial institution. Moreover, it provides 10-year time limit to bring in cases. Moreover, a former Countrywide executive, Rebecca Mairone was found guilty of civil fraud. Mairone was ordered to pay $1 million for allegedly playing a lead role in the above-mentioned program. Notably, the fine imposed on her had also been revoked. What Next? If the court agrees with the DoJ and the case is again headed for new trail, there is chance of BofA losing the lawsuit and paying the fine. However, for the time being, its wait and watch for BofA investors. Also, this may have impact on other ongoing cases/probes. Currently, BofA carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked finance stocks include Hancock Holding Company HBHC, State Bank Financial Corporation STBZ and Greenhill & Co., Inc. GHL. All these sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report BANK OF AMER CP (BAC): Free Stock Analysis Report HANCOCK HLDG CO (HBHC): Free Stock Analysis Report STATE BANK FINL (STBZ): Free Stock Analysis Report GREENHILL & CO (GHL): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. This boys wonderful letter to Leslie Jones will totally warm your heart This boys wonderful letter to Leslie Jones will totally warm your heart In the last few weeks Leslie Jones has proved that shes a completely hysterical and relatable queen. The Ghostbusters actor recently showcased her love for the Olympics, leaving us HOWLING with laughter. In fact, Leslies love for the Olympics has gone so far that shes been asked by NBC to head to Rio to cover proceedings! Seriously, isnt Leslie discovering Snapchat all of us when we discovered Snapchat? Ok snapchat is making me more silly than I am already!! A video posted by Leslie Jones (@lesdogggg) on Aug 3, 2016 at 1:00am PDT Leslie is also a complete fashion queen, as she showed at the Ghostbusters premiere. Basically, she slays. Unfortunately, following the release of Ghostbusters, Leslie was subjected to terrible racist trolling and bullying online, causing a flurry of support from fans with the hashtag #LoveforLeslieJ. Leslie decided to take a break from social media, which we totally understand. However, it wasnt long until she was back enjoying herself on Twitter and we SO glad as were living for her tweets. Welp...a bitch thought she could stay away. But who else is gonna live tweet Game of Thrones!! Leslie Jones (@Lesdoggg) July 21, 2016 Now Leslie has revealed that she received support in a more traditional way following the onslaught of abuse. This time, however, it was in the form of card sent by an eight or nine-year-old boy. Jones shared the heartwarming card on Twitter and its just too sweet. Ok Julian you are so precious I will put this on my board at work!! pic.twitter.com/W1DFlAkNdC Leslie Jones (@Lesdoggg) August 8, 2016 Dear Leslie Jones, Forget what they say on the internet, the card reads. Theyre just jealous because youre a Ghostbuster and theyre not. The card was sent by a boy named Julian, who said he was between eight or nine-years-old. Story continues You are a wonderful person, he continued in the card, and a great actor. Keep being yourself. From your fan Julian 8-9 years old. Are you crying because were crying at all the cuteness. Julian also asked Leslie who her favourite superhero was, but it seems that the actor has yet to respond to the eight or nine-year-old. Were sure when she gets back from Brazil, however, that shell be penning a letter back to Julian. [H/T Vulture] The post This boys wonderful letter to Leslie Jones will totally warm your heart appeared first on HelloGiggles. By Anthony Boadle BRASILIA, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Brazil's Senate met on Tuesday to vote on whether to indict President Dilma Rousseff on charges of breaking budget laws, in the long-awaited start of the trial phase of impeachment proceedings against her. With Brazil's attention focused on the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, senators in the capital Brasilia began to decide the country's political future in a raucous session presided over by Chief Justice Ricardo Lewandowski. The impeachment of Rousseff, a former leftist guerrilla and the first woman to lead Brazil, has paralyzed Brazilian politics since the start of the year, deepening a crisis set off by a massive kickbacks and bribery scandal at state-led oil company Petrobras. The outcome of Tuesday's vote is a foregone conclusion because opponents of Rousseff, who was suspended in May, need only a simple majority in the 81-seat Senate to put her on a trial. A final verdict expected at the end of the month will require two thirds of the votes, but media surveys of the Senate point to defeat for Rousseff and the end of 13 years of Workers Party rule. Conviction on charges of manipulating government accounts and spending without congressional approval would definitively remove her from office and confirm interim President Michel Temer, who would serve out the rest of her term through 2018. A Temer spokesman said he is confident the charges will be accepted. Government officials expect 60 senators to vote for a trial, which is six more than needed to eventually convict her. Uncertainty over Brazil's political future has hampered efforts by Temer to plug a fiscal crisis inherited from Rousseff who is blamed for driving the economy into what could be its worst recession since the 1930s. Temer, Rousseff's conservative former vice president who took over when the Senate suspended her on May 12, has asked senators to wrap up the trial quickly so he can advance with reforms to cap public spending and rework an overly generous pension system. Story continues Investor expectations that Rousseff would be ousted and replaced by the more business-friendly Temer have strengthened Brazil's currency and driven up shares on the Sao Paulo stock market by over 30 percent since January, placing them among the world's best performing assets. Rousseff has denied any wrongdoing and denounced her impeachment as a right-wing conspiracy to illegally remove a government that improved the lot of Brazil's poorer classes, by using an accounting technicality as a legal pretext. Rousseff's impeachment has stirred criticism outside Brazil, including from former U.S. presidential candidate, Senator Bernie Sanders who said she was being put on a political trial not a legal one. "To many Brazilians and observers the controversial impeachment process more closely resembles a coup d'etat," Sanders said in a statement issued on Monday. Her critics say Rousseff's interventionist economic policies and inability to govern led to the debacle in Latin America's largest country. They argue that, whatever the legal reasons for impeaching her, she should not be allowed to return to office for the good of the country. Her supporters argued that Rousseff is being ousted by politicians who are in many cases being investigated for corruption and do not have a moral leg to stand on. Corruption allegations forced the resignation of three of his cabinet members and could implicate Temer himself. In plea bargain testimony published by local media over the weekend, jailed construction magnate Marcelo Odebrecht reportedly claimed Temer had received illegal campaign funding. (Additional reporting by Maria Carolina Marcello in Brasilia and Bruno Federowski in Sao Paulo; Editing by Tom Brown) By Guillermo Parra-Bernal and Ana Mano SAO PAULO, Aug 9 (Reuters) - A Dutch court has accepted a request by Brazilian phone carrier Oi SA to put one of its Netherlands-based units under protection from creditors, two people with direct knowledge of the situation said on Tuesday, handing creditors a victory as they seek to recoup billions of dollars in losses. According to the sources, who requested anonymity since the matter is confidential, Oi's request for "suspension of payment" in an Amsterdam bankruptcy court allows for an independent trustee to be appointed. The suspension creates a standstill for payments to creditors for companies in the Netherlands. One of the sources said the trustee, who will look after the interests of creditors during the unit's bankruptcy proceedings, will be lawyer Jasper Berkenbosch of law firm JonesDay. The court's decision is a "huge development because it forbids Oi's management from representing the company without the trustee's consent," said the first person. In recent months, several creditors including Aurelius Capital Management LP asked the Dutch court to start bankruptcy proceedings against Oi Brasil Holdings Cooperatief UA, as the Oi unit is formally known. Under Dutch law, if the court approves the petition, the trustee will be appointed to defend the interests of creditors. Rio de Janeiro-based Oi and New York-based Aurelius declined to comment. Efforts to confirm the decision with officials at Amsterdam's commercial court were unsuccessful. Berkenbosch of Jones Day could not be contacted for comment. Oi, Brazil's fourth-largest wireless carrier and the largest fixed-line operator, filed in June for creditor protection in a Rio de Janeiro court to restructure 65.4 billion reais ($21 billion) in debt. The ruling makes it tougher for Oi to protect existing shareholders from potential heavy dilution by bondholders. It also gives more say to bondholders of Oi Brasil Holdings and Portugal Telecom International Finance Co, both Dutch-based subsidiaries of Oi, during reorganization talks, said investors such as Paolo Gorgo. Both subsidiaries issued a combined $6.33 billion in bonds outstanding. The ruling means Oi will have to deal with two different in-court reorganization processes in two different countries, a setback for the company, the sources said. Apart from participating in the proceedings, the trustee will investigate Oi Brasil Holdings' prior and current management teams and enforce the company's claims against parent Oi and other affiliates, the court said in June. ($1 = 3.1555 Brazilian reais) (Additional reporting by Toby Sterling in Amsterdam; Editing by James Dalgleish) ray dalio An employee of Bridgewater Associates who filed a sexual-harassment complaint against his supervisor has withdrawn the claim and started a new job at private-equity firm KKR. With about $150 billion under management, Westport, Connecticut-based Bridgewater is the world's largest hedge fund. Chris Tarui filed a complaint earlier this year with a Connecticut agency, alleging the harassment and describing Bridgewater as a "cauldron of fear and intimidation" that kept him silent. Tarui, who raised money for the hedge fund, withdrew his claim earlier this week and did not receive any financial compensation from the firm, a Bridgewater spokesman said. Bridgewater also agreed to withdraw Tarui's employment restrictions, the spokesman added. Typically, Bridgewater employees are bound to noncompete agreements. The supervisor who is alleged to have harassed Tarui is still employed at the hedge fund. After the The New York Times last month reported on the complaint, Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio called the Times' story a "distortion of reality." Still, the case has drawn scrutiny to Bridgewater's unique culture, which Dalio describes as radical transparency. At the fund, employee conversations can be recorded and viewed by other employees. Like many companies, Bridgewater requires workers to agree to settle claims in private arbitration, keeping matters out of public view. The public agency filing in Connecticut, however, revealed the details of the allegations. Reached by telephone, Tarui declined to comment. His LinkedIn page says that he started as a director at private-equity firm KKR this month. A KKR spokeswoman confirmed the move. NOW WATCH: This indie rocker just took down a publicist whom she accused of sexual harassment More From Business Insider By Brenda Goh RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - The water in the Olympic diving pool was bright green on Tuesday, baffling at least one competitor who said she could not see her partner underwater, although organizers said that it did not pose any danger to health. The mysterious shade of the water, which contrasted sharply against the blue hue of water polo pool beside it, generated jokes about algae and dye on social media and overshadowed the women's 10 meter synchronized platform final. British diver Tonia Couch said the pool's water was so green she could not see her partner Lois Toulson underwater, The Times said on Twitter. Rio 2016 organizers said tests at the Maria Lenk Aquatic Centre's diving pool found that the water was no risk to health, although they were still investigating. The executive director of swimming's world governing body FINA told Reuters that the problem may have come from a faulty filter or problematic water quality. "No danger for divers, just not a good image for Olympic Broadcasting Services," said FINA's Cornel Marculescu, adding that he was not sure how quickly the pool water could be brought back to its normal color. The problem comes on top of worries over dangerous levels of pollution in Rio's Guanabara Bay and concerns that floating garbage could damage or slow sailors. Most divers, however, said the color was no issue, even though the pool's water was perfectly blue during the men's 10 meter platform event on Monday. "When we were practicing to get used to this venue (the water) was always sky blue...But we're always mentally prepared for unexpected situations," China's Liu Huixia, who won the gold medal with partner Chen Ruolin, told Reuters. Bronze medalist Meaghan Benfeito of Canada told reporters that the color had made her and her partner Roseline Filion want to laugh, but the green actually helped. "It's not the same color as the sky so that was really on our side today." (Reporting by Brenda Goh; Additional reporting by Alexandra Ulmer and Scott Malone; Editing by Toby Davis) LONDON, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Britain on Tuesday defended its decision to review a planned $24 billion nuclear power project after criticism from China which is helping to fund the deal. China has cautioned Britain against closing the door to Chinese investment and said on Tuesday relations were at a crucial juncture after new Prime Minister Theresa May delayed signing off on the project. "This decision is about a huge infrastructure project and it's right that the new government carefully considers it," a government spokesman said in a statement. "We co-operate with China on a broad range of areas from the global economy to international issues and we will continue to seek a strong relationship with China," he added. (Reporting by Kylie MacLellan; editing by Guy Faulconbridge) Lincoln Industries on Tuesday announced that it has promoted Bill Ellerbee to president. Ellerbee, who has been with the metal finishing company for the past eight years, took over as president earlier this summer. He succeeded Tom Hance, who left the company to pursue other opportunities. Prior to being named president, Ellerbee served as vice president of operations for Lincoln Industries, managing five departments and leading operations both in Lincoln and at Lincoln Industries Pine Island, Minnesota, location. Lincoln Industries bills itself as the largest and most diverse privately-held metal finishing company in North America. It has more than 500 employees, and its clients include Harley-Davidson, John Deere, Polaris, Navistar and Mercury Marine. Before joining Lincoln Industries, Ellerbee was vice president of global operations with Federal Signal Corporation in University Park, Illinois. Before that, he spent 16 years with Maytag Appliances in Newton, Iowa, in various roles. Ellerbee is a native of Hastings and a graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Lincoln Industries Chairman and CEO Marc LeBaron said Ellerbees talent for leading people and previous experience makes him a great fit for the role of president. We are confident in Bills commitment to our culture and his understanding of our business processes, LeBaron said in a news release. This is evident by the trust our people already have in his leadership. Bill is aligned on both the vision and future of our company and will bring tremendous opportunities for Lincoln Industries. London (AFP) - British billionaire Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, one of the world's richest people, died on Tuesday according to his estate. The 64-year-old Duke of Westminster died at a hospital in Lancashire, north-west England, a spokeswoman for his estate said. He had been taken there from his sprawling country estate Abbeystead where he had "suddenly been taken ill", she added, without giving further details of the illness. "His family are all aware and they ask for privacy and understanding at this very difficult time." Grosvenor and his family rank 68th in Forbes' rich list of global billionaires, with a net worth of $10.8 billion (8.3 billion, 9.7 billion euros). The British landowner owned 190 acres in Belgravia, an area adjacent to Buckingham Palace and one of London's most expensive boroughs. He lost $1 billion in the immediate aftermath of Britain's vote in June to leave the European Union, which sent the value of the pound plummeting and shook the property market, according to Bloomberg. The family also has ties to the British royal family as one of Grosvenor's four children, Hugh, is a godfather to Prince George, the three-year-old son of Prince William and his wife Kate. Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Philip sent a message of condolence following news of Grosvenor's death, a Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said. A British politician is urging the U.K. government to bring back security measures not seen since World War I on the English Channel in a bid to counter terror threats and the arrival of illegal migrants. Conservative MP Charlie Elphicke said Tuesday an armed Sea Marshall force should police the channel to target people-traffickers who may be harboring terrorists. He said smugglers are traveling from France in small boats and dropping immigrants in quiet bays dotted along the South English coastline. The politician who represents the coastal constituency of Dover said a resurrection of wartime measures is required. "A century ago the Dover Patrol kept the White Cliffs of Dover and the English Channel safe in time of war. Now we need to declare war on the cross Channel people-traffickers with a New Dover Patrol. We need more ships on patrol in the English Channel," he said in a statement. Elphicke told CNBC he has sent a report to the U.K. Home Secretary Amber Rudd detailing how the threat of people-trafficking by yachts and small boats is on the rise. And he wants British naval resource currently operating in the Mediterranean to operate closer to home. "The Government should recall Royal Naval vessels currently patrolling the borders of Mediterranean nations - who have more border control vessels than we do - to keep the English Channel safe and secure." The French government has already placed sea marshals on cross channel ferries sailing between England and France. Armed French personnel are not allowed on British waters, meaning the marshals must be winched on to ferries from helicopters as they enter French territory. Elphicke said Britain must now follow France's lead and allow marshals with weapons to guard sea crossings and the Channel Tunnel. "France takes the threat of attacks on ferries and cross Channel shipping very seriously. So should we. It is now urgent for the Government to review its threat assessment and consider joining France in having armed guards accompany ferries and review security arrangements in the Channel Tunnel." More From CNBC LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May raised concerns on Tuesday with Iran's President Hassan Rouhani over several cases involving dual British-Iranian nationals, including imprisoned aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, May's office said. Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 37, has been detained since early April and is accused by Iran's Revolutionary Guards of trying to overthrow the Iranian government. "The Prime Minister raised concerns about a number of consular cases involving dual nationals, including that of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, and stressed the importance of resolving these cases as we worked to strengthen our diplomatic relationship," May's office said after the two leaders spoke on the telephone. Zaghari-Ratcliffe works for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, a London-based charity that is independent of Thomson Reuters and operates independently of Reuters News. May and Rouhani also spoke about the implementation of the deal made between Iran and foreign powers about its nuclear program, with May saying Britain would make efforts to enhance banking cooperation with Iran. (Reporting by Estelle Shirbon; editing by Giles Elgood) Abuja (AFP) - Nigeria said Tuesday it is reviving a "war against indiscipline" campaign in a reincarnation of President Muhammadu Buhari's strict social crusade when he served as military ruler over 30 years ago. Buhari initiated the so-called war against indiscipline brigade to tackle corruption and moral turpitude in the West African country after seizing power in a military coup in December 1983. The now-notorious campaign, which saw whip-wielding soldiers enforce neat queues at chaotic bus stops and tardy public servants do humiliating frog jumps, cemented Buhari's reputation as a disciplinarian -- a trait that endears him to Nigerians craving order and accountability. "In this era of insecurity, violence and other forms of social vices, the role of the war against indiscipline brigade in civil intelligence gathering cannot be over-emphasised," the National Orientation Agency (NOA), a government promotion organisation, said in a statement. The brigade, which is a voluntary, non-profit force, has been on the streets since its inception but NOA head Garba Abari said that the government hopes to make the brigade more "relevant." "They can help through moral persuasion. We should expect more of them at the local government," Abari said to AFP. "We are also going to find a way of really coordinating their activities. We will find a way of funding them." Buhari was voted into power on an anti-corruption platform in 2015 and has pledged to stamp out endemic graft that has led to staggering poverty in Africa's largest economy. A collapse in global oil prices, the main government revenue source for Nigeria, has triggered an economic crisis in the country with critics alleging Buhari's focus on corruption is coming at the expense of financial growth. From Road & Track Lane splitting, where a motorcyclist rides between lanes of traffic, has been common in California for years. Until now, though, the practice has been unregulated and existed in a gray area where it was neither legal nor illegal. But California has just passed the first bill in the country that would make lane splitting legal. The LA Times reports that last week, members of the California Assembly unanimously passed a bill, known as AB51, that would legalize lane splitting in the state of California and allow the California Highway Patrol to establish safety guidelines. It now goes to Governor Jerry Brown for his signature. Proponents claim lane splitting reduces congestion and makes riding safer for motorcyclists. Last year, the California Highway Patrol published a set of guidelines for safe lane splitting. But when citizens complained that those recommendations amounted to the law enforcement agency making laws, the legislature stepped in. The original version of the bill required riders to travel no more than 15 mph faster than traffic and limited their top speed to 50 mph. A number of motorcycle groups reportedly thought that was too restrictive, while some safety groups objected to the whole bill. The version that eventually passed dropped those regulations and now does little more than grant the CHP the authority to publish guidelines for lane splitting. But while it's still unclear whether the CHP will change its original recommendations, the fact that the state formally legalized lane splitting is a big deal. California has long been the only state in the country that allowed the practice, even though there have been a number of unsuccessful attempts to pass similar bills in other states such as Texas and Nevada. OZY and Predix from GE the cloud-based development platform built for industry have partnered to bring you an inside look at the future of digital industries, where people, data and productivity meet. The buses might as well be parked along the highway, since they sure arent going anywhere. The trains? Even worse the cars are so crowded that people are spilling out, clinging to each other so they wont fall. This isnt a trailer for the latest flee-the-coming-apocalypse thriller, although maybe it should be. For now, this is a typical morning commute in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka. Most mornings it takes 60 to 90 minutes to go seven miles. Highway of Hell, indeed. Urban planners in struggling cities get a bad rap, if they get any rap at all. But they may have a clever ace up their sleeve. And that ace is composed of conversation, or, more specifically, all the phone calls that all those people sitting in hell are making. Armed with new corporate partners who themselves are probably tired of their employees showing up late because of nightmare commutes, theyre figuring out ways to turn pissed-off SOS calls into a fast lane to smoother commutes. One example: in Sri Lanka, the think tank LIRNEasia has created a plan for fixing traffic jams and even identifying the best locations for public facilities in Colombo. The organization is now looking at Dhaka, Bangladesh. Treat the citizen as the sensor. Rohan Samarajiva, CEO of LIRNEasia While data has been relatively easier to access for urban planners in developed countries (thanks, in part, to services like Google Maps), emerging markets have long been stuck with more expensive sensors or less accurate survey-based methods to gather this kind of intel. Now, theyre collecting data at a much more rapid rate than in developed countries, says Brooks Rainwater, a director at the National League of Cities who specializes in urban sustainability. To help them on this quest: more than 80 percent of the worlds 5 billion or so mobile phones currently in use, where almost anyone carrying a basic GPS-equipped model may be contributing (usually anonymous) location and movement data to the cause. In Sri Lanka, where plain old dumbphones are the norm comprising nearly 80 percent of all 1 million cell phones LIRNEasias CEO, Rohan Samarajiva, says the goal is to treat the citizen as the sensor. Story continues Of course, we all know that cities can get congested and, in some cases, unlivable, particularly with more than half of the worlds population now calling urban settings home. But thats sparked a new surge of interest in high-tech urban maps. Sales of planning software have grown by more than 12 percent over the past five years, according to an IBISWorld report. In 2014, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi called for 100 smart cities urban areas that use communication technologies to cut down on inefficiency. A 2013 IDC report predicts that by 2017, there will be 3.5 billion people connected to the Internet, close to two-thirds of whom will use mobile devices. And those gadgets will produce around 40 trillion gigabytes of data, providing a huge opportunity to ask and answer a lot of pressing questions about how people live. Still, planning hopefuls face an uphill battle. After all, understanding human flows in urban areas is an old dream, says Carlo Ratti, director at MITs Senseable City Lab. Its difficult to forge partnerships with telephone companies for data, stripping data of sensitive information is time-consuming and analysis takes an expert team. (Samarajiva says it was two years before he had preliminary results to send to government officials, in 2014.) New pitfalls could also undoubtedly lead data-enabled urban planners astray the same way a lack of foresight plagued some of their predecessors. And anonymizing data isnt perfect researchers have already shown that its possible in many cases to identify people based on their movements. You can make inferences about groups of people, or people within a certain area, says Joanne Furtsch, director of product policy at TRUSTe, which specializes in privacy management services. But the use of this sort of data hasnt created much of a backlash (yet), and the smart-planning movement continues to grow, with new sources of data also on the rise. If youre wearing a Fitbit or an Apple Watch, for instance, that could give researchers even better data to know not just where youre coming from, but also how youre getting from point A to point B. From Samarajivas perspective, though, harnessing mobile data is enough for now, as he tries to force metro bureaucrats to account for poorer city dwellers long overlooked by traditional planning. Predix from GE is enabling the adoption of powerful, secure and scalable solutions built for the industrial app economy. Its industrial-strength strength, powering the future of industry. Get Connected. Related Articles By Tom Polansek CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. meat processor Cargill Inc [CARG.UL] has stopped using an important antibiotic for people to prevent disease in turkeys, the company said on Tuesday, the latest food maker to drop the drug amid concerns about the impact on human medicine. Cargill has not used the drug, gentamicin, to prevent disease in turkeys that supply its two biggest brands, Honeysuckle White and Shady Brook Farms, since Aug. 1, a company statement said. Cargill said it would continue to use antibiotics to treat sick turkeys and to stop the spread of a disease within flocks that include sick birds. Veterinary use of antibiotics is legal, but as the number of human infections from antibiotic-resistant bacteria increases, consumer advocates and public health experts have campaigned to end their routine use in farm animals. About 70 percent of antibiotics vital for fighting infections in humans are sold for use in meat and dairy production. Cargill "weighed the desires of our customers and consumers to ensure the long-term effectiveness of antibiotics for people and animals, while also maintaining our commitment to the health of turkeys raised for food, John Niemann, president of the company's Kansas-based turkey business, said in the statement. Cargill rival Tyson Foods Inc, the biggest U.S. meat processor, has said it stopped using gentamicin in its chicken hatcheries in October 2014. U.S. consumers are increasingly pushing food companies and restaurants to move away from using antibiotics to produce meat as part of a trend toward eating foods considered to be healthier and more natural. On Tuesday, Yum Brands Inc investors filed a shareholder proposal requesting that the company quickly phase out harmful antibiotic use in its meat supply, taking aim at the practices of the KFC fried chicken chain. Last week, McDonald's Corp said it had removed antibiotics that are important to human medicine from its chicken months ahead of schedule. In March, Cargill said it was trimming the use of antibiotics in its cattle supply. (Reporting by Tom Polansek; editing by Grant McCool) Donald Trump is "right on" about the economy, Carl Icahn told CNBC on Tuesday, claiming the "Archie Bunkers of the world" will support the real estate tycoon after his pledges to cut taxes across the board. "If he sticks with that economic theme, he should definitely win hands down, because I don't know why you wouldn't vote for him," Icahn said in a phone interview with CNBC's " Fast Money : Halftime Report." Trump, the billionaire developer, unveiled his economic vision in a markedly controlled speech Monday following a week of sagging polling and clashes with the family of a fallen Muslim-American soldier and fellow Republican leaders. Icahn said he did not defend Trump's remarks about the Khan family, calling them a "mistake." But he contended that Trump should win if he courts middle class voters amid a perceived government "war" with business. The activist investor said he could not understand why "the Archie Bunkers of the world" wouldn't support Trump, because "they know they're getting screwed." Archie Bunker was a fictional bigoted working class character in the 1970s sitcom "All in the Family." Icahn, who has supported Trump's presidential bid, said he did not have any bad intent by likening Trump supporters to the character. Trump has drawn the ire of many, but emboldened others, with statements about immigrants, Muslims and women throughout the election. "Archie Bunker is a middle class guy, somewhat educated even, that doesn't know where his next check is coming to send his son or daughter to school, doesn't know if he's going to keep his job. ... Why the hell should he vote for a system that is not giving him a good paying job?" Icahn said. In his speech Monday, Trump said he wants to create three income tax brackets of 33 percent, 25 percent and 12 percent, cutting the top rate from its current level of nearly 40 percent. He also called for lowering the corporate tax rate to 15 percent for all businesses and encourage companies to stay in the United States. He claims such an effort will create "millions of good-paying jobs." Story continues One analysis of a previous version of Trump plan, which trimmed income taxes even more, said it could increase the federal deficit by $10 trillion over a decade. His proposals have also received criticism for potentially helping the wealthy more than the working class. Icahn was also left off of Trump's recently announced economic advisory team. Trump picked mostly investors and businessmen, some of whom have donated to his election effort, to advise him. Icahn said he is developing a possible political action committee and would not have been able to do so if he worked with Trump's campaign. More From CNBC A California fugitive wanted for robbery in San Diego was found hiding in a Lincoln apartment Monday. Members of the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force received information that Wani Juma Kose, 25, was in the area of Ninth and C streets, according to reports. A vehicle connected to Kose was found outside 922 C St. about 6 Monday evening. Officers saw Kose walking away from the apartment and tried to arrest him near 10th and E streets, but he ran, reports say. Officers chased him back to the apartment, where residents said he could be hiding in a back bedroom and consented to a search of their home. Police found Kose hiding in the shower and arrested him. He was cited locally for obstructing a peace officer. By Isaiah Esipisu MBEERE, Kenya (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Farmers in Kenya's eastern and northern drylands have found a way to stay afloat as water becomes scarcer: cultivating catfish. This is my new source of income, said Sylvester Kinyori, 32, who operates a kiosk in Isiolo town where he sells fish products from local farmers who have turned to aquaculture. Kinyori, who hails from Turkana, a pastoralist area in northeast Kenya, now earns a living from selling cooked fish fingers prepared from catfish fillets, eggs and bread. Small-scale farmers started rearing fish here four years ago, after an aid agency introduced them to a simple way of trapping and storing rainfall run-off in what are known as home dams. The water is stored in reservoirs sunk in the grounds of a household compound, fitted with a thick polythene lining to stop it percolating away into the soil. The technique was developed by members of the Yatta community in eastern Kenya who had teamed up to end their reliance on food aid, called mwolio in the local Kamba language. After the success of Operation Mwolio Out, in 2009 ActionAid Kenya decided to introduce home dams to hundreds more households in east and northeast Kenya. These regions are semi-arid, sometimes receiving annual rainfall of less than 150 mm (5.91 inches). They have seasonal rivers, some of which flood for just a few hours after heavy rains, leaving women with no option but to dig deep into the riverbed to access the little water left under the sand. DRYING CLIMATE A long-term analysis of Kenyas climate trends, published by the U.S. government in 2010, showed rainfall had declined in central food-producing areas since the 1960s. And it predicted large parts of the country would experience a drop of more than 100 mm in long-season rainfall by 2025, along with a temperature rise of around 1 degree Celsius from 1975. That underlines the importance of efforts to help farmers adapt to shifts in the climate. When it rained in 2012 in the Kitui and Isiolo regions, some households managed to trap water in their home dams. They then decided to introduce young fish into the ponds. John Njiru from Mashamba village in Mbeere explained that nearly all the farmers started with the African tilapia, which had been popularised across Kenya by the government as the best species for aquaculture on farms. But the yields were disappointing, prompting a change in tactics when it rained again in 2014. We all went for the catfish species, given the fact that those who tried (it) in 2012 were not as disappointed as some of us who went for tilapia, said Njiru. In 2015, those who enjoyed a good haul of catfish were motivated to invest more, so as to profit from the unusual September rains linked to the global El Nino weather phenomenon. Njiru said the village experiment had shown catfish - which have distinctive whisker-like filaments around their mouths - could be more resilient to a harsh climate than tilapia, withstanding higher temperatures. We are happy because we can eat the fish, and sell it to generate income, he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Its my hope that fish farming in this region will stand the test of time given the tough and changing climatic conditions. Mature catfish sell for KES 500 ($4.93) each at the local market. To hasten their growth, many farmers also breed tilapia to feed the catfish. BREEDING BUSINESS Meanwhile, growing demand for catfish fingerlings is spawning more business for local people. Rhoda Mwende from Kanyonga village in Mbeere South Sub-County has mastered the complex art of breeding and hatching the young fish. The single mother of three, who just five years ago depended on food aid, sold 40,000 catfish fingerlings to local farmers after the September rains, earning her KES 400,000. Following the long rainy season in April, she sold more than 80,000 fish, earning her over KES 800,000. She has bought 1.5 acres (0.61 hectare) of land with the proceeds, where she lives with her children and her mother. Mwende has mastered the entire catfish breeding process - from injecting the female fish with hormones to stimulate egg production, to squeezing eggs out of the fish and removing semen manually from male fish to fertilise the eggs. It is amazing to see people who depended on food aid just a few years ago turn around their lives using an idea nobody had ever thought of, said Dinah Wambua, field officer for ActionAid in Makima, Mbeere. The farmers harvest the fish from the home dams when water levels drop, and wait again for the next elusive rains before introducing new fingerlings. A full-sized home dam - about 20 feet (6.1 m) square and eight feet deep - can provide water for an average family of eight for domestic use and irrigation for at least an acre of land for a year, according to Njue Njangungi, agricultural extension officer for Mbeeres Kyome Thaana ward. Such a dam can also hold 1,000 catfish fingerlings. Home dams are a double win for us, said Elizabeth Musyoka from Kithambioni village in Kitui, east of Nairobi. We now have water, and our children can enjoy a delicacy, which gives them an important protein they had always missed. ($1 = 101.4000 Kenyan shillings) (Reporting by Isaiah Esipisu; editing by Megan Rowling. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org) GEORGE TOWN (Reuters) - Two people have contracted the Zika virus locally in the Cayman Islands, the health department said on Tuesday, bringing the total number infected by the virus in the Caribbean territory to eight. A woman living in Cayman's capital George Town first reported her symptoms in July, and a sample sent to the Caribbean Public Health Agency for testing came back positive, the department said in a statement. She is not believed to have traveled to any countries in which Zika is present. Late on Monday, the health department announced the first known case of Zika contracted on the islands, by a man who had also not traveled to affected countries. Six other people have contracted the virus overseas and returned home carrying the infection. Health authorities say that when contracted by pregnant women, Zika can cause the birth defect microcephaly and other severe brain abnormalities in babies. The ongoing Zika outbreak was first detected last year in Brazil, where it has been linked to more than 1,700 cases of the birth defect microcephaly. Since that time the virus has spread rapidly through the Americas. In July, Florida confirmed that the mostly mosquito borne virus had been transmitted locally on the U.S. mainland for the first time. (Reporting by Peter Polack in George Town; Editing by John Stonestreet and Tom Brown) Charter Communications lost fewer pay TV subscribers in the second quarter, the cable giant said Tuesday in its first earnings report since closing two mega-deals: the $55 billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable and the $10.4 billion takeover of Bright House. The deals make Charter, led by CEO Tom Rutledge, the second-biggest U.S. cable company behind Comcast. Charter lost 152,000 residential pay TV subscribers in the second quarter, compared with 170,000 in the year-ago period assuming the TWC and Bright House deals had been in place then. The company said the result was "driven by better year-over-year performance at Legacy Charter and Legacy Bright House, partially offset by higher video losses at Legacy TWC." The company added 9,000 commercial video subscribers in the latest period, up from 7,000 in the year-ago period. Overall, that meant a loss of 143,000 pay TV subs in the second quarter, better than the year-ago loss of 163,000. Wunderlich Securities analyst Matthew Harrigan forecast Charter would lose 22,000 pay TV subscribers in the second quarter in its Charter systems, Time Warner Cable would lose 30,000 and Bright House 6,000 to see the combined company end June with a total of 17.447 million subs, down 58,000. MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett predicted Charter would overall lose 43,000 pay TV subscribers in the second quarter to end June with a total of 17.365 million. The second quarter is seasonally weak for pay TV companies, as students and snowbirds end their subscriptions to go home for the summer. Big cable operators have seen improved subscriber momentum in recent quarters, while telecom and satellite TV firms have seen weaker trends. Comcast recently reported its smallest second-quarter pay TV subscriber decline in more than a decade, losing just 4,000 subs. Read more: Charter Closes Time Warner Cable, Bright House Deals to Become Pay TV Powerhouse Charter's pro forma earnings for the second quarter totaled $280 million, compared with $107 million during the same period last year, driven by higher income from operations. On an actual basis, earnings reached $3.1 billion, compared with a year-ago loss of $122 million. Second-quarter revenue rose 6.6 percent to just shy of $10.0 billion. Story continues "On May 18, we closed our transactions with Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, creating a new company with the ability to innovate and grow faster," said Rutledge. "Our organization is in place, we are executing on our plans and our track record at Charter shows that our operating model, founded on providing high-quality products and service at great prices, works. We will apply that model as quickly as possible to our new assets, putting our larger company on a long-term growth trajectory and building greater value for our shareholders." Charter, in which John Malone's Liberty Broadband owns a big stake, is run by president and CEO Rutledge, who also added the chairman title after the completion of the two acquisitions. It had been the No. 3 cable operator in the U.S., with TWC second and Bright House No. 6. Together with TWC and Bright House, Charter is now America's second-biggest cabler, but is still the country's third-largest pay TV operator, behind AT&T/DirecTV and Comcast. The merged company has particularly strong positions in New York and Los Angeles. "The combination of Charter, TWC and Bright House will create a leading broadband services and technology company, serving over 25 million customers in 41 states," the company said when closing the deal. The deal made Malone a big cable industry player worldwide, as his Liberty Global already owns cable assets across Europe and in parts of Latin America. Charter has predicted $800 million in TWC and $125 million in Bright House programming and overhead elimination synergies. Second-quarter programming expenses rose 7.5 percent on a pro forma basis. Read more: Time Warner Cable Adds 21,000 Video Subs, Charter 15,000 in First Quarter (Corrects size of proposed budget to $5.45 billion from $5.75 billion) CHICAGO, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Chicago's public school system on Monday proposed a "balanced" $5.45 billion operating budget for fiscal 2017 that relies on rosy assumptions of union give-backs and added funding support from Illinois' gridlocked state government. Administrators in the nation's fifth-largest school system insisted the plan does not rely on "gimmicks or operational borrowing" and would reduce overall operating expenditures by $232 million over fiscal 2016. In addition, the cash-strapped district's coffers would swell with a $250 million property tax increase sanctioned by the state to help foot the cost of rising teacher pensions. "With this budget, we'll move the district on to stronger footing and stand ready to partner with leaders in Springfield to advance long-term education funding reform and pension equity," Chicago Public Schools CEO Forrest Claypool said in a statement. The school district is banking on teachers agreeing to relinquish 7 percent of their earnings over two years to devote to pensions. Claypool said the fact that Illinois and city taxpayers stepped up with additional money shows "good faith" that the union should replicate by having its members pay more toward their pensions. Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis tweeted that her members will strike over the elimination of the so-called pension pickup. As part of a six-month Illinois budget deal finalized in June, Republican Governor Bruce Rauner and the Democratic-led legislature agreed to steer $215 million on a one-time basis to CPS for its pension costs on the condition that lawmakers finalize a statewide pension-reform package by January. To date, there has been no tangible movement on a deal to improve the financial standing of Illinois' pensions, which have a $111 billion unfunded liability and are the lowest-funded pension systems among states. Claypool said CPS will continue to tap bank lines of credit for cash flow purposes, but declined to comment on the size of the credit line currently under negotiation. The district in June had to fully tap an $870 million credit line for its fiscal 2016 pension payment. Story continues Claypool also said the "junk"-rated district plans more borrowing to finance capital improvements. Late last month, the district announced it sold $150 million of 30-year bonds to J.P. Morgan at a hefty 7.25 percent yield to finance capital projects. The Chicago Board of Education, whose members, like Claypool, were appointed by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, is expected to vote on the budget later this month. (Reporting by Dave McKinney and Karen Pierog; Editing by Dan Grebler) Good iron isnt used for nails, and good people dont become soldiers, the old Chinese phrase goes. Thats changing, and at the speed of warfare. Worldwide, a reliance on raw manpower has given way to a focus on advanced systems and high-tech weaponry, making the education of personnel a prerequisite for any advanced military. That is not lost on Beijing. The Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) has undergone a massive makeover to mint educated soldiers and its working. The PLA once consisted of recruits with no higher than middle school or high school degrees. But in 2001, it began recruiting those with a college background. By 2014, nearly 150,000 of the PLAs 400,000 annual recruits were college students and graduates. While retention continues to be a challenge, and high school graduates still comprise the largest single source of recruits, Chinas armed forces are on an increasingly educated trajectory. The shift toward a more educated military is part of a broader effort to modernize Chinas armed forces. Dismissed in 2001 by former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense Chas W. Freeman Jr. as a junkyard force, the PLA then sported outdated equipment, poor training, and generally low-quality personnel. It was rife with corruption, partly because of its involvement in multiple commercial activities. The United States overwhelming victory in the 1991 Persian Gulf War demonstrated to China the value of modern weaponry and technology, while the 1995-1996 Taiwan Straits crisis when the United States sent two aircraft carrier battle groups in response to Chinas provocative military exercises and missile tests targeted near Taiwan highlighted Chinas lack of advanced weapons and unpreparedness against the United States. Chinese leaders and military planners were forced to face a blunt reality: their country was ill-equipped to fight wars against modern opponents. Following new guidelines in 1993 from then-President Jiang Zemin, the PLA began a modernization drive that continues today. This kicked off a spending spree from 1994 to 1999 during which Chinas defense budget more than doubled, and included the launch of an ambitious program that acquired Russian equipment, invested in indigenous development, and shifted from an emphasis on ground forces to naval, air, missile, space, and cyber forces. These reforms have sought to increase military capabilities to a level that could resolutely and thoroughly crush independence in Taiwan (as stated in Chinas 2004 Defense White Paper), defend what Chinese view as sovereign territory in the East and South China Seas, and provide a credible deterrent that would raise the costs for the United States to engage in any conflict near Chinas borders. Chinas annual defense budget estimated between $145 billion and $215 billion for 2015 has brought Chinas military might up to speed. The forces now boast advanced ballistic missiles, various types of cruise missiles, nuclear submarines, modern surface ships, and an aircraft carrier; as well as additional advancement in the emerging areas of space, cyber, and the electromagnetic spectrum. The question now is whether personnel are educated enough to put new capabilities to use. Until 2011, Chinas Military Service Law required that two-thirds of all new recruits come from rural areas; this group only needed to have a ninth grade education to qualify. The remaining one-third had to be high school graduates coming from cities. Under that same law, college students were exempt from the possibility of a conscription notice; and even interested college students were prevented from enlisting. The result was a military largely without college-educated recruits. Things began to change in 2011. In March, former President Hu Jintao said, The military is facing prominent difficulties in recruiting soldiers, retaining professionals, and averred, we must find the solution to these problems by adjusting and reforming related policies and institutions. Months later, in October, authorities amended the Military Service Law, removing the deferment clause for college students and offering a series of incentives for both recent college graduates and undergraduates who postpone their education to serve in the PLA, including student loan write-offs, tuition aid for students continuing their studies after service, extra points on postgraduate exams after service, and direct promotions to officer posts for college graduates with exceptional performance. In addition, students who return to college after service have the option to change their majors, which is usually determined by college entrance exam scores and not personal choice. After completing their military service, college students and graduates can also receive tax reductions if they start a business as well as preferential status in civil servant recruitment, township cadre selection, and the competition for cushy jobs at state-owned enterprises (SOE). In some cases, a students or recent graduate may even be able to change his or her hukou, a registration system that mandates Chinese citizens receive government social services and benefits only in their places of birth. While the system is hated, changing ones hukou is otherwise a phenomenally difficult task. The PLA also aims to fast-track the careers of its growing college-educated staff. In October 2011, the PLA General Staff, the General Political Department, and the General Logistics Department jointly issued new procedures stipulating that college students who pause university for full-time military service and graduates be given preferential treatment in the selection of non-commissioned officers (NCOs) as well as military academy examinations. Provinces are also sweetening the pot with policies implemented or planned. For example, Hubei province in central China announced it will give over $3,200 to new military recruits who have graduated from local universities, as well as several subsidies after retirement. In southern Fujian province, 10 to 15 percent of government posts and SOE jobs are to be reserved for servicemen. Perhaps most enticing, Beijing increased family allowances to at least $3,765 annually, expanded coverage for tuition or student loans for current students to a maximum of $900 for undergraduates, and added an extra 10 points to the national postgraduate admission test scores of those who wish to continue their studies after service. Finally, the PLA lowered the physical bar. In June 2014, it relaxed height, weight, and eyesight requirements, slightly increasing the number of students and graduates eligible for active service. Reactions to the changes appear to be positive. On social media platform Zhihu, college students and graduates discuss the new opportunities now on offer. In May 2014, one anonymous recent grad wrote, For the time being, I havent found a satisfying job; becoming a soldier seems like a pretty good option. A second user concurred, saying that his circumstances were very similar and that he had decided to enlist. Yiyi Luo, a graduate student originally from the southern province of Guangdong, told Foreign Policy that her cousin, enticed by the new benefits, joined the PLA and served in Hong Kong. Other relatives also tried to join for the new benefits and opportunities offered, she added, but ended up backing out due to parents concerns about living far away and continued corruption. Luo said that while joining the PLA is still not a popular option, its better than before. Chinas economic climate may also have boosted enlistment. A combination of a higher education revolution and a slowing economy is narrowing job prospects for recent grads. In 2015, a record 7.5 million students graduated from college in China, a seven-fold increase from just 15 years before. Yet the countrys 2015 growth was the slowest in 25 years, resulting in a 15 percent official unemployment rate for recent graduates. (Some believe this figure to be as high as 30 percent.) Thats made the idea of joining the PLA substantially more attractive. As one Chinese graduate student at Georgetown University, who requested anonymity in order to maintain privacy, told FP, I do think there are more incentives for educated youth to join the PLA because the military offers them more opportunities than just selling clothes on Taobao a popular Chinese online shopping platform where its easy to earn a quick buck. The advantages to joining the PLA are numerous and compared to several years ago, astronomical. But social and cultural factors still nudge Chinas young and brightest toward other paths. While Chinese society generally respects the PLA as an institution, the patriotism and revolutionary zeal that once surrounded the military in the early decades of the Peoples Republic is a thing of the past, dissipating after June 4, 1989, when the PLA brutally suppressed pro-democracy student protests, killing hundreds or more. Zeng Zhiping, an expert in national defense law, told Bloomberg in 2014 that joining the army is more and more like an occupational choice, and theres less and less of a patriotic halo surrounding it. Nonetheless, efforts to bring in the educated seem to have wrought their intended effect. The Peoples Liberation Armys Navy (PLAN), a focal point of modernization, is becoming increasingly professional. It is now capable of offering crucial support and training in anti-piracy, and in April, U.S. Rear Admiral Marcus Hitchcock extended high praise to a completely professional PLAN in the South China Sea. At the July 2016 Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC), the worlds largest international maritime warfare exercise, the U.S. Navy and PLAN successfully conducted the first submarine rescue exercise in RIMPAC history. Of course, its unclear how much of this newfound professionalism stems from real world experience and better command and control, and how much from an uptick in college educated personnel. Whats clear is that the PLA has undergone a significant makeover in order to bring the young and bright in. The investment is new, and further returns may yet await. Kevin Frayer/Getty Images * UK reviewing Hinkley Point nuclear power plant * China's ambassador warns London over delay * Ambassador tells UK: Keep your door open to China * Britain defends decision to review nuclear deal * PM May's adviser had raised concerns (Adds UK position, details on talks with China) By Guy Faulconbridge and Kylie MacLellan LONDON, Aug 9 (Reuters) - China has cautioned Britain against closing the door to Chinese money and said relations were at a crucial juncture after Prime Minister Theresa May delayed signing off on a $24 billion nuclear power project. In China's sternest warning to date over May's surprise decision to review the building of Britain's first nuclear plant in decades, Beijing's ambassador to London said that Britain could face power shortages unless May approved the Franco-Chinese deal. "The China-UK relationship is at a crucial historical juncture. Mutual trust should be treasured even more," Liu Xiaoming wrote in the Financial Times. "I hope the UK will keep its door open to China and that the British government will continue to support Hinkley Point - and come to a decision as soon as possible so that the project can proceed smoothly." The comments signal deep frustration in Beijing at May's move to delay, her most striking corporate intervention since winning power in the political turmoil which followed Britain's June 23 referendum to leave the European Union. Her decision indicates a much more cautious view of Chinese investment and a willingness to take a tough line with EU allies such as French President Francois Hollande. Cast as the jewel illustrating a new "Golden Era" of relations between China and Britain, the Hinkley financing deal was signed in Downing Street during a state visit to Britain by President Xi Jinping last year. GOLDEN ERA? Under plans drawn up by former Prime Minister David Cameron, French utility EDF and China General Nuclear Power Corp would fund the cost of building two Areva European Pressurized Water Reactors at the Hinkley C nuclear plant in Somerset, in southern England. Story continues Britain has committed to pay a minimum price for the power generated by the plant for 35 years, though critics said London had agreed to pay far too much. Hinkley is seen as the frontrunner to closer ties with China on nuclear issues, paving the way for tens of billions of dollars of investment and another two nuclear power plants with Chinese involvement. Cameron raised some eyebrows with allies by pitching Britain as the pre-eminent gateway to the West for investment from China and made London the biggest international trading centre for offshore yuan outside China. Britain is currently discussing an agreement for landmark financial services links, including a London-Shanghai stock connection. In the comment published in the Financial Times on Tuesday, China's ambassador said Hinkley was not "some whimsical idea or rushed decision" and pointedly said that Chinese investment had flowed because both countries "respected and trusted each other". "If Britain's openness is a condition for bilateral co-operation, then mutual trust is the very foundation on which this is built," said Liu. Once Britain exits from the EU, London would need to clinch a new trade deal with China, whose $11.3 trillion economy is currently more than four times as big as Britain's at $2.4 trillion. Liu said Chinese companies had invested more in the United Kingdom than in Germany, France and Italy combined over the past five years. NATURAL CONCERNS Since May won the top job, Britain has repeatedly said that it values its relationship with China and that it was natural for the incoming government to want to look at the plans in detail. "This decision is about a huge infrastructure project and it's right that the new government carefully considers it," a government spokesman said. "We co-operate with China on a broad range of areas from the global economy to international issues and we will continue to seek a strong relationship with China." But Nick Timothy, May's influential joint chief of staff, also said last year that security experts were worried the state-owned Chinese group would have access to computer systems that could allow it to shut down Britain's energy production. "Rational concerns about national security are being swept to one side because of the desperate desire for Chinese trade and investment," Timothy wrote in October 2015 in a column for a conservative news and comment website. China was buying British silence on human rights, Timothy said, and stated that British security services thought China's spies were working against UK interests. "No amount of trade and investment should justify allowing a hostile state easy access to the country's critical national infrastructure," he said. A final decision on Hinkley is due in September. (Additional reporting by Elias Glenn in Beijing; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall) By Guy Faulconbridge and Kylie MacLellan LONDON (Reuters) - China has cautioned Britain against closing the door to Chinese money and said relations were at a crucial juncture after Prime Minister Theresa May delayed signing off on a $24 billion nuclear power project. In China's sternest warning to date over May's surprise decision to review the building of Britain's first nuclear plant in decades, Beijing's ambassador to London said that Britain could face power shortages unless May approved the Franco-Chinese deal. "The China-UK relationship is at a crucial historical juncture. Mutual trust should be treasured even more," Liu Xiaoming wrote in the Financial Times. "I hope the UK will keep its door open to China and that the British government will continue to support Hinkley Point and come to a decision as soon as possible so that the project can proceed smoothly." The comments signal deep frustration in Beijing at May's move to delay, her most striking corporate intervention since winning power in the political turmoil which followed Britain's June 23 referendum to leave the European Union. Her decision indicates a much more cautious view of Chinese investment and a willingness to take a tough line with EU allies such as French President Francois Hollande. Cast as the jewel illustrating a new "Golden Era" of relations between China and Britain, the Hinkley financing deal was signed in Downing Street during a state visit to Britain by President Xi Jinping last year. GOLDEN ERA? Under plans drawn up by former Prime Minister David Cameron, French utility EDF and China General Nuclear Power Corp would fund the cost of building two Areva European Pressurized Water Reactors at the Hinkley C nuclear plant in Somerset, in southern England. Britain has committed to pay a minimum price for the power generated by the plant for 35 years, though critics said London had agreed to pay far too much. Hinkley is seen as the frontrunner to closer ties with China on nuclear issues, paving the way for tens of billions of dollars of investment and another two nuclear power plants with Chinese involvement. Cameron raised some eyebrows with allies by pitching Britain as the pre-eminent gateway to the West for investment from China and made London the biggest international trading centre for offshore yuan outside China. Britain is currently discussing an agreement for landmark financial services links, including a London-Shanghai stock connection. In the comment published in the Financial Times on Tuesday, China's ambassador said Hinkley was not "some whimsical idea or rushed decision" and pointedly said that Chinese investment had flowed because both countries "respected and trusted each other". "If Britains openness is a condition for bilateral co-operation, then mutual trust is the very foundation on which this is built," said Liu. Once Britain exits from the EU, London would need to clinch a new trade deal with China, whose $11.3 trillion economy is currently more than four times as big as Britain's at $2.4 trillion. Liu said Chinese companies had invested more in the United Kingdom than in Germany, France and Italy combined over the past five years. NATURAL CONCERNS Since May won the top job, Britain has repeatedly said that it values its relationship with China and that it was natural for the incoming government to want to look at the plans in detail. "This decision is about a huge infrastructure project and it's right that the new government carefully considers it," a government spokesman said. "We co-operate with China on a broad range of areas from the global economy to international issues and we will continue to seek a strong relationship with China." But Nick Timothy, May's influential joint chief of staff, also said last year that security experts were worried the state-owned Chinese group would have access to computer systems that could allow it to shut down Britain's energy production. "Rational concerns about national security are being swept to one side because of the desperate desire for Chinese trade and investment," Timothy wrote in October 2015 in a column for a conservative news and comment website. China was buying British silence on human rights, Timothy said, and stated that British security services thought China's spies were working against UK interests. "No amount of trade and investment should justify allowing a hostile state easy access to the countrys critical national infrastructure," he said. A final decision on Hinkley is due in September. (Additional reporting by Elias Glenn in Beijing; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall) SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's Guangdong province has set up a special court to deal with disputes that arise from the closure of "zombie enterprises", the official China Daily reported on Tuesday. The Guangdong High People's Court unveiled a new tribunal on Monday to help settle legal issues that might arise from the liquidation of province's 3,385 zombie firms, with a sharp rise in bankruptcies expected in the coming years, China Daily said, citing a local court official. Zombie firms are economically enviable enterprises that survive only with the support of local governments and banks. China has vowed to take action and use tougher environmental, efficiency, quality and safety standards to drive them out of the market. However, flaws in the country's bankruptcy laws have made it difficult for struggling firms to exit, and local governments remain terrified about the prospect of rising unemployment. Guangdong aims to close 2,333 zombie enterprises by the end of this year, China Daily said, and the local state asset regulator will also work to restructure or merge failing firms in the coming two to three years. A recent study by Renmin University found 51.4 percent of listed steel firms and 44.5 percent of real estate firms could be defined as "zombie enterprises" because they were technically insolvent - unable to generate enough money to repay debt. It said 7.5 percent of all China's listed firms also met the criteria. China's central government is currently drafting detailed new guidelines to dispose of zombie enterprises, according to state media. (Reporting by David Stanway; Editing by Eric Meijer) A Lincoln judge sentenced a 69-year-old Colorado man to prison Tuesday for getting caught in January with a quarter ton of pot. Steven McElmury of Cedaredge pleaded guilty to possession of marijuana with intent to deliver for the 515 pounds of marijuana found in the covered bed of his 2014 Dodge Ram after a drug-sniffing dog indicated the scent of drugs coming from it when he was stopped just west of town. In a Lancaster County courtrooom Tuesday, defense attorney John Berry said there was no question McElmury understood how he got there: He's a Vietnam veteran with substance abuse issues. Berry called McElmury a good man who fell on hard times and said he believes people took advantage of him. He asked the judge to take into consideration McElmury's age and the fact that the crime was nonviolent. "He understands what he was doing was wrong," Berry said. On the afternoon of Jan. 21, Lancaster County Sheriff's Deputy Jason Mayo spotted McElmury's truck headed east on Interstate 80 and followed him to a truck stop near Northwest 48th and West O streets. While McElmury was inside, the deputy ran the license plate, which came back to McElmury. An internet search said he was in "alternative medicine," Mayo wrote later in court records. Deputies took a drug-sniffing dog around the pickup, then found McElmury inside the truck stop. They searched the truck and found four U-Haul boxes, four large duffel bags and a large blue tote, each holding individually heat-sealed bags of marijuana. Total weight: 515 pounds. The sheriff's office estimated the resale value at more than $2.5 million. McElmury said his pickup was impounded and his income cut off since his arrest, leaving him with time for insight and awareness. If he could go back, he said, he'd avoid the marijuana and alcohol he resorted to over the years to shirk dealing with big issues in his life. "Those are the regrets in my life," McElmury said. Deputy Lancaster County Attorney Dan Zieg argued imprisonment was necessary given the serious nature of the charges. "You strike me as an intelligent man," Lancaster County District Judge Darla Ideus told McElmury. "I think you made a decision." She said he knew if he got caught he was probably going to prison. Then she sentenced him to 18 months to three years. He'll have to serve nine months before he's eligible for parole. By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations Security Council has been unable to condemn the launch of a missile by North Korea that landed near Japan because China wanted the statement to oppose the planned deployment of a U.S. anti-missile defense system in South Korea. North Korea launched a ballistic missile last Wednesday that landed in or near Japanese-controlled waters for the first time, the latest in a series of launches by the isolated country in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions. The 15-member council held a closed-door meeting on the same day, but has been unable to agree on a U.S.-drafted statement to condemn the launch, which was almost identical to two previous statements issued by the council on North Korea (DPRK). China proposed that the statement also say "all relevant parties shall avoid taking any actions which could provoke each other and escalate tensions, and shall not deploy any new anti-ballistic missile stronghold in Northeast Asia with an excuse of dealing with threats of the DPRK nuclear and missile programs." Beijing has said Washington's decision last month to deploy a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system would only worsen tensions on the Korean peninsula. China's U.N. mission also did not want the statement to express concern that the missile landed near Japan, telling council diplomats in an email, seen by Reuters: "We believe that the response of the council is based on violation of Security Council resolutions, not the place where the missile impacted." Japan and the United States said they could not accept the proposed changes to the draft by China and on Tuesday dropped the bid for a Security Council statement. "To propose that this council should criticize purely defensive steps that states have taken to protect their people from the DPRK's clear and repeated ballistic missile threats ... would be manifestly inappropriate and would send entirely the wrong message to the DPRK," the U.S. mission to the United Nations told council diplomats in an email. After the Security Council meeting last Wednesday, U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power rejected suggestions the decision to deploy the anti-missile defense system in South Korea had provoked ballistic missile tests by North Korea. North Korea has been under U.N. sanctions since 2006. In March, the Security Council imposed harsh new sanctions on the country in response to North Korea's fourth nuclear test in January and the launch of a long-range rocket in February. (Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by James Dalgleish) From Cosmopolitan On Saturday, Australia's Mack Horton won gold in the men's 400-meter freestyle, dethroning China's Sun Yang, who won silver, to take top spot on the podium. But while the competition was fierce in the water, the bigger fight between the two is actually happening on dry land - and it's starting to get very dirty. In 2014, Yang tested positive for the stimulant trimetazidine during the Chinese nationals and was suspended from swimming for three months. Yang insisted he was prescribed the drug to help with heart palpitations, but Horton clearly never bought it, and has made his feelings about doping very clear in multiple press interviews leading up to and during the Olympics. To make matters worse, during a training session prior to the Olympics, Yang allegedly splashed some water into Horton's lane, which the swimmer took as a personal attack. "He just kind of splashed me, but I ignored him because I don't have time or respect for drug cheats," Horton said following the preliminary heats this weekend, according to the Washington Post. "He wasn't too happy about that, so he kept splashing me. I just got in and did my thing." After Horton won the gold Sunday, however, things started to get even more heated between the two. "I just have a problem with athletes who have tested positive and are still competing," Horton said at the press conference following the race. In response, Yang - who was awkwardly sitting right next to him - responded by saying, "On the competition stage, every athlete deserves to be respected, and there's no need to use these sort of cheap tricks to affect each other." Later in the same conference, when confronted by the Chinese media as to why he attacked Yang by calling him a drug cheat, Horton doubled down on his original sentiment. "I used the words drug cheat because he tested positive," he said, calling his win "a win for the good guys." Story continues "I don't know if it's a rivalry between me and him, just me and athletes who have tested positive," he continued, according to the Washington Post. Unsurprisingly, fans of Yang were not too pleased by the spat, and Horton's social media soon became flooded with snake emojis and commenters demanding he apologize to Yang for his remarks. Superfans of Yang were especially vicious due to the fact Yang was seen crying after losing his title - and it got so bad, Horton shut down comments on his Instagram altogether. Even China's media attacked the Australian swimmer, directly calling his home country "uncivilized" and his victory "disgraceful," according to Yahoo News. Meanwhile, Australian media and officials have stuck by Horton's side, and the Australian Olympic Committee released a statement this weekend stating, "He has spoken out in support of clean athletes. This is something he feels strongly about and good luck to him." Horton and Yang will be competing against one another again next Saturday for the men's 1,500-meter free, for which Yang is both the world record holder and defending gold medalist. Follow Gina on Twitter. A Chinese tourist in Germany who tried to report a stolen wallet ended up signing an asylum application that landed him in a refugee center for 12 days. The 31-year-old traveler, who only spoke Mandarin, mistakenly went to city hall instead of the police station after he had been robbed in the southwest city of Heidelberg, Reuters reports. Confusion at city hall led to the man accidentally signing the paperwork for asylum claims. The Beijing native was then reportedly sent to a refugee center 220 miles away in the northern town of Duelman and given shelter, food and spending money. He spent 12 days trapped in our bureaucratic jungle because we couldnt communicate, said the head of the Red Cross refugee center in Duelman, Christoph Schluetermann. Germany is unfortunately an extremely bureaucratic country. Especially during the refugee crisis Ive seen how much red tape we have. German authorities only discovered their bureaucratic blunder nearly two weeks later after turning to a local Chinese restaurant to translate. He kept trying to talk to people to tell his story, but no one could understand him. He kept asking to get his passport back, which is the opposite of what most refugees do, Schluetermann said. [Reuters] Volunteer firefighter Ken Walker has recently seen some of humanity's worst and some of its best. Walker, who is the only black firefighter in the upstate New York city of North Tonawanda, received a racist threat in his mailbox last week that said black firefighters didn't belong on the town's fire department and he needed to quit by week's end or he'd "regret it." Days later, his neighbor a former firefighter himself would be accused of setting fire to his home, leaving the property uninhabitable in a devastating betrayal, Walker tells PEOPLE. "We were fellow firefighters. I trusted this guy with my life," says Walker, 28. "If I was on a call and something went wrong, he would be the one I could turn to to save me and vice-versa ... I'd do the same for him in a heartbeat." But the alleged arson also inspired an outpouring of support for Walker's family not just from friends and colleagues but strangers and far-flung firefighters, too. "It's amazing how God works," Walker's stepmom tells PEOPLE. Walker says the day of the fire was normal enough, until it started. On Aug. 3, two days after receiving the racist letter, he was at his job at a local factory when he realized that he and his wife, also at work, had mistakenly left their apartment unlocked. So Walker says he called his across-the-street neighbor, Matthew Jurado, to go and lock the door. Jurado, a 39-year-old former volunteer firefighter who was fired from his own department in July, told him, "I'll go over, I'll check everything out,' " Walker recalls. "We fellow firefighters look after each other." About 15 minutes later, Walker says, Jurado called back. "He said, 'Hey, you've got to come home, your house is on fire,' " Walker says. By the time Walker got home, the fire had destroyed everything inside the home that he shares with wife Amanda and their two young children, who were with relatives at the time of the blaze. The family's two cats were dead. The next night came another surprise: Walker watched a televised news conference where North Tonawanda Detective Capt. Thomas Krantz announced that Jurado had been arrested and charged with arson after allegedly confessing to setting the fire at Walker's home. Krantz said Jurado, who is white, was allegedly "upset" with his fire department over his dismissal (reportedly because he lacked training). Jurado also allegedly told police he knew who wrote the racist letter sent to Walker, but would not say who, Krantz said. Jurado worked at a different fire department than Walker, but Walker says the two have served side-by-side during emergencies, as multiple departments would respond simultaneously to a scene. Jurado allegedly told police his actions were not racially motivated, and had to do with his firing, WGRZ reports. According to the Buffalo News, Jurado tried to apply to Walker's fire department through Walker, after being fired, but he was turned down. Police have not definitively linked the racist note and the fire but are investigating a possible connection, according to the Buffalo News. "I felt betrayed," Walker tells PEOPLE. "He's been in my house, with my kids, my animals, and for him to have a grudge against the department and take it out on me was uncalled for." Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter. Helping Hands Now Walker staying with relatives with his wife and kids is learning to accept the unbidden comfort he's received from all over the country. His fire station, the Gratwick Hose Fire Company, has rallied, sponsoring a donation drive Sunday that drew scores of people who dropped off furniture, gift cards, diapers and toys a warehouse full of items for Walker, his wife and their two young children to restart their lives. Walker's extended family of firefighters has also risen to the occasion. Shawn Moynihan, 20, a volunteer firefighter from another New York town who had never met Walker until Sunday started a GoFundMe page six days ago that's raised more than $149,000 from more than 3,800 donors. "He's just a fellow firefighter and [Shawn] wanted to show him that people care and that we're not racist, let him know that there's more people good than bad," Moynihan's father, Robert Moynihan, told The Buffalo News. Los Angeles and San Francisco firefighters, meanwhile, are treating Walker and his family to an all-expenses paid week-long vacation in Venice Beach, California, fellow Gratwick Hose Fire Company volunteer Bob Brennan, who took the call, tells PEOPLE. A woman in Orlando, Florida, has offered the Walkers a trip to Disney, so the family "can heal," Brennan says. This kindness, from not just family and friends but countless strangers across the nation, is "overwhelming," Walker says. "I know people help out every now and then but I never thought it would be like this." Patricia Walker, Ken's stepmom who raised him since he was a young child, has a hunch: She tells PEOPLE, "I hope the outpouring of the love is an example of how the world should react. It's amazing how God works, taking a tragedy and turning it into a blessing." Still, despite the love, Ken has a "sadness" about him, Patricia says. "This guy was his friend. Ken is concerned about the safety of his family. If we are to believe Matt, there is someone out there who is a culprit [who wrote the racist letter]." Jurado was freed from the Niagara County Jail Monday morning after a $50,000 bail bond was posted, a North Tonawanda criminal court official confirmed to PEOPLE. Jurado has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree arson and is next due in court Thursday. PEOPLE has been unable to reach Jurado for comment. He will be appointed an attorney at his next hearing, according to court officials. Walker tells PEOPLE he doesn't know if he will be at court. Instead, he worries about taking care of his five young children and is grateful for all the help that continues to flow his way. "It feels good," Walker says. "The main thing for me is getting my family re-established. We get a chance to start over, it gives us a chance to return to normal and try to get back to life as usual." Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton inserted herself into the growing Zika crisis Tuesday, calling on lawmakers to return to Washington to provide funding to stop the spread of the virus. Clinton spoke after touring the Borinquen Medical Center, a health clinic close to the Wynwood area of Miami where 21 non-travel related cases up from 14 last week have been detected. She wants the GOP to act on President Barack Obamas request for $1.9 billion to fight the disease, or to come up with some compromise plan that puts federal funds to work in stopping the spread of the virus. Zika has been linked both to misshapen heads in newborns and Guillain-Barre, a condition that causes paralysis in adults. I am very disappointed that the Congress went on recess before actually agreeing what they would do to put the resources into this fight, Clinton said after visiting the health center. I would very much urge the leadership of Congress to call people back for a special session and get a bill passed. Her running mate, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, has said hed return to Washington for a vote on a Zika bill. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said he is in no rush to return to Washington. Writing in the Lexington Herald-Leader last week, he said lawmakers would deal with Zika funding after Labor Day when Congress is back in session. Florida lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats, have also decried the lack of federal action. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), said in a radio interview Monday, Congress needs to come back and get something done, actually pass a bill that has more money. So thats why I am calling for Congress to go back this month and get it done quickly. Clintons plea comes as concerns grow over the spread inside the United States of the disease, which until recently had been limited to people who had recently traveled to tropical climes like Latin America and the Caribbean. Public health investigators in Florida are now looking into whether a Zika case in Palm Beach County was transmitted here in the United States. Also on Tuesday, Texas health officials reported a baby born with microcephaly linked to Zika recently died in the state. This case was related to travel abroad. Story continues According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are 1,825 Zika cases in the United States. In all U.S. territories, including Puerto Rico, there are more than 5,500. The tussle for funding to stop the spread of the disease has run head-on into partisan politics. Obama and other Democrats accuse Republicans of politicizing the presidents funding request by inserting a measure into a $1.1 billion Zika spending plan that would have blocked Planned Parenthood clinics in Puerto Rico from receiving federal cash. Republicans counter that the White House has not spent existing funds to stop Zika. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell disagreed with the Republican argument. In a letter to GOP lawmakers Monday, she said Phase II trials of a Zika vaccine will be delayed without more money from Congress, and that the $47 million the administration shifted to the National Institutes of Health for work on a vaccine will be gone by the end of the month. She also said that $143 million of the $222 million in the Zika war chest at the CDC would be exhausted by the end of September. Rubios plea for a congressional vote was echoed by Floridas Rep. Alan Grayson, a Democrat, who told CNBC Tuesday, There are lives at stake and the problem gets worse literally every day. Every single day means more Zika babies and more deaths. The technology that can end this crisis is well understood. Photo credit: GREGG NEWTON/Getty Images We have all endured a bad headache while at work, but imagine having the most severe type possible and carting around an oxygen tank in hopes of making the pain somewhat manageable. The Doctors staff member Robert suffers from cluster headaches that leave him barely able to get through the day. He has been getting the headaches for the last 8 years and has 2 or 3 of them each night, which makes getting a restful nights sleep very difficult. Strangely, Roberts cluster headaches are seasonal, occurring usually in November and lasting until January or February. Robert and neurologist Dr. David Kudrow join The Doctors panel to discuss the extremely rare headache, which only affects about 0.1 percent of the general population. Watch: Sex and Headaches The reason why its called a cluster headache is because it occurs in clusters. Patients will have them, like Robert does, for several weeks or several months at a time and then they will disappear and then they are gone for 6 months, a year, 2 years. But when they come on, that cluster period can last a few weeks, a month. They get headaches every day, typically 2 or 3 times a day, sometimes more, sometimes less. Its an excruciating headache, describes as the most severe head pain that we are aware of, Dr. Kudrow says, explaining that the pain usually lasts from 30 to 90 minutes. After seeing numerous doctors, Robert has determined his best treatment is using oxygen periodically to help lessen the pain, along with occasioanlly sleeping in upright position. So what can you do if you suffer from cluster headaches as well? Watch: Help for Headaches According to The Mayo Clinic, there is unfortunately no cure. Like Robert, inhaling 100 percent oxygen through a mask at a minimum rate of at least 12 liters a minute can usually help with the pain within 15 minutes. Other possible ways to treat cluster headaches through medications and alternative medicines can be found, here. As always, consult with your physician before beginning any new treatment. CNN host Brian Stelter has a warning: Beware the spying sirens of Fox News Channel. In a revelation that set media insiders buzzing Tuesday, Stelter said on the CNN program New Day that about 10 years ago, he dated a Fox News staffer who, he later came to believe, was ferrying information about him back to headquarters. I had a crush on a woman at Fox News, the host of Reliable Sources told viewers. She was a low-level staffer. I was in college at the time. When he was a student at Towson University, Stelter created TVNewser, a blog about the cable news business, including Fox. Also Read: CNN's Brian Stelter Calls Sean Hannity 'Unpatriotic': Here's the Fox News Host's Response I was going out on what I thought were dates, he continued. These were not dates. She was actually reporting back to Fox News about me. They were actually spying on me in that way. Stelter, who would go on to work at the New York Times and joined CNN in 2013, did not identify the woman or explain how he knew she had spied on him. He did not immediately reply to a request for comment. A Fox News spokeswoman had no comment. At the time Stelter describes, the PR department at Fox News was led by Brian Lewis, an aggressive publicity veteran who had an acrimonious exit from the network in 2013. Also Read: Journalists Gather for David Carr's Funeral Stelters revelation came amid a discussion of the scandals plaguing Fox News, which last month sent its longtime chief, Roger Ailes, packing after he was sued for sexual harassment by former host Gretchen Carlson. Ailes has publicly denied the allegations but is reportedly engaged in settlement talks. Fox News, with its heavy dose of opinion shows, has led the race for viewers for years, but CNN has recently made inroads, especially in its election coverage. Roger Ailes' Career Evolution: From 'The Mike Douglas Show' to Fox News (Photos) Roger Ailes Fox News Ohio University Ohio University Westinghouse Broadcasting Company daytime emmy awards logo 618 Simon and Schuster Ailes Productions America's Talking News Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch Getty Images steve doocy gretchen carlson Getty Images Getty Images Story continues Previous Slide Next Slide 1 of 13 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. View In Gallery Related stories from TheWrap: CNN's Brian Stelter Calls Sean Hannity 'Unpatriotic': Here's the Fox News Host's Response Geraldo Rivera Blasts 'Pacifist' Brian Stelter for Brian Williams 'Obsession' CNN's Brian Stelter and Panel Tackle 'MSNBC Fatigue,' Future of Liberal News An Omaha teenager is in jail after Lincoln police say he ran from an accident and threatened officers. The one-vehicle wreck happened just after midnight Saturday at the corner of Meadowbrook Lane and Sunrise Drive, near Pius X High School. A witness told police the driver of a black Ford Taurus -- later identified as Joseph Cassidy -- hit two mailboxes, a tree and a road sign before stopping in a yard and then taking off running, court documents say. Cassidy, 19, was found nearby and taken into custody after trying to resist arrest, documents said. He told officers he couldn't be arrested because it would ruin his life. While struggling to get Cassidy to the cruiser, he told officers, "now I know why everyone (expletive) hates police." On the way to jail, court documents say, Cassidy told the officer driving him, "you're going to die in the streets, like, I have people that, like, will kill you, so don't worry ... yeah do not worry about living much longer." Documents say Cassidy's last statement was recorded by the in-cruiser camera. He was arrested on suspicion of terroristic threats, driving while under the influence, reckless driving, leaving the scene of an accident, refusing a chemical test, minor in possession, resisting arrest, failure to comply and possession of a fake ID. Prosecutors on Monday filed charges relating to all of the alleged offenses except making terroristic threats. The Kentucky judge who made news when she became angry over a female inmate led into court without pants is back in the spotlight after she allowed a male inmate to meet his 1-month-old son for the first time. Jefferson County Judge Amber Wolf said the meeting was probably one of the best things Ive done. Read: Organ Donor in the Court: Judge Gives A Kidney To Her Best Friend, Who's Also A Judge She invited Ashley Roeder to bring her newborn into the courtroom so her husband, James Roeder, could meet his baby. Both are charged with burglary for allegedly breaking into a warehouse where James Roeder once worked and stealing six flat-screen televisions valued at more than $6,000, according to court records. They have pleaded not guilty. "I don't want you to say anything about your case at all," Wolf told James Roeder, according to courtroom video. "Don't say anything. Your lawyer is not present right now. But I understand that there is a chance that you're going to go back to Todd County, and your baby is a month old, and you haven't met that baby yet. Is that right?" "Yes maam," the defendant said. Mrs. Roeder, do you want to come up here? the judge asked. Under a court order, the couple is barred from having any contact but Wolf made an exception so James Roeder could meet his baby. In front of the judge, Ashley Roeder silently placed their child in her husbands arms and stepped back. The new dad cradled his son for few minutes as the judge smiled and his wife wiped away tears. This is your son, Judge Wolf told him. As he handed the newborn back, the father wiped his face with the top of his orange jumpsuit. The judge passed around tissues. Give everybody some, she said. Read: Judge in Stanford Rape Case Removed From New Sex Assault Hearing I think it was just more of a human thing, the judge told WDRB-TV afterward. He hadnt met his baby. And I could see that his wife wanted him to see the baby. And I know from previous interactions from Mr. Roeder that he had been very concerned about being able to meet his baby I just saw an opportunity that I didnt want to squander. Story continues Late last month, Wolf was incredulous when a female suspect entered her court without pants. The womans attorney told the judge her client had been denied pants and feminine hygiene products by jail guards. The judge used her cell phone to call correction officials. What the hell is going on? she said into the phone. Im holding her here until she is dressed appropriately to go back to jail. This is outrageous. A jumpsuit was brought to the courtroom. Louisville corrections employees are investigating the incident, authorities said. Watch: Judge Outraged That Woman Appeared In Court Not Wearing Pants Related Articles: Eurovision winner Conchita Wurst sailed on a boat titled "Join our Freedom" leading EuroPride parade in Amsterdam on Saturday (August 6) Europride, European gay, lesbian and transgender event coincides with the Amsterdam Gay Pride this year. The Canal Parade is the key event of festival which includes over 300 events in Amsterdam, taking place from July 23 and August 7 this year. Hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets to watch boats carrying scantily clad dancers and pop performers. The colorful parade also featured an EU Commission sponsored carnival float, which took part in the event for the first time. One of the key messages of this year's Pride was to take action against violations of LGBT rights occurring in some EU member states. While Dutch police participated in the event sailing in their own boat, there was an increased number of police officers patrolling the streets due to recent terrorist attacks in Europe. So far there have been no incidents reported and the participants emphasized the importance of the positive message of Europride. "This weekend it was a Pride weekend in Uganda as well and police raided the pride and raided the event so it's really important to keep on celebrating, to keep on telling kids all around the world you are beautiful, you are perfect, you are love, love is love and that's what is so important today," a transvestite called Sister Rose told Reuters. Madrid is announced as the host of World Pride for 2017. KINSHASA (Reuters) - Congolese authorities have refused to renew the visa of a prominent American human rights activist, the government said on Tuesday, a decision that follows expulsions of other foreign researchers in a tense election year. Government spokesman Lambert Mende did not say why the visa of Ida Sawyer, U.S.-based Human Rights Watch's senior researcher in Democratic Republic of Congo, was not renewed or when she would need to leave the country. Sawyer, who has worked for Human Rights Watch in Congo since 2008, has been among the most vocal critics of what the United Nations and rights groups say is a growing crackdown on dissent before elections scheduled for November. In a statement, Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth called the move "a brazen attempt to muzzle reporting on the government's brutal repression of those supporting presidential term limits". The constitution requires that President Joseph Kabila, in power since 2001, step down after the polls, but opponents accuse him of delaying the vote to hold onto power. The government says that enrolling new voters will take more than a year. Dozens of people were killed in anti-government protests in January 2015 over a proposed revision to the country's electoral code that could have delayed the election by years. Sawyer criticized security forces at the time of using "unlawful and excessive force". In January this year, she called for targeted sanctions against officials responsible for violence against civilians. The government denies using excessive force against protesters or targeting its political opponents. The U.S. government imposed sanctions on the capital Kinshasa's police chief in June for what it described as the violent suppression of opposition to Kabila's government. The Congolese government in April expelled Jason Stearns, the American director of New York University's Congo Research Group, shortly after he published a report linking soldiers to massacres of civilians. Two Global Witness activists investigating logging practices were also forced to leave last month, accused of inciting a local community to revolt. The London-based NGO denied the allegations. (Reporting by Aaron Ross; Editing by Edward McAllister and Raissa Kasolowsky) KINSHASA (Reuters) - Congolese authorities have refused to renew the visa of a prominent American human rights activist, the government said on Tuesday, a decision that follows expulsions of other foreign researchers in a tense election year. Government spokesman Lambert Mende did not say why the visa of Ida Sawyer, U.S.-based Human Rights Watch's senior researcher in Democratic Republic of Congo, was not renewed or when she would need to leave the country. Sawyer, who has worked for Human Rights Watch in Congo since 2008, has been among the most vocal critics of what the United Nations and rights groups say is a growing crackdown on dissent before elections scheduled for November. In a statement, Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth called the move "a brazen attempt to muzzle reporting on the government's brutal repression of those supporting presidential term limits". The constitution requires that President Joseph Kabila, in power since 2001, step down after the polls, but opponents accuse him of delaying the vote to hold onto power. The government says that enrolling new voters will take more than a year. Dozens of people were killed in anti-government protests in January 2015 over a proposed revision to the country's electoral code that could have delayed the election by years. Sawyer criticised security forces at the time of using "unlawful and excessive force". In January this year, she called for targeted sanctions against officials responsible for violence against civilians. The government denies using excessive force against protesters or targeting its political opponents. The U.S. government imposed sanctions on the capital Kinshasa's police chief in June for what it described as the violent suppression of opposition to Kabila's government. The Congolese government in April expelled Jason Stearns, the American director of New York University's Congo Research Group, shortly after he published a report linking soldiers to massacres of civilians. Two Global Witness activists investigating logging practices were also forced to leave last month, accused of inciting a local community to revolt. The London-based NGO denied the allegations. (Reporting by Aaron Ross; Editing by Edward McAllister and Raissa Kasolowsky) KINSHASA (Reuters) - Congolese authorities have refused to renew the visa of a prominent American human rights activist, the government said on Tuesday, a decision that follows expulsions of other foreign researchers in a tense election year. Government spokesman Lambert Mende did not say why the visa of Ida Sawyer, U.S.-based Human Rights Watch's senior researcher in Democratic Republic of Congo, was not renewed or when she would need to leave the country. Sawyer declined to comment on Tuesday. Sawyer, who has worked for Human Rights Watch in Congo since 2008, has been among the most vocal critics of what the United Nations and rights groups say is a growing crackdown on dissent before elections scheduled for November. Term limits require that President Joseph Kabila, in power since 2001, step down after the polls, but opponents accuse him of delaying the vote to hold onto power. The government says that enrolling new voters will take more than a year. Dozens of people were killed in anti-government protests in January 2015 over a proposed revision to the country's electoral code that could have delayed the election by years. Sawyer criticised security forces at the time of using "unlawful and excessive force". In January this year, she called for targeted sanctions against officials responsible for violence against civilians. The government denies using excessive force against protesters or targeting its political opponents. The U.S. government imposed sanctions on the capital Kinshasa's police chief in June for what it described as the violent suppression of opposition to Kabila's government. The Congolese government in April expelled Jason Stearns, the American director of New York University's Congo Research Group, shortly after he published a report linking soldiers to massacres of civilians. Two Global Witness activists investigating logging practices were also forced to leave last month, accused of inciting a local community to revolt. The London-based NGO denied the allegations. (Reporting by Aaron Ross; Editing by Edward McAllister and Gareth Jones) Constitution Daily Supreme Court correspondent Lyle Denniston explains why a little-used section of the Voting Rights Act may not have much, if any, impact on federal voter identification lawsuits. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 The Voting Rights Act of 1965 THE STATEMENT AT ISSUE: We decline to impose any of the discretionary additional relief available under Section 3 of the Voting Rights Act, including imposing poll observers during elections and subjecting North Carolina to ongoing pre-clearance requirements.Such remedies [are] rarely used and are not necessary here in light of our injunction. Excerpt from a decision July 29 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, striking down a North Carolina law requiring a photo ID to be able to vote, along with other restrictions on access to voting. The court ruled that the state legislature had passed those limitations with the specific intent of discriminating against black voters. The decision came in the case of North Carolina Conference of NAACP v. McCrory. State officials have said they plan to take the case to the Supreme Court soon. WE CHECKED THE CONSTITUTION, AND For the past three years, federal government officials and civil rights advocacy groups have been trying to find ways to enforce constitutional rights guaranteed to minority voters under the 1965 Voting Rights Act, in the wake of a Supreme Court decision that all but nullified one major part of that law. But the strongest claim they have tried to put forth as a substitute does not seem to be working, even though they have won a series of rulings in recent weeks in favor of minority voters rights. First, some background The 1965 Voting Rights Act has always been considered the strongest law Congress ever passed to try to end racial discrimination in voting. After decades in which federal officials always seemed to be one or more steps behind some state legislatures as they put up one barrier after another to minority voting, Congress decided that a more sweeping remedy was necessary. Story continues For those states that had a lengthy history of racial bias in voting, Congress required them to get official clearance in Washington, D.C. either from the Justice Department or from a special federal court before they could put into effect any new law or rule that changed any aspect of voting, from registration to actual voting to ballot-counting. This was widely considered to be a heavy blow to the states control over their own voting laws, and the states put under that legal supervision protested vigorously, but the law had the real-world effect that Congress intended: law after law restricting minority rights was denied advance approval in Washington so-called pre-clearance. That was included in the 1965 law as Section 5, with the states that would have to live under this regime selected by a formula spelled out in the Acts Section 4. Three years ago, in the case of Shelby County v. Holder, the Supreme Court struck down the Section 4 formula, finding it to be seriously out of date; many of the problems of voting rights discrimination had been corrected, the ruling said. With the end of Section 4 came the practical effect that Section 5 pre-clearance was no longer enforceable against states if they passed or moved to implement new limitations on voting rights. It did not take long for some of those states to act in response to the Shelby County decision. In Texas, for example, within hours after that decision came down, state officials declared that they would start enforcing a photo ID requirement for voting despite challenges that it was racially biased. In North Carolina, members of the state legislature moved even more boldly. They quickly ordered a study of the kinds of voting methods or practices that were used most often by minority voters, and then drafted new legislation to curb those that had been identified that way. One was a new and more-strict photo ID law. Others limited early voting and easy registration. Sponsors of those measures said they were doing so to protect the integrity of voting; some said the bills were not based on race, but on ways to aid Republican candidates who seldom could draw minority votes. Even though the Supreme Court had put Section 5 pre-clearance beyond reach, as a practical enforcement measure, the Shelby County ruling had left in place two other parts of the 1965 law. One of those was Section 2. But that had never been as successful as Section 5; it required opponents of new voting limitations to sue, one case at a time and basically meant that the challenges could come only after such laws had gone into effect. The opponents had to have proof that the laws, in operation, did restrict minority voters rights. Previously, civil rights groups had used Section 2 less often, because of the success they had under Section 5. Also left intact by the Shelby County decision was another little-used provision: Under Section 3, if a court ruled that a voting rights measure that limited minority rights were actually passed with the specific aim of the legislature to restrict voting based on race discrimination, the state or local government involved could be put under a new pre-clearance regime, just like the one that existed in Section 5. (Another still-intact part of Section 3 allowed for appointment of poll-watchers to make sure that minority voters actually were allowed to vote; it is far less onerous for states than pre-clearance.) The Obama administration and civil rights groups began pressing for Section 3 remedies as they went ahead with new cases, following the Shelby County decision. The Texas photo ID law has recently been barred from enforcement by a federal appeals court, but the potential remedy of pre-clearance under Section 3 remains uncertain in that case until after another round of proceedings in a federal trial court in Corpus Christi. The North Carolina law, including its photo ID requirement, was struck down and barred from enforcement late last month by a different federal appeals court. Challengers had specifically asked, among the available remedies, for a new pre-clearance requirement for North Carolina election laws. With the appeals courts finding of intentional race discrimination, based in part upon the state lawmakers efforts to single out voting methods used mainly by blacks and restrict only those, a Section 3 remedy was a realistic possibility for North Carolina. The plea failed, in a few brief passages in the appeals court 83-page ruling. Since it had barred enforcement of the restrictions, that would be enough, it concluded. It cited only one precedent: a decision by a federal trial judge in Arkansas concluding that Section 3 had been rarely used. That precedent came in 1994 when Section 5 and pre-clearance was still the main event in voting rights disputes. For the time being, then, it is at least fair speculation that Section 3 if it ever had a potentially major role to play may turn out not to have much, if any, impact. Legendary journalist Lyle Denniston is Constitution Dailys Supreme Court correspondent. Denniston has written for us as a contributor since June 2011. Denniston has covered the Supreme Court since 1958. His work also appears on lyldenlawnews.com. Recent Stories on Constitution Daily Where does the government immigration case stand now? The legacy of Watergate: Five ways life changed after the scandal Heres your chance to Ask Jeff, live on Facebook By Dan Whitcomb LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A wildfire burning out of control in mountains and foothills east of Los Angeles mushroomed more than 50 percent overnight, forcing authorities to order three school districts to cancel classes due to heavy smoke and dangerous conditions. More than 900 firefighters were battling the so-called Pilot Fire, which has charred some 7,500 acres of bone-dry tinder and brush in the San Bernardino Mountains since it broke out around noon on Sunday. "We feel it is in the best interest of safety that we keep our students and staff at home," the Silver Valley Unified School District, which oversees nine schools in Mojave Desert, said in a statement on its website. Also closing campuses on Tuesday were the Apple Valley and Hesperia school districts in those high desert communities some 90 miles east of Los Angeles. More than 5,000 homes were under evacuation orders from the Pilot Fire, a highway and several roads were closed and smoke advisories were issued for the Mojave Desert area, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire). No homes had been destroyed but Cal Fire said the blaze was only 6 percent contained as of Tuesday morning. Some 400 miles to the north, the famed Highway 1 along the California coast was reopened to residents, one day after authorities were forced to close it in both directions due to the threat from the Soberanes Fire. That blaze, which erupted on July 22, has already blackened 67,000 acres in the Big Sur area, destroying 57 homes and 11 outbuildings. A bulldozer operator died on July 26 when his tractor rolled over as he helped property owners battle the flames, the sixth wildfire fatality in California this year. Authorities have traced origins of the blaze to an illegal campfire left unattended in a state park about a mile from Highway 1. No arrests have been made so far. As of Monday, more than 4,800 firefighters battling the flames had cut containment lines around 50 percent of its perimeter. Firefighters are making gradual progress against the blaze as wildfire season in the western United States reaches its traditional peak, intensified by prolonged drought and extreme summer heat across California. The conflagration is one of 35 major wildfires that have charred half a million acres in 12 states, mostly in the West, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho. (Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by David Gregorio) Coravin, the maker of the wine-opening system that allows users to pour a glass of wine without popping the cork, has launched a new, more affordable model aimed specifically at millennials. Like the original system, the Coravin Model One allows wine drinkers to pour a single glass without committing to drinking the whole bottle. But instead of pricier chrome, gold and silver finishes, the Model One is made with more inexpensive materials to keep prices low for their target demographic: millennials. Designed to be user-friendly, the Model One is meant to appeal to both new and experienced wine lovers, reads a press release for the launch. Citing statistics from the Wine Market Council released in 2015, Coravin is hoping to make loyal users out of a growing base of wine drinkers: The survey shows that millennial wine drinkers are beginning to outpace baby boomers (36 versus 34 percent) in the US. Here's how it works: first, a thin hollow needle pierces the cork to extract the wine. Then the bottle is pressurized with argon, pushing the wine through the needle so that it flows into the glass. Once the needle is removed, the cork is said to naturally reseal itself. The system also promises to prevent oxidation -- enemy No. 1 for wine. The Coravin is one of many wine gadgets for oenophile techno-geeks. The Sonic Decanter created a buzz when it launched in 2014, for claiming to age cheap, young wine in as little as 20 minutes using the power of ultrasonic energy. Likewise, France's 10-Vins was named the best start-up at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this year for their D-Vine machine, described as a Nespresso machine for wine. Like the single-serve coffee machines, the device opens, aerates and cools wine from single-serve flasks, eliminating the need to open a full bottle. And the Kuvee is billed as the world's first smart bottle, promising to keep wines fresh for up to a month through a patented valve system that prevents oxygen from reaching the wine. The Coravin Model One retails for $200 USD, versus $300 for the original model. grinder sparks With more than 85% of the S&P 500 companies having reported quarterly results in the last few weeks, weve put the bulk of June quarter earnings season behind us. While somewhat better than expectations from just a few weeks ago, en masse the S&P 500 group of companies have delivered their sixth consecutive quarter of falling earnings. If we look at how companies are managing their earnings, they continue to focus on the cost side of the equation, which has meant under-spending on property, plant and equipment as well as research and development efforts. They're instead spending on both share repurchase programs and dividend increases. This is not all that shocking given that more often than not, a companys management team is compensated by hitting certain financial performance goals that are laid out in their proxy statements. Shrinking the outstanding share count drives better earnings per share optics, while boosting dividends helps return cash to shareholders as well as insiders that own company shares. For example, Microsofts most recent proxy filing for 2015 referenced total shareholder return, cash returned to shareholders and annual revenue as compensation performance metrics. Other companies utilize earnings per share growth, return on invested capital, operating income growth and other metrics. FILE PHOTO -- A Microsoft logo is seen a day after Microsoft Corp's $26.2 billion purchase of LinkedIn Corp, in Los Angeles, California, U.S. June 14, 2016. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo Research firm TrimTabs estimates US companies spent $725 billion on share repurchases during 2015, second only to the $810 billion spent in 2007. According to Dow Theory Forecasts, buyback activity among the S&P 500 group of companies has increased for three consecutive years and if the current pace is continued, buybacks in 2016 could break the prior record of $589.1 billion in 2007. Even if a new record isn't established this year, it's still four strong years of buyback activity that has shrunk share counts and propped up bottom line comparisons while sacrificing longer-term business investment. Story continues By comparison, data from Credit Suisse Group shows that combined capital expenditures and R&D spending at more than 1,800 US firms was just 7.4% of sales, well below the peak spending level at 9.3% in 1991. Lest one think this is a US phenomenon, Credit Suisse found that combined capex and R&D spending for 815 Eurozone companies was 7.0% in 2015, down from 11.9% at its peak in 2000. What this tells us is companies are being managed for the short-term, not the long-term or even the medium term. What this means is that over time companies will develop strategic gaps and technology holes that will need to be filled lest they cede their competitive position and management falters on its financial targets. Internal efforts would need to be ratcheted up significantly in order to catch up on lost ground, but a more likely scenario is for companies to flex their balance sheets and stock prices to acquire small and mid-cap companies or private ones to shore up their competitive position or extend their global foot print. If they dont, there is a high probability they will hit what we refer to as the thematic wall that will challenge their business much the way a person out of work for several years lacks the required skill set to get back into the job game. Yep, much like workers, companies will need to re-tool themselves to remain competitive. Yoghurt produced by French Dairy Group Danone is displayed on a shelf in a supermarket in Lanton, Southwestern France, in this August 30, 2013 file photo. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau/Files Consider Apple, which spent $38.3 billion on share buybacks and forked out almost $12 billion in dividend to shareholders for the twelve months ended March 2016. Thats $50 billion compared to the $9.2 billion spent on R&D over the same period. With companies ranging from Amazon to Alphabet and Facebook investing in machine learning and artificial intelligence, Apple opened up its vast piggy bank to buy Turi for a purchase price of around $200 million. Outside of technology, Danone acquired WhiteWave Foods to jumpstart what we call its Food with Integrity business and Microsoft snapped up LinkedIn to bolster its enterprise-facing offerings at a time when consumers have been shunning software for apps. Just this morning, recruitment center focused Randstand Holding announced its intent to acquire online recruiting website company Monster Worldwide, which should help move Randstand more into the digital age. For the twelve months ended June 2016, the number of M&A transactions dipped 3% to 12,818, but let's remember that 2015 was a record year for such transactions. Given the tone of the global economy, as well as the pending fallout from the Brexit vote, the M&A slowdown in June and July was not surprising. This lull is likely to last for only so long as companies continue to underinvest in their businesses and management teams eventually need to focus on revenue and profit growth. Unless you are an activist investor, complete with board level access, investing in companies for their takeout potential isn't for the faint of heart. Even when companies put themselves in play, it doesn't always pan out and as InterDigital found out several years ago, buyers don't always value a company the same as its management team, board of directors and investment bankers. whitewave One alternative is to invest in best of breed companies that are capitalizing on a pronounced shift in consumer preferences, like WhiteWave, an evolving technology landscape, like ARM Holdings, or demographic pain points that will impact a companys existing business or create new opportunities. By examining the intersection of evolving economic, demographic, psychographic and technology landscapes, investors can identify these demonstrative thematic tailwinds that companies must respond to through either internal efforts or acquiring external ones. The upside potential with this strategy is an acquisition offer for the company. The downside is an investment in a company whose business is benefitting from drivers that should yield revenue growth and margin expansion, culminating in faster-than- average earnings per share growth. That isn't such a bad choice of scenarios considering the latter has historically been the formula for valuation multiple expansion and higher stock prices. Chris Versace is the chief investment officer of Tematica Research. NOW WATCH: EX-UNDERCOVER DEA AGENT: What I did when drug dealers asked me to try the product More From Business Insider A 1968 Camaro stolen Friday in Lincoln was involved in a fatal wreck in Minnesota Tuesday morning, according to Lancaster County Sheriff Terry Wagner. Records from the Minnesota Highway Patrol say the single-vehicle wreck happened about 5:15 a.m. on Highway 109 when it left the road, hit a driveway and rolled several times. Tanner Goodrich, 26, was killed. Wagner said Goodrich had lived in Lincoln, but according to his sex offender registration, had moved to Mankato, Minnesota, in 2012. Investigators are still working with the Faribault County Sheriff's Office in Minnesota to determine if Goodrich was the one who stole the car, and if so, if he did it alone. The car was taken Friday night by someone who broke into a storage building at Restore a Muscle Car at 11850 N. 56th St., Wagner said. There's no escaping it: The roadsides are already clogged with yard signs, urging the public to vote for senators, state representatives, judges, sheriffs, city council and a slew of other offices. And, oh, yes, there's another important election coming up this year. If you enjoy politics, you may be feeling the urge to roll up your shirt sleeves, embrace democracy and volunteer for a campaign. It's an admirable pursuit, but like anything that takes time, there are some expenses that may come with that commitment, especially if you get overeager and don't think things through first. [See: 11 Expenses Destroying Your Budget.] The more you volunteer, the more money you will spend. Think of politics as a hobby. If you dabble, your costs will be negligible (think: gas money to drive to your candidate's headquarters). But if your house serves as a meeting point for a bunch of volunteers, so they can stuff envelopes and make signs, you might spend money on snacks or a cleaning service, to spruce up the place before your fellow volunteers arrive. Or if you're going door to door to drum up the votes, you might easily talk yourself into buying a new outfit, to look more presentable. [See: 10 Money-Saving Websites to Check Before Shopping.] But then you have people who are on a whole different political plane, where they're literally getting on planes and traveling to conventions, like Lorna Johnson, a serial entrepreneur who has actively volunteered in politics since Barack Obama's 2008 campaign for president. Now, she volunteers extensively for Hillary Clinton, to the point of even doing radio and TV interviews. She also attended the recent Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. "That's hotel accommodations, food, airfare. It can be very costly," says Johnson, who makes it clear that the financial costs come with the territory and don't bother her. Those costs also don't concern Michael Abramson, an Atlanta-based attorney who has his own law firm. He has been volunteering since George W. Bush's first presidential campaign, when he was stuffing envelopes. In 2012, he volunteered for Mitt Romney, making phone calls. Two years later, he volunteered on the 2014 campaign for Sen. David Perdue, of Georgia. And now he is volunteering for Donald Trump's campaign and volunteers for a separate organization called the National Diversity Coalition for Trump. For the latter group, Abramson has spent a decent amount of money -- for instance, on travel costs that took him to Trump Tower in New York City. Story continues But for the most part, Abramson says it's easy for political campaign volunteers to get away with spending next to nothing. "The main cost is the opportunity cost. You could be doing something else with your time," Abramson says. Your car may get a workout. Joshua Battin, an associate professor and department chair of criminal justice at Mansfield University in Mansfield, Pennsylvania, spends a lot of time volunteering on political campaigns. Several years ago, he was a campaign manager for a Pennsylvania state senator, and over the years, he has worked on numerous campaigns at the local, state and federal level. He says that if you're going to several neighborhoods to drum up the vote, expect to shell out plenty of money for gas -- and incur wear and tear on your vehicle. "I once went in my car, driving around Philadelphia, for a whole day, stopping every two or three houses. It felt like I wasn't driving a car but a mail truck," he says. Be careful about spending money you can't afford to lose. You're in the thick of things. A candidate needs something, and it costs money. You decide to help out, provided you can be paid back. That's fine -- assuming you can afford to lose the money. [See: 12 Ways to Ensure You Don't Run Out of Money in Retirement.] That scenario happened to Dana Todd, a marketing professional who works in Schaumburg, Illinois. Last year, she volunteered to help a politician run against a mayor seeking reelection in a suburb of Chicago. Most of her time was spent walking the streets in cold weather, meeting voters and making a pitch for her candidate. At some point, however, she agreed to set up and run some Facebook ads. It would cost $300, and Todd made it known that she wanted to be paid back and was told that wouldn't be a problem. "I sent an invoice for repayment of the media costs, but the candidate has been unable to pay me back," Todd says. "I know I'll never see it again, but it was great experience for me, and I really believed in our mission. Definitely not bitter, but for sure wiser." It's also easy to imagine an overexcited volunteer donating money better reserved for, say, the rent, because he feels the campaign needs it more. Abramson cautions against that. "You don't want to be so emotionally involved that you make an emotional decision rather than a financial one," he says. Don't give more time than you have, either. It's easy to overcommit to time you don't want to give away, Battin says. "Once you volunteer, you're going to keep getting these calls, asking you to volunteer more. You don't want to be in a position where you're not willing to do these things, but you're too nice to say no," Battin says. He urges people, if you have two hours to give a week, and that's it, be clear about that up front -- and stick to it. Battin also says to naturally expect the requests for your time to increase exponentially throughout October and into early November, all the way up to Election Day. But, hey, the rest of November and December will be quiet, and while you're giving a lot of yourself to a campaign, you'll get back a lot, too. "You're doing something that has a real-world impact, or it could have, and that's a pretty neat thing," Abramson says. Johnson may be on the other side of the political spectrum, but she has a similar sentiment. "It's all about making a difference," she says. Not that volunteering is always rewarding. "Sometimes you're going to get the door slammed in your face, and some people will hang up on you when you do your phone calls," Johnson says. Still, Johnson notes, "You meet so many awesome people. ... I'm trying to get my family more involved in volunteering because this is an experience you cannot buy." Salvador Perez didnt really believe he would make his career in costume design. I always thought this was temporary until I did a fashion line, he admits. And, of course, Im the president of the Costume Designers Guild; Im probably one of the few Latino labor-union leaders in the industry. I have been very successful at something I didnt set out to do. Perez, who grew up near Fresno, Calif., credits much of his success to the work ethic he learned from his father, an auto mechanic. Entering high school, he found a supportive counselor who encouraged him to take sewing classes. He continued on to the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in L.A. and broke into the business as a stitcher. He was running the sewing workroom for Titanic, and had been creating custom clothing for years, when he landed his first film design job, on Soul Food mostly on the strength of having designed all the clothing for the wedding of the films producer, Tracey Edmonds (including two gowns for the bride, bridesmaids dresses, and the grooms tuxedo). Director George Tillman Jr. was flabbergasted by Edmonds choice of an inexperienced costume designer for the film, but Perez won him over. We laugh about it now, says Perez, because weve been friends for over 20 years. Other titles followed, including Light It Up, Drumline, and Mr. 3000. He quickly diversified. I was the urban designer for the longest time, and then, after Veronica Mars, I was a teenage designer. And now between the Pitch Perfect movies and The Mindy Project, I am the cute-girl designer. He even designs red-carpet fashion for Mindy Kaling. But Perez isnt satisfied in this niche. He met last year with an action-film director, who wondered if he wanted to dress men. And Im like, Yes, says Perez. I want to dress guys in a big blow-up movie. Im a costume designer. Were gypsies. We want to do it all. Meet the President Perez heads the Costume Designers Guild. The Mindy-Project 2012-2016 Perez earned an Emmy nom for the platform- hopping comedy Pitch Perfect (2012) He designed duds for this comedy and its sequel Veronica Mars (2004-2007) He worked on 58 episodes of the CW/UPN drama Related stories Story continues Cate Blanchett to Be Honored by Costume Designers Guild Quentin Tarantino and Ellen Mirojnick To Be Honored at Costume Designers Guild Awards Mindy Kaling and Costume Designer Salvador Perez Dish on 'Mindy Project' Clothes, Baby and Season 4 Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton may have to share the presidential debate stage. Venues hosting the upcoming debates have been instructed to make plans for a potential third podium, as Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson inches closer to qualifying for a spot on the stage, Politico reports. Producers working for the Commission on Presidential Debates issued the directive to the venues to make sure they're prepared for the possibility of a third-party candidate like Johnson or Green Party nominee Jill Stein being invited to participate in the debates. "With Gary Johnson polling in some places more than double digits, they might have, some of our production people may have said, 'Just in case, you need to plan out what that might look like,' " Mike McCurry, co-chair of the Commission on Presidential Debates told Politico. "We won't know the number of invitations we extend until mid-September." In order to participate in any of the three upcoming presidential debates, Johnson would have to secure 15 percent in polls. He currently stands at around 8 percent, The New York Times reports. Green Party candidate Stein is polling at 4 percent, according to an NBC News/Survey Monkey poll. For his part, Johnson remains optimistic that he will win the opportunity to take on Trump, 70, and Clinton, 68. "There SHOULD be a 3rd podium on the stage," the former New Mexico governor tweeted on Tuesday, including a link to Politico's report. Could Donald Trump Drop Out? GOP Officials 'Actively Exploring' How to Replace Nominee If He Resigns In an effort to reach the 15-percent mark, Johnson has launched the "#15for15" campaign urging supporters to donate $15 to "get Gary Johnson in the debates," according to his website. The presidential debates will take place on Sept. 26 at Hofstra University in New York; Oct. 9 at Washington University in Missouri and Oct. 19 at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas in Nevada. The vice presidential debate will take place on Oct. 4 at Longwood University in Virginia. Berlin (AFP) - An attempt by Berlin to clamp down on properties being rented out as holiday homes on internet platforms like Airbnb suffered a setback on Tuesday as a court ruled in landlords' favour. The administrative court backed the claims of three homeowners, who had sued for the right to rent out their second homes in the German capital to tourists when they weren't themselves staying there. The same court had in June quashed a legal challenge to the law, which outlaws property owners and tenants from renting out whole apartments or houses for short-term holiday lets. The ban still effectively prohibits primary residences from being advertised on Airbnb. Tuesday's decision had been keenly awaited as a further indication of how judges would view the new regulation. Some landlords even received letters, seen by AFP, indicating that the city was waiting for a legal steer before proceeding against them. In the case of the three landlords -- who live in Rostock in northern Germany, Denmark, and Italy when not in Berlin -- "private interest outweighs the public interest" in keeping the properties vacant, the judges said. Berlin's "wrongful use law", in force since May 1, provides for fines of up to 100,000 euros ($111,000) for people advertising their homes for Airbnb-style rentals without official authorisation. Supporters of the law say increasing use of online rental platforms in Berlin -- a tourism and party hotspot that draws visitors from all over Europe and beyond -- is driving up property prices by taking large numbers of homes off the residential market. Citizens can even report those they suspect of using an apartment for holiday rentals anonymously via the city government website. In June 2015, the city also introduced a cap on rent price hikes in a bid to keep residential apartments affordable. (Reuters) - Swiss bank Credit Suisse AG does not need to raise capital "in most foreseeable scenarios", Chief Executive Tidjane Thiam said in an interview with Bloomberg. Thiam said there was no need for consolidation with other European banks as it would be difficult in "this new environment". http://bloom.bg/2b2IYyG Citing strong organic growth, Thiam said Credit Suisse would not need to buy another bank. Credit Suisse posted an unexpected second-quarter net profit on July 28, boosting Thiam's efforts to restructure Switzerland's second-biggest bank. The bank's shares were down 48.8 percent this year up to Monday's close. (Reporting by Shalini Nagarajan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair) Tidjane Thiam Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam was candid during an interview with Bloomberg Markets' Francine Lacqua published Tuesday, but he was less transparent on one important point. When asked about his relationship with his investment bankers, Thiam dodged the question. He talked instead about the markets, or trading, division of the firm and then moved on to discuss the UK's vote to leave the European Union. Here's how it went: FL: "Do you have the support of your investment bankers?" TT: "The proof of the pudding is in the eating. I wrote a memo to congratulate everyone for Brexit, because it took a lot of coordination to manage that well. We had worked for weeks. Two weeks before, I got uncomfortable. I could see the bookies were saying there was a 22 percent chance of Brexit, which was too high. It was a bit like a Russian roulette probability. We had to set a maximum loss, and then we took that number down. We went into the referendum in a safe place, and our execution was excellent because it was across units, across markets, across divisions. It was a robust, real-life stress test, and I'm thrilled how well the organization performed. Everybody pulled together." Now, this was not a trivial question. Whether Thiam feels he has the support of his investment bankers is hugely important to the firm namely because they have been leaving in droves recently. Credit Suisse lost at least six managing directors in the first five months of the year, including five key tech bankers who went to Jefferies. Four people familiar with the matter told Business Insider the departures were related to overall sentiment within the investment bank and a sense of being undervalued by Thiam. Since taking charge in June 2015, Thiam has pivoted the focus of the firm toward the wealth-management division and away from the investment bank. In January he said the pay model for investment bankers was broken and their compensation should not always remain stable or increase but rather should fluctuate with the market. Story continues Those moves have rubbed bankers the wrong way, the people said. All the more significant, then, that Thiam was not equipped with a ready response when asked about his relationship with that critical part of the firm. Read the full Q&A over at Bloomberg NOW WATCH: Richard Branson: Entrepreneurs need to fill the gap where government is lacking More From Business Insider Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fstory%2fthumbnail%2f17051%2fscreen_shot_2016-08-09_at_4.15.46_pm You'd think entering a place full of animals would be a good reminder to not litter and be a terrible person. Yet somehow The Colonel, a large saltwater crocodile who lives at Rockhampton Zoo, coughed up two plastic drink bottles after spending quite some time in distress, according to a Facebook post on the zoo's page last Friday. It may be the result of visitors throwing objects into the enclosure. "It was distressing to see the Colonel going through this as a result of a small minority who dont do the right thing. These plastic bottles have the potential to kill a croc as they can cause internal lacerations, ulcers, infection or impaction," according to the zoo's post. James, a zoo keeper, was fortunately on hand to help the croc move in a way to help it cough up a bottle. Netflix's rendition of Singapore's National Day song 'Home' is pure guilty pleasure 'League of Legends' meets Pokemon with amazing custom skins Know someone wearing an old festival wristband? Tell them to take it off right now, because bacteria Kids gloriously recreate infamous 'Real Housewives' friendship contract scene The rules have only been in place for a matter of months, but already Congress is moving to fine-tune the regulatory framework around the emerging field of equity crowdfunding that unaccredited investors are jumping into at a rapid pace. Related: Which Entrepreneurs Will Benefit Most From the New Era of Crowdfunding? In recent weeks, the House Financial Services Committee passed a pair of bills that will make it easier for companies to raise money via crowdfunding campaigns. One will remove some of the more onerous public reporting requirements for startups; the other will allow unaccredited investors to pool their investments in what are called Special Purposes Vehicles, creating de facto crowdfunding funds. Both bills enjoy wide bipartisan support and are expected to pass the full House by the end of the year. But, what else is coming? Will the rules around equity crowdfunding change more in the next few months or years? At this point, with comment still to come from various regulators, no one can say for certain. The real question, then, for entrepreneurs isnt if changes are coming, but whether or not they should be waiting for them to become law before launching their own crowdfunding campaigns. In response to the changes currently working through Congress, the general feeling is that this sector is still very new and somewhat unsure. Should entrepreneurs hold off until this is all sorted out? Yes, and no. A limited market The truth is that, as the regulations stand today, it is very simple to decide whether or not to launch an equity crowdfunding campaign: Companies that want to raise $1 million or more should hold off, while those that need less than that amount might as well go ahead. The Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) and the existing regulatory structure have taken a go slow approach, and have effectively put a cap on the marketplace for crowdfunding investments in the United States. Today, an individual can invest no more than $2,000 per year in crowdfunded equity investments. Thats a per-person total, across however many companies that investor would like to fund. Story continues Related: How State and Federal Crowdfunding Regulations Differ So, if an investor wants to crowdfund two different companies, he or she could commit just $1,000 per year to each. A diversified portfolio of 40 different crowdfunded investments would then mean earmarking just $50 per company. And that simply isnt realistic. Whats more, each company that raises funds under the existing rules may accept investments from no more than 500 investors in total. When you do the math, its clear that in order to raise $1 million under the existing framework, each of those 500 investors would need to commit his or her personal maximum of $2,000 to the company. Tall order Thats a tall order for any entrepreneur and it doesnt make sense for individual investors, either. Startups should not be a large allocation for most individuals. Investments in crowdfunded startups -- pre-IPO shares in a company developing the next killer iPhone app, or in a disruptive tech firm seeking $250,000 or perhaps $500,000 to get its idea off the ground -- should compose only a small portion of anyone's portfolio. However, everything could soon get easier for entrepreneurs looking to tap crowdfunding and for individuals hoping to snag the next WhatsApp. The Special Purpose Vehicles (SPV) concept currently being considered in Congress will effectively remove the 500-investor cap on equity crowdfunding campaigns, allowing more unaccredited investors to participate up to and beyond the current limit, by effectively counting each SPV pool as "one" investor. This could open up new opportunities for investors by allowing them to more effectively diversify their investments, while also making the fund-raising process simpler for founders. Investing in an SPV instead of directly in a startup is a great idea for individual investors because about three-quarters of venture-capital backed firms in the United States never return investors' capital, according to a study by Shikhar Ghosh of Harvard Business School. Among 30 percent to 40 percent of U.S. start-ups, the study said, investors lose all their money; and 95 percent of startups fail to hit their projected rate of return. Thats why big-venture capital firms spread their money around and why individual investors should, too. For any individual entrepreneur, having an SPV as a buffer between your company and all those individual investors makes sense, too. The power of one Whats more, such pools would make it easier to raise those larger rounds, as the entrepreneur would only have to convince one deal committee or SPV board to invest in his or her company. Thats a lot less of a lift than would be required to convince 500 or 1,000 more individuals to invest, provided the business idea were compelling enough. It is always easier to get money from one source than from many different ones. Still, the sweet spot for equity crowdfunding campaigns is in the under-$1 million range and will likely remain there for some time to come. Even under the proposed changes that we know are coming, non-accredited investor participation doesnt always fit with the needs of all companies, and that isnt changing. We knew equity crowdfunding would be slow taking off. Thats because the initial red tape put into place by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) meant that for the next couple of years, crowdfunding would effectively be in a trial phase, as regulators seek to limit the risk to individual investors. Some experts complained that not allowing SPVs to facilitate deals made equity crowdfunding riskier than it ought to be. So, the good news is that allowing SPVs to invest could yet make this form of financing an important capital-raising mechanism. Related: What Entrepreneurs Need to Know About Crowd Finance Meanwhile, what entrepreneurs need to keep in mind right now is that, as with anything, there isnt any perfect solution for everyone. There are other options available for raising larger amounts of funds, and crowdfunding isnt always the best or most direct path for every startup. As a Nebraska historian, Jim Potter had a penchant for the weird, for the unglamorous, the unseen. As a senior researcher for the Nebraska State Historical Society, he often wrote articles on things like firearms accidents in the frontier army, or lynchings in Nebraska. Potter, 70, died Saturday. He'd been with the Historical Society for nearly 50 years. His fondness for the strange was evident when he talked cooking, said his longtime colleague Lynne Ireland. Having a conversation with him was oftentimes a journey," she said. "You would start off on one subject and discover five other things you couldnt have imagined. And the dry sense of humor he had was just a great addition. Even more notable than his love for the strange was his seemingly absorbent brain, said Ireland, deputy director of the Historical Society. He was sort of Encyclopedia Brown, she said. You could pose a question and it was always stunning how wide-ranging his knowledge was, and the conversation almost always took you places you didn't expect to go. And on the rare occasion that he didnt know the answer to a question, Ireland said, he knew exactly where to find it. He really relished the chase, she said. Trying to track information down and solve mysteries about where the information might be, it was a great joy to him. Ireland said Potter's contributions to serious historical scholarship were great. He spent hours in the archives researching and enjoyed every minute of it. A subject he particularly loved was Nebraskas role in the Civil War. He was interested in the whole story," Ireland said. "Not just the nice parts, not just the glorious parts, but the difficult history, the unsavory stories. And what he learned, he shared. Ireland said one of his chief goals was to make history accessible to other people to use not only in their own lives, but when making big decisions, to prevent repeating history. Whether you had a Ph.D. or were a fourth-grade kid, he thought anybody who was a fellow traveler and was interested in looking at past was welcome, Ireland said. While history was arguably his greatest love, Potter had many other hobbies. Three times he circumnavigated Nebraska on his Honda motorcycle. He loved to cook, and once made an entire meal over a campfire, including a fruit cobbler. And, he had a passion for guns and explosions -- to the point that he asked that his ashes be fired off in a cannon. He loved history, he loved muzzle-loading shooting, he loved motorcycles and he loved me, said Potters wife, Gail Potter. And I think it was in that order. He also edited many articles and books for the Historical Society. He leaves a huge hole, said Ireland. While well miss the fact that we dont have him here as the ready, quick resource, it gives us the message that history gets made every day and there is more to learn about history every day and it doesnt belong to one person. It belongs to everybody who has an interest. According to his obituary, Potter's dream was to have his retirement party and funeral on the same day. A celebration of his life is planned for 5-6:30 p.m. Friday at Windsor Stables, 1024 L St. in Lincoln. DailyFX.com - Bias: Bullish DAX (CFD: GER30) 2016 Highs Set To Continue on Bear-Flag Breakout? Point to Establish Long Exposure: Pull-Back To Prior Resistance/ New Support At 10,450 Spot: 10,693 Target 1: 10,973 61.8% Fibonacci Retracement of 2015-2016 Range Target 2: Hold For Break of 12,383 April 2015 Highs Invalidation Level: Close below 10,102 (Aug 3 Corrective Low / 38.2% Retracement of 2015/6 Range) Trade Setup: The German DAX broke into 2016 highs on Tuesday morning. The additional significance is that the price of the index has broken above a key corrective channel that began in mid-2015. Chart: DAX 2016 Highs Set To Continue on Bear-Flag Breakout? Buying at new highs can be uncomfortable given the unfavorable risk: reward ratio that we found to be so important when we analyzed how our most successful clients traded. Therefore, a pull-back to the bear-flag channel prior resistance could provide an excellent level to enter in the direction of the 2016 trend with a relatively tight stop below ~10,100, which is right below the opening range low of August. One additional note that builds upon the trade idea is that were seeing low-volatility around the globe and money moving into emerging markets. While there are always reasons to be cautious, the improvement in Chinas economic data and the price chart breakout could precede a strong move higher in the GE30. Trader Sentiment: According to our Sentiment Index, The ratio of long to short positions in the GER30 stands at -3.40 as 23% of traders are long. Long positions are 21.1% lower than yesterday and 48.3% below levels seen last week. Short positions are 15.1% higher than yesterday and 47.0% above levels seen last week. We use our SSI as a contrarian indicator to price action, and the fact that the majority of traders are short gives a signal that the GER30 may continue higher. The trading crowd has grown further net-short from yesterday and last week. The combination of current sentiment and recent changes gives a further bullish trading bias. Story continues DAX 2016 Highs Set To Continue on Bear-Flag Breakout? GER30 Resistance & Support Levels 2nd resistance: 12,383 April 2015 Highs 1st resistance: 10,973 61.8% Fibonacci Retracement of 2015-2016 Range Spot: 10,890 1st support: 10309 Weekly Pivot 2nd support: 10,102 (Aug 3 Corrective Low / 38.2% Retracement of 2015/6 Range) original source DailyFX provides forex news and technical analysis on the trends that influence the global currency markets. Learn forex trading with a free practice account and trading charts from FXCM. After delivering earnings beat in five straight quarters, Dean Foods Company DF reported a mixed second-quarter 2016, wherein earnings missed estimates while sales surpassed. The bottom-line miss can be attributed to a year-over-year decline in sales due to lower volumes. Consequently, shares of this Dallas-based food and beverage company fell 3.5% to $18.16 per share yesterday. However, earnings in the quarter continued to gain from lower raw milk prices, which helped Dean Foods profits to rise compared with last year. The companys adjusted earnings of 38 cents per share in second-quarter 2016 surged 15.2% from 33 cents in the year-ago quarter but fell short of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 39 cents. Notably, earnings for the quarter came in at the higher end of the companys guidance range of 3240 cents. Dean Foods Company (DF) Street Actual & Estimate EPS - Last 5 Quarters | FindTheCompany On a GAAP basis, the companys earnings came in at 36 cents per share as against 28 cents reported in the year-ago quarter. Quarter in Detail Net sales declined 8.2% year over year to $1,848.8 million, while surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1,836 million. This marked the companys second consecutive sales beat after five quarters of lower-than-expected results. The year-over-year decline in the top line was due to soft volumes, which dropped 3.2% to 632 million gallons from 653 million gallons in the prior-year quarter. However, raw milk costs improved during the reported quarter and fluid milk volumes rose on a sequential basis. As expected, the Class I Mover, which is a measure of raw milk expenses, fell 7% sequentially and 15% year over year to $13.53 per hundred-weight. Further, USDA data through May revealed that fluid milk volumes improved sequentially, recording a 0.1% increase in second-quarter 2016 compared with a 0.6% decline in first-quarter 2016. Adjusted gross profit fell 1.2% to $490 million, while the adjusted operating income jumped nearly 4.5% to $70 million in the second quarter. Financial Position Dean Foods ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $23.8 million, long-term debt including current maturities of about $908.8 million, and shareholders equity of $580.7 million. During the first half of 2016, the company generated nearly $125.3 million of net cash from operating activities and $79.6 million of free cash flow after investing roughly $45.8 million as capital expenditure. At the end of second-quarter 2016, the company's net debt to bank EBITDA ratio was 2.0 times, representing a sequential improvement. Other Developments On Jun 20, 2016, Dean Foods completed the acquisition of Friendlys Ice Cream a retail and manufacturing ice cream business, from Friendlys Restaurants. This acquisition is likely to enhance Dean Foods already strong ice cream business, which includes famous brands like Mayfield and Deans Country Fresh. The company is sponsoring this $155 million deal, with cash and its current revolving facilities. Outlook Management remains impressed with Dean Foods progress, given its solid operational and financial performance in the reported quarter. Looking ahead, management expects the average Class I Mover for third-quarter 2016 to come in at $15 per hundred-weight, representing an 11% increase sequentially but an 8% decline year over year. The companys total volume for the third quarter is anticipated to dip in the low-single digits, while representing an improvement from current trends. Considering all the aforementioned factors, management expects third-quarter 2016 adjusted earnings to range from 3240 cents a share, while GAAP earnings are expected to be in the range of 2836 cents. DEAN FOODS CO Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise DEAN FOODS CO Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise | DEAN FOODS CO Quote Zacks Rank Dean Foods currently carries a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). Other well-placed stocks in the consumer staples sector include B&G Foods Inc. BGS, Ingredion Incorporated INGR and Omega Protein Corporation OME, each carrying a Zacks Rank #1. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report DEAN FOODS CO (DF): Free Stock Analysis Report B&G FOODS CL-A (BGS): Free Stock Analysis Report OMEGA PROTEIN (OME): Free Stock Analysis Report INGREDION INC (INGR): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research The second-quarter reporting cycle is drawing to a close. As of Aug 5, 95.6% of the market cap of the aerospace and defense sector have released their quarterly numbers. Reported results reveal a 28.8% decline in second-quarter earnings despite 2.7% growth in revenues. Among the defense majors, Huntington Ingalls Industries HII, the nations largest military shipbuilder, reported mixed second-quarter results last week. Overall, the sector is expected to suffer a double-digit earnings decline in the second quarter of 2016. Total defense and aerospace sector earnings are likely to be down 27.4% while revenues are expected to grow a slight 1.5%. Apart from earnings stories, defense companies like Raytheon RTN and Orbital ATK OA hit the headlines as they clinched a few big contracts from the Pentagons daily funding session. However, not unlike the broader markets, the defense sector registered meek gains last week. (Read Defense Stock Roundup for Aug 2, 2016 here.) AEROSPACE/DEFENSE Industry Price Index AEROSPACE/DEFENSE Industry Price Index Recap of the Weeks Most Important Stories 1. Huntington Ingalls Industries reported mixed second-quarter results wherein it beat estimates on the bottom line but missed the same on the top line. Its second-quarter earnings also dropped year over year primarily due to lower contribution from its Newport News Shipbuilding division. Moreover, the company expects the second half of 2016 to be challenging for Newport News due to the overlapping deliveries of three carriers. The companys net cash from operating activities in the first half of 2016 increased 26.7% to $223 million from $176 million a year ago. Free cash flow was $138 million in the first six months of 2016, up 8.7% year over year (read more: Huntington Ingalls Beats on Q2 Earnings, Down Y/Y). 2. The U.S. Missile Defense Agency has awarded Raytheon a contract for 47 new Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) missile interceptors costing more than half a billion dollars. Under a $524 million contract modification, Raytheon will continue efforts to procure the material, fabricate, test and deliver 47 SM-3 Block IB missiles for fiscal 2016. The order could be repeated on the same scale in fiscal years 2017 and 2018, the Defense Department added. The contract has an expected completion date of Sep 30, 2021. Raytheon has also secured a U.S. Navy contract to continue to provide conversion, system overhaul and upgrade services as well as related hardware for MK 15 Close-In Weapon Systems or CIWS. This modification contract, worth $288 million, will include purchases for the Navy and foreign allies comprising governments of Turkey and Australia, under a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. Raytheon is slated to complete work under this contract by Dec 2022 (read more: Raytheon Gets $288M Navy Contract for CIWS Upgrade). Again, Raytheons Missile Systems unit won an FMS contract for the procurement of tube launched optically tracked wireless guided missiles for the Marine Corps, Army, and foreign military customers Bahrain and Morocco. This is a modification contract valued at $129.4 million. 3. Orbital ATK has been awarded a $182 million U.S. Missile Defense Agency contract for the Medium Range Ballistic Missile Type 3 Configuration 2 target system. Per the contract, the company will provide production equipment, logistics, associated support equipment, system engineering and analysis and mission operations. Work is slated for completion by Oct 30, 2020. As ballistic missiles possess diverse ranges, speeds, size and performance characteristics, the system is an integrated, layered architecture that provides multiple opportunities to destroy missiles and their warheads before they reach their targets. 4. General Dynamics GD Mission Systems division has been awarded a follow-on contract by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency or DARPA to provide classified network services, support and infrastructure. The contract has a total potential value of $149 million over a five-year period of performance if all options are exercised. Per the contract, the company will continue to deliver scalable, flexible, network and systems development, design and management to accommodate past, present and future technologies, the company said. The company will also provide insider threat monitoring and reporting solutions that will aid DARPA in early detection of malicious behavior. 5. Lockheed Martins LMT Aeronautics unit won a $102 million contract for additional non-recurring effort and integration efforts required in support of the F-35 Reprogramming Center West. Work under the contract will include the production of F-35 software data loads for laboratory testing, planning for verification and validation (V&V) test, conduct technical support of the test, design, build, and delivery of V&V modification kits and mission data file generation tools for FMS customers. Performance It was a mixed performance for defense stocks last week. In the last five trading sessions, Textron TXT gained the most with over 2.3% share price appreciation, while Northrop Grumman NOC lost the most by 1.19%. The six-month picture shows only gains for the major defense stocks. L-3 Communications Holdings LLL maintained its leading position with almost 27% share price appreciation followed by Textron. The following table shows the price movement of the major defense players over the past five trading days and during the last six months. Story continues Company Last Week Last 6 months LMT 1.24% 20.47% BA 0.45% 11.20% GD -0.07% 12.09% RTN -0.88% 10.74% NOC -1.19% 15.35% COL 0.50% 4.93% TXT 2.36% 22.10% LLL -0.19% 26.93% Whats Next in the Defense World? General Dynamics and Rockwell Collins will attend Jefferies 2016 Industrials Conference today. Orbital ATK will report second-quarter 2016 results on Aug 10. Boeing BA and L-3 Communications Holdings will attend Jefferies 2016 Industrials Conference on Aug 10. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report NORTHROP GRUMMN (NOC): Free Stock Analysis Report BOEING CO (BA): Free Stock Analysis Report GENL DYNAMICS (GD): Free Stock Analysis Report LOCKHEED MARTIN (LMT): Free Stock Analysis Report TEXTRON INC (TXT): Free Stock Analysis Report RAYTHEON CO (RTN): Free Stock Analysis Report L-3 COMM HLDGS (LLL): Free Stock Analysis Report HUNTINGTON INGL (HII): Free Stock Analysis Report ORBITAL ATK INC (OA): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research The Q2 earnings cycle is nearing its end. As of Aug 5, 87.7% of the market cap of the S&P 500 index have released their quarterly numbers. Reported results reveal a 4.1% decline in second-quarter earnings due to a 0.9% dip in revenues. Coming to the defense sector, we have seen Q2 results from 95.6% of the sectors total market cap, as of Aug 5. Reported results reveal a 28.8% decline in second-quarter earnings though revenues grew a paltry 2.7%. The trend is already clear, but we would have a more complete picture by the end of this week. For more details, you may go through our Earnings Trends report. Among the defense majors, Huntington Ingalls Industries HII, the nations largest military shipbuilder, reported mixed second-quarter results last week. We are gearing up for the final batch of reports through this week. Thanks to mixed performances, we now expect the sector to log an earnings decline of 27.4% regardless of a minor 1.5% revenue growth. Lets take a look at a couple of defense stocks that are scheduled to report their quarterly numbers on Aug 10. Orbital ATK Inc. OA is set to release second-quarter 2016 results tomorrow, before the opening bell. The company designs, builds and delivers space, defense and aviation-related systems. Orbital ATK is a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock with an Earnings ESP of +3.85%. Last quarter, the company's earnings were on par with estimates, bringing the trailing four-quarter average to a positive 20.88%. For the first six months of 2016, the company expects nearly $5 billion in new orders and option exercises, of which about $3.9 billion was already received in the first four months of the year. All three of its business segments have a robust outlook for the second quarter as well as the second half of the year. Orbital ATK exited the first quarter with a total backlog of $14.8 billion, out of which firm backlog accounted for $8.6 billion. The current backlog provides solid visibility on top-line growth for the to-be-reported quarter and the rest of the year. In addition, Orbital ATKs rigorous cost-saving initiatives will continue to boost margins in the second quarter of 2016 (read more: Orbital ATK Q2 Earnings: Stock Likely to Beat Estimates). For the second quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings is $1.30 a share, reflecting a 1.72% year-over-year increase, while consensus revenues are pegged at $1.14 billion, implying 0.90% year-over-year growth. Story continues ORBITAL ATK INC Price and EPS Surprise ORBITAL ATK INC Price and EPS Surprise | ORBITAL ATK INC Quote CAE Inc. CAE is a leading provider of simulation and modelling technologies, and integrated training services to the civil aviation industry and defense forces around the globe. The company will release its first quarter of fiscal 2017 (ending Jun 30, 2016) results on Aug 10 after market close. The company is a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) stock with an Earnings ESP of 0.00%. In the preceding quarter, the company delivered a positive earnings surprise of 11.11%, bringing the trailing four-quarter average to a positive 6.01%. Not only does the companys 0.00% ESP make surprise prediction difficult but also we caution against stocks with a Zacks Rank #4 or 5 (Sell rated) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions. During the fourth-quarter fiscal 2016 earnings call, CAE projected that its revenue and operating income will likely register growth in all segments in fiscal 2017, led primarily by Civil, which is expected to have higher annual utilization of its training network and low double-digit percentage operating income growth. However, the company expects modest growth in Defense and double-digit percentage growth in Healthcare. For the fiscal first quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings is 16 cents a share, reflecting a 2.08% year-over-year decline, while consensus revenues are pegged at $477.3 million, implying 5.4% year-over-year growth. CAE INC Price and EPS Surprise CAE INC Price and EPS Surprise | CAE INC Quote Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report CAE INC (CAE): Free Stock Analysis Report HUNTINGTON INGL (HII): Free Stock Analysis Report ORBITAL ATK INC (OA): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research (Reuters) - Delta Air Lines (DAL.N) faces a "time-consuming process" to restore normal operations and get stranded passengers to their destinations after a power outage caused more than 1,600 flight cancellations over two days, a top executive said on Tuesday. The events underscore how it can take days for airlines to reboot operations after a brief outage or storm. "When Delta doesnt fly aircraft, not only do customers not get to their destination, but flight crews dont get to where they are scheduled to be," Delta's chief operating officer, Gil West, said on Tuesday in an online posting. Rebuilding disrupted pilot and crew schedules while remaining in compliance with federal safety rules takes time, he said. There was also continued slowness in the system Delta uses to check in customers, board passengers and dispatch planes, West said. He did not say when Delta, the No. 2 U.S. airline by passenger traffic, expected to return to normal operations following the power outage in Atlanta, where Delta is headquartered. Delta has yet to detail the financial impact of the disruption. Analyst Jim Corridore of S&P Global Market Intelligence estimated that passenger refunds, overtime hours for workers and other costs will likely reduce Delta's operating income by $10 million to $20 million for the third quarter. In the 2015 third quarter, Delta had net income of $1.3 billion and operating income of $2.2 billion. The cancellations this week upended the travel plans of tens of thousands of flyers. Delta could not re-book passengers onto one of its top rivals and the world's largest carrier, American Airlines Group Inc (AAL.O), because the two companies ended a ticketing and baggage agreement last year. Delta said on its website that as of 5:15 p.m. EDT Tuesday it had canceled about 680 flights, while about 2,400 had departed. That's on top of about 1,000 flights it canceled on Monday, stranding passengers at airports around the globe. The company said it would extend through Tuesday a waiver of fees normally charged when travelers change flights and would provide $200 in travel vouchers to heavily inconvenienced customers. Story continues Delta's problems arose after a switchgear, which helps control and switch power flows like a circuit breaker in a home, malfunctioned for reasons that were not immediately clear, according to Georgia Power, a Southern Co (SO.N) unit that provides electricity to most counties in Georgia. West added in the posting that after a surge and a loss of power, some critical systems did not switch over to backup supplies as intended. In the past year, rivals American and Southwest Airlines Co (LUV.N) have also suffered flight disruptions due to data system malfunctions. Corridore of S&P Global Market Intelligence said Delta's corporate customers were unlikely to stop flying the airline given the problems other carriers have faced and given that Delta has canceled far fewer flights than rivals generally. But explanations were needed. "We would appreciate first of all a breakdown of what they're spending on IT because that's not really clear to us. We know what planes they're buying," for example, Corridore said. Shares of Delta were down less than 1 percent at the close of trading. (Reporting by Jeffrey Dastin in San Francisco and Rachit Vats and Sayantani Ghosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Leslie Adler) (Reuters) - Delta Air Lines (DAL.N) faces a "time-consuming process" to restore normal operations and get stranded passengers to their destinations after a power outage caused more than 1,600 flight cancellations over two days, a top executive said on Tuesday. The events underscore how it can take days for airlines to reboot operations after a brief outage or storm. "When Delta doesnt fly aircraft, not only do customers not get to their destination, but flight crews dont get to where they are scheduled to be," Delta's chief operating officer, Gil West, said on Tuesday in an online posting. Rebuilding disrupted pilot and crew schedules while remaining in compliance with federal safety rules takes time, he said. There was also continued slowness in the system Delta uses to check in customers, board passengers and dispatch planes, West said. He did not say when Delta, the No. 2 U.S. airline by passenger traffic, expected to return to normal operations following the power outage in Atlanta, where Delta is headquartered. Delta has yet to detail the financial impact of the disruption. Analyst Jim Corridore of S&P Global Market Intelligence estimated that passenger refunds, overtime hours for workers and other costs will likely reduce Delta's operating income by $10 million (8 million pounds) to $20 million for the third quarter. In the 2015 third quarter, Delta had net income of $1.3 billion and operating income of $2.2 billion. The cancellations this week upended the travel plans of tens of thousands of flyers. Delta could not re-book passengers onto one of its top rivals and the world's largest carrier, American Airlines Group Inc (AAL.O), because the two companies ended a ticketing and baggage agreement last year. Delta said on its website that as of 5:15 p.m. EDT (2215 BST) Tuesday it had cancelled about 680 flights, while about 2,400 had departed. That's on top of about 1,000 flights it cancelled on Monday, stranding passengers at airports around the globe. Story continues The company said it would extend through Tuesday a waiver of fees normally charged when travellers change flights and would provide $200 in travel vouchers to heavily inconvenienced customers. Delta's problems arose after a switchgear, which helps control and switch power flows like a circuit breaker in a home, malfunctioned for reasons that were not immediately clear, according to Georgia Power, a Southern Co (SO.N) unit that provides electricity to most counties in Georgia. West added in the posting that after a surge and a loss of power, some critical systems did not switch over to backup supplies as intended. In the past year, rivals American and Southwest Airlines Co (LUV.N) have also suffered flight disruptions due to data system malfunctions. Corridore of S&P Global Market Intelligence said Delta's corporate customers were unlikely to stop flying the airline given the problems other carriers have faced and given that Delta has cancelled far fewer flights than rivals generally. But explanations were needed. "We would appreciate first of all a breakdown of what they're spending on IT because that's not really clear to us. We know what planes they're buying," for example, Corridore said. Shares of Delta were down less than 1 percent at the close of trading. (Reporting by Jeffrey Dastin in San Francisco and Rachit Vats and Sayantani Ghosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Leslie Adler) American airline Delta has announced that it will provide $200 in travel vouchers to all customers who experienced a delay of greater than three hours or a cancelled flight as a result of yesterday's system-wide outage. The airline, which cancelled hundreds of flights with hundreds more delayed yesterday, said the vouchers will be made available for travel on all Delta and Delta Connection-operated flights, and will be valid for travel booked before August 8, 2017. According to Delta, customers affected by the outage and who have provided their email address will be contacted today and will receive their voucher in seven to 10 business days. Commenting on the malfunction which caused such chaos yesterday, Delta's Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Gil West said: "We want our customers to know we are thoroughly investigating the matter and that we are truly sorry." Register for more free articles. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. Catch the latest in Opinion Get opinion pieces, letters and editorials sent directly to your inbox weekly! Sign up! Already a Subscriber? Already a Subscriber? Sign in Terms of Service Privacy Policy Mondays Devious Maids finale neatly tied up every loose end from the Lifetime dramas killer fourth season before creating a whole new mess for the shows leading ladies to clean up. RELATEDDevious Maids EP Explains the Origin of Eva Longorias Mean Desperate Joke TVLine spoke with executive producer Sabrina Wind about the episodes biggest twists, as well as what a potential fifth season would look like. But first, a quick recap: Gail Fleming, the surprise daughter of director/rapist Hugh Metzger, was revealed to be Peris killer; Evelyn and Adrian signed their divorce papers, then got down to business on the dining room table; Rosie told Spence that shes pregnant, but concealed the truth about Tucker; Zoila resumed working for Genevieve, whos now entertaining a same-sex romance with a new pal (played by Sharon Lawrence); Carmen and Dani finally found common ground; and, following a one-year time jump, Marisol was presumably kidnapped on the day of her wedding to Peter. OK, time for some answers TVLINE | First things first: I got really excited when Sharon Lawrence appeared on screen. She is so talented, and we love working with her. We were so delighted that she was willing to do this part, and we are hoping that she continues on the show, assuming we have a show to continue. TVLINE | How much stock should we put into this new relationship between her and Genevieve? Well, I love the idea of Genevieve and Zoila being back in each others lives, but promising each other not to get involved in their business. Now were seeing Genevieve doing something as crazy as weve ever seen, so Zoila will have quite the trouble of not meddling and getting involved. We also just really liked the idea of Genevieve thinking, Maybe all this time, what I needed was a wife! TVLINE | Speaking of Zoila, Kyle and his mother disappeared rather suddenly. Is this the last weve seen of the Circle? Yes, that was the intention. If we have the wonderful honor of doing a fifth season and Lifetime tells us they want those people back, then we can talk about it. Story continues TVLINE | I assume that final mention of Danis father was also a hint. Might we see him if the show gets a fifth season? 100,000 percent! Im hoping the character is this incredibly hot, wonderful man whos going to come back into Carmens life and challenge where she is and what shes about. TVLINE | Apologies if I missed something, but did Evelyn and Adrian get re-married in the finale? No, the only thing they officially got was divorced. They signed those papers with the judge, and 10 seconds later, they consummated that divorce. Its really as if they were created just to torment each other forever. But will they be remarried? I dont know! TVLINE | OK, because I definitely caught that weird glance between Zoila and Adrian at the wedding. Is there a chance something happened during the time jump that were not yet privy to? There are definitely chances that things have happened. Shes the kind of person who can call somebody on their st and hes the kind of person whos totally full of st, so we think theyre just a fun combination. They might not be as fated as Evelyn and Adrian, but theres definitely something they have found in each other that only the other one can see. TVLINE | I was surprised that Marisol didnt ask the girls to be her bridesmaids. Theyre all still friends, right? Well, the idea was that [Marisol and Peter] are older people choosing to go down this wedding path, so there werent really bridesmaids. We felt like it was owed to Evelyn and Marisols relationship this season that, for some reason, Evelyn had taken over as a sort-of handmaiden. In our minds, the maids were all with Marisol earlier, but once the ceremony started, Evelyn was running the show and she lost Marisol. TVLINE | Rosie, of course, didnt tell Spence about Tucker. Am I correct in assuming shell regret that decision? Oh, of course. Happily-ever-after is boring. We need problems! TVLINE | Ill bet Dania Ramirez is thrilled that she didnt have to wear one of those fake baby bumps. [Laughs] You know, we never even spoke about it because of the time jump. It didnt cause any conversation, but I bet shed be really happy if she thought about it. TVLINE | The Spence-Rosie household is now populated with three kids from how many parents? [Laughs] Yeah, its three children from I think five people. It would be quite the new version of The Brady Bunch. TVLINE | Lastly, will Marisols kidnapping I guess I should call it a disappearance for now be a whole new mystery, or is it connected to something that happened in previous seasons? It will launch us into the new season. We have many thoughts of what it all means, but we have to wait to talk to Lifetime about them. It will be a completely new story. Your thoughts on the Devious Maids finale? Hopes for a potential Season 5? Grade the episode below, then drop a comment with your full review. Related stories Stana Katic Movie Lands at Lifetime UnREAL's Constance Zimmer on Finale Shocker, Season 3 'Consequences' Devious Maids Finale Sneak Peek: New Intel Is Revealed About Peri's Killer On Aug 8, 2016, we issued an updated research report on Devon Energy Corporation DVN. The company is benefiting from its cost-saving initiatives and decision to sell its non-core assets. However, the choppy recovery in oil prices and the competitive oil and gas industry continue to be headwinds. Devons 2016 second-quarter results were better than market expectations, thanks to the companys cost-saving initiatives and a marginal improvement in commodity prices. Production from its core assets in the second quarter was 545,000 barrels of oil (boe) per day, exceeding the mid-point of the guidance by 6,000 boe per day, driven by solid contribution from STACK, Delaware Basin and Canadian operations. Devon, intent on building its financial strength and streamlining operations, announced that it will divest non-core assets worth $2 billion to $3 billion in 2016. Year to date, the company has inked asset sale deals of nearly $3.2 billion, surpassing its target. Devon will utilize 67% of divesture proceeds to lower debt levels and strengthen its investment-grade balance sheet, and use the balance to further bolster its position in resource-rich U.S. plays, led by the STACK and Delaware Basin. DEVON ENERGY Price DEVON ENERGY Price | DEVON ENERGY Quote Devon has resorted to cost-saving initiatives to support its margins. In 2016, cost-saving initiatives of the company are expected to generate total savings of nearly $1 billion against 2015 levels, a big positive under challenging circumstances. What holds Devon back in achieving its full potential is the very competitive oil and gas industry. Some of the industry players, who are competitors of Devon, are not only financially stronger but are also powerful with more resources at their disposal. This might limit Devons capacity to apply for new drilling rights or acquire properties. Another check on Devons performance is its having limited control of certain properties where it has a stake thereby restraining its role in their future development. The reason is that these properties are operated by third parties leaving Devon out of important decisions. Devon Energy currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Other favorably ranked stocks in the Oil & Gas exploration and production industry, which share the same Zacks Rank with Devon, are Murphy Oil Corporation MUR, Anadarko Petroleum Corporation APC and EOG Resources, Inc. EOG. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report DEVON ENERGY (DVN): Free Stock Analysis Report ANADARKO PETROL (APC): Free Stock Analysis Report EOG RES INC (EOG): Free Stock Analysis Report MURPHY OIL (MUR): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Paris (AFP) - An artwork in a Paris train station asking travellers to complete the sentence "Before I die..." may have been misunderstood in the context of recent terror attacks, a railway spokesman admitted Tuesday. The installation was put up in the main hall of the Gare de Lyon last week, at the foot of a famous restaurant, Le Train Bleu. It comprises three large blackboards next to a poster on which "Before I die" is written in several languages, with pieces of chalk to let passers-by complete the sentence however they want. The installation has received a broadly positive reception from the public -- the blackboards have to be wiped clean every night to make space for new messages. But some French media have branded it "anxiety-inducing" or even "macabre" in the context of recent attacks, suggesting it asks viewers to share their "last wishes". Train stations are among the sensitive sites where security has been boosted following a string of jihadist attacks in France over the last 18 months. These include November's massacre in Paris which left 130 people dead and the lorry attack in Nice on the July 14 national holiday, when 85 were killed. "The name of the piece is misunderstood. It generates emotion, anxiety for some," admitted Sylvain Bailly, in charge of station cultural projects for national rail authority SNCF, which was behind the Gare de Lyon installation. - 'Meaning of life' - Originally created in 2011 by US artist Candy Chang while mourning a loved one, the artwork has been reproduced over 2,000 times in dozens of countries including France. Its blackboards appeared in at least two French provincial towns in March, without any controversy. In May 2014 the concept was used by road safety authorities to raise awareness among young drivers in Paris. "That is the aim of this piece, to make people think about the meaning of life, and of what they want," Bailly told AFP, adding that "Before I die" was chosen precisely to "allow people to exchange (ideas) and to express themselves". Story continues "You can always find people who are shocked by it, but that's the role of art, in a small way," he added, while stressing: "Overall people are happy, curious -- they look at it, they express themselves." He told AFP that SNCF "doesn't organise cultural installations in stations to be controversial," while acknowledging having "asked the question, after the Nice attack, and even before" of whether to cancel the project. The Gare de Lyon piece is being used as a test, before deciding whether to do something similar in other stations. By Ginger Gibson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A former CIA officer and congressional staffer on Monday launched a long-shot bid for president, a Republican billing himself as a conservative alternative to Donald Trump who disenchanted voters can rally around. There is virtually no chance that the newly announced candidate, Evan McMullin, could win and only a slight chance he will even be able to get his name on the ballots of key states. McMullin has no name recognition across the country and was not even well known in the Capitol where until Monday he was the chief policy director for the organizational body of all Republicans in the House of Representatives. But that will not stop some conservatives from pitching him as an option in the Nov. 8 election for those who never warmed to Trump and remain adamantly opposed to Democrat Hillary Clinton. "Donald Trump appeals to the worst fears of Americans at a time we need unity, not division," McMullin wrote in a letter announcing his candidacy. "With the stakes so high for our nation and at this late stage in the process, I can no longer stand on the sidelines." McMullin's campaign was first reported by MSNBC and BuzzFeed. He could not be immediately reached for comment. Trump was formally anointed his party's nominee last month after beating 16 rivals in the state-by-state primary contests. But many Republicans have been concerned about Trump's policies, such as his proposal to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the country, and his free-wheeling, often insulting rhetoric. McMullin has never held public office. In addition to lacking a quick source of campaign cash, he will face immediate hurdles to try to get his name on enough ballot papers to make himself a serious candidate. Texas, for example, requires third-party candidates to get more than 79,000 signatures from residents who did not vote in either the Republican or Democratic primary. And the deadline for that was in early May. Deadlines to get on the ballots have also lapsed for North Carolina, Illinois and Florida, all large states that also could be pivotal in the election. The best McMullin could likely hope for would be to simply play spoiler to Trump in a handful of states, eating away at the New York real estate developer's ability to win states that are generally reliably Republican. McMullin would join two other third-party hopefuls - Gary Johnson, who was nominated by the Libertarian Party, and Jill Stein, who will represent the Green Party. In recent polls that included Trump, Clinton, Stein and Trump, the two third-party candidates have both struggled to get above 10 percentage points in the polls. McMullin, who according to his LinkedIn profile worked in Congress since 2013, has been a frequent critic of Trump on social media, calling him an authoritarian and criticizing his stance on civil rights as well as his refusal to release his tax returns. Prior to working in Congress, McMullin spent 11 years as an operations officer for the Central Intelligence Agency. Trump, meanwhile, was seeking to reset his campaign with a big economy policy speech on Monday after a rough patch last week. He was widely criticized, including by some senior Republicans, for engaging in a public dispute with the parents of a Muslim American soldier killed in Iraq. (Writing by Susan Heavey; Additional reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Frances Kerry and Leslie Adler) Rio de Janeiro (AFP) - British star Tom Daley insisted China's ruthlessly efficient divers are "beatable" Monday as he looked ahead to an enticing new clash after getting just bronze in the Olympic 10m synchronised event. Daley and his partner Daniel Goodfellow settled for third in the tandem event, behind gold medallists Chen Aisen and Lin Yue and second-place Americans David Boudia and Steele Johnson. China is threatening to pull off a historic sweep of diving's eight gold-medal events in Rio. Wu Minxia and Shi Tingmao opened the competition Sunday with a decisive womens 3m synchronised springboard win. There are six to go. Daley had come to Rio challenging his Chinese adversaries, saying "they have to beat me." He offered praise for China's dominance on Monday but continued to stir the pot, saying he was eager to beat Chen and 2012 silver medallist Qiu Bo in the 10m individual. Asked what makes China so strong, he sniffed: "1.3 billion as a population helps," before catching himself and praising their work ethic. "These guys are so strong, they're so technically proficient in what they do," he said. "But going into an individual competition, as David will be able to tell you, they are beatable." He was referring to Boudia's upset of Qiu in the thrilling platform final in London, one of only two golds won in 2012 by non-Chinese divers. Daley took the bronze. Daley, Boudia, and the rest of the field will have their work cut out for them in stopping the Chinese juggernaut in the 10m individual. Chen and Lin were coasting toward a dominating performance on Monday until a wobbly fourth dive -- a back 3 1/2 somersault in pike position -- opened the door a crack. "We had a little bit of hesitation during our jump, so we did not handle it very well," Lin said. But they slammed the door shut on the next dive, nailing a front 4 1/2 somersault tuck that won 9.5s and 10s and set Rio's outdoor diving venue alight. Story continues Daley, still just 22 despite being in the spotlight for nearly a decade, is seeking to finally deliver the gold medal that has eluded him since emerging as a star in his mid-teens. His Olympic debut came in Beijing 2008 when he was just 14. He finished seventh there in the 10m individual platform, before his London bronze. The two-day men's 10m individual competition begins August 19. Donald Glover says nothing can last forever not even Community. The actor-writer promoting his new drama Atlanta, which premieres Sept. 6 on FX said he enjoyed his time on NBCs cult comedy Community but was not disappointed when the show (briefly) returned on Yahoo without him. (The company later shut down the Yahoo Screen platform Community aired on, following a reported $42 million loss.) I just like endings, Glover who also uses the stage name Childish Gambino as a hip-hop performer told reporters Tuesday at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in Beverly Hills. Also Read: 'Atlanta' Star Donald Glover on N-Word Use: 'There Are Different Types of Black People' I think everything should have death clauses, he added. Humans have death clauses. Like, one day Trump is gonna die. The reference to the controversial GOP presidential nominee drew laughter from the audience. Glover made it clear that he wasnt slamming Community or its executive producer Dan Harmon. I had so much fun on Community,' he said. But Im glad things end because it forces us to progress. Fans of Glovers comedy may not quite to know what to make of his latest project, Atlanta, a comedy with dark dramatic elements about aspiring rapper Earn Marks (Glover). The show has sudden tonal shifts that Glover says were deliberate. Also Read: 'Spider-Man: Homecoming' Adds Donald Glover to Cast The thesis with this show is to show people how it feels to be black, Glover said. There really isnt a limit I felt to how abstract it could get, although there has to be some grounded nature to it. If you have something grounded on some level, you can go anywhere, he added. What was important to me was that this show was personal and had a specific take. Thats all you can really ask from a show nowadays. As for the fans, Glover is philosophical. Some of them will be like, Ah thats cool. Some of them will be like, I hate this thing. I dont get it. That happens a lot. Story continues 'People v OJ Simpson': 9 Weird Facts It Didn't Include (Photos) OJ Simpson Nicole Brown cash Marcia Clark Marcia Clark FX CNN Johnnie Cochran FX OJ Simpson If I Did It book cover Lance Ito FX Lance Ito Margaret York Getty Images Kato Kaelin Wendie Jo Sperber golf Getty Images Getty Images Kato Kaelin Getty Images Mark Fuhrman YouTube Johnnie Cochran FX OJ Simpson Statue FX oj fact check black fist juror FX oj simpson fact check generic FX Previous Slide Next Slide 1 of 17 If you think the details in the show were crazy, wait until you see what FX left out The most shocking part of FX's "The People v OJ Simpson" is that the most amazing details were true. And the show didn't even include some of the strangest facts about Simpson's life -- although some made it into ESPN's recent "OJ: Made in America" (pictured). Here are nine bizarre details FX left out. View In Gallery Related stories from TheWrap: 'Spider-Man: Homecoming' Adds Donald Glover to Cast 'Atlanta' Star Donald Glover on N-Word Use: 'There Are Different Types of Black People' Donald Glover Comedy Ordered to Series at FX Continuing his flirtation with political violence, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump suggested at a rally today that Second Amendment people could prevent rival Hillary Clinton from appointing liberal judges. If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks, Trump said. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I dont know. Trump was speaking at a rally in Wilmington, N.C., when he suggested that Clinton would abolish the Second Amendment. Robby Mook, Clintons campaign manager, issued a statement blasting Trumps remark as dangerous. This is simple what Trump is saying is dangerous, Mook said. A person seeking to be the President of the United States should not suggest violence in any way. The Trump campaign issued its own clarification, saying that Trump was merely encouraging Second Amendment supporters to rally behind his campaign. Its called the power of unification, Jason Miller, Trumps spokesman, said. 2nd Amendment people have amazing spirit and are tremendously unified, which gives them great political power. And this year, they will be voting in record numbers, and it wont be for Hillary Clinton, it will be for Donald Trump. Trumps remark did not refer to the campaign, but to a situation under a Hillary Clinton presidency. During the primary, Trump frequently encouraged supporters to attack protesters at his rallies. In March, he warned Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders to be careful or he would send some of his own supporters to Sanders rallies. Related stories PopPolitics: Why Donald Trump Should Be Jumping at the Chance to Debate Hillary Clinton Hillary Clinton Endorsed by Former MGM Chief, 'Lifelong Republican' Harry Sloan Clinton Campaign Adds Tim Kaine Events to L.A. Fundraising Blitz Donald Trump speaks at the Republican convention. (Photo: Khue Bui for Yahoo News) Forget Clinton. Forget Trump. Introducing Down Ticket: Yahoo News complete guide to this years most fascinating House, Senate and governors races. Coming to you every Tuesday and Thursday until Nov. 8. What you need to know today. _____ Paul Ryan and the rest of the GOP are starting to stress about losing the House. Why theyre right to worry. Paul Ryan should be worried about losing his job. Not his job, mind you, as a congressman, although Ryan is competing in a primary today. Sure, Ryans contest against challenger Paul Nehlen an anti-free-trade, anti-Muslim Donald Trump mini-me has attracted a lot of attention in recent weeks, in part because Sarah Palin has endorsed Nehlen and Trump initially threatened to do the same. Paul Ryan Stares Down GOP Revolt in His Backyard, the Washington Post reported. Paul Ryan Cant Win, declared Vanity Fair. And yet media hype aside Paul Ryan will win Tuesdays primary. Ryan has represented Wisconsins First Congressional District since 1999. Nehlen is the vice president of a water-filtration company. Nehlen has $175,000 in his campaign coffers. Ryan has nearly $10 million. Eighty percent of Janesville-area voters have a favorable opinion of Ryan; only 14 percent see him unfavorably. Nehlens numbers are reversed: 16 percent favorable, 47 percent unfavorable. The latest poll shows Ryan with 80 percent of the vote. Nehlen trails by 66 points. So again: Paul Ryan isnt worried about losing his job as a congressman. He may, however, be starting to worry about the GOP losing its largest majority in the House of Representatives since World War II which would, in turn, cost him his other, more exalted gig: speaker of the House. In public, Ryan has been coy about the possibility, saying only that anyone in his shoes would be concerned. Mitt [Romney] and I lost by four points and we lost eight seats. [John McCain] lost by seven [in 2008] and we lost 21 seats, he recently told the Washington Post. If youre speaker of the House, its your job to worry about the Republican majority, no matter what the circumstances are. Story continues But in private, Ryan is beginning to sound anxious. Why? Because of Donald Trump. According to the New York Times, Ryan expressed concerns that the House was increasingly at risk during a closed-door meeting with donors last week, imploring them not to assume that the House was impregnable and not to focus their efforts entirely on retaining the Senate. House Speaker Paul Ryan arrives to speak at Republican convention. (Photo: Carolyn Kaster/AP) This isnt just a fundraising scare tactic or at least it shouldnt be. Ryan has reason to worry. Its hard to overstate how extraordinary a Democratic takeover of the House would be. Every cycle, Nancy Pelosi talks a good game about how her party is finally going to win back the lower chamber of Congress. She never actually believes it. Aside from one brief interregnum early 2007 to late 2010 Republicans have ruled the House for the last two decades. Republican-dominated redistricting redrawing the congressional boundaries to give the incumbent party a leg up has only strengthened their hold. So have midterm voting patterns: Republicans tend to turn out; Democrats dont. Democratic voters are increasingly concentrated in fewer and fewer districts, a huge disadvantage. Wave elections the sort that can flip Congress rarely take place in presidential years. And its challenging enough for any party to win three consecutive terms in the Oval Office. The only time it has happened in the modern era 1988 the composition of Congress barely changed at all. But despite all that, Pelosi & Co. now have a real shot at returning to power next January. There was always a risk of Republicans losing the Senate in 2016. The entire map is tilted against them. Democrats are defending 10 seats this year; Republicans are defending 24. If as few as four of those seats flip a likely outcome the GOPs majority is gone. Democrats dont have the same sort of structural advantage in the House, though. For one thing, House Republicans enjoy a much bigger cushion 247 seats to the Democrats 186 than their Senate counterparts. This means that Pelosi would need a net gain of at least 30 seats to recapture control the kind of swing that gerrymandering largely rules out. In a normal election year, they wouldnt stand a chance. But as you may have noticed, 2016 is not a normal election year. Which explains why Ryan seems a little stressed. The worse Trump does on a national level the more he tarnishes the GOPs image with the sort of shenanigans that consumed last weeks campaign coverage the worse down-ballot Republicans will do. Its a simple matter of turnout. Presidential races drive voters to the polls; Republicans who arent inspired to vote for Trump will be less inclined to show up and vote, period and district by district, the GOPs congressional candidates will likely suffer. (Split-ticket voting has also declined over the last generation, as polarization has increased.) The last time the nonpartisan analysts at the Cook Political Report published their trademark race ratings was July 22 the day after the GOP concluded its convention in Cleveland and right before Trump hit his high-water mark in the polls. But even then, Cook painted a scary picture for the GOP: one Democratic seat was deemed likely to go Republican, and three more were tossups. The number of Republican tossups, however, was much larger: 17. Another three GOP seats, meanwhile, were leaning Democratic and two more were likely to flip. All told, 45 Republican seats were considered competitive and 22 had at least a 50/50 chance of going Democratic. Since then, things have only gotten worse. Trumps national numbers have cratered. On July 26, he led Clinton 45.7 percent to 44.6 percent in the RealClear Politics polling average; he now trails by 7.2 percentage points. Trump is also losing to Clinton by more than 10 points in at least two key battleground states: New Hampshire and Pennsylvania. As a result, his odds of winning in November have plummeted from 50.1 percent to 13.7 percent, according to FiveThirtyEight, while Clintons have climbed to 86.3 percent. If this persists, Trump will almost certainly be a drag on the rest of Republican ticket. Democrats already lead Republicans on the generic Which partys congressional candidate will you vote for? question by an average of 7.6 percentage points nearly enough, according to the statisticians, to propel them to a majority in the House. That gap may widen. Down-ticket Republicans may continue to run away from Trump. Race ratings may drift leftward. Likely Republican may become lean Republican. Lean Republican may become tossup. Tossup may become lean Democratic. And 30 seats suddenly wont seem so crazy anymore. _____ Video: Paul Nehlen on his primary contest with Paul Ryan and his controversial views on Muslims Yahoo News Guest Anchor Stephanie Sy spoke to Wisconsin businessman Paul Nehlen who is challenging House Speaker Paul Ryan in the Badger States Aug. 9 congressional primaries about Donald Trumps belated endorsement of Ryan and whether he thinks he can win despite trailing his opponent by massive margins in the polls. _____ The races to watch (Photos: erickson4us.com, John Howe for Congress via Facebook, Elizabeth Nida Obert/Rochester Post-Bulletin via AP [2], Kristopher Radder/Brattleboro Reformer via AP, Toby Talbot/AP, David Gram/AP, Kristopher Radder/Brattleboro Reformer via AP, MikeforWI via Twitter, Friends of Terry McNulty via Facebook, Lasee for Congress via Facebook, AP) The Ryan-Nehlen matchup isnt the only important primary taking place Tuesday. Here are three others to pay attention to: Minnesotas Second Congressional District: Republican incumbent John Klines decision to retire after 14 years in the House has triggered a fierce battle for control of this swing district south of the Twin Cities. Four Republicans will face off Tuesday for the chance to challenge Democrat Angie Craig, who has been stumping and stockpiling money for months: former conservative radio talk show host Jason Lewis; businesswomen Darlene Miller; state senator and former Red Wing Mayor John Howe; and sales consultant Matt Erickson. Miller has Klines endorsement; the NRA backs Howe. But the edge may go to the Lewis, who has the highest name recognition and the backing of the state GOP. Who will win in November, however, is anyones guess. Wisconsins Eighth Congressional District: A similar dynamic is at play in this Green Bay swing district: incumbent Reid Ribble is retiring and multiple Republicans are vying to replace him. The field includes state Sen. Frank Lasee of De Pere; Terry McNulty, a Forestville surveyor; and Mike Gallagher of Green Bay. Gallagher, who served as national security adviser for Gov. Scott Walkers short-lived presidential campaign, had a huge money advantage, raising more than $1 million since the start of 2016 three times as much as Lasee and 160 times as much as McNulty. Over the last four decades, an equal number of Democrats and Republicans have represented the eighth district in Congress, so Democrats are hopeful that their nominee, Outagamie County executive and a former state representative Tom Nelson, can defeat whomever Republicans choose Tuesday. Vermont governor: Home to Bernie Sanders, the Green Mountain State is typically considered one of the most liberal corners of the country. But many analysts are calling this years gubernatorial contest a tossup. Incumbent Democrat Peter Shumlin is retiring, and on Tuesday, five Democrats and two Republicans will compete for their partys nominations. On the Democratic side, late stumbles by former Google executive Matt Dunne may give former Transportation Secretary Sue Minter a slight edge; on the GOP side, popular Lt. Gov. Phil Scott is favored over retired Wall Street executive Bruce Lisman, though the race may have tightened in recent days thanks to Lismans late $2 million negative ad buy. Oh, and speaking of Sanders, Bernie endorsed 18 candidates for Vermont state office last week. None of them were running for governor. _____ By the numbers Stat of the day, via @JakeSherman: "11 percent six of 54 of Senate Republicans have said they will not support their party's nominee." Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) August 9, 2016 including the latest GOP defector, Maine Sen. Susan Collins, who said Monday that Trump lacks the temperament, self-discipline and judgment required to be president. _____ The best of the rest Swinging the Senate blue may hinge on Latino voters https://t.co/cTOEq6a71n Salon (@Salon) August 9, 2016 https://t.co/1Kv1hg52FJ how true this story was and is. Trump is becoming a big drag on the ticket. (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) August 8, 2016 The Nevada Senate race seems to be Harry Reid vs. Donald Trump. It's annoying. And it's only August. My @rgj column: https://t.co/IStcOpKrlD Jon Ralston (@RalstonReports) August 7, 2016 Some donors wrapped up in embattled Silicon Valley congressmans ethics complaint are helping him fight it #CA17 https://t.co/qHoachG2ig Sarah D. Wire (@sarahdwire) August 9, 2016 What other R Senators up for re-election might tilt? In tight Senate race, Toomey teetering in support of Trump https://t.co/KGnzffYLoq Josh Busby (@busbyj2) August 9, 2016 _____ Countdown _____ You've probably heard the very old riddle: When is a door not a door? When it's ajar. An updated version might go like this: When is a ransom not a ransom? When the Obama administration says it isn't. President Obama and his State Department want us to believe that $400 million in foreign cash that was flown into Iran under cover of darkness on an unmarked cargo plane was merely money "owed" to the world's No. 1 sponsor of terrorism from a failed arms deal negotiated with the Shah of Iran more than 35 years ago. The president's explanation is that the money was part of the nuclear deal reached with Iran and the first installment of a $1.7 billion settlement resolving claims at an international tribunal at The Hague. The president says settling the claim now is actually saving money, the full amount of which might have had to be paid if the case were fully litigated before the court. We are to ignore a statement by one of the four Americans held hostage by the Iranian regime (one of them since 2011) before being released in January. Christian pastor Saeed Abedini told Fox Business Channel last week: "I just remember the night at the airport sitting for hours and hours there, and I asked police, 'Why are you not letting us go?'" Abedini said the policeman answered, "We are waiting for another plane so if that plane doesn't come, we never let [you] go.'" What was the "other plane" carrying that was so important to the Iranian government that only its arrival would trigger the release of Abedini and the three other hostages, and its failure to land would keep them in captivity? Food? Toilet paper? Western movies? Or money? It is a sad day when one must choose between believing the American president or the Iranian government that has vowed to wipe out Israel and then come after America and subject the world to fundamentalist Islam. The administration refuses to say how many Americans have died directly or indirectly from Iran's support of terrorism. The Washington Free Beacon reported last fall that the administration has stonewalled a request from Congress to release figures on the number of Americans and Israelis killed by Iran and its terror proxies since the 1979 Iranian revolution. Undoubtedly this was to ease opposition to the deal with Iran not to proceed with the creation of nuclear weapons, which they most assuredly are creating in secret, or will create when the "restrictions" expire in a maximum of 15 years, depending on one's interpretation of the deal. Iran is permitted to enrich uranium in the meantime. Writing in The Wall Street Journal last week, former Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey thought he knew the reason for the foreign cash and the secrecy behind the January transfer of funds: "There is principally one entity within the Iranian government that has need of untraceable funds. That entity is the Quds Force -- the branch of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps focusing particularly on furthering the regime's goals worldwide by supporting and conducting terrorism." The Iranian regime clearly sees the $400 million as ransom for the illegally held Americans. A video showing pallets of foreign cash has surfaced on the Internet. The administration won't confirm that is the money it sent, but does it matter? The money was sent. Consider the definition of "ransom" and whether this fits what occurred in January: "the redemption of a prisoner, slave, or kidnapped person ... for a price." A rose is a rose is a rose. And so is ransom by whatever name one may disingenuously call it. From Harper's BAZAAR "Have you seen any kangaroos?" my sister messaged mejust hours before I sat down to eat (of all things) tender kangaroo meat served alongside Chinese-style steamed buns and fire-charred green grapes. Welp I have now,I thought to myself with a twinge of guilt that lasted only until I reached for my second helping. I'd been in Australia for just 24 hours and I'd already bumped around Melbourne like a silver sphere in some life-size foodie pinball machine, hitting the jackpot again and again: a flat white at Axil, Korean tacos at Rice Queen, a second flat white at Grace cafe, poached-fig-and-marsala gelato at Gelato Messina, Chocolicious Tim Tams in my hotel room and suckling pig pancakes at Chin Chin. The afternoon of the kangaroo picnic, I'd slowed down enough to take a day trip to see the olive harvest at Cobram Estate (more on this later), but as I polished off my final bun and washed it down with olive oil carrot cake, I'd already begun daydreaming about the gastronomic adventures that night would bring. It's no wonder that in 2017, Melbourne will host the World's 50 Best Restaurant Awards (essentially, the Olympic Games of grub). Australia's cultural hub has it going on in the culinary departmentand I was quickly discovering why. If you needed more convincing, here are just five of the countless food-focused reasons to let your taste buds take you to the other side of the world. 1. The Pastries With all due respect to the great patisseries of Paris, sweet spots like Lune Croissanterie and Tivoli Road Bakery are happily giving the French a run for their money. Just a few months ago, The New York Times questioned whether Lune's flaky, non-Parisian crescents were the best in the world. The bakery (or lab, as they like to call it) is run by a former aerospace engineer and her brother in the Fitzroy neighborhood-and their pastries are irresistible. Goods are baked in a temperature-controlled glass cube, and you often have to line up outside the shop by 7a.m. just to get one. Order the traditional, or go for a cruffin-a croissant/muffin hybridthat's filled with either lemon curd or chocolate-and-cherry mousse. At Tivoli, in South Yarra, choose between sausage rolls and rhubarb or salted caramel donuts. Story continues Photo credit: Courtesy of Lune Croissantrie Photo credit: Courtesy of Tivoli Road Bakery Aside from flaky pastries and fluffy rolls, the city has been experiencing a full-fledged obsession with donuts as of late. Flavors of the hole-punched pastry in this city range from salty to conventionally sweet to all-around umami: there's a spiced maple pecan variation at All Day Donuts, a grape glazed one at Doughnut Time and savory pulled pork and gruyere creation at Hell of the North that are all worth sampling. 2. The Dumplings Locals have gone gaga for dumplings in recent years, and visitors are reaping (or rather, slurping) the benefits. Tim Ho Wan, the legendary, Michelin-starred dumpling house from Hong Kong, opened its first Melbourne location earlier this year. Then there's the unassuming, yet completely appetite-enrapturing, ShanDong MaMa, which opened just a few years back in a shopping arcade in Chinatown. Devour delicate pockets filled with mackerel, coriander, ginger and chives, made lovingly by Mama herself. If you simply can't get enough pork-and-prawn-filled parcels, there's David's in the Prahran area of the city, where you can get all-you-can-eat Shanghai-style dumplings on the weekends. Photo credit: Instagram @hochi_mama Melbourne, like New York, loves a mashup food (like the aforementioned cruffin); the experimental dumpling lover must try a phopling-the fusion of a Shanghai soup dumpling with Vietnamese pho. You can get them at Hochi Mama-a modern Vietnamese restaurant with an appreciation for 90s hip hop that opened late last year in the CBD (Central Business District). Eating Asian dumplings in Australia to a Naughty by Nature soundtrack has to be the pinnacle of fusion dining. 3. The Cocktails Photo credit: Courtesy of Eau de Ville There are few greater joys than ordering a cognac cocktail that comes with a mini basket of popcorn clipped to the side of the glass (seriously, you'd have to be hardened to the world to not squeal with delight at such a sight). Get the Pop Corn Flip, as it's named, at Eau De Vie, a speakeasy-style bar in the CBD. The bar also makes a gin concoction that's served with a paper airplane and a cotton candy "cloud" (the Aviator), as well as a chorizo-infused mezcal that comes in a bull's horn (the Banderillero). In general, impressively-inventive cocktails are not hard to find in Melbourne. Photo credit: Courtesy of Bar Americano Spots like Black Pearl Bar in Fitzroy and Bar Americano in the CBD further prove that Melbourne has become a mixology mecca. Then there's Four Pillars-the small gin distillery in the Yarra Valley (about an hour outside of Melbourne) that's made the area a prime source for spirits, too. By adding native botanicals like Tasmanian pepperberry and lemon myrtle, Four Pillars puts a uniquely Australian spin on tonic's best friend. 4. The Olive Oil It's been reported that up to 80% of the Italian olive oil on the market is fraudulent, meaning that brands are passing off cheaper, diluted oils as the good stuff (extra-virgin olive oil is prized because it's unrefined and antioxidant rich). It's a touchy subject in the olive oil world, where true producers of EVOO are out to prove their product is infinitely more delicious and worth its salt. Photo credit: Courtesy of Cobram Estate Enter Cobram Estate, the Australian olive oil brand taking the world (and our greens) by storm. Cobram, which is based in the Murray Valley outside of Melbourne, has been awarded the title of world's best olive oil three times at competition-a visit to the area is basically a pilgrimage to the olive oil holy land. You'll find Cobram's goods in top restaurants all over Oz, but if you want to sample the top-notch EVOO before you go or after you return, you're in luck: they've just recently planted additional groves in Sacramento and started selling in the U.S. 5. The Hotels If there were such a thing as hotel and food pairings (and why not start them now?), you'd probably want to combine a Melbourne donut tour with a fun-loving stay at Ovolo Laneways. Their two-bedroom penthouse suite has an outdoor Jacuzzi and, yes, an actual pinball machine. The hotel is in the CBD, which means you can easily stumble home from Asian-fusion hotspots like Chin Chin and Supernormal with a belly full of jungle curry and duck bao. Photo credit: Courtesy of Ovolo Laneways Photo credit: Courtesy of The Coppersmith Hotel In South Melbourne, crash at the Coppersmith and you'll be in daily striking distance of St Ali, one of the pioneering coffee roasters in town (their Bloody Marys are also quite remarkable, if you need a morning beverage with more gusto). But of course, you shouldn't have to leave a good hotel for a memorable meal. The Coppersmith's in-house bistro has a Cape Grim tri-tip that you'll dream about for the entire flight home-all 14+ hours. Kamela Souilmis son Wajdi was born in 2011, the year Tunisians took to the streets to demand the overthrow of their authoritarian government. I call him the child of the revolution, Souilmi says sarcastically, sitting next to the for sale sign on the wall of her run-down house as her 5-year-old plays in the dusty street. He was a healthy baby, and then his lungs started getting worse. Its because of the factory. Pollution, it seems, is one of the problems for which revolution has brought no answers. Souilmi, a 33-year-old mother of four, lives in El Khadra, a working-class neighborhood of unpaved roads and half-finished houses in the town of Kasserine, near the border with Algeria. The 2011 revolution may have transformed her countrys political culture, but Souilmi has yet to see any change in the conditions that torment her and the other members of her community. I want to run away from this place, she says. We cant stay here. Theres too much smoke. We wake up at night feeling asphyxiated, our eyes and noses burning. Like many residents of El Khadra, Souilmi is worried about the pollution that comes from the factory directly behind her house. The factory is owned by the National Company of Cellulose and Esparto Paper (SNCPA), which specializes in processing the esparto plant a rugged, perennial grass native to North Africa that is used for making rope, baskets, espadrilles, and other goods. The factory also makes paper and chemical products. At times, it also releases chlorine gas into the air. Many in El Khadra suffer from severe respiratory ailments, and they have good reason to believe that their illnesses are directly related to the plant. Souilmi wants to move because she thinks that her son has developed asthma from the fumes he has been breathing since birth. His mother is probably right to assume that her familys health would improve if she moves away from El Khadra. It turns out, though, that the damage reaches much farther than many residents realize. Story continues Naceur Mhamdi, deputy director of the Environmental Health Administration in Kasserine, says the pollution caused by the SNCPA isnt limited to Kasserine or the neighborhoods surrounding the factory. He notes that the noxious fumes spewing from its smokestacks can travel up to 50 miles away. These emissions, Mhamdi says, can seriously damage the human respiratory system. Map of central Tunisia Saida Yahyawi, another El Khadra resident, complains of chronic allergies and shortness of breath. In June 2009 she was taken to the local emergency room when a chlorine gas leak from the factory caused her to pass out. She wasnt the only victim. In 2010, Yahyawi, her husband, her siblings, and a group of other El Khadra residents sued the factory, demanding compensation for the health damage caused by the leak. The lawsuit resulted in a meager payoff: Residents got individual payments ranging from $500 to $2,000. Yassine Barkawi, a lawyer who has represented more than 50 victims from El Khadra, including Yahyawi and her family, explains that all the cases he represented are related to specific leakage incidents, and that so far there have been no lawsuits for the other types of pollution caused by the factory. The hard part, according to Barkawi, is proving the connection between factory emissions and damage to the health of El Khadras citizens. Even if its proved that the factory is releasing toxic substances into the environment, its hard to demonstrate beyond a shadow of doubt that those same substances made people sick. Lets say you have asthma, he says. How would you prove that your asthma has been caused by the factory? Maybe its genetic or related to something else. Its hard to legally prove a causal link between those diseases and the factory. A chronic lack of financial resources in the area means that there are still no scientific studies confirming any connection between poor health conditions in the area and emissions from the factory. Air pollution is just the tip of the iceberg. This same plant used mercury in its manufacturing process from 1962 to 1998, releasing between 250 tons and 350 tons of the toxic chemical into the environment. Over the years, it has seeped into a local river, the Oued Andalou, where it has made its way into the regions sandy soil and water table. Kasserines agricultural land and water table consistently show much higher levels of mercury than average, says Majed Hagui, an agricultural engineer serving as Kasserines regional environment representative. Hagui says the high mercury levels in the environment have had disastrous effects on the fauna and flora of the region. When it enters the food chain, mercury can also lead to liver damage, harm to reproductive organs, and problems in child development. According to Hagui, measures to remove the chemical are desperately needed but estimates put the cost of a demercurization process at 60 million dinars ($27 million). Tunisias cash-strapped government seems unwilling to devote much of its limited budget to the problem. And mercury isnt the only chemical substance that the factory has spewed into the Oued Andalou. The SNCPA also discharges liquid waste containing toxic and corrosive substances such as hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, and sodium hydroxide, which then flows into a nearby river that farmers use for irrigation. According to Mhamdi, the toxins are leaching into the soil in areas bordering the river. Because few farmers in the region are aware of the danger, they continue to use the contaminated water for irrigation. Exposure to liquid waste from the factory can cause kidney disease and gastrointestinal infections as well as interfering with human reproduction. To sum up, the environmental situation in Kasserine is catastrophic, Mhamdi says. Mohamed Taher Saheri, a farmer from the Kasserine province of Laarich, says his farmland has been affected by the water pollution because it is bordered by the Oued Andalou. Even though he doesnt use the river water to irrigate his trees, he said as many as 100 of his olive trees were damaged because of their proximity to the river. My trees used to produce 300 kilograms of olives each, Saheri says. Now we harvest between 30 and 50 kilograms. They produce less every year. I even had to destroy some trees. Tunisian law stipulates that polluters must fix the damage they do to the environment. But a common problem, which also applies to the SNCPA, is that many industries are owned by the government. The post-revolutionary Tunisian government so far appears unwilling to allocate the funds needed to cleanse the environment of the toxic materials the factory has released over the past half century. The plant itself has been facing financial problems, which means that investing in safer disposal of toxic waste is low on its list of priorities. Environmental engineer Morched Garbouj is president and co-founder of a Tunisian civic group, SOS Biaa, that targets environmental problems. He says the SNCPA factory was highly profitable until the late 1990s, but then lost its standing in the market because it failed to adjust to new technological developments in the paper industry. It should have been overhauled at the time, but no one in management was willing to undertake the necessary reforms. So the factory continues to rely on outdated infrastructure that is doing more harm that good. Its very existence there is dangerous, Garbouj says. Its a ticking bomb. The more we wait, the worse it gets, and the harder it becomes to find a solution. He explained that the highly centralized decision-making process in local government is at fault. While local activists are often eager to find solutions, officials see few incentives to take action. The government usually chooses to turn a blind eye to ecological issues, usually citing the need to create jobs and revive the economy, Garbouj says. The need to maintain jobs is vital in Kasserine, where the unemployment rate, at 26.2 percent, is more than 10 points higher than the national average of 15.4 percent. The SNCPA employs more than 500 people meaning that locals are inclined to think twice before demanding that the factory move or shut down. Mhamdi says there are many potential solutions to the environmental problems caused by the factory that dont have to involve closing it. Installing special filters could reduce up to 90 percent of toxic emissions into the atmosphere, while a water treatment station could neutralize toxins being released into the water. But there is no political will to tackle the problems. Our officials still dont think of pollution as a problem, Mhamdi says. If you ask anyone what Kasserines problems are, theyll probably say poverty and unemployment. But theyre wrong. Pollution is Kasserines top problem. If you want to respect human beings, respect them with clean water and clean food and not with jobs that hurt their health and destroy the environment. Repeated phone calls to the company and the ministry of environment went unreturned. 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. Crisis of Governance: Local Edition: In many ways, democratic Tunisia remains just as centralized as it was before the revolution. And thats a big problem for the mayor of Kasserine. Not Arab, and Proud of It: Tunisias long-suppressed Amazigh minority is finding its voice for the first time in years. The Tourism Crash: Terrorist attacks have left the sector reeling but its problems actually go much deeper. 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. The Mainstreaming of Tunisias Islamists: The Ennahda Partys latest moves put its political astuteness on show once again. I will not be voting for Donald Trump for president. This is not a decision I make lightly, for I am a lifelong Republican. But Donald Trump does not reflect historical Republican values nor the inclusive approach to governing that is critical to healing the divisions in our country. When the primary season started, it soon became apparent that, much like Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Trump was connecting with many Americans who felt that their voices were not being heard in Washington and who were tired of political correctness. But rejecting the conventions of political correctness is different from showing complete disregard for common decency. Trump did not stop with shedding the stilted campaign dialogue that often frustrates voters. Instead, he opted for a constant stream of denigrating comments, including demeaning Sen. John McCain's, R-Ariz., heroic military service and repeatedly insulting Fox News host Megyn Kelly. With the passage of time, I have become increasingly dismayed by his constant stream of cruel comments and his inability to admit error or apologize. But it was his attacks directed at people who could not respond on an equal footing - either because they do not share his power or stature or because professional responsibility precluded them from engaging at such a level - that revealed Trump as unworthy of being our president. My conclusion about Trump's unsuitability for office is based on his disregard for the precept of treating others with respect, an idea that should transcend politics. Instead, he opts to mock the vulnerable and inflame prejudices by attacking ethnic and religious minorities. Three incidents in particular have led me to the inescapable conclusion that Trump lacks the temperament, self-discipline and judgment required to be president. The first was his mocking of a reporter with disabilities, a shocking display that did not receive the scrutiny it deserved. I kept expecting Trump to apologize, at least privately, but he did not, instead denying that he had done what seemed undeniable to anyone who watched the video. At the time, I hoped that this was a terrible lapse, not a pattern of abuse. The second was Trump's repeated insistence that Gonzalo Curiel, a federal judge born and raised in Indiana, could not rule fairly in a case involving Trump University because of his Mexican heritage. For Trump to insist that Judge Curiel would be biased because of his ethnicity demonstrated a profound lack of respect not only for the judge but also for our constitutional separation of powers, the very foundation of our form of government. Again, I waited in vain for Trump to retract his words. Third was Donald Trump's criticism of the grieving parents of Army Capt. Humayun Khan, who was killed in Iraq. It is inconceivable that anyone, much less a presidential candidate, would attack two Gold Star parents. Rather than honoring their sacrifice and recognizing their pain, Trump disparaged the religion of the family of an American hero. And once again, he proved incapable of apologizing, of saying he was wrong. I am also deeply concerned that Trump's lack of self-restraint and his barrage of ill-informed comments would make an already perilous world even more so. It is reckless for a presidential candidate to publicly raise doubts about honoring treaty commitments with our allies. Trump's tendency to lash out when challenged further escalates the possibility of disputes spinning dangerously out of control. I had hoped that we would see a "new" Donald Trump as a general-election candidate - one who would focus on jobs and the economy, tone down his rhetoric, develop more thoughtful policies and, yes, apologize for ill-tempered rants. But the unpleasant reality that I have had to accept is that there will be no "new" Donald Trump, just the same candidate who will slash and burn and trample anything and anyone he perceives as being in his way or an easy scapegoat. Regrettably, his essential character appears to be fixed, and he seems incapable of change or growth. At the same time, I realize that Trump's success reflects profound discontent in this country, particularly among those who feel left behind by an unbalanced economy and who wonder whether their children will have a better life than their parents. As we have seen with the dissatisfaction with both major-party nominees - neither of whom I support - these passions are real and the public will demand action. Some will say that as a Republican I have an obligation to support my party's nominee. I have thought long and hard about that, for being a Republican is part of what defines me as a person. I revere the history of my party, most particularly the value it has always placed on the worth and dignity of the individual, and I will continue to work across the country for Republican candidates. It is because of Trump's inability and unwillingness to honor that legacy that I am unable to support his candidacy. From Town & Country The Couple Names: Darren Sukenik and Eric Rogen Wedding date: June 19, 2016 Where they're from: Both grooms are from NYC How they met: Through introduction, 3 times! The proposal: While both men knew within a week of dating that they would someday wed, they decided to wait a year to become engaged. Darren proposed to Eric exactly four seasons later at the stroke of midnight on December 21st, the first day of winter. Bride/groom gift: Darren and Eric, both collectors of contemporary art, exchanged two new pieces. The Aesthetic: Masculine, layered but chic and simple classic elegance. Something old, new, borrowed, and blue: Old: Darren and Eric both wore each other's fathers' gold watches. New: Their tuxedos. Borrowed: The grooms exchanged Verdura cufflinks for the nupitals. Blue: Eric wore navy and Darren's eyes served as his touch of blue. The Location The Rainbow Room, NYC. The Details Rings: Leslie Berman Custom Jewelers on Fifth Avenue Tuxedos: Both tuxes were custom designed by Isaia Invitations: "Red Bliss. We wanted to design something iconic that our guests would enjoy as a keepsake. We were inspired by the space and the late Deco and Machine Age design movements. Red Bliss presented our aesthetic in the most wonderful elegant way, while being true to the space and the aesthetic vision of the event." Number of guests: 215 Champagne served: Dom Perignon, Veuve Clicquot, Cristal Rose Cocktails served: Cucumber martini and caipriniha . They wanted something light and clean, to match their aesthetic. First dance song: Rather Be by Clean Bandit Honeymoon: The pair traveled to Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Hong Kong Floral Design and Arrangements: Ovando Caterer: The Rainbow Room Cake: "Our cake was designed by Ron Ben-Israel and magically doubled as a birthday cake for Eric's 40th birthday (at midnight on our wedding night). Ron's magic was as beautiful as it was delicious and was inspired by the room and our invitations." Story continues Videographer: Brian Marcus of Fred Marcus Studio Planner: Victoria Dubin Events Photographer: Brian Marcus of Fred Marcus Studio Racial violence is all over our TV screens. Nightly newscasts tell story after story of police shootings and civilian retaliation. Anti-Muslim rhetoric is an everyday feature on the presidential campaign trail. Amid the controversy and challenging conversations, the 2015-16 TV season offered several shows that turned out to be timelier than expected, offering debate and sometimes resolution on stories of racial divide. A closer examination of the limited series category, in particular, reads like a college course on race in America. In one way or another, all of the nominees managed to deal with everything from the African-American community's distrust of the police to the dangers of rich white privilege. Some were direct in their approach, such as History's reworking of the 1977 miniseries Roots and FX's The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story. Meanwhile, ABC's American Crime and FX's Fargo slid in the topic of racial politics as part of broader narrative arcs. Even AMC's The Night Manager, about an international arms dealer, gets at the paranoia and drive to violence fueled by fear of terrorism. "I think we're making a difference in that our show prides itself on taking conversations that used to be had behind closed doors and bringing them into people's living rooms," says American Crime executive producer Michael McDonald. "We're dealing with stuff that polite society still isn't comfortable talking about. When scripted television can reflect what's happening in America, that can help bring about changes." Adds Anthony Hemingway, a director and co-executive producer on The People v. O.J. Simpson: "As we realize the sad time we're in right now, we all need to help and positively impact and shift the conversation. All of us need to see things differently; it's time to let go of our old ways. And because of The People v. O.J. Simpson, I've heard about how we helped people communicate what's actually going on, which ultimately helps to overcome any obstacle." Story continues Hemingway has come a long way from his first impressions of the series. Before production began, he admits he "wasn't sure where we were going with the story and if it was part of the right intent." The director spent a lot of time talking with the series' writers, Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, to make sure The People v. O.J. Simpson focused on what he wanted it to depict: the roles race and privilege play in the criminal justice system. Once Hemingway read the scene in which Christopher Darden (Sterling K. Brown) tells Marcia Clark (Sarah Paulson), "You wanted a black face and not a black voice," he knew he wanted to stick with the project. Read more: Emmys: Courtney B. Vance Hopes 'People v. O.J. Simpson' Is "an Opportunity for Us to Talk" "I think we succeeded in showing that what made the case important is that it was ultimately about race and privilege," says Hemingway. "The story demonstrated that even as time passed after the trial, little has changed in the climate of America, with the hate crimes and tragedies. We are all starving for a hearing, for better, for change. From my side of the fence as a young black male, I appreciate being able to use my artistry to contribute to that discussion." Even though LeVar Burton had a better idea of what to expect from the new version of Roots, having starred as main character Kunta Kinte in the original, he admits he was unsure how relevant it would seem to the current discussion of race in American society. He insisted the production capitalize on "the updated scholarship that has really expanded the breadth and depth of the conversation about race," he says. That meant spending more time on Kinte's origin story to explore "what he and we as a people were losing in his enslavement." "The original Roots changed the way the country thought about slavery and became a very critical and important piece of this nation's cosmology," says Burton. "I believe that, once more, this series proved itself to be a critical piece of storytelling to help us deal with conflicts in our culture based on race right now. I'd say the presence of both Roots and The People v. O.J. Simpson this year spoke very clearly to our real need to figure things out. Television really can make a difference." Burton has watched as the issues Roots initially explored nearly 40 years ago "continue to play out in public discourse. There's the Black Lives Matter movement; there's an awareness of the proliferation of men of color being incarcerated," he says. "Why is that? What are the causes? These are not new problems, but with some of the programming on television now, they are being presented in a new way for people to understand." Read more: Feinberg Forecast: Breaking Down the Emmys' Best Actress Races That desire to be involved in the conversation was part of the inspiration behind American Crime, says McDonald. The first season, for instance, was a response to the 2012 shooting death of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin. "What is happening in the world around us informs what we do with the show, and we are able to reflect what's going on as it's happening," says McDonald. "Because all of these shootings and protests are in the news so much, you're naturally going to see more people talking about what's going on in a creative space. There's a freedom we feel because people see what's happening on the nightly news, and we get to acknowledge it now." The second season of American Crime, which centered on a sexual assault involving high school students, contrasted the white victim's lower-middle-class background with the wealthy African-American family of one of the accused assailants - all as a way to play with the audience's expectations and give, as McDonald explains, "a personal exposure to what it's like to be a black family of means and education. I'm not sure that's ever been portrayed in this way. There were the Huxtables, but they didn't talk about race." The Hollywood community experiences the same conflicts and issues, notes McDonald. "I've talked to writers and directors and actors who are black and successful yet still deal with racial backlash," he says. "Their race is how they're first defined when they walk into a room. And that is something worth exploring." American Crime takes place in present America, giving it a feeling of currency and urgency. And although the events in Roots and The People v. O.J. Simpson unfold in the past, the racial divide they highlight remains relevant in 2016. Even Night Manager, based on a 1993 John le Carre novel, was updated so its story would feel more contemporary. Read more: 'Roots' Reborn: How a Slave Saga Was Remade for the Black Lives Matter Era Season two of Fargo, however, is set during the late 1970s, and most of the story takes place in a very white Midwestern world. At first glance it seemed an unlikely vehicle to explore any racial issues, let alone those relevant in 2016. However, according to executive producer Warren Littlefield, series creators hoped to "tap into the idea that 1979 was an era of change, where people who hadn't had a seat at the table before were now fighting for that opportunity." That notion inspired the character Mike Milligan (Bokeem Woodbine), an African-American trying to move up the ladder within a white-led criminal organization. "It was very much in [creator] Noah Hawley's mind to take advantage of this time period and look at the changes that were upon our nation then," says Littlefield. "Mike Milligan was definitely part of that. We had a much larger canvas to work on in season two, which allowed a story like his to have some relevancy to who we are as a country. We didn't have the sort of throughline that The People v. O.J. Simpson had because our stories were broader, and exploring that territory scared everyone. Would it resonate? Would it have weight? We just hoped that it would have some impact on the conversation about race today. And just because a show isn't set in present day, that doesn't mean it can't be relevant in present day." Despite the differences among the stories they tell, the limited series nominees have one thing in common: Their creators feel an obligation to "open the conversation about race and privilege," as Littlefield says. "Millions of people are watching the content we make, so we have the ability to get people talking at dinner tables and in bars. That can only lead to better things." Adds McDonald: "We're given this opportunity to be on the greatest stage, where you have a reach across the world, and when you are given that opportunity, I truly believe that as a citizen of the world you must take advantage of it. Maybe you can make the world just a little bit better - you can change the conversation we're having about race or any issue. I can't be a cop or a soldier, but that doesn't mean I can't expand the important discussions we need to have." This story first appeared in a special Emmy issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe. According to sources, Italian oil firm Eni SpA E has concluded the deal related to the sale of a multi-billion dollar stake in its planned Mozambique liquefied natural gas development to ExxonMobil Corporation XOM. Interestingly, neither has an official announcement been made as yet nor is likely to be made in several months to come, at ExxonMobils behest. Eni too refused to reveal further details. Eni has already made a substantial discovery of offshore gas reserves in Area 4. The huge discovery requires a giant land-based LNG export plant with proximity to the Asian and the Middle Eastern growing markets in order to become a potentially highly-rewarding project. The long running discussion to get a partner with huge spending power has been delayed due to differences over valuations owing to decline in oil and gas prices. Eni sold 20% of its Area 4 license to Chinas CNPC for $4.2 billion in 2013. However, oil and gas prices have fallen by more than 50% since then. In Oct 2015, ExxonMobil was awarded three offshore exploration license blocks located south of Enis discoveries. This gave a new dimension to development prospects of the area. ENI SPA-ADR Price ENI SPA-ADR Price | ENI SPA-ADR Quote Initially, Eni did not intend to sell more than 1015% of its stake in Area 4 permit, where it discovered 85 trillion cubic feet of gas. However, the company is reconsidering its decision now and has raised the possibility of it selling about 25% stake in the permit. After much contemplation, both parties have finally reached an agreement. According to the deal ExxonMobil would get its preferred operating stake in the onshore LNG export plant, while Eni would retain control over the Area 4 gas fields feeding it. Eni is anticipated to export gas as LNG from at least one floating offshore platform in the Coral field development in Area 4. However, it will mainly concentrate on the larger land-based plants. Notably, ExxonMobil will have no share from the Coral field and Eni will sell LNG from the Phase I development of this field to BP. Eni currently holds a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Other well-ranked players from the energy sector are Enbridge, Inc. ENB and Total SA TOT. Both these stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report TOTAL FINA SA (TOT): Free Stock Analysis Report ENI SPA-ADR (E): Free Stock Analysis Report EXXON MOBIL CRP (XOM): Free Stock Analysis Report ENBRIDGE INC (ENB): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research On Aug 8, 2016, we issued an updated research report on energy company, EQT Corporation EQT. EQT Corp. is a low-cost producer with a strategic midstream presence. The company's superior cost structure and above-average growth may ease concerns about struggling natural gas prices. EQT Corp. is the general partner of EQT Midstream Partners, L.P. EQM. The formation of the partnership has benefited EQT Corp. as it has been able to transfer lower yielding midstream assets, maintain control over distribution, speed up acreage development and reallocate its capital to produce superior returns. Thus, the partnership has been indirectly acting as a funding vehicle for the company. EQT Corp. has halved its exploration and production (E&P) capital spending from the 2015 levels owing to reduced well costs. The company now estimates E&P capital spending of $1 billion. In spite of this, the company has increased its production guidance to 730740 billion cubic feet equivalent (Bcfe) from 710730 Bcfe projected earlier. This reflects its efficiency and we expect the companys increased production to further support growth. EQT CORP Price and Consensus EQT CORP Price and Consensus | EQT CORP Quote EQT Corp. acquired 62,500 acres in the core Marcellus development area of West Virginia from Statoil in Jul 2016. Most of the newly purchased acreage connects with the companys current acreage and would facilitate acceleration of production. This in turn should boost revenues. However, EQT Corp. lacks geographical diversification as its resources are concentrated in the Appalachian Basin. This increases the risk exposure of the company as any disruption in the region will affect its financials. Due to its upstream operations, EQT Corp.s profit is influenced by commodity price fluctuations. Low realizations affected the companys revenues and earnings, which declined sharply from the prior-year quarter levels. With natural gas prices remaining weak, this trend is likely to continue. Though EQT Corp. has increased its activity level for second half of 2016, the take by the company to boost activity in the Upper Devonian area instead of the more prolific and economic Marcellus wells was startling. This is the first time the company will be drilling Upper Devonian wells since abandoning it in late 2015. Zacks Rank and Stocks to Consider EQT Corp. holds a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Other well-ranked players from the energy sector are Enbridge, Inc. ENB and Total SA TOT. Both of these stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report EQT CORP (EQT): Free Stock Analysis Report TOTAL FINA SA (TOT): Free Stock Analysis Report ENBRIDGE INC (ENB): Free Stock Analysis Report EQT MIDSTRM PTR (EQM): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research From Cosmopolitan Trans women are in the middle of a hormone crisis due to a nation-wide shortage of injectable estrogen. Out.com reports that 18 months ago, the 40-milligram dosage of injectable estrogen ran out and then was never put back on the market. The 40-milligram dosage (as opposed to the 10-milligram and 20-milligram alternatives) is the amount doctors most commonly prescribe to trans women, and this shortage is part of a worrying trend involving their medication. While doctors maintain that pills, patches, and injections are equally as effective, injections are often the preferred method. "Everyone knows that if you go from pills to injections, that's when you really start noticing changes," says Brooklyn performer Charlene Incarnate. "Everyone more or less prefers the injectables." Doctors have been compensating by doubling up on the 20-milligram dosage of Delestrogen or its generic counterpart, estradiol valerate, but now that's experiencing a shortage as well, and it's expected to last until October. What's left is the 10-milligram, but most doctors won't prescribe it, since it means administering four times as much liquid and can be extremely painful. A spokesperson for Delestrogen manufacturer Par Pharmaceuticals, Heather Zoumas Lubeski, told Out.com that the shortage occurred when their suppliers stopped producing the material. While they've found a new manufacturer, they're still waiting on FDA approval. "Once that happens, they can begin to ship immediately," she said. Until then, however, doctors are worried about the safety of their patients. While they've been given pills and patches for the interim, professionals fear the women will turn back to "street" methods of injections. "If you look at the history of trans medicine, hormones were readily available on the street, but you never knew what you were getting," said Anthony Vavasis, director of medicine at Callen Lorde, and LGBT community health center in New York City. "Patients would report how they felt on [street] injections and it was very suspicious that it may not have been what they thought it was ... The trans community has faced so much marginalization, historically, that we don't want this to become another way that happens." Story continues Unfortunately, doctors believe this shortage speaks to the medical community's misunderstanding of the importance of hormones to trans people. "What if tomorrow we announced, 'There's no more insulin available for diabetics?'" Vavasis points out. "How would that play?" This disparity could result in real-world consequences, which doctors fear will become all too apparent in the coming months, or until this shortage is fixed. Follow Kathryn on Twitter. COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - The European Union should end accession negotiations with Turkey completely due to President Tayyip Erdogan's "undemocratic initiatives" and his support for reintroducing the death penalty, Denmark's government party said on Tuesday. "The red line is crossed for what should be a minimum for an EU candidate country," foreign policy spokesman for the Liberal Party, Michael Aastrup Jensen, told Reuters. "It should lead not only to a pause in the negotiations but to a downright stop, and a removal of Turkey from the list of candidate countries," he said. The foreign ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comments. On Sunday, Austria's foreign minister threatened to block EU negotiations with Turkey. (Reporting by Teis Jensen; Editing by Louise Ireland) Peaky Blinders fans were likely thrilled this May when the BBC handed its hit show a double endorsement, renewing the historical gangland drama for not one but two seasons, taking it to four and five, before season three had even finished. Just over a month later, Channel 4 did the same with Catastrophe, recommissioning the close-to-the-bone relationship comedy for seasons three and four, in one go. In Britain, such a move is almost unheard of. A network virtually never gives the green light to a new season until the current run is over - and has proved successful. And when it does, it's for a single season. In Britain, double bookings just aren't done. "It's so un-BBC, it's fantastic," Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight told The Hollywood Reporter. Knight said being handed two seasons gave him a far bigger arc to play with and made him feel as if he would be "writing 12 hours of television rather than six." Something has changed in the U.K. television market and across Europe. The actions of deep-pocketed streaming services Netflix and Amazon are forcing European networks to change how they do business if they want to compete. For some, this means taking bigger risks and moving fast to avoid losing a hit series to an SVOD competitor. For others, it means building alliances across borders to pool resources. How "Black Mirror-Gate" Changed Everything For the U.K., what happened with Black Mirror, a cult sci-fi series created by British writer Charlie Brooker, served as a cautionary tale. The dark anthology series first aired on Channel 4 in 2011, earning critical and ratings acclaim. Channel 4 renewed it for a second season in 2013 but put off a third-season commission. Along came Netflix. The SVOD giant picked up U.S. rights for Mirror in 2014. Word-of-mouth, and Netflix's master algorithm, soon made the show a hit, winning over an American fan base, including the likes of Stephen King. Story continues Sensing it could have another global phenomenon on its hands, Netflix swooped in, commissioning a 12-part third season of Black Mirror last year for a reported $40 million. (The first two seasons were three episodes each). Netflix took worldwide rights for the new Mirror, including in the U.K., leaving Channel 4 in the dark (and suitably pissed). Read more: MIPTV: Why the 'Black Mirror' Deal Marks a Turning Point for Netflix "I think it's apt to say that, particularly in the U.K., programmers have been burned by not renewing things quickly," says Mike Goodman, director of digital media strategies at Strategy Analytics. "They've opened up that door to allow Netflix to come in and steal some programming." Netflix's strategy of "stealing" hit U.K. shows differs from its U.S. approach where, so far, the company has revived series after they've been canceled by their original networks (think Gilmore Girls, Arrested Development and Full House). But this is probably more a contractual factor in the U.S., with its multitude of competing networks (something the U.K. isn't used to), meaning right of first refusal is something automatically written into deals. But less than half a year after Black Mirror-gate, Channel 4 and the BBC were determined not to get shut out again from one of their own hit series. The danger is real: Peaky Blinders is a success on Netflix in the U.S. and Catastrophe is one of the hottest new shows on Amazon Prime's American streaming service. Speaking to THR about the Catastrophe renewal, Channel 4 controller Jay Hunt said the deal was about "showing confidence in the teams and allowing them to secure the talent to grow a show into a hit over the long term." Peaky Blinders and Catastrophe aren't the only British shows benefiting from the Netflix effect. The past few months have also seen Line of Duty, Jed Mercurio's acclaimed British police procedural series, which Netflix also carries, renewed for seasons four and five by the BBC, while the broadcaster announced a return of its period drama Poldark, which streams on Amazon Prime in the U.S., for a third outing before the second had even started. The Anti-Netflix Alliance Across Europe, established national broadcasters have decided the best way to fight off Netflix is to band together. Regional pay-TV giants Canal Plus and 21st Century Fox-controlled Sky, which operates in the U.K., Ireland, Italy, Germany and Austria, have reportedly held meetings to discuss pooling their budgets to jointly bid on top series for the European market, to prevent Netflix from snatching them away in global licensing agreements like the company's recent global deal for the new Star Trek series. Read more: Netflix Scores Exclusive International Rights to CBS All Access 'Star Trek' Series CanalPlus parent Vivendi is looking to go further, announcing plans to buy the pay-TV division of Italy's Mediaset, in a bid to create a pan-European operation to challenge Netflix. The deal, announced in April, has stalled, with both sides currently unable to agree on terms, but the logic behind it is clear: outflank Netflix by simultaneously buying rights to top series in multiple territories. It marks a sea change from the traditional TV licensing business, which had always been done country by country. Wuaki.tv, a Pan-European video-on-demand service owned by Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten, is following a similar strategy. The SVOD service operates across seven European countries and is strongest in Spain, where it boasts 2.5 million subscribers. And it isn't just Europe where Netflix competitors are looking to team up. Viaplay, a Nordic streaming service run by Sweden's Modern Times Group, has been in talks with U.S. group Hulu, Australian SVOD service Stan and New Zealand's Lightbox with an eye to forming a bidding alliance. Sky is talking to Canada's Bell Media and Foxtel in Australia about a similar arrangement and has invested $45 million in iFlix, a Netflix competitor that is strong in Southeast Asia. European broadcasters are also teaming up to finance in-house series with budgets that can (almost) match those of Netflix originals. Sky and Canal Plus have partnered on high-end shows, such as thriller series The Last Panthers and crime serial The Tunnel, and threw in with HBO for upcoming drama The Young Pope, starring Jude Law and directed by Oscar-winner Paolo Sorrentino (The Great Beauty). In a ground-breaking move, Sky in Germany has thrown in with local public broadcaster ARD to bankroll Babylon Berlin, an ambitious period drama set in 1920s Germany. "A European broadcaster, by themselves, struggles to finance a series with a budget of $3 million - $4 million an episode," a veteran European TV producer told THR. "The only way to do it is to band together." Elsewhere, European commercial broadcasters are hoping to fend off Netflix by investing in local content, an area where Reed Hastings' streaming giant still lags behind. Maxdome, an online video portal run by German broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1, recently announced its first original series, a comedy from local stars Christian Ulmen and Fahri Yardim. In Scandinavia, Viaplay has green-lit Swedish Dicks, its first home-grown series, which will star Keanu Reeves, Peter Stormare and Swedish comedian Johan Glans. The comedy is currently shooting in Los Angeles and will premiere on the Nordic SVOD service this fall. Despite some high-profile investments in original series in France, Italy and Germany, the vast majority of Netflix's library in Europe is in English. That's a problem, particularly in big territories like Germany, Italy and Spain, where the audience prefers its shows dubbed or home-grown. Netflix so far has seen its strongest European growth in countries that either speak English (the U.K. and Ireland) or are used to watching series in the original language with subtitles (The Netherlands and Scandinavia). In fact, analyst Ian Whittaker of London-based Liberum, argues that Netflix is not a real threat to European broadcasters. He points to Netflix's weaker-than-expected second-quarter results, which showed a slowdown in subscriber growth as an indication that "Netflix might have reached a saturated market" and that the streaming giant is "not a real threat to free-to-air broadcasters as its offering seems to be complementary." Read more: Why is Netflix Struggling Overseas? From Esquire Feel the McMullinmentum. The big noise on tout les 'Toobz Monday morning was that this guy, Evan McMullin, a career spook who lives in Utah, announced that he would be running for president specifically as an anti-He, Trump candidate. This came at the same time as He, Trump was preparing to reset his campaign for the 400th time, this time before the Detroit Economic Club, selling out every sucker who thought of him even for a moment as a "populist," as we will see later in the day. Anyway, McMullin got some nice run on the morning cable news shows. As Tiger Beat On The Potomac informs us, his current gig is directing policy for the denizens of the monkeyhouse that prevails on one side of the Capitol. "In a year where Americans have lost faith in the candidates of both major parties, it's time for a generation of new leadership to step up," McMullin said in a statement to ABC News. "It's never too late to do the right thing, and America deserves much better than either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton can offer us. I humbly offer myself as a leader who can give millions of disaffected Americans a conservative choice for President." "Humbly" is a nice touch, I have to admit. Would it be overly cynical to wonder if behind this sudden emergence of his caucus' policy director as an anti-Trump independent candidate we would find the fine hand of Speaker Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny-starver from the state of Wisconsin? Surely that nice boy from Janesville who used to flip burgers for a living wouldn't think of such a thing? Anyway: McMullin, who has never held elected office, was an operations officer for the CIA for 11 years from 1999 to 2010, according to his LinkedIn page. He earned an MBA in 2011 from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, the alma mater of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump. He has also worked at Goldman Sachs, as a volunteer refugee resettlement officer for the United Nations and as a deckhand on a commercial fishing boat in Alaska. Story continues Wait. Excuse me? He has also worked at Goldman Sachs That's what I thought you said. The folks at Barbarian Capital caught the screen cap, though. Prez candidate @Evan_McMullin has deleted Goldman Sachs from his bio... I thought it was essential for public office pic.twitter.com/PZXm83hzsK - Barbarian Capital (@BarbarianCap) August 8, 2016 Give him credit. He already barbers his resume like a pro. I don't have any problem with anybody's attempt to ratfck the campaign of El Caudillo de Mar-A-Lago, which, after all, takes advice from Roger Stone and Alex Jones. I wish candidate McMullin well. I suspect he will attain a kind of instant credibility and it's possible he won't lack for money. The conservatives who have not yet been assimilated are floundering and they're desperate enough to latch onto anyone. And if Ryan really is behind this, I will have to give him credit for a kind of political animal cunning I didn't think he had in him. But, dear god, Republicans. You nominated He, Trump. Take your beating and regroup. Click here to respond to this post on the official Esquire Politics Facebook page. For the sake of the long-suffering constituents in his district and other Nebraskans across the state, Sen. Bill Kintner ought to resign his seat. He has a job to do as a state senator. After being fined for using his state laptop for a cyber-sex masturbation session with a woman he met online, Kintners effectiveness as a legislator will be zilch. Kintner claims that he owes only God and his wife apologies. Hes wrong. He asked constituents for their vote so he could represent them. At this point hes fit to represent no one and nothing. He seems to think that the scandal will just blow over. He just doesnt get it. Kintners legislative career has often veered into buffoonery. Now its taken a detour of a sordid nature. His continued presence in the Legislature pollutes the chamber. Regardless of how lenient one might be in judging Kintners sexual proclivities, his use of the state laptop in the cyber-sex session shows an alarming lack of judgment. He left himself wide-open to extortion. Even at his best Kintner has had little success as a legislator. The number of bills that he has introduced that became law can be counted on one finger. His contributions to legislative debate are so outrageous that theres a Facebook page devoted to Kintner quotes. His dubious record as a state senator includes a bill that would have prevented state and local agencies from adopting policies traceable to Agenda 21. The tinfoil hat brigade said Agenda 21 was a United Nations plot to take over the world. Actually it was a voluntary plan signed by President George H.W. Bush to promote sustainable ways to conserve resources. His antics included posting a picture of a beheaded woman on his Facebook page to promote the death penalty. So Kintners constituents in the Papillion area wont be losing much if he steps down voluntarily. Now that that the sleazy incident has made public there have been numerous calls for him to resign, including Gov. Pete Ricketts and fellow state senators. Kintner, apparently, has no shame. He even joked during an interview with KLIN talk show host Coby Mach on the air that the scandal would have a positive effect in distracting legislators from growing government. Kintner guffawed at the thought. Enough. If Kintner wont resign, the Legislature needs to distance itself from him. Of the three options impeachment, expulsion (which takes 33 votes) and censure the Journal Star editorial board considers censure to be the most achievable. Only two people have been impeached in the states history. In the most recent case, former University of Nebraska Regent Dave Hergert was impeached by the narrowest of margins after he was fined $33,512 for violating campaign laws. He was removed from office by a unanimous vote of the Nebraska Supreme Court. If sufficient votes cannot be found for impeachment or expulsion, state senators could add some teeth to censure by stripping Kintner of all committee memberships a move that would make clear to all that Kintner will not be allowed to further befoul the legislative body. The best option, however, remains obvious Kintner should step down. whaling The people of the Faroe Islands, 18 mountainous islands off the coast of Northern Europe, have a longstanding tradition that has drawn ire from animal advocates: From as early as 1584, the Faroese have been killing pilot whales by the hundreds. And this whaling becomes even more prevalent in the summertime. In the past few weeks, photos and accounts of the annual whale drive have been surfacing on social media and in the news, with troubling images of blood-stained water and beached carcasses. Conservation groups, like PETA UK and Sea Shepherd, are strong opponents of the whaling, which is illegal in Denmark. But the Faroe Islands have laws independent of Denmark's laws that animal advocates from other countries are currently protesting against. Whaling on the Faroe Islands is not for sport or spectacle. The meat and blubber are split amongst the population for consumption. The Faroese get a lot of international backlash, but they are keen on defending this longstanding tradition. Even the evidence suggests that while it may seem cruel, it's actually sustainable. According to Whales and Whaling in the Faroe Islands, the yearly catch is around 800 animals. And the total population in the area around the islands is approximately 100,000 pilot whales. Michael Moore, a senior research specialist in biology at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, weighed in on the discussion. "A mortality rate of 0.8% is very unlikely to be unsustainable given that marine mammal populations have the potential to grow at annual rates significantly higher than that number given adequate prey and lack of other overwhelming mortality factors," Moore told Business Insider. "However, this species is highly sociable and the impact on survivors of removal of social subunits is not understood at all." The ecological effects aside, the real issue for islanders may be that due to decades of ocean pollution from around the world the whale meat coming eaten in the Faroe Islands is contaminated with mercury, which can be highly toxic to humans. Story continues What the hunt is like In the end, it's the way in which is hunt is conducted that's part of what seems so hard for people outside the Faroese community to understand, though the Faroese themselves say that it's regulated in a way to cause as little suffering as possible During the hunt, boats and jet skis corral the pilot whales into the shallows, where men are waiting to hook the blowhole and pull them onto shore. They then cut the spinal cord with a knife. While the hunt is meant for pilot whales, other animals get taken down, too. EcoWatch reported that white-sided and bottlenose dolphins are often slaughtered in the events. Orcas are even trapped in the chaos and killed sometimes, as well. The future of the hunt Despite the recent protests, this traditional hunting method has been used on the 18 Faroe Islands for over 400 years. It doesn't appear to be going away anytime soon. "This hunt will only stop when the Faroese deem it in their best interest to do so. I suspect that vocal opposition from other cultures will only reinforce their will to continue," said Moore. "There have been legitimate public health concerns raised for the human health of those that consume these animals." The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society reported that pilot whales in the Faroe Islands region carried high levels of mercury in their meat and blubber. Consumption of this contaminated whale meat has been linked to neurological delays and other development problems in children, as well as an increased risk ofcardiovascular problems and Parkinson's disease in adults. In 2008, whale meat was banned from Faroe Islands hospitals, but the conservation society says that otherwise progress on this issue has been "painfully slow." Faroe Islands Whaling Toxic whales The protests of outsiders aside, however, it's possible that participating communities may slowly start to lose interest in whaling if whale meat is seen as harmful. "For centuries the pilot whale has been an important part Faroese life both in regard to food and culture," a team of Faroe Island government researchers wrote in 2012. Yet based on "the latest research results ... the conclusion from a human health perspective must be to recommend that pilot whale is no longer used for human consumption." "It is with great sadness that this recommendation is provided," the researchers added. NOW WATCH: How much sex happy couples have every month More From Business Insider By Arno Schuetze and Denny Thomas FRANKFURT/HONG KONG (Reuters) - British oil major BP is seeking buyers for its 50 percent stake in Chinese petrochemicals joint venture SECCO, its largest investment in China, in a deal sources said could fetch $2-$3 billion. State-owned China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec), which owns the other half of the venture and has a right of first refusal, said it was discussing the conditions put forward by BP, but has made no decision. BP is working with Morgan Stanley to sell its shareholding in the SECCO venture as part of a drive to cash out of businesses where it lacks control, three sources familiar with the matter said. A successful deal would mark BP's first significant exit from a business in China. Situated in Caojing near Shanghai, SECCO is China's largest petrochemicals refinery and was built at a cost of $2.7 billion, according to BP's website. BP shares were up 1.1 percent in morning trade, outpacing a 0.3 percent rise in the FTSE index, as investors digested news that would bolster its cash position and underpin dividends. Sinopec's Shanghai-listed shares were up 1 percent, slightly outperforming the broader China market. A London-based BP spokesman declined to comment. Morgan Stanley was not available for immediate comment. SECCO, a venture formed in 2001, produces ethylene and propylene, which are used to make resins, plastics and synthetic rubbers. Bankers said Chinese state enterprises were unlikely to step in to buy the stake as executives at many of them are distracted by anti-corruption probes. BP's stake has been marketed to existing refinery operators in China, including companies from Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Europe, the sources added. Bankers said the stake would also attract interest from Chinese private firms stepping up their presence in petrochemicals. "Even in this low oil price environment, this is one auction that will attract a lot of demand. With most SOEs going slow on M&A, Chinese private enterprises will be active," one Asia-based oil and gas banker said. Story continues The refining and chemicals businesses have been a bright spot for M&A in the oil sector since the sharp drop in oil prices more than two years ago. Lower oil prices have boosted refining profits and demand for oil products around the world. BP, like other global oil and gas companies, has been sharpening its focus on costs and core businesses as it reels from lower oil prices. U.S. rival Chevron and Britain's BG Group have also recently sold stakes in Asian ventures as they return their focus to their core home markets. BP has sold more than $50 billion of assets since the deadly 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill in order to pay for clean-up costs and legal bills. This year, it plans to offload between $3 billion and $5 billion worth of assets, of which $1.9 billion has been agreed, it said when releasing second-quarter earnings last month. (Reporting by Arno Schuetze in FRANKFURT and Denny Thomas in HONG KONG; Additional reporting by Ron Bousso in LONDON and Tris Pan in HONG KONG; Editing by Will Waterman) * Four-times Olympic champion defends swimmer over doping * "Strange atmosphere" recalls era of superpower tension * Salnikov suggests American King doesn't understand rules * Row affects Russian swimmers but "makes us stronger" By Mark Trevelyan RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Russian swimming chief Vladimir Salnikov said on Tuesday the atmosphere surrounding his team at the Olympics reminded him of the Cold War, and criticised American breaststroke champion Lilly King for attacking the integrity of her Russian rival. In a tense showdown on Monday evening, King defeated Russia's Yulia Efimova, who has twice been suspended for doping violations, and stood by comments describing her as a drug cheat. The Russian was loudly booed by the Rio crowd. "I think the whole atmosphere is very strange," said Salnikov, president of the Russian Swimming Federation, who won four swimming gold medals in the 1980s during a period of U.S.-Soviet tensions that prompted the two superpowers to boycott each other's Olympics. He said the situation now was similar to the past "when we had the situation with the Cold War and everything was like Russia (versus) America and a lot of people were putting oil on the flame to make it higher". "This is another round, but I think we will survive it," he told Reuters in an interview. More than 100 Russian athletes, including the entire track and field and weightlifting teams, were banned from the Rio Olympics after independent reports for the World Anti-Doping Agency found evidence of widespread state-sponsored cheating. Russia argues it is taking steps to clean up sport and is being singled out for political reasons. The issue of doping overshadowed the build-up to the Olympics and, far from dying down since they opened on Friday, has escalated as swimmers like King and Australian freestyle champion Mack Horton have directly branded rivals as cheats. The controversy is personified in the figure of Efimova, who has been booed at each of three appearances and broke down in tears after finishing second to King on Monday night. At an awkward news conference alongside Efimova, the 19-year-old King said: "I do think it is a victory for clean sport and just to show that you can do it while ... competing clean your whole life." "NEED TO BE HONOURABLE" Salnikov said the American was entitled to her opinion, but noted that Efimova had been cleared to compete last week by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the highest appeal tribunal, and was therefore fully entitled to take part. He implied King's comments were unsporting. "Does she consider the CAS decision is wrong?" he asked. "She has a long road to go in sport, I hope, and I think in the end she will understand there are certain rules, there's a procedure that regulates the participation of athletes. Of course she has the right to her opinion, but you need to be objective and you need to be honourable." Efimova told reporters on Monday she had not slept for weeks because of the stress of not knowing whether or not she would be able to swim in Rio. "Efimova has been through a very severe ordeal, and in an atmosphere of distrust and uncertainty I think she showed very strong character - resilience and focus - and so I think she deserved her medal," said Salnikov. "She has come through very tough times and I'm sure she will cope." 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 earlier this year. She is due to compete again on Wednesday in the heats of the women's 200m breaststroke, in which she won an Olympic bronze medal in London in 2012. Salnikov said the stress and uncertainty of the build-up had affected the Russian team as a whole, but his athletes were bearing up well. "I think most of them have withstood this test," he said. "What didn't kill us makes us stronger." (Reporting by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Alison Williams) By Greg Torode HONG KONG (Reuters) - Vietnam has discreetly fortified several of its islands in the disputed South China Sea with new mobile rocket launchers capable of striking China's runways and military installations across the vital trade route, according to Western officials. Diplomats and military officers told Reuters that intelligence shows Hanoi has shipped the launchers from the Vietnamese mainland into position on five bases in the Spratly islands in recent months, a move likely to raise tensions with Beijing. The launchers have been hidden from aerial surveillance and they have yet to be armed, but could be made operational with rocket artillery rounds within two or three days, according to the three sources. Vietnam's Foreign Ministry said the information was "inaccurate", without elaborating. Deputy Defence Minister, Senior Lieutenant-General Nguyen Chi Vinh, told Reuters in Singapore in June that Hanoi had no such launchers or weapons ready in the Spratlys but reserved the right to take any such measures. "It is within our legitimate right to self-defense to move any of our weapons to any area at any time within our sovereign territory," he said. The move is designed to counter China's build-up on its seven reclaimed islands in the Spratlys archipelago. Vietnam's military strategists fear the building runways, radars and other military installations on those holdings have left Vietnam's southern and island defenses increasingly vulnerable. Military analysts say it is the most significant defensive move Vietnam has made on its holdings in the South China Sea in decades. Hanoi wanted to have the launchers in place as it expected tensions to rise in the wake of the landmark international court ruling against China in an arbitration case brought by the Philippines, foreign envoys said. The ruling last month, stridently rejected by Beijing, found no legal basis to China's sweeping historic claims to much of the South China Sea. Vietnam, China and Taiwan claim all of the Spratlys while the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei claim some of the area. "China's military maintains close surveillance of the situation in the sea and air space around the Spratly islands," China's defense ministry said in a faxed statement to Reuters. "We hope the relevant country can join with China in jointly safeguarding peace and stability in the South China Sea region." The United States is also monitoring developments closely. "We continue to call on all South China Sea claimants to avoid actions that raise tensions, take practical steps to build confidence, and intensify efforts to find peaceful, diplomatic solutions to disputes," a State Department official said. STATE-OF-THE-ART SYSTEM Foreign officials and military analysts believe the launchers form part of Vietnam's state-of-art EXTRA rocket artillery system recently acquired from Israel. EXTRA rounds are highly accurate up to a range of 150 km (93 miles), with different 150 kg (330 lb) warheads that can carry high explosives or bomblets to attack multiple targets simultaneously. Operated with targeting drones, they could strike both ships and land targets. That puts China's 3,000-metre runways and installations on Subi, Fiery Cross and Mischief Reef within range of many of Vietnam's tightly clustered holdings on 21 islands and reefs. While Vietnam has larger and longer range Russian coastal defense missiles, the EXTRA is considered highly mobile and effective against amphibious landings. It uses compact radars, so does not require a large operational footprint - also suitable for deployment on islets and reefs. "When Vietnam acquired the EXTRA system, it was always thought that it would be deployed on the Spratlys...it is the perfect weapon for that," said Siemon Wezeman, a senior arms researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). There is no sign the launchers have been recently test fired or moved. China took its first Spratlys possessions after a sea battle against Vietnam's then weak navy in 1988. After the battle, Vietnam said 64 soldiers with little protection were killed as they tried to protect a flag on South Johnson reef - an incident still acutely felt in Hanoi. In recent years, Vietnam has significantly improved its naval capabilities as part of a broader military modernization, including buying six advanced Kilo submarines from Russia. Carl Thayer, an expert on Vietnam's military at the Australian Defence Force Academy, said the deployment showed the seriousness of Vietnam's determination to militarily deter China as far as possible. "China's runways and military installations in the Spratlys are a direct challenge to Vietnam, particularly in their southern waters and skies, and they are showing they are prepared to respond to that threat," he said. "China is unlikely to see this as purely defensive, and it could mark a new stage of militarization of the Spratlys." Trevor Hollingsbee, a former naval intelligence analyst with the British defense ministry, said he believed the deployment also had a political factor, partly undermining the fear created by the prospect of large Chinese bases deep in maritime Southeast Asia. "It introduces a potential vulnerability where they was none before - it is a sudden new complication in an arena that China was dominating," he said. (Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom in Washington, Michael Martina in Beijing and Martin Petty in Hanoi.; Editing by Lincoln Feast) Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f171665%2fhp LONDON In case there wasn't enough Harry Potter magic in the air already with the recent release of The Cursed Child, another exciting development has come to appease those of us confined to the Muggle world. SEE ALSO: Before 'Cursed Child,' all muggles need this glorious 'Harry Potter' refresher Beginning in Autumn 2017, The British Library has announced that it will feature a special exhibition to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone an announcement that caused us simultaneous delight and shock. HOW many years did you say?? Don't feel old yet? How about now? The HP film cast circa 2000. Image: Getty images / dave hogan / mashable composite After a quick trip to the loo to check for grey hairs, we did some research and realised that J.K. Rowling's debut novel was indeed first published in the UK during the summer of 1997 by Bloomsbury. This is a first edition copy of 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.' Image: Getty Images / WILL OLIVER At the exhibit, fans old and young can expect to find an array of magical objects on display, from wizarding books, manuscripts, and objects, to original materials from J.K. Rowling's personal archives. Jamie Andrews, Head of Culture and Learning at the British Library, said in a press release: We at the British Library are thrilled to be working with J.K. Rowling and with Bloomsbury to mark the twentieth anniversary of Harry Potter, and to inspire fans with the magic of our own British Library collections. The exhibit is set to open Oct. 20, 2017, and will run until Feb. 18, 2018. Tickets will be made available beginning in spring 2017. The Exorcist TV series that Fox will unveil this fall takes place in the same universe occupied by the iconic William Friedkin film, producers said at the Television Critics Association panel for the show. The drama, which premieres Sept. 23, takes place in Chicago, 40 years after the events depicted in the film. There will be nods to the original, including occasional use of the Mike Oldfield composition Tubular Bells though the TV Exorcist wont be able to use it too often, because its a not a cheap song to license, according to executive producer and director Rupert Wyatt. We never set out to use it, Wyatt said. But eventually, after a bit of prodding, the producers tried it at the end of the [pilot] cut, and we realized that it worked. If you can earn something through the story, then it should go in, he said. It was always our intent not to just plaster it on for the sake of homage. In another scene, there is mention of the priests who appeared in the film, noted executive producer Jeremy Slater. It was important to let everyone know that this is a continuation of an existing story, said Slater. Those acknowledgements are in the first episode, and theyre there in part to indicate that decades have passed, and audience members should not expect Fathers Karras and Merrin to show up at the home of the Rance family, whose plight occupies much of the ten-episode first season. Slater, Wyatt and the cast noted that one of their biggest goals was to carry over the grounded tone and realistic atmosphere of the first Exorcist film. Wyatt, who directed the pilot, noted that Friedkin had a background in documentary film before helming feature films. He was approaching it as an agnostic or as an ambivalent [person] the notion of evil insinuating itself into a situation, and whether that is demonic possession or part of the psychological makeup of the person, Wyatt said. Thats part of what made it wholly terrifying that it was so plausible. Story continues I believe there is evil in the world and we have certainly seen instances of it historically, and currently, said Geena Davis, who plays Angela Rance in the drama. I think everyone is capable of an extreme range of behaviors, depending on what youre exposed to and what your character can resist. Davis, the founder of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, noted that the producers were well aware of the extensive work she has done to combat sexist Hollywood practices and stereotypes in the media. When I was first approached, they were very earnest about letting me know that they wanted her feedback and input, Davis said. Half the shows writers and two of its directors are women, she noted, and she also said that the arcs of the female characters were, in many ways, the dominant parts of the story. I havent really had to bust anybody on anything, she said. I think theyre going out of their way so that I can be extremely proud of the show. Though it shares many aspects of the original a family in crisis and priests who attempt to help this version of The Exorcist will layer in the building blocks of a mythology that, in theory, would allow the show to run for some time. This time around, evil has grander ambitions than targeting an eight-year-old girl in Georgetown, Slater said. Though this bigger story structure will be constructed around the Vances, the family and their relationships will remain the entry points for the audience. You need the propulsive twists and turns, and we have plenty of big plot twists, but at the end of the day, its always going to be about a family in trouble and the priests brought in to help them, Slater said. If audiences didnt become involved in the characters, we havent done our jobs. There are scares, Slater said, but its not a show that will deliver lots of gore every week. Were learning a lot about what you can and cant accomplish on a TV budget, Slater said. You have to be very judicious and smart about when you use your scares you dont want to numb the audience. The audience knows the horror is coming, and as long as their patience is rewarded, the pressure is to tell the best story possible, not to tell the most shocking or gratuitous story possible. There have been 40 years of inferior [Exorcist] imitations coming along to dilute the source material, but luckily we have a lot of horror fans behind the scenes, so we can point out, Yes, thats been done before,' he added. Its a blessing and a curse, because it forces you to be better writers and creators. It forces you to come up with new scares and new ways to creep people out. Related stories 'Rocky Horror Picture Show' Cast Promises to Pay Homage to Original, Raves About Laverne Cox 'Pitch' EPs on a Female Baseball Player: 'It Will Happen In Our Lifetime' Fox Comedy 'Son of Zorn' to Get Preview After NFL Doubleheader The return of Harry Potter, albeit to the stage rather than the screen, has sparked a sudden resurgence of interest in J.K. Rowling's wizarding universe, a merchandise-filled world that had largely remained quiet since he-who-must-not-be-named was finally laid to rest in 2011. While books sales are one thing (the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child play text has topped Fifty Shades of Grey to become the fastest-selling book this decade), shops are cashing in on the sudden influx of fresh demand for T-shirts, capes, circular specs and all things Potter-related. Except one British store. Potter fans visiting Mystical Moments in Slaithwaite, a small village in Yorkshire, have been disappointed to find that its impressive array of wands simply aren't available to them. Local mystic and wand-maker Richard Carter says the wands for sale in his shop are "spiritual tools" for genuine practitioners of magic rather than toys, and is barring Muggles from purchasing them. "J.K Rowling has obviously done her research, but Harry Potter is for children. It has done nothing for business," he told The Daily Telegraph. "If I had someone come in wanting a wand just because they liked Harry Potter, I would not sell them one, no matter how much money they were offering." While turning away customers is curious business tactic, it turns out that Carter's wands, lovingly crafted by hand at a lathe before being anointed with oil, aren't exactly money spinners, or even intended to be. The shopkeeper says he doesn't make a penny from the items, which cost between $19 and $32 and can reportedly be used to ward off evil spirits, bring good fortune or for medicinal purposes. But it's not simply Potter fans who are being refused, with those hoping to perform dark magic such as hexes and curses also earning spots on Carter's growing "do not serve" list. Not that he's worried about running out of genuine spiritualist customers. Story continues "You wouldn't believe how many real witches and wizards there are knocking about," he says, adding that he has a unique way of checking his client's credentials. "I can tell what people are like when they walk in by their aura." Read more: 'Harry Potter' Fans Outraged as 'Cursed Child' Tickets Resold for More Than $1200 SYDNEY, Aug 9 (Reuters) - ExxonMobil Corp on Tuesday urged a quick resolution to a dispute between the government of Papua New Guinea and disgruntled landowners, following a protest at its $19 billion PNG LNG project over royalty disagreements. Media reports said the protesters have given the government a seven-day deadline to pay royalties to landowners or they will forcefully shutter the operation. Landowner groups could not immediately be reached for comment. ExxonMobil is the operator of the 6.9 million-tonnes-per-year liquefied natural gas project, partly located in the restive Highlands region of Papua New Guinea. Its agreement with the government sets aside a 2 percent royalty for landowners, to be held in trust by the government until they have vetted the clans that claim to own the land. The clan-vetting process has not yet been completed. "Our facilities are continuing to operate," ExxonMobil said in a statement. "We respect the right of individuals to peacefully protest, but we also encourage continued dialogue between landowners and the government to resolve their outstanding issues promptly." A person familiar with the situation said production had not been affected and the protests had been peaceful. Personnel have been entering and leaving the plant while protesters gathered outside, the source told Reuters. The person said the PNG LNG owners were working closely with the government to resolve the issues as quickly as possible. ExxonMobil is weighing an expansion of its PNG LNG plant, which has been exporting for two years. ExxonMobil has a one-third stake in the project, whose partners include Australia's Oil Search Ltd and Santos Ltd. (Reporting by Matt Siegel and James Regan in SYDNEY and Sonali Paul in MELBOURNE; Editing by Richard Pullin) It was with sadness that we noted the passing of LaVon Crosby ("Crosby, beloved state senator, dies," July 28). LaVon was a treasured legislator but she was much more than that. She will be remembered as an effective voice in the legislature but more so as a beloved lady and friend. She was the godmother of the Nebraska Cultural Endowment, which she remembered as her proudest accomplishment. It was her primary bill and was ushered into fruition. The NCE is a unique cooperative program joining public and private funds for ongoing support to the Nebraska Arts Council and Humanities Nebraska. This assures underlying support for the cultural programs of Nebraska into perpetuity. There is not other program like this anywhere else. So like Nebraska! LaVon's legacy will include this enduring and endearing present to the perpetual enhancement of the culture of our state. In this day of political unrest, she would be an example of what strength of purpose and gracious cooperation can accomplish for the betterment of all. Jack D. Campbell, Lincoln Seddique Mir Mateen, the father of Orlando shooter Omar Mateen, attended a Hillary Clinton rally in Kissimmee, Florida, on Monday. Seddique Mateen whose son Omar, 29, killed 49 people and wounded dozens more in the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history was seen sitting among the crowd behind Clinton as she spoke on stage about the massacre. The rally was held not far from the site of the June shooting, the popular gay nightclub Pulse. Seddique Mateen spoke with NBC West Palm Beach affiliate WPTV after the rally, telling the outlet he was there to support Clinton. "Hillary Clinton is good for United States versus Donald Trump, who has no solutions," he said. "I wished that my son joined the Army and fought ISIS," he added. "That would be much better." He also said he has been "cooperating with the federal government." Asked whether the Clinton campaign knew in advance that he was attending the rally, Seddique Mateen replied, "It's a Democratic party so everyone can join." President Obama Passes the Torch to Hillary Clinton The Clinton campaign told ABC News in a statement Tuesday: "The rally was a 3,000-person, open-door event for the public. This individual wasn't invited as a guest and the campaign was unaware of his attendance until after the event." At the rally, Clinton paid tribute to the Orlando shooting victims and their loved ones, saying, "I know how many people, families, loved ones, and friends are still grieving, and we will be with you as you rebuild your lives." In a dramatic government turnabout, the federal civilian workforce has grown for 13 consecutive months, and is now slightly larger than when President Obama first took office in early 2009, in the depths of the recession. A new report by Government Executive says federal agencies that were once hamstrung by tight budget caps and across the board spending cuts that necessitated downsizing and temporary hiring freezes have picked up the pace in hiring new workers or filling long-standing vacancies. Related: Why the Federal Workforce May Not be Too Large After All For instance, federal departments and agencies added 41,000 workers in just the past year, including 3,000 in July. The overall federal workforce including the U.S. Postal Service totaled 2.79 million at the end of last month. That is the highest federal employment level since April 2013, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics figures. Despite its ongoing financial problems and past downsizing, the USPS has been one of the most active agencies in terms of bringing on new workers. It currently employs 15,000 more workers than it did a year ago, according to Government Executive. Other non-postal agencies have added 26,000 jobs. The federal workforce has ebbed and flowed over the decades since World War II but rarely has seen a major change in overall scale in the past half century. The federal workforce has been a frequent target of government reform efforts under Democratic and GOP administrations that sought to downsize the government through attrition, outsourcing and privatizing federal services. Related: Why Government and Innovation Are Like Oil and Water Obama, for instance, took office in 2009 vowing to reinvent government, including a scheme to save taxpayers $3 billion over ten years by consolidating six trade and commerce agencies into one new department and eliminating 2,000 superfluous jobs. But Republicans in Congress blocked the effort. However, the federal employment level dropped significantly since enactment of the 2011 Budget Control Act, a bipartisan deal aimed at reining in spending by setting tough, legally enforceable budget caps. Story continues When Congress and the Obama administration were unable to agree among themselves on how to meet the targets, that impasse triggered sequestration or automatic across the board spending cuts in March 2013. Related: Why Government and Innovation Are Like Oil and Water The overall federal workforce bottomed out at 2,726,000 civilian workers in May 2014, which was the lowest number of federal workers over the past decade. Subsequent budget agreements reached in late 2013 and late 2015 blunted the impact of the Budget Control Act and paved the way for the renewed hiring. Top Reads from The Fiscal Times: With its unorthodox structure and detours into magic realism, Haze carves out a distinct place in the large body of contemporary Filipino films about the struggle to survive in a society wracked by poverty, broken homes and barely-functioning welfare services. Focusing on four homeless children whose criminal activities spiral into tragedy, writer-director Ralston Jover has delivered a powerful essay on social inequity and child endangerment. Winner of the Outstanding Artistic Achievement award at the Shanghai film festival, Haze is gathering momentum on the fest circuit and is well worth the attention of programmers. Local release details are pending. Jover has consistently investigated the margins of Philippines society since his early credits as writer of Brillante Mendozas films Foster Child (2007) and Slingshot (2007). In his fifth outing as writer-director, Jover shows harsh life in Manila from the perspective of youngsters whose childhoods have been all but obliterated by the failure of adults to provide love and care. The haze of the films title is literal at first. An opaque mist is applied to a wide shot of Guadalupe Bridge as voiceover recites Ang Pagkawala Ng Hamog (The Loss of Fog), a haunting poem composed for the film by local character actor Rener Concepcion. The disappearing mist reveals a concrete pipe on the banks of the Pasig River thats home to four children. The youngest is Moy (Bon Andrew Lentejas), a chirpy 8-year-old orphan. Rashid (Zaijian Jaranilla) is a 12-year-old Muslim whod rather live on the streets than with his harsh father, Abdul (Lou Veloso). Addicted to inhaling chemicals is Tisoy (Sam Quintana), a boy of about 16. The female member of the gang is Jinky (Teri Malvar), a 15-year-old rejected by her mother and terrified of returning to a childrens home she describes in horrifying detail. Daily life for the quartet consists of stealing whatever they can get their hands on. Story continues After Moy is established as the central character it comes as a jolt when hes killed during an attempt to rob a taxi driver. In the aftermath of Moys death Rashid takes responsibility for arranging his friends burial. In a long and virtually wordless sequence that will make viewers feel heartbroken for disadvantaged children everywhere, Moy is laid to rest in a pitiful tomb inside a dilapidated cemetery. At roughly the halfway mark, Jovers screenplay winds back to the taxi robbery and follows Jinky, whos been caught by intended victim Danny (OJ Mariano). The failure of institutions to protect children is starkly shown as police and welfare agencies permit Danny to assume custody of Jinky and install her as a maid in his apartment. Jinkys tale takes on suspense-thriller shadings as details of Dannys strange relationships with compassionate-then-cruel girlfriend Paula (Anna Luna) and flatmate Bernard (Mike Liwag) begin to emerge. The question of whether Danny is Jinkys savior or a predatory monster remains open until deep into the proceedings. The films fantasy element involves Tisoy seeing a costumed teenage Supergirl, who dashes through busy streets and sometimes becomes airborne. Though the superheroine arrives as a bright symbol of hope, her continuing role isnt developed as richly as it might have been. Still, its an interesting and welcome point of difference from most Filipino features tackling similar subject matter. A few minor lapses into sentimentality notwithstanding, Jover maintains a detached, nonjudgmental approach that allows his messages to sink in slowly but surely with viewers. His young cast deliver fine performances, with Malvar a knockout in a demanding role that earned her best actress honors at the Moscow film fest. Bryan Dumaguinas subtle score and appropriately unfussy photography by first-time feature d.p. Pipo Domagas are standouts in a polished technical package. Related stories Film Review: 'The Tenants Downstairs' Film Review: 'Soul on a String' Film Review: 'Three' Notice: Array to string conversion in /home/sites/www.businessinsider.com/releases/20160815203407/classes/Util/Posts.php on line 494 4x3 5 financial terms you're probably using all wrong If you're looking for some help managing your money, you might turn to a financial adviser. That's someone who advises you on your finances ... right? Sort of. "'Financial adviser' is a generic term with no precise industry definition, and many different types of financial professionals fall into this general category," Investopedia explains. "Stockbrokers, insurance agents, tax preparers, investment managers and financial planners are all members of this group. Estate planners and bankers may also fall under this umbrella." "It's unbelievable the scope or range of people that can consider themselves financial advisers or financial planners," Bob Gavlak, CFP and wealth adviser with Strategic Wealth Partners in Columbus, Ohio, told Business Insider. "The majority of time, if somebody calls themselves a financial adviser, usually all that means is that they're investment advisers all they do is investment management." Gavlak says a financial adviser might not have the training to help you with taxes, insurance, investments, and estate planning. On the other hand, you have the Certified Financial Planner (CFP). While it sounds similar to "financial adviser," it's not quite the same. "A lot of times people will look at financial advisers and certified financial planners and they think that they're all the same, but that would be like looking at a restaurant and saying McDonald's is the same as some really fancy steakhouse," says Gavlak. Certified financial planners have to be certified by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc., which is why you'll often see a registered mark after their designation (CFP). To become certified, they have to complete what the board calls the four Es: education, examination, experience, and ethics. These planners are certified to advise on everything from taxes to insurance to estate planning, and are required to complete ongoing continued education requirements. One of the hallmarks of a CFP is that they have fiduciary responsibility when working on financial planning, which means they have to act in their clients' best interest. Story continues The CFP board keeps track of everyone certified through its program, which makes it simple to do a little homework on a professional before signing on the dotted line. This isn't at all to say that a financial adviser wouldn't be able to help with your money. Instead, as a prospective client, it would be smart to identify what you need from your financial adviser before you sign on. Is it insurance? Is it a financial plan? Is it solely investment advice? No matter their title, ask about your prospective adviser's expertise and experience up front to make sure their specialty aligns with your needs. NOW WATCH: Scientists just collected a mysterious 'purple orb' at the bottom of the ocean, but no one could anticipate what happened next More From Business Insider Sam Beaudin, Bryan Birsic and Dave Riess, who were doing well for themselves employed in various roles at tech startups, all harbored an underlying angst. They realized that if the companies they worked for suddenly disappeared, not much would change. The Earth would continue to spin on its axis, albeit with slightly less efficiency in a few niche markets. This was back in the fall of 2013, and the friends wanted to break out on their own. But they still needed to pick their problem. Despite their heady, slightly crunchy-sounding idealism, the three were obsessively measured in investigating options for their potential startup. During regularly scheduled Google Hangouts, they discussed the idea of overhauling remote healthcare and helping seniors with technology. They conducted field research in both of those areas. Birsic spent days in a nursing home watching folks try to type on touch screens with shaky fingers. But the trio wanted to think bigger. They decided that they should put their efforts into solar energy. If climate change wipes out humanity, they reasoned, then elderly people wont be texting with their grandchildren anyway. My experience with the world is that, the levers of power, if you want to move them, capitalism is a pretty good route, Birsic tells Entrepreneur. If we thought a nonprofit was the best way to have this impact, we would have started a nonprofit. What we have seen is, the largest Archimedes Lever that you can get your hands on is a small group of really high-performance people who can attract a lot of capital. Wunder Capital is born. Companies such as SolarCity have circumvented the discouraging high upfront cost for residential solar construction by eating it. SolarCity Chairman Elon Musk decided that he could get Americans to be open to solar energy if they didnt have to come up with $20,000 to $25,000 in installation costs. It worked. Related: You Can Fly Around the World and Drink Your Own Urine Thanks to the Power of the Sun Basically, if you are below a Fortune 1000 company and you are not willing to pay cash up front, you pretty much cannot go solar, Birsic says. Its not profitable for lenders to make small loans for solar installation, especially when they are doing the due diligence and compliance with paper forms. These guys would hire temps to pound out these mounds of forms. Every damn form is the same. And we are sitting there like, 'you guys know that software exists, right?'" Story continues Birsic and his co-founders built the solution. The Wunder Capital co-founders (from left): Dave Riess, Bryan Birsic and Sam Beaudin. Image credit: Joel Blocker Using algorithms, Boulder-headquartered Wunder Capital automates the process of lending out funds for solar installations with money from individual investors who not only want to see a return on their investments, but also want to contribute to a cause. The idea of collaboratively funding solar is more common in Europe, especially in Germany, than it is here in the U.S., says Ben Compton, a solar industry veteran who currently works as a business development manager at Enphase Energy. The trio graduated from Techstars Boulder in 2014. Since then, Wunder Capital has grown to a team of 12. It has raised more than $3 million from investors to go toward more than two dozen solar projects. The average loan size is $100,000. Investors are told to expect returns of anywhere between 6 to 11 percent on their investments, and though Wunder Capital cant guarantee those returns due to federal regulations, they have hit their target return to investors every month so far. Three tech dudes dig into solar. As the trio started to investigate solar energy, they learned a few things. First, its a booming industry. In the first three months of this year, enough solar equipment was activated in the U.S. to power 5.7 million homes, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association, the leading trade group. Thats more new energy-generating capacity than coal, natural gas and nuclear industries combined saw in the same time period. The solar industry is on pace to double this year, according to the organization's most recent report. In the last four years, residential solar installation has more than tripled, growing at 318 percent. Solar installation for giant, utility-sized projects has grown by 400 percent in the same time. Meanwhile, solar installation projects of nonresidential commercial, mid-sized businesses has grown by only 25 percent, according to calculations based on SEIA data. The dramatically lower adoption rate of solar by mid-sized businesses was exactly where the trio zoomed in. As an entrepreneur, you are always looking for a pain point that you can go solve, Birsic says. We want to be the company that unlocks solar for U.S. business. Full stop. Related: Who Needs Venture Capitalists When You Can Crowdfund? Attracting investors. Right now, Wunder Capital can only accept investments from accredited investors, or those individuals in the U.S. who hit certain thresholds of wealth and assets. So far, investors in Wunder Capital are individuals working in the tech space, doctors and lawyers. I dont have many ways I can personally combat climate change and its ostrich-with-head-in-the-sand skeptics, so investing in alternative energy gratifies an itch in some small way, Andrea McNaughton, an investor in Wunder Capital, writes in a testimonial. Wunder Capital investors are contemplative, considered and thoughtful. But they are also not willing to give their money away. For the vast majority of our investors, the ideological stuff is the whipped cream, cherry on top, whatever analogy you like, Birsic says. What we don't see a lot of is, I want to sacrifice a lot of return, or, 2 percent sounds great. Most investors want to know that they are making as much as they could elsewhere and they are also doing good. Its an 'and.' The fact that Wunder Capital has found a way to offer both a socially beneficial and profitable investment vehicle has caught the attention of some notable venture capital firms. In March, Wunder closed a $3.6 million series A from the likes of Techstars Ventures, Fenway Summer Ventures and FinTech Collective. The round brought the total raised by Wunder to $4.7 million. Ideally, Wunder Capital is an appealing investment even for those who dont identify as environmental sustainability enthusiasts. Not only is the return on investment competitive, but companies with a social bent have a leg up in storytelling, branding and hiring top talent, particularly of the millennial set. Even if you dont care about impact, its smart to back impact companies because they have these inherent hiring and marketing advantages," Birsic says. "Even you, Mr. Machiavellian, coin-counting Scrooge, you should want impact companies, because they will do better." Can Wunder really change the world? Individual investors cant crowdsource enough capital to convert enough businesses to solar to make an impact on the shrinking polar ice caps. To make a large-scale difference, Wunder Capital has to start raising money from institutional investors such as Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan. Right now, however, the Wunder team is trying to prove that their concept works with individual investors. Related: Big Solar Is Leaving Rooftop Systems in the Dust But even if Wunder doesnt single-handedly stop the climate crisis, it is chipping away at the problem, and thats what matters, Compton says. If you have 1,000 firms like that or 10,000 firms like that, for 1,000 or 10,000 projects that they make happen that wouldnt have happened otherwise, then thats a positive impact, Compton says. And, no one is going to solve it on their own unless they are president of the United States -- and even then they are going to have trouble! By Rajesh Kumar Singh and Manoj Kumar NEW DELHI (Reuters) - It took him more than two years, but Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has finally discovered the art of the deal. Realising that a frontal assault wasn't securing the votes needed for India's biggest-ever tax reform, Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley changed tack this spring, government and ruling party sources have told Reuters. First, they sought to build a coalition among the nation's 29 state governments to isolate the Congress party, which despite losing heavily to Modi in 2014 had blocked a new Goods and Services Tax (GST) in the upper house of parliament. Then, Jaitley held a series of meetings with Congress leaders whose outcome was uncertain right up to the last minute, sources close to the finance minister said. He yielded to their demands - accepting, verbatim, a clause they proposed for the constitutional amendment needed to make the GST happen, according to a member of the Congress team that included former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram. "Negotiations take place only if both sides are willing to be flexible," senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh told Reuters. "Both sides were pragmatic." An aide to Jaitley said Congress's growing isolation proved decisive in making a compromise possible. "They had got themselves into a corner," said the finance ministry official, who was privy to the talks. "They had two options: strike a deal and come out with your reputation intact, or lose your credibility." Last week's unanimous upper-house vote to pass the 122nd amendment to the Indian constitution brings the wheel full circle - the GST was proposed by Chidambram a decade ago but was stalled by political rivalry. Introducing a unified sales tax across India's market of 1.3 billion people would mark a bold act of integration at a time of disintegration elsewhere, as Britain exits the European Union and a protectionist, Donald Trump, runs for the U.S. presidency. Story continues The GST vote also addresses how India, as a federation, can implement a one-size-fits-all sales tax - something the United States and EU have been unable to do - by creating a GST Council that brings the centre and the states together. Tough bargaining on the rate and scope of the tax lies ahead, yet at least the atmosphere has improved, with Chidambram praising Jaitley's "friendly and conciliatory tone". That could revive projects that foundered early in Modi's rule, including land and labour reforms. EARLY STANDOFF Despite winning India's biggest mandate in 30 years, Modi has struggled to advance his agenda. Congress, though reduced to a rump opposition, has resisted. As the largest party in the upper house that represents the states, it had blocked the GST and derailed Modi's land acquisition bill which critics branded as being "anti-farmer". While that tactic proved effective, it wasn't winning public support. Congress took hits in state elections and in June lost the upper house votes it needed to be sure of stopping the GST. This was the cue for Jaitley to court the states, with key swing state West Bengal soon declaring its support. In July, he targeted Bihar, while at the same time re-engaging with Congress after nine months of radio silence. Jaitley's promise to the states to compensate revenue losses for five years, made at talks in New Delhi on July 26, won them over, West Bengal's finance minister Amit Mitra told Reuters. Congress moved to cut a deal, while Modi and Jaitley were ready to offer concessions - including scrapping a levy of 1 percent on the movement of goods between states - that experts say would actually make the GST a better tax. On the morning of July, 27 Congress submitted a written proposal, with new wording on resolving GST disputes between the centre and the states. Modi's cabinet approved identical tweaks that same evening. When it came to the Aug. 3 vote, there were 203 votes in favour, and none against. The amendment passed the lower house on Monday, also unanimously. It was a first for Modi, who called the GST a "Great Step towards Transformation". (Additional reporting by Subrata Nagchoudhury in Kolkata and Jatindra Dash in Bhubaneswar; Writing by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Kim Coghill) There's a saying in Spanish Dime con quien andas y te dire quien eres 'Tell me with whom you walk and I'll tell you who you are.'" These words were spoken by California Congressperson Xavier Becerra at the Democratic National Convention. I wonder if those who walk with Donald Trump can also accept the racism, xenophobia, misogyny and bigotry? Your support of Trump cannot be separated from that which he espouses. Is that who you are? Terry Werner, Lincoln Five Bad Movies That Fooled Us With Amazing Trailers A good trailer can be worth its weight in gold to a studio, and it can also be more trouble than you might expect. Just ask Suicide Squads David Ayer, who according to industry reports was sidelined during editing of the poorly-reviewed supervillain smackdown in favour of a cut made by the company behind the films high-octane, Queen and The Sweet-soundtracked promos. These days audiences are getting a bit more savvy to the trick: Suicide Squad is expected to suffer a radical second-weekend dropoff, much like its DC expanded universe predecessor Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. But studios will still do their best to pull the wool over our eyes if they can. Here are the some of the deeply average movies for which Hollywood went out of their way to hoodwink you with ultra-snazzy trailers. Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace The trailer pitch: A sinister, swampy intro, specifically recalling the famous space sagas previous best instalment, The Empire Strikes Back. A wonderfully sage Yoda quote: Fear is the path to the dark side fear leads to anger anger leads to hate hate leads to suffering, which is perhaps the only memorable line from the diminutive Jedi master to stand alongside his best moments from the original trilogy. Samuel Jackson! Lightsabers! Darth Maul! Podracing! And only the briefest of looks at Jar Jar Binks clownish antics. The reality: The Phantom Menace will go down as one of the biggest Star Wars misfires in history, the very mention of its name a blood curdling warning to audiences that a formerly great artist, in this case saga creator George Lucas, is perfectly capable of torpedoing their own legacy. That bumbling space moron Binks emerged as the movies best-remembered character, for all the wrong reasons, says pretty much everything you need to know. Prometheus The trailer pitch: This movie will reveal the dark secrets of mankinds origins, while somehow tying into Ridley Scotts original Alien film. Were going to find out who the space jockeys were, and perhaps even how the xenomorphs were created. Whats more, the whole things going to be scarier than the contents of a Russian athletes medicine cupboard. Story continues The reality: Someone should have warned us this movie was written by Damon Lost Lindelof, the screenwriting doyen of rabbit holes that lead to nowhere and exciting plot twists that are never explained. We did not find out who the space jockeys were, why David the android has gone all Colonel Kurtz on us, or anything else very much for that matter. But dont worry, all will be revealed in upcoming sequel Alien: Covenant. At least it better be, or there are going to be riots at your local multiplex. Sucker Punch The trailer pitch: Giant robot samurais! Fire-breathing dragons! Hot chicks kicking ass with guns and katanas! Imagine every cool video game you ever played brought to life on the big screen this could be the next Matrix! The reality: Sucker Punch director Zack Snyder is a maestro of visually splendid promos, but should never be allowed to write his own screenplays. Sucker Punchs "nuthouse full of beautiful women setup felt pretty grubby, and the plot really was just a series of video game-style action sequences with little to knit it together. More The Matrix Revolutions then. Suicide Squad The trailer pitch: Operatic comic-book silliness in the company of the most colourful bunch of crazy supervillains ever seen on the big screen. Guardians of the Galaxy for grown-ups. Deadpool squared. Jared Letos Joker will thrill you with his method-inspired nuttiness as the new clown prince of Gotham. Margot Robbies Harley Queen is a vicious little scream queen, part angel, part harpy. And Will Smith is back to his pre-After Earth best as the sharp-shooting Deadshot. The reality: The performances arent the problem with Suicide Squad. So lets blame the confused plotting and the reports that most of Letos performance got left on the cutting room floor, along with a lot of other bits that might have made the movie make some sort of sense. Oh and Cara Delevingne, for accepting a role as villain-in-chief The Enchantress that simply seems to have been beyond her. Terminator Salvation The trailer pitch: You will finally get to see the dystopian desolation wrought on mankind by the machine oppressor, post Judgment Day. And this movie has Christian Bale, fresh from starring as Batman in The Dark Knight, as human resistance leader John Connor, one of science fictions greatest ever big screen icons. Forget Arnie, James Cameron and Linda Hamilton: this is the future of the Terminator franchise. The reality: This movie is also directed by McG, whose habit of winding up Bale on set led the Welsh born actor to turn in a performance of burlesque scenery-chewing not seen on the big screen since Jon Voights famous leer in Anaconda. There are explosions, cool robot motorbikes and lots of Bale shouting, but the movie utterly failed to capture the blue collar sci-fi brilliance of Camerons early films, 1984s Terminator or 1991s T2: Judgment Day. McG also ended up wheeling out Schwarzenegger in any case, or at least the Austrian oaks youthful likeness, for a terrible denouement featuring a clunky conveyor belt of seemingless endless CGI T-800s. BAMAKO (Reuters) - Five soldiers are missing after clashes with militants in central Mali at the weekend, military officials said on Tuesday, in the latest in a string of attacks on army and U.N. forces claimed by the Islamist group Ansar Dine. Fighting broke out near the village of Tenenkou in the Mopti region on Sunday afternoon and continued into Monday, army spokesman Souleymane Maiga said. Defense ministry spokesman Diarran Kone said five soldiers had disappeared, one other was injured, and vehicles were lost in the clashes. In a statement posted online, Ansar Dine said it had ambushed the Malian army, killing and wounding soldiers and looting weapons and vehicles, according to SITE Intelligence Group. Ansar Dine claimed an attack in July on an army base that left 17 soldiers dead and six missing. It later released a video of five Malian soldiers it said it had taken prisoner in the raid, according to SITE. The group also claimed responsibility for several attacks on vehicles that killed a U.N. peacekeeper and injured five others on Friday and Sunday. Islamist militant groups took advantage of an ethnic Tuareg uprising in 2012 to seize northern Mali before a French-led intervention drove them back a year later. The United Nations has deployed an 11,000-strong peacekeeping force, but the militants have reorganized and launched frequent attacks across Mali and its neighbours. (Reporting by Tiemoko Diallo; Writing by Nellie Peyton; Editing by Hugh Lawson) From ELLE When President Obama took a sip of Flint's water in early May, many assumed the city's two-year crisis was over. But photographer and MacArthur "Genius Grant" recipient LaToya Ruby Frazier has a different story to tell. Frazier spent five months with three generations of Flint women who both suffer and insistently thrive amid the worst man-made environmental catastrophe in recent national memory. [chapter navtitle="The Family" sidetitle="The Family" socialdek="Shea Cobb is third-generation Flint. This is why she had to leave."] Part 1 Promised Lands By Mattie Kahn Shea Cobb stopped cooking in September 2014. It had been five months since her tap water turned brown, since her skin broke out in a furious rash, since Zion, her nine-year-old daughter, complained that the smell of the water made her sick. Shea, 32, clamped her mouth shut in the shower and barred Zion from drinking from school water fountains. She used bottled water to brush their teeth. She made her mother, Renee, 55, promise to swear off tap water, too. Even so, Renee noticed her hair was falling out. It had been thinning for months. But now it was coming off in clumps. She obsessed over it-they were so careful. Finally, it clicked. Renee worked for General Motors. She drank coffee every day, sipping it to stay alert during the punishing third shift. It was brewed with water from Flint. Shea and Zion were born and raised in Flint. Renee has lived there since she was a kid. Like so many Rust Belt cities, Flint has been hollowed out by economic change. But the Cobbs have stuck with it, watching it become a twenty-first century ghost town. A writer for The Detroit News described Flint in 1983 as a place in which "there are so few people about that you might think the neutron bomb had hit." But to these three generations of women, it's home. When I visited these women over this past winter and spring, to learn about how one family endured the water crisis, they stressed that to me. Flint was family. Family was Flint-until now. This is the story of how a town loses a family and a family loses a town. Story continues In 2013, the Flint City Council voted to leave the expensive Detroit water system and contract with the still-incomplete Karegnondi Water Authority (KWA), a water-distribution corporation. But while the city waited to join the KWA, Flint would need an interim water source. In June, state-appointed emergency manager Ed Kurtz ruled that Flint would start to draw water from the 78.3-mile Flint River, which flows from Lapeer County into the Saginaw Bay. Michigan Governor Rick Snyder had awarded Kurtz the job the year before in his latest bid to reverse Flint's financial downturn. The autumn before the switch to Flint River water, Flint had a $19 million deficit. Using the Flint River would save the city about $5 million over the course of two years. Officials promised that Flint residents-mostly black and 40 percent poor-wouldn't even notice the difference. On April 25, 2014, Flint's mayor, Dayne Walling, invited about a dozen people to join him at a small water treatment plant to commemorate what he deemed a "historic moment." The switch would let Flint "return to its roots," Walling said. Someone started a countdown. A pitcher and plastic cups materialized. Officials raised their cups of Flint River water and toasted: "Here's to Flint." At zero, the mayor pressed a small black button, which turned off the flow from Detroit. Within weeks, the complaints streamed in. The water tasted rancid. It stank. Across the city, people were breaking out in hives and rashes. Their hair had started to fall out-eyelashes, too. Mostly ensconced in wealthier suburbs like Flushing and Grand Blanc, which drew water from a different source, officials insisted the water in Flint was fine to drink. "It's a quality, safe product," Mayor Walling said that month. "I think people are wasting their precious money buying bottled water." Shea used to hear rumors about the Flint River. It could turn your skin blue or make you grow an extra toe, people said. Some kids whispered that dead bodies rotted below the surface. It was toxic, a decades-old dump site for waste and chemicals. In the 1930s, when thousands of fish died at once, a lab determined that pollution had so deoxygenated the water that the fish had suffocated to death. Flint passed a series of ordinances in the 1950s and 1960s to try to decontaminate the water, but the efforts suffered setbacks. In 1974, researchers discovered that a local wastewater plant had been oozing raw sewage into the river for decades. In 1999, when Shea was 15, a 72-inch pipe that connected sewers to the Flint Waste Treatment Plant was accidentally slashed open. By the time workers stopped the flow, 22 million gallons of human, industrial, and commercial waste had flowed into the river. For the next 14 months, health officials forbade swimming, fishing, or even coming into direct contact with the river. Shea remembers her uncle Rodney warning her that if she ever fell in, she'd better run to the hospital: "'You don't know what's in there,' he told me, 'so do not waste time, Shea. You go get help.'" In 1974, researchers discovered that a local wastewater plant had been oozing raw sewage into the river for decades. Four months after officials opened the city's taps to Flint River water, tests detected traces of E. coli in the water. The bacterium can cause diarrhea, stomachaches, headaches, and nausea. But it poses a more serious risk to children and the infirm, threatening organ failure and other grave health problems. Officials issued water-boil advisories and promised to fine-tune the chemical mixture they had been using to treat the water. The pipes were flooded with chlorine. Tap water in Flint started to smell like a public pool and taste like copper. It stung Zion's eyes. The rashes persisted. By September 2014, Wally Janeczek, the executive chef for Flint Community Schools, decided he could no longer take a chance on foul water for school kids. He placed orders for bottled water, making space in the budget for gallons of water to wash and cook all school food. In October 2014, General Motors announced it would halt the use of Flint River water in its downtown plant and contract to hook up to Lake Huron instead. The highly chlorinated river water had started to eat away at engine parts. And in February 2015, LeeAnne Walters, a mother of four, had her water tested at home. She discovered lead levels more than seven times the government's maximum threshold. A month later, they had reached 27 times the limit. Walters, the "whistleblower" of Flint, convinced the Environmental Protection Agency to intervene. In May, the EPA found elevated lead levels in at least two more homes in Flint. "Our children already had every obstacle to success. And then they got lead. If you want to bring down a population even more than it already is, you expose it to lead." In September 2015, local pediatrician Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha shared her research on the crisis: The percentage of young children with elevated lead levels had at least doubled, if not tripled, since the switch. While lead is always toxic, it hits kids the hardest. Exposure stunts not only physical growth, but behavioral and intellectual development, too. Some studies have linked lead to attention deficit disorders and even violent tendencies. "We have no full-service grocery stores. We have tremendous unemployment and limited transportation options. The life expectancy of people in Flint is 20 years shorter than people in neighboring suburbs," Hanna-Attisha told ELLE.com in February 2016. "Our children already had every obstacle to success. And then they got lead. If you want to bring down a population even more than it already is, you expose it to lead." On October 8, 2015, lead was found in the water fountains at three public schools. Meanwhile, experts linked a 17-month outbreak of a severe form of pneumonia to the crisis. The Flint area reports around six to 13 cases of the disease during a typical year. In 2014 and 2015, almost 100 people in Flint were treated for it. Twelve died. The state government at last bowed to public pressure in October 2015, passing a bill to redirect funds to Flint. Flint used that money to reconnect to Lake Huron. But the real harm was harder to reverse. Because it wasn't just bad river water that set the crisis in motion-it was what that untreated water did to sewers and drains and pipes that doomed Flint. Corroded infrastructure cannot be fixed with the flip of a switch. Governor Snyder has maintained he knew little of the conditions in Flint in the early months of the crisis. But members of his senior staff certainly had the facts. In October 2014, a Snyder aide who grew up in Flint wrote in an email that "the notion that I would be getting my drinking water from the Flint River is downright scary." In January 2015, a special projects manager in the Snyder administration deemed the circumstances in Flint "a public relations crisis" and warned that the news was just "waiting to explode nationally." And while residents continued to choke down lead-laced water, in early 2015 the state started to deliver filtered water for government employees in the area. An internal memo circulated on January 7 stated that employees would not have to drink tap water that did not "meet treatment requirements." Citizens in communities in Flint were not extended the same grace. When Shea's grandparents, Hazel and LeRoy Cobb, moved to Flint from Mount Vernon, New York, in 1967, they landed in a city in its prime. Flint was the "Happiest Town in Michigan," according to Coronet magazine. It had good schools, a stylish downtown-and work. For decades, General Motors, which was founded there in 1908, produced not only millions of cars, but also thousands of jobs. By 1954, the company employed almost 80,000 of Flint's 200,000 residents. LeRoy, Hazel, and their seven children-including Shea's then-seven-year-old mother, Renee-had followed the flow of black workers into "Vehicle City." Having lost employees to the war effort, General Motors first started to recruit African Americans in the South to work in factories in Flint during the the 1940s. And even once the war was over, the trend continued. News of opportunity spreads fast, after all. And so by the postwar era, residents in the black St. John area of the city had a nickname for the influx. They deemed it "the rush-in." By 1960, the black community had swelled to more than 30,000 people. The Cobbs flourished in the black, middle-class enclave that was developing in Flint. LeRoy became a master mechanic at Buick. He and Hazel moved into a corner house on Mary Street, a tree-lined block just a few streets over from Martin Luther King Avenue. Together they hosted block parties and barbecues. They danced a lot, blasting music from every room. LeRoy "loved music," remembers Denise Clay, Shea's aunt. "All kinds-from country to hip hop to bluegrass." Hazel was at home in the kitchen, famous for her scratch-made chicken and dumplings. "It was really nice as a kid," Renee remembers. "It was so full of life." But less than a decade after the Cobbs moved in, 15.1 percent of people in Flint were out of work-and almost 50 percent of African American teens could not find a job. The oil shocks of the 1970s had derailed the expansion of the auto industry. By the mid-1970s, Japanese carmakers controlled almost 10 percent of the United States market. Henry Ford II described the arrival of Japanese cars on American shores as "an economic Pearl Harbor." In 1999, General Motors shuttered Buick City, the largest industrial complex in Flint. By 2009, only 5,000 people were still on GM's Flint payroll. "Buick is Flint and Flint is Buick," asserted the official historian of the Buick division of General Motors in 1945. At the time, he wanted to celebrate the connection. Now it sounds like a premonition. Renee, the baby, watched her brother and each of her sisters leave home. But none went too far. One sister moved to Pontiac, less than an hour away, another to Kenton, Michigan. Everyone else found work in Flint. By the time Renee was ready to leave home, she had almost a dozen nieces and nephews. She met Shea's father at a skating rink in her twenties. In 1984, she had Shea. Flint didn't really bottom out for Shea until LeRoy and Hazel got sick. LeRoy checked into the hospital in 2006, showing symptoms of Bell's Palsy. The day he was released, Hazel slipped and fell on an icy patch of snow. Shea moved in to take care of LeRoy and Hazel. She planned to spend just the weekend, but Hazel couldn't get down the stairs on her own. LeRoy was deteriorating fast. In July 2007, he died of cancer. The recession thrust one-third of the city into poverty. Crime exploded. Houses were burned to the ground. Opiate addiction soared. In 2013, the population in Flint sunk below 100,000 for the first time in almost a century. It has continued to fall since. The real estate market plummeted, leaving many trapped in untenable mortgages. Then the water crisis struck. Hazel died of heart complications in July 2015, living just long enough to witness this final blow. Since 2005, more than 5,000 homes have been bulldozed in Flint. Where the Cobbs once lived, the houses that remain are ransacked and broken. The blue house on Mary Street is still standing. It is surrounded on three sides by vacant lots. Shea drives a school bus in Flint, but the job description belies how much she means to the children she delivers to and from school. She is beloved by all. Young women confess to her-hopes, fears, sins, boys. Surly teenagers defer to her. She is a cheerleader, celebrating the achievements of "her babies." "Go to class," she calls out to a cluster of retreating figures one breezy morning in April. She has taken me to Southwestern Academy in Flint, her alma mater. She seems to know almost every child who walks through its front doors. "Do not make me come for you," she cries. She likes the work, but music is her passion. For months, Shea has been weaving the water trauma into a record she wants to sell. Her sound mixes spoken-word poetry and hip hop, with a note of country she blames on LeRoy. Too many roads I see don't make it to nowhere/ So Imma spread my wings/ Go by air/ 'Cause it's my destiny to be above it all/ My head high/ I stand tall/ Who's gonna stop me now?/ Is it you? Like everyone who still lives in Flint, Shea picks up free water bottles from pop-up water distribution sites around her hometown. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has supplied the water bottles since January 2016 and continues to do so now. Even so, residents have been instructed to flush their tap water every day. It's been treated with chemicals that are supposed to restore an essential protective barrier in the pipes. But many-and Shea, too-have so given up on their government that they don't bother. She never expects to drink Flint water again. In April, I ride shotgun as Shea makes her daily trip to the distribution site closest to her house-a parking lot where flatbeds of water bottles are piled each morning. She pulls in and opens her trunk, watching in her rearview mirror as a staffer deposits four cases of filtered spring water in the van. "Faster than a drive-through window," Shea says. Shea and Zion were living with Renee when I visited. Shea had been on her own since Hazel died, but was evicted when she refused to pay the water bill for water she couldn't drink. Renee has insisted on tidiness-no parties, no noise, no mess. The row house is painted in shades of ocean and sand. The towels match. A yappy white dog bounds around a squat front yard. Renee has installed a table and umbrella on the patio, which she admits she's barely around to use. As soon as Shea carries the cases inside, she removes the bottles from their plastic-and-cardboard boxes and stacks them in neat pyramids in wicker baskets in the kitchen. She makes concessions in the car, leaving a shrink-wrapped case of bottles in the trunk for Zion, who seems to get thirsty as soon as they pull out of a driveway. But whenever she parks the car, she takes an extra second to gather the empties and throw them away. Seeing them careen around the floor like that, it makes her anxious. It looks like crisis. "I don't believe democracy exists," Shea tells me at Captain Coty's diner, where we stopped during one of our drives. "I think that's the lie we tell ourselves to think this country is halfway decent to live in and the system will somehow work for [us] someday." A few months ago, Shea made up her mind to leave Flint and follow her father to Mississippi. He moved down in 2000, deciding to retire from General Motors after he had a minor stroke. Shea's father is the third generation to run the farm where he now raises horses. Shea tells me about a mare called Dolly who Zion is especially fond of. The good news is she isn't going anywhere; she's blind in one eye. "No one will take her," Zion squeals. The farm is 30 minutes from Meridian, an hour outside of Jackson, and a universe away from Flint. Her father had been inviting Shea to join him since she was in high school. But when the crisis started, he made a serious offer. He has plenty of room. Zion loves it there, having spent her own summer breaks on the land. And so in a kind of reverse Great Migration, Shea and Zion have decided to head South. "Seven pairs of jeans, seven T-shirts, seven underwears, seven socks, and one toothbrush," Shea says, chanting Zion's packing list. It's May, and the move is still almost six weeks away. But Shea is hungry for it. "You don't need anything else in the world," she says. Zion will "sweat and play and be black. That's it." Once Shea leaves, Renee wants to move to Texas or Oklahoma, where she has some distant relatives. Shea has heard her cousins mull over job prospects in Georgia. When I reach her over the phone in July, it's been less than a month since she arrived in Mississippi. But Shea is optimistic. "It's very peaceful," she says. "It's quiet. I get to rest." Demands creep in, of course. She has started to explore what options Zion will have for school in Mississippi. She's been helping to maintain the fence line and weed the flowerbeds. She knows she'll have to look for more work soon. Unlikely as it may be, Mississippi has always been a kind of promised land for Shea. "When I was 12 years old, [my father] took me to this spring," she says, "and he said, 'You can drink that right out the ground.'" She cupped her hands; the water was cold. Her father took a photo. A few months ago, he texted her a photo of the decades-old snapshot and then called her: "This water isn't gonna kill you," he said. "Come home." Additional reporting by Anna Clark. [chapter navtitle="The Film" sidetitle="The Film" socialdek="A film by LaToya Ruby Frazier."] Part 2 Flint is Family: A Film by LaToya Ruby Frazier [chapter navtitle="The Timeline" sidetitle="The Timeline" socialdek="How gross mis-management led to the worst man-made environmental catastrophe in recent memory."] Part 3 How Did We Get Here? By Mattie Kahn March 7, 2014 Flint's emergency manager, Darnell Earley, writes in a letter to the Detroit Water and Sewer Department that Flint will source its water from the Flint River, disconnecting from the Detroit system. To read the letter, click here. April 25, 2014 After nearly 50 years on the Detroit water system, Flint hooks up to the Flint River water system. "It's a historic moment for the city of Flint," says Mayor Dayne Walling. To see pictures, click here. To watch a video, click here. June 12, 2014 Mayor Walling responds to ongoing complaints. Residents have noticed the water smells bad and is brown or red. He says: "I think people are wasting their precious money buying bottled water." August 15, 2014 Flint issues an advisory to residents to boil tap water following the discovery of E. coli in Flint River water. Over the next three weeks, the city will issue two more advisories. October 13, 2014 General Motors announces it will switch off Flint River water in its plants and pay for Lake Huron water instead. The automaker has noticed the water is corroding engine parts. January 7, 2015 While state officials continue to tell Flint residents their water is fine to drink, they decide to provide purified water to workers in Flint's State Office Building. To read the email, click here. February 4, 2015 Flint resident LeeAnne Walters visits the Flint City Council to show them the rashes her children have developed. The city decides to test her water. She is later deemed the Flint "whistleblower." April 6, 2015 City council vice president and mayoral hopeful Wantwaz Davis accuses Governor Rick Snyder and Flint's new emergency manager of creating a "genocide" in Flint. Read his Facebook post here. July 22, 2015 Snyder Chief of Staff Dennis Muchmore expresses concern about reports of lead. "I'm frustrated by the water issue in Flint," Muchmore writes. "These folks are scared and worried about the health impacts and they are basically getting blown off by us." September 15, 2015 Researcher Marc Edwards announces that Flint River water is 19 times more corrosive than Detroit tap water. A Michigan Department of Environmental Quality spokesman brushes off the claims. September 24, 2015 Flint pediatrician Mona Hanna-Attisha announces that the percentage of Flint children under five with elevated lead levels in their blood has doubled and in some cases tripled since Flint swapped water sources. Watch her press conference here. September 25, 2015 Officials respond to Hanna-Attisha by issuing an advisory. At the same time, however, they maintain the water does not violate federal standards. October 1, 2015 Addressing the growing outcry, Governor Snyder orders that filters be distributed and water be tested in schools. He demands an expansion of water and blood testing. October 16, 2015 Flint reconnects to the Detroit water system. December 14, 2015 Flint declares a state of emergency. January 16, 2016 President Obama declares a state of emergency in the city and surrounding county, directing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to award the area up to $5 million in aid. February 9, 2016 Recently elected Flint Mayor Karen Weaver says removing lead pipes in the city will cost $55 million. She submits a proposal to Snyder to ask that he secure funding. February 27, 2016 Released emails show that the Snyder administration was aware of the crisis almost a year before the governor publicly acknowledged it. See photos from the press conference here. April 19, 2016 Snyder announces that he will drink filtered Flint tap water for 30 days-both at home and at work. Watch a clip of the press conference here. April 20, 2016 The first criminal charges in Flint are filed against three water-treatment officials. Watch a clip from the press conference here. May 4, 2016 President Obama visits Flint. During a speech, he requests a glass of water from an aide. "I really did need a glass of water," he says. Watch his address here. [chapter navtitle="The Photos" sidetitle="The Photos" socialdek="See LaToya Ruby Frazier's five-month examination of the water crisis."] Part 4 Flint Is Family: A Portfolio by LaToya Ruby Frazier [gallery id="28559" type="slideshow" share="false"] [chapter navtitle="The Future" sidetitle="The Future" socialdek="What's next for the families of Flint."] Part 5 What's Next? Can people drink the water yet? by Anna Clark It's complicated. Flint reconnected to the Detroit system in October 2015. In June, Mayor Karen Weaver announced that the city would leave behind (once again) the Detroit water department and, eventually, connect the city to the Karegnondi Water Authority (KWA). Weaver made it clear that she felt her hand had been forced by the punishing terms built into the original KWA deal, which was signed when the city was under state-appointed emergency management. At a civil rights hearing in July, one homeowner described keeping a Crock-Pot in the bathroom so she could heat the bottled water she bathes in. For now, however, the city remains connected to Detroit water, and in June, state and federal officials declared Flint water safe to drink with the use of a filter. But many locals are wary, and residents are functionally still limited in how they cook, shower, brush their teeth, and fill a coffee pot or ice cube tray. At a civil rights hearing in July, one homeowner described keeping a Crock-Pot in the bathroom so she could heat the bottled water in which she bathes. (Warm water is more likely to contain higher concentrations of lead.) Bottled water and filters are still offered free to Flint residents at sites throughout the city. Water bills in Flint are still among the highest in the nation. What's on the immediate horizon for Flint? The federal disaster designation for Flint will expire on August 14. This designation made it possible for FEMA to cover 75 percent of the cost associated with providing free water throughout the city. (The state of Michigan paid for the other 25 percent.) It wasn't easy to get Flint declared a disaster in the first place-that status is supposed to be for natural disasters, not man-made ones-and FEMA officials made it clear that they didn't want to extend this status past August. Under the cost-sharing deal with FEMA, the program cost the state $29,300 a day in May; after August 14, the price tag could jump to $117,400 a day. This loss of FEMA support coincides with a big drop in bottled-water donations, now that Flint is no longer in the national spotlight. At the same time, water use has risen during the hot summer months. The federal disaster designation for Flint will expire on August 14. In the meantime, a massive expansion of Medicaid will cover people who are younger than 21 and/or pregnant who were exposed to the Flint water. (That means that they don't necessarily have to be residents of the city.) This program is expected to reach 15,000 people. An additional 30,000 people will receive expanded Medicaid services. There are a number of other new programs that aim to meet Flint's needs, including a mobile health clinic, expanded food assistance programs, and a free "Disaster Distress" helpline that connects callers with trained counselors. So what's the longer-term solution? Ideally, all the corroded pipes and lead service lines will be replaced. (Pipes carry the water under the streets; service lines connect the pipes to each house and business.) A pilot project to replace some of the service lines began in May. But bids from contractors for a scaled-up plan were expensive-far more than anticipated. There are roughly 10,000 lead pipes in the city, and it would cost about $80 million to dig up and replace all of them. Just changing the lead service lines would cost three times the $25 million the state has most recently allocated for the whole project, according to a recent report. There are roughly 10,000 lead pipes in the city, and it would cost about $80 million to dig up and replace all of them. In July, the city issued contracts to replace 250 service lines in high-priority areas within the next three months. It's effectively a second pilot project-and a dramatic pullback of Mayor Weaver's initial plan. To do a wholesale replacement of Flint's pipes may take up to eight years, and it would be a public works project that is almost entirely unprecedented. Only two major cities have fully replaced their aging and typically lead-based water infrastructure: Madison, Wisconsin, and Lansing, Michigan. Lansing, the state capital, is only 50 miles from Flint, and it has offered its expertise, training, and tools to its sister city. Will the people who are to blame actually be held accountable? First the city has to figure out who, exactly, is to blame. A task force appointed by the governor put the bulk of responsibility on the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, the state's agency for environmental regulation. Michigan's attorney general has also filed criminal charges against eight state officials and one from the city, as well as civil charges against a water company and an engineering firm, along with several related companies. The investigative team says that more charges will be coming. Meanwhile, a federal lawsuit aims to get Flint's lead service lines replaced without charging taxpayers. Some Flint families are also pressing Congress to provide compensation to Flint citizens-something similar to what was set up for September 11 first responders. They lobbied in Washington, D.C., to make their case to lawmakers in July. Meanwhile, Paul Napoli-a lawyer who represented 9/11 first responders in their compensation fight-has filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of Flint families with the NAACP in the Genesee County Circuit Court. Could this happen somewhere else? Probably. This isn't the first time this has happened, after all. Lead-contaminated water was discovered in Washington, D.C., more than a decade ago; corroded pipes pushed lead levels in D.C. homes up to 83 times the safe limit. Around that time, cities across the country-including Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Portland, Oregon-were found to have put millions at peril by illegally manipulating lead testing results. In Chicago, in 2015, more than a fifth of children in the poorest neighborhoods were found to be lead poisoned. 5,300 U.S. water systems were in violation of federal lead rules in 2015. The Flint water crisis has spurred other communities to take a closer look at their water. Milwaukee, Providence, Long Island, an Ohio hospital, and Portland schools all found cause for alarm. The town of Sebring in Ohio also discovered excessive lead in its drinking water in January 2016. Local authorities had delayed making the news public for months; criminal charges were recently filed against the city's former water system operator. A report from the National Resources Defense Council has found that 5,300 water systems were in violation of federal lead rules in 2015. USA Today reported on excessive lead in nearly 2,000 drinking water systems across 50 states. Lead is literally built into the infrastructure of American cities. It is in the pipes underneath our streets and, until 1978, was in the paint in our homes, businesses, hospitals, jails, train stations, schools, and other buildings. The devastating consequences of this dependence on lead are destined to play out for generations. They can be mitigated only by proactive public policy and infrastructure investment. What can I do? Donate water to Flint. The city still needs it. Among other ways, you can donate through the water fund at the United Way of Genesee County or at the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan. The Flint WaterWorks Fund not only supports water and filter distribution, but it also provides jobs to the city's young people. Press state officials to restore the money that states are required by law to send to cities for public services and local investment. In Michigan, the state government has diverted about $7.5 billion in money it owes its cities and townships to fill the gaps in its own budget. With unusually restrictive tax laws, cities have almost no other way to replace the lost money, which they need in order to pay for public services. Support the well-being of Flint kids by donating to the Flint Child Health & Development Fund. If you donate before December 31, 2016, your gift will be matched by the C.S. Mott Foundation, a major philanthropic force in Flint. You can also donate to the Safe Water Safe Homes fund to help Flint families with the cost of repairing the damaged water infrastructure in their homes. Support investments in public infrastructure. Think of it is a gift to ourselves, to each other, and to future generations. Think of it as affirming our enduring faith in government as a means to serve the common good. Shea Cobb will continue to travel between Mississippi and Flint in order to complete her album. Listen to her single, here. To learn more about the business of Amber Hasan, Shea's manager, visit her site, Mama's Healing Hands, where she sells a line of all-natural hair products designed to help people deal with hair loss caused by illness or the water crisis. By Zachary Fagenson MIAMI, Aug 9 (Reuters) - A state court jury in Florida heard opening statements on Tuesday in a civil trial in which it will have to decide whether auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers is partially liable for the collapse of a U.S. mortgage lender in 2009. The lawsuit against PwC is a test of a recurring question that has faced the auditing industry: whether and when auditors are responsible for detecting fraud. It would not have taken much for PwC to catch the fraud that brought down lender Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp, said Steven Thomas, a lawyer for the lender's bankruptcy trust. "PricewaterhouseCoopers failed to do its job because they relied on unsigned contracts and just needed one phone call," Thomas told the jury in Miami-Dade County Circuit Court. The trust is seeking more than $5.5 billion in damages from PwC, according to court papers. In a separate opening statement, a lawyer for PwC said the firm should not be liable because its role was limited. PwC did not audit Taylor Bean. It did do audit work for Colonial Bank, where Taylor Bean was a major customer. Taylor Bean Chairman Lee Farkas and others hid losses by shuffling money among Colonial accounts and by selling nonexistent or worthless mortgages, according to the suit brought by the Taylor Bean trust in 2013. An entire department within Colonial was responsible for detecting fraud at the bank, PwC lawyer Elizabeth Tanis said. "Colonial Bancgroup every year hired PwC to audit its financial statements. Colonial Bancgroup did not hire PwC to conduct a fraud audit," Tanis said. The jury was scheduled to begin hearing witness testimony later on Tuesday. Taylor Bean was among the nation's largest privately held mortgage lenders when it filed for bankruptcy in August 2009. The same month, regulators closed Montgomery, Ala.-based Colonial, which left the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp to cover $3.8 billion in losses. BB&T Corp bought Colonial's assets. Story continues Farkas was convicted of fraud charges and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Taylor Bean's auditor, Deloitte & Touche, and the bankruptcy trustee reached a confidential settlement in 2013. PwC and audit firm Crowe Horwath face a separate lawsuit in Alabama federal court in connection with Colonial's collapse. They have denied the allegations, and a trial is scheduled for February 2017. (Editing by David Ingram and Dan Grebler) Forever 21 is back at it again with the knocking off. Emily Oberg, an editorial producer at Complex, runs a clothing brand that produces T-shirts, hoodies, and totes with the companys name embroidered on the items. And on Tuesday, she shared an image on Instagram of a near-exact replica of a white sweatshirt she had produced months before being sold in Forever 21 stores. When @forever21 copies you A photo posted by @sportyandrich on Aug 8, 2016 at 7:36am PDT The differences between the two pieces are subtle: Obergs is of finer quality and features the words Sporty & Rich in embroidery whereas the fast-fashion version is a thinner cotton and the phrase Smart & Pretty is screen-printed on the left side of the sweatshirt. Forever 21 actually has a long history of blatantly copying fellow mass brands, runway companies, and even Kanye Wests Life of Pablo tour merchandise. 1 of none A photo posted by emily (@emilyelaineoberg) on Apr 23, 2015 at 8:23am PDT Oberg has no plans to file suit. My true followers would never buy the fake version and theyll always be the first ones to show me who is copying and call them out for me, she told Fashionista. If [Sporty & Rich] stopped selling out and I started to see the fake designs everywhere, then maybe Id be worried, but my business is doing just fine. While Oberg doesnt have plans to pursue legal action, her peers, whove been victims of similar treatment at the hands of large and powerful retailers, are banding together to do so. After Zara was recently called out by designer and illustrator Tuesday Bassen, whose social media post called out the Spanish brand for using her art without her permission. The site ShopArtTheft.com, which was created by designer Adam J. Kurtz following the outcry, shows how widespread the illegal duping issue is. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. From Redbook It's been a rough go for Chipotle lately. First, the fast-casual chain found itself at the helm of a messy E.Coli outbreak. Now, the once-beloved burrito builder has been ordered to cough up $550,00 to a former employee in a discrimination lawsuit. Is this where the "guac costs extra" funds are going? Kidding. Kind of. In 2011, Doris Garcia Hernandez became pregnant while working at a Chipotle location in Washington, DC. Happens all the time, right? Except that after informing her manager of her pregnancy, he began restricting her access to water and bathroom breaks. According to the suit, the manager (known just as "David") told Garcia she had to announce to every employee in the store when she was going to the bathroom, and that he had to approve her bathroom breaks. Meanwhile, the suit alleges, those same requirements weren't imposed on non-pregnant employees. It gets worse: David ignored Hernandez's repeated requests to leave work early for a pre-natal appointment, the Washington Business Journal reports. So when Hernandez left for the appointment anyway, she was fired the next day - in front of the other employees, in the middle of the restaurant. But good news for Hernandez: Last week, a U.S. District Court jury in Washington, DC, awarded Hernandez $550,000 in compensatory and punitive damages. (This isn't the first time Chipotle has been sued for similar cases; in February, a federal grand jury in Ohio ruled in favor of three former managers who sued the company for gender discrimination, according to Eater.) This suit comes as an important reminder to know your rights in the workplace. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act "forbids discrimination based on pregnancy when it comes to any aspect of employment, including hiring, firing, pay, job assignments, promotions, layoff, training, fringe benefits, such as leave and health insurance, and any other term or condition or employment," according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. It's also unlawful to harass a woman because of pregnancy, childbirth, or a medical condition related to pregnancy or childbirth. Story continues Guacamole, unfortunately, still costs extra. One battle at a time. You Might Also Like friends beach travel Everyone jokes about catching the travel bug after they travel to a truly spectacular place for the first time. This last weekend I found that Tinder Social, the dating app's feature released stateside in July, which allows members to form groups and find other groups to go out with, satisfied that travel bug in a way I wasn't expecting. As a 21-year-old who's spent some time abroad, I constantly have that itch to book a flight to some far away place. Visiting new places, experiencing new cultures and trying new foods is amazing. But my favorite thing about traveling? How easy it is to meet new people. This last winter while I was traveling solo in Guangzhou, China, I was sitting in the lobby of my hostel to use the wifi when a Norwegian couple sat down to ask me for directions. And, just like that, I had people to explore the city with. I ended up spending the better part of the next 48 hours going around Guangzhou with them and a Danish woman. Tinder Social duplicated the best part of that experience, and I never had to leave New York City. Not a date...unless you want it to be Tinder gets a bad rap. I've personally had terrible experiences the few times I've actually met up with someone from the app. But this last weekend one of my closest friends from my hometown was visiting me in New York City. It was Friday night and we wanted to go out. I'm new to the city and haven't really taken part in the night scene, so we joked about using Tinder Social to find people to go out with. The next thing you know, we created a group in-app and were swiping right on other groups interested in going out that popped up on our screen. We exchanged messages with a few people and then committed to hanging out with two guys who wanted to take night pictures down by the East River. When we met up, everyone admitted that this was the first time they had used the new social feature. We then joked about past Tinder dates, how awful or weird they had been, except for one of the boys who said he had used Tinder as more of a networking tool or to find models for his photography work. But that's another story. Story continues Tinder Social We spent the better part of the next 48 hours exploring New York City with these two guys who were literally strangers before we matched with them on Tinder Social. It was an insanely fun. The thing about Tinder Social is it doesn't have to be or feel like a date if you don't want it too. If it turns into that, you get to determine whose chemistry actually matches whose better in-person, instead of being stuck with that one person you swiped right with on Tinder. I do think keeping the group small was a part of what made our Tinder Social experience so successful, as it was easy for all of us to get to know one another and maintain a group conversation. And I think it helped that we didn't meet up at a bar, so that everyone got to know one another at least a little bit before we decided to keep hanging out. Tinder was also smart to take a page out of another dating app's playbook in its design of Tinder Social. In Bumble, if a user messages a match and he or she don't respond within 24 hours, the two unmatch. Tinder Social is even more intense. Even if you do match and start messaging, your Tinder Social group expires the next day. You're still able to swipe and match with people who were in your group match individually, but I think this disappearing feature demands immediate action and possibly prompts a higher ratio of people to actually meet up. None of us came in with expectations of what that night would turn into, but as we were saying goodbye on Sunday, one of us joked that the friendships we had made using an app were a one in a million chance. I'm not so sure. If it's that easy to meet people while traveling, why can't it be that easy using a group dating app? NOW WATCH: How to find Pokemon in 'Pokemon Go' More From Business Insider Paris (AFP) - France will supply 30 military helicopters to Kuwait in a deal worth over one billion euros ($1.1 billion) that French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian signed in the Gulf state on Tuesday. The agreement to buy the versatile Airbus Caracal helicopters is part of a 2.5 billion euro package of deals that the two countries agreed in October 2015. France has given Kuwait military support since the 1990 invasion of the country by Saddam Hussein's Iraqi forces. The two countries are also fighting together in the international coalition against the Islamic State jihadist group. "With this deal, Kuwait further strengthens the strategic partnership which has bound together our two countries for several decades, while we are currently engaged side-by-side in the fight against Daesh in Iraq and Syria," Le Drian said in a statement, using the Arabic term for Islamic State. Kuwait's army will use 24 of the helicopters mainly for search and rescue missions and for transport purposes, but they are also fitted with machine guns allowing them to offer ground troops cover from the air. The Kuwait National Guard will operate the remaining six helicopters. SOUTH SIOUX CITY -- It was a whirlwind trip for Ryan Moore. The South Sioux City man and his family traveled last month 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 convention, Moore also mingled with top Democratic politicians and even a celebrity. Backstage at the Wells Fargo Center, he met 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 Sioux City 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. Q: 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 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. (Releads with the mining ministry's recommendation) By Wilda Asmarini JAKARTA, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Indonesia's mining ministry recommended on Tuesday that Freeport-McMoran Inc's Indonesian unit be granted a new permit to export copper concentrates until Jan. 11, 2017, an official said. The recommended extension was slightly shorter than the six months the U.S. mining giant had requested. Bambang Gatot, the ministry's director general of coal and minerals, did not explain why the recommendation was for a shorter period. "The export volume (in the recommendation) is 1.4 million tonnes, as they requested .. but they might not be able to sell that much," Gatot told reporters, adding that all shipments are subject to a 5 percent export tax. A Freeport spokesman said he had not yet been informed of the ministry's recommendation. Freeport, which produces about 220,000 tonnes of copper ore a day, still has to take the recommendation to Indonesia's trade ministry to get the permit. Typically once the trade ministry receives a recommendation from the mining ministry, the renewal of an export permit would be a formality. Freeport's previous permit expired on Monday. Last February, shipments from Freeport's giant Grasberg copper mine were halted for nearly two weeks before the government approved the now expired permit. The Indonesian government announced in early 2014 that all copper concentrate shipments would be banned from January 2017, as part of efforts to transform the nation from being a supplier of raw materials into a producer of finished goods. (Writing by Randy Fabi and Gayatri Suroyo; Editing by Richard Pullin, Christian Schmollinger and Adrian Croft) In the 2014-15 TV season, only 12% of FXs directors were women or people of color, according to DGA statistics. Though many networks, particularly in cable and streaming, have similarly spotty track records, FXs was the worst, and a 2015 Variety article drawing attention to widespread inequality in the hiring of directors prompted the network to take action. At the moment, 51% of the directors booked by FX and FXX are men and women of color, or white women. We set a goal that wasnt incremental but quantum, in terms of what we wanted to achieve, FX CEO John Landgraf said in an interview with Variety. Part of it is, if youre going to go from a laggard to a leader, try to get to something you can actually achieve and sustain that looks like real change. Landgraf has been trying to expand FXs array of creators as well. Donald Glovers Atlanta and Pamela Adlons Better Things, both of which premiere in September, are among the results of those efforts. But Landgraf noted that its easier to solve the problem more quickly with directors than with writers, given that most directors are freelancers who dont stay with one series full-time. I hadnt been really focused on directors, I had been more focused on this question of storytellers in the broad sense, and how do we get everyones story told not just white males, Landgraf said. How do we get the right shows, the right executive producers? Because ultimately that changes the composition of the way a story is told and presented and it does ultimately change the composition of the employee base. Regarding directors, we just happened to all be working in a system that was racially biased, and werent taking responsibility for stepping up and acknowledging that and saying, OK, we will be the change, he added. Its worth noting that the statistics released annually by the DGA and the numbers FX shared with Variety have been tabulated differently; its not an apples-to-apples comparison. DGA stats are published on a year-to-year basis (and the guild will be releasing its report in a few weeks). FX, on the other hand, considered the most recent seasons of its comedy and drama series and the upcoming seasons of shows that have not yet debuted; thus the time frame covered by their data set is longer than a single year. Story continues On their 17 series from The Americans and The People v. O.J. Simpson to the upcoming Legion, Atlanta and Better Things there are a total of 170 director slots. Twenty-one of those slots are as yet unfilled. Of the 149 directing jobs that have been booked, 76 more than half have gone to men and women of color and white women. The breakdown is as follows: 73 slots went to white men (49%); 32 directing gigs went to men of color (21%); 11 jobs went to women of color (7%); and 33 helming jobs went to white women (22%). I wish I had done it years ago, Landgraf said. The thing thats most exciting to me about this is that this group of people has proven that its just a matter of priorities. Its just a matter of will, and it can be done. Nobody really can say, It cant be done, or Itll take 10 years to do it. It can be done now. Landgrafs first step was to send a letter to showrunners in January telling them that diversifying the pool of directors was a significant priority. I dont like to bigfoot the showrunners, Landgraf said. The letter conveyed the idea that showrunners retain final decision-making power and that We are not basically swinging a sledgehammer at you and your process. That said, the letter connoted the urgency of the desire for change, stated that FX executives would extend every possible resource to showrunners who wanted help finding diverse candidates, and encouraged creators to step up their own searches as well. The credit for the turnaround, Landgraf said, goes to the showrunners themselves; to the team led by Jonathan Frank, FXs executive vice president of current series; and to Nicole Bernard, executive vice president of audience strategy for the Fox Television Group. Theyre the ones that went out and did it, Landgraf said. I think what Jonathan did and Nicole Bernard did is test the theory that there isnt a large enough and available enough pool to fill these slots. And I was very heartened by the showrunners willingness to put their time and their energy in service of this to take it seriously. No one can rightly argue that this cannot be achieved or that achieving it would cause some hardship from a commercial standpoint or qualitative standpoint, he added. In 2016, the year in which it set out to expand its directorial talent pool, FX set a record for the number of Emmy nominations received by a basic-cable network. Frank said he and his team looked for candidates who may or may not have had TV-directing experience, but who could show, through some past work, that they had an aptitude for finding character moments and emotional moments and could execute them and translate them so that they shine through, he said. A lot of networks care about, did they make their days, are they on budget? Frank said. If someones horrible and always goes over budget, thats a red flag. But for me, the onus of that falls more on the production, to make sure the trains moving smoothly. For me, its about how they communicate with the producers, how they take the showrunners vision and execute it, and how they work with actors. Though Frank and his team met with a wide array of directors, some of whom had been stuck in procedural jail and wanted to break into the kind of character-driven stories FX and FXX are known for, part of the idea was to feed new TV directors into the system so that FX (and other networks) can continue to hire them. That goal is starting to pay off. Hiro Murai, who came from the world of music videos and who directed the pilot for Atlanta, impressed Frank so much that he recommended him to an executive producer of another FX show. Thomas Schlamme, a director and executive producer of Snowfall met Murai, looked at his stuff and booked him onto Snowfall, which is by all accounts a very different show than Atlanta, Frank said. I think weve worked with more first-time showrunners than probably any channel, and here we sit right at the top of the heap in terms of quality, Landgraf said. We havent done that by hiring blue-chip brand names, weve done that by breaking talent. White males are only, depending on how you count them, somewhere between 31% and 36% of the U.S. population. Theres nothing in my mind that says they ought to have 50% of the directing jobs, Landgraf noted of the networks yearlong efforts. Its not a panacea. Its a beginning. The following are edited excerpts from an interview with Landgraf and Frank. What prompted all the change? John Landgraf: We just generally want to be in the vanguard of changing television for the better, and I think it was very hard to be the laggard, which is really where we were. The industry as a whole was really falling down, and FX, far from helping, was bringing up the rear. The article basically said there is a problem, its an industry-wide problem, and someones got to step up and try to figure out how to solve it. What I realized after the article was, and what Jonathan and I have talked a lot about, is that its easier to solve the problem more quickly with directors than with writers. A showrunner is a life-of-series relationship and [a writer may be on a shows staff for years]. Its not that writing staffs dont change at all, but they dont change very much. Directors are freelancers. There are directors who do five or 10 episodes of a show every year for years, but [most] directors are freelance, they come and go. Jonathan Frank: Ten percent of the slots [in the current directors rosters] are populated by first-time directors. The pool definitely not large enough to make the shift easy. Booking directors on any series is difficult, no matter who youre trying to book and whether or not youre trying to change [the system]. There are a lot of different elements that make a director right or wrong for a show, and only some of them are pieces of information that, as network executives, we have the ability to suss out or locate. A huge part of what makes a director fit in to a show happens on the other side it happens with the showrunners when they sit down and meet with them. Theres so much about whether that specific personality will fit in with the environment of a show and will work with the actors or the crew or the pace. Landgraf: I think its helpful on a very basic level to look at all of this statistically and on paper. We have to start with some baseline. But ultimately its not about numbers, its not about resumes, its about people. You start with a baseline, and ours was really weak, and you start with a goal. What was the goal, in terms of changing the numbers? Landgraf: I think our idea was, as much as possible. That throws down the gauntlet for the industry to say this can happen, it is doable. If we did it, you can do it. We can all do it. Frankly, [the ratio] could be 60-40. It could be 70-30. I dont really care, as long as were doing the right thing and were getting people. Not all those people will work out. But so far in what weve seen, its been really promising from a creative standpoint. But thats always been the case not everyone works out, including some white guys. Landgraf: Right. And theres a value to having less experienced people, because you find a kind of passion and enthusiasm, that new surprise. You look at whos actually created shows for FX that have succeeded and there are a lot of first-time showrunners Ryan Murphy, Denis Leary, Louis C.K., the Its Always Sunny creators, Kurt Sutter, Joe Weisberg, Pamela Adlon, Donald Glover. There can be a negative associated with the risk of having somebody whose less experienced, but theres a huge positive too. What it comes down to is, who hires the director? The showrunner hires the director. Not necessarily at every place, but at FX and some other places, the showrunner hires them. The first thing you have to do is have a conversation with your showrunners, and you have to gain consensus that this is going to be a priority. Were you afraid the showrunners would resist this effort? Landgraf: No. I have a lot of faith in our showrunners. Where does it go from here? Landgraf: Its going to take time for an episodic director who got an opportunity at FX this year, because of this initiative, to find herself or himself in that category of showrunner or executive producer or director of every episode [of a TV season]. Its going to take five of 10 years to get that person there. If part of how people are getting jobs is that theyre white males, and theres a sort of a lethargy or an inertia around that, and therefore were not looking at the entire available pool of human talent, then were squandering talent. Period. Were squandering the talents of women and minorities, and were not fielding the best team. The way this change happens is that the industry decides it wants to field the best team and it wants to do what it needs to do to field the best team. [It has to] look farther afield and work harder to look beyond the usual suspects to achieve that. If a black woman directs an episode of Snowfall, or an Asian man directs an episode of The Americans, why does that matter to you? Landgraf: Well, equity matters. I hope that most of us believe that we actually would all benefit from living in a more equitable society. If thats not happening, were squandering human potential. We want to make the best television possible. We should be drawing on the entire available pool of storytellers and directors, and we should be expanding that pool and trying to hire the very, very, very best people. Thats our job. There is a privilege in American society to being male and being white, and I think its hard for white males to understand that privilege, because weve never experienced the opposite. When I sought out mentors to try to move forward, there were white males in virtually every position from which I was seeking mentorship. There was a natural simpatico or natural comfort. And so if you believe thats true, and I believe its true, then we have to change that. We have to try to equalize opportunity and privilege. Have you seen any change when it comes to the talent agencies? Frank: I think since the article came out theres been a real focus on the need for diverse and female directors. Theres probably been a growth in [representation] but also, with agencies, theyre in a volume-based business, and they can be reluctant. It takes a lot of work to break anybody, whether it be a writer, a director or an actor, into the business. Not ever having been an agent myself, my sense is that upper-level agents who have the most power, who can move people through the [system] more easily, are less willing to take on the volume of work to break somebody new. And then lower-level people, if they are willing to take on somebody new, they dont necessarily have as much sway, and its harder for them to push somebody through. Landgraf: I think that this will take time, but I think that there has been no real sense of purpose or urgency around it. If we have as an industry a sense of purpose and a sense of urgency around it, we can get it done. Half, or more than half, of our [currently booked] directors are female or non-white. And I think FX is really well-respected for the quality of the work thats put out under our brand, and [ideally] the perception of the quality of the work stays the same, or best-case scenario, goes up. Therefore no one can rightly argue that this cannot be achieved or that achieving it would cause some hardship, from a commercial standpoint or qualitative standpoint. [In future we may] struggle to maintain our 50 percent or better, because all the candidates that weve identified are working so damn hard on so many shows, because everybodys booking them. And we have to then go find another set of candidates and they get taken away from us, and then we have to go find another set of candidates and they get taken away from us. But all the while, the percentage of [men and women of color and white women as directors in] the industry goes from 10 to 20 to 30 to 40 percent. [The idea was,] lets prove that it can be achieved in a localized space, which is FX. Lets then challenge the whole industry to try to achieve it across every major producer of television, and then lets deal with the problems that that creates the fact that we dont have the right farm system and we dont have the agencies focus. If we have an urgency and intensity around solving this problem, we will solve it, because no one can argue its not solvable. Related stories TCA: FX Live Blog 'American Horror Story' Teasers Offer Clues on Season 6 Netflix Snags Global Streaming Rights to FX's 'American Crime Story' Shout out to the Magnificent Seven! Shortly before the U.S. women's gymnastics team continued their dominant run in the all-around team final Tuesday in Rio, Gabby Douglas stopped to thank the legends who paved the way. "These girls showed us how to get it done in #Atlanta1996 and we hope to follow in their footsteps in #Rio2016," she captioned a photo of the Magnificent Seven, first ever U.S. team to win gold at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. "Thank you #Magnificent7 for inspiring us and being great examplesa" she continued. "You will always be our role models!" Below the 1996 team, she included a photo of her gold medal-winning squad from the London 2012 games and her unstoppable Rio 2016 team. This year, Douglas, who won gold in the individual all around contest in 2012 is joined by captain Aly Raisman, three-time world all-around champion Simone Biles, uneven bar specialist Madison Kocian and 16-year-old newcomer Laurie Hernandez. Road to Rio: How Did Team USA Train for the Olympics? On Sunday, Team USA scored 185.238 in the qualifying round a nearly 10 points ahead of second-place China. In fact, the team has had such a strong run at Rio thus far that many commentators have suggested the real question of the team final is who will take home second place. The women's gymnastics all-around team final will air Tuesday night at 8 p.m. ET on NBC. As winter settles into Westeros and delays the next season of Game of Thrones, Music is Coming for fans of HBOs hit medieval fantasy series as a tour of the shows dramatic score is hoping to satiate the audiences year-long wait for new episodes. The Game of Thrones Live Concert Experience was announced with a marching band parading down Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles on Monday. Ramin Djawadi, the Game of Thrones show composer, plans to bring the fictional land of Westeros to life in the concert with extravagant scenery and a musical tour of the different realms. "It will be an immersive experience," Djawadi said. "We're going to be building our own stage and it's going to be 360 degrees so you can see from anywhere in the arena and it should be really great visually. The sets we've designed are going to be reminiscent of some of the special moments in the show so it should be a great musical experience but also a great visual experience." Djawadi wrote the shows memorable title track and penned themes for all the main houses and characters such as Arya Stark, Jon Snow and Daenarys Targaryen. The "Game of Thrones" title sequence features mechanical animations which provide the geographical setting of each realm. In a video shown to journalists, the concert's imagery appears to maintain the style of the introduction. Game of Thrones, nominated for a leading 23 Emmy awards this year, will conclude in two years time with its eighth season, which alarmed actor Isaac Hempstead-Wright, who plays Bran in the series and joined Djawadi for a Q&A at Mondays event. The actor said he was "terrified. I've been doing this for sort of 7 years of my life so think the whole thing is going to end one day, it's like leaving school or something." The tour will begin in Kansas City, Missouri on February 15, 2017 and will tour around the US and Canada, concluding in Portland, Oregon on April 2. Playing online games may boost teenagers' school results while spending time on social networks such as Facebook could do the opposite, according to an Australian study. The research, based on the performance of 15-year-old Australians in the globally recognised Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests, looked at the relationship between internet usage and educational outcomes. "The analysis reveals that children who regularly use online social networks, such as Facebook, tend to obtain lower scores in math, reading, and science than students who never or hardly ever use these sites," it said. "Conversely, the analysis shows that those students who play online video games obtain higher scores on PISA tests, all other things being equal," the study published in the International Journal of Communication said. The study said it was possible that children who were already gifted in maths, science and reading were more likely to play online games. But it added that while both gaming and socialising used time that teenagers could otherwise spend studying, video games "potentially allow students to apply and sharpen skills learned in school". "Students who play online games almost every day score 15 points above the average in maths and 17 points above the average in science," study author Alberto Posso said Tuesday. "When you play online games you're solving puzzles to move to the next level and that involves using some of the general knowledge and skills in maths, reading and science that you've been taught during the day." Students who used online social networks on a daily basis scored 20 points lower in maths than a student who never used this type of social media, according to the study, which used the PISA ranking for 12,000 pupils from 2012 and controlled for other influences. "Students who are regularly on social media are, of course, losing time that could be spent on study -- but it may also indicate that they are struggling with maths, reading and science and are going online to socialise instead," Posso said. Story continues Internet usage among teenagers is considered particularly high in Australia where 97 percent of 15 to 17 year olds say they frequently go online. Some 78 percent of the children in the sample used online social networks almost every day or every day. Use of the internet was not bad in itself, and Posso, from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, suggested teachers consider incorporating popular video games into their lessons - "as long as they're not violent ones". He also said other factors also needed to be considered, with skipping school every day about twice as bad for results as using Facebook or chatting online daily. European markets, led by Germany and country-specific exchange traded funds, climbed Tuesday after some widely anticipated earnings beat expectations, reflecting ongoing growth in the Eurozone economy. On Tuesday, the iShares MSCI Germany ETF (EWG) increased 2.4%, Recon Capital DAX Germany ETF (DAX) gained 2.6% and First Trust Germany AlphaDEX Fund (FGM) rose 2.1%. Meanwhile, the broader Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF (VGK) , which includes a 13.3% tilt toward Germany, was 0.9% higher on Tuesday. Germany stocks rallied with the benchmark DAX Index back in a bull market after rising 22% since its February low, Bloomberg reports. SEE MORE: Germany ETFs Reach an Important Juncture Boosting market sentiment, Munich Re surged 5.7% after the reinsurance company revealed quarterly net income that was over double analysts projections. Additionally, BMW AG and Daimler AG both added 2.8% after reporting higher auto sales in China over July. Trending on ETF Trends Let the Good Times Roll for Gold Miners ETFs Nasdaq ETFs Could Keep Racing Higher SHE: Gender Diversity Works for State Street ETF Bank ETFs are Getting Their Acts Together Gold Miners ETFs Are a Better Bet on Bullion Strength EWG includes a 2.6% tilt toward Munich Re, 2.6% to BMW and 6.0% to Daimler. DAX includes 3.0% Munich Re, 7.4% Daimler and 2.9% BMW. FGM holds 4.6% BMW and 3.6% Daimler. Many anticipated increased volatility and uncertainty in the post-Brexit aftermath. However, with improving corporate earnings, better-than-expected U.S. data and fresh stimulus measures, European markets are beginning to calm and shift toward more bullish attitudes. SEE MORE: Pummeled Europe Bank ETF Rallying Off Post-Brexit Lows No news from the economic side means investors have an eye on the company side, Heinz-Gerd Sonnenschein, equity strategist at Deutsche Postbank AG, told Bloomberg. The markets are stable. If you have an eye on the volatility markets, were at very low levels. We had Brexit, we had the banking problems coming out of Italy, but the markets are stable now. Story continues For more information on Germany, visit our Germany category. iShares MSCI Germany ETF Were getting closer to finding a cure for this incurable bone cancer Were getting closer to finding a cure for this incurable bone cancer New research published in the journal Blood has shown the potential for a new class of anti-cancer agents to be used in treating an incurable bone marrow cancer. Researchers from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute worked alongside scientists at the Australian Centre for Blood Diseases to analyze what they called survival proteins that encourage the bone cancer. What they found out is actually pretty amazing. What you need to know about the bone cancer. According to the American Cancer Society, the bone marrow cancer (known as multiple myeloma), occurs when malignant plasma cells take over bone marrow, causing low blood count, infections, bone and calcium problems, kidney problems, and other major symptoms. Recognizing how complicated and complex the disease is, the scientists came forward to discover how to best treat the cancer. The study. Dr. Jianan Gong said, Our research shows that switching off MCL-1 has the potential to be effective new treatment approach for the majority of patients with myeloma. Remember those survival proteins that encourage the bone marrow cancer? Well, they are what keeps the myeloma cells alive, making it impossible to suppress the cancer. The scientists were able to discover the specific survival protein, and figure out a way to inhibit it. Like, wow. The results Professor Andrew Roberts explained the findings, saying, As yet, these inhibitors are still in pre-clinical development. Our results suggest that, once necessary laboratory testing for safety is completed, clinical trials of their effectiveness in treating patients with multiple myeloma that is no longer responding to current therapies would be well justified. The researchers recommended more time be spent trying to figure out if these inhibitors are for sure going to assist patients with the bone marrow cancer. It appears likely that it would be a final step in the treatment only to be relied on if nothing else seemed like it was working. Story continues Oh, science. You have our hearts. This is truly just so fantastic, and proof that while theres always more to learn, the geniuses of our world are able to collaborate and make major moves toward curing diseases like this deadly cancer. The post Were getting closer to finding a cure for this incurable bone cancer appeared first on HelloGiggles. the bomb film tribeca nuclear weapon out of controll Cold War history is rife with close calls that nearly led to nuclear holocaust. In September 1983, for example, sunlight reflecting off a patch of clouds fooled a Soviet missile-warning system into detecting the launch of five US intercontinental ballistic missiles that never were. A wary colonel in a bunker ignored the alarm on a 50/50 hunch. Two months later, US forces staged "Able Archer 83" a massive nuclear-strike drill on the doorstep of the USSR. Soviet commanders panicked at the show of force and nearly bathed America in thermonuclear energy. Once again, an act of human doubt saved the planet. Now scientists have one more hair-raising event to add to the books: The "Great Storm" of May 1967. "The storm made its initial mark with a colossal solar radio burst causing radio interference ... and near-simultaneous disruptions of dayside radio communication," a group of atmospheric scientists and military weather service personnel wrote in a new study, published August 9 in the journal Space Weather. Hours later, high frequency communications dropped out near US military installations in and near the Arctic one of the closest places to station nuclear weapons and launch them at a Cold War-era Soviet Union. "Such an intense, never-before-observed solar radio burst was interpreted as jamming," the study authors wrote. "Cold War military commanders viewed full scale jamming of surveillance sensors as a potential act of war." A 'Great Storm' Earth's magnetic field protects life on the planet by corralling the sun's high-energy particles toward the planet's polar regions. If the sun happens to launch a cloud of solar particles directly toward Earth during a violent outburst, called a coronal mass ejection, it can trigger powerful geomagnetic storms. This not only leads to beautiful auroras, but can also scramble wireless communications and disrupt radar systems. Story continues geomagnetic solar storm auroras earth poles nasa gsfc While The Washington Post wrote up a story about the storm as "City Gets Rare Look at Northern Lights," top US military commanders sounded the alarms in secret. The Air Weather Service (AWS) a relatively new branch of the Air Force had warned military leadership about the possibility of a solar storm, but US commanders believed the Soviet forces were jamming NORAD systems designed to detect threatening planes and missiles. As the Strategic Air Command warmed up the engines of bombers and taxied toward the runway, the decision to go airborne may have been kicked all the way up to the "highest levels of government," possibly involving President Lyndon B. Johnson. "Just in time, military space weather forecasters conveyed information about the solar storm's potential to disrupt radar and radio communications," according to a press release from the American Geophysical Union. "The planes remained on the ground and the U.S. avoided a potential nuclear weapon exchange with the Soviet Union." And this all happened at the peak of nuclear armament when a record 31,255 nuclear weapons were deployed around the world. (Today there are roughly 7,200 nuclear armaments at hand.) "Had it not been for the fact that we had invested very early on in solar and geomagnetic storm observations and forecasting, the impact [of the storm] likely would have been much greater," study leader and UCAR atmospheric scientist Delores Knipp said in the release. After the near miss, the researchers say the military learned to listen to its space weather forecasters, improve its abilities to see another looming "Great Storm," and avert the first and perhaps final global nuclear exchange. NOW WATCH: Animated map shows every nuclear-bomb explosion in history More From Business Insider Nebraska lawmakers are weighing unprecedented steps to respond to state Sen. Bill Kintner's cybersex scandal. The Papillion senator used his state laptop to exchange sexually explicit live video and messages with a stranger online in July 2015, and was fined $1,000 Friday for misusing government property. Kintner has rejected calls to resign by Gov. Pete Ricketts and others. Now lead senators are mulling whether to force Kintner from office an action the Legislature has never taken against one of its own. Some believe such a decision should be made this fall during a special session called by the Legislature itself another first, according to the legislative clerk's office. State law allows it, but Nebraska lawmakers have never called a special session on their own. That task has always fallen to the governor, who may convene senators at his discretion. It's a "messy situation," said Sen. Mike Gloor of Grand Island, who feels senators should react soon rather than wait until next year. "There are going to be bigger issues for the body to deal with in January," Gloor said. "And for them to have this dropped in their lap I think would be unfortunate." Others said while they are unhappy with Kintner, they question whether the Legislature should set new precedent in dealing with his situation. "I'm clearly embarrassed," said Sen. Jim Smith of Papillion, whose Sarpy County district abuts Kintner's. "I'm embarrassed for the Legislature. I'm disappointed in Sen. Kintner." However, Smith said he hasn't heard an argument that convinces him to support a special session or vote to remove Kintner from office. The Journal Star surveyed about half the Legislature on Monday, and while most of those senators said they were open to holding a special session, many said they would defer to leaders on the Executive Board to determine the path forward when they meet Aug. 19. Executive Board Chairman Bob Krist said Monday he didnt have a lot of interest in a special session himself, although he could support one alongside a majority of the 10-member board. A lot of people just want the issue to go away, he said. The easiest way for that to happen is for Kintner to resign. I think there are very few people that want to give up their time to go back in for a special session regarding this issue, he said. Speaker of the Legislature Galen Hadley says the Kintner issue is unfinished business which shouldn't fall to next year's group of senators, many of whom will be newly elected. Furthermore, Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers has pushed for Kintner's impeachment. Some senators fear that debate, if it waits until next year, could distract from other legislation, including the state's biennial budget. Hadley doesn't expect the governor to force a special session this fall if lawmakers don't amass the 33 votes needed to trigger one, he said. "It's in our house," Hadley said Monday. Ricketts hasn't stated a position on a special session. "The governor's office is keeping open lines of communication with the speaker to see what course of action legislative leaders pursue," said Taylor Gage, Ricketts' spokesman. Another question is what exactly the Legislature might do during a special session. No Nebraska state senator has ever been impeached or expelled, according to the legislative clerk's office. The furthest lawmakers have gone in disciplining one of their own was the 1955 censure of Omaha Sen. Sam Klaver. Senators condemned him on a 37-2 vote after he withheld a bill to tax jukeboxes in exchange for $1,000 cash and $1,500 in advertising purchases in a weekly newspaper he owned. Klaver was later re-elected and served until 1973. Impeaching Kintner would require 25 votes in the Legislature, but the ultimate decision would fall to the Nebraska Supreme Court. A two-thirds majority of the court must then find Kintner guilty of an impeachable offense before removing him from office and prohibiting him from holding public office in the state again. Lawmakers could expel Kintner from the Legislature with 33 votes; he would be eligible to run for re-election. Sen. Merv Riepe of Ralston questioned whether Kintner's action rises to the level of impeachment or expulsion. A person's career and reputation are on the line, even though one could say Kintner brought this on himself, he said. "I want to be pretty deliberate and judicious about it," he said. Lincoln Sen. Ken Haar wants to hear from the Executive Board to know what the Legislature can actually do about this. "I do feel it's an embarrassment to the whole Legislature," he said. "And I think the people of Nebraska are waiting for the Legislature to take or not take action. We're the ones who are going to have to deal with it." Unless Kintner does first. Im getting e-mails and phone calls from constituents who wish he would resign, said Sen. Laura Ebke of Crete. Special sessions typically last at least seven days because that's how long it takes to pass a bill. Legislative staff have estimated the cost of a special session this year at $65,000. But the discussion would end if Kintner would resign, Hadley said. "I think that solves the problems." Sitting in the balcony of a Giorgio Moroder DJ set in San Francisco as he drops the theme from Midnight Express, the first film he ever scored and won an Academy Award for in 1979, I realize he's the only artist you can see perform today who not only has three Oscars, but will drop tunes from his film scores on the dancefloor. When he plays the theme from Never Ending Story, the place goes absolutely ballistic. "Scoring was something you could say I fell into," says Giorgio, "It never occurred to me that it was something I could do but when Alan Parker [director of Midnight Express] asked me of course I said yes." The 35 Best Disco Songs Ever It's not an exaggeration to say he's produced some of the most iconic music of all time for American films including scores for Scarface, Flashdance and American Gigolo as well as songs like Berlin's "Take My Breath Away" and Kenny Loggins "Danger Zone" from Top Gun. Now Giorgio and frequent collaborator Raney Shockne are working together again on USA Network's Queen of the South, a show about a woman on the run in the US after her drug-dealer boyfriend is murdered in Mexico. He says working with a 30 minute format is completely different from a feature length film, which for him traditionally involves individual songs in defining moments of the story rather than predominantly instrumental work. "I've heard it said the best scores are the ones you don't notice. I liked Queen of the South because it reminded me a bit of Scarface," he says. The show's theme has a sexy disco groove that would be welcome at any Giorgio performance but with an eerie darkness to it that perfectly embodies the story. Queen of the South commercials are backed with building, frantic instrumentals that eventually quiet down into the echoing sound of high heels walking down a hallway. In other words, it's absolutely perfect. Giorgio Moroder Returns To Casablanca Records Story continues Although deadlines and turn around times for Queen of the South are tight, Giorgio and Raney are already taking on their next feature film project. Tomboy, a Revenger's Tale starring Sigourney Weaver and Michelle Rodriguez, is a story about an assassin who gets revenge after pissing off the wrong people and falling into the hands of a rogue surgeon who turns him into a woman. Eager to get back to writing a combination of songs and instrumentals and using live musicians, Giorgio is stoked on the project. "I'm at least interested in doing some scores, not just electronic. I love what Hans Zimmer does, I think he's fantastic. It's electronic but with real instruments." Queen of the South's music production is almost entirely digital, which is great for efficiency but not always great for sound innovation. Whether it be colors you mix, sounds you make, or words that you speak your art is your art and it is beautiful ---- A photo posted by Giorgio Moroder (@giorgiomoroder) on Aug 1, 2016 at 12:08am PDT Giorgio's 20-plus-year hiatus from making music has not left him rusty or non-innovative in the slightest. After Daft Punk unofficially brought him out of retirement with their track "Giorgio by Moroder" off 2013's Random Access Memories, which was based on an interview with him about his early life and career, Giorgio started doing DJ performances and working on his 16th studio album. Deja Vu was released in 2015 featuring collaborators like Sia, Britney Spears, Kylie Minogue, Matthew Koma and more. Last month he performed at Fendi's 90th anniversary celebration and fashion show in Rome. Next month he'll be performing at an immersive musical experience in Brooklyn called I Feel Love alongside Soulclap, Armand Van Helden, Jackmaster and more in an abandoned factory built out to recreate a Studio 54-like setting. Britney Spears & Giorgio Moroder's 'Tom's Diner' Has a Lyric Video & 2 New Remixes "Do you have any information on I Feel Love?" Giorgio asks much to my surprise at the end of our interview. "They're being very secretive, see what you can find out." The 'they' he speaks of are the parent-label, Universal Music Group, of his label Casablanca Records who have partnered on the event. Patrons are given an intriguing warning as they purchase tickets. "This experience isn't for everyone. Please be prepared to be comfortable standing, walking, climbing stairs, being touched, interacting with participants or being alone. Throughout the experience you may be offered alcoholic beverages. Also note this experience may include nudity." After reading that, I purchased my ticket immediately. Queen of the South airs Thursdays on USA Network at 9 pm CST and Tomboy, A Revenger's Tale is slated for release next year. Catch Giorgio Sept. 9 and 10 at I Feel Love in Brooklyn, tickets available at IFeelLove.co This is what the What a Girl Wants musician you had a crush on looks like today This is what the What a Girl Wants musician you had a crush on looks like today Back in 2000, the world was given the gift that is the movie What a Girl Wants. If you have no idea what were talking about, heres a quick summary: The film stars Amanda Bynes as an American teen named Daphne Reynolds, who finds out that her dad is a wealthy British politician (Colin Firth) and travels to England to meet him. However, the young woman soon realizes she could start a scandal that might cost her dad his chance at winning a life-changing election, and thats when things get dicey. Most importantly, after arriving in England, Daphne meets a gorgeous, guitar-playing musician named Ian Wallace: what a girl wants 5 The above actor is Oliver James, whos now 36 years old but was only 20 when What a Girl Wants was filmed. You may also recognize him from the movie Raise Your Voice, starring Hilary Duff. Just look at this spikey-haired, frosted-tipped angel: what a girl wants 6 Okay, now for the best part. This is what Oliver looks like today: Sending you all love for your Monday... pic.twitter.com/KHShWFN6Rj Oliver James (@0liverJam3s) February 15, 2016 A side-by-side we will never regret creating: what a girl wants 7 According to his Twitter bio, Oliver is an actor, writer, musician and thinker of things. Though he has Facebook and YouTube pages for his music career, the last video Oliver posted is currently three years old. He also hasnt acted since 2012, which is super sad because we definitely wouldnt be opposed to seeing his face all over our TV screens. Now, heres one more for the road: The post This is what the What a Girl Wants musician you had a crush on looks like today appeared first on HelloGiggles. A 27-year-old Google employee was found dead on Sunday and police are considering foul play, according to reports. Vanessa Marcotte, who lived and worked in New York City, was visiting her mother in Princeton, Massachusetts a town about an hour west of Boston when she disappeared during a Sunday walk, Mass Live reports. Authorities reportedly located her body Sunday evening and are investigating her death as a homicide, based on evidence they collected at the scene. According to Mass Live, an autopsy has not yet been performed. "We have a horrible set of facts, horrible circumstance," District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. told the outlet. "We don't know if this was a random act. We are asking residents od Princeton and surrounding areas to use an abundance of caution." According to the Boston Globe, police would not reveal specifics of the crime, but did say they were focusing on the hours of 1 p.m. when she first left her mother's home and 4 p.m. Marcotte's body was reportedly found at 8:20 p.m. Other evidence suggested that Marcotte's body had been burned and investigators were also looking into the possibility of sexual assault, the newspaper reports. In addition to warning residents to be vigilant, police are also asking for the public's help with the case and are urging anyone with information to contact them at 508-453-7589. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter. A 27-year-old woman was found dead after she went for a jog in Princeton, Massachusetts, on Sunday, August 7, according to multiple reports. PHOTOS: Celebrity Deaths in 2016: Stars Weve Lost New York City resident Vanessa Marcottes body was discovered by authorities in a rural wooded area about half a mile from her mothers home on Sunday night, just hours after she was reported missing. CBS Boston reported that the victims body was burned. Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. urged locals during a press conference on Monday, August 8, to use an abundance of caution and be very careful amid the ongoing investigation. He also noted that the death is being investigated as a homicide. PHOTOS: Most Shocking Celebrity Deaths of All Time People should be concerned, Early added. Marcotte, who graduated from Boston University in 2011 with a bachelors degree in communications, worked as an account manager at Google in New York City, according to her LinkedIn account. Vanessa Marcotte was a much loved member of the Google team, working in our New York office for the last year and a half, and known for her ubiquitous smile, passion for volunteer work and love of Boston sports, a Google spokesperson told CNN. We are deeply shocked and saddened, and our thoughts are with her family and friends. PHOTOS: Celebrity Health Scares Marcottes former professor Steve Quigley, who she reportedly kept in contact with after graduation, told CBS Boston, She was kind, very bright and unfailingly gracious. My heart is broken and my thoughts are with her family. An autopsy is still pending. No arrests have been made. A new device could be a miracle lifesaver when it comes to gun violence. The Doctors discuss the XSTAT 30, a FDA-approved syringe filled with micro-sponges that can expand and fill a gunshot wound in 20 seconds. The device was first developed with the military in mind, but is now available to the public. The syringe can quickly stop bleeding from a gunshot wound by creating internal compression in the body. Watch: Gun Safety and Children The nearly 100 sponges rapidly expand inside the wound in just 15 seconds and can absorb up to a pint of blood, which can dramatically raise the victims chance of survival after being shot. The reason so many people die from gunshot wounds is uncontrolled bleeding, ER physician Dr. Travis Stork says. Too often, people arent trained with the type of pressure to use and how to stop the bleeding to get someone to the hospital. Plastic surgeon Dr. Andrew Ordon warns that not every type of gunshot injury will benefit from the XSTAT30. Watch: Packing Heat and a Baby Certain parts of the body are not going to respond to this type of treatment, but it is a pretty big advance, he says. According to the Brady Campaign To Prevent Gun Violence, on average, 111,779 people in America are shot in murders, assaults, suicides & suicide attempts, unintentional shootings, or by police intervention yearly and 32,964 of those people die, the XSTAT 30 could help save lives in many of these instances. Watch: Woman Hides Loaded Gun in Her Private Parts Youre talking about the potential to save many lives Im glad [this product is available], but the impetus to create these products is obviously a sad one, but thats just the world we live in, Dr. Stork adds. Speculation that hacked emails from Hillary Clintons sloppy server led to the execution of an Iranian nuclear scientist exploded after Donald Trump, her rival for the White House, relayed the hearsay to his nearly 11 million Twitter followers Monday night. Like a vandal tossing a lit match into a pool of gasoline, its an act that cant be undone. And its the latest in a series of foreign-policy political stunts that has the rest of the world wondering what kind of fever has struck the American presidential campaign. Its the kind of fireworks Trump lit anew when he suggested Tuesday that Second Amendment boosters could thwart a President Clintons judicial nominees, which many took as a wink at gun violence against her (Trump says he was referring only to firearm backers political unity and resulting clout). Trumps call to arms may have been implicit, kind of, but his willingness to link Clinton to Tehrans recent execution of Shahram Amiri was direct. Yet any evidence that Clintons private email server played a role in the scientists death is dubious, given that his 2009 arrival in the U.S. for 14 months was news in 2010, five years before the State Department released Clinton emails referencing Amiris case. After returning to Iran in 2010, Amiri claimed the U.S. government had abducted him; U.S. officials deny that, and say he returned to his homeland after voluntarily defecting to the U.S. The entire episode, befitting the fate of a potential nuclear turncoat, is murky and shrouded in mystery. But linking Clinton to his death is more straightforward. Senator Tom Cotton, R-Ark., got the ball rolling during an appearance Sunday on CBSs Face the Nation. In the emails that were on Hillary Clintons private server, there were conversations among her senior advisers about this gentleman, he said. That goes to show just how reckless and careless her decision was to put that kind of highly classified information a private server. The Drudge Report ran with a story from the Washington Examiner, a conservative website, on Cottons remarks, and Trump tweeted about it the next day. While the Clinton emails didnt mention Amiri by nameand were unclassifiedtheir timing matches news stories about Amiri published contemporaneously. The FBI has said there is no evidence Clintons emails were hacked, but has also said finding evidence of such pilfering would be hard to find. Given that its impossible to prove a negative, its an ideal case for political mischief. Many people are saying that the Iranians killed the scientist who helped the U.S. because of Hillary Clintons hacked emails, Trumps Monday tweet said. This is a new kind of dirty trick. In their original form, such political shenanigans, made infamous by Richard Nixon, attempted to fool innocents. But in their latest incarnationDirty Tricks 2.0they serve only to make already-believing true believers more rabid. At the same time, such claims convince the other side of the rightness of their cause, while those in the middle simply tune out the mayhem. With such a polarized electorate, each side is willing to surrender skepticism and believe the worst about its foes. (Democratic whispers that Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort is a stooge of Russian president Vladimir Putin, for example, traffics in the same muck, although not as deeply.) Other Trump allies are engaging in such politically motivated claims. On Monday, the families of two of the four Americans killed by Islamic militants in Libya in 2012 sued Clinton, saying her reckless handling of classified information led to their deaths. They did so despite repeated probes that found Clinton not culpable, and a recent personal plea from the mother of Christopher Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya who also perished in the attack, to stop using the deaths for partisan political purposes. The peril posed by such loose truths is simple. It is a conflagration in the nations political discourse, fed by factions who believe only what they want to believe. Its a blaze fueled by the cable TV networks they watch, the websites they visit, and their social-media haunts (Facebook is full of posters unfriending friends with different political outlooks). Fewer friends on Facebook, of course, wouldnt be a bad thing for many Americans. But the screeds highlight a shrinking body politic built around traditional American centrist attitudes. That works against the democratic tradition of honest debate and compromise. The danger is that partisans may increasingly sacrifice once-shared versions of the truth in favor of those that mesh with their ideology. Trump, smelling defeat, already senses an opening. Im afraid the election is going to be rigged, he told supporters last week in Ohio. I have to be honest. Medical is one of the 10 sectors in the S&P 500 cohort that is expected to witness earnings growth in the second quarter. The sectors earnings are likely to increase 4.4% on a revenue hike of 7.7%. We note that 433 S&P companies have already reported their quarterly numbers, with 70.7% beating EPS estimates and 52.7% surpassing the consensus mark for the top line. As per the latest Zacks Earnings Trend report, overall second-quarter earnings for the S&P 500 companies are expected to be down 3.5% year over year on revenue decline of 0.4%. Healthcare is an important component of the Medical sector and is expected to follow the earnings growth trajectory in the quarter. Here, we take a look at three healthcare stocks scheduled to report their second-quarter figures on Aug 10: Quorum Health Corporation QHC is an operator and manager of general acute care hospitals and outpatient services, primarily in the U.S. We expect Quorum to beat earnings as it has a favorable combination of Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) and +63.64% Earnings ESP. The Most Accurate estimate for the company is pegged at 18 cents, while the Zacks Consensus Estimate stands at 11 cents. QUORUM HEALTH Price and EPS Surprise QUORUM HEALTH Price and EPS Surprise | QUORUM HEALTH Quote As per our proven model, a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 to beat earnings. Simultaneously, we caution against stocks with a Zacks Rank #4 or 5 (Sell-rated) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions. Headquartered in Brisbane, CA, CareDx Inc CDNA is a molecular diagnostics company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of clinically differentiated and high-valued diagnostic solutions for transplant patients. We believe the company is poised to gain market position with the outstanding kidney transplant programs in the multicenter kidney transplant study, also known as DART. Moreover, the recent collaboration with QIAGEN is likely to fortify the companys market position by enhancing the transplant-lab-testing workflow. Story continues CAREDX INC Price and EPS Surprise CAREDX INC Price and EPS Surprise | CAREDX INC Quote However, our proven model does not predict a beat for the company, given the combination of a Zacks Rank #3 and Earnings ESP of 0.00%. We note that the Most Accurate estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate for CareDx are pegged at a loss of 30 cents. Cancer Genetics Inc CGIX operates as a diagnostics company, focused on developing and commercializing proprietary genomic tests and services to improve the diagnosis, prognosis and response to treatment of cancer. The recent partnership with H3 Biomedicine and the receipt of New York State approval for its unique next generation sequencing (NGS)-based Focus::CLL panel are noteworthy developments for the company, in our view. CANCER GENETICS Price and EPS Surprise CANCER GENETICS Price and EPS Surprise | CANCER GENETICS Quote However, our model does not conclusively show that the company is likely to beat estimates, given the combination of a Zacks Rank #3 and Earnings ESP of 0.00%. Notably, the Most Accurate estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company stand at a loss of 33 cents. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report CANCER GENETICS (CGIX): Free Stock Analysis Report CAREDX INC (CDNA): Free Stock Analysis Report QUORUM HEALTH (QHC): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research From Seventeen Human dolphin Michael Phelps won his 19th Olympic gold medal in tonight's 4x100-meter men's freestyle swimming relay - a new record for most gold medals won by a male swimmer. But if you caught the dramatic race on TV, in which the US finished just a stroke ahead of the defending gold medal team from France, you probably noticed something about Michael besides his superhuman speed in the pool. Michael's upper body is dotted with circular bruises. Photo credit: " Photo credit: " Photo credit: " Photo credit: " The bruises are a result of cupping, a treatment some athletes swear by to increase blood circulation. Cupping involves using tiny heated cups to apply suction-like pressure to the skin. Here's a picture of Michael getting, um, cupped several weeks ago. A handful of other Olympic athletes practice cupping, and actresses such as Jennifer Aniston have experimented with it in the past. It's worth noting that not everyone (i.e., doctors) believes cupping actually works, as it's considered an alternative medicine rather than a science. But try telling that to the guy with 19 gold medals (and counting). Big Bad Breakfast From Dave Lutz, head of ETFs at JonesTrading, here's a quick guide to what traders are talking about right now: Good Morning! US futures rebounding 20bp from one of the lightest sessions of 2016, as More M&A (MWW, William Hill) offsets a sea of fresh offerings (BMRN, X among others). Its a sea of green in Europe, with the DAX recouping 20% from the 2016 Lows, adding 75bp as those Banks continue to rally, with the SX7P adding 80bp, and those Italian Banks jumping another 1% early. Every sector in the Stoxx is higher, but volumes are abysmal, with most exchanges trading 30% light to recent summer averages. In London, the FTSE just off 14month highs as Industrials and Staples outperform. It was a Strong overnight in Asia, as Chinese Deflation pressure waned - Nikkei leapt 70bp on weaker Yen - Hong Kong lost small - Shanghai added 70bp, while Aussie led by the Fins again on ANZ #s, gaining 30bp. Most EM markets closed mixed as they grappled with the surging greenback. The US 10YY is off small, as a stronger than expected JGB auction drove their yields lower. German Bunds are unchanged tho, as the periphery continues to rally, led by a drop in those Spanish Yields again. The DXY is basically unchanged, still losing ground to the Yen and Aussie $ - but Euro weaker and the Pound weakest in a month - back below $1.30. Ore was off small in China, but remains near 1 1/2year highs and we r seeing some profit-taking in industrial commods, with Copper off 50bp and Silver dropping 40bp. Oil Complex continues to rally from yesterdays OPEC headers, and too many are short the complex and scrambling to cover into Inventory data later today. Natty Gas continues to confound the long crowd, diving nearly another 2% and extending the longest losing streak since February as cooler mornings greet traders in the northeast. Softs are all weaker across the board. At 8:30 today, we get US Nonfarm Productivity, just before the 10am release of the UKs NIESR GDP Estimate and US Wholesale Trade Sales. At Noon, Energy players will be looking for the EIA monthly short-term energy outlook, and at 1pm the US Treasury auctions off $24B in 3Y notes. After the close today, we get Short Interest Data from the exchanges, DIS Earnings, and at 4:30 the API data for Crude, U.S. Crude Supplies Seen Falling 1.75M Bbl in Bloomberg Survey - Cushing crude supplies -150k, but Genscape seeing a build 150k. Story continues NOW WATCH: This Excel trick will make your reports so much better More From Business Insider From Esquire John Noonan knows nukes. He has spent his entire life in the defense community, first as the son of a career Naval officer, then as a student in military institutions, then as a United States Air Force launch officer within the Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICMB) system. He's spent countless 24-hour shifts 100 feet below ground, surrounded by ten nuclear missiles to which he has the launch codes. After leaving the Air Force, he became a spokesperson for the House Armed Services Committee and served as a national security advisor to both Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush. Before this election, Noonan was mostly behind the scenes, a powerful man who worked in the shadow of even more powerful politicians. That is, until Donald Trump came along and started running his mouth about using nuclear weapons with the flippancy with which most of us deploy angry-face emojis. Noonan is a low-key guy, but such a fundamental misunderstanding by a presidential nominee of our most powerful war deterrent was too much. So he took to Twitter. In a twenty-tweet rant, Noonan rained scunnion down upon poor Donald with a series of logical points that led to one conclusion: Trump should not be given the ability to launch a nuclear weapon. Since the tweet storm, Noonan has been in constant demand for television and radio appearances, and his op-ed cup overfloweth. By his reckoning, he is at minute fourteen of his fifteen minutes of fame. We figure we'd snag the last one. ESQ: One of your most damning condemnations of Trump was the observation that he did not seem to know in concrete terms, about the "Nuclear Triad." Why does it matter that he knows submarine-launched missiles, ground-based missiles, and air-launched/dropped nuclear weapons? JOHN NOONAN: It's evidence that Trump doesn't have any damn respect for this country. When you run for president, you need to know certain things: You need to know how much a gallon of milk costs. You need to know the names and the proper pronunciations of major world leaders. And you sure as hell need to know some basic facts about nuclear weapons. When Mitt and Jeb ran for office, they studied. They asked questions. They had a hunger and desire to learn, because they knew that the demands of leadership are unforgiving. Ignorance is a choice. And Trump's choice-to not do the work-is essentially saying "I don't care about you or the demands of this office." Story continues Photo credit: Getty You were a nuclear-weapons officer, trusted with the launch codes and keys that could end the world. What was it like to have the fate of the world in your hands. literally? Well let's not get too hyperbolic. The era of tens of thousands of missiles and bombs on alert went out with parachute pants and the Sugar Hill Gang. Nuclear forces are much smaller these days. That said, a nuclear exchange between two major powers would reshape the world in a drastic and nightmarish way, take the lives of millions, and have catastrophic environmental effects that would last generations. So we're not playing with Lincoln Logs here either. And yes, it's a hell of a responsibility. Consider this: The president gives an order. But a missileer, or a submarine or bomber crew, all have to choose whether or not to follow that order. In a sense, the decision to release nuclear weapons isn't the president's alone. It's shared by everyone in that chain of command. Don't get me wrong, I would have done my duty and I can damn near guarantee everyone on alert right now wouldn't blink either. But think of that as an added responsibility of the presidency: You aren't just ordering nuclear release-you are asking everyone in that chain of command to own it, too, and to live with it for the rest of their lives. "It's how he's run his businesses for decades: 'I can do whatever I want.' In the business world, it was shady and unethical. In the national-security world, it's downright dangerous." Explain the concept of "deterrence," how that relates to our "first strike" capability, and Trump's understanding thereof. Think of the world as a playground. Does the bully-the five-foot-tall third grader with a pituitary disorder-pick on the star athlete or the 60-pound weakling? They're not going to punch the athlete in the nose because they'll get socked right back, so they go for the weakling every time. In America's case, we don't just stand up to the nuclear-armed bullies-we also stick up for the weaker kids. Russia, to wit, could impose its will on the small Baltic democracies because Russia is big and they are small. It's American resolve, backed by nuclear weapons, that keeps Russia in check. That's what you call deterrence. This is what I hear from Trump: that he wants to flip that equation and make the United States the bully. That is, We're big and we have nukes and we can use them to kill terrorists in Raqqa and Mosul. Stop us if you dare. It's how he's run his businesses for decades: I can do whatever I want. In the business world, it was shady and unethical. In the national-security world, it's downright dangerous. I don't think it's empty talk either. His spokesperson said a few months ago, "what good is a nuclear triad if you can't use it?" That could the stupidest thing ever said in the history of presidential campaigns, which puts it in the running for stupid thing ever said in the history of humanity. Nuclear weapons are like an understanding between the athlete and the bully: You don't screw with me and I won't screw with you. It's a way for the two biggest kids on the block to communicate with each other in no uncertain terms. That Trump allegedly believes that nukes are solutions to low-intensity problems like ISIS and Al-Qaeda is raw, unfiltered insanity. Photo credit: Getty Why speak out now? Or, why are you now being listened to? I've been consistent in my opposition to handing over nuclear authenticators to a petty thug like Trump. Here's a guy who consistently ties up our judicial system with stupid lawsuits designed to punish or bully his enemies. He sued everyone from small businesses in Georgia to Native American tribes out West. Imagine handing over the U.S. Armed Forces to a man who uses the legal system as a giant club to whack his enemies? Think of the damage he could do. And think of the young men and women who would have to decide which of his orders are legal and which are illegal. Trump doesn't just flunk the Commander-in-Chief test. He gets held back a year. "Trump wants to make the United States the bully." Trump has infamously denigrated combat veterans like Marine Corps General John Allen, Navy veteran John McCain. His statements about international- and defense-related statements have been inconsistent at best. What do you consider to be his most egregious gaffes? The McCain gaffe, and the way Trump's supporters responded, was incredible. Republicans are the party of national security, of a strong military, and of profound respect for service and sacrifice. One dumb comment by Trump and all of a sudden I'm hearing lifelong Republicans resurrect bat-shit conspiracy theories from 2008 about how McCain started the USS Forrestal fire. Why not blame the guy for the bubonic plague, too? The stories from the Hanoi Hilton, the suffering those pilots like McCain endured, is beyond what any of us could bear. And here's Trump, a guy who wouldn't last 30 seconds in a military chow hall, saying that people who got shot down aren't heroes. Does he know that during the war, North Vietnam had the most heavily defended airspace in the world outside of the Soviet Union? That you could practically play hop scotch from one blazing surface-to-air missile to another? Does Trump know guys like McCain woke up every morning and flew into that shit storm for no other reason that they loved their country and had cast-iron in their jockstrap? Does he know they endured unspeakable torture because they refused to badmouth America in front of international camera crews? Or that McCain refused special parole because his father was an admiral, so he rode out six years of his life there? Of course Trump doesn't know any of that. But his supporters, his Republican supporters at least, should know better. How has the Republican defense community has reacted to your statements? Photo credit: Getty I've fielded some disappointed emails from smart, knowledgeable foreign-policy wonks who were upset about how I used the term "first use." I criticized Trump for wanting a "first use" policy. That is, "We've got nukes-so let's use nukes!" There's more to first use than that. But it's hard for me to say, "Guys, I was firing this off on my phone's Twitter app and I needed to make people understand deterrence in less than 140 characters a pop." These are serious people and nuance counts in their business. The most valid complaint I heard is that we've always held first use as an option. It's not because we want to just attack someone out of the blue. Strategic ambiguity has always been a vital part of deterrence strategy. Adversaries already know that using nuclear weapons against the U.S. or its allies means a nuclear response. Saying "we will not use nuclear weapons first" gives an adversary an advantage. They can escalate conventional crises without the threat of nuclear response. The bottom line is that a No First Use policy sounds nice on paper, but could be dangerously escalatory in the real world. Egg headed stuff, sure. But important. That aside, most of the response was positive. It was nice to hear from colleagues I respect who said, "Hell yes, this needed to be said." I'm a staffer by trade, and sometimes it's hard to tell if you're flying too close to the sun. I'd be lying if I said I didn't appreciate the affirmation from longtime pros. Follow John Noonan on Twitter at @noonanjo. Hertz Global Holdings Inc. HTZ came out with better-than-expected results for second-quarter 2016, which also marked the companys first earnings release following the spin-off of its equipment rental business. However, shares dropped 1.7% in the after-hours trading session as both sales and earnings declined year over year. Quarterly adjusted earnings from continuing operations plunged 48.8% year over year to 41 cents a share. However, the figure substantially beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 30 cents. On a reported basis, Hertz Global posted loss per share of 33 cents, against earnings of 14 cents reported in the prior-year quarter. Hertz Global Holdings Inc. (HTZ) Street EPS & Surprise Percent - Last 5 Quarters | FindTheCompany Total revenue slipped 2.3% year over year to $2,270 million due to soft revenues at the U.S. and International rental car segments, coupled with unfavorable currency movements. Nonetheless, the top line fared better than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2,265.5 million. Corporate earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), on an adjusted basis, slumped 25.2% to $184 million, with the margin contracting 250 basis points (bps) to 8.1%. Management revealed that earnings and EBITDA were adversely impacted by unexpected insurance related charges at the International Rental Car segment. Key Q2 Developments During the second quarter, Hertz successfully closed the separation of its equipment rental business for cash receipts of nearly $2.0 billion. Also, the company converted its U.S. Firefly operations to its Thrift brand, as it forms part of the plan to focus on its Hertz, Dollar and Thrifty brands. Apart from this, Hertz invested in Luxe during the quarter, alongside signing one-year contracts with Uber and Lyft. Further, the company is progressing well with its three-to-five year margin enhancement plan, which was announced in Nov 2015. Being in the first year of the plan, Hertz generated cost savings of roughly $100 million in the reported quarter, and is well on track to achieve its target of $350 million for 2016. Segment Performance Hertz now reports under U.S. Rental Car ("U.S. RAC"), International Rental Car ("International RAC") and All Other Operations segments. Revenues for the U.S. RAC segment fell 2% year over year to $1,584 million in the second quarter due to an 8% fall in pricing or Total Revenue per Transaction Day (RPD), offset by a 6% rise in transaction days. Quarterly revenues for the International RAC segment came in at $540 million, reflecting a year-over-year decline of about 3%, including negative foreign currency impact. Excluding currency impact, revenues fell 2%, attributable to a 2% drop in constant-currency Total RPD. Transaction days remained flat during the quarter. International revenues were also hurt by lower-than-expected European demand, owing to security issues stemming from the recent Paris attacks. Despite softness across the oil and gas sector, revenues remained flat in the All Other Operations segment, at $146 million. This segment mainly houses Hertzs Donlen leasing operations. Financial Update The company ended the second quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $1,285 million, total debt of $15,392 million, and shareholders equity of $1,609 million. HERTZ GLBL HLDG Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise HERTZ GLBL HLDG Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise | HERTZ GLBL HLDG Quote Outlook Management remains pleased with the improved pricing trends in the U.S., which also continued into the third quarter. Considering this and the separation of its equipment rental business, management provided a fresh view for full-year 2016, for the stand-alone Hertz Global company. Adjusted corporate EBITDA for Hertz Global is expected in the range of $850$950 million. The company anticipates domestic RAC revenue growth in a range of flat to down 1.5%. Further, U.S. RAC net depreciation per unit per month is projected in the band of $290$300 million, with U.S. RAC capacity growth between -3% and -2%. Net non-vehicle capital expenditure for 2016 is expected in the range of $125$150 million. The company expects non-vehicle cash interest expense of $280$290 million in 2016 and free cash flow in the range of $500$600 million. Finally, Hertz expects adjusted earnings per share in the range of $2.75 to $3.50. Earnings guidance for the full year is based on expected shares outstanding of 85 million and an effective tax rate of 37%. Zacks Rank Hertz currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Better-ranked stocks in the same industry include Dynagas LNG Partners LP DLNG and Green Plains Partners LP GPP, each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Another well-ranked stock in the related industry is SPS Commerce, Inc. SPSC, with a Zacks Rank #2 as well. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free report >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report HERTZ GLBL HLDG (HTZ): Free Stock Analysis Report SPS COMMERCE (SPSC): Free Stock Analysis Report GREEN PLAIN PTR (GPP): Free Stock Analysis Report DYNAGAS LNG PTR (DLNG): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research hillary clinton Hillary Clinton wants Donald Trump to know she's ready to debate him one-on-one. In a statement released Monday, Clinton's campaign chair, John Podesta, said Clinton "looks forward to participating in all three presidential debates." "It is concerning that the Trump campaign is already engaged in shenanigans around these debates," he said, alluding to the idea that Trump may be trying to avoid the debates or is just "toying with the press" over the coming affair. Three general-election debates have been set by the Commission on Presidential Debates, a nonpartisan group that announced dates for the matchups nearly a year ago long before Trump won his party's nomination. The Clinton campaign's statement comes as the Republican nominee amplifies his assertions that the debate schedule and the election itself may be "rigged." Trump in late July accused Democrats of trying to "rig" the timing of the debates, suggesting they were intentionally scheduled adjacent to NFL games happening in the fall. The NFL schedule, however, was released well after the debate schedule. The Clinton campaign said it was "not interested in playing along with a debate about debates or bargaining around them." "The only issue is now whether Donald Trump is going to show up," Podesta's statement said. You can read the full statement below: Secretary Clinton looks forward to participating in all three presidential debates scheduled by the independent debate commission. With so much at stake in the fall elections, she believes these debates will provide the American people with an important opportunity to hear from the candidates on issues critical to the country's future. It is concerning that the Trump campaign is already engaged in shenanigans around these debates, or merely toying with the press to create more drama. Either way, our campaign is not interested in playing along with a debate about debates, or bargaining around them. The only issue now is whether Donald Trump is going to show up to debate at the date, times, places and formats set by the commission last year through a bipartisan process. We will accept the commission's invitation and expect Donald Trump to do the same. Story continues NOW WATCH: Here's what we know about Trump's youngest daughter, Tiffany More From Business Insider By Diane Bartz WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hitachi Automotive Systems Ltd agreed to plead guilty to fixing the price of shock absorbers installed in U.S. autos and to pay a criminal fine of $55.48 million, the Justice Department said in a statement on Tuesday. The plea agreement is the latest in a long-running international probe into price fixing of auto parts. With this agreement, 46 companies and 64 people have been charged in connection with the U.S. investigation, the department said Hitachi had pleaded guilty in 2013 to fixing the price of starters and other auto parts, the department said. According to a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, Hitachi Automotive worked with unnamed competitors from the mid-1990s to 2011 to decide who would provide shock absorbers to which buyers and to coordinate prices. Suzuki Motor Corp and Toyota Motor Corp were the buyers, the complaint said. (Reporting by Diane Bartz, editing by G Crosse and Frances Kerry) By Brendan O'Brien MILWAUKEE (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan faces a primary for his congressional seat on Tuesday in a race overshadowed by presidential candidate Donald Trump's brief refusal last week to endorse his fellow Republican. Ryan, who ran unsuccessfully for vice president in 2012, is predicted to easily beat challenger Paul Nehlen by 66 points in the Republican primary contest ahead of the Nov. 8 general election, a Remington Research Group poll showed last week. Despite the expected large margin of victory, the race for the 1st Congressional District in southeast Wisconsin became the center of attention last Tuesday when Trump refused to endorse Ryan during an interview with the Washington Post. In a sign of the tension between the politicians, Trump told the newspaper he was "not quite there yet" - nearly the same phrase Ryan had used about Trump. On Friday, Trump endorsed Ryan and Senators John McCain of Arizona and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire during a campaign stop in Green Bay, a show of support that could be a step to mend his frayed relations with fellow Republicans. Trump, a former reality TV star, has troubled many in the Republican establishment with his off-the-cuff, often insulting style, and controversial policies, including the proposed ban on Muslims visiting the United States and his plan to build a wall along the Mexican border to keep out illegal immigrants. Ryan, Ayotte and McCain had criticized Trump's feud with the family of Army Captain Humayun Khan, who died in the line of duty in Iraq in 2004 and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for bravery after his death. Trump has had a running dispute with Khan's parents since they criticized Trump at last month's Democratic National Convention. (Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Gareth Jones) Moscow (AFP) - Several hundred people protested in Moscow on Tuesday against controversial amendments to anti-terror legislation they say violate internet freedom and their constitutional right to privacy. The measures, signed into law by President Vladimir Putin last month, boost the surveillance powers for the security services by requiring communication providers to store users' calls, messages, photographs and videos for six months, as well as metadata for up to three years. They also have to provide security services with access to this data and any encryption mechanisms needed to use it. The anti-terror law also criminalises several offences, lowers the age of criminal responsibility to 14 for some crimes and extends prison sentences for online crimes like abetting terrorism. "This is a significant threat to the Russian constitution," opposition blogger Anton Nossik told protesters. "There are lots of terrible things in this legislation, many unconstitutional things that we can object to as citizens." An AFP photographer at the scene said there were nearly 1,000 people taking part in the protest. The opposition deplored that authorities had ordered that the demonstration take place in a densely wooded park in northeastern Moscow, far from the public eye. "I welcome you to my first protest experience in the woods," Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said. "The fact that we are in the woods shows that there is something bad happening in our country." The passage of the bills through Russia's lower and upper houses of parliament sent shockwaves through the internet and telecoms industries, which said that the measures would hurt them financially. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said last month that while Putin signed the legislation, he also tasked the government to monitor "how this law is realised" and take measures if there are "undesirable" consequences. The law inspired the former US intelligence contractor turned privacy activist Edward Snowden to issue a rare comment on a domestic policy in Russia, where he is currently living in exile. Snowden wrote on Twitter that the law's signing was a "dark day for Russia". "Signing the #BigBrother law must be condemned," he said, adding that he would criticise the legislation despite fearing retaliation from Russian authorities. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Satellite photographs taken in late July show China appears to have built reinforced aircraft hangars on its holdings in disputed South China Sea islands, a Washington-based research group said. The hangars on Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief Reefs in the Spratly islands have room for any fighter jet in the Chinese air force, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said in a report on the photographs. The images have emerged about a month after an international court in The Hague ruled against China's claims in the resource-rich area, a decision rejected by Beijing. China claims most of the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims. The United States has urged China and other claimants not to militarize their holdings in the South China Sea. CSIS said that apart from a brief visit to Fiery Cross Reef by a military transport plane earlier in the year, "there is no evidence that Beijing has deployed military aircraft to these outposts." The rapid construction of the hangars, however, "indicates that this is likely to change." A U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was unlikely the hangers would be used for civilian purposes. "It's not like the hangers are for mail planes, they are likely for jets," the official said. The official added, however, that the Chinese move was seen as skirting around the line rather than crossing it, and there would be increased concern if China actually moved in military aircraft and started using a reef as a forward operating base. China has repeatedly denied doing so and has in turn criticized U.S. patrols and exercises for ramping up tensions. "China has indisputable sovereignty over the Spratly islands and nearby waters," China's Defence Ministry said in a faxed response to a request for comment on Tuesday. "China has said many times, construction on the Spratly islands and reefs is multipurpose, mixed, and with the exception of necessary military defensive requirements, are more for serving all forms of civil needs." The hangars all show signs of structural strengthening, CSIS said. The new images were first reported by the New York Times. Other facilities including unidentified towers and hexagonal structures have also been built on the islets in recent months, CSIS said. Ties around the region have been strained in the lead-up to and since The Hague ruling. China has sent bombers and fighter jets on combat patrols near the contested South China Sea islands, state media reported on Saturday. Japan has complained about what it has said were multiple intrusions into its territorial waters around another group of islands in the East China Sea. (Reporting by Eric Beech and Idrees Ali in Washington and Michael Martina in Beijing; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Grant McCool) By Andrew R.C. Marshall TAMU, Myanmar (Reuters) - Five years ago, when cold pills first trickled across Myanmar's untamed border with India, many local officials were baffled. Where was this medicine going, and why were smugglers so interested in it? Today, the cross-border trickle has become a torrent and everyone knows why the Indian-made pills are so valuable: they are bound for secret laboratories in lawless eastern Myanmar that churn out most of mainland Southeast Asia's methamphetamine, or "meth". Cold pills contain pseudoephedrine, the main ingredient of meth, a highly addictive drug whose ever-soaring popularity is rattling governments across Asia. In recent months the Philippines has elected a president on a platform of harsh action against drug dealers, Indonesia has resumed executions of drug traffickers after a year-long hiatus and Thailand is wrestling with a soaring prison population. Myanmar's current boom in meth production would be impossible without a recent surge in pseudoephedrine smuggled from India's huge and ill-regulated pharmaceuticals sector, say police and narcotics experts. The uninterrupted flow of the drug is highlighting a disconnect between countries in tackling a meth epidemic that the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) calls Asia's "number one drug threat". "It's big, big business," said Ye Htut, a former advisor to Myanmar's ex-President Thein Sein. He attributed a property boom in Kalay, the largest town in this otherwise impoverished region, to the profits made from smuggling pseudoephedrine. Meth is sold in pill form as "ya ba", a Thai name meaning "crazy medicine", or as a more potent, crystalline substance known as "crystal meth", "ice" or "shabu". Each Indian cold pill can make one "ya ba" and costs only a few cents to produce. By the time it has crossed the border and reached Mandalay - Myanmar's northern capital and a major smuggling hub - the pill's value has increased roughly tenfold. Across mainland Southeast Asia, the UNODC estimates the meth trade was worth about $15 billion in 2013. CROSS-BORDER ROUTE The rugged and ethnically diverse region straddling the Indian border ranks among Myanmar's poorest, with no industry and modest infrastructure. Its main road is a two-lane highway linked by rickety bridges and plied by ox carts. It is here that Myanmar police have been finding thousands of the cold pills, hidden in rice sacks, packed into truck chassis or spilling from the luggage of cross-border bus passengers. In one bust here in mid-June, police intercepted a car carrying more than 60 kg (130 lbs) of Indian pseudoephedrine - enough to make more than a million "ya ba" pills. Global demand for methamphetamine has created "new precursor chemical entrepreneurs in India", said the U.S. State Department in a 2015 report. Experts believe many criminals who once smuggled drugs now prefer precursors, which offer high profits but much lighter penalties. Myanmar police say China is also a major supplier of pseudoephedrine. But with tighter controls there, and with greater demand for the chemical as meth use booms, drug producers have increasingly turned to India. Pseudoephedrine is a controlled substance in India requiring all handlers to register with the authorities. In practice, the trade is poorly monitored, with Indian officials complaining of weak intelligence-sharing between government agencies and rare prosecutions of offenders. Raw pseudoephedrine is made in a handful of Indian factories, then moved through a network of wholesalers, drug makers, distributors and drugstores. It gets pilfered at every point along the way, say experts. In a statement to Reuters, India's Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) said seizures had dropped after the country's narcotics laws were changed in 2013 to define pseudoephedrine as controlled. And indeed, police in Kalay and Tamu, Myanmar's two main districts bordering India, seized only 400 kg of pseudoephedrine last year, down from more than 3.5 tons in 2013. But that may well be because smugglers have found novel ways to avoid detection. "It's highly likely that traffickers have just shifted approach," said Jeremy Douglas, the UNODC's Asia-Pacific head. Tamu district alone had more than 80 unofficial crossing points along its 125-km (80-mile) border with India, said Douglas, making it almost impossible to monitor. The Indian Embassy in Yangon did not respond to a request for comment on the problem. DRUG PROBLEM Already the world's second-largest producer, after Afghanistan, of opium and its derivative heroin, Myanmar is now also reporting record-breaking seizures of meth. In May, police intercepted a truck in northern Myanmar carrying 21 million ya ba pills worth an estimated $35 million. The booming drugs trade poses a challenge to the fledgling government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. Rapid urbanization in the commercial capital Yangon is creating the kind of slums that have fueled the increase in meth abuse in countries such as Thailand and the Philippines. Health experts are braced for an explosion in domestic meth use. Meanwhile, police in Mandalay, a transit point between the western frontier with India and the rebel-dominated eastern borderlands, say they are still making record seizures of Indian-made pseudoephedrine. Greater regional integration, aided by Indian and Myanmar road-building programs, promised to boost both trade and trafficking, said the UNODC's Douglas. "India and Myanmar are cooperating to some extent but they're not doing a lot of joint operations or intelligence-sharing," he said. Myanmar police said most large drug and precursor shipments were smuggled through Moreh, the Indian border town opposite Tamu. They have arrested scores of couriers or "mules", but said they needed India's help to arrest the ringleaders. An Indian man suspected of arranging a large pseudoephedrine shipment in 2013 sought refuge on the other side of the border, said Tamu police chief Major Soe Naing. "Cooperation with India is quite weak so we haven't been able to catch him," he said. The NCB said Myanmar had not presented evidence that smuggling kingpins were hiding in India, or even that the pseudoephedrine it had seized was Indian-made. "It is coming from other countries too," said a top NCB official, who asked not to be named because he wasn't authorized to speak to journalists. (Additional reporting by Tommy Wilkes and Krista Mahr in New Delhi; Editing by Alex Richardson) GUWAHATI, India (Reuters) - The former chief minister of a remote Indian region disputed with China was found dead and hanging from a ceiling fan on Tuesday, police and officials said, after a court ruled last month that his appointment had been illegal. The Supreme Court ruling dealt a blow to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitions of expanding in the northeast, where his Bharatiya Janata Party scored its first state election victory in the region with a win in Assam in May. Kalikho Pul, 47, until July the chief minister of the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, had suffered from depression and was upset over the judgment, his aides told media. "He has committed suicide," Nabam Tuki, a senior lawmaker of the opposition Congress party said in the capital of the vast but sparsely populated region bordering China. Pul's family discovered the body in his bedroom at the chief minister's residence. Media said he had left a diary, which police were examining. A politician with Congress since 1995, Pul became chief minister in February after rebelling against the party. He was put in charge by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's federal government, which had imposed direct rule in the state to end a political crisis. But the Supreme Court held illegal the imposition of president's rule, as it is called in India, ordering that the dislodged Congress should return to power immediately, forcing Pul from office. China claims more than 90,000 sq km (35,000 sq miles) of territory disputed by India in the eastern sector of the Himalayas. Much of that forms the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, which China calls South Tibet. India says China occupies 38,000 square km (14,600 sq miles) of its territory on the Aksai Chin plateau in the west. (Reporting by Biswajyoti Das; Writing by Tommy Wilkes; Editing by Clarence Fernandez) GUWAHATI, India (Reuters) - Indian human rights activist Irom Sharmila ended a 16-year hunger strike on Tuesday against an army law that she said led to atrocities in her northeastern state, and she vowed to press on with her fight by entering politics. Sharmila, in tears, broke her fast in front of reporters by dripping honey into her mouth. She said she would continue to fight a law that gives security forces wide powers to search, enter property and shoot on sight in parts of remote Manipur state. "I will never forget this moment," she told a news conference as she called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to repeal the law. "Without this draconian law you can connect with us, you can govern us with fatherly affection, without discrimination." Known as the Iron Lady of Manipur, Sharmila has spent most of the last 16 years hospitalized and force-fed under judicial custody. Attempted suicide is an offense in India. Outside court in Manipur's capital of Imphal earlier on Tuesday, she said she wanted to live like a "normal human being" and pledged to contest state elections due next year. She launched her hunger strike in 2000 after security forces killed 10 people near her home following a rebel attack on a military convoy. Her long protest won her worldwide recognition and the rights group Amnesty International described her as a prisoner of conscience. Manipur, an underdeveloped state with a population of 2.5 million, has struggled for decades with an insurgency even as other northeastern states have become more stable. Last year, 20 soldiers were killed in an attack there. L. Tonsing, the chief judicial magistrate in Imphal, told Sharmila in court that she was free to do whatever she wanted after she signs a bail bond. Sharmila's close associate, Babloo Loitongbam, said she would oppose army misconduct when she was released from detention on Aug. 23. Authorities said police would maintain an escort for Sharmila because radical groups and rebels were angry with her and had threatened her for ending the strike, seeing it as weakening the fight against the military law. Sharmila's decision to end her protest against the law comes as the federal government has asked its forces to exercise restraint in responding to protests in the disputed Kashmir region, where the army has shoot-to-kill powers to fight militants. Sharmila also plans to get married, she told supporters this year. (Reporting by Biswajyoti Das, Rupam Jain, Tommy Wilkes; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani, Robert Birsel) WATERFORD Absolutely Waterford will hold a Pooch Parade from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 20, at Municipal Park, adjacent to the Fire and Rescue station on North Second Street. More than just a parade, local businesses and vendors will be on hand to pamper attendees and their dogs with a variety of people and dog-related products and services. Wisconsin Humane Society, Companion Cuisine, Lucky Dog Daycare and Lakeland Animal Rescue will all be in attendance with dogs ready for petting and possible adoption. Although all dogs are welcome to march in the parade, the parade will also feature a Strut Your Mutt competition in the following categories: Best Dog/Owner Look-alike, Best Dog Outfit (of any kind), Friendliest Dog and Overall Judges Favorite. Prizes range from $25 to $100. In addition to the monetary awards, the winners will receive flower neck wreaths and a free winners photo. Registration for these categories costs $5 if advance online registration is completed by Aug. 12. Onsite registration will be held from 8 to 9 a.m. on the morning of the event and costs $10. Registration and parade lineup will take place at the Second Street Municipal Park, located one block north of Main Street. For more information about the parade or to pre-register for the Strut Your Mutt competition, go to www.absolutelywaterford.org. We believe that economic uncertainties in some developed and emerging nations, soft commodity prices and forex woes played spoilsport for industries like Industrial Products in AprJun 2016. However, the impact of such headwinds is subdued compared with the previous quarter. In the U.S., roughly 1% year-over-year decline in industrial production is believed to have impacted industrial machine and tool makers. As of Aug 5, roughly 95.5% of industrial products stocks in the S&P 500 Group reported results, recording a 1.2% decline in earnings and 4.5% fall in revenue. Considering the prevalent headwinds, earnings for the industrial products stocks in the S&P 500 Group are predicted to decline 4.9%, while revenue will likely fall 5.6%. Whats in Store for 3 Industrial Stocks, MIDD, ENS, SMED, for AprJun 16 Quarter? Below we discuss briefly the expectations from the upcoming results (AprilJune quarter) for three industrial stocks: Middleby Corp. MIDD: This industrial company is slated to release its second-quarter 2016 results on Aug 10, after the market closes. In the four trailing quarters, the company reported lower-than-expected results in one while recording better-than-expected results in three. Average earnings surprise was a positive 4.02%. MIDDLEBY CORP Price and EPS Surprise MIDDLEBY CORP Price and EPS Surprise | MIDDLEBY CORP Quote Our proven model conclusively shows that Middleby Corp. will disappoint earnings this quarter as it currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) and a -0.92% Earnings ESP (the percentage difference between the Most Accurate estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate). For a possible earnings beat, the company should have the right combination of two key ingredients a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), #2 (Buy) or #3 (Hold). Over the last 60 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the stock remained unchanged at $1.09 per share. Note that we caution against stocks with Zacks Rank #4 or #5 (Sell-rated stocks) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions. EnerSys ENS: This industrial company is slated to release its first-quarter fiscal 2017 (ended Jun 2016) results on Aug 10, after the market closes. In the four trailing quarters, the company reported better-than-expected results in two while lagging estimates in the rest. Average earnings surprise was a positive 0.32%. Story continues ENERSYS INC Price and EPS Surprise ENERSYS INC Price and EPS Surprise | ENERSYS INC Quote Our proven model does not conclusively show that EnerSys will beat earnings this quarter because it currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 and 0.00% Earnings ESP. Over the last 60 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the stock has remained stable at $1.10 per share. Sharps Compliance Corp. SMED: The industrial company is anticipated to release its fourth-quarter fiscal 2016 (ended Jun 2016) results on Aug 10, before the market opens. In the trailing four quarters, the company lagged estimates in three, while recording better-than-expected results in one. Average earnings surprise was a negative 101.39%. SHARPS COMPLIAN Price and EPS Surprise SHARPS COMPLIAN Price and EPS Surprise | SHARPS COMPLIAN Quote Our proven model does not conclusively show that Sharps Compliance will beat estimate this quarter because it currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 and a 0.00% Earnings ESP. Over the last 60 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the stock has remained stable at 7 cents per share. Stay tuned! Check back on our full write-up on earnings release of Middleby and EnerSys. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report MIDDLEBY CORP (MIDD): Free Stock Analysis Report SHARPS COMPLIAN (SMED): Free Stock Analysis Report ENERSYS INC (ENS): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Andrea Tantaros, co-host of Fox News Outnumbered, mysteriously disappeared from the network in April. A Fox statement said issues have arisen with her contract, and that she was going to take some time off. Three months later, when Gretchen Carlson and other women accused former Fox chief Roger Ailes of sexual harassment, it seemed like the mystery of what really happened to Tantaros might be solved especially after New York Magazine reported Monday that she had repeatedly complained to executives in 2015 about Ailess inappropriate sexual behavior. The magazine reported she was demoted and silenced. But Tuesday brought another twist. A person with knowledge of the legal situation reached out to TheWrap to say the sexual harassment issue is a way for Tantaros to muddy the waters when the real issue is her contract. Also Read: Fox News Staff Had 'Widespread Fear' Roger Ailes Monitored Calls, Emails The issue, said the person, is that Tantaros promoted her book, Tied Up in Knots, on the air without permission, after failing to submit a publishing timeline or detailed outline of the books content, as required by her contract. As Tantaros and the network hash out her future, one likely area of dispute will be whether the alleged contract violation was just a convenient way for Fox News to silence her. Would Bill OReilly, for example, have been banished from the airwaves for hawking a book without corporate approval? Tantaros attorney, Judd Burstein, did not immediately respond to request for comment. The network has sued to try to force the dispute over Tantaros contract into arbitration. Until the matter is settled, her career is, to borrow from her book title, tied up in knots. Also Read: Why Betting Against Fox News Is Risky for CNN, MSNBC Execs The New York Magazine story says that Ailes asked Tantaros to do a twirl in August 2014, and told her in February 2015 that her body looked good. That same month, in February 2015, Tantaros was moved from the 5 p.m. show The Five to the mid-day show Outnumbered. Story continues The magazine said she complained about Ailes to Fox News executive vice president Bill Shine in April 2015, though Shine told TheWrap through a spokeswoman: Andrea never made any complaints to me about Roger Ailes sexually harassing her. The person close to the matter said Fox News legal team was blindsided when Tantaros held up her book on-air on February 29, 2016 and revealed the cover art. Some at the network found the cover image, of Tantaros raised arms, tied in knots, to be too provocative. If someone like Dana Perino was tied up on the cover of her book, it would be an issue, a person with knowledge of the situation told TheWrap. On March 16, Fox News received a letter from Los Angeles attorney Joseph Cane, who no longer represents Tantaros. The letter said Tantaros safety had been threatened, and that people she doesnt know had come on the Outnumbered set, which made her uncomfortable, the source said. The letter also mentioned inappropriate male behavior, and mentioned other people, including on-air personalities, but not Ailes, the source said. She probably had more complaints about her female colleagues than her male colleagues, the person told TheWrap, declining to go into detail. Also Read: Fox Wants Roger Ailes to Pay for Gretchen Carlson Settlement Himself Fox News human resources and Fox attorney Dianne Brandi began investigating the complaints in the letter, but Tantaros initially refused to cooperate, the source said, adding that probably 15 people were interviewed. When Tantaros was interviewed in April, with her attorney listening in on the phone, she said she couldnt recall any specific statements made toward her that were of a sexual nature, the source said adding that Tantaros never alleged Ailes harassed her. Tantaros declined to be interviewed a second time, and was suspended soon after. Her last day on-air was April 25, and Tied Up in Knots came out the next day. Carlson sued Ailes in July, and he resigned soon after. Tantaros is still being paid by Fox News and her contract expires August 2, 2017. Fox News Shows, Ranked: Who Is Highest-Rated Between Megyn Kelly, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly (Photos) Fox News Bill O'Reilly Fox News Gretchen Carlson Fox News Happening Now Fox News Shepard Smith Fox News Outnumbered Fox News Neil Cavuto Fox News America's Newsroom Fox News Sean Hannity responds to Stephen Colbert over comparison to 5-year-old Fox News Fox News The Five Fox News Bret Baier Fox News Channel Fox News The Kelly File Megyn Kelly Fox News Bill O'Reilly Fox News Previous Slide Next Slide 1 of 14 What is the most popular show on Fox News? The Top 13 most-watched programs on cable news during the first quarter of 2016 are all on Fox News Channel. So which Fox News show is the most popular? View In Gallery Related stories from TheWrap: Roger Ailes Fails to Move Sexual Harassment Suit From New Jersey Roger Ailes Sought 'Sexual Alliance,' Says Female TV Exec Fox News Drops Roger Ailes Name From Apprentice Program Welcome to Episode #44 of the Zacks Market Edge Podcast. Every week, host and Zacks stock strategist, Tracey Ryniec, will be joined by guests to discuss the hottest investing topics in stocks, bonds and ETFs and how it impacts your life. In this episode, Tracey is joined by Eric Dutram, Editor of the Surprise Trader and the ETF investor, to discuss a topic near to both of their hearts: the pizza stocks. There are worries that the consumer is pulling back on restaurant spending and that the restaurant stock rally is done. But if you looked at the pizza stocks, you might think otherwise. They are nearly all trading at or near all time highs. The pizza market is not very concentrated. It is mostly dominated by mom-and-pop operators with their local pizza parlor. But there are 5 chains that dominate. Yums Pizza Hut is the largest chain in the United States, with 15,000+ stores followed by Dominos with over 11,000. But the 6th largest chain, California Pizza Kitchen, has just 300 restaurants so the drop off after the top 5 is pretty dramatic. That means there are growth possibilities there, but who will cash in? 1. The Big Guys: Pizza Hut (YUM), Dominos (DPZ) and Papa Johns (PZZA) 2. The take-home king: Papa Murphys (FRSH) 3. The small town favorite: Caseys General Stores (CASY) Tracey and Eric discuss valuations of their favorite pizza stocks along with which stocks they think investors should be looking at for the next 12 months. This isnt the first time that Tracey and Eric have discussed the restaurant stocks. See who they think is the next Chipotle. But what else should you know about the pizza stocks? Check out this weeks podcast to find out. Tracey Ryniec is the Value Stock Strategist for Zacks.com. She is also the Editor of the Insider Trader and Value Investor services. You can follow her on twitter at @TraceyRyniec and she also hosts the Zacks Market Edge Podcast on iTunes. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report CASEYS GEN STRS (CASY): Free Stock Analysis Report YUM! BRANDS INC (YUM): Free Stock Analysis Report DOMINOS PIZZA (DPZ): Free Stock Analysis Report PAPA JOHNS INTL (PZZA): Free Stock Analysis Report PAPA MURPHYS HL (FRSH): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research KANSAS CITY, MO / ACCESSWIRE / August 9, 2016 / CorEnergy Infrastructure Trust, Inc. (CORR) will host a conference call to discuss the results of the second quarter 2016, to be held Wednesday, August 10, 2016 at 2:00 PM Eastern Time. To participate in this event, dial 877-407-8035 domestically, or 201-689-8035 internationally, approximately 5 to 10 minutes before the beginning of the call. You may access the teleconference replay by dialing 877-660-6853 domestically or 201-612-7415 internationally, referencing conference ID # 13642220. The replay will be available beginning approximately 2 hours after the completion of the live event, ending at midnight Eastern on September 10, 2016. About CorEnergy Infrastructure Trust, Inc. CorEnergy Infrastructure Trust, Inc. (NYSE: CORR, CORRPrA), is a real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns essential midstream and downstream energy assets, such as pipelines, storage terminals, and transmission and distribution assets. We seek long-term contracted revenue from operators of our assets, primarily under triple net participating leases. For more information, please visit corenergy.reit. SOURCE: Investor Calendar MapR CEO John Schroeder The atmosphere in the venture investment community is a strange one right now. After years of pouring money into startups at often shockingly high valuations, sentiment has cooled. Investors still want to see revenue growth (as they always have and always will), but today they want that growth to be coupled with a common-sense business model that's generating plenty of cash and is marching toward profitability. Show them that, and they'll line up to invest in your company, John Schroeder, founder and CEO of MapR tells Business Insider. That's what happened to him. MapR just announced that it raised another $50 million in investment, bringing its total raised to $194 million. MapR wouldn't disclose the company's new valuation (which is sometimes a sign that the terms for a new investment weren't as great as they were in previous rounds). But he says that finding investors was relatively easy. He simply showed up at his current VC's meet-ups with its limited partner institutional investors, gave them details about MapR's financials, and the term sheets came to him. "Most of the companies founded around 2007 to 2010, they got pulled into these bad business models of support and services and they burn tons and tons of cash," Schroeder says. "We're growing [revenue] at 100%. We've got a few quarters until we're cash flow positive, but our cash burn is really low. That's the combination investors want to see." Selling software, not services MapR's product helps companies run big data apps, but it's a rare bird among startups that sells to businesses these days for another reason: It sells actual software instead of a cloud service. Software is still a high margin business. A company can install MapR into their own data centers or onto a cloud like Amazon or Microsoft. Some 90% of its revenues come from software licenses, he says. MapR's claim to fame is one software app that does it all: stores the data, analyzes it, and runs apps against it. For instance, MapR is popular with ad tech companies because it can store the ads, and run 100 billion ad auctions a day and do the analysis on ad performance, Schroeder says. Story continues But MapR wasn't always an investor favorite. The company started out as a direct competitor to Cloudera in the world of Hadoop, another popular big data technology. And Cloudera was once a beauty queen among investors. By 2014, Cloudera had raised over $1 billion from VCs. "That was the hardest thing about running MapR. I started it about seven years ago and other players in the market were spending at some ridiculous clip at the market," he says. While he was focused on building his product, his competitors were "spending huge amounts. They were over investing in sales and marketing and that doesn't have a lasting value." But with the tables turned, and investors looking for companies with strong financials, MapR is back in vogue. "The investors are hungry. They have to put money to work and they're not being given very many high quality opportunities. And they have gotten burned from the grow-at-all costs, cash burning companies," he said. The lead investor for this $50 million round was Future Fund, a fund from the Australian Government which does growth investments for pension plans and other government assets. Existing investors Google Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Mayfield Fund, New Enterprise Associates, Qualcomm Ventures, and Redpoint Ventures also participated. MapR last raised funds in 2014, when it raised $110 million led by Google Capital, also at an undisclosed valuation. NOW WATCH: This lunch box for adults could change the way you eat More From Business Insider BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An Iraqi court closed a corruption case brought against Parliament Speaker Salim al-Jabouri by Defence Minister Khaled al-Obeidi, citing lack of evidence, a judiciary spokesman said on Tuesday. In parliament last week, Obeidi accused Jabouri and five other MPs of lobbying for businesses seeking contracts to sell overpriced planes, vehicles and other goods to the armed forces. He said they sought to influence ministry appointments and some tried to blackmail him. All six denied the accusations. The spokesman, Judge Abdul Sattar al-Bayraqdar, told state television: "The evidence is lacking." A travel ban imposed on Jabouri because of the accusations was lifted on Tuesday, the speaker's spokesman, Imad al-Khafaji, said. Obeidi made the accusations while appearing before parliament on Aug. 1 to respond to separate corruption allegations at his ministry. He called his summons to address MPs a "conspiracy by the corrupt." The Defence Ministry has been accused by lawmakers of wasting billions of dollars in public funds and weakening the armed forces to the point where they collapsed in 2014 in the face of the threat from Islamic State militants, under the previous government, led by Nuri al-Maliki, who was also acting defense minister. Islamic State seized a third of Iraqi territory but has since been pushed out of many of those areas by Shi'ite Muslim militias and a military that is slowly being rebuilt with the support of a U.S.-led coalition. The armed forces are preparing to try to recapture Mosul, Islamic State's capital in Iraq. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who succeeded Maliki in 2014, has made the fight against corruption a priority but his efforts have been met with resistance and caused major disruption to Iraqi politics. Iraq ranks 161 out of 168 on Transparency International's Corruption Index. (Reporting by Saif Hameed; Writing by Maher Chmaytelli; Editing by Janet Lawrence) Afghanistan Taliban Once serious enemies, the Taliban and Islamic State militants may have brokered a ceasefire deal amongst each other in Eastern Afghanistan. The Wall Street Journal reports that after a year of fighting amongst themselves, the two had worked out a deal to focus their attacks on the government. [ISIS] fought deadly battles with the Taliban before. But over the past two months, there has been no fighting among them, explained General Mohammad Zaman Waziri, a commander of Afghan troops. It has been thought that this lull in fighting had allowed ISIS to commit several high profile terrorist attacks, such as the suicide bombing in Kabul that killed more than 80 people last month. ISIS has reached out to the Taliban for support in the past; however, Taliban forces have remained wary to accept the group's olive branch given its over-the-top methods of achieving its goals. That hasnt stopped the militants from trying though through meetings at mosques with Taliban members, ISIS fighters have attempted to establish mutual relations by discussing the Islamic system of law and offering food at gatherings. In other cases, ISIS militants have also been trying to gain a sense of trust amongst the community by providing employment for Afghans in impoverished areas. Additionally, by handing out wages to Afghans who agree to fight for them, the militants not only established ties to the community, but are also able to bolster their ranks. Tribal leaders have even claimed that ISIS had managed to recruit around 40 fighters in one district. Due to its isolated and local nature, however, this fragile agreement doesnt necessarily mean that it reflects the views of the Taliban or ISIS as a whole. Taliban fighters pose with weapons as they sit in their compound at an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan in this May 5, 2011 file picture. REUTERS/Stringer Story continues Army Gen. John Nicholson, military commander of US forces in Afghanistan explains, Theres still a conflict even though they may have a local cease-fire in place. Theres always been a live-and-let-live dimension to some of the social fabric. According to the Wall Street Journal, one of the sources of contention between the two forces stems from the fact that their ideologies differ while the Taliban are fighting to oust foreign fighters from Afghanistan and establish Shariah law, ISIS still yearns to create a global caliphate. Even if their ideologies were to hypothetically align, some analysts familiar with the situation still predict a major disagreement from the two groups due to neither of them wanting to relinquish their control. The Talibans stance is that we are the only group and if you fight you should fight under us, explains Kunar province's governor Wahidullah Kalimzai, in The Wall Street Journal. They see themselves as the owners of the war. NOW WATCH: GREEN BERET: Why our strategy against terrorism is making things worse More From Business Insider Park High theater students present Hairspray RACINE Park High School Theater Arts students will present Hairspray in the John Burns Theater at Park High School, 1901 12th St. Performance times are 7 p.m. Aug. 11-13 and 2 p.m. Aug. 14. This production of Hairspray is based on the book by Mark ODonnell and Thomas Meehan, with music by Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Scott Whittman and Marc Shaiman. The cast for this production includes students from St. Catherines, Horlick, Park, Case, and Lutheran High schools. The leads are Hailey Schowalter as Tracy Turnblad; Dedrick Woods as Seaweed J Stubbs; Christina Dressler as Amber Von Tussle; Andrew Buehrens as Link Larkin; Raina Murillo as Velma Von Tussle; Phil Evreniadis as Corny Collins; Meghan Flynn as Penny Pingleton; Brandon Dexter as Edna; Paul Marquez as Wilbur Turnblad; Dorothy Driver as Motormouth Maybelle and Rayven Craft as Little Inez. Tickets are $8 for adults; $5 for students and seniors. Waterford High sets registration for 2016-17 school year WATERFORD Registration for Waterford High School students will be held in the Commons and LGI (enter at Door #1 on South Center Street) at Waterford High School, 100 Field Drive. Juniors and seniors will be registered from noon to 7 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 15; sophomores, juniors and seniors, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 16; and freshmen and sophomores from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 17. Families with more than one student can register all students on the same day. Students must turn in their completed, tan emergency card before they can pick up their class schedules. Students will also have their school picture taken and pay fees. Workbooks and spirit wear will be available for purchase, and students can tour the building. Senior class pictures are due by Monday, Oct. 3 for inclusion in the 2016-17 yearbook. More information is available at www.waterforduhs.k12.wi.us in the Back-to-School edition of the Wolverine Report. Applications still accepted at St. Joseph School RACINE Applications are still being accepted for the 2016-17 school year for students in kindergarten through eighth grade at St. Joseph School, 1525 Erie St. The school also participates in the Wisconsin Private School Choice Program through Monday, Aug. 22. Parents must complete the online student application available at https://apps4.dpi.wi.gov/ChoiceParent. Applications are also being accepted at Little Joes Preschool, located in the lower level of St. Joseph School. The 3- and 4-year-old combined class is offered with a choice of three or five days. Classes are held from 7:45 to 10:30 a.m. and class size is limited to 15 students. If there is enough interest, a Lunch Bunch will be offered from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. For more information or to register, call the school office at 262-633-2403, ext. 160. Waterford High Student Council plans rummage sale WATERFORD The Waterford High School Student Council will hold its 5th annual rummage sale from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 26, in the Commons at Waterford High School, 100 Field Drive. Donations of unwanted treasures are welcome. For more information, contact Student Council advisor Shannon Clarksen at sclarksen@waterforduhs.k12.wi.us on or before Monday, Aug. 22. All proceeds will be used to send Waterford High School Student Council members to WASC leadership conferences and camps. SOAR offered for incoming freshmen and new students WATERFORD Waterford High Schools SOAR orientation program for all incoming freshmen and students new to the district will be held from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 23, at Waterford High School, 100 Field Drive. Parents are also invited to attend SOAR from 10:30 a.m. to 1:10 p.m. to tour the building, attend parent sessions, and have lunch with their student. A school dance will be held that evening from 7 to 9 p.m. for all SOAR student participants. Exhibitors needed for fall craft show at Case High MOUNT PLEASANT The Case High School Poms Team is hosting a Craft Show from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 5, at Case High School, 7345 Washington Ave. Those interested in being an exhibitor are asked to email chspomboost@yahoo.com for more information. ISIS ISIS might be ceding territory in the Middle East, but it hasn't given up the battle for hearts and minds. The terrorist group is playing a long game, working aggressively to indoctrinate children under its control to groom the next generation of jihadis in its image. While other terrorist groups around the world have also used children, new reports reveal the unprecedented system ISIS has created to raise the next generation of terrorists. German newspaper Der Spiegel talked to several children who explained how ISIS, also referred to as IS or the Islamic State, methodically brainwashes kids to ensure that even if its territory is wiped out, it'll still have a loyal band of followers keeping the group alive. Der Spiegel explained this strategy, as Nikita Malik of the Quilliam Foundation, a think tank that analyzes ISIS propaganda, understands it: "By depicting children, says Malik, IS wanted to show that it was relatively unimpressed by bombs. IS' message, she explains, is this: 'No matter what you do, we are raising a radicalized generation here.' Within the system, says Malik, the children's task was to spread IS ideology in the long term, and to infiltrate society so deeply and lastingly that supporters would continue to exist, even if territory was lost." Some children living under ISIS control are sent to military camps, and some are sent to schools. They're taught how to pray and use weapons, desensitized to violence, and given drugs to make them more susceptible to whatever ISIS wants them to believe. A new report from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy details ISIS' system of exposing children to its radical ideology. "Stating that the Islamic State promotes religious extremism is far from sufficient in understanding what it seeks to achieve, much less what it teaches its students," the report noted, stating that the terrorist group is creating a "fighter generation committed to IS' cause" in a way that's "both specific and unprecedented." Story continues ISIS has created its own textbooks filled entirely with material that caters to its radical ideology. Weapons are used to illustrate math problems for young kids, and chapters dealing with Western governments focus on "explaining why each is a form of idolatry because of its violation of Gods sovereignty," according to the report. "It is instilling very young children with Islamism, jihadism, and its something thats going to stick around for a long, long time," Charlie Winter, an expert on ISIS propaganda and senior researcher for Georgia State University, told Business Insider earlier this year. "Its an elephant in the room that isnt being given enough scrutiny." Der Spiegel summarizes how the indoctrination process works: "The recruitment of children takes place in several phases, beginning with harmless socialization. Islamic State hosts events in which children are given sweets and little boys are allowed to hold an IS flag. Then they are shown videos filled with violence. Later, in the free schools IS uses to promote the movement, they learn Islamic knowledge and practice counting and arithmetic with books that use depictions of tanks. They practice beheading with blond dolls dressed in orange jumpsuits. With a new app developed by IS, they learn to sing songs that call upon people to engage in jihad." ISIS supports this brainwashing with ideological justifications for its worldview, claiming God has given ISIS the authority to punish unbelievers. An introduction printed in its textbooks reads: "The Islamic State carries the burdens with the agreement of God almighty of refuting [nonbelievers] and bringing them to a renewed monotheism and a wide Islamic expanse under the flag of the rightly guided caliphate and its outstretched branches after it won over the devils and their lowlands of ignorance and its people of destruction." Now that ISIS is losing territory in Iraq and Syria, it's shifting to insurgency tactics similar to what Al Qaeda in Iraq, ISIS' predecessor, did during the Iraq War. Bombings and terrorist attacks maintain the sense that ISIS is omnipresent even when militarily the group is losing. And the kids ISIS is indoctrinating now will remain even after the terrorists have lost the cities and towns they once controlled. "This is a political problem that will last well beyond the existence of the group," Winter said. "Even if all the leaders are killed and [ISIS] suddenly disintegrates there would be lots and lots of these children who have known nothing other than jihadist warfare, who have been taught that Shias need to be killed at all costs, that there's a global conspiracy against them and the only way they can survive in life is by killing people who are their enemies and not really questioning whether they should be doing it." NOW WATCH: Here's what we know about Trump's youngest daughter, Tiffany More From Business Insider Jerusalem (AFP) - The United Nations said Tuesday it was "greatly concerned" at Israeli claims one of its staff helped Hamas fighters in Gaza and vowed an internal investigation. "The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is greatly concerned by the allegation from the Israeli authorities," it said, promising "a thorough internal review of the processes and circumstances surrounding the allegation." Israel on Tuesday charged engineer Waheed Borsh with diverting aid to Hamas, particularly by using rubble from UNDP projects to build a jetty used by Hamas for its naval force. He is also alleged to have last year persuaded UNDP managers to focus home rebuilding efforts in areas where Hamas members lived, after pressure from the group. The UNDP said despite the allegations, it was confident it had "robust measures in place to ensure that the rubble, which is removed and crushed, goes to its intended purpose," the statement said. "The allegations concerning Mr Borsh by the Israeli authorities refer to 300 tonnes of the more than one million tonnes removed, or seven truckloads out of a total of nearly 26,000," it added. It was the second time an aid worker had been charged with working with Hamas in a week, after the Gaza head of the US-based charity World Vision was accused on Thursday of passing millions of dollars in international aid to the group. Jerusalem (AFP) - Israel said Tuesday it had charged a United Nations staffer with helping the Islamist movement Hamas, the second indictment involving aid workers in Gaza in a week. Engineer Waheed Borsh, who has worked for the UN Development Programme (UNDP) since 2003, was arrested on July 16 and charged in a civilian court in Israel on Tuesday, a government statement said. The UNDP said it was "greatly concerned" by the allegations while Hamas, which has run the Gaza Strip since 2007, denied any involvement. The government said 38-year-old Borsh, from Jabaliya in northern Gaza, had been recruited by "a senior member of the Hamas terrorist organisation to redirect his work for UNDP to serve Hamas's military interests". It said he had confessed to a number of accusations, including diverting rubble from a UNDP project in the coastal strip to a Hamas operation to build a jetty for its naval force. He is also alleged to have last year persuaded UNDP managers to focus home rebuilding efforts in areas where Hamas members lived, after pressure from the group. More than 11,000 homes were completely destroyed in Gaza during Israel's war with Hamas and other factions in the summer of 2014, according to the United Nations. No figures were provided on how much aid Borsh allegedly diverted and the charge sheet provided by the justice ministry did not say he joined Hamas. The UNDP said it was "greatly concerned by the allegation," promising in a statement "a thorough internal review of the processes and circumstances surrounding the allegation." Despite the claims, the statement said, the UN remained confident it had "robust measures in place" to prevent aid diversion. Hamas labelled the allegations "incorrect and baseless". In a statement it said they were part of a wider Israeli effort "to tighten the siege of the Gaza Strip by prosecuting international relief organisations." Story continues - 'Systematic exploitation' - Since 2008, Israel has fought three wars in Gaza with Hamas, which is branded a terrorist organisation by Israel, the United States and the European Union. Israel has long alleged that aid has been diverted to Hamas, claims rejected by NGOs and the United Nations. Aid workers privately admit to pressure from Hamas. But they say materials and goods taken into Gaza are subject to some of the strictest monitoring in the world and say Israel uses concerns around Hamas as an excuse to restrict import of basic goods into the enclave. "This is not an isolated case, but rather a troubling trend of the systematic exploitation by Hamas terrorists of UN organisations," the Israeli ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, said in a separate statement. It comes days after the Gaza head of US-based NGO World Vision was charged with passing millions of dollars of international aid money to Hamas. According to the Shin Bet domestic security agency, Mohammed al-Halabi diverted $7.2 million (6.5 million euros) each year since 2010 to Hamas and its military wing, though his charge sheet does not specify an amount. Halabi is also accused of recruiting an individual from another international NGO, Save the Children, to Hamas. Eitan Dangot, former head of the department of Israel's defence ministry in charge of the occupied Palestinian territories, said Tuesday it was likely other aid agencies were similarly involved with Hamas. "If we published two, just think how many there are besides. And there are for sure," he told a news conference. World Vision International on Tuesday questioned the allegations, suggesting the numbers may have been exaggerated. Its president Kevin Jenkins said in a statement the organisation was conducting an investigation into the allegations but had "not seen any of the evidence". "World Vision's cumulative operating budget in Gaza for the past 10 years was approximately $22.5 million, which makes the alleged amount of up to $50 million being diverted hard to reconcile," the statement read. More than two thirds of the population of the Gaza Strip, which Israel has blockaded for a decade, are reliant on some form of aid, according to the United Nations. (JERUSALEM) Israel on Tuesday said it indicted a Palestinian U.N. employee in the Gaza Strip, accusing him of assisting the territorys Islamic militant Hamas rulers, just days after it charged the Gaza manager of the international charity World Vision for allegedly funneling millions to the group. Israels Shin Bet internal security agency said 38-year-old Waheed Borsh has worked as an engineer for UNDP, the U.N. development agency, for 13 years. It said he was arrested in July and confessed to using his position to help Hamas. He was indicted two weeks ago, it said. The Shin Bet said Borsh used UNDP resources last year to build a jetty for Hamas naval forces and that upon request by Hamas he persuaded his managers to prioritize the reconstruction of houses damaged in conflicts with Israel in areas where Hamas members lived. Israels Foreign Ministry said it has informed U.N. officials of the arrest and the allegations and expects the U.N. to take concrete measures to ensure that humanitarian activities actually assist those in need in Gaza instead of assisting the terrorist leaders of Hamas. Israels Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon said he was concerned about a worrying trend of U.N. exploitation by Hamas. In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qasem denied the allegations. These Israeli claims are baseless and the purpose of these claims is to justify the continued siege on Gaza. A U.N. spokesman in Jerusalem could not immediately be reached. Tuesdays accusations are less severe than those aimed at Mohammed el-Halabi, World Visions Gaza office project manager, who last week was charged with diverting some 60 percent of the organizations yearly budget to Hamas armed wing. The Shin Bet says el-Halabi crafted an elaborate scheme to funnel funds, food, medical supplies and agricultural equipment to Hamas. He fraudulently listed the children of Hamas operatives as wounded, created straw organizations, and inflated project costs to divert cash, the agency said. Building supplies intended to support farming projects were transferred to Hamas for constructing tunnels and military installations, according to the Shin Bet. Story continues World Vision has stopped its Gaza operations while investigations continue but said Monday that Israel has accused el-Halabi of funneling what appears to be an impossible sum of money to Hamas. The Shin Bet said el-Halabi siphoned about $7.2 million a year to the Islamic militant group over a period of five years. World Vision Germany spokeswoman Silvia Holten said the charitys budget in Gaza in the last decade totaled $22.5 million. The allegations against el-Halabi and Borsh, if proven correct, would bolster Israels arguments for maintaining its blockade of Gaza, imposed after Hamas seized power in the coastal strip in 2007. Israel says the closure is vital to preventing Hamas from importing weapons and materials used to attack Israel. Egypt has imposed its own blockade on the territory. Israel and Hamas has fought three wars over the past decade. Israel often accuses international aid groups of being biased against it. Italian authorities are cracking down on beach-goers who unfairly reserve the best spots by laying down their towels and lounge chairs hours in advance. It's a crime of disrespect: tourists who stake out prime beach real estate hours or even the night before, and lay down towels, umbrellas and deck chairs to save their places. But following complaints, the Italian coast guard has been sailing along the coastline from Tuscany to Sardinia, Campania to Calabria, this summer, seizing assorted beach paraphernalia in a clear message to beach hogs, reports Italian newspaper Repubblica.it: Play nice. Offenders also face hefty fines of up to 200 euros. On Saturday alone, the coast guard seized 37 deck chairs, 30 umbrellas, a cot, towels and swimwear within a 100-meter strip in the port city of Livorno. Officials are hoping their hardline approach will put a stop to the widespread practice, which is described as an old and ingrained habit among tourists and locals alike. In addition to reinstating a sense of beach decorum, officials are also cracking down on con artists who set up umbrellas and chairs on public beaches and charge unwitting tourists a fee. Earlier this summer, Expedia released the results of their annual Flip Flop Report, revealing the top pet peeves among 11,500 beach-goers around the world. The beach behavior seen as most offensive? The beach slob who doesn't clean up after themselves, followed by inattentive parents and loudmouths. (Reuters) - Ivory Coast plans to complete a sale of 150 billion CFA francs ($263 million) worth of Islamic bonds later this month, the transaction's lead arranger said on Tuesday, following Togo's debut sale of sovereign sukuk launched last month. The two West African nations join Senegal in tapping the market for sukuk, helping expand the use of Islamic financing options outside of the industry's core centres in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. The Ivory Coast will sell the 7-year sukuk using a lease-based contract known as ijara, with the subscription period closing on Aug. 31, according to the Saudi-based Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD). This would represent the second phase of a 300 billion CFA franc sukuk programme set up last year by the world's top cocoa producer and French-speaking West Africa's economic powerhouse. Togo plans to complete the sale of its sukuk later this week, aiming to raise 150 billion CFA franc with a 10-year maturity and a 6.5 percent yield. The ICD is the lead arranger for both the Togo and Ivory Coast sukuk. These back-to-back deals could boost the ICD's efforts to expand its activities across Africa, where the development of Islamic finance has lagged despite being home to a quarter of the world's Muslims. Nigeria and Kenya are also planning to issue sovereign sukuk of their own, in part to help fund large infrastructure needs, although the timing for such deals has yet to be determined. (Reporting by Bernardo Vizcaino; Editing by Eric Meijer) Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f170937%2fanth Jamie Dornan and Cillian Murphy sat down with Mashable to chat about acting, Irish affection and their favorite movie-watching treats. The two dapper, blue-eyed Irish actors were eager to discuss their complex characters, Josef Gabcik (Murphy) and Jan Kubis (Dornan) from Sean Ellis' upcoming movie, Anthropoid based on an extraordinary true story which took place in 1940s Prague. SEE ALSO: Britain watched Jamie Dornan watching TV and couldn't cope The Fifty Shades of Grey and Peaky Blinders stars were pushed to new acting heights upon assuming the roles of Josef and Jan, two Czech soldiers sent to carry out "Operation Anthropoid," a little-known historical mission which ordered the assassination of SS officer Reinhard Heydrich, Hitler's third in command. Though both actors were initially unfamiliar with the story, they found themselves utterly captivated by the script. "I have this thing where if you read a script in totality without getting up to cut the grass or make a cup of tea, its a good sign," Murphy said. "It was very exciting." Jamie Dornan was inspired by visiting the locations where the true story that inspired the movie took place. Image: Bleecker Street/youtube Since Anthropoid is based on World War II events, one of the amazing things about shooting the film was that some of the original landmarks still existed, they said. Dornan said shooting on location in Prague was "hugely beneficial," and the sentimental nature of each location a church where a battle took place in particular helped the actors. "To be able to visit the church, I mean it was so harrowing being there and seeing the bullet holes in the walls and cracks in the walls where the grenades had gone off, and then Sean built this to-scale set version of the church...they were genuinely identical," he said. Knowing the film is based off of true events further inspired Dornan and Murphy. "A lot of films nowadays, you go and tomorrow or the next day youve forgotten about it. For me, if you can watch a film and then, you know, a week later youre like 'fuck' or you dream about it, that to me means weve achieved something," Murphy explained. Story continues Cillian Murphy's character in 'Anthropoid' is on a mission to kill Hitler's third in command. Image: BLEECKER STREET/YOUTUBE Dornan shared how he has seen audience members in theaters squirming in their chairs, experiencing the same fear as the characters did. Bonding on set Since Murphy and Dornan's characters spend the majority of the movie in very close proximity to each other, we were curious to learn if that on-screen chemistry led to a strong bond off-screen. Despite Murphy jokingly claiming that "Irish people dont like talking fondly about other Irish people," the actor couldn't deny that his friendship with Dornan was totally genuine. "Id say it like this, you know you make a lot of films and you spend time with people and it gets quite intimate, its quite intense...but there are only some times when you stay friends, and this was one of those," he said. Though Anthropoid is a serious drama, Murphy told Mashable that the set did their best to keep things as light as possible in between filming. "We did a lot of messing on set," Murphy laughed. "If you were in that space all the time you would just lose your mind, so we did keep it lightthere was good fun." Jamie Dornan, left, and Cillian Murphy, said they became friends on set. Image: BLEECKER STREET/YOUTUBE Favorite movie snacks And with a movie this intense, some comfort food is also highly recommended. In Dornan's case, that means popcorn, along with his favorite classic confections, Milk Duds. Upon discovering his co-star had never heard of the chocolatey delights, Dornan passionately described them as an "American thing," which means he can never enjoy them when he's working in the UK, Canada or Ireland. Cillian responded with a much more edgy snacking confession. "Ill tell you, heres mine," he professed excitedly, "I like popcorn, but I like to put some tabasco sauce on the popcorn, like a lot," to which Dornan adorably replied, "You can take the boy out of Cork..." Anthropoid arrives in theaters on Friday, Aug. 12. trump and jeb bush There is something special, it seems, about 4% GDP growth. On Monday, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump outlined his vision for the economy under a Trump administration. Lots of claims were made. And in an appearance on "Fox and Friends" Tuesday morning, Trump put a number on the GDP growth trajectory he thinks would be "easily attainable" under his administration: 4%. "When China goes down to 7% [GDP growth] it's like a national catastrophe," Trump said. "We're at 1% [GDP growth] and maybe going lower, believe it or not. Right now we're at 1%. I think 4% is easily attainable." No one denies that 4% GDP growth would be great. Economic growth is the kind of thing anyone can get excited about. The only problem is that no president can simply conjure up a GDP growth target and hit it. Two of Trump's former Republican rivals have made similar claims. Last year, Jeb Bush pledged an economy that would grow 4% a year. Earlier this year, Ted Cruz said the US would have a minimum GDP growth rate of 5% under his administration. Since World War II, the US economy has averaged GDP growth around 3%. Since the financial crisis, real GDP growth has been about 2%. The last three quarters of GDP data have shown the economy expanding closer to 1%. The problem with Trump's pledge as was the case with both Bush's and Cruz's promises is that economic growth as calculated by GDP involves many factors well outside the purview of any one president's policies. Right now, the global economy is sluggish. Last month, the International Monetary Fund cut its outlook for global growth from 3.2% to 3.1%. The IMF's target was as high as 3.4% earlier this year. Screen Shot 2016 02 24 at 7.05.40 AM The US, as the world's largest economy and an economy that is also open, meaning goods and services freely flow between the US and other economies is unlikely to grow much above the prevailing global trend unless things turn around not just in the US but also in big chunks of Europe and Asia. Story continues Trump cites the "national catastrophe" that is China's 7% economic growth, and he even overshoots the reality in the world's second-largest economy: In the first two quarters of this year, China has grown at a 6.7% rate, the slowest in a generation. This slowing in China, not to mention stagnant economies in the eurozone and Japan, contributes to a recipe for disappointing US economic growth, even if the labor market looks pretty good. The cornerstones of Trump's economic plan revealed Monday appear to be a tweak in his tax proposals as well as a new child care deduction, as outlined by Business Insider Senior Editor Josh Barro. The child care proposal, Barro writes, is reminiscent of Trump's business career: a big promise that may or may not be delivered. Just like GDP. NOW WATCH: Here's what economists think of Trump's proposed economic plan More From Business Insider 9 Aug - Director Joyce Bernal has confirmed that Jennylyn Mercado will star in the Filipino remake of the hit Korean drama, "My Love From the Star". As reported on PEP News, the director, who spoke with the media recently, admitted that she will be helming the Kapuso remake, and that Mercado will play the female lead. Rumours of Mercado playing the role sparked recently when she was revealed to have been training with beauty pageant-maker, Jonas Gaffud. "My Love From the Star" tells the love story between an alien, Do Min-joon (renamed in the Philippines as Matteo Do), and a popular actress named Cheon Song-yi (or Steffi Cheon). It became a global hit when it aired in 2014, cementing the star power of Korean actress Jun Ji-hyun and launch actor Kim Soo-hyun to fame. As for the actor who will play the role of Matteo, Bernal said that everything will be revealed in a special press conference in October. She also revealed that she is unsure whether Alden Richards will be joining the drama as it was reported. (Photo source: instagram.com/mercadojenny) RACINE The owners of Twins Food Mart had their request for a liquor license for a new gas station on Washington Avenue denied Monday. Phesal Ckadan and Bashar Qedan, the father-son duo which runs Twins Food Mart, 1812 16th St., appeared in front of the Public Safety and Licensing Committee Monday with their developer, Eihab Atout, seeking to exceed the citys Class A liquor license quota at the proposed central-city gas station. The proposed location, 930 Washington Ave., is within 1,000 feet of two other liquor-selling establishments; the committee unanimously denied their request. That means the gas station, if opened, will not be licensed to sell alcohol. Atout said that hes 99 percent sure the gas station would need a liquor license to open. Its a million-dollar investment, Atout said. We have to succeed. When Fifth District Alderman Steve Smetana questioned Atout further on why the liquor license was necessary, Atout compared the potential gas station to other local businesses. We want to do the same thing as Kwik Trip, Atout said. We want to do the same thing as Walgreens. We want to do the same thing as everybody else. Deputy City Attorney Nicole Larsen told the committee that, in her opinion, the application to exceed the quota didnt meet the four conditions necessary for approval outlined in the citys ordinances. Those four conditions are: the submission of petition that outlines a business plan and relevant experiences; proof of ownership; evidence that the business will have greater economic impact; and evidence that the business will substantially improve the tax base. The ordinance sets out very clearly the requirement that you need to meet, Larsen said. Its your obligation to show the committee that you can meet those requirements. Aldermen not swayed The committee wasnt swayed. After 18 minutes of discussion, Sixth District Alderman Sandy Weidner made a motion to deny the over-quota license. I dont understand why the thinking is in order to be successful, you have to have liquor in your establishment, Weidner said. First District Alderman Jeff Coe, the committees chairman and the alderman of the district where the gas station is proposed, said he had received calls from constituents opposing the development. I had four people that called me that live around there that have a real issue with it because theres so many (liquor stores) there, Coe said. While Weidner understood the developers desire to be on a level playing field with their competitors, she doesnt believe that the new gas station merited exceeding the citys quota. Our ordinance says that we have to have some reason to exceed the quota limit, otherwise theres no sense in having an ordinance or a quota, Weidner said. Smetana, Weidner, Fourth District Alderman Tracy Larrin and Seventh District Alderman Ray DeHahn all voted against the granting of the license. Ckadan, Qedan and Atout declined to comment after the meeting. Interior designer Jeremiah Brent (who decorated Rachel Zoe's Los Angeles home, Rita Hazan's NYC apartment and the penthouse of the Whitman Building in New York) collaborated with liquor brand Cointreau for the travel-themed Collection de Voyages party Saturday at Big Daddy's Antiques in L.A., inviting guests to browse spaces inspired by destinations he loves. Tulum, Hanoi, Marrakech and Split, Croatia, were all represented through curated interiors, food and cocktails as a part of The Cointreau Art of La Soiree series. Held across the country, the events tap tastemakers to teach guests the art of entertaining, and how to elevate parties with thoughtful details and themes. Brent got his big break appearing on The Rachel Zoe Project as a styling assistant with a flair for interiors. The 30-year-old, who married interior designer Nate Berkus in 2014, has a vivid memory of standing in Zoe's kitchen where she pushed him to pursue home design. "Rachel said to me, 'You talk about furniture like I talk about dresses, that is clearly your passion, you shouldn't be dressing girls!' " Says Brent, "Rachel was right and was really supportive, I always thank her for that." Now, he and Berkus, who have a toddler, daughter Poppy, are jumping back into the TV world with Married to Design. The TLC show slated to start airing in 2017 will give a glimpse into the couple's work and family life. "Every week we will do a massive renovation for people in need, but it's also a glimpse into our lives as a family," explained the Los Angeles-based designer who added, "My husband and I have this theory that wherever we go and whatever we do we want to leave the world a little bit more beautiful." Below, check out Brent's tips on throwing a great party, what to bring if you aren't hosting and the best part about his job. Choose a souvenir as a centerpiece. I am personally inspired by travel and for tonight, it was the idea that every place that is represented here, whether it's Croatia or Mexico or Vietnam, is dear to my heart. We had a dinner party last week inspired by our last vacation and I always put things that I purchased or got in that particular place as the centerpiece. That starts the story and the conversation, wanting to share something about your life. For a Peru-themed dinner, we put out the artifacts we got while we were there and my husband proposed to me there, so it's a whole conversation starter. Story continues When it comes to theme parties, subtle can be better. For an Olympics party, I would embrace the idea of traveling around the world and the idea of everyone coming together. So maybe the appetizers are inspired by a specific region and the cocktails are inspired by another, and dinner somewhere else. It become about the convergence of all these nations and cultures coming together, and less about the obvious red-, white- and blue-themed things. Thank-you gifts and hostess gifts should be thoughtful gestures. It may sound cliched, but a beautifully handwritten card on stationery - I sound like an old woman - is my favorite thing to give people. Because no one takes the time anymore. It makes someone feel more special that there was some sort of attention and level of appreciation that goes into that letter. For a friend who is hosting a party, I like to bring a picture. For example, my friend threw a dinner party recently and I found a photo of us from 10 years ago. It really encapsulated who we were then, and who we are as friends, and I put it in a beautiful silver frame and wrapped it up. Strive for meaning, too. We just recently gave my sister and her husband, who let us stay in their house, an hour massage with someone who makes house calls. And the thought behind that is that you made us so comfortable in your home, let us try to pay back some of that comfort. And everybody loves a massage. The best part of my job is: Creating experiences and making people feel like they are a part of something. To feel like I have left an impression, whether it's a Moroccan pillow or the texture of a basket someone really likes, it's about showing people different types of beauty. Hanging in Hanoi: Dining in Morocco: Marc lore jet.com When Walmart bought Jet.com for $3 billion in cash on Monday, it became the biggest e-commerce deal ever. But it's also a "watershed moment" for the New York tech scene, according to investor Ben Sun from Primary Venture Partners. It's the biggest acquisition ever for a New York-area startup the runner-up is Tumblr, which was bought in a $1.1 billion deal by Yahoo in May 2013. "You're finally getting entrepreneurs and operators who really are striving to build extremely large companies," Sun, cofounder and general partner at Primary Venture, told Business Insider. "It's so hard the first time around and all the people in the Valley, they've had that experience and they've been building large companies, or have been part of big companies. We just didn't get that experience in the tech scene in New York until I'd say the last couple of years." Primary Ventures was one of Jet's first investors, taking part in a venture round led by New Enterprise Associates in 2014. The round included Accel, which is based in the Bay Area, and Bain Capital Ventures, headquartered in Boston. The fact that Jet had out-of-town investors is a good sign, Sun says. "Your good indication is, are West Coast guys coming out here? And are they doing deals?" Sun said. "We see it all the time now. The amount of interest that we get as New York seed investors coming from the West Coast has gone up dramatically. The big reason why is that you're actually seeing big exits." Sun says that when he met Jet CEO Marc Lore for the first time, he was expecting an intro meeting. But less than 40 minutes later, Lore had negotiated a deal with him and told him the one thing that no one else was saying yet: that he wanted Jet to be a billion-dollar company. "We were like, 'Finally! We're playing in the big leagues now, not minor-league ball,'" Sun said. Kenny Herman, a New York entrepreneur who founded SinglePlatform and recently served as vice president of business development at Shutterstock, witnessed a big acquisition from the inside when Constant Contact bought SinglePlatform for $100 million. Story continues A successful exit like Jet's has broader implications for the city, he says. "Successful exits spawn a new breed of entrepreneurs who now have the capital, network, and positive outcome necessary to roll the dice on creating their next big thing," Herman told Business Insider in an email. "Between the Jet team members who are fortunate enough to now have the means to think/build on a larger scale and the capital infused into New York-based VC and LP's, this could be a potential grand slam for the city." NOW WATCH: JET.COM FOUNDER: This is what makes Jet different from Amazon More From Business Insider Ashkelon (Israel) (AFP) - Jewish and Arab protesters traded punches Tuesday outside an Israeli hospital where a Palestinian prisoner is on hunger strike, and police said they made arrests on both sides. Bilal Kayed has been refusing food for 56 days in protest at his detention without trial by Israel and was moved from prison to Barzelai hospital, in the southern city of Ashkelon, when his health deteriorated markedly. The Physicians for Human Rights NGO says his vision is failing, he has difficulties standing and that doctors have warned he could be at risk of a stroke. Palestinian officials say he has kidney problems. On Tuesday Arab and some Jewish supporters of Kayed picketed the hospital, some carrying banners reading "Administrative detention is not legal," a reference to an Israeli practice allowing detainees to be held without trial for renewable six-month periods. Arab Israeli MPs were among the protesters. Right-wing Israelis, some shouting "death to terrorists", staged a counter-demonstration and the two sides exchanged punches, an AFP journalist at the scene reported. When police intervened, the right-wingers threw rocks at officers. Police said they arrested 10 Jews and three Arabs suspected of public disorder, assaulting police or interfering with police in the performance of their duty. They did not say if the Arabs arrested were Israeli citizens or Palestinians from annexed east Jerusalem, who have free access to Israel. Kayed was to have been released in June after serving a 14-and-a-half-year sentence for activities in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, labelled a terrorist organisation by Israel, the European Union and the United States. Instead, Israeli authorities ordered he remain in custody until further notice. Israel says administrative detention allows authorities to hold suspects while continuing to gather evidence, while Palestinians, human rights groups and members of the international community have criticised the system. Of more than 7,500 Palestinians currently in Israeli jails, about 700 are being held under administrative detention, Palestinian rights groups say. Palestinians have regularly gone on hunger strike in protest at their detention. Johnny Depp is taking a Spanish siesta ahead of his next court date in his ongoing divorce from Amber Heard. The actor was spotted arriving in Ibiza, Spain, via private jet over the weekend, and sources say he is currently renting a villa on the island. On Saturday, he was photographed smiling while boarding a yacht. He wore aviators with a loose poncho and jeans, while sporting a new haircut and mustache. Meanwhile, Heard returned to Los Angeles from London where shes working on her new film, Justice League for her scheduled deposition last Saturday. But a source says Heards deposition was never taken, though she was willing to give it. Although Amber was ready, willing and able to go forward with her deposition, it was not taken by Johnnys attorneys, the source says. She waited for 10 hours and at no time did Amber ever refuse to start the deposition. There was nothing preventing Johnnys counsel from commencing the deposition during that time. The source did not clarify what happened during that time, but lawyer Steve Mindel, who is not affiliated with the case, says that the parties may be working on a private settlement or planning other legal maneuvers before the deposition. I suspect that this was a great time for both sides to talk settlement, considering neither party ultimately wants to be deposed, Mindel says. In the few weeks before Heard returned to London for work, she was spotted in Miami, where she spent time with Tesla founder and tech billionaire Elon Musk. They were later photographed partying at the same London club. A source previously told PEOPLE the two are not dating, and are friends and have been for a few years. Moving forward, both Heard and Depp are expected to appear in court for the domestic violence restraining order hearing, which is scheduled for Aug. 15 and Aug. 16. Heard was granted a temporary restraining order against her estranged husband in May after claiming Depp abused her during their relationship. She filed the request shortly after filing for divorce from the actor. Story continues In court documents responding to Heards request for a restraining order, Depp legal team alleged that Heard is attempting to secure a premature financial resolution by alleging abuse. An insider told PEOPLE that Depp is ready to move past both his ongoing divorce from Heard and the case. Its a very sad situation for him, the source said. He feels stressed about all the Amber drama He never anticipated getting a divorce. He just wants it all the be over and move on. In a big win for copyright holders, a federal judge won't change the outcome of a $25 million verdict in favor of BMG Rights Management against Cox Communications. As U.S. District Judge Liam O'Grady notes at the beginning of an opinion released on Tuesday, "This case presents the question of whether a conduit internet service provider may be held liable for the infringing activity of its subscribers based on the uploading and downloading of copyrighted musical works using BitTorrent, a peer-to-peer file sharing network." BMG, the plaintiff, controls rights to works by David Bowie, Bruno Mars, Frank Ocean and other artists and convinced a Virginia jury last December that Cox should be punished for failing to reasonably implement a repeat-infringer policy. In examining the trial record, O'Grady reviews what happened when Rightscorp, on behalf of BMG, alerted Cox to infringement on its network. "The graduated response system is essentially a thirteen-strike policy," writes the judge. "No action is taken on receipt of a subscriber's first notice. The second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh notices generate an email to the subscriber warning that if Cox 'continues to receive infringement claims such as this one concerning your use of our service, we will suspend your account and disable your connection until you confirm you have removed the infringing material.' On the eighth and ninth notices, Cox limits a subscriber's internet access to a single webpage containing a warning. The customer can self-reactivate by clicking an acknowledgement. On the tenth and eleventh notices, Cox suspends service and requires the subscriber to call a support technician. The technician explains the reason for the suspension, advises removal of the allegedly infringing file, and then reactivates service. On the twelfth notice, the subscriber is suspended and directed to specialized technicians. On the thirteenth notice, the subscriber is again suspended and this time considered for termination." Story continues Even that doesn't fully characterize Cox's response to infringement alerts because the judge goes on to note that Cox limited the number of notices it would process to 200 per copyright holder per day - and only counts one notice per subscriber per day even if that subscriber generates more. Cox wasn't particularly happy with Rightscorp, which specializes in hunting down copyright infringements and, controversially, sends out letters to accused pirates with demands to pay for their misdeeds or face litigation. This requires some cooperation on the part of the ISPs, however. Cox considered the activity to be extortionate and chose at a certain point to stop processing notices. So BMG filed a lawsuit with vicarious and contributory infringement claims. At trial,1,397 copyrighted works were in contention and, ultimately, a jury decided to punish the ISP to the tune of about $18,000 for each song infringed. After the trial, Cox brought a motion for a judgment as a matter of law on the basis that the plaintiff failed to show direct infringement, failed to provide evidence of its liability for contributory infringement and failed to aduce evidence of willfulness. In weighing the first argument, O'Grady reviews evidence of Rightscorp's system and potential complicating factors like how swarms operate in the simultaneous uploading and downloading of works via BitTorrent. The judge raises a flag that evidence didn't show how Cox subscribers acquired their BMG works, but nevertheless views everything in a light most favorable to BMG and concludes "there was sufficient evidence from which a reasonable jury could find Cox users violated BMG's reproduction right." Perhaps more importantly is O'Grady's discussion of contributory infringement, given that the topic will likely be the subject of an appeal. (Plus, this is the same judge who is presiding over criminal charges against Megaupload's Kim Dotcom if he's ever extradited.) Cox brought up some famous past Supreme Court cases involving contributory liability - the one over the Sony Betamax VCR and the one over peer-to-peer software Grokster - for the proposition that its service was capable of substantial noninfringing uses and should be immunized, or that the jury should have at least been instructed to weigh whether Cox induced users to commit infringements. "Cox and BMG disagree on the state of law post-Grokster," writes the judge. "Throughout this litigation, the Court has taken the position that Sony is not the broad bar to liability that Cox paints it to be. Rather, the Court reads Sony as precluding the imputation of fault based solely on 'the design or distribution of a product capable of substantial lawful use, which the distributor knows is in fact used for infringement.' Had that been BMG's claim, it would have failed." Keep in mind that what O'Grady is talking about is the internet. The judge writes that "providing internet access that supplies the means to infringe would not, standing alone, be contributory infringement," but adds that BMG's focus in its claim pertains to "Cox's conduct in relation to the operation of its service." He adds that in the Sony case, the manufacturer of the VCR held no ongoing relationship with the buyer after the point of sale, but here, "an ongoing relationship between a defendant and direct infringers presents a potential for culpability quite beyond distribution or design." O'Grady also concludes that there was sufficient evidence for the jury to find Cox was aware of the infringing activity on its network and acted recklessly or with deliberate disregard. He rejects a motion for a new trial, rolling past other arguments before getting to the issue of whether permanent injunctive relief is warranted. The judge concludes it is not, highlighting the thorny issue of how exactly Cox might be required to prevent or limit further infringement (requiring Cox to act on Rightscorp notices? Making Cox require a subscriber to remove BitTorrent from their computers in order to remain on the network?). O'Grady also dances past potential minefields like a proposed order mandating Cox hand over the identity and contact information of every subscriber identified by BMG. "The burden on Cox outweighs the impact on BMG of denying the injunction," writes the judge, also factoring BMG's years-long wait in bringing the lawsuit. "As noted, Cox's burden of complying with the proposed injunction is substantial. ... While there is without a doubt a significant public benefit in reducing copyright infringement, BMG has not demonstrated to the Court's satisfaction that such a reduction here would not come at the expense of other nontrivial interests, including privacy and access to the internet." Here's the full opinion. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department is preparing to announce that it has found unconstitutional practices within the Baltimore Police Department in a probe stemming from the death of black detainee Freddie Gray last year, two newspapers reported on Tuesday. The Wall Street Journal and the Baltimore Sun said the findings were expected to be released on Wednesday. Spokesmen for the police and the Justice Department declined to comment. The Justice Department launched the investigation shortly after Gray's death in April 2015. Police had arrested Gray, 25, for fleeing unprovoked in a high-crime area. He suffered a neck injury in a police wagon while shackled and handcuffed, and died a week later. The incident triggered rioting and protests in Baltimore, a majority black city of about 620,000 people. It fueled a national debate on police tactics and stoked the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. Quoting people familiar with the Justice Department's decision on the findings, the Journal said the 10 years of police conduct that had been probed included racial disparities in stops and arrests of suspects, poor training and a lack of effective community policing. The review also included internal-affairs investigations of alleged misconduct by officers and the police department's failure to fully probe allegations of sex crimes, the Journal said. The Sun cited two people familiar with the findings as saying the report showed that police routinely violated the constitutional rights of city residents by conducting unlawful stops and using excessive force. The practices overwhelmingly affected black residents in poor neighborhoods, it said. The Justice Department is preparing to seek a settlement with Baltimore, likely involving an outside monitor, the Journal said. Six officers were charged in Gray's death, but four trials ended without a conviction. Prosecutors dropped the remaining charges last month. (Reporting by Ian Simpson and Julia Harte; Editing by Richard Chang) This year, August 1 to 7 marked World Breastfeeding Week. tTo show his support, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau posted an intimate photo of his wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, feeding their son Hadrien. This World Breastfeeding Week, lets support mothers to breastfeed anytime, anywhere, the tweet reads, attributing the quote to his wife. This World Breastfeeding Week, lets support mothers to breastfeed anytime, anywhere. SGT #WBW2016 pic.twitter.com/vgRMhzVY1Z Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) August 6, 2016 And this isnt the first time the wife of the Prime Minister has come forward in support of breastfeeding. In a recent profile in Chatelaine, she spoke candidly about continuing to feed her youngest son at age two. I know hes my last one; its a little hard to give it up, she says. She later elaborated on this in an interview with Katie Couric for Yahoo, saying, I think its a womans choice. I breastfed my three babies. I also gave them formula, she said. I think its a beautiful bond, and I encourage it, but I dont judge. World Breastfeeding Week is aimed at raising awareness of the links between breastfeeding and the Sustainable Development Goals that were developed in September 2015 by a number of world leaders in an effort to end poverty and protect the planet. By recognizing that breastfeeding is a key to sustainable development, we will value our wellbeing from the start of life, respect each other and care for the world we share, states the WBW website. Joining Gregoire Trudeau, NDP Minister Stephanie McLean also posted her own breastfeeding picture with the caption, Breastfeed wherever yes even at work! What do you think of these political figures coming forward in support of breastfeeding? Let us know by tweeting to @YahooStyleCA. MOUNT PLEASANT Supporters of Republican congressional candidate Paul Nehlen were improperly electioneering too close to polling places Tuesday, according to multiple complaints in Mount Pleasant and elsewhere throughout the 1st Congressional District. With Nehlen facing House Speaker Paul Ryan in Tuesdays primary, Nehlen supporters attempted to put signs out and distribute literature within 100 feet of the entrance to polling places, in violation of state statute, Mount Pleasant Village Clerk Stephanie Kohlhagen said. In one case at Mount Pleasant-Caledonia Memorial Park, 9614 Northwestern Ave., a supporter became argumentative and belligerent with election officials and claimed he received prior zoning approval, Kohlhagen said. Some Nehlen supporters came in from out of state. About 8 a.m., a man was observed outside the polling place at the Mount Pleasant Village Hall, 8811 Campus Drive, posting large Vote for Nehlen signs. The mans car had a Tennessee license plate. The sign was removed soon after, but the man returned and walked near Village Hall carrying a Vote for Nehlen sign, and after he left, another man returned to take his spot. Poll workers determined he was in compliance with state law. A 19-year-old Texas man, who was flown in by the Nehlen campaign, walked around with a sign at Mount Pleasant Village Hall Tuesday morning. He said he was paid in food and travel, among other things, to walk around with the sign at the polling place Tuesday. The man went to two other locations in Mount Pleasant Tuesday morning. This is better than working at a gas station, the 19-year-old said. State law prohibits electioneering on public property within 100 feet of the entrance to a polling place, Reid Magney, spokesman for the Wisconsin Elections Commission, said in an email. That means no political signs or literature, etc., on public property in that area. Mount Pleasant Police Capt. Tom Petersen talked to the Texas teen to explain the 100 foot-rule. Petersen used a measuring stick and cones to mark the 100-foot points from the entrance to the polling place. Were marking it off so he understands whats 100 feet, Petersen said. He cannot come within 100 feet of this door. Nor can he impede with anybody and campaign. You cant stop people and impede traffic and try to persuade people. Mount Pleasant also prohibits placing signs on village property without the villages permission, Kohlhagen said. Nehlen campaign spokesman Noel Fritsch said he didnt know of any of the campaigns signs being placed on public property without permission. Everyone should abide by the local jurisdictional authority, he said. Fritsch confirmed the campaign brought in people from out of state to help, but said dozens of people from Wisconsin also helped Nehlens efforts. In a separate statement, Fritsch accused Speaker Ryans dwindling network of supporters of carrying out orders to prevent Mr. Nehlen and his supporters from carrying their message. Complaints elsewhere The state Elections Commission also received Nehlen-related electioneering complaints in Janesville. In Burlington, City Clerk Diahnn C. Halbach reported several Nehlen campaign signs were posted Tuesday morning near a polling place at United Methodist Church, 857 W. State St., and were promptly removed. There were no further issues after that, Halbach said. Racine City Clerk Janice Johnson-Martin said the city had received no complaints about Nehlen signs or campaign workers as of mid-afternoon Tuesday. Stephanie Jones, Andrew Dawson and Mark Feldmann contributed to this report. Last Friday, in response to a freedom of information lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the government released a redacted, top-secret playbook for taking out terrorists with killer drones. The rules of drone engagement are detailed and complicated, but there is also some wiggle room. When the use of lethal action is deemed necessary, the presidential policy guidance for direct action against terrorist targets outside the U.S. says, Departments and agencies of the United States Government must employ all reasonably available resources to ascertain identities before action can be taken against high-value targets. Related: Game of Drones: The Air Force Ramps Up Video Game Warfare Whats not clear is who decides what constitutes reasonably available resources. ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer said in a statement that the release of the guide now will inform an ongoing debate about the lawfulness and wisdom of the government's counter-terrorism policies." Part of that debate appears to be going on inside the Democratic Party. On Sunday, Democratic vice-presidential candidate Tim Kaine was asked in a taped interview with Chuck Todd of Meet the Press whether the Obama administration has the authority to mount airstrikes against ISIS in Libya, as it announced it was doing last week. I do not think we should be in an offensive war against ISIL without congressional authorization. That's been my long-held position, Kaine said. And Secretary Clinton has said Congress should do its job instead of hiding under their desks and have a debate and have a vote on military action against ISIL. If we do that, I'm confident that Congress would support military action. Related: How ISIS Is More Like the Mafia Now As Todd pointed out, that puts Kaine on the opposite side of a critical issue from Hillary Clinton, who chose him to be her VP, and from President Obama. Both Clinton and Obama believe that the airstrikes and drone attacks are legal and justified. Story continues It also opens the question of how a President Kaine should Clinton be elected and should the veep ever have to replace her would go after ISIS and whether he would tear up Obamas drone playbook. At times, the government guidelines sound almost Orwellian. There is a nomination process in which departments or agencies can identify an individual for consideration. Prior to recommending that an individual be considered for capture or custody [or what is later referred to as a long-term disposition plan] the nominating agency must confirm with its General Counsel that the operation can be conducted lawfully, but it is not necessary to have resolved the long-term disposition plan prior to proposing a capture operation, the guide says. Whenever possible, the guidelines add with bureaucratic chilliness, the nominating agency shall notify the Interagency Disposition Planning Group prior to such a request. Top Reads from The Fiscal Times: Kuwait City (AFP) - Lower oil prices have pushed Kuwait into a rare budget deficit, ending 16 straight years of surpluses for the energy-rich Gulf state, the finance minister said. The OPEC member recorded a budget shortfall of 4.6 billion dinars ($15.3 billion) in the fiscal year which ended on March 31, Anas al-Saleh said in a statement carried by the KUNA news agency late Monday. It was the first shortfall since the fiscal year to March 1999. Revenues dropped by 45 percent to $45.2 billion while spending was cut by 14.8 percent to $60.5 billion, the minister said. Oil income was $40.1 billion, a slump of 46.3 percent from the previous year, he said. Oil accounted for 89 percent of total revenues, down from 95 percent in previous years. Saleh told parliament last month that Kuwait plans to tap international debt markets through bond issues to finance the deficit. He said the emirate would borrow up to $10 billion in US-denominated bonds from international markets, in both conventional and (Islamic) sukuk issuance. The ministry will borrow another $6.6 billion in both conventional and Islamic instruments from the domestic market, Saleh said. In previous years Kuwait built up a sovereign wealth fund worth around $600 billion that is invested mostly in the United States, Europe and Asia. Kuwait is projecting a deficit of $28.9 billion in the current fiscal year which began on April 1. As part of efforts to reduce the shortfall, the cabinet last week decided to raise the price of petrol by up to 83 percent, the first increase in almost two decades. Last year, it raised the prices of diesel and kerosene. It has also decided to lift electricity and water charges on foreign residents. The ratings agency Moody's said late Monday that the fuel price reforms will boost Kuwait's credit ratings because they will lower current expenditures and bolster government finances. Helsinki (AFP) - Nordic gender equality proved to be no myth in a poll published on Tuesday, with nearly 90 percent of Finnish men willing to pick up the vacuum cleaner at home. Between 80 and 90 percent of respondents said household chores such as vacuuming, mopping the floor, dishwashing or cooking were tasks for both men and women, the Association for Finnish Work found in its poll. While both male and female respondents thought most chores were suitable for both sexes, a few dirtier or heavier tasks remained more divisive -- with men willing to volunteer for them. Almost half of the men surveyed said the smelly job of cleaning drains was a male task, while only one in three women said it was a man's job. Similarly, 45 percent of male respondents thought lawn mowing was a job for them, not women, although only 25 percent of women said they were not up for the task. Dusting, laundry and window washing were considered female chores by one in five Finns, but over 70 percent of respondents were still up for those jobs regardless of their gender. "In particular the younger male generations are very (gender) equal," project manager Merja Mantila of the Association for Finnish Work told AFP, citing the 90-percent share of 25 to 34-year-olds who said dusting was for both sexes. The Taloustutkimus poll questioned more than 2,000 Finns between the ages of 18 and 79 in March. Still, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, women in OECD countries spend on average nearly twice as much time on housework as men do. KELOWNA, BC / ACCESSWIRE / August 9, 2016 / Laguna Blends Inc. (CSE: LAG) (OTC: LAGBF) (Frankfurt: LB6A.F) (the "Company" or "Laguna"), a network marketing company, has signed a distribution agreement with ISO International, LLC, a transaction under which Laguna has acquired the exclusive right to market, promote and distribute seven CBD skin care products of CannaCeuticals of California, USA ("Canna"). Canna is a Swiss heritage brand utilizing cosmeceutical-grade cannabidiol (CBD) for its line of revolutionary skincare products. In a recent study of Canna's CBD face serum, test subjects reported a 100% overall improvement to the appearance of skin within two weeks. Additionally, more than 80% of test subjects said they would purchase the Canna serum product if it was available for purchase. With this previously announced agreement now finalized, Laguna will leverage its affiliate marketing network to sell Canna products in the USA and pending regulatory approval, Laguna will also market the products in Canada, Asia, Europe and Mexico. "We are excited to announce the closing of this transaction, which firmly roots Laguna in the $121 billion global skin care industry," says Laguna CEO Stuart Gray. "The pairing of our rapidly growing affiliate network with a revolutionary and clinically proven product line creates a powerful opportunity of growth and expansion." Mr. Ray Grimm Jr. President of Laguna Blends Inc. stated, "Over the past three weeks Laguna has sent samples of the Cannaceutical skin care products to some select affiliates and within 3-7 days we received some overwhelmingly positive feedback. Women are noticing changes in skin texture and skin tone and are eager for the skin care line to become available for purchase. Our goal is to have this product available before the end of September 2016." Per the agreement, Laguna will pay a one-time license fee of $100,000 US. Additionally, during the first two years of the initial term, Laguna will place a minimum purchase order of $1.5 million US of product priced at wholesale. Story continues What is Cannabidiol Cannabidiol (CBD) is a non-psychoactive cannabinoid found in abundance in the hemp plant. Hemp genetics are naturally rich in cannabidiol as well as other non-psychoactive cannabinoids and phytochemicals. Cannabidiol, and all the other cannabinoids in the cannabis plant, were patented by the United States Government in 2003 as neuroprotectants and antioxidants. None of the statements contained in this news release are health claims and the FDA has not evaluated these claims. Laguna's products and proposed products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. About CannaCeuticals CannaCeuticals Swiss heritage is at the core of Canna's revolutionary skincare products. Its pure, cosmeceutical-grade CBD extract hails from the crisp, clean air of Switzerland, but Canna's heritage goes much further than that. Swiss culture is known for its precision and perfectionism, and CannaCeuticals radiates that same standard in every formula it produces. Canna's team of formulators are made up of chemists and product developers that analyze every detail, sourcing ingredients from all ends of the earth to create the most balanced, highly efficacious, anti-aging CBD skincare products in the world. CannaCeuticals CBD7 anti-aging skincare products incorporate cannabidiol (CBD), a superior antioxidant and a potential anti-inflammatory agent, both of which are significant in anti-aging. Canna's Swiss heritage influences a sense of unity in its products, and it combines CBD with other essential anti-aging ingredients to create formulas that pack a powerful punch. About Laguna Blends Inc. Laguna is a network marketing company that generates retail sales through independent affiliates. Affiliates utilize tools and technology that enable them to build an international business from their own home or anywhere else in the world. This technology replaces the need for expensive travel and hotel meetings. The Company is currently focused on the nutritional health benefits derived from hemp. Laguna's first product category as an entry to market are functional beverage products that contain hemp and other efficacious ingredients. Laguna's initial products to market are the following: " Caffe " is an instant, "just add water" hot coffee beverage that is infused with both whey and hemp protein. With 2 grams of protein in every serving, Laguna's proprietary product packs a powerful protein punch. Caffe, contains Instant coffee, whey protein hydrolysate, hemp protein, natural flavors. "Pro369" is a single serving, "on-the-go," plant based, instant, hemp protein that is served cold and comes in 4 delicious flavors. Pro369 is water soluble and can be directly mixed in water, added to milk, almond milk or coconut milk. Pro369 can also be blended in a shake or smoothie. Pro369 is also a source of Omegas, 3, 6 and 9 and contains ginseng. Laguna Blends has been granted approval from Health Canada for four powdered Pro369 flavours: Chocolate Banana, Mixed Berry and Vanilla Caramel and Tropical Powder. Pro369 contains Hemp protein, natural flavors, stevia, and American ginseng. The Minister of Health from Health Canada has granted Laguna a product license along with a Natural Product Number ("NPN") for all four of the Pro369 Flavours. They are all listed under the same NPN. A source of protein that helps build and repair body tissues. Source of amino acids involved in muscle protein synthesis. Assists in the building of lean muscle. An adaptogen to help maintain a healthy immune system. Supportive therapy for the promotion of healthy glucose levels. Hemp has long been recognized by the health and nutrition industry as a super food, cited in many publications as a balanced source of all ingredients required to achieve health and wellness. HempOmega HempOmega is an environmentally sustainable, vegetarian source of Omegas 3 and 6 that boasts a superior nutrient profile. A water soluble, homogenous, powdered ingredient, it can be easily integrated and/or manipulated, with no unpleasant taste or chemical contamination opening up entirely new product formulation opportunities. Hemp Omega's greater ability to endure the digestive process delivers unmatched bioavailability, thereby maximizing its potential health benefits. The Company sells its products through its independent affiliates in the USA and Canada. HempOmega is a Trademark owned by Naturally Splendid Enterprises, Ltd. and is used under license by Laguna Blends Inc. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD "Stuart Gray" Chief Executive Officer CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS: QualityStocks Scottsdale, Arizona www.QualityStocks.com 480.374.1336 Editor@QualityStocks.net COMPANY: Laguna Blends ir@lagunablends.com www.lagunablends.com www.lagunaworld.com Join Us On Face Book: https://www.facebook.com/LagunaBlends/ Twitter: @LagunaBlends Forward-Looking Information: This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws relating to statements regarding the Company's business, products and future the Company's business, its product offerings and plans for sales and marketing. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward looking information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Readers are cautioned to not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Such forward looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance and developments to differ materially from those contemplated by these statements depending on, among other things, the risks that the Company's products and plan will vary from those stated in this news release and the Company may not be able to carry out its business plans as expected. Except as required by law, the Company expressly disclaims any obligation, and does not intend, to update any forward looking statements or forward-looking information in this news release. The statements in this news release are made as of the date of this release. SOURCE: Laguna Blends Inc. RACINE Paul Ryan and Paul Nehlen wrapped up the run-up to Tuesdays Republican congressional primary on far different notes. The House speaker held two town halls with workers on Monday afternoon, including an event in Racine with employees at A&E Tools, 5501 21st St. There, he hit familiar themes, pushing for an overhaul of the tax code, deregulation and fair trade agreements. The other town hall meeting took place in Pleasant Prairie. Nehlen, Ryans challenger, released a web video to supporters Monday morning in which he painted the primary in life-or-death terms, saying a vote for him would help prevent deaths caused by illegal immigrants. He also held a news conference in front of Ryans Janesville congressional office. It was the last day in a primary that received a jolt last week thanks to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who praised Nehlen and initially refused to back Ryan before eventually endorsing him on Friday. The nine-term Ryan is a heavy favorite to win Tuesdays contest. The congressional district includes all of Racine County. Polls are open Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Final push The primary didnt come up during Ryans 30-minute town hall with A&E employees, which included a large state and national media contingent. But some of the campaign issues, including trade and manufacturing, did. Ryan reiterated that he does not support, in its current form, the Trans Pacific Partnership, the proposed trade pact with 12 Pacific Rim countries, though Nehlen has frequently linked Ryan with TPP. But Ryan expressed support for trade agreements in general, saying: if youre standing still on trade doing nothing, youre falling behind. Thats what Donald Trump says is right, which is we want good trade agreements. We dont want bad ones, we want good ones, Ryan said. Nehlen, a Delavan resident and the senior vice president of operations for Neptune Benson, a water filtration and disinfection company, hit Ryan on immigration in his 6-minute video, linking the speaker to violence by illegal immigrants, as he has done throughout the campaign. One vote for Nehlen would stop amnesty, TPP and rule by corporations, Nehlen said in the video. Rarely before in history have a people been given such an opportunity to affect profound change as Wisconsin voters have in this open primary, Nehlen said. The GOP primary winner faces Tom Breu, a former plumbing engineer from Janesville, or Ryan Solen, an information security analyst from Mount Pleasant, who are competing in the Democratic primary. For advice on how to stay safe at water parks, see these tips shared by the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions and the Red Cross. The Kansas boy who was killed tragically at a water park on Sunday suffered a "fatal neck injury," police have revealed. Authorities in Kansas City say Caleb Schwab, the son of a state politician, was killed while riding Verruckt, a water slide dubbed the tallest on Earth. Meanwhile, at least one wintess reportedly says the boy was actually decapitated. Read: Teen Dies With Instructor in Tandem Skydive As His Family Watches From the Ground Police say Schwab was one of three people in a raft as it dropped 168 feet. The two women in the raft with Caleb were unrelated to him and suffered minor facial injuries, police said. Our deepest condolences to the entire Schwab family on their loss. pic.twitter.com/gYiffrxgkA Terry Zeigler (@KCKPDChief) August 9, 2016 The police statement on the tragedy does not say what caused Caleb's death, but it does indicate the fatal injury occurred "at the end" of the ride. Caleb was discovered in pool at the bottom of Verruckt. It was there that Esteban Castaneda noticed the boy appeared to have been decapitated, he told reporters. Castaneda also said he rode the slide earlier in the day with a 14-year-old family member who told him her Velcro harness came undone toward the end of the ride. Read: Cops: Jogger 'Put Up a Ferocious Fight' Against Attacker Before Her Death A statement from the park, Schlitterbahn Kansas City, referred all questions regarding the investigation to police. Schlitterbahn is tentatively scheduled to reopen on Wednesday, the statement said. Verruckt, named for the German word for "insane," remains closed. Story continues Kansas City Police have declined to give interviews or press conferences regarding the investigation, which they say is ongoing. Watch: Brother Remembers Newlywed Victim Killed In Deadly Balloon Crash Related Articles: Teenage swimming sensation Lilly King has put her money where her mouth is and beaten her Russian rival to take gold and an Olympic record in the 100-meter breast stroke after calling her out over doping allegations. King, a 19-year-old from Indiana, finished less than a second ahead of Yulia Efimova on Monday night in a match-up that became one of the most contentious in the 2016 Rio Olympics so far. When asked whether her victory made a "statement" about the rivalry with Efimova, King said, "I mean, obviously winning an Olympic gold medal is a statement." She added: "It meant we can still compete clean and be in the Olympics and that's how it should be." On Saturday night, the 24-year-old Russian wagged her finger after she won her heat in the semifinals after she was booed by the crowd. Lilly King doesn't hold back. Mondayas 100m breaststroke final is about. To go. Down. https://t.co/BWGaUNiTHM https://t.co/YknNeqjv6H a NBC Olympics (@NBCOlympics) August 8, 2016 For more of PEOPLE's Olympic coverage, pick up our collector's edition, The Best of the Games, on sale now. Efimova failed a drug test earlier this year, but was controversially allowed to compete in Rio. She had served a 16-month suspension before that, as well. This photo of Lilly King celebrating her gold medal in front of a disappointed Efimova is EVERYTHING pic.twitter.com/9Ihj8wD3d5 a Sam Stryker (@sbstryker) August 9, 2016 On Sunday, just before King swam, she was seen wagging her own finger at Efimova's image on TV. King went on to beat Efimova's time in her own heat. As if King's feelings weren't clear enough, she told NBC, "You're shaking your finger number one and you've been caught for drug cheating. I'm just not a fan." King, who is from Evansville, Indiana, and swims for Indiana University, set off a firestorm of commentary for her shade at Efimova. All eyes were on Monday night's match-up as fans wondered whether the Olympic newbie could back up her words in a head-to-head contest with the Russian, who is competing in her third Olympics and won bronze in 2012. Fellow American Katie Meili claimed bronze, finishing hot on Efimova's heels. TORONTO (Reuters) - A lion that bit a Canadian zoo keeper on Monday and fractured one of her vertebrae will not be killed and will stay at the zoo where the public can view it, a zoo official said on Tuesday. The worker at the Granby Zoo east of Montreal was hospitalized and expected to make a full recovery after surgery on Monday night, Director General Paul Gosselin told reporters at a news conference. "There was no impact on the respiratory system," he said. "There was only minor impact in the backbone, and when I say minor, it was like a bone chip only." The zoo withheld the woman's name. Gosselin said the zoo keeper had been bitten in the back after she ended up alone with the lioness, which he said should not have happened. He attributed the incident, which occurred during feeding time, to human error but he did not elaborate. Gosselin identified the lion as Kao, a 14-year-old that was born at the zoo. "There can be a form of aggression over her territory ..." Gosselin said, adding that the lion was not acting out of character during the incident. Police have said the investigation would be handled by Quebec's workplace safety board. The board could not be reached for comment. In May, a 4-year-old boy fell into a gorilla's enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo in Ohio. Zoo officials shot dead a 17-year-old critically endangered western lowland gorilla named Harambe after dragged the child. (Reporting by Ethan Lou in Toronto; Editing by Toni Reinhold) Line app Messaging is already huge. And Line is perfectly positioned to ride the trend to untold riches. The app which has more than 200 million monthly active users globally has four to five times the number of monthly active users as Facebook in Japan and is similarly popular in Taiwan, Thailand, and Indonesia. David Gibson, an analyst at Macquarie Research, thinks the company's stock price will shoot up 32% higher on the Japanese markets. The main attraction isn't even the crazy popular messaging app, but rather it's the ad platform behind it. "Our report is differentiated from others in the market because we met with six major ad agencies to understand their attitude to the LINE Ad Platform," Gibson said in a note to clients. The biggest markets for mobile ads in Japan are Facebook, Twitter, and Yahoo Japan. These markets are great but are not expanding, meaning prices are rising as more demand meets a stagnant supply. But Line offers a different story. Line offers advertisements that are a lot cheaper than those of competitors like Facebook and that can reach all 90 million smartphone users in Japan. "We expect the ad inventory of Line ad platform can drive 46 billion in incremental ad sales in FY12/17 and 70 billion in FY12/18," Gibson said. That may be a conservative estimate, as Yahoo Japan brought in 110 billion yen, or $1.08 billion, in mobile ad sales last year, according to the note. Line launched its initial public offering earlier this year and raised more than $1 billion. The app brought in about $1 billion in revenue in 2015, mostly with stickers, games, and ads, which other apps like Twitter have been struggling to use as effectively. Users on average spend $4.98 in the Line app. The company has seen its share price fall 17% from its initial price of 4,900 yen on Japanese markets and decline 4% from its first day closing price of $41.58 on the New York Stock Exchange. Story continues NOW WATCH: We asked a Navy SEAL what he ate during training, and his answer shocked us More From Business Insider Mark Osborne had to overcome plenty of obstacles to bring his independent animated retelling of The Little Prince to the screen - from convincing top talent to board the project to building a stop-motion operation. The director turned down an offer to helm the rather raunchy Seth Rogen animated comedy Sausage Party in order to see The Little Prince take flight. And he even survived what could have been an eleventh-hour disaster when Paramount, the movie's original domestic distributor, decided not to handle the movie's release. But then Netflix stepped in. The Little Prince, Osborne's adaptation of the 1943 classic by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, originally debuted in Cannes back in May 2015, going on to win a Cesar Award in France as best animated film before it finally arrived in a handful of U.S. theaters Aug. 5 while also making its debut on the streaming service. In retrospect, Osborne - best known for the original Kung Fu Panda, which he co-directed with John Stevenson - admits that he didn't want the job when he was first approached by French producers Dimitri Rassam and Aton Soumache. "I had a very deep connection to the book [his wife gave it to him while they were dating], so I said, 'No. You can't make a movie out of this book; there no way to do it. Everyone has their own version in their imagination,' " he confesses. "Then I realized there was an opportunity to make a movie about how this book lives in the imagination of the reader, and how this story can be in someone's life and can actually change the course of their life." That involved creating a framing story to surround Saint-Exupery's fable. This new version of The Little Prince focuses on a Little Girl (voiced by Mackenzie Foy and based on Osborne's daughter) whose mother (Rachel McAdams) is preparing her for the world in which they live when her neighbor, the Aviator (Jeff Bridges), introduces her to the fantastic story of the Little Prince (voiced by the director's son, Riley Osborne), who inhabits an alternate world where anything's possible. "The book works on different levels, and we wanted the movie to work the same way," Osborne says, adding that he wanted to stay true to the book while also keeping the spirit of the drawings. "For grown-ups, I hope at the end you are emotional and your child looks over at you and you have a conversation about these big ideas that are going to play into your child's life." The well-known material did help open the door to some meetings, to which Osborne would carry a hand-crafted briefcase with a copy of the book and some early artwork to help convey his ideas. Fortunately, many who got involved were fans of the book, including Bridges, who invited Osborne to his home studio to record dialogue. Remembering his first meeting with composer Hans Zimmer, Osborne recounts, "The first thing he said to me, with his arms crossed, was 'What are you doing to my book?' He was in crunch time on another project, but we talked and he fell in love with the project and had brilliant ideas for the music." After The Little Prince premiered out of competition at Cannes last year, it grossed roughly $100 million overseas. But its U.S. debut hit a bump when less than one week before a scheduled March 18 opening, then-distributor Paramount confirmed that it would not handle the release. Soon, though, Netflix came aboard as the new U.S. distributor. Osborne declined to discuss what went down behind the scenes, saying only, "Netflix is an incredible partner. They 'get' the movie and can bring it to more people, in one day, than we could have ever imagined. I'm incredibly happy with the turn of events at this moment. This was an unconventional movie." With a reported budget of $77.5 million, much of the film is computer animation, created at the Montreal animation and VFX studio Mikros Image. The filmmakers also built a stop-motion studio in Montreal for the rest of the work. "We decided reality [the Little Girl's world] would be computer animation, because that's the animation market today," Osborne explains. "The heart of the movie - the book, the story within the story, the beating heart of the movie - would be rendered in hand-crafted stop motion. Stop motion is my first love in animation, and it was a way to sort of protect the book, capture what was special and poetic about the book, and give it incredible story contrast. This helped show the gap between childhood imagination and cold reality." The director adds that determining how much artistic license to take with the design of the title character was especially tricky, "but in the book, the Aviator gives the reader liberty to change the drawings in our mind. He says, 'My drawings were never very good.' " One area of focus was the Little Prince's eyes. "In the book, the eyes are drawn as little oval circles and they are not filled in, they are not black. In our movie, we made them black discs. It's different, but it makes perfect sense as an interpretation." The filmmakers used replacement animation for the stop motion, replacing the characters' faces, frame by frame, with small puppet faces to get the facial performance. All of the puppets and faces were hand made. "The heads were sculpted from paper clay; it hardens like clay but was the texture of paper," Osborne says. "The problem is when it hardens, it shrinks five percent, and when you are doing replacement animation, that can create a lot of differences that you don't necessarily want. There was a lot of R&D with a lot of people trying to figure out how to sculpt it just right so that when it shrank it still had the level of consistency that we wanted." While developing the project, Osborne also took an interest in the R-rated animated feature Sausage Party. "I was actually developing The Little Prince while I was helping the guys develop Sausage Party," he says. "I love both; they were both pushing the boundaries of what animation could be." "Anything outside of the norm is really exciting," he adds. "Kubo and the Two Strings [Laika's Aug 19 stop-motion feature] is so exciting. and I love that Wes Anderson is doing another stop-motion movie [following Fantastic Mr. Fox]. Animation is filmmaking. It's for anybody and can be anything." Bangladeshi Ishtiaque Zicos debut, Cinema, City and Cats is being pitched at the 69th Locarno Open Doors showcase, dedicated this year to South Asia region national cinemas. Industry sidebar promotes independent cinema industry in territories where filmmaking is especially challenged. Over 2016-18, Open Doors will explore eight South Asian countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Cats follows three characters: an Indian Bengali who is a Hindu film teacher; a cinema projectionist who wants to upgrade to the digital era; a Bihari boy raised in the Geneva camp, a slum district for paperless Pakistanis in Dhaka, the Bangladesh capital. I have always been interested in themes such as undefined relationships, the hierarchy of latent power, migrants and the urban lifestyle, Zico told Variety. He explores these themes through three criss-crossing stories of marginalised characters who struggle to adapt to power structures in contemporary Dhaka. Cats is in development and is to be produced by Fran Borgia and Jeremy Chua at Singapores Akanga Film Asia, which backed Boo Junfengs Apprentice. This generation is very keen to show the importance of culture and cinema. Several projects feature cinema people, artists. Its a connection to the outside world, and reflects the evolution of the society, [how] cinema can contribute to education, social evolution, said Open Doors curator Sophie Bourdon. What Bangladesh lacks is cinema infrastructure. There are only around 400 cinema theaters in Bangladesh, Zico said. They are not as popular as Hindi soap serials, he lamented. Zicos short, 720 degrees, in Locarnos 2016 Open Doors Screenings retrospective program, was the first Bangladeshi film presented at Venice, in 2010. But South Asia has its upside. One common aspect is an amazing energy seen in the new generation of South Asian talents, and the determination to show a different image of their country to what we usually see on TV news/reports, said Bourdon. Story continues They hope to show that there are talents that can make good, artistic films as they say, that can travel and seduce international audiences, Bourdon added. Related stories Roger Corman, 'King of the B's,' Says Donald Trump Is Like 'The Intruder' Locarno: Beta Cinema Seals Deals on 'Vincent' (EXCLUSIVE) Locarno's Open Doors South Asia Co-Production Lab Announces Winners LOCARNO, Switzerland The Locarno Film Festivals Open Doors co-production lab dedicated to works from South Asia has picked its winners out of 8 selected projects. They are: Day After Tomorrow, by Kamar Ahmad Simon, Bangladesh. Winner of a production grant worth 30,000 Swiss Francs ($30,400). And also of the ARTE International Open Doors Prize worth Euros 6,000 ($6,600). This is the second installment of a water-trilogy that started with non-conventional docu Are you listening!, which won the Grand Prix at the Cinema du Reel fesival in Paris. The director travelled more than 200 kilometres by waterways to shoot it, while also making a metaphorical journey through the mainly Muslim population of Bangladesh, on the eve of an election. The Red Phallus, by Tashi Gyeltshen, Bhutan. Winner of a production grant worth 20,000 Swiss Francs ($20,300). This first feature is described as being about the paradox that sees people killing other people while talking about attaining enlightenment in the same breath. It is part of a trilogy, the first two instalments being shorts. The second instalment, The Red Door, screened in 2014 in Rotterdam. Open Doors grants are funded by the Open Doors initiative in collaboration with the Municipality of Bellinzona and the Swiss fund for production support Visions Sud Est, also financed by the Swiss Foreign Ministrys Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). Season of Dragonflies (Jhyalincha), by Abinash Bikram Shah, Nepal CNC Prize worth Euros 8,000 ($8,800). This first feature based on the filmmakers personal history will aim to provide a glimpse into the restlessness of Nepal, especially the struggle of women, caught between age-old traditions and modern day aspirations while also having to contend with poverty and disasters. The directors previous works include the short I Am Happy, which played at Busan. Earlier this year Locarno announced that as part of their research remit to explore cinematographies that are relatively or totally unknown but with great potential they would be focussing over the next three years on eight countries in South Asia: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Story continues The Open Doors Screenings program continues until the end of the Locarno fest on August 13. Related stories Roger Corman, 'King of the B's,' Says Donald Trump Is Like 'The Intruder' Locarno: Beta Cinema Seals Deals on 'Vincent' (EXCLUSIVE) Film Review: 'Aloys' Once upon a time it was de rigueur to spend the afternoon around a tea table, nibbling on a scone, cutting into a rich fruit cake or adding a third sugar to a cup of Earl Grey. Rarely do we wish that we could swap places with the residents of Downton Abbey we couldn't take the Dowager Countess's side eye but they sure knew a thing or two about decadence in the good old days. If your afternoons could do with an injection of Assam or, like us, you believe that life is better with scones, then we know where to go. We've skimmed the cream of London's afternoon tea spots, whether you're looking for classical elegance, tea to get you tipsy, or something a little bit different... Best For Couture Lovers: Blakes Hotel Oozing opulence and sheer decadence, Blakes has effortlessly assimilated its designer roots into a luxurious tea for two. Partnering with three-Michelin star pastry chef, Joakim Prat from Maitre Choux, and the specialists in craft single-batch tea, Lenani & Co, you can choose from a selection of bespoke artisan teas that complement and enhance the unique flavours of each signature eclair. To make the most of your visit, be sure to enjoy your tea in the hotel's tranquil courtyard, designed by Matthew Williamson you may well be tempted to get your phone out for an impromptu Instagram shoot in this stylish retreat, surrounded by bay trees and buxos. It's the ultimate bohemian oasis. Each pairing costs 12.75. A glass of prosecco can be added for an additional 9, and champagne for 13. Blakes Hotel London 33 Rowland Gardens, London, SW7 3PF 02073706701 Photo: Courtesy of Blakes Hotel Best For Chocolate Lovers: St Martins Lane Are you the kind of chocolate lover who's dreamt of spending an entire afternoon curled up in an armchair guzzling bottomless hot chocolate? Who fantasises about being treated to bite-sized desserts made by the masters of all things cocoa? Who might have a google alert for healthy chocolate just in case that ever becomes a thing? We really hope so because otherwise it would just be us... Healthy chocolate may not yet exist, but the cocoa spectacular that is Hotel Chocolat's collaboration with St Martins Lane makes at least two of our dreams come true. Sumptuous savoury snacks are served before an onslaught of chocolate treats, including chocolate eclairs packed with crispy praline and salted caramel bonbons. All of this is accompanied by unlimited cups of Hotel Chocolat hot chocolate. Pick from classic, milky, and salted caramel or all three! and let all your chocolatey dreams come true (we're still holding out for healthy chocolate). Afternoon Tea 40 per person St Martins Lane 45 St. Martin's Ln, London WC2N 4HX 020 7300 5500 Best For Fans Of History: The Fan Museum Once upon a time, it would have been as unthinkable for a lady to leave the house without a fan as it is for Kim Kardashian to leave the house without paparazzi. Times have moved on but fortunately, these little works of art have survived and found a home in an 18th century Greenwich townhouse. Lovingly curated, this petite exhibition space is definitely worth a visit, especially if your visit includes a trip to the Orangery for an incredible afternoon tea. Take a seat overlooking the formal garden, admire the intricate murals and flutter your fan or more likely, focus your iPhone camera. Here you're served a sweet afternoon tea, focused on cake and scones, in one of the most delectable settings we have ever seen. It's a day out your gran would approve of... and probably your great-great-great-great-gran, too. Afternoon Tea 8 per person (+ museum entry) The Fan Museum 12 Crooms Hill, London SE10 8ER 020 8305 1441 Photo: Via @mrslynseyjane Best For Chic City Slickers: Balthazar Balthazar's afternoon tea is less a celebration of all things cake, and more an homage to the queen of urban chic herself, Bobbi Brown. An ideal afternoon for anyone who loves to indulge, city-style. Take a seat at a banquette and drink in the surroundings, which combine Parisian elegance with New York energy. A white-aproned waiter will sweep in with a tower of sandwiches, scones, and cakes disguised as cosmetics and leave you wondering, 'Is that mascara really made of white chocolate?' It is, and it's delicious. When you've finished munching, if you haven't had your fill of all things aesthetic, pop next door for a complimentary makeup lesson. Having experienced tea at Balthazar, though, we suspect makeup might be at it's best when made of macarons and filled with cream. Just us? Afternoon Tea 27.50 per person Afternoon Tea with champagne or cocktail 37.50 per person Balthazar 4-6 Russell St, London WC2B 5HZ 020 3301 1155 Best For A Foodie Afternoon Out: The Modern Pantry This is not your grandmother's afternoon tea. As we've come to expect from The Modern Pantry, the menu is bursting with global flavours and artisan ingredients. Ditch all thoughts of curling cucumber sandwiches and tuck into a chia seeded round, topped with Neals Yard Perroche goat's cheese and beetroot relish, or their re-imagined club sandwich, stuffed with zaatar roast chicken and walnut pesto. Scones and clotted cream do still make an appearance, albeit infused with pecan and slathered with pumpkin jam. The restaurant's elegant interior, attentive service and beautifully designed china will delight afternoon tea lovers eager to venture beyond Victoria sponge. Hazelnut, tonka bean frangipane & apple tartlet, anyone? Cream Tea 12.50 per person Afternoon Tea 22.50 per person Prosecco Tea 27.50 per person The Modern Pantry Locations in Clerkenwell & Finsbury Park Best For A Taste Of La Dolce Vita: Bulgari Hotel Bulgari has been synonymous with luxury for well over a century, and its Knightsbridge hotel does nothing to damage that reputation. Pull up an armchair before the imposing fireplace in the granite-clad lounge and prepare to sink into the chicest of food comas. With an afternoon tea that takes in all the usual British suspects, as well as an array of Italian sweet treats whipped up by Bulgari's executive chef, it's hard to hold back. Past highlights from the culinary maestro and protege of Alain Ducasse have included freshly baked panettone, pecan praline choux and individual tarte tatin. Excuse us while we unbutton our Gucci jeans... Classic Afternoon Tea 35.00 Signature Afternoon Tea 42.00 Champagne Tea 47.00 Bulgari Hotel 171 Knightsbridge, London SW7 1DW 020 7151 1010 Best For Unlimited Indulgence: Lanes of London There may well be a time to exercise restraint but it is not during afternoon tea, and Lanes of London is the perfect place to indulge a craving. The architecture of this Park Lane eatery is rooted in our Edwardian past, while the bottomless bubbles keep it 21st century. The meal begins with a Jing tea tasting to help guests pick the perfect brew, although we suggest you make the most of Lanes' generosity and accompany your tea with all the prosecco you can handle. With handmade cakes, delicate finger sandwiches and scones served warm with clotted cream, this is a decidedly dainty way to get tipsy. Cream Tea 10.00 Afternoon Tea 39.00 Bottomless Prosecco Tea 49.00 per person Lanes of London 140 Park Lane, Mayfair, London W1K 7AA 020 7647 5664 Photo: Via @lanes_of_london Best For Cake And Culture: The Wallace Collection Tucked away in a Marylebone square, only a few minutes from the crowds of Oxford Street, The Wallace Collection is an oasis of art and refinement. They also serve bloody good afternoon tea. When you've had your fill of Old Masters, weave your way through Marie Antoinette's furniture to The Wallace Restaurant, situated in the former courtyard at the centre of the townhouse. Sit back beneath the (real!) trees and bask in natural light streaming through the glass roof overhead. As Marie said: "Let them eat cake". Cream Tea 6.50 Afternoon Tea 18.50 Champagne Tea 26.00 The Wallace Collection Hertford House, Manchester Square, London W1U 3BN 020 7563 9505 Photo: Courtesy of The Wallace. Best For A Fantastic Tea: The Sanderson If you've ever dreamed of following Alice down the rabbit hole perhaps to take tea with the Queen of Hearts then there's a real treat in store at The Sanderson. Despite being in the centre of London, entering the tranquil hidden garden feels like stepping into another world. Every last detail of this twist on the Mad Hatter's tea party captures the magic of Lewis Carroll's Wonderland. You'll choose your tea from a selection of tiny "Drink Me" bottles, before discovering that the sugar bowl doubles as a music box. Be warned: the endless supply of treats, from marshmallow "magic" mushrooms to coffee and chocolate pocket watches may leave you a little too stuffed to return to reality. Oh, well... Afternoon Tea 48.00 per person Children's Afternoon Tea 35.00 per child Champagne Tea 58.00 per person The Sanderson 50 Berners St, London W1T 3NG 020 7300 1400 Photo: Courtesy of The Sanderson. Best For A Good Old Fashioned Party: Betty Blythe Betty Blythe is perfect for a celebration. This west London favourite offers two vintage-inspired rooms that you and your group of friends can completely take over and indulge in an afternoon tea party, whether for a birthday, hen do or just because. It should be no surprise, given that the original Betty Blythe was a siren of 1920s Hollywood, that this tearoom is a treasure trove of classic glamour. You can spoil yourself with a Great Gatsby- inspired menu, dress yourself up in the vintage clothes that decorate the walls and fan yourself with ostrich feathers. Laugh in the face of Prohibition and bring a bottle, which staff will happily serve over ice for a small corkage charge. Go on, party like it's 1929. Afternoon Tea 22.50-30.00 per person Corkage Charge 3.20 Betty Blythe 73 Blythe Rd, London W14 0HP 020 7602 1177 Photo: via @arinainlondonland. Best For A Boozy Afternoon: The London Edition The London Edition is starting a revolution against traditional afternoon tea, and the fact that this revolution is taking place in their cocktail bar should give you an idea of the direction it's taking. No more set menus, no more stodgy scones and a lot more alcohol. Every guest can choose three loose leafs from their menu of five, all of which are served with a sweet or savoury dish and cup of punch which has been perfectly paired to bring out the flavour of the tea. Whether it's a punch that mixes Plymouth gin with jasmine or lightens Hennessy Fine de Cognac by adding pineapple and spices, alcohol really does make afternoon tea much more fun. Viva la Revolucion! Afternoon Tea with Punch 35.00 per person The London Edition 10 Berners St, London W1T 3NP 020 7781 0000 Photo: Courtesy of London Edition. Best For Impromptu Elegance: The Wolseley Entering into the Wolseley is like stepping back in time to one of Europe's grandest cafes. White aproned waiters glide across marble floors, the light from the chandeliers glints of perfectly polished silver tea pots and the smell of freshly baked cake is everywhere. Quite apart from the freshness of their cakes, which are all baked on-site in their cavernous kitchen, it's the service that sets The Wolseley apart. The A-list clientele that can often be found there means that everyone is treated like an honoured guest, that includes those guests without a booking. The Wolseley policy is to keep a few tables aside for walk-ins, perfect for a little last minute luxury. Cream Tea 11.50 per person Afternoon Tea 27.50 per person Champagne Tea 38.50 per person The Wolseley 160 Piccadilly, London W1J 9EB 020 7499 6996 Photo: Courtesy of The Wolseley. Best For Lovers of London: The B-Bus Afternoon tea on a double decker London bus? It couldn't be more British if the Queen visited the Bake Off tent with Geri Halliwell and Doctor Who. London based cake shop Brigit's Bakery have given us this peak of patriotism by combining their love of London with their love of baked goods. The B-Bus tour offers a full afternoon tea, all served while taking in the sights of London from a fully refurbished, 1960's Routemaster. Take a seat on the top deck and tuck into an ever-changing menu of sweet treats and savoury delights. If you're looking for a tour with a twist, for a limited time they will be combining their Bus Tour with a new Sushi inspired Afternoon Tea, all with three complimentary Asian gin cocktails from Haymans Gin. As the tour offers vegetarian, Halal and gluten-free options, it's perfect for any visitor to the capital, or any Londoners who feel like getting to know their city a little better. Trust us, taking the bus has never been so delicious. Afternoon Tea 48.50-61.00 per person Sushi inspired Afternoon Tea 45-63 per person The B-Bus The Tour Begins at 8 Northumberland Avenue & Victoria Coach Station 020 3026 1188 Photo: Courtesy of B-Bus Best For Something Slightly Different: The Harcourt Unsurprisingly the UK is not the only country to want to make a big deal about the wonderful combination of cake, sandwiches and tea. We have afternoon tea, Sweden has fika. Traditionally consisting of cinnamon buns (sweet rolls stuffed with cinnamon butter and studded with sugar), rye bread topped with delicious savouries and endless cups of coffee, this is a perfect afternoon tea for someone looking beyond scones. For a true fika experience, head to Marylebone newcomer The Harcourt. Take a seat in their garden room for an afternoon flooded with natural light and choose from their delectable fika menu. You can go for pure Swedish tradition with a cinnamon bun, or cross the cultural divide with a reindeer scotch egg. Whatever you choose it will not only be heavenly but also served on bespoke Melody Rose china, complete with crowned skulls and kissing couples. Fika Dishes 2.50-7.00 per dish The Harcourt 32 Harcourt St, London W1H 4HX 020 3771 8660 Photo: Courtesy of The Harcourt. Best For Complete Indulgence: The Savoy The Duchess of Bedford, a lifelong friend of Queen Victoria, is said to have begun the afternoon tea tradition in Britain. It's right then that afternoon tea at The Savoy should be an experience fit for royalty. The Savoy's afternoon tea is served in the luxurious Thames Foyer, on seats and sofas surrounding the famous, ceiling high birdcage which is filled with flowers. Every part of the tea is served on fine bone china, from shining silver tea pots or by waiting staff in three piece suits standing by your table offering huge silver trays of freshly made goodies. Should you still have room after your first offering of sandwiches, scones, tarts, pastries and cakes then don't worry refills of all of these are served with no extra charge. Certainly not a place to go to be saintly, but we think Queen Victoria would have approved. Afternoon Tea 50.00-55.50 per person Champagne Tea 62.50-70.50 per person The Savoy The Savoy, Strand, London WC2R 0EU 020 7836 4343 Photo: Courtesy of The Savoy. Best For A Day Out: The Cobbles Tea Room OK, OK, so The Cobbles Tea Room is not in London, but it really is too good to miss. It's also perfect for any Londoner who wants to escape the crowds of the capital for a day, as the picturesque country town of Rye is only 1 hour and 15 minutes from St Pancras. Once there you can wander round the beautiful boutiques and historical streets, or head straight to Cobbles for a cuppa. The Cobbles Tea Room has been the queen of the tea rooms for over half a century, so this cosy cottage cafe is a must-visit for anyone who loves traditional British afternoon tea. Once you walk up the cobbled lane you can take a seat at one of the lace covered outside tables and order a pot of their fragrant loose leaf tea. Your freshly baked cakes, scones and sandwiches will all be served on willow patterned china pretty enough to dominate any Instagram feed. That's definitely worth getting on a train for. Cream Tea 4.70 Afternoon Tea 7.50 The Cobbles Tea Room 1 Hylands Yard, Off The Mint, Rye TN31 7EP 07808 097551 Photo: via @rose_lander. Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here? Watch David Beckham & Gordon Ramsay Participate In A Hilarious TV Cook-Off I Only Made No-Cook Meals For A Week & The Results Were Surprising Are Meal Kit Deliveries A Better Option Than Your Local Supermarket? Last week, an expert Food and Drug Administration advisory panel recommended that the agency approve another new narcotic painkillerArymo ER, a long-acting form of the opioid morphine. But that thumbs up comes on the heels of yet another analysisthis one looking specifically at low back painsuggesting that opioids such as OxyContin, Percocet, and Vicodin dont provide much relief for many people with long-term pain and cause significant harm. Austin Kessler, 63, says he used various strategies to manage his pain over the six months or so it took to recover from a back injury in the summer of 2014. He described how, when landscaping at his home in Austin, Texas, the strain of lifting a large rock caused him to suffer a slipped (or herniated) disc, a condition where the material cushioning the bones of the spine bulges and presses on nerves. At first, the pain was so excruciating I could barely move, says Kessler. My 85-year-old father was pushing me around in a wheelchair. His doctor prescribed acetaminophen combined with the opioid hydrocodone (Vicodin and generic), but Kessler only took the drug off and on for a couple of weeks. After a while, the medication didnt seem to be helping very much, he says. I never considered getting a refill. A recent review of 20 clinical trials involving a total of nearly 7,300 patients suggests that many people suffering low back pain have a similar experience. Results from the study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, showed that, overall, opioids helped only a little with pain lasting 3 months or longer, but did not provide what doctors consider clinically meaningful reliefwhich is an improvement of 20 points or more on a 100-point pain scale. Further, half of the participants taking opioids dropped out of their studies early, most often because the drug didnt work or caused side effects. Its surprising given their reputation as powerful painkillers, that opioids didnt provide significant relief for people with longer-term low back paineven at very high doses, says Andrew McLachlan, Ph.D., a professor of pharmacy at the University of Sydney in Australia and a co-author of the study. In fact, he notes research shows that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID) pain relievers such as ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin, and generic) and naproxen (Aleve and generic) can work just as well as opioids against chronic pain and are safer for most people. Story continues The Downside of Taking Opioids Longer Term Opioids can work very well to alleviate pain after surgery or in the first few days after a serious injury. But that pain relief tends to diminish over time as most people quickly develop a tolerance to the drugs. Thats likely one of the main reasons that opioids dont provide big improvements for people with lingering pain, says McLachlan. Another issue is the side effects. Opioids commonly cause constipation, nausea, vomiting, headaches, dizziness, sleepiness, and a fuzzy-headed feeling. Our review demonstrates that many people just dont tolerate opioids well, says McLachlan. Opioids also carry serious risks of addiction, overdose, and even deathespecially when taken at high doses or used longer term. According to McLachlan, this new study adds to a growing body of evidence that the balance of benefits and risks for the use of opioids for chronic low back pain has changed. For most patients with long-term pain, he says, we are discovering that the modest benefits are far outweighed by possible harms. Safer Ways to Relieve Low Back Pain After Kessler was injured, he says he consulted with an orthopedic doctor who recommended surgery, but after getting a second opinion, he opted to try other approaches first. What eventually worked for him was physical therapy that involved a combination of treatments, including massage, stretching, and structured exercise. Evidence supports the effectiveness of exercise and hands-on therapies, according to our report on treating low back pain. Kessler also had the right idea when it comes to optimizing pain relief from opioid pain drugs. The medications work best and are safer when used for a short time to treat severe pain according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If you do wind up needing opioids for longer than a couple of weeks, recent guidelines from the agency advise taking the lowest possible dose, for the shortest time necessary to treat your pain. McLachlan says that the findings of his study also reinforce CDC recommendations that healthcare providers carefully monitor patients taking opioids to make sure that the drugs are actually helping and not causing harmful effects. Editor's Note: This article and related materials are made possible by a grant from the state Attorney General Consumer and Prescriber Education Grant Program, which is funded by the multistate settlement of consumer-fraud claims regarding the marketing of the prescription drug Neurontin (gabapentin). More from Consumer Reports: Top pick tires for 2016 Best used cars for $25,000 and less 7 best mattresses for couples Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers on this website. Copyright 2006-2016 Consumers Union of U.S. Lukas Graham has canceled a string of tour dates as frontman Lukas Forchhammer battles with "extreme exhaustion." The Danish soul-pop group has pulled the pin on its first-ever Australian shows, originally booked for Melbourne this Saturday (Aug. 13 at Max Watt's) and in Sydney next Tuesday (Aug. 16 at Metro Theatre). A show scheduled this Wednesday (Aug. 10) at Tokyo's Ebisu Liquid Room is also canceled. "Lukas is suffering with extreme exhaustion and is unable to perform the shows," promoter Frontier Touring notes in a statement. Lukas Graham Dominates Australia's Charts, Breaks Record Lukas Graham's career reached full bloom when their 2015 single "7 Years" exploded into a worldwide hit. Earlier this year, "7 Years" set the longest streak at No. 1 by a Danish act in the U.K. and Australia and led the Billboard Twitter Emerging Artists chart. The group's self-titled third album also topped the charts in the U.K. and Australia. Lukas Graham's next run of dates is due to start Nov. 10 at The Vogue Theatre in Vancouver, Canada. The Luke Cage crew was in San Diego last month to debut footage from the upcoming Marvel/Netflix Jessica Jones spinoff to a packed Ballroom 20. Today, weve got a new trailer (check it out above). Mike Colter plays the eponymous prison escapee/superhero-for-hire whose storyline as a wrongly-accused man is explored in the 13-episode series. At Comic-Con, showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker called the show relentless. In the just-released main trailer, Colters Cage goes from not being sure what he is and just wanting to be left the hell alone to becoming defender of Harlem, protecting locals and declaring, You have to fight for whats right every single day. Along the way, he gets a pep talk from Rosario Dawson, reprising her Claire Temple role from Daredevil and Jessica Jones. Cage made an appearance in the first season of Jessica Jones, playing the private detective superheros widower boyfriend. Jones was involved in the murder of Cages wife, no thanks to the influence of her nemesis Kilgrave. In the new Netflix series, the man with unbreakable skin and superhuman strength becomes a fugitive trying to rebuild his life in modern-day Harlem. But soon he is pulled out of the shadows and must fight a battle for the heart of his city forcing him to confront a past he had tried to bury. Alfre Woodard plays Mariah Dillard, a local Harlem politician and cousin to Cornell Cottonmouth Stokes (Mahershala Ali) who is looking to bring a new era of change to the streets where she grew up. Luke Cage also stars Sonia Braga as Soledad Temple, mother of Dawsons Claire; Frank Whaley as hard-nosed Detective Scarfe; and Simone Missick as bionic-armed Cage associate Misty Knight. Luke Cage debuts on Netflix September 30. [youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytkjQvSk2VA&w=970&h=546] Related stories Toronto Sets Documentary Program With Leonardo DiCaprio, Fisher Stevens, Errol Morris & Netflix Pics Story continues 'Paranoid' Trailer: First Look At ITV & Netflix Conspiracy Thriller Marvel's 'Luke Cage': Netflix Unveils Key Art Ride-sharing app Lyft is partnering with Starbucks SBUX to do something no other U.S. ride-hailing company has done: It will sell gift cards. The company announced Tuesday that it will begin selling $20 gift cards in Starbucks locations this week. To entice riders and Starbucks customers to by the cards, the companies are offering customers a $5 Starbucks gift card with the purchase of a Lyft card, and 125 free stars, or the equivalent of a free coffee, to those customers who sign up for Lyft and link their Starbucks account in the app. Riders can also earn five stars towards free food and coffee at Starbucks if they hitch a ride between 5 a.m. and 10 a.m. Monday through Friday for the next few months, as the offer is only for a limited time. The partnership, we think, can help us not only reach new people, which is a huge goal of ours, but also get more people to take Lyft more frequently, said Oliver Hsiang, Lyfts VP of partnerships. He also added that the goal of the partnership is to cross-pollinate Lyft riders and Starbucks customers to drive foot traffic for both companies. There are lots and lots of Starbucks stores in the cities that Lyft operates, and we know that people are taking Lyft rides to and from these locations. In fact, Starbucks was the number one most-visited coffee shop for us last year, Hsiang also said. The promotion comes at a time when Lyft continues to try and boost its growth and gain market share from its faster-growing rival in Uber. Lyft has been enjoying solid success lately though, telling investors that July was a record month for several metrics, including the number of new passengers and drivers, and active passengers and drivers. This most recent partnership isnt the first between the two companies, as last year Lyft provided ride services to Starbucks baristas and offered perks to Lyft drivers and Starbucks rewards members. In regards to why Lyft is offering the gift cards, Hsiang stated, The gift cards allows us to get in front of a lot of people who may not be familiar with Lyft, or they can get in front of people who want to gift Lyft to other people, adding, What we have learned is that there are lots of people who still prefer to transact through the physical card. Story continues Bottom Line Lyft continues to try and expand to compete with its much larger, and faster-growing rival in Uber, and has looked to partnerships like this one with Starbucks, or its deal with General Motors GM to do so. It is still too early to tell how much these partnerships are or will help the company, but based off of its recent comments on an extremely successful July, Lyft seems to be headed in the right direction. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report STARBUCKS CORP (SBUX): Free Stock Analysis Report GENERAL MOTORS (GM): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research No high school student should be skipping lunch. Especially not in an effort to be class valedictorian. But thats what had been happening in Racine Unified high schools. We have students that are putting pressure on themselves, and our counselors can attest to this, theyre skipping lunches so they can take another class, said Rosalie Daca, Unfieds chief academic officer. What we have right now, the only people that can become valedictorian in Racine, cant take a lunch all four years of high school because they will take eight weighted classes, said Jennifer Muffick, a counselor at Case High School. That shouldnt happen, and we commend Unified for the steps taken last week to reduce the likelihood of high-achieving students putting excessive pressure and unhealthy behavior on themselves, and for taking those steps without watering down valedictorian honors. On Aug. 1, Daca made a presentation to the Unified School Board which included a plan to eliminate weighted classes for incoming freshmen, greater access to advanced placement and International Baccalaureate courses and changes to valedictorian selection. The valedictorians for the classes of 2020 will not only need to have the highest grade-point average, but they also must have completed several Advanced Placement classes or, at Case High School, be a full International Baccalaureate diploma candidate. (IB is only offered at Case). Eliminating weighted classes where an A is worth 5 grade points instead of 4 while maintaining advanced-class requirements for valedictorian honors should both eliminate the perceived need to skip lunch to take an advanced class and prevent a student from achieving honors without taking the advanced classes. We also applaud the increased access to the advanced classes. Where previously a student had to have a certain GPA to get into the advanced classes, lowering the threshold for admittance to such classes allows the student who may have struggled freshman year a chance to challenge himself or herself. We also believe that, for example, the semester final in physics should be worth the same percentage of your grade all across the district. Were glad to see Unifieds administration agrees. Some (teachers) may weigh them 20-30 percent in their final grade calculation for the semester, and others can count at 5 percent, Daca said. We are going to weigh exams 15 percent consistently across the school in all classes in all schools. The steps being taken will level the academic playing field for Racine Unified high school students without devaluing academic honors. The district will continue to reward high achievers and enable those students who want to challenge themselves greater opportunity to do so. Well done. Yes, you can transfer your domain to any registrar or hosting company once you have purchased it. Since domain transfers are a manual process, it can take up to 5 days to transfer the domain. Domains purchased with payment plans are not eligible to transfer until all payments have been made. Please remember that our 30-day money back guarantee is void once a domain has been transferred. For transfer instructions to GoDaddy, please click here. KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - A sacked Malaysian deputy prime minister and critic of scandal-tainted Prime Minister Najib Razak registered a political party on Tuesday saying he wanted to offer ruling party members an alternative and to fight corruption. The former minister, Muhyiddin Yassin, along with former premier Mahathir Mohamad, have been leading a campaign to unseat Najib after he was linked to a multi-billion dollar graft scandal at state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). Najib has denied any wrongdoing and consolidated power within the ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) party. The prime minister has also cracked down on dissent. "As a former UMNO member, I know there are many who are unsatisfied about the current leadership, but they're not ready to say it out loud," Muhyiddin said after submitting registration documents in Putrajaya, Malaysia's administrative capital. "So now, there is a new space for them." UMNO has ruled Malaysia largely unchallenged since independence in 1957, with the support of the majority ethnic Malay community, though it fared poorly, losing the popular vote, in the last election in 2013. Muhyiddin is expected to lead Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu), or United Malaysian People's Party, as its president, while Mahathir will serve as party chairman, an aide to Muhyiddin said. Mahathir, Malaysia's longest-serving prime minister, had announced plans for the new party in July, after months of attacks against Najib's leadership and alleged graft and mismanagement at 1MDB. The United States Department of Justice filed lawsuits last month to seize more than $1 billion in assets linked to 1MDB. The Wall Street Journal has reported that more than $1 billion was diverted from 1MDB to Najib's personal bank accounts. "We want to strengthen efforts in the fight against corruption and abuse of power, as well as uphold social justice and fair distribution of wealth," Muhyiddin said. But political commentators have said the new party will likely have little impact as top UMNO members stand behind Najib. Muhyiddin was sacked as deputy prime minister in July 2015, after criticizing Najib's handling of the 1MDB scandal. Nearly a year later, Najib announced an UMNO supreme council decision to expel Muhyiddin, along with Mahathir's son, Mukhriz Mahathir, from the party. Mahathir quit UMNO in February, saying it was seen as "supporting corruption" under Najib's leadership. Mahathir, 91, was hospitalized for treatment of a chest infection on Tuesday. The veteran politician, who was prime minister for 22 years until 2003, will be under observation for the next few days, an aide said. (Reporting by Rozanna Latiff; Editing by Robert Birsel) Bamako (AFP) - At least five Malian soldiers have gone missing after an attack in the central Mopti region, where armed Islamic extremists are active, a military source said Tuesday. The assailants struck "one of our positions on Monday between the locations of Tenenkou and Sevare. We have no news of five of our soldiers," said the source, reached at the defence ministry. The source blamed the attack on Ansar Dine, a mainly Tuareg group that early in 2012 seized control of northern desert territory with two other movements, including Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). The jihadists were ousted from major northern towns in a French-led military operation in 2013, but still launch attacks from desert hideouts. Ansar Dine claimed responsibility for a July 19 attack on a military base at Nampala, in which 17 soldiers were killed, 37 were wounded and six were reported missing, according to the official toll. A separate military source said that the attack in the Tenenkou area on Monday followed an ambush of Malian troops in the Mopti region by unidentified armed men on Sunday. "On Monday, army reinforcements went to the site of the ambush the previous day and there were clashes. The enemy sustained casualties and we have no news of at least five Malian soldiers," the source added. Apart from the toll, this account was confirmed by a third military source in Sevare and a source in the security forces in the capital Bamako. They also said that reinforcements had been sent. Tenenkou lies about 90 kilometres (56 miles) west of Mopti, the main town in the region, while Sevare lies 10 kilometres east of Mopti. After claiming last month's Nampala attack, Ansar Dine posted a video online via a private Mauritanian news agency, showing five men in army fatigues identified as Malian soldiers taken hostage on July 19. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Malian defence ministry source confirmed the men seen in the video were indeed five of the missing Malian soldiers. Ongoing international military intervention since January 2013 has driven Islamist fighters away from major population centres, but large tracts of the sub-Saharan country are still not controlled by Malian and foreign troops. Jihadist groups early last year began to carry out attacks in central Mali as well as the north. Facebook Screenshot A 74-year-old Australian man was awarded $115,000 in damages caused by a libelous Facebook post about his business, and it's a good reminder that you can't just say anything on social media. Here's what happened. Kenneth Rothe, the man awarded the damages, owned two hotels, the Nirvana Village and Blue Dolphin Motels, located in the Australian coastal town of Nambucca where he lived with his family. One day, out of the blue, his hotels were accused of being a haven to pedophiles, a claim that the judge would later determine was baseless. In March 2014, electrician David Scott posted, Pedophile [sic] warning:- Nambucca has been used as a relocation for these monsters blue dolphin nirvana hotel and above the Indian restaurant! Bus stops are right out front of theses hotels for our children?" The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Rothe often offered accommodations to people dealing with family disputes, but never to pedophiles. In the wake of the Facebook post, Rothe started receiving numerous anonymous phone calls, and he says his life was threatened on two different occasions. One assault left him hospitalized for six months. Eventually, his family moved out of the coastal village. Judge Judith Gibson, who presided over the case, said the post was written out of the blue, had no factual basis, and severely affected Rothe's life. Scott was ordered to pay Rothe. "The anonymity, instaneousness and wide ranging reach of the Internet and social media make it a dangerous tool in the hands of persons who see themselves as caped crusaders or whistleblowers, Judge Gibson said. NOW WATCH: Elon Musk just unveiled Tesla's 'top secret' master plan here are the details More From Business Insider Brian Goral Brian Goral had always wanted to work for the Central Intelligence Agency. "I remember at one point during a math class my sophomore year in high school, my multi-year unrequited crush, Denise, and I decided we should go work for the CIA," he told Business Insider. Denise, he says, pursued a different career path. But Goral realized his dream when he landed an internship with the CIA the civilian foreign-intelligence service of the US federal government as a college student. Business Insider recently talked to Goral, 39, who spent just over 15 years with the agency, and asked him for his best advice for others who dream of working there. He said: "Check your ego at the door. The agency is an incredible place of service where excellent people are doing things from which they'll never receive credit from the outside world. "However, you still need to understand the outside world, so start with learning a language and stepping outside your comfort zone to travel; visit places and countries that are off the tourists' beaten paths. "Learn to understand the people you meet there because, generally speaking, the people who are going to work hard to change the world aren't the ones already sitting on top of it." Goral left the CIA in late 2014 to start his own company, Furenexo, which is focused on disability tech. NOW WATCH: 5 professions that are more profitable than playing in the NFL More From Business Insider London (AFP) - Manchester City have signed England defender John Stones from Everton, the Premier League club confirmed on Tuesday. Stones agreed a six-year contract with City and is reported to have cost 47.5 million ($61 million, 55 million euros), making him the second most expensive defender in history. "I'm absolutely delighted to sign for City and now the deal's done I'm looking forward to the next stage in my career," Stones told City's website. "I've obviously seen what's going on here at the Etihad, it's an ambitious club with a great manager so I can't wait to get stuck in and help achieve the goals." The supporters of Manchester United will be happy with Jose Mourinho stating he wants to win everything - something they would never have heard during management under David Moyes or Louis Van Gaal. However, it will certainly be a big task for the Special One to win the Premier League in his first year, especially considering it has become even more competitive, making it difficult to predict who finish in the top four. Having snapped Paul Pogba for a world record fee, Mourinho will be looking to three other players to step up their game and make United hard to beat. Morgan Schneiderlin When it comes to Jose Mourinho - a big fan of the perfect defensive midfielder - the manager will aim to revive Schneiderlins career after a poor season under Louis Van Gaal. A player who was regarded as one of the best defensive midfielders during his time at Southampton, will be looking to prove a point to many fans and also show he was wrongly treated by previous Old Trafford regime. Most of last season, Michael Carrick and Marouane Fellaini played as a double pivot ahead of the defence and Schneiderlin will be wondering what he did wrong. But with the chance to show how good he is under Mourinho, the Frenchman will take this opportunity like a fresh start - it could be a make or break season for him. Morgan Schneiderlin has a point to prove - but he's good enough to do it Henrikh Mkhitaryan As most of the attention is on Zlatan Ibrahimovic and the return of Pogba, most supporters forget the fact that Henrikh Mkhitaryan signed for the club last month. It leaves the Armenian with a short period of time to prove himself before everyone starts to get on his case, but his 11 goals and 15 assists in the Bundesliga for Dortmund was no fluke. United lacked creativity last season, which gives Mkhitaryan the chance to show what the fan have been missing, that could lead to Mourinho making a big choice of picking him ahead of Wayne Rooney as the clubs central attacking midfielder. The manager will not be afraid to drop the captain - as he did it to John Terry during his time at Chelsea. Story continues Henrikh Mkhitaryan has almost been forgotten in the Zlatan fanfare Marcus Rashford Zlatan Ibrahimovic becoming a Red Devil this summer has boosted the confidence of many fans - but they are also asking what role will Marcus Rashford be playing this season? The 18-year-old will be pleased and honoured to learn a few things from Ibrahimovic, but he will compete with the Swedish striker for a position in the starting line-up. Rashfords burst of pace and eye for goal makes him the ideal super sub for Mourinho this year, particularly if the side find it difficult to break the opponents down something that was already experienced last campaign. Also, it will be interesting to see how well Rashford does in his first full season now the surprise effect has worn off. TITAN Software Delivers Dramatic Bandwidth and Latency Improvements Over Existing SAN-Based All-Flash Arrays at Flash Memory Summit, August 9 - 11, Booth #601 SANTA CLARA, CA / ACCESSWIRE / August 9, 2016 / Flash Memory Summit 2016 -- Mangstor Inc., a leading developer of high performance, next-generation, non-volatile memory storage solutions, today announced availability of its TITAN NVMe over Fabric (NVMf) Target Software Storage Stack. TITAN Software delivers leading performance and ultra-low latencies by tightly integrating NVMe SSDs with Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) Network Interface Cards (NICs) and efficient use of x86 server capabilities. The software delivers key capabilities such as accelerated application response times, efficient storage resource sharing, tiering, scalability, connectivity to existing SANs, and operational efficiencies that enable IT managers to dynamically provision NAND flash memory locally or remotely, and with centralized management. Advanced capabilities include storage caching, cluster management, and NIC support up to 100 Gbps speeds. The management software included within TITAN is a scalable REST API and GUI tools that enable IT managers to easily deploy and manage large clusters of NVMf storage. Presentations of TITAN software begin today at Flash Memory Summit 2016, in Mangstor's Booth #601, Santa Clara Convention Center, Santa Clara, California. FMS concludes on Thursday, August 11th. TITAN software provides a single web-based management interface for managing entire clusters of NVMf storage arrays. Centralized management enables easier and faster storage system configurability in the datacenter and the ability to manage these systems in a more reliable manner. The software supports multiple fabric options, including Mellanox RoCE (Ethernet) and Infiniband, as well as emerging RDMA fabrics such as Intel OmniPath. "Accelerated application response times are the big advantage of NVMf arrays as they deliver Read and Write latencies comparable with internal PCIe SSDs," said Ashwin Kamath, SVP Engineering for Mangstor Inc. "TITAN delivers sustained performance of millions of IOPS, with latencies under 200s, and an order of magnitude better than typical FC or iSCSI interfaces -- in fact, on the NX6320 2U supported platform, TITAN has been measured at up to 10x higher bandwidth and one-tenth the latency when compared to iSCSI and FC-based AFAs." Story continues NVMf arrays based on TITAN software scales to petabytes of capacity and hundreds of GB/s as arrays are added with virtually no increase in latency. As more capacity or performance is needed, arrays can simply be added as required. Latency is consistently low, similar with local SSD access times at low IOPS levels due to the optimized RDMA network, and remains low up to millions of IOPS. NVMf storage arrays are an ideal solution for data-intensive storage, latency-sensitive applications and real-time analytics and the first available storage array solution for the newly released NVMf specification. TITAN is now available for OEM customers and storage provider partners worldwide. The NX-Series Storage Arrays are available through Mangstor's worldwide sales channel of distributors, resellers, system integrators and manufacturing representatives. Product information is available at www.mangstor.com. Sales and pricing information is available at sales@mangstor.com. All trademarks, registered trademarks, and/or service marks, indicated or otherwise, are the property of their respective owners. About Mangstor Inc. Mangstor Inc., founded in 2012 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, is a leading developer of next generation non-volatile memory storage products optimized for low latency, high performance applications. Its product portfolio includes MX-Series PCIe NVMe SSDs, NX-Series NVMf storage arrays, and TITAN NVMf storage target software. First presented at last year's Flash Memory Summit, the NX6320 array with TITAN software earned a Best of Show award as the Most Innovative Flash Memory Technology, and the first available storage array solution for NVMf. About Flash Memory Summit 2016 The Flash Memory Summit program provides attendees with practical information on the current state of flash memory and its applications. Summit themes include: Solid State Drives (SSDs), Flash Memory Based Architectures, Enterprise Storage, Controllers, Enterprise Applications, PCIe SSDs, new non-volatile technologies, standards, testing, and applications. The Summit Program consists of a day of pre-conference seminars, followed by three days of panel discussions, keynotes, forums, paper sessions, tutorials, updates, and special sessions. The show is located at the Santa Clara Convention Center, Santa Clara, California, beginning Tuesday, August 9th and concluding on Thursday, August 11th. Mangstor Media Contact: Scott Harlin Director of Marketing Communications 714-619-1795 sharlin@mangstor.com SOURCE: Mangstor Inc. Long-term human colonization of Mars is feasible, as long as Red Planet pioneers "live off the land," a recent NASA report concludes. "There are massive resources on Mars obtainable from the atmosphere and extracted from the regolith which are capable of supporting human colonization," write the authors of the report, which is called "Frontier In-Situ Resource Utilization for Enabling Sustained Human Presence on Mars." Using Martian resources, existing technologies could supply water, oxygen, fuel and building materials, the report adds, "to relax the dependence on Earth during the buildup of a colony on Mars." [Red Planet or Bust: 5 Crewed Mars Mission Ideas] Safe and affordable missions The report, which was published in April, was written by Robert Moses and Dennis Bushnell, both of whom work at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Moses and Bushnell said that the purpose of their work is fourfold: Highlight the latest discoveries of water, minerals and other materials on Mars that reshape thinking about the value and capabilities of Mars in-situ resource utilization (ISRU). Summarize the previous literature on Mars ISRU processes, equipment and approaches. Point to frontier ISRU technologies and approaches that can lead to safe and affordable human missions to Mars. Suggest an implementation strategy whereby the ISRU elements are phased into the mission campaign over time to enable a sustainable and increasing human presence on Mars. Earth independence Moses, who's based at Langley's Atmospheric Flight & Entry Systems Branch, told Space.com that the duo's ISRU-heavy plan strives to achieve Earth-independent pioneering of Mars. "If the best that we can hope for is to get Matt Damon [star of the recent film "The Martian"] back to Earth alive, then we may have failed miserably in our pursuit of pioneering Mars and achieving Earth Independence," Moses said. Story continues Extensive ISRU application may offer a solution that allows the Mars pioneers to come back to Earth when and if they want to, he said "not because they have to." NASA has followed a strategy of "follow the water" for space exploration, Moses said. But with respect to pioneering Mars, and defining some potential ISRU missions, the space agency should seek to "bottle the water," Moses said. "Until we demonstrate that we can do that reliably on Mars using resources there, then there's no compelling foundation for extensive ISRU and pioneering there," he said. Technology to-do list The report suggests that NASA should match up ISRU with frontier technologies, including robotics, machine intelligence, nanotechnology, synthetic biology, 3D printing and autonomy. "These technologies, combined with the vast natural resources, should enable serious, pre- and post-human arrival ISRU to greatly increase reliability and safety and reduce cost for human colonization of Mars," the technical paper explains. For example, plastics can be produced from carbon, hydrogen and oxygen processed from Martian water and the planet's atmosphere, according to Bushnell, the chief scientist at NASA Langley. Bushnell told Space.com that plastics will likely be designed crudely on Mars, except where they absolutely have to be finished. "What is produced can be oversized as required for whatever strength is required," he said. "Plastic equipment, parts, structural members, buggies, habs [habitats], pipes, etc., can be heavy and large to make up for lack of materials properties excellence." Such work can begin on Mars before any humans get there, thanks to autonomous robots, Bushnell said. By exploiting all Martian resources, he added, small initial payloads of stuff can eventually produce major effects, products and functionalities. "Mars is different from Earth time is our friend," Bushnell said. An "inner solar system Walmart" The extensive implementation of ISRU on Mars could possibly be the "game changer" that achieves the requirements necessary "for pioneering and ultimately colonization," the report suggests. Moses and Bushnell stress that the Red Planet can become the "proving ground" for many new technologies "that not only improve Earth independence but set up Mars to become the supply source for fuels, oxidizers, life support, spare parts, replacement vehicles, habitats and other products" for spacefaring beyond low-Earth orbit. Indeed, using Mars-produced fuel and transforming Martian resources would constitute "an effective inner solar system Walmart for, eventually, nearly everything required for spacefaring and colonization," the memorandum concludes. The full technical paper can be found at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20160005963.pdf Leonard David is author of "Mars: Our Future on the Red Planet," to be published by National Geographic this October. The book is a companion to the National Geographic Channels six-part series coming in November. A longtime writer for Space.com, David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com. Editor's Recommendations Copyright 2016 SPACE.com, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Marseille (AFP) - A Marseille waterpark has cancelled plans to host a private event for Muslim women wearing burqinis -- full-body swimsuits -- after they sparked outrage in secular France, authorities and the park said Tuesday. "Neither Speedwater Park nor the town of Pennes-Mirabeau (a Marseille suburb) wish to be the site of public disorder," they said in a joint statement. The event was the brainchild of Smile 13, a women's association catering for Arabs in the southern port city, whose population of nearly two million includes around 220,000 Muslims, mainly of Algerian origin. The association had not confirmed its reservation or paid a deposit for the event pencilled in for September 10. Politicians on both the right and the left slammed the plan as provocative, with left-wing senator Michel Amiel, the mayor of Pennes-Mirabeau, saying he would seek a ban. "Extreme ideological positions are taking advantage of the controversy over this event to address conflicts in which Speedwater Park and the city of Pennes-Mirabeau do not wish to be involved," the statement said. Smile 13 said on its Facebook page it was "stunned and saddened" by the extent of the controversy. It said that it had received threats -- including bullets sent to it in the mail -- and had informed the Collective against Islamophobia in France. The waterpark initially said it "understands" why the plan "is of particular interest to the media during an emotionally difficult period" in the wake of two jihadist attacks that rocked France last month, including an attack with a truck that killed 84 people as they celebrated Bastille Day in the Riviera resort of Nice. But the waterpark noted that as a private company it had a right to hold a private event. Islamic dress is a hot-button issue in France, where the full-face veil is banned in public places. Senator Stephane Ravier of Le Pen's National Front said the planned burqini day showed that despite assurances from the Muslim community following the terror attacks, "a certain number of Muslims voluntarily set themselves apart from... our society." Last month's attacks -- the Nice truck massacre, followed by the grisly knife murder of a priest near the northern city of Rouen less than a fortnight later -- led to an outpouring of inter-faith solidarity. Actor and longtime political activist Martin Sheen has some very strong opinions about GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, which he shares with The Hollywood Reporter in this Q&A ostensibly about his new movie, The Vessel. Sheen didn't care to discuss his son, Charlie Sheen, or Hard Evidence: O.J is Innocent, a docuseries he narrated and produced. In The Vessel, executive produced by Terrence Malick and due Sept. 16 in theaters, Sheen plays a priest in a small town where the elementary school has been wiped out by a tsunami. A trailer is below. How'd this movie with Malick come about? Terry was more of a showrunner. The people that made the film, he was a mentor to them. And he brought you on board? Yes, that's what got my attention and, of course, it would, because I adore Terry and I would look for any opportunity to work with him, anywhere, anytime. What in the script piqued your interest? The story was a good antidote to despair - it relied on a spiritual energy to reinvigorate a community, to begin the process of living and procreating and working together. All the children had been destroyed and nobody wanted to have more because they couldn't bear the pain, and this priest was trying to encourage people to reinvigorate their love of life. He was the spiritual anchor of the community. It's not often that Hollywood portrays Catholic priests positively nowadays, have you noticed? Are you sure (laughs)? I don't think they have a clue what a Catholic priest is, frankly. They haven't done anything that gives them much credibility recently, that's for sure. Are you saying there's a bias against Christianity in Hollywood? Not even close. I just see a general avoidance, you know? If there was some financial gain, I'm sure they would hop to and make it work, but I don't think they see doing a film specifically targeted at Catholics that would make any dough, though there are many great stories about heroic Catholics. Story continues Any of them you'd like to see turned into a film? Diary of a Country Priest, a famous French classic, and The Brothers Karamazov, which is Orthodox Russian. Then, gosh, one of the heroes of Auschwitz was a Catholic priest: Maximilian Kolbe and Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Her name was Edith Stein, a Jewish convert, then she became a nun and they sent her to Auschwitz. How important is your Catholicism to your work? Frankly, it's the center of my life. I think all of us are trying to live honest lives and, for me, I'm inspired by my Catholicism. So, it's not anything I can separate myself from any more than I can separate myself from being a husband, a father, a brother, a grandfather, a great-grandfather, an actor or an activist. Speaking of which, I haven't seen you doing much in the way of political activism lately. (Laughs). Yeah, what have I done for you lately? I'm 76 years old. I'm no less active, but I'm not arrested that often. That's what generally gets the attention. How many times have you been arrested? Sixty-seven. The last time was at Vandenberg Air Force Base in 2003. What were you protesting? Nuclearism, which has become our national religion. We've replaced a higher power with nuclear weapons, thinking they're going to defend us and that we're safe with them, but they are the nemesis that we've got to start focusing on, because there's more concern that they'll fall into rogue hands. Have you ever been convicted of anything? No. I have had to plea bargain, like when I was facing six months. I couldn't risk going to trial and losing because I would have had to leave The West Wing, and that contract came before the demonstration. I was protesting the Gulf War - the invasion of Iraq. What do you think about the current political landscape? (Laughs). You can't be referring to Don Trump? What do you think of him? Oh, Don Trump. He makes me laugh, in that nobody seems to get it yet. Get what? That he's an empty-headed moron. That he has absolutely nothing to offer us. That he's done his bidding and he has to be responsible for the damage he's already done. What damage has he done already? He's just a private citizen so far, right? Oh, come on. There's nothing private about this guy. Don Trump has been around for a very long time. He's a very self-centered promoter. I think that says it. If you had to describe him in one word, what would it be? Scary. How about Hillary Clinton? Are you a big supporter of hers? I am, yes. Why? She has some common sense. I'm not saying she's mistake-free. Who is? I mean, she's a human being. She's been in public life for 30 years. She's made a few mistakes. Is anybody talking about George Bush and the 30,000 emails he destroyed about the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and all of that nonsense, and how Great Britain came in, and all the other allies knowing full well that it was bogus? So, please, if you want to talk about how much her mistakes have cost us, none in human lives - and please don't mention Benghazi. That's a lot of crap. She was not controlling that situation. It was a military situation. And that's run by the Pentagon or the CIA or both. She's under orders. Do you blame a video for Benghazi? No, I blame terrorism. Plain and simple. Terrorism. How does your Catholicism square with your liberal politics in terms of issues like abortion? That's my humanity. I can't speak for a woman. I'm not a woman. I don't know what it's like to be pregnant and I will never know. So I cannot make a moral judgment on them. I would wish that everyone would respect life - I have tried to do such in my life, but that's me. I can't project that on another single human being and I will not. I can't tell if you're saying you are pro-choice or pro-life. Which is it? I am pro-life for all life - including the death penalty, including war. Life is what we might refer to as a seamless garment - you can't extract whatever pleases you, what fits you comfortably. Let me ask you a question: What did you think of the film? I liked it, but I was hoping for a flashback to the tsunami. Oh, I know. Special effects. We couldn't afford that. You know, there's a Spanish version? I did not know that. We did two versions as we were filming. We did every scene in English and in Spanish. It's the first time I've ever spoken Spanish in my work, so I'm very proud of that. In this age of special effects and superheroes, how do you get people to see a small drama about a Catholic priest? It's about far more than a priest. Basically, he's a missionary in the Hispanic third-world somewhere, and I think that that's clear from the look of the film. They're not living in luxury on any level, and they've been dealt a very horrible tragedy. I don't think the film is specifically about the priest - It's about a young couple; it's about superstition; it's about despair; and it's about recovery. One last question: Do you think Trump can win? No. No. There's no chance he's going to win. No chance? None. Absolutely none. Why is that? He has no chance. None. I promise you. The fight hasn't begun yet. I promise you. The tsunami that's going to hit him has not reached the shore yet. And what does that tsunami consist of? All of us who are capable and ready to fight. Hollywood? No, I'm not talking about Hollywood, I'm talking about the citizenry of our country. When they come to their senses and they realize what's at stake, there will be an overwhelming disapproval of this man's chances for the White House. I promise you. None. Zero. Donald Trump is finished. On Aug 8, we issued our updated research report on MasterCard Inc. MA. The company reported earnings per share of 96 cents, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 90 cents. Earnings were up 13% year over year, on stronger net revenue and a lower tax rate. The improvement was partly offset by higher operating expense. MasterCard, the leader in global payments, boosts a powerful brand, vast global acceptance network and strong business model. The company is poised for revenue growth led by a secular shift to electronic payments. Last month, MasterCard announced that it will acquire 92.4% of VocaLink, a leading provider of Automated Clearing House electronic payments services in the United Kingdom. This acquisition will strengthen the companys position in the U.K. payments market. Over the next few quarters, we expect MasterCard's earnings to suffer from challenging forex and international markets as well as higher rebates and incentives. Also, continued investments in China as well as in security, digital business and services will translate into higher expenses over the coming quarters. MASTERCARD INC Price and Consensus MASTERCARD INC Price and Consensus | MASTERCARD INC Quote MasterCard is making continued investments in upgrading its technology offering. It recently launched a new version of MasterPass, which will provide a digitized solution and it makes the company the first and only network to deliver an omni-channel, all-digital payment service for card issuers, merchants and consumers. Its MasterCard Digital Enablement Service (MDES), launched in 2014, also helped it to gain market share in digital payments. Nonetheless, MasterCard faces litigation risk with respect to the recent reversal of the appeals court approval of the antitrust settlement reached in 2012. Apart from MasterCard, several other card issuing financial institutions, including the likes of Visa Inc. V, and some U.S. merchants were parties to the settlement. Story continues MasterCard carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in this space are Envestnet, Inc. ENV, FleetCor Technologies, Inc. FLT. Both these stocks carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report FLEETCOR TECH (FLT): Free Stock Analysis Report MASTERCARD INC (MA): Free Stock Analysis Report VISA INC-A (V): Free Stock Analysis Report ENVESTNET INC (ENV): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Experts believe that meditation can have a positive impact on your body image. (Photo: Stocksy) Meditation and mindfulness arent practices that have been around for thousands of years for no reason. They are known as tools for treatment of everything from chronic pain to anxiety to cardiovascular health. So with all that meditation is known to do, could it also serve as an unwitting beauty hack? We asked a group of experts to help explain how and why meditation might help facilitate body acceptance and make you feel (even more) beautiful. Lynn Waelde is a professor of clinical psychology at Palo Alto University and a consulting professor at the Stanford School of Medicine, whose research and work focuses on the use of meditation in psychotherapy. Shes also been practicing meditation herself since she was a child. She first stumbled across books in the library on it and began to teach herself the practice. To understand the potential power of meditation to reframe how our minds evaluate our own experiences, Waelde brought meditation as a means of mental health intervention to disaster-stricken communities ranging from the Philippines post-Typhoon Haiyan and New Orleans post-Hurricane Katrina and evaluated its use. Consistently, her work has found that meditation was the most helpful form of mental health intervention by the survivors of these disasters. But its not only massive trauma that meditation has the ability to help treat. And, as Waelde explains, the power of meditation inherently exists in everyone. This is just the natural capacity of people, she says. I see my job as helping people to discover their natural capacity and not teaching people to do something, she explains. She adds, You can read a lot of research on functional neural brain imaging that shows that meditation tends to change the way the brain is organized in a way that helps people regulate their emotions. It can help people become less depressed and less anxious and more aware of the present moment. It clearly has a profound effect. Story continues Which is why its only natural literally that meditation can help us to not just understand but respect and value our own bodies and appearances. Meditation can help people access states on the inside that are unchanging, Waelde says. You can experience peace on the inside that is not going to change from week to week or from year to year, the way our appearances and bodies can. As we all get older, our bodies are always changing and not always in a good way! Sometimes we see how we change with age and are not always so happy about it, and sometimes the aging process can be sad for people. We feel like were losing one thing after another. But meditation is a process that gets better over time, and the older I get, the more qualified I become to meditate. And over time and with practice, people can access states on the inside of themselves that dont age and that only become richer and deeper and more nourishing over time. Georgia Pettit, the director of programs at the Shambhala Meditation Center of New York and both a practitioner of and teacher of meditation, agrees. Meditation changes the way you relate to yourself and your feelings, Pettit says. Not that you dont trust your heart and your feelings, but that you are able to look at them with a little sympathy and a little distance. If something pops in your head that feels a little aggressive or intense, you can say, I dont have to follow that path. I can just let that go. Meditation helps you be less judgmental towards yourself. And this letting go of judgment can be both liberating and empowering in terms of how we come to understand our sense of our own beauty. In fact, Pettit says, one of the most surprising things she has found about her own sustained meditation practice is that, years into it, not only does she still look nice but shes learned that her fear that if I relate to my body and my face in a way that is more kind and accepting, Ill go to s*** is unfounded. But I would say that I have come into my style with a sense of confidence and acceptance that I wouldnt have had before if I had been chasing whatever had been put in front of me about what beauty is. With self-acceptance comes a certain kind of beauty and confidence. Waelde attributes this transformation to what is known in the scientific community as decentering, or not identifying with passing thoughts or passing experiences and not regarding these thoughts or experiences as something permanent or even necessarily true. In other words, you can come to understand that hating your own thighs does not have to be a judgment of yourself that you have to hang on to forever. And so, Waelde explains, decentering from our thoughts lets us root our sense of identity with something that is inside each of us that is unchanging and permanent and a deep wellspring of peace. If you begin to decenter, you open yourself to start identifying with some other qualities of yourself or other capacities. Tapping into the part of the self below the surface and not subject to the judgment of the day is deeply nourishing. And for some people, that might be accessing the capacity to be at peace. And thats the really important part what a lot of people realize is that actually being at peace is something that is tremendously attractive to other people. This goes beyond physical beauty. We have all known people who are soothing to be around. There is no doubt that people who are at peace and are calm are people we are attracted to. One of the biggest physical changes Pettit says she has seen in herself as a result of her commitment to her meditation practice is that she finds herself smiling more, even in ordinary moments. I never used to hear people say, Oh your smile! but now I do, she notes. I feel more relaxed in everyday situations because I feel that I trust myself to not be mean to myself or put myself up against pretty unrealistic standards of beauty that are unrelated to me and have not that much to do with me altogether. I smile more easily because the inner dialogue I maintain is more gentle. When youre walking around thinking, I hate my nose. I hate my nose. I hate my nose. youre walking around wearing that. People are seeing that conversation you are having with yourself. Pettit reflects, So much of what we consider beautiful isnt really actual archetypal beauty, but confidence and relaxing the luxury of relaxing. By meditating, you create a shortcut. Youre not always trying out and reaching for other ideas of beauty, trying to change your face or your bone structure. You can say, Hey, this nose on my face? Its big and beautiful! I like my nose! It helps me breathe! Im going to wear it well! Thats the beginning of beauty. And the beauty benefits dont stop there. When you maintain a meditation practice, so many other areas of life get lifted up because you are taking care of your mind, Pettit says. When I am taking care of my mind, it makes me want to take care of my nails. I think, I want my nails to lift me up and look nice and make me feel nice versus, Ugh, your nails are awful, and what is wrong with you? I maintain my mind by maintaining my face, my hair I want to look nice. I love this face, I love this body its all more fun now. Its less of a grind, and more of an art project. The idea of wanting to be physically beautiful and to meditate are completely compatible with each other. There is no contradiction at all. The difference that meditation makes is in this idea of acceptance and feeling free to choose how you want to express yourself rather than feeling so pressured to conform to some other standards. With meditation, you get more choices about what you want to do. Meditation allows people to do more with their abilities. And if your talent is presenting a beautiful image to the world, you will be able to do that in a more beautiful and authentic way. It will be an expression, not a performance. Elizabeth Rowan, the Atlanta-based founder of The Alchemy of Yoga and leader of yoga retreats across the globe, takes things one step further: Meditation is beauty, she says. Meditate for 45 days rewire the neural pathways of your brain. You will be beautiful, inside and out. Rowan says she meditates every day and considers meditation to be a tremendous, if not primary part of her yoga practice. In this day and age, our senses and minds are assaulted every moment, Rowan says. Technology yields an all-access pass to be reached, removes boundaries and does so via a false sense of connection. By sitting in quiet stillness, even if just for a minute or two at a time, we begin to still the mind and reconnect with our true self. The goal is not cessation of thought, rather an increased ability to manage the mind; mental-self preservation, if you will. Pettit gives a concrete example of being able to use the tools that meditation fosters to better serve yourself and your own confidence in your real self. I used to say, Oh, Im having a bad day. Ill go find the right color of lipstick to fix that. Ive done that. I feel bad, and then Ill go across the street to Sephora and fix it and then feel, say, ready for a meeting I wasnt feeling confident about. But meditation says, Well, thats a separate thing. Its OK to feel anxious or bad. But lets see what happens if you dont act on that fear right now. Meditation gives you more options. Pettit adds that meditation helps you want to help your body in positive ways, flipping the script from wanting to exercise because you hate your body to instead wanting to exercise to care for and energize your body. Same action, completely different motivation and desired outcome. That line between objectifying yourself and helping yourself changes everything, Pettit says. Which is why, Rowan says, meditation can be so crucial in coming to love ourselves and our bodies. Meditation brings us home to ourselves, perhaps even more so than the physical component of yoga. Through meditation, we grow intuition, self-love, self-trust and a connection with ourself far deeper than our relationship to the physical body. If the above outcomes result in a glow, then you, my dear, will be illuminated. Inner beauty easily shines through as one of the many positive side effects of meditation metaphorically and otherwise. And so, Rowan concludes, Meditation may very well be among the oldest beauty hacks of all: Imagine yourself refreshed, calm, serene, confident, connected, and deeply in tune with yourself and others. You radiate from an inner light that cannot be bottled. No product or peel necessary. Lets keep in touch! Follow Yahoo Beauty on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. A new member was just initiated into the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants fam A new member was just initiated into the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants fam If theres one thing we love more than the movie Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, its the fact that the films actresses are practically sisters in real life. They post absolutely adorable selfies together, share #tbts that make us want to travel back in time, and most importantly, they love to get their Lip Sync Battle on together. Plus, in the greatest plot twist of all time, we learned that the Sisters can actually initiate new members into their circle: So excited to announce the newest sister to the 'hood, @llcoolj. Maybe, just maybe, we did #LipSyncBattle today and maybe we just killed it @americaferrera A photo posted by Amber Tamblyn (@amberrosetamblyn) on Aug 6, 2016 at 8:06pm PDT So excited to announce the newest sister to the hood, @llcoolj, wrote Amber Tamblyn (aka Tibby). Maybe, just maybe, we did #LipSyncBattle today and maybe we just killed it @americaferrera. Thats right your eyes are not deceiving you. While performing on Lip Sync Battle, both Amber and America clearly became besties with LL Cool J, the shows host, and immediately decided to grab his address. Why, you ask? So they could send him their traveling pants, of course! sisterhood of the traveling pants 2 With a Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 3 possibly on the horizon, we cant help buy hope that LL Cool J has a cameo. The post A new member was just initiated into the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants fam appeared first on HelloGiggles. Meryl Streep is on a mission to convince her friend Clint Eastwood to vote for Hillary Clinton. Eastwood, a well-known Republican, recently told Esquire hes fed up with political correctness and while he is not officially endorsing any candidate, in the race between the real estate mogul and Clinton, he said: I'd have to go for Trump." Read: Dirty Harry's Dirty Mouth: Clint Eastwood Defends Trump's Racist Remarks: 'Just F***ing Get Over It' Streep, who co-starred with Eastwood in 1995s The Bridges of Madison County, told Variety: "Ill have to speak to him. I'll have to correct that! I'm shocked. I really am. I would have thought he would be more sensitive than that." Streep spoke at the DNC in Philadelphia where she praised Clinton for breaking the glass ceiling and becoming the first female presidential nominee of any major party. What does it take to be the first female anything? It takes grit, and it takes grace," the Suffragette actress said. "Hillary Clinton has taken some fire over 40 years of her fight for families and children. How does she do it? That's what I want to know. Where does she get her grit and grace? Where do any of our female firsts, our path makers, where do they find that strength? Nearly 100 years after women got the vote, you people have made history. And youre going to make history again in November because Hillary Clinton will be our first woman president, and she will be a great president. And she will be the first in a long line of women, and men, who serve with grit and grace. She'll be the first, but she wont be the last." Eastwood, who once portrayed a racist codger in the 2008 film Gran Torino, told Esquire that people need to just f***ing get over the GOP presidential candidate's racist remarks. Read: Bipartisan Folly: History's Most Memorable Political Convention Madness But everybody the press and everybody's going, 'Oh, well, that's racist,' and they're making a big hoodoo out of it. Just f***ing get over it. It's a sad time in history, Eastwood said. Story continues Eastwood turned heads four years ago at the RNC when he spoke to an empty chair during his keynote address. The actor claimed it was to symbolize Obamas empty presidency. Watch: 'The Devil' Wears Pantsuits: Donald Trump Steps Up Attacks on Hillary Clinton Related Articles: Michael Brown Sr., center, and Lesley McSpadden, left, react as their sons casket is lowered into the ground in August 2014. The parents have filed a wrongful-death suit against the officer who shot Michael Brown Jr., the City of Ferguson, Mo., and the towns former police chief. (Richard Perry/Reuters) Two years after Michael Brown Jr. was killed, his family is still seeking clarity about what happened that fateful day in Ferguson, Mo. State and federal investigations found no criminal wrongdoing on the part of former police Officer Darren Wilson, who fatally shot the unarmed teenager on Aug. 9, 2014. But Browns parents in a wrongful-death lawsuit against the officer, the City of Ferguson and its former police chief have asked for specifics on how law enforcement reached its decision to clear Wilson in the controversial shooting. Michael Brown Sr. and Lesley McSpaddens suit, now 15 months old, has languished in federal court while attorneys quarrel over access to key evidence and witnesses. Former police officer Darren Wilson, Michael Brown Jr. (insets) and the shooting scene on Canfield Drive in Ferguson. (AP Photo) Wilson, who is white, confronted Brown, a black teen, after a reported robbery at a convenience store. A scuffle broke out, and shots were fired before Wilson pursued Brown and shot him at least six times. The 18-year-olds death, and the riots that followed, ignited a national debate on race and excessive force in policing and propelled the Black Lives Matter movement to prominence. Everybodys life matters to someone, McSpadden recently told Yahoo News Katie Couric during an interview with the mothers of two other high-profile shooting victims, Eric Garner and Trayvon Martin. But in this case our kids, our sons black lives matter, Browns mother said. Right now we need people to pay attention to that, and dont try to dismiss what is going on right in front of your eyes. After a grand jury declined to indict Wilson, St. Louis prosecutors took the unprecedented move of making public thousands of pages from the investigation. Grand jury proceedings typically are secret, but officials released details of grand jury witnesses testimony, with names and some details edited out. We already know what was said, but we dont know who said it, Anthony Gray, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch earlier this year. Story continues In the civil case, the Brown family said their suit couldnt go forward without the complete investigative files. Attorneys for the U.S. Department of Justice and St. Louis County police and prosecutors argued that giving up the unredacted materials violated law enforcement privilege and might jeopardize the safety of witnesses, investigators and their families. After reading through all witness statements, U.S. District Judge Richard Webber ruled in April that the need for disclosure outweighs the need for continued secrecy. Continued secrecy in this case will result in gross injustice to the parties. This case is not simply one to determine whether one party makes a monetary payment toward another, Webber said during an April hearing. It has a special significance in our community. In early June, the judge ordered authorities to turn over some of the withheld evidence, including statements made to investigators and the identity of grand jury witnesses but only to limited participants in the civil suit and under a protective order. His ruling does not affect the secrecy of the names of the grand jurors. The protective order allows access to only two lead attorneys on each side and restricts the handling and sharing of the information, which cant be sent by email and must be kept under lock and key. Last week, lawyers for Browns parents told the court that the materials likely thousands of pages still havent been turned over to the parties. They also asked Webber to expand the number of attorneys who can view the evidence, a request that drew the ire of St. Louis County attorneys. The more attorneys who have access to this highly confidential information, the greater the risk of leaks and hacking, county attorneys wrote in motion filed on Monday, adding that the risks of harm to witnesses and law enforcement personnel will be multiplied exponentially by having three additional attorneys from different law firms designated as lead attorneys. Webber has not responded to the new motions. The trial, originally scheduled for October, is now expected to take place sometime in 2017. Jason Sickles is a national reporter for Yahoo News. Follow him on Twitter (@jasonsickles). Michael Phelps face is comedy gold to Twitter users mocking his viral death stare. His angry face has become the pinnacle of Twitter memes, and #PhelpsFace began to trend after a camera caught Phelps getting ready to swim the 200m butterfly event at the Olympics Monday night. While his competitor was dancing in front of him, the U.S. swimmer had an intense game face on. Even South Africas swimmer, Chad Le Clos shaking it out couldnt get the 19-time gold medalist to break his concentration. Also Read: NBC Announcer Al Trautwig Apologizes for Offensive Tweet About Simone Biles' Parents Phelps finished in second place and will advance to Tuesdays finals. Until that action unfolds on TV, enjoy the best of the Twitter reaction to #PhelpsFace. When your family says they're going out to eat at the place you hate. #PhelpsFace pic.twitter.com/F2m45SFEu2 chase crawford (@chsecrwfrd) August 9, 2016 We've found our new Judge Dredd #PhelpsFace pic.twitter.com/2zbgM1O1L4 The Studio Exec (@studioexec1) August 9, 2016 When Tim Tebow is trending higher than you.#phelpsface pic.twitter.com/G95Bm6TLU2 Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla) August 9, 2016 #PhelpsFace in prisma looks like a Disney villain. pic.twitter.com/lrr3SkcSTw Jon Perri (@WoodenFunk) August 9, 2016 When you get all the way to Chick-fil-A, walk up to the door, and realize it's Sunday #PhelpsFace pic.twitter.com/gHpDt0A6SH Bryce Klein (@BrycealanKlein) August 9, 2016 When u have to poop and u have to hold it #PhelpsFace pic.twitter.com/vZrg1EK2hw Sir Jakey Humphries (@LovesDearJakey) August 9, 2016 When you ordered a 20 piece, but they only gave you 1 thing of BBQ sauce #PhelpsFace pic.twitter.com/HlkrdBLOrB Demetria Obilor (@DemetriaObilor) August 9, 2016 When you're about to swim against someone dressed like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle #PhelpsFace pic.twitter.com/kUdjpEyVWA Todd Blake (@Rev_Todd) August 9, 2016 When you're the real Slim Shady but someone else stood up. pic.twitter.com/CtQTu7FXEa Bendan (@ChiBDM) August 9, 2016 When 19 is not enough gold medals pic.twitter.com/Wqd5fsxSGG southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) August 9, 2016 10 Ridiculously Scenic Rio Olympics 2016 Venues (Photos) Rio Olympics Copacabana Mario Tama/Getty Images Rio Olympics Sambadrome Mario Tama/Getty Images Rio Olympics Maracana Mario Tama/Getty Images Rio Olympics Marina Da Gloria YouTube Rio Olympics Lagoa Mario Tama/Getty Images Rio Olympics Grumari YouTube Rio Olympics Pontal YouTube Rio Olympics Vista Chinesa YouTube Rio Olympics Ipanema Mario Tama/Getty Images Rio Olympics Fort Copacabana Mario Tama/Getty Images Previous Slide Next Slide 1 of 10 From Copacabana Beach to the Tijuca National Forest, Brazils marvelous city has some of the most spectacularly sited venues of any Olympics Venue: Copacabana Beach Event: Beach Volleyball One of the worlds longest, widest and most famous beaches will play host to one of the Rio Olympics showpiece events, beach volleyball. View In Gallery Related stories from TheWrap: Michael Phelps Makes History by Qualifying for Fifth Olympics Michael Phelps Says He 'Didn't Want to See Another Day' During Alcohol Struggles (Video) Additional criminal charges have been filed against the man accused of murdering Chelsea Bruck, a 22-year-old Michigan woman who vanished from a massive Halloween party in 2014, triggering a months-long search, PEOPLE confirms. Daniel Clay, 27, was arraigned Monday on first-degree home invasion and first-degree criminal sexual conduct counts, in an unconnected incident. According to a prosecution source, Clay allegedly found his way into a Monroe, Michigan, apartment in July and then sexually assaulted a woman. The victim immediately reported the incident to police, the source says. The alleged home invasion and sexual assault happened just prior to Clay's arrest in Bruck's death, which is unconnected: A law enforcement official tells PEOPLE Clay was arrested July 21 after DNA evidence linked him to the slaying. He has been charged with second-degree murder in Bruck's case, according to the Toledo Blade. The incriminating DNA evidence was collected from Clay in May, when he was arrested on separate theft charges, authorities say. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter. Clay has not entered a plea to the new charges, and his attorney was not immediately available for comment. On Monday, a judge ordered Clay held without bond and ordered him to submit to psychiatric testing to determine whether he is competent to stand trial in Bruck's death. Friends and family say Bruck vanished from a crowded Halloween party in Frenchtown Township back in October 2014. She had attended the party, along with hundreds of others, dressed as the Batman villain Poison Ivy but then she was gone without a trace. "We're a very close family, and we talk all the time. She was not unhappy or wanting to walk away," Bruck's sister, Kassandra, told PEOPLE soon after she vanished. "I'm getting married in two months and Chelsea is in the wedding. On the morning before she disappeared, she sent me a Facebook message saying, 'I can't wait until you get married.' She wouldn't go somewhere for this long without telling us." Bruck's body was found months later, in April, after police found her costume. Bruck had suffered blunt force trauma to the head and had three identifiable injuries, officials said, according to the Blade. But asphyxiation could not be ruled out due to the body's decomposition. She was found naked, according to the paper. "I want to thank everyone for their efforts," Bruck's brother, Nathaniel, wrote in a message after the discovery. "And while this may be the end of the search, it is also a new beginning. The beginning of the search for justice for my sister." Clay faces life behind bars if convicted of Bruck's murder. DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - Kurdish militants killed two soldiers and wounded two others in a firefight on Tuesday in Turkey's strife-ridden southeast, security sources said. Members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) opened fire on the soldiers in the countryside outside the town of Kulp in Diyarbakir province, they said. Reinforcements had been deployed to the area to pursue a group of guerrillas. The Diyarbakir governorate earlier in the day declared round-the-clock curfews in 13 villages near Kulp and two other towns in the mainly Kurdish province. Security forces use the curfews to stage operations to root out fighters from the PKK, listed as terrorists by Turkey, the United States and European Union, since July 2015, when a ceasefire collapsed and a three-decade conflict reignited. Thousands of militants and hundreds of soldiers and police have been killed since. Rights groups have said about 400 civilians have also died. The death toll from the start of the insurgency in 1984 stands at more than 40,000. (Reporting by Seyhmus Cakan; writing by Ayla Jean Yackley; editing by Mark Heinrich) drinking tap water on flight Your drinking water may contain more of a toxin than you'd think. A new study out Tuesday in the journal Environmental Science and Technology Letters looked at a national database that monitors chemical levels in drinking water and found that 6 million people were being exposed to levels of a certain chemical that exceed what the Environmental Protection Agency considers healthy. The chemicals, known as poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances, or PFASs, are synthetic and resistant to water and oil, which is why they're used in things like pizza boxes and firefighting foam. They're built to withstand the environment. But PFASs also accumulate in people and animals and have been observationally linked to an increased risk of health problems including cancer. And they can't be easily avoided, like with a water filter, for example. The kind of PFASs that are considered the most harmful are rarely used in the US, but other countries like China still use them, and that could have effects elsewhere, experts say. "What is emitted from China could eventually land at very long distance away, such as here," Xindi Hu, lead author of the study and a doctoral student at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, told Business Insider. "I want people to be aware that this is not a single country's problem, this a global problem, and different countries need to work together if they want to tackle it." Here are the areas that were monitored, with everything above the 70 ng/L falling above what's considered a healthy lifetime exposure: Screen Shot 2016 08 09 at 1.06.12 PM Hu said her next step is to build a model that can better identify which areas have PFAS contamination so that the EPA can better monitor the areas that are the highest priority, like those near manufacturing plants. NOW WATCH: Humans are finally starting to understand the octopus, and its mind-boggling More From Business Insider By Ana Mano SAO PAULO, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Societe Mondiale, a minority shareholder of Brazilian telephone company Oi SA, said on Monday it would formally call a shareholders' meeting next month to discuss changes to the company's board of directors, according to a statement sent to Reuters. The activist investor, which began to acquire Oi stock around the time of the company's bankruptcy filing on June 20, is proposing the replacement of six members of Oi's board, including five appointed by Oi's majority owner Pharol SGPS SA . The meeting should take place on Sept. 8, Societe Mondiale said in the statement. The minority investor is also seeking the annulment of a March 2015 shareholders meeting in which an agreement between Oi and Portugal Telecom SGPS, as Pharol was previously known, was approved. The agreement concluded the takeover of Oi by Portugal Telecom. Societe Mondiale, an investment vehicle for Brazilian businessman Nelson Tanure, owns 7 percent of Oi's voting stock. During the proposed Sept. 8 shareholders' meeting, the fund will also propose that Oi pursues a claim against Santander Brasil , which advised Oi on its 2015 merger with Portugal Telecom. (Reporting by Ana Mano, editing by G Crosse) Authorities are continuing their search for the killer of a 27-year-old Massachusetts jogger who was found dead over the weekend. Read: Cops: Jogger 'Put Up a Ferocious Fight' Against Attacker Before Her Death The body of Vanessa Marcotte was discovered in the woods near her mothers Princeton home on Sunday. Marcotte, who lived and worked in New York City, had gone for an afternoon jog while staying with her mother but she never returned. Police say her body had been burned. Authorities are trying to determine if she was sexually assaulted. "I must stress that we do not know if this was a random act, Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early said at a news conference Monday. We are asking residents of Princeton and surrounding areas to use an abundance of caution. We are asking the public to be careful and to be vigilant. Marcotte worked as an account manager for Google in Manhattan. "Vanessa was a much-loved member of the Google team," the company said in a statement. "We are deeply shocked and saddened." No arrests have been made in the case, which comes a week after Queens, New York jogger Karina Vetrano, 30, was discovered in the marsh near her home in the Howard Beach section of the borough. There are eerie similarities between the murders of Vetrano and Marcotte. Both women, who lived in New York City, were found in undergrowth after going missing while jogging alone in broad daylight. One obvious dissimilarity is that the crime scenes are 190 miles miles apart. Police say there is "nothing at this point" to connect the killings, but they are said to be "comparing notes." At a church meeting Monday night, concerned Howard Beach residents were updated on the investigation into Karina Vetrano's murder Several of the residents demanded that the thick bush along the jogging path where she was killed be cleared. Story continues Read: Jogger Found Dead by Her Own Father After Failing to Return From Evening Run The path is lined with shoulder-high weeds, in which the killer may have hidden as he lay in wait for a victim. Karina's mother, Cathy, could barely contain her fury as she ripped into the killer Sunday in a profanity-laced news conference outside their home. She promised the killer that they would be reckoning with that force not only for the rest of your pathetic life, but for the rest of eternity as you f***ing burn in hell." The distraught mother added: The whole world knows what a pathetic, puny, weak piece of filth you are. Soon, we're going to have a face to the d***less piece of garbage that you are." Watch: After the Grisly Death of Jogger, How You Can Stay Safe During a Run Related Articles: Led Zeppelin and Warner/Chappell music won their legal battle over "Stairway to Heaven," keeping rock 'n' roll history intact, but they'll have to foot the bill for their legal teams. Judge R. Gary Klausner didn't have a whole lotta love for attorney Francis Malofiy's courtroom behavior, but that's not enough to make his client pay the label's legal fees for the "Stairway to Heaven" copyright trial. Malofiy represented Michael Skidmore, trustee of songwriter Randy Wolfe's estate, in his claim that the famous band stole its iconic "Stairway" guitar riff from Wolfe's late '60s instrumental "Taurus." Malofiy's outlandish behavior sparked more than 100 sustained objections during the trial and multiple verbal lashings from Klausner. "Throughout the course of litigation, Plaintiff's counsel demonstrated a tenuous grasp of legal ethics and a rudimentary understanding of courtroom decorum," Klausner writes, before describing in detail two of the "many incidents comprising a litany of tasteless courtroom antics and litigation misconduct." But Malofiy's behavior, while an apparently recurring issue resulting in his suspension from the Pennsylvania bar, won't be costing Wolfe's estate the $800,000 Warner/Chappell had requested. In his analysis of the factors determining whether an award of fees is appropriate, Klausner found that the litigation misconduct and degree of success clearly weighed in the publisher's favor, as did the need for compensation because the insurance company declined to cover the lawsuit since it spawned from a decades-old claim. However, Klausner also found Skidmore's lawsuit was not frivolous or objectively unreasonable and he appeared to have honorable motivation in bringing the suit, which ultimately carried more weight. "Once the media hype and tangential distractions are stripped away, what remains is an objectively reasonable claim motivated by a desire to recognize Randy California's musical contribution," Klausner writes. "The claim survived a summary judgment motion and proceeded to a hard-fought trial where a jury found for Plaintiff on ownership and access, but ultimately rendered a verdict for Defendants based on a lack of substantial similarity." Read more: A "Stairway to Heaven" Appeal Would be a Fruitless Climb, Attorneys Say KOSTOLAC, Serbia (Reuters) - Archaeologists are trying to decipher magic spells etched onto tiny rolls of gold and silver that they found alongside skeletons of humans buried almost 2,000 years ago. "The alphabet is Greek, that much we know. The language is Aramaic it's a Middle Eastern mystery to us," Miomir Korac, chief archaeologist at the site in eastern Serbia, told Reuters. The skeletons were found at the foot of a massive coal-fired power station where searches are being carried out before another unit of the electricity plant is built on the site of an ancient Roman city. Last week, after carefully brushing away soil from the bones, Korac's team found two amulets made of lead that, when opened, were each found to rolls of precious metal - silver and gold - covered in symbols and writing. They believe the inscriptions are magic spells, taken to the grave to invoke divine powers to perform good or evil. "We read the names of a few demons, that are connected to the territory of modern-day Syria," archaeologist Ilija Dankovic said at the dig, as more skeletons from the 4th century A.D. were being uncovered. The fragile, golden and silver scrolls - which once unrolled look like rectangles of foil similar in size to a sweet wrapper - may never be fully understood. They are the first such items discovered in Serbia but resemble amulets of "binding magic" found in other countries, Dankovic said. "They were often love charms, ordering someone to fall in love, but there were also dark, malignant curses, to the tune of: may your body turn dead, as cold and heavy as this lead," he said. Magic charms tended to be buried with dead children or adults who had suffered a violent death, Dankovic said, because of a belief that "souls of such people took longer to find rest and had a better chance of finding demons and deities and pass the wishes to them so they could do their magic." (Reporting by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Robin Pomeroy) (Reuters) - NAACP President Cornell William Brooks and Stephen Green, the body's youth director, were arrested on Monday in a congressmans district office in Virginia over a six-hour sit-in protest on voting rights, the NAACP said. The men were cited for the protest at the office of U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte in Roanoke, Virginia to demand restoration of parts of the Voting Rights Act, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People said in a statement. "With the fate of our national moral character at stake, we must hold our elected leaders responsible to act to uphold the constitutional rights guaranteed for all citizens to vote and participate in our democracy," Brooks said. The pair, and a small group of protesters, had hoped to persuade Goodlatte, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, to hold hearings on state voting laws proposed after the Supreme Court ruled that nine states no longer had to get federal approval for voting rule changes that affect minorities. During the last several years, a handful of states have tried to enact laws tightening curbs on the identification voters must show in order to cast a ballot. Critics say such provisions aim to cut turnout by minorities and poor people, who rely more on flexible voting methods and are less likely to possess state-issued photo IDs. Proponents of such laws say they aim to eliminate voter fraud. A 2012 study at Arizona State University showed in-person voter impersonation on election day to be virtually non-existent, however. Federal courts have recently blocked laws in states such as Texas, North Dakota, North Carolina and Wisconsin as being discriminatory and violating the U.S. Voting Rights Act. Remedies to combat unconstitutional voting discrimination are in place, Goodlatte said in a statement to media. "We will continue to monitor this very important issue to ensure the voting rights of all Americans are protected," he said. Green and Brooks were cited for criminal trespassing and refusing to sign a summons. Both men were released by police, an NBC affiliate in Roanoke said. (Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Clarence Fernandez) Tokyo (AFP) - The Japanese city of Nagasaki on Tuesday marked 71 years since its destruction by a US atomic bomb, with its mayor lauding a visit by US President Barack Obama to Hiroshima earlier this year. A bell tolled as thousands of people, including ageing survivors and relatives of victims, observed a minute's silence at 11:02 am (0202 GMT), the exact moment of the blast. Some 74,000 people died in the initial explosion, while thousands of others perished months or years later from radiation sickness. The attack came three days after the US dropped the first ever atomic bomb on Hiroshima, which ultimately killed 140,000 people. Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue lauded Obama's landmark May visit to Hiroshima -- the first ever by a sitting US president. "Knowing the facts becomes the starting point for thinking about a future free of nuclear weapons," Taue said, calling on other world leaders to visit his city. Local officials and those who survived the bombing called for strict adherence to Japan's post-war tradition of pacifism and were critical of the Japanese government. "The government of Japan, while advocating nuclear weapons abolition, still relies on nuclear deterrence," the mayor said, calling it a "contradictory state of affairs". Toyokazu Ihara, 80, who survived the Nagasaki bombing, used his address to call for abolition of nuclear weapons and world peace. "Nagasaki must be the last," he said, concluding his Japanese remarks with an English sentence intended for global citizens. Hiroshima mayor Kazumi Matsui on Saturday marked the commemoration of the bombing of his city, also citing Obama's visit. He said the visit was proof the US President shared his city's view of the "absolute evil" of nuclear weapons. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in his address in Nagasaki, called on world leaders to honour the global Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. "We must not allow a repeat of the horrible experiences of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that happened 71 years ago," Abe said. Abe has moved to extend the scope of Japan's military and deepen the nation's alliance with Washington in the face of threats from China's expanding military strength and unpredictable North Korea. North Korea last week test fired a ballistic missile that landed in waters off Japan's coast for the first time. Puration and Spanish Peaks ScrumpDelicacies Announce Contest to Name Cannabis Beverages to be Produced in Million Dollar Collaboration DALLAS, TX / ACCESSWIRE / August 9, 2016 / Puration, Inc. (PURA) and Colorado based Spanish Peaks ScumpDelicacies today announced a contest open to the public for naming a cannabis infused beverage. Last week, the two companies announced entering into a $1 million collaboration agreement to produce and co-market THC and CBD infused beverages. The agreement is the first of three anticipated agreements with food and beverage companies to be announced in the coming weeks by Puration. "Nobody knows the cannabis community and culture better than those that are part of the community," said Brian Shibley, CEO of Puration. "We believe the best way to deliver a product that consumers want is to ask the consumers what they want. So that's what we decided to do through a naming contest ask consumers to dream-up cannabis infused beverage names that capture the imagination and at the same time imply the flavor and benefit of the beverage. We believe the community can come up with the Coca-Cola(R) of cannabis beverages. The contest will be run entirely on-line and the decision will be made based on social media response. We're looking for three names for three different beverages and we will award three winners with a year-long supply of the beverage they named." The two companies plan to launched the contest this coming Monday, August 15, 2016. The contest will be run entirely online for a duration of 10 days. The companies plan to announce the winners on Monday, August 29, 2016. If you want to receive an email with the contest rules and instructions for submitting entries, fill out the information here on this contact page: Contact Page For Contest Rules and Entry Instructions Puration utilizes a highly refined cannabis extraction process to deliver consistent and high-quality cannabis extracts. Puration recently announced an independent lab test certifying Puration CBD extract at 98% purity. The Company's business strategy is to develop collaboration agreements with food and beverage companies to co-market food and beverage products infused with Puration's cannabis extracts. Puration has published a business plan with a $3 million revenue forecast on the Company's website. Story continues Spanish Peaks ScrumpDelicacies is a venture backed startup dedicated to building cannabis consumer product production capacity in the Southern Front Range Region of Colorado. After the Southern Colorado Town of Walsenburg was featured in a USA TODAY report last year as a potentially ideal region for the evolving cannabis industry yet underserved by the investment community, the Spanish Peaks ScrumpDelicacies initiative was born. Together the two companies plan to develop a line of THC and CBD infused beverage products for the consumer market to be sold where law currently permits. The cornerstone of the collaboration agreement and the first year budgeted $1 million sales objective is founded on an affiliated distribution partnership. To learn more about Puration: www.purationinc.com Follow Puration on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Puration710 Visit Puration on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/puration/ Safe Harbor Act: This release includes forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that involves risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, the impact of competitive products, the ability to meet customer demand, the ability to manage growth, acquisitions of technology, equipment, or human resources, the effect of economic business conditions and the ability to attract and retain skilled personnel. The Company is not obligated to revise or update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this release. Puration Contact: Brian Shibley, CEO info@puraitoninc.com 972-528-0162 SOURCE: Puration, Inc. A fresh start This is probably Prachandas last opportunity to redefine his leadership and lead Nepal to prosperity Netflix is launching four documentary films at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival, including one about Amanda Knox, the American woman who spent nearly four years in an Italian prison for the murder of a roommate before she was acquitted. The titles are: Amanda Knox, from directors Rod Blackhurst (Here Alone) and Brian McGinn (Chefs Table) and producers Mette Heide and Stephen Robert Morse; Werner Herzog and Clive Oppenheimers Into the Inferno, about the relationship between humans and volcanoes; The Ivory Game, a film about the illegal ivory trade in Africa from directors Richard Ladkani and Kief Davidson and executive producer Leonardo DiCaprio; and The White Helmets, about three volunteer rescue workers helping civilians in the Syrian conflict in early 2016, from director Orlando von Einsiedel and producer Joanna Natasegara, the filmmaking team behind Virunga (which Netflix acquired in 2014). This years TIFF runs Sept. 8-18. The four documentaries are set to hit Netflixs streaming service worldwide this fall with The White Helmets launching Sept. 16, followed by Amanda Knox (Sept. 30), Into the Inferno (Oct. 28) and The Ivory Game (Nov. 4). The breadth of our slate at the Toronto International Film Festival speaks to Netflixs continued celebration of diverse voices and styles in the world of nonfiction, Lisa Nishimura, Netflix VP of original documentary programming, said in a statement. We are committed to pushing the boundaries of the documentary form, and our films screening at Toronto represent both emerging talent and iconic filmmakers during a thrilling time for documentaries. Netflix previously announced that Ava DuVernays The 13th, about the history of racial injustice in the U.S., will be the first nonfiction film to premiere opening night of the New York Film Festival; its slated to debut on Netflix on Oct. 7. Among other documentary titles in Netflixs queue are two Sundance acquisitions, Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenks Audrie & Daisy, which examines two teen assault cases tried in the new public square of shame on social media, and Kevin Macdonalds Sky Ladder: The Art of Cai Guo-Qiang, a documentary of the titular fireworks artist. Those are slated for 2016 release along with winner of the Tribeca Best Documentary Short, Extremis, exploring the decisions faced in urgent end-of-life cases. Story continues Two Netflix documentaries What Happened, Miss Simone? and Winter on Fire were nominated for 2016 Academy Awards, and the streamers first original documentary acquisition, The Square, earned an Oscar nom in 2013. Pictured above: Amanda Knox Related stories Rio Olympics Drives Netflix U.S. Viewing Down 10% Over Opening Weekend (Study) Apple's Latest Idea for TV Is Poised for Failure Netflix Taps Executives for India Roles reed hastings netflix Over the last year, Netflix has put forth a few interesting explanations for flagging subscriber growth in the US, and it's already laid the groundwork for another one. The first came last October, when Netflix explained disappointing US subscriber growth on the transition to chip-based credit and debit cards. According to Netflix, those new credit cards often have a new number or expiration date, requiring subscribers to update their payment information online in order for their subscription to continue. In a letter to shareholders, Netflix said its forecast for Q3 2015 was off due to higher-than-expected "involuntary churn," or involuntary cancellations, because of the transition. The second explanation came in July, when Netflix blamed its US subscriber growth shortfall on media chatter about its price hike. "Churn ticked up slightly and unexpectedly, coincident with the press coverage in early April of our plan to ungrandfather longer tenured members and remained elevated through the quarter, the company wrote. People read about Netflix raising prices on some members, and they cancelled. This held down net subscriber growth, the company said. Netflix added 160,000 subscribers versus Wall Street estimates of 509,000 (and Netflix guidance of 500,000). And if Netflix misses forecasts for this quarter, it already has another explanation prepped: the Olympics. "So with an assumption of a hit from the Olympics which largely affects us in the past on gross adds, or on new subscribers coming in, that's going to affect in terms of a year-over-year trend," David Wells, Netflix's CFO, said on its last earnings call. "We expect that to be a meaningful, a small but still meaningful, impact on the quarter. Negative impact." If Netflix puts out disappointing subscriber growth numbers again next quarter, the groundwork has already been laid for a potential reason. What you can bet Netflix wont say is that it is approaching saturation in the US. Story continues But some observers think they should. "They're trying to give reasons why their subscription rates are down, and they're not reaching the same rates," Michael Goodman, director of digital media strategy at Strategy Analytics, told CNBC. "The answer to me is simple: Especially in the US, they're reaching saturation. It's a flat-out numbers game, and they're on the backside." NOW WATCH: Elon Musk just unveiled Tesla's 'top secret' master plan here are the details More From Business Insider There are many things that are unclear about the just-announced presidential candidacy of Republican former CIA operative and investment banker Evan McMullin. Is this for real? Who talked him into it? Is there much point in mounting an independent bid for the presidency after the deadline for filing to be on the ballot in half the states in the union has already passed? One thing is pretty certain, though: In November, an unknown 40-year-old who was until recently employed in the rather obscure position of policy director for the House Republican Conference is not going to be measuring the drapes in the Oval Office. Related: Trumps Economic Plan: Spend Like a Democrat, Regulate Like a Republican So whats going on here? So far, its hard to be sure. Anti-Trump Republicans have been searching for months for an alternative candidate -- someone who could give Republican voters who dislike Trump a reason to come to the polls in November and support down-ballot candidates instead of staying home and yelling at the television. One by one, different names have been floated, like conservative writer David French and retired Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis, briefly elevating the hopes of the #NeverTrump movement, only to step aside. None, though, appear to have gone to the lengths that McMullin and his supporters have. The candidate has a fairly polished website and apparently a campaign committee called McMullin for President (there is currently no record of the committee in the Federal Elections Commissions database). To be clear, it doesnt take much to set up a nominal run for the presidency. A quick search of the Federal Elections Commissions website finds dozens of campaign committees that have registered over the past few months on behalf of candidates ranging from Abozaid Abdulraqueeb to Todd Zornow, with all sorts of others in between. But McMullin, a graduate of Brigham Young University who also holds an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania (the same school from which Trump received his undergraduate degree) feels a little more committed to the effort than his predecessors. Story continues Related: How Donald Trumpd the Media and Stole the Show His website includes a Letter to America excoriating both of the major party candidates running in this election. Hillary Clinton is a corrupt career politician who has recklessly handled classified information in an attempt to avoid accountability and put American lives at risk including those of my former colleagues, McMullin writes. She fails the basic tests of judgment and ethics any candidate for President must meet. Trump, however, doesnt come off any better. Given his obvious personal instability, putting him in command of our military and nuclear arsenal would be deeply irresponsible. His infatuation with strongmen and demagogues like Vladimir Putin is anathema to American values. We cannot and must not elect him. Of course, even if he dislikes both of them, in the end, McMullins entry into the race is only likely to benefit one of the major party candidates on the ballot. Thats Hillary Clinton. While its conceivable that he might draw the votes of a small number of national security-minded Democrats angry at Clintons use of a private email server while serving as secretary of state, its pretty clear that the vast majority of unmoored voters looking for a safe harbor in November are Republicans appalled by Trump. So, whats McMullins game here? Nobody seems too sure. Related: Can Trump Sell Himself as Savior of the Economy? Right now, theres speculation that his candidacy is aimed specifically at denying Trump a victory in Utah. McMullin, a Mormon, was born in Provo and returned to the state for college. The Mormon vote is usually decisive in Utah, and while they tend to break toward the GOP, members of the Church of Latter Day Saints are notably uncomfortable with Trump. Giving Mormon voters a conservative alternative to Trump might siphon off enough votes to hand the race in the state to Clinton. However, if the whole idea behind a McMullin candidacy is to prevent Trump from collecting Utahs six electoral votes -- just over one percent of the 538 available in November -- it seems like a rather elaborate effort given the remote likelihood that the states vote will be decisive. That said, given the terms in which many in the GOP foreign policy establishment are describing the possible effects of a Trump presidency, perhaps even a remote chance at preventing it feels worth the effort to the people backing McMullin. On Monday, for example, a group of 50 national security experts associated with past Republican presidential administrations released a joint letter saying they would not vote for Trump and denouncing his candidacy in the strongest terms. From a foreign policy perspective, Donald Trump is not qualified to be President and Commander-in-Chief. Indeed, we are convinced that he would be a dangerous president and would put at risk our countrys national security and well-being. Related: Court Ruling Means IRS Targeting Scandal Isn't Over Yet They continued, Mr. Trump lacks the character, values, and experience to be President. He weakens U.S. moral authority as the leader of the free world. He appears to lack basic knowledge about and belief in the U.S. Constitution, U.S. laws, and U.S. institutions, including religious tolerance, freedom of the press, and an independent judiciary. Unlike previous Presidents who had limited experience in foreign affairs, Mr. Trump has shown no interest in educating himself. He continues to display an alarming ignorance of basic facts of contemporary international politics. If its really that bad, maybe the effort to prevent Trump from taking Utah is -- just in case -- worth the effort for #NeverTrump Republicans. Top Reads from The Fiscal Times: TOKYO, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei share average ground higher on Tuesday, touching a 2-week peak in thin trade thanks to a wobbly yen. The Nikkei ended the day up 0.7 percent at 16,764.97. It went as low as 16,630.56 on profit-taking before pulling back to touch 16,779.59, its highest since July 27. Brother Industries Ltd gained 19.3 percent after the office equipment maker revised up its earnings forecast. The broader Topix rose 0.9 percent to 1,317.49, with 1.89 billion shares changing hands, compared with last week's daily average of 2.15 billion. The JPX-Nikkei Index 400 added 0.9 percent to 11,858.66. (Reporting by Shinichi Saoshiro; Editing by Eric Meijer) By Barani Krishnan NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices fell 1 percent on Tuesday, extending losses in post-settlement trade after preliminary data showed a surprise U.S. crude stockpile build last week, heightening worries about a global petroleum glut. The market also lost the previous day's upward momentum as speculation fizzled that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other oil producers would embark on another round of talks on price cooperation after their failed effort in April. Trade group American Petroleum Institute (API) reported U.S. crude stockpiles rose by 2.1 million barrels during the week to Aug. 5. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected a 1 million-barrel drawdown instead. The U.S. Energy Information Administration will issue official inventory data on Wednesday (EIA). "To make a significant difference, you need a net draw of 1 or 2 million barrels across the crude, gasoline and distillates balances," said Phil Davis, trader at PSW Investments in Woodland Park, New Jersey. "I think you'll see WTI going back below $40 in the next couple of weeks and fall will likely be a terrible time for oil." WTI, or the West Texas Intermediate benchmark for U.S. crude (CLc1), settled down 25 cents, or 0.6 percent, at $42.77 a barrel. It fell as much as 55 cents after the release of the API data. More than 16,500 lots of WTI put options for $40 were traded on Tuesday as traders hedged against a potential market tumble. Brent crude (LCOc1) settled the session down 41 cents, or almost 1 percent, at $44.98 a barrel. It slid to $44.76 after the API numbers. Just a day ago, oil prices had rallied, with WTI gaining nearly 3 percent, rebounding from last week's selloff when it fell to an April low of $39.19. Analysts and traders have warned of a glut in both crude and refined oil products this summer, pointing particularly to the lag in U.S. gasoline demand despite the peak season for driving in the United States. OPEC's biggest producers have also been pumping near record high levels. Story continues In separate data issued on Tuesday, EIA said it expected a smaller decline of 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) in U.S. crude oil production in 2016 than the 820,000-bpd drop it forecast a month ago. It said an uptick in drilling will lead to more output later this year. "The oil market remains in a battle between the trading community which focuses in the shorter term data and information which has been mostly bearish, versus the investment trading crowd which is focussed on the medium-to-longer term which is projected to be bullish," said Dominick Chirichella, senior partner at the Energy Management Institute in New York. (Additional reporting by Alex Lawler in LONDON and Osamu Tsukimori in TOKYO; Editing by Marguerita Choy, David Gregorio and Chris Reese) By Barani Krishnan NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices settled up nearly 3 percent on Monday amid renewed speculation that OPEC would try to restrain output, easing oversupply worries that pressured the market to three-month lows last week. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that OPEC countries such as Venezuela, Ecuador and Kuwait want to take another stab at cooperation between the 14-nation Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-members such as Russia. The last such initiative failed in April after Saudi Arabia backed out of talks in Doha, Qatar, citing Iran's refusal to join in a so-called production freeze. Qatar's Energy Minister and OPEC President Mohammad bin Saleh al-Sada hinted at overtures of cooperation in a statement on Monday. OPEC members are to have an informal meeting on the sidelines of the International Energy Forum, which groups producers and consumers, in Algeria from Sept. 26-28. The energy minister of Russia, the world's biggest oil producer, said crude prices were not at levels that warranted intervention, but he remained open to negotiations with OPEC. "It would appear that OPEC calls for restraint would be inevitable," said Jim Ritterbusch of Chicago-based oil markets consultancy Ritterbusch & Associates, citing concerns over rising numbers of U.S. oil rigs and weakening energy demand. The U.S. oil rig count rose last week for a sixth week in a row. In China, fuel exports increased more than 50 percent from a year earlier to a monthly record 4.57 million tonnes, adding to a global glut. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude (CLc1) settled up $1.22, or 2.9 percent, at $43.02 per barrel. WTI hit April lows beneath $40 a barrel last week. Brent crude (LCOc1) rose $1.12, or 2.5 percent, to settle at$45.39. Some fund managers were pessimistic the OPEC-fuelled rally would last. Crude prices rallied nearly 4 percent at the session peak only to pare gains towards the close. They gave up more gains in post-settlement trade after news that the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port will have an additional 2.5 million barrels in oil capacity by April 2017. Story continues "Until proven otherwise, this is still a correction in a bear market," said Matthew Tuttle, chief executive at Tuttle Tactical Management in Riverside, Connecticut. "You can have massive up moves like this, and if you can trade it, great. But if you're looking at another run up to $50 and beyond, I'm not ready to go there. I think we still see under $35 a barrel before we get to $50." Hedge funds cut their bullish exposure to Brent to the smallest level since January while paring positive bets on WTI to the least since February, data on Friday showed. Market intelligence firm Genscape reported a build of more than 307,000 barrels at the Cushing, Oklahoma delivery hub for WTI futures in the week to Aug. 5, traders said, even as analysts forecast a total U.S. crude inventory drop of 1 million barrels. (Additional reporting by Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Paul Simao) Abducted 5-year-old from Bihar rescued in Morang A five-year-old girl, who was abducted from her hometown in Bihar state of India, was rescued from Pathari in Morang district on Monday. Police also arrested one of the abductors, a Nepali man. Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f171503%2fgettyimages-587557258 China's golden boy, swimmer Sun Yang has given normal people everywhere a reminder that even world class athletes have moments of ineptitude. Upon winning the 200m freestyle swim in Rio, Yang opted to toss his swimming cap to his swarm of supportive fans. A noble and kind gesture, were it not for the slip-of-hand that resulted in the cap fleeing from its owner and launching itself back into the pool. SEE ALSO: China blasts Australia as 'Britain's offshore prison' after gold medallist Horton insults Chinese swimmer It's a comfort to see that even athletes at the literal top of their game are susceptible to awkwardness. China's been having a mixed run in Rio, despite their 13 medals thus far. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the wrong flag had been flown during both the opening ceremony and a medal ceremony. The smaller stars on the flag were set at a wrong angle something commentators from China were quick to point out that was " a principle that even primary school students would understand." But with #CapGate comes a new opportunity for social media users to return fire at Yang after the merciless trolling of Australian swimmer Horton a few days prior. Horton's been calling Yang a "drug cheat" to psych him out, you see. Some people even referenced Australia's own uncoordinated Prime Minister John Howard's train wreck of a performance from a ministerial visit to Pakistan in 2005. May #CapGate stand as a monument to our humanity. Even at our best, we are a weird bag of flesh of bone, just trying to get by. By Angus MacSwan RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Defending champion Kat Copeland and her partner Charlotte Taylor exited the women's lightweight double sculls at the repechage stage on Tuesday in the biggest shock of an Olympic rowing regatta already packed with incident. The Britons had come in fifth and last in their opening heat, then in the repechage on Tuesday placed third behind the United States and Japan, trailing the second boat by five seconds. Taylor said there were a lot of tears afterwards and, perhaps castigating herself too much, said she felt she had let Copeland down. "It was hard for me not to feel responsible in the sense that Kat is the defending champion and I don't feel as if I've been able to fully back her up and help her get that title again." "That feels like quite a heavy responsibility but at the end of the day we're a team and we have to wear the results together," she said. Copeland won gold at the 2012 Olympics in London with Sophie Hosking, who subsequently retired. The new partnership won European gold and world silver last year but they have struggled to find form in the run-up to the Rio Olympics. "There's a lot of high emotion at the moment and a lot of tears. It's just really raw emotion and disappointment," Taylor said. Copeland was not immediately available for comment. Taylor, who only took up rowing in 2010 when she moved to London, said the pair did not get off to a good start in Tuesday's race. "I think I caught one of the quad strokes and we got a bit dumped. We came through 750 and I said we need to really fight for our lives here but we were never really able to close the gap." "I definitely feel like we've raced better in the past. This year we've not properly found our gear in any of the races. "Being right in the middle of it right now, it's hard to see the light a little bit as to what went wrong because I feel like physically we've got back in shape and it feels like we should have been able to put out something more." (Reporting by Angus MacSwan; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli) Rio de Janeiro (AFP) - Brief stories from the Rio Olympics: - Ant man After Chinese weightlifter Long Qingquan broke an Olympic record of 170 kg -- raising more than three times his own bodyweight above his head -- to clinch gold in the men's 56kg he was asked by a reporter if he considered himself to be the strongest man alive. The 4ft 11ins athlete thought about this for a minute and then channelled his inner Confucius, replying philosophically: "For human beings yes I believe so, but in the animal kingdom I don't think so because as you know ants can lift much heavier weights than their own weight." - #OlympicNan Adam Peaty's grandmother has become an unlikely hit on Twitter and even earned her own hashtag, #OlympicNan, after devotedly following the British swimmer's progress from afar. Mavis Williams, aka @Mavise42Mavis, who describes herself as "Proud Nan to a World Champion Breaststroker", wrote after Peaty's win: "Well you have done it @adam_peaty you have made it, your hard work paid off. Congratulations to you and @massivemel. So proud love Nan x." It earned 1,080 retweets and 3,520 likes, with one user commenting: "Well done @adam_peaty reading your nans tweets brings tears to my eyes." - Them's the breaks Gymnast Samir Ait Said's leg break caused gasps around the world when he landed awkwardly from a vault and snapped his left leg so badly it skewed visibly to the left. And things didn't get much better for the Frenchman en route to the hospital. As he was being loaded into the ambulance, bungling paramedics dropped the bottom end of Said's stretcher, causing it to bang on the ground. The pain he felt can only be imagined, but it is summed up by video images which show a female onlooker clasping her hands to her face in shock. RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 9 (Reuters) - As Egypt's Doaa Elghobashy went up for a block on Italy's Laura Giombini on Copacabana's famous sand, two cultures appeared to come together. Elghobashy, head covered by a hijab, raised her longsleeved arms and - this time - won a point against her bikini-clad competitor. The Brazilian crowd, who had stayed after watching their own team lose earlier in the morning went wild. "Egypt, Egypt, Egypt," echoed the chant around the 12,000 capacity arena on Copacabana beach as the crowd rooted for the underdog. Elghobashy, 19, and competing in her first Olympics, has already achieved widespread internet fame. A Reuters picture on Sunday of her challenging a German player at the net went viral. After Tuesday's match, which Egypt lost 21-10 21-13, Elghobashy looked visibly frustrated by the media attention as she told Reuters she had worn a hijab for 10 years and felt completely comfortable in the outfit. "We were very proud to play in front of such a great crowd," she said through a translator. "I wear a hijab because I am a Muslim but it doesn't stop me feeling a part of this game." Her partner, Nada Meawad, also wore long sleeves but did not cover her head. In the bleachers, Brazilian fans were supportive of a country without much beach volleyball tradition. "I was cheering for them," said Thana Zelide, 19, wearing a green bikini top in the blazing Rio sun. "They were about my age and were up against it in this match." For Hudson Heluy, a 36-year-old Rio restaurant owner, the difference in cultures is what the Olympics is all about. "It's really cool to have all these different countries in Rio and today Egypt needed our support." (Reporting by Stephen Eisenhammer; Editing by Alison Williams) .@MichaelPhelps is not impressed with Chad le Closs antics. For more swimming coverage: https://t.co/Bpy94WsMrM https://t.co/ylAYZgHm1h NBC Olympics (@NBCOlympics) August 9, 2016 You know a rivalry is great when NBCs commentators dont want the camera to move from the ready room, where strange head games are being played, back to the pool, where the real competition is taking place. Such was the case Monday night as South Africas Chad le Clos stood in front of a seated Michael Phelps ahead of their 200m butterfly semifinal and appeared to shadowbox to the music in his headphones. Phelps shot a death stare when le Clos wasnt looking. So excited for all these edits to grace the internet #Phelps #leclos pic.twitter.com/utiSA8qlpf Amanda Patrick (@AmandaSellers22) August 9, 2016 Not saying Phelps WILL become an intergalactic despot, Im just saying we cant ignore the possibility pic.twitter.com/ojW1w9Hsd3 Jay Busbee (@jaybusbee) August 8, 2016 To quote NBCs Dan Hicks, who gleefully enjoyed the show with Rowdy Gaines: Its like hes growling like a dog. This is great television. Knowing le Clos was trying to get a rise out of him, Phelps regained his composure. The result: Le Clos just kept looking at Phelps, even as they stood on the pool deck awaiting their start. Weve all heard it: The best way to turn the tables on a bully is to ignore him. So points to Phelps, who also declined to engage in a word battle in his postrace interview when NBC asked him about le Closs tactics. Phelps claimed he wasnt bothered, that hed just kept watching the semifinal before theirs on the TV in the ready room. But again Story continues When you cant make GIFs of the Olympics pic.twitter.com/gkMEtAWBKs GQ Magazine (@GQMagazine) August 9, 2016 The two will face off in the 200m fly final Tuesday night in primetime on NBC. Phelps is hoping to take back the title that he lost to le Clos in London in 2012. No one wants to miss this. Related: Michael Phelps Will Have None of Your Cheap Intimidation Tactics When Phelps retires (for real this time), at least well still have the rivalry between the U.S.s Lilly King and Russias Yulia Efimova, who was nastily booed during her introduction for the 100m breaststroke final. King took gold and also took another stand against doping, saying that her win was a statement that we can still compete clean and do well at the Olympic Games. And thats how it should be. Lilly King do you think youve made a statement tonight? I hope I did.https://t.co/BWGaUNiTHM https://t.co/ldGafHOi56 NBC Olympics (@NBCOlympics) August 9, 2016 Among the pools other noteworthy moments, the sixth straight gold in the mens 100m backstroke for the United States. Even sweeter: hearing that former champs had sent letters of encouragement to Ryan Murphy and fellow American David Plummer, who earned bronze. The torch has been passed. Hear Ryan Murphy moments after winning #Gold in the 100m back.https://t.co/BWGaUNiTHM https://t.co/LPz6Rt7g28 NBC Olympics (@NBCOlympics) August 9, 2016 Kathleen Baker took silver in the womens 100m backstroke. And bonus: A scuba diver found the pearl earring shed lost in the pool during the semifinals. Did they have to call in someone special to do that, or does this kind of thing happen so often that someone is on standby? Other broadcast highlights included forcing the volleyball stars to play at midnight Rio time again Though not everyone minded. In another life, this cat was a beach volleyball player. (via russelldpowell/Instagram) https://t.co/qYJTvsS87m NBC Olympics (@NBCOlympics) August 9, 2016 The night began with a rushed recap of the mens 10m platform synchronized diving competition. We couldnt even enjoy shots of Britains Tom Daley in the deck shower waiting for his scores boo! But kudos to BuzzFeed for celebrating the racy placement of said scores. Perhaps the biggest disappointment in primetime was that NBC didnt get to play any of the mens gymnastics team final until around 11:30 p.m. ET and then it had to break and air the majority of it in late night, which means much of America missed it. Its a shame. Yes, the U.S. finished fifth after rocky starts on floor and pommel horse and a heartbreaking final routine in the final rotation (see below). #TeamUSA slips into 5th when Danell Leyva falls from the high bar on the final rotation. https://t.co/8UlQsUiW6F https://t.co/2QZos14qgV NBC Olympics (@NBCOlympics) August 9, 2016 But in between, there were moments of greatness, both in stuck landings and in spirit. Watching the livestream earlier in the day, I got chills multiple times from seeing the fight still in them as they tried to battle back to the bronze. TWO MORE EVENTS Keep fighting, USA! Watch the U.S. on parallel bars here: https://t.co/NW7hBZhvtp pic.twitter.com/iUA6ueUMxa USA Gymnastics (@USAGym) August 8, 2016 To cheer us all up, heres Usain Bolt enjoying a press conference. (adds further quotes) By Pritha Sarkar RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Not even the curse of the pommel horse could halt Japan's march to the men's team gymnastics title at the Rio Olympics on Monday as China's eight-year reign as champions came to an end after a day of slips, trips and stumbled landings. Four years after Uchimura's botched dismount from the pommel horse almost denied Japan a team medal in London, it looked as if the same apparatus would be their undoing again when Koji Yamamuro lost his grip and rolled off. But unlike in 2012, when they ended up with silver behind China, Yamamuro's score of 13.900 was their only blip in Rio as they put in a command performance on the remaining five apparatus to capture gold with a total of 274.094. In a sport where tenths of a point can mean the difference between a gold medal and no medal at all, their total was 2.641 points more than surprise silver medallists Russia. The Chinese team of Lin Chaopan, Deng Shudi, Zhang Chenglong, Liu Yang and You Hao sat back dejectedly in their chairs after Russia pipped them by 0.331 points to silver, with Zhang breaking down in tears afterwards backstage. For all Uchimura's past success, the men's Olympic team gold was the one major medal missing from his vast collection, which includes the 2012 all around title, a record six successive world all around golds and the 2015 world team crown. On Monday, he stood side-by-side with teary-eyed 2012 London Games survivors Yamamuro, Ryohei Kato and Yusuke Tanaka and new kid on the block Kenzo Shirai in triumph, their index fingers raised to confirm their standing in men's gymnastics. "This was the event I really wanted to win gold in," Uchimura said after Japan returned to the top of the Olympic podium for the first time since 2004. "You really have to work on yourself to become number one. "We came to Brazil to do what we are meant to do. Because we were able to do so, we won the gold. The next Olympics will be in Tokyo and I believe we can win again." BAD DAY FOR CHINA Japan's gold medal winning performance came just two days after an error-filled display in qualifying, which included Uchimura falling off the horizontal bar. China, who topped qualifying, had obviously saved their mistakes for the final. Their failure to stick landings meant their hopes of completing a hat-trick of Olympic titles was over long before their final three competitors had mounted the horizontal bar. In fact they looked in danger of missing out on the medals completely after stumbles and falls on the vault, rings and floor exercise left them trailing in fifth place with two rotations to go. However, they surged back with a strong showing in the parallel bars that lifted them into third with one rotation to go. When Japan's Kato, Shirai and Uchimura scored a combined 47.199 on their final apparatus -- the floor exercise -- China's Deng, Lin and Zhang knew they would have to score more than 47.94 points on the horizontal bar to overhaul them. Once Deng (14.400) and Lin (15.000) had completed their dismount, China knew it was game over as Zhang was left needing to do something that has never been done in gymnastics -- score more than 18 points on an apparatus. It was a day when not much went right for China, with the announcer at the Rio Olympic Arena hailing Liu Yang's strong showing on the rings by saying "Deng Shudi looks delighted with his performance" and then having to watch their incorrectly-designed flag raised on the lowest pole after claiming bronze. China, who also saw their 12-year reign as world champions ended by Japan last October, finished with a total of 271.122, behind Russia in second with 271.453. (Editing by Peter Rutherford) By Brenda Goh RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 8 (Reuters) - China's men's gymnastics team had to settle for the bronze medal at the final despite a promising showing at the event's qualifiers, breaking their eight-year streak at the top of the sport with Japan running away with the champion title. The team, comprising of Lin Chaopan, Deng Shudi, Zhang Chenglong, Liu Yang and You Hao, sat back dejectedly in their chairs after Russia pipped their score of 271.122 by 0.331 points to claim the silver, with Zhang breaking down in tears afterwards backstage. The Chinese men's team dominated the Olympic podium in Beijing and London, but with the exception of Zhang, the remaining members of the group have no Olympic experience and are not well known in their homeland. "It felt like I was dreaming, I couldn't believe the result," said Liu. "Our performance today was better than that (at the qualifiers) but our rivals did better." "We are trying to find the reason within ourselves ... Like if I had practised a few more events I could have shared the burden more and the result could have been better," said the gymnast, whose sole event was the rings. Although the Chinese team came up on top during the qualifiers, they trailed in fifth place with two rotations to go, only pulling back on the parallel bars where they topped their competition. Their other routines were marred by a few crucial mistakes: Deng fell on his hand and stumbled during the floor exercise, You over-rotated on his dismount from the rings and ran off his mat to finish while Lin landed on his knee and stumbled forward in the vault event. When asked about Russia, whose entry had been under the cloud of the doping scandal, Liu said the team had the ability to win. "And it doesn't matter whether it's the silver or bronze medal. As long as it's not the gold medal it's the same." (Reporting by Brenda Goh; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli) By Brian Oliver RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Tomasz Zielinski, brother of the 2012 Olympic champion Adrian Zielinski, has become the second weightlifter sent home from the Rio Games for doping. European champion Zielinski, due to compete with his brother in the 94kg, tested positive for nandrolone. On the day of the opening ceremony Cyprus announced that they had sent home Antonis Martasidis, an 85kg lifter, when an out-of-competition test came up positive. Szymon Koecki, head of the Polish weightlifting federation, said: "I want to sincerely apologise to all Poles that during the Olympic Games they have to feel ashamed as the whole world looks on." Koecki was a silver medallist at Sydney 2000 and Beijing 2008, and is expected to be upgraded to gold in the latter because of the retrospective positive test of champion Ilya Ilyin, of Kazakhstan. Koecki missed the 2004 Games because of a two-year doping ban. Tomasz Zielinski is the fifth Polish weightlifter to have tested positive since 2012. (Reporting by Brian Oliver; Editing by Bill Rigby) By Jeb Blount RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 9 (Reuters) - The world's leading Finn-class sailors were outclassed by lower-ranked rivals in shifting light winds on the second day of the Olympic Sailing Regatta. Britain's Giles Scott, France's Jonathan Lobert and New Zealand's Josh Junior all struggled to judge the currents and maintain position as southerly ocean winds around Rio's famous Sugarloaf Rock made sailing tough. "The Sugarloaf course is notoriously difficult," Scott told reporters after returning to the Gloria Marina near Rio's downtown. "We saw (wind) changes of maybe 40 to 50 degrees and that's not easy." he said. The world No. 1 is one of Britain's best medal hopes but he only managed 17th out of 23 in the first race before grabbing a third in the second race. That put Scott in an uncharacteristic 10th place overall with 20 points. No. 2 ranked Lobert ended the day in 12th after finishing 10th and 15th while No. 3-ranked Junior stands 21st after finishing 18th and 24th. That left an unexpected top three of the lower-ranked Vasilij Zbogar of Slovenia, who has four points after a third and a first, Turkey's Alican Kaynar, with seven points after a second and a third, and Argentina's Facundo Olezza Bazan, with 10 points after a first and a ninth. Kaynar is ranked 20th, the rest lower. In the Laser Radial class, China's defending gold medallist Xu Lijia rebounded from a protest disqualification in Monday's second race to retake the lead after impressive third and first-place finishes on Tuesday. With four races completed, competitors drop their worst result, removing her 38-point DSQ. Having finished third in Monday's first race, she leads with seven points, four fewer than Ireland's Annalise Murphy. In the men's Laser class, Argentina's Julion Alsogaray leads after four races with seven points after finishing 14th, which is discarded, and first on Tuesday. In the men's RS:X sailboarding class Britain's Nick Dempsey leads from the Netherlands' Dorian van Russelberghe and Poland's Piotr Myszka. Italy's Flavia Targagilini tops the women's RS:X ahead of Charline Picon of France and Russia's Stefaniya Elfutina. (Reporting by Jeb Blount, editing by Neil Robinson) * Scheidt family struggle in opening session * Fight back in second (Adds details) By Jeb Blount RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Robert and Gintare Scheidt seem to be in sync with just about everything at the Olympics except for the countries they represent. Husband Robert, 43, competes for Brazil in the men's Laser class while wife Gintare, 33, goes for Lithuania in the women's Laser Radial, the same boat with a smaller sail. Both are considered medal hopefuls, Robert for what would be a record sixth for Brazil, and on the first day of racing at the Olympic Regatta they mirrored with mixed showings. Both performed badly in the first of two races on Monday only to come back and win the second in front of a tough and hard-driving fleet. Robert finished 23rd in the first race after getting caught and "gassed", his wind blocked by the pack. Gintare was disqualified at the start of the first race after crossing the line ahead of the starting gun in heavy traffic. But both could still make the medal race if they avoid further mistakes. Under regatta rules they can drop their worst result before the medal round. Robert is seventh in the Laser fleet with 24 points, 18 behind the leader. Gintare is 20th, 29 points behind the leader and 17 behind the 10th-placed boat. "Of course it's always better to start well than not. The guys who got two top tens are confident, but having said that there are still a lot of races to go," he told reporters. Robert, who is Brazil's most successful Olympian with two gold, two silver and one bronze in five Olympics, has already played a big part in his home Rio Games. He helped escort the Olympic flag into Rio's Maracana Stadium and administered the Olympic Oath to assembled athletes at the opening ceremony on Friday. Not to be left out, Gintare was flag bearer for the Lithuanian team. Robert previously performed the role for Brazil at the Beijing Games in 2008. Both Scheidts won silver medals at the China Games, Gintare in the Laser Radial and Robert in the Star class. They married later that year and have two sons. (Reporting by Jeb Blount, editing by Neil Robinson/Patrick Johnston) Allow importing smaller units of gold to banks Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has asked the Commerce Ministry to allow banks to import smaller units of gold as they have been left with a huge quantity of unsold stock. By Jeb Blount RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Defending Olympic champion Xu Lijia of China lost top spot in the Laser Radial class standings on Monday after she was disqualified from the second of two races following a right-of-way protest by U.S. sailor Paige Railey. Boats on "starboard tack", those with the wind coming over the right side when facing forward toward the bow, have right-of-way over boats on port tack, or those with wind coming over the left side. "I got into a problem on the last upwind leg and didn't cross properly, I thought I could make it but didn't," Xu told Reuters after the race. She said she took her penalty turns for interfering with the rival's right of way, but still lost the protest. As a result of Xu's disqualification from the second race, Marit Bouwmeester of the Netherlands moved into first place with 10 points after two of 10 fleet races and Dane Anne-Marie Rindom moved into second with 13 points. Ireland's Annalise Murphy stands in third with 14 points. Sailors receive the same number of points as their finish position except in the medal race, where finish positions are doubled. The sailor or boat with the lowest points total after multiple races wins the regatta. Railey moved to sixth from seventh while Xu dropped from first to 23. The top 10 finishers in fleet racing move on to the medal race. Each sailor will be able to deduct their worst finish out of the fleet races for their total for the medal round. With the disqualification, Xu received 38 points, one more than the total number of boats qualified for the regatta. She would have received four points for her fourth-place finish had her protest been upheld. Xu finished third in the first race. (Editing by Peter Rutherford) By Karolos Grohmann RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 9 (Reuters) - A Rio Olympics media bus, driving above the speed limit, hit a speed bump injuring three reporters travelling inside it, with one being taken to hospital, a Games official said on Tuesday. The accident occurred on Monday evening. A South Korean journalist was taken to hospital for treatment before being released. "It involved three journalists - a Korean, an Israeli and one working for (U.S.) broadcaster NBC, for whom we do not have the nationality," Games spokesman Mario Andrada said. "The driver passed a speed bump that was not visible. He was going above the recommended speed limit," he told Reuters. NBC, owned by Comcast Corp, is the official broadcast rights holder for the United States. "We have apologised to the national committees of the reporters," Andrada added. Transportation has been a problem for Games organisers since the start of the Olympics in the traffic-clogged city, with some media buses running late at times, getting lost or not arriving at all, as was the case at the weightlifting arena on Sunday. (Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Bill Rigby) By Alan Baldwin RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Hungary's Katinka Hosszu gave up her bid for a record-equalling five solo women's Olympic swimming medals on Tuesday as some of the sport's top names also wrestled with Rio's late night schedules. Hosszu, who has already won two golds and destroyed the 400m individual medley world record, pulled out of the 200m butterfly heats to focus on the 200m IM final scheduled for 11.30pm on Tuesday. Spain's Mireia Belmonte Garcia, a 400 IM bronze medallist on Saturday, was fastest with Natalie Adams of the United States second. Hungarian swimming federation official Gergely Csurka said Hosszu had not left the venue until 1am on Tuesday after winning Monday's 100m backstroke gold. The swimming finals have been scheduled for prime time U.S. audiences, and to maximise advertising revenues, with some races ending after midnight local time with media and doping controls to follow. Hosszu's withdrawal meant she cannot now equal Australian swimmer Shane Gould -- who won her three golds, a silver and a bronze in Munich in 1972. She could, however, still match former East German swimmer Kristin Otto's 1988 achievement of four individual golds at a single Games. Nathan Adrian, the men's 100 metres freestyle champion and U.S. team co-captain, also cited the late nights after just scraping through to the semi-finals as the 16th and last qualifier. Adrian was a mere 0.03sec faster than Japan's Katsumi Nakamura, who failed to make the cut. "Feeling a little rusty this morning, trying to get back into the meet after a late night," said Adrian, who had a late night on Sunday after winning the 4x100m freestyle relay in a lineup that included 19=times gold medal winner Michael Phelps. Australian teenager Kyle Chalmers was fastest in the 100m heats -- his time of 47.90 was the third fastest this year -- with American Caeleb Dressel second in 47.91 and Britain's Scott Duncan third in 48.01. While Adrian was on the right side of the cut-off, 2012 Olympic champion Daniel Gyurta of Hungary failed to go through to the men's 200m breaststroke semi-finals after ending up 17th. That failure meant none of the 2012 medallists in the race will be in the semi-finals, unless another swimmer scratches and opens a place for Gyurta. Russian Anton Chupkov was fastest in the heats. World champions Britain led the way into the men's 4x200 freestyle final, followed by defending Olympic champions the United States, and Russia. France, the silver medallists in London four years ago, failed to qualify. (Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Neil Robinson) * American King stands by drug cheat comments * Russia's Efimova takes silver after ban overturned * Rivals appear together at strained news conference By Mark Trevelyan and Jack Stubbs RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 8 (Reuters) - The women's 100 metres breaststroke final at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics on Monday had already crackled with tension in a tight finish but it was nothing compared to what transpired afterwards. American Lilly King held off fast-finishing Russian Yulia Efimova to clinch the title, with fellow American Katie Meili winning bronze. King broke the Olympic record to win. If the race itself was nail-biting, the aftermath was excruciating given King had stoked the flames beforehand, speaking out against the inclusion of Efimova after she successfully appealed a ban imposed for past doping suspensions. After the victory ceremony, the two Americans wrapped themselves together in the Stars and Stripes. Efimova, who had broken down in tears, stood awkwardly to one side. The three were then obliged to attend a joint media conference that was dominated by the issue of doping, especially since King had criticised the Russian for raising her finger in victory after winning her semi-final. "You're shaking your finger 'number one' and you've been caught for drug cheating," she had told reporters on Sunday. "I'm not a fan." With Efimova booed every time she stepped onto the pool deck, the pressure had been on the American to beat the Russian world champion, though the 19-year-old said she felt that any Olympic final was full of tension. "Even just going in to your first Olympic final, any Olympic final for that matter, the pressure is going to be on," she said. "But especially standing up for what I believe is right, I felt that I needed to perform and do better than I had in the past. "I do think it is a victory for clean sport and just to show that you can do it while ... competing clean your whole life." Efimova told reporters that she had not slept for the past month as she waited to learn whether she would be allowed to compete in Rio. That question was resolved only last Friday when she won her legal challenge against her exclusion by arguing she had served her suspensions and should not be punished again. At the news conference, she spoke in a trembling voice and struggled to keep her composure as she acknowledged in broken English she had "made mistakes" and complained at the media coverage she had received. She later switched to her native Russian when she was asked about her opponents' failure to congratulate her after the race. "I perfectly understand athletes who do this," she said. "But on the other hand I don't understand, because it always used to be that all athletes were above politics. "It's really hurtful because now lots of athletes don't understand that, they simply watch the television and believe everything." King, who did not have headphones to hear the translation, rolled her eyes while Efimova was speaking and defended herself for not shaking hands with the Russian. "If I had been in Yulia's position I would not have wanted to be congratulated by someone who was not speaking highly of me," King said. "So if she was wishing to be congratulated, I apologise. She had a fantastic swim and I always look forward to racing her, but I was really just in the moment celebrating with Katie." (Editing by Greg Stutchbury) From Cosmopolitan Last month's Democratic National Convention (DNC) was a much-needed political morale boost, compared to the Republican kabuki theater held a week prior. From the purposeful inclusion of persons with disabilities to the moving renditions of our national anthem, I almost let myself freely embrace that I was standing in the middle of history. A week later, however, after returning from a convention masterfully orchestrated by black women where chants of "Black Lives Matter" at one point filled the Wells Fargo stadium, I am once again sitting in an all too familiar state of paralysis. Right outside Philadelphia, Joyce Quaweay, 24, was allegedly beaten to death by her boyfriend and his friend - in front of her two children and her boyfriend's two children. Skye Mockabee, 26, became the 17th trans person murdered, found dead, facedown, in a Cleveland parking lot. Her death came less than a week after the murder of another black trans woman, Dee Whigham. Korryn Gaines, 23, was killed by Baltimore police who engaged in a standoff to serve her a warrant. Her 5-year-old son was shot as well. Joyce. Skye. Korryn. Three black women who were alive when the nation witnessed the proverbial glass ceiling shatter as the first woman became the presidential nominee of a major party. Yet the all too familiar absence of mainstream media coverage has me questioning whether I am truly equipped to survive America. What life aid must I wear to ensure my life does not tragically end like my sisters'? Why does it appear that neither educational access nor occupational achievement results in me being treated similarly to my non-black female counterparts? And if the skin that I'm in is such a contributing factor to the quality of life, should accommodations be made to protect that very skin? While the DNC touched on almost every pressing issue in America, there was literally no airtime to the public displays of inhumanity toward black women and girls that rocked the consciousness of most segments of our society even as viral footage revealed a black teenage girl thrown her from her desk for the "crime" of using her phone and a young black girl's day at the pool end with her body violently being dragged into the grass with a knee to her back. And the haunting video of the tasing death of Natasha McKenna makes me cry just thinking about it; how, in isolation, her naked body was swarmed, jumped on, and finally taken away. Time and time again, we are reminded that the evidence of our abuse is still not enough to warrant meaningful public discussion about our realities. Even at a time where our votes are in high demand. Story continues Being both "black" and "woman" means acknowledging the perverse relationship between our race, features, and society. One of the characteristics of this complex relationship is denying humanity to black women. The transatlantic slave trade mutated melanin-rich skin into a perpetual handicap. And in a patriarchal society, that meant black women were doubly disabled to protect themselves and their interests. Incremental change over the course of history may have brought legal advancements (and amendments), but even as women suffragists won their right to vote, millions of black women were denied that right - even though they walked side by side to ensure all women were civically empowered. And this shows up in our workplaces, schools, and within our government. We have normalized the labor of black women, just as much as we have normalized discrediting that labor. And even within the black community, as black women have led several online and on-the-ground efforts immediately after the brutal killings of and violence toward black men and boys, it appears that black men, in masse, have not reciprocated the same swift action when the victim looks like their mother, sister, or daughter. It is the almost embarrassing sense of betrayal from both our non-black sisters and our black brothers that bonds black women even closer with a glue called hurt. Another debilitating consequence of being a black woman is the incredibly higher standard of conduct we must maintain. Discretionary discipline reveals a lot about how society views black womanhood from infancy. Black girls are six times more likely to be suspended than their white peers, largely because they are perceived to be "unruly, loud, and unmanageable," and thus treated more harshly than their counterparts. Once we are seen as a "problem," America has historically permitted unfettered discriminatory treatment toward black womanhood, resulting in a slow response when our lives are in peril - especially when coupled with the disability of poverty. Juxtapose today's heroin "epidemic" with the Reagan-era anti-drug initiatives of the 1980s. Today, the usage of heroin is largely considered a health crisis that impacts the middle-class white Americans. We aren't using terms like "heroin kids." Media isn't bombarded with manufactured judgments of the mothers of addicts. In fact, politicians on both sides of the aisle discuss heroin addiction from a lens of empathy and compassion. The failed "War on Drugs," however, was not so kind when it introduced the world to the term "crack babies," which was not only an indictment on the child, but code for "poor black mother," and treated as a criminal justice issue. Indeed, being a poor black woman may be one of the harshest combinations on the womanhood spectrum. Perhaps the most depressing state of this complex relationship between society and black womanhood is the one that is killing us: silence. We are silent about the disproportionate encounters between law enforcement and black women and girls compared to other groups. We are silent about the violence toward black trans women. We are silent about toxic masculinity and its role in everything from wars to politics to intimate partner violence. Perhaps if society had the courage to discuss these issues, and the intersection of race and gender, Joyce, Skye, and Korryn would still be here. Or maybe we would look at their lives more closely if they were suffering from a different social barrier other than being black women. If these three women had a recognized physical disability, were white women, young children, or even black men, legislation would have already been introduced to ensure their protection. But who is prepared to introduce the bill to protect black womanism? Even if society were to recognize the challenges black women endure, I am not convinced America would determine that removing such barriers is worth the investment, even with a presidential theme of "Stronger Together." If we are truly going to be stronger together, equity for black women and girls must be a priority. Stronger together starts with first accepting historical facts, including the damage the denial of maltreatment, discrimination, and erasure does to a person, let alone a community. Stronger together means proposing remedies to address inhumanity, no matter how difficult it is to put a price tag on over 400 years of oppression. Stronger together means not confusing equity with equality - the former is a matter of access to the same opportunities, while the latter is a matter of ensuring all get the same opportunities. Stronger together means that while on the surface, black women pour #BlackGirlMagic dust against all odds, America is not absolved from creating a new and intentional covenant between black women's well-being and this nation. The impairment of being a black woman is one that is hard to articulate to those outside of the card-carrying club. And yet even with all the data out there that shows the disparities between black women and others, we remain the darkest, invisible spot on the rainbow of humanity. We have no pathway to full citizenship offered to us - no national equity strategy to remedy economic, health, or environmental disparities - and some of us are still waiting for black men to lead efforts intentionally focused on protecting black women from social and physical harm. Black women are thus left with no choice but to make crutches out of sweat and crawl out of ditches we didn't create, while ensuring that we don't hobble into any societal booby traps along the way. Until we all share the black woman's burden, we are not together, and far from strong. Ifeoma Ike is a writer, attorney, and advocate. She is the co-founder of BlackandBrownPeopleVote, and a founding member of the #SheWoke Committee, the grassroots project that advocated for the creation of the Congressional Caucus on Black Women and Girls. She is also the creator of the new political podcast, LASH. Follow Ifeoma on Twitter. In India, there is a huge gap between the need for and availability of organs. As per statistics, the current organ donation rate is 0.5 donors per million population. In Kerala, the state that has registered the highest organ donation rate, the figures are also poor only 2.3 donors, per million population. In most cases, donations of organs such as kidney and liver, is done by relatives of the patient in need, and cadaveric transplants (organs harvested from a brain dead body) are still relatively less. August 13 is Organ Donation Day - a day that reminds us of the value that our organs have, and how we can help save lives by taking the simple step of pledging to donate them after our death. As more become aware of the need to donate organs, people are taking the bold step of registering themselves as organ donors, or making the important decision of harvesting their loved ones organs immediately after death. But, these are still relatively few and far in between. What is lacking is awareness about the need for organ donation, and the existence of certain incorrect beliefs associated with it. Myths associated with organ donation One of the primary reasons why organ donation has been so low in the country is because of the myths that are associated with it. Although most religions accept and encourage organ donation, there are various cultural, social and other aspects that hinder people from actively enrolling in and pledging their organs, post death. While many believe that if the emergency room doctors know that the patient is on the organ donation list, they will hesitate from providing adequate life saving treatments in a bid to harvest the organs, others believe that in the process of retrieving and transplanting the organs, that body will be mutilated. Yet another belief is that the donor family will have to bear the cost of retrieving the organs. All these remain myths, as, while there is no cost that the family has to bear for the retrieval, the process of organ transplantation is done by a team of highly skilled surgeons who ensure that the body is in a perfectly preserved state, post transplant. Many people are also not ready to accept the concept of brain dead to be final, when they see a warm body and a beating pulse. Story continues In a bid to dispel such and other cultural myths associated with death, the Government has decided to rope in spiritual gurus, and have been in talks with Art of Livings Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Baba Ramdev, along with leaders of other religions to persuade people to pledge their organs. Which organs can be transplanted While the common belief is that only the heart, liver and kidneys can be transplanted, in reality close to 37 different organs and tissues can be transplanted for donation. Transplantable organs include heart (for cardiovascular diseases or congenital heart defects), the liver (for liver cirrhosis or liver cancer), kidney (end stage renal failure), lungs (cystic fibrosis or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), pancreas (insulin dependent Type I diabetes), intestines (for treatment of life threatening intestinal diseases such as short-gut syndrome), the cornea (restore vision caused due to eye diseases and infection of the cornea), the skin (for severe burns, extensive wounds or loss of skin due to infection), heart valves (for treating malfunctioning heart valves due to infections, congenital defects or age), tendons (lost muscle function due to nerve injury or damage to tendons), blood vessels (for patients who require coronary artery bypass surgery, or have diabetes) and bone marrow (replace bone marrow that has been damaged through infection, diseases or chemotherapy). Here is how you can pledge your organs The most important aspect of organ donation is to read up and find out as much as you can about it. Once you have taken the important decision of pledging your organs, let your family and friends be aware of this decision. You can then fill up an organ or tissue pledging form, which is available on the website of the National Organ & Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO), set up under the aegis of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare. There are a number of other organisations and NGOs that are also actively involved in spreading awareness on the need for organ donation, such as donatelifeindia.org, mohanfoundation.org, giftalife.org and organindia.org, where you can register and pledge your organs. You can apply for the donor card, which you should keep on your person at all times. This card is, however, not a legal document, and it is up to your immediate family to decide on donating your organs. Hence it is best to let your loved ones know about your decision to donate your organs, so that they can sign their consent if a scenario arises where your organs may be needed for transplantation. Miami (AFP) - The 49 people who were killed in June in the Orlando gay nightclub massacre were struck by 200 bullets, local media reported Monday, quoting coroners. The victims who died sustained 200 bullet wounds -- without counting shots that hit the 53 injured people who survived, a report by the Orange County coroners' office said, according to the Orlando Sentinel newspaper. Reached by AFP, the coroners' office said it would release a full statement on Tuesday. Lone gunman Omar Mateen -- a 29-year-old American of Afghan descent -- opened fire early on June 12 at about 2:00 am (0600 GMT) in the Pulse nightclub before taking hostages in a bathroom. Three hours passed as he remained in contact with police negotiators, who blasted their way into the club around 5:00 am. New York-born Mateen was ultimately killed in the crossfire. Americans have reeled from a string of recent shootings, including the Orlando massacre -- the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history -- which was carried out by a man authorities say was radicalized online. In Dallas, Texas, five police officers were killed in July in a sniper-style attack, while three officers were gunned down in Baton Rouge, Louisiana just days later. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has pledged to strengthen gun safety laws including expanding background checks for all gun purchases. Clinton's Republican White House rival Donald Trump has sought to paint Democrats as soft on crime and national security. Georgia has chosen House of Others as its selection for best foreign-language Oscar at the 89th Academy Awards in 2017, the Georgian National Film Center announced Tuesday. The debut feature of Georgian director Rusudan Glurjidze, a haunting tale of a family that occupies a deserted home in an area that has been ethnically cleansed after a bitter civil war, premiered at Karlovy Vary last month where it won the East of the West competition. The nomination is the first from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Glurjidze's poignant film, which critics noted has echoes of the auteur filmmaking styles of directors such as Andrei Tarkovsky and Andrei Zvyagintsev, is a co-production between Georgia, Russia, Spain and Croatia. The semi-autobiographical film stars Zurab Magalashvili, Olga Dykhovichnaya and Salome Demuria. Kiev, Ukraine-based Tatofilms is handling international sales. The 89th edition of the Academy Awards is due to be held in Los Angeles on Feb. 26, 2017. Baby among seven killed in Fishtail Air chopper crash A Fishtail Air helicopter crashed into a cliff at Betini of Madanpur-9 in Nuwakot district on Monday afternoon, killing all seven people, including a baby, on board. Getting sprayed by a skunk stinks, which is why this man decided to put on an Ebola biohazard suit to protect himself. Read: Skunk With Juice Carton Stuck On Its Head is Freed By Kind Cop Toronto paramedic Justin Mausz said during the Ebola outbreak, each paramedic was given a protective suit, known as "Enhanced Personal Protective Equipment." The 14-piece suit, Mausz explained, normally takes 5 minutes to put on, and is designed to keep out deadly infectious diseases. While the threat of Ebola never arrived to their community, Mausz became the first paramedic in his unit to don the suitas protection against a poor skunk that somehow got its head trapped in a cup. "I didn't want to get sprayed," he joked. He said he and his partner spotted the trapped skunk at the beginning of their shift in a parking lot, and while they wanted to free it, he didn't want to ruin the uniform he would wear the rest of the day. So he put on part of his Ebola biohazard suitjust enough to protect his uniformand approached the skunk with caution. "I don't have a lot of experience with skunks," Mausz explained. "I didn't know what its spray threshold was. In the confusion, it might not realize I was trying to help it." The task to remove the cup from the skunk's head seemed simple, but Mausz ran into some moments of panic. "Somehow, I got cornered [behind] its rear end," he told InsideEdition.com, "it raised its tail like it was going to spray, and I couldn't figure out which way to run." Luckily, the paramedic managed to dodge the spray of the skunk and removed the cup from its head unharmed. Read: Just Horsing Around! A Filly Insists on Getting Its Behind Scratched This was the second time Mausz said he had to rescue a small animal while on duty in the 11 years he has been a paramedic. He was once called to a fire scene to rescue an unconscious cat covered in soot. Story continues Watch: Cop Rescues Skunk With Its Head Stuck in a Yogurt Container, Its Gratitude Stinks Related Articles: NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Parliament approved India's biggest overhaul of indirect taxes on Monday after the Lok Sabha ratified a constitutional amendment Prime Minister Narendra Modi called a major step to make doing business easier. The proposed goods and services tax (GST) is one of the most significant reforms since India opened its economy 25 years ago and the revamping of the tax system since the country's independence in 1947. The measure will harmonise a mosaic of state and central levies into a national sales tax, creating a single customs union widely expected to reduce business transaction costs, with potentially significant long-term growth benefits. The Rajya Sabha, where the measure was stuck for months, passed the bill last week. Modi hailed the passage of the bill as a "great step by team India, (a) great step towards transformation, great steps towards transparency". "Today, an important move to free the nation from tax terrorism has begun," Modi told lawmakers in the Lok Sabha. The advancement of the new sales tax is the biggest legislative victory for Modi, who swept to power in 2014 promising to nurse India's then faltering economy back to health. His plans to simplify rules for land sales got scuttled in parliament last year. Similarly, political opposition forced him to put on hold proposed legislative changes aimed at making it easier for companies to hire and fire workers. It has been 13 years since the tax was first mooted, but forging a political consensus has been a bruising process, as the measure would curb the powers of Indian states. Ironically, the GST is getting closer to the finish line under Modi, who while running the state of Gujarat vehemently opposed it - a fact that drew criticism from opposition benches. Modi defended his stance, saying his experience as a provincial chief helped him better understand and address states' concerns. "Lots of flaws have been overcome as far as the GST is concerned," he said. "A trust between the centre and states has developed." Story continues Under the new regime, companies will get offsets for taxes paid at different stages of the supply chain, mitigating the dangers of double-taxation. The finance ministry aims to roll out the GST from next April. Meeting the self-imposed deadline, however, will be a race against time, tax experts say. The bill now needs the approval of half of India's state legislatures and central and state legislatures must pass three laws to implement the tax. (Reporting by Rajesh Kumar Singh; Editing by Tom Heneghan) From Esquire In Sunday's New York Daily News, a rather popular Republican strategist named Rick Wilson wrote a column in which he advised Americans to beat He, Trump so badly at the polls this November that another He, Trump never rises from the earth again to threaten the four-decade game of bait-and-switch that Wilson and the rest of them had been running on America. You will see more of this as the campaign grinds on-movement conservative Republicans attempting to separate their party from the inevitable consequence of the way they've all done politics since the Reagan people invited the god-botherers into the tent where the racists invited in by Nixon were already jamming up the bar service. The tells are deep in the piece, but they're easily found. Perhaps the most important reason Trump needs to suffer an epic loss is to destroy the aura around Donald himself. Donald Trump and the revolting personality cult he has built around himself are an affront to the Party of Lincoln, to constitutional conservatism and to the fundamental beliefs of the American republic. Jesus H. Christ on a biscuit, can we stop with the Party of Lincoln crapola? You forfeited the right to that title the moment that Harry Dent sat down to write a memo. You are now the Party of Calhoun, the party of voter suppression. Hell, I don't know what "constitutional conservatism" even means any more, except to note that it seems to involve radical Tentherism and a desire to roll back the effects of Amendments 13-15. I want to be clear here. As a principled conservative, I loathe the high likelihood that Hillary Clinton will-barring a bear attack or some other unforeseen externality-win this election. She'll nominate liberal Supreme Court justices. Horrors, no. Elections have consequences? Who knew? We'll lose religious liberty. Balls. Your ability to use modified, Biblically based Jim Crow arguments will be somewhat curtailed. Story continues We'll have our Second Amendment freedoms compromised. Not "compromised," limited, as is every right guaranteed in the Bill of Rights, one way or the other. Chuck Schumer's immigration bill is going to be so bad it will make many of us beg for the Gang of Eight. The Gang of Eight was a Republican bill, for pity's sake. It was going to be the golden ticket of the post-2012 autopsy, and it was going to help Marco Rubio become president. Instead, the reaction to it unleashed the party's barely concealed Id, an Id that years of "principled conservatism" tenderly had nurtured. It destroyed Rubio's political career, and it gave He, Trump's campaign its first big boost. It's a little late now to claim that he's someone else's monster. Anyway, in Detroit today, as El Caudillo de Mar-A-Lago attempted to give another big-boy policy speech, He was interrupted nine times by protesters, whom he ignored. (What are the odds that "Ignore Protesters" were written in all caps on the teleprompters? His handlers are lucky he didn't read it.) Once again, he appeared bored, and somewhat afraid that the teleprompters would eat him. What was remarkable, though, is that his speech sold down the river all the faux-populism that his campaign had been peddling for the past 16 months. But first, a sampling of arrant bullshit: This is a city controlled by Democratic politicians at every level, and unless we change policies, we will not change results. This will come as some surprise to Gov.Rick Snyder, who put Detroit under his pet emergency manager law for a year so that the manager could put the city into bankruptcy. Recently, at a campaign event, Hillary Clinton short-circuited again-to use a now famous term-when she accidentally told the truth and said she wanted to raise taxes on the middle class. This claim is based on a cheaply made ratfcking video produced by his own campaign in which HRC's remarks are clipped so that she seems to be saying that we "are" going to raise taxes on the middle class, when the video taken at the time clearly has her saying that we "aren't" going to do so. This is as good an example of the dangers of sampling your own product as I can remember. We've seen it from President Obama, when he gives $150 billion to Iran, the number one terror state, and even gives them $400 million in money-laundered cash as a ransom payment. It wasn't ransom and it wasn't laundered. Now, as to the policy part of the speech, you can forget about that weird provision in the Republican platform about bringing back the Glass-Steagall Act. Must've been a typo. Upon taking office, I will issue a temporary moratorium on new agency regulations. My running mate, Mike Pence, signed a similar order when he became governor of Indiana. This will give our American companies the certainty they need to reinvest in our community, get cash off of the sidelines, start hiring for new jobs, and expanding businesses. And then, of course, there's the reform by which young Barron Trump's great-grandchildren never will have to work a day in their lives. Finally, no family will have to pay the death tax. American workers have paid taxes their whole lives, and they should not be taxed again at death-it's just plain wrong. We will repeal it. Populism, baby! Yeah, there was some stuff in there about doing away with the carried-interest loophole, a fine notion that we also would get if we elected just about anyone else running for president. But the real story of the speech was twofold-first, if He, Trump has pivoted at all, it's toward conventional Reaganomics of the kind that, every eight years or so, sends the economy into the dumpster and the deficit off towards Neptune. And second, can someone please tell the candidate when the election is? In the days ahead, we will provide more details on this plan and how it will help you and your family. In the days ahead? There are only about 90 of them left. Take your time, dude. Click here to respond to this post on the official Esquire Politics Facebook page. From Cosmopolitan Unlike most competitors, Russia's Yulia Efimova was met with a chorus of boos when she entered the Olympic Aquatics Stadium on Sunday - many were upset she was even allowed to compete in the first place. According to the Los Angeles Times, Efimova originally had been banned from competing in the games as part of Russia's doping scandal, after she failed a doping test earlier this year and tested positive for banned substance meldonium. However, the ban was quietly overturned, and the International Olympic Committee released a statement last month explaining that "the eligibility of each Russian athlete will have to be decided by his or her international federation based on an individual analysis of his or her international antidoping record." The decision to let Efimova compete was understandably very controversial, and athletes, as well as audience members, were quick to voice their opinion on it. Most notably, first-time Olympian (and kick-ass Team USA swimmer) Lilly King literally wagged her finger at footage of Efimova winning her heat of the 100-meter breaststroke. King later went on to secure the fastest time of the night for the event, which means the two will go head-to-head at the event finals Monday. She also explained exactly why she'd reacted the way she had to Efimova competing. "You're shaking your finger 'No. 1,' and you've been caught for drug cheating," she told an NBC reporter. "I'm just not a fan." Meanwhile, the call-out seems to have earned King a few new fans of her own. Follow Gina on Twitter. Nostalgia for the 1977 original movie dominated at Disneys world premiere of Petes Dragon at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood. It was one of my favorite movies growing up as a kid, Bryce Dallas Howard said on the green carpet. We got to shoot it in New Zealand. I went to New Zealand when I was five with my parents because my dad (Ron Howard) was shooting a movie called Willow and to be able to return 30 year later to shoot a movie that I loved as a kid with my young family its kind of one of those full circle moments. Director David Lowery, who began working on the live action-CGI film in 2013, allowed that he was stunned at the outcome. Bryce Dallas Howard was my first choice for Grace, he mused. The film is shockingly close to my original vision, which hardly ever happens. It really came together exactly as we envisioned and stayed true to its roots. Lowery also noted that the audience was full of children. I made this for me when I was seven years old so I hope theres a 7-year-old version of me in the audience, he added. Oona Laurence, who plays 10-year-old character Natalie in Petes Dragon, said she was pleased about her scenes with co-star Oakes Fegley, who plays the titular Pete. My character helps him understand what the world is like, she said. Eric Saindon and Mike Cozens, Weta Digitals VFX supervisors on the film, said that it took 18 months to create Elliot the Dragon. The biggest challenge for us is that he had to look goofy and believable, Cozens added. Related stories 'Pete's Dragon' Tops TV Ad Spending Film Review: 'Pete's Dragon' Peter Pan Live-Action Movie in the Works at Disney Datuk Yusof Haslam shared his opinions at yesterday's #tanyaFINAS session with FINAS, PFM and the public. 9 Aug With the recent controversy surrounding the segregated categories in the 28th Malaysia Film Festival (FFM 28), the National Film Development Corporation of Malaysia (FINAS) and the Malaysia Film Producers Association (PFM) have turned to the public for their opinion on the issue. "We are here to find out what is the issue," said Datuk Kamil Othman at a #tanyaFINAS session held yesterday evening at the Content Malaysia Pitching Center, Platinum Sentral. The session gave members of the public the chance to voice out their concerns directly to the FFM 28 organisers, after a number of outbursts started circulating on social media following the announcement of this year's nominees and the newly-introduced non-Malay categories. The attendees at yesterday's session were also asked to suggest ideas to improve other FFMs that will be held in the future. Datuk Kamil Othman explains the recent FFM 28 controversy. (Photo Source: FINAS facebook) Among the attendees at the session were big names in the local movie industry such as "Redha" director Tunku Mona Riza, Metrowealth International Group (MIG) CEO David Teo, actress Sharifah Amani, KRU's Datuk Norman Halim, filmmaker Datuk Paduka Shuhaimi Baba, FFM's jury selection committee member Nancie Foo and more. Though the aforementioned attendees were silent on the issue, others, such as Alfie, the President of PENULIS (Persatuan Penulis Lakon Layar Kuala Lumpur dan Selangor), Jafree from KOMFIT (Komuniti Filem Titiwangsa) and several others were more vocal. "Mat Moto: Kami Mat Moto Bukan Mat Rempit" is one of the films nominated for this year's Best Picture despite audiences' negative reviews of it. On Datuk Kamil's explanation that a Malaysian movie needs to meet the 70 percent Bahasa Malaysia requirement in order to qualify for submission in the Academy Awards' Best Foreign Film category, Alfie mentioned the fact that Canada submitted Hindi-language "Deepa Mehta's Water" at the 79th Academy Awards, which makes moot the argument that only movies of the country's "official language" will be eligible to run in the category. "Every film made in Malaysia is a national film," said Alfie, who also suggested that FINAS and PFM shouldn't be involved in the organising FFM in the future a sentiment wholeheartedly agreed by almost all attendees as it does raise the issue on how the winners are selected and that there could be bias judgement if producers of the competing movies are directly involved and that "all categories should be united", instead of segregated as how it is now. "Why are you challenging the national language and national film festival?" was PFM CEO N. Pansha's input at the session. Both Pansha and PFM president Yusof Haslam reiterated the fact that "everything was started by the Malay film producers", since the introduction of the first FFM back in 1980, and that the Malay language is officially the national language, hence only films using the national language can be considered national films. "For 25 years it had been done so without issue," lamented both the PFM CEO and president, saying that FFM has always been about honouring national-language films. "It was only in 2011 that FFM decided to introduce a Best Non-Malay Film category due to the rise of more Chinese and Indians films of quality. No one said anything then but now it's become an issue when we decided to honour more non-Malay works." Story continues "Jagat", one of the films deemed to be more deserving of the Best Picture nomination this year. When pointed out that time has changed and it is time for FFM to be more open-minded in its definition of national or Malaysian film, PFM rebutted that the Malay language has always irrefutably been the national language, hence the definition of "national film" cannot be changed willy-nilly. However, it is interesting to take note of Alfie's recent Facebook post that stated "no provision for defining a National Film (Filem Kebangsaan) as having to be in Bahasa Malaysia exists in either the Finas Act or Dasar Industri Kreatif Negara 2011." "We would also like to remind FINAS Malaysia and Persatuan Penerbit Filem Malaysia (PFM) that a 'Dasar' is not law, unlike an Act, and can be amended accordingly." Speaking of language, some attendees also question just how correct is the Malay language used in supposedly Malay-speaking films, as most dialogues are either peppered with colloquial terms or tinged with various local dialects. "The dialogues in "Bunohan" were mostly in the Kelantanese dialect, does this constitute as a Malay film, too?" asked one attendee, referring to the Dain Said film which won Best Picture at the 25th FFM. Dain Said's "Bunohan" won Best Picture at FFM 25. "What about films made in the Borneo part of Malaysia, which has their own local languages as well, do they not count as national and Malaysian films?" was also one of the questions brought up several times. While it was mentioned by Datuk Kamil that there will be no re-nomination for this year's FFM, he promised that future FFM would be handled better. He also stated that all the thoughts and suggestions brought up in the session yesterday were to be submitted to the organiser by the end of the night. This isn't the first time for the film festival to be broiled in controversy and it is likely to continue unless positive changes are made to ensure it will be bias-free and fair for all films made in Malaysia by Malaysians regardless of the language(s) utilised in the films. MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines' Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered an inquiry into four judges who President Rodrigo Duterte linked to the drug trade, a day after the chief justice criticized the president's name-and-shame campaign in his war on narcotics. On Sunday, Duterte identified about 160 serving and former government officials, soldiers and police officers who he said were linked to the illegal drugs trade. Seven judges were on his list. Supreme Court spokesman Theodore Te said the court asked a retired judge to conduct a fact-finding investigation into "the alleged involvement of four incumbent judges", and to present a report in 30 days. "The court today resolved to treat the speech of President Rodrigo Duterte as a complaint against the four judges," Te told a news conference in Manila, adding the four judges were given seven days to respond to the complaint. "This is just for the administrative case since the Supreme Court does not have jurisdiction on criminal cases." On Monday, Supreme Court chief justice Maria Lourdes Sereno complained about the revelation of the judges' names, reminding the president that only the court can discipline judges and other court officers. Sereno said only four of the seven judges named by the president remained active. One died eight years ago, another retired last month and a third was dismissed over a legal issue in 2007. She said the court supported the government's war on drugs, sharing Duterte's fears that drugs had reached alarming levels. But she demanded to know the source and basis of the accusations against the judges. None of the judges named by Duterte has made a public statement. More than 400 suspected drug dealers have been killed by police across the Philippines since Duterte took over, officials say. Broadcaster ABS-CNN put the number at more than 800, though that included executions by unidentified vigilantes. Duterte's spokesman, Ernesto Abella, told a news briefing the president had "repeatedly expressed he does not condone extrajudicial killings" responding to a U.S. State Department concern about the rise in drug-related killings. Abella said the interior minister had ordered the national police chief to investigate drug-related murders, particularly those carried out by vigilantes. (Reporting by Manuel Mogato; Editing by Robert Birsel) Its fair to call Donald Trump a divisive character. The Republican presidential nominees call to prevent Muslims from entering the U.S. and to build a wall to stop Mexican drug dealers and rapists has drawn censure from around the world. In the U.K., a petition calling for the real estate mogul to be banned from the country collected over half a million signatures. On Thursday, it was the Philippines turn to be outraged. During a speech in Portland, Maine, Trump implied Filipinos were part of a Trojan horse of terrorist nations plotting to wreak havoc on U.S. soil. We are letting people come in from terrorist nations, said Trump. An immigrant from Afghanistan who later applied for and received U.S. citizenship, an illegal permanent resident from the Philippines were convicted for plotting to join al-Qaeda and the Taliban in order to kill as many Americans as possible. In response, Philippine Congressman Joey Salceda filed a bill at Manilas House of Representatives calling for Trump to be barred from entering the Southeast Asian nation. There is no feasible basis or reasonable justification to the wholesale labeling of Filipinos as coming from a terrorist state or that they will be a Trojan horse, he said. US presidential candidate Donald Trump, ipinadedeklarang persona non grata. | @wengsalvacion pic.twitter.com/OgeTSMurgZ DZBB Super Radyo (@dzbb) August 8, 2016 However, this is far from the first time Philippine politicians have taken umbrage at criticism from abroad. And its not certain any ban would stick especially should Trump win the Nov. 8 race to the White House. Story continues It looks like a PR stunt to me, Joseph Franco, a Filipino political scientist at Singapores Nanyang Technological University, tells TIME of Salcedas bill. My compatriots have a reputation for being onion-skinned at times. Homeland star Claire Danes found this out in 1998 after she described Manila as ghastly and weird city that smelled of cockroaches, with rats all over, and that there is no sewerage system, and the people do not have anything no arms, no legs, no eyes. Her remarks prompted then Philippine President Joseph Estrada to say Danes should not be allowed to come here. She should not even be allowed to set foot here. Other celebs to have spurred a Pinoy tongue-lashing for perceived slights include Justin Bieber, Teri Hatcher, comedian Adam Carolla and Alec Baldwin; the latter was even made persona non grata by the Philippine Bureau of Immigration over a comment about mail-order brides. In 2009, Hong Kong magazine columnist Chip Tsao was banned from the Philippines after referring to it as a nation of servants. Not even the Beatles were immune from Philippine ire. In 1966, the Fab Four had two concerts booked in Manila but skipped an appointment with First Lady Imelda Marcos, wife of Ferdinand Marcos, who would later rule as dictator. In retribution, they were reportedly met with a huge tax bill, refused room service, had elevators sabotaged when they approached, and were even attacked by a mob on their way to the airport. Ringo Starr later described it as the worst experience of my life. President Rodrigo Duterte warned the Philippines' top judge Tuesday to let him pursue a deadly anti-crime campaign that has left hundreds of suspects dead, suggesting otherwise he would impose "martial law". Supreme Court chief justice Lourdes Sereno criticised Monday Duterte's public shaming of seven lower court judges for alleged involvement in the narcotics trade, adding that one of the judges was murdered eight years ago. "Go ahead and try to stop me. Would you rather that I declared martial law?" Duterte said in a speech to soldiers during a visit to a military camp in the southern Philippines. "Let's not kid each other ma'am, and do not force the issue," Duterte warned Sereno. "You do not warn me. I warn you. I can order everyone in the executive department not to honour you," he added. "Please do not create a confrontation, a constitutional war. We will all lose," the president added. Sereno had told Duterte in a letter that it was her sole responsibility to impose punishment on judicial "misfits", and that publicly naming them, even without charges filed against them, had put their lives in danger. "To safeguard the role of the judges as the protector of constitutional rights, I would caution them very strongly against 'surrendering' or making themselves physically accountable to any police officer in the absence of any... warrant of arrest," she added. Duterte, elected in a landslide in May largely on a pledge to kill tens of thousands of criminals, has previously shrugged off allegations that police were committing extrajudicial killings. However, police have acknowledged in a new tally released Tuesday killing 513 drug suspects, allegedly for resisting arrest. Human rights groups have criticised the killings by police as hundreds of other people have been slain by shadowy anti-crime vigilantes who often leave signs on their victims' bodies accusing them of drug trafficking. Story continues Police have also arrested more than 7,000 drug suspects since Duterte took office. United Nations agencies and international human rights monitors have expressed concern over the killings, and on Monday the US government, the Philippines' main military ally, weighed in on the issue. "We are concerned by these detentions, as well as the extra judicial killing of individuals suspected to be involved in drug activity in the Philippines," State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said in Washington. CIAA files chargesheet against Land Reform official The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) on Tuesday filed a chargesheet against Jivnath Shiwakoti, an official of the Land Reform Office, Kalanki for amassing properties disproportionate to his known source of income. The cash and items seized following the suspects arrest. (Photo: SPF) A pick-pocket syndicate operating in Singapore has been busted by the police. The three suspects were arrested at Changi Airport on Monday (8 August) and an assortment of foreign currencies and items such as wallets, belts, bags, watches and perfume amounting to an estimated S$29,000 were seized, said a Singapore Police Force (SPF) release. The syndicate is thought to have targeted tourists and made use of stolen credit cards to make purchases at luxury shops. According to the SPF release, the police were first alerted to a case of suspected cheating at a luxury watch shop along Orchard Road. A sales assistant at the shop had been presented with a credit card bearing a Japanese name, which raised the assistants suspicions as the man who used the card was conversing with two other Chinese men in strongly accented Mandarin. The purchase transaction did not go through because of a system error and the three men left the shop. Following up on the case, the police traced the credit card to a Japanese tourist who had not realised that his wallet had been stolen. The tourist then filed a police report. Officers from the Central Division and the Commercial Affairs Department then conducted investigations, which led to the trios arrest. They will be charged in court on Wednesday (10 August) with cheating, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years jail and a fine. Clouds of smoke billowed from the San Bernardino Mountains on Sunday, August 7, two days after a brush fire started near the Silverwood Lake. The Pilot Fire grew to more than 6,000 acres on Monday. About 375 homes were under a mandatory evacuation order in the Summit Valley area and Hesperia, and about 5,000 homes were under a voluntary evacuation advisory in Hesperia and nearby communities, according to the Los Angeles Times. The cause of the fire remains unknown, but the rapid spread was attributed to dry brush and timber. Credit: YouTube/Brandon Mawhorter (Reuters) - Paul Pogba believes it was his destiny to return for a second spell at Manchester United and says he has unfinished business with the club. The France mid fielder rejoined the Old Trafford team from Italian champions Juventus for a world record fee of 89 million pounds ($115.76 million) this week, signing a five-year contract with the club he left in 2012 for Serie A. "I've come back home, I'm happy...it's just a great feeling," the 23-year-old Pogba told United's in-house TV channel on Tuesday. "I would say it's destiny ... I didn't finish what I started here so I think I came here to finish it." Pogba won four Serie A titles and two Italian Cups during his time with Juve. "First of all (we must) win the league for the first time with United because I hadn't won the league when I left," he said. "The Champions League of course, and personally, one of my dreams is to win the Ballon d'Or." The latest of manager Jose Mourinho's new signings follows defender Eric Bailly, striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic and mid fielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan into United. "I spoke with a lot of players (who played under Mourinho) when he was at Real Madrid," Pogba said. "I spoke with him a few times and he gave me energy, he gave me positivity. So I was thinking 'why not?'. I'm sure he can make me improve and make me a better player and a better person." United, who beat Premier League champions Leicester City 2-1 in the Community Shield at Wembley at the weekend, begin the new campaign on Sunday with a trip to Bournemouth. ($1 = 0.7688 pounds) (Reporting by Simon Jennings in Bengaluru; Editing by Tony Jimenez) Rio de Janeiro (AFP) - Polish weightlifter Tomasz Zielinski has been banned from Olympic competition after testing positive for the anabolic steroid nandrolone, Poland's PKOL Olympic Committee said Tuesday. The drug was detected in blood drawn from Zielinski, who was due to compete in the 94 kilogramme category, on July 31 as he arrived in Brazil. The 25-year-old European champion has denied any wrongdoing and vowed legal action. President of Poland's weightlifting federation Szymon Kolecki -- gold medal winner in Beijing -- stepped down in connection with the incident. "I'm sorry for and ashamed of what has happened," he told reporters in the Polish capital Warsaw. Zielinski trained for the Olympics individually, outside the framework established by the Polish federation. Kolecki decided in June not to include him in Poland's Olympic squad, but was over-ruled by the federation board. By Laila Kearney NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investigators searched on Tuesday for clues in the case of a 27-year-old Google employee who was found slain in woods near her mother's Massachusetts home hours after leaving for a jog, police said. The body of Vanessa Marcotte, who worked as a healthcare account manager in Google's New York City offices, was found by a police K-9 unit late on Sunday near the small town of Princeton, police said. "We are asking for the public's help in finding the person or persons who killed Ms. Marcotte," the Massachusetts State Police Department said in a statement. Law enforcement officials have released few details about the cause of death or state in which Marcotte was found. WCVB-TV reported, citing unnamed police sources, that she had been sexually assaulted and was burned on her head, feet and hands. Police officials said on Monday they did not know whether her killing was a random act. Marcotte was visiting her mother's home from her residence in New York, where she had worked for Google for more than a year. "Vanessa Marcotte was a much loved member of the Google team ... and known for her ubiquitous smile, passion for volunteer work, and love of Boston sports," Google said in a statement. "We are deeply shocked and saddened, and our thoughts are with her family and friends." Marcotte's death came days after a 30-year-old woman, Karina Vetrano, was sexually assaulted and murdered while jogging alone along an overgrown path in New York's Howard Beach. Authorities, who have had few leads in the Vetrano case, have said there is no evidence connecting the two cases. (Reporting by Laila Kearney; Editing by David Gregorio) Cloud of uncertainty hangs over Nepal Students Union election The Nepal Students Union election has once again been shrouded in uncertainty after the dispute regarding representatives in some districts prevented a closed-door session of the unions 11th General Convention scheduled on Monday. By Melanie Burton and Ruby Lian MELBOURNE/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China could ramp up imports of refined tin as a string of environmental inspections at smelters in the world's top producer of the metal curbs local output. Officials in eight provinces last month began inspecting metals producers including tin smelters, forcing some to shutter production while they look to comply with environmental standards, according to industry officials and analysts. The checks come as a crackdown on pollution spreads beyond steel in the country's mammoth metals processing and mining industries. "It should have huge impact on the whole (tin) industry," a trader at a Chinese tin smelter said of the environmental inspections. He declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue. "It's ... part of long-term supply side reform not just for the private sector or special smelters." Affected smelters account for some 45 percent of China's annual tin production, or around 110,000 tonnes of capacity, according to tin industry group ITRI. Global refined tin output was around 340,600 tonnes last year. ITRI analyst Cui Lin told Reuters that some producers had cut production from July 25 and would not be able to resume full output until Aug. 15 at the earliest. She added that four smelters in Yunnan province could be shut for longer. Those smelters have a total production of some 42,000 tonnes of tin annualized, according to ITRI figures. The cuts in production of tin, used in everything from electronics to packaging, will likely boost imports of refined metal from global markets, and have already helped push local and international prices to their highest in well over a year. Momentum is expected to pick up in the third quarter as appetite for tin grows after the slow summer holiday season. Shanghai tin prices reached 13-month peaks in early July at 125,690 yuan ($18,860) a tonne, while LME tin on Friday hit its highest since early 2015 at $18,450 a tonne. "If the cuts are extended, domestic supply tightness will be exacerbated in the short-term, leading to continued upwards pressure on domestic tin prices," ITRI said in a report in July. An official with Jinlong Mining in Jiangxi province said the company had brought forward a plan to relocate by a week from late July at the request of the environmental inspectors after it failed to meet standards. The official added that other smelters in the region had temporarily suspended production last month due to environmental checks. China produces most of its own tin by smelting, importing additional ore from Myanmar. Its overall refined tin imports slumped by 70 percent in June, and were down by 5 percent at 4,220 tonnes for the first six months of the year . ($1 = 6.6621 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Melanie Burton in Melbourne and Ruby Lian in Shanghai; Editing by Joseph Radford) An expectant mother should do everything possible to secure her childs safety, right? Prenatal vitamins, baby-proofing the apartment, putting out a hit on her baby daddys former business partner As outlandish as it sounds, says Power star Lucy Walters, thats exactly how her character views last episodes visit to the Jamaicans. RELATEDPower Renewed for Seasons 4 and 5 Shes a survivor, and the way she survives is to look out for herself, the actress tells TVLine. And now shes in a place where the I has become an us. Heres someone who doesnt really let people in, and she has for the first time. She laughs. And it gets ugly. Well say. Being a little sneaky when it comes to the money is one thing; crossing boroughs to pay someone to kill Ghost is entirely another. RELATEDStarz, 50 Cent Team for Superhero Drama Tomorrow, Today But that survival sensibility is strong, and its keeping Holly from sharing her big news with Tommy, Walters adds, though as this Sundays episode (Starz, 9/8c) opens, shes edging closer to telling him theyve got a little Egan on the way. To complicate matters, Tommys force-of-nature mom Kate (played by Patricia Kalember, Sisters) unexpectedly shows up at the apartment during a very tense moment and then doesnt want to leave. And you can imagine how well that goes over with the already-on-edge Holly. Press PLAY on the exclusive video above to watch the two most important women in Tommys life meet for the first time, then hit the comments with your thoughts on the mess that Holly has gotten herself into. Related stories Power Recap: Good On You, Ghost In Wake of Outlander Emmy Snub, Starz Boss Slams 'Reductive' Voting System Starz Developing Pole Dancing Drama Pussy Valley, 'Womanhood' Comedy Dirty Girls Social Club PRA Group Inc.s PRAA second-quarter 2016 earnings per share of 83 cents came in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate but declined 23% from the year-ago quarter. PRA Groups total revenue was $228 million, down 3.8% year over year. Revenues, however, also met the Zacks Consensus Estimate. Decline in the second-quarter revenues mainly stemmed from two non-accrual portfolios in Italy, which added cash collections of $6.7 million to principal amortization. Quarterly Update Cash collections dipped 0.6% year over year to $387.2 million, mainly due to lower collections at Americas-Insolvency and America-Core. While collections at Americas-Insolvency were down 1.3% to $67.7 million, those at America-Core dropped 2.6% to $213 million. On the other hand, collections at Europe-Core increased 9.5% to $102.9 million, which those at Europe-Insolvency surged 35.5% to $2.7 million, both on a year-over-year basis. Additionally, PRA Groups revenues from finance receivables income were $204 million, down 7.3%. Other revenues plunged 35.45% to $2.1 million. Fee income soared 61% to $22.3 million. Operating expenses rose 4.7% year over year to $155 million. This was mainly due to higher legal collection fees, agency fees, outside fees and services, communication, rent and occupancy expenses, depreciation & amortization and other operating expenses. Financial Update As of Jun 30, 2016, PRA Group had total assets worth $3.3 billion, up 9% from year-end 2015. The company exited the quarter with total equity of $0.9 billion, up 8.2% from Dec 31, 2015. Cash and cash equivalents as of Jun 30, 2016 were $93.5 million, up 11.4% from year-end 2015. For the reported quarter, borrowings increased 11.3% to $1.9 billion. PRA GROUP INC Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise PRA GROUP INC Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise | PRA GROUP INC Quote Zacks Rank and Performance of Other Stocks from Finance-Miscellaneous Services Industry: PRA Group currently holds a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Story continues The bottom line at American Express Co. AXP, Euronet Worldwide Inc. EEFT and CIT Group Inc. CIT beat their respective Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarter ending on Jun 30, 2016. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report AMER EXPRESS CO (AXP): Free Stock Analysis Report CIT GROUP (CIT): Free Stock Analysis Report EURONET WORLDWD (EEFT): Free Stock Analysis Report PRA GROUP INC (PRAA): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research London (AFP) - Jaw-dropping new broadcast deals totalling 8.3 billion pounds ($10.9 billion, 9.8 billion euros) have enabled the English Premier League to assemble a dazzling galaxy of stars for the 2016-17 season. Jose Mourinho will have Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Paul Pogba at his disposal at Manchester United, while Pep Guardiola has authorised a splurge of over 100 million pounds since becoming Manchester City manager. With Chelsea and Liverpool also spending big and Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur looking to build on positive campaigns, Leicester City's odds of repeating May's fairytale title success are only 33-1. Claudio Ranieri's men famously defied odds of 5,000-1 to win the title in May, but he has warned: "We know very well we are the champions, but we are the underdogs. "There are six big teams who want to win. They want to kill us." England's 20 elite clubs took a month to break through the 500 million pounds barrier in transfer spending and they are tipped to surpass the one billion pounds mark by the time the window closes on August 31. The beginning of the Guardiola era at City, who finished fourth last season, has heralded a rejuvenation of the League Cup holders' playing squad. Young talents such as Leroy Sane and Gabriel Jesus have arrived for combined fees exceeding 100 million pounds. Everton centre-back John Stones could yet follow. While Guardiola's arrival at the Etihad Stadium has been in the pipeline for years, his former El Clasico sparring partner Mourinho has alighted across town at Old Trafford with a degree of haste. - Mourinho rebuilds - After two years of stagnation under Louis van Gaal, for whom FA Cup success came too late to save his job, United's board has tasked Mourinho with the responsibility of restoring the club to former glories. He will be assisted by Ibrahimovic, whose late goal sank Leicester in Sunday's Community Shield, and Pogba, who is poised to complete a world-record return from Juventus costing around 90 million pounds. Story continues Former Italy manager Antonio Conte has been brought in to pick up the pieces at Chelsea, who recovered to finish 10th under Guus Hiddink after Mourinho's dismissal last December. Chelsea have prised N'Golo Kante from Leicester for 30 million pounds and spent a similar amount to sign Belgium striker Michy Batshuayi from Marseille. With no European distractions, Conte will be able to plough all his resources into steering Chelsea back into the top four. Amid the flux elsewhere, Leicester, Tottenham, Arsenal and Liverpool are trusting in the formulae that worked for them last season. Ranieri has lost Kante, but talisman Jamie Vardy has committed to a new contract and Riyad Mahrez remains a Leicester player. Mauricio Pochettino's young Tottenham players, among them Harry Kane and Dele Alli, now have the experience of a title race under their belts. In a show of faith to the team that challenged Leicester last season, the north London club have been content merely to add depth to their squad with the acquisitions of Victor Wanyama and Vincent Janssen. - Arsenal anxiety - Down the road at Arsenal, Arsene Wenger approaches his 20-year anniversary as manager facing the same old doubts about his capacity to inspire the team to a first league title since 2004. Arsenal pipped Spurs to second place last season, but with Swiss midfielder Granit Xhaka the only major signing to have arrived at the Emirates Stadium and injuries already biting, fans are anxious. Liverpool, beaten finalists in the League Cup and Europa League, are looking more and more like Jurgen Klopp's team, bolstered by the acquisitions of Sadio Mane and Giorginio Wijnaldum. "We are in a good way, 100 percent," said Klopp. "And if we have a proper line-up, then we will be strong." There are seven new managers, with Ronald Koeman succeeding the sacked Roberto Martinez at Everton and Claude Puel taking the Dutchman's place at Southampton. David Moyes has replaced new England manager Sam Allardyce at Sunderland, while Walter Mazzarri has succeeded Quique Sanchez Flores at Watford. Hull City are without a manager after Steve Bruce resigned and having not signed a single player, they start the campaign as outright favourites for relegation. Their fellow promoted teams, Burnley and Middlesbrough, also face a battle to remain in a league that is now teeming with superstars both on the pitch and in the dug-out. "We are not naive to the challenge we face, but we are willing to take it on," said Burnley manager Sean Dyche. "The Premier League is the place to be." Royal Range Rover Prince William Range Rovers have long been associated with the British royal family. Queen Elizabeth got her first Land Rover (Range Rover's parent brand) in the early 1950s and has been a reliable customer ever since. If you want to own one of these vehicles that has been touched by royal reputation, now's your chance, as online auction site CharityStars is putting under the hammer a Range Rover owned by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge Prince William and Kate Middleton. This is from the press release: The vehicle was originally supplied to The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge via Land Rovers VIP Department, fitted with many additional features, and used by the Royal Household. The sought after car is the one that the eyes of the world watched as William and Catherine carried their first born son and heir to the throne, His Royal Highness Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge home from hospital for the first time. Range Rovers are famously rugged, so serving as a family hauler probably hasn't much degraded the capabilities of Wills and Kate's 334-horsepower diesel model, which only has 31,000 miles on it. Of course, Range Rovers are also notoriously prone to mechanical glitches, so caveat emptor. The vehicle costs around $96,000 new. NOW WATCH: 7 mind-blowing things Elon Musk believes More From Business Insider Chris Murphy Prominent Democrats on Tuesday suggested that Donald Trump leveled an "assassination threat" aimed at Hillary Clinton during his Tuesday rally in North Carolina. "Don't treat this as a political misstep," Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut tweeted. "It's an assassination threat, seriously upping the possibility of a national tragedy & crisis." He added: "This isn't play. Unstable people with powerful guns and an unhinged hatred for Hillary are listening to you." Trump elicited a firestorm on Tuesday with his comments during a rally, as he discussed what he believes to be the threat that Clinton poses to Second Amendment rights. "If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people maybe there is. I don't know," Trump said. "Speaking to the NRA folks who are great," he continued. "If you don't do the right thing, you're not going to have a Second Amendment, or you're not going to have much of it left." The comment faced immediate backlash, as many accused Trump of suggesting that gun-rights advocates should use some kind of force to stop Clinton from appointing Supreme Court justices that disagree with their views on the issue. Both Trump's and Clinton's campaigns released statements on the matter shortly afterward. Trump's campaign attributed the controversy to "dishonest media," while the Clinton campaign condemned the idea of violence in American politics. In addition to Murphy, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, former 2016 presidential candidate Martin O'Malley, and Rep. Eric Swalwell of California, among others, condemned Trump's remarks. Warren tweeted: "@realDonaldTrump makes death threats because he's a pathetic coward who can't handle the fact that he's losing to a girl." She added: "Your reckless comments sound like a two-bit dictator, @realDonaldTrump. Not a man who wants to lead the greatest democracy on the planet." O'Malley said that it made more clear the stakes in November. Story continues "If you ever wondered what was at stake this November, @realdonaldtrump's hint at assassination shows you what kind of person he is," he tweeted. Swalwell called for a Secret Service investigation. "Donald Trump suggested someone kill Sec. Clinton," he tweeted. "We must take people at their word." NOW WATCH: Trump: 2nd Amendment people' might be able to stop Clinton from picking SCOTUS justices More From Business Insider Washington (AFP) - US Republican lawmakers, governors, advisors and former officials have come out against GOP nominee Donald Trump, saying he lacks the judgment, character and experience to be president. Some have said they will cast their vote for his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, while others are aligning with third party alternatives like Libertarian Gary Johnson. As Trump looks to refocus his campaign following recent weeks of missteps, including clashing with the parents of a Muslim American soldier killed in action, here are several major Republicans who have announced their opposition to the brash billionaire. FORMER RIVALS Ted Cruz The US senator from Texas and vanquished presidential hopeful stunned last month's Republican National Convention when he declined to endorse Trump, instead calling on fellow conservatives to "vote your conscience." He was booed off the stage, but is already being discussed as a potential 2020 candidate. John Kasich Ohio's governor, the last Republican to drop out of this year's primary race, snubbed Trump last month, declining to attend the Republican convention held in Kasich's home state. Jeb Bush The former Florida governor and Republican presidential candidate clashed bitterly with Trump during the primaries. Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush are abstaining from commenting on the 2016 race, but Jeb's son, Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, has urged Republicans to support Trump. SENATORS Susan Collins The moderate senator from Maine on Tuesday became the latest among half a dozen Senate Republicans to jump from the listing Trump ship, criticising his morality, character, lack of experience and his propensity to "slash and burn and trample anything and anyone he perceives as being in his way." Lindsay Graham In June, after Trump repeatedly stated that a federal judge's Mexican heritage made him unfit to preside over Trump-related cases, Senator Lindsey Graham called on Republicans to pull their support. "If anybody was looking for an off-ramp, this is probably it," he told The New York Times. Story continues PAST NOMINEE Mitt Romney The 2012 Republican presidential nominee has been among the staunchest Trump critics, calling him a "fraud" and warning that "his imagination must not be married to real power." FORMER OFFICIALS Michael Hayden The ex-CIA director was among 50 Republican former national security officials who issued a statement Monday saying they would not vote Trump, warning he would be "the most reckless president in American history" if elected. The group included two former Department of Homeland Security chiefs, a former US trade representative, and dozens of senior presidential advisors and department aides. Richard Armitage The deputy secretary of state under George W. Bush and deputy defense secretary under Ronald Reagan said he will back Clinton, in part because Trump "doesn't appear to want to learn about issues." Hank Paulson Paulson served as Treasury secretary under George W. Bush, after previously running Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs. He backed Clinton last month "with the hope that she can bring Americans together" to strengthen the US economy. "To my Republican friends: I know I'm not alone." By Daniel Bases NEW YORK, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Puerto Rico's governor said on Tuesday he expected to present an updated fiscal plan for the debt-laden U.S. territory shortly after the White House appoints members of a federal oversight board with authority to renegotiate its $70 billion of debt. "I expect this new fiscal plan will be ready once the board is announced," Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla told reporters in New York via a Skype video conference call from his office in San Juan. The call was part of an event organized by the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. On June 30th, U.S. President Barack Obama signed the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act just one day before the island faced a deadline to make a debt payment of around $2 billion. Garcia Padilla authorized a suspension of the payments just after Obama signed the bill into law. Under the act, the deadline for naming the seven-member board is Sept. 15. Garcia Padilla said on Tuesday he did not have any idea who would be named nor the timing, but hoped it would happen before the end of August. Obama will choose from candidates presented by Republican and Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives and Senate. Garcia Padilla, who is not running for reelection and has said the board would be an imposition on the island's sovereignty, accepted that the legislation was needed in order to work out a solution. The oversight board has the authority to enforce balanced budgets and government reform if the Puerto Rican government fails to do so, including the sale of government assets, the consolidation of agencies and staff cuts. The board also has the authority to facilitate consensual restructuring talks, or push Puerto Rico into a court-supervised process akin to U.S. bankruptcy. After years of talks between the government and its creditors, failure to reach an agreement on restructuring the debt led to the passage of the legislation that all parties said was imperfect but necessary. Garcia Padilla said he was still open to talking with creditors and that "prosperity will not return overnight." (Reporting by Daniel Bases; Editing by Richard Chang) Saint Petersburg (AFP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday pledged to reinvigorate ties after their first meeting since Ankara shot down a Russian warplane last November. Erdogan's visit to Putin's hometown of Saint Petersburg is also his first foreign trip since the failed coup against him last month that sparked a purge of opponents and cast a shadow over Turkey's relations with the West. "We lived through a very complicated moment in the relations between our states and we very much want, and I feel our Turkish friends want, to overcome the difficulties," Putin told journalists at a joint press conference. He insisted it would take "painstaking work" and "some time" to return to previous trade levels as Russia rolls back punishing economic sanctions against Ankara, but both sides said they wanted to restart major energy projects hit by the crisis. Erdogan said he hoped relations would become "more robust" and stressed how important it was that Putin offered his support after the coup. "We will bring our relations back to the old level and even beyond," he said. The shooting down of a Russian fighter jet by a Turkish F-16 on the Syrian border last November saw Putin slap sanctions on Turkey and launch a blistering war of words that dealt serious damage to burgeoning ties. But in a shock reversal in late June, Putin accepted a letter from Erdogan expressing regret over the incident as an apology. He quickly rolled back a ban on the sale of package holidays to Turkey and signalled Moscow would end measures against Turkish food imports and construction firms. Now in the wake of the failed July 15 coup attempt, there are fears in Western capitals that NATO-member Turkey could draw even closer to Moscow -- with Erdogan bluntly making it clear he feels let down by the United States and the European Union. Turkey has repeatedly pressed Washington to extradite Pennsylvania-based preacher Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara blames for the failed coup, and on Tuesday said it could suspend bilateral ties over the issue. Story continues Putin was one of the first foreign leaders to phone Erdogan offering support after the coup attempt and shares none of the concerns of EU leaders about the ensuing crackdown. - Back to business? - Relations between Turkey and Russia -- two powers vying for influence in the strategic Black Sea region and Middle East -- have long been complicated. Yet before the plane crisis, Moscow and Ankara managed to prevent disputes on Syria and Ukraine from harming cooperation on issues like the TurkStream gas pipeline to Europe and a Russian-built nuclear power station in Turkey. Those projects were put on ice with trade between the two countries plunging 43 percent in January-May this year to $6.1 billion, and Turkey's tourism industry seeing visitor numbers from Russia fall by 93 percent. With Turkey's outlook flagging and Russia mired in economic crisis due to low oil prices and Western sanctions over Ukraine, both men want to get business started again. Erdogan said he wanted to see the TurkStream project "done as fast as possible", while Putin said construction could start "in the nearest future" and that the restoration of business ties would be done "in phases". The Turkish leader also insisted the two sides were once again targeting an ambitious trade turnover of $100 billion by 2024. But Russian Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev told media it could take up to two years to fully restore pre-crisis trade levels. - Skirting Syria - A previous uptick in relations between Turkey and Russia was built on a macho friendship between Putin and Erdogan, two combative leaders in their early 60s credited with restoring confidence to their nations in the wake of financial crises but also criticised for clampdowns on human rights. But after such a bitter dispute -- which saw Putin accuse Erdogan of profiting from an illegal oil trade with the Islamic State group -- it will take a lot for the pair to repair relations. The two strongmen conspicuously skirted one major issue that divides them -- the war in Syria. Russia is carrying out a bombing campaign in support of President Bashar al-Assad while Turkey is fiercely opposed to the Syrian leader. Daughter-in-law beaten half to death over dowry In what can be dubbed as one of the brutal cases of domestic violence, an 18-year-old married girl in Nepalgunj was beaten mercilessly by her in-laws for failing to bring dowry. Moscow (AFP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin and British Prime Minister Theresa May have agreed to meet in "the near future", the Kremlin said Tuesday. During a phone call initiated by London, the two leaders "planned to hold a private meeting in the near future," the Kremlin said in a statement, without naming a date. British relations with Russia have soured in recent years, notably over efforts to prosecute the case of Kremlin critic and former spy Alexander Litvinenko, who was murdered by radiation poisoning in London in 2006. Britain has also been one of the most fervent supporters of Western sanctions against Moscow over Russia's role in the Ukraine crisis. "While discussing topical issues in Russian-British relations, both sides expressed dissatisfaction with the current state of cooperation in the political, trade and economic spheres," the Kremlin statement said. The leaders agreed to intensify "joint work on a number of fronts" including air transportation safety, the statement said. When May took office last month, Putin said he was ready for "constructive dialogue" with the new British leader. The Kremlin strongman had accused the British government of being "overconfident" and "superficial" in the June referendum that saw the UK vote to split from the European Union. Putin warned that the move to leave the EU "will have consequences for the United Kingdom, for all of Europe and for us, of course." Many observers have said that Brexit would play into Putin's hands as he has been accused of trying to drive a wedge between EU members. But Putin in June said that Russia had never "interfered, never expressed our opinion on the matter" and dismissed attempts to associate Moscow with the vote. A furious row has broken out in the Malaysian film industry with at least one film maker returning awards that he previously won. In recent days it has emerged that the annual Filem Festival Malaysia awards will be segregated along linguistic lines. Only movies shot in the official Bahasa Malaysia (aka Bahasa Melayu) language will be eligible for the best film award. Malaysia has a substantially mixed race population comprised of ethnic Malays, Chinese and Indians. The national government operates policies in sectors ranging from universities to the civil service that discriminate positively in favor of Malays. The privileges accorded to one group over another are widely regarded as among the root causes of Malaysias endemic corruption problems. The spark for the current strife was the recent exclusion from the best picture category of two films Chiu Keng Guans Ola Bola and Shanjhey Kumar Perumals Jagat in nominations for this years 28th edition of the FFM (Sept. 1-3). Instead they are nominated in a best picture (non Bahasa Malaysia) category. The separation has existed since 2011. Though the country produces films in Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil, to qualify for best picture they must have 70% of their dialog in Bahasa Malaysia. This year government film regulator, the National Film Development Corporation (FINAS,) and the Malaysian Film Producers Association (PFM) also added language based categories in the best screenplay and best director categories. The two bodies said that the new categories were being created in recognition of growing Tamil and Chinese film production. Others interpret the division as creating second class awards and protecting the top prizes for Malays. As a protest, leading cinematographer Mohd Noor Kasim this week returned two trophies to Kamil Othman, the chairman of FINAS. The seven times nominee also asked that his nomination in this years event be withdrawn. Actor Afdlin Shauki said that he would also withdraw. Story continues I am Malay but I say, [it appears] the Malays fear competition with other races. I am ashamed as a Malay. Why do we fear healthy competition? Why differentiate with Chinese and Indian? In film, the language of film is whats important, Kasim told the Malay Mail Online. Artistes association Karyawan said that it is in favor of segregation. Many films in other languages produced locally are high in quality and have managed to rake in high film proceeds. Therefore, Karyawan fully agrees with PFMs suggestion to divide the category into Best Film and Best Non-Bahasa Malaysia Film as the solution to the problem that has risen. With the division of the best film category, not only will non-Bahasa Malaysia films be given recognition but the number of films to win awards will increase, Karyawan said in a statement. Like Mandarin Chinese (aka Putonghua,) Bahasa Malaysia, is a linguistic standardization based on the dialect of a single region. Using a Latin alphabet, it became the official language of Malaysia from 1968. Related stories Rajinikanth's 'Kabali' Opens Strongly Worldwide Nickelodeon Opens Lost Lagoon Attraction in Malaysia Australia Strikes Co-Production Treaty With Malaysia MUMBAI (Reuters) - RBI governor Raghuram Rajan said on Tuesday he had never criticised the government in speeches that had triggered strong criticism from right-wing political leaders. Rajan will step down as governor of the Reserve Bank of India on September 4 and his surprise decision not to make himself available for an second term had raised speculation that some of his speeches had upset Prime Minister Narendra Modi's nationalist government. "In none of the speeches I have given has there been an explicit criticism or an implicit criticism of the government," Rajan told journalists following a policy review. "Some of those speeches have been on economic issues outside of monetary policy. I think those economic issues are perfectly within the remit of the central bank because ultimately we have a remit of macro stability." Rajan also strongly defended a speech on social tolerance, which was heavily criticised by some government officials as meddling into political areas. (Reporting by Rafael Nam and Suvashree Dey Choudhury; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore) Wall Street is waddling along. All three major averages (^DJI, ^GSPC, ^IXIC) started the day slightly higher as investors kept close tabs on oil prices (CL=F). Economy watch US productivity fell unexpectedly by 0.5% in the second quarter as workers hours increased faster than output, according to the Labor Department. While unit labor costs at non-farm businesses rose at a 2.0% last quarter after falling at a 0.2% pace in the first quarter. Foreign firms look to US for growth Another foreign investor is buying a US company. Monster Worldwide (MWW) shares surged in early trading. The online job search company behind Monsterboard and Jobs.com is being bought by rival Dutch staffing firm Randstad for $429 million, or $3.40 a share. Thats a 23% premium based on Monster Worldwides closing price yesterday. The deal will expand Randstands online recruiting presence and help it better compete in the US. Gap (GPS) shares fell sharply this morning. It seems the retailers turnaround in June was short lived. Gap posted a steeper than expected 4% drop in same-store sales last month due to declines in its namesake and Banana Republic brands. Coach (COH) delivered earnings that topped analysts estimates, and while revenue slightly missed expectations, sales in its stores in North America increased for the first time in more than three years. News Corp (NWSA), the publisher of the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, posted earnings that came in below forecasts, but revenue beat estimates. Sales rose 5% from a year ago, thanks to a jump in its digital real estate business, but newspaper advertising revenue remained weak. Disney (DIS) is getting ready to report third-quarter results after the bell today. Analysts expect revenue to be over $14 billion. But the company has fallen short of revenue expectations three out of the last four quarters, as its ESPN business has been experiencing a slowdown in subscriber growth. Not fit to lead Fifty Republican national security officials are concerned about a potential President Donald Trump. They feel Trump would put the nations security at risk. Theyve signed a letter saying, Mr. Trump lacks the character, values and experience to be president. He [would weaken] US moral authority as the leader of the free world. Rebel Wilson shares her frustrations with dating on Twitter. (Source: Getty Images) In a tweet about her love life, Rebel vented: Why do guys always go for those bikini-clad vapid skanks? And not the smart, successful Australian girls?? Why do guys always go for those bikini-clad vapid skanks? And not the smart, successful Australian girls?? Rebel Wilson (@RebelWilson) August 7, 2016 She followed up with the standard disclaimer, Just asking for a friend. Just asking for a friend. Rebel Wilson (@RebelWilson) August 7, 2016 The tweet, still up as of the posting of this article, left a lot of fans disappointed with her choice of words. Fans blasted her tweet as slut-shaming, for equating wearing a bikini with being a skank. @RebelWilson does being in a bikini turn u vapid or are only vapid people allowed to wear them? Do Australians not wear bikinis? ???? captain am(ari)ca (@ari_ferrari) August 7, 2016 @RebelWilson calling other women skanks isnt cool, rebel. be better than slut-shaming. nell; (@mostly10) August 7, 2016 @RebelWilson Smart, Sucessful, Bikini Clad Vapid Skaks have their struggles too #StruggleIsReal ???????? AJ (@thisistherealAJ) August 7, 2016 The 36-year-old star is single after splitting with comedian Mickey Gooch Jr. earlier this year. Rebel has already opened up about how hard it is to date in Hollywood. Story continues I guess to make it in movies, a lot of people dont realise how hard it is. And you know, often youre working 16 hours a day, 6 or 7 days a week, sometimes, she told Rove and Sam on 2DayFM. Which means sometimes, if I get a weekend off, I just chill at home, which is not the most sociable thing, especially for a single girl. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. Recalling Kawasaki's Good Times Magazine Kawasaki is this year celebrating 50 years since arriving in the U.S. market and as such has been sharing a few stories from over the years such as the history of its popular Good Times magazine. When Kawasaki rolled out the first issue of Good Times in 1983, corporate magazines were usually a lot of PR fluff from the marketing department. They were free, and worth about what you paid for them. Good Times, by comparison, looked more like a slick monthly, with snappy photography, writing and layout: a company rag actually worth reading. Direct mail marketing put together by folks who actually rode motorcycles, not an outside ad agency. The magazine ultimately reached a circulation of 2.2 million similar to todays ESPN The Magazine. By comparison, even the top motorcycle magazine of the period enjoyed scarcely 25 percent of this circulation. 82Start Good Times took its name from Kawasakis successful advertising tagline, and delivered an upbeat, product-oriented message to Kawasaki customers, owners of competitive brands, motorcycle magazine subscribers, Kawasaki dealers, and anyone else who wanted to subscribe. Averaging about 32 pages per issue, Good Times was published twice a year in full color under the supervision of KMC marketing director Mike Vaughan, who, along with Henry Fiola of The Webb Company in Minnesota, had helped develop the concept for KMC vice president Henry Noda. Good Times was enormously successful. Vaughan recalls. Dealers told us people came in with the magazine clutched in their hands saying, I want this motorcycle! Ultimately though, widespread use of the internet resulted in ink on paper no longer being the best way to reach customers, and so after a decade Good Times magazine had run its race. Industrial goods manufacturer Regal Beloit Corporation RBC reported lackluster second-quarter 2016 results with a significant year-over-year decline in net sales and adjusted earnings owing to macroeconomic woes. Adjusted earnings for the quarter were $1.14 per share compared with $1.53 per share in the year-ago quarter and well behind the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.26. On a GAAP basis, the company reported a net income of $56.6 million or $1.26 per share compared with $62.8 million or $1.39 per share in the year-earlier quarter. The year-over-year decline in GAAP earnings was due to lower revenues. Net sales fell to $838.6 million from $942.2 million in the year-earlier quarter owing to adverse foreign currency translation and an adverse impact due to divestiture. Quarterly revenues missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $860 million. Lower volumes were a drag on adjusted operating profit, which declined 27.5% year over year to $81.5 million in the reported quarter. Segment Analysis Revenues from the Power Transmission segment decreased 11.9% year over year to $189.4 million. Sales were affected by headwinds in the oil & gas and agricultural markets, and negative foreign currency translation effect, which more than offset inorganic growth. Net sales in the Commercial and Industrial System segment were $394.7 million, down 10.5% year over year. The decline in segment revenue was due to sluggishness in the oil & gas sector, a slowdown in the industrial markets of China, and a negative foreign currency translation effect of 1.6%. Net sales from the Climate Solutions segment were $254.5 million, down 11.0% year over year due to a downturn in the Middle East HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) market, lower demand in the residential North American HVAC and water heating markets, and a negative 0.7% foreign currency translation effect. Balance Sheet and Cash Flow At quarter end, Regal Beloits cash and cash equivalents were $271.5 million, while long-term debt was $1,610.5 million. Story continues Net cash from operating activities during the quarter totaled $116.1 million, down from $118.2 million in the year-ago period. Free cash flow was 175.4% of net income or $99.3 million during the reported quarter. REGAL BELOIT Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise REGAL BELOIT Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise | REGAL BELOIT Quote Guidance Revised Regal Beloits second-quarter results were severely impacted by the fragilities in the oil & gas sector and the overall industrial end markets. The company expects its sales to be affected by the continued weakness in industrial markets. Consequently, the company revised its guidance for 2016 and currently anticipates adjusted earnings per share to be in the range of $4.35 to $4.55 per share, significantly down from the earlier projection of $4.40 to $4.80. Regal Beloit continues to focus on simplification initiatives to lower operating costs and improve margins in the future. Regal Beloit currently has a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). Some better-ranked stocks that look promising in the industry include RPX Corporation RPXC, AO Smith Corp. AOS and Franklin Electric Co., Inc. FELE, each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report SMITH (AO) CORP (AOS): Free Stock Analysis Report FRANKLIN ELEC (FELE): Free Stock Analysis Report REGAL BELOIT (RBC): Free Stock Analysis Report RPX CORP (RPXC): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research EDINBURGH (Reuters) - A man was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday for murdering a Muslim Glasgow shopkeeper he had accused of religious disrespect in an attack of "merciless violence." The stabbing to death of 40-year-old Asad Shah, who had just posted a message of religious tolerance on social media during Easter week, shocked the multi-ethnic Shawlands neighbourhood in Glasgow, Scotland's biggest city. " ... this was a barbaric, premeditated and wholly unjustified killing of a much loved man who was a pillar of the local community," Judge Lady Rae said in a statement. "He is described as a peaceful and peace-loving family man who went out of his way to show respect for those of any faith," she added. The judge, who imposed a minimum jail term of 27 years at the High Court in Glasgow, branded the attack as "an appalling display of merciless violence". Sunni Muslim Tanveer Ahmed from Bradford in Yorkshire, had earlier pleaded guilty to the murder, which exposed divisions in Britain's Muslim community. Shah was an Ahmadi, a minority not recognised by all Muslims. Ahmed had said he had acted on conviction that Shah had disrespected the message of the Prophet Mohammad, the judge said, and had expressed no remorse for his crime. "It is clear that you are proud of what you did and you do not consider what you did was wrong," she added. (Reporting By Elisabeth O'Leary; editing by Stephen Addison) Delta: Power cut strands thousands of passengers Thousands of air passengers around the world have been left stranded after a power cut forced the US airline Delta to suspend flights. Republican Maine Sen. Susan Collins said she will not vote for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. With the passage of time, I have become increasingly dismayed by his constant stream of cruel comments and his inability to admit error or apologize, Collins wrote in a Washington Post column published Monday night. But it was his attacks directed at people who could not respond on an equal footing either because they do not share his power or stature or because professional responsibility precluded them from engaging at such a level that revealed Mr. Trump as unworthy of being our president. Collins, who is friends with Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, spoke out in June about her reluctance to endorse Trump, expressing concern over his comments and women and Latinos. At the time, she said she was planning to wait and see what happened because she had always supported the Republican nominee in previous presidential elections. Some will say that as a Republican I have an obligation to support my partys nominee, Collins wrote in the Post column. I have thought long and hard about that, for being a Republican is part of what defines me as a person. I revere the history of my party, most particularly the value it has always placed on the worth and dignity of the individual, and I will continue to work across the country for Republican candidates. It is because of Mr. Trumps inability and unwillingness to honor that legacy that I am unable to support his candidacy. In recent weeks, several prominent Republicans have said they will cross party lines and vote for Clinton over Trump. Collins did not say whom she will vote for. NEWS BRIEFTurkeys president, who is under fire in the West over his crackdown following last months coup attempt, is meeting with Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg on Tuesday to reset relations with Russia. Ties between the two countries have been acrimonious since last year when they found themselves on opposite sides of the civil war in Syria. At the start of the meeting, which began with a handshake, Putin acknowledged their past differences, but noted that rapprochement was necessary. Your visit, which comes amid a very complicated situation in Turkey, indicates that all of us want to revive our dialogue and restore relations for the sake of the Turkish and Russian peoples, he said. Erdogan, in an interview to TASS news agency before the meeting, said much the same thing: This will be a historic visit, a fresh start. I believe that a new page will be opened [during]... the negotiations with my friend Vladimir. Recommended: Will Donald Trump Debate Hillary Clinton? Although it may seem like Erdogans attempt to mend relations is a direct consequence of Western criticism of his crackdown on those in Turkey being blamed for the coup attempt, the overture, in fact, began in June. As we reported at the time, Erdogan, in a letter to Russia, expressed regret for the shooting down last November of a Russian jet near Turkish airspace (the two countries disagreed about which side of the Syria-Turkey border the plane was over). Putin described the planes downing as a stab in the back. Russia, in response, unleashed a barrage of invectives, as well as sanctions, against Turkey. All that now seems like the stuff of historythough there is still the inconvenient matter of the Syrian civil war. Russia sides with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad; Turkey, which wants Assad gone, supports rebel groups, including Islamist ones, who are fighting Assad. But the Syrian leader remains firmly in power more than five years after the civil war began, and Turkey is diplomatically isolated. Its allies in the West have criticized Erdogans crackdown (while Russia has not); the U.S., its major partner, has been cautious about saying whether it will extradite Fethullah Gulen, the Pennsylvania-based cleric Erdogan holds responsible for the coup attempt; and the U.S. is also supporting Kurdish rebel groups fighting Assadgroups Turkey regards as terrorists. Turkey needs allies, and Erdogans visit to Russia, his first since last months coup attempt, is a first step toward winning them over. Story continues Read more from The Atlantic: This article was originally published on The Atlantic. LONDON (Reuters) - Mining giants Rio Tinto (RIO.L) (RIO.AX) and BHP Billiton (BHP.AX) (BLT.L) on Tuesday issued statements attacking proposals for a new Australian mining tax as damaging and unfair. Brendon Grylls, leader of the National Party in Western Australia, has proposed an iron ore levy of A$5 (2.95) a tonne that would specifically target BHP and Rio. "We do not understand why a proposal that is so discriminatory and uneconomic would be targeted at two companies," BHP said in a statement. "Miners in Western Australia are operating in an international market and we have to be able to compete or will lose market share." It added BHP Billiton had paid $65 billion (50.06 billion) in taxes and royalties in Australia over the past 10 years, including $10.6 billion in royalties to the West Australian government. In addition, it said it had invested more than $25 billion into the Pilbara in Western Australia over the last decade. Separately, Rio Tinto said it was also one of Australia's largest corporate taxpayers and has paid royalties of almost $11 billion to the Western Australian government since 2010, on top of the $52 billion spend on local goods and services over the same period. "There are no grounds for a new mining tax in Western Australia," it said. Iron ore has climbed to a two-year high above $60 a tonne, buoyed by Chinese imports, but analysts said prices remain vulnerable in a market that is expected to be oversupplied for the foreseeable future. London-based analysts said Grylls' levy could become punitive. "Any revenue-based tax is always in my view difficult because when the times are good it becomes de minimis, but in the bad times it can become punitive," Jeremy Wrathall, analyst at Investec, said. (Reporting by Barbara Lewis, editing by David Evans) This is a hot TV package that is yet to hit the marketplace but already has the town buzzing. Ive learned that David O. Russell is behind a drama series project, which has Oscar winners Robert De Niro and Julianne Moore attached to star. Details about the show are sketchy, but I hear it is a crime/cop thriller that might be set in the 1990s. It is unclear whether it would be a regular or limited series, but I hear it is designed to run multiple seasons. I hear the show is targeting cable networks and streaming services. With the auspices involved, it is expected to net a series order. In fact, I hear that offers for big commitments are being solicited prior to the pitch going out, which is very rare for a TV series. It underscores just how competitive the current television landscape is, especially when A-list feature talent is involved. For Russells project, that also includes Megan Ellison of Annapurna Pictures, which produced Russells features American Hustle and Joy, Alexandra Milchan and Scott Lambert, who all serve as producers on the series. Once a rarity, now it is not that unusual for top feature actors to headline TV series, especially for a premium cable or streaming network. HBO landed True Detective, starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, and recently Sharp Objects with Amy Adams, while Netflix nabbed Maniac with Emma Stone and Jonah Hill. This marks the latest collaboration between Russell and De Niro, who starred in the Oscar-nominated filmmakers Silver Linings Playbook and Joy. De Niro next portrays disgraced financier Bernie Madoff in the HBO movie Wizard of Lies directed by Barry Levinson. Moore stars in Todd Haynes upcoming film Wonderstruck. De Niro, Moore and Russell are repped by CAA. Related stories 'Hands Of Stone' Trailer: Edgar Ramirez & Robert De Niro In Fighting Shape Weinstein Co./Dimension's Robert De Niro Family Comedy 'War With Grandpa' Breaks Out Next Spring Robert De Niro Will Co-Direct Broadway Musical Version Of 'A Bronx Tale' The Italian luxury brand is launching Rose Goldea, a new ode to femininity and sensuality which draws its inspiration from the love life of the most famous of Egyptian queens: Cleopatra. Rose Goldea is a rich oriental scent which includes Damas rose, the queen of flowers. Available in September. Bulgari has called upon the renowned master perfumer Alberto Morillas (Calvin Klein's CK One, Lancome's Miracle) to create this passionate fragrance which reminds us of the love rituals of Egyptian women. Alberto Morillas explained his creative process: "The creation of Rose Goldea was an extraordinary adventure because we wanted to interpret the emotional dimension of a delicate flower: the highly prestigious Damas rose. The fraction that I used does not have the same scent as a classic rose: with this new fragrance, I wanted to illustrate the flower's true natural freshness, youth and luminosity with the most translucent notes of musk." The fragrance opens with sparkling top notes of rose petal extract, pomegranate heart and musk, combined with Damas rose and jasmine grandiflorum. The base consists of notes of sensual musks, creamy sandalwood and incense. The fragrance's gold and pink bottle is reminiscent of the house's jewelry creations. Its shiny surface and scales are a nod to Serpenti, the iconic Bulgari design. Rose Goldea eau de parfum will be available from September. Price: 49 for 25ml and 128 for 90ml. LONDON (Reuters) - A former deputy property manager in the British royal household has been found guilty of corruption over the awarding of building work contracts at Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace. Ronald Harper was convicted at Southwark Crown Court of conspiracy to make corrupt payments, prosecutors said on Tuesday. Harper worked with an annual budget of 2.3 million pounds ($3 million) and was able to authorise orders worth up to 30,000 pounds, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said. But the court heard that Harper had received over 70,000 pounds in covert payments from companies which were awarded lucrative contracts for mechanical and electrical work in Buckingham Palace, the Queens Gallery, St James Palace and Kensington Palace, and in connection with the awarding of a Royal Warrant. "Ronald Harper abused his position of trust for his own personal gain and to the detriment of the interests of the Royal Household ...," Luke Bulpitt, Specialist Prosecutor in CPS Special Crime Division, said in a statement. Christopher Murphy and Aseai Zlaoui were also convicted of conspiracy to make corrupt payments while Steven Thompson and Glynn Orridge pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud. Harper was found guilty of conspiring to receive corrupt payments from the former owners of a company called Melton Power Services (MPS), which had been granted a royal warrant on Harper's recommendation. Sentencing will be at a later date. Buckingham Palace is Queen Elizabeth's London residence while Kensington Palace is home to Prince William and his wife Kate, and Prince Harry. (Reporting by Stephen Addison; editing by Mark Heinrich) Disturbing divergence Nepals daunting economic laggardness vis-a-vis its neighbours is a key barrier to a matured relationship with them American Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps may have passed a doping test, but he still eases his sore muscles with Chinese homeopathic cupping a vacuum massage technique that improves athletes blood flow. And according to Russian state television, thats basically the same thing as using performance enhancing drugs. Phelps in many respects owes his achievements to vacuum massage, which is how this therapy is described scientifically, state TV network Rossiya-24 broadcast in a special program on Tuesday. Phelps, who won a gold medal in the Rio Olympics this week, drew attention to his use of the cupping technique when he competed with purple, circular abrasions on his shoulders and back. The muscle relaxing routine is used to help athletes recover more quickly from strenuous exercise, and Rossiya-24 claimed in its program that it is therefore comparable to meldonium, the doping drug that got some Russians banned from this years competition. The Kremlin has been furious that certain athletes, including the countrys entire track and field team, were banned from competing in the international games, with President Vladimir Putin calling it blatant discrimination that had gone beyond legal boundaries as well as beyond the point of common sense. Although Russias swimmers were ultimately allowed to compete in the 4100 meter relay against Phelps, they placed fourth while the American superstar took home gold. And when Russian swimmer Yulia Efimova competed in the womens 100m breaststroke race against American swimmer Lilly King, she was greeted with boos. The 24-year-old was banned for 16 months in 2013 after she tested positive for traces of doping drugs, and was allowed to compete after an appeal. She ultimately placed second next to King, who broke the Olympic world record and mocked her competitor for using performance enhancing drugs. If thats what she feels she needs to be able to compete, whatever, thats her deal, King told reporters ahead of her Monday night win. Im here to compete clean for the U.S. and thats what Im going to do. Photo credit: ODD ANDERSEN/AFP/Getty Images Sagan Lewis, who starred as Dr. Jacqueline Wade on the hit 1980s medical drama St. Elsewhere, died Sunday after a six-year battle with cancer, her husband, Oz creator Tom Fontana, said Tuesday. She was 63. According to Fontana, Lewis died at her home in New York City. Born Susan Jane Lewis in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1953, Lewis began her career in acting as a young adult. She joined the cast of St. Elsewhere, for which Fontana was a writer, after the series showrunner Bruce Paltrow created a regular role for her. Also Read: David Huddleston, 'Big Lebowski' Star, Dies at 85 Lewis other television credits included Full Ride, Cocaine: One Mans Seduction, Homicide: Life on the Street and M*A*S*H, appearing on the wildly popular military comedys finale episode. Lewis and Fontana, who met in 1978 while Lewis was auditioning for the acting company at Massachusetts Williamstown Theatre Festival, were married twice. After marrying in 1982 at the home of Paltrow and his wife, Blythe Danner, the pair amicably divorced in 1993. In late 2014, Fontana proposed to Lewis for a second time, and they remarried in July, 2015. Hollywood's Notable Deaths of 2016 (Photos) notable deaths david bowie nancy reagan prince Getty Images Craig Strickland Clayton Taylor Getty Images Pat Harrington Jr. CBS Metropolitan Police UK The Nokia Isle of Wight Festival 2004 Day Three Getty Images alan rickman dead Getty Images Rene Angelil, Celine Dion Getty Images Glenn Frey dead Getty Images Abe Vigoda ABC Joe Alaskey dies at 63 Getty Images Paul Kantner Getty Images maurice white Verdine White prince vanity Rolling Stone George Gaynes Warner Bros. Author Harper Lee with the cover of her second novel, Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images; HarperCollins Actor George Kennedy attends the 75th Annual Academy Awards at the Kodak Theater on March 23, 2003 in Hollywood, California nancy reagan Beatles Producer George Martin keith emerson Frank Sinatra Jr. Rob Ford Dies Phife Dawg joe garagiola WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA - DECEMBER 11: SAG-AFTRA President Ken Howard speaks onstage at the 20th Annual Screen Actors Guild Award Nominations at Pacific Design Center on December 11, 2013 in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images) Garry Shandling Earl Hamner dies Tom Whedon erik bauersfield admiral ackbar merle haggard Doris Roberts Chyna Final Video Message guy hamilton France 24 patton oswalt michelle mcnamara reg grundy william schallert patty duke Gene Gutowski Dies at 90 morley safer CBS beastie boys john berry Cato Fong Pink Panther United Artists Joe Fleishaker Muhammad Ali defeats Sonny Liston for heavyweight champion kimbo slice Daniel Radcliffe and Peter Shaffer theresa saldana Gordie Howe michu meszaros Anton Yelchin Getty Images elie wiesel michael cimino robin hardy garry marshall Story continues Previous Slide Next Slide 1 of 54 A look back at the stars of movies, TV, media and music we lost this year View In Gallery Related stories from TheWrap: Hollywood's Notable Deaths of 2016 (Photos) 'Look Who's Talking' Producer Jonathan D. Krane Dies at 65 David Huddleston, 'Big Lebowski' Star, Dies at 85 By Costas Pitas LONDON (Reuters) - Estate agent Savills (SVS.L) said profits at its British commercial property business more than halved in the first six months of the year, hit by uncertainty before the EU referendum that has made it harder to predict the full-year performance. Savills, which makes around 40 percent of its revenue in Britain, said it had seen a "significant fall" in transaction volumes ahead of the vote, pushing underlying profits for the UK Commercial business down 54 percent in the first half. Commercial property was one of the first areas affected by the June 23 referendum, with investors pulling cash out of funds and forcing many to be suspended -- at one point freezing more than 18 billion pounds in the system. In the residential sector, leading agents such as Foxtons (FOXT.L), Countrywide (CWD.L) and Rightmove (RMV.L) have also reported a fall in transactions as the uncertainty sparked by the historic vote hit a previously booming industry. Savills said it was maintaining its full-year expectations but Chief Financial Officer Simon Shaw said the range of possibilities had widened. "We really just don't know which direction various sub-sectors of the market are going to take in terms of volumes," he told Reuters. "The high is higher, and the low is lower." SIGNS OF STABILISATION Industry surveys had indicated that interest in commercial property was waning in the run up to the vote, with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors reporting the largest drop in investment demand on record in the second quarter of the year. Savills said that had been sparked by many of the larger sovereign wealth and private equity firms sitting on the sidelines in central London, allowing wealthy individuals to get good deals in commercial property. Since then the market had stabilised, it said. "Now, we're back to a more normal market where we've got all the big players back," Chief Executive Jeremy Helsby told Reuters. "Assuming that we start to see volumes picking up, which we are seeing at the moment, I would expect the second-half performance to be better than the first half," he said. Story continues In the British residential market, transaction fee income rose 10 percent in the period but Helsby said the immediate signs were that transactions would be slightly down in London in the weeks since Britain voted to leave the European Union. "I can't give you the stats yet but it would have been quieter than last year," he said. Underlying profit at the firm -- which operates in Britain, Asia, continental Europe and the United States -- rose 11.5 percent to 42.8 million pounds in the six months, with other markets compensating for falling revenue in Britain. Savills was boosted by strong residential growth across its regions and many commercial markets including in China where revenue rose 70 percent. Shares in the firm were up 1 percent to 692 pence at 1010 GMT. (Editing by Kate Holton and Keith Weir) From Good Housekeeping 6-year-old Kimberley Newton-Robinson had hopes of visiting Disneyland just like any other child her age, but the leukemia patient's dream trip took a scary turn when scammers tried to hijack her crowd-funding campaign. Three months ago, her mom Lauren Newton-Robinson set up a GoFundMe page to fundraise a trip to Disneyland Paris. The English family planned to celebrate both Kimberley's seventh birthday and the end of her hospital treatment, but needed over $5,000 to make their vacation a reality. To thank strangers for their generosity, Newton-Robinson posted frequent updates and pictures of her baby girl, but the sweet photos later popped up in a surprising place. Newton-Robinson soon heard from friends about another GoFundMe account using photos of Kimberley, except the poster named "Haylee Smith" requested donations for another girl called "Katie." The page had copied every detail of Kimberley's illness, and the fraudster repeatedly spammed people's Facebook accounts asking for donations. "There's cruel and there's cruel but this is beyond that," Newton-Robinson later told the Mirror. "These people are the lowest of the low." She soon reported the fake page, and while GoFundMe quickly banned the scammer, they didn't have enough information to prosecute the criminal responsible. "Fraudulent campaigns are very rare, making up less than 0.1% of all GoFundMe campaigns," spokesman Bobby Whithorne told the Mirror. "With that said, there are rare occasions where individuals go to great lengths to take advantage of donors' generosity." Whithorne also shared that users who flagged "Haylee Smith" prevented the criminal from withdrawing the $156 she raised, and that GoFundMe is currently refunding the deceived donors. Despite the horrific experience, the coverage of her story has helped Kimberley's actual page get even closer to reaching its goal. If you'd like to contribute to her trip to Disneyland, donate to her campaign here. [h/t Mirror] Berlin (AFP) - Manchester City's huge offer to buy Leroy Sane left Bundesliga side Schalke 04 with no choice but to sell their rising Germany star, according to his now ex-club. Sane, 20, moved for a reported 37 million ($48m, 43m euros) and signed a five-year deal with Pep Guardiola's side, who kick off the new Premier League season on Saturday against Sunderland. And Schalke's sporting director Christian Heidel said "there was no alternative" to letting Sane go, with Schalke unable to match the financial offer City made for a player who had only made 47 appearances in the Bundesliga and played just 11 minutes at Euro 2016. "We've lost a huge talent, who is very clear in his head and with whom I had many a pleasant conversation with," Heidel told German daily Bild. "But he wanted to go and for Schalke it was better, at the end of the day, that he went. "Of course, I am sorry to see him go, but my task was to generate as much money as possible. "That doesn't mean, however, that anyone who comes to me and expresses a wish to leave can also go." Markus Weinzierl's Schalke, who have spent big money on the young Swiss international forward Breel Embolo from Basel, begin their Bundesliga campaign at Eintracht Frankfurt on August 27. Jackeline, 26, holds her son who is 4-months old and born with microcephaly, in front of their house in Olinda, near Recife, Brazil, February 11, 2016. REUTERS/Nacho Doce We're still learning more about the ways the Zika virus affects babies whose mothers get infected. In a new study published Tuesday in the BMJ, Brazilian researchers reported for the first time a link between Zika and arthrogryposis, a severe joint condition that's present at birth. The condition leads to abnormal joint movement. It's a fairly common condition that is present in 1 out of every 3,000 babies. The researchers looked at seven children who had been infected with Zika before they were born. Of the seven, six had joint deformities in both arms and legs. In one, only the legs were affected. The researchers said these cases of arthrogryposis were possibly connected to the nervous system, which is consistent with some of the other birth defects linked to Zika. In April, the CDC confirmed that Zika is a cause of microcephaly, a condition in which the head is born abnormally small. Often, babies born with abnormally small heads suffer from underdeveloped brains and other serious complications including vision problems. Women who are pregnant are at risk of passing along the Zika infection to their unborn children. Microcephaly was common, but not present in all of the children with arthrogryposis involved in the study. Now that the link's been established in this small group, the researchers noted, more research needs to be done to explore the neurological component of the condition, as well as follow-up monitoring to see how the condition plays out as the children grow up. NOW WATCH: Humans are finally starting to understand the octopus, and its mind-boggling More From Business Insider (ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia) Ethiopian security forces shot dead several dozen people in weekend protests across the country as frustration with the government grows, an opposition leader and Amnesty International said Monday, while hundreds staged a rare demonstration in the capital after calls via social media. The government again blocked the internet over the weekend, alleging that anti-peace elements based abroad and online activists were to blame for the violence. In a statement, Amnesty International said at least 67 people were killed in the Oromia region alone when security forces fired on protesters, and that another at least 30 were shot and killed in the northern city of Bahir Dar. The rights group cited credible sources and said hundreds of people were detained. An opposition politician, Mulatu Gemechu of the Oromo Federalist Congress party, told The Associated Press that more than 70 people were killed across Oromia. Many others were injured, and we have lost count of the number of those who were arrested, he said. The protests in several parts of the country at one time highlighted growing tensions between Ethiopias citizens and its leaders. People resorted to the rare acts of carrying banners criticizing political heavyweights and showing off the East African countrys former flag, used by the military government that the current administration overthrew in 1991. We need freedom, one banner said. Demonstrations took place despite the governments warning against unauthorized gatherings. Ethiopia, a close security ally of the West, is often accused by rights groups of stifling dissent. The U.S. Embassy said in a statement that it was deeply concerned with the extensive violence. People rallied around various causes. In Bahir Dar, the northern Amhara regions capital, protesters demanded the reinstatement of the Wolqayit area in the Tigrary region back to the Amhara administration. Story continues The arrest of members of a committee set up to oversee the reinstatement led to violent clashes over the past week. The arrests also ignited weekend demonstrations in the Oromia region. Protesters demanded the release of people detained earlier this year in massive demonstrations against plans by the capital, Addis Ababa, to expand its territory into adjacent Oromia lands. The proposal has since been retracted. Witnesses who insisted on speaking to The Associated Press anonymously for fear of reprisals said anti-riot police also used force Saturday to disperse hundreds of protesters in Addis Ababa who used the Oromia and Amhara issues to vent their anger at the government and call for political freedom. It has now become clear that people cannot hold peaceful protests in Ethiopia, said Seyoum Teshome, a blogger who monitored the demonstrations. Teshome said regional police forces were being replaced by the army, leaving many areas under the militarys control. We will not tolerate bodies that aim to overthrow the government and the constitutional order of the country by force, Ethiopias deputy prime minister, Demeke Mekonnen, told Fana Broadcasting Corporate on Monday. By Erik Kirschbaum and Elisabeth O'Leary BERLIN/EDINBURGH (Reuters) - Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon met the deputy foreign minister of Germany on Tuesday, seeking to strengthen her ties with Europe's economic powerhouse in the wake of Britain's vote to leave the EU - a move Scotland overwhelmingly rejected. Sturgeon has said that Scotland, where 62 percent of voters backed staying in the European Union, must not be dragged out against its will and that she would start preparing for independence to keep Scotland's post-Brexit options open. The surprise visit to establish contact with Berlin may not, however, sit well with some European countries, such as Spain and France, that have been wrestling with regional separatist movements and are opposed to holding any direct talks with Scotland on the terms of Brexit. "The situation in Scotland won't be repeated anywhere else, unless Spain suddenly decides to leave the EU and I don't think that will be the case anytime soon," Sturgeon told Germany's ARD TV, dismissing those fears. "Scotland is in a unique situation...and I think that under these circumstances it's important to stay open for all possible options. And I think that it would be very positive for the rest of the EU if part of Great Britain, if not all of Great Britain, should remain part of the European family of nations." In what was her first visit to an EU capital as first minister since a meeting with EU leaders in Brussels days after Britain's June 23 EU referendum, Sturgeon met Michael Roth, one of Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier's top deputies and also Germany's European Affairs Minister. "Today's discussion has been a welcome and constructive opportunity to strengthen our relations to discuss the way forward for the European Union and how all voices can be heard in that process," Sturgeon said in a statement in Edinburgh. "Scotland chose to remain in the European Union, and the solidarity shown toward Scotland as an enthusiastic part of the EU - demonstrated once again in today's talks here in Berlin has been very welcome." The meeting, however, did not take place at the German Foreign Ministry, which declined to say where it was held. Sturgeon set out the perspective of Scotland, whose resounding vote to stay in the EU was overridden by Britain's overall 52-48 percent outcome in favour of leaving. The head of Scotland's devolved nationalist government has vowed to explore all the possibilities for Scotland to stay in the EU despite the referendum result. In a statement on the German Foreign Ministry website, Roth said: "We had a very pleasant and constructive conversation between two passionate Europeans. I hope that the United Kingdom will find a way forward so that at the end of the day Europe will profit as a whole." Sturgeon has said that a second Scottish independence referendum is a possibility because of the divergence of the EU vote. But she has argued that Scotland may not have to give up its EU membership even if it stays part of the UK. (Additonal reporting by Andreas Rinke; writing by Erik Kirschbaum; Editing by Hugh Lawson/Mark Heinrich) Ghimires Maunata slated for release' Author Suman Ghimires second book, the novel Maunata, is slated for release on Saturday, in the Capital. On May 14th, 2015, an all-star assortment of musicians including the Grateful Dead's Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart gathered at Columbia, Maryland's Merriweather Post Pavilion to celebrate the music of their late band member Jerry Garcia almost 20 years after his death. A document of that concert, Dear Jerry: Celebrating the Music of Jerry Garcia, is due out October 14th, and ahead of its release, Rolling Stone presents the Bob Weir-led performance of "Touch of Grey" from that tribute concert. "The laughs we had together and the music we made together were one and the same," Weir tells Rolling Stone of Garcia. "When we were together, we were always in the creative. And that was the place to be." Other artists at the Garcia tribute concert included jam band progeny moe., Disco Biscuits, Widespread Panic and Yonder Mountain String Band, rock peers Peter Frampton, David Grisman and Jorma Kaukonen, legends Jimmy Cliff and the late Allen Toussaint and contemporary acts Eric Church, Grace Potter and Trampled By Turtles. Don Was served as musical director for the once-in-a-lifetime concert. "I'm loving this," Weir said of the tribute concert. "We can get further and further into the roots of the music that Jerry loved, and I think that could be an endless source of exploration and joy." Dear Jerry will be available on multiple formats including Blu-ray, DVD, CD and digital download. The 150-minute concert film was recorded in HD with true Dolby 5.1 surround stereo and features beloved Garcia cuts like "Friend of the Devil," "Sugaree," "St. Stephen" and more. Visit the Dear Jerry site for more info. Related ON Semiconductor ON reported second-quarter 2016 non-GAAP earnings of 21 cents that exceeded the Zacks Consensus Estimate by a penny. Revenues ON Semiconductor reported revenues of $877.8 million, up 7.4% sequentially but down 0.3% year over year. Also, reported revenues were not only above the companys expected range of $835.0$875.0 million but also greater than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $855.0 million. Revenues in the quarter were driven by accelerating momentum in the automotive and industrial markets. Also demand for mobile devices remained strong. Revenues by End Market Automotive accounted for 36% of total revenue. Segment revenues were flat on a sequential basis but up 15% year over year. The higher demand for ADAS and active safety, LED lighting, power devices, and networking solutions led to the strong year over year revenue performance. Industrial market, which includes Military/Aerospace/Medical, contributed 23% to total revenue, up 7% from the prior quarter. The growth was driven by strength in the security cameras, machine vision, medical, and general lighting related applications. Communications (both networking and wireless) accounted for 18% of revenues and improved 11% on a sequential basis. The increase was due to seasonality and the ramp up of new design wins in various platforms. Consumer brought in 11% of total revenue, up 5% sequentially. The white goods market posted strong growth in the second quarter. Also, demand for gaming and set top boxes led to the upside. Computing generated 12% of total revenue, up 15% from the last quarter. The increase was driven by the improved processing power of the Skylake platform. Also, build-up of performance in power supplies for servers and workstations led to higher revenues in the quarter. Margins Pro forma gross margin was 35.1%, up 136 basis points (bps) sequentially and 51 bps year over year. The increase was largely driven by higher utilization rates, higher revenue and an improved product mix. ON Semiconductor incurred operating expenses of $199.7 million, 5.5% higher than the previous quarter and 2.0% from the year-ago quarter. The company reported an operating margin of 12.3%, up 177 bps sequentially but down 1 bps year over year. Net Profit On a pro forma basis, ON Semiconductor reported net income of $88.5 million or 21 cents per share compared with $70.3 million or 17 cents in the previous quarter and $92.7 million or 21 cents in the year-ago quarter. Our pro forma estimate for the reported quarter excluded restructuring, intangibles amortization and other charges on a tax-adjusted basis but included stock-based compensation. Our calculation may differ from the companys presentation due to ours having made the inclusion/exclusion of some items that were not considered by management. On a GAAP basis, the company recorded net income of $25.1 million or 6 cents per share, lower than $36.0 million, or 9 cents per share, in the previous quarter and $50.7 million, or 12 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter. Balance Sheet Cash and short-term investments balance fell to $588.1 million at the end of the quarter from $619.5 million in the prior quarter. Inventories fell to $750.2 million from $759.7 million in the previous quarter. At the end of the reported quarter, ON Semiconductor was carrying the burden of $2.9 billion in long-term debt versus the lower $835.1 million in the prior quarter. Cash flow from operations for the quarter was about $104.2 million, lower than approximately $114.9 million in the previous quarter. The cash flow was impacted by approximately $24 million accrued cost due to interest expense from the pre-funding of the Fairchild transaction. The company spent $52 million in cash for the purchase of capital equipment and $28 million was used for the repayment of long-term debt in capital leases. Guidance ON Semiconductor expects third-quarter revenues in the range of $885.0$925.0 million, with the median being $905.0 million. The Zacks Consensus Estimate is pegged at $896.2 million. Gross margin is expected in the 34.6% to 36.6% range, both on a GAAP and a non-GAAP basis. Operating expenses, on a GAAP basis, are expected within $225 million to $237 million, and that of $200 million to $210 million on a non-GAAP basis. The company also expects other net income/expense within $9.5$12.5 million, both on a GAAP basis and a non-GAAP basis with a share count of 420.0 million. Story continues ON SEMICON CORP Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise ON SEMICON CORP Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise | ON SEMICON CORP Quote Conclusion ON Semiconductor has a well-diversified business and an end-market focus that would typically generate relatively steady revenues throughout the year. The company reported a strong quarter with both the top and bottom line exceeding our expectations. The company witnessed continued strength in orders in the reported quarter and expects the momentum to continue in the near-to-mid term based on a solid design-win pipeline. Though macroeconomic conditions remain weak, the end-market demand trend is, however, favorable due to seasonality. Management expects communication, consumer and computing to increase sequentially in the third quarter. However, auto and industrial markets are expected to remain flat in the upcoming quarter. During the quarter, the company also provided an update on its acquisition of Fairchild Semiconductor International Inc. The deal is expected to close by the end of this month. The acquisition will propel ON toward a leadership position in the power semiconductor space with combined revenues of roughly $5 billion, diversified across manifold markets with a planned focus on smartphone, automotive and industrial end markets. The company has an attractive product portfolio and is an outstanding manufacturing and operational organization. Currently, it is streamlining its costs, which, in addition to its assets, will boost revenues and cash flow. ON Semiconductor has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Investors may consider stocks like Silicon Laboratories Inc. SLAB, carrying a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), and MaxLinear, Inc. MXL and Microsemi Corporation MSCC, carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report MICROSEMI CORP (MSCC): Free Stock Analysis Report MAXLINEAR INC-A (MXL): Free Stock Analysis Report SILICON LAB INC (SLAB): Free Stock Analysis Report ON SEMICON CORP (ON): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research By Susan Cornwell WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Jeff Flake said on Tuesday that Republican nominee Donald Trump will not be able to win the presidential election, and should not win it, if he maintains the positions that he holds now, including his harsh stance on immigration. In an interview, Flake said he still hopes Trump will change enough that the Republican senator from Arizona will be able to vote for the candidate in the Nov. 8 election. But, Flake said, "It's a slim hope." He said that as things stand, Trump will even have difficulty clinching the state of Arizona if the nominee, who has called for building a wall on the border with Mexico, does not develop a more "serious" immigration policy. Arizona last voted for a Democratic presidential candidate two decades ago. "Given the positions that he's taken, if he continues to maintain those positions, if he continues to hold to the statements he has made, I don't think he can win the presidency, nor do I think he should if he is unwilling to change," Flake said of Trump. "There is a big difference between winning a primary, getting what, 14 million votes, and getting 65 million votes that you're going to need to win the presidency. In between those two numbers you encounter a number of swing voters, independents, who simply don't cotton to the kind of message that he has been delivering. And that's just the reality," Flake said. Flake, 53, has long been one of Trump's more vocal critics on Capitol Hill. Trump's inflammatory remarks about immigrants have been a particular problem for Flake, whose Southwestern border state has a large Hispanic population. Flake was among eight senators who proposed comprehensive immigration reform in 2013. Flake memorably told a reporter last month that he would not be attending the Republican convention to nominate Trump because he had to mow the lawn. Flake told Vanity Fair magazine in July: "I don't think that there's much worry of a Trump presidency if he doesn't change." But he also insists that he will not vote for the Democratic candidate, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Flake, a member of the House of Representatives for 12 years before being elected to the Senate in 2012, said Arizonans are more realistic and pragmatic on immigration than Trump. Right now, Flake said, Arizona is almost a "toss-up" in the presidential election. Flake does not have to run for re-election to the Senate until 2018. His fellow Arizona senator, John McCain, is up for re-election this year, and faces both primary and general election challengers. McCain has said he backs Trump. Flake said he respected Senator Susan Collins of Maine, another Republican, who said in an opinion article published on Monday that she definitely would not vote for Trump. Flake said he was not prepared to follow Collins' example, which did not set off a stampede of Trump repudiations. (Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Jonathan Oatis) By Mathieu Rosemain PARIS (Reuters) - French telecoms operator SFR said on Tuesday a fierce price war in the domestic mobile market showed signs of easing, sending its shares up sharply despite lower quarterly profit. "We are seeing right now a more normalized competitive environment," Chief Executive Michel Combes said in a call with reporters. "There's still promotional activity mainly at the low end of the market, while we are more focused on the high end." France's second-biggest telecoms operator, which posted a 6.8 percent decline in second-quarter core operating profit, is betting on big high-speed broadband and mobile investments to lure customers ready to pay more for improved networks. The domestic industry has been struggling to revive mobile business margins since the 2012 arrival of Iliad's low-cost Free Mobile services. SFR shares were up 12.6 percent at 0839 GMT, on course for their biggest one-day gain since January, after Combes said he expected the pricing environment to improve in coming months. Parent company Altice was up 14.5 percent in Amsterdam after it separately reported a 2.7 percent increase in quarterly operating profit to 2.27 billion euros, beating analysts' expectations thanks to a resilient performance in the United States and Portugal. Altice, which is controlled by Franco-Israeli tycoon Patrick Drahi, also confirmed its full-year guidance. SFR's operating profit decline to 999 million euros ($1.11 billion) in April-June reflected the cut-throat competition and a loss of mobile customers, with revenue down 4.3 percent at 2.78 billion euros. Orange had already signaled last month that pricing pressure remained intense in the quarter. Combes declined to comment on the costs or savings expected from a redundancy plan signed last week with SFR's two biggest unions to cut 5,000 jobs by mid-2019. French newspaper Les Echos has reported that SFR planned to set aside between 600 million and 800 millions euros over two years to finance restructuring that could save 400 million euros annually starting next year. (This story corrects reporting period to April-June from March-June in 8th paragraph) (Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain; Editing by Alan Crosby and Laurence Frost) One of Foxs most talked-about shows in the coming season is sure to be Shots Fired. The midseason event series takes on the vexing problem of racially charged police shootings. The topic could not be more timely after a string of horrifying incidents, from last months shooting in Minnesota documented in real time by a woman on Facebook Live to the slayings of five white law enforcement officers in Dallas by a sniper. Shots Fired was set in motion after the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. Fox Television Group chairman-CEO Dana Walden was struck by the issues and emotions unleashed after the Ferguson killing. She asked Imagine TV chief Brian Grazer to develop a project that dealt squarely with the culturally divisive topic for which there are no easy answers. Grazer turned to Gina Prince-Bythewood and Reggie Rock Bythewood, African-American writer-directors whose pilot script earned the Imagine TV/20th Century Fox TV project a straight-to-series order. Shots Fired revolves around the fallout in a small North Carolina town from two police shootings, one by a white cop and one by a black cop. Sanaa Lathan stars as a special prosecutor appointed by the Justice Department to investigate both cases. The string of police-involved deaths of African-American men have occurred in recent months ensures that Shots Fired will command attention when it premieres next spring. Fox is giving it a prime showcase in the Wednesday 8 p.m. time slot paired with its smash hit Empire. The rise of the Black Lives Matter movement and the cultural tension surrounding police shootings has heightened my commitment to that show, Walden told Variety on Monday during Foxs portion of the Television Critics Association press tour at the Beverly Hilton. Walden praised Prince-Bythewood and Bythewood as incredible storytellers who brought their own history and experiences to the show. Hearing from the couple drove home the importance of material to Walden. Story continues They talked about how their son was about to get his drivers license and the conversations they had to have with him about how to act if hes pulled over by the police, Walden said. I have a 16-year-old daughter whos getting her license. What struck me so deeply was the difference in the conversations that parents have in the same country. It felt powerful and it felt like this is a story that needs to be told. Waldens hope is that Shots Fired will be a compelling dramatic thriller that can also help drive a larger cultural conversation. Episodes of the show have been screened for members of various organizations, including the National Association of Black Journalists, with generally positive reactions. (Because it is a midseason debut, Shots Fired will be unveiled to critics at the January TCA tour). Lathan, Walden added, is amazing in a difficult role. The series also stars Helen Hunt, Richard Dreyfuss, Stephen Moyer, Stephen James, Aisha Hands and Tristan Wilds. Its a special show, Walden said. Hopefully it will be evocative of whats going on in the country in a way that increases conversations and communication. We hope that a big audience will appreciate something that feels very timely and relevant. Related stories Fox Chiefs Talk Reboots, 'X-Files' Future and Strains of Peak TV Era Paul Reiser Has No Plans for 'Mad About You' Revival Amazon's 'Fleabag' Unleashes 'Naughty, Dark' Character for Selfie Generation The Late Late Show producer Ben Winston and his Fulwell 73 production company are laying down roots at CBS TV Studios. The news comes a year and a half into Winston's tenure at the CBS-produced late night show, which has garnered widespread critical praise along with its first Emmy nomination in the uber-competitive variety category. As part of the development deal, the independent U.K.-based production company will create all forms of TV - scripted, unscripted and digital - for the studio, with plans to develop for all linear and digital platforms. Los Angeles-based Winston, who's joined at the company by partners Leo Pearlman, Ben Turner and Gabe Turner, has already found stateside success with the sale of a Carpool Karaoke spin-off series to Apple Music. Much like the hugely popular Late Late Show segment, the stand-alone entry will feature 16 episodes in which stars drive around singing their favorite songs. (What the latter does not include is host James Corden in the driver's seat.) Read more: James Corden's Showrunner on Leslie Moonves' Ratings "Joke" and Simon Cowell's Advice "Ben and Fulwell's creativity and willingness to take risks have made them one of the U.K.'s most versatile, award-winning producers," noted CBS TV Studios president David Stapf in a statement announcing the news Tuesday. "Now, with Ben working his magic in the U.S., he has redefined the late night arena with The Late Late Show with James Corden, turning it into a multiple Emmy-nominated late night talk show in just its first season. The new Carpool Karaoke weekly series is a great start to our partnership with Fulwell 73, and we look forward to more unique and innovative programming across different platforms." Added Winston, a member of THR's Next Gen Class of 2015: "I am so delighted that we are partnering with CBS Television Studios. David Stapf and his team have been the greatest partners on The Late Late Show, and I am so excited about what else we can do together going forward." Story continues Read more: From Colbert to Kimmel: James Corden Reveals the Gifts He Got in His First Week on 'Late Late Show' Pearlman echoed Winston's enthusiasm, highlighting the opportunities as the company best known for its work across the pond turns its attention to the U.S. market. "It's always been a dream of ours to expand into the U.S., and after the success of The Late Late Show, the opportunity to do so in partnership with CBS Television Studios is one that we can't wait to start," he said. "Less than 10 years since forming the company, we now have a chance to create content with America's most-watched network, and we couldn't be more excited." To date, Fulwell's work has spanned TV, film, commercials and music videos. Among its efforts: the forthcoming Usain Bolt doc I Am Bolt, which will be released globally by Universal, as well as David Beckham's Class of 92, also with Universal, and the record-breaking doc Gary Barlow: On Her Majesty's Service. Perhaps even higher in profile, at least among the tween set, is the company's work with One Direction. Winston, who served as an executive producer on Britain's The X Factor, has produced and directed movies, docs and music videos for the group. From ELLE The U.S. women's gymnastics team could've phoned in their routines and still walked away with the top spot. But if they had done that, it would've been boring. And the five women on the American gymnastics team-Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas, Laurie Hernandez, and Madison Kocian-don't do boring. They slay. They went all out, performing some of their all-time best routines. By the end of the preliminary competition, they were nearly 10 points ahead of China. A lead like that is unprecedented. Photo credit: Getty The U.S. team, sparkling in their sequined patriotic leotards, began on floor, where they turned in one crowd pleasing routine after another. Photo credit: EMMANUEL DUNAND/Getty Laurie "human emoji" Hernandez competed in her first major international competition the way she has been performing all season. Photo credit: Getty She was focused and playful, showing off the same smile and charisma that had the crowd chanting "Laurie!" at Olympic trials in San Jose. Hernandez, who competed in just three events, was sharp as a tack on beam to earn the second-highest score of the night. Photo credit: EMMANUEL DUNAND/Getty Of course, everyone was waiting for the Olympic debut of Simone Biles, the three-time world champion who has won virtually every title and accolade since she became a senior gymnast. And it was worth the wait. Photo credit: Getty Biles rocked every single event, starting off with a samba-inspired floor routine (for a little Rio pandering) and then proceeding to the vault, where she executed a beautiful Cheng vault, named for the first gymnast to perform it. Biles did it better than the originator. Take a bow, Simone! @Simone_Biles cements herself as the one to beat in vault. https://t.co/8UlQsUiW6F https://t.co/HxOdu3vmxM - NBC Olympics (@NBCOlympics) August 8, 2016 From there she hit the uneven bars and then went to beam, where she stuck virtually everything. She finished as the top qualifier to the all around final by almost two points. Biles did what everyone expected her to do in Rio. But high expectations often make it a lot harder to pull something off. Perhaps the most exciting part of the session was the showdown between reigning Olympic all-around champion Gabby Douglas and 2012 floor gold medalist Aly Raisman, who were both vying for the second U.S. all-around spot in the final. (Only two gymnasts per team are allowed to advance to the all-around finals, and the first U.S. spot was rightly assumed to belong to Biles.) It came down to the last rotation to determine who would be getting a chance to compete for an all-around medal. Douglas, who looked strong throughout the meet, hit a very solid beam routine. And then she had to sit and wait to see what Raisman would do. Photo credit: EMMANUEL DUNAND/Getty Though the 22-year-old had one big wobble, the rest of her beam routine was almost flawless, including her super-hard double Arabian front dismount. Her beam score of 14.833 (which was the same score Douglas got on the event) was enough to put her ahead by nearly half a point. What this means is that Douglas' run at defending her 2012 Olympic all-around gold medal is over before it really ever started. It was always highly improbable that she'd be able to win a second all-around title because she had the undefeated, unstoppable Biles in her way. But I'm sure it stings that she'll never get a shot. But Douglas' pain and frustration is Raisman's joy. Back in 2012, Raisman found herself on the wrong side of a tie-breaking procedure in the all-around final. She and Russian gymnast Aliya Mustafina had tied for the bronze, but the IOC doesn't allow for ties in gymnastics medal rounds. After the tie-breaking procedure was applied, Raisman found herself in fourth place-with the same score as Mustafina but no medal to show for it. Raisman has been vocal that her comeback was, in large part, motivated by her desire to get the all-around medal she was denied back in 2012. You could sense the urgency all afternoon as she went through the events, turning in some of her best-ever performances across all three apparatuses. Though Douglas had a great competition, she simply didn't have enough difficulty in her routines to keep up with Raisman, who has been beating her throughout 2016. Though undoubtedly disappointed, Douglas was one of the the first to hug Raisman when she descended from the podium after her beam routine. Photo credit: EMMANUEL DUNAND/Getty And Douglas still has a shot to earn an individual medal. She qualified to the event final on the uneven bars. In fact, every single member of the team earn a spot in an apparatus final, as Biles proudly noted in the mixed zone after the competition. In addition to Douglas, Kocian was the top qualifier to the uneven bars final, Raisman earned a spot in the floor exercise final, and Hernandez will be in the beam final. As for Biles-well, she's not only the top qualifier to the all-around final, but she earned the top qualification spot to the vault, balance beam, and floor exercise finals as well. "I'm just so proud of myself and the team," Biles said. "It's just really exciting that we finished qualifications as well as we did." Singapore Tuesday celebrated its 51st anniversary as a republic with a heavily guarded parade after the discovery of an Indonesian extremist plot to attack the city-state. The area around the National Stadium, where the military-civilian celebration took place, was designated a special zone where police had stop and search powers. The navy and coastguard conducted additional checks on vessels out at sea. Air defences were also in place, local daily The Straits Times reported. Singapore has been on heightened alert since Indonesian police arrested six suspected Islamic militants last week in nearby Batam island over an alleged plot to fire rockets into Singapore. The wealthy Southeast Asian island nation, a strong military and economic partner of the United States, considers itself a prime target for terrorist attack. The alleged leader of the Batam group is accused of planning the attack with a leading Indonesian militant who is now believed to be fighting with the Islamic State group in Syria. Speaking in a pre-recorded National Day broadcast on Monday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong repeated warnings of a potential attack on Singapore and called for national unity in case it happens. "If a terrorist attack were to occur here, will we stand together, or will we fall apart?" he told his multiracial nation. Tuesday's parade at the packed 55,000-seat stadium kicked off with a military drill before a festive show featuring some 5,000 marchers and performers from all walks of life, including 150 with special needs. A display of military hardware, traditionally a key part of the parade, was removed this year because of the logistical challenges of holding it in the newly built stadium costing nearly $1 billion. Following independence from Britain, Singapore became part of the newly formed nation of Malaysia in 1963. It broke away in 1965 to become an independent country. SINGAPORE, Aug 9 (Reuters) - A Singapore aquarium has sent two male manatees to the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe for what it says is the world's first repopulation program for the species. Wildlife Reserves Singapore said the manatees, Junior and Kai, were chosen as they have reached sexual maturity and are best friends because of their similar age. Kai was born on Oct. 8, 2009, and Junior on Feb. 2, 2010. The pair were sedated and set off for their 34-hour journey on Monday in crates lined with sponge. They will be sprayed with water during their trip to keep their skin moist. Wildlife Reserves Singapore said they will be the first arrivals at the protected bay of Grand Cul-de-sac Marin, where the National Park of Guadeloupe is heading a repopulation project. Listed as "vulnerable" on the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, manatees have seen their numbers decline in the last century because of hunting, net entrapment and collisions with motorboats, Wildlife Reserves Singapore said. The West Indian manatee species has been extinct in Guadeloupe's waters since the early 20th century due to hunting, it added. The program aims to release the future offspring from the 15 manatees in the project into the wild. (Reporting by Reuters Television) HONG KONG (Reuters) - State-owned China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec) is currently discussing the conditions put forward by British oil and gas major BP plc (BP.L) for its planned exit from their SECCO petrochemicals joint venture, a Sinopec spokesman told Reuters on Tuesday. Reuters earlier reported that BP has hired an investment bank to find buyers for its 50 percent stake in SECCO, a deal that could fetch up to $3 billion. The Sinopec spokesman said the company had not made a decision on whether to buy BP's stake. (Reporting by Denny Thomas and Tris Pan; Editing by Will Waterman) Govt to celebrate four decades of conservation The government is celebrating the first community forestry day on Tuesday at the national level to mark the contributions made by the local communities in protecting and managing forests for over four decades. Siege days. These are gim days for the people of Aleppo, who are suffering under two sieges: the rebel-controlled eastern half of the city is being bombarded by Syrian government forces and Russian aircraft, while the government-controlled western part of the city is under assault by the rebels, led by Islamist fighters. And somewhere in the middle are what the United Nations says are millions of civilians. On Monday, the U.S., Britain, France, New Zealand and Ukraine held an informal Security Council meeting to hear the latest on the fights raging in and around the city. If the fighting continues it is conceivable that civilians on both sides of Aleppo could be cut off from the basic assistance they need. We cannot allow this to happen, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power said. We once again urge Russia to stop facilitating these sieges, Power added, and to use its influence to press the regime to end its sieges across Syria once and for all. Whats at stake. U.N. officials on Tuesday demanded an immediate ceasefire in the city, where two million residents have been left without access to running water or electricity after a series of attacks wiped out the utilities last week. The U.N. is extremely concerned that the consequences will be dire for millions of civilians if the electricity and water networks are not immediately repaired, said Yacoub El Hillo, U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Syria, and Kevin Kennedy, U.N. regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syria crisis. On the ground. The bombing is horrible, one east Aleppo doctor told The Guardian. Russia is taking its revenge and they will not allow any road to be openThey failed in Aleppo, and they want to make up for that failure. One of the big winners in the fight if one can be said to exist may be Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, formerly known as Nusra Front, which late last month claimed to sever ties with al Qaeda. The group was a major player over the weekend in busting through regime defenses in the western and southern parts of the city, and can now lay claim to be one of the most reliable anti-Assad fighting forces in the country. Story continues The Iranian Fars News Agency has also reported the deployment of the Tehran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah to the Aleppo region, and has confirmed the deaths of two Iranians since Saturday. Some Hezbollah fighters are less than impressed with Syrian government forces, as one leaked audio file from a Lebanese fighter attests. Manbij. Further north, close to the Turkish border, U.S.-backed Kurdish and Arab rebels from the Syrian Democratic Forces are squeezing the last pockets of Islamic State resistance out of the city of Manbij, a city which has already seen the displacement of over 78,000 people since the rebels began their attack two months ago. U.S. airstrikes have pounded ISIS positions in and around the city for weeks, including six strikes on Monday. The Pentagon announced last month that it is investigating two airstrikes near the city that may have killed dozens of civilians. South China Sea, again. A group of new photographs collected by the Center for Strategic and International Studies appear to show the construction of several reinforced aircraft hangars at Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief Reefs, all land formations built up by China in recent months, on which the Chinese have also built runways. A larger type of hangar on the islets can accommodate Chinas H-6 bomber and H-6U refueling tanker, a Y-8 transport aircraft and a KJ200 Airborne Warning and Control System plane, the center said in its analysis according to the New York Times. Turkeys new villains. Theyre from a Washington D.C.-based think tank, of course. FPs John Hudson flags the latest attempt by Turkeys pro-Erdogan press to blame outsiders for the Turkish militarys failed July 15 putsch. And its pretty creative. On the night of the attempted coup, as the military plotters sent troops into the streets of Ankara and planes and helicopters into the sky, the D.C.-based Washington Institute was holding an event on the island of Buyukada in Istanbul. On Saturday, a front-page story in the pro-government newspaper Aksam featured photographs of a group of academics who attended the Wilson Center event. It accused them of being CIA agents who helped orchestrate the coup. The Washington Institute denies the accusations, of course. Good morning and as always, if you have any thoughts, announcements, tips, or national security-related events to share, please pass them along to SitRep HQ. Best way is to send them to: paul.mcleary@foreignpolicy.com or on Twitter: @paulmcleary or @arawnsley 2016 Fifty Republican former national security and foreign policy officials have signed a statement declaring Donald Trump unfit to be President of the United States, writing that a Trump presidency would put at risk our countrys national security and well-being. Signatories to the statement include a range of former senior officials drawn who served in Republican administrations in the departments of State, Defense, and Homeland Security as well as intelligence community and White House National Security Council. They write that Trump lacks basic knowledge about American values and interests and is unable or unwilling to separate truth from falsehood. Trump got all Trump on the group, saying in a statement, the names on this letter are the ones the American people should look to for answers on why the world is a mess, and we thank them for coming forward so everyone in the country knows who deserves the blame for making the world such a dangerous place. NATO Germany and the Netherlands are tag teaming missile defense operations with their Patriot batteries, Reuters reports. Brigadier General Michael Gschossmann tells the wire service that an upcoming joint Patriot test between the two countries could form the blueprint for German-Dutch Patriot deployments to places like Poland and the Baltics. Poland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have been hedging against an increasingly aggressive Russia in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine. Syria Russia has been dropping incendiary weapons on residents of the city of Idlib, according to pictures and video posted to social media. The bombing began shortly after rebels broke the siege in nearby Aleppo. Bellingcat has rounded up pictures posted by residents of Idlib as well as Syrias White Helmet emergency services nonprofit showing bomb fragments of Russias RBK-500 ZAB-2.5SM incendiary cluster munitions in the city. Russias use of the munition comes despite its status as a signatory to the Convention on Conventional Weapons, which prohibits making any military objective located within a concentration of civilians the object of attack by air-delivered incendiary weapons. Yemen The U.S. Air Force dramatically stepped up its support to the Saudi-led war against the Houthi movement in Yemen over the past six months, Air Force Times reports. Statistics provided by U.S. Air Forces Central Command show that the service has flown 61 percent more refueling missions to support the Saudi-led war over the previous reporting period in February. In addition to refueling missions, Central Command has also carried out five airstrikes in Yemen in 2016, all against targets from al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The Saudi-led coalition launched air strikes on the Yemeni capital of Sanaa on Tuesday for the first time in five months, and activists on the ground say nine civilians were killed in a strike on a potato chip factory. Nigeria Nigerias Boko Haram is experiencing quite a bit of leadership drama over just whos in charge of the notorious West African terrorist group, ABC News reports. Last week, the group named Abu Musab al-Barnawi as its new leader, making no mention of its previous emir, Abubakar Shekau. This week, the dueling claimants to Bokos throne are dropping diss tracks against each other. In a new audio tape al-Barnawi accuses his predecessor of wanton, excessive violence against civilians, saying we are not killers like him. Shekau posted a video to YouTube reiterating his support for the Islamic State, to which Boko Haram had pledged allegiance, and dismissing al-Barnawis leadership abilities. Business of defense Iron Dome may be coming to U.S. military bases abroad, if its Israeli and American defense contractors have their way. Defense News reports that Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Raytheon are pitching the U.S. Army on Iron Domes Tamir interceptors in order to protect American military real estate from the likes of cruise missiles, rockets, and small drones as part of the services Indirect Fire Protection Capability Increment 2. The Armys Multi-Missile Launcher is already equipped to fire the interceptors and the service carried out a test of the system back in April. Whos where when 10:00 a.m. Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Robert Neller talks about The Future of Expeditionary Warfare at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, along with the think tanks Kathleen Hicks. Livestream here. 9:00 a.m. The Georgetown University Center for Security Studies hosts Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley to talk about the Mad Scientist initiative and the future strategic security environment in 2050. Livestream here. Tweet of the day Monday marked the two year anniversary of the beginning of U.S. airstrikes against the Islamic State. They grow up so fast. RT @AaronMehta The air campaign against ISIS is now a toddler. Photo Credit: Beha El Halebi/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images ROME (Reuters) - The son of Iran's deposed shah has appealed to Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi to intervene to help an Iranian activist jailed in Italy, saying he risks execution if he is extradited. Reza Pahlavi, whose late father was toppled by the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, wrote to Renzi on Monday, two days after Mehdi Khosravi was arrested in a hotel in Lecco, near Lake Como in Italy's Alpine north. Lecco police said in a statement they had carried out an international arrest warrant issued by the Iranian government which aimed to have the 37-year-old extradited "for the crime of corruption". Pahlavi posted the letter, written from his Paris office and addressed to Renzi personally, on a Twitter account where he describes himself as an "advocate of secularism and parliamentary democracy in Iran". "Any attempt to force Mr Khosravi's return to Iran will lead to his incarceration, torture and possible conviction and execution as a political and human rights opposer of the regime," the letter said. Pahlavi said Khosravi had been living in Britain as a political refugee since fleeing the Islamic Republic shortly after "the 2009 demonstrations and uprising" surrounding disputed elections. "This critical humanitarian matter requires your indispensable intervention so that Mr. Khosravi can return to the United Kingdom." A spokesman for Renzi directed a request for comment to Italy's foreign ministry, which declined to comment. Iran's application of the death penalty, which has drawn repeated criticism from human rights organizations, leapt last year, according to the United Nations, which counted nearly 1,000 executions. Khosravi felt unwell after his arrest and was taken to hospital before being transferred to prison, the Lecco police statement said. A judge responsible for preliminary investigations has yet to formalize Khosravi's detention, the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported on Tuesday. (Reporting by Isla Binnie; editing by Mark Heinrich) Sony Pictures Classics has set a Dec. 21 release in the U.S. for Pedro Almodovars Julieta, starring Adriana Ugarte, Emma Suarez and Rossy de Palma. The film, which debuted in Spain in April and screened at Cannes in May, was acquired in June, 2015, by Sony Classics when its title was Silencio. Based on the stories of author Alice Munro, Julieta is about a mothers struggle to survive uncertainty. Suarez and Ugarte play older and younger versions of the films protagonist, Julieta, between the years 1985 and 2015. Silencio is Almodovars 20th feature film and the ninth movie by him handled by Sony Classics, which include Im So Excited, Bad Education, Volver, Broken Embraces, The Skin I Live In, All About My Mother, Talk to Her and The Flower of My Secret. Peter Debruge wrote in his review for Variety: Almodovar has constructed an extremely unconventional mystery, one in which there is no crime or culprit. Rather, his leading lady is herself a riddle. Sony Classics also announced Monday that it had acquired the rest of Almodovars full library of films including Pepi, Luci, Bom, Labyrinth of Passion, Dark Habits, What Have I Done to Deserve This, High Heels and Kika. Related stories Pedro Almodovar Opens Up About Panama Papers, Hollywood's 'Diabolical Sexism' Cannes: Sony Classics Buys German Family Drama 'Toni Erdmann' How Indies Can Survive and Even Thrive in a Blockbuster World Michael Imperioli has committed to Season 2 of Foxs Lucifer. The announcement came Monday afternoon during the broadcast networks Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour, which featured a joint Gotham-Lucifer panel. The deal just closed this morning. Angel Uriel is a brother of the titular devil, played by Tom Ellis. Also Read: Fox's 'Exorcist': Here's Why You Won't Hear Much of 'Tubular Bells' Theme Music Season 2 will revolve around Lucifer Morningstars mom (Tricia Helfer), producers told media members in attendance. In addition to his lengthy run as Chris Moltisanti on the HBO mob drama, Imperioli is known for Law & Order, Mad Dogs and Hawaii Five-0. 18 'Suicide Squad' Characters Ranked, Worst to Best (Photos) suicide squad characters ranked Warner Bros/DC Comics griggs suicide squad Warner Bros/DC Comics suicide squad incubus 2 Warner Bros/DC Comics batman suicide squad Warner Bros/DC Comics slipknot suicide squad Warner Bros/DC Comics rick flag suicide squad Warner Bros/DC Comics enchantress suicide squad Warner Bros/DC Comics enchantress suicide squad Warner Bros/DC Comics jonny frost suicide squad Warner Bros/DC Comics Common Getty Images scott eastwood suicide squad Warner Bros/DC Comics Suicide Squad Warner Bros/DC Comics Harley Quinn Suicide Squad Warner Bros/DC Comics katana suicide squad Warner Bros/DC Comics suicide squad post-credits scene Warner Bros/DC Comics deadshot suicide squad Warner Bros/DC Comics killer croc suicide squad Warner Bros/DC Comics captain boomerang suicide squad Warner Bros/DC Comics el diablo suicide squad Warner Bros/DC Comics Story continues Previous Slide Next Slide 1 of 19 The definitive judgment on who did and didnt suck in the latest DC Comics movie "Suicide Squad" is technically a movie about bad guys, but they can't all be bad, right? Click through to find out! (Spoilers ahead.) View In Gallery Related stories from TheWrap: More 'X-Files'? Fox CEO Says What Has to Happen First Fox's Gary Newman: Killing Pilot Season 'Never Made Sense to Me' 'Sleepy Hollow': How Fox Plans to Retool the Show After Killing Off Abbie Mills 'The X-Files': Fox Boss Explains Why Season 10 Was Challenged Madrid (AFP) - Spain's upstart Ciudadanos party demanded electoral reform and anti-corruption measures Tuesday in return for helping acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy form a new government after months of political limbo. "If they sign, we'll be able to negotiate," Cuidadanos' leader Albert Rivera told reporters, after listing six conditions for his centre-right party's backing. Rajoy's conservative Popular Party (PP), in power since 2011, won June elections but fell short of an absolute majority, winning 137 seats out of 350. That vote was a repeat election after a December ballot was similarly inconclusive. Efforts to forge a coalition to break the deadlock have so far proved fruitless, with rival parties unable to overcome their differences, leaving the country in the hands of a caretaker conservative government. Rajoy has been tasked by King Felipe VI with forming a coalition or minority government, which he will have to push through a parliamentary vote of confidence. But to do so, he will need an absolute majority in the vote -- at the very least, for 32 Ciudadanos lawmakers to abstain as well as the 85 of the Socialist Party, the PP's traditional rivals. The Socialists, who came second in the June elections, have so far refused to back Rajoy. Rivera stressed that negotiations, due to begin Wednesday with Rajoy, only go as far as covering a possible favourable vote. "We're not in the process of talking about entering into a government" with the PP, he said. The conditions include a reform of the electoral law to help small parties and setting up a parliamentary commission of inquiry on illegal party financing. Ciudadanos, a natural ally of the PP, rejects Rajoy's party because of corruption scandals that have tainted its reputation. By Matthew Stock (Reuters) - A British lab is searching for new medicines in the poisonous secretions of some of the world's deadliest creatures, addressing the increasingly desperate challenge of finding viable new drugs. Over-prescription and over-use in farming of antibiotics has given rise to so-called 'superbugs', multi-drug resistant infections that can evade even the medicines designed to kill them. Experts have warned since the 1990s that lethal superbugs were on the horizon, but few drugmakers have attempted to develop drugs against them. Venomtech, based in south-east England, believe help could be found in the unlikeliest of sources; the venom of spiders, scorpions and snakes that is often fatal to humans. Millions of years of evolution has given these creature's venom the ability to target and attack their prey while avoiding the body's defenses. Venomtech scientists hope that an injected drug could perform the same function. When broken down at the molecular level a tiny droplet of venom contains hundreds of individual components that could eventually be made into new drugs, explained Venomtech founder Steven Trim. "The principle of Venomtech is separating venoms out into their component parts and targeting them to the right disease area," Trim told Reuters. He added that his drug discovery team was "putting the right venom for the right drug target so we maximize the hits - and a hit is an interesting peptide that might make it to a drug." Around 400 animals are kept at his lab in Kent, including about 70 species of tarantula and 30 species of scorpion. Many of these kill their prey with venoms that contain hundreds of protein molecules, some of which block nerve activity. Venomtech keep a number of invertebrates which can be deadly to humans, namely the black widow spider and deathstalker scorpion. Trim, who worked for pharmaceutical company Pfizer before founding Venomtech, stressed that the venom extraction process causes no discernible harm to the creatures. "We anesthetize the invertebrates, just to temporarily put them to sleep, it makes it safer for us because if they're immobile they can't bite us. But also it's better for the animals as well. And using a very tiny electrical stimulation, just to contract the muscle and squeeze the gland we get a small amount of venom produced," he said. The venom extracted from each creature can be measured in micro-liters; a thousandth of a milliliter. Nevertheless, this tiny volume holds hundreds of useful molecules. "The average scorpion will only produce 2 or 3 micro-liters. So it's a really small amount. But in that small amount there's a lot of interesting peptides; several hundred different components and several micro-grams of protein in there, so there's plenty for us to work with," Trim said. "We separate that out in a two phase process called high pressure liquid chromatography. And that gives us typically about a hundred fractions per venom, and each one of those fractions may contain 1 to 5 individual peptides. And it's those individual peptides and proteins that are the real interesting things; these are the molecules that convey the biological activity of the venom." Working with scientists from nearby Canterbury Christ Church University, they've been screening their venom-derived 'chemical library' against different diseases. Trim said they've had some extremely encouraging results. "Some of them we found can kill bacteria, bacteria like E.Coli and Staphylococcus, so very relevant at the moment where modern medicines are failing. And we're also finding venoms that are modifying and killing cancer cells," he said, adding that Venomtech is now working with pharmaceutical companies to turn their venom discoveries into the next generation of drugs. Donald Trump A staggering portion of Donald Trump's supporters are buying into his theory that the November election will be rigged, a Tuesday poll from Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling showed. The poll of North Carolina voters, which showed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton up by 1 percentage point, found that 69% of Trump's supporters thought that if Clinton wins the election, it will be because it's rigged. Just 16% thought it would be because she got more votes than Trump. Among all of those surveyed in the poll, 51% said a Clinton victory in the election would be because she won more votes, while 36% said it would be the result of a rigged election. The remaining 13% were unsure whether a Clinton victory would be the result of election rigging. Trump last week began to hint at the defense for a potential loss this fall. "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 that 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 would be rigged "detrimental to the Republic." "The idea that it's rigged, I don't know what he's talking about," he said. "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." The Manhattan billionaire told The Washington Post a lack of voter-ID laws would let people "just keep voting and voting and voting" and brought up accusations that fraud occurred in 2012 against Republican nominee Mitt Romney because there were "precincts where there were practically nobody voting for the Republican." Story continues "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." Matt Mackowiak, the founder and president of the Potomac Strategy Group, repeated one word on numerous occassions to Business Insider in an attempt 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." NOW WATCH: Here's what we know about Trump's youngest daughter, Tiffany More From Business Insider Himalayan hazards Imja Tsho is considered to be one of the 21 most dangerous glacial lakes in Nepal By Gul Yousafzai QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - A suicide bomber in Pakistan killed at least 70 people and wounded more than 100 on Monday in an attack on mourners gathered at a hospital in the southwestern city of Quetta, and Islamic State and a Taliban faction claimed responsibility. The bomber struck as a crowd of mostly lawyers and journalists crammed into the emergency department to accompany the body of a prominent lawyer who had been shot and killed in the city earlier in the day, Faridullah, a reporter who was among the wounded, told Reuters. Abdul Rehman Miankhel, a senior official at the government-run Civil Hospital, where the explosion occurred, told reporters that at least 70 people had been killed, with more than 112 wounded. "There are many wounded, so the death toll could rise," said Rehmat Saleh Baloch, the provincial health minister. Islamic State's Amaq news agency reported the Middle East-based movement was behind the atrocity. If true, it would mark an alarming development for Pakistan, long plagued by Islamist militant violence but most of it locally-based. "A martyr from the Islamic State detonated his explosive belt at a gathering of justice ministry employees and Pakistani policemen in the city of Quetta," Amaq said. Jamaat-ur-Ahrar, a faction of the Islamist militant Pakistani Taliban group, earlier said it had carried out the attack. The movement at one time swore fealty to Islamic State's Middle East leadership, but later switched back to the Taliban. "The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Jamaat-ur-Ahrar (TTP-JA) takes responsibility for this attack, and pledges to continue carrying out such attacks," said spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan in a statement. Only last week, Jamaat was added to the United States' list of global terrorists, triggering sanctions. It remains unclear what ties Jamaat retains to Islamic State, whose leadership is a rival to both the Taliban and al Qaeda over claims to represent the true Islamist Caliphate. In September 2014, Jamaat-ur-Ahrar rejected the Pakistani Taliban during a leadership struggle and swore allegiance to Islamic State, also known as Daesh. By March 2015, however, the group was again swearing loyalty to the main Pakistani Taliban umbrella leadership. The reason for its return to the fold remains murky, but Jamaat also never specifically disavowed Islamic State either. U.S. CONDEMNATION The White House condemned the attack. "We remain resolute in joining with the people of Pakistan in confronting terrorism in Pakistan and across the region," it said in a statement. Television footage showed scenes of chaos at the hospital in Quetta, with panicked people fleeing through debris as smoke filled the corridors. Bodies lay strewn across a hospital courtyard shortly after the blast and pools of blood collected as emergency rescuers rushed to identify survivors. The motive behind the attack was unclear, but several lawyers have been targeted during a recent spate of killings in Quetta, the provincial capital of Baluchistan, which has a history of militant and separatist violence. The latest victim, Bilal Anwar Kasi, was shot and killed while on his way to the city's main court complex, senior police official Nadeem Shah told Reuters. He was the president of Baluchistan Bar Association. The subsequent suicide attack appeared to target his mourners, said Anwar ul Haq Kakar, a spokesman for the Baluchistan government. "It seems it was a pre-planned attack," he said. Ali Zafar, president of the Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan, told reporters in the eastern city of Lahore, "We (lawyers) have been targeted because we always raise our voice for people's rights and for democracy ... Lawyers will not just protest this attack but also prepare a long-term plan of action." Police cordoned off the hospital following the blast, with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Army Chief General Raheel Sharif paying visits to the wounded on Monday evening. In January, a suicide bomber killed 15 people outside a polio eradication center in an attack claimed by both the Pakistani Taliban and Jundullah, an Islamist militant group that has pledged allegiance to Islamic State in the Middle East. Monday's attack was the deadliest in Pakistan since an Easter Day bombing ripped through a Lahore park, killing at least 72 people. Jamaat-ur-Ahrar also claimed responsibility for the bombing. Quetta has long been regarded as a base for the Afghan Taliban, whose leadership has regularly held meetings there in the past. In May, Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed by a U.S. drone strike while travelling to Quetta from the Pakistan-Iran border. (Additional reporting by Mehreen Zahra-Malik in Islamabad and Ruthy Munoz in Washington; Writing by Asad Hashim; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and Simon Cameron-Moore) Suicide Squad billed itself as a movie about the worst of the worst, and moviegoers came out in droves to get some villainous action last weekend to the tune of a record-breaking $135.1 million box-office haul. But given that the DC Comics baddies have now attracted so much attention, do the actors playing them think that, perhaps, theyre also now role models? That was the question posed to the cast of director David Ayers blockbuster by Yahoo Movies last week, and as the video above proves, the stars were more than a bit hesitant to label their neer-do-well characters paragons of virtue. As Cara Delevingne (The Enchantress) states, theyre more akin to anti-role models a sentiment with which co-star Will Smith (Deadshot) agreed, saying that while they do wind up saving New York City by storys conclusion, Deadshot and company are really figures embarking on their first steps toward redemption. Writer/director Ayer, meanwhile, confessed that he wouldnt want his kids growing up to be like his comic book-based criminals. Nonetheless, he thinks the key to their appeal is that theyre bad guys, but theyre not bad people. They have good hearts. You can hear the entire Suicide Squad gangs thoughts on their protagonists degree of evil minus Jared Leto, whose Joker would no doubt argue in favor of being a malevolent role model in the above video. The film is now in theaters. Watch the Suicide Squad cast talk spoilers: Brace yourselves for a summer of Instajealousy -- the fashion world has officially gone on vacation. But as the stars kick back and enjoy the good life, their social media updates are gold for updating your summer beauty look. Today let's take a look at the French model Cindy Bruna, who is combining sport with taking it easy on vacation in the south of France. Boat trips, lounging on the beach, diving and horse-riding: all these ingredients combine to make a simple family vacation for the internationally famous French model Cindy Bruna. This leggy Frenchie has headed for the south of France, where she grew up, so she can recharge her batteries before the fashion industry gets back into gear in the fall. On Tuesday, August 9, she updated her 200,000 Instagram followers with a smiling photo of herself on a horse. Cindy Bruna seems to be a beginner in these matters as she posted a very similar photo five days earlier with the comment "A passion is born". On the fashion front, the model was dressed for the part with riding pants and a comfy gray sweatshirt that left room to move. And unlike common mortals, she looks great in her horse-riding helmet. In just a few short years, Cindy has seen her career take off, with covers for big magazines and photo shoots for fashion heavyweights like Prada. But she's had the most success on the catwalk, as she's been one of the most requested models during the various Fashion Weeks. Big name designers and brands such as Elie Saab, Jean Paul Gaultier, Balmain, Alexandre Vauthier, and of course Victoria's Secret, can't get enough of Cindy! A Kentucky police department is hunting for a man who was caught on video setting himself on fire while attempting to burn down a business. The Madisonville Police Department has released surveillance footage of the incident, which happened on Sunday, August 7. In the video, two people are seen attempting to set fire to the business. A man is seen in the video placing what appears to be a Molotov cocktail at the building, but when he attempts to use a second device, he sets himself on fire. His leg is seen on fire as he runs across the parking lot, attempting to put out the flames. He flings off one shoe that is still on fire. He then uses a third device before getting into the vehicle with a second suspect and leaving. Credit: YouTube/Madisonville Police Department BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian government forces and their allies bombarded insurgents in southwestern Aleppo on Tuesday, close to where rebels recently opened a corridor into the city's opposition-held eastern sector, pro-Damascus media reported. Hezbollah's Al Manar TV said government forces had advanced to cut off rebel progress into opposition-held areas of Aleppo. A rebel official denied any government advance in the area. Fighting in Syria's five-year civil war has in recent months focused on Aleppo, Syria's largest city before the conflict. Nearly 2 million people still live there. Aleppo is split between the government-controlled west and rebel territory in eastern neighborhoods, which last month government forces put under siege by cutting the opposition supply route from the north. Rebels effectively broke that siege in an assault on a major government military complex on Aleppo's southwestern outskirts on Saturday, opening a corridor linking the eastern sector with insurgent territory. At the same time, they cut the main supply route to government-held Aleppo, raising the prospect of insurgents in turn besieging those areas. On Tuesday, government forces backed by intense aerial bombardment recaptured some terrain and closed off the rebel corridor, pro-Damascus media outlets including Hezbollah's Al Manar TV reported. Lebanese Shi'ite Muslim group Hezbollah fights on the side of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. A rebel official denied there had been a government gain. "There's no advance, nothing," said Abu al-Hasanein, a senior commander in Fateh Halab, the coalition of moderate rebel groups inside the city. "The situation is good. There's a lot of bombing, but the brothers (fighters) are taking cover, until they start a new phase" in the battle, he said. Ahmed Hamaher, a spokesman for the Nour al Din al-Zinki insurgent group, said government forces had briefly overrun an area called Telat al-Snobarat, as reported by a pro-Damascus channel, but had been beaten back and the territory was recovered by rebels. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government forces had not taken control of the southwestern areas that would cut the rebel corridor, but had temporarily blocked movement of insurgents with bombardments. The British-based monitoring group said Hezbollah fighters were involved in the battles. (Reporting by John Davison; Editing by Tom Heneghan) BERLIN (Reuters) - German police have arrested a 24-year-old Syrian refugee after receiving a tip-off that he was planning a possible Islamist-motivated attack, state officials in North-Rhine Westphalia said on Tuesday. Germany, Europe's economic powerhouse and the destination for more than 1.3 million migrants in the last year, is on high alert after two attacks claimed by Islamic State that left several injured and the two attackers dead. The Syrian man, who was arrested in the neighboring state of Rhineland-Palatinate on Friday, remains in police custody, the North-Rhine Westphalia interior ministry said in a statement. "Investigations conducted thus far have found no evidence of a concrete threat," it said. Earlier, Germany's Bild newspaper said the authorities had arrested what it called "a suspected high-ranking Islamic State militant" in the town of Mutterstadt. But a spokesman for the North-Rhine Westphalia interior ministry later told Reuters that "the man arrested was not a high-ranking member" of IS. German public broadcaster SWR said he was born in Damascus and arrived in Germany as a refugee in early 2016. It said the state prosecutors office in Duisburg had been observing him as part of an investigation. Both SWR and Bild said that authorities were investigating a possible attack at the start of the season of Germany's top soccer league, the Bundesliga, on August 26. "There are indications that something was being planned for the start of the Bundesliga season," an interior ministry official from Rhineland-Palatinate in Mainz was quoted saying. Bild said in its online edition that the man had been arrested during a police stop. It said the authorities had received a tip-off about the man from a prison in North Rhine-Westphalia. (Reporting by Caroline Copley, Sabine Ehrhard, Andrea Shalal; writing by Erik Kirschbaum; Editing by Hugh Lawson) San Jose (AFP) - Thousands of taxi drivers upset at Uber's threat to their livelihoods blocked key roads in and near Costa Rica's capital on Tuesday, with dozens arrested amid clashes with police, officials said. Anti-riot officers intervened to prevent protesters from cutting off access to the country's main airport northwest of San Jose. In the east of the city, a violent confrontation with police resulted in the arrest of four taxi drivers. TV news images showed a police officer with his face bloodied. At least 70 other taxi drivers were arrested in other parts of the city for blocking roads, the government said. Police seized some 20 taxis. The head of Costa Rica's police force, Juan Jose Andrade, said on Twitter that police found nails strewn across one road. The taxi drivers called the protest to demand the government block Uber's smartphone app. The US-based internet ride-hailing company operates in Costa Rica without government authorization. It responded to the taxi protest against it by offering fare discounts to passengers in San Jose. Uber has grabbed around 35 percent of passengers from taxis in Costa Rica since entering the country mid last year, according to a recent survey by the Cid Gallup company. The Pennsylvania district attorney who prosecuted the teens convicted of throwing a rock through a woman's car windshield and leaving her brain damaged claims the four young men are also responsible for her husband's suicide two years later. "The cause physically may have been a self-inflicted gunshot wound, but it was [the boys' actions] that killed him," D. Peter Johnson, the Union County prosecutor, tells PEOPLE in an emotional interview Tuesday. Randy Budd had devoted his life to caring for his wife Sharon Budd after she was left severely injured and unable to perform basic tasks for herself after a 5 lb. rock thrown from a Union County, Pennsylvania, highway overpass crushed her skull. She had been driving from her home in Ohio to New York City to see a Broadway show with her husband and daughter in July 2014. On Saturday, Randy, 55, was found dead in the couple's Ohio home from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Johnson, who prosecuted Keefer McGee, Tyler Porter and Dylan and Brett Lahr for the incident, says that Randy "was a special kind of person, he was strong, kind, articulate... he faced this tragedy with strengtha that strength on a day to day basis, none of us can measure or imagine. And to see that come to an end is something truly tragic." Sharon, a former middle school language arts teacher, requires round-the-clock care following the incident, Johnson says. "[She] can't be left alone for a minute," he tells PEOPLE, adding that Randy was a "loving and caring" caretaker. Teens Who Crippled Sharon Budd with Rock Are Responsible for Husband's Suicide, D.A. Says| Crime & Courts, Death, Suicide and Attempts, True Crime Last year, Dylan and McGee pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in the incident, and were sentenced to minimum terms between 1 year and 4 years. Porter and Brett pleaded no contest to criminal conspiracy to commit aggravated assault. Porter will serve at least 22 months in a state prison, while Lahr was sentenced to a minimum of 18 months, his lawyer R. Bruce Manchester told PEOPLE last year. "Dylan appreciates the seriousness and magnitude of the injuries that Ms. Budd has suffered," Manchester told PEOPLE at the time. "He is, in my opinion, very remorseful. He's willing to pay his dues." Additionally, WNEP reported that McGee, Porter and Dylan apologized to Sharon for their roles in her injuries. Dylan's attorney tells PEOPLE that "during the course of the criminal defense, I directed [Dylan] not to speak to anyone, including the Budds." Manchester said that Dylan wanted to express remorse to the family, but under his direction, waited until he was in open court. In court, Manchester said, Dylan faced the Budd family and offered apologies. Johnson says the men can't face criminal repercussions for Randy's death, even if it was allegedly indirectly caused by Susan's injury. Teens Who Crippled Sharon Budd with Rock Are Responsible for Husband's Suicide, D.A. Says| Crime & Courts, Death, Suicide and Attempts, True Crime "My heart goes out to family and the kids," says Johnson. "It's just layer after layer of tragedy." Before taking his own life, Randy texted several family members, telling them he loved them and made several phone calls to his brother, Harry Campbell, chief investigator for the Stark County Coroner's Office, told PEOPLE. In addition, he sent a message to Pennsylvania state Sen. Gene Yaw urging him to "please" get legislation passed to require fencing on highway overpasses, PennLive reported. Randy, who was vice president of sales and marketing of Radius Hospitality, a hotel management, sales and revenue management company, is survived by Sharon and daughter Kaylee, as well as sons Lucas, James and Joe. Of the Budds, Johnson tells PEOPLE, "They're terrific people... They're just us, and that's us suffering." Indian activist ends hunger strike after 16 years (Update) One of India's most prominent political activists ended a 16-year hunger strike Tuesday, licking honey from her hand and declaring "I will never forget this moment." From Popular Mechanics A man suffering a pulmonary embolism while behind the wheel of his Tesla Model X was able to activate the car's semiautonomous Autopilot feature. And then his car drove itself to the hospital. Joshua Neally recounted his story fully to Slate, but in a nutshell: Last month, Neally was driving on the highway near Springfield, Missouri when he began to feel intense pain in his chest and abdomen. He was able to quickly call his wife, and the two agreed he should go to the hospital. He doesn't remember much after that but arrived safe and sound. Looking back, Neally isn't sure he made the right split-second decision to trust the car. He could have also pulled over to the side of the road and dialed 911. Of course, the ambulance would have also had to get there in the first place, and Neally wonders if he could have even pulled over in the first place. Either way, the survival story is very good news for Neally and also for Tesla, which has gotten a rash of bad publicity since the first fatal crash involving Tesla's Autopilot feature. Source: BBC You Might Also Like From Popular Mechanics Texas has made a massive investment in wind power, and the turbines are starting to move. 18,000 megawatts (MW) of wind generation capacity are already up and running, and 5,500 more are coming soon. But there's a problem: It's hard to build the infrastructure to get all that energy to people. There's a serious possibility that turbines will have to be turned off at times to keep from overloading the system. It wasn't supposed to be this way. Back in 2014, Texas unveiled the Competitive Renewable Energy Zone (CREZ), a $6.8 billion transmission line project that spanned 3,600 miles of the Lone Star State. Meant as a hub for multiple major metro areas including Dallas-Forth Worth, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio. "It's a major milestone," Terry Hadley, a spokesman for the Public Utility Commission, told The Texas Tribune as it neared completion. Going one step further, Jeff Clark, executive director at the Wind Coalition, a regional partner of the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), predicted that "CREZ will turn out to be the most visionary thing this state has ever done electricity-wise." That was then. Now Texas is expecting 21,000 MW of electricity, and CREZ is only built to handle 18,500. To put that in context, a typical coal plant handles 600 MW. That might mean that turbines will have to rest idle at times. This isn't the first time or place for this to happen. The UK has also struggled with the challenge of surplus power, and energy surpluses in Chile-which have resulted in straight-up free power-are starting to have negative effects on the energy industry. It's not the worst problem to have, but it's still a problem. There are two places Texas can go from here. It can build even more infrastructure, which it's planning on doing with the Panhandle Renewable Energy Zone, or PREZ. But after the large investment in CREZ, the state is taking a cautious view of further transmission projects. It can also export its energy, and considering how Xcel announced a $400 million project to build wires that can reach New Mexico, it's a safe bet to say that Texas wind will soon be powering homes in the Land of Enchantment. Story continues Source: MIT Technology Review You Might Also Like An infant with the birth defect microcephaly died shortly after birth, the Texas Department of State Health Services announced on Tuesday. It is the first Zika-related death reported in Texas. The health department says the infant recently died in Harris County, a region of Texas that contains Houston. The mother of the infant was in Latin America during her pregnancy where she was infected with the virus. The fetus also contracted the virus, and the health department says the infants birth defect and Zika infection were confirmed via testing. As of now, Texas does not have any cases of Zika spreading from local mosquitoes. The state has reported 99 case of Zika from travelers, and a total of two infants with microcephaly, both in Harris County. Zikas impact on unborn babies can be tragic, and our hearts are with this family, Dr. John Hellerstedt, Texas Department of State Health Services commissioner, said in a statement. Our central mission from the beginning has been to do everything we can to protect unborn babies from the devastating effects of Zika. A region in Florida north of downtown Miami is experiencing local transmission of the virus from mosquitoes. As of Monday, the area has 17 cases of Zika that are not travel-related. Florida has more than 370 travel-related cases of Zika, too. AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - A Texas man who managed an orphanage in Malawi was sentenced on Tuesday in federal court to 25 years in prison for sexually abusing children in his care, U.S. prosecutors said. Gerald Campbell, 66, of Odessa, who pleaded guilty in May, could have faced up to life in prison, according to papers filed in federal court in Texas. Campbell reached a plea agreement and admitted to engaging in sexual acts with eight minors, all of whom were orphans living at the Victory Christian Childrens Home in Malawi between 1997 and 2009, U.S. prosecutors said. "Campbell admitted that he knew that what he was doing was wrong and that he thought nobody would believe the minors if they reported the abuse," they said in a statement. He told U.S. investigators he lured children, including one infected with HIV, into his home to sexually abuse them. The home had more amenities than the orphanage and he used that to entice a few of the children to live with him for several months, court papers said. (Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Bill Trott) One of the proudest moments for Thai weightlifter Sinphet Kruaithong's family was unfortunately also one of the most heartbreaking. Kruaithong's grandmother, Subin Khongthap, died while watching her 20-year-old grandson win the bronze medal in the men's 56 kg. weight class early Monday morning, according to multiple reports. Khongthap, whose age has been reported at 82 and 84, was at a viewing party at the Kruaithong family home in Ban Phon Muang of Chumphon Buri district when she collapsed while cheering for her grandson. Khongthan reportedly regained consciousness 5 minutes later and was taken to the local hospital where she was pronounced dead. "The initial assumption is that she died from heart failure but we have to wait for the hospital's result," Surin police officer Somwang Prangprakoan confirmed to AFP. "I'm not sure if she was too excited, or if maybe she was already ill." Her grandson was not made aware of the death when he gave a post-podium interview. Kruaithong, who is the second Thai athlete to medal at the Rio games, placed third behind China's Long Qingquan and North Korea's Om Yun Chol. photo courtesy of Netflix Its been a bad year for people who like fictional depictions of essential music. In February, viewers flinched through Vinyl, the Martin Scorsese/Mick Jagger-produced ahistorical flop about the birth of New York punk in the 70s. June brought Roadies, Cameron Crowes strained mash-note to the folks who assemble arena rock shows, while that same month saw the second season of Sex and Drugs and Rock n Roll, a cranky Dennis Learys sitcom dressed up in wizened leather-drag. Musical presentations on television havent stooped this low since the debut of The Partridge Family in 1970. The best of the genre the home screen has produced of late Empire had to resort to camp to charm us. You couldnt blame anyone, then, for coming to the latest reach for musical greatness, The Get Down, with a wary eye. (It debuts on Netflix this Friday, Aug. 12). It doesnt help that reports have circulated about problems with the shows production. According to Variety, the glitches included the firing of several writers, a switch in show runners, and the constant need to nag Sony Pictures to cough up more dough. According to Varietys sources, such issues bloated the series budget to least $120 million, making it, potentially, Netflixs answer to Heavens Gate. Of more concern, director Baz Luhrmann isnt known for nuance or veracity in his musical depictions. I call to the stand the windy, and barely coherent, Moulin Rouge. Also, the director makes an odd fit for a show thats meant to bore into the birth of hip-hop, during the Bronx is burning era of the late 70s. Imagine my surprise and delight, then, to find that the three episodes of the series provided to critics (out of a full 12) couldnt be more kinetic, colorful, or touching. Notice that I didnt call it realistic, a measure made irrelevant by the particular style of both Luhrmann and hip-hop itself. Over-the-top would be a conservative description of the directors approach (also kindly labeled operatic). Luckily, hip-hop soars on exaggeration, elaborated through its boastful raps, out-sized personae, gravity-defying dancing, and Technicolor graffiti. Story continues To capture the look and feel of the setting, Luhrmann mixes actual footage of the post-apocalyptic 70s Bronx with his own littered sets and broadly drawn characters. He took key consultation from a smart group of expert witnesses, including Grandmaster Flash, Nas, Kurtis Blow, and Nelson George. The shows scenario (co-conceived with Stephen Adly Guirgis.) includes a depiction of Grandmaster that treats him with the aura of myth. The series central graffiti artist, Shoalin Fantastic (expertly embodied by Shamiek Moore), represents another super-hero in the flesh. With his fleet moves, beautiful face, and trademark red Pumas, Shoalin gracefully races through the series like hip-hops answer to the Flash. The slack-jawed awe accorded these characters represents the point of view of the teenage friends at the series core, centered on Ezekial Books Figuero (Justice Smith). Hes a poet who will grow into a rap star, a role not yet defined in the era the series depicts. Like Vinyl, which was set three years before punk exploded, The Get Down takes place before its genre found its shape. At the time, disco, funk, and Latin music still ruled the South Bronx. Hip-hop represents the future, and these characters help provide a path to it. The storyline that takes us there isnt any more substantial than the one that flummoxed through Vinyl. But, like many movie musicals, plot isnt the point. Instead the focus falls on the movement of the camera, the hues of the cinematography, the rhythm of the editing, and the integration of soundtrack and image. The choreography also proves key. It hits just the right mix of naturalism and caprice. The characters seem to dance even when theyre standing still. Luhrmanns busy camera work helps articulate their fluidity. Its fidgety and sweeping in just the right measure. The look and story offer a smart mash-up of a many urban film classics, including West Side Story, The Warriors, Wild Style, Kojak, Enter the Dragon, and the funkiest productions of the Blaxploitation era. The coolest sections look like the witty cartoon cover of Miles Daviss 1972 album On the Corner come to life. The soundtrack to The Get Down offers just as much animation. It works in well-known period songs by artists like Earth, Wind & Fire to Garland Jeffries, plus original pieces and recent releases, like Michael Kiwanukas cinematic Black Man in a White World. Along the way, viewers get some musical schooling. In one pivotal scene, Shoalin divines the secret arts of scratching and sampling, using as its real-life role model the Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock hit It Takes Two. The segment is so exhilarating, you wont mind that the song wasnt produced until 11 years after this scene takes place. In the episodes provided by Netflix, the characters stick to their bombed-out South Bronx setting. Future installments promise to take us down to Studio 54, CBGB, and the early Soho art galleries. Hopefully, that will help it capture some of the confluence illuminated by Will Hermess excellent book, Love Goes to Building on Fire, which draws a link between punk, hip-hop, salsa, and disco. The third segment in the series recreates the night of the 1977 blackout, which resulted in some of the worst rioting the city has ever seen. But The Get Down also embraces the romantic aspirations of the people living through it. At the end of episode, lead character Figuero ascends the fire escape with a girl he loves while a ruminative take on the Supremes first post-Diana Ross hit, Up the Ladder to the Roof, serenades them. Its the perfect romantic capper to a series that cannily shuttles between comic book drama and Biblical fable. I, for one, cant wait to binge-watch all the chapters to come. NEW DELHI, Aug 10 (Reuters) - By abandoning confrontation and seeking consensus, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pulled off his biggest reform yet, securing the unanimous support of both houses of parliament for a planned Goods and Services Tax (GST). For a story, click here: Here's a timeline of how Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley first brought India's federal states on board, before finally closing the deal at a series of meetings with an opposition Congress party that had become increasingly isolated. May 19 - Congress, which suffered its worst-ever election defeat at the hands of Modi in 2014, is punished by voters in a round of regional elections. June 11 - Further losses in elections to the upper house mean that Congress and its fellow holdout, Tamil Nadu's ruling party, would struggle to muster the one-third of votes needed to stop a constitutional amendment to enable the GST. June 15-16 - Jaitley wins the full support of West Bengal, a key swing state. Congress's anti-GST front is crumbling. July 15 - Jaitley holds formal talks on the GST with Congress party negotiators for the first time in nine months. July 17 - At an all-party meeting, Modi urges opposition parties to put national interests above all else and back the GST bill. July 19 - Jaitley holds a second round of talks with Congress. He also meets Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who rules in an alliance with Congress. Kumar is placated by a government offer to delay a controversial piece of legislation and his party publicly backs the GST the next day. July 26 - Jaitley offers to compensate states for five years for all revenue losses arising from the GST. The states are fully on board. July 27 - Congress proposes tweaks to the GST amendment. They are approved by Modi's cabinet that evening. July 28 - Two more meetings are held but Jaitley resists a Congress demand to anchor the GST rate at 18 percent. Aug 1 - Congress tells Jaitley it will back the bill. Story continues Aug 3 - The constitutional amendment bill passes the upper house, with 203 votes in favour and none against, after lawmakers from Tamil Nadu walk out. Aug 8 - The lower house unanimously approves the amendment. WHAT HAPPENS NEXT - At least half of India's states and self-governing union territories need to back the GST amendment. - The GST Council, a forum bringing together the centre and the states, should draft the key terms and scope of the GST. The government's chief economic adviser has recommended a main rate of 18 percent, but many states want it to be higher while Congress wants it to be capped. - Two new GST bills are expected to come before parliament in the winter session that begins in November. The states, too, are required to pass their own GST bills. - The government targets a GST launch date of next April 1, the start of India's financial year, although experts say that deadline is likely to slip. (Reporting by Rajesh Kumar Singh and Manoj Kumar; Writing by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Kim Coghill) NEW DELHI (Reuters) - By abandoning confrontation and seeking consensus, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pulled off his biggest reform yet, securing the unanimous support of both houses of parliament for a planned Goods and Services Tax (GST). For a story, click here: Here's a timeline of how Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley first brought India's federal states on board, before finally closing the deal at a series of meetings with an opposition Congress party that had become increasingly isolated. May 19 - Congress, which suffered its worst-ever election defeat at the hands of Modi in 2014, is punished by voters in a round of regional elections. June 11 - Further losses in elections to the upper house mean that Congress and its fellow holdout, Tamil Nadu's ruling party, would struggle to muster the one-third of votes needed to stop a constitutional amendment to enable the GST. June 15-16 - Jaitley wins the full support of West Bengal, a key swing state. Congress's anti-GST front is crumbling. July 15 - Jaitley holds formal talks on the GST with Congress party negotiators for the first time in nine months. July 17 - At an all-party meeting, Modi urges opposition parties to put national interests above all else and back the GST bill. July 19 - Jaitley holds a second round of talks with Congress. He also meets Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who rules in an alliance with Congress. Kumar is placated by a government offer to delay a controversial piece of legislation and his party publicly backs the GST the next day. July 26 - Jaitley offers to compensate states for five years for all revenue losses arising from the GST. The states are fully on board. July 27 - Congress proposes tweaks to the GST amendment. They are approved by Modi's cabinet that evening. July 28 - Two more meetings are held but Jaitley resists a Congress demand to anchor the GST rate at 18 percent. Aug 1 - Congress tells Jaitley it will back the bill. Story continues Aug 3 - The constitutional amendment bill passes the upper house, with 203 votes in favour and none against, after lawmakers from Tamil Nadu walk out. Aug 8 - The lower house unanimously approves the amendment. WHAT HAPPENS NEXT - At least half of India's states and self-governing union territories need to back the GST amendment. - The GST Council, a forum bringing together the centre and the states, should draft the key terms and scope of the GST. The government's chief economic adviser has recommended a main rate of 18 percent, but many states want it to be higher while Congress wants it to be capped. - Two new GST bills are expected to come before parliament in the winter session that begins in November. The states, too, are required to pass their own GST bills. - The government targets a GST launch date of next April 1, the start of India's financial year, although experts say that deadline is likely to slip. (Reporting by Rajesh Kumar Singh and Manoj Kumar; Writing by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Kim Coghill) Indian activist Irom Sharmila ends 16-year long hunger strike A 44-year-old activist who has been on a hunger strike for nearly 16 years to protest alleged brutality by India's military said Tuesday that she will end her fast and run in state elections. With fall festival fever revving up, the Toronto International Film Festival has unleashed the offerings that will make up its Midnight Madness section in September. Several alumni are back this year, including Ben Wheatley whose Free Fire will open the program in its world premiere. Exec produced by Martin Scorsese and starring Brie Larson and Cillian Murphy, it later turns up as the closing night gala of the London Film Festival. Newcomers to the section include Andre vredal with the world premiere of The Autopsy Of Jane Doe; Colm McCarthy and The Girl With All The Gifts starring Gemma Arterton, Paddy Considine and Glenn Close; Paul Schrader with his Cannes pic Dog Eat Dog; and Morgan Spurlocks horror doc Rats. Colin Geddes, International Programmer for the Festival calls Midnight Madness the destination for those who love to sink their teeth into excessive, unrelenting, weird and wild films. And this year we have the perfect fix for adrenaline junkies and blood thirsty fiends. The section closes with the ultimate showdown between J-horror icons from The Ring and The Grudge in Sadako Vs. Kayako, directed by Koji Shiraishi. Heres the full list of Midnight Madness titles: The Autopsy Of Jane Doe, dir: Andre vredal The Belko Experiment, dir: Greg McLean Blair Witch, dir: Adam Wingard Dog Eat Dog, dir: Paul Schrader Free Fire, dir: Ben Wheatley The Girl With All The Gifts, dir: Colm McCarthy Headshot, dirs: Kimo Stamboel and Timo Tjahjanto, Rats, dir: Morgan Spurlock Raw (Grave), dir: Julia Ducournau Sadako Vs. Kayako, dir: Koji Shiraishi Related stories Toronto Sets Documentary Program With Leonardo DiCaprio, Fisher Stevens, Errol Morris & Netflix Pics Sean Penn To Be Honored For Haiti Activism At Toronto Film Festival Benefit Gala Toronto Film Fest Canadian Lineup Includes Xavier Dolan, Kim Nguyen, Deepa Mehta In a normal world, Tunisia would be a paradise for tourists. It has some of the best beaches on the Mediterranean. It boasts rich traditions of music and food as well as an astonishing material legacy from the myriad civilizations that have made the place their own over the centuries. One can visit a Roman amphitheater that rivals the Coliseum, view some of the worlds richest collections of ancient mosaics, and stroll through elegant harbor towns that would be an asset to the finest riviera. These days, though, few visitors dare to sample the countrys charms. In March 2015, jihadis killed nearly two dozen tourists at the Bardo Museum in Tunis; a few weeks later, another attacker shot dead 38 foreigners, mostly from Britain, at a beach resort in the town of Sousse. Since then, the countrys tourism sector has slumped dramatically. Foreign travelers booked 29 million nights in Tunisian hotels in 2014, but a year later that figure had plummeted to 16 million. In a country where 11.5 percent of workers are employed in the tourism sector, and the livelihoods of many more are affected by its performance, the impact has been devastating. Theres no question that solving the countrys security problems would go a long way to reviving the industry. Yet terrorism isnt the only problem facing Tunisias tourism trade. In fact, the outrages at Bardo and Sousse have merely served to obscure the sectors deeper malaise. A glance at the numbers shows that tourism was already an underperformer long before the attacks and that they have merely helped to accelerate the rot. The reasons are closely linked to the broader problems that plague Tunisias economy above all its pervasive cronyism, which allows well-connected insiders to seek rents in lucrative markets while using bureaucratic allies to prevent potential competitors from challenging them. Back in the 1990s, hotel magnates close to former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali benefited greatly from their political access, obtaining loans from public banks that were never repaid only to see those public banks later recapitalized with public funds, allowing the whole cycle to start again. The problem has persisted since the revolution. A 2014 World Bank report found that the Tunisian tourism sector accounts for a whopping 25 percent of the countrys non-performing loans which, as the authors noted, mask the problems in the tourism sector and contribute to them by channeling credit to less productive entrepreneurs and by freezing liquidity that would otherwise have circulated. Story continues Map of northern Tunisia The result is an industry that continues to be dominated by large, well-connected, state-subsidized hotels and tour operators. And that, in turn, has tended to encourage an extremely narrow and fragile business model: mass package tourism. In some ways this was also a logical choice in light of the countrys chronically high unemployment and the workers relatively low levels of skills and education. But the reliance on quantity over quality brought problems of its own. Above all, as the political scientist Robert Poirier pointed out in a 1995 analysis of Tunisias tourism sector, its an approach that is sensitive to political instability, both regional and Tunisia-specific. Although published two decades ago, his words are still relevant today, as demonstrated by recent events. People say we have no tourists because of terrorism, but its not true, says hotel owner Chekib Zaibet. Each year we have less because each year we offer the same thing. We only have one type of guest, and that makes us very vulnerable to attacks. Former Minister of Tourism Amel Karboul notes that boutique hotels continued to thrive after the revolution, while hotel operators who relied on mass tourism began to have problems due to fears of political instability. This shows that diversification of products can really help, she says. Zaibet, who operates a boutique hotel of his own, believes that the current crisis offers an excellent opportunity to start making the changes needed to build a more resilient industry. But thats exactly what hasnt happened. After the 2015 killings, the government once again bailed out floundering big hotel owners with money from the public budget by forgiving their debts, waiving their social security taxes, and covering their electricity bills. The justification many legislators gave at the time was that they needed to help hotel owners keep people employed at a time of crisis. Yet Karboul, the former tourism minister, says that the excuse doesnt entirely wash. A lot of people say its about jobs, but these bad hotels didnt create jobs, she says, noting that only a small fraction of the sector some 20 percent have the successful business model, high profits, and professional management needed to create value and jobs. Karboul, who worked in a special transitional government that had a strict mandate of only one year, proposed a series of obvious short-term reforms that focused on improving branding and quality and one long-term project to shake up the ministrys bureaucracy. Vested interests put up stiff resistance. Those in charge of regulating the sector had little incentive to allow their power to be whittled away, and the established hotel owners wanted to protect their own prerogatives. Karboul notes that the debts of the big players are huge: They havent been paying and that has been a huge conflict. Smaller-scale entrepreneurs bear out her assessment. Shop owner Hatem Cherif, who works in the picturesque seaside town of Sidi Bou Said just outside of Tunis, says that the government helped hotels, not us, in the wake of the 2015 attacks. Were hurting, he added. Since the attacks, many cruise lines have canceled their stops at Tunisian ports, depriving Sidi Bou Said of the busloads of tourists who were the main market for Cherifs souvenirs. He doesnt have high expectations hell be happy if the government can simply do a better job of selling Tunisias brand to the world while boosting security. Zaibet offers a glimpse of a possible future at Dar Nour, his boutique inn overlooking the beach resort of Hammamet, whose mega-hotels are struggling to fill rooms. After working as a manager for some of Tunisias top-ranked hotels, Zaibet decided to pursue his dream of building, owning, and managing a place of his own. He lives on the premises of Dar Nour and offers personalized service tailored specifically to the demands each guest. Although Dar Nour only launched about two years ago, it is already successful, with about 80 percent occupancy during the summer months, according to Zaibet. The starting rate at Zaibets hotel is pricey by Tunisian standards almost $200 per person per night but it offers a promising alternative to the package deal. Turkey has seen great success in recent years partly by capitalizing on unique, personalized tourism services available at all price ranges, including penny-pinching backpackers and students. Such flexibility could well pay off for Tunisia especially at a time when competitors like Egypt are also hurting. In late 2013, lawmakers attempted to update the legal framework to make it easier for operators to run hostels and boutique hotels. But the structural challenges remain. One of the biggest, says Karboul, is access to credit, a problem that bedevils entrepreneurs in all sectors. That should serve as yet another reminder that the best way to revive the fortunes of Tunisias sagging tourism sector is by tackling the problems of the broader economy. Photo credit: CHRIS MCGRATH/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. El Khadra Still Cant Breathe: This devastated community has been calling for help for years. Even in the new Tunisia, no ones listening. Crisis of Governance: Local Edition: In many ways, democratic Tunisia remains just as centralized as it was before the revolution. And thats a big problem for the mayor of Kasserine. Not Arab, and Proud of It: Tunisias long-suppressed Amazigh minority is finding its voice for the first time in years. 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. The Mainstreaming of Tunisias Islamists: The Ennahda Partys latest moves put its political astuteness on show once again. Donald Trump faced a swift backlash on Tuesday after he suggested that gun enthusiasts would be able to stop Hillary Clinton from taking away their Second Amendment rights. Hillary wants to abolish essentially abolish the Second Amendment, the Republican nominee said at a rally in Wilmington, N.C., on Tuesday afternoon. And if she gets to pick, if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do. Trump added: But the Second Amendment people, maybe there is. I dont know. Gwen Rocco, a member of the Clinton campaigns rapid response team, quickly condemned Trumps comments. This is simple, Clinton campaign spokesman Robby Mook said in a statement. What Trump is saying is dangerous. A person seeking to be the President of the United States should not suggest violence in any way. The Trump campaign dismissed the controversy. Its called the power of unification, Jason Miller, Trump senior communications adviser, said in a statement. Second Amendment people have amazing spirit and are tremendously unified, which gives them great political power. And this year, they will be voting in record numbers, and it wont be for Hillary Clinton, it will be for Donald Trump. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, introducing Trump at a later event in Fayetteville, N.C., said to buy that youd have to be corrupt, brushing aside any particular insinuation that Trump was saying violence against Clinton or Supreme Court justices would be acceptable. It proves that most of the press is in the tank for Hillary Clinton, Giuliani said. Former CIA director Michael Hayden didnt buy that explanation. How one audience member reacted when he heard Trumps Second Amendment people remark https://t.co/XKGlh31a5k pic.twitter.com/9Ol6QWtPTt CNN (@CNN) August 9, 2016 Youre not only responsible for what you say; youre responsible for what others hear, Hayden said on CNN, adding that if someone other than Trump had said the same thing at the rally, theyd be in a police wagon being questioned by Secret Service. Story continues Last month, Al Baldasaro, a New Hampshire state representative and Trump surrogate, told a radio host that Clinton should be put in the firing line and shot for treason. In response, the U.S. Secret Service said it was aware of Baldasaros comments and would conduct the appropriate investigation. For its part, the bureau seemed to acknowledged Trumps Tuesday comments. MoFA asked to rescue Nepalis from Saudi Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has called for immediate measures to rescue Nepalis stranded in Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka. Fifty former Republican national security officials and foreign policy thinkers published a missive against Donald Trump on Monday saying they would not vote for their partys nominee because he would put at risk our countrys national security and well-being. The response from the Manhattan real-estate magnate, who of late has threatened to unravel NATO, attacked the parents of a fallen Muslim-American Army captain, and invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to hack rival Hillary Clinton? Thank you. The names on this letter are the ones the American people should look to for answers on why the world is a mess, and we thank them for coming forward so everyone in the country knows who deserves the blame for making the world such a dangerous place, Trump said in a statement Monday night, with the subject line: On Politically Motivated Letter. They are nothing more than the failed Washington elite looking to hold onto their power. Trump went on to blame the signatories who range from former NSA head Michael Hayden to former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge for the decision to invade Iraq, the deadly attack on an American consulate in Benghazi, and the rise of the Islamic State. He also lumped them in with Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Theres just one problem: many of these particular Republican national security and foreign policy veterans werent closely linked to Iraq, and both Benghazi and the rise of the Islamic State took place during the Obama administration, when the signatories were out of government. The Islamic States rapid and unexpected territorial gains, meanwhile, took place after Clinton herself had left her post at the State Department. More broadly, Trump lumps the neoconservative Republicans who signed the letter in with Clinton even though the two camps have often been at odds with each other. While Clinton voted for the invasion of Iraq as a senator in 2002, she has since said she regrets that vote and advocates instead for smart power that emphasizes diplomacy first and selective use of U.S. military force as a last resort. Story continues Thats not to say that the Republican nominees letter is entirely off-base. Several of the signatories did play key policymaking roles during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq and the initial phases of the war. Eric Edelman, for instance, was a top aide to former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, but also served as national security advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney, by many accounts the chief proponent of the Iraq War, from 2001 to 2003. It could also be good politics. Majorities of Americans from both parties believe that the Iraq War was a mistake, and many Republicans too remain uneasy about the surveillance state that Bush helped to create and the broad expansion of executive branch authority he claimed to implement new counter-terrorism measures at home and send U.S. troops into both Afghanistan and Iraq. But its also typical of Trumps habit of glossing over of inconvenient facts or uttering complete falsehoods for political gain, like his recent allegation that a hacked Clinton email led to Irans recent execution of a prominent nuclear scientist (it didnt). The moguls America First foreign policy vision has so far been marked by threats to abandon years of bipartisan agreement on the Israel-Palestine peace process and remove the U.S. from alliances Republicans helped establish and nurture during their years in power. More worrisomely to many Republicans, Trump has also spoken admiringly of strongmen like Russian President Vladimir Putin, with whom the mogul and several of his top aides have murky financial ties, and even complimented ousted dictators like Saddam Hussein. Thats a far cry from the language in the new Trump statement about pursuing a policy that stands up to foreign dictators instead of taking money from them or seeks peace over war. He uses both phrases to contrast his positions with those of Clinton, as well as of the letter writers. The Trump statement also doesnt address the fact that he himself initially supported the invasion of Iraq and the intervention in Libya even though the mogul now claims that he always opposed them, and argues that they set the stage for the 2012 Benghazi attacks and the rise of ISIS. Still, Trumps statement underscores his strategy for dealing with the steady trickle of Clinton endorsements from retired senior officers and former senior Republican national security policymakers: argue that they left the world a more dangerous place, and that Clinton would only make it worse. While the Clinton campaign was aware of the letter, and has supported Republican national security hands making Never Trump arguments, it did not play a role in its drafting, according to the New York Times. But Trumps response effectively puts Clinton and her aides in the position of once again defending her 2002 vote for the Iraq War, as well as pushing back against the narrative that shes somehow directly responsible for the spate of foreign policy crises thats beleaguered both Bush and Obama, however different their doctrines. And while the U.S. public may not recognize former deputy secretaries of state, the names it does know are Bush and Clinton. Trump is tapping into a reality that the average American voters may not be entirely happy or comfortable with concept of the presidency being handed off from one political family to another, particularly if each has ties to an administration that may have inadvertently left the world a far more unstable place. Photo credit: Sara D. Davis / Stringer Washington (AFP) - Donald Trump was once again at the center of a firestorm Wednesday, this time over controversial comments interpreted by some as a threat of violence against presidential campaign rival Hillary Clinton. Trump's intended message was not immediately clear, but lawmakers, former national security officials and other critics expressed concern that he had advocated, possibly in jest, that Clinton or her Supreme Court nominees could be shot. "Hillary wants to essentially abolish the Second Amendment," Trump told a rally in Wilmington, North Carolina, referring to the US Constitution's clause that enshrines "the right to bear arms." "If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks," Trump said. "Although the Second Amendment people -- maybe there is, I don't know," he said, in remarks that some deemed his most explosive and most offensive to date. Trump earlier appeared more focused on delivering his typical campaign stump speech about Clinton, telling supporters she would represent four more years of President Barack Obama, "but maybe worse," and sparring with her over policy. "I gave a massive tax decrease yesterday," Trump said, referring to economic plans he unveiled Monday. "Clinton, she's going to double up your taxes." But then Trump drew attention away from his message with his "Second Amendment" remarks. - Struggling in the polls - It was the latest in a long string of Trump trip-ups -- including his clash with the parents of a Muslim American soldier killed in action -- that have marred his campaign since he officially won the nomination last month, prompting several Republicans to reject his candidacy. Clinton's campaign decried Trump's "dangerous" language and demanded in a statement that presidential hopefuls "not suggest violence in any way." Trump's team fired back to say the 70-year-old Manhattan billionaire simply meant that gun rights advocates were a powerful voting force. Story continues "Second Amendment people have amazing spirit and are tremendously unified, which gives them great political power," senior Trump communications advisor Jason Miller said. The National Rifle Association, America's largest pro-gun lobby, put forth that Trump was correct in saying it would be hard to protect the Second Amendment if Clinton appoints new justices. "But there IS something we will do on #ElectionDay: Show up and vote for the #2A!" the group posted on Twitter. Trump is struggling to transition from his strong grassroots primary performance to a more mature head-to-head battle with Clinton. He suffers from sinking poll numbers, including a Quinnipiac University survey released Tuesday that shows him trailing Clinton in crucial battleground states Ohio and Pennsylvania, and virtually tied in Florida. Democratic lawmakers expressed shock about Trump's comments. "In this clip, Trump's either calling for an armed revolt or the assassination of his opponent. Despicable," Democratic congressman David Cicilline posted on Twitter along with footage of Trump's remarks. - 'Incredible insensitivity' - The Secret Service -- which is tasked with protecting both Trump and Clinton -- said it "is aware of the comments," but did not say whether they merited an investigation, which some Democratic lawmakers have called for. At a later rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina Trump avoided addressing his controversial comments. But the supporter who introduced him, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, sought to clarify the remarks, insisting Trump had not aimed to incite violence. "What he meant by that was, you have the power to vote against her," Giuliani said. Trump's repeated stumbles and divisive rhetoric have angered Republican Party grandees. Former CIA director Michael Hayden blasted the "Second Amendment" comments. "It suggests either a very bad-taste reference to political assassination and an attempt at humor, or an incredible insensitivity," he told CNN. Hayden was among 50 former senior Republican national security officials who warned in an open letter Monday that if Trump were elected he would be "the most reckless president in American history." Influential Republican US Senator Susan Collins piled in, saying the nominee was "unworthy" of America's highest elective office and would not receive her support. Joe Scarborough, a former member of the House of Representatives and now a television host, wrote in the Washington Post that Trump's Second Amendment remark was the final straw. "What else could Trump do that would be worse than implying the positive impact of a political assassination?" the former US lawmaker wrote. "The Republican Party needs to start examining quickly their options for removing the Republican nominee," Scarborough said. One of the 50 former Republican foreign policy officials to sign a scathing letter this week declaring Donald Trump dangerous says she would have trusted U.S. national security with Sarah Palin more than with the GOP nominee. I think its illustrative that I would have trusted Sarah Palin in that position but not Donald Trump, Kori Schake told Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric in an interview Tuesday, a day after the letter was published. Schake, who served on President George W. Bushs National Security Council and was an adviser to Arizona Sen. John McCains 2008 presidential campaign, said Trump is much more reckless than Sarah Palin and thats quite a standard. None of us will vote for Donald Trump, read the letter, published Monday by the New York Times. From a foreign policy perspective, Donald Trump is not qualified to be President and Commander in Chief. Indeed, we are convinced that he would be a dangerous President and would put at risk our countrys national security and well-being. Others who signed the letter include former Homeland Security Secs. Thomas Ridge and Michael Chertoff; former NSA and CIA Director Michael V. Hayden; ex-Deputy Secretaries of State John D. Negroponte and Robert B. Zoellick; and Eric S. Edelman, who served as Vice President Dick Cheneys national security adviser and was a top aide to Defense Secretary Robert Gates. All of us who signed the letter had worked with presidents and understand the kind of temperament that is calm and deliberative in crisis, Schake explained to Couric. And Donald trump doesnt have that temperament. Schake added: Were genuinely concerned his erratic statements and behavior are already damaging to the United States. The Trump campaign dismissed the letter and its signatories late Monday. The names on this letter are the ones the American people should look to for answers on why the world is a mess, Trump said in a statement. And we thank them for coming forward so everyone in the country knows who deserves the blame for making the world such a dangerous place. They are nothing more than the failed Washington elite looking to hold onto their power, and its time they are held accountable for their actions. Story continues The stinging assessment of Trumps national security proposals came on the heels of several apparent foreign policy gaffes, most notably the GOP nominees vow that Russian President Vladimir Putin would not invade Ukraine, despite the fact that Putin seized the Crimean Peninsula in 2014. Trump, their letter stated, has demonstrated repeatedly that he has little understanding of the nations vital national interests, its complex diplomatic challenges, its indispensable alliances and the democratic values. Whats more, the real estate mogul and former Celebrity Apprentice host has shown no interest in educating himself on crucial foreign policy issues. He is unable or unwilling to separate truth from falsehood, the letter added. He does not encourage conflicting views. He lacks self-control and acts impetuously. He cannot tolerate personal criticism. He has alarmed our closest allies with his erratic behavior. All of these are dangerous qualities in an individual who aspires to be president and commander in chief, with command of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. In March, more than 100 national security advisers signed a similar letter blasting Trump as a fundamentally dishonest candidate who would use the authority of his office to act in ways that make America less safe. Mondays missive was even more blunt. We understand that many Americans are profoundly frustrated with the federal government and its inability to solve pressing domestic and international problems, the letter concludes. We also know that many have doubts about Hillary Clinton, as do many of us. But Donald Trump is not the answer to Americas daunting challenges and to this crucial election. We are convinced that in the Oval Office, he would be the most reckless President in American history. Several high-profile names were noticeably absent from the list of signatories, including Condoleezza Rice. But Schake, who counts the former secretary of state as one of her mentors, hinted that Rice may speak out about Trumps foreign policy before the election. I think were very early in the electoral process, she said. I wouldnt be surprised to hear Condi and other Republican leaders make their views known closer to the election. Schake also admitted she was disappointed that McCain endorsed Trump for president after the real estate mogul questioned his war-hero status. I understand the sense of loyalty John feels toward the partys candidate and the respect John feels for the voters who nominated Donald Trump, she said. But I think what Donald Trump said about John McCain, like what Donald Trump said about the Gold Star family a couple weeks ago is genuinely outrageous. (ST. PETERSBURG, Russia) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday after talks with Russias President Vladimir Putin that the two nations can rebuild their damaged ties and make them even closer, promising to back major energy projects with Russia. Calling Putin his dear friend, Erdogan said Turkey is ready to implement a natural gas pipeline project with Russia and a deal to build Turkeys first nuclear power plant. Putin, in his turn, said that the flow of Russian tourists to Turkey, halted after the downing of a Russian jet by Turkey in November, will resume. He also promised to gradually lift restrictions on imports of Turkish agricultural products. Putin added that he and Erdogan would have a separate discussion on Syria later Tuesday involving top military and intelligence officials to search for common ground in the crisis, where Moscow and Ankara have backed the opposing sides. While Moscow has backed Syrian President Bashar Assad throughout the nations civil war and further bolstered that support by launching an air campaign last September, Turkey has backed Assads foes. Previously close ties between Moscow and Ankara broke down after a Turkish jet shot down a Russian warplane at the Syrian border. They remained at a freezing point for seven months until Erdogan met the key Russian condition for restoring ties by offering his apology over the incident. Putin then ordered his government to start rebuilding ties with Turkey, and when Erdogan faced a botched coup attempt on July 15 the Russian leader quickly offered his support. Erdogan particularly mentioned Putins call, which he said gladdened me, my colleagues and our people. Analysts say that Erdogan may also be hoping to play the Russian card to strengthen his hand in disputes with the United States and European Union. Turkey is pressing the United States hard to extradite Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom the government blames for the failed coup. Gulen denies the claims. Isachenkov reported from Moscow. Suzan Fraser in Ankara and Nataliya Vasilyeva in Moscow contributed to this report. By Seda Sezer and Tuvan Gumrukcu ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey on Tuesday warned of rising anti-American sentiment and risks to a migrant deal with the European Union, ramping up the rhetoric in the face of Western alarm over the scale of purges in state institutions since last month's failed coup. President Tayyip Erdogan, who was in Russia on Tuesday for talks with Vladimir Putin on improving ties, has sharply criticized the United States and the EU for what he says is a lack of solidarity with Turkey over the July 15 coup and of caring more for the rights of the suspected plotters. Erdogan blames Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric who has lived in self-imposed exile in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania since 1999, and his followers for the attempted putsch, in which more than 240 people were killed and nearly 2,200 wounded. Turkey has launched a series of mass purges of suspected Gulen supporters in its armed forces, other state institutions, universities, schools and the media since the abortive coup, prompting Western worries for the stability of a key NATO ally. Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said anti-American feeling among Turks was on the rise and could only be calmed by the United States extraditing Gulen, who denies any involvement in the coup and has condemned it. "There is a serious anti-American feeling in Turkey, and this is turning into hatred," Bozdag said in an interview with state-run Anadolu Agency, broadcast live on Turkish television channels. "It is in the hands of the United States to stop this anti-American feeling leading to hatred." Responding to Turkey's demand for Gulen's extradition, U.S. President Barack Obama has said Ankara must first provide clear evidence of wrongdoing. Last week a State Department spokesman said Washington was evaluating new documents it had received. "Whether the U.S. extradites Gulen or not this will be a political decision," Bozdag said. "If he is not extradited, Turkey will have been sacrificed for a terrorist." EU STRAINS Turkey's relations with the EU, which it hopes to join, have also come under heavy pressure since the abortive coup and on Tuesday Denmark's government party said Ankara's accession talks should end due to what it called Erdogan's "undemocratic initiatives" and his support for reintroducing the death penalty. Erdogan has said he would approve the return of capital punishment if Turkey's parliament backed it. On Sunday Austria's foreign minister threatened to block EU negotiations with Turkey. But Germany, the EU's most powerful member, has dismissed such demands, stressing Turkey's geopolitical, economic and military importance. Turkey's EU Affairs Minister Omer Celik said on Tuesday Ankara would stop implementing a deal with Brussels to stem the flow of migrants into the EU if the bloc does not provide a clear date to grant visa-free travel to Turks visiting Europe. In an interview with Haberturk television, Celik said asking Turkey to change its terrorism laws, a key demand from the EU to finalize the visa-free travel, would mean endangering Europe's own security. He gave no details. Though criticized by rights advocates, the EU's deal with Turkey has helped to sharply cut the number of refugees and migrants reaching European shores, giving EU politicians breathing space after around 1.3 million people reached the continent last year. In contrast to the chill in Turkey's ties with the West, a Turkish official described the mood at Erdogan's talks in St Petersburg with President Putin on Tuesday as "very positive". Putin said he hoped Erdogan would be able to restore order in Turkey after the coup and stressed his wish to restore good bilateral relations, which were harmed by Turkey's downing of a Russian fighter jet near the Syrian border last November. Erdogan hailed the start of "a very different period" in relations between Turkey and Russia, historic foes which have nevertheless built strong trade, energy and tourism ties in the post-Soviet era. However, Turkish officials have said Erdogan's visit to Russia is not intended to signal a fundamental shift in Ankara's geopolitical stance. Turkey hosts American troops and warplanes at its Incirlik Air Base, an important staging area for the U.S.-led fight against Islamic State militants in neighboring Iraq and Syria. PURGES A recent opinion poll showed two thirds of Turks agree with their president that Gulen was behind the coup plot. Turkey has been holding almost daily mass rallies since July 15 in support of democracy and the government and against the plotters. The 75-year-old Gulen built up a network of schools, charities and businesses in Turkey and abroad over decades. He has accused Erdogan of using the coup to amass greater power, echoing concerns expressed in some Western capitals. Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim on Tuesday repeated a pledge to bring Gulen back to Turkey. "That terrorist leader will come to Turkey and pay for what he did," Yildirim told a meeting of his ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party in parliament. "That religious, impudent, lying, bloody murdering nothing will be surely held accountable." Authorities have suspended, detained or put under investigation tens of thousands of people in the armed forces, the judiciary, civil service and elsewhere since the coup, in which a faction of the military commandeered warplanes, helicopters and tanks in an attempt to topple the government. On Tuesday Bozdag put the number of people now formally arrested awaiting trial at 16,000, adding that a further 6,000 detainees were still being processed. Another 7,668 people are under investigation but have not been detained, he said. Since the abortive putsch, pro-government papers have been awash with conspiracy theories accusing the United States and the CIA of being the masterminds. Turkish officials privately said such reports do not reflect Ankara's formal stance. Turkish authorities have said the country's intelligence service has cracked into several smartphone messaging apps that Gulen's followers used to communicate with each other in the years ahead of the coup attempt and was able to trace tens of thousands of people from the group. A senior Turkish official said Turkey's intelligence agency had identified at least 56,000 operatives of Gulen's network after it cracked a little-known smartphone messaging app called ByLock, which the group had begun using in 2014. By this year, Turkish intelligence were able to map their network. "Our assessment is that 150,000 unique operatives used ByLock to communicate with others," the official said. (Additional repporting by Daren Butler and Gulsen Solaker in Ankara; Writing Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Patrick Markey and Gareth Jones) MOSCOW (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said in an interview with Russia's TASS news agency published on Monday he wanted to reset relations with Russia from a clean slate and restart cooperation in a range of sectors. Erdogan was speaking on the eve of a meeting with President Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg intended to end a period of high tension after Turkey downed a Russian fighter jet near the Syrian border last November. Russia imposed trade sanctions on Turkey and the number of Russian tourists visiting the country fell by 87 percent in the first half of 2016. As Turkey's relations with Europe and the United States are strained by the fallout from its failed coup, Erdogan may be hoping his trip to Russia will give the West pause for thought. Erdogan, in his TASS interview, repeatedly referred to Putin as "dear" or "respected" Vladimir and called him a friend. "This visit strikes me as a new milepost in our bilateral relations, starting again from a clean slate," Erdogan told TASS. "A new page will be opened in Russo-Tukish ties. This new page will include military, economic and cultural cooperation." (Reporting by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Lidia Kelly) Nepali social leader honoured for his humanitarian efforts Dr Mahendra Lohani, senior vice-president of International Programs at Heifer International, has been honoured with Ascends inaugural Humanitarian Award in recognition of his service in social amenity. A Los Angeles County judge reportedly issued an arrest warrant for Tyga on Tuesday morning (Aug. 9) after the rapper was a no-show for a hearing at a Santa Monica court regarding a lawsuit filed by his former landlord. The West Coast MC (real name Michael Ray Stevenson) is accused of owing his ex-landlord, Gholamreza Rezai, a payment of $480,000 for his Malibu home, according to the Los Angeles Times. Tyga Test-Drives a Helicopter in 'Kingin' With Tyga' Season 2 Teaser: Exclusive Tyga has had some fickle financial issues in the past. His 2013 Lamborghini Aventador and 2014 Bentley Mulsanne were reportedly repossessed earlier this year after he allegedly failed to pay the car loan company, Choice Motor Credit, $357,000 and $91,000 on each ride, respectively. Among the assets under scrutiny reportedly include the $200,000 black Maybach he recently copped as a birthday present for his on-and-off again girlfriend Kylie Jenner, which she shared on Twitter. -- pic.twitter.com/dW92af95Dq - Kylie Jenner (@KylieJenner) August 6, 2016 In a statement to press, the landlord's legal representation Alexander Cohen and Associates described the plaintiff's complaints against Tyga, including unapproved alterations and destruction of the property as well as unpaid rent. The statement reads: "Once the Plaintiff took possession of the property he realized that Tyga, without the required prior consent of the Plaintiff, installed a stripper pole in the middle of the master bedroom, disconnected the intercom system of the home, altered the laundry room electrical wiring, removed and/or installed televisions, TV brackets, safe box, security system, and had broken and damaged multiple glass tiles in both master bathroom showers and around the fireplace amongst other damages. Tyga had also literally torn off the automatic gate opener, and severely damaged the hardwood floors throughout the house." Tyga's Team Accused of Assaulting Cash Cash Member: Report Story continues An abstract of judgement of $480,285 was obtained against Tyga earlier this year, which the rapper refused to pay claiming poverty. Tyga's claim brought the need for a judgement debtor's examination, a proceeding used to determine ways in which a party can collect on a valid judgment. According to the statement, since July 20 when Tyga was served an order to appear in court, a lien was created on all of his personally property, including any property gifted to a third-party, that could be applied towards paying off his debt. At Tuesday's hearing, Tyga had been supposed to appear to answer questions under oath about his property, assets, finances and ability to pay his debt. Since he did not appear, the court found him in civil contempt and issued a bench warrant authorizing his arrest to ensure his attendance in court. The statement reads, "It is clear that Mr. Stevenson thought he had better things to do; like buy his girlfriend Kylie Jenner a new $189,000.00 Maybach while continuing to claim poverty. Kylie shouldn't get too comfortable in her new car; it's unlikely to be hers much longer." Bail is reportedly set for $10,000. Tyga's rep did not immediately respond to Billboard's requests for comment. By Idrees Ali WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department has approved the potential sale of more than 130 Abrams battle tanks, 20 armored recovery vehicles and other equipment, worth about $1.15 billion, to Saudi Arabia, the Pentagon said on Tuesday. The approval for land force equipment coincides with Saudi Arabia leading a military coalition in support of Yemeni forces loyal to the exiled government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi who are trying to oust Iran-allied Houthi forces from the capital, Sanaa. Human rights groups have criticized the coalition's air strikes because of the deaths of civilians. The U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which implements foreign arms sales, said that General Dynamics will be the principal contractor for the sale. "This sale will increase the Royal Saudi Land Forces (RSLF) interoperability with U.S. forces and conveys U.S. commitment to Saudi Arabia's security and armed forces modernization," the agency said in a notice to lawmakers posted on its website. Lawmakers have 30 days to block the sale, although such action is rare. Saudi Arabia and its mostly Gulf Arab allies intervened in Yemen's civil war in March 2015 after the Houthi movement had pushed the Hadi administration into exile in Saudi Arabia. On Tuesday, the Saudi-led military coalition conducted air strikes on Sanaa for the first time in five months, residents said, after U.N.-backed peace talks to end the conflict broke down at the weekend. Medics said nine civilians were killed in a strike on a potato chip factory in the Nahda district of the capital. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch called on the United Nations General Assembly in June to suspend Saudi Arabia from the U.N. Human Rights Council until the military coalition stops killing civilians in Yemen. "The Saudi-led coalitions campaign in Yemen has been devastating for civilians (and) the U.S. should be suspending arms sales to Saudi Arabia, not approving more," said Kristine Beckerle, a researcher with Human Rights Watch. U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut who has been critical of arms sales to Saudi Arabia, said in a statement that he was concerned about the high civilian casualty rate in Yemen. Murphy said Saudi Arabia had "largely backed away from" the fight against Islamic State militants "and Id like to see them commit to rejoin that fight as part of major new military sales." (Reporting by Idrees Ali; Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle. Editing by Frances Kerry and Grant McCool) By Paola Totaro LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Wealthier countries including the United States and Australia score behind Latin America and African nations when it comes to laws protecting indigenous land rights, according to the first analysis of an online global map of land ownership. Known as 'LandMark', the interactive platform was launched nine months ago with the aim of building an accurate, ongoing picture of indigenous or community lands using data provided by recognized organizations and experts around the world. With 113 countries now logged into the database, the Washington-based World Resources Institute (WRI) analysed the findings so far and found countries in Latin America and Africa have the strongest laws for protecting indigenous land. The results, released on World Indigenous Peoples' Day, showed that Bolivia, Colombia, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru and Venezuela in Latin America and Burkina Faso, Tanzania, South Sudan and Uganda in Africa rated highest. WRI research associate Katie Reytar said these developing countries scored higher than many in the developed world, including the United States, Australia, Canada and Norway, and are more progressive in protecting indigenous land and resource rights. "The 113 countries evaluated in LandMark's database show that the legal security of Indigenous Peoples' lands and natural resources varies widely," Reytar told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Studies show that indigenous people are estimated to protect more than 50 percent of the world's land surface but have formally recognized ownership of over just 10 percent. FIRST STEP IN ANALYSIS The analysis used the data collected on 113 countries and scored them on 10 indicators on how their national or federal laws protect indigenous land and property rights. It also identified which countries were lagging behind. The seven lowest scoring nations across all 10 indicators were in the Middle East including Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Yemen. Researchers said this suggests that their national laws "effectively make no attempt to address land rights". The study also assessed which nations legally enshrine principles of 'Free, Prior and Informed Consent' (FPIC) for indigenous peoples prior to the acquisition of land by governments or outsiders. These are incorporated in both binding and non-binding international human rights laws but the survey found the vast majority of 113 countries mapped "make limited or no attempt to incorporate FPICs". Reytar said the first analysis focused on evaluating national laws to show which legal frameworks were best placed to protect indigenous and community land rights. But she said ongoing analysis next year would try to evaluate the laws in practice, to measure and compare how they were working in each country. "The goal then will be to look at how well the laws are being implemented and the perception of security among indigenous peoples," she said. Reytar said the project had no end date and data would be updated continually, with this monitoring helping such campaigns as one driven by the International Land Coalition and Oxfam to double the amount of land under secure tenure by 2020. (Reporting by Paola Totaro, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights and climate change. Visit news.trust.org) WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States called on China on Monday to release four human rights lawyers and activists who were convicted of subversion last week. Attorneys Zhou Shifeng and Gou Hongguo and activists Hu Shigen and Zhai Yanmin were given sentences ranging from three to 7-1/2 years in prison by a court in China's northeastern city of Tianjin. "We urge Chinese authorities to release the lawyers and rights defenders who are imprisoned or in detention, including those already sentenced," State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said in a statement. The four sentenced last week are among dozens of people linked to a Beijing law firm who have been swept up in a crackdown on dissidents since July last year as President Xi Jinping's administration has tightened control, citing a need to boost national security and stability. "More than a dozen other attorneys and activists detained on and around July 9, 2015, including Li Heping, remain in pretrial detention without access to their families or to legal counsel of their own choosing," the State Department statement said. "We call for an immediate end to the cases brought against them and to restrictions on their freedom of movement and professional activities," it said. (Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Leslie Adler) By Tracy Rucinski WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. states should force coal companies to set aside collateral to pay for future mine cleanups and protect taxpayers as the industry braces for further declines, a leading federal regulator said on Tuesday. Three of the largest U.S. coal producers, Peabody Energy Corp, Arch Coal Inc and Alpha Natural Resources, have filed for bankruptcy in the past year in an industry shaken by cheap natural gas and falling demand from China. With coal production outstripping demand, the market is not likely to recover until at least 2021, Joe Pizarchik, who heads the Office of Surface Mining and Reclamation Enforcement, told Reuters. Pizarchik's forecast is based on recent data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration that shows continued declines in capacity for coal-fired power plants for the next five years. This has raised concerns because the three bankrupt coal producers have not set aside cash to pay for roughly $2 billion in projected mine cleanups. Instead, they used a federal subsidy known as "self-bonding," which essentially exempts healthy companies from posting bonds or other securities to cover the cost of returning mined land to its natural setting. "We're moving as quickly as we can to help the states do their best to protect the taxpayers," Pizarchik said. "We want to give them the tools to ensure that mined land is reclaimed." Regulators in states with self-bonds should immediately assess whether companies still qualify for the program, he said, noting that those in bankruptcy do not meet the requirement of financial solvency and continuous operations. Last month Alpha Natural agreed to replace its self-bonds in Wyoming with other guarantees as part of a complex deal to exit Chapter 11, although it will continue to cover reclamation at former mine sites in West Virginia with self-bonds. Peabody and Arch Coal hope to exit Chapter 11 in the next six months, and it has been unclear whether self-bonds would form part of their reorganization plans. Peabody alone has $1.14 billion of self-bonds for mine cleanups in four states. Coal-producing states have discretion in accepting self-bonds. Any change to the law, which dates back to 1977, would need congressional approval, a process that could take years. Pizarchik said he would issue a policy advisory with new self-bonding guidance as soon as Tuesday. His agency will also examine agreements between coal companies and states, some of which have already transitioned away from self-bonding, he said. Nineteen states allow self-bonds, while five prohibit them. As of July, there were self-bonds worth $3.6 billion across about 10 U.S. states, Pizarchik's agency said. It recently concluded a 30-day period to hear public concerns about the practice and received some 117,000 comments. Pizarchik said self-bonds could be "appropriate" once production is more in line with demand and states are sure to assess both the current and long-term status of companies' finances. (Reporting by Tracy Rucinski; Editing by Tom Hals and Lisa Von Ahn) American special operations forces are helping to call in airstrikes on Islamic State positions in and around Sirte, Libya, leaving U.S. troops closer to the frontlines of that war and in more danger of being killed or wounded just as they face increased risks in Iraq and Afghanistan as well. The growing role of the elite U.S. forces in Libya, first reported by the Washington Post, comes as American military personnel in Iraq help Iraqi forces push toward Mosul while battling ISIS in eastern Afghanistan. Both missions in wars America has largely forgotten about are leading to new U.S. casualties. In Iraq, two commandos and one Marine have been killed since October. In Afghanistan, meanwhile, five U.S troops were wounded fighting ISIS in July, and an Army Green Beret was killed fighting the Taliban in January. Still, the troops arent likely to be leaving the warzones anytime soon. Instead, the special operations presence in Libya adds to the increasing number of troops active in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, and Yemen as the Obama administration attempts to stamp out the Islamic State and al Qaeda at a time of increasing attacks on civilians in western countries. Pentagon spokeswoman Henrietta Levin confirmed to FP that a small number of U.S. forces have gone in and out of Libya to exchange information with local forces, in recent months, adding that the Libyan government has established joint operations rooms, away from the forward line, to facilitate coordination among forces fighting ISIS. Since Aug. 1, U.S. Marine Corps Harrier jets flying from the USS Wasp and armed drones flying from Jordan have launched 28 airstrikes in and around Sirte, targeting enemy fighting positions and vehicles, according to the U.S. Africa Command. Despite the show of force, Libyas U.N.-backed Government of National Accord remains in a precarious position. Several rival militias continue to maneuver for power, and the Islamic State has shown the ability to continue carrying out attacks like a car bomb in Benghazi earlier this month that killed 22 people even though many of its fighters are pinned down in Sirte. That attack took place in the Guwarsha district, the scene of continued clashes between security forces loyal to the GNA and an alliance of Islamists and others. Story continues Earlier this year, U.S. defense officials estimated that there were as many as 6,000 ISIS fighters in Libya, crowded around their coastal enclave of Sirte, but over the past week those estimates have dwindled to just several hundred, as some have been killed, and others melted away in the face of increasing military pressure or for better deals with other militia groups. The increased American effort in Libya comes as teams of commandos have been sent back to Yemen after leaving the country last year when Houthi rebels overran local security forces. The Pentagon began sending small teams back in April, and now plans to keep a small force of military advisers in in the country for the foreseeable future. The small teams will work with troops from the United Arab Emirates, who are hunting militants from al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Other special operations forces have fought off attacks by al Shabab fighters in Somalia. In Afghanistan, meanwhile, the head of the U.S.-led war effort, Gen. John Nicholson, said last month that American commandos had been involved in heavy fighting in Nangarhar province and that the White House had given him the authority to surge more troops into eastern Afghanistan to push back against the nascent ISIS threat there. Five special forces troops were wounded in Nangarhar while battling ISIS in late July, one of whom left his weapon, ammunition, hand grenades, and identification cards behind after being evacuated quickly while under fire. Over the weekend, the insurgents displayed the equipment online, bragging about capturing U.S. gear. The soldier in question was fine, U.S. military officials quickly said, and on Tuesday offered a more detailed explanation of what happened. While collecting their casualties after one firefight, the U.S. troops came under effective enemy fire, Brig. Gen. Charles Cleveland, the spokesman for the U.S. military command in Kabul told FP. The Americans then moved to a safer location and the equipment was left behind during the move. He stressed that neither U.S. positions nor personnel were overrun. Photo Credit: should read MAHMUD TURKIA/AFP/Getty Images (QINGDAO, China) The visit of the U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer USS Benfold to the northern Chinese port of Qingdao this week is the latest development in a long-term effort to build trust between the countries militaries amid tensions and a rivalry for dominance in Asia. Though China resents the highly visible presence of the U.S. armed forces in Asia, especially the South China Sea, it has gradually overcome its reluctance and shown a willingness to engage that the sides hope will help avoid conflicts. Below is a look at the Benfolds visit and some of the steps the sides have taken to build their relationship: Whats the significance of the visit? The Benfolds visit is the first to China by an American warship since Beijing responded furiously to a Hague-based international arbitration tribunals ruling that its expansive South China Sea maritime claims had no basis in law. The fact the visit went ahead appears to show that Beijing now values the military-to-military relationship too much to allow it to be derailed by other events as was once the case. Qingdao is the base of Chinas northern fleet and is thus less sensitive than ports to the south closer to hotspots, such as Taiwan and the South China Sea. How have the sides responded to the arbitration ruling? China was incensed by the ruling and declared it null and void. It renewed its commitment to defend its sovereignty claims and continue work on man-made islands in the Spratly island group that have been heavily criticized by the U.S. and others as adding to regional tensions. Beijing has also launched what it says will be regular aerial patrols over the South China Sea and says it will consider whether to declare an air defense identification zone over all or part of the water body. The U.S. has called on China to respect the ruling, but has not staged another freedom of navigation mission in which its ships sail near Chinas artificial islands, which draw warnings and rebukes from Beijing. Story continues What have the side done to build trust? Apart from exchanging visits, China and the U.S. have sought to reach agreements on the rules of the road and work with each other on non-combat oriented training missions. At a multilateral forum in Qingdao in 2014, the two navies agreed to a Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea that seems to have allowed them to avoid confrontations. Last year, they added a similar agreement on aerial encounters between their military pilots that calls for, among other things, maintaining a secure distance, communicating clearly and avoiding rude body language. This year, China also took part in the worlds largest maritime drills, known as RimPac, hosted by the U.S. every two years near Hawaii. Whats the outlook for the future? China says it wants to turn a page on the arbitration ruling through bilateral talks with other claimants, although the U.S., Philippines and others resist that. The man-made islands will continue to be a source of tension, while the U.S. presence in the region will continue to grow. At the same time, China is narrowing the still-considerable gap with the U.S. Navy, adding to its fleet of high-tech destroyers similar to the Benfold and building homemade aircraft carriers to join the single, heavily refurbished Ukrainian one it has now. That will make it even more crucial that the sides build trust and relationships to help overcome future problems. The Film Tells the True Story of the Rescue of the Besieged U.S. Embassy in Mogadishu, Somalia LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / August 9, 2016 / Trent LaLand, founder of Touch Vision Films, is pleased to announce the launch of his new film "U.S. Embassy Under Siege." To learn more about the new film, which is a true story based on the events of Operation Eastern Exit, please visit https://goo.gl/WpnB0R. As LaLand noted, most Americans have never heard about the compelling rescue of the besieged U.S. Embassy in Mogadishu, Somalia. "It was December of 1990 when the Somalian government was close to being overthrown by three rebel groups in which one was led by warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid," he said, adding that the violent civil war in Mogadishu suddenly erupted into massive urban combat. The Somali government was in the final stages of complete collapse and the President went into hiding, LaLand noted. The civil war was quickly becoming out of control as armed bands roamed the streets, looting and robbing everything in sight. "The U.S. Embassy suddenly became the target as renegade soldiers who placed ladders on the U.S. Embassy compound walls were preparing to assault," LaLand said. LaLand has a very personal reason for creating "U.S. Embassy Under Siege." On January 5, 1991, just two weeks before Operation Desert Storm began, he was a member of a 60-man ground rescue force that was inserted into the blockaded U.S. Embassy. "The mission codenamed Operation Eastern Exit, resulted in the rescue of 281 men, women, and children from over 30 countries, who were trapped in the middle of a bloody civil war with no way to escape," LaLand said. In order to help pay for the massive production costs associated with making this compelling documentary, LaLand recently launched a fundraiser on Indiegogo. He hopes to raise $150,000 through crowdfunding to pay for the narration, editing, sound audio, travel and other costs associated with producing the film. Story continues "I am dedicated to making this captivating documentary, where you will hear the stories of the American diplomats who were there and the Marines of the rescue task force," LaLand said. About "U.S. Embassy Under Siege": "U.S. Embassy Under Siege" is a new film by director Trent LaLand. It tells the true and gripping story of Operation Eastern Exit, as well as the dangers that American diplomats face while serving overseas at diplomatic establishments, especially those in the Middle East. For more information, please visit https://goo.gl/WpnB0R. Contact: Madeline Chambers admin@rocketfactor.com (949) 555-2861 SOURCE: U.S. Embassy Under Siege Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f172245%2faug_4_sunset_all_foundations The pair of 600-foot towers rising off the eastern U.S. coast marks a historic achievement for the countrys energy industry. The two towers, installed near Rhode Island last week, are the first-ever offshore wind energy turbines to go up in U.S. waters. Deepwater Wind, the projects developer, said it expects to install the last three towers by the end of August. Its a very exciting time for us, and its a very anxious time, Jeff Grybowski, CEO of Deepwater Wind, told Mashable. Were very proud to be leading the way in this new renewable energy industry for the United States. SEE ALSO: First offshore wind farm to debut in the U.S. in July Americas first offshore wind farm arrives after more than a decade of fits and starts in the fledgling industry. A handful of proposed projects were either canceled or delayed in recent years as developers failed to raise enough funding, faced regulatory hurdles or waged legal battles. But Deepwater Winds Rhode Island wind farm managed to push ahead, thanks largely to its small size, which made it less risky and costly compared to bigger proposals. The $300 million, five-turbine project sits just three miles off the coast of Block Island. When completed, it will have the capacity to produce 30 megawatts of wind energy enough to power roughly 17,000 typical households on Block Island and the mainland. A typical U.S. coal plant, by contrast, has a 500-megawatt capacity, about 16 times more than the offshore wind farm. However, the wind farm has the advantage of avoiding planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions. Deepwater Wind first proposed the Block Island project in 2008. Construction on the turbines and underground sea cables started last year, and the wind farm could finally start producing power this fall, Grybowski said. An offshore wind farm near Grimbsy, England. Image: Getty Images Despite the U.S. milestone, the country still has far to go before it can catch up to Europe or China, whose offshore wind industries are years in the making. Story continues In Europe, more than 3,200 offshore turbines are producing around 11,000 megawatts in clean electricity, according to the European Wind Energy Association. China has hundreds of offshore wind turbines, with plans to grow the sector 30-fold by 2020. Americas land-based wind sector, however, is growing exponentially. The U.S. has more than 48,800 land-based wind turbines that together can produce nearly 74,000 megawatts of clean power, the American Wind Energy Association, the industry's leading trade group, said. America's nearly 74,000 megawatts in wind capacity is enough to power roughly 20 million average U.S. households in a year. Image: American wind energy association Grybowski said he hoped the success of Deepwater Winds new wind farm could help revive the U.S. offshore wind sector and encourage other developers to keep moving forward. The industry was really stuck in this difficult limbo of not being able to advance until someone achieved a success, he said. Block Island is that success that we think is going to unlock many, many additional projects. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department, commenting on charges in the Turkish press that a Washington think tank was behind last month's failed coup in Turkey, said on Tuesday such inflammatory rhetoric is not helpful. "This sort of conspiracy theory, inflammatory rhetoric ... is absolutely not helpful," State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau told a briefing when asked about charges in the Turkish press that the Woodrow Wilson Center think tank was behind the failed coup. "We have certainly spoken to our Turkish counterparts on unhelpful rhetoric," she added. (Reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Writing by Mohammad Zargham; Editing by Jonathan Oatis) Nepse bounces back, gains 84.51 points The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index jumped 84.51 points on Tuesday, ending an eight-day losing streak. (Adds analyst reaction, shares) LONDON, Aug 9 (Reuters) - British supermarket WM Morrison agreed improved terms with its online partner Ocado which will allow it to extend home delivery across the country using its own stores to provide some products. Morrisons said a profit share agreement would be cancelled and its research and development fee to Ocado would be reduced, as well as removing a restriction on supplying goods directly from its supermarkets. The two companies started to work together in 2013, enabling Morrisons to launch an online business, albeit years later than its three bigger rivals Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda. The supermarket announced a separate wholesale deal to supply Amazon with fresh and frozen food in Britain earlier this year. The agreement boosted shares in both Morrisons and Ocado, with Morrisons rising to a nine-week high and Ocado to 12-week highs. Morrisons was trading up 2.1 percent at 192.1 pence at 0930 GMT, while Ocado was up 2 percent at 281.7 pence. Ocado said the deal should boost earnings, although the impact on profit would be limited in the current and next financial year. Analyst Clive Black at Shore Capital said the long-running talks had concluded to mutual benefit. "It provides a more sustainable economic prospect for Morrisons to build out its online capability in Britain whilst providing a lifeline to Ocado in its grocery fulfilment activity in its home market," he said. Under the terms of the deal, Morrisons will take space in Ocado's fourth customer fulfilment centre, being built in Erith, south of London. It will also contribute to building costs. Morrisons will use Ocado's technology to help meet orders from its own stores, extending its online business across the country, apart from Northern Ireland where it does not have shops. The supermarket said the extension meant the break-even point for Morrisons.com will be slightly later than originally planned. It had been targeting break-even for its online operation by the end of its 2017-18 financial year. (Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by Keith Weir) (Adds comments from Human Rights Watch and U.S. senator opposed to sales to Saudi Arabia, paragraphs 10-11) By Idrees Ali WASHINGTON, Aug 9 (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department has approved the potential sale of more than 130 Abrams battle tanks, 20 armored recovery vehicles and other equipment, worth about $1.15 billion, to Saudi Arabia, the Pentagon said on Tuesday. The approval for land force equipment coincides with Saudi Arabia leading a military coalition in support of Yemeni forces loyal to the exiled government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi who are trying to oust Iran-allied Houthi forces from the capital, Sanaa. Human rights groups have criticized the coalition's air strikes because of the deaths of civilians. The U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which implements foreign arms sales, said that General Dynamics will be the principal contractor for the sale. "This sale will increase the Royal Saudi Land Force's (RSLF) interoperability with U.S. forces and conveys U.S. commitment to Saudi Arabia's security and armed forces modernization," the agency said in a notice to lawmakers posted on its website. Lawmakers have 30 days to block the sale, although such action is rare. Saudi Arabia and its mostly Gulf Arab allies intervened in Yemen's civil war in March 2015 after the Houthi movement had pushed the Hadi administration into exile in Saudi Arabia. On Tuesday, the Saudi-led military coalition conducted air strikes on Sanaa for the first time in five months, residents said, after U.N.-backed peace talks to end the conflict broke down at the weekend. Medics said nine civilians were killed in a strike on a potato chip factory in the Nahda district of the capital. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch called on the United Nations General Assembly in June to suspend Saudi Arabia from the U.N. Human Rights Council until the military coalition stops killing civilians in Yemen. "The Saudi-led coalition's campaign in Yemen has been devastating for civilians (and) the U.S. should be suspending arms sales to Saudi Arabia, not approving more," said Kristine Beckerle, a researcher with Human Rights Watch. U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut who has been critical of arms sales to Saudi Arabia, said in a statement that he was concerned about the high civilian casualty rate in Yemen. Murphy said Saudi Arabia had "largely backed away from" the fight against Islamic State militants "and I'd like to see them commit to rejoin that fight as part of major new military sales." (Reporting by Idrees Ali; Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle. Editing by Frances Kerry and Grant McCool) Washington (AFP) - The United States called Monday for Iran to respect human rights and ensure an impartial judiciary, but stopped short of condemning the execution of an Iranian nuclear scientist accused of spying for Washington. The whereabouts of Shahram Amiri, 39, had been unknown since 2010. On Sunday, an Iranian judiciary spokesman announced he had been hanged. US State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau on Monday refused to address Amiri's case specifically but noted that, in general, American officials urged Tehran to respect human rights. "We reaffirm our calls on Iran to respect and protect human rights to ensure fair and transparent judicial proceedings in all cases," she said at a press briefing. "We have constantly and publicly expressed our concerns about Iran's human rights records through a range of channels." Amiri 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 program were at their peak. In a surprise move, Amiri returned to Tehran in July 2010, saying he had been kidnapped at gunpoint by CIA agents in the Saudi city of Medina. At first he was greeted as a hero, but it was soon clear that Iranian authorities remained suspicious. Amiri dropped out of public view and his arrest was never officially reported. Amiri was executed for "revealing the country's top secrets to the enemy, Iranian judicial spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejeie said. He said Amiri was tried in accordance with law. Amiri appealed his death sentence but it was upheld by the Supreme Court, the spokesman said. Trudeau again refused to speak about Amiri's case when asked if she thought he was given a fair trial. "I couldn't speak to Iranian judicial procedures related to the specific case. You know, when this individual chose to return to Iran, we obviously spoke about it then," she said. "We've made our concerns known at large around Iranian due process, around Iranian respect for human rights." Iran reached a deal with world powers in July 2015, promising to curb its nuclear program in exchange for a lifting of international sanctions. Tehran and Washington have not had full diplomatic ties since 1980. United Nations (United States) (AFP) - The United States and France pushed Tuesday for aid to reach Syria's battlefront city of Aleppo before plans for a new round of talks can move forward. Russia, however, maintained that there should be no pre-conditions for the talks that the United Nations is hoping to reconvene in Geneva at the end of the month. US Ambassador Samantha Power told reporters that it was urgent to get peace talks back on track "but the environment for talks also has to be right." "On humanitarian access, (...) we're in reverse gear," Power said following a closed-door meeting of the Security Council. Fighting between government forces and rebels in Aleppo has intensified over the past month, with both sides sending in reinforcements for an all-out battle that could mark a turning point in the five-year war. Up to two million people in Aleppo have gone without running water for the past four days, UN agencies said, raising the risks of disease in a city already devastated by years of fighting. The council heard a report from UN envoy Staffan de Mistura who said he still hopes to hold the talks at the end of the month but that the humanitarian disaster in Aleppo must be addressed, diplomats said. "I don't see how we could have meaningful talks if there is not indeed the minimum conducive environment for that," said French Deputy Ambassador Alexis Lamek. UN aid chief Stephen O'Brien renewed his call for a 48-hour humanitarian truce in Aleppo and said following the meeting that he was "encouraged" that the council appeared to be uniting behind that proposal. Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said Moscow was in talks with Washington on ensuring deliveries of aid to Aleppo, but rejected suggestions that the peace talks could be derailed over the fighting in the city. "The lower the level of violence, the better it is for the talks and we share that approach, but there must be no preconditions for the talks," said Churkin. Story continues The ambassador stressed that the major hurdle in the peace process was the opposition's insistence that Syrian leader Bashar Al-Assad must leave power. "They were coming to the talks without saying anything, you know. They were just saying 'Assad must go' and this is not a negotiating position," said Churkin. The war in Syria has killed more than 280,000 people and drawn in world powers on both sides since it erupted in March 2011, with Russia backing the Syrian regime. Retinal scan Iraq In an obscure yet publicly available report, the Pentagon has for the first time indicated that it was hiring military contractors for operations in Syria. In an investigation from The Daily Beast, the nearly 300 US troops already present in Syria would be receiving intelligence analysis services from Six3 Intelligence Solutions Inc., a privately held defense contractor based out of McLean, Virginia. This $10 million contract would place an unknown number of contractors in various countries, including Syria. According to The Daily Beast, neither the Pentagon nor Six3 Intelligence Solutions would elaborate further on the type of services or other relevant information on the subject. Details on Six3 Intelligence Solutions also remain scant; however, Georgetown University professor and former contractor Sean McFate provides some insight. This is no ordinary contractor Six3 Intelligence Solutions is a private intelligence company, and the fact that we outsource a good portion of our intelligence analysis creates a strategic dependency on the private sector to perform vital wartime operations, McFate explained to The Daily Beast. The Daily Beast also managed to glean a statement from an archived version of Six3 Intelligence Solutions website: Our expertise ranges from finger, palm, face, and iris examinations to exploitation and forensic analysis. This assortment of biometrics and identity services offered by the contractor essentially analyzes individual human characteristics to figure out who each person is. In addition to the forensic analysis, however, the contractor also claims to provide counterintelligence and reconnaissance services as well. The contract award comes at the heels of the additional 250 special forces troops that were ordered to deploy to Syria, in order to advise and assist the local forces that the US hopes will be fighting ISIS militants. Story continues NOW WATCH: EX-PENTAGON CHIEF: These are the 2 main reasons ISIS was born More From Business Insider Los Angeles (AFP) - A Los Angeles judge issued an arrest warrant on Tuesday for US rapper Tyga after he failed to appear at a hearing in a lawsuit brought by his former landlord. Tyga, who was due in court in Santa Monica, failed to pay a $480,000 judgment against him for back rent and damage at a Malibu home he rented in 2011. The rapper's landlord, Gholamreza Rezai, went to court in 2012 claiming that Tyga missed a $16,000 monthly rent payment, skipped out on his lease and left the home in need of major repairs. The Grammy-nominated California rapper also allegedly installed a dance pole in the middle of the master bedroom without permission. Tyga, who has been dating Kylie Jenner, claimed poverty, refusing to pay the settlement ordered by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Nancy Newman. He was scheduled to be questioned under oath about his finances. Newman signed a bench warrant, which is typically issued in the case of a failure to appear for trial and could lead to Tyga being jailed, with bail set at $10,000. According to TMZ.com, the landlord's attorney noted recent media reports that Tyga bought Jenner a $200,000 car for her birthday. Tyga's biggest solo hit, "Rack City," went to number seven on the Billboard chart in 2011. Nine injured in bus collision Nine people were injured when two buses crashed into each other at Khurkhure of Rapti Municipality-9 along the East West Highway on Monday evening. patriot Missile defense for the US has traditionally focused on fending off ballistic missiles that arch across the sky and fly in a somewhat predictable path, but recently the proliferation of cruise missiles have created a new threat to the US for which there is no current solution. While ballistic missile defense has now become established as a key military capability, the corresponding counters to cruise missiles have been prioritized far more slowly, Thomas Karako, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said last year. In some ways, this is understandable, in terms of the complexity of the threat, but sophisticated cruise missile technologies now out there are just not going away and we are going to have to find a way to deal with this for the homeland, for allies and partners abroad, and for regional combatant commanders. Unlike ballistic missiles, that thrust high into the earth's atmosphere and loft down, rockets propel cruise missiles through the duration of the flight. This enables the missile to hug the ground, wind through mountains, and even accelerate in the last phase of an attack. In short, cruise missiles present a completely different set of challenges for missile defense. Additionally, the US's most advanced adversaries, China and Russia, have developed extremely rangy cruise missiles that pose real threats to targets even in the US mainland. The biggest problem with detecting cruise missiles remains the need for an elevated platform to observe them. A ballistic missile falling from the sky is fine to observe from the ground with sensors pointing up, but the low-flying cruise missiles demand some kind of airborne system to see and track the threats that skim just above the surface. Story continues cruise missile A few possible solutions have been proposed to address this problem, each with their own strengths an weaknesses, but "the important thing is we need to be doing something, and right now we're not," Karako said in a recent interview with Defense News. One solution would be to place targeting pods to search for cruise missiles on F-16s or UAVs that patrol the US, but these are limited to the time the planes can stay in the air, and the range they can observe. Another solution involves floating giant balloons with sophisticated radars to track the movement of small airborne vehicles off the US's coast, but the US would require many of these costly installations. Also, the airspace around the US coasts is very congested with all types of aviation, further complicating the scenario. Karako quoted the Vice Chair Joint Chief of Staff as saying that "cruise missile threats have risen in importance above regional ballistic missile threats." Russian kalibr cruise missiles With the problem of cruise missile defense so difficult to address comprehensively, Karako turned his attention to the "left of launch," or the concept of preempting an attack before it begins. According to Karako, the "left of launch... includes everything from cyber, the suite of counter-proliferation things, but it also includes the ability of a tomahawk to hit a launch pad or a mobile launcher in the field." Just how far the US is willing to go with "left of launch," or preempting attacks from possibly nuclear-armed and advanced adversaries remains a question for top leadership, but until it's figured out, the US remains very exposed to cruise missiles. NOW WATCH: The US Navy is set to take over this $4.4 billion futuristic-missile destroyer More From Business Insider By Rod Nickel (Reuters) - Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc (VRX.TO)(VRX.N) has received unsolicited interest for its core assets, although the company is not actively shopping them, Chief Executive Officer Joe Papa said on Tuesday. Earlier in the day, the Laval, Quebec-based company said it would sell billions of dollars in noncore assets to pay down debt. Valeant shares jumped 19.4 percent to $26.75 in midday N.Y. trading. Valeant also maintained its earnings forecast for the year, to the relief of investors, although its second-quarter results missed expectations. Papa stressed to analysts on a conference call that Valeant was focused on selling pieces that are not central to its business. But in an interview he said he would not rule out going further. "I have had some inbound interest expressed in some of our core and noncore assets," Papa told Reuters. "We have to think about any alternative in front of us as we look to improve shareholder value. We're going to take anything that we get, from an offer or unsolicited bid, very seriously." Papa declined to comment on whether he had received interest in a takeover of Valeant since assuming the helm in May. Valeant has labeled its Bausch + Lomb eye care, dermatology, Salix gastrointestinal and consumer over-the-counter businesses as core. Papa would not say if Valeant received interest in Bausch, which he said is "one of the most valuable assets we own." The company has identified noncore assets representing $2 billion in annual sales that could realize an estimated $8 billion if the company sells them, and has hired banks and advisors to evaluate options. "These products are good products, have good growth rates, and we believe will yield a very effective price point," Papa said, declining to identify specific assets. Valeant received unsolicited bids for more than one-third of the noncore assets the company is considering selling, he said. (Reporting by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg, Manitoba; Editing by Jeffreys Hodgson and Benkoe) By Svea Herbst-Bayliss BOSTON, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Six weeks before Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc revealed plans to reorganize and pay down debt, similar ideas to improve the drugmaker's fortunes were discussed at a private shareholder dinner attended by top investor and board member William Ackman, according to a source who participated. Bank of America hosted the June 29 event, billed as Valeant: a Bull/Bear dinner, at the Lincoln Ristorante in Manhattan, according to two people who saw the invitation. Nearly two dozen mutual and hedge fund managers came to dine and brainstorm on Valeant, according to the source, who was not at liberty to speak publicly about it. While Ackman had things to say, he came mostly to let others discuss their concerns, attending largely in "listen only mode," the source said. Small dinners at which fund managers discuss the pros and cons of an investment bet are common on Wall Street. But one Wall Street analyst questioned the propriety of a private investor event with a board member before Valeant was due to release quarterly earnings on Tuesday. Valeant's conduct is under particular scrutiny as it seeks to clean up an image tarnished by federal investigations into its drug pricing and accounting practices that cut its share price by more than 90 percent in one year. The event was first disclosed by Wells Fargo analyst David Maris, a long-time critic of Valeant, in a note to clients on Monday. Maris did not attend and could not provide details. Company officials cannot share material information about their business with a select group of investors, and are expected to not discuss significant issues in the so-called "quiet period" several weeks before they report earnings. Bank of America told invitees that Ackman would attend. He is often a draw in investment circles and is an influential director on Valeant's board. Ackman's $12 billion hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management is Valeant's biggest investor and owns 21.6 million shares or 6.3 percent of the company. Story continues He came to the Bank of America event both as an owner and a board member, the person who attended the dinner said. The discussion focused on major challenges facing Valeant. In particular, investors said the company must avert the possibility of defaulting on its more than $30 billion in debt, the person said. The possibility of a default has been looming since March and is often discussed among investors. The investors also raised more specific changes such as replacing longtime investor and public relations chief Laurie Little and making sure that Chief Executive Joseph Papa communicated better during quarterly conference calls with investors than his predecessor, the source said. Papa did not attend the meeting, the source added. Valeant on Tuesday said it would sell billions of dollars of non-core assets and could accept buyout offers for its main businesses as it seeks to restore investor trust. Its shares rose more than 24 percent. On Monday, Valeant announced new leadership for several key businesses, and said Little was stepping down from the company. During a call with investors on Tuesday, Maris asked Papa about the evening, saying a Valeant board member held a dinner where selected Valeant owners were able to discuss things, adding that this sounded like "the same old Valeant" to him. "I don't know the specifics so it would be speculation and I don't want to add to that," Papa said in response. Bank of America representatives and Laurie Little did not immediately respond to requests for comment. (Additional reporting by Caroline Humer in New York; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Jeffrey Hodgson) By Svea Herbst-Bayliss BOSTON (Reuters) - Six weeks before Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc revealed plans to reorganize and pay down debt, similar ideas to improve the drugmaker's fortunes were discussed at a private shareholder dinner attended by top investor and board member William Ackman, according to a source who participated. Bank of America hosted the June 29 event, billed as Valeant: a Bull/Bear dinner, at the Lincoln Ristorante in Manhattan, according to two people who saw the invitation. Nearly two dozen mutual and hedge fund managers came to dine and brainstorm on Valeant, according to the source, who was not at liberty to speak publicly about it. While Ackman had things to say, he came mostly to let others discuss their concerns, attending largely in "listen only mode," the source said. Small dinners at which fund managers discuss the pros and cons of an investment bet are common on Wall Street. But one Wall Street analyst questioned the propriety of a private investor event with a board member before Valeant was due to release quarterly earnings on Tuesday. Valeant's conduct is under particular scrutiny as it seeks to clean up an image tarnished by federal investigations into its drug pricing and accounting practices that cut its share price by more than 90 percent in one year. The event was first disclosed by Wells Fargo analyst David Maris, a long-time critic of Valeant, in a note to clients on Monday. Maris did not attend and could not provide details. Company officials cannot share material information about their business with a select group of investors, and are expected to not discuss significant issues in the so-called "quiet period" several weeks before they report earnings. Bank of America told invitees that Ackman would attend. He is often a draw in investment circles and is an influential director on Valeant's board. Ackman's $12 billion hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management is Valeant's biggest investor and owns 21.6 million shares or 6.3 percent of the company. He came to the Bank of America event both as an owner and a board member, the person who attended the dinner said. The discussion focused on major challenges facing Valeant. In particular, investors said the company must avert the possibility of defaulting on its more than $30 billion in debt, the person said. The possibility of a default has been looming since March and is often discussed among investors. The investors also raised more specific changes such as replacing longtime investor and public relations chief Laurie Little and making sure that Chief Executive Joseph Papa communicated better during quarterly conference calls with investors than his predecessor, the source said. Papa did not attend the meeting, the source added. Valeant on Tuesday said it would sell billions of dollars of non-core assets and could accept buyout offers for its main businesses as it seeks to restore investor trust. Its shares rose more than 24 percent. On Monday, Valeant announced new leadership for several key businesses, and said Little was stepping down from the company. During a call with investors on Tuesday, Maris asked Papa about the evening, saying a Valeant board member held a dinner where selected Valeant owners were able to discuss things, adding that this sounded like "the same old Valeant" to him. "I don't know the specifics so it would be speculation and I don't want to add to that," Papa said in response. Bank of America representatives and Laurie Little did not immediately respond to requests for comment. (Additional reporting by Caroline Humer in New York; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Jeffrey Hodgson) By Rod Nickel and Caroline Humer (Reuters) - Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc (VRX.N) (VRX.TO) will sell billions of dollars of non-core assets and could accept offers for its main businesses, its chief executive said on Tuesday, as the drugmaker worked to restore investor trust after a year of bad news. Valeant's U.S. shares rose more than 25 percent, touching a two-month high, after the company outlined its reorganization and sell-off plan, and also confirmed full-year forecasts. Even so, the stock is down nearly 90 percent from a year ago. Last fall, political concerns about Valeant's sharp drug price increases and investor scrutiny of its dealings with pharmacy Philidor RX dragged down Valeant's shares. Congress and several U.S. government agencies also opened investigations and the company restated earnings earlier this year. Since then, its largest investor and board member, activist Bill Ackman, has been leading a drive to try to stabilize the company. New Chief Executive Joe Papa joined in May, replacing longtime CEO Mike Pearson. Papa announced a few small sales on Tuesday, and said Valeant was eyeing $8 billion worth of sales for non-core assets. He added in an interview that he may go further, after receiving unsolicited interest in core businesses as well. Valeant's Bausch & Lomb eyecare, dermatology, Salix gastrointestinal and consumer over-the-counter businesses are core, Papa said. He would not say if Valeant received interest in Bausch. "We have to think about any alternative in front of us as we look to improve shareholder value," Papa said in the interview. "We're going to take anything that we get, from an offer or unsolicited bid, very seriously." The Laval, Quebec-based company still has $30.77 billion in long-term debt, a legacy of Pearson's strategy of expanding through serial mergers and acquisitions. SECOND QUARTER FALLS SHORT On Tuesday, Valeant reported adjusted second-quarter earnings and revenue that fell short of analyst expectations, but stuck by full-year forecasts. Story continues "I don't want to suggest for an instant that there (aren't) challenges, but we like our position for 2016," Papa said during a during a conference call. Valeant has previously missed deadlines for filing financial reports due to the sales and earnings restatements, triggering default notices. It has repaid $1.29 billion in debt this year and wants to renegotiate lender agreements to give itself a larger "cushion," Papa said. That action on debt lifted shares, according to Oliver Marti, a portfolio manager at Columbus Circle Investors. "The stock is really driven by cash flow and covenants with the focus on stabilizing the business, and making progress on paying down debt. That is what they showed this quarter," Marti said. Valeant said it will break into three business segments around its Bausch & Lomb eyecare business; branded products including gastrointestinal drug Xifaxan and toenail treatment Jublia; and certain products including Obagi skin care treatments. It said its core geographies are the United States and Canada. Wells Fargo analyst David Maris, a long-time critic, questioned on the call whether the plan was just "new paint on the same old shed." Valeant is being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission as well as the U.S. Attorney's offices in Massachusetts and New York. The government is looking at its pricing practices and its patient assistance programs. Valeant said it still expected full-year revenue of $9.9 billion-$10.1 billion and adjusted earnings of $6.60-$7.00 per share. Second-quarter revenue fell to $2.42 billion from $2.73 billion a year earlier. Analysts on average had expected revenue of $2.46 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Excluding items, Valeant earned $1.40 per share, missing analysts' average estimate of $1.48. (Reporting by Ankur Banerjee in Bengaluru, Rod Nickel in Winnipeg and Caroline Humer in New York; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Jeffrey Hodgson) Caracas (AFP) - Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro late Tuesday taunted his political opponents after they hit an apparent roadblock in efforts to oust him from office. Opposition leaders must hold a recall referendum by January 10 if they are to succeed not only in removing Maduro but in staging new elections to replace his administration. The National Electoral Council (CNE) has approved the first of two petitions required to organize a referendum, which they aim to do by the end of this year. However, the election officials said Tuesday that a decisive step in triggering a referendum -- the collection of four million signatures on a recall petition -- probably could not be completed in time. Maduro vowed Tuesday that his political enemies -- whom he has accused of fomenting public disorder and widespread unrest -- would fail. "The violent plans that you have will be defeated by the conscience of a majority of the people," he declared during his weekly television program, in remarks he addressed to the opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD). "We're going to guarantee peace, independence, political sovereignty and the Bolivarian revolution" the Venezuelan president declared invoking the political movement founded by his late mentor and predecessor Hugo Chavez. The electoral council's president Tibisay Lucena said Tuesday that the gathering of signatures for the second petition "would take place around the end of October" on condition that "all the regulatory requirements are fulfilled." Lucena said in a speech to top officials that if the opposition gathered the four million signatures required to spark a referendum, the CNE would then have a month to verify them. After that, she said, the CNE would have up to three months to hold the referendum. That appeared to make it unlikely a referendum would be held by January as the opposition MUD demands. In keeping with the constitution, if Maduro loses a referendum held after January 10, he would just transfer power to his handpicked deputy. Story continues - Obstacles or delays - The MUD blames the socialist president for an economic crisis that has led to food shortages, riots and looting. A recent survey by pollster Venebarometro indicated that nearly two-thirds of voters would vote against Maduro, who has branded the economic crisis and the efforts to unseat him a capitalist conspiracy. He has launched legal challenges against the referendum drive, alleging fraud in the petition process, and vowed there will be no recall vote this year. Constitutional expert Jose Ignacio Hernandez calculated that the referendum could be held by January 4. But he said that depended on the will of the CNE. The opposition says Maduro controls the electoral authorities and accuses them of delaying the referendum procedures. Electoral affairs specialist Eugenio Martinez said the referendum may not happen until February "if the CNE makes an effort to impose unnecessary delays." The only top CNE member close to the opposition, Luis Emilio Rondon, told reporters "there is no legal, technological or logistical obstacle" to prevent the signatures from being gathered before October. - Protest planned - The opposition has called for a major national protest march to Caracas on September 1. Senior opposition leader Henrique Capriles branded Lucena's announcement "an exercise in cynicism and lies." The CNE "does not dare to say (openly) that there will not be a referendum this year," he told a news conference. "It knows very well that blocking the constitutional and democratic path places Venezuela in a highly dangerous situation." Anti-government protests in 2014 left 43 people dead. Lucena in turn lashed out at the opposition. "Harassing the electoral authorities and their employees is a way of trying to distort the constitutional path," she said. "Attempts are being made to apply maximum pressure to make the people think that the law is being applied arbitrarily." An official appointed by Maduro to oversee the CNE's processing of the referendum request, Jorge Rodriguez, declared the initiative "legally and judicially dead." "We had already said it was completely impossible to meet the deadlines to hold a recall referendum in 2016," he said. "The way things are going and in light of the massive fraud that has been committed, I am sure there won't be one in 2017 either." Many visual-effects pros start out as genre geeks, dreaming of someday working on a Star Wars or a Batman movie. Visual-effects supervisor Edward L. Williams won an Emmy for Star Trek: Voyager in 1995, though hed never had that dream. Years earlier, hed been a file clerk in Paramounts legal department. He discovered he had an affinity for post-production when he was dating a woman who worked in the studios trailer department so he became a post coordinator, working on sitcoms. It was then that a buddy asked if hed come over to Star Trek: The Next Generation as a VFX coordinator. I was not a Star Trek geek or a sci-fi geek at all, says Williams. I looked at it as another experience, growing my knowledge of visual effects, and working on a top show at the time in Hollywood. So I didnt jump on a chair with joy like, Woo, Star Trek! But moving to Star Trek: The Next Generation would prove instrumental. Williams was hooked the first time he shot a model and saw the composite come together. He remembers thinking, Hey, I shot that! This is very cool. I can do this job and learn to love this job. The rest was icing on the cake: shooting aliens and people on green screen, beaming people out and beaming them in. What really hooked him, though, was the opportunity to channel all his creativity into one shot, starting with nothing but a writers description, and bringing an image to life. Williams worked on 1988s War and Remembrance, which won an Emmy for its special effects, and hed love to do something else in the historical vein. Id say Game of Thrones, but I have a buddy working on the VFX of that show, he admits. So something educational, using my visual-effects knowledge to enhance the project. Boldly Going Williams has worked on three Star Trek series and won an Emmy. Stitchers (2015) Sci-fi saga about a woman who hacks into the minds of the dead The Devils Advocate (2007) Taylor Hackford horror thriller starred Keanu Reeves, Al Pacino, and Charlize Theron Star Trek: Voyager (1995-97) Williams won a visual effects Emmy for the UPN series; he also worked on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: The Next Generation War and Rememberance He designed miniatures for this Emmy-winning ABC miniseries Related stories Story continues 'Star Trek' Star Brent Spiner Puts His Malibu Estate Up for Sale Gary Hutzel, 'Star Trek: Deep Space Nine' VFX Supervisor, Dies at 60 'Star Trek: Voyager' Actress Jennifer Lien Arrested for Indecent Exposure putin erdogan turkey russia Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan met Tuesday to discuss normalizing bilateral relations. The relationship of the two nations soured after Turkey shot down a Russian plane that had flown into Turkish airspace back in November 2015. At the time, Putin said the downing of the plane was a "stab in the back delivered to us by accomplices of terrorist." But in a surprise change-up, Putin accepted Erdogan's apology for the incident in June, and now the two counterparts seem to be ready to patch things up. Earlier this week, Erdogan praised the upcoming talks as a "new beginning" for relations between the two nations and an opportunity to strengthen economic ties. He also called Putin a "friend." "This visit seems to me a new milestone in bilateral relations, beginning with a clean slate, and I personally, with all my heart and on behalf of the Turkish nation salute Mr Putin and all Russians," Erdogan said in an interview with Russian state media on Tuesday. Notably, the mid-diplomacy meal featured an interesting detail. Russian news website LifeNews posted a photo of some unique dishware, which appears to have featured the likeness of both Putin and Erdogan shaking hands. A tweet from the site said (roughly), "Putin and Erdogan dined on plates with their photos." According to the story from LifeNews (heads up, the site is in Russian), the Russian government occassionally creates the ceremonial plates featuring the visiting dignitary. A source near the Kremlin told LifeNews that it was the first time Russia has used such plates since August when Egyptian President Fattah Al-Sisi met with Putin. Check out an image of the plate taken by a LifeNews reporter below: https://t.co/A0qMoJ1pJf pic.twitter.com/XJL4x4hrPb Life | (@lifenews_ru) August 9, 2016 NOW WATCH: This lunch box for adults could change the way you eat More From Business Insider No business: House postponed by week While more than a hundred new Acts have to be formulated to implement the new constitution, the Legislature-Parliament has been without business, prompting the Parliament Secretariat to postpone the meeting by a week. From Delish I can't get enough of bagels. If I got to choose one thing that I could eat to my heart's content without any effect on my health or figure, I'd have to go with those chewy carb bombs. Growing up in Michigan, I thought I knew what qualified as a great bagel. Before I knew better, I'd happily scarf down one of the dry pucks from Dunkin Donuts and call it a day. But I'm older and wiser now. When I moved to New York City a few years ago, I quickly discovered that its residents are particular about a lot of things: You don't order a pizza, you order a pie, one waits on line, not in line ... the list goes on. And a major area that any New Yorker will argue to the death is the superiority of their bagels over all others. Photo credit: Flickr Creative Commons / Jenna.Wentz_Photography Though there's slight variability from deli to deli, New Yorkstyle bagels generally have a shiny and taught exterior that gives way to a pleasingly chewy inside. The dough is slightly sweet to the taste, yet yeasty enough to perfectly compliment the fluffy cream cheese-which you'll likely have 20 different varieties to choose from. Suddenly the bagels of my youth paled in comparison, and I was hooked. But my journey of bagel discovery didn't end there. While preparing for a recent trip to Montreal I asked around to find out what I absolutely needed to eat during my time there. Schwartz' smoked meat sandwiches and gravy-smothered poutine were honorable mentions, but talk of bagels made me raise an eyebrow. "But, I can get those at home," I thought. I was assured by friends and even Uber drivers that Montreal-style bagels are a different breed, and are definitely worth trying. I had to find out what all the fuss was about. I was deeply curious about how different Montreal-style and New Yorkstyle bagels could really be-New York and Quebec share a border, after all. Plus, deep down, I was thrilled by the prospect of pissing off born-and-bred New Yorkers by proclaiming that the Quebecois version is superior. But in order to do a fair assessment, I decided to break down the bagels bit by bit. Story continues Process The variation between these bagels begins with how they're made. According to many, the secret behind a true New York bagel is NYC water-it's "softer" than the water in most cities, meaning that it has lower levels of calcium carbonates and magnesium. This supposedly keeps the bagels from becoming tough. NYC bagel shops also ferment their dough overnight in wooden containers, allowing the yeast to grow and create complex flavor compounds-something that Montreal shops skip. Both cities boil their bagels before baking them to achieve that chewy outside, but Montreal bagels take a dip in water that's sweetened with honey. When it's time for baking, New York bagels go into a conventional oven, while Montreal bagels crisp up on a wood-burning oven. Photo credit: Flickr Creative Commons / Sandra Cohen-Rose and Colin Rose Appearance The first notable difference here is size. New York bagels can be as large as your head, and usually get so puffy that the inner hole nearly closes up, while Montreal bagels are smaller and thinner, with a large hole in the center. The wood-fired baking process gives Montreal bagels a crispy bottom crust, while NYC's variety shouldn't have a bottom darker and harder than the rest of the bagel. Photo credit: Hannah Doolin Texture The outer textures of both bagels are fairly similar. The soft insides of New York bagels are pillowy and pleasingly chewy, but with your first bite of a Montreal bagel it's clear that the variety is much denser. Taste Montreal bagels have a noticeable sweet flavor, caused by boiling them in honeyed water. New York bagels taste strongly of yeast, with only slight sweetness. Photo credit: Hannah Doolin Toppings Any New York bagel shop offers at least 10 varieties, ranging from sourdough to French toast and even rainbow bagels. Montreal bakeries typically stick to simple flavors like plain, sesame, poppyseed and everything (or "fully dressed" as they call it). Montrealers prefer to eat their bagels plain and warm from the oven, though shops do sell Philadelphia cream cheese for dipping if you prefer. Meanwhile, if you're a New Yorker, you likely slice your bagel and smear it with an ungodly amount of cream cheese. The verdict I got my Montreal bagels from Boulangerie St-Viateur, one of the most buzzed-about bagel shops in Montreal. Much to the chagrin of many New Yorkers, I prefer my bagels toasted, but the bagels at St-Viateur solved that issue for me, with the crispy bottom providing the crunch that I crave. I tasted plain, cinnamon raisin and everything, which all had a pleasant flavor, slightly sweeter than New York bagels. The denseness of the bagels made them seem a bit dry and left me wanting cream cheese. I bought Philadelphia cream cheese at the shop to dip them in, but it didn't at all compare to the fluffy stuff that NYC delis spread on their bagels. Photo credit: Hannah Doolin All in all, my opinion is that the yeasty flavor and soft-yet-chewy texture of New York bagels place them far above the Montreal variety. Looks like I can safely remain in New York City for the time being. That is until I tell you which shops are my favorite (Ess-a-Bagel and Tompkins Square Bagels in the East Village of Manhattan) ... then the locals will surely launch into a New Yorkstyle argument about how I've got it all wrong. Follow Delish on Instagram. From Town & Country It's used to christen yachts and ocean liners. It's served at weddings around the world. James Bond drinks it like water (actually, we never see him drink water). When my agent sold my book, Real Food/Fake Food, I celebrated with champagne. A couple of years later I popped another cork when the book was released. I put a bottle of Bollinger 2005 La Grande Annee in the fridge, just in case I got lucky and it hit the New York Times Bestseller list. (It's spent the past three weeks on the list, and yes, I did drink that bottle.) For centuries, the great moments in life have been punctuated with champagne-French champagne. That sounds a little redundant, like Swiss Rolex, Italian Prada, or American Cadillac, but in this case the qualifier is necessary. The vast majority of American consumers are under the impression champagne needs to be from France to be legally called champagne, but that is just the biggest of many myths about the world's most famous wine. In fact, the majority of wine labeled "champagne" sold and consumed in this country is also made in this country, often poorly. As acclaimed wine journalist Lettie Teague described the best known domestic brand in the Wall Street Journal, "Korbel was pretty much an insult to the namesoft and flabby, and a bit sour." "The majority of wine labeled 'champagne' sold and consumed in this country is also made in this country, often poorly." Consider the restaurant world's greatest contribution to the indulgence of daytime drinking, the bottomless champagne brunch. Once limited to Sundays, these have spread across the entire weekend and are an urban institution in just about every city. Yet after much research, I've been able to find exactly three restaurants in the entire country that freely pour the good stuff-the French stuff-in Los Angeles, Denver, and, of course, Las Vegas. Even in its birthplace, Champagne-Ardennes, myths abound, and the long-held notion that Monk Dom Perignon was the father of champagne have gone the way of Christopher Columbus "discovering" the New World. Other monks were producing sparkling wines more than a century earlier, and years before his arrival in the hilltop hamlet of Hautvillers, an English scientist detailed the methode champenoise, or way of making champagne. But Dom Perignon did live here, and while in all likelihood never uttered his famous quote to fellow monks, "Come quickly, I am drinking the stars!" he was a bubbly enthusiast and tinkerer who made several important contributions to its current quality. These include perfecting the blending of still wines before secondary fermentation and the introduction of the cork. Story continues Photo credit: Getty Before we delve too far into the myths, let's tackle the important truths about champagne, at least the French version: 1. Grapes for making sparkling wine grow better in Champagne than elsewhere, thanks to the region's unique terroir. It is the world's northernmost prestigious vineyard region, wetter and colder than others, with 200 days of rain annually. But the region sits on a thick layer of limestone and chalk, which absorbs incredible amounts of water relative to soil, preventing an excess of groundwater when it rains and acting as reservoir during droughts. 2. It is the most expensive vineyard real estate on earth, over a million Euros an acre. Nonetheless, because of strict quality designations set and enforced by the government, less than two percent of the Champagne region can be planted with vines. They grow more potatoes than grapes. 3. Very specific rules govern the density and maximum yield per acre to ensure no reduction in fruit quality, how these grapes can be grown, and even how vines are pruned. Farmers need to pass courses and be certified simply to grow grapes here. All grapes must be picked by hand to prevent damage. 4. 100 percent of the grapes used in champagne must be grown in designated AOC vineyards within the Champagne-Ardennes region (in contrast, America's most prestigious viticulture designation, "Napa Valley AVA," requires 85 percent of the grapes to be from the appellation). 5. Only seven specific varieties of grapes are allowed in the production of champagne, in any combination (but several are rare and almost all champagne uses just three: pinot noir, pinot meunier, and chardonnay). 6. Grapes are first fermented into traditional still wines. But it is the next step that really defines champagne. Still wines are put into bottles with some yeast and sugar, then placed in cellars to age. As the yeast eats sugar it converts it to carbon dioxide, which forms bubbles. Called secondary fermentation, this must occur in the individual bottles. 7. By French law, non-vintage champagne must be aged at least 15 months and vintage at least three years (but most producers roughly double these minimums). 8. After aging, the necks of the bottles are flash frozen, turning sediment into a solid icy plug. Bottles are opened and pressure ejects the plug, leaving only wine behind. Bottles are then recorked and ready for sale. This final step is called "disgorgement." What's In a Name? There are few foodstuffs made under stricter regulations and oversight anywhere in the world, and the resulting level of quality is so high that there is no such thing as mediocre French champagne. Even entry level bottles are rightfully considered fine wines, and while some are certainly better than others, all are by definition at least very good. The questions is, "What's in a name?" and the answer, when it comes to French champagne, is a lot. "It is so consistently high quality that consumers recognize that virtue without even thinking about it," said Alison Napjus, senior editor at Wine Spectator magazine and the publication's champagne expert. "In other wine regions it is rare for producers to make outstanding vintages year after year, but here they are consistent. It starts on the micro level with the terroir, the chalky soil, the limestone, which translates to an elegance in the wines. There is the focus on all the individual vineyard plots, with hundreds of wines to blend. Most people don't think about the chemistry in winemaking; you can't just crush a bunch of grapes, throw them in, and see what happens. And that's just to make still wine. They sometimes blend three to four hundred wines to make one champagne, and then there is the secondary fermentation. It's one of the most technically demanding and detailed versions of winemaking in the world. It's all these factors, the terroir, the winemakers, the regulations, and the traditions." If French champagne were the only champagne, life would certainly be easier for consumers, especially Americans. Yet after twelve decades of international treaties and trade negotiations, there remain exactly half a dozen outlier countries who refuse to accept champagne's geographic association with its namesake birthplace and legally produce cheaper versions that ride on the coattails of the famous original. As shown in the above map, those countries are Russia, Argentina, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Belarus, and the United States of America. Nonetheless, the French have been so good for so long at both making and marketing champagne that they've created yet another of their famous national paradoxes: most Americans take it on faith that champagne can only come from France. It's such a shock that you could hardly blame consumers for taking the word on the label at face value, despite the law requiring the label to also bear the country of originafter all, you wouldn't walk into Tourneau and flip over the aforementioned Rolex to make sure it said "Made in Switzerland," because the real thing is only made in Switzerland. France created its problem There is no other food or drink product on earth as synonymous with a particular place as champagne. This is so obvious to the French, who created the first widespread legal protections for terroir-based foods, the Appellation of Controlled Origin system, that it is the only AOC product not legally required to display the AOC symbol. Why? Because the general understanding is that if you think champagne can come from anyplace else, you are an idiot. In this regards, champagne has uniquely been a victim of its own successful reputation. "There is no other food or drink product on earth as synonymous with a particular place as champagne." Are American consumers confused by cheap domestic "champagne" that's not from Champagne? "Absolutely," said Wine Spectator's Napjus. "If you gave a hundred people on the street a bottle, at least 95 would think it is champagne. They have no idea. You can make sparkling wine by injecting it with gas like soda, and that is definitely done here. When you think about these bubbles and the bubbles in champagne, it's completely different and it tastes completely different." The production methods make a difference Almost all wines made in the world are fermented in tanks or barrels. Doing it in individual bottles is extremely expensive and labor intensiveit's like having thousands of individual wineries under a roof instead of just one, each with its own chemical reactions. A much cheaper, faster and easier way to make sparkling wine would be to buy the cheapest grapes on the market, make them into wine and add carbon dioxide, just like making seltzer. No muss, no fuss, no ageing, just carbonate, label and ship. That's the lowest possible end of the quality spectrum, with French champagne at the highest end. Other so-called champagnes usually fall somewhere in between, and many use the "Charmat method," where secondary fermentation is done in bulk tanks. This is also used for used for most Italian Proseccos, while by law Spanish cava, South Africa's cap classique, and French sparklers outside of Champagne (cremant) follow the "methode champenoise." Yet that term too is potentially misleading, so it is also legally exclusive to its namesake French region-except for the U.S., Kazakhstan, and company. While not required, almost all high-quality domestic sparkling wine producers such as Domaine Chandon, J, Gruet, Domaine Carneros, and others voluntarily use the traditional French method with secondary fermentation in the bottle, as well as the same authentic grape varietals. They also eschew the term "champagne," which they could legally use, for the more honest "sparkling wine." So why don't less expensive manufacturers like Korbel (which also routinely uses grape varietals not permitted in French champagne, including riesling, chenin blanc, muscat, colombard, gamay, sangiovese, merlot and even zinfandel)? In an interview with National Public Radio, owner Gary Heck said that if, "You go into other parts of the United States, you ask somebody what sparkling wine is and they're going to tell you it's wine with club soda added to it. It would be very detrimental to our brand to put sparkling wine on there." Nonetheless, Korbel does just that on the bottles it exports to Canada, where the champagne name is protected. Wine and spirits journalist Dan Dunn, whose recent book American Wino takes an in-depth look at the fast changing culture and advancement of domestic winemaking in all 50 states, has a different take on the issue. "I just finished an article on domestic sparkling wine. None of the good producers use the term champagne. That only goes on the crap." He extended this argument to the other unprotected and imitated venerable foreign place-named wines, such as Burgundy, Chablis, Chianti, Sauternes, and Port. "No one who cares about what they are making uses these terms, it's just industrial producers who have no other way to get you to buy their products." "None of the good [domestic] producers use the term champagne. That only goes on the crap." Fortunately, champagne is one of the few products covered in my new book that can reliably be discerned based on price. Unfortunately, this strategy does not protect American consumers from homegrown imitations of other world class geographically indicated wines, especially Port, Sherry, and Madeira, which sometimes sell for more than the originals from the places where they are supposed to be made. When the Founding Fathers toasted the signing of the Declaration of Independence with Madeira, from Portugal's Madeira, they were seeking to escape European oppression, not oppress European winemakers. Just about every high-quality manufacturer of sparkling wine in this country calls its product "sparkling wine," and while French champagne starts around forty dollars a bottle, these good domestic sparklers start in the twenties. Domestic "champagne," on the other hand, starts around eight bucks and rarely breaks out of the teens. Its starting price is coincidentally about the same as the wholesale price wineries in Champagne pay their neighbor growers for the grapes needed to make one entry level bottle. That $7-$10 just covers the actual grapes, before building a winery, buying equipment, hiring staff or crushing, fermenting, bottling, corking, labeling, aging, storing, marketing, or shipping. The ridiculous notion that you can get a finished bottle of champagne for the cost of good grapes alone is the biggest myth of all. Larry Olmsted is the author of the new hardcover book, Real Food / Fake Food (Algonquin, $28), which takes the first comprehensive look at the world's most delicious foodstuffs, why they matter, and how they are widely imitated, from supermarkets to Michelin-starred eateries. Investors are always looking for stocks that are poised to beat at earnings season and Sun Life Financial Inc. (SLF) may be one such company. The firm has earnings coming up pretty soon, and events are shaping up quite nicely for their report. That is because Sun Life Financial is seeing favorable earnings estimate revision activity as of late, which is generally a precursor to an earnings beat. After all, analysts raising estimates right before earningswith the most up-to-date information possibleis a pretty good indicator of some favorable trends underneath the surface for SLF in this report. In fact, the Most Accurate Estimate for the current quarter is currently at 69 cents per share for SLF, compared to a broader Zacks Consensus Estimate of 68 cents per share. This suggests that analysts have very recently bumped up their estimates for SLF, giving the stock a Zacks Earnings ESP of 1.47% heading into earnings season. SUN LIFE FINL Price and EPS Surprise SUN LIFE FINL Price and EPS Surprise | SUN LIFE FINL Quote Why is this Important? A positive reading for the Zacks Earnings ESP has proven to be very powerful in producing both positive surprises, and outperforming the market. Our recent 10 year backtest shows that stocks that have a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) or better show a positive surprise nearly 70% of the time, and have returned over 28% on average in annual returns (see more Top Earnings ESP stocks here). Given that SLF has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) and an ESP in positive territory, investors might want to consider this stock ahead of earnings. Clearly, recent earnings estimate revisions suggest that good things are ahead for Sun Life Financial, and that a beat might be in the cards for the upcoming report. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report SUN LIFE FINL (SLF): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Last week, on Friday morning, protesters blocked off the M4 leading to Heathrow. They were from the UK branch of the Black Lives Matter movement, and their aim was to highlight the issues facing black communities in the UK. With posters reading in bold white letters against a black background "THIS IS A CRISIS", they wanted to make the statement that racism is very much alive and well in this country, embedded within our institutions and in the micro-aggressions that black people like myself experience on a daily basis. The protest was disruptive, stopping traffic until authorities intervened and attracting national media attention. Other Black Lives Matter protests took place around the UK across the weekend, in Nottingham, London and Manchester. Road completely blocked pic.twitter.com/Ib03kxzHWm William Davies (@WilwithoneL) August 5, 2016 While racism in America is, currently, more visible with stories of police brutality making headlines almost weekly racism in Britain can be just as deadly. 29-year-old Mark Duggan was shot dead by police in Tottenham in 2011, an event which (in part) sparked the London riots. And what's changed since then? Just last month, 18-year-old Mzee Mohammed died in police custody in Liverpool. As research from the campaign group Inquest demonstrates, a disproportionate number of black or minority ethnic people die in police custody in the UK compared to white people. Perhaps what is more worrying is the fact that there have been zero convictions. Racism pervades within our prison system. Black people, especially young black men, are 37 times more likely to be stopped and searched compared to their white counterparts, according to national statistics. Black people are 44 times more likely to be detained under the Mental Heath Act (according to the Mental Health Foundation), and less likely to receive talking therapies (according to the charity Mind.) Black people are also three times more likely to be arrested (Institute of Race Relations) and twice as likely to die in police custody (IPCC). Story continues It is not confined to black men, either. Sarah Reed was found dead in her cell on 11th January 2016 in Holloway prison. In November 2012, she was beaten up by police officer James Kiddie after she was reportedly caught shoplifting. The act was caught on CCTV cameras. Officer Kiddie was convicted of common assault for his brutality, but only sentenced to a meagre 150 hours of community service. In October 2015, Sarah Reed was charged with grievous bodily harm with intent. Reed's mother told the Guardian that her daughter had claimed she was simply defending herself from sexual assault. Mark Duggan march and vigil, 5th anniversary Tottenham riots, London, UK. Photo: Matthew Chattle/REX/Shutterstock. Around me, racism is very real. Whether that is witnessing a stop-and-search or being at an airport and my friend being taken away to be searched simply because of her name. Through and through, I see how the public and state target certain ethnic groups. And it is painful to watch when innocent people are stereotyped, humiliated and discriminated against by institutions that were designed to help them feel safe. In London, I became black in a way that I had never been when I was in Nigeria As a black woman in Britain, I know I am much less likely to be shot by the police than if I lived in the U.S., but I still experience everyday racism, whether thats at school, on the street, in the workplace or by the state. I moved to Britain in 2011. I was 13, naive and expecting a tolerant society. I didnt know that by virtue of being black, I would have to move through the world in a very different way. In London, I became black in a way that I had never been when I was in Nigeria. In London, I learnt that being black meant feeling different and experiencing discrimination. This became my new reality. Protester draped in a Black Lives Matter shroud, in London on 5th August 2016. Photo: Marc Ward/REX/Shutterstock. In the wake of Brexit, a statistic quickly circulated stating that hate crimes in the UK had risen by 57% in four days. For me, this felt like more than a statistic. A few days after the vote, I remember being at Kings Cross Station, waiting in a queue to get my train ticket to go and see a play in Leeds. Beside me was a white woman, and even though I made no indication of pushing in or walking in front of her, she shouted: Im next in the queue! Or do they not have queues where you come from? I decided to leave it; it was early, I was tired, and it felt at the time like an insignificant account of racism. For too long, people of colour in the UK have been left to deal with the effects of minor-to-grave incidents of racism on their own. But the birth of the Black Lives Matter movement in the UK is inspiring, because finally, people are pushing back and demanding that this country, and this government, look at the pervasive ways that racism affects our daily lives. This summer marks five years since Mark Duggan's death. It also marks the five-year anniversary of my move to London, a place that I sometimes call home. And what is a home? Somewhere that you feel safe, but being a black woman, I know that this might always exist as a paradox. Seeing the Black Lives Matter movement make headlines here in the UK empowers me to sit up and demand more. It gives me hope that if we keep saying black lives matter, eventually someone will listen. Protesters occupy the street and block traffic outside Aldgate East Station in a Black Lives Matter rally. Photo: Marc Ward/REX/Shutterstock. Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here? New Stats Reveal Sexual Harassment At Work In The UK Is Rampant This Inspirational Olympic Swimmer Rescued Refugees At Sea This Footballer Is Sick Of Being Compared To A Man Global health officials are racing to better understand the Zika virus behind a major outbreak that began in Brazil last year and has spread to many countries in the Americas. The following are some questions and answers about the virus and current outbreak: How do people become infected? Zika is transmitted to people through the bite of infected female mosquitoes, primarily the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the same type that spreads dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said Aedes mosquitoes are found in all countries in the Americas except Canada and continental Chile, and the virus will likely reach all countries and territories of the region where Aedes mosquitoes are found. How do you treat Zika? There is no treatment or vaccine for Zika infection. Companies and scientists are racing to develop a safe and effective vaccine for Zika, but the World Health Organization (WHO) had said early in 2016 that it would take at least 18 months to start large-scale clinical trials of potential preventative shots. A vaccine is not expected to be ready for widespread use for at least two or three years. U.S. government researchers said they started their first clinical trial of a Zika vaccine. How dangerous is it? The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded that infection with the Zika virus in pregnant women is a cause of the birth defect microcephaly and other severe brain abnormalities in babies. The CDC said now that the causal relationship has been established, several important questions must still be answered with studies that could take years. According to the World Health Organization, there is strong scientific consensus that Zika can cause the birth defect microcephaly in babies, a condition defined by unusually small heads that can result in developmental problems. In addition, the agency said it could cause Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that can result in paralysis. Conclusive proof of the damage caused by Zika may take months or years. Story continues Brazil reports the number of confirmed cases of microcephaly at more than 1,700 as doctors and Brazilian health officials find that some suspected cases of microcephaly are not the disorder. Suspected ones under investigation had declined to 3,257. Brazil registered 91,387 likely cases of the Zika virus from February until April 2. Current research in Brazil indicates the greatest microcephaly risk is associated with infection during the first trimester of pregnancy, but health officials have warned an impact could be seen in later weeks. Recent studies have shown evidence of Zika in amniotic fluid, placenta and fetal brain tissue. What are the symptoms of Zika infection? People infected with Zika may have a mild fever, skin rash, conjunctivitis, muscle and joint pain and fatigue that can last for two to seven days. But as many as 80 percent of people infected never develop symptoms. The symptoms are similar to those of dengue or chikungunya, which are transmitted by the same type of mosquito. How can Zika be contained? Efforts to control the spread of the virus focus on eliminating mosquito breeding sites and taking precautions against mosquito bites such as using insect repellent and mosquito nets. U.S. and international health officials have advised pregnant women to avoid travel to Latin American and Caribbean countries where they may be exposed to Zika. How widespread is the outbreak? Active Zika outbreaks have been reported in at least 54 countries or territories, most of them in the Americas, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Brazil has been the country most affected. (http://1.usa.gov/1ovAJyh) Africa (1): Cape Verde Americas (45): Anguilla, Antigua, Argentina, Aruba, Barbados, Barbuda, Belize, Bolivia, Bonaire, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Curacao, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Martinique, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saba, Puerto Rico, Saint Barthelmy, Saint Lucia, Saint Martin, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Eustatius, St. Maarten, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Cacos, U.S. Virgin Islands and Venezuela. Oceania/Pacific Islands (8): American Samoa, Fiji, Kosrae, Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, and Tonga. What is the history of the Zika virus? The Zika virus is found in tropical locales with large mosquito populations. Outbreaks of Zika have been recorded in Africa, the Americas, Southern Asia and the Western Pacific. The virus was first identified in Uganda in 1947 in rhesus monkeys and was first identified in people in 1952 in Uganda and Tanzania, according to the WHO. Can Zika be transmitted through sexual contact? The World Health Organization (WHO) said sexual transmission is "relatively common" and has advised pregnant women not to travel to areas with ongoing outbreaks of Zika virus. It also advised women living in areas where the virus is being transmitted to delay getting pregnant. The U.S. CDC is investigating about a dozen cases of possible sexual transmission. Those cases involved possible transmission of the virus from men to their sex partners. But the CDC issued updated recommendations for preventing and testing for Zika infection on July 25, warning that the virus can be transmitted through unprotected sex with an infected female partner. A reported case of female-to-male sexual transmission in New York City, and limited human and non-human primate data indicating that Zika virus RNA can be detected in vaginal secretions, led to the new warning, the agency said. CDC's expanded warnings on sexual exposure to Zika now caution against sex without a condom or other barrier method of protection with any person, male or female, who has traveled to or lives in an area with Zika, including female to female transmission with a pregnant partner. British health officials reported Zika was found in a man's semen two months after he was infected, suggesting the virus may linger in semen long after infection symptoms fade. The PAHO said Zika can be transmitted through blood, but this is an infrequent transmission mechanism. There is no evidence Zika can be transmitted to babies through breast milk. The WHO has identified Zika cases in Argentina, Chile, France, Italy and New Zealand as likely caused by sexual transmission. What other complications are associated with Zika? Zika has also been associated with other neurological disorders, including serious brain and spinal cord infections. The long-term health consequences of Zika infection are unclear. Other uncertainties surround the incubation period of the virus and how Zika interacts with other viruses that are transmitted by mosquitoes, such as dengue. (Compiled by the Americas Desk) No pardon for war-era cases Newly appointed Attorney General Raman Kumar Shrestha has ruled out general pardon in conflict-era crimes. Genesi, the first Wider 150, is rated the quietest yacht in its class. You know that a superyacht runs quietlyalmost silentlywhen you look out a window and are surprised to see that the boat is under way. Such was the case during a recent day cruise in the Mediterranean aboard Genesi, the appropriately named first example of the Wider 150, a 150-foot semicustom design from Italys Wider Yachts. A group of passengers were chatting in the sky-deck lounge when one mentioned that Genesi had left the dock. None of us had heard any accelerating engines or felt any hull vibrations. As it continued to operate in zero-emissions mode, the 391-ton yacht smoothly cut through the waves while its propulsion system registered only 37 decibels, which is three decibels quieter than a refrigerator hum. The wine in the glasses sitting on the sky decks bar passed the yachters vibration test: no ripples on the surface. The Registro Italiano Navale, the Italian organization that classifies and certifies ships and yachts, measured the sound and vibration levels aboard Genesi during sea trials and was so impressed that it gave the vessel a rating of 100the first time the organization has awarded a perfect score to a superyacht. The whisper-quiet ride is merely one of the alluring features of the Wider 150, which is priced at about $29 million. Genesi woos guests with 3,700 square feet of exterior space spread across four decks, as well as a 950-square-foot beach club, a tender garage that converts into a 23-foot-long swimming pool filled with seawater, and a spacious master suite with a 60-square-foot fold-down balcony. The sophisticated diesel-electric propulsion system that can operate in near-silent zero-emissions mode is a first for a vessel this size and has established new fuel-burn and emissions standards for superyachts. I wanted to design a boat around a new type of propulsion system, says Wider CEO Tilli Antonelli, who conceived the 150 about 5 years ago. I wanted to build something that had never been done in yachting. Story continues Antonelli saw diesel-electric propulsion as the solution to multiple issues dogging superyachts, including space constraints, vibrations, noise, and emissions. Instead of having two monster diesel engines and large generators taking up room at the rear, Genesi has banks of batteries just forward of the tender garage and four generators near the front of the boat. That gave us 28 percent more interior volume, says Antonelli. The configuration created space for the swimming pool/tender garage and allowed for two supersized VIP staterooms below deck. While running in zero-emissions mode, on battery power, Genesi can travel as fast as 5 knots for 8 hours. At 10 knots, it consumes only 17 gallons of diesel fuel per hour, giving it a range of 4,700 nautical miles. Our trip was much shorter: We departed from Cannes, cruised around the nearby Iles de Lerins, anchored for lunch, and then returned to Cannes. Guests enjoyed time on the open sky deck, which includes a Jacuzzi and reclining lounges, and at the foredeck seating area. Its covered with a hard top on pillars that folds down when the space is not in use, maintaining the yachts streamlined look. At the stern, the transom door lifts up and platforms fold down from the sides of the hull to create the beach club, a wide deck between the pool and the ocean. When the yacht is under way, the pool becomes a garage for the Wider 32 that serves as Genesis tender. The owners suite encompasses 850 square feet, has a ceiling that is 7 feet 2 inches high, and is divided into a bedroom, an office, and a bathroom with marble walls and an oak tub. The suites terrace features a teak deck that slides out from the hull when the balcony folds down. We could have built it the standard way, but that wouldve meant having a teak wall on the interior, says Antonelli. Instead, we built a special sliding mechanism so that the space remains consistent with the rest of the wall. The slide-out deck, the beach-club design, and the quiet and efficient propulsion system are all consistent with Antonellis reason for establishing Wider, which he did in 2010 after running the Pershing yacht brand for 25 years: He wanted to create an entirely new type of yacht. It was exciting to think about something that didnt exist in yachting, he says. This was a new frontier. Love You, Tender The Wider 32 can ferry or enthrall passengers. The Wider 32 was conceived as the tender for the Wider 150 Genesi, but company CEO Tilli Antonelli also envisioned it as a stand-alone day boat. He wasnt alone: Wider has sold a dozen examples of the $384,000 vessel since launching it 2 years ago. Skipping across 1-to-2-foot waves in the Mediterranean, Genesis Wider 32 was fast, nimble, and a lot of fun. Its powered by twin 260 hp MerCruisers with Bravo 1 drives. They enable a top speed of 37 knots, and with power steering, trim tabs, and trim and tilt on the drives, the boat is easy to handle. Its also easy on the eyes. The curved bow flows backward into a wide-open cockpit that drops into a tumblehome at the stern. The cockpit is furnished with a U-shaped lounge that converts to a sun pad. The decksincluding the foredeck and swim platformare covered with teak. The 32 can accommodate 12 passengers, which is ideal for a tender that ferries guests to and from port, but it also has deep storage lockers for wakeboards and other water toys that you could use with a speedboat. The cabin appears spartan, but the cabinets contain a microwave, a fridge, and a stove. The head in the bow is large enough for a shower, and the lounges along the sides of the cabin can serve as beds. The 32s exterior can match the motherships, as that of Genesis tender does, or it can be ordered in a range of colors including white, blue, and orange. Wider Yachts, wider-yachts.com More From Robbreport.com John Varvatos Opens NYC Store with a Photographic Celebration of the City The Worlds Best Vacation Photos Driving the 2017 Nissan GT-R on Belgiums Legendary Spa-Francorchamps Racetrack The Rhino GX Is a Four-Wheel Brute That Handles with Finesse Driving the 2017 McLaren 570GT up a Spanish Volcano Superman Helps Heritage Comic Book Art Auction Bring in a Whopping $7.4 Million Jerusalem (AFP) - World Vision questioned Tuesday Israeli accusations that tens of millions of dollars in aid were funnelled off to the Islamist movement Hamas, calling the alleged sum "hard to reconcile" with reality. An Israeli court on Thursday charged the NGO's Gaza head Mohammed al-Halabi with funding "terror". According to the Shin Bet internal security agency, he diverted $7.2 million (6.5 million euros) each year since 2010 to Hamas and its military wing, though the charge sheet does not specify an amount. Part of it was allegedly used to build attack tunnels from blockaded Gaza into Israel. World Vision International president Kevin Jenkins said in a statement the organisation was conducting an investigation into the allegations and "condemns any diversion of funds from any humanitarian organisation". "If any of these allegations are proven to be true, we will take swift and decisive action." But he said the organisation "have not seen any of the evidence," and suggested the numbers were exaggerated. "World Vision's cumulative operating budget in Gaza for the past ten years was approximately $22.5 million, which makes the alleged amount of up to $50 million being diverted hard to reconcile," the statement read. The NGO has suspended its operations in Gaza. The statement said Halabi became the NGO's Gaza head in 2014 and would have only had the personal authority to sign off a budget up to $15,000. The NGO said it carried out extensive background checks on its staff. Halabi's lawyer has also rejected the accusations as baseless, saying his client was held without charge or access to legal support for several weeks after his June 15 arrest. The NGO has 150 staff across Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, providing aid to around 560,000 people. The group said its work helped more than 92,000 children last year. Wandering the cobblestone streets of Tbilisi, Georgia, my friends and I stumbled, a little tipsy, across the holy grail. That is, the holy grail of drunk junk food. Upside: Khachapuri otherwise known as Georgian pizza is a boatload of wood-fired doughy goodness. Downside: Eating this gut-bombing cheesy bread brings you one step closer to a heart attack. May your soul rest in peace after consuming this culinary killer. Maybe it was my jet lag, or perhaps it was the exhaustion of trudging through knee-high snow in the Caucasus Mountains. But khachapuri makes a Meat Lovers Pizza look like carrot sticks. Hailing from the little-known country of Georgia in Eastern Europe, this quintessential dish is the most sinful of breads a rich mixture of melted brined cheese and glistening grass-fed butter, all inside a fluffy gluten vessel that would put New Englands clam chowder bread bowls to shame. The best part? Right before the cheesy bread is served, a couple of eggs are cracked and stirred into the piping-hot mixture of cheese and butter. Cue the salivating. You can never go wrong with cheese and bread. Georgian chef Lali Ghlonti Khachapuri can be eaten for any meal of the day, but its best devoured under these two conditions: 1) at an ungodly hour, and 2) in the throes of hunger. Stroll through downtown Tbilisi and youll see late-night revelers rejoicing. No wonder theyre cozying up with a platter of khachapuri fit for a king, having knocked back a couple cups of chacha, the home-brewed brandy of Georgia. The warmth and fatty delight of khachapuri is just what the body needs in the middle of a cold Caucasus winter. Khachapuri comes baked, fried or boiled, but the latter two iterations are much less common and largely forgotten in Georgia. You might think its too much for your stomach to handle now, but decades ago, these breads were served with sour cream or sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, says Lali Ghlonti, a Georgian chef based in San Francisco. But you can never go wrong with cheese and bread, she says. The culinary Georgian tradition of holding heavy feasts, or supras, might be gaining ground in the U.S. An oft-overlooked cuisine, Georgian food has gained a tasty foothold in restaurants from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco in the past few years, and khachapuri is the gateway drug, says Ghlonti. Once you try it, theres no going back mostly because youll be keeling over from the calorie explosion. But if you dare risk your arteries, heres a family recipe from Ghlonti for your delicious self-destruction. Ingredients Flour (9 oz = 250 g) Dry yeast (0.1 oz = 2 g) Salt (0.2 oz = 5 g) Water (2.8 oz = 80 g) Canola oil (0.4 oz = 10 g) Mozzarella and feta (11 oz = 300 g of each). (Ghlonti says, the U.S doesnt import sulguni, a pickled cheese from Georgias Samegrelo region. Instead, I prefer half mozzarella and half French feta for a substitute.) Melted butter (0.4 oz = 10 g) Directions Mix together flour, yeast, salt, water and oil. Let sit for 15 to 20 minutes until the dough slightly rises. Mix again, and place in the refrigerator for 15 minutes. Watch how to do the rest in this video. Related Articles Yingli Green Energy Holding Co. Ltd. YGE or Yingli Solar, expects to maintain a positive momentum into the second quarter, as revealed in its preliminary financial results. The company is scheduled to report second-quarter results on Aug 23, before the opening bell. In its preliminary financial results, Yingli Solar revealed that its shipments in the second quarter will surpass expectations. Photovoltaic (PV) module shipments (including shipments to the company's own downstream PV projects) are now expected in the range of 630 megawatts (MW) to 660 MW, higher than its earlier forecast of 580620 MW. The figure also indicates an increase from total PV module shipment of 508.1 MW in the first quarter. However, Yingli Solar expects overall gross margin for the second quarter to be in the range of 1719%, indicating a slight decrease from 20% recorded in the first quarter. This would mainly be attributable to sequentially lower average selling prices of the company's PV modules in the second quarter as a result of a higher proportion of shipment to China, where prices are usually lower than every other market. The company anticipates net profit margin of 2.53.5% for the quarter. This outlook is based on the company's preliminary review of operations for the second quarter. Depending on management's ongoing review, these expectations may change. YINGLI GREEN EN Price YINGLI GREEN EN Price | YINGLI GREEN EN Quote Yingli Green Energy is a leading vertically integrated manufacturer of photovoltaic products based in China. The company manufactures the entire PV value chain, including ingot casting and wafering, solar cell production and solar panel assembly. However, the company faces stiff competition from the likes of ReneSola Limited SOL, JA Solar Holdings Co., Ltd. JASO and Canadian Solar Inc. CSIQ among others. Currently, Yingli Green Energy has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report JA SOLAR HOLDGS (JASO): Free Stock Analysis Report RENESOLA LT-ADR (SOL): Free Stock Analysis Report YINGLI GREEN EN (YGE): Free Stock Analysis Report CANADIAN SOLAR (CSIQ): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Yusuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens, has announced a string of North American tour dates that coincide with the 50th anniversary of his first hit single, 1966's "I Love My Dog." Islam will perform stripped-down shows during his A Cat's Attic trek, which begins September 12th at the Sony Centre for Performing Arts in Toronto and wraps with a two night stand at the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles October 6th and 7th. A complete list of dates is below. The tour will also notably include two shows at New York's Beacon Theatre and a set at the Global Citizen Festival in Central Park, marking Islam's first public concerts in NYC since 1976. In 2014, Islam abruptly canceled a highly-anticipated New York City show due to rampant ticket scalping. Tickets for A Cat's Attic go on sale Monday August 15th at 10 a.m. local time via Live Nation. Fans who join Islam's Redroom fan club through his website will be able to purchase pre-sale tickets from August 11th at 10 a.m. local time though August 14th at 10 p.m. local time. A portion of every ticket will be donated to UNICEF and the International Rescue Committee to help children affected by the ongoing refugee crisis. While Islam has not released an album since 2014's Tell 'Em I'm Gone, in June he shared the new track, "He Was Alone," written after a visit to a Syrian refugee camp in southern Turkey. Yusuf Islam A Cat's Attic Tour Dates September 12 Toronto, ON @ Sony Centre for the Performing Arts September 15 Philadelphia, PA @ Verizon Hall at Kimmel Center September 17 Boston, MA @ Wang Theatre at Citi Performing Arts Center September 19 New York, NY @ Beacon Theatre September 20 New York, NY @ Beacon Theatre September 22 Washington, DC @ Kennedy Center September 24 New York, NY @ Central Park Clobal Citizen Festival September 27 Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium September 30 Chicago, IL @ Oriental Theatre October 3 San Francisco, CA @ Davies Symphony Hall Story continues October 6 Los Angeles, CA @ Pantages Theatre October 7 Los Angeles, CA @ Pantages Theatre Related DailyFX.com - Talking Points: NZ Dollar finds support in pre-positioning for RBNZ policy announcement British Pound falls as BOEs McCafferty says further easing likely needed Aussie Dollar down as NAB forecasts RBA to mull non-standard stimulus The New Zealand Dollar edged higher overnight in what may reflect pre-positioning ahead of the upcoming RBNZ rate decision. Priced-in expectations show investors are certain that a 25bps cut is in the cards, with at least 25bps in further easing over the coming 12 months. This means a dovish posture is probably well-reflected in the exchange rate already, hinting that NZD volatility risk is skewed to the upside in the event that the central bank seems less inclined to ease in the coming months than the markets are projecting. With that in mind, todays gains may mark protective rebalancing of exposure after Kiwi hit a two-week low yesterday. Meanwhile, the British Pound fell after the BOEs Ian McCafferty said that more easing is likely to be required following last weeks rate cut and QE top-up if the economy continues to develop in line with initial survey signals. He cautioned that the rate-setting MPC committee faces a set of economic circumstances that make assessing the appropriate amount of policy stimulus more difficult however. The Australian Dollar was also pressured after NAB said its measure of business confidence fell further in July and projected that the RBA will lower the baseline lending rate by a further 50 basis points to a record-low 1 percent next year. The bank also warned that policymakers may then consider resorting to non-conventional stimulus measures if the economic outlook continues to deteriorate. Looking ahead, a relatively muted economic data docket in European and US trading hours may allow established momentum to carry forward relatively unmolested. The lull in high-profile news-flow could make for especially pronounced sensitivity to headline risk however, warning that the threat of knee-jerk volatility may be elevated in the near term. Story continues Check out the latest standings for the FXCM $10k trading contest HERE. Asia Session GMT CCY EVENT ACT EXP PREV 22:00 NZD ANZ Truckometer Heavy (MoM) (JUL) -5.7% - 4.1% 22:45 NZD Card Spending Retail (MoM) (JUL) 0.3% 0.1% 1.2% 22:45 NZD Card Spending Total (MoM) (JUL) 0.4% - 1.0% 23:01 GBP BRC Sales Like-For-Like (YoY) (JUL) 1.1% -0.7% -0.5% 23:30 AUD Weekly Consumer Confidence Index (AUG 7) 114.7 - 118.0 23:50 JPY Money Stock M2 (YoY) (JUL) 3.3% 3.3% 3.4% 23:50 JPY Money Stock M3 (YoY) (JUL) 2.9% 2.9% 2.9% 01:30 AUD NAB Business Conditions (JUL) 8 - 11 01:30 AUD NAB Business Confidence (JUL) 4 - 5 01:30 CNY CPI (YoY) (JUL) 1.8% 1.8% 1.9% 01:30 CNY PPI (YoY) (JUL) -1.7% -2.0% -2.6% European Session GMT CCY EVENT EXP PREV IMPACT 05:45 CHF Unemployment Rate (JUL) 3.1% 3.1% Medium 05:45 CHF Unemployment Rate SA (JUL) 3.3% 3.3% Medium 06:00 JPY Machine Tool Orders (YoY) (JUL P) - -19.9% Low 06:00 EUR German Trade Balance (JUN) 23.0b 21.0b Medium 06:00 EUR German Current Account Balance (JUN) 23.0b 17.5b Low 06:00 EUR German Exports SA (MoM) (JUN) 1.1% -1.9% Low 06:00 EUR German Imports SA (MoM) (JUN) 0.6% 0.1% Low 08:30 GBP Industrial Production (MoM) (JUN) 0.1% -0.5% Medium 08:30 GBP Industrial Production (YoY) (JUN) 1.6% 1.4% Medium 08:30 GBP Manufacturing Production (MoM) (JUN) -0.2% -0.5% Medium 08:30 GBP Manufacturing Production (YoY) (JUN) 1.3% 1.7% Medium 08:30 GBP Visible Trade Balance (/Mn) (JUN) -10075 -9879 Medium 08:30 GBP Trade Balance Non EU (/Mn) (JUN) -2563 -2566 Low 08:30 GBP Trade Balance (/Mn) (JUN) -2550 -2263 Low 09:40 GBP BOE ILTR Operation Results - - Low 14:00 GBP NIESR GDP Estimate (JUL) 0.4% 0.6% Medium Critical Levels CCY Supp 3 Supp 2 Supp 1 Pivot Point Res 1 Res 2 Res 3 EUR/USD 1.1022 1.1055 1.1072 1.1088 1.1105 1.1121 1.1154 GBP/USD 1.2917 1.2986 1.3014 1.3055 1.3083 1.3124 1.3193 --- Written by Ilya Spivak, Currency Strategist for DailyFX.com To receive Ilya's analysis directly via email, please SIGN UP HERE Contact and follow Ilya on Twitter: @IlyaSpivak original source DailyFX provides forex news and technical analysis on the trends that influence the global currency markets. Learn forex trading with a free practice account and trading charts from FXCM. NRB lifts controls on five more currencies Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has allowed banks and financial institutions (BFIs) to sell the Swedish kroner, Danish kroner, Hong Kong dollar, Kuwaiti dinar and Bahrain dinar from Monday. A flurry of questions continue to swirl around an apparent murder-suicide Saturday in Pennsylvania that eradicated a family of five, including a toddler who survived a heart transplant the week after she was born. The bodies of Mark Short, 40, his wife, Megan, 33, and their three children 8-year-old Liana, 5-year-old Mark and 2-year-old Willow were found inside the family's Sinking Spring home on Saturday, according to investigators. All five victims suffered fatal gunshot wounds, according to police. The family's dog was also shot to death. It remains unclear who fired the fatal shots or what sparked the killings, but police did say a handgun was discovered near one of the deceased adults. Police confirmed recovering a handwritten note from the scene, but declined to detail its contents. An autopsy on Mark's remains will be performed Monday, according to a statement from the Berks County District Attorney's detectives. Meanwhile, forensic analysis of physical evidence collected from the home continues as investigators work to learn all they can about the family's final moments. No autopsies are planned for Megan Short or the three children. Martial or Financial Trouble? While some reports suggested financial difficulties prompted the violence, at least one relative tells PEOPLE that is impossible. Robert McLaughlin, Mark Short's brother-in-law, says he is still reeling from this weekend's shocking tragedy, but rejected the notion that money troubles provoked the shootings. He says there is a "zero percent chance" they were "financially driven" and says both of the family's affected by Saturday's shootings will refrain from commenting until after the funerals for all five Shorts. Police were dispatched to their home on Saturday when Megan failed to show up for a 2 p.m. lunch date, according to investigators. A report in the Reading Eagle claims Megan may have been preparing to divorce her husband of 16 years. According to the Eagle, Megan posted on Facebook last week seeking help with an upcoming move; and late last month, she commented on a link to an online article about spousal abuse, saying, "It really does a number on your mental health for sure." She later commented, according to the paper: "This is why I am leaving my marriage Angie. 16 years." "This is an apparent tragic domestic incident," the DA's statement reads. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families and we ask that you respect their privacy during this difficult time." A spokesman tells PEOPLE that the Berks County District Attorney's Office is refraining from commenting further on Saturday's deaths until the investigation is completed. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter. 'A Very Sweet Couple' The Short family made national headlines after their youngest child, Willow, underwent a risky heart transplant when she was just 1-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. Earlier this year, Megan penned an online column about her battle with post-traumatic stress disorder, which she says was caused by the emotional turmoil her daughter's health issues had wrought. Eight months ago, Mark posted a picture of him with his wife on his Facebook page, with the caption, "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 life and the mother of my three amazing children." Christine Lentz, who lives directly across the street from the Short home, tells PEOPLE she saw no signs of trouble during her brief interactions with the couple. "They were a very sweet couple and mostly kept to themselves," Lentz says. "I am in shock and in dismay. I have no words. I am just ... I had no idea anything like this was going on." The following timeline charts the origin and spread of the Zika virus from its discovery nearly 70 years ago: 1947: Scientists researching yellow fever in Uganda's Zika Forest identify the virus in a rhesus monkey 1948: Virus recovered from Aedes africanus mosquito in Zika Forest 1952: First human cases detected in Uganda and Tanzania 1954: Virus found in Nigeria 1960s-80s: Zika detected in mosquitoes and monkeys across equatorial Africa 196983: Zika found in equatorial Asia, including India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Pakistan 2007: Zika spreads from Africa and Asia, first large outbreak on Pacific island of Yap 2012: Researchers identify two distinct lineages of the virus, African and Asian 201314: Zika outbreaks in French Polynesia, Easter Island, the Cook Islands and New Caledonia. Retrospective analysis shows possible link to birth defects and severe neurological complications in babies in French Polynesia March 2, 2015: Brazil reports illness characterized by skin rash in northeastern states July 17: Brazil reports detection of neurological disorders in newborns associated with history of infection Oct. 5: Cape Verde has cases of illness with skin rash Oct. 22: Colombia confirms cases of Zika Oct. 30: Brazil reports increase in microcephaly, abnormally small heads, among newborns Nov. 11: Brazil declares public health emergency November 2015-January 2016: Cases reported in Suriname, Panama, El Salvador, Mexico, Guatemala, Paraguay, Venezuela, French Guiana, Martinique, Puerto Rico, Guyana, Ecuador, Barbados, Bolivia, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Curacao, Jamaica Feb. 1: World Health Organization (WHO) declares public health emergency of international concern Feb. 2: First case of Zika transmission in United States; local health officials say likely contracted through sex, not mosquito bite Feb. 5: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says virus being actively transmitted in 30 countries, mostly in the Americas Feb. 8: U.S. President Barack Obama requests $1.8 billion to fight Zika Story continues Feb. 12: Brazil investigating potential link between Zika infections and 4,314 suspected cases of microcephaly. Of those, 462 confirmed as microcephaly and 41 determined to be linked to virus Feb. 17: Brazil investigating potential link between Zika and 4,443 suspected cases of microcephaly. Of those, 508 confirmed as microcephaly and most of those cases are linked to the virus. WHO seeks $56 million to fight Zika. Feb. 18: CDC adds Aruba and Bonaire to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 32. Feb. 23: CDC investigating 14 cases of possible sexual transmission of Zika. CDC also adds Trinidad and Tobago and Marshall Islands to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 34. Feb. 25: Brazil says confirmed microcephaly cases number more than 580 and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. Brazil is investigating an additional 4,100 suspected cases of microcephaly. Feb. 27: France detects first sexually transmitted case of Zika. Feb. 29: CDC adds St. Maarten, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 36. March 1: Brazil says confirmed microcephaly cases rose to 641 and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. Brazil is investigating an additional 4,222 suspected cases of microcephaly. March 8: WHO advises pregnant women to avoid areas with Zika outbreak and said sexual transmission of the virus is "relatively common." March 9: CDC adds New Caledonia to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 37. March 15: Cuba reports first case of Zika contracted in the country. March 16: Cape Verde identifies first case of microcephaly. March 18: CDC says during Jan. 1, 2015 to Feb. 26, 2016, 116 residents of the United States had evidence of recent Zika virus infection based on laboratory testing. Brazil says confirmed microcephaly cases rose to 863 and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. Brazil is investigating an additional 4,268 suspected cases of microcephaly. March 19: CDC adds Cuba to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 38. March 21: South Korea confirms first case of Zika. March 22: CDC adds Dominica to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 39. Bangladesh confirms first case of Zika virus. Brazil says confirmed microcephaly cases rose to 907 and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. Brazil is investigating an additional 4,293 suspected cases of microcephaly. March 29: Brazil says confirmed microcephaly cases rose to 944 and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. Brazil said the number of suspected cases of microcephaly dropped slightly to 4,291. March 31: According to the World Health Organization, there is a strong scientific consensus that Zika can cause the birth defect microcephaly as well as Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that can result in paralysis, though conclusive proof may take months or years. April 1: CDC adds Kosrae, Federated States of Micronesia to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 40. April 4: CDC adds Fiji to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 41. April 5: Vietnam reports first Zika infections. April 6: Brazil says confirmed microcephaly cases rose to 1,046 and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. The number of suspected cases of microcephaly dropped to 4,046. April 7: St. Lucia confirms first two cases of Zika, contracted locally. April 12: Brazil says confirmed microcephaly cases rose to 1,113 and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. The number of suspected cases of microcephaly dropped to 3,836. It was the second week in a row that the overall total figure fell. April 13: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded that infection with the Zika virus in pregnant women is a cause of the birth defect microcephaly and other severe brain abnormalities in babies. The CDC said now that the causal relationship has been established, several important questions must still be answered with studies that could take years. CDC adds St. Lucia to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 42. April 14: Colombia confirms two microcephaly cases linked to Zika. April 18: Peru reports first case of sexually transmitted Zika virus. CDC adds Belize to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 43. April 19: Chilean authorities find Zika mosquito for first time in decades. April 25: Canada confirms first sexually transmitted Zika case. April 26: Brazil says the number of confirmed cases of microcephaly climbed to 1,198 from 1,168 in the week through April 23, but suspected ones under investigation continued to decline to 3,710 from 3,741 a week ago. Brazil registered 91,387 likely cases of the Zika virus from February until April 2, the health ministry said, in its first national report on the epidemic. April 29: Puerto Rico reports first death related to Zika, according to the CDC. The country also confirmed 683 Zika cases, including 65 pregnant women, and five suspected cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome from Zika, the CDC reported. May 4: Panama confirms four microcephaly cases tied to Zika. May 6: Spain gets first case of Zika-related brain defect in a fetus. May 9: CDC adds Papua New Guinea, Saint Barthelemy and Peru to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 46. Honduras suspects first case of microcephaly in Zika patient. May 11: Brazil says the number of confirmed cases of microcephaly dropped to 1,326 in the week through May 7 as doctors and Brazilian health officials find that some suspected cases of microcephaly are not the disorder. Suspected ones under investigation continued to decline to 3,433. May 12: CDC adds Grenada to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 47. May 13: Puerto Rico reports first case of Zika-related microcephaly. May 20: WHO says an outbreak of Zika virus on the African island chain of Cape Verde is of the same strain as the one blamed for birth abnormalities in Brazil. May 24: Brazil reports the number of confirmed cases of microcephaly at 1,434 for the latest week to May 21. Suspected ones under investigation declined to 3,257. May 26: CDC adds Argentina to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 48. June 9: WHO issues updated guidelines on prevention of sexual transmission of the Zika virus, including advising women living in areas where the virus is being transmitted to delay getting pregnant. June 14: El Salvador confirms first case of microcephaly linked to Zika. June 23: CDC reports seven babies in the United States with microcephaly or other Zika-related birth defects such as serious brain abnormalities, and five lost pregnancies from either miscarriage, stillbirth or termination. June 28: First baby with Zika-related birth defect microcephaly born in Florida. June 30: CDC adds Anguilla to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 49. Guinea-Bissau confirms three cases of Zika, government says. Spain records first case of sexually transmitted Zika virus, health authorities said. July 8: CDC confirmed that a Utah resident's death last month is the first Zika-related death in the continental United States. July 14: CDC adds Saint Eustatius to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 50. July 15: New York City's health department reports the first female-to-male transmission of the Zika virus. July 18: CDC reports that caregiver of Utah man who died of Zika tested positive for virus. July 19: Florida health officials are investigating a case of Zika virus infection that does not appear to have stemmed from travel to another region with an outbreak. July 21: CDC reports 400 pregnant women in U.S. with evidence of Zika infection, up from 346 a week ago. The health agency also reports three more babies born in U.S. with birth defects linked to the Zika virus, bringing total to 12. Florida Department of Health said it was investigating a non travel-related case of Zika in Broward County, marking the second such case in the U.S. July 22: New York City health officials reports first baby born with Zika-related birth defect. July 25: Spain reports first case in Europe of baby born with Zika-related defect. CDC issues updated recommendations for preventing and testing for Zika infection, warning that the virus can be transmitted through unprotected sex with an infected female partner. July 26: Honduras detects 8 cases of babies with Zika-related defect. CDC adds Saba to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 51. July 27: Paraguay reports first cases of microcephaly linked to Zika. July 29: Florida authorities report what is believed to be the first evidence of local Zika transmission in the continental United States. Aug. 1: Florida identifies 10 more cases of Zika virus caused by mosquitoes, bringing total to 14. CDC issues guidelines for pregnant women who live in and traveled to affected area in a Miami neighborhood. Aug. 2: Health authorities in Florida add one more case of locally transmitted Zika, bringing total to 15. CDC adds Antigua, Barbuda, and Turks and Cacos to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 54. Aug. 3: U.S. researchers said they launched Zika vaccine clinical trial. Aug. 4: Cuba reports two cases of locally transmitted Zika. Aug. 5: Florida health authorities report another locally transmitted case, bringing total to 16. Aug. 9: Texas health officials said death of infant born with microcephaly is linked to Zika, the first casualty in the state associated with the virus. Cayman Islands reports first locally transmitted Zika case. SOURCES: World Health Organization, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Reuters (Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by the Americas Desk) This is how Disney World is addressing the alligator attack, and its a huge move for safety This is how Disney World is addressing the alligator attack, and its a huge move for safety Earlier this year, we were heartbroken to learn that there had been an alligator attack at Walt Disney World. A two-year-old boy, Lane Graves, was by the water with his family when an alligator dragged him and pulled him into the water. Lane was later found dead, having suffered injuries during the attack, and since then Disney has taken lots of steps to prevent something like this from ever happening again. Following the attack, they placed warning signs along all bodies of water on Walt Disney World property, advising guests to stay away and not wade in no matter what. Still wanting to do more to keep visiting guests safe, Disney has decided to build a fence all along the waterfront, to keep guests from going in and hopefully keep alligators (among other animals) from crawling out. Originally, Disney quickly put up ropes and nets to keep guests from getting down into the water. Now, theyre making that permeant, and adding roughly four to five feet of just rocks that will make it impossible and also, ridiculously unsafe for guests to climb down to the waters edge. #grandfloridian fence near the pool with signs pic.twitter.com/umTujk6Mip Crystal Weitzel (@DisneyBrewing) July 9, 2016 According to new reports right out of Orlando, Disney is in the process of building a bolder wall around the entire perimeter of the Seven Seas Lagoon the lagoon in front of Magic Kingdom, and the Magic Kingdom hotels, like the Grand Floridian, Polynesia Resort, the Contemporary Resort, and also Wilderness Lodge. A photo posted by Connie Waldman (@alacazander1) on Aug 8, 2016 at 11:55am PDT A photo posted by Kristina Capra (@a_tiny_tune) on Aug 7, 2016 at 9:14pm PDT A photo posted by DeeLee88 (@deelee88) on Aug 5, 2016 at 3:36am PDT While itll be sad to see the iconic landscape of the Magic Kingdom hotels change, and youll no longer be able to get close to the water at all, were happy that Disney is taking a big step to make everything safer for everyone. Accidents can still happen anywhere, and at any time, but at least the necessary steps are being taken to prevent another tragic outcome. What a view! #disneysgrandfloridianresort #disneysweddingpavilion #disneyspolynesianresort #waltdisneyworld #sevenseaslagoon #disneydaydreamsblog A photo posted by disneydaydreamsblog (@disneydaydreamsblog) on Aug 4, 2016 at 1:16pm PDT The post This is how Disney World is addressing the alligator attack, and its a huge move for safety appeared first on HelloGiggles. Princess Martha Louise, fourth-in-line to the throne of Norway, is set to divorce her husband of 14 years, the writer Ari Behn. The couple's separation is amicable, according to a statement made late Friday afternoon by the Royal House of Norway . Both parents will share joint custody of their three daughters: Maud Angelica, 13, Leah Isadora, 11, and Emma Tallulah, 7, who'll continue to live with their mother and attend their current schools. "The children need time to come to terms with this, to get their bearings and find their feet," the royal palace said in their statement. "We are human," Princess Martha Louise, 44, said in the statement, adding the couple had tried "everything in their power to make the marriage work." "It's unspeakably sad for both of us to discover that the road ahead doesn't run as it once did. Like so many others, we've grown apart. We've tried everything over a long period of time a but it's impossible for us to go on," the princess said. "We feel guilty because we can no longer maintain the safe harbor our children deserve," she said. "The marriage is over, but we stand together as parents." The princess' own parents, King Harald and Queen Sonja, said the couple's separation was "painful and sad" but that they were grateful for everything they'd experienced together as a family, and would not leave their son-in-law out in the cold. A "We'll continue to enjoy a good relationship with Ari," King Harald and Queen Sonja said. Behn, 43, hasn't commented publicly on the split, but it's thought that he'll settle near the family home in Lommedalen, 15 miles northwest of Oslo, so he can continue to be part of his children's lives. Want to keep up with the latest royals coverage? Click here to subscribe to the Royals Newsletter. The couple were last seen together publicly on official duty in June, when they were photographed holding hands during King Harald and Queen Sonja's jubilee celebration in Trondheim. Shortly after their 2002 wedding the King granted Princess Martha Louise the regal title of Her Royal Highness.A Story continues The princess, whose younger brother Crown Prince Haakon, 43, is heir apparent to the throne, is a trained therapist who currently supports herself through her own business Soulspring. Related Video: A Royal Lesson in High Tea In 2014 Princess Martha Louise, 44, attracted controversy for her outspoken new age beliefs. She has recently taken to writing about horses for a specialist journal. A From Road & Track It seems U.S. authorities aren't done investigating diesel-powered Volkswagens for emissions-cheating software: Reuters reports that another, previously-undiscovered piece of emissions-thwarting software has been discovered in the 3.0-liter TDI V6 engine used in the Volkswagen Touareg, Audi Q7, and Porsche Cayenne SUVs. The news originates from German news weekly Bild am Sonntag, which does not reveal its source for the information. According to the report, three unapproved pieces of software allowed the affected vehicles to shut down their emissions control systems after 22 minutes of driving. Theoretically, this would allow the vehicles to pass government emissions tests, which universally last for around 20 minutes, but put out unrestricted emissions in real-world driving. This is in addition to previously-disclosed software used on the 3.0-liter TDI engine which VW admitted was used to make affected vehicles pass government emissions tests, but shut down the emissions controls in real-world driving. It's a cheat tactic that is relatively common across numerous automakers, and one that may not technically be illegal in the European Union. As Bertel Schmitt has written at Forbes, EU law allows automakers to define nearly any type of emissions shutdown software as being "necessary to protect the engine." In Europe, diesel-powered Fiat Chrysler products have been found to use a nearly-identical piece of software; both Opel and Daimler have been found using similar software that shuts off emissions controls based on ambient temperatures. Such lenient "engine protection" loopholes are not included in U.S. vehicle emissions laws. Roughly 85,000 Audi, Porsche and VW SUVs have been sold in the U.S. market with the affected 3.0-liter TDI engine. While VW Group has offered a program to fix or buy back cheating diesel vehicles powered by the 2.0-liter four-cylinder TDI engine in the U.S., such a deal has not been reached for vehicles powered by the 3.0-liter TDI V6. via Jalopnik By Sudarshan Varadhan and Heather Somerville (Reuters) - LendingClub Corp on Monday reported its largest quarterly loss in a year as it struggles to bring banks back to its online lending platform following the departure of its chief executive and a scandal involving altered loan documents. LendingClub, which matches borrowers and lenders via an online marketplace, reported a second-quarter loss of $81.4 million, or 21 cents per share, compared to a loss of $4.1 million, or 1 cent per share, a year ago. The company also continued its executive shakeup, with the resignation of Chief Financial Officer Carrie Dolan. Her departure is the first high-profile exit since the departure of Renaud Laplanche, the company's founder, as chief executive on May 9. Dolan, who joined six years ago when LendingClub had just 40 employees, gave notice early this year, but the board of directed asked her to delay moving on, executives said on a call with investors. Accounting officer Bradley Coleman was named interim CFO. In addition, LendingClub appointed Timothy Mayopoulos, president and CEO of Fannie Mae , to its board as an independent director. The second-quarter earnings report follows a tumultuous period for LendingClub, once considered the standard bearer in a new generation of online lenders but which has been pummeled by revelations of lending improprieties, a U.S. Department of Justice investigation, the departure of loan investors and layoffs of 179 employees. "The good thing is (the second quarter) is now behind us," said Scott Sanborn, who took over as president and CEO in June. "We have accomplished quite a bit since the events of May 9." LendingClub's shares were down more than 2 percent at about $4.68 in after-hours trading. That puts the company's market cap at about $1.8 billion, about one-third its market value of about $5.4 billion when it went public in December 2014 in an offering priced at $15 a share. LendingClub's problems were highlighted by weak growth in the second quarter in loan originations, the company's main revenue stream. Loan originations, or the number of new loans processed by the company, rose just 2.3 percent to nearly $2 billion in the quarter, a steep drop from the 68 percent growth in the preceding quarter and 90 percent growth a year earlier. The fall reflects the industry's struggles with faltering investor appetite for loans, rising defaults and the threat of heightened regulation. For the third quarter, the company expects operating revenue of $95 million to $105 million, below analysts' current average estimate of $106.1 million. In the second quarter LendingClub had revenue of $102.4 million. INVESTOR INCENTIVES The second-quarter loss of $81 million included a $35.4 million write-down related to the acquisition of health-care lender Springstone Financial in April 2014. The quarter also included $14 million worth of incentives paid to institutional investors to encourage them to resume buying LendingClub loans. Many investors fled after the company revealed improprieties in the sale of a batch of loans and the departure of Laplanche. LendingClub in May said it had altered documentation when selling $22 million of loans. An internal probe later revealed that Laplanche and his family had taken out 32 loans on the platform in December 2009 to boost the company's volumes just four months prior to closing a round of venture capital funding. The probe also turned up evidence that Laplanche and Dolan had used some of their company shares to secure personal loans. LendingClub said Laplanche and Dolan were not required to seek approval for those loans. Sanborn told investors that 15 of the platform's top 20 investors have returned, although most of them are investing less than prior to the events in May. Banks were most affected by the loan improprieties revealed in the spring, Sanborn said, and have been particularly slow to return. Their due diligence process is lengthier. Jefferies, the investment bank that had been a major buyer of LendingClub loans, has resumed its purchases, completing the securitization of $134 million of LendingClub personal loans this month. "People are showing a willingness to test the pipes a little bit," Sanborn said. (This story has been refiled to remove duplicated information in paragraphs 13 and 14) (Reporting by Sudarshan Varadhan and Heather Somerville in San Francisco; Additional reporting by Nikhil Subba in Bengaluru; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Leslie Adler) Reports of Sony holding an event this September have been substantiated, as BGR received an invite on Tuesday to a "PlayStation Meeting" on September 7th. Unfortunately, no further details about the content of the event were provided by Sony, but we will be sure to bring you all the news as it happens next month. DON'T MISS: No Mans Sky early impressions: Surprisingly familiar and completely alien all at once We heard rumblings about such an event on Monday, as Gameblog and Vice Gaming both published reports citing sources close to the matter. According to those reports, the event will serve as a "technical showcase" for the "high-end PS4" that Sony announced in June. As for how much of an improvement the new PS4 (codenamed Neo) will be over its predecessor, we're going to have to wait to find out, but the most obvious upgrade will be the ability to play games in 4K resolution. Rumors suggest that all new PS4 games will still be compatible with the original console, but will feature a "NEO Mode" to take advantage of the upgraded hardware. Trending right now: See the original version of this article on BGR.com Ost of Nepals first animated feature released The music launch of the Nepals first animated feature film, The Legend of Shankhadhar (Shankhadhar Ye Bakhaa), took place amid a function in Capital on Sunday. Palpa-Nawalparasi road heavily damaged The Palpa-Nawalparasi road along the Kaligandaki river is obstructed due to the landslides for the last one month. PM Dahal assures of observing Int'l Indigenous Day from next yr Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has said government and indigenous nationalities would collectively observe International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples from upcoming year. PM Dahal stresses on national consensus for addressing national issues Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has stressed on the need for national consensus to address national issues. Police seek original documents from Spanish embassy Nepal Police has sought original documents from the Spanish Embassy in New Delhi to further investigate the alleged involvement of nine lawmakers of the CPN (Maoist Centre) in human trafficking. Political priority Ordinary Madhesis should be made to feel that the government is doing its bit in addressing their demands Prez Xis Nepal visit will go ahead: Dr Ji Chinese President Xi Jinpings visit to Nepal will go ahead as planned, according to the leader of a visiting delegation from China. Putin offers Turkey's Erdogan closer ties Russia is ready to restore economic co-operation and other ties with Turkey, President Vladimir Putin has told his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in St Petersburg. Rhino found dead A rhinoceros was found dead in Bhanga of Narayani Municipality-1 in the district on Monday morning. RPP, RPP-N unity plan hits a snag The merger plan of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal (RPP-N) and the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) has hit a snag at the last moment. The right wing parties were scheduled to announce their merger on Tuesday. Rule bars handing out Rs150,000 in one go, says NRA CEO Chief Executive Officer of National Reconstruction Authority Sushil Gyewali said the working guidelines restrict them from distributing Rs150,000 as the first tranche of the housing reconstruction aid. Thapa hints at India for foiling merger of RPP and RPP-N Chairman Kamal Thapa has claimed that the force involved in toppling KP Sharma Oli led government is responsible for foiling the merger plan of Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) and Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal (RPP-N). Two doctors held for fake credentials The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police has arrested two doctors on the charge of possessing fake academic certificates of higher secondary level in Kathmandu Unequal citizens The focus on numbers is creating a generation of frustrated graduates US committed to continued partnership with Nepal: Envoy The United States has commended the peaceful transition of government under the new constitution in Nepal and expressed a continued partnership with Nepal. Workers urged to get in touch with embassy The Embassy of Nepal in Saudi Arabia said on Monday that it has been informed by Saudis ministry of labour about its plans to facilitate stranded workers to return home, if they wish so, after providing their due salaries. 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 View Results Kampala City Traders Association (KACITA)has welcomed governments move to create a special committee to address their concerns relating to the South Sudan conflict. The committee is expected to among other things expedite the process of repatriation of proceeds of Ugandan companies held in commercial banks in Sudan. Last month, over 20,000 Ugandans were evacuated from South Sudan following fresh fighting that broke out in the capital Juba, leading to loss of property, while others left their monies in South Sudans commercial banks. Speaking to KFM, the KACITA spokesperson Issa Ssekitto says the gesture is timely since many companies are now stuck with no operating capital. This subcommittee comprises of the Attorney General as well as Ministers of Trade and Finance. 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: By Gwynne Dyer To cut to the chase, the five most ignorant countries in the world are Mexico (a world leader at least in this), India, Brazil, Peru and New Zealand. And the five best informed are South Korea (take a bow), followed by Ireland, Poland, China and the United States. Ignorant about what? About the realities in their own country. Every year the London-based polling organisation Ipsos Mori does its "Perils of Perception" poll, asking people in many countries what they believe about, say, the proportion of the population who are immigrants, or overweight, or over 65, and comparing their answers with the true numbers. Putting all the results together, Ipsos Mori then comes up with its famous Index of Ignorance. The level of ignorance is startling and yet these mistaken beliefs can play a big role in the political choices that countries make. Take immigration. Almost every country over-estimates the number of immigrants in their population, sometimes by huge amounts. The Chinese, for example, believe that 11 percent of the people in their country are immigrants. The real number is 0.1 percent, so their guess is 110 times too high (and maybe just a little paranoid). Brazilians are just as bad: they think 25 percent of the population are immigrants; it's really just 0.3 percent. Most countries do better than that, but not that much better. Americans think 32 percent of their population are immigrants, when actually only 13 percent are. The Japanese think it's 10 percent, when it's really only 2 percent. And the Poles recently elected a right-wing nationalist government in large part because they fear being overrun: they think 14 percent of the population are immigrants, when it's really less than half of one percent. Or take the number of Muslims living in countries that are historically non-Muslim. The highest proportion of the population is in France, where 8 percent are Muslims but the average guess of the French people polled was 31 percent (and Fox News seems to believe it's nearly half). Only one percent of Americans are Muslim, but Americans believe it is 15 percent. In Canada it's 2 percent, but Canadians think it's 20 percent. These huge over-estimates are probably driven in part by the fear of Islamist terrorism, which in turn is driven by the media's fascination with the subject. It's quite striking, for example, that while Americans guess three times too high when asked about the proportion of immigrants in the country, they guess fifteen times too high when asked specifically about Muslims. One could go on and on about how wrong people get things. Indians (urban, educated Indians who take part in internet polls) think that one-third of the country's population is non-religious. In fact, less than one percent is. Saudi Arabians think that 28 percent of the population are overweight or obese, when actually 71 percent are (the highest proportion of all 35 countries polled). But the more interesting question is: how much do these misperceptions affect politics and policy? Not much, probably, when we're talking about religion or obesity or the share of the population that is over 65 years old (which was over-estimated in every country polled). But it's pretty clear that a huge popular over-estimate of the number of immigrants in Great Britain contributed to the "Leave" victory in last June's referendum on British membership of the European Union. But the ignorance often gets a lot of help. London's population, for example, is more than a third foreign-born: almost 37 percent. But Londoners are quite comfortable with this, and voted strongly for "Remain". In fact, almost all of the big English cities voted "Remain". Whereas in suburban and rural parts of England, where immigrants are rare or entirely absent, people were so panicked by immigration that they voted equally strongly for "Leave". This was not just a coincidence. For many years a big chunk of the British media, including the country's three largest-circulation morning papers, the Sun, the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph, has constantly exaggerated the scale of the immigration and the problems it causes. So in parts of England where immigrants are scarce, people don't believe the evidence of their own eyes; they believe the media instead. The same phenomenon has played a big part in the rise of Donald Trump in the United States. When he talks about building a wall to stop hordes of Mexican rapists pouring across the southern border of the US, or promises to ban all Muslim immigration to the country, the media-fed misconceptions of Americans about immigrant and particularly Muslim numbers make his lies easier to believe. There is a chicken-and-egg question here, of course. Are the media just pandering to existing popular fears, or are they actually creating them? The unsatisfactory but inevitable answer is: a bit of both. In the century and a half when there have been free mass media (and now social media as well), nobody has come up with a solution for this problem. "Free" includes free to make mistakes, and free to distort facts and tell outright lies. Gwynne Dyer is an independent journalist whose articles are published in 45 countries. Contact gwynne763121476@aol.com. By Bruce E. Bechtol Jr. Recently North Korea test-launched yet another ballistic missile. This time the missile appears to have been a No Dong, and it fell close to Japan. In fact, North Korea has tested nearly every kind of missile in its inventory over the past four years. Everything from Scuds, No Dongs, the Taepo Dong system, and Musudan missiles have been tested successfully since Kim Jong-un took over the helm as the leader of North Korea. The reasons behind the rapid upgrades (for several systems) and the many tests of ballistic missiles during the Kim Jong-un regime have been argued among analysts since the uptick in testing began and now 32 test-launches have occurred during the rule of the "third Kim." Some have assessed that the increased focus on upgrading and testing ballistic missiles is to show the world that the Kim regime is strong and will show no signs of weakness as it continues to create an atmosphere of instability in Northeast Asia. Others have argued that Kim has ordered the activity because he wants to increase his standing and his power base in the military, where it is weaker than in any of the other institutions in the country. In my view both of these factors likely have an influence on what we have seen since 2012. But the bottom line is that North Korea shows no signs of slowing down its ballistic missile development. The response to this from the ROK-US alliance has largely been in the form of sanctions which are important. But if the alliance is to do what it is truly meant to do in a military sense, the response must be stronger and must be in the form of deterrence. Thus, the talks that began many months ago between Washington and Seoul, and have now culminated in an agreement to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Air Defense system (THAAD) to the Korean Peninsula. The THAAD system will provide increased capabilities to the on-Peninsula ballistic missile defense (BMD) network that will go far beyond what current PAC-2 and PAC-3 systems can do. This is important in my view because policy makers must never forget what their highest priority is to protect the state. North Korea remains a violent and unpredictable rogue state, and the only way to contain Pyongyang's behavior is to respond with credible deterrence. Both China and Russia have publicly stated their displeasure with having an American operated THAAD system on the Korean Peninsula. But ultimately, why would this be the case? THAAD is a defensive system, and thus unable to attack South Korea's neighbors in any way. While it does have the range to defend against missiles being launched from some areas in Russia and China, since these states claimed to have no beef with Seoul, it does not matter again, because this is purely a defensive system. What THAAD does do is take a very solid step forward in protecting South Korea from a ballistic missile attack emanating from North Korea. This is a legitimate reason for deploying the system to the Peninsula, and will also be a legitimate reason for later deploying other upgraded systems that can protect the South Korean people. Pyongyang should be watching, because Seoul and its key ally in the United States is serious about defending against attack from its neighbor to the North. As the ROK-US alliance moves forward, the leadership in both Seoul and Washington must continue to maintain and upgrade military systems that will contain the violent behavior of the North. But it cannot stop there. The ROK and American militaries must explore new methodologies and scenarios in joint exercises. They must continue to work together in a collegial environment of cooperation and transparency. And as the alliance moves forward, citizens of both nations can never forget that while economic and political initiatives are important, as long as the threat of a violent, unpredictable North Korea exists, our two great nations must continue to focus on the readiness and capabilities that will continue to deter the DPRK. The capabilities of THAAD are important for not only South Korea, but the United States. Washington proved this when the system was deployed to Guam U.S. territory that North Korea would likely target with the Musudan missile in time of war. For those who doubt North Korean capabilities, please allow me to remind you that North Korea went from a Musudan launch that blew up on the pad, to a successful test launch showing both the range and the atmospheric re-entry capability of the missile, in two short months. The North Koreans are serious about developing new advanced ways to threaten South Korea and the United States. We should be serious about deterring them with the best systems we have. Bruce E. Bechtol Jr. is a professor of political science at Angelo State University, and is the author or editor of six books on North Korea, most recently "North Korea and Regional Security in the Kim Jong-un Era: A New International Security Dilemma." Contact him at bruce.bechtol@angelo.edu. By Lee Seong-hyon Most Western experts describe China's North Korea policy as a failure. If that is the case, China has had many failures, not just one. Combing through Sino-North Korean history, we discover a series of intriguing relational hiccups between the two, with their relations fluctuating between ups and downs, often in such dramatic ways that compelled outsiders to reach a sweeping conclusion that the couple was about to divorce. For instance, during China's Cultural Revolution, North Korea's founder and fluent Mandarin speaker Kim Il-sung never set foot on Chinese soil between 1964 and 1970. This didn't end the relationship, though. China and North Korea muddled through the Cold War by sticking together. After the Cold War, in 1994, Kim Il-sung met his sudden death and his son, Kim Jong-il, took power. Although they were in the same Socialist bloc, China frowned upon North Korea's hereditary power transfer from father to son, seeing it as going against socialist tenets. Kim Jong-il didn't blink. For the ensuing six years, there was no top-level contact whatsoever between the two countries, including party-to-party, government-to-government and military-to-military. All three channels were stalled. That period included the North Korean famine period (1994-1998), called the Arduous March. China largely sat back and didn't come to North Korea's rescue. Somewhere between 1.5 million to 3 million North Koreans were estimated to have died from starvation. In May 2000, at the invitation of Chinese President Jiang Zemin, Kim Jong-il finally made a three-day visit to China. It was his first since taking office as North Korea's top leader, under the official title of general secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea. The following year, Kim visited China again. Afterwards, every two or three years, Kim went to China. Then, in 2010 and 2011, in less than two years, the North Korean leader visited China as many as four times until he died of a stroke on December 17, 2011. This brief historical review shows that Sino-North Korea relations often display quite a broad spectrum of a closenessand-aloofness cycle, and yet points towards overall resilience. From this perspective, it can be argued that the lack of any meetings for four years between Xi Jinping and North Korea's current leader Kim Jong-un itself is not too extraordinary either even though it may seem quite unusual to the eyes of outsiders. Sino-North Korean relations survived some many crises such as the 1992 decision by China to establish diplomatic relations with South Korea and the 1997 defection by Hwang Jang-yop, Kim Jong-il's personal tutor, to South Korea. When Hwang was first hiding in China, North Korea demanded his repatriation. China sent Hwang to South Korea instead. In a similar vein, it would be an overstatement to depict the execution of Jang Song-thaek in 2013, who was widely seen as a pro-China figure, as completely putting the China-North Korea relations in disarray. Kim Jong-un's swift purging of Jang with no signs of a coup, in fact, impressed the Chinese leadership, according to my interviews with Chinese interlocutors. Previously, the young Kim Jong-un had been a largely unknown, untested, inexperienced new leader in China's eyes. With the swift and brutal purging, Kim proved his mettle. As one Chinese said, "Like father, like son." Chinese interlocutors told me that China also finds it more convenient to deal with North Korea's leader directly, without having to go through a middleman like Jang. To outsiders, it is a mystery how the odd couple manages their relationship. But so far, they have beaten the odds. The outside community promotes a view that China, more than ever, has to realize that if North Korea proceeds with a robust nuclear weapons program and Beijing doesn't exert real pressure on Pyongyang, it will result in increasingly negative repercussions for China's own strategic interests. Unfortunately, this doesn't square with China's own perceptions. Even though China sees North Korea's provocations as destabilizing, including the latest nuclear test and missile launches, it regards the collapse of North Korea as an even greater liability. Further, China thinks the U.S. and its allies pose a more grave danger to China's strategic interests than North Korea does. Just look at China's reaction to THAAD. Chinese mistrust of the U.S. remains the primary obstacle to cooperation with the United States on North Korea. Despite the inconvenience North Korea poses, geo-strategically speaking, China can hardly afford to put North Korea in an adversarial position. The common way to describe the U.S. policy on North Korea as "strategic patience" is fallacious. Technically speaking, the U.S. has been patient with China, not with North Korea. Washington's strategy is to see how far China can go in pressuring North Korea. Against this backdrop, that's a prescription for inaction. The future of China-North Korea relations has its uncertainties, yet the odds for the U.S. strategy have even more. Lee Seong-hyon, Ph.D., is a research fellow at the Sejong Institute. Email him at sunnybbsfs@gmail.com. North Korea's vice foreign minister has defended Pyongyang's dual pursuit of nuclear and economic development during talks with his Angolan counterpart, the North's state media said Tuesday. The talks were held in Angola on Friday between the North Korean delegation, led by vice foreign minister Sin Hong-chol and Manuel Domingos Augusto, secretary of state for foreign affairs of the African country, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). Sin stressed that the communist country is steadfastly seeking the "byeongjin" policy of simultaneously developing the economy and nuclear weapons, the report said. Angola has recently submitted its action plan on how to implement the U.N. Security Council's sanctions which were imposed in March to punish North Korea's fourth nuclear test in January and long-range rocket launch in the following month. It marked the first time that Angola has handed in such an implementation report on relevant sanctions on the North since 2006. Angola and North Korea have kept friendly ties since they established a diplomatic relationship in 1976. Under the recently submitted action plan, Angola cited bans on exports of aircraft fuel and mineral products to North Korea on top of its beefed-up inspection of freight planes and ships moving in and out of Pyongyang, according to U.S.-based media outlets. The KCNA earlier said that the delegation led by Sin left Pyongyang last Monday to visit some African countries. (Yonhap) No Yes, a light case Yes, two or more light cases One serious case Two or more serious bouts Vote View Results ANGOLA Two projects in Angola were given preliminary approval to proceed, along with another for potential future development by the Angola Plan Commission on Monday. Recommendations will now go before the Angola Common Council. Those entities include: Trine University Trines petitions are geared toward building the Thunder Ice Arena in the 700 block of West Maumee Street. The 50,600-square-foot arena is proposed to have 1,000 seats and open in fall 2017. It will serve as the home of Trines mens and womens hockey teams that will play in NCAA Division III and a club league. The building will have lockers, concessions, VIP lounge and pro shop. The plan commissions recommendations, all by unanimous votes, will amend the citys zoning map from commercial to university, vacate the street and right of way and platted lots and partial plat vacation at Woodhulls addition. The arenas development plan approval was also approved. Tom Wilson, neighboring homeowner and former Steuben County Prosecutor, said proper protocol wasnt followed because construction crews tore up the street before given city approval. My concern is what theyve done so far that its a done deal. In the future, no offense to Trine, but I do not want the city rubber stamping It looks this way on this project, Wilson said. Vivian Likes, Angola plan director, said there was miscommunication on dirt removal and a stop work order was issued and Trine complied. Mike McClelland, Angola councilman and plan commission member, said he wasnt pleased with the process not being properly followed. I dont like this 11th-hour issue, he said. The owner of the Rice Bowl restaurant raised concerns his water line goes across Trine property that might disrupt his service. University officials said they have not be able to locate a dedicated easement agreement. The city and Trine officials will work with restaurant ownership to alleviate the issue. Concerns were raised on excess traffic the new arena will bring along U.S. 20 West Maumee Street and Kinney Street. Graham Lewis civil engineer, MLC Engineering, Fort Wayne, said the peak traffic time will be 7-8 p.m. when the games begin. For the project, the roadway will require widening and striping by the Indiana Department of Transportation. The vacations were part of the in-kind public funding Trine is using as part of a match for its $2.8 million grant from the Regional Development Authority for the Thunder Ice Arena and MTI Center, a 3,000-seat basketball arena. The city put up $1.398 million in in-kind contributions to Trine. It included $1.281 million for streets, rights-of-way, sidewalks and storm drainage; $34,288.71 as the hourly cost for city employee involvement; $60,450 for curbs; and $22,464 for sidewalks. Cameron Hospital Cameron Memorial Community Hospital was approved for rezoning of 4.070 acres on the west side of John Street in the 300-400 block to rezone the citys zoning map from traditional residential to institutional. Cameron is interested in the site for future plans. Doug Bomba, Cameron CFO, said the hospital has simply outgrown its space and needs to add additional physicians based upon health care demand. Cameron has an offer to purchase the property, but he said it is contingent upon the rezoning. Residents expressed concern they were being sandwiched in by the hospital and fear they will eventually be unable to sell their homes. Others expressed frustration with increased traffic. John Street is awful anymore. You get the playground, bus (traffic). Its not a neighborhood anymore. The traffic has gotten worse and worse, said Stacy White. The rezoning vote was 7-1, as Jeff Martin voted against the rezoning because Cameron doesnt have a plan in place. Humane Shelter The Community Humane Shelter of Steuben County was given unanimous development plan approval for its new $1.6 million facility proposed at 780 W. Wendell Jacob Ave. The facility is expected to be 8,500-square-feet. Lisa Caudill, shelter board president, said the new building will provide space for 38 dogs, 75 cats, a kitten room and indoor climate control kennels. She noted the shelter takes in 1,000 animals annually and adopts out 800. The new location will allow us to provide exemplary service, Caudill said. If you're interested in submitting a Letter to the Editor, click here. Submit Today is Election Day in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. In Wisconsin, todays races include a Democratic primary for U.S. representative to serve western Wisconsin from the 3rd Congressional District, and primary races for both Republican and Democratic nomination for state senator in the 32nd Senate District. There are a variety of additional primary elections throughout western Wisconsin. You must present an eligible photo ID in order to vote. You must be registered to vote, but you can register on Election Day. Voters will be required to sign a poll book unless exempt because of a disability. Among the races in Minnesota, 3rd Judicial District Judge Carmaine Sturino is facing a challenge from Dan Moulton of Chatfield and Tim Guth of Caledonia. Sturino was appointed in October after the retirement of longtime Judge Fabian. For the latest results tonight, check www.lacrossetribune.com. Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence will campaign Thursday at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. The Indiana governor will appear at a town-hall meeting in Valhalla at the Cartwright Center. Doors open at noon; the event begins at 3 p.m. For ticket information, click here. After his stop at UW-L, Pence will appear at the downtown Hilton in Milwaukee at 7 p.m. With voting underway in Wisconsin's partisan primary election Tuesday, the Republican primary challenger to U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, Paul Nehlen, may have broken state law by tweeting a photo of what appeared to be a marked ballot. State law bars any voter from showing "his or her marked ballot to any person or places a mark upon the ballot so it is identifiable as his or her ballot." The campaign of Nehlen, a Delavan businessman who is challenging Ryan, may have done just that Tuesday. At 3:18 p.m. Tuesday, Nehlen's campaign Twitter account posted a photo of what appeared to be a completed ballot with the message: "#HireNehlen Save America #WI01." Because of the law, a spokesman for the state elections commission, Reid Magney, said it discourages voters from posting these so-called "ballot selfies." "In past elections, we have advised voters against taking pictures of their ballots and posting them to social media because it has the potential to generate complaints under the election fraud law," Magney said in an email statement. However, Magney said the Elections Commission lacks the authority to prosecute violations of the law. He said it would be up to a district attorney to determine whether to file charges. A call to the District Attorney's Office in Walworth County, which includes the Delavan area, was not immediately returned Tuesday night. Magney said the commission is not aware of anyone who has been charged with breaking the law. Nehlen isn't the first public figure in Wisconsin to do this. In past elections, former Democratic Party of Wisconsin chairman Mike Tate and Wisconsin Rapids Mayor Zach Vruwink used their social media accounts to share photos of their ballots. In those cases, Tate and Vruwink removed the photos after being told they broke the law. Magney said in the statement that the law was written long ago to prevent election bribery, which would involve showing ones marked ballot to another person in order to get paid for voting a certain way. But he added that this part of the law is "evolving." In two recent cases,ballot selfie laws were struck down by federal courts in Indiana and New Hampshire, Magney said. Nehlen's campaign did not immediately respond to a State Journal inquiry about the photo. Gov. Scott Walker will include new funding for the University of Wisconsin System that will be tied to how it performs in certain measures as part of his next budget proposal, a spokesman said Tuesday after UW officials laid out their request for tens of millions of dollars in new state support. But Walker still plans to call for extending the freeze on in-state tuition that the head of the UW System is asking legislators to end in the coming budget, spokesman Tom Evenson said. UW System President Ray Cross released an outline of the systems budget request Tuesday morning, calling for a $42.5 million funding increase over two years for programs that Cross says will help students graduate sooner and strengthen Wisconsins economy. Evenson said Walker will include some new funding for the system in the 2017-19 budget proposal he will release early next year. But its not clear how much new money the governor will seek for UW Evenson said its too early in the budget-writing process to say and the funding will come with still-unspecified strings attached. It will be tied to performance metrics to help ensure students are receiving the greatest value for their hard-earned money, Evenson said. Some hints about performance measures Walker has not said what criteria would be used to measure UWs performance, although Evenson highlighted a section of a column from the governor last week in which he mentioned tracking data on graduation rates, the amount of loans students take out and graduate employment in certain fields. Evenson also said UW will see a $50 million increase in its base budget over the next two years after a $25 million lapse in annual state funding this year. System spokeswoman Stephanie Marquis responded by pointing out that UW is not asking for an $88 million cost-to-continue increase that it has sought in prior budget requests. State funding makes up about $1.05 billion of the Systems $6.2 billion annual operating budget this fiscal year. Rep. Dianne Hesselbein, D-Middleton, was skeptical about tying UWs funding to performance categories, saying she did not want to see the value of the university system reduced to how many graduates it produces in a handful of industries. Hesselbein, who sits on the Assemblys higher education committee, supports UWs budget request and said any further cuts to its funding would threaten the systems quality. Were at a crossroads for how the university is going to be going forward, and what kind of education people are going to be receiving, she said. We just cant keep cutting the university and think were going to get the same results, Hesselbein said. Cross said Monday that he wants to work with Walker to develop the new performance-based funding criteria, and said UW already has data measuring many of the categories the governor mentioned. About 10 percent of UWs requested budget increase would be in the form of performance-based funding, Cross said. Walker seeks extended tuition freeze Walker and university officials seem further apart on the question of keeping tuition at UW institutions frozen in the next budget. The UW budget request, which will go before the systems Board of Regents next week, seeks an end to the freeze that has been in place since 2013. Cross said any tuition increase that could happen as a result would be modest. But Walker has championed the freeze as a commitment to college affordability, and says he will look to keep it in place. One of Governor Walkers top goals is to make college more affordable for students and working families, which is why he has called for extending the historic tuition freeze, Evenson said. Sen. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, a frequent UW critic and vice-chair of the Senate Committee on Universities and Technical Colleges, blasted the idea of lifting the cap and raising tuition. Extending the UW System tuition freeze is a clear choice for legislators, Nass said in a statement. You can stand with Wisconsins middle-class families or you can bow to the desires of out-of-touch university administrators earning six-digit salaries. Hesselbein said she supports continuing the tuition freeze as well, but called for greater state funding to make up for the cost to UW of keeping tuition flat. Echoing an argument from UW faculty members, she said, You have to fund the freeze. 2 Activist Irom Sharmila is taken back to a hospital after a court appearance in Imphal, in the north-eastern state of Manipur, India. The 44-year-old activist has been on a hunger strike for nearly 16 years. She was protesting against alleged brutality by India's military. She ended her fast today. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump says he would lower taxes and reduce business regulations to improve the U.S. economy. The businessman outlined his main economic policies Monday during a speech to the Detroit Economic Club. Trump began by talking about how in the past, the U.S. auto industry had made Detroit the economic envy of the world. He noted that today, the city is one of Americas poorest, with high unemployment, poverty and crime rates. He said Detroit is an example of how failed economic policies including high taxes and government regulations hurt the city. Trump said his Democratic rival Hillary Clintons economic plan supports these kinds of policies, which can lead to U.S. job losses. The one common feature of every Hillary Clinton idea is that it punishes you for working and doing business in the United States. And thats why she tries to distract us with tired political rhetoric that seeks to label us, divide us, and pull us apart. He said his campaign is about reaching out to everyone as Americans, and returning to a government that puts the American people first. Trump read from prepared text during the speech, which was interrupted numerous times by protesters. The protesters stood on chairs and shouted at the candidate before they were removed by security. At one point, Trump said he thought the protests were very well planned out. Across the board tax cuts Trump proposed across-the-board tax cuts that he said would especially help middle-income Americans. This will lead to millions of new good paying jobs. The rich will pay their fair share, but no one will pay so much that it destroys jobs, or undermines our ability to compete. He said his plan would simplify U.S. tax regulations and that many American workers would pay no income tax. These reforms will offer the biggest tax revolution since the Reagan Tax Reform, which unleashed years of continued economic growth and job creation. Trump also pledged to lower the business tax rate. He said high taxes on companies punishes them for making products in America. Under my plan, no American company will pay more than 15 percent of their business income in taxes. Small businesses will benefit the most from this plan. He said part of his plan would also allow parents to fully deduct the average cost of childcare spending from their taxes. Proposed ban on new regulations Trump said another cause of jobs leaving the U.S. is the high level of government regulation on businesses. He said if elected, he would issue a temporary ban on new agency regulations. This will give our American companies the certainty they need to reinvest in our community, get cash off of the sidelines, start hiring new jobs, and expanding their businesses. He repeated his criticism of international trade agreements approved by previous administrations. He said he would try to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico, which was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1994. He said his plan calls for strong protections against currency manipulation and tariffs against any countries that cheat by unfairly subsidizing their goods. He also vowed to reform U.S. energy policies and regulations that he said have destroyed millions of U.S. jobs. We will put our coal miners and steel workers back to work, where they want to be. Critics said Trumps proposals reflected Republican economic positions but lacked detail. The speech comes after he announced Friday his 13-member economic advisory team. The team includes all male executives from the real estate, oil and banking industries. At a rally Monday in Florida, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton called the list of Trumps economic advisers the "six guys named Steve." "Now, they tried to make his old, tired ideas sound new," Clinton said. "He wants to basically just repackage trickle-down economics." Clinton will also head to Detroit on Thursday to deliver her own economic speech to counter Trumps proposals. Im Bryan Lynn. Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English. Additional material came from the Associated Press and Reuters. Hai Do was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story regulation n. a rule made and enforced by an authority distract v. prevent from giving full attention to rhetoric n. language intended to influence people that may not be honest or reasonable across-the-board adj. affecting everyone or everything in a group unleash v. to allow or cause to happen suddenly manipulation n. to use of change in a skillful way or for a specific purpose subsidize v. support an organization or activity financially The United States government has given a private American company permission to send a commercial flight to the moon. Moon Express, Inc. plans to send a robotic lander to the moon. The vehicle has been reported to be the size of the R2-D2 robot from the Star Wars movie series. Its a huge milestone for us, said Bob Richards, who heads Moon Express. Until now, private space exploration companies have limited their activities to Earths orbit. Moon Express hopes to begin flights to the moon in 2017, the year in which Google, the technology company, presents its Lunar X Prize. The prize will go to the first privately-funded business to land a vehicle on the moon. Moon Express joined the race to the moon in 2012. There are now 16 other companies in the competition. Other private companies and individuals would like to explore space. SpaceX, an American aerospace company, has announced plans to launch its Red Dragon spacecraft to Mars as early as 2018. Another company, Planetary Resources, is making plans to mine asteroids for minerals. Moon Express has said it wants to mine for minerals on the moon. Im Anne Ball. The staff at VOA News wrote this story. Jim Dresbach adapted it for Learning English. George Grow was the editor. What do you think of the future of space exploration? We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or visit our Facebook page. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story milestone n. a very important event asteroids n. any one of thousands of small planets that circle around the sun commercial adj. concerned with or involving trade, business funded adj. financed; provided with money for a special purpose This is Whats Trending Today. Lee Eun-ju is a South Korean gymnast. She is representing her country at the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Hong Un-Jong is a North Korean gymnast. She is the 2008 Olympic vault gold medalist. Like Lee, she is the only woman gymnast representing her country at this year's Olympic Games. The two athletes competed in the same session. During a practice, photographers caught the two athletes taking a selfie together. The 17-year-old Lee is seen holding her phone and smiling as 27-year-old Hong leans in for the photo. She is smiling, too. It was a rare moment of inter-Korean friendship. The photo is being praised for representing the Olympic goals of building peace and understanding between countries. North Korea and South Korea remain deeply divided. Following North Koreas fourth nuclear test in January, South Korea ended all business connections and communication with the North. Yoon Kang-ro is the President of the International Sport Cooperation and Diplomacy Institute in South Korea. He says the Olympics offer the two Koreas a chance to find some common ground. Yoon said, One photo doesnt make any good progress, but I think its a good starting point." People on social media praised the photo for its impact. Ian Bremmer is a political scientist and founder of the Eurasia Group. He tweeted the photo and wrote, This is why we do the Olympics. His post has been retweeted more than 21,000 times. Twitter user Eugene Cho is a Korean-American. His parents were born in North Korea. He wrote on Twitter that the selfie gave him hope for a future reunification. And thats Whats Trending Today. Brian Padden reported this story from Seoul. Ashley Thompson adapted it for Learning English with additional reporting. Hai Do was the editor. _____________________________________________________________ Words in This Story session - n. a period of time that is used to do a particular activity lean - v. to bend or move from a straight position impact - n. a powerful or major influence or effect common ground - expression. something that people agree about even if they disagree about other things reunification - n. the process of making something (such as a country) whole again When students return to the J.J. Hill Montessori School in Minnesota next month, they will find counselors ready to help them. The students will also find teachers and other school workers offering hugs and other support, Principal Fatima Lawson told VOA. She said her employees will show the children they care and want to help. After J.J. Hill sent its 500 students home for their summer break, the schools popular cafeteria supervisor, Philando Castile, died. He was shot and killed by a police officer at a traffic stop. His death and another killing, by police of an African-American man in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, fueled protests across the United States. It led to claims that some police officers target African-Americans for use of deadly force. Later, a gunman killed five police officers in Dallas, Texas. Three other police were shot and killed in Baton Rouge. The Dallas officers were on duty at a demonstration called to protest the police shootings of African-Americans in Minnesota and Louisiana. All this violence has set off emotional debate across the country -- about the dangerous work police do to protect people and continued charges of police discrimination against African-Americans. We Are Here to Help Many Americans are counting on schools to help young people make sense of the violence and the state of race relations in the country. Fatima Lawson, the J.J. Hill Montessori School principal, expects students to be emotional when they return to school September 6. It will be their first day back since Philando Castile was shot and killed. We will let our students know we are here to help them, Lawson told VOA. She said Castile was loved by the students, aged 4-11, because he always looked out to make sure they were doing well. Castiles death became news around the world. After he was shot, his girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, posted live cell-phone videos on social media as her daughter sat in their cars backseat. The police officers gun was aimed at Reynolds as she spoke about what happened. "He let the officer know that he had a firearm and he was reaching for his wallet, and the officer just shot him in his arm," she said. Dealing With Baton Rouges Violent Summer Warren Drake heads public schools in Baton Rouge, Louisianas capital. He agrees with Lawson that the most important thing school employees can offer returning students are hugs and love. Drake told teachers and administrators the word that should drive their work is respect. By respect, he means showing appreciation for the opinions and concerns expressed by students, their parents and other school employees. We need to listen to each other and respect each others opinions and concerns, Drake told VOA. Donald Hunter is a clergyman at the New Beginning Baptist Church in Baton Rouge. He also directs the citys Black Family Initiative, an organization set up to support families. Hunter said he hears often from young African Americans concerned, if not fearful, of being pulled over by police in their cars for a minor problem and not surviving. The killing of the three Baton Rouge police officers has put the city on edge, Hunter said. All three officers did their jobs well and fairly, he said. Hunter credits Louisianas new governor, John Bel Edwards, with putting the two tragedies, the killing of the officers and the earlier killing by police of Alton Sterling, an African-American, into balance. Hunter said, like the governor, he hopes Baton Rouge city residents and the police will develop new respect for each other. Sometimes, good comes from tragedy, Hunter said. Schools Need to Ready Day One Vicki Zakrzewski serves as education director at the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley. She said that starting with the first day of school, teachers and other workers should reassure children that they are in a safe place. Dallas Police Shootings Affected Many The Dallas police shootings affected many people. Hundreds of demonstrators protesting police shootings had to flee as gunman Michah Johnson fired down from a nearby building. Johnson told police he was trying to kill as many officers as possible, according to Dallas police reports. Some students and teachers were trapped at Dallas El Centro College, where Johnson held police in a standoff for hours before police killed him. Mark Harrington, who teaches history at a Dallas high school, said for many children violence is common in their neighborhoods. But with what happened this summer, and all the publicity it got, I expect more kids will want to discuss it, Harrington said. Harrington said his job will be to observe the discussions, and correct statements that are not factual. I'm Bruce Alpert. Bruce Alpert reported this story for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section and share your views on our Facebook Page. ____________________________________________________________ Words in this Story counselor - n. a person who gives students advice cafeteria - n. a room in a school where people get food at a counter and carry it to a table for eating wallet - n. a small folding case that holds paper money, credit cards appreciation - n. an ability to understand the worth, quality, or importance of someone reassure - v. to make someone feel less afraid, upset, or doubtful trauma - n. a very difficult or unpleasant experience that causes someone to have mental or emotional problems usually for a long time stand-off - n. an argument, competition of conflict in which there is no winner The North Platte NorthWestern Energy Economic Development Fund has seldom been used in North Platte. The fund has been in place since the 1990s; the last time money was requested from the fund was in 2006. On Monday, the Quality Growth Fund Citizens Review Committee and the North Platte NorthWestern Energy Economic Development Fund Committee approved a new brewerys application for money from the fund. The application will go before the City Council on Aug. 16. The members of the North Platte QGF committee are also members of the committee for the NorthWestern Fund, with the addition of a representative from NorthWestern Energy. Nebraska District Manager James Hartman represented NorthWestern at the meeting. Gary Person, president and CEO of the North Platte Area Chamber of Commerce, said Hartman brought the fund to his attention when he began work at the chamber last year. Hartman told Person the fund has not been utilized and wanted it to be on the chambers radar screen. The first action in many years was to approve the application presented by Mark Oettinger, co-owner of Pals Brewery. The request was for funds to bring a natural gas line to the property of the brewery, which will be located at 5420 S. Buffalo. With the project, we pull quite a bit of power with our equipment, said Oettinger. Were upgrading to an 800 amp service just for electricity. He said using natural gas would be the most efficient option for the burners and equipment used to manufacture the brewerys product. We have two options, Oettinger said. If we were try to go electrical, it would be very inefficient, and Im not sure we could upgrade the amp service sufficiently to add all the manufacturing equipment. He said liquid petroleum gas was considered, but with the volatile nature of pricing, it is not an option for the business. To bring in a sufficient natural gas supply, a 2-inch line is needed, which is larger than what most commercial businesses would need. Additionally, Oettinger had a discussion with NorthWestern about the $9,000 cost of bringing the line to his property. Installing the line would establish a central connection for future businesses in the area. My question to NorthWestern, and they were really good about it, was So, we bring a hub down to the end of the property, I pay the $9,000, and maybe next year someone just hooks onto it? Weve already invested the cost and the infrastructure is in place. The NorthWestern Fund committee agreed with Oettinger and $10,000 was granted toward the project. That area could be developed for more business down the road, said Ty Lucas, board member. Oettinger said his company hopes to be up and running by November at the South Buffalo location. Kyle Meyer, Michael Huckabee and Mia Hyde visited Grand Island Monday afternoon as part of a tour to both discover if the physician assistant program is working in Central and Western Nebraska, as well as to promote physician assistant careers in rural Nebraska. Meyer is the dean of College of Allied Health Profession, while Huckabee is director of the physician assistant education in the School of Allied Health. Hyde worked 20 years as a physician assistant in Central Nebraska, before being named an assistant professor and academic director for physician assistant education at the Health Science Education Complex at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. Hyde noted she worked in Kearney, serving rural clinics in Axtell, Shelton and Loup City, before her duties switched to Hansen Medical in Grand Island, Shelton and Gibbon with primary care. "Now I've moved into the educational part of it again, hoping to stress the importance to new graduates that we need to keep patients at the center of our care, that we need to keep it (care) holistic and make sure we are providing that care where resources are lacking," she said. "Patients can't always make it to a larger community an hour away." "Keeping those sites available for patients in smaller areas is a huge benefit for them," Hyde said. "We need to stress that to our students and try to keep more of them focused on primary care in smaller areas We want to keep them there as much as possible because that's where our biggest need is, where there is a lack of providers in smaller communities." Meyer said a physician assistant in a medical clinic setting may provide services in such primary care areas such as charting blood pressure and routine care for people with diabetes. If a physician assistant provides care at a clinic with no physician, he or she will need to know how to provide telemedicine, which might involve communicating with a physician by telephone or via video, Hyde said Huckabee said the purpose for the University of Nebraska Medical Center and UNK developing new Health Science Education Complex at UNK is to allow people from Central and Western Nebraska to get their education and training as close to home as possible. Meyer noted that nursing, including the bachelor of science in nursing and graduate nursing program, has been at UNK for many years. However, he said the physician assistant program and physical therapist program are the two biggest programs for the new Health Sciences Education Complex. After students have earned their bachelor's degrees, they will take part in a 28-month program, which consists of half classroom and half clinical experience to earn their master's degrees. The clinical experience includes rotations in all of the sub-specialties. "When they graduate with a master's degree, they are ready for practice; they don't have a separate internship," Meyer said. Clinical experiences in Central Nebraska will often provide the professional contacts that will lead a physician assistant to get a job at a particular clinic, hospital or other setting in rural Nebraska. While Hyde wants to emphasize the importance of physician assistants providing primary care to patients, she noted there also are opportunities for them to work in almost any medical specialty. For example, if a physician assistant joins a dermatologist's office, he or she will receive their dermatology training in that office. There is no need for additional training or classes beyond the 28-month master's program to become a physician assistant. Meyer said one possibility for a physician assistant is to work as a hospitalist, which means being part of a team that might also include a physician, nurse practitioners and other medical specialists who provides care to a patient who has been admitted to a hospital. That team will provide around-the-clock, hour-by-hour care and stay in touch with the patient's primary care physician. As a result, the patient's primary care physician may be relieved of the responsibility of making morning and evening rounds at the hospital. Meyer said this fall will be the second cohort of 16 physician assistant students at the UNK Health Sciences Education Complex. The plan is to have three cohorts of 16 physician assistant students per academic year or 48 students per year. He said the long-range plans are to have three 16-student cohorts of physical therapist students or 48 PT students per year. A few of the other allied health specialties at UNK include cardiovascular interventional technologists, medical laboratory scientist, clinical perfussionists, computed tomography technologists, cytotechnolists, diagnostic medical sonographers, magnetic resonance imaging technologists, medical nutrition therapists, radiation therapists and radiographers. This website is inclusive of tolerant people of all faiths, without exception. Neither anti-Semitism nor Islamophobia nor homophobia should ever be acceptable to anyone. We must all strive to live in peace and harmony with each other, regardless of religious affiliations, or none. Intolerance is the mother of strife and conflict. Mark Alexander We Britons are Europeans!Wir Briten sind Europaer! Nous, les Britanniques, sommes europeens ! Mark AlexanderEmail me at:markalexander.librabunda@gmail.com A University of South Florida student just completed a prestigious internship program that focuses on land and water issues that affect our everyday lives. USF student finishes prestigious internship in Everglades Krista Gutierrez one of three chosen from applicants around world Completed undergrad, about to start Master's at USF Krista Gutierrez just completed her undergrad at USF and has spent the summer deep in the Everglades for the Arthur R. Marshall Foundations Everglades Summer Intern Program. Gutierrez was only one of three picked from applicants across the world. Gutierrez (middle) was only one of three picked from applicants across the world. "The whole reason I got into Geology was because I lived south of Lake Okeechobee," Gutierrez said. Gutierrez was raised in Clewiston by her parents who are both Mexican immigrants and work in the agriculture industry. She said her parents did everything they could to make sure their children had a proper education and she wants to give back and help the community she came from. "We're constantly dumping water out in the east and west of Lake Okeechobee while that fresh water could be used in recharging our aquifers," Gutierrez said. During the program, Gutierrez said she had plenty of hands on experience studying plant and animal ecology and the realities of Everglades restoration programs. "I got to experience the horrid smell and see the bright green thick algae that everyone was talking about," Gutierrez said. Gutierrezs professors said they couldnt be more proud of her achievements and are confident she will help positively impact the Everglades. "It's not just about restoring an ecosystem, that's certainly a very important part of it, but ensuring a sustainable future for South Florida," Dr. Mark Rains said. Gutierrez is about to start her Masters Degree program at USF in Global Sustainability with a focus on water issues. A South Florida teen and the man she is suspected of traveling with may be on their way to the Tampa area. Missing child alert issued for Clewiston, Florida teen May be in company of 30-year-old man May be traveling toward Tampa area A missing child alert was issued for 16-year-old Breanna Graham. She is 5 feet 1 inch tall, 130 pounds, with light reddish brown hair, blue eyes, and has a small scar under her eye. She was last seen in the area of the 800 block of Redish Circle in Clewiston, Florida. The teen may be in the company of 30-year-old Brandon Sheldon. (Photo provided by FDLE Missing Children) The child may be in the company of 30-year-old Brandon Sheldon, who is 6 feet, 3 inches tall, approximately 240 pounds, with brown hair, brown eyes and scruffy facial hair. They may be traveling towards the Tampa area, in a 1992 Ford F-150 pick-up truck, white in color, with burgundy pin-stripe, Florida Tag GZNP47. If you have any information on the whereabouts of this child please contact the Hendry County Sheriff's Office at 863-674-5600 or 911. Everyones vote this election matters. But, if you live in Hillsborough County, presidential campaigns might tend to believe you matter a little more. Experts: the candidate that wins Hillsborough will take Florida The battleground county is a snapshot of Florida demographics Expect to see both candidates around Tampa Bay frequently from now till November Hillsborough County is a battleground county," explained our Democratic Analyst Ana Cruz. "Analysts say whoever wins in Hillsborough will take Florida. County is absolutely, without a doubt, going to be ground zero for this campaign. The county is the perfect mix of white, Hispanic and African American voters. It often mirrors the entire states demographics. You cant win Florida, historically, if you dont win Hillsborough, said Bay News 9s Republican Analyst Chris Ingram. Republicans, mathematically, its impossible to win the presidency without carrying Florida in the electoral college." Voters can expect to see both presidential candidates sweeping the state, and making plenty of stops in the Tampa area. Its absolutely critical. Both of these campaigns will spend tons of money trying to get the voters out, said Ingram. Even bipartisan organizations know how critical every vote can be. The League of Women Voters of Hillsborough County is making sure to get as many people registered as possible. We did a new teacher orientation event and registered in that one event 62 new registrants, said Sandra Sroka, president of the league. Weve got a number of voter registration events going on on college campuses as students come back at the end of August. Analysts on both sides urge local voters to get educated and registered because the election could be decided right here in Hillsborough County. At age 13, Maxwell Mondo has landed at every open public use airport in Florida. Boy, 13, accomplishes goal of landing at all Florida public use airports When we first met Maxwell, he was halfway to his goal Previous story: Father, son go on grand airport adventure (July 13, 2014) Maxwell and his dad believe this to be the first time a 13-year-old has landed at all 126 airports. Its a big weight off my shoulders, Maxwell said. Maxwell set out to land at every public use airport in Florida when he was nine years old. He said he didnt realize what a huge undertaking it would be. Id never really done anything like it before, Maxwell said. Still, with his aviator dad by his side for most of the trips, Maxwell learned how to take the controls and fly. He even landed on water in a seaplane. Its a whole different experience, Maxwell said. But theres nothing quite like landing in a helicopter. Maxwell did that too. You had to sort of hover above the ground and Im not used to doing that, Maxwell said. Other landings created quite the challenge too. The biggest challenge was probably landing at Fort Walton Beach in Pensacola because it was the shortest runway in all of Florida, Maxwell said. In honor of his accomplishment, Mondo received a certificate from the Department of Transportation and a congratulations letter from Floridas governor. Maxwell is an eighth grader at Farnell Middle School. Game of Thrones fans have been feeling restless: The historical TV series just has two seasons 14 episodes for its end. So when author George RR Martin made an announcement on his blog this weekend, that Universal Cable Productions has acquired the rights to the Wild Cards series of books (on which he is a contributing writer) it made gave his fans a reason to cheer. Described as a universe as large and diverse and exciting as the comic book universes of Marvel and DC , with an enormous cast of characters, the Wild Card anthology was created in 1986; a decade before the Game of Thrones novel kicked off Martins A Song of Ice and Fire series. The series is set in a post-Apocalyptic world in 1946 after World War II. An alien virus is unleashed all over the world, starting from New York, which changes the course of history. Ninety percent of those exposed to the virus died instantly, but of those 10 in 100 who survived, nine were horribly disfigured they drew the joker, in the parlance of the series while just 1 percent were dealt an ace and gifted with comic-book-style superpowers. The grotesque and deformed Jokers are forced into ghettos and subjected to bigotry and hatred, which even becomes the subject of 1960s civil rights fight. The Wild Cards universe is at least as populous as Westeros, giving the producers of the forthcoming TV adaptation a huge tapestry of stories to work with. The first volume in 1986 introduced Doctor Tachyon, a benign and extravagantly attired member of the alien race that unleashed the virus in 1941; the Great and Powerful Turtle, who used his telekinetic abilities to encase himself in a flying shell; Capn Trips, who employed hallucinogenics to turn on his super abilities; and Jetboy, a pulp-ish fighter ace who tried to save the world from the virus released over Manhattan. This is basically giving comic book genre writers a chance to run free and create whatever plotlines they want to. George RR Martin is joined by co-editor Melinda Snodgrass, and several other brilliant genre writers contribute to the Wild Cards series including Pat Cadigan, Cherie Priest, Chris Claremont (X-Men) and Roger Zelanzny. There are 22 books out in the series, and the next one is just releasing. The books have the magical wonder of a superhero universe but don't have the continuity issues that confuse DC and Marvel fans. Sounds like a promising show for Game of Thrones fans to watch after the series ends after the eighth season. After repeatedly pushing their release dates, the makers of Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif-starrer Jagga Jasoos have now said that the film will release on 7 April 2017. The announcement was made by Disney on Twitter on Monday. Here we go: Disney's #JaggaJasoos releases on 7th April, 2017! Directed by @basuanurag, *ing Ranbir Kapoor & Katrina Kaif, music by Pritam! Disney Films India (@disneyfilmindia) August 8, 2016 The banner is co-producing the film, which is the debut venture of Ranbir and Basu's production house Picture Shuru Productions. "Jagga Jasoos will release exactly a year after the Studio's hugely successful The Jungle Book (released on 8 April, 2016) and Jagga Jasoos promises to be the Disney summer spectacle for 2017!" Disney said in a statement. Directed by Barfi! filmmaker Anurag Basu, Jagga Jasoos had been in the making for a while. The film faced several issues, from re-shooting of parts of the film to even an overhaul of the film's music, leading to repeated delays in the release date of the film. To add to all their troubles the breakup of the film's lead pair, Ranbir and Katrina, during the making of the film further delayed shoots. Work on the film began when the couple was together; soon, their relationship and the film hit a rocky patch. There were some reports that the couple became rather uncooperative post-breakup and refused to shoot together overseas. A part of the film's shoot that was planned in Morocco was repeatedly postponed due to the couple's personal issues. Reports even suggest that the film's shoot was called off for over a week after their breakup. It took some effort for the former lovers to bury their differences and complete the shoot. Earlier in an interview to PTI, Basu had said, "Having a real-life couple is not an advantage but it is rather a disadvantage. The actors know each other so well and you are lovers in real-life, it gets difficult for them to bring their chemistry on the screen. So this is going to be very challenging." The film had gone on the floors in 2014 and was supposed to release in 2015. But due to these delays the release date was pushed to June 2016 and now it has moved to April 2017. However after all these delays it won't be surprising if the makers yet again decide to change their release date. Basu, however, said the movie has been delayed by merely six months and he is not bothered about it. "If a film has to work, then it will work anytime. If we have made it well, then it will definitely be a hit irrespective of the delay in its release. If it's not made well, then it would have flopped even when it was not delayed," Basu told IANS. The film is the story of Jagga, played by Ranbir, who has only one aim in life and that is to find his father's killers. Katrina, who plays his love interest, supports him in this endeavour and embarks with him on the hunt. It remains to be seen whether the ex-couple will come together to promote the film. However, Siddharth Roy Kapur, MD and CEO of Disney India, had earlier told PTI, "They are complete professionals and they will do everything that it takes to promote Jagga Jasoos." By Nikhil M Babu It should have taken 30 days for Sanjaya Kumar (27) from Odisha to withdraw his fathers provident fund of Rs 40,000, the post-employment, rainy day ore retirement stash that companies must compulsorily deduct from salaries. Instead, more than 1,825 days have passed since Kumars father Krushna Chandra (53) died in 2011. Please help me withdraw PF money, my mother is worried about losing it, said Sanjaya, in a complaint posted on an online forum. Five years and three written complaints later, Kumar, has received no replies from the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), a government body that receives provident fund deductions from companies and administers 50 million provident fund accounts nationwide. Chandra, worked in a company called Target Allied Securities Private Limited in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, and though his colleagues got their provident fund, his family did not. Kumar, settled in Hyderabad, said that he has sent numerous emails hes lost count to his fathers employer and the EPFO. Target Allied Securities Private Limited replied that they have already deposited the PF with EPFO and added Chandras that kin has not submitted the required documents and that may be causing the delay. Theyre not helping us, how can I go back and forth to Odisha from here? asked Kumar. My mother tells about it some times, but I have almost stopped chasing them. More than 10,000 companies including 1,195 state-owned nationwide have defaulted on provident fund payments: 2,200 companies owe at least Rs 2,200 crore to the EPFO, the portion of employee salaries they should have deposited. NOTE: Figures in Rs. lakhs The numbers of defaulting companies and institutions is growing. There were 10,091 defaulters in 2014-15, rising to 10,932 by December 2015. Online consumer forums are flooded with complaints like those of Kumars, as hundreds of employees who have quit or retired from a company are deprived of their provident fund. We have received more than 2,000 RTIs (Right to Information request) in the last one-and-a-half years, seeking status of provident-fund refunds and reasons thereof, said Vinoth R, co-founder of OnlineRTI.com, a Bangalore-based advocacy that helps people question the EPFO. We get lots of complaints from workers who have been denied their provident fund and also complaints of collusion between EPFO officials and employers, said All-India Trade Union Congress secretary and EPFO trustee DL Sachdev. A detailed questionnaire sent on 29 June, 2016, to the Central Provident Fund Commissioner and the Central Vigilance Officer of EPFO and reminders on 1 August went unanswered. In Budget 2015-16, the government decided to tax a part of provident fund. But widespread nationwide protests some violent, especially in Bengaluru forced the government to rescind the decision. The rainy day solution, hobbled by defaulting companies Provident funds are meant to provide financial security to salaried employees, who must contribute 12 percent of their monthly salary with the employer contributing 13.6 percent. Companies or institutions with more than 19 employees deposit the provident fund of each with the EPFO, which in turn deposits the money in an employee account that earns 8.8 percent interest from the government, which invests her provident fund in government securities and corporate bonds. While employees can withdraw the entire amount after retirement or two months after resigning from a job, the EPFO allows partial withdrawals to pay for a home, education, marriage or an illness. Establishments that deduct contributions from employees salaries, but do not deposit it with EPFO are termed defaulters. Tamil Nadu, including Puducherry, has Indias largest number of defaulting companies (2,644), followed by Maharashtra (1,692) and Kerala, including Lakshadweep (1,118). NOTE: Figures for 2015-16* are up to December 2015 The Airports Authority of India tops the list of defaulting institutions with a Rs 192 crore default, followed by HBL GLOBAL, Mumbai, and Ahluwalia Contracts India Limited, Delhi, with Rs 64.5 crore and 54.5 crore, respectively. NOTE: Figures in Rs. lakhs AAI started remitting the monthly contribution from September 2007. For the retrospective period i.e. from 1 April, 1995 (date of formation of AAI) to 22 August, 2007, AAI has remitted the pension contribution in respect of employees along with the interest thereon, Rajesh Bhandari, executive director (finance), AAI, told IndiaSpend. The regional provident fund office, Delhi considered this period as a default period and levied the charges of Rs 192 crore for the period from April, 1995 to February 2006. The matter was taken up with central office and regional office stating that these charges are not payable by AAI as it pertains to pre-discovery period. However, CPFC/RPFC did not accept the argument of AAI and did not waive off those charges. Left with no other choice, AAI filed a case in Delhi High Court to obtain a stay order. The next date of hearing in the case is 30 September, 2016. By region, Thiruvananthapuram leads with 247 defaulters, followed by Kolkata with 173 and Bhubaneswar with 115. Companies that form their own provident fund trusts for employees are exempt from signing up with the EPFO. In such cases, trustees are selected from company workers. Defaulting companies must pay a penalty with an interest rate of between 17 percent and 37 percent, depending on the period of default. EPFO set for a Rs 33-crore image makeover, but problems are deeper The EPFO is set for a Rs 33-crore image makeover, which includes professional social media management and advertisement in print and broadcast media, Mint reported on 5 July, 2016. But the EPFOS role as a custodian of employee savings faces deeper problems: It does not tell employees that companies are defaulting until they come to settle; cases waiting for settlement are rising; and corruption with the organisation endures. The number of EPF cases pending settlement in 2015-16 increased 23 percent over the previous year. Although 228 police cases were registered, 14,000 inquiries started against defaulting establishments and Rs 3,240 crore was recovered in 2014-15 from defaulters, the EPFO was short of 6,000 employees on 31 March, 2015. Fewer employees affect the organisations ability to enforce provident-fund rules. EPFO trustee Sachdev said the organisaton was very slow dealing with complaints. When an employee goes to settle his account with the EPFO, only then does he come to know that the company hasnt deposited the amount, he said. There has been a four-fold increase in cases filed by EPFO to prosecute defaulting employers over the four years ending 2015, from 317 in 2012-13 to 1491 in 2014-15. NOTE: Figures for 2015-2016* are up to September 2015 As many as 322 corruption cases were ongoing or concluded against erring EPFO officials between 2012 February 2015. Since then, corruption cases have dropped: 167 in 2012, 75 in 2013, 72 in 2014 and 8 till February 2015. One reason could be that an EPFO executive officer was previously given charge of an area to ensure employers within that jurisdiction did not default. Now notices to defaulters are sent from the head office, and there is no officer who can be held responsible if the company defaults in payment, said Vivek Kumar, a former EPFO director of vigilance. Back in Hyderabad, the reasoning makes no difference to Kumar. FMCG major Britannia is evaluating entry into new product categories, like chocolates, breakfast, salted snacks and other ready to-eat foods, to consolidate its position as a leading food company in the country. "To remain relevant and improve relative significance in future Indian market, companies such as yours will have to venture outside of their traditional bastions and build presence in adjacent categories. We believe that your company is well positioned to undertake this transition even while strengthening its hold on the bastion categories," Britannia said in its annual report for 2015-16. It further said: The opportunity in adjacencies such as chocolate products, breakfast, salted snacks and other ready to-eat foods is huge... your company is evaluating several of these categories carefully and working on business model options before choosing a few for entry. Britannia said these new categories that help in health management and ready to eat solutions are seeing wider and deeper consumer traction than ever before. "Your company's strategy to increase consumer relevance in a changing food landscape and grow ahead of direct and indirect competition is to strengthen position in bastion categories (biscuit, cake and rusk)," it said. The firm will also take steps including increasing demand for current assortment through a combination of brand promotion and aggressive distribution expansion, creating fresh demand through innovation on pleasure, health and convenience axes and running the supply chain for better cost efficiency and superior delivered quality. It will also enter attractive adjacencies for an accelerated future growth and evaluate transition of the dairy model to a fully integrated one. From our observations, preparedness of organisations seems to vary. Many large organisations have been proactively following the changes including dissecting the latest Model GST Law; we have seen that there are corporates in the MSMB sector that will adapt to changes that are underway. To be GST compliant, organizations will have to broadly manage their changes under these heads: 1) Corporates will have to manage their tax engine to run with GST as well as with Excise and Sales Tax. While most of the goods will be under the new tax regime, there are few goods that arent included currently in the GST list, but are essential for business 2) Aligning business processes to suit business needs rather than meeting tax needs 3) Understanding and complying with a new process of submitting all sales invoices online (through a portal or via GSP) and managing returns online 4) SAP is committed to support the implementation of GST in India. Our engagement with stakeholders be it our customers, the government or policy-maker is three-fold: a) A deeply involved engagement with customers and partners of corporate India, to enable a smooth transition into the new tax regime at the earliest so they are able to conduct business as usual without any disruption. b) A collaborative commitment with and across industry bodies to identify and assist corporate India (beyond SAPs customer base as well) to help them better understand nuances of the new law and changes to be incorporated into their systems. c) A consultative engagement with the GSTN to ensure the digital tax office is a success from the point of view of the government and is beneficial to businesses. We have made significant investments to build awareness on GST across our customer base. We have also published a GST approach document which is publicly available. Last year, we held a GST forum in Delhi to address around 2000 customers and partners. With the GST law being passed, we will come into force, and will roll out the final solution and processes to enable smooth transition of our customer into the new GST regime. Challenges for organisations Data Management: Master Data management is key in order to avoid hampering the efficiency of the ongoing business operations. One of the biggest challenge in this migration is managing the large chunk of data and integrating the new system into the processes seamlessly. 1) Advantageous Supply chain set up based on business rather than managing taxes 2) Input Tax Credit dovetailed with IT compliance capability of vendors Moving to a unified tax approach GST is a single tax on the supply of goods and services. Those who are paying only service tax will see a change as there will be a state specific authority tax implied. For those who fall under the excise and vat regime, there wont be any difference in their transactions. One broad change for all is the last mile digitization in the GST regime. GST is a move towards a system of proof that ushers in operational ease and greater transparency. Financial burden and change in IT systems: It is an exaggeration to say that the whole IT system has to be changed. Software development has evolved and most ERP softwares are based on configuration and switches. There will be costs for managing the change though. I will call it prudent investment on the part of companies to set aside a budget though. Replanning supply chain logistics and investing in data analytics to better business (rather than manage them) will be necessary. The author is Vice President, Globalization Services, SAP India One of the questions repeatedly posed to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor, Raghuram Rajan, on Tuesday was the fate of the ongoing bad loan clean-up process in the banking system post his exit in September. To a question on whether the RBI is satisfied with the way banks have been disclosing their Non-performing assets (NPAs) so far, Rajan said the central bank is indeed comfortable with the progress. Broadly speaking, we are comfortable with the recognition process that banks have certainly taken. Some banks have taken more steps than we required them to take. So, the culture of cleaning up (of balance sheet) seems to be well embedded as well as a culture of recovery on some of the loans, Rajan said in the post monetary policy press conference. The bad loan clean-up exercise that began in the second half of last financial year has resulted in public sector banks (PSBs) alone declaring over Rs 2 lakh crore bad loans in the banking system. Presently the total bad loan stock (gross non-performing assets (GNPAs)) in the banking sector stand at Rs 6 lakh crore, of which public sector banks have a share of Rs 5.4 lakh crore. In percentage terms, the gross NPAs of the scheduled commercial banks have risen from 5.43 percent in March 2015 to 9.32 percent in March 2016. The RBI has set a deadline of March 2017 for banks to disclose all their bad loans, including the ones masqueraded as restructured loans. Much before that, Rajan had put in place a mechanism for early-recognition of bad assets. Rajans exercise made immense sense since a bad loan bomb was building in the banking system and no one knew the exact size of its until then since banks were smartly hiding much of it in the rejigged loan basket. Rajans call was politically sensitive too since it meant huge additional capital implications for the government that owns 70 percent of the banking system through state-run banks. But, if Rajans Swachh Banks mission wouldn't have happened, this bomb would have exploded at some stage. Majority of the bank loan NPAs on the books of state run banks emerge from loans given to large corporations. According to latest government data, top 100 borrowers of PSBs owe nearly Rs 14 lakh crore to them. Of this the share of wilful defaulters as a percentage of GNPAs as on March 2016 was 16.09 per cent. Going by the last Financial Stability Report (FSR) of RBI, the bad loan clean-up process has worked well so far, with banks being forced to classify a large chunk of the restructured assets as bad loans. The restructured assets of banks fell to 3.9 percent at the end of March quarter from 6.2 per cent in September. In other words, what this essentially means is that most of the restructured loans have been shifted to the NPA book, finally. This gives hope that the era of merrily masquerading bad loans as restructured loans will soon be a thing of the past. The reason for marginal increase in total stressed asset levels despite sharp rise in NPAs is the simultaneous sharp decline in restructured loans. Will the central bank continue with the bad loan clean-up exercise post Rajans exit? The answer to this will depend on Rajans successor. If the new governor stands up strongly to continue with the task and clear the puzzle of the hidden NPAs that will be seen as a major reform in the countrys banking sector. Instead, if the new governor buckles under the pressure of the corporate lobby and go slow on the process, the progress made so far will get eroded. The whole exercise also means huge capital implications for the government, the majority owner of state-run banks, since the onus of capitalizing these lenders is with the central exchequer. All eyes will be on Rajans successor now. Data contributed by Kishor Kadam Didi Chuxing's acquisition of Uber's China business last week reshapes the landscape in Asia's growing ride-hailing sector, and leaves India's Ola more vulnerable to attack by Uber in its $12 billion home market. Four months ago, Ola executives met with Didi hoping the Chinese firm would invest fresh capital to help it fight Uber Technologies Inc which, with its deeper pockets, has made rapid inroads into India. They were told Didi wanted first to sort out its own challenges in China, said a person with direct knowledge of Ola's plans. Didi and Uber have raised and spent billions of dollars in a discount slugfest to win drivers, passengers and market share in China. Didis investment in Ola Didi, now worth around $35 billion, last year invested about $30 million in Ola, which is also backed by Japan's SoftBank Group, and the two are allies in an anti-Uber group that also includes US-based Lyft and Southeast Asia-focused Grab. "This (Didi/Uber China) deal changes the dynamics of how they (Didi) will invest in India," said the person, who didn't want to be named because the discussions were private. If Didi invests more in Ola, it's effectively betting against Uber, its new partner in China, the person said. It's not clear whether Didi would provide equity or debt to Ola, which has raised around $1.3 billion in funding and is valued at over $5 billion. SoftBank Capital, Ola's key investor, faces its own financial issues and is selling assets to raise cash and reduce debt, which may pose another fundraising challenge for Ola, which was aiming to raise another $1 billion this year. Ola did not respond to an email request for comment. Didi said in an email that it will focus in the coming months on "ensuring smooth integration internally." It did not comment on its meeting with Ola. Didi has no immediate overseas investment plans, said a person with direct knowledge of the matter. The stakes are high in India, already one of the world's fastest growing taxi markets. Ola and Uber have burnt through investors' money and clashed in legal battles over alleged dirty-tricks tactics and pricing. After the Didi deal, Uber is even more focussed on India, which it has previously called its No. 2 priority overseas market, doubling down on resources, staffing and technology deployed there, said two people familiar with Uber's plans, one of whom is based in the United States. Mission in India Ola, founded by two graduates from India's premier technology institute, commands half of the country's taxi market as of end-June in terms of the number of cars registered on its platform, according to Counterpoint Research, with Uber on around 30 percent market share, and catching fast. Uber has previously launched a bike taxi and autos service in India - a sign that it wants to localize transport options and a lesson from China where it focussed on privately-owned cars in big cities, where car ownership has historically been low. Uber declined to comment.. In February, Uber opened an engineering centre in Bengaluru and has, according to LinkedIn, brought in ex-Google executive Apurva Dalal to lead its India product build. It has also hired more than three dozen engineers in India in six months and plans to add dozens more by the end of the year, said one of the people familiar with Uber's plans. Two executives heading Uber's mapping efforts, Brian McClendon and Manik Gupta, visited India in June to work on making the Uber app more localised and boosting the mapping capabilities, the other, U.S.-based, individual said. While Uber has pushed into cities and markets worldwide, Ola operates only in its home market. Ola is in 102 cities versus Uber's 27, according to Counterpoint, and offers a wider range of products - from auto rickshaws to shuttle buses, as well as taxi rides. The Didi/Uber deal "will put Ola in a corner, and the pressure will rise," said Neil Shah, research director at Counterpoint. "The money Ola has will not last forever and it will require a lot of funding with Uber gaining financial strength." New Delhi: The amount of money India plans to raise next month, when it opens the largest ever spectrum auction to telcom companies, is more than the GDP of many small countries. According to World Bank rankings, the $83 billion (Rs 5.6 lakh crore) revenue which the government is eyeing through auction proceeds is more than the 2015 GDP of neighbouring Sri Lanka and Myanmar besides also exceeding that of several countries in Africa and Europe. The target this time is almost five times of the revenue target during the last auctions. But the government is destined to fall short of its target this year due to an expensive spectrum, which would also be available in abundant quantities for the first time ever. In the last two auctions, almost half of the buying by telcos was toward renewal spectrum. Limited spectrum availability and risk of business continuity forced operators to aggressively participate, pushing up the auction value in these two auctions. This may not be the case next month, when almost 2300 mhz of spectrum will be up for grabs, at prices about 30 percent higher than the previous auction for 800 mhz, and about 10-20 percent higher for 1800 mhz and 2100 mhz. Also, telcos like market leader Bharti already bought spectrum in the last auctions and may not be compelled to shell out mega bucks in the upcoming airwave sale. An expensive spectrum which is available in abundant quantity when telcos may not be compelled to pick it up - all this points clearly to the fact that despite governments best intentions, the auction could turn out to be a disappointment unless prices of the 700 mhz band are revised downward. This is the most efficient as well as the most expensive spectrum band up for grabs and one where the government is hoping for maximum revenue generation. A telecom industry expert pointed out that the 700 mhz band is unlikely to see much bidding and it is possible that the reserve price is revised downwards. This expert pointed out that Reliance Industries, which is in the best position to bid for this expensive band, may choose not to do so since it already owns a sizeable amount of the equally efficient 800 mhz band of spectrum. And other players like Bharti, Vodafone and Idea may not be able to afford this spectrum band due to pricing issues. The industry is struggling under a debt pile of well over Rs three lakh crore and buying expensive 700 mhz band will most certainly increase the debt burden further. If there is indeed a downward revision in prices of the 700 mhz band, then there is a brighter chance of the auction succeeding. The auction is slated to begin from September 29 and the government is putting on sale bands of 700 mhz, 800 mhz, 900 mhz 1800 mhz, 2100 mhz, 2300 mhz and 2500 mhz. Almost two thirds of the targeted proceeds are expected from the sale of 700 mhz air waves which are on sale for first time ever. A little over 2300 mhz of total spectrum will be up for auction. A report from HSBC Global Research showed earlier that actual revenue generation from the upcoming auctions would be a fraction of what the government has targeted. "Our initial analysis suggests that total proceeds from spectrum auction are unlikely to exceed $10-12 billion (about Rs 80,000 crore) and we believe a lot of spectrum might remain unsold in 700, 2300, 2500 MHz bands. We see good demand for 1800 MHz, selective demand for 2100 and 700 Mhz bands," the report said. If this is correct, actual proceeds would be a fraction of the revenue receipts the government has targeted through these auctions. Aliasgar Shakir and Jay Gandhi of Motilal Oswal said in a report this morning that steep valuation of the 700 mhz band should keep it largely ignored. But the two analysts also pointed out that in a few Tier 2 and 3 circles, where the price is low compared to 900 mhz pricing in the last auctions in March 2015 means this spectrum band could be picked up by telcos in these circles. They also said that overall, abundant quantity of spectrum in the auction means there is little risk of reserve price shoot-up. The auction includes 7 blocks of 5mhz in 700mhz, average of 2-3 blocks of 1.25mhz in 800mhz, about 2-3 blocks of 5mhz in 1800mhz and average 3-4 blocks of 5mhz in 2100mhz. This is significantly higher than the previous 3-4 years. In the last two auctions, 45 percent of the auction value was toward renewal spectrum. Limited spectrum availability and risk of business continuity forced operators to aggressively participate, pushing up the auction value. However, the upcoming auction may see limited interest due to abundant quantity and no risk of renewal, which will offer subsequent opportunity to acquire spectrum. But the key question is whether the reserve price of 700 mhz band will be revised downward. Idea Celluar MD Himanshu Kapania said on Monday that Weve moved from a spectrum shortage to a spectrum glut. Companies will bid for spectrum that can be deployed immediately rather than hoard spectrum for the future. This indicates the cautious stance of telcos in the September auctions. The Motilal Oswal analysts said Idea along with Vodafone should be keen to expand their respective spectrum portfolios, not market leader Bharti. Bharti's aggressive participation in the previous two spectrum auctions and acquisition from industry participants increased its 900mhz, 1800mhz and 2100mhz spectrum holdings to about 1.5x-2x of Vodafone and Idea's spectrum portfolio. We believe Vodafone and Idea will be relatively active in the upcoming auction to fill their 3G/4G gaps across key multiple circles where they lag Bharti as well as RJio in spectrum holding. The government has been eyeing Rs 98,994.93 crore from communication services this fiscal as per Budget proposals, and this amount includes proceeds from spectrum auction plus other fees levied by the Department of Telecom (DoT). It also includes arrears from auction proceeds in previous years. The estimated receipts from communication services are about double of the revised estimates for 2015-16 at Rs 56,034.35 crore. New Delhi: India on Tuesday summoned Pakistan's high commissioner in New Delhi to protest against what it said was the continued infiltration of militants from across the border. The Foreign Ministry said an arrested Pakistani national Bahadur Ali had confessed that he was "infiltrated into India" after being trained by the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant group. "The government of India strongly protests against the continued infiltration from Pakistan of trained terrorists with instructions to carry out attacks," the ministry said in a statement on its website. "This is contrary to assurances given by the Pakistani leaders at the highest level." Calls for comment to the spokesman for Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nafees Zakaria, went unanswered on Tuesday evening. India's protest comes days after its Home Minister Rajnath Singh called for isolation of countries deemed to be supporting "terrorism" during a speech at a regional conference in Islamabad. Singh did not mention Pakistan by name but India accuses its neighbour of sheltering militants fighting against Indian rule in its part of divided Kashmir. On Tuesday, the Indian foreign secretary met Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit and issued a statement that India's Foreign Ministry spokesman described as a "strong demarche". Ali had remained in touch with LeT's "operations room" before his arrest in July and received instructions to carry out an attack in India, the government said, adding it was prepared to grant the Pakistan High Commission consular access to Ali. Relations between Pakistan and India have been strained further in recent weeks by a flare-up in protests against Indian rule in its part of the disputed border region of Kashmir, in which dozens have been killed by security forces. India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars since independence in 1947 over Kashmir, which they both claim in full but rule in part. India accuses Pakistan of training and arming militants in the portion it controls and sending them to the Indian side, a claim its neighbour denies. TAMU, Myanmar Five years ago, when cold pills first trickled across Myanmar's untamed border with India, many local officials were baffled. Where was this medicine going, and why were smugglers so interested in it? Today, the cross-border trickle has become a torrent and everyone knows why the Indian-made pills are so valuable: they are bound for secret laboratories in lawless eastern Myanmar that churn out most of mainland Southeast Asia's methamphetamine, or "meth". Cold pills contain pseudoephedrine, the main ingredient of meth, a highly addictive drug whose ever-soaring popularity is rattling governments across Asia. In recent months the Philippines has elected a president on a platform of harsh action against drug dealers, Indonesia has resumed executions of drug traffickers after a year-long hiatus and Thailand is wrestling with a soaring prison population. Myanmar's current boom in meth production would be impossible without a recent surge in pseudoephedrine smuggled from India's huge and ill-regulated pharmaceuticals sector, say police and narcotics experts. The uninterrupted flow of the drug is highlighting a disconnect between countries in tackling a meth epidemic that the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) calls Asia's "number one drug threat". "It's big, big business," said Ye Htut, a former advisor to Myanmar's ex-President Thein Sein. He attributed a property boom in Kalay, the largest town in this otherwise impoverished region, to the profits made from smuggling pseudoephedrine. Meth is sold in pill form as "ya ba", a Thai name meaning "crazy medicine", or as a more potent, crystalline substance known as "crystal meth", "ice" or "shabu". Each Indian cold pill can make one "ya ba" and costs only a few cents to produce. By the time it has crossed the border and reached Mandalay - Myanmar's northern capital and a major smuggling hub - the pill's value has increased roughly tenfold. Across mainland Southeast Asia, the UNODC estimates the meth trade was worth about $15 billion in 2013. CROSS-BORDER ROUTE The rugged and ethnically diverse region straddling the Indian border ranks among Myanmar's poorest, with no industry and modest infrastructure. Its main road is a two-lane highway linked by rickety bridges and plied by ox carts. It is here that Myanmar police have been finding thousands of the cold pills, hidden in rice sacks, packed into truck chassis or spilling from the luggage of cross-border bus passengers. In one bust here in mid-June, police intercepted a car carrying more than 60 kg (130 lbs) of Indian pseudoephedrine - enough to make more than a million "ya ba" pills. Global demand for methamphetamine has created "new precursor chemical entrepreneurs in India", said the U.S. State Department in a 2015 report. Experts believe many criminals who once smuggled drugs now prefer precursors, which offer high profits but much lighter penalties. Myanmar police say China is also a major supplier of pseudoephedrine. But with tighter controls there, and with greater demand for the chemical as meth use booms, drug producers have increasingly turned to India. Pseudoephedrine is a controlled substance in India requiring all handlers to register with the authorities. In practise, the trade is poorly monitored, with Indian officials complaining of weak intelligence-sharing between government agencies and rare prosecutions of offenders. Raw pseudoephedrine is made in a handful of Indian factories, then moved through a network of wholesalers, drug makers, distributors and drugstores. It gets pilfered at every point along the way, say experts. In a statement to Reuters, India's Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) said seizures had dropped after the country's narcotics laws were changed in 2013 to define pseudoephedrine as controlled. And indeed, police in Kalay and Tamu, Myanmar's two main districts bordering India, seized only 400 kg of pseudoephedrine last year, down from more than 3.5 tons in 2013. But that may well be because smugglers have found novel ways to avoid detection. "It's highly likely that traffickers have just shifted approach," said Jeremy Douglas, the UNODC's Asia-Pacific head. Tamu district alone had more than 80 unofficial crossing points along its 125-km (80-mile) border with India, said Douglas, making it almost impossible to monitor. The Indian Embassy in Yangon did not respond to a request for comment on the problem. DRUG PROBLEM Already the world's second-largest producer, after Afghanistan, of opium and its derivative heroin, Myanmar is now also reporting record-breaking seizures of meth. In May, police intercepted a truck in northern Myanmar carrying 21 million ya ba pills worth an estimated $35 million. The booming drugs trade poses a challenge to the fledgling government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. Rapid urbanization in the commercial capital Yangon is creating the kind of slums that have fuelled the increase in meth abuse in countries such as Thailand and the Philippines. Health experts are braced for an explosion in domestic meth use. Meanwhile, police in Mandalay, a transit point between the western frontier with India and the rebel-dominated eastern borderlands, say they are still making record seizures of Indian-made pseudoephedrine. Greater regional integration, aided by Indian and Myanmar road-building programmes, promised to boost both trade and trafficking, said the UNODC's Douglas. "India and Myanmar are cooperating to some extent but they're not doing a lot of joint operations or intelligence-sharing," he said. Myanmar police said most large drug and precursor shipments were smuggled through Moreh, the Indian border town opposite Tamu. They have arrested scores of couriers or "mules", but said they needed India's help to arrest the ringleaders. An Indian man suspected of arranging a large pseudoephedrine shipment in 2013 sought refuge on the other side of the border, said Tamu police chief Major Soe Naing. "Cooperation with India is quite weak so we haven't been able to catch him," he said. The NCB said Myanmar had not presented evidence that smuggling kingpins were hiding in India, or even that the pseudoephedrine it had seized was Indian-made. "It is coming from other countries too," said a top NCB official, who asked not to be named because he wasn't authorised to speak to journalists. (Additional reporting by Tommy Wilkes and Krista Mahr in New Delhi; Editing by Alex Richardson) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. The minority character of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) has come under legal and political scrutiny recently. On 17 July, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said: "The government-funded AMU can't have minority tag." Earlier, on 11 July, the Supreme Court gave four weeks to AMU to respond to a central government move that defended Allahabad High Court's verdict that the university was not a minority institution. In 2005, a High Court judge had passed an order declaring AMU's minority status as well as AMU's decision to give 50 percent reservation to Muslims as "unconstitutional." Under Articles 29 and 30 of the Indian Constitution, minorities have rights to protect their cultural identity and establish educational institutions. Article 30(1) says: "All minorities, whether based on religion or language, shall have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice." Therefore, the Constitution does not prevent Muslims or other communities from establishing and managing educational institutions. The AMU was established as a college for the scientific advancement of Muslims. Such minority institutions must be funded by minority communities themselves, not by the Indian state. The Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College, which Sir Syed Ahmed Khan had established in 1875, was dissolved and re-established as the Aligarh Muslim University by an act of Indian Parliament in 1920. The AMU therefore is subject to the provisions of the Constitution. While the Constitution gives rights to minorities to establish educational institutions, such institutions cannot retain a minority character if their funding comes from the Indian state. India being a secular state, AMU cannot get taxpayers' money. Under Article 30(2), the state can give aid to minority institutions. But the AMU's case is not a case of the state giving aid, but a case of the Indian state fully funding and running an institution specifically for a minority community. An additional issue with the AMU is that it is a central university. This means that an institution of national importance in the country cannot be allowed to carry a religious affiliation, promote teachings of any religion or admit students predominantly from a religious community. All central universities must give a sense of national integration among their students which can happen only if students from all communities and all regions of India are represented at the AMU without any discrimination based on religion, region or caste. The AMU reserved 50 percent seats to Muslims in medical courses in 2004 which is a violation of the Constitution because a university established by an act of the Indian parliament cannot discriminate based on religious ground. The AMU's leadership must come out of the minority mindset. It must not insist on retaining AMU's minority character because it sends out a wrong signal among Indian Muslims that they have only one university to look for. The fact is otherwise: Muslims in India, like equal citizens from other communities, have access to thousands of colleges and universities for their educational uplift. The tendency among the Muslims of northern India, especially those in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, to see AMU as their only option births an intellectual separatism among them from India's social mainstream. This separatism harms the interests of Muslims. It was this intellectual separatism emerging from the AMU campus that gave birth to Pakistan movement, thereby creating Pakistan which continues to torment India even today. A far more worrying situation is that the secular Indian republic lacks clarity about how to maintain distance from all religions. Due to political correctness among politicians, the secular Indian state funds Islam and its religious orthodoxies. For example, at the AMU, the Indian state funds an entire Faculty of Theology which runs the Department of Sunni Theology and the Department of Shia Theology. In addition to non-teaching staff, these departments employ a dozen academics, some of them of the professor's rank, receiving salaries from the secular state for teaching religious orthodoxies to Muslims. Both these departments are funded by the Indian state in violation of the secular character of the Constitution. Not only at the AMU but in several universities, the Indian state funds departments of Islamic studies which cannot be acceptable in a secular democracy. The AMU issue also has wider implications. It is a bane of the secular Indian state that it also funds madrasas which are not educational institutions but counter-liberty movements of religious ideas that promote religious obscurantism among Muslims. In this way, the secular Indian state gives money to madrasas and theology departments to keep Muslims in their religious cocoon. This funding of madrasas and departments of Islamic studies by the secular state creates a large-scale class of Islamic clerics and professors who feed religious obscurantism among Muslims. This is because the Indian state has abdicated its role to teach Muslim children. Also, the Muslim leadership in India must grasp the fact that AMU's minority character gives birth to a ghetto mentality among Muslims and prevents them from thinking that they can enroll in other universities too. Such a ghetto mindset among Muslims creates a sense of grievance, defeatism and victimhood. This sociological alienation among students at AMU acts as obstacles to their progress and integration once they graduate out of the university and enter the nation's workforce. Generally speaking, Muslim youths graduating from AMU think only to the benefit of Muslims, not for the benefit of all Indians. The NDA government's opposition to AMU's minority status is not only constitutionally valid, but it also treats Muslims as full citizens unlike the previous Congress governments which treated Muslims only as half-citizens suitable for vote-bank politics. For the integration of Muslims in India's social mainstream, the Indian government must look not only at the AMU, but also other state-funded universities and examine their role in keeping Muslims separate from the country's mainstream life. For example, at the Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi, the Indian state funds a centre of comparative religions which is fine, but it also funds another centre of Islamic studies which is not fine. Departments of Islamic studies at various Indian universities, financed wholly by the secular state, do not contribute anything to India's wider democratic intellectual discourse. Their only function seems to be to keep the Muslim community within the web of religion, which cannot be the responsibility of the Indian state to fund. This article first appeared in the New Age Islam, a digital network of Muslims who oppose the obscurantism that has gripped Islam by highlighting the rich inheritance of the spiritual traditions of tolerance, pluralism and multi-culturalism. It is being republished with their permission. Part I: We need to curb the everyday Jihadism of Indian Muslims in their search for pure Islam The author is Director of South Asia Studies Project at the Middle East Media Research Institute, Washington DC. He tweets @tufailelif Former Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Kalikho Pul was found dead on Tuesday. Pul allegedly hanged himself on Tuesday morning at his residence in Itanagar. CNN-News 18 reported that he has been suffering from depression. Friends and colleagues remember him as a hardworking man. Police said that he committed suicide. One of his three wives found him hanging this morning.He is survived by three wives and four children. #BREAKING | Ex-Arunachal CM Kalikho Pul found dead. Pul allegedly hanged himself this morning at his residence pic.twitter.com/i9CTI3au41 News18 (@CNNnews18) August 9, 2016 #UPDATE | Ex-Arunachal CM Kalikho Pul found dead. He reportedly had been suffering from depression, reports @SubhajitSG News18 (@CNNnews18) August 9, 2016 Former Arunachal Pradesh CM Kalikho Pul passes away in Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh. pic.twitter.com/3rmRuo2KA3 ANI (@ANI_news) August 9, 2016 "We have also recovered a suicide note from the room where the former chief minister committed suicide. However, I am not in a position to divulge much at this moment," said a senior police official, according to the IANS. However, as per ANI reports, the Home Ministry has confirmed that there was no suicide note. #FLASH MHA Sources confirm no suicide note found. Reason could be depression #KalikhoPul ANI (@ANI_news) August 9, 2016 Condolence messages poured in from all quarters with the Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi expressing shock over the death of the rebel Congress leader. Shocked and deeply saddened at the untimely demise of Kalikho Pulji. My heart goes out to his family & loved ones Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) August 9, 2016 Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted his condolence message to Pul's family and said he will be remembered for his work in Arunachal Pradesh. My thoughts are with the family & supporters of Kalikho Pul on his sad demise. His service to Arunachal Pradesh will be remembered: PM PMO India (@PMOIndia) August 9, 2016 Former chief minister Nabam Tuki condoled Pul's death and said that it is sad and unfortunate and a loss for the entire state. It is sad & really unfortunate that young leader Kalikho Pul is no more with us: Ex Arunachal Pradesh CM Nabam Tuki ANI (@ANI_news) August 9, 2016 May God give strength to his family; a loss for entire Arunachal Pradesh. Cong family is with his family in this moment of grief: Nabam Tuki ANI (@ANI_news) August 9, 2016 President Pranab Mukherjee and Union Minister of State (Ind Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region Jitendra Singh too condoled Pul's death. Shocked to hear of untimely demise of promising young leader Kalikho Pul whose contributions shall always be remembered #PresidentMukherjee President of India (@RashtrapatiBhvn) August 9, 2016 Saddened to hear of untimely demise of former Arunachal CM #KalikhoPul. Promising life cut short. @MDoNER_India pic.twitter.com/HzrPAeMYLh Dr Jitendra Singh (@DrJitendraSingh) August 9, 2016 Pul briefly became the ninth chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh after he upstaged the then Chief Minister Nabam Tuki in February and formed the government with support from the rebel legislators of the Congress as well as the BJP. Governor Tathagata Roy reinstated Tuki as the chief minister following the Supreme Court's verdict in July, and asked him to prove his government's majority in the Assembly. Later, Tuki resigned as Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader and Pema Khandu became the chief minister of the state after winning the floor test in the assembly with votes from 44 Congress legislators and two Independents. Meanwhile, the situation remained tense in Itanagar after supporters of Kalikho Pul symbolically burned a coffin. After being on a hunger strike for 16 long years, Manipuri activist Irom Sharmila broke her fast on Tuesday and said that she wants to become the chief minister of Manipur to take positive steps for the state. "In Manipur, there is no real democracy and politics is so dirty," Sharmila, also known as Manipur's 'Iron Lady', told reporters after breaking her fast. Sharmila became emotional and broke down as she took a sip of honey from a spoon. "I'll never forget this moment," she said. "I want to be the Chief Minister of Manipur to take positive steps," she said. "I know nothing about politics. My education is very, very low...But I will use everything I have for the society," Sharmila said. "The topmost priority will be the removal of this draconian law," she said, referring to the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). "People have reacted negatively to my decision to enter politics. But this is my decision," she said. "I will see my mother only after I achieve my goal of repealing AFSPA," she further said. Stressing on the point that she was not afraid of the consequences of her actions, Sharmila said, "Let them kill me the way they killed Mahatma Gandhi." "I think most of the people in Manipur want self-determination," she said. "PM Modi needs to follow the path of non-violence set by Mahatma Gandhi," Sharmila said. The Manipuri activist got bail from a court in Imphal earlier on Tuesday after she promised the magistrate to break her 16-year-old fast. Sharmila has been campaigning against AFSPA which provides special powers to the Armed Forces handle insurgents in the North East and Jammu and Kashmir. She was termed a 'Prisoner of conscience' by Amnesty International and has been a recipient of various prizes. Sharmila had declined food or drink for the last 16 years, seeking repeal of the controversial AFSPA. She began a hunger strike in November 2000, following the killing of 10 civilians by security forces. She was arrested by the Manipur government in 2000 under section 309 of the Indian Penal Code, which prohibits an attempt to commit suicide. The iconic rights activist had been forcibly fed through a nasal tube since 2000 to keep her alive at a prison-turned-hospital in Imphal. (With inputs from agencies) Imphal: Manipur's 'Iron Lady' Irom Sharmila on Tuesday got bail from a court here after she promised the magistrate to break her 16-year-old fast against Afspa. "The court examined two witnesses. She has now got bail on personal bond of Rs 10,000," Sharmila's lawyer L Rebada Devi told reporters here. The court is yet to give her release orders and till then Sharmila has been taken back to judicial custody. However, the 44-year-old civil rights activist is yet to break her fast. Her counsel said during the hearing the court examined two witnesses and fixed 23 August as the next date of hearing. A fortnight ago, she had announced that she will break her fast on Tuesday, join politics and also get married. "I have been fasting for the past 16 years, I am ending my fast today. I want to try a different agitation now," Sharmila told the media outside the courtroom today. She said she will get Afspa repealed once she wins the elections. "I will contest against the chief minister of Manipur in the upcoming state elections," she said. During the hearing, her lawyer said Sharmila appealed before the court to set her free because she wants to break her fast. The iconic rights activist has been forcibly fed through a nasal tube since 2000 to keep her alive at a prison-turned-hospital in Imphal. Jammu: Jammu and Kashmir government will conduct a "detailed inquiry" into the deaths of civilians during the violent protests that followed the killing of Hizbul commander Burhan Wani, and take stern action against those responsible. "As soon as the situation returns to normalcy, government will conduct a detailed enquiry into the civilian killings and take stern action against the culprits," state minister and senior PDP leader Zulfkar Ali said. "We will not let any culprit go scot-free and take stern action after fixing responsibility," the minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs said. Addressing a series of meetings in Poonch district yesterday, Zulfkar termed civilian deaths during protests as "unfortunate", and said no government wishes to harm civilians. "No political party want loss of life and everybody condemns killings of civilians," he said, adding the government is taking all steps to normalise the situation as soon as possible. Zulfikar emphasised on the need to engage youth for productive purposes to save them from "exploitation by forces inimical to peace and development". Referring to violent protests in Kashmir Valley, he pitched for taking all stakeholders into confidence, especially the youngsters of the state. "Protesting youth are our own children and there is a need to listen to them," he said, The best part of a democratic system is that people are allowed to raise their voice and show anger against the establishment, he said. The senior PDP leader said the administration should not pave way for more anger and instead talk to protesters for restoring normalcy. Asking parents to keep a "close watch" on their wards, the minister said that there is a need to involve these youth in developmental activities and make them preachers of peace. Development is not possible in unrest, he said, and stressed on the need for collective efforts to channelise the energy of the youth of the state for its development and growth. "Peace and development is interlinked and it is prior condition for development to have peaceful atmosphere," he said. Itanagar: The Arunachal Pradesh government on Tuesday declared a three-day state mourning following the death of former chief minister Kalikho Pul, who would also be accorded a full state funeral. This was decided at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pema Khandu. The Cabinet conveyed its condolences to the family members of Pul. Talking to reporters, Chief Secretary Shakuntala Doley Gamlin said the body of Pul would be flown to his native village at Hawai in Anjaw district tomorrow for performing the last rites with full state honours. "All the official formalities have been completed and the body has been sent for a post mortem. All angles have been minutely observed by the police to ensure that there is no foul play in his death," the Chief Secretary said. Gamlin declined to comment on the alleged suicide note left by Pul. Chief Minister Pema Khandu has expressed shock over the sudden and premature demise of his former colleague Kalikho Pul who breathed his last this morning. In his condolence message to Pul's wife, Khandu wrote, "It pains my heart to write to you at this moment of extreme grief.... The news of the sad demise of Pul has come as a shock to me. Pul was a seasoned and veteran leader who served the state in various capacities." New Delhi: The Lok Sabha on Tuesday paid homage to the martyrs and freedom fighters who dedicated their lives to the liberation of the country from the British rule. Making a brief statement as soon as the house began the day's proceedings, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan recalled the Quit India Movement launched on this day 74 years ago, which, she said, had proven to be a turning point in the country's freedom struggle. The movement was launched at the call of Mahatma Gandhi when he urged nationwide mobilisation of people to reject the colonial rule, the Speaker said. "This movement later helped India attain Swarajya," she said. On the occasion, members also stood in silence for a while as a mark of respect for the freedom fighters. The Quit India Movement, also called Bharat Chhodo Andolan, was a civil disobedience movement, launched on 9 August, 1942, at the call of Mahatma Gandhi. Nitin Pai, the founder and director of the Bangalore-based think tank, Takshashila Institution, writing in The Hindu about the "dos and donts of a digital Sarkar" offers what is essentially gratuitous advice to the Narendra Modi government - advice thats premised on a phony media narrative, which twisted Defence Minister Manohar Parrikars recent statement in his speech at Pune. In Pais words, Manohar Parrikars remarks "implied that the campaign to punish Aamir Khanwas orchestrated by a pro-Bharatiya Janata Party team." But the real truth of the episode is revealed by the video of the actual speech itself, and also by this well-researched OpIndia piece in great detail: Nowhere in this portion of the speech does Parrikar say "our people". He only says that many people used a legal means of boycotting an organization This completely goes against the narrative created by some media houses and some leftist journalists that BJPs or Parrikars own people were behind the Snapdeal movement. This also reveals that most media houses did not even report that Parrikar spoke about the Delhi sloganeering as well as Aamir Khan. Its therefore hard to believe that this media skulduggery went unnoticed by Pai who accepts it as truth to build his case for how the Modi government needs to properly use the "social media, in a liberal democratic republic" and "concerns about where were all headed" under this government. Given this, what follows in the rest of Pai's article falls flat on its face but an examination is warranted to uncover the not-so-subtle hints of how it bolsters the aforementioned mischievous mainstream media narrative already set in motion. His piece is also notable for its absolute lack of any sense of history as we shall see beginning with his claim of how "Dr. Manmohan Singh might have done a lot better had he spoken more often." Indeed, a sense of history informs us, to use Kay Benedicts line, that the "PM post was outsourced to [Manmohan Singh]" and therefore his hands were tied and his voice stifled at the outset. Even if one were to argue otherwise, as prime minister for two consecutive terms, Singh had ample time and opportunities to speak but chose not to. It is also incredible that Pai utters nary a word about the most important aspect of the former PMs silence: over how he silently presided over the most corrupt cabinet in Indian history." Second, when the article claims correctly that "communication is political and cannot be divorced from partisan agenda Where government machinery is used, it gives the incumbent an advantage dominance in social media is perhaps more effective in political promotion, as the network effects are stronger", it conceals more than it reveals. Aside, the same social media tools, etc. were all available even when the Congress was in power. One wonders what prevented the party from using them effectively both while it was in power and during campaign time. But more importantly and on the contrary, in a despicable move, the then IT minister Kapil Sibal actually sought to muzzle these online platforms, inviting severe backlash lasting weeks. Websites, blogs, and Twitter accounts of prominent intellectuals, journalists and public figures were blocked, as this list on Outlook shows. Several noted journalists, intellectuals, etc. including Pai back then made their partisanship, if not proximity, to the Congress conspicuous by supporting the draconian move. Pai had obliquely justified Sibals censorship of free speech citing "extraordinary situations." And so one does feel ironically amused when the same Nitin Pai now claims, "If, as Mr. Parrikar implied, the campaign against Mr. Khan and Snapdeal was carried out by, or at the behest of, the government or the ruling party, then we must be concerned." As weve seen earlier, Parrikar implied nothing and therefore we have nothing to be concerned about except such intellectual and textual sophistries of reading what is not said. The tactic of such narratives seems to be to first building a false narrative and then adding "ifs" and "buts" to try and bolster it. Earlier in the piece, Pai speaks about how "dominance in social media is perhaps more effective in political promotion, as the network effects are stronger" but later while talking about the BJP supporters who have "engaged in sharp behaviour online," he claims that "Twitter is not vox populi" and that "social media spreads the fever across the country, undermining the social stability." We suppose this confusion if not logical inconsistency needs no further comment. And then we get to the crux of the piece when he offers said gratuitous advice that "It would be in the interests of the government and the BJP if Mr. Modi and Amit Shahto review their online strategies." The unspoken message that such pieces deliver: theres a whole army of online BJP supporters whose only business in life is to indulge in "sharp behavior" and threaten stability and therefore needs to be reined in. Whats also unspoken is the undertone that such behaviour is the sole preserve of the BJP. The point here is not to condone bad behavior but the underlying hypocrisy of such narratives. Equally patronising is the high-sounding phraseology of governance requiring "a certain broad-mindedness and accommodation of different, even opposing, viewpoints", which yet again ignores the historical sense. Given the Congress partys decades-long record of "governance" all the way up to its staggering and deserved downfall in 2014 and its (continuing) destructive behaviour in Parliament in these two-plus years, this is a sick joke. Like in most things, it takes but a moment to set a bad precedent and incredibly hard to clean up the mess that will ensue. While this is not to argue against accommodation and all the nice things, history has shown that each time non-Congress parties have precisely accommodated the Congress, they have found the rug pulled from under their feet. And therefore, it is only human that these parties will be wary. Equally, for example, this is also why the Hindu vote has steadily, consistently, and irreversibly migrated away from the Congress. The only "governance" that the Congress has demonstrated is its unquenchable lust to be in power for perpetuity. And so Pai's claim that the Modi government should do the whole accommodation-accepting-opposing-viewpoints-and-carrying-society-along thing, he wants us to precisely ignore this historical sense: the Congress will oppose for the sake of opposing, and accommodating it will mean the BJP ending up as a photocopy of the Congress. These noble traits are not one-way streets and in the history of democracies across the world, originate in basic, mutual decency in public and national life, aimed at national well-being. Heres a parting litmus test drawn from immediacy so to speak: had the Congress not been so badly cornered, would it have allowed the passage of GST in this session, one of the landmark legislations of the same digital sarkar? Pai knows the honest answer to this question. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought a report from the Jammu and Kashmir Police on the circumstances under which a youth was killed allegedly by a police party in Tengpora area of Srinagar on 10 July. A bench comprising justices PC Ghose and Amitava Roy also stayed the contempt proceedings initiated against senior police officers, including Inspector General of Police (Kashmir range) for not lodging an FIR against the cops allegedly involved in the killing of the youth. A local court had directed the IGP (Kashmir) to lodge an FIR against a Deputy Superintendent of Police and others for their alleged role in the killing of one Shabir Ahmed Mir allegedly inside his house on 10 July. Later, contempt proceedings were initiated on account of non-filing of the FIR against the police officers in the incident. New Delhi: Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday expressed shock over the suicide of former Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Kalikho Pul. Extending her condolences to the family of Pul, Gandhi said: "I pray for the peace of the departed soul." Pul, 47, was found hanging from a ceiling fan at the Chief Minster's Residence in Itanagar. Pul assumed office on 19 February, unseating the then Chief Minister Nabam Tuki and continued till 13 July when the state Congress Legislature Party (CLP) elected Pema Khandu as its leader. Khandu became the Chief Minister on 16 July, but Pul was yet to vacate the official residence. FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- Just days after resigning from a committee set up to study Panama's finance system in the wake of the Panama Papers scandal, the largest leak of private financial data to the public in history, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz told ABC News the remaining panel "will have no credibility within the international community" -- unless they make tough recommendations, which he believes is unlikely. Stiglitz, who was co-chair of the committee and resigned in protest last week along with Swiss anti-corruption expert Mark Pieth, told ABC News that he could not proceed without a commitment from the Panamanian government that it would publish the panels final report publicly. Questions over the credibility of the committee -- which was established by the Panamanian government to "strengthen Panama as a global financial center with the best practices of transparency" -- could heighten concerns over whether Panama will reform its finance industry to discourage tax havens and secret accounts. Responding to Stiglitz, the Government of Panama told ABC News that they are disappointed that two of the committee members preferred to alter the mandate of the committee, but that they have full confidence in the committee to continue its important work. Some of the committees remaining members have denounced Stiglitz's view. Biggest Financial Data Leak in History In April, millions of documents leaked from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca drew widespread concern after reports alleged rich and powerful individuals were using the firm to establish secretive tax havens so they could engage in money laundering, dodging sanctions or tax evasion. Shortly after the leak, Mossack Fonseca issued a statement saying the reports "portrayed an inaccurate view" of the firm's services and "misrepresented the nature of our work and its role in global financial markets." The firm also said that it is "regulated on multiple levels, often by overlapping agencies, and [has] a strong compliance record." It is important to note that creating offshore companies or tax havens is not inherently illegal and can have legitimate uses. The news sent ripples around the world. In all, 12 current or former heads of state or government were in some way ensnared in controversy by the documents, according to the BBC, which was one of the organizations investigating the documents. Icelands prime minister, Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson, stepped down after reports alleged he owned an offshore company that was undeclared when he entered parliament. He denied any wrongdoing. Russian president Vladimir Putin made a public denial of "any element of corruption," after the papers reportedly revealed several offshore companies owned by his close associates may have been engaged in money laundering. The Committees Beginnings Stiglitz, who won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2001, told ABC News on Sunday that shortly after the documents were leaked, the Panamanian government contacted him about joining a panel to investigate the countrys financial governance. Concerned that the panel could have been a public relations stunt, Stiglitz said that he sought assurances that the government was serious about cleaning up any wrongdoing that the panel might find. To convince the world-renowned economist of the governments sincerity, Panamas vice president, Isabel Saint Malo, flew to New York to meet with him, he said. Ultimately, he agreed to co-chair the commission. Stiglitz said he assumed that the findings of the panel would be made public, though he says he never received a specific guarantee. "I hadnt put it up as a point of negotiation because I just assumed," he told ABC News. "For me, it went without saying." The committee -- which included, Gisela Alvarez de Porras, Alberto Aleman Zubieta, Domingo Latorraca, and Nicolas Ardito Barletta, all Panamanian; Roberto Artavia, who is Costa Rican; Stiglitz, who is American; and Pieth, who is Swiss -- had its first meeting in Panama in early May, the American economist said, and agreed to meet again a month later. Resignation Stiglitz said that he first became concerned after receiving emails between the May and June meetings from a liaison between the government and the committee, who he said was "emphasizing that the government owned the report," citing the government's decree that established the committee. At the June meeting, Stiglitz said he raised his concerns and found support from Pieth. He said he told the group, "We cant proceed if this is not going to be open." Stiglitz said he was willing to give the government time to formulate a response to the findings before a report would be released. "All I [wanted] was a commitment that it would be made open," he said. Nearly two months later, in late July, committee members received a letter via email from Panamas acting vice-minister of foreign affairs, Dr. Farrah Urrutia. The letter, Stiglitz said, made him feel that the government was not prepared to offer him any further guarantees about making the committee's work public. After the letter, Aleman, the co-chair, said he traveled to New York for a pre-scheduled meeting with Stiglitz and Latorraca, another committee member. Stiglitz confirmed the meeting took place, "Basically, he began by saying the government cant meet your requirements...and I recommend that we disband," he said. Aleman told ABC News that he indicated to Stiglitz that he intended to finish the report. He denied that he recommended that the group disband, saying that he was only open to Stiglitz's and Pieth's leaving. Later that week, Stiglitz and Pieth resigned in a public statement where they said: It is clear that there are divergent views between the Government and those initially agreed to by the Independent Committee concerning transparency and the scope of the Committees work, and these divergences have in turn led to seemingly irreconcilable divergences." "We suggest that the Independent Committee disband," they concluded. Will the Findings be Public? In emails to ABC News, some of the remaining members underscored their commitment to finishing their work and appeared strongly opposed to disbanding. "At no time has the government indicated that they would not make the findings public," Aleman told ABC News in an email on Tuesday. Latorraca said that it was the committees understanding "that the Government of Panama will make these recommendations public, once it receives and analyzes the Committees findings." On Friday, the Panamanian government issued a statement saying that the committee had been "managed with autonomy." Responding to Stiglitzs comments to ABC, the Panamanian government said today that it was "fully committed to ensuring the total transparency and independence of the Committee and its work," and "we expect them to deliver nothing less than an honest, accurate, and independent assessment of Panamas system and how it can better promote transparency." Status of the Panel The four Panamanian members Porras, Aleman, Latorraca, and Ardito Barletta as well as the Costa Rican member, Artavia, remain on the panel. "They may remain on, they may make recommendations that may be helpful to the Panamanian government," Stiglitz said. "I think that it will have no credibility within the international community that they have gone anywhere near far enough, that they will have addressed the key issues." "Evidently, they dont care about transparency," he said. "I think they must be under pressure from the government." Aleman called Stiglitz's characterization of the remaining members disrespectful and said, "I can assure you that all the remaining members of these Committee are completely independent and have not had nor will accept pressure from the government or from any one." He said, "I do believe that the committee will have the credibility to finish the work at hand." Stiglitz said that the report would have to make extraordinary recommendations to be taken seriously. Two issues that the report would need to be taken seriously, he said, include the creation of a public registry of beneficial owners of corporations and closer scrutiny of tax-free zones in Panama. "The sense I got from the Panamanian members was that they were not likely to rock the boat, and therefore it is unlikely that they will touch on the sensitive issues, which are the heart," he told ABC News. "In fact, unless they do, it will just further discredit Panama." Artavia, the sole remaining international member, believes the conditions were made clear to the panel members from the beginning. "Stiglitz and Pieth either joined the committee without reading the terms of reference or decided to change them once they were halfway through their work," he told ABC News. "But let me tell you more, the government has never said that it will not make the findings public." Porras and Ardito Barletta did not respond to ABC News' request for comment. Pieth provided his and Stiglitzs joint statement, but declined to comment further. Copyright 2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Arrow Shirts have gone smart and how! The clothing manufacturer has introduced a range of shirts, under the Smart Shirt brand, that enables its wearer to communicate with their Smartphone via a simple tap on the sleeve. Connectivity between revolutionary Smart Shirt and phone is achieved via the NFC chip embedded in the sleeve. What this basically means is you end up looking way cooler doing regular Smartphone activities. Take for example a meeting scenario. You are with a client or a prospective employer. You want to send them your Linkedin profile. Rather than having to open your phone, browse through to the Linkedin app or website and then forward, now you simply borrow their phone, tap it on your sleeve and voila! your profile is open on their phone. Impressed much? You can do the same with your electronic business card or even maybe your Facebook profile. Ok, so the next scenario. You are in the metro and want to access your phones playlist. Imagine trying to do that while standing up with one hand holding on to the handrail. With Arrows new offering, you simply tap your phone on your sleeve and voila you are grooving! Apart from the playlist you can also use the Smart Shirt to: 1)Launch your favourite app: Just tap and Whatsapp is on! Or any other app that makes your favourite list. 2)Connect to a Bluetooth device: No more struggling to mate your phone with your car stereo every time. Do it once and tap away on your sleeve next time you get in. 3)Control Phone Modes: Like activate/deactivate meeting mode. Or switching between 'Home' and 'Work' mode on the phone. All a tap away. The Smart Shirt magic is created courtesy the Arrow app. The app communicates with the shirt via an NFC chip embedded in the sleeve. The app is available on iOS and Android. So your phone is ready to plug and play with your shirt. The first of its kind shirt is made of 100% cotton and comes in Arrows usual range of exciting colour and fit options. So head over to the nearest Arrow showroom or buy online at amazon.in or nnnow.com. Oh and one last thing. If youre worried about how to wash and wear this hi-tech shirt, dont be. It is good for multiple cycles of wash, iron, wear and repeat. Just like any other Arrow shirt in your wardrobe. This is a sponsored post. New York: A private firm co-founded by an Indian-American and licensed to launch a spacecraft and land on the moon plans to take human remains to the Earth's satellite at USD 3 million per kilo, according to a media report. Moon Express, co-founded by Naveen Jain, was last week granted a license by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to launch a spacecraft and land on moon in 2017, becoming the first private company to get such approval. The breakthrough US policy decision provides authorisation to the company for a maiden flight of its robotic spacecraft onto the Moon's surface, the company had said. The New York Post reported that Moon Express's plans for commercial cargo include taking human remains to the moon. Jain told the New York Post that the delivery of one's ashes for lunar interment would be based on a "payload" price of USD 3 million per kilo. "Since the cremated remains of adults generally weigh between 4 and 6 pounds, the indicated price range is USD 5.4 million to USD 8.1 million," the Post said, adding that the demand for such a service is high. "We already have a long list," it quoted Jain as saying. There have been no private space missions so far beyond Earth's orbit and only state agencies have performed outer space missions. "The sky is not the limit for Moon Express, it is the launchpad. Space travel is our only path forward to ensure our survival and create a limitless future for our children," Jain had said following the announcement by FAA. "In the immediate future, we envision bringing precious resources, metals, and moon rocks back to earth," he had said. The company was co-founded in 2010 by space visionary, Bob Richards, Jain and serial entrepreneur and artificial intelligence and space technology guru, Barney Pell, with the common vision to be at the forefront of commercial space exploration and innovation. Helsinki: Nordic gender equality proved to be no myth in a poll published on Tuesday, with nearly 90 percent of Finnish men willing to pick up the vacuum cleaner at home. Between 80 and 90 percent of respondents said household chores such as vacuuming, mopping the floor, dishwashing or cooking were tasks for both men and women, the Association for Finnish Work found in its poll. While both male and female respondents thought most chores were suitable for both sexes, a few dirtier or heavier tasks remained more divisive with men willing to volunteer for them. Almost half of the men surveyed said the smelly job of cleaning drains was a male task, while only one in three women said it was a man's job. Similarly, 45 percent of male respondents thought lawn mowing was a job for them, not women, although only 25 percent of women said they were not up for the task. Dusting, laundry and window washing were considered female chores by one in five Finns, but over 70 percent of respondents were still up for those jobs regardless of their gender. "In particular the younger male generations are very (gender) equal," project manager Merja Mantila of the Association for Finnish Work told AFP, citing the 90-percent share of 25 to 34-year-olds who said dusting was for both sexes. The Taloustutkimus poll questioned more than 2,000 Finns between the ages of 18 and 79 in March. Still, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, women in OECD countries spend on average nearly twice as much time on housework as men do. Guwahati: Demanding a proper inquiry into Kalikho Pul's alleged suicide, Assam unit of Congress on Tuesday said BJP's "undemocratic and twisting politics" have claimed the life of the former Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister. "He (Pul) was a victim of undemocratic practices of BJP. He was a very simple person and was not used to such twisting of politics by such a big political party," Leader of Opposition in Assam Assembly Debabrata Saikia told PTI. The ups and downs in last eight months have actually claimed Pul's life, he added. "When he drifted away from Congress with some colleagues, BJP and NEDA (North East Democratic Alliance) claimed it as a grand success on Pul's shoulder," Saikia said. He said Pul was a good and sincere Congress worker, who served the party well for a long time. "With their aggressive politics, BJP tried to destabilise the governance. The region is not accustomed to such practices," the senior Congress leader said. Demanding a proper inquiry into circumstances behind his death, Deputy Congress Legislature Party leader Rakibul Hussain said the news of Pul's demise was very "sad, sudden and shocking". "We are getting contradictory reports on how he died. We demand that an appropriate enquiry should take place. Only a proper probe will ascertain if it was a suicide or there was some foul play," the former Congress Minister said. Panaji: AAP will announce its first list of candidates for Goa Assembly polls in September. "The first set of eight to ten candidates will be announced in the first or second week of September," party's Goa unit spokesman Rupesh Shinkre told PTI. "In certain constituencies, people have already recommended names of candidates. The volunteers and people at large have accepted them," he said. "A proper procedure is followed for selecting candidates. The main criteria is that he or she should be honest, secular and not have criminal background," the AAP leader said. AAP had earlier said it will contest all the 40 seats in the state. Party's National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal will be on a two-day visit to Goa starting August 20 during which he will interact with mining-affected people, tribals and women groups. Former chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh and rebel Congress leader Kalikho Pul's death on Tuesday morning shocked political circles across the country. He was found dead at the chief minister's official residence in Itanagar, which he was yet to vacate. Pul, who was 47-years-old, allegedly hanged himself from the ceiling fan in his bedroom, a top police officer said. Reports suggest he has been suffering from depression. After the news of his death spread, MLAs from ruling and Opposition parties, ministers, friends and members of public rushed to his bungalow. Pul took over the reigns of the state on 19 February this year and served as chief minister for a four-and-a-half months. After becoming the chief minister, Pul and his supporters joined the Peoples Party of Arunachal (PPA), a regional political outfit. However, in July, the Supreme Court reinstated Nabam Tuki as the chief minister, who then made way for Pema Khandu as the 10th chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh. After the apex court's verdict, Pul and his supporters returned to the Congress and supported Khandu. Pul, who represents Hyuliang constituency in eastern Arunachal Pradesh, has been winning from the constituency for the last five terms. He had served in various capacities in the Arunachal Pradesh Cabinet, including as the finance minister, power minister and tribal affairs minister. After he became the chief minister, Pul had requested the Centre to consider special funding for the state on the lines of Special Plan Assistance (SPA) in a bid to ensure continued investment in critical infrastructure. "The sense of neglect and apprehension that people have felt due to lack of development for long, has now to be met with action on the ground. We must ensure that the communities are given the basic amenities of life and a competitive standard of living, in comparison with other parts of the country," he had said. Pul's political career had humble beginnings. Before joining politics, Pul worked as a carpenter and a chowkidar. Later, he was hailed as the longest serving finance minister of the state under various chief ministers, including Gegong Apang, Mukut Mithi and late Dorjee Khandu. Born on 20 July, 1969, to Tailum Pul and Koranlu Pul at Walla Village under Hawai circle of Anjaw district, Pul had pursued his graduation in humanities from Indira Gandhi Government College at Tezu in Lohit district. His political innings started in 1995 when he was elected as an MLA from Hayuliang constituency and became the minister of state for finance in the Mukut Mithi government. In an interview with The New Indian Express after he became the chief minister, Pul said that he couldn't attend regular school, however, he later enrolled in an adult education centre. Recalling his health and financial struggles in the 80s, he had said, "One day, I made up my mind to commit suicide and walked up to the bridge over the river Lohit. I stood there for 36 minutes but couldnt take the extreme step due to the presence of people. There was no looking back for Pul as he won from the constituency consecutively for five terms and served Minister of State for Power, Finance, Land Management. Pul began as deputy minister for finance (1995-97), then became minister of state for power (1997-99), MoS for finance (1999-2002), MoS for land management (2002-03), and finally minister for finance (2003-05) before he was made chairman of a high-powered committee and simultaneously adviser to the CM for about a year. In 2006-09, he once again served as minister of finance, then minister of rural works (2009-11), and then health. Between 2011 and 2014, he was also made adviser to the CM, then again made a minister in 2014. He was also the executive member of Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee for 13 years and Pradesh Election Committee Member for seven years. Mourners gathered at his residence in Itanagar following the news of Pul's death. Condolence messages poured in from all quarters. Senior Congress leaders, including Sonia and Rahul Gandhi and former chief minister Nabam Tuki, expressed shock and grief over the untimely demise of the rebel Congress leader. President Pranab Mukherjee remembered his contribution in politics. With inputs from agencies New Delhi: Opposition parties on Tuesday once again sought a discussion in the Rajya Sabha on the unrest in Jammu and Kashmir. The government agreed and said a discussion will take place on Wednesday. Raising the issue, Naresh Athawale of the Samajwadi Party (SP) wanted to know when a discussion on the ongoing situation in Jammu and Kashmir would take place. Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said the Opposition would only help in controlling the situation in Jammu and Kashmir and urged the government to send an all party delegation to the state. "We are not just blaming the government; we are saying we will also help in controlling the situation," Azad said. "If security forces and people see each other as enemy, Parliament cannot just watch that. You must send an all party delegation there in two days," he said. Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader Sharad Yadav said: "Other than the ruling alliance, the House and the country does not know what is happening. You have kept it in your hands in a sectarian way." Communist Part of India-Marxist (CPM) leader Sitaram Yechury said the government should "start consultation with all and try to restore normalcy." As the members had some arguments over the issue, Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien intervened to say there ought not to be any politics over the Kashmir issue. "Kashmir is not an issue to fight and to score political points. All of us are concerned it should be solved with the help of all people," Kurien said. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Mayawati said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should speak on the issue. Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi assured the House that a debate will take place on Wednesday. Azad acknowledged Naqvi's assurance but said the debate should start at 11 am, suspending zero hour and question hour. Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who had come to the House by then, expressed his agreement with Azad's proposal. "I agree with the proposal. I believe Kashmir's situation is very serious. Solution to this complicated problem cannot be found alone. I would want every one's cooperation," Rajnath Singh said. Kolkata/Agartala: Aiming to expand the base of Trinamool Congress outside West Bengal, party chief Mamata Banerjee addressed a rally in Agartala, Tripura on Tuesday. The West Bengal chief minister raised the slogan of "CPM quit Tripura" in the rally. WB CM Mamata Banerjee raises the slogan of "CPIM Quit Tripura" in her rally in Agartala, Tripura. ANI (@ANI_news) August 9, 2016 The Trinamool Congress has already carved a place for itself in the Marxist bastion emerging as the principal Opposition party after six dissident Congress MLAs had joined it last June. Sudip Ray Barman, who led the Congress dissidents in the sensitive North-Eastern state, told PTI on Monday, "Mamata Banerjee's rally will be the first nail in the coffin of the corrupt and inefficient Left Front government of Tripura." Barman said that Banerjee would give the Tripura unit 'direction' to emerge victorious in the next Assembly polls due in 2018. All MLAs and other leaders who have joined the TMC from other parties, including the Congress are expected at the rally. Barman said the people of Tripura had become fed up with the Left Front regime and disapproved of the tie-up between the Congress and the Left Front in West Bengal. "With this, the tacit understanding between the Left Front and the Congress came out in the open. Why will the people vote for the Congress as an alternative to the Left Front in Tripura?" he wondered. If the Left is to be ousted from Tripura, Trinamool Congress is the best option because it is the only "anti-dote for the Left", Barman said. After her landslide victory in West Bengal, Banerjee and her trusted lieutenant Mukul Roy have been working to expand her party's influence in the North East with Tripura being the prime target. The Bengali population in the state forms the largest ethno-linguistic group in the state with nearly about 70 percent of the population. According to TMC sources in Kolkata, Tripura and the North East hold a key to TMC's pan-India political ambition with an eye on the 2019 Lok Sabha polls where TMC wants to play a vital role. "We are already the main Opposition party in Tripura and if we manage to win Tripura it will be an added advantage in 2019. The North-Eastern states have mostly remained untapped politically for us," a senior TMC leader said. New Delhi - Parliament approved India's biggest overhaul of indirect taxes on Monday after the Lok Sabha ratified a constitutional amendment Prime Minister Narendra Modi called a major step to make doing business easier. The proposed goods and services tax (GST) is one of the most significant reforms since India opened its economy 25 years ago and the revamping of the tax system since the country's independence in 1947. The measure will harmonise a mosaic of state and central levies into a national sales tax, creating a single customs union widely expected to reduce business transaction costs, with potentially significant long-term growth benefits. The Rajya Sabha, where the measure was stuck for months, passed the bill last week. Modi hailed the passage of the bill as a "great step by team India, (a) great step towards transformation, great steps towards transparency". "Today, an important move to free the nation from tax terrorism has begun," Modi told lawmakers in the Lok Sabha. The advancement of the new sales tax is the biggest legislative victory for Modi, who swept to power in 2014 promising to nurse India's then faltering economy back to health. His plans to simplify rules for land sales got scuttled in parliament last year. Similarly, political opposition forced him to put on hold proposed legislative changes aimed at making it easier for companies to hire and fire workers. Economists too hailed the development. "The completion of the Parliamentary processes for the amendment of the Constitution to enable GST introduction signifies the completion of a long process and the beginning of a period when corporates need to gear up and prepare for the opportunities and challenges of the new tax regime," said MS Mani, senior director, Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP. He said corporates should now consider April 2017 as the go-live date as the government's determined efforts would ensure that they adhere to the stated timelines. However, there are doubts as to whether the companies can actually meet the deadline. An earlier Reuters report said very few Indian companies are prepared with the required systems. Tax experts say that only 20 percent of - mostly big - firms are getting ready for the GST. The rest are taking things as they come in a country where coping with a changing tax regime has been a way of life for decades. Probably, due to the long running political bickering that stalled the bill, the corporates had lost hope on the much-awaited reform. It has been 13 years since the tax was first mooted, but forging a political consensus has been a bruising process, as the measure would curb the powers of Indian states. Ironically, the GST is getting closer to the finish line under Modi, who while running the state of Gujarat vehemently opposed it - a fact that drew criticism from opposition benches. Modi defended his stance, saying his experience as a provincial chief helped him better understand and address states' concerns. "Lots of flaws have been overcome as far as the GST is concerned," he said. "A trust between the centre and states has developed." Under the new regime, companies will get offsets for taxes paid at different stages of the supply chain, mitigating the dangers of double-taxation. The finance ministry aims to roll out the GST from next April. Meeting the self-imposed deadline, however, will be a race against time, tax experts say. The bill now needs the approval of half of India's state legislatures and central and state legislatures must pass three laws to implement the tax. With Reuters Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Tuesday finally broke his silence over the Kashmir issue. Evoking the Vajpayee model of 'insaniyat', the prime minister appealed for peace in Jammu and Kashmir, at a rally in Madhya Pradesh's Alirajpur district, reported NDTV. We are the people who walk the path that Atal Bihari Vajpayee took when it comes to Kashmir: PM Modi ANI (@ANI_news) August 9, 2016 Prime Minister Narendra Modi, earlier on Tuesday, also visited Chandrashekhar Azad's birthplace in the tribal-dominated Alirajpur district of Madhya Pradesh and paid rich tributes to the revolutionary leader. "Be it the Jammu and Kashmir government under Mehboobaji or the central government, we are finding solution to all problems through development," Modi said at the rally. He said only a "handful of people who have been misled" were causing trouble in the Kashmir Valley, where protests, since the killing of rebel commander Burhan Wani on 8 July, left over 55 people dead and thousands injured. "Some people are causing Kashmir a lot of harm," the prime minister said. "Kashmir wants peace. Whatever Kashmiris want for betterment of their livelihood, the Centre will provide." In his speech, Modi made a direct appeal to the youngsters of Kashmir, saying that those who should be holding laptops, bats, balls in their hands & dreams in their hearts are the ones carrying stones. The freedom that every Indian has also belongs to every Kashmiri. We want the same bright future for every youth in Kashmir: PM Modi ANI (@ANI_news) August 9, 2016 Peeda hai ki jin baalakon kay haath mei laptop, kitaab, bat hona chahiye, mann mei sapne hone chahiye unke haath mei pathar hote hai: PM ANI (@ANI_news) August 9, 2016 I want to thank the nation, I want to thank Congress that we all very maturely made attempts to deal with the situation in Kashmir: PM ANI (@ANI_news) August 9, 2016 Kashmir wants peace. Whatever Kashmiris want for betterment of their livelihood, the Centre will help. We want development for J&K: PM ANI (@ANI_news) August 9, 2016 Modi also rallied for dialogue and democracy in order to reach a solution, to the problem in Kashmir. The PM's response though late, offers some reassurance that the centre is not completely oblivious to the ongoing strife in Kashmir. Through his speech, PM Modi's message resonated loud and clear: that the Indian state is not at war with Kashmir. While Modi's statement might deescalate some of the rage in Kashmir, it is necessary that dialogue and action follow. Recently, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti had called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to resume former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayees open-hearted negotiations with Pakistan. When offered this piece of advice from Mehbooba Mufti, PM Modi had said that he did not need anyones advice on how to deal with Kashmir. He seemed to believe he had enough experience but, as it turns out, Kashmiri teenagers gave him and his colleagues the experience of a lifetime over the past month, making him go back on his words, writes David Devdas for Firstpost. With inputs from IANS Agartala: Castigating the Manik Sarkar-led Marxist government for Tripura's regression, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday batted for development and asserted her Trinamool Congress would come to power in the state. Virtually setting the tune for her party's campaign ahead of the 2018 Tripura assembly polls, she enumerated the development projects initiated by her government in West Bengal at a rally here in the northeastern state. Banerjee, also the Trinamool Congress supremo, said entire Bengal would jump to Tripura to oust the Left Front from power. "Tripura and Bengal are sisters and their welfare is interconnected. People here have been telling me to save Tripura, I was waiting for the right opportunity. And now we have a great team which will work for the people. "I would come to Tripura again and again and my entire party leadership would stand beside the Tripura leadership to vote out the CPI-M-led Left Front government. Entire Bengal would side with Tripura to throw out CPI-M from power," she said at the Vivekananda Stadium. "I am here to tell you that we are here to work for the people. I am here to tell you that in 2018 we will celebrate the victory parade here," she added. Taking on her Tripura counterpart Sarkar, Banerjee flayed the Left regime for unleashing violence ignoring development. "You (The LF) have been in power for 23 years here, but what have you done? There are no hospitals, no industry, no employment, no teachers, and no university. "You have done nothing but hatch conspiracy, unleash violence, spread canards and make false promises. There is unemployment, there is price rise and there are chit funds," said Banerjee whose Trinamool is now the principal opposition party in Tripura after a majority of Congress legislators joined its ranks. She also hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Narendra Modi-led central government. "All that BJP knows is how to foment riot and communal tensions. It knows how to spend money on advertisements and use central agencies against us," said Banerjee referring to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) which have arrested and interrogated several high profile Trinamool leaders in the chit fund scam. "People are jumping to take credit for the railway link in Tripura, but it's neither the BJP nor the Communists who deserve the credit. I as the then railway minister announced the project in 2010," said Banerjee on Tripura's recent entry to the broad gauge railway map of the country. The Left Front first came to power in Tripura in 1978, but lost to the Congress in 1988. The LF returned to power in 1993, and has been ruling since then. Sarkar became chief minister 18 years back in 1998. Gandhinagar: Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Monday allocated portfolios to his Council of Ministers and kept the key home department with himself as he took charge of his new job. Rupani, who was on Sunday sworn-in as the state Chief Minister, after his predecessor Anandiben Patel resigned from the position, on Monday presided over the first Cabinet meeting. He also had a lengthy discussion with his deputy Nitin Patel. Like Anandiben, Rupani has kept major portfolios with himself while Nitin Patel has been re-alloted the Finance department, which he used to handle under Narendra Modi-led government and was later taken from him by Anandiben Patel after the change of guard in 2014. "Our Chief Minister Vijay Rupani held a detailed discussion with me and finalised the portfolios in consultation with our party leaders," said Patel. Before taking charge, Rupani paid his respects to the statutes of Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and BR Ambedkar. Portfolios to be handled by Rupani include General Administration, Home, Administrative Reforms and Training, Planning, Industries, Mines and Minerals, Ports, Climate Change, Science and Technology and Information & Broadcasting. Rupani will also look after the portfolios which are not allocated to any other minister, an official release said. Nitin Patel has been given Finance, Urban Development and Urban Housing, Roads and Building, Capital Project, Narmada, Kalpsar and Petrochemicals. On Sunday, eight cabinet and 16 state-ranked ministers took oath. Senior cabinet minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama has been given charge of Revenue, Education(Primary, Secondary and Adult), Higher and Technical Education and Law and Parliamentary Affairs department. Portfolios of Tourism, Tribal Welfare and Forests has been allocated to Ganpat Vasava. BJP's Dalit face in the cabinet, Atmaram Parmar, has been given Social Justice and Empowerment department, which includes welfare of Scheduled Castes as well as OBCs. He was also given the portfolio of Women and Child Development department. Newly inducted minister Chiman Saparaiya has been given Agriculture and Energy while Babu Bokhiria has been alloted Water Supply, Animal Husbandry, Fisheries, Cow protection, Civil Aviation and Salt Industry. Wal-Mart Stores Inc, vying to better challenge Amazon.com Inc, will pay about $3 billion for internet retailer Jet.com and its innovative pricing software in the largest-ever deal for an e-commerce startup. The deal disclosed on Monday follows a five-year e-commerce acquisition spree in which Wal-Mart, the world's biggest traditional retailer, has already bought 15 startups, seeking the talent and technology to make it a dominant player online and narrow the massive gap with market leader Amazon. Wal-Mart's online division has underperformed against Amazon, posting its slowest growth in a year in the first quarter as it struggled to gain traction with consumers, especially millennials. Jet.com was launched by internet entrepreneur in July 2015 and includes software that can offer a customer lower prices as they add items to their shopping cart. Wal-Mart has said it would integrate that software into its main website while keeping Jet.com as a separate entity. "One of the things we really like (about Jet) is that the customer is even more in-charge of the price that they pay," Chief Executive Doug McMillon said on a media call. McMillon said Wal-Mart will take time in getting the technology and design components from Jet and that they will grow both brands separately in the short-term. "Over time, piece-by-piece, we will end up running a business that is simpler and not completely independent." McMillon said Lore would run its new US e-commerce business. Lore had co-founded Quidsi, the owner of sites like Diapers.com and Soap.com, which was sold to Amazon. "Marc's e-commerce experience and success are obviously attractive," McMillon said. Wal-Mart's current head of global e-commerce Neil Ashe will leave the company at the end of the fiscal year. The decision to run Jet as an independent website is a good step because it can stay focused on growth, but the price Wal-Mart paid is high, UBS retail analyst Michael Lasser said in a note to clients. Wal-Mart said it would pay around $3 billion in cash and $300 million in shares for Jet, with some of that paid over time. Given Jet's revenue of about $500 million, the cash purchase price represents six times Jet's revenue, according to analysts. Moody's retail analyst Charlie O'Shea said the acquisition gives Wal-Mart a leg-up on competitors in the race to be the No. 2 online retailer, citing the size of Jet.com's online offerings and number of customers. Wal-Mart said Jet has added nearly 400,000 new shoppers monthly. "The impact on Amazon will be fairly benign. However, this acquisition, in tandem with its joint-venture in China with JD.com, demonstrates that Walmart is attacking online retail with significant zeal," he said. In June, Wal-Mart said it sold its Chinese online grocery store in return for a stake in JD.com Inc, China's 2 e-commerce firm. Wal-Mart's first-quarter online sales grew 7 percent, a weaker rate than any of the four quarters just before that. In 2015, Wal-Mart's online sales rose 12.3 percent to $13.7 billion, compared with a 16 percent jump to $92.4 billion for Amazon.com. Wal-Mart has not said what it spent on acquisitions, but prior to the Jet.com deal it disclosed a total of $3.1 billion for e-commerce and digital projects, such as its platform and new warehouses, in the four fiscal years to January 2017. The deal should give Wal-Mart the scale to bolster its online presence, broaden its assortment of goods and offer the lowest prices at the same time, analysts said. Wal-Mart noted Jet has offered 12 million items in its first year of operation. Wal-Mart has said previously it wants to expand its online selection from around 10 million items to the tens of millions over the next few years. Rival Amazon has more than 200 million items for sale online. Khandwa: Anguished over the prospects of missing classes as his school bus was being acquired for Prime Minister's rally in Alirajpur district on Sunday, a Class 8 student has written an emotional letter to Narendra Modi, which prompted the district administration to withdraw their order requisitioning vehicles for the event. Modi is slated to visit the birth place of revolutionary leader Chandrashekhar Azad at Bhabhra village, and will address a public meeting at Jothrada village near there where he will launch "70 saal Azaadi, Yaad karo Qurbani" campaign. Devansh Jain, a student of Vidyakunj School in Khandwa, became aggrieved after his teachers told him that school will remain closed on 9 August and 10 August as buses were being acquired by the administration for ferrying people for Narendra Modi's programme. In his letter addressed to the Prime Minister, Devansh said, "Is your meeting is more important than school?" "I have also listened to your addresses in America where a lot of people were present, but they have not come to the venue in school buses". Describing himself as Modi's fan, Devansh stated that he has never missed the PM's "Mann Ki Baat" radio talk and had even picked up fight with his classmates who were teasing him for following Modi. He also requested Modi to tell "Shivraj Mama" (as the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is popularly known) not to acquire school buses for the purpose as "you are not like Congress leaders and you have concern for our studies and future". "If you do so then I will tell with vigour that in the meetings of my Modi uncle, crowd comes on its own and it is not managed," the letter said. As the letter went viral on social media, an order on the instruction of the district collector was issued by the Joint Collector directing officials to immediately stop acquisition of vehicles/buses for ferrying people for the Prime Minister's Bhabhra visit (copy of the order is available with PTI). Earlier, the joint collector had issued an order to the school with bus numbers and directed it to provide them to the concerned authorities for sending people to Bhabhra. Assistant Transport Officer, Sunil Gaud has also issued the order directing officials to acquire vehicles/buses for the law and order purpose for the PM's visit. LOS ANGELES An epic wildfire that has killed one person and blackened about 60,000 acres along the California coast, forced authorities on Monday to shut down a portion of scenic Highway 1 near Carmel-by-the-Sea. The closure of the highway, which runs along much of the Pacific coastline and is famed for its dramatic ocean views, was prompted by an increase in fire and wind activity in the Big Sur area, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said. The road was expected to be closed to traffic in both directions from 10 p.m. Pacific time on Monday (0500 GMT Tuesday) until at least 6 p.m. on Tuesday (0100 GMT Wednesday), depending on conditions, the department said. The so-called Soberanes Fire, which has destroyed 57 homes and 11 outbuildings, has been burning since July 22. A bulldozer operator died on July 26 when his tractor rolled over as he helped property owners battle the blaze, becoming the sixth wildfire fatality in California this year. Authorities have traced origins of the blaze to an illegal campfire left unattended in a state park about a mile from Highway 1. No arrests have so far been made. As of Monday, the more than 5,000 firefighters battling the flames had cut containment lines around 45 percent of its perimeter. Firefighters are making gradual but steady progress against the blaze as wildfire season in the western United States reaches its traditional peak, intensified by prolonged drought and extreme summer heat across the region. The conflagration near Big Sur is one of 35 major wildfires that have charred half a million acres in 12 states, mostly in the West, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho. A blaze that erupted on Sunday in San Bernardino County, east of Los Angeles, had scorched some 4,500 acres of dry timber and brush within 24 hours and was only about 5 percent contained, officials said. That fire, called the Pilot Fire, had not destroyed any homes as of Monday afternoon but residents of about 25 homes along two major highways were ordered to evacuate. (Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; editing by Grant McCool) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Washington: A leading mental health advocate and former Democratic Congressman has asked Americans to stop calling Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump "crazy" as it demeans those who suffer from real mental health issues. "We can reject Trump without resorting to making baseless diagnoses of his mental health," Patrick Kennedy, a member of the famous Kennedy family, wrote in an op-ed in The Washington Post. The founder of the Kennedy Forum said perpetuation of stigmatising, outdated stereotypes makes it harder for those experiencing mental illness to seek the treatment they need. He said that rhetoric surrounding the 2016 election discourages anyone suffering mental health issues from seeking help. Kennedy, who himself struggled with mental illness and addiction, co-authored a book on his experience called "A Common Struggle." "Is Donald Trump experiencing a mental illness? That's the question making the rounds these days. The answer is: I don't know. And neither do the commentators, tweeters and psychiatrists both licensed and armchair who've diagnosed him from afar as 'crazy', a 'psychopath', not 'sane', having 'narcissistic personality disorder' and a 'screw loose'," he wrote. "What I do know is that we ought to stop casually throwing around terms like 'crazy' in this campaign and our daily lives," Kennedy wrote. The president of the American Psychiatric Association has said that even for professionals, these sorts of diagnoses, made from afar, are "unethical" and "irresponsible." And they only serve to demean and undercut people. "Crazy is never uttered with compassion. I have never heard it used in the context of trying to get someone the treatment they need. When that language is commonplace, it becomes that much harder for those experiencing mental illness to openly seek treatment that works," he said. Kennedy also said that stopping Trump from becoming president should be a high priority. "He lives in a world divided by us and them, weak and strong, winners and losers. His grim vision for America is not one that I recognise or want for my children," he said. That there are serious problems, both in quality and quantity (size) of the elite Indian Foreign Service (IFS) the service that is primarily responsible for Indias interactions with the outside world was pointed out last week by the parliamentary standing committee on external affairs led by former minister of state Shashi Tharoor. In fact, last year too, the Tharoor-helmed standing committee had revealed the same problems and suggested some ways to improve the things. It seems that not much progress was made, compelling the committee to reiterate its views in its latest report. Tharoor may not have been a big politician (he was a minister of state under former prime minister Manmohan Singh and for some time, handled Indian foreign policy), but his views on the crafting of Indias foreign policy (the way decisions are made) need to be taken with all seriousness as he is one of our outstanding scholars on foreign policy. I must share a bit of personal experience here. Years ago when I was doing a short course at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Boston, I felt proud as an Indian when told by one of the senior professors that for him, Tharoor was the best student that he had ever come across. Tharoor had done his PhD there; his thesis was subsequently converted to a book titled Reasons of State: Political Development and India's Foreign Policy Under Indira Gandhi, 1966-77. I consider the book among the very best to understand the theoretical underpinnings of Indian foreign policy. However, coming back to the report of the Tharoor-led committee, the IFS is a remarkably small service and thus highly inadequate, given Indias global aspirations. At the moment, the total strength of the IFS and other supporting cadres in the Ministry of External Affairs is 4,086. Of these, 1,940 posts are at headquarters and 2,146 posts are at missions/posts abroad. But there is a catch. The number of the Class One officers in the IFS is only 772, which is 140 short of the sanctioned strength. Although every second year, the ministry is supposed to examine its ideal strength, the exercise is hardly undertaken. There is an annual take of about 30 to 35 officers through the Union Public Services Commission (UPSC), but that is not enough. In contrast, the city-state of Singapores diplomatic corps numbers around 900. Indias 772 officers actually pale into insignificance in terms of number vis-a-vis 2,000 of Brazil, 4,500 of China, 5,700 of Japan, 6,100 of the United Kingdom and around 20,000 of the United States. Middle-sized economies such as Republic of Korea have 1,250 diplomats, the corresponding figures of New Zealand are 1,300. As if the situation was not bad enough, the Tharoor-led committee has also expressed concerns over the gradual deterioration of the quality of the officers entering the IFS, of late. There was a time when the toppers of the combined civil service examination (usually in the top 30) were opting for the IFS; but now the rush is for the IAS, the IPS and revenue services like Income Tax. The committee suggests that for selecting suitable candidates, it should be imperative that candidates are also assessed by parameters such as international aptitude, curiosity about the world, knowledge or demonstrated interest in foreign affairs, communication skills in English and foreign languages etc. It recommends that an additional paper for testing the aforementioned aptitude/knowledge be introduced by the UPSC and that this should be made obligatory for candidates opting for the IFS. Other candidates may be given the option of not appearing for this paper, but passing this paper should be mandatory for all candidates opting for the IFS, it says, adding the scope of the personality test should (also) be enhanced suitably for candidates opting for IFS and they should be assessed for qualities which are considered sine qua non in a diplomat. Besides, the committee has also recommended for the lateral entry into the diplomatic service, and drawing on expertise from outside the IFS. Though the committee has not gone deeper into this issue, the fact remains that unlike foreign services of the developed countries, the IFS does not have any provision for a lateral entry into the service at middle levels from think tanks, universities, the corporate sector and media, even for short durations. Incidentally, the US allows a small number of positions in its Foreign Office to officers from other allied countries, including France and the UK, as a means to expose these officers to Washingtons labyrinthine bureaucracy. The US also has a hiring category of technical appointee, designating individuals who are neither permanent civil servants nor political selections vetted by the White House. These technical appointees serve a maximum of four years and offer outside expertise academic, scientific, or private sector-related that might not otherwise reside in the bureaucracy. A programme of this sort in the IFS is worth considering. It may be added in this context that after 1966, no significant administrative reforms have been undertaken in India's foreign services. That year, the former Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) secretary-general NR Pillai had presented a report that has been partially implemented. In May 1983, the Samar Sen Committee gave a report on strengthening the Indian Missions abroad, but it was not implemented. In 2000, the then external affairs minister Jaswant Singh had asked senior officials for a report on reforms in the service. His successor Yashwant Sinha who wanted to strengthen economic diplomacy, appointed a committee under NK Singh to suggest ways. But nothing came from the moves of these two ministers. Over the years, foreign offices of comparable countries have evolved to the next stage the networked catalyst. For instance, Germany has allowed its provinces to deal in many matters directly with European Union. Some border-provinces in China have been empowered to deal with the neighboring countries on some economic matters. So too has been the case with many Asean and Latin American countries. In fact, Australia has gone to the extent of replacing its trade commissioners in its American consulates with US nationals under the belief that they would better sell Australian products and interests. This is not to suggest that the foreign office is no longer relevant. The point is that as is happening in other parts of the world, the foreign office can retain the driving seat in the countrys international behaviour by metamorphosing itself from the role of the gatekeeper to that of the coordinator. As it is, even within the national government, the MEA seems to have lost its sheen, with the real power gradually shifting to the Prime Ministers Office (PMO), including that of the national security adviser (NSA), who is primarily accountable to the prime minister. Over the years, the NSA has become the czar of Indian foreign policy bureaucracy. My personal interactions with the senior officials of the MEA and retired foreign secretaries suggest that under the Manmohan Singh government, the base of Indian foreign policy-making became the narrowest ever, with everything being controlled by the NSA and the PMO. Given Modis perceived image of concentrating all the powers in his hands, it is indeed tough for any foreign minister or foreign secretary the head of the IFS, to ensure that the IFS or for that matter the foreign office as a whole has a place of pre-eminence or relevance on core external issues facing the country. Incidentally, of late there has been a huge problem of the foreign secretary facing a loyalty test from his colleagues within the service. It may be noted that foreign secretary is not the only secretary-rank officer in the MEA. He/she is no doubt the first-among-equals, but then the fact remains that in the MEA, there are three other secretaries, besides having around 33 Grade-I ambassadors to various countries who, too, are of the secretary-rank. All of them being of the same rank and entitled to have direct access to the foreign minister, there are stories of frequent friction among them. And that is all the more so and here I am citing from Asian Diplomacy penned by veteran diplomat Kishan S Rana since the 1970s, when with the rare exceptions, successive foreign secretaries have enhanced the oversight authority in their hands, denuding work from the other secretaries. Cutting across territorial divisions, the foreign secretary is in charge of relations with all the major countries the US, UK, Germany, France, Russia, Japan, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. This means in practice that at least seven territorial division joint secretaries deal directly with him or her, while also working with other secretaries for some of the other countries in their divisions. All multilateral conferences are under foreign secretarys direct charge. The foreign secretary is also responsible for media relations, public diplomacy, assistance programmes (a recent addition), consular work and coordination among the secretaries. Besides, the power of initiating the appointment of new ambassadors has always belonged to the foreign secretary, and it is his or her proposal that goes to the foreign minister. In other words, while the foreign secretary has too much work, other secretaries have relatively lighter charges and are naturally resentful. As Rana writes, consequently, overall supervision in the MEA has suffered. The MEA has not learnt from its foreign counterparts that it is impossible to run a larger diplomatic network through one individual, especially if the political advice role is not partly delegated. In other words, the need of the hour is to do something to improve the quality of internal dialogue and collegiality of decision-making within the foreign office, particularly at a time when the IFS, as I have mentioned above, is struggling to keep its relevance as a service. KOSTOLAC, Serbia Archaeologists are trying to decipher magic spells etched onto tiny rolls of gold and silver that they found alongside skeletons of humans buried almost 2,000 years ago. "The alphabet is Greek, that much we know. The language is Aramaic it's a Middle Eastern mystery to us," Miomir Korac, chief archaeologist at the site in eastern Serbia, told Reuters. The skeletons were found at the foot of a massive coal-fired power station where searches are being carried out before another unit of the electricity plant is built on the site of an ancient Roman city. Last week, after carefully brushing away soil from the bones, Korac's team found two amulets made of lead that, when opened, were each found to rolls of precious metal - silver and gold - covered in symbols and writing. They believe the inscriptions are magic spells, taken to the grave to invoke divine powers to perform good or evil. "We read the names of a few demons, that are connected to the territory of modern-day Syria," archaeologist Ilija Dankovic said at the dig, as more skeletons from the 4th century A.D. were being uncovered. The fragile, golden and silver scrolls - which once unrolled look like rectangles of foil similar in size to a sweet wrapper - may never be fully understood. They are the first such items discovered in Serbia but resemble amulets of "binding magic" found in other countries, Dankovic said. "They were often love charms, ordering someone to fall in love, but there were also dark, malignant curses, to the tune of: may your body turn dead, as cold and heavy as this lead," he said. Magic charms tended to be buried with dead children or adults who had suffered a violent death, Dankovic said, because of a belief that "souls of such people took longer to find rest and had a better chance of finding demons and deities and pass the wishes to them so they could do their magic." (Reporting by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Robin Pomeroy) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Islamabad: Needling India yet again, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif today said he was "obliged" to become the voice of the "oppressed" people of Kashmir and would "leave no stone unturned" to make the world understand the "plight" of the people in the Valley. Sharif also shot off letters to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, urging efforts to end the "persistent and egregious violation of the basic human rights" of the Kashmiri people and also to implement UN Security Council resolutions, a Foreign Office statement said. Sharif chaired a preparatory meeting for the upcoming UN General Assembly (UNGA) attended by his foreign affairs advisor Sartaj Aziz, special assistant on foreign affairs Tariq Fatemi, foreign secretary Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry, Pakistan's permanent representative in the UN Maleeha Lodhi and Pakistan's Ambassador to the US Jalil Abbas Jilani and other senior officials. The meeting reviewed the agendas to be included in the next session of UN General Assembly in which the premier is expected to participate, a statement issued by the Premier's office said. "It is an obligation for me as Prime Minister of Pakistan to become the voice of Kashmiris who have been oppressed in Kashmir. I will leave no stone unturned to make the world understand the plight and the legitimate struggle of the people of Kashmir," Sharif said. The meeting observed that "Kashmir remains an unfinished agenda of the UN and accordingly India must realise that Kashmir is not its internal matter, rather it is a matter of regional and international concern". Sharif said the denial of right of self-determination for Kashmiris is one of the persistent failures of the UN. "The right of self-determination is the basic right of Kashmiris and we will make every effort to make Kashmiris captain of their own ship," the statement quoted Sharif as saying in the meeting. The Foreign Office statement, giving details of the letters sent by Sharif to Ban and Zeid said, "Highlighting human rights abuses by Indian forces, Prime Minister stated that more than 50 deaths and 3,500 injuries had taken place, out of which 400 were critical." "The use of illegitimate and excessive force against innocent civilians protesting peacefully over extra-judicial killings was a blatant violation of a range of fundamental rights," the statement said. In the letters, Sharif alleged that force was being used to prevent access to hospitals, to harass doctors and prevent access to medical facilities. "The situation is a clear manifestation of Indian state terrorism to suppress the Kashmiris' struggle for their inalienable right to self-determination," the statement quoted the letters as saying. Prime Minister Sharif called for investigation into the "brutalities and atrocities" committed by Indian forces, protection of Kashmiris' fundamental rights, a fair inquiry into the killing of Hizbul commander Burhan Wani and implementation of UN resolutions. Quetta: Pakistan's top lawyers said they will boycott court proceedings throughout much of the country on Tuesday in protest after a suicide bomb killed 70 people in Balochistan, including many from the legal profession. Monday's attack on a hospital in the southwestern city of Quetta was one of the deadliest in the country's long battle against militancy. The explosion came as some 200 lawyers along with journalists had gathered at the Civil Hospital to mourn the fatal shooting of a top provincial lawyer, with witnesses describing horrific scenes as medics battled to save scores of wounded. "Lawyers throughout the country will boycott court proceedings on Tuesday in protest against the killing of lawyers in Quetta on Monday," said a statement from the Pakistan Bar Council, adding that provincial and district bar councils would follow suit. Balochistan government spokesman Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar said schools in the province would also be closed Tuesday "to mourn the loss". Funerals have already been held for many of the victims, he said. "Those who were living in and close to Quetta city have already buried their loved ones, while those belonging to far flung areas will be buried on Tuesday," he told AFP. On Monday, officials had put the number of wounded at 112. Twenty-seven of the critically injured were airlifted to Karachi, where a spokesman for the Aga Khan Hospital said they are "out of danger now". The attack has been claimed by both a faction of the Pakistani Taliban called Jammat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), and the Islamic State group (IS). JuA, which formed in 2014, has also claimed responsibility for Pakistan's deadliest blast so far this year, a bombing in a crowded Lahore park on Easter that killed 75, among other attacks. The US State Department designated JuA as a terrorist group last week in a statement that described it as "a splinter group of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) based in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region". Hours after the JuA claim the Islamic State group also claimed the attack, saying it had killed 200 people, according to the SITE monitoring group. Middle Eastern jihadist group IS has been scrabbling for purchase in Pakistan, largely due to competition from well established extremist groups such as the Taliban. Balochistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, has major oil and gas resources, but is afflicted by Islamist militancy, sectarian violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims and a separatist insurgency. In a tweet, Pakistan's army said the attack was "specially targeting CPEC", referring to China's ambitious $46 billion project to build an economic corridor through Pakistan. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is set to culminate in the Baloch Arabian Sea port of Gwadar, south of Quetta. Pakistan's powerful military chief has previously accused arch-enemy India of "openly" challenging CPEC by trying to destabilise Balochistan. New York: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump criticised Democrat rival Hillary Clinton in an economic policy speech on Monday in Detroit that sought to pick off some of her supporters, while Clinton dismissed her rivals plans as a repackaging of old Republican ideas. The sparring was expected, but Trump faced a nasty surprise: a new round of resistance from within his party that threatened to stall his effort to move beyond the uproar he caused last week. A group of 50 Republican officials, all of whom have served Republican presidents from Richard Nixon to George W Bush signed an open letter saying that he is not qualified to be president and warning that, if elected, he would be the most reckless President in American history. The letter offers a withering critique of the GOP nominee, saying he lacks the character, values and experience to be president. The signatories declare their conviction that he would be dangerous and would put at risk America's national security. Some former national security officials involved with the letter wanted to wait until September to release their views but that the candidates behavior in recent weeks from his comments on Nato inviting Russian intelligence to hack Clintons emails galvanised them to move sooner. The letter comes at a time when Trump is trying desperately to reboot his presidential campaign to address worsening poll numbers and growing isolation from influential members of the Republican Party. According to political pundits, part of the issue for the New York businessman is that he has run his campaign much like his family business, with his grown children as "his top counselors and surrogates". "We are seeing friendly fire within the Republican Party because Trump has ignored and sometimes even insulted party stalwarts. He hasn't developed a strong link to the GOP. Now that he is going through a rough patch there's scant support to sustain him," said political analyst Jennifer Raskin. Veteran Republican strategist Dave Carney pointed out that "in modern presidential politics, this election is an outlier in terms of deterioration of support. Trump with his trademark bluster tore into the letter-writers saying they share the blame for making the world such a dangerous place. They are nothing more than the failed Washington elite looking to hold onto their power, and its time they are held accountable for their actions, he said. Still, the letter offers a scathing assessment of Trump's inability to take advice, discipline himself, control his emotions and reflect before acting. "He lacks self-control and acts impetuously. He cannot tolerate personal criticism. He has alarmed our closest allies with his erratic behavior. All of these are dangerous qualities in an individual who aspires to be president and commander-in-chief , said the letter. Even as the letter controversy played out, Trump fused his populist message in Detroit with a full embrace of policies on regulation, corporate taxes and energy production to try to please skeptics on the right. "Hillary would tax some small businesses by as much as nearly 50 percent," Trump told the Detroit Economic Club on Monday The US media was quick to point out that Clinton has not released her full tax plan, but what she has said of her tax plans so far does not back this up. According to the Tax Policy Center and the Tax Foundation nearly all of Clinton's so-far proposed tax hikes would affect the top 10 percent of all taxpayers, particularly those who earn more than $5 million. Meanwhile, in St Petersburg, Florida Clinton fired back at Trump saying his tax proposals amount to traditional Republican trickle-down economics, that will give super-big tax breaks to large corporations, just like him. If Trump continues to slide in national polls and surveys of battleground states the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found Clinton leading by 9 points more Republicans will be emboldened to turn on him and even back Clinton, say strategists. Qingdao: The visit of the US Navy guided missile destroyer USS Benfold to the northern Chinese port of Qingdao this week is the latest development in a long-term effort to build trust between the countries' militaries amid tensions and a rivalry for dominance in Asia. Though China resents the highly visible presence of the US armed forces in Asia, especially the South China Sea, it has gradually overcome its reluctance and shown a willingness to engage that the sides hope will help avoid conflicts. Below is a look at the Benfold's visit and some of the steps the sides have taken to build their relationship: What's the significance of the visit? The Benfold's visit is the first to China by an American warship since Beijing responded furiously to a Hague-based international arbitration tribunal's ruling that its expansive South China Sea maritime claims had no basis in law. The fact the visit went ahead appears to show that Beijing now values the military-to-military relationship too much to allow it to be derailed by other events as was once the case. Qingdao is the base of China's northern fleet and is thus less sensitive than ports to the south closer to hotspots, such as Taiwan and the South China Sea. How have the sides responded to the arbitration ruling? China was incensed by the ruling and declared it null and void. It renewed its commitment to defend its sovereignty claims and continue work on man-made islands in the Spratly island group that have been heavily criticized by the US and others as adding to regional tensions. Beijing has also launched what it says will be regular aerial patrols over the South China Sea and says it will consider whether to declare an air defense identification zone over all or part of the water body. The US has called on China to respect the ruling, but has not staged another freedom of navigation mission in which its ships sail near China's artificial islands, which draw warnings and rebukes from Beijing. What have the sides done to build trust? Apart from exchanging visits, China and the US have sought to reach agreements on the rules of the road and work with each other on non-combat oriented training missions. At a multilateral forum in Qingdao in 2014, the two navies agreed to a Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea that seems to have allowed them to avoid confrontations. Last year, they added a similar agreement on aerial encounters between their military pilots that calls for, among other things, maintaining a secure distance, communicating clearly and avoiding rude body language. This year, China also took part in the world's largest maritime drills, known as RimPac, hosted by the US every two years near Hawaii. What's the outlook for the future? China says it wants to turn a page on the arbitration ruling through bilateral talks with other claimants, although the US, Philippines and others resist that. The man-made islands will continue to be a source of tension, while the US presence in the region will continue to grow. At the same time, China is narrowing the still-considerable gap with the US Navy, adding to its fleet of high-tech destroyers similar to the Benfold and building homemade aircraft carriers to join the single, heavily refurbished Ukrainian one it has now. That will make it even more crucial that the sides build trust and relationships to help overcome future problems. Damascus: More than two million people in Syria's Aleppo are in danger of coming under total siege, the United Nations has warned, calling for immediate access to the heavily bombed city. Ferocious fighting has rocked divided Aleppo in recent weeks, with rebels and regime forces seizing rival access routes and cutting off residents. In a statement on Monday, the UN's top humanitarian official in Syria, Yacoub El Hillo, and regional coordinator Kevin Kennedy called for a "humanitarian pause" in the hostilities. Two million people in the city are living in fear of besiegement, including up to 275,000 people trapped in east Aleppo, the statement said. The fighting in Aleppo is reported to have killed at least 130 civilians since the end of July, and has damaged hospitals, clinics, and the city's power and water networks. "The UN stands ready to assist the civilian population of Aleppo, a city now united in its suffering," the statement read. "At a minimum, the UN requires a full-fledged ceasefire or weekly 48-hour humanitarian pauses to reach the millions of people in need throughout Aleppo and replenish the food and medicine stocks, which are running dangerously low." Fighting in Aleppo, Syria's former economic powerhouse, flared in late June when government forces closed in on the Castello Road, the last route into rebel-held parts of the city. The road was severed in mid-July, sparking food shortages and skyrocketing prices in the eastern districts. In a major push last week, a coalition of rebels, Islamists, and jihadists cut off the regime's own main access road on the southern edges of the city. Each side has used their newly acquired territory to bring food and other supplies into neighbourhoods of the city they control, but the roads are still not safe for civilians to use. "When used to intentionally deprive people of food and other items essential to their survival, siege tactics constitute a war crime," the UN statement said. More than 290,000 people have been killed since Syria's conflict erupted in March 2011. Washington: The US on Monday strongly condemned the terror attack at a hospital in Pakistan's restive Balochistan province and offered assistance to the Pakistani government in its bid to bring to justice the perpetrators of the assault. "Our hearts go out to the families and other loved ones of more than 60 killed and we wish a speedy recovery to the dozens more injured. The US is committed to our continuing counter-terrorism partnership with Pakistan, and we remain resolute in joining with the people of Pakistan in confronting terrorism in Pakistan and across the region," Josh Earnest WH Press Secretary, said. "The United States condemns in the strongest terms the terrorist attacks today in Quetta, including the bombing at the Civil Hospital that killed dozens of Pakistanis and wounded many more, and the murder of Bilal Anwar Kasi, president of the Baluchistan Bar Association," the State Department spokesperson Elizabeth Trudeau, said. "We send our deepest condolences to the loved ones of those killed and injured, and we offer our assistance to Prime Minister Sharif as his government investigates and works to bring the murderers to justice," she said. Trudeau said the terrorists targeted a hospital, as well as the judiciary and the media, two of the most important pillars of every democracy. "The victims at the Civil Hospital, many of them lawyers and journalists, were gathered as free citizens to mourn the murder of Kasi," she said. "These brutal and senseless attacks only deepen our shared resolve to defeat terrorism around the world, and we will continue to work with our partners in Pakistan and across the region to combat the threat of terrorism," Trudeau said. At least 75 people were killed and 115 others injured today when a Taliban suicide bomber struck them in Pakistan's restive Balochistan province in one of the deadliest terror attacks in the country this year. The bomber struck at a time when over 200 mourners had gathered at the government-run Civil Hospital in Quetta where the body of prominent lawyer Bilal Anwar Kasi, who was shot dead earlier in the day, was brought. Washington: The US has welcomed the passage of the landmark Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill, saying it would have far-reaching benefits for expanding bilateral trade and investment partnership with India. "We welcome the passage of the landmark Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill," State Department spokesperson Elizabeth Trudeau told PTI. It "has potentially far-reaching benefits for the Indian economy and our expanding bilateral trade and investment partnership with India, including greater efficiencies and predictability in its tax regime", Trudeau said in response to a question on the passage of GST by Indian Parliament. The US Ambassador to India Richard Verma congratulated the Prime Minister and Parliament on passage of the GST bill. It is "an important reform and boost to growth in India", he said in a tweet. In a historic step for tax reforms in the country, the Indian Parliament passed the GST Constitution bill. "Passing the Goods & Services Tax bill is one of the biggest tax reforms ever in India," said Puneet Manchanda, professor of marketing at the Ross School of Business at University of Michigan. "It has the potential, after an initial period of procedural development, to accelerate the economy's growth significantly," he said. "This should be seen as a win for economics over politics, a very refreshing change from the norm. This could very well be a defining economic moment for the Modi government," Manchanda said. "The enactment of the GST in India heralds one of the most significant post-Independence reforms making doing business in India easier and facilitating the easier flow of goods and services across states," said Vikramaditya Khanna, professor at University of Michigan Law School. "Estimates are that it is likely to increase GDP by up to 2 percent in India, which is already one of the fastest growing economies in the world," he said. "Passage of the GST bill is a huge boost to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's credibility as a reformer and as a manager of Parliament. Introduction of the GST will likely prove to be a solid boost to the economybelow the estimates of the original 'dream GST' but certainly an improvement over the existing method of taxation," said Richard M Rossow, the Wadhwani Chair in US-India Policy Studies at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. Melia Hotels International has announced the opening of the Melia Makassar, a new hotel in Indonesia which becomes the sixth hotel operated by the company in the country (with another 10 hotels in the process of opening in the pipeline), confirming its strong commitment to this popular vacation destination and its expansion strategy in the Asia Pacific region. Makassar is the capital of South Sulawesi province and the largest city on the island of Sulawesi, with a population of one and a half million people and the dominant commercial centre and transportation hub in eastern Indonesia. The hotel is ideally located just 25 minutes from Sultan Hassanuddin international airport and just a 5-minute walk from the main shopping and business areas. This four-star hotel provides 135 newly-built rooms equipped with a full range of facilities and the latest technology. Some of the rooms also include "The Level" service, which raises the quality of a hotel stay to the highest levels of demand. The Melia Makassar has been designed to meet the most exquisite international standards, and its magnificent facilities also house several meeting rooms, a pool, spa and restaurants. Also of note is The Society rooftop bar which is quickly expected to become a landmark venue in the city. Bernardo Cabot, Vice President Asia Pacific for Melia Hotels International, highlighted the hotel's potential to become the ideal choice for business and leisure travellers to the capital of South Sulawesi, "thanks to its excellent location and Melia's experience in the management of "bleisure" hotels (business + leisure), the Melia Makassar is destined to become a benchmark for modern hospitality in the city. " The hotel is operated under the Melia Hotels & Resorts brand, one of the company's most historic brands and guardian of the values that best represent the company. In the words of Cabot, "the Melia Makassar hotel brings our brand standards to the city and the market is sure to acknowledge the efforts made by both the hotel owners and Melia Hotels International in our ongoing commitment to Indonesia". Indonesia is the country in which the company started its international expansion in 1985. The opening of the Melia Bali hotel that year was the starting point for a globalisation strategy which now sees the company installed in more than 40 countries worldwide, with a special focus on Asia Pacific, where it currently manages 33 hotels either already in operation or scheduled to open in the future. About Melia Hotels International Founded in 1956 in Mallorca (Spain), Melia Hotels International operates more than 390 hotels (portfolio and pipeline) throughout more than 40 countries, with brands including Gran Melia Hotels & Resorts, Paradisus by Melia, ME by Melia, Melia Hotels & Resorts, INNSiDE by Melia, Sol by Melia and TRYP by Wyndham. The Company is the global leader in resort hotels, while also leveraging its experience to consolidate the growing segment of the leisure-inspired urban market. Its commitment to responsible tourism has led the Group to become the third most sustainable hotel company in the world in 2018, according to RobecoSam, the investment company to produce the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. Melia Hotels International is also included in the IBEX 35 Spanish stock market index and it is the Spanish hotel leader in Corporate Reputation (Merco Ranking). Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and Instagram meliahotelsinternational.com Communications Department + 34 971 22 44 64 Melia GET OUR APP Our Spectrum News app is the most convenient way to get the stories that matter to you. Download it here. Three small words "maybe there is " uttered by Republican Donald Trump as an off-the-cuff comment have shaken up the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. Speaking Tuesday in Wilmington, North Carolina, Trump said Democrat Hillary Clinton would appoint liberal Supreme Court judges who would take away Americans' constitutional right to own guns. "By the way, if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people maybe there is, I don't know." It is unclear whether Trump was joking when he said "maybe there is." But his opponents immediately interpreted it to mean that Clinton or the judges should be assassinated. 'Should not suggest violence' "What Trump is saying is dangerous. A person seeking to be the president of the United States should not suggest violence in any way," Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook tweeted. Social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, erupted over the Trump comment. But Trump denied having any thoughts of violence when he spoke. "Give me a break," he told Fox News. "This is a political movement ... a strong and powerful movement, the Second Amendment. Hillary wants to take your guns away. She wants to leave you unprotected in your home. And there can be no other interpretation." The National Rifle Association also was quick to run to Trump's rescue. "There is something we will do on #ElectionDay: Show up and vote for the #2A #DefendtheSecond #NeverHillary," the gun rights organization tweeted. Campaign 'restart' This newest controversy has all but wrecked Trump's apparent efforts to "restart" his chaotic campaign. He made a relatively straightforward speech Monday in Detroit in which he spelled out his economic plans if elected. Trump has a reputation of veering away from his prepared remarks for ad-libs and off-the-cuff remarks that he says the media distort. Clinton has said, "There is no other Donald Trump. This is it." But Trump tried Tuesday to paint Clinton as the one who has no self-control, calling her volcanic and impulsive and someone who is "wacky and makes bad decisions." Trump got back to business when he said that if he is elected, he would charge American companies that move their factories overseas a 35 percent tariff on goods they export to the United States. He also promised to cut government regulations for people who want to start new businesses. Clinton was in Miami, Florida, where four new cases of the Zika virus, suspected to have been spread by mosquitoes, have been reported. She urged Republican leaders to immediately call the House of Representatives into special session and pass a bill funding the fight against Zika. She said this is an epidemic that will only get worse. The Senate has passed a Zika funding measure, but the House recessed before it could pass one and reach a compromise with the Senate on a final bill. Health officials say Monday's powerful suicide blast at a hospital complex in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta killed at least 70 people and wounded 112 others. The blast occurred shortly after dozens of lawyers gathered in Quetta's Civil Hospital to protest and mourn the killing of their provincial bar associations president in an early morning drive-by shooting by unknown gunmen. Most of the bombing victims were lawyers. Journalists and television cameramen covering the lawyers rally were also among those killed and wounded. WATCH: Video footage from scene of attack A splinter faction of the extremist Pakistani Taliban, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA) claimed responsibility for both killing the bar association president and the subsequent deadly bombing. A spokesman for the group said that a suicide bomber was deployed at the hospital anticipating lawyers and government officials would gather in large numbers. There was no independent confirmation of the claim. JuA claimed responsibility for an Easter attack in the second largest Pakistani city of Lahore in March in which more than 70 people were killed. The United States last week designated JuA as a global terrorist organization. The Islamic State group also later issued its own claim of responsibility for the hospital bombing. Speaking to VOA, the provincial government spokesman, Anwar ul-Haq Kakar gave details of Monday's attack in Quetta. This morning, unfortunately, one of our very distinguished lawyers, Bilal Anwar Kasi, was targeted and he was martyred in the early hours of the morning. As soon as his dead body was received by the lawyer community there was a huge blast. As a result we have got a huge number of injuries and many deaths. Provincial government and officials of the bomb disposal squad in Quetta have now confirmed the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber, saying they have recovered head and legs of the attacker form the site of the blast. Government spokesman Kakar said the violence appeared to be in a reaction to Pakistans counter-terrorism and counter-extremism efforts. The same terrorist groups which are religious and sectarian-inspired, we are suspecting that they are behind such heinous acts, he said. In Washington, the U.S. State Department condemned "in the strongest terms" Monday's attack in Quetta. "Today, terrorists targeted a hospital, as well as the judiciary and the media, two of the most important pillars of every democracy," a statement said. "These brutal and senseless attacks only deepen our shared resolve to defeat terrorism around the world and we will continue to work with our partners in Pakistan and across the region to combat the threat of terrorism." At the United Nations, a statement by Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon said "the targeting of mourners at a civilian hospital makes the attack particularly appalling." Quetta is the capital of Baluchistan province, where ethnic Baloch separatists and religious extremists routinely carry out such attacks. The economic, financial and foreign exchange situation of Angola, owing to an external shock, requires a structural change of the economy to ensure the wellbeing of its citizens, said Economy Minister Abrahao Gourgel. Gourgel made his comments at the National Pension Fund Conference last week in Luanda, an initiative of the Insurance and Pension Fund Academy. He explained that structural changes imply meeting domestic demand for goods and services with domestic production and increasingly higher levels of national added value, among other measures and options. He also called for reducing imported labor to what is necessary, a process that should be accompanied by technical and professional preparation of the national workforce. Gourgel said that pension funds and social security are complementary, offering an alternative to the distribution system whereby younger generations pay the pensions of older generations, reported Angop news agency. Pension funds are based on a capitalization system in which the beneficiary receives pensions per the contributions made during years of service and respective income generated by those contributions, he added. The National Pension Fund Conference was held on the occasion of National Insurance and Pension Fund Day on 5 August. MDT/Macauhub Its a paradox in American politics: Many Hispanic families have an immense personal stake in what happens on Election Day, but despite numbers that should mean political power, Hispanics often cant vote, arent registered to vote, or sit it out. Enter Donald Trump, and the question that could make or break the election in key states. By inflaming the anti-immigrant sentiments of white, working-class men, has the Republican nominee jolted awake another group 27.3 million eligible Hispanic voters? A lot of times you hear this rap about how politics doesnt affect their life, says Yvanna Cancela, political director of Las Vegas largely immigrant Culinary Union. But that changes when its personal, and theres nothing more personal than Donald Trump talking about deporting 11 million immigrants. Hispanics now represent the nations largest ethnic community with some 55 million people. More than one-third of them are U.S.-born, and the others immigrants who are citizens, legal residents or here illegally. Most trace their familial roots to Mexico, one of Trumps favorite targets. A cornerstone of Trumps platform is building a wall along the Southwest border and forcing Mexico to pay for it by threatening to cut off remittances those living in the U.S. send to relatives. He questioned the impartiality of an Indiana-born federal judge hearing a lawsuit against him because of the judges Mexican ancestry. Hes complained Mexico has sent rapists and criminals illegally to the U.S. Now some Republicans worry Trump is creating more people like John Herrera, 38, who signed up to vote in June in Las Vegas. Ive never really voted until now, only because of Trump being against Hispanic people, he said. I didnt think my vote would count before but now I want to make a difference. Republicans blame a 1994 ballot measure targeting illegal immigrants in California for alienating that states growing Hispanic population and turning it solidly Democratic. With Trump saying the things hes saying, we might see this same thing again, says Jody Agius Vallejo, a University of Southern California sociologist and author of Barrios to Burbs: The Making of the Mexican American Middle Class. Only this time, it would be nationally. There is reason, though, to be skeptical. Overall, the Hispanic voting record is not good. The first obstacle is that more than half of the nations Hispanics cannot vote because they are either under age 18 or not citizens. Relatively few of the Hispanics who are eligible to vote actually register and then cast ballots. Their turnout rate in the 2012 was lower than that of blacks and whites. In Texas, where 39 percent of the population is Hispanic, Democrats have been shut out of statewide elections for decades. During 2014s elections, fewer than 2.3 million Texas Hispanics reported being registered to vote, or about 46 percent of the nearly 4.9 million who were eligible, according to U.S. Census Bureau surveys. Weve been spending our money wrong, concedes Crystal Zermeno, director of special projects for the Democratic field organization Texas Organizing Project. For the past 15 to 20 years, weve been focusing on moving swing white voters. If you talk to Hispanic voters, they say, No one has asked me to vote. There are success stories. In Nevada, Latinos have demonstrated the power they wield when they either turn out or stay home. In the 2014 midterms, for example, Hispanic turnout plummeted, and Republicans swept every statewide office and won control of both houses of the Legislature for the first time since 1929. But in 2008, 2010 and 2012 they helped deliver the state for Democrats. When you have the resources put in, you see turnout that favors the Democrats, says David Damore, a political science professor at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. But you need to put resources in the community. Its not just going to happen. This year with Trump priming the pump, and with former state Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto running to become the first Latina senator resources are flowing. In June, two days after graduating from high school, Fabiola Vejar stood outside a Latin grocery store on a sweltering afternoon quizzing a parade of customers in Spanish: Are you registered to vote? Most shook their heads no. Vejar followed up: Are you eligible? Again, most responded in the negative. One man laughed and bellowed: Soy Mexicano! Im Mexican! Vejar cannot vote. Now 18, she came from Mexico with her mother when she was 2 years old. So she volunteers with Mi Familia Vota, encouraging others to be heard at the ballot box. I dont have that voice, she says, but theres other people [] who feel the way I do. They should vote. Xiomara Duenas will. She immigrated legally to the United States from Cuba in 1996 to join her father. She had always believed that her shaky English prevented her from becoming a citizen. She was resigned to the idea that immigrants didnt have the same rights as native-born Americans until Trumps candidacy. Last November, she became a citizen. This November, she plans to act. I didnt want him to become president, but I couldnt do anything, says Duenas. But now, I can vote.Sergio Bustos & Nicholas Riccardi, Las Vegas EDITORS NOTE This story is part of Divided America, APs ongoing exploration of the economic, social and political divisions in American society. Chinas exports fell again in July by an unexpectedly wide margin while a decline in imports accelerated in a possible sign of weakness in the worlds second-largest economy. Exports contracted 4.4 percent to USD184.7 billion, a slight improvement over Junes 4.8 percent contraction, customs data showed yesterday. Imports fell 12.5 percent to $132.4 billion, accelerating from a decline of 8.4 percent. Weak global demand has hampered efforts to shore up Chinese trade and stave off job losses in export industries. The contraction in imports reflects possible weakness in the domestic economy, but the figures also are depressed by a decline in prices of oil and other commodities. Chinese economic growth held steady at 6.7 percent in the quarter ending in June compared with a year earlier, though that was the lowest quarterly level since the aftermath of the 2008 global crisis. The declines in both exports and imports were worse than many forecasters expected. The data dash hopes that a pick-up in global manufacturing growth last month might have buoyed shipments from China, said Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics in a report. The countrys export growth is likely to remain subdued for some time, said Evans-Pritchard. While we think the worst is probably over for many emerging markets, global growth is likely to remain lackluster well into next year. The slump in imports meant Chinas global trade surplus swelled by 22 percent from the same month a year ago to $52.3 billion. Chinas trade surplus with the European Union, its biggest trading partner, was $11.8 billion. The surplus with the United States was $24.7 billion. Even taking lower prices into account, the Chinese figures suggest imports fell by 5.3 percent, according to Louis Kuijs of Oxford Economics. It implies that volumes dropped substantially month on month, said Kuijs in a report. It may herald that domestic demand started to slow down in July. AP Jack Ma will set a bag aside for you at your favorite Paris store or hail you a ride in Rome just as long as youre not European. Chinas biggest third-party payments platform Alipay, an affiliate of Mas Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., is signing deals with brick and mortar retailers in Europe to bulk up its offering for Chinese tourists and expats. Its seeking to add extras to its mobile wallet app for Chinese travelers in France, the U.K., Germany and Italy, though it has no plans to offer its services to consumers who arent from China. Europe is a popular destination for our Chinese customers, so its an important market for us, Rita Liu, head of Alipay Europe, Middle-East and Africa, said in an interview. Were actively looking for partners across Europe merchants who want to cater to Chinese tourists or technical providers on the payments side. But we have no plans to target European customers. Alipay held talks with retailers in the French capital including Printemps, one of the citys biggest department stores; it unveiled a deal last week to sell travel insurance from Axa SA to its users; and its working with Germanys Wirecard AG to support the mobile wallet service in as many as 69 stores at Munich Airport. Alipay is in talks with other technical, retail and payment partners in France and Germany, as well as the U.K. and Italy, Liu said. The cross-border strategy mimics one Alipay with 450 million users has deployed with U.S. partners. It has cut deals with the likes of Uber Technologies Inc., Airbnb Inc. and Macys Inc. to let Chinese customers pay with the Alipay wallet, either by tapping their phone on a contactless register or having a cashier scan a bar code on the mobile screen to charge a registered account. It highlights how in payments, as with other tech sectors, Europe and the U.S. need Chinese customers more than the other way around, echoing Ubers humbling lesson from selling its Chinese operations to local rival Didi Chuxing. About 120 million Chinese tourists traveled last year, and their most popular destinations outside Asia were France, Italy, Switzerland and Germany, data by the China Tourism Research Institute showed. They spent USD875 each on average while traveling. In the war to dominate how consumers around the world pay for purchases, China is miles ahead. Tencent Holdings Ltd has 700-million-plus users on its WeChat messaging platform, where it offers financial services including payments, dwarfing the few dozen million subscribers combined whove adopted mobile wallets by Apple Inc., Google or Samsung Electronics Co. Its still early days for Facebook Inc., which is hoping it can make its way into payments by investing in helpful robotic assistants that will let consumers send texts on its Messenger chat service to order hamburgers or office supplies. In a world where all roads lead to payments, Alipays latest initiatives show hand-holding customers through their purchases is a key function of the business. The end-game for these digital giants, regardless of which side of the globe theyre on, is to become an important driver of commerce and put themselves in a position to take a cut of transactions they help generate. To do that, all are seeking to grow the lists of retailers wholl accept their payments service alongside a Visa or American Express card. Facebook, for instance, said its lined up more than 30 partners, including Bank of America, Burger King, and Staples, in its chatbots push. In China, Apples $1 billion investment in the countrys biggest ride-hailing service was seen helping win powerful local allies to push services including Apple Pay. The key battle for digital giants today is scale on the merchants side. Thats true for anyone from Alipay to Apple or Facebook, said Michel Leger, head of innovation at Ingenico Group SA, which recently cut a deal to manage electronic cross- border purchases for Alipay. They each have a relationship with millions of consumers, but they need the other side of the equation the address book of merchants. Marie Mawad, Bloomberg Australias treasurer said yesterday that national security would be his overriding consideration when he makes a decision on whether to allow a Chinese consortium to lease a major Sydney electricity grid. Scott Morrison said he was close to making a decision on whether to allow Chinese state-owned State Grid Corp. and Hong Kong-registered Cheung Kong Infrastructure Group to buy a 99-year lease for half of the New South Wales state-owned electricity network Ausgrid for more than 10 billion Australian dollars (USD7.6 billion). This is not an easy decision, Morrison told Sydney Radio 2GB. National security out ranks everything. Chinese foreign investment, particularly from state-owned companies, has become increasingly contentious in Australia as China takes a more aggressive stance in territorial disputes in the South China Sea. President Barack Obama raised questions with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull last year after Australia allowed a Chinese company, Landbridge, to secure a 99-year lease over the strategically important Port of Darwin, which has become a U.S. Marines training hub in northern Australia. Turnbull said Australian defense and security officials determined the AUD506 million deal did not threaten national interests. Peter Jennings, executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a government-established independent think tank, said neither the Darwin Port lease nor the proposed Austgrid deal were in Australias security interests. Jennings said a Chinese-controlled Austgrid could become vulnerable to being shut down by cyberattack as hackers linked to Russia had done in the Ukraine in December. Hackers used a coordinated attack to take down part of western Ukraines power grid, blacking out more than 225,000 people after hitting regional electric power distribution companies. U.S. officials called it the realization of a nightmare scenario hackers able to take down a critical system on which a country depends. You have to be concerned in a future world where we might find ourselves in a much more hostile relationship with China: Could they do us damage domestically by hacking into our electricity grid in Sydney? Jennings told Australian Broadcasting Corp. Senator Nick Xenophon, the leader of three senators whose support could be crucial to the government to pass legislation through the upper chamber when Parliament resumes this month, said the foreign investment decision-making process lacked transparency. I dont believe it is in the national interest for a state-owned enterprise to control one of our biggest power assets in this country, Xenophon told ABC. Rod McGuirk, Canberra, AP A suicide bomber killed at least 63 people and wounded dozens in an attack that struck a gathering of Pakistani lawyers on the grounds of a government-run hospital in the southwestern city of Quetta yesterday, police and doctors said. Witnesses described horrifying scenes of bodies being scattered about and the wounded screaming out and crying for help. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the blast. Nearly 100 lawyers had come to the hospital in the heart of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, after the body of their colleague, prominent attorney Bilal Kasi was brought there. Kasi, the chief of the provinces bar association, was shot and killed by gunmen earlier yesterday as he was on his way to his office. The lawyers gathered at the Quetta Civil Hospital to express their grief as is common with public figures. Kasi was among the most outspoken lawyers in the province and was popular for campaigning for improvements in the lawyers community. It was a suicide attack, said Zahoor Ahmed Afridi, a senior police officer. Afridi said the attacker hit shortly after Kasis body was brought in and that it seemed the two events were connected. Abdul Rehman, the director at the Civil Hospital, said the bombing killed 63 people, mostly lawyers. He said they were also treating 92 wounded in the explosion. One of the survivors described a horrifying scene, saying there were bodies everywhere. Waliur Rehman said he was taking his ailing father to the emergency ward when the explosion shook the building. The blast was so powerful that they both fell down, he said. When he looked up, Rehman said he saw bodies of the dead and the wounding crying out for help. He was about 200 meters away from where the bombing struck, he added. Another witness, lawyer Abdul Latif, said he arrived at the hospital to express his grief over Kasis killing. But he said he didnt know he would see the bodies of dozens of other lawyers killed and wounded shortly after arriving. Sanaullah Zehri, chief minister in Baluchistan province, said both the bombing and Kasis slaying seemed to be part of a plot to disrupt peace in the provincial capital. Sarfraz Bugti, the provincial interior minister, denounced the attack as an act of terrorism. A Pakistani news channel reported that one of its cameramen was also killed in the blast. Local TV stations broadcast footage showing people running in panic around the hospital grounds. Afridi said most of the dead were lawyers who had gathered after Kasis body was brought to the hospital. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif strongly condemned the blast and expressed his deep grief and anguish over the loss of precious human lives in the attack, in which several senior lawyers were also killed. No one will be allowed to disturb the peace in the province that has been restored thanks to the countless sacrifices by the security forces, police and the people of Baluchistan, he said in a statement. Sharif asked the local authorities to maintain utmost vigilance and beef up security in Quetta. He also instructed health officials to provide the best treatment possible to those wounded in the attack. AP At a New Macau Association (ANM) meeting yesterday, vice president Jason Chao said that need for transparency in the Legislative Assembly (AL) elections next year is more essential than freedom of expression, given the particular circumstances of Macau. Chao made the comment during an ANM meeting ahead of the ALs discussion on the topic today, when the body is expected to vote on ammendments to the Electoral Law. In reaction to what the association sees as the flouting of the Electoral Law by organizations with access to significant resources, ANM want to expand the list of entities prohibited from aligning with, and favoring, particular candidates. Currently, companies with capital sourced or partly sourced from public funds, media organizations, and gaming operators are prevented from publicizing explicit or official support for individual candidates. However, the ANM proposal would see this extended to private companies, regardless of their size and irrespective of whether they are recipients of government grants, save for a few exceptions. [Under the current system] marginalized activists such as New Macau do not have any advantage [in the election], said Chao. We hope that the Electoral Law will create fairness and equality of participation, but this [current version of the] legislation is not taking a step in that direction. New Macau Association is proposing the inclusion of business organizations and associations receiving public grants in the list of having no eligibility [] as an election campaign supporter, he added. However, ANMs proposal to expand the list of organizations prohibited from officially supporting individual candidates is being seen by some as a challenge to freedom of expression. Even the associations senior leadership acknowledged that it was problematic, since the group has indignantly, and on numerous occasions, called for better protection of the particular freedom. While some will challenge that it [ANMs proposal] is a restriction on freedom of speech and to some extent, thats [true] you have to take the circumstances of Macau into account, justified Chao. Macau needs transparency. Its a matter of whether or not this piece of legislation is going to create fair ground for every ticket to contest those seats. When questioned by journalists as to whether striving for fewer restrictions might be more in line with ANMs vision for Macau politics, the associations senior leadership said that they would prefer to work within the current framework of the Electoral Law, adding that they had little confidence in oversight bodies to prevent cheaters in a less controlled electoral climate. One might move in the direction of lifting all restrictions [on campaigning] like in Hong Kong, Chao speculated, but under the current framework of Macaus election law, [the legislation is moving] in the restrictive direction. At this stage, we are sticking with the restrictive framework and so we are calling for more restrictions [in the name of] transparency. The problem also stems from a lack of confidence in electoral affairs monitoring agencies, according to a statement published by ANM yesterday. In the real world scenario, it is practically impossible to draw a clear line between the resources devoted to an election campaign and that [which is] under the normal operations of these organizations, the statement noted. Without a strong auditing practice and the required power of the [oversight] committee, not only will the system not improve but it also opens another loophole, enabling cheats [of the system], added ANM president Scott Chiang yesterday. Is the committee powerful enough to detect every activity held by this organizations supporters? I dont think so, he hypothesized. Do they have the willingness to count every expenditure and put that under the bill of the list? In practice, will this amendment improve the fairness of political participation in Macau, or will it enable cheaters to [cheat] legally? he challenged. Under the new ANM proposals, only a small number of associations would be able to sign up as official supporters of specific candidates, in addition to individuals who would be permitted to freely affiliate themselves with electoral candidates. Chao sheepishly acknowledged during yesterdays meeting that ANM would be one such group, though the reason for the awkwardness was unclear since political associations like ANM are already seen as essential to the functioning of Macaus electoral system. The association has additionally requested a meeting with members of the AL committee who will today deliberate changes to the bill to share some of the concerns raised during yesterdays meeting. Opposition stated to mop25,000 deposit New Macau also commented during yesterdays meeting on the introduction of a security deposit of MOP25,000 which some hope will be required from potential candidates before they can put their name forward. This restriction may make sense in places with vibrant civil societies such as Hong Kong, where many people actively engage in an election, but in Macau this price of electoral participation [] is a big amount for those who do not have many resources, noted Jason Chao. We oppose the introduction of the deposit. A U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer arrived in the northern Chinese port of Qingdao yesterday in the first visit by an American warship to the country since Beijing responded angrily to an arbitration panels ruling that its expansive South China Sea maritime claims had no basis in law. Arriving in the home port of Chinas northern fleet, the USS Benfold held a signal exercise with the Chinese navy. Cmdr. Justin L. Harts said the visit aimed to build relationships with counterparts from China, but referred questions on tensions in the South China Sea to Pacific Command in Hawaii. China rejected last months ruling by the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration in a case initiated by the Philippines and has criticized the U.S. as encouraging Manilas actions. 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 the disputed waters. Meanwhile, former Philippine President Fidel Ramos flew to Hong Kong yesterday for talks aimed at rekindling ties with China that have been strained by long-seething disputes in the South China Sea. Ramos said in a news conference at Manilas airport that he would act as an ice breaker and the warmer relations he wanted to forge could engender formal talks between China and the Philippines. President Rodrigo Duterte has designated Ramos as a special envoy to pave the way for negotiations with Beijing after an international arbitration tribunal invalidated Chinas expansive territorial claims in a case put forward by the Philippines. I am just the ice breaker, as they say, to rekindle, to warm up, again, our good, friendly, neighborly relations with China and thats all that I have to do, Ramos said. Ramos, now 88, was president when China seized the disputed Mischief Reef in 1995, sparking protests from the Philippines. Amid the rift, then-Chinese President Jiang Zemin paid a visit to Manila in 1996 and in a memorable moment, both leaders danced and sang Western songs, including Elvis Presleys Love Me Tender while on a Manila Bay cruise, helping ease tensions. On Saturday, Chinas air force said it had conducted a combat air patrol over disputed areas of the South China Sea to improve its fighting ability. The air force didnt say when the exercises took place, but after the July 12 arbitration ruling, the air force had said such patrols would be a regular practice. Air force spokesman Senior Col. Shen Jinke said in an online statement that bombers and fighters, early warning aircraft and reconnaissance planes patrolled the airspace around the Spratly Islands, Scarborough Shoal and surrounding areas. In Australia, an amateur marine archaeologist says the Chinese coast guard harassed him and his team while they were diving to a shipwreck off Borneo. Farmer Hans Berekoven told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that while the Chinese ship did not directly intervene, it clearly was trying to make them leave. They were trying to push us out. When we arrived there and started diving, they would up-anchor and sort of circle around us, sometimes really close. It was a sort of gentle intimidation, Berekoven said. The report said the location was the Luconia Breakers, a cluster of shoals and a tiny island about 84 nautical miles (135 kilometers) north of Borneo that lies inside Malaysias exclusive economic zone. China also claims the area within its nine-dash maritime border that the Hague arbitration panel ruled invalid. Berekoven also said the Chinese ship was causing major damage to the coral reef near where it was anchored. Shes got a massive anchor chain. Every time the wind changes or the current changes that big anchor chain is just making a hell of a mess of that reef, he said. Other reports of harassment appear to show Chinas determination to monopolize marine archaeology in the South China Sea, which is littered with the wrecks of ships of all nationalities. China has used archaeological finds to support its claim to have mapped and named the seas features from ancient times and therefore to have a historical right to sovereignty. Christopher Bodeen, Beijing, AP A tourism bus with 46 passengers on board crashed against a building on Rua da Entena, close to the Kiang Wu Hospital, leaving 32 passengers injured. Three of the victims are in a serious condition, including one whose medical condition is considered critical. The bus was carrying a tour group that arrived from Shenzhen for a short one-day visit. The group included tourists from several different regions and provinces of mainland China and was expecting to leave the territory yesterday by 5 p.m. The driver was allegedly outside of the vehicle trying to resolve a smaller traffic accident when the bus, which according to preliminary conclusions from the Public Security Police Force (PSP) did not have its brake applied successfully, started to roll down the road. The driver didnt brake the bus properly [before leaving his position], the acting deputy commissioner of the PSP, Wong Chi Fai said in a press conference held yesterday evening at the government headquarters to discuss the accident. The passenger in the most serious condition following the accident is a 46-year-old woman with a severe brain injury. The woman is currently in a coma after having been submitted to a surgical intervention to stop the brain from bleeding, the director of the Health Bureau (SSM), Lei Chin Ion said, adding that her condition is considered critical and life threatening. Another two women also suffered serious injuries related to the brain and to internal and external bleedings, as well as multiple bone fractures. All three are currently at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Kiang Wu Hospital and have been joined by another six passengers who will spend at least a day in the hospital under observation for several bone fractures on their feet, ribs, legs, eye sockets and jaws, informed a representative of Kiang Wus Emergency Services responsible. In the immediate moments following the accident, which occurred around 2:40 p.m., it was thought that a passer-by might have been struck by the bus due to a shared image of a person pictured unconscious and heavily bleeding next to the bus. However, Lei Chin Ion confirmed to the Times during the press conference yesterday evening that all the injured were passengers of the bus. No passer-by was involved [in the accident]. The police force representative also added that the bus driver, a local resident over 50 years old and considered experienced at the job had already been invited by the PSP to assist the Police Traffic Department in their investigation of the accident. Although the responsibilities and culpability of the driver for the accident has yet to be verfied, Wong said the driver is being investigated for inappropriate practices in his driving. Building hit by out-of-control bus evacuated The building that was struck by the bus may also be in danger, said the director of the Land, Public Works and Transport Bureau (DSSOPT), Li Canfeng. The pillar [hit by the bus] is a main pillar and an important part of the buildings structure, he said, adding we [DSSOPT] have already taken measures to temporarily support [the buildings integrity] and we are requesting the collaboration of the Civil Engineering Laboratory of Macau to conduct a follow-up on the case in the next few days. As for the buildings residents, those who were at home when the accident occurred (10) were all evacuated from the building, the second-in-command at the Fire Services, Chao Ka Cheong, informed. Li said that DSSOPT will conduct permanent monitoring of the building in loco with the appropriate equipment. At the moment is not convenient to hold an intensive inspection to the interior. We are studying the possibilities and will decide after [this first analysis], adding for the time being residents will be prevented from entering their homes. The bus will also remain in place inserted into the pillar and will only be removed after the building support [restoration] works, he informed, to ensure the structures integrity. Residents who require assistance from Welfare Affairs Bureau (IAS) will be temporally lodged in the Shelter Center at Ilha Verde, said Au Chi Keung, vice president of the IAS. He said six families are already lodged in the Ilha Verde Centre for Victims of Disaster. The passengers suffering from minor injuries are being accommodated in local hotels, confirmed the Tourism Office deputy director, Cheng Wai Tong. He also added that the unaffected members of the tour group have already returned to mainland to continue their trip or return home this afternoon. After being flooded with criticism from local residents, a representative from the Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau (SMG) said that the bureau would revise its regulations on typhoon warning signals. In a TDM Forum Sunday, a number of citizens gathered to robustly condemn the bureaus decision to not hoist typhoon no. 8 last week. One citizen harshly argued that the bureaus decision should not be made from digital devices. Whatever scientific figures [backing your decision] would be invalid if one has lost his life. [] I believe as an observatory, the bureaus future policymaking shouldnt only be scientifically backed, as we need officials instead of just computers to making decisions, said the resident. Tang Iu Man, who supervises the bureaus meteorological division, defended SMG by informing the public that authorities are open to amending the regulations on the criteria of warning signals, to reflect public opinions. However lawmaker Melinda Chan criticized Tangs remarks, explaining that authorities should retain professional judgment instead of amateur opinions. Meteorological forecasts require scientific judgment and professional knowledge. Not every citizen is meteorologically knowledgeable. The government should use scientific figures and professional judgement in hoisting typhoon signals, Chan noted. Chan added that the regulations SMG is reliant on when issuing typhoons were created back in 2000. Tang explained that the bureau would start to work on the adjustment of its regulations by obtaining opinions from other civil protection services and broader society later this year. In SMGs press conference last week, director of the bureau Fong Soi Kun announced that the decision to not hoist T8 typhoon signal was based on scientific data, knowledge and experience. However despite his statements, the public further slammed the bureau for failing to recognize the publics safety concerns. LV SOUTH CHINA SEA A U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer arrives in the northern Chinese port of Qingdao in the first visit by an American warship to the country since Beijing responded angrily to an arbitration panels ruling that its expansive South China Sea maritime claims had no basis in law. More on p11 JAPANs emperor expresses concern about fulfilling his duties as he ages, in a public address that is remarkable for its rarity and its suggestion that he would like to abdicate. More on p13 AFGHANISTAN Five gunmen wearing Afghan military uniforms have abducted an American and an Australian in Kabul. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the abduction. The two foreigners were taken from their SUV while driving on Sunday night on a main road near the American University of Afghanistan. They are believed to be employees of the university. INDIA Police say government forces have arrested more than 1,000 protesters in Indian-controlled Kashmir in an attempt to stem protests in the Himalayan region. PHILIPPINES Communist guerrillas reject a warning by the President Duterte against use of land mines that have killed troops and vow instead to intensify their use of such explosives at the risk of scuttling planned peace talks. NEPAL A helicopter crashed in a mountainous region of Nepal yesterday, killing all seven people on board, officials said. Nepals Civil Aviation Authority said efforts were being made to bring back the bodies from the crash site in the Chuchebhir area, located northwest of the capital, Kathmandu NEW ZEALANDs state-owned farming company said it will stop using palm kernel products to feed its animals as it seeks to take better care of the environment. Landcorp announced it will stop using the products by the middle of next year. Environmentalists have linked growth in the palm oil industry to rainforest destruction in Indonesia, which in turn is contributing to the decline in species like the Sumatran tiger. ZIMBABWEs longtime president has praised his security forces while warning against violent protests, days after the police crushed an anti-government march in the capital, Harare. President Robert Mugabe spoke yesterday at a commemoration event notable for the absence of some of his previously loyal wartime allies. POKEMON It was a bit touch and go for Hiroshima officials, but the atomic bomb memorial park in the western Japanese city is now Pokemon No. The city had asked the developer of the popular Pokemon Go smartphone game to remove the creatures and sites that appeared in the park by last weekend, when a solemn annual ceremony was held to mark the anniversary of the atomic bombing that killed 140,000 people in the final days of World War II. By Rachel Richardson 513-556-5219 After years of lectures, exams and late-night caffeinated cram sessions, many college students look forward to that landmark day when they can proudly march across the stage with degree in hand, toss their caps high into the air and celebrate the culmination of years of hard work. For newly minted University of Cincinnati graduates Leah Howell and Sara Whitestone, UCs 2016 summer Commencement ceremony held Aug. 6 at Fifth Third Arena marked an even greater milestone: the ultimate triumph of overcoming adversity through the power of community and the relentless pursuit of passion. The fight of her life Howell, a doctoral student in Educational Studies at UCs College of Education, Criminal Justice & Human Services, was looking forward to defending her dissertation last fall when catastrophe struck. Diagnosed in childhood with chronic pyelonephritis, a recurring kidney infection that can lead to renal inflammation and scarring, Howell underwent two kidney transplants in 2003 and 2004. By 2010, her health had stabilized and she joined the Bearcat family as an academic advisor in the McMicken College of Arts & Sciences while also pursuing her graduate studies. As UCs 2015 fall Homecoming approached, Howell began feeling under-the-weather and was admitted to the hospital for what promised to be a minor condition. A routine procedure, however, would quickly turn into a fight for her life when she suffered a life-threatening complication. I was admitted into the [Intensive Care Unit] at University Hospital and placed on a ventilator, Howell recalled. I spent three weeks unconscious, passing my initially planned dissertation defense date, and undergoing over a dozen surgical procedures. After spending a harrowing several months in the hospital, Howell was released home in January to rest and rehabilitate. She returned to campus in June and quickly caught up on lost time, successfully defending her dissertation and netting a new job as an assistant dean of students at Bowling Green State University. There were many days I wasnt sure I would make it through. I wouldnt have done it without my Bearcat family here on campus, my advisor and my family, said Howell, sporting her hard-earned doctoral robe and regalia. I wouldnt change a thing along the way, she added of her whirlwind year. Challenges aside, I am who I am because of those things. It seems wildfire season is in full swing around the Northwest, as weve seen here with a number of fires across the state. Already this year, homes have been burned or threatened, and thousands of acres of land scorched. When disasters happen, Idahoans are quick to help. Thats fantastic! And as with any time you donate to a cause, thoroughly vet any charity before donating. Better Business Bureau Northwest is sending a warning about the dangers of donating relief funds to the wrong people. Keep in mind, con artists impersonate legitimate entities using materials with borrowed names and logos. Be wary of anyone using these tactics to obtain funds: Use of threatening and aggressive tactics or deadlines. Only accepts cash donations or checks made out to them personally. Cant explain what kind of relief will be offered, how it will be distributed, who will benefit, when it will be allocated and what percentage of donations benefit causes. Watch out for newly created entities that dont have a track record and/or experience in providing disaster relief. Be wary of claims that 100 percent of donations will assist relief victims. No matter what an organization claims, it still has fund-raising and administrative costs. Even a credit card donation involves a processing fee. Find out if the charity has an on-the-ground presence in the impacted areas. Beware of those that dont have staff available to provide assistance quickly. And, if youre looking for the latest updates on fire season, be wary of cybercriminals who target those looking for news updates and wanting to help. While online, be careful of: Search engine results from unknown or untrustworthy websites. Unsolicited emails, instant messages and social media posts from unknown senders. Videos or news stories with unusual or shocking headlines. Protect computers, click carefully and guard personal data. Ensure that anti-virus software, security patches and firewalls are installed, active and up-to-date. Anyone who feels they are the victim of a scam, should report it to their local law enforcement or with BBB Scam Tracker at bbb.org/scamtracker. Lori Irish opens insurance office TWIN FALLS After 12 years working for American Family Insurance, agent Lori Irish decided to go out on her own. Irish opened Lori Irish Agency in July at 218 Falls Ave., Suite A. She offers home, auto, business and life insurance and annuities. I just wanted to be able to offer more companies, Irish said. Her daughter, Kelsey Irish, works as the office assistant in the Twin Falls practice. Hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday. Information: Call 208-733-3955. Shoe Dept. store opening at Magic Valley Mall TWIN FALLS A national shoe and accessory store plans to open Sept. 2 at the Magic Valley Mall in the 8,259 square-foot space formerly occupied by clothing retailer Deb Shops. Shoe Dept., owned by Shoe Show Inc., will be found inside the mall between Radio Shack and Rue 21. The store will hold more than 12,500 pairs of mens, womens and childrens shoes along with handbags, backpacks, accessories and shoe care products. A company spokeswoman couldnt say how many employees would be brought on, but said the company is hiring key holders and sales associates. Resumes may be sent via email to heisenhauer@shoeshow.com or bpeters@shoeshow.com. Shoe Show Inc. was founded in 1960 in Kannapolis, North Carolina, and has 1,153 stores in 43 states. The store names include Shoe Show, Shoe Show Mega Store, Shoe Dept., Encore, Shobilee and Burlington Shoes. The Shoe Dept. division carries brands including Eastland, Timberland, Tommy Hilfiger, Hush Puppies, Life Stride, Rocky Boots, K Swiss, Reebok, Nike, Keds, New Balance and Hi-Tec. Deb Shops closed its stores nationwide following a company bankruptcy. Sleep Number opens Friday TWIN FALLS A Sleep Number store is planned to open Friday at 1853 Blue Lakes Blvd. N., next to Mens Warehouse. At the new store, customers will be guided by an employee who will help them understand their sleep needs. The Sleep Number store was recently recognized by the Association of Retail Environments with an award for outstanding store design. The new 1,919 square-foot store will employ a staff of three sleep experts. This is the first Sleep Number store in the Twin Falls area. Psychiatric Services Behavioral Health moves TWIN FALLS Psychiatric Services Behavioral Health Clinic has moved in with Positive Connections, 1373 Fillmore St. The business has signed a managing contract with Positive Connections, but will continue to serve its own clients, said Faye Potthast, Positive Connections co-owner and licensed marriage and family therapist. It is planned that Positive Connections will sign a contract to acquire the business in December. It was a really good fit, Potthast said. The move took place after Psychiatric Services Behavioral Health Clinic owner Carmen Babb had some personal issues come up, Potthast said. Positive Connections had a building that was large enough to accommodate all of Babbs staff, and Potthast said she looks forward to learning from how the other business operates. Clients for either business can call 208-737-9999. The 24-hour crisis line number is 208-308-3883. JEROME A man in his 70s appears to have shot himself to death at an overlook next to the Perrine Bridge late Monday or early Tuesday. People walking in the area discovered the mans body on the east side of a rock wall near an overlook on the Snake River Canyon about 9 a.m. Tuesday, Jerome County sheriffs deputies said. The Jerome Sheriffs Office, Idaho State Police, Magic Valley Paramedics and the county coroner all responded. A search and rescue crew was called to rappel to help with recovering the body because of windy conditions. The body was recovered about 11 a.m. A handgun was found with the man, deputies said. KETCHUM A Ketchum man has been charged with sexually assaulting a woman four months after she reported being attacked, police said Tuesday. Nicholas Mikhail Hilton Ward, 24, appeared in court Monday on a charge of sexual penetration forcible use of a foreign object against a victim's will. Police were called to St. Luke's Wood River Medical Center about 1:40 a.m. March 7 where they spoke to a 25-year-old woman who said she was sexually assaulted in a downstairs room at Whiskey Jacque's a short time earlier. She told police the man who attacked her was an employee of the bar. Police say Ward was an employee of Whiskey Jacque's but wasn't working at the time. Prosecutors filed a case on July 20 and Ward was summoned to court. TWIN FALLS Police say a 28-year-old man sexually assaulted a developmentally delayed woman Saturday. Mohammed Hussein I. Eldai was arraigned Monday in Twin Falls County Magistrate Court on a charge of sexual abuse of a vulnerable adult. About 3 p.m. Saturday, police were dispatched to Madison Circle in Twin Falls when the womans mother called police. The woman, who lives with her mother because of her disability, told police she went for a walk Saturday but became hot and tired and stopped to lie down on the sidewalk for a nap, court documents said. She said Eldai stopped to ask if she was OK, and he said she would take a nap at his house. The woman went to Eldais house, where he made her a drink; she refused it after tasting, court documents said. Thats when Eldai repeatedly tried to lie down next to her on his bed and began touching her inappropriately, she told police. She told Eldai she didnt like it and wanted to go home, court records said. Eldai continued to touch her, she told police, but she eventually left his house and ran home. The woman showed police Eldais home; when asked, he told them he invited the woman over, offered to let her stay and touched her under her clothing, police said. He also told police he took off his clothes and was planning on having sex with her. A preliminary hearing is set for Aug. 19, and Eldais bond was set at $10,000. RUPERT A Rupert man is charged with felony aggravated battery, aggravated assault and other charges after, police say, he forced a woman to drive into oncoming traffic, kept her imprisoned in a bedroom and forced her and four children to lie on the floor while he brandished a gun and threatened to kill them. Joshua Brock Winmill, 34, is also charged with domestic violence battery inflicting traumatic injury, a domestic battery enhancement for committing a crime with children present and attempted strangulation. On July 25, police said, Winmill forced the woman and the children go into a bedroom and wouldnt let them out. He went to work and watched them on Facetime, a video chatting app that allows people to directly see each other over the phone. The woman said she was allowed to go to the bathroom only once and once to get food from the refrigerator. If the phone connection was broken, she told police, he would come home and beat her. Later that day after Winmill returned from work, she drove him to a tire store to pick up his truck. During the drive, he went through her phone to see who she had been talking to. After they arrived and he picked up his truck, he used his vehicle to force her car into oncoming traffic, court documents said. The woman said she believed Winmill intended to cause her to crash, and she feared for her life and the childrens lives. A witness said she saw Winmill force the woman into oncoming lanes of traffic and that he would not let her come back into the correct lane, court records said. The week before, Winmill held the woman and children at gunpoint, court records said. He told them to say their goodbyes and hit the woman with the rifle, the documents said. The woman told police Winmill also tried to choke her twice, once by putting his hand around her throat and another time with his forearm and bicep. Police reported finding marks and facial bruising on the woman, court documents said. Winmill is being held at the Mini-Cassia Criminal Justice Center on a $100,000 bond. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. A preliminary hearing is set for Wednesday in Minidoka County Magistrate Court. JEROME A smoke alarm that Jerome firefighters helped to install a few months ago saved a family Saturday. Jerome city firefighters were dispatched to a fire at a home on North Buchanan Street and found when they arrived the family had successfully escaped the quickly growing fire, the department said in a statement. The tenant told firefighters that the smoke alarms are what alerted her to get her family out. On May 14, the Jerome city and rural fire departments, American Red Cross and local community groups and volunteers installed 392 smoke alarms donated by the Red Cross in 109 houses in Jerome. The fire was put out in about 15 minutes, but the home was a total loss. Five people lived there who have been displaced, and one adult and three children were home at the time. At the end of the day, this is a success, everyone got out safe, the smoke alarms provided just enough warning for that to happen, Jerome city Fire Chief Tom Hughes said in a statement. City police, Magic Valley Paramedics and the Red Cross all assisted at the fire scene. Smoke alarms should be tested every month, the fire department said. If you need new ones, visit getasmokealarm.org. TWIN FALLS The Twin Falls Public Library is seeking nominees to fill a seat after board member Margaret Peck resigned. City council will appoint a new trustees to complete the term through December 2017. The library is also seeking nominees to fill a seat currently held by Benjamin Cluff when his term expires in December. The city council will appoint a new trustee to serve a term from Jan. 1, 2017 through December 2021. The five-member board establishes policies and rules for the library. Meetings are 4:30 p.m. the second Wednesday of each month at the library. Interested applicants who reside within the Twin Falls city limits should submit a letter stating their qualifications and reasons for wanting to be on the library board. Letters should be sent or delivered to the Twin Falls Public Library, 201 Fourth Ave. E., by Aug. 26. For more information, call library director Tara Bartley at 208-733-2964, ext. 401. First off, if you wonder where I had been the last week and a half, I took some time off to go back to my home state of Indiana for my 20th high school reunion. It was nice to see old friends and even spent some time with my wifes family. As for the weather back in the Midwest, while it wasnt nearly as hot, it was very muggy. Although that was the weather I grew up, and I do love seeing and being surrounded by trees, Trisha and I commented on how much we really do love living here in Idaho. I will get back to some of your questions in the coming days, and if you still want to ask a weather question, please ask it. Send me an email at bneudorff@kmvt.com and title it Times-News Weather. As for our local weather, it will be fairly comfortable Tuesday into really the end of the week. The average high is still about 90 degrees, but Tuesday and Wednesday we will be about 10 degrees cooler than average thanks to a passing upper level Pacific storm system. This will pass to our north keeping southern Idaho on the dry side. The only chance of showers and storms in our area could be Wednesday afternoon and evening along the Idaho/Nevada border. If heat is what you like then dont worry its coming back, could be back into the 90s by the weekend. Its good to be back and as always, thanks for reading. After Ankaras relations with Brussels strained following European Union criticism of Turkish authorities crackdown on those involved in the failed military coup, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan moved closer to Russia. He travelled this Tuesday to Moscow where he was received by President Vladimir Putin. The meeting, the first since the Russian fighter jet downing by the Turkish air force last November, shows the two leaders readiness and resolve to open a new page in their relations. It is Erdogans first visit abroad since the failed coup attempt in Turkey last month. He thanked Putin for his support. Your call straight after the coup was very pleasing for me and our leadership and our people, said the Turkish President. It is our principled position, Putin said, referring to the coup attempt. We are always categorically opposed to any attempts at anti-constitutional activity. I want to express the hope that under your leadership the Turkish people will deal with this, and justice and legality will prevail. Western leaders have criticized Turkey for the crackdown in the aftermath of the coup, and for suggestions by Erdogan that the death penalty could be reintroduced. The Turkish President has been strongly critical of the EU and US response to the coup attempt. The Arab Spring enhanced Turkeys importance as a model country for other Islamic countries. With the Arab Spring gone sour and the EU battling its own crises, Turkey becomes more authoritarian under President Erdogan. The EU has demanded a revision of Turkeys anti-terrorism law as a precondition for allowing Turks visa-free travel in Europe. The Europeans want Turkey to change its anti-terrorism law so that journalists, academics, activists and ordinary citizens are not charged under it for merely expressing their views something that is happening with increasing frequency. Ankara is currently embroiled in a bloody war against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK.) Early in May, President Erdogan made it clear that his country would not comply with the EU-deal, indicating that if the EU is not pleased with that, it can go its way while Turkey goes its own. After 16 years of budget surplus dating back to the end of the 1999 fiscal year, Kuwait has announced that it registered its first budget deficit in 2016. Finance Minister Anas al-Saleh had informed the parliament last month that they will be eyeing international debt markets to finance the deficit of around $15.3 billion. The countrys fiscal year ended on March 31 and the failure of oil prices to recover contributed to the deficit as 89% of the countrys revenue is derived from oil. Finance minister Saleh explained that the domestic market and US-denominated bonds from international markets will be used to borrow money and both the conventional and Sukuk issuances will be used. The domestic market is expected to provide $6.6 billion while the rest will come from international markets. The budget deficit will continue as the current fiscal year is projected to have a shortfall of $28.9 billion prompting authorities to embark on a series of oil, energy and subsidy reforms and cutting public expenditures. Data from the International Monetary Fund showed that in last years budget, subsidies accounted for around 6.4% of the gross domestic product, which is equivalent to $7.8 billion. Moodys Investor Service thinks that the reforms will help to boost the countrys credit ratings by reducing spending. It expects the government to make fiscal gains if the recovery of oil prices accelerates because the government will review prices every three months to ensure that they move in tandem with global rates. During the past 16 hay years of the oil sector, Kuwait established a wealth fund of around $600 billion with investments injected mostly in the US, Europe and Asia. Morocco, which is gearing up for the November UN meeting on climate change (COP22), is determined to provide security for the thousands of delegates expected to congregate in Marrakech. In this vein, more than 10,000 security forces from different police districts have been selected to undergo international standards training at the Royal Police Academy in Kenitra, some 40 Km to the north of Rabat, reports local daily Akhbar Al Yaoum. The training provided by the General Directorate for National Security (DGSN) and supported by international security experts is designed to enhance the trainees skills, improve their physical conditions, and acquaint them with several techniques to reinforce their professionalism and responsiveness ahead of the global climate event. The trainees, selected on various criteria namely discipline, competence, physical, moral and psychological condition, are also being trained on the use of hazard materials detection equipment. Part of the security measures during the nearly 2-week event (7-18 November,) authorities will install surveillance cameras to monitor suspicious movements. Tunisias largest party in parliament, Ennahda, hopes to get a high number of ministerial positions in the forthcoming unity government to be announced soon. The Party leader, Rached Ghannouchi, on Monday called the appointed Prime Minister to pay more consideration to Ennahda. For Rached Ghannouchi, it is time the party benefitted from its majority in the Tunisian parliament. In an interview to local media Assarih, Ghannouchi said his party, represented only by one member in the outgoing Habid Essids cabinet, accepted to enter the previous cabinet in a bid to thaw ties with President Caid Essebsis Nidaa Tounes party. Ennahda became the largest party in the Tunisian parliament after ruling Nidaa Tounes lost several lawmakers who walked out of the party as a result of inner rivalries. For Ghannouchi, the newly appointed Prime Minister Youssef Chahed must take into account the new distribution in the parliament. During its latest congress in May, Ennahda abandoned its political Islam ideology in a move to gain more support and acceptance from secular parties. The party, banned under ousted Ben Ali, won the 2011 elections, deemed as free and fair. It formed a cabinet but met a lot of criticism. In the 2014 elections, it came in second behind Nidaa Tounes. As wireless companies prepare to launch the next generation of service, there are new questions about the possible health risks from radiation emitted by cellphones and the transmitters that carry the signals. Concerns about the potential harmful effects of radiofrequency radiation have dogged mobile technology since the first brick-sized cellphones hit the market in the 1980s. Industry and federal officials have largely dismissed those fears, saying that the radiation exposure is minimal and that the devices are safe. Incidences of and deaths from brain cancer have shown little change in recent years despite the explosion in cellphone usage, they note. But the launch of super-fast 5G technology over the next several years will dramatically increase the number of transmitters sending signals to cellphones and a host of new internet-enabled devices, including smart appliances and autonomous vehicles. And the move to the new technology comes after unsettling findings from a long-awaited federal government study of the cancer risk from cellphone use. National Toxicology Program researchers released preliminary data in May that showed small increases in tumors in male rats exposed to cellphone radiation. The rats were exposed to nine hours of radiation daily, in 10-minutes-on, 10-minutes-off intervals, over their whole bodies for two years. The researchers found increased incidences of rare brain and heart tumors starting at about the federally allowable level of cellphone radiation for brain exposure, with greater incidences at about two and four times those levels. Extrapolating the results to humans gets complicated, and there were some puzzling findings as well. Why, for instance, did only male rats show increased tumor rates, and not females? Final results from the peer-reviewed study won't be released until at least the end of 2017. The study, which the American Cancer Society said marked "a paradigm shift in our understanding of radiation and cancer risk," reignited debate about the potential harmful effects of cellphones on human health. The concerns are amplified by the explosive growth in the number of cellphone subscribers over the last three decades and the increasing amount of time people are using mobile devices amid the popularity of social networks and streaming video. Now, some experts and wireless-safety advocates are calling for more research as the nation prepares to take the leap into a 5G world that promises to offer more and faster services. And they are reiterating advice - echoed by federal officials - about steps that concerned consumers can easily take to reduce their exposure to radiofrequency radiation, such as using a headset to keep the phone away from their heads. "I don't think it's clear that there are health risks, but it's also not clear that there are no health risks," said Leeka Kheifets, an epidemiology professor at UCLA's Fielding School of Public Health who has studied the health effects of cellphone use. The National Toxicology Program study "was just an indicator that more and better research is needed," she said. Last month, the U.S. became the first nation to allocate a large swath of airwaves for 5G. Those services could be available to consumers by 2020, offering transmission speeds at least 10 times faster than today's 4G. The Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously to allow wireless providers access to high-frequency airwaves that have had limited uses because they can't carry data very far. Technological advances have made it possible to expand consumer wireless services into those airwaves. But to use the spectrum, wireless companies will have to install thousands of small base stations - some just the size of smoke detectors - on utility poles and buildings to pass the signals along. The industry will spend about $56 billion to develop, test and deploy 5G services in the U.S. through 2025, according to IGR, a wireless market-strategy consulting firm. There were about 308,000 wireless antennas on cell towers and buildings at the end of last year, double the number in 2002, according to CTIA, a leading wireless trade group. It's unclear how many smaller base stations would be needed for 5G service. But it's widely believed that there would need to be exponentially more because of the limited distance the signals can travel. One researcher estimated a station would be needed for every 12 homes in a dense urban area. The prospect of more transmitters emitting radiofrequency radiation - though at much lower levels than those coming from cell towers - has alarmed people concerned about the effects on humans. The move to 5G presents additional concerns because there will be more energy in signals traveling over the high-frequency spectrum and the smaller transmitters will be closer to where people live and work. "There is a big concern with the previous technology and it's just being made worse with 5G," said Kevin Mottus, outreach director for the California Brain Tumor Association, who attended the FCC meeting and unsuccessfully attempted to ask officials about the health effects. "These are microwave transmitters, and the closer you are to them, the more problems," he said. Desiree Jaworski, executive director of the Center for Safer Wireless, a nonprofit organization that educates the public about the potential hazards of wireless radiation, said 5G signals will be harder for people to avoid. "Right now, you don't have to live next to a cell tower. If you're concerned about it, you can move away," she said. "But once they have these cell antennas everywhere, you won't be able to do that." The FCC shares responsibility for the safety of cellphones with the Food and Drug Administration and sets maximum allowable levels for safe exposure to radiofrequency radiation - known as the specific absorption rate - that devices sold in the U.S. must not exceed. The FCC also regulates the exposures from base stations transmitting wireless signals. In 2013, the FCC opened a formal inquiry into whether it needed to reassess its exposure limits. That proceeding remains open, the agency said. "Scientific evidence always informs FCC rules on this matter," said spokesman Neil Grace. "We will continue to follow all recommendations from federal health and safety experts including whether the FCC should modify its current policies and RF exposure limits." The FDA said it "believes that the weight of scientific evidence does not show an association between exposure to radiofrequency from cellphones and adverse health outcomes." But that agency said more research is needed. In 2011, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, which is part of the World Health Organization, classified cellphone radiation as "possibly carcinogenic to humans." There are 288 other "agents" with that classification, including many chemicals as well as talc-based body powder and traditional Asian pickled vegetables. The organization said research at the time was limited, and it did not classify the radiofrequency radiation as cancer-causing or probably cancer-causing. CTIA said that the health of Americans is its "paramount" concern and that the industry follows the guidance of government experts. "The FCC has determined that all wireless phones legally sold in the United States are 'safe,'" the organization said in a written statement. The FCC is "developing guidance" for the industry on compliance with radiation safety standards of phones and other equipment that would use 5G airwaves, CTIA said. The wireless organization said "the larger scientific community" would consider the National Toxicology Program findings in the context of other studies. The $25 million study was requested by the FDA in 1999 and was conducted using second-generation cellphone technology. The preliminary findings were released because "we felt like this was concerning enough because there was maybe some type of linkage" between cellphone radiation and cancer, said Michael Wyde, the project leader for the National Toxicology Program's radiofrequency studies. Wyde said it was up to regulators to take the study's findings and determine if safety standards needed to be adjusted. "We're mostly the first step in the risk-identification process," he said. Joel M. Moskowitz, director of the Center for Family and Community Health at the University of California at Berkeley's School of Public Health, said there needs to be more federal funding to study the possible radiation risks. Last year, he helped organize a letter to the United Nations by more than 200 scientists worldwide who have studied the effects of exposure to cellphone radiation and other electromagnetic fields. The scientists want U.N. officials to take more steps to protect humans, particularly children and pregnant women. One of the few 5G studies is starting in New Zealand. Researchers from Massey University will use modeling to determine the possible health effects of "many, many transmitters transmitting together," said Syed Faraz Hasan, who heads that university's telecommunications research group. "I believe if we show that it is bad, we have room to tweak the technology, and if we show it is not bad, then users will be happy it is safe," Hasan said. Kheifets, the UCLA professor, said it's not "realistic or warranted" to slow down or halt 5G deployment to wait for more research, as some wireless safety advocates have demanded. "But certainly, as you are deploying new stuff, one should be measuring changes in exposure and looking at human health (effects) at the least," she said. Explore further NIH experts question fed study linking cellphones to tumors 2016 Los Angeles Times Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. This artwork illustrates the idea that anti-cancer protections for organs are influenced by natural selection and Darwinian fitness. Credit: Eric Pelatan Malignant cancers strike certain organs, such as the colon or breast, more often than others. In an Opinion publishing August 9 in Trends in Cancer, researchers propose that this vulnerability in some organs may be due to natural selection. Humans can tolerate tumors in large or paired organs more easily than in small, critical organs, such as the heart, and so the larger organs may have evolved fewer mechanisms to defend against cancerous cells. "The organs that are the most important to keeping you alive and capable of reproduction, such as the heart, brain, or uterus, may enjoy a better protection against cancer, all other things being equal," says Frederic Thomas, an evolutionary biologist at the Center for Ecological and Evolutionary Cancer Research in France. "We are not saying that this is the main factor to explain the different susceptibility of organs to cancer, but it is a factor that contributes with others." Many oncologists have explained the difference in rates of organ cancer by looking at either external risk factors, such as smoking or UV light exposure, or internal factors, such as how often cells must divide in an organ. Thomas and his coauthors, including senior author Beata Ujvari, an evolutionary ecologist at Deakin University in Australia, now propose this evolutionary theory to supplement the current understanding. The team suggests that natural selection has favored strong anti-cancer protection for small organs that are critical to human survival and reproduction. "Organs that are large or in pairs could potentially accumulate larger numbers of oncogenic manifestations without being impaired, whereas small and important organs like the pancreas could be easily compromised with only a few tumors inside," says Thomas. Therefore, so the theory goes, the pancreas should be better at defending against cancer compared to an organ like the kidney, if all other factors are equal. Anti-cancer protection mechanisms vary from organ to organ, but in general, they make an organ resistant to tumor formation. The researchers also recommend that cancer biologists think of individual organs as specialized islands with their own environmental conditions (such as the level of oxygen, acidity, or water), where the survival of cancer cells depends on is the hospitality of the local environment. "Malignant cells are living entitiesit's just impossible that they are not influenced by the ecological conditions," says Thomas. "It clearly means that certain organs are more favorable than others to malignant perturbation." Thomas, Ujvari, and their colleagues are now working to test their hypothesis. "A complete analysis requires that we take into account all the possible confounding factors," emphasizes Thomas. "We cannot just look at existing statistics on cancer and the size of the organs and make a correlation to see if it works or not." Currently, the team is running a long-term experiment with mice to measure the accumulation of cancerous and precancerous mutations inside different organs. The research is part of a new international collaboration between Deakin University and the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). "It's a novel hypothesis that deserves to be explored," says Thomas. "We hope this paper will stimulate research in that direction." Explore further Cancer risk myth debunked mathematically More information: Thomas et al., "Evolutionary Ecology of Organs: a Missing Link in Cancer Development?" Trends in Cancer. www.cell.com/trends/cancer/ful 2405-8033(16)30079-6. DOI: 10.1016/j.trecan.2016.06.009 Thomas et al., "Evolutionary Ecology of Organs: a Missing Link in Cancer Development?" A bird species that does a poor job spreading West Nile virus (WNV) but is particularly likely to get mosquito bites may explain why human infections with the disease are relatively uncommon in Atlanta, Georgiadespite evidence of high rates of virus circulating in the local bird population, according to a new study published online today in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Researchers at Emory University, University of Georgia, Texas A&M and the Georgia Department of Transportation set out to find clues explaining why Georgia's infection rate for WNV since 2001 is quite low (about 3.3 per 100,000 people), even though evidence showed that about one-third of birds in the Atlanta area have been exposed to the disease. They noted that a similar pattern is seen throughout the American southeast, where a large amount of WNV in birds and mosquitoes has not translated into a large number of human cases. In urban areas in the northeast and midwest, the situation is frequently the oppositeinfection rates in Chicago, for example, are six times higher than Atlanta's, even though less than 20 percent of Chicago birds show evidence of WNV infection. Disease experts often refer to human cases of WNV as "spillover" infections, because they happen when disease circulating between birds and mosquitoes spills over into nearby human populations via mosquito bites. While most human infections cause few, if any symptoms, some cases can result in headaches, joint pain, and fatigue that linger for weeks. In rare instances WNV produces potentially fatal brain inflammation. Since the disease arrived in the continental United States in 1999, there have been over 780,000 human infections and 1,700 fatalities documented. The Emory University researchers were particularly interested in the role of American robins, considered "super-spreaders" of the disease because they efficiently pass the virus along to mosquitoes that bite them. Those mosquitoes in turn can feed on humans, potentially infecting them. Over three years they collected mosquitoes and birds across Atlanta, tested them for WNV, and ran a DNA analysis of the mosquitoes' blood meals to see which birds they had bitten. "What we found is that, for some unknown reason, around the middle of July, mosquitoes in Atlanta seem to decide that they have had their fill of robins and they switch to feeding on cardinals," said Rebecca Levine, PhD, the lead author of the study who conducted the research while at Emory University. "But cardinals, even though they can be infected with West Nile virus, are much less likely to have enough virus circulating in their blood to transmit the disease back to feeding mosquitoes. That is why we called them 'supersuppressors'." The shift occurs just as mosquito populations are rising, which typically should mean more WNV circulating in the area and hence a greater risk of human infections, said Levine, now an epidemiologist and entomologist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She said it's not clear what prompts the shift in feeding behavior in Atlanta but that this shift may be what is protecting Atlantans from WNV spillover. Also, throughout the city, researchers found a high rate of exposure to WNV among mockingbirds, brown thrashers and gray catbirds. There is evidence from previous studies that gray catbirds and brown thrashers also act as suppressors slowing the transmission of WNV. Levine said there could be many factors that determine how WNV is spread between birds and mosquitoes and how that in turn affects human risk. Changes in roosting behavior of birds are one possibility, defensive behavior is another, and there are other possibilities. For example, they found less evidence of WNV among bird populations in small patches of old growth forest. Thus, original forest cover may reduce transmission. "So, we might find that keeping old growth forests intact, even in urban areas, can provide more than just an interesting piece of history," she said. "Ultimately, if we can identify certain features of the local ecosystem that help prevent disease transmission, then we can consider preserving and enhancing them." Overall, Levine said the findings point to the complex role of many factors in the local environment interacting to determine the risk of human infections. For example, she said the study should not prompt officials in Chicago to start releasing flocks of cardinals across the city because the same species may perform different roles in different ecosystems. "As new mosquito-borne diseases enter and spread in America, we need to better understand all aspects of pathogen transmission cycles," said Stephen Higgs, PhD, president of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. "By shedding light on the reasons behind a curious discrepancy in West Nile virus human infection rates in different regions of the United States, this study has the potential to better protect Americans' health while continuing to demonstrate the link between animal and human health." Explore further Bird vaccine for West Nile Virus Provided by Burness Credit: Morgan Philp You don't need to have watched too many episodes of the US television series Breaking Bad to know that rogue chemists play a critical role in the global trade of illicit and dangerous drugs. Countless new formulations are devised each year as criminal syndicates try to stay a step ahead of contemporary law enforcement and drug-testing procedures. UTS PhD candidate Morgan Philp is a chemist on the other side of the ledger her work lies in creating ways to detect problematic substances at the earliest opportunity. Working in the Centre for Forensic Science with her supervisor, Professor Shanlin Fu, Ms Philp has developed a quick and simple colour test for synthetic cathinones. It produces a result in five to 10 minutes and can be easily used by frontline customs officers and police to determine if a suspicious substance requires further analysis. The findings are published this month in the journal Forensic Chemistry. Ms Philp says colour tests already exist for more familiar narcotics such as heroin, cocaine, amphetamines and MDMA. However, synthetic cathinones often pass through unnoticed because testing is lab-based and time-consuming. "These cathinones are typically made in China or India and sent here in disguise," says Ms Philp. "If police or customs had early warning that a substance was suspicious and should undergo proper instrumental analysis, they would be able to intervene and prevent the drug reaching the streets." The colour test involves taking a pinhead-sized amount of the substance, adding three reagents, then heating the combination to 80C. A colour change to yellow or orange indicates it is likely to be a synthetic cathinone. Synthetic cathinones come under the umbrella term Drug Analogues and New Psychoactive Substances (DANPS), which also includes synthetic cannabis. According to the Illicit Drug Data Report 2013-14 from the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC, formerly the Australian Crime Commission), DANPS have been identified in Australia for more than a decade. They are developed to mimic the pharmacological effects of prohibited drugs while staying under the drug control radar. Synthetic cathinones are based on a man-made formula similar to cathinone, a stimulant found in the African khat plant, and are typically marketed online as "legal" alternatives to illicit drugs. They are often labelled as bath salts, fertiliser or plant food to avoid scrutiny at border controls. Dr Mark Tahtouh, team leader in Forensic Drug Intelligence with the Australian Federal Police and co-supervisor of Ms Philp's PhD project, says substances such as cathinones are a growing problem for law enforcement agencies. "They are similar to existing, often legal drugs but are tweaked in the manufacturing process to produce slight changes in chemical structure," says Dr Tahtouh. "That makes them hard to detect to start with and also to identify if they're illicit." At the same time, their health impacts are largely unknown. The ACIC report says there is little if any testing in manufacture; reported effects include loss of appetite, dilated pupils, tremors or convulsions, insomnia, anxiety, hallucinations and paranoia. Dr Tahtouh says Ms Philp's test would be a welcome addition to a suite of much-needed rapid-screening technologies. "Colour tests are quick, easy to perform and don't require specialisation on the part of the tester," he says. "A positive result doesn't give a definitive result but it does point us in the right direction. If we have someone in custody and are suspicious about a quantity of white powder, for example, we need to act quickly. "Lab-based instrumental techniques take much longer, and that doesn't include the time to get the substance to the lab and whether other matters may require priority and urgent action." Explore further Bath salts difficult to detect in biological samples, study finds More information: Morgan Philp et al. Development and validation of a presumptive color spot test method for the detection of synthetic cathinones in seized illicit materials, Forensic Chemistry (2016). Morgan Philp et al. Development and validation of a presumptive color spot test method for the detection of synthetic cathinones in seized illicit materials,(2016). DOI: 10.1016/j.forc.2016.06.001 Sharing with others and getting something back: Preschoolers expect someone who has benefitted from their generosity to reciprocate when an opportunity arises to do so. "You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours". This old adage is one that already preschoolers seem to follow, as a new study by Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich psychologist Markus Paulus, now demonstrates. In a series of experiments, Paulus, who is Professor of Developmental Psychology and the Psychology of Learning in Early Childhood at LMU, has looked at the question of whether 3- to 5-year-olds take a strategic approach when they ask one another for a favor. The results of his study have now been published in the journal Developmental Psychology, and the title of the paper - It's Payback Time - answers the question in no uncertain terms. One of the issues in child psychology that has received a lot of attention in recent years is the question of the motives that shape the social behavior of preschool children. The cognitive mechanisms that underlie social behavior in preschoolers, and the extent to which they employ strategic thinking in their interactions with each other are subject to intense debate. Paulus shows in his latest study that 3- to 5-year-olds expect reciprocity from someone who has previously benefitted from an act of generosity of their own part. In the experimental set-up, the subject first allocated unequal shares of a resource to two recipients, and could subsequently ask either of the two for a share in the resources they controlled. In the latter situation, the subject always made the request to the recipient who had benefitted more from their previous generosity. "So even preschoolers seem to be aware of the relative amounts of social capital they build up in their relations with other, and they make strategic use of this knowledge," Paulus says. "Reciprocity is a very important element of social life and is essential for the stability of a society. The study shows, for the first time, that young children already demonstrate the expectation that acts of generosity will be reciprocated by the recipient in their social behavior." Explore further Developmental psychology: Friendship wins out over fairness More information: Markus Paulus, It's payback time: Preschoolers selectively request resources from someone they had benefitted., Developmental Psychology (2016). Journal information: Developmental Psychology Markus Paulus, It's payback time: Preschoolers selectively request resources from someone they had benefitted.,(2016). DOI: 10.1037/dev0000150 Dr. Gosseries and Dr. Nieminen are preparing a subject (Bjrn Erik Juel) for the experiment. Credit: Johan Frederik Storm Measurements demonstrated that the brain activity of people who dream during NREM sleep, compared to people who do not dream, is closer to the brain activity of awake people. Researchers from Aalto University and the University of Wisconsin utilised a TMS-EEG device, which combines transcranial magnetic stimulation and EEG, to examine how the brain activity of people in the restful non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep is affected by whether they dream or do not dream. When the NREM sleep of subjects had lasted at least three minutes, researchers gave magnetic pulses that induced a weak electric field and activated neurons. After a series of pulses, the subject was woken with an alarm sound, and they were then asked whether they had dreamed and to describe the content of the dream. 'It is traditionally thought that dreaming occurs only in REM sleep. However, as also our study demonstrates, subjects woken from NREM sleep are also able to give accounts of their dreams in more than half of cases,' Post-doctoral Researcher Jaakko Nieminen from Aalto University explains. 'EEG showed that the deterministic brain activity produced by magnetic pulses was notably shorter in people who did not dream, i.e. were unconscious, than in people who had dreamt. We also observed that the longer the story about the dream, the more the subject's EEG resembled that measured from people who were awake,' Dr Nieminen explains. EEG responses evoked by transcranial magnetic stimulation during NREM sleep when subjects dreamt (red line) and did not dream (blue line). When subjects did not dream, 200 milliseconds after the stimulation, a strong deflection was visible in their EEG. This type of response is typical of cortical networks that are in a so-called bistable state in which after initial activation their activity resumes stochastically. The black and grey lines show statistically significant differences between the conditions. The responses visible on the right have been averaged over the channels specified with dashed lines. Credit: Aalto University Assessment of consciousness may help in treatment of brain injury patients Dr Nieminen performed the measurements with his research colleague Olivia Gosseries at the University of WisconsinMadison Center for Sleep and Consciousness, which is headed by Giulio Tononi one of the world's most renowned researchers of consciousness. The measurements were carried out during a period of over 40 nights and a total of 11 subjects participated. Due to sleeping difficulties and other challenges, reliable measurements could only be acquired from six subjects. During the night, subjects were woken a maximum of 16 times. 'Consciousness in different physiological states (e.g. during wakefulness, sleep, anesthesia and vegetative state) has previously been researched with TMSEEG measurements. We wanted to eliminate all other differences related to the different states as thoroughly as possible, and for this reason we focused on the narrow physiological state of NREM sleep,' Dr Nieminen notes. Transcranial magnetic stimulation is already utilised in such things as the treatment of depression and pain. According to Dr Nieminen, in the future the precise data provided by TMSEEG measurements on the state of consciousness may also help e.g. in the treatment of those brain injury patients who are unable to communicate. Explore further Patients in a minimally conscious state remain capable of dreaming during their sleep More information: Jaakko O. Nieminen et al. Consciousness and cortical responsiveness: a within-state study during non-rapid eye movement sleep, Scientific Reports (2016). Journal information: Scientific Reports Jaakko O. Nieminen et al. Consciousness and cortical responsiveness: a within-state study during non-rapid eye movement sleep,(2016). DOI: 10.1038/srep30932 ABC News(WASHINGTON) -- Sen. Susan Collins is just the latest Republican official to formally disavow Donald Trump as the list continues to grow. The split between the Republican presidential nominee and the Republican Party has been present for some time and was on full display in Cleveland, where many notable members of the establishment skipped the convention. Now with Collins' announcement and the actions of former Republican national security officials -- dozens of whom signed a letter released Monday saying Trump "would put at risk our countrys national security and well-being" -- the gap is widening. "We [have] 90 days left. He should be speaking to independents. He's still figuring out a way to patch the party together so that he has a uniform Republican Party in the course of this," ABC News political analyst Matthew Dowd said on Good Morning America. "That's a huge problem. As Hillary Clinton talks to independents, Donald Trump is still trying to figure out a way to keep Team GOP together," he added. Senators Speaking Out Collins is not the first Republican senator to say she won't be voting for Trump but she is the highest ranking of the bunch. Collins was elected to the Senate in 1997 and is now the senior senator from Maine. She also served as the chairman of the Senate's Homeland Security Committee for four years. Freshman Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska assumed office in 2015, while Sen. Mark Kirk is the junior senator from Illinois after being elected in 2010. Sen. Lindsey Graham, meanwhile, has served as the senior senator from South Carolina since 2005 after being elected to the Senate in 2003. All three men have said that they will not be voting for Trump, but Collins outranks them, adding an extra air of gravitas to her lack of endorsement. "With the passage of time, I have become increasingly dismayed by his constant stream of cruel comments and his inability to admit error or apologize," Collins wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Post that was published Monday night. She continued: "But it was his attacks directed at people who could not respond on an equal footing -- either because they do not share his power or stature or because professional responsibility precluded them from engaging at such a level -- that revealed Mr. Trump as unworthy of being our president." Others Staying Away While Collins, Sasse and Kirk have said outright that they will not be voting for Trump, there are other heavy-hitters who have notably withheld their endorsement. Trump's former presidential rival Sen. Ted Cruz has been public with his lack of support, and was widely booed at the Republican National Convention when it became clear that he was not planning to endorse Trump. Sens. Jeff Flake and Mike Lee have also been clear that they are withholding their endorsement. "Donald Trump has left a lot of Republicans stranded with nowhere to go in the course of this race," Dowd said. Out of Office but Not out of Sight The list of former Republican officials who have returned to the public eye to denounce Trump is also growing. Former Presidents George H.W. and George W. Bush both skipped Trump's nominating convention, and former presidential candidate Mitt Romney publicly criticized Trump during the primary, suggesting an unsuccessful plan to thwart his nomination. Beyond that, the letter signed by 50 former Republican national security officials and released Monday states that none of them will be voting for Trump come November. Copyright 2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. We attempted to send a notification to your email address but we were unable to verify that you provided a valid email address. Please click here to update your email address if you wish to receive notifications. Otherwise, you may click here to disable notifications and hide this message. IPO of Partnership Fund Discussed at Hong Kong Stock Exchange The Partnership Fund has considered taking on rehabilitation projects of tea plantations in Georgia with the Oriental Patron Financial Group at a Chinese-Georgian business forum held in Shanghai.Moreover, they have also agreed with the China National Technical Import & Export corporation to start glass manufacturing in Georgia.In addition, a meeting was held with Jilin New Royal Co., LTD within the frame of the visit, which concerned the construction of a rehabilitation hospital.David Saganelidze, executive director of the Fund, met representatives of investment consultation companies of the Hong Kong Oriental Patron Financial Group and Kaisun Energy Group Limited linked to the listing of the Partnership Funds shares in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.It should be noted that meetings were also held with the authorities of the Er Shang Group, CEFC. China, Chinese Industry and Commerce, Jilin New Royal Investment Co LTD-?, CFFC CHINAENERGY COMPANY, CEFC GROUP (EURASIA), Oriental Patron Financial Group, Kaisun Energy Group Limited, China National Technical Import & Export corporation, Beijing capital agro business group, Beijing Er Shang group Co.LTD, CEFC Guandong financial investment holdings co.,Ltd Silk road Chamber of International Commerce and Tang West Market International Group (Hong kong). However, general meetings were held with CEFC Guandong financial investment holdings co.,Ltd, Silk road Chamber of International Commerce and Tang West Market International Group (Hong kong).Members of the government delegation also visited the technology park in Shanghai and Shanghai Port.The Partnership Fund has signed a cooperation memorandum with China-Eurasian EconomicCooperation Fund by the end of China-Georgian investment forum. Management of Partnership Fund met authorities of several big Chinese companies, including president of China-Eurasian Economic Cooperation Fund. The sides have discussed cooperation prospects for the future. The News in Brief Meeting of Regional Department and National Prevention Mechanism with Non-governmental Organizations and Lawyers of Kakheti On July 29, the Public Defender's Regional Department organized a meeting between members of the National Prevention Mechanism and the Kakheti regions criminal lawyers and non-governmental organizations. The meeting was aimed receiving additional information about the use of excessive force by police and the rights of detainees, as well as exchanging information about the activities of the Public Defender's Office. Brutal practices in general and specific cases were discussed at the meeting. The lawyers spoke about the problem of informing detainees of their rights and charges, as well as access to a lawyer and violation of questioning procedures. In June a similar meeting was held in the Public Defender's Kutaisi office and will be regularly held in other regions as well. The Department of Prevention and Monitoring of the Public Defender's Office checks the conditions of detainees, prisoners and other inmates and their treatment in order to prevent torture and other cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment. (ombudsman.ge) Water Supply System Rehabilitation Works Ongoing in Tkibuli Municipality Junasher Burchuladze, Executive Director of the Municipal Development Fund of Georgia of the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure of Georgia, has been visiting the project site of water supply rehabilitation works in the Tkibuli Municipality. The project is backed by the EIB and cost GEL 4,574,016. Due to unserviceable state of the system, the Tkibuli population is supplied with water on an irregular basis. After the project's completion, the population will have an uninterrupted water supply. Under the project, an 18 km section of the water supply network will be subject to rehabilitation, and two new reservoirs will be constructed along with a water treatment facility. At the current stage, rehabilitation of the water main is reaching its completion, which will be followed by connection with the consumers, after which the network will be finally put into operation following the completion of all construction. The Tkibuli Municipality water supply rehabilitation project was launched in June 2015 and is expected to be completed in Spring of 2017. Following the project's completion, the project will be handed over for operation to the United Water Supply Company of Georgia under the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure of Georgia. (Caucasus Business Week) Arab Sheikh explores investment potential of Georgias Gonio town Georgia is showing a $3 billion USD investment opportunity to develop Georgias Black Sea town Gonioto United Arab Emirates (UAE) Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan. Georgias Economy Minister Dimitry Kumsishvili took Sheikh Nahyan to Gonios former military range and told him of the investment potential of the area. Arab investors have already heavily invested in Georgia, including the Dhabi Group, who pumped $140 million USD into the new Biltmore Hotel Tbilisi, which officially opened in Tbilisi on Sunday night. Sheikh Nahyan, who is also head of the UAEs Ministry of Culture, Youth and Social Development, confirmed that the UAE would continue investing in various sectors of Georgia to support the countrys democratic development. We saw land that is suitable not only for real estate but it could also be used for various purposes such as establishing recreation, trade, financial and sport centres. We will continue investing in this country, said the Sheikh. We believe in Georgias future welfare and we believe in giving opportunities to the great Georgian people and this country itself. Georgians are friendly and hospitable people who create an attractive atmosphere for tourists, he added. Sheikh Nahyan spoke fondly of Georgias iconic seaside city of Batumi and said the fast development of Batumi made a big impression on him. "Batumi is becoming the regions main touristic centre. And in general, Georgia has become a hub for tourism and business. There is a friendly environment with loyal legislative regulations which encourages people to come and invest here, said the Arab official. Furthermore, the Sheikh and one of his Arab investor friends was interested in putting money towards developing Georgias educational and real estate directions. He said investors were attracted by the safety of Georgia and its safe legislative system. Georgia is a wonderful country with rich traditions, culture and values. I wish success to this country and the Georgian people. I want once again to reaffirm my confidence in Georgia, the Georgian people and the Government. I do hope we will invest more in this country, the Sheikh said. The Sheikh and other Arab investors came to Georgia to officially open the new Biltmore Hotel Tbilision Rusavelo Ave in Georgias capital, which was built using Arab investments. In the past few days the Sheikh visited other regions of Georgia to explore investment opportunities. (agenda.ge) THE STAGGERING COST OF ALL THAT 'CHEAP' LABOR: Encouraging both legal and illegal mass immigration continues to be a primary aim for both politicians and organizations on the left. Breitbart News previously revealed that the wealthy Ford Foundation poured an astonishing $114 million into organizations that push for mass immigration and amnesty. Spencer Lindquist Coming soon Hip Strip blood drive The Missoulian, 500 S. Higgins Ave., will host a blood drive from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday. To schedule an appointment, go to redcrossblood.org and enter sponsor code Missoulian. Red Willow Center For more information on the following classes at the learning center, 825 W. Kent, call 721-0033 or visit redwillowlearning.org: "Yoga for Round Bodies" with Leslie Burgess, Aug. 10-Sept. 28, 1:15 p.m. Wednesdays, $80, doctor's release required. "Basics of Resilience" with Kathy Mangan, 6-8 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 9. Free. "Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction" with Greg Satya Shanks, Sept. 13-Nov. 8, 6-8:30 p.m. Tuesdays, $300. Attendance at one of these free classes is required: Aug. 23 or Aug. 30, 6-8:30 p.m. "Qigong Self-Massage" with Libby McIntyre, 6-8 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 25, $55. Ongoing classes include "Yoga for Wellness" at noon Mondays, $12 or $40 for four weeks; "Mindfulness Meditation" at 12:10 p.m. Tuesdays, $12 or $40 for four weeks; "Yoga Beyond Cancer" at 4 p.m. Tuesdays, $40 for any weeks; "Yoga for Chronic Pain" at 4 p.m. Wednesdays, $40 for four weeks plus $50 for prerequisite screening. BodyTalk ACCESS A class will be taught by Kathy Mangan on Saturday, Aug. 27, at the Red Willow Learning Center. The cost is $125, including manual. For details and registration, call Tori at 880-8749 or register at bodytalksystem.com. Ongoing programs AA and Al-Anon For the latest Alcoholics Anonymous meetings list, visit aa-montana.org or call the Missoula hotline at 543-0011. For more information on Al-Anon and Alateen, which are 12-step recovery programs for relatives and friends whose lives have been affected by alcoholism, visit mt.al-anon.alateen.org. Acupuncture for cancer caregivers Missoula Community Acupuncture, located in the Radio Central Building, 127 E Main St., Suite 314, offers free acupuncture treatments for friends, family, nurses, doctors or anyone who takes care of cancer patients 5-7 p.m. Wednesdays. No appointment is necessary. For more information, call Michael Peluso at 406-926-1611. Adult Asperger's support group An open meeting for those with Asperger's as well as their family and friends is held every Thursday from 4:30 to 6 p.m. at the University Center, Room 216, on campus. Contact Monique Casbeer at 721-3947 or Cindy Bacon Janego at cjanego@communitymed.org for more information. Alzheimers support Meets the second Wednesday of each month at noon at the Summit Independent Living conference room, 700 S.W. Higgins Ave. Another group meets the fourth Monday at 6:30 p.m. at the Missoula Senior Center, 705 S. Higgins Ave. For more information, contact Jackie Johnson at 549-3433 or jackiej45@yahoo.com. Alzheimers caregivers support group Meets the fourth Monday at 6:30 p.m. of each month at the Missoula Senior Center, 705 S. Higgins Ave. For more information, call Jackie Johnson at 549-3433. Arthritis programs The Montana Arthritis Program offers physical activity and self-management education programs, such as the Arthritis Foundation Exercise Program, Walk with Ease and Stanfords Chronic Disease Self-Management Program. Classes are available in several communities including Florence, Hamilton, Kalispell, Libby, Missoula, Plains and Polson. To find a class or for more information, visit dphhs.mt.gov/publichealth/arthritis. Bereavement support groups Frontier Hospice offers open door meetings 6-7 p.m. Thursdays at the following locations: The Springs at Whitefish on the first Thursday; Rising Mountains Assisted Living Community in Bigfork on the third Thursday; and Frontier Hospice in Kalispell on the second and fourth Thursdays. Call 406-755-4923 for more information. Breast cancer support group Meets the first and third Wednesday of the month from 11 a.m. to noon at the Montana Cancer Center, St. Patrick Hospital Broadway Building, second floor. Call 329-5656. Cancer Center support group Meets noon-1:30 p.m. the second Thursday of each month at the Montana Cancer Center, 500 W. Broadway. For more information, call Bonnie at 240-0996. Cancer Resource Guide The online guide covers resources including support groups, treatment centers, camps and retreats, in Missoula, Mineral and Ravalli counties. It is available at CancerResourcesMT.org. Cancer support group A support group for anyone affected by cancer meets noon-1 p.m. on the second and fourth Mondays at the Polson United Methodist Church, 301 16th Ave. For more information, call Tammy at 406-883-7284 or 824-2868. Celebrate Recovery The Christian-based 12-step recovery program meets 6-9:30 p.m. every Friday at Christian Assembly Foursquare Church, 1001 Cleveland St. Dinner is available from 6 to 7 p.m. and child care is provided for ages birth to 11. For more information, call 721-6884 or email cafc@4bible.com. Cheerful Heart Lake County cancer patients in treatment can receive a massage and help with hair and skin problems, free of charge, from local therapists and cosmetologists. Other non-medical services include transportation to treatment and doctor appointments, running errands, yard work and meal preparation. Appointments may be scheduled by calling 406-883-3070. Colorectal Cancer Support Group Meets 1-2 p.m. the third Friday of every month through March 20, Community Cancer Care Conference Room, 2827 Fort Missoula Road. "Coping, Education & Support for Women with All Cancer Types" The support group for women in all stages of cancer treatment or survivorship will be held noon-1:30 p.m. the second Monday of every month through March 14, 2016, at the Community Cancer Care Conference Room, 2837 Fort Missoula Road. For more information, call Deb Rivey at 327-3912, Terri Paxinos at 327-3957 or Kimberly Hardwick at 327-3906. Diabetes program At 6:30 p.m. on the first Wednesday of every month, there will be a short presentation on a topic related to the management of type 1 diabetes at the YMCA, 3000 S. Russell St. It will be followed by the option for socializing in the foyer or being active together at the Y. A fee of $5 per individual will be collected at the door for those choosing to use the facility. Designed for ages 14 and older, children are welcome but must be accompanied by a parent/caregiver. Double Trouble in Recovery The 12-step program for people with mental health and addiction issues meets 3-4 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Winds of Change Recovery Mall, 2685 Palmer St., No. C (second floor). Coffee is provided. For more information, call Veronica at 721-2038. Epilepsy support group Meets the first Monday of the month from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at the Summit Independent Living Center, 700 S.W. Higgins Ave., Suite 101. Patients, friends, family and caregivers welcome. Call Debbie at 721-0707 for more information. Free health exams Women ages 30 to 64 who meet necessary income guidelines and either have no health insurance or have insurance that will not pay for breast and cervical health exams can receive free exams through Partnership Health Centers Montana Cancer Screening Program. Call 258-4162 for more information. Gentle yoga class The Missoula Senior Citizen Center, 705 S. Higgins Ave., offers a class that focuses on balance training, back strength and core conditioning through gentle yoga matwork every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday at 9 a.m. Fee is $4 per class. All ages welcome. For more information, call 543-7154. Health Insurance Assistance Service Montana cancer patients can call the American Cancer Societys 24-hour toll-free number to be connected to a health insurance specialist to ask about coverage and insurance programs specific to the state. The number is 800-227-2345. Mens cancer support group Open to men in all phases of testing, treatment and followup, the group meets the fourth Tuesday of the month from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Montana Cancer Center, 500 W. Broadway. It is facilitated by Gary Weisbrich and Tom King. Call 329-5628 or email gary.weisbrich@providence.org for more information. Narcotics Anonymous Meets at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Alano Club, 8 Third Ave. W., Polson. Call 406-883-4135. National Alliance on Mental Illness NAMI Missoula meets every Thursday from 10 a.m. to noon in the lower level (behind the cafeteria) of the Providence Center. It is open to anyone affected by mental illness or interested in learning more about the group. The NAMI Connection group for adults living with mental illness meets 1:30-3 p.m. Thursdays at the NAMI offices, 202 Brooks St., Room 210. Call 880-1013 with questions. NAMI Family Support Group National Alliance on Mental Illness Missoula meets Wednesdays from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at St. Paul Lutheran Church, 202 Brooks St., in Room 210. The peer-led support for adult family members, caregivers and loved ones of individuals with mental illness is free. For more information, call 406-880-1013 or email namimissoula@gmail.com. My No-Nonsense Nutrition Program A seven-week webinar course to improve your nutrition and fitness. Faith based approach to better health. Free initial consult with Judy Gilman, registered nurse, diabetes and wellness educator. mynononsensenutrition.com or 546-7819. Overeaters Anonymous Local meetings include 7 p.m. Monday and 9 a.m. Saturday at St. Paul Lutheran Church, 202 Brooks St. A meeting for newcomers is at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday followed by a "Back to Basics" meeting at 7 p.m. at St. Paul's. Everyone who wants to stop eating compulsively is welcome. There are no dues, weigh-ins or lectures. For more meeting information, visit oa.org. SAA For the latest Sex Addicts Anonymous meeting list visit saa-recovery.org, call the Missoula hotline at 241-4005 or email MissoulaBetterway@yahoo.com. SAA is a 12-step fellowship of men and women who share experience, strength and hope for the purpose of finding freedom from addictive sexual behavior and helping others recover from sex addiction. S-Anon Local meetings are held weekly for this recovery program for people affected by another persons sexual behavior. Visit sanonmontana.org or call 406-544-1271 to learn more. Stroke and Brain Injury Support Group Meets the second Thursday of each month from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. at the Providence Center, 902 N. Orange St., in the dining area on the fourth floor. For details, call 329-5784. Tai Chi for Arthritis Class offered 9:15 a.m. Mondays at the Missoula Senior Citizens Center, 705 S. Higgins Ave. $4 per class. All ages welcome. Tai Chi Chih Classes are offered at the following locations: Missoula Senior Citizens Center, 705 S. Higgins Ave., 9:15 a.m. Wednesdays, $4 per class; PEAK Health & Wellness Center, 5000 Blue Mountain Road, 11 a.m. Tuesdays, call 251-3344; and The Womens Club, 2105 Bow St., 9 a.m. Fridays, call 728-4410. TOPS Take Off Pounds Sensibly, an affordable, nonprofit, weight-loss support and wellness organization, meets at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the First Christian Church, 2701 S. Russell St. Another TOPS meeting is 6:30 p.m. Monday at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, 2512 Sunset Lane. For additional meetings, go to tops.org, click on "Find a Meeting" and enter your zip code or call 800-932-8677. The Women's Club For more information on the following classes at The Women's Club, 2105 Bow St., call 728-4410: Foundation Training, 12:15-1 p.m. Monday and Thursday. Improve posture, strength and athletic ability. Pickle ball open play, 1-4 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. Paddles provided. All levels welcome. Kick and Core high-intensity cardio workout with focus on strengthening core. MIAMI Sherrie Varpula-Walter has spent most of the last week holed up in her apartment. She is three months into her second pregnancy and doing everything she can to avoid being bitten by a mosquito infected with the Zika virus. Her husband, Matt Walter, has taken charge of walking their two dogs. If she must run an errand, she sprays herself with insect repellent and puts on socks, jeans and a long-sleeved shirt even though its 90 degrees outside. In Miami, where health authorities have identified 16 cases of locally transmitted Zika, these are anxious times for expectant mothers and women hoping to become pregnant. The virus can inflict devastating damage to the brain of an infected womans fetus. You are in the worst possible situation now, and there is not much you can do about it, said Varpula-Walter, a speech pathologist. Its just a waiting game. Obstetricians say they have been inundated with calls from patients wanting to be tested for the virus. Florida Gov. Rick Scott has promised that the tests will be provided for free to pregnant women across the state, but demand has so far exceeded the limited supply. News of the outbreak has also alarmed restaurateurs, gallery owners and others who live, work or hang out in Wynwood, a hip neighborhood just north of downtown where 13 of the infections occurred. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a travel advisory last week urging pregnant women to avoid a 1-square-mile zone that includes the neighborhood, the first such warning in the continental United States. Although activity in the area typically slows during the hot and humid summer, business and political leaders worry the outbreak could damage Floridas all-important tourism industry. Visitors spent about $89 million in the state last year. JetBlue has announced that passengers who booked flights to Miami before Aug. 1 may qualify for a refund. Some tour companies have stopped bringing visitors to Wynwood, famous for the bold murals covering old warehouse walls. Several outdoor events planned for this month, among them a brewerys Beer Circus, have been canceled, and at least two businesses have temporarily closed their doors. When the CDC gives an advisory not to come to a neighborhood, it has real effects, said Zak Stern, better known as Zak the Baker. Normally this place is packed. You cant get a seat, he said, motioning to the mostly empty tables at his bakery and cafe in Wynwood. Its bad enough for me to have to make schedule changes to make sure that we can get through it. At the same time, his wife is pregnant and he does not want to put their unborn child or any family at risk. Im looking for the reasonable response, he said, and I dont think I have enough clarity to make that judgment yet. Like many in the neighborhood, Stern has tried to inject an element of humor into the predicament. On a wooden table outside the cafe, Stern set up a shrine to keep the virus at bay. There are sage sticks and healing crystals. Someone left half an orange, carefully wrapped in plastic. I dont know what that would do, Stern said. But he appreciates the gesture. We need to stand united and fight this. Florida officials have responded aggressively, dispatching crews to find and test people who may have been exposed to the virus, fumigate around homes and businesses, and empty the standing water where mosquitoes breed. Eventual outbreak was no surprise Authorities had anticipated that Zika would begin spreading in Florida, which serves as a gateway for people traveling to and from Latin America and the Caribbean, regions where hundreds of thousands have been infected. More than 350 travel-related cases have been identified in Florida, 55 of them involving pregnant women. Federal health officials do not anticipate that infections here will rival outbreaks that have occurred in countries such as Brazil, where millions of people live without air conditioning or screens on windows and doors to fend off mosquitoes. The species that spreads Zika, Aedes aegypti, doesnt travel more than 150 yards in its lifetime, and outbreaks of other diseases carried by the mosquito have been highly localized in the U.S. But Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the CDC, expressed concern last week that Floridas stepped-up mosquito control measures did not appear to be working as well as hoped. That may be partly because Aedes aegypti lays its eggs in small pools of water as little as a teaspoon full that can be hard to spot in a complex urban environment such as Wynwood. Frieden also suggested that the species might be resistant to the two types of pyrethroid insecticides that have been sprayed using equipment carried in backpacks or mounted on trucks. On Thursday, Miami-Dade County began aerial spraying of the insecticide naled, which Frieden said has proved effective at killing mosquitoes that other methods dont reach. We are very encouraged by the initial results, which showed a large proportion of the mosquitoes killed, he told reporters in Florida, where he had been observing the response. The flights are controversial, however, with some residents saying they are more concerned about the chemicals landing in their yards than the virus. Frieden said the tiny amounts being sprayed at dawn or dusk have no effect on people. At the same news conference Thursday, Scott said state health officials had completed testing in a 10-block corner of Wynwood and found no evidence of active Zika transmission there. Infected area not struggling Despite the cancellations and drop-off in business, not every enterprise there is suffering. At the Wynwood Walls, an open-air museum showcasing street art, visitors still stream in to take selfies in front of the vibrant murals and sculptures. Yenny Jimenez, who is 7 months pregnant, brought her two visiting sisters-in-law, one of whom is also expecting. She wasnt aware of the CDC advisory but didnt seem overly concerned. Every time we go outside, we put repellent on, said Jimenez, before wondering off to look at more art. Down the street, a film crew was wrapping up a shoot. As the members gathered round for a group picture, the photographer called out cheerily, Say Zika. A nearby restaurant offered pizzika on the menu. As night fell, some popular eateries filled with diners. It was a full house over at Gramps, a bar where owner Adam Gersten was fielding calls from patrons desperate to get into two sold-out comedy shows. He was pleased to see county workers spray the venues courtyard with insecticide and leave pellets of larvicide where water collects amid the shrubbery. He also sets out bottles of repellent for the staff and patrons. Gersten thinks most people in Miami are taking the outbreak in stride. If its not Zika, its going to be a hurricane, he said. Its just always some kind of tropical horror. As it stands right now, the Missoula City Councils budget committee is prepared to authorize funding to hire two new full-time police officers who would focus on downtown crime during the busy summer months and investigate misdemeanors the rest of the year. The proposed budget so far would raise a homeowners property tax by 3.42 percent. On June 22, Mayor John Engen proposed a budget to City Council with an estimated tax increase of 4.97 percent. This tax estimate was lowered over the next few weeks as additional revenues were identified and certified taxable values were received from the Department of Revenue. The 3.42 percent tax increase, as it stands now, reflects these subsequent events. There are still a lot of deliberations to go, so items that would affect property taxes can still be put in or taken out. The proposed budget as it sits now is a compromise with Police Chief Mike Brady, who had also requested two full-time community service officers along with the two sworn officers. Mayor John Engen also supported adding four new officers, but the city council removed two of those from his proposed budget. The fiscal year 2017 budget would also include $24,000 for conservation lands maintenance, $63,476 for a part-time assistant municipal court judge and a $13.50 minimum wage for full-time city employees Committee member Gwen Jones strongly supported money for conservation lands, which include places like the Broadway Island Park and Mount Jumbo. People are making new trails faster than we can maintain existing trails, and we need to get on top of it because this is becoming a bigger and bigger part of Missoulas identity, she said. The budget would also include roughly $33,000 to hire a lobbyist to work on behalf of the city during the legislative session. Julie Armstrong questioned the benefit to taxpayers and whether the money could be better spent on, for example, more law enforcement. I think its really important that we have a city lobbyist, said committee member Emily Bentley. The other cities have lobbyists and they have a budget process just like we do and a lot of it just comes down to being vocal and having a seat at the table. For example, Bentley said, the College of Technology was funded because of heavy lobbying by the University of Montana and the City of Missoula. Jon Wilkins said that there are certain bills of interest to Missoula that a lobbyist could push for. The only way you can do that is by having a lobbyist because you cant be there 24/7, he said. Ill support the lobbyist. The lobbyist reports to Mayor John Engen and chief administrative officer Dale Bickell. Committee member Marilyn Marler said that the person often gives reports on bills that may affect the city. The city has funded a lobbyist every legislative session for years, Marler said. The committee also is considering a new full-time city planner to handle the construction boom, a new full-time street maintenance employee and a new full-time urban forester to plant trees. Right now, city agencies and departments are making their case and presenting their ideal budgets to the committee, and the committee members have to choose what to add and what to subtract. This Wednesday, the committee will again take a look at whether or not to fund a part-time animal control officer, and put $70,000 towards greenway maintenance. The budget also calls for a 2 percent pay increase for non-unionized city staff, which represents a little over $300,000. There would also be a 1.5 percent increase for union employees. The full council will hold an unspecified number of public hearings on the budget proposal on Monday nights before taking a vote to approve it. An excavation crew digging a trench for a water line near Rattlesnake Elementary School on Monday discovered the remains of a child believed to have been buried in a graveyard last used a nearly a century ago. Derek Bradley, one of the excavation workers, said the crew was digging under Mountain View Drive around 9 a.m. as part of the renovation and expansion project for the school when they found a roughly 18-inch piece of wood and a metal medallion inscribed with the words Our Darling. He said while workers were unsure of what they had found, all doubt was removed moments later. They took another scoop and a skull tumbled out onto the bank and is looking right at us, he said. Work halted, and police eventually were called shortly before 3 p.m. Lt. Scott Brodie with the Missoula Police Department said the skull is likely from a series of graves that are part of a burial site that dates back to 1880. Brodie said remains also were discovered the last time Mountain View Drive was redone. City documents show that Rattlesnake Elementary sits on the burial ground used by the Missoula County Poor Farm, where transients and poor people lived and worked, and the Pest House, used to quarantine people with contagious diseases. Between 1880 and the 1920s, it is estimated more than 1,000 people were buried in the area. Records are incomplete, but indicate that some graves were transferred to the Missoula City Cemetery. The 2016 election comes at a critical turning point for combating climate change here in Montana. Though sea ice retreat and sea level rise dominate the global conversation, Montanans need look no further than our own backyard for evidence of the changing climate. Average winter temperatures are increasing, snow runoff peaks earlier in the year, and the waters in our streams and lakes continue to warm. In Washington, Congressman Ryan Zinkes fringe perspective on climate change threatens the state he claims to represent. During a March interview, Zinke plugged a bill he introduced that sought to put more scientists in the forest and less lawyers. Unfortunately for Montanans and our forests alike, Zinke has a history of disagreeing with scientists. During the 2014 campaign, Zinke blamed rising ocean temperatures as the source of global warming, discarding the near consensus among climate scientists that alarmingly high levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration are responsible. Rep. Zinke can put as many scientists in as many forests as he pleases, but if he refuses to listen to them, our ecosystems are unlikely to withstand both the anticipated and unforeseen consequences of global warming. Fortunately for Montanans, Denise Juneau has a long history of fighting against environmental degradation. Her advocacy for responsible resource management includes a 2012 Land Board vote, in which Juneau was the only board member to stand up to outside coal developers and put Montanas fishermen, farmers and families first by fighting for a cleaner environment. A vote for Denise Juneau is a vote in favor of a promising future for Montana, as she has proven worthy of our trust time and time again. As a scientist and outdoorsman, I urge voters to consider the fate of our ecosystems in the face of climate change when heading to the polls in November. Donovan Dennis, Lakeside WEST GLACIER Even in the busiest month of its busiest years, Glacier National Park had never hit 700,000 visitors. It still hasnt, in one sense. Its gone way past that. The park, barreling toward a third straight year of record visitation, welcomed 818,481 people last month. As recently as 1964, Glacier didnt get that many visitors in an entire year. The previous record for July, meantime, set in 2014, was 699,650. The big question is next year, Glacier spokesman Tim Rains said. Is the number so high because its the (National Park Service) centennial? Is it because gas prices are lower this summer than theyve been? What is driving the increase? The upsurge 17 percent above the previous July record is being felt inside and outside the park. *** Rains confirmed reports that people are showing up at the Many Glacier Campground as early as 4 a.m. in hopes of snagging a camping spot for that night, and ones who wait until 6 a.m. are sometimes being turned away. For the first time, the park has made 41 of Many Glaciers 103 campsites available for advance reservations this summer. The other 62 are awarded on a first-come, first-served basis. A lot of what were hearing is anecdotal, Rains said, but the stories indicate that inside the park, the increase is most noticeable at places that were already crowded before the July upturn, such as Logan Pass, at the top of Going-to-the-Sun Road. Were seeing more people in popular spots, not in quieter parts of the park, he said. Theyre not spreading out, theyre becoming more concentrated. The increase translated into 500 more vehicles per day entering Glacier through its West Entrance alone than in previous Julys, Rains said. Even with all that, at the West Entrance we only had to flush the system once in July, he said. Thats pretty amazing, given the numbers. Flushing the system means waving vehicles through an entrance station without stopping them to collect entrance fees. Last year, when it had a record 4.1 million visitors, Yellowstone National Park had to do it several times when lines at entrance stations grew too long. At Glaciers West Entrance, they do it when the line of vehicles waiting to get in backs up to the bridge crossing the Flathead River. The reason, Rains said, is to keep the traffic from backing up all the way into the town of West Glacier. *** Its the fourth month this year and the third in a row that Glacier has broken visitation records. The park also welcomed its largest crowds ever in January (15,674), May (178,218) and June (429,909). Through July 31, Glacier had attracted 1,516,986 visitors this year. By comparison, the total at the same point last year was 1,331,502. And last year, Glacier finished with 2,366,056 visitors its most ever. In other words, the park could potentially maybe even easily exceed 2.5 million visitors in 2016, which would be a third straight record. Before 2014, Glacier had gone 31 years without breaking a visitation record. *** The surge is both a boon to Glacier-area businesses dependent on tourism, and a worry to people who think that when the national parks get so crowded, they cant protect their resources and provide the experiences visitors expect. Its been as busy as they can remember at San-Suz-Ed Montana RV Park, Campground and Bed & Breakfast near West Glacier. The RV park always stays pretty full, said the office manager, who asked that her name not be used, but weve seen a huge influx of tenters and small campers a huge difference. In addition to the National Park Service Centennial and lower gas prices, she said the owners believe an NPS promotion called Every Kid in a Park has drawn more people. The yearlong campaign, which ends Aug. 30, allows any fourth-grader in America who participates in a National Park Service online activity to print out a voucher that gets them and their entire family into national parks for free. Thats the other thing we noticed, she said. A lot more families. Montana state parks are also experiencing a major increase in visitation up 23 percent through the end of June, the last time figures were totaled. Spokesman Pat Doyle said at least some of the nearly 1.3 million people who visited state parks in the first six months of 2016 is probably attributable to the surge in national park visitation. People who travel long distances to visit national parks often use state parks as a safe, easy place to camp and recreate on the way, Doyle said. The amount of people traveling to national parks probably has a trickle-down effect on state park visitation. HELENA - Gov. Steve Bullock joined Montana Conservation Corps and Prickly Pear Land Trust on the side of Mount Helena Monday to talk about the tangible and intangible benefits of public lands in Montana. MCC is in Helena to construct a new section of trail in a low use area of Mount Helena City Park. The governor and Prickly Pear hiked to the build site to see the progress and talk to the crew about their experiences working on Montanas public lands. This program makes such an impact not only for participants but on the lands that we in Montana hold dear, Bullock said. From Le Grande Cannon Boulevard, the Old Chevy Trail takes a steep climb past its broken down namesake and up onto the mountains west side. The area was once used by four-wheeled-drive vehicles that cut various roadways up the bottom. The new section of trail, called the Andy Trail for former Prickly Pear executive director Andy Baur, creates a loop above the Old Chevy from the Ambrose Trail making for a gentler climb. The project is being funded through the land trust and the city. Its so strenuous that we have very few people using this side of the mountain, said Emmett Purcell, long-time Prickly Pear trail specialist. By making a sustainable trail were hoping to attract a broader range of users and make a better trail network for those of us that want to explore. The trail builds off an Eagle Scout project trail for a total loop of about three quarters of a mile. MCC provides the needed labor to see some of the most intensive work completed. MCC fits the need to do the heavy lifting for us, Purcell said. We have to pick and choose our volunteer projects carefully, and with MCC it fills that gap and I dont think wed get it done without them. MCC is a nonprofit organization that employs young adults on conservation projects in places such as national parks, wildlife refuges and wilderness areas. The corps aims to inspire young people through hands-on conservation service to be leaders, stewards of the land and engaged citizens. MCC is expected to provide 300,000 hours of work in the state this year, said Jono McKinney, president and CEO. A portion of that work comes from a grant through the governors office. The six-member MCC crew joined Bullock for lunch along the trail and to talk about what brought them to the state. The crew hails from California, Virginia, New York and Florida. That out-of-state makeup is pretty typically for MCC and people looking for the backcountry experience Montana has to offer. We have a lot of members that have never camped before or have never camped for multiple days, and that in itself is a transformative experience, McKinney said. The members reasons for joining were as varied as their geography. This might sound cliche, but it was about finding myself, said Kyle Mathews. I wasnt loving what I was doing, wanted a change of pace. I jumped in head first and fell in love with the work and actually feel like Im making a difference. Mathews said he has learned about working as a team where strength is only as strong as the weakest member. Its one thing to know how to work hard. Its another thing to know how to work hard with people you dont know, he said. Bullock, who finds himself in a heated election where public lands are a major issue, called public lands a great equalizer while touting their cultural and economic importance. Seeing stewardship in action was a good diversion from the political debate over land transfer, access and management. From where I sit, you are the foot soldiers out making a positive and meaningful impact in our state, he said. Bullock then solicited some advice from the MCC crew on how to convey the importance of public lands, particularly for those who do not actively use them. While several MCC members paused to consider a response, the best way to promote the value of the outdoors is simply finding a way to get more people into nature and see what the wilds of Montana has to offer, they said. VICTORIA FALLS WORLD HERITAGE SITE, Zambia Beatrice Deswardt stood where the water crashed over Victoria Falls with such force it pushed mist and spray into a cloud far above the cataracts. Deswardt, of Pretoria, South Africa, was celebrating her 70th birthday, and she wanted to check an item off her bucket list, a return to the falls for the third time in her life. "This is the most wonderful place in Africa," said Deswardt, who traveled to the stunning precipice with a group of friends. But future generations may not be greeted with the spectacle that launched Deswardt's eighth decade. Victoria Falls is an international treasure threatened by climate change. A report released earlier this year called "World Heritage and Tourism in a Changing Climate" warned that some of the world's most iconic natural wonders are under duress. Already, scientists see the effects of a warming planet from the falls in Zambia and Zimbabwe to Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park. "In fact, last year was the lowest ever in terms of water flows on the falls," said Musawa Hamusonde, citing records since roughly 1989. Hamusonde is an ecologist at Victoria Falls, like Waterton-Glacier a designated World Heritage Site. Across the ocean here in Montana, wildfires are burning into alpine areas at elevations that once held onto snow all summer and were perpetually too wet to burn, said Dan Fagre, a U.S. Geological Survey researcher at the Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center in West Glacier. "There's been a fundamental change in the ecosystem that's been driven by climate change," Fagre said. *** The paths around Victoria Falls take visitors to scattered vantage points, each a wonder unto itself. Rainbows appear and disappear as the winds shift. To make the wet trek down to Knife Edge Bridge, visitors layer up in garbage bags and heavy rubber raincoats rented at the top of the falls, or walk in swim trunks and bathing suits. There, the rain pours even as the sun shines, and a stream of water inches deep runs down the bridge. People, grins plastered on their faces, return from the slippery climb with water from the falls soaking their pants and shoes. In the heart of the falls, a rainforest grows thick and lush, a sensory reprieve from the desert savanna that surrounds Livingstone, a city of 140,000 in southern Zambia that shares the falls with bordering Zimbabwe. From the top of the Zambezi River, the water cascades into a canyon and bends into whirlpools in an eddy at a place called the Boiling Point. Baboons chase each other and unsuspecting tourists on the steep steps that lead down through more greenery to rocks that create a vista point over the swirling river. The falls give life to the plants around them, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change made note of that relationship in a report on wildlife, tourism and recreation. "In the 1992 drought period, Victoria Falls lost some of its attractiveness as a result of much reduced water discharge over the falls," the IPCC said. "Furthermore, the reduced flow resulted in reduction of the spray that maintains the rainforest that is part of Victoria Falls' aura, resulting in the death of flora around the falls." *** The rainforest continues to be affected by the global climate shift, said Hamusonde, the Victoria Falls ecologist. "Therefore, what we do is we try to aid its status by re-vegetating whenever we see that it has been adversely affected," she said. As less water reaches the rainforest, she said, invasive species also gain a foothold. "Invasive species also take advantage of that and thrive at the expense of indigenous vegetation," Hamusonde said. "So what we do is twofold. We control the invasive species manually, and we aid the ecosystem by replanting trees so that we do not have this gap." The organization has been re-vegetating for more than five years, both because it's getting drier and because the invasive species are growing into areas where native plants have dominated. "We always encourage native vegetation so that we do not tamper with the ecosystem functions," Hamusonde said. "One of the two reasons Victoria Falls is a World Heritage Site is its aesthetics. "The aesthetics is the result of the waterfalls, the vegetation, the biodiversity, the rainbows, the islands, the gorgeous (views). "Once we tamper with the indigenous vegetation, we are obviously going to disturb the life systems of the fauna that are supported by this native vegetation, and eventually, we are going to lose that biodiversity and the aesthetics." *** Similar stresses are piling up here at home, and Fagre is tracking the effects in Glacier National Park. In the past, heavy snowpack kept subalpine meadows open, but now, young trees are starting to grow there. "Butterflies and bees and bears and a whole host of other species utilize these (meadows), and they don't eat trees," Fagre said. "So as the trees take over, you're starting to lose some valuable habitat." The bears can move onto other areas and change their habits, but some bird populations will decline as a result, he said. Researchers wonder if a decrease in avalanches will affect habitat as well. Snow avalanches strip out part of the forests and open those areas to other species, like bees and ground squirrels, he said. "As our snowpacks get light and disappear, will our snow avalanches be less effective in maintaining these open areas?" Fagre said. "We do not have that answer. We are looking into that now." The glaciers themselves are a lifeline for aquatic life downstream, including a tiny fly called the stonefly that will probably be listed as endangered later this year, and bull trout too, he said. "I think it's a good lesson that you can't change one component of an ecosystem without many of the others responding," Fagre said. "So the fact that all our important snow and ice are so sensitive to climate and are changing means that we will be looking for the downslope changes in a mountain ecosystem." Glaciers and ice caps hold an estimated 69 percent of the world's freshwater, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. A series of photos posted in the Many Glacier Hotel in the park show historic images of the park's glaciers paired with present-day photos of the same locations now picturing many rock faces where the glaciers used to be. Just 25 glaciers remain in the park compared to 150 in 1850, according to the Geological Survey. Globally, Fagre said, 50 percent of humans get their drinking water from mountains. In the Western states, the percentage is much higher. So in the mountains, a poppy flower might die off, and down below, people will be on the hunt for fresh, clean water. *** The locals call Victoria Falls Mosi-oa-Tunya, the "smoke that thunders," and the roaring water creates a cloud above the falls that can still be seen from miles away. The mass of condensed water is probably getting smaller, and the decline will lead to other losses, and no doubt some surprises. According to the report on World Heritage Sites, "Climate change is both a direct threat and a threat multiplier." The document was produced by the United Nations Environment Programme, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and the Union of Concerned Scientists. "Although there is potential for some species to move and shift their ranges in response to climate change in natural World Heritage Sites, and many ecosystems exhibit some degree of climate resilience, adaptive capacity is reduced by other stresses, including habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation," it said. "The speed of climate change and lack of habitat connectivity will severely limit ecosystem response in many cases, and will require the adoption of new and innovative management practices." A few miles above the falls in the small namesake national park Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park park officers started pumping water from the Zambezi River to fill ponds so the animals can drink. It's one climate change strategy started roughly three years ago, said Oluronke Oke, planning officer for the Department of National Parks and Wildlife. She shared the tidbit on a drive through the park as she spotted one lone baboon sitting in a dry field looking over the Zambezi in the early evening. "Like an old man just waiting for the sun to set," Oke said. HELENA The U.S. government, facing rising firefighting costs as blazes rage more frequently and with greater intensity across the West, wants Montana's largest utility to compensate it for a 2010 wildfire near Canyon Ferry Lake east of Helena. Over three days in July 2010, the Lakeside fire burned nearly 900 acres of federal, state and private land. It destroyed a cabin and two other structures and forced the evacuation of residents north of the lake. More than 200 people from various agencies and led by the U.S. Forest Service responded to the fire. NorthWestern Energy's negligence of a power line caused the fire, according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court. A Forest Service investigation concluded the fire was started after the power line malfunctioned, severed and ignited the grass and timber on the ground. The power line's poles and insulators had not been properly maintained by NorthWestern Energy, the lawsuit said. "The Ward Ranch Line would not have malfunctioned, snapped and caused the Lakeside Fire if defendant had exercised reasonable care in the maintenance and operation of the line," Assistant U.S. Attorney Megan Dishong wrote in the lawsuit. The government seeks $485,855 the cost of fighting the fire plus interest and an unspecified amount in penalties. NorthWestern's attorneys filed a response Monday in which the company denies any liability. Attorney Chad Adams submitted a number of possible defenses, including that the damage caused by the fire was an Act of God, the fault of others not named or caused by the government itself. NorthWestern spokeswoman Claudia Rapkoch said she could not speak in detail about the lawsuit or the cause of the fire, but that the company strongly denies the allegation of negligence. "The company does plan to defend itself in court if it comes to that," she said. Fighting and preventing fires now consumes more than half of the Forest Service's annual budget, and the agency estimates the costs could jump to two-thirds of the budget by 2025 unless changes are made. The costs have risen as fire seasons have grown longer and the size, frequency and severity of fires have increased, agency officials said in a report released last year. But lawsuits such as the one filed against NorthWestern Energy are not part of any new strategy to cut down those costs, said Forest Service spokesman David Smith. "If a responsible party has been identified, the government seeks to recover costs," Smith said. "We've collected from energy companies, mines, and individuals over the years." It may not be uncommon for the U.S. government to sue to recover firefighting costs, but the government should be doing more of it, said J. Curtis Varone, a Rhode Island attorney who runs a blog called Fire Law. "In the U.S. we have historically looked at fire as an accident for which no one is really responsible," Varone said in an email to the Associated Press on Tuesday. "Many other countries look at it a bit differently: negligently causing a fire is a criminal act." Some states also have turned to the courts to recover firefighting costs. The Wyoming Supreme Court last year ruled the state could recover money from Black Hills Power Inc. that was spent fighting a 2012 wildfire on state land near Newcastle. Montana also paid more than $13,000 of the cost of the Lakeside fire, its share for the damage to state lands, according to a cost-share agreement between the Forest Service and the state Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. The state agency is reviewing the federal lawsuit, spokesman John Grassy said. "We haven't made a determination whether or not we'll get involved," Grassy said. Three landowners previously sued NorthWestern Energy over the Lakeside fire, making similar claims to those contained in the government's lawsuit. One of the landowners settled with the utility for terms that plaintiffs' attorney Thomas Budewitz declined to disclose. One of the other lawsuits was thrown out earlier this year and the other has been suspended, according to court records. We need help, Butte School District No. 1 Superintendent Judy Jonart said recently. Jonart was talking about the districts attendance rates, and how she and other School District leaders are laser-focused on improvement. The problem is not unique to Butte nationwide, nearly one in 10 kindergarten students misses a month of school every year. By the end of third grade, Jonart said, our kids are reading. And that means everything in regard to the rest of their lives. We just need them to be in school so that the learning can happen. What the School District is talking about and what it needs the community to help with is reducing chronic absence, starting in the early grades. School district leaders and teachers absolutely know that attending school all day, every day is an essential ingredient for promoting school success. Showing up to class is critical to succeeding in school, according to a publication titled Attendance Works: A Toolkit for City Leaders. What is less understood is the critical importance of looking at chronic absence data starting in elementary school. Far too many cities and schools focus on truancy in high school or, at best, middle school, without looking at how many young children in the early grades are headed off track academically because they are missing too much school due to excused or unexcused absences. (The toolkit was published in 2011 by Attendance Works, a national initiative promoting awareness of the key role that school attendance plays in achieving academic success, starting with the very beginning of school.) School District Curriculum Director Jim ONeill was in the meeting at which Jonart asked for help. ONeill said school attendance rates particularly in the early grades are incredibly telling the state of California, he said, projects how many jail cells to construct, based on third-grade reading scores such scores have a direct correlation to K-3 attendance. ONeill is a guy who would do anything to get a kid to school. Some years back, when he was principal at Margaret Leary Elementary School, ONeill was aware of a young girl whose parents divorced, and the family was soon in crisis. The girl, whod had high proficiency in reading, started missing many school days, and her proficiency slipped drastically. ONeill said it broke his heart, to the point where hed go to the girls home in the mornings, and tell mom still in bed that he was there to take the girl to school. And with no protest from mom, hed get her there. With other kids, ONeill said, hed find incentives. He asked one child missing school to begin making the morning announcements over the schools intercom system. The child began appearing for school every day. Elementary students, especially in the early grades, are not likely to be skipping school willfully, according to the Attendance Works publication. Instead, many of their absences are excused as they deal with health, safety, transportation and other challenges that keep them from class. What are some of the barriers to attendance? According to Attendance Works, parents dont always understand that attendance early on very much matters to academic success. One thing we as a community can do: Work with child care facilities and pre-K providers (Early Head Start is an example) to underscore the importance of attendance. Another barrier: Students arent encouraged to attend school. One thing we as a community can do: Help to provide incentives, rewards and recognition for good attendance. Maybe our service clubs could coordinate to adopt a school. Other barriers and solutions: Students have chronic health or mental health issues that regularly keep them out of school (we as a community should always promote access to free and low-cost health insurance yay, Medicaid expansion!) Students dont feel safe traveling to school (we as a community could establish neighborhood watch programs or work with local law enforcement to be present in the hours directly before and after school). And some parents dont trust schools (the Attendance Works publication says school districts could conduct home visits to meet parents. Many congratulations to Butte School District No. 1, which is planning next year to establish a home visiting program to meet parents of kindergartners where they live). Judy Jonart has asked for our help. Beginning this week, the Butte-Silver Bow Health Department will display an All Day, Every Day message on its electronic billboard on Front Street. I ask all merchants and anyone else with messaging capability to display the same message. This messaging might just imprint this important issue into our collective brains. I also pledge to read the entirety of the Attendance Works: A Toolkit for City Leaders publication to determine how I and those around me can contribute to this effort. Ill let you know in future columns what perhaps more our community can do collectively to get our kids to school. It will take a village. All day, every day. Now asbestos-free and given an all-clear, the Butte High School Annex heating and cooling systems will be done when school starts on Sept. 6. The Butte school district contracted with Ingraham Environmental to remove asbestos in insulation buffeting 130 elbow-shaped pipes in air handler units located in a suspended ceiling in the annex. Pipe insulation on heaters is commonly known to have asbestos, said Doug Ingraham, corporate secretary for Ingraham Environmental in Butte. With a state permit, Ingrahams crew contained what he calls a safe work area in the annex located above the suspended ceiling before safely removing the asbestos in late June. They were low-risk for disturbance, added Ingraham. As required by law, the district hired a third-party tester to ensure Ingraham Environmental captured all the asbestos, which can be harmful. Any time you have a remodel, it is standard industry procedure to do so, added district Superintendent Judy Jonart. Jed Hoopes, district maintenance director, said crews are currently installing heating units in the classrooms, then workers will finish installing rooftop air conditioners and air handlers. A $1.2 million, second-phase project that began in 2015, the most recent upgrades involve installing: New energy-efficient central heating and air conditioning systems to refurbish the existing HVAC system Air handling units New rooftop AC units Work also includes servicing air volume systems and hot water, baseboard heating and ventilation units. Overall, the district has drawn $3 million from its high school building reserve fund to make the long-needed upgrades to heating and air conditioning systems in the Annex because an application for a state Quality Schools Program grant fell through in 2015. Thats when the Montana Legislature failed on the last day of the session to pass a $150 million infrastructure bill. Not since 1990, when the eastside Annex was connected to the main high school building, had any of the original equipment been replaced, said Hoopes. The Annex was built in 1967. The main building was built in 1938. Ingraham said the school district is required by law to maintain a management plan for such infrastructure every three years. Butte schools are on top of what theyre supposed to do, he added. He has high praise for the districts vigilance. Butte is one of the most actively managed and well-conducted asbestos programs within a school district that we deal with, Ingraham said. Jed calls us whenever theres a concern. He never misses a beat. Despite the lack of state infrastructure funding, the district found a way to fund the remodel. Everything is on track, said Jonart. Insulation should be done in all those classrooms by Sept. 3, then testing will follow. Here's a tough question, but first, you have to presume you're Hillary Clinton, except that you have to give a straight answer. So, if you were Hillary Clinton, would you prefer to run against Donald Trump, or watch him implode along with the Republican Party to the point that he would decide to pull out of the race? Obviously, if he decided to pack it in, he'd leave the Republicans in tatters, struggling to come up with a candidate and a strategy to take Hillary on, to say nothing of building from the ruins he left behind (which would be particularly weird since Trump claims to build structures, not demolish them). One can certainly argue that Hillary could benefit from taking on an opposition party that had been left in tatters. Ah, but she'd suddenly have to run against someone she presumably couldn't portray as such a bigoted, cruel, ignorant man who had no impulse control. In other words, she might have to rely on her own merits, to ask the voters to accept her as president, as opposed to rejecting that crazy guy. Poll after poll shows that majorities or pluralities of respondents have serious reservations about her, with her unfavorables second only to Trump's. So IF Trump decided to bail or was somehow forced out and led away babbling his stream-of-consciousness hatred, and IF the GOP managed to accomplish that in time to get on all the states' ballots, which is to say, quickly, and IF they came up with someone who was credible or at least not so bizarre, someone who also could placate the millions in the party who rallied around Trump's toxic-waste dump, would you, you pretend Hillaries, prefer to take on a devastated party, or continue with the current guy, who might still beat you even though so many consider him to be so scarily unfit? Obviously, it's out of your control. It would be entirely up to the other side. Furthermore, the question is grossly premature. It's only a few of us pundits and other useless people who are even raising this scenario. But it's not just speculation that Republicans are horrified because every time their presidential candidate speaks, he buries himself more deeply in garbage: His attacks on the Khans, the parents of the Muslim soldier killed in Iraq combat, who dared criticize him; his lack of comprehension of policy, even nuclear policy; the accumulation of all the tasteless comments he's made against nearly everyone except the poorly educated white men, and some women, who are his adoring fans. In spite of his many promises to rein in his behavior, he's just not been able to. The polls now show that since his party's convention, he's had a precipitous drop. Even worse, from the party's point of view, he's slammed some of the Republican icons who have inexplicably chosen to endorse him, like John McCain and Paul Ryan. So now there is talk of an "intervention" (such a silly word). Among those whose names come up to administer his talking-to are the likes of Newt Gingrich and Rudy Giuliani. Now some might find it ludicrous that these two were the ones who'd be instructing him on common decency, wondering whether Gingrich and Giuliani should be the interveners or intervenees, but that has fed the rumors that Donald Trump is experiencing an emotional meltdown that could lead to him bailing out. His campaign leaders deny it, but given their own track record for honesty, that only feeds the frenzy of conjecture. To use Donald Trump's favorite expression, "believe me," Hillary Clinton and her advisers are carefully weighing the possibilities, no matter how remote. They carefully weigh everything. It comes down to "the devil you know versus the devil you don't know." Oh wait, Hillary is the devil. Trump said so. (c) 2016 Bob Franken Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc. This year the nominating conventions of our two major parties have selected for us two totally unacceptable candidates for president. Lacking a viable third alternative, were supposed to choose between a lying idiot (Donald Trump) and a lying crook (Hillary Clinton). Theres not space in a letter to the editor is to provide evidence for these characterizations. They should be evident to anyone whos been even half-awake these last few months. I have an old-fashioned idea about democracy. I think we should vote for candidates who most closely reflect the political positions and values, including honesty, we believe in. We shouldnt be bullied into choosing the lesser of two evils. Im pleased to see the re-emergence of two third parties, the Libertarian Party and the Green Party. The mass media, which have donated millions of dollars to both the Democratic and Republican parties, wants us to consider these alternative parties irrelevant. Theyre fringe groups. How dare they stand up to the Duopoly? Of the two alternative parties, I favor the Greens. Their positions are essentially the same as those argued for by Bernie Sanders. And the right-wing Libertarian Party may be superior to the Republican Party, especially with Trump as their nominee. After all, they think its OK to smoke dope. But they also want to get rid of Social Security, Medicare, and other programs that help ordinary people. Im voting for Jill Stein this year knowing she cant win. Corporate-owned TV networks refuse even to say her name. She has little money. She may not even get on the ballot in Montana. But she happens to be honest and right about everything that candidates in the two major parties are wrong about. Thats enough for me. -- Richard Turner, Dillon The West got a little wilder recently when a wagon train tried to cross the Crow Reservation and instead became entangled in a long-simmering tribal dispute. Like a scene out of the 1800s, the wagon train was reportedly stopped for five hours on July 24 by a group of Crow tribal members after trying to cross a contested route southwest of Billings known as the Pryor Gap Road. Duncan Vezain, the organizer of the trip and a Bridger saddle maker and horse trainer, said he called the tribe about a month in advance of the two-day trip between Bridger and Pryor and talked to a member of the Crow Tribes Fish and Game office, Marlin Notafraid, to pay for a recreation permit to use the Pryor Gap Road. Vezain said he paid Notafraid $400 for permission for his group of 45 riders. The route has been closed to public travel since 2002 following a dispute between the Plain Bull family, which owns land along the route, and the Crow Tribe. Standoff The dispute started when the wagon train got to within about three miles of the travelers final destination and was blocked by a group of tribal members and their vehicles. More tribal members arrived later and circled behind the wagon train blocking any retreat, Vezain said. The Plain Bull family requested a $500 trespass fee for the wagon train to continue on. It was straight-up a hostage situation, Vezain said. They offered to let one guy go through to get to a cash machine if we didnt have enough money. One family wanted to leave, and they wouldnt let them. Terry Jean Plain Bull denied that the group was held hostage but said they were blocked from leaving. Vezains wife, Bonnie, said she was very concerned because the hot day was taking a toll on her children, older riders and the horses. It was a pretty concerning situation and kind of suspicious, she said. Disputed Plain Bull said the Crow Tribe and Notafraid had no right issuing a permit to the wagon train without first seeking permission from the Plain Bull family. They trespassed on allotees land, she said, using the term for landowners within the reservation. The groups were in a standoff while they waited for Notafraid to arrive and settle the situation, since both sides thought they were in the right. When Notafraid did finally arrive, Plain Bull and Vezain said he was dishonest about what had transpired. Notafraid said he believed then and now that the recreation permit he issued the wagon train was valid on reservation and allotees land and that the Plain Bulls were in the wrong. He also said there would be no refund of the access fee the wagon train members paid since it was still valid to travel on other tribal lands. The Plain Bull family sees the issue differently. They put those people in a spot because they already knew the road was closed to nontribal members, Plain Bull said. Marlin said the BIA had opened the roads, which is a lie. Flash point With the disagreement simmering under the hot sun of a July afternoon, tempers on both sides flared. This confrontation almost went hostile, said Elias Goes Ahead, who owns land farther down the road. Guns were open on both sides, he said. The next time it might get into a bloody shootout. Plain Bull said some members of the wagon train were drinking alcohol, littered, were disrespectful and tried to intimidate her family and friends, even threatening to cut the barbed wire fence so they could continue on. Wagon train members accused the tribal members of being disrespectful. Resolved Reservation resident Cary White Buffalo Lance said the dispute is one of many that has pitted reservation residents against each other, the tribal government and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Theres this kind of war between everybody, Lance said. Its something that needs to be addressed by the tribe. He said the wagon train dispute is also keeping alive the animosity and racism that needs to go away between tribal and nontribal members. The wagon train was finally allowed to proceed after paying the Plain Bull family a $500 cash trespass fee. Vezain said one of his riders telephoned the Bridger Police Department, which called the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which dispatched an officer to Pryor Gap. Those interviewed for this story said the officer did not get involved in the dispute. The Crow Police chief said he was gone when the dispute arose and the BIA district officer was not available for comment. A message left for the Washington, D.C. BIA representative was not returned by press time. The BIA let them rob us, Vezain said. There was no due process. Despite the long delay and additional cost, Vezain said he was pleased to have reached his objective of crossing the historic stage and railroad route thats now closed to public travel. I achieved my goal, he said. It cost me a little extra money, but Ive been wanting to go through the Gap for eight years, ever since he started leading his annual wagon train trips. I bet its been a century since a wagon train has been held up by hostile Indians. Numerous road-related projects overseen by Butte-Silver Bow County will continue in the coming weeks, including bike signs going up along many streets on the Flat. But even with those signs and recently painted sharrows, Public Works Director Dave Schultz wants motorists and bicyclists to know what Montana law says on the topic. Sharrows arrow-and-bicycle symbols painted on streets tell motorists and cyclists they are to share those roads. Some designated bike lanes, which are to be used only by cyclists, were established Uptown last year along with some sharrow lanes or streets. But all bike routes on the Flat are marked only with sharrows. Over the next two weeks, about 100 signs will be posted along those streets to reinforce that designation. But that doesnt mean everyone knows what the rules are. Schultz said one man recently complained that bicyclists were riding down the middle of streets marked with sharrows, slowing down traffic. He was surmising that because the sharrows are painted in the middle of the lane, it makes bicyclists think they can ride in the middle of the lane, and the law is pretty clear on that, Schultz said. To that precise situation, Montana law says: If the right-hand lane is wide enough to be safely shared with overtaking vehicles, a bicyclist shall ride far enough to the right as judged safe by the bicyclist to facilitate the movement of overtaking vehicles unless other conditions make it unsafe to do so. State law also says bicyclists on roadways must ride in single file except when on paths or roadways set aside exclusively for their use, passing another bicycle or riding on a paved shoulder or parking lane (they can ride two abreast then). They can also be two abreast if riding within a single lane of a roadway with at least two lanes in each direction, as long as they dont impede the normal movement of traffic. WAPELLO, Iowa Louisa Countys 2016 health outcome ranking has shown a significant improvement compared with past rankings. Louisa County Public Health Service administrator Patti Sallee told the board of supervisors Tuesday the county was now ranked 46th in the state. In 2013, the county ranked 95th out of the states 99 counties in health outcomes. We are ecstatic about this, Sallee told the supervisors during her regular monthly report. Sallee indicated the programming her office had implemented over the past year had helped lead the improvement, but she said the efforts of other groups and local residents had been major factors for the ranking change. It takes a whole community, she said. According to information available on countyhealthrankings.org, a website provided through a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation program, overall rankings in health outcomes represent how healthy counties are within a state. The website provides information on all fifty states in the U.S. The healthiest county is ranked #1 (and) is based on how long people live and how healthy they feel while alive, the website explained. In 2016 Sioux County in northwest Iowa was ranked #1, while Monona County in west central Iowa was ranked 99th. Counties neighboring Louisa County included Muscatine (60th), Des Moines (93rd), Johnson (22nd), Washington (29th) and Henry (55th). In the rest of her update on activities in her office, Sallee reported her office was one of three county public health services in Region 5 to have received a Medicare payment through the recently-privatized system that now uses Managed Care Organizations (MCOs). Despite that success, Sallee called the new system a work in progress. She said her office was still carrying around $8,000 in payments under its accounts receivable ledger and she knew of some agencies that had not been paid anything since the MCOs became official on Apr. 1. Sallee also reported she was continuing to look for a new Wapello home for the Storks Nest and was hoping a local church might agree. The Storks Nest, which is now being operating through Lutheran Services, Inc., is currently being housed in space provided by the Iowa State Extension Service. County Veterans Affairs (VA) Service Officer Andy Beaver also provided his monthly update to the board. He said the Home Based Iowa (HBI) program had now linked his office to its statewide website and he hopeful local officials would soon be making more contacts with local banks and other organizations. The HBI program assists veterans and service personnel transitioning to civilian life by helping them connect with businesses and other organizations for employment, loans, educational opportunities and other programs. Beaver said he and Louisa Development Group (LDG) Executive Director Sherry Humphreys were still planning to begin meeting with area banks about the program. Beaver also reported he was no longer providing veterans assistance in Muscatine County, after the service officer there returned to work following maternity leave. In other action, the supervisors: Approved an additional one-lot division in the Musser Subdivision, west of Grandview; Agreed to sign a final consulting report, which apparently will complete the monitoring of a former hazardous site in Oakville; Learned from county engineer Larry Roehl that 145th Street southwest of Grandview would be temporarily closed in about two weeks for realignment work related to the U.S. Highway 61 construction work. MUSCATINE, Iowa The Muscatine Board of Education has scheduled two public community forums ahead of the Sept. 13 special election on the district's voter-approved Physical Plant and Equipment Levy. The 10-year PPEL shall not exceed $1.34 per $1,000 assessed valuation running through 2029. It is not a new tax levy. It is a renewal. This PPEL has been approved by the voters three previous times, first in 1988, then in 1998, and 2009. This PPEL expires June 30, 2020. Muscatine Superintendent Jerry Riibe urged the board to place the matter before the voters sooner rather than later allowing for a second attempt at passage if necessary. The levy cannot exceed $1.34. By law, the PPEL vote must come in a special election. The proceeds from the PPEL can be used for the purchase and improvements to buildings and grounds, for the purchase or lease of equipment or technology, procuring or acquisition of library facilities, energy conservation and recreational equipment purchases. Riibe said the district has lot of needs and value in its facilities and those facilities must be maintained. The forums are scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Sept. 1 at the Jefferson Elementary School commons and 6:30 p.m. Sept. 6 in te new wing at Muscatine High School. The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 13. In other business: The school board approved a District-wide Evaluation: Needs Assessment to be conducted by the director of the University of Iowa center for Evaluation and Assessment. The evaluation will include document analysis, survey of stakeholders, focus groups with leadership team members and an oral presentation to the Muscatine Community School District Board of Education at a board meeting in January 2017. The presentation will include guidance for a district strategic plan. The school board approved the purchase of six copiers form Marco Inc. at a cost of $43,263. The school board accepted a bid for a food and nutrition truck from Krieger Motor Company of Muscatine int he amount of $40,794. This purchase will replace a truck which broke down last spring. The school board tabled the award of a contract for laundry products and services to Aramark of East Moline, Illinois. Board members requested additional information. MUSCATINE, Iowa Grit, determination and a chance for a better future pushed a 27-year-old Muscatine man to create a GoFundMe page to raise money for a wheelchair that would grant him more maneuverability in different terrain. Antonio Hernandez wants to buy an all-terrain wheelchair. His GoFundMe campaign goal is $15,000. Hernandez was paralyzed from the neck down in 1995. He was 7 years old when he, his mother, brother and two sisters were on their way to Thanksgiving dinner. A drunk driver who was asleep at the wheel crashed head-on into the family's car. The only two to survive the accident were Antonio and his brother. The accident left Hernandez in a coma. He awoke six months later to find the accident left him a quadriplegic. He could only move his head and neck. Hernandezs current wheelchair is insufficient to meet his goals of moving around in certain conditions such as rough terrain or snow, helping out around his house and airsofting with his friends. Airsofting is shooting air soft guns that are often replicas of real guns that shoot small pellets. The new chair is an Action Trackchair that is designed to allow him more maneuverability with a zero degree turning radius and the ability to handle rougher terrain. In the 20 years that Hernandez has been in a wheelchair, he has worked to regain functionality of his limbs. He can now move his body above his torso. Its been tough, Hernandez said. Its been hard to stay as determined as I was as a kid." Following the diagnosis, Hernandez still clutched to the hope that he could join the military, a dream he had before the crash. But as he got older, he saw that dream fade as he realized he wouldnt be able to attain it. But he still uses the motivation he had then to inspire himself now. Lately, Ive been trying to use that determination to join the military and switching it to working out, improving and not to sit where I am, Hernandez said. Hernandez continued his dream in a different way: by switching to airsofting with his friends. But that dream too began to change as he was limited by his chair. I havent played in a couple of years because I dont trust my current chair, he said. The GoFundMe page was started after Hernandez was encouraged by his friends to do it. He said he didnt want to, due to his pride and feeling like he was freeloading off of other people. But his friends told him that wasnt the case. My friends said No, its not freeloading. Its about asking for help, Hernandez said. Individuals can donate to Hernandez's GoFundMe by going to his page and clicking donate. WILTON, Iowa The storefront renovation phase of Wilton's Downtown Revitalization Project should begin next May and take about a year to complete, it was announced at Monday night's Wilton City Council meeting. The council approved a $135,800 agreement with Klingner Associates of Burlington for continued architectural services and a $20,000 agreement with MSA Professional Services of Ankeny for a number of supervisory and administrative duties, including disbursement of payments from Community Development Block Grant funding awarded to Wilton for the project, estimated to cost $1 million. The CDBG award totals $500,000, and the balance will be divided evenly between the city and participating property owners. SCHOOL-RELATED TRAFFIC RULES Motorists in Wilton will need to keep their eyes open for new traffic laws, particularly in the area of the new elementary school. The city council passed the first readings and waived the second and third readings of several ordinance amendments establishing new regulations regarding speed limits, parking, and stop signs. The changes also remove certain restrictions in the area of the old elementary school. And new speed limits pertain to several locations, not just the school neighborhood. WATER AND SEWER RATES Increased charges for water and sewer services are a step closer to becoming reality in Wilton. The city council approved the second readings of ordinance amendments raising the rates, deemed necessary to help pay for improvements at the water treatment and wastewater treatment plants. The wastewater project has been mandated by the state to come into compliance with federal regulations. "It's something we're forced to do," commented Mayor Bob Barrett. "The legislature forces us to do something impossible, so we'll do it." City Administrator Chris Ball added Wilton is just one of many communities that must meet stricter standards. "The DNR gives us this consent order, and we'll do it," Ball said. "We're not alone." The council also set an Aug. 22 public hearing on entering into an agreement for a $385,000 interest free State Revolving Fund loan for the Wastewater Treatment Plant project. W. THIRD ST. STORM SEWER Improvements are slated for a problematic drainage ditch in western Wilton. The city council approved a $16,639 agreement with Triple B Construction of Wilton to shape ditches and install storm sewer along West Third Street. Micro Service, a business in the area, has agreed to contribute $3,000 to the project. "It's a nice partnership between city and businesses out there," Ball commented. FREEDOM ROCK The first Freedom Rock in Muscatine County could be in Wilton. The city council approved an application from the Wilton American Legion Auxiliary to place a Freedom Rock, probably near the the illuminated "W" in the west end of Wilton or adjacent to the restored depot in the downtown area. Auxiliary member Becky Hansen said the Wilton Auxiliary would provide the $1,000 down payment. "We would talk about how we would raise money after that," she said. The original Freedom Rock, painted to pay tribute to military veterans, is located in Adair County in southwest Iowa. IN OTHER BUSINESS The council accepted the resignation of Ron Gradert from the Planning and Zoning Commission and approved Barrett's appointment of Laurie Maurer. Slow down, buckle up and take special care around fighting family members. Sounds like wisdom a parent might bestow. But, in layman's terms, those are the recommendations of a new study of law enforcement deaths while on duty. In short, police will be more likely to return home safely after their shifts if more of them wear seat belts, take more care when racing to high-priority calls, wear their issued body armor and remember that calls involving domestic disturbances are often the most dangerous. The release of the report by the U.S. Justice Department is well timed. It provides a striking counterbalance to a lot of rhetoric of late that aims to compel the public to choose sides between protecting blue lives and black lives -- as if we can't do both. The report, "Deadly Calls and Fatal Encounters," was being finalized as the nation reeled from the July ambush murders of five police officers in Dallas, followed by three more officers shot and killed by yet another deranged man in Baton Rouge, La. Those murders understandably piqued fears for the lives of law enforcement. But some advocates of "law and order" have overreached, falsely accusing the Black Lives Matter movement of stoking violence against police. There are tensions between citizens and police in low-income communities across the nation where homicide rates are high and police presence is heavy. But they have existed for years. That's the point. The protests -- even the most outrageous ones that brought vandalism, looting and police lines being pelted with bottles and rocks -- weren't the result of one incident. They are the result of cumulative outrage. And it's patently unfair to decide that the many voices involved in the Black Lives Matter movement -- and they are widely varied -- can be blamed for all of the dangers to law enforcement. The report illustrates that many of the fatal dangers for police are not easily categorized. The report emphasizes that "no call is routine," and complacency can result in an officer's death. But there is much that can be done to alleviate their risks. Analyzing 684 deaths of officers between 2010 and 2014, the report dug deep into the circumstances, finding parallels in the types of calls, what information was available to officers and how they responded. Traffic accidents took the most police lives by far, accounting for 272 deaths. When police officers were shot and killed, most often it was in dealing with a domestic dispute. Often police officers died when answering calls alone, not waiting for backup or when pertinent information about the suspect being armed was not relayed to them. That finding calls for better training, coordination with dispatch operators and changes to the ways information is disseminated by radio, tablets and computers in patrol cars. Ninety-one officers were killed while responding to a call for service, such as 911. Forty-one died in self-initiated calls, including cases where an officer made an investigatory traffic stop. An additional 134 officers were shot while not responding to a call. Those deaths included officers being ambushed in unprovoked attacks and those killed while serving a warrant, during tactical operations or while doing follow-up investigations. Interestingly, semi-automatic weapons aren't the firearms that most often take officer's lives. In 71 percent of the cases studied, the officers died by a handgun. That makes sense. Handguns are popular in many an American home, which relates back to the domestic disturbance-related deaths. Yet in 21 percent of the deaths studied, officers were shot by high-powered rifles, leading to recommendations for body armor and possibly ballistic panels for patrol cars. When it comes to shootings of police officers or by them, we're increasingly being fed polarizing narratives: the police as prejudiced and above the law vs. the police as heroes with targets on their backs. Reality is much more complex, and to come to grips with it we need access to the facts. Better data exist for cases in which officers killed in the line of duty than for cases of officers shooting civilians. The FBI is the clearinghouse for the latter cases, but law enforcement agencies don't always report up the line. As much as people like to argue that their feelings and perspectives matter, facts will bring us together to solve the problems of police violence. Better data, and reports that take the time to drill down into those data, are necessary. It's the only way to spot problems and correct them. After all, the goal of a civil society ought to be for citizen and officer to return safely to their homes at night. Mary Sanchez is an opinion-page columnist for The Kansas City Star. Readers may write to her at: Kansas City Star, 1729 Grand Blvd., Kansas City, Mo. 64108-1413, or via e-mail at msanchez@kcstar.com. Important stuff you won't get from the liberal media! We do the surfing so you can be informed AND have a life! 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 latest financial results revealed that the company spent R1.324 billion on a range of professional services relating to the negotiations that led to a reduction of the Nigerian regulatory fine. The fine, which was a result of MTN not disconnecting unregistered SIM cards, was reduced by R34 billion. The board has exercised its judgement and approved the quantum of the professional fees incurred, taking into account global benchmarks and the value delivered culminating in the final settlement of the Nigerian fine, said MTN. MTN executive chairman Phuthuma Nhleko told the Sunday Times that the eight-month negotiations required a wide range of 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, said Nhleko. One of the big hitters on MTNs negotiations team was Eric Holder, the US attorney-general from 2009 to 2015. Dominic Cull of Ellipsis Regulatory Solutions supported Nhlekos view, stating that considering the enormity of the fine and the conditions under which it was reduced, the amount spent on professional services was not unreasonable. Not everyone is convinced In Business Day TVs The Week That Was, hosts Simon Brown and Giulietta Talevi bemoaned the lack of clarity on what MTN spent R1.324 billion on, as the amount translated into R6.36 million per day. MTN has successfully redefined corporate legal budgets everywhere, joked Brown, adding that they get the gong this year for waffly, benign management mambo jumbo speak. Professional services fees your guess is as good as ours as to what the hell those entail, said Brown. Sasfin Securities David Shapiro joked that the payment is why you should work for a corporate. They can just spend money with impunity, they can do whatever they want to do and it does not hurt anybody [staff or shareholders], he said. It does not hurt your salary. It does not hurt your bonus. Shareholders reckon this is the greatest thing you have got to buy MTN now, said Shapiro. Shapiro highlighted that the lack of clarity from MTN, like how they paid the fees, related to corporate governance issues at the company. More on MTN This comparison shows how Telkoms new FreeMe contracts smash Vodacom and MTNs Why a suspended WASP could still use MTNs network Remember those dark days when load shedding wreaked havoc on households and businesses? Well, it was a year on Thursday since large parts of South Africa was plunged into darkness. And Eskom is patting itself on the back for doing its job of keeping the countrys lights, thanks to the power utilitys rigorous plant maintenance programme. According to Eskom, the adherence to regular scheduled maintenance is managed through the Tetris planning tool, which schedule outages based on forecasted demand and maintenance requirements. A key aspect of this includes having a strict winter and summer maintenance budget that comprises 8.5 GW for winter and 11.5 GW for summer, Eskom said in a statement. It noted that in terms of its existing Generation Sustainability Strategy, Eskom aims to achieve 80% plant availability, 10% planned maintenance and 10% unplanned maintenance over the medium term. The reduction in unplanned outages contributed to improvements of plant availability and the resultant sharp reduction in the usage of open cycle gas turbines (OCGTs). OCGTs is one of the most expensive ways to generate power by burning diesel, but Eskoms diesel bill for OCGTs was cut by R829m in the months to May, it reported. The last time Eskom ran OCGTs to manage the system was on June 14 2016. The OCGT load factor year-to-date is 0.24% versus a target of 6%. Eskom said its target is not to burn any diesel for the rest of the financial year. It noted that the resilience of the power system was stress-tested in April, following multiple trips of units at three power stations, a move that resulted in a loss of 3 535 MW. No load shedding was implemented due to the increased resilience that Eskom has built into the power system over the past few months. Moreover, the power utility said it experienced the highest peak in demand for electricity on August 1 at 34 922 MW. The demand was met without the need to dispatch Eskom diesel generators. This peak was higher than last years peak of 34 481 MW. While improving the performance of the existing ageing fleet on the one hand, Eskom has also managed to fast-track the building of new generating capacity on the other. President Jacob Zuma in July launched Unit 4 of the Ingula Pumped Storage, which upon completion, will be Africas newest and largest pumped storage scheme, and the 19th largest in the world. Ingulas Unit 4 came into commercial operation on June 10 2016, six months ahead of schedule. It has been consistently adding 333 MW into the national grid to ensure security of supply. It is the first of Ingulas four units to come into commercial operation. The remaining three units have also been synchronised to the national grid and are on track for commercial operation within the first half of 2017. Once completed, all four units of the Ingula Pumped Storage Scheme will produce a total of 1 332 MW. Eskoms capacity expansion programme has so far added 7 364 MW of generation capacity, 6 162km of transmission lines and 32 890 MVA of substation capacity to the national grid since 2005, it said. Eskom is also continuing to execute its build programme that will bring much-needed power to support South Africas economic growth. In February this year Unit 1 of the Kusile power station successfully completed factory acceptance tests, an important milestone towards the synchronisation of the unit. This unit is expected to be commercially operational in July 2018. Medupis Unit 5 completed its factory acceptance tests in December last year, and is expected to come into full commercial operation by March 2018. The Majuba Rail Project is expected to be completed by December 2017. Once commissioned, the security of coal supply through logistics solutions at both the Majuba and Tutuka power stations will transport approximately 21-million tonnes of coal per year by rail. The Majuba Rail Project is a component of the Eskom Road to Rail Initiative with the construction of a railway line that links the Majuba Power Station to the main coal railway hub in the town of Ermelo in Mpumalanga. The 68km corridor is the first large greenfield freight-rail infrastructure project to be carried out in South Africa since 1986 and will be operated by Transnet Freight Rail. Meanwhile, Eskom has successfully completed 5 620 self-funded electrification connections as well as 1 080 farm dweller connections during the course of the 2014/2015 financial year. According to the latest Statistics South Africa report, access to electricity has increased from 35% of households in 1990 to over 90% in 2016. More households will be connected to the grid in an effort to achieve universal access by 2025, said Eskom. Fin24 More on Eskom Eskom workers go on strike More renewable energy will make electricity more expensive: Eskom CEO A previously unknown group called Strider has been conducting cyberespionage-style attacks against targets in Russia, China, Sweden, and Belgium. According to Symantec, the group uses an advanced piece of malware known as Remsec (Backdoor.Remsec) to conduct its attacks. Remsec is a tool that appears to be designed for spying purposes. Its code contains a reference to Sauron, the all-seeing antagonist in Lord of the Rings. Striders attacks have tentative links with a previously uncovered group, Flamer. The use of Lua modules is a technique that has been used by Flamer. One of Striders targets had also previously been infected by Regin, said Symantec. Targets Symantec has found evidence of infections in 36 computers across seven organisations. Striders targets include a number of organisations and individuals located in Russia, an airline in China, an organisation in Sweden, and an embassy in Belgium. More on security Samsung Galaxy S7 has Quadrooter vulnerability Gumtree scams: what to watch out for and how to avoid them Nigerian scammers infect themselves with own malware More than three years after its nurses voted to join the California Nurses Association, Queen of the Valley Medical Center and its RNs have reached a tentative agreement on a three-year contract. The agreement is now subject to a ratification vote by nurses and the details of the vote will be provided to you by the union, said a statement from Vanessa de Gier, area director of communications and marketing for Queen of the Valley Medical Center, who said she was speaking for Queen CEO Walt Mickens. We have reached a tentative agreement that meets and exceeds community standards, said Desi Murray, assistant director of collective bargaining with the CNA. This first contract is a big victory for Queen of the Valley nurses and will help with improved patient care and RN recruitment and retention. Were very pleased, said longtime Queen nurse Mary Lou Bahn. She said that negotiators for the CNA and the Queen spent almost all weekend coming to the tentative agreement. It was a hardworking group, she said. We hope the membership will ratify the contract, which is for a three-year term, she said. Bahn said she could not reveal the specifics of the contract yet, but its a competitive package. The CNA also informed the hospital that a previously planned strike will not take place Aug. 18. We greatly appreciate the hard work and dedication of the bargaining teams throughout this process and look forward to the ratification vote, wrote de Gier. We hope you agree that this tentative agreement is something you can be proud of and support and that you vote yes. In April 2013, the Queens nurses voted to join the California Nurses Association union. However, an agreement about a contract, including pay, benefits and other issues, could not be reached. Queen nurses held a one-day strike in 2014 to protest the stalled talks. In 2015 they picketed outside the hospital. In July, St. Joseph Health, the parent company of the Queen, formed a new organization with Providence Health to become Providence St. Joseph Health. If the Queens CNA members agree, the new contract could be ratified as soon as next Tuesday, said Bahn. Three years later, there are no bad feelings, assured Bahn. At the end of the meeting this past weekend, everyone shook hands and there were hugs. We even hugged the mediator. ABC News(MIAMI) -- Seddique Mir Mateen, the father of the man blamed for the Orlando, Florida nightclub massacre, attended Hillary Clinton's campaign rally in Kissimmee, Florida, Monday. He's seen in video sitting in the crowd behind Clinton on stage. His son Omar Mateen, 29, killed 49 people and wounded dozens of others in the worst mass shooting in recent U.S. history. After the rally, Seddique Mateen told NBC West Palm Beach affiliate WPTV that he supports Clinton. "Hillary Clinton is good for United States versus Donald Trump, who has no solutions," he said. The Clinton campaign said Tuesday in a statement: "The rally was a 3,000-person, open-door event for the public. This individual wasn't invited as a guest and the campaign was unaware of his attendance until after the event." The event was held not far from the site of the mass shooting. Omar Mateen opened fire on the Pulse nightclub, a popular spot for the LGBT community, on June 12 and pledged allegiance to ISIS during a 911 call. He was killed in a gun battle with cops. Clinton visited a memorial outside Pulse nightclub last month during a trip to Orlando, where she held a roundtable to discuss gun violence. Copyright 2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Strong evidence shows several arms of California government are in urgent need of major ethical fixes, beginning with the Public Utilities Commission, the Energy Commission and the Coastal Commission, to name just three powerful agencies. But even the smallest and most obvious reforms are consistently met with vetoes, legislative detours and other obfuscation despite the pious rhetoric of powerful politicians from Gov. Jerry Brown down to backbenchers in the Legislature. The pattern began last year, when Brown vetoed a batch of proposed changes for the PUC, including creating an inspector general for the almost untouchable agency that oversees electric and natural gas safety and prices. Brown nixed a ban on private contacts between PUC commissioners and executives of the big utility companies they regulate, while often acting like rubber stamps. These are known as ex-parte communications. The drive for a ban on ex-partes for the PUC followed revelations of a secret deal between a former PUC president (now under criminal investigation) and officials of the Southern California Edison Co. that stuck consumers with the bulk of costs for shutting down the San Onofre Nuclear Power Station. There were also private contacts between PUC commissioners and Pacific Gas & Electric Co. on both rates and the consequences of the fatal 2010 San Bruno gas pipeline explosion. This year, legislators proposed a similar ban on ex-parte communications by the Coastal Commission, which rules on virtually all development along the states scenic coastline. This came after several commissioners admitted having secret meetings, emails and phone calls with developers on whose projects they were to vote. For months, passage of a ban seemed assured; it easily cleared the state Senate. If passed, the bill by Democratic state Sen. Hannah Beth Jackson of Santa Barbara would prohibit ex-parte communications between commissioners and anyone else with a financial stake in agency business. This would be a nice start, many consumers believe, with similar bans also needed for many other state boards and commissions. So far, not one such ban has been accepted by Brown, whose signature is needed to make legislation into law. Now the Coastal Commission ex-parte ban has run afoul of an analysis by the state Natural Resources Agency that found the commission would need six new employees at a yearly cost of about $150,000 each. That department under Browns direct authority also backed the contention by some commissioners that ex-parte communications help greatly in their work. Two facts are relevant here: One is that the expense ($900,000) for six new employees who would presumably police their bosses is a fraction of the building cost for just one typical new coastal home. Its a pittance for keeping commissioners honest and fair. The other fact is that wealthy coastal developers can hire lobbyists and other spokesmen whose fees are usually beyond the means of conservationists. Thats why most Coastal Commission ex-parte communications are one-sided renditions of property owner interests. Nevertheless, allegedly because of its financial impact, Jacksons bill has been sidetracked into the state Assemblys suspense file, which usually delays votes on proposed laws by about a year. If this bill isnt resurrected by Thursday evening, it cant be reintroduced until next year. Democratic Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon of Lawndale, sponsor of last years vetoed PUC reforms, refused to say whether he will try to break it loose. Meanwhile, theres no prospect for an ex-parte communications ban for any other agency. A package of PUC changes agreed to by Brown and key legislators would require commissioners to reveal quickly the contents of any such contacts. But there are no significant penalties for anyone who doesnt comply. Theres no effort to impose even that much on the Energy Commission or other panels. All of which means it will likely be business as usual in California government for at least another year, despite rhetoric from Rendon and other legislators who have advocated ex-parte and other reforms to prevent regulators from favoring the very interests theyre supposed to rein in. Coming almost two years after revelations of the extent and consequences of PUC ex-parte communications, this raises major questions about politicians who talk a good game on this but may not really mean it. Thomas D. Elias writes the syndicated California Focus column. Almost a third of the St. Helena High School senior class returned to school a few days early this week to get a head-start on the college admissions process. The college admissions boot camp, which took place Monday through Wednesday mornings, gave about 30 incoming seniors the skills theyll need to prepare for the next phase of their education. We want to level the playing field for kids who cant afford a private college counselor, said teacher Paige Rios. We want to give everybody access to that. The seminar was led by Rios, guidance counselor Terri Linder and library media specialist Susan Swan. Linder advised students on how to research colleges, keep track of paperwork, set priorities, and fill out the Common Application that more than 700 colleges use. Swan talked about how application essays should reflect each students unique voice, and encouraged students to avoid the cliched This moment changed my life essays that admissions officers read all the time. Were trying to get them exposed to each stage of the process, so they have the tools to get through it, Rios said. The high school prides itself on its high college admissions rate, which was 90 percent for the Class of 2016. Rios runs the AVID program, which is geared toward college-bound students who are the first members of their family to go to college. In March the high school teamed up with the St. Helena Public Schools Foundation to bring The New York Times columnist Frank Bruni to the Cameo Cinema to discuss his book about the college admissions process. Second in an occasional series In 1994, Elsa Cairo Carlos, her husband and daughter left their native land of Peru and immigrated to the United States. Carlos is one of nearly 9,000 Lawful Permanent Residents living in Napa County who wishes to become a U.S. citizen and is doing so through the One Napa Valley Initiative and its partnership agencies, including the UpValley Family Centers. Carlos and her family live in Angwin and she is a cafeteria worker at Pacific Union College. She is working with Blanca Dixon, the centers Immigration Program coordinator, who is also a Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) representative. Carlos speaks only Spanish and Dixon acted as translator for this interview. At the time I was in Peru, the economy was so bad that I lost my job, my husband lost his job, Carlos said. There also was rampant terrorism throughout the country, so the couple sought and received political asylum. This country opened its doors to us, welcomed us, the woman relates. They eventually came to Sonoma, where friends owned a restaurant. That was in 1995, a year after arriving in the United States. The Carloses learned how to manage the restaurant and bought it from their friends. Today, Carlos husband and her three children, Joselin, 24, Dayana, 20, and Emanuel, 16, are all U.S. citizens. The family lives in Angwin, where Dayana attends Pacific Union College. Joselin graduated from PUC and is earning her masters degree at the University of California at Riverside. Emanuel is a student at St. Helena High School. Why, after being in the United States for 22 years, does Carlos want to become a U.S. citizen? She replied, I want to become a U.S. citizen so that I have the same rights as other citizens, including the right to vote for president. And, in this election year, who would she vote for? Democratic ticket, Hillary Clinton. Napa Valley Community Foundation In May 2012, the Napa Valley Community Foundation released a study conducted by the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., of the economic and fiscal impact of immigrants in Napa County. That study, the first of its kind for the region, underscored the substantial economic contributions made by immigrants in Napa Valley, and also pointed to a significant citizenship gap: many immigrants in Napa County are eligible to become citizens, but they havent done so nearly as frequently as their peers around the state, said Terence Mulligan, foundation president, in a news release. Only 30 percent of Napa Countys foreign-born population have become citizens versus 37 percent in California overall, said Ellen Dumesnil, executive director of the International Institute of the Bay Area. There are nearly 9,000 citizenship-eligible permanent residents in Napa County, but before this project started, there were only a handful of immigration attorneys in the valley, most far too expensive for lower-income residents, she added. In July 2013, the Napa Valley Community Foundation and more than 125 donors and four nonprofits, including the UpValley Family Centers and the International Institute of the Bay Area, launched the One Napa Valley Initiative. The other nonprofits are On the Move and Puertas Abiertas. In March, for the first time in Napa County history, representatives from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, an agency of the federal Department of Homeland Security, held a naturalization ceremony in Napa. It was held at Napa Valley College and was led by John Kramar, the San Francisco director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Passport needed to visit relatives Another reason Elsa Cairo Carlos wants to become a U.S. citizen is to get a passport, because I havent been able to go back to my country since I came to the United States. She has family back in Peru she wants to visit. I havent seen them in a long time, she said. Dixon said she first met Carlos when she came to the UpValley Family Centers office in St. Helena to pay her PG&E bill. We were talking and I asked her where she was from and it turns out we both are from Peru, Dixon said. We became friends and after that, she mentioned she was a green card holder, which means she is a lawful permanent resident. Dixon told her she qualified to become a U.S. citizen and she was signed up for a workshop in Napa. During the workshop, personnel from the International Institute of the Bay Area filled out the naturalization forms and submitted them to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. After that, Carlos passed her civics test, given in Spanish, because of her age and how long she has been in the United States. Her test was in mid-July in San Francisco. For the civics test, applicants must study 100 questions and learn the answers, which are supplied. They must correctly answer six out of 10 questions. At 9:15 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 3, Carlos took the oath of office at a naturalization ceremony in Oakland. She is now a U.S. citizen. She encourages everyone to apply for their citizenship, adding that with the help from the International Institute of the Bay Area and the family centers, the process is not too difficult. Italian prime minister demands that she be addressed as prime minister in masculine form Pentagon to send Ukraine new aid package worth $275 million Europe will ban sale of one type of car European Commission head announces new aid and investments for Serbia Biden calls Putin's rhetoric on nuclear weapons 'dangerous' 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? Pashinyan: Armenia-Diaspora relations undergo profound substantive changes 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 President of Karabakh: It is necessary to unite all national potential and efforts 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 The opinions of the German experts are divided in regard to the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's visit to Russia and possible objectives to meet with the President Vladimir Putin on August 9. " Turkey's switch toward Russia and NATO does not proceed from our interests ," says the SPD 's foreign policy expert Niels Anen, reports the DW. In addition , he pinpointed the sober calculation the Turkish President. " The meeting of Erdogan with Putin shows that Turkey's president is not a sentimental and an unpredictable figure at all . On the contrary, after reconciliation with Israel Erdogan, having a new vision of rapprochement with Russia, introduced himself as a purely pragmatic political figure, who is enlarging his capacity for the foreign policy , " said Anen . A member of the German Free Democratic Party, the European Parliament Vice-Speaker Alexander Lambsdorff believes that Turkey is not trying to cut ties with the West. "Russia is not an alternative to the European orientation. Erdogan payed a visit to Putin to show that he can behave himself in another way . However, Turkey needs to enter the European market and the guarantees of the NATO for its own security, "says the politician. The historian Michael Wolffsohn believes that Putin, in his turn, wants to drive a wedge between Turkey and the West. According to him , using Ankara 's rapprochement with Moscow , the Russian president wants to weaken the EU's and the NATO " in a natural way". At the same time , he does not consider Turkey as a reliable partner for Russia in the long run , as Ankara pursues a " zigzag policy ." "There is nothing that can last in a long term for Erdogan, except for preserving and strengthen his government," said Michael Wolffsohn. Putin, according to the historian, by contrast, has a clear strategy. It is the difference between those two approaches that prevents to create a union of those two strong leaders, as "an alliance is established with a long-term perspective." Wolffsohn believes that Ankara and Moscow can only have tactical but not strategic partnership, especially considering that "Russia can offer Erdogan far less than the Western countries." Paleontologists dont always have to go into the field in search of fossils to identify. Sometimes they dig through the collections of museums. That was the case for the latest paper by Emory paleontologist Anthony Martin, published in the journal Memoirs of Museum Victoria. Martin describes the first dinosaur tracks found in Victoria, Australia way back in the 1980s and explains their paleontological importance. The three footprints, made by small ornithopods, were recovered in Lower Cretaceous strata of the Eumeralla Formation of Victoria, dating to about 105 million years ago. One of the tracks was found at Knowledge Creek in 1980 by paleontologists Thomas Rich and Patricia Vickers-Rich, a husband and wife team. The other two prints were spotted in 1989 at Skenes Creek by geologist Helmut Tracksdorf. Martins study appears in a special volume honoring the career of Thomas Rich, a long-term mentor of Martin. The article documents a presence of small ornithopod dinosaurs in Victoria, matching a skeletal record, Martin says. Its scientifically significant because these were polar dinosaur tracks and, unlike bones, they show exactly where those animals were living. Small dinosaurs were much less likely to migrate far, and these tracks suggest that they had adapted to year-round living in a polar environment. Victoria is famous for its polar dinosaur bones, which washed downstream during torrential spring flooding and were deposited on the banks of rivers, far from the sites where the animals actually lived and died, Martin explains. Tracks, however, pinpoint where the dinosaurs actually set foot. View Full Story in eScienceCommons 23:27 Sasikala Pushpa, an All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MP who was expelled recently, on Wednesday lashed out at the party saying it is full of "slaves", PTI has reported. "I don't want to be a part of this slave gang," the Rajya Sabha MP told reporters. Pushpa warned the party leadership that she will retaliate, while deploying the caste card to counter the allegations against her saying that it is her Nadar community which is being harassed. "I will retaliate if the harassment continues as I am the one who is being harassed here. People will give a befitting reply in elections," she said. "I belong to Nadar community and am not sacred. People are watching all this. I have the backing of my community. Nadar community is one amongst the most powerful in the southern districts of the state," Pushpa said against the backdrop of controversies related to her expulsion and registration of an FIR against her family in Tamil Nadu. The domestic helps, who reportedly worked at Pushpa's house in Tamil Nadu, had filed a complaint to police alleging that Pushpa, her husband Lingeswara Thilakan and son Pradeep Raja had tortured them. While alleging that the maids were instigated to complain against her family, Pushpa showed a letter, allegedly written by an AIADMK party worker, threatening to kill her in Delhi itself. "If this is the type of atrocity and sufferings faced by an MP like me, just imagine the plight of grassroots-level workers and other office bearers," she said, adding that many leaders in AIADMK are happy that she had brought these issues into the public domain. "AIADMK leaders were wondering who would bell the cat. Now many are happy," the MP said. The Tamil Nadu government was on Wednesday restrained by the Delhi high court from taking any "coercive action" till Thursday against Pushpa, her husband and their son in connection with the harassment of domestic helps. The court said this while hearing the anticipatory bail pleas of Sasikala Pushpa, her husband and son. Union Minister of State for Home Hansraj Ahir told the house: "There has been substantial decrease in incidents of violence in the northeast since 2012." Ahir said there was no report of any foreign country providing financial or logistic help directly to insurgent groups. But he said foreign arms and ammunition were being used by various groups. "We are working in coordination with foreign countries. I do not say we have attained 100 per cent success, but many camps run by Indian insurgent groups have been eradicated, especially in Bangladesh," Ahir said. He was answering supplementary questions, including from Kalyan Banerjee (Trinamool Congress) and C.K. Sangma (National People's Party). Sangma, MP from Meghalaya, wanted to know whether India was proposing any "joint operations" against Indian guerrilla groups operating from foreign soil. Ashok Chavan of Congress wanted to know whether the government would sign an extradition treaty with Myanmar to get hold of senior Naga insurgent leaders in that country. --IANS nd/rn/mr ( 198 Words) 2016-08-09-13:50:02 (IANS) According to sfgate.com, Twitter has contacted San Francisco brokerage firm Cresa to market 183,642 square feet of "fully furnished" office space at its two buildings in Market Square. "We're always looking at ways to use our office spaces more efficiently and effectively. We remain committed to our home in San Francisco's Mid-Market area," a Twitter spokesperson was quoted as saying. Earlier this year, Twitter was considering renting out a partial floor of its Market Street headquarters to financial technology firm Affirm but the deal fell apart. According to reports, Twitter is also seeking to rent out 24,000 square feet in its Manhattan office. Earlier this month, there were rumours saying that former Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer was buying the micro-blogging website. There were multiple reports, saying that Ballmer and Saudi Arabia's Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal were getting ready with a bid to buy Twitter. Twitter was yet to respond to the rumour. Earlier, although it added three million users -- one million more that what analysts had expected -- the not-so-promising second quarter earnings results led to the shares of micro-blogging website Twitter tumbling. The company posted quarterly revenue of $602 million, up 20 per cent year-over-year and reported $107 million GAAP net loss ($0.15 per share) with quarterly non-GAAP net income of $93 million ($0.13 per share). A year ago, the year-over-year growth was 61 per cent and two years back, it was a whopping 124 per cent. The average monthly active users (MAUs) were 313 million for the quarter, up only 3 per cent compared to 310 million in the previous quarter. The micro-blogging website is now looking at the video and news streaming space to revive its fortunes. --IANS na/ksk ( 312 Words) 2016-08-09-09:58:03 (IANS) Global internet and technology conglomerate LeEco is ramping up its recruitment effort in India with its plan to hire over 1,100 engineers for its Indian Research and Development centre by 2017. The company plans to hire from tier-I engineering colleges like the IITs and the NITs across the country. The fact that LeEco has started its recruitment spadework across campuses has also surcharged the fresher's community with a hope of getting a chance to work with LeEco. "We are humbled and excited to see the interest amongst students' community to work with us. Many of them came to attend our test braving heavy downpour and flood like situation that Bangalore witnessed last week," said Head of LeEco India R&D, Shrinivas Bairi. "The skill sets we are looking for are areas including modem technologies, BSP, multimedia, TV Broadcast and internet technologies," added Bairi. Indian R&D team will be involved in both commercialization and localization support for all the devices launched in India. The centre will churn out innovations and work with China and US R&D centre. It will also soon start a camera image engineering lab for image quality, RF/Antenna design and tuning lab for smart devices. The R&D centre will help the company to meet all the local requirements, support Indian languages, follow government regulations like Panic button and GPS requirements, and comply with different carrier requirements. It will also support the parent company in customization of its products before global launches. The centre will develop cutting-edge technology and features that will be patented in India. This is a vital cog in the wheels of LeEco's 'Make in India' plan. Apart from developing cutting-edge technology for its smart devices, the India R&D centre will also help LeEco's ecommerce marketplace, LeMall.com to develop data analytics and machine learning tools in order to improve the customer experience and sales. (ANI) As part of the deal, the companies launched IBM Hybrid Cloud platform that will enable delivery of faster and more insightful data intelligence and support faster decision-making for Vodafone India, bringing together enterprise data and cloud-ready applications into a scalable environment that keeps data local, private and secure. IBMs leading-edge capabilities will help strengthen Vodafone Indias vision of delivering differentiated client experiences," said Vanitha Narayanan, Managing Director of IBM India, in a statement. IBM will support Vodafone Indias IT environment transition into IBM Hybrid Cloud, allowing the company to leverage and integrate existing IT resources and data assets with private cloud environments. "Partnering with IBM will help us enhance customer experience with intuitive capabilities and build a cost optimized, flexible and scalable IT infrastructure, added Vishant Vora, Director, Technology and Network, Vodafone India. IBM will support Vodafone Indias speed to market and improve the efficiency of its network and IT operations. --IANS anuj/na/vt ( 198 Words) 2016-08-09-12:48:01 (IANS) Channel VH1 has greenlit a new weekly reality series starring Stewart and Snoop Dogg for premiere this fall. In the show, the two celebrities will invite celebrity friends over for a half-baked evening of cocktails, cooking, conversation, and fun, reports deadline.com. At our dinner party, we will exemplify Americas fascination with food, entertaining and celebrity. Martha & Snoops Dinner Party will redesign the traditional food competition shows in a new, different and very funny way, said Stewart. Snoop Dogg said: "My homegirl, Martha and I have a special bond that goes back. Were gonna be cooking, drinking and having a good time with our exclusive friends. Cant wait for you to see how we roll together." Stewart is an Emmy-winning television show host, entrepreneur, bestselling author of over 85 books, and a lifestyle expert and teacher. And Snoop Dogg recently released his 14th studio album - Coolaid. --IANS sug/rb ( 175 Words) 2016-08-09-06:30:01 (IANS) After having quite an ugly year due to the much talked-about Kangana Ranaut controversy, Hrithik Roshan said that the curiosity to know the unknown and see the unseen is his mantra to fight negativity. As reported by Pinkvilla, the 42-year-old actor said, "I always believe there's more to what meets the eye. I believe there's a reason why things happen. And there's a secret doorway in every dark, a hidden magic that we fail to see it before." "This is because I am a very curious person by nature. If you tell me this can't go right, or this is impossible to deal with then I go like- let me try and see if it's really that way. If I've already done it one way then I figure some other way of working on it," he added. On the work front, Hrithik has geared up for the release of his much awaited Ashutosh Gowariker movie 'Mohenjo Daro' this week. He will also be seen in Sanjay Gupta's 'Kaabil' next year. (ANI) Model turned actress, Pooja Hegde, who is all set to mark her Bollywood debut with Ashutosh Gwarikar's historical saga, 'Mohenjo daro' said, working opposite Hrithik Roshan was nothing less than a dream come true for her. According to a Pinkvilla report, expressing her feeling, the 25-year-old actress said, "You always have a wish-list for Bollywood but to actually have that wish come true and get a role alongside a big actor like Hrithik Roshan is such a pleasure in life. Feels surreal. Most actresses wait for entire lives to work in a period film. I feel really lucky and can say that dreams do come true." Pooja will be seen playing the 42-year-old actor's love interest in the movie, set in the backdrop of the Indus Valley civilization. The sultry actress, who was also crowned as the second runner-up at the Miss Universe India 2010 competition, further spoke about her first day shoot with the 'Krishh' actor. "Well, Hrithik has a great sense of humour. When I met him first he thought I lived in some village from South India and was shocked to know that I stay in Bandra itself (laughs). We had a great laugh over it and that's how it all got started for us. It was a lot of fun on the sets," she said with a grin. Talking about her decision to commence her Bollywood career with a period drama, she said, "I didn't do it because it's just a period film. I loved the story, the cast, and the director. With your first, they expect you to be brilliant with everything. And I don't think I could have asked for a better film than Mohenjo Daro." Along with the dashing duo, the film, scheduled to release on August 12, also features Kabir Bedi, Arunoday Singh and Sihasini Malay in vital roles. (ANI) One of its representatives cleared the air about the 'Salt' actress taking classes at Georgetown University. The statement read, "Georgetown's Institute for Women, Peace and Security is recognized around the world for its work to advance and promote the role of women in peace and security. 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. There are no current plans for Ms. Jolie to teach at Georgetown, but Angelina Jolie and William Hague have an open invitation to share their experiences and perspectives at Georgetown anytime they're able," reports E!Online. The 41-year-old star, who spends most of her time off-screen life to human rights activism, also confirmed the news. (ANI) The video was filmed in Islamabad's Saidpur village through November 2015 and was uploaded on social media this year, reports The Express Tribune. Sharing about the idea behind the video, Shahana said one song that resonated in her mind as she heard about the album was 'We Are the Kids'. "I thought 'We Are the Kids' was great but didn't get enough attention," said Shahana. "It struck me because I spent most of my formative years in Islamabad and was friends with a lot of street children. In fact, whenever I am in the city, I still meet them. I started imagining the song through the lens of their stories," she added. Shahana further revealed that she has always been a fan of the band and friends with its lead vocalist Nicholas Petricca. Known for its 2014 hit 'Shut Up and Dance,' the band shared the video on its social media pages. "Our friend [Shahana] came to us with the beautiful idea to film a video in her home country of Pakistan," the post read. Shahana recently got a stint as part of the production team for 'Live from the Artists Den', which is now in its 11th season and has hosted musicians such as Adele, Ed Sheeran and Ringo Starr. (ANI) Condemning atrocities on Dalits, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday said any kind of extra constitutional authority taking law and order into its hand is unacceptable, adding that the state law and order machinery has to swing into action. Speaking to ANI, BJP leader Nalin Kohli said immediate action has been taken in the NDA-ruled states in this regard. "An attack on any citizen.any kind of extra constitutional authority taking law and order into their hands is unacceptable. Every right thinking person is bound to do that.criticise it. With regard to all the attacks that have taken place in different states, the states' law and order machinery has to swing into action," he added. Kohli's comment came in the wake of Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressing his concerns over the recent attacks on people of the Dalit community. Breaking the silence on the issue while addressing the TownHall meeting in New Delhi on Saturday, the Prime Minister took strong exception to atrocities on Dalits in Gujarat's Una in the name of cow protection. His remarks come at a time when questions are being raised on his silence amid the spate of recent attacks on Dalits in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh. (ANI) The situation was brought to the notice of the Lok Sabha during Zero Hour by Mr Ashok Chavan of the Congress and Kapil Patil of the BJP, both from Maharashtra. They demanded that instead of imposing duty on the yarn, the government should charge such duty on the cloth made of the yarn. Mr Chavan said the powerloom sector of Maharashtra was facing a crisis because of the faulty policy of the government. On the other hand, Pakistan and Bangladesh were exporting cloth made of the cheap Chinese yarn to African countries, which was placing India at a great disadvantage. India too could export cheaper cloth made of cheap Chinese yarn, they said. The two MPs urged the government to look into the matter and take corrective action.UNI NAZ SW 1349 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0091-878884.Xml Floral tributes were paid to freedom fighters here on the occasion of the 73rd anniversary of Quit India movement today. Puducherry Pradesh Congress Committee President A Namasivayam, Chief Minister V Narayanasamy and party functionaries among others paid rich tributes to decorated portraits of freedom fighters at the PCC office. The day was observed as " freedom fighter's day" and freedom fighters were honoured. INTUC and Youth Congress office bearers also participated in the function and hoisted the party flag in front of the PCC office here to mark the day.UNI PAB CS 1320 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0275-878837.Xml AIADMK legislature Party leader A Anbazhagan today demanded a CBI probe into the alleged widespread tax evasion by Cigarette Manufaturing units. Addressing a press conference here. he said the tax for cigarettes is 27.5 per cent in Tamil Nadu while it is only 20 percent in Puducherry. Hence, cigarettes are being taken to Tamil Nadu with Puducherry bills thus getting a revenue loss to the tune of Rs 570 crore a year for Tamil Nadu. In Puducherry only Rs.310 crore is being paid as tax a year, he added. Mr.Anbazahgan said the issue would be brought to the notice of AIADMK Supremo and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.UNI PAB CS 1343 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0275-878838.Xml Congress president Sonia Gandhi today expressed shock at the demise of former Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Kalikho Pul and extended her condolences to the bereaved family. Pul allegedly committed suicide in Itanagar by hanging himself inside the official residence of the chief minister. "Congress president Sonia Gandhi has expressed shock at the untimely & tragic demise of Kalikho Pul. Extending her condolences to the family of Pul, she prayed for the peace of the departed soul," a statement from Congress party read. His body was found hanging from a ceiling fan in his bedroom around 0800 hrs this morning. Pul is survived by his wife and five children. Meanwhile, supporters of Pul have alleged foul play behind the death. UNI RG SV 1339 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0377-878868.Xml Congress party leaders on Tuesday expressed their grief over the death of former Arunachal chief minister Kalikho Pul, who was found hanging at the chief minister's official residence, which he had not vacated yet. Congress leader Ambika Soni told ANI, "I was left in complete shock for some time and the incident is a very saddening one. I am really sorry over the incident and don't know what might be the reasons behind this." Congress leader Renuka Choudhary said, "It is extremely unfortunate on people who have contributed to this country, such an incident is definitely sad to hear." Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi said, "It is an extremely sad moment, we did not expect this decision of the former chief minister, Mr. Pul." "I believe the politics in north east has lost a young leader. It is very difficult to do politics in the north east, there are lots of challenges, so when he had taken the step to enter politics I am sure he had long dreams and huge expectations from Arunachal Pradesh, those dreams remain unfulfilled. Our prayers are with his family who must be going through a very tough time. We must do whatever to support his family at their time of grief and sadness," he told ANI. Pul was found hanging at the chief minister's residence in Itanagar on Tuesday morning. In a setback to Pul, the Supreme Court had earlier on July 13 restored the Congress government in Arunachal Pradesh, declaring the actions of Governor J.P. Rajkhowa "illegal" and "violative of the constitutional provisions". Congress rebel Kalikho Pul had formed a government with the help of 21 Congress rebels and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs, ousting the Nabam Tuki-led government in the state. Arunachal Pradesh was placed under President's Rule on January 26. Pul had earlier on July 14 claimed the support of majority MLAs of the state. Parading 36 MLAs in front of the media, Pul had asserted that he had the support of 43 members of the Arunachal Assembly, which has a total strength of 60. Pul was the chief minister for around four months after the state was placed under President's Rule following a series of dramatic developments, which witnessed the Congress government being voted out by party rebels along with the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). (ANI) Accompanied by Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Modi also visited Azad's memorial and gathered details about the freedom fighter's life and struggle for the country's independence. After offering floral tributes, Modi also got photographs clicked with Azad's life-size statue. The Prime Minister was in Bhabra to inaugurate the programme '70 Saal Azadi, Yaad Karo Kurbani', commemorating seven decades of the country's Independence. Bhabra is located in Alirajpur district of Madhya Pradesh. --IANS hindi-pgh/vt ( 114 Words) 2016-08-09-15:14:03 (IANS) Pul allegedly committed suicide in Itanagar by hanging himself inside the official residence of the Chief Minister. ''Congress President Sonia Gandhi has expressed shock at the untimely and tragic demise of Kalikho Pul. Extending her condolences to the family of Pul, she prayed for the peace of the departed soul,'' a statement from the Congress read. Expressing his condolence over the death of Pul, Mr Gandhi said, ''Shocked and deeply saddened at the untimely demise of Kalikho Pul ji. My heart goes out to his family & loved ones.'' His body was found hanging from a ceiling fan of his bedroom in the Chief Minister's residence at around 0800 hrs this morning. Arrangements have been made for the post-mortem. Pul is survived by wife and five children. Meanwhile, supporters of Pul have alleged foul play behind the incident.UNI RG/AR PR RJ 1518 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0092-878967.Xml In a condolence message, the President tweeted, ''Shocked to hear of untimely demise of promising young leader Kalikho Pul, whose contributions shall always be remembered #PresidentMukherjee.'' Pul allegedly committed suicide in Itanagar by hanging himself inside the official residence of the chief minister. His body was found hanging from a ceiling fan in his bedroom, at around 0800 hrs this morning. UNI AR PR RJ 1515 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0092-878988.Xml In a gruesome road accident, three people including two women were killed on the spot and 12 others seriously injured when the jeep in which they were travelling rammed into a roadside tree near Dhanampalli village in Medak district of Telangana last night. Police said today the accident occurred when the driver of the ill-fated jeep tried to save an autorickshaw coming from the opposite direction. The injured persons after getting initial treatment at Jogipet government hospital were rushed to Gandhi General Hospital here. The victims, belonging to two families from Nanded district of Maharashtra, were on their way to Tirumala to have Lord Venkateswara swamy's darshan but fate willed otherwise.UNI SMS-KNR CS 1503 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0275-878997.Xml Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalaltihaa today announced a slew of power projects to the tune of Rs 4,126 crore in the Assembly, including replacement of transformers and pillar boxes in the city and suburbs. Making a statement under Rule 110, she said there were a total of 23,175 transformers in the city and its suburbs. 'In suburbs alone, there are 17,535 transformers. Power outages occur due to load and heat in these equipment. It also becomes difficult to repair these machines during rains. Besides, there is a danger of mishaps while fixing'', she added. ' In order to prevent such incidents, transformers in suburban areas would be converted as Ring Main Units at a cost of Rs 1,750 crore. Stating that power was being supplied in the city through 38,444 pillar boxes, she said these boxes get rusted during rainy season, resulting in power cuts and accidents. 'To prevent this, the boxes will be modernised. Instead of the existing ones, HRC 6 way pillar boxes will be fitted. A total number of 38,844 boxes in Chennai will be replaced at a cost of Rs 270 crore,' Ms Jayalalithaa said. The Chief Minister also said the Kodayar Hydroelectric Projectwas in operation since 1970. 'Though its target is 150 million unit, it made a record last year by producing 193 million units''. Stating that the life span of a hydroelectric project was 35 years, she said the Kodayar project has, however, crossed 45 years. ''It will be modernised and its span will be extended for 25 more years. The capacity will be increased from 60 MW to 70 MW,' she said, adding that these works will be taken up at a cost of Rs 80 crore and completed in 43 months. She said steps are on to set up 1600 MW thermal project at Uppur in Ramanathapuram district at a cost of Rs 12,778 crore and it would be completed in 2020. 'To distribute power generated from here to other parts of the State, a sub-station at a cost of Rs 2,000 crore will be set up at Virudhunagar,' she added. Ms Jayalalithaa said roof top solar power generation plants will be installed in the TANGEDCO Chief Engineers offices in Chennai North, Chennai South, Vellore, Villuppuram, Erode, Tiruchy, Madurai, Tirunelveli and Coimbatore at a cost of Rs 26 crore. Recalling that drastic power cuts were implemented for industrial and domestic consumers in Tamil Nadu in 2008, the Chief Minister recalled that uninterrupted power supply was being given to them now, thanks to the steps taken by her. She expressed hope that the new projects announced by her today will further strengthen power generation and distribution in the State.UNI GV CS 1526 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0275-879058.Xml Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday released a theme song of the Tiranga Yatra to be organised from August 15, saying the event would be a symbol of social harmony and unity for the country and its people. The theme song - '70 Saal Azadi Yaad Karo Kurbani' has been composed by Dr. Ghazal Srinivas. Addressing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Parliamentary Party meeting in New Delhi today, the Prime Minister Modi asked party MPs to work hard to make it successful and visit places related to freedom fighters and martyrs. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said, the Prime Minister had called for highlighting the contributions of freedom fighters and martyrs among school children during the celebration. "Mr. Modi also asked BJP MPs to publicise, the legislative works done in the current monsoon session of Parliament, including the passage of the 122nd Constitution Amendment Bill which will pave the way for the roll out of the GST," He added. (ANI) Breaking his stoic silence on the ongoing violence in the Kashmir valley following the encounter of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, Prime Narendra Modi today said a handful of misguided people are hurting the great tradition of Kashmir and appealed to the youth to join him in fulfilling the dream of making the place the world's paradise. "A handful of misguided people are hurting the great tradition of Kashmir. I appeal to the Kashmiri youth come along, we will together realise the dream of making Kashmir the paradise of the world. We give so much love to Kashmir, while some people are causing it a lot of harm," said the Prime Minister, while addressing a public rally after unveiling a statue of freedom fighter Chandra Shekhar Azad at his birthplace. Stating that Kashmir is paradise for Indians, Prime Minister Modi said, "Every Indian desires to go to Kashmir, every Indian loves Kashmir. The boys, who should be holding laptops, bats and balls in their hands and dreams in their hearts, are carrying stones." "The freedom that every Indian has also belongs to every Kashmiri. We want the same bright future for every youth in Kashmir. We are the people, who walk the path that Atal Bihari Vajpayee took when it comes to Kashmir," he added while asserting that Kashmir wants peace. The Prime Minister further said the Centre as well as the BJP-PDP coalition government under Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti is making all efforts to solve the problems of Kashmir through development. "The citizen of Kashmir wants to earn more money through tourism. We want to provide employment opportunities to the Kashmiri youth," he said. Expressing his gratitude to the nation and the opposition for showing solidarity with the Centre on the matter, the Prime Minister said, "I want to thank the nation, I want to thank Congress that we all very maturely made attempts to deal with the situation in Kashmir." (ANI) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa today suggested to the opposition DMK MLAs, to avoid interventions from Ministers during their speech in the Assembly. Intervening during the debate on the demand for grants for School Education and Higher Education departments, Ms Jayalalithaa said ''this is my friendly advice.'' ''They (the Opposition MLAs) can avoid ending their remarks or requests with questions like 'will the government take steps?' or will the Minister look into it and inevitably the Minister has to reply to it''. ''If they end their speech without any questions, interventions can be avoided to some extent'', she added. In another intervention, Ms Jayalalithaa appealed to Speaker P Dhanapal to explain the Assembly rules to the Members of the House. She said when a statement was made under Rule 110 of the Assembly, no questions could be asked on it. The Members could neither seek any explanation nor make any comments about it, she said, adding, if needed they could express their thanks for the statement. ''I appeal to the Speaker to explain about this to the Members'', the Chief Minister said.UNI GV CS 1415 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0275-878941.Xml India Yamaha Motor Pvt. Ltd, today, signed an MoU with TDR Polytechnic, one of the most prestigious institutes situated at Bibinagar on the outskirts of city, to inaugurate Yamaha Training School (YTS) in the premises of the institute. This initiative is to promote and encourage relatively indigent youngsters (male and female) to acquire technical knowledge and expertise, thereby supporting them to secure employment at Yamaha dealerships. As a socially responsible company, this initiative is in line with Yamaha's continued CSR program. Technical experts from Yamaha Technical Academy (YTA) - the company's training division will provide support in conducting the YTS program by continuously training the trainers as well as the students. Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Ravinder Singh, Vice President, Strategy and Planning, Yamaha Motor India Sales Pvt. Ltd said "At present, there is a huge skill gap in the industry and a large number of youngsters are unemployed due to lack of technical skills. With this MoU, Yamaha will develop a synergetic partnership with TDR Polytechnic, thereby helping deserving students find employment in the automobile sector via impartment of technical training and education. This partnership will provide a platform to relatively indigent youngsters to obtain a job oriented technical training in two wheeler repair and servicing that meets industry standards, he said and added that the company has also signed an MoU with the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship last year. Yamaha is the first and only two-wheeler manufacturer to offer this unique course certified by the Government of India," he added. With 32 MoUs signed so far across the country with 1 institute in each of the states of Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Odisha, Rajasthan, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Chattisgarh, 2 institutes in each of the states of Delhi, Gujarat and West Bengal, 4 institutes in each of the states of Karnataka and Kerala and 5 institutes in each of the states of Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.UNI KNR CS 1643 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0275-879224.Xml Pratibha Singh, wife of Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, was today questioned by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case registered against her and others. The ED had earlier issued summons to her to appear before the agency for investigation. But instead, she had sought exemption from appearing before the agency, citing personal reasons. Yesterday, she moved the Delhi High Court, seeking protection from arrest by the agency till the next hearing of the said case on August 24. ED had told the HC that they had no intention to arrest her, as of now. The agency said they needed to record Ms Singh's statement for investigation into the money laundering case and would inform the court before arresting her, if required. The agency said recording of Ms Singh's statement was essential after some important disclosures made by LIC agent Anand Chauhan, who had already been arrested by the ED last month. ED has already attached assets worth about Rs eight crore of the Chief Minister, earlier this year. Mr Singh has denied allegations of any wrongdoing by him and his family. Last year, CBI had registered a case in this matter. Subsequently, a case under provisions of Money Laundering laws was registered by the ED. ED officials said they were probing allegations against Mr Singh and his family members of having amassed wealth of Rs 6.1 crore between 2009-11, while serving as the Union Minister of Steel.UNI XC RJ RP1620 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0298-879124.Xml Parliamentary Affairs Minister S S Ahluwalia in the Lok Sabha today said the matter of allegedly banning singing of the national anthem in a school in Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh was "unfortunate". The Minister, while responding to the matter raised by BJP member Kirit Somaiya during the Zero Hour, assured that he will convey the issue to the concerned Minister. Raising the matter, the BJP member said it was a serious issue and strict action should be taken so that in future such incidents do not occur. Other BJP members from Uttar Pradesh also associated with him.UNI NY AE/SW 1700 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0099-879263.Xml Efforts are underway to apprehend the other brokers and accused persons in the case, State CID Inspector General of Police Dr Soumya Mishra said in a statement here. The CID sleuths arrested 35-year-old Mukul Jain, a native and resident of Ramprasta Green, Vaishali, Gaziabad, , who is running an education consultancy at NCR Delhi. UNI KNR CS 1756 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0275-879421.Xml Close on the heels of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to several African nations, making a renewed push to facilitate trade with the emerging continent and an upswing in bilateral ties, Indo-African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IACC) today presented a curtain raiser to ' I for Afrika' summit to be held September 27 to 30 in Mumbai. 'I for Afrika' is an initiative by IACC to strengthen business partnership with African continent with main focus on resource mobilisation besides capacity building, culture, tourism and pharma. The event will bring together business representatives, government officials, entrepreneurs and investors from around 30 African nations with the objective to establish trade and target new business opportunities, signaling readiness of both to reinforce century old relationship supported by the Indian Ocean. Organisers said India can play a pivotal role to develop fresh ties and raise its profile as the African continent is in dearth of friends. The engagement of Africa with the first world countries is problematic due to their self-centered policies which focus more on 'extract African' rather than 'enhance Africa'. India can build partnership of prosperity with Africa with focus on Human Development, employment, health and education. Along with abundant natural resources, Africa also provide a powerful work force as 70 per cent African population is young.India's main investment in African is in infrastructure followed by agriculture, mining, power and health. In terms of numbers, India's trade with Africa touched 72 billion dollars listing it fourth in the globe after US, UK and Europe. Indian companies are much better integrated into African society. The Chief Guest for the curtain raiser here was Amar Sinha, Secretary (Economic relations), Ministry of External Affairs, accompanied by Manoj Dwivedi, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Commerce, in the presence of Alem Woldemarium, the Dean and Ambasaador of Eritrea who was also the guest of honour. The four-day event will commence by registration, inauguration and presentation by Indian delegates on day one followed by exhibition and B2B meetings with exhibitors on day two, B2B meetings with members and delegates from regional places on day three and on last day visit to IT park, dairy farm, manufacturing unit, food processing units. As Mr Modi declared during his recent visit to African Nations, the heartbeat of citizens of both the nations was now tuned to the same rhythm and in the coming years bilateral relations between the two emerging economies are set to prosper. UNI PS RP1720 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0421-879284.Xml The amount outstanding for top 100 borrowers of public sector banks as on March 31, 2016 was Rs 13,71,885 crore, the Rajya Sabha was informed today. Minister of State for Finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar said in a written reply that the gross non-performing assets (GNPAs) of the public sector banks increased Rs 2.16 lakh crore in 2013-14 to Rs 4.76 lakh crore in 2015-16. He said, "Reserve Bank as part of the ongoing supervisory assessment process carried out an Asset Quality Review (AQR) exercise to examine the assessment of asset quality at bank's system level and deal with the cases of divergences in identification of NPAs or addition provisioning across banks at the central office level."Mr Gangwar said RBI ensure early finalisation and communication of divergence in provisioning giving banks more time to plan the additional provision over the remaining quarters. In reply to a question of Ritabrata Bannerji and Ripun Bora, he informed that the wilful defaulters as a percentage of GNPAs as on March 2016 were 16.09 per cent. On the issue of Non Performing Assets (NPA), the Minister said NPAs of the scheduled commercial banks have risen from 5.43 per cent in March 2015 to 9.32 per cent in March 2016. The sectors that have high incidence of NPA are mainly infrastructure, steel and textiles, he added. Mr Gangwar said, the guiding principle for the consolidation process of banking in India was suggested by Narasimham Committee. "According to which any initiative with respect to merger of public sector banks has to come from boards of the banks concerned, the extant legal framework, keeping in view the synergies and benefits of the merger and their commercial judgement," he said.UNI ADP AE 1810 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0429-879460.Xml The Gujarat High Court had last week quashed the state government ordinance providing 10 per cent quota in educational institutions and government jobs to the economically weaker sections among the unreserved category. The division bench of Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice V M Pancholi, declared the ordinance "unconstitutional" and "illegal" and dismissed the main defence of the state government that the ordinance was merely a classification and not reservation per se. The judgment came on a set of petitions challenging the ordinance saying the ten percent provision is against the limit of 50 percent reservation. The petition filed by a group, including social activists, students and parents, had challenged the ordinance, claiming that it was contrary to the precedents established by the Supreme Court in 1990. However, the state defended the Gujarat Unreserved Economically Weaker Sections (Reservation of Seats in Educational Institutions in the State and of Appointments and Posts in Services under the State) Ordinance, 2016, stating that the provision of 10 percent quota was a classification of EWS and it should not be treated as reservation prescribed under the Constitution. The state ordinance was promulgated in May this year to pacify the agitating Patel community. (ANI) Taking strong exception to continued push from Pakistan to trained terrorists into Jammu and Kashmir, India today summoned Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit and handed him over a demarche to ask Islamabad to stop infiltration in the Indian territory. The fresh demarche was issued days after the nabbing of a Lashkar-e-Toiba trained militant by the security forces on July 25. Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar summoned the Pakistan envoy to lodge strong protest over continued infiltration, which New Delhi said, was contrary to assurances given by the Pakistani leaders at the highest level.Pakistani national Bahadur Ali alias Abu Saifullah, 21, hailing from Jia Bagga village of District Lahore in the Pakistani state of Punjab was arrested with large quantity of weapons including AK-47 rifle, live rounds, grenades and grenade launcher. "Bahadur Ali has confessed to our authorities that after training in Lashkar-e-Toiba camps, he was infiltrated into India. He was thereafter in touch with an 'operations room' of LeT, receiving instructions to attack Indian security personnel and carry out other terrorist attacks in India," the MEA said in a statement. Sophisticated communication equipment and other material of Pakistani/international origin, were also recovered from the militant. India offered to grant the Pakistan High Commission consular access to Bahadur Ali, as requested by the militant, in a letter addressed to the High Commissioner in New Delhi. He has also requested legal aid and assistance to meet his family.UNI MK RSA RJ 1900 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0091-879603.Xml Former Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Kalikho Pul was found dead at his official residence here today, triggering mob violence. Police said Pul may have hanged himself to death about 0800 hours but no suicide note was found from his residence. As soon as the news of Pul's death spread, hundreds of people assembled in front of Chief Minister Pema Khandu's official residence, demanding a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the alleged suicide. Tension gripped the state capital as angry mobs attacked Mr Khandu's residence and took to the streets torching vehicles.Protesters also attacked the official residence of Deputy CM Chowna Mein and damaged vehicles parked at the premises.District administration has deployed ITBP, India Reserve Battalion (IRB) and state police to tackle the law and order situation.Pul had been chief minister for four-and-a-half months early this year before he resigned following a Supreme Court judgment against his government in July. Apex Court had last month ordered the restoration of the previous Congress government. The court had also set aside Assembly Deputy Speaker's order quashing the Speaker's decision to disqualify 14 rebel Congress MLAs on December 15 last year. Pul had become the Chief Minister with the help of 18 rebel Congress MLAs, two independents and 11 BJP lawmakers who had extended outside support to his government. Pul had succeeded Nabam Tuki as Chief Minister following the dismissal of the Tuki government after 21 of the 47 Congress MLAs - rebelled against him. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh spoke to Mr Khandu about Pul's death. More UNI TEAM SHK RP1935 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0430-879699.Xml Former Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Kalikho Pul was found dead at his official residence here today, triggering mob violence. Police said he hanged himself in a small room inside the official CM residence.In a primary investigation, doctors said, Pul had committed suicide by a rope tied with the ceiling fan. A small table was found below his body, supposed he used the table to commit the crime.Pul's personal dairy was also found by the police in his room which allegedly mentioned the reason that forced him to take drastic step.As soon as the news of Pul's death spread, hundreds of people assembled in front of Chief Minister Pema Khandu's official residence, demanding a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the alleged suicide. Tension gripped the state capital as angry mobs attacked Mr Khandu's residence and took to the streets torching vehicles.Protesters also attacked the official residence of Deputy CM Chowna Mein and damaged vehicles parked at the premises.District administration has deployed ITBP, India Reserve Battalion (IRB) and state police to tackle the law and order situation.Pul had been chief minister for four-and-a-half months early this year before he resigned following a Supreme Court judgment against his government in July. Apex Court had last month ordered the restoration of the previous Congress government. The court had also set aside Assembly Deputy Speaker's order quashing the Speaker's decision to disqualify 14 rebel Congress MLAs on December 15 last year. Pul had become the Chief Minister with the help of 18 rebel Congress MLAs, two independents and 11 BJP lawmakers who had extended outside support to his government. Pul had succeeded Nabam Tuki as Chief Minister following the dismissal of the Tuki government after 21 of the 47 Congress MLAs - rebelled against him. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh spoke to Mr Khandu about Pul's death.After post mortem, his body will be kept at CM residence for public to their last respect. Pul's mortal remains will be flown tomorrow to his native village in Hawai in Anjaw district for funeral, official sources informed. Born on July 20, 1969 in Walla village under Hawai circle, Pul was representing 45-Hayuliang ST Assembly constituency from 1995. He was the lone member, who represented state legislative Assembly from the district. His political innings started in 1995 when he was elected as an MLA from Hayuliang constituency and became the minister of state for finance in the Mukut Mithi government. UNI TEAM SHK RP2005 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0430-879820.Xml The estimation is based on the camera trap captures while estimating the tiger population by Wildlife Institute of India in 2014. "Ministry has not undertaken any national leopard census in the country," Dave said. The Minister said that the survey helped with understanding the condition of leopard habitat across the tiger range states and reported that some of the studied areas are deficient in prey of leopard. On the positive note, Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB)had reported a drop in the cases of leopard poaching. The record is based on the drop in recovery of leopard parts. As per the WCCB, total 23 cases of recoveries of Leopard parts such as bones and skin, had been reported in 2016 till June 30. In contrast to this, total 95 recoveries were made in 2013, 63 in 2014 and 49 in 2015. The minister said that to stop poaching various steps are being undertaken including collection, collation and dissemination of intelligence on illegal trafficking of wildlife, assisting state, involving other stakeholders like Coast guards and custom officers and providing special training to the foresters. He added that WCCB trained 1,254 forest and police officials in 2013, 798 in 2014, 1,009 in 2015 and 309 in 2016 upto June 30 in investigation of wildlife crimes. --IANS kd/rn ( 248 Words) 2016-08-09-21:00:01 (IANS) The accident occurred in Karawal Nagar around 11.30 a.m.. The roof collapsed as it could not bear the weight of the scrap items stored there due to heavy rains, a senior police officer told IANS. The building was 15 year old. After the mishap, Rajender succumbed to his injuries in an area hospital while the injured -- Rohtas, 50, Satyadeo, 40, Sita, 37, and Banne Khan, 36, -- are stable and admitted in a hospital, police said. --IANS aks/tsb/vm ( 114 Words) 2016-08-09-21:04:05 (IANS) Pilgrims, with devotion in their hearts, arrived at Haj House in Sarojini Nagar for their onward journey to Saudi Arabia from tomorrow. Nearly 300 devotees have reported at the Haj House till Tuesday.Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav will flag off the flight of first batch of devotees at nearly 0600 hrs from Haz house tomorrow. Also senior cabinet minister and State Haz Committee chairman Mohammad Azam Khan has issued directives to ensure all facilities to the devotees. The luggage screening facilities will be completed at Haj House itself. The pilgrim will then leave in bus to Amausi airport with only hand baggage. The luggage will reach the airport in a separate truck under police protection. Official sources said here today that second and third flight SV 5611 and SV 5393 will carry 262 and 286 devotees respectively and booking have been completed for this flight.The SHC officials have distributed visas to the pilgrims who will be leaving for the journey tomorrow. As many as 4,976 pilgrims has been left from Ala Hazarat Haz house Gaziabad yet. UNI JDM MB CJ RSA 2220 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0400-879958.Xml The Nobel Memorial Quiz is part of the Sweden India Nobel Memorial Week which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. The national quiz competition will be held in eleven cities across India and the grand finale will take place in New Delhi during the Nobel Memorial Week on October 7 this year, the statement added. Participation in the competition is open to all under-graduate and post-graduate students in teams of three, representing a college. "National winners of the quiz will get an all-expense paid trip to Sweden, where they will get to visit headquarters of the partnering companies, Swedish universities and the Nobel Museum, the statement said. The Sweden India Nobel Memorial Week 2016 comprises a number of events ranging from seminars and panel discussions to competitions for students and cultural performances. These events take place across Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Guwahati, Bhubaneswar, Indore and New Delhi. There will also be daily questions and prizes to be won on the Sweden in India Facebook page, according to the embassy statement. --IANS gb/vt ( 238 Words) 2016-08-09-13:48:03 (IANS) The United Nations Security Council must not allow civilians on both sides of the Syrian city of Aleppo to be cut off from humanitarian aid, the United States said today as Russia accused Washington of politicizing a humanitarian issue.Insurgents effectively broke a month-long government siege of eastern, opposition-held Aleppo on Saturday, severing the primary government supply corridor and raising the prospect that government-held western Aleppo might become besieged.The United States, Britain, France, New Zealand and Ukraine organized an informal Security Council meeting on Aleppo today with briefings by a "White Helmet" rescue worker and two US-based doctors from the Syrian American Medical Society who recently returned from Aleppo."If the fighting continues it is conceivable that civilians on both sides of Aleppo could be cut off from the basic assistance they need. We cannot allow this to happen," US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power said.Citing UN figures, Power said Syrian government forces were to blame for nearly 80 per cent of the besieged areas throughout Syria. Aleppo, Syria's biggest city before the outbreak of the conflict five years ago, has been divided between government forces and rebels since the summer of 2012."We once again urge Russia to stop facilitating these sieges and to use its influence to press the regime to end its sieges across Syria once and for all," she said.The United Nations aid chief has called for weekly 48-hour humanitarian pauses in fighting to deliver aid to Aleppo.Russian Deputy UN Ambassador Vladimir Safronkov accused the United States and its western colleagues of politicizing a humanitarian issue, urging them to "admit that the main cause of all of the humanitarian problems in Syria is not the counter-terrorist actions by the legitimate government of Syria."The propaganda and the emotional rhetoric, the unfounded accusations, the information campaign, means that we cannot move toward a political settlement in Syria," Safronkov said.He said the first step toward ending the five-year conflict should be a pooling of efforts to combat terrorism and then a renewal of Syrian peace talks.A crackdown by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on pro-democracy protesters five years ago sparked a civil war, and Islamic State militants have used the chaos to seize territory in Syria and Iraq.The United States and allies began bombing Islamic State militants in Syria nearly two years ago, while Russia began air strikes in support of Assad a year ago.REUTERS SDR 0033 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0431-878450.Xml Islamic State claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in Pakistan that killed at least 70 people and wounded more than a hundred today in an attack on mourners gathered at a hospital in Quetta, the group's Amaq news agency reported."A martyr from the Islamic State detonated his explosive belt at a gathering of justice ministry employees and Pakistani policemen in the city of Quetta," Amaq said.The Pakistani Taliban faction Jamaat-ur-Ahrar has also claimed responsibility for the attack. REUTERS SDR 0035 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0431-878451.Xml A suicide bomber in Pakistan killed at least 70 people and wounded more than 100 today in an attack on mourners gathered at a hospital in Quetta, according to officials in the southwestern province of Baluchistan.The bomber struck as a crowd of mostly lawyers and journalists crammed into the emergency department to accompany the body of a prominent lawyer who had been shot and killed in the city earlier in the day, Faridullah, a reporter who was among the wounded, told Reuters.Abdul Rehman Miankhel, a senior official at the government-run Civil Hospital, where the explosion occurred, told reporters that at least 70 people had been killed, with more than 112 wounded, as the casualty toll spiked from initial estimates."There are many wounded, so the death toll could rise," said Rehmat Saleh Baloch, the provincial health minister.Jamaat-ur-Ahrar, a faction of the Islamist militant Pakistani Taliban group, claimed responsibility for the attack in an email.It was not immediately clear if the group had carried out the bombing, as it is believed to have claimed responsibility for attacks in the past that it was not involved in."The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Jamaat-ur-Ahrar (TTP-JA) takes responsibility for this attack, and pledges to continue carrying out such attacks," said spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan in the statement.Only last week, Jamaat was added to the United States' list of global terrorists, triggering sanctions.The White House condemned the attack. "We remain resolute in joining with the people of Pakistan in confronting terrorism in Pakistan and across the region," it said in a statement.Television footage showed scenes of chaos at the hospital in Quetta, with panicked people fleeing through debris as smoke filled the corridors.Bodies lay strewn across a hospital courtyard shortly after the blast and pools of blood collected as emergency rescuers rushed to identify survivors.PRIME MINISTER VISITSThe motive behind the attack was unclear, but several lawyers have been targeted during a recent spate of killings in Quetta, the provincial capital of Baluchistan, which has a history of militant and separatist violence.The latest victim, Bilal Anwar Kasi, was shot and killed while on his way to the city's main court complex, senior police official Nadeem Shah told Reuters. He was the president of Baluchistan Bar Association.The subsequent suicide attack appeared to target his mourners, said Anwar ul Haq Kakar, a spokesman for the Baluchistan government."It seems it was a pre-planned attack," he said.Ali Zafar, president of the Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan, told reporters in the eastern city of Lahore, "We (lawyers) have been targeted because we always raise our voice for people's rights and for democracy ... Lawyers will not just protest this attack but also prepare a long-term plan of action."Police cordoned off the hospital following the blast, with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Army Chief General Raheel Sharif paying visits to the wounded today evening.In January, a suicide bomber killed 15 people outside a polio eradication centre in an attack claimed by both the Pakistani Taliban and Jundullah, an Islamist militant group that has pledged allegiance to Islamic State in the Middle East.Today's attack was the deadliest in Pakistan since an Easter Day bombing ripped through a Lahore park, killing at least 72 people. Jamaat-ur-Ahrar also claimed responsibility for the bombing.Quetta has long been regarded as a base for the Afghan Taliban, whose leadership has regularly held meetings there in the past.In May, Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed by a US drone strike while travelling to Quetta from the Pakistan-Iran border. REUTERS SDR 0112 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0431-878456.Xml Fifty prominent Republican national security officials, including a former CIA director, today called party nominee Donald Trump unqualified to lead the country and said he would be "the most reckless president in American history."The statement was the latest repudiation of Trump's candidacy by veteran Republican national security specialists, and was remarkable for the harshness of its language."Mr. Trump lacks the character, values, and experience to be president. He weakens US moral authority as the leader of the free world. He appears to lack basic knowledge about and belief in the US Constitution, US laws and US institutions, including religious tolerance, freedom of the press, and an independent judiciary," the statement said."None of us will vote for Donald Trump," said the statement, which noted that some signatories also have doubts about Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton."From a foreign policy perspective, Donald Trump is not qualified to be president and commander in chief," said the statement, which was first reported in the New York Times. "Indeed, we are convinced that he would be a dangerous president and would put at risk our country's national security and well-being."The signatories, some of whom worked for more than one Republican president, included former Central Intelligence Agency Director Michael Hayden, who also headed the National Security Agency; former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff; former Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte; and two former US trade representatives, Carla Hills and Robert Zoelick.Other signatories included former senior State Department, Pentagon and National Security Council officials who helped plan and oversee the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. Trump has harshly criticized the Iraq operation, although when radio host Howard Stern asked him in 2002 if he favored invading Iraq, Trump said he guessed he did.The statement was organized by Philip Zelikow, who served as a top adviser to former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.RESPONSE TO TRUMP'S REMARKSThe statement did not cite specific comments by Trump, but it clearly was a response to a series of remarks he has made questioning the need for NATO, expressing admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling for a temporary ban on immigration by Muslims, and inviting Russia to hack Clinton's private email server - which he later said was a joke.Many of the signatories had declined to sign an open letter disputing Trump's national security qualifications that was published in March.The statement said many Americans are frustrated with the federal government's failure to solve domestic and international problems."But Donald Trump is not the answer to America's daunting challenges and to this crucial election," the statement said. "We are convinced that in the Oval Office, he would be the most reckless President in American history.Trump's campaign had no immediate reaction to the statement.Some Democratic foreign policy experts called the statement a reminder of the divisions the New York real estate developer's nomination has sown within the Republican Party."This letter is signed by those who remain in the internationalist wing of the party - many were former advisors to candidates who lost the primary fight to Trump," said Brian Katulis, a fellow at the Center for American Progress and a Clinton campaign adviser."Calling Trump unqualified to be commander in chief is tough, but also asserting that he's lacking in character and understanding of our basic values is really pretty amazing," said Tommy Vietor, a former National Security Council spokesman in Democratic President Barack Obama's administration. "That said, I think it's unlikely to influence many voters, but it could give cover to Republican members of Congress and donors who want to cut the cord and move on from Trump."REUTERS SDR 0314 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0431-878471.Xml An opposition lawmaker in Pakistan has called for a ban on all 24-hour-long cartoon TV channels, and specifically the popular Japanese series "Doraemon", claiming that it could have a negative influence on children. Pakistan-Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) leader Malik Taimur's demand has been ridiculed on social media. He submitted a resolution in Punjab province's assembly wherein he requested "the federal government that it make it binding upon PEMRA (state regulator) that it close down cartoon channels, specifically Doraemon, or only run them for limited time periods". "Children's education and physical health is being affected by these 24-hour cartoon channels," Reuters quoted the resolution, as saying. Doraemon is a small, blue robot cat from the future sent back in time to help a hapless schoolboy and his family. Many episodes of the animated version feature lessons about moral values, and the series has been translated into over 30 languages. Japan even selected Doraemon as a cartoon cultural ambassador in 2008. Reacting to the demand for the ban of Doraemon, people took to Twitter to advise the PTI and Taimur to focus on more pressing issues such as child abuse, corruption and poverty. (ANI with inputs) Pakistani lawyers staged a nationwide strike today after dozens of colleagues were slain in a suicide bombing that killed at least 70 people at a hospital in the southwestern city of Quetta.Medical staff said up to 60 of those slain in the bombing at a government hospital were lawyers who had gathered to mourn the assassination earlier yesterday of the president of the Baluchistan Bar Association, Bilal Anwar Kasi.Islamic State was one of two Islamist militant groups to claim responsibility for the atrocity, although officials and analysts said they had doubts over whether the Middle East-based movement was behind the blast.It was the latest, and deadliest, in a string of attacks against lawyers in Pakistan, seen by some militants as an extension of the government and so legitimate targets."How weak and pathetic are these people who target hospitals, where women and children, where patients, go to get treatment?" Ashtar Ausaf Ali, Pakistan's attorney general, said today at a protest outside the Supreme Court in the capital Islamabad.Supreme Court Bar President Ali Zafar called for the government to do more to protect lawyers."Lawyers are relatively more vocal against militancy and they are fighting cases against people accused of terrorism, so it would make sense that they are being targeted," said Ali Malik, a Lahore-based lawyer."An attack on lawyers makes a mockery of the law enforcement agencies, it undermines the promises of the state against terrorists and breeds fear among vulnerable citizens."DOUBTS OVER CLAIMSThe bombing in Quetta, the provincial capital of Baluchistan province, was initially claimed by Jamaat-ur-Ahrar, a faction of the Pakistani Taliban that is fighting to overthrow the government and impose strict Islamic law.Later, however, Islamic State said one of its fighters carried out the attack, in what would mark an escalation in the ability of the group, or its regional offshoots, to strike in Pakistan."A martyr from the Islamic State detonated his explosive belt at a gathering of justice ministry employees and Pakistani policemen in the city of Quetta," Islamic State's Amaq news agency reported.Some Pakistani analysts were sceptical."The ISIS claim seems very unconvincing," said Imtiaz Gul, director of the Center for Research and Security Studies in Islamabad."The claim of responsibility by Jamaat-ur-Ahrar is more credible," said Muhammad Amir Rana, head of the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies.He noted that Jamaat had sworn loyalty to Islamic State's Middle East leadership in 2014, but later switched back to the Taliban."Every time they have carried out an attack, they have taken responsibility independently (of Islamic State)," Rana said.It remains unclear what ties, if any, Jamaat has to Islamic State, whose leadership is a rival to both the Taliban and al Qaeda over claims to represent the true Islamist Caliphate.In September 2014, Jamaat-ur-Ahrar rejected the Pakistani Taliban during a leadership struggle and swore allegiance to Islamic State, also known as Daesh.By March 2015, the group was again swearing loyalty to the main Pakistani Taliban. The reason for its return to the fold remains murky, but Jamaat also never specifically disavowed Islamic State.Only last week, Jamaat was added to the United States' list of global terrorists, triggering sanctions.Baluchistan, which borders Afghanistan, is home to many militant groups, most notably sectarian outfits who have launched a campaign of suicide bombings and assassinations of ethnic Hazaras - Persian-speaking Shi'ites who mostly emigrated from Afghanistan and are a small minority of the Shi'ite population in Sunni-majority Pakistan."Many groups based in Baluchistan have an anti-Shia agenda, so they find ideological linkages with ISIS," said a military official who was based in Quetta until 2015."But is ISIS present there to a degree that they can carry out this kind of well-planned, pre-meditated attack? I don't think that is possible."REUTERS AKC AN1433 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0432-878960.Xml The European Union should end accession negotiations with Turkey completely due to President Tayyip Erdogan's "undemocratic initiatives" and his support for reintroducing the death penalty, Denmark's government party said today."The red line is crossed for what should be a minimum for an EU candidate country," foreign policy spokesman for the Liberal Party, Michael Aastrup Jensen, told Reuters."It should lead not only to a pause in the negotiations but to a downright stop, and a removal of Turkey from the list of candidate countries," he said.The foreign ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comments.On Sunday, Austria's foreign minister threatened to block EU negotiations with Turkey. REUTERS AKC VP1750 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0432-879434.Xml The recent death of an infant in the Houston area has been linked to the Zika virus, state health officials said today.The mother of the infant had recently traveled to Latin America when she was pregnant, and the baby acquired the infection in the womb, the Texas Department of State Health Services said. REUTERS AKC BD1944 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0432-879733.Xml Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong (L, front) talks with students of Confucius Classroom at the Universidad del Caribe (Unicaribe) in Cancun, in the southeast Mexican state of Quintana Roo, Mexico, Aug. 7, 2016. A new Confucius Classroom was inaugurated here on Sunday by Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong as she paid a visit to the university. (Xinhua/Mauricio Collado) CANCUN, Mexico, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- A new Confucius Classroom was inaugurated at the Universidad del Caribe (Unicaribe) by visiting Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong on Sunday in Cancun, in the southeast Mexican state of Quintana Roo. During the inauguration ceremony, Liu said that Mexican students' fluent Chinese and great performances made her feel the charm of cultural exchange, and see the bright future of friendly ties between the two countries. The bilateral relationship between China and Mexico was upgraded to a comprehensive strategic partnership during Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Mexico in June 2013. Liu said that China hopes to work together with Mexico to deepen pragmatic cooperation in various fields and bring more benefits to the two peoples. As the year 2017 will mark the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries, Liu said her visit aimed to implement important agreements reached by the two presidents, by enhancing political mutual trust, expanding economic cooperation, and deepening cultural and people-to-people exchanges to further nourish China-Mexico ties. Fostering friendly ties between the peoples is the key to sound relations between states, said Liu, noting that along with deepening cooperation between China and Mexico, more and more young Chinese are learning Spanish with more than 30 universities teaching the Spanish language. Meanwhile, the Chinese language is also gaining increasing importance in Latin American countries, she said. Mexico has established five Confucius Institutes that together have 30,000 registered students, making an important contribution to cultural exchange between the two countries, Liu noted. Liu was welcomed by President of Unicaribe Tirso Juan Ordaz Coral and President of the Autonomous University of Yucatan (UADY) Jose de Jesus Williams. Liu also visited the Chinese teaching center at the university and interacted with local students. The newly inaugurated Confucius Classroom at Unicaribe is overseen by the UADY's Confucius Institute. by Matthew Rusling WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Amid tumbling polling numbers, U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Monday zeroed in on the U.S. economy in a bid to convince voters that he can bring the lackluster economy back to life. In a televised speech made in Detroit, Michigan on Monday, Trump said he would focus on tax cuts, job growth and deregulation in a bid to force the government to step aside and unleash the power of the U.S. economy. While the U.S. economy has improved since the 2007-2008 economic nosedive that sent the global economy reeling, millions of Americans continue to struggle. While the official jobless rate is low, that figure does not paint a full and accurate picture of the job market's health as it does not count the millions of Americans who have given up looking for work out of sheer frustration, and often those who've only worked a few hours in a week and earned a few dollars are counted as having a job. Trump said his opponent, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, is planning a "massive job killing" tax increase, adding that Clinton would increase tax hikes for small businesses. Trump said he would reduce business taxes, vowing no U.S. business would pay more than 15 percent in taxes, sharply down from around 35 percent that businesses now pay. His plan will allow parents to cut the cost of child care by deducting it from their taxes, he said, adding that he would do away the so-called "death tax" -- a tax on the assets of Americans after their deaths. But this policy will benefit the working class very little, while giving a financial boost to the wealthy people like Trump himself, analysts said. Trump said he would de-regulate industries such as the U.S. auto industry, adding that the Obama administration has put in place thousands of new regulations that have been a "massive weight" on the American economy. "This will give our American companies the certainty they need," he said. Trump also said he wants to "jumpstart" the U.S. economy, recalling how he said he helped revitalize the New York City economy by fixing up dilapidated and dangerous neighborhoods that were the hallmark of the city in the 1980s, decades before New York became the dynamic tourist magnate that it is today. Experts said the brash billionaire from New York needs to come up with a concrete plan to persuade voters to cast their ballot for him in THE November election, amid the recent controversy about his remarks on a Muslim couple whose son died in service in Iraq. Trump is trailing behind Clinton by 10 points in latest polls. "He needs to provide a credible plan to help those who have been left behind in the economy. His voter base are people who have lost jobs," Darrell West, vice president and director of governance studies of the Brookings Institution, told Xinhua in an interview before the speech. "He has to explain to them in something other than platitudes that he understands their situation and can do something about it," West said. In many surveys, U.S. voters see Trump as better positioned to improve the economy. "This is where his business background helps him. Voters believe that someone who is ultra rich can do more than a traditional politician to improve the economy," West said. Julian Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, told Xinhua that Trump needs to convince more Americans than his supporters that he is drawing on some serious talent, and he understands he needs counsel and strategy and needs to be steady as a leader. Otherwise, speeches like this won't work. In order to discredit Clinton on the economy, the New York businessman needs to keep coming back to the underlying weaknesses of the economy that has been a big issue in the primaries of both parties and a big factor in his success. Indeed, experts said Trump cannot continue to rely solely on his base, many of whom have been left behind in this economy. Trump has a disadvantage here because in many ways -- unemployment rates, gas prices -- the economy is doing better now than it has in years, Christopher Galdieri, assistant professor at Saint Anselm College, told Xinhua. With just three months left until the elections, Trump will need to start reaching out to independents and those in better financial positions than those who've been left behind, the experts said. Lin Yue (L) and Chen Aisen of China celebrate after the men's synchronised 10m platform final of diving at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Aug. 8, 2016. Lin Yue and Chen Aisen of China won gold medal with the score of 496.98. (Xinhua/Fei Maohua) By Michael Place RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- The glamor of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro is a world away from his modest upbringing, but China's Lin Yue has not forgotten his roots. The 25-year-old diver said on Monday that his triumph alongside Chen Aisen in the synchronized 10m platform in Rio would not have been possible without the sacrifices of his parents. Lin and Chen posted an overall score of 496.98 to finish ahead of US pair David Boudia/Steele Johnson (457.11) and Britain's Thomas Daley/Daniel Goodfellow (444.45) in the final at the Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre. Lin explained how, when he was a child, his parents had sold the family's house in Chaozhou, Guangdong province, to send their son to train in Beijing. "The only thing in my mind is that I have to do all I can do for my family to thank them for supporting me," he said. It was Lin's second Olympic gold medal in the event after his victory at the Beijing 2008 Games alongside Huo Liang. Despite winning Monday's final by a comfortable margin, Lin said the performance was not without its faults, citing a mistake on the fourth dive, a triple backward somersault. "We did really well in our performance today, very stable," he said. "We did our best, but I don't think it was perfect. All I can say is that we did our best. It was like a dream. "The mistake we made is that we had a little bit of hesitation during our jump, so we did not handle it very well." China have won both of the diving gold medals decided so far at the Rio Games. On Sunday, Wu Minxia and Shi Tingmao took out the women's synchronised 3m springboard title. by Raimundo Urrechaga HAVANA, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Many Cubans are too young to remember Fidel Castro's heyday as a revolutionary firebrand and influential elder statesman, yet they admire and look up to the historic figure. Ten years after retiring from office and just a few days short of his 90th birthday, Castro continues to serve as a role model for Cuban youth, who benefit on a day-to-day basis from his lasting legacies in education, healthcare, sports, science and other areas. For architecture student Maria de Jesus Gonzalez, Castro is a somewhat paternal presence and genuine celebrity, despite having lived largely out of the limelight for a decade. "It is difficult to explain what I feel for Fidel Castro, because it is a pure and sincere emotion that goes beyond what we are taught at home or at school about him. Fidel is a beloved family member for Cubans, he's not the authoritarian figure many want to portray," she said. "He is a source of deep admiration for many Cubans and he transformed this country like no other leader," she added. Gonzalez said she has always dreamt of meeting the Caribbean leader, who was famed for giving long, passionate and frequent speeches on national and international affairs. The chances now are remote. After nearly half a century in power, Fidel Castro stepped down as head of state in July 2006 due to a severe illness, making way for his brother Raul. Two years later, he formally retired. He so rarely appeared in public that occasionally rumors have circulated about his death, only to be followed by news of his meeting with a visiting dignitary or publishing an editorial. In one of his rare public appearances, Fidel Castro addressed the closing session of the Cuban Communist Party Congress on April 19. In a surprise speech, he backed reforms spearheaded by his successor, Raul, to modernize the Cuban economy. He also referred to his reaching 90, and the possibility that he may not be around to mark the milestone. "Soon I will be 90 and my turn (death) will come like everybody else. But the ideas of Cuban communists will live on to prove that if a country works with dignity and fervor, we can produce the necessary goods for our nation," he said. College student Maylin Marrero, 23, agrees. "Fidel is old and like any other human being he will die one day, but his ideas have endured for generations and many young people in Cuba want to continue along the path he started many years ago," said Marrero. The larger-than-life public figure may have faded, but his social achievements, such as instating universal education and healthcare, and building a biotechnology sector envied by many developed countries, continue to bear fruit. "He is ... an important figure, even though there are people who are against him and people who are not in favor of him," Daylin Crespo, a 29-year-old doctor, told Xinhua. Fidel Castro is still a source of inspiration for young Cubans, even as they face imminent economic changes and rapid transformations sparked by reforms and the country's restored ties with the United States. "We must face the future with Fidel's ideas about our country's independence and sovereignty, but we must open up to a whole new world of economic opportunities," said Livan Hierrezuelo, 19. Castro's 90th birthday is on Aug. 13. OTTAWA, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- A zoo worker suffered serious injuries to her lower body and a cervical fracture after being attacked by a lion at the Granby Zoo in the Canadian city of Montreal on Monday, Canada TV reported. The lion attacked one of the three zoo workers when they were performing routine maintenance in the lion's den, which houses two males and a female. The lion was driven off after another worker sprayed the animal with a high-pressure water hose and CO2 gas, which the zoo said is standard procedure when an attack occurs. The victim, a woman in her 20s, has been transported to a hospital nearby and was in stable condition. An investigation by the Health and Work Safety Commission was under way. All three lions have been isolated after the attack and made unavailable for public viewing. It is not the first time a worker at a Canadian zoo has been hurt by a big cat. In 2013, a zookeeper was gravely injured after being attacked by a Siberian tiger at the St-Felicien zoo, Quebec. China will open a laboratory in Hainan province in November that will focus on the use of marine resources in the South China Sea, a provincial official said. The State Key Laboratory of Marine Resources Utilization in the South China Sea, initiated by the Hainan Science and Technology Department and Hainan University, must finish recruitment for the research team before operations officially begin, said Shi Yiyun, head of the department. The laboratory will study how to use marine bio-resources, new materials and marine mineral resources as well as how to resourcefully use marine information, Shi told China Daily. It will also focus on the use of marine organisms for medical purposes and ways to protect the marine ecology, he said. With the help of the laboratory, China will make better use of marine resources in the South China Sea and cultivate more marine talent, he added. Li Jianbao, head the laboratory and also president of Hainan University, said that the facility will be built into a key national laboratory to provide support in both technology and talent for China's South China Sea strategy. "There will be around 40 researchers in the laboratory, but we are going to select 24 first from relative areas within the university, and introduce talent from home and abroad later," said Chen Yongjun, deputy director of the laboratory. The laboratory, with a planned five-year operation, will receive 10 million yuan ($1.5 million) annually from Hainan's provincial government for construction, daily operations, research projects and talent recruitment. "The laboratory will be application-oriented, which fits the nation's strategies for the Belt and Road Initiative and the South China Sea, and it surely will play an important role in using the marine resources of the South China Sea," said Huang Bangqin, a professor of marine biology at Xiamen University's Environment and Ecology College. Huang said the laboratory will also have a positive effect on China's exercising sovereignty rights in the South China Sea. "Because only when we know better about the South China Sea can we better safeguard our nation's rights," he said. An Baijie contributed to this story. liuxiaoli@chinadaily.com.cn Donald Trump takes the stage on the last day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, the United States, July 21, 2016. New York billionaire Donald Trump officially accepted the presidential nomination of the U.S. Republican Party Thursday night on the final day of the Republican National Convention. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu) WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Monday outlined the details of what he called "America First" economic plan to rebuild momentum of his campaign, as protesters repeatedly interrupted him. During an hour-long speech at the Detroit Economic Club, Trump blamed Hillary Clinton, his Democratic rival, for America's economic woes and announced new proposals of tax breaks and cutting regulations to stimulate the sluggish growth, trying to refocus his campaign on the economy. But his speech was interrupted more than 10 times by a series of shouting protesters, who were escorted out of the hall by security officials. A highlight of Trump's economic proposals laid out on Monday was "an across-the-board income tax reduction," proposing reducing the current number of federal income tax brackets from seven to three. "We will work with House Republicans on this plan using the same brackets they have proposed, 12 percent, 25 percent, and 33 percent. For many American workers, their tax rate will be zero," Trump said, adding that it would be "the biggest tax revolution since the Reagan Tax Reform" in 1980s. The current top individual tax rate is 39.6 percent. Trump also vowed to reduce corporate tax rate to 15 percent from 35 percent and make all child-care expenses tax free, emphasizing that all policies should be geared toward "keeping jobs and wealth inside of the United States." He said he would "bring back trillions of dollars from American businesses that are now parked overseas" with applying a 10-percent tax, and reinvested the money in states like Michigan that had serious problems. The Republican presidential nominee also called for a temporary moratorium on new agency regulations and would seek to roll back regulations that reduce employment. "I will ask each and every federal agency to prepare a list of all of the regulations they impose on Americans which are not necessary, do not improve public safety, and which needlessly kill many, many jobs. Those regulations will be eliminated quickly," he said. Continuing his anti-trade rhetoric on the campaign trail, Trump promised to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and other trade deals, to strengthen trade enforcement and apply tariffs to other trading partners. But U.S. business leaders and economists have warned that Trump's proposed high tariffs on other countries could drag the U.S. economy into a prolonged recession and cause heavy job losses that would fall hardest on low- and middle-income workers. "Several nonpartisan research organizations have warned that these tariffs would cause the loss of up to 4 million American jobs and impose a regressive consumption tax on the typical American family of more than 2000 U.S. dollars annually," Thomas Donohue, president and chief executive of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said in a commentary on Monday. "Trade opposition may be politically convenient in this campaign, but it's bad policy for our country," he said, warning that retreating on trade would undermine U.S. economic growth, endanger American jobs and harm U.S. global leadership. Trump's economic speech comes at a critical time when polls show him falling behind Clinton widely after a disastrous week that includes days of his dispute with parents of a Muslim American soldier killed in the Iraq war. It also comes after Trump's announcement of a 13-men economic advisory council last week, which includes real estate developers, hedge fund managers, bankers, and major donors for his campaign. "Donald Trump's plan is just a repackaging of trickle-down economics and it doesn't help our economy or the vast majority of Americans," Clinton said on Monday via its official Twitter account. She will give her economic speech in Michigan on Thursday. Photo taken on July 8, 2016 shows coffins of five Togolese peacekeepers during a national memorial service in Lome, capital of Togo. The five soldiers were killed in an ambush in Sevare, northern Mali. Togo sent 1,000 soldiers to Maliunder the auspices of the UN Peacekeeping Mission in Mali to restore stability and peace in the northern and central regions. (Xinhua/Victor Kelenga) UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council on Monday condemned "in the strongest terms" terrorist attacks on UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, while calling on the Malian government to swiftly investigate these attacks. On Sunday, an improvised explosive device attacked the peacekeeping mission, known as MINUSMA, in south of Aguelhok, a town in the Kidal Region of eastern Mali, following a similar attack on Friday. These attacks have killed one peacekeeper and injured six others in total. The 15-nation Council underlined that "attacks targeting peacekeepers may constitute war crimes under international law," said a press statement issued here. "The members of the Security Council reiterated their full support for MINUSMA and the French forces that support it," said the statement. 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. 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. People light candles during a vigil to condemn the deadly hospital bomb blast in Quetta, in eastern Pakistan's Lahore on Aug. 8, 2016. At least 70 people were killed and 112 others injured in a suicide blast inside the emergency ward of Civil Hospital in Pakistan's southwestern Quetta city on Monday, hospital sources said. (Xinhua/Sajjad) UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday condemned the terrorist attack at a hospital in Pakistan's southwestern Quetta city, calling the attack "particularly appalling." Earlier on Monday, at least 70 people were killed and 112 others injured in a suicide blast inside the emergency ward of the Civil Hospital in Quetta. The blast happened when a large number of lawyers were gathered to collect the body of a murdered colleague, the president of Balochistan Bar Association Bilal Anwar Kasi, who was killed in a separate attack. "The targeting of mourners at a civilian hospital makes the attack particularly appalling," UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq told a daily briefing. "The Secretary-General urges the Government to do its utmost to ensure safety of the population and bring to justice the perpetrators of today's attack," Haq added. Pakistani Taliban faction has claimed responsibility for the terrorist bombing. DHAKA, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- First Made in China span for Bangladesh's largest Padma bridge has reached the project site. The 150-meter span weighing some 2900 tones was made of steel plate with 20-80mm thickness in a Chinese factory. Obaidul Quader, Bangladesh's road transport and bridges minister, said all the 41 spans for the bridge will gradually arrive from China. Regarding the bridge's construction progresses, Quader said 37 percent of the works have been done. The first span will be put on the bridge pillars by the end of the year, he said. His ministry said in a statement Monday night that from now on one or two spans will arrive from China every month. In December last year, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the main works of the country's largest Padma Bridge project by unveiling its foundation plaque. She had also unveiled the plaque of the river training works, the second most costly component of the 3-billion-U.S. dollar project conducted by one of the largest international companies, Sinohydro Corporation Limited. Experts say the bridge, when it comes into operation in 2018, will ease pressure on the country's premier seaport in Chittagong, 242 km southeast of capital Dhaka, as it will bolster the second largest Mongla seaport in Bagerhat district, 178 km southwest of the capital city. In June 2014, the Bangladeshi government awarded China Major Bridge Engineering Company Limited a 1.55-billion-U.S. dollar contract to build core structure of the Padma Bridge project which is to be completed in four years. The 25-meter-wide and 10-km-long bridge will be built over Padma River, one of the three major rivers in Bangladesh. About 6.15 km of the bridge is being built over the river while the remaining part on both banks. Apart from connecting nearly 30 million people in Bangladesh's southwest region to the rest of the country, the bridge will enhance regional trade and collaboration along the Asian highway No. 1 and the Trans-Asian railway network. HELSINKI, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- A young politician in Finland has been put under a pretrial investigation by police for suspicion of inciting hatred on social media, Finnish news agency Suomen Tietotoimisto (STT) reported Monday. Sebastian Tynkkynen, chairman of the Finns Party Youth, allegedly spread false and malicious information against the Muslim population living in Finland, Tapani Tasanto from the Oulu Police Department told STT. Tasanto said the request of investigation would target materials including more than 10 pages of messages posted by Tynkkynen on social media such as Facebook. Media reports said Tynkkynen's messages said Finland should stop its "Islamification" and restrict the entry of Muslims to Finland. Last month, the young politician even called for "the eradication of Islam from Finland," saying that all Muslims without Finnish citizenship should be deported to their countries of origin. Tynkkynen told STT that the police had not contacted him and he had not received any information about the starting of the investigation. Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo, secretary of the Finns Party, one of the country's three ruling parties, told STT that the board of the party would ponder over Tynkkynen's situation, but the party did not want to comment on an unsettled issue. CANBERRA, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- A radical proposal from Australia's Department of Health would result in overseas-trained medical practitioners being disallowed from applying for visas to work in Australia, in a move which the government hopes could end a locally-trained doctor shortage. Under the contentious proposal, 41 health-related roles would be taken off the Skilled Occupants visa list, including surgeons, anesthetists and resident medical officers, as the Health Department believe locally-trained doctors would struggle to find work with too much competition. A Health Department submission obtained by News Corp said the proposed move would make it easier for Australian-trained medical professionals to find work. "Australia's health system has a complex division of funding, policy and operational responsibilities," the submission, published by News Corp on Tuesday, said. "It is also currently highly reliant on international health professionals, in an environment of increasing concerns around ethical recruitment of those workers," it said. "Immigration is often used as a short-term demand management strategy and it continues to be poorly co-ordinated. "Over a longer planning horizon, better management of migration pathways for international health professionals must occur in combination with all commonwealth departments... and the analysis must include evolving training and reform strategies." The measures were not adopted by the government at the latest federal election, but the submission is likely to be brought up again in coming months. Health Minister Sussan Ley has already hinted to a discussion about workplace reforms in the coming year. Both the Australian Medical Association and the Rural Doctors Association would support a visa restriction, but said incentives to make regional medical work more enticing for locally-trained practitioners would also help the staff shortages. According to the Immigration Department, at the end of March there were 2155 general medical practitioners and 1562 resident medical officers in Australia on the visas which would be wiped if the proposal is successful. KUNMING, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese woman received 1.72 million yuan (about 258,300 U.S dollars) on Tuesday for a wrongful murder conviction that put her behind bars for 13 years, the Higher People's Court of Yunnan Province said. The court ruled that Qian Renfeng's confession was made under duress and that she was not guilt of the murder charge she was convicted for in February 2002. Qian was working at a nursery where a toddler died of food poisoning and two other children were hospitalized. Qian, who had prepared the children's meals that day, was forced into confessing that she had mixed raticide in the food. It was on the basis of this forced confession that she found guilty of murder. In July 2013, the Yunnan provincial procuratorate reopened her case. The investigation took nearly two years. In May 2015, the procuratorate ruled that there was a lack of evidence to support the conviction, and advised the provincial higher court to rehear the case. The higher court in December last year quashed the sentence, ruling that it lacked sufficient evidence to determine guilt beyond reasonable doubt. She was exonerated and released. Qian had filed for up to 9.55 million yuan (about 1.45 million U.S. dollars) in damages. BUENOS AIRES, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Mexico would like to reach a free trade agreement (FTA) with Argentina to rapidly increase the bilateral trade worth 2.5 billion U.S. dollars annually, Mexico's Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said on Monday. The minister made the remark one week after an official visit by Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto to Argentina. "This visit gave us the opportunity," said Guajardo. As an FTA with the United States has enabled bilateral trade to grow eight-fold, "with Argentina we could rapidly double trade," said Guajardo in an interview with local daily Clarin. He said the two Latin American countries share a vision "when it comes to strategies, development policy and integration of trade." Guajardo expects an FTA could be reached by the time Nieto's administration ends in 2018. "The timing depends a lot on the political will of the two countries. We are willing, with no doubt," he said. "Argentina is now our fourth biggest trading partner in Latin America, and we have already FTAs with Chile, Colombia and Peru," the minister added. CANBERRA, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Australian defence scientists who analysed signals from missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 have revealed the Boeing 777 fell very fast before crashing into the Indian Ocean off the coast of Western Australia. The Australian media reported on Tuesday that data analysis and manufacturer simulations showed it was likely the aircraft lost engine power before falling out of the sky at a rate of up to 20,000 feet per minute on March 8, 2014. An aircraft attempting a regular landing - or a crash landing in water - would descend at a rate of around 2,000 feet per minute, raising doubts over previous predictions that the plane "landed" intact in the water before breaking up. Australian scientists believe that prior to its final moments, the jet made a number of automated "handshake" signals with satellites on the ground near Perth in Western Australia. After six of those handshakes, a seventh, out-of-sequence signal came from the jet, indicating engine failure likely from a lack of fuel. The data gives life to the theory that MH370 fell out of the sky, and did not glide to a final crash-landing spot in the Indian Ocean. Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) chief commissioner Greg Hood said the scientists' analysis of the signals closely matched a flight scenario in which there was no pilot at the controls at the point of impact - in contrast to previous theories about how MH370 went down. Hood said the signal data meant MH370 likely crashed in the 120,000-square-km search area now being combed by Australian authorities. If the aircraft had glided to a final resting place - as previous theories had hinted - the plane may have gone down outside of the current search area. MH370 was a scheduled passenger flight from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing. It had 239 passengers and crew on board when it disappeared on March 8, 2014. MELBOURNE, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Australian scientists have discovered a link between watching television and lower back pain among women, but not men. The research, undertaken by Melbourne's Monash University, found that watching TV could be a factor in lower back pain regardless of how physically active the woman was. The study used data collected by the Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study and a questionnaire to uncover the lifestyle factors responsible for back pain. Sultana Monira Hussain, a musculoskeletal expert who led the study, said one in 10 Australians suffered from lower back pain at any given moment and three-quarters of Australians would ill suffer from an episode in their life. Hussain said the study found little evidence linking physical activity to back pain intensity. "We figured out it is not the physical activity, but the television viewing that increases the risk of disabling lower back pain in women but not in men," she told News Limited on Tuesday. Previous studies have indicated that exercise has a beneficial impact on back pain while some have concluded it is an aggravator. Women who watched TV for two or more hours a day experienced the worst lower back pain which is due to most people paying little attention to their posture while watching TV, Hussain said. Approximately 80 percent of the 5,000 participants in the study suffered from lower back pain but only 12 percent of those had a high level of disabling pain. Researchers were unable to determine why watching TV caused lower back pain in women but not men. MINSK, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Fitch Ratings has affirmed Belarus' long-term sovereign credit rating at "B-" and short-term credit rating also at "B" with a "stable outlook." The ratings reflect a high degree of vulnerability to external factors and frequent crises, the agency noted. The country's total demand for external financing reached 182 percent of its foreign exchange reserves. "The financial support, usually from Russia, allows the country to maintain a good history of servicing the external debt. Net external debt is high at 50 percent of GDP, which is significantly higher than for countries with a "B" rating, which is usually near 20 percent," Fitch said. The financing of the current account deficit, in addition to the maintenance of sovereign debt in the amount of 3.2 billion U.S. dollars, will depend on external support, it added. Earlier the Council of the Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development (EFSD) approved a two-billion-U.S. dollar financial loan to Belarus. The loan will be provided in seven tranches during 2016-2018. Belarus has received the first and second tranches of 500 and 300 million U.S. dollars. Belarusian authorities are also actively negotiating with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) about getting a three-billion-U.S. dollar loan. The IMF is calling on Belarus to implement drastic economic reforms. BUENOS AIRES, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Visiting UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Monday asked members of the international community to share responsibilty in dealing with the refugee crisis. "It is a situation that is uncontrollable and unsustainable and we are working on it to see how we can, on a global level, attend to it based on shared responsibility," said Ban, addressing the Argentine Council for International Relations. To that end, the UN is organizing a high-level meeting to map out a blueprint for a better international response, Ban said. The meeting is expected to take place in September. The UN chief noted that Argentina has taken a step in that direction with a commitment to welcome Syrian refugees. "Argentina is a land of opportunities, and this country has drawn immigrants from around the world," said Ban, praising the country for its pledge to receive 3,000 Syrian refugees. The government announced earlier this month it would put in place a plan to receive 300 Syrian refugees in the coming months, with the intention to gradually expand that number tenfold. Military conflicts in Syria, Iraq, South Sudan, Somalia, Pakistan, Libya and in other countries have forced some 65 million people to flee their homes and seek refuge elsewhere, said Ban. Argentina's transformation from a country ruled by military junta to a democratic state shows that such conflicts can be overcome, said Ban. "Your historic transition into a solid democracy with justice, accountability and rule of law is an example of hope for the world," said Ban. Later on Monday, Ban met with Argentine President Mauricio Macri at the presidential residence, Casa Rosada. The two spoke of ways to strengthen cooperation between Argentina and the UN, said Ban. Argentina has nominated its Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra to succeed Ban when his term concludes at the end of the year. Ban also thanked Argentina for its contribution to a recently-authorized UN peacekeeping mission to Colombia, which is tasked with monitoring the ceasefire between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. Macri said his government aims to take an active role in global matters. "Argentinians feel we have the capacity and calling to help solve the different challenges that exist in our time, including the refugee crisis, climate change and peacekeeping." "Argentina has already begun to contribute to a vast number of (global) matters, as the decision to take in Syrian refugees shows," said Macri, noting that Argentina is home to a sizable community of Syrian descendants. Following Ban's address earlier in the day, Foreign Minister Malcorra said the secretary-general's visit "attests to the important role Argentina has played at the UN." Chinese swimmer Sun Yang starts off at the Rio Olympics 200m freestyle final. (Xinhua) RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) --- China's Sun Yang delivered a stunning riposte to his critics on Monday by winning the men's 200m freestyle gold medal at the Rio Olympics. The 24-year-old has been at the center of a media storm in recent days, having been labelled a "drug cheat" by his Australian rival Mack Horton. The Chinese swimming team responded by demanding an apology for Horton's "malicious personal attack" on the country's swimmers. 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. He said he unwittingly took the drug as part of treatment for a chronic heart problem. If Horton's comments were not enough to worry about, Sun was also facing questions about his form. He was beaten by Horton in Saturday's 400m freestyle final, a race the Chinese swimmer was widely expected to win. But any doubts about whether Sun could still be a dominant force in the pool were erased in emphatic fashion at Rio's Olympic Aquatics Centre on Monday. Sun secured the Olympic 200m freestyle title by finishing the final in 1 minute 44.65 seconds, 0.55sec ahead of South Africa's Chad le Clos with the USA's Conor Dwyer 0.58sec further back. Sun, who won silver in the same event at the London 2012 Games, could not hide his delight after the race, raising his arms in triumph in the pool. Afterwards he tossed his cap into the crowd, which gave him loud and sustained applause. It was a sincere and justified reaction from a man who has endured a tumultuous week. And we have not see the last of him in Rio. Sun will be the favorite to defend his 1500m Olympic crown on Saturday. Swimming fans can expect more brilliance and raw emotion from the Chinese star, who showed on Monday that he has the temperament of a true champion. WELLINGTON, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand will strengthen cooperation with Samoa in dealing with natural disasters, New Zealand Civil Defense Minister Nikki Kaye said Tuesday ahead of a three-day visit to the Pacific island nation. "The ever present risk of natural hazards is something that both New Zealand and Samoa understand very well," Kaye said in a statement. "This risk is part and parcel of living in the Pacific. We're surrounded by the Ring of Fire, which makes us susceptible to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, while our geographies and climates also make us vulnerable to events such as cyclones, storms, floods and droughts," she said. "New Zealand and Samoa have a long and close relationship, and sharing expertise and experience on managing hazards and responding to disasters plays a central part in this relationship." Kaye would also meet with the Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, and attend meetings with senior government ministers and officials on disaster preparedness. Topics would include lessons learned from previous disasters in Samoa, and New Zealand's contribution towards strengthening Samoa's risk management capabilities. "I will also visit key disaster risk management facilities and initiatives, including the National Disaster Management Office operations center, the meteorological monitoring station at Mulinuu and the emergency siren network on the south coast of Upolu," said Kaye. At Lalomanu, she would view areas devastated by the tsunami that killed more than 160 Samoans in September 2009, as well as work done since to prevent loss of life and property damage. SYDNEY, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- A West Australian woman has been charged with raping a nine-year-old boy between October and November last year, local media reported on Tuesday. The 27-year-old was arrested following an investigation by Perth Child Abuse Squad detectives. She has been charged with one count of sexual penetration of a child under 13, and one count of threats to injure, endanger or harm a person. Police alleged that the boy was known to the woman. The woman is due to appear in a Perth Court on Aug. 9 to face those charges. Talitay Mayor Montasir Sabal arrives at the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group to present himself at the Philippine National Police headquarters in Quezon City, the Philippines, Aug. 8, 2016. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday barred more than 150 names of judges, military, police and lawmakers who are allegedly linked to the alarming drug menace in the Philippines. (Xinhua/Rouelle Umali) WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. government on Monday expressed concern about what it called "extrajudicial killings" of drug suspects in the Philippines, while urging Manila to abide by human rights obligations. "We are concerned by these detentions, as well as the extrajudicial killings of individuals suspected to be involved in drug activity in the Philippines," Elizabeth Trudeau, spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department, told a daily briefing. The United States believes in rule of law, due process and respect for universal human rights, Trudeau said, adding that her country will continue its conversations with Filipino authorities "to emphasize the importance of this fundamental democratic principle." In the latest effort in his massive anti-drug campaign since taking office in June, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday ordered more than 150 named judges, military and police officers and lawmakers, who are allegedly linked to drug crimes, to turn themselves in. Duterte has ordered the police to crack down on drug lords and their protectors that allegedly include police officers and even the so-called "narco politicians." So far, at least 600 people are reported to have been killed in the campaign against illegal drugs. WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. government on Monday summoned the charge d'affaires of the Philippine Embassy to clarify what it called "inappropriate comments" made by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte about U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg. "We've seen those inappropriate comments made about (U.S.)Ambassador (Philip) Goldberg. He's a multi-time ambassador, one of our most senior diplomats," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau told a news briefing. But She declined to disclose the details of the conversation that U.S. officials held with Patrick Chuasoto, the charge d'affaires of the Philippine Embassy in Washington. "I'm not going to read out that detailed conversation, but it was specifically on those remarks," Trudeau said. Duterte reportedly called Goldberg a "gay ambassador" and "son of a bitch" during a recent meeting with soldiers. "I am pissed with him. He meddled during the election, giving statements here and there. He was not supposed to do that," Duterte was quoted as saying on the occasion. Goldberg told the U.S. media in April that the United States did not condone anyone who either degrades women or trivializes issues as serious as rape, referring to the joke made by Duterte during his campaign about the rape and murder case involving Australian missionary Jacqueline Hamill in 1989. BEIJING, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- The Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) announced on Tuesday that it has started investigations into two former senior officials. Zhang Yue, a former member of the standing committee of the Communist Party of China committee in north China's Hebei Province, and Chang Xiaobing, former chairman of China Telecom, were put under investigation separately in suspicion of accepting bribes. The SPP put the two under "coercive measures", which may include arrest, detention, issuing a warrant to compel a suspect to appear, bail pending trial, or residential surveillance. MACAO, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- The claim and compensation of Macao's tour bus crash accident could be very complicated and time-consuming, local news paper reported on Tuesday quoting an insurance expert. At least 32 tourists from the Chinese mainland were injured, three seriously, on Monday when a tour bus crashed into a building in Macao, and the driver was arrested for suspected dangerous driving, the special administrative region's authorities said. According to Macao Public Security Police Force (PSPF), the accident happened when the bus stopped downslope in a street close to the Ruins of St. Paul, one of Macao's famous tourist attractions. A white van rear-ended the bus and the bus driver got off to check the situation. The bus suddenly moved down through the slope without the driver and rammed into a roadside clinic. According to Macao Daily News, the accident involves multiple parties such as the bus owner, tourists, driver, travel agencies, the clinic, the building and households who live there. An insurance expert said if it is the bus' fault, the affected parties could ask the travel agencies for compensation. But given the complicated situation, responsibilities recognition procedure, and possible law suits, it could be as long as one year or even longer. For the injured tourists, the expert added, the easier way could be personal claim under the travel insurance policy, including compensation for medical expense and loss of personal properties. The insurance companies will then come to the insurer of the tour bus for compensation. The Macao SAR government held an emergence response meeting late Monday to coordinate the works of different departments, including transport, public security, health, tourism, immigration, airport management, travel agencies. The meeting discussed accident rescue and treatment, family visit of the injured, and travel document extension for those still hospitalized. Macao's travel office said it reported the accident to the National Tourism Administration and the Tourism Administration of neighboring Guangdong Province. The office will help the families of the injured tourists come to Macao for visit. Cambodian Commerce Minister Pan Sorasak speaks at a Cambodia-Malaysia business forum in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Aug. 9, 2016. Bilateral trade volume between Cambodia and Malaysia reached 386 million U.S. dollars in 2015, down 9.5 percent year-on-year, according to a report released during a business forum here. (Xinhua/Sovannara) PHNOM PENH, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Bilateral trade volume between Cambodia and Malaysia reached 386 million U.S. dollars in 2015, down 9.5 percent year-on-year, according to a report released during a business forum here. Cambodia's export to Malaysia was recorded at 151 million U.S. dollars last year, down 17 percent year-on-year, while the country's import from Malaysia amounted to 235 million U.S. dollars, also down 3.5 percent. The trade balance in 2015 was in favor of Malaysia with a trade surplus of 84 million U.S. dollars. Products mainly traded are textile, clothing, footwear, beverage and tobacco, processed food, milled rice, crude rubber, petroleum and electric products, said the report released at the Cambodia-Malaysia Business Forum. Speaking at the forum, visiting Malaysian Minister of International Trade and Industry Mustapa Mohamed said his trip to Cambodia was to explore ways to boost trade and investment ties between the two countries. "I'm here to further enhance our bilateral trade and investment ties," he told the forum, which was attended by some 200 Cambodian and Malaysian business executives. According to Mustapa, Malaysia is one of Cambodia's largest investors with a cumulative investment of 2.62 billion U.S. dollars from 1994 to 2015. Cambodian Commerce Minister Pan Sorasak said he was confident that Mustapa's visit, along with a group of Malaysian business executives, would contribute further to boosting trade and investment relations between the two ASEAN members. LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Air strikes against Taliban outfit in Helmand province had killed 40 militants and injured 45 others, said provincial government in a statement released here Tuesday. "The air strikes conducted against Taliban convoy in Tarikh Nawar locality between Marja and Nawa districts Sunday evening, leaving 40 rebels dead and 45 others injured," the statement asserted. According to the statement, the Taliban convoy was going from Nawa district to Marja district to fight government forces, but the government forces in pre-emptive strikes destroyed the convoy and foiled their designs. Eight militants, according to the statement, were also killed in the neighboring Gereshk district on Sunday evening. Taliban militants who have been challenging the government forces in several districts of Helmand province haven't commented. Notorious for growing poppy and militancy, the restive Helmand province with Lashkar Gah as its capital 555 km south of Kabul has been the scene of increasing insurgency over the past couple of years. NEW DELHI, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- At least three persons were killed and 12 others injured when a vehicle in which they were travelling hit a tree in the southern Indian state of Telangana Tuesday, a senior police official said. "The mishap took place in the state's Medak district this morning when the driver of the fateful vehicle rammed into a tree while trying to avoid a head-on collision with an auto-rickshaw coming from the opposite direction," he said, on condition of anonymity. While three persons died on the spot, those injured have been admitted to a local hospital by local people, where the condition of at least four are said to be serious, the official said, adding their chances of survival are minimal. The victims included two families from the western state of Maharashtra, who were on their way to the temple town of Tirupati in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. A probe has been ordered into the incident, he said. "Efforts are on to nab the driver of the auto-rickshaw, who fled the spot after the mishap," the official added. South Korean protesters hold placards in front of the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, April 1, 2015, during a rally against the deployment of the advanced U.S. missile defense system THAAD on the Korean Peninsula. (Xinhua/Seongbin Kang) By Yoo Seungki SEOUL, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- South Koreans opposing the deployment of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) in the country are being reviled as blind followers of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) or sycophant betrayers. Such seditious moves are being driven by some of conservative local media outlets. South Korean President Park Geun-hye appeared to decide on Monday to join the move by criticizing opposition lawmakers visiting Beijing as sympathizers with China and describing other THAAD dissenters as pro-DPRK followers. Branding those unfavorable to government policies as traitors or pro-DPRK followers, seen in a few cases under the past military dictatorships, seems not to be easy this time as the president is required to stigmatize about half of the South Koreans as turncoats. Public opinion has run neck-and-neck over whether the THAAD deployment is in South Korea's national interests. Recently, more South Koreans, especially those in their 20s to 40s, are changing their minds to disagree with the THAAD deployment decision. THAAD dissenters here do not brand those in favor of the U.S. missile defense system as blind pro-American followers though Seoul was pressured by Washington into making the hasty decision as part of the U.S. "Pivot to Asia" strategy to supervise and check China and Russia together with its allies in the region. Anti-THAAD lawmakers demand an open debate at the National Assembly to discuss whether the U.S. missile defense battery is really in South Korea's interests militarily, diplomatically and economically. THAAD is incapable of shooting down DPRK missiles as it is designed to intercept at an altitude of 40-150 km. DPRK missiles are known to travel at a lower altitude of 20-30 km. One THAAD battery, composed of six mobile launchers, 48 interceptors, an X-band radar and a fire control unit, cannot protect against more than 1,000 DPRK missiles targeting South Korea. The capital Seoul and its adjacent metropolitan area, the country's most populous regions, are even out of the THAAD protection range as the battery is set to be installed in Seongju county, some 250 km southeast of the capital. THAAD missiles have a maximum range of 200 km. The X-band radar can snoop on Chinese and Russian territories as it can spot at least 2,000 km. Seoul claims that it will adopt the radar with a detectable range of 600-800 km, but the mode change can be made at any time in accordance with the needs of the U.S military that will operate the THAAD battery in South Korea. If deployed, relations between South Korea and China and Russia will certainly be strained, making Seoul lose its diplomatic clout in dealing with the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue. South Korean companies doing businesses in China and Russia will bear the brunt. Tensions will escalate in the region as arms race is expected. Ten major South Korean companies, which heavily depend on Chinese consumers for revenue, had lost 11.2 trillion won (10 billion U.S. dollars) in stock value since Seoul and Washington's decision to deploy the THAAD battery on July 8. It reflects growing worries among investors about negative effects from THAAD. It would be desirable for President Park to listen carefully to a dissenting voice, which is getting louder at home and abroad, instead of joining the reckless witch-hunting move. Park said at the ruling Saenuri Party's convention on Tuesday that THAAD opponents must present alternatives to fend off the DPRK's nuclear and missile threats, but the president herself refrained from making efforts to find any alternatives, downplaying the dissenting voice coming from people and neighboring countries. It would be impossible for the president to answer a question of how the South Korean military can protect its people from the DPRK's threats even without the U.S. missile defense in the next 12 to 16 months. Seoul plans to deploy the battery by the end of next year. Experts said the U.S.-South Korea military alliance has served as a deterrent to the DPRK's desire for waging an all-out war. Friendlier ties of South Korea with China and Russia may have played a vital role in it. The THAAD deployment will make it difficult for the country to seek cooperation from China and Russia in denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula. The United States will strengthen its hard-line policy toward Pyongyang, which in turn could speed up efforts to advance its nuclear and missile technology. President Park needs to hear a voice saying that the only way to denuclearize the peninsula is to hold peace talks between the U.S. and the two Koreas and change the armistice treaty after the 1950-53 Korean War into a peace treaty. JAKARTA, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Mounting criticisms sparked on Tuesday against the Indonesian government's plan to introduce a program that adds more hours for elementary and junior high school students. Newly appointed Education and Culture Muhadjir Effendy said on Monday he had proposed a so-called "full-day school" system which is expected to increase monitoring of students and improve their knowledge. According to him, the program will require public schools to provide additional extracurricular activities or soft-skill classes which will keep students busy until 5 p.m. Most students currently start at 7 a.m. and spend six or seven hours at school. The proposed scheme still allows students to get two days off per week, he noted. "The program will see students continuously under responsible monitoring as they leave school when their parents finish work and are ready to pick them up," Muhadjir said. Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) on Tuesday slammed the plan citing its negative effects to the students' daily social development process as not every child is being raised by working parents. "Planning a nationwide educational policy cannot be based on personal experience, and should not be partial," the commission's chairman Asrorun Ni'am Sholeh said in a statement. Asrorun also said that the proposed system would put more burden on teachers and on the schools' expenditures. Maman Imanulhaq, a legislator at the House of Representatives' commission overseeing social affairs, said separately that the minister had only considered the situations in big cities. "There are still many schools in small areas that are way underdeveloped and unsafe for students," he says. Ferdiansyah, a lawmaker at the House's commission which oversees educational affairs, called on the minister to carry out a comprehensive research on the system, especially on the ways to compensate any consequences that may affect the children. "We must not force all schools to implement it," Ferdiansyah says. Minister Muhadhir said he is starting a pilot project to test the market as he had received approval from President Joko Widodo and Vice President Jusuf Kalla, but he had not yet determined where the pilot project will be implemented first. by Xinhua Writer Zhu Dongyang BEIJING, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Tuesday played the China-bashing card once again in his latest attempt to rectify his falling popularity. The inflammatory rhetoric, however, is dangerous and damaging and offers nothing substantive in way of improving relations with China. In a speech in Detroit that outlined his economic prescription for America's economic headaches, Trump alleged that China "breaks the rules in every way imaginable" when trading with the United States, and "is responsible for nearly half of our entire trade deficit." The former property developer pledged to boost the U.S. economy by hindering China's exports to the U.S. market and renegotiating global trade rules. "Americanism not globalism will be our new credo," Trump claimed. To make their boss more appealing to the blue-collar working class in Midwestern states, economic advisers of the New York mogul earlier threatened a tougher approach on trade that includes a possible "trade war" with China, the world's second largest economy and the U.S.'s largest trading partner. By scapegoating China and global free trade for lackluster economic performance, Trump and his team betrayed the Republicans' traditional endorsement of unrestricted trade. In a freakish coincidence, Trump shared a similar view with his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton that Washington shall pursue myopic and poisonous protectionism and "stand up to China" to make up for lost ground. For years, China-bashing has always been an easy card for U.S. political candidates to play and cover up the country' s fundamental structural drawbacks. After all, settling these problems needs more painstaking reforms that none of the two parties would dare propose at the risk of electoral defeat. However, if populist yet protectionist policies gets its way, Americans would have to pay a much higher price to bring factory jobs back to the country. By failing to focus on some real competitive edges, such means will only prompt countermeasures from other nations, leading to tit-for-tat protectionism and even trade wars, in the worst scenario. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, traditionally a Republican's supporter on trade, said that Trump's approach would cost 3.5 million U.S. jobs and result in higher prices for American consumers as well as a weaker economy. Meanwhile, lashing out at China for U.S. economic frustrations has proven futile. Ironically, the U.S. middle and working classes, to whom Trump and Hillary have been eager to pander, would become the first to take the hit of U.S. trade barriers against China. As the main beneficiary of Sino-U.S. win-win cooperation, Americans have grown accustomed to high-quality and affordable Chinese-made goods. Without their country's massive trade with China, neither their quality of life nor their country's high-end advantage in the global industrial chain can be maintained. Fiery rhetoric has become Trump's card ever since the start of this election race. But even the billionaire himself could not see his own business thrive without decades of ties to China. The world has gotten used to generations of U.S. presidents denouncing China in an election race. But they usually reoriented their China policy as soon as they took power and tried instead to cement ties with the Asian country. That was true with former Republican President George W. Bush, and Hillary's once anti-trade husband Bill Clinton, who nevertheless gave China most-favored-nation treatment, which in part contributed to the U.S. economic boom of the 1990s. Hopefully, the threat of launching a trade war with China by the current presidential candidates is merely tough talk. China-bashing is a recurring theme every four years, and by now it's become quite dull. Let's hope the next time around that future presidential possibles have something more substantial to say about America's relationship with China. U.S. voters deserve better. BEIJING, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- China's machinery sector showed signs of recovery in the first half of 2016, according to an industry association Tuesday. The China Machinery Industry Federation (CMIF) said the sector's value added in the first six months expanded 7.8 percent, faster than 5.7 percent in the same period last year and 5.5 percent for the whole 2015. Profits of machinery manufacturers increased 6.53 percent, up from 0.13 percent for the same period last year and 2.5 percent for the whole 2015. "The performance was better than we expected at the beginning of the year," said the CMIF vice president Chen Bin, attributing the improvement to the auto and electrical equipment sectors. Investment grew just 3.07 percent from January to June, the lowest H1 expansion since 2008. The slowdown was in line with the deceleration in China's total investment in this period. Sluggish demand for machinery will continue due to downward pressure on the broader economy and overcapacity reduction in other industries, said Chen, who believed large inventories and anemic foreign trade will also weigh on results. MANILA, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte does not condone extrajudicial killings, a senior government official said Tuesday. Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said Duterte also has ordered an investigation on the alleged salvaging of drug-related suspects. "We would like to make a statement, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte has repeatedly expressed (that) he does not condone extrajudicial killings. But he also admitted that certain individuals may have been salvaged," he said in a news briefing in Malacanang, the presidential palace. Abella was reacting on the statement from the United States State Department expressing concern on the series of killings in the Philippines of suspected drug dealers. Abella said Duterte has ordered Philippine National Police chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa to investigate the drug-related killings. Some reports have said that over 400 people allegedly involved in illegal drugs have been executed since Duterte assumed office on June 30. Abella also defended the president for publicly naming over 150 judges, local government officials, police and military personnel who were allegedly involved in the proliferation of illegal drugs. He said Duterte was just taking the "position of parens patriae." "As parent of nation, he is calling attention to clear and present danger of drugs. It's his moral obligation to make sure public is properly warned of the drug menace," he explained. Over 600,000 drug users and pushers have already surrendered to the authorities. Duterte has said that one hectare land in every military camp in the country would be utilized for the construction of rehabilitation centers for the drug dependents. Screenshot of U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps' instagram account shows him receiving the cupping therapy of traditional Chinese medicine. RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- After herbs and accupuncture, the cupping therapy will possibly become the new Chinese medicinal fad as more and more elite athletes are found using it to heal their muscles from cruel trainings. Three days into the Rio Olympics, a number of athletes, including U.S. swimming megastar Michael Phelps and Gymnast Alex Naddour, have been spotted with big purple dots on their skin. Some jokingly wonder if they were biten by octupus, while the circles are actually a result of cupping therapy that has been used in China since ancient times. In Chinese medicinal philosophy, cupping therapy is the method of using heated bamboo cups to create suctions on skin, which could mobilize the blood flows and heal the muscle pains -- well, leaving scattered bottle hickies which will dissappear in a week or two. Today, glass or plastic cups are often used instead of bamboo. The ancient treatment was also used in early Egypt and Greece, and is still commonly found in traditional clinics all over China. Some Chinese people, especially the older generation, can even DIY the therapy at home with simplified tools such as a glass bottle, a piece of paper and a lighter. Phelps might have become a fan of the treatment. People have noticed several photos of him receiving the cupping posted on his Instagram account nearly a year ago. U.S. gymnast Alex Naddour told USA Today that the therapy was "better than any money I've spent on anything else." "That's been the secret that I have had through this year that keeps me healthy," Naddour told the paper, adding that it had saved him from a lot of pain. Besides athletes, some other celebrities have also tried it, including Victoria Beckham and Justin Bieber, according to the BBC. So, the therapy sounds simple, cheap and safe. Do you want to have a try now? HONG KONG, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Former Philippine President Fidel Ramos said in Hong Kong Tuesday that the purpose of his visit to China is not for negotiations but to "rekindle" the Sino-Philippine friendship. Designated by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte as a special envoy, Ramos arrived in Hong Kong on Monday evening to start his visit to China after the South China Sea arbitration case has frozen the two countries' ties. "My job is to look for some old friends who have links to high officials in Beijing. My job is not to negotiate, but to help pave the way, break the ice and rekindle the friendship that we had during my time with China," Ramos told a press conference here. "We are here on a mission of goodwill and are not involved in any negotiations or official transactions," he said. Ramos revealed that the people he want to first meet with during his trip is is Wu Shicun, president of the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, a major think tank based China's southern island of Hainan Province. The former Phillipine president said he believed his old friends in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region as well as Guangdong, Hainan and Fujian Provinces all have links to Chinese leadership in Beijing since some of them have been elevated to China's top legislature after retirement. Ramos emphasized the long history of exchanges and close relationship between China and the Philippines in culture and people-to-people communication, adding the fact that Chinese people discovered the Philippines more than 100 years before the Europeans did. "I have always been optimistic and looking for the best results. But of course that also depends on the attitude of the Chinese officials," he said, adding that his Chinese friends include very successful businessmen. Ramos said he will not discuss the particular issue of the South China Sea arbitration with his Chinese friends but seek to improve economic and tourism cooperation between the two countries. Ramos, 88, served as the Philippine President from 1992 to 1998. After his retirement, Ramos became a key figure who proposed the Boao Forum for Asia, an international think tank which was also based in Hainan. The special envoy said the reason why he choose Hong Kong as his first stop is that it is very close to Shenzhen, Haikou, Guangzhou and other southern cities where he often went in and out after retirement. Ramos said he will wait in Hong Kong for coordination between the Philippine Embassy and China's Foreign Ministry on when he will go to Beijing. On the other hand, he wished those Chinese friends could come directly to meet him in Hong Kong. SYDNEY, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Australian low-cost airline Jetstar has asked aircraft engine manufacturer General Electric for an explanation after a near-new engine had to be shut down during a mid-air flight from Tokyo to Gold Coast. NewsCorp reported on Tuesday that the GEnx model engine fitted on a Boeing 787 had to be shut down after a warning light appeared indicating oil pressure problems on the flight on Sunday, prompting it to be diverted to Guam. Jetstar spokesman said the aircraft's engine had been installed three months ago to replace an engine of the same model that was only nine months' old. The older engine was repaired and put into another aircraft. The spokesman said it was unusual to have an issue like this so soon into the life of an aircraft engine adding that the airline had sought an explanation from the manufacturer on the matter. "Boeing 787s can fly safely on one engine," a Jetstar spokesman said. "GE (General Electric) has a team which is working with our engineers to understand what occurred," the spokesman said. This is not the first time an airline has been experiencing mid-air engine problems. In April, another 787, operated by Xiamen Airlines, had an engine shut down because of an oil pressure problem. And in February, an Air India 787 also switched off one engine after encountering problems. Despite the problems, Boeing 787s are designed to fly safely on one engine. A spokeswoman for GE declined to comment but said that the company was working with Jetstar on the matter. "We ... expect to know more in the next 24 hours," she told NewsCorp. MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- At least two persons were killed and over one dozen others wounded after an explosion ripped through a market place in Mazar-i-Sharif city, capital of Afghanistan's northern province of Balkh on Tuesday, an official said. "The attack occurred roughly at 12:50 p.m. local time. The nature of the blast could be a suicide bombing. So far, we have no more details, but we will try to get more information," the source told Xinhua anonymously. More details would be made public later in the day as investigation is underway to find more facts about the incident, the source added. Local media Tolo News reported that one civilian and the bomber were killed on the spot and 14 others were wounded in the explosion which occurred near the main square in the city. The casualties were shifted to a nearby hospital, Noor Mohammad Faiz, a provincial health official, was quoted by Tolo as saying. Security forces have cordoned off the area for precautionary measures. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet. HANOI, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Over 300 firms from 30 countries and regions are expected to join Vietnam's International Feed, Livestock and Meat Industry Show (Vietstock 2016), said the organizer on Tuesday. The event will be held on Oct. 19-21 under the theme of "Enhancing Food Safety for Domestic and Export Markets," said Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development's Department of Livestock Production at a press conference here on Tuesday. In the framework of Vietstock 2016 to be held in Vietnam's southern Ho Chi Minh City, two events VietFeed and VietMeat will take place where new animal feed products were launched and promoted, as well as the needs of meat industry from production, processing, packaging to plate will be focused on, said Vietstock's website. MOSCOW, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Russia has delivered half of the S-300 surface-to-air missile systems to Iran in accordance with a weapon sales contract signed between the two countries in 2007, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin has said. Rogozin made the statement Monday at the Russia-Iran-Azerbaijan summit in Baku, capital of Azerbaijan. The 2007 weapon sales contract between Russia and Iran is valued at about 900 million U.S. dollars. Russia is planning to complete the deliveries of the S-300 air defense systems to Iran by the end of 2016, said Sergei Chemezov, head of Russia's state technologies corporation Rostec which was established in 2007 to promote development, production and export of high-tech industrial products for civil and defense sectors. Russia suspended the 2007 contract with Iran in 2010, citing a U.N. Security Council resolution that placed an arms embargo on Tehran. Russian President Vladimir Putin lifted the delivery ban in April 2015 shortly after Iran and world powers reached a framework nuclear agreement to remove all economic sanctions. The S-300 is a series of highly capable, long-range surface-to-air missile complexes first deployed in the former Soviet Union in 1979 and later modified by the Russian armed forces. NANCHANG, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Wang Lanyu in east China's Jiangxi province still shivers with fear when she recalls that fateful day 18 years ago when the island she lives on flooded. "My house was totally inundated, the water was about one meter deep," she said. "The flood waters didn't retreat for several months." Wang lives on Jiangxinzhou island, Jiujiang City. The only way for its more than 50,000 residents to reach or leave the 120-square-kilometer island is by ship. In 1998, the island's river defence wall was breached, leaving a 300-meter cavity through which thousands of cubic meters of water escaped. The islanders were trapped, and the waterlogged land made the delivery and allocation of disaster-relief resources difficult and dangerous tasks. Wang said that when she ran out of rice she had no other option but to seek refuge with her parents' in the neighboring province of Anhui. Like many island residents whose farmland had been destroyed, her husband had seek employment as a migrant worker elsewhere in China. After the disaster, the local government began a long and arduous project to reinforce the defence wall. "During the past decade, we haven't see such a severe breach again," said Xu Chunyao, Communist Party of China chief of Jiujiang. In April, irregular crevices were discovered in the defence wall. The central and local government allocated more than 30 million yuan to cover the repair work. Jiujiang's story is not an isolated case. Drawing on the lessons learned in 1998, when the El Nino effect caused detrimental flooding across China, and was linked to more than 1,320 deaths, China had had no choice but to overhaul its flood control techniques. "The main cause for the disaster was poor water management," said Zhang Mingguang, vice head of the planning bureau under the Yangtze River Water Resources Committee. In the central province of Hubei alone, 4,974 sites were deemed hazardous in 1998, including 34 breaches. China's management and exploitation of its water resource spans millennia. The first embankment along the Yangtze River broke ground some 2,000 years ago, more recently, however, a large-scale embankment project started in 1998. More than 6.5 billion yuan has been spent on 28 embankment projects in Hubei, Hunan, Anhui and Jiangxi, which all began in 1999. To date, the project has built 1,935 kilometers of embankment. The question of what to do with the excess water was another issue. According to Shen Huazhong with Yangtze River Water Resources Committee, 42 flood storage areas are located along the middle and lower reaches of the river, which can hold up to 59 billion cubic meters of water. Better forecasting also helped. Xu Shaojun, vice director with the flood control and drought relief authority in Hubei, recalled that in 1998, weather forecasts and information on floods were disseminated by telegraph. "They sent three telegraphs a day, at 8 a.m., 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.," he said. "They measured the water level by sight." While forecasting and communication have come along way, problems remain. Severe flooding across the country has left hundreds dead or missing since early June, and the way in which these fatal floods were handled made it clear that many challenges remain. "In some smaller lakes and rivers, flood-prevention measures were ineffective," said Zheng Shouren, a fellow with the Chinese Academy of Engineering. "Moreover, management appeared to be also a problem." In Jiujiang, constant vigilance is needed. "The shoreline is long and there was no one with a complete overview of the potential risks," said Xu Chunyao. The floods this year are on par with those seen in 1998. Luckily, along some tributaries of the Yangtze if it had not been for the local community the situation could have been much, much worse. Following days and days of rain last month, more than 3,000 migrant workers returned to their hometowns to help with flood control and management, including Wang's husband. The family's new house is on the northern embankment of Jiangxinzhou, this time round when the floods came, the water was well below the window. "The embankment is much stronger now," Wang said. "The water is retreating and the level is dropping. Jiangxinzhou stood the test." N'DJAMENA, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Chad President Idriss Deby Itno has been sworn in for a fifth consecutive five-year term, following his April 10 electoral victory that was contested by the opposition. The swearing in ceremony that was held on Monday in the capital N'Djamena, was attended by 14 other African leaders. Deby, who came to power in 1990 after overthrowing the then president Hissene Habre, won the April 10, 2016 elections in the first round with 59.92 percent of the votes. The event held at a hotel in N'Djamena went on without any major incident, but under heavy police surveillance. Speaking after being sworn in by the president of Chad's Constitutional Council Nagoum Yamassoum, Deby promised to continue with the work of modernizing the country's infrastructure and maintain peace and security. "I appeal to all my fellow citizens, wherever they may be, that regardless of our differences, we should work together to rebuild our nation," he said in his speech. "The next five years will be characterized by reforms both in our judiciary as well as in the public administration," he said. He further promised to ensure his country achieves economic development by promoting transparency in the spending of public resources. by Keren Setton JERUSALEM, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- In the dry West Bank region riddled with conflicts, water shortage is also a source of dispute as it is posing a threat to the lives and livelihood of the local residents. The water crisis here is not new, but as the climate gets hotter and the population grows, there is less water to go around, especially in the hot summer. Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Middle-East War. Since then, more and more Israeli Jews have started to settle in this land, living side by side with Palestinians. Israeli occupation of the land has not been recognized internationally. Palestinians and the majority of the world see the territory as an integral part of a future Palestinian state. According to B'Tselem, an Israeli NGO dealing with human rights issues in the Israeli-occupied territories, the Oslo Accords signed in 1993 between the two parties established a water allocation system by which 80 percent of the water pumped in the West Bank goes to the Israelis, with the remaining 20 percent to the Palestinians. This cannot meet the basic daily needs of the Palestinian population in the region. Emmanuel Nahshon, spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, describes the problem differently. He says the water pipes are old, small and have many leaks, in addition to a constant problem of water theft by Palestinians. Nahshon denies any wrongdoing on sharing this natural resource. "There is no discrimination. Everyone has to deal with the problem. There is no abuse," says Nahshon. But Roy Yellin of B'Tselem does not agree. When asked about the water shortage in the Jewish settlements, Yellin dismisses such claims. "Of course there is discrimination. I presume that in the settlements they have problems but it is not in any way parallel, equal or congruent. The settlements are illegal and therefore not a basis for comparison," he says. The main difference is that the Israeli settlements are connected to the country's main water grid, while the Palestinian areas are not. When the Oslo Accords were signed more than 20 years ago, they were intended to be an interim agreement and a foundation for a permanent one. Since then, Israelis and Palestinians have grown further apart. They have stopped negotiating on any issue including the water crisis -- a basic issue that should top any political conflict. The 1993 agreement stipulated that a joint committee should convene on a regular basis to deal with the division of this natural resource. However, the committee has not met in years, leaving the water crisis in the West Bank an outstanding issue. Israel blames the crisis on Palestinians' reluctance to cooperate in repairing and upgradeing the outdated infrastructure. "We would be very happy to cooperate with the Palestinians," said the spokesman. But the Palestinians tell another side of the story. In a statement released by Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah a few weeks ago, he accused Israel of waging a "water war." "Israel wants to prevent Palestinians from leading a dignified life and uses its control over our water resources to this end. While illegal Israeli settlements enjoy uninterrupted water service, the Palestinians are forced to spend great sums of money to buy water that is theirs in the first place," he said. Deep Abdel Ghafor, acting General Manager of Water Resources in the Palestinian Water Authority, says the lack of freedom is the major problem. "The main reason is the Israeli occupation. Israel controls all the water resources. I don't have the option to do what I want with water. I need permits for everything, including repairs and importing parts," says Abdel Ghafor. Even as there have been reports that Israeli settlements have had difficulties with their water supply in this year's summer months, the situation in the Palestinian areas is only much worse. According to B'Tselem, Palestinians have to pay for any additional water received from Israelis who control the resources. "This is a joint resource. It should have been shared equally. Water should be given to the Palestinians, not sold," says Yellin. As one of the world leaders in using recycled water, Israel refuses to allow neighboring Palestinians to reap the benefits of the advanced technology. Meanwhile, the Oslo Accords, which could possibly be considered favorable for the Palestinians when it was signed, no longer reflects the reality on the ground. "We are still stuck with the same quantities and there has been an increase in demand," says Ghafor. If the two sides do not find a solution to the water shortage, a humanitarian crisis could be on the way. "There are mechanisms in the West Bank that prevent a severe humanitarian crisis," says Yellin. "But in 2016, there is no reason that the daily average water usage per capita in the Palestinian territories under Israeli control should be so low." The World Health Organization recommends a minimum of 100 liters per day per person, but the average Palestinian in the West Bank is consuming only 70 liters on a daily basis. As long as the outdated Oslo Accords are still in place and both sides fail to cooperate on such critical issue, civilians on this land will continue to suffer. BEIJING, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- China strongly condemned a terrorist attack at a hospital in Pakistan's southwestern Quetta city, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Tuesday. At least 70 people were killed and about 110 others injured in a suicide blast Monday inside the emergency ward of the Civil Hospital in Quetta. "We are greatly shocked and saddened by this terrorist attack which has caused major casualties,"spokesperson Hua Chunying said. "We extend our deepest condolences to the victims and express our heartfelt sympathy to the wounded and the families of the victims," Hua said. Stressing that China opposes terrorism in any form, she said China will continue to support Pakistan's efforts against terrorism. Related: News Analysis: Terror attacks in Pakistan's public places need tough response: observers by Muhammad Tahir ISLAMABAD, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Terrorists massacred civilians in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province on Monday in an apparent sheer frustration after many of them have either been killed or expelled from their bases in the country's lawless tribal regions as the result of military operations. JAKARTA, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- A senior official at Indonesian trade ministry said on Tuesday that the ministry is now closely monitoring the United States' plan to apply new regulation based on Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP) as it would significantly affect Indonesia's fish exports. "The new regulation through SIMP scheme would likely take into effect on August or September this year. We call on all businessmen working in fishery sector to pertinently pay attention on the new regulation," International Trade Director General at Indonesia Trade Ministry Doddy Edward said in his office here. Doddy said that the SIMP scheme, which heavily adopted from the United State's maritime agency of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) proposals, highlights fish conservancy issues. He added that SIMP was divided into three main requests that consisted of at risk-species classification, traceability and harvesting certification for at risk-species and provision of information regarding the harvested fishes that include the area where the fishes were caught, the type of trawl ship and tools to harvest the fishes, manufacturing process, the transportation and export process. Doddy said that the United States was a top export destination country for fish export, making the implementation of SIMP was crucial for Indonesia. Concerns faced by Indonesia regarding the SIMP implementation in the United States were the fact that 84 percent of Indonesian fish and fishery products exports were categorized in at-risk species, Doddy said. Besides that, the traceability and harvesting certification was only entitled for the exporter countries, not for local fish businessmen in the United States. "Another concern was that information on product transportation and export process from port of harvest to port of commerce can only be accessed by the United States authority," Doddy said, explaining further details of SIMP requirements. He added that his office has ordered related agencies and fish exporters association in the country to take anticipating moves regarding the SIMP implementation in the United States. Indonesia's fish export to foreign countries stood at 3.60 billion U.S. dollars in 2015, in which 40 percent of it, or 1.44 billion U.S. dollars, was exported to the United States. Indonesia saw 21 percent decreasing fish export to the United States last year. It exported 1.83 billion U.S. dollars in fish commodities to the United States in 2014. Besides the United States, Indonesia's main destination countries for fish exports were Japan and the United Kingdom. Israeli border policemen carry away a Palestinian man after Israeli troops demolished his shed near the West Bank village of Um AlKhair, south of Hebron August 9, 2016. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) JERUSALEM, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- In the dry West Bank region riddled with conflicts, water shortage is also a source of dispute as it is posing a threat to the lives and livelihood of the local residents. The water crisis here is not new, but as the climate gets hotter and the population grows, there is less water to go around, especially in the hot summer. Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Middle-East War. Since then, more and more Israeli Jews have started to settle in this land, living side by side with Palestinians. Israeli occupation of the land has not been recognized internationally. Palestinians and the majority of the world see the territory as an integral part of a future Palestinian state. According to B'Tselem, an Israeli NGO dealing with human rights issues in the Israeli-occupied territories, the Oslo Accords signed in 1993 between the two parties established a water allocation system by which 80 percent of the water pumped in the West Bank goes to the Israelis, with the remaining 20 percent to the Palestinians. This cannot meet the basic daily needs of the Palestinian population in the region. Emmanuel Nahshon, spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, describes the problem differently. He says the water pipes are old, small and have many leaks, in addition to a constant problem of water theft by Palestinians. Nahshon denies any wrongdoing on sharing this natural resource. "There is no discrimination. Everyone has to deal with the problem. There is no abuse," says Nahshon. But Roy Yellin of B'Tselem does not agree. When asked about the water shortage in the Jewish settlements, Yellin dismisses such claims. "Of course there is discrimination. I presume that in the settlements they have problems but it is not in any way parallel, equal or congruent. The settlements are illegal and therefore not a basis for comparison," he says. The main difference is that the Israeli settlements are connected to the country's main water grid, while the Palestinian areas are not. When the Oslo Accords were signed more than 20 years ago, they were intended to be an interim agreement and a foundation for a permanent one. Since then, Israelis and Palestinians have grown further apart. They have stopped negotiating on any issue including the water crisis -- a basic issue that should top any political conflict. The 1993 agreement stipulated that a joint committee should convene on a regular basis to deal with the division of this natural resource. However, the committee has not met in years, leaving the water crisis in the West Bank an outstanding issue. Israel blames the crisis on Palestinians' reluctance to cooperate in repairing and upgradeing the outdated infrastructure. "We would be very happy to cooperate with the Palestinians," said the spokesman. But the Palestinians tell another side of the story. In a statement released by Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah a few weeks ago, he accused Israel of waging a "water war." "Israel wants to prevent Palestinians from leading a dignified life and uses its control over our water resources to this end. While illegal Israeli settlements enjoy uninterrupted water service, the Palestinians are forced to spend great sums of money to buy water that is theirs in the first place," he said. Deep Abdel Ghafor, acting General Manager of Water Resources in the Palestinian Water Authority, says the lack of freedom is the major problem. "The main reason is the Israeli occupation. Israel controls all the water resources. I don't have the option to do what I want with water. I need permits for everything, including repairs and importing parts," says Abdel Ghafor. Even as there have been reports that Israeli settlements have had difficulties with their water supply in this year's summer months, the situation in the Palestinian areas is only much worse. According to B'Tselem, Palestinians have to pay for any additional water received from Israelis who control the resources. "This is a joint resource. It should have been shared equally. Water should be given to the Palestinians, not sold," says Yellin. As one of the world leaders in using recycled water, Israel refuses to allow neighboring Palestinians to reap the benefits of the advanced technology. Meanwhile, the Oslo Accords, which could possibly be considered favorable for the Palestinians when it was signed, no longer reflects the reality on the ground. "We are still stuck with the same quantities and there has been an increase in demand," says Ghafor. If the two sides do not find a solution to the water shortage, a humanitarian crisis could be on the way. "There are mechanisms in the West Bank that prevent a severe humanitarian crisis," says Yellin. "But in 2016, there is no reason that the daily average water usage per capita in the Palestinian territories under Israeli control should be so low." The World Health Organization recommends a minimum of 100 liters per day per person, but the average Palestinian in the West Bank is consuming only 70 liters on a daily basis. As long as the outdated Oslo Accords are still in place and both sides fail to cooperate on such critical issue, civilians on this land will continue to suffer. Yuan Li (second from left), founder of JMSA-MALL, poses with his team. (Xinhua/Zhang Gaiping) LOME, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Aspiring to build the "Alibaba in West Africa," a Chinese businessman has launched Togo's first e-commerce platform for direct trade of Chinese product, JMSA-MALL. "We want to be the pioneer of e-commerce in Togo and to capitalize on the strong multifaceted cooperation between China and Togo, a premier trade hub country in West Africa", Yuan Li, founder of JMSA-MALL, told Xinhua Friday in Lome. "We are promoting a direct trade of genuine Chinese products with fair price between the African customers and the sellers in China," he explained. From electronic devices to farm machines, the platform offers a wide range of Chinese products, which are sold in Togo as well as other countries like Benin, Niger, Ghana and Burkina Faso in the region. The screenshot of the JMSA-MALL website (Xinhua) The orders have also seen a drastic increase, up from less than 10 orders a day during the first days when it was launched in May to over 200 per day currently. The products are expected to be delivered to the buyer in about seven days if available in stock, or in about two weeks to a month depending on air freight or sea freight. Yuan has been living in Togo over the last ten years. He said the initiative is promising, and they plan to partner with regional auto dealers to sell second-hand vehicles in the future. "It is an innovative project and we intend to exploit the existing potential to take off regionally," said Ahamed Gamabari, e-commerce chief at JMSA-MALL. Former Philippine President Fidel Ramos meets with the press in Hong Kong, south China, Aug. 9, 2016. (Xinhua/Ng Wing Kin) HONG KONG, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Former Philippine President Fidel Ramos said in Hong Kong Tuesday that the purpose of his visit to China is not for negotiations but to "rekindle" the Sino-Philippine friendship. Designated by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte as a special envoy, Ramos arrived in Hong Kong on Monday evening to start his visit to China after the South China Sea arbitration case has frozen the two countries' ties. "My job is to look for some old friends who have links to high officials in Beijing. My job is not to negotiate, but to help pave the way, break the ice and rekindle the friendship that we had during my time with China," Ramos told a press conference here. "We are here on a mission of goodwill and are not involved in any negotiations or official transactions," he said. Ramos revealed that the people he want to first meet with during his trip is is Wu Shicun, president of the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, a major think tank based China's southern island of Hainan Province. The former Phillipine president said he believed his old friends in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region as well as Guangdong, Hainan and Fujian Provinces all have links to Chinese leadership in Beijing since some of them have been elevated to China's top legislature after retirement. Ramos emphasized the long history of exchanges and close relationship between China and the Philippines in culture and people-to-people communication, adding the fact that Chinese people discovered the Philippines more than 100 years before the Europeans did. "I have always been optimistic and looking for the best results. But of course that also depends on the attitude of the Chinese officials," he said, adding that his Chinese friends include very successful businessmen. Ramos said he will not discuss the particular issue of the South China Sea arbitration with his Chinese friends but seek to improve economic and tourism cooperation between the two countries. Ramos, 88, served as the Philippine President from 1992 to 1998. After his retirement, Ramos became a key figure who proposed the Boao Forum for Asia, an international think tank which was also based in Hainan. The special envoy said the reason why he choose Hong Kong as his first stop is that it is very close to Shenzhen, Haikou, Guangzhou and other southern cities where he often went in and out after retirement. Ramos said he will wait in Hong Kong for coordination between the Philippine Embassy and China's Foreign Ministry on when he will go to Beijing. On the other hand, he wished those Chinese friends could come directly to meet him in Hong Kong. SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- A previously unknown group has been using malware to conduct cyberespionage-style attacks against selected targets in Russia, China, Sweden and Belgium, said security researchers with Symantac Corporation. The group, called Strider, has been active since at least October 2011 but has maintained a low profile until now, according to a posting at Symantec's official blog on Monday. With an advanced piece of malware known as Remsec, it attacks "mainly organizations and individuals that would be of interest to a nation-state's intelligence services." As a U.S. technology company based in Mountain View, northern California, providing antivirus, antispyware, antimalware and firewall services, Symantec said it had obtained a sample of the group's Remsec malware, namely Backdoor.Remsec, from a customer who submitted it following its detection by Symantec and Norton products' behavioral engine. Containing a reference to Sauron, the title character and main antagonist in the Lord of the Rings, a high-fantasy novel written by English author J.R R. Tolkien, Remsec is designed to spy on targets by opening a back door on an infected computer, thus enabling itself to log keystrokes and steal files. The findings by Symantec researchers were echoed by their colleagues at Kaspersky Lab, headquartered in Moscow, Russia, who followed up with an posting titled "ProjectSauron: top level cyber-espionage platform covertly extracts encrypted government comms." The Kaspersky researchers acknowledged that ProjectSauron, also known as Strider, is "an exceptional espionage platform" and said that they had found more than 30 infected organizations in Russia, Iran, Rwanda and possibly in Italian-speaking countries, and the targets are key entities that provide core state functions: government, scientific research centers, military, telecommunication providers and finance. On Symantac's part, its researchers said Strider has been highly selective in its choice of targets and, to date, evidence of infections by the Remsec malware has been found in 36 computers across seven separate organizations, including a number of organizations and individuals located in Russia, an airline in China, an organization in Sweden, and an embassy in Belgium. The malware has stealth features that help it to avoid detection, and much of its functionality is deployed over the network, residing in a computer's memory, rather than on disk, so as to hide from detection. Refraining from pointing fingers at any government entities, Symantac said the Strider group are "technically competent attackers." Meanwhile, the researchers revealed that Strider's attacks have tentative links with a previously uncovered group, Flamer, and its use of a specific set of modules is also known as a technique by Flamer. Detected in 2012 as "the most sophisticated malware," Flamer was believed to have had initially infected about 1,000 machines, with victims including governmental organizations, educational institutions and private individuals. While 65 percent of the infections happened in Iran, Israel, the Palestinian territories, Sudan, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, a majority of the targets were within Iran. At the time, some independent analysts, citing circumstantial evidence, expressed speculations that members of U.S. government institutions might have a part in the attacks by Flamer group. In their latest findings, Symantec researchers said "Strider is capable of creating custom malware tools and has operated below the radar for at least five years. Based on the espionage capabilities of its malware and the nature of its known targets, it is possible that the group is a nation-state level attacker." BEIJING, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- China on Tuesday called on various parties to reach a consensus on specific issues of sending a regional protection force to South Sudan as soon as possible. "China welcomes efforts made by countries in the region and relevant parties to maintain peace and stability of South Sudan", said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying when asked to comment on the decision to deploy a regional protection force to South Sudan made at a summit of an East African bloc. She said China hopes that various parties will reach an agreement on relevant issues at an early date through friendly talks so as to ease the tension in South Sudan as soon as possible. The decision to deploy a regional force was made at a summit of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) on Friday. Hua said China will continue to play a constructive role toward maintaining peace and stability in South Sudan. DUBAI, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Dubai-based international carrier Emirates Airline said Tuesday it will operate its flagship Airbus A380 "Superjumbo" for services between Dubai and Guangzhou, one of China's largest cities, from Oct. 1. Guangzhou will join Emirates' extensive A380 global network covering more than 40 destinations, including Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taipei, London, Paris, Sydney, Toronto, Auckland, Bangkok, and Seoul. As capital of China's southeastern coastal Guangdong Province, Guangzhou is an important tourism and trade partner of Dubai, as the vast majority of more than 300,000 Chinese nationals living in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are from Guangdong. Moreover, the UAE has over 4,000 Chinese companies and in 2014, China became Dubai's biggest trade partner. Since the route's opening in 2008, the airline has been flying a Boeing 777-300ER aircraft on its daily flights between the two cities. The Superjumobo service will increase the flight capacity by 15 percent to meet the growing travel and trade demand from Southern China to Dubai and beyond. Guangzhou will be the third destination in mainland China, after Beijing and Shanghai, that Emirates deploys its flagship aircraft. The international airline currently operates flights to five destinations in mainland China, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Yinchuan and Zhengzhou. The last two routes were opened on May 3. Earlier this year, Emirates chairman Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al-Maktoum said he hopes the airline's expansion in China would function as a catalyst to lure more Chinese firms and visitors to Dubai's 2020 World Expo. KATHMANDU, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- The newly elected Nepalese Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Tuesday expressed his commitment to amending the constitution to address the demands of all indigenous nationalities, Madhesis, women, Muslim, Dalit and marginalized community. Addressing a program organized by Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities here in capital to mark the 22nd International Day of the World's Indigenous People, PM Dahal said that that the government will put maximum efforts to make the constitution acceptable by all quarters of society. "Nepal is moving ahead in a critical time, but the government will make an honest attempt to address the sentiments of people in the constitution through amendment", Dahal said while consoling the indigenous nationalities, who have been demanding the amendment of constitution in order to address their rights and demands. The Prime Minister was of view that his appointment as head of the government is a challenging opportunity for him. Recalling the agreements signed between his party CPN Maoist Center and disgruntled ethnic parties prior to his election in the post of PM, Dahal said that those agreements would be implemented with honesty. He further promised that the International Day of the World's Indigenous People will be celebrated jointly by the government and the federation from the next year. Till date, the day that falls on Aug. 9 every year, is being celebrated by Federation alone without any support from the government. Stating that the constitution promulgated in September last year is incomplete, the indigenous nationalities have been demanding the identity based federalism to be incorporated in the constitution. Locally known as aadivashi-janajati, the indigenous nationalities, which have distinct language and lifestyle, are legally recognized in Nepal by the National Foundation for Development of Indigenous Nationalities Act, 2002. However, they are in continuous struggle demanding the enforcement of agreements made in favor of the rights of indigenous peoples and seeking the guarantee of proportional representation in every state apparatus. According to the 2011 census, the indigenous nationalities of Nepal comprise 35.81 percent of the total population. It had listed the population as belonging to 125 caste and ethnic groups, including 63 indigenous peoples, 59 castes and 3 religious groups. Police cars and rescue vehicles are seen near a food factory attacked by Saudi-led airstrikes in Sanaa, Yemen, Aug. 9, 2016. A total of 15 food factory workers including six women were killed and eight others wounded in a series of Saudi-led airstrikes in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Tuesday. (Xinhua/Hani Ali) SANAA, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- A total of 15 food factory workers including six women were killed and eight others wounded in a series of Saudi-led airstrikes in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Tuesday, a Xinhua correspondent at the scene reported. The airstrikes destroyed the two food factory in Nahda quarter near the information ministry in downtown Sanaa. Blood bath and bodies' parts were every where. Families of the victims crowded to search for their beloved relatives. The relatives, women, children and men are crying. It's a brutal picture that cannot be imaged. Sanaa, which is under control of Shiite Houthi group and it's ally forces of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, has witnessed almost five months of calm with no airstrikes recorded. Today, Sanaa turned into mess after dozens of airstrikes since dawn, in which several military targets including the presidential palace, the 1st military division base in south part of the capital were hit. The main mountain bridge road linking Sanaa and southern provinces was destroyed, cutting off travel and food supplies between them. The airport was shut down, and roads leading to it were closed, security officers and airport official told Xinhua. Families were seen on vehicles with their belongings leaving Sanaa. Residents in downtown the capital could hear sounds of artillery shelling from the northeast part of Sanaa, where Saudi-backed Yemeni government army are advancing in military attempts to recapture the rebel-held capital. The situation here turned suddenly to a completely war zone. Residents expected things to get more worst. Armed Houthi fighters deployed everywhere in the streets and tall buildings. Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen's conflict in March 2015, nearly six months after Houthi group and Saleh forces stormed the capital Sanaa and drove out the internationally recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to exile. However, the Saudi-led Arab countries' coalition has since failed to restore President Hadi and his government to the power in the capital Sanaa. The intervention triggered more devastating civil war that has so far killed over 6,400 people, mostly civilians, and displaced more than two million others. The deadly dramatic military escalation came four days after UN-brokered peace talks in Kuwait between Yemeni parties broke down. "Solution would not come through tanks, but via peace talks," said UN envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed. BEIJING, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Think China's traditional fiery tipple baijiu is too much? Try blending it with coffee, beer or even chocolate. At a tasting event in the bar of Pop-Up Beijing, a home decor store in the city's Sanlitun district Saturday, Hannah from the United States changed her view about the high-proof, spicy liquor following a sip of coffee-infused baijiu. Hannah tried baijiu in her first month in China and not surprisingly, disliked it. "It burned my throat when it went down," she said. The concoction, however, offered a new experience, said Hannah, who ordered a shot of Moutai Iced Mocha -- baijiu mingled with coffee from southwest China's Yunnan Province. "The blend like this makes the flavor a little bit better and a little less strong," she said. The new drink was a good start for first-timer Neil from England, who had never tried baijiu before. "I usually drink whisky or vodka, but now I am very curious about baijiu. I will try it sometimes," he said, adding that baijiu remains almost unheard of in England. The tasting event was part of a campaign involving more than 40 bars and restaurants in 24 cities worldwide featuring everything from baijiu-inspired cocktails,liqueurs and infusions to chocolate, pizza and beer from Aug. 1-9 to celebrate the World Baijiu Day Tuesday. The day was initiated last year by Beijing-based Canadian wine blogger Jim Boyce to raise the profile of baijiu outside China. Data showed that in 2014, Chinese baijiu accounted for 37.5 percent of the world's total liquor output, but its share of the overseas market was less than 0.8 percent. Boyce is satisfied with this year's campaign, in which each venue came up with their own creative ideas and contacted him through the World Baijiu Day website. "This year is bigger, and we have more ideas about baijiu innovations," he said. Sam Cornthwaite, a co-founder of Beijing-based GoodWorks coffee and tea shop and also the bartender at Saturday's event, invented Moutai Iced Mocha and Hainan Island Iced Tea, which is a blend of baijiu and Yunnan tea. "Baijiu actually changes with what else you mix it with and each brings out different nuances. That's why we are so excited to see how they can pair together and what they can pair with," said Cornthwaite. The pairing is not always successful, though, he said. "We've tried 20 or 30 combinations, and only two succeeded." China has a long tradition of serving its unique clear liquor in small shot glass that is often gulped all at once at the dinner table, commonly known as "ganbei." As clear as vodka baijiu has a taste all unto itself. Moutai and Wuliangye, both produced in Guizhou Province, southwest China, are the two most famous brands which Chinese leaders use to toast distinguished guests at state banquets. Part of this year's theme is beyond "ganbei," which turns off many people. "Like many others, I've had those reckless ganbei sessions that left me wondering if I could look at a bottle again," Boyce said. "Everyone is used to just ganbei and ganbei. There's nothing wrong with it, but you don't taste baijiu because you don't have the time. All you have is the burn and the drunk," said Glenn Schuitman, a founding partner of the Pop-Up Beijing. Schuitman insists on a strict "no ganbei" rule in his bar, believing that baijiu is to be appreciated. "We should drink it like we do whisky: you have a small amount and sip it," he said. Keen on baijiu culture, Boyce said he has been met with doubts. For example, some baijiu producers questioned his intention and asked if joining the World Baijiu Day would cost them anything. "I said I was just trying to promote baijiu and I did it just for fun," Boyce said. JERUSALEM, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- A Palestinian employee of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Gaza was charged Tuesday in an Israeli court for allegedly utilizing his position to assist Hamas' military wing. Waheed Borsh, a 38-year-old engineer from the city of Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip, was arrested on July 16. Israel's Shin Bet security service said in a statement that Borsh used his position with the UNDP "to provide material assistance to Hamas' terrorist/military efforts." In 2003, Borsh started working for the UNDP, one of the world's largest development and aid organization. He was in charge of demolishing homes that were damaged during the Israeli raids on the Palestinian enclave and clearing the rubbish from the sites. According to the Shin Bet, during the investigation, "it was discovered that he had been instructed by a senior member of Hamas to redirect his work for UNDP to serve Hamas' military interests." Borsh confessed that he carried out projects for Hamas, the Shin Bet said. "For example, last year he helped build a military jetty in the northern Gaza Strip - utilizing UNDP resources - to be used by Hamas' naval forces. Also in 2015, he acted to persuade UNDP managers to prioritize the rehabilitation of housing in areas populated by Hamas members," the statement read. The indictment was the second time in less than a week that Israel accused a Palestinian worker of an international aid organization of helping Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement which controls Gaza. On Thursday, Israeli authorities said that the director of the Gaza office of World Vision, Mohammed El-Halabi, had admitted to funneling about 7.2 million U.S. dollars a year to Hamas over five years. According to the Shin Bet, that amounts to about 60 percent of World Vision's budget to Gaza. U.S.-based World Vision rejected the allegation. "Based on the information available to us at this time, we have no reason to believe that the allegations are true," the group said in a statement. According to World Vision, the charity's total budget in Gaza in the last ten years totaled 22.5 million dollars, less than the sum that Israel alleged to be siphoned to Hamas. Hamas has been controlling the Gaza Strip since it won the 2006 election. Israel imposed a blockade on the strip in the wake of the takeover, allowing a restricted transfer of goods in and out of the Palestinian enclave and limiting most exits and enters of people. NAIROBI, Aug. 9, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Chinese ambassador to Kenya Liu Xianfa (R) presents an award to an excellent student during the graduation ceremony of the railway technology course at Railway Training Institute in Nairobi, capital of Kenya, Aug. 8, 2016. More than one hundred Kenyan youth drawn from mid-level colleges and universities are the latest beneficiaries of a railway technology course sponsored by China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC). (Xinhua/Li Baishun) NAIROBI, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Patrick Mburu's ability to strum the guitar and belt out an uplifting ballad earned him rock star status as a teenager growing up in a family of modest means in central Kenya. The 25-year-old accomplished guitarist is yet to reconcile with a strange turn in his life's path after landing in an engineering career despite spending the better part of his youth honing musical skills. Mburu confounded everyone when he enrolled for a telecommunications engineering course in a mid-level college because he always stood out as an undisputed crooner since childhood. He was among 102 Kenyan youth who were on Monday awarded certificates after completing a four-month course on railway technology sponsored by China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC). During an interview with Xinhua on the sidelines of the graduation ceremony for the trainees, Mburu said the tailor made railway technology course sponsored by CRBC opened new horizons. "After completing my major in telecommunications engineering, I spent months roaming in the valley of indecision but my moment of reckoning was in April this year when I secured a chance to study for a four-month railway technology course sponsored by CRBC," said Mburu. He added that the rigorous training conducted by tutors from Southwest Jiaotong University coupled with robust interaction with Kenyan peers sharpened his engineering and social skills. "We were privileged to have a rich cast of experienced and passionate tutors who made sure we grasped the finer details in railway engineering," Mburu told Xinhua. He successfully completed the four-month course in signaling and communication and was an awarded a certificate that will greatly boost his resume. Mburu and his peers have already secured a five-month internship with CRBC and will be deployed to its flagship Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) project to hone their engineering skills further. "I look forward to becoming one of the star technicians at the SGR project and am confident additional opportunities will crop up in the near future," said Mburu. He disclosed to Xinhua that his ultimate dream is to become a consultant in the engineering field while mentoring youth as a way to give back to the community. Kenyan youth consider Chinese construction firms a prized destination to hone skills while earning stable income. Mburu and his comrades were emphatic that Chinese firms have not wavered in their commitment to provide lifelong skills to local youth as part of their corporate social responsibility. As for Tabitha Kiplimo, taking up a locomotive engineering course sponsored by CRBC marked a critical milestone in the life of a 25-year-old youth, whose humble roots in the North Rift region has always been a constant reminder for her to strive for a better tomorrow. Kiplimo had just graduated with a diploma in electrical engineering when she was shortlisted for the four-month locomotive engineering course sponsored by the Chinese construction firm. "I felt honored to be selected as a trainee for the locomotive engineering course and felt the urge to prove doomsayers wrong by scoring a good grade," Kiplimo remarked. She grew up in a highly patriarchal society where cultural norms dictated that young women's place was in the kitchen rather than classroom. "I'm very grateful to my parents who defied twisted advice from elders and took me to school where realization of lifelong dreams was guaranteed," said Kiplimo. She is among a growing army of Kenyan young women who have overcome huge odds to pursue a thriving career in engineering. "The future is bright and I dream of becoming a locomotive driver since I'm adequately prepared to undertake the task," Kiplimo remarked. She added that interaction with Chinese tutors broadened her grasp of railway engineering and rich culture in China. Hundreds of Kenyan youth have benefited from skills development programs funded by Chinese firms operating in the east African nation. These youth are charting enviable career paths after undergoing training and mentor-ship supported by Chinese enterprises. Concilia Owire, a 22-year-old holder of a diploma in electrical engineering, said the four-month course in locomotive and rolling stock engineering sponsored by CRBC opened new frontiers. "To be honest, I was not sure where my destiny lie until I completed the four-month course on locomotive and rolling stock engineering and new opportunities came knocking at my doorstep," said Owire. Her ultimate dream is to become a locomotive driver and mentor young women to take up engineering courses. MEXICO CITY, Aug. 9, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong (C, front) visits the Latin America headquarters of Chinese telecoms giant Huawei in Mexico City, Mexico, on Aug. 8, 2016. (Xinhua/David de la Paz) MEXICO CITY, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong on Monday urged Chinese telecoms giant Huawei to continue making contribution to the implementation of China's innovation-driven development strategy. Liu made the remarks while visiting the Latin America headquarters of Huawei, which is located in Mexico City. Huawei, as a private enterprise, has established a successful path of "going global" and building an international brand through technological innovation and constantly enhancing its core competitiveness, said Liu. President Xi Jinping told a national conference on science and technology in May that China must stick to the road of independent innovation with Chinese characteristics in a bid to realize the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and achieve the country's Two Centennial Goals -- to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2020, and build a socialist modernized country by the middle of the 21th century, Liu noted. Liu expressed her hope that Huawei could continue to undertake its historical and social responsibility, have the courage to meet new challenges and dare to be a pioneer, and play a positive role in deepening China's relations with Mexico and Latin America. BEIJING, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Chinese people embrace their own "Valentine's Day" Tuesday, when lovers send each other gifts or have romantic candlelit meals together. "Qixi" is a traditional Chinese festival on the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar. It is based on a 2,000-year-old legend of two lovers, Niu Lang and Zhi Nu, separated by a river, who can only meet once a year when a flock of magpies forms a bridge for them. MORE PEOPLE CELEBRATING As with other festivals, Qixi has become an excuse for shopping. Shopping malls, both online and brick-and-mortar, and department stores have numerous promotions on the day. Alibaba claims that the number of people searching key words such as flowers, roses, and chocolates on online shopping websites increases dramatically around Qixi. Unmarried couples are generally more interested in Qixi gifts than the married. About 84 percent of flowers delivered at this time of year are roses. Of those who buy roses and chocolates, Alibaba says more than 90 percent are unmarried and more than 63 percent are between 18 and 29 years old. But this does not mean that the middle-aged do not celebrate. Many middle-aged people in the survey said that they give their spouses presents on this day, but they tend to be household items. A LAST CHANCE TO FIND A MATE The festival was originally a day for girls rather than couples to celebrate, and its original meaning had very little to do with love. Wang Juan with the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at Peking University, said that Qixi was for young women and girls to get together, do embroidery and pray for good needlework skills which in turn would help them find a partner. Though people today rarely do needlework, finding a mate is still an important part of the day. Traditional, commercial matchmaking events are held in parks. This year a bus driver in central China's Henan Province came up with a new way for young people to meet their "Mr. or Miss Right." Inspired by the love story of another bus driver Zhao Pengfei, Yun Xi, driver of Bus No. 62 in Zhengzhou, the provincial capital city, has adorned his bus with wedding photos and romantic love stories. Zhao, who works on Bus No. 130 in Zhengzhou, met the love of life on his bus. In 2014, a girl lost her bus pass on his bus. Zhao told her he would look for it later, and asked for her phone number so he could call her if he got lucky, which he certainly did. He duly found the card and returned it to her that evening. They are now married. Yun's plan is to ask his passengers for their WeChat details, so he can post their contact information in his bus. "Most young people are too busy to meet new people," he said. "Buses are the most popular public transport, so I hope this can help them." A DAY FOR REMINISCENCES OF YOUTH AND LOVE Qixi is not just for young people but holds meaning for older citizens. Chen Yi, in his fifties, from Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan Province, said he does not envy young people celebrating the festival, but is reminded of the good old days when he and his wife enjoyed a simple, romantic relationship. "When we were young, we never celebrated western Valentine's Day, but we looked forward to Qixi a lot. I helped my girlfriend fetch water and sent her cakes. She sent me a handmade scarf as a present," Chen said. "In the afternoon, we walked along the track of the local stadium." Guo Houchi, a college student from Changsha, remembers his mother telling him stories about Qixi. "She told me that when she was young she would go out on the night of Qixi to see the stars in the sky and try to find Niu Lang and Zhi Nu. It sounded like such a romantic way to celebrate." Qixi was listed as an example of national intangible cultural heritage by the State Council in 2006. Over the past decade, Chinese people have developed their own ways to celebrate the festival. "The Festival is a miniature piece of culture. We should pay more attention to how these festivals encapsulate our traditions and reflect people's behavior today," said Professor Wang Juan. BAGHDAD, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi parliament on Tuesday voted to strip its speaker and two lawmakers of immunity from prosecution over allegations of corruption revealed by the defense minister earlier in the month, a local official said. The vote came after Speaker Salim al-Jubouri made a request to the parliament to lift his immunity at a session earlier in the day, the official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. In his address to the parliament, Jubouri said he wanted to prove his innocence through legal proceedings as the allegations against him were false. It was "a big conspiracy and an attempt to disable the parliament from conducting its duty of monitoring," he said. "The parliament voted in lifting the immunity of Speaker Salim al-Jubouri, Mohammed al-Karboli and Talib al-Ma'mari, whose names were mentioned in the earlier corruption allegations by the defense minister," the official said. On August 1, the parliament summoned defense minister Khalid al-Obeidi to respond to allegations of huge graft in his ministry. However, Obeidi revealed that officials including Speaker Salim al-Jubouri and other lawmakers had blackmailed him on weapons contracts. Jubouri immediately denied such allegations, and told a televised news conference that Obeidi's charges against him and other lawmakers were "baseless." On August 4, the Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council banned the speaker and six other officials, including the two lawmakers, from travelling aboard, and formed a panel to examine the case. People pose for photos in front of the monument at the atomic bomb hypocenter to commemorate the 71st anniversary of U.S. atomic bombing, at the Peace Park in Nagasaki, on Aug. 9, 2016. To accelerate Japan's surrender in the World War II, the U.S. forces dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki respectively on Aug. 6 and 9, 1945. (Xinhua/Ma Ping) NAGASAKI, Japan, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Nagasaki, a southwest Japanese city, marked the 71st anniversary of atomic bombing on Tuesday, amid calls from ordinary japanese people for reflecting on the country's aggression history. The annual event, held at the city's Peace Park, was itself once again short of any apology to Japan's neighbors for the war crimes committed by the Imperial Japanese Army and also without any reflection on Japan's militarist history of invasion. Nagasaki was A-bombed on Aug. 9, 1945. Three days earlier, Hiroshima was A-bombed. The United States dropped the two bombs in a bid to accelerate Japan's surrender in WWII. Japan was a major aggressor that launched wars of aggression against China, Southeast Asian countries and the United States in the 1930s and 1940s. Six days after the Nagasaki bombing, Japan surrendered to the Allied Forces. Reflecting on the Hiroshima and Nagasaki tragedy, Tokyo has always focused on Japan's much-trumpeted victimhood, evading the fact that the root cause of the U.S. bombings lies in Japan's militaristic aggression and brutal violence against other countries. At Tuesday's event, Tomihisa Taue, mayor of Nagasaki city, urged the government to enshrine into law its Three Non-Nuclear Principles of not possessing, not producing and not permitting the introduction of nuclear weapons on its soil. Toyokazu Ihara, representative of atomic bombing survivors, who was nine years old when the bombing took place in Nagasaki, addressed the ceremony, calling on the government to abolish controversial securities bills which are contrary to the country's pacifist constitution and abandon dependence on the U.S. nuclear umbrella. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the revisionist premier and also a hawkish nationalist, also attended the ceremony and delivered a speech. As he stepped up to the platform, angry shouts were heard from the crowd, "Abe Out!" Abe did not mention the historical background and root cause of the atomic bombings, nor did he offer apology for the war atrocities committed by the Imperial Japanese Army. Hundreds of people and several Japanese civic groups rallied around the Peace Park, protesting against Abe's attendance at the ceremony and criticizing Abe for his wrong view of history and policies including new security bills. "We strongly oppose the security-related bills," "Retract the war bills," shouted the protesters, holding banners. Asai Ryunosuke, a citizen from southwest Japan's Miyazaki prefecture, told Xinhua that "Prime Minister Abe's visit to Nagasaki is an insult to war victims in Japan and Asia," "His abuses on peace memorial is intolerable." Ryunosuke blamed the Abe administration for not offering apology for or reflecting on the aggression war. "He absolutely does not think the war is wrong in his heart," he added. The Abe administration rolled out policies including security bills which might trigger wars, adopted hostile attitude to some Asian countries including China and hyped up "threat theory" and "sense of crisis" in order to seek excuse for war preparations, he said. Referring to a huge stockpile of weapons-grade nuclear materials in Japan, Ryunosuke said Japan's intention to produce nuclear weapons is absolutely clear despite the Abe administration's claim to abandon nuclear weapons. As for Japan's aggression history, he said Japanese schools do not tell students about it; Japanese media, meanwhile, focuses on suffering of Japan in the war. As a result, most Japanese do not know the country's militarist history of invasion. "Many Japanese know Japan suffered a lot in the wars, but don't know its Asian neighbors were victimized by Japan's brutal aggression and colonial rule," he said. Kitahara Hiroki, a citizen from southwest Japan's Fukuoka prefecture, also condemned Abe's historical revisionism, saying millions of people in Asia died in wars waged by Japan and the real reason for Nagasaki tragedy lies in the war of aggression. Japan has adhered to its post-war tradition of pacifism to avoid mistakes in future, but "Abe is doing exactly the opposite," with the aim to get rid of the postwar system and fundamentally overturn the postwar social form in Japan, he said. "Amending Japan's pacifist Constitution has been put on agenda now," said Hiroki, stressing that "I'm resolutely opposed to Abe's attendance at today's ceremony." DUBAI, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Foreign Ministry condemned on Tuesday a suicide bombing that targeted a hospital in Pakistan, Emirati state news agency WAM reported. The suicide blast ripped through a emergency ward of a hospital in Pakistan's southerwestern Quetta city on Monday morning, killing at least 93 and injuring 56 others, local media and officials said. The ministry reaffirmed the Gulf state's "firm stance denouncing terrorism in all its forms and manifestations" in a statement. It also highlighted the UAE's solidarity with Pakistan in the country's efforts to fight terrorism. In addition, the statement called for the international community to find "radical solutions" to eradicate "serious scourge of terrorism." About 1.5 million Pakistani nationals, making up 14 percent of the UAE's total population, live in the Gulf Arab state, according to local daily newspaper Gulf news. JAKARTA, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian national police has declared five out of six militants plotting rocket launches on Singapore's Marina Bay from Indonesia as suspects, a police officer disclosed here on Tuesday. The six persons were captured on Friday, but the police release one of them as the person was not part of the group's five militants, National Police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar said. The police have carried out raids on the hideouts of the five militants and seized assembled weapons, arrows, computers and other evidence, Amar said. "The computer is being investigated to find out precisely the communication of the militants with Bahrun Naim,"he said at the police headquarters, referring to an Indonesian militant engaging in IS'terrorist activities in Syria. The militants had plotted to launch rockets from Indonesia's Batam Island to nearby target, according to the police. One of the suspects is the leader of the militants' group in Batam Island, the so-called Kitabah Gongong Rebus (KGR) group, police said. The leader with initial GDR took responsibility for receiving and channelling funds from Naim in Syria and is also in charge of facilitating Indonesian nationals wishing to engage in holy war in the Middle East country, police said. BAGHDAD, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi judiciary on Tuesday cleared the parliament Speaker Salim al-Jubouri of charges of corruption based on allegations revealed against him earlier by the defense minister, the judiciary said. "The judicial panel, tasked with examining the claims of corruption against the Speaker of the Council of Representatives (parliament) Salim al-Jubouri, decided to dismiss the case against him due to the lack of evidences," the judicial spokesman Abdul Sattar al-Biraqdar said in a statement. Biraqdar's brief statement did not say whether or not the decision included the two other lawmakers who were also accused of corruption by Obeidi. The judicial panel's decision came just a few hours after the parliament voted to strip its speaker and two lawmakers of immunity from prosecution over allegations of graft filed against him earlier by the defense minister Khalid al-Obeidi. During the session, Jubouri said he wanted to prove his innocence through legal proceedings as the allegations against him were false. It was "a big conspiracy and an attempt to disable the parliament from conducting its duty of monitoring," he said in his address to the parliament. The parliament also voted in lifting the immunity of Mohammed al-Karboli and Talib al-Ma'mari, whose names were mentioned in the earlier corruption allegations by the defense minister. On August 1, the parliament summoned defense minister Khalid al-Obeidi to respond to allegations of huge graft in his ministry. However, Obeidi revealed that officials including Speaker Salim al-Jubouri and other lawmakers had blackmailed him on weapons contracts. Jubouri immediately denied such allegations, and told a televised news conference that Obeidi's charges against him and other lawmakers were "baseless." On August 4, the Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council banned the speaker and six other officials, including the two lawmakers, from travelling aboard, and formed a panel to examine the claims, a day after the chief prosecutor filed a lawsuit against Jubouri, the two lawmakers and politicians, whom their names were mentioned by the defense minister during the questioning session. LONDON, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- A man was taken into custody after climbing over a security fence at Buckingham Palace, Sky News reported on Tuesday. The 22-year-old man from Croydon was spotted by police officers who were monitoring the CCTV and arrested in the grounds of Buckingham Palace at 4:15 a.m. local time Tuesday morning, according to the report. The man, who had been drinking, did not gain access to the palace and was not armed, according to local police. The breach is not believed to be terrorism-related, local police said in a statement. The man is currently being held in a central London police station, and no member of the royal family was in residence at the time of the arrest. JUBA, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- As the proposed foreign protection troops from the regional countries prepare to set foot on South Sudan's capital Juba, analysts have said they will not entirely solve the political mess. This came after renewed fighting on July 8-11, between Sudan People's Liberation Army-In Opposition rebels (SPLA/M-IO) led by Riek Machar and troops loyal to President Salva Kiir, left some 272 people killed and 60,000 seeking refuge in neighboring countries. This is despite the two warring parties having signed the now tattered peace agreement in August 2015, to end more than two years of civil conflict that broke out in December 2013. And the resumption of recent fighting forced Machar to flee the capital with his troops, leading to his replacement as first-vice president with Taban Deng Gai, his former chief negotiator. South Sudan last week agreed to the African Union (AU), UN and the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) proposed deployment of the much-awaited protection force requested by Machar for him to return to the capital and continue to work with President Kiir in the now weak transitional unity government (TGoNU) formed in late April. The foreign force agreed upon in principle by the parties will be for protection of internally displaced persons, humanitarian agencies and the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC) - the peace monitors. "The composition, mandate, armament, deployment, timing and funding shall be agreed upon by the TGoNU and troop contributing countries," the summit resolved. The U.S. last week made request to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to expedite support for the deployment of 4,000 strong force to beef up the 12,000 strong UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan (UNMISS). This means the AU regional force will have to remain in the wings as its operational funding and deployment hinges on the decision of the UNSC. But analysts say the situation is a win-win situation for South Sudan and IGAD as the region could not afford to watch on as the oil-rich impoverished country descended into anarchy, five years on after it won independence in 2011 from Sudan. "What IGAD has done is consistent with the peace agreement. You could say the government has conceded by accepting to foreign troops but it's not the case since earlier on the talk was of an intervention force before reverting to protection force," Zacharia Diing senior policy researcher at the Juba-based Sudd institute told Xinhua on Tuesday. He added that though the IGAD encourages Machar to return and be part of the peace building in the country, it remains lukewarm on whether Deng would vacate the position out rightly for the latter. "They have come closer to this question, but they have not strongly dealt with it," he said. Diing quotes article 13 (C) which says that leadership changes in SPLM/A-IO is solely an internal matter and the region should work with the current setup of the TGoNU. And prior to this, the government spokesman, Michael Makuei, had hinted that Machar will be returning as an ordinary person and not to his previous position. Abraham Awolich, a Juba-based political and policy analyst, says that the government has the security situation in Juba under control in the wake of intense fighting in July. And that this may allow the government to reluctantly let in the regional troops, after one month of fighting that saw it deploy attack helicopter gunships and armored personnel carriers against the SPLA-IO who fled their cantonment site into thick bushes near Juba. "They (regional countries) thought that intense fighting was going to continue for some time. The government announced ceasefire and the context of the conflict changed," he observed. With this he opines that balance of power has been tilted in favor of President Kiir's camp. "The government is fully in charge of Juba and not calling for more troops. The force may actually never set foot in Juba since its size and mandate is going to be decided by government," he observed. Diing corroborates him, as he disclosed that Juba may finally see foreign troops deployed only when the situation escalates into violence, and that as of now the government will not be in a hurry to implement something whose details are still missing. "The details are not yet worked out. Should there be disagreement then you may not have agreement," Diing revealed while explaining the cumbersome issues that may delay the deployment of the said troops. Awolich said the SPLM/A-IO have not gotten what they initially advocated, since the proposed force is not interventionist but protective in nature. "The SPLM/A-IO wanted a force that would come in and impose a ceasefire so that the government stops pursuing Machar, hence his safe return but I don't think they got it," Awolich noted. He added that South Sudanese should be at the center of the discussion of the internal crisis, despite the international community and region providing humanitarian support. KABUL, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- The ongoing militancy and violent incidents have claimed the lives of at least seven civilians and injured more than a dozen others in Afghanistan over the past two days. In the latest violent incident which harmed non-combatants in the conflict-hit Afghanistan, one innocent civilian lost his life and 14 others were wounded as a suicide bomber blew himself up in northern Mazar-e-Shairf city, the capital of Balkh province 305 km north of national capital Kabul city, on Tuesday. "The bloody suicide bombing occurred at 12:50 p.m. local time after a militant detonated his explosive-jacket at Mandawi, the city's food and fruit market near the main square of the city killing a passerby on the spot and injuring 14 others, all innocent civilian including a woman and two children," an official told Xinhua but refused to be named, saying authorized officials would brief the media. Several shops and fruit handcarts were also damaged due to the blast, according to eyewitnesses. However, Interior Ministry in a statement released hours after the blast in Mazar-e-Sharif described it as coward terrorist act and condemned it in strongest term. A day earlier on Monday, a roadside bomb struck a civilian car in the eastern Ghazni province killing six travelers including two women and three children, police said. More than two dozen civilians have been killed in similar attacks and violent incidents over the past two weeks across the war-torn country, according to reports. Civilians often bear the brunt of war in the insurgency-plagued Afghanistan as more than 1,600 civilians had been killed and over 3,560 others injured in the first half of the current year, according to a report of UN mission in Afghanistan released last month. Former Cuban Leader Fidel Castro gestures during a meeting with intellectuals participating in the 20th International Book Fair Cuba 2011, in Havana, capital of Cuba, on Feb. 15, 2011. (Xinhua/Cubadebate) by Raimundo Urrechaga HAVANA, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Many Cubans are too young to remember Fidel Castro's heyday as a revolutionary firebrand and influential elder statesman, yet they admire and look up to the historic figure. Ten years after retiring from office and just a few days short of his 90th birthday, Castro continues to serve as a role model for Cuban youth, who benefit on a day-to-day basis from his lasting legacies in education, healthcare, sports, science and other areas. For architecture student Maria de Jesus Gonzalez, Castro is a somewhat paternal presence and genuine celebrity, despite having lived largely out of the limelight for a decade. "It is difficult to explain what I feel for Fidel Castro, because it is a pure and sincere emotion that goes beyond what we are taught at home or at school about him. Fidel is a beloved family member for Cubans, he's not the authoritarian figure many want to portray," she said. "He is a source of deep admiration for many Cubans and he transformed this country like no other leader," she added. Gonzalez said she has always dreamt of meeting the Caribbean leader, who was famed for giving long, passionate and frequent speeches on national and international affairs. The chances now are remote. After nearly half a century in power, Fidel Castro stepped down as head of state in July 2006 due to a severe illness, making way for his brother Raul. Two years later, he formally retired. He so rarely appeared in public that occasionally rumors have circulated about his death, only to be followed by news of his meeting with a visiting dignitary or publishing an editorial. In one of his rare public appearances, Fidel Castro addressed the closing session of the Cuban Communist Party Congress on April 19. In a surprise speech, he backed reforms spearheaded by his successor, Raul, to modernize the Cuban economy. Photo taken on Oct 12, 1972 shows Fidel Castro (R) with brother Raul Castro. (Xinhua/Keystone Press Agency) He also referred to his reaching 90, and the possibility that he may not be around to mark the milestone. "Soon I will be 90 and my turn (death) will come like everybody else. But the ideas of Cuban communists will live on to prove that if a country works with dignity and fervor, we can produce the necessary goods for our nation," he said. College student Maylin Marrero, 23, agrees. "Fidel is old and like any other human being he will die one day, but his ideas have endured for generations and many young people in Cuba want to continue along the path he started many years ago," said Marrero. The larger-than-life public figure may have faded, but his social achievements, such as instating universal education and healthcare, and building a biotechnology sector envied by many developed countries, continue to bear fruit. "He is ... an important figure, even though there are people who are against him and people who are not in favor of him," Daylin Crespo, a 29-year-old doctor, told Xinhua. Fidel Castro is still a source of inspiration for young Cubans, even as they face imminent economic changes and rapid transformations sparked by reforms and the country's restored ties with the United States. "We must face the future with Fidel's ideas about our country's independence and sovereignty, but we must open up to a whole new world of economic opportunities," said Livan Hierrezuelo, 19. Castro's 90th birthday is on Aug. 13. SHANGHAI/GUANGZHOU, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- When Shanghai INESA held its first technology meeting in 2010, a board erected at the door of the meeting room had almost nothing to display as there were no "decent" quality products at that time. But things became different when the instruments and electronics products manufacturer held its second technology meeting two years later. "We not only had new products, but also a whole set of solutions," said Wang Qiang, chairman of the state-owned enterprise (SOE) in east China's business hub Shanghai. The company, founded in 1960, is shifting from traditional electronics production to new industries such as smart city construction and the Internet of Things. At the end of 2015, after INESA acquired some private firms, its mixed-ownership subsidiaries accounted for 37.3 percent of assets and 56.4 percent of profits. These changes reflect the substantial reforms in local SOEs in recent years in Shanghai, a city which has long taken the lead in such reforms, in policies, programs and practice. SOE reforms play a vital role in the country's economic restructuring. Local SOEs account for about 47 percent of all the country's SOE assets, according to statistics released by the Finance Ministry last month. In the first half of 2016, the total revenue and profit of local SOEs in Shanghai reached 1.4 trillion yuan (213 billion U.S.dollars) and 149 billion yuan respectively, both growing faster than the national average, according to official statistics. Progress has also been made with other SOE reforms to boost innovation in Shanghai. At Shanghai International Port Group, 16,000 employees (about 72 percent of staff) hold a total of 410 million shares (1.8 percent of the company). "The staff used to care more about their own salaries than company profits. Now they pay more attention to the corporate operation and management," said Yan Jun, president of the state-owned enterprise. Shanghai SOE reforms and performance have attracted investors. Late last month, an asset management company raised 15 billion yuan for an exchange-traded fund tracking an index of Shanghai SOEs, the first of its kind in Shanghai. Shanghai will continue to make breakthroughs in capital management and accelerate the orderly flow of state-owned capital, said Jin Xingming, director of the Shanghai State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. Home to China's first free trade zone, Shanghai saw 6.7 percent growth in H1, the same as the national rate, according to official statistics. Indicative of its restructuring progress, the tertiary sector accounted for more than 70 percent of the Shanghai's gross domestic product for the first time. Financial, information, and creative industries all showed double-digit growth. "Innovation-driven development has brought more positive impact to Shanghai's economy," said Shen Xiaochu, head of the Shanghai Development and Reform Commission. ROBUST PRIVATE INVESTMENT BOOSTS UPGRADE Restructuring has also taken place in other parts of the country. South China's Guangdong Province, the country's main manufacturing hub, is demonstrating a healthier development pattern with strong private investment. Guangdong's private investment during H1 saw 19.6 percent growth year on year, well ahead of the 2.8 percent recorded across the country. Private investment contributed to 90 percent of the total growth of investment in Guangdong over the same period.. Private investment can sensitively reflect the market environment. The rapid growth implies that the market is offering new opportunities, said Chen Hongyu, deputy head of the Guangdong economic society. Statistics show that nearly 70 percent of private investment went into manufacturing and the tertiary industry. Early restructuring moves have brought new energy to Guangdong's economy, with high-end manufacturing and Internet-related services growing as favored sectors for investment. During the first half of the year, high-end manufacturing in the province registered 10 percent growth year on year. The Internet-related service sector saw a 43 percent annual growth in revenue. Guangdong Incode Automation is a company focusing on the research and production of encoders used in industrial robotics. These days deputy general manager Luo Rihui has been busy listening to venture capital organizations from around the world. "As long as we have the core technology, capital will automatically come to us," he said. Guangdong-based appliance giant Midea launched a smart electric cooker last year, which sold at 3,000 yuan per set, about ten times the price of the old model. Company chairman Fang Hongbo said, the new product has sold much better than the old one, which has highlighted the importance of quality-driven growth. Ding Li, expert with the Guangdong Academy of Social Sciences, said that some traditional industries such as home appliances, textiles, furniture and porcelain in the province are embracing new technology and a business model for new development at a time when the economy is facing downward pressure. A man walks past a graffiti, denouncing strikes by U.S. drones in Yemen, painted on a wall in Sanaa, Yemen on Tuesday. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) JERUSALEM, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- A drone belonging to Israel's Aerospace Industries crashed on Tuesday in an Arab village in northern Israel, lightly wounding at least 13 people and setting an empty home ablaze, officials said. A spokesman for Israel's emergency medical teams said that all of the injuries suffered from breathing difficulties after the drone crashed into a home in Zalafa, an Arab village north of the city of Umm al-Fahm. Nearly a dozen of firefighting crews struggle to quell the fire, which severely damaged the house, said Yoram Levi, a spokesman for the fire service, adding that the house was still under construction and empty at the time of the crash. The reason of the accident was still unclear, according to a statement released by the Aerospace Industry, Israel's government-owned manufacturers of weapons and civil aviation products, saying that the accident happened "during a training flight." Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper reported that the drone was a Heron 1 type, which has been in service of the Israel Defense Forces for over a decade. Argentinean President Mauricio Macri (R) meets with the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (L) at the White Hall of the Pink House, in Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina, on Aug. 8, 2016. (Xinhua/Martin Zabala) BUENOS AIRES, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Visiting UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Monday asked members of the international community to share responsibilty in dealing with the refugee crisis. "It is a situation that is uncontrollable and unsustainable and we are working on it to see how we can, on a global level, attend to it based on shared responsibility," said Ban, addressing the Argentine Council for International Relations. To that end, the UN is organizing a high-level meeting to map out a blueprint for a better international response, Ban said. The meeting is expected to take place in September. The UN chief noted that Argentina has taken a step in that direction with a commitment to welcome Syrian refugees. "Argentina is a land of opportunities, and this country has drawn immigrants from around the world," said Ban, praising the country for its pledge to receive 3,000 Syrian refugees. The government announced earlier this month it would put in place a plan to receive 300 Syrian refugees in the coming months, with the intention to gradually expand that number tenfold. Military conflicts in Syria, Iraq, South Sudan, Somalia, Pakistan, Libya and in other countries have forced some 65 million people to flee their homes and seek refuge elsewhere, said Ban. Argentina's transformation from a country ruled by military junta to a democratic state shows that such conflicts can be overcome, said Ban. "Your historic transition into a solid democracy with justice, accountability and rule of law is an example of hope for the world," said Ban. Syrian refugees wait to cross to a camp at the Jordanian side of the Jordan-Syria border near Royashed Town in Jordan on May 4, 2016. (Xinhua/Mohammad Abu Ghosh) Later on Monday, Ban met with Argentine President Mauricio Macri at the presidential residence, Casa Rosada. The two spoke of ways to strengthen cooperation between Argentina and the UN, said Ban. Argentina has nominated its Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra to succeed Ban when his term concludes at the end of the year. Ban also thanked Argentina for its contribution to a recently-authorized UN peacekeeping mission to Colombia, which is tasked with monitoring the ceasefire between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. Macri said his government aims to take an active role in global matters. "Argentinians feel we have the capacity and calling to help solve the different challenges that exist in our time, including the refugee crisis, climate change and peacekeeping." "Argentina has already begun to contribute to a vast number of (global) matters, as the decision to take in Syrian refugees shows," said Macri, noting that Argentina is home to a sizable community of Syrian descendants. Following Ban's address earlier in the day, Foreign Minister Malcorra said the secretary-general's visit "attests to the important role Argentina has played at the UN." LONDON, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- A British military helicopter was forced to land Tuesday in the mountainous region of Snowdonia, northwest Wales, after a technical problem, according to local press. British media reported earlier that the chopper crashed on a mountaintop, but later quoted a military spokesman as saying that all four people on board had been safe. The helicopter "safely completed a precautionary landing in Snowdonia" following a technical failure, and all "four people on board exited safely, subsequently the aircraft caught fire," the spokesman said. TV footage showed smoke rising from the mountain area where the helicopter was believed to have landed, while witnesses saw an air ambulance had been sent to the scene along with firefighters, police and mountain rescue teams. An air exclusion zone has been put in place in the region. AMMAN, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Over 700 Arab media professionals and artists will convene in Jordan on August 22 to discuss how media tackles terrorism-related issues during Jordan's third Arab Media Festival, according to Jordan's Media Commission (JMC). "Media and drama professionals from across the Arab world will meet in Amman to further discuss new communication tools and technologies' impact on media content and changes observed in the field," JMC Director General Amjad Qadi told reporters Tuesday. The festival, held in cooperation with Jordan's Artists Association and supported and sponsored by the Arab League, will also reveal sustainable development in the Arab world, he said. Jerusalem through the Arab media's perspective is also on the festival's discussion topics agenda, he said, adding that the Arab world's best radio and television productions will be granted an award during the festival. Another topic to be explored by participants and media professionals is Ethics in digital media, said Qadi. Qadi then stated that next year's festival will be in Aqaba. "Holding the festival at this crucial time during which the Arab world is facing several crises is a testimony to Jordan's willingness to improve media and the country's stability," said the official. Experts, artists and media professionals from Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Palestine, Iraq, Lebanon, Qatar and other countries are expected to participate in the festival. ULAN BATOR, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- The Ninth Sino-Mongolian Defense and Security Consultation was held here Tuesday, focusing on exchanges of views on military cooperation between the two countries. The dialogue was co-chaired by Sun Jianguo, deputy chief of the Joint Staff Department of China's Central Military Commission, and Bat-Ochir Batsaikhan, state secretary of Mongolia's Ministry of Defense. Both sides exchanged views on relations and practical cooperation between the two militaries, the regional security situation and other issues of common concern. Sun said that the two countries are good friends that share a long border and that the Chinese military will maintain high-level contacts with the Mongolian side, and strengthen cooperation with Mongolia in military training, peacekeeping and border defense. Batsaikhan expressed satisfaction with the smooth development of bilateral relations and the continuous progress made in practical military cooperation between the two countries. He said he expected more communication and contacts between the two militaries. Both sides agreed that the Sino-Mongolian Defense and Security Consultation mechanism plays an important role in enhancing strategic communication and practical cooperation, and will contribute to safeguarding regional security. Mongolian Defense Minister Badmaanyambuugiin Bat-Erdene and Dulamsurengiin Davaa, chief of the General Staff of the Mongolian Armed Forces, also met with Sun on Tuesday. KIGALI, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- The East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) is going to revoke Burundi's decision to ban trade exchanges between Rwanda and Burundi, EALA Speaker Daniel Kidega has said. Kidega told reporters on Monday shortly after holding a meeting with Rwanda Senate President, Bernard Makuza, at the Rwanda Parliamentary Buildings. Two weeks ago, Burundi Second Vice President Joseph Butore warned Burundian citizens that they would face serious consequences if they trade any commodity with their Rwandan neighbors. Since then, trading exchange between two countries has drastically declined and the Rwandan government has said the decision would not in any way affect Rwanda's economy. "I have heard that free movement of goods and people was halted at Rwanda-Burundi border. We have a body in charge of monitoring business and investment issues responsible for ensuring full rights of members from six countries of East African Community (EAC)," said Kidega. "What Burundi is doing is a serious breach of EAC trade agreement and EALA is going to investigate the matter and find immediate solution. The region is not happy at all. This hinders regional integration process." He called on the Burundian government to keep to the path of deepening EAC integration, allowing free movement of goods, services, people and capital. Rwanda exports to Burundi were mainly manufactured products, maize, cassava flour, milk, potatoes, unprocessed maize flour, and wheat flour. Rwanda was mainly importing fruits from Burundi such as mangoes and oranges, dried silver fish and palm oil. Addressing a news conference last week, Francois Kanimba, Rwanda minister of trade and industry, said that Burundi's decision to ban exports to and imports from Rwanda was violating the EAC treaty on common market protocol among member states. He stated that the decision would have little effect since products that were coming from Burundi could be procured elsewhere in other countries in the region. EAC is made up of six countries, namely, Burundi, Rwanda, Kenya, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. EAC member states agreed on a common market protocol. The EAC Common Market protocol entered into force on July 1, 2010, following ratification by all the partner countries. Enditem MACAO, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Most injured tourists in Macao's bus crash accident were in stable condition, the special administrative region's health authorities said on Tuesday. Macao's Health Bureau said up to now, there are 10 people still hospitalized among the 32 injured tourists. Although one woman still remains unconscious, nine others are in stable condition. Kiang Wu Hospital emergency branch director Li Qisheng said the 46-year-old woman sustained skull fracture and was still unconscious after surgery. However, her heart beat and blood pressure are stable, and the hospital will assess her brain condition after three to five days' treatment. According to Health Bureau, another 73-year-old woman had already been discharged from hospital after proper treatment. At least 32 tourists from the Chinese mainland were injured, three seriously on Monday when a tour bus crashed into a building in Macao, and the driver had been arrested for suspected dangerous driving. HO CHI MINH CITY, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- The transport inspection chief of Vietnam's southern Can Tho city and two of his deputies were relieved from their posts because their subordinates received protection money from transport firms, the municipal Transport Department said Tuesday. Can Tho authorities on Tuesday decided to dismiss chief inspector Truong Van Phuc, and his deputies Duong Minh Tam and Bui Quoc Dung. Another deputy of Phuc was given a warning. According to initial investigation, a group of transport inspectors under management of the chief and his deputies have received protection money totaling 3.5 billion Vietnamese dong (156,000 U.S. dollars) from over 60 local transport companies since 2014. Enditem Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) meets with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Aug. 9, 2016. (Xinhua/Sputnik) ST. PETERSBURG, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday's meeting with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan was very important for the future of bilateral ties. "We've had a comprehensive and constructive (talks), I would like to emphasize, we discussed a broad range of issues including bilateral relations and global issues," Putin told a press conference after his meeting with Erdogan. "I believe that we have all the necessary prerequisites and opportunities for fully restoring the relations between our two countries which would help strengthen both regional and global stability," Putin added. He said the visit of Erdogan, despite the difficult political situation in Turkey caused by the failed coup attempt on July 15, showed that Ankara really wanted to restore bilateral cooperation. To promote bilateral economic cooperation, the two presidents talked about the Turkish stream pipeline project and construction of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant, as well as ways to revive tourism. Putin also announced a mid-term cooperation program that spans the year 2016 to 2019, and also intergovernmental commissions of the two countries would resume contacts. Talks in narrow and broad format outlined initial objectives for long-term restoration of relations, aiming to reach pre-crisis level of bilateral cooperation, said Putin. Moreover, more meetings would be held for major companies of the two countries to discuss revival of mutual trade, investment and implementation of key projects. "We intend to gradually cancel the special economic measures limiting Turkish companies' activities in Russian market," Putin said. On the Syrian crisis, the Russian president reiterated that his country was determined to find a compromise on the issue with Ankara. "As far as coordination of our views and methods is concerned, it is possible because we have a joint goal. The joint goal is the settlement of the Syrian crisis. I believe that we shall look for satisfactory joint decisions on this basis, based on this mutual approach," Putin said. He added that more specific meetings would be held on issues related to the settlement of Syrian crisis. Erdogan, on his part, expressed the hope for the resumption of charter flights between the two countries, as well as mutual trade and activities of Turkish construction contractors. "Putin and I have found similar position on normalization of bilateral relations, while we agreed to use the capacities of the two countries to maintain regional stability," Erdogan concluded. "We believe the Russian-Turkish relation is much more stable than it has ever been, which will help us to confront all kinds of crises," said Erdogan. The meeting between the two leaders was their first since Ankara downed one of Moscow's warplanes last November, which sparked a diplomatic crisis as well as Russia's economic sanctions. JERUSALEM, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- The Israeli police announced on Tuesday a plan to substantially increase its presence in Palestinian villages in east Jerusalem in the upcoming years. The plan aims to "change the security and social reality in the area, strengthen the rule of law and create greater access to quality police services for local residents," police spokeswoman Luba Samri said in a statement. "The complex and unique needs of the city, the human mosaic of its citizens along with the events taking place require reexamination of the police's deployment in the field and of its organizational structure," the police's statement said. It added that the plan to increase police presence will improve the residents' "quality of life" as it will increase enforcement and deterrence against criminals in various fields. The new plan is promoted by Jerusalem District Commander Yoram Halevi, who assumed office six months ago. It has received the initial approval of police chief Roni Alsheikh and Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan. The new plan materialized amid an ongoing wave of violence between Israelis and Palestinians since October, which claimed the lives of 34 Israelis and 220 Palestinians. East Jerusalem has been one of the points of friction amid the unrest. Israel occupied east Jerusalem, home to about 300,000 Palestinians, in the 1967 Mideast War, along with the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Golan Heights territories. It annexed east Jerusalem in 1981. The plan includes five new police stations that would operate in the Palestinian villages of Ras al-Amud, Jabel Mukaber, Silawan, Issawiya and Zur Baher. The police stations will be situated in buildings which will also house social services, in order to decrease possible friction between local residents and police forces. The Channel 10 news reported the plan includes the recruitment of 2,000 policemen, and that its cost is estimated at around one billion shekels (300 million U.S. dollars). It is supposed to be implemented within the upcoming four to six years. Two weeks ago, 700 policemen arrested 52 Palestinians during an overnight enforcement operation in Issawiya and Ras al-Amud. The suspects were charged with various offenses, including rock throwing, public disturbances, and drug and property offenses in the area. The operation was said by police to be part of its growing efforts to "curb illegal activities" as well as improve infrastructure and services for law-abiding citizens. Palestinians living in east Jerusalem suffer from poor infrastructure, inadequate services and a major housing shortage. About 82 percent of Palestinians in east Jerusalem live in poverty, in densely-populated neighborhoods with high crime rates, according to a recent report by the Jerusalem Institute, an Israeli research center. Enditem Photo taken on Aug. 6, 2016 shows Zahra Mohammadi (R), 24, and Ehsan Gholami (L), 27, from Afghanistan celebrating their wedding on Lesvos island in Greece. Two Afghan refugees got married in a wedding ceremony on the Greek island of Lesvos over the weekend. (Xinhua/Anthi Pazianou) LESVOS, Greece, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Two Afghan refugees got married in a wedding ceremony on the Greek island of Lesvos over the weekend. Zahra Mohammadi, 24, and Ehsan Gholami, 27 met on Lesvos in January at a party mainly for Afghans. Since early 2015, the bulk of the more than one million Europe-bound refugees and immigrants have landed in the Greek island. "We decided to get married and start our common life here," a happy Gholami told Xinhua on Saturday at the wedding ceremony. A religious ceremony was held via Skype, according to the best man. "The couple was connected to a mufti in Afghanistan via skype and read the sacred speech," he said. After the ceremony, there was a big celebration at a local hotel, which was attended by fellow refugees and Greek volunteers."There will be a civil marriage too," said the best man. It was the second marriage between refugees on Lesvos since April when two refugees respectively from Turkey and Syria got married at a refugee camp. "Everybody -- from the DJ to the hotel, the catering and the two refugee organizations -- helped to throw a big party in Greek way as the couple asked for," said Elpida Koumarela, a volunteer who helped organizing the wedding party. "We wish a beautiful life to the newlyweds and we are happy that they will stay on our island," said Koumarela. Arrived at Lesvos for the first time 10 years ago as a minor, Gholami said he knows the island very well. He reached Lesvos shores by boat and was transferred to a hostel on Crete island. "My parents were killed in the war when I was 12 years old. I took my brother and travelled to Iran. My uncle was there," Gholami said. Five years later his brother left Iran and went to Australia, while Gholami stayed on Crete. He took Greek lessons, went to Athens, and came back to Lesvos in 2012. Completing his school on Lesvos, Gholami now works as a translator at "Meta-action", a non-governmental organization for refugees. His dream is to study sociology at the University of the Aegean. The bride Mohammadi came with her mother to Lesvos by boat in November 2015, the year that Lesvos accepted large number of refugees. "I don't want to recall my journey. I only want to remember the good people I found here," she told Xinhua. Mohammadi went to a group of volunteers on Lesvos and learned to knit woolen caps and pullovers for the refugees. Olga Pliakatou, Mohammadi's friend in the knitting group, said the friends were very happy about Zahra. "We couldn't imagine that this girl who came with her mother to Lesvos and was frequently crying, would finally find such luck and happiness," said Pliakatou. The new couple is worried about the current refugee situation. "Thousands of refugees and immigrants are trapped in Greece after EU(European Union) countries shut down their borders. The EU-Turkey refugee deal is really bad for people living in camps under inappropriate conditions," said Mohammadi. Local police said 964 Afghans are among the 3,645 refugees and immigrants remaining at Lesvos. As of August 3, 90,082 migrants arrived at Lesvos in 2016, according to the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR. In January and February, there were 42,601 and 31,416 arrivals respectively to the island, while in March and April, the number dropped to 14,155 and 1,766, respectively. The average number of daily arrivals in July was 36, in June was 15, while in May and April it was 17 and 59, respectively. RIGA, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Latvian ministers at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday approved largely the planned route of the Rail Baltica European-gauge railroad in the country's territory, except for one disputed section running through a seaside municipality. The new railway line, which will stretch across 263 km from Latvia's border with Estonia to its border with Lithuania, will allow for the creation of new industrial zones, business daily Dienas Bizness reported. After holding a public debate on the proposed Rail Baltica route, the government decided to take into consideration the objections raised by local residents of the seaside municipality of Salacgriva who do not want the rail tracks to cross vast areas of farmland in their municipality. Instead, they have proposed laying the tracks along a different route that would cross a protected nature reserve in Salacgriva, which would need the European Commission's approval. The government ordered the Environmental Protection and Regional Development Ministry to consult the European Commission about possibilities to adjust the route. The ministry's representative Rinalds Mucins said consultations may start in September and likely take two months. The Rail Baltica II project is intended to link Finland, Baltic states and Poland and also improve the connection between Central and Northern Europe. The project is expected to facilitate regional integration by means of a railway link from Helsinki that would connect Tallinn, Riga, Kaunas, Warsaw and Berlin and might potentially be extended to Venice. It is planned that 85 percent of the project costs will be financed by EU funds. TEHRAN, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday called for an enhancement of ties with the United Kingdom, official IRNA news agency reported. In a telephone conversation with the UK Prime Minister Theresa May, Rouhani congratulated her on taking the office and said Iran welcomes expansion of ties, including economic, banking and insurance sectors, with the United Kingdom. The Iranian president emphasized the need for collective international action against terrorism. He also urged for the implementation of Iran's nuclear deal, reached in July 2015, by the sides involved. For her part, May reaffirmed commitment of the British government to the implementation of the nuclear deal. She said the British government is encouraging the European and British banks to develop ties with the Islamic republic, according to IRNA. ISLAMABAD, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- A roadside bomb blast killed at least two Pakistan security personnel in the Bajaur tribal region on Tuesday, the military said. The outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility. "Two soldiers Mushtaq and Khurshid embraced shahdat (martyrdom) in an Improvised Explosive Device attack in Bajaur today,"the army's Inter-Services Public Relations said. Taliban spokesman Muhammad Khorasani said the group carried out the attack through a planted device. The TTP had once used Bajaur that borders Afghanistan as one of their strong bases, however, the security forces cleared the areas of the militants in major operation in 2008-2009. Officials said some Taliban have crossed the border into Afghanistan and launched the attacks from there. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has strongly condemned the IED attack on security personnel in Bajaur Agency. "These cowardly attacks show that terrorists are on retreat, these terrorists are using such tactics because they cannot sustain the wrath of our valiant forces who always lead from the front,"Sharif said in a statement. The prime minister expressed deep grief and sorrow over the loss of two precious lives in the attack. He prayed for eternal peace of the departed souls and grant of courage to the bereaved families to bear the irreparable loss. Enditem TEHRAN, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday strongly condemned the recent terrorist attack in Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta, Tasnim news agency reported. The Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qasemi expressed condolences to the Pakistani government and its people. He also called for concerted action by the international community to put an end to such barbaric actions. At least 70 people were killed and more than 100 others wounded in the suicide bomb attack at a hospital in Quetta on Monday. The blast happened when a large number of lawyers and journalists were gathering in the civil hospital to collect the body of a local law association chairman, official said. Security has been tightened following the attack, and a three-day mourning was announced in the province. Enditem MADRID, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- The leader of the center right party Ciudadanos on Tuesday gave conditions to vote in favor of Peoples' Party leader Mariano Rajoy being invested as the prime minister. Albert Rivera told a press conference in the Spanish Congress that he gave six conditions which he said were the "key" to his party voting in favor of Rajoy. Rivera insisted Rajoy put a date on an investiture debate, but said his party would be willing to negotiate voting to support him if Rajoy was willing to accept the six conditions: electoral reform, a ban on anyone previously found guilty of corruption holding public office, a limit on the time the prime minister can hold office, an end to government pardons for politicians and the elimination of special legal protection for politicians. Rivera's final condition was the creation of a commission to investigate the so-called 'Barcenas case' into the fraudulent funding of Rajoy's party; something the acting PM may find difficult to accept. Rivera did, however, drop his previous condition that Rajoy step down as leader of the PP and thus allow a different PP member to become the prime minister. Although Rajoy's PP won the June 26 election with 137 votes, the acting Prime Minister has so far been unable to win the support from other parties to allow him to obtain the 176 votes he needs to win an investiture debate in the 350 seat Congress. Although Rivera had said he would be prepared to abstain in vote, other parties such as the Socialists (PSOE) and Podemos insist they will vote against Rajoy's candidacy. Although the 32 votes that Ciudadanos could provide would still leave Rajoy short of a majority, many believe that if they supported Rajoy it would force the PSOE into abstaining and thus allow Rajoy to form a minority government and end the stalemate which has existed in Spain since the Dec. 20 election. However, unless Rajoy accepts Rivera's conditions or is able to force a change of heart from the PSOE, Spain could be headed for a third election in less than a year. BRUSSELS, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- The world's six largest multilateral development banks (MDBs) have mobilized 81 billion U.S. dollars for climate finance in 2015, according to a joint MDB report released by the European Investment Bank (EIB) on Tuesday. The report said the total included 25 billion dollars of MDB's direct climate finance, combined with a further 56 billion dollars from other investors. Among the regions, non-EU Europe and Central Asia received the largest share of total funding at 20 percent, with South Asia receiving 19 percent, and so on. On a sectoral basis, the largest recipient of adaptation funding was for water and wastewater systems (27 percent), followed by energy, transport and related infrastructure (24 percent), and crop and food production (18 percent). According to the report, MDBs has delivered over 20 billion dollars for mitigation activities and 5 billion dollars for adaptation last year. Mitigation activities involve the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions through energy efficiency measures and the use of clean, renewable energy sources, the EIB explained in a statement. Adaptation measures reduce climate vulnerability and increase resilience to climate change through, for example, investing in climate-resilient land use and water resource management. Since 2011, the MDBs have jointly committed more than 131 billion dollars in climate finance. Last year, the MDBs reinforced their pledges in the run up to the COP21 Paris Agreement, the world's first universal climate accord adopted in December last year by 195 countries. They committed to increase their climate finance in the coming years to cope with the global climate change challenge. Looking ahead, the report noted that the MDBs will scale up climate finance activities across multiple sectors, in particular in renewable energy and energy efficiency, low-carbon and climate-resilient cities. "These efforts will help countries meet their commitments under the Paris Agreement, helping them move to a low-carbon, more resilient future," the report said. The joint report on the latest climate finance figures were prepared by the Asian Development Bank, together with MDB partners. KHARTOUM, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Representatives of the Troika (Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States), Germany and the European Union have welcomed the signing of the African Union (AU) proposed roadmap agreement by the Sudanese opposition groups in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. "In signing the roadmap agreement, these groups have demonstrated a laudable commitment to ending the conflicts in Sudan and moving towards a process of dialogue as a basis for lasting peace in their country," the Troika said in a statement obtained by Xinhua Tuesday. The Troika also commended the government of Sudan for signing the roadmap agreement on March 16, 2016. It said "the roadmap agreement constitutes a valuable step towards ending the wars in Sudan," urging the signatories to lose no further time in agreeing a cessation of hostilities and modalities for humanitarian access in Darfur and the Two Areas. The opposition Sudan Call, an alliance bringing together Sudanese armed groups and opposition parties, on Monday signed in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa the AU-proposed roadmap, ending months of controversy over the deal. Representatives of the Darfur rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM)/northern sector and the leader of the Sudanese opposition National Umma Party signed the document of the deal in the presence of AU representatives. Last March, the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel on Sudan (AUHIP) proposed a roadmap agreement for the Sudanese rivals aiming at ending the war in Sudan. The Sudanese government unilaterally signed the roadmap agreement, but the Sudan Call then refused to sign the deal. The roadmap stipulates arrangements related to ceasefire at South Kordofan, Blue Nile and Darfur regions, entering a peace process and involving the armed movements in the national dialogue currently convened in Khartoum. Enditem by Diao Ze, Liang Linlin BRUSSELS, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Every year on Aug. 9 in Brussels, people gather together in Grande-Place to celebrate a unique festival called Meyboom parade, which also known as the Parade of the Giants, with a tradition of more than 700 years. The Meyboom, which represents the tree of joy, was first erected in Brussels in 1213 to celebrate a victory over the city of Leuven. Despite various legends about its origin, from a rocky marriage to taxes dispute on beer, Brussels won the victory at last with the privilege of planting a tree each year and since then the city carefully preserves the tradition of Meyboom. "This parade enjoys a long history. It is part of the soul of Brussels," said Lucas Desmet, who played as a "Buumdroegers" to carry the tree of joy to plant in the Grande-Place. Desmet told Xinhua that every actor in the colorful parade has a role to play, the other main actors are the giants, Companions of St. Laurent, Gardevils of the Wheel of Fortune and other folk groups. Featuring a brass band, nine dancing giants and people dressed in folk dress, the joyful atmosphere attracted more and more people to participate in the parade on the way. A small group of actors sent flowers to the passengers from a cart and gave their best wishes. "Actually the whole point of this parade is about joy," said Steven Lindeman, who is an organizer of the event, acting also as one of the Companions. "The tradition of joy we hope to bring to everyone, we are all equals and deserved happiness," he told Xinhua that the parade is also dedicated to helping the poor in the city, attracting hundreds of people to be part of the parade. Lindeman also explained that the Meyboom must be planted straight on the Grande-Place before 5 p.m. otherwise the privilege should be given away to Leuven. "We must save our honour," said Lindeman, "the tree we present today is for the general public and the good of the city." "Especially after what happened to the city and Europe in recent months, people need to cheer up," he stressed, expressing his faith in fighting against terrorism. "We believe in victory like we used to," he said. After successful plantation of the commemorating tree of joy, the event is celebrated until dawn. In 2005, the erection of the Meyboom was recognized as an expression of intangible heritage by UNESCO, along with the Ducasse of Ath, another Belgian Giants festival which takes place annually on the last weekend of August. UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday welcomed the announcement of Somalia's timetable for its electoral process this year, which sets out to elect a new president at the end of October. Somalia's electoral body on Sunday released the timetable, saying that parliament members will be elected from Sept. 24 to Oct. 10, and the presidential election will be held on Oct. 30. Somalian leaders endorsed the timetable earlier on Tuesday at a meeting for preparations for the upcoming elections. Ban said the 2016 electoral process is "an important milestone in Somalia's journey towards democracy," and he urged all parties to refrain from any action that would cause further delay, according to a statement released by his spokesperson. Ban also commended the commitment of Somalia's electoral body to ensure that one-third of parliamentary seats are set aside for female candidates, hailing it as a signal of the country's progress towards inclusive political governance. Somalia was plunged into chaos in early 1990s following the toppling of the military regime of President Siad Barre. It has not held elections for decades. Currently, the country has been faced with the threat of the extremist group Al-Shabaab, which has launched frequent attacks to topple the Somali government. Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Aug. 9, 2016. (Kremlin photo) ST. PETERSBURG, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday's meeting with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan was very important for the future of bilateral ties. "We've had a comprehensive and constructive (talks), I would like to emphasize, we discussed a broad range of issues including bilateral relations and global issues," Putin told a press conference after his meeting with Erdogan. "I believe that we have all the necessary prerequisites and opportunities for fully restoring the relations between our two countries which would help strengthen both regional and global stability," Putin added. He said the visit of Erdogan, despite the difficult political situation in Turkey caused by the failed coup attempt on July 15, showed that Ankara really wanted to restore bilateral cooperation. To promote bilateral economic cooperation, the two presidents talked about the Turkish stream pipeline project and construction of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant, as well as ways to revive tourism. Putin also announced a mid-term cooperation program that spans the year 2016 to 2019, and also intergovernmental commissions of the two countries would resume contacts. Talks in narrow and broad format outlined initial objectives for long-term restoration of relations, aiming to reach pre-crisis level of bilateral cooperation, said Putin. Moreover, more meetings would be held for major companies of the two countries to discuss revival of mutual trade, investment and implementation of key projects. Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan attend a press conference in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Aug. 9, 2016. (Kremlin photo) "We intend to gradually cancel the special economic measures limiting Turkish companies' activities in Russian market," Putin said. On the Syrian crisis, the Russian president reiterated that his country was determined to find a compromise on the issue with Ankara. "As far as coordination of our views and methods is concerned, it is possible because we have a joint goal. The joint goal is the settlement of the Syrian crisis. I believe that we shall look for satisfactory joint decisions on this basis, based on this mutual approach," Putin said. He added that more specific meetings would be held on issues related to the settlement of Syrian crisis. Erdogan, on his part, expressed the hope for the resumption of charter flights between the two countries, as well as mutual trade and activities of Turkish construction contractors. "Putin and I have found similar position on normalization of bilateral relations, while we agreed to use the capacities of the two countries to maintain regional stability," Erdogan concluded. "We believe the Russian-Turkish relation is much more stable than it has ever been, which will help us to confront all kinds of crises," said Erdogan. The meeting between the two leaders was their first since Ankara downed one of Moscow's warplanes last November, which sparked a diplomatic crisis as well as Russia's economic sanctions. A foreign security officer checks a body at the scene of a suicide attack in Mogadishu, on July , 31, 2016. Six people were killed in a gun and car-bomb assault on a police building in the centre of the Somali capital that also left seven assailants dead, Security Minister Abdirasak Omar Mohamed said. (AFP PHOTO/Mohamed ABDIWAHAB) UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday welcomed the announcement of Somalia's timetable for its electoral process this year, which sets out to elect a new president at the end of October. Somalia's electoral body on Sunday released the timetable, saying that parliament members will be elected from Sept. 24 to Oct. 10, and the presidential election will be held on Oct. 30. Somalian leaders endorsed the timetable earlier on Tuesday at a meeting for preparations for the upcoming elections. Ban said the 2016 electoral process is "an important milestone in Somalia's journey towards democracy," and he urged all parties to refrain from any action that would cause further delay, according to a statement released by his spokesperson. Ban also commended the commitment of Somalia's electoral body to ensure that one-third of parliamentary seats are set aside for female candidates, hailing it as a signal of the country's progress towards inclusive political governance. Somalia was plunged into chaos in early 1990s following the toppling of the military regime of President Siad Barre. It has not held elections for decades. Currently, the country has been faced with the threat of the extremist group Al-Shabaab, which has launched frequent attacks to topple the Somali government. HOUSTON, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- The health authorities in the U.S. State of Texas on Tuesday confirmed a Zika-related death of a newborn girl, the first of its kind in the country. Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) said that an infant in Harris County who died shortly after birth had microcephaly, linked to the Zika virus, according to local TV station ABC13. The mother had traveled to El Salvador during her pregnancy where she was infected. The test results recently confirmed the baby's condition and link to Zika. The mother and baby are classified as travel-related cases, and there is no additional associated risk in Texas. John Hellerstedt, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, said that Zika's impact on unborn babies can be tragic, their central mission from the beginning has been to do everything they can to protect unborn babies from the devastating effects of Zika. Last month, the Lone Star state reported its first case of microcephaly linked to Zika, also an infant in the Harris County. Currently, the DSHS is coordinating with the Harris County Public Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to follow the cases. Texas, the second largest state in the nation, has reported 97 cases of Zika virus disease, including the two infants with microcephaly from the Harris County. All Texas cases are related to travel abroad to areas with active Zika transmission. There have been no reported cases of Zika virus disease transmitted by mosquitoes in Texas, but the state is on alert for the possibility of local transmission. Over the weekend, Texas Governer Greg Abbott detailed measures the state has taken to fund the prevention of the spreading of Zika, but said it is prepared to fight the virus should it become prevalent in the state. "We have assembled millions in state and federal funds to help attack the problem," he said. According to the CDC, 15 babies have been born in the United States with Zika-related birth defects. Seven women have lost pregnancies due to Zika, and these numbers could grow. Nearly 1,000 pregnant women in the continental U.S. and territories have been infected with Zika. Currently, more than 7,300 people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with Zika, including 1,825 in the continental U.S. and Hawaii. U.S. President Barack Obama has asked Congress to allocate 1.9 billion U.S. dollars in emergency funding to combat the spread of the virus. In May, testing for the mosquito-borne Zika virus began at the Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center headquartered in Houston, the fourth-largest city in the United States. The center, which was approved for testing by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, can test more than 3,600 blood samples per day by using three new automated instruments and can detect the smallest amount of Zika in blood samples. Zika is a disease caused by the Zika virus, which is spread to people primarily through the bite of an infected Aedes species mosquito. The most common symptoms of Zika are fever, rash, joint pain and conjunctivitis (red eyes). The illness is usually mild with symptoms lasting for several days to a week after being bitten by an infected mosquito. The virus was first discovered in 1947 and is named after the Zika Forest in Uganda. In 1952, the first human cases of Zika were detected and since then, outbreaks of disease have been reported in tropical Africa, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. On Feb. 1, 2016, the World Health Organization declared Zika virus a public health emergency of international concern. BRASILIA, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's Senate on Tuesday began to analyze a report which favors the impeachment of suspended President Dilma Rousseff for alleged fiscal irregularities. If the report is approved, Rousseff will be removed from the presidency at the end of August. Tuesday's session was headed by Ricardo Lewandowski, president of the Supreme Court and it should last approximately 20 hours. Before handing over the reigns to Lewandowski in the plenary, Senate President Renan Calheiros asked his colleagues to reflect on "the seriousness of the decision they will make." "Let us make a decision, as soon as possible, stripped of our political-partisan convictions and filled with the responsibility which comes with the role of being judges, bestowed on us by the federal constitution," said Calheiros. Lewandowski said that his role will only be to coordinate and that for that reason, he will not be able to intervene in the discussions "or give opinions or value judgment on merit." After the formal opening, the report from Senator Antonio Anastasia was read and each senator will have 10 minutes to talk. The report proposed proceeding with the definitive dismissal of the president, who is accused of "infringing upon the constitution" through irregularities in fiscal management. All the votes are expected to be cast during the early hours of Wednesday. For the process to progress, the report will have to be approved by a simple majority out of the 81 senators and after this, the impeachment process will enter into its final phase, which is set to take place at the end of the month. Rousseff was provisionally removed from office on May 12 for 180 days and Vice President Michel Temer stayed in her place on an interim basis. If Rousseff is dismissed, Temer will complete the mandate until the end of 2018 and Rousseff will be unable to hold another position in the civil service for eight years. U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton speaks with a pregnant woman during a visit to Borinquen Health Care Center in Miami, Florida August 9, 2016. Clinton was on hand to speak about the Zikavirus. (REUTERS/Chris Keane) HOUSTON, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- The health authorities in the U.S. State of Texas on Tuesday confirmed a Zika-related death of a newborn girl, the first of its kind in the country. Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) said that an infant in Harris County who died shortly after birth had microcephaly, linked to the Zika virus, according to local TV station ABC13. The mother had traveled to El Salvador during her pregnancy where she was infected. The test results recently confirmed the baby's condition and link to Zika. The mother and baby are classified as travel-related cases, and there is no additional associated risk in Texas. John Hellerstedt, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, said that Zika's impact on unborn babies can be tragic, their central mission from the beginning has been to do everything they can to protect unborn babies from the devastating effects of Zika. Last month, the Lone Star state reported its first case of microcephaly linked to Zika, also an infant in the Harris County. Currently, the DSHS is coordinating with the Harris County Public Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to follow the cases. Texas, the second largest state in the nation, has reported 97 cases of Zika virus disease, including the two infants with microcephaly from the Harris County. All Texas cases are related to travel abroad to areas with active Zika transmission. There have been no reported cases of Zika virus disease transmitted by mosquitoes in Texas, but the state is on alert for the possibility of local transmission. Over the weekend, Texas Governer Greg Abbott detailed measures the state has taken to fund the prevention of the spreading of Zika, but said it is prepared to fight the virus should it become prevalent in the state. "We have assembled millions in state and federal funds to help attack the problem," he said. According to the CDC, 15 babies have been born in the United States with Zika-related birth defects. Seven women have lost pregnancies due to Zika, and these numbers could grow. Nearly 1,000 pregnant women in the continental U.S. and territories have been infected with Zika. Currently, more than 7,300 people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with Zika, including 1,825 in the continental U.S. and Hawaii. U.S. President Barack Obama has asked Congress to allocate 1.9 billion U.S. dollars in emergency funding to combat the spread of the virus. In May, testing for the mosquito-borne Zika virus began at the Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center headquartered in Houston, the fourth-largest city in the United States. The center, which was approved for testing by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, can test more than 3,600 blood samples per day by using three new automated instruments and can detect the smallest amount of Zika in blood samples. Zika is a disease caused by the Zika virus, which is spread to people primarily through the bite of an infected Aedes species mosquito. The most common symptoms of Zika are fever, rash, joint pain and conjunctivitis (red eyes). The illness is usually mild with symptoms lasting for several days to a week after being bitten by an infected mosquito. The virus was first discovered in 1947 and is named after the Zika Forest in Uganda. In 1952, the first human cases of Zika were detected and since then, outbreaks of disease have been reported in tropical Africa, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. On Feb. 1, 2016, the World Health Organization declared Zika virus a public health emergency of international concern. An actress from Mauritius performs during the opening ceremony of the 10th China International Folk Art Festival in Xining, capital of northwest China's Qinghai Province, Aug. 8, 2016. Artists from 13 countries and regions took part in the festival. (Xinhua/Cai Yang)(wyo) 40 telecom fraud suspects returned to China from Kenya Updated: 2016-08-09 09:02 (Xinhua) BEIJING - A total of 40 suspects, 35 from the Chinese mainland and five from Taiwan, were brought back to China from Kenya in police custody on Monday, the Ministry of Public Security said. Allegedly involved in 60-plus fraud cases worth 4 million yuan (600,000 U.S. dollars), they belonged to one of two groups arrested by Kenyan police on Nov. 29, 2014, the ministry said in a statement released Monday. Another 36 suspects in the other group were repatriated in April and have been formally arrested. They allegedly swindled more than 26 million yuan out of mainland residents by pretending to be members of Beijing and Shanghai police. The two groups were believed to have colluded in fraud activities and mainland police hope to find out all the facts now that they have all suspects in custody. The mainland police have kept their Taiwan counterparts informed of all developments. US resident quizzed on gun shipment Investigators have been working on the theory that the large shipment of ammunition and firearms may have recently arrived in the country hidden in a crate which is believed to have had a false bottom. According to reports, following the raid, a Person of Interest who has been living abroad for many years was contacted by relatives, arrived in the country on Sunday night and yesterday morning surrendered to investigators at the Princes Town CID. The interview began just after 2 pm yesterday. In a five-hour exercise last Friday, police executed two search warrants at two homes at Piparo Main Road, Lower Piparo where they found and seized 6,490 rounds of .22 ammunition; 230 rounds of .27 ammunition and 50 rounds of .25 ammunition. They also seized one semi automatic nail gun, two air rifles and a 16 gauge shotgun and arrested three relatives. Yesterday, in the Princes Town Magistrates court a 40-yearold Piparo machinist pleaded guilty to a charge of possession of a rifle and 21 rounds of .22 ammunition. He was fined $30,000. The court heard that around 4.15 pm on Friday, Sgt Ramlogan and members of the Princes Town CID and Criminal Gang Intelligence Unit, executed a search warrant at the mans home and found the firearm and ammunition. PC Solomon laid the charge. Charges are however yet to be laid against the father and son as investigations continue into what police officers have described as the largest ever ammunition haul in south Trinidad and possibly the country. Sgt Ramlogan is continuing investigations. Suratt considers legal action I have reached out to my attorney and I am waiting on advice from them on how to pursue the matter, Suratt said at a press conference held yesterday at the Associations building at 116-118 Duke Street, Port of Spain. Once my attorney feels we have a good case, we are pursuing it, and any money received from the matter will be donated to the Association. It is not about money and I do not want any money. Suratt said he was humiliated and embarrassed and wants to ensure that no other blind person in this country will endure what he did. He said police officers cannot arrest a blind person without the presence of a Justice of the Peace. On Thursday last, Suratt and other members of the Association tried to break locks at the School for the Blind in Santa Cruz, to facilitate installation of fire alarms, as was directed by the Fire Services of Trinidad and Tobago. He said Chief Education Officer in the Ministry of Education, Harrilal Seecharan, in a letter stated, The TTBWA has a constitutional and legislative right to access and quietly hold and enjoy the said property which the school is located. Suratt added that the school has no Fire Life Certificate and was closed because of this. He accused the principal of the school of being uncooperative with the TTBWA in securing the Fire Life Certificate. We need to create a stable environment for the children to grow. This academys services help both students and adults and set a proper foundation for them to grow. We are still unable to secure a meeting with (Education) Minister (Anthony) Garcia, pertaining to this matter. We need to put aside our differences and do what is best for the children because at the end of the day the youths are the future of our country. No bail yet for cop charged with robbery Richard Radix, of Caparo Road, Arima, appeared before Magistrate Indar Jagroo accused of robbing money lender Peter Williams and relatives, James Knox, Joan Knox and Alicia Knox of $10,000 in cash, $20,000 in jewellery, more than $25,000 in electronics and a Mitsubishi station wagon. The charges were laid indictably and Radix was not called upon to enter a plea. Radixs attorney, Don Lezama, urged the court to show leniency to his client, citing Radixs role as a father, husband and his years service as an officer of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service. The accused is a father of three, he has served as an SRP for the past six years, four of which he has spent with the La Horquetta Crime Patrol Unit and has had no prior convictions. His mother is a police officer, his father is a police officer and he has several relatives who are police officers. Lezama added that his client cooperated with investigating officers and voluntarily surrendered himself to the police when he learned that a warrant had been issued for his arrest. Based on his assistance provided and his intention to assist with the ongoing investigations, I think it is safe to say that he has no intention of running or hiding. So we are asking for the court to grant bail in this matter. Lezama also said that reports given by arresting officers of the number of persons in the house at the time of the robbery, changed from the time of arrest and accused the arresting officers of stretching the truth in the details submitted. The court prosecutor urged the court not to show favouritism by affording Radix special concessions based on his status as a member of the Police Service. We cannot be guided, based on his profession, to afford him an opportunity more than what has been afforded an average citizen. Jagroo said that he would consider granting bail upon reviewing the application. Radix is expected to re-appear in court today. Radix was arrested on Thursday last by officers of the La Horquetta Police Station. Remanded in custody for assault on father and cops His attorney, Annalee Girwar, asked Senior Magistrate Nanette Forde-John, to commit the 28-yearold man from Pond Street, La Romaine, to the St Ann Hospital. He was charged with common assault on his father, Quintin Rampersad. The charge stemmed from an alleged incident on July 28, at the familys home in which Quintin was attacked with a shovel. When police officers arrived on the scene, they also were attacked with the shovel. Rampersad (Peter) was also informed by Forde-John, that he committed a common assault on Ag Cpl Preveen Rajkumar and PC Mendoza of the San Fernando CID. Another charge that he committed malicious damage to a motor vehicle was also read to him. Girwar told the magistrate that it was her view that the accused was not someone from whom she was able to take instructions due to his mental state. Rampersads left hand was bandaged due to the gun shot wounds he sustained. Ag Sergeant Roger Nanan laid the charge. Forde-John committed Rampersad to the St Anns Hospital for evaluation and report on his mental condition. He is expected to reappear on August 22. Five in court on robbery charges The accused Anthony Hassan Hassanali, 22; Mickel Figaro, 22; Christopher Meade, 28; Stephon Mad Dog George, 25; and Matthew Forbes, 22. Hassanali, Figaro, Meade and George appeared in the First Court jointly charged with the possession of a firearm. Forbes, together with Hassanali, Figaro and George were also jointly charged with four counts of robbery with aggravation. Police slapped Forbes with an additional charge for possession of seven rounds of ammunition. It is alleged that on Thursday last, four men, armed with a firearm, robbed a Penal family of $10,000 worth of jewellery, a laptop, US currency and some tools. Officers of the Penal CID conducted investigations and subsequently charged the accused men. The officers also executed a search warrant at a house in Golconda and retrieved a firearm and ammunition. Sgt Ramsingh, PCs Singh, Nanan, Boyce and Khalil and WPC Deonath laid the charges. The charges were laid indictably and so the men were not called upon to enter any pleas. They were denied bail and remanded into police custody to reappear on September 5. The firearm and ammunition matter was transferred to the San Fernando Magistrates Court for the accused men to appear today. Sgt Anthony Baptiste prosecuted. Relative to be charged for pensioners killing On August 1, the former maxi taxi driver of Southern Main Road, Aripero suffered a fractured skull when a 43-year-old close male relative allegedly beat him on the head with a bolt cutter during an argument over money. The relative, who was arrested soon after the incident, is expected to be charged with murder. At about 7.30 pm on August 1, police officers responding to a report, went to Southern Main Road, Aripero where they found Seeteram bleeding profusely from the head outside his home. He was rushed to the San Fernando General Hospital where he was treated and subsequently warded. He underwent surgery on Tuesday but by Wednesday he succumbed to his injuries. Seeterams wife, Merle, was also beaten and suffered injuries to her head, a broken arm and other lacerations about the body. She remains warded in satisfactory condition at the San Fernando General Hospital. Cpl Seurattan is continuing investigations. PMs relatives: Routine check-up However, London told Newsday yesterday that if the health of the prime minister is such that it affects the performance of his duties, then there is a responsibility for the nation to be aware of such. If the situation surrounding his health is merely routine health check-ups, then it is not necessary for any public figure to be giving the nation a running update, London said. Meanwhile, relatives living in Mason Hall, Tobago say they too have no information at this time on the state of Rowleys health. One relative expressed that it has to be a routine examination otherwise some information would have been passed if it concerned something more critical. The relative said Rowley, as far as they are aware, is visiting a relative, Judy Brandy Yoho in Los Angeles. Newsday was told that Yoho and Rowley are first cousins as they are children of a brother and a sister. This paper was also told that Yoho is not a nurse. The relative stated that Rowley has been doing his routine checkups as opposition leader and there were never any headlines. So this development seems to be blown out of proportion. There are calls from some members of the society for Rowley to come clean on his health. Rowley left Trinidad last Thursday for the United States, for what has turned out to be a vacation / health checkup. It was reported that the 66-year-old Rowley was scheduled to check into a clinic yesterday to undergo required tests. Former ambassador and head of the Public Service, Reginald Dumas, also believes that Rowley should let the nation know what is happening with him. Dumas believes that the health of the prime minister was a matter of concern to citizens. The point is while you occupy such a position in this country or any other country, your health is no longer a private matter because it can have an impact on a number of things, Dumas said. When you are the prime minister, unfortunately you dont have too much privacy. You are very much in public life and therefore a statement, however carefully phrased, should be made once the medical tests have been completed. AOI defends PMs right to privacy The party said the nation should be provided with, an acceptable update, on Rowleys health, after all relevant assessments have been concluded . In a statement, AOI political leader Nicole Dyer-Griffith said the party is disappointed about mere calls from certain quarters for the identification of the Prime Ministers illness and unbecoming comments on social media about Rowleys health . Dyer-Griffith, a former Congress of the People (COP) chairman and member of the now defunct Peoples Partnership (PP) coalition, observed that similar negative and atrocious comments were made about former prime minister Kamla Persad- Bissessar when she also experienced bouts of illness. Whilst we understand that the general political climate remains heavily partisan and generally negative, we encourage citizens to always see the bigger picture when it comes to patriotism and loyalty to country What you need to know about the Octagon Art Festival on Sunday in Ames news A coordinated network assault by state security forces on Sunday led to the seizure of one ton of cocaine at Nouadhibou sea port, reports say. Army coast guards, military police and police forces launched the coordinated operation at and around the port located in the city of Nouadhibou, more than 400 km north of capital Nouakchott, on Saturday night after authorities were tipped off that a vessel was carrying the drug. The port of origin of the vessel is not known yet but authorities have launched investigations to identify accomplices. Mauritania has become a main transit point for drug trafficking in West Africa and in the Sahel. Late April, the Mauritanian army seized 475 kilograms of drugs from a group of traffickers after a chase and gun battle. UNs Regional officer for the fight against drug trafficking and terrorism in Central and West Africa, Pierre Lapack, had sounded the alarm the same month that drug trafficking and terrorism constitute real threats to peace and security in the Sahel region including Mauritania. Drug traffickers are reportedly linked to terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb. The Moroccan police (DGSN) is preparing 10,000 of its members to ensure the security of the climate summit COP 22 which will take place on November 7-18 in Marrakech. According to a proactive and anticipatory approach, the Moroccan police have selected 10,000 members from different police districts to undergo a training designed to reinforce their professionalism and responsiveness ahead of the global climate event. The training was supervised by international experts and took place in the royal police academy in Kenitra, said local Akhbar Al Yaoum daily paper. During the training, special attention was given to the use of sophisticated metal detection material as well as boosting alertness and rapid response to risks. In tandem with strengthening police capabilities, authorities are planning to install surveillance cameras to bolster security measures. Many people. Photo: John Moore/Getty Images Breaking with decades of precedent, Donald Trump has refused to make his tax returns public before Novembers election. This has produced widespread speculation about why the GOP nominee doesnt want the public to get a look at his finances. Some have speculated that the returns would reveal disconcerting ties to Russian oligarchs and/or secret financial woes. But others think there might be something else going on. Many people are saying that Trumps tax returns reveal donations to the North American Man/Boy Love Association, an advocacy group for pedophiles. The theory has been floated by several highly reputable Twitter accounts, and Google Trends registered a spike in searches for Trump and NAMBLA in recent days. According to the Daily Beast, the discussion was kicked off by a post on esteemed social-media site Reddit, which has brought many things to light, not all of them pleasant. But why doesnt Trump want to release his [tax returns]? Could it be because he donated a sizable amount of money to NAMBLA and he wants to cover it up? Im not saying Trump donated money to NAMBLA , but people are saying that. Its something Ive heard, but I dont believe Donald Trump donated several million dollars to NAMBLA over the last several years. Still, if he did that would be a great reason to not release his tax returns. But look, Im not here to say whether or not Donald Trump donated millions to NAMBLA , Im just here to let you know that every candidate has released his tax returns over the last 40 years, so there has to be a reason he doesnt, and several very smart people are saying he contributed millions of dollars to NAMBLA . Maybe thats right, maybe thats wrong, but I dont know why he doesnt release his records, Trump said in 2011, when demanding that President Obama dispel the rumor that he was born in Kenya by releasing his birth certificate. The same can be said, just as fairly, about Trumps alleged ties to NAMBLA in 2016. Some may think it irresponsible to spread inflammatory accusations that have no evidentiary basis other than the fact that other people are spreading them. But Donald Trump has always believed that theres no harm in asking questions. Like in September, when a voter informed Trump that President Obama is a Muslim and that hes allowed American Muslims to set up training camps where they want to kill us. Were going to be looking at a lot of different things, Trump replied. And you know, a lot of people are saying that, and a lot of people are saying that bad things are happening out there. Or after the Pulse nightclub shooting, when Trump noted what many people had been saying about Obamas disinterest in defeating ISIS. Well, there are a lot of people that think maybe he doesnt want to get it, Trump said. A lot of people think maybe he doesnt want to know about it. I happen to think that he just doesnt know what hes doing, but there are many people that think maybe he doesnt want to get it. Or in his recent comments on Hillary Clintons role in Vince Fosters death. Somebody asked me the question the other day, and I said that a lot of people are very skeptical as to what happened and how he died. Or on Monday night, when Trump shared what very smart people were saying about how Hillary Clintons private email server led to the execution of an Iranian scientist. Many people are saying that the Iranians killed the scientist who helped the U.S. because of Hillary Clinton's hacked emails. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 8, 2016 Inspired by Trumps commitment to a free and open discourse, Reddit user J Peterman built a bot that responds to any mention of tax returns with the comment, Speaking of tax returns, did you hear Donald Trump is refusing to release them because Donald Trump has donated to NAMBLA? Thats what all the best sources, the most tremendous sources are saying. Dozens of other Reddit users created new threads about the allegations, then BuzzFeed community pages, and a fake Fox News article. Many Google searches about Donald Trump and North Americas foremost association of pedophiles ensued. Its worth noting that theres no substantive evidence that Trump has ever donated money to NAMBLA. Given the moguls broader aversion to giving money to any charity or organization, the chances that he gave to this particular advocacy group are miniscule. But then, theres no substantive evidence that Obama is sympathetic to ISIS or that Hillary Clintons emails doomed an Iranian scientist. But that hasnt stopped both Trump and his running mate from suggesting the latter. Thus, many people are saying that Trump respects the trolls who are spreading the NAMBLA rumor, and that he would like it to be shared as widely as possible. Photo: John Moore/Getty Images One fact that has grown bracingly clear over the course of the presidential campaign is that the campaign is not about any of the normal issues in American politics, but about democracy. The other elections we all remember have pitted two small-d democrats against each other. This one pits a small-d democrat against a candidate who has repeatedly stated that strong leaders crush their enemies, who warns without evidence that Antonin Scalia was murdered and that the election will be rigged, who threatens retaliatory policy crackdowns on owners of newspapers whose coverage displeases him, who has asked Russias autocrat to conduct a cyberattack on his opponent, and who, today, exhorted his audience to violent insurrection. The democracy question has opened a deep schism within the Republican Party. Republicans stand mostly united on ends but divided on means. Trumps somewhat amorphous promise to negotiate better trade deals aside, the candidate has mostly endorsed traditional Republican policies on taxes, regulation, judicial appointments, and so on. The division lies between the Paul Ryan wing of the party, which is focused on passing regressive debt-financed tax cuts through peaceful electoral means, and the Trump wing, which proposes regressive debt-financed tax cuts through peaceful means if possible, but through the trampling of democratic norms if necessary. The two wings co-exist uneasily, as one might expect, but the more curious question is how they co-exist at all. Peter Beinart explores the fascination some right-wing intellectuals have with authoritarianism, and finds a psychological attraction to the energy and putative legitimacy of the people as an imagined unified force. Another source of overlap is a distrust of democracy on the libertarian right. Ayn Rands theories have had enormous influence on the conservative movement and on leaders like Paul Ryan. Rands theories are a kind of inverted Marxism. Like Marx, she depicts society as riven between a producer class and a parasite class, but she identifies the classes in opposite terms. Rands producers are the capitalists, and the parasites who leech off them are the workers. (The man at the top of the intellectual pyramid contributes the most to all those below him, but gets nothing except his material payment, receiving no intellectual bonus from others to add to the value of his time. The man at the bottom who, left to himself, would starve in his hopeless ineptitude, contributes nothing to those above him, but receives the bonus of all of their brains.) But since the virtuous producer class amounts to a small minority, it is helpless before the majority that is able to confiscate their rightful earnings through democratic means. Democracy, by this way of thinking, poses a constant threat of enabling redistribution from the few to the many. This is the notion that undergirds the otherwise puzzling habit on the right of depicting any discussion of the distributional ramifications of policy as class warfare. It is likewise the spirit of a long-standing apocryphal quote, repeated by conservatives like Ronald Reagan, that a democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largesse out of the public treasury. Peter Thiel, the libertarian investor who spoke for Trump in Cleveland, wrote in the libertarian Cato Institutes journal in 2009, I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible. For those of us who are libertarian in 2009, our education culminates with the knowledge that the broader education of the body politic has become a fools errand. The Heritage Foundations Stephen Moore, who has advised Trump, has admitted, Capitalisms more important than democracy. Im not even a big believer in democracy. I always say that democracy can be two wolves and a sheep deciding what to have for dinner. Not all libertarians think this way most despise Trump, in fact nor should these statements be taken as a straightforward endorsement of autocracy over democracy. What they show, instead, is an unease about (small-d) democratic economic policy. This helps explain why, of all of the factions in the GOP, the economic right has reconciled itself so easily to its nominee. Ryans spokesperson cheered Trumps Ryan-like economic plan yesterday. Brian Ballard, a former Jeb Bush donor who now serves as Trumps finance chair in Florida, stated accurately that repeal of the estate tax, which affects only inheritances over $11 million per couple, is the linchpin of the conservative movement, and hence a sign of the nominees close adherence to party doctrine. It also helps to explain why a clear bright line between virtuous respect for democratic norms and a dangerous willingness to flout them might present itself to the party of Trump and Ryan as something less than a perfectly clarifying choice. Photo: Darren Hauck/Getty Images The president of the American Psychiatric Association has issued a plea to her fellow psychiatrists: Stop psychoanalyzing Donald Trump from afar, Dr. Maria A. Oquendo wrote in a statement published on the APAs website, because to do so is irresponsible, potentially stigmatizing, and definitely unethical. A bit of context: In 1964, the now-defunct Fact magazine published a survey of 2,417 psychiatrists 1,189 of which agreed the Republican presidential nominee, Barry Goldwater, seemed psychologically unfit for the White House. Later, Goldwater sued Fact for libel, a case that was dragged out for years in court. But the result Oquendo is concerned with is whats known as the Goldwater Rule, a late-1960s addition to the medical ethics handbook kept by the American Psychiatric Association. It reads: On occasion psychiatrists are asked for an opinion about an individual who is in the light of public attention or who has disclosed information about himself/herself through public media. In such circumstances, a psychiatrist may share with the public his or her expertise about psychiatric issues in general. However, it is unethical for a psychiatrist to offer a professional opinion unless he or she has conducted an examination and has been granted proper authorization for such a statement. And so its been interesting to watch a handful of experts in medicine or mental health flout the Goldwater Rule when it comes to Trump. As the Washington Post pointed out, former Harvard Medical School dean Jeffrey Flier recently said this on Twitter: Narcissistic personality disorder. Trump doesn't just have it, he defines it. #trumpdiagnosis https://t.co/2WegZrrlJ7 Jeffrey Flier (@jflier) July 30, 2016 And in June, The Atlantic published nearly 9,000 words written by Northwestern University psychology professor Dan P. McAdams under the headline The Mind of Donald Trump. Oquendos statement does not call anyone out by name; neither does she seem especially interested in the political implications at hand. Instead, her concern is focused on patients. I can understand the desire to get inside the mind of a Presidential candidate, she writes. I can also understand how a patient might feel if they saw their doctor offering an uninformed medical opinion on someone they have never examined. A patient who sees that might lose confidence in their doctor, and would likely feel stigmatized by language painting a candidate with a mental disorder (real or perceived) as unfit or unworthy to assume the Presidency. Vanessa Marcotte. Photo: v_marcotte/Instagram On Sunday afternoon, 27-year-old Vanessa Marcotte left her mothers house to go for a run and never returned. She was found dead hours later in the woods of a quiet Massachusetts town. Her death marked the third killing of a female jogger in nine days, though police say the tragedies are unrelated. Vanessa Marcotte was a Google account manager in New York and a graduate of Boston University. Last weekend shed been visiting her mother for a few days in Princeton, Massachusetts, a small town about an hours drive west of Boston. On Sunday at 1 p.m. she left the house to run along a two-lane road lined by trees. A police search began around 4 p.m. when she didnt return, and ended in the woods at 8:20 p.m., a half-mile from her mothers house, where Marcotte was found dead. Officials refused to reveal specific injuries at a news conference on Monday. The initial investigation shows Marcotte was killed the towns first murder in 30 years. Authorities are still working to determine if it was a random killing and if she was sexually assaulted. Of several worried Princeton residents who spoke with the Boston Globe, one father said his two young daughters often jog in the same area. People run all the time, he said. This town is very safe. In a statement, Google remembered Marcotte as a much loved member of the Google team known for her ubiquitous smile, passion for volunteer work, and love of Boston sports. The district attorney said there is nothing at this point to connect Marcottes murder to the killing of 30-year-old Karina Vetrano in New York last week. Vetrano was murdered on August 2, after leaving for an early evening jog, in a Queens park known as a dumping ground for bodies and a meeting place for teen dirt-biking, homeless camps, and religious-sect rituals. Vetranos father, who ultimately discovered her body, had previously warned her to not run there alone, according to the Daily Beast. #KarinaVetrano loved rainbows. Funeral service will focus on that idea, they only come after the storm. @CBSNewYork pic.twitter.com/Q3uePhwa6P Maggie Kent (@MaggieKent6abc) August 6, 2016 Three days before Vetranos death, 31-year-old nurse Alexandra Ally Brueger was shot and killed in Michigan, on July 30, during an afternoon jog on a gravel road. Police seek tips on case of woman shot while jogging in #RoseTownship, https://t.co/PitBH7GAIZ pic.twitter.com/JmZVQyPilb The Oakland Press (@TheOaklandPress) August 2, 2016 Police are still searching for suspects in all three unconnected murders. There are some similarities female, jogger. There are also major non-similarities to that case, NYPD deputy chief Michael Kemper, who is investigating Vetranos murder, said of the Vanessa Marcotte investigation on Monday night. We are comparing evidence, we are comparing notes; simply put we dont believe there is a connection. With that said we are going to continue to share notes and share evidence as both cases progress. Police have created a tip line for any information: 508-453-7589. Photo: David Ramos/Getty Images Rafaela Silva has dealt with plenty of haters during her judo career including racist online bullies hailing from her own country. In 2012, the 24-year-old faced some ugly, racially charged taunts on social media after she was disqualified from the London Olympics for an illegal leg grab. Things got so bad, she even briefly considered quitting the sport altogether. Thankfully for Brazil and fans everywhere she didnt quit. She won. On Monday, Silva won gold while competing in her home country; a win that came with the added distinction of being the first gold medal for Brazil at this years Olympics. Silvas win in the 57-kilogram division for judo against Dorjsurengiin Sumiya of Mongolia came after only 47 seconds on the mat. Her win also carried a heavier emotional significance. When she first faced the online racism after the London Olympics, many saw the moment as shedding light on the historical and ongoing racial tensions that the country has struggled with. Silvas story resonates with some Brazilians, who see her as one with the people. She grew up in one of the countrys slums, in a favela plagued with violence, according to the Washington Post. Everybody here knows Rafaelas history, Eduardo Colli, a Brazilian watching the match, told the Associated Press. This is more than just a medal, its a victory for poor people. Its hope for all of them. Silva long envisioned her moment of glory at the Olympics. The inside of her right biceps features a tattoo of the Olympic rings, according to the New York Times. Its surrounded by a note, which reads in Portuguese: God knows how much Ive suffered and what Ive done to get here. i mean no one is checking for him anyways so being a mess that supports trump is actually getting him publicity so i'm sure he's loving it. Reply Thread Link I mean it worked for Stacey Dash Reply Parent Thread Link charles is definitely not in charge Reply Thread Link Bitch, please! You've been irrelevant for the last 15+ years. This is the most attention you've gotten in almost two decades. You're such an attention whore, just like Drumpf. Reply Thread Link i'm watching bugsy malone and i gotta wonder: wtf happened to you Reply Thread Link When you've nothing to lose, you run any risk you want Reply Thread Link lmao at the erin moran bit. is joanie a raging liberal or st? gonna look that up Reply Thread Link She's been homeless for years, and might have alcohol issues. He's just a major asshole. Reply Parent Thread Link Wow, really? That's such a fucked up thing for him to say knowing her circumstance.... Reply Parent Thread Link he is disgusting beyond words Reply Parent Thread Link She also accused the Fonz of molesting her or something and having an affair with Mrs C. :( Reply Parent Thread Link Bruce Springsteen had a successful tour recently, Eva Longoria recently had a guest role in Devious Maids, and America Ferrera is in a sitcom that is in its second season and I know all of this without having to look it up. I would have to do some googling to find out what Baio has done lately. No clue. Reply Thread Link Wishing I could like/upvote this comment. Reply Parent Thread Link He is such a douche. His irrelevant ass can go back to oblivion where he belongs. I'm not even a stan of Eva Longoria (I never watched Desperate Housewives), but I like her because she's been very active in Democratic politics and done a lot of voter registration and women's issues. She also has a Masters degree, and is an executive producer for Devious Maids. She has contracts with L'Oreal, Hanes, and New York & Co, so she's getting that commercial money and being promoted as a beautiful person at the same time. Smart, unlike him. Reply Parent Thread Link Oh yeah, I've seen her in commercials too so she's getting paid. Hope Baio can live off of his residuals! Reply Parent Thread Link Eva also produces DM. Reply Parent Thread Link I hope he gets so ill he violently evacuates his bowels and dies. Reply Thread Link omg Reply Parent Thread Link Sometimes I go to dark places. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link - Bruce, Eva, and America have careers and care about other people, unlike Scott. - How many people in the history of the world have been killed in the name of Christianity's god? Spoiler - it's more than any other religion. - You see Mexicans turning America into Mexico? Oh, you mean like how Americans turned Mexico into America, you ignorant piece of shit? In the words of Eva Longoria, "My family didn't cross the border, the border crossed us." - Do the world a favor and crawl back into your hole. Reply Thread Link lol mfte re: Mexico and America How fucking disconnected from reality do you have to be Edited at 2016-08-09 12:00 am (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Link "How fucking disconnected from reality do you have to be" A lot. In an interview after the RNC, he said that he wanted America to be what it used to be: one unity and not multiple groups like black people, white people, latino people, etc. Literally when the fuck was that? So he is obviously a delusional idiot and a racist pos, just like his idol. Reply Parent Thread Link The worst part is that he's Italian decent, like if things keep going like they are, how long it will take before some white dude ask him to go back to his country? Reply Parent Thread Expand Link "How many people in the history of the world have been killed in the name of Christianity's god? Spoiler - it's more than any other religion" I think more people have been killed in the name of Islam's god more than Christianity's. It's estimated 80 million Black Africans died in the Islamic trans-Saharan slave trade, with an estimated 20 million being delivered. The Prophet Muhammad had Black slaves, so it's fine. Black and Brown slavery still exists in wealthy Muslim countries. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link i<3u "You see Mexicans turning America into Mexico? Oh, you mean like how Americans turned Mexico into America, you ignorant piece of shit? In the words of Eva Longoria, "My family didn't cross the border, the border crossed us."i<3u Reply Parent Thread Link i'm enjoying trump's dragging in the polls i'm enjoying trump's dragging in the polls Reply Thread Link Please remind me who is in your gif. IIRC used to watch his youtube channel a long time ago. Reply Parent Thread Link Qaadir Howard :) Reply Parent Thread Link Lmao this is sad, tragic and pathetic as fuck. Trash Reply Thread Link Sees Mexicans turning America into Mexico That's hilarious since Americans turned a huge chunk of Mexico into America But I'm sleep Edited at 2016-08-09 12:01 am (UTC) That's hilarious since Americans turned a huge chunk of Mexico into AmericaBut I'm sleep #MakeAmericaMexicoAgain Reply Thread Link that story i read about how trump basically bumped into scott on the street randomly and asked him to speak for him at the rnc out of desperation is ridiculous Reply Thread Link lol the irony of him saying America is turning into Mexico Fuck him about the Erin Moran thing. He said he didn't want to deal with her issues, when she's been homeless for years. Henry Winkler has been trying to help her out by getting her a job on Arrested Development. Reply Thread Link From what I hear Henry Winkler is a really good guy. Reply Parent Thread Link Honestly most people don't know what the fuck they're doing and their makeup ends up looking terrible Reply Thread Link That's why I rarely put on makeup If I need to get my makeup done for an important event like a wedding or something like that I pay my cousin to do it because he actually works doing that. Reply Parent Thread Link i went through a makeup phase in high school and looked like a clown half the time. i just can't get it right. bare faced is my destiny Reply Parent Thread Link i honestly dont know how to use a blending brush Reply Parent Thread Link All you have to do is stick it where you put the eyeshadow and movie it back and forth Reply Parent Thread Link lmao same its so sad Reply Parent Thread Link idek what that is Reply Parent Thread Link My high school years were embarrassing with the makeup choices I made. Reply Parent Thread Link I missed seeing her hanging out with the Spider-Man cast, but they were together again this weekend. Reply Thread Link lol this post will be fun. i agree with her in a sense. yes, there's a more in depth conversation to be had, but people need to stop pretending women shouldn't enjoy anything feminine lest they be catering to the male gaze. the superiority complex is annoying af. Reply Thread Link I have a lot of feelings about makeup and how it relates to choice feminism, but I agree with her and you, in that generally speaking the conversation has a lot to do with intent. Not to mention that the intersection of the feminine and WoC, particularly black women, who face unbelieveable amounts of misogyny and racism when they choose to express themselves through makeup. Reply Parent Thread Link Not to mention that the intersection of the feminine and WoC, particularly black women YES. THIS. EXACTLY. i honestly wonder how many women who always shit on personal empowerment are white. that's not to say it has its issues, but i feel like it has a very different meaning for woc, specifically black women. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Lol ik makeup discourse~ is painful (Cos its true lbr) Reply Parent Thread Link iawtc. even catharine mackinnon wears lipstick! you can still celebrate what women have been created to be while still critiquing the patriarchy and the insane beauty standards. Reply Parent Thread Link iawtc you can have a critical eye and not expect other women to adhere while still enjoying things for yourself. Reply Parent Thread Link i cannot be seen without some form of eyeliner on me. also zendaya keeps winning. Reply Thread Link Make up is fun Reply Thread Link my makeup is pretty bad but i don't mind as much because the canvas is still okay i'll get better Reply Thread Link i wear it for myself, which also happens to be when i leave my house. i've given up entirely and learned how to make it look like i have 2nd day makeup (my fav look, don't judge me) on the first day. but i also like it when my eyeliner melts Reply Thread Link i don't really like how she does her makeup :/ but she has skills Edited at 2016-08-09 12:00 am (UTC) Reply Thread Link covergirl is one of the worst drugstore brands honestly I like make up because it's fun, it's relaxing to do, and it hides the ugly, but I'm not gonna pretend that I'm making some kind of feminist statement just because I chose to wear it. that's not how it works. Reply Thread Link IA about Covergirl. I love Rimmel and sometimes Maybelline. Reply Parent Thread Link It is so bad. I don't do well with most DS brands (I have lots of allergies and sensitive skin in general) but Covergirl is the worst for me. L'Oreal is actually pretty good for my skin; probably because I fair well with Lancome and it's the same thing lol. Reply Parent Thread Link Loreal's blushes and pressed powders in the True Match line are probably the best of the big drugstore brands like Cover Girl/Revlon/Loreal/etc. Though I think Milani's blushes are the best in the drugstore altogether. Reply Parent Thread Link I bought that mascara that Zendaya is using above and OH MY GOD I hate that torture chamber wand, I never poke myself in the eye but I've done it twice with that mascara. Reply Parent Thread Link IA. maybelline, loreal, and rimmel are all good for certain products. even wet n wild and milani are better than cover girl. Reply Parent Thread Link Okay IA but CG natureluxe foundation was one of the best ones i've ever owned. Reply Parent Thread Link Cover Girls lipsticks are okay. Whichever line is in the square tubes (they're always "discontinuing" them and then bringing them back under a new name). I have a few in my work purse. The colors are fine and it's a moisturizing formula. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link still not buying that makeup is empowering, to me its neutral....neither empowering or oppressive just whatever Reply Thread Link If it's used to make a statement, it can definitely be empowering. It's all about intent. Reply Parent Thread Link Well, thats how you feel. Everyone is different. Reply Parent Thread Link i wear makeup and idk. it breaks my heart how women are expected to wear it, especially during situations like job interviews or dates or w/e. some people are like "yas i love makeup and expressing myself!!!! i'm never without it!!!!" like idt it should get to the point where you're not comfortable without it, but that's society's fault so i can't really judge on the other hand i don't think shit like dark purple lips or bright cobalt eyeliner is going to or meant to ~attract men lmao Reply Thread Link yup. esp as someone with acne i feel like i can't leave the house without it, which sucks. because on one hand i genuinely enjoy doing makeup and shit like that, on another i fucking hate feeling like i have to spend 10 minutes in front of the mirror concealing the shit out of my face because i have shitty acne genes via asiasociety.org Canl Bahis siteleri sektoru son derece onu ack ve farkl ozelliklere sahip bir sektordur. Elbette bahis secenekleri arasnda yuksek kazanc getiren alan kuskusuz canl bahistir. Peki, canl bahis nedir? Canl Bahis Nedir? Canl bahis adndan da anlaslacag gibi devam eden musabakaya bahis yapmaktr. Bu bahis musabaka devam ederken de yaplabilir olmasdr. Basta futbol olmak uzere voleybol, tenis, hentbol, basketbol, buz hokeyi ve masa tenisi gibi spor organizasyonlarna canl bahisler yaplabilmektedir. Canl bahis siteleri bu oyunlarn hepsine yuksek oranlara bahis yapmanza imkan tanr. En fazla tercih edilen futbol canl bahisleri diger alanlara gore daha fazla on plandadr. Siteden siteye degisen sartlar ve uygulama esaslar soz konusu olsa da kurallar sabittir. Canl bahisi populer klan ve heyecan katan en onemli ozellikle musabakann basladg ana dek bahis yapabilmedir. Canl bahis icerisinde yer alan secenekler kazanma sansnz da dogrudan arttrmaktadr. Ilk korneri kim kullanr, ilk tac, gol, sar kart, krmz kart gibi futbol musabakas icerisinde olabilecek hemen hemen her seye bahis yaplabilmektedir. Normal bahisegore de son derece yuksek oranda olmas avantajl yonlerini ortaya koymaktadr. Nitekim dogru secenek ksa surede kazancl ckmanza etki edecektir. Strateji ve dogru analizle 90 dakika gibi bir surede anaparanzkatlayabilirsiniz. Tabi bunu basarabilmek icin mutlaka musabakaya dair ayrntlar iyi degerlendirmek gerekir. Soz konusu musabakann detaylarn inceleyip, cezal, sakat oyuncu veya performans dusen takm oyunu gibi detaylar bilmek canl bahiste kazanc belirleyen onemli unsurdur. Guvenilir Canl bahis hem heyecanl zaman gecirmeyi hem de musabakalar takip ederken para kazanmay saglamaktadr. Canl Bahis Nasl Oynanr? Bahislerinizi guvenilir sitelerden gerceklestirdiginiz zaman herhangi bir sekilde para cekme de sorun yasamazsnz. Guvenilir bahis siteleri tespit edip sonrasnda da uyelik islemlerini tamamlamanz gerekmektedir. Belirlenen uyelik sartlarn yerine getirip hesabnza da paray aktardktan sonra bahis islemlerini sorunsuz yapabilirsiniz. Peki, canl bahis nasl oynanr? Oncelikle bahis konusunda mutlaka dogru site arastrmas yapmalsnz. Yapacagnz arastrma neticesinde buldugunuz site uzerinden canl bahisislemlerini gerceklestirebilirsiniz. Bunun icin uye olup, hesaba para atp, canl bahis bolumune girmelisiniz. Sonrasnda dahil olmak istediginiz musabakann saatini ogrenip, gerekli analizleri yapmalsnz. Tahminlerinizi belirledikten sonra karsnza ckacak olan bahis sayfasndan istediginiz hamleyi yapmalsnz. Bahis tutarn belirledikten sonra musabaka baslayacaktr. Canl bahis diger normal bahis esaslarna gore farkllklar icermektedir. Bunlardan en onemlisi musabakann gidisatna gore islem yapabilir olmaktr.Ayrca musabakann 2. Yarsna gore hamle yapp ayr bir bahisin soz konusu olmas da ciddi avantajdr. Dogru hamle ile sizde istediginiz bahisi yapp kazanc elde edebilirsiniz. Nitekim canl olarak yapacagnz bahis icin mac oncesi raporlara gore hareket etmek onemlidir. Cunku takmlarn durumlarn analiz etmek tahmin gucunu arttracaktr. Misal tamnn en iyi oyuncusu sakat ya da kart cezals ise takmn performansnda dusus yasanacaktr. Buna ek olarak takmn deplasman performans ile evinde ki performans ayr olacaktr. Burada da takmn musabakay nerede yaptgna bakmak gerekir. Bu ayrntlar da iyice analiz ettikten sonra bahsinizi yapp kazanmann keyfini yasayabilirsiniz. Canl Bahis Siteleri Son derece yuksek getiriye sahip bahis sektoru uzun zamandr faaliyet gostermektedir. Cok ciddi rakamlarn soz konusu oldugu bu sektor zamanla sanal ortamlara donusmustur. Elbette guvenli ve bir o kadar da avantajl olan bu siteler cok yonlu frsatlar sunmaktadrlar. Canl iddaa siteleri gerek yeni uyelere gerekse de hali hazrdaki uyelerine bolca bonus frsatlar vermektedir. Yatracagnz tutara gore belirlenen bonuslar site icerisinde rahat hareket etmenizi de saglayacaktr. Canl bahis sitelerini kullanmadan once mutlaka guvenli olup olmadgna goz atmalsnz. Zira baz kullanclar guvenli olmayan sitelerden yaptklar islemlerden dolay magdur olmaktadrlar. Nitekim guvenli ve sorunsuz hizmet sunan yurt ds site tercih etmek en dogru secenektir. Sektorde uzun yllar faaliyet gosteren siteleri tercih edebilirsiniz. Bu alanda yer alan yabanc siteler musteri memnuniyetine onem vermektedir. Oncelik site kullanclarn sorunsuz sekilde bahislerini yapabilir olmasn saglamaktr. Bahis sitelerinde amac hem daha fazla kullancya hizmet vermek hem de sektorde emin admlarla ilerlemek onceliklidir. Dogru site tercihi ile sizde canl bahislerinizi sorun yasamadan gerceklestirebilirsiniz. Sizler icin hazrlams oldugumuz canl bahis siteleri listesi su sekildedir; Mobilbahis Tempobet Bets10 Bahigo 1xbahis Betboo Youwin Superbahis Sralams oldugumuz bu siteler sektorde basarl islere imza atms sitelerdedir. Canl bahis konusunda beklentileri karslayacak olan bu siteler sizlere kolaylk sunmaktadrlar. Bol bonuslu secenekle de sizlere farkl bahis yonlerini sunacaklardr. Sistemsel etki icerisinde her zaman etkin sonuc alabilmek icin surekli olarak faaliyet icerisindedirler. Canl Bahis Taktikleri Bahis sektorunun en fazla dikkat edilmesi gereken hususu dogru taktik ve dogru tahmindir. Elbette dogru tahmini yapabilmek icin analizi cok iyi yapmak gerekir. Canl bahis taktikleri arasnda ilk sra analiz gelmektedir. Analiz yapamadgnz zaman basarl tahminlerde bulunmanz pek de mumkun degildir. Cunku bahiste onemli olan konu musabakann analizini cok iyi yaplmas gerektigidir. Canl bahisin ozelliklerini iyi bilmek ve nasl bir hamle yapacagnz bilmek gerekir. Ozellikle riskli maclarda yaplacak degerlendirmeler cok daha onemlidir. Canl bahis yapacaklarn takip edecegi degerler takmlarn durumlar ile alakal olmaldr. Performans uzerine kurulu bahis sisteminde takm degerlendirmesine iyi bakmak gerekir. Iki takmn son 5 macta nasl bir sonuc ortaya koyduguna bakarak hareket etmek onemlidir. Ayrca hangi takm evinde daha iyi performans sergiliyor diye de ayrca bakmak gerekir. Analizlerle alakal puan durumlarna da goz atmak cok onemlidir. Puan degerlendirmesinde oncelikle takmlarn ihtiyaclar ile dogru orantl hareket etmek gerekir. Cunku olusturulan performans takmn da durumunu ortaya koymaktadr. Nitekim istenilen sonucu elde edebilmek icin tum ayrntlar bilmek gerekir. Takm ici duzenden tutunda da takmn son durumuna kadar her ayrnt onemlidir. Iki takmn birbirleri arasnda ki sonuclar da incelemek gerekir. Burada dikkat edilecek detaylarn basnda maclarda kac gol oldugu ve gollerin hangi dakikalarda atldgdr. Cekismeli gecen musabakalarda bazen goller ilk yarda daha fazla olurken baz maclarda da ikinci yarda daha cok gol olmustur. Iki takm arasnda ki maclarda gollerin cogunlugu ilk yarda geliyorsa buna gore bahis yapabilirsiniz. Canl Bahis Siteleri Bonuslar ve Kampanyalar Bahis yapanlar veya yapmay dusununler sitelerin sunmus olduklar frsatlar merak etmektedirler. Cunku siteler daha fazla kullancya erismek icin her donem kampanyalar duzenleyerek kullanc odakl hamleler yapmaktadrlar. Canl bahis bonuslar ve kampanyalar oldukca populer olup, siteler bu konuda adeta birbirleri ile yarsmaktadrlar. Birbirinden farkl ozelliklere sahip olan kampanyalar size frsatlar sunmaktadr. Daha cok kazanma ihtimalinizi arttran bu bonuslar daha cesur olmanza da dogrudan etki edecektir. Nitekim bonuslar sitelerin cekiciligini ve avantajlarn arttrmaktadr. En cok kazandran canl bahis siteleri bedava bonuslar ve kampanyalar icin http://www.milano2018.com/canli-bahis-siteleri-2022/ linkinden yardm alabilirsiniz. Hos geldin bonusu ile baslayan ve sonrasnda para yatrdkca bonus veren cok sayda site bulunmaktadr. Canl bahis bonusu veren siteler yeni uyelere sunduklar frsatlar farkl kampanyalarla mevcut uyelerine de sunmaktadrlar. Hali hazrda siteyi kullananlarn da bonus frsatlarndan yararlanmalar icin donemsel kampanyalar olusturmaktadrlar. Boylece baska sitelere gidisler olmayacag gibi site de daha keyifli zaman gecirmek mumkun klnmaktadr. Bu tur eklentiler yapan sitelerde musteri memnuniyeti daha fazladr. Bahis siteleri ozellik ve uygulama bakmndan farkllklar bunyelerinde bulundurmaktadrlar. Verilen bonuslarn olusturulmas ve kullanclar aktarlmasnda yatrlan para miktarlar belirleyici olmaktadr. 1.000 TL yatran bir kullanc yuzde 20 bonus frsat olan bir kampanyadan 200 TL bonus kazanabilmektedir. Yatracag tutar 10.000 TL oldugunda bu bonustutar 2.000 TL olabilmektedir. Gerceklesen ve uygulanan esaslar tamamen donemsel olarak yaplan kampanyalarla alakaldr. Iyi Canl bahis siteleri bonuslar ve kampanyalar icin sitelerin vermis oldugu oranlar takip edebilirsiniz. Canl Bahis Siteleri Para Yatrma Online Canl bahis yapacaklarn merak ettigi konulardan bir digeri de para yatrma islemleridir. Oldukca onemli olan bu konuda hata yapmamak cok onemlidir. Canl bahis sitelerine para yatrma islemi sanlann aksine son derece basittir. Oldukca basit ve uygulama esas dogru etki olusturan bu yapda sizde islemi rahatca tamamlayabilirsiniz. Para yatrma konusunda su yolu izleyebilirsiniz. Guvendiginiz ve herhangi bir sekilde aklnzda soru isareti kalmayan bahis sitesine uye olmanz gerekmektedir. Uyelik islemini sorunsuz sekilde tamamladktan sonra para yatrma islemine gecebilirsiniz. Kullanacagnz siteye uye olduktan sonra karsnza kullanc ad ve sifresini gireceginiz yer gelecektir. Buraya giris yaptktan sonra site icerisine islemlere devam edebilirsiniz. Sitede yer alan para yatrma sekmesine tklayp sonrasnda karsnza gelen sayfay inceleyebilirsiniz. Para yatrma bolumunde yer alan ksma ne kadar para yatracagnz yazp devam tusuna basmalsnz. Yatrmak istediginiz tutar girip sonrasnda da devam tusuna bastktan sonra karsnza kart bilgilerinizi gireceginiz sayfa gelecektir. Kredi kart kullanarak para gondermek isteyenlerin tercih ettigi bu sayfa tum bilgiler girilip islem onaylanmaldr. Canl bahis sitelerine para yatrma islemini gerceklestirmek icin hesaba havale secenegini de kullanabilirsiniz. Site icerisinde musteri hizmetleri ile iletisime gecerek banka hesap numaralarn ogrenebilirsiniz. Belirtilen IBAN numarasna istediginiz tutar havale edebilirsiniz. Havale ederken acklama ksmna yazlacak bilgilere dikkat etmelisiniz. Kredi kart veya banka havalesi ile gerceklesen para yatrma islemi sonucunda site hesabnzdan bakiyenize bakabilirsiniz. Bakiyenize gore dilediginiz sekilde bahislerinizi gerceklestirebilirsiniz. Canl Bahis Siteleri Para Cekme Canl bahiste dogru hamleler ve dogru tahminler sonucunda kazandgnz bedeli geri almak isteyebilirsiniz. Kazanclarnz istediginiz banka hesabnza cekebilmek icin uymanz gereken kurallar soz konusudur. Oncelikle bahis sitelerinden para cekebilmeniz icin uye olurken dogru bilgi paylasmnda bulunmanz gerektigidir. Cunku canl bahis sitelerinden para cekme islemi icin kullanc hesab ile talep edilen banka hesap bilgilerinin ortusmesi gerekir. Yani uye olurken verilen bilgi ile banka hesab kime ait ise o bilgiler ayn olmaldr. Bu uygulama sitenin hem kullancsn hem de kendisini guvene alma politikasdr. Ayrca frsatclarn onune gecerek yeni bir uye olusumunun da onune gecmek amac gutmektedir. Uye olan kisi farkl para cekilme talebi verilen hesap farkl oldugunda para cekme islemi gerceklesmeyecektir. Bahisleriniz sonucunda kazanc elde edebilir ve bu kazancnz da hakknz olarak almak isteyebilirsiniz. Burada son derece basit uygulama soz konusu olurken siteler aras farkl gorunumler soz konusu olabilir. Fakat yine de tum sitelerde uyenin site icerisinde para cekme bolumune girmesi yeterlidir. Burada cekilecek olan tutarn belirlenmesi ve hesap numarasnn girilmesi ile birlikte islem onay gerekecektir. Para cekme taleplerinde sizden gerekli bilgiler istenmekte ve havale islemi istenilen bilgiler esliginde yurutulmektedir. Dogru bilgi paylasmak sorunsuz para cekebilmeniz en onemli kuraldr. Istenilen bilgiler girildikten sonra site sorumlular gerekli kontrolleri yapp herhangi bir sorun yoksa ksa surede hesabnza gerekli paray aktaracaklardr. Canl Bahis Sitelerinden Para Cekmek Icin Istenen Belgeler Bahis sitelerine uye olduktan sonra baz kullanclar para cekme taleplerinin karslanmadg konusunda sikayetlerde bulunmuslardr. Bu sikayetlersektorde uzun zamandr bulunan guvenilir bahis siteleri de yer almaktadr. Fakat sikayetlerin dayanaklarna bakldgnda ise islerin tamamen farkl oldugu gorulmektedir. Yasanan bu durum kullanclarn hatal bilgi girmesi ve uyelik bilgileri ile banka bilgilerinin uyusmamas ile dogru orantldr. Birde canl bahis para cekmek icin istenen belgeler eksik ya da hatal olarak sunulmus olabilir. Ortaya ckan karsklar neticesinde para cekme talebinde bulunan kisi istedigini alamadg icin sikayetci olmaktadr. Oysa ki istenilen bilgiler dogru ve istenilen evraklar eksiksiz sunulsa para cekme islemi sorunsuz olacak. Sitelerin para cekme konusunda dikkatli hareket etmesi hilelerin ve illegal faaliyetlerin onune gecmek adnadr. Cunku baz kullanclar farkl bilgiler vererek ikinci hesap acabilmektedirler. Bazen de bilincsizce hatal bilgi girilebilmektedir. Hatal islemlerin cozumu konusunda islem yaptgnz sitenin musteri temsilcileri ile gorusebilirsiniz. Talepleriniz dogrultusunda para cekme islemlerinde ki sorunlar giderilecektir. Canl bahis para cekmek icin istenen belgeler listesi su sekildedir; Kullanc bilgileri ile banka bilgilerini karslastrmak icin kimlik fotokopisi Banka hesap bilgileri Ikametgah ve kisiye ait herhangi bir fatura. Kacak Iddaa Turkiyede dogrudan bahis yapmak icin resmi kanallar kullanlabilmektedir. Fakat tercih edilen ve oran olarak cok daha fazla frsatlar sunan kacar iddaasiteleri bulunmaktadr. Bu siteler kanunlara aykr sekilde yaplmakta olup, yasal bir dayanag yoktur. Elbette bu sitelerin kurulus merkezi Turkiye olmayp, ds ulkelerdedir ve faaliyetler belirlenen siteler uzerinden yaplmaktadr. Kacak Iddaa oldukca riskli olup, cok dikkatli olunmas gerekir. Kacak Bahis Kanunlar cercevesinde istediginiz gibi bahis yapamayabilirsiniz. Bahis yapabilmek icin ya kanuni olarak sorun olmayan ulke dsnda ki kumarhanelere gitmeniz veya kacak bahis sitelerinden islem yapabilirsiniz. Zira bu durum tehlikeli olsa da cok sayda site guvenli sekilde bu alanda hizmet vermektedir. Kacak bahiste oldukca fazla secenek bulunurken yuksek oranda kazanc sunuyor olmas da ragbeti arttryor. Illegal Bahis Bahisin bircok alanda yasak oldugu Turkiyede bu alanda cok sayda yabanc merkezli siteler hizmet vermektedir. Illegal bahis sektorunde faaliyet gosteren siteler guvenli hizmet anlays ile kullanclarna frsatlar sunmaktadr. Yurt ds merkezli bu siteler sorunsuz sekilde hizmetlerini surdururken bulunduklar ulkelerde kanunlara uygun sekildedir. Elbette faaliyet noktasnda bulunduklar ulkelerde sorun teskil etmese de Turkiyede faaliyet gostermeleri kanunin yasaklanmstr. Yasads Bahis Gerek olusturulan etkenler gerekse de ortaya konulan riskler yasads bahis de oldukca tehlikelidir. Kanunlarn mudahil olduklar bu alanlar da hem kullanclar hem de populer bahis yaptranlar tum riskleri goze almaktadrlar. Fakat yasaklardan uzak sekilde guvenli hizmet sunan siteler de bulunmaktadr. Takipler neticesinde kapatlan sitelerin muhakkak alternatifleri kurularak yollarna devam etmektedirler. Canl Iddaa Siteleri Nelerdir? Dunya genelinde kabul gormus cok sayda guvenli hizmet veren populer bahis siteleri bulunmaktadr. Elbette bu siteler dunyann bircok ulkesinde faaliyet gosterse de Turkiyede yasaktr. Sektorde yer alan cok sayda legal iddaa siteleri bulunmaktadr. Herhangi bir kanunsuzlugun olmadg bu sitelerden hzl ve guvenli islem yaplabilmektedir. Tabi bu sitelerde uygulanan oranlar yasal olmayan sitelere gore daha dusuktur. Illegal sitelerin tercih edilme sebeplerinin en onemli etkeni de olusturulan oranlardr. Peki, Iddaa siteleri nelerdir? Faaliyetleri ve uygulama esaslar nelerdir? Turkiyede faaliyet gosteren yasal iddaa siteleri listesi su sekildedir; Iddaa Bilyoner Tuttur Birebin Oley Nesine Misli Iddaa 2004 ylnda hizmet vermeye baslayan Iddaa Spor toto tarafndan kurulmus olup, ilk etapta bayilik seklinde calsmaya baslamstr. Elbette zamanla gelisen teknolojiye ayak uydurarak internet uzerinde de populer bahis severlerin hizmetine sunulmustur. Kuruldugu donemde devletin resmi kurumu olarak faaliyet gosterirken gelinen yeni donemde ozellestirilmistir. Bilyoner Turkiyede faaliyetine 2006 ylnda baslayan Bilyoner ilk ozel yasal bahis sitesi olma ozelligine sahiptir. Guvenilir bahis siteleri Turkiyede bunlardr. Ksa surede populer olan site halen faaliyetlerini sorunsuz sekilde surdurmektedir. Tuttur Ksa surede adndan bahsettirmeyi basaran Tuttur 2009 ylnda faaliyetlere baslamstr. Guvenilir bahis siteleri arasnda yerini almstr. Gunumuze dek bircok alanda populer bahis yapanlara frsatlar sunarken avantajlar ile de begeni toplamstr. Birebin Kullanc odakl calsmalar surdurse de 2011 ylnda sektore giren Birebindiger sitelere gore daha az ragbet gormektedir. Bahis oynamak ise bu sitede oldukca kolaydr. Elbette farkl yaklasmlara sahip olmasndan dolay ilerleyen sureclerde adndan sklkla bahsettirecek gibi gorunuyor. Oley 2009 ylnda Dogus yayn gruplarnn istiraki olarak kurulmus olup yasal olarak herhangi bir sorunu olmayan sitelerdendir. Bahis siteleri arasnda hzl cks yapms bir sitedir. Oley yapms oldugu yenilikler ile kullanclarn da dikkatini ksa surede cekmeyi basarmstr. Nesine Birbirini takip eden surecte Nesine de yine 2006 ylnda hizmet vermeye baslamstr. Yasal bahis siteleri arasnda yerini almay basaran firma ksa surede sevilen ve ragbet goren bir site olmustur. Misli 2009 ylnda sektore cok hzl giris yapan Misli cok sayda reklam filmi ile on plana ckmay basarmstr. Internet uzerinden hem yasal hem de sorunsuz hizmet veren bahis sitelerinden bir tanesi olmustur. Canl Bahis Siteleri Kayt ve Uyelik Islemleri Her zaman populerligini koruyan ve surekli gelisim gosteren canl bahis gun gectikce daha da gucleniyor. Bahis oynamak icin ise sitelere uye olunmas gerekir. Yuksek getirisi ve begeni toplayan faaliyetleri ile cok sayda site bu alanda faaliyet gostermektedir. Elbette sorunsuz sekilde uye olmanz ve faaliyetler gostermeniz de oldukca kolaydr. Canl bahis siteleri kayt ve uyelik islemleri dakikalar icerisinde gerceklestirilecek yapya sahiptir. Uye olacagnz siteyi belirledikten sonra siteye girmeniz gerekmektedir. Girdiginiz sitenin ana sayfasnda uye ol ya da kayt ol bolumu bulunacaktr. Siteler arasnda degiskenlik gosteren bu alanda temel unsurlar bulunmaktadr. Elbette farkllklar olsa da temelinde benzer bilgiler uye olmak isteyen kisilerden talep edilmektedir. Uye ol bolumune tkladktan sonra karsnza uyelik bilgi formu ckacaktr. Bu formda sizin kim oldugunuzu ogrenmek ve sitenin guvenligini saglamak adna islemler yaplmaktadr. Uyelik formunda yer alan ad soyad bolumunu eksiksiz ve dogru sekilde doldurmalsnz. Sizden bu formda istenen bilgilerin tamamn girmeniz istenecektir. Istenen bilgiler mutlaka dogru ve eksiksiz sekilde olmaldr. Eksik veya hatal bilgi uyelik islemlerinde sorun teskil edebilir. Yine de yanls bilgi girisine ragmen uyelik islemleri tamamlanabilir. Fakat boyle bir yol izleyenler sonrasnda buyuk skntlarla karslasabilirler. Bu skntlarn basnda da para cekme islemlerinde yasanan sorunlardr. Uyelik islemleri dikkatli ve ozenle doldurulmas gereken yapdadr. Canl bahis siteleri kayt ve uyelik islemleri gerceklestirilirken verilen bilgiler site yonetimi tarafndan muhafaza edilmektedir. Herhangi bir sekilde 3. Sahslarla paylaslmas gibi bir durum soz konusu degildir. Bu faaliyetleri surduren sitelerin guven unsurlar arasnda bu nokta onceliklidir. Bahis sitelerine uye olurken hatal bilgi paylasmnda bulunmak size faydadan cok zarar verecektir. Diyelim ki bilgileri hatal girdiniz ve uyelik onayland. Uyelik tamamlandktan sonra siteye para yatrdnz ve kazanc elde ettiniz. Kazancnz sonrasnda hesabnza almak istediginizde karsnza banka bilgileri bolumu gelecektir. Para cekme talebi gerceklestikten sonra site uyelik bilgileri ile banka hesap bilgileri ortusmez ise paranz alamazsnz. Boyle bir durumla karslasmamak adna bu hususa ayrca dikkat etmelisiniz. Aug 9, 2016 | By Alec It happens to everyone who ever opens a bottle of wine. Thanks to the prevalence of screw caps nowadays, you find yourself completely destroying those few corks you come across no matter how careful you are. But now you wont have to drink the whole bottle anymore, as you can just 3D print a new cork at home. For Dutch filament manufacturers Formfutura has just launched their new EasyCork PLA-based filament, which is absolutely packed with cork fibers to prevent warpage and can be 3D printed on just about every desktop 3D printer out there. Formfutura is a materials specialist based in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, that is steadily building a reputation for its engineering-grade and consumer filaments. Aside from the usual stuff, they have built up an especially remarkable range of specialty filaments, including a range of EasyWood filaments and the engineering grade TitanX and ApolloX materials, which can boast about unparalleled adhesion qualities. But among us regular users, FormFutura is especially known for their EasyFil material approach, which ensures that their PLA-based filaments (like their EasyWood range) remain almost completely warp-free when 3D printed. This decreases the need for reprints and allows you to get more value out of your purchase. EasyCork is also based on their EasyFil PLA compound, making it absolutely warp-free. EasyCork also has an excellent filament flowing behavior allowing you to 3D print cork-like objects with high printing speeds. Certain geometric shapes can even be 3D printed with extremely high speeds, the FormFutura team add. The filament can even boast about perfect first- and inter-layer adhesion, while EasyCork features great thermal stability and filament flowing behavior as well. Whats more, this new filament is extremely lightweight because of its relatively high amount of cork fibers. While most wood-based PLA filaments are almost completely PLA, a massive 30 percent of EasyCork is made from cork fibers. This means that one kilogram of EasyCork contains 300 gram of lightweight cork fibers. These lightweight cork fibers make that EasyCork has an incredible high volumetric filling, they say. This means that any object 3D printed in EasyCork not only has all the aesthetics of cork (including its smell), but also has its excellent lightweight and impact resistant properties as well. The natural cork fillers in EasyCork will give your printed object a living appearance with very subtle natural linings/shades which can be reinforced by playing around with extrusion temperature variations during your 3D print, its Dutch developers argue. Available in both natural dark cork and a lighter version, you can now thus even 3D print actual corks at home. But most importantly, EasyCork can be 3D printed on just about every commonly-used desktop 3D printer unlike many other specialist filaments out there. This is largely made possible by the filaments excellent roundness and very tight diameter tolerances, making it easily 3D printable on any MakerBot, Ultimaker, Leapfrog, UP! machine out there, and on just about every other desktop 3D printer you can think of even on any RepRap build. And that accessibility is something the 3D printing community desperately needs from its filament. Posted in 3D Printing Materials Maybe you also like: Aug 9, 2016 | By Tess Its been an exciting week for those interested in the field of nanoscale 3D printing. Just yesterday we reported on the Oak Ridge National Laboratorys recent advancement within the field through using simulation to make FEBID 3D printing more precise than ever. Now, another research team, this time from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany, has developed a novel method for creating specialized Atomic force microscopy (AFM) probes using 3D direct laser writing and two-photon polymerization. Atomic force microscopy, also known as AFM or scanning-force microscopy, is a scanning method used for the analysis of atomic scale surfaces. The technique, which works by using a probe or sharp tip placed at the end of a cantilever which senses and scans the topography of the microscopic samples, typically has a resolution of fractions of a nanometer. And while the AFM technique has existed and been used for over 3 decades, making specialized or custom probes has remained a difficult and expensive process. The research conducted by the KIT team, which will be published in this weeks Applied Physics Letters journal, demonstrates how 3D printing technologies can be used to create specialized or custom probes in a much more efficient manner than before. Specifically, the researchers have devised a method that uses 3D direct laser writing based on two-photon polymerization, a 3D printing process capable of creating structures with extremely high resolutions. Essentially, two-photon polymerization uses an extremely focused femtosecond laser which exposes an ultraviolet-light-curable photoresist material. This exposure results in a two-photon adsorption which itself results in a polymerization reaction, or a 3D network. Hendrik Holscher, head of the scanning probe technologies group at KIT, said of the project: This concept isnt new at the macroscopic scale: you can freely design any shape with your computer and print it in 3D. But at the nanoscale, this approach is complex. To write our tips, we applied two-photon polymerization with an experimental setup, recently developed at KIT, which is now available from startup company Nanoscribe GmbH. Nanoscribe GmbH, as we know, is one of the pioneering forces behind the development of nanoscale 3D printing technologies. The company, which was founded in 2007, is actually a spin-off from a research group from KIT. As mentioned, the specialized probes made with the 3D direct laser writing method can have radii as tiny as 25 nanometers (to put that into perspective, a human hairs diameter is about 3,000 times bigger than that), and can be attached to any standard or more traditionally manufactured micromachined cantilevers. Additionally, according to the teams tests and findings, the 3D printed AFM probes have demonstrated durability, low wear rates, and a high level of reliability. Holscher adds that the new specialized probes can also be tuned for multi-frequency applications by simply adding and adjusting reinforcing structures to the cantilever structure. The two-photon polymerization method for manufacturing nanoscale AFM probes is a significant advancement within the field that could open the possibilities for analyzing atomic scale surfaces and samples at even higher resolutions. According to the KIT researchers, their technique will soon become widely available to nanotechnology researchers and projects. Holscher even predicts that their technology could inspire an online service, where people could digitally design and order their specialized AFM probes through a website. Until then, the KIT researchers will continue to work on and develop their technique and extend its applications into other fields, such as biomimetics, optics, and photonics. Posted in 3D Printing Technology Maybe you also like: Aug 9, 2016 | By Andre One of the more popular surviving artifacts of Greek mythology is the tale of Pandoras box. In it, the curious Pandora goes against her better judgement and opens a forbidden container that, unbeknownst to her contains all the evils of the world and is shocked when it can no longer be shut. Some others might say the cat is out of the bag or Eden's apple eaten; whatever the case there is no turning back on Pandora's ill-fated decision. A few years ago Cody Wilson took the 3D printing world by storm with Defense Distributed, a not-for profit born around the idea of the free distribution of 3D printable guns (or wiki weapons as he called them). These files could in turn be downloaded by anybody with a 3D printer and, if produced in accordance to the material requirements necessary for the design, have a functional gun for essentially the raw material costs of 3D printed filament, a nail and a bullet. While its true the publicity surrounding him and his philosophies have since died down, people around the world have continued along with what Cody had started. And if a assembled 3D printed gun found at Reno-Tahoe International Airport is any indication, Pandoras box remains wide open when it comes to continued efforts to produce and transport 3D printed guns. In this case, the 3D printed gun was merely a Pug 22 Mag replica and never intended to be fired. There was no discernible trigger mechanism and its unclear how the live ammunition found along side of it would ever be compatible, let alone not destroy the weapon (or worse) in the process. But, with laws being what they are in certain pockets of the world, the owner was given a simple choice of checking the item or leaving it behind; so he left it behind and continued on his merry way. At the end of the day the 3D printed replica will be forever kept, along with the 68 traditional firearms discovered in carry-on bags across the United States in the last week alone, in the safe possession of the Transportation Security Administration. So even though this may technically have been a false alarm, the fact is that people continue to 3D print guns at an alarming rate. When asked about the 3D printed gun controversy ad nauseam over the past few years I would always reply that it is not a technological issue but instead one of human nature and the unpredictability therein. Even though Pandoras box was opened by Cody Wilson when it comes to peoples fascination with 3D printed weaponry there still exists the yet-to-be-mentioned moral of the Pandoras Box tale. That is, when everything seems at its darkest with no light in any which direction there will always be hope. Hope that one day people will cease in their fascination with the possibilities of 3D printed weaponry and eventually leave all of its nonsense behind. Posted in 3D Printing Application Maybe you also like: boyd workman wrote at 8/14/2016 3:02:20 AM:andre you are just another anti gun dumb ass that will wish he she had a gun and new how to use it one day look up boyd workman on youtube if you want to see pandores boxRobinLeech wrote at 8/9/2016 10:26:53 PM:Seriously? The hope is that people will realize the necessity of being able to defend themselves from predators and rogue governments and eventually leave all this nonsense of self defense being evil behind. Infringing on that right simply leaves good people vulnerable to the evil ones that will not be stopped or deterred by laws. The reality is that bombs can be and were once made out of (cow) urine and guns can be made out of a few pipes and simple hardware. So laws and regulations can't stop anyone unless you want to live in a cage guarded by wolves. You must be capable of accepting the risks/responsibility involved in using appropriate means/force to defend yourself. Government's job is to punish those that abuse these rights, not to infringe rights of those who haven't.Rick T wrote at 8/9/2016 8:48:15 PM:There is a reason gun barrels are not made of plastic. I hope the idiot that made this tries it out.Mbc wrote at 8/9/2016 6:49:57 PM:We've been killing each other since we stepped out of the primordial ooze, doing away with one form of weapons will not end that. Eradicating the reasons for killing, ignorance and lack of resources, will have much better results for our species.Brian wrote at 8/9/2016 3:59:19 PM:Good article! David Auerbach in the LA Review of Books: To find a personality that captures the sheer vacuousness of Trumps anti-ideology, we have to turn to literature, and specifically to Robert Musils modernist masterpiece The Man Without Qualities. Begun in Austria in 1921 and left uncompleted at the time of Musils death in 1942, The Man Without Qualities is a surgical examination of the varieties of European intellectual pretense and folly in the years leading up to World War I. Musils work, begun in the immediate aftermath of the Great War, only became more urgent and desperate in the 1930s as events continued to bear out his direst assessments. The novel stands as a testament to the importance of maintaining independent, sober perception and thought in times of mass hysteria and madness. The character who concerns us here is Christian Moosbrugger, a working-class murderer of women who becomes an object of fascination for many of the characters in the novel and for the Vienna they inhabit. While standing trial for the brutal killing of a prostitute, he becomes a celebrity due to his cavalier and eccentric manner: During his trial Moosbrugger created the most unpredictable problems for his lawyer. He sat relaxed on his bench, like a spectator, and called out Bravo! every time the prosecutor made a point of what a public menace the defendant was, which Moosbrugger regarded as worthy of him, and gave out good marks to witnesses who declared that they had never noticed anything about him to indicate that he could not be held responsible for his actions. The rationale for Moosbruggers behavior, Musil explains, is his overwhelming neediness, his desire to have himself recognized by others as a superior person: He was clearly ill, but even if his obviously pathological nature provided the basis for his attitude, and this isolated him from other men, it somehow seemed to him a stronger and higher sense of his own self. His whole life was a comically and distressingly clumsy struggle to gain by force a recognition of this sense of himself. Moosbrugger will gladly go to jail as long as it reinforces and perpetuates his fame. Yet this formal need for public attention is not backed up by any fixed essence. More here. Phillip Lopate at The American Scholar: On July 4, a great artist and a remarkable human being, Abbas Kiarostami, diedunnecessarily, as it turns out. I knew him slightly, having interviewed him several times and written about him often. He was, to my mind, not simply the greatest Iranian filmmaker but one of the two or three greatest filmmakers alive (and now I have to amend that last word). Although his name barely registered on the American public, he was a revered figure on the international art film festival circuit. He began making short films about children, having been invited to start the filmmaking branch of the Kanoon Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults in Iran. From these shorts he graduated to superb feature films, such as Homework, Close-Up, Where Is My Friends House, And Life Goes On, Through the Olive Trees, and The Wind Will Carry Us, which combined neorealist humanism in the tradition of Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica, and Satyajit Ray, with a formalist rigor (choreographed long-duration shots) and a playful, postmodernist self-referentiality. In a sense, he solved the dichotomy between fiction and documentary. His films were gifted with patient observation and curiosity about ordinary people; there were always humorous bits, they breathed naturally, and they were healthy for youthat is, they made me feel engrossed, suspenseful yet at peace, when watching them. more here. In the summer of 2013, Ryan met Amanda at a summer camp in Pennsylvania. While paddling a boat in the middle of Laurel Lake, he asked her to be his girlfriend. Over Valentine's Day weekend three years later, the couple hiked Valley Loop Trail in Yosemite National Park. In a purely Northern Californian romantic moment, Ryan proposed to Amanda at the iconic Bridalveil Fall. Lovers of nature, Amanda and Ryan later said I Do in an intimate ceremony at a wooded venue in Sonoma County, surrounded by family and close friends. Rustic wood design elements and bits of DIY craft provided the decor for the celebration that included such old fashioned fun activities as cornhole and jenga. All vendors were friends of the family. The lovely make up and hair was done by a sister and delicious food prepared by cousin members. Photographer: Luke Crawford Reception Venue: Rio Lindo Adventist Academy Citizen artist and OBEY clothing founder Shepard Fairey is painting and meeting the people in San Francisco this week. To kick off American Civics, an exhibit of Fairey paintings opening at San Francisco Art Exchange this Saturday, August 13, the artist is replicating two of the show's worksportraits of Caesar Chavez and Fannie Lee Chaneyin mural format at two SF venues: 453 Hayes Street (at Linden) and 20th and Alabama, respectively. Fairey, of course, may be best known for his Barack Obama "Hope" poster, which was widely disseminated during that magical 2008 presidential election cycle, but the artist also has a fine reputation for being a constant champion of social justice causes. American Civics will showcase Fairey paintings inspired by the vivid images of photographer Jim Marshall, who captured the counterculture, civil rights, and antiwar movements of the 1960s and '70s, as well as portraits of icons of that time, including Johnny Cash, Jimi Hendrix, and Bob Dylan. The show at San Francisco Art Exchange will aim to cultivate a dialogue around such issues as voting rights, mass incarceration, workers' rights, income inequality, and gun culture. Shepard Fairey's "Workers' Rights" riffs on a Jim Marshall portrait of Cesar Chavez Mural (Courtesy of Shepard Fairey) The first mural, "Workers' Right," will replicate Fairey's painting of Jim Marshall's photographic portrait of Cesar Chavez, taken in Sacramento after Chavez completed his 300-mile march in support of farmworkers' rights. Fairey will be painting on location at 453 Hayes Street today and tomorrow. Where: 453 Hayes St. at Linden (Hayes Valley) When: August 9-10, noon until sundown. Fairey's "Voting Rights" features Fannie Lee Chaney (Courtesy of Shepard Fairey) Later this week, Fairey will paint a second mural at 20th and Alabama Streets, this one of Fannie Lee Chaney, who was photographed by Marshall on the day she learned that her son, James Chaney, had been killed for registering African Americans to vote. Where: 701 Alabama St. at 20th St. (Mission) When: August 11-12, noon until sundown Both murals will be outdoors and available for public viewing permanently. Fairey will also be attending the opening of American Civics at the San Francisco Art Exchange on Saturday, Aug. 13, where he will be available for a meet-and-greet with fans from 2 to 4pm. // American Civics at the San Francisco Art Exchange, 458 Geary St. (Lower Nob Hill), sfae.com Chris Ying has his plate full these days. If you don't know, Ying is editor in chief of Lucky Peach, the quarterly food magazine with a cult following; cofounder of the nonprofit Zero Foodprint; and author of various cookbooks, including The Mission Chinese Food Cookbook and, most recently, The Wurst of Lucky Peach. He is also helping put on MAD, Rene Redzepi's food symposium in Copenhagen. But like so many of his contemporaries, Ying's path into the food world was more spontaneous than by the book. Ying grew up in Southern California with Chinese immigrant parentsan engineer father and a pharmacist/entrepreneur mother who owned two Baskin Robins franchises as well as a Mexican restaurant. The family never went to fancy eateries; he grew up on Chinese standbys like Lion's head meatballs and steamed fish with ginger and soy. But it wasn't until he moved away to college (Ying attended UC Berkeley) that he realized all that ice cream, tacos, and Chinese food had made an impact on him. "Like a lot of first-generation American kids, I didn't really have a conscious understanding of how my upbringing might be particularly usefulnone of that really registered until college, when I started cooking for my friends for fun. This foodie culture started emerging and, all of a sudden, I discovered that my slightly enhanced knowledge of food had this social capital." This newfound appreciation for food quickly turned into an obsession, and Ying spent countless hours binge-watching Mario Batali and Emeril Lagasse cooking on the Food Network. He got a job as a line cook at the now-shuttered Downtown Restaurant in Berkeley, where he worked throughout college. Ying majored in English and moved to San Francisco after graduation, where he took an internship with the indie publisher McSweeney's. He also worked a short stint at Foreign Cinema, where he got to know Anthony Myint, who would later become cofounder of Zero Foodprint, Mission Chinese Food, and The Perennial. Ying was let go from FC within a week, but would continue on, honing his design and editing skills, at McSweeney's for the next five years. One day, while working on a project for McSweeney's founder Dave Eggers, Ying got a call from Peter Meehan, a former New York Times food writer and coauthor, with chef David Chang, of The Momofuku Cookbook. Meehan asked whether Ying and McSweeney's wanted to start a food magazine. There was no hesitation. Five years later, Lucky Peach is an incredible success, winning 2016 James Beard Award for Publication of the Year. "I never thought that food would be my thing, and I had no idea at the time that working at Lucky Peach would ultimately change my whole career, that it was going to become everything I do. It's weird to think about now that my whole life is about food writing, and restaurants, and food stories," Ying says. Yep, you never know what you're gonna get. 7x7: Why do you think Lucky Peach has been so successful? CY: We try to see food as the common thread between art, politics, science, travel, relationshipseverything. I think it's an outlook that speaks to readers who like food but also have other interests, as well as to people for whom food is the be all, end all. Put another way: We make a magazine and books and a website that we'd want to read, and thankfully it turns out there are other people like us. LP is now publishing online. How will the site differ from the mag? I want the Lucky Peach site to offer a different dimension to our readersmore guides, frequent updates, timeliness, video, more recipes, content that speaks to the way it's consumed. It's important to me that whatever form LP takes, it's always aware of the medium. I really believe that print and digital media are not adversaries. Sure there's overlap, but there's also a lot of room for them to coexist. What's your average day like? Day to day, it's pretty straightforward. I work in an office downtown, come in and do a standard 9 to 6:30. We work super closely with the office in New York in a real-time way. But that's punctuated with crazy spells of travel where I'm gone for three-quarters of the month. It's a pretty standard existence, with a lot of non-standard experiences. How do you decide on the theme of each issue? It's like a combination of spitballing, arguing, then vigorously agreeing on something. We throw a lot of ideas at the wall, then see which theoretically might work as a theme, then there's a lot of wiggling and adjusting. Your nonprofit, Zero Foodprint, aims to make restaurants leaders in the fight against climate change. How's that going? The main obstacle to Zero Foodprint has always been my lack of time. We recently brought on an executive director, Elizabeth Singleton, to resolve this, and she's been doing a great job of getting new restaurants involved at all sorts of different levels. That being said, I don't believe in a concrete measure of success for the projectclimate change is an immensely important fight. I just don't see a point where I can wipe my hands and say, cool, we're all done with that. I mean, I really hope that some grand scientific solution presents itself, but I'm not holding my breath. Any more books in the works? I really like the cookbooks we're doing at Lucky Peach, and I'd like to keep doing deep dives on more subjects. I would love to do another book with the Mission Chinese guys, and another book with Ivan Orkin (Ivan Ramen). I really want to write a book with Karen Taylor from El Molino Central. Her recipes would truly destroy the world. And I kind of want to write something for mysel something that's less of a cookbook. I'd like to exercise other parts of my brain. Let's talk about San Francisco for a sec. What your... Favorite burger: Sam's Dive bar: Mr. Bing's, RIP Place for a solid cocktail: The bar at The Perennial What kind of music do you listen to while cooking? I guess I listen to a lot of Drake while cooking. Our playlists at work are totally bonkers and genre-blind. You're tired, you're lazy, you're hungry, but you need to cook a meal. What do you make? Rice, soy sauce, egg yolk, furikake. Tacos or burritos? Tacos in the daytime, burritos at night. Favorite taco in the Bay Area? El Molino Central fish tacos Best burrito: La Taqueria, dorado style Most memorable thing you've eaten this year? Caviar course at Saison Culinary destination on your mind: I'm embarrassed to say I haven't been to Vietnam. Your last mealwhat would it be? Nope. Ying resides in Glen Park with his wife, dog, and is soon to be a father come October. Residents of St. Peterburg are serious about solar energy.The city is the first in the area to develop a solar co-op committed to drive the city of St. Petersburg to 100-percent renewable energy. The idea for the co-op came about from a partnership between the Suncoast Sierra Club and the League of Women Voters of the St. Petersburg We discovered that the League of Women Voters had been looking at developing a program like the East Orange co-op in Orlando, so we worked with the League and Community Power Network to bring a solar co-op program to St. Pete, says Emily Gorman, Sierra Club 100% St. Pete Campaign Manager. The St. Pete Solar Co-op is the first of its kind in the state as it is open to both home and business owners.Gorman says the co-op makes going solar easier and more affordable, with a payback period seen within 10 years of the system's 25-plus year lifetime. She cites East Orange co-op members who are saving more than $200 per month on their electricity costs.Aside from the savings residents can see in their bills, Gorman states there is a larger economic byproduct of going solar.Solar installers are small, local companies. So, in addition to saving money on their own energy costs, solar panel owners stimulate local economy by keeping their dollars close to home.Those interested in learning more about the co-op are invited to attend an information session. The first session was held on July 28at the Sunshine Center. There were approximately 80 people in attendance, with over 50 homeowners who registered with the co-op. Gorman says residents will still be able to sign up and join until December 2016.For more information, visit Florida Solar United Neighborhoods Lydia (not her real name) got married in 1959 at age 18. During the '60s, she taught at a junior college; she worked part time and raised their two kids, including a son who would be later be diagnosed with severe autism. She knew her husband was seeing other women. Sometimes he didn't even come home. She was lonely, miserable and financially trapped in her marriage. "I had this child who was going to be a child the rest of his life, and my husband was the only earner," she says. She didn't know how she could provide for her kids in what many then called a broken home. As the divorce rate crested, the term "broken home" was supplanted by the less-catastrophizing phrase "single-parent home," which better reflected the shifting zeitgeist on failed marriages. "There was this feeling that kids are resilient. 'They'll be OK no matter what, so you should be happy!'" Coontz says. "But then came the backlash: 'If you get divorced, your kids will be damaged. Forever!'" That was one of takeaways of psychologist Judith Wallerstein's 25-year California Children of Divorce Study, a groundbreaking longitudinal study she began in 1971. In the book Second Chances, published in 1989, she reported that more than half of children raised in divorced homes are so damaged they never marry themselves. The conclusions of Wallerstein, who died in 2012, remain controversial. Coontz argues there is little agreement in the data on the impact of divorce on children, except for research consistently showing that moving children in the middle of the school year is very difficult. The other numbers are all over the place. One study found that 24 percent of children saw their reading scores decline after divorce, but 19 percent saw their scores increase. Another study found that bullying and aggressive behavior increased in 18 percent of kids of divorced parents, and decreased in 14 percent. "What we have learned is that divorce is very painful, but not necessarily a tragedy," the historian says. "It's part of an ongoing process." Lydia agonized over that process until 1981, when she separated from her husband. Her daughter was 12. "She'd been through so much. I was like, 'Oh, this child is going to be miserable and angry with me. But I sat her down and explained, and she said, 'Good.'" "I didn't consciously think my parents should get divorced," Lydia's daughter, now a magazine executive, says. "But when they told me, I thought, 'That makes sense.' And my mom seemed lighter and happier." 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. IndexBox Marketing published a new report EU: Jerseys, Pullovers, Cardigans And Similar Articles Market Report. Analysis And Forecast To 2020 Total imports of jerseys, pullovers, cardigans, and similar articles by the EU Member States have been growing steadily over the last three years, reaching their peak of 17,825 million EUR in 2015. Data on EU trade with the non-EU countries displayed that the EU remains a net importer of jerseys, pullovers, cardigans, and similar articles. Germany (22%), the UK (16%), France (14%), and Italy (10%) were the leaders among European countries in terms of the import value of jerseys, pullovers, cardigans, and similar articles, together comprising 62% of total EU imports. The share of the UK (-2 percentage points each) illustrated negative dynamics, while Germanys (+2 percentage points) share increased from 2007 to 2015. Non-EU countries supplied the major value of imports, with extra-EU imports accounting for about 58% of the total imports. In 2015, the value of extra-EU imports of jerseys, pullovers, cardigans, and similar articles reached 10,409 million EUR, which was 7% more than the year before. The share of extra-EU imports in the apparent consumption of jerseys, pullovers, cardigans, and similar articles increased steadily over the recent eight years and reached an astounding 89%. The growing supply of imported goods, especially from China, Bangladesh, Turkey, and Cambodia, serves to actively displace the EU producers from the market. In addition, the transfer of manufacturing to the developing Asian countries with cheap labor has long been the global trend in the apparel market. This also increases the pressure on the European clothing industry. Follow the link below to review a free sample or to buy the report: http://www.indexbox.co.uk/store/eu-jerseys-pullovers-cardigans-and-similar-articles-market-report-analysis-and-forecast-to-2020/ This report focuses on the EU jersey market, providing a comprehensive analysis and the most recent data on its market size and volume, EU trade, price dynamics, domestic production, and turnover in the industry. The market trends section reveals the main issues and uncertainties concerning the industry, while the medium-term outlook uncovers market prospects. The attractivity index (IB Index) summarizes the source of existing opportunities as they appear in this market, as well as an interpretation of the trade figures. Countries coverage: EU(28) Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden, the United Kingdom. Data coverage: Market size and value; EU production, split by EU Member States; Production by type; Profiles of the leading companies; EU trade (intra and extra); Prices (producer, import and export); Trade structure and market channels; Market outlook to 2020; Per Capita Consumption. Product coverage: Jerseys, pullovers, cardigans, waist-coats and similar articles, knitted or crocheted, of wool, of Kashmir (cashmere) goats, and of other wool or fine animal hair, of cotton, of man-made fibers and of other textile materials. Why buy EU: Jerseys, Pullovers, Cardigans And Similar Articles Market Report. Analysis And Forecast To 2020? This report will provide you with deeper insights into current market developments with the latest data and underlying market affecting themes, allowing you to rewire your business around them. 3 easy ways to order Follow the link below to review a free sample or to buy the report: http://www.indexbox.co.uk/store/eu-jerseys-pullovers-cardigans-and-similar-articles-market-report-analysis-and-forecast-to-2020/ Call us +44 20 3239 3063 to discuss your information needs and for special discounts on multi-report orders Email your order to info@indexbox.co.uk Price: 1490 EUR for Single License TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 REPORT DESCRIPTION 1.2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2.1 KEY FINDINGS 2.2 MARKET TRENDS 3. MARKET OVERVIEW 3.1 MARKET VOLUME AND VALUE 3.2 TRADE BALANCE 3.3 MARKET STRUCTURE BY COUNTRIES 3.4 MARKET OPPORTUNITIES BY COUNTRIES 3.5 MARKET FORECAST TO 2020 4. DOMESTIC PRODUCTION 4.1 PRODUCTION IN 2007-2015 4.2 PRODUCTION BY TYPES 4.3 PRODUCTION BY COUNTRIES 5. IMPORTS 5.1 IMPORTS IN 2007-2015 5.2 IMPORTS BY TYPES 5.3 IMPORTS BY COUNTRIES 5.3 IMPORT PRICES BY TYPES AND COUNTRIES 6. EXPORTS 6.1 EXPORTS IN 2007-2015 6.1 EXPORTS BY TYPES 6.2 EXPORTS BY COUNTRIES 6.3 EXPORT PRICES 7. PRICES AND PRICE DEVELOPMENT 7.1 PRODUCER PRICES ON THE DOMESTIC MARKET 7.2 PRODUCER PRICES ON THE NON DOMESTIC MARKET 8. TRADE STRUCTURE AND CHANNELS 8.1 MAJOR TRADE CHANNELS 8.2 PRICE STRUCTURE 9. BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT OVERVIEW 9.1 STRUCTURAL PROFILE 9.2 COUNTRY ANALYSIS 9.3 SIZE CLASS ANALYSIS 10. COMPANY PROFILES Appendix 1: Trade and Prices by Countries Media Contact Company Name: IndexBox Marketing Contact Person: Inna Ivonina Email: info@indexbox.co.uk Phone: +44 20 3239 3063 Country: United Kingdom Website: www.indexbox.co.uk AcuteMarketReports.com has Published New Research Report Title World Refrigerated Display Cases Market Opportunities and Forecasts, 2015 2022 Refrigerated display cases are cabinets with glass surfaces for items, which require cooling or preservation. The cases are ideal for products requiring a regulated temperature to maintain the freshness. These are mostly used in retail stores and food & refreshment industry, for example, general stores/hypermarkets, supermarkets, eateries and hotels and non-routine outlets. RDCs help to attract customers through an attractive visual display of food and drink products. Moreover, expanding retail network and business sector for ready to eat and prepared food items, has fueled the demand for RDCs in the global market. Browse Full Report Visit http://www.acutemarketreports.com/report/world-refrigerated-display-cases-market Increasing demand for energy efficient refrigerated cases from commercial food service sector, has created the need for continuous research and development in RDC technologies. Increasing regulatory compliances and rising concerns for food safety majorly drive the growth of this market. Low awareness and limited adoption in less developed regions and growing environmental concerns are some factors impeding the market growth. With technological advancements, leading market players are developing energy efficient RDCs in different types and designs to cater to the increasing demands of commercial food industry. Product launches and acquisitions are identified as prominent strategies adopted by the companies operating in this market. For instance, AHT Cooling Systems GmbH, introduced products with RPM-regulated compressor technology and energy saving fan that provides maximum energy efficiency. These products are positioned especially for supermarkets and hypermarkets. Moreover, in July 2015, Epta Spa announced the acquisition of Knudsen Koling Denmark, a Danish RDC manufacturing company. Together, these companies would collaborate on CO2 and natural refrigerant based RDCs. The market is segmented on the basis of product type, product design and geography. The product type segment includes plug-in and remote RDCs. Plug-in RDCs dominate the overall market and are expected to maintain their dominance throughout the forecast period. The product design segment includes vertical, horizontal and hybrid/semi-vertical RDCs. The segment of Vertical RDCs accounted for maximum revenue share, in 2015 and is expected to maintain its position during the forecast period. Based on geography, the Refrigerated Display Case market is segmented across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and LAMEA. Asia-Pacific is expected to exhibit the highest growth in RDC market during the forecast period, owing to the burgeoning economic growth. The leading players profiled in this report are Metalfrio Solutions S.A, Lennox International, Dover Corporation, Illinois Tool Works Inc., Hussmann Corporation, AHT Cooling Systems GmbH, Epta S.p.a Refrigeration, Frigoglass S.A.I.C, Hoshizaki International, ISA Italy S.r.l, Verco Limited. View Full Report : World Refrigerated Display Cases Market Opportunities and Forecasts, 2015 2022 POTENTIAL BENEFITS FOR STAKEHOLDERS: The report provides an in-depth analysis of the Refrigerated Display Case market and offers current and future trends to identify lucrative investment pockets in the market. The report identifies the key drivers, opportunities and restraints that shape the market and provides an impact analysis for the forecast period. Porters five forces analysis highlights the potency of buyers and suppliers participating in this market. This would further offer a competitive advantage to stakeholders in making profitable business decisions. Market estimation of geographic segments is derived from the current market scenario and expected trends in order to highlight the market potential across key geographies. WORLD REFRIGERATED DISPLAY CASES MARKET SEGMENTATION The market is segmented on the basis of Product Type, Product Design and Geography. WORLD REFRIGERATED DISPLAY CASES MARKET By Product Type Plug in Refrigerated Display Cases Remote Refrigerated Display Cases WORLD REFRIGERATED DISPLAY CASES MARKET By Product Design Vertical Horizontal Hybrid/Semi-Vertical WORLD REFRIGERATED DISPLAY CASES MARKET By Geography North America Europe Asia-Pacific LAMEA KEY PLAYERS Metalfrio Solutions S.A. Lennox International Dover Corporation Illinois Tool Works Inc. Hussman Corporation AHT Cooling Systems GmbH Epta S.p.a Refrigeration Frigoglass S.A.I.C Hoshizaki International ISA Italy S.r.l Verco Limited Chapter: 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Report description 1.2 Key benefits 1.3 Key market segments 1.4 Research methodology 1.4.1 Secondary research 1.4.2 Primary research 1.4.3 Analyst tools and models Chapter: 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2.1 CXO perspective Chapter: 3 MARKET OVERVIEW 3.1 Market definition and scope 3.2 Key findings 3.2.1 Top impacting factor 3.2.2 Top winning strategies 3.2.3 Top investment pockets 3.3 Value chain analysis 3.4 Porters five forces analysis 3.4.1 Highly differentiable product in the market lead to high bargaining power of suppliers 3.4.2 Need for technologically advanced products and high product differentia-tion limits the bargaining power of buyers Latest Reports : World Automated Fare Collection System Market Opportunities and Forecasts, 2015 2022 World Medical Robotics and Computer Assisted Surgery Market Opportunities and Forecasts, 2015 2022 About Acute Market Reports : Acute Market Reports is the most sufficient collection of market intelligence services online. It is your only source that can fulfill all your market research requirements.We provide online reports from over 100 best publishers and upgrade our collection regularly to offer you direct online access to the worlds most comprehensive and recent database with expert perceptions on worldwide industries, products, establishments and trends. Our team consists of highly motivated market research professionals and they are accountable for creating the groundbreaking technology that we utilize in our search engine operations to easily recognize the most current market research reports online. Website: http://www.acutemarketreports.com Media Contact Company Name: Acute Market Reports Contact Person: Chris Paul Email: sales@acutemarketreports.com Phone: India: +91 7755981103, Toll Free US/Canada: +1-855-455-8662 Address:Office No 01, 1st Floor, Aditi Mall, Baner City: Pune State: Maharashtra Country: India Website: http://www.acutemarketreports.com/report/world-refrigerated-display-cases-market PHOENIX Neighbors say they seldom saw the children who lived in a home in the Phoenix suburb of Youngtown for the last six years. That all changed Saturday night when a 17-year-old boy was seen carrying his injured 9-year-old sister and 4-year-old brother down the street seeking help. Neighbors called 911. When authorities arrived, they tackled and then arrested a 16-year-old boy who was covered in blood and running from the scene. The teen is accused of fatally stabbing his 3-year-old brother and assaulting his sister. Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio called it a vicious, vicious, horrific murder. Authorities say he likely will be tried as an adult. The 16-year-old suspect has been booked into the Durango Juvenile Detention Center on suspicion of second-degree murder, aggravated assault and endangerment, said Arpaio, whose office is handling the investigation. The boys name isnt being released because hes a juvenile. Arpaio said the teen has no history of mental illness, and there have no prior calls made to the home, located about 25 miles northwest of Phoenix. Sheriffs officials said Tuesday there were no updates to release in the case, and there still was no word on a possible motive. The 9-year-old girl has been treated and released from a hospital, Arpaio said. The sheriff wouldnt disclose what detectives found when they executed a search warrant of the Youngtown home and didnt say if a weapon had been recovered. The childrens mother was at work at the time of the incident Saturday night. We have to get forensic experts to interview the underage witnesses, Arpaio said. We still have to finish this investigation. Public Service Company of New Mexicos plans to power a proposed Los Lunas Facebook center gets its first public airing at a hearing before the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission Tuesday. Meanwhile, concerns are being raised in Utah, where Facebook is considering a competing site, about how much water the data center would use. Facebook is considering both Los Lunas, N.M, and West Jordan, Utah for the site of a new $250 million data center. Last week, two Utah news outlets obtained a letter from Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams that said the proposed West Jordan data centerreferred to by officials there as Project Discuswould require 5.3 million gallons of water per day. But Los Lunas Mayor Charles Griego said in an email to the Journal that the New Mexico data center would require substantially less than what had been estimated in Utah. He said he was currently working on the water use agreement and was not at liberty to give more specifics until discussions were complete. Facebook declined to comment for this story, but information from the companys sustainability website paints a picture of water consumption at Facebooks data centers that differs dramatically from the number quoted by McAdams. According to the companys website, Facebooks data center in Prineville, Oregon, which has two data center buildings, used 9 million gallons of water per building per year in 2015 a rate of about 25,000 gallons per day for each building. The first phase of the Los Lunas project includes one data center building, with as many as five more in the future, according to PRC filings. If the new data center uses water at a rate similar to the Prineville center, the data center would use water at a rate of between 25,000 and 150,000 gallons a day, depending on the phase of the project. Facebook says it consumes approximately 221 million gallons of water a year, 70 percent of whichabout 115 million gallons annuallyis used by the companys data centers. A water usage rate of 5.3 million gallons a day would add nearly 2 billion gallons to the companys total annual water consumption. McAdams spokesperson Alyson Heyrend said the Utah mayors water usage number was based on conversations between the city of West Jordan and the local water authority that were then reported to the mayors office. Large data centers have historically required massive amounts of water to keep computers and storage devices at a constant temperature. The initial design plans for the 200-acre National Security Agency data center in Bluffdale, Utahabout 10 miles away from West Jordanestimated the site would use 1.7 million gallons of water per day, though it has used less since it opened in 2014. Facebooks website says the company has designed its data centers to use about half the water a typical data center uses. Most data centers use a significant amount of water as part of their cooling systems, reads the website. For the server halls of the data centers we own, we found a better way: using fresh air pulled in from outside and, when needed, efficient water evaporation technology. Any excess warm air gets recycled or sent back outside. Public discourse in New Mexico so far has focused less on water usage and more on the economic benefits of the data center as well as how it will be supplied with electricity. PNMs application includes, among other things, a mechanism for the utility to recoup the costs of supplying renewable energy to the data center, as well as construction of a new solar facility. Utahs public service commission is expected to complete their review of a similar proposal by Aug. 31. PNM requested that the PRC expedite their review process in order to make New Mexicos bid for the project more competitive. New Mexico lawmakers, the business community, and environmental advocates have expressed nearly unilateral support for the data center. In July, the states congressional delegation sent a letter expressing support for the project to PRC chairwoman Valerie Espinoza. On Monday, New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas sent a press release indicating his support. All six of the intervening parties in the PNM caseWestern Resource Advocates, New Energy Economy, New Mexico Industrial Energy Consumers, the Renewable Energy Industries Association of New Mexico, the Coalition for Clean Affordable Energy, and the city of Albuquerquehave also indicated they support the data center. SANTA FE Jerry Hicks helped buy supplies for his college-bound daughter on Sunday evening just before a power outage hit Santa Fe. But Hicks wont be able to see her off as she starts classes at UNM. Hicks, 39, was riding a motorcycle northeast on Cerrillos Road at about 7:44 p.m. Sunday when he was hit from behind by an SUV driven by 23-year-old Megan Carrillos of Pecos at the intersection with Cristos Road, where the traffic lights were completely out, near the Kohls department store in south Santa Fe. Dash-cam video from a Santa Fe police officer headed in the opposite direction on Cerrillos happened to capture the crash, from some distance. It shows Carrillos SUV running over Hicks and his motorcycle, while Hicks appears to be stopped or slowing down in the left lane. The accident happened just minutes after electricity went out for much of Santa Fe and elsewhere in New Mexico due to a lightning strike on a transfer station in Albuquerque. A police report said Hicks, a plumber and father of three with a rainwater harvesting business, was coming to a stop when he was hit. Slowing to yield if necessary is a widely recommended driving procedure when traffic lights are out an intersection. Sunday night, a police spokesman had reported that the lights at the intersection were flashing, which can happen after traffic signals reset in a blackout. But the dash-cam video released Monday shows the lights were completely out in both directions on Cerrillos at Cristos. In contrast, lights at busy Cerrillos and St. Francis Drive to the north were flashing red until power was restored some time around 9:10 p.m. Hicks was transported to Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center and died from his injuries. Police said early Monday that Carrillos has not been charged and they dont believe alcohol was a factor in the crash, but the case is still under investigation. Hicks mother, Geraldine Hicks, said Monday that Hicks, his wife Michelle and their 18-year-old daughter who graduated from Santa Fe High in May and is getting ready to attend the University of New Mexico had been shopping for college supplies at the Walmart close to the crash scene on Herrera Drive. The two women were traveling not far behind Hicks in a car when Hicks was struck. Michelle got out of the car and held her husband as he lay dying on the pavement, Geraldine Hicks said. He was just a good guy, she said. All he did was laugh and joke. I couldnt have asked for a better son. Hicks was born and raised in Santa Fe, and graduated from St. Michaels High School. He and Michelle married when they were young and the couple has three daughters ages 18, 17 and 14 who all attended or currently go to Santa Fe High. Kevin Johnson, a friend who said he knew Hicks for about 30 years and considered him a brother, said Hicks was well-known around town. He was a real big part of the community, Johnson said. Everybody knew his truck driving around town. Everywhere you went with him, he knew somebody. Hicks was a plumber who owned Hicks Enterprise. The youngest of four children, he loved being outdoors and riding motorcycles with his two older brothers. They were riding dirt bikes since they were knee high, Johnson said. Geraldine Hicks also said her son was very cautious, which may explain why he came to a stop at the non-working traffic light while other motorists seemed to simply travel through the intersection. State law says intersections with flashing red lights need to be treated as a four-way stop, but there doesnt appear to be a law governing what drivers should do at inoperable traffic lights. Santa Fe city spokesman Matt Ross said top city public safety officials say drivers should treat an intersection with blinking or inoperable lights as a four-way stop, but he could not find an ordinance that legally requires that. I think that girl should have been paying attention, Geraldine Hicks said. Jerry didnt know what hit him. She didnt stop at all. I dont know what she was thinking. NEW YORK Republican Donald Trump is suggesting that rival Hillary Clintons emails may be responsible for the death of an Iranian nuclear scientist who was executed for spying for the United States. Clintons campaign says hes making up those people. Hours after an unusually disciplined speech on his economic plan for the country, Trump, using the people are saying sentence structure he often favors to make accusations, tweeted Monday night: Many people are saying that the Iranians killed the scientist who helped the U.S. because of Hillary Clintons hacked emails. He didnt say which people he meant. The FBI has said there is no evidence that Clintons emails were hacked due to her use of a private account and server during her tenure as secretary of state. Tweeted back Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill: Many people are saying=I made this up.' Merrill added that after Trumps morning speaking to the Detroit Economic Club and sticking closely to his script, the muzzle was bound to come off. Trumps speech was designed in part to reassure Republicans unnerved by a disastrous week of self-inflicted feuds with an assortment of people, from grieving Muslim American parents to the leaders of Trumps own party. Clintons campaign cast his tweet Monday night as evidence that, in the words of spokesman Josh Schwerin, Theres just no resetting Donald Trump. Trump isnt the first to suggest there could be a link between Clntons emails on her private server and the execution of Shahram Amiri. Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton said on CBSs Face the Nation Sunday that there were on Hillary Clintons private server, there were conversations among her senior advisers about this gentleman. That goes to show just how reckless and careless her decision was to put that kind of highly classified information on a private server, he said. Amiri, an Iranian scientist, defected to the U.S. at the height of Western efforts to thwart Irans nuclear program. When he returned in 2010, he was given a heros welcome and greeted with flowers by government leaders. Then he mysteriously disappeared. Amiris case indirectly found its way into the spotlight last year with the release of State Department emails sent and received by Clinton. One 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 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 Iranian-interests section at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington 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. Clintons decision to store her emails on a private server in her New York home sparked an FBI investigation and has become a dominant issue in the presidential campaign. ___ AP Writer Catherine Lucey contributed to this report from Miami. WASHINGTON One politician who wants to be president and another who is running for vice president are headed to New Mexico for separate events this month. Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, Donald Trumps vice presidential running mate, will headline an Aug. 16 fundraiser at a private home in Albuquerque. Meanwhile, former Gov. Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Partys presidential nominee, is planning a public rally on Thursday at the Albuquerque Convention Center. The cost of the Pence event, hosted by the Trump-Pence Victory fund and the Republican National Committee, is $2,700 for regular admission and $5,000 for a VIP ticket. The location of the event will be disclosed to donors who RSVP to Trump.RSVP@GOP.com>href=http://Trump.RSV>Trump.RSVP@GOP.com. The Pence visit marks his first to New Mexico as Trumps running mate. Trump visited Albuquerque for a rally in May, but neither Hillary Clinton nor her running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine, has visited the state during the 2016 campaign. Meanwhile, Johnsons rally Thursday at the Albuquerque Convention Center is free and open to the public, although campaign contributions will be accepted. The former New Mexico governor has positioned himself as a third-party alternative for voters who dont plan to cast ballot for Trump or Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee. Johnson needs to achieve 15 percent support in five national polls to be included in the fall presidential debates. The rally at the Convention Center, 401 Second St. NW, will be in the West Complex on the upper level in Ballrooms A, B, and C. The West Complex is between Second and Third streets between Marquette and Tijeras. Volunteers released the final bunch of finches rescued after lightning struck the tree in which they were perched, tossing them to the ground near a Nob Hill bar. Ashley Dennis found the birds soggy and stunned on a Saturday night late last month. She and a group of passersby scrambled to put 71 survivors in boxes, and she kept the flock in her bathroom overnight before delivering them to Wildlife Rescue Inc. of New Mexico. This morning we released them right there at the firehouse, rescue center volunteer and founder Penny Elliston said Monday. Right onto the tree from which they came. Elliston said just two of the rescued finches died, and they were both pretty badly singed. The 68 finches and a solitary sparrow that survived were released in four locations throughout town over the last several days. This was quite extraordinary, in our experience, Ellison said of the massive rescue, adding that volunteers initially thought Dennis call was a prank. She was fabulous in that she picked them all up. Picking up little birds on the sidewalk and ending up with 70 of them thats a huge number. SUNSPOT Mark Klaene is not sitting back and waiting for the National Science Foundation to decide the fate of the Sacramento Peak Observatory at Sunspot just 16 miles southwest of Cloudcroft. Klaene who is the Apache Point Observatory Operations Manager is trying to put together a proposal to keep the SPO visitor center open, host star parties and use the facility for educational research. I want to turn that visitor center into a huge tourist attraction, Klaene said. I want to turn it into a nighttime visitor center. I want to do star parties. He said he was at a star party at McDonald Observatory northwest of Fort Davis, Texas. In the middle of nowhere and 2 hours from El Paso, Texas, it was a rainy Tuesday night with school still in session and 400 people showed up for it, Klaene said. This close to El Paso and Ruidoso if I can put a program together with a quality presentation and staff, theres no reason I couldnt get 300 or 400 tourists and do it a couple nights a year. Every one of those tourists will spend money here. I think its possible. I think I can do it. Recently the National Science Foundation has moved most of its operations from Sunspot and other observatories nationwide to Boulder, Colo. NSF is trying to cut spending in its budget. NSF is also building one of the most powerful telescopes atop the Haleakala Crater in Maui, Hawaii. The Haleakala telescope is estimated to cost about $30 million a year to run. Klaene said he believes Sunspot is an important teaching facility. I cant build a new one but I can sure use the one thats there, he said. Most of these jobs weve lost or are losing at Sunspot are career professional jobs. Many of them are scientists, their spouses are scientists and their children are amazingly smart. Many spouses volunteered and taught at Cloudcroft and other schools. Theyre all gone. Klaene said Sunspot has a volunteer fire department with equipment at the Sacramento Peak Observatory. We had apparatus at the Timberon Fire, he said. If we lose that we lose Timberons nearest mutual aid for any kind of emergency. The nearest mutual aid is Cloudcroft thats an hour away. Klaene has been working at Apache Point Observatory since 1992, which sits next to the Sacramento Peak Observatory at Sunspot. If we lose Sunspot it shows a reduction in our science and research support, he said. At a time when science, technology, engineering and mathematics are supposed to be the focal point of all our educational systems. STEM is the magical word. Were taking away jobs these children can look at and say, I would like to do that. We keep taking away things they can come and see how its being used. Klaene said he believes the educational loss is huge at a very bad time in the history of Sunspot. The main telescope built in the 1960 is 200 feet in the ground, he said. Its a great engineering feat. Theres a sign at the visitors center with all the names of children born at Sunspot. This was a remote outpost. Its a huge part of New Mexico history. I think that would be a terrible loss. Not only the loss of the telescope but the people could be described as modern day pioneers. Officials from the Public Service Company of New Mexico said Monday that the previous nights power outage was the worst in more than 15 years, and was caused when a substation at Ouray and Unser NW was hit by a bolt of lightning so powerful that it bypassed lightning rods and other protection equipment. The lightning severed cables carrying electricity, disintegrated porcelain insulators and melted or vaporized conductors and other components at the substation, said Aubrey Johnson, PNMs vice president for operations. The voltage surge tripped circuit breakers up and down the power grid, disrupting service from Los Lunas to Santa Fe. It affected 81 substations throughout the system and 128,647 customers a lower total than PNM first estimated. There were also two local power generating stations that were briefly tripped offline. PNM officials were unable to say which areas specifically in that wide swath had their service interrupted, but pockets within heavily affected areas experienced no disruption of power. All substations are designed to sustain some level of lightning strikes, Johnson said. The Sunday night event, however, was more than the substation could handle. The good news, he said, is that the system performed as it was designed to do. It shut itself down to prevent the voltage from surging through the system, minimizing damage to the power grid itself and to electrical devices used by customers along the way. Johnson said he was unaware of any damage caused by a power surge at businesses or residences. The lightning hit the substation about 7 p.m. Within the first hour, about half of the affected area had power restored; the remainder of the affected area was restored over the next two hours, Johnson said. Other customers may have been without power for longer, but those outages were caused by separate events, he added. Services and patients at local hospitals were unaffected. PNM spokeswoman Karen Scott said all hospitals have standby electrical generators that automatically start when electrical power is interrupted. Backup power went on immediately at our three area hospitals Presbyterian Hospital, Presbyterian Kaseman Hospital and Presbyterian Rust Medical Center, said Sandra Podley, a vice president and administrator at Presbyterian Healthcare Services. Normal power was restored across the metro area in phases. As a result, we remained on backup power for about an hour at Presbyterian Hospital, 30 minutes at Presbyterian Kaseman Hospital, and one hour and 45 minutes at Presbyterian Rust Medical Center. Likewise, the Albuquerque Police Department was largely unaffected because of a backup generator at the 911 dispatch center, said department spokeswoman Celina Espinoza. That includes the onboard data received by officers in the field, which also goes through the dispatch center. There were, however, a few minor car crashes that occurred when motorists entered intersections where traffic lights were out, she said. Santa Fe police reported that a fatal traffic accident occurred when a motorcyclist stopped at an intersection where a traffic light was out and was then struck from behind by a car. Alcohol was not a factor, police said. Sundays outage was the worst since 2000, when a brush fire caused interruption to about 1 million people statewide, although not all of them were PNM customers, Johnson said. You can put a hold on those nonsoon jokes. The reticent rainy season kicked in this month, dropping between 2 inches and 5 inches of rain across the state during the first seven days of August. From Aug. 1 through Sunday, unofficial measurements show 2.66 inches in Albuquerques Northeast Heights, 2.40 inches in Sandia Park, 2.50 in Placitas, 2.53 in Santa Fe, 2.83 in Quemado, 3.30 in Sapello (San Miguel County) and a startling 5.61 in Ocate (Mora County). More rain moved into the state Monday afternoon, and chances for isolated thunderstorms and heavy rain are forecast through the rest of the week. Well keep the rain train rolling, said Kerry Jones, meteorologist with the Albuquerque office of the National Weather Service. Weve had a pretty good start to August, and it looks as if we will have another pretty active week. From a moisture standpoint, this week looks to be as juicy as what we saw last week. There will be the haves and have-nots. But the moisture will be present. Jones said the remnants of Tropical Storm Javier, which was heading toward the tip of Baja California on Monday, will push moisture into New Mexico. A general upper-level trough will steer Javier moisture north, mostly through Arizona, he said. But by Wednesday, the moisture starts to edge eastward into New Mexico. Numerous storms are expected today from the southwestern mountains northeastward to the Sangre de Cristos and the high plains. But the heaviest rainfall and the greatest potential for flash floods, courtesy of Javier, will be on Wednesday and Thursday. Weve issued a couple of flash flood warnings already, Jones said Monday. He said dry air will be coming into the state from the northwest on Friday. The coverage of storms will trend down (on Friday), especially in the Four Corners area, Jones said. But we are not going to be without thunderstorms. It could be a fairly dynamic day. Theres also a possibility of showers and thunderstorms on Saturday and Sunday, especially east of the central mountains and across southwestern New Mexico. The rain last week and this week appears to be a jump-start to a monsoon season that had stalled. Officially, the rainy season runs from June 15 through Sept. 30. For the Albuquerque area, the average rain total during that time is 4.61 inches. Albuquerques wettest monsoon season was in 2006, when 9.42 inches of rain was recorded at the Albuquerque International Sunport, the citys official weather service recording station. The driest monsoon season in Albuquerque was 2003, when only 1.46 inches of rain was recorded at the airport. After a slow start, recent rain has increased Albuquerques official monsoon season total to 1.70 inches through Monday morning. That means Albuquerque is not headed toward a record-dry monsoon season. In all, Albuquerque has experienced four monsoon seasons with less rain than Albuquerque had as of Monday morning. Is the monsoon season settling in for a stay? Thats a tough call right now. But Jones knows one thing for sure. All is well for the first two weeks of August, he said. The border fence comes to an abrupt end in Sunland Park where the citys edge meets the base of rugged Mount Cristo Rey. On one side, Sunland Park. On the other, the Anapra neighborhood of Ciudad Juarez. Here, the border isnt a political pinball. Its a place where people live and work, where once there was no fence, just an informal port of entry, and where 18-foot steel columns are replacing a beat-up stretch of chain-link fence. Its not the Bootheel, where there is little fencing and drug runners have moved their routes into deep desert territory, worrying locals. This border is a crowded place where residents have grown accustomed to the constant patrols by border agents, the whirr of a Customs and Border Protection helicopter overhead, the night chases down their streets, young migrant men in handcuffs on a desert corner. Here, the border is where politics become three-dimensional. This is not a story about border security whether the border is or isnt secure. Its about living and working within a mile of this one small stretch of borderline in New Mexico, nothing more. Childrens game Ten-year-old Mariano Perez Sanchez is squatting in the sand on the Mexican side in 100-degree heat. He stares at the big construction equipment moving dirt on the U.S. side and the stack of 18-foot steel columns that will soon replace the dilapidated chain-link fence that separates the U.S. from Mexico. We have a game, he says, pointing over the border to the pile of columns, to see who can race there first. Then with the skill of someone who has done this many times, he takes off running around the end of the fence and into the U.S., then back into Mexico. His 9-year-old brother, Omar, whistles and then bounds over the dunes to join him. A digger rumbles into the dirt clearing on the U.S. side; the boys race over to it. The driver hands them each two bottles of water and gives Omar 16 pesos, about $1 in change. Over the years, border agents have told me they sometimes know the kids who live in neighborhoods near the fence. They give them treats, too, nudging them back if they step over the line. Mariano and Omar run back to their country elated, counting their treasure and gulping the icy cold water. Here, the border is an imaginary line in a childrens game. Wall not the answer In March, the National Border Patrol Council the union that represents about 18,000 border agents and staff nationwide formally endorsed Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate whose calls for a border wall have been a drumbeat of his campaign. A group of agents in the El Paso Sector, which includes New Mexico, asked their Local 1929 to vote to stay neutral in the campaign and reject the national unions endorsement. The vote didnt pass. Border Patrol Agent Giovanni Cisneros patrolled the border at Sunland Park for 10 years before taking a job in the public affairs office. He gave the Journal a tour of the line where the steel fence is replacing the chain-link fence. From local agents view, a solid wall is not the answer, he says. To us, its more beneficial to have this mesh fence or the columns, because I want to see through. Its an advantage for officer safety. We can see the other side. Here, the border is a fence line in the sand daring to be crossed. Angels blocked In Anapra, 70-year-old Maria del Refugio Aguilera lives in a ramshackle home steps from the border. She came to Ciudad Juarez 25 years ago, she says, before the border was fenced up and locked down. She used to walk into the U.S. to work the local harvests lettuce, chile and to clean homes. Then shed walk back. But that was many years ago. Her mother and sisters stayed on the U.S. side; she doesnt say whether legally or illegally. Asked about the new, taller fence, she furrows her brow, says she is worried because a group of churchgoers on the U.S. side she calls them her angels has been tossing bags of used clothes over the chain-link fence to her for years. She sells the clothes to make a living. This isnt going to be possible anymore, she says. Here, the border is a backyard fence that separates a woman from her family and good Samaritan neighbors. Pickup point In Sunland Park, Ray Limas runs a mill shop, Artistic Entryways & Millwork Co., less than a mile from the border, that makes ornate doors for custom homes. Big garage doors filter light through the sawdust in the mill; framed images of Jesus hang above the entrance between the mill and a bright, clean showroom. Limas said he didnt know about the steel columns going in at the border. But he had to put up a taller, sharp-pointed fence around his own property a few years back to deter migrants from trying to hide there. They never caused trouble, he said, but about five years ago his business became a pickup point and it got to be too much. Once, he found seven guys hanging out under a tree outside his storefront. I told them, Hey, you guys cant be here. He didnt call the police. The Border Patrol is everywhere, he says, so he doesnt worry about theft. Here, the border doesnt always stand between a man and a job. Speed bump The Sunland Park Police Department sits across the street from Limas millshop. Asked what he thinks about the new border fence, Chief Jaime Reyes tells me, It is a very politically loaded question. People are going to find a way to get where they want to go, he tells me. I have seen people jump over the fence, climb the fence. They make it seem like the fence isnt there. It doesnt stop them from coming over. Its just a speed bump. We are constantly getting calls: There are some people in my backyard; I dont know who they are. There is a group under my house.' Later, Reyes tells me, My mom was one of those people that came across. She came across, and I was born. I guess you could call me an anchor baby. There was no fence back then. Here, a once invisible border is about to become very visible. UpFront is a daily news and opinion column. Comment directly to Lauren Villagran in Las Cruces at lvillagran@abqjournal.com. Go to www.abqjournal.com/letters/new to submit a letter to the editor. Could you live with yourself? THE PRESIDENTIAL campaign is upon us and never have we had such a dismal choice between the two major parties. We can choose a pathological liar with lots of experience, but no expertise. A person whose career has been marked by extreme carelessness, to quote the FBI; appalling decisions while in a position of authority, i.e. Iraq, Libya, Honduras; email server and on and on; a candidate who is viewed as untrustworthy by two-thirds of her own party. This is a person whose strongest campaign slogan is Im not Donald Trump. On the other hand, we have a narcissist buffoon who is completely ignorant of anything beyond his little world of making the deal. A person so limited in knowledge of how the world works and the role of the U.S. in it that hes almost a caricature of what a president would be in a Monty Python movie. Even worse, he doesnt even care that hes ignorant and presents ignorance as a strength. Hes the original huckster, carnival barker and flimflam man all rolled into one. As a voter, for too long, Ive taken the approach of voting for the lesser of two evils. In this election, there are no lesser evils. Neither major party candidate has demonstrated the intelligence, knowledge or judgment to be president of the United States. The rest of the world is either laughing at us or scared to death of what will be the result. Our choice comes down to either Hillary Clinton, who I call the Wizard of Oz; a great candidate if you dont look behind the curtain to see whos really pulling the strings; or Donald Trump. A vote for him is, in effect, a vote for Archie Bunker of All In The Family, a vote for ignorance, racism, shallow-minded thinking and a view of the world so far removed from reality as to be laughable if he was applying for any other job. So what to do? Im voting for either Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate, or Jill Stein from the Green Party. Neither one will win, but at least Ill be able to look at myself in the mirror the morning after election day. CHARLES GARNER Albuquerque Respect is earned, not given I BELIEVE Winthrop Quigley is one of your better writers, but his July 24 article (Republican nominee Trump ignores civic rules) is so far off base it is languishing in left field. As I progressed through the article, it became clear the main thrust of his comments was disagreement with those who demonstrate disrespect for our government leaders or candidates for leadership, since they represent not only themselves, but also their office and position and, more importantly, in the case of the presidency, our country. Quigley seems to believe political leaders should be respected irrespective of any opprobrious personal or official conduct. In 10th-grade civics, I learned that one does not become president of our country until they are nominated, elected and inaugurated. At this writing, Hillary Clinton has achieved only one of the above. Is Quigley suggesting that not only Trump, but the rest of us should honor her as if she were already president? Respect must be earned. This is a universal maxim that applies to everyone, especially politicians. To follow Quigleys line of thought, Richard Nixon would not have been forced out of office. We should not remain silent when the emperor appears unclothed. Politics, by nature, is a dirty business. The only presidential candidate who was not subjected to scurrilous attacks was George Washington. Why pick on Trump? In spite of Quigleys selective examples of Trumps supposed desecration of political norms, he has done nothing more than other candidates have done to aggrandize their status and diminish that of their opponents. Hillary, too, has demonized Trump. Does this mean that Trump, if elected president, would be denied the respect due his office? Of course not. Except for extreme partisans, our country has always rallied behind a new president. Political candidates and elected leaders are not, and should not be, immune from free speech. Our political vetting process works well and is supported by the principles of free speech. STEPHEN F. BACA Rio Rancho On July 26, history was made when Hillary Clinton became the first woman to be nominated for president of the United States of America. The Albuquerque Journal missed an opportunity to appropriately recognize this momentous event, choosing instead to highlight the Metropolitan Detention Center in a picture from 2014. What was newsworthy and should be recognized with an archival headline was diminished by the focus on crime and a banner highlighting Orbitz at the ball park. Whether or not you agree with Clintons politics, her unique achievement deserved to be highlighted as historic and newsworthy. WARDENE CROWLEY Santa Fe No surprise in Dem choice I SUPPORTED Bernie Sanders because I agree with his goals, not because I think they could be quickly or easily reached, but because poorer nations already have universal health care and almost free higher education. Now, I will gladly vote for Hillary Clinton as a calm, experienced executive with similar values. Of course the Democratic National Committee favored this long-time party member over the newcomer. No surprise; thats what political parties do! PHIL BOCK Albuquerque Lack of knowledge is showing RESPONDING TO Khizr Khans brief speech at the Democratic convention (Clinton accuses Trump of degrading Muslims, Aug. 1), Donald Trump insisted that Mr. Khan, who has never met me, has no right to stand in front of millions of people and claim that I have never read the Constitution. Of course, Khan has every right to do exactly what he did and that right is enshrined in the very document, the Constitution, that Khan, with such great effect pulled out of his pocket on national television. And Khan has not only every right to do what he did, but also every reason to question Trumps knowledge of our founding document. In the first week of July, Trump met with Republicans in Congress and put his foot in his mouth by asserting, as reported by an astonished Mark Sanford of South Carolina, that he was particularly devoted to Article XII there are only seven articles. The question that arises is this: Can Donald Trump open his mouth to talk about the Constitution without inserting his foot? EDGAR ROMERO Albuquerque Thinking people must prevail IT WAS INDEED an historic moment when the Democratic National Convention nominated a woman to lead their ticket in the 2016 race for the president of the U.S. The problem is that they nominated the wrong woman. As a congenital liar, Hillary Clinton has no equal. She has lied and cheated, along with her husband, for many years to reach this point. No serious-thinking voter would ever object to having a capable and trustworthy woman as president. But Hillary she and the Progressive Democrats will be a very destructive force for the middle-class population of this country. The First and Second amendments will be chiseled on until there will be no protection for the American people. The national debt will grow until we are a mirror image of Greece. Our borders will remain porous and the streets will be more dangerous. Voting for Hillary Clinton this year is as inane as a vote for David Duke for senator from Louisiana; Gary Johnson for president on the Libertarian ticket; or for Al Sharpton for anything. It is so sad that the major media networks are largely responsible for this ridiculous situation. By and large, none of the major networks is reporting on the Clinton scandals, or if they do, the information is white-washed and presented in a fashion to minimize the serious nature of the crimes. People get what they vote for we can only hope and pray that a thinking people will prevail in this election. Dont vote for the Judas goat. There is entirely too much ado about Hillary it is time for her to take her ill-gotten gains and stay home with Bill. CHARLES WHITEHURST Albuquerque Trump must read Constitution REGARDLESS of the inability of (Donald) Trump to understand an issue or focus on it what did the silence of Capt. Humayun Khans mother have to do with their sons sacrifice? I have these questions: 1. Capt. Kahn died putting himself in harms way before his men. Isnt that the kind of officer we want our sons and daughters to serve under, Muslim or no? 2. Does a Muslim soldier who dies for our country not count? 3. Why cant Donald Trump acknowledge and respect the Khan parents sacrifice? Furthermore, I, too, have wondered if Trump has read the U.S. Constitution. Through the system of checks and balances described there, the Constitution assures us our president cannot become a dictator. So, if Trump continues to claim, I alone can do it!, then clearly he doesnt understand the Constitution or has never read it. I thank Khan for his question! LINDA WOLCOTT Corrales No need to modernize nuclear weapons A FRONT PAGE story in the July 30 Journal (Air Force aiming for new nuke missiles) reported that the Air Force was asking for industry proposals for a near-total rebuild of the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal. The two projects mentioned are to build a new fleet of land-based nuclear missiles and find replacements for the Air Forces air-launched cruise missile force. These two projects are part of a 30-year nuclear weapon modernization program, the main components of which are to build a new submarine fleet and a long-range bomber capable of carrying and launching nuclear weapons. Military spending experts have calculated a $1 trillion cost for the program. Coupled with the Pentagons projected $1 trillion 30-year maintenance cost for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, that adds up to a heavy spending burden for future U.S. Congresses. The PCU Nagasaki Council for Nuclear Weapons Abolition counts 16,400 nuclear warheads in the world, of which Russia has 8,000 and the U.S. 7,310. Maintenance and life extension programs will keep the current nuclear warhead inventory viable for nearly 100 more years. There is no need to add to this massive overkill capacity. In addition, the modernization program violates the 1968 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which requires signatories to engage in nuclear disarmament activities as expeditiously as possible. There is a better way to bring about the vision of a nuclear weapons-free world that President Obama described in an early speech after taking office. The United States can join with the 127 nations that support creating a treaty to prohibit and ban the possession, use, transfer or development of nuclear weapons. A UN Working Group for Nuclear Disagreement has been created to move toward a ban treaty. LAURI E. KALLIO Member, Peace Action board Albuquerque A war on drugs or drug addicts? IT IS WITH bewilderment that I read the article in the July 28 paper (Gov. backs shutting teen addict center) that Turquoise Lodge is closing its adolescent unit due to lack of demand. Couple that with the state handcuffing addiction counselors, it seems that the war on drugs is seen by our health officials as a war on drug addicts. These are not evil people who freely choose to stay addicted they are sick and need help, not the turning of our backs! As the parent of an addict, I know how hard it is to find help. The private detox/recovery programs are ungodly expensive, and the community and state offer virtually nothing. Yet we will spend millions on the Albuquerque Rapid Transit opposed by so many who will be adversely affected to make Central Avenue pretty and accomplish nothing. Let a high official in the Health Department have to deal with a family member who falls victim to heroin and see how the mindless bureaucrats change their views. These people have no clue. Their views seem to be that such people are either drunks or junkies, so who cares! JOSEPH ALESIO Albuquerque Other view: UNM fetal tissue research THE SUNDAY JOURNAL of July 31 reported that an anti-abortion organization regards notes by a lab assistant at the UNM Health Sciences Center about fetal tissue research as disrespectful to the fetus (UNMHSC lab assistants notebook details use, condition of fetal tissue). The notes were part of documents provided to a congressional committee that is investigating UNMHSC and Southwest Womens Options, an abortion provider, about use of fetal tissue for medical research. Although UNM claimed these research activities are carried out with great respect, the New Mexico Alliance for Life disagreed because of casual language in the notes. The Alliance also contended UNM is secretive about the research because of redacted names and other identifying information in the documents submitted to Congress. This investigation continually reminds me of the prosecution of Dr. George Tiller, an abortion provider in Wichita, Kan., that was initiated by the then-Kansas Attorney General Phillip Kline. Dr. Tiller was accused of violating state abortion regulations but was found not guilty of any wrongdoing in 35 years of practice. His case received publicity for six years. Two months after the verdict, Dr. Tiller was murdered in church by an anti-abortion activist. Klines law license was suspended by the State of Kansas following disciplinary hearings for unethical conduct and misconduct during Dr. Tillers prosecution; the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Klines appeal. Also, during this period, Planned Parenthoods records were subpoenaed repeatedly by the state of Kansas despite their confidential nature. Kansas lost these cases against Planned Parenthood in court. UNM has averred its procedures complied with federal and state law and it redacted identifying information about faculty, staff and students out of concern for their safety. The anti-abortion movement is known for its violence in attempting to stop legal abortions, including murder, arson, bombings, vandalism, threats and harassment. The time has come for the public to call for an end to the congressional investigation, as well as the attempt by the alliance to shame individuals who perform fetal tissue research at UNMHSC. DIANNE R. LAYDEN Albuquerque UNM tries to hide fetal tissue kids camp THE JOURNAL ARTICLE about the UNM lab assistants notes regarding fetal tissue (UNMHSC lab assistants notebook details use, condition of fetal tissue, July 31) is troubling for several reasons. First, I am struck by the effort (Health Sciences Center spokesman Billy) Sparks went through to say a six-week summer event in which (children of faculty members)participated in research experiences in the neurosciences was not summer camp. Then he said the non-summer camp was not sponsored by UNM despite the fact that UNM faculty conducted the program using UNM facilities. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, its a duck. Finally, I question why UNM refuses to identify the faculty members involved in this non-summer camp that had no sponsor. As an astronaut, I have participated in summer camps devoted to providing students experiences in the sciences. The individuals involved were always identified and the sponsors sought recognition. Why is UNM denying its involvement in this event? As taxpayers who foot the bill for the anonymous faculty and the cost of the facilities arent we entitled to know what is going on? Intended or not, this summer camp served at least two purposes. First, it helped legitimize in the minds of these (children) the practice of taking innocent human life abortion. A UNM biology course would have taught them what medical science has known since the early 1800s human life begins at fertilization. But it also served a second purpose; each (child) has now taken the first step in initiation into the abortion industry. I know the (UNM) regents and the attorney general both responsible to the people of New Mexico have been asked to investigate this matter. In fact, the U.S. Congresss Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives issued a criminal referral to the N.M. Attorney General providing evidence that UNM may have violated New Mexico statutes. When will taxpayers get real answers rather than obfuscations and redacted documents? SID GUTIERREZ Albuquerque Leaders to blame for costly health care ONCE AGAIN, the Albuquerque Journal blames hard-working New Mexicans for the states budget woes by saying our families are choosing to use expensive Medicaid health-care services and they should pay more for care (NM should be evenhanded when making Medicaid cuts, July 9). The reality is that there is a serious shortage of health-care providers in New Mexico, and it often takes months to see a doctor. Medicaid patients have it even worse. A legislative study recently found that many doctors wont accept Medicaid patients or will make them wait longer for appointments. Nobody wants to sit in an emergency room, but its often the only place to get care. Rural and tribal folks have no option for aftercare but emergency rooms. UNMH touts its urgent care as a cost-saving approach which it can be as long as you dont have abdominal or psychiatric symptoms. For those two major populations, they still have to go for the 12-plus hour wait at UNMHs emergency room. People are not making bad choices there is no other choice! The argument that our health-care monies are being misspent is inaccurate and misguided. The fact is that our expansion was not funded appropriately to begin with and our state has failed to secure revenue streams that benefit all New Mexicans. In each of these Medicaid reform meetings the state has hosted, the Legislature, Human Services and contributors have failed to articulate how the public is misusing monies. Instead, we have heard story after story about New Mexicans having their lives incrementally improved over the past three years as they learn to use good health care Centennial Care that actually supplies them with the services they need. Tiny victories are being won each day in chronic illnesses and families are being able to take their kids to the zoo or pay a bill instead of having to buy diapers for their 5-year-old with autism or pay out of pocket for physical therapy for their 10-year-old with cerebral palsy. New Mexicans are proud, and we work hard. People are not making bad choices our leaders are! Lets hold them accountable. LISA ROSSIGNOL Albuquerque Rapid transit will help small businesses THE PAST TWO weeks have seen a lot of positive momentum for the Albuquerque Rapid Transit project. From all-electric buses to the green light from the Federal Transit Administration, the ART is sure to make a splash on Central Avenue. Its personally very frustrating to see all of the negativity surrounding the project, voiced mainly by those who are ill-informed of the favorable ramifications the project will have on historic Central Avenue and the city of Albuquerque as a whole. Even many of the small businesses, who have the no ART signs outside of their storefronts, do not truly understand how investment in rapid transit will benefit their businesses. Investment in public transportation has always proved to increase investment in small businesses and development along the transit routes. From Downtown to Nob Hill, the ART project will create a safer pedestrian realm by removing lanes of traffic. This is important because these areas are the most heavily pedestrian-traveled thoroughfares in the state, but they have absolutely zero design elements suited for pedestrians. Reducing a lane of traffic will slow down vehicles to create a safer atmosphere for pedestrians and promote pedestrian access to small businesses in the area. I find it interesting that so many small businesses are against the project. The success of small businesses in the University and Nob Hill districts is not contingent on the number of cars that drive along Central. Small businesses in these areas are primarily accessed by pedestrians and will benefit from a safer pedestrian realm that is created by the ART. The result is more pedestrians throughout the University and Nob Hill districts that will spend money at the small businesses. I am excited for the future of Central Avenue and how ART will bring the city to the forefront of public transportation planning in the United States. SAL PERDOMO Albuquerque Obama and Biden good men, leaders DESPITE ALL THE political commentary weve read and heard recently, theres something important that hasnt been said. Perhaps I speak for many others who feel as I do. We are fortunate to have been living at this time when our country has looked to (President Barack) Obama and (Vice President Joe) Biden for presidential leadership. Many of us have lived through the terms of several presidents, and frankly, too many of them were quite forgettable. Weve seen displays of warmongering, whether by regular or irregular forces think (George W.) Bush, (Ronald) Reagan; disgusting behavior Lyndon B. Johnsons bathroom humor; deceit (Richard) Nixon, (Bill) Clinton; and many other faults that cause us to be disappointed in those we have elected. This is not true of President Obama and Vice President Biden. What good men! Neither man is excitable or vindictive. Both strive to serve the interests of our country, not themselves. History will record their terms of office with admiration; they accomplished much and tried to do much more. Imagine what could have been done had they not been blocked by unreasonable legislators. This has been a great time to be alive and to be an American. AUDRIE CLIFFORD Socorro PHOENIX A recently married Oregon couple who stopped in Arizona to visit friends has had almost all of their possessions stolen while in Phoenix. KTVK-TV in Phoenix reports (http://goo.gl/NftN0c) that the couples Ford F-250 V10 was stolen outside a Phoenix apartment complex. Ashley Castro says inside the truck were irreplaceable items like family photos. Castro says they were traveling to Florida to start new lives. No arrests have been made and the truck has not been located. ___ Information from: KTVK-TV, http://www.azfamily.com/ The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission is expected to decide by Aug. 17 whether to approve a deal under which the states largest electric utility would supply power to a proposed Facebook data center in Los Lunas. At a public hearing on Tuesday, a Public Service Company of New Mexico executive disclosed that the company already has signed a special services contract with Facebook, though the social network is still deciding between Los Lunas and West Jordan, Utah, for the site of its new $250 million data center. The executive, PNMs vice president of regulatory affairs Gerard Ortiz, said the contract is meant to help Facebook meet its desired in-service date of the third quarter of 2017. Theres a lot of work required (of Facebook and PNM) to make that date, including the construction of an electric line, said Ortiz. Facebook has committed to paying for the cost of the electric line, as well as the other costs associated with the project, according to PNMs application. Facebook did not respond to a request for comment. A PNM spokesman said he had no comment at this time. Ortizs statement was made in response to a question from Steve Michel, attorney for Western Resource Advocates, who had asked Ortiz why PNMs application included a statement saying if the PRC didnt approve the special service agreement, Facebook would have five days to terminate the contract. Ortiz told the PRC the contract has a term of 25 years. Under the terms outlined by PNMs application, Facebook could pay PNM around $31 million annually for electricity supplied by renewable energy. A rate of $0.0574 per kilowatt hour would be set for 10 years, with a pre-determined formula for calculating the rate thereafter. It was unclear what rate of return PNM would receive on revenues from the Facebook deal. In his testimony, Ortiz objected to a suggestion by PRC staff to submit an annual report that would include the revenue PNM earns from Facebook. He argued that the report would not provide useful information and could potentially disclose confidential, customer-specific information. PRC utility accounting bureau chief Charles Gunter, the staff member who suggested the reporting requirement, disagreed with Ortiz, saying the report could be written in a way that did not reveal sensitive material but would still provide the PRC with information about the transaction. The commission is entirely within its authority to require annual reporting, said Gunter. The purpose of such reporting would not be to require some type of clawback from PNM or Facebook, not to disclose private information, but rather for informational purposes. Under questioning by Commissioner Pat Lyons, Gunter said it was possible such a disclosure requirement could dissuade other companies from doing business in New Mexico. Ortiz also said PNM is considering several sites for three proposed solar facilities that would supply power to Facebook. PNM is looking at locations in Valencia and Sandoval counties to build the facilities, which would each supply approximately 10 megawatts of power, he said. According to Ortiz, while solar facilities would supply 30 megawatts of power, PNM anticipates supplying Facebook with wind power as well, and possibly geothermal and other renewable resources. Ortiz said PNM anticipates that Facebook would eventually be supplied with equal amounts of solar and wind power. PNMs application to the PRC includes, among other things, a mechanism for the utility to recoup the costs of supplying renewable energy to the data center. Utahs public service commission is expected to complete its review of a similar proposal by Aug. 31. PNM requested that the PRC expedite their review process in order to make New Mexicos bid for the project more competitive. PNM also asked the PRC to waive the public hearing, which it refused. All of the intervening parties in the PNM case have expressed their support for the project. No members of the public spoke at the hearing. In June, the Los Lunas Village Council approved a $30 billion industrial revenue bond proposal that outlines a process by which Facebook will provide payments in exchange for a 100 percent property tax abatement. Facebook was not disclosed as the owner of the data center before the council voted on the measure. The data center is expected to create 200 to 300 construction jobs for seven years and between 30 and 50 full-time jobs at the data center in its initial phases. CONCORD, N.H. Some Pokemon Go players are asking participants to bring a canned food item or cash for charities to gatherings for the popular game. Players in Concord and Manchester, New Hampshire, have started Poke-Aid. The Facebook group asks fellow players searching for the digital creatures on their smartphones to bring the donations to Pokemon meetings in parks and other public places. Theres a similar effort in Connecticut. Pat OMara noticed how people started gathering at designated Pokecrawls in Manchester and organized two Play it Forward events in Livingston Park. I started thinking, This many people in that area just to play Pokemon Go. Why not set up food drives and also clothes because were getting closer to winter,' the 20-year-old organizer said Tuesday. Theres a lot of homeless. I wanted to help out as much as I can. OMara said hed like to expand the events to include blood drives and walks to raise awareness of cancer. Dave Roehrig of Poke-Aid Concord tells WMUR-TV (http://bit.ly/2aIYjnf) a recent event collected nearly $70 and 301 canned food items for the New Hampshire Food Bank. WASHINGTON Moving beyond Obamacare, political activists are looking to state ballot questions to refocus the nations long-running debate over governments role in health care. This fall, California voters will decide whether to lower some prescription drug prices, while Coloradans will vote on a state version of a single-payer government-run health system, similar to what Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders proposed in his unsuccessful bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. Sanders supports both the California and Colorado initiatives, said spokesman Michael Briggs. We are in the process of building a new organization to keep a lot of the energy going, he said. Backing those kinds of ballot initiatives is one of the major things that we are focusing on. Pharmaceutical companies and insurers are spending millions of dollars to defeat the two ballot questions. The measures are among the more far-reaching health care questions to be decided by voters around the country on Election Day. With ballots still being finalized in some states, other questions may include raising tobacco taxes, expanding use of marijuana for medical treatment and allowing terminally ill patients to have physician assistance in dying. A proposal in Ohio to limit drug costs didnt make it on the ballot this year, but proponents are pushing for a vote in 2017. Californias Proposition 61 would bar drug companies from charging state programs more than the discounted price paid by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. There would be exemptions, however. For example, it would not apply to medications purchased through private insurers who contract with the state to cover beneficiaries in the Medi-Cal program for low-income people. Opponents of the California initiative have reported $69.6 million in contributions, mainly from pharmaceutical companies. Thats more than seven times the $9.4 million that supporters have raised. Those amounts guarantee national visibility for the battle. In Colorado, a measure known as Amendment 69 would create ColoradoCare, a government-financed system that would cover most state residents, largely replacing private insurance. Seniors would continue to rely primarily on Medicare. Opponents have raised $3.6 million, more than five times the $678,000 reported by supporters. The nations second-largest insurer, Anthem, donated $1 million to the opposition. As envisioned, Colorados new public health care system would be paid for with tax increases and with federal and state money that now goes to programs such as Medicaid, and for subsidized insurance under President Barack Obamas health care law. Federal approval would be needed under a provision of the Obama law that takes effect next year, allowing states to redesign their health care systems. The tax increase features a new 10 percent levy on wages and other income. Employers would pay two-thirds of the new payroll tax, with workers responsible for the rest. The taxes would raise $25 billion in 2019, the earliest the program could start. A recent nonpartisan study projected that as currently structured, ColoradoCare would post a small deficit starting in its first year and the shortfall would keep growing. With the presidential campaign consumed by questions about the candidates character and temperament, the traditional debate over issues has been downplayed. Republican Donald Trump has pledged to repeal Obamas health care law, while Democrat Hillary Clinton would build on it. The California and Colorado initiatives steer the conversation away from the highly scripted back-and-forth on Obamacare. The two proposals are strikingly different, said John McDonough, a former U.S. Senate Democratic aide who worked on the federal health overhaul. The Colorado plan seeks a total transformation of the health care system, while the California initiative reflects concerns about the rising cost of many medications. Which ballot question has a better chance? Of the two, I probably think the prescription drug piece, because people have so much anger and antipathy toward the pharmaceutical industry, said McDonough, now a professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Supporters of the California drug costs proposal say it would save state taxpayers money; opponents say such savings are not a sure thing and the whole scheme could prove to be unworkable. Supporters of ColoradoCare say it would guarantee coverage for all and reduce administrative costs; opponents fear it would lead to more tax increases. Both proposals face strong business opposition, but that does not worry the Sanders camp. Hes been involved in longshot campaigns for most of his career, said spokesman Briggs. ___ Associated Press writers Kristen Wyatt in Denver, Juliet Williams in Sacramento and Ann Sanner in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this story. ___ Online: California Proposition 61: http://tinyurl.com/zquo5jp Colorado Amendment 69: http://tinyurl.com/gpwqqca HOUSTON Texas reported its first Zika-related death Tuesday after a baby girl whose mother traveled to El Salvador while pregnant died shortly after birth in a suburban Houston hospital. The girl, who died a few weeks ago, had microcephaly linked to the Zika virus, said Dr. Umair Shah, executive director of Harris County Public Health. We are devastated to report our first case of Zika-associated death and our hearts go out to the family, Shah said. Test results linking the death to Zika were confirmed Friday. The mother had traveled while pregnant to her native El Salvador and returned to Harris County in her second trimester. Officials did not release her name. The only other confirmed Zika-related death in the U.S. was that of an elderly Utah man who died in June. He suffered from additional health conditions. Florida is the only U.S. state that has reported homegrown Zika transmission by mosquitoes, in Miami-Dade County. Texas has reported 97 Zika cases, all contracted during travel abroad. Harris County has reported 31 Zika cases, including 14 in Houston. Last week, Texas officials announced that the states Medicaid program would provide mosquito repellent to all expectant mothers and women between the ages of 10 and 45. Harris County Judge Ed Emmett doubted the efficiency of that program and said he would work with local and state officials as well as corporate partners to get the spray directly to residents. How many people are going to go get a prescription for bug spray? I think the more realistic way is to find corporate partners and make it happen, he said. ___ Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter at www.twitter.com/juanlozano70 SANTA FE In the latest round of New Mexico budgetary belt-tightening, Gov. Susana Martinez has directed executive branch agencies to come up with ways to trim at least 5 percent in spending from their approved budgets and immediately begin implementing them. The two-term Republican governor gave the directive via a memo and in a meeting Tuesday with Cabinet secretaries. All departments under her control were given the directive, including the Public Education Department and the Human Services Department. Some state agencies already had their budgets slashed earlier this year, and the new spending reductions could affect hiring practices, approved overtime levels, employee travel and more, the governor acknowledged in her memo. However, state school districts and universities are not expected to be affected, because the spending reduction will be targeted at agency budgets not the programs they run. In the weeks ahead, it is critical that we manage through this challenging fiscal environment in a way that protects those areas of our economy that are strong and growing, Martinez said. We cannot ask hardworking New Mexicans and job creators to shoulder the burden of the downturn in the global energy market. Recent revenue-tracking data suggests New Mexico is now facing projected budget shortfalls for both the current and just-completed budget years that could together exceed $700 million, Senate Finance Committee Chairman John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, said Tuesday. Previous estimates had put it at up to $600 million. The budget crunch is largely due to falling oil and natural gas prices that have meant lower-than-expected tax collections in several sectors. Smith, who said he was notified of the spending reduction plan last week by the governor, described it Tuesday as a dose of reality for any state agencies that were holding out hope for more state funding. Im glad theyre at least starting with the 5 percent, but that might not be enough, Smith told the Journal . Special session The spending restraint ordered by the governor could mean millions of dollars in budget savings, though Martinez said exceptions may be made for public safety and health. It could also be part of a multipronged approach to addressing the states budget crunch, as Martinez is also expected to call lawmakers back to Santa Fe in the coming weeks for a special legislative session on the budget. The governor has not set a date for such a session, which would likely cost $50,000 a day, but has said she would like for it to be very short possibly just a matter of hours. That would likely require a deal to be struck in advance, and Martinez began holding budget talks with top-ranking lawmakers last week. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Smith and Senate Minority Leader Stuart Ingle, R-Portales, are among those who have met with the governor. Ingle said Tuesday that it will be up to state agencies to decide how to come up with the 5 percent in budget savings, but that theres little appetite among most lawmakers for raising taxes. Weve got to look at every hole card weve got before we take any more money from people or businesses, he said. However, House Minority Leader Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, said additional spending cuts could harm the states already fragile economy and said more options should be considered, including eliminating some state tax breaks and delaying a gradual decrease that has already been approved as part of a 2013 bill in the states corporate income tax rate. Across-the-board 5 percent (budgetary) sanding is not the approach we should take, Egolf said. Its the opposite of a surgical approach. He also said attempting to fix the states budget problems solely via spending cuts would cause major disruptions to state programs and agencies. Few specifics Several state agencies indicated Tuesday that they could absorb the belt tightening, though they offered few specifics on how they would do so. The Public Education Department said it would try to minimize disruptions. Were committed to providing New Mexicos kids with the best education possible, PED spokesman Robert McEntyre said. Were looking closely at our budget to find savings, and we remain committed to maintaining our core functions as a department. The Human Services Department, which oversees federally funded welfare programs and already had to enact Medicaid provider rate cuts in July, also suggested it would try to keep its day-to-day operations largely unaffected. The Human Services Department is confident we will be able to comply with the governors directive while continuing to deliver support services to New Mexicans who need it the most, agency spokesman Kyler Nerison said. In looking at ways to plug the budget gap, Martinez recently said she is sticking to a no tax increase stance shes held since first taking office in 2011, despite urging from some Democratic lawmakers to consider tax hikes as a way to avoid deep spending cuts. Although new revenue estimates will be formally unveiled later this month, the state could now be facing a $200 million-plus deficit for the budget year that ended June 30, along with a potential shortfall in the new budget year of around $500 million, Smith said Tuesday. At least some of that budget shortfall could be plugged by tapping a $224 million tobacco fund created after a 1999 legal settlement with big tobacco companies though that idea has come under fire from health organizations that say the funds should be reserved for tobacco-related programs and research. Meanwhile, majority Senate Democrats have said they will oppose any proposed spending cuts to public schools or universities, which account for about 57 percent of state spending. NEW ORLEANS Fifteen states are asking a federal appeals court to reconsider a Louisiana landowners attempt to keep the government from listing 1,500 forest acres as essential to an endangered frog. A 2-1 June ruling upheld a district judges decision that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was within bounds in declaring the land part of a critical habitat for dusky gopher frogs, now found only in Mississippi. Federal scientists say its the only potential breeding ground outside Mississippi. Tuesdays petition says the rulings leave the concept of essential habitat without meaningful limit. It supports the landowners earlier request for a hearing by the entire 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The states are Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and Wyoming. With mortgage rates bumping below 4 percent, now may time to buy a house in New Mexico. But be prepared for higher-than-average closing costs, thanks to new rules enacted by Uncle Sam. The Land of Enchantment has the 12th-highest closing costs in the country, a new Bankrate.com report showed. Closing costs in the state averaged $2,231 on a $200,000 loan, about 100 bucks more than the national average of $2,128. Last year, New Mexico had the sixth-highest closing costs in the ranking, according to the online financial services provider. In 2016, New Mexicos average origination fee was $1,078, or money that goes back to the lender, and the states average third-party fees were $1,153. Hawaii has the highest mortgage closing costs in the country and Pennsylvania has the lowest, according to Bankrate.com. Based on a $200,000 loan, the Aloha States closing costs averaged out to $2,655 while the Keystone States closing costs were $1,837. Thanks to the new and improved mortgage disclosures that the CFPB [Consumer Financial Protection Bureau] introduced last October, closing cost estimates have become more accurate, because they mandate that lenders include all costs ahead of time, said Holden Lewis, Bankrate.coms senior mortgage analyst. This is great for consumers who can now comparison shop with more confidence. Bankrate.com surveyed up to 10 lenders in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., in June. Researchers obtained online loan estimates for a $200,000 mortgage to buy a single-family home with a 20 percent down payment. Costs included fees charged by lenders and third-party fees for services such as appraisals. The survey excluded discount points, taxes, title fees, property insurance, association fees, interest and other prepaid items. The increased closing costs both here and around the country is attributed to government intervention into mortgage lending in the wake of housing bubble and subsequent mortgage meltdown. Lewis has a theory about variation in the closing cost arena. Some states have more of a culture of comparison shopping, and that may keep prices lower, he said. In the Northeast, many states are attorney closing states, which means buyers, sellers and lenders are all represented by a lawyer. Hence the higher bill. As for New Mexicos higher average closing costs, Lewis said it was possible that Bankrate.com surveyed smaller mortgage lenders whose costs of compliance is higher on a per-loan basis. Indeed, Kevin Hoover, a mortgage advisor with Albuquerque Pinnacle Capital Mortgage, said the company has staffed up by one full-time person to meet federal regulations. There is much extra work on the lender side to make sure everything is in order, he said. It has to be absolutely perfect. A return to the classroom has been cut short for a University of New Mexico anthropology professor accused of violating the schools policies on sexual misconduct. UNM administrators on Tuesday suspended Cristobal Valencia for the second time based on new complaints, after an earlier suspension based on a report that included a finding of improper touching and that also said he appeared to cultivate female students for possible sexual relations. The suspension will remain in place while the new complaints are investigated by the appropriate authorities, or until the case is resolved, a UNM news release stated. His suspension is an emergency short-term action taken as a precaution to prevent any risk of harm to others, and was based upon the seriousness of the allegations. Valencia will be suspended with pay. He was scheduled to teach an undergraduate class and a graduate class in the fall. It was not clear what will happen with his classes as of Tuesday afternoon. An Office of Equal Opportunity investigation earlier this year found probable cause that Valencia had violated policies regarding discriminatory conduct and sexual harassment. He was suspended from March to June. As for discipline, administrators censured Valencia and said he would be monitored by other faculty members when he returned to teaching. Censure is a permanent mark on his personnel record. UNM has said Valencia is appealing that action. On Tuesday, his lawyer Michael Mozes said he would not comment on stories about Valencia. The Journal also left a letter for Valencia in the anthropology department Tuesday but received no response. An OEO report obtained by the Journal did say Valencia had raised his own allegations of race discrimination and retaliation against other anthropology faculty. Some have criticized the university for allowing Valencia to return to the classroom following an investigation involving sexual harassment. The university has refused to provide details of that investigation, going so far as to redact even the specific policies Valencia violated in documents detailing the investigation. The Journal, however, obtained an unredacted copy of the report elsewhere that revealed the specifics. The investigation found Valencia made sexual comments to students and faculty in academic settings and that he touched two female students in a sexual manner without consent. LGBT students also said Valencia only spends short amounts of time and was dismissive of them during office hours. The report states that Valencia fights to be the adviser to female minority students and young, attractive, feminine-presenting, female students he perceived to be heterosexual. This differential treatment appeared to be for the purpose of developing relations that might lead to sexual activity, the report stated. In another case, OEO said Valencia rubbed a female students tattoo, which was located on her rib cage under her breast. He told OEO that he was never alone with the woman and that he didnt touch her. Student witnesses in separate incidents said Valencia would invite them to his house and offer them alcohol. The witnesses also said Valencia asked students to spend the night at his home. One witness said Valencia touched her ribs, stomach and back. When she was trying to go home, Valencia told her she could go home with her roommate or go home with him. She refused. (She) reported she had to physically pull her arm away from Valencia to leave, according to the report. The report concludes that Valencia as a faculty member should know the policies regarding sexual harassment. The preponderance of evidence establishes Valencia knew or should have known the conduct of a sexual nature reported by witnesses was unwelcome, the report states. According to a memo obtained by the Journal, complaints by other faculty members included allegations that Valencia shared with male graduate students a list of sexually desirable female graduate students and said he didnt take orders from white bitches. He also allegedly told a colleague, Its too bad you cant date grad students because some of them are hot. UNM investigation of Prof. Cristobal Valencia IMGCAP(1)] For the first installment of this series, click here. CPA firms are both data collectors and data overseers, and they rely on numerous forms of technology to accumulate and distribute data. From tax preparations to audit documents, CPA firms are responsible for countless pieces of information for both their customers and their firms. This makes them doubly at risk for cybercrimes. And no business, even a CPA firm, is safe from cyberattacks. Over 60 percent of all online attacks in 2014 targeted small and midsize businesses (a 50 percent increase from 2013, when the number of cybercrimes targeting smaller companies was 31 percent). Small businesses dont always have the protective resources in place that larger companies do, and this makes them easier to infiltrate. Should a firms data security be breeched, clients personal information could be compromised, negatively impacting the firms reputation. Its important for all accounting firms, big and small, to understand the appropriate ways to keep themselves safe against cyber threats. Here are the next three ways an accounting firm can bolster its security and safeguard its reputation. 4. Educate employees. End users pose the greatest risk to a CPA firms security, but this threat can be reduced if the proper employee education is in place. Managers should be sure their staff is aware of the proper security protocols when storing and sharing important information. Its also important for staff to be aware of the appearance of phishing scams and understand the best methods for safeguarding against virus and malware threats. Firms can sufficiently educate employees on security best practices through a few methods. Passwords serve as a basic and easy method through which accounting firms can bolster security. However, when passwords are carelessly managed or are not updated regularly, firms can increase the chances of hackers cracking the code and gaining access to their systems. Every password should be random, at least 12 characters in length, contain both upper and lowercase letters, and incorporate a variety of numbers and symbols. In addition, passwords must be changed regularly and never repeated. Employees are often unaware theyre committing a security violation until its too late. Its necessary for accounting firms to ensure their staff is aware of the best practices for internet, social media, and general device usage. Activities such as video and audio streaming may be forbidden and members of the firm may remain unaware of these policies without the proper education. Firms should not only describe the various threats, such as malware, phishing scams, and viruses, but provide real-world and/or internal examples of similar incidents. By providing tangible examples of such events, the possibility of a network intrusion becomes more relatable to the firms staff, thus encouraging its members to implement the necessary safety protocols in their day-to-day work habits. The development of mobile technology has been both a blessing and a curse to CPA firms trying to improve communication while maintaining security. Firms can establish a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy in place to establish a set list of protocols on how to handle mobile technology. If an employees laptop is stolen or lost, a firm must have the ability to wipe the device of all sensitive information to prevent valuable data from being accessed by a malicious user. Firms should also be wary of wireless, even with a BYOD policy. If employees travel frequently, they likely make use of a variety of wireless networks. While this may be useful when employees are trying to work and travel simultaneously, a majority of the networks available in airports, hotels, coffee shops, and restaurants lack the necessary security measures to ensure the firms information is sufficiently protected. Employees should use their firms virtual private network or purchase a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot to avoid using public networks. 5. Have a plan. Your firm cannot eliminate all chances of a security breach, so its important to have a plan in place to address a threat if it does in fact occur. Your firm should establish a disaster recovery plan that outlines what to do in the event of a security compromise. A suitable incident plan includes important elements such as having a compliant litigation hold in place, systems to confirm the event and an appointed person in charge of resulting the investigations. Once the threat has been identified, managers should decide if the situation requires external or internal resources. Firms need to remedy the immediate threat, but should preserve the evidence of what occurred to prevent further damage from the hacker and ensure the networks security. Then it is important for managers to determine what breach response protocols the law requires a firms to take after the compromise occurs. The best practice to prevent further threats from occurring is to learn from mistakes made. 6. Be cloud conscious. If hosting data in the cloud, your firm should be sure to check the location where its information is stored. If the cloud data is hosted on servers outside of the U.S., the firms information and clients information could be subject to search and seizure, depending on the laws of the specific country where the information is stored. In addition, firms should verify the cloud provider adheres to the compliance standards and security protocols specific to the firm. In order to sufficiently safeguard data, leadership should be able to answer particular questions to determine the ability of the cloud service provider. For instance: What encryption methods are in place for data in transit and at rest? Who is responsible for the encryption keys? Does the firms client base approve of data being stored in the cloud? What litigation holds does the cloud service provider have in place to prevent the deletion of data? Taking the necessary steps to protect your firms reputation and client information in and out of the office, from staff auditor to a senior partner, is easier than one might think. Doing so provides an invaluable service to you, your firm, and your clients. Bryan Gregory is president of Aldridge, the IT-services professionals and outsourcing company headquartered in Houston, Texas. Bryan is responsible for the general management of Aldridge's Dallas office, including marketing and sales, new business development, human resources, and oversight of day-to-day operations. He joined the company in 2008 as its first sales representative. In just five years, Bryan successfully built a sales and account management team in two major U.S. markets and grew annual revenue from less than $1 million to more than $10 million. (Bloomberg) Small-business and manufacturers groups praised a proposal by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to take the U.S. federal corporate tax from the highest to one of the lowest among developed nations. Trump included a call for a 15 percent corporate rate in a Detroit speech where he outlined other tax and economic reforms. Business groups have long said their members are hurt because U.S. companies pay the most federal income taxa 35 percent rate, though the effective rate is often loweramong the 35 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The fact that he is pushing for a 15 percent corporate tax rate is definitely a positive, said Dorothy Coleman, vice president of tax and domestic economic policy for the National Association of Manufacturers. Tax reform is really one of the important goals that we have. The Rate Coalition, which lists Boeing Co., Ford Motor Co. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. among corporate supporters, said it wont endorse all aspects of Trumps plan but that the tax proposal is a huge step in the right direction and we urge other candidates in the race to follow his lead. Trump also called for a 10 percent levy on overseas cash that companies have been unwilling to bring home because of high U.S. taxes. The U.S. rate also impedes foreign investment in the country, Coleman said, and some American companies have used acquisitions to set up headquarters in foreign countries with lower taxes. For small businesses, the proposal was a home run, said Juanita Duggan, chief executive officer of the National Federation of Independent Business. It would provide the same 15 percent rate for companies no matter their size, freeing up funds to invest back into family businesses, she said. He got that exactly right, Duggan said. Small business cannot pay a higher rate than Exxon Mobil. Tax Rates The U.S. last adjusted its corporate tax in 1993 when it was pushed up by a percentage point to 35 percent, said Alan Cole, an economist with the Tax Foundations Center for Federal Tax Policy. Under a 1986 tax bill, the rate was phased down to 34 percent from 46 percent, he said. Countries around the world steadily have been ratcheting down their tax rate to become more competitive, Cole said. The average corporate tax rate when including state levies and weighted by the size of economy has declined to about 29 percent from 36 percent in 2003. The U.S. corporate tax when including state levies is about 39 percent, according to the OECD. Most countries have been moving down while the U.S. has stood still, he said. Tel Ganesan, CEO of technology-staffing firm Kyyba Inc. who attended the Trump event in Detroit, said he likes the tax-cut proposal and thinks the billionaire businessman would be better on the economy than Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Still Ganesan, who came to the U.S. from India, is hesitant to support Trump because of his controversial stances on immigration. He knows the economy better than anybody else, Ganesan said. He knows what it takes to get the economy going. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce didnt issue a statement on the Trump speech and referred questions to a video that calls for lower rates and a globally competitive system. The manufacturers association still wants to see more particulars on Trumps plan, as well as more incentive for capital spending and research and development, Coleman said: The devil is in the details on this. During a recent visit to a school, I noticed a student, Danny, roughhousing with a classmate. The boy said, Stop it, but Danny laughed and continued, seemingly oblivious to his friends irritation. When questioned later about this interchange, Danny responded, He likes it when we play rough. Later that day, Danny was clueless as to why he was teased and called loser by his offended friend. In 2001, the New York University Child Study Center conducted a survey of 507 parents. It found that kids with attention deficit disorder (ADHD or ADD) were nearly three times more likely to have difficulty getting along with, and more than twice as likely to get picked on by, peers, compared to children without ADHD. Dannys situation provides an illuminating look at why this may be so: Danny thought both he and his friend were having fun. He didnt notice any nonverbal clues, so he didnt take his friends verbal request to stop seriously. Dannys friend, on the other hand, interpreted Dannys boisterous behavior as intentionally irritating, so he lashed out at him with hurtful words. [Free Download: 14 Ways to Help Your Child With ADHD Make Friends] You may recall the classic saying: Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. The truth of the matter is that words can hurt deeply. The most heart-wrenching stories Ive heard from preteen patients relate to their being teased by peers. All children in the in-between years are susceptible to bullying by classmates, but kids who have ADHD may receive a disproportionate amount. If a child faces mean words and acts on a regular basis, the effects take their toll on his schoolwork and overall happiness. Provide Social Cues ADHD behaviors, such as frequent interrupting and lack of standard social etiquette, may be misinterpreted as intentionally hurtful. Other behaviors simply provide easy targets for teasing during the precarious middle-school years. These behaviors may include: poor eye contact, too much activity, both verbal and nonverbal, and failure to notice social cues. Misinterpretation of such behaviors often causes trouble for both the ADHD child and his schoolmates. Parents can help their preteens hold back the tide of teasing by teaching social skills at home. Practice maintaining eye contact during short conversations. Emphasize the importance of using transitional expressions when greeting or leaving friends, such as Hi and Bye, and of saying Please, Thank you, and Im sorry. Ask your child to try counting to five in his head before making any comments or responding during a conversation. This five-second margin will reduce inappropriate verbal blurting and help teach him to become a better listener. If preteens do not see how they may draw negative attention, they may come away from social interactions feeling that they are hopelessly and inexplicably disliked. Parents may advise their children to just ignore it, but this strategy can be difficult for AD/HD students. As you help your child build social skills, continue to listen to her problems. Provide a forum to discuss interactions and help her come up with her own strategies for dealing with the teasers of the world. Involve your child in activities at which he can be successful. Respond to your preteen when he shows what an interesting, loyal, and compassionate person he is becoming. Reinforce connections to his friends who show positive qualities. Tell about your own childhood (or present-day!) encounters with hurtful people and share your solutions. [Why Kids with ADHD Struggle To Make Friends] Promote Values of Compassion Young people take cues from those around them. Compassion may not be the strongest suit for many preteens, but school can be an ideal setting for changing this paradigm. An episode from my ADD daughters time in junior high school makes the case for involving administrators and students in maintaining a friendly environment at school. The girls at the lunch table saw a student hiding another girls purse. When the girl found that her purse was missing, she began to cry. The principal called all the girls at the table in to her office. Although the offending child confessed to playing a joke, the principal asked each one of the girls at the table to perform one act of kindness every day that week for the victim of the teasing. The principal explained that, by doing nothing about an act of unkindness, they were part of the problem. This intervention made a big impression on the girls, who came to understand that supporting an atmosphere of compassion was part of the schools mission. The secret preteen understanding dont get involved and dont be a tattletale or you will be next was turned on its head. These girls learned that this doesnt apply when you see targets of teasing. That magical, protective shield that we all wish for our children must be built over time. While no single technique can eliminate the teasing words or actions that hurt feelings, theres a lot that parents and teachers can do to help. [Mom, I Made a New Friend!] Seasoned mortgage professional joins lending team as regional sales manager Michigan Mutual, a leading national wholesale mortgage lender, has tapped George Andrews as regional sales manager for the Northwest. In his new role, Andrews will manage growth and sales for northern California, Oregon and Washington. George is an experienced, level-headed professional with a sophisticated sales approach that mirrors Michigan Mutuals commitment to accountability and superior customer service, said Al Crisanty, vice president and director of wholesale lending at Michigan Mutual. Were excited to have him join the team as we look to enhance our presence in the Northwest, as well as throughout the country. Andrews comes from a strong sales background, previously working as the vice president and wholesale regional manager for Bayview Loan Servicing and regional vice president of Stearns Lending. Close collaboration between sales and operations teams is paramount to any successful mortgage organization today, and Im excited to bring my knowledge and experience in those areas to Michigan Mutual, said Andrews. This move is a great fit not just because Michigan Mutual is one of the most respected organizations in the business, but also because our core beliefs in team work, problem solving and integrity so closely align. About Michigan Mutual Michigan Mutual is the wholesale division of Michigan Mutual, Inc., which started in 1992. As a national wholesale mortgage lender, Michigan Mutual offers a full range of loan products, including FHA and conventional. The lender has an experienced team of mortgage experts who provide customers the best service possible. By adhering to its core values integrity, problem solving, commitment, family and fun in every decision, Michigan Mutual has created a culture of excellence, accountability and stellar service that permeates the entire company. For more information, visit https://home.michiganmutual.com/. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160809005251/en/ For Michigan Mutual Charlyne H. McWilliams, 301-933-5567 Charlyne@williammills.com or For Michigan Mutual Amber Estes Bush, 678-781-7219 Amber@williammills.com WILLIAMSPORT, Pa., Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry Secretary Kathy Manderino continued the 'Jobs that Pay' tour today at PMF Industries Inc. in Williamsport. PMF Industries Inc. is an employee-owned fabrication company that offers concept to completion manufacturing services. "PMF Industries is a great example of the type of high-tech, skilled jobs available in manufacturing," said Sec. Manderino. "By working with the local CareerLinks and L&I's Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, PMF has managed to tap into a robust pool of qualified candidates, which positions the company for continued growth and expansion." Sec. Manderino's tour of PMF Industries included a look at the company's metal forming processes, such as laser cutting, electromagnetic forming, rotoforming and hydroforming. PMF Industries serves customers in aerospace, defense, pharmaceutical, filtration, food and beverage, micro-electronics, medical, pulp and paper, environmental, nuclear, and power generation industries. The company, which started with a small group of employees about 50 years ago, now employs 105 workers and manufactures more than 500 products for a variety of corporations, including aerospace. Their involvement with CareerLink includes posting job openings on JobGateway, participation in career fairs, Office of Vocational Rehabilitation events, and the PA CareerLink "Rock" Manufacturing Day. PMF invests time and resources in the development of the next generation of workers and promotes manufacturing as a rewarding and in-demand occupation at local schools and colleges, offering tours and speaking in classrooms. PMF's management is also active in Penn College of Technology and involved with its Innovative Manufacturers' Center. "PMF Industries' continued collaboration with the state workforce development system shows their dedication to create good paying, family sustaining jobs in Pennsylvania," Sec. Manderino said. "Their work with PA CareerLink, the Innovative Manufacturers' Center, and various educational organizations can only strengthen the company's workforce, and it is my hope that their successes will encourage others to take advantage of and collaborate with these programs as well." PMF Industries was a 2016 recipient of the Governor's Achievement Award for Job Creation in Central Pennsylvania. For more information about PMF Industries, visit http://www.pmfind.com/. The 'Jobs that Pay' tour is an effort by state agencies to promote good-paying, family-sustaining jobs and career-paths available to job-seekers across the commonwealth, and to listen and learn from employers and employees about workforce development needs. MEDIA CONTACT: Sara Goulet, 717-787-7530 To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pennsylvania-sec-manderino-continues-jobs-that-pay-tour-at-pmf-industries-in-williamsport-300311370.html SOURCE Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry Sulfur Market in Qatar: 2016-2020 Review - Research and Markets Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Sulfur Market in Qatar: 2016-2020 Review" report to their offering. The report brings together facts and figures about sulfur market in Qatar covering period of 2010-2020. Statistics, experts' opinions and estimations are given. The report about sulfur market in Qatar covers: - reserves, mines, production - manufacturers - demand structure, trends - consumers - prices - market forecast Buying the report means: - availability of key statistics about sulfur market in Qatar (historical and forecast) - allocation of country market players, their role in the market - provision of data on demand characteristics - identification of market potential Key Topics Covered: 1. OVERVIEW OF SULFUR MARKET IN QATAR 2. RESERVES IN QATAR 2.1. Deposits 3. SULFUR SUPPLY IN QATAR 3.1. Qatar output in 2010-2015 3.2. Qatar production shares in global market and in regional market (2010-2015) 4. SULFUR DEMAND IN QATAR 5.1. Demand structure, 2015 5.2. Qatar consumption in 2010-2015 5. SULFUR TRADE IN QATAR 5.1. Export (recent years) 6.2. Import (recent years) 6.3. Annual prices (recent years) 6. FUTURE TRENDS IN SULFUR MARKET TO 2020 6.1. General market forecast 6.2. Sulfur output forecast to 2020 6.3. Sulfur consumption forecast to 2020 7. SULFUR END-USERS IN QATAR For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/9c9pr6/sulfur_market_in View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160809005633/en/ Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 Sector: Chemicals Technavio has announced the top five leading vendors in their recent global aerosol packaging market report until 2020. This research report also lists 11 other prominent vendors that are expected to impact the market during the forecast period. High usage of aerosol sprays: Aerosol sprays are highly used for deodorants and other fragrances. The demand for them in the air care segment is increasing at a significant rate. In the US, more than 80% of people use aerosol sprays as air fresheners. However, with the presence of electronic or automated room fresheners, this demand might decline in the forecast period. Competitive vendor landscape The global aerosol packaging market is highly fragmented with multinational, regional, and local vendors. The local players have raised the bar for competition by offering innovative solutions at a lower price than the international players, leading to price wars. The smaller and local vendors compete in terms of cost as it is difficult for them to compete with international vendors in terms of quality, features, and range of offerings. As a result of an increase in health awareness and personal care awareness, vendors are finding huge scope for innovation. It is expected that the international players will grow inorganically during the forecast period by acquiring regional or local players. Companies with greater technical and financial resources can develop products that can make competitors' products obsolete and non-competitive, even before they are launched or before R&D and commercialization costs have been recovered. To survive and succeed in an intensely competitive environment, it is important for vendors to distinguish their products and service offerings through a clear and unique value proposition, says Sharan Raj, a lead packaging research analyst from Technavio. Therefore, to remain competitive in the market, vendors not only have to develop new products, but also have to compete on price terms to thwart an impact on their product lines by addressing core requirements of customers. Request sample report: http://goo.gl/RykS0M Top five aerosol packaging market vendors ArcelorMittal ArcelorMittal was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Grand Duchy, Luxembourg. The company and its subsidiaries engage in the production of flat carbon steel, stainless steel, and long carbon steel as well as processing, finishing, and distribution of steel. The company has a presence across 60 countries and has an industrial footprint in 19 countries. The company is supported by a strong operational network of subsidiaries including ArcelorMittal Dofasco, ArcelorMittal Brazil, ArcelorMittal Galati, and ArcelorMittal Point Lisas located across Europe, the Americas, Africa, and APAC. In FY2015, the company invested USD 227 million toward R&D and generated revenue of USD 63.58 billion. Its crude steel production was around 92.5 million tons, while its own iron ore production was about 62.8 million tons. Ardagh Packaging Ardagh Packaging was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. It undertakes the manufacturing and sale of glass and metal packaging products to the beverage, food, personal care, household, and pharmaceutical sectors. The company operates 89 manufacturing facilities across 21 countries worldwide. Each year, the company produces more than 35 billion containers. In FY2015, the company generated revenue of USD 5.77 billion. During this financial year, the company's ten largest customers of glass packaging accounted for approximately 43% of its glass packagings glass container revenue. Its ten largest customers of metal packaging accounted for about 38% of its consolidated revenues. Ball Ball was founded in 1880 and is headquartered in located in Broomfield, Colorado, US. The company, along with its subsidiaries, manufactures metal packaging products for food, beverage, and household industries. It also designs, develops, and manufactures innovative aerospace systems through its aerospace and technologies segment. For FY2015, the company generated revenue of USD 7.99 billion. CCL Industries CCL Industries was founded in 1951 and is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is among the world's largest converter of pressure sensitive and extruded film materials for a range of decorative, instructional and functional applications. The company serves the home and personal care, premium food and beverage, healthcare and specialty, automotive and durables, and consumer markets worldwide. The company's CCL Container division is one of the leading manufacturers of recyclable aluminum aerosol cans, barrier systems, aluminum bottles, and other specialty aluminum packaging for global consumer brands in the hair care, personal care, pharmaceutical, food and beverage, household, and industrial market sectors. Crown Holdings Crown Holdings was founded in 1892 and is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US. It manufactures and sells packaging products for consumer goods. Its principal products include aluminum and steel cans for beverage, food, household and other consumer products; metal vacuum closures and caps; and glass bottles for beverage products. At the end of December 2015, the company had 147 plants along with the sales and service facilities throughout 37 countries. In the FY2015, the company generated revenue of USD 8.8 billion. Browse Related Reports: Global Aerosol Propellant Market 2015-2019 Global Household Care Packaging Market 2015-2019 Packaging Coatings Market in APAC 2015-2019 Do you need a report on a market in a specific geographical cluster or country but cant find what youre looking for? Dont worry, Technavio also takes client requests. Please contact enquiry@technavio.com with your requirements and our analysts will be happy to create a customized report just for you. About Technavio Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. The company develops over 2000 pieces of research every year, covering more than 500 technologies across 80 countries. Technavio has about 300 analysts globally who specialize in customized consulting and business research assignments across the latest leading edge technologies. Technavio analysts employ primary as well as secondary research techniques to ascertain the size and vendor landscape in a range of markets. Analysts obtain information using a combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches, besides using in-house market modeling tools and proprietary databases. They corroborate this data with the data obtained from various market participants and stakeholders across the value chain, including vendors, service providers, distributors, re-sellers, and end-users. If you are interested in more information, please contact our media team at media@technavio.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160809005094/en/ Technavio Research Jesse Maida Media & Marketing Executive US: +1 630 333 9501 UK: +44 208 123 1770 www.technavio.com Stokes takes command at 22nd Air Force Maj. Gen. Stayce Harris relinquished command of the 22nd Air Force to Maj. Gen. John Stokes during a change of command ceremony August 8 in the banquet hall at the Marriot Hotel in Atlanta. Lt. Gen. Maryanne Miller, chief of Air Force Reserve, commander Air Force Reserve Command, officiated the military tradition that represents a formal transfer of authority and responsibility for a unit from one commanding officer to another. What an awesome career, Miller said of Harris career during her remarks. That journey continues as she pins on her third star and transition to the Pentagon. Miller went on to highlight Harris distinguished career, thanked her for her commitment to the Airmen of the 22 AF for the past two years and noted that she will be the first Reservist to receive a third star beyond the position that Miller currently holds. The 22 AF commands over 15,000 Airmen across 30 locations, boasts 16 units as well as three special Department of Defense missions which utilize the C-130 Hercules H and J model aircraft. Harris noted that a term had been coined perfectly for the explanation of the special missions: Earth, Wind and Fire. Earth is Youngstowns aerial spray mission, Wind is Keesler with their Hurricane Hunters, and Fire is Peterson with their fire suppression, Harris explained. Those missions, flying the mighty Hercules, provide defense and safety for our homeland. So when you the 130 flying up ahead, its not only the sight and sound of freedom, but they are also protecting you every single day. I couldnt be prouder. Harris also noted the challenges that the command continues to face. Even though one wing under the 22nd is closing, Harris highlighted the flexibility and dedication that the 22 AF Airmen continue to show in the face of adversity and noted that for every loss, there are gains. What weve lost, weve gained, she said. Thats how the 22 AF has retained its relevancy, because weve gained the 932nd Airlift Wing, and were looking to gain even more in the future. In her closing remarks, Harris expressed her sincere gratitude for the superior Airmen she commanded and all who had an impact on her career. The 22 AF is the special missions [Numbered Air Force] that delivers 24/7 and 365 days a year, answering our nations call, she said. Im just so incredibly grateful to have this time with you and to have had the last 2-years with you. Stokes acknowledged the capability of his new command, expressed his commitment to responsibility for the 22 AF Airmen. He highlighted the troops in the room by saying that they represent whats best about our country, their sacrificial service, their patriotism and their love of country. For our airmen, you are our most important resource, he said. Ill fight to build your combat readiness and war fighting capacity, and protect the way of life that is unique to the Air Force Reserve. Stokes went on to say that Airmen are the one percent, and he will continue to be an advocate for them. He exclaimed that excellence doesnt just happen and that Airmen shouldnt ever settle for mediocrity but continue to strive for excellence in all they do. He and his family are excited for what the future will bring, and he will continue to build upon the excellence set forth by Harris. The challenge of our command is not only that were relevant today, Stokes said. But, also that we remain relevant tomorrow, and I accept that challenge. Former Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister and Congress rebel Kalikho Pul, who stepped down from the top post on July 13 last month after the Supreme Court ordered removal of his government, allegedly committed suicide. As soon as the news of Puls death spread, scores of his supporters gheraoed current Chief Minister Pema Khandus bungalow in Niti Bihar area and demanded a probe into Puls unnatural death. They also set on fire an under-construction building of the Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein and damaged two official bungalows. Pul, 47, was found hanging from a ceiling fan at his official residence. Incumbent Deputy Chief Minister confirmed that Pul had committed suicide. We have also recovered a suicide note from the room where the former Chief Minister committed suicide. I am not in a position to divulge much at this moment, said a senior police official. The body was found hanging around 9 am by a servant. He may have committed suicide on Monday night itself, DGP Arunachal Pradesh S Nithianandam told. Preliminary investigation did not reveal any foul play. Police have taken possession of the body and sent it for post mortem. The 47-year-old, who held the CMs post for about five months, had left office last month after a Supreme Court ruling ordered removal of his government. But he hadnt vacated his official residence. It is sad and really unfortunate that young leader Kalikho Pul is no more with us, said ex-CM Nabam Tuki. A loss for entire Arunachal Pradesh. The Congress family is with his family in this moment of grief. Hundreds of people, including supporters of Pul, took to the streets as news of the suicide went viral and shouted slogans against the present government led by Chief Minister Pema Khandu. Pul held the unique distinction of being the first Congress chief minister to be installed with support from arch rivals Bharatiya Janata Party. Arunachal Pradesh had plunged into political crisis in November 2015 after 21 of the Congress 47 legislators rebelled against then chief minister Nabam Tuki. The Centre imposed Presidents Rule on January 26, and Pul, the leader of the Congress dissidents faction, was sworn in as chief minister on February 19. However, the Supreme Court restored the Congress government, scrapping all decisions by the governor that precipitated the fall of the previous administration and ended Puls tenure at the helm in the state. He is survived by three wives and four children. The Maharashtra government informed the Bombay High Court that it would finalise by the end of September a consultant for a new high court building, proposed to be built in Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC). The consultant would be a foreign firm and an expert in the field, acting Advocate General Rohit Deo, appearing on behalf of the state government, told a bench headed by Justice Abhay Oka. The court was hearing a PIL regarding severe space crunch being faced at the over 140-year-old high court building located in south Mumbai. On the high courts direction, the government had agreed to allot land for the new HC complex at Government Colony, Bandra (East), following its redevelopment. Deo told the court that the master plan for the proposed building would be prepared by the end of December 2016. Posting the matter for hearing on January 10, 2017, the high court asked Deo to give details on the next occasion about the space, architect and interiors of the proposed building. The high court told the state government not to get into the nitty-gritty of the building structure and that it (the court) would decide on the design and interiors of the building. The bench had observed on the last occasion, We are not looking at interim measures, which will suffice only for 25 years, but are looking at the needs for the next 100 years. There is a large area being provided (at Kalanagar near BKC). Time has come for a rethink. Instead of making changes in a 140-year-old building, it is time to move ahead. The court had also pointed out that the petitioner was only looking at the matter from a limited perspective of heritage. Mumbai has the largest number of lawyers. Everyone has his own perspective. Ultimately you have to take the broader view into account. Interest of litigants is paramount, it had said. After being on fast for nearly 16 years in protest against the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, Irom Sharmila is ending her hunger strike. Sharmila reached the court in an ambulance and amid tight security. After reaching there, Sharmila told court about her decision to end fast and urged it to expedite the process for her release. The court examined two witnesses. She has now got bail on personal bond of Rs. 10,000, Sharmilas lawyer L Rebada Devi said. The court is yet to give her release orders and till then Sharmila has been taken back to judicial custody. The next date of hearing in the case is August 23. Court officials told that the court will issue the order to the jail authority to formalise her release on Tuesday itself. She had earlier announced that she would break her fast and join politics as she wants Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) to be repealed through political means. Addressing the media on Tuesday, shortly after ending her fast, Sharmila said, I want to join politics as Ive been called the Iron lady of Manipur and I want to live up to that name. I want to be the chief minister of Manipur and I want my people to believe in me. A large number of her supporters and women activists under the forum of Sharmila Kunba Lup meet her as she starts her new journey. However, Sharmilas 84-year-old mother Shakhi Devi is not likely to meet her. The Armed Forces Special Powers Act is in effect in Indian-ruled Kashmir and northeastern areas facing separatist insurgencies. The law gives security forces the right to shoot to kill suspected rebels without fear of possible prosecution and to arrest suspected militants without warrants. It also gives police wide-ranging powers of search and seizure. It prohibits soldiers from being prosecuted for alleged rights violations unless granted express permission from the federal government. Such prosecutions are rare. At least 70 people died when a suicide bomb tore through a crowd of mourners gathered at a Pakistani hospital Monday, in an attack claimed by both the Taliban and Islamic State group. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif called for security forces to decimate terrorists after the blast at the Civil Hospital in the Balochistan provincial capital Quetta, which also wounded more than 100 people. The bomber struck a crowd of some 200 people made up mainly of lawyers and journalists that had gathered to mourn the president of the Balochistan Bar Association, who was shot dead on Monday. Bilal Anwar Kasi was attacked by two unidentified gunmen as he left his home for work. A faction of the Pakistani Taliban, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, claimed responsibility for both the assassination of the lawyer and the blast at the hospital. A spokesman vowed it would carry out more attacks until the imposition of an Islamic system in Pakistan. Hours later, the Islamic State group also said it was behind the blast, which it claimed killed 200 people, the SITE monitoring agency reported. Bomb disposal unit Chief Abdul Razzaq informed that it was a suicide attack. The bomber had strapped some eight kilograms of explosives packed with ball bearings and shrapnel on his body, he said. The head of the provincial health department, doctor Masood Nausherwani, gave a death toll of 70, with 112 injured. A journalist was about 20 metres (70 feet) away when the bomb went off. There were huge black clouds and dirt, he said. I ran back to the place and saw dead bodies scattered everywhere and many injured people crying. There were pools and pools of blood around and pieces of human bodies and flesh. Nurses and lawyers wept as medics from inside the hospital rushed out to help dozens of injured, he said. Pervez Masi, who was injured by pieces of flying glass, said the blast was so powerful that we didnt know what had happened. So many friends were martyred, he said. Whoever is doing this is not human, he is a beast and has no humanity. Particularly appalling UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attack, saying it was particularly appalling that it targeted mourners at a hospital. Frances President Francois Hollande denounced the abominable act, while the European Union said there was no justification for such acts of terrorism. The US joined the chorus of condemnation, which the State Department said had targeted two of the most important pillars of every democracy the judiciary and the media. After nearly a week-long chase, the Uttar Pradesh Police arrested the main accused in the Bulandshahr gang-rape case and the kingpin of the notorious Bawaria gang on Monday evening. Salim Bawaria, who was on the run since the horrific gang-rape of a Noida-based woman and her teenage daughter, was arrested by the Special Task Force of the Uttar PradeshPolice. Salim, whose arrest was earlier confirmed by the UPDGP Javeed Ahmed, was nabbed along with two other accused in the case from Meerut. Remaining 3 accused in Bulandshr case arrested after week long chase across east India, Mr. Ahmad tweeted late on Monday night. The police had already arrested three persons Raees, Shavez and Jabar Singh. Police sources said that Saleems gang travelled by buses and trains to evade police patrols and check points instead of using light vehicles to quickly cover large distances, as most highway robbers do. The gang is also known to assault women during these robberies after separating men and women found travelling together. As a modus operandi, they keep iron rods, rinch cutters and other similar material to stop moving vehicles and hold them captive on gun point before performing robberies and other crime, a police source said. Apart from the above, police had said last week that three culprits had been nabbed by them. On July 29, a group of criminals had waylaid a car, carrying six members of a Noida-based family on their way to Shahjahanpur in western Uttar Pradesh and had sexually assaulted a minor girl and her mother after dragging them out of the vehicle. The incident had led to widespread criticism of the law- and-order situation in UP. Apparently rattled by the outcry, senior minister in the Samajwadi Party government Azam Khan had remarked that he suspected a political conspiracy behind the incident, evoking widespread condemnation. Meanwhile, earlier today, the Allahabad High Court had sought to know from the UP government why the investigation in the case be not handed over to the CBI. A Saudi-led military coalition conducted air strikes on the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Tuesday for the first time in five months, residents said, after UN-backed peace talks to end the conflict broke down over the weekend. The Saudi-led coalition is backing Yemeni forces loyal to the exiled government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi who are trying to oust Iran-allied Houthi forces from Sanaa. The coalition also forced the suspension of flights into Sanaa International Airport for 72 hours from late on Monday, an airport official and aid agency sources said. A spokesman for the coalition refuses to comment on the closure of the airport. The air strikes hit a presidential compound and military base in Sanaa as well as a Republican Guard base in the Arhab area near the airport, residents said. Pro-government forces are trying to advance into the city from the north and east. On Sunday night the Saudi-led coalition killed nine civilians in an air strike outside Sanaa. Saudi Arabia and its mostly Gulf Arab allies intervened in Yemens civil war in March 2015 after the armed Houthi movement had pushed the Hadi administration into exile in Saudi Arabia. The coalition has launched thousands of air attacks on the Houthis and their allies in Yemens army, but paused the strikes on Sanaa in March after reaching an informal agreement with the Houthis to tamp down combat on the Yemeni-Saudi border. Imposing a near-blockade aimed at weapons shipments to the Houthis, the coalition had mostly allowed Sanaa airport to operate civilian and humanitarian aid flights since March. In a blow to Donald Trump, a group of 50 Republican national security experts, including former top spy masters and diplomats, has said the White House nominee would be a dangerous President and would put the countrys safety at risk. However, Trump sought to dismiss their charges by saying that these Washington elites should look for answers on why the world has become a mess. The group of national security experts said, None of us will vote for Donald Trump. From a foreign policy perspective, Trump is not qualified to be the President and Commander-in-Chief. Indeed, we are convinced that he would be a dangerous President and would put at risk our countrys national security and well-being. Most fundamentally, Trump lacks the character, values, and experience to be President. He weakens the US moral authority as the leader of the free world, said the letter which has been signed by individuals who served in senior national security and foreign policy positions in Republican administrations, from Richard Nixon to George W Bush. The statement added that the 70-year-old business tycoon appears to lack basic knowledge about and belief in the US Constitution, US laws and US institutions, including religious tolerance, freedom of the press and an independent judiciary. Claiming that Trump lacks the temperament to be the President, the statement alleged he has demonstrated repeatedly that he has little understanding of Americas vital national interests, its complex diplomatic challenges, its indispensable alliances and the democratic values on which the US foreign policy must be based. Trump, the statement said, is unable or unwilling to separate truth from falsehood. He does not encourage conflicting views. He lacks self-control and acts impetuously. He cannot tolerate personal criticism. He has alarmed our closest allies with his erratic behaviour. All of these are dangerous qualities in an individual who aspires to be President and Commander-in-Chief, with command of the US nuclear arsenal, they said. The group joins members of the security establishment who have already come out against Trump, including former CIA director Michael Morell, who last Friday accused Trump of being an unwitting agent of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Prominent among those who signed the letter were former CIA director Michael Hayden, former US trade representative Carla A Hills, former US Ambassador to India Robert Blackwill and former associate director for Near East affairs, National Security Council, White House Richard Fontaine. WASHINGTON, Aug. 8, 2016 South Korea has lifted its hold on stores of U.S. wheat after testing the grain for the presence of unapproved genetically modified organisms, U.S. government and industry officials said. South Korea and Japan slapped restrictions on U.S. wheat after farmer recently discovered 22 unapproved genetically modified wheat plants growing in a field in Washington state. They tested all of the wheat that was in storage before going to the mills and they found no (genetically modified) wheat and that wheat was released to the mills, said U.S. Wheat Associates spokesman Steve Mercer. That could be could news for U.S. exporters who had wondered what, if any, impact the South Korean restriction would have on purchases of U.S. wheat. But now Mercer says the tendering process could proceed unaffected. Normal tendering could proceed, Mercer said. It looks like everything is going to be moving forward normally. South Korea received new materials for testing for the presence of GMO wheat last week and began using them on Wednesday. The country still has not scheduled its August tender. All future U.S. wheat and wheat flour shipments will be tested, and released if the result is negative, a USDA official said. South Koreas wheat imports from the U.S. have been weaker than normal this year and last year, but the country is still a major foreign market. South Korea bought about $309 million worth of U.S. wheat in 2015, down from about $412 million in 2014. As to Japan, the situation has not been resolved yet, but Mercer said he expects that to be temporary. Learn about the benefits of subscribing to Agri-Pulse. Sign up for your four-week free trial Agri-Pulse subscription Japan is taking longer to lift its restrictions, which are on Western white wheat - a mixture of soft white and club wheat that it buys from the Pacific Northwest. Thats because the country wants to customize the testing protocols that were sent there by Monsanto and USDA, Mercer said. The materials needed to create the test assay are in Japan and it should only take two to three weeks for (Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries) to implement the testing, U.S. Wheat Associates said in a statement. As we expect the testing will detect no GM wheat, the results will end the suspension very soon after it starts testing. #30 For more news, go to: www.Agri-Pulse.com ISIS Plundered, Destroyed Ancient Assyrian City in Syria Pits dug in Tel Ajaja show where ISIS looked for archaeological artifacts. ( Ayham al-Mohammad) Syria's ancient cultural heritage is disappearing: Tel Ajaja and its irreplaceable Assyrian artifacts are the latest victims of the more than five-year civil war. The full extent of the damage done during ISIS' two-year control of the area is now clear, say archaeologists: some 40 percent of the 4000-year-old city known to history as Shadikanni was destroyed, the Gulf News reported. The terrorist movement even systemically uncovered areas not yet excavated, finding irreplaceable artifacts that they either destroyed, or may have "saved" for sale on the black market, Syrian archaeologists told the website. Tel Ajaja, located in the north-eastern province Hasakeh, was one of the main cities of the Assyrian Empire, which flourished in the first millennium BCE. Other casualties of war All of human history has passed through the Levant. Yet not all of the damage to the region's heritage has been wreaked by the Islamic State. Much of the birthplace of modern civilization and its archaeological clues lie in regions wracked by war. Syria, one of the world's richest archaeological areas, has been in the front line since civil war erupted in 2011. Ancient ruins of cities and fortresses from Assyrian, Greek, Roman and Byzantine eras are used as cannon mounts and weapon depots. August 9, 2016 BAGHDAD Iraqs parliament passed a de-Baathification law July 30, banning any political activity by the Baath Party under any name. However, the move did not end the controversy over the partys social impact on the Iraqi community. While some view the law as a victory for justice, others warn it may have negative political and social consequences for Iraqs stability. Mohammed Ali Al-Masoudi, a parliament member for the Shiite National Coalition, said in a press statement July 30 that banning the Baath Party is a step forward on the path to ensure Iraqs stability militarily and politically, as the law will prevent Baathist elites from taking up managerial positions. Ousama al-Yasiri, one of the leaders of the 1991 uprising against the Baath in Babil, told Al-Monitor that the newly passed law is a victory for the families of the Baath victims. However, there were some internal opposing voices in the parliamentary voting sessions. In exchange for passing the Baath ban law, some Sunni political parties called for amending the law as per the Justice and Accountability Act so as to allow some Baathists, including Saddam loyalists, to receive pensions. Some external forces also spoke out against the law, such as Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, who called for the abolition of the de-Baathification law to ensure the unity and stability of Iraq. This issue has long been a major bone of contention. The de-Baathification process was started by the Supreme National Commission for de-Baathification, formed by the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority headed by US administrator Paul Bremer in 2003. Then, the Supreme National Commission was replaced by the Supreme National Commission for Accountability and Justice in 2008. The Supreme National Commission for de-Baathification successfully dismissed many senior Baathists from state institutions, while the Supreme National Commission for Accountability and Justice made gains in the opposite direction, allowing many Baathists to resume their jobs, according to a former member of the Baath Party who declined to give his name. He told Al-Monitor that the reason behind the prosecution of Baathists and de-Baathification was that some ruling parties fear the return of the Baath Party to the [political] arena, as they have failed to lead the country since 2003, the year the Baath Party was overthrown following the US invasion of the country. The timing of the de-Baathification law reflects fears of the future in the post-Islamic State phase, as the Baath Party has wide popularity in the Sunni-majority areas of northern and western Iraq. This frightens Sunni politicians in those areas, prompting them to forge alliances with Shiite parties to approve the law, the Baathist source said. However, according to him, the alliance between Sunnis and Shiites was not easy to form. Voting on the law, which was passed by a majority of 288 out of 328 present parliament members, had been postponed several times following the overthrow of the Baath regime as disagreements about it dragged on. Amer Habib, a professor at the Faculty of Agriculture in the University of Babil who had two brothers executed at the hands of Saddam Husseins regime in 1991, told Al-Monitor, The de-Baathification law will allow the judicial authorities to hold Baathists accountable for their crimes. To him, justice was served when the law was voted in. The political forces within the Shiite National Alliance also expressed relief and satisfaction over the passing of the law, according to Hashem al-Mousawi, a parliament member for the Al-Muwatin bloc. The law goes beyond Articles 200 and 210 of the Iraqi Penal Code, which provide for banning any erroneous activities and which were used by Saddams regime to ban religious events, especially the Shiite ones such as the Husseini rituals or any other cultural or political activities against the regime, Mousawi told Al-Monitor. He believes that the law has ended the debate between Sunni and Shiite politicians on the subject. How the law will be used on the ground is another question. Parliament member Muhsin al-Saadoun told Al-Monitor, The law is important because it will provide legislation to guide the judiciary in the trials of Baathists. He added, The de-Baathification law is linked to Article 7 of the constitution, which includes jail sentences for Baathists who violate the law. He stressed, Had the law been voted on earlier, hundreds of Baathists would have remained behind bars. For his part, Jawad al-Shamri, the head of the media office at the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, told Al-Monitor, This law has little value after 13 years of tug-of-war, as it targets ideas and not the people who have infiltrated the allegedly democratic state. He added, The law is about the de-Baathification in the media and in the public sphere, but Baathists will effectively remain in power. After so many sectarian wars and political conflicts, Iraqis do not need to throw Baathists in prison or dismiss them from their jobs as much as they need a true political and social reconciliation to lay the foundations for understanding and dialogue instead of hatred and revenge. August 8, 2016 On Sept. 5, Egypt will host a festival in Cairo titled "Egypt: The Capital of Arab Fashion." There are already a number of well-attended fashion events in Egypt, but this will be the first to focus on fashion as a way to attract tourists. It's not news that Egypt's tourism industry has been devastated, but the actual numbers make people sit up and take notice. The Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics issued a report in late July showing that the number of tourists who visited Egypt from all over the world in June plunged 59.9% to 328,600, compared with 820,000 tourists in June 2015. Given the protracted decline of the industry, due to a slew of security issues and political disputes, people have been searching for creative ways to revive tourism something other than the lure of monuments and beaches. The fashion festival is expected to create buzz while touting the heritage and fashion that characterizes all Egyptian governorates. The festival will welcome renowned fashion designers, public figures, ministers and artists from various Arab countries. Egyptian designers will display their creative fashions, with many presenting new takes on traditional pieces from various regions, such as Nubian styles from Upper Egypt and historical pharaonic attire, as well as modern fashion. Abeer al-Sherbini, who came up with the idea of the festival and is one of its organizers, told Al-Monitor, "Egyptians love fashion and clothing, despite the severe economic conditions they are currently going through. They love beauty, creativity and art and this can be seen in the designs of Egyptian clothes, as every governorate has its own clothes. Moreover, Egypt has most renowned fashion designers such as Hany al-Behairy, Marwa al-Baghdadi and others." She added, "Egypt needs creative ideas to attract tourists. Fashion in Egypt has fans in all the Arab world." Some 400 public figures from the Arab world are expected to attend, including artists known for their interest in fashion, Sherbini said. "Reviving the fashion industry in Egypt will consequently revitalize trade, importing, and exporting of clothes, and this is the goal of the festival. The festival will not only focus on clothing designs, but also accessories and jewelry. In addition, invitations have been sent to all fashion designers in the Arab world to compete with their Egyptian counterparts on the best design for this year." Sherbini indicated that actresses Razan Moughrabi and Liqaa al-Khamisi will host the festival, as they are known for their interest in fashion. Moreover, a number of government ministers ministers of tourism, culture and others will attend. The Ministry of Culture and the Egypt Tourism Authority are coordinating to support the event. Festival coordinator Ghada al-Sherbini told Al-Monitor that "a fashion festival will be held every year in an Arab country, yet the starting point will be in Egypt." Egypt was chosen as the first country to host the event because "Egypt is in dire need of such festivals to attract and revive tourism, especially after it has deteriorated due to the recent conditions [Egypt] went through." Next year, Bahrain will be the second country to host the festival. "The festival's fashion showcase will include all kinds of clothes for kids, women and men. Moreover, the festival will attract those who are interested in women's affairs human rights and feminist societies and famous female figures," she said. She also called on the government to provide assistance with promoting the festival outside Egypt. "Fashion attracts the Arab princesses in the Gulf countries as well as women in the Arab world, as Egypt is certainly considered the capital of fashion for Arabs." Abeer al-Sherbini said the festival will include several competitions, such as the best selfie, in addition to fashion showcases that will last for three days. The best designer will be honored. Marwa al-Baghdadi, a fashion designer taking part in the festival, told Al-Monitor she will be responsible for the main show because she believes in the idea. "The festival will revive the fashion industry, which is undergoing hardships because of the deteriorating economic conditions in Egypt. Therefore, the festival will help open new Arab markets for this industry and present the designs of all the Egyptian designers to companies and figures interested in fashion in the Arab world," she said. "The other advantage is making use of Egypt's uniqueness in the industry of fashion to attract Arab tourists again. If the festival succeeds, it will turn into an international festival to display Egyptian designs all over the world." Baghdadi said she is not charging for her participation "because it is for Egypt," and "will benefit Egypt on the commercial, touristic and industrial levels." "I make sure that my shows are full of the Egyptian spirit and reflect the Egyptian heritage and culture for [both] veiled and non-veiled women, girls and men," she added. Commenting on the obstacles facing the art of fashion in Egypt, she said, "The government neglects fashion, which receives no attention or support from any institution, even though it is one of the arts that distinguishes Egypt in the Arab world. In addition, [Egyptian] fashion designers don't cooperate with each other. Therefore, this festival is considered to be the first step to unify the efforts of all artists and designers in this industry." August 9, 2016 With the presidential elections 10 months away and the likelihood that President Hassan Rouhani will come under more fierce criticism over his campaign promises and lack of tangible results in regard to the nuclear deal, members of the administration have signaled that they will soon take action against individuals who insult the president. In response to the latest criticisms of the president by conservative clerics, Hojjat al-Islam Majid Ansari, Rouhanis vice president for legal affairs, said, We are witnessing unprecedented insults from those [in clerical robes], which are clothes of morality, leading to the breakdown of morality in the country. Ansaris reference to clerical robes was to Hamid Rohani, the head of the Islamic Revolution Document Center, and Ayatollah Ahmad Alamolhoda, Friday prayer leader in Mashhad. Rohani said that the president and his policies are a bigger danger for Iran than the United States and Israel. He accused the president of coming into the office with the intention of destroying Islamic authenticity and returning the monarchy. Alamolhoda also called Rouhani Mr. Gullible and said that despite the presidents claims that the nuclear deal brought honor for Iran, the only thing it has brought is Italian modeling companies. Ansari argued that the president not only has rights as an individual, but as president of Iran he also has public rights. Ansari said, We have a duty to defend the public rights of the people. Insulting the president as a national symbol of all the people of Iran is in reality an insult against all the 77 million people of Iran and their vote. He added, In the vice presidency office for legal affairs, we have a duty to defend the people from insults, breaking of the norms and desecration of the elected president of the people. He said that clerics who insult the president should be referred to the Special Court of Clergy to pursue the matter. In Iran, insulting a government official is illegal under Article 609 of the constitution, which carries a prison sentence of up to 3-6 months, 74 lashes and a fine. It is unlikely conservative critics will face such penalties; rather, Ansaris comments suggest that the presidents team intends to use the law to push back against criticism that is insulting. While there are conservative critics of the nuclear deal and they will certainly become louder as the elections approach some of the officials involved in the nuclear negotiations have also begun to express concern about the rate of implementation and the lack of results. Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran who led the technical negotiations with his US counterpart Ernest Moniz, complained that large European banks are still not willing to work with Iran due to US pressure. This is not the first time that Salehi has warned about the US banking sanctions on Iran and their impact on the nuclear deal. In July, he addressed criticism he received from the president for going public with objections to the way deal is being implemented by the Americans. Salehi also said that the president has given the order to build two nuclear power plants with a $10 billion investment. In an unusually harsh assessment, the soft-spoken scientist said that ultimately the problems between Iran and the United States are not arms, science, trade, economy or technology, but Americas concern that Iran will disseminate its message of the Islamic Revolution to the world. He added, We have shown in the last 37 years that this philosophy can be effective and we can resist and stand against the storms. August 9, 2016 TEHRAN, Iran Iran's geostrategic location, along with its historic role as a conduit for the exchange of goods especially its position on the ancient Silk Road has made the country one of the most active transportation hubs in the world. Through both its northern land borders and the Caspian Sea, Iran has access to Central Asia, the Caucasus and Russia. To its south, it is connected to international waters through the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman. Iran's unique access to landlocked countries and its exceptional location make it an ideal transit hub both in terms of cost and time efficiency. This position has so far granted Iran membership in several international corridors with multiple transport routes passing through the country. These corridors include the North-South Transport Corridor, East-West Transport Corridor (the ancient Silk Road), South Asia Corridor and the Transport Corridor of Europe-Caucasus-Asia. In recent years, and especially since Hassan Rouhani was elected president in 2013, the number of international flights that have crossed Iranian air space has tripled, while the volume of goods transiting through Iranian railways has doubled. Yet despite this increasing interconnectivity, Iranian officials say the country is still using only half of its total transit capacity, which is around 10 million tons per year. Cognizant of the important role it can play in the transportation of goods in the region, and also aware of the economic benefits that can be reaped such as job creation and increased earnings Iran has sought to diversify its transit routes. Given Europe's stated desire to become Irans largest trading partner once again with the lifting of sanctions, and considering the recent turmoil in Turkey, Tehran has sped up efforts to establish new routes to Europe. For years, Turkey has been the best conduit for the transportation of Iranian goods to reach Europe. Yet in terms of transit, things have turned ugly between the two countries in recent years. Attacks against Iranian trucks and drivers on Turkish soil, rows over fuel prices and tariffs imposed on Turkish drivers in Iran not to mention the frequent Turkish border closures, which greatly impact Iranian trucking, have been among the main sources of friction between Tehran and Ankara. These issues, coupled with the worsening security situation in Turkey, have prompted Iran to seek alternative transit routes to Europe on the ground that relying solely on its western neighbor does not, and will not, benefit the Iranian transportation system. In this regard, Iran has moved to revive its decade-old plan to connect to Europe via a new multimodal route. The Persian Gulf-Black Sea corridor, which involves road, rail and sea transport, begins from the Persian Gulf to the south of Iran, stretches to the north of the country and then goes to Armenia and Azerbaijan, from where it reaches the Georgian ports of Poti and Batumi in the Black Sea. In this vein, Bulgarian ports also play a role via roll-on/roll-off ships used to get trucks to Greece. Trucks that head to Italy can also depart from southern Greek ports using these kinds of ships. Indeed, Iran, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Bulgaria and Greece recently agreed on a draft plan to press ahead with the project, which is expected to be finalized by the end of 2016. To learn more about the significance of this corridor, Al-Monitor spoke with Homayoun Karimi, head of the International Agreements Group at Iran's Road Maintenance and Transportation Organization. Karimi, who attended the first of several rounds of talks between the involved countries, told Al-Monitor, "The political and international aspects of this multimodal corridor is of high importance as it will further increase the importance of our transit position in the region and globe alike." The Persian Gulf-Black Sea corridor holds numerous economic advantages for participating countries as it helps them facilitate trade. On the European side, the project is also regarded as significant because it facilitates European states' access to the Persian Gulf, which in turn provides them with a shorter route to the Indian and Pacific oceans. "Having a safe, cost-effective and fast route is of high importance for transportation companies, forwarders and owners of the cargo. We need to have good marketing of the corridor to further inform business owners and transportation companies about the benefits of this new route," said Karimi. Akbar Khodaei, senior expert at the Economic Cooperation Organization, believes that Iran has a unique position as far as geopolitics is concerned. "By participating in the Persian Gulf-Black Sea Corridor, Iran is actually utilizing its geopolitical position in global interactions, something that definitely rebuilds the country's ability to play roles in the economic arena," Khodaei told Al-Monitor. Khodaei said that the project has already turned global, as other countries including Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean littoral states as well as European nations are expected to join the corridor. Of note, Romania has requested to join the Persian Gulf-Black Sea corridor. Iranian officials have stated that this corridor is not meant to replace the trans-Turkish route to Europe. Rather, Iran says it will provide the country with an additional route, which will give it the upper hand in case of any obstruction by Turkey. While security and ease of transportation plays a crucial role in global trade, Iran, which unlike many of its neighbors enjoys a high level of stability, is expected to play a much greater role as a transit hub that bridges the East with the West and the North to the South. As such, with more countries discovering this significant potential, and as Iran continues its efforts to become a regional transit hub, experts like Karimi believe that the new corridor will play an important role. According to Karimi, the multimodal approach to trade with Europe "would further increase Iran's transit importance and pave the ground for greater foreign investments in the country's transportation infrastructures." August 9, 2016 A recent report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the Occupied Palestinian Territories was jarring. In addition to the usual listing of casualties and injuries among Palestinians, it reported a huge spike this year in the demolitions of Palestinian-owned structures by Israel. In the Aug. 4 report, OCHA cited 684 buildings as having been demolished so far this year in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, compared to 531 for all of 2015. This 25% increase in demolitions has largely affected East Jerusalem and locations designated as part of Area C under the Oslo Accord. Area C constitutes more than 60% of the West Bank and is under Israeli administrative and security control. To date this year, 574 Palestinian structures have been destroyed in Area C, compared to 453 in 2015. In East Jerusalem, the number of buildings destroyed up until Aug. 4 stands at 110, compared to 78 in 2015. Palestinians and Israeli activists fear that Israel is focusing on Area C and East Jerusalem for political reasons. Salim Shawamreh, whose home in East Jerusalems Anata village was destroyed for the seventh time, was forced to temporarily move to Kufr Aqab. He hopes one day to return to his land and rebuild his house. Shawamreh told Al-Monitor, For the first 20 years, after the occupation [began], the Israelis left me alone and didnt destroy my home. But then they kept destroying my house, and I would rebuild it. They destroyed my home seven times. A father of seven, Shawamreh said that at one point, he spent a considerable amount of money trying to legally stop the demolitions, but to no avail. I spent 3,500 Jordanian dinars [$5,000] to get the land deed to prove that I owned the land on which the house was built, but it didnt help, he said. Land deeds proving ownership can be traced back through Jordanian, British Mandate and Ottoman records. Building in East Jerusalem is almost impossible for Palestinians because Israel refuses to issue zoning master plans. Without an official planning map to regulate building, it is impossible to get a building permit, thus forcing families like Shawamrehs to build without a license. The unlicensed homes are then destroyed, with the owners being forced to pay the cost of their home's destruction. Daniel Seidemann, an Israeli lawyer specializing in Jerusalem-related issues, told Al-Monitor that the repeated targeting of communities in the Anata, Issawiya and Silwan neighborhoods confirms that the demolitions are not random. While some house demolitions are being carried out as punitive action, to remind the residents of Jerusalem who is the boss, these repeated destructions are clearly agenda-driven actions. Both US and European Union officials have spoken out against home demolitions. EU officials have reacted to the increase in demolitions by warning Israel that they cant justify its policies in Europe. Israeli daily Haaretz reported that Lars Faaborg-Andersen, the EU ambassador to Israel, had spoken to Yoav Mordechai, Israeli coordinator of activities in the territories, about the EU's perspective. The paper reported Faaborg-Andersen explaining how it is impossible to explain Israel's policy in Europe, as on the one hand, [Israel] destroys illegally constructed buildings and on the other, it offers the Palestinians no possibility of building legally and fails to approve master plans and development for the Palestinians in Area C. Regarding the reason for the uptick in house demolitions in East Jerusalem, Jeff Halper, the co-founder of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, told Al-Monitor, These demolitions are intended mainly to keep Palestinians confined to small pockets and to maintain the induced housing shortage so that Palestinians will be forced out of the city, thereby keeping the desired overwhelming Jewish presence in the city. The more worrisome demolitions are those taking place in the Jordan Valley, leading many experts to sound the alarm that they are a prelude to annexation. Jad Issac, the director of the Applied Research Institute Jerusalem, believes that Israel wants to establish two states in the West Bank. Israel plans to give Israeli settlers around 75% of Area C, which is a total of 60% of the West Bank, eventually turning the Palestinian state into isolated cantons on less than 50% of the original area, Isaac told Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, July 12. Jamal Dajani, the director of strategic communications at the Palestinian prime ministers office, referred to home demolitions to debunk the repeated assertion by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that it is a myth that the settlements are a hindrance to peace. This year alone, Netanyahus government has flattened 660 houses and other structures, leaving almost 1,000 people homeless, many of them children. How is this cruel destruction of property and livelihoods not an obstacle to peace? Dajani wrote Aug. 7 in the Huffington Post. Israeli human rights organization BTselem has also expressed its opposition to home demolitions. In a piece published July 27, BTselem humanized Palestinians by telling the stories of individuals who had lost their homes. The organization cited the political nature of the destructions, saying, Israel acts to establish facts on the ground and to create a reality that it will be difficult to change in any future agreement. [The state takes action] to displace and expel Palestinian residents from Area C, under flimsy pretexts. While the political motivations behind Israels actions are becoming crystal clear, neither the Palestinians nor the international community seem to have found a way to put a stop to this transgression against Palestinians under occupation. With the world focused on the Islamic State radical phenomenon and the Syrian refugee crisis, Israel appears to feel the time is ripe to take actions it would not dare undertake otherwise. August 9, 2016 One must admit the truth: Reading the book by Esti Weinstein, a former adherent of Gur Hasidism who committed suicide in June after long years of separation from her ultra-Orthodox daughters, is exhausting and sometimes boring. From a purely literary angle, as prose Do As He Wills is an immature text. If it weren't for the sensational, tragic story behind it, it likely wouldn't attract many readers. This unusual tragedy is also the reason that many weeks after the text circulated on the internet free to everyone, large and renowned publisher Kinneret-Zmora-Bitan decided to publish it as nonfiction, edited by Shmuel Rosner. The story of Weinstein's life and suicide has enthralled Israelis. Eight years ago, Weinstein left the Gur Hasidim, an ultra-Orthodox sect whose strict and forbidding regulations seem truly extreme to secular Israelis. Upon leaving the sect, Weinstein's ties with six of her daughters were severed because they remained Hasidic. Her one other daughter, Tammy Montag, left the sect, and ultimately saw to the publication of her late mother's text. Weinstein's separation from her daughters, enforced by the elders of the sect, led to her suicide, or so Weinstein's relatives claim. The Hasidim, who argue that they have been maligned in the media, contend that Weinstein abandoned her daughters and brought about her situation herself. We believe in the book, Kinneret-Zmora-Bitan told Al-Monitor, especially in light of its quick and immediate consumption by tens of thousands of people online, alongside the daughter's desire to fulfill Esti's will that the book be brought to the awareness of the religious and secular public. Weinstein's text underwent very light editing and proofreading, and Montag wrote an introduction. We published it as fast as possible, since the book and the event are in the public consciousness, the publisher said. I truly hope that some kind of change will take place among this closed-minded Hasidism, Montag said, that people would read it and say 'I can't continue like this.' For those who left the sect, I hope that it would help with the difficulties they experience and with the separation from their families. Weinstein's book not only exposes the strict and difficult way of life under Gur Hasidism regulations, but also the distorted, violent and unbound sexual relations Weinstein had with her former husband, perhaps the inevitable result of the complete and compulsive control of Hasidic elders over the sex lives of the sect's members. After Weinstein's suicide, Yisrael Greenhaus, a former Gur Hasid, published posts on Facebook describing the sect's rules for men and those for women. For example, two men cannot sit on the same bed. Two men can't be in a room alone. A man cannot touch another man. Men can't bathe at home, only at the ritual bath. Men can't use soap in the shower on weekdays, only on Sabbath eve. Men are not allowed to say the words bride, woman, girl, young woman. Meanwhile, women must cover their body according to strict rules, and they cannot touch a telephone. They cannot look a man in the eye, carry a purse, or receive a kiss or a hug from their father, and so on. The protagonists of Weinstein's book, Dasi and Yaakov, who are thought to represent the author and her former husband, Shlomo, get engaged at age 17. They fail at their initial sexual encounters and live under the prohibition of men and women not looking each other in the eye. Ultimately, however, they cannot abide by the strict prohibitions on sex as prescribed by Gur Hasidism and end up acting with complete sexual permissiveness. In Weinstein's words, We reached extreme situations that can't even be described! I'm sure that most secular Jews don't do things that we dared to do. Later, Yaakov crosses all boundaries and uses Dasi as an object to act out his sexual fantasies. He forces her to have sexual relations with another man in front of him and makes her life hell. She decides to commit suicide, but fails and is committed to a psychiatric hospital, as happened to Weinstein. Her rabbi forces her to return home. After a few months, she can't take it anymore, runs away and becomes secular. Responses to the book were crazy, Montag said. People really take it to heart and cry while reading it. They say it leaves them with a cloud, and they think about it for many days. I also heard responses from ultra-Orthodox people who really relate to it, and are sorry that this is the reality, but that they have a tough time with the erotic parts, naturally. The truth is that Gur Hasidism's regulations and the sexual price its members pay have been known for some time in Israel. In 2012, Haaretz published a two-part article about the sect that detailed the strict regulations that command the complete separation of men and women, including fathers and daughters, as part of a system of repressing sexual urges. Another Haaretz article revealed that the Hasidim dispense pills to repress members' sex drive. That same year, Yisrael Karol, a 26-year-old man who left the sect, committed suicide after allegedly suffering serial abuse meant to return him to the path, that is, to the Hasidim, including the forced use of psychiatric drugs. A few days before Weinstein's suicide, a study by Nava Wasserman, I Never Called My Wife, was published in Israel and described methods of diminishing sexuality among Gur Hasidim. Israelis' memories are short. Every time the public is exposed to what happens behind the closed doors of Hasidism, everyone is shocked and calls for change. Soon thereafter, however, both secular Jews and Gur Hasidim continue going about their lives as if nothing has happened. It seems that Weinstein's desire to leave a legacy of change relies on attracting secular voyeurism into an unknown bedroom. August 9, 2016 Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman seems to have a weakness for the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen, especially for The Emperors New Clothes. He never misses an opportunity to shout at the top of his lungs that the emperor, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is not wearing any clothes. In the days when he wore the foreign ministers suit, Liberman presented to the United Nations General Assembly the two-state vision, in the spirit of Netanyahu's 2009 Bar-Ilan speech, as a transparent cover for a bare policy, in more ways than one. Donned with the Defense Ministry uniform now, on Aug. 5 Liberman compared the nuclear deal with Iran to the 1938 Munich Agreement with Hitler thus coercing Netanyahu to once again expose his empty relationship with US President Barack Obama. Dissociating himself from Liberman's provocation, Netanyahu released a statement the same day declaring, Israels position on the deal with Iran remains unchanged. This position, however, is very similar to the one Liberman presented in his Defense Ministry statement. Before the nuclear deal was concluded, Netanyahu was careful not to explicitly mention Hitler and Munich, but he did speak about a "stunning historic mistake," and the willingness of the powers to cut a deal at any price. By the way, Liberman's stance on the nuke agreement isn't new either. In a statement he issued on the website of his Yisrael Beitenu party in July 2015, he claimed the deal would go down in history alongside the Munich Agreement as "a dark day for the free world." The only change that has taken place since, has been Liberman moving from the opposition benches to the Cabinet table. It is puzzling how people who do not hesitate to challenge the most powerful man in the world (Obama) are afraid of advancing peace. Netanyahu has spoken out in favor of the Arab Peace Initiative in recent months, in the spirit of the message conveyed by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. In a joint press conference with Liberman on May 30, marking his joining the government, Netanyahu said, "The Arab Peace Initiative includes positive elements that can help revive constructive negotiations with the Palestinians." He expressed willingness to negotiate with Arab countries in order to update the initiative and adapt it to the new regional reality. Libermans position on the Arab Peace Initiative has also undergone a welcome change. In April 2009, Foreign Minister Liberman defined the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative as so dangerous that it constitutes a surefire recipe for Israels destruction. On the other hand, in the summer of 2014, that same foreign minister said in a Jerusalem Post interview that the initiative was far more relevant today. He explained that a separate agreement with the Palestinians would only be a headache for Israel, whereas a regional agreement holds out many advantages for Israel. A public opinion survey on this issue conducted in June 2016 among a representative random sampling of 500 Hebrew-speaking Jewish Israelis found that 84% of those surveyed support or could live with the regional arrangement blueprint proposed by the Israeli Initiative group. The group which counts among its leaders Yuval Rabin, the son of late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin; Knesset member Yaakov Peri (Yesh Atid), the former head of the Mossad; Danny Yatom; and Kobi Huberman has been active since 2011 in propagating the regional concept among the public and Israeli and international decision-makers. The blueprint includes the establishment of a demilitarized Palestinian state based on the 1967 border lines and land exchanges allowing 80% of the Jewish West Bank settlers to live under Israeli sovereignty. It excludes a sweeping return of all Palestinian refugees to the State of Israel. It espouses an arrangement that hands the Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem over to Palestinian sovereignty and places the citys holy sites under international management; removal of the boycott threat against Israel; creation of a regional defense mechanism to combat the Iranian threat and terrorism; economic normalization of ties with the Arab states; and international and Arab guarantees of the agreements implementation. The study conducted by the New Wave Institute, published online for the first time by Al-Monitor, indicates that support for this plan crosses party lines: 97% of left-wing voters support it or could live with it; the same goes for 94% of centrist voters and 77% of right-wing voters. This trend also crosses religious divides: 91% of secular Israelis support it or "could live with it," as do 88% of those defining themselves as traditional Jews, 54% of religious Jews and 67% of ultra-Orthodox Jews. The percentage of those supporting regional negotiations is identical to those espousing direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians: namely 28% each. The problem is that only a small minority among the respondents (36%) know the Arab Peace Initiative, which has been awaiting an Israeli response for more than 14 years. Among those who said they were aware of its existence, 52% said that they dont know any or that they dont exactly know details of the initiative. They expressed their views about a regional arrangement after first hearing of the very existence of the initiative or of its components. This egregious diplomatic failure must be laid at the door of Israels right and the international community; the plans marketing failure is the sole responsibility of the Israeli peace camp. The survey finds that if Netanyahu decides to go for a comprehensive arrangement of this kind, most Israelis (60%) would line up behind him. A similar percentage support a two-state solution, compared with no more than 8% who prefer a one-state solution. Yet if Israeli leadership continues to hesitate, the sovereign Israel, now controlling the area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, will transform into a one binational state, or an apartheid regime. Israel might have the tools to deal with the Iranian nuclear deal, even if it resembles the Munich Agreement, but Israel cannot rule forever millions of people while preserving its Jewish and its democratic characters. August 8, 2016 It was a significant step, as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is being increasingly undermined by Israel, Arab allies have turned away and Palestinians are increasingly disillusioned. The very public meeting in Paris with Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK) leader Maryam Rajavi in Paris on the night of July 30 complete with post-meeting news reports and photos shared on social media confirmed it was no mere social call. The meeting followed another that same night between Abbas and US Secretary of State John Kerry. Earlier, on July 9, Prince Turki bin Faisal Al Saud had also made a surprising appearance to standing ovations in which he called for an end to the current Iranian regime at Rajavi's rally in Paris. The official Palestinian news agency WAFA published a short dispatch the night of July 30, directly after the Paris meeting, saying that Abbas listened to Rajavis explanation of the Iranian oppositions annual conference. In his speech at Rajavis rally, Turki expressed particular dislike for the Islamic Republics velayat-e faqih institution ruled by a supreme leader. Rajavi routinely calls for the downfall of the mullahs and an end to the religious dictatorship. Two videos of the Abbas-Rajavi meeting in Paris were released almost simultaneously on July 31: one put out by Rajavi, and another uploaded to the President M. Abbas YouTube account. PLO Executive Committee member Ahmad Majdalani, who heads the Palestinian Popular Struggle Front, told Al-Monitor, President Abbas meeting with Rajavi does not mean we interfere in Irans internal affairs. We keep contact with the Iranian government. We have an embassy and an ambassador there. Majdalani did note, Iran does intervene in our affairs, clearly alluding to Irans support for Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Abbas has sent three special envoys to Iran, all tasked with trying to persuade Iran to stop its support for Hamas. The first, Fatah Deputy Secretary-General and Revolutionary Council member Jibril Rajoub (who also heads the Palestinian Olympic Committee), was sent in January 2014, six months after the Iranian elections that brought President Hassan Rouhani to office. Majdalani was the second special envoy. He reportedly carried a letter from Abbas to Rouhani in August 2015 and signed a cooperation agreement with Iran to form a high committee to discuss political, economic and social exchanges. The third special envoy was Abbas Zaki, a former PLO representative in Lebanon and a member of the powerful Fatah Central Committee. He got into trouble back in Ramallah during his trip to Iran in February 2016, after he welcomed an Iranian offer of Saddam-like financial support to the families of Palestinian casualties, a proposal that both Israel and Abbas separately opposed. Khalil Shikaki, the director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research based in Ramallah, told Al-Monitor that the Palestinian Authority cant take credit for distancing Iran from Hamas. Qatar intervened, and Hamas, like Abbas, is weak, and between a rock and a hard place, he said. Abbas antagonism toward Hamas is not a small thing," Shikaki noted. "They have defeated him militarily in Gaza, and he has failed to deal with that. Now, he added, Abbas gradually began to see a need to indicate partnership with the Saudis. He is weak, and he has been under tremendous pressure to signal a commitment to the Saudis. Shikaki doesnt believe the Paris meeting with Rajavi was Abbas idea. He said that Abbas discounted [Irans] reaction" and "theres nothing he needs at this point. Shikaki believes that the flap will die down, because nothing is going to follow. Majdalani noted this was not the first meeting. We have a historical relation with the [Iranian] opposition since 1968, he said, adding, Many were fighting with the Palestinian revolution. But a lot has changed since 1968, including the overthrow of the shah and the return of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeni to Iran, with a subsequent split and purges that led to the creation of the MEK in 1981 as an armed opposition in exile backed by Saddam Hussein, who was then at war against Iran. To many Iranians, the MEK are traitors. The Iranian government calls the MEK a terrorist organization, and some Iranian officials seethed with anger at the news of the Abbas-Rajavi meeting. Fatahs Information and Culture Commission issued a bristling response to Irans criticism. The statement said sharply that any insult to Abbas was crossing a red line. It accused Iran of destroying the unity of the Palestinian ranks and then working to deepen the division. In the Palestinian media, the meeting was not widely reported on, in part because the Iranian exiled opposition MEK is simply not on the radar other than a vague awareness of the MEKs neoconservative right-wing support base in the US Congress and media. Mahdi Abdulhadi, the founder of the Palestinian Academic Society for International Affairs in East Jerusalem, notes a Palestinian absence in Washington these days. He told Al-Monitor, There is no Palestinian presence in Washington now. There is no Palestinian political figure present and to be received in Washington political circles, nobody in Washington is willing to meet with the Palestinian who is there, or with any Palestinian delegation or visitor while there is too much attention on Israels security, Israels narrative and Israels interest, as well as Israels right to defend itself. There have been a series of US official policy teams visiting Israel and Palestine in recent weeks, Abdulhadi said, all preparing wrap-up reports to hand over to the next US administration that will take office next January, after the presidential elections in November. Abdulhadi added, Political Islam is haunting everybody. Meanwhile, The agenda of Abbas is: All the way behind the Saudis yet Saudi circles dont trust Abbas, he said. The Saudis see corruption and a one-sided line in Ramallah. Moreover, Abdulhadi said, The message from [the Saudi king] is that everything has to go through him for funding. In effect, there has been no Saudi funding here, Abdulhadi said not to the Palestinian government, and not even to long-established nongovernmental organizations. Meanwhile, Abdulhadi pointed out, The Palestinian national political agenda has always been to avoid involvement in any international conflict, but we have now become the political card in the region, again, with Abbas hijacking the Palestinian political agenda, and we are now sinking in regional conflicts, something which is not accepted by the Palestinian people under occupation or in the diaspora. We see him taking sides for financial and political support. August 9, 2016 Turkeys ties with Europe, already strained over a host of issues, are heading for a nosedive after the failed July 15 coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Most Turks feel Europe did not stand by Turkey in its hour of need, instead adopting a wait-and-see attitude as events unfolded. That no European leader or senior European Union official rushed to Turkey after the failed attempt to show solidarity against an attack on its democracy has fueled a belief among Turks that Europe is steeped in double standards when Turkey is concerned. Also reinforcing negative sentiments toward Europe are European criticism of the massive purge against suspected followers and sympathizers of Fethullah Gulen, the Turkish cleric living in the United States and alleged mastermind behind the coup attempt, and warnings that reinstating the death penalty to punish coup plotters would end Ankaras hopes of joining the EU. Erdogan has not minced words in this regard. There is not one person from the EU or the Council of Europe who came here to offer condolences. But they feel no shame or discomfort in telling us these humiliating things, he told a rally of supporters in Ankara July 29. I say to them: Keep that wisdom to yourself. Thorbjorn Jagland, the secretary-general of the Council of Europe, of which Turkey is a member, felt compelled to visit Turkey, on Aug. 3, after Erdogan's remarks. Aware of the angry mood in Ankara, Jagland underlined his position regarding the coup attempt. Following a meeting with parliament Speaker Ismail Kahraman, Jagland said, I was the first to condemn this coup attempt. Before midnight and before it was clear to whose advantage it would end, I felt, based on my democratic instincts, that I had to condemn it and did. Some other European politicians also criticized Europes apparent reticence, among them Carl Bildt, the former prime minister and foreign minister of Sweden. The EU would be in a far better position today if EU leaders had gone to Turkey immediately to express their horror at the coup, congratulate the people of Turkey for defeating it, Bildt wrote for Politico. Of course, there is no guarantee this would have prevented the country from sliding further toward authoritarianism. But Europe could at least have tried to stand up for its political ideal and democratic values. Turks thrive on conspiracy theories, and according to one currently circulating, Europe would have been happy to see the coup succeed, because it would have killed two birds with one stone: It would have overthrown an Islamist president and government despised in the West, and it would have automatically ended Turkeys EU membership bid, which many in Europe oppose. Ibrahim Kalin, Erdogans chief adviser, expressed this view after the coup attempt was foiled. Had the coup succeeded, you would have supported it, like in Egypt. You don't know this nation but they know you, Kalin wrote in a tweet aimed at Europe. Yusuf Muftuoglu, an adviser to former President Abdullah Gul, also argued that anger toward Erdogan had prevented the West from taking a principled stance against the coup attempt. He wrote for the Huffington Post, Today, largely as a result of this Western indifference toward the coup and its culprits and the much greater amount of attention paid to other events, many people in Turkey, including commentators who have nothing to do with conspiracy theories, believe that people in the West would have been content if this coup had succeeded. All of this is a far cry from just a few months ago, when former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu jubilantly announced a new era in Turkeys ties with Europe, after the two sides concluded a controversial deal on refugees in March. Various developments since then have reignited feelings among Turks of again having been stabbed in the back by Europe. First there was the demeaning manner in which Turkeys prospective EU membership was used as a political scarecrow during the Brexit campaign, even though London has always presented itself as a supporter of Ankaras EU bid. Then came what Turks believe is an attempt by the EU to renege on its promise of visa-free travel for Turks, included in the refugee deal. The EU wants Ankara to soften its Anti-Terrorism Law for this to happen, but Turkey is refusing to do so. Erdogan is now threatening to renege on the refugee deal if the visa provision is not honored. EU officials admit that Ankara has been honoring its end of the bargain and are now concerned about the fate of the agreement. There was also the Armenian genocide resolution adopted by the German Bundestag in June, considered the ultimate betrayal by Turks. Capping off all the above are the negative feelings generated after the failed coup attempt. Threats from Europe that Turkeys EU membership bid could be suspended nevertheless ring hollow for Turks, because the talks were going nowhere anyway. Factors including economic problems, the rise of Islamophobia in Europe and the racism that surfaced during the Brexit campaign had already diminished the EUs appeal for most Turks. Yigit Bulut, Erdogans economic adviser, believes the time has come for Turkey to dump the EU. I have been writing for years, almost shouting, that the EU will collapse, and it is collapsing, Bulut wrote in his column for the pro-government daily Star. Claiming that Europe has contributed nothing to Turkey, Bulut said he would not be telling the truth if he said he was saddened by Europes decline. The correct course for Turkey is to separate itself from Europe the sick man and to avoid becoming part of its bad fate, Bulut continued. He concluded, A new world is being built, and Turkey is one of the countries with the greatest potential in this regard. Some European officials and politicians, however, believe that ending Turkeys EU bid would be counterproductive. Responding to Austrias call to halt the membership talks, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told the German ARD channel that it would not be helpful. He also underlined that there was no unanimity within the EU for pursuing such a move. There are also Turkish voices that argue that turning its back on the West would be to Turkeys detriment. Taha Akyol, a veteran columnist for the daily Hurriyet, believes Turkeys place is ultimately with the West. The West is our greatest partner in terms of the technology we use, our know-how, our academic knowledge and our trade and investment. The share of Russia and Asia in this is considerably smaller, Akyol argued. Akyol said the past 150 years have proven that this is the best orientation for Turkey, which he said should subscribe to European values and take its place in European organizations. A fact that Europe must face is that Erdogan is now an even greater force to contend with after the failed coup. The future of ties will depend on whether he and Europe can overcome their mutual antipathy for the sake of big picture considerations. Given the present mood on both sides, it appears this will not be an easy task. August 9, 2016 In the biggest mass rally of Turkish political history, more than 1 million Turks even 3 million by some estimates gathered in Istanbul Aug. 7 to denounce the July 15 attempted coup. This, naturally, was widely reported by the Western media, with a focus on the man who led the rally: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey's Erdogan stages mass rally in show of strength after coup attempt, read a Reuters headline. Crowds gather in Istanbul for massive pro-Erdogan rally, reported Deutsche Welle. For Voice of America, too, the news was a Massive rally in Turkey in support of Erdogan. The reality on the ground, however, was less Erdogan-centric. Turkeys powerful president was of course the biggest star of the show, but what made the rally so significant was the participation of two opposition leaders: Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the main opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP), and Devlet Bahceli, the leader of the Nationalist Action Party. The presence of the CHP the Ataturk party, the traditional guardian of secularism was very significant. It was a strong symbol that the current political fault line in Turkey is not about Islam versus secularism, as it often is. It is rather about the defense of the democratic system against the putschists who were identified by all leaders who spoke at the rally as FETO, or the Fethullah Gulen Terror Organization. Hence, the rally was quite colorful in terms of the participants. Among the millions who poured into the streets in Istanbul, as well as Ankara, Izmir and other major cities, there were people from all walks of life. Erdogan supporters probably made up the biggest chunk; there were as many unveiled women as those wearing the veil, and Islamists were joined by pop stars, models, actors and actresses, and even Turkeys chief rabbi. Secular media, too, was as supportive as the Islamist media. Hard-core secular and often fiercely anti-Erdogan daily Sozcu came out the next day with a huge headline that supported the rally, vowing One nation, one flag. Why is this the case? Why are Turkeys secularists now standing with Erdogan, whom they have repeatedly blamed for Islamism and authoritarianism? There are two answers to this question. First, the July 15 coup plot was perceived as an attack on not merely Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), but the whole nation. The putschists bombed the Turkish parliament, the very symbol of the nation, at a time when the deputies from four major parties were inside. It is unfortunate that one of those parties, the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), was not invited to the rally despite its stance against the coup. The problem is HDPs image as a party that supports terrorism, in reference to the violent attacks by Kurdish militants. The putschists also killed more than 100 civilians who resisted them, revealing a ruthlessness that enraged the whole nation. Second, Turkeys secularists realized that the coup plot was the work of the Gulenists, who are loathed by most and feared more than the Erdoganists. For observers in the West, this might be hard to comprehend, for there the Gulenist community has a largely positive image, if any, as a moderate Islamic group that preaches love, tolerance and dialogue. In Turkey, however, almost everybody knows that beyond this facade, the group has been hell-bent on dominating the state through subversion and has been notorious for exploiting key state institutions to purge or even imprison those who stand in its way. In particular, most Turkish secularists hold a grudge against the Gulenists for massive witch hunts on secularists, which imprisoned hundreds of secularist officers and their allies between 2007 and 2013. At that time, the Gulenists and the AKP were allies, and the latter can also be held responsible for the now notorious cases known as Ergenekon and Sledgehammer. Yet it was clear that the Gulenists were the more aggressive party in this alliance, and they were the ones responsible for forged evidence, as proven later by the work of Harvard professor Dani Rodrik, along with several Turkish journalists. (See also the Al-Monitor interview with former police chief Hanefi Avci on Gulenists and their parallel state.) Turkeys Kurds, too, hold an understandable grudge against the Gulenists, who have arrested thousands of Kurdish activists during the Kurdistan Communities Union investigations of 2011-12, often with inflated charges. Gulenists have also been quite suspicious of and often active against the now failed peace process between the AKP government and Kurdish militants, giving them infamy among Turkeys Kurds and peacenik liberals. Hence, when the AKP-Gulenist alliance finally broke apart in late 2013 and turned into open political war, I asked a prominent secular, left-wing Turkish journalist, Which side do you despise more? He responded, The Gulenists are a bigger threat, for we can vote out Erdogan, but once these guys capture the state, there is no way to get rid of them. He said that he was more worried about being imprisoned by the Gulenist police and judiciary than by the AKP government. That's why Turkeys secularists are now siding with Erdogan against the Gulenists, who made themselves the national enemy with the bloody coup plot. This, of course, does not mean that secular worries about Erdogan and his Islamist vision will be over. There is also no guarantee that the spirit of national unity presented in the united anti-coup rally will endure. Yet it is still significant that the ambitions of an Islamist cult have been able to bring Turkeys Islamists and secularists together for the first time in recent history. The park.jpg The grand opening of the Food Truck Social Street Eats park in Huntsville this weekend will benefit the Food Bank of North Alabama. (Courtesy) The grand opening of the Food Truck Social Street Eats park in Huntsville this weekend will benefit the Food Bank of North Alabama. Vonda Patterson, park operator and owner of Rollin Lobstah, said they will have a dunking tank, water slide, water balloon wars, games and a watermelon bash to raise money for the food bank on 2000 Vernon Ave. S.W., in Huntsville. "We will also have big boxes located around the park for people to put canned goods in for the food bank," she told AL.com. "Sam's is sponsoring the watermelons and some of the candy that we will give away as prizes." The event begins at 5 p.m. Friday on 1354 Old Monrovia Road across from the Carmike 10 movie theater. Organizers are asking local restaurants to donate gift cards to the grand opening to give away as prizes. Rollin Lobstah, Fire & Spice, Back Alley Traveling Bistro, The Food Truck, Honeypie Bakery and Beaucoup Allure will be on-site providing food, desserts and shopping for attendees. The park first launched in November 2015. "We hope to make this a memorable night and to give the park some exposure to let more folks in Huntsville know that we are now open," Patterson said. Thirty-two years ago this month, the hallways of Madison Square were overflowing with guests as the area's first regional Super Mall celebrated its grand opening in the Rocket City. It's a different, but hopeful story today at the struggling shopping center on busy University Drive. Supporters of Councilman Will Culver joined representatives from local developer RCP Companies on Monday evening to learn about the future of the two-story enclosed property, which will be torn down in the coming months to make way for MidCity Huntsville. "We knew when we purchased Madison Square Mall ... that a generation of memories had been made here," RCP Director Odie Fakhouri told attendees. "And we also knew that the current state of Madison Square Mall was a very sad one and that it would take a lot of work to bring it back to life, but we took on this project because we wanted to help revitalize this corridor of Huntsville to improve the quality of life for young people and their families and to enable people to act on the opportunities that are not present since the grand opening of Madison Square Mall in 1984." No longer viable Since purchasing former owner CBL & Associates' portion of the development, RCP has been hard at work with planning firm Urban Design Associates on creating a new vision for the site. Fakhouri said the company conducted a third-party market study to understand the unique needs and challenges of Madison Square and the surrounding area. The analysis found another nearly 1 million-square-foot mall like Madison Square is no longer viable in Huntsville. "And that is consistent with national trends for what people are demanding today, not just from their shopping experience, but in their everyday life," he said. "They're demanding something different. They're demanding something experiential." The Huntsville City Council voted in May to approve an urban renewal and development agreement between the city and RCP to revitalize a portion of the property the city does not need for public infrastructure upgrades under the newly-adopted urban renewal plan for Cummings Research Park East. Sneak peak The project, which is still in its design phase and subject to changes, will feature a mix of uses, including commercial and office space, retail, at least one boutique hotel, and hundreds of multi-family residential units. Here's a sneak peek at what MidCity will offer: A place for innovation: Fakhouri said Huntsville, which has one of the highest concentrations of engineers per capita in the U.S., struggles with new startup growth. MidCity will provide a space called Area 120, which he describes as a playground for innovation and disruptive ideas for Huntsville's most creative and inventive people and offers opportunities for capital investment. Park space: A multi-acre park serving Research Park and the west Huntsville community also will operate at MidCity to encourage activities like yoga, wall-climbing and other outdoor events, including a performance venue. Quality food options: MidCity will create two avenues of specialty restaurants and a food hall of chef-inspired cuisine, as well as a hardscape promenade for food trucks and farmers markets to roll in and out of the site. "The food hall will be an incubator for restaurant concepts," Fakhouri said. "It allows those patrons the experience of seeing their food prepared, for example, and learning from the artisans and the creators themselves. That's a learning experience, it's a new experience, and it's very different than going into some fast food chain." New to market: Fakhouri said the cannibalization clause in the City of Huntsville development agreement that states 70 percent of MidCity businesses must be new to market doesn't mean the concepts have to originate in another city. "If you're an entrepreneur and you make stuff in Huntsville, that's new to the market and there will be a place for you at MidCity," he said. Culver's re-election event was the public's first glimpse at the project, which must be approved in full by the city council before it can move forward. "MidCity will be a complete and total mixed-use development project in its most comprehensive form," Fakhouri said. "There will be every type of use at MidCity and all of our pre-development work has gained the interest of every type of use." Revitalization Culver, who is president on the council, said the city's contribution to MidCity will be $10 to $12 million in infrastructure work. Phase I of the project will begin next year, with Phase IV finishing by 2021-22. The city must complete its public improvements within a timeline that coincides with the developer's schedule to construct each phase of the project. "By revitalizing and investing in this area, we're going to generate future growth, not just for this particular piece of property, but future growth for all of the surrounding areas," Culver said. "This is similar to what is happening all over the country. We have what we call units where people live, work, play and shop all in the same area." RCP developed the Whole Foods-anchored Shops at Merchants Walk on South Memorial Parkway and recently started construction on CityCentre at Big Spring at the old Holiday Inn site in downtown Huntsville. Last month, the company announced it will open Jodeco | Atlanta South, a $300 million project with Cabela's as its first tenant and a 12,000-square-foot Mt. Olive Market food hall. Culver hopes MidCity will help sustain Bridge Street Town Centre, the Village of Providence, Best Buy and other developments in the neighborhood. "We're going to see a lot of interest in this particular area once this project is completed," he said. Keep up with MidCity developments on www.midcityhuntsville.com. Has your pastor endorsed Hillary Clinton for president, or suggested you vote for Donald Trump? Black Protestant pastors are more likely to endorse candidates from the pulpit than white Protestant or Catholic pastors, according to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center. Pew's survey of 4,602 people found about 30 percent of black Protestant churchgoers have heard their pastors speak out in favor of or against a presidential candidate. Among black Protestants, 28 percent said their pastors had spoken in support of Clinton, and 20 percent said their pastors had spoken out against Trump. Fewer than one percent of white Protestants said their pastors had spoken out on either Clinton or Trump. Churches that endorse candidates run the risk of having their tax-exempt status revoked, but that has seldom happened. The black church has a history of fervent political activism, including its role spearheading the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. That tendency towards political activism remains prominent. "I've noticed historically that's very prevalent in the black church," said the Rev. Stephen Green, pastor of the predominantly black More Than Conquerors Faith Church in Birmingham since 1985. Green said that the pulpit is not the place for political endorsements and he won't be making any. "We have political forums, but we try to keep that separation between church and politics," Green said. "More Than Conquerors tries to keep the worship hour the worship hour. We educate people biblically so that people can make an intelligent choice. We try to shy away from the political and keep it spiritual." Green said he attended Clinton's rally at the historically black Miles College on Feb. 27, including a meeting with pastors. "She stated her platform," he said. "You'd think that they're trying to get them to endorse them." But Green said he keeps what candidates he may favor private when he's speaking from the pulpit. "We just encourage people how important it is to vote," Green said. "They have to make that decision based on the principles we instill." Local candidates courting the vote often try to use the church to campaign, he said. "We often get requests: 'Can I come to the church during the 11 o'clock hour, can I make a spiel?' We'll welcome and recognize anybody, but we won't endorse anybody. They can't give a political speech. We recognize them and pray over them, but not particularly endorsing them. We don't get involved in that." Green said he may touch on political issues from a biblical perspective. "I may say, from a biblical standpoint, 'Can a woman be president?'" he said. "Is it biblical for a woman to lead a country? Esther was called to be a leader. Deborah in the Book of Judges was called to be a leader. I would cite times when we've seen God choose women leaders. Biblically we have seen women lead a country." Some may view opposition to Trump as a theological issue. "I think there are some obvious concerns," Green said. "I haven't said anything adamantly about that." Before he ever talks about a candidate from the pulpit, it would have to be God telling him to say it, he said. "It better be a word from the Lord," he said. "You're now crossing over. The pulpit is a very powerful desk. You have to be very sure when you cross those lines. What I feel personally and corporately is two different things. People have a right to speak and say what they want to say. It's the privilege of democracy." But the pulpit should be reserved for theology, he said. "There are economic prophets, social prophets, political prophets," he said. "That's what God's called them to do. I try to stay within the lane of what I've been called to do." Green said there's a difference between being socially active and politically active. More Than Conquerors Faith Church is leading an outreach to Elyton Village and other government-subsidized housing projects. Members of his church and volunteers from other churches will be at Elyton Village on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., offering social services and assistance from social agencies. The Rev. Mike Shaw, a former president of the predominantly white Alabama Baptist State Convention and currently interim pastor of West End Baptist Church in Clanton and pastor emeritus at First Baptist Church of Pelham, said the pulpit is no place for politics. "I never use the pulpit to endorse anybody," he said. "I believe Christians ought to be involved in politics. We need to take advantage of that. The Bible teaches us to obey the people in authority over us." People often know where their pastors stands, whether or not candidates are endorsed. "I'm very conservative theologically and very conservative politically," Shaw said. "I'm not going to say it from the pulpit. I do not preach politics from the pulpit. I'll tell people, 'Go out and vote.' The thing I have always tried to do is tell people, 'here are some things to remember when you vote.' Basically vote your convictions. I'll tell everybody to pray and go vote. I would not dare tell anybody how to vote." Mark Burns.png Pastor Mark Burns of the Harvest Praise and Worship Center in Greenville, S.C., offers a benediction praising Donald Trump at the Republican Convention on July 18, 2016, in Cleveland. (AP photo/J. Scott Applewhite) Retired United Methodist Bishop William Willimon is now a professor at Duke University. Retired Bishop William Willimon, who led the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church from 2004-2012, has written an essay attacking the preacher who offered a partisan prayer for Donald Trump at the Republican National Convention. Willimon's blog entry, posted Aug. 8, skewers Pastor Mark Burns of Harvest Praise and Worship Center in Easley, S.C., for his politically tinged benediction on the opening night of the Republican Convention, July 18 in Cleveland. Here's Burn's benediction: "Hello Republicans! I'm Pastor Mark Burns from the great state of South Carolina! I'm going to pray and I'm going to give the benediction. And you know why? Because we are electing a man in Donald Trump who believes in the name of Jesus Christ. And Republicans, we got to be united because our enemy is not other Republicans -- but is Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party. Let's pray together. Father God, in the name of Jesus, Lord we're so thankful for the life of Donald Trump. We're thankful that you are guiding him, the you are giving him the words to unite this party, this country, that we together can defeat the liberal Democratic Party, to keep us divided and not united. Because we are the United States of America, and we are the conservative party under God. To defeat every attack that comes against us, to protect the life of Donald Trump, give him the words, give him the space, give him the power and the authority to be the next President of the United States of America, in Jesus' name -- if you believe it, shout Amen!" And here is Willimon's response: Dear Trump's preacher: By Will Willimon Dear Mark (or, if you prefer, The Reverend Mr. Burns): I gather that you are the closest thing that Donald Trump has to a preacher, judging from your performance at the RNC in Cleveland a couple of weeks ago. You and I have never met, though I am a native of South Carolina. I've never been to your Harvest Praise & Worship Center in Easley but I have been known to be a preacher and a teacher of preachers and I have visited in Easley. While I am in awe of your taking on the role of being The Donald's pastor and spiritual advisor, I would welcome the opportunity to talk homiletical shop with you. Pastor Mark Burns campaigns for Trump. Preacher to preacher, you've got your hands full. I was once the pastor of a sleazy Congressman who went to the slammer after an FBI sting, so I can tell you that it's not easy being court chaplain these days. I felt abused by him after I saw myself pictured in one of this guy's campaign ads - without my permission. I can only imagine the challenge of being used by The Donald. In one sense, I'm glad to hear that, under your guidance, The Donald has gotten religion and now has a fitting spiritual guide. As you know, The Donald has never been big on church. In fact, he has apparently rarely entered a Christian church and lacks even the barest understanding of the faith. Earlier in the campaign, he claimed he was a member of Marble Collegiate in NYC. I checked -- another case of Donald's playing loose with the facts. He said he was a "Presbyterian" but I checked with lots of Presbyterians and they say that's not true. The folks at Marble Collegiate don't seem to know him (his main relationship with MC is that he allegedly met Marla Maples there. You and I both know that certainly doesn't qualify him to be a Presbyterian). Your prayer at the RNC gave me pause. "Lord, we're so thankful for the life of Donald Trump" I guess you didn't mean that we're thankful for Trump's sexual morality, married life, relationship with minorities, charitable contributions, truth-telling, confession of sin, etc. Maybe you are thankful for his business dealings -- except for his numerous bankruptcies. Then you prayed, "We're thankful that you are guiding him...." Come on. Do you really think that's a nice thing to say about Our Lord? Just where have you noted the guidance of Our Lord in The Donald's life? I've missed that. He says he doesn't believe in making mistakes or apologizing for anything. Doesn't sound like he's had much divine guidance. You said, in response to the outcry over your unpreceded, partisan prayer that brought the RNC to its feet, rather than their knees, "I'm a preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And for me, whenever I get - every opportunity I get to declare his name on whatever platform, I'm going to do so." That's good. I'm curious to know just what in The Donald's life connected with Jesus? Indeed, where in your prayer did you lift up Jesus' name or way of life, death, and resurrection? I missed that. Your failure to mention anything specific about Jesus or to quote Jesus was probably a good call. I can think of a long list of things that Jesus said and did that you really don't want to mention to your buddy, Donald. In your interview with NPR's Bob Inskeep you said, "I think I'm a lot like Mr. Trump in some ways...." I assume you are not talking about your marital life, your language, gambling, or bullying. Bob directly asked you, "Do Donald Trump's values match your values as a Christian?" My ears perked up as you said, "Absolutely. There are three major points that Donald Trump is standing on that I support as a Christian. Number one, he supports, you know, the sanctity of marriage." (Wow.) "Number two, he supports abortion." (Forgivable slip.) "He supports, you know, the life of babies. He's pro-life. Families, so yeah, absolutely." (Wow.) I guess at Harvest Praise and Worship Center you have a creative definition of "sanctity of marriage." And while I'm sure the Trumps make some of your troubled families at HPWC look good, still.... "I actually feel appointed for such a time, I feel just like Esther did," you said, referring to the great Bible story (which I'm fairly certain Donald has never heard about). "When Mordecai came to her and said, you need to have your ear to the King, you need to go out and speak to the King, you have access, so you have to help protect our people." OK. You see yourself as Esther, though you have set the bar high for yourself. Best to you. I understand that you are not - as you have claimed -- a member of that distinguished African American fraternity, Kappa Alpha Psi. Sorry that you didn't get a bid. I also understand that your boasts to have attended Furman, North Greenville University, and Southern Wesleyan U are shaky. I am beginning to see why you and The Donald are tight. If Donald can claim to have seen things on TV that never happened, then I am sure you can boast of having matriculated at schools that don't know you and have pledged KAP even though they vehemently deny it. Still, I wonder. To be working for the one who was not only the way and the life but also the truth, you and the Donald seem to sit light on veracity to say nothing of reality. Don't worry. The Donald has demonstrated that prevarication isn't a problem for Americans. Your position at HPWC or The Donald's place as the Republican standard-bearer isn't in jeopardy. These days, there's just about no lie you can tell that makes any difference. Not sure if our Lord looks at the same way, but best to you in your ministry. Caroline Malatesta Caroline Malatesta and her husband, J.T. were awarded a $16 million verdict against Brookwood Medical Center for their claims of medical negligence and reckless fraud related to the hospital's natural birth advertising campaign and the birth of their son in 2012. (Tamika Moore/tmoore@al.com) Caroline Malatesta was pregnant with her fourth child when ads for Brookwood Baptist Medical Center caught her eye. It was 2012, and the Birmingham hospital was billing itself as a place that would accommodate mothers who wanted natural births, advertising its willingness to accommodate birth plans, and its new birth tubs, birth balls, birth bars and other equipment common in the natural birth community. When the new women's center opened in 2011, wireless fetal monitoring - which allows a laboring mother to walk around - was touted in local news reports as one of its new features. "Brookwood's advertising is what first piqued my interest in natural birth," said Malatesta. "It added a layer of legitimacy. Natural birth wasn't just a trend; these were real medical decisions. The birth plan at St. Vincent's hospital, where Malatesta had planned to deliver before seeing the Brookwood ads, required continuous fetal monitoring - being hooked up to a monitor, requiring a laboring mother to remain in bed - and delivering in a recumbent position. "What was promised online and then confirmed through my doctor was the most influential" on her decision to switch to Brookwood for the birth of her fourth child, she said. But by the time her son was born, Malatesta was permanently injured after a nurse forced her onto her back and pressed her baby's head back into her vagina until the doctor arrived, according to a lawsuit she filed in 2014 against Brookwood and its parent company, Tenet Healthcare Corporation. Last Friday a jury agreed, awarding Malatesta and her husband $16 million. Brookwood was found responsible for medical negligence during the birth and reckless fraud for its natural birth ad campaign. "I had tried everything within my power to understand what happened from Brookwood's perspective and get answers," said Malatesta of the two years following the birth. "Unfortunately I felt like I didn't get any real answers. And they eventually just shut me out. That was when I realized the only option was litigation." Attorneys for Brookwood have not answered AL.com's emails asking for a response. Birmingham's WBRC Fox 6 News reported that in an official statement, Kate Darden, vice president of marketing and communications for the hospital, said, "We are disappointed in the outcome of the case. Brookwood Baptist Medical Center strives for excellence in patient care and satisfaction, and we respectfully disagree with the jury's verdict." Red flags Malatesta arrived at Brookwood well into her labor. "When I first walked into my room, I was told by my nurse, 'You need to get on your back in the bed for monitoring and you may be there for the rest of your labor,'" said Malatesta. "That raised a red flag." The idea of laboring on her back in bed with continuous fetal monitoring, rather than having the ability to move around as she labored wasn't what Malatesta had discussed with her doctor. "I had spent so much time talking with my regular OBGYN about the importance of wireless monitoring and mobility," she said. "He was not just on board; he said that was the safest thing for me and my baby. "These were not preferences. They were medical decisions I made with my doctor." When Malatesta told the nurse about her birth plan, which included wireless monitoring and being able to move around, she said, the nurse told her to stay in bed and that her doctor was not on call. Malatesta remembered thinking: "Why would it be safe for me to walk around with one doctor, and not another?" Once her water broke, Malatesta tried to labor in a more comfortable position on her hands and knees, a position she'd discussed with her doctor. The nurse forced her onto her back again, she said, and they struggled. As her baby began crowning, the nurses held her down and pressed her baby's head into her vagina, she said. She estimated the nurses held her baby in for about six minutes. Malatesta remembers screaming at the nurses to stop, and telling them the baby was coming. The on-call doctor arrived in the room, and her son was born a minute later. In a 2015 deposition, Melissa Graham, Malatesta's primary nurse according to hospital records, was asked about a notation on Malatesta's chart that said Malatesta had been instructed not to push. "The baby was about to deliver," said Graham in the deposition. "And she has got a strong urge to push and we were trying to get the doctor there." Graham agreed that the nurses believed if Malatesta pushed, the baby would deliver before the doctor arrived. In depositions, the nurses and the on-call doctor said they had few or no specific memories of Malatesta's birth. A corporate representative for Brookwood did agree during testimony that if what the Malatestas said occurred actually happened - from moving her to her back to delaying the birth - that would constitute a breach in the hospital's standard of care. Asking questions A few months after her son was born, Malatesta scheduled a meeting with Brookwood administration to ask questions about what happened during the birth. He was born healthy, but she had not recovered as she had with her previous births and was experiencing chronic pain. "I didn't get any real answers, but I didn't really push because I didn't know I was permanently injured," she said. As the weeks went on, the pain from what would eventually be diagnosed as a nerve disorder called pudendal neuralgia became constant. She spoke with the hospital's patient advocate and the hospital's vice president, and eventually was told she could talk to Brookwood's attorneys. "I said I really just want to talk to somebody who can answer some questions so I can come to peace about what happened," she said. The patient advocate set up a meeting with her and the hospital's vice president, but later canceled it and hung up on Malatesta, she said. "At that point I realized I had no other choice and had to pursue litigation," she said. The suit was filed in 2014. On Aug. 5, 2016 the jury awarded $10 million in compensatory damages for Malatesta's injuries sustained during childbirth; $1 million to her husband for loss of consortium; and $5 million in punitive damages for reckless fraud. 'The Giving Tree' Malatesta likened the pain caused by the pudendal neuralgia to sharp pins-and-needles or burning sensation in her genital and pelvic region that never go away. "Pain is fatiguing because you spend so much of your energy fighting the pain," she said. "I'm rarely totally out of pain. I try to take only the amount of medication that will make it bearable, because otherwise I'll fall asleep. It's a daily balance." The 36-year-old mother of four, once active, now has to spend large chunks of her day resting in bed or in baths. Her sex life is gone, she said, due to the debilitating pain, and she's unable to have more children because of that and because being pregnant would exacerbate the pain. "I have to pick and choose and be very intentional about what I choose to spend my limited amount of energy on," she said. "Usually I choose to spend that on my children's activities and events. "This has impacted my entire family and put a lot of stress on my husband, who has been amazing throughout all of this." She calls her husband, J.T., 'The Giving Tree,' - a reference to the classic children's book - for his selfless and steadfast devotion to her and their family. Other friends and family have stepped in to support them in myriad ways, from watching the kids to just sitting and holding Malatesta's hand through the pain. Her children are now ages 9, 8, 6 and 4. "It's impacted my oldest the most because she's at an age where she needs me more emotionally," said Malatesta. "I haven't been able to be the mother I want to be. We have a lot of open discussion about it. I'm doing the best I can." Her doctor, who testified at the trial, said her injury is likely permanent, but Malatesta hasn't given up hope that a new medical advancement might bring relief. "I refuse to say never," she said. "I'm holding out for a miracle." Can't let it go As the case picked up media coverage, it's become a lightning rod for other women who have experienced birth trauma. "It's meaningful to me that so many women have contacted me and told me that the verdict was their validation that they never got," said Malatesta. "That gives meaning to an injury that's hard to come to terms with - a bigger meaning than myself." Women from Birmingham and across the country have reached out via email and social media to share their stories with her. "When I finally started talking about how I was concerned about how my birth went, other women started talking to me," she said. "Then last year, when the media began covering my story, it's like the floodgates opened. Women from all over started contacting me about similar things that happened to them. "That was a real driver for me to keep pursuing this. I realized I couldn't just let that go." The verdict last week was bittersweet. She said it's hard to feel excited about faulting "an organization that's made up of people, many of whom work hard and deeply care about their patients." Instead, she sees her experience as a symptom of larger systemic problems in the kind of care that hospitals like Brookwood offer to expectant mothers. "From my interactions with doctors, nurses, women and many others, I believe that some sort of more collaborative model of care would be ideal," she said. "What people forget is that women are seeking choices not just for personal preference, but for the safety of themselves and their babies. They're seeking evidence-based care. "I feel like, from all the messages I've gotten, many women finally feel like they can talk about (birth trauma)," she said. "I hope my talking about it openly will encourage more women to do so." One person was killed and eight injured in Monday's crash on Interstate 59 near Tuscaloosa. The four-vehicle crash happened at 10:55 a.m. when a 2015 Freightliner struck an SUV and caught fire. The tractor-trailer driver was killed, but the victim's identity has not yet been released pending confirmation by the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences. Senior Trooper Reginal King said the crash happened in the southbound lanes of I-59. The Freightliner struck the Dodge Durango driven by 52-year-old Marry Huggins of Birmingham. During the crash, cargo fell from another Freightliner and struck a Kia Van driven by 47-year-old Cheryl White of Virginia. White, her six passengers and Huggins were all taken to the hospital. The extent of their injuries wasn't immediately available. King said the preliminary investigation indicates that speed may have been a factor. Birmingham Health Care's former chief financial officer, who last year pleaded guilty to stealing $1.7 million from the federally-funded center for the poor and homeless, was sentenced Tuesday to serve 17 years in prison. Terri McGuire Mollica, 50, also was ordered by Chief U.S. District Court Judge Karon O. Bowdre to serve five years under supervised probation once she is released. Bowdre called Mollica a "calculating and vindictive" person who didn't show acceptance of responsibility. "In my 15 years on the bench I have never seen a case like this one," she said. Mollica is already serving a 28-month sentence for her guilty plea to charges that she sent drugs and other items through the mail in an attempt to intimidate a witness and the families of a prosecutor and FBI agent investigating the health care fraud case. Of that sentence, 14 months must run consecutive to the sentence she received Tuesday. Bowdre also ordered Mollica to forfeit $1.96 million - the total of the proceeds from her fraud scheme of $1,747,064 and $214,333 in money laundering activities. Bowdre also ordered that Mollica to pay: $539,389 to the Internal Revenue Service in restitution; $30,000 to Global Life Insurance Company for trying to illegally collect on an accidental death insurance policy she took out on her brother-in-law pretending to be his sister; and $10,000 restitution to a doctor whose signature she forged on a false death certificate. Prosecutors say Mollica used the more than $1.7 million she took for her personal use for things including satisfying her home mortgage, paying for a vacation home in Gulf Shores, Alabama, and partially paying for a second vacation residence in Gatlinburg, Tenn. She also deposited funds into several accounts, some of which were in the names of her three children, prosecutors said. In all, Mollica helped divert $11 million from Birmingham Healthcare and Central Alabama Comprehensive Health in Tuskegee to companies owned by Jonathan Dunning, the former CEO of both of the community health care centers. Mollica also worked for Dunning at his private Synergy companies. "Defendant Mollica's assistance to Co-schemer Dunning lasted for years and included participating in Dunning's real estate transactions, assisting with bank financing for the Synergy Entities, and continuing to direct financial transactions at BHC and CACH," according to a sentencing memorandum from Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa Atwood. Mollica, who had served as CFO of both BHC and CACH, pleaded guilty last year in a plea deal with federal prosecutors related to fraud against the government -- six counts of wire fraud affecting a financial institution, eight counts of mail fraud affecting a financial institution and five counts of money laundering. Mollica in June invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refused to testify at Dunning's fraud trial. A federal jury in June found Dunning guilty on 98 counts of conspiracy, wire fraud, bank fraud and money laundering. He is to be sentenced Oct. 14. Jim Parkman, one of Mollica's attorneys, said after Tuesday's sentencing that he doesn't yet know whether Mollica will appeal the sentence. "We just appreciate Judge Bowdre listening to everything and taking everything into consideration," he said. During the hearing Parkman, among other things, had noted that Mollica had no prior criminal history, has three children, and agreed to surrender her CPA license. Mollica declined to say anything during the hearing. Atwood sought a sentence of 26 years and four months, which was at the low end of the suggested guideline range. Despite the actions Mollica took to try and implicate the husband of a prosecutor (not her) in the illegal drug trade, a "substantial" sentence is needed, she said. "This is a defendant who when it is convenient for her commits fraud," Atwood said. Bowdre said that while Mollica was a "vital player" in the diversion of the millions of dollars meant for the poor and homeless, the low end guideline sentence of 26 years was out of line. That guideline is based on the amount of money taken. Bowdre said she had sentenced violent offenders to less time. The FBI, IRS and HHS-OIG investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney John B. Ward also prosecuted the case. A four-vehicle crash Monday morning left one person dead and eight injured. The crash happened on Interstate 59 near mile marker 70, one mile outside of Tuscaloosa, around 10:55 a.m. yesterday. A 2014 Dodge Durango, driven by Mary Huggins of Birmingham, caught fire after it was hit by a 2015 Freightliner. The Freightliner's driver was pronounced dead at the scene. Huggins, 52, was transported to a nearby hospital. The deceased person has not been identified. Senior Trooper Reginal King said that during that crash, cargo from a 2016 Freightliner fell and hit a 2017 Kia van driven by Cheryl White, of Virginia. White and her six passengers were injured and taken to a local hospital. King said that the preliminary investigation shows speed may have been a factor in the crash, but Alabama State Troopers are continuing to investigate. pros ring.png Seven women and one man have been charged in a prostitution ring being run out of a Moulton motel. (Lawrence County Sheriff's Office) Seven women and a man have been arrested and charged in connection with a prostitution ring being run out of a Moulton motel. The arrests are the result of an undercover investigation by Lawrence County Sheriff's Office drug agents, according to WAFF 48. During the investigation, agents learned that the women were using an undisclosed website to set up meetings where clients could pay for sex or, in some cases, sex and drugs. The women would agree to meet an undercover agent at the motel and, once the money would exchange hands, the arrest would be made. The news station reports that the women were charging $200 to $400 an hour, depending on what the client requested and how many participants were requested. The man arrested in the sting is accused of serving as the women's transportation to the motel. The man, identified as 38-year-old Jaron Antonio Townsend of Huntsville, is charged with possession of a pistol by a violent felon. Townsend was arrested after agents conducted a traffic stop. The women arrested in the sting are: The 45-year-old denies the charges and says he went to Syria to deliver lectures, urging people to defend themselves. Gornja Bocinja, Bosnia & Herzegovina Forty-five-year-old Ibrahim Delic spends his days taking care of his flock of sheep in the fields of Gornja Bocinja, a village in central Bosnia with a population of just 24. But about once a week the shepherd entrusts his flock to his children for the day and travels two hours to Bosnias capital, Sarajevo. He is standing trial there, accused of joining and aiding the Islamic State of Syria and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) in Syria. His verdict is expected to be announced this month, along with those of seven other men, all of whom deny the charges. Delic is one of the 200 to 400 Bosnian nationals (PDF) estimated to have travelled to Syria and Iraq since 2012. ISIL has been actively recruiting in the Balkans for years. One recruitment video features a Bosnian fighter, Abu Jihad al Bosni, who vows to bring our people out from the darkness and into the light. Delic left in the summer of 2013, he said, after watching the conflict escalate. In an interview, he told Al Jazeera that he felt outrage, distress and solidarity with the people there. He claims that all he did while in Syria was travel around the north of the country, in cities surrounding Aleppo, giving religious lectures to fighters and civilians, urging Syrians to defend themselves against Bashar al-Assad. But after a month and a half he said he became disappointed with and fearful of the anarchy he witnessed and returned. According to Bosnias State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA), at least 30 Bosnians have been killed in the conflict and approximately 50 have returned home. In June 2014, Bosnia adopted reforms that made it illegal to enlist in a foreign military, paramilitary or para-police unit. That law is now being applied retroactively. SIPA arrested and charged Delic, along with 15 others, in September 2014 in an operation codenamed Damascus. According to the indictment, the accused collected resources and left Bosnia with the aim of joining terrorist organisations in the second half of 2013 and in 2014. The arrested were also accused of recruiting [Bosnian] nationals for Syria and Iraq and funding and organising their travel. The members of the group are alleged to have illegally crossed into Syria from Turkey. READ MORE: ISIL recruits in the Balkans To Syria and back Delic grew up with six siblings in a family of shepherds in Zeljezno Polje, a village in central Bosnia. I always loved the solitude, he explained, sitting barefoot on his front porch, his crutches leaning against his armchair. His quiet life came to an abrupt end when war broke out in Bosnia in 1992. As a 24-year-old he joined the Bosnian Army and fought alongside foreign Arab fighters, who were known as the Mujahideen. Delic described how he became more religious during the war and started to deliver lectures on Islam to his unit in order to lift morale. After the war, he worked as a missionary, touring the country. READ MORE: Dancing with Arab mujahideen in the hills of Bosnia When conflict broke out in Syria in 2011, Delic said he saw similarities with the war in Bosnia. Just like Yugoslavia, [Al-Assads forces] had an army, weapons; they had help from Russia and other countries, he said. I felt distress for the people suffering; I felt the need to respond and help them. Delic was left handicapped after the Bosnian war, and relies on crutches to walk. He said he knew he couldnt participate in the Syrian conflict as a fighter, so he looked for other ways to get involved. Delic said he raised 10,000 BAM ($5,620) by selling meat from 170 of his sheep, and put some of the money towards his travel expenses. He then flew to Hatay, Turkey, and crossed into Syria by taxi legally, he insisted, as the border authorities didnt ask him for his passport. Once in Syria, he met up with a group of Bosnian fighters who found him a place to sleep at the quarters of Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar (JMA). The group was under the leadership of infamous commander Abu Omar al-Shishani at that time, and allied with ISIL. Delic said the JMA asked him to pledge allegiance to them, but that he refused since he wasnt planning to fight. The group allowed him to stay at their quarters at night and by day, Delic claims he toured various cities delivering his lectures and urging people to defend their lives, their property and their honour. READ MORE: Trouble is brewing in the Balkans He soon began to witness the various opposition groups stealing each others weapons and money, and killing each other at checkpoints, he said. And at that moment, I knew that a big conflict among them was going to happen. I asked some people to help get me back across the border, Delic said in another interview. He returned after spending a month and 20 days in Syria. There was no organisation. Its guns that do the talking there, Delic told Al Jazeera. The war in Bosnia was organised, Delic reflected. It was far more clean In the Arab world, you never know when youre going to get a bullet in the forehead; someone could mistake you for someone else. Although he was staying with an ISIL-affiliated group in an area where ISIL was carrying out attacks and taking over territory, Delic maintains, though he met various fighting groups, he never came across ISIL. But he does openly admit that he regularly incited others to join the war, which, he concedes, may affect his verdict. Last year, the preacher Bilal Bosnic was sentenced to seven years in prison for inciting others to join ISIL. READ MORE: 2013 UN blacklists Syrias al-Nusra Front Dealing with foreign fighters With Bosnias population of 3.8 million, the country has one of the largest percentages of foreign fighters of all European countries per person, according to a 2015 report (PDF). Four men have so far been charged with joining ISIL and sentenced. Uros Pena, the deputy director of Bosnias Directorate for Coordination of Police Bodies, believes the government response is insufficient, since it has yet to identify the consequences of Bosnians returning home from Syria. The problem in Bosnia is that its a disorganised state, Pena said. Weapons, munitions and explosives are a lot more accessible to these people than in other countries. Pena thinks that more should be done to deal with returning fighters. People who left and came back have been indoctrinated and prison sentences for those returning are on a low level. Delic is also accused of illegal possession of weapons and munitions. During his arrest, SIPA found an unlicensed rifle and 10 hand grenades hidden in a chest in the basement of his home. Delic told Al Jazeera that he uses the rifle to protect his sheep from bears and wolves. And he claims the hand grenades were already in his house when he moved in in 2002. He said he suspects they were left over from the Bosnian war and, although he has thought about removing them many times, he never got around to it. Delic insists he never joined an armed group and that, when he left, it wasnt illegal to do so. I dont regret going to Syria the way I did. I would go again to help the Syrian people who are suffering. And again, I wouldnt join any group. READ MORE: In Bosnia, Syrian Abu Hamza jailed without trial Pakistan was in mourning on Tuesday after an attack targeting lawyers gathered at a hospital in Quetta killed at least 70 people. A Pakistan Taliban faction and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) both claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing. The victims include 55 lawyers and at least two cameramen who had gathered at the Civil Hospital in Balochistan province to pay their final respects to another lawyer, Bilal Anwar Kasi, President of the Balochistan Bar Association. Kasi was killed by gunmen just hours before the attack. Schools, colleges, businesses and government institutions were closed in Balochistan, where the provincial government began a three-day mourning period. To express solidarity with the victims, many of whom were lawyers, and their families, Pakistans legal fraternity will observe a countrywide, three-day boycott of courts on a call given by the Supreme Court Bar Association and the Pakistan Bar Council. Entangling Trump with a dead US soldiers parents was the obvious, most immediate result of the Khan incident. A Muslim ghost is haunting America: The ghost of United States Captain Humayun Khan. It was a perfect trap and like a clumsy hippopotamus Donald Trump fell right into it and, once there, he kept digging himself ever deeper into a hole. Hillary Clinton had given him a clue to the danger when during her acceptance speech in Philadelphia she said: A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons. Biting the bait The bait this time was not a tweet but the grieving parents of a Muslim soldier killed in 2004 while serving in Iraq, fighting George W Bushs illegal and immoral war that has resulted in the almost total destruction of a nation state and helped in the rise of the murderous gang of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS). The plot unfolded apace when Mr and Ms Khan, the dignified and eloquent Muslim parents of US Army Captain Khan, appeared on stage to share their grief with the nation and denounce Donald Trump for his anti-Muslim bigotry. Mr Khan, addressing Donald Trump, declared: You have sacrificed nothing and no one. Then came the punch line: Donald Trump, you are asking Americans to trust you with our future. Let me ask you: Have you even read the US constitution? I will gladly lend you my copy, pulling a copy of the constitution out of his suit pocket. It was perfect drama, perfect television and perfect politics: And it brought the internet down. Trump went for the bait, reached for the wandering ghost of a dead US Muslim soldier, and responded in his habitually clumsy, thuggish, and ignorant way, targeting Ghazala Khan for not having spoken when the couple appeared on stage, mistaking her grief-stricken silence as a sign of her being a weak and repressed Muslim woman. That was a mistake the Clinton campaign knew he would make. The liberal press rooting for Clinton kept the traction going, inviting the Muslim couple on to various talk shows to denounce Trump even more eloquently. Trump responded more foolishly, exposing more of his arrogance, and crossing the red line of insulting the family of a fallen US soldier. Collapsing patriotism into militarism During the crescendo of this drama, a retired US army major general who was Captain Khans combat brigade commander, Dana J H Pittard, wrote a powerful essay honouring his memory and defending his family. Future historians will no doubt consider the Khan incident a crucial contributing factor if Trump goes on to lose this election. Entangling Trump with a dead US soldiers parents and letting him hang himself by his own shoestrings was the obvious, most immediate result of the Khan incident. OPINION: The mirage of the meek Muslim women The Clinton campaign had an equally, if not more important, objective met with the self-same spectacle: Collapsing patriotism into militarism, so it whitewashes Clintons own role in militantly waging the Iraq war, so that anyone who now comes close to criticising her would be standing next to Trump against these grieving parents. Both objectives were met with impeccable precision: Clintons support for the illegal and immoral Iraq war is now wrapped inside an American flag, placed ceremoniously under a copy of the US constitution, carried reverently by the mourning parents of an American hero buried in Arlington Cemetery. Exposing the plot Like all other perfect plots, however, there is always a clue on the scene of the crime. The plot was exposed inadvertently the day before the Khans appeared on stage in Philadelphia when Bill Clinton singled out all Muslim-Americans and demanded a test of loyalty from them. When Trump insulted Captain Khan's mother, demeaned his ancestral religion, and denied them agency in their adopted homeland, he had in effect picked up where Bill Clinton had left off: Staging a bipartisan bigotry that engulfs Republicans and Democrats alike. by If you are a Muslim and you love America and freedom and you hate terror, he stipulated, stay here and help us win and make the future together. We want you. Very few people picked on that bit of Trumpism and gingerly criticised Bill Clinton, but the criticism paled in comparison to the full-throttle pageantry around the Khans . The sentiments Bill Clinton had expressed in that sentence, however, had presaged the Khans appearance on the Democratic National Convention stage, and its racist prejudice had conditioned the death of their son. OPINION: How Donald Trump could win and why When the brave Captain Khan was, according to witness accounts, walking to his death towards an approaching suicide bomber, in effect he was trying to convince the Bill Clintons and Donald Trumps of his adopted homeland that he loved America and freedom, hated terror and deserved to be here. When Trump insulted Captain Khans mother, demeaned his ancestral religion and denied them agency in their adopted homeland, he had in effect picked up where Bill Clinton left off: Staging a bipartisan bigotry that engulfs Republicans and Democrats alike. Clintons concealed militarism There are always unintended consequences to any nasty plot. The Clinton campaign did indeed manage to expose Trumps racism even more, entangled him with the US military establishment that may in fact cost him this election, and in the process concealed her own militarism in a moment of patriotic fervour. But in the process, the Muslim community in the US also found a dignified, articulate, and gracious couple to reshape this presidential election, and represent their much-maligned community as they dare to raise their voice against the belligerent transmutation of patriotism into militarism. Losing a son in a war does not mean that you become a warmonger. On the contrary: Mr Khan was in fact solidly critical of the Iraq war on more than one occasion. Anti-war sentiments and activism is widespread among US veterans and their families. The copy of the US constitution that Mr Khan held in his raised hand to denounce Trumps demagoguery will come back to haunt Clinton, too, next time she wages an illegal war against another sovereign nation. Hamid Dabashi is Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policies. Russia and Turkey find themselves in the same boat, so its only rational for them to de-escalate tensions. Are Russia and Turkey about to mend ties and put behind them the spat over the downed SU-24 fighter plane? Judging by the meeting between Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg on August 9, the answer appears to be yes. We have already seen a build-up of reconciliatory gestures. The Turkish presidents Russia Day greeting on June 12, his sympathy and condolences to the family of the killed pilot on June 27, the follow-up telephone conversation with Putin on June 29, and most importantly, Putins call to express his support for Erdogan right after the failed coup attempt in Turkey on July 15. As Ankara blames the self-exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen for both orchestrating the takeover attempt and sparking off the crisis with Russia, as a gesture of goodwill the pilots involved in the November 2015 shoot-down have now been detained by the Turkish authorities . And last but not least, deputy prime ministers Mehmet Simsek and Arkady Dvorkovich restarted talks on the Turkish Stream pipeline project in Moscow. Ongoing recalibration Ankara was recalibrating its foreign policy even before the July 15 coup attempt. The reset with Israel was followed by tentative overtures to Egypt. Moreover, there has been speculation that Turkey is also seeking communication with the Damascus regime. Russia and Iran s expressed support for the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government in the aftermath of the coup attempt may improve chances for such (cautious) re-engagement with Syria, but one should not bank on a U-turn. Surely Russia is in a league of its own. It remains a top economic partner for Turkey. Turkeys tourism, agriculture and the otherwise thriving construction sector have been badly hurt by the sanctions that Moscow imposed in response to the shoot-down of its military jet. OPINION: Why Turkey is mending ties with old foes In all likelihood, it was the Turkish business community in Russia that provided the backchannel talks to mend the ties between the two governments, and work out a formula for normalisation without losing face. Though it is probably too late to salvage the tourist season, Russias decision to lift the ban on one airliners flights and tour operators had a partial relief in resort towns along the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts. Historical record It appears that the current rift with the West pushes Turkey closer to Russia. The US is blamed for failing to cooperate with the Turkish authorities for the extradition of Gulen the alleged mastermind of the coup attempt. Many in Turkey see the US as the chief culprit. The majority of Turks also berate the EUs reluctance to stand by Erdogan as he faced a life-threatening situation, and criticise Europes exclusive focus on the clampdown that followed , ostensibly targeted against the parallel state. Russia needs a deal on Syria's transition - sooner rather than later - if it wants to avoid mission creep. Having Turkey on board is a necessary, albeit not sufficient condition. by The historical record shows that any time relations with Western allies are strained, Ankara tilts to Moscow. This happened after the 2003 war in Iraq; between 1997 and 1999 when the EU refused to invite Turkey for membership talks; following the invasion of Cyprus in 1974, and so forth. We might be heading for another such moment but, as ever, there is a caveat. Turkey still needs NATOs protection to hedge against Russias rising power near its borders. OPINION: Could Turkey turn its back to the West? Nevertheless, Russia appears to benefit from the rapprochement as well. In a sense, the Su-24 incident was an opportune moment for Putin. He seized on the chance to demonise the Turkish leadership as accomplices of terrorists back-stabbing Russia. Changing Syria game The focus on Erdogan diverted attention from Putins ongoing efforts to strike a deal on Syria with the US and its allies. US President Barack Obama was no longer the arch-villain that the pro-Kremlin media made him out to be at the peak of the Ukraine crisis in 2014. But Russia has always been wary of a bog-down scenario. Having announced a pull-out from Syria in March, Moscow has its air force locked in in a fierce campaign against rebels in Aleppo. The downing of a military transport helicopter on August 1 was Russias biggest loss since the beginning of their military operations. Even if Aleppo falls, Russia needs a deal on Syrias transition sooner rather than later if it wants to avoid mission creep. Having Turkey on board is a necessary, albeit not a sufficient condition. Cooperation against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) is also on top of the agenda. OPINION: Why the West must embrace Turkey, not push it away For all their differences, Russia and Turkey find themselves in the same boat. The June bomb attack at Istanbuls Ataturk airport has been attributed to radicals from Russia and other former Soviet republics. Ideally, Turkey would also like Russia to scale down its support for the Syrian Kurds. In reality, it lacks the leverage needed to sway the Kremlin. Russia and Turkey will find it difficult to make headway on the energy front as well. There is a good chance that one of Turkish Streams four planned strings, each with capacity of 15.75 billion cubic metres (bcm), will be built to supply the Turkish market. But before talks move on, Gazprom needs to offer an attractive discount. Ankara will continue to drive a hard bargain , knowing it holds most of the trump cards. It is only rational for Russia and Turkey to de-escalate tensions and reset ties. But we are back to the marriage of convenience, not a newly flourished love affair. Dimitar Bechev is a visiting scholar at Harvard University, and a senior fellow at Al Sharq Forum. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy. Arab coalition fighter jets hit Yemens capital Sanaa for the first time in more than three months A Saudi-led military coalition has conducted air strikes on the Yemeni capital Sanaa for the first time in more than three months and locals said that 14 civilians were killed in a factory. Medics working in the area told the Reuters news agency that the civilians were killed in a strike on a crisp factory in the Nahda district of the capital. The strikes also forced the suspension of flights into Sanaa International Airport for 72 hours from late on Monday. READ MORE: Yemen peace talks in Kuwait end amid fighting Coalition spokesman General Ahmed Assiri confirmed to the AFP news agency that the air strikes against Houthi rebels had restarted and led to the closure of Sanaa airport, saying fighter jets had hit military targets around the city. The strikes came after UN-backed talks to end the conflict broke down over the weekend. The Saudi-led coalition is backing Yemeni forces loyal to the exiled government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi who are trying to oust Iran-allied Houthi forces from Sanaa. Strikes hit a presidential compound and a military base in the capital as well as a Republican Guard base in the Arhab area near the airport, according to reports. Pro-government forces are trying to advance into the city from the north and east. The coalition was also blamed by residents for nine civilian deaths in an air strike outside the capital on Sunday, Reuters reported. Al-Qaeda losing ground In a separate development, residents in Azzan in the southern Shabwa province said al-Qaeda fighters had dismantled their checkpoints and withdrawn from the city on Tuesday after air strikes, apparently by the Saudi-led coalition, targeted their positions there. Al-Qaeda and similar groups took advantage of the fighting to seize control of much of southern Yemen, but have suffered military setbacks inflicted by coalition-backed local forces. READ MORE: UN report: All sides flouting humanitarian law in Yemen Yemen descended into chaos after the 2012 removal of longtime president Ali Abdullah Saleh, whose forces are now 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 formed a coalition of Arab states to fight the Houthis. The coalition now includes Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Sudan and Senegal. As of January 2016, 2,800 civilians had been killed by the fighting, with 8,100 casualties overall, according to the United Nations. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has estimated that coalition air strikes caused almost two-thirds of reported civilian deaths, while the Houthis have been accused of causing mass civilian casualties due to a siege of Taiz, Yemens third-largest city. The Syrian government has deployed thousands of extra fighters in an attempt to reverse rebel gains in the city. The Syrian government has sent thousands of reinforcements to mount a counterattack in Aleppo after rebels broke through government lines two days earlier, a monitoring group said. The Lebanese Shia Hezbollah movement and the government have mobilised more than 3,000 troops and militia fighters for an attempt to recapture the areas where the rebels made their breakthrough, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). Hundreds of opposition fighters have also arrived in Aleppo from the [neighbouring] province of Idlib to help in the expected battles, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the group. Hezbollahs battle-hardened fighters have provided crucial support to Syrian President Bashar al-Assads overstretched and exhausted army. READ MORE: Syrias war Struggle for survival in embattled Aleppo Syrian state news agency SANA said government planes carried out intensive strikes on what it called terrorist movements south of Aleppo. The government also acted to quell fears that rebel advances would cut supply lines to government-held western Aleppo. SANA quoted provincial governor Mohammed Marwan al-Oulabi as saying that all essential goods and fuel were still available in the area. Dozens of fuel tanks entered Aleppo city on Monday, he said. The influx of pro-government troops comes as the rebel Army of Conquest coalition vowed that a new stage in its offensive would aim to liberate all of Aleppo. The group, a coalition that includes Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (formerly the al-Nusra Front), first broke a government siege on the rebel-held half of the city on Sunday, and has reportedly doubled its number of fighters in an effort to retake the entire city. The UN on Tuesday called for an urgent humanitarian pause in fighting in Aleppo to allow access to repair electricity and water networks, and to provide aid. Millions could be affected if the pause were not put in place, it warned. Children were being put at risk, UNICEF added, as water cuts in the province during a heatwave increase the chances of disease. About to escalate Once Syrias economic hub, Aleppo has been divided between government forces in the west and rebels in the east since fighting broke out for control of the city in mid-2012. There are thought to be about 300,000 people living in the rebel-held east, and about 1.2 million in the government-controlled west. Rebels say they helped to move people to safer areas during the battle. Humanitarian groups have warned, however, that there are no safe routes out of the city. Al Jazeeras Reza Sayah, reporting from Gazientep on the Turkey-Syria border, said that both sides were ramping up the fight. There are increasing signs that the battle for Aleppo is about to escalate, Sayah said. OPINION: The ramifications of the Nusras split from al-Qaeda The SOHR said on Monday that there were continuous air strikes on Aleppo and surrounding areas, with missiles launched by the regime forces killing at least two women, one of whom was pregnant. SOHR says at least 290,000 people have been killed in the civil war, while the UN envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, has estimated that some 400,000 people have been killed. The battle comes as the United States and other world powers intensified a call on Russia to use its influence on Syrias government, urging Moscow at a special session of the United Nations Security Council on Monday to help to stop the bloodshed in Aleppo. Samantha Power, US ambassador to the UN, asked Russia to stop facilitating these sieges. In response, Russias deputy ambassador to the, UN Vladimir Safronkov, said: I must say the propaganda and the emotional rhetoric, the unfounded accusations, the information campaign, means that we cannot move toward a political settlement in Syria. Parents of two Americans killed in Libya in 2012 file lawsuit against the Democratic presidential nominee. The parents of two Americans killed in a 2012 attack on a US mission in Libya have filed a lawsuit against Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, alleging that her use of a private email server contributed to the death of their sons. Larry Klayman, the founder of the political advocacy group Freedom Watch USA, filed the lawsuit on Monday on behalf of Patricia Smith, the mother of US State Department employee Sean Smith, and Charles Woods, the father of navy SEAL Tyrone Woods. The two Americans, along with a third staffer and US Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens, were killed in September 2012 when an armed mob attacked and set fire to the US diplomatic compound in Benghazi during a protest against an amateur film deemed offensive to the Prophet Muhammad. The lawsuit blames Clinton, then US Secretary of State, for the deaths as well as for defamation and intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress. The lawsuit says that fighters were able to obtain the whereabouts of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and thus the US State Department and covert and other government operations in Benghazi, Libya, and subsequently orchestrate, plan, and execute the now infamous September 11, 2012 attack. In addition to the wrongful death and negligence charges named in the lawsuit, the parents also claim that Clinton defamed them in statements to the media, according to the court statement. During her campaign for President, defendant Clinton has negligently, recklessly, and/or maliciously defamed Plaintiffs by either directly calling them liars, or by strongly implying that they are liars, in order to protect and enhance her public image and intimidate and emotionally harm and silence them to not speak up about the Benghazi attack on at least four separate occasions, it added. Patricia Smith, one of the plaintiffs, has repeatedly spoken out against Clinton. At the Republican National Convention on July 18 she said that she blamed Clinton personally for her sons death. Smith and Woods v Clinton Complaint by LawNewz on Scribd No evidence of Clinton wrongdoing In June, however, a long-awaited congressional report blamed the Obama administration for lax security, but did not find any new evidence of wrongdoing by Clinton. The 800-page report criticised senior officials in Washington, saying requests for extra security in Benghazi were repeatedly refused or ignored. It also said that the US military did not carry out orders from then Defence Secretary Leon Panetta to send US troops to rescue the Americans under attack. The Benghazi issue has been used repeatedly by Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump on the campaign trail to attack Clinton. Clinton is the first woman to be nominated by a major party in Americas 240-year-old history and has recently surged in the polls following a series of gaffes by Trump. Organisers say 70 percent of delegates were denied temporary visas to attend global civil society event in Montreal. Toronto, Canada As the World Social Forum kicks off in Montreal, Canadian visa delays and outright refusals will leave scores of invited delegates out of the annual human rights event. WSF organisers recently urged the Canadian government to intervene in what it described as a wave of unjustified visa refusals that has hampered the ability of hundreds of participants to attend the event, which runs from August 9-14. This year marks the first time the forum is being held in the northern hemisphere. The event brings civil society groups and leftist activists from around the world together to discuss human rights, the environment and other social issues. Of about 2,000 delegates who received official invitation letters to attend, more than 70 percent had their applications for temporary visas to come to Canada denied, the organisers said, based on preliminary estimates. Many activists from Latin America, Africa and Asia received a negative response to their visa requests based on unacceptable, exclusionary and discriminatory arguments, organisers said in a statement. The first time Participants from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Morocco, Iran, Haiti, Nigeria and Nepal were most affected, as were others from Benin, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Ecuador, Ghana, Mali, Togo and Palestine. Jamal Juma, a Palestinian human rights activist and head of the Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, got a visa to attend the forum this year, but he said seven other Palestinian participants had their applications denied. This is the first time this happened in the World Social Forum, the biggest gathering for social movements from around the world, Juma told Al Jazeera in a telephone interview from Montreal on Tuesday. This is against freedom of movement. This is against freedom of speech for the people. This is totally undemocratic and racist. It is shocking to everybody, he said about the visa problems. The reasons participants had their requests denied varied from lacking a clear purpose for the trip to a lack of funds or a belief that the applicant would not return to his or her home country. Juma said he had no doubt that the visa denials would have an impact on the WSF speeches, workshops and other events. We are holding the responsibility to the Canadian government, he said. Never asked Among others, four Nigerian journalists working with Sahara Reporters, an investigative journalism project, had their visas denied because they did not provide bank details for the organisation. But Omoyele Sowore, the groups founder and publisher, told Al Jazeera that he was never asked to send in that information or amend the journalists applications. The moment they accepted to have [the World Social Forum] on their soil, they should have understood that there would be no room for discrimination For the Canadian government to deny 70 percent of the visas shows that they are not yet ready to open themselves to the world, Sowore said. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has a unit to help organisers of special events like the WSF secure Canadian visas, Nancy Caron, Citizenship and Immigration Canada spokeswoman, told Al Jazeera. Caron said WSF organisers registered their event with the IRCC last spring, and the department gave them information about visa requirements and deadlines. But she said that the WSF team had not contacted the special events unit since April to report any difficulties securing visas. She added that the unit contacted WSF organisers on Monday to offer additional assistance, but it did not hear back. Surprised applicant All visitors to Canada must meet the requirements for temporary residence in Canada, as set out in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, Caron said in an e-mail. The onus is on the applicant to show that they meet the requirements for a temporary resident visa. Ramy Ayari, a Tunisian activist who founded the LGBTQ rights group Without Restrictions, was granted a visa and arrived in Canada last week ahead of the forum. He told Al Jazeera he was surprised his application was approved, since just last May he was denied a temporary visa to Canada on the basis that he did not have a job or a bank account and had never travelled before. Ayari credited getting the visa this time to the enormous pressure organisations in Quebec applied on his behalf, but said it was disappointing to see so many others not have a similar chance. The Social Forum is organised for human rights so normally they accept everyones visa applications so that they can come talk about their situations and what is happening in their countries, he said. [This] is really shocking. Campaign against World Visions Gaza office part of systemic crackdown by Israel on international NGOs, analysts say. Last week, the Israeli Security Agency (ISA) or Shin Bet announced serious charges against a Gaza-based Palestinian employee of the global Christian charity, World Vision. According to Shin Bet, Mohammad el-Halabi, the head of World Visions Gaza office, funnelled tens of millions of dollars of aid money to Hamas al-Qassam Brigades in an elaborate, years-long scheme. Israeli officials wasted no time in publicising allegations that boost Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus governments narrative that Hamas is exploiting naive, or nefarious, international aid groups. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote directly to counterparts around the world, connecting the affair to both Iran and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS), as well as publishing background briefings and graphics for social media. Israels military spokesperson has also been active about the case. Israeli diplomats were reportedly specifically instructed to spread the news among liberal and religious groups who support World Vision. READ MORE: Israel passes controversial NGO bill amid criticism But is everything as it seems? The lawyer representing Halabi, Mohammad Mahmoud, told Al Jazeera that his client did not see a lawyer for 21 days, and says the World Vision official was physically abused in detention: They beat him a lot. Mahmoud added that Halabi denies all allegations, including the confession cited by a senior Israeli official as the evidence grounding the allegations. Claims of torture were also made by Samir Zaqout, assistant director of al-Mezan Center for Human Rights in Gaza City, the group that first provided a lawyer for Halabi. He told our lawyer that they beat him and bound him to a small chair. He was afraid they would kill him. Palestinian and Israeli human rights groups have long maintained that Shin Bet agents inflicted physical pain as part of interrogations, as part of their routine methods. As many as 90 percent of Palestinian prisoners interrogated by Shin Bet are prevented from seeing a lawyer during interrogation. Amnesty Internationals report for 2015-16 says Shin Bet personnel tortured and otherwise ill-treated Palestinian detainees particularly during arrest and interrogation, while a study published last year in a peer-reviewed medical journal found that sexual ill-treatment is systemic. Commenting on the issue in general, Sari Bashi, Israel and Palestine country director at Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera how provisions that suspend due process protections for suspects, intended for emergency situations, are used quite routinely against Palestinian detainees. The Shin Bet charges against Halabi have been denied by his family members. His father Khalil has told reporters that the charges were based on misinformation provided by a disgruntled World Vision employee. Hamas also has denied any links to Halabi, and called the allegations lies. Last week, World Vision said that based on the information available to us at this time, we have no reason to believe that the allegations are true. On Monday, World Vision International CEO Kevin Jenkins pointed to discrepancies in the Shin Bet charges: World Visions cumulative operating budget in Gaza for the past 10 years was approximately $22.5m, which makes the alleged amount of up to $50m being diverted hard to reconcile. In addition, Mohammad el-Halabi was the manager of our Gaza operations only since October 2014. Before that time he managed only portions of the Gaza budget. When pressed on whether the Israeli government still stood by figures alleging approximately $50m had been taken, an Israeli government spokesperson said the amount was irrelevant. Speaking last week to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Halabis lawyer suggested that armed Hamas members had stolen from the organisations depots, but that the charges against his client were significantly inflated. READ MORE: Palestine-Israel Is peace activism serving occupation? World Vision has long been an enemy for pro-Israel groups who, in the words of one lobbyist, believe the group assists Hamas in its propaganda war against the Jewish state. A US-based, pro-Israel think-tank has listed World Vision as part of an NGO jihad against Israel. NGO Monitor, a group that plays a key role in the escalating intimidation of local and international human rights groups and NGOs in Palestine/Israel, accused World Vision back in 2004 of encouraging or at least condoning terrorism and incitement. This is about Israel trying to put international NGOs, who are increasingly critical of Israeli policies, in their place by Senior British NGO official It is that wider context of a crackdown on humanitarian groups and human rights defenders that worries Palestinians and other observers. Israeli minister Gilad Erdan has claimed that the accusations against Halabi prove the governments claim that there are extensive ideological and monetary ties between terrorist organisations and delegitimisation organisations that work against Israel. World Vision, like many other international organisations, has been clear in its call for Israel to end its blockade of the Gaza Strip, and has also spoken up on other issues, such as the forcible transfer of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. At al-Mezan in Gaza, Zaqout is clear about why Israel has targeted World Vision in this way: The Israeli government and [Shin Bet] are using very dirty tools in order to harass and pressure both Palestinian civil society and international NGOs. Senior UN official Robert Piper has stressed the need for a prompt, thorough, independent, impartial and transparent legal process. Some, however, wonder how the court will reach anything but a foregone conclusion, given the experience of Palestinians in both military and civilian courts. Last week, Israeli authorities claimed that as part of the World Vision investigation, information was obtained implicating other humanitarian aid organisations. Israeli officials have also accused an employee of Save the Children of being recruited by Halabi for Hamas. Israeli authorities are also reportedly preparing to release information soon on a United Nations organisation Israel also alleges is linked to Hamas. A senior British NGO official, familiar with the situation in Gaza, told Al Jazeera: This is about Israel trying to put international NGOs, who are increasingly critical of Israeli policies, in their place. It is possible that World Vision, with its strongly evangelical supporter base in the US, was simply top of Israels target list. The question is: Which NGO is next? Philippine president warns the Supreme Court of a constitutional war if the judiciary interferes with his policies. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to declare martial law, if the countrys judiciary interferes with his ongoing war on drugs, which has already killed more than 500 people since he took office. If this will continue and if you will try to stop me, then fine. Would you rather I declare martial law? a visibly angry Duterte said in a speech on Tuesday, before military troops in the southern island of Mindanao. Filipinos are getting killed. I grieve for so many women raped, men killed, infants raped, because of drug addiction, Duterte said. Please do not create a confrontation, a constitutional war, we will all lose. Rodrigo Duterte: Shoot a drug dealer, get a medal The president was reacting to a letter Chief Justice Lourdes Sereno sent to him on Monday, questioning his decision to release the names of judges accused of being involved with the illegal drug trade. The head of the Supreme Court said only the court has the authority to oversee judges. In her letter, Sereno wrote that while the judiciary shares the presidents sentiment that dangerous drugs have been destroying Filipino lives and families, a legal process should be followed before judges are named in public. The chief justice also pointed out that judges have been targeted by criminals, including drug lords, with 26 reported assassinations since 1999. Duterte has repeatedly said that he has a sworn duty to protect the Philippines from the threats of illegal drugs and creeping narco-politics. Aside from judges, Duterte named other government officials including mayors and members of Congress on Sunday. He was quoted as saying, I dont care about human rights, believe me. Bluster and bravado Richard Javad Heydarian, an Al Jazeera columnist and professor at De La Salle University in Manila, said Dutertes latest outburst is clearly consistent with his campaign-period bluster and bravado. No surprise there, Heydarian told Al Jazeera. But obviously it has raised more concern now since some quarters are beginning to question whether he respects the constitutional principle of separation of powers. He said that Dutertes actions during his first 40 days as president showed that when it comes to his core policy objectives, he seems uninterested, if not averse, to any perceived interference. The Philippines has a history of being governed under martial rule. In 1972, President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law, paving the way to a dictatorship that lasted until he was ousted in a popular revolt in 1986. But Fe Zamora, an expert on the Philippine military and senior editor at the Philippine Daily Inquirer, said that unlike Marcos, Duterte faces more hurdles before he could declare martial law. Times have changed. The power to declare martial law is not absolute under the 1987 constitution, Zamora told Al Jazeera. It needs the concurrence of majority of Congress within 48 hours, and the Supreme Court may review it. Zamora, who helped produce a groundbreaking documentary on the Philippine martial law, said that with just over a month as president, it is unclear how much hold Duterte has on the military, in enforcing his order. Marcos was in power for seven years when he declared martial law. He already controlled the military. All the generals were loyal to him. But Duterte has been in power for 40 days only. Does he really have a hold on the military? What she is seeing now is more of a police state, rather than a military siege, Zamora said, adding that she has witnessed people in the capital Manila being stopped on the street, body-searched especially at night. As of August 8, a tally done by the Philippine Daily Inquirer showed that 564 people with suspected links to the drug trade have been killed since Duterte took office on June 30. Police said that the anti-drug campaign had been a success with tens of thousands of people turning themselves in to authorities. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan meets his Russian counterpart in St Petersburg after months of diplomatic crisis Russian President Vladimir Putin is hosting Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in their first meeting since Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet last November, sparking a deep diplomatic crisis. Erdogans visit to Putins hometown of St Petersburg on Tuesday is also his first foreign trip since a failed coup attempt last month that sparked a purge of alleged coup supporters in the military, judiciary, civil service and education sector, and cast a shadow over Turkeys relations with the West. Your visit today, despite a very difficult situation regarding domestic politics, indicates that we all want to restart dialogue and restore relations between Russia and Turkey, Putin said as the two met. Erdogan said that Turkey was entering a very different period in relations with Russia, and that solidarity between the two countries would help the resolution of regional problems. Erdogan also thanked his Russian counterpart for a telephone call after the failed coup attempt on July 15, saying it brought our people great happiness. The shooting down of the Russian jet by a Turkish F-16 over the Syrian border last November saw a furious Putin slap economic sanctions on Turkey and launch a blistering war of words with Erdogan that seemed to irrevocably damage burgeoning ties. When the Turkish military shot down a Russian fighter jet that it said strayed from Syrian into Turkish airspace last November, Moscows retaliation was swift, Al Jazeeras Bernard Smith, reporting from Istanbul, said. OPINION: Why Turkey is mending ties with old foes Tourist charter flights to Turkey stopped, Russian visitor numbers fell by 87 percent. Turkeys exports to Russia, including food, fell by more than half to $730m in the first six months of this year. But, in a reversal in late June, Putin accepted a personal expression of regret over the incident from Erdogan as an apology, immediately rolled back a ban on the sale of package holidays to Turkey and signalled Moscow would end measures against food imports and construction firms from the country. Now, following the failed coup attempt, analysts say ties between the two could deepen with Erdogan publicly making it clear he feels let down by the United States and the European Union. READ MORE Erdogan to West: Mind your own business The Russian President was much quicker in his condemnation of the attempted coup than many of Turkeys Western allies and theyve [the Western allies] also expressed alarm at the extent of the post-coup crackdown, said Al Jazeeras Smith. Vladimir Putin hasnt got involved. Syria is expected to be high on the agenda during the visit. Moscows military support for Syrias President Bashar al-Assad has been credited for helping to keep him in power. Turkey, though, wants him gone. Currently Turkey cannot enter Syria, it cannot do anything in Syria because the Russian forces are there, Erhan Ersan, a Russian affairs specialist at Istanbuls Marmara University, told Al Jazeera. In order to solve that, they need to bring their positions closer to Russia. If you hear the messages coming from President Erdogan hes actually open to that. He wants to build a new framework of relations based on Syria with Russia as well. READ MORE: Which parts of Syria should be bombed? The head of the opposition Syrian National Coalition welcomed the meeting. Speaking at a press conference in Istanbul on Monday, Anas al-Abda said Erdogans visit could be a positive step for finding a solution to a ruinous war that has killed hundreds of thousands. We consider the Turkish president as a key ally of the Syrian people, al-Abda told Turkeys state-run Anadolu Agency. He has a chance to propose ideas and initiatives to Russians and to explain them the current situation in Syria. Facebook is testing a low-cost wi-fi service in rural India, allowing users to access the internet via local hot spots After Indias decision to ban Facebooks free but limited Internet service, Free Basics, the social media giant is testing a fast, low-cost commercial wi-fi service in the country, according to reports. We are testing the Express Wi-Fi program in India that allows customers to purchase fast, reliable and affordable data packages from their local ISP [internet service providers] to access the internet via local hot spots, a Facebook spokesperson told the Economic Times of India on Monday. Express Wi-Fi has already completed a trial period in the country with the local state-run telecoms company Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, and about 125 local wi-fi hotspots, the spokesperson said. The Express Wi-Fi software is expected to help local ISPs to sell and provide wi-fi service in rural, remote areas and help millions of Indians to connect to the internet for the first time. READ MORE: India blocks Facebooks Free Basics app Facebooks Free Basics program, which runs in 42 developing countries, offers pared-back internet services on mobile phones, along with access to the companys own social network and messaging services, without charge. The program is part of Facebooks wider Internet.org project, which aims to bring internet access and the benefits of connectivity to the two-thirds of the world that doesnt have them. In February, India introduced rules to prevent ISPs from having different pricing policies for accessing different parts of the web, effectively banning Facebooks initiative. Critics in India and elsewhere have said that by offering a free but limited package, Facebook and its telecommunications partners are violating the principle of net neutrality. It is unacceptable for large corporations to get involved with picking and choosing who gets access to what and how fast, they said. Critics have also argued that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was trying to create a walled-off version of the internet, in an effort to lure Indian consumers into paying for extra services from Facebook. READ MORE: India Unlocking public wi-fi hotspots However, Zuckerberg has said that he wouldnt stop trying to connect India after the Indian regulators decision to ban Free Basics. Connecting India is an important goal we wont give up on, because more than a billion people in India dont have access to the internet, he said in a Facebook post. We know that connecting them can help lift people out of poverty, create millions of jobs and spread education opportunities. Google ahead in India India is seen as the last big market for Internet companies, with a fast-growing user base that is second only to Chinas. Only 462 million out of Indias 1.3 billion people have Internet access. Google has already taken over Facebook in terms of providing free or at least more affordable internet access to Indians. Last year, Google announced it would bring high-speed wi-fi to 100 Indian rail stations by the end of 2016. The company is currently providing this service in at least 23 railway stations around the country. Googles service is currently free, but the company is expected to start charging users a small amount of money for the railway wi-fi service in the near future. A water park near the French city of Marseilles has cancelled plans to host a one-day private event for Muslim women wearing burkinis, full-body swimsuits. Water park officials and French authorities said on Tuesday that the decision to cancel the September 10 event was taken to preserve public order following outrage and debate sparked over the plan. Neither Speedwater Park nor the town of Pennes-Mirabeau [a Marseilles suburb] wish to be the site of public disorder, they said in a joint statement. Extreme ideological positions are taking advantage of the controversy over this event to address conflicts in which Speedwater Park and the city of Pennes-Mirabeau do not wish to be involved, the statement said. Politicians on both the right and the left slammed the plan as provocative, with left-wing senator Michel Amiel, the mayor of Pennes-Mirabeau, saying he would seek a ban. READ MORE: French minister shocks with Muslim veil-slavery comment The event was booked by Smile 13, a womens association catering for Arabs in the southern port city, whose population of nearly two million includes around 220,000 Muslims. The association said on its Facebook page that it was stunned and saddened by the extent of the controversy. It said that it had received threats, including bullets sent to it in the mail, and had informed the Collective against Islamophobia in France. Islamic dress is a hot-button issue in France, where the full-face veil is banned in public places. BINALAKSHMI NEPRAM, FOUNDER OF THE MANIPUR WOMEN GUN SURVIVORS NETWORK: Today is a very historic day for the people of Manipur and it is a day of mixed feelings. First of all, the iconic struggle of 16 years of living without food, though she was fed through the nose, showed to the whole world how India as a democratic country has failed. Manipur, which is home to 2.2 million people, has not been in a democratic state of affairs for the last 30 or 40 years. In terms of Sharmila taking a plunge into politics, the Indian political and democracy system right now is extremely dirty and corrupt, particularly in Manipur where it is men with guns and drugs who rule the roost. For the last five to six years, we have been talking to her because even Mahatma Gandhi [who used] it as a political tool says fasting should be used as a means, not an end in itself. Weve been speaking to her [Sharmila] to change her strategy. But as I said, the whole movement with the repeal of the armed forces special special powers act started even before Sharmila. We cannot rest. She is an icon for us. We love her dearly. But [shes] an icon alone. For us, the struggle is not the fast, but the repeal of the draconian armed forces special powers act, which was put in the Indian parliament in 1958 and [still exists]. Hamas rejects Israeli allegation that UNDPs engineer Waheed Borsh abused his position to renovate homes of its members. Israeli authorities have announced charges against a Palestinian employee of a United Nations agency, accusing the Gaza resident of providing material assistance to Hamas. According to a statement released on Tuesday by the Israeli Security Agency (ISA), or Shin Bet, 38-year-old engineer Waheed Borsh was arrested on July 16 and charged in a Beersheva court on Tuesday. The indictment accused the UN Development Programme (UNDP) staffer Borsh of abusing his position to renovate Hamas members homes, having been recruited by a senior member of the Hamas terrorist organisation to redirect his work for UNDP to serve Hamas military interests. The ISA claimed that Borsh had confessed to the charges, and admitted that other Palestinians who work for aid organisations are also working for Hamas. According to the ISA, the case exemplifies how Hamas exploits the resources of international aid organisations at the expense of the civilian population of the Gaza Strip. READ MORE: Israel accuses World Vision aid worker of funding Hamas Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri rejected the Israeli allegations, describing the claims as a scheme to tighten the 10-year-old siege on the Gaza Strip by undermining the flow of funds for aid agencies. In a statement, UNDP said it was greatly concerned by the Israeli allegation that Borsh had complied with a request from a senior Hamas individual to transport 300 tonnes of rubble from a UNDP rubble removal project site to a Hamas-run location at the Northern Gaza Hamas-operated port. UNDP added that it will be conducting a thorough internal review of the processes and circumstances surrounding the allegation. The organisation noted that the allegations refer to 300 tonnes of the more than one million tonnes removed, or seven truckloads out of a total of nearly 26,000. Reacting on Twitter, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon described UNDP as the latest victim of Hamas, adding that international aid money, sorely needed by the Gaza population, had been stolen for terror purposes. According to its website, the UNDPs operations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory are based on a mandate to to improve the economic and social conditions of the Palestinian people by identifying their social and economic needs and by establishing concrete projects to that end. The news came as a lawyer acting on behalf of World Vision employee Mohammad el-Halabi told Al Jazeera that his client was tortured during his interrogation by the ISA. Last week, Halabi was charged by the ISA with funnelling tens of millions of dollars of aid money to Al-Qassam Brigades, an accusation that the global charity has reiterated is incompatible with the NGOs Gaza budget. Halabi was held for 50 days before being charged. READ MORE: Why the West and Israel should talk to Hamas In a further related development, Israeli authorities have also accused a Gaza-based employee of Save the Children of having been recruited for Al-Qassam Brigades by Halabi. Save the Children said they first learned of the allegations when contacted for comment by the media. Analysts and human rights workers in Gaza have expressed concern that Israel may be conducting a premeditated attack on groups it has long seen as troublesome. According to Samir Zaqout, assistant director of al-Mezan Center for Human Rights in Gaza City, The Israeli government and [Shin Bet] are using very dirty tools in order to harass and pressure both Palestinian civil society and international NGOs. Almost immediately after the indictment against the UNDP employee was announced, pro-Israel pressure group UN Watch urged action at what it called the apparently pervasive subversion in Gaza of UN and other international humanitarian aid funds by Hamas. Israeli forces destroy five Palestinian homes amid an uptick in the construction of illegal settlements. Israel has demolished five homes in the occupied West Bank and left 27 Palestinians homeless, more than half of them children, residents and an Israeli rights group said. Israeli bulldozers flattened the prefabricated shelters in the village of Um Al-Kheir, some of them built with European Union funding, early on Tuesday, said the BTselem NGO. Israeli police forcibly evacuated residents who attempted to prevent the demolitions, said the group, which campaigns against Israels occupation of the West Bank and regularly criticises abuses in the Palestinian territories. BTselem said the demolitions had left 16 children homeless. The structures had been built with EU aid after houses in the village, on the southern tip of the West Bank, were demolished at least eight times, Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said in a statement. Israel is relentlessly destroying Palestinians homes and livelihoods in order to make way for more illegal settlements, he said. Squandered aid Ramy Abdu, chairman of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, explained that Israeli authorities have taken harsh measures against these kinds of [EU] projects. They are trying to impose facts on the ground and get more space for settlement expansion, he told Al Jazeera. In the first three months of 2016, Israeli forces demolished 120 EU-funded structures in the West Bank, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). READ MORE: Palestinian Bedouins live the Nakba every day In a report published in June, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor estimates that Israeli demolitions and attacks have resulted in the EU wasting 65 million euros ($72m) in aid for humanitarian and development projects. After [demolitions] there are no real actions taken by the EU and Israel continues its demolition of homes without any actions, Abdu said. They are wasting their time and money, and there is no political will to stop it. About 600,000 Israelis live in Jewish-only settlements considered illegal under international law in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Palestinian territories under Israeli military control since 1967. New settlement homes The international community sees the settlements as a major obstacle to the creation of a Palestinian state and therefore to peace between the two sides. Settlement construction has gone hand-in-hand with demolitions of Palestinian homes. Um Al-Kheir, where Israeli forces carried out demolitions on Tuesday, lies near the Israeli settlement of Carmel. READ MORE: Israeli demolitions displace dozens of Palestinians Israel argues that most of the buildings it demolishes have been constructed without building permits. But the necessary permits are rarely given to Palestinians. COGAT, the department of Israels defence ministry in charge of the occupied territories, did not immediately comment on the Um Al-Kheir demolitions. On Monday, Israeli authorities also filed plans to build a new settlement of some 2,500 homes southwest of occupied East Jerusalem, the local Maan News Agency reported. Israeli forces have demolished more than 48,000 Palestinian homes and buildings since 1967, according to the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions. The United Nations human rights chief is urging the Maldives to stick to a decades-long moratorium on imposing the death penalty, citing fears that three men are at imminent risk of execution. Zeid Raad al-Hussein said in a statement issued in Geneva on Tuesday that the Maldives long provided important leadership in efforts to end the use of the death penalty and it is deeply regrettable that a series of steps have been taken to resume executions in the country. In June, the Supreme Court confirmed the death penalty for a 22-year-old man convicted of killing a politician in 2012. Shortly before that, the government had amended rules to allow execution by lethal injection or hanging, indicating that the countrys unofficial six-decade moratorium on executions would soon end. Amnesty International said it is concerned about the countrys judicial overreach and its effect on human rights issues as well as its intention to execute those on death row. In a 2015 fact-finding mission to the Indian Ocean island, the UK-based rights group found political tension in the country had been exacerbated by what it called harassment, detention and the imprisonment of government opponents. Safeguards against human rights violations are progressively eroding and the government is failing in its duty to stop this, the group said at the time. Lawyers begin nationwide strike a day after suicide attack targeted members of legal community gathered at hospital. Pakistans top lawyers launched a nationwide strike on Tuesday, a day after a suicide attack on a large crowd of their colleagues killed at least 70 people in Balochistan. As the country mourned the victims, which included many lawyers and two cameramen who were gathered at a hospital to pay respects to another lawyer who had been shot dead hours earlier, the lawyers said they would boycott court proceedings in much of the country. Mondays attack at a hospital in the southwestern city of Quetta was one of the worst in the countrys long battle against such violence. Both a Pakistani Taliban faction Jammat-ul-Ahrar (JuA) and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) have claimed responsibility for the attack. OPINION: Understanding the context of Quetta attack in Pakistan Some 200 lawyers, along with journalists, had gathered at the Civil Hospital to mourn the fatal shooting of a top provincial lawyer Bilal Anwar Kasi, with witnesses describing horrific scenes as medics battled to save scores of wounded people. Lawyers throughout the country will boycott court proceedings on Tuesday in protest against the killing of lawyers in Quetta yesterday, said a statement from the Pakistan Bar Council, adding that provincial and district bar councils would follow suit. Mourn the loss Balochistan government spokesman Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar said schools in the province would also be closed on Tuesday to mourn the loss. Funerals have already been held for many of the victims, he said. Those who were living in and close to Quetta city have already buried their loved ones, while those belonging to far-flung areas will be buried today, he told the AFP news agency. On Monday officials had put the number of wounded at 112. Twenty-seven of the critically injured were airlifted to Karachi, where a spokesman for the Aga Khan Hospital said they were out of danger now. The JuA Taliban faction, which formed in 2014, also claimed responsibility for Pakistans worst blast so far this year, a bombing in a crowded Lahore park during Easter that killed 75, among other attacks. The US State Department designated JuA as a terrorist group last week in a statement that described it as a splinter group of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) based in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region. Hours after the JuA claim, ISIL also claimed the attack, according to the SITE monitoring group. ISIL has been scrabbling for purchase in Pakistan, largely due to competition from well-established armed groups such as the Taliban. Balochistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, has major oil and gas resources, but is afflicted by conflict, sectarian violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims and a separatist rebellion. In a tweet, Pakistans army said the attack was specially targeting CPEC, referring to Chinas ambitious $46bn project to build an economic corridor through Pakistan. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is set to culminate in the Baloch Arabian Sea port of Gwadar, south of Quetta. Pakistans powerful military chief has previously accused India of openly challenging CPEC by trying to destabilise Balochistan. Here are some reactions to the attack on Monday: Kamila Shamsie, an author, pointed to a thread written by lawyer Barkhudar Khan that many recommended reading to understand the attack Read this to begin to understand the magnitude of the #QuettaBlast. https://t.co/jmKjMLMKBR Kamila Shamsie (@kamilashamsie) August 8, 2016 Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General, called the attack particularly appalling Ban Ki-moon condemns terrorist bombing today at the Civil Hospital in Quetta #Pakistan https://t.co/z28fY9m4LO UN Spokesperson (@UN_Spokesperson) August 8, 2016 Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy, film director https://twitter.com/sharmeenochinoy/status/762570728873005056 Fatima Bhutto, writer Sick and merciless to bomb a hospital, all thoughts with Quetta today fatima bhutto (@fbhutto) August 8, 2016 Hamid Mir, Pakistani journalist for GEO Journalism is a dangerous profession:Salute to the courage of 2 more cameramen who sacrificed their lives in the line of duty 2day in Quetta Hamid Mir (@HamidMirPAK) August 8, 2016 Maryam Nawaz Sharif, daughter of prime minister Nawaz Sharif Attack on Baluchistan is an attack on the hearts & spirits of those who want to see Pak united. Praying for our brothers, the victims. Maryam Nawaz Sharif (@MaryamNSharif) August 8, 2016 Asma Jahangir, human rights lawyer in Pakistan Pakistan's lawyers are devastated but will continue to support elimination of terrorism and barbarism AGHS Legal Aid Cell, Asma Jahangir's Law Firm (@Asma_Jahangir) August 9, 2016 The International Committe of the Red Cross The election will be held under a new constitution that will ensure the militarys control over the next government. Thailand will hold a general election in 2017, the countrys chief of the military governmnet said on Tuesday, his first comments since voters backed a new military-crafted constitution in a referendum. Sundays vote in support of the charter was the first test of public opinion since the 2014 coup. Campaigning and open debate were curbed in the run-up to the poll, however. Thailands last general election was in 2011. The election will be held late 2017 as planned, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha, who as army chief seized power two years ago, told reporters. Since the vote, the European Union and the United States both key allies have called on Prayut to hold elections swiftly and lift restrictions on civil liberties imposed since his takeover. Previous election dates promised by Prayut have slipped. Majority back new charter The military says the new constitution will purge Thailand of corrupt civilian politicians and restore stability after nearly a decade of political turmoil including two coups. But critics say the charter will boost military power and limit the sway of elected officials. READ MORE: Thai activists charged over report on army torture Under the new charter, the upper house will be entirely appointed, including six seats reserved for the military. A proportional voting system will probably reduce the influence of major parties. The senate will also have a voice in picking a non-elected prime minister if the lower house is deadlocked, while it will be easier to impeach a civilian leader. Unofficial results released by the Election Commission on Sunday showed 61 percent of the country backed the document, with 39 percent voting no. But turnout, currently estimated at 55 percent, was subdued. Full official figures will be released on Wednesday. Prayuts promises Thailand has been bitterly divided ever since a 2006 coup that toppled Thaksin Shinawatra as prime minister. Years of competing protests and instability followed. In 2014, the army seized power once more, toppling Thaksins sister Yingluck. The countrys populous and poor north and northeast, a Shinawatra stronghold, was one of the few regions to vote against the charter. READ MORE: Thailand referendum New constitution wins approval Addressing those voters, Prayut said: I can see you suffering. I will take care of you. But I have to take care of other regions too. The Shinawatra clan has won all general elections since 2001, harvesting votes by promising greater wealth and opportunity to the rural poor. But the family is loathed by an arch-royalist Bangkok elite which is backed by the military, and by southern voters who accuse the Shinawatras of corruption and populism. It is not yet known whether Thailands generals will lift curbs on political gathering before the 2017 elections. About 30,000 people flee homes, sparking a humanitarian crisis as fighting rages between Taliban and Afghan forces. Thousands of civilians in Afghanistans Helmand province have fled their homes in the past weeks as fierce fighting raged between Afghan forces and Taliban fighters, sparking a humanitarian crisis. Afghan forces, backed by US air strikes, continued their operation to end the Taliban siege of the area, forcing people to flock to the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, for safety. Local officials warned on Tuesday that the provincial capital was struggling to cope with an influx of people fleeing the fighting across Helmand. Around 30,000 people have been displaced in Helmand in the past several weeks. Most of them are coming to Lashkar Gah, Omar Zawak, the provincial governors spokesman, told the AFP news agency. It difficult for the city to contain all of them. Families, children, women, all have to sleep on the streets. There is a shortage of food and clean water. We need urgent support. The Taliban advance towards Lashkar Gah has compounded fears that the city was on the brink of falling into Taliban hands, even as US and Afghan officials insist that they will not allow another urban centre to be captured. The turmoil in Helmand, blighted by a huge opium harvest that helps to fund the Taliban, underscores a rapidly unravelling security situation in Afghanistan. The defence ministry on Monday confirmed that heavy fighting had flared in Nad Ali district, where government troops sought to dislodge fighters who overran a neighbourhood only a few kilometres from Lashkar Gah. The armed group has also carried out attacks in Nawa district, just south of Lashkar Gah. Great fear Lashkar Gah residents voiced fears that the city could fall, saying fighters had heavily mined the roads from neighbouring districts and exhausted soldiers were running out of food supplies. The Taliban are in control of all the roads leading to Lashkar Gah, resident Haji Qayum told AFP. The police checkposts are falling one by one. There is a great fear the capital may fall to the Taliban. The Taliban briefly captured northern Kunduz city in September last year, the first city to fall to the rebels in their biggest victory in 14 years of war. The Taliban effectively control or contest 10 of the 14 districts in Helmand, the deadliest province for British and US forces in Afghanistan over the past decade. The fighters are flushing an elite new commando force into Helmand, which they call Sara Khitta the Red Brigade in Pashto. They are a highly trained, well-armed unit with modern equipment including night-vision goggles, a Taliban commander in Nad Ali district told AFP, without revealing their exact number. An Afghan security official in Kabul confirmed the existence of the new Taliban unit in Helmand, but played down their impact on the battlefield. Meanwhile, the US has stepped up air strikes supporting Afghan forces on the ground, highlighting the intensity of the battle in Helmand. The situation down there remains tense and somewhat contested, NATO said in a statement. It remains an ongoing security concern and there has been fighting down there for the last several weeks. We remain confident that the Afghan forces are fighting effectively and that they will continue to secure Lashkar Gah. NATO officially ended its combat mission in December 2014, but US forces were granted greater powers in June to strike at the armed group as President Barack Obama vowed a more aggressive campaign. The US has deployed several hundred troops in Helmand in recent months. As Trump unveils new plan, dozens of top Republican security officials knock him as a dangerous choice. Republican party nominee Donald Trump has said that he would slash taxes, block onerous financial regulations and unleash the energy sector as he pledged to jump start America with a new economic plan if elected United States president. Separately, as the White House nominee attempted to reset his campaign, dozens of top Republican security officials published a joint letter in The New York Times warning that he would be the most reckless president in American history. The property tycoon and former reality TV star unveiled his proposals in the economically depressed city of Detroit as he attempted to focus on policies that drew a sharp contrast with rival Hillary Clinton. We are in a competition with the world, and I want America to win, Trump told an audience at the Detroit Economic Club, as he highlighted disastrous policies that he said have snuffed out US jobs in the nearly eight years of Barack Obamas presidency. I want to jump start America. It can be done, and it wont even be that hard, he said. Trump laid out a series of policies to revitalise a limping economic engine, including a sharp reduction of corporate tax from 35 percent to 15 percent, something he floated back in September as a way to lure back US corporations that relocated abroad. READ MORE: US election 2016 Third parties are voiceless He said he would also set a 10 percent tax on the trillions of dollars from American businesses that is now parked overseas and gets repatriated into the US. Trump said he wanted to cut regulations massively, a move he said would lift what he called an anchor weighing down small businesses, something Republicans have sought for years during Obamas tenure. The 70-year-old billionaire also proposed repealing the estate tax, a controversial levy on estates of the deceased valued at more than $5.45 million. American workers have paid taxes their whole lives, and they should not be taxed again at death its just plain wrong, Trump said. The speech was interrupted more than a dozen times by protesters, who were escorted out by security. Trickle down economics? As he tried to pivot away from recent controversy about his candidacy, Trump portrayed Clinton as the nominee from yesterday. There will be no change under Hillary Clinton only four more years of Obama, he said. But we are going to look boldly into the future. Clinton, a 68-year-old former secretary of state and senator, has enjoyed a strong bounce in polls since securing the Democratic nomination last month, the first time a woman has become the nominee of a major party. A Monmouth University Poll released on Monday showed her ahead of Trump by double digits, 46 percent to 34 percent a dramatic increase from the three-point lead she held days before the Republican convention. Clinton used her rally in St Petersburg, Florida to savage Trumps economic plan as an effort to repackage trickle down economics. His tax plans will give super big tax breaks to large corporations and the really wealthy, she said. I am not going to raise taxes on the middle class, but with your help we are going to raise it on the wealthy, because thats where the money is. She cited a study by Mark Zandi, a former economic adviser to Republican Senator John McCain, which predicted that under Trumps plan, the economy would shed 3.4 million jobs and tumble into recession. Economists left, right, in the middle all say the same things, that Trumps policies would throw us into a recession, she said. A dangerous president Also on Monday, some 50 senior Republican national security officials issued a stinging rejection of Trump, warning that, if elected, he would be the most dangerous president in American history. The group, some of whom had already announced that they would not vote for him, included former homeland security chiefs, intelligence directors, senior presidential advisors and a former US trade representative. They served under Republican presidents from Richard Nixon to George W Bush. The signatories include Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff, the first and second homeland security secretaries under president George W Bush, former director of National Intelligence John Negroponte and Bush-era CIA director Michael Hayden. We are convinced that he would be a dangerous president and would put at risk our countrys national security and wellbeing, they wrote in an open letter. OPINION: Welcome to the Trump show While they did not say they would vote for Clinton, expressing doubts about her, they stated: None of us will vote for Donald Trump. He has shown no willingness to learn about foreign affairs or national security threats, acts impetuously and lacks self control, the letter said. We are convinced that in the Oval Office, he would be the most reckless president in American history. The decision comes after months of tension sparked by Turkeys downing a Russian jet near the Syrian border. Turkey and Russia have reached a clear consensus on normalising ties, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin said in a press conference following a meeting between the two. Putin said that the two discussed the expansion of economic ties between the two countries. The return of our tourists to Turkey is on our agenda, Putin said, adding that the two countries were working to restore charter flights from Russia to Turkey. Erdogan said steps will be taken in joint investment issues and other economic ties, adding that a gas project with Russia will be made a reality soon. It was the first meeting between Putin and Erdogan since Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet last November, sparking a deep diplomatic crisis. Erdogans visit to Putins hometown of St Petersburg on Tuesday was also his first foreign trip since a failed coup attempt last month that sparked a purge of alleged coup supporters in the military, judiciary, civil service and education sector, and cast a shadow over Turkeys relations with the West. OPINION: Whats behind the Turkey-Russia reset? Your visit today, despite a very difficult situation regarding domestic politics, indicates that we all want to restart dialogue and restore relations between Russia and Turkey, Putin said as the two met. Erdogan said that Turkey was entering a very different period in relations with Russia, and that solidarity between the two countries would help the resolution of regional problems. Erdogan also thanked his Russian counterpart for a telephone call after the failed coup attempt on July 15, saying it brought our people great happiness. Russian jet shot down Al Jazeeras Rory Challands, reporting from St Petersburg, said that one of the interesting things about the whole spat between Russia and Turkey is how much of it seemed to be driven by the personalities of the two leaders; not actually to do with any of the interests the two countries shared. Erdogan has contrasted what Putin did in the aftermath of the attempted coup with the absence of similar moves from Western leaders, Challands reported. The shooting down of the Russian jet by a Turkish F-16 over the Syrian border last November saw a furious Putin slap economic sanctions on Turkey and launch a blistering war of words with Erdogan that seemed to irrevocably damage burgeoning ties. When the Turkish military shot down a Russian fighter jet that it said strayed from Syrian into Turkish airspace last November, Moscows retaliation was swift, said Al Jazeeras Bernard Smith, reporting from Istanbul. OPINION: Why Turkey is mending ties with old foes Tourist charter flights to Turkey stopped, Russian visitor numbers fell by 87 percent. Turkeys exports to Russia, including food, fell by more than half to $730m in the first six months of this year. But, in a reversal in late June, Putin accepted a personal expression of regret over the incident from Erdogan as an apology, immediately rolled back a ban on the sale of package holidays to Turkey and signalled Moscow would end measures against food imports and construction firms from the country. Now, following the failed coup attempt, analysts say ties between the two could deepen with Erdogan publicly making it clear he feels let down by the United States and the European Union. The Russian President was much quicker in his condemnation of the attempted coup than many of Turkeys Western allies and theyve [the Western allies] also expressed alarm at the extent of the post-coup crackdown, said Al Jazeeras Smith. Vladimir Putin hasnt got involved. Syria was expected to be high on the agenda during the visit. Moscows military support for Syrias President Bashar al-Assad has been credited for helping to keep him in power. Turkey, though, wants him gone. Speaking of Syria, Putin said that it is possible to resolve his countrys differences with Turkey over Assad and the future of Syria. Tens of thousands of newborns are dying every year in India from antibiotic-resistant superbugs. In Indias neonatal hospital wards they struggle for life sick infants battling untreatable superbugs . Tens of thousands of them lose their lives every year. This is the frontline in the fight against antibiotic-resistant bacteria, one of the most serious threats to global health of our time, according to the World Health Organization. India consumes more antibiotics than any other country. Coupled with poor sanitation and overcrowding, the nation is the perfect breeding ground for antibiotic-resistant bacteria. 101 East investigates how India is becoming a hotbed for superbugs and how it is leading the fight to curb this global menace. Join the conversation @AJ101East Ties between the two countries have been strained since Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet last November. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has arrived in Russia. His visit is widely seen as an attempt to improve relations between the two countries after months of tensions. Erdogans government is still dealing with the aftermath of last months failed coup. But it says relations with Russia are important particularly in the continuing efforts to bring a solution to the war in Syria. The visit comes at a time when Turkeys ties with the European Union and the US appear to be cooling off. Erdogan has been criticised over his huge crackdown on thousands of alleged coup plotters. Turkey says its not turning its back on the West. But how will the West react to Turkish and Russian rapprochement? Presenter: Richelle Carey Guests: Mark Sleboda, international relations and security analyst. Margaret Coker, Turkey bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal. Ahmet Han, associate professor of international relations at Kadir Has University. 2005 .. English News Enhance Customer Service Experience Using Self-service Alwihda Info | Par Nidal Kamouni - 9 Aout 2016 by Nidal Kamouni, CEO, PCCI Group The essence of customer service can be traced to time immemorial. On the other hand, the method of delivery of the customer service experience needs to be continually updated to match the desires and expectations of an ever-changing customer base and that is why we believe that the customer experience landscape is ripe for disruption with companies slowly making progress toward more seamless and simpler customer experiences. The biggest change in customer service is the sheer number of channels through which people can contact your business. Instead of just phone calls and snail mail, consumers can now reach you by email, social media, text message, video call and live chat. Mobile technology has also enabled constant connectivity, giving customers 24/7 access to public forums in which they can talk or complain about your company. Only organizations that are willing to adapt and respond to this shift in business-consumer dynamics will survive. We believe that businesses will focus on making self-service easier. In fact, we are already seeing companies start to address the desires of many consumers for automated self-service to improve by evaluating their core systems, investing in knowledge management and exploring virtual assistants. Some of the initiatives that we can already see in place, include Connecting conversations with context where companies have removed the need for consumers to explain, sometimes repeatedly, why they need service which goes a long way in making self-service easier. Another initiative is when businesses make secure authentication easy with some introducing voice biometrics to meet demands for easy, secure authentication instead of consumers having to use PINs and passwords to authenticate their identity. And finally, businesses have understood the value of their websites and have taken steps to improve their website effectiveness. Customers are increasingly beginning their self-service journey on the web, only calling the contact center when they cant find an answer online. Websites today have employed virtual assistants that are powered by language understanding and conversational capabilities, streamlining and speeding up the digital service experience, minimizing a customers time and frustration while saving the business money. No one likes to wait. By making self-service easier, businesses will automatically help empower customers control their time if they improve if they offer consumers more control when customer service extends to the field. In the recent Trends 2016: The Future of Customer Service by Forrester, it was found that 73% of consumers say that valuing their time was the most important thing a company could do to provide them with good service whether on a call, in a chat, or while waiting for a service technician to troubleshoot and fix their product. Think about it, would you not prefer to wait for a delivery to arrive within a timeframe rather than listening to that annoying hold music that some businesses insist on playing as you wait. To this end, businesses continue to explore ways to offer self-service scheduling, providing an easy means of rescheduling appointments and actively seeking feedback on the service experience. For me personally, waiting for a service or delivery person to arrive within a set window of time, far outstrips the annoyance I feel listening to hold music. The Forrester report forecasts this year companies will explore ways to offer self-service scheduling and better inform and prepare their employees to provide effective field service. For businesses who would like to improve their customers field service experiences while differentiating themselves on this aspect of customer service in the near future, we recommend a few suggestions. For a customer to have a good field service experience, the businesses should successfully engage with the customer before arriving and it is important to use multiple channels of communication to raise your engagement rates. Help make your customers ability to reschedule or communicate with you is fast and easy that can be accomplished from every message they receive, on every channel, with a simple click, tap or spoken request. With all the knowledge gained through the field data, businesses must leverage it to predict needs of its customers delivering faster, easier and a more personal experience. In the age of fierce competitiveness, companies that deliver a great end-to-end experience that makes them stand out from the clutter will attract and retain customers. This is a universal truth no matter which industry a business is in and businesses who choose to make superior customer experience its core business strategy will continue to thrive. Dans la meme rubrique : < > China to make greater contributions to human progress China willing to work with the international community to promote equality, mutual learning, dialogue, and inclusiveness among civilizations Chinese new energy vehicle industry speeds up innovation Pour toute information, contactez-nous au : +(235) 99267667 ; 62883277 ; 66267667 (Bureau N'Djamena) The Republican platform's proposal to reinstate Glass-Steagall is hard to understand, even in the confused policy mishmash created by Donald Trump. The best interpretation is that it's an awkward outreach to the disappointed "progressive" supporters of Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. The worst is that it calls into question whether Donald Trump really supports financial deregulation. The key problem for those Republicans who are now warily supporting their presidential nominee is that it is not clear where he will lead the party in this electionand the countryif he wins. Is he committed to anything, really, or is he just twisting and turning to win the presidency, only to decide later what he wants to do? In this sense, favoring the reinstatement of Glass-Steagall is a bad omen. Glass-Steagall was modified in 1999permitting bank holding companies (but not banks themselves) to engage in the securities businessfor a simple reason. Since the mid-1980s, the securities markets had been outcompeting banks in the business of financing corporate America. The reasons for this are complex, but have much to do with advances in communication technology. As it became possible for investors to get full financial information about companies directly from the files of the SEC, they could decide for themselves what investments to make. The traditional intermediary role of bankstaking deposits and making commercial loanswas eroding quickly. It was far less expensive for a firm in need of credit to sell bonds, notes or commercial paper to investors than negotiate complex financing arrangements with a bank. If that trend continued, banks would eventually be forced out of financing all but the smallest businesses. This had been predicted in the Reagan administration, when the idea of modifying Glass-Steagall was first proposed. These competitive issues had become obvious by 1999, providing the foundation for the repeal of the Glass-Steagall language that prohibited affiliations between banks and securities firms. Since then, the gap between bank and securities market financing has only grown wider, but at least banking organizationsthrough their securities affiliateshave been able to compete in this market. Glass-Steagall reform added major new competitors to the securities markets, further reduced investor costs and spurred innovation. As important, it also enabled banking organizations to compete again for the financing business of their traditional corporate customers. For most banking organizations today, their securities operations are their most profitable activities. Smaller securities firms are bearing the brunt of this competition, but more deregulation will bring back the IPO market, which is their natural role. Reinstating Glass-Steagall will reverse this process. Banking organizations will again be frozen out of the securities markets. They will become less profitable and less able to support their subsidiary banks, making bank failures and taxpayer bailouts more likely. Those who advocate the reinstatement of Glass-Steagall should be careful what they wish for. But it is the symbolic importance of reinstating Glass-Steagall, endorsed by the Trump campaign, that should concern us. Trump and some of his "free market" advisers have proposed deregulation of the economy, including a repeal of the Dodd-Frank Act and a temporary suspension of all new regulations. Good. That, plus a sensible tax policy, will restore the economic growth that the Obama policies have suppressed. But how can we believe any of this? More than anything else, the reinstatement of Glass-Steagall suggests that the government, and not private decision-making, should determine the structure of the economy. One can't believe in the reinstatement of Glass-Steagall and still believe in the repeal or significant modification of Dodd-Frank. It's like saying free markets work, but price controls can help. One of the key arguments that Donald Trump has advanced to secure the support of Republicans is to assure us that if he's elected he will appoint Supreme Court Justices in the mold of Antonin Scalia. However, the author of "The Art of the Deal" has also presented himself as a dealmaker. He wants to improve trade arrangements that have already been formalized in treaties, start another reset with Vladimir Putin and extract more financial support from NATO nations and those we protect in Asia. This will be dealmaking indeed. But what happens when his Supreme Court nominees are opposed by the Democrats in Congress? Will dealmaking produce someone closer to Justice John Paul Stevens than Justice Scalia, or can Mr. Trump be relied upon to stay the course? The Trump proposal to reinstate Glass-Steagallonly a technical idea of no particular consequence to most American votershas major implications for the credibility of the candidate in whom so many Republicans have now placed their trust. Like the canary in the coal mine, it's small but significant. Peter J. Wallison is the Arthur F. Burns fellow in financial policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. He is the author of "Hidden in Plain Sight: What Really Caused the World's Worst Financial Crisis and Why It Could Happen Again." Apple Pay popularized the concept of tokenization creating one-time codes for merchants to validate payment cards so consumers don't have to share sensitive, valuable account information. But Apple Pay works only in stores or apps right now. For consumers who remain rightly uneasy about typing their card information into a web browser, several startups are offering tokenization services. These fintechs are partnering with banks to obtain the real bank and card information that they obfuscate online. If adopted widely, tokenization could limit the risk of major data breaches. Malware trying to steal information from online shopping sessions wouldn't work and merchants like Target and Home Depot would not receive card data, let alone store it, so hackers would have to go elsewhere. Unfortunately, tokenization doesn't prevent the use of stolen card data, so hackers could target the tokenization providers themselves, given all the personal information they'll be storing. "Nothing is foolproof," said Steve Weisman, senior lecturer in law, taxation and financial planning at Bentley University and an attorney and privacy advocate. But "the theory is good. It's a matter of the practice." The effectiveness of the service would depend, in part, on the tokenization providers being better at security than merchants. "If these companies can maintain much better security and security is not just a matter of hardware and software, it's also a matter of training employees so they don't fall for spearphishing and other kinds of attacks," then they have a good chance of success, Weisman said. They also need to be careful about protecting users, with features like two-factor authentication, he said. Meet the Startups The tagline of token (spelled with a small "t"), a company started by Zohar Steinberg and Yana Zaidiner, is "Let's make payment fraud a thing of the past." The founders, who are married (they met when they both worked at the billing company Amdocs), say their idea stemmed from a personal need. "Our credit cards were stolen a few times," Steinberg said. "Since we were entrepreneurs and security people, we wanted to build something for ourselves to begin with." They came up with a list of requirements for their technology: it had to be free, it had to be globally accepted by any merchant, and consumers had to be able to pay using any bank account, credit or debit card, bitcoins or cash. "We wanted it to be very user-friendly," Steinberg said. "You don't want to take it too far from the original experience." And of course, it had to be secure. Token's app generates a 16-digit number a customer can use online the same way she would a card number. It can also generate a fake yet usable cardholder name. The merchant and bank go through a cardlike authorization process; token works with both Visa and Mastercard. The startup gets a cut of the interchange fee its card issuer partners receive. In return, those card issuers, typically community and regional banks, can court consumers around the country who want to protect their card data, Steinberg said. Fraud protection "is going to be a consumer acquisition play," he said. To forge these bank partnerships, "We're knocking on every door, every window, and leveraging every connection and relationship we've built," Steinberg said. Useful bonds were forged at Startupbootcamp Fintech New York, an accelerator program whose mentors included bankers from around the world. Token is also talking to merchants. Abine is a little older than token. Its founders objected to the prolific use of personal data in advertising. "We looked at that and said, what's the counterpunch you can have? What kinds of controls does a regular consumer deserve over all these companies trying to learn as much as they can about us?" said Rob Shavell, Abine's CEO. "Our founding concept was, anyone should be able to control their personal data; that's why we call it personal, and the best way to do that is through tokenization." Consumers can download Abine's Blur software and use it to tokenize their email address, phone number or credit card number. Abine works with a bank partner to offer a new, one-time-use tokenized credit card, which is really a prepaid Mastercard for the purchase amount. (Consumers are charged a fee.) Consumer data is encrypted using a password only the user knows. "We can never access our customers' personal data. And even if we're hacked, hackers can't access our customers' data because we can't," Shavell said. "The downside of it is you have to remember your password." Shavell said the service has millions of users and all Mastercard-friendly merchants accept it. Abine is working with a couple of banks it cannot yet name, to integrate its technology into their mobile wallets, a way to let customers shop securely from a mobile phone. As the name implies, the founders of Privacy.com, a startup still in beta testing, are marketing their service as an alternative to legacy systems where oversharing is the default setting. "We're believers that as a consumer you shouldn't have to share any more information with a merchant than what's really necessary to clear the transaction," said Boling Jiang, Privacy.com's chief executive. The firm, which is refining its model, aims to combine the privacy and security of cryptocurrencies with the customer remediation, compliance and universal acceptance of the established card networks. "Essentially we allow you to generate temporary card numbers," Jiang said. "You can use them once or just lock them down to a single merchant," so if that retailer were breached the number would be no good anywhere else. The Limits of Tokens Weisman is less enthusiastic about services like Abine and Privacy.com that basically buy one-time gift cards for customers to use online on the fly. "I see that idea as kind of iffy," Weisman said. "There's so much that comes with gift cards, the regulations we have don't seem to match this type of use. I think there's a better way than gift cards." Identity expert Richard Parry, principal at Parry Advisory, sees limited use to the new crop of tokenization offerings. For instance, they do nothing to prevent the use of already stolen card and personal identity data. "It's responding to a lot of hype and concern. I don't know that its implementation will give a significant reduction in fraud losses," he said. "If it makes consumers feel better, then more power to the creators." Parry also noted that merchants may balk at the withholding of consumers' information. The merchants' banks want the information for data verification, and in some cases, retailers themselves want the data for cross-selling. The strongest argument against tokenization is that it could provide a misguided comfort around using cards online. "Imagine you've enrolled in this service and then you get fraud because you're using obfuscation of a card whose details are already out there," Parry said. "You've just been lulled into a false sense of security." These efforts share a noble goal: to help secure and shield consumers as they shop online. Like most security and privacy initiatives, they're a partial answer and not for everyone. It will be interesting to see whether consumers gravitate to these options, or continue to fling their credit card data around online, keeping their fingers crossed. Editor at Large Penny Crosman welcomes feedback at penny.crosman@sourcemedia.com. Folks, I am sick of being told by people on our side to walk-on-eggshells when pushing back against Leftist activist's superaggressive attacks on our traditions, values, and heroes. Consequently, we continue to allow Leftists to demonize good guys and urinate on everything Americans have held dear for decades. Whenever we say no to Leftist's attacks on our culture, the mainstream media runs to attack us with the Left's red-hot branding iron. They burn an H in the middle of your forehead, marking you a hater. Case in point: The horrific epidemic of assassinations of police caused by Black Lives Matter have inspired me to produce a Blue Lives Matter Rally: Honoring America's Police -- our brave men and women in blue. Can you believe that Leftists say celebrating our police is hateful? A few fearful conservatives have told me they want nothing to do with my rally. This is yet another example of how far we have fallen, allowing ourselves to be intimidated and controlled by evil. You are probably as sick of hearing me state the following truth as I am sick of having to say it. Black Lives Matter was founded on a lie. Their lie says Michael Brown was murdered by a racist white cop while Brown had his hands up, pleading with the officer not to shoot him. The truth is Michael Brown was a 6 foot, 300-pound criminal. Brown was shot while attacking Officer Wilson inside his patrol car attempting to take his gun. And yet, Obama, mainstream media, Hollywood and the Democrat party, all continue to do their part to promote the hands up, don't shoot lie. Despite Black Lives Matter boldly declaring it open season on killing whites and police, Obama honored the hate group at the White House. Obama even praised them for their outstanding work. The Democrat National Convention featured Michael Brown's mom as a speaker -- in essence, sending out a clarion call to young blacks across America to keep ambushing and assassinating cops. Meanwhile, some conservatives caution me not to produce an uplifting family event honoring cops because Leftists will deem the event hateful. It's a crazy world we are living in, folks. Folks, I realize that bad cops exist, just as there are bad apples in every profession. For crying out loud, Jesus had 12 disciples and one of them was a fraud; Judas. Stats confirm that most cops are good guys daily laying their lives on the line to protect and defend us. This experience I had as a black youth involving white cops bears repeating. It was the 1970s. My black cousin had a nervous breakdown. His wife called me to their home. My 6 foot, over 200 pound, cousin held his two toddler sons hostage in his basement. He was an emotional wreck, crying while threatening to murder his boys and himself. Two white Baltimore cops arrived first on the scene. One officer was young and energetic. The other was older, much slower, and obese. The veteran cop struggled up the 8 front steps and hobbled into their row house to the basement doorway. After catching his breath, with wisdom and compassion, the cop reasoned with my cousin. C'mon son, I know how you feel. But you do not want to do this. Remarkably, my cousin surrendered to the fatherly cop. He did not spend a long time, if any time, in jail. My cousin is alive and well today. Heather MacDonald is author of The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe. MacDonald's research has revealed that no government agency is more committed to saving black lives than police; saving tens of thousands of minority lives since the mid-1990s. Folks, the truth is blacks pose the biggest threat to black lives. So many black men have been killed by other blacks in 2012 alone that it would take cops 40 years to match the number. Incredibly, the mainstream media basically ignored a mob of Black Lives Matter activists marching down a NY street boldly chanting, What do we want? Dead cops! When do we want it? Now!!! But no, Lloyd, having a rally honoring cops may anger Black Lives Matter. The media will spin it as a hate event. Folks, we must counter evil with good. I have booked the Ocean Convention Center in Daytona Beach, Florida for a Blue Lives Matter Rally to honor America's police, our brave men and women in blue. The date is Saturday, September 10th. The time is 11am to 2pm. I hope to book Heather MacDonald to speak, and numerous other celebrities. Celebs who cannot physically attend will send their message on video. I plan to do a brief tribute to each officer who has been assassinated by BLM thugs. I originally planned to have a black choir sing. My black conservative buddy who has moved from Project 21 to the Racial Policy Center, Mychal Massie scolded me. Don't have a black choir. We have enough division. Have a choir of all Americans. I like that. It is going to be a great, fun, and uplifting event for the entire family. Hopefully, my buddy from Tim Allen's Home Improvement TV sitcom, Jimmy Labriola, can come and do his hilarious stand-up act. I have also asked Victoria Jackson from Saturday Night Live to participate. We need funding to pull this off. The venue costs $2000. Then, there is the cost of the production company, sound company, the house band, and etc. Please visit our crowd funding page and give. All that is needed for evil to prosper is for good men to do nothing. Let's come together and do something good, folks. Lloyd Marcus, The Unhyphenated American Chairman: The Conservative Campaign Committee LloydMarcus.com The Democratic National Committee's new slogan is apparently "Black Votes Matter," as shown by its endorsement of Black Lives Matter and invitation of the families of victims of controversial shootings to their national convention. Democrats were to hear Tuesday night from the Mothers of the Movement, a group of women who have traveled the country to promote gun control and reforms to make police officers more accountable. The group includes the mothers of Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, victims of high-profile police-involved killings. Democrats have had decades to promote the reforms in question but have simply chosen not to do so. The vast majority of questionable police shootings and other uses of illegal force take place in cities whose mayors are liberal Democrats, some of whom hold very prominent positions in the DNC. This underscores the fact that Black votes, but not Black lives, matter to the Democratic Party's power brokers. Fearless Fosdick is a Democrat Al Capp's Fearless Fosdick, a parody of Dick Tracy, was known for his indiscriminate use of force. As an example, he opened fire on a man who was selling balloons without a license, and gunned down several innocent bystanders in the process. Fearless Fosdick's real-world counterparts report almost universally to liberal Democratic mayors. New York City paid Eric Garner's family $5.9 million for wrongful death due to a police chokehold in violation of department policy, and New York police wounded nine bystanders with gunfire and bullet fragments while exchanging fire with a killer. Police instructor Massad Ayoob's In the Gravest Extreme warns, "If it can be proven that you were negligent or reckless in firing the wild shot, you are liable for damages, and for conviction under the criminal code" even if you were trying to hit a violent assailant. The Garner incident took place on the watch of liberal Democrat Bill de Blasio, while the bystanders were injured on the watch of Independent Michael Bloomberg, an enemy of the Second Amendment who might be in prison for his amateur gun stings if he was an ordinary person rather than a billionaire political figure. In 2013, also on Bloomberg's watch, New York police fired three rounds at a mentally disturbed man whom they thought had a weapon, and hit two innocent bystanders instead. If Bloomberg's police needed more range time and/or use of force simulations, he could have saved a lot of innocent people by spending his personal fortune to provide these things rather than run a potentially felonious crusade against the Second Amendment. Governor Andrew Cuomo and GOP majority leader (and convicted felon) Dean Skelos could have meanwhile devoted more attention statewide to the adequacy of police training and supervision than to harassing law-abiding gun owners with their so-called SAFE Act. Fearless Fosdick Does Boston Next we come to Boston, where police who were looking for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev pointed firearms at people and at occupied buildings: multiple blatant and flagrant violations of Gun Safety 101. The first picture shows Fearless Fosdick's real-life counterparts pointing what the political Left calls "assault rifles" at buildings while having no idea in the world as to who is inside them. The reference includes the allegation that the police committed what would, for any ordinary person, constitute a serious firearm crime. "The gentleman here (if you can call him that) notes that both times his house was searched the law enforcement officers 'asked' permission to do so, but he didnt feel like he had much of a choice as the police team had guns pointed at his face." If anybody in Pennsylvania pointed a gun at my face, I would file a criminal complaint against him for misdemeanor assault: "attempts by physical menace to put another in fear of imminent serious bodily injury" and also reckless endangerment: "conduct which places or may place another person in danger of death or serious bodily injury." In California, intentionally pointing a loaded semiautomatic firearm, i.e. the kind carried by almost all police officers, at another person without cause is a felony. This, in contrast to California's other gun laws, is one I respect and support except for the politically correct aspect of making the crime more serious if the weapon is automatic or semiautomatic. No responsible person points so much as a flintlock pistol at another person except in self-defense. Another picture shows a Boston police officer pointing a rifle straight at a photographer, and yet another shows an officer pointing his handgun who-knows-where while a woman exits her home. The beginning of this video is even worse; the police officer at the left allows the muzzle of his weapon to wander across the backs of the police directly in front of him as well as the occupied house. Fearless Fosdick is often as dangerous to other police officers as he is to civilians, and the mayor of Wilkes-Barre -- a Democrat but from a blue-collar working city rather than a large urban area -- moved quickly to fire one who "goofed off" by pointing his duty weapon at other officers in the station. The legality of entering people's homes, and ordering them out of their homes ("Raus! Raus!" per the Gestapo), without warrants or probable cause that a crime is in progress also can and should be questioned. All this took place on the watch of Democrat Thomas Menino, co-chair and co-founder with Michael Bloomberg of Mayors Against Illegal Guns. These mayors who clamor for onerous gun laws for law-abiding citizens, and (in Bloomberg's case) run amateur sting operations that could conceivably land an ordinary person in Federal prison, are not even up to the job of ensuring that their police forces are not menaces to the societies they are supposed to protect. The Los Angeles Fosdick Department In 2013, Los Angeles police officers fired 107 rounds at Margie Carranza, her mother Emma Hernandez, each other, and surrounding buildings and vehicles. "Nearby homes, trees and vehicles were pockmarked by scores of bullet holes." The Los Angeles Times adds, "Beck said the officers compounded their mistake by shooting in one another's directions with an unrestrained barrage of gunfire." The police violated numerous gun safety rules by firing at a target they had not positively identified as hostile, and by shooting without regard to who or what might be in their line of fire. This happened on the watch of Antonio Villaraigosa, "a national co-chairman of Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign and Chairman of the 2012 Democratic National Convention in September 2012." Chicago has meanwhile paid out half a billion dollars to settle cases involving excessive or inappropriate use of force by its police. One such case was that of Laquan McDonald, whom a police officer continued to shoot after he fell to the ground as shown here at about 5:33. The officer involved was, in fact, charged with murder for continuing to shoot a fallen assailant who was armed only with a contact weapon. The Chicago Tribune adds, "Van Dyke has at least 20 formal complaints over his career, including McDonald's fatal shooting, according to department records. Eleven involved allegations of excessive force." While the reference adds that many complaints are groundless forms of retaliation by gang members, the city paid $100,000 to settle a lawsuit that involved Van Dyke and another officer. Another officer shot Cedrick Chapman in the back on the grounds that the fleeing suspect had what might have been a gun, but turned out to be an iPhone box. While the officer might have been justified if he believed reasonably that Chapman had a gun, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Gettleman said that he also might have endangered his partner, who was chasing the suspect. The gunfire might also have endangered two bystanders. The city's response? "The original independent police investigator wanted to rule the shooting unjustified, saying the teen fled from Fry and Toth without posing a threat. That investigator, Lorenzo Davis, said he was fired when he refused to change his findings to a justified shooting. A new investigator was assigned and ruled the shooting justified." The Chicago Police Department reports to Democrat Rahm Emanuel, who did not overrule the decision to fire the investigator who did his job by refusing to whitewash a questionable shooting. BLM members who still have problems with the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore need to remember that Baltimore police report ultimately to Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, the current secretary of the Democratic National Committee. The DNC cannot have it both ways. If black (and other lives, including those of police officers) lives really matter, then Democratic mayors need to ensure that their police have adequate training and supervision. What we have seen so far involves a small but significant number of poorly trained and poorly supervised police in Democratic-run cities who are menaces to law-abiding civilians, unarmed or disarmed suspects, and other law enforcement professionals. William A. Levinson is the author of several books on business management including content on organizational psychology, as well as manufacturing productivity and quality. To paraphrase Winston Churchill: Trump is the worst presidential candidate, except for all the others. Its extraordinarily difficult to forgive the people who rejected Cruz, Carson, Walker, and Jindal among others and pushed for Trump. After all, theyve given us a choice between what a friend of mine called the bad and the unthinkable. Amazingly, the sad reality is that even though Trump is an immature narcissistic self-centered misogynistic bully hes much better than Hillary. Clearly, Hillary has all those same problems except that she is mature in her behavior hence her evil actions are more thought out and less spontaneous than Trumps. But of course, that makes Trump the better candidate since a petulant president is far less dangerous than a malevolent ruler. Some might ask how a woman can be a misogynist but Hillary is clearly misogynistic based on her public attacks on the women her husband sexually harassed. But that disdain for women has helped her since it was the basis for Hillarys enabling and lying about her husbands infidelities and that in turn is what got her where she is today. But we can ignore Trumps personal failings not only because Hillary has them too but because while Trump may accidentally cause grievous harm to America due to his lack of knowledge and self-control, Hillarys plan is to turn America into a banana republic. While Trump bloviates about making it easier to sue reporters who lie, Hillary is clear about her intent to dismantle the First Amendment and ensure that we live in a country of men not of laws. Further, there is no doubt she will continue the use of both the Justice Department and the IRS to attack political enemies. Trump, on the other hand, will only need to allow true justice to take its course for Hillary and other liberals to be in a world of hurt. However, even if Trump were to try to misuse those offices hell be fought tooth and nail by the entrenched liberal civil servants who fancy themselves as the elite who should rule us. But if Hillary is president, those same civil servants will fall over themselves to help her crush anyone she doesnt like; as Lois Lerner did for Obama. Trump is very much about Trump but while Hillary is also amazingly self-centered -- witness her exploitation of Haiti, of all places, to make money -- her visions include herself as a ruler imposing her truth on America as well; in that shes Obama 2.0. While people compare Trump to Mussolini the real, comparison is between Hillary and Hitler. Hillary supports what Jesse Jackson called genocide against Blacks; the fact that Black women are five times more likely to abort their baby than white women. If Hillary werent a racist who agreed with Margret Sangers belief that black people are a burden on America shed be saying that abortion should be legal but that we have to understand and eliminate the causes of the horrendous disparity in abortion rates. But like most liberals Hillary only wants enough blacks to win elections for her. Hillary has gone from saying abortion should be safe, legal, and rare to approving of a convention where a woman killing her unborn child so that the woman wouldnt be burdened was applauded as a sign of goodness and demanding that abortions of convenience should be paid for by taxpayers. While Trump may not really be all that pro-life, at least hes not calling for Americans to pay for abortions of convenience. Similarly, hes not going to force nuns who spend their whole lives helping the elderly and needy pay for abortions. He may even turn out to be truly pro-life but there is no way hell be worse for the unborn than Hillary. Most importantly, while Trump may be a noxious person with multiple marriages and tawdry affairs, hes in fact a far better friend of social conservatives than Hillary is. Thats because on social issues we are no longer a representative republic since the imperial Supreme Court rules us. Voters rejected so-called gay marriage, but the Court declared it to be a fundamental right. Voters rejected abortion on demand for any reason at any point in a pregnancy -- including after viability -- yet the Court imposed it on America. Voters never supported the legalization of pornography but the Court declared that while pharmacists can be forced to provide drugs that kill people in direct violation of their religious beliefs pornography is protected speech. Hence, irrespective of the loathsome nature of Trumps personal life, the fact that his Supreme Court candidates support the rule of law and the belief that the Court is to determine the intent of those who passed a law not make new laws means that a Trump presidency is likely to be far more friendly to social conservatives than a Hillary presidency. Hillary thinks Obama, the man who views the Constitution as a bad thing that kept him from doing what he wanted, would be great on the Supreme Court. Her choices would be hard-core left wing social justice warrior types who view the Constitution as words to be manipulated in order to impose their beliefs on America. Some might argue that Trump cant be trusted on the Supreme Court but the reality is that we are certain Hillarys choices will be eager liberal dictators so with Trump we at least have a chance for decent judges. In light of that, #NeverTrump folks are wrong not because their assessment of Trump isnt spot on but because we have no more margin for protecting our freedom in America. Eight years of Hillary and millions of citizens who were illegal but who will then be able to vote Democrat or just two or three Supreme Court more liberal justices will ensure that the America we grew up in is no more. Weve seen how a politically biased Supreme Court can allow Obama and liberals to ignore the law and act as rulers not representatives. Can you imagine how much worse that will be if there are five, six, or seven hard-core liberal Supreme Court justices? Further, with Hillary as president, the message will be clear. You can break the law if youre part of the Democrat machine; theyll protect you. On the other hand, if youre not part of the Democrat elite, Hillary will use any tactic, no matter how illegal, to crush you and shell get away with it because the law does not apply to her. If you doubt that for one second, ask a Bernie fan. Remember Bernie was a favorite of the Democratic base but the ruling Democrat clique, made up of mostly white 1%ers, crushed him like a bug by rigging elections and eventually buying him out. The modern Democrat party is Chicago writ large. They corrupt everything in order to maintain and expand their power; and their bank accounts. However, unlike the first Mayor Daley, Hillary and her ilk want to impose their beliefs on you; imagine if Mayor Daley had wanted to force Chicagoans to be Catholic, or at least eschew divorce, and you have a good idea of what the modern Democrat machine is like. The idea of voting for Trump is horrifying yet the odds are that he would be a far better president than Hillary. The reality is that between completely corrupting the IRS and FBI, installing Supreme Court judges who believe they have the right to make law, and either granting citizenship to millions of illegals or so watering down voter fraud laws that illegals can vote without being citizens, Hillary will have irrevocably destroyed America. Because we have a better chance that the American defined by the Constitution will survive a Trump presidency than a Hillary presidency there is really no choice; we need to hold our noses and vote for Trump in November. You can read more of toms rants at his blog, Conversations about the obvious and feel free to follow him on Twitter All we know about Donald Trumps policy is what he says, not what he has done or will do. Trump has no policy track record. He has never held office. Intimations of what he might do are often vague, too. Yet, beneath the rhetorical bluster, a few broad, if not salutary, strokes are evident. Domestically, he says that he would end the fiasco that is open borders, especially the reckless importation of unvetted Mexicans and Muslims. He also claims to be the law and order candidate. Presumably, his focus would be on terrorists, extra-legal entrants, immigrant felons, and repeat offenders who abuse porous borders and so-called sanctuary cities. Trump has little patience either with cop killers or the organizations that sponsor hate speech directed against police. BLM takes a bow here. Like his predicate, the eccentric Teddy Roosevelt, Trump also says that he will shake up Wall Street, bank monopolies, and the free-trade grifters that have turned the American economy into a slush fund for indifferent elites, right and left. Trump implies that America has the best politicians that money can buy. His prime exhibit for that charge is the Clintons. If evidence matters, Trumps identification of the Hillary cartel as political pathology, not civic solution, is spot on. The Republican standard bearer also says that the system on both sides of the political aisle is rigged by a political culture that allows anti-democratic fixers like the Clintons to thrive. The crooked Hillary meme is now validated by an avalanche of fact. The Benghazi cover-up, the rigged FBI investigation of Clintons private server, and the more recent rigged DNC national nominating convention are but three recent examples that come to mind. The great irony of the crooked Hillary consensus is that any credible vetting of the Clintons must now be done by hackers, Julian Assange, and WikiLeaks. With the Hillary tilt, US media has again squandered its single digit objectivity rating on another Clinton shyster. Pairs of breeding lawyers in the White House have proved to be a toxic if not ruinous mix. Throughout, print and TV shills would have us believe conspiracy theories about sinister machinations between Donald Trump, Julian Assange, and Vladimir Putin. Every Clinton crime now gets to wear the burka of conspiracy. With Bill, it was the vast right wing conspiracy. With Hillary now its Trump, WikiLeaks, and the Russians. Donald Trump also suggests that the time has come to reevaluate foreign policy alliances including NATO. Clearly, EU regime change policies and feckless Muslim small wars have been colossal failures. NATOs bear-baiting and EU imperialism have done little or nothing to attrite the jihad or halt the spread of Islamism and terror. The world is not a safer place under NATO or team Obama. Between regime change meddling and NATO expansion, the EU and America now underwrite a new Cold War with Russia whilst losing multiple hot wars with Islam. Donald Trump is not responsible for any of this, not a single domestic, military, or foreign policy disaster. If you read between the lines, Trumps great failing is truth. He is pilloried for pointing the finger of shame at team Obama and a generation of policy fiasco and incompetence. Indeed, the authors of failure, including Barack Obama, have taken to asserting that Trump is dangerous. Really? By what abuse of reason is the depressed state of the union and foreign affairs fiasco a function of anything Trump has ever said or done? If the truth were told, President Obama has taken a page from the Clinton playbook. When confronted with the US-sponsored Libya coup blowback, the president refers to yet another failed Muslim state as a shit show, blaming tribalism and negligent Europeans. Like Hillary, the Obama ethic is the absence of personal responsibility. Somehow the political disaster that is humanitarian intervention in the Obama era is someone elses fault. And somehow we are to believe that Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are dangerous men. Shakespeare once suggested that the purpose of theater is to hold a mirror up to nature. Indeed, a cinema icon with five decades of standing did just that the other day. Clint Eastwood captured the Clinton/Obama culture in an interview with Esquire. That's the kiss-ass generation we're in right now. We're really in a pussy generation. Everybody's walking on eggshells. We see people accusing people of being racist and all kinds of stuff. When I grew up, those things weren't called racist. And then when I did Gran Torino, even my associate said, "This is a really good script, but it's politically incorrect." And I said, "Good. Let me read it tonight." The next morning, I came in and I threw it on his desk and I said, "We're starting this immediately. Mister Eastwoods choice of a euphemism for female genitalia for a metaphor is no accident. We live in a culture of girly men, manly women, and a sizable slice that couldnt make either team. Real men are now an endangered species. The best thing to be said about the Obama era might be that it will be over in a few months. If and when a definitive film is made of the political correctness era, lets pray that Clint Eastwood writes the screenplay and directs the film. Eastwood is one of the few auteurs that might do justice to the Clintons, the Obamas, and the pussy generation. On August 24, Apple CEO Tim Cook will host a fundraiser for Democratic Party presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The minimum donation required to attend will be $2,700, with $50,000 a suggested donation. Apple is incorporated in the U.S., but its products are produced in China. At least Apple still designs its products in the United States. In contrast, many other American multinationals have moved research and development abroad so as to be near their factories. And the U.S. has also been losing the technological advances that occur on the factory floor due to learning by doing. As a result of these factors, the U.S. has been losing its technological lead. Republican Party presidential candidate Donald Trump has announced his intention to threaten across-the-board tariffs against at least three of Americas trade-surplus trading partners (China, Japan, and Mexico) in order to force those countries into trade-balancing negotiations. Under existing legislation, his Commerce Department would have the authority to impose such tariffs. From Lincoln to Reagan, Republican presidents supported American production, usually through protective tariffs, while Democrats, from Jackson to Obama, were free traders. Trump would return the Republican Party to its traditional position. Prominent economists are divided on trade. The lead-authors dissertation advisor, University of Chicago economist Milton Friedman, favored free trade, but he was mostly writing when the U.S. had a trade surplus. In contrast, British economist John Maynard Keynes supported tariffs when Britain was experiencing trade deficits. In 1931 he proposed (in what was called the addendum to the Macmillan Report) a system of tariffs upon British imports to be used to subsidize British exports in order to balance British trade. During World War II, Keynes tried to set up a postwar system that would keep trade in balance by letting trade-deficit countries, but not trade surplus countries, impose tariffs and/or reduce their exchange rates. But he was overruled at Bretton Woods, where the postwar international agreements were negotiated, by Americas chief negotiator Harry Dexter White, a Soviet agent. Economic history shows that the effect of tariffs depends upon trade balances. When trade is balanced, all trading partners benefit, but benefit could increase even more in the absence of tariffs. When trade is not in balance, countries sometimes use tariffs and other barriers to imports and/or subsidies to exports to gain a trade surplus, what 18th Century Scottish economist Adam Smith called a policy of beggaring all their neighbours. Their economies grow at the expense of their trading partners. Countries with trade surpluses grow in relative power, while those with trade deficits shrink. For example, Bill Clintons trade agreement with China led to steadily worsening trade deficits, with concomitant transfer of U.S. economic growth and political power to China. From 2001-2013, the U.S. lost 3.2 million jobs to China, according to a study by EPI Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Research Robert E. Scott. About two-thirds of those jobs, or 2.4 million, were in manufacturing. When workers lost middle-class manufacturing jobs, they were often forced into lower-paying (because less-productive) jobs in the service sector. Largely as a result, American median income declined steadily over that period. U.S. economic growth has followed the U.S. trade balance downwards. The U.S. average trade balance (as a percentage of GDP) sank to a negative 3.8 percent during the 2006-2015 decade from a positive 0.6 percent during the 1956-1965 decade. Meanwhile U.S. annual economic growth sank to just 1.4 percent from 2006-2015 after averaging 3.4 percent over the previous five decades. We have proposed a single-country-variable-tariff called the Scaled Tariff to address chronic trade deficits. The tariff rate rises or falls as the U.S. trade deficit with a trade surplus country rises and falls. The single-country-variable tariff is a simple remedy and has the virtue that it requires no negotiation at all and is compliant with World Trade Organization rules. American presidents should have ordered across-the-board tariffs against the trade surplus countries long ago, but large campaign contributions from multinationals producing in those countries may have prevented them from doing so. Only a candidate that is largely self-financed can afford to act in Americas interest. If Trump loses, it may be decades before another candidate puts Americas interest ahead of that of the big campaign contributors. Trump may be our last chance to end our trade-deficit caused decline in economic growth and political power. The Richmans co-authored the 2014 book Balanced Trade published by Lexington Books, and the 2008 book Trading Away Our Future, published by Ideal Taxes Association. Despite its wealth and high-technology leadership, California boasts one of the worst public school systems in the nation. Completed by the nonprofit Education Week, the Quality Counts report gives California a D-plus grade and ranked it 42nd among states based on key education performance indicators. But never let it be said that the one-party state led by Governor Jerry Brown doesnt have its priorities straight. Kate Stronger of LA School Report: California is pioneering a solution, and its starting with sex education and the issue that many of these assault cases turn on consent. This school year, the state will be the first in the U.S. to require that high schools teach sexual consent what it is and how its established. While some high schools already taught consent, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law in October 2015 requiring all schools that mandate health courses to do so beginning in the 2016 school year. Our dedication to a more comprehensive approach to sex ed principles that are evidenced based, culturally appropriate, nonjudgemental, the whole thing about establishing parameters about not having sex is really revolutionary, positively revolutionary, because none of the other states are dealing with those issues, said Claire Brindis, a pediatrics professor and adolescent health policy researcher at University of California, San Francisco. [Cough] Its also going to make California lawyers very happy. Hat tip: VM A disturbing report out of Chicago, where three prominent street gangs held a meeting last week, where a plot was hatched to ambush and assassinate police officers. Fox News: The Chicago Sun-Times, citing an alert issued to Chicago officers, reported Monday that the meeting took place on Thursday between the gangs Vice Lords, Black Disciples and Four Corner Hustlers. According to the paper, the Four Corner Hustlers have provided guns and pinpointed a sniper in place. However, authorities are still unsure where the alleged sniper spot is placed. The gang is also funneling weapons to the other two gangs. Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi declined to comment on the situation, saying the department does not comment on any security measures. Dean Angelo, the president of Lodge 7 of the Fraternal Order of Police, said the ONeal family attorney and statements from the Independent Police Review Authority were to blame for the threats. We had inflammatory and false rhetoric coming from (Michael Oppenheimer) and statements that werent true, Angelo said. You also have a lead investigator in police-involved deaths talking about how shocking and disturbing this is. The threats come after the officer-involved shooting death of the man. Police chased the teen into a South Shore neighborhood on July 28 after he allegedly stole a vehicle. Note that despite their incendiary rhetoric directed at police, Deangelo does not blame Black Lives Matter for the targeting. BLM has routinely referred to police as "terrorists" and claimed that cops deliberately target black men for death. But publicly blaming BLM would only add fuel to the fire and put cops in more danger. Police across the country are under seige by politicians and activists who are looking at their actions with a magnifying glass. In some places, this has resulted in police pulling back from high-crime areas, seeking to minimize confrontations. It also places an element of doubt in the minds of law enforcement officiers where hesitation could be fatal to them or other policemen. Three powerful street gangs are plotting to murder law enforcement officers in Chicago. The stars are aligning for a terrible tragedy to occur unless the anti-police protesters dial back the rhetoric. The most efficient way of solving a problem is to first break it down to its simplest parts its bare-bone elements. This was the ultimate point of a recent article, where I asserted: When it comes to the connection between Islam and violence against non-Muslims, one fact must be embraced: the majority of those in positions of leadership and authority in the West are either liars or fools, or both. No other alternative exists. In the comments sections on my site and in those of other websites that carried the article, and through emails, many begged to differ. They argued that there are other alternatives and that my distinction fool, liar, or both is too simple. Some argue that those Western leaders who refuse to connect Islam to violence and terrorism are simply being politically correct, or are cowards, or are bought and paid for traitors, or are worried about their careers, or are intentionally trying to defuse a potential world conflict i.e., a clash of civilizations. Others argue that many Western leaders sincerely believe that Islam has nothing to do with terrorism because they cannot think outside the box because they cannot transcend their own Western epistemology, or because they are delusional, or overly optimistic, etc., etc. Now, heres the thing: depending on which Western leader and/or talking head is claiming that Islam has no connection to violence that is, on a case-by-case basis all of these explanations may be true. Even so, they are only just that explanations as to why they are claiming what they are claiming about Islam. None of these explanations changes the fact that what they end up saying is either a direct lie or the product of a soft brain. Whether its due to political correctness, cowardice, treason, or even sincere fear of international conflict, those who claim that Islam is free of violence are, in the end, still liars. Likewise, whether its due to mistaken optimism, or the inability to think outside the Western epistemic box, or simple delusional thinking, those who cannot accept that Islam is connected to violence are, in the end, still fools. Incidentally, others argue that damage done by deceit is worse than damage done by stupidity, because it is done deliberately. I beg to differ: damage is damage, irrespective of cause. If someone intentionally runs you over, or if someone accidentally runs you over, the end result is one: youre dead. Its important to understand these distinctions to see through the fog. Whatever his motivations or reasons, anyone who claims that Islam does not teach violence and intolerance against non-Muslims is ultimately a liar or a fool, or a little bit of both and nothing else. Once the issue is boiled down to this simple explanation, it becomes clear how and why an intrinsically weak Islam has become such a threat to the West. How to remedy the situation becomes even clearer: simply oust the liars and fools from power. The rest is details. Raymond Ibrahim, author of The Al Qaeda Reader and Crucified Again, holds fellowships at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and the Middle East Forum. A black activist named Muhammad in the Tampa Bay area has a real opportunity for personal growth. As Fox 13 News put it: A black rights advocate, often critical of Tampa police relations, was assisted by officers early Saturday morning after being robbed at gunpoint in Ybor City. Ali Muhammad is well known in the Bay Area community for calling attention to the need for police reform during the selection process of the police citizens review board. He also wants to put an end to black crime, encouraging community members to come forward after several deadly shootings. Muhammad became the victim of a black-on-black crime after a night of working as a DJ at a club in Ybor City. While walking down 8th Avenue around 3 a.m., Muhammad was robbed at gunpoint. "I was approached by a young black male who just came up to me and said, 'Give me your earrings and your backpack,'" recalled Muhammad. "He took everything I had. At the time, he didn't take my cell phone, and that's what made me call 911." Muhammad followed the suspect down the street from a distance, until he was advised to stop by 911 dispatchers. Along the way, suspect robbed two other women at gunpoint, according to the police report. screen capture via TheBlaze The police handled the incident with professionalism and caught the suspect after sending several officers to the site within ten minutes. Muhammad got the loot back. "Police can be hostile and very belligerent. Friday night, I met some officers who [were] about business, and that was getting a bad guy off the street," said Muhammad. He said his misfortune is an example of the black-on-black crime he and the New Black Panthers advocate against in the black community. "To just go out late at night and throw your life away, robbing people, that's hurting," he continued. "Every black life is valuable right now, especially a black male, and for him to keep going on with the norm, continue with the process of going to jail and ending your life like that, as our boys are doing nowadays, it's very hurting." Muhammad said the traumatic experience that ended without anyone injured is also an example of why police and the community must be able to come together for a greater good. "I congratulated the police," said Muhammad, "I'm very anti-police, but I'm not against police relations and community relations." Hes still very anti-police, as if you can have good police relations while being anti-police. His words show more human feeling toward the perp, who is throwing his life away, than for the officers who righted the injustice at risk of their lives. He's still taking sides against them. Hat tip: TheBlaze Yesterday, a slew of high-profile Republicans announced they would not vote for Donald Trump, with many saying they would vote for Hillary Clinton. Almost to a man, the defectors are remnants of the George W. Bush administration. First, Senator Susan Collins became the least surprising defector, saying she can't support Trump for president. The Hill: "I will not be voting for Donald Trump for president, she declared. This is not a decision I make lightly, for I am a lifelong Republican. But Donald Trump does not reflect historical Republican values nor the inclusive approach to governing that is critical to healing the divisions in our country. In the piece, Collins compares the GOP nominee to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who captured attention and grew support for his challenge to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. She said it became apparent that, much like Sanders, Trump was connecting with many Americans who felt that their voices were not being heard in Washington and who were tired of political correctness. But rejecting the conventions of political correctness is different from showing complete disregard for common decency, she wrote. Instead of just shedding the stilted campaign dialogue, she wrote, Trump opted for a constant stream of denigrating comments, including demeaning Sen. John McCains (R-Ariz.) heroic military service and repeatedly insulting Fox News host Megyn Kelly. Collins has been a vocal Trump critic and hasnt been shy about rebuking the real estate mogul. Also yesterday, 50 GOP national security experts signed a letter declaring they could not vote for Trump. The letter, signed by aides and Cabinet members of past GOP administrations including George W. Bush's and Richard Nixon's, declared that none of the officials will vote for the GOP nominee because they are convinced that he would be a dangerous president and would put at risk our countrys national security and well-being. Mr. Trump lacks the character, values, and experience to be President, the letter says. He weakens U.S. moral authority as the leader of the free world. He appears to lack basic knowledge about the belief in the U.S. Constitution, U.S. laws, and U.S. institutions, including religious tolerance, freedom of the press, and an independent judiciary. The officials predict that Trump "would be the most reckless president in American history." Some of the prominent officials include Michael Hayden, former director of both the CIA and National Security Agency; Michael Chertoff, former Secretary of Homeland Security for Bush and President Obama; John Negroponte, former director of national intelligence under Bush; Tom Ridge, former homeland security director under Bush as well as former governor of the battleground state of Pennsylvania; as well as others who have served as trade representatives, national security advisers and ambassadors. And, not surprisingly, two former GOP EPA chiefs refuse to back the nominee and have endorsed Clinton: Two former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chiefs who served under Republican presidents are backing Democrat Hillary Clinton in the November election William Ruckelshaus, who served under presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan; and William Reilly from the George H.W. Bush administration said Republicans should be outraged by Donald Trumps threats to undo major environmental policies. Donald Trump has shown a profound ignorance of science and of the public health issues embodied in our environmental laws, the men wrote in a letter released Tuesday morning by the Clinton campaign. He hasnt a clue about Republicans historic contributions to science-driven environmental policy: the incontestable environmental improvements in the restored lakes and rivers, the acid rain controls, the reduction of key air pollutants by 70, 80 and 90 percent, and the sharp decline in pollution from automobiles even as their numbers more than doubled. Ruckelshaus and Reilly add to the growing list of Republican officials, including former federal officials under GOP presidents, denouncing Trump and endorsing Clinton. In the two days, Clintons secured endorsements from former George W. Bush aide Lezlee Westine, Reagan political director Frank Lavin and ex-Michigan Gov. William Milliken. Similarly to many of their fellow Republicans, Ruckelshaus and Reilly framed a Trump administration as dangerous to the causes for which they feel strongly. What is happening is what Glenn Reynolds refers to as a "preference cascade," sparked by polls showing Trump falling behind by double digits nationally and by significant margins in states like Georgia and Michigan. Perhaps most worrying is that Clinton has the support of 92% of people who identify as Democrats, while Trump can manage only 79% support from Republicans, according to a Monmouth poll. Trump may not be down 13%, as the Monmouth poll shows, but unless he can find a way to bring many of those Republicans back, it is going to be hard to remain competitive with Clinton. A lot of these Republicans probably wouldn't have supported Ted Cruz, either, so the onus is not all on Trump. But the candidate can ill afford to bleed any more support, even from moderate Republicans. Googles Android platform has a reputation for being vulnerable to hacking and malware, but the reality is that developers and hackers are continuing to play the a coding cat and mouse game. There are many scary statistics used in headlines detailing the number of devices that are potentially vulnerable to a security flaw. Stagefright was seen as being a potential hazard to around a billion devices, and the latest big name issue, Quadrooter, which is seen as being a potential threat to around 900 million Qualcomm-powered Android devices. We are seeing hackers and security investigators uncovering deeper and deeper issues in the Android platform code, but this points towards something often overlooked: the deeper we must investigate to find a critical glitch, the more hardened the outer layers of the operating system are. This is a simplistic perspective, but read on. Mobile device security developers like to release scary statistics almost as though they are trying to frighten potential customers into downloading and using their safer-device products. For example, mobile security solution provider, 360 Security, explained earlier in the year that the damage attributed to mobile ransomware for all of 2015 amounted to 95.6 billion won (approximately 65 million or $86 million). Their statistics show that 900,000 devices were infected between June 2013 and the first quarter 2016. Another security business, AhnLab, collected almost 50,000 malicious app samples in the first half of 2016 designed to root a device. Once a device is rooted that is, once third party applications can gain access to the whole of the storage and not just the ordinarily permitted space the device is effectively compromised and can be made to do pretty much anything the developers want it to. AhnLab explain that the number of rooting applications is around four times that of the second half of 2015 this is a relatively new trend in mobile device malware. Where is the blame for this? As always, it is a complicated question to answer. Google has made some great steps to harden Android by releasing software patches on a monthly basis. Some manufacturers or brands, such as Googles Nexus, BlackBerry, Samsung and LG (the latter two for some devices) take these critical vulnerability patches and apply it to their device software. Other companies, such as HTC and Motorola, do not give Googles critical security patches the same priority. Motorola will get around to updating devices and HTC go so far as to hide the patch date update in devices running Android 6.0 Marshmallow, presumably so customers dont realise the software on their handset is six months behind. Its time for manufacturers to step up and take security updates seriously. Google also use the Bouncer application monitoring system on the Google Play Store, which is designed to detect malicious applications as they are uploaded. Bouncer is not perfect but it helps: mobile app security business, Seworks, states that around 80% of applications available on the Google Play Store are vulnerable to hacking and 166 of the top 200 free applications are prone to the possibility of decompile-based forgery and falsification. In other words, malicious developers can take the original application and re-make it with embedded malware. Bouncer should detect these issues, but its an arms race between the hackers and those who would keep our devices safe. Advertisement The biggest threat is still seen as going off-platform for third party applications and games. Downloading a non-Google Play Store application from an unknown third party application store with no equivalent to the Bouncer service is asking for trouble. Google provides a toggle for allowing customers to install non-Play Store applications; sticking with the Google Play Store and using a device that is actively supported with monthly updates goes a long way towards keeping malware able of damaging our data off our devices. We should also be encouraging legitimate developers to harden their applications to make it harder to decompile and clone, and of course we absolutely need to encourage manufacturers to update their devices all of their devices on the same monthly schedule as Google. American telecommunications regulator, the FCC, has published a document explaining how it will streamline the deployment of test 5G sites. This announcement follows a number of others that point towards the FCC seemingly hurrying along the industry to test, develop and ultimately roll out the next generation of mobile cellular data networks. At the time of writing, the world has yet to finalize the 5G networking standard but operators and telecommunications businesses all over the world already have an idea of what to expect. We have seen carriers across the world work with their respective regulator in order to assemble and trial 5G networks: for the American carriers, the FCCs announcement should make things much easier during the initial testing. This in turn will accelerate the process of developing the 5G network and in turn this will speed up how quickly the new masts may be deployed. The crux of the Federal Communications Commissions document is that it will no longer run through the traditional preservation review that is applied to all new site requests providing small facility deployments do not have an adverse impact on historical sites or locations. In other words, operators can deploy small scale 5G network test facilities as long as their equipment does not cause an adverse impact on landmarks and similar. This should make life much easier for operators keen to build out their test networks, especially in dense urban environments where the higher frequencies that 5G technologies are expected to use could encounter severe difficulties. The reason for this is because the higher the frequency of the spectrum being used for radio communications, the faster the potential data transfer speed but the steeper the signal degradation over distance or when encountering objects such as buildings or even trees. Carriers are having to develop new ways to tackle existing problems and are working on schemes to either cover a small, urban area with many small 5G cell sites, or using reflection and repeater technologies to improve coverage. Of Americas carriers, arguably Sprint has the most experience of dealing with high frequency network issues thanks to its 2,500 MHz spectrum, which is higher than most other operators. Sprint has been deploying its high frequency LTE spectrum to boost coverage and network speed in order to be the best network in a particular location, but its network plans see the business tackling this one city at a time. Carriers around the world are preparing to launch trial 5G networks from as soon as 2018 with wider networks in place by 2020. Google has put on hold its plans to roll out Gigabit internet services in at least two cities in California. Reports indicate that the company may be exploring cheaper wireless options instead of building out a fiber network that would otherwise cost significantly higher than the cost to provide high-speed wireless internet, now that its parent, Alphabet Inc., has acquired fixed wireless provider Webpass. If reports in the local media in San Jose is anything to go by, the company may be considering giving up on its plans to build out a high-speed fiber optic network in favor of wireless connectivity, which would be both cheaper and more convenient in high-population urban areas like San Jose and San Francisco. Meanwhile, even as Google is having second thoughts about its Gigabit internet plans, AT&T is all set to bring its GigaPower internet service to a number of areas in California, including San Francisco, San Jose, San Ramon, Santa Clara, Dublin and Mountain View. However, the telecom operator is apparently not too happy with the idea of having to compete with Google for Gigabit internet customers. The company, along with Comcast, have been doing everything in their power to stop the search giant from using the utility poles, which would have cost Google a lot less than having to dig up sidewalks and roads to lay its fiber optic cables. Meanwhile, the latest developments have surprised civic officials, whove been in talks with Google all this while about the companys grand plans of bringing super high-speed internet to their cities. Local leaders in San Jose, however, continue to put up a brave face, and even released an official statement, saying that they remain very optimistic about Googles high-speed internet service eventually coming to the city. Google, on its part, have asserted that it will continue to have discussions with these cities before it can definitively announce its future plans. Thats according to an official statement issued by Google spokesperson, Ms. Veronica Navarrete, who added that whatever Google decides to do in the end, it will do so while understanding local considerations and challenges. Over more than a decade weve known Google as a search engine, but Google is not just a search engine which answers your queries, its more than that. Google offers various products that include YouTube, Google+, Gmail, Google Maps and much more. Google has already covered all the sectors of Information Technology, and now Google is growing beyond that. There are so many projects that are running under the hood of Google like the Self-driving car, Project Loon, and Energy kite. Googles mission is to organize the world of Information, and now that will include our DNA information too. In 2014, Google launched a new cloud computing service called Google Genomics which will store patients DNA data in a cloud, which can be used to analyze different diseases. Google has teamed up with Stanford Medicine and will launch a Clinical Genomics Service this fall. Google will be providing cloud storage to Stanford Medicine to store data. The overall premise of what were doing is to combine the two worlds of data science and life science in a way that makes a difference, says Google Genomics David Glazer in an interview with FastCompany. Stanford Medicine has signed an agreement with Google to ensure the privacy and security of this sensitive health information that will be stored on Googles cloud platform. This data will be used to compare and to improve the treatment of cancer patients as well as to diagnose children with genetic diseases. Stanford Medicine will also provide this genomic data to the hospitals to prevent patients from getting sick in the first place, and to help doctors to diagnose and treat the disease correctly. Stanford Medicine dean Lloyd B. Minor said: We want to be seen as leaders in determining how genomic data when combined with other data, is able to predict when were more prone to developing the disease. And according to Minor, its now possible to sequence a patients whole genome as its getting cheaper and cheaper, day-by-day. Stanford with Google also researching a way to use machine learning technology to assist radiologists in making diagnoses, such as tumors, from medical scans. Digital technology can bring us an incredible amount of information about our health, minor said. With the hype machine surrounding the launch of the Galaxy Note 7 working overtime, other vendors may well be feeling a bit left out. In fact, with the new flagship phablet from Samsung expected to occupy the hearts and minds of smartphone buyers in the foreseeable future, even Samsungs own Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge are being sold at nice discounts by some of the major carriers in the U.S. No wonder then that HTC, too, is looking to move a few more units of its latest flagship before the Note 7 is available for purchase in just over a weeks time from now. The latest Samsung smartphone is already up for pre-order through a number of channels, and will be officially available for purchase from the 19th of this month. Either way, HTC, on its part, is offering a pair of JBL Reflect Aware C earphones for free with every HTC 10 purchased between now and the end of this month. According to an announcement by the Taiwanese company, the promo will run through to August 31st or until stocks run out, whichever is earlier. The earbuds are said to be sweat-proof, and makes use of a USB Type-C connector instead of the standard 3.5 mm audio jack to connect to the HTC 10. The earbuds come with an asking price of $199.95, so it is already a pretty sweet deal in case youre looking to get an all-new smartphone. However, if that isnt enough to convince you, the company is also offering an additional $100 in credit to those who buy the device from its web store. The money can be used to buy any official HTC accessory available on the companys own website. The HTC 10 is currently listed at $699 on htc.com, and is definitely a capable device whichever way one looks at it. However, whether the latest offer will be enough to lure people into picking it over any of Samsungs recent offerings remains to be seen. The device comes with a screen that, at 5.2-inches, is a tad smaller than the display panels found on most other flagship devices, although, it packs a solid punch in terms of performance because of the Snapdragon 820 running under its hood. The handset comes with Android Marshmallow pre-loaded, but will receive the taste of Nougat at some stage over the coming months. MediaTek is a Taiwan-based company which is manufacturing processors for mobile devices. This is actually one of the largest mobile SoC manufacturers out there, their chips fuel tons of devices all around the world, though theyre most used by Chinese smartphone manufacturers, which is not all that surprising. The Helio P10 and Helio X20 / X25 are MediaTeks most popular processors at the moment, these are the companys mid-range and flagship processor offerings, respectively. That being said, MediaTek did announce the Helio P20 back in February during the Mobile World Congress, and weve been waiting for the company to officially introduce the Helio X20s successor. Well, that has just happened, lets see what MediaTek announced, shall we. This Taiwanese company has introduced the Helio X30 processor, which features the deca-core setup, and a tri-cluster design, just like its predecessors (Helio X20 and X25). The Helio X30 is, however, made using TSMCs 10nm FinFET process. This SoC comes with 10 separate cores, four of them are Cortex A73 cores clocked at 2.8GHz, four are Cortex A53 cores which run at 2.2GHz, and the remaining two are Cortex A35 cores and they run at 2GHz. The Helio X30 supports up to 8GB of RAM (2 x LPDDR4 POP 1600MHz channels), while were looking at the PowerVR 7XT GPU here, which should be more than compatible with VR devices. This SoC supports cameras sensors with up to 40 megapixels, and video capture as high as 24MP. The 16-megapixel snappers which are used with this SoC will be able to take video shots of up to 60FPS, while 8-megapixel units will receive video support of up to 120FPS. It is also worth mentioning that this processor comes with a modem which supports three carrier aggregation and 4G LTE Cat.12. That is more or less it, these are the most essential details MediaTek has shared during the announcement of their new flagship SoC. Now, do keep in mind that the Helio X30 will not become available anytime soon. This processor is expected to hit the market next year, first smartphones powered by the Helio X30 are expected to launch in the second half of 2017. South Korean electronics giant, Samsung recently announced its latest addition to its Galaxy Note lineup, the Samsung Galaxy Note 7. The latest smartphone from the company happened to come with many firsts, including being the first smartphone to be protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5 on its display and on its back, it is also the first in the Galaxy Note lineup to feature a waterproof S-Pen which also cant be accidentally inserted the wrong way anymore. However, one of the main highlights of the Galaxy Note 7 was the inclusion of an iris scanner on the front of the device, which provided extra security and an alternate way for users to unlock the device. Samsung mentioned that it didnt just include an iris scanner just to provide an alternate way for users to unlock their device, but that it had the potential to be used to make secured payments and more. Well, it seems like Samsung has stayed true to its word as a report has emerged that the iris scanner will be used for mobile banking based on iris recognition. BusinessKorea has revealed that credit card companies in South Korea will begin using Samsung Pay with iris recognition around the end of August. This comes after South Korean banks launched support for mobile banking based on iris recognition. Among the South Korean banks which have joined in support of the more secured way of mobile banking are Shinhan Bank, Woori Bank and KEB Hana Bank. As for credit card companies, Shinhan Card has already completed technical preparations in order to support the service, while Hyundai Card and KB Kookmin Card will be joining the service soon. The most active credit card company in the development of this service happens to be a sister company of Samsung Electronics which is Samsung Card. The credit company will be ready to provide iris recognition service of Samsung Pay by the end of the month. The Galaxy Note 7 is slotted to be released in South Korea later this month and carriers have already started taking pre-orders for the device. Once it is launched, South Korean users will be able to do mobile banking based on iris recognition which is expected to be more secured than the conventional fingerprint scanner. In a bid to unlock the full potential of iris recognition, Samsung plans to release iris scanner software to third-party developers which will allow them to include their integration and provide a much greater and wider level of support for iris recognition. Xiaomi is one of the largest smartphone manufacturers in the world. This China-based company managed to accomplish a lot in a short time span, the company was founded in 2010, and in less than 5 years they managed to claim the number 1 spot in China. Huawei is currently the largest smartphone manufacturer in China, but Xiaomi is still coming strong, theyve released quite a few devices this year, and are constantly improving their Android-based OS, MIUI 8 was introduced a while back and it will become available to a number of devices soon (stable version), and while were waiting for that to happen, we have some great news for those of you who visit MIUI Forum frequently, read on. Xiaomi has released an official MIUI Forum app, and it is available for pretty much everyone via the Google Play Store. MIUI Forum is a website which releases plenty of info when it comes to Xiaomis devices, especially for those of you who dont understand Chinese. As soon as Xiaomi launches a product chances are youll find all the necessary info in a thread opened on the MIUI Forum website. Well, you wont need to visit the website any longer, the official MIUI Forum app is here, and its quite good actually. The app functions well, has all the necessary options youll need out of it, and as far as the design is concerned, it pretty much looks like one of the apps in MIUI 8. Youll be able to access various forums categories quickly thanks to this app, and basically do pretty much everything you are able to do via a website, but if youre using a phone, a native app is a far better choice, of course. MIUI 8 beta has been available for quite some time now, and the official (international) version of MIUI 8 should have become available in a couple of days, but Xiaomi has opted to postpone its launch until the end of this month. Thats not exactly a long wait, but were pretty sure tons of you are eagerly awaiting for MIUI 8 to become available, so every time Xiaomi postpones its launch they manage to annoy consumers, of course. Either way, if youd like to check out the MIUI Forum app while youre waiting for MIUI 8, click on the Google Play banner down below. (ANSA) - Rome, August 9 - Italian cultural figures have called on publishers to avoid divisions triggered by a recent decision by the Italian Publishers Association (AIE) to pull out of the Book Foundation that manages the annual Turin book fair, the biggest in Italy, and set up its own event in Milan, also in the month of May. "This country reads very little and does very little to encourage reading, we may be second last in Europe," said Foundation president in pectore and ex culture minister Massimo Bray. "And instead of drawing up a strategy to interest the new generations in books, it splits and invents two 'book fairs'. I think people looking on from outside would laugh bitterly at this situation," he added. Elisabetta Sgarbi, president and editorial director of La Nave di Teseo, agreed. "It seems the last thing we need is to hold two fairs at the same time or almost in Milan and Turin, and split AIE, and divide authors into two fronts," Sgarbi told ANSA. The protagonists of the controversy are due to meet with Culture Minister Dario Franceschini at the end of this month or in early September to attempt a mediation. However, publishers that have pulled out of AIE or do not feel represented by the association intend to push ahead and are due to meet in Turin on September 8 to decide their future. One of the options on the table is reportedly to create a new publishers' association as an alternative to AIE. Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala on Monday denied plans to set up a tent city for migrants and asylum seekers. "There is no tent city in the works," he said in a statement. The migrant situation is "under the full control of relevant authorities. Currently the city is hosting 3,200 people, and if the need arises we might add some tents for initial lodging". These will be added to those already in place inside a former Identification and Expulsion Center (CIE) and in a barracks, he said. "There is no tent city, therefore, being planned in other locations in the city," Sala said. "I say this to the benefit of the champions of press releases by the pound, who wish to describe a non-existent city in disarray". "Problems get solved with common sense and a lot of work," he added. Italy is the first port of call for asylum seekers wanting to reach Europe via the so-called central Mediterranean route. Their arrival has caused tension in several parts of Italy. Around 500 asylum seekers were camped out in the northern city of Como on Monday after they were turned away at the Swiss border. A police officer died of a heart attack Saturday during a No Border protest in Ventimiglia, on the French border, after a group of 300 migrants and asylum seekers forced a cordon, jumped into the sea and swam to France on Friday. "We'll have to see if this flow of people back from Ventimiglia and Como will bring migrants to Milan," Sala said. Lombardy Governor Roberto Maroni from the rightwing anti-immigrant Northern League tweeted Tuesday that undocumented immigrants must be repatriated. "The Renzi government has lost the plot on immigration," the governor tweeted. "Illegals must be sent home, now". (ANSA) - Rome, August 9 - Two Italian nationals were held for a week in Turkey on terrorism and international espionage charges after they witnessed government bombings of Kurdish villages and fields, Italy's Communist Refoundation Party (PRC) said Tuesday. "Pietro Pasculli and Claudio Tamagnini were arrested on July 29 and incarcerated for a week," the party said in a statement. "We were held in isolation in underground cells for four days," PRC member Pasculli told a press conference. "Our only crime was witnessing the Turkish army's daily bombings of Kurdish villages, burning homes, forests, and harvests". The two were tried, acquitted and released after the Italian embassy got involved, Pasculli said. However they were re-arrested and locked in a center for migrant identification and expulsion (CIE). "Not even the most basic hygienic or sanitary conditions were respected, even though European Union signs were everywhere," Pasculli said. "We were expelled to Italy, but only after we agreed to pay for our jailers' trip to the airport, where they were going to escort us," he said. "Turkey does not want anyone to witness and report the massacres and destruction...against its Kurdish population," said PRC leader Paolo Ferrero. (ANSA) - Rome, August 8 - The national Audit Court on Monday expressed doubts over the "quantity and duration" of image and location rights granted to the private sponsors of the renovation of the Colosseum in Rome. The court, which is investigating public-private partnerships in the cultural field, also noted the "significant delays" in starting the next phase of work. "The original public notice expressly said usage rights would be conceded for the duration of the work and no further," the Audit Court said. "However, the stipulated contract prolongs the sponsor's usage rights for two years after the end of the work - which right now has been minimally completed - without additional charges, and for the rights conceded to the 'Friends of the Colosseum' association to be extended for 15 years from the date of the founding of the association, of which we have no record". (ANSA) - Rome, August 8 - Premier Matteo Renzi said Monday an upcoming referendum on his constitutional reform law will not concern the new Italicum electoral law or the powers of government. "It concerns the number of politicians, capping reginal councillors' salaries, confidence votes, the Senate, abolishing useless bodies," Renzi wrote on his online newsletter in response to questions from voters. An attempt was made earlier this year to gather signatures for a referendum on Renzi's flagship Italicum law, but campaigners fell short of the 500,000 needed. Renzi also said he was pleased that the committee for a 'yes' vote on the referendum - with a 'yes' vote ratifying his law - gathered well over the 500,000 signatures needed, unlike the 'no' committee which is campaigning against his reform. He said supporters have set up some 3,000 grassroots committees to promote the 'yes' vote at a local level, and that so far the Democratic Party (PD) has received 88,100 euros in voter donations ranging from 8-20 euros. "The signs are really good," Renzi said. (ANSA) - Vatican City, August 9 - Pope Francis on Tuesday his condolences to Pakistan's ecclesiastical and civilian authorities following an attack on a Quetta hospital and called for solidarity for those affected by a hurricane in Mexico. ''Deeply saddened to learn of the loss of life following the attack on a hospital in Quetta,'' reads the telegram sent by the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin. ''His Holiness Pope Francis sends heartfelt condolences to the relatives of the deceased, to the authorities and to the entire nation, as he offers the assurance of his prayers for the many injured victims of this senseless and brutal act of violence. ''Upon all who mourn and upon all who have been affected by this tragedy, His Holiness invokes the divine gifts of consolation and strength''. On Hurricane Earl in Mexico, which has killed dozens and left hundreds displaced, Pope Francis called for solidarity for survivors and sent his condolences to victims' families, reported Vatican Radio. The hurricane hit the Puebla and Veracruz states of Mexico first and left over 40 dead including many children. A telegram sent to the Mexican Episcopal Conference stated that: ''in the face of the grave damage caused by the hurricane which affected several areas of the country - causing numerous victims and extensive material damage - the Holy Father expresses his affection for the beloved Mexican people, offering his prayers for those who lost their lives and desiring to show his closeness to their families and the victims. ''At the same time, His Holiness asks the Lord to sustain the will of the authorities and people of Mexico and to awaken in all a spirit of solidarity''. Benghazi victims' parents file lawsuit against Clinton For wrongful death and defamation (ANSAmed) - ROME, AUGUST 9 - The parents of two Americans killed in a 2012 attack on diplomatic facilities in Benghazi on Tuesday filed a wrongful death suit against the Democratic nominee for the upcoming US elections, Hillary Clinton. The suit also accused Clinton of publicly defaming Patricia Smith and Charles Woods, the parents of the two men killed: communications specialist Sean Smith and CIA contractor Tyrone Woods. ''The Benghazi attack was directly and proximately caused, at a minimum by defendant Clinton's 'extreme carelessness' in handling confidential and classified information,'' such as the location of State Department employees in Libya, the lawsuit filed in a federal court claims. Ms Smith, a strong and vocal supporter of Clinton's rival for the White House, Donald Trump, said at the Republican National Convention last month that ''I blame Hillary Clinton personally for the death of my son''. Clinton has been cleared of wrongdoing in both the Benghazi attack and email cases, but FBI director James Comer last month said she was guilty of ''extreme carelessness'' concerning her emails. The Clinton campaign noted that the plaintiffs are being represented by Larry Klayman, a lawyer who they say ''has been unsuccessfully attacking the Clintons for decades''. The Democratic nominee's campaign added that ''there have been nine different investigations into this attack and none found any evidence whatsoever of any wrongdoing on the part of Hillary Clinton''. (ANSAmed). Libya: Tobruk wants UN envoy replaced, 'not neutral' Kobler 'tried to force Serraj's institutions on us' (ANSAmed) - CAIRO, AUGUST 9 - The foreign minister of the Libyan interim government in Tobruk under Prime Minister Abdullah Al-Thani on Tuesday called in a statement for UN Envoy for Libya Martin Kobler to be replaced with a ''more neutral and efficient figure''. The statement claimed that the UN mission had committed several violations, in reference to Kobler's attempts to impose the Presidential Council of Libya and Prime Minister-Designate Fayez Serraj's national unity government. The statement, published by Egyptian news agency MENA, said that Kobler had violated political agreements and had sought to impose the 'Council of State' as legislative body instead of the Tobruk-based House of Representatives. It added that he had proved unable to achieve his mission as international mediator. Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukry on Tuesday welcomed the vice president of Serraj's Presidential Council of Libya (supported by the UN, Ed.), Ahmed Maetiq, to Cairo as part of Egyptian diplomatic efforts to bring the rival sides in Libya closer. Shoukry told Maetiq that Egypt was interested in supporting the agreement between the two sides and in ensuring a climate that will foster the application of the Skhirat agreement, safeguarding the Libyan constitutional institutions in place. Maetiq praised Egypt's role in maintaining stability and peace and its anti-terrorism efforts. The ministry spokesman added that the possibility was also discussed of finding an agreement ensuing the application of the Skhirat agreement and that the Tobruk parliamentary body ensure its constitutional support for the Tripoli-based unity government. US airstrikes meanwhile continue on Sirte against positions held by groups linked to the Islamic State (ISIS). There have been 28 targeted bombings since August 1, when the operation to support the Serraj government began, reported US Africa Command. The previous day's airstrikes hit over a dozen positions held by the jihadists. (ANSAmed). ROME- Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited his Russian counterpart Tuesday in Saint Petersburg as part of his first trip abroad since a coup attempt last month. Russian president Vladimir Putin said during the meeting that Russia was ready to restore economic ties with the country and that sanctions would gradually be lifted on Turkey. Russian-Turkish relations grew tense in November last year after Turkey shot down a Russian fighter plane on the Syrian border. Erdogan said in a joint press conference with Putin that it was prepared to supply Russian gas to Europe through the Turkish Stream gas pipeline. Work on the first section of the pipeline, between Russia and Turkey, will be finished in the second half of 2019, Russian energy minister Aleksandr Novak said. Novak added that talks between Gazprom and its Turkish counterpart for the pipeline had already begun but that ''lacking European guarantees, only the first part can be dealt with''. The visit has come after relations with Western nations grew cooler following criticism of Erdogan's post-coup purge and Turkey's demand that the US extradite the man it claims was behind the coup attempt, the Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen. European Commission president Jean Claude Juncker has reiterated several times in recent days that Turkey must comply with the terms of agreements it has signed, said spokesperson Mina Andreeva on Tuesday. The reference was to anti-terrorism laws, which Turkey must not use to imprison journalists and politicians for having stated their opinions, he said. Meanwhile, Germany's coordinator for relations with Russia, Gernot Erler, told Deutschlandfunk radio there is ''a European interest in this ice age between Turkey and Russia being ended, because it also hinders progress in resolving conflicts''. Erdogan said during the joint press conference that Turkey intended to strengthen relations with Russia in the defense sector, reported Russian government-owned news agency TASS. The Syrian issue, Putin said, will however require a separate meeting. He added that related issues would be dealt with through a meeting between foreign ministers and secret service chiefs. ''We will exchange information and seek a solution,'' he said, adding that Turkey and Russia ''share the same position on the fight against terrorism''. . Russia was always against coup attempt, Putin tells Erdogan 'Cooperaion can help regional crisis', says Turkish president (ANSAmed) - MOSCOW, AUGUST 9 - Russian president Vladimir Putin told his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on Tuesday that his country had been against the recent coup attempt from the very beginning. ''I was one of the first to call and express my support after the coup attempt. I would like to reiterate that this is a position of principle: we are against any illegal overturning of the constitutional order.'' ''I hope,'' he added, that ''Turkey will be able to resolve its current problems under'' Erdogan's leadership. Continuing to refer to his Turkish counterpart, Putin said that ''his visit has occurred despite the difficult political situation in Turkey, and this shows that we can resume dialogue and normalize relations in the interest of the Turkish and Russian populations.'' ''Today,'' the Russian president continued, ''we will have the opportunity to speak in depth about our bilateral relations, including the resumption of our trade and economic relations, and cooperation against terrorism.'' ''Your telephone call after the coup,'' Erdogan told Putin, ''pleased me and the Turkish population. The Turkish population's desire to live in a democratic system was shown on Sunday during the mass demonstration'' in Istanbul. Cooperation between Russia and Turkey, Erdogan continued, can ''contribute a great deal to solving regional problems''. (ANSAmed). CAIRO - The United States on Monday carried out 12 air strikes against Islamic State in the Libyan coastal city of Sirte, MENA news agency reported Tuesday. The air raids targeted jihadists' hideouts and armored vehicles and snipers positioned on buildings in the city centre, in district 1, in university buildings and Wehda bank, MENA cited general Mokhtar Fakroun as saying. A car bomb near a hotel complex that was driving towards the Libyan forces was also reportedly destroyed. At least 15 militiamen were injured in clashes with ISIS, MENA said citing Misurata hospital sources. Separately, Al Jazeera reported that three al Bonyan al Marsous militants were killed and a further 30 injured in fighting in the el Dollar district. Erdogan meets Putin in St Petersburg 200 journalists accredited to follow challenge to West (ANSAmed) - MOSCOW, AUGUST 9 - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in St Petersburg on Tuesday in what is his first foreign visit since last month's failed military coup. Erdogan met with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at the Konstantinovsky Palace in Strelna and over 200 journalists from approximately 70 media outlets have been accredited to follow the event. The leaders were then due to meet with members of the Russian and Turkish business communities. The meeting reprsents an improvement in relations between the two countries that deteriorated after the Turkish airforce downed a Russian jet near the Turkey-Syria border last year. Meanwhile, in an interview with Le Monde Erdogan accused "the West" of having "abandoned the Turks" during and after the mid-July abortive coup in which over 270 people died. The Turkish president responded to the coup attempt with massive purges and on Monday the deputy premier announced that 10 foreigners had been detained on suspicion of links with the alleged coup plotter Fethullah Gulen. The imam and magnate has been living in self-imposed exile in the US since 1999 and Washington appears to have little intention of extraditing him to Turkey. Tension also remains high with the EU, which is concerned about plans to reintroduce capital punishment and has said that such a move would spell the end of negotiations to join the bloc. For his part, Erdogan has threatened to suspend application of an EU-Turkey deal on migrants aiming to reduce the flow of refugees and asylum seekers through Turkey into Europe. However, it is unlikely that Erdogan will shut the door entirely on the West as it remains part of NATO and three quarters of foreign investment in the country comes from Europe. Further, Putin and Erdogan support rival factions in Syria, with the latter saying Monday that President Bashar al Assad must be sidelined. For its part the German government considers the rapprochement between Turkey and Russia, considering it to be also in the interests of Europe. Tuesday's meeting between Putin and Erdogan does not represent the start of a new alliance but rather a signal to Europe that it needs to work on its relations with these two countries, a government representative said. (ANSAmed). MOSCOW - Russian president Vladimir Putin told his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on Tuesday that his country had been against the recent coup attempt from the very beginning. ''I was one of the first to call and express my support after the coup attempt. I would like to reiterate that this is a position of principle: we are against any illegal overturning of the constitutional order.'' ''I hope,'' he added, that ''Turkey will be able to resolve its current problems under'' Erdogan's leadership. Continuing to refer to his Turkish counterpart, Putin said that ''his visit has occurred despite the difficult political situation in Turkey, and this shows that we can resume dialogue and normalize relations in the interest of the Turkish and Russian populations.'' ''Today,'' the Russian president continued, ''we will have the opportunity to speak in depth about our bilateral relations, including the resumption of our trade and economic relations, and cooperation against terrorism.'' ''Your telephone call after the coup,'' Erdogan told Putin, ''pleased me and the Turkish population. The Turkish population's desire to live in a democratic system was shown on Sunday during the mass demonstration'' in Istanbul. Cooperation between Russia and Turkey, Erdogan continued, can ''contribute a great deal to solving regional problems''. Erdogan meets Putin in St Petersburg. 200 journalists accredited to follow challenge to West Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in St Petersburg on Tuesday in what is his first foreign visit since last month's failed military coup. Erdogan met with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at the Konstantinovsky Palace in Strelna and over 200 journalists from approximately 70 media outlets have been accredited to follow the event. The leaders were then due to meet with members of the Russian and Turkish business communities. The meeting reprsents an improvement in relations between the two countries that deteriorated after the Turkish airforce downed a Russian jet near the Turkey-Syria border last year. Meanwhile, in an interview with Le Monde Erdogan accused "the West" of having "abandoned the Turks" during and after the mid-July abortive coup in which over 270 people died. The Turkish president responded to the coup attempt with massive purges and on Monday the deputy premier announced that 10 foreigners had been detained on suspicion of links with the alleged coup plotter Fethullah Gulen. The imam and magnate has been living in self-imposed exile in the US since 1999 and Washington appears to have little intention of extraditing him to Turkey. Tension also remains high with the EU, which is concerned about plans to reintroduce capital punishment and has said that such a move would spell the end of negotiations to join the bloc. For his part, Erdogan has threatened to suspend application of an EU-Turkey deal on migrants aiming to reduce the flow of refugees and asylum seekers through Turkey into Europe. However, it is unlikely that Erdogan will shut the door entirely on the West as it remains part of NATO and three quarters of foreign investment in the country comes from Europe. For its part the German government considers the rapprochement between Turkey and Russia, considering it to be also in the interests of Europe. Tuesday's meeting between Putin and Erdogan does not represent the start of a new alliance but rather a signal to Europe that it needs to work on its relations with these two countries, a government representative said. Further, Putin and Erdogan support rival factions in Syria, with the latter saying Monday that President Bashar al Assad must be sidelined. Under the updated agreement, direct and non-limited services will be allowed from Xian, Yinchuan, Urumqi and Shengyang to eight points in Egypt including Hurghada, Aswan and Sharm el-Sheikh. This follows the airlines recent announcements of A380 deployment on its Milan and Johannesburg routes. Guangzhou will join more than 40 destinations on Emirates extensive global network served by its highly popular A380 aircraft, including Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taipei, London, Paris, Sydney, Toronto, Auckland, Bangkok, and Seoul. The aircraft is the first production test aircraft to be outfitted with a full interior and serves as the testbed for the cabin. The G500 departed from Savannah-Hilton Head International airport with Flight Test pilots Brian Dickerson and Andy Martin and Flight Test engineer Dustin Johnson on board. The aircraft climbed to a maximum altitude of 48,000 feet/14,630 meters and reached a speed of Mach 0.84 during the 4-hour and 5-minute flight. This first flight of our G500 production test aircraft marks another significant event for the G500 program and Gulfstreams history of delivering on our promises, said Mark Burns, president, Gulfstream. This fully completed aircraft focuses on the passenger experience and ensures that we deliver the most reliable, comfortable and functional cabin environment on both the G500 and G600. YEREVAN, AUGUST 9, ARMENPRESS. A Barbeque Festival will take place on September 24 in Akhtala city, Lori Province. Sedrak Mamulyan Chairman of Preservation and Development of Armenian Culinary Traditions NGO- told ARMENPRESS this year great number of participants is expected. Our colleagues from Georgia have already confirmed their participation. Russians are also expected to take part, we are waiting for confirmation. We are working with Georgian tourism agencies, in order to have great number of guest from our neighboring country that day, he said. The Festival aims at spreading and developing Traditional Armenian Cuisine and contributing to regional tourism. Skilled BBQ-makers will compete during the festival. Judges will assess the BBQ quality and taste. Guests will have the chance to taste pork, lamb, beef, fish and vegetable BBQ. YEREVAN, AUGUST 9, ARMENPRESS. Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue urged the international community on Tuesday to draw on its collective wisdom to realize a world without nuclear weapons, as the southwestern Japan city marked the 71st anniversary of its atomic bombing by the United States in World War II, Japan Today reported. In his Peace Declaration delivered at an annual ceremony in the citys Peace Park with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attending, Taue said new frameworks aimed at containing nuclear proliferation are necessary if mankind is not to destroy its future. Now is the time for all of you to bring together as much of your collective wisdom as you possibly can and act, he said. Abe, in his speech, vowed to continue efforts to bring about a world free of nuclear weapons, without referring to any concrete steps. His statements were almost identical to those he delivered during a similar ceremony in Hiroshima on Saturday. At 11:02 a.m., the exact time the bomb detonated over Nagasaki, participants in the ceremony, including representatives from nuclear weapons nations such as the United States, Britain, China, France and Russia, as well as the European Union, offered silent prayers for the victims of the nuclear attack. Touching on a U.N. working group on nuclear disarmament being held in Geneva, Taue said the creation of the forum to recommend legal measures to bring about nuclear weapons abolition is a huge step forward. But noting that many of the nuclear powers are not attending the debate, he said that without their participation, the discussions will end without the creation of a roadmap for nuclear weapons abolition. Compared to a similar declaration issued by Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui three days earlier on the occasion of the citys own anniversary of its 1945 atomic-bombing, Taue was blunter in both his suggestions for steps to achieve a nuclear-free world and his criticism of the Japanese government. Taue criticized Japans policy of advocating the elimination of nuclear weapons while relying on the United States for nuclear deterrence, calling it contradictory. He also urged the government to enshrine into law its three non-nuclear principles of not producing, possessing or allowing nuclear weapons on Japanese territory, which are currently non-binding. He further pressed the government to work to create what he called a Northeast Asia Nuclear Weapons-Free Zone as a security framework that does not rely on nuclear deterrence. Taue touched on the significance of U.S. President Barack Obamas historic visit to Hiroshima in May, and called on the leaders of every country to visit Nagasaki and Hiroshima. By visiting, the president exhibited to the world the importance of seeing, listening, and feeling things for oneself, Taue said, adding, Knowing the facts becomes the starting point for thinking about a future free of nuclear weapons. Obama was the first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima. YEREVAN, AUGUST 9, ARMENPRESS. Paul Pogba said "the time is right to go back to Old Trafford" after completing his world-record 89m transfer to Manchester United, BBC reported. The 23-year-old midfielder returns after four years away, having left United for Juventus for 1.5m in 2012. Pogba, who signed a five-year deal, added: "This is the right club for me to achieve everything I hope to." Manager Jose Mourinho said the France international could be "the heart of the club" for the next decade. United will pay the Italian champions 105m euros for Pogba, plus 5m euros (4.5m) in performance-related bonuses and other costs. It surpasses Wales forward Gareth Bale's 85m move to Real Madrid from Spurs in 2013 as the biggest transfer deal in history. The announcement was made just after 00:30 BST, with video showing the player - with a red devil marked into his hair - emerging from the shadows. It was followed by a series of sponsor videos, including one with English rapper Stormzy. Pogba, who helped hosts France reach the Euro 2016 final, has won the Serie A title in each of his four seasons at Juventus. He is Mourinho's fourth signing at United, after Ivory Coast defender Eric Bailly, former Sweden striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Armenia forward Henrikh Mkhitaryan. It will be the first time in 20 years an English club has paid a world-record fee - Alan Shearer's move to Newcastle United from Blackburn Rovers for 15m was the last. Pogba joined United from French club Le Havre in 2009 as a 16-year-old, but made just a handful of appearances before his contract expired in July 2012. He has made 178 appearances for Juventus, scoring 34 goals, and helped the club reach the 2015 Champions League final. The Serie A side had offered him a new contract, while Real Madrid were also interested in signing him. Pogba said his mum told him he would return to Old Trafford and that it was his "destiny". Speaking to MUTV he added: "I just came back to Carrington. It was like I'd just come back home. I just went for a holiday." In a series of messages to Juventus supporters on social media, Pogba said: "Goodbye means nothing, it is the time we spent together that matters. I will bring with me a piece of you and leave you a little piece of me." YEREVAN, AUGUST 9, ARMENPRESS. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will hold a meeting on August 9 in St. Petersburg. The meeting is expected to be a decisive beginning of the restoration process of Russian-Turkish relations after the 8-month crisis, which began when Turkish forces shot down a Russian Su-24 jet over Syria in 2015. Opinions will be exchanges regarding by what communications and what pace we should carry out the restoration of our relations, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. On the eve of his visit to Russia, Erdogan stressed the importance of the upcoming summit in an interview with First Deputy Director of TASS Mikhail Gusman. This will be a historic visit, a new beginning. During talks with my friend Vladimir, I believe that a new page will be opened in the bilateral relations, he said. YEREVAN, AUGUST 9, ARMENPRESS. Thousands of air passengers around the world have been left stranded after a power cut forced the US airline Delta to suspend flights, BBC reported. The incident caused delays across the US and in Japan, Italy and the UK. Airport check-in systems, passenger advisory screens, the airline's website and smartphone apps were affected by the systems failure on Monday. Flights resumed six hours later but Delta warned of continuing delays as a backlog of passengers was cleared. The airline suspended or cancelled dozens of departures early on Monday, with airport agents forced to write out boarding passes by hand. By Monday evening, Delta said more than 740 flights had been cancelled but its computer systems were working again. Delta offered passengers refunds and $200 (153) vouchers while CEO Ed Bastian apologised for the inconvenience in a video message. "The Delta team is working very hard to restore [services] and get the system back [operating] as quickly as possible," he said. The overnight power failure took place in Atlanta, near Delta's headquarters, the company said, causing computer systems to crash. "Our systems are down everywhere," the company at one point told its customers on Twitter. Passengers around the world complained of long check-in queues, with many sleeping on the floor. "This is ridiculous," one of hundreds of passengers stuck at Newark Liberty International airport in New Jersey told Reuters news agency. "I don't understand what is going on here. It's just a mess," she said while waiting at Delta's check-in counter. Another passenger complained of "utter confusion across the board" on social media while another said the airline had not provided enough staff at check-in counters to explain what was going on. Many travellers posted their unhappiness on social media, making #Delta a top trending topic. After the problem was resolved, the airline warned that many passengers still faced delays and cancellations because of the knock-on effect of the earlier disruption. Delta ranks third in the world in terms of passengers carried, according to industry body the IATA. The airline has advised customers to check the status of their flight before heading to the airport. The incident will damage Delta's reputation for punctuality and lack of cancellations, USA Today commented. While Delta has one of the best reliability records in the industry, the Wall Street Journal reported, its "relative outperformance" has left stranded passengers with fewer options when it comes to allowing them to rebook at discounted fares. One passenger told the BBC he was waiting with "several hundred" fellow stranded passengers at San Francisco airport, after being asked to leave a plane he had boarded. "We were ordered off the plane after approximately an hour or more," said Dick Ginkowski, who said that tempers were starting to get strained. Delta has been responding to unhappy customers on Twitter and has issued guidelines for affected passengers. The airline serves about 180 million customers a year, employing over 80,000 people, its website says. It is the latest carrier to suffer computer problems, with Southwest Airlines last month forced to cancel more than 2,000 flights after an outage prevented travellers checking in. YEREVAN, AUGUST 9, ARMENPRESS. Desperate conservatives have circulated a petition calling for the Republican National Committee to host a special meeting where Donald Trump could be replaced as the party's presidential nominee, AP reported. Organizers some of the same Republicans who tried to prevent Trump from winning the GOP nomination acknowledge the effort is a long shot at best. But fearing an Election Day disaster, they have appealed to RNC members across the nation in recent days to intervene. "Desperate times call for desperate measures," Regina Thomson, executive director of a political action committee known as the GOP Accountability Project, wrote in an e-mail distributed to RNC members over the weekend and obtained by The Associated Press. "Donald J. Trump is a disaster," Thomson wrote, attaching a copy of the petition in the message. "His post-convention behavior has been deplorable." Trump has worried many leading Republicans in recent weeks with a string of controversies and fights, notably with the Muslim American parents of an Army captain killed in Iraq and prominent Republicans up for re-election. Trump reversed course and ended up endorsing House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire. Still, Thomson and other anti-Trump Republicans are concerned. Party rules allow RNC members to replace a presidential nominee in the event of "death, declination, or otherwise" language Trump critics say allows for his replacement soon after he formally captured his party's presidential nomination at the national convention. To force a meeting to discuss Trump's ouster, however, organizers must submit signatures by at least 16 RNC members from 16 states. Should they do so, GOP chairman Reince Priebus has 10 to 20 days to convene the full, 168-member Republican National Committee. "This is the same story over and over again," said RNC spokesman Sean Spicer, dismissing the latest effort. He suggested that the Trump rebels have "a credibility problem" after repeated failed attempts to block Trump's nomination at the convention. Even after Trump ended his feud by endorsing Ryan last Friday night, a fresh wave of Republican operatives and even a handful of elected officials vowed to vote for someone else or even leave the GOP altogether. "We're concerned he's on a path to destruction and we're trying to avert that," Thomson said in a Monday interview. The Colorado Republican, the former state chairwoman for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's presidential campaign, said she has received verbal commitments from party officials willing to sign the petition, but declined to say how many or who they are. Several RNC members, reached by the AP on Monday, acknowledged deep frustration with Trump's candidacy, but said they would not sign the petition. None were willing to give their names for fear they would be associated with the move. "It is a difficult path but we are supportive of their efforts," said Republican operative Dane Waters, who led an anti-Trump effort at the convention. "It is important that all options be considered and tried. Priebus should never have allowed this to happen." YEREVAN, AUGUST 9, ARMENPRESS. The presidents of Russia, Iran and Azerbaijan urged the world community to unite efforts for the effective fight against terrorism and extremism, as well as the countering of trans-national crime, Interfax reported. Leaders of the three countries Vladimir Putin, Hassan Rouhani and Ilham Aliyev have signed a declaration, following the trilateral meeting in Baku on Monday. "The parties are full of determination to comprehensively fight terrorism, extremism, trans-national organized crime, illegal circulation of weapons, narcotic substances and their precursors, human trafficking and crimes in the sphere of information communication technologies," the document said. The presidents of Russia, Iran and Azerbaijan "call on the world community to pool efforts for the effective fight against these challenges and threats to international stability and security with the UN central coordinating role." "The parties categorically condemn terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. They underline the importance and usefulness of bilateral and trilateral consultations to exchange opinions on development of the situation and elaboration of the measures to effectively counter terrorism," the declaration said. Besides, "the parties admit that unsettled conflicts in the region are a significant impediment for regional cooperation, and in this regard underline the importance of their soonest possible peaceful resolution through talks on the basis of the principles and norms of international law and the decisions and documents adopted in line with them." YEREVAN, AUGUST 9, ARMENPRESS. The annual conference of the affiliated members of the World Tourism Organization will be held in Armenia from October 1-4, Head of the Department of Tourism Development Policy of the Ministry of Economy of Armenia Mekhak Apresyan told in a press conference at Armenpress media hall. He informed that the participants of the conference have already expressed wish to attend the 7th annual Areni wine festival that will be held on October 2 in Rind village and on October 3 in Areni village. We we had just initiated the festivals in 2009, we aimed to make those festivals traditional, annual and most vitally, attractive for both the domestic and foreign markets. Now the tour agencies include the festivals in their packages, Apresyan said, adding that tourists visit Armenia from different countries to participate in wine, barbeque or other festivals. Best Travel Products and Services Would you like to submit an article in the Travel category or any of the sub-category below? Click here to submit your article. Would you like to have your product or service listed on this page? Contact us. The trouble really started around 1880, when the wife of a congressman wrote, By what right must the people of the world ask Mr. Levy for permission to visit the grave and home of Thomas Jefferson? Surely he does not want a whole nation forever crawling at his feet for permission to worship at this shrine of our independence. At the end of the fourth Christian century, an east-Roman emperor who followed the new faith abolished the pan-Hellenic contest as part of his general drive to stamp out paganism. Pierre de Coubertin, the blue-blooded Frenchman who revived the classical games, did not hide the fact that he was competing with monotheism, and trying to reverse what he saw as a great historical wrong. Whats more, both the modern contests and their ancient Greek predecessors share many of the features of a giant sacramental feast. By: Cascade Asia Advisors As businesses look away from China and towards other countries to fulfill their manufacturing needs, Indonesia is an increasingly attractive prospect. With a massive workforce, a growing middle class, and newly established investment incentives, Indonesian leaders are making clear their commitment to promoting Indonesia as a hub of manufacturing in Southeast Asia. Although Indonesia shows promising signs of growth in the manufacturing industry, regulations governing the sector are still cumbersome and are further complicated by governmental red tape. Ambiguous legislation, combined with stark regional differences in infrastructure, make it imperative for prospective investors to understand the Indonesian manufacturing climate. In this respect, Manufacturing in Indonesia: new options, opportunities and challenges, published by Cascade Asia Advisors, provides a clear overview of the current investment environment and considers the investment incentives, the fastest growing sectors, and the most cost effective locations in the country. The following is a brief outline of Cascade Asias insightful article, which highlights the momentum that will move Indonesia closer to its goal of rebuilding its manufacturing industry. Indonesias Manufacturing History Before the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997, Indonesias manufacturing industry was strong and growing. Just two years before the crisis, Indonesia reported over 12 percent growth in its non-oil and gas sectors. However, this growth dropped to just above 4 percent by 2001. Following the crash, the manufacturing industry has struggled to maintain steady growth, experiencing sharp falls and rises between 2004 and 2011. Yet, despite the volatility, average annual growth in the sector registered at 5.5 percent over the same period. In 2014, President Joko Widodo who is also known as Jokowi, took office with a decisive commitment to the stabilization and reformation of the manufacturing sector. Jokowis Plan of Action Jokowi considers manufacturing a key sector for bolstering the Indonesian economy and creating jobs for 2.3 million new entrants to the workforce annually. The Indonesian government has made concrete steps towards attracting FDI to the manufacturing industry in recent years. Since taking office, Jowoki has released a new negatives list, which allows foreign investors access more industries, including raw pharmaceuticals. In addition to the liberalization of investment, reforms have created a one stop shop for investment approvals, introduced export incentives, created special economic zones, and offered import benefits all to promote manufacturing investment. In the wake of these changes, officials project manufacturings contribution to national GDP to increase by 8.5 percent, reaching 30 percent by 2025. Jokowi has also mentioned the possibility of joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Although this is a tentative and distant proposal, it could increase exports by an estimated US$ 2.9 billion. The government must also attempt to quell investors concerns of the subpar national productivity level. Manufacturing Sector Demographics Abundant natural resources and a growing middle class of consumers continue to make Indonesia an attractive manufacturing destination. These same factors also support a large food and beverage manufacturing sub-sector. However, few existing food and beverage enterprises have an international focus, which presents a major opportunity for new investors. Electronics, automotive, and chemicals/pharmaceuticals represent the strongest manufacturing sub-sectors in Indonesia, after food and beverage manufacturing. Non-technological sectors showed growth from 2012-2015, while automotive and electronics sectors registered high levels of growth in the first quarter of 2016. On the whole, the government is pushing to increase the presence of ten specific higher value added industries, including capital goods, energy, and textiles. Manufacturing Centers Jakarta, Bandung, and Surabaya represent the major locations of manufacturing in Indonesia, and they are all on the island of Java. These locations are popular because of their infrastructure, but the government is making a push to build up the infrastructure in periphery areas where wages are 40-50 percent lower. Within 15 years, the government aims to create 36 additional manufacturing hubs outside of Java to attract new investors. Cumulatively, Indonesian manufacturing costs are roughly one third of those in China, but Jokowi and his administration need to provide the mechanisms for investors to take advantage of Indonesias offerings outside of Java. About Cascade Asia Cascade Asia Advisors is a boutique intelligence and strategic advisory firm focused on Southeast Asia. Combining premium analytics with proprietary market insight, Cascade Asias seasoned experts are perfectly positioned to recognize market opportunities, manage political and regulatory risk and systematically assess the transnational, macroeconomic and political drivers of financial markets across the pacific. For information about developments mentioned in this report, please contact them at info@cascadeasia.com. Annual Audit and Compliance in ASEAN For the first issue of our ASEAN Briefing Magazine, we look at the different audit and compliance regulations of five of the main economies in ASEAN. We firstly focus on the accounting standards, filing processes, and requirements for Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines. We then provide similar information on Singapore, and offer a closer examination of the city-states generous audit exemptions for small-and-medium sized enterprises. The Trans-Pacific Partnership and its Impact on Asian Markets The United States backed Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) includes six Asian economies Australia, Brunei, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam, while Indonesia has expressed a keen willingness to join. However, the agreements potential impact will affect many others, not least of all China. In this issue of Asia Briefing magazine, we examine where the TPP agreement stands right now, look at the potential impact of the participating nations, as well as examine how it will affect Asian economies that have not been included. An Introduction to Tax Treaties Throughout Asia In this issue of Asia Briefing Magazine, we take a look at the various types of trade and tax treaties that exist between Asian nations. These include bilateral investment treaties, double tax treaties and free trade agreements all of which directly affect businesses operating in Asia. All the latest Ashbourne news. Ashbourne is an historic market town in Derbyshire. Situated on the southern edge of the Peak District, it is known as the 'Gateway to Dovedale' and the 'Gateway to the Peak District'. Ashbourne is famous for the annual Royal Shrovetide Football Match, which has been played since at least 1667, although its origins may date back centuries earlier. Ashbourne became a Fairtrade town in March 2005. The popular Tissington Trail, which follows the route of the former Ashbourne to Buxton railway, starts on the edge of town. Keep up to date with the latest news from the town by signing up for our newsletter. On the 51st anniversary of the city-states birth, Mgr William Goh tells the nation to show charity to others. Technological and economic progress are not enough, compassion and understanding are needed for success. From ones neighbour to young people and poor Asian nations, The truth of the Good News of Gods love must be proclaimed without compromise. Singapore (AsiaNews) Despite economic, political, technological and social progress in Singapores first 51 years of life, the people of city-state will not be able to call themselves a successful, wise and great nation if we are not also known as a people of compassion and mercy, said Mgr William Goh, archbishop of Singapore, in a message to his fellow Singaporeans on the occasion of their national holiday, which marks countrys independence from Malaysia on 9 August 1965. In the past 50 years, we, together with our leaders, have been focusing on building a progressive society with proper infrastructure and transparent governance. As a consequence, Singapore has grown economically, technologically and politically as a nation. There is equality, justice and harmony in our country. Indeed, we can be proud of our achievements. After thanking God for giving the nation Good, competent, talented leaders with integrity and strong moral values, Mgr Goh stressed that In our success, we must never forget the poorer and disadvantaged peoples of our country and the world, especially those countries in Asia. In this year of mercy, we, as a Nation, are challenged to move out of ourselves to focus on others who need our help and assistance. There are firstly the poor and needy in our backyard. We must never think that poverty and suffering have been eliminated from our society. Many still suffer from the lack of basic needs and the affordability of medical care. There are many elderly who have been abandoned by their children or are all alone with no one to assist them. Often they suffer in silence, in loneliness and misery. They are often forgotten by society. Some elderly do not even have a place to call home. There are still many who cannot afford proper meals every day. In addition to those who have material needs, the archbishop noted that we must remember those who are disadvantaged in society because of disability due to stroke, accident or birth defects; those intellectually challenged, those suffering from mental illness and loss of memory. But we also need to extend mercy and charity beyond our peoples to those poorer nations around us, in places where Many cannot afford education and often are without even basic medical care. Indeed, when we look at the young people in these countries, they seem to have no future unless rich nations are willing to help them move out of their poverty cycle through education. The archbishop also calls for help to families, especially those in difficulties, those divorced or going through difficult times in married life. They need our prayers, compassion and understanding. Mercy in itself is not enough. For Mgr Goh, Charity without truth cannot save a person entirely. The truth of the Good News of Gods love must be proclaimed without compromise. The failure to proclaim Christ as the mercy of God through the sharing of the Word of God, the Eucharist and the Sacraments, especially of Reconciliation and Anointing of the Sick, would be to shortchange our people. If Singaporeans carry Christs to others, then our nation can truly be called great and wise. The founder of the Congregation of the Daughters of St. Anne died in 1961, after a lifetime working to educate villagers. In November 2015, the first diocesan commission to vet her holiness was set up. in July came the 'nihil obstat' from the Holy See. For Card Toppo, It is all God's mercy. Ranchi (AsiaNews) Sister Mary Bernadette Kispotta Prasad, founder of the Congregation of the Daughters of St. Anne, is the first tribal woman to be declared a Servant of God by the Catholic Church. After the nihil obstat declared by the Vatican in July, Card Telesphore Toppo, archbishop of Ranchi, today confirmed the decree that opens the path for the nuns canonisation. "It is a rare honour for a tribal woman to be declared a Servant of God, the cardinal said. Today, she became the first tribal nun in India to start her journey towards a possible sainthood. It is all God's mercy. Born on 16 June 1878, Mother Mary Bernadette Prasad Kispotta, along with three other Sisters Cecilia, Veronica and Mary founded the Congregation of the Daughters of St Anne on 26 July 1897. Throughout her life as a nun, she worked extensively for education and travelled across forested hinterland without roads to reach and teach villagers. In the first part of the 20th century, cholera struck large parts of Chhotanagpur, Sister Mary and Sister Veronica died in the epidemic. Undeterred by such tragedies and dangers, Mother Mary Bernadette and her congregation went on with their work in the region and started branching out across India. On 16 April1961, Mother Mary Bernadette breathed her last at St Anne's Convent, Ranchi, from TB. Card Toppo celebrated a thanksgiving Mass this morning in St Mary Cathedral in Ranchi. "Mother Mary Bernadette's bravery came from her unshakable faith in Jesus, he said. She and the Sisters of the congregation defied all odds to spread faith and education in the region. They are heroines of the Catholic church. Sister Linda Mary Vaughan, superior general, Daughters of St Anne, said they sent a formal petition last November to Card Toppo to start the process to declare their founder Mother Mary Bernadette a Saint. The Cardinal's decree asks the faithful and people at large to submit documents, photographs and other material evidence relating to Mother Mary Bernadette that they may possess, to Church authorities. Mgr Theodore Mascarenhas, auxiliary bishop of Ranchi and general secretary of the Indian Bishops' Conference, said that the diocesan commission that made the first investigations was formed by "All 9 Bishops of Jharkhand and the Andamans, two auxiliary Bishops to Cardinal Toppo, and one Bishop Emeritus. All available documents and photographs, including a memoir written by Mother Mary Bernadette, were examined. It was unanimously concluded that Mother had led a holy life and that a recommendation should be sent to the Vatican for the Congregation for the Causes of Saints of the Holy See. Currently, the Daughters of St. Anne number 1,040 in 142 convents in India and other countries. by AA.VV. Card Tongs words show the Vatican's attention for the Chinese Church. Those of Card Zens express pessimism towards diplomatic relations. The debate continues in the Church in China in the two articles published days ago. The success in Holy See-Vietnam relations is due to the large number of Catholics in that country. The Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association and the government put obstacles to episcopal ordinations. Second part of a series of three. Rome (AsiaNews) Here we have the second set of comments (out of three) following the publication of an article by Card John Tong Hon, and one by Card Joseph Zen Ze-kiun. The first one is optimistic about diplomatic relations between Rome and Beijing, the second one is pessimistic. The first says that the Secretariat of State is deeply attentive to the underground Church and Catholic principles; the second expresses doubts about what he calls a "new edition of Ostpolitik". Broadly, the same positions and polarisations exist among Chinese Catholics, a sign of the need for more internal dialogue. A curious thing must be mentioned, namely almost a week after the publication of these articles, the Chinese government is still silent. In recent months however, the prospects of control over all religions (even Catholicism) have increased, supporting their greater "sinicisation", "independence from abroad", and support for the development of the motherland. What is more, the activities of religions have come under the control of public security. (BC) Joseph from Shanghai China cut diplomatic relations with the Vatican in 1951. The last thing the Chinese government wants to see is Chinese Catholics who are loyal to the pope, a world-class spiritual leader. China initially wanted to follow the example of the Anglican tradition, that Chinese citizens should be loyal to the state rather than to the religious leaders of the country. This was the main reason there was no contact between the Vatican and China for so many years. In addition, both the Vatican and China think individually about what is best for their own Church. The Vatican does not want to let China hinder their efforts in the global promotion of the Catholic faith. From China's point of view, whether it is the appointment of religious leaders or the appointment of a national company president, the power of appointment should be in the hands of the Chinese government, and this principle should not be destroyed by Vatican. Looking back at the changes in Eastern Europe, although it happened twenty years ago, overthrowing communism in Eastern Europe was a psychological obstacle to China in establishing a diplomatic relationship. It was a threat. It is said that the Vatican and Vietnam relations were normalized, mainly because the two sides have built formal official communication channels, and each year they have communicated with each other directly. In Vietnam, a big portion of the population is Catholic. However, in China, less than one percent of China's population is Catholic, so when the Vatican tries to establish diplomatic relations with the Chinese government, the Vatican stands in a relatively weak position and has little influence. Furthermore, the behaviour of Thaddeus Ma Daqin (who quit the Patriotic Association) has left a traumatic scar on the government until now. In the past, the right to appoint bishops has been a problem, but now it is not the case. Underground Catholics have criticized the Chinese government severely, so what is Vatican's stance in dealing with the Chinese faithful and the Chinese Church? Card Tongs article shows the Vatican's attitude towards Chinese Church. In Cardinal Chen's article, his words represent the pessimistic views of many Chinese Catholics about Sino-Vatican relations. If the bishops of the underground Catholic Church can be integrated into the Chinese Bishops Conference, then the Patriotic Association would seem unnecessary. Therefore, the Patriotic Association has been trying very hard to get the government to be tough on the underground Church and the Vatican. Otherwise, the people from the Patriotic Association would lose their jobs. From the perspective of the Vatican, the communication channel from the Holy See to the underground Church is not so smooth. Sometimes the bishops' style does not match the Vaticans expectations, but the Holy See cannot do anything about it. If the Vatican established diplomatic relations with China, it could gain more control of the underground Church. China also has the same problem, which is the lack of management for the underground Church. It seems that the Vatican and China find common ground on this issue. The rumor that Sino-China diplomatic relations were established has been widely spread everywhere since 1999. Various media reports claim that it would happen soon, but it all ended in nothing. I won't believe it until I see the agreement or contract being signed on paper and with a pen. Father Tang (Southern China) Cardinal Tong's article was rational and positive. In fact, what the Chinese Church needs most is to live out the spirit of the Gospel. Although the early Church experienced tremendous persecution, it still developed rapidly. Compared to the early Church, it is not that big of a deal for the Chinese Church to encounter current persecution. Therefore, the development of the Chinese Church is not directly related to building diplomatic relations with the Vatican. With the spirit of the Gospel, the Church will develop even without diplomatic relations. Without the spirit of the Gospel, the Church will not develop even if there are diplomatic relations. For the first part, click here. The legal profession needs to innovate, embrace technology and partner with other disciplines according to a new report.Following a 2-year study, the American Bar Association is calling for sweeping changes of the profession and courts. There are recommendations for both the civil and criminal justice systems.Fairness in litigation should be ensured through courts and there is also calls for alternative business structures to be considered in the US, opening up the provision of legal services.We must open our minds to innovative approaches and to leveraging technology in order to identify new models to deliver legal services. Those who seek legal assistance expect us to deliver legal services differently. It is our duty to serve the public, and it is our duty to deliver justice, not just to some, but to all, commented William C. Hubbard, ABA chairman.The report highlights the legal professions reluctance for change but also speaks of the unmet need for legal services which exists despite many lawyers, especially new graduates being unemployed or underemployed.Revenue at services firm PwC Australia grew 11 per cent in the year to 30 June 2016. The $1.92 billion total was driven by growth in a number of the firms practices with the legal division increasing by 54 per cent.CEO Luke Sayers said that the firm is investing in technology to deliver sustainable growth over the long-term. He noted that there are challenges ahead for the Australian economy but that PwC is in step with corporate Australias understanding of the need for innovation.Another global law firm has entered the Singapore legal market, expanding its presence in Asia Pacific as part of its expansion plan.US-headquartered Nixon Peabody has offices throughout the US, some in the UK and two in Asia Pacific in Shanghai and Hong Kong. The opening of its representative office in Singapore reflects the demands of the firms clients in China.The office will be within the offices, and associated with, local firm Angeline Suparto Law Corporation.Jessica Davies has joined the Perth office of Clifford Chance as a counsel in the corporate, energy & resources practice. She returns to the city after a decade in New York, London and Sydney.She is an expert in the mining, oil and gas sectors, with particular focus on acquisitions, disposals, new projects, joint ventures, supply, transport, infrastructure and operational arrangements. Federal shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus is calling on the government to reverse cuts to community legal aid, following the Northern Territory justice scandal.Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced a royal commission into the treatment of youth detainees following a shocking Four Corners report. But according to an ABC report, Dreyfus said the government pre-empt the inquiry by stopping the cuts to legal aid scheduled to kick in next year.We've had our minds concentrated on this in particular in relation to youth justice in the Northern Territory a couple of weeks back with the dreadful images we saw on the Four Corners program, he said.Part of that problem ... is caused by a lack of legal assistance services.And I am pretty confident that the royal commission is going to be recommending that there should be an increase in legal assistance services.Speaking in Broome alongside newly elected Labor senator Pat Dodson, Dreyfus said the 30% cuts will have dire consequences for NTs two community legal centres.They're under immense pressure because there have been cuts right from the start of the Abbott and Turnbull governments, starting in December of 2013 and continuing right until today, Dreyfus said in Broome yesterday, where he visited community legal service providers.Some protests from Labour, from Aboriginal communities, from people who are served by community legal centres, have produced the result that some of those cuts have been reversed.But both community legal services and Aboriginal Legal Services across Australia, are facing as of July 1, 2017, very substantial cuts. A US federal judge has ruled that the US$1 billion lawsuit filed by a brokerage formerly run by a New Jersey governor and senator alleging PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) of professional malpractice can proceed.In dismissing PwCs motion for summary judgment, judge Victor Marrero of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York said that the administrator for MF Global Holdings, which folded late 2011, has presented sufficient evidence to create a material factual dispute, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal MF Global filed for bankruptcy in 31 October 2011 when it was being led by Jon Corzine, a former New Jersey governor and senator.Administrators of the investment firms liquidation plan allege PwC provided flatly erroneous advice on an investment the firm made.MF Global made a $6.3-billion bet in a structure known as repurchase-to-maturity on sovereign debt of some of the most indebted countries in the Eurozone.Investors then became uneasy when this bet surfaced which, coupled with margin calls, credit rating downgrades and the use of customer funds to reinforce liquidity, led to the firm filing for bankruptcy. Administrators of the firm said up to $1.6 billion was borrowed by the firm from customer accounts which should have been segregated.The federal court judges decision, a copy of which was published by Zero Hedge, noted that the complainant alleges PwC of extraordinary and egregious professional negligence in approving accounting for the sovereign debt bet.This case, filed in 2014, is one of the last few cases related to MF Global. PwC last year agreed to settle a lawsuit connected to MF Global for $65 million in cash.Daniel Fetterman, of the MF Global counsel firm Kasowitz Benson Torres & Friedman LLP, said that the ruling is a significant victory, according to The Wall Street Journal.James P. Cusick, PwCs lawyer, said that the investment firms demise was caused by its own business decisions and adverse market events, not any accounting determination.PwC is also facing a $5.5 billion jury trial in Miami for allegedly failing to catch massive fraud that led to the collapse of mortgage lender Taylor Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp and Alabamas Colonial Bank, according to the Journal. Businesses are increasingly recognising cyber security and cyber resilience requires active and vigilant engagement by the board and senior executive team, and should not be restricted to the IT department. With the introduction of mandatory data breach legislation in Australia expected later in 2016, its never been more important for all levels of an organisation to turn their attention to cyber risk and how their organisation might be vulnerable. So where is cyber security and resilience heading, and how does a lawyers role fit into the picture? The World Economic Forum lists cyber attacks as among the top five risks in terms of a combination of probability and impact. And in 2015, PWC reported that cyber risk is the top concern for insurers in Australia. In addition to detection problems, a further difficulty in measuring the incidence of cyber crime is that due to the sensitive reputational issues surrounding a data breach or cyber attack, many cyber attacks go unreported: As Una Jagose, acting head of New Zealands Government Communications Security Bureau recently said, it is concerning that in a recent survey of major businesses in Australia, 43% of respondents said they did not report cyber incidents as they saw no benefit in doing so. It can be inferred that published data are probably a significant underestimate of the true prevalence and cost of cyber events. The statistics demonstrate that cyber security incidents continue to be common and recurrent for Australasian businesses. However, despite these risks, many Australasian businesses are neither confident in their information securities nor have cyber security strategies in place. In New Zealand, for example, 56% of businesses have reportedly been attacked at least once in the past year. Yet only 65% of New Zealand businesses are confident that their information technology systems are effective. And globally, Grant Thornton reports that only about half of the businesses surveyed (52%) in their International Business Report said they currently have a cyber security strategy in place. Australasian regulatory response In the face of such significant risks, the governments of Australia and New Zealand are increasingly taking steps to protect and guide businesses, including through resilience guidelines, the expected mandatory reporting of data breaches, beefing up national systems to address cybercrime, and promoting national and international co-operation between regulatory bodies and industry. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), for example, recommends that all organisations governed by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) should have a data breach response plan in place, as doing so will assist an organisation in meeting its obligations under Australian Privacy Principle (APP) 11 (which requires an organisation to take all reasonable steps to protect the information it holds). A data breach response plan should set out a businesss organisational and procedural framework for managing a data breach, and the response plan should be tested regularly. In 2015, the OIAC also released the Guide to securing personal information, which provides further guidance on what constitutes reasonable steps under APP 11. While the guide is not legally binding, the OIAC will refer to it when undertaking Privacy Act functions, including when investigating whether an organisation has complied with its personal information security obligations or when undertaking an assessment. In short, the guide emphasises the importance of managing and protecting personal information during the stages of its lifecycle. The information lifecycle involves the following steps: 1 Consider whether to collect information i.e. whether it is necessary to collect and hold personal information in order to carry out an organisations functions. 2 Privacy by design how are personal information protection and handling procedures embedded in an organisations practices and policies? 3 Assessment of risks associated with the collection of personal information due to a new process or change to an existing process, or as business as usual. 4 Taking appropriate steps and implementing strategies to protect personal information held by an organisation. 5 Destruction or de-identification of personal information when it is no longer required. The Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) is also supporting businesses in their efforts to improve cyber resilience, including through the publication in 2015 of the report Cyber Resilience: Health Check. The report contains guidance for small to medium sized businesses as well as large organisations such as banks and major infrastructure providers. ASIC sets out a number of key regulatory and compliance matters, including that a cyber attack may trigger Corporations Act breach reporting requirements, such as that a cyber attack may need to be disclosed as market sensitive information; the expectation that officers of an organisation may need to consider cyber risks when discharging their duties to consider risk management issues; and that the board should be actively engaged in managing cyber risks. Importantly, the Australian Government has also committed to introducing a mandatory data breach notification scheme, and is currently inviting public comment on the draft Bill before introducing legislation later this year. The Bill would require government agencies and businesses subject to the Privacy Act to notify the OIAC and affected individuals following a serious data breach, or when there are reasonable grounds to believe that such a breach has occurred. Where it would not be practicable to notify each affected individual, the organisation would need to publish a public notice (i.e. on its website), and take reasonable steps to publicise the notice (for example, through a social media post). What businesses should focus on Part of the response from the government and professional organisations to cyber threats is to help educate boards, executives and others about how to respond to cyber risks (both before and after a cyber event). The Australian Government recommends four key mitigations for businesses, which it says may reduce vulnerability to cyber attack by up to 80%: Application white-listing: Allow only a defined list of applications to run on a network. Patching system vulnerabilities: Computer system vendors constantly release operating system versions containing new patches to address vulnerabilities as they are discovered. Patching application vulnerabilities: Similarly, applications like Java, PDF viewers, Microsoft Office release patches which should be installed. Restricting administrative privileges to operating systems in accordance with the users duties. Steps to improve cyber security include improving IT-related steps as above. But they also include addressing employee risks such as the need to train employees in how to be vigilant in relation to passwords, confidentiality of data and scam emails; reducing the quantity of any marketable data held by the business, and the period for which it is held, to reduce the attractiveness of the business as a target; and including cyber security checks and terms in contracting with suppliers. How can lawyers assist businesses? Lawyers play a key role in cyber resilience, which should enable them to participate actively, not merely after cyber events, but also in helping to increase the cyber resilience of the Australasian business community, and also cyber security at least in relation to non-IT aspects of cyber security. Lawyers can assist their clients by ensuring that they: Are fully compliant with relevant regulatory regimes in relation to the protection of data held by them or their third party service providers. Understand what cyber threats their organisation is vulnerable to, including assisting the organisation to identify and understand the potential impact that a cyber security incident could have on the organisations business operations, reputation, profitability and intellectual property. Have a data breach response plan in place, which clearly sets out the framework for identifying, notifying and managing serious data security breaches, including that appropriate immediate advisory services are in place to manage the situation and contain any damage, and that all aspects of the plan are tested regularly to ensure their effectiveness. Assess and mitigate their supply chain risk, including checking trading partners cyber security processes and requiring suitable cyber security measures on the part of such partners, and ensuring there are appropriate provisions in supply contracts (e.g. provisions relating to data ownership and access, privacy and data protection, compliance with specified security standards and data destruction). Have in place suitable insurance to cover both first-party and third-party losses, together with event containment measures if appropriate. As businesses increasingly move their key assets and systems to the digital sphere, and cyber risks continue to grow in volume and complexity, cyber security will become a growing critical concern. Whatever steps businesses and their legal advisors do or do not take, cyber risks are set to loom large in the coming years. Smart approaches in addressing them are likely to lead to market advantage and greater business sustainability. It may become harder for overseas trained doctors and other medical professions to get a job in Australia as the department of health has called for 41 roles to be removed from the Skilled Occupation List.This would make it harder to get a visa. It comes amid claims that there are no longer enough jobs for Australian trained doctors who could struggle to get positions if the high number of overseas medics continues. Australia has always been popular with doctors and nurses from countries like the UK, the Philippines and Africa and it is thought that there are currently thousands currently working in the country.The department of health has asked for GPs, medical officers, surgeons and anaesthetists to be removed from the Skilled Occupations List and the call has been backed by the Australian Medical Association and the Rural Doctors Association Australia (RDAA).However, both say that such a move must be accompanied by plans to address the shortage of doctors in remote areas. Indeed the AMA says that a shortage of doctors in remote areas is contributing to lower health services and life expectancy in some locations.'Australia's health system has a complex division of funding, policy and operational responsibilities. It is also currently highly reliant on international health professionals,' says the department submission to the latest review of the Skilled Occupations List, released to The Australian under Freedom of Information laws.'Immigration is often used as a short-term demand management strategy and it continues to be poorly co-ordinated. Over a longer planning horizon, better management of migration pathways for international health professionals must occur in combination with all commonwealth departments,' it adds.'International medical graduates have made, and continue to make, an immensely significant contribution as valued local doctors in many rural and remote communities. In many cases, medical services in these communities would no longer be available if dedicated and long serving IMGs were not there to keep them going. For this, we owe past and present IMGs a huge debt of gratitude,' said RDAA president Dr Ewen McPhee.'But it is not right that we should continue to rely on enticing more and more IMGs from their own countries to prop up the Australian health system, when we now have enough Australian trained medical graduates to meet demand,' he added.'What we do need, however, are a range of better supports and incentives to entice more Australian trained medical graduates with the advanced skills needed to work in rural and remote areas. While there are now enough Australian-trained medical graduates being generated through our medical training system, there remains a significant maldistribution of doctors. Those doctors with the right skills are not necessarily going on to work in the rural and remote communities that need them most,' he explained.The RDAA wants to see the introduction of a National Rural Generalist Framework and associated training programmes that would provide medical students and young doctors with a seamless and dedicated pathway from medical school and the intern years through to work as a rural generalist doctor while also providing training in the advanced skills needed for rural practice. Hi CCMS, We are engaged, we've been living together in Aus for 12 months and we are now ready to apply. She needs to be back in CH (switzerland) for a while now so any applications need to been an offshore application. We have a joint lease on a house, joint utility accounts, plenty of travel history and lots of correspondence for the 18 months prior to us living together. We are just unsure which is the easiest option to apply for out of the 300 or 309 visa. Thanks for your reply. Jeep to finally enter India on September 1, 2016; Wrangler and Grand Cherokee to lead charge. The Jeep brand will finally enter India on August 30, 2016 as reported by us earlier. The historic SUV brand, now owned by the Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles has been testing its products in India for a few years now has been delaying its India entry due to various reasons. Jeep showcased its offerings for the first time to the Indian audience at Auto Expo 2016 earlier this year. It will initially sell two models in India, the Grand Cherokee and Wrangler, and will also bring the high-performance SRT brand with the launch of the Grand Cherokee SRT in India. The carmaker will initially start India operations with only two dealers in Delhi and Ahmadabad, followed by a dealership in Kochi with Mumbai to follow the year-end. The Ahmadabad Jeep dealership will be run by Concept Motors,who also has a Hyundai dealership in the city. The Kochi dealership will be operated by Pinnacle motors. Interestingly, the Jeep dealership in Delhi will only be able to sell the Grand Cherokee SRT for now since the diesel-powered Jeep models come with engines above the 2,000cc mark and hence wont be sold, thanks to the ongoing diesel ban. The Jeep Wrangler for India will come only in the long-wheelbase Unlimited guise and will be powered by a 2.8-litre diesel engine. It is likely to be priced around Rs 40 lakh mark. The Grand Cherokee will come with a 3.0-litre diesel engine and will get two trim options. Prices for the Grand Cherokee diesel will hover around the Rs 75 lakh mark. The performance-oriented Grand Cherokee SRT will make its debut as well, likely to be priced around Rs-1.5-crore mark. Pic source Carmaker says it is ready to deposit 1 percent of the ex-showroom price of its cars as environmental cess The Indian unit of German luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz has appealed to the Supreme Court to lift the ongoing ban on diesel cars in its key market of Delhi-NCR. The company expressed willingness to pay the environmental cess of one percent levied on the sale of diesel cars. Mercedes-Benz India filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court on Monday, August 8, saying the ban has resulted in other states having started to impose similar restrictions on diesel vehicles. The apex court hearing has been scheduled for Friday, August 12, 2016. Various courts in the country are passing orders banning the registration of new cars with diesel engines of capacity of 2,000cc and more without even considering the fact that the apex court is seized of the matter. The NGT's southern zone circuit bench in Kochi on May 23 banned registration of any diesel vehicle with engine capacity of 2,000cc or more, except vehicles meant for public transport and local authorities, reports quoted the company as saying. The NGTs ruling, however, was later stayed by the Kerala High Court on June 10, 2016. The Indian arm of German automaker recently saw a marginal decline in sales during January to June 2016 as against a year ago, due to the ban on registration of vehicles above 2,000cc in Delhi-NCR, which accounts for around 28 percent of its overall sales. The ban, in place since December 2015, has resulted in nearly all its cars and SUVs being affected. In its latest hearing on July 4, 2016, the SC reserved its order on the issue but reiterated its willingness to consider lifting the ban, subject to the levy of a one-time environment compensation cess. However, the central government, which has strongly come out against the ban, opposed the imposition of the cess and sought a time of six weeks to conduct a study on impact of diesel vehicles on the environment. Company says sales of commercial vehicles in the capital have also been hit following SCs ruling. Homegrown carmaker Tata Motors today moved the National Green Tribunal (NGT) seeking clarification against the Supreme Court's decision to curb registration of diesel vehicles with engine capacity of 2,000cc and above in the Delhi-NCR region, according to reports. In its appeal to the tribunal, Tata Motors said that while the apex courts orders were concerned with private vehicles, the State's transport department is refusing to register diesel commercial vehicles as well. It sought explanation on whether there was any ban on registration of medium and heavy commercial diesel vehicles. Calling for a rational decision to be taken, a company official informed Autocar India that the Delhi-NCR region accounts for a significant chunk of the sales and the lack of clarity in the ruling has impacted sales of commercial vehicles. The tribunal will now hear the case on August 24, 2016. Separately, the Indian arm of German luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz on Monday, August 8, filed a plea in the Supreme Court to lift the ongoing ban and expressed willingness to pay the environmental cess of one percent on the sale of diesel cars. Auction experts believe this particular model will sell for something between five and seven million euros. The car in question is a 1935 Mercedes-Benz 500K Special Roadster , which has a story that is not featured by the famed auction house, but was tackled by multiple media outlets over the years and has returned with this example.The car was originally bought by a German industrialist named Hans Prym, also known as The Zipper King. While the business person was imprisoned by the Allies, the vehicle was sent to the United States of America after World War II. Eventually, the car was acquired by a Dutch car enthusiast in 2011, for the equivalent of $3.7 million.So far, so good, right? Well, wrong, because the vehicle was seized by German authorities when Frans van Haren, its Dutch owner, took it to Essen for the 2012 Techno Classica show as an exhibit. At the time, the action was linked to a claim made by a custodian who was acting in the name of the family of the vehicles original owner.The heirs of the German industrialist argued that the owner did not sell the car, but the Mercedes was stolen by an American soldier in 1945, when the Allies conquered the city it resided in. As explained in 2012, the vehicle was seized upon arriving in Essen for the Techno Classica because it was the first time that the car was present on German territory.Back in 2012, when this story first appeared, the 1935 Mercedes-Benz 500K Special Roadster, out of which only 29 were ever built, was in the hands of German authorities. The inherent rarity of this model is further strengthened by the fact that it is a pre-WW II Mercedes-Benz, which also adds to its value.A legal battle began, and its winner was the estate of The Zipper King," as Bloomberg notes. The decision was against the Dutch collector, as the statute of limitations had not expired. If the vehicle had been kept in Germany over a 30-year period, it wouldn't have allowed a legal resale of the car. We're talking about a LaF dressed in Baby Blue - This is the "generic" name of the hue. Interestingly, this shade no longer seems to be trending, at least not to the extend it was a few years ago, when the Al Thani royal family of Qatar made full use of the color on its supercars and hypercars. However, we're not sure how Ferrari's Tailor Made department, whose specialist helped the owner spec the car, decided to name this particular hue.The Fezza has recently been spotted in China and we must tip our lens to Autogespot for these images. As you can see, the 950 hp Ferrari stands out in the overly busy Shanghai traffic like nothing else, with the vivid color only making the visual aura of the hypercar grow even stronger.And while we recently showed you a Matte Blue LaFerrari , the gas-electric Fezza we have here differs from that one not just thanks to its glossy finish, but also through the use of White accents, which give an elegant touch to the whose setup. Oh, and let's not forget the Black hue used for a few elements such as the wheels and the roof.Now that we've added this hyper-hybrid to our precious-looking LaFerrari collection, we're looking forward to this fall's Paris Motor Show. The venue will see Ferrari introducing the Aperta incarnation of the LaF.So far, we've only shown you the LaFerrari Aperta dressed in the obvious Rosso Corsa, Gray and Black. However, we expect nothing short of a color frenzy once the hypercar hits the streets, a visual explosion that will mirror the digital one shown in the renderings we brought you a while back. Surjeet Bassi, an Indian national who lives in the USA, has sued a Mercedes-Benz dealer in New Jersey for $1.26 million over denial of service on racial discrimination. Bassi accuses the dealer of refusing to trade in a Mercedes-Benz ML350 in return for a newer model and a suitable difference.The customer wanted a Mercedes-Benz GLS550, which had already been negotiated with sales personnel, complete with a $1,000 deposit. The Indian citizen had already updated his insurance policy to suit the new vehicle, but that was not enough for the dealership manager.According to the complaint , the customer was told that he comes from a high-risk area, which buys cars and markets them to the Taliban. The Indian native runs a medical transport company and has never had any links to any terrorist organization.Furthermore, Mr. Bassi has lived in the New Jersey area of three decades, but this did nothing to convince the dealer to approve the sale.As if this story was not disturbingly racist, the legal counselor of Mr. Bassi also accused the same dealership of discrimination regarding a refusal to extend credit under the Federal Equal Credit Opportunity Act.It is worth noting that the entire situation remained unchanged after the dealers manager searched Mr. Bassis name, telephone, and address against a federal database of people banned from exporting from the USA . The Times Herald-Record has performed the same search, and found nothing related to Mr. Bassi.The only excuse found by the New Jersey Mercedes-Benz dealer called Prestige Motors (2013 DealerRater Mercedes-Benz Dealer of the Year) to refuse the sale was linked to a suspicion regarding the potential resale of the vehicle to other markets.The described situation has happened in other markets, and company dealers want to be sure nobody exports Mercedes-Benz cars to the Middle East or China except the mother company.Equivalent models were purchased at a premium from the gray market by customers in the two countries so that they would skip the usual waiting lists brought by limited inventory.Mr. Bassi had also offered to sign a waiver, which he had done before and prevented the export of the vehicle for three years, but was allegedly refused by the manager of Premium Motors. The French brand has managed to achieve this accomplishment with a growth of 14.2% in the first term of this year when compared to the same period of 2015. Renault has surpassed Ford with its sales result, with a difference of 33,736 vehicles between the two companies. This difference came even with a growth of 4.8% for the Blue Oval, but its 527,502 cars were not enough to beat Renaults 561,238 units.Analysts expect Ford to have a shot of defeating Renault by the end of the year thanks to the launch of the Edge model, which could turn things around for the Blue Oval with the help of the EcoSport, its smaller brother.The new Fiesta is scheduled for launch in late 2017 , so the model could not pose a threat to Renaults Clio, which has just received a facelift . Furthermore, 2016 will be the first full year of sales for the new Megane IV , which is expected to bring significant volumes.It is worth noting that the figures accomplished by Renault do not include the results of the Dacia brand, which is owned by the French corporation, but is accounted separately in ACEAs figures. ACEA is the European Automobile Manufacturers Association, and the organization publishes sales results in Europe every month.While Renault and Ford will continue to battle out second place, Volkswagen sits comfortably in the first position of the podium with almost 850,000 cars sold in Europe. As Autocar notes, this value comes after a growth of just 0.1% when compared to the previous six months of last year.Interestingly, Volkswagen still managed to outsell its competitors even though the German company has not fixed all of its Dieselgate-affected vehicles , and while European clients will not receive compensation like their American homologs. VW s result in Europe shows that consumers still do not focus on emissions as much as the European Union and lawmakers would like them to, and that Volkswagen is safe and sound concerning sales after its scandal , which is still unresolved. While Mr. Balboni still drives the creations of the Italian brand, he has recently decided to focus on other enterprises. His latest project is called VB, and is a company that will build and sell aftermarket products for Lamborghini models . The range will debut at Concurso Italiano, in Monterey Bay, California, on August 20, 2016.The new company was first announced on Facebook, on Mr. Balbonis account. Curiously, the website announced for the brand is down at the moment we are writing this story.We hope the tech wizards behind his hosting company will fix the matter soon enough, so fans of the renowned Lamborghini test driver will have their chance to visit valentinobalboni.net , even for just a look at the available products The first product showcased by the new company is a titanium exhaust system created for the Aventador SuperVeloce LP-750. Valentino Balboni is holding the exhaust with ease, possibly to underline the fact that it will be as light as possible.Considering it only weighs 6.3 kilograms (13.8 lbs.), we can understand that Balboni does not break a sweat from holding an exhaust system that bears his name.According to the announcement referring to the launch of the brand, the new exhaust system should bring a new dimension in sound, which should probably mean this system will be as loud as legally allowed in most countries.Balbonis company will only make 30 units, and each of them wears the "VB logo," which comes with inspiration from two of the corners around Modena that were used by Balboni to test Lamborghini models Each exhaust system takes over 350 hours of work to complete, and you can understand why this happens by carefully observing its intricate shape and carefully arranged T.I.G. welds, which are masterfully finished. It fits the car using the OEM mounts, and no other modifications are required for fitment.The price of such a system has not been revealed, but if you can afford a Lamborghini Aventador SV , you should not have to ask how much is a custom exhaust system that bears the name of Valentino Balboni, right? The Anti-Trust Agency of Ital y has fined the Volkswagen Group with five million euros, the rough equivalent of $5.5 million. Fortunately for the German corporation, the punishment is only related to its current emissions scandal, Dieselgate , as the agency has decided to apply a penalty to the company after it misinformed car buyers about diesel emissions results.The fine is the highest applicable by the power of the Italian consumer watchdog, and it is supposed to teach Volkswagen a lesson for its wrongdoing. The German companys penalty also includes the fact that its vehicles were fitted with devices that helped provide ultra-low results in emission testing procedures by identifying the test and using a dedicated map on the engine control unit.Volkswagen representatives have already decided to challenge the penalty in an administrative court, Automotive News informs. The representatives of the German brand have stated that their Italian division has fully cooperated with the Italian Anti-Trust Agency with utmost openness and transparency.Volkswagens troubles from the self-inflicted emission scanda l are far from over, as a local administration (Bavaria) could also sue the German company in its home country. Furthermore, other lawsuits are pending in multiple countries, but the United States of America remains the biggest concern for The Volkswagen Group.While having sold a small number of cars with defeat devices in the USA, the countrys legislation allows for class-action lawsuits against companies that sell products that do not respect their stated characteristics. This kind of legal action can be extremely costly for the defendant, even if it is resolved through a settlement.While VW has received approval for a settlement deal in the USA for its 2.0-liter TDI-engine d vehicles sold with defeat devices , owners of the 3.0-liter V6 TDI-engined cars sold in the United States have yet to receive a solution to the problem. South Korea also has a strong position against Volkswagens actions. Zoomcar, founded by David Back (left) and Greg Moran, rents cars by the hour, day, week, or month. Photo courtesy of Zoomcar. Zoomcar, an India-based carsharing service, has raised another $25 million in a Series C round of funding, according to a report by Tech Story. Among the investors, Ford Motor Co. led in funding during this current round. This investment has increased Fords total equity investment to $46.5 million, says the report. Founded in 2013, Zoomcar currently operates in six cities across India with over 1,600 vehicles. Zoomcar rents cars hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly. Rentals include various vehicles such as sedans, SUVs, and luxury vehicles. Ford partnered with Zoomcar to pilot a carsharing project as part of the Ford Smart Mobility Plan. This plan included 25 mobility projects worldwide. Click here to read the full Tech Story report. Apple's electric car 'Project Titan' has been making a wave of buzz across the tech world. While the Cupertino-based company is known for luxurious and high-quality devices, it seems that they are widening their scope of products with the latest item. However, Apple is also known for not commenting on the upcoming projects. But good thing that various tech websites are able to exert efforts is satisfying the reader's thirst for even the tiniest details. Here is everything that we know so far. According to Wall Street Journal, Apple has hundreds of employees to work on an Apple-branded vehicle labeled as the "Project Titan" which will look like a minivan. The company had a meeting with Austrian contract managers like the Magna Steyr to start off the project. As per the report, the tech company wanted to challenge Tesla, who is known to have produced hybrid electric supercars as well. However, Apple does not do the manufacturing process. In order to do so, the executives also got in touch with car manufacturers which are mostly based in Germany. Sourced from a German newspaper, the website also wrote that Apple has a secret laboratory located somewhere in Berlin. But to start off the "Project Titan," CEO Tim Cook visited the BMW headquarter in Germany which is the home for its i3 electric cars, Reuters reported. The CEO was with the former Ford executive, Steve Zadesky, who is now part of the project as well. The car teams have been studying the development for perhaps, months from now. They allegedly have an industrial facility is Sunnydale, CA. Apple is also planning to put up a huge lot into one of their car laboratories. "Apple's latest project is too exciting to pass up," a source told Business Insider. "I think it will change the landscape and give Tesla a run for its money." So far, Apple continues to develop the "Project Titan" by acquiring Dan Dodge into the team. They are up to building a software for the electric car. The company is said to have built a prototype of the vehicle as well. CEO Tim Cook has not given any concrete details about the project, including its official name. He said that element of surprise could be compared to Christmas Eve, wherein everyone is excited about the gifts. Stay tuned for more updates about Apple's upcoming "Project Titan." New software now ready for deployment is making it easier for pilots to stick the notoriously difficult aircraft-carrier arrested landing, the U.S. Navy said recently. The Navy worked with Boeing in June to test the new technology in sea trials aboard the USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier. Dubbed Magic Carpet short for Maritime Augmented Guidance with Integrated Controls for Carrier Approach and Recovery Precision Enabling Technologies the flight-control software helps to keep the jet on the correct glide path, with little effort from the pilot, to ensure a safe landing. The new technology will be deployed to the Navys fleet of F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and EA-18G Growlers in 2018. The system requires only a software upgrade to the airplane, and nothing needs to change on the aircraft carrier itself. When Magic Carpet is engaged and put into delta path mode, according to USNI News, the jet will fly a 3-degree glideslope toward the landing site, regardless of wind and other conditions. Even when the jet flies through the turbulent air generated by the aircraft carriers wake, it automatically compensates and continues on its planned glideslope. Ive never seen anything like this before, said Capt. David Kindley, program manager for the F/A-18 and EA-18G. If a pilot is coming in high, you just push the stick forward and then let go, and it stops itself on glideslope. Same thing when Im below glideslope, you just pull the stick back and then let go. So instead of making multiple corrections with the throttle and stick to affect glideslope, Ive made one and then let go. Russia has begun supplying Armenia with new weapons in line with multimillion-dollar defense contracts signed by the two allied states, Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian said on Tuesday. The Armenian government is to pay for them with a $200 million loan that was allocated by Moscow a year ago. The government moved to speed up the deals implementation following four-day hostilities around Nagorno-Karabakh that broke out in early April. It instructed the Armenian Defense Ministry to promptly negotiate supply contracts with relevant Russian government agencies. Almost all of the contracts have been signed and interstate procedures [for their implementation] completed, Ohanian told reporters after inspecting Armenian troops stationed along the heavily militarized border with Azerbaijan. Through existing instruments and within the framework of agreements reached in the past, imports of [Russian] weapons are now in progress, he said, speaking in the northern Tavush province. In late June, two of Ohanians deputies visited Moscow for talks with senior officials from Russias Defense Ministry, a Russian government agency overseeing arms deals with foreign states and Rosoboronexport, the state arms exporter. Ohanian did not specify the types or quantities of weapons which Armenia will buy at domestic Russian prices set well below international market-based levels. In February, Moscow released a long list of Russian-made weaponry covered by the $200 million. It includes the Smerch multiple-launch rocket system, TOS-1A heavy flamethrower using thermobaric rockets, anti-tank weapons and shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles. In recent years, Russia has reportedly sold 18 Smerch launchers and as many TOS-1A systems to Azerbaijan along with more than 100 T-90 tanks, over 30 combat helicopters and other offensive weapons. The Russian arms deliveries to Armenias arch-foe, worth at least $4 billion, stemmed from contracts signed in 2010-2011. Armenian leaders stepped up their criticism of the Russian arms sales to Baku following the April escalation of the Karabakh conflict. The Russians dismissed it, saying that they provide weapons to both Armenia and Azerbaijan and thereby sustain the military balance in the conflict. The Russian ambassador to Azerbaijan said last month that Moscow intends to sign fresh defense contracts with Baku. Ohanian on Tuesday defended Armenias military alliance with Russia, insisting that the latter would defend the South Caucasus state in case of a foreign aggression. Moscow and Yerevan also negotiated last year on the delivery of Russian Iskander missiles to the Armenian army. With a firing range of up to 500 kilometers, the sophisticated systems would make Azerbaijans vital oil and gas infrastructure even more vulnerable to Armenian missile strikes in the event of a full-scale war for Karabakh. An Armenian army general claimed in April that Armenia already has such missiles in its military arsenal. There has been no official confirmation of that claim yet. Exports of Armenian fruits and vegetables as well as their purchases by domestic food-processing companies are continuing to increase rapidly, a senior Armenian government official said on Tuesday. Deputy Agriculture Minister Robert Makarian said Armenia has exported over 85,000 metric tons of fresh agricultural products so far this year, up by 71 percent compared with the same period in 2015. The fastest growth was recorded in exports of tomatoes, he told a news conference. Armenian agricultural exports soared by more than 40 percent, in monetary terms, to $50 million in the first half of 2016, according to the National Statistical Service (NSS). The government agency also reported a 35 percent rise in first-half exports of alcoholic and soft drinks and prepared foodstuffs, which totaled $180 million. Armenian exports to Russia, the main market for those products, nearly doubled to $168 million in January-June. Makarian predicted a 35 percent surge in the physical volume of fruits and vegetables that will be purchased by Armenian liquor firms and canneries from farmers this year. It should reach 98,000 tons, he said, adding that tomatoes will account for just over half of the total. Armenian exports to Russia plummeted by nearly 27 percent in 2015 primarily because of a sharp depreciation of the Russian ruble. With oil prices beginning to rally in January, the Russian currency has strengthened against the U.S. dollar this year, translating into more revenue for Armenian exporters. The exporters also seem to be capitalizing on Armenias accession to the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union and a ban on food imports to Russia from Europe and Turkey. Despite the increased demand for agricultural products shown by government figures, scores of farmers from five villages in Armenias Armavir province blocked a major highway last week to protest against what they called a lack of wholesale buyers of their tomatoes. Some of those farmers said on Tuesday that a number of local canneries offered to buy their produce after the protest. But they said those companies are setting extremely low prices or refusing to pay farmers upfront. One villager said he was told that he would not be paid before December. Who is going to repay my loans until then? he complained. Makarian dismissed the Armavir protest as premature, saying that the farmers staged it even before their tomatoes were ripe for harvest. He also said they should agree to be paid in installments because wine and brandy distilleries and canneries usually suffer from liquidity shortages in summer and autumn months. They must not present that as a tragedy, said the vice-minister. Everyone wants to be paid upfront when selling their produce. But we must take into account our reality. Some Armenian farmers have still not received payments for grapes sold to distilleries last year. Aghavnadzor, a village in the wine-growing Vayots Dzor province, is a case in point. Haykaz Asatrian, an Aghavnadzor resident, said Vedi Alco, one of Armenias largest wine producers and the main buyer of local grapes, has repeatedly broken its promises to pay the grape farmers. The situation is terrible, he told RFE/RLs Armenian service. We are sick and tired of false promises. Markarian downplayed the problem, however, saying that wine and brandy firms owe only 830 million drams ($1.75 million) to farmers across the country for last falls grape purchases worth 31.5 billion drams. 9 August 2016 14:16 (UTC+04:00) By Rashid Shirinov Azerbaijans National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA) has examined six craters at two acreages and a pasture, where it found and gathered pieces of several unexploded ordnance (UXO), the Agency reported on August 8. Additionally, an area of 14,000 square meters in Aghjabadi, Agdam and Terter regions was cleansed by ANAMA. During last four months, from April 7 to August 8, the Agency experts viewed 642 houses and infields, two military units, five rural schools, 30 farms, a medical center, a warehouse of scrap metal and acreages in Zardab, Tartar, Agjabadi, Agdam, Barda, Fizuli, Goranboy, Tovuz, Gazakh, Agstafa, Samukh, Goygol, Shamkir, Jalilabad, Ujar, Astara regions, and in cities of Mingachevir, Sumgayit, Ganja and Baku. As a result, ANAMA discovered and defused 3,470 UXO, 15 anti-personnel mines PMN, three anti-personnel mines POMZ-2, an anti-personnel mine OZM-72, and 24 anti-tank mines. Currently, mobile groups of ANAMA continue their operations on the contact line of Azerbaijani and Armenian troops and in the territories with schools and other facilities. Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a fragile ceasefire in 1994. Since the war, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities. While the OSCE Minsk Group acted as the only mediator in resolution of the conflict, the occupation of the territory of the sovereign State with its internationally recognized boundaries has been left out of due attention of the international community for years. Armenia ignores four UN Security Council resolutions on immediate withdrawal from the occupied territory of Azerbaijan, thus keeping tension high in the region. --- Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 9 August 2016 12:34 (UTC+04:00) By Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala When you think of teenage girls, you might imagine common stereotypes, from the mean girl to the sullen high school student locked in her bedroom. The reality is that teenage girls are not only some of the worlds most marginalized people; they also have virtually unmatched potential to help build a better future for all. As it stands, adolescent girls are routinely denied control over their destinies. More than 32 million of the poorest are currently out of school. Every day, 39,000 girls under the age of 18 become someones wife. For huge numbers of girls worldwide, reproductive rights seem like an impossible dream. This situation is morally reprehensible, socially self-defeating, and economically foolish. By addressing it, we could not only protect millions of children; we could also tackle some of the greatest challenges facing the world today. Consider the challenge posed by rapid population growth. Though population size seems to be leveling off in most parts of the world, it continues to rise fast in some regions, particularly those where girls face the highest barriers to success. In Africa, the population isexpected to double by 2050 and quadruple by 2100. If teenage girls were given the knowledge, skills, and tools to avoid unwanted pregnancy and take control of their own futures, fertility rates would drop substantially. These newly empowered and educated girls could then become agents for broader positive change within their communities. Protecting the worlds young girls is a tall order. But countries worldwide have pledged, through the ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to fulfill it by 2030, including by ending child marriage and ensuring that all girls are in school. But if countries are to succeed in protecting and empowering girls, they must also embrace the promise of a key initiative: to expand access to the vaccine for human papillomavirus, which causes the vast majority of cervical cancer cases. A relatively new development, the HPV vaccine is most effective on nine- to 13-year-old girls who have not yet been exposed to the virus, meaning that they have never been sexually active. This age requirement differentiates the HPV vaccine from most other childhood vaccines, which are mainly administered to infants. At first glance, this might seem like a serious disadvantage, because the HPV vaccine cannot simply be incorporated into other vaccine initiatives. In fact, the age requirement provides an important opportunity to reach adolescent girls with other vital health services, such as reproductive education, menstrual hygiene, deworming, nutrition checks, vitamin shots, and general check-ups. Encouragingly, developing-country governments have increasingly been demanding the HPV vaccine. This makes sense: of the 266,000 women who die from cervical cancer every year an average of one every two minutes 85% are in developing countries. If left unchecked, that figure is expected to rise to 416,000 by 2035, overtaking maternal deaths. For many of these countries, the HPV vaccine is not just an effective solution, one that prevents 1,500 deaths per 100,000 vaccinated; it is often the only solution, because the poorest countries lack the capacity to offer screening or treatment for cervical cancer. This is one reason why cancer experts, government officials, private-sector leaders, and civil society representatives met a few weeks ago in Addis Ababa for the tenth Stop Cervical, Breast and Prostate Cancer in Africa conference. There is more good news: the foundations of an HPV-vaccine initiative have already been laid. In 2013, well before the SDGs were agreed,Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, for which I serve as Board Chair, took steps to make the HPV vaccine available and affordable in poor countries. Since then, we have seen 23 countries introduce the vaccine through demonstration pilot projects, with five more set to follow. But there are significant challenges ahead. While the focus on holding vaccination sessions in schools has proved successful, it is inadequate for reaching girls in countries with low school-attendance rates, especially in urban areas. Unless we find a way to reach the most vulnerable groups, no amount of political will or financing will be enough to achieve the SDGs to protect women and girls. Given that only two Gavi-supported countries, both of which have relatively high enrollment rates, have so far introduced the vaccine nationally, it is not entirely clear how difficult it will be to overcome this challenge. As we move away from demonstration projects toward a more efficient and cost-effective system of phased national scale-ups, we should gain a better sense of what to expect. We do have some ideas for reaching girls who are not in school beginning with community health centers. As it stands, women are most likely to go to a community health center when they are pregnant, or to have their infants vaccinated. But by engaging with community leaders and parents to raise awareness of cervical-cancer prevention and address other local health concerns, we are finding that it is possible to generate demand and achieve good turnout at these centers. Ensuring that all girls have access to the HPV vaccine would improve countless lives, not only by reducing rates of cervical cancer, but also by enabling the provision of numerous other critical services. It is an opportunity that should be on the minds of cancer experts, government officials, and representatives from the private sector and civil society. And it is an imperative for all of the 193 governments that have signed up to the SDGs. We must not let our girls down. Copyright: Project Syndicate: Harnessing the Power of Teenage Girls --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 9 August 2016 17:43 (UTC+04:00) By Rashid Shirinov The central banks of Iran and Azerbaijan will open checking accounts, head of Iran's Central Bank Valiollah Seif told Trend on the sidelines of bilateral meetings between the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Iran in Baku. He said that checking accounts will open according to a Memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between the central banks of the two countries. Meeting with my Azerbaijani colleague Elman Rustamov [head of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan] was the main purpose of my visit to Azerbaijan. We discussed expansion of bilateral ties during the meeting today. Economic capacities of both countries require us to seriously increase the volume of trade turnover, Seif said. He considered banking system as the best and the most secure way for defraying the cost of transactions. A checking account in fact is the main factor which is capable of defraying the cost of transactions, the head of Iran's Central Bank stressed. Under the MoU, the central banks of Iran and Azerbaijan will encourage their commercial banks to establish bilateral banking ties through opening of correspondent accounts, and conditions for establishing their branches in both countries have been created. Seif further added that under the terms of the MoU the banking card systems of Iran and Azerbaijan will be switched so that the citizens of the two countries can use their banking cards in both states. Currently, 33 banks operate in Azerbaijan, and 29 in Iran. Another statement made by Seif was about the intention of Iran and Azerbaijan to establish a joint regional Bank and thereby develop financial cooperation between the two countries. "The proposal was put forward with the aim of deepening banking relationships and simplifying settlement operations. In the future all necessary steps for the founding of the Bank will be taken," Seif assured. He also stressed the need to ensure the security of financial transactions for tourists and businessmen of the two countries. A ceremony of signing several documents was held after the expanded meeting of Presidents Aliyev and Rouhani on August 7. The MoUs specified cooperation in industry, banking, transport, science, tourism, culture etc. The two countries signed 11 MoUs after Ilham Aliyev visited Tehran on February 23. --- Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 9 August 2016 12:17 (UTC+04:00) By Nigar Abbasova Azerbaijan may join the narrow circle of countries, which have aircraft-building industries in the short run. The country has already took certain steps in this direction and is engaged in the expansion of its cooperation with other countries in the sphere of aviation. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin recently said that an aircraft assembly plant and a center for helicopter modernization will be opened in the capital city of Azerbaijan. There is huge interest in supply of the Russian-made [aircraft] equipment for assembly of planes in Azerbaijan. An aircraft assembly plant and a helicopter modernization center will open in Baku, said Rogozin. He also said that Azerbaijan is interested in the purchase of at least 10 Russian MC-21 aircrafts and the deal is expected to be signed soon. Azerbaijan displayed interest to MC-21 aircrafts. We are planning to sign a contract on the purchase of at least 10 aircrafts, after the first flight of the aircraft, which is scheduled for late 2016 or early 2017 be implemented, he said. He mentioned that another interesting project is the purchase of Ruslan AN-124 aircrafts. The project is also expected to be implemented in 2017. Earlier, Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) and Russian leasing company "Ilyushin Finance signed a memorandum of intent for purchase of 10 aircrafts MC-21. MC-21 is a family of new generation medium range 200-seat single-aisle jets with wide-body aircraft comfort. The aircraft combine the latest trends in global aviation with Russia's experience in aerospace industry and is frequently referred to as main plane of the 21st century. The aircraft is assembled and developed by Russias Irkut Corporation, which is part of the United Aircraft Corporation. The Antonov AN-124 Ruslan is intended for the transportation of heavy and oversized cargo and various special-purpose vehicles. The unique capacity of aircraft ant its high performance have been proved through commercial operations which have opened up new segments of the air cargo market including the transportation of oversized and extra-heavy cargo. Earlier, it was also reported that Azerbaijan seeks to assemble AN-178 aircrafts on the territory of the country. The aircraft has a carrying capacity of up to 18 tons at own production facilities. Kyiv-based Antonov State Enterprise and Azerbaijan's Silk Way Airlines signed a contract in May 2015 to assembly 10 transport aircraft An-178 in Ukraine and ship them to the airlines. The first two planes are to be delivered by late 2018 under the contract and eight planes will be shipped upon a mutual agreement of the parties. -- Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 9 August 2016 17:58 (UTC+04:00) By Nigar Abbasova Russia is of interest for Azerbaijan and Iran as in the biggest exporter of high-quality weapons, Ria Novosti quoted Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin as saying. He made the remark following the trilateral meeting between leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran, on August 8. He also said that the countries of the region are getting consolidated in the face of common threats. Common threads should be repelled not only by means of solidarity, but through such meetings and discussions of ways of rebuffing challenges both politically and by means of physical strengthening, he said. He also mentioned that the issues of military-technical cooperation at the trilateral talks was stemmed by the general discussion of security problems in the region. "Discussion of the issue of military technical cooperation was a logical consequence of the issue of security," he added. Having a well developed military industry and being considered one of the leaders of the sphere, Russia ranks the second in the supply of military equipment and armament. The volume of export of Russian military equipment amounted to $14.5 billion in 2015. Military experts believe that the reputation of Azerbaijan as a buyer of MIC products (militaryindustrial complex) is high, regardless the economic difficulties that the state is facing due to falling oil prices. Experts of the Moscow Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies believe that Russia needs such a large weapon industry player like Azerbaijan. Russia in considered to be the one of the main partners of Azerbaijan in military-technical cooperation along with Turkey, Israel and the U.S. and the two countries are engaged in the implementation major contracts in the sphere. Azerbaijan supplies its army with modern weapons and technical equipment for maintaining a high level of combat capability, as the country is suffering from the occupation of its internationally recognized lands. The countrys military expenditure has developed rapidly in recent years, and in a short time, the military budget has increased more than 20 times. The country takes steps to not to be dependent on a single source and diversify its strategy, therefore the country buys military products from many countries. Moreover, the country established its national military industry to avoid dependence on equipment from foreign countries. -- Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 9 August 2016 18:59 (UTC+04:00) By Laman Ismayilova Baku has hosted Global Village culture festival organized by AIESEC youth organization, Azertac reported. Held in the National Seaside Park, the festival presented a number of fascinating performances, promoting folk music, dance, arts and traditions of different nations. Volunteers from more than 30 countries attended the festival. The visitors enjoyed the music, dance, art and traditions of different countries. Global Village is colorful, energetic cultural festival, organized by AIESEC in Azerbaijan every year since 2011. More than 10 representatives from all over the world gather under one roof in order to create a friendly atmosphere and show how the world is diverse and unique! --- Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 9 August 2016 14:36 (UTC+04:00) By Rashid Shirinov The urgency for the resolution of the long-lasting Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has been emphasized once more at the Baku summit of the presidents of Azerbaijan, Russia and Iran on August 8. During the meeting President Aliyev said that status quo in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is unacceptable and the conflict should be resolved in line with international law and within Azerbaijans territorial integrity. President Aliyev noted that the the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia, remained unsolved for more than 20 years, stressing that Iran and Russia respect the territorial integrity, independence and sovereignty of Azerbaijan, and both countries have repeatedly stated the resolution of the conflict within the framework of international law. He pointed out that Iran and Russia respect Azerbaijans territorial integrity, independence and sovereignty, and both countries have repeatedly emphasized the necessity of resolving the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in line with international law. International community and organizations recognize Azerbaijans territorial integrity and support the fair settlement of the conflict in line with international law, the president noted, adding that the UN, the Non-Aligned Movement, the OSCE, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and other international organizations unequivocally support Azerbaijans territorial integrity. First of all, Azerbaijani lands should be liberated for the settlement of the conflict, added President Aliyev. Azerbaijans territorial integrity has been violated for many years and 20 percent of our lands are under occupation. Over a million Azerbaijanis are suffering from this occupation. The UN Security Council has adopted four resolutions on the conflict. Those resolutions demand the unconditional withdrawal of Armenian armed forces from the occupied lands. Regrettably, these resolutions have not been fulfilled for over 20 years, said President Aliyev. The issue was in spotlight during the meeting of President Ilham Aliyev with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, as well. President Aliyev stressed Russias role in the process of settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict: We value this role. Your personal participation plays an important role in making progress in the settlement process. Aliyev recalled the Saint-Petersburg meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents in June with the mediation of Vladimir Putin, expressing his gratitude for Russian presidents active participation in the negotiations on the conflict. Vladimir Putin, for his part, said that the Nagorno-Karabakh issue remains acute for both conflicting countries. We will do everything possible so that Armenia and Azerbaijan reach a compromise acceptable for both sides, so that the two countries peoples win from this, and so that both countries feel that they have resolved this difficult issue in the interests of current and future generations, he noted. The conflict was on agenda of talks between the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan, Russia and Iran, as well. Elmar Mammadyarov said that the unresolved Nagorno-Karabakh conflict hinders the development of the region. Concerns over unresolved conflicts and the fact that they hinder the regions development were noted in the declaration signed on the results of the summit of the Azerbaijani, Russian and Iranian presidents, the minister noted. Mammadyarov stressed that the conflict must be resolved in accordance with international principles and norms. 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 surrounding districts. --- Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 9 August 2016 18:12 (UTC+04:00) By Rashid Shirinov Despite the multiple demands of international community and four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal from the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions, Armenian armed forces are still keeping under occupation 20 percent of Azerbaijani lands and putting the future of the entire region under a threat. Violations of ceasefire from Armenian side are being recorded every day. What is much more disturbing the ceasefire violations frequently end in human deaths and injuries thus keeping tension high on the frontline. Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces using heavy machine guns have 20 times violated the ceasefire regime on the contact line of Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, Azerbaijans Defense Ministrys press service notified on August . Armenian armed forces at the nameless heights of Ijevan district and in the Dovekh village of the Noyemberyan district shelled positions of Azerbaijani armed forces in the village Kemerli and on nameless heights of Gazakh district. Moreover, Azerbaijani positions on nameless heights of Gadabay district were fired from the positions located on nameless heights of Krasnoselsk district of Armenia. Additionally, Azerbaijani positions became fired from the positions located near the Kuropatkino village of the Khojavand district, Ashagi Seyidahmadli village and some nameless heights of the Fizuli district. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities. While the OSCE Minsk Group acted as the only mediator in resolution of the conflict, the occupation of the territory of the sovereign State with its internationally recognized boundaries has been left out of due attention of the international community for years. --- Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 8 August 2016 23:27 (UTC+04:00) By Trend President Ilham Aliyev has said that the trilateral format between Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia will create good opportunities for bringing the economic cooperation between the three countries to a higher level. He made the remarks addressing the trilateral meeting with his Russian and Iranian counterparts, Vladimir Putin and Hassan Rouhani, in Baku Aug. 8. The Caspian Sea, which unites us, is our common wealth, said President Aliyev. The Caspian Sea is a sea of peace and cooperation and it should remain so. Protection of the ecosystem of the Caspian Sea is the common task of all the littoral states. Azerbaijan makes contribution in this sphere, added the president. Russian and Iranian companies have been involved in the development of oil and gas fields in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea for 20 years and make great investments, added President Aliyev. Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR, for its part, is interested in participating in the work carried out in Iranian and Russian sectors of the Caspian Sea, he said. Russia and Iran are among our main partners. I am confident that the trilateral format will be useful for our countries business structures as well, said the president. Increasing the volume of the trade turnover, mutual investments and expanding the mutual export opportunities is of great importance for economic cooperation. President Aliyev noted that there are good prospects for cooperation in the spheres of finance, banking and insurance. Given the broad financial opportunities of our countries, we can also participate in joint investment projects in other states, said the president. He pointed out that favourable conditions have been created in Azerbaijan for making investments. The president said that $200 billion worth of investments have been made in Azerbaijan over the last 20 years and half of this volume accounts for foreign investments. Agriculture, tourism, telecommunication spheres have great potential for making investments, added the president. Azerbaijan ranks 40th in the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) of the Davos Economic Forum, he said. President Aliyev further emphasized the successful cooperation in power industry. Azerbaijan has connected its power transmission lines with that of Iran and Russia and the volume of power exchange of both countries is increasing year after year, added the president. In accordance with the energy agreement with Russia, Azerbaijans power system operates in parallel operation mode with Russias unified power system, he said. The Khachmaz, Darband and Yalama power transmission lines connect the power systems of the two countries. Currently, energy exchange with Iran is ensured via Parsabad, Astara-Astara and Julfa power transmission lines. The power transmission line between Imishli and Parsabad was connected several days ago, while the power transmission lines between Masalli and Astara cities will be put into operation in the near future, said President Aliyev. Azerbaijan has already turned from an electricity importing country into its exporter, he said, adding that the countrys export potential has increased. I am confident that with joint efforts, we will achieve the creation of a reliable energy corridor. This corridor can ensure the energy exchange between the three countries and the access to new markets. President Aliyev also said he is glad that there is a reliable cooperation in the border protection. Border service heads of Iran, Russia and Azerbaijan met in Baku at Azerbaijans initiative, he said. Intensification of cooperation in this sphere, joint exercises, as well as joint measures in the Caspian Sea, operative information exchange will even more strengthen the security of our countries. President Aliyev said the cooperation in transportation has a very good and promising future. Azerbaijan is the only country in the world to have borders both with Iran and Russia. Currently, there is a railway service between Russia and Azerbaijan, said the president. We decided this year to extend Azerbaijans railways to Iranian borders in the near future, said the president. Hopefully, we will achieve this in the near future. President Aliyev reminded that a groundbreaking ceremony has been held recently for a railway bridge across the Astara River on the Azerbaijani-Iranian border. These infrastructure projects are a part of the North-South international transportation corridor, said the president, adding that the North-South corridor is a strategically important transnational project. Many countries will use this corridor in the future, said the president, adding the North-South corridor can bring great economic benefits and this route is very advantageous in terms of time of transit cargo transportation. I hope that with joint efforts, we will achieve the implementation of this project soon, added the president. Fortunately, our countries have no national or religious problems. This is the value and wealth achieved by our countries, said President Aliyev. He pointed out that Azerbaijan has been the place of various religions, cultures and civilizations throughout centuries. We are not only the geographical, but also cultural bridge of between the East and West, said President Aliyev. Representatives of various religions and cultures have lived in Azerbaijan in the atmosphere of peace and brotherhood throughout the history. Multiculturalism is lifestyle in Azerbaijan, said President Aliyev. Azerbaijan is a multinational country and 2016 has been declared the year of multiculturalism in Azerbaijan. President Aliyev pointed out that Azerbaijan is one of the few countries represented both in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and in the Council of Europe. Our countries successfully cooperate within these organizations. The trilateral cooperation format has great potential. This is a very important new initiative, said the president. The trilateral cooperation will serve for ensuring peace, security and stability in the region, said the president. The economic cooperation, the trilateral cooperation in transportation and energy will ensure the improvement of our peoples well being, said the president. This format will hold a rightful place on international arena, said the president. We showed an example of good neighbourliness today, he said. Today, we proved that if there is mutual respect, goodwill, if our wishes are sincere, we can protect our countries from risks in the unstable region full of crises and conflicts, strengthen the stability and intensify the cooperation. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 8 August 2016 23:22 (UTC+04:00) By Trend Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev has said that the joint declaration signed between Azerbaijan, Russia and Iran on Aug. 8 reflects the work done by the parties, their intentions, positions and visions for the future. The president made the remarks in his final speech at the summit in Baku Aug. 8. President Aliyev said that meetings in bilateral format have been held in the last two days. I met with Irans President Hassan Rouhani yesterday and Russias President Vladimir Putin today. Russian and Iranian presidents met today. Thats to say, these meetings have great meaning. In reality, the trilateral format is created on the basis of bilateral relations, he said. I am glad that Azerbaijans relations with Russia and Iran, as well as Russias relations with Iran are at a very high level and the development of those relations makes it possible for us not only to talk, but also create the new cooperation format today, said the president. The region where we live is very complicated and is full of risks and threats. Unfortunately, these risks are not decreasing, but increasing, said President Aliyev. In this case, the trilateral cooperation is the basic condition for the regional security. He pointed out that the trilateral cooperation between Russia, Iran and Azerbaijan is a stabilizing factor in the region. The North-South international transportation corridor project will ensure both the security and economic interests of our countries, said President Aliyev. In many opening remarks, I noted that our sincere relations, good will are the basis of our cooperation. We show and prove that this is possible, said the president. Sometimes, neighbors have problems and conflicts. Fortunately, our relations have been built only on the basis of friendship, mutual understanding and mutual respect, he added. We support each other, believe and rely on each other. We show a very good cooperation format both to the region and to the world, said the president. He expressed confidence that the results of the summit will be very successful and all the tasks reflected in the summits declaration will be fulfilled. Todays meeting is a historic meeting, because it is based on history, as the peoples of the three countries have always been together throughout centuries, and at the same time, this meeting is the first-ever in the history, according to President Aliyev. I am confident that this meeting will have continuation and further cooperation between our countries will be intensified, he added. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 9 August 2016 01:30 (UTC+04:00) By Trend President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has today invited President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin to tea at his house. The presidents had a warm conversation at the tea table. They noted that the Trilateral Summit of the heads of state of Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia successfully wrapped up in Baku. The heads of state expressed confidence that the summit would play a key role in strengthening the cooperation and developing ties between the countries and in the region. The two presidents noted that based on strategic partnership, Azerbaijani-Russian ties were developing in all areas, and also discussed prospects for relations. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 8 August 2016 20:35 (UTC+04:00) By Trend Azerbaijan and Iran are good neighbors and important partners of Russia, said Russian President Vladimir Putin. He made the remarks Aug. 8 at a trilateral meeting with the leaders of Azerbaijan and Iran in Baku. We have accumulated rich experience of fruitful cooperation with each other, Putin said. Today we are turning, of course, a new page in relations, and are giving a start to cooperation in trilateral format. Russian president noted that the demand for this format is obvious. The three countries are connected by the willingness to coordinate their approaches to a wide range of regional and global issues, and by the desire to further strengthen multifaceted practical cooperation in trade and economy, he said. Putin also noted the need to build closer cooperation in order to find solutions to problems that pose a threat, such as zones of instability, hot conflicts, growing threat of terrorism, especially by the Islamic State (IS, aka ISIL, ISIS or Daesh) and other terrorist organizations. He said Russia considers it reasonable to intensify the exchange of information on the activities of international terrorist organizations. This is needed for a more effective prevention of the transit of militants, weapons, drugs through the territories of our countries, added Putin. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 8 August 2016 22:20 (UTC+04:00) By Trend The priority direction in cooperation between Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran in energy sector is the realization of projects on exploration and development of oil and gas fields, said Russian President Vladimir Putin. He made the remarks Aug. 8 at a trilateral meeting with the leaders of Azerbaijan and Iran in Baku. Putin said Russia is also ready to discuss mutually beneficial scheme of joint use of pipeline infrastructure for transportation of extracted resources. He also noted that Russia hopes the trilateral dialogue on the Caspian Sea issue will contribute to the soonest finalization of the convention on the legal status of the sea. I am sure the signing of the convention and implementation of its provisions is of interest for all the five Caspian littoral countries, said Putin. Russias president said the perspectives of cooperation between the three countries in transportation infrastructure are very promising. In particular, he mentioned the North-South transportation corridor, which is meant to connect Northern Europe to South-East Asia. Further speaking about the relations between the three countries, Putin noted that more attention should be paid to cooperation in culture, tourism, education, as well as development of direct links between the regions of the three countries. He expressed confidence that the cooperation between Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran will further be mutually beneficial and will meet the fundamental interests of the peoples of the three countries, create new opportunities for a dynamic development of the Caspian region. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 9 August 2016 15:48 (UTC+04:00) By Amina Nazarli Historical trilateral meeting between the heads of Azerbaijan, Russia and Iran took place in Baku on August 8 with a major point messaging peace, friendship, security and cooperation. The first trilateral meeting of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was appraised in terms of encouraging cooperation in political, economic, energy, transport and other spheres. This is a historic event," said President Aliyev addressing the event with the participation of the three leaders. "A new cooperation format between the three countries is being created today. Indeed, a new format of cooperation are being created between Azerbaijan, Russia and Iran, which in the future may lead to a redistribution of the entire political and economic map of the region. The relations between the three countries more developed in recent years and have reached the strategic partnership level, which are based on old traditions of friendship and good neighborliness, as well as equality, respect for each other's interests, and common history and culture. It is no coincidence that the tripartite meeting and the Leadership Summit were held in Baku, which is considering a stability island in the region. Holding a trilateral summit was suggested by President Ilham Aliyev during a telephone conversation with Putin in February. And in April Baku hosted the meeting of foreign ministers of the three countries for preparations for this summit. Further development of Russian-Azerbaijani-Iranian relations is regarded as a particular factor for the preservation of regional stability and security, the maintenance of peace and mutual understanding in the South Caucasus, and the implementation of the fundamental interests of all peoples of the region. President Putin, addressing the event, stressed the importance of the trilateral summit of the heads, which will allow countries to coordinate actions on a wide range of issues. He said today the three regional countries are turning a new page in relations, and are giving a start to cooperation in trilateral format. A draft declaration of the meeting included a wide range of discussions such as strengthening cooperation in various spheres of economy, energy and transport, development of transportation infrastructure, including the North-South international transportation corridor, legal status of the Caspian Sea as well as fight against terrorism and drug trafficking. During the meeting Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev touched upon Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia, that remained unsolved for more than 20 years, stressing that Iran and Russia respect the territorial integrity, independence and sovereignty of Azerbaijan, and both countries have repeatedly stated the resolution of the conflict within the framework of international law. The UN Security Council has adopted four resolutions on the conflict. Those resolutions demand the unconditional withdrawal of Armenian armed forces from the occupied lands. Unfortunately, these resolutions have not been fulfilled for over 20 years, said President Aliyev. The Caspian Sea diplomacy was another important issue that the leaders focused on. Considering the Caspian Sea as the sea of peace, friendship, security and cooperation, the parties stated the importance of the early adoption of the convention on its legal status. The Caspian Sea, which unites us, is our common wealth, President Aliyev said. The Caspian Sea is a sea of peace and cooperation and it should remain so. Protection of the ecosystem of the Caspian Sea is the common task of all the littoral states. Azerbaijan makes contribution in this sphere, added the president. President Aliyev offered to form a reliable energy corridor that will provide energy exchanges between the three countries, and access to new markets. The priority area of cooperation in the energy sector is the implementation of projects for the exploration and development of oil and gas deposits, primarily in the Caspian region. Russian and Iranian companies have been involved in the development of oil and gas fields in the Azerbaijani section of the Caspian Sea for 20 years and make great investments, President Aliyev emphasized, adding that Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR, for its part, is interested in participating in the work carried out in Iranian and Russian sectors of the Caspian Sea. President Putin in turn, noted that Russia hopes the trilateral dialogue on the Caspian Sea issue will contribute to the soonest finalization of the convention on the legal status of the sea, signing and implementation of which is of interest for all the five Caspian littoral countries. Although the heads of states did not center on economic issues in the course of the summit, the three countries business circles held expanded meetings to mull their cooperation. Russia, Iran and Azerbaijan also agreed to strengthen cooperation in various spheres of energy and transport. The priority direction in cooperation between the three countries in energy sector is the realization of projects on exploration and development of oil and gas fields, said Vladimir Putin. Russia, Iran and Azerbaijan agreed to take measures on the development of transportation infrastructure, including the North-South international transportation corridor, which is meant to connect Northern Europe to South-East Asia. It will serve as a link connecting the railways of Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia. Moscow, Tehran and Baku voiced their intention to further contribute to the implementation of new projects on the connection of railways as a part of the development and improvement of the North-South international transportation corridors efficiency. The North-South international transportation corridor project will ensure both the security and economic interests of our countries, said President Aliyev. Many countries will use this corridor in the future, said the president, adding that the North-South corridor can bring great economic benefits and this route is very advantageous in terms of time of transit cargo transportation. Presidents Ilham Aliyev, Vladimir Putin and Hassan Rouhani discussed not only the prospects of cooperation and topical issues of international politics, but also issues of security and the fight against terrorism. Russia, Iran and Azerbaijan intend to fully counteract terrorism. President Putin noted the need to build closer cooperation in order to find solutions to problems that pose a threat, such as zones of instability, hot conflicts, growing threat of terrorism, especially by the Islamic State (IS, aka ISIL, ISIS or Daesh) and other terrorist organizations. He said Russia considers it reasonable to intensify the exchange of information on the activities of international terrorist organizations. This is needed for a more effective prevention of the transit of militants, weapons, drugs through the territories of our countries, added Putin. President Aliyev pointed out that risks and threats have been recently growing in the region. We should even more combine our efforts against the international terrorism. Indeed, the entire world should combine efforts. Only in this case, we can overcome the international terrorism, said the president. Azerbaijans principal position in the fight against terrorism remains unchanged, he said, adding that Azerbaijan, as a member of the UN Security Council, raised the main issues related to the international peace and security, and put forward the initiative of strengthening the cooperation in fighting the international terrorism in 2012-2013. Following their trilateral meeting, Presidents of Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia signed a declaration. After signing the declaration, Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev said that his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani proposed to hold the next summit of the three countries leaders in Iran and thanked him for the offer. In this declaration, the parties said that they will continue the comprehensive development of equal and mutually beneficial cooperation, intensify and expand the political dialogue in various levels and on all issues of mutual interest, develop the trilateral format of cooperation in the spheres of culture, tourism and business. Moreover, the parties will take effective measures to develop the transportation and communication infrastructure in order to expand the opportunities for passenger and cargo transportation via the North-South corridor. 9 August 2016 11:29 (UTC+04:00) By Trend Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Asia and Pacific Affairs Ebrahim Rahimpour has said that Irans trade ties with Russia and Azerbaijan witnessed a significant boost immediately after the removal of sanctions followed by the implementation of the joint comprehensive plan of action (JCPOA). He also touched upon an agreement between Iran and Russia for constructing nuclear power plants in the Islamic Republic adding that Russia will build eight power plants in Iran. Russia has constructed Iran's first nuclear power plant, Bushehr, with 1,000 megawatts capacity and it is preparing for building new plants in Iran. Iran has planned to increase its nuclear power generation capacity to 2,000 megawatts by 2035. Obstacles against improving Irans ties with Russia and Azerbaijan are being removed one by one, Rahimpour added. Azerbaijan's exports to Iran in 1H16 increased 203% to $23.61 million, while its imports from Iran increased 55.5% to $66.137 million according to The State Customs Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan's statistics. There is not any official statistics about Iran, Russia trade turnover during this period, but Iran's Ambassador to Moscow Mehdi Sanayee said earlier that the trade exchange between the two countries in the first half of 2016 registered 67 percent growth in compare to the corresponding period last year. Rahimpour elaborated on a decision by Moscow to allocate a $5 billion loan to Tehran saying that the decision is very likely to be fulfilled in future. The deputy minister welcomed Russia to invest in Iran saying this would benefit both, Iran and Russia. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 9 August 2016 15:37 (UTC+04:00) By Gunay Hasanova In the light of current political processes and rising ambitions to join the implementation of various energy projects, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made a very important statement underlining the role of TANAP for the energy security of Europe. "Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAP) plays an important role for energy security of Europe," said Erdogan, Anadolu Agency reported. TANAP project is a huge supply project intended to bring natural gas produced from Azerbaijans Shah-Deniz gas field, and other areas of Caspian Sea, primarily to Turkey, and onwards to to Europe. The TANAP project, along with the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP) and Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) form the elements of the Southern Gas Corridor. The TANAP and TAP pipelines assume a particular importance for the European consumers to facilitate in their aspirations to reduce Europes dependence on Russian gas. In this issue a big part of the responsibility lies on Turkey," Erdogan stressed. TANAP has received political and financial support from international organizations and different western countries. The project complies with the requirements, as well as the intent, of the EU's Third Energy Package. Earlier, the message from TANAP said that the European Commission will allocate 3.5 million euros worth financial aid for the project for construction of TANAP via which Azerbaijani gas will be delivered to Turkey and then to Europe. These funds will be used for supporting the commercial activities and the integrated facility management system. The pipeline is able to facilitate connections to several planned infrastructure projects such as the Ionian-Adriatic Pipeline (IAP) and Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB). IGB, which is expected to be connected to TAP, will allow Bulgaria to receive Azerbaijani gas. In early December, 2015, Bulgaria and Greece signed a final investment decision on the IGB project. The initial capacity of 182 kilometers length pipeline will be 3 billion cubic meters of gas. The gas will reach Turkey in 2018, and after the completion of the TAP construction, the gas will reach Europe around early 2020. The initial capacity of TAP will be 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year, which can be expanded to 20 billion cubic meters. The completion of the TAP is expected in 2019. The gas will be transported from the Turkish-Greek border through Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea and then coming ashore to Italys south. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 9 August 2016 15:50 (UTC+04:00) By Trend During the visit of Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Russia, Moscow and Ankara can discuss the discount for Russian gas supplied to the country, Turkish Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources told Trend Aug. 9. The issue of discount on the Russian gas supplied to Turkey has been on the agenda for a long time, said the ministry. The ministry also noted that apart from this issue, during Erdogans visit to Russia, the sides will also discuss such important energy projects as the construction of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline and the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant. According to Turkish media, on March 18, 2015, Turkeys Petroleum Pipeline Corporation (BOTAS) rejected Russia's gas offer, since it demanded additional concessions from Turkey on construction of the Turkish Stream pipeline. Afterwards, Turkey appealed to the International Court of Arbitration Oct. 26, 2015, over the prices for Russian gas supplied to the country. Turkeys private companies have been paying $390 per 1,000 cubic meters of Russian gas since January 2015, according to Turkish media. In January-May 2016, Turkey imported 10.14 billion cubic meters of gas from Russia versus 11.22 billion cubic meters in the same period of 2015. The country imported 26.78 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Russia in 2015 versus almost 27 billion cubic meters in 2014, according to the Turkish Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK). Russias share in the total volume of Turkeys gas import was 50.84 percent in January-May 2016. Russia supplies gas to Turkey via the Blue Stream and the Trans-Balkan pipelines. Blue Stream is a major trans-Black Sea gas pipeline with the capacity of 16 billion cubic meters per year that carries natural gas from Russia into Turkey. Currently, Turkey also imports gas from Iran, Azerbaijan, Algeria and Nigeria. Moreover, Ankara and Doha (Qatar) signed an agreement on the supply of 1.2 billion cubic meters of liquefied gas to Turkey. In January-May 2016, Turkey imported a total of 19.94 billion cubic meters of gas, 16.22 billion cubic meters of which were supplied via the pipelines, while 3.72 billion cubic meters accounted for the import of liquefied natural gas. The meeting of Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin will be held Aug. 9 in St. Petersburg. This is Erdogans first visit to Russia after the crisis in the two countries relations and also after the attempted military coup in Turkey. Turkish delegation includes Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Berat Albayrak, Minister of Culture and Tourism Nabi Avci, Minister of Transport, Shipping and Communications Ahmet Arslan and Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 9 August 2016 15:40 (UTC+04:00) By Gunay Hasanova The first meeting between Turkey and Russia after the recent tension in the relations due to downed plane incident is in the center of international agenda with many important topics of discussions. Ankara and Moscow will discuss a number of important issues during Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogans visit to Russia, said Prime Minister Binali Yildirim on August 9, TRT Haber News channel reported. Yildirim said the parties will also discuss the settlement of the Syrian crisis. Syria has been suffering from an armed conflict since March 2011, which, according to the UN, has so far claimed over 500,000 lives. Militants from various armed groups are confronting the Syrian government troops. The "Islamic State" and Jabhat al-Nusra are the most active terrorist groups in Syria. Moreover, two countries will discuss different aspects of energy cooperation between Russia and Turkey. During the visit of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Moscow and Ankara will discuss the possibility of discount on the supplied Russian gas, said the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources of Turkey, adding that this issue is on the agenda for a long time. The ministry also noted that apart from the issue of gas prices the sides will discuss major energy projects such as the construction of gas pipeline Turkish Stream and NPP Akkuyu. Earlier, the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources of Turkey told that Ankara could unfreeze the project of Russian gas pipeline Turkish Stream, adding that currently this issue is under consideration, whilst the exact timing of defrosting the project still remains unknown. The meeting of Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin is being held today St. Petersburg. This is Erdogans first visit to Russia after the crisis in the two countries relations and is the first visit after the attempted military coup in Turkey. Turkish delegation includes Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Berat Albayrak, Minister of Culture and Tourism Nabi Avci, Minister of Transport, Shipping and Communications Ahmet Arslan and Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 9 August 2016 18:47 (UTC+04:00) By Gunay Hasanova The first meeting between Russia and Turkey after the tensions in relations due to the downed Russian plane incident took place at the Constantine Palace in St. Petersburg on August 9. A closed-door meeting of presidents of Russia and Turkey, Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan started in St. Petersburg with a handshake. Addressing the meeting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that relations between Turkey and Russia have moved to a positive direction. Previously, the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources of Turkey said that during the visit Russia and Turkey will discuss the possibility of discount on the supplied Russian gas,adding that this issue is on the agenda for a long time. The ministry also noted that apart from the issue of gas prices the sides will discuss major energy projects such as the construction of gas pipeline Turkish Stream and NPP Akkuyu. Ankara could unfreeze the project of Russian gas pipeline Turkish Stream, adding that currently this issue is under consideration, whilst the exact timing of defrosting the project still remains unknown, the Ministry reported. In turn, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that relations between Russia and Turkey after the SU-24 incident and Turkish presidents visit to Russia indicated to resumption of the dialogue. Moreover, Putin noted that he intends to discuss the whole range of relations with Erdogan, including the fight against terrorism, and economic ties. It is our principled position, Putin said, in regard to the coup attempt. We are always categorically opposed to any attempts at anti-constitutional activity. I want to express the hope that under your leadership the Turkish people will deal with this, and justice and legality will prevail. Russian president expressed support to Turkey in overcoming the crisis after the July 15 coup attempt and added that he was one of those first to call Recep Tayyip Erdogan. This is Erdogans first visit to Russia after the crisis in the two countries relations and also after the attempted military coup in Turkey. Turkish delegation included Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Berat Albayrak, Minister of Culture and Tourism Nabi Avci, Minister of Transport, Shipping and Communications Ahmet Arslan and Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek. On the Russian side in the extended negotiation format participates Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, presidential aide Yuri Ushakov, who overseas foreign policy, Russia's ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov, Energy Minister and head of the intergovernmental commission on trade-economic cooperation Alexander Novak, Minister of Economic Development Alexei Ulyukayev, the Minister of Transport Maxim Sokolov, the head of Gazprom Alexei Miller, the chief of the General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, President's Special Representative on the Syrian settlement, Alexander Lavrentyev. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Krakow, Poland, August 9, 2016 / B3C newswire / -- Selvita Inc., the US subsidiary of Selvita S.A., headquartered in Cambridge, MA, has initiated a medicinal chemistry collaboration with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). The project will be conducted with the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases at UCSF. Within the scope of the project, Selvita will be responsible for the chemical synthesis, purification, structure determination, and purity analysis of small molecules for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. The project will focus on the synthesis of new derivatives, constituting potential new therapeutics with improved pharmacological properties. This project was preceded by a thorough evaluation and pilot projects involving medicinal chemistry as well as ADME projects, which Selvita successfully completed. The contract will be carried out from 2016 to 2019. Were truly delighted that such renowned research institutions as the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases and the University of California have decided to collaborate with Selvita on this project. This is a great chance for us to show the potential of our scientists, as well as the expertise and capabilities we have as a company, said Andrzej Nieradka, Business Development Manager at Selvita Inc., who is responsible for managing the collaboration. Selvitas San Francisco Bay Area office was founded in San Bruno, CA in September 2015 and is dedicated to the support of Selvita business partners on the West Coast of the US. The office is located at 1001 Bayhill Drive, San Bruno, California. About Selvita Selvita is a drug discovery company engaged in the research and development of breakthrough therapies in the area of oncology, as well as provision of integrated drug discovery services. Selvita was established in 2007 and currently employs over 340 people, including 111 PhDs, with extensive experience in the area of life sciences. Selvita currently has several projects at both early and late discovery stage and is expected to move its first candidates to the clinic in 2016. Selvitas drug discovery clients include more than fifty large and medium-sized pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies from the US and Europe. Selvita offices are located in the Greater Boston Area, the San Francisco Bay Area, Cambridge, UK, as well as in Krakow and Poznan, Poland. The company is listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE:SLV). Contact Natalia Baranowska This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. +48 784 069 418 UC Disclaimer The information stated above was prepared by Selvita Inc. and reflects solely the opinion of the corporation. Nothing in this statement shall be construed to imply any support or endorsement of Selvita Inc., or any of its products, by the Regents of the University of California, its officers, agents, or employees. Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. Students at High Point Elementary School in Clearwater are getting a boost for this upcoming school year in the form of free backpacks. Tech Data donated 800 backpacks to High Point Elementary 1 of 7 underperforming schools in Pinellas County Eight hundred students at High Point elementary school were given backpacks filled with school supplies. It's thanks to the Pinellas County School Districts program that pairs local businesses with schools. The company Tech Data supplied the backpacks for High Point Elementary. High Point Elementary is one of the seven underpreforming schools in the district. The schools new principal, Michael Feeney, says this type of support from the community and local businesses is exactly what students need to see. This is invaluable, he said. It shows really that the community is behind the school, the community is behind the students. From talking to some of the parents already, theyre overjoyed by the generosity that Tech Data has shown them. The sound of a kid unzipping a donated backpack filled with school supplies may seem small but Tonya Mcalpine says it makes a big difference. Her son Micah is a fourth grader at the school. Its so helpful especially for single parents. It helps them so much, she said. There are more than two dozen local businesses that partner with Pinellas County Schools. Tech Data says they also hand delivered 600 backpacks filled with supplies to students at Sandy Lane Elementary. A ferry running across Tampa Bay connecting downtown Tampa and downtown St. Petersburg is about to become reality. Ferry between downtown Tampa and St. Petersburg receives final approval Tampa to fund ferry project along with St. Petersburg Each has pledged $350K to the project Service to start in November On Tuesday, Pinellas County commissioners gave the last approval needed to begin a pilot program in November. The measure was approved 5 to 1. The ferry project has already been approved by Tampa and St. Petersburg. The commuter ferry between the two Bay area downtowns is being supported and funded by both local governments. The pilot project is slated to begin a six-month trial run in November. The ferry system would run twice per day, three times on Fridays and would carry 150 passengers at a time. One way fares are expected to be $10. Hillsborough County first pledged $350,000, or 25 percent of the total project cost, during a city council meeting in Tampa. St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman also has long supported the idea of a ferry. The ferry is a pilot program being paid for by the two city councils and Hillsborough and Pinellas commissions. However, officials hope after its initial run, the ferry will become financially self-sufficient. Two worthy Toronto cops, Anthony Lefrancois and Lisa Prechotko are heading to Haiti later this month as part of a United Nations peacekeeping and peace support program in support of Haitian law enforcement. Past Toronto Police officers have worked side-by-side with Haitian officers, acting as mentors and helping to deliver training. Lefrancois is a former armed forces member and student of Haiti from his days as a young man in his native Montreal. PC Prechotko ran a successful Pro Action Cops and Kids-sponsored program Sista for young girls. She enjoys travelling and doing humanitarian work. When she saw the posting for Haiti last winter, she knew the mission was the perfect fit. Full story Related CMS said it will not allow Boston-based Partners HealthCare to resubmit paperwork for 19-bed Nantucket (Mass.) Cottage Hospital that, if it had been filed correctly, would have resulted in higher Medicare payments to Massachusetts hospitals. CMS' decision to deny Partners' resubmission request was included in CMS' inpatient prospective payment systems rule. In the rule, CMS said it refused to allow the corrections because the hospital missed the original submission deadline. "We have consistently stated in annual IPPS rulemaking that hospitals that do not meet the procedural deadlines set forth in the IPPS rule will not be afforded a later opportunity to submit wage index data corrections or to dispute the Medicare administrative contractor's decision with respect to requested changes," wrote CMS in the rule. "Therefore, we are not incorporating the adjustments requested by Nantucket Cottage Hospital for the FY 2017 final rule wage index." Under hospital payment rules, Medicare is required to reimburse employee wages at urban hospitals at the baseline set at rural hospitals in the state. Nantucket Cottage Hospital typically sets the floor for wages at hospitals across Massachusetts because it is the only rural hospital in the state. Last year, the Nantucket-based hospital provided data that underestimated its wages, dragging down payments for the entire state. Partners identified the errors in mid- to late March, and sent corrected numbers April 5, almost two months after the deadline for submitting corrections. Massachusetts hospitals stand to lose a total of $160 million in Medicare funding next year. Newkirk Products, a company that issues ID cards for health insurance plans, including a number of Blues plans, reported a data breach after a server containing member information was accessed without authorization. Approximately 3.3 million individuals were affected by the breach. The company discovered the unauthorized server access July 6. Upon learning of the incident, Newkirk shut down the server, launched an investigation into the incident and hired a third party investigator to determine the extent of the breach. The unauthorized access is believed to have first occurred May 21. The investigation is ongoing. Potentially compromised data includes a combination of member's names, mailing addresses, type of plan, member and group ID number, names of dependents, primary care providers, birth dates, invoice information and Medicaid ID number. No Social Security numbers, banking or credit card information, medical information or insurance claims were contained on the server. Newkirk issues ID cards for plans including Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, HealthNow New York Inc., BlueCross BlueShield of Western New York, BlueShield of Northeastern New York and Capital District Physicians' Health. Additionally, Newkirk provides service to Gateway Health Plan, Highmark Health Options, West Virginia Family Health, Johns Hopkins Employer Health Programs, Inc., Priority Partners Managed Care Organization and Uniformed Services Family Health Plan. The company indicates no health plans' systems were accessed or affected. And it says while the data may have been accessed on the server, there is no evidence it has been inappropriately used. More articles on data breaches: Oregon State Hospital reports breach after clinician texts patient medical data Carle Foundation Hospital breach affects 1,185 patients Physician files class-action lawsuit against Banner over data breach Oregon State Hospital is reviewing its practices after a staff psychiatrist accidentally sent a picture of a patient census sheet from his personal cell phone to six people, according to a letter sent to affected patients. The information on the sheet included patients' full names, identification numbers, photos, unit room numbers, names of treatment team members, legal status and vitals, according to the notification letter. The hospital did not release the psychiatrist's name and maintains that patient data was not misused, according to a report from The Statesman Journal. The psychiatrist reported the incident, and the hospital asked the six people who received the medical data to confirm they deleted the photo. It is unclear whether the six people are affiliated with the hospital. OSH policy currently allows staff to use cell phones while working, but requires they receive permission before removing any information from the hospital. The psychiatrist has been retrained on the hospital's information privacy policy, according to a spokesperson. Phoenix-based Banner Health faces a class-action lawsuit regarding the massive data breach it reported last week. The lawsuit, filed by a Banner physician, claims Banner was negligent and allowed the breach to occur and seeks compensation for identity protection and credit monitoring, reports The Arizona Republic. Howard Chen, MD, works at Banner Thunderbird Medical Center in Glendale, Ariz., and he is among the 3.7 million patients, health plan members, customers and providers whose personal information may have been compromised in the cyberattack. Hackers gained access to Banner Health computer servers, including those that process payment card information where food and beverages are sold. It was the largest data breach so far of 2016. Banner is offering free credit and identity monitoring to affected individuals for one year. Dr. Chen's lawsuit says these steps are not sufficient reparation. "Banner's negligence affected millions of people," said Rob Carey, the attorney filing the lawsuit on Dr. Chen's behalf, in a statement, according to the report. "It's not enough to offer a skimpy 'fix' the law requires Banner remedy the serious risks it created for its stakeholders." The lawsuit argues credit monitoring and identity protection are not enough to protect individuals because cyber criminals will wait a couple of years to use stolen information, often after monitoring periods expire, according to the report. Banner indicated it is enhancing the security of its network systems, as well. "Banner is committed to maintaining the privacy and security of information of our patients, employees, plan members and beneficiaries, customers at our food and beverage outlets, as well as our providers," said Peter Fine, president and CEO of Banner Health, in the public notice of the cyberattack. More articles on data breaches: Advocate to pay largest HIPAA settlement to date Yahoo investigates possible 200M user data breach Possible data breach at St. Peter's Health Partners after man given records of other patients A union representing workers at Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic will picket later this month over the system's decision to switch food service vendors, according to a KIMT report. The Service Employees International Union Healthcare Minnesota told the TV station food service workers and supporters will picket over the outsourcing decision Aug. 24 in front of Saint Marys hospital campus in Rochester. SEIU alleges Mayo has failed to provide basic information about how, why and when it made the decision to switch from Sodexo to Morrison Healthcare for food and nutrition services, according to the report. "It is unacceptable that Mayo continues to deny basic information workers and their union need to know about this decision," SEIU President Jamie Gulley said, according to KIMT. "This information is especially important as now it seems the decision may have been made under the cloud of dubious ethics. Workers, and the whole community, deserve to know what really went on to bring Mayo to the point where they decided to take 700 dedicated employees and move them out of the Mayo family." Food service workers have presented Mayo with a petition, asking the system to reconsider the outsourcing decision, according to KIMT. The union contends the petition was signed by more than 95 percent of food service workers. Mayo confirmed it has received the union's petition. In the meantime, the system said in a statement, it is awaiting the four scheduled negotiation sessions with SEIU later this month and next, and will review the petition. Mayo has also said it was reviewing a formal complaint filed by the union and will respond as the system deems appropriate. In the complaint, SEIU alleges Mayo's decision to switch food service vendors was "primarily influenced" by Carol Gorman, Mayo's food services administrator. "The union believes Carol Gorman has a conflict of interest due to a long standing personal relationship with a Morrison executive," SEIU contends, citing Mayo's conflict of interest policy from its employee handbook. As far as the outsourcing decision, Mayo said, "Currently, Mayo Clinic has multiple approaches to food and nutrition services across our campuses. This change is about creating efficiency and consistency, and ensuring the highest quality possible for the food and nutrition services throughout Mayo Clinic. Our focus is on supporting our food service teams throughout this transition." Police arrested a dozen people Monday in Miami-Dade County for various medical fraud schemes, according to a local ABC News report. Three employees of Coral Gables, Fla.-based Brothers Medical Center were arrested on charges of filing fraudulent insurance claims, grand theft and organized scheme to defraud, according to the report. These employees include Angel Amado Lazo, MD, Clara Serguera, a therapist, and Arlene Hernandez Garcia, a front desk clerk, according to the report. They were caught after an undercover detective from the National Crime Bureau sought services at the clinic and his insurance was billed thousands of dollars despite that he never received treatment, according to the report. An additional nine people were arrested on similar charges at a clinic in West Kendall, Fla., according to the report. More articles on legal and regulatory issues: Easton Hospital to pay $325k to settle improper Medicare billing allegations California bill aims to protect consumers from out-of-network charges Ariz. business group files suit to prevent hospital executive salary cap The Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry has filed a lawsuit on behalf of its member hospitals to prevent a ballot measure capping the salary of hospital executives, according to Ahwatukee Foothills News. The proposed measure would cap the pay of hospital executives at the same salary as the president of the United States: $450,000, including expenses, according to the report. Members of the Service Employees International Union initially pushed for the measure. The group started a petition, which turned in more than 281,000 signatures, according to the report. Attorney Roopali Desai claims one of the challenges the union faces are the signatures themselves. Ms. Desai said that because petitioners gathered signatures before a proper campaign had been formed, every single signature is invalid, according to the report. A hearing for the ballot measure is scheduled for next month. The measure would only apply to hospital administrators and managers. It would not affect physicians and other health professionals. A nurse who found employment aboard an American/British owned cruise ship after as a physician has been sentenced to more than three years in prison, according to The Maritime Executive. The man, identified in the German press as Denny H., was charged with the "deprivation of liberty associated with anesthesia, fraud, forgery and abuse of title," according to the report. The man falsified credentials and claimed he was a certified anesthesiologist. He applied for work at Aida cruise lines and treated nearly 1,300 patients over a span of 10 months before he was arrested. No patients appeared to be harmed by his actions, according to the report. The man was arrested in December 2015 after flying from Miami to Berlin to join a cruise ship, according to the report. PLOS One published a study which found device reps' presence in the operating room may raise ethical questions about their impact on physicians. In the study, researchers conducted group and individual open-ended interviews with two focus groups. Ear, nose and throat surgeons comprised the first focus group and hospital-based attending orthopedic surgeons were in the second group. The investigators also had individual interviews with three former or current medical device representatives, an academic medical center's surgical residency program director and a medical assistant for a multi-physician orthopedic practice. Here are five key notes: 1. Researchers found although surgeons perceive themselves as in charge, device reps make an effort to make themselves "unobtrusively indispensable." 2. By making themselves indispensable, their aim is to create and maintain influence as well as promote surgeons' loyalty to the reps' products. 3. Based on the interviews, researchers founds surgeons perceived the industry-funded training opportunity to be necessary. 4. In turn, device reps and some surgeons viewed the reps as benefiting patient care through raising effectives and lowering deficiencies among operating room staff. 5. The researchers said the study raises some ethical concerns pertaining to the "reliance of surgeons on device reps and device companies for education and surgical assistance and practical concerns regarding existing levels of competence among OR personnel." More articles on devices: Room for one more? Drs. Dennis Devito & Kornelis Poelstra on using Mazor Robotics technology during spine surgeries Camber Spine Technologies, Dr. Joseph DiCicco to study SI joint implant Prolix: 5 key notes InVivo Therapeutics holds $41.63B in cash, cash equivalents at Q2 end: 9 key points In an Athens Banner-Herald article, Athens (Ga.) Orthopedic Clinic's Charles Ogburn, III, MD, noted all AOC employees are "frustrated, concerned, angry, upset and tired," with regard to the fall out from the data breach at the practice in June. However, the staff remains "committed" to patient privacy. Here are seven takeaways: 1. In June, a hacker gained access to the practice's system through a third-party contractor's credentials. The data breach exposed the information of around 397,000 patients, of which 500 records have surfaced on the black market. 2. Hospital officials found a hacker group, known as the Dark Overlords, to be offering the patient records for sale on the black market. 3. According to Dr. Ogburn, AOC has strict standards with regard to IT security and has "always taken patient privacy very seriously." 4. Dr. Ogburn notes he is upset about comments made on social media decrying the practice for being negligent and even complicit with the hackers. "We are upset with the potential mark this leaves on the credibility and integrity of our clinic," writes Dr. Ogburn. 5. All AOC employees are "distraught" about the incident and are committed to winning back the communities trust and continuing to provide the highest level of quality care. 6. Dr. Ogburn also urges community members to leave messages for the AOC team only if they are constructive and to give the team the "space and time" they need to complete the investigation. 7. Dr. Ogburn is an orthopedic surgeon focusing on trauma and reconstruction. He is also the orthopedic surgery chief and medical director of orthopedic trauma at Athens (Ga.) Regional Medical Center. Pokemon GO has taken this summer by storm and many applaud the mobile game for promoting physical activity. However, one medical center is fighting to remove the app from all its locations as people are flocking to the centers' grounds to catch Pokemon, thereby compromising patient safety, according to Health Leaders Media. Her are five insights: 1. Pittsburgh-based Allegheny Health Network, a division of Highmark Health, sent a request to Pokemon GO's manufacturer, Niantic, asking the company to remove all its locations from the app. 2. In a memo to AHN employees, the medical center said the clinics are public places where players can freely catch the Pokemon, which the memo stated "compromises physical safety, patient privacy, computer security and personal safety." 3. The memo advises employees take a special note of people on their phones, unaware of their surroundings. The memo instructs employees to tell players unauthorized photography is banned on AHN premises. 4. Boston-based Massachusetts General Hospital also recently asked their employees to not use the app at work. 5. American Hospital Association asked Niantic to remove all its locations from the app. More articles on practice management: 4 ways healthcare reform benefits private practice Healthcare jobs jump 43k in July, on track to keep growing: 6 key notes Technology boom expected to transform healthcare market by 2021 5 thoughts Niagara Falls, N.Y.-based Spine Surgery of Buffalo Niagara is expanding its practice into a former Denny's restaurant, according to Buffalo Business First. Here are five things to know: 1. The practice filed plans with the Niagara County Industrial Development Agency, asking for a 10-year property tax abatement. The application also requests adding three more employees. The agency plans to decide whether to approve on Aug. 10. 2. The expansion is estimated to cost $1.1 million to renovate the former restaurant. 3. Franco Vigna, MD, owns the practice, which offers surgical treatment, injection therapy, chiropractic care and physical therapy. Ten employees currently serve at the practice. 4. Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Vigna specializes in treating spine disorders. 5. Dr. Vigna wants to expand because his practice has outgrown its current space. Once expanded, he will be able to add X-ray, pain management, psychology and same-day appointment services. 6. If approved, Dr. Vigna anticipates treating patients in the new building by December 1. In today's healthcare economy, more than ever we are seeing the rise of the patient-consumer. These are empowered consumers of healthcare services that are connected, informed, and take an active role in deciding who will deliver their healthcare. Because of this, we have seen the increased importance of online reputation management. The most popular ratings sources (i.e. Healthgrades, Vitals, etc.) have created Yelp for Healthcare. And while Yelp has arguably become one of the most popular websites for finding great places to eat, is the dining experience the same as the spine surgery experience? While the intent of these sources of information is to help provide patients an informed approach to choosing their healthcare provider, there remains questions of whether these websites have been able to capture the complexity of assessing performance in the healthcare setting. Should an internal medicine physician be judged on the same criteria as a neurosurgeon? This is not to feed into some type of implicit ranking of the different schools of medicine, but rather to acknowledge that the skills required to perform well in different disciplines are and should be different. Thus, the metrics we use to judge a healthcare provider's performance should also be different in respect to his or her area of medicine. Patient Poll On Spine-health.com, the top-ranking and largest Musculoskeletal health website in the world, we conducted a poll on what patients consider the most important factors in choosing a spine surgeon. Spine-health.com is the ideal website because of its over 7 million patient visits monthly, highly-engaged patient population, and strong SEO performance for key spine terms. The poll was designed to determine if the current metrics used to evaluate healthcare provider's performance on the top ratings websites were providing the complete story when it comes to evaluating spine surgeon performance. The setup of the poll consisted of looking at all the metrics being used at the top ratings websites in addition to those we felt were more indicative of surgeon performance and patient concerns we see frequently in our Spine-health.com patient forums. Figure 1: If you are considering spine surgery, which things do you care about most in choosing your surgeon? Poll Results What we found is very insightful for spine surgeons. We received responses from 277 patients on Spine-health.com that are currently considering spine surgery. We asked them "If you are considering spine surgery, which things do you care about most in choosing your surgeon?" Of the top five responses, a majority are included on at least one of the top ratings websites, but none are covered on all. The fourth highest ranking response (12.5%) is not listed on any rating site - "Long-term treatment/pain management plan put into place". This was an issue raised by many participants in our patient forums and illustrates the need for surgeons to ensure they develop a pain management plan for patients. It also may indicate the opportunity to proactively address a patient concern that would differentiate surgeons from their competitors. Another interesting outcome was the strong desire patients have in wanting to know about surgical outcome performance (18.3%). This sheds light on the importance patients place on surgical outcomes and also identifies the opportunity that spine surgeons have to share their outcomes data to influence the decisions made by potential patients. Top 5 Ranked Responses (n=277) Effective treatment / Favorable surgical outcomes (18.3%) Communicates well / Explains medical condition, symptoms, surgical, and non-surgical treatment options (17.7%) Ethical / Trustworthy (13.5%) Long-term treatment/pain management plan put into place (12.5%) Compassionate and sensitive (9.0%) A surprising outcome was how few patients ranked "physician referral" (4.6%) in their top 5 choices. This is not to say that maintaining good relationships with referring physicians is not a good practice or strategy for spine surgeons. What it might indicate, however, is that patients are putting more stock in the individual performance of the spine surgeon and his or her ability to effectively communicate the patient's condition and treatment options. A lot of this is probably related to the fact that 77% of patients conduct an internet search prior to booking an appointment*. This may mean that even if a patient is given a referral from a physician, they are still conducting extensive research on that surgeon to ensure they agree with the recommendation of the referring medical provider. It would then seem that it is becoming more important for spine surgeons to establish their individual credibility as patients take a more critical and informed approach to selecting their surgeona shift in the traditional physician referral model. Conclusion In conclusion, it appears there is some merit to many of the ratings websites that currently exists. However, what really matters to patients might not be entirely captured by the criteria being used. While ratings systems may be well suited for healthcare fields such as internal medicine or dentistry, spine surgeons may need to do more to help patients understand their unique value outside of what the top ratings websites provide. Because patients are only able to choose what is presented to them by a rating scale, they are unable to communicate any concerns that fall outside of those preset parameters. This creates opportunities for spine surgeons to think creatively about getting in front of potential patients and informing them of their unique skills and abilities as a surgeon that may not be demonstrated accurately by a 5-star rating system. Learn More By offering the highest quality, physician-written and reviewed patient education information, Veritas Health has become the #1 resource for spine and orthopedic patients to get information about their conditions and treatment options. Because of this, Veritas Health has also become the preeminent platform for spine and orthopedic medical groups to market their services. For more information on how Veritas Health can help your medical group attract new, high quality patients or for a free marketing assessment, contact Jeff Davis at jdavis@veritashealth.com and follow him on twitter @jeff_VERITAS. *Google/Compete Hospital Study [2012] The views, opinions and positions expressed within these guest posts are those of the author alone and do not represent those of Becker's Hospital Review/Becker's Healthcare. The accuracy, completeness and validity of any statements made within this article are not guaranteed. We accept no liability for any errors, omissions or representations. The copyright of this content belongs to the author and any liability with regards to infringement of intellectual property rights remains with them. A deceased patient's daughter sued a Seattle-based University of Washington surgeon for allegedly utilizing bone cement that was not FDA-approved during the patient's spine surgery, according to cnsnews.com. Here are five things to know: 1. The five-week trial culminated in a favorable outcome for the surgeon, with a 10 to two jury vote. 2. The jury found the spine surgeon did not perform below the standard of medical care when he performed the 2007 spine surgery. 3. The spine surgeon used the Norian bone cement. Synthes bought the California-based company Norian, and transformed one of its bone-cement products for spine use. 4. The plaintiff also sued Synthes and four company executives, but the company settled during the trial's fourth week. 5. The patient died on the operating table allegedly due to massive blood clots. Kai-Uwe Lewandrowski, MD, of Tucson, Ariz.-based Center For Advanced Spinal Surgery, traveled to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to create an endoscopic spine surgery education video, according to News 4 Tucson. Here are four highlights: 1. Dr. Lewandrowski collaborated with other surgeons to demonstrate performing surgical procedures, such as endoscopic surgery. 2. He noted endoscopic surgery presents a steep learning curve and Brazil lacks trained endoscopic spine surgeons. 3. The Brazilian Medical Military Academy also honored Dr. Lewandrowski for his work to create an outpatient spinal surgery program for recruits. 4. Dr. Lewandrowski completed his residency at Boston-based Massachusetts General Hospital. A $22 million lawsuit has been filed against Portland-based Oregon Health & Science University and an orthopedic spine surgeon, for allegedly paralyzing a man by dropping a tool on his back, according to a report by The Oregonian. Here are five things to know: 1. The patient filing the lawsuit alleges that the surgeon dropped a surgical instrument on his back, damaging his spinal cord and leaving him paralyzed from the neck down. 2. The lawsuit claims the surgeon was "negligent in dropping the instrument," according to the report. 3. The paralyzed man is seeking $2 million to cover his existing medical expenses as well as $10 million for future medical costs. He is seeking an additional $10 million for the pain and suffering he has been caused. 4. An OHSU spokesperson has declined to comment on the issue, as did the surgeon. 5. According to The Oregonian, the paralyzed man may not receive the $22 million he seeks. A ruling in May 2016 by the Oregon Supreme Court limited the amount of damages in another medical liability case against OHSU to $3 million, setting a precedent. To continue following the latest news and information for Bedfordshire and surrounding areas, simply enter your full postcode below Santander has moved to reassure around 800 European staff whose working rights hang in the balance following the Brexit vote Santander has moved to reassure around 800 European staff whose working rights hang in the balance following the Brexit vote. The banking giant - which has around 30 branches in Northern Ireland - said about 4% of its UK staff are Europeans who have come to work in Britain from across the EU. A spokesman for Santander said: "Like Lloyds Banking Group, we will support these individuals and do whatever we can to help, but we are awaiting clarification on any changes to EU workers' rights in the UK." The lender, which employs 20,000 people in the UK, is among a number of financial heavyweights urgently awaiting clarification on how Brexit negotiations will impact the rights of EU nationals living and working in Britain. The comments come after Lloyds Banking Group said it was looking at ways to help more than 3,000 staff stay in the UK if the referendum result means their working rights are removed. Prime Minister Theresa May said she wants to protect the rights of European nationals working in the UK, but will only do so if British citizens are offered the same guarantees across the EU. But the issue remains clouded in uncertainty until Britain decides whether or not to remain part of the single market. Barclays declined to reveal what proportion of its staff are EU nationals working in the UK, but said it would support workers impacted by the negotiations as much as it could. Royal Bank of Scotland was also unable to provide a breakdown. However, the bank's chief executive, Ross McEwan, previously wrote to staff stating that one of the UK's biggest strengths was "its openness to the rest of the world, and the people of it". "As a major employer and backer of the economy we have a duty to ensure that we reflect that," he said. The financial sector is also awaiting clarity on whether Britain will continue to have access to the bank passporting system once Article 50, activating the UK withdrawal from the EU, is triggered. Banks and financial firms wanting to trade with a country in the European Economic Area must apply for a passport, which allows them to sell their products to any country within the EEA. A report released by Boston Consulting Group after the referendum result said up to 80,000 jobs could be shifted out of London and into rival financial centres across Europe, as banks look to maintain close trading ties with the EU following the Brexit vote. Meanwhile, just last month it was revealed there are fears First Trust could shut branches across Northern Ireland as part of a review of its banking operations here. An internal bank memo says it will "assess and determine the optimal branch footprint" for its business here. And the Financial Services Union (FSU) says it is "concerned about the implications the review will have for staff, customers and branches". First Trust has cut its branch numbers to 30 across Northern Ireland, and reduced its workforce from around 1,200 to 700. And last month Bank of Ireland revealed it's shutting eight locations across Northern Ireland - almost a quarter of its 36 branches. The recent closure of the Belleek branch in Co Fermanagh was also branded a "blow" to the local community, as it was the last bank branch open in the village. Bank of Ireland said that the closures will happen on a "phased basis commencing late autumn 2016". Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) has initiated the first stage of the tender process, seeking interest from companies or consortia interested in constructing the new 3.1km runway The DAA expects to name the successful bidder for the core work of its 320m (270m) Dublin Airport runway project next spring, after launching a formal tender process yesterday. Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) has initiated the first stage of the tender process, seeking interest from companies or consortia interested in constructing the new 3.1km runway. The DAA then expects to narrow those expressions of interest to at least four applicants that will be invited to the second stage of the tender process. It announced earlier this year that it intended to proceed with the construction of a new runway as passenger numbers at Dublin Airport continue to soar. The airport handled 25 million passengers last year and is on track to cater for more than 27 million this year. It's one of the fastest-growing airports in Europe. The work currently being put out to tender by the DAA includes the construction of the new runway itself, as well as associated taxiways, exits, aircraft aprons and stands, the demolition of an old, unused runway and reconstruction of the existing cross-runway. The DAA has told prospective bidders that the old, decommissioned runway is currently being used for aircraft parking and must be demolished. But before the entire length of the new runway and some taxiways can be completed, a new alternative aircraft parking area must be constructed and commissioned, and must be ready by the first quarter of 2018. The DAA is also about to embark on a 60m project to overlay the existing main runway at Dublin Airport. That work is expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2018, and will overlap construction of the new runway for a period of between nine months and a year. The Irish Aviation Authority is also planning to build a new 50m control tower at Dublin Airport. The DAA has to have two conditions attached to the new runway amended. One of the existing conditions is that the runway would not be operational between 11pm and 7am. That would prevent it being used for one of the busiest times of the day, as early morning flights take off for Europe, and many flights from north America begin to arrive in Dublin. A second condition means the total number of night time flights at Dublin Airport cannot exceed 65 between 11pm and 7am once the new runway is built. But the airport already handles about 90 take-offs and landings between those hours. DAA chief executive Kevin Toland has told local community groups the airport wants to secure unconditional night time use of both runways. Local groups from surrounding areas, including the Portmarnock Community Association, have told DAA this would be unacceptable. New EU rules that have reassessed permissible noise levels at EU airports, could mean that the contentious runway planning conditions could be lifted. However, it seems likely at this stage that the DAA will still have to seek an amendment to the conditions from An Bord Pleanala. Dublin Airport added two new airlines to its portfolio this year. They are Aegean Airlines, which launched a new service to Athens, and Cobalt, which flies into the Cypriot capital of Larnaca. It will also see the return of Dutch airline KLM, which will begin a new service to Amsterdam. It currently flies that route from Belfast City Airport. Aer Lingus will also add two US long-haul connections to Newark and Hartford in Connecticut later this year. The eatery, says owner Colin McClean, uses local ingredients where possible 3hree Kings staff Lauren Burke, Lauren Hope, Hannah Mitchell, Chrissy Devine, Lilian Nelson and Jenna Duffy at the opening of the Portstewart branch in August The new coffee shop at Portstewart promenade welcomed 400 people through its doors on its opening day A new coffee shop has opened in the seaside resort of Portstewart, marking an investment of 250,000 and creating 17 jobs. 3hree Kings Coffee Company opened its first premises on the busy promenade last week, with plans already under way to expand into Coleraine and south Belfast in the coming months. Premises have been secured in Kingsgate Street and on the Lisburn Road respectively, and work has begun to fit them out. Proprietor Colin McClean (37) said he would like to extend the brand throughout Northern Ireland in the coming years, and identified mid-Ulster and Ballymena as possible locations. It is an ambitious plan - but Colin is confident the business venture will succeed. The Portstewart native already has a proven track record in starting up and building a successful business - but it is a departure from his original career path. "I was originally a geography teacher but gave it up to go into business," he explained. "I was teaching in an independent boarding school, Ackworth School in West Yorkshire, and I was a boarding master and had days off in lieu of working 24/7. "I would go into Leeds and I really got into men's fashion and decided to open a clothes shop, which I did alongside my teaching job. "It did really well, we had a lot of corporate contracts and then it got to the stage where I realised that I was paying my employees more than I was earning as a teacher, so I stopped teaching to go into retail full-time. After that, someone wanted to buy the business and my wife, Emma, who is from Ballymena, and I saw it as an opportunity to come home to Northern Ireland." So, what sets 3hree Kings Coffee Company apart from the countless other coffee shops on offer? And how will the business lure customers away from rival, well-established global firms? "We're different from other coffee shops for a number of reasons," explained Colin. "Most high street coffee shops that you go in to only sell pre-packed food, but we make everything daily, on-site, and if a customer wants something that is off menu, then we can tailor for that as well. Where possible, we use local ingredients and we also use specialist ingredients, so things like sour dough. "We have teamed up with a coffee company called UCC, which is one of the biggest coffee companies, which is important for us." Open for just a matter of days now, 3hree Kings has already proved a hit with people in the popular Co Londonderry seaside town. The eatery has been so successful, it is already recruiting additional staff. "We started out with 10 people but we are in the process of employing more as we have been so busy," continued Colin. "In total, we will have 16 or 17 barista positions. "We're open from 8am to 10pm, so at the moment our staff are working pretty long shifts so the increase in employees will help that. "There are about 70 seats in the shop and, in terms of customers, we had about 400 people through the doors on the first day and it has been pretty much constant since. "The feedback we've had has been very, very positive." However, recognising the fact that the client base in Portstewart is likely to drop outside the peak summer holiday months is one of the reasons behind the company's planned expansion, according to Colin. "We believe the Coleraine shop will compensate for the drop in trade in Portstewart over the winter," he said. "We're hoping to open in Coleraine towards the end of August. "The fit-out has already started and there is a four-week turnaround for those guys. "I think we are going to employ in the region of 20 people in Coleraine and the shop will represent an investment of around 200,000. "We are hoping to open the shop on the Lisburn Road in October. "The fit-out guys have been in there and ripped out all the old stuff, and are starting their work, but it will open slightly later than the Coleraine branch, possibly in the first week of October. "We're planning to employ 30 people there and it is an investment of another 200,000. "We feel confident about the business and we would like to open shops right across Northern Ireland, but we're concentrating on the first three for now," he added. Northern Ireland companies must ensure they are familiar with major changes governing commercial insurance here amid the biggest shake-up in more than a century. Jeff Graham, senior vice president of insurance broker Lockton Belfast, has welcomed the Insurance Act 2015, which comes into effect on Friday (August 12). He said the new legislation will offer more protection to policy holders but warned there are additional requirements they must now meet to ensure insurance companies provide full cover in the event of a claim. "This has been a long time coming," Mr Graham said. "This is the first time there has been an overhaul in legislation in more than 100 years and will make the process more user friendly and favour policy holders rather than insurance companies." Mr Graham said there are a number of significant changes, including the fact that any financial penalties imposed by insurance companies will have to be proportionate. He added: "Previously, if there was a breach of warranty the insurer could have used that to avoid paying for a claim, irrespective of whether or not the claim related to the breach of warranty. "For example, if there was a clause in a policy that they must set an alarm and the company forgets to do that and a plane falls out of the sky and lands on the building the insurer could have said the alarm wasn't on so they weren't going to pay out. "Of course, if you forget to put on the alarm and the premises are broken in to then that is a different matter. "Essentially, the breach of warranty has to be related. "You may have a vacant property and the insurer states it has to be inspected every two weeks. "Previously, if something happened to those premises and the insurer found out that the policy holder had failed to inspect the property on one occasion six months ago they could have refused to pay out. "They can no longer put that argument forward, the failure to inspect has to happen in the period immediately before the issue relating to the claim." Mr Graham said the Act introduces a new duty to make a fair presentation of risk to insurers, and this now includes information known as senior management. There is also an additional obligation to make a reasonable search for such material information. He said that while there is not yet a clear definition of senior management, companies will be expected to prove they carried out procedures involved in a reasonable search. "Simply put, all parties seeking insurance cover should be aware of the requirements of the Act and examine more closely possible risks that they face in their business and disclose this information to their insurer through their broker," said Mr Graham. "The renewal process for a company's insurances has to now be given more time and approached in a much more structured and strategic manner if a business is to satisfy insurers that the senior team has been fully consulted and a reasonable search for relevant information completed. "For our part we have been working with our clients to ensure they are aware of the changes and what they have to do to comply." The cost of renting a home has risen by 5% in 12 months The cost of renting a home in Northern Ireland has risen by almost 5% to 623 over the last year, according to statistics released today. However, it remains 150 less than the average rental rate in the rest of the UK. Northern Ireland had one of the lowest rates of monthly rents, according to figures for the three months to July, with only landlords in Wales and the North East of England faring worse at 622 and 537 respectively. However, the survey by HomeLet found that Northern Ireland has experienced one of the biggest increases in monthly rent since last July, with a rise of 4.7% from 595. Some regions have seen the monthly rent drop as much as 5% in the last 12 months. The index provides up-to-date data on new tenancies in the UK. As part of the referencing process for around 350,000 prospective tenants each year, HomeLet processes information including the rental amounts agreed, the number of tenants moving into the property, together with the employment status, income and age of all tenants. The trends reported within the HomeLet Rental Index are brand new tenancies which were arranged in the most recent period, giving the most relevant insight into changes in the private rented sector. The data suggests that landlords have been able to continue securing higher rents on new tenancies despite the economic uncertainties created by the UKs vote to leave the European Union in June. It mirrors data from the housing market, with mortgage lenders also reporting modest growth in house prices in the month following the Brexit vote. Although it is believed it is still too early to measure the long-term impact of Brexit. Chris Smyth, director of the rental division at UPS, said he believed the controversial EU vote may have contributed to a strong rental market in Northern Ireland last month. The rental market is definitely healthy, in fact we had the best July this year that we have had in years, he said. July is often a bit quieter and unpredictable, but this July was definitely a busy month for us. I think that perhaps that had something to do with Brexit because if you have any kind of financial uncertainty, people can be a bit more reluctant to buy. In saying that, we also had steady sales in July as well. He added: It is very much a landlords market at the moment. For example, the other week we had a two-bedroom apartment at the Embankment in Belfast and we had more than 50 people wanting to view it. If you have a good property that is high spec, perhaps with a nice plasma television and is well decorated and furnished, then you can ask for maybe 50 or 100 more a month. You also have the choice of tenant. In the recent Court of Appeal decision in Northern Ireland of Galo (Patrick) v Bombardier Aerospace UK 2016 NICA 25, the industrial tribunal was held not to have given the appellant, Mr Galo, a fair hearing. In the recent Court of Appeal decision in Northern Ireland of Galo (Patrick) v Bombardier Aerospace UK 2016 NICA 25, the industrial tribunal was held not to have given the appellant, Mr Galo, a fair hearing. The NICA determined that the tribunal failed to properly take account of his disability and his medical evidence in the circumstances. Mr Galo suffered from Asperger's Syndrome. Mr Galo submitted that a number of the acts of the tribunal hearing his case in the first instance, were unlawful. These included: failure to make reasonable adjustments in relation to his Asperger's Syndrome; unreasonably failing to adjourn the case; proceeding to hear his unfair dismissal claim in his absence and in the face of medical evidence supportive of an adjournment. During Mr Galo's tribunal case, his former employer conceded that he suffered from Asperger's Syndrome, but the NICA held that no enquiry from the tribunal was made as to the precise nature of the disability, or any potential reasonable adjustments. The Court of Appeal stated: " this was, and should have been recognised as such from the outset, a case involving a person under a disability of mental healthas soon as it emerged, enquires should have been made as to whether reasonable adjustments to the process were necessary" The tribunal was criticised further in relation to the lack of an attempt to invite doctors to attend the hearing, in order to outline specifically Mr Galo's condition or to obtain a report on his condition. During the hearing there was clear medical evidence produced which made it apparent that Mr Galo was not in a position to proceed. It was deemed obvious that the tribunal was fully aware of the distress of the appellant. A report from a clinical psychologist, Dr Wendy Lusty, was produced at the tribunal hearing, and it stated: " the way in which the appellant thinks, communicates and behaves socially is significantly different in nature to most people. He experiences very high levels of distress in everyday situations and as a result is highly avoidant" Mr Galo applied to adjourn the hearing but his application was refused by the tribunal on the grounds of insufficient medical evidence. The NICA disputed this argument, as it was evident from Dr Lusty's report that reasonable adjustments for the Mr Galo were required. In a condemning decision for the tribunal, the NICA stated: "the appellant did not benefit from a fair procedural hearing" The above case demonstrates the obligation on the industrial tribunal to take into account a claimant's mental impairments and disabilities, and the effect it may have on their ability to conduct proceedings. Niall McMullan is an Associate Partner in Worthingtons Commercial Solicitors, Belfast, where he specialises in Employment Law and can be contacted on 028 90 434015 Jools and Jamie Oliver leave hospital in London with their baby boy and their children (left to right) Daisy Boo Pamela, Petal Blossom Rainbow, Buddy Bear Maurice and Poppy Honey Rosie Baby gets a tender kiss from dad Jamie Oliver as his wife Jools looks on A beaming Jamie Oliver could not wait to take his newborn baby home as he posed for the first family photographs with the new arrival. The celebrity chef (41) and wife Jools welcomed their fifth child, a baby boy, who the TV chef said weighs the same as "16 packs of butter" - 8lbs. The couple were joined by their other four children at the Portland Hospital in London. They have three girls - Poppy Honey Rosie, Daisy Boo Pamela and Petal Blossom Rainbow - and a boy, Buddy Bear Maurice. The star hinted his new son will have an unusual name too, with the couple likely to go for seasons or "something floral or from the natural world". The Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police is to retire, having never returned to the post two years on from his suspension from duty. Mark Gilmore, a former Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) officer, was suspended in 2014 on full pay by West Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner Mark Burns-Williamson in the wake of a PSNI probe into the award of its police vehicle contracts. Ten months later Northern Ireland's Public Prosecution Service (PPS) said the Belfast-born commander, who always denied any wrongdoing, would not face any charges. A total of nine people, including a number of other police officers, were questioned as part of the PSNI investigation into the vehicle contracts. None were ultimately charged. While Mr Gilmore's suspension was lifted in the wake of the PPS announcement he did not return to his chief constable's post, as Mr Burns-Williamson commissioned Lancashire Police to conduct a separate investigation into his professional conduct as an officer. As that probe was being carried out, he took on a temporary role in what was described as a "transition project" for the National Police Chiefs' Council. With the outcome of the year-long investigation still to be made public, Mr Burns-Williamson said Mr Gilmore had now informed him of his intention to retire. Deputy Chief Constable Dee Collins, who has been acting as temporary chief since 2014, will continue to lead the force while the process to find a new top officer begins. "Today the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner has received notification from Chief Constable Mark Gilmore of his intention to retire from the service," said a statement from Mr Burns-Williamson's office. "A recruitment process will begin in due course but in the meantime Dee Collins will continue in post as Temporary Chief Constable of West Yorkshire." At the time of his initial suspension in June 2014, Mr Gilmore, who attended a police interview in Belfast voluntarily, insisted he had always acted with honesty and integrity. One of the images of Bishop Daly during Bloody Sunday The remains of the late Bishop Edward Daly which were brought to St. Eugene's Cathedral in Derry on Monday evening Retired Bishop of Derry Dr Edward Daly - thrust into the spotlight as the priest waving a blood-stained white handkerchief on Bloody Sunday - will be remembered as a "fearless peacebuilder", the leader of Ireland's Catholics has said. Dr Daly was surrounded by family when he passed away yesterday at the age of 82 after losing his battle with cancer. Hundreds attended the removal of his remains from Altnagelvin Hospital to St Eugene's Cathedral in Derry last night. The coffin was escorted from a local funeral director's premises in William Street to the cathedral by his family and local priests. With the papal flag and Bishop Daly's coat-of-arms flying at half-mast outside the parochial house at St Eugene's - where he served as bishop from 1974 until his retirement in 1993 - the coffin was met at the entrance by the current Bishop of Derry, Dr Donal McKeown. Many of Bishop Daly's clerical and lay contemporaries were present, and attended a prayer service. Also there were his sisters Marion and Anne, as well as his devoted housekeeper Betty. A host of religious leaders, politicians and members of the public paid tribute to the deceased cleric yesterday. Among them was Gerald Duddy, who was just 14 when he watched the then Fr Daly comfort a young man shot by the Army on Bloody Sunday in January 1972 unaware that it was his own brother Jackie (17). Mr Duddy told the Belfast Telegraph Dr Daly would never be forgotten by the people of the city. "He was my hero and he has been my hero since the day I watched him give comfort to someone who had been shot on Bloody Sunday. "I didn't know at that time that it was our Jackie - but to know that our Jackie didn't die alone on the street because of him is something that will never leave me. He risked his own life to help the dead and dying on that day while the bullets were still flying - he was a man of the people and just wanted to be treated as an ordinary man, which was the making of him. "Everyone knows that picture of him waving his white handkerchief in front of men carrying our Jackie, and that handkerchief was the most treasured possession in our family." Catholic Primate of All Ireland Archbishop Eamon Martin, who was ordained as a priest by Dr Daly in 1987, said: "(He was) a fearless peacebuilder - as exemplified by his courage on Bloody Sunday in Derry - and a holy and humble faith leader." First and Deputy First Ministers Arlene Foster and Martin McGuinness also paid their respects. Mrs Foster stated: "Bishop Daly devoted his life to serving and helping others, quietly undertaking a wide range of charitable works in the local community. During the darker moments of our recent past Dr Daly made a significant contribution by arguing that violence should be rejected and by articulating a vision based on respect and tolerance." Mr McGuinness added: "He was a man of authentic faith and compassion, and a tremendous force for good who dedicated his life to the service of others." Retired Church of Ireland Bishop James Mehaffey described Bishop Daly as his "very great friend". He added: "He was a man of God and a man of the people - a great church leader and a remarkable friend." Church of Ireland Bishop of Derry and Raphoe Dr Ken Good said Bishop Daly's death was a loss to the whole community. Dr David Latimer of First Derry Presbyterian Church added: "In the 28 years since I came to Derry, I got to know Bishop Daly best through his work in the Foyle Hospice, where he provided great spiritual comfort to the patients and families, regardless of their Christian affiliation or if they had no faith at all." SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said: "It is difficult to fully express the huge sense of loss which the city of Derry is currently feeling. He was greatly loved and will be hugely missed." The elderly victim of a violent rural robbery has said raiders threatened to burn her Bible as they ransacked her isolated farmhouse before her husband suffered a heart attack. Ruth Pollock, who is in her 70s, was left badly bruised after being tied up by masked and armed intruders claiming to be from the IRA, who smashed into their north Antrim home at around 1am yesterday. They took cash and beat up her husband Chris (78) - and the pensioner later suffered a heart attack brought on by the stress of the ordeal. Both pensioners were treated in hospital for their injuries. However, Ruth returned to her Lisnagat Road home near Mosside on Monday morning to feed her cattle while her husband was being kept in the Causeway Hospital in Coleraine. Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph at her home yesterday, Mrs Pollock said she was praying he makes a full recovery and hopes he can get out today. Mr and Mrs Pollock married in 1999 and have lived in the farmhouse ever since. They had never experienced rural crime until terror arrived in their home yesterday as they slept in their bed after listening to an American religious preacher on a radio show. The couple attend gospel halls in areas like Ballintoy and Ballycastle, and Mrs Pollock said her faith was helping her get through. She said as they slept they were suddenly pulled from the bed by the raiders. She said: "There were two young boys, with masks on. They said they were IRA. I kept brave and cool and I said I didn't interfere with the IRA. "I said: 'IRA? If you repent the God above will forgive you'." Mrs Pollock thought they might have been pretending to have been IRA and that there was a possibility they were local. "They pulled us up to the front room. They tied me up and they ransacked the house," she said. "They said they were looking for money and said they were going to burn one of the Bibles. They even looked behind pictures on the walls. "They tied the two of us onto the sofa. They tied Chris up. "They had two guns. I don't know if they were real or not. They were dressed the same way as you would see on the television and all we could see was the eyes. "Chris is a farmer and he was strong and they held him down, and as he tried to resist they gave him a terrible battering. And they were sore with me too. "They tied the two of us with a green cord and they broke the house phone at the last. They tied me on the legs with my hair dryer flex, then Chris said they were away. It must have been the hand of God but I was able to free myself and I tried to cut a belt which they had tied Chris' arm with. "I had serious bother getting that cut off his wrists. "His wrists are swelled and I suppose that is what give him the heart attack. I suppose it was the shock. "When I went in to the hospital I was shaken and my blood pressure was sky high and I said I would keep calm and I prayed to the Lord that he would keep me calm." Mrs Pollock said after they freed themselves, her husband drove them to Ballycastle police station where they were given tea. Officers then called an ambulance to take them to the Causeway Hospital. She added: "I was in all night and I was only home at 11am this morning. Chris wanted home but I told him to stay there and I would look after the cattle." Mrs Pollock said she is unconcerned that the men might return, and said she will not be leaving her home. She added it was the first time something like this had happened. She said although the raiders threatened to come back, police said they would keep watch, and a neighbour was going to stay with her while Chris was in hospital. Mrs Pollock said the police gave her a mobile phone that she can use to contact them. Officers are investigating, and Detective Sergeant Wallace said: "It was reported that two masked men, wearing dark clothing and armed with suspected firearms, forced entry to the house at around 1am. They threatened and tied up the two occupants, both aged in their 70s, and then ransacked the house. "The men left the house a short time later with a sum of money. Both occupants were left very badly shaken by their ordeal." An artist's impression of the new University of Ulster campus (University of Ulster/PA Wire) New paving, lighting and public art is set to transform part of Belfast city centre. A multi-million pound investment will improve the streetscape from Castle Place to the new Ulster University campus on York Street. Communities minister Paul Givan said: "These works will make the area more welcoming, vibrant and attractive to further investment and will build on the successful implementation of Belfast Streets Ahead in the heart of the shopping district which has helped transform the city centre." A tender process has commenced to appoint a contractor to complete the works which will also extend to some surrounding streets. The public realm scheme which was designed by a team led by McAdam Design, will see the area transformed to include new paving, street furniture, lighting and public artwork. The Department for Communities (DfC) is contributing over 20 million to the scheme. Belfast City Council has also agreed to contribute 5 million. Dissident republicans are now capable of launching a bomb attack on mainland Britain, security sources believe. A few dozen hard line republican terrorists are responsible for the heightened security fears across Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. Security sources have confirmed that the New IRA is currently the most dangerous terrorist organisation operating in the province. Intelligence gathered by both police and MI5 suggests that the paramilitary group has improved its bomb-making techniques and is highly capable of launching a bomb attack in the UK. A major arms haul uncovered by police in Lurgan last week was believed to belong to the New IRA. Firearms and munitions were found by police during a two-day search operation in the grounds of a former convent on the outskirts of the Co Armagh town. Police said the items were in the advanced stages of readiness and some were ready to be used. Formed in 2012 from the amalgamation of a number of dissident organisations, the New IRA killed prison officer Adrian Ismay, using an under-car bomb in March. While covert surveillance and the interception of weapons being smuggled into Northern Ireland have led to the prevention of a series of deadly attacks, the capabilities of the New IRA are causing fresh concerns within security circles. However, the numbers of dissident republicans who pose a high threat are just a few dozen, according to a security source. There are others on the fringes involved in fundraising and other support roles, but the number of hard core, active radicals is low. Their activities were also dealt a major blow earlier in the year with the discovery of two secret arms dumps in forests outside Larne. Explosives, guns and ammunition were recovered by police after suspicious objects were reported by members of the public. Terrorists have upped their bombing campaign over the past year. According to police statistics there were 52 bomb attacks within a 12-month period a 40% increase from the previous 12 months. There have been unconfirmed claims from dissidents that they have acquired a large stash of Semtex, but security sources said the grouping does not have the same large-scale international outreach they previously had and added that weapons procurement is more opportunistic now. A source also revealed that four attacks are stopped for every one that gets through. Some large attacks were stopped recently. There is a lot of stuff being done behind the scenes. Some of that becomes public knowledge but many dont. Thats the nature of intelligence, he said. The dissident republican threat to Great Britain was raised to substantial in May following MI5 intelligence. According to sources the level was raised after MI5 picked up general chatter among terror suspects. It is harder for them to launch an attack outside Northern Ireland but they have done it in the past, a source said. He added, however, that the real threat remained within Northern Ireland. The real threat is in Northern Ireland. Thats where all our effort is concentrated. Raising the threat level [in Great Britain] has brought it closer to the Northern Ireland level, but it is still below it, the source said. MI5 agents must work with whistle-blowers to obtain secrets vital to access intelligence. Image posed by models In her bootcut jeans, trainers and T-shirt, she could easily be the girl next door. Mel is in her 30s. She is pretty, fresh-faced and smiley. She also laughs a lot. You could imagine her as the life and soul of the party during a night out with the girls. But behind the smiles and laughter lies a secret that only her closest family members know. Mel is an MI5 spy, highly trained in espionage and the use of informants. During six years operating in Northern Ireland, the information she has uncovered has helped prevent innumerable terrorist atrocities. I am introduced to Mel - I'm not completely convinced that is her real name - in a small interview room at MI5's Northern Ireland headquarters. In a remarkable interview with the Belfast Telegraph, Mel opens up about what it is really like to work for one of the most shadowy organisations in the world. Read More It is Mel's job to find people with access to secret intelligence about Northern Ireland's terrorist groups, and build a relationship with them to obtain the secrets. These whistle-blowers are known as agents; their handlers, like Mel, are called intelligence officers. With the threat from dissident republican terrorists 'severe' in the province and 'substantial' across other parts of the UK, gleaning information from these agents about the terrorists and their operations is vital. To an outsider, her job may sound like the stuff of Bond movies. But while television series such as Spooks have glamorised life in Britain's secret services, Mel is quite unfazed by it all. "It's not that different to any other job really. I have normal working hours and I don't take work home. I spend a lot more time at my desk than people would think. There is a lot of paperwork to make sure we are authorised and covered legally to go out and meet agents," she explained. Mel joined MI5 straight from university where she had been studying sciences. Gone are the days when agents were recruited after a discreet tap on the shoulder at their university. Today, spooks are recruited like anyone else. Posts are publicly advertised, and hopefuls must first sit tests devised to reveal their powers of analysis and observation. "It was the last year of my degree and I was looking out for jobs. I applied through the MI5 website. It was a very lengthy process of interviews and assessments. It was never something I had thought about before, but as I got further into the recruitment process the more excited I became," she said. That was 10 years ago, six of which have been spent, on and off, in Northern Ireland, recruiting individuals to do difficult and dangerous things, sometimes betraying family and friends. So how does she do it? Money? Charm? Coercion? "We don't coerce people or blackmail them. That's not the start of a good, trusting relationship. We start off setting out to the individual who we are as an organisation. If that is not enough to convince someone then it is best to leave it. It can be an uphill struggle over here because of how you are seen as an organisation. I think it is a shame. "It is about finding the right place at the right time. Everyone is different so your approach varies. "The whole point of it is getting that piece of information. That information is then fed in and combined with other things to build a picture. Very often the agents add context to information already held. That information saves lives. It is really important. I have the utmost respect for the people I meet. They are very brave people. "It all comes down to trust. You build up that trust with people and they trust your judgment. Trust is something that is built up over time. You can't expect someone to trust you right away. But you do build up a friendship. "People do it for different reasons. Motivation varies massively. For some it can be money, for others it is because they genuinely want to save lives," Mel explained. It all sounds a bit like Carrie Mathison, the CIA agent in American TV drama Homeland who recruits sources where nobody else can. But Mel couldn't be more opposite to the blonde, highly strung, bipolar Mathison if she tried, from her dark hair to her calm persona. I told her she was not what I was expecting. That she appeared to be more yoga teacher than hardcore spy. "I'm just normal," she laughed. "Carrie Mathison annoyed me. I had to turn it off, she annoyed me that much. She is nothing like me. "You wouldn't be able to do your job if you were that highly strung. The risks are too high. "Being able to cope under pressure is very important. You must have the ability to think clearly under pressure. You're responsible for that agent's safety and security. That is foremost in your mind when dealing with an agent. We put a lot of effort into protecting an agent's safety. If anything happened you would lose support in a community." So how does Mel describe herself? "I would describe myself as being measured, calm and considered. I don't get fazed very easily. I like the idea of getting out and meeting people, and being at the front end of what is going on," she said. I asked what it felt like to obtain information that helped foil a terror attack? It must be a real buzz? "It is great when you are involved in that sort of thing. It is what we join to do. We are here to stop the attacks. It is a good moment. "There is a whole team of people, it's not just the information I get. But it does feel good," she stated. Mel was surprised when I asked if she ever felt lonely leading such a secret life? "No, not at all. I have friends!" she responded. But it must be a tremendous psychological strain, not being able to be open with friends and family, I suggested to her. "I don't find it difficult to have relationships. I just don't talk about my job. I find my conversations with people are much more interesting as a result of us not talking about work. "If you have a bad day at work, we talk to each other. There is a real team effort. It's a very open environment to work in," she explained. And what about the danger her job brings, especially in Northern Ireland where MI5 spooks would be prize targets for dissident republicans? "It's not something I worry about too much. Northern Ireland can get a bit of a bad press. We take a lot of measures for our own safety. But it is not something that keeps me awake at night. You get on with your life. I go out, I go running, I meet people, I travel," she said. And then my time was up. Mel had "things" to get back to. As we said goodbye I suddenly realised that while she had been extremely chatty, she had somehow revealed very little. "I am no different to anyone else," she again insisted as she left. Somehow I doubt it. Tomorrow: The jailed dissident gang, taken down by MI5, that could be set to take up violence again Senior paramilitary John Boreland was shot dead outside his north Belfast home A 42-year-old man arrested by detectives investigating the murder of a prominent paramilitary has been released unconditionally. Ulster Defence Association (UDA) member John Boreland, 46, was shot several times with a shotgun outside his apartment in north Belfast on Sunday night. Detectives believe the shooting of the known criminal was linked to disputes between rival loyalist factions. The man had been detained in north Belfast on Monday night. Mr Boreland, a father of three, survived a murder bid in 2014 and had been made aware of a death threat in recent weeks. There have been mounting tensions between loyalist gangs in north Belfast in recent weeks. Loyalist gunmen have been responsible for dozens of murders since the organisations supposedly went on ceasefire in the 1990s. Many killings have been linked to feuds and turf wars among rivals. The latest shooting has prompted further questions about the authenticity of the ceasefires. Last year, the main loyalist paramilitary groups restated their commitment to non-violence as they came together to launch a new initiative - the Loyalist Communities Council. Senior paramilitary John Boreland was shot dead outside his north Belfast home A 42-year-old man arrested by detectives investigating the murder of a prominent paramilitary has been released unconditionally. Ulster Defence Association (UDA) member John Boreland, 46, was shot several times with a shotgun outside his apartment in north Belfast on Sunday night. Detectives believe the shooting of the known criminal was linked to disputes between rival loyalist factions. The man spent a day in custody following his arrest in north Belfast on Monday night. Mr Boreland, a father of three, survived a murder bid in 2014 and had been made aware of a death threat in recent weeks. There have been mounting tensions between loyalist gangs in north Belfast in recent weeks. Loyalist gunmen have been responsible for dozens of murders since the organisations supposedly went on ceasefire in the 1990s. Many killings have been linked to feuds and turf wars among rivals and the latest shooting has prompted further questions about the authenticity of the ceasefires. Last year, the main loyalist paramilitary groups restated their commitment to non-violence as they came together to launch a new initiative - the Loyalist Communities Council. The man was detained by detectives from the Police Service of Northern Ireland's serious crime branch A 40-year-old man arrested by police investigating violent dissident republican activity in the Londonderry area has been released unconditionally. He was questioned at Musgrave station in Belfast after being detained by detectives from the Police Service of Northern Ireland's serious crime branch on Tuesday morning. Two women were arrested on suspicion of breaching the security cordon A pipe bomb has been discovered in North Belfast. A controlled explosion was carried out by Army technical officers and the device removed for forensic examination. The security alert in the North Queen Street area has ended and all roads reopened. Detective Inspector Mary White said: "This incident has caused massive inconvenience, disruption and upset for the local community of North Belfast and I would like to thank the members of the public for their patience and co-operation during the operation this morning." Two women, aged 27 and 38, were arrested on suspicion of breaching the police cordon around the security operation and are being questioned. Detectives appealed for anyone who noticed suspicious activity to contact police. Sinn Fein Stormont assembly member Caral Ni Chuilin said those responsible for leaving the device are at war with their own community. She added: "Residents were forced out of their homes for several hours today while this device was being dealt with. "Those responsible showed no concern or care about the safety of the residents or passers-by. "It is no surprise to anyone that this incident followed a night of anti-social behaviour in the area associated with a nearby bonfire, which included street fighting among rival gangs and the theft and burning of local property." She said hammers and knives were recovered and the explosive spotted. "The people responsible for placing this device are at war with their own community. They should stop their futile actions before they kill or seriously injure someone." Police and ATO at the scene of a security alert on North Queen Street area of Belfast where a pipe shaped object has been found 9th August 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph ) Police and ATO at the scene of a security alert on North Queen Street area of Belfast where a pipe shaped object has been found 9th August 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph ) Police and ATO at the scene of a security alert on North Queen Street area of Belfast where a pipe shaped object has been found 9th August 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph ) Police and ATO at the scene of a security alert on North Queen Street area of Belfast where a pipe shaped object has been found 9th August 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph ) A pipe bomb has been uncovered during the security alert in North Queen Street in Belfast. Police were forced to close the road on Tuesday morning after a suspicious object was found. The Army bomb squad examined the object and carried out a controlled explosion. It has been taken away for further examination. During the alert two woman aged 27 and 38, were arrested on suspicion of breaching the police cordon and are currently being questioned by police. Detective Inspector Mary White said: This incident has caused massive inconvenience, disruption and upset for the local community of north Belfast and I would like to thank the members of the public for their patience and cooperation during the operation this morning. I am appealing for anyone who noticed any suspicious activity in the North Queen Street area close to Spamount Street or anyone with any information that could assist with the investigation to contact Detectives at Reactive and Organised Crime at Musgrave Police Station on 101, quoting reference number 247 of 09/08/16. Alternatively, if someone would prefer to provide information without giving their details they can contact the independent charity Crimestoppers and speak to them anonymously on 0800 555 111." A stolen car burnt out in the Poleglass area of Belfast following an anti-internment bonfire on August 9, 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph ) A stolen car burnt out in the Poleglass area of Belfast following an anti-internment bonfire on August 9, 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph ) A stolen car burnt out in the Poleglass area of Belfast following an anti-internment bonfire on August 9, 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph ) The Divis internment bonfire as it burns on August 9 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye ) The Divis anti-internment bonfire as it burns on August 9 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye ) The Divis anti-internment bonfire as it burns on August 9 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye ) The Divis anti-internment bonfire as it burns on August 9 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye ) The Divis anti-internment bonfire as it burns on August 9 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye ) The New Lodge anti-internment bonfire as it burns on August 9 2016( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye ) The Divis anti-internment bonfire as it burns on August 9 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye ) The New Lodge anti-internment bonfire as it burns on August 9 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye ) The New Lodge anti-internment bonfire as it burns on August 9, 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye ) The Divis anti-internment bonfire as it burns on August 9 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye ) The Divis anti-internment bonfire as it burns on August 9 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye ) The Divis anti-internment bonfire as it burns on August 9 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye ) The Divis anti-internment bonfire as it burns on August 9 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye ) The New Lodge anti-internment bonfire as it burns August 9, 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye ) The Divis anti- internment bonfire as it burns on August 9 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye ) The New Lodge anti-internment bonfire as it burns on August 9 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye ) The New Lodge anti-internment bonfire as it burns on August 9 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye ) A senior Sinn Fein MLA has said Belfast residents have been let down over anti-internment bonfires saying they would not be allowed to happen in other parts of the city. MLA Caral Ni Chuilin said residents in the New Lodge area had been "let down" by statutory bodies responsible for dealing with the "illegal bonfires". She told the BBC Stephen Nolan show: "Basically this is the fifth year of unwanted bonfires in the New Lodge and along with residents and representatives of communities we have been meeting with statutory bodies She continued: "I've been speaking to them almost on a daily basis about getting the material removed. "Some lifts were successful but clearly what happened is some of the hardcore young people involved were able to go down lift pallets, stop traffic on North Queen Street in view of everybody and bring material to a housing executive site and build a bonfire. "And despite repeated assurances to residents from the likes of Belfast City Council and Housing Executive that they would do their best to remove them - they failed." The Sinn Fein North Belfast MLA claimed that there would be a different response from those statutory bodies in south Belfast. She said: "First of all, these bonfires are unwanted. "Would this be tolerated in the leafy suburbs of south Belfast? I don't think so I represent constituents in this area, I believe we as rate payers and tax payers deserve a better service that what we are getting. The statutory bodies let us down. "It wouldn't happen in south belfast. It wouldn't happen in the Malone Road I don't think so. It would be removed and the council would find the resources. She added: "It's an anti-community, anti-social event and has nothing to do with politics." The Alliance party also hit out at the fires saying it was unacceptable that Union flags were placed on them. MLA Trevor Lunn said: "It is disrespectful to burn any national flag on a bonfire or anywhere else. It is a crime that does nothing but raise tension and promote division. It is also not acceptable to burn tyres on a bonfire, as the dangerous toxins they contain could damage the health of those in the surrounding area." Meanwhile a teenage girl was left with a suspected broken leg following a hit-and-run at an east Belfast bonfire. Police are investigating the Mountpottinger Road incident which happened in the early hours of Tuesday, August 9. It is reported to have occurred at around 2am and left a teenage girl with a suspected broken leg when a black car struck her near a bonfire site. A council spokeswoman said: "The Council has been working with multi-agency partners and engaging with locally elected Councillors as well as MLAs throughout July and August to address issues around bonfires. Expand Close The Divis anti-internment bonfire as it burns on August 9 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye ) Kevin Scott / Presseye / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Divis anti-internment bonfire as it burns on August 9 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye ) "We have been aware of concerns raised in relation to this bonfire, along with a number of others and have been actively working in the interests of communities to remove a considerable amount of materials at this and other sites over recent weeks. "Securing the necessary contractors to do this work is challenging given the environments and community tensions which often exist around bonfires. Belfast City Council will continue to do all it can working with partners, and our politicians to address the issues around bonfires, and will continue to do so in the months ahead." Enquiries into the incident are ongoing and police would ask anyone with any information to contact officers at Strandtown on 101. Theresa May, then home secretary, at the Olympic Park in London during the 2012 Games Theresa May has wished the athletes of Team GB good luck as they compete at the Rio Olympics, telling them that "the whole nation will be behind you". The Prime Minister urged the team to replicate the success of the London Olympics in 2012 and inspire the nation. She said in a video posted on Facebook on Tuesday afternoon: "On behalf of the whole country I want to wish Team GB every success for this summer's Olympic Games in Rio. "Four years ago you won more medals than countries 10 times our size. "Your sheer hard work, your courage and character inspired our nation and brought our United Kingdom together with a wonderful sense of pride. "I know that you will do so again. "And although you will not see the same crowds cheering you on in Rio, I want you to know that those same crowds will be there in spirit. "The whole nation will be behind you, watching on our televisions and backing you all the way. "English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish, all together with one flag singing one anthem and supporting one team, our team, Team GB. "So good luck in Rio and I say to the whole country let's bring on the great this summer." The opening ceremony of the Rio Olympics took place on Friday August 5. He was known as John 'Bonzer' Boreland. The two 'Bs' are paramount - because John Boreland, a one-time 'brigadier' in the UDA, was murdered in another act of 'betrayal'. Indeed, the terror gang should be renamed - from the UDA to the UBA, the Ulster Betrayal Association. Just take a quick glimpse at its past, and how many of its own it has murdered. From Tommy Herron right back at the start through to Jimmy Craig setting up John McMichael. Craig was then set up in turn, paying for his treachery by being shot dead in the Bunch of Grapes bar in east Belfast. And it continued through to Jim 'Doris Day' Gray, first of the so-called 'Brigadiers of Bling', being gunned down by his own. And the biggest one of all: John 'Grug' Gregg, the then 'brigadier' of the South East Antrim Brigade of the UDA/UFF, who had tried to shoot Gerry Adams, being set up for assassination by Johnny 'Mad Dog' Adair from the Shankill during another vicious loyalist paramilitary internecine feud. And then Adair and his mob being forced out of their lower Shankill lair by - who else - the UDA. The UDA legacy of vendettas is transparently lethal. So is it the same with 'Bonzer' Boreland? He used to rule the roost with co-criminal Andre Shoukri in their blighted north Belfast/Tigers Bay turf. Both Shoukri and 'Bonzer' went behind bars together, jailed for running an armed extortion racket. Late on Sunday night Boreland died at the point of a gun. There are still no official forensic reports of what weapon was used. Some sources say he was met on his way home to his flat by a hitman with a sawn-off shotgun who fired it at point-blank range into his face. It's already on record that this is the type of weapon favoured by the UVF for non-attributable murders: think Bobby Moffett on the Shankill. There are still no forensics, no traceable murder weapon, and no charges or convictions in relation to that crime. It's also on record that over the past week the UVF in Mount Vernon in north Belfast were at loggerheads with their UDA counterparts, fuelling another feud and forcing the serving UDA 'brigadier' and his cohorts to flee their homes. There is speculation that Boreland, with his UDA history tied so tightly into the Tigers Bay mob, may have been targeted for backing his former UDA foot soldiers. That could have put him in the line of fire of a UVF assassin using an untraceable sawn-off shotgun cartridge - again. But Boreland had a battalion of enemies built up over the years. Two years ago he and one-time 'Bookie's Brigadier' Shoukri escaped another alleged murder bid. However, the case against those allegedly involved in the incident was dropped by prosecutors. But Boreland and the Paramafia circles he moved in were no strangers to the lucrative drugs trade - just like 'Mad Dog' and 'Doris Day' and other top UDA godfathers before and since. Intriguingly, late on Sunday night, just after Boreland was shot dead, I got a phone call from a source. That source claimed that Boreland was murdered because he had been involved in a 200,000 drugs scam. The caller said that a hit team from Limerick had come up to Belfast to take their revenge. The notion that so-called loyalist paramilitaries would do business - drugs business - with the killer gangs of the Republic is not new. They've done it before. Now, that begs the question - was John 'Bonzer' Boreland the victim of his own, ultimate 'betrayal'? Or did he betray a deadly drugs gang in the South - and did they, or someone else in the UDA in Belfast, betray him and make him pay with his life at the hands of a hit team from Limerick? Sectarian abuse was hurled at a grieving widow as she visited her husband's roadside memorial after it was desecrated for the second time in south Armagh. Republican vandals attacked the plaque at the weekend of William Clarke, a Protestant workman murdered by the IRA in 1977. And as his widow Betty Clarke and son Graham came to survey the 1,000 worth of damage, thugs drove past the pair mocking the memorial, laughing and shouting sectarian insults. Mrs Clarke (65) said she does not understand why they keep targeting her family. "These people are sick," she said. "They are the scum of the earth, thugs. "They have persistently damaged it - but what really is the point of it? "It was cemented in so they could only have done this with a tractor or a digger. They are destroying my family all over again." Willie Clarke was a 31-year-old father-of-four from Newtownhamilton. He had been digging drains on April 2, 1977, at a farm in Mullaghbawn when he was abducted and murdered by three masked gunmen. His body was dumped at Redmond's Cross, about five miles from the border. Mrs Clarke was aged 26 and pregnant with their fourth child at the time of the murder. At his funeral, a Presbyterian minister said Mr Clarke had no links to paramilitaries or the security forces, "as some would have the world believe". It is the second time his memorial has been desecrated. In 2012 a mahogany memorial that had been cemented in the Carricknagavanagh Road, Mullaghbawn, was stolen the day before Christmas Eve. Ulster Unionists Danny Kennedy MLA and Councillor David Taylor condemned the attack describing it as "disgusting and hurtful in the extreme to the widow and family circle of William Clarke". Mr Kennedy said: "This attack is entirely reprehensible and completely devoid of feeling after nearly 40 years - those responsible are the lowest of the low." Mr Taylor added: "Members of the Clarke family have suffered in silence since 1977 and borne their grief and loss with enormous dignity. "Those responsible are seriously sick individuals." Irish police are implementing "heightened security measures" after a cyber attack on their computer systems Irish police are implementing "heightened security measures" after a cyber attack on their computer systems. The Garda said a lengthy shutdown of some systems inside the force sparked by the discovery of the security threat ended yesterday. However, an investigation is continuing into the identity of the external source behind the attempted hack. Garda chiefs revealed last Thursday that a new strain of malware had been found on their systems. They stressed that no data was compromised and that Pulse, the force's main database, and the Garda website were not affected. "Working with security experts the threat was identified and an appropriate solution was implemented across all Garda ICT systems," a Garda spokesman said. Nosayba (left) and Somaia Halawa, sisters of Ibrahim Halawa, on Grafton Street in Dublin's city centre Lawyers for an Irishman detained for three years without trial in Egypt are to submit a new formal application for his release within days. Solicitors for Ibrahim Halawa insisted the request for a presidential release decree would proceed despite a recent statement in the Egyptian parliament strongly defending the 20-year-old's detention. Mr Halawa was 17 when he was arrested along with his three sisters in a mosque near Cairo's Ramses Square as the Muslim Brotherhood held a "day of rage" over the removal of their elected president Mohamed Morsi. The family insisted they were taking refugee from the protests. His sisters were later released but Mr Halawa, from Firhouse in south Dublin, has been in custody ever since facing a mass trial along with almost 500 other alleged dissenters. Now 20, he is facing the death penalty if found guilty. The case has been adjourned 14 times. Mr Halawa staged a hunger strike protest last year and is again currently refusing food. Earlier in the summer both houses of the Irish parliament passed motions denouncing his "unacceptable" detention. However, at the weekend, Egypt's House of Representatives objected to the calls for Mr Halawa's release. His solicitor Darragh Mackin said the stance of the parliament had no basis in law and would not impact the application to President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, whom he said held ultimate authority over the issue. A previous bid for presidential intervention failed in early 2015. Reacting to the stance of the Egyptian parliament, Mr Mackin said: "There is no hiding from the fact that such a politically charged statement is concerning, and unconstructive, in working towards Ibrahim's release. "It is however a political statement, and has no basis in law, nor is it a direct response to the application for Ibrahim's release. "Ibrahim Halawa is entitled to the presumption of innocence. No evidence has been produced by the state of Egypt to support these allegations, and no finding has been made against Ibrahim by the Egyptian courts." He added: "There is no prospect that Ibrahim will receive a fair trial. A request for Ibrahim's immediate release under the Egyptian presidential decree law 140 is now imminent. It is expected that this request will be lodged before the end of the week." Maya Foa, director of the death penalty team at the a Reprieve organisation, attacked the parliamentarians in Cairo. "It's astonishing that Egyptian MPs are accusing Irish parliamentarians, who have voiced concerns over Ibrahim Halawa's ordeal, of a 'crime'," she said. "Egyptian authorities have overseen a system of torture, sweeping death sentences and deeply unfair mass trials. It is only right that the Irish Government should seek to defend their national, Ibrahim, against such grave abuses." Reprieve said there has been no evidence produced in Mr Halawa's case in the two years he has been detained. Ms Foa said: "Enough is enough - Ibrahim must be released, and the wave of repression that included his arrest when he was a child, his torture, and his illegal detention under threat of death, must end." This is the incredible moment a Ryanair passenger appeared to jump security at a Spanish airport and made a dash to catch a plane across the airside tarmac. The video of the incident at Madrid airport has been posted on social media attracting hundreds of thousands of views and reaction. In the post it is suggested that the passenger was late for his flight at the international airport before taking matters into his own hands. It shows the man, in t-shirt and shorts consider the drop from the sky bridge before making the 10ft jump on to the apron. He then appears to wave to the aeroplane in an attempt to attract the pilot's attention. The holidaymaker then attempts to get into a waiting airport vehicle before making a dash toward a Ryanair plane. The man is eventually stopped by two workers. Those reacting to the post said they were amazed the man was able to get past the airport security. A Ryanair spokesman said: "Since this video relates to a security breach at Madrid Airport, its a matter for Madrid Airport Police." The Belfast Telegraph has attempted to contact the Madrid-Barajas Airport for comment. Hinkley Point C power plant is being financed by a Chinese nuclear power provider and French energy giant EDF (EDF Energy/PA) The Government has insisted it is right to take time to make a final decision on the Hinkley Point nuclear power plant despite Chinese warnings that Britain's relationship with Beijing is at a "critical historical juncture". China's ambassador in London called for a quick decision on the project, in which his country has a one-third stake, and said he hoped the UK would "keep its door open" to the Asian giant. Prime Minister Theresa May caused shock when she ordered a last-minute halt to finalising the 18 billion Somerset plant to review the situation. Suggestions that Mrs May has security concerns over the Chinese state investing in critical infrastructure in the UK appeared to anger Beijing, b ut a Government spokesman has insisted she was right to order the review. He said: "As we've already made clear, this decision is about a huge infrastructure project and it's right that the new Government carefully considers it. "We co-operate with China on a broad range of areas from the global economy to international issues and we will continue to seek a strong relationship with China. "The message that we continue to take to the world is that Britain remains open for business and we are the same outward-looking, globally minded country we have always been." China's ambassador Liu Xiaoming, writing in the Financial Times, outlined his country's experience in managing nuclear plants, and Britain's energy needs. He insisted the safety and security of the plant would be ensured by the UK's regulatory authorities and China's record of 30 years of safe operation of nuclear facilities. He said Chinese companies had invested more in the UK than in Germany, France and Italy combined in the last five years and this was partly down to mutual trust and respect between the two countries. He said the mutual trust is the foundation for bilateral co-operation. "Right now, the China-UK relationship is at a crucial historical juncture," he said. "I hope the UK will keep its door open to China and that the British Government will continue to support Hinkley Point - and come to a decision as soon as possible so that the project can proceed smoothly." He added that it had not been easy for the two countries to come this far, saying: "As long as both sides cherish what has been achieved and continue to expand and deepen our co-operation across the board, bilateral relations will maintain their strong momentum and work for the well-being of both the Chinese and British people." Jon Trickett, Labour's shadow business secretary, accused Mrs May of "bungling negotiations" over Hinkley Point. He said: "I am deeply concerned whether the Prime Minister has the diplomatic skills that are needed to renegotiate Britain's trade relations with the rest of the world. "This is the person, after all, that chose to appoint a Foreign Secretary with the sensitivity of a clown. "But any loss of Chinese investment matters all the more because of this Government's continued failure to develop a modern industrial strategy and provide the infrastructure and other investment needed to deliver it. "Only Labour are prepared to take the decisive action, including a 500 billion investment programme backed up by a National Investment Bank, that is needed to stop our economy collapsing in the wake of Brexit." A Muslim taxi driver who executed a popular Muslim shopkeeper for claiming he was a prophet remained defiant with a clenched-fist raised as he was led to jail to serve a minimum of 27 years. Tanveer Ahmed, 32, travelled from Yorkshire to Glasgow to confront Asad Shah over his claims before pulling out a knife and repeatedly stabbing the 40-year-old at his newsagent shop. Ahmed, who did not know Mr Shah, claimed to have been offended by clips the shopkeeper had posted online which he said ''disrespected the Prophet Muhammad''. The Bradford father-of-three was given a life sentence at the High Court in Glasgow after admitting the murder in Glasgow's Shawlands area on March 24. Judge Lady Rae told Ahmed he must serve a minimum of 27 years before being considered for release. He would have been given a longer sentence had it not been for his guilty plea. She said he had carried out a "brutal, barbaric, horrific crime" for which he had shown no remorse and even appeared proud of what he had done, and described the calculated nature of the murder as "chilling", saying he had carried out what was in effect an "execution". As Ahmed was led away, he raised a clenched fist and shouted loudly: "Praise for the Prophet Muhammad, there is only one Prophet." Some of his supporters in the courtroom responded by raising their arms and repeating the phrase. The murder shocked the close-knit community in the south side of the city where several vigils were held in the wake of the tragedy. Ahmed had watched a clip featuring Mr Shah on his mobile phone as he travelled to Glasgow on the day of the murder and was heard in a phone message to say "listen to this guy, something needs to be done, it needs nipped in the bud". When he arrived at the shop, Ahmed said he warned the shopkeeper he was there to kill him and asked him to stop claiming to be a prophet. Mr Shah's brother and a shop assistant tried to fend him off as he launched his attack on the popular businessman, described by locals as a ''pillar of the community''. The Shah family, who moved to Scotland from Pakistan in the 1990s to escape persecution, belong to the Ahmadi sect of Islam whose beliefs differ from the majority of Muslims. The court heard their belief that Prophet Muhammad was not the final prophet was a view many consider blasphemous. The family said they were now moving away from Scotland. A statement released on their behalf said: "Asad's family have lost a peaceful, kind and loving brother, son and uncle who can never be replaced. "Most of his family have now left or are in the process of leaving Scotland, a country they came to seek safety in. "They are grateful to the Lord Advocate, Crown Office and Police Scotland for their hard work and compassion." Chief Superintendent Brian McInulty, local policing commander for greater Glasgow division, said: "Our thoughts continue to be with the family of Asad Shah, whose presence in the community is very much missed by everyone who knew him. "I hope that the sentencing today will reassure the immediate community in Glasgow's south side as well as communities all across Scotland that acts of violence such as this are utterly unacceptable and cannot be justified." Lord Advocate James Wolffe QC said: "Asad Shah was a well-liked and respected member of the community who was savagely murdered by a total stranger. "This was a brutal, unprovoked and relentless attack on an unsuspecting victim. It has left his family and friends devastated at the loss of a kind and peace-loving man. "Tanveer Ahmed's crime has rightly been condemned by communities across Glasgow and the rest of the country." A Ukip leadership candidate is calling for the Muslim veil to be banned in public buildings, shopping centres and on buses and trains. Lisa Duffy, who is aiming to succeed Nigel Farage, is also demanding the closure of Islamic faith schools until the problem of Islamist terrorism is dealt with, as well as a "complete and comprehensive ban" on sharia courts. Answering questions from reporters after a speech in London, she said: "This is not about singling out. "This is about working to make sure we have a well-rounded community, a community that has an opportunity for all. When I talk about the veil in public places, it's about one rule for all." Photo appearing to show British special forces operating near al-Tanf in Syria in June. Image: BBC Photos have emerged appearing to show British special forces operating in Syria in support of rebels fighting Isis. The images, obtained by the BBC, show around a dozen commandos riding long-range patrol vehicles and armed with sniper rifles, anti-tank missiles and artillery. They were photographed near al-Tanf, where the UK is supporting the New Syrian Army (NSA) as it fights to push Isis back from strategic territory near the borders with Iraq and Jordan. The rebel group has been repeatedly targeted by fighters from the so-called Islamic State using car bombs and ambushes in battles to control a border crossing and al-Hamdan Airbase . British special forces were spotted alongside the NSA in June, shortly after around nine of the moderate rebels were killed in an Isis assault. Unlike regular army troops, they do not need Parliamentary approval to be deployed and the presence of covert operatives in Syria has never been confirmed by the Government. The NSA is understood to have received training, weapons and equipment from the Pentagon as well as intensive air support from the US-led coalition. Expand Close Photo appearing to show British special forces operating near al-Tanf in Syria in June. Image: BBC / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Photo appearing to show British special forces operating near al-Tanf in Syria in June. Image: BBC Russian planes hit its base with cluster munitions in two air strikes in June, prompting a diplomatic row after American fighter jets attempted to prevent the strike and instructions over a special communications channel to avoid mid-air confrontations were ignored. Colonel Christopher Garver, spokesman for the anti-Isis Operation Inherent Resolve, said the NSA was attempting to drive militants out of the border city of al-Bukamal and cut Isis supply lines and the flow of foreign fighters along the Euphrates River. It was among the groups receiving training at coalition-run camps in Jordan and has reportedly been equipped with state-of-the-art American weaponry. Expand Close Photo appearing to show British special forces operating near al-Tanf in Syria in June. Image: BBC / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Photo appearing to show British special forces operating near al-Tanf in Syria in June. Image: BBC Read more Read More The NSA, which opposes President Bashar al-Assad, is drawn from local Syrians and believed to include elite former special forces commandos who defected from the regimes army. The group said coalition air strikes hit Isis positions in al-Bukamal on Tuesday morning, dealing a devastating blow to Daesh by destroying 83 oil tankers. On Sunday, NSA fighters said they successfully intercepted Isis fighters and blew up one of the groups car bombs during an attempted assault on al-Tanf. The RAF is continuing to provide air support in the region, with two Tornados targeting a convoy of Isis oil tankers near al-Bukamal on Sunday. Britain is also supporting the predominantly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces group as it pushes Isis back near Manbij in northern Syria. The Ministry of Defence announced the deployment of 75 military personnel to train Syrian rebels as part of a US-led programme last year. It said thousands of opposition fighters would be equipped to help them defend Syrian communities against Isis brutal attacks before leading offensives themselves in Turkey and other countries in the region. The MoD told The Independent it does not comment on special forces operations and would not confirm the NSA was among the groups it supports. British special forces are also said to be fighting against Isis in Iraq and Libya. Independent Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Turkey and Russia can rebuild their damaged ties and make the two countries even closer after talks with Vladimir Putin. Calling the Russian leader his "dear friend", President Erdogan said Turkey is ready to implement a natural gas pipeline project with Russia and a deal to build Turkey's first nuclear power plant. Mr Putin, in his turn, said that the flow of Russian tourists to Turkey - halted after the downing of a Russian jet by Turkey in November - will resume. Mr Putin added that he and Mr Erdogan will have a separate discussion on Syria later on Tuesday involving top military and intelligence officials to search for common ground in the crisis, where Moscow and Ankara have backed the opposing sides. AP While Moscow has backed Syrian President Bashar Assad throughout the nation's civil war and further bolstered that support by launching an air campaign last September, Turkey has pushed for Mr Assad's removal. Previously close ties between Moscow and Ankara broke down after a Turkish jet shot down a Russian warplane at the Syrian border, an incident that Mr Putin had described as a "treacherous stab in the back." Relations remained at a freezing point for seven months until Mr Erdogan met the Russian demand for an apology over the incident. Mr Putin then ordered his government to start rebuilding ties with Turkey, and when Mr Erdogan faced a botched coup attempt on July 15 the Russian leader quickly offered his support. President Erdogan particularly mentioned Mr Putin's gesture, saying it "gladdened me, my colleagues and our people". Analysts say that Mr Erdogan may now be hoping to play the Russian card to strengthen his hand in disputes with the United States and European Union. Turkey is pressing the United States hard to extradite Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom the government blames for the failed coup. Gulen denies the claims. The dispute has strained US-Turkish ties, with some Turkish officials implying the US could have been behind the coup. Washington has denied that. Speaking after the talks with Mr Putin, Mr Erdogan reaffirmed his claim that Mr Gulen was behind the coup - but did not touch on Ankara's demand for his extradition. The failed coup saw renegade Turkish military officers using jets, helicopters and tanks to try to take power in a night of violence that left more than 270 people dead. Since then, about 18,000 people have been detained or arrested and nearly 70,000 people suspected of links to Mr Gulen have been suspended or dismissed from the civil service, judiciary, education, health care and the military. European officials and rights groups have expressed concern over the crackdown - statements that have vexed Turkish authorities. Ankara has accused the West of failing to show due support for a democratically elected government. In contrast, Mr Erdogan praised Mr Putin for offering his support after the coup and said that "we are strongly determined to take our relations to the pre-crisis and even higher level". Mr Putin responded in kind, saying that "higher interests of our peoples, our nations require the restoration of our relations." AP I respect First Minister Arlene Foster. She is a smart and strong leader and, naturally, I am proud she is a Fermanagh woman. Arlene recently chastised me in the Belfast Telegraph because our internet animated video (IrishNationalCaucus.org) states that - despite the progress of the peace process - "there is still deep-rooted anti-Catholic bigotry in Northern Ireland" (News, January 29). Well, as if to prove my point, the Rev John Gray, minister, Enniskillen Free Presbyterian Church, issues in the Belfast Telegraph (Write Back, August 3) a 17th century-type of letter full of contempt for the "blasphemous Mass". Nothing could be more offensive than such an attack on the Eucharist, which is "the source and summit of the Christian life" and one of Christ's most sacred commands and commissions. The Rev Gray cites Martin Luther, but fails to note that Luther deeply believed in the Eucharist and in the Real Presence (although he explained things differently). The Rev Gray also seems to be unaware of the wonderful agreements that have been reached between the Catholic Church not only on the Eucharist, but also on Justification by Faith - the two wedge issues of the Reformation. However, the issue here is not just about theology. The Rev Gray has deeply offended the Catholics of Fermanagh in his sacrilegious contempt for the Mass. It is now incumbent on First Minister Arlene Foster to show she is the leader of all the people in Fermanagh by publicly repudiating the Rev Gray's hateful rant. But Arlene is not the only one who must repudiate the Rev Gray's bigotry. Tom Elliott MP must do likewise. Interested folk in Washington and in the US Congress will be watching to see if the two top unionist/Protestant leaders in Fermanagh condone the Rev Gray's anti-Catholicism. FR SEAN MCMANUS President, Irish National Caucus Washington, DC It's interesting to see how the police in countries such as France, Germany, Belgium and America deal with terrorism. Events of late have shown that security forces in those countries don't hesitate to shoot to kill when it comes to keeping citizens safe. How different that would be in Northern Ireland. Imagine the outcry there would be if, say, two dissident republican terrorists had just murdered someone and were shot dead by police. A terrorist is a terrorist. The law-abiding public of the free world would expect no less from their security forces. Yet here we have the absurd rules that, even if a police officer draws his baton, a report has to be submitted to the Police Ombudsman to see if there has been a breach of discipline. I have no doubt that the citizens of mainland Europe feel a lot safer and have full support of their security forces. TOM ALEXANDER By email A Belfast businesswoman is heading to California this week to take part in a worldwide event to promote female leaders in the workplace. Marketing expert Nuala Murphy is the founder of Lean In Belfast, part of an international movement inspired by the book Lean In, published by Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg in 2013. The organisation, which aims to inspire and support women, has thousands of members across the world and more than 350 in Northern Ireland from backgrounds including business, law, medicine, construction, digital and the charity sector. The Lean In regional leaders' conference will be held at Facebook headquarters and Stanford University this weekend. Around 40 women will take part in workshops covering issues such as gender diversity and leadership. "Attending this conference is the opportunity of a lifetime both for me personally and for Lean In Belfast," said Nuala, who is managing director of Malone Marketing in Belfast. "I'll be networking with corporate and community leaders and learning how they are pushing the boundaries to encourage gender equality across all industries, as well as offering women, and men, the peer support they need to advance and grow. I want to share how far the Belfast chapter has come in such a short time, creating a support network where we help each other achieve our goals, as well as our plans for the future which includes launching the wider Lean In Ireland chapter." The conference is being co-hosted by Facebook and Nuala hopes to meet its high-profile boss. "Our goal for the year is to get Sheryl Sandberg to visit us in Belfast," she said. "That would be so inspiring. She is a supreme businesswoman, instrumental in the success of Facebook over the past eight years as the company's COO and the first female board member elected in 2012. "I also admire how she uses her position of influence to call out gender inequality in the workplace and through the team at the Lean In Foundation offers strategies to organisations and individuals on how to make a change. Her belief is that it's not only the right thing to do but it's good for business and the economy too." Nuala is also hoping to connect with individuals to help take forward her female heath tech venture, Happy Mummy Happy Baby, an app to help women with perinatal depression and anxiety. "This is a real passion for me and it's a major issue both globally and locally," said Nuala. "I experienced very bad anxiety during pregnancy but I was lucky that I had a great team around me, but what about all those women who don't have that support? I've uncovered a real opportunity to develop something that will serve an unmet need. I'm working with some local groups and charities and we're at a very early stage, but I think there's great potential." Women walk past a banner that says Lesbians and Homosexuals Forbidden to Enter Our Territority in Bandung, Jan. 27, 2016. A case being heard by an Indonesian court could make gay sex between consenting adults illegal if judges endorse a proposed revision of the nations criminal code. There are no laws on the books on gay sex in Muslim-majority Indonesia, except in westernmost Aceh province, where sharia law is in effect. LGBT people have been a visible and generally accepted subgroup in Indonesia, but they have come under pressure in recent years amid growing social conservatism. In a petition submitted earlier this year, a civil society group called the Indonesian Family Love Alliance (AILA) asked the countrys Constitutional Court (MK) to review three articles in the countrys penal code, arguing that they are unconstitutional. The one that concerns LGBT activists is article 292, which criminalizes same-sex acts between adults and minors. AILA wants to amend the article to include homosexual acts between adults. The article states, Adults who engage in same-sex obscene acts with an adolescent partner or someone who should have been properly perceived to be adolescent can face a maximum five years incarceration. AILAs proposed revision of the clause states, People who engage in same-sex obscene acts with persons of the same sex can face a maximum of five years incarceration. The MK cannot revise the criminal code, but acceptance of AILAs petition would set a legal precedent and open the way for legislative and executive bodies to do so. The case has already had five hearings since June 7. If the articles are amended to penalize [LGBT], they could trigger intolerant acts, LGBT activist Dede Oetomo told BenarNews on Aug. 5. The law enforcers will have the blessing to harass and discriminate if the review is approved, said Dede, the founder of GAYa Nusantara, the first organization in Indonesia that campaigns for the rights and protection of homosexuals in the country. Civilian rights activist Lies Marcoes agreed. We dont want people to take the law into their own hands towards the LGBT people, if the Constitutional Court approves the reviews, she said. Legal certainty AILA chairwoman Rita Hendrawati Soebagio dismissed the notion that revising the criminal code could promote intolerance. She said harassment toward LGBT people stems from the lack of clear laws about homosexuality. If the laws are in place, the public would be aware, she said. The group, based in the Jakarta area, promotes what it says are Islamic family values, campaigns against homosexuality and provides counselling to heal LGBT people. Adrian Husaini, a lecturer on Islamic thought at the Ibnu Khaldun Bogor University and Higher Islamic Boarding School Husnayain Jakarta, agreed. Law enforcers so far are confused in the field because they dont have the legal basis (to handle LGBT cases), Adrian, who testified as an expert witness in the matter before the MK, told BenarNews. What we need to understand is that there is a moral standard in this country, he added. Other expert witnesses brought by the plaintiffs include physician Dewi Inong Irana, who spoke about treating sexually transmitted diseases in homosexual and transgender patients, and University of Indonesia legal expert Neng Djubaedah, who discussed the clauses in question and their links to religious teachings. More testimony is scheduled for the next court hearing, on Aug. 23. Dede Oetomo urged the MKs nine justices to consider the ruling carefully. This is a test for the MK, said Dede, whether they would be wise to reach a decision that is based on science and human rights, instead of on the sectarian morality of a certain group. Vice chairwoman of the National Commission on Women (Komnas Perempuan) Masruchah urged the court to seek diverse opinions on the matter. During the hearings to date, plaintiffs have tried a number of times to correlate this issue with health and psychiatric issues, she said. There should be (testimony) from other parties or experts who have different perspectives, she said. Former Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin speaks to reporters after filing registration papers for the formation of a new political party at the Registrar of Societies office in Putrajaya, Aug. 9, 2016. A new political party proposed by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and other leaders of a group that broke away from Malaysias dominant party on Tuesday moved a step closer to reality. Muhyiddin Yassin, who was sacked as deputy prime minister last year, filed papers that seek to register the United Malaysian Indigenous Party (Bersatu) with the Home Ministrys Registrar of Societies (ROS). Mahathir, Yassin and other ex-members of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) party are touting the new party they hope to form as one that would represent all Malaysians, bring about institutional reform and clean government, as well as challenge the leadership of a current prime minister shadowed by corruption allegations. Muhyiddin filed the paperwork at the registrars office in Putrajaya because Mahathir, 91, was being treated for a chest infection and was being kept under medical observation for the next few days, the National Heart Institute confirmed. Both Mahathir and Muhyiddin, who have been among Prime Minister Najib Razaks most vocal critics over his alleged links to a financial scandal tied to state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), would have top leadership roles in Bersatu. Mahathir, who served as prime minister for 22 years, would serve as the new partys chairman and Muhyiddin, whom Najib sacked last year because of his former deputys public criticism of him over 1MDB, would serve as its president. Mahathirs son, Mukhriz, the former chief minister of Kedah state, would be the vice-president. In June, Muhyiddin and Mukhriz were kicked out of UMNO for speaking out against Najib over the 1MDB affair. In February, Mahathir quit the party that has headed Malaysias ruling coalition for decades. He then accused the partys top leadership of shielding Najib from corruption allegations, which the prime minister has denied. Now, it is up to the Registrar of Societies to weigh the Bersatus application for registration. The registrar would act professionally according to its regulations and the home ministry would not interfere with the process, Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said. I am confident the ROS will carry out its duty without prejudice. The application would be forwarded to a committee for a review for approval by the Home Minister, state news agency Bernama quoted Zahid as saying. A fair Malaysia Muhyiddin, who was replaced by Zahid as deputy PM, said the new party would be open to all Malaysians. The partys membership would be made up of Bumiputera citizens, including indigenous people from the East Malaysia states of Sarawak and Sabah. Non-Bumiputera citizens would be recognized as associate members. Bumiputera means sons of the soil. In Malaysia, the term is used to refer to members of the ethnic majority Malays and other indigenous peoples. We want to be inclusive. We will give them new recognition. We want them to play a role in terms of presenting ideas, Muhyiddin told journalists after registering papers for the partys formation. Associate members would not be allowed to vote or compete for positions in the party, but would be eligible to be appointed to any position of the party. The partys main agenda consists of implementing institutional reforms and pursuing justice to protect the rights of every Malaysian, he said. The whole point is to form a fair Malaysia, Muhyiddin said. Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, a member of Bersatus committee, said it was important for Malay and Bumiputera youths to reject a culture of corruption as a way to save Malaysia. It is time for the Bumiputera to speak out, using this new platform. Its OK if they want to maintain their identity, but be progressive and join this party, said Syed Saddiq. Splinter parties do not last However, some political analysts voiced doubts that the new party could survive for long, if it managed to take off. I doubt there will be a great support from the people, especially when those who will lead the new party are former UMNO leaders who have been seen as having their own agenda, which is to oust the current leadership, Jeniri Amir, a political analyst based on Borneo island, told BenarNews Political parties that have personal agendas do not last long. This is proven based on the development of political parties in Malaysia. Splinter parties do not last, he added. But he noted that the Peoples Justice Party (PKR), led by jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, was an exception. Earlier, Mahathir had said that his new party would form a new opposition bloc that would exist alongside other opposition blocs and parties. The Pakatan Harapan (PH) bloc consists of PKR, the Democratic Action Party (DAP) and the National Trust Party (PAN). A faith-based party, the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), split from that bloc in June 2015 and has since touted itself as acting as a second opposition bloc against the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition. Amir also predicted that it would be hard for Bersatu to enter East Malaysia (Sabah and Sarawak), because raced-based parties from peninsular Malaysia would not appeal to the locals, he said. Political analyst Mohamad Redzuan Othman agreed that PKRs longevity was related to Anwars popularity. I dont see the same fighting spirit from Muhyiddin, who is angry at Najib, and I dont think they will be able to survive, the Universiti Selangor vice chancellor told BenarNews. The Thai junta vowed Monday to hold elections as early as September 2017 after the people voted convincingly in favor of a military-written constitution in the first public opinion test for the generals who seized power two years ago. Following the weekend referendum backing the charter, Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam confirmed a timeline for the 2017 elections devised by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha, who led a coup in May 2014 toppling a democratically elected government. The government will act as quickly as we can (to organize a poll) as the prime minister does not want to prolong his time in power, Wissanu was quoted Monday by Agence France-Presse Monday. Chatchai Na Chiang Mai, spokesman for the Constitution Drafting Committee, was more specific. We think there will be an election at the earliest in September or October 2017, and a new government by December 2017, he told Reuters. A desire to see greater political stability drove the yes vote, analysts told the news agency, obviously referring to the more than a decade of political turmoil as well as two military takeovers and several rounds of often deadly street protests that had dampened economic growth and investment flows. The Thai stock market touched a fresh 16-month high on Monday in an indication that the referendum result has been welcomed by Thai investors. Ahead of the poll, the generals had banned political rallies and open forums about the charter. Those who criticized the draft could have faced charges punishable by 10 years in jail. But Prayuths office said in a statement late Sunday that the referendum was conducted with a high degree of transparency and openness on part of the government. The Election Commission said in unofficial results released after the vote that 61.4 percent of the country backed the charter while 38.6 percent were against it. Turnout was about 55 percent, below than the 80 percent targeted by the commission. Thailands major political parties had refused to back the draft constitution prior to the vote, saying it would curtail democracy. The draft constitution seeks an appointed Senate with seats reserved for military commanders, limits on parliamentary authority, enhanced powers for non-elected state agencies and a provision for a non-elected prime minister. Former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, whose government was swept out of power by the coup, said the referendum result was a backward step for the country. I accept the decision of the people, she said in a social media post. She said she was not surprised at the result because of the ban on debate over the document. I am saddened by the fact that our country is going backward to an undemocratic constitution, she said. A 2006 coup had toppled Yinglucks billionaire elder brother Thaksin Shinawatra, who has lived abroad since 2008 but still wields considerable influence in Thai politics. The United States and the European Union expressed concern over the ban on debate over the draft charter. Washington remains concerned that the drafting process for the constitution was not inclusive, that open debate was not permitted in the run up to its adoption, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau. We urge Thai authorities to proceed with next steps to return Thailand to elected civilian-led government as soon as possible. We strongly urge the government to lift restrictions on civil liberties, including freedom of expression, the right to peaceful assembly, she said. Separately, the European Union said the referendum was marred by serious limitations to fundamental freedoms, including restrictions on debate and campaigning. It called on the junta to lift restrictions to allow for an open, inclusive and accountable political process. ein Google-Unternehmen Google-Dienste anzubieten und zu betreiben Ausfalle zu prufen und Manahmen gegen Spam, Betrug und Missbrauch zu ergreifen Daten zu Zielgruppeninteraktionen und Websitestatistiken zu erheben. Mit den gewonnenen Informationen mochten wir verstehen, wie unsere Dienste verwendet werden, und die Qualitat dieser Dienste verbessern. neue Dienste zu entwickeln und zu verbessern Werbung auszuliefern und ihre Wirkung zu messen personalisierte Inhalte anzuzeigen, abhangig von Ihren Einstellungen personalisierte Werbung anzuzeigen, abhangig von Ihren Einstellungen Wenn Sie Alle ablehnen auswahlen, verwenden wir Cookies nicht fur diese zusatzlichen Zwecke. Nicht personalisierte Inhalte und Werbung werden u. a. von Inhalten, die Sie sich gerade ansehen, und Ihrem Standort beeinflusst (welche Werbung Sie sehen, basiert auf Ihrem ungefahren Standort). Personalisierte Inhalte und Werbung konnen auch Videoempfehlungen, eine individuelle YouTube-Startseite und individuelle Werbung enthalten, die auf fruheren Aktivitaten wie auf YouTube angesehenen Videos und Suchanfragen auf YouTube beruhen. Sofern relevant, verwenden wir Cookies und Daten auerdem, um Inhalte und Werbung altersgerecht zu gestalten. Wir verwenden Cookies und Daten, umWenn Sie Alle akzeptieren auswahlen, verwenden wir Cookies und Daten auch, umWahlen Sie Weitere Optionen aus, um sich zusatzliche Informationen anzusehen, einschlielich Details zum Verwalten Ihrer Datenschutzeinstellungen. Sie konnen auch jederzeit g.co/privacytools besuchen. Doctor Hamza al-Khatib is one of the last doctors in Aleppo, who returned to the city voluntarily with his family to save its children. But the situation is entirely unbearable now. BILD publishes his appeal to German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Dear Chancellor Merkel, The siege has been pierced but for how long we do not know. Abandoned by the international community Aleppo is writing its own history. I am one of only 35 doctors left in Eastern Aleppo and for now I am staying. 300,000 residents trapped in a city that war has reduced to rubble need our help. Hope is rising but it flickers. Russian and Syrian aircraft continue to pound the city from above and the regime will surely try to encircle us once again. No one has been spared from their onslaught. For our work to save the ill and injured, my colleagues and I have found ourselves in the crosshairs of this war. So have our patients. Against all norms of law and humane behavior, Russian and Syrian regimestrikes continue to target our hospitals and my colleagues. The results are devastating. Auch interessant Two weeks ago, planes targeted a pediatric clinic. Think about that, Chancellor. We are damned to live in a place where newborn babies and their mothers are fair game for those whose only desire is to inflict the most unimaginable horror on an entire population. Let me tell you, they succeed. When the bombs fell, the oxygen supply to the incubators was cut. Four newborns lay in them, eight little eyes that had yet to learn to focus. Forty little fingers and forty little toes that barely knew the touch of their mothers skin. They died, all of them, gasping for air, snatched from their parents and their family. Snatched from their own lives before they had really begun. How many more times should I have to take a mothers hand and tell her that her baby is gone, when it is not my fingers she wants in hers? Chancellor Merkel, you are one of the few who has shown true courage and leadership in the face of this crisis. Others in the West have more determination to stay on the right side of the aggressors but they will not be on the right side of history. An injured child sits on a pallet after a series of barrel bomb attacks that killed 14 civilians on August 5. Your efforts to give sanctuary to so many Syrians forced to flee the bombs and starvation gives me a reason to keep hope alive. With the siege broken I look to you for your leadership more than ever. Lift our hope to new heights. Help end the bombing of civilians, schools and hospitals. Help ensure Aleppo is never besieged again. Help make our homes safe so that no Syrian is ever forced to flee again. Aleppo is calling Chancellor Merkel. Can you hear us? For Immediate Release, August 9, 2016 Contacts: Julie Light, jlight@fwwatch.org, (415) 215-5737 Patrick Sullivan, psullivan@biologicaldiversity.org, (415) 517-9364 Californians Deliver 350,000 Signatures Calling on State, Gov. Brown to Stop Irrigation of Crops With Oil Wastewater Asm. Mike Gatto Joined Statewide Coalition to Outline Major Health, Safety Concerns on Capitol Steps SACRAMENTO, Calif. Pushing a wheelbarrow filled with 350,000 petition signatures, concerned Californians gathered outside the capitol today to urge Gov. Jerry Brown and the California Water Resources Control Board to stop the potentially dangerous practice of using wastewater from oil drilling to irrigate Californias crops. The wastewater, sold by Chevron and California Resources Corporation, is now being used to irrigate over 90,000 acres in the Cawelo Irrigation District and the North Kern Water Management District, and is slated to expand in the near future to other districts. The group, which included Assemblymember Mike Gatto, UCSF nurse practitioner Lisa Hartmayer, Center for Biological Diversity scientist John Fleming and California consumers, delivered a petition with more than 350,000 signatures, gathered around the state and nation, calling for an immediate halt to the practice. The petition signatures were collected by CREDO, Care2, Food & Water Watch, the Center for Biological Diversity, RootsKeeper, Center for Environmental Health, Breast Cancer Action, Center for Food Safety, Courage Campaign, and the Center for Race, Poverty and the Environment. Californians want to know what is in the water and the soil that is used to grow their food. This should not be a problem, especially if there is nothing to hide, said Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles). California produces almost half of the fruits, nuts and vegetables that feed the United States, and more than 100 farms in the Central Valley use oil wastewater for irrigation. Some of the United States most popular brands grow food in the Cawelo and North Kern water districts, including Trinchero Family Estates (makers of Sutter Home wines), Halos Mandarins (formerly known as Cuties) and The Wine Group (makers of Cupcake and Fish Eye wines). At the same time, there hasnt been a comprehensive, independent study to determine if the wastewater is safe for crop irrigation. The limited analysis done used outdated methods; regulators dont screen for all the chemicals used in oil extraction, many of which are carcinogens. The Los Angeles Times reported that a test of the wastewater sold by Chevron to the Cawelo Irrigation District contained acetone and benzene. Some of the chemicals used in oil operations are linked to cancer, kidney failure, reproductive issues and liver damage. No comprehensive and independent analysis has been conducted to assess the safety of the wastewater. Oil-industry wastewater can contain high levels of benzene and other cancer-causing chemicals. State oil officials own study detected benzene levels in oil wastewater at thousands of times the federal limits for drinking water. As a nurse, one of the simplest yet most important recommendations I can give a patient is to eat more fruits and vegetables, said Lisa Hartmayer, nurse practitioner at UCSF. How can our governor and water regulators sleep at night knowing that the fresh foods that millions of people eat to stay healthy may actually be threatening their health? We dont know if our tangerines, almonds and grapes are contaminated with water that could be carcinogenic. In addition to the dangers posed to consumers, agricultural workers are exposed daily to the oil and gas wastewater with no protection for their health and safety. Oil wastewater doesnt belong on Californias crops. Its irresponsible to take this kind of risk with our food supply, said John Fleming, a scientist with the Center for Biological Diversity. We should take a precautionary approach to mixing oil with food and wait until there are studies proving this practice is safe before we even consider it. Im here for my kids. It concerns me that Governor Brown would allow this practice without thorough testing. This is the food that I feed my kids every day. The thought that they could get sick from tainted food really worries me, said Sue Chiang from Oakland. Petition signers from around the state appealed directly to the governor and his desire to be perceived as an environmental champion. Rev. and Mrs. Don Baldwin from Nevada City wrote in their comments: "Dear Gov. Brown - If you are to truly go down in history as our 'environmental' governor, you MUST see this as one of the most significant actions you need to take." A growing number of Californians are raising concerns about the use of wastewater for crop irrigation and organized Protect California Food, an affiliate of Californians Against Fracking, which is calling on Governor Brown and state water regulators to immediately ban the practice. Californians Against Fracking is a coalition of about 200 environmental business, health, agriculture, labor, political and environmental justice organizations working to win a statewide ban on fracking and other dangerous extraction techniques in California. Follow @CAagainstFrack on Twitter. Visit www.protectcafood.org and www.californiansagainstfracking.org for more information. For Immediate Release, August 9, 2016 Contact: Michael Robinson, (575) 313-7017, michaelr@biologicaldiversity.org Vanishing Rio Grande Mussel Proposed for Endangered Species Protection Texas Hornshell Barely Hangs On in Texas, New Mexico SILVER CITY, N.M. Following a landmark settlement with the Center for Biological Diversity requiring consideration of protection for 757 species, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today proposed endangered species protections for the Texas hornshell, a species of mussel from the Rio Grande and its tributaries. The last surviving native freshwater mussel in New Mexico, the hornshell is severely threatened by plans for a new dam, pollution and destruction of its river habitat. The plight of the Texas hornshell reflects the unchecked pollution, overuse and damming of the once-mighty Rio Grande, said the Centers Michael Robinson. The remarkable survival of this unassuming creature spotlights the critical importance of protecting our last clean, flowing rivers and doing right by mussels and people alike. The Texas hornshell, sporting a dark green or brown shell up to 4 inches long, was once found in rivers and streams throughout the Rio Grande watershed. It is now confined to six isolated stretches, including just two tributaries of the Pecos River in southeastern New Mexico, an 8.7-mile stretch of the Black River and a recently reintroduced and not-yet-established population in the Delaware River. The largest Texas hornshell population, in the Rio Grande near Laredo, Texas, is immediately threatened by plans for a new dam. Another Texas population, in the Pecos River, is declining steeply as a result of increasing salinity caused by excessive diversion of river water for irrigation. The Texas hornshell is also imperiled due to groundwater pumping and stream-diversions for municipalities and agriculture, global warming that reduces surface water, pollution from oil and gas drilling and sedimentation, and loss of riparian vegetation from grazing by livestock. This is the final year of the 757 species settlement agreement between the Center and the Fish and Wildlife Service. To date 147 species have been granted endangered species protection under the agreement, and another 35, including the hornshell, have been proposed for protection. Background The Texas hornshell typically occur in narrow areas of rivers and streams with sand, clay or gravel bottoms. They prefer undercut big boulders where the current slows, allowing the mussels to get a safe foothold and not be washed away in times of high water. They also anchor themselves in crevices and undercut riverbanks. Male Texas hornshells release their sperm into river currents, and females downstream inhale them to fertilize their eggs. Embryos develop in specialized portions of the females gills, growing into sand-grain-sized creatures called glochidia, which are released into the current and attach themselves to fish gills. The glochidia grow to maturity and then drop to the bottom of the river. The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.1 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places. Associate Professor Jason Able with durum wheat in plant breeding trials. University of Adelaide researchers are rethinking plant breeding strategies to improve the development of new high-yielding, stress-tolerant cereal varieties. In a paper published today in the journal Trends in Plant Science, the researchers say small gene-regulating molecules found in plant cells (known as small RNA) are involved in stress adaptation, and they could be exploited to breed plants with favourable stress-tolerant traits. "Continual improvement through plant breeding underpins food security globally," says senior author Associate Professor Jason Able, Head of Agricultural Science within the University's School of Agriculture, Food and Wine at the Waite campus. "With the world's population set to reach more than nine billion by 2050, we need to intensify our efforts in breeding new cereals and other food plants with improvements in yield, quality and disease resistance. "Technologies based on gene regulation by small RNA have been known about for some time. We hope to be able to embrace that technology for a new plant breeding strategy. We call it SMARTER cereal breeding: Small RNA-Mediated Adaptation of Reproductive Targets in Epigenetic Regulation. "It's a fancy acronym which basically means using these small molecules during plant development to control characteristics such as reproductive timing." Improving yield potential and stability under different growing conditions is a major focus in plant breeding research at the Waite campus. Crop production, particularly across Australia, can suffer significant yield losses due to environmental stresses including drought and heat. "We can use these newly developed technologies to alter gene expression in a controllable and precise manner, to enhance stress tolerance and alter reproductive processes, such as the timing of flowering to avoid environmental stresses," says Associate Professor Able. "These SMARTER cereal breeding strategies could be one of the most promising solutions to improving agricultural productivity, by developing varieties with superior agriculturally and economically desirable traits and, most importantly, improved grain yield for growers." Source: University of Adelaide Jem's Birding & Ringing Exploits in the Eastern Province and elsewhere in Saudi Arabia Good graphic design, which showcases a clever or appealing slogan or catchphrase in a frozen moment, still works in this age of pixels, videos and screens. I was taken aback at how effective it was recently because I am not normally someone who pays any attention to things like baking flour. Yet, as I turned to the letters page of The Star, I was instantly distracted by the ad on the opposite page. It was a sprinkling of white flour upon which someone had written, using a finger, the phrase 100% additive free and then put a circle around the words. Now, I am not exactly the most health-conscious person I know, but I know that additives in what we eat are becoming a serious concern to many people. So that phrase grabbed my attention. Mainly because I would not have thought okay call me ignorant that such a simple cooking ingredient as flour would have had any additives. Some, which is being sold, though, does have additives. So I continued to read the ad for Supreme Flour. It read: Since 1919, Supreme has been bringing top quality wheat flour and consistent results to South Africas professional bakers. What few bakers know, is that Supreme Wheat Flour is also unbleached and additive-free. No chemicals have been used to whiten our flour, and no enzymes or oxidising agents have been added. The ad did have a disclaimer in smaller type it is true but its there nonetheless in the interests of honesty. The ad made me think that perhaps it is worth paying a bit more attention to ingredients that go into our bodies. And, naturally, that Supreme Flour (which bills itself as the Bakers Choice since 1919) might be worth looking at. However, it was the striking design albeit simple which caught my eye in the first place. Print still works. What was interesting, for me, was that the ad ran on the back page of the Business Report section and that placement made it almost magnetic for anyone reading the letters page opposite. An Orchid for Supreme Flour and your graphic designer and copywriter. Not long ago I was sitting at the Mugg & Bean, Boskruin, having coffee with a friend. There was a silly little plastic home-built kit car parked in a disabled bay. I thought it was odd that a disabled person would drive such a car because of the difficulty getting in and out. No mystery, as it turned out: Just a normal, healthy Joburg pig. The man, in his fifties with sandy hair (if you know him pass on my curses), paid no heed to my shouted comments and drove off. It summed up for me the increasingly lawless behaviour of many South Africans who would not hesitate to rail against the decline of the country under the ANC-led government of Jacob Zuma. You, man in the horrible kit car, are no different to someone who soaks up R250 million of taxpayers money on his homestead while people starve. Still in that angry frame of mind, I drove past the Worldwear Shopping Centre, which is a fading centre near the N1 highway on Beyers Naude Drive. As I sat in traffic, I glanced across at a lurid pink sign exhorting me to #SHOPBIG. Then I looked closer. A good number of the indigenous trees which had been planted on the verge of the road 20 or so years ago had been chopped down. If they had still been there, the sign would not have been visible. So Worldwear Centre, who gave you the right to hack down trees which belong to the community? And, all in the name of clearing the view. If that is the way you do business, then it is no surprise that your centre is in decline. Just look at the number of empty shops to see if I am right. I remarked to someone a few years ago that I thought the concept of an organisation called Business Against Crime was quite priceless because a lot of business in South Africa is a crime. Another example. An Onion for the Worldwear Shopping Centre. The story may have a happy ending, though. I reported the tree felling to Joburg City Parks, frankly not expecting much. Three minutes after I hit send (truly three minutes) I got a reply from Melissa Hartland, digital marketing officer at Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo. She assured me they were aware of the incident and were investigating. The culprits will be fined and ordered to replace the trees the same size and species, she said. That is also a great indication of the power of digital media as a response mechanism. So an Orchid to City Parks for good marketing. *Note that Bizcommunity staff and management do not necessarily share the views of its contributors - the opinions and statements expressed herein are solely those of the author.* It's been on shelf for four years locally and is SA's only international title adapted for an Afrikaans audience. Here's why Good Housekeeping/Goeie Huishouding is boasting impressive growth with editor Sally Emery at the helm, and why she recommends always asking 'Why' in getting a good story. At the core of the Associated Medias Good Housekeeping brand globally is the promise to deliver genuinely useful content to women that saves them time money and hassle in their busy lives. Sally Emery, editor of the brand since its local launch in November 2011, explains that around the world, women face the same challenges: We want to spend our money wisely. Our families are at the heart of everything we do and all the choices we make. Were all juggling different responsibilities work, home, friendships, relationships and parenting. So the core values this brand represents appeal to women regardless of where you live. Sally Emery Thats certainly true of Good Housekeeping, with the original magazine having launched in the US in 1885 and in the UK in 1922. There are also editions of Good Housekeeping published in the Philippines, Kazakhstan and Russia. But its the SA version that were most interested in, especially as its showing 109% growth digitally year-on-year, with readership currently at 93,000. Add digital platforms to the mix and that rises to around 371,000 each month. Emery admits that international brands have to have a local personality to resonate with their audience, and says they do this by ensuring they blend content that has appeal to all women, with content that is also very SA specific. This includes the fashion, beauty food and decor buys, as well as parenting information, travel features, the unique security concerns South Africans have, as well as special features like 101 Best Braai Secrets, or SA Celebrity Bake Stars. Here, Emery lets us in on the brands local success over the years 1. Talk us through the difference between your English and Afrikaans readers both of the print publication and across your social media platforms. Emery: Fundamentally in terms of what interests them the audience is the same, regardless of language. The major difference that I notice, particularly when it comes to our digital platforms, is the level of engagement with our content from the different language groups. We have separate English and Afrikaans websites, and also separate English and Afrikaans Facebook pages. Although the engagement on both language platforms is good, the level of engagement on our Afrikaans Facebook page is higher. In July, our Afrikaans Facebook page had a reach of over one million, which is phenomenal when you consider this comes off a base of 55,000 likes. The Afrikaans audience in particular loves sharing our content with friends on her own wall. This means that were producing content that resonates so well with her that shes compelled to share it with her circle of friends as a publisher, this means youve hit the bulls eye in terms of content delivery. The main reason for this difference in the way our English and Afrikaans audience engages is the fact that there is limited GH-type content available online for Afrikaans women. There arent many places she can go to find useful content, in her home language, relating to health, beauty and relationship issues. Our Afrikaans Facebook quotes and sayings posts are hugely popular. 2. Still on the topic of differences, how does your online/digital content offering differ to the print publication, such as with the new interactive online puzzles? Emery: The content pillars home, family, value buys, tips and shortcuts, food, health, parenting, relationships, fashion and beauty are the same, both online and in print, but the actual content is different. Fresh digital content produced by the same editorial team that produces our print content is uploaded to our website every day, so theres always something new for our audience to engage with. Some of the content from the magazine for example, our recipes is uploaded onto our sites once the magazine has come off shelf. We have close to 1,000 recipes online all of them triple tested to ensure they never flop. And of course our in-book competitions live online too theyre also a great traffic driver. With regards to our puzzles, when we first launched the print title, we didnt have a crossword page. Within a few issues, our readers made us aware that they felt this was missing from our content offering, so crosswords, and other word and number puzzles were added to the editorial mix. Following the success of the print puzzles in our magazines, the obvious next step was to launch digital puzzles on our websites. In July we launched our digital crosswords, word searches and Sudoku puzzle. The puzzles which are fully responsive and work across multiple platforms are uploaded daily, and live on the site for one week. I refer to them as 'Waiting Games' something fun to do while you're waiting for your children to finish their extra-murals, commuting to or from work, waiting in queues, or simply as an entertaining way to unwind. And of course kids love them too. Response as we predicted has been phenomenal. 3. Whats the importance of a good quality female printed read then, in the age where everything is digital? Emery: The printed magazine is at the core of this brand, as the carefully curated cornerstone. The one thing that sets great printed content apart from digital content is perhaps the most obvious: the fact that a printed magazine is something you can touch, feel, smell the very tactile, personal experience of print. August's English and Afrikaans covers. When you buy a magazine, you feel like you own the content inside it. We frequently get emails from readers who talk about tearing pages out to keep as a reference, or marking up great content with stickies so that they can revisit an article they loved or a tip they want to remember. I don't believe you get that same sense of ownership when it comes to digital content. Digital is, after all, owned by everyone and is accessible to anyone; it is more of a shared and less of a personal experience. That said, for me the biggest challenge as an editor today of a brand, not just a magazine is to interact with my audience not just monthly through the printed edition of the brand, but daily through great online content that our audience feels compelled to share. Print and digital aren't mutually exclusive thank goodness! 4. That ties into my next question: Whats the biggest challenge of your business month? Emery: I love content, and all the processes that go around creating and packaging content and delivering it to our audience. For print, we still work around monthly deadlines so theres an ebb and flow in terms of busy-ness. But digital content means daily deadlines, and completing the full circle in terms of content production from idea conception to delivery to audience often over the course of just a few hours. That said, for me the most rewarding part of my role as editor of the brand is content curation. There are thousands of good stories out there, but it is about deciding what makes a something relevant to Good Housekeeping and our audience, as well as ensuring a good mix of content, whether in print or online. 5. Lets end with some advice to aspiring female journos looking to follow in your footsteps! Emery: Behind any good journalist is a passion to inform, touch and ultimately shape their audiences lives. I take great pride in the fact that the content we produce genuinely makes a difference to peoples lives the best part of my day is reading the emails our readers send me or reading the comments on our social media platforms. The media world has changed hugely in the 27 years since I first started working on newspapers, and Ive loved going through all these transformations. But the main change has been the way in which people consume content, not in the content itself. There will always be good stories to tell, and useful content to share. Young women wanting to follow a career in journalism, take every opportunity that comes your way whether thats working on the school or student newspaper or website, or starting your own blog. Listen well and dont just ask the obvious who, what, where and when questions. Ask the why. Most importantly, ask yourself, Why would someone want to read this? Its also hugely important to stay current, to understand and use new platforms, otherwise you risk making yourself redundant in this ever-changing media world. Thats for sure. Find out more from the print version of the magazines, with an on-shelf price point under R30, or interact with the brand in English or Afrikaans for free on Twitter at @GoodHouseSA or @GoeieHuis, on Instagram at @goodhousekeepingsa or #goeiehuishouding, or follow the team on Facebook at GoodHousekeepingSA or GoeieHuishouding. Some Prague Christian churches have rejected the offer from muslims to pray together against violence 9. 8. 2016 cas cteni 1 minuta A group of muslims who live in the Czech Republic wanted to participate in religious services in Prague's St. Ludmilla's Church at Peace Square in order to express their revulsion against violence perpetrated by the Islamic State, but the catholic parish has rejected their offer to pray together. Prague muslims were nevertheless accepted by another catholic church in Prague, the Church of Our Lord's Sacred Heart in Prague-Vinohrady. The service in which muslims will participate will take place there on Wednesday 10th August at 6 pm. Muslims will also participate in a public gathering in front of the church to condemn the violent acts which are being committed by the Islamic State. "I have contacted the priests in several Christian churches in Prague by telephone, asking them whether muslims who live in the Czech Republic could join Christians in prayer against violence in these churches. In most cases I have been turned down, which has surprised me," said one of the organisers of the gathering, Protestant minister Mikulas Vymetal. Perhaps the strongest rejection came from the parish of St Ludmilla's Church at Peace Square in Prague. "The vicar of this church said he did not want to cooperate with us," said Romana Cervenkova, another of the organisers of the event. "Christianity and islam are two different worlds. I do not know whether we would be able to reach an understanding within our religious services," said Chaplain Zacharias Tomas Kristek from St. Ludmilla's church. "Our parishioners would probably hate this. I would have to have been told in advance in order to be able to consult our people. And the event would have to have had prior approval by the Prague Archbishopric. We cannot act on our own initiative, especially in such sensitive matters," he added. Source in Czech HERE 0 The protest was organized by Arakan Youth Organization (Japan). Ceasefire has not been signed with AA (Arakan Army) yet. We need to consider the arrest of Khaing Myo Tun from the ALP, which has signed the ceasefire. The situation seems to have worsened after the democratic transition. Due to this situation, it is questionable whether Panglong [Conference] is a deception. The arrest of Khaing Myo Tun, who revealed the truth during the administration of a democratic government, is against democracy so we demand for his release, said Ko Thaw Zin Phyo. Around 30 Arakan youths took part in the protest and called on the end of the civil war, the release of Khaing Myo Tun from the ALP and Arakan political prisoners, clear-cut implementation of the 1982 Burma Citizen Law, immediate suspension of the plan to give citizenship to illegal Bengalis, and allow the existence of Ma Ba Tha (Patriotic Association of Myanmar) and Burmese patriot associations. Reporting by Shwe Ya Aung (Toungup) for Narinjara News Translated by Thida Linn According to the Land Core Group, a consortium of pro-poor land reform actors, the project will be implemented in cooperation with 25 union-level ministries including Forestry, Land Record, and Farmland Management. Accurate land mapping is very important to determine the exact number of acres of farms and rubber plantations and vacant land, along with which land is best suited for what vegetation and what is permissible on different tracts. For example, if the land survey for a proposed project was conducted only by the project shareholders and presented to the government, this could cause problems. But if we have the maps already, state governments are better able to grant approval for projects based on accurate information, said Dr. Min Kyi Win, Mon States Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation. The minister explained that, at the moment, maps used by the Forestry Department are different from those used by the Land Measurement Record Department. The need for reliable, up-to-date, widely accessible maps used across departments has resulted in the governments cooperation with the One Map Myanmar project, he said. The Mon State government is still in talks with the Land Core Group, the body that will provide technical assistance for mapping activities under oversight from the Forestry Department, to finalize plans for local mapping activities there. We are still holding discussions and hope the project [in southern Burma] will begin in September. Once the project is underway, the One Map Myanmar team itself does not go to the field to measure the land. There are already maps drawn up by [non-governmental organizations] and local residents. Maps will be put online for project transparency. If residents want to create their own maps, they can contact One Map Myanmar for help with technical advice, funding and materials, said Nai Shwe Thein, Managing Director of the Land Core Group. The managing director added that mapping is more precise when conducted with public participation, and the project will be an open source for input from civil society organizations and local residents. The One Map Myanmar project, inaugurated in June 2015 and planned for completion in June 2023, is entering an initial 5-month phase, followed by a 19-month period of mapping development, a four-year expansion of the map, and the final two-year phase of map completion. The Union Peace Conference (also 21st Century Panglong Conference) preparatory committee joined representatives from the Palaung State Liberation Front/Taang National Liberation Army, Arakan Army, and Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army for discussions about attending the conference on 31 August. The Burma Army have excluded the groups that are either actively fighting against them or have done so in the last two years from all political dialogue unless they surrender. The military also issued an official statement that they wouldnt be able to attend the conference. But, the government led by State Councilor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has promised that the upcoming peace conference would be inclusive. A few days ago, U Khin Zaw Oo, secretary of the Peace Commissionalso a retired lieutenant generaltold the media that the Tatmadaw (Burma Army) has changed its mind and the three groups will no longer be required to give up arms as a prerequisite for attending. The government peace delegation that is being led by Dr Tin Myo Win also took the opportunity to once again extend an invitation to join the upcoming conference to the National Democratic Alliance Army-Eastern Shan State that controls Special Region #4 in eastern Shan State, which Mongla is the capital of, and the United Wa State Party that controls the nearby Special Region # 2. Reporting by Chit Min Tun for MNA Translated by Thida Linn Edited by BNI staff More than 1.6 million people in Myanmar have been displaced over the past 18 months, since last years military coup, according to the Institute for... Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 09/08/2016 (2271 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. A delegation of Chinese-Canadians was in Brandon yesterday to bring awareness about Chinas human rights record, specifically how it relates to the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. Jason Liu said he started practising Falun Gong a spiritual system that combines meditation and exercise rooted in the tenets of honesty and compassion for its health benefits. In 1999, the Chinese government launched a campaign to stamp out the practice. Colin Corneau/The Brandon Sun Four Falun Gong activists speak about their cause in front of Brandon City Hall on Monday. The group is making its way west across Canada to raise awareness of human rights abuses in China. Liu said in 2000, he was arrested by government officials who imprisoned him at a labour camp for two years. At the time he was dragged away, his child was only two years old. I saw three people tortured to death, Liu said of his time in captivity. Liu left China for safety reasons in 2014. He hasnt been back, and doesnt expect to return until the persecution ends. I miss my family very much, he said. Liu along with Amy Liu, Paula Liu and Yue Xhao is part of a delegation that plans to visit 250 communities in Canada to spread the word about some of the human rights atrocities in their birth country. Paula Liu said a report published this summer asks the question about whether the state-led persecution of Falun Gong members is linked to the Chinese organ donation system. The report is authored by the International Coalition to End Organ Pillage in China. The organization is a coalition of lawyers, medical professionals and human rights advocated, according to its website. In 2015, Canadas Subcommittee on International Human Rights passed a motion that condemned organ harvesting and discouraged Canadians from participating in transplant tourism. Liu said she hopes the government will continue to put pressure on the Communist Party of China. The delegation also wants criminal proceedings brought against retired politician Jiang Zemin. We want people to write their MP, write the prime minister to change what is happening in China, she said. We want justice for all of the people who have died in labour camps. ctweed@brandonsun.com Twitter: @CharlesTweed Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 08/08/2016 (2272 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Officials and Westman residents are assessing the damage after a powerful storm that included at least three tornadoes tore through the region Monday night, flipping a school bus and leaving tennis ball-sized hail in its wake. Waywayseecappo councillor Mel Wabash says seven houses were damaged and one was completely destroyed by a confirmed tornado on the First Nation. Video posted on social media show the storm overturning a school bus. There have been no reports of any injuries at this time. Security camera footage of the Waywayseecappo tornado tipping a bus and tearing a roof apart #mbstorm pic.twitter.com/NagQ1u7L2B MBStorm.com (@MBStormy) 9 August 2016 Waywayseecappo resident Eric Mentuck watched from the back deck of his home, shooting video as funnel clouds formed. "In 20 mins from my deck we watched four tornadoes form and dissolve" he wrote on his Facebook page Monday evening. Mentuck said the storm lasted about 15-20 minutes. One of the funnel clouds appeared to dissolve as it reached Birdtail Valley. "That house was destroyed right at valley peak, then it started again on (on) the other side of the valley," Mentuck told the Sun. Fifteen displaced residents are currently lodged at Russell Inn. The Canadian Red Cross, acting on behalf of the federal government, has been notified but is not yet on the ground, according to Sun reporter Eva Wasney. The twister was one of three confirmed by Environment Canada on Monday, said warning preparedness meteorologist Natalie Hasell. Based on what theyve seen thus far, damage is consistent with an EF1 tornado, but an official rating hasnt been declared. After the storm passed, community members put temporary tarps over the roofs of homes for the night. The first touchdown was reported between Binscarth and Russell at about 5 p.m, leaving golf ball-sized hail on the ground. Meteorologists estimate that the Waywayseecappo twister touched down 20 minutes later. Twenty minutes after that, reports of a tornado and tennis-ball sized hail near Elphinstone were reported to Environment Canada. Hail of that size is not unheard of, Hasell said. Weve had larger, I think its a little less often here compared to North Dakota or Alberta. Hail was also reported as the storm moved east-southeast through Otter Lake, Sandy Lake, Minnedosa and Erickson. A possible fourth twister is being investigated after wind damage was sustained near Erickson, Hasell said. We do have a report of someone seeing a funnel cloud so thats the potential number four, she said. On Monday morning, Environment Canada officials were still gathering videos and photos from the storm and hadnt yet sent a team to assess damage on the ground. Waywayseecappo is located about 150 kilometres northwest of Brandon. Violent tornadoes touch down in Manitoba Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 09/08/2016 (2271 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. While specialists again make up the top earners in Prairie Mountain Healths Public Sector Compensation Disclosure Report, the document only lists a small number of the doctors practising in Westman. The report lists every PMH employee making $50,000 or more annually and includes the salaries of physicians, nurses, pharmacists, paramedics, housekeepers and administrators, among others. Between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2015, the region spent approximately $338 million on employee salaries and 16 employees were paid more than $200,000. Dr. Shaun Gauthier, PMHs chief medical officer and vice-president of medical and diagnostic services, held the top spot, earning $631,389 last year. Psychiatrist Dr. Manohary Vipulananthan was the highest paid specialist, taking home $340,708. However, only salaried doctors are included in the disclosure report leaving out fee-for-service physicians who make up the majority in the region. We have very few of our docs actually in our report, said PMH CEO Penny Gilson, who made $211,106 last year. Fee-for-service doctors bill directly to Manitoba Health, Healthy Living and Seniors and the province is responsible for reporting their gross annual earnings which, in some cases, includes the cost of operating a practice or lab and is therefore different from their net income. For example, Brandon pediatrician Dr. Emmet Elves and cosmetic dermatologist Dr. Jason Sneath billed the province $856,634 and $1,168,473 respectively in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2015. As total revenues and costs of practice vary significantly between specialty groups and between individual practitioners, net income can also vary significantly, a provincial spokeswoman said via email, adding that Manitoba Health does not pay for doctors providing services to insured patients outside Manitoba. Gilson says doctors choose different payment options for a variety of reasons. Some physicians know that they can actually make more money if they go fee-for-service and are prepared to work hard, she said. Some people choose salary because they like that particular type of way of operating the business in the sense that we (PMH) then tend to manage their clinic staff so they dont have to run that part of the business. Prairie Mountain currently has a physician vacancy rate of nine per cent most of which is in rural general practices and Gilson says the highest turnover is usually among salaried doctors. Weve had less turnover in our fee-for-service physicians because they have well-established practices, she said. PMHs salary contracts are negotiated on an ongoing basis and have provisions laid out for termination and are subject to any negotiated settlements with Doctors Manitoba. Last year, Doctors Manitoba and the province signed a new collective agreement that grants government employed doctors a 1.8 per cent base salary increase beginning in April 2015 and a two per cent annual increase until March 31, 2019. Doctors Manitoba also negotiates the tariffs in the Physicians Manual that make up fee-for-service billings. According to the collective agreement, doctors working in Brandon and rural Manitoba make five per cent more than doctors in Winnipeg due to location premiums, while doctors in northern Manitoba earn an additional 25 per cent. An entry-level doctor working in Brandon currently earns $190,322, but is eligible for annual wage increases based on their classification and level of training. Top-tier doctors can make more than $40,000 on top of their annual salary if they are recognized by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada or the College of Physicians of Manitoba. As per the Regional Health Authorities Act, health regions are also required to report the annual expenses of their chief executive officers and designated senior officers. Gilson claimed $22,295 in expenses between April 1, 2015, and March 31, 2016 the highest of senior staff in the region by more than $14,000. The other people (listed) are responsible for one site, Gilson said, adding that she is required to travel throughout the 67,000-square-kilometre health region. The jobs are extremely different. All of her expenses were claimed in-province and the majority ($17,278) is made up of vehicle mileage. She also spent $3,742 on accommodations, $768 on cellphone and personal communication devices and $505 on food and beverages. Comparatively, the Southern Health-Sante Sud region CEO claimed $3,355 in expenses; the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority CEOs, three people held the position during the fiscal year, claimed a combined total of $15,445; and the Northern Health Region CEO claimed $27,609, most of which was related to air travel and accommodations. Size-wise, the most comparable expenses came from the Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authoritys CEO who claimed $15,331 in a region that spans 61,000 sq.-kms. ewasney@brandonsun.com Twitter: @evawasney Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 09/08/2016 (2271 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Kent Hehr, Canadas minister of Veterans Affairs and associate minister of National Defence, is expected to officially announce the reopening of Brandons Veterans Affairs Canada office today. Brandons is one of nine VAC offices across Canada that were closed by the former government in 2014. The office was located within the Service Canada Centre at the corner of Princess Avenue and 11th Street, which is where Hehr is making the announcement. His announcement makes good an election pledge from the Liberal party. In the March budget, the government announced $5.6 billion over six years to enhance services to veterans, including reopening the offices and improving disability awards for wounded soldiers. Hehr, the MP for Calgary Centre, held a similar announcement in Corner Brook, N.L., in early July. Its great, said Martin Haller, a Brandon veteran of Haiti, Kosovo and Afghanistan. Its time. We were right. Haller said since the closure, veterans have struggled to access services and get help navigating a complex system for disability support. He was one of the most vocal veterans fighting the closure, organizing protests and travelling to Ottawa trying to fight it. The Brandon office served about 2,000 clients prior to its closure, with five full-time staff. Veterans have had to travel to Shilo or Winnipeg since then. Its caused a lot of headaches, said Haller. You have to wait longer for an in-house visit because they have to come from Winnipeg. In addition to Brandon and Corner Brook, offices will reopen in Charlottetown; Sydney, N.S.; Windsor and Thunder Bay, Ont.; Saskatoon, and Prince George and Kelowna, B.C. A new office will also open in Surrey, B.C. In total, Veterans Affairs will hire 400 new staff, and are limiting case managers to a maximum of 25 veterans at a time. More than 250 of those employees had been hired as of May. tbateman@brandonsun.com, with files from the Winnipeg Free Press Twitter: @tombatemann Already have an account? Log in here A cross-country tour of motor-biking military police spent the night at CFB Shilo and the riders will be the guests of honour at a public pancake breakfast first thing this morning. We need your support! Local journalism needs your support! As we navigate through unprecedented times, our journalists are working harder than ever to bring you the latest local updates to keep you safe and informed. Now, more than ever, we need your support. Starting at $4.99/month you can access your Brandon Sun online and full access to all content as it appears on our website. or call circulation directly at (204) 727-0527. Your pledge helps to ensure we provide the news that matters most to your community! Already have an account? Log in here Shilo is one of six Canadian Forces bases across the country to host approximately 4,600 reservists for summer training exercises throughout the month of August. We need your support! Local journalism needs your support! As we navigate through unprecedented times, our journalists are working harder than ever to bring you the latest local updates to keep you safe and informed. Now, more than ever, we need your support. Starting at $4.99/month you can access your Brandon Sun online and full access to all content as it appears on our website. or call circulation directly at (204) 727-0527. Your pledge helps to ensure we provide the news that matters most to your community! Opinion Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 09/08/2016 (2271 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Oh, Canada. The federal government kicked off the 150-day countdown to Canadas 150th birthday its sesquicentennial Thursday. MP Jim Carr was one of nine federal cabinet ministers announcing the details of the countdown throughout Canada. Mr. Carr said the celebration, with a budget of $210 million, will include pop-up surprise events along four themes: diversity and inclusiveness; the environment; young people; and reconciliation with indigenous people. In 1967, Canada went all out to celebrate its 100th birthday. In the Winnipeg Free Press, there were details of projects underway to commemorate the occasion, including the planting of 500 trees in Treherne, the creation of a centennial park in Fort Garry and the construction of ice rinks in St. Boniface, funded in part by the Manitoba government. Here in Brandon, thousands of people lined city streets that Dominion Day back when it was still called Dominion Day to see the 12th annual Travellers Day Parade. And our local military were part of the celebration as well, when four guns of the 71st Battery, 26th Field Regiment fired a 100-gun salute to mark Canadas anniversary at high noon. Across the country, parades and fireworks were held to celebrate, along with the planting of 70,000 flowering crab-apple trees and a tour across the country by a 1,700-person military tattoo, complete with pipes, drums and gymnasts. Expo 67, hosted in Montreal, was the jewel of the centennial celebrations. It opened on April 27, 1967, on Saint Helens Island, in the middle of the St. Lawrence River. Buckminster Fullers iconic geodesic dome from the U.S. pavilion became the centrepiece, its futurist shape an enduring landmark. The theme for Expo 67 was Man and his World and the exhibition was viewed as an opportunity for Canada to market itself as a country on the brink of international recognition, as Canadian scholar Eva-Marie Kroller writes. This was Canadas Camelot, wrote the Vancouver Sun, with a growing population and a future that was bright. Of course, political tensions were present behind all the patriotic rhetoric; unfortunately, those tensions remain to this day. The Hawthorne report, published in 1966, outlined how the residential school system was responsible for the poor health, poverty and inadequate education for Canadas indigenous population. It is within that context that the Indians of Canada pavilion opened at the expo. Funded by the Canadian government, it was supposed to be a positive depiction, but First Nations organizers took the opportunity to demonstrate the inequality between aboriginal children and white children in education and social status. It was a significant step in the rise of civil rights activism within the indigenous community. Fifty years later, Canadas relationship with First Nations people remains troubled, and while the federal government is working toward the implementation of principles designed for reconciliation, the statistics on the eve of our 150th birthday tell a sobering story. Poverty rates for First Nations children living on reserves remain staggeringly high. A 2016 report published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives found in Manitoba, 76 per cent of status First Nations children were living below the poverty line, compared with 16 per cent among non-indigenous children in the province. Moreover, high school graduation rates on reserves fall below 40 per cent, compared with 80 per cent off reserve. Access to clean, running water and fresh, accessible food also remains an issue. And as The Brandon Sun has recently reported, there remains more unsavoury history yet to air, as details regarding the treatment of aboriginal people in tuberculosis sanatoria in Manitoba come to light. These stories, which have strong connections to the residential school system, have never been part of the efforts to find reconciliation between Canada and its Indigenous people. Its a reckoning that has yet to occur and must if we are to move forward. The federal governments last budget has made substantial investments in housing, water and education on reserves, but that money wont be making a dent in the problems right away. Which leads to the question: in 2067, will we still be talking about these issues? Exactly how long should reconciliation take? Winnipeg Free Press and The Brandon Sun The European Union has set new deadlines for Spain and Portugal to bring their budget deficits into line after both countries escaped fines for failing to rein in spending. A spokesman said: "Portugal is now required to correct its deficit by 2016 and Spain by 2018 at the latest." Four Italian policemen have been praised on social media after they cooked a simple meal of pasta for a distressed elderly couple. The Rome police officers were responding to a neighbour's calls that cries had been heard coming from inside their apartment. Jole, 84, and Michele,94, told police that they were lonely and upset at the state of the world they saw on the news. The official police Facebook page shared the story in a very poetic post that described the couple's situation: "It is not always an easy life. "Especially when the city is empty and the neighbours are away on vacation. Sometimes the loneliness melts into tears. Sometimes it's like a summer storm. It comes suddenly and overtakes one." While waiting for an ambulance to arrive to check out the couple's health, the police officers decided to rustle up "a little bit of warmth to bring peace to Jole and Michele" - a bowl of pasta with butter and cheese. As the post says, 'nothing special. But with a precious ingredient: inside it is humanity". And the kind gesture has gone viral on Facebook - shared over 24,000 times, with hundreds praising the four men. "God bless you. Would be nice to meet you. I am an officer too in the USA. We need more like you too. Very caring and understanding." "It's wonderful that the officers took their time to cook a meal for this lovely couple. I hope the posts from all over the world will help them know they are not alone." The post points out that although a crime wasn't committed, they still needed some help. "Jole and Michele, they love each other. But when the loneliness is a burden on the heart, it may happen that they lose hope." READ MORE: Read More: Bishop of Derry Edward Daly has died a hero after he raised a blood-soaked handkerchief and guided a dying teenager through British army gunfire on Bloody Sunday, a grateful relative said. The Catholic cleric, who died on Monday aged 82 after a long illness, was a life-long critic of all violence. As a young priest he famously waved the bloodied rag as a symbol of ceasefire as he helped fatally injured civil rights protester Jackie Duddy in Derry in Northern Ireland in January 1972. He fought to clear the names of all the victims after p aratroopers opened fire and killed 13 people. Fourteen were injured, and another was to die later. Mr Duddy's older sister Kay said: "He was such a special friend to us because of Bloody Sunday, because of what he did for Jackie in his dying moments when he was there with him, it just meant the world to us that Jackie did not die on his own." Bloody Sunday has been described as one of the catalysts of IRA recruitment and the 30-year conflict which left more than 3,000 dead and many others injured. Demonstrators seeking one man, one vote and other concessions from the unionist-dominated government of Northern Ireland had gathered for a march in Derry. At the time Dr Daly was a curate aged 39 from Belleek in rural Co Fermanagh who served at St Eugene's Cathedral in Derry. He joined the march as it passed the cathedral en route to the city centre. Amid chaotic scenes soldiers opened fire. Dr Daly was near textile worker Mr Duddy, 17, when he was shot by soldiers, and anointed him and gave him the Last Rites. Then the clergyman and other marchers tried to bring him to safety, the priest leading the way with a handkerchief in his hand. Bishop Daly was a prominent witness at Lord Widgery's inquiry soon after the event, which exonerated troops from the Parachute Regiment, concluding that they had come under attack from gunmen and bombers. He said: ''I felt a responsibility to tell the story of what I saw and what I saw was a young fella who was posing no threat to anybody being shot dead unjustifiably." Ms Duddy said it was a "second atrocity" how the victims' names were dragged through the mud by the tribunal. She added: "He (Bishop Daly) always said he would fight to his dying breath to make sure our loved ones names were cleared. He was an unsung hero." After a mammoth inquiry by Lord Saville the demonstrators were exonerated in 2010 and British prime minister David Cameron said the killings were "unjustified and unjustifiable". Eamonn McCann, who was at the Bloody Sunday march and chaired the Bloody Sunday Trust, remembered the bishop as a priest, clearly distressed, describing the killing of Mr Duddy and saying he did not have a gun and he did not have a petrol bomb. "I think his words (then) were more influential than just the photograph. He would also criticise the IRA afterwards over the years. "He was credible. He was quite a conservative man and not a radical priest." He led the church in the city through some of the darkest days of the conflict and believed the violence of the Troubles was futile and morally unjustified. The head of the Catholic Church in Ireland Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin lauded him as a fearless peace builder who took a personal interest in those who suffered miscarriages of justice. "His untiring advocacy for the Birmingham Six, the victims of Bloody Sunday and for the families of those murdered by paramilitaries earned him respect from some, suspicion from others." He was Bishop of Derry from 1974 until 1993, stepping aside after suffering a stroke. In recent years he had battled a long-term illness. His funeral will be held in the city on Thursday. Three people have been arrested in Co Kildare in connection with a robbery in the early hours of this morning. A 19-year-old man and two male juveniles were arrested on the Dublin Road in Kildare town at around 3.30am. Ireland has been described as Europe's weakest link when it comes to defence and intelligence by a leading security expert. Former army officer Tom Clonan told Read More: It comes after the paper claimed that a deal has been reached that would see RAF fighters defend Ireland in the event of a 9/11 style attack. The Irish Air Corps does not have jet fighters and would not be capable of intercepting a commercial airliner. Mr Clonan said a greater debate was needed on the whole neutrality issue because Ireland had shifted towards an alliance with Britain, Europe, and the US the latter moving thousands of troops through Shannon on route to Afghanistan. We have been the lucky generation, but political stability is coming to an end, with tensions increasing between Russia and the Baltic States, and maybe because of the possibility of having somebody like [Donald] Trump in the White House, said Mr Clonan. He said years of government underspending had left the Defence Forces without proper IT and it was now not fit for purpose because of a huge brain drain. Irish Neutrality Alliance chairman Roger Cole said no agreement with the British, or any other government, on air defence should have been made without first getting agreement from the Dail. There shouldnt be deals done in secret, he said. Independent TD Mick Wallace said the public was being kept in the dark on many things and he was not in favour of the RAF shooting down hijacked planes in our airspace. He said he would be concerned about intelligence services making a decision to shoot down a hijacked jet on the hunch that it might be deliberately flown into a target on the ground. Intelligence services on this planet have got it wrong many times before. If theyd got it right then 9/11 would never have happened, said Mr Wallace. Walls dividing Protestant and Catholic communities in the North should be down within the next seven years, a government minister has said. Megan Fearon said the Stormont Executive remained committed to removing all interface barriers by 2023. Addressing a community festival in north Belfast, which has 16 so-called peace walls, the Sinn Fein MLA said: "By removing a peace wall we open a door to a new shared space and I believe we should be ambitious in our efforts. "Reconciliation has been hampered by physical divisions so to help build a truly shared, united and reconciled community, we need to put in place the conditions and circumstances to remove these structures." Peace lines include a mixture of traditional walls, fences and gates and are the most visual reminder of the region's troubled past. They were intended as a temporary protection from violence during the 30-year conflict but remain almost two decades after the 1998 Good Friday Agreement which ended the Troubles. According to figures from the Department of Justice, 50 barriers - 39 walls and 11 gates - are still in place. Some structures stretch for miles and tower up to 18ft high through areas of dense housing. Most are located in areas of heightened sectarian tension in Belfast and Derry but others have also been erected in parts of Portadown and Lurgan in Co Armagh. Ms Fearon added: "Taking down these barriers can only happen by engaging with, by building relationships with, and by seeking the consent and support of the people who live in their shadows. "It takes courage to engage on such difficult issues, but the courage that many in the community have shown, and continue to show on a daily basis, can, and will change our society for the better. Progress is being made." The minister was speaking as part of a panel discussion run by the Duncairn Community Partnership alongside Progressive Unionist Party councillor Julie Anne Corr. The Government has announced 10m in funding for rural Ireland. The 'Town and Village Renewal Scheme' aims to regenerate places with populations of less than 10,000 people. It is hoped the money will make small towns and villages across the country more sustainable. Up to 200 towns and villages will benefit from the scheme this year. Minister for Regional and Rural Development Heather Humphreys says its up to local communities to decide how the money is spent. She said: "I am launching the Town and Village Renewal Scheme today to begin breathing life back into our rural towns and villages. "It is critical that towns and villages become areas where economic activity can flourish, where people can live and work, and where people can meet at a social level." There are two categories of eligible Towns/Villages: Category 1: Towns/villages with a population of less than 5,000. Category 2: Towns with a population of 5,000 10,000. Each county can apply for grants for up to eight separate towns/village projects with at least half of the project proposals and at least 50% of the value of funding sought at county level available for towns and villages with a population of less than 5,000. An urgent review is to be carried out after a missing pensioner was found unconscious in a locked public toilet. A police search involving a helicopter was launched after Norma Webster, 78, was reported missing in Forres, Moray, Scotland. She had last been seen in the town's High Street at about 10.30am on Sunday July 31 and was not found until the morning of Monday August 1 - 21 hours later. Mrs Webster, who is reported to have suffered a stroke while visiting the facilities in Leys Road, is recovering in hospital. Her son Martin McDonald, 46, told the Press and Journal newspaper: "The only consolation is that she doesn't remember the whole thing. "It's horrible to think that she was in there all night. "Obviously, the toilets have just been locked without anybody checking to see if there was anyone inside." A Moray Council spokesman said: "The council can only apologise most sincerely to Mrs Webster and her family for what must have been a distressing ordeal for all of them. "An urgent review of procedures will now be done to ensure that where, as was the case here, we operate toilets in partnership with the local community who open and close them, there is no prospect of a similar incident happening again." Moray Area Commander Chief Inspector Stewart Mackie said: "Following a report from the family of Mrs Webster during the evening of Sunday 31 July 2016 officers from across Moray, including specialist resources were involved in an extensive search for Mrs Webster. Woman locked in public toilet for 21 hours after stroke As police launched huge search https://t.co/SkNvsexAuI pic.twitter.com/CtoRx5c510 The Press & Journal (@pressjournal) August 9, 2016 "We carried out searches around her home, the areas she was last seen and where she was thought to frequent. "Whilst the public toilets in Leys Road came within this area we worked under the assumption that when the toilets were locked they were checked, clearly that was not the case this time. It is a very tragic set of circumstances." An RAF helicopter has caught fire after making a "precautionary landing" in the mountains of Snowdonia. UK emergency services were called to the Yr Aran area as pictures emerged on social media of black smoke rising from a peak. A UK ministry of defence spokesman said the incident involved a training helicopter and everyone on board was accounted for. He said: "A Griffin training helicopter safely completed a precautionary landing in Snowdonia this afternoon following a technical issue. "All four people on board exited safely. Subsequently the aircraft caught fire. Emergency services are on the scene." Yr Aran is a mountain peak on a ridge south of Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales. Twitter user Philippa Napper posted a picture showing smoke, writing: "Big fire on peak next to #snowdon Now just black smoke. Accident?" Huw Price also posted a photograph and wrote: "Think a helicopter has crash-landed on top of mountain across from Snowdon. Huge fire, can see the flames from here." A Welsh Ambulance Service spokesman said: "We were called at about 1.50pm to reports of an incident in the Snowdonia area. "The Wales Air Ambulance has been sent to respond and is currently in attendance at the scene." An Indian court has granted bail to a hunger-striking activist who has been force-fed for nearly 16 years, after she assured the judge that she planned to end her fast. Babloo Loitongbam, a rights activist close to Irom Sharmila, says he expects her to be freed later, once the paperwork is processed. Ms Sharmila has not eaten voluntarily since November 5, 2000, when she began fasting to protest over an Indian law that suspends human rights protections in conflict areas, including the north-eastern state of Manipur - which has long been plagued by uprisings by ethnic separatist militants and violent government crackdowns. Three days before she began her hunger strike, 10 civilians were killed by paramilitary troops in Malom, a small town outside Imphal, the Manipur state capital. She had been charged with attempting suicide, a crime in India, allowing officials to force feed her through a tube that runs into her nose. Ms Sharmila announced last week that she planned to end the fast and run for state elections in hopes of overturning the draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act. The hunger strike, which she began days after 10 civilians were killed by paramilitary soldiers in Manipur, brought her supporters from around the world. On Tuesday, an official with Amnesty International India said the fast was "a testament to her passion for human rights". "The government arrested her, confined her to a hospital room and force fed her for 16 years, seemingly to break her will. There was zero dialogue. A peaceful protest was criminalised," said the official, Abhirr VP. The Armed Forces Special Powers Act is in effect in Indian-ruled Kashmir and north-eastern areas facing separatist insurgencies. The law gives security forces the right to shoot to kill suspected rebels without fear of possible prosecution and to arrest suspected militants without warrants. It also gives police wide-ranging powers of search and seizure. It prohibits soldiers from being prosecuted for alleged rights violations unless granted express permission from the federal government. Such prosecutions are rare. Jeremy Corbyn has received an apparent boost in his battle to remain the Labour leader in the UK after a British High Court ruling said new party members should be allowed to vote in the leadership election. A judge ruled on Monday in favour of five supporters who accused Labour's National Executive Committee (NEC) of unlawfully "freezing" them out of the contest despite them having "paid their dues". But party officials intend to mount a legal challenge in order to "defend the NEC's right" to uphold Labour's rules, with an appeal hearing expected to take place on Thursday. The NEC had decided that full members would not be able to vote if they had not had at least six months' continuous membership up to July 12. To gain the right to vote, members were given a window of opportunity, between July 18 and 20, to become "registered supporters" on payment of an additional fee of 25. Non-members were given the same opportunity. The High Court ruling has been viewed by many as a major boost for Mr Corbyn. There has been speculation that the majority of new party members are likely to have joined in order to back Mr Corbyn as he seeks to fend off challenger Owen Smith. Bookmakers seemed to agree, immediately moving to slash the odds of Mr Corbyn winning the contest in the wake of the court's decision. Mr Corbyn's allies urged the party not to appeal against the ruling, stating that members' money should not be used to try to stop them from voting. Shadow chancellor John McDonnell has rejected the idea that allies of Mr Corbyn support the ruling only because it could benefit the incumbent. John McDonnell. Mr McDonnell, chairman of Mr Corbyn's leadership campaign, said when people joined they were told "very clearly" they would be able to vote in the leadership contest and "to deny them that democratic right flies against all the traditions of our party". He insisted his support for the ruling was not because it could improve Mr Corbyn's chances of victory. He told Channel 4 News: "It's not a matter of whether it suits me or not because we don't know which way these members are going to vote - no-one knows that." Mr Corbyn told BBC Newsnight that the court judgment seemed "very clear" that all party members should be allowed to vote. "Surely that has to be the right decision," he said. Meanwhile, Mr Smith has stressed "of course it's possible" that he could still win the contest, but he called for the timetable of the election to be changed. Mr McDonnell had earlier claimed the decision to appeal had been taken by a "small clique" who opposed the Labour leader. There has also been speculation that general secretary Iain McNicol could face being ousted if the party loses its appeal as divisions within the party deepen still further. A senior Labour source said: "If Labour loses the appeal, the position of Iain McNicol becomes untenable." The decision came on the same day that a slate of left-leaning candidates was elected on to the NEC - a development which could potentially help strengthen the Labour leader's grip on the party. Six spaces for representatives from constituency Labour parties were filled with all six winners deemed to be on the left of the party. Comedian Eddie Izzard failed to secure a seat. Rev. Edward Leir, one of the five members who won the legal challenge, said Labour's decision to appeal was "madness". He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "This wasn't a spurious action, it's not been politically motivated. It's been about people holding on to their promises." Mr Leir revealed he had campaigned for David Cameron in the 2010 election but had been won over by Mr Corbyn. "My heart leads towards Corbyn. In my youth for two decades I was a supporter of the Conservative Party," he said. "I actually canvassed for them the election before last. Found myself deeply disappointed with the direction they were going in and surprisingly found myself really agreeing with the way Jeremy Corbyn was trying to bring change to politics." A woman in her 20s has died in a car crash after a police pursuit by officers investigating a drone that was being flown near prison grounds. Police were called to Groom Crescent near Wandsworth Prison in south London just after 3am on Tuesday, and began following a car that they saw driving away. At around 3.10am the car crashed in Ashcombe Street at the junction of Wandsworth Bridge Road, and the woman passenger was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver, a man also thought to be in his 20s, is in a critical condition in hospital. Police are in the process of telling their families. Watchdog the Independent Police Complaints Commission is investigating. Authorities have grown increasingly concerned about the use of drones to smuggle drugs and mobile phones into jails. Figures obtained earlier this year by the Press Association showed that in 2013 none of the gadgets were discovered in or around prisons in England and Wales. But in 2014 this rose to two incidents, rising to 33 in 2015. An IPCC spokeswoman said: "The IPCC is independently investigating police actions prior to a fatal road traffic incident in south London in the early hours of Tuesday 9 August in which a woman has died and a man has been critically injured. "The Metropolitan Police referred the matter to the IPCC because a police vehicle was following the car involved in the collision immediately prior to the incident. "IPCC investigators attended the scene and also the post-incident procedures where the officers involved are providing their accounts. The investigation is in its early stages." HAMBURG: The lowest price offered in the tender from Pakistan to purchase 500,000 tonnes of wheat which closed on... ISLAMABAD: The number of cellular subscribers as well as teledensity declined for the second consecutive month in... "It all started last year when Stephen Sarre approached me and told me about the sex of dragons," Sollis says. "At first I didn't think it would really work as a program but then I thought that evolution is very like telling a story and that a sequence of base genes is like the notes in a musical scale." The story certainly captured the inquiring mind of Michael Sollis, artistic director of the Griffyn Ensemble, because he saw in the organisation of genetic codes a similarity to the arrangement of notes in a musical scale. "Curiouser and curiouser," Alice might well have exclaimed if she could have listened to the intriguing tale of sex determination in Australian bearded dragons, a subject being researched by a team at the University of Canberra. Sollis has always been concerned with spreading knowledge and now combines his work of composing and running the Griffyn Ensemble with his job as artistic director of education of Musica Viva's school education program, travelling Australia to promote the importance of music education. The Griffyn Ensemble's August program during Science Week neatly combines music and science. Stephen Sarre explains just how important his team's research has been in the light of continuing climate change. We are all familiar with the difference between male (XY) and female (XX) sex chromosomes and how they influence the sex of a baby. "But in birds it's the reverse," Sarre says. "The male has two of the same chromosomes called ZZ and the female has a W and a Z. And in reptiles, like the bearded dragon, there are all sorts of different determinations like birds and also like mammals. In some species sex is genetically determined but in others it can be determined by temperature." What the team has found is that if the eggs of the bearded dragon are incubated at high temperatures those that would have been males turn into females, which still have the male genotype but are functionally female. Imagine the importance of this research as temperatures escalate and the balance of male/female populations of living creatures may change. The concert will be a multimedia presentation with images and film clips adding to the enjoyment of the music selected by Sollis, including his new composition, "a musical extrapolation of what's inside DNA". A linking of reptilian scales with musical scales you might say. The ACT government has been urged to commit long-term "sustainable funding" to avert the catastrophic failure of one of the city's major water supplies. Last year, an auditor-general's report warned of significant risks to the Lower Cotter Catchment, which provides a significant amount of Canberra's drinking water. Senior water treatment engineer Kate Smith at Cotter Dam, which sits in the Lower Cotter Catchment. Credit:Matt Bedford The "extreme" risk of fire has been fuelled by the significant growth of invasive pine wildlings and other fuel loads since the 2003 bushfires, particularly at Blue Range in the Uriarra Forest area. A fire, if followed by a major rain event, would likely lead to contamination of the water supply, and Auditor-General Maxine Cooper warned "the undermaintained, and the damaged, sediment control structures would be overwhelmed and ineffective". Investment bank UBS' run-in with the Baird government over the sale of NSW's poles and wires electricity assets has sparked an extensive review of investment bank practices and the results are not pretty. So ugly is the result the Australian Securities and Investments Commission has warned the people often known as the smartest men and women in the room it will take action against the culprits if the poor behaviour continues. ASIC has been reviewing conflicts of interest at Australia's largest investment banks. Credit:Jim Rice The ASIC review of investments banks found that not only do the heavyweights of Australia's financial system have difficulty in managing their conflicts of interest they also financially reward staff for potentially conflicted behaviour. Managing conflicts of interest are crucial for investment banks because often one part of the bank is advising on an asset sale or an initial public offering while the bank's research arm is producing research for the investment banks' investor clients about the quality of the assets or the IPO. A recent letter pushed out by Kinetic Super to its 250,000-strong members poses a potential financial disaster for affected members not paying attention to a dramatic change in the fund's rules. It comes amid a brewing scandal in the super sector, as some of the nation's big super funds strike new deals with life insurers which, by imposing new limitations, will make it harder for members to successfully make a claim. Legal experts have described some of the new policies as akin to "junk insurance". By law, millions of Australians are passively funnelled into life insurance polices, forking out almost $6 billion a year in premiums, which provide for income protection insurance, death and total and permanent disability [TPD] through "group" deals struck between insurers and super funds. They are structured on an "opt-out" basis, which means premiums are automatically deducted unless the member specifically opts out. How tight is the ABS security of personal information? Australia's chief statistician David Kalisch last week described the department as having "the best security features [for which] you could ever ask". As for the past three censuses, IBM has been contracted to help with the design of the online form and maintaining data capacity. IBM remains subject to the same electronic cyber security requirements as the ABS. Naval officers on board the HMAS Tobruk filling out a paper census form. Credit:Ben Rushton On Tuesday Minister for Small Business Michael McCormack said the names of Australians would never be "joined up" or attached to Census or any other data set. "By law, not even the Prime Minister can access the data collected in the Census. No other Government agencies, law enforcement agencies, police, courts or tribunals are permitted access. The case for retaining names and addresses will be periodically reviewed and data will be destroyed before August 2020." Before the online census: An Australian census collector in 1976. Why are some people refusing to write their name and address? The biggest concern has been the linking of data sets, through the use of statistical linkage keys, which could match everything from childhood records to mental health records, as well as data about housing assistance. One figure who has publicly announced his decision to boycott name requirements is South Australian Independent Senator Nick Xenophon. Senator Xenophon, who last week called for the census to be postponed, described the decision to retain names and addresses as an "unnecessary intrusion" and violation of the "inherent human right" to privacy. While some are just boycotting the name requirements, others are boycotting the survey altogether. Former deputy privacy commissioner Anna Johnston, wrote that she would not answer the census questions at all "until the ABS reverses its decision to match census data about individuals with other data sets about individuals". Is it really 'no worse than Facebook'? The minister responsible for the census, Michael McCormack has argued that filling out a census form with personal details is no different to using social media. "I note with some humour really that many people are going on Twitter and Facebook making various comments about the Bureau of Statistics, about the census, and about me as well, when in fact wherever they go, it tracks you, on your Facebook account, so I can't really see what the big deal is." Guy Eilon, Australian vice-president of defence grade global cyber-security firm Forcepoint, told Fairfax Media the census was in many ways, "no different" to posting a new status on Facebook, banking online or visiting the doctor. "We give up information about ourselves without much consideration, because we recognise the benefit in doing so and trust that organisations on the receiving end have sufficient privacy, security and governance measures in place," he said. However others have argued that it is not fair to compare the census to the publishing of personal details on Facebook, because Facebook does not have access to personal records like health records or income. What to do if you receive an error signal on the online site? Some reports on social media on Tuesday suggested the ABS website was already struggling with traffic. Should you have difficulty online, the ABS suggests logging out and in again after 20 minutes. What if you haven't yet received a form? The first step is to try calling the Census Inquiry Service (1300 214 531), however the line will still be experiencing a high call volume so it may be difficult to get through. The ABS advises calling again after August 10 when call volumes are expected to reduce. If completing the census online, the ABS can text or email a login code. Requests can also be made online at https://www.census.abs.gov.au/eCensusWeb/contact.jsp. The ABS has made assurances that Australians will not be fined if they do not complete the form on Tuesday night, so do not fret if you are yet to receive a form in the mail. All that matters is that the census is completed in reference to Tuesday night. More than 1 million people have already completed the census. People keep mentioning the Census Time Capsule - what is it? An Uber driver who was sacked from his day job after failing to disclose his second job has lost an unfair dismissal case. Mervyn Jacob was working as a print operator for the West Australian newspaper in Perth when he signed up as a driver for the ride-sharing service. The 52-year-old was terminated after his boss confronted him about rumours he was working for Uber after hours. In a decision that will likely have ramifications for how Uber work is classified, the Fair Work Commission threw out Mr Jacob's unfair dismissal case, saying he breached his contract by failing to get permission to undertake "other work". However, dividends will increase in coming years, according to major shareholder Hyperion Asset Management, which used a dip in the share price on Tuesday to increase its stake. Portfolio manager Jason Orthman said he expects the dividends that REA pays in coming years "to be substantially higher". REA Group chief executive Tracey Fellows. The company said uncertainty surrounding the election outcome has contributed to July listings being down 11 per cent compared to July last year. Credit:Michele Mossop The digital advertising group increased its dividends again taking the full-year payout to 81.5. Dividends have nearly doubled since mid-2013, but the expensive share price makes the yield just 1.2 per cent. REA Group has warned the federal election will affect revenues in the first half of the current financial year after reporting a 16 per cent rise in full-year net profit to $215 million. "Dividends will grow at least in line with earnings, if not more," he added. "There are not too many businesses that are giving over 20 per cent revenue growth. We expect similar rates of growth over the medium term," Mr Orthman said. REA said the federal election had resulted in lower property listings across the campaign period, and the cost of buying iProperty meant expenses would grow more than revenues in the first half. "The uncertainty surrounding the election outcome has contributed to July listings being down 11 per cent compared to July last year. As a result, we expect first-half revenue growth to be skewed towards the second quarter," the company said in a statement to the market. Meanwhile, Carsales.com says its push into global markets is paying off. The company has invested heavily in automotive sales websites overseas, particularly in Asia and South America. On Tuesday, it reported a net profit of $109 million up 6 per cent from last year. Revenue was up 10 per cent to $344 million. Chief executive Greg Roebuck said it remained bullish about its overseas strategy. "The opportunity overseas is significant, we're good at what we do here and think we can take that expertise offshore." Carsales, which listed on the ASX in 2009, has seen a 14 per cent lift in its share price over the financial year. Mr Roebuck said the company, which faces local competition from Gumtree and Carsguide, was not turning its back on domestic sales. "At some point in the future our Australian business will be a bit more mature," he said. "The year has kicked off OK but it's not setting any records." Carsales shares closed up 1 per cent to $12.50. Plans for a referendum on Indigenous recognition in the Australian constitution to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the landmark 1967 vote on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rights have been abandoned, as a consultation report is delayed until mid-2017. The referendum council overseeing plans for the vote said on Tuesday it would continue its discussions with Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians into next year, with plans to provide its final report to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten later than expected. The decision makes a 2017 vote, originally proposed by former prime minister Tony Abbott, highly unlikely and also removes the possibility that Australians could be required to take part in the same-sex marriage plebiscite and referendum in the same year. The right-wing think-tank, the Institute of Public Affairs, called for the government to end the process, arguing the new delay meant public support for change was unfeasible. Crossbench senators will push ahead with their crusade to amend Australia's racial discrimination laws, foreshadowing plans to "split the Liberals" in the hope of forcing the Turnbull government's support. Their persistence comes despite conceding the moves are doomed to fail as the numbers currently stand, with the Coalition unwilling to revisit the idea and the crucial Nick Xenophon Team resolutely opposed. Two private members' bills will come before the Senate: one, from Liberal Democrat senator David Leyonhjelm, to entirely abolish section 18c of the Racial Discrimination Act, and another from Bob Day, to remove the words "offend" and "insult" from the controversial clause. Either bill would be supported by newly elected Victorian senator Derryn Hinch, who senses an opportunity to divide and (possibly) conquer. Country hospitals generally outshine city hospitals when patients are surveyed on the care they received, but Aboriginal patients report a starkly different experience. A report on Aboriginal people's perceptions of the NSW hospital system showed a gulf between their experiences and those of non-Aboriginal people in several key measures, which were more pronounced in rural hospitals. There are gaps between the experiences of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal patients at hospitals. Credit:Graham Tidy Aboriginal patients were particularly lukewarm on the quality of their communications with clinical staff, whether they had enough privacy when discussing their treatment and whether appropriate arrangements were made for their discharge. But there was little difference between them and non-Aboriginal patients in the way that they rated the physical environment and comfort, safety and hygiene. A young woman embroiled in an ICAC probe into NSW prosecutor Margaret Cunneen has escaped a conviction for cocaine possession but is bearing mental scars from incessant media attention. Sophia Alexandra Tilley, the former girlfriend of Ms Cunneen's son Stephen Wyllie, on Tuesday avoided a conviction for possessing 0.3 of a gram of cocaine and was handed a 12-month good behaviour bond by a Sydney magistrate. Sophia Tilley at a previous court appearance for a traffic offence in November 2014. Credit:Nick Moir The 26-year-old Double Bay woman was arrested on April 8 in the eastern Sydney suburb of Bellevue Hill when police in an unmarked car found a white powder in a small plastic bag in her handbag, which was confirmed to be cocaine, court documents say. Ms Tilley pleaded guilty to the offence. "This is every bit as relevant as council speaking out on other issues outside their control, including a council motion and the deputy lord mayor (Adrian Schrinner)'s submission to the state government to reduce public transport fares, plus council's action on other issues including lockout laws." Mr Browne said the council's new rainbow footpath outside Spring Hill's Sportsman Hotel was an "important message of hope" for LGBTI people. Infrastructure chairman Amanda Cooper said it was a shame a "rainbow crossing" could not be delivered, due to safety concerns for pedestrians and motorists. The rainbow footpath, Cr Cooper said, was a decent compromise. "It's now beautifully adorned with its instantly recognisable rainbow design," she said. "The installation was undertaken in the early hours of the morning of July 12 and was inspected by members of my own office, so I understand you were very happy with the outcome. "We think it looks fantastic." But Mr Black's address came after a farcical start to the council meeting, in which Cr Johnston clashed with Cr Owen over procedural matters. Following Cr Owen's warning to councillors not to distribute the raw transcript of public council meetings to "the public" but more specifically to the media Cr Johnston attempted to move a point of order in the council chamber. "(The raw transcript) is for the benefit of councillors to correct any spelling or grammatical errors in their speeches," Cr Owen said. Cr Owen then attempted to move on. Cr Johnston: "Point of order, madam chairman." Cr Owen: "Cr Johnston, when I'm speaking" Cr Johnston: "Yes, madam chairman." Cr Owen: "No, Cr Johnston, when I am speaking you do not interrupt. Please resume your seat." Cr Johnston: "Point of order, madam chairman." Cr Owen: "Cr Johnston, please resume your seat." Cr Johnston: "Point of order, madam chairman." Cr Owen: "Cr Johnston, please resume your seat. I would like to call on Mr Phil Browne, who will address the chamber on a request from the Victorian Local Governance Association and the Victorian Sexuality and Gender Commissioner to include council's promotion of International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia in a case study. Orderly, please -." Cr Johnston: "Point of order, madam chairman." Cr Owen: "Cr Johnston, I am speaking." Cr Johnston: "Point of order, madam chairman." Cr Owen: "Cr Johnston, resume your seat." Cr Johnston: "Point of order, madam chairman." Cr Owen: "Cr Johnston, please resume your seat." Cr Johnston: "Point of order, madam chairman." Cr Owen: "Cr Johnston, I have given you a direction. Please resume your seat." Cr Johnston (over the top of Cr Owen's previous comment): "Point of order, madam chairman." Cr Owen: "Cr Johnston, I remind you of section 51 of the" Cr Johnston: "Point of order, madam chairman." Cr Owen: "...meetings local law, precedence of the chamber of the precedence of the chairman in this chamber. I have asked you and given you a direction to resume your seat." Cr Johnston: "Point of order, madam chairman." Cr Owen: "Please resume your seat. No, Cr Johnston, I am not upholding your point of order. Resume your seat, please." Cr Johnston: "Point of order, madam chairman." Cr Owen: "Cr Johnston, I have given you a clear direction. Resume your seat, please." Cr Johnston: "Point of order, madam chairman." (Nine seconds of silence) Cr Owen: "The chamber will continue continue when Cr Johnston resumes her seat." Cr Johnston: "Point of order, madam chairman." Cr Owen: "Cr Johnston, I have given you a direction, you need to resume your seat." Cr Johnston: "Point of order, madam chairman." (Twelve seconds of silence) Cr Owen: "We will continue when Cr Johnston resumes her seat." Cr Johnston: "Point of order, madam chairman." (Twenty-six seconds of silence) Cr Owen: "Cr Johnston, I have given you a direction. You need to resume your seat, otherwise you are committing an act of disorder." Cr Johnston: "Point of order, madam chairman." Cr Owen: "No, Cr Johnston. I am not upholding your point of order because" Cr Johnston: "I haven't made one." Cr Owen: "I am not upholding you making a point of order because I was speaking and under section 53 (2) of the meeting local law, you did not wait until I had finished speaking and therefore I am not upholding you calling a, rising to deal with a point of order and we have a public speaker to come in." Cr Johnston: "Madam chairman, the minutes will clearly show that I did rise after you finished speaking and that I have made a valid point of order under section..." Cr Owen: "Cr Johnston" Cr Johnston: "53 of the meetings local law and, madam chairman, before you can rule on it you must allow me to make it." Cr Owen: "And, Cr Johnston, you do not interrupt me to make a point of order and I gave you a direction immediately at that point to resume your seat. You are failing to comply with my direction. We have a public speaker. You could at least do the public speaker the courtesy of resuming your seat and behaving in an orderly fashion in this chamber." Cr Johnston: "Point of order, madam chairman." For Wayne Downes, Queen Street Mall isn't the heart of Brisbane. It's not the most popular pedestrian mall in the country or the place you go to get a new jacket or iPhone. It was home for three or four months of the worst year of the 57-year-old's life. A home where people spat on you, poured alcohol on you and abused you. Queen Street Mall was home for Wayne Downes for several months. Credit:Jorge Branco The former chef is off the street now but the homeless problem that's been a crisis "forever", according to one community organisation, still affects thousands. In response, several groups have partnered to launch an ambitious plan to "end homelessness" by turning the current support system on its head. Brisbane City Council has sought $10 million from the state government to pay for roadworks across the CBD, brought on by road closures associated with the Queens Wharf casino and resort development. The $2 billion development will see the relatively quiet Queens Wharf Road permanently closed to traffic, while a large section of William Street will be closed for up to six years during construction. The effect on traffic movements in the city, particularly 47 bus routes, would necessitate upgrades to 11 intersections, nine of which were council-owned. Those council-owned intersections were Ann, Adelaide, Charlotte, Mary and Margaret streets along George Street; Elizabeth, Charlotte and Mary streets along Edward Street; and the intersection of William and Queen streets. Some Brisbane road improvement projects would have to be scrapped if the state government did not reimburse the $10 million cost of CBD upgrades associated with the multi-billion dollar Queens Wharf development. Lord Mayor Graham Quirk delivered that warning on Tuesday, decrying that he had been "left hanging" by the state government in a manner that could leave a $10 million hole in the council's budget. Concept images for the Queens Wharf development in Brisbane. But Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the costs should be shared between the levels of government and the council would benefit from increased revenue down the track. The casino and resort development would require the permanent closure of Queens Wharf Road and, for a period of up to six years, the closure of a large section of William Street during construction. Former solicitor-general Walter Sofronoff QC will head a probe into Queensland's parole system. The review was sparked by the death of 81-year-old grandmother Elizabeth Kippin, killed in Townsville last month during a stabbing rampage that left two others injured. Ms Kippin's alleged attacker, 32-year-old Anthony O'Keefe, had been released on parole that day, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk revealed on Tuesday. "At the heart of this, we need to make sure that we get to the bottom of what happened and where improvements can be made we will swiftly implement reforms," Ms Palaszczuk said. Melburnians are used to the odd delay on their trains. But the three hours that 160 passengers spent trapped inside a train midway between Hallam and Dandenong on Tuesday was, the chief executive of Metro Trains concedes, excessive. Metro passengers form a long line as they wait for replacement buses at Berwick station. An overhead wire in Dandenong broke and came down on top of a running Metro train early in the morning, taking out rail services for the outer south-east during rush hour. Metro Trains passengers were left frustrated, but were at least able to catch a bus. The freezing cold weather engulfing the state shows no signs of abating, with one Albany couple feeling the full extremities atop Bluff Knoll in the Stirling Ranges. Snow chasers Tom Lievense and Amber Bennet climbed the highest peak of the ranges on Monday afternoon and endured a 15-minute snowstorm while relishing the freezing conditions, tossing snowballs at each other. Tom Lievense and Amber Bennet's climb was filmed by the ABC. The couple reached the peak about 4pm, where their exploits were filmed by ABC Great Southern. St Petersburg: Russia and Turkey have taken a big step towards normalising relations, with their leaders announcing an acceleration in trade and energy ties at a time when both countries have troubled economies and strains with the West. President Vladimir Putin received his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a Tsarist-era palace outside his home city of St Petersburg on Tuesday, Erdogan's first foreign trip since last month's failed military coup which Turkey blames the United States for supporting. The visit is being closely watched in the West, where some fear both men - powerful leaders ill-disposed to dissent - might use their rapprochement to exert pressure on Washington and the European Union and stir tensions within NATO, the military alliance of which Turkey is a member. "Erdogan can use Russia as a trump card in his negotiations with the West," said Alexander Vasilyev, an expert on Russian-Turkish ties at the Institute for Oriental Studies in Moscow. "For him, the main goal is the West, not Russia." Washington: Less that 24 hours after a speech which some of his supporters took as proof that Donald Trump was indeed presidential material, the GOP candidate suggested that American gun owners should shoot Hillary Clinton. At a rally in North Carolina, Trump warned a cheering crowd that Clinton was determined to abolish their constitutionally protected right to bear arms. "Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish the second amendment; and by the way, and if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do folks. Although the second amendment people, maybe there is, I dunno." Trump knows that Clinton is a defender of the second amendment, but by adding the word 'essentially' he can claim to have qualified the preceding statement of fact "Hillary wants to abolish" Sign up for our amNY Sports email newsletter to get insights and game coverage for your favorite teams Police want to help Mayor DeBlasio sweat every time he visits his Park Slope gym. Dozens of officers picketed Hizzoner outside the Ninth Street YMCA early on Monday and Tuesday morning last week to demand a pay raise and theyll be back soon when he least expects it, according to their union spokesman. Its going to be a pop-up thing unexpectedly, said Joseph Mancini of the Patrolmens Benevolent Association, which represents around 24,000 of the citys 36,000 officers. We like to surprise him. DeBlasio relocated from the Slope to Gracie Mansion when he took office in 2014, but continues to lead a motorcade over to his old gym between Fifth and Sixth avenues most mornings so he can engage in a leisurely workout, often followed by a visit to a nearby patisserie making him a sitting duck for foes and journalists hoping to catch his attention. During their early-morning rallies, the protesting patrolmen waved signs reading Just another dumbell [sic] in the gym and Workout contract with cops, and parked a truck-borne billboard across the street from Y. New York cops earn more on average than many of their counterparts in other large cities, according to the city, but union members argue that the cost of living here is so high that theyre actually worse off. New York City police officers who protect the biggest city in the country every day deserve and will fight for a rate of pay equal to other police officers locally and across the country as state law requires, said president Patrick Lynch. The city has cut a deal with other uniformed workers for an 11 percent raise over seven years, but union bosses say that isnt enough for New Yorks Finest. The mayor is still open to negotiations with the officers, a spokeswoman said just not, presumably, outside the Y. Our door has always been and continues to be open to the PBA to negotiate a long-term contract, as weve done with nearly the entire city workforce to date, said mayoral press secretary Freddi Goldstein. Reach reporter Colin Mixson at cmixs on@cn gloca l.com or by calling (718) 260-4505. 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. When The Bachelorette lost Chad in season 12, the show struggled to do anything remotely interesting for the rest of the season. After shrugging Chad off in the first few minutes of episode 2, Bachelor in Paradise had no such problem. When you lose one crazy person on Bachelor in Paradise, there is always another one right around the corner. Bachelor in Paradise actually doubled down on the crazy, bringing not one but two potential new villains in Chads wake. It wasnt just Leah and Josh who brought the weirdness to Mexico, however. There was a whole host of other issues going on. Here are 7 of the craziest moments. Bachelor in Paradise Recap: Nick and Josh Renew Their Feud >>> Leah Looking for Chad in All the Wrong Places Its more than likely that Leahs desire to take Chad on a date (after he had already been kicked out) was something staged by producers. Still, its hard to deny that Leahs desire to date Chad was the perfect way to set up her short-lived Bachelor in Paradise stint. Many people might not remember Leah from The Bachelor but she made a unique and lasting impression on Bachelor in Paradise. If there is one word to describe Leah it is delusional and thinking that Chad would be a good date is a perfect example of delusional thinking. Leahs Constant Stream of Lies Leahs biggest claim to fame before Bachelor in Paradise was lying about Lauren B. on The Bachelor and then freaking out about lying about Lauren B. In Bachelor in Paradise, Leah decided to double down on her stream of dishonesty by seemingly not telling a single truth on camera. Whether it was talking about how she actually wanted to date Chad, saying that she was such good friends with the other girls or overall just pretending she wasnt crazy and desperate, everything about Leah was fake. Leahs Single White Female-ing of Amanda As much of a human trainwreck as Leah is, it does seem unusually cruel to poke fun at her appearance. Even if the weird parts of the way Leah looks now are down to her own actions, its still her choice. She wants to look like a slutty clown, more power to her. Thats her choice. The thing that is really strange about Leahs new big-lipped look on Bachelor in Paradise is that it really was like a poor imitation of Amanda. Leah was even wearing similar clothes to Amanda. Leah mocking Amanda about their similarities before the latters date with Nick might have been an effort to unnerve Amanda. In reality it just made Leah look completely unhinged and terrifying. Daniels Speed Dating from Awkward Hell Daniel was born to be on Bachelor in Paradise. Daniel is so weird and such an oddball that there is nowhere he belongs more than the Bachelor in Paradise resort in Mexico. Its Daniel and his special Daniel-ness that made the pre-rose ceremony scramble as entertaining as it was cringe-worthy. Spotted: Bachelor in Paradise Couples Out in Public >>> Daniel frequently talks about his high standards but if his conversations with the ladies can be believed, those standards change with the drop of a hat. He went from thinking that all the girls, except the twins, were washed-up dogs to thinking that Sarah is the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. Daniel might still be as crazy as a future serial killer but at least he is an entertaining one The Hottest (and Worst) Kiss Ever Carly and Evans date was so wonderfully awkward. Bachelor in Paradise really does love to humiliate its contestants and it is cruel. Its so incredibly entertaining that it should never stop. Its a work of evil genius that Bachelor in Paradise saw that Carly was not at all into Evan and devised a date which had them kiss in public for over a minute. Thats if you can even call what Evan and Carly did with their mouths together kissing. Little girls playing with dolls are able to put on more passionate displays of affection smashing their dolls together. Dog with Cancer = Single Mom with Two Kids I love dogs. I am the person that makes friends with peoples dogs at a party over the actual human guests. Even I think that Joshs opening conversation about comparing his ordeal with his sick dog to Amanda raising to kids was utterly ridiculous. Josh Murray is a liar and romantic shyster of the highest order and its amazing that this ploy for sympathy not only was used but worked. Amanda Falling for Joshs Lines Nicks losing his mind over Josh going on a date with Amanda was pathetic. (It also doesnt help that nearly everyone kept asking him about it and feeding his paranoia.) Its not like Nick didnt have reason to be upset with Josh, though, because for whatever reason, Josh has a way with charming people. While it was plainly obvious that everything Josh was saying to Amanda was as fictional as Josh claims Andi Dorfmans Tell-All Book is, Amanda bought it hook, line and sinker. Amandas quickness to believe Josh might be just as outrageous as their disgusting make-out sessions that followed. Bachelor in Paradise airs Mondays and Tuesdays at 8pm on ABC. (Image courtesy of ABC) latest news October 3, 2022 Dee Gambit Hundreds if not thousands of new and returning TV shows and movies are released every month your options of what to watch are endless. Variety, they say is ... Residents in Ireland, Finland, and Austria Urge End to Forced Organ Harvesting in China (Minghui.org) The atrocity of organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners in China is meeting strong opposition from the public. Recent reports from Ireland, Finland, and Austria and detailed below. Ireland: More than 7,000 Signatures Over 7,000 signatures have been collected in Ireland since July 2015 to support lawsuits against former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin for persecuting Falun Gong, and condemning the organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners in China. Falun Gong practitioners give out information at Grafton Street in Dublin on July 30, 2016. One Irish resident said, I have watched a documentary on this. It [forced organ harvesting] is horrible and it must stop. A pedestrian signs a petition. Summer is the peak of tourist season in Ireland. Many buses of Chinese tourists arrive from Britain to Ireland every day, as the last shopping stop before returning to China. Upon arriving at Grafton Street in Dublin, one of the well-known shopping streets in Ireland, many of them saw the booth set up by Falun Gong practitioners. Some were surprised, some watched the peaceful meditation, and some nodded at practitioners or agreed to renounce their Communist Party memberships for its persecution of Falun Gong. Mr. Zhang, one of the tour guides, has lived in Britain for nearly 20 years. After talking with practitioners and learning about the severe suppression in China, he signed a petition to support practitioners, and said that Jiang should be brought to justice for his crimes. In July 2013, the Irish Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade conducted a hearing and unanimously passed a motion which called on the Irish Government to support the UN and Council of Europe initiatives to oppose forced organ harvesting in China. Finland: Kotka Maritime Festival The Kotka Maritime Festival, the biggest Finnish maritime carnival, started in 1962. The four-day event attracts about 200,000 visitors. Falun Gong practitioners joined this annual event on July 28-31, to raise awareness of the severe persecution in China. Practitioners set up a booth Kotka Maritime Festival to introduce Falun Gong. Many passersby signed petitions to support practitioners. Mr. Tuakela said he had read about the suppression in China in the newspaper, including about the organ harvesting atrocity. He signed a petition and asked if there had been any recent updates. Upon hearing H.Res. 343 passed in the United States House of Representatives and a Written Declaration was co-signed by 48 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), Mr. Tuakela asked for some materials so that he could inform others about this. Austria: Information Day Austrian practitioners came to Salzburg on July 30 to inform the public about the ongoing persecution in China. Despite the high temperature, a large number of tourists came to to birthplace of Mozart to visit this historical city. Ms. Kraus, a German tourist who was on vacation with her Italian friends, said she had heard about Falun Gong back in Germany. She was interested in obtaining more information. After a practitioner explained that the petition forms would be submitted to the United Nations seeking help from international society, both Ms. Kraus and her friends signed the petitions. Information Day by Faun Gong practitioners at Alter Markt, the Old Marketplace in Salzburg. Tourists talk with practitioners to learn about the issues. One Indian family stopped to read the posters and talked with practitioners to learn more. The entire family signed petitions urging a stop to organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners in China. The man from the Indian family said, Forced organ harvesting is wrong and it has to stop. http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2016/8/9/158187.html , . ! 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. A care home in Brent Knoll that is being investigated by police over allegations of abuse is to shut, its owners have announced this week. It comes after Mendip House was branded inadequate by Care Quality Commission inspectors. Staff at the home did not meet the basic needs of residents, who have autism, and its failings were unacceptable, CQC inspectors said. The National Autistic Society (NAS) announced the closure on Monday, saying it had failed badly its residents. The charity said police and Somerset County Councils safeguarding team are investigating a number of serious allegations of abuse, neglect and the degrading treatment of people. Avon and Somerset Police said it could not comment further on the allegations at this stage. NAS provides various day services for the six residents at the home, in the grounds of Somerset Court. The CQC inspectors found people living in the service had not been kept safe. A number of serious allegations, such as abuse, neglect and degrading treatment of people, had been made. One staff member raised their concerns with inspectors directly as they had no confidence that the provider would take their concerns seriously and act on them. The concerns were reported to the police and the local authority safeguarding team immediately whose investigations continue. Overall, inspectors found the home had been poorly managed with chaotic record keeping. Jane Harris, NAS director, said: It is evident that the standards in Mendip House had been deteriorating for some time and we should have picked this up sooner. When members of staff separately alerted us and the CQC to unacceptable staff behaviour in May, we immediately made sure our residents were safe, contacted other partners and appointed an independent investigator. We are now taking disciplinary action against local management and staff. She added that while there was no evidence of residents coming to physical harm, people had been put at risk by some staff neglecting their duties and failing to follow procedures. NAS is now working to find new homes for the residents. Debbie Ivanova, Deputy Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care, said: Everyone who uses this service has a right to safe, effective, compassionate and high quality care. I am extremely concerned that Mendip House has failed to meet even some of the most basic needs for the people living there. These are unacceptable failings and must not be allowed to continue. After discussions, the provider, The National Autistic Society, have informed us they are taking action to cancel the registration of Mendip house and learn from the failings found at the last CQC inspection. In the meantime we will continue to work with Somerset County Council and the National Autistic Society to ensure that people are safe and are in a position to receive care more appropriate for their needs. If we do not see immediate changes in care we will not hesitate to use our enforcement powers to ensure improvements take place. Unplanned, last-minute pricing is hurting the aviation sector, as is evident from the balance sheets of Indian carriers. Sanjiv Kapoor, chief commercial and strategy officer at Vistara, tells Arindam Majumder and Sahil Makkar that Vistara prices its seats at a premium, in line with the experience the airline offers. Edited excerpts: Why are airlines engaged in a pricing competition? Mismatch between demand and supply. Most of the demand is limited to a few metro cities and all players are competing there. Capacity at big metro airports such as Mumbai is already at saturation, while smaller but popular airports such as Dharamsala or Shimla cannot accommodate large aircraft and, hence, cant absorb the overcapacity. So, airlines are fighting over whatever is left. Tyre major has said that it will be among the top three players in the two-wheeler segment. The company entered into this segment in March 2016. For many people, buying a new car is one of the largest and most emotional purchases they will make. Plus, the process can be confusing, stressful and time consuming. Pune-based comparison website Carbaazi simplifies the experience by bringing quotes from dealers straight to customers. The dealership will pass on exclusive discounts to Carbaazi users who can review their experience for future buyers. Utsaha Khare, co-founder and CEO, Carbaazi said, "Indians are riding the wave of neo-consumerism and expect world class service; they want transparency and clear communication. Carbaazi is a step towards creating that Omni channel framework which successfully ties the interests of all its stakeholders and delivers on products and services to create an ecosystem of the future." Unlock 30+ premium stories daily hand-picked by our editors, across devices on browser and app. Full access to our intuitive epaper - clip, save, share articles from any device; newspaper archives from 2006. Curated newsletters on markets, personal finance, policy & politics, start-ups, technology, and more. Pick your 5 favourite companies, get a daily email with all news updates on them. 26 years of website archives. 'We are very reluctant because price rise has an impact on the demand as well as the volume growth', he said Dubai based has appointed Rajeev Krishnan as Managing Director of Max Hypermarkets India. Rajeev Krishnan has over taken from outgoing managing director, Viney Singh from August 1, 2016. Viney Singh will continue on the Board of the Company as a Non-Executive Director. METRO Cash & Carry, which claims to be Indias largest wholesaler, will overtake rival Walmart Indias cash-and-carry business, Best Price Modern Wholesale, after opening its 22nd store in Bengalurus Mysuru Road this Thursday, its sixth in Indias Silicon Valley. The war that had so far been brewing silently between incumbent telecom operators and Reliance Jio has come out in the open. Industry body Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) fired a salvo at Jio on Monday by writing to Telecom Secretary J S Deepak alleging that Jio was masquerading full-blown services in the guise of a trial, which they said amounted to predatory pricing. The COAI's letter was a response to one sent by Jio to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) claiming that incumbents were not providing enough interconnect bandwidth. In response, the incumbents have alleged that the burgeoning voice traffic emanating from Jio is choking their networks, given that 1.5 million subscribers of Jio are calling people who are on the networks of other leading telcos. When a subscriber of one network makes a call to a subscriber of another network, the point at which the two networks connect are known as Points of Interconnect (PoIs). Depending on the nature of traffic emanating from different networks, each operator has a certain capacity on its PoIs. Given that few Airtel or Vodafone subscribers are calling Jio subscribers, the traffic is skewed. An e-mail sent to Reliance Jio remained unanswered. Incumbent operators claim that the incoming traffic being dumped is burgeoning and even the hugely augmented count of PoIs are getting choked, as millions of users are calling for free. Incumbents have claimed their paid subscribers are getting affected because of this. Rajan Mathews, director general of COAI, said: "We asked for clarity on whether this is compliant with regulations, as 1.5 million subscribers are tantamount to a commercial launch as the trial period has been extended yet again and networks of our operators are getting choked." Jio had launched trial services last December and its users are consuming 25-30 times more data than the Indian average, because the services are free. Even though Jio is still in the trial phase, rivals alleged that it is trying to port their subscribers. Clearly, the extension of free services is beginning to hurt incumbents in more ways than one. In its letter to DoT, COAI has said: "this is no test. This is the provisioning of full-blown and full-fledged services, masquerading as tests, which bypass regulations and can potentially game policy features like the IUC (Interconnection Usage Charges) regime, non-predatory pricing and fair competition etc." The letter to DoT comes a day after the industry body accused the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) of being biased. This further indicates that the relationship has hit rock bottom, as tariff is Trai's remit and the industry should ideally have approached it and not DoT. Incumbent firms are concerned about the traffic imbalance, especially in light of Trai's decision to review interconnection charges. Incumbents feel the current interconnect rate of 14 paise is too low, as it is calculated on the assumption that traffic imbalance is no more than 5-10 per cent. Given that currently 80 per cent of calls are originating from Jio's network and terminating on networks of others, incumbents claim the cost of carrying this traffic is not covered under the current model of long-run incremental cost (LRIC) model. The letter goes on to say that had Jio's free usage "been filed as tariff plan, it would have doubtless been examined for predatory market practice. But no plan has been filed, and there has been no examination. Meanwhile, such pseudo tests with free calling are throwing up one-way traffic, which is leading to never ending pseudo demand for more PoIs." Incumbents have said member operators should not be expected to provide PoIs while this "test" is being played out. Transmission Limited picked up stake and announced partnership with Sharper Shape, Finland-based aerial solutions company, specialing in automated drone-based asset inspections. The deal was culminated during the Make in India conference in Mumbai in February this year by the Prime Minister of Finland Juha Sipila. Ltd. approached the National Green Tribunal (NGT) today challenging a Delhi Government notification banning the registration of all types of diesel vehicles (private and commercial) with engine capacities of 2,000 cc or above. The Iron Lady of Manipur, Chanu, who had been on a hunger strike since November 2000 in protest against alleged atrocities by security forces on civilians in the northeastern state of Manipur, ended her 16-year fast on Tuesday. BJP members in Lok Sabha on Tuesday demanded strict action against a school authority in Allahabad which had ordered a ban against singing of the Anthem. Raising the issue in the Zero Hour, Kirit Somaiah said the ban imposed by the school was shocking and the move had prompted eight teachers and the principal to quit. He was supported by several of his party colleagues. Reports had it that Zia-ul Haq, manager of MA Convent School in Baghara locality, had justified his decision to ban the reciting of the anthem saying, the phrase 'Bharat Bhagya Vidhata' violated the basic tenets of Islam. Minister of state for Parliamentary Affairs S S Ahluwalia said he would bring to the attention of the Minister concerned the issue of insult to the Anthem. Raising another issue, CPI-M members sought an apology from the State Bank of India to the Indian armed forces contending that the Bank has put up a huge hoarding in the Cantonment area in Aurangabad city of Maharashtra depicting US Marines in it. Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ananth Kumar said he would bring it to the attention of the Finance Minister for appropriate action. Saugata Roy (TMC) expressed concern over the deteriorating situation in the Kashmir valley in which 58 people have been killed in the past one month. Ashok Chavan (Cong) drew the government's attention to the sorry plight of powerlooms in Maharashtra in the wake of cheap cloth from Sri Lanka, Bangaladesh, Pakistan and China. Supported by Kapil Patil (BJP), he sought anti-dumping duty on the fabric instead of the yarn. Amnesty International on Tuesday urged India to take steps to repeal the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), which gives sweeping powers to the military in troubled areas. The Amnesty made the appeal as Iron Sharmila ended her 16-year-long hunger strike against the AFSPA. It also urged Indian authorities to drop all charges against her. "Irom Sharmila's hunger strike over the last 16 years has been a testament to her passion for human rights and her belief that a draconian law like the AFSPA has no place in any society," an Amnesty statement said. "The government arrested her, confined her to a hospital room and force fed her for 16 years, seemingly to break her will. There was zero dialogue. A peaceful protest was criminalised," said Amnesty campaigner Abhirr V P. "Irom Sharmila's decision to break her hunger strike gives India another chance to start a dialogue and recognise how the AFSPA has alienated Manipur for over 35 years," Amnesty said. Amnesty said the AFSPA in Manipur had provided impunity for perpetrators of human rights violations, including extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, rape, torture and other ill-treatment, and excessive use of force. Curfew in some parts and restrictions in rest of remained in force for the 32nd day on Tuesday even as the situation across the Valley showed signs of improvement with the army assisting the police and paramilitary personnel in keeping troublemakers at bay. "Curfew is in force in police station areas of Nowhatta, Khanyar, Rainawari, Safakadal, Batamaloo and Maharajgunj in Srinagar city and Anantnag town in south Kashmir," a police official said. He said restrictions on assembly of four or more people were in force in rest of the Valley as a precautionary measure to maintain law and order. The official said the situation across the valley has showed signs of improvement since Monday as army personnel were helping police and paramilitary forces at many places to keep troublemakers away from roads. "There were minor incidents of stonepelting on Monday and so far, no untoward incident has been reported today," the official added. Violent protests rocked a day after Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani was killed in an encounter with security forces on July 8. As many as 55 persons including two cops were killed and several thousand others were injured in the clashes between protestors and security forces. Normal life in the Valley remained affected for the 32nd consecutive day due to the curbs imposed by the authorities and separatist sponsored strike against the killing of civilians in the security forces action. Schools, colleges, business establishments, petrol pumps and private offices were closed while public transport remained off the roads. The attendance in government offices and banks was also thin, the official said. Mobile internet services remained snapped in the entire Valley where the outgoing facility on prepaid connections is also barred. The separatist camp has extended the shutdown call in till August 12. Meanwhile, a police spokesman said 20 persons including several security-men were injured in a clash between law enforcing agencies and protesters in Bijbehara on Srinagar-Jammu highway today. "A group of miscreants assembled near village Simthan on Highway and tried to block the road by placing wooden logs and obstacles to restrict the vehicular traffic movement. "The miscreants also smashed the panes of some vehicles and tried to stop the vehicles including trucks carrying essential commodities. The police party headed by Station House Officer of Police station Bijbehara visited the spot to ensure smooth vehicular movement on the Highway, following which the miscreants resorted to stone pelting due to which 12 personnel were injured. "In order to clear the Highway and ensure smooth flow of vehicular traffic, the security forces were compelled to use mild force, which caused injuries to eight miscreants." "Two of them were referred to SMHS and SKIMS hospitals here for further treatment, and the condition of both is stable," a police spokesman said in a statement here. He said minor stone pelting incidents were also reported from four other places in Anantnag, Sopore and Bandipora districts. "Except for the five minor incidents of stone pelting by miscreants on police deployments in Anantnag, Sopore and Bandipora Districts, overall situation in the Valley remained normal and under control," the spokesman said. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued another summon to Motilal Oswal, chairman and managing director of Motilal Oswal Financial Services, rejecting his request to be represented by one of the directors of the company. Prime Minister on Tuesday asked village heads of his parliamentary constituency to ensure total vaccination, zero school dropouts and cleanliness in their respective villages. "During the interaction, the Prime Minister encouraged the Pradhans (heads) to work towards total vaccination, zero school dropouts and 'swacchta' (cleanliness) in their respective villages," a statement from the Prime Minister Office said. Modi also urged them to eliminate discrimination between daughters and sons, it said. The group of village heads, who had come here to meet him, expressed their willingness to celebrate the birth of a girl child by planting a tree as a celebratory gesture. Modi also asked them to share their experience of visiting Parliament and capital with the residents of Varanasi. Delhi High Court today said that any eviction order passed against Delhi Flying Club (DFC) directing it to move out of Safdarjung Airport here be not enforced for four weeks. A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal said the period of four weeks would start from today and issued notice to the Centre and AAI seeking their reply to the appeals of the flying club and Aero Club of India Pvt Ltd (ACIPL) against a single judge order. The single judge had last month dismissed their pleas challenging the Airport Authority of India's (AAI) eviction order, directives regarding licence fee and show-cause notices issued to for non-payment of licence fee dues of over Rs 8.3 crore. In their appeal they have contended that the Aviation Ministry by a letter of October 9, 2012 had asked AAI to not enforce the authority's 2007 decision to hike licence fees till a policy is formulated by the government regarding who would be eligible for nominal licence fees. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the two clubs, claimed that till date no such policy has come. The court then asked the Centre, represented by Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Sanjay Jain, whether any such policy has been framed and listed the matter for further hearing on August 31. The ASG, during the hearing, contended that the Safdarjung Airport is a high security zone where the flying club can no longer be allowed to operate as the government has some plans for the area which cannot be disclosed in the court. He also said that eviction proceedings under Public Premises Act was going on against the clubs and if any final order is passed, they have two weeks' time to challenge it. Sibal, however, contended that is a non-commercial entity and giving flying lessons to students at low rates. He said fresh students have been inducted and courses are running and sought an interim order protecting them from eviction till the court decides the licence fees issue. The court, thereafter, directed the clubs to participate in the eviction proceedings before the eviction officer and said "if any eviction order is passed, it shall not be given effect to for four weeks from today". During the hearing, Sibal said AAI has been increasing the licence fees by 10 per cent every year which was not in a position to pay and thus, had sent a representation to the government which had then sent the October 2012 letter to AAI. He said that as per a letter of November 2012, AAI had accepted the government's suggestion to keep enforcement of licence fee hike in abeyance, but had not done so. The single judge in his order had observed that DFC was imparting training using only flight simulators and thus, it "certainly does not need such kind of valuable land and property in its occupation and qua which I as a resident of the city can say is known more now for the last at least ten years as a marriage/party venue than for its aeronautical activities". Congress rebel Kalikho Pul, who briefly served as Arunachal Pradesh chief minister, on Tuesday committed suicide, police said. Pul, 47, hanged himself from the ceiling fan in his bedroom, a top police officer said. He was found dead at the chief minister's official residence which he was yet to vacate. Incumbent Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein confirmed to IANS that Pul had committed suicide. ALSO READ: Kalikho Pul: A rise from humble beginnings to CM's chair Although Pema Khandu became the chief minister on July 16, Pul was yet to vacate the official residence. "We have also recovered a suicide note from the room where the former chief minister committed suicide. I am not in a position to divulge much at this moment," said a senior police official. A Congress leader, Pul assumed office on February 19, unseating then Congress chief minister Nabam Tuki. Later, Pul and his supporters joined the Peoples Party of Arunachal, a regional outfit. After the Supreme Court reinstated the Tuki government, Pul and his supporters returned to the Congress and supported Pema Khandu as the chief minister. On behalf of the central government, Jitendra Singh, the Minister of State for Development for Northeastern Region, expressed shock over Pul's death. "He had a promising career that has been cut short," said Singh. Communist leader D Raja called the suicide "shocking" and said it was for the central government to find out what had happened. Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi, son of former Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi, said: "We are really saddened. He was just 47 years old. We pray for Pul's family." Pul, who represents Hyuliang constituency in eastern Arunachal Pradesh, had served in various capacities in the state, including as the finance minister, power minister and tribal affairs minister. Goa Chief Minister today said in the Legislative Assembly that the state receives inputs about terror threats from the Centre from time to time. "Inputs have been received from the Central Intelligence from time to time about possible terror attacks," he said in a written reply to a question by independent MLA Rohan Khaunte. "But the details could not be given in the interest of the nation," he said. Goa Anti-Terrorism Squad and security agencies maintain vigil to identify security suspects or dangerous elements to thwart terror attacks or attempts to disturb the peace and tranquillity in the state, Parsekar said. The inputs received from the Centre are shared with Special Branch centres, police stations, coastal security police stations and ATS with specific direction to keep a sharp watch and collect intelligence in respect of all suspicious elements, the Chief Minister added. Government is considering raising the compensation amount for families of security personnel and civilians killed in extremist violence, Home Minister said today. During Question Hour in the Lok Sabha, Singh said he was of the view that the compensation should be increased and a proposal in this regard would be taken up through the Union Cabinet. He said the government is considering to increase the compensation for security personnel and civilians killed in extremist violence. There is already a scheme for providing assistance to civilian victims of terrorist/communal/naxal violence under which Rs three lakh financial assistance is given for death or permanent incapacitation to the family of civilian victims. This is subject to the condition that no employment has been provided to any of the family members of the victim. State governments have their own compensation policy for the families of civilians and state police killed in Left Wing Extremism (LWE) violence, Singh said. Around Rs 4.26 crore was reimbursed to 10 states in 2014-15 under Security Related Expenditure (SRE) scheme to LWE affected states for ex-gratia compensation to security personnel and civilians. Under the SRE scheme, the Centre reimburses ex-gratia payment of Rs 1 lakh to the family of civilian and Rs 3 lakh to family of security personnel killed in LWE violence. "An ex-gratia compensation of Rs 15 lakh is paid to the next of kin of personnel of Central Armed Paramilitary Forces (CAPF) killed in maoist violence," Singh said. Kashmiri Pandit (KP) employees in the Valley on Monday, accused the Centre and the state government of being "insensitive" to their problems. The ongoing protest of hundreds of KP employees, who have refused to return to work in the Valley after alleged stone pelting at their transit camps, entered the 27th day. "The state and the central governments have become insensitive towards our problems. A high-level committee, which can take decision on behalf of the government, should be formed to hold talks with us," said Promod Kumar, one of the protesters. Raising slogans against the Jammu and Kashmir government for being "insensitive" towards their woes, the protesters claimed that not a single official or representative of the government had paid them a visit to listen to their grievances. "Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti urges the Prime Minister to hold talks with separatists who are out to disintegrate the country, but she is quiet on the issues of those who keep the tricolour aloft in Kashmir," chairman, All Party Migrant Coordination Committee (APMCC) Vinod Pandit, who has extended his support to the agitators, said. He said the KP employees, employed in the Valley under the Prime Minister's rehabilitation package, were forced to leave "once again" after their transit camps were attacked by stone pelting mobs. "They did not come here to stage a protest willingly. They were forced to leave their jobs in Kashmir after their camps were attacked by stoneless, a fact acknowledged by the CID chief of Kashmir," claimed Pandit. The protesting KP employees have also accused the BJP, the coalition partner of the PDP in the Jammu and Kashmir government, of "rubbing salt" on their miseries as the four-member panel formed by the party to hold talks with them had "not done anything". Inclement weather conditions here have not been able to deter the protesters as they have pitched tents outside the office of the Relief Commissioner. The protesters, under the banner of All Migrant Employees' Association, Kashmir, are demanding placement in Jammu till a comprehensive plan for their return and rehabilitation is worked out. "We have given our blood to the soil of Kashmir and do not want to die there. The government should review the employment package and accommodate us here in Jammu as it is not possible for us to return to Kashmir under the current circumstances," said Manoj Kaul, one of the protesters. India should avoid "unnecessary entanglement" in the South China Sea (SCS) dispute during Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi's visit to New Delhi to prevent it becoming yet "another factor" to impact bilateral ties, a state-run Chinese daily said today. "India may want to avoid unnecessary entanglement with China over the South China Sea debate during Wang's visit if the country wishes to create a good atmosphere for economic cooperation, which would include reducing tariffs on made-in-India products exported to China amid the ongoing free trade talk known as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership," an article in the state-run Global Times said. "India is expected to allow only moderate tariff reduction on made-in-China products under the talks in a bid to preserve its domestic industries. If India wants China to be more generous in terms of tariff reduction, it would be unwise for the country to let its relationship with China deteriorate further at this moment," it said. The daily said it is puzzling that India is focusing on the SCS issue at this moment, a move which it said might risk "unnecessary side effects" to bilateral ties and potentially create obstacles for Indian exporters hoping to increase their presence in China, the world's second largest importer. Underlining that tensions between China and India have been increasing in recent months owing to a series of political incidents, it said, "Considering that India does not face territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea, is it worth letting the South China Sea issue become another factor that will impact India's cooperation with China? India should consider this." Amid unease in ties, Wang will arrive in India to hold talks with his counterpart Sushma Swaraj on August 13 during which key regional and bilateral issues will be discussed, including the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) issue. His visit comes ahead of the G20 Summit scheduled to be held in the Chinese city of Hangzhou next month in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to take part. Following the ruling by an international tribunal last month which rejected Beijing's claims over much of the disputed sea area, China is campaigning against the issue to be raised in G20 Summit saying it is a matter to be resolved between parties concerned and outsiders has no role. "In fairness, after dozens of countries have expressed support for China's stance in the South China Sea, India's attitude toward the issue may not be as important as the nation had imagined," the article said. "While many Indian people have been focused on the South China Sea ahead of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi's upcoming trip to the country, less attention has been paid to the recent fall in exports of made-in-India products to China," it said. It said India should move its focus from geopolitical competition to economic issues to stop a further decline in exports to China. "Under normal circumstances, defusing the tensions between the two counties will help lay a sound foundation for fostering closer economic ties. In this regard, Wang Yi's trip will offer concrete opportunities for India," the daily said. "India's exports to China have dropped 16.7 per cent year-on-year in the first seven months of the year, Chinese customs data showed Monday, suggesting that a large number of Indian enterprises are having a hard time exploring the Chinese market amid simmering tensions between the two countries. Regretfully, due attention has not been paid to the living conditions of those Indian firms," it said. India-China bilateral trade which totalled around $70 billion last year tilted heavily in favour of Beijing with over $46 billion trade deficit. Wang's visit will be the first high-level visit between the two countries after China stalled India's NSG membership bid at the Plenary meeting of the 48-nation grouping in June on the grounds that it was not a Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty signatory. Wang's visit also comes just days after Chinese troops "transgressed" the border on land and by air in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand last month. Wang will also be visiting Goa, where India is due to host BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) summit in October. Meanwhile, another article in the same daily accused India of blocking BRICS initiative to liberalise visa regime for member countries and said getting business visa to India has become a "pain in the butt". "Given its unusual sensitivity, the Indian authorities' visa policies toward Chinese personnel often reflect the latest twists and turns in the Sino-Indian relations," it said. It alleged that "in the aftermath of India's failed bid to join the NSG, which New Delhi blamed Beijing as the culprit behind the scenes of their non-admittance, the Indian authorities first refused to renew the visas of three Chinese journalists from Xinhua, then blocked a visa waiver programme for BRICS nationals for security reason". "Although news about India's latest reform on GST (Goods and services tax) galvanised waves of optimism among business communities across China, for Chinese nationals, a business visa to India remains a pain in the butt," it said. The article said that although boundary disputes, NSG membership and other "historical episodes" are unlikely to be solved in the short run, it is in both countries' interests to "look beyond and explore the new possibilities". India is working with neighbouring countries, including Myanmar and Bangladesh, to fight in the northeastern region, the Lok Sabha was informed on Tuesday. Union Minister of State for Home Hansraj Ahir told the house: "There has been substantial decrease in incidents of violence in the northeast since 2012." Ahir said there was no report of any foreign country providing financial or logistic help directly to insurgent groups. But he said foreign arms and ammunition were being used by various groups. "We are working in coordination with foreign countries. I do not say we have attained 100% success, but many camps run by Indian insurgent groups have been eradicated, especially in Bangladesh," Ahir said. He was answering supplementary questions, including from Kalyan Banerjee (Trinamool Congress) and C K Sangma ( People's Party). Sangma, MP from Meghalaya, wanted to know whether India was proposing any "joint operations" against Indian guerrilla groups operating from foreign soil. Ashok Chavan of Congress wanted to know whether the government would sign an extradition treaty with Myanmar to get hold of senior Naga insurgent leaders in that country. Government today said there is no information so far that insurgent groups in the North East are getting support from neighbouring countries and incidents of insurgency there have declined over the years. Minister of State for Home Affairs Hansraj Gangaram Ahir told the Lok Sabha if there is any such report that insurgents in the North East are getting external support, then it would be looked into and action would be taken. During Question Hour, Ahir said government does not have any such information so far that neighbouring countries are supporting insurgency activities in the North East. There is also no information about such groups getting financial support, he added. In a written reply, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said there is no specific information that Socialists Council of Nagaland (Khaplang) was acting at the behest of neighbouring countries. "... There is intelligence that Indian Insurgent Groups (IIGs) have established their camps, shelter houses and training centres across the border in neighbouring countries of North Eastern Region," Singh said. His response came to a query on whether insurgent or extremist groups in the North Eastern Region were reportedly getting external support from neighbouring countries. Another question was whether the government was aware that NSCN (Khaplang) was acting at the behest of neighbouring nations. "The neighbouring countries have been urged to take stern action against the leaders of IIGs and dismantle their safe houses/hideouts in their country," Singh said. Stating that incidents of insurgency have come down over the years, Ahir said, "we are working with neighbouring countries, and Myanmar, and are helping each other to deal with insurgency". He said has shut down most of the terror camps in their soil and it has always been the effort of both countries to close down such camps. "In the year 2015, the number of insurgency related incidents and civilian deaths were lowest in last 20 years," Singh said in another written reply. The Home Minister also said the government has always shown willingness to enter into peace dialogue with any insurgent group that abjures violence. Noting that law and order is a state subject, Singh said the Centre was supplementing the efforts of state governments to control militancy. "Besides, the government has always shown its willingness to enter into peace dialogue with any insurgent group which abjures violence. As a result, a number of militant groups have surrendered after laying down arms. "Sustained insurgency operations are continuing against the insurgent groups who are indulging in violent activities," Singh said. The government has taken various steps for keeping a close vigil on the international borders through deployment of security forces, equipping them with modern equipment, erection of fencing and strengthening of river patrolling, among others, he added. "We are working with neighbouring countries, and Myanmar, and are helping each other to deal with insurgency," Ahir said. According to Singh, four militants of Bangladeshi origin were arrested during the last three years in a case pertaining to recovery of sophisticated weapons from Aizawl in Mizoram. "All were released on bail by the competent court before the investigation was taken over by the Investigation Agency. They had skipped bail and are also escaping from arrest since then," he said, adding that the special NIA court at Aizawl has issued non-bailable warrant of arrest against the four. On how many Bangladeshi origin militants have been handed over to Bangladesh, Singh said "no such militant has been handed over". A proposal to grant long-term tourist visa to Bangladeshi nationals above 65 years of age is under examination of the Home Ministry, Lok Sabha was informed on Monday. "A proposal to grant multiple entry long-term tourist visa for a period of 5 years to Bangladeshi nationals above the age of 65 years is under consideration in consultation with all stakeholders," Minister of State for Home said replying to a written question. The Minister said concerns of the stakeholders, including the state governments and security agencies, will be duly considered before taking a final decision in the matter. Ahir, however, said there is no proposal to grant visa free-entry to Bangladeshi nationals under the age of 18 years and above the age of 65 years. The Minister said at present, e-tourist visa scheme is available to nationals of 150 countries at 16 international airports in India. "Inclusion of more countries in e-tourist visa scheme is a continuous process which is done after due consultation with the stakeholders," he said. Amid reports of provocative remarks against India by Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin, the US has said such rhetoric's are "unhelpful" for regional safety and security and emphasised the need for talks between India and Pakistan. "What I would say is I have seen reports, and anything that does not lead to a calm and peaceful and moderate resolution of differences is not helpful," the State Department Spokesperson, Elizabeth Trudeau told reporters during her daily news conference. "We believe that for regional safety and security, it is the responsibility of the two countries not only to speak directly to each other but also to have that support within the broader international community," Trudeau said. She was responding to questions on reports that Salahuddin threatened to wage a nuclear war against India over the Kashmir issue. "I am not going to respond to every piece of rhetoric that I have seen coming out of that. Of course violence is a concern to us, but what I would say is that issues like this are best resolved through dialogue between those countries," Trudeau said. Asked about the yesterday's terror attack in Pakistan's restive Balochistan province in which 75 people were killed, he said the US stands with Pakistan in the fight against terror and reminded Islamabad of its commitment to go after all terrorist groups. "What I will say is that Pakistan has said that they will go after all terrorists regardless of affiliation. I don't want to politicise this terror attack. This is reprehensible. What I will say is that we stand with Pakistan as they move forward on this fight against terror," Trudeau said. RBI governor said on Tuesday he had never criticised the government in speeches that had triggered strong criticism from right-wing political leaders. Rajan will step down as governor of the Reserve Bank of India on September 4 and his surprise decision not to make himself available for an second term had raised speculation that some of his speeches had upset Prime Minister Narendra Modi's nationalist government. "In none of the speeches I have given has there been an explicit criticism or an implicit criticism of the government," Rajan told journalists following a policy review. "Some of those speeches have been on economic issues outside of monetary policy. I think those economic issues are perfectly within the remit of the central bank because ultimately we have a remit of macro stability." Rajan also strongly defended a speech on social tolerance, which was heavily criticised by some government officials as meddling into political areas. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) on Tuesday welcomed preliminary enquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigating (CBI) into the alleged seizure of Rs 570 crore cash ahead the Tamil Nadu Assembly election and said that it is good of the investigative agency to commence a probe as the ruling dispensation would have never instigated a fair inquiry. DMK Spokesperson Saravanan Annadurai said that the whole matter is perplexing and as the money was transferred during the elections time the matter needs to be investigated. "It is a welcome move that the has initiated a preliminary enquiry in to this 570 crore issue. Because it is perplexing the way money was transferred and it is unbelievable that the money belongs to the SBI. Because we know if even 1000 rupees is credited extra in to our accounts how the bank managers turn things upside down to get that credit back," said Annadurai. "When Rs 570 crore is being caught and is flashed all over the media none of them claimed it for 18 long hours, so all this creates a large amount of suspicion. And if such huge sum is transferred during election time it has to be inquired and definitely we cannot expect a fair inquiry by the present government, that why our leaders have sought a enquiry and we welcome the move," he added. The on Monday registered a preliminary enquiry into the matter. The matter was handed over to the CBI on the directions of Madras High Court. According to reports, it is alleged that around midnight of May 13, 2016, Election Commission Surveillance team stationed at Tirupur seized three tanker lorries with Rs 570 crore in cash. The seizure made three ahead May 16, 2016 when Tamil Nadu was scheduled to go for polls. The DMK has alleged that the seized cash was hawala money. The Supreme Court today sought a report from the Jammu and Kashmir Police on the circumstances under which a youth was killed allegedly by a police party in Tengpora area of Srinagar on July 10. A bench comprising justices P C Ghose and Amitava Roy also stayed the contempt proceedings initiated against senior police officers, including Inspector General of Police (Kashmir range) for not lodging an FIR against the cops allegedly involved in the killing of the youth. A local court had directed the IGP (Kashmir) to lodge an FIR against a Deputy Superintendent of Police and others for their alleged role in the killing of one Shabir Ahmed Mir allegedly inside his house on July 10. Later, contempt proceedings were initiated on account of non-filing of the FIR against the police officers in the incident. Tamil Nadu Committee today observed the 75th anniversary of Quit India movement by paying floral tributes to late freedom fighters. At a simple function held at party headquarters Satyamurthy Bhavan, functionaries of TNCC led by its legislature party leader K R Ramasamy paid floral tributes to the portraits of Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru, Sathyamurthy and others. TNCC Treasurer Nasey Ramachandran media department chief A Gopanna, and a host of other functionaries participated. Ending months of delay, the will begin trial run on the upcoming 'Heritage Line' between Delhi Gate and Kashmere Gate stations on Wednesday, while aiming to throw it open for commuters by November. The 5.1-km-long section, an extension of the Violet Line, will have three stations namely Delhi Gate, Jama Masjid and Red Fort after ITO. "The trial run of Metro trains on the Delhi Gate, Kashmere Gate section of the Central Secretariat, Kashmere Gate Metro corridor of Phase III will begin from August 10, 2016," the Rail Corporation (DMRC) said in a statement. DMRC Chief Mangu Singh is expected to be present on the occasion. The expansion, fully underground, was particularly challenging due to the walled city's structure and a dense populace. The deadline of the project was revised twice in the last one year. The Yellow Line of DMRC already passes through old Delhi areas like Chandni Chowk and Chawri Bazar. With this, its network will delve deeper into the Mughal-era part of the capital. The stations will have a number of informative panels depicting the history of the area, which is also known as Shahjahanabad. Moreover, the line, once operational, will bring down the commuting time of passengers and reduce the dependency on interchange stations like Rajiv Chowk and Central Secretariat. For example, a passenger travelling from Faridabad will be able to travel straight to Kashmere Gate, without having to change at Central Secretariat. A case has been registered by city police against an employee of controversial preacher Zakir Naik's Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) and three others, including two arrested earlier by Kerala police in connection with alleged ISIS recruitment, a senior official said today. Based on a complaint lodged by father of Ashfaque, one of the 21 youths from Kerala reported missing and suspected to have joined ISIS, a case was registered on Monday against IRF employee Arshid Qureshi, Rizwan Khan and two others at Nagpada police station, the official said. They have been booked under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and IPC section 120-B (criminal conspiracy), he said. Qureshi and Khan were earlier arrested by Kerala police. In a joint operation by Kerala Police and Maharashtra ATS, Qureshi was nabbed from Navi Mumbai on July 21 for allegedly radicalising youths. The Kerala police traced Qureshi to Mumbai following a complaint lodged in Kochi by the brother of a young woman, suspected to have joined ISIS along with her husband and left the state. Ebin Jacob (25), brother of Merin alias Mariam who is missing along with her husband Bestin Vincent alias Yahia from Kerala, had told Palarivattom police in Kochi that there was an attempt to forcibly convert him to Islam and make him join ISIS, and that Bestin and Qureshi were behind it. In a similar operation, Khan, also allegedly instrumental in recruiting youths to terror outfit ISIS, was apprehended from his residence at Kalyan in neighbouring Thane district on July 22. At least 21 youths from Kerala were reported missing and suspected to have joined ISIS. Qureshi had been taken to Kerala after a Mumbai court granted his transit remand. Environment Minister Anil Madhav Dave today stressed that interests of developing countries should be taken on board in the development of the global market-based measures for the international civil aviation sector. The minister's comment came during a meeting with Council of International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) President Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu to discuss the global market-based measures in context of emissions from the civil aviation sector. "The interests of poor, developing countries should be taken on board in the development of the global market-based measures," an official release quoting Dave said. Dave said that the measures must follow the "principles of Common But Differentiated Responsibilities - Respective Capabilities (CBDR-RC)". Moreover, he said in view of the universal consensus achieved under the Paris Agreement, all measures to address the greenhouse gases must follow the mandate and framework emanating from it. The ICAO President lauded India's constructive role during CoP-21 at Paris and appreciated the ambition displayed in India's climate actions under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the release said. Environment Secretary Ajay Narayan Jha and ICAO Regional Director Arun Mishra, among others, were also present at the meeting. Lok Sabha on Monday, passed a bill that provides for higher compensation in case an employee is injured in industrial accident and has a provision for hefty penalty in case any violation by the employers. The Employees Compensation (Amendment) Act 2016 was passed by voice vote after Labour and Employment Minister said the government was committed to ensure protection of jobs, wages, social security and fair wages to workers. Replying to a debate on the bill, he said the new legislation provides for payment of compensation up to Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh to employees and their dependants in the event of injury by industrial accidents, including occupational diseases. The Bill, the minister said, also provides a hefty penalty in case of an violation by an employer which could prove to be a "deterrent" to the employees. Insisting that the NDA government is a "pro-worker" and "pro-labour", the minister said efforts have been made to expedite the pending labour cases in courts. As of June 2016, there were 17,289 such cases with every year witnessing an addition of 1320 cases, he added. Talking about "achievements" of the Modi dispensation, he said the labour unions had called for a strike on September 2 but he addressed seven of the ten demands raised by them. The government has also increased the minimum pension from Rs 350 crore to Rs 1000 crore, Dattatreya said. He said the government has also launched a National Career Service Portal, in which 9 lakh people have registered. Codification of 44 laws is also being done in four major segments Codes on Wages, Social Security, Safety, the minister said. Taking a jibe at the Congress, he said a lot of misinformation is being spread through the House. The Labour Minister also promised all possible steps to protect those working in tea plantation sites and from the ship building industry. He said the Bill also demands that an employer informs the employee of his right to compensation under the Act. Such information must be given in writing (in English, Hindi or the relevant official language) at the time of employing him. He said penalty for failure to inform the employee of his right to compensation may be between fifty thousand to one lakh rupees. Participating in the discussion, Dushyant Chautala (INLD) said the Bill would bring down the number of court cases. "Until and unless there is legal punishment, employer will not stop harassing his employer," he said. Arun Kumar (RSLP) said in a race to maximise profit, employers overlook the safety of the workers. He added that the environment of exploitation of labourers in the country is frightening. "Stricter laws should be passed in the interest of the labourer and the implementation of the law should be in a better manner," he said. Ajay Misra (BJP) said "Labour laws should be such that they are in the interest on the labour." He added that the labourers should be aware of their rights. Badruddin Ajmal (AIUDF) said attention should be paid to the condition and salaries paid to the labourers working in the tea plantation. Among others who participated in the discussion were Sunil Baliram Gaikwad (BJP), E T Mohammed Basheer (IUML) and N K Premachandran (RSP). The (Bharatiya Janata Party) BJP-led government in Maharashtra on Thursday indicated that it is mulling convening a special session of the state legislature for the approval of the Constitution Amendment Bill for the goods and services tax (GST). Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin to dedicate Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP's) first unit to the country on Wednesday (tomorrow). Both leaders, along with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa will take part via video conference in the ceremony. India and Russia are cooperating in the nuclear energy sphere for many years. The first unit of the Indian nuclear power plant is already in service. It was connected to the southern grid and the operation of the first 1,000 Mw unit at has started from 00 00 hours on December 31, 2014 generating 1,000 Mw. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has lauded the banks in the way they have cleaned up their balance sheets. "Broadly speaking, we are comfortable with the recognition process as banks have certainly taken a lot of steps. Some banks have taken more steps than we require them to take, and so the culture of cleaning up seems well-embedded as well as a culture of recovery on the loans," RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said. The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers has approached the Government to consider a rupee-based payment mechanism for trading with African nations such as Algeria and Nigeria. They have made suggestion to Department of Commerce to consider a rupee-based payment mechanism for trading with African nations. . . The Department of Commerce, Government of India is yet to take a decision on their suggestion. . . The quantum of total vehicle export in 2015-16 was US $ 8857 million and the share of vehicle export to Africa during this period was US $ 2011 million, which is about 23 % of total vehicle export during 2015-16. . . This information was given by Minister of State in the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Shri Babul Supriyo in reply to a written question in the Lok Sabha today. . . The Government of India has formulated FAME India Scheme [Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India] having thrust on allowing hybrid and electric vehicles to become the first choice for the purchasers so that these vehicles can replace the conventional vehicles and thus reduce liquid fuel consumption in the country from the automobile sector and the scheme has scope of providing demand (financial) incentive to the buyers of eligible xEVs (including retrofitment kits). . . The Government has not defined the cost of conversion for old vehicle into hybrid / electric vehicle in this scheme. However, the Government is offering incentive in the form of front reduction of price to the consumer who buys electric/hybrid vehicles (including retrofitment kits) under this scheme, which is specified in the Gazette Notification S.O. 830 (E) dated 13th March, 2015 available in the website of Department of Heavy Industry [http://dhi.nic.in]. . . The Government has issued General Operating Guidelines for Registration of Automobile Manufacturing Companies and Vehicles Models for availing demand incentive under the Scheme. . . This information was given by Minister of State in the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Shri Babul Supriyo in reply to a written question in the Lok Sabha today. . . The Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D) in coordination with National Investigation Agency (NIA) is organizing the 1st National Conference of Investigation Agencies on 12-13th August, 2016, at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi. The conference has originated from the mandate of the BPR&D and the recommendations of Directors General of Police (DGPs)/Inspectors General of Police (IGPs) conferences which stipulated To organize the All India Conference of Police and Law Enforcement officers engaged in investigation tasks". . . The conference envisages to provide an annual national platform to all the officers of law enforcement agencies engaged in investigation tasks with the objective to discuss the latest laws and judgments and their implications for investigation and prosecution and to deliberate on new legislation/ criminal law amendments and systematic changes for meeting new challenges in investigation. The conference also envisages about adoption of latest technology in forensic sciences for expeditious and professional investigation and to share best practices followed by different investigation agencies which could be implemented by others. . . The deliberations of the conference are expected to help in improving the quality of investigation which has been a long felt demand of public. The conference offers sessions by investigation experts of national repute on themes of Combating Economic and Organized crime, Digital and Technology driven crime, Terrorist Crime Investigation, Legal issue relating to Investigation and Ideas from States: Sharing good practices. . . These sessions would provide exposure to the investigator about the role and function of Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and its coordination with investigation agency, Indian Drug Enforcement Regime and Role of investigation agency, co-ordination between Enforcement Directorate (ED) and investigation agencies, issues related to use of social media by terrorists and strategies to counter them and investigation of terrorist crimes. The sessions are also expected to cover combating cyber crime: strategic responses and international experience, use of technology to improve investigation, need for fresh legislation and amendments required in existing laws to facilitate investigation and database and crime investigation. . . There will be sessions on show-casing the best practices in investigation being followed in various States/UTs and investigation agencies. Leading experts and practitioners in these areas would present their views. . . The DGs of States/UTs, Central Police Organisations (CPOs) and the Heads of Crime Branches/ATS/Economic Offences Wing(EOW)/STF of States/UTs and other investigative agencies will participate in the Conference. Superintendents of Police and other investigators too shall participate. . . Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Shri Kiren Rijiju, who is on tour to Bali, Indonesia to attend the International meeting on Counter Terrorism, was informed about the sad demise of Shri Kalikho Pul, former Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh. On hearing this sad news, Shri Rijiju has expressed his deepest condolences. Following is Shri Rijijus message: . . I am shocked and deeply saddened to know about the sad demise of Shri Kalikho Pul, former Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh. I express my deepest condolences on his untimely and tragic demise. He was one of the greatest Son of the Soil from remote area of Arunachal Pradesh who, despite hailing from a very humble origin, reached a great height in political career through sheer grit and hard work. An omnipresent figure in Arunachal politics, Shri Kalikho Pul was a great leader, respected by all classes of people, who worked with well-founded intentions for the development of Arunachal. He was an active social worker who strived for upliftment of weaker and backward sections of society and his death has caused an irreparable loss to Arunachal Pradesh. His contribution to the development of Arunachal in various capacities will always be remembered. . . In passing away of Shri Kalikho Pul, we have lost a distinguished legislator, an able administrator, a dedicated social worker and above all a fine human being. He has left a huge void in political sphere of Arunachal Pradesh which would be difficult to fill." . . PM flags off Tiranga Yatra to mark the launch of 70th Freedom Year Celebrations PM pays homage to great freedom fighter Chandrashekhar Azad at his birthplace in Bhabra in Madhya Pradesh . . The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, today paid homage to the great freedom fighter Chandrashekhar Azad at his birthplace at Bhabra in Alirajpur District of Madhya Pradesh. The Prime Minister garlanded the statue of Shahid Chandrashekhar Azad and visited the memorial at his birthplace. . . Addressing a public meeting, the Prime Minister recalled that Mahatma Gandhi had given the call for the British to Quit India this very day. He urged to people to remember those who gave their lives so that we could breathe the air of freedom. . . The Prime Minister said it is his privilege to have come to the birthplace of Chandrashekhar Azad. People like him inspire us to work for the nation, he added. . . The Prime Minister said that all of us, who may not have got a chance to lay down our lives for the nation, should take the opportunity to live for the nation. The Prime Minister emphasized that a nation moves forward on the strength of its people, their aspirations, and their hard work. . . The Prime Minister said every Indian loves Kashmir, and wishes to visit Kashmir. He said a few misguided elements were attempting to spoil the great traditions of Kashmir. . . The Prime Minister said the Union Government wants to create employment opportunities for the youth of Kashmir. He appealed to the youth of Kashmir to come forward and move ahead with the vision of making Kashmir heaven on earth." He said Kashmir wants peace and the people of Kashmir want to earn more through tourism. . . He said both the Centre and the J&K State Government are attempting to find a solution to all problems through development. He said former Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayees vision of Insaniyat, Jamahooriyat, Kashmiriyat will be taken forward. . . The Prime Minister said the need of the hour is for all of us to work together with a common resolve to take the nation to new heights. He said the Indian tricolour unites us, and inspires us to rewrite India's destiny. . . The Prime Minister later flagged off the Tiranga Yatra to mark the launch of the 70th Freedom Year celebrations. . . PMs interaction with Village Pradhans from Varanasi Parliamentary Constituency . The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, today welcomed Village Pradhans from the Varanasi Parliamentary Constituency at his residence in New Delhi. This is the second such group to meet the Prime Minister. . . During the interaction, the Prime Minister encouraged the Pradhans to work towards educating every girl child, and promoting Swacchta in their respective villages. He emphasized that there should be no discrimination between boys and girls. He said Swachhta, or cleanliness, is the key to prosperity. . . The Prime Minister urged each Pradhan to resolve to undertake specific development initiatives during his or her tenure, which would result in a lasting legacy. . . British oil major BP is seeking buyers for its 50 per cent stake in a Chinese petrochemicals joint venture, its single largest investment in China, in a deal that would fetch $2-3 billion, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. BP has hired an investment bank to sell its shareholding in SECCO as part of a drive to cash out of businesses, where it lacks control, the people added. A successful deal would mark BPs first significant exit from a business in China. Situated in Caojing near Shanghai, SECCO is Chinas largest petrochemicals refinery and was built at a cost of $2.7 billion, according to BPs website. State-owned China Petroleum & Chemical (Sinopec) and one of its units hold the other half of SECCO, according to the website. A London-based BP spokesperson declined to comment, and Sinopec did not offer immediate comment. SECCO, a venture formed in 2001, produces ethylene and propylene, which are used to make resins, plastics and synthetic rubbers. While Sinopec has the right of first refusal on the potential sale, bankers said Chinese state enterprises are unlikely to step in to buy the stake as executives at many of them are distracted by anti-corruption probes. BPs stake has been marketed to existing refinery operators in China, including companies from Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Europe, the people added. BP, like other global oil and gas companies, has been sharpening its focus on costs and core businesses as it reels from lower oil prices. It has sold more than $50 billion of assets since the deadly 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill in order to pay for clean-up costs and legal bills. This year, it plans to offload between $3 billion and $5 billion worth of assets, of which $1.9 billion has been agreed, it said when releasing second-quarter earnings last month. Jeb Bush's son, Texas Land Commissioner George P Bush, is urging Republicans to support the man who beat his dad in a fiercely fought GOP primary. Addressing a closed-door gathering of Texas Republican Party leaders Saturday, Bush called for helping win in November. "From Team Bush, it's a bitter pill to swallow. But you know what? You get back up and you help the man that won, and you make sure that we stop Hillary Clinton," Bush said in a video first posted online by the Texas Tribune. Bush declined further comment Monday. He has not publicly endorsed Trump and skipped last month's Republican National Convention. His father, uncle and grandfather former presidents George W Bush and George HW Bush have also refused to back Trump. The younger Bush is in a tight spot. He is a rising star among Republicans in Texas and beyond. Ignoring the GOP nominee could hurt his profile. Also, as chairman of the state party's victory committee, he's responsible for generating support for all Republicans. But embracing Trump too much could be seen as betraying the rest of his family. In an interview with The Associated Press in May, Bush said he hadn't endorsed Trump because "I've got two boys that are 1 and 3 ... I want them to be able to look at the Oval Office and see the presidential seal and say, 'That is somebody who I look up to.' And right now, Donald Trump's not satisfied that litmus test." Jeb Bush, a former Florida governor, was an early favorite in the Republican presidential race, but saw his polling numbers plummet amid a barrage of attacks from Trump. George P Bush became the first member of his famous political family to win his first election in 2014, easily taking Texas' land commissionership. Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida on Tuesday summoned Chinese Ambassador Cheng Yonghua to protest the continued incursions by Beijing in its territorial waters surrounding the disputed Senkaku islands. In what is the first direct protest against Beijing by a Japanese cabinet member, the minister asked the Chinese ambassador to explain the continued intrusions and expressed concern over the movement of Chinese fleet in its waters, Efe news reported. Kishida told the media here that he urged China to move its ships from waters near the Senkaku islands and said that bilateral relations have deteriorated deeply due to Chinese actions. Kishida added despite several protests, the situation remains unchanged and cannot accept China's unilateral actions as they are aggravating regional tension, reported public broadcaster NHK. Kishida lodged the protest after a Chinese patrol boat and six fishing vessels intruded into waters close to Senkaku islands. A fleet of 15 Chinese ships, the largest marine contingent from China detected near Senkaku, was also spotted by the Japanese Coast Guard near the disputed area. The Chinese ambassador justified the presence of its ships in the area on grounds that the Senkaku Islands (called Diaoyu in Chinese), administered by Tokyo, are part of its territory, reported the Kyodo news agency. Located in the East China Sea, about 150 km northeast of Taiwan, the uninhabited Senkaku islands have a total surface area of about 7 sq km and are reportedly rich in marine and energy resources. wants to develop trilateral relations with its two big neighbours - India and China, the country's new Prime Minister Prachanda said on Monday. Prime Minister and CPN-Maoist Centre chairman Prachanda, during a meeting with delegates from China Institute of Contemporary Relations at the Prime Minister's official residence here told them that he was "keen to welcome the Chinese President Xi Jinping," who is expected to visit in a couple of months. " wants to develop a reliable and long lasting friendship with the northern neighbour," Prachanda said, adding "he wants to develop trilateral relations with the two big neighbours India and China". The delegates from the state-run Chinese think-tank told Prachanda that "China wanted to establish a constructive and sustainable relations with Nepal," according to a statement issued by the Prime Minister's office. They also expressed desire to exchange experience and knowledge regarding the post-earthquake construction, to extend cooperation and to help Nepal in mega projects. The delegation also asked the Government of Nepal to build infrastructure to bring in more Chinese tourists in Nepal, the statement said. The 61-year-old Prachanda was elected Prime Minister on Wednesday for the second time after his brief stint with premiership came to an end in 2009. He was Prime Minister from 2008 to 2009 before a disagreement with the President over his attempt to sack the army chief brought his period in office to an early end. An opposition lawmaker in Pakistan has called for a ban on all 24-hour-long cartoon TV channels, and specifically the popular Japanese series "Doraemon", claiming that it could have a negative influence on children. Pakistan-Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) leader Malik Taimur's demand has been ridiculed on social media. He submitted a resolution in Punjab province's assembly wherein he requested "the federal government that it make it binding upon PEMRA (state regulator) that it close down cartoon channels, specifically Doraemon, or only run them for limited time periods". "Children's education and physical health is being affected by these 24-hour cartoon channels," Reuters quoted the resolution, as saying. is a small, blue robot cat from the future sent back in time to help a hapless schoolboy and his family. Many episodes of the animated version feature lessons about moral values, and the series has been translated into over 30 languages. Japan even selected as a cartoon cultural ambassador in 2008. Reacting to the demand for the ban of Doraemon, people took to Twitter to advise the PTI and Taimur to focus on more pressing issues such as child abuse, corruption and poverty. An opposition lawmaker in Pakistan has called for a ban on all 24-hour-long cartoon TV channels, and specifically the popular Japanese series "Doraemon", claiming that it could have a negative influence on children. Pakistan-Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) leader Malik Taimur's demand has been ridiculed on social media. He submitted a resolution in Punjab province's assembly wherein he requested "the federal government that it make it binding upon PEMRA (state regulator) that it close down cartoon channels, specifically Doraemon, or only run them for limited time periods". "Children's education and physical health is being affected by these 24-hour cartoon channels," Reuters quoted the resolution, as saying. Doraemon is a small, blue robot cat from the future sent back in time to help a hapless schoolboy and his family. Many episodes of the animated version feature lessons about moral values, and the series has been translated into over 30 languages. Japan even selected Doraemon as a cartoon cultural ambassador in 2008. Reacting to the demand for the ban of Doraemon, people took to Twitter to advise the PTI and Taimur to focus on more pressing issues such as child abuse, corruption and poverty. The US strongly condemned the terror attack at a hospital in Pakistan's restive Balochistan province and offered assistance to the Pakistani government in its bid to bring to justice the perpetrators of the assault. "Our hearts go out to the families and other loved ones of more than 60 killed and we wish a speedy recovery to the dozens more injured. The US is committed to our continuing counter-terrorism partnership with Pakistan, and we remain resolute in joining with the people of Pakistan in confronting terrorism in Pakistan and across the region," Josh Earnest WH Press Secretary, said. "The United States condemns in the strongest terms the terrorist attacks today in Quetta, including the bombing at the Civil Hospital that killed dozens of Pakistanis and wounded many more, and the murder of Bilal Anwar Kasi, president of the Baluchistan Bar Association," the State Department spokesperson Elizabeth Trudeau, said. "We send our deepest condolences to the loved ones of those killed and injured, and we offer our assistance to Prime Minister Sharif as his government investigates and works to bring the murderers to justice," she said. Trudeau said the terrorists targeted a hospital, as well as the judiciary and the media, two of the most important pillars of every democracy. "The victims at the Civil Hospital, many of them lawyers and journalists, were gathered as free citizens to mourn the murder of Kasi," she said. "These brutal and senseless attacks only deepen our shared resolve to defeat terrorism around the world, and we will continue to work with our partners in Pakistan and across the region to combat the threat of terrorism," Trudeau said. At least 75 people were killed and 115 injured today when a Taliban suicide bomber struck them in Pakistan's restive Balochistan province in one of the deadliest terror attacks in the country this year. The bomber struck at a time when over 200 mourners had gathered at the government-run Civil Hospital in Quetta where the body of prominent lawyer Bilal Anwar Kasi, who was shot dead earlier in the day, was brought. A top national security advisor to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has said the US needs to treat Pakistan "harshly" and "cut off" assistance if it continues to be the "safe haven" for terror groups like Taliban, Haqqani and al-Qaeda. "We need to have some tough love conversations with the leaders of countries who pretend to be our friends, but who also collaborate with our enemies," Lt General (rtd) Michael T Flynn, has said in his latest book "How We Can Win the Global War Against Radical Islam and Its Allies" that hit the book stands last week. "Countries like Pakistan need to be told that we will not tolerate the existence of training camps and safe havens for Taliban, Haqqani, and al-Qaeda forces on their territory, nor will we permit their banks and other financial institutions to move illicit funds for the terror network," said Flynn. In the war against terrorism, he listed India as one of the countries with which the US needs to strengthen its relationship. "Diplomacy alone will not be sufficient; at the moment, nobody takes us seriously. We will have to demonstrate the ability and the resolve to crush our enemies. We should start with strengthening our relationships with Israel, Jordan, and Egypt," he said. "We will also need to revive our working relations with countries such as Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, India, and Argentina," Flynn wrote. Flynn who served as the director of the Defence Intelligence Agency, commander of the Joint Functional Component Command for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance and chair of the Military Intelligence Board is one of the few top Pentagon leadership to have supported Trump. Among those shortlisted for Trump's vice-presidential pick, Flynn is considered close to Trump and his top national security advisor. "They are going to have to choose and if they continue to help the jihadis, we are going to treat them harshly, cutting them off from American assistance, and operating against enemy safe havens," Flynn said, adding that the same tough approach applies to the financing of the jihadi network. "Over the years, the terrorists have raised a lot of money from individual donors (sometimes contacted in person, other times online), but criminal activities are a much more important source of money. Some of the best intelligence work carried out by the American government has been done in this area," he said. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan jets into Russia on Tuesday for his first meeting with counterpart since the two strongmen leaders began healing a bitter feud over Ankara's downing of a Russian warplane. Erdogan's visit to Putin's hometown of Saint Petersburg is also his first foreign trip since the failed coup against him last month that sparked a purge of opponents and cast a shadow over Turkey's relations with the West. "This visit seems to me a new milestone in bilateral relations, beginning with a clean slate, and I personally, with all my heart and on behalf of the Turkish nation salute Mr Putin and all Russians," Erdogan said in an interview with Russian state media. The shooting down of a Russian fighter jet by a Turkish F-16 over the Syrian border last November saw a furious Putin slap economic sanctions on Turkey and launch a blistering war of words with Erdogan that seemed to irrevocably damage burgeoning ties. But in a shock reversal in late June, Putin accepted a personal expression of regret over the incident from Erdogan as an apology and immediately rolled back a ban on the sale of package holidays to Turkey and signalled Moscow would end measures against food imports and construction firms from the country. Now in the wake of the failed July 15 coup attempt in NATO-member Turkey, ties between the two sides could be bolstered even further with Erdogan bluntly making it clear he feels let down by the United States and the European Union. Putin was one of the first foreign leaders to call Erdogan offering support and, unsurprisingly, sharing none of the scruples of EU leaders about the ensuing crackdown. "While Turkish-Russian ties are subject to their own uncertainties, this deterioration of relations with Western powers could accelerate a Turkish-Russian rapprochement," said analysts from the European Council on Foreign Relations. Relations between Turkey and Russia two powers vying for influence in the strategic Black Sea region and Middle East have never been straightforward and their predecessor Ottoman and Russian empires fought three centuries of war. Yet before the plane crisis, Moscow and Ankara managed to prevent disputes on Syria and Ukraine harming strategic cooperation on issues like the TurkStream gas pipeline to Europe and a Russian-built nuclear power station in Turkey. Those projects were all put on ice with trade between the two countries falling 43% to $6.1 billion in January-May this year and Turkey's tourism industry seeing numbers from Russia fall by 93%. With earlier easing of import protection on many products, industry pleads for more and longer protection, saying this isnt enough The central government on Tuesday imposed an (ADD) for six months on import of hot-rolled (HR) steel products from six nations, including China and South Korea, to shield domestic manufacturers. from India are likely to increase 20 per cent in 2016-17, thanks to renewed global demand and addition of more areas for aquaculture. The Indian Army on Tuesday paid befitting tribute with full military honours to three BSF jawans, who lost their lives in an encounter with the terrorists near the Line of Control (LoC) in Machhil sector of Kupwara in Jammu and Kashmir. The Army and BSF personnel launched a joint operation after receiving information about the presence of militants there. One militant was also killed in the gun-battle that lasted for two hours. The deceased BSF men were identified as Sub Inspector Mohinder Yadav, Head Constable C P Singh and Constable Babu Shaan. Meanwhile, security has been beefed at Roshi post in Machil area of Kupwara sector. The Loomba Foundation, a global NGO accredited with the United Nations under DPI and ECOSOC, has announced a partnership project with the Lions Clubs International Foundation (LCIF) and Lions Clubs International British Isles and Ireland to provide dignified livelihoods to 2600 impoverished widows in and around India's holy city of Vrindavan. Under this project, the Loomba Foundation will provide a two-month certificate-based skills training in garment stitching to poor widows, and a foot-operated sewing machine on successful completion of this course. The Loomba Foundation's Global Widows Report, the most authoritative and comprehensive country-wise data source on the plight of widows, reveals that there are more than 259 million widows worldwide with over 584 million dependent children. At 46.5 million, India now has become the country with the highest number of widows globally. Launching the sewing machine project, Sir Dominic Asquith KCMG, British High Commissioner to India said, "The British High Commission in India congratulates The Loomba Foundation, the Lions Club International Foundation and the Lions Clubs International - British Isles & Ireland for their tireless efforts in support of this worthy cause." Lord Raj Loomba CBE, founder and chairman-trustee of The Loomba Foundation, said, "I express my deep gratitude to the British High Commissioner, the Lions Clubs International and other dignitaries who have extended their support to make this project a reality. The ancient city of Vrindavan is also known as the 'city of widows' where women come after the death of their husbands, and are forced to live in deplorable conditions under abject poverty, neglect and abandonment. I also acknowledge India's Women Development Minister Maneka Gandhi for recently announcing India's largest state-of-the-art widows' home for providing better living conditions, vocational training and medical facilities to 1000 widows in Vrindavan. I also invite other organizations and people to come forward and support this cause of needy widows in India and other parts of the world." The launch event at the British High Commissioner's residence was attended by several dignitaries, including the first vice president of Lions Clubs International Foundation and The Loomba Foundation's patrons Sir Mark Tully OBE and Padma Vikramjit Singh Sahney; Trustees Aruna Oswal, Balbir Singh Kakar, Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa. Lion Max Mongia, who played a critical role in forging this partnership project, travelled from London specially to attend the launch. The British High Commissioner felicitated all dignitaries. According to the agreement between The Loomba Foundation and the Lions Clubs International Foundation, the project will initially start in Vrindavan for 650 widows and will cover three other areas each for 650 widows. The Loomba Foundation will work closely with the Lions Clubs International Foundation's Past President Lion Barry Palmer, who will periodically visit India to review the progress of the project. Earlier, in January this year, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi had flagged off a similar sewing machine project by the Loomba Foundation to empower 5000 widows of Varanasi to support their families with honour. Since almost two decades, the Loomba Foundation has been empowering several thousands of widows in different parts of the country. It has also provided five-year-long education scholarships to more than 10,000 children of poor widows and supported more than 60,000 of their family members across 29 states in India. Currently, it is educating about 1600 children of poor widows in 13 states of India including Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Uttarakhand. For his exceptional contribution in the field of public service and community service to uplift, emancipate and empower poor widows and their children in India, the Indian Government has conferred the Pravasi Bhartiya Samman Patra on Lord Raj Loomba, who is also the recipient of several other recognitions and accolades including the United Nations Association of New York's Lifetime Achievement Award, the Forbes India Philanthropy Award, British Asian of the Year Award, and an Honorary Fellowship by The University of Northampton. It was due to the efforts of Lord Loomba that the United Nations recognized 23rd June as International Widows Day which is now observed globally and has helped bring the world's attention to this neglected humanitarian crisis that impacts more than 259 million widows and their 584 million children worldwide. It was on June 23rd that Lord Loomba's late mother, Pushpa Wati Loomba, became a widow at an early age of 37, who faced hardships and prejudices being a widow but succeeded in educating her seven young children single-handedly. Department of Science and (DST), Government of India, Intel India Pvt. Ltd (Intel India), and Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE), IIT Bombay announced their collaboration to launch the collaborative incubation program for Hardware and Systems Startups. This is a unique program wherein the industry, academia and Government have come together to support hardware and systems-based start-ups in the country through mentoring, training, lab facilities, hardware kits, prototyping, business services, funding amongst others. The Program will address gaps in the hardware and systems start-up ecosystem that companies face in product design, development, commercialization, and creating scale for their solutions. DST, Intel India and SINE aim to support up to 20 start-ups under this program, and the call for applications for the first batch will be announced in early August 2016. During the year-long Program, start-ups will be supported for six months on-site at SINE, IIT, Bombay or Intel India, Bengaluru. After a period of six months, the start-ups' solutions will be showcased to investors and industry players at a demo day, post which, the Program will extend virtual support for another six months. Participating start-ups will be incubated through intensive training periods, one-on-one mentoring, related support from Intel experts, business service support from SINE, as well as prototyping and manufacturing support. Intel India will build capacities through mentors, and provide technology related support for production and facilitate ideation, design thinking, prototyping workshops and manufacturing support through industry experts. Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE) is the business incubator at IIT Bombay, and supports technology start-ups that are based on products or intellectual property. It has been supporting start-ups since 2004 and has so far supported more than 80 starts-ups. Majority of SINE supported star-ups have become revenue generating, with several having reached Rs. 50 to 100 crore in revenue and many start-ups having raised multiple rounds of funding. Amongst a few initiatives, Intel India has been at the forefront of enabling innovations and entrepreneurship among students, professionals, researchers and entrepreneurs. The company has been driving multiple interventions, including its flagship program Intel-DST Innovative for Digital India Challenge, which has helped enable six entrepreneurs to change their ideas into actual market solutions, the Intel India Maker Lab, the Atal Tinkering Laboratories, Academia engagements with 200+ engineering institutes and incubator centers, the set-up of 100 Internet of Things (IoT) centers across universities that promote IoT capacity building, design thinking, prototyping and fabrication, among other projects. Former Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Kalikho Pul was found dead at the Chief Minister's official residence, which he had not vacated yet, here on Tuesday morning. Expressing his solidarity, former Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Nabam Tuki in a statement said, "It is sad and really unfortunate that a young leader Kalikho Pul is no more with us. May God give strength to his family. It is a loss for the entire state of Arunachal Pradesh. The entire Congress family is with his family in this moment of grief." In a setback to Pul, the Supreme Court had earlier on July 13 restored the Congress government in Arunachal Pradesh, declaring the actions of Governor J.P. Rajkhowa "illegal" and "violative of the constitutional provisions". Congress rebel Kalikho Pul had formed a government with the help of 21 Congress rebels and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs, ousting the Nabam Tuki-led government in the state. Arunachal Pradesh was placed under President's Rule on January 26. Pul had earlier on July 14 claimed the support of majority MLAs of the state. Parading 36 MLAs in front of the media, Pul had asserted that he had the support of 43 members of the Arunachal Assembly, which has a total strength of 60. Pul was the chief minister for around four months after the state was placed under President's Rule following a series of dramatic developments, which witnessed the Congress government being voted out by party rebels along with the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Asserting that national consensus was essential to address national issues, Nepali Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Tuesday said that peace process and implementing the Constitution were the need of the hour. Dahal made the remarks during a meeting with a delegation of the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) at his official residence in Baluwatar . He emphasised national consensus to formulate new laws, expedite post-quake reconstruction works, and implement as well as amend the Constitution, reports the Himalayan Times. He told the journalists that the media sector had played a positive and progressive role in various political movements in the past. Dahal, also the chairman of Communist Party of Nepal- Maoist Centre said he was always in favour of the rights of working journalists. The government of issued orders to concerned officers to make an assessment of the condition of livestock including bullock, cows and buffaloes. Maharashtra's Animal Husbandry Minister Mahadev Jankar on Tuesday said,"I have ordered the officers to investigate what the matter really is, because what we are thinking for Maharashtra, is that the government will put in efforts to take care of all useful animals like bullocks, cows and buffaloes and keep a regular check on the condition of animals in gaushalas." "The department has 5,000 hectares of land in Dabchari, so any farmer between Chanda- Banda who feels that his cattle is not in good health, we will help them and be responsible to transport the cattle to the cowsheds and provide them with fodder and take good care of them and send them back to the farmers once they are in healthy condition," Jankar told ANI. "I also want to inform that some people particularly agents are trying to blame the centre and the state government that is what I have ordered the chief officer of the animal husbandry department to investigate what really the matter is because some people try to do injustice to Muslims and Dalits over such matter, which is not correct. Any person found doing illegal activities will be hooked and action will be taken against them. I have instructed to file a case against those responsible for creating chaos," he added. Following the death of over a hundred cows in the past few weeks at a government-run cowshed in Hingonia Gaushala, Jaipur there is anger across the nation over the poor condition of the animals. The death of cows was reportedly due to an alleged lapse in maintenance of the cowshed. Violence in the name of 'gau raksha' rocked Una town of Somnath district in Gujarat last month where, seven members of a Dalit family were allegedly thrashed by a group of gau rakshaks for skinning a dead cow. Thousands of Dalits gathered in Ahmedabad to protest against the thrashing of Dalit youths in Una. Nepal's Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal said on Tuesday that he is keen to welcome Chinese President Xi Jinping in Kathmandu this year. Dahal made the remarks as delegates from China Institute of Contemporary Relations met him at his official residence in Baluwatar. In a statement issued by the Dahal's personal secretariat, the Prime Minister conveyed the Chinese delegation that during Xi's visit he is looking for building sustainable bilateral relation between both the countries, reports the Himalayan Times. The Chinese delegation told Dahal that Beijing is willing to build a strong relationship with the Nepal, and ready to support Nepal Government in post-earthquake reconstruction and big projects. Chinese President Xi is expected to visit Nepal in October. He is scheduled to attend a BRICS Summit along with the heads of state/government of Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa from October 15 to16 in New Delhi. For some they might just be threads blessed with sacred verses to love and protect brothers, but NEXT, a leader and innovator in the electronic retail space, knows the power of a rakhi way too well. With the #NEXTkaSalaamRakshakaPaigam campaign, India's most trusted electronics retail chain brings a much sought after opportunity for its consumers to express their gratitude to soldiers. NEXT plans to reassure the men in uniform, the love and respect they command in the hearts of the countrymen, by sending personalized messages and Rakhis. While each Indian citizen wishes to honor the soldiers, not many get a chance to do so. NEXT Retail plans to bridge this gap with the new campaign, #NEXTkaSalaamRakshakaPaigam. To participate, all that the consumers have to do is visit their nearest NEXT store and write personalized messaged to the Soldiers. NEXT retail would then collect all the messages and get them delivered to the border men on the day of Raksha Bandhan. Commenting on the initiative, Sanjay Karwa, CEO, Techno Kart India Ltd said, "Beyond everything soldiers do to keep us safe, they make the additional sacrifice of spending most of their lives away from family and friends. They leave the comforts of their homes to protect the country and the countrymen. This Raksha Bandhan, we wanted to do something unique to show these gallant men just how much we the people of India owe to them." "We believe #NEXTkaSalaamRakshakaPaigam would be a great platform for the patriotic citizens to acknowledge the effort of their unsung heroes," he added. To ensure no messages to the mighty soldiers remain undelivered, this iconic initiative by NEXT Retail has been supported with a robust 360 degree marketing campaign with Big FM as the official radio partner. In addition to this, a short film has also been created, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4j8gFh-66tc&feature=youtu.be, to stand in solidarity with the nation's brothers at the border. The excitement doesn't end here, there is lot in store for the consumer as conveniently located in the heart of the city, the Next store is an absolute delight and comes with a strong sales team, good customer service, easy finance options, extended warranty options, exciting deals and a great shopping experience. It offers a remarkable range of consumer durables right from Flat Panel Displays, Refrigerators, Washing Machines, Air conditioners to other small home appliances. Don't wait. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday welcomed village pradhans from Varanasi at his residence in New Delhi. This is the second such group to meet the Prime Minister. During the interaction, the Prime Minister encouraged the Pradhans to work towards educating every girl child, and promoting Swacchta in their respective villages. He emphasized that there should be no discrimination between boys and girls. He said Swachhta, or cleanliness, is the key to prosperity. The Prime Minister urged each Pradhan to resolve to undertake specific development initiatives during his or her tenure, which would result in a lasting legacy. Tomorrow's India Global Summit, an initiative by the Global Social India Foundation announced that the Embassy of India in the Republic of Korea has offered its support during the five-day event in Seoul from September 25th to 29th,2016. His Excellency Vikram Kumar Doraiswami, Indian Ambassador to Republic of Korea said, "An initiative such as Tomorrow's India Global Summit will have value of all entities interested in enhancing the bilateral partnership, I appreciate the vision of promoting the bilateral and plurilateral business, cultural exchanges as well as information sharing, especially in terms of India-Korea partnership. I wish the organizers every success in convening the second edition." Other eminent bodies including Accelerate Korea, Association of IIT Alumni Korea will also be supporting the upcoming Tomorrow's India Global Summit. Around 25 companies from Singapore in the field of design, creative media, financial services and smart cities will be participating at the summit. "We are happy, that our global initiative has been appreciated and supported by Embassy of India in the Republic of Korea. We are also thankful to our other partners including Accelerate Korea and Association of IIT Alumni Korea (IITAK). We are obliged with this gesture," said MD and Founder Tomorrow's India Global Summit, H.P Singh. "Last year on the Independence day, our Prime Minister Narendra Modi introduced the Start-up India, Stand Up India' initiative. We are just taking that initiative to the next level globally. Tomorrow's India is a platform which offers expansion and investment opportunities for Indian start-up community, MSMEs and corporate businesses, it also helps students and educationists to learn, adapt and discover the global education system," added Singh. The agenda for the summit includes panel discussions, sector specific company presentations, case study by various global conglomerates and networking dinners for the delegates. For students, the university visits will be organized on second and third day of the summit. To create an aura of cross-exchange enactment, a cultural show OORJA has also been organized in form of a cultural fusion from India, Korea and Singapore. Apollo Tyres rose 4.18% to Rs 188.30 at 14:20 IST on BSE after consolidated net profit rose 10.63% to Rs 314.69 crore on 16.10% increase in total income to Rs 3331.08 crore in Q1 June 2016 over Q1 June 2015. The result was announced during trading hours today, 9 August 2016. Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was down 114.77 points, or 0.41%, to 28,067.80. On BSE, so far 15.58 lakh shares were traded in the counter, compared with average daily volume of 2.58 lakh shares in the past one quarter. Trading in the counter was volatile. The stock rose 5.12% at the day's high of Rs 190 so far during the day. The stock fell 2.46% at the day's low of Rs 176.30 so far during the day. The stock hit a 52-week high of Rs 216.80 on 7 August 2015. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 127.95 on 20 January 2016. The stock had outperformed the market over the past 30 days till 8 August 2016, rising 20.26% compared with 3.89% rise in the Sensex. The scrip had also outperformed the market in past one quarter, rising 18.64% as against Sensex's 9.35% rise. The mid-cap company has equity capital of Rs 50.90 crore. Face value per share is Re 1. Apollo Tyres manufactures and sells tyres. The company has manufacturing units in India and The Netherlands. Its products are available in over 100 countries. Powered by Capital Market - Live News India has said that the global market-based measures in international civil aviation sector must follow the principles of Common But Differentiated Responsibilities - Respective Capabilities (CBDR-RC). Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Environment, Forest and Climate, Shri Anil Madhav Dave said that the interests of poor, developing countries should be taken on board in the development of the global market-based measures. Moreover, in view of the universal consensus achieved under the Paris Agreement, all measures to address the greenhouse gases must follow the mandate and framework emanating from it. Shri Dave was speaking at a meeting with the President of the Council of International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), Dr Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu, to discuss the global market-based measures in ICAO in the context of emissions from the civil aviation sector. The ICAO President lauded India's constructive role during CoP-21 at Paris. He also appreciated the ambition displayed in India's climate actions under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Powered by Capital Market - Live News Sales rise 28.25% to Rs 5.63 crore Net profit of Indo Thai Securities declined 99.34% to Rs 0.05 crore in the quarter ended June 2016 as against Rs 7.63 crore during the previous quarter ended June 2015. Sales rose 28.25% to Rs 5.63 crore in the quarter ended June 2016 as against Rs 4.39 crore during the previous quarter ended June 2015.5.634.393.91-19.820.457.650.257.630.057.63 Powered by Capital Market - Live News On 13 August 2016 Sanchay Finvest will hold a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company on 13 August 2016, to approve the Un-audited Financial results of the company for the Quarter ended 30 June 2016 and Limited Review report thereon. Powered by Capital Market - Live News A total of 230 terror suspects were detained in Malaysia over the past three years, of whom 84 have been charged, 18 banished and 62 freed, the Home Ministry said on Tuesday. The ministry made the announcement during a special briefing to foreign diplomats based in Malaysia, detailing its strategies to address terrorism threats in the country, Xinhua news agency reported. The ministry said it has enhanced security personnel presence, information sharing with other countries, joint patrol by the police and military, and installation of mobile police booths. Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the briefing was to prevent possible misconceptions regarding the security situation in Malaysia, especially after the country suffered its first attack linked to the Islamic State (IS) in June and police in Indonesia foiled a bomb attack in Singapore last week. Ayob Khan, principal assistant director of the counter terrorism unit, said 90 Malaysians have been identified to be involved in IS activity in Syria in which 21 have been killed, including seven as suicide bombers. Ayob said eight Malaysians, who have returned after spending their time in Syria, were now under de-radicalisation programmes. The authorities also held a similar security briefing to foreign diplomats in April, during which a senior official urged Australian and British governments to withdraw their security alerts for Malaysia, saying the Malaysian government had undertaken all necessary security measures to prevent terrorism in the country. At Tuesday's briefing, Zahid also urged reporters not to sensationalize Malaysia's security threats, saying "We have adopted a very open approach where security is concerned. We do not want to hide anything so that the truth can be known." --IANS ksk/vm Following communal tension in Bihar's Saran district, a citizen's forum for communal harmony and peace on Tuesday met former Chief Minister Lalu Prasad, whose RJD is a major ally of the ruling Grand Alliance. Lalu Prasad assured the forum members that the state administration will take action against anti-social elements involved in the communal trouble, according to Satish Kumar, a member of the delegation. Lalu told the delegation that maintaining communal harmony is the main priority of the Grand Alliance government in Bihar. "Our government will not allow communal Hindutva forces to spread communal trouble and hatred," Neelu, another member of the delegation, quoted him as saying. The forum members were upset at Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for not giving them time for a meeting. Lalu also spoke to the Saran district magistrate and instructed him to take quick and tough action against troublemakers. "Lalu told us that the communal tension was part of a well designed conspiracy by communal forces, particularly Bajrang Dal and VHP, after an objectionable video clip was posted on Facebook by a Muslim youth," Rohit Kumar said. According to reports reaching here, the situation in Saran is under control but tension is still in the air. Schools and colleges opened on Tuesday and markets were also reopened, a district official said. The administration said that internet services will continue to be suspended till further orders. All cyber cafes also remained closed. The district officials said heavy deployment of security forces will continue for the next few days. So far 34 people have been arrested and nearly two dozen FIRs lodged by police. A Bihar Police team was on Monday sent to Bengaluru to arrest the prime accused behind an objectionable video clip posted on Facebook. According to reports, a gang of motorcycle-borne Bajrang Dal and VHP activists attacked shops and houses belonging to the minority groups at several places. In retaliation some shops belonging to Hindus were also attacked in Chapra, the district headquarters of Saran. The trouble began when some youths of Balha village under Parsa police station and other youths from Maker village blocked roads last week to protest against police failure to take action against the accused who had posted an objectionable video clip online, including WhatsApp. The trouble escalated and angry mobs attacked the houses and shops of Muslims on Friday. Some youths attacked the house of the prime accused, which led to the communal tension, an official said. On Friday, violent clashes took place between both communities and shops and houses were targeted at several places. The district administration issued prohibitory orders under section 144. On Saturday too, violent clashes were reported and VHP and Bajrang Dal called a day long bandh forcing shops, schools and colleges to remain closed. Over a dozen people including policemen were injured. --IANS ik/rn/bg In a major swoop, Mumbai police late on Tuesday arrested five top medicos of the reputed Dr L.H. Hiranandani Hospital here in connection with a kidney sale racket. Contacted for comment, an official spokesperson for Hiranandani Group told IANS that they are conducting their own internal probe and declined comments till it was completed. Powai police late tonight nabbed the five medicos who include the 12-year old hospital management's top brass. The accused doctors are Dr Sujit Chattarjee (CEO), Dr Anurag Naik, Medical Director, Dr Mukesh Shete, Dr Mukesh Shah and Dr Prakash Shetty. The accused will be produced for remand at Andheri Court on Wednesday. The Mumbai police initiated a probe after a recent complaint alleging a kidney sale racket in the 240-bed hospital in Powai. They have been charged under Section 12 and 21 of The Transplantation of Human Organ Act, 1994, said the police. --IANS qn/sku/ A Palestinian employee of the UN Development Programme in Gaza Strip was on Tuesday charged in an Israeli court of using his position to assist Hamas's military wing. The 38-year-old engineer Waheed Borsh was arrested on July 16 from the city of Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip. Israel's Shin Bet security service said Borsh used his position with the UNDP "to provide material assistance to Hamas' terrorist/military efforts", Xinhua news agency cited. According to the Shin Bet, during the investigation, "it was discovered that he had been instructed by a senior member of Hamas to redirect his work for UNDP to serve Hamas' military interests". In 2003 Borsh started working for the UNDP, one of the world's largest development and aid organisations. Borsh confessed that he carried out various tasks for Hamas, the Shin Bet said. "For example, last year he helped build a military jetty in the northern Gaza Strip -- utilising UNDP resources -- to be used by Hamas' naval forces. Also in 2015, he acted to persuade UNDP managers to prioritise the rehabilitation of housing in areas populated by Hamas members," a statement said. The indictment was the second time in less than a week that Israel accused a Palestinian worker of an international aid organisation of helping Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement which controls Gaza. "Based on the information available to us at this time, we have no reason to believe that the allegations are true," US-based World Vision said in a statement while rejecting the allegation. Hamas has been controlling the Gaza Strip since it won the 2006 election. Israel imposed a blockade on the strip in the wake of the takeover, allowing a restricted transfer of goods in and out of the Palestinian enclave and limiting most exits and entry of people. --IANS sm/py/bg After a series of incidents against Dalits across the country, the Lok Sabha is now likely to take up for debate the issue of atrocities against Dalits on Thursday, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said. The Business Advisory Committee of the House which met on Tuesday decided that the debate may be taken on Thursday, he said. Earlier in the house, Congress floor leader Mallikarjun Kharge and others had raised the issue and sought chair's intervention to allow early debate, but Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said that the decision on debate time and rule can be decided by the business advisory committee only. The business advisory panel also favoured a debate on the flood situation in the country on Friday, the last day of the Monsoon Session, which largely saw success on the part of treasury bench in ensuring passage a number of important bills including the long-delayed Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill. "The issue of Dalit atrocities will be taken up on Thursday," Kumar later said adding the government is never hesitant to discuss any issue including the anti-Dalit violence. The government, sources said, is now not against a debate on violence against Dalit after Prime Minister Narendra Modi has slammed self-styled "gau rakshaks (cow vigilante groups)". On August 6, the Prime Minister broke his silence on cow vigilante and asserted that he felt "anguished" over incidents of vigilantism and asked state governments to prepare a dossier of such "self-styled gau rakshaks". The Modi government at the Centre and BJP governments in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh have come under strong criticism for attacks on Dalits and Muslims by vigilante groups amid the charge that the law enforcement agencies remained mute spectators. --IANS nd/vd On the 75th anniversary of the 'Quit India' Movement launched here during India's freedom struggle, on Tuesday launched 'Quit India Movement 2' to rid itself of various social evils and convert 'swaraj' into 'su-raj'. "After 68 years of Independence, there is a need for people to respond with similar passion, zeal and commitment to banish several social and other evils plaguing the nation and take India to newer heights," Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said on the occasion. He called for total eradication of poverty from the country, providing universal education, creating employment, combining development with welfare measures as part of the campaign. The state government launched its 'Quit India Movement 2' in the presence of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis at the famous August Kranti Maidan in south Mumbai, earlier known as Gowalia Tank Maidan from where Mahatma Gandhi in 1942 gave a clarion call to the then British rulers to 'Quit India'. Naidu said the country must make illiteracy, discrimination, disunity, disharmony, terrorism and anti-nationalism quit India so as to take the country from 'Swaraj' (Independence) to 'Su-raj' (good governance). He said in order to achieve faster all-inclusive progress on all fronts, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had given the slogan of "Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas". Naidu said the central government will run a fortnight-long campaign 'Azadi 70 Saal -- Zara Yaad Karo Qurbani' to rekindle patriorism among the people, especially the younger generation. "All central ministers and state chief ministers are assigned two places each, including birthplaces of icons and places of historical importance related to Independence movement, like the Jallianwala Bagh, Chauru Chaura, Cellular Jail, Sabarmati Ashram and Dandi etc.," Naidu said. Speaking on the occasion, Fadnavis recalled Mumbai's significant in the country's freedom struggle. "Today, the city is taking a lead in launching the second 'Quit India Movement'. This time, the fight is not against the British, but against social evils plaguing the state like corruption, farmers suicides, malnutrition, water wastage and terror," Fadnavis said. Earlier, Naidu, Fadnavis and other top ministers and dignitaries paid tributes to the freedom fighters and revolutionaries at the August Kranti Memorial followed by a cultural show recreating India's freedom struggle. Rapper Snoop Dogg and television host Martha Stewart will star in the "Dinner Party" reality series. Channel VH1 has greenlit a new weekly reality series starring Stewart and Snoop Dogg for premiere this fall. In the show, the two celebrities will invite celebrity friends over for a half-baked evening of cocktails, cooking, conversation, and fun, reports deadline.com. "At our dinner party, we will exemplify America's fascination with food, entertaining and celebrity. 'Martha & Snoop's Dinner Party' will redesign the traditional food competition shows in a new, different and very funny way," said Stewart. Snoop Dogg said: "My homegirl, Martha and I have a special bond that goes back. We're gonna be cooking, drinking and having a good time with our exclusive friends. Can't wait for you to see how we roll together." Stewart is an Emmy-winning television show host, entrepreneur, bestselling author of over 85 books, and a lifestyle expert and teacher. And Snoop Dogg recently released his 14th studio album - Coolaid. --IANS sug/rb The Japanese city of Nagasaki on Tuesday commemorated the 71st anniversary of the atomic bombing that killed thousands of people towards the end of the World War II. The ceremony began at 10.35 a.m. As the Peace Bell tolled, a minute of silence was observed at 11.02 a.m., the exact time when the atomic bomb code-named 'Fat Boy' dropped by the US war planes, exploded over the city on this day in 1945, Efe news reported. Three days earlier, on August 6 the US war planes dropped the first atomic bomb to be used in human history on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. That devastating mass killer was code named "Little Boy". Following the ceremony, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue spoke about the importance of US President Barack Obama's historic visit to Hiroshima earlier in May and called for an end to nuclear proliferation. Abe said the US leader's visit and his message of peace in Hiroshima brings hope to those, in Japan as well as in other countries, who believe in a world free of nuclear weapons. Saying "we must not allow a repeat" of the tragedy that hit Hiroshima and Nagasaki 71 years ago, he added that as the only country to have suffered a nuclear bomb attack, Japan is going to make all possible efforts to bring about a globally-ratified Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. The US had launched the world's first-ever nuclear attack by detonating an atom bomb over the city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and followed it up with a second similar attack on Nagasaki, prompting Japan to surrender on August 15, and bringing the War to an end. The bomb, dropped on the valley in the northern, industrial part of this port city, instantly killed around 74,000 people, while thousands more succumbed to the after-effects of radiation in subsequent years. Hiroshima and Nagasaki are the only cities in the world to have suffered a nuclear bomb attack. In March, there were a total 174,080 'hibakushas' (bombing survivors, as they are collectively known in Japan) in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as compared to 372,264 in 1980, and their average age was 80 years. --IANS ksk/vt A string of celebrities including Sidharth, Hansika Motwani and Radikaa Sarathkumar have mourned the death of popular writer producer Panchu Arunachalam, who passed away on Tuesday here at the age of 75. It's a huge loss to the industry, they said unanimously. Several celebrities took to Twitter to mourn the demise of Arunachalam, popular for writing over 100 Tamil films, including hits like "Murattu Kaalai", "Sakalakala Vallavan" and "Apoorva Sagodhargal". Here's what they wrote: Actor-comedian Santhanam: Saddened by the demise of Legend Panchu Arunachalam sir. My condolences to the bereaved family. May God bless the departed soul. Filmmaker A.R. Murugadoss: RIP Panchu sir, the master storyteller best in dual action subject, always wanted to work with him. But lots of respect for your work sir. Actress Aishwaryaa R. Dhanush: Rest in peace #PanchuArunachalam uncle... You will always be loved and remembered as fondly as ever. Actor Sidharth: Panchu Arunachalam sir was a passionate creator. His contribution to Tamil cinema will live on forever. RIP sir. Strength to the family. A tweet from the official page of the South Indian International Movie Awards (SIIMA), who presented him with a lifetime achievement award earlier this year read: A Big Loss to the Industry RIP Legendary Film Personality. Panchu Arunachalam Honored to have presented him Lifetime Achievement Award. Actress Hansika Motwani shared: "RIP legendary producer PanchuArunachalam sir. My prayers to the family Subbu Panchu" Actress Radikaa Sarathkumar, who has worked in films like "Theri" and "Poojai" said that she was shocked to hear of the sudden demise of the veteran. Calling it a "big loss" for everyone, National Award winning writer Dhananjayan Govind, who made the documentary "The Creator With Midas Touch" on the veteran, tweeted: "Panchu Arunachalam sir was born on 22nd March 1941, 75 years old now. Big loss to everyone and I am still unable to believe as I spoke recently." Director of Tamil films like "Podaa Podi", "Naanum Rowdy Dhaan" and upcoming "Kaathuvaakula Renduu Kaadhal", Vignesh ShivN wrote: "Can't believe! Just saw him and felt his energy at Siima and now, shocking to realise he is no more! RIP Panchu Arunachalam - a legend has left us. While late filmmaker K. Balachander might have launched superstar Rajinikanth, Panchu was responsible for taking the 65-year-old star to the masses. They worked together in 23 films, including "Kazhugu", "Pokkiri Raja" and "Paayum Puli" among others. Arunachalam also came to be known for his association with Kamal Hassan, and they worked together in 13 films. Some of these were titles like "Thoongadhey Thambi Thoongadhey" and "Uyarndha Ullam". That apart, the writer-producer was also responsible for launching the career of music maestro Illayaraja. He introduced the latter in 1976 Tamil film "Annakilli". Panchu is survived by son Subbu Panchu Arunachalam, a popular Tamil actor. --IANS dc-hp/rb/bg Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan on Tuesday cautioned the general public against emails that claim to provide monetary rewards from the central bank on the pretext of phony schemes. "If you get an email from me or any future governor promising to transfer a large sum of say Rs 50 lakh to you if only you send a small transaction fee of Rs 20,000 to a specific bank account, delete the email," Rajan said at the post-policy press conference held here. The RBI Governor spoke after the third bi-monthly monetary policy review for 2016-17, which was held here at the Mint Street. "The reality is such emails are not from me and the RBI does not give out money directly to ordinary citizens, even though we print plenty of it," he cited. Rajan asked the public to examine and not fall prey to such emails. "While the emails usually contain very convincing reasons why you have been chosen to receive money, ask yourself why I cannot simply deduct Rs 20,000 and send you Rs 49.8 lakh," he explained. Rajan, who kept the key policy rates unchanged in his last monetary policy review, also announced the start of a year-long public awareness and consumer protection campaign. --IANS ppg-rv/vm Union Environment Minister Anil Madhav Dave on Tuesday said that the reasons for the death of two lions in Uttar Pradesh breeding centre will be probed. He was replying to Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, who raised the matter in the Lok Sabha, noting the lions were a goodwill gift from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, then the Gujarat Chief Minister, for Uttar Pradesh's lion safari in Etawah, a dream project of state Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav. "I thank the Prime Minister.. when he was chief minister of Gujarat, we requested lions and he gave them to us, the exact number. But then two lions died. I request to get the reason behind their death probed. If it was our mistake, then we will improve it," Yadav said. In response, Dave said: "Its a serious matter and if possible and if the viscera is available, I will do my best to get it inspected." Four pairs of lions were bought to lion breeding centre in UP in 2013. Out of them, one pair was from Hyderabad and three were from Gujarat. All pairs were bred in captivity and not from the wild. In 2014, a lion named Vishnu and a lioness named Laxmi died in Etawah. The pair was bought from Hyderabad. --IANS kd/vd The US government summoned the charge d'affaires of the Philippine embassy to clarify the "inappropriate comments" made by President Rodrigo Duterte about American Ambassador Philip Goldberg. "We have seen those inappropriate comments made about (US) Ambassador (Philip) Goldberg. He's a multi-time ambassador, one of our most senior diplomats," Xinhua news agency quoted US State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau as saying on Monday. Duterte reportedly called Goldberg a "gay ambassador" and "son of a bitch" during a recent meeting with soldiers. "I am pissed with him. He meddled during the election, giving statements here and there. He was not supposed to do that," Duterte was quoted as saying on the occasion. Goldberg told media in April that the US did not condone anyone who either degrades women or trivializes issues as serious as rape, referring to the joke made by Duterte during his campaign about the rape and murder case involving Australian missionary Jacqueline Hamill in 1989. --IANS sm/ksk/vt American swimmer Lilly King has apologised to Russia's Yulia Efimova for not congratulating her on winning a silver medal in the women's 100 metres breaststroke at the Rio Olympics. King slammed Efimova on Sunday for being caught "drug cheating" and stated that she was "not a fan" of the Russian swimmer, reports Sputnik. Finishing first in the women's 100m breaststroke on Monday, King did not congratulate Efimova but hugged fellow American swimmer Katie Meili, who won bronze. "If I had been in Yulia's position, I would not have wanted to be congratulated by someone who was not speaking highly of me. So if she was wishing to be congratulated, I apologise," King told reporters. She also congratulated Efimova on a "fantastic swim" as well as expressed her readiness to compete with the Russian swimmer in the future. On the eve of the Rio Olympics, Efimova was cleared by the International Swimming Federation to take part in the competition, successfully winning her appeal against a doping ban imposed in July. --IANS sam/bg With reference to Sahil Makkar's article, "India's temple of democracy needs expansion" (August 9), any proposal to shift to another building should be deliberated upon carefully, because the present building has witnessed many a historic event and occasion, the memories of which should be preserved for posterity. is overplaying its hand in Britain's nuclear debate. Beijing's ambassador to the United Kingdom says Sino-British ties stand at a "crucial historical juncture", as Downing Street stalls on the $24 billion Hinkley Point C project. Making the Chinese-backed plan to build two reactors an acid test of mutual trust is unwise. Dalit protests across the country against being hounded by Hindutva forces for playing their timeless role in the cow economy offer a powerful lesson on how the country runs and is governed, or barely so. Trinamool Congress President and West Bengal Chief Minister vowed here on Tuesday to oust the Left Front from power in the state in 2018 Tripura assembly elections. Addressing a gathering at the Vivekananda Stadium, Mamata said: "I would come to Tripura again and again and my entire party leadership will be with the Tripura leadership to defeat the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) led Left Front government. Entire Bengal will plunge into Tripura to throw out CPI-M from power." Banerjee said: "There is no industry in Tripura, there are no good educational institutions or health centres here. Millions of youths are jobless. If TMC comes to power in Tripura, everything will change." Referring to various schemes, allowances and projects launched by her government in West Bengal, the TMC Chief said that the CPI-M only knows how to conspire against her, loot public money and spread violence. Mamata also lashed out at Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and made veiled references to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), when she said, "BJP only knows how to conduct riot, give advertisements and use agency against us. We do not fear all these things because the people are with us." Apart from Banerjee, TMC Vice President Mukul Roy, and her other ministers Firhad Hakim, Arup Biswas and Indranil Sen were present at the rally. President Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday called on Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis at his official residence here to apprise him of the problems being faced by Sena legislators in their respective constituencies. The meeting, which began at around 8:15 p.m., lasted for around one and a half hour and included Minister Eknath Shinde, and Sena legislators Subhash Desai, Sunil Prabhu, Pratap Sarnaik, Neelam Gorhe among others. "Sena leaders apprised the Chief Minister of the problems which our legislators are facing. They also discussed ways in which these problems could be sorted out. In the course of this meet, Sena legislators also gave in writing to him the development work done by them in their respective constituencies," a Sena leader said. He said Fadnavis and Thackeray would meet again and review the progress after three months. Meanwhile, an official from the CMO said that it has been decided to set up joint committees of MLAs from both the parties to work and solve major issues regarding public grievances. Such meetings will be held after every three months to take periodic review of these issues and monitor progress time to time, the official added. There have been 30 ceasefire violations by Pakistan on the Line of Control till July 31 with one casualty from the army side, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar told Rajya Sabha today. The figure shows a decline in the cases of ceasefire violation over the last two years. In 2014 and 2015 there were 153 and 152 such violations respectively on the LoC managed by the Army, Parrikar said. The ceasefire violations on the International Border under the control of Border Security Force in 2014 and 2015 were 430 and 253 respectively. In a written response to a question in Rajya Sabha, he said until July 31, there have been 30 ceasefire violations on the LoC whereas there were two ceasefire violations till June 30 on the International Border under the control of the BSF. Responding to another question, Parrikar said the situation on the India-Pakistan border is under control, but the government is fully seized with the security needs of the country and regularly reviews the threat perception to secure borders and protect national interests. Police today claimed to have cracked a five-year old murder case at Bhanjanagara in Ganjam district with arrest of four persons. Police said Rabindra Kumar Parichha (48) was stabbed to death by hired killers due to non-payment of rent to an ex-serviceman who is the key accused in the case. The murder had taken place on December 15, 2011, while police recovered the body of Parichha from the gallery of Kabi Samarat Upendra Bhanjan Stadium, Bhanjanagara, the next day. The accused persons included Pratap Gouda, the ex-serviceman who is presently working as a bus conductor in Bhubaneswar, Chitra Nayak, Charan Sethi of Dhudua and Manoj Gouda of Baunsalundi, said inspector in charge, Bhanjanagara police station, AK Sahu. Gouda had allegedly paid Rs 50,000 to the three hired men to eliminate Parichha. Gouda fled from the village after the murder and spent two years each in Kolkata and New Delhi. He then returned to Odisha and started working as a bus conductor since one year, Sahu said. Police suspected Gouda as he was seen be people with Parichha before his murder. Acting in a tip off a police team picked him up from Salia Sahi slums in Bhubaneswar. During the interrogation he has confessed to the crime, the IIC said adding that he revealed name of three others who were then arrested. At least seven pilgrims including three women were killed and 12 others severely injured in Ayodhya after being run over by an over-speeding truck early this morning, police said. The devotees, who had come here on the occasion of Sawan Jhula Mela, were sleeping on the divider of a road when they met with the accident, they said. The container truck going to Lucknow from Gorakhpur crushed them, killing seven persons on the spot. The 12 injured were rushed to the Faizabad district hospital from where, three critically injured were referred to Lucknow Trauma center. Faizabad Senior Superintendent of Police Mohit Gupta has suspended four policemen including the incharge of the Raiganj police station under whose jurisdiction the incident occurred. Six of the deceased, identified as Gudiya Pandey, Kishori Tiwari, Laala Tiwari, Uma Shankar Dubey, Bhagwan Tiwari and Kishori Mishra, belonged to Kanpur while the identity of a woman was not immediately known. The injured persons alleged that policeman on picket duty allowed the errant driver to escape after taking bribe. Around 80 Pondicherry University students, affiliated to ABVP, today staged a demonstration outside the campus near here to protest resumption of distribution of copies of a controversial magazine which had come under attack from BJP and ABVP for alleged objectionable contents against the Centre. Manish Mahapatra, a student and member of ABVP working Committee of ABVP, who led the protest, said the University was indulging in "doublespeak" in the magazine row. He alleged that the management had promised that action would be taken against those who brought out the magazine, but the key of the room of the Students Welfare Council office, where the magazines were stored following protests last week, was handed over to the Council yesterday paving the way for re-distribution of copies. He claimed that the magazine was released at a conference in the presence of the Vice Chancellor (in charge) Anisa Basheer Khan a few weeks ago and she could not plead ignorance of the contents of the magazine. He said that the demonstration was aimed at urging the HRD Ministry to replace the Vice Chancellor in charge by appointing a full time incumbent. The magazine,titled 'Widerstand' (meaning resistance in German), was brought out a few weeks back by the council. BJP and ABVP activists had strongly protestedagainst the publication after it was released, alleging that it had objectionable remarks against the central government. (REOPENS MES6) Meanwhile, BJP asked the HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar to replace Anisa Basheer Khan and appoint a full time VC. BJP's Puducherry unit President V Saminathan said the magazine should be immediately withdrawn from circulation. The vice chancellor (in charge) should be replaced for "administrative chaos and eruption of law and order situation in the University campus in the wake of the publication of the magazine," he said in a release. Admission of children from disadvantaged sections in self-financed schools under the Act has increased over the past three years with 94,811 students getting admitted in 2015-16 alone, Minister for School Education P Benjamin told the State Assembly today. He said 49,864 children got admitted under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 in 2013-14. "This increased to 86,729 in 2014-15 and to 94,811 in 2015-16," he said, adding authorities have taken effective steps for displaying the vacancies under the provision in private schools. "Owing to the awareness programmes organised in 2,623 habitations by the SSA (Sarva Siksha Abhiyan) on the provisions of the Act, the admission of children from the disadvantaged groups and weaker sections in self financing schools has increased over the past three years," he said. The Directorate of Matriculation Schools (DoMS) has developed a comprehensive manual on RTE Act and Tamil Nadu RTE Rules, 2011 and issued them to all schools, he said. "Being a nodal agency for the implementation of the RTE Act, the Directorate of Matriculation Schools has disseminated the provisions of the Act to all principals of matriculation schools as well as parents in collaboration with the SCERT," he said. He said the DoMS ensures the issuance and collection of filled in forms for admission of children under 25 per cent reservation as stipulated under RTE Act through the district level offices. Referring to rainwater harvesting in schools, he said the DoMS "ensures the creation of rainwater harvesting facilities in all matriculation schools, to stake their claim for recognition and renewal of recognition. Air India today said it will not impose any cancellation or re-scheduling charges on tickets booked for flights to and from Srinagar till August 16, amid the volatile situation in Kashmir. Last month also, the carrier had extended the relaxation for Kashmir flights. "Applicable penalties of re-issuance, date change, no-show, cancellation and refund charges for travel from/to Srinagar for both domestic and international flights, stand waived," Air India said in a release. Violent protests erupted in Kashmir the day after Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani was killed in an encounter with security forces on July 8. As many as 55 persons including two cops were killed and several thousand others injured in clashes between protesters and security forces. Normal life in the Valley remained affected for the 32nd consecutive day today due to curbs imposed by the authorities and separatists-sponsored strike against the killing of civilians in the security forces action. Opposition AIADMK today demanded that the Centre grant special category status to Puducherry so that "the current tussle" between Chief Minister Narayanasamy and Lt Governor Kiran Bedi could come to an end. AIADMK Legislature wing leader A Anbalagan said although Narayanasamy had been claiming often that there was no tussle between the Ministry and the Lt Governor, "the government is now in coma condition." He said if Narayanasamy's claim that relations between his ministry and the Lt Governor were cordial, were true, why did the Chief Minister and Lt Governor camp separately in Delhi and meet separately the Prime Minister and other Ministers recently. "They should have met the Central Ministers together and made out a case for financial assistance from the Centre to Puducherry," he said. "There is no clear picture of the allocations the Centre had released for Puducherry as the budget session of the Assembly, already due, is yet to be held," he said. The new Assembly after the May 16 polls was constituted three months ago."But budget session is yet to be convened," he said. Outgoing RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan today strongly defended his controversial public speeches as "perfectly legitimate" ones within the remit of a central bank head and asserted that he was never critical of the government in any instance. "These are perfectly legitimate speeches. You can interpret them any which ways you want," Rajan said at an interaction with select agencies here this evening. "In none of those speeches that I have made has there been an explicit criticism or an implicit criticism of the government. There are people who read the interpretation of what is the speech I have given," he added. After his decision to return back to academia, there have been voices suggesting that his candid public speeches were one of the aspects which made the government uncomfortable about reappointing Rajan for another term. The academic-turned-central banker spoke a lot across the country and abroad in the three years at helm, and had a special liking for educational institutes. Some of the controversial speeches made by him include the one where he quoted American political philosopher Francis Fukuyama to question whether strong governments can really help a country or in defence of tolerance in the middle of a debate started by the killing of a Muslim man over suspicion of storing beef, or questioning the premise of the high-octane 'Make in India' campaign. Rajan, who refused to accept a second term at helm of the Reserve Bank, today sought to defend his stance in all these instances and stressed that he was within his remit as the central bank governor while making those remarks. "Some of those speeches have been on economic issues but outside the monetary policy. But those economic issues are perfectly within the remit of the central bank because ultimately we have a remit of macrostability," he said. Rajan also said his concerns on the Make in India campaign -- wherein he had pitched for 'make for India' given the fragile economic conditions the world-over -- have come true. "There was lots of criticism like you are being defeatist etc. Passage of time suggests that advice to look internally for demand at least for the short to medium term even while strengthening our manufacturing and service sector productive capabilities, which I thought was the central point of making in India, was extremely important," Rajan, who will go back to the Chicago University, said. In case of the post-Dadri speech at his alma mater IIT-Delhi, Rajan reiterated the need to be open for ideas as a service-sector driven economy. "That speech was about the fact that in order to grow as a country which is largely a service economy, we have to be open to ideas. Once you reach the frontier, the only way you can grow is by ideas. And in order to get those ideas, you have to have tolerance for unorthodox ideas because those unorthodox ideas is how we move forward," he said. "As a society which is developing, which in some places is near the frontier, we have to have an open dialogue," Rajan added. "I haven't in a sense talked about (things like) dance and music. That would be exceeding my remit," he quipped. Asserting that none of his speeches has caused any market fluctuations, the central banker also conceded that every speech cannot be on the monetary policy. "Every speech if I give on monetary policy, I will commit a gaffe sooner or later. None of the speeches has moved the markets, which is an important criteria for a central banker," he said, adding markets have to be moved with policy announcements and not off-the-cuff remarks. "As a central banker, whatever you say has to be calculated," he said, adding at times when the market requires clarity like the post-Brexit vote, the central bank head has to be reassuring, which he did. In context of the Make in India speech, Rajan said, "we need growth at a measured pace" which is consistent with what the economy can support and depend on fundamental reforms to fasten the process. "I still maintain that the world doesn't look different than it looked three four years ago. So the focus should be on having a platform of economic stability. Only then can we have sustainable domestic demand," he said. Noting that every economic problem stems from people looking for magic bullets which have no pain, Rajan said most our problems are orthodox, which need orthodox solutions. "When the problem is orthodox, its reasonable that their solutions are also orthodox." He concluded by stating that "we need to have a measured pace of growth consistent with what the economy can support in a sustainable as the real oomph to growth will come from domestic reform like GST and the Bankruptcy Code. This will help elevate the growth rate. Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand played out an easy draw against Ding Liren of China to share lead jointly after four rounds of the Sinquefield Cup, a part of the Grand Chess Tour, here. After a few nerve-wrecking games it turned out to be a day when the Indian ace did not have to sweat much as they game never really left the boundaries of a draw. With his third draw and a solo victory over Maime Vachier-Lagrave of France in the second round, Anand took his tally to 2.5 points out of a possible four and is now sitting pretty with three white games still in hand out of remaining five rounds. Like in the previous round, the day did not produce a single decisive game although all games were fought hard. Armenian Levon Aronian reported sick for the round but instead of asking for a postponement just before the start decided to play it out and drew comfortably with Fabiano Caruana of the United States. Dutch Grandmaster Anish Giri played out a draw with black against Wesley So of United States while top seed Frenchman Maxime Vachier-Lagrave could not get past a resurgent Peter Svidler of Russia. In the other game of the day in the 10-player round robin event, Hikaru Nakamura also conceded half a point to Bulgarian Veselin Topalov. With 2.5 points in his kitty, Anand continues to share the lead along with Wesley So, Aronian and Topalov while Ding Liren, Nakamura and Caruana are not so far away with two points apiece. Giri and Vachier-Lagrave of France share the eighth spot on 1.5 points, a half point clear of last-placed Svidler. It was a stress-free day for Anand from the black side of a Queen pawn game. The Indian ace went for the Isolated Queen pawn structure but Ding Liren remained true to his style here and played solidly right through. The pieces changed hands at regular intervals and a draw was a just result in the ensuing queen and pawns endgame. Results round 3: Ding Liren (CHN, 2) drew with Vishwanathan Anand (IND, 2.5); Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 2) drew with Veselin Topalov (BUL, 2.5); Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA, 1.5) drew with Peter Svidler (RUS, 1); Wesley So (USA, 2.5) drew with Anish Giri (NED, 1.5); Levon Aronian (ARM, 2.5) drew with Fabiano Caruana (USA, 2). A court here today issued arrest warrant against Vijender Aggarwal in a case filed against him and an astrologer for allegedly cheating an American citizen of Indian origin of Rs 2 crore in connection with a purported land deal here in 2011. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sumit Dass issued warrant against Aggarwal after he failed to appear before the court in pursuance to its earlier order in case in which he was named in a charge sheet along with astrologer Suresh Shreemali. The court, meanwhile, granted exemption from personal appearance to Shreemali for the day and put up the matter for further hearing on September 9. The court had issued the NBW on April 12 after he had failed to appear before it in pursuance to the summons issued against him earlier. The case was filed on the complaint of Ramesh Bhatia, an Indian origin hotelier in New York. In his complaint, filed through advocate Falak Mohd, Bhatia had claimed that the accused had cheated him and induced him to give the money for buying a piece of land which never existed. The complaint said during his visit to New York in 2007, Shreemali had asked Bhatia to invest in real estate business in India and persuaded him to buy a piece of land. Bhatia paid Rs two crore for the land, but later realised that accused had cheated him in the matter. The police had filed a charge sheet in the case in January under the sections of 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC. "Accused Suresh Shreemali hatched a criminal conspiracy in connivance with other accused Vijender Aggarwal and cheated the complainant. He induced the complainant for making investment in India... "He has received an amount of Rs 20 lakh from Vijender Aggarwal, from the amount received from the complainant and also got transferred the land of Rs 48 lakh from Vijender Aggarwal in the name of his servant Bajrang Gahlot adjusting the payment received from the complainant. Thus, accused Shreemali has cheated the complainant and he is liable for an offence under section 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) IPC," the charge sheet said. The Arunachal Pradesh government today declared a three-day state mourning following the death of former chief minister Kalikho Pul, who would also be accorded a full state funeral. This was decided at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pema Khandu. The Cabinet conveyed its condolences to the family members of Pul. Talking to reporters, Chief Secretary Shakuntala Doley Gamlin said the body of Pul would be flown to his native village at Hawai in Anjaw district tomorrow for performing the last rites with full state honours. "All the official formalities have been completed and the body has been sent for a post mortem. All angles have been minutely observed by the police to ensure that there is no foul play in his death," the Chief Secretary said. Gamlin declined to comment on the alleged suicide note left by Pul. Chief Minister Pema Khandu has expressed shock over the sudden and premature demise of his former colleague who breathed his last this morning. In his condolence message to Pul's wife, Khandu wrote, "It pains my heart to write to you at this moment of extreme grief.... The news of the sad demise of Pul has come as a shock to me. Pul was a seasoned and veteran leader who served the state in various capacities. Assam Governor P B Acharya has condoled the premature death of former Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Kalikho Pul today. "I am shocked at the death of Kalikho Pul and the of his death has left me in complete disbelief. He was young and full of positive energies," the Governor said in a release here. The country and Arunachal Pradesh, in particular, has lost an energetic and dedicated leader who could have contributed immensely to the development of the country, he said. "I pray to the Almighty for the eternal peace of the departed soul and to grant strength and fortitude to the family members to bear pain at this critical juncture of their life," the Governor said while conveying his condolences to members of the bereaved family. A joint team of the West Bengal CID and Bihar police arrested the kingpin of the racket in connection with the Bihar intermediate exam scam. Acting on a tip off from those arrested in the case, the joint team arrested absconding Vikash Kumar (39) from Jinjinjirabajar area in South 24 Parganas district. According to DIG CID (Operations) Dilip Adak, Kumar, who was a clerk-cum-storekeeper of the Bihar Vidyalaya Pariksha Samiti was in-charge of the whole gang. "He used to take around Rs 5-10 lakh from each students for changing their answer sheets. This he was doing in a very innovative manner," Adak said, adding the Bihar police had approached them to help in nabbing the culprit. The tender of printing question papers and blank answer sheets for exams conducted by the Samiti, were given to a Mathura-based press cancelling the earlier order given to a Gujarat-headquartered company. Kumar had sent a letter asking the Gujarat company to print blank answer sheets and received 28 lorries of them, Adak said. He then, when contacted by parents as well as candidates, used to provide them with blank answer sheets. "And after they fill up the answers, Kumar used to replace their original answer sheet with this one," the officer said. Kumar's name surfaced after the Gujarat-based printing press lodged a complaint with the Bihar police when their bills shot up close to Rs 9 crore. Kumar, a resident of Bihar's Patliputra, had recently bought a flat at Kolkata's Phoolbagan area spending nearly a crore. Accusing the BJP of making Kashmiri Pandits "scapegoats" in the ongoing unrest to "realise" its Kashmir dream, a Kashmiri Pandit organisation today said the party was "punishing" the community for its lineage to Jawaharlal Nehru. "BJP is punishing Kashmiri Pandits for their lineage to Jawaharlal Nehru and using them as baits, scapegoats to realise the so-called Kashmir dream without understanding the ground realities of Kashmir," said President of Citizens for Peace and Harmony (CFPH), King Bharati. He said the attitude of the BJP towards Kashmiri Pandits indicates that the party "wants to punish innocent Kashmiri Pandits" for the "blunders" committed by Nehru simply because he was a Kashmiri Pandit. "Had it not been so the BJP would have come to the rescue of the agitating Kashmiri Pandit employees who were attacked in Kashmir," Bharati said. He said that it seems that BJP leadership was "hell-bent" upon "sacrificing" Kashmiri Pandits in Kashmir as they feel Nehru had "ditched" India at a crucial moment and "punishing" Kashmiri Pandits at this time would be "satisfying" for the party. "Kashmiri Pandits are threatened on daily basis by posters and threat letters," he claimed. Two Pakistani paramilitary soldiers were killed today in a blast at a village near the Pak-Afghan border. The incident occurred village Mattak in Tehsil Nawagai Bajaur agency. The troops were carrying drinking water on Mules to their post from a nearby area when improvised explosive device targeted them, killing two of them. The security forces cordoned off the area and started search operation. A 15-year-old British schoolboy believed to be fighting with the Islamic State in Syria has posted gun-toting pictures of himself on Facebook, alarming police and triggering fears that the terror outfit may be using him to lure other western recruits. Ibrahim Iqbal posted pictures of himself in full combat gear and holding an AK-47 on the social media site. Pictures triggered fears that ISIS may be using him to lure other western recruits. "We are aware of posts made on social media. These are currently being reviewed to establish if any offences have been committed," the UK's North East Counter Terrorism Unit said in a statement. The unit is leading an investigation into the disappearance of Iqbal along with his family members from Bradford in northern England. Ibrahim was reported missing by his father from their home in Bradford in June last year when he disappeared with his four siblings, aged between 3 and 15. His mother, 35-year-old Sugra Dawood, is believed to have left to join her two sisters, Zohra Dawood, 33, and Khadija Dawood, 31, who took their own children with them. Iqbal's uncle, 23-year-old Ahmed, had reportedly already been fighting for ISIS for about a year. Iqbal's recent post made references to his brother Junaid, 16, and uncle Ahmed Dawood, 23, with the words: "May Allah accept them," a common Islamic prayer to the dead indicating that they might have been killed. The Facebook page, which included pictures of ammunition and grenades, has since been taken down. Ishtiaq Ahmed, a spokesperson for Bradford Council for Mosques, told 'Daily Mirror': "We are very concerned. If it is confirmed that these pictures are real then it will raise additional alarm bells that young people are being used by the so-called Islamic State to propagate their violent game and entice other young people from Britain to join." It is believed that 10 members of Iqbal's family travelled to Istanbul on a flight on June 9 last year and the group split into two groups to cross into Syria from Turkey, an ISIS smuggler had later revealed. After they had disappeared, the women's husbands made televised pleas for them to return with the children. has banned the export of donkeys, ending a massive surge in sales of meat and skins to Asia, an official said. The government adopted a decree on August 3 "regulating the slaughter and banning exports" of donkeys as well as horses and camels, said Adama Maiga, director for public veterinary health. All slaughter will have to be done in "officially recognised" abattoirs, Maiga told AFP, adding that the legislation is designed to keep the donkey population at a sustainable level following the boom in sales. Donkey meat is popular amongst some communities in Burkina Faso, but exports of the animal's meat and hides have soared in recent years, mostly to China. Exports of hides rose from 1,000 in the first quarter of 2015 to more than 18,000 by the last quarter, Maiga said. He added that the nation's reserve of an estimated 1.4 million donkeys - used by many farmers for transport in one of the world's poorest countries - was being "over-exploited". While the roaring trade has brought wealth to some as prices for donkeys have soared, it has also brought controversy to . Last month residents of the village of Balole, on the outskirts of the capital, ransacked an abattoir set up by a French and Chinese consortium in protest at the stench it was producing, as well as air, land and water pollution. Around 500 personnel of the Central paramilitary forces were today rushed to Arunachal Pradesh in the wake of violence following the death of former Chief Minister Kalikho Pul. Five companies (100 personnel in each company) of paramilitary force have been sent to Arunachal Pradesh to assist the state government in maintaining law and order, official sources said. The forces have been dispatched after some supporters of Pul resorted to violence. As soon as the of Pul's death spread, scores of his supporters gheraoed Chief Minister Pema Khandu's bungalow in Itanagar and demanded a probe into Pul's "unnatural" death. They also set on fire an under-construction building of the Deputy Chief Minister and damaged two official bungalows. 41-year-old Pul allegedly hanged himself from the ceiling fan in his bedroom this morning. The 12-member BJD fact finding team today alleged that the Chhattisgarh government has been supplying water from the controversial Kelo project to industries, instead of using it for drinking and irrigation purposes. The allegation was made by the BJD fact finding team leader and MP Prasanna Acharya. "We saw though there were pipelines spread to draw water from Kelo project, there has been no canal work. This indicated that the main purpose of the project is to feed industries," Acharya said channels from Chhattisgarh. Stating that the Chhattisgarh government constructed the Kelo project without consulting the Odisha government, team member and BJD spokesman P K Deb said "We will hold meeting with Chhattisgarh government officials tomorrow. The team will be able to make a comprehensive view only after discussion with the officials of the neighbouring state." Earlier in the day the team visited Kanakpura village in Odisha's Jharsuguda district, which was likely to be affected by the Chhattisgarh government's project on river Kelo, a tributary of river Mahanadi. The team members later visited the Kelo project and talked to the local people on whether the water was used for irrigation or for industries by the Chhattisgarh government. The team would also visit the Arpa project, said Deb. The BJD team is accompanied by three former engineers in chief of Odisha government for technical advice. The team would submit its report to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik after verifying the ground zero situation, Deb added. China today condemned the terrorist attack at a hospital in Pakistan and said that it stands behind its ally in the fight against terrorism and its efforts to maintain stability. "Deeply shocked and saddened by the terrorist attack which caused grave casualties in Quetta, Pakistan," Spokesperson of Chinese Foreign Ministry Hua Chunying said in a statement. "We express our strong condemnation. Our hearts go out to the families of those killed and injured, and we mourn for the lives lost," Hua said. "The Chinese side opposes all forms of terrorism. We will always stand behind the Pakistani side in its fight against terrorism and its campaign for stability of the country and security of the people," she said. Seventy people were killed when a suicided attacker blew himself up at a hospital in Quetta in restive Balochistan province. A Chinese court has set up a bankruptcy division to deal with "zombie" as their numbers rose sharply in recent months following China's economic slowdown which resulted in overcapacity especially in coal and steel sectors. 'Zombie' are economically unviable businesses, usually in industries with severe overcapacity, kept alive only with support from the government and banks. The division of the Higher People's Court in Guangdong province will focus on bankruptcy and compulsory liquidation cases, offering guidance to other courts in the province and exploring ways to regroup or close down "zombie companies", state-run Xinhua news agency reported. At the end of 2015, China's Central Economic Work Conference emphasised the importance of supply-side reform and the clearance of "zombie companies" as a way to cut overcapacity. Tan Ling, deputy head of the court, said the new division enables better implementation of the Bankruptcy Law and appropriate treatment of different cases. Guangdong has set a target of closing or regrouping of all its zombie within three years. Li Cheng, director of Guangdong state-owned assets supervision and administration commission, said a total of 3,385 companies in the province were identified as "zombies", 2,333 of which are marked for closure. Two Chinese nationals kidnapped by gunmen near Nigeria's capital, Abuja, last weekend have been released, police said. The men, who are aged 45 and 50 and work for a construction company, were held for "24 hours of captivity" after they were ambushed, police spokesman Umar Nurman told AFP. They have undergone tests in a hospital in Abuja and appear to be in good health, he added. Their release followed "extensive pressure from the search party", Nurman said. It was unknown whether a ransom had been paid. The exact timings of the kidnapping and release also remain unclear, though police previously said the men were ambushed on their way to Abuja on Saturday afternoon. Kidnappings targeting prominent Nigerians and foreigners, especially in the oil-producing south, were rife in the 2000s until a 2009 government amnesty reduced unrest in the region. West Bengal consumer affairs minister Sadhan Pande today said small chit fund companies were still operating in rural Bengal and stressed on creating awareness among people on the issue. "Small chit funds are still operating in rural Bengal and are cheating poor people. We still get so many complaints. People should be made aware of their existence so that people don't fall in their trap," Pande said while addressing a programme here. Pande urged the central financial agencies who seized property of Saradha Chit Fund to take steps so that the defrauded investors got back their money. Pande said that the seized assets of Sudipto Sen should be put up for auction so that money could be retrieved and given back to the investors. "Our appeal to everybody is please don't invest in any such financial scheme or service which are not approved by SEBI, RBI," he said. After the Saradha bubble burst in April, 2013, several Ponzi schemes and chit fund companies had to wind up their operations as central and state agencies cracked the whip amid protests by lakhs of defrauded investors. According to the consumer affairs department, these chit funds are operating at such a small level that at times it becomes tough even for the local administration to locate them. Nepal's Prime Minister Prachanda today said he is committed to amend the Constitution to address the demands of all indigenous communities of the country including the Madhesis. Addressing a programme organised by theNepalFederation of Indigenous Nationalities here to mark the 22nd International Day of the World's Indigenous People, the Prime Minister said, "the government would try to implement the Constitution in a way that all the oppressed ethnic communities and indigenous people would feel their ownership in it." He said he is committed to make the Constitution acceptable to all people through amendment to it. The government is working towards forging a national consensus towards that direction, he added. The Madhesis and various indigenous nationalities have been demanding the identity based federalism to be incorporated in the statute, that was promulgated in September last year. The Madhesi parties had led the six months-long agitation, mainly to protest against the seven-province federal model enshrined in the Constitution. The protests by Madhesis, mostly of Indian-origin, had also disrupted the supplies of petroleum products and cooking gas among other essentials to Nepal. The 61-year-old Prachanda was elected Prime Minister on Wednesday for the second time after his brief stint with premiership came to an end in 2009. Last week, Prachanda-led government has decided that the families of those killed during the Madhesis' protests over the new Constitution will be given Rs 1 million each in compensation. The decision was part of the deal ruling alliance Nepali Congress and CPN-Maoist Centre had signed with the Madhesis after previous K P Sharma-led government had resigned. CPI(M) today said the process of political dialogue with all shades of opinions, including separatists, should be started and demanded that al all-party delegation visit Srinagar without further delay to defuse the crisis. "I have not seen the continuation of such month-long curfew anywhere... Let an all-party delegation leave for Srinagar to meet people there to assuage their feelings and grievances without any further delay," CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said here. He said the problem in the valley cannot be termed as law and order issue and has to be solved through political dialogue. Asked whether he is for dialogue with separatists, Yechury said, "It has to be with all shades of opinions, including separatists. We have done it in the past and it has worked." "I have told the Home Minister about it a month back to start the political dialogue and again I am saying this," he said. Asked about continuance of AFSPA, he said, "Army should be withdrawn from the civilian area. It should only remain in border areas to check infiltration. It has been done in Tripura." Taking on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue of attacks by cow vigilante, he said, "In the name of cow protection, you cannot kill people. PM's statement is too little and too late." In the last two years, PM has not given any assurance in the House nor said that action will be taken in accordance with the law, he said. CPI today staged a protest outside the office of Deputy Commissioner of Police in Pitampura over worsening law and order and claimed that corruption prevailed at "most of the police stations" in Outer Delhi district. Led by Dinesh Varshney, assistant secretary of the Left party's Delhi unit, the protesters condemned alleged police inaction and accused the DCP of not making regular surprise visits to stations as decided after the 2012 Nirbhaya case. "The DCP should resolve public complaints in a time-bound manner. Or else, CPI will be compelled to organise a massive protest at PHQ (Police Headquarters at ITO)," Varshney warned, according to a statement. The protesters claimed that women were the victims in most of the crimes in the district. "Girls are harassed on roads. Girl schools were not provided security. Anti-social elements stand throughout the school hours," Rukmani Devi, Secretary, West Delhi district Mahila Federation, was quoted as saying in the statement. Later, a delegation of the party submitted a memorandum to the DCP, a copy of which was also sent to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung and Police Commissioner Alok Kumar Verma. The Supreme Court is likely to pass an order tomorrow on a plea of the Maharashtra government seeking a clarification as to whether a youth below 18-years can participate in a 'Dahi-Handi' ritual and human pyramid formation could be above 20 feet. A bench of Justices A R Dave and L Nageswara Rao said that it will clarify on the issue tomorrow as the counsel for the petitioner before the Bombay High Court was not present in the court. Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Maharashtra government, said that it is an urgent matter as a petition seeking initiation of contempt proceedings has been filed before the high court which has asked the state government to seek clarification from the apex court on the issue. He said that Janmashtami festival is approaching and 'Dahi-Handi' is one of the most popular parts of it. The court said that since the counsel for the petitioner before the high court is not present in the court, it cannot pass any order on the issue and listed it for tomorrow. Last week, the Maharashtra government had approached the apex court seeking clarification on its 2014 order by which it had stayed the high court decision banning participation of those below 18-years in a popular 'Dahi-Handi' ritual. The high court had on August 11, 2014 directed the state government to issue a circular banning 'govinda' under the age of 18 from participating in the formation of human pyramid during the festival, as well restricting the height of the pyramids to 20 feet. The apex court, which had stayed the high court order, however, did not set aside the decision. The state government has said that a clarification was needed as to whether the stay on the high court verdict is still in operation in view of the fact that the judgement has not been quashed. The seizure of narcotics like cocaine and heroin suggests that Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) here is becoming a transit point for drug smuggling, Union Minister Hansraj Gangaram Ahir said today. As many as eleven persons, including ten foreigners, have been arrested so far this year for their alleged involvement in the smuggling, he said. Over six kgs of cocaine, 7.2 kg hashish and 300 gms heroin have been seized from the airport this year, the Minister said in a written reply in Lok Sabha. About 17 kg of Methaqualone (a sedative substance), 40 kg of Pseudo Ephedrine (used as precursor to make drugs), 150 bottles of Phensedyl (codeine based cough syrup) and 170 bottle of cough syrups (having medical substance which cause drowsiness) were also seized from the IGIA, as per the reply. "Seizure of drugs by the enforcement agencies as IGI airport suggests that it is becoming a transit point of drug smuggling," Ahir said. He said various steps including strict surveillance, enforcement at export or import points of the airport, sensitisation and training of drug law enforcement agencies are done to enhance their enforcement capacity against new modus operandi so as to check drug smuggling. Delhi government has decided to double the seats in B.Ed programme conducted by the State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT) from existing 70 to 150. The announcement was made today by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia while addressing a new batch of students at the institute. Sisodia, who is also the Education minister, said the students of the course will soon get the gift of a separate institute and asked for their suggestions regarding its name. "The future of 26 lakh students of Delhi is in hands of the budding teachers and you should become partners of the government in ensuring quality education to every child of whether rich or poor," he said. Teachers and anganwadi workers today staged demonstrations here in support of their demands leading to traffic snarls even as police had to baton charge some protestors to disperse them. While anganwadi workers staged a demonstration at Gandhi statue, members of Uttar Pradesh Karamchari Shikshak Samanvaya Samiti protested in front of Vidhan Bhawan demanding restoration of old pension system among other things. The agitated workers clashed with police, after which it used force to disperse the mob. Several organisations and political parties have condemned the police action against employees and teachers. An elderly doctor couple was allegedly murdered by some unknown persons at their clinic in the district, police said today. The bodies of Uddhav Kulkarni (65) and his wife Pradnya Kulkarni (62), hailing from Sangli, were today found in their private clinic at Rukadi village under Hatkanangale taluka of the district by some persons. The clinic was closed yesterday and on Sunday. People thought it might have been shut because of the weekly holiday and load-shedding yesterday. However, when the doors were opened, some persons found the couple dead with wounds on their neck and head, police said. Police suspect that the double murder took place on Sunday. A case has been registered, police said, adding a probe is on in the matter. Cold War rhetoric that dominated the Olympics in the 1970s and 80s resurfaced in Rio after a simmering dispute between Russian and American swimmers boiled over. Relations between the sporting superpowers have been tense since US calls for the entire Russian team to be banned from Rio following allegations of government-backed doping. They only worsened after Monday's women's 100 metres breaststroke final. The race pitted American teenagers Lilly King and Katie Meili against Russia's Yulia Efimova, the reigning world champion, and a symbol of her country's doping scandal. Initially banned from Rio, the 24-year-old won a last-minute appeal allowing her to compete, prompting protests from the Americans, including King, who said the Russian should have been banned. In scenes rarely witnessed at an Olympics, Efimova was jeered by the crowd in Rio and after narrowly losing the gold to King on Monday, chants of USA USA echoed around the Olympic Aquatic Stadium. "I'm actually glad I made a statement and I ended up coming out on top in the race," King said. "I basically said what everybody else was thinking so they (other swimmers) were glad I spoke out and had the guts to say that." King and Meili, who finished third to earn the bronze medal, threw their arms around each other in the pool and again at the medal presentation. King said she never considered congratulating Efimova. "I was really just in the moment," she said. "If I had been in Yulia's position, I would not have wanted to be congratulated by someone who said those things about me. But if she was wishing to be congratulated, I apologize to her." After the race, Efimova broke down, sobbing uncontrollably as she started to speak to journalists. She composed herself enough to attend the medal winner's press conference but struggled to hold back tears as she was grilled about doping. "I once made a mistake and served my ban," she said, referring to the 16-month suspension incurred after testing positive for a banned steroid. She was given a provisional ban this year for testing positive for meldonium but that was overturned in May after she appealled to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. "The second time was not my mistake. I don't know how to make people understand. If yoghurt gets banned and you're positive, is that your fault?" Efimova, who lives and trains most of the time in the United States, said she was a victim of politics. "It's very upsetting when politics interfere into sports and I encourage athletes to understand each other's problem, not enter into politics," she said. "I'm in Russia only one month a year, I don't know what's happening there and I don't believe it. "I can't understand what's going on. Usually at an Olympic Games all wars stop but now they can find a way to beat Russia and to use athletes. This is so unfair." However, King said her stance wasn't anti-Russian -- it would apply equally to Americans such as track and field sprinter Justin Gatlin -- a two-time offender. "Do I think people who have been caught for doping offences should be on the team? No they shouldn't," she said. The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) seized logs of red sander worth Rs 3.2 crore at Mundra port in Gandhidham while they were allegedly being exported illegally, officials said today. "On the basis of specific intelligence, a team of officers of DRI intercepted two containers containing export consignment declared to be non-basmati rice... One of the subject containers was found stuffed with non-basmati rice, as declared. However, on examination of the second container, the officers of DRI found wooden logs concealed beneath bags of non-basmati rice," it said in a press release. The containers, which arrived at Mundra port through rail route and was to be loaded on a vessel heading to Dubai, belonged to M/s Surbhi Exports, Delhi, which had obtained shipping bills for them from inland container depot (ICD) at Sonepat in Haryana, DRI said. As per officials, they were intercepted at the port. One of the two containers was found to carry red sander hidden under bags of non-basmati rice. Forest department officials were called in who confirmed it to be red sander, the agency said. A total of 164 units of sander-wood seized from the site weighing 4.550 metric tonne is estimated to cost Rs 3.2 crore, it said. The DRI also seized 1,805 bags of non-basmati rice weighing 32.810 metric tonne valued at around Rs 13 lakhs which was being used to conceal contraband item, it said. "Export of red sander-wood from India is prohibited. Due to its demand in international market and high value, unscrupulous elements have attempted to export the same circumventing the prohibition... The Directorate has initiated investigations in the matter," it said. India's Consul General in Dubai met the family of the fire fighter who lost his life while rescuing passengers on board the Emirates plane that crash landed here and lauded the valour shown by him. Jasim Elsa Al Baloushi died during firefighting operations after the Emirates aircraft carrying 300 people, including 226 Indians, caught fire while landing at Dubai airport on August 3. 282 passengers and 18 crew members had a miraculous escape when flight EK521 from Thiruvananthapuram to Dubai made the crash-landing. The Boeing 777-300 aircraft caught fire on the runway shortly after landing. All 300 people on board escaped the aircraft before it was destroyed by the fire. Consul General of India, Dubai, Anurag Bhushan, visited the house of Jasim Elsa Al Baloushi. Bhushan, who was accompanied by Deputy Consul General Muraleedharan K, extended deepest condolences to his family on behalf of the Indian community in the UAE. The two diplomats met Elsa Al Baloushi, the father of the fire fighter, his close relatives and friends to convey their condolences. According to a statement released by the Consulate, Baloushi's family members also expressed their gratitude for the visit of the Indian diplomats. "Consul General conveyed his gratitude and appreciation on behalf of the Government of India and all Indians for the invaluable service provided by Mr Jasim Elsa Al Baloushi (late) in rescuing the 282 passengers, including 226 Indian nationals," the statement said. He also conveyed that the Indian community in the UAEis highly appreciative of the valour shown by Baloushi. Bhushan said Baloushi will be remembered for his brave deed. The Centre has asked the Uttarakhand government to "enquire" into the issues surrounding Patanjali Ayurveda's controversial 'Putrajeevak Vati' medicine, the Rajya Sabha was told today. Minister of State for Health Faggan Singh Kulaste said in a written reply to a question that "the Ministry of AYUSH has requested the government of Uttarakhand to enquire into the matter and send a report." The reply comes after an inquiry committee set up by the Uttarakhand government to examine the controversial medicine produced by Ramdev's pharmacy submitted its report. The report is said to be "not in favour" of the yoga guru. Kulaste said the Uttarakhand government is yet to submit its report to the Centre. The state government had formed the three-member committee last year to probe 'Putrajeevak Vati', an ayurvedic medicine which allegedly promises a male child. Reports said the product courted controversy when Rajya Sabha MPs led by JD(U)'s K C Tyagi demanded a ban on it and sought stringent action against the manufacturer. Essar Oil UK Ltd has signed its first agreement for direct supply of jet fuel from its Stanlow refinery to a commercial airline. The company, which owns and operates the Stanlow refinery at Ellesmere Port, UK, signed a deal to supply Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) to Emirates Airlines at Manchester Airport, Essar Oil UK Ltd said in a statement today. Emirates operates three flights daily from Manchester to Dubai operating the carrier's Boeing 777-300 and its flagship Airbus A380 aircraft, the world's largest passenger jet. Stanlow, which produces 16 per cent of the UK's road transport fuel demand, manufactures over two billion litres of jet fuel each year and plays a key role in the North-West regional aviation industry. It supplies on wholesale basis, a significant proportion of Manchester Airport as well as Liverpool John Lennon and other regional airports jet fuel demand. "However, this is the first time Essar Oil UK will directly supply aviation fuel to an airline, with discussions with other potential partners already underway," it said. Colin Dixon, Head of Marketing at Essar Oil UK, said: "This is a major milestone in our strategy of further downstream integration, combining our refinery supply strength with our marketing capabilities in the aviation sector. We look forward to becoming a key player in the aviation market." The deal with Emirates is part of Essar Oil UK's strategy of downstream integration, which has recently seen a highly successful entry into the UK transport fuel retail market. The firm has already started retailing petrol and diesel in the UK and plants to take its retail network to 400 sites over the next three years. "Looking forward, Essar has also committed to a significant capital investment of USD 137 million in a project for major improvements to key units at the Stanlow Refinery which will deliver a further reduction in crude oil costs and improved yields across the finished product range," the statement said. Essar Oil UK Ltd is a subsidiary of Essar Energy Ltd. Its Stanlow refinery produces three billion litres of petrol, 4.4 billion litres of diesel and two billion litres of jet fuel per year. BJP MP Anurag Thakur has urged the Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar to expedite foundation laying of Central University at Dehra. Thakur, who met the Union minister in Delhi today along with sitting MLA from Dehra and others told the HRD minister that in April 2010, Central University was allotted to Himachal Pradesh with 70 per cent campus at Dehra and 30 per cent at Dharamsala in Kangra district but after change of government in the state in December 2012, the Congress government was trying to reverse the decision, a BJP release here said. "This attitude of the state government has led to delay in the construction of permanent campus of Himachal Central University and students are forced to study at a temporary campus at Shahpur," the Hamirpur MP said. He urged the Union minister to speed up the process for setting up the headquarters at Dehra as per the original notification. The flood situation in Bihar improved today with receding of water in majority of rivers and only two districts are currently under flood waters. There is no report of any fresh death in inundation triggered by rains in Terai region of neighbouring Nepal, a statement from state Disaster Management Department here said. Only two districts of Purnea and Katihar remained under flood waters from 14 earlier, it said, adding the death toll remained at 95 as it was on Sunday. The population hit by flood has also dwindled to 8.46 lakh today as against 33 lakh previously. Except for Kosi in Baltara in Khagaria district, all rivers flew below danger level today. While the flood has inundated 5.10 lakh hectare area, crops were damaged in two lakh hectare and the authorities are assessing the quantum of losses, the DMD statement said. The number of relief camps have also come down to 10 where 3,750 people have taken shelter. A total of 23 country boats and 252 private ones were still rendering services to the marooned people in flood-hit areas, it said. With its regular live broadcasts, routine tirades and daily -- often curiously intimate -- photo posts, the Facebook page of Cambodian strongman Hun Sen has won a remarkable five million fans from countries including India and Indonesia. But a surge of "likes" from countries including the Philippines has reignited allegations that his digital adoration is purchased from so-called "click farms". The 64-year-old prime minister, a once self-confessed tech dinosaur who tolerates little dissent, has embraced Facebook with gusto in the last year after opponents used the platform to reach out to younger voters. He has vowed to remain prime minister until he is 74 with the next elections due in 2018. To do so he will need the support of Cambodia's youth -- a huge, tech-savvy demographic who voted in droves for the opposition at the last polls, wearied by the endemic corruption, rights abuses and political repression seen as the hallmarks of Hun Sen's rule. With loyalists controlling nearly all of Cambodia's mainstream media outlets, Hun Sen was initially wary of social media. But in the last year he has embraced the digital sphere -- while ramping up prosecutions against people for online comments. His slick page now documents everything from live broadcasts of speeches and meetings with villagers, to more personal moments like the premier kicking back in a white bathrobe or sporting a wet, see-through singlet at the beach. But that success has been dogged by allegations that a significant chunk of fans come from "click farms" -- networks of fake and real users controlled by digital middlemen who sell likes. In recent months, opposition groups, local media, analysts and even many of Hun Sen's own Facebook followers have all remarked on the unusual and erratic surges in likes his page receives. An AFP analysis of Hun Sen's Facebook followers over the last six months using data from SocialBakers.Com shows two periods when overseas likes have dramatically spiked -- the most recent in the last three weeks. Only 55 per cent of Hun Sen's five million Facebook followers now come from inside Cambodia. Many of the likes originate in countries notorious for hosting click farms such as India, Indonesia and the Philippines. In contrast, 82 per cent of followers for Sam Rainsy -- the country's most prominent opposition politician -- are Cambodian. That has led Rainsy, who currently lives in self-exile in France, to accuse Hun Sen of buying friends. India now accounts for the largest chunk of overseas love for Hun Sen's page -- some 562,000 fans, or 11.4 percent, dwarfing even neighbouring Thailand where there is a huge diaspora of Cambodian workers. In March and April, Indian likes tripled from 175,000 to 517,000. Former Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister and Congress rebel Kalikho Pul, who stepped down from the top post last month after the Supreme Court ordered removal of his government, allegedly committed suicide today. As soon as the of Pul's death spread, scores of his supporters gheraoed Chief Minister Pema Khandu's bungalow in Niti Bihar area and demanded a probe into Pul's "unnatural" death. They also set on fire an under-construction building of the Deputy chief minister and damaged two official bungalows. A top police officer said that 47-year-old Pul allegedly hanged himself from the ceiling fan in his bedroom. One of his wives found him hanging at the Chief Minister's official residence which he was yet to vacate. According to the doctors, the death occurred between 7 and 7:30 AM. Pul, who is survived by three wives and four children, had not met any outsider for the past seven days, according to his family. Pul briefly served as the chief minister from February 19 replacing Nabam Tuki and remained in the post till July this year. Soon after the of his death, Pul's supporters gheraoed Chief Minister Pema Khandu's bungalow area. They said they would not allow Pul's body to be taken out from his bungalow at E S S sector and demanded that he be buried inside the premises. A coffin, which was brought from outside, was damaged and set on fire by the crowd before the assembled media. A section of the supporters headed towards the official residence of Deputy CM Chowna Mein, less than 100 metres away, damaged the outer wall and at least 10 vehicles parked in the premises. An under-construction premises of the Deputy CM was also set on fire, police said, adding there were no casualties Protestors also damaged the official bungalow of Industries Minister Tapang Taloh. A high-level cabinet meeting was on and police reinforcements, including state police and ITBP, were sent to the high-security VVIP zone where the ministers' residences were located. Pul's body will be kept at his bungalow to enable the public to pay respects, official sources said. Pul had served as CM for a brief time with the Supreme Court last month reinstating Nabam Tuki who then made way for Pema Khandu who is presently the CM. Pul had led a group of dissident MLAs from Congress against Tuki early this year and was sworn-in as Chief Minister a few hours after President's Rule was revoked in the state on February 19. (Reopens CAL5) Pul's eldest wife has appealed to the public to maintain calm and not indulge in violence. The body will be sent for post-mortem and kept for public viewing from 5 PM onwards. Officer-in-Charge of Itanagar Police Station Sora said three-four persons have been injured in incidents of stone pelting during the protests. Four persons, including three from Uttar Pradesh, were today arrested from Medak district of Telangana for illegal possession of arms, police said. According to Tirupatanna Deputy Superintendent of Police (Sangareddy division) the arrests were made after Sangareddy Rural police conducted sudden checks near Fasalwadi village on the town outskirts this morning and found four persons moving suspiciously near a hotel. Subsequently, all of them were taken into custody and on searching them, police found two country-made pistols, three live bullets and two knives. The arrested accused were identified as M D Riyasat (25), a local driver, Raju Yadav (21), Ajay Kumar Yadav (22) and Vikas Yadav (20), all labourers from UP. The accused had hatched a plan to extort money from the rich by threatening with weapons, police said. A case has been registered and police is investigating the case. Notably, within three months, two UP gangs have been arrested from Medak district. On April 11 this year, Rajgopalpet police had arrested two persons hailing from Varanasi with a pistol and 11 live bullets. With less than 17 per cent of Central assistance to the ambitious Rs 2,400 crore Guwahati project, the Assam government on Tuesday, expressed doubts over implementing the plan saying it is tough to proceed without the required funds. Replying to a query by BJP MLA Bhabesh Kalita, Guwahati Development Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the state government had submitted a proposal of Rs 2,400 crore for implementing project in Assam capital. "We have got approval of Rs 400 crore (from the Centre). The Government of India has asked us to contribute Rs 400 crore as state government's share and directed us to generate the rest through PPP mode," Sarma said. He informed the House that out of the sanctioned central amount, Rs 300 crore had already been released. "So we have to arrange Rs 2,000 crore in total for the project. Unless we get funds by Public-Private-Partnership mode, we have to see how we are going to fulfil the project." "This project is tougher than what we had thought. We are now discussing how to collect this amount. People thought that as Guwahati is included in the list of Smart City projects, so lots of money will come. But this is not the case," the minister said. Sarma said it is easier to generate investment under PPP in other cities like Bhubaneswar, Delhi or Mumbai, but not Guwahati. The government is currently focusing on how to utilise the Centre-State share of Rs 800 crore in the best possible way, he added. Giving details of the project, Sarma said the government has invited tender for appointing the Project Management Consultancy (PMC), which is likely to be appointed within next 45 days. "After that we will see which project will be developed by government fund and which by the PPP mode. So, to have a detailed idea of the Smart City project, we need at least another three months," he said. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari today sought cooperation from all political parties for the crucial Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Bill 2016 which was introduced in Parliament today. "I have sought cooperation from all opposition parties. Everyday 500 people are dying. If we do not amend our laws we would not be able to save lives of people. I have appealed all political parties to approve it in the current session only," Gadkari said on the sidelines of an event here today. "TV channels and newspapers are full of accident . Such magnitude is not killed in any war," The Road, Transport and Highways Minister said. Gadkari said he was hopeful of getting support from political parties cutting across party lines as India accounted for one of the highest number of accidents globally at 5 lakh per annum in which 1.5 lakh people are killed. "The Bill was pending for one year. A ministerial panel of 18 transport ministers from states, headed by Rajasthan Minister Yunoos Khan has given recommendations for it and Congress, NCP, Trinamool College, DMK all transport ministers were there. We have accepted their suggestions which are in public interest," the minister said. He said that instead of sending the bill to joint selection committee, he has requested members to hold discussion and pass it because "priority is to save lives." Earlier while introducing the bill in the Lok Sabha, the minister contended that road safety was not only his but also the responsibility of other members and said the bill's early passage in the Lok Sabha was necessary so that it could be moved to the Rajya Sabha for passage during the ongoing session, which ends on Friday. "I am ready to accept your suggestions. More lives could be lost if a lot of time passes before it is passed," he said. The Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Bill 2016 proposes hefty penalties for violation of traffic norms including up to Rs 10,000 fine for drunken driving and Rs 2 lakh compensation for hit-and-run cases. The bill also has provision of up to Rs 10 lakh compensation in case of road fatality. The bill includes penalties in the range of Rs 1000-4000 for over-speeding. According to the bill, driving without insurance will be punishable with Rs 2,000 fine and/or three- month imprisonment, while driving a two-wheeler without helmet will attract Rs 2,000 fine and 3-month suspension of license. The provisions also include that guardian/owner will be deemed to be guilty in case of road offense by juveniles while registration of the vehicle will be canceled. The government is working with the judiciary to iron out differences over the revised Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) which guides appointment of judges and has sent a fresh letter to the Chief Justice of India in this regard. Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in the Rajya Sabha that the letter was written on August 3 but did not give details. The fresh letter was sent after the Supreme Court collegium did not accept some suggestions for the MoP while agreeing to some others, he said. "The government, after careful consideration of the matter, has sent its response to the Chief Justice of India vide letter dated August 3, 2016," Prasad said. He was making a statement on a Calling Attention Motion of Congress member Vivek Tankha regarding 'The situation arising out of the impasse in the appointment of judges in High Courts and the Supreme Court'. The minister maintained that the government is making efforts to supplement the existing MoP by making the appointment process transparent, fair and accountable within the parameters set by various supreme court judgements and at the same time ensuring independence of judiciary. Prasad said the additional judges whose tenures were ending were given three months' extension as per the apex court order while the validity of the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act is being heard by the Supreme Court. "No other appointments were made," he said, adding 112 additional judges were given extension of tenure during the period. Prasad said the process of appointment of judges has been resumed as the process of finalisation of MoP is likely to take some time. "During 2016, 100 additional judges have been made permanent and 52 fresh appointment of judges have been made," he said. "Proposals for appointments have been received from High Courts from February 2016 ownwards," he said, adding three Supreme Court judges have also been appointed. The whole process as per MoP takes six months as states/ intelligence bureau and Supreme Court collegium are consulted and then the case is processed for approval, Prasad said. Earlier, Tankha said there has been a complete bottleneck in appointment of judges in last one and a half years. "We are staring at a stalemate". Noting that there are huge vacancies in courts, he said unless these vacancies are filled, it would be difficult to take up the pending cases. Tankha said the systems of fast track courts, ad-hoc judges and Gram Nyayalya (rural courts) are not functioning. He asked the government how early it would finalise the MoP. Participating in the debate, Satish Chandra Misra (BSP) said there has been a stalemate in appointment of judges. He sought to know the total number of vacancies that have been created during this period. He questioned the difficulty in appointing judges to lower judiciary till the MoP is being finalised. He said there is no judge from Scheduled Castes in the Allahabad High Court and asked "How many judges are from Scheduled Castes in Supreme Court and High Courts?" Naresh Agrawal (SP) asked whether there would be reservation in the appointment of judges in the Supreme Court and High Courts. He also wanted to know whether reservation issue is there in the MoP, which is currently being finalised. K Keshava Rao (TRS) said there should be adequate representation of Telangana in the appointment of judges for Andhra Pradesh High Court. Rajeev Shukla (Cong) spoke about massive pendency of cases in various courts. He said the power of Parliament to enact a law has been taken away. Shukla said the accountability of judges should be fixed and they should also be brought under RTI. He also quipped that lawyers should not become Law Minister, an apparent reference to Prasad. D Raja (CPI) said Indian judiciary continues to have "class-bias and caste-bias" and is "not free from corruption". Referring to cases related to dalit massacres in Andhra Pradesh and Bihar, he said the accused were acquitted by the High Courts after being convicted by lower courts. Talking about inadequate social representation in the Indian judiciary, Raja asked how many OBCs, dalits and tribals are in the judiciary. He said the time has come for the government to address these issues. Sukhendu Sekhar Roy (TMC) said the entire system of appointment of judges has come to a standstill. He also asked the minister why members of the Upper House should not discuss if MoP is being finalised. Earlier, Law Minister had told the House that he would not speak on anything related to MoP as the matter is under discussion. To this, Deputy Chairman P J Kurien said he was free not to answer any question. A Navaneetha Krishnan (AIADMK), Shanta Ram Naik (Cong), Ripun Bora (Cong), Bhupender Yadav (BJP), CP Narayanan (CPM), DP Tripathi (NCP), Ram Gopal Yadav (SP), KTS Tulsi (nominated) and Tiruchi Siva (DMK) also took part in the debate. Prime Minister said today that his government has set a target to provide electricity connection in 18,000 villages across the country in just 1,000 days. He said he was appalled to see that even after 70 years of Independence, people were forced to lead the life of 18th century in the 21st century. He also lauded the Jammu and Kashmir government for launching a solar energy campaign from Ladakh. At an event to mark the 75th anniversary of the Quit India Movement at the birthplace of revolutionary leader Chandrashekhar Azad in Madhya Pradesh, the Prime Minister recalled those who laid down their lives for the country and said that today people don't have to die for the nation but have to work for its development. He called upon the people to take a pledge for taking the country forward and referred to the passage of the Bill on the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in Parliament in this regard. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan also addressed the function. On the occasion, Modi also flagged off a 'Tiranga Yatra' which is being taken out to celebrate Independence Day. Earlier, the Prime Minister paid rich tributes to Azad by garlanding a statue at his birthplace and visited an exhibition showcasing his life. Government today refrained from making any commitment in Rajya Sabha on bringing a fresh law on appointment of judges after the previous legislation was struck down by the Supreme Court, saying it was for the polity to decide on the matter. Responding to a Calling Attention on 'Situation arising out of impasse in appointment of judges in High Court and Supreme Court', Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the government has accepted the judgement on National Judicial Appointments Commission, Act 2014. "We have accepted the judgement regardless of our reservation. Lot of questions were asked 'are you wiling to come again for this law'. The polity will have to take a call. I cannot make a commitment today," Prasad said. To support his point, the Law Minister cited the example of Goods and Services Tax (GST) law wherein government had to work very hard for arriving at consensous for passage of the Constitutional Amendment Bill. In a written statement, Prasad said the Supreme Court had invited suggestions for the improved working of the Collegium. He said the government submitted its suggestions for improving the system for judicial appointments "subject to its reservation about the correctness of the judgment and it reserved its liberty to take such action as it may deem fit and the Parliament shall have the power...To govern the criteria and process of appointment of judges" to the SC and HC and "nothing contained in these suggestions or participation should be construed as stopping" the Parliament or government from exercising such power. The minister also said "there was no impasse" in appointment of judges. He did not give details regarding his ongoing discussion with the judicary on Memorandum of Procedure. "I am not running away from debate in Parliament. I am discussing the whole MoP with judges...Let the process be complete. I am dealing with something sensitive...I want to tell the members that we are alive to the concerns you have reflected here. Let that process be complete. We will do our best," Prasad said. The Supreme Court in its Ocbober 2016 order inter-alia struck down the Constitution (Ninety Ninth Amendment Act) 2014 and NJAC Act as unconstitutional and void. The apex court simultaneously revived the 'collegium system' for appointment of judges to higher judicary. Government has decided to take up foot and mouth disease vaccination in 16 states and one Union Territory under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) with a budget of Rs 100 crore. To prevent economic losses due to food and mouth disease (FMD), a location specific 'FMD Control Programme' is being implemented since 2002 and been covered in 13 states and six Union territories. "Looking at the economic importance of the control disease, the Department (of Animal and Husbandry) has conceived 'FMD Mukt Bharat' in next few years," an official release said. "However, 16 States and one UT are yet to be covered under intensive FMD vaccination at six monthly intervals. Therefore, it has now been decided to take up FMD vaccination in these states under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) during 2016-17," it added. Initially Rs 100 crore has been allotted for FMD control under RKVY for 16 states and one UT. The states are Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttarakhand and West Bengal and the UT is Chandigarh. State-wise allocation has already been informed to respective state governments. The states have been asked to undertake FMD vaccination by availing the assistance under RKVY, the statement said. The government has said that with robust implementation of FMD control programme, the disease occurrence has drastically been reduced. The number of FMD outbreaks have come down to 109 in 2015 from 879 in 2012, it added. FMD is one of the most economically devastating contagious viral animal diseases affecting all susceptible cloven-footed animals. As per the estimates by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), direct loss to milk and meat is to the tune of Rs 20,000 crore per annum. It can be much more if indirect losses due to reduced work capacity, abortions, subsequent infertility and sterility are taken into account, it added. Ahead of the Independence Day celebrations, the government today warned flying clubs and aviation enthusiasts not to violate airspace during the period when prohibitory orders are in force. The Defence Ministry, which is in charge of preparations for Republic and Independence Day celebrations, approached the Home Ministry citing previous violations that took place despite NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) having been issued. In an internal communication, the Defence Ministry said that despite issuance of caution, some violations, especially by flying clubs and amateur aviation enthusiasts were reported in Delhi and adjoining areas. The Defence Ministry asked the Home Ministry to inform general public about the implications of violating the NOTAM which includes even cancellation of flying licence of the pilot and stringent punishment to airlines. In the past, NOTAM was enforced between 6 AM and 10 AM during Independence Day function when Prime Minister addresses from the ramparts of historic Red Fort. A businessman, accused in a graft case involving Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's former principal secretary Rajendra Kumar, has moved a special court seeking anticipatory bail in the matter. Special CBI judge Arvind Kumar has put up for August 10 the application of Ravi Jain, accused of being involved in alleged illegal money transactions between various companies including Ratan Prakashan, Ravi Offset Printers and Endeavour Systems Pvt Ltd (ESPL), which was allegedly floated by Kumar. According to the CBI, ESPL was floated by Kumar for the award of government contracts worth over Rs 50 crore. The CBI had arrested seven people, including Kumar, in this case and now all of them are out on bail. It had registered a case against Kumar and others last December alleging that the officials had abused their official position by "favouring a particular firm in the last few years in getting tenders of Delhi government departments". Most of the accused have been charged under section 120-B of IPC (criminal conspiracy) and provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act relating to criminal misconduct for allegedly favouring ESPL in bagging of five contracts. CBI has alleged that the accused persons had entered into a criminal conspiracy and caused a loss of Rs 12 crore to the Delhi government in award of contracts between 2007 and 2015, and claimed that the officials had taken "undue benefit" of over Rs 3 crore while awarding the contracts. This is the same case in which the agency had come under scathing criticism from the court which had directed it to return documents sought by the Delhi government seized during December 15, 2015 search of Kejriwal's office. Arrest of the top state government official had triggered a political storm with the Delhi government accusing the Centre of indulging in "political vendetta" and "paralysing" governance. The Patna High Court today granted bail to suspended IAS officer Jitendra Gupta, who was arrested in a corruption case by the vigilance department about a month ago. Justice H K Srivastava granted bail while hearing a petition filed by Gupta. Gupta, who was the Sub-Divisional Officer of Mohania in Rohtas district, was arrested by the vigilance department on July 12 for allegedly indulging in corruption. The General Administration Department (GAD) of the state government issued a notice on July 20 suspending him. A case was registered against Gupta, a 2013 batch IAS officer, in the vigilance police station under the anti-corruption law. Papers of some trucks seized in the sub-division were found in the possession of the IAS officer following a complaint lodged by a trucker. Appearing for Gupta, senior advocate Y V Giri submitted that he had been framed in the vigilance case as he acted against the truckers. The allegations levelled against him were based on a driver's statement which is doubtful, he contended. There is no evidence to show that Gupta had demanded money, neither money was recovered from his possession, the counsel submitted. The vigilance court had on July 22 dismissed the regular bail petition of Gupta. The arrest of the officer had triggered protests from the state IAS officers' association. Lions of Gujarat became a subject of debate in Lok Sabha today with SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav seeking a probe into the death of two big cats gifted to Uttar Pradesh. Raising the issue, Yadav said the two lions were gifted by Gujarat to the Etawah Wildlife Lion Safari Park, a dream project of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and the senior Lok Sabha MP himself. "My lions have died. (Narendra) Modi (as Gujarat Chief Minister) had gifted us. I want an inquiry into it. How did they die? What were the reasons? If there were shortcomings on our side, we will rectify. But I want a probe," Yadav said during Question Hour. Responding to Yadav's request, Environment Minister Anil Madhav Dave said he would try to find out the reasons. "I will try to find out the reasons and revert to you. We will conduct a probe," he said. Altogether 4 lions were gifted to Uttar Pradesh by Gujarat three years ago. After Mulayam Singh spoke, Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia wanted to know whether some lions -- at least 40 -- could be relocated from Gir National Park of Gujarat to Panna Reserve Forest in Madhya Pradesh. However, Dave did not reply to his supplementary, saying it was far away from the main question which was on bio diversity parks. Scindia's question prompted several MPs from Gujarat to say that lions of their state were not for Madhya Pradesh. This resulted in a verbal duel with the Congress leader. The dispute between Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh over translocation of lions from Gir had already reached the Supreme Court which in 2013 allowed the translocation, saying the species was facing the threat of extinction and needed a second home. However, Gujarat has filed a review petition against this order. The state contends that lions would not be safe in Madhya Pradesh, considering that tiger population in the Panna Reserve Forest in the state was dwindling. Responding to another question, Dave said the Environment Ministry has not formulated any plan for the development of bio-diversity parks anywhere in India. However, the Delhi Development Authority has created Delhi bio-diversity foundation under the chairmanship of Delhi Lieutenant Governor. "The foundation has taken initiative to develop 6 bio-diversity parks on the land under DDA's jurisdiction. Compensation paid to the land oustees or whose land had been acquired for the development of bio-diversity parks, falls within the preview of concerned land departments of state governments," he said. Haryana power distribution companies have decided to supply electricity to 3,000 tube wells under the Micro Irrigation System. The discoms, Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN) and Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) has taken the decision to provide reliable and qualitative power to the agricultural consumers, a spokesman of the Discoms today said. "The UHBVN would release 1500 tube well connections on priority basis in the areas having scanty rainfall," the spokesman said adding that "the new connections would be for those farmers who are adopting horticulture crops, especially perennial fruit crops with drip irrigation system in 50 per cent of total land holding." A maximum of 166 tube well connections will be released in each circle. "Test reports or certificate showing quality of soil and water suitable to the fruit crops and drip irrigation system will be mandatory along with the application to get the connection," he said. A committee of members from both the horticulture and electricity departments would visit the site and verify the eligibility conditions of the farmers. "This committee will monitor the connection twice a year and in case of any violation, the electricity connection would be disconnected," he said. The expenditure of release of electric connection would be borne by the farmer, the spokesman added. The Delhi High Court has upheld the 10-year jail term awarded to a man for repeatedly raping and committing unnatural sex with his step-daughter, observing that he exploited the innocence of the minor by taking advantage of her loneliness. Justice S P Garg dismissed the appeal filed by the convict against the judgement passed by a trial court last year which had sentenced him to 10-year jail after holding him guilty for the offences under sections 376 (rape) and 377 (unnatural offences) of the IPC. "The victim was a child aged around 13 years and the perpetrator of crime was her own step-father who exploited her innocence and committed rape upon her several times taking advantage of her innocence and loneliness," the court said. According to police, an FIR was lodged in 2012 against the man on the basis of a statement given by the victim's mother that he has been raping and committing unnatural sex with the minor girl since last two years. The counsel appearing for the man argued in the high court that there were material discrepancies in the prosecution case and his client was not the step-father of the girl. The man also claimed that he was falsely implicated in the case. While dismissing his appeal, the court noted that in the absence of any prior animosity, the minor girl, who was living with his step-father for the last 10 years, was not expected to level such serious allegations against him. "No sound reasons exist to disbelieve or suspect her version. Strained relations between the appellant (man) and victim's mother over petty issues were not enough to prompt or force the tiny girl to implicate her father," the court said. The high court also noted in its verdict that the victim had deposed before the trial court that in absence of her mother, who used to work in a private company, her step-father was sexually abusing her for the past two years. "On scrutinising the entire statement of victim, it can be inferred with certitude that no worthwhile discrepancies or infirmities could be extracted in her cross-examination. No ulterior motive was assigned to the child witness aged around 13 years to falsely implicate her own step-father upon whom they all were dependent for their livelihood," the court said. Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma attacked Congress and its leader Ajanta Neog during the budget discussion today, leading to a walk-out from the former minister saying the charges made against her were personal. Sarma's speech for concluding the budget discussion was a full-on attack on Congress and its policies during the past 15 years. "Ajanta Neog (had) said the budget took us to a dreamland. If we can take Assam to a dreamland away from all the killings for five years, what is the problem?" Sarma asked. Unlike Congress, he said, his government wants to stop politics over mosquito nets, yarns and blanket distribution. "Congress gave fishes to poor and at times even prepared fishes for them. But they never taught them how to catch fishes," he said, adding that the budget this year was aimed at teaching people how to catch fishes. On Neog's point that maintenance of existing medical colleges is more important than setting up of new ones, Sarma said the previous Congress government, of which he was also a part, too focused on creating more such institutes. "We will complete 10 medical colleges during our time. This will result in producing at least 1,000 doctors every year. You (Neog) should not change your stand after shifting to that (opposition) side," he added. At this point, Neog interrupted Sarma saying "Whatever I said during the discussion, it was with a positive approach. This is not the way to talk. This is a personal attack." Stating that she has not changed her position after being in Opposition, Neog walked out in protest against the charges. Sarma alleged that Congress does not want to see beyond former prime ministers Rajiv Gandhi and Manmohan Singh. "They say that we should thank Rajiv Gandhi and Manmohan Singh for the gas-cracker project. Should we not thank the martyrs of Assam Agitation? Gas-cracker and Tezpur University are the result of Assam Agitation," he claimed. Sarma said as minorities constitute nearly 30 per cent of Assam's population, there is no need for a separate Minority Development fund. "There is no need for appeasing the minority. We want to stop this minority-majority game. We need special attention to scheduled castes and tribes because of 5,000 years of discrimination," he said. Sarma said HUDCO will provide Rs 6-lakh loan to government staff for building their houses. On a flood relief package from Centre, he said the state government has Rs 600 crore and it is enough for providing relief to people. Four employees, including a doctor, of IIT's Health Centre here were booked in connection with the death of a 26-year-old research scholar from cardiac arrest, even as the institute has formed a committee to probe the incident. Adarsh Kumar Pandey alleged that his brother Alok, a PhD scholor of Material Science at the IIT, complained of severe chest and neck pain after which he was rushed to the institute's health centre where Dr Shailendra Kishore gave an injection without conducting any tests. As his condition deteriorated he was referred to a cardiology centre. However, he died on the way to hospital, Adarsh said. Adarsh lodged a complaint on the basis of which an FIR was registered under section 304B (causing death by negligence) against Dr Kishore, the Warden In-charge, Guide Kamal Kekar and the hospital administrator. He also alleged that Alok was mistreated and tortured in the hostel. Denying the allegations, Director Indraneel Manna claimed that he himself checked Alok's ECG and found there was a problem. He also denied that the student was mistreated in the hostel. He said that a team of three specialist doctors from as many medical colleges of the city has been formed to probe the death and submit a report in two weeks. Also, no faculty of is part of the probe team. SSP, Kanpur Shalabh Mathur said an FIR has been lodged in the matter and the body sent for postmortem. A probe will be started in the matter on the basis of the postmortem report. After the news of Pandey's death spread, students of his hostel protested till late night yesterday, alleging that he was given an injection at the institution's health centre which caused his death. The students continued their protest today also. India is likely to sign a treaty with the US for speedier action to boost investment agreements, Parliament was informed today. The US has expressed desire to sign a treaty similar to the Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) signed with Japan and Korea, Minister of State for Finance, Arjun Ram Meghwal said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today. "However, Japan and Korea FTAs were signed based on the earlier Model Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) text of India but the negotiations with the US will be on the basis of the new Indian Model Bilateral Investment Treaty text," Meghwal said. He was replying to a question on whether the US has been pressuring India to accede to a treaty similar to FTA that the country had signed with Japan and Korea. Meghwal said technical discussions with the US side have been held on the ongoing basis to speed up the pending bilateral investment treaty. Earlier, the US had expressed concerns that the absence of a bilateral investment treaty with India is an impediment to expanding trade between the two countries. The US has pitched for tax certainty and fairness, less regulatory burden, adequate infrastructure and power as well as access to legal services. Richard Rahul Verma, the US Ambassador to India, in February had urged the government to permit US law firms and lawyers to set up base in India, calling for "reciprocity". He contended that there was no citizenship requirement for Indian lawyers who wish to establish offices in the US. "We think it is important because it would contribute to economic growth and foreign direct investment," he had said. Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had also called for re-negotiating India's bilateral investment pacts and replace them with new ones. "India proposes to renegotiate all those bilateral investment pacts whose initial validity has expired and to replace them with new Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs)," she had said in Parliament last month. Amid growing strain in ties, India today summoned Pakistani envoy Abdul Basit and issued a strong demarche over Pakistan's continued support to cross-border terrorism in Kashmir, which has fuelled unrest in the Valley. Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar called Basit to his South Block office and lodged a strong protest over the issue as he made a specific reference to LeT terrorist and Pakistani national Bahadur Ali, who was captured recently in North Kashmir during an encounter. "Jaishankar called in the Pakistan envoy and issued a strong demarche on continuing cross border terrorism from Pakistan. "Demarche made specific reference to LeT terrorist and Pak national Bahadur Ali who was apprehended recently," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said. Ali, born in the Zia Bagga village of Pakistan, was arrested by Indian authorities in Jammu and kashmir on July 25 with weapons (AK 47 rifle, live rounds, grenades, grenade launcher etc) as also sophisticated communication equipment and other material of Pakistani/ international origin, according to the demarche issued to Basit. "Bahadur Ali has confessed to our authorities that after training in Lashkar-e-Toiba camps, he was infiltrated into India. He was thereafter in touch with an 'operations room' of LeT, receiving instructions to attack Indian security personnel and carry out other terrorist attacks in India," it said. Basit's summoning comes on a day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached out to people of Kashmir, which has been witnessing widespread unrest for over a month triggered by the killing of Hizbul commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with the security forces. As many as 55 people have lost their lives in these incidents of violence. The ties between India and Pakistan have seen growing bitterness after Pakistan and its Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif made provocative statements on the Kashmir situation in the wake of Wani's killing on July 8. Not only did Sharif praise Wani and hailed him as a "martyr" but he also asserted "Kashmir will one day become Pakistan", a comment which evoked a sharp reaction from External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, who said his dream of the state becoming a part of his country "will not be realised even at the end of eternity". The chill in bilateral relations was on full display during Home Minister Rajnath Singh's visit to Islamabad for a SAARC ministerial meet last week when he and his Pakistani counterpart Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan not only avoided a proper handshake but Singh also left without attending the lunch hosted by Khan. (Reopens DEL51) Earlier, replying to a question in Rajya Sabha on resumption of talks between the two countries, Minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs V K Singh, said India has "clearly stated that Pakistan needs to create a conducive environment, free of violence and terrorism, for addressing all bilateral matters through a peaceful bilateral dialogue." The meeting of the Foreign Secretaries of the two countries could not take place in the wake of terror attack on Pathankot Air Base on January 2, 2016. The FS of the two countries were mandated to finalise the modalities of the dialouge. Three Indian students and two teachers from a school in Maharashtra have travelled to the UK as part of the 'Karta initiative' which aims to connect bright low-income students with world class higher education. The non-profit 'Karta initiative' works in collaboration with Tata Trusts. The students and teachers from Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV) were hosted at the Indian High Commission in London yesterday. Indian high commissioner to the UK, Navtej Sarna encouraged the students to "make the most of this unique opportunity of learning and interaction, and to share the knowledge and experiences gained at the UK institutions with fellow students and teachers back in India". Founded by Ranjita Rajan, the 'Karta initiative' was launched this year as a pilot scheme to bring students and teachers from India to participate in an intensive two-week programme at Pembroke and Somerville Colleges at University of Oxford. Senior High Commission officials also conducted a roundtable session with 'Karta initiative' group to explain the role of the various wings of the Indian mission in London. Officials say an infant whose mother traveled to a Zika-infected area in Latin America died shortly after birth in a suburban Houston hospital, marking the first Zika-related death in Texas. Dr. Umair Shah is the executive director of Harris County Public Health. Shah said today that the infant died a few weeks ago and had microcephaly linked to the Zika virus. Test results linking the death to Zika were confirmed Friday. The mother had traveled to El Salvador while she was pregnant. The only other confirmed Zika-related death in the US was an elderly Utah man who died in June. He also suffered from other health conditions. Health officials say there have been no reported cases of Zika virus disease transmitted by mosquitoes in Texas. In a fresh attack on Donald Trump's poll rhetoric, the parents of a fallen Pakistani- origin American soldier have blamed the controversial Republican presidential nominee for the growing intolerance towards Muslims in the US. Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the 'Gold Star' parents whose appearance at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia created a firestorm for Trump, have said they felt compelled to speak out because the welcome they felt when they immigrated to the US nearly four decades ago is eroding in the face of this year's presidential campaign. "You see people wearing scarves, people are pointing fingers at them and throwing them out of flights and calling them names when they pass by and all of that," 66-year-old Khizr Khan told USA TODAY. "Most Americans are against this kind of nonsense, but there is an element that has gotten voice, has been encouraged by this political rhetoric, and especially this election season has made it worse," he said. Khan said Trump's call to ban all Muslim immigrants - a position the Republican nominee has since modified - and his provocative statements against Mexicans and others bear some of the responsibility for a loss of civility and restraint. "The voices that wouldn't dare because they were afraid of the decent America to condemn them...Have gathered courage to show their ugliness," he said. After their appearance at the Democratic Convention, Trump complained that Khan unfairly had attacked him and questioned why Ghazala Khan had not spoken on stage. Ghazala said the photo of her son Humayun Khan projected behind them would have made her break down in tears. Humayun, a US Army captain, died in Iraq in 2004. During the past year, the Khans said they have heard rising fears from Muslim friends and family members, especially children. "For the whole year last year, we have been sitting very quietly like many, many, many American citizens, watching this political process take shape, watching the disrespect of Donald Trump, him disrespecting immigrants, Muslim immigrants, women, judges, even senior members of his own party," Khan said. The Khans said they hope to continue speaking out during the campaign. They do not rule out doing political events for Hillary Clinton, although they say her campaign has not asked them to do so. The lawyer of prominent Iranian journalist says a court has sentenced his client to three years in prison on charges of insulting authorities and spreading propaganda against the ruling system. Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabaei told The Associated Press today that his client, Isa Saharkhiz, who was detained in November, can appeal the verdict within the next 20 days. The lawyer says the verdict was announced yesterday and that Saharkhiz got two years for insulting authorities and one year for spreading propaganda. Saharkhiz was recently hospitalized because of a heart problem. His detention came amid a campaign that saw the arrests of other cultural figures critical of Iran's clerical system. Saharkhiz had been released in 2013 after serving nearly five years in prison on similar charges. Manipur's 'Iron Lady' Irom Chanu Sharmila, who has been on fast for about 16 years demanding repeal of Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in the state, was today released by a court here after signing Personal Recognition (PR) Bond. The 44-year-old iconic rights activist is, however, yet to walk out of her jail ward at Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences here pending the release order. Court officials told PTI that the court will issue the order to the jail authority to formalise her release today itself. Sharmila had appeared before the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate of Imphal West, Lamkhanpau Tonsing this morning at about 11 a.M and was granted bail on personal bond of Rs 10,000. She requested the CJM to release her on PR Bond promising to break her 16-year-old fast against AFSPA but the judge told her that pleading guilty was the only option to release her but she did not agree to it. Ultimately the CJM allowed her to sign the PR Bond. After coming out from the courtroom Sharmila came to address the media in another room but due to the heavy rush there and chaotic situation, the activist was whisked away by police to her jail ward in hospital. Sharmila had a fortnight ago announced that she will break her fast today, join politics and get married. "I have been fasting for the past 16 years, I am ending my fast today. I want to try a different agitation now," Sharmila told the media outside the courtroom today. "I will contest against the chief minister of Manipur in the upcoming state elections," she said, adding that she will get AFSPA repealed once she wins the elections. Hollywood star Johnny Depp reportedly has almost two dozen witnesses, including security staff, police officers, and his housekeeper, in support against domestic violence allegations from estranged wife Amber Heard. The 53-year-old "Mortdecai" star actor is said to be prepared for the upcoming trial where the actress, who has accused him of leaving her bruised when he threw an iPhone at her face following a row in May, is seeking to have a permanent restraining order against him and has a number of people ready to testify that her claims are false, reported TMZ. The two police officers, who responded to a 911 call following the alleged altercation will testify they saw no evidence of injury to the actress, or anything broken in their home. Five concierges from their apartment building, who all saw Heard between May 21, the night the alleged attack happened, and May 27 and have all stated in depositions they saw no injuries to the actress' face. Two security guards who were in the unit on May 21 will go on record to testify Depp did not hit his spouse, while the former couple's housekeeper Hilda Vargas will also give a mystery testimony. The witness list states, "Ms Vargas will testify about a discovery in the home." In addition, Heard's publicist, Jodi Gottleib is also on the list, with Depp's lawyer, Laura Wasser, previously trying to take her deposition but she was unavailable. The press officer's testimony is said to be important because she was believed to be present during discussions between the actress and her legal representative. Heard herself will also be called as a hostile witness. Actor Johnny Depp is off to Ibiza to spend some quality time ahead of his next court date in his ongoing divorce from Amber Heard. The 53-year-old actor was spotted arriving to Spain, via private jet and plans to rent out a villa on the island, reported People magazine. The "Black Mass" star was photographed in good spirits while boarding a yacht. He wore aviators with a loose poncho and jeans, while sporting a new haircut and mustache. Meanwhile, Heard, who was filming for her new project, Justice League, returned to Los Angeles for her scheduled deposition. The former couple are expected to appear in court for the domestic violence restraining order hearing, which is scheduled for August 15 and 16. Congress-ruled Karnataka government today demanded the Centre to amend the IIT Act to reserve 25 per cent seats for local students at IIT Dharwad. The state government also sought an IIIT for a backward district of Raichur, recognition of courses offered by the Karnataka Open University, support for starting railway engineering courses and flying schools in the state. "IIT Dharwad was made functional from August 1. Only seven students have been selected from Karnataka. Local students should get benefit. We are contributing so much for this IIT, 25 per cent reservation should be given to Karnataka students," State Higher Education Minister Basavarajrayareddy told reporters here. The state government has given 500 acres of land free of cost for construction of IIT Dharwad. A few very courses are being offered at present, he said after making a representation to HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar. The state minister also requested the Centre to formally inaugurate IIT Dharwad later this month. This apart, Basavarajrayareddy said the University Grants Commission (UGC) has derecognised Karnataka Open University and the state government has amended the laws in line withe UGC. "We requested the Government of India to grant recognition to the Karnataka Open University at the earliest," he said. The state minister also discussed about possibility of establishing an IIT or IIIT at Raichur in order to develop the backward district. He said the state is ready to provide land at free of cost. Basavarajrayareddy also made representation to Union Civil Aviation and Railways ministers and sought support for setting up of flying schools in the state and for offering railway engineering courses. The flying club school, which set up way back in 1960, by the state government has now become a defunct entity. The state government has now suggested the Centre to utilise either HIL airport or Mysuru airport to restart the school. Kerala Police today zeroed in on three foreign nationals, who are suspected to be the key players behind the hi-tech ATM robbery which has shocked the state capital, and decided to seek Interpol's help. A team of top police officers, including ADGP B Sandhya, Range IG Manoj Abraham and cyber and technical experts visited the ATM of a public sector bank at Althara junction at Vellayambalam here, where a suspected electronic device was found to have been installed. They also collected evidence from the ATM counter. Sandhya later told reporters that as foreigners were suspected to be involved in the fraud, Kerala Police would seek the help of Interpol to nab the culprits. "We will seek the help of Interpol. We are collecting evidence now," she said. City Police Commissioner G Sparjan Kumar told PTI that police are trying to ascertain the whereabouts of the three persons, whose pictures had been retrieved from the CCTV, installed inside the ATM kiosk at Vellayambalam. "We examined the visuals of the CCTV and got the pictures of three foreigners. We suspect that they had a hand in the ATM robbery," he said. "We have already intensified our investigation to trace their whereabouts and establish their identity. We are also probing whether more persons were involved in the crime," he said. The officer said the support of cyber and technical experts was sought to understand the technical method used by the fraudsters to withdraw the money. "As many as 22 people have so far lodged complaints saying money was withdrawn from their account. As per the preliminary assessment, about Rs 2.5 lakh had been lost," he said. It is suspected that the electronic device at the ATM counter enabled the fraudsters to collect the secret pin code and card details. Many of the customers who were duped came to know about the fraud after they received a text message on Monday, informing that money was withdrawn from their accounts. (REOPENS DEL42) According to police, the three foreign nationals were from Romania and had come to India on June 25. They reached Kerala on July 8. They had come on tourist visa and taken rooms in a hotel here for two days, hotel sources said. The hotel has released their names as--Ilie, Florecy and Christian Victor. Police said they have seized from the hotel two scooters and three helmets, suspected to have been used by the trio. Reality TV star Khloe Kardashian admits she was "worried" about her estranged husband Lamar Odom when she struggled to get in contact with him. The 32-year-old "Keeping Up With The Kardashians" star said she feared for Odom when she struggled to get in contact him whilst she was on vacation in Cuba because their Wi-Fi connection wasn't very good, reported Female First. After finally getting in contact with Odom, she told her close friend Malika Haqq she was "paranoid" about his behaviour. She added on Sunday's episode of their E! reality show, "I don't know, like his behaviour is just... Different. I mean even his drinking alone is so bothersome to me and it makes me so furious because he can't even be drinking, it hasn't even been one year. The Mumbai police on Tuesday arrested the Chief Executive Officer and four other doctors of the L H Hiranandani Hospital here in connection with an alleged which came to light last month. Mumbai Police's spokesperson DCP Ashok Dudhe said the five doctors were arrested late on Tuesday evening. CEO Dr Sujit Chatterjee, medical director Dr Anurag Naik, Dr Mukesh Shetye, Dr Mukesh Shaha and Dr Prakash Shetye were arrested under the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, he said. The racket came to light when the police were tipped off that a kidney transplant operation had been scheduled on July 14 at the privately-run Hiranandani Hospital where donor and recipient were not related. The operation on Brijkishor Jaiswal, the recipient, was stopped as police found that the woman who was donating him the kidney was not his wife, contrary to the papers submitted by the duo. The woman had pretended to be his wife only to be able to donate the kidney to Jaiswal, according to the police. The police then started probing if anybody else had received kidney using similar subterfuge and if the hospital authorities were involved. Condemning the registration of an FIR against six Dalit school students for allegedly attacking another group of children belonging to an upper caste in Madurai district, Puthiya Tamizhagam today sought a high-level inquiry into the matter and punishment for police officials who took action. Referring to slapping of IPC and POCSO sections against the Dalit students, Dalit-based PT President D Krishnasamy said it was "ridiculous" that police booked the children of less than 10 years of age on the charge of sexual assault. Talking to reporters here, he claimed that there was no special juvenile unit in the police station where the case was registered and the personnel there charged the six without giving any thought. Presenting the six children at the press meet, Krishnasamy urged the state government to constitute a high-level inquiry committee to probe the issue and punish the police officials who "indulged in anti-Dalit activities". Refuting the charges against them, the Dalit students claimed that they were, in fact, at the receiving end. One of the students alleged that the other group picked up a quarrel with them before the start of classes and all returned to classes some time later. "They themselves inflicted injuries on their hands with broken pieces of glasses," he alleged. Krishnasamy alleged that two teachers in the school were also hand in glove with the police and the complainant, father of one of the victims. The six Dalit students studying in a Panchayat school under M Kallupatti police limits were booked for allegedly assaulting six other students and outraging the modesty of some of them on August 5. A complaint was lodged two days after the incident by the parents of the victims, following which a case was registered under the POCSO Act and IPC sections 341 (wrongful restraint) and 324 (voluntarily causing hurt with dangerous weapons) against the minor boys. Pop star Lady Gaga will reportedly release a brand new song within a month. According to Chase Murphy, a radio host at Mix 96.1 in San Antonio, Texas, the new song from the 30-year-old "Born This Way" hitmaker is coming within the next 30 days, reported Aceshowbiz. After saying as much on air, Murphy was approached by some Gaga fans on Twitter. "Is it true that you said on air that Lady Gaga will have a new single out this month? Someone is saying you said that on air @Chasemradio," asks a fan. The radio host simply replies, "It's true." Another fan shares a screenshot of a DM exchange with Murphy. "I work in radio. It's my job to know these things. :). Her record company told me to expect new LGG music within the next 30 days," writes the radio host. Accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers squared off today in court with lawyers for a defunct mortgage company's creditors and investors over a USD 5.5 billion lawsuit, which claimed the Big Four firm failed through years of audits to uncover massive fraud at a failed Alabama bank. The estimated USD 21 billion fraud at Colonial Bank of Montgomery, Alabama, was orchestrated by top executives at the shuttered mortgage firm Taylor, Bean and Whitaker of Ocala, Florida. Six Taylor Bean senior executives and two Colonial employees were convicted of federal fraud crimes and went to prison. Colonial was shut down in 2009. Steven Thomas, attorney for a trustee representing Taylor Bean creditors and investors, said PricewaterhouseCoopers did seven audits while the scheme was ongoing and failed to find it. That means, he told a jury in opening statements, the firm should be held liable for billions of dollars in damages. "PricewaterhouseCoopers had a job: detect fraud. And the second thing I'm going to prove to you is that PricewaterhouseCoopers failed to do its job," Thomas said. "When you don't do your job and people get hurt, it matters." PricewaterhouseCoopers attorney Beth Tanis countered that the lawsuit was essentially an attempt to get the firm to pay for money stolen in the fraud scheme by Taylor Bean, now represented by the trustee. She said the perpetrators, who were insiders, took elaborate steps to cover up their crimes and that other audits at the bank and mortgage company also missed it. "The criminals were so successful at hiding these transactions that nobody found the fraud," Tanis told jurors. "You can do an audit just right and not detect a fraud." The scheme didn't come to light until a Colonial employee went to the FBI in July 2009, she added. The trial before Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jacqueline Hogan Scola is expected to last about six weeks. The plaintiffs seeking USD 5.5 billion in damages, plus possible punitive damages, include government-backed mortgage enterprises Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae. Taylor Bean was once one of Colonial's biggest customers but began encountering financial difficulties, according to court documents. Taylor Bean's top executive, Lee Farkas, worked out a deal with a Colonial banker to use improper overdrafts to meet expenses and payroll. A 19-year-old suspect, charged with the murder of an American national during akniferampage in central London last week, was told today that he would face trial in the case in February. Zakaria Bulhan, a London-based Norwegian national of Somalian descent who is charged with the murder of 64-year-old Darlene Horton and the attempted murder of five other people, was told he will stand trial at the Old Bailey court in London from February 6, 2017. The trial date was set by the recorder of London, Nicholas Hilliard, and is expected to last two weeks. Bulhan, who appeared via video-link from his police custody prison cell, covered his mouth with his hands throughout the hearing and spoke only to confirm his name. Prosecutor William Emlyn-Jones told Hilliard that Bulhan had no representation in court. A plea hearing for the case has been set for October 25. Horton, a retired teacher, had been visiting London with her husband Richard Wagner, who was teaching summer classes in Britain. Two women and three men - Yovel Lewronski, Lillie Selletin, Martin Hoenisch, David Imber and Bernard Hepplewhite - were also injured in the attack at Russell Square in central London on Wednesday. Once charges have been framed against a suspect in the UK, reporting restrictions come into place to ensure a fair trial. Maharashtra government has proposed to set up a Japanese style village near Ajanta-Ellora jointly with Wakayama Prefectural Government (WPG), to attract tourist footfalls from the Land of Rising Sun. "Buddhism has made the two countries-- Japan and India-- close for centuries. I propose the establishment of a Japanese village near Ajanta-Ellora to further attract tourist footfalls from Japan and welcome our Japanese brothers with better warmth and hospitality," Maharashtra Tourism Minister Jayakumar Jitendrasinh Rawal said in a meeting here yesterday. "We would like to offer land for the establishment of this village. We must also organise special Japanese tours in Maharashtra," he said. The proposed village will incorporate Japanese hospitality and culture to make tourists and visitors from Japan feel at home, he said. Meanwhile, the Maharashtra government also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with WPG, under which the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is funding the Ajanta-Ellora Development Phase 3. The MoU also highlights the joint efforts of Maharashtra and WPG to enhance mutual economic growth, promote agro and food processing between local enterprises through existing framework that both the governments have established. "This MoU has strengthened the bilateral trade between India and Japan and has mutually benefited these two countries to strengthen their respective tourism prospects," Rawal said. The renewal of the MoU term and this association will help increase tourism inflow in Maharashtra and Wakayama through the agreement, Maharashtra Principal Secretary, Tourism and Cultural Affairs, Valsa Nair Singh said. "It will further help maintain mutual cooperation between both the states for expansion of tourism ties to enhance economic growth and job creation," she added. Director General of Jammu and Kashmir Police S K Mishra has called for maintaining close vigil on the "suspicious elements", who are fuelling the situation for their "personal gains" and "endangering" the lives of innocent people. "There is a need for maintaining close vigil on the suspicious elements, fueling the situation for their personal gains and endangering the lives of innocent people, besides public properties," Mishra said while chairing a high-level meeting of officers at Police Control Room here yesterday. The meeting, which was convened to discuss arrangements for Independence day celebrations across the state, was attended by senior officers of police, paramilitary forces and civil administration, who held a threadbare discussion with regard to deployment of police personnel and maintenance of law and order, an official spokesman said. He said adequate man power would be deployed at the venues where Independence day functions will be held for maintenance of law and order, besides contingents from different wings would participate in the celebrations for which the exercise has been started. DGP called upon the officers to maintain synergy among various agencies and directed for keeping available required man power for the functions without affecting the law and order duties. "Maintenance of peace and order during the Independence day celebrations should be the priority," he said. Earlier, Inspector General of Police (Kashmir) S J M Gillani apprised the meeting about the arrangements made with regard to the state level function being held at Bakshi Stadium in the summer capital Srinagar. It was told that effective measures have been taken for the security and deployment of man power, the spokesman said. He said range Deputy Inspectors General of Police present in the meeting also gave their suggestions for the smooth conduct of the celebrations. They also briefed about the arrangements made in their respective jurisdictions to celebrate Independence Day, the spokesman said, adding contingents from state police and different forces would participate in the celebrations at district and tehsil headquarters. Meanwhile, Kashmir continues to remain on the edge since July 9, a day after Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani was killed in an encounter with security forces. As many as 55 persons, including two cops, were killed and several thousand others injured in the widespread clashes between protesters and security forces, paralysing life in the valley. The Maldives' parliament passed a new defamation bill today despite US-led international concern that it risked undermining basic freedoms on the troubled honeymoon islands. The parliament dominated by lawmakers from President Abdulla Yameen's Progressive Party of Maldives voted 47 to 31 in favour of the controversial bill that criminalises defamation. Local rights activists say the law allows the government to impose severe penalties on those seeking to exercise freedom of speech, including shutting down organisations and jailing journalists for up to six months. "This is truly the end of free media in the Maldives. The government no longer needs an excuse to shut down media outlets or crack down on dissenters," Ali Naafiz, assistant editor of the private Mihaaru website, told AFP. The Maldives went ahead with the vote nine days after the United States and European Union member states urged Yameen to withdraw the bill and "return to the path of democracy". Yameen has resisted the international pressure, saying Western governments already have similar laws. UN rights official Mona Rishmawi, speaking in Geneva, described the law as "very, very, very wide". It could target journalists and human rights defenders and risks "crippling freedom of expression", Rishmawi said. Police arrested 16 journalists in April for protesting against the bill in the Maldives, most of whose political dissidents are already in jail or in exile. The Indian Ocean archipelago, whose beaches are a popular draw for wealthy Western tourists, adopted multiparty democracy in 2008 after three decades of autocratic rule by Yameen's half brother, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. But it has been gripped by turmoil since its first democratically-elected leader Mohamed Nasheed was toppled in 2012. Nasheed, whose jailing last year on terror charges has been widely criticised by the West, has since secured political asylum in Britain after travelling there for medical treatment while on prison leave. The Maldives' parliament passed a new defamation bill today despite US-led international concern that it risked undermining basic freedoms on the troubled honeymoon islands. The parliament dominated by lawmakers from President Abdulla Yameen's Progressive Party of Maldives voted 47 to 31 in favour of the controversial bill that criminalises defamation. The main opposition as well as rights activists say the law allows the government to impose severe penalties on those seeking to exercise freedom of speech, including shutting down organisations and jailing journalists for up to six months. A coalition of opposition parties said the passage of the controversial law was a retrograde step in a country which abolished criminal defamation in 2009, a year after its first democratic elections. "The Maldives United Opposition (MUO) views the passage of the law as clear proof of regression of democracy in Maldives and a step backwards from democratic norms," the group said in a statement. It accused Yameen of enacting the legislation to silence critics who accuse him of corruption. The Indian Ocean archipelago, whose beaches are a popular attraction for wealthy Western tourists, adopted multi-party democracy in 2008 after three decades of autocratic rule by Yameen's half brother, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. But it has been gripped by turmoil since its first democratically-elected leader Mohamed Nasheed was toppled in 2012 in what he claims what was a coup. Nasheed, whose jailing last year on terror charges has been widely criticised by the West, has since secured political asylum in Britain after travelling there for medical treatment while on prison leave. Opposition parties, some of which had opposed Nasheed earlier, have united in their campaign against Yameen. Journalists staged a protest outside parliament as the law was passed. "This is truly the end of free media in the Maldives. The government no longer needs an excuse to shut down media outlets or crack down on dissenters," Ali Naafiz, assistant editor of the private Mihaaru website, told AFP. The Maldives went ahead with the vote nine days after the United States and European countries urged Yameen to withdraw the bill and "return to the path of democracy". Yameen has resisted the international pressure, saying Western governments already have similar laws. UN rights official Mona Rishmawi, speaking in Geneva, described the law as "very, very, very wide". It could target journalists and human rights defenders and risks "crippling freedom of expression", Rishmawi said. A 32-year-old man who had admitted murdering a Ahmadiya Muslim shopkeeper for what he perceived as disrespect to Islam was today sentenced to life imprisonment by a UK court which described the incident as an appalling display of merciless violence. Tanveer Ahmed, a Sunni Muslim from Pakistan, stabbed Asad Shah outside his store in the Shawlands area of Scotland in March. The 40-year-old victim, who belonged to the Ahmadiya minority community in Pakistan, later died in hospital. The killer was told today by Glasgow High Court that he would serve a minimum of 27 years in prison. "This was a barbaric, premeditated and wholly unjustified killing of a much loved man who was a pillar of the local community. He was described as a peaceful and peace-loving man and family man who went out of his way to show respect for those of any faith," Judge Lady Rae told Ahmed at the sentencing hearing. She branded the attack as "an appalling display of merciless violence". She added: "No-one in any civilised country including Scotland has the right to take the life of another whatever offence that individual perceives that he or she has suffered. "It is vitally important in modern society that respect and tolerance for others of any race, creed, colour, ethnic origin or religious belief is maintained and protected by the law of the land. "I note with considerable concern that you have expressed no remorse whatsoever for this appalling crime." At a hearing last month, the court had been told that when Ahmed was interviewed by police he said his actions were motivated byShah's "disrespect" towards Muslim faith. Shahhad been granted asylum when he fled violence in Pakistan to join his family in Scotland in 1998. It also emerged in court that Ahmed, a cab driver, was in Glasgow a couple of days before the murder with a friend who knewShahand who showed AhmedShah's Facebook page. The shopkeeper had uploaded hundreds of videos about his spiritual beliefs to Facebook and YouTube, most of which were filmed behind the counter of his shop. CCTV footage of the attack showed Ahmed pulling a knife out and moving behind the counter and stabbing Shah repeatedly. Shahwas taken to hospital in Glasgow, but despite surgery he could not be saved. Chief Superintendent Brian McInulty, of Police Scotland, said: "Religious intolerance in any form is simply not tolerated in our society and Police Scotland will work in partnership with our communities to eradicate such behaviour. Tributes were paid on Tuesday to the martyrs of the freedom struggle, at an event held here to mark the Platinum Jubilee celebration of the 1942 . Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union minister Venkaiah Naidu were among those present at the main event held at August Kranti Maidan here. "This is the same ground from where Mahatma Gandhi gave the clarion call of 'Do or Die' for independence," Fadnavis said. In his three hour-long address at the Maidan in 1942, Gandhiji exhorted countrymen to prepare for the 'final battle' for India's freedom, Fadnavis said. Various initiatives were organised in Mumbai to mark the which has been one of the major milestones in the history of India's struggle for independence. The movement of disobedience launched in August 1942, with Mahatma Gandhi's call for immediate independence, made at Mumbai's Gowalia Tank, which is now well known as August Kranti Maidan. On the 75th anniversary of the Quit India Movement, Maharashtra Government launched the Quit India 2-from Swaraaj to Suraaj initiative at the historic ground. The new initiative stresses on freedom from illiteracy, farmer suicide, wastage of water, addiction among youth and corruption. The government commemorated the leaders who fought for our freedom. Participants also took a pledge for holistic development of the nation. Tata Motors chairman Cyrus Mistry today asked his unhappy shareholders to be patient as the company is passing through a tough turnaround amidst global uncertainty which may even impact its highly successful British operations under the JLR brand. "Shareholders should have to be patient about Tata Motors. Please don't expect big bonuses and dividends too early. I know that 0.20 per cent for the fiscal year 2016 is embarrassing. But it's a signal of better times to come," Mistry told the shareholders at the 71st AGM of the company here this evening. The company today declared a dividend of 20 paise for ordinary shares and 30 paise for 'A class shares, which will be paid out of its reserves. It can be noted that for the first time in 14 years, Mistry had told irate shareholders at the last AGM that the company was not in a position to pay dividends for 2014-15, a decision he had termed as painful. The company had declined dividends for two consecutive years in 2000-01 and 2001-02. "I am pained for not being able to give the rightful dividend. My personal belief is that it's a bad day for the company. I feel extremely unfortunate this day. Let me tell you it does not give me any pleasure to deny your rightful dividend. I know that many of you depend a lot on the dividend," Mistry had told the shareholders at the last AGM when the company had skipped dividend. Addressing the shareholders today, Mistry said "it's very rare that a company makes such a massive turnaround on its operational profitability in a short span. It's the beginning of turnaround on our standalone operations." Stating that fiscal 2015-16 was one of continued global volatility across different markets he said he does not see the new financial year to be any different. "Chinese slowdown continues to be an important global economic factor. It will further accelerate and likely to affect the JLR operations," he said, adding Brexit will also add to global uncertainty as it has created an uncertain business environment in Europe. He said newly-launched Tiago has received really good response and expressed hope that forthcoming SUV Hexa and the compact sedan Kite 5 launches are likely to help volumes. Tata Motors' consolidated gross revenue for 2015-16 rose 5 per cent to Rs 2,80,097 crore, while net profit stood at Rs 11,108 crore. JLR revenues rose to 22.2 billion pounds while its net income stood at 1.3 billion pounds. Its standalone revenue rose 18 per cent to Rs 46,647 crore and had reported a net income of Rs 234 crore against a net loss of Rs 4,739 crore in 2013-14. During 2015-16, Mistry said JLR continued to grow in all its markets except China with wholesale volume growing 16 per cent to 5,44,085 units and retail sales rising 13 per cent driven by new Jaguar XF and the XE range and the Discovery Sport, and the all-new performance SUV the F Pace. Led by Angela Merkel, Hillary Clinton and Theresa May, there have never been so many experienced and ambitious women in positions of influence, even if they remain heavily outnumbered. Clinton has already made history by becoming the first female presidential nominee of a major US political party in her bid for the White House in November. "This is historic, just as Barack Obama was historic. There is no question about that," said Ester R Fuchs, professor of public affairs and political science at Columbia University, referring to the first black US president. Across the Atlantic, "Iron Lady" Margaret Thatcher broke the glass ceiling decades ago when she became British prime minister in 1979, and last month May did it again. Chancellor Angela Merkel has led Germany since 2005, while South Korea, Chile, Brazil, Bangladesh and Liberia are also led by women -- as is the International Monetary Fund (IMF). But these leaders remain in a minority and their numbers are only gradually increasing. A study by the Pew Research Center last year found women led only about 10 per cent of UN member states. "Even while the number of female leaders has more than doubled since 2005, a woman in power is hardly the norm around the world," it said. There are regional variations, with Finland, Norway and Iceland well used to female leadership, and South and Southeast Asia and South America performing better than elsewhere, according to UN Women, the United Nations body championing gender equality. Past leaders include Indira Gandhi in India, Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan, and Argentina's Cristina Kirchner, while Aung San Suu Kyi is currently de facto leader of Myanmar. But it took until 2005 for Africa to have its first female elected leader, in Liberia's Ellen Johnson Sirleaf -- although the continent has a better record on ministers. At the start of 2015, only 17.7 per cent of all government ministers in the world were female, but it was more than 30 per cent in Cape Verde, Rwanda and South Africa. In Japan, Yuriko Koike last month became the first female governor of Tokyo, a rare breakthrough in a male-dominated society. One of the 64-year-old's key tasks will be smoothing the capital's troubled road to the 2020 Olympics, hit by a series of embarrassing scandals and soaring costs. She has acknowledged it was a struggle to get where she is, once noting that Japan did not so much have a glass ceiling as a "sheet of steel" that women had to break through. In Italy, another country where men still hold sway, Virginia Raggi and Chiara Appendino were elected this year as mayors of Rome and Turin respectively. But Sofia Ventura, professor of political and social sciences at the University of Bologna, said their elections cannot yet be called a turning point. "We are in a complex phase, with steps forward but strong cultural habits," she said. The Mumbai police probing the alleged provocative speeches of Islamic televangelist Zakir Naik, who is under the scanner of various Central agencies as well, has submitted its report to Maharashtra Home department, a senior official said today. The report will now be vetted by the Home department and sent to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for further action, Principal Secretary (Home) Vijay Satbir Singh said. The Mumbai police was asked to probe Naik's past speeches available online, to see if any of them could have inspired youths to join terrorist organisations, amid reports that his preachings inspired some of those involved in Dhaka terror strike. The city police was also conducting a joint inquiry (with other probe agencies) into the functioning of Naik's Islamic Research Foundation (IRF), to scrutinise the finances it has received from various parts of the world. Naik, who is now abroad, has been facing heat over allegations of inspiring some of the Dhaka attackers through his speeches. There were media reports that "provocative" speeches had inspired some of the terrorists who carried out Bangladesh's worst terror attack at a cafe in Dhaka that left 22 people dead on July 1. Naik had a lengthy interaction with Indian media via Skype from Saudi Arabia on July 15, rubbishing the charge that his sermons had inspired terror activity, including the Dhaka attack. He has ruled out returning to India this year and claimed his remarks were "blown out of context" and that he has never inspired any terror activity. Stating that he is a "messenger of peace", Naik had also accused Indian media of running a trial against him by hyping on unverified reports and doctored clippings and statements being shown out of context. Meanwhile, the city police yesterday registered a case against an IRF employee and three others, including two arrested earlier by Kerala police in connection with alleged ISIS recruitment case in the southern state. They have been booked under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and IPC section 120-B (criminal conspiracy), a senior police official said today. (Reopens BOM12) Meanwhile, in a statement issued against the backdrop of the report on the preacher submitted by Mumbai police to state Home department, the IRF said that all allegations levelled against Naik were "false and baseless". "IRF is not privy to the police commissioner's report, but from reports put across in the media, IRF wants to reiterate that the allegations are false and baseless. Dr Zakir Naik firmly believes in promoting peace and harmony and has been doing that for decades," it said. The foundation said that neither Naik nor IRF have received any notice from the MHA or any government agency as of now, and hence they won't be able to comment on it. "IRF is a research body that promotes greater awareness of Islam and its tenets. Dr Zakir Naik is an expert in comparative religion and has been conducting well-researched talks on Islam and other religions across the world," it said. Naik emphasises on teachings of Islam which is "not unconstitutional" and preaching and propagating one's religion is allowed by Article 25 of the Constitution, it said. The IRF also said that conversion (of religion) has never been its objective. "Conversion is not the objective of IRF. The organisation only spreads the message of Islam and clears misconceptions. This is fully permitted by our Constitution," it said. The statement also said IRF's Guest Relations Manager Arshid Qureshi never forced anyone to convert religion. "Qureshi has never forced a single person into conversion against his or her free will, as it is against Islam. We emphatically deny all allegations," it said. Notably, city police yesterday registered a case against Qureshi and three others, including two arrested earlier by Kerala police in connection with alleged ISIS recruitment, for alleged unlawful activities and criminal conspiracy. Defending champion Andy Murray raced into the Olympic Games last 16 today, blitzing Juan Monaco of Argentina 6-3, 6-1, before sympathising with long-time rival Novak Djokovic over his stunning exit. World number 2 Murray is looking to become the first man to win two Olympic singles golds, a cause helped when Juan Martin del Potro put out world number one Djokovic in the first round. "Del Potro is a great player when he's fit, but he hasn't been fit very often in the last few years," said Murray. "In a 64-player draw with 16 seeds that's the kind of thing that can happen and Juan Martin was playing really well. It was tough on Novak." Murray will face France's Benoit Paire, the 16th seed, or newly-wed Fabio Fognini of Italy for a quarter-final spot. Wimbledon champion Murray was hardly troubled by Monaco on centre court, extending a head-to-head winning streak which stretches back six years. The Argentine never fully recovered from a fall in the second game of the opening set where he aggravated a long-standing hip injury. Murray reeled off five games against the world number 108 and was soon 4-0 up in the second set before going on to claim victory in just 69 minutes. "It felt good, I played well from the back of the court. There weren't many unforced errors," said Murray, 29, after racking up a 14th successive win since losing the French Open final to Djokovic in June. Meanwhile American seventh seed Madison Keys hailed Serena Williams for inspiring her to reach the quarter-finals. Keys, 21, was the first woman into the last eight thanks to a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 win over gritty Spaniard, Carla Suarez Navarro. But she gave credit to 22-time Slam winner Williams, the top seed in Rio and defending Olympic champion. "Hey, I'm happy to be on the same team as Serena Williams, it's thanks to her that I was able to get my ranking up and qualify," said Keys. Keys, who made the Australian Open semi-finals in January, will face either Italy's Sara Errani or promising Russian Daria Kasatkina for a place in the last four. Spanish seventh seed David Ferrer was knocked out by Russia's Evgeny Donskoy 3-6, 7-6 (7/1), 7-5. Ferrer is the third top-10 seed to fail to make the third round after Djokovic and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Two-time Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova needed three sets to beat Russia's Ekaterina Makarova 4-6, 6-4, 6-4. Williams will continue her assault on a fifth career Olympic gold when she faces Elina Svitolina of Ukraine. Read our full coverage on the 2016 Rio Olympics The 34-year-old American has won all four meetings against Svitolina, including at this year's French Open where she gave up just two games. Second seed Angelique Kerber faces Australia's 2011 US Open winner Samantha Stosur while third-seeded Muguruza takes on Monica Puig of Puerto Rico. Actress Nargis Fakhri today dodged queries about her apparent break-up with actor Uday Chopra and asked the media not to ask "irrelevant" questions. The actress has made headlines ever since the about her alleged break-up with Uday started doing the rounds. When earlier this year, she left the promotions of "Housefull 3" mid way and went back to US, some reports suggested she had quit Bollywood forever due to split from Uday. Nargis' spokesperson, however, stated that time she was exhausted due to work and needed a break. At the trailer launch of her latest film "Banjo", when she was asked about her reported break-up, her co-star Riteish Deshmukh came to her rescue and told reporters, "Are you kidding me? I am her spokesperson I'll answer this question." When prodded further, Nargis said, "Your question is irrelevant, so it's quite sad. I don't think you should continue." The 36-year-old "Rockstar" actress came to India yesterday after a gap of almost three months. She was clicked by the paparazzi at the airport, where she was covering her face. When asked for the reason behind it, Nargis said, "Actually when I travel I wear a hoodie and a scarf all the time, because a lot of people are sick on the airplane, so, you get sick all the time. I just do like that. That's the way I walk around." To which Riteish quipped, "She comes to sets that way." The "Azhar" actress said she missed promoting "Housefull 3" with her co-stars and was "sad" about it. "I was very sad not to be a part of promotions with my co-actors because they are hilarious. I missed out on a lot of fun. But unfortunately I was unwell. Now I am better and super excited for promotions of this ('Banjo')". Directed by Ravi Jadhav, "Banjo" is a musical drama which features Riteish, 37, as a Banjo player while Nargis will portray the role of a DJ in the movie. The film, also starring dancer-actor Dharmesh Yelande, is set to release on September 23. Taiwan's new envoy to Singapore resigned today after he was caught drink-driving last week in the island's capital Taipei, just hours after he had been sworn into office. Antonio Chiang -- a veteran journalist and political commentator -- said he had drunk whisky and wine over dinner with friends before he was caught late on August 2, local media reported. His arrest triggered calls for his resignation from campaigners in Taiwan against drink-driving. The office of Taiwan's new president Tsai Ing-wen said today she had accepted his resignation and "respected" his decision. Taipei prosecutors handed Chiang a suspended indictment and a Tw USD 60,000 fine yesterday, according to Taiwan's Central Agency. His blood alcohol content was 0.27 milligrams per litre, the agency reported. Taiwan's legal limit is 0.25 mg per litre. Campaign group Taiwan Against Drunk Driving -- headed by a mother whose daughter was killed by a drunk driver -- last week protested outside the foreign ministry, calling Chiang a "disgrace" to the island. Chiang told Central Agency today he feels "very guilty and remorseful" for causing trouble for the government. Taipei maintains representative offices instead of embassies as it does not have formal diplomatic relations with many nations, which instead choose to recognise rival Beijing. Chiang writes a column for Taiwan's Apple Daily newspaper, which often publishes articles critical of China. The Election Commission today submitted to the Madras High Court that it had no powers to recover all expenses incurred for conducting polls ahead of cancellation of elections to certain constituencies because of misconduct of candidates. M Baskaran and G Kunjithapatham, PMK candidates for the Aravakurichi and Thanjavur assembly constituencies in the May 16 polls, had filed PILs seeking a direction to the Election Commission to recover all the poll expenses incurred from KC Palanishamy (DMK) and V Senthil Balaji (AIADMK). They alleged that the Election Commission had seized huge amounts of money from these candidates in the assembly polls following which the polls were cancelled. They prayed for a direction to the Election Commission to calculate the expenses incurred by the EC by appointing a statutory auditor as well as that incurred by the candidates including the petitioners and recover it from those candidates whose indulgence in electoral offences such as bribing voters resulted in rescinding of polls to these seats. When the PILs came up before the first bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice R Mahadevan, counsel for EC Niranjan Rajagopalan submitted that the EC had no powers to recover all the expenses. The court then directed the counsel to file a counter within six weeks. On May 27, the Election Commission had decided to rescind the notification and conduct polls afresh "in due course of time" to the two Tamil Nadu Assembly seats following evidence of use of money to influence voters. Norwegian police said today they had found no proof of insurance fraud as they closed a new inquiry into the 1990 Scandinavian Star ferry fire which killed 159 people, and was believed to have been arson. The Scandinavian Star car and passenger ferry caught fire in April 1990 as it sailed overnight between Oslo and the Danish port of Frederikshavn, killing a third of the 482 people on board. Blame was initially placed on a Danish trucker who had previously been convicted of arson attacks and who perished in the ferry blaze, but there was not enough evidence against him. Norwegian police reopened the investigation in 2014 to examine claims that the fire was part of an insurance fraud scheme. Experts and families of the victims had noted that several fires flared up on the ferry after the trucker's death, and suggested the blazes were set as part of an insurance fraud. In February, the former head of the Danish maritime transport authority, Flemming Thue Jensen, accused two crew members of causing the blaze. After two years of additional investigations, Norwegian police said today they had found no new evidence to support an indictment or theories of sabotage and insurance fraud. The smaller fires observed after the trucker's death were likely caused by the extreme heat on the ferry, police said, citing technical experts. "In this kind of affair this complex, dating back 24 or 26 years, ... We can unfortunately not expect to have answers to all the questions," police commissioner Hans Sverre Sjovold told reporters. The group "Foundation for Arson Investigation into Scandinavian Star" has contested the inquiry's conclusions. An Indian-American has sued a New Jersey car dealership for USD 1.26 million, alleging it refused to sell him a swanky Mercedes Benz because a manager thought he came from a "high-risk area" and he might ship the vehicle to the Taliban. Surjeet Bassi, 50, claims the manager at Prestige Motors Inc. Told him that he came from a "high-risk area" where people buy cars and export them to the Taliban. Bassi, who has lived in New Jersey for 30 years, said he told the manager he is Indian and not connected to the Islamic fundamentalist and terrorist organisation, NJ.Com quoted the recent federal lawsuit as saying. "Prestige Mercedes Benz values its relationships with customers and prospective customers," spokeswoman Theresa V. Boylan said in a statement. "As a company, we do not condone discriminatory practices or conduct. Out of respect for the process and all parties, it is our policy not to comment on pending legal matters." Bassi said he wanted to trade his Mercedes-Benz ML350 for a newer model. He claims he spent several hours negotiating the price with a salesman, passed a credit check, charged USD 1,000 to his card for a down payment and called his insurance company to adjust his policy. But that was when a Prestige manager called Bassi into his office, the lawsuit says. "He said, 'I'm sorry I can't sell you the car,' and then explained why," Bassi told recordonline.Com. Bassi "explained that he was an East Asian Indian and that he was not related in any way to the Taliban," the lawsuit states. The suit claims Bassi's name did not come up in any regard to being an exporter of Mercedes Benz. Still, the manager refused to extend USD 83,000 in credit, for which Bassi "was qualified and had been approved by the defendant," the suit states. The refusal is a violation of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the lawsuit claims. Bassi is suing the car dealer for USD 1.26 million. The lawsuit claims "racial stereotyping, premised on plaintiff's race and appearance" and alleges the "same behavior would never have been engaged in had plaintiff been a white citizen of the United States. The Orissa High Court today allowed the bail application of senior IPS officer Joydeep Nayak, arrested for alleged corruption. Granting bail, Justice Shatrughna Pujahari asked the suspended officer of Tripura cadre to submit his passport with the special (vigilance) court here. He was granted bail after furnishing bail bond of Rs one lakh with two solvent sureties and a property bond of Rs 50,000. The IG-rank officer was arrested by Odisha vigilance police from Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh on July 23 on corruption charges and sent to Choudwar jail here the next day. Since the high court orders and the relevant documents could not be produced before the jail authorities today, Nayak is likely to walk free from jail tomorrow, said his counsel Siddharth Mishra. Nayak, on an inter-cadre deputation here between 2011 and 2016 and while officiating as IG in Human Rights Protection Cell (HRPC) had allegedly embezzled Rs 88 lakh meant for computer skill development of SC and ST students. Four others, including a senior Odisha Police Service officer are also arrested in the same case. Panama's image has been hurt by the sudden exit of US Nobel-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz as head of a government-appointed financial reform panel set up in the wake of the Panama Papers, one of its remaining members has said. "He is doing damage at an level to our country and its reputation," said Alberto Aleman, a former administrator of the Panama Canal who sits on the committee. Stiglitz and Swiss anti-corruption expert Mark Pieth resigned from the seven-member panel on Friday, accusing the government of reneging on a guarantee to publicly release the body's final report and other acts that were together "tantamount to censorship." "We were just shocked. How could you have a committee on transparency that itself was not going to be transparent?" Stiglitz said. Aleman, speaking to a news conference yesterday, said Stiglitz's comments "certainly affect the credibility" of Panama, which established the committee on April 29 to repair its tarnished image. The scandal burst into the media earlier in April, based on a leak of millions of secret client documents from a Panama law firm's servers. They detailed how wealthy foreigners used a Panama law firm to create or manage offshore entities to store assets. Some of the entities were linked to tax evasion, money laundering and organised crime. Panama's government is fighting to avoid being put back on black lists as a tax haven as a result. But it has thus far declined to sign up to automatic tax information exchanges urged by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. France has already slapped the country with a tax haven designation following the revelations. Aleman said the remaining members of the panel, comprising four Panamanians and a Costa Rican, had wanted the final report, due early September, to go first to the Panamanian government for evaluation, but Stiglitz had insisted on it being made public at the same time. One of the Panamanians, Gisela Alvarez, a former minister, stressed that this was the first time Panama had undertaken a serious analysis of its financial system. The departure of Stiglitz and Pieth "might close an opportunity for big changes," she said. Panama's government, for its part, issued a statement after Stiglitz and Pieth's exit reaffirming its "firm and real commitment to transparency and cooperation. On the 74th anniversary of 'Quit India Movement', Parliament today paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi and other freedom fighters with a reminder to re-affirm commitment to uphold sovereignty, integrity, unity and diversity of the country. In the Rajya Sabha, Chairman Hamid Ansari termed it as a historic day and a reminder to cherish the gift of freedom. The day "exhorts us to draw inspiration from the words and deeds of our freedom fighters to unitedly face the challenges of the changing times and do our bit to ensure inclusive economic development and growth for all strata of society and realise the long cherished dream of a fully developed India," he said. The day is a reminder to re-affirm "our commitment to uphold the sovereignty, integrity, unity and diversity of our country," added Ansari, who is the Vice President of the country. "The clarion call of 'do or die' by Mahatma Gandhi led to an upsurge of nationalistic sentiments and heralded the attainment of Independence," he said. In the Lok Sabha, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said 'Quit India Movement' had helped bring the whole nation together against the British rule and was a major contribution towards the country achieving freedom. As a mark of respect to the freedom fighters, members in both Houses also stood in silence for a brief while. Cash-rich large pharmaceutical firms in India are now looking at acquisition of niche product portfolios in regulated markets, a report said today. "Recently, select innovators have taken a call to exit their generics business and concentrate on branded/patented businesses creating billion dollar acquisition opportunities for large Indian pharma players in the regulated markets," said the report by broking firm ICICI Securities. The larger players, essentially the top 10 pharma companies, in the country are extremely cash rich and are hungry to acquire companies with niche product portfolios in the regulated markets, the report said. UCB sold its generics arm Kremers Urban to Lannett for USD 1.23 billion last September and its generics portfolio in India to Dr Reddy's. Similarly, Boeringer Ingelheim sold its generic arm Roxanne Laboratories to Jordan-based Hikma Pharmaceuticals for USD 2.65 billion. The acquisition of Allergan's Generics business by Teva recently triggered the sale of certain products in USA and Europe on account of competition commission. Dr Reddy's also acquired a portfolio of 8 ANDAs (Abbreviated New Drug Applications) for USD 350 million, while Zydus bought 2 ANDAs for an undisclosed amount. The activity is not limited to the US alone. A couple of Indian companies are in the fray to acquire Teva's generics portfolio in Europe reported to be worth USD 1-1.5 billion. Sun Pharma and Lupin recently acquired a portfolio of brands in Japan from Novartis and Shionogi. The report said top domestic pharma companies are flushed with funds and have the ability to raise capital very easily from debt as well as equity capital markets. ICICI Securities said given the high growth, volumes and profitability in regulated markets - USA, Western Europe and Japan - large as well as medium sized Indian pharma firms are targeting them with regular product registrations. Indian firms are the most active ANDA filers in US. The country's pharmaceutical industry is set to grow from USD 30 billion in 2015 to USD 55 billion in 2020 at a CAGR of 13 per cent. Of the USD 30 billion, exports consist of about 50 per cent. At present, the Indian Branded Formulations (IBF) sales consist mainly of generic drugs (70%) with patented drug sales being less than 10 per cent, it said. The key therapeutic segments comprise anti-infectives, cardiovascular and gastro which comprise of 40 per cent of the total IBF market. The global pharma industry crossed a trillion dollar mark in 2015 and it is likely to grow to USD 1,400 billion by 2020. The USD 400-billion growth is expected to be driven by branded drugs and generics in the developed markets with the balance from in emerging and under-developed countries. Prime Minister Narendra Modi today described BJP's proposed 'Tiranga Yatra' between August 15-22 as a symbol of social harmony and unity and asked party leaders to put in efforts to make it a success. He promoted the yatra as a measure to spread harmony at the BJP's Parliamentary Party meeting. The theme song for the BJP's 15-day exercise '70 Saal Azadi-Zara Yaad Karo Kurbani' to mark Independence Day was also released in the meeting, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar told reporters after the meeting. Kesiraju Srinivas, popularly known as Ghazal Srinivas, who holds a record for singing in most languages, has composed the song, he said. Modi also asked the party leaders to publicise recent initiatives of the government like the passage of GST Bill in Parliament, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar told reporters after the meeting. "The will be a symbol of development, social harmony and unity. It will spread harmony," Modi said. Schools should discuss the lives of freedom fighters as it will inspire students, he said, adding, pupils should visit memorials associated with the martyrs. He asked party MPs to carry out the on two-wheelers and visit all corners of the country, Kumar said. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Kumar also spoke at the meeting. The Monsoon session of the Parliament has been productive with 11 bills passed in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha each. Television personality-actress Porsha Williams was taken to hospital after she collapsed in a parking lot. The 35-year-old "Real Housewives of Atlanta" star was having difficulties breathing when she fell to the ground at an Atlanta shopping center, reported People magazine. Atlanta Fire and Rescue appeared at the scene and Williams was taken to Piedmont Hospital. "The Bravo" reality star also fainted on an airplane this past March after suffering from low blood sugar. The Supreme Court-appointed Justice RM Lodha panel today advised the BCCI to follow "total transparency" with regards to awarding lucrative television rights deals in the wake of the apex court's verdict on the panel's recommendations for reforms in the Board. What has drawn the committee's attention is the awarding of Media Broadcast Rights awarded by BCCI to broadcast the two T20 Internationals between India and the West Indies in Florida, USA on August 27 and 28, which was announced yesterday by the Board, according to sources close to the panel. Among the 15 primary points that the BCCI will have to adhere to by October 15 is awarding of TV broadcast contracts. Well-informed sources close to the panel, who are aware about legal implications, pointed out that even if BCCI files a review petition they will have to abide by the Supreme Court's verdict on the panel's recommendations relating to principles of transparency that are needed to be followed in order to award broadcast rights, unless they get a stay order. "Post July 18 Supreme Court verdict which upholds the Lodha Panel reforms, there should be complete transparency with regards to the principles of awarding contracts. It should be observed rightaway in detail. "All the details about pre-qualification norms and eligibility criteria should be transparently put up on the BCCI website," the sources close to the panel told PTI today. Yesterday BCCI announced that it has signed a deal with Star India Pvt Ltd worth Rs 34.2 crore for telecast of the two-game series in USA. BCCI reportedly is also set to sign a multi-billion dollar TV contract for the cash-rich IPL once it becomes due but it may come under the scanner if the Supreme Court verdict upholding the panel recommendations are not followed in toto, as per indications. When asked if in current situation the T20 matches to be played in USA could be broadcast by 'Star India' the sources said "I am not saying that they can't, but one needs to thoroughly check whether all principles of transparency had been followed." The wordings of the advertisement on the BCCI's website inviting tenders for broadcasting the hastily arranged two-game series is believed to have attracted the attention of the panel. The advertisement on bcci.Tv read:The BCCI team will share the ITT document with the interested parties via email based upon the requests and eligibility. The last date for any such request expressing interest is on or before 05:00 PM IST on 04th August 2016. "How do I know what is the eligibility to acquire the broadcast rights? The interested party cannot decide what is the eligibility and for that BCCI needs to clearly state what is the eligibility," the source remarked. The announcement of the rights being awarded a day before the scheduled meeting of the top BCCI officials with the panel here today has surprised a few within the Board too, it was learnt. BCCI secretary Ajay Shirke met the panel members while president Anurag Thakur, an MP, asked for "Leave of Absence" because the Parliament is in session. A group of pro- activists, demanding statehood for the region, today protested outside Union minister Nitin Gadkari's residence. The activists took out a rally, under the leadership of former Legislator Wamanrao Chatap of Rajya Andolan Samiti, which ended at Gadkari's residence located in Mahal area in the eastern part of the city. "A large number of farmers, students, women and youngsters from across various districts of took part in the protest march, which was aimed at reminding Gadkari of his promise on a separate Vidarbha state," Ram Neole, a leader of Samiti said. Before being elected as an MP from Nagpur Lok Sabha constituency, Gadkari had openly espoused the cause of separate Vidarbha. However, he has been maintaining silence on the issue since his induction into the Union cabinet, Neole alleged. "If Gadkari decides, he can deliver on the demand for separate state. The Centre has the discretion to carve out a new state without the consent of the Maharashtra Legislature," he added. A memorandum in support of the separate statehood was submitted to Gadkari's staff as he was away in New Delhi to attend the ongoing Parliament session. Chief Minister V Narayanasamy today said his government would ensure that the Union Territory had a 'corruption-free and development-oriented' administration, in keeping with the directives of the Congress leadership. Addressing the celebration of the 74thanniversary of Quit India Movement at the PCC office here, he said Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi had issued directives to ensure that people in Puducherry got a corruption-free administration. "We will translate this directive of high command into action," he said. Narayanasamy also said he had held talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several Union Ministers in Delhi recently, bringing to their notice the various infrastructural development programmes the Puducherry government had evolved. He had urged Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to approve of the draft plan for Puducherry involving a requirement of Rs 7,440 crorefor the current fiscal (2016-2017). "I am going to Delhi againtomorrowto persuade the Finance Minister to sanction the fiscal requirement projected in draft plan so that we would go ahead to hold the budget session of the Puducherry Assembly," he said. Paying rich tributes to the freedom fighters who had sacrificed their lives for the independence of the nation, Narayanasamy said the Puducherry government would honour freedom fighters of Union Territory at a function onAugust 16,while celebrating the 55thDe Transfer Day of Puducherry that day. Meanwhile, US Consul Generalof South India Phillip A Min called on Narayanasamy at his chamber here. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Narayanasamy said he told the envoy that industrialists from the US could promote tourism development projects, and infrastructures. He said he had informed the US envoy that land for promoting IT Technology Park was also available in the Union Territory, which had surplus power availability. Punjab minister Anil Joshi today raised questions over the efficiency of the state police following the murderous attack on RSS leader Jagdish Gagneja and urged the state's BJP leadership to demand a time-bound investigation into the incident. "It appears that Punjab police is not following its priority of maintaining law and order in the state," the BJP MLA from Amritsar North said responding to a query on the attack on Gagneja and other incidents including assaults on an RSS volunteer in Ludhiana and other religious leaders this year. "It should be the priority of the police to maintain law and order in the state. They should act fast and nab those behind the attack on Gagneja at the earliest," he said, adding that if the state police required any assistance from the Centre, it should request for the same. Joshi said even if Gagneja had refused police security, it should have taken "appropriate steps" to protect him. "The police cannot shrug off its responsibility by saying that he (Gagneja) had turned down the offer of security cover," he said. "The party should take a hard stand on the issue and demand a time-bound probe," he said. Joshi also visited the hospital in Ludhiana where the RSS leader is admitted. Senior RSS leader Brigadier (retired) Jagdish Gagneja was shot at by motorcycle-borne assailants at Jyoti Chowk in Jalandhar on Saturday. He was seriously injured in the incident. BJP and RSS delegations had met Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal here Yesterday and expressed their concern over the "deteriorating" law-and-order situation in the state. Facing mounting pressure to nab the culprits who shot at RSS leader Jagdish Gagneja, Punjab police today said the case was being probed from "all angles" and it had got "several leads". "We are probing the case from all angles and nothing can be ruled out," Jalandhar Police Commissioner Arpit Shukla said replying to a query regarding the possibility of a terror outfit being involved behind the attack on Gagneja. "We have got several leads on which we are working. It would not be proper to share them at this stage," he added. "We have formed 10 teams to investigate the matter. Besides, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) is also camping at Jalandhar," he said. Police had released CCTV footage of the two suspects yesterday in Jalandhar. The footage shows the motorcycle-borne duo with their faces covered. It had also announced a reward of Rs 10 lakh and a job in Punjab police, depending on the nature of information provided by anyone about the assailants. Punjab DGP Suresh Arora had formed an SIT, led by ADGP-cum-Director, Bureau of Investigation, IPS Sahota, to crack the case. On Saturday, senior RSS leader Brigadier (retired) Jagdish Gagneja was shot at by motorcycle-borne assailants at Jyoti Chowk in Jalandhar. He was seriously injured in the incident and is currently admitted to a hospital in Ludhiana. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan jets into Russia today for his first meeting with counterpart Vladimir Putin since the two strongmen leaders began healing a bitter feud over Ankara's downing of a Russian warplane. Erdogan's visit to Putin's hometown of Saint Petersburg is also his first foreign trip since the failed coup against him last month that sparked a purge of opponents and cast a shadow over Turkey's relations with the West. "This visit seems to me a new milestone in bilateral relations, beginning with a clean slate, and I personally, with all my heart and on behalf of the Turkish nation salute Mr Putin and all Russians," Erdogan said in an interview with Russian state media. The shooting down of a Russian fighter jet by a Turkish F-16 over the Syrian border last November saw a furious Putin slap economic sanctions on Turkey and launch a blistering war of words with Erdogan that seemed to irrevocably damage burgeoning ties. But in a shock reversal in late June, Putin accepted a personal expression of regret over the incident from Erdogan as an apology and immediately rolled back a ban on the sale of package holidays to Turkey and signalled Moscow would end measures against food imports and construction firms from the country. Now in the wake of the failed July 15 coup attempt in NATO-member Turkey, ties between the two sides could be bolstered even further -- with Erdogan bluntly making it clear he feels let down by the United States and the European Union. Putin was one of the first foreign leaders to phone Erdogan offering support and, unsurprisingly, sharing none of the scruples of EU leaders about the ensuing crackdown. "While Turkish-Russian ties are subject to their own uncertainties, this deterioration of relations with Western powers could accelerate a Turkish-Russian rapprochement," said analysts from the European Council on Foreign Relations. Relations between Turkey and Russia -- two powers vying for influence in the strategic Black Sea region and Middle East -- have never been straightforward and their predecessor Ottoman and Russian empires fought three centuries of war. Yet before the plane crisis, Moscow and Ankara managed to prevent disputes on Syria and Ukraine harming strategic cooperation on issues like the TurkStream gas pipeline to Europe and a Russian-built nuclear power station in Turkey. Those projects were all put on ice with trade between the two countries falling 43 per cent to USD 6.1 billion in January-May this year and Turkey's tourism industry seeing numbers from Russia fall by 93 per cent. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan today promised to reinvigorate ties after their first meeting since Ankara shot down a Russian warplane last November. Erdogan's visit to Putin's hometown of Saint Petersburg is also his first foreign trip since the failed coup against him last month that sparked a purge of opponents and cast a shadow over Turkey's relations with the West. "We lived through a very complicated moment in the relations between our states and we very much want, and I feel our Turkish friends want, to overcome the difficulties," Putin told journalists at a joint press conference after the encounter. The Kremlin leader insisted it would take "painstaking work" and "some time" to return to previous trade levels as Russia looks to roll back a series of economic sanctions against Ankara, but both sides said they wanted to restart major energy projects hit by the crisis. Erdogan said that he hoped Russian-Turkish relations would become "more robust" and stressed how important it was that Putin offered his support after the coup. "We will bring our relations back to the old level and even beyond, both sides are determined and have the necessary will," he said. The shooting down of a Russian fighter jet by a Turkish F-16 over the Syrian border last fall saw a furious Putin slap economic sanctions on Turkey and launch a blistering war of words with Erdogan that seemed to irrevocably damage burgeoning ties. But in a shock reversal late June, Putin accepted a letter expressing regret over the incident from Erdogan as an apology and quickly rolled back a ban on the sale of package holidays to Turkey and signalled Moscow would end measures against Turkish food imports and construction firms. Now in the wake of the failed July 15 coup attempt, there are fears in Western capitals that NATO-member Turkey could draw even closer to Moscow -- with Erdogan bluntly making it clear he feels let down by the United States and the European Union. Putin was one of the first foreign leaders to phone Erdogan offering support after the coup attempt and shares none of the scruples of EU leaders about the ensuing crackdown. Relations between Turkey and Russia -- two powers vying for influence in the strategic Black Sea region and Middle East -- have historically not been straightforward. Yet before the plane downing crisis, Moscow and Ankara managed to prevent disputes on Syria and Ukraine harming strategic cooperation on issues like the TurkStream gas pipeline to Europe and a Russian-built nuclear power station in Turkey. Residents of a city in eastern China have protested for a third day against possible plans to build a nuclear fuel reprocessing center, a protester and a city employee said today, as police announced a ban on public gatherings. The protests in Lianyungang, north of Shanghai, reflect public unease about the safety of China's state-owned nuclear industry and growing willingness to oppose nuclear, chemical and other industrial projects. The city government responded to the weekend demonstrations in a downtown square with an announcement that plans for the nuclear project were in early stages and no location had been confirmed. Despite that, protesters gathered again yesterday, according to a city hall employee who would give only his surname, Zhang, and man who gave his surname as Wang. Wang said he took part in one weekend protest and witnessed others. About a dozen people who threw stones on Monday were detained by police, according to Wang. He said local residents were discussing plans for possible additional protests. "We don't want this project," said Wang by telephone. "We worry about whether there will be a leak and whether the technology is good enough to protect people's health." Also today, police announced a ban on unauthorized public gatherings and issued a statement calling on the public to disregard rumors. There were no reports about the protests in Chinese media, suggesting censors ordered publications to suppress information about them. China is the most active builder of nuclear power plants, with 32 reactors in operation, 22 under construction and more planned. The government has spent heavily to build up its ability to produce fuel and process waste. The official Xinhua Agency said in September that the state-owned China National Nuclear Corp. Would build a nuclear fuel reprocessing center with French partner Areva starting in 2020, but no location has been announced. Thousands of people took to the streets on Saturday when rumors spread that Lianyungang had been picked as the site for the facility. Photos circulated on social media showed crowds in a central square. Some carried banners saying, "For the next generation, refuse construction of the nuclear waste plant." A unit of CNNC and its French partner have looked at more than 10 potential locations for the reprocessing center, according to the official China Service. It said the two did preliminary research last year on Lianyungang. In 2013, similar plans to build a nuclear fuel reprocessing facility in the southern city of Heshan, near Hong Kong, were scrapped following protests by residents over possible safety risks. Chinese authorities also have scrapped or postponed other petrochemical and other industrial projects elsewhere following protests, but in some cases works goes ahead after tensions die down. Actor Robin Williams' daughter, Zelda is taking a break from social media to mourn his father's death anniversary, which is on August 11. The 27-year-old actress shared a post on her Twitter and Instagram that she wants to remember her father privately. "So, it's that time of year again. I will be taking another break off social media. "For those who always ask why, it's so people can memorialise Dad on the anniversary of his death however they wish without me having to feel bombarded by it, or pressured by the expectation put on myself or my family to publicly acknowledge or join in doing so," she wrote. The "Dead of Summer" star thanked her social media followers and other people for the immense love and respect they have for her father. "I will always be so grateful for all the love the world had and continues to have for dad, but for obvious reasons, it's sometimes harder to be the sort of surviving public vessel for receiving those sentiments, and one often expected to somehow flawlessly express them back," she added. Zelda continued, "Obviously the world will keep on spinning. This is hardly an important issue, my main point being you should continue to remember Dad however you want! I'll just be doing so privately. Indian rower Dattu Baban Bhokanal finished fourth in the quarter-finals of the men's single sculls to be out of medal reckoning in the Rio Olympic Games here today. Bhokanal clocked 6:59.89 to cover a distance of 2000m, little more than six seconds behind the third and last qualifier from the quarterfinal 4, Natan Wegrzycki-Szymczyk (6:53.52) from Poland. Croatia's Damir Martin, the London Olympics silver medallist, won the quarterfinal with a far superior timing of 6:44.44, ahead of second-placed Alan Campbell (6:49.41). Armyman Bhokanal, whose ailing mother is an Intensive Care Unit of a hospital in India, had clocked 7:21.67s in the Heats. He commenced strongly and was second going past the 500metre mark but then gradually slowed down to lose his chance of advancing. Bhokanal, the lone rower in fray from India, will now have to fight for the minor placings. October 15, 2022, Saturday US President Joe Biden has said Pakistan is one of the most dangerous nations in the world as it has nuclear weapons without ... About 1,000 Russian opposition supporters rallied in Moscow to protest a controversial new legislation that offers new sweeping powers to security agencies. The set of counter-terrorism amendments initiated by the hawkish lawmaker Irina Yarovaya has sparked outrage among rights activists. Among other things, it introduces prison sentences for failure to report a grave crime and obliges telecommunications companies to store call logs and data for months. President Vladimir Putin signed the amendments into law last month. Protesters, who gathered on Tuesday in Moscow's Sokolniki park, denounced the new legislation as part of the Kremlin's efforts to stifle protest ahead of next month's parliamentary elections. The rally, which had been sanctioned by authorities, proceeded peacefully as police watched from the sidelines. Opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who played a key role in organising massive protests in Moscow against Putin's rule in 2011-2012, said in a rousing speech that it's time for the opposition to return to the streets and that "everything depends on us." Opposition activist Ilya Yashin described the new legislation as a "reflection of horror and fear of the government." "They try to control everything, absolutely everything," he said. "If we don't resist it, then we will find ourselves in the world of Big Brother where everyone is being watched from everywhere. All our conversations are being listened to, all our messages are being read - it's a very unpleasant perspective." Referring to the new legislation as "the Big Brother law," Human Rights Watch representative Tanya Lokshina described it as "clearly yet another tool for the government to use against its' opponents." "There has been a tremendous crackdown on free expression in since Vladimir Putin's return to the Kremlin back in 2012, and the 'Yarovaya Law' will be a particularly destructive tool," she said. The Supreme Court today modified its earlier order of giving full back wages to temporary LIC employees of grade III and IV, who were asked to be regularised and directed the insurance company to pay 50 per cent of the back wages with consequential benefits considering the "immense financial burden". A bench of Justices V Gopala Gowda and C Nagappan asked Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) which has filed a review plea on the issue of compliance with the direction, to reply within eight weeks as the workers concerned have been litigating for the past 25 years in various forums. "Keeping in mind the immense financial burden this would cause to LIC, we deem it fit to modify the relief only with regard to the back wages payable and, therefore, we award 50 per cent of the back wages with consequential benefits. "The back wages must be calculated on the basis of the gross salary of the workmen, applicable as on the date as per the periodical revisions of pay scale," the bench said while disposing of the review petition filed by the insurance company. The workers in the branches of LIC at various places in the country, have sought their absorption as regular and permanent service employees in their respective posts of the corporation. They were working as "temporary, 'badli' and part-time workers" and have claimed that they had been appointed by the corporation management on daily wage basis against leave and other vacancies of its employees in Class III and IV posts in various branch offices and divisions of the company. The court said that the computation of back wages must be made from the date of entitlement of the workmen for their absorption, till the age of superannuation. It said that ordinarily, the aspect of financial burden cannot be a sufficient ground to warrant the court's interference in review petition. "While ordinarily, the aspect of financial hardship would not be a sufficient ground to warrant our interference in the instant case, but keeping in view the fact that LIC is a statutory corporation operating in the interest of the public at large, on the limited point of payment of full back wages to the temporary and badli workers who are entitled for regularisation, we may reconsider the same," the bench said. The apex court said that LIC has not submitted anything on record to suggest that its judgement of last year suffers from any error in law and mere repetition of arguments is not sufficient to justify the exercise of review jurisdiction of the court. Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for LIC, has said that the corporation till March 31, 2015 had 55,427 Class III employees and 5,190 Class IV employees. He had said that if LIC is directed to consider the absorption of the workmen, then the number of Class III employees will increase by 11.14 per cent and Class IV employees by 56.65 per cent and the same will affect the employee's ratio apart from increase in its financial burden. Rohatgi had said that under the provisions of the LIC Act, the Centre does not allocate any fund for the insurance company, and the funds are generated from the payments made to it and that the Centre does not contribute towards the funding of LIC. He had said that under the LIC Act, 95 per cent of the surplus of corporation is to be allocated to or reserved for its life insurance policy holders and the contention that the corporation has a huge surplus and is in a position to implement the order of this court, was misconceived. The apex court had last year directed LIC to absorb the workmen concerned in the permanent posts and said it was liable to pay all consequential benefits, including monetary benefits. The Supreme Court today sought a report from Jammu and Kashmir Police on the circumstances under which a 26-year-old man was killed allegedly by the police at Tengpora in Batamaloo area of Srinagar on July 10. A bench headed by Justice P C Ghose also stayed contempt proceedings initiated against the Senior Superintendent of Police and Inspector General of Police (Kashmir Range) for not lodging an FIR against the cops, including the Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) allegedly involved in the killing of Shabir Ahmad Mir. It issued notice to Mir's father on the plea of the Jammu and Kashmir government. The Chief Judicial Magistrate, Srinagar, had on July 18 directed the SSP to file an FIR against DSP Yasir Qadri and others on an application of Mir's father alleging that his son was killed inside his house. "In the meantime, there shall be stay of the contempt proceedings directed to be initiated against the SSP, Srinagar and the IGP, Srinagar. "Having regard to the facts and circumstances of this case, we direct the state authorities to complete the investigation with regard to the complaint filed by the father of the deceased on the basis of the First Information Report already lodged on July 10, 2016 and submit a aeport, in a sealed cover, on or before August 12, 2016," a bench also comprising Amitava Roy said. Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the Jammu and Kashmir government, said an FIR cannot be lodged against police officers for death in police firing as it is done to control a "violent" and unruly crowd. He contended that since an FIR regarding a stone-pelting incident has already been registered, "second FIR" cannot be lodged in connection with the same. Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for police officials, said incidents of violence and stone pelting were not in national interest and their modus operandi must be found out. Mehta said that the separatists were openly asking the common people to file cases against police officials and if proceedings are initiated against them then that would demoralise them. "There must be some humane approach," the bench said. According to the police, Mir was killed during protests, but his family alleged that he was shot dead by the officer in "cold blood" inside his house. The Srinagar court had directed the IGP (Kashmir) to lodge an FIR against the DSP and others for their alleged role in the killing of Mir. Later, contempt proceedings were initiated by the CJM on account of non-filing of the FIR against the police officers in connection with the incident. The family of the deceased has contested the state's plea, claiming the killing to be a separate incident which had nothing to do with the FIR registered by the police. In his application, Abdul Rehman Mir, the father of the deceased, has alleged that Qadri, along with other police personnel, entered his house at Tengpora, Batamaloo at 6.45 PM on July 10. "I, along with the family members, was watching TV and the police party, headed by Qadri, forcibly entered my house and started smashing windows and doors. "My wife tried to stop the police officer. But infuriated by this, he assaulted us and hurled invectives at my wife. My son Shabir Ahmad Mir could not bear the beating of his parents and tried to rescue his mother from the clutches of the said police official and other police personnel. "At this, the said police official flew into a rage and started beating my son. Thereafter, he fired two shots at my son with his pistol from point-blank range. He died on the spot," Mir had alleged in his application. Seven pilgrims were crushed to death and as many injured by a container truck in Faizabad district, police said here today. "The incident occurred post-midnight in Ayodhya when the pilgrims were sleeping alongside the road after returning from their visit to the 'Sawan mela'," a police spokesperson said. The deceased have been identified as Shlok Kumari (42), Parmu Tiwari (45), Gudiya Pandey (30), Leela (48), Kishori Mishra and Umashanker alias Babban (40). The police is yet to ascertain the identity of one more deceased. "The injured were admitted to the nearby district hospital. Two of them, Alok Pandey and Aniruddh have been referred to trauma centre in Lucknow," police said. "The driver managed to flee from the spot with his container truck. Investigation in the case is on," they said. Amid raging controversy over the LG's comments on Assembly, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia today called on Najeeb Jung, in the first such meeting between the two following last week's Delhi High Court verdict that stamped the primacy of the Lt Governor in the city administration. The meeting lasted for about half an hour during which Jung and Sisodia discussed various issues pertaining to the AAP government including recent development after the High Court order held that the LG is the administrative head of the national capital. Sources said that no official either from LG office or government was present in meeting held at Lt Governor's Secretariat here this evening. "It was a general discussion between the Lt Governor and the Deputy Chief Minister. However, there will be detailed discussion on High Court order and other issues once Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal comes back from Dharmasala of Himachal Pradesh where he is undergoing a 10-day vipassana session," a source said. The CM is scheduled to resume work on August 12. This was a first meeting between Jung and Sisodia following the last week's High Court verdict that held LG is the administrator of Delhi. Earlier in the day, the ruling Aam Aadmi Party slammed Jung for his remark that he was not averse to mulling over scrapping the Delhi Assembly if such a proposal was brought before him. The AAP alleged Delhi was being used by the Centre as a "testing" ground for possibly imposing Emergency in the country. Jung also said an apology was due from Kejriwal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for him "calling names". The AAP said Jung has "perennial hatred" for Arvind Kejriwal and that such political comments by a person occupying a constitutional post amounts to "undermining" the Constitution. A day after notorious Maoist renegade-turned-gangster Mohammed Nayeemuddin was gunned down, Telangana Police today conducted searches at different places in Nalgonda district and arrested nine persons, including four family members of Nayeemuddin, on the charge of land grabbing and extortion. The arrested also include five associates of Nayeemuddin and during the searches, land documents and weapons were recovered from their possession, a senior police officer said. Besides, two women linked to Nayeemuddin were arrested from Neknampur village near Hyderabad. "Searches were conducted at seven places in Nalgonda, Miryalaguda and Bhongir, and cases were booked against 11 accused. Nine of them, including four of Nayeem's family members, have been arrested and land documents and arms have been seized," Nalgonda District Superintendent of Police N Prakash Reddy told PTI over phone. 45-year-old Mohammed Nayeemuddin alias Nayeem alias Balanna, a native of Bhongir town in Nalgonda district and wanted in a string of cases including the murder of an IPS officer in 1993, was yesterday killed in an alleged exchange of fire with police in Shadnagar town of Mahabubnagar district of the state. The incident had occurred when police teams, while tracking a case of attempted extortion registered in Nizamabad district, came under fire from a suspiciously moving SUV near Millennium Colony on the outskirts of Shadnagar. "Today, cases were registered against Nayeem's sister Astana from whom a sword, tapancha (country-made revolver) and land documents were seized. Besides, Nayeem's mother-in-law Sultana, his brother-in-law and brother-in-law's wife were arrested. Four hundred original land documents, four detonators and country-made revolver were seized from them," Reddy said. Police also arrested five associates of Nayeem and seized tapanchas, detonators and hand grenade besides land documents, he said. Any victims of land grabbing and extortion activity can approach the police. "We will definitely help them," the SP said adding this drive would continue. Narsingi police under Cyberabad Commissionerate, after receiving information about the location of the house being used as shelter by Nayeemuddin in Neknampur village on city outskirts, today arrested two women-- Farhana and Ashiya, from whom over Rs 2 crore cash was seized yesterday. Meanwhile, Nayeemuddin's mother Tahera Begum alleged that police had taken her son alongwith three other family members two days ago and now his bullets-ridden body was returned to them. Sitting beside his body kept in a freezer box at their house in Hyderabad, she claimed that her son had helped the police in several cases and demanded that police should reveal the whereabouts of the three others. (Reopens BOM 36) Hailing from Bhongir town in Nalgonda district, Nayeemuddin got attracted towards the ideology of erstwhile CPI-ML People's War group while studying in Degree College in 1990, police had said yesterday. "He later joined Radical Student Union (RSU) of CPI ML (PW) and was made the organiser of RSU Bhongir town in year 1991. Later, he was arrested by Yadagirgutta Police and a tapancha (country-made weapon) and a grenade were seized from him," the release stated. After his release from jail, Nayeemuddin again went underground and joined Aleru Dalam of CPI ML(PW) as a member, and assumed the alias "Balanna". As part of an action team, Nayeemuddin had killed the then DIG of Police, K S Vyas at Lal Bahadur Stadium in Hyderabad on January 27, 1993. In March 2007, Nayeemuddin absconded after attending court. NBWs are pending against him. He was evading arrest in a number of cases including the killing of KS Vyas, besides some former Maoists, the SP said. The officer said Nayeemuddin is later believed to have formed a criminal gang and was indulging in many extortions, and kidnappings which were not reported to police due to fear of reprisal. Syed Anzar Shah, arrested for his alleged involvement with Al-Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), has denied before a court here the charges of conspiring, giving provocative speeches for recruiting Indian youths and establishing a base for the terror outfit. Claiming innocence before Additional Sessions Judge Reetesh Singh, the accused refuted the terror charge levelled by Special Cell of Delhi Police which is probing the case. Appearing for Shah, advocate M S Khan yesterday submitted before the court that his client's name had appeared in the statement of a prosecution witness recorded by the court. "However, the name was absent from the witness' statement given before the police," said the counsel, while arguing on the issue of framing of charges against the accused. "The police claim that an incriminating letter was given by co-accused Mohd Asif to Shah. However, that letter could not be recovered by the probe agency," he contended. He termed as baseless the police claim that with the purpose of establishing a base for AQIS, Shah had delivered provocative speeches to motivate youths to join the outfit. "No transcript, video or any other clip is available in this case," the counsel said. Shah, along with Mohd Asif, Zafar Masood, Mohd Abdul Rehman and Abdul Sami, was arrested in the case by the police. They were charged by the agency with offences under the provisions of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). They were arrested between December 2015 and January 2016 from different parts of the country. Besides the five arrested accused, the police have booked 12 others who are at large and the court had earlier issued non-bailable warrants against them. The absconding accused are Syed Akhtar, Sanaul Haq, Mohd Sharjeel Akhtar, Usman, Mohd Rehan, Abu Sufiyan, Syed Mohd Arshiyan, Syed Mohd Zishan Ali, Sabeel Ahmed, Mohd Shahid Faisal, Farhatullah Ghori and Mohd Umar. All the 17 have been chargesheeted for offences under sections 18 (punishment for conspiracy), 18-B (punishment for recruiting of any person or persons for terrorist act) and 20 (punishment for being member of terrorist gang or organisation) of UAPA. The police have alleged that terror outfit Al-Qaeda was trying to set up its base in India under the banner of AQIS and some youths from districts of western Uttar Pradesh had already left India and joined its cadre in Pakistan. It has claimed that one of the modules of the outfit was active in Sambhal district in Uttar Pradesh. The accused were in touch with terrorists from Pakistan, Iran and Turkey via social media and mobile phones, and they had visited these countries and had also financed AQIS and motivated the youths for 'jehad', the police have said. The FIR in this case was registered after arrest of Asif on December 14 last year. Tuberculosis is a "time bomb" ready to explode, but the government is taking steps to adress the issue by changing the method of treatment to daily regimen starting with 104 selected districts, a top health ministry official today said. "Access to quality treatment and reducing the incidents of TB and especially MDR-TB are areas that need to be addressed urgently," Health Secretary C K Mishra has said. "The government is working towards this by changing the treatment method to daily regimen starting in 104 districts in Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Kerala and Bihar and will later be provided all over the country," he said at a consultation organised jointly by health ministry, USAID and the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease. "TB is a time bomb that is ticking and ready to explode," he said at the event attended by parliamentarians from Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, Telengana, Uttrakhand and West Bengal. Every year 2.2 million people develop TB in India while one in every four TB patients in the world is from India, according to a statement issued by the ministry. "Many people who have TB do not know they are suffering from the disease. The parliamentarians have a major role to play in the fight against TB, as they can reach out to people in their constituencies. "United efforts in HIV prevention have reduced incidences and similar action is needed to win the battle against this age-old disease with greater speed," Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman P J Kurien was quoted as saying in the statement. Rajya Sabha MP Viplove Thakur said given the high rate of TB in India, the role of parliamentarians become particularly important and as policy-makers, the MPs are willing to engage on the issue to push for effective policy decisions. Shooter Abhinav Bindra's technical trainer Heinz Reinkemeier denounced Indian media's 'obsession' for Olympic medal and emphasised that an effort can be categorised as "good performance" even without a medal. Bindra finished fourth in the 10m Air Rifle event following defeat in shoot-off. "Let me be very clear. This is a problem of the media. They just come and want gold. They are not interested in the sport or the individuals. They just want gold, gold, gold," the German told reporters after Bindra bid a final goodbye to the shooting range with a fourth place finish. The only individual Olympic gold medalist missed out on a second medal but Reinkemeier said they are happy with the performance. "Maybe this is something only in India. You send athletes who don't have a good training facility of a Europe or maybe China and you keep on asking why did not you get gold. Try to understand that a good performance is valued on his own. For me this was a real good performance today." Bindra was pipped by Ukraine's Serhiy Kulish by 0.5 points in the shootoff to finish fourth and the trainer said luck too did not go his way. "An athlete is changing from year to year, so does the competition. We do little necessary adjustments. If we really compare today he is may be two or three 10s away from the medal. He had a bit more luck in Beijing. "In Athens he was in a perfect form but had no luck. In shooting there are 20 boys at the same level. And if you repeat it 20 times you get 10 different winners. We were not the luckiest today. But we both are quite satisfied. "We had to work hard. The results were really hard. When we came he was 29 in world ranking. Niccolo Campriani (gold medalist) was 28. We had to adjust something. We tried to make the final. That was very satisfying start," he said. Fierce fighting in Helmand has sent thousands of Afghans fleeing to the capital of the southern opium-rich province, sparking a humanitarian crisis as Taliban insurgents besiege the city despite intensified US air strikes. The Taliban advance on Lashkar Gah has compounded fears that the city was on the brink of falling into insurgent hands, even as US and Afghan officials insist that they will not allow another urban centre to be captured. Local officials warned on Tuesday that the provincial capital was struggling to cope with an influx of people fleeing the fighting across Helmand, seen as the focal point of the expanding insurgency. "Around 30,000 people have been displaced in Helmand in the past several weeks. Most of them are coming to Lashkar Gah," Omar Zawak, the provincial governor's spokesman, told AFP. "It difficult for the city to contain all of them. Families, children, women, all have to sleep on the streets. There is a shortage of food and clean water. We need urgent support." The turmoil in Helmand, blighted by a huge opium harvest that helps fund the insurgency, underscores a rapidly unravelling security situation in Afghanistan. The defence ministry on Monday confirmed that heavy fighting had flared in Nad Ali district, where government troops sought to dislodge insurgents who overran a neighbourhood only a few kilometres from Lashkar Gah. Militants have also carried out attacks in Nawa district, just south of Lashkar Gah. Panicked Lashkar Gah residents voiced fears that the city could fall, saying insurgents had heavily mined the roads from neighbouring districts and exhausted soldiers were running out of food supplies. "The Taliban are in control of all the roads leading to Lashkar Gah," resident Haji Qayum told AFP. "The police checkposts are falling one by one. There is a great fear the capital may fall to the Taliban." The Taliban briefly captured northern Kunduz city in September last year, the first city to fall to the insurgents in their biggest victory in 14 years of war. The Taliban effectively control or contest 10 of the 14 districts in Helmand, the deadliest province for British and US forces in Afghanistan over the past decade. The insurgents are flushing an elite new commando force into Helmand, which they call "Sara Khitta" -- the Red Brigade in Pashto. "They are a highly-trained, well-armed unit with modern equipments including night vision goggles," a Taliban commander in Nad Ali district told AFP, without revealing their exact number. An Afghan security official in Kabul confirmed the existence of the new Taliban unit in Helmand, but played down their impact on the battle field. Hitting back at cellular operators over allegations of 'bias', regulator Trai today said it will continue to work with regard to consumer protection, fair play and growth of the industry. "The allegations of bias against Trai are baseless," Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) Chairman R S Sharma told PTI. Sharma's comments come a day after cellular operators' body COAI termed the regulator's recent consultation on call connect charges as "unfair" on incumbent operators and alleged that Trai's discussion paper was an indicator of "bias creeping in". "Trai will continue to work in the areas in which it is mandated to work...We will continue to perform functions assigned in the Trai Act, with regard to consumer protection, Quality of Service, encouraging competition, fair play and growth of industry," Sharma said. COAI had questioned the regulator's urgency in initiating the process of interconnect review, which the association claimed "favours new entrants". "We have sought a meeting with the Telecom Minister and the Telecom Secretary so that the matter can be debated in a transparent manner," COAI director general Rajan Mathews said today. Last week, Trai started the review of interconnection charges -- paid by one telecom operator to another for connecting phone calls -- against the backdrop of 4G and Internet telephony changing the way consumers communicate. At present, the termination charges for a mobile to mobile local and national long distance call is pegged at 14 paise per minute while the termination charges for international incoming call to wireless and wireline stands at 53 paise per minute. Trai has sought public view on how domestic termination charges should be computed -- cost based or Bill and Keep (BAK) -- for maximisation of consumer welfare, adoption of more efficient technologies and growth of telecom sector. In BAK method, each telecom operator bills its own subscribers for outgoing traffic that it sends to other interconnecting network and keeps the revenue received from its subscribers. Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) had accused Trai of trying to introduce 'Bill and Keep' method, saying that such a move would mean that new operators would not have to pass on payment to existing operators, while the latter will have to 'incur costs'. "This is a misguided effort from Trai that will help new entrants, at the cost of the incumbent...We are extremely disturbed by this, this further tilts the level playing field," Mathews had alleged yesterday. Two persons have been awarded life imprisonment by a Delhi court for murdering a street vendor by hitting him with a gas cylinder after he asked them to pay for a plate of momos. Additional Sessions Judge Paramjit Singh awarded the jail term to Najafgarh residents Dharmendra and Jitender for the offence of murder and attempt to murder. "The present case does not fall under the category of rarest of rare cases. In these circumstances and having regard to the fact and circumstances of the present case, I hereby sentence convicts Dharmendra and Jitender to undergo imprisonment for life," the judge said. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 30,000 on each of the two convicts. The two men were held guilty for murdering momos vendor Monu and attempting to kill his relative Ravi who tried to save the victim. According to the prosecution, the incident took place on January 8, 2012, when Ravi and his nephew Monu were selling momos in Najafgarh area in south west Delhi in the evening. A man came there and ordered momos and when Monu asked for the payment, he threw the plate on the victim's face and threatened him, it said. After sometime, the man along with some of his associates returned to the eatery with sticks and they started beating the two vendors with sticks and gas cylinder. They both fell down and became unconscious. While Ravi was discharged from the hospital after some days, Monu died due to the injuries. During the trial, the accused claimed innocence and said they were falsely implicated in the case. All five people on-board a UK Royal Air Force (RAF) helicopter escaped unhurt after their chopper burst into flames today on a Snowdonia peak in Wales following an emergency landing due to a technical problem. Five people who were on board the training aircraft from RAF Valley on Anglesey nearby have been reported safe and did not need hospital treatment. An air ambulance was sent to the scene, along with a coastguard helicopter. A UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) spokesperson said the 'Griffin' training helicopter "safely completed a precautionary landing in Snowdonia" following a technical issue. "Everyone on board exited safely, subsequently the aircraft caught fire," he confirmed. The MoD said five people, four military and one civilian, were on the helicopter at the time, while another person involved in the training exercise was already on the ground. The UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency said it was called in the afternoon to reports by the air ambulance of a helicopter crash west of Snowdon, the highest mountain range in Wales. State-run United Bank of India today reported a 26.6 per cent fall in net profit to Rs 38.32 crore for first quarter ended June 30, on higher bad loans. The Kolkata-headquartered bank had registered a net profit of Rs 52.22 crore in the corresponding April-June quarter of 2015-16. However, the first quarter results were better sequentially, as the bank had posted a loss of Rs 413.04 crore in January-March quarter of 2015-16. Total income during the reported quarter fell to Rs 2,819.37 crore as against Rs 2,896.75 crore, showed the bank's balance sheet posted with regulators. The asset quality of the bank worsened with gross non-performing assets (NPAs) rising to 14.29 per cent of the gross advances as of June 2016, up from 9.57 per cent in year ago period. Likewise, net NPAs or bad loans rose to 9.85 of the net advances as against 6.30 per cent year earlier. In absolute terms, gross NPAs were Rs 10,116.13 crore as against Rs 6,532.83 crore. While, net NPAs were to the tune of Rs 6,579.28 crore, up from Rs 4,091.20 crore year ago. However, despite a high rate of NPAs, bank's provisioning for bad loans were lower at Rs 378.30 crore for June quarter of the fiscal, from Rs 493.58 crore year earlier. Slippage increased due to economic slowdown and also, during the quarter, as par of assets quality review (AQR), RBI has advised to revise asset classification/provision in respect of certain advances, United Bank said. "The bank has accordingly classified the advances and made the requisite provisions," it added. Additionally, it informed that the Board of Directors of the Bank at its meeting held today has approved preferential allotment of equity to the Government up to Rs 810 crore. United Bank stock closed 0.68 per cent up at Rs 22.10 on BSE today. The Uttar Pradesh government today sought release of pending grants of Rs 18,000 crore from the Centre for various schemes. Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary Deepak Singhal met P K Mishra, Cabinet Secretary and Nripendra Mishra, Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking early release of funds. During the interaction, Singhal said the Uttar Pradesh government is yet to receive central grant for its various schemes worth Rs 18,000 crore, official sources said here. Singhal also raised the issue of utilisation certificates submitted by the state governments pending for clearance. The state government said its share in the central sales tax was still pending which should be released at the earliest, the sources said. There was an agreement that both the Centre and the state government should work together on projects related to coal, power, highways and defence so that issues are expedited and development takes place at a faster pace. Uttar Pradesh government has not yet identified 84 lakh people who would be given subsidised foodgrain under the National Food Security Act, Lok Sabha was informed today. Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution C R Chaudhary said the Centre has provided adequate foodgrain to the Uttar Pradesh government for distribution among the poor people in the state. "I want to tell to the Uttar Pradesh government that 69.6 per cent rural and 64.5 per cent urban population have to be covered. But unfortunately, all these people have not been covered yet. As of now the Uttar Pradesh government has to identify 84 lakh people whom the subsidised food will be distributed," he said during Question Hour. Chaudhary said the Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ministry has conveyed to the state government to complete the process as early as possible. "The state government has been given foodgrain regularly. There is no shortage of foodgrain. Whatever the UP government is asking, we are giving. But 84 lakh people should be covered which has not been completed. That is why we would like to request the UP government to complete the process," he said. The United States has approved the possible sale of up to 153 tanks, hundreds of machine guns and various other military gear in a deal worth USD 1.15 billion, the Pentagon said today. The State Department has made a determination approving a possible foreign military Sale to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a statement. The US has delivered USD 50 million worth of military assistance to Lebanon's army to help it battle against Muslim extremists near the border with Syria. US Ambassador to Lebanon Elizabeth H Richard told reporters at Beirut's port that the latest assistance is in "an entire ship full of military equipment." A US Embassy statement said the shipment includes 50 armored Humvees, 40 Howitzers and over 1,000 tons of ammunition. The US has been speeding up delivery of ammunition to help Lebanon's military combat jihadi groups near the border with Syria. In March, Washington delivered three Huey II helicopters, raising to 10 the number of such US-made aircraft in Lebanon's fleet Washington has provided more than USD 1 billion in military assistance to Lebanon since 2006. The response from Beijing and others to an arbitration panel's ruling invalidating China's vast South China Sea maritime claims has brought no surprises, but much more military transparency is needed to reduce tensions in the region, the commander of the US Pacific Fleet said. Adm. Scott Swift also criticised China-Russia joint naval exercises planned next month in the South China Sea, saying the choice of location was not conducive to "increasing the stability within the region." He also said any decision by China to declare an air defense identification zone over the strategic water body would be "very destabilizing from a military perspective." Swift was visiting the northern Chinese port of Qingdao as part of efforts to build trust and understanding between the two navies, now locked in a protracted competition for primacy in East Asia, where the US has traditionally been the dominant military power. Attention has been fixed on the South China Sea since the July 12 ruling by The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration in a case brought by the Philippines. China refused to participate in the case or recognize the ruling, and strongly criticised the US for encouraging its ally to pursue the matter. Since then, Beijing has launched air patrols over the South China Sea, said it would consider declaring an air defense zone and vowed to continue work on man-made islands created from piling sand atop coral reefs in the highly contested Spratly group. New satellite photos show work proceeding on what seem to be two-dozen hardened concrete airplane hangars on the islands suitable for housing Chinese air force planes, including strategic bombers and inflight refuelers. The photos were collected and studied by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank, and reported in The New York Times. They show construction work on man-made islands at Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief reefs. China has said the new islands are primarily to assist fishermen and other causes, as well as to reinforce its sovereignty claims. China also says that the islands should be able to defend themselves, and that it is entitled to build whatever structures it wishes on them. Meanwhile, Japan protested today over a marked increase in the number of Chinese coast guard and fishing vessels in waters near disputed islands in the East China Sea. A top national security advisor to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has said the US will treat Pakistan "harshly" and "cut off" assistance if it continues to be the "safe haven" for terror groups like Taliban, Haqqani and al-Qaeda. "We need to have some tough love conversations with the leaders of countries who pretend to be our friends, but who also collaborate with our enemies," Lt General (rtd) Michael T Flynn, has said in his latest book "How We Can Win the Global War Against Radical Islam and Its Allies" that hit the book stands last week. "Countries like Pakistan need to be told that we will not tolerate the existence of training camps and safe havens for Taliban, Haqqani, and al-Qaeda forces on their territory, nor will we permit their banks and other financial institutions to move illicit funds for the terror network," said Flynn. In the war against terrorism, he listed India as one of the countries with which the US needs to strengthen its relationship. "Diplomacy alone will not be sufficient; at the moment, nobody takes us seriously. We will have to demonstrate the ability and the resolve to crush our enemies. We should start with strengthening our relationships with Israel, Jordan, and Egypt," he said. "We will also need to revive our working relations with countries such as Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, India, and Argentina," Flynn wrote. Flynn who served as the director of the Defence Intelligence Agency, commander of the Joint Functional Component Command for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance and chair of the Military Intelligence Board is one of the few top Pentagon leadership to have supported Trump. Among those shortlisted for Trump's vice presidential pick, Flynn is considered close to Trump and his top national security advisor. "They are going to have to choose and if they continue to help the jihadis, we are going to treat them harshly, cutting them off from American assistance, and operating against enemy safe havens," Flynn said, adding that the same tough approach applies to the financing of the jihadi network. "Over the years, the terrorists have raised a lot of money from individual donors (sometimes contacted in person, other times online), but criminal activities are a much more important source of money. Some of the best intelligence work carried out by the American government has been done in this area," he said. Horses with special gaits that are more comfortable for riders may have originated in the 9th century medieval England, and were spread all over Europe and Asia by the Vikings, a new study has found. Walk, trot and gallop are the gaits which all horses can master. However, riders who want to sit in their saddle more comfortably while still making good time on long journeys would benefit from choosing gaited horses. They are able to perform special gaits, like the ambling or pacing, which are typical for Icelandic horses and allow for a smoother ride. Responsible for this ability is a mutation in the DMRT3 gene, which was recently shown by a study with over 4,000 horses from different breeds. Researchers including those at Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) in Germany analysed this mutation in the genome of 90 horses from the Copper Age (6000 BC) to the Middle Ages (11th century). They detected the mutation in samples of two English horses from 850-900 AD and more frequently in Icelandic horses dating to the 9th-11th century. Most likely the first gaited horses appeared in medieval England and were then transported to Iceland by the Vikings. Horses have existed in Iceland since 870 BC, researchers said. In contrast, no European or Asian horse of the same period carrying the mutation for the alternative gaits was found. It is improbable that the English and Icelandic gaited horse populations developed independently from each other in such a short time. "It is much more likely, that the first horses ever imported to Iceland already carried the mutation for alternative gaits," said Arne Ludwig, geneticist at IZW. "The Vikings recognised the value of the gaited horses and preferentially selected for this trait - thereby laying the foundation for the worldwide distribution," said Ludwig. Historic sagas also suggest that Icelandic horses exhibited the ability for alternative gaits at an early stage. Although the origin of the Icelandic horse is not fully resolved, the general assumption is that they came to the island together with the Vikings. However, since the mutation was not found in Scandinavian horses of the 9th century, horses from other regions must have been brought to Iceland as well. Historic records report that Vikings were repeatedly pillaging on the British Isles and conquered the region of today's Yorkshire - precisely the region the two historic gaited horses originated from. "Taking that into account our results suggest that Vikings first encountered gaited horses on the British Isles and transported them to Iceland," said Saskia Wutke, PhD student at IZW. The high frequency of the mutation for gaitedness in the early Icelandic horses indicates that the Icelandic settlers preferably bred gaited horses - apparently the comfortable gaits proved to be particularly suitable for long distance travel through rough terrain. The judicial custody of LIC agent Anand Chauhan, arrested in a money laundering case against Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, was today extended till August 22 by a special court here. Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Kumar extended Chauhan's custody after Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is probing the matter, submitted that the case was still being probed and his custody should be extended. Chauhan was arrested from Chandigarh on July 9 under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as he was allegedly not cooperating with the investigating officer. ED had claimed in the court that during Chauhan's interrogation, it was revealed that as an LIC agent, he had entered into a modus operandi to launder disproportionate assets by investing in LIC policies. The agency had submitted that Singh "while serving as a Union minister, invested huge amounts in purchasing LIC policies in his own name and that of his family members through Chauhan". "Virbhadra Singh, while functioning as a Union minister during the period from May 28, 2009, to June 26, 2012, acquired assets, disproportionate to his known sources of income to the tune of Rs 6,03,70,782 and further tried to justify the same in the form of agricultural income. "Pratibha Singh, wife of Virbhadra Singh, Chauhan, with whom Virbhadra Singh had signed the alleged MoU for managing his apple orchard and Chunni Lal Chauhan, proprietor of M/s Universal Apple Associates, who purportedly showed purchase of apples from Shrikhand Orchard, have facilitated in justifying the disproportionate assets of Virbhadra Singh and thereby abetted the offence," the ED had alleged. Government will continue with its "GST dialogue" to seek consensus on future bills for implementation of the GST regime with Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailing the Constitution amendment bill's passage as the best example of cooperative federalism in India's history. Addressing BJP MPs at its Parliamentary Party meet, Modi also asked them to prepare a report on the developmental work they have carried out. "Our approach is that of building consensus. This will continue on the future GST bills, including establishment of the GST council. We will continue with the GST dialogue," Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar told them. Later, Kumar told reporters that Prime Minister also heaped praise on Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Information and Broadcasting Minister M Venkaiah Naidu for their efforts in bringing different political parties around to supporting the bill. "He said the passage of GST bill is the best example of cooperative federalism in India's history," Kumar said. Speaking to party members, which included Union ministers, Modi also asked them to make untiring efforts to make the 'Tiranga Yatra' between August 15-22 a success, saying it is a symbol of social harmony and unity. He promoted the yatra as a measure to spread harmony. The theme song for BJP's 15-day exercise '70 Saal Azadi- Zara Yaad Karo Kurbani' to mark Independence Day was also released in the meeting, Kumar told reporters after the meeting. Kesiraju Srinivas, popularly known as Ghazal Srinivas, who holds a record for singing in most languages, has composed the song, he said. Modi also asked the party leaders to publicise recent initiatives of the government like the passage of GST Bill in Parliament, Kumar said. "The Tiranga Yatra will be a symbol of development, social harmony and unity. It will spread harmony," Modi said. Schools should discuss the lives of freedom fighters as it will inspire students, he said, adding, pupils should visit memorials associated with the martyrs. He asked party MPs to carry out the Tiranga Yatra on two- wheelers and visit all corners of the country, Kumar said. Jaitley and Kumar also spoke at the meeting. The Monsoon session of the Parliament has been productive with 11 bills passed in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha each, a party leader said. Vice Chancellor of city-based Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University (YCMOU) Manikrao Salunkhe has tendered his resignation to Maharashtra Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao. Rao has accepted Salunkhe's resignation, a release by YCMOU stated. However, Salunkhe will remain on the post till August 18 and then his charge will be handed over to Dilip Mhaisekar, Vice Chancellor of Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, it added. Yoga would be taught in primary schools in Goa, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar today told the Legislative Assembly. "We have decided to introduce yoga at primary level. For this we have decided to appoint 60 master resource persons," he said on demands for grants for the education department. The Chief Minister, who holds the education portfolio among others, also said the ratio of students in primary schools (total number of children born in the state against those enrolled in schools) is 103, which means even the migrants who arrive here enrol their children in schools. Stating that his government took a holistic view of the education, the CM said infrastructure facilities in primary schools were upgraded. "In the last two years, 204 government primary schools were repaired and refurbished, spending Rs 41 crore," he said. The government is concerned about the declining number of students in state-run primary schools, but hopes that with upgraded infrastructure more students would enrol, he said. Delhi is likely to be the first state in the country to ratify the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Amendment Bill, with Home Minister Satyendra Jain on Tuesday saying the Delhi Government will convene an assembly session from August 22 to Bill passed by Parliament. The 122nd Constitutional Amendment Bill requires to be ratified by half of the states to become a law. Speaking to the media, Jain said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government is positively considering the Bill as it will increase the state's earning. Well informed sources with Delhi government told ANI that if centre sends the Bill on time, the Delhi Assembly will consider ratifying it at the earliest in the session called from August 22 to 26. The 70th Independence day has brought India's leading e-commerce firms on a discount mode. Amazon India, Flipkart and Snapdeal are offering huge discounts on their products, ahead of August 15. While Amazon India has launched the 'Great Indian Sale' for three days, starting from August 8, 9 and 10, Snapdeal has launched 'Wish For India Sale' offering a discount of up to 70 per cent on its products. Flipkart is not far behind the competition and will launch 'The Freedom Sale' from August 10 to August 12. The firm is also offering 10 per cent instant discount on use of HDFC Bank credit cards. You can also avail additional cashback of 10 per cent on app and 7.5 per cent on the Amazon website. Flipkart is selling Xiaomi Redmi 3S Prime Sale from 12 pm today. The website is offering buyers up to Rs 7,000 discount on the exchange of their old smartphones. For those who want to buy Reliance smartphones and enjoy Reliance Jio's 4G preview, Reliance LYF Wind 3 will start selling on Flipkart from August 10. Under the Reliance 4G preview, one can use unlimited 4G data for three months. LeEco too is offering Smart TVs on Flipkart from August 10. Customers can also avail 'no cost EMI offer' on all credit cards to buy LeEco Le 2, Le Max2 and Le 1s Eco smartphones ahead of the Independence Day. On Snapdeal too, Samsung Galaxy J3 is available at Rs 8,290 at a discount of Rs 700. Micromax Unite 4 is available at 26 per cent discount at Rs 6,999. Micromax's 50C5220MHD 127 cm (50) Full HD LED Television is available at Rs 29,990 (57 per cent discount) With 1 + 2 Year extended warranty. On Amazon India, the Samsung Galaxy Note Edge (Black) is available at a 25 per cent discount at Rs 36,999. OnePlus X (Limited Edition Ceramic) can be bought at Rs 18,999, a discount of 17 per cent on its original price. The jury is still out on whether Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group's recent decision to shell out $1.26 billion for a controlling stake in Hyderabad-based Gland Pharma was too aggressive. Some say the bid for a contract manufacturing firm valued at $1.35 bllion, besides having a US presence with Rs 300 crore net profit and over Rs 1,000 crore in sales, was a strategic acquisition that demanded Fosun to pay a premium. Others, including Indian pharma majors who lost out to the Chinese group's bid, however, are of the view that despite Gland's track record and positioning, the deal should have been in the range of $800 million to $1 billion. The fact that the $8-billion Fosun Group was keen on the US market makes the deal special, given that 62 per cent of Gland Pharma's revenues of $169 million in 2015 came from the US, compared to 16 per cent from India and the rest from other geographies. Besides, Gland expects more business from the US as its prototype for Enoxaparin - a leading anticoagulant that commands a $1.4-billion market shared by half a dozen pharma players - is waiting US regulatory nod. What's more, Gland's enterprise value (equity plus debt, minus the cash) was pegged at $1.35 billion based on the company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for 2015/16, only a shade below the current valuation of $1.46 billion, which is based on the deal. And, to further drive home the point, a section of industry experts feels that the $1.05 billion, or $96.87 per equity, Fosun is expected to pay upfront is also in line with the price-to-earnings (PE) ratio of 35-40 that leading Indian pharma companies are trading at on the bourses. Gland is privately held and is not a listed company. The remaining amount will be paid over a period of two years as a contingent consideration if the US launch of the Enoxaparin prototype goes through - if the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval is obtained before 31 December 2016, Fosun will pay $50 million; between January 2017 and 31 December 2018, the upper limit will be $25 million, and if the launch is after 31 December 2018, the Chinese firm will not pay any contingent consideration. Once the deal is completed, the Chinese group will hold 86.08 per cent equity interest in Gland Pharma - a direct acquisition of 79.99 per cent equity interest and 6.08 per cent through the subscription of convertible preference shares issued by Gland. The deal also allows purchase of the 10 per cent equity retained by the promoter shareholder at a later date. "The founder shareholders shall have the right to exercise a put option within one year from the expiration of the period of one year after the share purchase agreement (SPA) closing date to require the buyer to further acquire the remaining shares of Gland held by the founder shareholders for a consideration up to $180 million," says the deal agreement. However, for now, Ravi Penmetsa, the current Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, will be appointed as the CEO for a three-year period. Penmetsa, however, refused to comment on the development. What's in a Deal It is hard not to compare the Fosun-Gland agreement with other mega deals in the Indian pharma space - the 2008 takeover of Ranbaxy by Daiichi Sankyo, and Ajay Piramal selling his formulations business to Abbott in 2010. At the same time, there is a huge difference. Piramal and Ranbaxy were bought for their domestic branded formulations businesses. Gland Pharma, on the other hand, is a contract manufacturer of injectables, which are mostly exported to regulated markets. Analysts say the valuations of the Gland deal cannot be compared with the Piramal-Abbott and Ranbaxy-Daiichi transactions because it is more of a manufacturing capacity acquisition or an asset purchase. Yet, the numbers make for an interesting case. Piramal's formulations business was acquired by Abbott for nine times its sales, while Ranbaxy was acquired at five times its sales. Gland, going by the March 2015 sales figures of Rs 1,000 crore, roughly translate into eight times sales - something that the Indian pharma companies, including Dr Reddy's, Torrent and Baxter, were not willing to pay. Analysts feel the move by Fosun was triggered by the fact that most Chinese companies, like some of their Indian counterparts, are facing the US FDA heat. Between 2010 and 2015, the number of inspections in China rose from 48 to 132. In comparison, India saw an increase from 72 to 203. But in India, there are many good facilities without FDA issues. Gland Pharma was one such company. High Margin Business Global generic injectables market is estimated at $17-billion. And given the fact that the largest players, Israel-based Teva Pharmaceutical and US-based Hospira, are facing issues with the FDA, there is an acute shortage of injectables in the US market. Getting a slice of this would not only mean immediate pricing power, but also a bigger market share. Also, estimates show that if EBITDA margins were 20-25 per cent for generics tablets and capsules, for injectables it is 50-60 per cent EBIDTA in the US market. Fosun's Forte The Fosun Group, which has a business strategy of "organic growth with external expansion and integrated business operation", sees itself as "dedicated to becoming a first class enterprise in major global healthcare markets". Nevertheless, analysts still see its inability in terms of building such capacities in China. Perhaps the need to gain momentum and expand their operations in the US drove the company to seal the deal with Gland Pharma. The Group, set up in 1994, is a behemoth of sorts - a leading healthcare group in China primarily engaged in pharmaceutical manufacturing, research and development, healthcare services, production and sale of medical diagnosis kits and medical devices, and pharmaceutical distribution and retail. The company's other arm involved in the deal is Fosun International, whose businesses include integrated finance (wealth) and industrial operations. The integrated finance (wealth) business includes four major segments: insurance, investment, wealth management and Internet finance, while the industrial operations division includes health, happiness, steel, property development, and sales and resources. Gland Slam Gland Pharma was incorporated in 1978, but took off in 1996 following an investment of Rs 1.5 crore by private equity investor Ventureast. The company had just touched sales of Rs 2.5 crore when Sarath Naru, the Managing Partner of Ventureast, was impressed by the approach of its founders. "One, Gland's manufacturing capability in small volume parenterals (primary packaging material for biotech drugs or liquid medicine) was impressive. Two, the founders were extremely hung up on quality and execution. It was the first company to get an SPV facility approved by the US FDA in India," says Naru, adding: "The other thing that convinced us was the involvement of Vetter, a German SPVmanufacturer, which came in as a strategic investor and provided technology and training." But, in 2003/04, Ventureast exited Gland Pharma. "We got a good exit - a high single-digit multiple. We exited because we play a portfolio game and we cannot stay all the way till double-digit multiple in every case," he adds. Gland was later funded by two other PE investors. Test Case The Fosun-Gland deal, coming close on the Indian government's decision to allow foreign direct investments of up to 74 per cent in pharmaceutical manufacturing, has enthused a section of industry insiders, while others still remain sceptics. Some pharma industry veterans feel it may not be easy to get investment easily. "This will be a test case for the government of India in special verticals, such as injectables and vaccines, and much would depend on who within the Indian government today would do the advocacy for a Chinese company in the current political atmosphere," said an expert on condition of anonymity. For the moment, however, there is a long list of positives from the deal, including the mouth-watering valuation of an Indian drug manufacturing firm. There's also a lesson from Gland's success - the will to excel and planned execution can take Indian companies to new heights. Says an analyst: "Gland is the first injectable drug manufacturer that has been approved by the FDA and has obtained GMP certification for markets around the world. Gland's main business model is joint development of products and introduction of licences to provide all global major pharmaceutical companies with the manufacturing services in relation to injectable generic drugs. As one of the few companies that engage in the manufacture of injectable drugs, Gland takes a leading position among the comparable companies in the Indian market." That is some food for thought for other Indian manufacturers. For the moment, however, the tax department may be watching - for if all goes well with deal, there may be a good sum - around Rs 800 crore, or thereabouts - in tax collections, too. Now it is up to the regulators to clear the deal - the Competi-tion Commission of India (CCI) and Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB). The gig or the on-demand economy provides a lot of freedom and flexibility. But it has also led to uncertainty for workers due to lack of employment stability, safety, social security and other compensation benefits. A reconciliation or redemption is not a distant reality; it probably needs a little more conscientious and sensitive thinking and involvement by the significant stakeholders in the society. Some four years ago, a smartphone-based app, Yerdle, meant for swapping or exchanging commodities, was created by two Americans with an ambition to reduce the number of new things that one buys by 25 per cent. Andy Ruben, former head of sustainability at Walmart and co-founder Adam Werback, formerly from Saatchi and Saatchi, came up with a solution to the problem of overstuffing in ones' homes or wardrobes with items that are used perhaps not more than once a month, thereby attempting to reduce the society's overall environmental footprint. These things may be needed by another user from a household in a different or neighbourhood locality. Yerdle offered low-cost, flat-rate shipping to anywhere in the US. Based on the circular economy model, the pay-it-forward principle or direct trading (rather than buying) allowed users to get credits and use them for their next exchange. Many similar online marketplaces have emerged in the past few years. In commercial and other aspects, the benefits of sharing economy are well-established and are being experienced by the new set of experimental consumers. It is economical, environmental friendly, time efficient and convenient for consumers to use shared resources, optimising the point of access, sale, delivery and consumption. Software-as-a-Service (Saas), and more lately Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), are driving major technology innovations, especially in new online marketplace sectors, the growth of which is beguiling the likes of investors, entrepreneurs and economists. Lately, capital has become scarce or prudent, unlike in the previous era when it was easy to get it without too many difficult questions being posed by the discerning performance-focused investors. Since last year, hedge funds have slowed down. The number of deals seems to be stable but the value has gone down drastically from $400 mn at the start of the year to $100 mn towards the end of 2015. The pattern has also remained overtly erratic. Pressure can be felt and every penny is worth a thousand dime for start-ups burning cash for promotions, operations and employees. Deal cycles have been delayed from two months earlier to six months and more. Investors are eagerly seeking consolidation and hiring has almost stalled in most start-ups. These marketplaces, driven by passionate founders and strategic innovators with disruptive ideas, are funded under a lot of vigilance. The ideas chosen must exhibit sustainable capabilities and profitability in a reasonable time frame. Hence, while technology remains an enabler and multiplier, bringing down operational costs is the core of a business idea. While at one hand, technology is ensuring greater product utilisation and optimal delivery, on the other hand, intermediate jobs are reducing. These sharing platforms are creating a new category of working class where there are no fixed income assurances, health insurance, gratuity and other forms of traditional benefits. This is a category of independent contractors or the collarless workers. The challenge faced today by most of the fast growing companies is that the roles and nature of the workers are changing too dynamically. There were blue, black, white and pink collared jobs. Now, the trend has one 'collarless'. It is the start-up trend, the deemed future or the next avatar of workers what the consecutive levels of leadership will have to manage and contain along with the tides cultural change brings along in the next-gen corporates. According to the findings of Aspen Institute's Workforce of the Future Survey, 45 million Americans, or 22 per cent of the adult population, have worked or offered services in the 'On-Demand' Economy, while 86.5 million, or 42 per cent of the adult population, has used at least one On-Demand Economy service. It mentions that almost 56 per cent employers prefer full time employees to accommodate ebbs and work volumes and consider contract workers as less loyal or invested. However, 90 per cent employers cite that independent contractors are hired for flexibility or for their specific skills when need arises, while 86 per cent say the arrangement is saving them a lot of cost in terms of taxes and benefits. While the survey seems to picture how companies in America observe the blend, there are evidences to prove that hiring independent or collarless workers is necessary if the core business idea revolves around gig jobs. While gig jobs typically supplement incomes rather than replace full time work, start-ups like Uber and Airbnb and their replicas have become synonymous with gig or on-demand economy. They do not own fleets of cars or rooms or buildings, they own and run a technology-based concept to leverage the existing resource pool. Some argue that sharing economy is not competing fairly and is threatening companies and jobs in the formal economy by skirting the laws around taxes and regulations. It may be beneficial for entrepreneurs big and small to generate income but it is not providing a guaranteed revenue stream or traditional benefits. Uber, the San Francisco ride-hailing company built its high valuation on a system that uses moonlighting cabbies or independent contractors, enabling the company to avoid covering driver expenses such as gas and maintenance, or extending benefits such as health insurance, social security, overtime or sick days. Considering drivers as employees would have bitten into its margins and slowed its global expansion and raised fares. Some drivers have felt that while Uber exerts control it does not take responsibility of workers from whom it profits. Also, taxes paid by taxi companies are not always paid by those using car sharing. The company, currently valued at over $62.5 billion, recently announced its agreement to pay for a settlement bringing to a close what industry experts believed was the biggest threat to the fast-growing start-up. Uber agreed to disburse an initial sum of $84 million to settle cases in California and Massachusetts to some 385,000 drivers. Uber also agreed to pay drivers an additional $16 million if the company's valuation reaches 1.5 times its current value after it goes public or if it gets bought. The company also approved policy changes that reduce its control over drivers. Drivers will now receive warnings and have an opportunity to correct any issues before they are deactivated from the service. Uber will create appeal panels so drivers can contest terminations or pays. If drivers are unhappy with the result of their appeals, they can bring their claim to an arbitrator at Uber's expense. While it will not add a tipping feature to its app unlike Lyft, drivers will be permitted to solicit tips from passengers, which were strictly prohibited earlier. Similarly, Lyft agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit with drivers for $12.25 million but the federal judge rejected this as it was only 9 per cent of the total claim. Both sides have gone back to the drawing board. Landmark decisions in above cases are changing the future course of this new category of employees. The concerns about the collarless workforce are short-term tradeoffs that will be worked out as the collarless economy matures. Governments in particular would be short sighted to respond only to the contributions and tax revenues from these industries. Sharing platforms are in formative years of their growth; they should compete on a level-playing field and ensure compliance with regulation and tax codes. While there can be no ban on innovations or ignoring these changes in the way businesses are done, people in the sharing economy like drivers, home stay hosts, equipment owners and artisans all need to pay their taxes and play by the rules. And national or local authorities must ensure that. Society at large, including businesses and policymakers, must ensure that regulations and business ethics keep a check on working conditions. The assets from balance sheets and costs from income statements have been removed, unlocking the unparallel potential of profitability per transaction. Decentralisation is proving powerful for the bottom line in marketplaces. The newly unlocked economics must be shared and split equitably with the three elements of the system - company, worker and customer. Transparency and foresight is what will contribute to the success of all involved in the system. The writer is a Management Thinker & Philosopher, a Mentor and a Strategy Consultant, an Academician and a Veteran in consumer durables and retail. He was formerly associated with LG Electronics as its COO and Director. He is also a member on boards of banks and a few other business houses across various industry verticals and consults them on plans and policies. He is a PHD in organisational behaviour from IIT-Kharagpur. He can be reached at yasho.v.verma@gmail.com Indian budget airline, SpiceJet , on Tuesday rolled out a limited period Great Independence Day sale, offering one-way fares as low as Rs 399 for travel to select destinations on its domestic network. The international fares start at Rs 2999 for non-stop direct flights. ALSO READ: SpiceJet offers discount scheme for senior citizens The three day sale launched on Tuesday will be open till midnight 11th August, 2016 while the travel period covered is from 18th August to 30th September, 2016. The popular routes on offer at base fare starting Rs 399 are Ahmedabad - Mumbai, Amritsar - Srinagar, Bengaluru - Chennai, Bengaluru - Kochi, Coimbatore - Hyderabad, Jammu - Srinagar, Mumbai - Goa and Mumbai - Hyderabad amongst others. On the international network, the base fare starting at Rs 2999 is available for Dubai - Delhi and Dubai - Mumbai routes. The airline is also offering attractive fares on various direct flights across the network. Tickets for this new sale can be booked on the SpiceJet website, online travel portals, SpiceJet mobile app and through travel agents. Tickets under this offer are refundable, and also changeable, with a change fee and fare difference. With tough competition, airlines have been battling fare cuts and discounts in domestic and international routes. LOGAN A 20-year-old Tremonton man, Jayden M. Hugie was sentenced to jail on Monday, for defrauding several local businesses last summer by trying to buy vehicles and tires using money from an imaginary wealthy relative. Court records show, Hugie pleaded guilty in June to communications fraud and theft by deception, both third-degree felonies. During Mondays sentencing in 1st District Court, public defender Bryan Galloway told the court his client was scarred of the consequences of his actions. Police report Hugie went to Wilson Motor Company and later Axtell-Taylor GM where he attempted to purchase two vehicles. In both incidents, he wrote fraudulent checks, claiming the money would be provided by a rich uncle. He later purchased a set of custom tires and wheels on credit, from Dependable Tires and never paid for them. While in court Monday, Hugie told Judge Kevin Allen that he regretted what he did. He explained how he was trying to salvage his bankrupt business and started faking it to make it. Judge Allen said he couldnt understand how Hugie thought he would get away with what he did. He ordered him to serve 45-days in jail and prohibited him from entering any financial agreement without consent from probation officers. He told the defendant that although the mistake he made was colossal, he hoped he would put it behind him and learn from it.

will@cvradio.com This is a key distressed market to follow since Las Vegas has seen the largest price decline of any of the Case-Shiller composite 20 cities. The Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors reported Southern Nevada Home Prices Keep Climbing Amid Tight Supply, GLVAR Housing Statistics for July 2016 The local housing market is having a pretty solid summer so far, said 2016 GLVAR President Scott Beaudry, a longtime local REALTOR. Home prices have been going up gradually. And although we sold fewer homes and condos in July than we did during the previous month and year, sales have been running ahead of last years pace. Our tight inventory might finally be slowing down our sales pace. Sales slipped the most during July for lower-priced homes. This suggests its getting harder for entry-level buyers to find the homes they want. According to GLVAR, the total number of existing local homes, condominiums and townhomes sold in July was 3,447, down from 3,815 total sales in July of 2015. Compared to the same month one year ago, 7.2 percent fewer homes, and 4.2 percent fewer condos and townhomes sold in July. ... By the end of July, GLVAR reported 7,338 single-family homes listed without any sort of offer. Thats down 1.3 percent from one year ago. For condos and townhomes, the 1,212 properties listed without offers in July represented a 48.0 percent decrease from one year ago. ... As in past months, GLVAR continued to track declines in distressed sales and a corresponding increase in traditional home sales, where lenders are not controlling the transaction. In July, 5.7 percent of all local sales were short sales when lenders allow borrowers to sell a home for less than what they owe on the mortgage. Thats down from 7.1 percent of all sales one year ago. Another 5.9 percent of all July sales were bank-owned, down from 7.7 percent one year ago. emphasis added 1) Overall sales were down 9.6% year-over-year.2) Active inventory is down 1.3% from a year ago. The Q2 report was released today: Household Debt and Credit Report. From the NY Fed: Household Debt Balances Increase Slightly, Boosted By Growth In Auto Loan And Credit Card Balances The Federal Reserve Bank of New Yorks Center for Microeconomic Data today issued its Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit, which reported that household debt increased by $35 billion (a 0.3 percent increase) to $12.29 trillion during the second quarter of 2016. This moderate growth was driven by increases in auto loan and credit card debt, which increased by $32 billion and $17 billion respectively. Mortgage debt declined by $7 billion in the second quarter, after a $120 billion increase in the first quarter, and student loan balances were roughly flat. Meanwhile, this quarter saw improvements in overall delinquency rates and another historical low (over the 18 years of the data sample) in new foreclosures. ... Overall delinquency rates improved, continuing the trend in place since 2010. In the second quarter, 4.8 percent of outstanding debt was in some stage of delinquency down from 5 percent previous quarter, and 5.6 percent in the second quarter of 2015. There were 82,000 consumers with new foreclosure notations on their credit reports another low in the 18-year history of this data set. ... "Today's report highlights a positive ongoing trend in household debt," said Donghoon Lee, Research Officer at the New York Fed. "Delinquency rates continue to improve, even as credit has become more widely available." emphasis added Click on graph for larger image. Mortgage balances, the largest component of household debt, were essentially flat in the second quarter of 2016. Mortgage balances shown on consumer credit reports on June 30 stood at $8.36 trillion, a $7 billion drop from the first quarter of 2016. Balances on home equity lines of credit (HELOC) also dropped by $7 billion, to $478 billion. Non-housing debt balances rose in the second quarter; with increases of $32 billion and $17 billion in auto loans and credit cards, respectively, and a slight decline in student loan balances (-$2 billion). Overall delinquency rates improved again in 2016Q2. As of June 30, 4.8% of outstanding debt was in some stage of delinquency. Of the $589 billion of debt that is delinquent, $407 billion is seriously delinquent (at least 90 days late or severely derogatory). Here are two graphs from the report:The first graph shows aggregate consumer debt increased in Q2. Household debt peaked in 2008, and bottomed in Q2 2013.Mortgage debt decreased in Q2, from the NY Fed: The second graph shows the percent of debt in delinquency. The percent of delinquent debt is declining, although there is still a larger than normal percent of debt 90+ days delinquent (Yellow, orange and red).The overall delinquency rate decreased in Q2 to 4.8%. From the NY Fed:There are a number of credit graphs at the NY Fed site Here are former Hooks taking the field for the Astros in World Series See which former Corpus Christi Hooks baseball players are taking the field for the Astros in the 2022 World Series. GABE HERNANDEZ/CALLER-TIMES Deputy Director Eric Brown from the Texas Veterans Land Board (left) presents a plaque of recognition to Secretary-Treasurer Bill McClintock from the Coastal Bend State Veterans Cemetery Memorial Service Detachment for participating in 1,000 military burials Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016, at the Coastal Bend State Veterans Cemetery in Corpus Christi. SHARE GABE HERNANDEZ/CALLER-TIMES Deputy Director Eric Brown from the Texas Veterans Land Board talks about the services the Coastal Bend State Veterans Cemetery Memorial Service Detachment has done over the years Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016, at the Coastal Bend State Veterans Cemetery in Corpus Christi. GABE HERNANDEZ/CALLER-TIMES Deputy Director Eric Brown from the Texas Veterans Land Board (left) presents a plaque of recognition to Commander Tony Acevedo from the Coastal Bend State Veterans Cemetery Memorial Service Detachment for their services Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016, at the Coastal Bend State Veterans Cemetery in Corpus Christi. By Fares Sabawi of the Caller-Times Even when a veteran is laid to rest with no relatives in attendance, they are not without family. Eric Brown, a veteran and deputy director of the Texas Veterans Land Board, feels that every time he attends such a funeral service. "They all have families," Brown said. "We're their family." Brown presented a plaque of recognition Tuesday to the Coastal Bend State Veterans Cemetery Memorial Service Detachment, 13 men who perform military honors for every veteran laid to rest. The group, also known as the Honor Guard, consists of veterans who ensure veterans receive a proper military burial. "We do this to serve our veterans," said Commander Tony Acevedo. "It's a real honor for us." While the group was recognized as a whole with the plaque issued by Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, the Texas Veterans Land Board also bestowed individual honors to members who participated in 500 or 1,000 funerals. Bill McClintock, one of the members who has been to more than a thousand funerals, said he doesn't do it for the recognition. "I would rather stand in the background and just (be there)," McClintock, the group's secretary-treasurer, said. Brown applauded the Honor Guard for their dedication when it comes to honoring unaccompanied veterans who have no relatives attending the funeral. When U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs inspected each veteran cemetery in Texas, Brown said the officials praised the Coastal Bend State Veterans Cemetery. "They mentioned the Coastal Bend folks as the ones leading the pack (for supporting unaccompanied veterans)," Brown said. "They see the news and the attention these guys are getting." The Coastal Bend State Veterans Cemetery Memorial Service Detachment will celebrate its fifth anniversary in December. Twitter: @Caller_Fares As superlatives go, "milestone" seems so inadequate a description of official start of construction of the Harbor Bridge replacement. And as understatements go, to say that this project will transform Corpus Christi is of historic proportion. Think about this: It will be the nation's longest and the world's third-longest cable-stayed bridge. That alone should put it on most people's shortlists of things they must see in their lifetimes. People will come to Corpus Christi from faraway places to drive, bicycle and walk across it. The walkers and cyclists will need to reward themselves with many plates of food at local restaurants. The tourist-attraction potential, while majestic, will be secondary to what the bridge will mean to its everyday users. The main reason for this project is to move people and freight more safely and in greater abundance over and under the bridge. The current bridge, with its 138-foot clearance, was a marvel in its day when it opened in 1959. But it cuts off today's largest ships from potential visits to the inner harbor. And now it's a growing safety concern. Building a metal bridge in a saltwater environment doesn't seem so bright an idea now. The new bridge, with its 205-foot clearance, can accommodate today's giant ships passing through the expanded Panama Canal. Monday's groundbreaking represented successful teamwork among local governments that agreed to contribute to the project to ensure that it would happen the city, Nueces County, the local state legislative delegation, U.S. Rep. Blake Farenthold, the Port of Corpus Christi and the Texas Department of Transportation. Corpus Christi can't complain that the state is unresponsive to its transportation needs. The bridge is estimated at $930 million unofficially, $1 billion. With so much being given to us, we should expect much of ourselves. With that in mind, the estimated four years it'll take to build is no time to relax. To the contrary, there is much work to be done and the construction itself is not the least of it. The new bridge and removal of the old one will free up valuable ship channel-area land for development. The concepts for how to use the land should start if they haven't already. The projects should be shovel-ready as soon as the old bridge is out of the way. The workforce that builds the new bridge should have plenty more work as soon as it's finished. If they don't help build the next wave of development in the space freed under the current bridge, there should be ample work to do on the city's neglected streets. Corpus Christi is responsible for what's at the bottom of that new bridge, on both sides. As a community, as entrepreneurs, architects, engineers, laborers and neighbors, Corpus Christi needs to meet that responsibility in a way that will make its people proud and its children want to stay. SHARE Paula Stone, Aransas Pass Response to 'Hogwash' In response to the letter, "Voter ID hogwash," (Thursday, Aug. 4) the problem stems in limiting ID to only seven and they must be current not expired more than 60 days! All identification costs something unless you apply for the EIC (issued by DPS) and that can't be used for any other identification purposes (oxymoron?). To get all current forms of ID requires a birth certificate. What if you lost your birth certificate and were born out of state? There is a cost in obtaining that certificate. As an election clerk, I have seen several people affected by the new law. Many older or handicapped people use their expired license for identification, and I know you are wondering why they haven't renewed them. Lots of reasons doing with money, unpaid tickets or other warrants, etc., and I noticed that they did stop coming to the polls, or we can hope they discovered voting by mail. FYI: The 1948 Democratic Primary Election fraud was committed by election officials of whom a photo ID would not have made a difference. As per article" Voter Fraud: .." on Sept. 12, 2012, by Amy Bingham, World News, there were 51 people convicted of voter fraud in a 10 year period ... only four were voter impersonation." Disenfranchising even one voter can make a difference. The 19th Amendment extending voting rights to women was passed by one vote. | BY Ricki Green | An unscientific guide for female creatives by Helen Morgan (left), freelance copywriter and co-director of scooterack.co.nz Kevin Roberts largely glowing tenure at Saatchis has been felled by one controversial article in Business Insider. Bugger! Tricky territory at the best of times is gender equality, but saying that other sectors are way worse when said sectors happen to be some of your companys biggest clients possibly wasnt the smartest of moves. He bit the hand that feeds the machine and the machine bit him back. Say what you like about his comments (and oh my havent you just in the media and online, sparking some timely and interesting discussions in the process) it was inevitable the board would make him fall on the sword to keep their clients sweet. That and my guess that this was part of a bigger agenda, a memo reading something along the lines of cut him loose, hes old anyway. Ouch too soon, or too close to the truth? Or maybe I should just be careful about making sweeping generalisations because those things can really bite you on the bum, right Mr Lovemarks? So, Im going to try and steer away from speaking on behalf of other groups I know nothing about and instead describe my reality as an older female creative. No, thats not an oxymoron. Almost though. Why do I feel the need to do this? Well, for a long time Ive had an inkling that my experience isnt unique, and recent posts do seem to back my instinct up, so deep breath, here we go: Actually no, wait, lets get a little housekeeping out of the way first. The loos are over there. The bit where you get to tell me your story, opinion, or anonymously bag me youll find below. Knock yourselves out, I have nothing to lose, but this industry, one that I genuinely adore, has everything to gain from women like me discussing stuff like this. Okay, back to me and my creative sisters. In the aforementioned article, which ultimately became his professional kryptonite, Kevin stated that roughly half the staff in his agencies were female. Now, with this statistic in mind lets close our eyes and visualize most agencies. Hi welcoming receptionists, hello planners and account management my what a somewhat diverse bunch you are. Hey creative services, thanks for all you tolerate. And here we are with the creatives. Suddenly you wake up clammy and confused. That department was way off 50:50! Must be a bad dream. Rolls over, falls back to sleep. Well no, sorry, Im not going to let you get off that easy. Ive just stolen your duvet and youre going to sit up and listen or youre not getting it back. Following on from the 50% call Kevin surmised that most of us women, along with those nouveaux hippie Millennials, are a freestyling bunch, all happy working munchkins with nil desire to progress their careers beyond a certain level. Like or loathe what he said, as with most things somewhere in the middle lies the truth. Yes, there are people who shirk climbing to the top because that is not their lifes ambition. I dont think that anyone should get shot down for saying this. But, for a smart guy, gee his grasp of maths and biology is decidedly average! You see, one of his comments went along the lines that after ten years many women simply back off. Do the sums Kevin. A female copywriter or art director enters the industry all fired up in her 20s, she hones her craft, picks up a few awards and really hits her stride, but then she hits her 30s too, and if youre going to have a family then you best get on with it girl, tick-tock. Yes, children are a choice, but lots of male creatives want a family by now too, problem is only one half of the equation can actually have them. Now, from what Ive seen the 30s is also when male creatives bag the most yellow pencils, land more briefs that secure them more accolades, and get promoted to group head or CD. A few of us try and hang in there, cracked nipples and all, but it isnt easy. Many take a break/freelance (me) and then find their one time peers have charged ahead and now both you and your work are considered too old and your once promising career is up the proverbial creek and her canoe hasnt sprung a leak, its postpartum LBL. What a bloody shame, because we did and still do harbour ambitions to produce great work. You will never truly understand any of this Kevin Roberts, because you dont know what you dont know, right? (But just so you do know, urinary incontinence visits most of us in the end apparently). Am I bitter that my old co-workers have gone gang-busters? Hell no! These guys are my friends. Ive had a ball working with many brilliant, witty, open-minded, gracious male creatives, and I would never begrudge any of you your well-earned successes. Just please understand how much it guts your one time female counterparts as it slowly dawns upon us that well probably never play catch-up with all those little statues youve amassed. You know, the things that ensure a creatives career path, Mr Roberts? The question is, other than being frustratingly disappointing for said female creatives, does this attrition really matter? The works getting done, so the clients are happy. Would they be any happier if they saw more female creatives presenting their work to them? I dunno, got a crystal ball? Although, just for the record, if I see another ad featuring a thirty-something white hipster male getting shown up for being a drop-kick in relation to banking/insurance/grocery shopping etc by his smug, usually white, other half again, Im going to lob my wine at the telly. WE KNOW WHAT YOURE TRYING TO DO AND YOURE NOT DOING EITHER SEX ANY FAVOURS!!! Besides this is real life, not an episode of Sesame Street. A charter to cover every gender, race, religion and sexual orientation on the creative floor over qualifications and innate talent is silly. However, given that agencies pride themselves on being the masters of change wouldnt it be on brand to at least attempt to mix things up a bit more by making it easier for female creatives to stay on, or re-enter the department? They were good once, and you never know, their recent life experiences outside of the agency might just result in some great insights, award-winning even. I guess if the powers that be see any value in this then the answer lies in taking a good look at the current set-up of a creative department to allow for a little more flexibility. I know that a number of you will have just snorted with derision at this lofty ideal, citing it as impractical, but Im calling bullshit on that. Industries that truly want to evolve can and do. Part of me also wonders if some male creatives would like the ability to have a little more balance in their lives too. I wonder, I wonder, I wander. You know, when I was in my late 20s working in agencies here and in London I had numerous junior female creatives ask me what they should do as a female creative amongst so many males. Id tell them not to think about it, and concentrate on working their arses off and producing great work instead. Today my older and wiser self would now add that if they wanted to keep doing what they love and have a family, then to start planning now. Push your current agency to help make it work and if they cant, or wont, then leave and give your passion and ideas to an agency that will. Trust me, the thrill of a new brief and that blank sheet of paper never goes away, so dont give it up lightly. Ok, its getting on, time to call it a night. May I just ask that a few of you sleep on this please? And if you, like me, can see the merit of a few more female creatives on the floor then let me whisper one final thought in your ear as I tuck you in, three words that this writer used to step over every day on her way into work: Nothing Is Impossible. | BY Ricki Green | Lilydale Free Range Chicken is giving Australians the opportunity to trace each pack of chicken back to farm it came from. This move is being supported by a communications campaign created with M&C Saatchi and Hidden Characters, conveying the farm trace capability. New research reveals Australians want to know more about the origin of the food theyre consuming. Ninety-three per cent of Australians believe all food should communicate where their food was sourced and 71 per cent are interested in finding out more about the farms their meat was produced and cultivated. The Food Traceability report, commissioned by Lilydale free range chicken, shows that animal welfare and food safety are the key drivers for consumers wanting to understand exactly where their food comes from. Says Shane Gibson, creative director, M&C Saatchi: Lilydale has led the category since inception pushing and often exceeding industry standards. Given their history, it makes absolute sense that Lilydale lead with a response about provenance in a time when consumers are hungry for more information. Traceability is a confident display of the brands commitment to its product, which is sure to sit well with an increasingly involved customer. Says Anna Wesser, marketing manager, Lilydale: Were proud of our home-grown produce so we wanted to give our customers the opportunity to trace their chicken right back to the very farm it was grown on to learn more about the farmer and origin. All Lilydale packaging now features a unique farm code providing consumers the chance to trace their chicken back to the farm it came from. The farmers featured on the packs are real Lilydale farmers dedicated to the welfare of the chicken. The packaging also features a unique code that consumers can use to browse Lilydale farms to get a clear understanding of the quality of the food theyre consuming. The campaign is supported by two 15 TV spots featuring Lilydale farmers, a 15 radio spot, out-of-home Shopalites, pre-rolls, on pack stickers and a unique website. Lilydale Head of Marketing: Yash Gandhi Senior Brand Manager: Anna Wesser Brand Manager: Vicky Palavecino M&C Saatchi Sydney Regional Creative Director: Tom McFarlane Chief Creative Office: Andy DiLallo Creative Director: Shane Gibson Senior Copywriter: Ben Stainlay Senior Art Director: Brian Jefferson Head of Moving Image: Rod James Strategic Planner: Kate Smither Group Account Director: Charles Skelton Account Manager: Jennifer Edwards Hidden Characters Managing Director: Annalise Brown Group Account Director: Kirilly Mallard Account Director: Sophie Callaghan | BY Lynchy | After a nine month stint as managing director at Cummins&Partners Sydney, Rebecca Bezzina has returned to R/GA to serve as vp managing director of R/GA Sydney. She will be responsible for spearheading new business and overseeing the vision and roadmap for the business locally, as well as managing all client relationships. She will report to Jim Moffatt, evp managing director, APAC. Bezzina takes on the role from Jon Holloway, under whose leadership saw R/GA Sydney enjoy a period of rapid growth and success, furthering its reputation as a center of excellence in creative and innovative thinking. We are very happy to welcome Becs back to R/GA as vp, managing director, said Moffatt. Her deep understanding of our culture, her past history of success at R/GA, and knowledge of the Australian marketplace make her the perfect person to lead our operations here. Bezzina first joined R/GA when it started its Australian operation in 2013 as client services director. She was an instrumental player in the early growth of the office and in establishing both core client relationships and capabilities. The office currently has over 70 staff and works with clients including Telstra, Macquarie, and YouTube. Gabina VOA is designed to be an infotainment youth radio show broadcasting to Ethiopia and Eritrea in the Amharic language. The show brings varied perspectives on issues concerning young people in the Horn of Africa region. Gabina in the Amharic language is a front row taxi ridesymbolic of the shows content as a fun ride that takes audiences from point A to point B. Gabina VOAs main goal is Enlightening young people, introducing them to cutting-edge technological innovations, exposing them to new processes and ideas so they can be productive, informed and self-governing citizens. | BY Ricki Green | Fresh off his second Cannes Young Director Award win, Amos LeBlanc has signed with The Sweet Shop for international representation. In just a few short years, the MMVA Director of the Year has managed to build a reputation as one of the preeminent up-and-comers to watch thanks to his constant stream of unique, trendsetting, and viral work that pushes boundaries and challenges convention. Originally from Toronto, Canada, LeBlanc first started making skate films at a very young age. His eye for action quickly led to more varied projects and by the time he was eighteen he was working as a professional cinematographer shooting music videos for a long list of mainstream Canadian artists. During this time, LeBlanc enrolled at Sheridan College for Media Arts where he took his many years of experience behind the camera and became a full time director. Says LeBlanc: After being on hundreds of sets Ive observed and collaborated with so many different types of directors. I knew and had learned so many different techniques, both good and bad. A multiple awards winner, LeBlanc credits his success to his drive to only make projects that are refreshing and unique. Through distinct visual expression and careful attention to performance he has built a reputation as both a visual auteur and the type of director actors love. Says Wilf Sweetland, managing partner, The Sweet Shop Australia: Its not often you come across a body of work that is so striking for so many different reasons. Amos shows a very strong voice in his work. A voice rich in both narrative and visuals one that is already resonating with agencies here. Amos drive has lead to exciting partnerships with such brands as American Express, The Creator Class, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Budweiser among many others. His work in music videos has helped artists like Autoerotique, Thugli, and Keys N Krates make the move from indie darlings to popular favorites thanks to their collaborations on viral videos that have earned millions of views each. Says Paul Prince, CEO and founding partner, The Sweet Shop: Amos LeBlancs signing is yet another example of The Sweet Shops ongoing commitment to developing new and original talent all across the globe. I am thrilled to see what we create together. The audit urged the ACT government review "at least annually" all credit cards with a view to rescinding those not being used, and recommended all departments provide better guidance to staff on the use of cards and need for supporting documentation for claims made. He allegedly touched the boy inappropriately on two more occasions in the classroom in the days that followed. The third time the boy allegedly said to him: "No, this is it's just not right," before pulling away and telling Sutton, "No". Under this partnership Millicoms Tigo Rwanda will provide STM-4 bandwidth over a secured network with a bit rate of 622Mbps. Previously, international internet traffic from Rwanda relied on regional and international carriers such as BCS-Kenya, WIOCC and Seacom. Millicom will provide two routes, both via Dar es Salaam in Tanzania via the EASSy cable to London Telehouse West. Tigo Rwanda CEO Philip Amoateng said: We are proud to be the first Rwandan telecom operator to provide IP transfer at such a large scale. Over the last year our parent company Millicom has made investments such as the acquisition of operator Zanzibar Telecom (Zantel) that positions us with the infrastructure and the needed access to sea-cable to provide such services. KT Rwanda Networks is a wholesale LTE infrastructure company that is owned by the government and Korea Telecom. It provides network capacity to rival mobile operators in the country. CEO Han-Sung Yoon said: Tigo Rwanda and KT Rwanda Networks have enjoyed a strong partnership that resulted into an increased number of 4G users in Rwanda; and the purchase of this capacity comes to elevate the 4G user experience. In July KT Rwanda Networks said that it planned to expand its wholesale infrastructure service beyond Rwanda. Tigo Rwanda has over three million customers and has invested over $310 million in its services since 2009. The Burial Custom of Cremation and the Warrior Order of Ancient Eleutherna by Anagnostis P. Agelarakis. 24pp; illustrated throughout in colour. Available both in print and Open Access .ISBN 9781784913847. Archaeological excavations at the Eleuthernian burial ground of Orthi Petra continue to yield significant elements of the archaeo-anthropological record, the subject matter of continuous interdisciplinary research, outreach, national and international acclaim. Among a plethora of features discovered, unearthing components of a unique nexus to the Geometric-Archaic Periods, was an unspoiled time capsule in astonishing contextual preservation, a hand carved tomb with a dromos into the softer bedrock material of Orthi Petra. Designated in short as contextual association A1K1, the tomb as a funerary activity area yielded a remarkable collection of jar burials in complex internal tomb stratification, containing cremated human bones accompanied by a most noteworthy assembly of burial artifacts of exquisite wealth, along a multitude of traces of fossilized behavior left resolutely behind by the ancients in their transactions on the paths of their perceived realities and obligations of life norms, but also of the arcane matters of afterlife. Such evidentiary data of funerary behavior in conjunction with the rest of the archaeo-anthropological record afford the opportunity to document where possible and deduce where pertinent aspects of the transitional period, overlapping the end of lifes journey and the unfolding of death in light of a number of the principles, the values, and the modes that guided the lives of the ancients as mortuary habits may have the transcending power to be revealing of certain codes of ante mortem conduct, of main beliefs, of ideologies and viewpoints, characteristic of their ideational world and hence of their attitudes toward, and expectations of, post mortem life. Such understandings, based on critical and deductive thinking combined with the data offered through the scope of anthropological archaeology and forensics by the decoding of traces permanently recorded on bone and dental surfaces, construct a persuasive dialectic, regarding important facets of the human condition in Eleutherna from Geometric through Archaic times. by Anagnostis P. Agelarakis. 24pp; illustrated throughout in colour..ISBN 9781784913847.Archaeological excavations at the Eleuthernian burial ground of Orthi Petra continue to yield significant elements of the archaeo-anthropological record, the subject matter of continuous interdisciplinary research, outreach, national and international acclaim. Among a plethora of features discovered, unearthing components of a unique nexus to the Geometric-Archaic Periods, was an unspoiled time capsule in astonishing contextual preservation, a hand carved tomb with ainto the softer bedrock material of Orthi Petra. Designated in short as contextual association A1K1, the tomb as a funerary activity area yielded a remarkable collection of jar burials in complex internal tomb stratification, containing cremated human bones accompanied by a most noteworthy assembly of burial artifacts of exquisite wealth, along a multitude of traces of fossilized behavior left resolutely behind by the ancients in their transactions on the paths of their perceived realities and obligations of life norms, but also of the arcane matters of afterlife. Such evidentiary data of funerary behavior in conjunction with the rest of the archaeo-anthropological record afford the opportunity to document where possible and deduce where pertinent aspects of the transitional period, overlapping the end of lifes journey and the unfolding of death in light of a number of the principles, the values, and the modes that guided the lives of the ancients as mortuary habits may have the transcending power to be revealing of certain codes ofconduct, of main beliefs, of ideologies and viewpoints, characteristic of their ideational world and hence of their attitudes toward, and expectations of,life. Such understandings, based on critical and deductive thinking combined with the data offered through the scope of anthropological archaeology and forensics by the decoding of traces permanently recorded on bone and dental surfaces, construct a persuasive dialectic, regarding important facets of the human condition in Eleutherna from Geometric through Archaic times. This book is also available to buy in paperback priced 8.00. Access Archaeology: Our newest imprint is designed to make archaeological research accessible to all and to present a low-cost (or no-cost) publishing solution for academics from all over the world. Material will range from theses, conference proceedings, catalogues of archaeological material, excavation reports and beyond. We will provide type-setting guidance and templates for authors to prepare material themselves designed to be made available for free online via our Open Access platform and to supply in-print to libraries and academics worldwide at a reasonable price point. Click here to learn more about publishing in Access Archaeology. View Reviews Download (pdf) These downloads are single-user and for your own personal use only. Our Promise: Welcome to Care2, the world's largest community for good. Here, you'll find over 45 million like-minded people working towards progress, kindness, and lasting impact. Care2 Stands Against: bigots, racists, bullies, science deniers, misogynists, gun lobbyists, xenophobes, the willfully ignorant, animal abusers, frackers, and other mean people. If you find yourself aligning with any of those folks, you can move along, nothing to see here. Care2 Stands With: humanitarians, animal lovers, feminists, rabble-rousers, nature-buffs, creatives, the naturally curious, and people who really love to do the right thing. You are our people. You Care. We Care2. In this article I am going to explain twelve things you should know about the extreme-right hate group called Britain First. ... BMW has big festivities planned for Monterey Car Week this year. Not only is it the brands centenary, but also the 50th anniversary of the legendary 2002. So to mark the occasion, the Bavarian automaker will roll out a new version of its 2002 Hommage concept. As you may recall, BMW first revealed the 2002 Hommage at the Concorso dEleganza Villa dEste this past May, reinterpreting one of the companys most celebrated models in modern form. The re-imagined version will be presented at the event known as The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering on Friday, August 19. Expect a fresh coat of paint and some other minor alterations. The 2002 showpiece is the latest in a string of retro concepts that BMW has created over the past several years. Others have included conceptual tributes to the 328 and M1. Last years 3.0 CSL Hommage concept was similarly unveiled at Villa dEste (in dayglow yellow) and subsequently reintroduced at Pebble Beach as the 3.0 CSL Hommage R concept with a retro racing livery. We wouldnt be surprised to see Munich take the same approach this time around. BMW will also be the featured marque at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion at Laguna Seca this year, where it will bring out no less than 64 classic racing cars from the 328 of 1930s vintage to the V12 LMR from 1999. PHOTOS Set to go on sale from early September, Holdens 2017 restyled and improved Colorado was co-developed by Holden engineers in collaboration with their international counterparts. While the companys Aussie engineers were the one steering most of the significant engineering and development changes on the 2017 Colorado, they received plenty of help from both GM Brazil and GM Thailand. The result is a vehicle capable of handling Australias particular driving conditions as well as its typical customer requirements. The variety of roads in Australia and the variety of ways in which Australians use trucks means the 2017 Colorado has to be versatile enough to handle everything thrown at it, explained Lead Development Engineer, Amelinda Watt. We know customers like to drive their Colorado off-road or on unsealed roads, but we also know they spend a lot of time on the bitumen. Weve focused on improving refinement and driveability with a range of chassis changes, including electric power steering as well as engine and transmission noise and vibration refinements. Weve also had the benefit of international experience, as the Colorado program was a co-development project between GM Brazil, GM Thailand and Holden a great example of the type of engineering work Holden will be responsible for in the future. Through this international experience, Holden engineers took part in numerous development activities and drive events in Brazil, in addition to critical local testing at their own Lang Lang Proving Ground and on the public roads around Victoria. Before signing off on the truck, the 2017 Colorado was sent to tackle a wide variety of terrains. According to Holden, local testing meant that more than 100,000 km (62,137 miles) were accumulated on inner-city and suburban roads, rural country roads and 44 tracks in state forests. Its also been beneficial to hold the final development drive in Australia and have colleagues from Brazil ,Thailand, India, USA and Europe visit and see first-hand the type of terrain our customers drive on, added Ms. Watt. As for drivability, the 2017 Colorados revised steering calibration and faster steering rack (from 41 mm/rev to 48mm/rev), plus its lower lock-to-lock turn numbers (from 3.9 to 3.29), are said to deliver a car-like feel and a more precise response. The suspension, co-developed by Holden with the assistance of GM Brazil, features digressive front and rear shocks and an increase in size of the front stabilizer bar (29/31 mm to 34 mm), as well as revised spring rates. Other key chassis developments include a revised set of engine, transmission and body mounts, plus a new final drive ratio on manual transmission models, which will improve drive quality while towing. PHOTO GALLERY Answers Africa is one of a kind platform created for Africans both locally and in the diaspora and those seeking for more in-depth information about Africa. We have always focused on creating the highest quality informational contents right from the beginning. We share the most relevant information on the latest and trending news, events, people, and places in Africa. We produce contents across various categories including Politics, People, Love and Romance, Nature, Entertainment, Technology and pretty much everything else that Africans may find relevant. We aim to answer the most relevant questions about Africa in areas of entertainment, famous people, emerging technologies while we also engage with various distribution capabilities to connect with Africans in need of information who rely on our website to keep in touch with the world that is changing so fast. These are some of the articles you may be interested in reading: 10 Famous TV Personalities Born In Ethiopia Ethiopia is a country best known for its fast athletes like Dibaba and Bekele, breathtaking models like Liya Kebede and of course Haile Selassie but there are also famous TV personalities who are doing a great job in entertainment and pushing the country to civilization. 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Is Cesar Millan Dead, Who Is The Wife & What Is His Net Worth? Cesar Millan is the famous dog whisperer who often stirs up mixed emotions. The Mexican-American is precisely speaking, a dog behaviorist; he has been in the game for over 25 years. His Emmy-nominated television series, Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan further pushed his method and tactics into the limelight. The series was produced from 2004 ... Is Thomas Sanders Gay and Does He Have A Boyfriend? By the time Vine was shut down in January 2017, Thomas Sanders was already popular within and beyond the internet community for his heavy involvements on the online video hosting platform. After the tragic shutdown of Vine impacted on the growing career of the multi-talented personality, he immediately switched over to YouTube where he continued to upload ... Is Shepard Smith Gay, Who Is The Boyfriend & What Is His Net Worth? There are only a few media personalities who are as bold and confident as Shepard Smith. 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The couple, who began dating in 2013 and have a son named York Banks Asla, has decided to end what everybody taught was the perfect relationship. Neither person has come out to give a reason for the breakup, but what is obvious right now is that ... What to Note About Dr Terry Dubrows Qualifications, TV Works and Marriage to Heather Kent In the realm of people that we expect to see regularly on our screens, medical doctors are closer to the bottom of the list. Aside from the fact that their work has little correlation with TV, they are presumably too busy to pursue life as TV personalities. Yet, a few of them have usurped this ... Jessica Goch Bio: 5 Things You Didnt Know About Ninjas Wife Jessica Goch is the Schofield-born American Social Media Influencer who has worked as a model but is now better known as a host and interviewer of prominent Electronic sports celebrities at popular gaming events/tournaments. The screen queen also serves as the manager of her famous husband Ninja aka Tyler Blevins whose exploits on Twitch and Fortnite has ... CNNs Chris Cuomo Biography Wife, Family & Net worth Chris Cuomo needs no elaborate introduction as he has starred graced many prominent Television cable networks and his voice has been heard through acknowledged radio shows. He is a television journalist and Lawyer who has previously worked for ABC News as Chief law and justice correspondent as well as a co-anchor on 20/20. If you still ... Neil deGrasse Tyson Family, Religion & Net Worth Neil deGrasse Tyson is a distinguished American astrophysicist and author who has been able to achieve so much after falling in love with astronomy at the age of 9. He has since attended and become an alumnus of prestigious universities such as Harvard, Princeton, and Columbia, and also recorded numerous achievements in his field of ... Is Simon Cowell Gay? Does He Have A Wife or Girlfriend and Why is He Famous? Simon Cowell is a well-known talent show judge, TV producer, entrepreneur and one of the most popular TV personalities that Britain has ever produced. In conjunction with his company, Syco, Cowell is the brain behind hugely successful talent hunt shows such as The X-Factor UK, The X-Factor US, Britains Got Talent, Americas Got Talent and ... Everything To Know About Joanna Gaines Life With Chip Gaines, Their Business Pursuits and Kids Joanna Gaines and her husband Chip Gaines became celebrities after their television show Fixer Upper began airing back in 2013. The show which was about home renovation and decoration ran for about 6 seasons with a total of 79 episodes before the couple bade farewell to it in April 2018. Apart from their appearances on ... Who Is Larry The Cable Guy? What To Know About His Wife And Net Worth Larry the Cable Guy is a self-professed country kid renowned for his trademark Southern accent and sensational catchphrase Git-R-Done! The famous comedian who talks about anything under the sun has gone on to become one of the most memorable characters in comedy history. Join us in unearthing lesser-known facts about the former on-air-personality, standup comedy superstar, movie ... Who Is Patrick Starr, What Is His Net Worth and Gender? The make-up industry over the years has grown to become a billion dollar industry not just because there are probably more women wearing make-up but because a whole lot of men, especially the young ones, have become bold enough to wear it unlike before. A few of these men, like Patrick Starr, have even gone ... How Did Chris Jansing Become a Senior Correspondent at MSNBC and Who Is Her Husband? An award-winning American television news reporter and journalist, Chris Jansing has succeeded in carving a spectacular niche for herself in the field of TV journalism. Outstanding for not just her excellence in journalism, Chris is also cherished for her incredibly gorgeous looks post 60! 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Nayyera Haqs Bio What To Know About Her Husband, Parents And Family Nayyera Haq can take anyone on political debates as well as discussions on social issues affecting many. Her ability to masterfully deliver her stance on every issue or political debate has made her a regular face in morning and evening news media platforms. This is not a common feat especially for someone from her kind ... Inside Guy Fieris Family With Wife, Kids and Sister Who Died of Cancer Over the years we have seen men dominate the kitchen and churn out amazing delicacies from it. Some do it way better than their female counterparts and one of such men is Guy Ramsay Fieri an American TV host, celebrity chef, restaurant owner, bestselling author of four culinary books, and game show host. His ... Meet Phil Mudd of CNN The Former CIA and FBI Exec, Is He Married, Who Is The Wife? When it comes to discussing issues surrounding terrorism, American Counterterrorism and National Security Expert, Phil Mudd, occupies a globally significant position. He has voiced his interest in the fight against terrorism and insecurity on many popular media platforms, both print and broadcast, such as CNN, BBC, CBS, MSNBC, al-Jazeera, ABC, NBC, Fox, The New York Times, ... Jim Hoffer: Biography, Wife Mika Brzezinski, Children and Net Worth Jim Hoffer is an Emmy Award-winning journalist who works as an investigative reporter for Eyewitness News, New York City. In his over two decades of investigative journalism, Hoffer has been at the front lines of several crucial stories from the 9/11 attack to the crash of American Flight 587 to the 2003 Blackout. On top of ... The Ups and Downs of Erin Mcpikes Journalism Career and Other Facts About Her Personal Life Erin McPike is a journalist working for the Independent Journal Review (IJR) as a White House Correspondent but she gained widespread recognition for her coverage of general news. Whether its breaking news or some mainstream story, McPike has a reputation of baring the facts. As a journalist, her work as a White House Correspondent for Independent ... Bert Kreischer Is Married To LeeAnn Kreischer With 2 Kids Meet His Family Those familiar with Bert Kreischer mainly have the image of a large-bellied party man whose college life inspired the National Lampoon film, Van Wilder. It is an image that one would not naturally associate with a wholesome family. The standup comedian still maintains his wild party animal image on stage. But, back at home, he is ... How Brendan Greene Became a Game Designer to Look Out For and Facts About His Failed Marriage The name Brendan Greene may not easily ring a bell in the larger society but for gaming enthusiasts, he is considered a god and this is because of his invention of the video game, Player Unknowns Battlegrounds, also called PUBG. Based on the popular last-man-standing/battle royale concept, Greenes creation has taken the gaming world by ... WFAAs Sonia Azad Bio Does The Reporter Have A Husband Or Boyfriend? Emmy Award-winning journalist and Health & Wellness reporter Sonia Azad is on the news segment News 8 Daybreak for the television station WFAA-TV in Dallas, Texas, a channel which she joined in October of 2015. Besides her time on the news, Azad is also a marathon runner and a certified yoga instructor. She has covered major news ... This Is Everything You Should Know About Caroline Heldman, Her Career Portfolio and Other Facts Love it or hate it, there is no escaping the fact that feminism has come to stay in our world. The movement has continued to garner momentum over the years and this is due to the sustained push by several women, and even men, including the likes of Caroline Heldman. A Professor of Politics at ... Understanding The Enigma That Is Gavin McInnes, The Controversies He Has Stirred and All About His Wife Gavin McInnes is a polemical English-born writer and TV personality, who is best known for his racist and fascist ideologies, as well as his co-ownership of Vice Media and Vice Magazine. He is also an actor a All manner of vehicles can be found cruising roads around the world, from $100 rust buckets to $5 million hypercars. As it turns out, even mysterious flying saucers are trundling the streets. In Ireland, over the weekend, locals of the small town of Gorey were shocked to see an unidentified driving object (UDO) cruising down the main street, seemingly being chased by local law enforcement. The UDO was designed by local student Ali Kemal Ali for the towns pop art show as part of a project for his visual arts course. To help promote his unique creation, Ali roped in the support of the local police force to provide an escort down the main road for his driving saucer. Speaking to local media outlet Independent, the 53-year-old student said I thought how can I attract a bit more interest, so I thought Ill go and ask the guards. I asked can they give me a police escort with my UFO. They loved it. They were brilliant. The UDO runs on two electric scooters and is fitted with a subwoofer to pump out the mysterious sounds of a flying saucer. Complemented with a laser, smoke machine and strobe light, its the real deal. VIDEO If you grew up in the 1980s, youre more likely than not to have watched an episode or two of Miami Vice. But which car do you best remember it for the Ferrari Testarossa that featured in the last three of its five seasons, or the Daytona Spider that preceded it? If you answered the latter and were waiting for your chance to relive the action for yourself, you may want to head to Monterey, California, this month. Thats where RM Sothebys has a highly original example of the Daytona Spider up for auction. Unlike the Corvette-based replicas used in the show (and so many chop-jobs that ensued), the Prancing Horse you see here is entirely authentic. Its the 91st of only 121 convertibles (and 1,406 coupes) made, making it at least as rare as the V12 roadsters that followed decades later. This particular example, chassis number 16847, was delivered new to the United States in silver over black and equipped with factory air conditioning. It traded hands across America numerous times until its owner in Pittsburgh had it redone in Rosso Corsa with a tan leather interior. It has now been in the same hands for the past 15 years, but is expected to fetch between $2,150,000 and $2,600,000 when the gavel drops on Saturday, August 20. So if youve been dreaming of playing at a Narco detective in 1980s Florida, better roll up the sleeves on your sport jacket and start liquidating some assets. In the meantime, scope it out in this beautiful images captured by Erik Fuller for RM Sothebys. PHOTOS Two thieves have been arrested in the United States by the Houston Police Department and they are facing charges of stealing over 100 vehicles by using pirated software and hacking into the vehicles. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles says that the duo somehow obtained software that is exclusively available to dealers, service shops and locksmiths. This software allows a user to reprogram the vehicles computer to accept a new key fob by simply entering in the vehicles VIN. Left Lane News says the Houston Police Department asserts that the thieves targeted Jeep Wranglers, Cherokees and a number of Dodge pickup trucks from the Houston area. The stolen vehicles were then transported across the Mexican border, generally in the middle of the night. In a statement, FCA said that it is cooperating with the Houston Police Department. This isnt the first time the firm has been targeted by hackers. Last year, FCA was forced to recall 1.4 million vehicles due to a security vulnerability in its Uconnect infotainment system. PHOTO GALLERY Just imagine handing your prized Porsche Panamera over to a hotel valet only to discover that the following day, it was gone, given to a total stranger. Well over 12 months ago, that nightmare became a reality for Carlo DiMarco when he checked into the DoubleTree by Hilton in Houston, Texas. Despite paying to have his car parked by the hotels valet service and returned to him the following morning, the keys to the 2014 Panamera worth $125,000 were instead given to a total stranger who claimed to have left his hotel card in his room. The car has never been seen since says NY Daily News. To try and receive compensation for his lost Porsche, DiMarco has filed a lawsuit against Hilton Worldwide, property management company Kokua Hotel, franchise owner HDH Tenant and the independent valet contractor, Enterprise Parking Services. Hilton says that it isnt responsible for providing any compensation as the car wasnt parked with the hotel and instead with the valet service. Even the valet service is refusing to pay however, as its insurance policy apparently doesnt cover theft. Photos Carlo DiMarco PHOTO GALLERY Usually, no matter how cool they are, renderings dont materialize into real-life projects. But this one is different. Jonsibal is one of the most well known CGI artists out there, virtually manipulating various car shapes in order to create interesting designs. Hes not your typical automotive illustrator, as many of his visions formed in the virtual realm were transpired into the real world. His latest creation, made in collaboration with tuner Gordon Ting & Lexus Tuned, is this impressive Lexus LC500. The Japanese grand tourer is an well looking thing to begin with, but it becomes a JDM machine once its fitted with a Nippon-inspired, carbon-fiber aerodynamic body kit that can be easily crafted by any tuner specialized in the composite material. Composed of a front splitter, rear diffuser, side skirts and rear wing, the package will be presented at this falls SEMA Show. Its style doesnt significantly alter the LC 500s factory looks, but it makes it appear sportier. Since its so low to the ground, we can only imagine it fitted with an air suspension system, and, hopefully, the 5.0-litre 2UR-GSE V8 wont be left with its stock 467 hp power figure. H/T to Lexus Enthusiast; Renderings courtesy of Jon Sibal PHOTO GALLERY Long-time Lamborghini test driver Valentino Balboni has become something of a prominent figure in the motoring world and rightly so. Being with Lambo for 40 years before retiring in 2008 due to Italian government work regulations, it has been honored by the company with a special edition, rear-wheel-drive bGallardo LP550-2 bearing his name. Small wonder that, even after eight years, he is still a Lambo man through and through and he recently unveiled his own brand, VB. Aiming to offer an insight into the passion of the brand, Valentino Balboni will officially unveil VBs first product, a state-of-the-art, limited edition, ultralight titanium exhaust for the Aventador LP-750 SV, at the Concorso Italiano that will take place in Monterrey Bay, California, on August 20. The component weighs only 13.8 lbs (6.3 kg) and will be produced in only 30 numbered pieces. Each piece requires more than 350 hours to manufacture, offering a true Lamborghini collectors item in the process. The handmade exhaust is also an engineering marvel that uses the OEM mountings to fit in place. Naturally, were eager to hear how the, already heavenly-sounding V12 of the Aventador Super Veloce, will sound like with this custom exhaust. PHOTO GALLERY Photo: Contributed Art work by Leanne Spanza. Kelowna artist Leanne Spanza had Mother Nature as an inspiration during the 2016 Art in the Park program in Glacier National Park. Reminiscent of the late 1800s when artists arrived in the mountains on the Canadian Pacific Railway, 12 Canadian artists spent four days in the historic Rogers Pass area of Glacier National Park. Based in the Alpine Club of Canadas rustic A.O. Wheeler Hut, the artists explored the stunning landscapes and rich history of the area, photographing, sketching, and depending on their medium, producing final works of art. The Art in the Park Program connects Canadians to the natural and cultural heritage of the park through art. Parks Canada and the Revelstoke Visual Arts Society are hosting the 2016 program with support from the Alpine Club of Canada. Through the artists' participation and by showing a selection of their work at the Revelstoke Visual Arts Centre and in venues around the region, Parks Canada strives to expand the way Glacier National Park is viewed by audiences beyond the park boundaries. In November, the Revelstoke Visual Arts Centre will host an exhibit of artwork created by the Art in the Park participants and inspired by Glacier National Park. As well as the artwork, a photo exhibit will highlight pictures taken by students from Revelstoke and Kelowna while participating in Parks Canadas Glacier Adventure Stewardship Program in Glacier National Park in September 2016. Developing new and innovative programs and services allows more Canadians, including youth and newcomers, to experience the outdoors and learn about our environment and history. In addition to the Art in the Park program, Mount Revelstoke and Glacier national parks offer two other art experiences: Photo: Getty Images Why dont I see traffic police at work? That was a topic of conversation among my colleagues when we sat down for a coffee break during a shift. Most often, one of us would have been travelling during a vacation and the remark would be something along the lines of I drove all the way to X and back and didnt see anyone stopping violators. Maybe there is something to the remark, Wheres a cop when you need one? In rural British Columbia, the traffic enforcement units I served on were required to cover long stretches of highway. Fort St. John was responsible for the Alaska Highway (97) from mile 33 to mile 147, Highway 29 from Highway 97 to Hudsons Hope and all of the rural roads to the Alberta border. South Okanagan policed Highway 97 from the U.S. border to Peachland, Highway 3 from the west end of Manning Park to Rock Creek, Highway 5A from Princeton to the Okanagan Connector and Highway 3A from Keremeos to Kaleden. Central Vancouver Island managed Highway 19 from Nanaimo to north of Bowser, Highway 19A from Parksville to Fanny Bay, all of Highway 4A and Highway 4 from the east to the west coast. It was difficult, if not unworkable, to patrol from one boundary of the district to the other in a single shift. The manpower complement in Fort St. John was a corporal and five constables. South Okanagan was staffed with a sergeant, a corporal and 10 constables. Central Vancouver Island manpower included a sergeant, two corporals and nine constables. Most of the on-road work was done by the constables and administration by the sergeants and corporals. That seems like a lot of resources until you consider that there were other demands that could include collision investigation, court, training courses, impaired driving investigations (before the IRP (Immediate Roadside Prohibition) program, this could easily consume half a shift) and the dread of us all: paperwork. Days off, annual vacation, sick leave and the need to cover both day and afternoon shifts spread us more thinly than we would have liked. I cant say that we were hidden from the casual glance of the travelling public either. Unmarked cars were rare in the fleet. They were almost always plain, full-sized sedans with black, steel wheels and antennae sticking out of the roof. If you couldnt spot one, its likely because you werent paying too much attention. Information from the province regarding traffic policing resources and goals can be difficult to find. The B.C. Policing and Community Safety Plan devotes a few words to traffic and road safety while the report on Police Resources in British Columbia, 2014 does not indicate how police manpower is dedicated beyond how many officers are authorized for each location. Its not surprising that you dont see flashing lights that identify traffic law enforcement in progress when you travel on B.C.s highways. The task is a huge one and the number of police officers dedicated specifically to the job results in many kilometres of highway to patrol for each one. Focused enforcement targeting high collision locations and behaviours is necessary for efficiency and limits random patrols. To comment or learn more, please visit DriveSmartBC.ca. This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet. Photo: Contributed RCMP are sending out a stern reminder after photos were sent to Castanet of young men jumping from the William R. Bennett Bridge. The photos sent to Castanet show four men hiding under the bridge deck, jumping into the lake below. RCMP would like to warn the public of the dangers of bridge jumping, says Const. Jesse ODonaghey. Due to several factors, such as unseen hazards which lay below the water's surface, individuals risk serious injury or even death when they choose to jump from dangerous heights. He says jumpers can also appear to be those who want to hurt themselves by jumping, which can prompt countless calls to emergency services crews from the public concerned for their physical and mental well-being. There is typically a high number of emergency resources required to safely and effectively rescue an individual injured as a result of a senseless and entirely preventable jump, adds ODonaghey. It is unknown who the four men were, but the tipster sent the photos to Castanet to remind residents and guests to the Okanagan of the dangers of bridge jumping given the height and activity in the water below. Photo: Facebook Two Kelowna woman are angry at alleged RCMP activity on B.C. Day that they feel violated beach-goers. Nicole and Tessa were enjoying the sun last Monday at the beach they call Mushroom Beach, or Lake Avenue Access Beach. The duo says while some beach-goers were enjoying the water, the women witnessed RCMP going through unattended bags searching for alcohol. They were sneaking around trying to catch people doing stuff, says Nicole. They were just going through bags, peeking through people's bags that were unattended. She says despite some people's opinion of beach-goers there, it was a mixed crowd on a calm day, with no reason for police concern. There was a big group of older people, younger people and children, says Nicole. No one was loud or obnoxious, nobody was intoxicated it was the middle of the day. Nicole says she thought you had to give police permission to go through your bags and she was shocked to witness their actions. For them to be doing that when people aren't even around I think it is a totally invasion of privacy, says Nicole. Kelowna RCMP say they urge any residents with police-conduct complaints to contact the RCMP directly. Should anyone have concerns about the conduct or actions taken by an RCMP member or employee, they are always encouraged to raise any issue through the proper avenues that are available via the public complaints process in B.C., says Const. Jesse O'Donaghey. As for the alleged actions that day, O'Donaghey quoted a section of the Liquor Control and Licensing Act (LCLA) that gives RCMP the right to search a person or bags with reasonable cause. 67 (1) A peace officer who, on reasonable and probable grounds, believes that liquor is, anywhere or on anyone, unlawfully possessed or kept, or possessed or kept for unlawful purposes may, subject to subsection (2), enter or search, or both, for the liquor where the peace officer suspects it to be, and may seize and remove liquor found and the packages in which it is kept. (2) For the purposes of this section, a peace officer may without a warrant (a) search any person, and (b) enter or search, or both, anywhere except a residence. (3) A person commits an offence if the person (a) obstructs or attempts to obstruct an entry or search by a peace officer under this section, or (b) refuses or fails to admit immediately a peace officer demanding entry anywhere under this section. Nicole argues that given the bags were unattended and no one was acting drunk, officers did not have that probable cause. I think people should be warned they can do that. I didn't even know they could do that, adds Nicole. I think it is kind of shady really." Here we go again. A few selfish people are whining about a little noise interrupting their own little world. Whoop-dee-doo. Why in the world do local politicians even listen to them? Why don't the local politicians just tell them to go home and enjoy the wealth, peace and security that this country has given them. Should the odd bit of noise made by people earning a productive living interrupt their revere then they are free to pack up and move somewhere else. Those 'wop-wops' are contributing to the economy that these 'few' simply take advantage of while contributing nothing in return. My family spent 35 years living and working at the end of busy runways all over Canada and the world. Not even one of our neighbours complained. Ever. When we retired and moved into Peachland we had an opportunity to buy a house next to Highway 97. Are you kidding me? We said no. Now there are a few self-centred individuals who made stupid choices campaigning to move 97 into our watershed because it's too close to their house. The one they chose to live in. The empty heads seem to do the same thing with trains. "Too much noise. Unsafe for our children." But there they are plunking their bums down right next to the tracks, or a gravel pit, or a scrap yard, or a drive in theatre. West Kelowna, please simply ignore the Chopper Whiners. Flying machines - and cars and trucks - have been with us for about 100 years. These people have never known a time when they didn't exist. Neither did their parents or grand parents. The sounds that they make, and the infrastructure they need to make it, are a integral part of the economy that supports their lifestyle. Just move. David Winter Photo: Ruth Grass UPDATE: 6:15 a.m. A witness tells Castanet a car pulling out into highway traffic caused Monday's dump truck crash near Vernon. Ian Milde says he was driving south on Highway 97 behind the dump truck, when a small, white car that was parked on the side of the highway pulled back into traffic, cutting off a cube van and several other vehicles. "When they all hit the brakes, the driver of the dump truck was forced to slam on his brakes and made the decision to swerve for the ditch rather than into the right lane or straight into traffic ahead of him," said Milde. "He made the right decision. Myself and others who stopped safely helped him out of the truck. He was in shock, but seemed physically OK." Authorities have yet to confirm the details of the incident. UPDATE 5:45 P.M. Tow trucks are on the scene trying to remove a dump truck which landed on its side in the ditch. The incident occurred earlier this afternoon on Highway 97, just south of Vernon, between the exit to the Vernon landfill and Predator Ridge. It's slow-going in southbound lanes with one witness saying traffic is backed up to Birnie Road. ORIGINAL Motorists are telling Castanet traffic has been slowed heading southbound on Highway 97 after a dump truck left the highway and landed in the ditch, south of Vernon. Chelsey Spates sent pictures to Castanet of what appears to be a dump truck that was hauling a trailer. The truck and trailer can be seen on their side in the ditch. There is no word on the cause of the accident or if there were any injuries. Castanet will have more information should it become available. a Photo: Instagram One incident flawed what organizers say was almost a perfect weekend for this years Shambhala Music Festival. An American DJ playing at the electronic music festival was attacked by a fan while performing Saturday. EPROM was onstage about 3 a.m. when he says he was attacked by a crazed fan who was apparently under the influence of some strong drugs, he told fans via Instagram. He rushed the stage, decked me to the ground, put me in a choke hold and started biting my head. The Portland, Ore., musician says he was helped by a fellow performer, who pulled the man off him. Not seriously injured, the musician posted a photo of his bandaged head and joked to fans to watch out for zombie attacks." Despite the incident, festival spokesperson Britz Robins said it was a remarkably safe, peaceful, and fun event for the 15,000 music fans who camped on the grounds over the weekend. She said the cool, wet weather early on helped the event start on a good footing. It was a really great festival. I was speaking to some guests who said this was the easiest time they ever had getting into the festival and setting up, said Robins. I think the weather helped keep things calm. Its not known if police were involved after the attack on EPROM. RCMP were unavailable for comment. Robins says the incident is still being reviewed by festival security. The festival is held on a 500-acre farm near Salmo, about 40 kilometres south of Nelson. Officially drug and alcohol free, organizers have worked closely with local harm-reduction groups to reduce incidents connected to drug use at the festival. This year, organizers launched a campaign to raise funds for mobile equipment to test for fentanyl. Photo: Contributed Police have identified the man who was fatally stabbed outside a pub in Coquitlam over the weekend. He was Robert Vidovich, a 55-year-old resident of Coquitlam. The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team says police were called to a parking lot Sunday afternoon and found a man suffering from serious injuries. Investigators say evidence suggests Vidovich was stabbed with an edged weapon, but it is not known whether he knew his attacker, who fled on foot. Police say Vidovich was taken by ambulance to hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Officers were working to determine a motive for the crime. Photo: Contributed The body of a man missing after a fishing trip in the Kootenays has been found. On Aug. 7, the body of 19-year-old Zacharie Blouin was found in the Halfway River near Nakusp. Cpl. Dan Moskaluk said since there is no criminality involved in this incident, the BC Coroner's Service has taken charge of the investigation. Nakusp RCMP activated the Nakusp and Nelson Search and Rescue team, in efforts to locate Blouin who was reported overdue from a fishing outing on the Halfway River. On July 28, Nakusp RCMP received the report Blouin was missing. Friends said during a camping trip, Blouin left the group and went fishing along the river. Although he failed to return to camp at the set time, this was not uncommon. The group became concerned when they awoke the following morning and noted that he still had not returned. The group went looking for him Thursday morning and located some of his personal effects along the river bank but did not locate the man, said Moskaluk, adding upon receipt of the report, the Nakusp RCMP activated both the Nakusp and Nelson Search and Rescue Photo: Thinkstock.com Oliver's town council is mulling a federal task force which has been set up to take input from across the country on pot legalization. Oliver staffers were set to inform council of the task force, which will ask for input on some key issues around legalization. Those include harm reduction, safe and responsible production and distribution, how to enforce public safety and protection and access to medical cannabis. In a report, staffers pointed to distribution as being a key issue the town could speak to. The report outlines three distribution methods, along with cases for each. It said limiting distribution to the current mail-order system, which is used by Canadian medical cannabis producers and sellers, could help to prevent illegal, unlicensed storefronts. However, it also noted that allowing retail sale in storefronts could have the positive effect of taking business away from illegal street dealers in the town. The report also pointed to the potential for distribution being left to local provincial and territorial governments. It then posed three questions to town council: Which distribution model makes the most sense and why? To what extent is variation across provinces and territories in terms of distribution models acceptable? Are there other models worthy of consideration? The staffers then give councillors three options. Council could order staff to respond to the task force as a collective entity, councillors could respond to the task force individually, or council could vote to abstain from participation. The report also indicates that now could be a good time to implement inert regulations ahead of legalization, while maintaining prohibition in the town until the federal government legalized. Council was expected to vote on the issue Monday night. Investigators with the province's Integrated Homicide Investigation Team have confirmed a man responsible for a fatal stabbing in Port Coquitlam Sunday, is on the loose. IHIT continues to work alongside the Forensics Unit, the Coroners Service, and the Coquitlam RCMP in an effort to identify and locate the male suspect, said Cpl. Meghan Foster in a statement. The suspect is described as: Caucasian male Possibly wearing a black hoodie, pants and backpack 5-8 to 5-10 tall Weighing 150 pounds The suspect is wanted in connection with the fatal stabbing of 55-yeart-old Robert Harold Vidovich in a parking lot at Shaughnessy Square Shopping Centre. A witness told CTV Vancouver Vidovich had a large wound across his stomach. I went up to the guy and went up to see if he was OK or if he needed any help. There was nothing really we could do right, he was cut up really bad, one witness said. Vidovich was taken to hospital but died about 45 minutes after the incident. IHIT investigators said it is not clear if Vidovich knew his assailant. Anyone with information can contact the IHIT Tipline at 1-877-551-4448, or remain anonymous by contacting Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477. --with files from CTV Vancouver Photo: Contributed A group of laid-off employees of Winnipeg-based Ben Moss Jewellers is taking the company to the Manitoba Labour Board, alleging they were let go without severance or notice as the company shutters its 54 locations across Canada. Vera Sime worked as an accountant at head office and says she had been assured her job would be safe until December to give her some time to look for work. But Sime, 55, says the company cut off her pay the same day it gave her a termination letter, and that she wasn't offered a severance package. Ben Moss advertises itself as "diamond experts since 1910" but entered creditor protection last May. Neither Ben Moss nor the Manitoba Labour Board could be reached for comment. Meanwhile, some customers of the company say they fear they will lose life-time warranties they were sold on their jewelry. Karen DEon recently purchased two wedding bands from a Winnipeg Ben Moss store, but only days after picking up the rings, she learned the company is planning to close shop and that their warranty is in jeopardy. Angele Taillefer bought the life-time service plan on five Ben Moss rings. I was informed that my lifetime warranty was void and when I asked about reimbursement they told me no," says Taillefer, who paid more than $300 for the warranties. "Now if I lose one of the stones in my family ring Im out of luck, I have to pay to get it replaced." DEon says she would never have paid extra for the warranty, had she known she known the company was closing a week later. "I was shocked there was nothing in that store showing that they were closing, nothing," she says. Photo: aeroinside.com An Air Canada Jazz flight out of Castlegar last month had a close call. Aviation website aeroinside.com reports the De Havilland Dash 8 300 had to avoid a near collision with a business jet below radar altitude on July 30. The Jazz flight was leaving Castlegar en route to Calgary and was still below the altitude it would have appeared on radar, when the crew responded to a traffic collision avoidance system advisory to descend. The Transportation Safety Board reported the conflicting traffic was an Embraer 500 business jet operating under visual flight rules from Calgary to Castlegar, which also could not be seen on radar due to being below radar coverage. After being clear of conflict, the aircraft continued the climb, was radar identified and continued for a safe landing in Calgary. Aeroinside's report contains information from the Civil Aviation Daily Occurrence Report System. Transport Canada endeavours to ensure the accuracy and integrity of the data contained within CADORS, however, the information within should be treated as preliminary, unsubstantiated and subject to change. I don't know how many young women come to this blog or how many are parents of teenage or young adult women, but here are some safety tips from Kelsey's Army: T I P S 1. Trust your instincts - If something feels wrong then something probably is wrong.2. Know your surroundings - know who and what is around you.3. Always have a plan for where you would go and what you would do if a situation arises.4. Be willing to make a scene in order to be noticed.5. Let someone know where you are going and when you will be back.Remember the acronym TIPS:ake Chargenform others of your whereaboutsrepare for any situationurvival Mentality (role play situations so you will respond should they happen)For more information, go to Kelsey's Army Photo: Dave Ogilvie UPDATE 10 A.M. Kelowna RCMP say everyone is okay following a late night search of Okanagan Lake below Quails' Gate Winery. Police say they were called to the area shortly before 11:30 Monday night to assist firefighters who were searching for a man. A witness reported a man and a woman swam to shore in the area of Sunnybrae Road. The woman reportedly left the area in a vehicle while the man returned to the water, believed to be retrieving an overturned canoe. The witness had not seen the man return to the shore and called emergency crews. RCMP later attended a residence in the Green Bay Road area and learned that both the man and the woman had returned home safely. An overturned canoe on Okanagan Lake prompted a late-night search, Monday. West Kelowna firefighters launched their marine rescue vessel after the drifting canoe was reported shortly after 11 p.m. The drama unfolded off shore from Quails' Gate Winery. A woman told rescuers she had left a friend and got a lift home while the friend went back out on the water. It's not yet known if anyone was found. As of midnight, crews were still searching the lake. Castanet will provide more details as they become available. Send your news, photos and video to [email protected] Photo: The Canadian Press Delta's travails, and those of its customers, move into day two with the airline cancelling nearly 300 flights. The cancellations Tuesday follow about 1,000 cancelled flights Monday and almost 3,000 delayed flights after an outage at its Atlanta headquarters initiated a global meltdown of its booking and communications systems. The airline was back online after a number of hours Monday, but the outages were so widespread that it is still dealing with the ripple effects a day later. More than 1,000 people spent the night at Narita airport outside Tokyo because of the shutdown and, while flights were resuming Tuesday, Delta spokeswoman Hiroko Okada said more delays are expected. The airline posted a video apology by CEO Ed Bastian. And it offered refunds and $200 in travel vouchers to people whose flights were cancelled or delayed at least three hours. Delta's challenge on Tuesday will be to find enough seats on planes during the busy summer vacation season to accommodate the tens of thousands of passengers whose flights were scrubbed. Last month, the average Delta flight was 87 per cent full. For passengers, hardship from the early Monday morning meltdown was compounded by the fact that Delta's flight-status updates weren't working either. Instead of being able to stay home, many passengers only learned about the flight problems when they arrived at the airport. "By the time I showed up at the gate the employees were already disgruntled, and it was really difficult to get anybody to speak to me or get any information," said Ashley Roache, whose flight from Lexington, Kentucky, to New York's LaGuardia Airport was delayed. "The company could have done a better job of explaining ... what was happening." Delta spokesman Trebor Banstetter said that after a power outage at the company's Atlanta headquarters, some key systems and network equipment did not switch over to backup systems. He said the airline's investigation into the cause of the outage was continuing but said there were no indications of hacking. A spokesman for Georgia Power said that the company believes a failure of Delta equipment caused the airline's power outage. He said no other customers lost power. Delta declined to comment on the power company's report. Flights that were already in the air when the outage occurred continued to their destinations, but flights on the ground remained there. Delta Air Lines Inc. ranks as the third-largest in the world by number of passengers carried, with 138.8 million travellers last year, according to industry group IATA. It was narrowly beaten only by American Airlines and Southwest Airlines, with all of them flying mostly within the United States. On Monday in Richmond, Virginia, Delta gate agents were writing out boarding passes by hand. In Tokyo, a dot-matrix printer was resurrected to keep track of passengers on a flight to Shanghai. Photo: Google Maps A group of boaters planning to land along the shore of Arrow Lake was in for a shock on Saturday afternoon when a body was found near the shoreline. Boaters who had been planning on landing along the shore observed what appeared to be human remains just feet from the water's edge. The boaters departed and contacted police, said Staff Sgt. Kurt Grabinsky, commander of the Revelstoke detachment. Police were told the body was located north of the Shelter Bay campground and boat launch. The RCMP and BC Coroners Service attended to the area with the Revelstoke detachment police boat, however weather and water conditions had changed drastically which made launching the boat and conducting a recovery very difficult, said Grabinsky. It was not until early last Sunday morning that officials were able to locate the body, three kilometres north of the Shelter Bay campsite. After conducting a scene investigation police were able to rule out foul play and confirmed that the body had arrived there following a drowning. The body was removed from the site. Police have not released victim's name at this time. Photo: Contributed A water quality advisory is continuing for users of West Kelowna's Lakeview water system. The advisory affects about 11,000 customers in a number of neighbourhoods, including: Lakeview Heights Rose Valley Boucherie Centre Shannon Woods Tallus Ridge Shannon Lake Click here to determine if you are living in the affected area. Residents hooked up to the Westbank, West Kelowna Estates, Pritchard and Sunnyside water systems are not affected. Neighbourhoods not affected by the water quality advisory include: Glenrosa, Westbank, Smith Creek, Gellatly, Green Bay, South Boucherie/Mission Hill/Sunnyside, Pritchard Drive/Jennings and Hitchner Roads, West Kelowna Estates/Bear Creek, Casa Loma and areas of Westside Road within the municipal boundary. Due to higher than normal turbidity, it is recommended that children, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems bring water to a rolling boil for at least one minute, or use an alternate, safe source of water. People in these categories should boil water for uses such as: Drinking, brushing teeth, washing fruits and vegetables that are to be eaten raw, preparing food, mixing baby formula and making ice. As turbidity increases, bacteria, viruses and microorganisms can attach themselves to the suspended particles in water. These particles can interfere with disinfection by shielding the microorganisms from the chlorine. Turbidity levels are constantly being observed by City of West Kelowna staff, through a remote monitoring system. Photo: CTV One B.C. realtor has learned the hard way not to use a sympathy card to win a grieving widower's business. A family in White Rock is incensed after realtors who visited the home and learned of the death sent a handwritten card that reads: "So sorry to hear of your wifes passing. Please let us know if we can help in any way with your real estate needs when the time is right. Thanks." Launi Bowie calls the card sent to her father a tremendous lack of judgment." Her mother, Audrey Smith, collapsed at a birthday party and broke her neck three weeks ago. The 73-year-old woman died in hospital. When Bowie's grief-stricken father opened the sympathy card, his face dropped. It looked like someone had punched him in the gut, she told CTV News. That really, really upset me. It really bothered me to see that somebody did that to my dad. Its hard to look at this as anything but a solicitation for business. The Real Estate Council of B.C. confirmed it is investigating what happened. However, Dennis Wilson, manager of professional standards for the board, told CTV News it's likely a very sad misunderstanding. They told him how sorry they were, they backed away and went back to their offices, and at some point thereafter decided right or wrong, but in their view they thought it was a nice gesture they wrote a note back, Wilson said. They certainly were not intending to put any pressure on him. The two realtors told CTV News that when they spoke with the widower, he told them he was thinking of selling his home. They decided to reach out. with files from CTV Vancouver Photo: Contributed Drones are about to be added to the fire fighting arsenal of the B.C. Wildfire Service. Spokeswoman Erin Catherall says the service has conducted two seasons of trials and is ready to put the remotely controlled aircraft to work. She says drones have already been an important part of the battle against recent wildfires in northeastern British Columbia because they are cheaper and safer than piloted aircraft. They can also be used at night, when most helicopters and planes are grounded. Catherall says that allows firefighters to identify hot spots for immediate action as soon as the sun rises. The wildfire service also hopes the little aircraft will help with the efficient deployment of planes and crews during critical situations. "They're able to detect really hard to find hot spots and give co-ordinates that crews can then use to assist with locating and extinguishing the hot spots within the fire perimeter," says Catherall. Unauthorized drones operated by curious onlookers complicated firefighting efforts at several B.C. wildfires last year because they forced wildfire service helicopters to land rather than risk mid-air collisions. Photo: CTV Fentanyl may have been the cause of a teen's death in a Lower Mainland Starbucks. Gwyn Staddon, 16, was found unresponsive inside a Port Moody coffee shop bathroom Sunday. Police believe the teen, who was going into Grade 11 at Gleneagle Secondary in Coquitlam, died of an overdose because she was found with a small amount of drugs. "This is a tragedy," said Sgt. Travis Carroll told CTV News. Police say they'll be looking into whether the girl's drugs were laced with fentanyl. "It is extremely strong. It's far stronger than heroin," said Sgt. Carroll. "A lot of drug users may not realize they're using it." with file from CTV Vancouver Photo: The Canadian Press Valeant Pharmaceuticals (TSX:VRX) is reporting a US$302 million net loss for its second quarter nearly six times bigger than during the same period last year but the company is sending a message that things will get better. "Although it will take time to implement and execute our turnaround plan, I am confident that we will show progress in the coming quarters, chairman and CEO Joseph Pappa said in a statement ahead of a conference call with analysts. One bright point for the company, which has seen its value plunge over the past year as a result of numerous issues, was an increase in cash flow from operations. It was up nine per cent to $448 million. However, the Quebec-based company which reports in U.S. currency had lower adjusted earnings, which fell to $488 million from $751 million in the second quarter of 2015. Valeant's net loss equalled 88 cents per share compared with the year-earlier loss of 15 cents per share. Adjusted earnings were $1.40 per share, compared with $2.14 per share in the second quarter of 2015. Revenue fell by 11 per cent to $2.42 billion from $2.73 billion, mainly because of reduced sales from its existing businesses and a negative impact from a shift in foreign exchange rates. Acquired businesses provided a partial offset. Analysts had estimated revenue would drop 10 per cent to US$2.46 billion and adjusted profits to plummet to US$512.44 million or $1.48 per share But the company also said it's on track to meet previously announced lowered financial objectives for 2016. As expected, Valeant had some improvements compared with the first quarter of 2016. However, revenue was essentially flat and cash flow was lower than in the three months ended March 31 often a seasonally weak period for Valeant. Industry analysts remain cautious about Valeant's prospects, fearing Valeant's US$30-million debt and the potential for loan covenants to be breached if "fundamentals" don't improve. They are waiting for assurances that wrinkles have been worked out in the deal with U.S. pharmacy retailer Walgreens to distribute Valeant's products following the collapse of Philidor Rx Services. They have also been awaiting the sale of non-core assets to pay down debt. Valeant announced Tuesday that it has agreed to divest all North American commercialization rights to Ruconext to Pharming Group NV, for up to $125 million. Part of that is up to $65 million that will be paid if certain sales milestones are achieved. In pre-market trading, Valeant shares were up about seven per cent from Monday's close at US$22.45 on the New York Stock Exchange. In Toronto, the stock closed at C$29.51 far below its 52-week high of $333.44 a year ago, when Valeant was one of Canada's most-valuable publicly traded companies. Photo: Contributed The independent civilian body that investigates police-involved deaths or serious injuries in British Columbia is searching for witnesses to a fatal confrontation in Burnaby nearly one year ago. Members of the Independent Investigations Office are probing the Aug. 13, 2015 death of 33-year-old Sechelt resident Myles Gray. He died as Vancouver police responded to reports of a man causing a disturbance near the boundary between Vancouver and Burnaby. Gray died and six officers were injured during a violent scuffle as police tried to make an arrest. A release from the IIO says new information suggests Gray may have been trying to speak to occupants of passing vehicles just before he died. IIO investigators want to hear from anyone who was approached by Gray or who may have been driving near the intersection of Marine Drive and Joffre Avenue on that Thursday between 3 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. Photo: Contributed The British Columbia Forest Safety Council reports headway in one area as it aims to cut fatalities and injuries in the forest industry. Council CEO Rob Moonen says there have been just three logging truck rollovers this year, compared to 51 in 2013. But while he appreciates that success, Moonen says it has been difficult to curb injuries related to tree falling. He says the injury rate among B.C. tree fallers reached 29.6 per cent in 2015, translating to one injury among every three fallers. Moonen says he is relieved the injuries appear less serious than in the past. The Forest Safety Council says fatalities in the industry doubled to eight last year from the year before, with five recorded so far this year. Photo: RCMP Two old arrows from Africa are now in the care of the University of British Columbia's anthropology department, thanks to the intervention of North Vancouver RCMP. Cpl. Richard De Jong says the arrows, which are about 70 centimetres long, are from the Maasai tribes of Kenya and were designed to carry poison. The senior from North Vancouver who owned the arrows had received them from his father in the 1940s, although it's not known how they had been acquired from Africa. De Jong says the man considered them weapons. He brought them to the North Vancouver RCMP detachment, hoping Mounties would have them destroyed. Instead, police approached anthropologists at UBC, and De Jong says they were delighted to take the artifacts into their archives. "I'm sure there is an intriguing story behind these two arrows," says De Jong. Police were encouraged to see the owner doing the right thing by turning the items over to police, but are also pleased these arrows will be included in a museum display, he says. Photo: CTV What started as a peaceful protest ended with a handful of people being led away in handcuffs. Protesters had gathered out front of Imperial Metals office in downtown Vancouver about 9 a.m. Tuesday morning. Imperial Metals is the company responsible for the Mount Polley tailings pond disaster two years ago. A CTV Vancouver report states some of the protesters managed to force their way inside. Police were called and arrested four people. They remain in custody. Police received reports that three or four of the more aggressive individuals began to yell and shout, as well as shove and push staff, Const. Brian Montague told CTV in an email statement. One protester said the protest was supposed to be peaceful, but the mood changed when employees with the company became aggressive. The protest marked the recently passed second anniversary of the disaster, one of the worst in Canadian mining history. with files from CTV Vancouver Photo: The Canadian Press London police say an intruder tried to climb a security fence at Buckingham Palace, but did not gain access to the landmark building. The Metropolitan Police say officers monitoring CCTV cameras saw the 22-year-old from Croydon and arrested him early Tuesday inside a security perimeter on suspicion of trespassing on a protected site. Police say he had been drinking, was not armed and was detained without using stun guns. The breach is not believed to be terrorism related. Several intruders have breached security at the queen's London residence over the years including a man convicted of murder who climbed a wall in May while Queen Elizabeth II was at home. Buckingham Palace declined to comment on the intruder. The royal family was not there at the time. Photo: The Canadian Press Drug users in Vancouver who won't, or can't, attend a residential detox program now have a new, immediate way to kick their habit. Vancouver Coastal Health has launched START, the Substance use Treatment and Response Team, offering rapid access to at-home detox treatment. Health authority spokeswoman Mary Marlow says an at-home program meets the needs of those who are trying to hold down a job, have disabilities, are single with children or don't want the stigma of a residential program. She says applicants must meet certain conditions and have a 24-hour support person available, but if the requirements are met, detox at home can begin very quickly. Programs run up to two weeks and include daily visits from a nurse over the first five days to stabilize the patient's condition, followed by training during the second week about supports available for continued recovery. The health authority says research shows withdrawal and detox are more successful if participants can go through it in their own home with supports in place. "The program is highly responsive," says Marlow in a news release. "We don't want to leave anyone out in the cold. Within two hours of receiving a referral, one of the START nurses will make contact with the client and arrange for an intake assessment." Health officials say more than 400 people per year are expected to benefit from the program. Shortly after learning he was off the Republican primary ballot in the 54th Senate District race, Bobby Massarini all but ruled out mounting a write-in general election campaign. Hours later, the Cayuga County businessman had a change of heart. Massarini said in a phone interview late Monday that he's seriously considering a write-in campaign. He'll make a final decision later this week based on whether he can participate in upcoming debates in the 54th District. He conceded that winning as a write-in candidate is a long shot. But he views the campaign as an opportunity to steer the debate and ensure the voters' voices are heard. "Yes, it's a big district. Yes, it's a lot of people. But there is a lot of people who say, 'We'd love to vote for you,'" Massarini said. "I didn't realize I had this much support and I feel bad for these people. I want to help. I want to do something." It wouldn't be the first time Massarini has been involved in a write-in campaign. He said his first foray into politics came in Tioga County, Pennsylvania. He met people there who wanted him to help run a campaign for county commissioner. It was a long-shot write-in campaign, but his candidate won the race. The 54th District race, though, would be much more challenging. The district covers six counties all of Seneca and Wayne counties, plus portions of Cayuga, Monroe, Ontario and Tompkins counties. Massarini thinks he can appeal to Republicans who are looking for an alternative to establishment candidates. He's been critical of Pam Helming, who has the party's endorsement in the 54th District, after two of her supporters objected to his ballots and filed a lawsuit to get him removed from the ballot. The state Board of Elections invalidated his petitions Friday and a state Supreme Court judge affirmed that decision Monday. "I was talking to Republicans who were so depressed that I wasn't going to be on the ballot. They said, 'Who do we vote for?'" Massarini said. "There are no options." If Massarini decides to run, he'll face the winner of the five-way Republican primary and Democratic candidate Kenan Baldridge in the general election. Helming is the current favorite to win the GOP primary. Baldridge and Helming would likely have more financial backing and an easier path to victory than Massarini. But that's not discouraging him from considering the possibility of write-in campaign. "It's a long shot, but then again the Mets getting to the World Series last year as a long shot," he said. Kenya: clinker tops Mombasa port imports ICR Newsroom By 09 August 2016 According to a recent report from Kenya Ports Authority (KPA), Mombasa port has recorded an increase in the number of imported construction materials. KPAs report suggests a strengthening of the local construction sector as import figures of the construction materials are increasing each week. The report read, The sector imported 59,866 metric tonnes of steel and 53,562 tonnes of cement clinker. It went on to deduce that steel and clinker were the leading imports for the conventional cargo terminal. In the third week of July alone, the terminal handled 153,007t of cargo. Published under A $110 million agreement reached between two energy companies will prevent the closure of the James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant in Scriba, Oswego County. Under the deal, which must be approved by federal and state regulators, Entergy will transfer FitzPatrick's operating license to Exelon a move that will preserve more than 600 jobs at the plant. "We are pleased to have reached an agreement for the continued operation of FitzPatrick," Exelon President and CEO Chris Crane said. "We look forward to bringing FitzPatrick's highly skilled team of professionals into the Exelon Generation nuclear program, and to continue delivering to New York the environmental, economic and grid reliability benefits of this important energy asset." Entergy revealed in July that it was in talks with Exelon to sell the plant. The announcement was significant because previous attempts to prevent the plant's closure had failed. Last year, there was speculation about FitzPatrick's future. And then Entergy announced in November that the company planned to close the plant in early 2017. Entergy cited market conditions, among other factors, for the decision to close the facility. Gov. Andrew Cuomo intervened and said the state would attempt to prevent FitzPatrick's closure. The state's negotiations with Entergy weren't successful and the company moved forward with plans to close the nuclear power plant. Earlier this year, Entergy set a date to close the plant January 2017. The state again made a last-ditch effort to keep FitzPatrick open, but the company said it wouldn't alter its decision. Exelon and Entergy officials said FitzPatrick and other nuclear power plants in upstate New York were at risk of closing if it wasn't for the state's Clean Energy Standard, which was adopted last week by the state Public Service Commission. Cuomo, who attended a rally Tuesday morning in Oswego to celebrate Exelon's acquisition of FitzPatrick, said the impact of the plant shutting down operations would have been devastating. "I believe if FitzPatrick closed, it would be a financial crisis for the entire region," he said. "Some people estimate central New York would lose $500 million. Central New York cannot lose $500 million. The county cannot lose FitzPatrick as a taxpayer." U.S. Rep. John Katko, whose district includes Scriba and the western portion of Oswego County, said he's excited for the county and the entire region. As for the role he played in the sale, he said he "bugged the hell out of" Entergy's CEO, Leo Denault. "I had (Denault's cell phone number) and I was on him all the time," he said. "When the state stepped up, I just felt like that was the missing piece of the puzzle and I think that's what really helped make this work." If the agreement is approved, the sale will be finalized in the second quarter of 2017. Exelon said it will refuel FitzPatrick in January. The company also touted the benefits of the state's Clean Energy Standard for its other upstate nuclear power plants Ginna in Wayne County and Nine Mile Point in Oswego County. "We thank Governor Cuomo and his administration for their part in facilitating an agreement to save FitzPatrick," Crane said. "His leadership on the CES and preserving zero-emissions assets has truly positioned New York as the nation's leader in clean energy." CICERO A leading national pro-business group and a political action committee representing central New York manufacturers are supporting U.S. Rep. John Katko in the 24th Congressional District race. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and MANUPAC, the political arm of the Manufacturers Association of Central New York, endorsed Katko, R-Camillus, during a press conference Tuesday at G.A. Braun Laundry Equipment in Cicero. The support from both groups is the first major endorsement announced by Katko's re-election campaign. He is seeking a second term representing four counties, including all of Cayuga, in Congress. J.B. Werner, co-owner and CEO of G.A. Braun, said it's important for his business to have a representative in Washington who can help the region grow. "Congressman Katko, in his first term in Congress, has proven that not only his influence but his dedication to our region and communities and the business' sustainability and growth," Werner said. Eileen Braden, vice president of political affairs and federation relations for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, highlighted some of Katko's achievements during his first term in office. Braden said when Katko first campaigned for Congress in 2014, he focused on improving central New York's economy. "He's advocated for an environment that creates certainty, that decreases the tax burden, that keeps the tax code simple," she said. "But more importantly, an environment where job creators like (G.A. Braun) that we're at here today can continue to hire and create opportunity, create growth in this community that trickles down throughout the state." Katko also received praise from Randy Wolken, president and CEO of the Manufacturers Association of Central New York. When Katko first ran for Congress, he was one of eight candidates vying for the GOP nomination. That group included Wolken. Katko went on to win the GOP designation in March 2014. He defeated then-U.S. Rep. Dan Maffei by nearly 20 points in the general election. So what's Wolken's assessment of his one-time political rival's first term in office? "He has an incredible capacity to spend time here and to work with local business owners and the constituents of this community," he said. "Often times, Washington is polarized, focused on issues that often times have nothing to do with what goes on here in central New York. But that's not John Katko's approach. He's practical, he gets things done and he wants to grow existing businesses as well as get returning businesses, like manufacturers, to come back to central New York." Katko has been criticized by Democrats for not doing enough to address jobs and the economy while serving in Congress. During a forum featuring the three Democratic candidates for Congress, Katko was accused of being absent from efforts to prevent the closure of the James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant in Oswego County. He dismissed those criticisms in an interview with The Citizen in February. "We've done everything we possibly can," he said at the time. "It's an easy criticism, but even if you ask the unions, they'll tell you we were engaged and we tried everything we possibly could to help them, and we did." Before Katko's press conference Tuesday, it was announced that FitzPatrick will remain open after Exelon acquired the plant, which employs more than 600 people in Oswego County, from Entergy. Katko said his role in the agreement that was reached between Exelon and Entergy was that he "bugged the hell out of" Leo Denault, Entergy's CEO. Denault was the executive who announced late last year that FitzPatrick would close in 2017. But that likely won't be enough to prevent Democrats from attacking Katko on his economic record. Colleen Deacon, Katko's Democratic opponent, appeared at an Auburn Rotary Club luncheon in May and said the GOP congressman hasn't done anything to "address the issues of jobs and the economy here in the district." Without addressing the claims specifically, Katko sought to dispel the notion raised by Democrats that he hasn't spent enough time on the economy. "I will never concede ever concede that manufacturing is dead in this country. It is not," he said. "We're going to bring it back because we have to bring it back." Two reasons why manufacturers want to return to the U.S., Katko said, is product quality and labor costs. Katko then made a pledge to workers at G.A. Braun: As long as he's in Congress, he'll advocate for them and work to retain and bring back central New York manufacturing jobs. "We can only do that if we level the playing field, and we will do that," he said. "I will fight with every breath I have in Congress to do that, not just for you guys, but for your families. I want your families to grow up here. I want your kids to be here and your grandkids. We can only do that if there's economic opportunity." Katko added that there's another benefit to boosting central New York's manufacturing industry. More manufacturing jobs, he argued, could help reduce or eliminate poverty in the region. He attributed the high level of poverty in central New York to manufacturers, such as General Electric and New Venture Gear, that have either left the region or significantly reduced operations or moved elsewhere. "But this is a great example that things are changing," Katko said of G.A. Braun's plant. "They can change and if we do our job in Congress, it will be a lot better." After a night of drinking, John Turner was walking home around 2:30 a.m. May 17, 2002, when then-23-year-old Natsu Carter beat him into a coma in a back alley off Genesee Street in Auburn. Turner wasn't found until the morning. Following an investigation, Carter was charged with first- and second-degree assault, and is serving 25 years in prison. Turner suffered a severe brain injury, and was in a coma for weeks. For a while, he experienced paralysis on his left side, often requiring a wheelchair to get around. Turner walks now, but he said he lost his physical ability to perform they way he once did at the Merry-Go-Round Playhouse. The 32-year-old had been an actor and an instructor, and suddenly, he was forced to change careers. Fourteen years later, however, Turner said that the incident may have saved his life. "Who knows?" Turner said in a phone interview Thursday. "I would have maybe ended up dying. I was already an alcoholic. I was the guy at the bar. If it hadn't happened, who knows where I would have been." Turner is now living happily in Los Angeles sober, married and writing. It took a bit after the 2002 assault to get there, but he recently published his second book, and is already working on a third. His most recent, "Decades of Doubt: The John McCabe Murder Saga," is a true account of an over 40-year investigation of the murder of a 15-year-old boy in Lowell, Massachusetts. In September of 1969, McCabe had been dragged into a field, hogtied and strangled. The company Waldorf Publishing reached out for writers on Craigslist to tell the story, which was originally reported on CBS's "48 Hours," in print. Turner got the gig, and was supposed to turn the book around in three to four months. But when he saw the approximately 2,000-page file compiled by one of the defense attorneys, Eric Wilson, he was able to extend his deadline with the publishing company to one year. Wilson worked with Turner to write the multi-decade account, covering years of testimony, records, arrest reports and documents. There were additional deaths, new investigators, mysterious letters, suspects coming and going. He split the book up into three sections one to cover the murder, one to cover the cold case efforts and the final part covering the trial transcripts. "My coauthor said at one point, 'This case has more twists and turns than a snake in a hurry,'" Turner said, laughing. Turner and Wilson began working on the book in December 2014 and finished by mid-January 2016. Turner attributed his ability to write about a case that occurred on the other side of the country, at least partially, to his writing career at The Citizen and, later, The Skaneateles Journal. Turner had worked for the publications as part of his new start on life after his assault. "One of the things that really helped was because of my disability, I'm not able to drive," he said. "Because of that, when I worked as a stringer for The Citizen and the staff of The Journal, I became the master of the telephone interview because I wasn't really able to go as many places as other reporters might be able to. I was really aware of interview techniques." Turner is already working on his next project, coauthoring a memoir with actor Christopher Wiehl called "Trying To Walk Like A Man." The story focuses on Wiehl's recovery after learning he had a brain tumor, and Waldorf Publishing called on Turner to help tell the story. "The publisher knew him, and after learning about my history, I guess, thought we have very similar stories, so I just started writing a book about him," Turner said. While Wiehl is recovering and starting to act again, Turner said he likely won't return to that part of his life. He said pounding the pavement for acting jobs is his least favorite thing to do, and he now prefers writing. "I'm really happy with the way things kind of worked out," he said. "Where I am now, I have a wife, I live in a great city, my career is starting to go places not as fast as I wanted it to, but it's starting to go places. I'm lucky to be kind of an optimistic guy, and I try to do things. So that's what I try to focus on, is how good things are now." Local author David Homick has written another fictional book, "Broken Angels," and I recommend it! His book is even more incredible than his last one. It is well-thought-out. It's a complex and emotional novel that merges the paranormal with what is reality, easily and smoothly. His first book, "A Lifetime Last Night," touched on the metaphysical aspects of what just might be possible! And, being a firm believer in some aspects of the paranormal, I recommended it to anyone who's even the least bit interested in that possibility. Like Homicks first book, his second book is also a story of the power of transcendent love and one man's realization that most everyone has the ability to choose their own destiny. While most of us would agree that people often cannot see their own self-destructive behavior, that one night stands often prevent us from finding the love and the normal life that we want, and what we do next can make a difference, it is this dilemma the book's main character, Jack DiLuca, continues to face until he wakes up! On the book's jacket it reads that Jack is also driven by recurring dreams about his father and he walks away from his first meaningful relationship to settle the score with the man who destroyed his life. But when Jack finds his father in Philadelphia, he discovers that everything is not as it appears. Family secrets are revealed, and he learns that even he is not who he thought he was! What also happens in the book are the kinds of surprises that many may find difficult to believe, but because all things are possible, it can make it possible for the skeptic reader to become a "believer"! But then, when tragedy strikes and Jack discovers a secret that threatens to destroy what he and an old high school flame have rekindled, there's a monumental surprise in store! After reading the book, I met with David for a cup of coffee at Wegmans. When our conversation turned to religion's effect on Christians, we both agreed that some of the changes made by the Catholic church at the Council of Nicea in A.D. 318 were extremely significant! (Few realize that reincarnation was one of the tenets taken out!) Again, I came away with the realization that David Homick does a better job than most writers because he is able to let the reader actually experience the emotion being felt by his main character who goes through one obstacle after another in search for the father who'd abandoned him 20 years ago. David Homick grew up in Auburn, graduating in 1975 from Auburn High School. He attended Cayuga Community College and graduated from SUNY Binghamton with a bachelor's degree in business management. He worked in the banking industry for almost 10 years. In 2001, he attended Syracuse University and got the training he needed so he could do web design full-time. (The name of his website is: Website Solutions of CNY. In 2012, he was awarded the Cayuga County Chamber of Commerce's Small Business of the Year award.) David does a better job of writing no doubt due to having read many, many books on writing. He said, "It took 54 years before picking up a pen and in this case, a laptop before starting to write. He is always quick to add his favorite quote. It comes from George Eliot, who said, "It's never too late to be what you might have been! Of interest to readers of David's book is the fact that there are a number of places referenced in his book that those who live locally will recognize. Homick's book is available locally at The Center (on the corner of Fulton and Genesee streets) for $16.95. It's also available on Amazon (and for Kindle), and Barnes & Noble. Homick believes he's fortunate to have been able to stay in Auburn because of the diversity of the offerings in the area. He is currently working on his third novel, for which he has not yet come up with a title. Anyone who wants to get in touch with David Homick can do so by visiting his website, davidhomick.com. ALBANY In the fall of 1825, John Henry Hopkins traveled from Buffalo to Albany on the Erie Canal just days after the 363-mile waterway had opened. Along the way, the Episcopal minister from Pennsylvania drew scenes of what was then considered a marvel of modern engineering. This month, the co-founder of a Vermont history museum is traveling by tugboat on the canal, stopping at about 30 communities, including the Weedsport/Port Byron area, over the next six weeks as he discusses the waterway's impact on the nation's growth in the 19th century and hands out prints of Hopkins' artwork, many of them never published and rarely seen by the general public. "He left us an incredible series of images of the communities, of the canal, that fill in a tremendous amount of information," Cohn said in a telephone interview from aboard the C.L. Churchill, a 52-year-old wooden tugboat owned by the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum in Vergennes. Cohn and his fellow crewmembers will visit communities along the canal as far west as Rochester, giving public talks about the waterway and presenting copies of Hopkins' artwork to local museums and historical societies. Cohn was meeting Friday with state Canal Corp. officials to iron out the details of his itinerary. On Monday, the Canal Corp. posted a schedule on its Facebook page. Full day visits are planned Aug. 18 and 27 in the Weedsport/Port Byron area. The voyage is aimed at bringing attention to next year's 200th anniversary of the beginning of construction of the Erie Canal, with events planned each year through 2025, according to Canal Corp. spokesman Shane Mahar. The waterway was officially opened in October 1825 by Gov. DeWitt Clinton, who traveled on the canal by boat from Buffalo to Albany, then on to Manhattan. Once there, he dumped a cask of Lake Erie water into New York Harbor to signify the "wedding of the waters" linking the Great Lakes to the East Coast. Around that time the Irish-born Hopkins, then a 32-year-old newly ordained clergyman from Pittsburgh, began his own voyage by canal boat from Buffalo to Albany, eventually headed for Manhattan to attend a religious conference. A talented artist and architectural illustrator, he created 37 watercolor and pencil sketches of canal scenes. They include a rendition of the Genesee River falls at Rochester and the elevated towpath built over the Cayuga swamp in the Cayuga County town of Montezuma. The 1,300-foot-long timber structure was replaced by an aqueduct in the 1840s. Cohn came across the Hopkins collection last year while doing research at William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. One Erie Canal expert said he was "blown away" when Cohn showed him prints of the Hopkins drawings, considered some of the earliest images of the waterway before the invention of photography in the late 1830s. "We don't have a lot of images of the very first version of the Erie Canal," said Duncan Hay, historian for the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor. "Finding drawings tucked away in a manuscript collection in another part of the country is pretty exciting." This service applies to you if your subscription has not yet expired on our old site. You will have continued access until your subscription expires; then you will need to purchase an ongoing subscription through our new system. Please contact The Chanute Tribune office at 620-431-4100 if you have any questions AUBURN An Onondaga County man arrested less than 24 hours after he was sentenced to probation will now spend the next year in state prison. Tyler Prescott, of I7 Cedar Circle, Liverpool, was sentenced May 31 to five years probation for selling an ounce of marijuana in Cayuga County in 2015. The 24-year-old pleaded guilty to felony third-degree criminal sale of marijuana and was allowed to avoid prison. Then, according to Cayuga County District Attorney Jon Budelmann, on June 1, Prescott traveled to the town of Mexico where he was arrested for fourth-degree criminal mischief and second-degree harassment after a confrontation with an ex-girlfriend. "This may be the shortest stint of probation we've ever had," he said, shaking his head. Prescott admitted the violation in court Tuesday. Judge Mark Fandrich revoked his probation and re-sentenced him to one year in prison followed by one year post-release supervision. Also in court: A Connecticut man was sent to prison Tuesday for committing forgery in Cayuga County. Ralph Joseph, of 13 Long Ridge, Unionville, will spend the next two to four years in prison for second-degree forgery. Last month, the 30-year-old admitted using a stolen credit card at the Nice N Easy Grocery Shoppe in Montezuma. A second-felony offender, Joseph was in July sentenced to 3 1/2 to 7 years in prison in Ontario County for similar charges. Fandrich said Joseph's sentence in Cayuga County will run concurrent to his sentence in Ontario County, but consecutive to any other sentences his is currently serving with the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. Joseph was also ordered to pay restitution in the case. He will have one year to pay $111.42 to Key Bank and $54.73 plus 9 percent interest to the credit card owner. A Syracuse woman has been sentenced for attempting to smuggle synthetic drugs into Auburn prison. Deborah Wheeler, 56, was initially charged with two felony counts of promoting prison contraband for bringing more than three grams of Molly a refined form of Ecstasy to Auburn Correctional Facility in January. According to her attorney, Daniel Welch, Wheeler's son coerced her to bring the drugs to him in prison. "She ultimately succumbed to pressures from her son," he said. "She regrets what she did." Wheeler, of 320 North Midler Ave., pleaded guilty in May to a reduced charge of attempted introduction of prison contraband. Fandrich sentenced her Tuesday to five years probation on the condition that she does not correspond with or visit anyone at a correctional facility during that time. Despite mounting concerns, federal inquiries and underwhelming performance results, Gov. Cuomo and his staff continue to tell New Yorkers that the states economic development programs are strong and successful. Its one thing to stay on message, but its quite another to be stuck in a fantasy. The administrations continued denials of reality were on display this week in Albany. On Wednesday, Howard Zemsky, head of the Empire State Development Corp. (ESDC), testified before members of the Assembly Committee on Economic Development regarding START-UP NY and other state-administered job programs, amid concerns about everything from inflated job creation numbers to dismal returns on investment. Mr. Zemsky compared the hearing to torture not a surprising mindset from an administration that routinely fails to be transparent or forthcoming with information. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT SPINNING IS OUT OF CONTROL After Wednesdays hearing, the governor said, It is inarguable that the states economic development efforts are working. Apparently the governors definition of working is dramatically different from mine. A quick look at some of the recent headlines generated by state-administered programs does not show an effective effort: Initially touted as a game changing initiative, the START-UP NY program has produced a paltry 408 jobs in its first two years; The state has spent $53 million in public money on advertising to promote START-UP NY, which amounts to $130,000 for every job created; The Buffalo Billion project, aimed at revitalizing Buffalo and the surrounding municipalities, is under federal investigation by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara amid concerns of corruption and bid-rigging; The governor has hired an outside investigator which could cost taxpayers up to $450,000 to review potential issues in the Buffalo Billion project and other economic development initiatives; State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli recently released a scathing audit of ESDCs Excelsior Jobs Program, chastising the agency for failing to verify if companies have met job-creation obligations to receive tax breaks; the audit also reveals that ESDC lowered job-creation figures for companies in order to maintain eligibility for tax breaks; The attorney generals office is investigating SUNY Polytechnic Institutes dormitory project alleged bid-rigging; and Near Syracuse, payments to contractors and vendors on yet another SUNY Polytechnic Institute project have been delayed at a state-funded manufacturing plant. It is no wonder that Assembly members from both sides of the political aisle expressed skepticism with the performance and processes of the states economic development programs. These are some of the reasons why the Assembly Minority Conference has sponsored legislation (A.10531, Oaks) that dramatically increases the level of accountability, transparency and efficiency coming from economic development agencies. TIME TO FOCUS ON HARSH REALITIES, NOT PERCEPTIONS The governor and his staff have expressed pride and promise in their initiatives, even in the face of mounting criticism and chaos. But, the promotional tour needs to end. New Yorkers deal with reality, not perceptions. For years, New York taxpayers have listened to deceptive rhetoric insisting things are far better than reality. It is time for a complete overhaul of the governors headline-grabbing policies, which are almost always aimed at boosting his reputation rather than the states economy. The people elected public servants to work to promote their interests, not spend their hard-earned money on gimmicks and games. What do you think? I want to hear from you. Send me your feedback, suggestions and ideas regarding this or any other issue facing New York State. You can always contact my district office at (315) 781-2030, email me at kolbb@assembly.state.ny.us, find me by searching for Assemblyman Brian Kolb on Facebook, and follow me on Twitter. City Makrina A. Donch, 22, 34 Hockeborne Ave., Auburn, was charged Aug. 8 with first-offense DWI and aggravated DWI. County Branden C. Hackett, 27, Jordan, was charged July 28 with third-degree burglary. Donna S. Haugan, 46, Moravia, was charged July 31 with fifth-degree arson and endangering the welfare of a child. Aurthur W. Barron, 32, Moravia, was charged Aug. 1 with third-degree unlawful possession of personal ID, third-degree identity theft and petit larceny. Sherman W. Barker, 34, Throop, was charged Aug. 3 with third-degree menacing, fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon, third-degree assault and criminal obstruction of breathing or blood circulation. Jeffrey M. Blaisdell, 36, Auburn, was charged Aug. 3 with second-degree criminal contempt. Rebecca A. Gonyeau, 45, Victory, was charged Aug. 3 with second-degree criminal trespass. Christopher T. Quaile, 35, Locke, was charged Aug. 5 with failure to report a change of address as a sex offender. State Zachary D. Abbott, 26, Hannibal, was charged Aug. 8 with criminal mischief. Dylan J. Green, 22, Sterling, was charged Aug. 8 with criminal mischief and first-degree criminal contempt. The Chattanooga Community Kitchen is asking for donations of bottled water as well as reusable bottles. "As our area continues to battle drought conditions, there are many who struggle to survive in the extreme heat. As an agency focused on meeting the needs among the homeless and needy in our community, we are conducting this drive. "While the winter months present serious health issues, there are just as many concerns during the summer with the threat of exposure to sun and heat, which can lead to heat stroke, dehydration, and other health-related conditions. "As many facing homelessness often have to walk from place to place, it is incredibly important that they have access to water as well as an air-conditioned place to escape the heat. In addition to offering basic services such as food, clothing, shelter, and employment programs, the Community Kitchen also offers an air-conditioned space where many can find relief from extreme weather conditions," officials said. The Community Kitchen will accept donations of water and reusable bottles, as well as other donations, seven days a week from 7 a.m.-5 p.m. They are located at 727 East 11th St. Richmont Graduate University has garnered accreditation from the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs. CACREP is the highest form of accreditation to counseling programs, denoting excellence in academic and clinical performance. A SACS-accredited university since 2003, Richmont received news of the additional accreditation last month after 3 years of extensive evaluation of its academic and clinical training programs. Richmont President Bob Rodgers said, Richmont is proud to have its unique blend of professional excellence with Christian service approved by CACREP. This accreditation lends additional credibility to Richmonts already outstanding reputation in the clinical counseling field."CACREP is specialized within the world of accreditation to assess graduate programs in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, signaling that the programs content and quality have been evaluated to meet strict standards set by the profession. Choosing a CACREP-accredited school assures students they will gain the knowledge and experience necessary for licensure and clinical success in most states. Degrees granted by universities with CACREP accreditation lead to a smoother path toward licensure for new therapists all over the country," officials said.With the job market for mental health counselors projected to grow at more than twice the pace of the average growth for all occupations in the U.S., quality education for professional counselors has never been more important, said Dr. Vanessa Snyder, dean of Clinical Affairs. Dr. Snyder has returned from leading a Trauma Team from Richmont to assist Syrian refugees and relief workers in camps in Greece. Sandra Jo Woods Allen, 73, died on August 8, 2016. Sandra was born in Chattanooga, on October 31, 1942, the daughter of the late George and Frances Woods. She was also preceded in death by her sister, Martha Jean Woods Wardlaw and grandson, Joshua Blake Allen. Sandra graduated from Central High School in 1960 where she was a head cheerleader and president of The Night Owls social club and where she met and later married the love of her life, Don Allen, on June 17, 1961. She attended the University of Chattanooga. After 22 years of dedicated service, Sandra retired from the Hamilton County Chancery Court in 2002. She was an avid fan of the Atlanta Falcons, Braves, and Hawks and loved NASCAR, especially Dale Earnhart Jr. She was an active member of Ridgedale Baptist Church and the Open DoorSunday School Class, bringing her warm and welcoming spirit every Sunday. She was a faithful member of the Womens Bible Study group and demonstrated her selfless service to others by volunteering weekly at Volunteers in Medicine. Sandra was a kind and dearly loved wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. She had a loving and generous heart, and was always giving to others. She loved and served her Lord faithfully and lived comforted by His word in John 3:16, For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life and Romans 8:38-39, For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. She is survived by her best friend and loving husband of 55 years, Don L. Allen Sr., and sons, Donald, (Donnie) Allen Jr. and Lee Robert (Bobby) Allen. Grandchildren include Donald L. (Lee) Allen III, Taylor Lee Allen, Noah Robert Allen, Courtney Brook Allen, and two great grandchildren. Pallbearers will be Ron Priddy, Ken Wilkerson, Robert Wardlaw, Jessie Wardlaw, Taylor Allen, and Noah Allen with the members of the Open Door Class and The Night Owls social club serving as honorary pallbearers. Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 11, at Ridgedale Baptist Church with Dr. Doug Plumlee officiating. Interment will follow in Varnell Cemetery. The family will receive friends from 37 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 10, at the Valley View Chapel of Chattanooga Funeral Home, 7414 Old Lee Highway, Chattanooga, TN 37421 and from 1011 a.m. on Thursday at Ridgedale Baptist Church, 1831 Hickory Valley Road, Chattanooga, TN 37421. In lieu of flowers memorial contributions may be made to Volunteers in Medicine at vim-chatt.org, VIM, P.O. Box 81057, Chattanooga, TN 37414 or Bibles in the Schools atwww.biblesintheschools.com , P.O. Box 4228, Chattanooga, TN 37405. Please share your thoughts and memories online atwww.ChattanoogaValleyViewChape l.com Arrangements are by Chattanooga Funeral Home, Crematory & Florist, Valley View Chapel, 7414 Old Lee Highway, Chattanooga, TN 37421. Your furry friend may be part of your family, but taking him on your next family vacation could be a tall order if you plan to travel by air. As many a pet parent has discovered, every airline has different rules about air travel for pets, which means flying with pets can be a logistical nightmare, especially if theyre too big to travel in the cabin with you. Horror stories of lost pets and cats and dogs dying in flight arent likely to quell the fears of anxious pet owners. Nor are warnings from organizations like the Humane Society of the United States and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals discouraging air travel for pets likely to ease peoples concerns. The Humane Society recommends that you not transport your pet by airplane unless absolutely necessary. If possible, the Humane Society urges you to drive to your destination rather than fly, and if thats not an option, bring your pet with you in the cabin rather than putting him in the cargo hold. If youre planning a vacation, it may simply be best to leave your pet at home. Unfortunately, leaving your pet behind or driving to your destination arent always viable options, and if your pet weighs more than 20 pounds, he or she generally wont be able to travel in a carrier that fits under the seat in front of you. Pet owners with larger dogs or animals that arent permitted in the cabin (say, snakes and birds) have no choice but to transport them in the belly of the plane. That certainly makes travel more difficult, but its generally both feasible and safe, provided youre organized and prepared, say experts. Absolutely, its safe there are thousands of animals that are transported daily with no issue, Jeni Redmond, the owner of PetsFly.com, told The Cheat Sheet. Unfortunately, you only hear about the bad incidents. Preparation and planning ahead are key if you hope to enjoy a successful journey with your pet. Waiting until a few days before you leave to make arrangements is a mistake, Redmond said, since there are so many different issues to be aware of. Each airline has different rules, even when [pets] are traveling in the cabin, each state has different rules, each country has different rules, Redmond said. Know all the rules before you go. Delta, for example, wont allow pets in the cargo hold of certain planes, nor will they accept certain breeds. If youre traveling on American, the airline only allows checked pets to connect through certain cities. The U.S. Department of Agriculture prohibits the transport of pets if the temperature is above 85 degrees Fahrenheit or below 45 degrees Fahrenheit. Airlines may also have rules about the size of the carrier or the age of the animal theyll accept. Given the number of issues to be aware of, Redmond recommends working with a professional pet transport company to coordinate travel. The International Pet and Animal Transportation Association has an online directory you can use to find a pet shipper near you. Experienced pet relocation services can advise you from A to Z, Redmond said, including working with airlines and handling any issues, such as flight delays, that arise along the way. When it comes to preparing your pet for his trip and keeping him safe and healthy, getting him used to his kennel is essential since that will minimize stress. The Humane Society also suggests always choosing nonstop flights, making sure the crate is clearly labeled and your pet has proper identification, not feeding your pet in the 4 to 6 hours before the flight, clipping your pets nails to keep them from getting hooked on the carrier door, and not giving your pet tranquilizers unless prescribed by a vet. Avoiding hectic travel seasons like the Christmas holidays can also reduce the chances of something going wrong while in transit. Owners of snub-nosed, or brachycephalic, animals, such as bulldogs, Boston terriers, pugs, and Persian cats, need to be especially cautious when flying. These animals are more likely to have difficulty breathing during a flight, which can lead to their death. The risk is so great that some airlines wont even allow them to fly unless theyre in the cabin. Its much more challenging to get them transported, Redmond said of those breeds. Flying with exotic pets, such as turtles or snakes, can also pose a challenge, Redmond said, since there are different rules and regulations that may apply to these animals. Pet snakes arent permitted in Hawaii, for example, which also has strict quarantine regulations to prevent the introduction of rabies. If youre traveling internationally, you need to be prepared to deal with regulations at your destination. Some countries, such as Australia, require certain veterinary requirements to be met as much as 6 or 9 months prior to entry, Redmond said. As far as which airline is safest for pets, its difficult to say. The U.S. DOT does track deaths and injuries to pets that occur on major airlines. In 2015, 35 pets died, 25 were injured, and 3 were lost. Alaska, Delta, and United experienced the most incidents, but without knowing how many pets those carriers flew overall, its hard to draw clear conclusions about whether one airline does a better job of handling pets than others. Yet in general, the number of deaths and injuries to pets while flying is fairly low, which should provide some peace of mind to worried pet owners. Most of the cargo handlers and people who are handling the pets are pet lovers, and they handle them with care, said Redmond. Follow Megan on Twitter @MeganE_CS Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a lithium-ion battery made entirely of solid material: it contains neither liquids nor gels. The battery cannot ignite, even at very high temperatures, giving it a safety advantage over conventional batteries. In addition, they allow new forms of battery design. Lithium-ion batteries store a lot of energy in a small space, making them the energy source of choice for mobile electronic devices. Today, mobile phones, laptops, e-bikes and electric cars are all powered by such batteries. Researchers at ETH Zurich have now developed a type of battery that, unlike conventional ones, consists entirely of solid chemical compounds and is non-flammable. Conventional lithium-ion batteries are not without their dangers: mobile phone batteries have exploded several times in the past, resulting in injuries, and only six months ago an entire row of houses burned down in the old town of Steckborn on Lake Constance. The blaze was caused by a model-making battery that allegedly caught fire due to being charged improperly. Solid-state batteries can be heated In conventional lithium-ion batteries as well in most other batteries, the positive and negative poles the two electrodes are made of solid conductive compounds; charges move between these electrodes in a liquid or gel electrolyte. If you charge such a battery improperly (overcharging) or leave it sitting out in the sun, the liquid can ignite or the gel can swell up. This is not the case with solid-state batteries, which are currently in development in research laboratories worldwide: in these types of batteries, both the electrodes and the intermediary electrolyte are made of solid material. "Solid electrolytes do not catch fire even when heated to high temperatures or exposed to the air," explains Jennifer Rupp, who, as Professor of Electrochemical Materials at ETH Zurich, is leading the development of this new type of battery. Research at the interface One of the challenges in developing solid-state batteries is to connect the electrodes and electrolyte in such a way that the charges can circulate between them with as little resistance as possible. The ETH researchers have now developed an improved electrode-electrolyte interface. In the laboratory, they constructed a sandwich-like battery featuring a layer of lithium-containing compound (lithium garnet), which acts as a solid electrolyte between the two electrodes. Lithium garnet is one of the materials with the highest known conductivity for lithium ions. "During production, we made sure that the solid electrolyte layer obtained a porous surface," says Jan van den Broek, a master's student in Rupp's group and one of the authors of the study. The researchers then applied the material of the negative pole in a viscous form, allowing it to seep into the pores. Finally, the scientists tempered the battery at 100 degrees Celsius. "With a liquid or gel electrolyte, it would never be possible to heat a battery to such high temperatures," says van den Broek. Thanks to the trick with the pores, the researchers were able to significantly enlarge the contact area between the negative pole and the solid electrolyte, which ultimately means that the battery can be charged faster. Higher temperatures mean greater capacity Batteries produced like this could theoretically operate at a normal ambient temperature, says Semih Afyon, a former research scientist in Rupp's group, now a professor at the Izmir Institute of Technology in Turkey. But they work best at 95 degrees Celsius and above at the current development state. "The lithium ions can then move around better in the battery," says Afyon. This characteristic could be put to use in battery storage power plants, which store excess energy and deliver it later as needed. "Today, the waste heat that results from many industrial processes vanishes unused," says Afyon. "By coupling battery power plants with industrial facilities, you could use the waste heat to operate the storage power plant at optimal temperatures." New thin-film batteries "Many of today's solid-state battery research projects focus on improving the electrolytes," says Afyon. However, there are few studies such as this one, in which the scientists assembled an entire solid-state battery using methods also used in industrial production and tested it. "In this work we have for the first time built a whole lithium-ion battery with a solid lithium garnet electrolyte and a solid minus pole made of an oxide-based material. Thus, we have shown that it is possible to build whole batteries based on lithium garnet," says ETH Professor Rupp. Thanks to this solid electrolyte one can not only operate batteries at higher temperatures, but also build thin-film batteries, that can even be directly placed on silicon chips. "These thin-film batteries could revolutionise the energy supply of portable electronic devices," says Rupp. She and her team will pursue this approach in further research. To this end, they have also collaborated with industrial partners as well as with the Paul Scherrer Institute and with Empa. The immediate next step is to optimise the battery, with a particular focus on further increasing the conductivity of the electrode-electrolyte interface. Apart from plenty of naked skin, the visitors to this years Venus in Berlin will also meet numerous business guests in business clothing. The B2B side of the worlds largest erotic exhibition is booming: from October 13-16, 2016, more than 250 exhibitors will not only present their latest innovative products to consumers, but also to colleagues from the entire adult industry. See and be seen: when it comes to the international market, the Venus is the place to be. Business representatives from China, Island, Lichtenstein or the USA are showcasing the latest erotic features from all over the world at the exhibition. The Venus has especially expanded the B2B area with numerous companies from more than 40 different countries. Large number of manufacturers, marketers, traders and brands happily travel to Berlin every year, not least for the product presentation opportunities. Mystim CEO Christoph Hofmann said, There is nowhere better to present new products than at the Venus. The combination of media representation and customers is perfect. Apart from the attractive conditions for company presentation, the Venus anniversary also offers some of the best opportunities for meeting new contacts and strengthening existing relationships at the various evening events. The 20 years of Venus also stand for 20 years of successful international B2B. This year, the Venus will stage an exhibition party in the stylish PURO- Club. Above the rooftops of Berlin, exhibitors and customers alike will be able to relax after a successful Friday, and enjoy finger food, hot shows, free drinks and live music. This year, the exhibition will also expand the B2B section, not only in communication but also to be free from disturbances, creating more serious surroundings for business transactions. Hall 18 of the Venus is created to be very friendly for businesspeople that wish to present products. High ranking exhibitors such as Mystim, Fun Factory or Beate Uhse, and also sponsors like Baci Lingerie, Scala Playhouse, Rush Hour Berlin, Erotic Lounge, Eis.de, Spitzenjunge, Ego24.de, Reality Lovers or Vivishine, add to the extravagance of the exhibition with the huge variety of products. In this lounge area covering about 4,000 square meters, there can be found mostly B2B negotiators. Even when an audience is allowed in, there will be no shows or loud music within the business hall, which means that innovations and new products from the erotic industry can be explained and presented in a relaxing atmosphere. Buyers from all over the world can inform themselves about the most recent adult industry trends. A global presence coupled with simultaneous contact with industry representatives is what its about: exhibitors such as Fun Factory or Mystim only exhibit at the Venus. The Bremer design icon Fun Factory will please both guests from the B2B sector, but also consumers with their award winning silicone dildos. Innovationsfor example, thrusting instead of vibrating toys, the so-called pulsatorsare all part of the repertoire of this traditionally based company located on the banks of the Weser. Mystim also has big plans. For several years now, the Bavarian company has been upgrading the adult market with new and high quality E- Stim technology. For the anniversary event, the Venus will offer new special system exhibition stands in the B2B hall in a number of different sizes, ranging from 12 to 144 square meters. Furthermore, as far as advertising possibilities are concerned, companies will once again be given the chance to present themselves and their products in a more attractive manner. Exhibitors can optimize their exhibition presence with one of the five advertising packages, and by doing so, increase their visibility at and within the surroundings of the event. The sponsoring packages start from 1.000 Euro as the Basic category, increasing through Bronze, Silver and Gold, all the way to Platinum. The Venus also offers individual advertising opportunities. For example, companies can prominently feature their logo or products within the framework of the Venus Award ceremony. Every year the event is attended by numerous journalists. In 2016, large numbers of press representatives from all over the world and from print, online and TV media, have already announced their attendance. Every year more than 500 reporters attempt to capture the latest industry trends in their lenses. The large B2B area at the Venus is not only interesting for the specialized press, but also the boulevard press, because their readers have been interested in the huge selection of product innovations, even before 50 Shades of Grey. Further information can be found at Venus-Berlin.com. MBA programs at Chicago-area universities are increasingly pushing their students out of the classroom and into businesses or in front of customers. (Getty Images/iStockphoto) MBA students can be surprisingly uncomfortable when talking to customers in the real world, said Kellogg School of Management professor David Schonthal. But programs at Chicago-area universities are increasingly pushing their students out of the classroom and into businesses or in front of customers. Advertisement "When we first started teaching this way, I think it shocked a lot of people," he said. "The crazy thing is, that's exactly how business works, so why would we teach them any differently?" Problems businesses face aren't as cookie-cutter as they used to be, and can't always be solved by applying methods learned in case studies, university leaders say. Students need to work directly with companies to learn how to resolve issues that arise in today's economy. Advertisement MBA classes can act as consultants to companies looking to overcome specific challenges, and students work with Chicago-area companies ranging from small startups to worldwide firms. Although schools such as Kellogg at Northwestern University and the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago have been implementing experiential learning for years, professors and administrators are putting a heavier emphasis on it this school year. In some programs, like at the Illinois Institute of Technology, it's becoming the main event. When Schonthal started teaching at Kellogg four years ago, the idea of doing in-person market research was pretty alarming, he said. "MBA students that get into top universities, like Kellogg or University of Chicago, they're not used to failing," he said. "Even just getting them comfortable that the thing you put out into the world might not be the right thing that is a gigantic educational leap." But it appears things are changing. Nearly one in four graduate business students prefer experiential learning, according to a 2015 study from the Graduate Management Admission Council, the nonprofit organization that owns the widely administered Graduate Management Admissions Test, or GMAT. But that doesn't yet match up to how time is being spent, the study showed. Although it varies by program type, about 10 percent of time is spent on experiential learning, compared to case studies, which take up 23 percent of time, the study found. The case studies and lectures that traditionally dominated MBA classrooms just don't work anymore, said Krishna Erramilli, associate dean at Illinois Tech's Stuart School of Business. "Business problems have become a lot more unprecedented, a lot more complex," he said. "To train our students to be successful in the 21st century, they must be able to go into a company, look at that problem and analyze the problem from multiple functional perspectives." Advertisement Illinois Tech is launching an MBA program that will push students into real-world experiences. The school is partnering with the Chicago Innovation Awards on the two-year, accelerated MBA, which focuses on entrepreneurship and innovation. The 15 to 20 students in the first class will become members of Chicago Innovation Awards, which hosts events throughout the year connecting the business, tech and innovation communities. "The rate of obsolescence of knowledge is really high," said Erramilli, program director of the new MBA. "We see a lot of value in creating real-time knowledge, cutting-edge knowledge by throwing these students into these real-world experiences." Classes start later this month and will be held at Illinois Tech's West Loop campus on Saturdays to accommodate working professionals. Other universities are honing their focus on experiential learning as well. Loyola University Chicago wants to double the amount of disciplines eligible for MBA study-abroad programs, said Katherine Acles, assistant dean at the Quinlan School of Business. Those let students experience how companies operate abroad, she said. Booth has been teaching students through doing for years through its entrepreneurship programs like the New Venture Challenge and the Polsky Center of Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Now, the Polsky Center is expanding into a free-standing entity leaders hope will quicken time to market for students and faculty. Advertisement The Haas School of Business at the University of California-Berkeley made experiential learning a requirement for its MBA students six years ago, said Richard Lyons, Haas' dean. Schools must establish criteria for experiential learning, and realize that students don't learn from the experience, they learn from reflecting on the experience, he said. Implementing it is not easy. "It's expensive, it's high-touch, it's got a lot of logistics," Lyons said. "It's kind of easy to say, but when you are doing it, it's pretty serious. This is not throwing one more faculty member in front of one more lecture hall." amarotti@tribpub.com Twitter @allymarotti This content is supplied by JPMorgan Chase and produced by Tribune Content Solutions. The newsroom or editorial department of Tribune Publishing was not involved in its production. Some might believe a car crashing into a restaurant's dining room during the first night of service would be a negative omen, but Lou Malnati was hardly fazed when it happened to his Chicago-based business in 1971. Instead of panicking, he picked up the pieces, made repairs, and focused on serving up his unique pizza using a secret family recipe for a buttery and crisp crust. The rest is Chicago deep-dish history. When Lou passed away in 1978, his wife and their eldest son Marc stepped up to run the business and maintain quality and consistency. Today, Lou Malnati's Pizzeria is owned by Marc and his younger brother Rick, and serves customers at 13 full-service restaurants, two cafes, and 30 carryout and delivery locations throughout the Chicagoland area. Advertisement Valuing family and community Marc Malnati credits much of the business's success to his focus on customer satisfaction and to the passion and dedication of his second family - his employees. In fact, nearly 100 employees have worked in the company for over twenty years and another 200 employees have been with Lou Malnati's for over ten years. Advertisement Such dedication is a two-way street. Each Malnati's location brims with a true sense of family and reflects the character of the neighborhood it serves. The company's efforts to support the communities in which it does business are extensive. Each year, Malnati's sponsors and donates to a variety of local festivals and events, schools, charitable organizations and youth programs. Since 2006, the company has raised over $3m to aid in finding a cure for cancer. "We've built a tremendous organization of people who really care about putting the best product on the table every single time and serving the community well," Marc Malnati says. "I want people to look at Malnati's and say, 'They've really made an impact on the Chicagoland community.'" Take out way out! Malnati's is a household name in Chicago, but it has built a following far beyond. Today, those craving deep-dish pizza nationwide can have Malnati's pizza shipped to them through the company's Tastes of Chicago mail-order division. Later this year, the company will open its first out-of-state location, in Phoenix, Arizona, a city many Chicagoans move to in retirement. From replicating the water to relocating five members of the Chicago management team to oversee operations, to shipping ingredients to Phoenix, Malnati's team is going to great lengths to ensure its pizza and other menu items taste exactly as they do in Chicago. Strategy: The recipe for success To help manage Malnati's strategic growth, Marc began working with JPMorgan Chase in 2009. Together, they designed a plan to help the business expand. "As Malnati's primary bank, we're able to support the company as it grows its real estate loan portfolio and provide additional credit for working capital when they need it," says Sarah V., Malnati's commercial banker at JPMorgan Chase. Because Lou Malnati's values building roots in the communities in which it operates, it prefers to buy properties instead of lease. Working with JPMorgan Chase has been instrumental in making that happen. In 2014, when Malnati was ready to open three sit-down restaurants over the course of that year something the company had never done before Marc knew he could count on the bank to provide the capital needed to expand. Malnati's commitment to being an integral part of Chicago's neighborhoods reflects its desire to always look for ways to better communities. That outlook will always be the recipe for the company's success LONDON Behind each of the four big players in the U.S. airline industry - American, United, Delta and Southwest - there is a tangled computer system pieced together after decades of mergers that married mismatched networks. Just what went wrong with Delta Air Lines' system Monday that caused hundreds of cancellations and delays is still being sorted out. Was it a power outage, as Delta says? Or was it more likely an internal computer glitch, as Georgia Power, the utility at Delta's Atlanta hub, says? In either case, aviation and computer specialists say, it shouldn't have happened. Computer systems and their electric power sources should have foolproof backups, they say. Tens of thousands of passengers were delayed as Delta canceled 451 of its nearly 6,000 daily flights by mid-afternoon Monday. The airline warned that more cancellations and delays were likely to follow as it struggled to revive its computer network. But there may be more of the same airline problems in the months to come as long-term reverberations follow a tumultuous decade of mergers that swiftly consolidated the industry. "These [remaining] airlines have long histories: 20 years of cobbled-together systems," said Rick Seaney, creator of FareCompare.com, a travel website. "It's difficult to integrate older technology. They have hundreds and hundreds of cobbled-together things that they have to track down to make sure everything is working correctly." Delta Air Lines passengers stand in line in Salt Lake City, Utah, after flights resumed Monday following the airline's computer outage that canceled and delayed hundreds of flights. (Rick Bowmer/Associated Press) Before Monday, the most recent evidence of airline computer system problems came last month, when Southwest Airlines needed several days to fully recover from a collapse in its systems that resulted in more than 2,300 cancellations and 8,000 late flights. Last summer, a United Airlines computer glitch forced the cancellation of dozens of flights and delayed hundreds more. Southwest absorbed a new and different computer system when it acquired AirTran six years ago. Southwest is investing millions of dollars in the creation of a computer system to replace its aging network. American Airlines, which finalized its merger with US Airways last year, is working hard to marry the two systems. "American's about to, in the next month-and-a-half or two, start to integrate US Airways systems," Seaney said. "Typically, when you're trying to do a cut-over like that, you pick a weekend when you have slow traffic just in case you have glitches." Since the turn of the century, American has absorbed TWA. US Airways merged with America West, then with American. Delta merged with Northwest. United merged with Continental. Bijan Vasigh, a professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida, said it may be time for airlines to invest in totally new computer systems to replace the patchwork networks now in place. "The cost [of Monday's shutdown] should be huge for Delta Air Lines," he said "I'm sure that they will try to revisit this issue." Advertisement Airlines rely on their computer systems to manage a number of operations, including obvious elements, such as reservations and ticketing, and behind-the- scenes management of plane movement, gate assignments, air crew scheduling and even the displays on arrival-departure screens at many airports. Delta's computer system failure came at the height of the summer travel season and on a Monday when many business travelers head to airports to begin their workweek. But Vasigh pointed out that it could have been worse. "Imagine if this event had happened during Thanksgiving or Christmas; this would be catastrophic for the airline," Vasigh said. "Recapturing those passengers and accommodating them would be a nightmare." But the failure of computer software or the loss of electrical power should not cripple an airline, specialists agreed. "Anytime you have a systemwide outage, it either has to be one of the core systems or some sort of networking glitch," Seaney said. "All computer systems have redundancy. Typically, almost all companies - especially if you have credit card data - are required to be spread out, sometimes across different countries, to make sure that basically [their network] never goes down." They also have backup power, he said. "If you have any sort of critical infrastructure, you have gasoline-powered backups for at least 24 hours," Seaney said. "Typically, what you have is two or three hours of battery backup and another 24 to 48 hours of gasoline-powered backup." Delta said its computers stopped working at 2:30 a.m. Monday. Shortly before 9 a.m., the airline lifted a self-imposed ground stop and began resuming limited operations, but it told passengers: "If your flight is canceled or significantly delayed, you are entitled to a refund. Even if your flight is not canceled, you may make a one-time change to your ticket without fee." In a later statement, the airline said, "We are aware that flight status systems, including airport screens, are incorrectly showing flights on time." Ed Bastian, Delta's chief executive, issued a video apology to the airline's passengers, saying people were working "around the clock" to restore operations. Quick-service Italian chain Fazoli's is planning to open two new restaurants in the Chicago area next year as part of a big nationwide expansion. The Kentucky-based chain said it is scouting locations southwest of the city, including Tinley Park, Oak Lawn, Burbank and Orland Park. The first location is slated to open next spring, and the second is expected to open in fall 2017, according to CEO Carl Howard. Advertisement Currently, the company's closest location to Chicago is in Valparaiso, Ind. It also has Illinois locations in Normal and Champaign. Fazoli's menu is focused on pasta, with most dishes around $7. It also offers pizza, sandwiches and salads. Advertisement The company said it's considering expanding further in the area eventually. Howard said the Chicago-area market could hold 25 restaurants, "but we need to get the first few done right." In total, it plans to open 22 new restaurants across the country after a year of strong sales growth. sbomkamp@chicagotribune.com Twitter @SamWillTravel The Tribune Tower on Michigan Avenue was built in 1925 and houses the Chicago Tribune and other businesses. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune) The sale of Newsday and the Cubs under Sam Zell may be coming back to haunt Tribune Media. Tribune Media in the second quarter took a $193 million tax charge connected to Zell's 2008 sale of Newsday, the company said Tuesday. Advertisement The $650 million deal to sell the New York newspaper to Cablevision was structured as a leveraged partnership rather than an outright sale as a way to avoid capital gains taxes. The Internal Revenue Service challenged that strategy, as well as the 2009 sale of the Cubs, and Tribune Media could be on the hook for more than $500 million in assessments, penalties and interest on the two transactions. Chicago-based Tribune Media said it expects to settle with the IRS on the Newsday transaction in the second half of 2016. Advertisement "We believe the reserve will be sufficient to cover all net payments resulting from a potential resolution," Tribune Media CEO Peter Liguori said during an earnings call Tuesday morning. "Given the strong liquidity of our balance sheet, these actions will have no impact on our ongoing business." Tribune Media ended the second quarter with about $367 million in cash and $3.5 billion in debt. The $845 million sale of the Cubs to the Ricketts family also was structured as a leveraged partnership, but Tribune Media plans to challenge the IRS in tax court over any potential liabilities, the company said Tuesday. The tax strategy used in both deals relied on a decision Zell made to take Tribune Media, then known as Tribune Co., private in 2007 as an S-Corp ESOP, a Subchapter S corporation owned by an employee stock ownership plan. Because an ESOP is a retirement vehicle, the structure eliminates corporate income tax, according to tax experts. The IRS didn't buy the arrangement and notified the company of tax deficiencies in both transactions. In 2013, Tribune disclosed it could owe an additional $273 million on the Newsday sale, and $225 million on the Cubs sale. Tribune Media said none of the tax liability will fall on Tronc, formerly Tribune Publishing, the company that was formed when it spun off its newspaper properties. The Newsday tax charge led to a second quarter loss of $161.6 million, or $1.76 per share. Tribune Media lost $3.3 million, or 4 cents per share, during the same quarter last year. On an adjusted basis, Tribune Media had a net income of 42 cents a share, slightly above consensus estimates. Revenue for the quarter was up 5 percent to $526.1 million, driven by an increase in political advertising at its 42 television stations. Advertisement Tribune Media saw "substantial progress" in monetizing its $1 billion real estate portfolio during the quarter, Liguori said. The company said that the Times Mirror Square building and Olympic printing plant in Los Angeles are under contract with nonrefundable deposits, and are expected to close in the third quarter. Tribune Media has sold six smaller properties for about $90 million this year. Los Angeles-based developer CIM Group is the front-runner to buy Tribune Tower in Chicago, offering between $240 million and $260 million for the Michigan Avenue landmark, according to sources familiar with discussions. CIM is partnered with Chicago developer Golub & Co. on the Tribune Tower bid, sources said. Tribune Media spun off its publishing division including the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and other daily newspapers in August 2014, retaining the broadcasting business and real estate portfolio. rchannick@chicagotribune.com Twitter @RobertChannick Often times, its better to not press send on a tweet. This was one of those times. NBC announcer Al Trautwig said on Monday that he regrets a tweet he sent out regarding the adoptive mother and father of Simone Biles, one of the biggest stars on the U.S. gymnastics team during the 2016 Rio Olympics. Trautwig did not refer to Ron and Nellie Biles as Simones parents in a tweet. NBC would have Trautwig delete the tweet after backlash. Trautwig backtracked on Monday, per the Associated Press: To set the record straight, Ron and Nellie are Simones parents. The details of the tweet, from the Associated Press: A woman on Twitter then urged Trautwig to stop calling Ron and Nellie her grandfather and his wife. They are her parents, she wrote. But Trautwig replied in his since-deleted tweet: They may be mom and dad but they are NOT her parents. That seems like a very odd fight for somebody to pick, and just wrong. Thats exactly how Chuck Johnson, president and CEO of the National Council for Adoption, described it to the Associated Press: If they are parenting her thats what a parent does dont diminish the role by calling them something other than her parents. Some of us would find that offensive. It seems here NBC took the appropriate actions at the very minimum. To diminish the care that somebody took for a child in their upbringing by trying to say that they arent the parents is irresponsible, and downright silly. The Olympics is a global platform, and some of the sacrifices parents played in getting their kids there are greater than most could even comprehend. [AP] Hacienda de Chihuahua makes several sotols, including this plata version, the youngest type. Try it on its own, when tasting for the first time. (Michael Tercha / Chicago Tribune) Tequila, popular in margaritas since the '30s or '40s, has gotten a big boost in recent years, as premium and lately artisan versions have moved in. Its cousin mezcal recently has come into its own, with long lists of brands showing up on restaurant lists and with mezcalerias (bars that specialize in the spirit) spreading from a boom in Texas to other parts of the country. That includes Chicago, with Mezcaleria Las Flores and the upcoming Quiote by Dan Salls. Now sotol, another Mexican spirit, is showing up here and there, though it's still far from commonly available. Binny's carries only Hacienda de Chihuahua. Flor del Desierto, another major brand, launches in Chicago this summer. Advertisement What is sotol? The word comes from "tzotolin," its name in Nahuatl, the language of the ancient Aztecs, and it refers to both the plant and the beverage made from the plant. Sotol was once thought to be an agave, the plant used to produce tequila and mezcal. It wasn't until the 1990s, according to Ricardo Pico, Hacienda de Chihuahua brand ambassador, that botanists concluded that sotol was not technically an agave but rather a dasylirion. Agave and sotol are, however, in the same plant order, Asparagales, which also contains vanilla, garlic and asparagus. Sotol plants, used to make the spirit of the same name, grow in Chihuahua, Mexico. (Angeli DiCreta) Henry J. Bruman, in his wonderful 2000 book "Alcohol in Ancient Mexico," recounts the many alcoholic beverages that Mexican peoples produced from a wide range of wild plants, including saguaro, mesquite and sotol. People in the northern Mexican states, such as Chihuahua and Durango, would sometimes eat sotol's bulbous roots, which contain nutrients that can be converted to alcohol. Like tequila and mezcal, sotol is now produced by steaming or fire-roasting the root to release sugars, which are then mixed with water, fermented and distilled. Advertisement Sotol roots are usually harvested after the plant has been growing for many years, giving it time to absorb the terroir. Sotol is generally somewhat grassier and more herbal than tequila or mezcal, and where the plant grows definitely affects the taste. "Sotols that grow in forested areas tend to have a greener flavor," says Pico, "while those that grow in the more desert areas of northern Mexico have a mineral flavor." The best way to try it is on its own, says E. Ismael Gomez of Laika Spirits, who will be bringing Flor del Desierto to Chicago. "I always recommend that this spirit be sipped neat in order to appreciate the complexity and nuances," he says. "In Chihuahua, many people have it straight with a just slice of apple and beef jerky." When you're ready for a drink, head to Masa Azul (2901 W. Diversey Ave.), where Jason Lerner mixes a Sotol Cola: 1 1/2 ounces of sotol, 1 ounce lime and 1 ounce Hum, a botanical spirit developed by Chicago's Adam Seger, all topped off with Mexican Coca-Cola. To Lerner, using Mexican Coke is critical because it's made with real sugar, rather than high fructose corn syrup. Regular Coke tends to dominate the flavor profile, while Mexican Coke, he says, "lets the flavor of sotol come through." David Hammond is a freelance writer. food@chicagotribune.com Follow us on Twitter @chitribfood. He may have started out as the original "nobody nobody sent," but Abner Mikva was sent off in grand style Monday at a memorial service where he was feted by a crowd of political heavyweights including a Supreme Court justice and the president of the United States. Elena Kagan and Barack Obama were two of the big shots who told a packed crowd at the Spertus Institute's Feinberg Theater that he helped send them on their way in public life. Advertisement And Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland was one of several speakers so moved by the memory of Mikva's legendary kindness and decency that he choked up on stage. The event came a month after Mikva a uniquely beloved former congressman, federal appellate court judge and White House counsel died at the age of 90. Best-known for his classic Chicago story of being turned away as an idealistic young man from volunteering at the 8th Ward office of the Democratic Party in 1948 by a stogie-wielding committeeman who informed him "we don't want nobody nobody sent," he was fondly remembered Monday for his wisdom, generosity and disarming wit. Advertisement "He was a real mensch," said Garland, who volunteered for one of Mikva's congressional races in the 1970s and later followed him in becoming chief judge of the federal appellate circuit in Washington. Garland recalled with embarrassment how, instructed by Mikva to drive advice columnist Margo Howard the daughter of the famous Ann Landers from downtown to a campaign event in Skokie, he had "got lost" and "run out of gas" after leaving the A/C running in his dad's Chevy. "By the time we arrived the event was over," said Garland, who added that he feared being fired over the mistake. Instead, with "a big smile" Mikva "put his arm around my shoulders and said 'Next time, start earlier and be sure you have a full tank of gas.' " Garland teared up as he recalled how, many years later, Mikva came to shiva for Garland's father's in 2000 and held Garland's mother's hand "for almost half an hour." "She never forgot that kindness," he said. "And nor did I." Abner Mikva, panel chair for the Admissions Review Commission, listens to the testimony by Keith Marshall, associate provost for enrollment management at University of Illinois, June 16, 2009, in Chicago. The commission is looking into the standards used to evaluate college applications and the influence of the politically connected. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune) In a lighter moment, former presidential adviser David Axelrod recalled when Mikva was informed of the death of notoriously corrupt former Illinois Secretary of State Paul Powell and asked whether he was surprised that Powell had been found with $800,000 in cash in shoeboxes in his hotel room. Mikva shot back, "only that the amount was so small." All three of Mikva's daughters and sons-in-law and seven of his grandchildren also spoke at the event, recalling how, unlike many parents, he delighted in provoking political and religious talk at the table. "I wanted to tell you that my father maintained to the very end that Monica Lewinsky seduced Bill Clinton," the middle daughter, Laurie, said of Mikva, who served in the Clinton administration. "But I have been instructed to talk about him as a dad and a husband!" Advertisement Perhaps the loudest applause of the day was for Christopher Butler, one of thousands of youths encouraged to become community leaders through the Mikva Challenge, the civic leadership program founded by Mikva and his widow Zoe. "At the end of the day, life really is a lot easier when somebody does send you," Butler said of the boost Mikva's support gave him. "We can all be somebody the Abner Mikva sent." Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. > That was a sentiment echoed by Obama, who sent a video message in which he thanked "my dear friend" Mikva for mentoring him early in his career. "Ab wasn't content simply to leave his own mark, which was extraordinary; he wanted to help others leave theirs, as well," Obama said. "That's why he inspired so many young people, including me, to pursue public service, to get in there, to make a difference." Kagan, who was a law clerk for Mikva and got four of her first five adult jobs thanks to his help, may owe him even more. Making an apparent reference to the speech given at the Democratic National Convention by the father of fallen Muslim Army officer Humayun Khan, she said that until recently, Mikva was the only person she knew who carried a copy of the Constitution in his pocket. In the White House, Kagan said Mikva was known to "brandish" the Constitution at staff, and ask them "Do you know what the Constitution says? It says the president can do this," or, on other occasions, "It says the president cannot do this." Advertisement Along with slices of cheesecake, mourners at a reception after the memorial were handed pocket-size Constitutions as keepsakes and guides. kjanssen@chicagotribune.com Twitter @kimjnews Patti Blagojevich reacts to the upholding of a 14-year prison sentence for her husband, former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, on Aug. 9, 2016. (Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune/Chicago Tribune) Moments after learning his bid to reduce his 14-year sentence had failed, Rod Blagojevich stood alone in a stark prison room in Colorado on Tuesday while his family sobbed in a Chicago courtroom a thousand miles away. Dressed in blue prison garb and with his famously jet-black hair now grayish-white, the former governor, appearing on a flickering closed-circuit television screen, shook his head and collapsed in his seat. He could hear his wife, Patti, and young daughters crying in the courtroom gallery, but he couldn't see them because the camera was still pointed at the judge's bench. Advertisement Finally, after the courtroom cleared of spectators, the camera was swiveled so the family could talk briefly face-to-face. A haggard-looking Blagojevich managed a smile and thanked his daughters for their impassioned pleas for mercy to U.S. District Judge James Zagel. "I heard what you said," he told them. "Thank you. You looked so nice." Advertisement The gray-haired former Gov. Rod Blagovich is seen in a courtroom sketch Aug. 9, 2016, on TV from prison in Colorado at his resentencing hearing at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago. (Cheryl A. Cook / Chicago Tribune) The moment marked a quiet conclusion to a legal saga that began when FBI agents rousted Blagojevich from bed on a December morning nearly eight years ago. The well-chronicled story has included his dramatic impeachment, a bizarre turn on Donald Trump's "Celebrity Apprentice," two criminal trials, an appeal and now a sentencing do-over. Saying Blagojevich's corruption diminished the public's "already taxed faith" in its elected leaders, Zagel put an emphatic point on the end of the case by imposing the same sentence he had in 2011. The judge did so even though Blagojevich apologized for his "mistakes," claiming to be a changed man and model prisoner. Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 10 Patti Blagojevich, left, speaks to the media along with daughters Annie, center, and Amy after the resentencing of her husband on Aug. 9, 2016, at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune) "I do not doubt that he is a loving father and that his children miss him deeply in his absence," Zagel said in announcing his decision in a packed courtroom. "But as I said four years ago, the fault lies in the governor." The decision means Blagojevich, 59, will almost certainly remain in prison until May 2024. It appeared to stun the ex-governor, whose face sunk into a deep frown once it became clear from the judge's remarks what the outcome would be. As Zagel spoke, Blagojevich's older daughter, Amy, 20, first rolled her eyes and then furiously shook her head. Seated on the other side of their mother, his younger daughter, Annie, 13, burst into tears. After court had adjourned, Amy cried out, "He stole my childhood!" and gestured toward Zagel's now-empty bench. Later, in the lobby of the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse, Blagojevich's wife, Patti, shook with anger as she spoke. "Quite frankly, I'm dumbfounded and flabbergasted," she told reporters. "This was unusually cruel and heartless and unfair. ... Somehow, we will get through this. We love Rod. And we'll be here for him as we continue to fight." Blagojevich was convicted in 2011 of misusing his powers as governor in an array of wrongdoing, including most notably his attempts to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama after his 2008 election as president. The conviction came less than a year after an initial trial ended with a jury deadlocked on all but one count of lying to the FBI, forcing the retrial. Last year, an appeals court threw out five counts involving the Senate seat sale on technical grounds. But the three-judge panel tempered the small victory for Blagojevich by calling the evidence against him "overwhelming" and making it clear that Zagel's original sentence was not out of bounds. Advertisement Legal experts had predicted that Zagel if anything might shave a year or two off the original sentence. But the judge was clear Tuesday that he gave little weight to arguments by Blagojevich's legal team that the case had fundamentally changed after the appellate court's ruling. "In the end, Judge Zagel remained steadfast in his view of the crimes and this defendant," said Jeffrey Cramer, a former federal prosecutor. Blagojevich's long-awaited day in court came nearly 4 1/2 years after he reported to the federal prison in suburban Denver. As reporters and spectators filed into Zagel's courtroom Tuesday, the video feed popped up on large screens showing Blagojevich sitting in a chair in a room with cinder block walls. Signal problems caused the image to flicker and blur, making it difficult at times for a clear view of Blagojevich's face. As he waited for the hearing to begin, he fidgeted with his hands and glanced nervously from side to side. As he had argued in court filings, Blagojevich's lawyer, Leonard Goodman told the judge that without the five counts, the remaining charges against the ex-governor were "significantly different," emphasizing that Blagojevich never profited from his actions. "We believe he is ready to come home," said Goodman, who asked Zagel to reduce Blagojevich's sentence to just five years, essentially meaning he would go free with time served. Advertisement Both of Blagojevich's daughters then read emotional pleas to the judge to let their father come home. Annie, now in eighth grade, said she talks every night with her father by phone, but it can't replace him being present in her life. When he went to prison, she said, she could barely play "Mary Had a Little Lamb" on the piano. Now she's playing Beethoven. "I almost don't want to grow up because I want to wait for him to come home," Annie said. Amy, who is in college, said it was difficult to stay connected with her dad or even to have private conversations with him during visits to prison. She said it "kills him" that he's never even met important people in her life, from new friends to college professors. "The longer my father is gone, the more and more estranged my sister and I become from him," she said. As his daughters spoke, Blagojevich appeared to choke up, putting a fist to his mouth and wincing. He smiled sadly as Annie spoke of her longing for the days when they "can be a big, happy family together again" eating popcorn while watching movies at night. In his 15 minutes of remarks, Blagojevich apologized for his "mistakes" but never specifically mentioned the crimes for which he was convicted. He said he wished he could turn back the clock, "but I know this is not possible." Advertisement "I recognize it was my actions and my words that led me here," Blagojevich said in a soft voice. "This can be a beginning to make amends for the past." The former governor also said it pains him that his actions have hurt his family and blamed himself for putting his loved ones in that predicament. Over the last 4 1/2 years behind bars, he said, he's become closer to God and found solace in helping fellow inmates. A history buff, he spoke specifically about President Abraham Lincoln and how his steady resolve leading the nation through the Civil War has been a source of inspiration for him. "In times of trouble and disaster, they don't have to be the end of things, they can also be the beginning," Blagojevich said. But prosecutors were not impressed, saying Blagojevich had not changed. In asking the judge to reimpose the 14 years, Assistant U.S. Attorney Debra Bonamici emphasized that he has never taken responsibility for the tarnish he brought to his office or shown true remorse. She pointed to federal wiretaps that captured Blagojevich as governor over and over talking about what he stood to gain from his crimes, including one conversation in which he talked about a lucrative deal that would get him "f------ out of Illinois." "As long as the defendant is unable or unwilling to accept responsibility for what he actually did and what he actually meant when he did it, there can be no rehabilitation," Bonamici said. Zagel said that he realized the suffering of Blagojevich's family and applauded him for being a model prisoner, but he noted that the former governor's conduct in prison was not as big a factor as the wrongdoing he committed while in office. Advertisement The judge referred to dozens of letters from fellow inmates praising Blagojevich but said the prisoners "know him only from the inside." The judge also rejected the argument that the case against Blagojevich was any weaker because of the five counts thrown out on appeal. Zagel said the governor engaged in a clear pattern of corruption that benefited him personally and politically. "He sees himself as less morally culpable, but I don't draw such a clear moral distinction," Zagel said. "As in many cases, political and personal gains were very much intermingled here." In making the case for a reduced sentence, Blagojevich's attorneys submitted a letter from Patti on the eve of the resentencing that said her husband calls every night from prison and that the family has visited him more than 20 times during his time in custody. Also writing letters of support were Blagojevich's sister-in-law, 33rd Ward Ald. Deborah Mell, who sat with Patti and the rest of the family during the sentencing, and former state Sen. Carol Ronen, D-Chicago. Blagojevich's brother, Robert, attended the sentencing hearing, traveling from his home near Nashville, Tenn., to support Rod, despite the fact the two have not spoken or seen each other for six years. Robert Blagojevich, who ran fundraising for his brother's campaign for four months during 2008, initially faced three corruption charges alongside his brother, but prosecutors dropped the charges after the first trial ended in a hung jury. After the hearing, Robert Blagojevich told reporters he was disappointed Zagel had decided to reimpose the 14-year term, then left the courthouse before the rest of the family came down to speak to the media. Advertisement Goodman said that Blagojevich could still ask the U.S. Supreme Court to take up his case now that the resentencing is over. A federal judge Tuesday imposed the same 14-year prison sentence on Rod Blagojevich. After the hearing, his brother Robert told reporters he thinks the sentence was too severe. Aug. 9, 2016. (WGN-TV) (Chicago Tribune) Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. > The move would be a long shot at best, however, especially considering the high court already declined to hear Blagojevich's case in March. Goodman was still addressing reporters when Patti Blagojevich and her daughters quietly stepped away from the microphones, weaving their way through the crowd to the courthouse exit and a horde of TV camera crews on the sidewalk before climbing into a waiting sedan. Across the street, attendees of the farmers market on the federal plaza turned to find the source of the commotion. "Let Rod go!" one man who realized what was happening yelled out. Chicago Tribune's Kim Janssen contributed. Advertisement jmeisner@chicagotribune.com poconnell@chicagotribune.com A Cook County judge refused to dismiss murder charges Tuesday in a decades-old slaying and instead set a trial date for a former Inverness woman who prosecutors say conspired to kill her husband. Jury selection is scheduled to begin Oct. 21 in the first-degree murder case against Jacquelyn Greco, whose husband, Carl Gaimari, was found shot to death during a home invasion 37 years ago. Advertisement Greco, 69, was arrested in 2013 after prosecutors said that during a recorded phone conversation with her sister, she implicated herself in the murder plot against her husband. Inverness detectives then interviewed Greco in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, where she was living, and she eventually admitted to knowing about a plot to kill her husband, though she told investigators she tried to stop it, according to court documents. In April 1979, two intruders entered the Gaimari home on Turkey Trail Road in Inverness, tied up his wife and three of their four children and went to the basement, where they shot Carl Gaimari with his own handguns, authorities said. He was a 34-year-old commodities trader at the time. Advertisement The intruders have never been identified. According to court records, Greco, who then went by Jacquelyn Gaimari, was having an affair with a Chicago police detective, and authorities allege she wanted her husband out of the way. Sam Greco, the Chicago officer, moved into the house within a week of Carl Gaimari's murder, according to court documents, and married Jacquelyn less than three months later, though the couple later divorced. Sam Greco, now retired from the police force, has not been charged in connection with Gaimari's murder. During Tuesday's pretrial hearing, assistant public defenders Caroline Glennon and Pete Benesh, who represent Jacquelyn Greco, argued that the case against her should be dismissed because of the length of time that has elapsed since the killing. They asserted that no new evidence has come to light other than the Greco's statements and that some of the older evidence has been lost or destroyed. The defense attorneys also said Greco would be unable to get a fair trial in Cook County, given the media attention the case has attracted. Assistant State's Attorney Ethan Holland countered that it wasn't until 2013 that authorities had documented evidence of the murder plot, leading to Greco's arrest. He noted there is no time limit on bringing charges in a murder case. Cook County Judge Marc Martin ruled in favor of the prosecution, saying the defense had not shown that the case against Greco was flawed enough to dismiss it. He also denied the motion for a change of venue, saying there had not been enough publicity about the case to warrant relocating the trial to another county. George Houde is a freelance reporter. Centegra Hospital workers participate in a drill involving a mock patient entering the ER with a heart condition Aug. 3, 2016, in Huntley. (John Konstantaras / Chicago Tribune) When the new Centegra Hospital opens Tuesday in far northwest suburban Huntley, its hundreds of employees and associates already will have practiced treating patients. Using volunteers to play the roles of patients, teams of nurses, emergency medical responders and other staff members have gone through a number of drills in preparation for the opening. The simulations have included the arrival and treatment of a 22-year-old woman with a cardiac emergency, a high-risk birth of twins and a knee replacement. Advertisement The clinical workers also have collaborated with information technology staff to make sure that vital information on each patient is shared efficiently among all departments. "The practices have been going great," Sheila Senn, Centegra Hospitals senior vice president and chief operating officer, said last week as mock "code blues" could be heard announced throughout the building. Advertisement The five-story, 128-bed hospital set on 110 acres employs nearly 500 and is the third new hospital to open in Illinois in the past 35 years. Centegra Hospital in Huntley will open Tuesday. (John Konstantaras / Chicago Tribune) Hospital officials said they were ready for opening day and were planning for a mass entrance at 6 a.m. Tuesday of all employees who are scheduled to work the first shift in the hospital. Patients can begin arriving an hour later. Procedures including a cardiac catheterization and a Cesarean-section birth already are scheduled for Tuesday. Hospital officials touted what they said were special features to make the building secure and environmentally friendly and to reduce the risk of infections spreading from patient to patient. Ambulances will be able to enter in an enclosed garage where the door automatically opens with the weight of the vehicle. Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. > The hospital also will partner with several colleges to offer training to nurses and other students in the medical and emergency response field. The property, surrounded by residential neighborhoods, was purchased in 2006. In 2008, Centegra, which also runs hospitals in McHenry and Woodstock, built a fitness center and an immediate care center on the Huntley site. In December 2010, Centegra filed an application for a certificate of need with the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board. Other area hospitals opposed Centegra's plan, arguing the area was well-served by existing facilities in Barrington, McHenry, Woodstock, Elgin and Harvard. Advertisement The Centegra plan became the subject of a thorny legal battle and needed four votes by the review panel before it was approved. One competing hospital group that opposed Centegra's plan, Mercy Health Systems, also had sought earlier to open a medical center nearby in Crystal Lake, but that was ultimately rejected amid a bribery scandal on the planning board that led eventually to the indictment of then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Coincidentally, Blagojevich is due to be resentenced for his corruption conviction Tuesday, the same day the hospital opens. Amanda Marrazzo is a freelance reporter. Tim Mapes, chief of staff to House Speaker Michael Madigan, talked about redistricting at a forum in Chicago on Aug. 8, 2016. He's shown here with Madigan and then-House GOP leader Tom Cross in 2007. (Jonathan Kirshner / The State Journal-Register) Welcome to Clout Street: Morning Spin, our weekday feature to catch you up with what's going on in government and politics from Chicago to Springfield. Topspin As the National Conference of State Legislatures opened its annual summit in Chicago, a panel featuring Iowa's Democratic Senate president and Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan's chief of staff showed how far apart the two neighboring states are when it comes to redrawing legislative district boundaries. Advertisement Iowa Senate President Pam Jochum extolled the virtues of that state's every-decade redrawing of district lines, which is handled by a commission with no involvement by rank-and-file lawmakers. Jochum, of Dubuque County, said that legislative maps produced by the commission haven't been challenged in court since 1970 and that the district lines have forced changeover and competitive elections. Advertisement "The legislature has absolutely nothing to say about how these lines are drawn. Just 'yay' or 'nay,' " Jochum said. "We don't need term limits." Tim Mapes, Madigan's chief of staff, offered a backhanded compliment to Jochum. "Senator, great ideas for Iowa. But they're a little different in Illinois." Mapes noted that Iowa's homogeneous population doesn't force it to come up with districts to support federal minority voting rights like Illinois and is able to have a much more streamlined process for making districts compact. He also gave the background of Illinois mapmaking since the 1970 state constitution, mentioning that Democrats have won the right to redraw boundaries in the last two decades. "Legislators like to be involved in this state on how they frame their districts. Whether they like all of it is another thing. But they like to be involved, and it's still a big part of what we do," Mapes said. Mapes touched on efforts to amend the Illinois Constitution to move mapmaking to a process aimed at removing most of the political influence. A 2014 proposal was struck down by the courts, and the Illinois Supreme Court is currently weighing the appeal of another proposal that was ruled unconstitutional by a Cook County Circuit Court judge last month. The lead attorney in challenging the proposed constitutional amendments has been Michael Kasper, a longtime Madigan ally and chief legal counsel for the state Democratic Party that Madigan also chairs. Mapes said those pushing the proposals "sort of claim to be nonpartisan." Advertisement "But in my experience (being) around this business for a while, almost everybody's got an agenda at some point. It may not be your agenda, but it will be an agenda," Mapes said. "So those (remap) initiatives have not done well as far as getting through the court system. And one currently in Illinois is before the Illinois Supreme Court, and I'm not a lawyer, but my guess is they're going to rule pretty soon on that as well," he said. The current Independent Maps effort counts among its supporters William Daley, a former White House chief of staff to President Barack Obama and the son and brother of two former Chicago mayors, and former Republican Gov. Jim Edgar. Mapes also said the tie-breaking process used in Illinois, a winner-take-all move to end partisan stalemates by picking a partisan name out of a hat, can take its toll on the faint of heart. "It's not a nice event 'cause you're scared that you'll (see them pick) the wrong guy, right?" Mapes said. (Rick Pearson) What's on tap *Mayor Rahm Emanuel will announce that London Mayor Sadiq Khan will be in Chicago on Sept. 15-17. Khan, London's first Muslim mayor, has a beef with Donald Trump over the presidential candidate's comments about barring Muslims from entering the country. Advertisement It'll be Khan's first visit to an American city since becoming mayor this year. Back in May, Khan said he'd like to sit down with Emanuel. Now he'll get his wish. He's also scheduled to hit New York. From the Emanuel press shop: "Mayor Khan is particularly interested in seeing Chicago's investments in infrastructure and culture of entrepreneurship, particularly in the tech and cultural industries, firsthand -- two areas the mayors have been discussing for several months." *Gov. Bruce Rauner has no public schedule. *Ex-Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich gets his resentencing hearing at federal court. Here's what to expect. *City Hall's second of five hearings on Chicago Police Department oversight will be held at 6:30 p.m. at Senn High School, 5900 N. Glenwood Ave. What we're writing *Failed Madigan challenger sues, insists he's not "sore loser." Advertisement *Emanuel backs top cop's move to revoke police powers in latest CPD shooting death. *Daley pal Oscar D'Angelo dies at 84. *After state bailout, CPS proposes $5.4 billion budget based on earlier CTU contract offer. *CPS watchdog looking at whether legal contract was clouted. What we're reading *As CPD shootings pile up, whither the feds? *Parents who feuded with Trump over soldier son's death to speak at Muslim convention in Rosemont. Advertisement *When your friends are really "friends." From the notebook *Emanuel easing up on TIFs?: Amid increasing pressure to siphon off more city special taxing district revenue to help the financially struggling Chicago Public Schools, Mayor Emanuel and Ald. Ameya Pawar are looking for ways to inch toward that goal. A newly floated idea would allow the mayor and aldermen to tell critics of tax increment finance districts they made some efforts to rein in TIF spending, but how much they would help a school system that spends more than $5 billion a year is not clear. In TIFs, additional property tax collections resulting from higher property values are pumped into economic development efforts for up to 23 years. The idea is to revitalize "blighted" areas, but the use of TIFs grew exponentially under former Mayor Richard M. Daley, with many set up in downtown areas and affluent wards. The critics decried them as less-than-transparent slush funds controlled by the mayor. Pressure to direct more funding from TIFs to schools grew in June, when Cook County Clerk David Orr reported that the city's 2015 take from 146 TIF districts grew by $89 million to $461 million. That led to some brainstorming Monday at City Hall. Advertisement The result was twofold: a renewed effort by the mayor to put into city code his 3-year-old executive order requiring the declaration of a TIF surplus each year, and moving forward with a proposal by Pawar to allow aldermen to create additional surpluses. Under Emanuel's executive order, 25 percent of TIF funds not yet identified for a specific use is to be returned to all government agencies in Chicago that collect property taxes. Half of that surplus goes to CPS, and 22 percent goes to the city. Most of the rest goes to Cook County government, the Chicago Park District and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District. Pawar's proposal has yet to be committed to paper, as the details are still being worked out. But the idea is to allow aldermen to declare a moratorium on new projects funded by TIF within their wards. So, money collected in TIFs that's not already committed to specific uses would be declared as surplus. Pawar said the resulting surplus in his ward could top $5 million a year money that could be used citywide instead of being spent in his rather affluent Northwest Side 47th Ward. "This is a clear and easy way to initiate major reform and get money back into schools immediately," Pawar said. (Hal Dardick) *Chicago credit rating update: If Mayor Emanuel was hoping for a quick uptick in the city's bond ratings after announcing his proposal to step up funding for the largest city worker pension plan, he might have been a tad disappointed Monday. Advertisement S&P, a Wall Street debt-rating agency, instead held the city's creditworthiness steady at three levels above junk status while suggesting the city could improve its outlook to stable from negative. A negative rating is an indication that a downgrade could be coming. In its report, the agency stated that it could move the city to the stable category if the City Council approved Emanuel's plan to phase in a tax of more than 30 percent on city water and sewer bills over the next four years. That plan was announced last week as Emanuel attempted to make the case he is making the tough decisions needed to fix the city's troubled finances. Part of the plan also needs approval by the General Assembly and governor: requiring new employees to pay more into the fund to also increase its balance over time. As it is, the fund is on a trajectory to go bust in as few as eight years. The new tax money $239 million in the fourth year would be used to increase city contributions to the city's 72,000-member municipal workers fund. In addition, tens of millions of additional dollars a year would come from existing city water and sewer fees and airport revenue. "While we believe (that) the city is moving in the right direction toward stabilizing its budget and its pension plans, and that the announcement of the new tax is a positive development ... there is an uncertainty around the new tax until fully approved," the S&P ratings report stated. "The outlook could be changed to stable if the city's new water/sewer tax revenue is approved by the City Council without any other obstacles." S&P also made a comment that's potentially sobering for increasingly wary city taxpayers. "We believe there could be additional pressure on revenues to make up for market returns in the pension plans that fall below performance expectations," the report stated. (Hal Dardick) Advertisement Follow the money *Speaker Madigan's Democratic Party got $98,000 from eight donors, including $20,000 from Comcast, $15,000 from Anheuser-Busch and $12,500 from Walgreens. *Republican state Sen. Sue Rezin, a potential Democratic target, reported more than $46,000 in help from the Senate Republicans. She's challenged by Democrat Christine Benson in a district that includes Morris. *Personal PAC, which backs candidates who support abortion rights, got $50,000 from Cari Sacks, who's married to Emanuel adviser Michael Sacks. *Track campaign contribution reports in real time with this Tribune Twitter account: https://twitter.com/ILCampaignCash Beyond Chicago *Trump promises prosperity, fewer tax brackets in economic speech reset. A fact check. *Fifty GOP officials warn Trump would put nation's security at risk. Advertisement *Clinton up 13 points among likely voters, one national poll finds. *Scores of lawyers among 70 dead in Pakistani suicide bombing. A man from Naperville's far east side, who has served time for aggravated battery and impersonating police, has been sentenced to six years in prison, after being convicted for the seventh time of drunken driving, according to court records. Xavier R. Jacome, 39, of the 1300 block of Lazy Hollow Court, remained in DuPage County jail Monday, awaiting transfer into the custody of the Illinois Department of Corrections. Advertisement Jacome pleaded guilty in DuPage County Circuit Court to a class X felony charge of aggravated DUI/sixth or subsequent violation, according to court records. Class X felonies carry mandatory sentences of six to 30 years in prison upon conviction. Judge George J. Bakalis sentenced Jacome to prison, followed by three years of mandatory supervised release, court records showed. Bakalis on Thursday also imposed fines and court costs totaling $2,310, records indicated. Advertisement Jacome's most recent DUI arrest occurred March 6 on Interstate 355 near Finley Road, in the Downers Grove area. An Illinois State Police trooper curbed Jacome's gray, 2002 Nissan and found an open, quarter-filled bottle of vodka inside the car, according to records. Jacome was charged with DUI and criminal damage to property, after he spat on one of the squad car's windows, records showed. Jacome was sentenced to 30 days in DuPage County jail, after being convicted of drunken driving in November 2001 in Bensenville. Court records did not indicate when or where Jacome's five other drunken-driving arrests occurred. Records showed Jacome was sentenced to prison for an August 2007 impersonation of a police officer in Bensenville. He also served time for a 2005 aggravated battery of a police officer, firefighter or paramedic in Addison, according to records. Bakalis on Thursday also sentenced Jacome to a year in prison in connection with a Jan. 8 incident in Naperville. Police were sent that evening to the Boston Market restaurant at 1309 S. Naper Blvd., where Cmdr. Jason Arres said they investigated a report of "an intoxicated subject attempting to fight an employee." The man, later identified as Jacome, "threw a plastic bag containing two boxes of contact lenses" at an officer, "striking the officer in the lower body" and earning Jacome a charge of battery, Arres said earlier this year. Jacome, after being taken to the police station and placed in a holding cell, broke a standard, landline telephone in the cell. That earned him a felony charge of criminal damage to property, Arres said. Advertisement wbird@tribpub.com British Prime Minister Theresa May faces a daunting array of demands from European Union nations when the time comes to negotiate Britain's future relationship with the bloc, an analysis of the region's 27 other members shows. The Bloomberg survey, based on responses from ministries, public comments from government officials and interviews with policy makers, reveals European leaders are laying down their own red lines as May's team weighs what it wants to seek in the Brexit talks. Advertisement The result is a complex patchwork of priorities -- from fishing to shipping, an insistence on freedom of movement to the sovereignty of Gibraltar -- that may run counter to what the U.K. wants to achieve and that it will have to seek to satisfy if May is to meet her commitment of making a success of Britain's withdrawal from the EU. "Clearly there are going to be different issues raised by all the different sides," said Stephen Booth, co-director of Open Europe, a London-based research group. "The EU is ultimately a compromise of national interests so whatever the U.K. gets in the end will be that." Advertisement Seven weeks since voters in the U.K. chose to quit the EU, Bloomberg News reporters in each of the region's capitals have compiled the first comprehensive look at the main topics the 27 other governments want to raise in the negotiations. Two years of formal talks won't begin until May invokes Article 50 of the bloc's Lisbon Treaty. Worryingly for May and her Brexit minister, David Davis, several countries including Germany, Portugal and the Czech Republic insist that the U.K. adhere to rules on free movement of labor in return for access to the single market in goods and services. Many who backed Brexit did so in the belief it would mean fewer immigrants. Just three fellow EU members -- Denmark, Austria and Bulgaria -- cited a shared concern with Britain over immigration, suggesting that May will find sympathy in short supply. France signaled it is ready to go even further and link freedom of movement to Britain's ambition of retaining the passporting rights that allow the financial industry to sell services and raise money on the continent. Another clash may loom over the determination of countries in eastern Europe as well as Greece to ensure the U.K. continues paying into EU coffers to maintain the flow of funds to their region. Pro-Brexit lawmakers campaigned to keep what they said was the equivalent of 350 million pounds ($460 million) per week the U.K. sends to the EU, although they have since walked away from that calculation. Among the challenges for the U.K. that top the agenda in other capitals are the following: --Belgium is concerned about the potential for populist and separatist sentiment spreading to its restive region of Flanders --The government in Dublin wants to prevent a hard border with Northern Ireland Advertisement --France and Denmark are concerned with reciprocal access for fishermen to their respective waters --Spain will press to assume joint sovereignty over Gibraltar --Austria wants to stop the U.K. from awarding power subsidies for the Hinkley Point nuclear plant, if it goes ahead The chief concern among the 27 was ensuring continued protection for their citizens living in the U.K. May says she wants "to be able to guarantee the rights of those EU citizens living in the U.K.," but that will only be possible if the rights of Britons are protected elsewhere. Baltic and eastern European states also want reassurances about continued security in the face of Russian aggression. "It's not just about trade," said Booth. "Security, geopolitics are important too and put the niggly trade issues in perspective." Advertisement There are also potential upsides for the U.K. Malta is among those keen to retain preferential access to British universities for its young people, and to specialist hospitals for its sick. Ireland, which is the most vulnerable to the fallout from Brexit, wants to give Britain as much access to the single market as possible to avoid the imposition of costly tariffs on both sides. Germany, as Europe's biggest economy, had a trade surplus with the U.K. of 51 billion euros ($56 billion) in 2015. Estonia warned against taking retaliatory measures toward the U.K. Cyprus and Greece want to limit any economic fallout that would hurt the pound further and discourage the large numbers of British tourists who flock to both countries. Still, several EU members are looking to profit from Brexit. Italy aims to poach institutions including the European Banking Authority and the European Medicines Agency. Greece is keen to capitalize on Brexit to lure jobs in shipping, while Malta, an English-speaking former British territory, will pitch to be the U.K.'s "gateway" to Europe. Luxembourg wants to attract financial jobs from the City of London. "After London, we are the first and obvious choice. We have already many British players in our country," Luxembourg's Finance Minister Pierre Gramegna told Bloomberg TV. "And we have a lot of political stability and hence a lot of predictability. That's what investors are looking for." Also in doubt is who should lead the talks. While May will prefer to seek a deal with counterparts such as Germany's Angela Merkel in the hope she can appeal to common interest, Sweden insists that she engage with the European Commission. Advertisement "There have been discussions, not least calls from various U.K corners, for separate agreements between the U.K. and different countries," Swedish EU Minister Ann Linde said. "We want to counteract all such attempts; there shouldn't be separate agreements but only with the EU as a whole." - With assistance from Radoslav Tomek. Niklas Magnusson. Helene Fouquet, Karl Stagno Navarra, Tony Czuczka, Esteban Duarte, Balazs Penz, Zoltan Simon, Boris Cerni, Joao Lima, Kevin Costelloe Jones Hayden Jonas Bergman, Raine Tiessalo, Peter Levring, Marek Strzelecki, Misha Savic, Ladka Bauerova, Dara Doyle, Slav Okov, Andra Timu, Ott Ummelas, Aaron Eglitis, Robert Hutton, Simon Kennedy, John Follain, Marcus Bensasson, Jonathan Tirone, Francine Lacqua, Paul Tugwell and Anne van der Schoot Passengers line up at check-in counter for Delta Air Lines at Narita international airport in Narita, east of Tokyo, on Aug. 9, 2016. (Shizuo Kambayashi / AP) DALLAS Delta Air Lines said Tuesday that some computer systems are still working slowly more than a day after an outage crippled the airline and led to more than 1,500 canceled flights. The system the airline uses to check in and board passengers as well as dispatch its planes is still slow, said Gil West, Delta's chief operating officer. Advertisement West offered Delta's most detailed explanation yet of what happened Monday to trigger the global computer outage: A critical piece of equipment failed at the airline's Atlanta headquarters, causing a loss of power, and key systems and equipment did not switch over to backups as designed. Delta passengers endured hundreds more canceled and delayed flights as the carrier slogged through day two of its recovery from the meltdown. Advertisement By late afternoon Tuesday, the airline said it had canceled 680 flights as it moved planes and crews to "reset" its operation. Another 1,900 Delta flights had been delayed, according to tracking service FlightStats Inc. In a video posted on the airline's website, CEO Ed Bastian said Delta probably will have cancelations and delays Wednesday too, although he didn't give numbers. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx's office said the government was talking to Delta about technical issues surrounding the outage, but gave no specifics. The Transportation Department said it also made sure Delta provided information about customer refunds on its website and was reviewing the consumer complaints that it had received. Delta's hub in Atlanta was the epicenter of problem flights on Tuesday, with lines that were much longer than the day before. Debbie McGarry left Switzerland on Monday and was still stuck Tuesday at the Atlanta airport, far from her Arizona home. Hopes of getting on a plane were raised and dashed overnight. By 3 a.m., passengers were getting irate. "Some of the men were yelling," she said. "I thought there might be a fistfight." Tuesday's disruptions followed about 1,000 cancelations and 2,800 delayed flights on Monday. The airline's computer systems were back online after a few hours Monday, but the ripple effects lingered. "We are still operating in recovery mode," Dave Holtz, senior vice president of operations, said Tuesday. Advertisement Delta extended a travel-waiver policy to help stranded passengers rearrange their travel plans. It offered refunds and $200 in travel vouchers to people whose flights were canceled or delayed at least three hours. And Delta said it gave hotel vouchers to "several thousand" customers including 2,000 in Atlanta. Delta's challenge Tuesday was to find enough seats on planes during the busy summer vacation season to accommodate the tens of thousands of passengers whose flights were scrubbed. Airlines have been packing more people in each plane, so when a major carrier has a technology crash it's harder to find seats for the waylaid. Last month, the average Delta flight was 87 percent full. Confusion among passengers Monday was compounded as Delta's flight-status updates crashed as well. Instead of staying home or poolside at a hotel until the airline could fix the mess, many passengers learned about the gridlock only after they reached the airport. They were stuck. A spokesman for the local electric company, Georgia Power, said the problem started with a piece of Delta equipment called a switchgear, which direct flows within a power system. No other customers lost power, he said. Advertisement Airlines depend on huge, overlapping and complicated systems to operate flights, ticketing, boarding, airport kiosks, websites and mobile phone apps. Even brief outages can now snarl traffic and, as the Delta incident shows, those problems can go global in seconds. Last month, Southwest Airlines canceled more than 2,000 flights over four days after an outage that it blamed on a faulty network router. United Airlines and American Airlines both suffered outages last year United has struggled with several meltdowns since combining technology systems with merger partner Continental Airlines. Associated Press Early on the morning of May 21, Coconino County Sheriffs Office deputies shot and killed Mark Nelson, an armed, suicidal Doney Park man, following a two-hour standoff. Although such a violent ending is rare, calls involving suicidal subjects are becoming more common in the county. In Nelson's case, the first call came from his mother. She called a suicide hotline for help after Nelson repeatedly threatened to kill himself. According to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline's Policy for Helping Callers at Imminent Risk of Suicide, which has become an industry standard, the goal is for hotline workers to work with a suicidal person to get them to voluntarily be safe. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Director Dr. John Draper said that works in the overwhelming majority of calls. In general, what we try to do is always try to collaborate," Draper said. "But if the circumstances are such that the person is not willing or able to cooperate to reduce the risk that could put them in danger or someone else, then we have to do whatever we can to keep the situation and the individual safe. That's when suicide hotline workers call law enforcement. The Sheriffs Office has seen a drastic increase in calls for suicidal subjects. In 2008, it received 126 calls involving suicide. In 2015, it received 287 calls. Sheriffs Office spokesperson Erika Wiltenmuth said it is a conservative estimate because it only includes calls that are specifically about suicide. It is not uncommon for a deputy to respond to a domestic violence, disorderly conduct, or other type of call and find out the person has talked about suicide. Were averaging once a day that we are responding in the field to a call where suicide is mentioned, threatened, discussed or attempted," said Chief Deputy Jim Driscoll. "There are more every year." The Sheriffs Office is required to respond to every emergency call about a suicidal subject, which it views as a public safety issue. If there is no criminal behavior and no one else is in danger, Driscoll said, law enforcement officers' goal is usually to contact the suicidal person and take the time to let them decompress. The approach changes when there is the use or threatened use of a weapon. In that case, deputies are trained to establish a containment area at a safe distance, take cover, start a dialogue with the suicidal person and determine whether there is anyone else in danger. I think its important to understand that were trying to be as empathetic and as compassionate as we can, but if they have a gun or a knife, they are to a large degree in control of that," said Sheriff's Office Commander Rex Gilliland. "At that point, the officers are worried about the safety of all the rest of the public and themselves. Driscoll said the Sheriff's Office has a few different types of training designed to strike the balance between compassion and safety in suicidal subject calls. The most intensive is a 40-hour Crisis Intervention Team training, which Flagstaff Police Department also uses. Only a handful of Sheriff's Office patrol officers have completed it due to what Wiltenmuth described as logistical difficulties. There are additional in-service mental health trainings for sworn officers and there is a debriefing after every suicidal subject call to determine what, if anything, can be done better the next time. The Sheriffs Office also partners with agencies including The Guidance Center, Health Choice Integrated Care and Terros, which all provide information for helping people in a mental health crisis. The most common training, however, is an eight-hour Mental Health First Aid class. As with FPD, all Sheriff's Office employees, including patrol deputies, detention officers and civilian administrative staff, are required to complete it. The training teaches how to recognize basic forms of mental illness, dementia, autism and other developmental delays in a person and de-escalate a confrontation with them. Weve thrust our deputies now into being counselors, to some degree," Gilliland said. Employees learn to assess risk, establish trust, listen non-judgmentally, give reassurance, provide useful information, and give referrals to professional and self-help services. In the Flagstaff area, that often means calling the Terros mobile crisis response unit to either assist on scene or take someone to Flagstaff Medical Center or The Guidance Center for more intensive help. "Jail is not the answer to a mental illness issue but sometimes its the only thing thats left," Driscoll said. "We certainly feel that if there are ways of dealing with it short of incarceration, thats our desire." QUETTA, Pakistan Pakistani lawyers on Tuesday mourned colleagues slain in a shocking suicide bombing the previous day at a hospital in the southwestern city of Quetta that killed 70 people, mostly lawyers. The attack, which stunned the judicial community, also underscored concerns that militants in Pakistan are still capable of striking in the heart of the country's cities and towns despite government claims of dismantling various terror networks. Advertisement The Pakistani bar association called for lawyers to boycott courts in an unusual strike against the attack. Schools and markets were closed in Quetta, also in protest over the attack, which was claimed by a breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban, the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar militant group. Pakistan deployed extra police units outside court building. In Islamabad, lawyers lined up outside the Supreme Court under tight security to offer funeral prayers for those killed in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province. In Quetta, senior attorney Mohammad Ashraf stood with colleagues in an open area outside a court building where they had often gathered for breaks with many of the lawyers who were killed Monday. Advertisement "Those who even did not spare the hospital and carried out the suicide attack cannot be called humans," Ashraf said. "We request that the government tracks down and punishes all those who killed innocent lawyers and other people." Another lawyer, Rehmatullah Khan, said he was missing his friends and colleagues. "We used to sit with them here ... now they are gone." At a Quetta market, Mohammad Saleem, a resident of the city, said everyone was still in a state of shock. "People are scared and they ask for how long the violence will continue," he said. Monday's attack came as lawyers converged at a Quetta hospital after the body of a prominent colleague Bilal Kasi, the president of the Baluchistan Bar Association was brought there after he was shot and killed by gunmen just hours earlier. A suicide bomber detonated his explosives' vest amid the gathering, and survivors later described scenes of panic as the blast ripped through the emergency room. In a statement, Ahsanullah Ahsan, spokesman for the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar militant group, said its fighters killed Kasi and also dozens of lawyers gathered at the government-run Civil Hospital to mourn for their colleague. The group has been behind several attacks in Pakistan in recent years, including a deadly March bombing on Easter Sunday in a park in the eastern city of Lahore that killed at least 70 people. But in what was likely an opportunistic statement, the Islamic State group also claimed responsibility for the Quetta attack later on Monday, though there have been instances of competing claims in previous attacks in Pakistan . IS's media arm, the Aamaq News Agency, posted on its Twitter account that a "martyrdom-seeking soldier from the Islamic State" detonated his explosives amid a lawyers' gathering in Quetta. The IS statement did not mention the killing of Kasi. Advertisement The Sunni militant group, which is fighting in Iraq and Syria, has also garnered some support and wanna-be affiliates surface in Pakistan. Some members of the Pakistani Taliban last year announced they were joining the Islamic State, but so far the group has not had any visible presence anywhere in the country. Associated Press President Barack Obama pauses while talking about the war on terrorism and efforts to degrade and destroy the Islamic State group, during a news conference at the Pentagon in Washington, Thursday, Aug. 4, 2016. (J. Scott Applewhite / AP) Terrorism was clearly trending down globally as President Barack Obama took office, according to the University of Maryland's Global Terrorism Database. But that desirable trend has reversed, and nowhere is the upswing in terror activity more glaring than here in the American homeland. Since Sept. 11, 2001, at least 89 Islamist-related terrorist plots have been aimed at U.S. soil, according to a database maintained by the Heritage Foundation. Advertisement And both the number and frequency of plots have dramatically increased on Obama's watch. Of the 89 plots, only 30 percent occurred in the Bush era (2001-2008). Fully 70 percent emerged under Obama, and the pace is quickening. Twenty-five plots have been uncovered since the start of last year. And terrorists have launched five successful attacks since July 2015. While plots are proliferating, there is less diversity in who is behind them. Of the 25 most recent plots, 21 are connected to the Islamic State. And unlike the 9/11 attacks organized from abroad and conducted by foreigners the vast majority of plotters are now being recruited and inspired right here in the homeland. Seventy-eight of the post 9/11 plots involved a homegrown element. Advertisement Of course, no one is to blame for terrorism other than the terrorists. The growth of the terrorist threat is largely attributable to deteriorating stability in the Middle East arising from post-Arab Spring economic and political chaos, a deepening Sunni-Shiite divide, and constant meddling by Iran. Yet the dramatic uptick and transformation of the threat also can be traced at least partly to a gap created by the Obama administration a gap that the terrorists were only too happy to fill. In 2011, the administration published its new counterterrorism strategy. The guidelines reflected changes the president had implemented at least a year earlier. The strategy was clear: Obama looked to withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan and to de-emphasize most aspects of the global war on terror except for drone and special operations focused on core al-Qaida leadership. The decision to "lead from behind" for most of the war on terror helped create massive new space for terrorism activity. In addition to the botched withdrawal from Iraq, the absence of a post-conflict counterterrorism plan in Libya (following the 2011 ouster of Moammar Gadhafi) opened the gates to a dramatic expansion of Islamist terrorist activity throughout North Africa. Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 72 People place flowers on the Promenade des Anglais at the scene of Thursday's truck attack, prior to a minute of silence in Nice, southern France, Monday, July 18, 2016, to honor the victims of the Bastille Day attack. (Claude Paris / AP) As a result, today transnational Islamist terrorism has a larger global footprint than it did when Obama took office. According to the Global Terrorism Index, for example, terrorist attacks soared 80 percent in 2014 compared with the previous year. Far more people are dying from Islamist terrorism. Far more regimes are under attack. The Bush administration's prediction has come true: Unwillingness to commit to defeating Islamist terror abroad has forced us to confront it on Main Streets in America. Islamic State is the most visible threat. While the administration says it supports operations to reduce the territory controlled by the Islamic State in the Middle East, its efforts have been "too little, too late." The Islamic State has now built a global network animated by a narrative of reestablishing the historical caliphate. As a result, it can orchestrate terrorism worldwide as demonstrated by this year's string of attacks from San Bernardino, Calif., to Bangladesh, including attacks on Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iraq, France, Belgium, and Germany. While the face of the Islamic State looks different in different parts of the world, the cold truth is that the Islamic State has built a worldwide global terrorist infrastructure. And it did so under Obama's watch. What's more, the Islamic State isn't the only problem. Al-Qaida has been quietly rebuilding its base. In some ways, al-Qaida is more insidious. Not wanting to attract the global attention that the Islamic State relishes, al-Qaida has in some cases instructed its leaders to keep their affiliation secret. As one leader of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb wrote: Advertisement "We should also take into consideration not to monopolize the political and military stage. We should not be at the forefront. Better for you to be silent and pretend to be a 'domestic' movement that has its own causes and concerns. There is no reason for you to show that we have an expansionary, jihadi, al-Qaida or any other sort of project." When Obama took office, the terrorists were on the run. His successor will inherit a full-blown global Islamist insurgency. Tribune Content Agency Jim DeMint is president of the Heritage Foundation and a former U.S. senator. James Jay Carafano is a Heritage vice president, directing the think tank's research on issues of national security and foreign relations. Political life in the West, it is safe to say, has not witnessed a figure such as Donald Trump for decades. His attacks on the parents of Army Captain Humayun Khan, who died on duty in Iraq in 2004, is the latest jaw-dropping episode from his presidential campaign. But as he lurches toward what one hopes will be ignominious defeat in November, we must also acknowledge two positive contributions he has made, however inadvertently, to public life. For one, with his merciless denunciations of Muslims, he established Islamophobia as an incontrovertible and toxic presence in our societies. Strange as it may seem today, many public figures strenuously denied that anti-Muslim prejudice had exploded following the attacks of 9/11. The writer Sam Harris wasn't alone in proclaiming that "there is no such thing as Islamophobia." Much crude prejudice and aggressive ignorance were aired under the rubric of "criticizing" and "reforming" Islam. Advertisement Trump's proposal to ban Muslims from the United States came out of this deepening climate of prejudice. The disturbing runaway success of his primaries campaign allowed us to look squarely in the eye the bigotry that held anyone with a Muslim-sounding name, or dark skin, beard and turban (potentially billions of people), responsible for the crimes of a few fanatics. Trump's extreme and popular xenophobia enabled a real reckoning with the sheer craziness of a clash of civilizations. His other contribution is even more vital. Like all demagogues, Trump has sought to rebuild the unity of his "tribe" by identifying its enemies Muslims, Mexicans, immigrants in general. This scapegoating of innocent people has been a practice since the earliest human tribes. People losing their sense of cohesion always found an internal or external enemy to demonize. Indeed, most primitive religions centered on the ritualistic sacrifice of this victim. Advertisement The modern era did not do away with such archaic modes of violence. In the 19th century, as a global capitalist and industrial economy came into being, the figure of the Jew became the scapegoat for people feeling traumatized by rapid and uncontrollable socioeconomic changes. One demagogue after another in Europe tried to stigmatize Jews as money-grubbers, fifth-columnists and international conspirators. These mass manipulators were calamitously successful in persuading many alienated and confused Europeans that stability and solidarity lay in persecuting the unassimilable Jew, and his liberal, cosmopolitan and socialist supporters. Today, political dysfunction and economic crisis have opened up fresh scope for tribalist politics in Europe and America as well as Asia and Africa. The hoary tradition of scapegoating has re-emerged in the heart of the secular and postmodern West; and its victims tend to be Muslims and immigrants. Trump is among many demagogues who promise to restore a state of primal wholeness, defining this unity of the people against the insidiously divided loyalties of transnational elites. Recent terrorist attacks by deranged and nominally Muslim young men have provided grist to his mill. And Trump clearly felt himself to be on a roll when he decided to attack Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the late Captain Khan's Pakistani immigrant parents. Inviting Trump to read the U.S. Constitution at the Democratic National Convention, Khizr Khan had spoken for many ordinary citizens who feel isolated and stigmatized in the country for which they have, often literally, sacrificed their lives. Trump could have chosen to ignore him. But he decided to assault the Khans for their evidently suspect Muslim background. In this very public process, he carelessly did something that the exponent of scapegoating should never do: reveal to all the complete innocence of his victim. Khizr Khan, the father of a soldier killed in Iraq, speaks at the Democratic National Convention. Scapegoating worked for centuries, allowing groups to release their pent-up tensions, only because human beings collectively believed in the guilt of their victims. So fanatical was anti-Semitic passion in France in the 1890s that no amount of contrary evidence could save Alfred Dreyfus, the Jewish army captain, from being held guilty of treason. This wholly blameless victim of virulent and widespread prejudice had to be sacrificed to appease the rage of all those who had been persuaded by demagogues to believe that Jews were traitors. Captain Dreyfus, however, was eventually exonerated. Captain Khan, on the other hand, gave up his life for his country; and his bereaved parents targets of Trump's onslaught have to live with the knowledge that their son died in a catastrophically ill-conceived war. Few such prominent victims of scapegoating have ever been as obviously innocent. Trump will of course continue his persecution of the guiltless. But he will now have to reckon with a rising tide of revulsion. Having established Islamophobia as an undeniable fact, the Republican presidential candidate has now managed to expose the profound irrationalism of such tribalist hatreds. For such illumination, if nothing else, Donald Trump deserves our thanks. Advertisement Bloomberg View Pankaj Mishra is a Bloomberg View columnist, author and commentator. A handout picture made available on August 8, 2016, by the Imperial Household Agency shows Japanese Emperor Akihito addressing a speech to the nation at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, Japan, on August 7, 2016. Akihito expressed fear of his health as Emperor and hinted his wish of abdication in the speech. (Imperial Household Agency, Handout / EPA) Japan is a tradition-bound country. More than 25 years after the prosperity bubble popped, growth still creeps along because overhauling the economic and political system felt too risky. Don't ask if there is a Japanese Donald Trump. There isn't. But there is, in the most unlikely of places, what Americans would call a change agent. You'll find him in Tokyo, in the Imperial Palace, home to a royal family with a carefully tended image that traces its history back more than 2,500 years. Advertisement On Monday, Emperor Akihito gave a rare televised address to tell the Japanese people that at age 82 he's getting worried about his ability to serve the nation. In the elliptical language of Japanese royalty, in a society that values propriety and duty, here was a bombshell: The emperor was saying he'd like to retire, and be succeeded on the Chrysanthemum Throne by his son, Crown Prince Naruhito. According to Japanese news reports, this was just the second time the emperor had ever delivered a video message to the nation. (The first was in 2011 after the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan's northeast.) The emperor wasn't able to simply announce his abdication because there is no legal precedent. Japanese emperors rule until death. Advertisement Akihito's speech sounded especially stilted because stepping down would require revising the Imperial Household Law and he couldn't ask for that because it would seem like meddling in politics. Japan's postwar constitution, adopted under the U.S. occupation, limits the emperor to a symbolic role. Emperor Akihito of Japan, front, attends an autumn garden party with other Imperial family members at the Akasaka Palace in November 2015. (Japan News-Yomiuri / Japan News-Yomiuri) So the emperor did what he could. He dropped a big hint that he'd like to quit: "When I consider that my fitness level is gradually declining, I am worried that it may become difficult for me to carry out my duties as symbol of the state with my whole being as I have done until now." Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, also sensitive to the political ban, made no promises that Japan would change the law, but he appeared supportive: "We must think carefully about what can be done." Part of what seems to be driving the emperor's thinking was the fate of his father, Hirohito, whose slow death from cancer caused the nation to stand vigil for the last few months of his reign. Akihito has had cancer and heart problems. If he were to step down, he could live his last years out of the spotlight. The more far-reaching implication is how far Japan might go in revising the law. Only a male heir may take the throne. If the Imperial Household Law were changed to allow abdication and open the door to a future empress, that would be a real step in promoting gender equality in the workplace. Japan, with a declining population, needs to encourage women to pursue careers. For any royals, anywhere, talk of abdication would be a big deal. Consider if a similar decision were being considered at London's Buckingham Palace. For Japan, where there's such pressure to maintain things the way they are, the decision to retire is even bigger. This has the making of an unmistakably modern moment: trying something new, even if it feels uncomfortable. Japan should thank Emperor Akihito for his unexpected decision and wish him a long, happy retirement. Join the discussion on Twitter @Trib_Ed_Board and on Facebook. There is no joy in watching a federal judge resentence a corrupt and defrocked governor to 14 years in prison. No joy in recalling how Rod Blagojevich flouted laws and cheated 12 million Illinois residents. No joy in seeing his family the heartbroken people he has victimized more than any others beg for mercy. Prior to his videoconference with U.S. District Judge James Zagel, we wondered whether Blagojevich finally understands that he committed multiple felonies. Whether he now admits not to mistakes but to crimes. Whether he accepts an appellate court's finding that evidence of his guilt is "overwhelming" so much so that the U.S. Supreme Court had no time for his self-forgiving pleadings. Advertisement But Tuesday brought none of that. Blagojevich's refusal to seize full responsibility for his actions is intact. So is the 14-year sentence Zagel imposed in 2011. We're left with the hope that Blagojevich, a student of history, uses these remaining years to reflect on the grim arc that led to his arrest, impeachment, trial, imprisonment and not one but two sentencings. That long saga explains why Blagojevich again got the sentence he deserves: (Scott Stantis) In 2001, with the Illinois culture of political sleaze running rampant, then-U.S. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald committed political suicide by nominating a New York federal prosecutor to be U.S. attorney in Chicago. Top Illinois Republicans never forgave Peter Fitzgerald for recruiting corruption-buster Patrick Fitzgerald. They were so fearful that they conspired to have President George W. Bush fire Patrick Fitzgerald, who is related to Peter only by their Irish surname. Patrick Fitzgerald set a new tone in the U.S. attorney's office: The crimes of public officials, governors included, would be prosecuted aggressively. The Chicago office of the FBI got on board. Advertisement In 2002 and again in 2006, residents infuriated by former Gov. George Ryan's lawlessness handed their hopes and their government to Blagojevich, a self-styled reformer. Yet his six-year crime spree started early in his governorship. As a prosecutor would conclude from the evidence, "He was corrupt when he took the oath of office. He was corrupt until the day he was arrested." We'll never know how many honest individuals were deprived of government careers, how many honest companies lost out on state contracts, because in Blagojevich's realm, the fix was in. The capstone of his betrayal: his effort to sell a U.S. Senate seat that belonged not to him but to the people of this state. But prosecutors and gutsy jurors can do only so much. Federal judges here had long given soft sentences to politicians. In 2006, though, U.S. District Judge Ruben Castillo rocked many of his colleagues, ruling in a Cicero case that, "Unlike some criminal justice issues, the crime of public corruption can be deterred by significant penalties. ... It is this court's opinion that these persons who commit crimes in the halls of government should be subject to the same consequences as those that commit crimes on the streets." Other Chicago judges paid attention: Castillo served on the U.S. Sentencing Commission, which sets guidelines for federal courts. U.S. Appellate Judge Ann Williams followed with a fiercely written opinion upholding the convictions of four subordinates of then-Mayor Richard M. Daley. Williams treated the Democratic machine's rigging of hirings and promotions not as "just politics," as public officials claimed, but as crimes that defrauded residents who play by the rules. Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 10 Patti Blagojevich, left, speaks to the media along with daughters Annie, center, and Amy after the resentencing of her husband on Aug. 9, 2016, at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune) Next, the Illinois Supreme Court flummoxed the political class by revoking Ryan's pension: "The forfeiture, in other words, is total. Ryan gets nothing," wrote Justice Robert Thomas. "As the victims of Ryan's crimes, the taxpayers of the state of Illinois are under no obligation to now fund his retirement." Four days before Christmas 2010, U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer refused to shorten Ryan's 6 1/2-year sentence so he could tend to his terminally ill wife. "Any sensitive judge realizes that a lengthy prison term effectively robs the convicted person of what we all value most: months and years with loved ones, some of whom will no longer be there when the sentence has been served. Mr. Ryan, like other convicted persons, undoubtedly wishes it were otherwise. His conduct has exacted a stiff penalty not only for himself but also for his family." When he sentenced Blagojevich in 2011 to 14 years, Zagel focused on the cost of public corruption: "In the United States we don't much govern at gunpoint. We require willing and creative cooperation and participation to prosper as a civil society. This happens most easily when people trust the person at the top to do the right thing most of the time and, more important than that, to try to do it all of the time. ... When it is the governor who goes bad, the fabric of Illinois is torn and disfigured and not easily or quickly repaired. You did that damage." And on Tuesday, Zagel didn't blink. An appellate court, citing trial technicalities, had said Blagojevich deserved a new sentence but not necessarily a lesser one; the sentencing range for his felonies reached as high as 30 years to life. Zagel correctly concluded that, despite the pleas of family members and fellow inmates, not much had changed. Blagojevich is scheduled for release in May 2024, when he is 67 years old. His sentence is more than justice for his crimes. It's a warning to the next crooked pols in Illinois, the State of Corruption. Advertisement Join the discussion on Twitter @Trib_Ed_Board and on Facebook. In his economic policy speech Aug. 8, 2016, to the Detroit Economic Club, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump offered his blueprint for stimulating growth and creating jobs. (Evan Vucci / AP) Is Donald Trump becoming what he, among many other conservatives, warns us against? In his economic policy speech Monday to the prestigious Detroit Economic Club, the Republican presidential nominee sounded a lot like a tax-and-spend Democrat. Call him a "tax-and-deduct Republican." Advertisement Aides billed his speech as a blueprint for stimulating growth and creating jobs. It also was aimed at resetting Trump's campaign after his own runaway mouth including his verbal attacks on a Muslim-American family whose son died fighting in Iraq helped erase any bump he received in the polls from the Republican National Convention. His mission in Detroit: Look and sound presidential. Use a teleprompter. Offer something to every income bracket of voters. Don't respond to protesters in the audience who interrupted his speech more than a dozen times. Don't insult anybody, except maybe his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. If so, don't lay it on too thick. Show the kindlier, gentler Donald. Advertisement He also turned out to be a generous Donald. He sounded very generous with other people's money, as conservatives like to say about liberals, but not with details as to how his new programs would be paid for. Among other eyebrow-arching ideas, he proposed to allow parents to fully deduct the average cost of child care from their taxable income. That's a proposal that echoes a more bipartisan era, back when liberals and conservatives worked together to help ease the burdens on working-class and middle-class families. That was a long time ago. Yet it is the long-running resentments of white, working-class and middle-class Americans who feel displaced and disowned by Washington that Trump has tapped for his surprisingly successful campaign. As I often have said, his issues (particularly immigration reform, income inequality and "fair trade" agreements) are good, but I don't think he's the best advocate for them. His child care deduction, for example, sounds great. It offers positive incentives for parents to work, get good child care and quite possibly reduce abortion rates. But, problem one, it doesn't apply to those who need help the most: the nearly half of American households that don't earn enough to owe federal income taxes. And, problem two, Trump doesn't say how this deduction or his other ideas will be funded. Any new tax deduction means a loss of government revenue and deeper deficits unless it is made up somewhere else. Trump's tax plan would reduce federal revenue by $9.5 trillion over 10 years, according to the Tax Policy Center. Deficit hawks tend to be Republican, but this may be another case of Trump departing from his party and from mainstream conservative orthodoxy. Other parts of Trump's agenda sound great for corporations and upper-income workers but don't offer much to his working-class base. The "death tax" he promises to scrap actually is the estate tax, which affects only 0.2 percent of all estates. It doesn't kick in until the estate exceeds $5.4 million for an individual or $10.9 million for a married couple. Call it what you want, but it's not a tax break for the poor, no matter how many upset waitresses or taxi drivers I run into who think it applies to them. Advertisement "I want to jump-start America," he said. "It can be done, and it won't even be that hard." Right. On other occasions he has said he can beat Islamic State "quickly" too. In neither case does he give even a hint as to why we should believe he can succeed and "quickly" after so many others have failed at any speed. Trump simplistically blamed Detroit's economic woes on the North American Free Trade Agreement, signed by President Bill Clinton, and other trade deals that, by the way, received bipartisan support. Some workers win, and others lose in such deals. Although on balance the nation's economy has benefited, the fate of displaced workers had been largely overlooked as a mainstream political issue until Trumpism caught fire in this election cycle. Those same issues fueled Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' insurgent campaign on the Democratic side too, effectively enough to move former Secretary of State Clinton to the left, even on the Trans-Pacific Partnership that President Barack Obama negotiated. Trump's slump in the polls may show a repudiation of his campaign manners. But the issues are still important, even when the candidates fall short. Clarence Page, a member of the Tribune Editorial Board, blogs at www.chicagotribune.com/pagespage. Advertisement cpage@chicagotribune.com Twitter @cptime Statements a man made to police after he strangled his girlfriend and then tried to commit suicide are admissible at trial, a DuPage County judge ruled Monday. Defense attorneys argued that Jose Loera, 38, of Aurora, had not been shown to be medically competent enough to waive his Miranda rights and therefore his police interviews should be barred. But that motion was denied by Judge George Bakalis, who said jurors could hear the interviews when Loera goes on trial for the first-degree murder of Heather Jacobi. Advertisement Loera's trial is slated for October. His attorneys concede Loera killed Jacobi, 32, during a domestic incident at her Aurora home in March 2014, but they say his actions amounted to second-degree murder or involuntary manslaughter. Loera strangled the mother of three, who worked as a nurse at DuPage County Jail, with a scarf, then used Jacobi's stethoscope to check whether she was alive, authorities say. Advertisement In admitting the police interviews, the judge said Loera gave appropriate responses to detectives from a hospital bed where he had been admitted after taking a toxic dose of acetaminophen after killing Jacobi. Loera, though, was alert enough to ask to be taken to Kane County Jail instead of the one in DuPage where Jacobi worked, Bakalis said. In another ruling, the judge said he would allow jurors to hear about prior domestic battery incidents involving Loera and Jacobi. Prosecutors are asking that Loera be found to have committed the killing in a cold, calculating manner that indicates exceptional brutality enhancements that would make him eligible for a life sentence should he be found guilty of first-degree murder. In a jury trial where prosecutors seek that enhanced sentence, jurors have to make a separate finding of exceptional brutality after they have found guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Defense attorneys argued that the judge, in the event of a first-degree conviction, should make the finding of whether the enhanced sentence applies. Assistant State's Attorney Nancy Donahoe said Loera's heinous behavior was woven into the basic facts of the case. Loera, she said, put his knee into Jacobi's back as he strangled her. "When she reached back to defend herself, he bit her finger, and then he used her own stethoscope to make sure she was dead," the prosecutor said. Prosecutors argued that case law does not support a scenario in which a jury makes a finding of guilt but the enhanced sentence question is left to the judge. Bakalis said he would further research the question and issue a ruling before the trial. Clifford Ward is a freelance reporter. PHOENIX -- Four of the five Republican candidates for Arizona Corporation Commission said Monday night they're not convinced that human activity contributes to climate change. "I don't see the evidence of it,'' said Rick Gray in the live televised debate. "Where are the facts?'' Host Ted Simons of KAET asked Gray if he was discounting what's been said by many scientists. "I'm just saying we have not seen all the evidence,'' he responded. "I don't think it's been proven absolutely for me,'' said former judge Boyd Dunn. He said it's a good thing that Arizona, unlike some other states, has a diversity of power sources, including coal. Former state Sen. Al Melvin said there's been climate change "since the beginning of time and I would suppose that is the situation as opposed to man-made problems.'' He also took a slap at the Obama administration's policies, saying the move to shut coal-fired plants is political. Current commissioner Bob Burns also expressed skepticism of human-caused climate change. "I have a hard time believing that when you can have a volcano go off and create more pollution than we can deal with for who knows how long,'' he said. Only Andy Tobin, also on the commission, said it would be foolish to believe that humans are not affecting climate. "It's hard to argue that all the asphalt that humans have put down in the city of Phoenix hasn't done something to increase the heat here,'' Tobin said. And the same is true, he said, of other activities, including greenhouse gases. "We're burning these things so I do think it's impactful,'' he said. "The question is, to what extent?'' The views of commissioners are significant since they have purview over regulations that now require utilities to obtain at least 15 percent of their power from alternate "clean'' sources like solar, wind and geothermal by 2025. The commission can not only increase or decrease that mandate but also is deciding what costs utilities can impose on homeowners who install rooftop solar. Only three of the contenders will advance to the general election where they will face Democrats Bill Mundell and Tom Chabin. As anticipated, the debate provoked some fireworks over the ongoing contention by Burns that Arizona Public Service secretly helped finance independent campaigns that spent $3.2 million in 2014 to elect Republicans Tom Forese and Doug Little. Among this year's candidates, Burns is alone in wanting new rules to require utilities to disclose their political spending. He said he's the only one looking for "transparency.'' But Burns found himself under attack for his decision last week to hire an attorney, at public expense, to take a closer look at the influences affecting the commission's decisions, including political donations. Gray said there is no evidence that the votes of either Forese or Little have been affected by that outside spending. So far APS has refused to deny that it is was the source of those dollars. What is happening, Gray charged, is that Burns is trying to make up for his lack of funds by making an issue out of APS' possible spending. Now, he said, that includes a contract to pay a lawyer up to $95,000 to poke around, "which gives him (free) press. "There's just an obvious questionable appearance,'' Gray charged. "This just didn't come up before the election started,'' Burns shot back. "I've been working on this for almost two years,'' he continued. "This cloud has been hanging over this commission for at least two years.'' "You created the cloud,'' Gray interjected. "No, APS created this cloud,'' Burns responded. Tobin, who opposes Burns' efforts to force utilities to disclose political donations, questioned why all the attention now on a two-year-old race. "So they're guilty,'' he said. "What do you want to do about it?'' It remains to be seen whether the other commissioners will try to overturn or modify Burns' decision to hire the attorney, which was approved by Jodi Jerich, the commission's executive director. Gray also took a slap at Burns for his complaints about spending by anonymous donors. He pointed out that Burns this year is the beneficiary of some outside spending. But the "robocalls'' and mailers for Burns have disclosed their dollars are coming from SolarCity, which is engaged in an ongoing battle with several utilities over how much the commission will force their customers to pay to the power companies. By contrast, the two groups that spent money in 2014 on behalf of Forese and Little have pointedly refused to disclose the source of their dollars, saying they are organized as "social welfare'' organizations exempt from state campaign finance laws. Former Republican commissioner Kris Mayes, who did the robocall for Burns, said there was a "deliberate decision'' to be transparent on the source of the funds. Candidates have no control over independent outside expenditures. But Burns said he has publicly asked other groups not to provide such help. Gray, Melvin and Tobin are running as a team for the three available seats. On Twitter: @azcapmedia K-9 trainer Derek Collins and Bannockburn police dog "Odin" do a demonstration during the National Night Out event at North Park in Lincolnshire. (Brian O'Mahoney / Pioneer Press) When he came to the annual National Night Out in Lincolnshire, where neighbors usually spend time with police officers who are sworn to protect them, Riverwoods resident Andrew Dunroseman had one agenda in mind outrun the cops. On an inflatable pony, that is. Advertisement The Lincolnshire event, a part of a national program designed to improve relations between police and residents, featured officers swimming in a dunk tank, an obstacle course, a petting zoo, food, music and races on inflatable ponies. Dunroseman, 11, defeated Lake Forest community service officer Ben Panitch, an 18-year-old recent graduate from Stevenson High School who was stacking up victories against younger opponents in the inflatable race Aug. 5. Advertisement "I can run really fast, and I have a strategy that works," Dunroseman said. "It's important to lean forward on the pony, so you can jump further forward." He along with dozens of other area children enjoyed a nice summer evening at North Park in Lincolnshire during the National Night Out event. Numerous communities host National Night Out events, a program started by the National Association of Town Watch to connect neighbors with their local police officers. In nearby Buffalo Grove, village officials hosted a National Night Out event Aug. 2 at William Stream Park in the village. At Lincolnshire, police Sgt. Kim Covelli said roughly 1,000 people came out for National Night Out, doubling the number of people who came in 2015, when Lincolnshire held the event on a Tuesday night. "We decided to try it on a Friday this year because all of the villages around us have it on the first Tuesday of August, and we're competing with those towns," Covelli said. "And on a Tuesday night, people are just getting home from work and it might be difficult to get their families out." Buffalo Grove resident Mark Ma took his son, Mason, on the inflatable race. The dad said he came to Lincolnshire for National Night Out because the weather was great and he wanted to support law enforcement. "I want Mason to enjoy the summertime, and show the police department our support," Ma said. "We appreciate their efforts." rwachter@pioneerlocal.com Twitter @RonnieAtPioneer Anthony Brown and Hallie Manning were ordered held Saturday in lieu of $2 million bail by DuPage County Judge Terence Sheen. They face charges of homicide and delivery of a controlled substance in the March 9 death of John Smrz, 32, of Bartlett. (DuPage County Sheriff's photo / ) A Hanover Park man who dumped the body of a man who had overdosed in his apartment was sentenced to eight years in prison Tuesday, according to DuPage County prosecutors. The sentence came days after a woman also pleaded guilty for her role in the crime and received a seven-year sentence, prosecutors said. Advertisement Anthony Brown, 46, agreed to plead guilty to the Class X felony of drug-induced homicide in exchange for the prison sentence and prosecutors agreeing to drop lesser charges against him in connection to the March 9, 2015 death of John Smrz, 32, of Bartlett, prosecutors said. According to authorities, Smrz had come to the apartment in the 5700 block of Dutch Mill Court that Brown shared with a woman named Hallie Manning. Once there, Smrz ingested heroin that Manning had given him and suffered a fatal overdose. Advertisement Brown, according to court documents, found Smrz's body and then took it outside and left it in a nearby apartment complex common area. Brown and Manning were charged in May and had been in the DuPage County Jail since then. According to prosecutors, Manning, 45, entered a guilty plea last week to one count of drug-induced homicide and was sentenced to seven years. Both must serve at least 75 percent of their sentence, prosecutors said. Bar 118, located at 11848 S. Western Ave., was ordered immediately closed and prohibited from selling alcohol for 30 days on Friday, according to a license order from BACPs Local Liquor Control Commissioner Gregory Steadman. (Zak Koeske / Daily Southtown) A Morgan Park bar that has attracted resident complaints since opening last April was shuttered by the city's Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection on Friday, authorities said. Bar 118, 11848 S. Western Ave., was ordered closed and prohibited from selling alcohol for 30 days, according to a license order from BACP's Local Liquor Control Commissioner Gregory Steadman, which states the continued operation of the bar "will immediately threaten the welfare of the community." Advertisement The bar, which residents had blamed for an increase in neighborhood crime and whose owners in December met with 19th Ward Alderman Matthew O'Shea and other city officials to try and resolve repeated resident complaints, had been a haven for illegal drug sales, Steadman's order alleges. The order claims that on at least eight different occasions over the past four months, agents of the bar's licensee had sold marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine at the bar during operating hours. Advertisement The bar was used for drug deliveries, negotiations and transactions, and the sale of controlled substances facilitated and conducted by agents of the licensee had "become open, notorious and commonplace" at Bar 118, the order states. O'Shea said police executed a search warrant at the bar Friday and arrested four people the bar's bouncer and three patrons. The bouncer is a convicted felon who was in possession of a firearm when police arrested him Friday. Police identified the man as Naikia Johnson, 41, of Blue Island. He is charged with one felony count of being a felon in possession of a weapon for the second time; and 10 felony drug charges that include the manufacturing or delivering of marijuana near a school, the manufacturing of ecstasy and the manufacturing or delivering of cocaine. O'Shea and representatives from several city agencies met with the bar's owners in December in an effort to rectify complaints from neighbors about people loitering in the alley behind the business after hours and other nuisance complaints, the alderman said. "We put in a plan of operation agreement, basically saying because of the complaints, because of the allegations from neighbors, there were steps we wanted the bar management to take," O'Shea said." Among the steps O'Shea asked the bar owners to take were the installation of security cameras both inside and outside of the business, and the hiring of a permanent doorman who would check IDs and make sure no one was loitering outside of the bar after hours, O'Shea said. Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday > In addition to Johnson, police also arrested Tyesha Bozetta Oliver, 36, of Calumet Park; Alvin Phillips, 32, of the 4100 block of S Prairie Ave. in Chicago.; and Marvin Williams, 24, of the 4100 block of S. Ellis Ave. in Chicago. Oliver is charged with two felony counts of manufacturing and delivering marijuana near a school; Phillips is charged with five felony counts of delivering or manufacturing marijuana near a school; and Marvin Williams is charged with two felony counts of manufacturing and delivering cannabis near a school and two felony counts of manufacturing ecstasy, police said. Advertisement O'Shea said he had asked the city's attorney to initiate the revocation of the bar's license. O'Shea said he believed the bar had two owners and two managers, all of whom lived in Blue Island. He said he'd only met the owners once at their December powwow. A disciplinary hearing before the Local Liquor Control Commission is scheduled for the morning of Aug. 23 at City Hall, 121 N. LaSalle St. zkoeske@tribpub.com Twitter @ZakKoeske Riverwoods plans to make its new Village Hall more than just the seat of municipal government. The village broke ground Aug. 1 on the new $4.9 million facility on Portwine Road. The new building replaces a more than 85-year-old structure that has served the town since 1971, according to Mayor John Norris. Advertisement Norris said the new building will be completed in April or May of next year and will give Riverwoods not only a new place to conduct business, but a community center that can be rented out by residents for private events. The Village Board's new meeting room will seat 120 people while the old one could hold 45, according to Norris. He said the seats can be removed and the main foyer will be an open area creating a space that could accommodate a cocktail hour and dining area for a private event. Advertisement "This can be used as a public space," Norris said. "That's why we put the kitchen back here off the meeting room. We're bringing in the outdoors (with doors opening to the outside) and we can block off all the office space. We want to get every dollar we can out of it for the residents." Unlike the former village hall, the new building will be on one floor and fully compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act and other safety requirements, according to Norris. He said the age of the old building exempted it from compliance with a number of modern requirements. "It's less square footage but much more efficient," Norris said. "It's all on one floor. If we wanted a second floor we would have had to install an elevator. This will be energy efficient. It will be a beautiful place for our employees to be working in." The original structure, dubbed "our little cabin in the woods" by Norris was originally built in the 1920s as a camping facility for boy scouts and girl scouts from Winnetka. He said the log siding came from halved utility poles provided by Winnetka's municipal gas and electric department. After the village acquired the cabin, it was added on to over the years with offices and a second floor. Norris said the board and building committee determined it would cost significantly more to renovate than to build a new one. A rendering of the new Riverwoods Village Hall shows that it will retain some of its rustic characteristics. (Village of Riverwoods) "When it got to be $1 million more to renovate it became an easy decision," Norris said. The log cabin effect will not disappear completely, according to Norris. He said there will be log siding on the new village hall above a stone facade that will extend a little more than half way up the side of the building. The residents of Riverwoods, a village of 3,800, will not see a tax increase or referendum to cover the new building's cost. Norris said the cost will be paid from a cash reserve of more than $12 million. With an annual budget of approximately $3 million, the village will still be left with a positive fund balance in excess of 100 percent. Advertisement When the building is done and occupied, Norris said Riverwoods will decide what to do with its temporary village hall that sits just north of the new one . "It's coming down," Norris said of the building. "It's barely standing now. We have seven acres and five across road," he said referring to a tract on the east side of Portwine. He does not foresee the village keeping it all. "We need a balance of ecology versus fiscal responsibility," he said. Norris said the board will decide how much of the land to keep for public use and how much to sell to offset the cost of the building. He said the community does not have park land and some of the acreage can serve as an area for environmentally-friendly use. "We have two acres of woodlands we currently don't have access to," Norris said referring to the possibility of a path leading to that area. An 18-year-old Streamwood man has been charged in an armed robbery reported early Sunday morning, said a St. Charles Police Department spokesman. Police were called at 3:49 a.m. to the 7-11 store, 1705 W. Main St. in St. Charles, for an armed robbery. A clerk at the store told police the man entered the store, produced a handgun, and demanded the money from the cash register. Advertisement The Elgin Police Department sent a K9 officer to assist, which then tracked the suspect to an apartment building at 1620 Indiana St. Based on this information and a suspect description, officers made contact at an apartment there. Four subjects were taken to the station for questioning, police said. Kevin J. Hamilton, of the 3000 block of Medford Court, Streamwood, was charged with a class X felony count of armed robbery. The other three people were released without charges. Advertisement Officers searching the area found a silver handgun that they believe was used in the robbery found to be a starter pistol in a tree line near the apartment building, police said. The clerk was not harmed and no customers were present at the time of the robbery. Investigators are working with the store to determine the amount of money that was taken, officials said. Hamilton was taken to the Kane County Jail for bond call. Janelle Walker is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News. Armed guards not needed: To the person who thinks we should bring back armed guards in the bank, the reason we don't have armed guards anymore is we want to protect people going into the bank. We don't want to have shootouts inside the bank and risk lives. These robbers are not killing bank tellers. They are taking money. Why risk lives? Comment on Kaine: That talk Hillary Clinton gave on Saturday (July 23) was very short. Tim Kaine did all the talking while she was sitting there like a bobblehead bobbing her head back and forth. Kaine said he didn't know that she had chosen him. Come on, let's get with it. He couldn't have talked that long if he hadn't known. When Kaine spoke in Spanish, it should have been highlighted in English. We are Americans. We are not Mexicans. Advertisement Support big shelters: I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Give donations to the big shelters. This weekend, a shelter adoption event was a big success. These people are legal. They didn't even charge an adoption fee. It saved some animals from being euthanized. I know of a shelter in Elgin that keeps the money and throws the cats out. That's why one church had cats eating out of their dumpster. Go to a reliable organization that you can check out from the Better Business Bureau. Feeling sorry for Sanders: I would like to say that there isn't much of a difference in the way the Democratic Party did Bernie Sanders than the way the Republican Party did Donald Trump. They ganged up on that man in every way they could. I would like to leave you with this: Politics are a dirty game. After you throw your hat in the arena, you never know what's going to come at you. Advertisement Wary of women in power: I see that the Russians broke into the Democratic Party's email servers. They announced this a few days before the convention. If WikiLeaks got into the Democrat servers, they have also been in the Republican servers. It's just that right now, Vladimir Putin feels more threatened by Hillary Clinton than by Donald Trump. Even some of the Republican male leaders do not like women in power. Majority rules: All the people who call Donald Trump negative names seem to forget that the majority of the people voted him in. Show respect for police: With all this hoopla about teaching policemen how to be policemen, why aren't they teaching people who are stopped by the police how to respond? They probably did something wrong, and that's why they don't respond like they should. Rant about pantsuits: If Hillary Clinton becomes our president, will she spend a little money and get a dress so she will look like a lady or is she going to wear pantsuits all the time? I think she looks ridiculous. Both in the wrong: I think the man who is suing or blackmailing Dennis Hastert also broke the law. If he wants all this free editorial, his name should be out there. There is no reason to hide his name. They are both in the wrong. He should also be punished, and he shouldn't win any lawsuit. This is not fair to the public. Extortion is extortion. I used to feel sorry for him, but I don't anymore. Work for your welfare check: With the election for the president coming closer, I wish one of the candidates would address the problem we have with public welfare. I feel all those who are capable should do some kind of labor for their welfare money. Clean our roadsides. Volunteer at schools. Help the elderly with household chores inside and out. We need police officers: This guy Angelo with the Fraternal Order of Police is asking that during the next Fourth of July, officers should stay at home and not volunteer for overtime because of the lack of respect officers are shown across the country. That's like lighting the other end of a stick of dynamite instead of trying to come together. We need police officers out there. There are instances where police don't get the respect they deserve, but it doesn't mean they should not volunteer for a holiday like the Fourth of July. That's sending a bad message. Problems stay unsolved: This has to do with Route 20 and Route 31. I said something about this a long time ago, but it's still the same. When will they cut down that tree? It's so hard to see around it. One day when we wanted to make a right-hand turn, we almost got hit on Route 31 getting off from Route 20 going west. Also, there are four streetlights up there that are out across from the driver's license bureau. Don't they see that? One of these days someone will make a turn and crash right into the driver's license bureau. Branches are covering the speed limit sign. That's a safety hazard. Advertisement Fretting about debt: What has happened to the Democratic Party? It sure isn't John F. Kennedy's party. He knew the importance of keeping taxes down. President Obama has increased our national debt more than all previous presidents combined. It is completely through the roof. Now the Democrats want to elect Hillary Clinton with all her freebies for college students. We're $20 trillion in debt, yet Hillary never mentions our debt. We need a more level-headed leader who can reduce our debt. Donald Trump can do it. Think before you vote: In November, people will be voting. How many will be old enough to see what has happened over the last 40 years? Those of us who are old enough to remember what the country was once like and what it is like today know the country needs a change. Which candidate will make that change? Give that a lot of thought before you vote in November. Editor's note Speak Out is a reader-generated column of opinions. If you see something you disagree with or think is incorrect, please tell us. Call us at 312-222-2460 or email couriernews@tribpub.com. Please include "speak out" in the subject line. Indira Perkins (left), Evanston's human services manager, chats with Fifth Ward co-chairwoman Carolyn Murray following a ward meeting at the Fleetwood Jourdain Community Center last month. (Bob Seidenberg / Pioneer Press) A move to dissolve Evanston Township governance produced savings of nearly $780,000 the first full year the city ran the programs, Evanston officials have said in a recent white paper examining the decision. Staff arrived at the figure by comparing the township government's final complete budget of fiscal year 2012, the last year of the township's operation, with fiscal year 2015, the first full year after dissolution. Officials found multiple factors contributing to the savings, according to the white paper published by the city on the issue last month. Advertisement The analysis found that the consolidation of the township's operations resulted "in a reduction of payroll and administrative costs, elimination of duplicative functions, improved wrap-around services to residents and an overall more fiscally sustainable system." Evanston was one of 20 coterminous townships statewide, where the city and township shared the same borders, officials reported. The city was unique among such coterminous Illinois townships, in that the city and township had the same governing body. Advertisement Evanston moved to dissolve the township in 2012, with city council members backing an advisory referendum asking voters whether they supported dissolving township government. The following year, city staff and elected officials worked with local state representatives to sponsor legislation to modify the state township code, to allow the city to dissolve the township through a binding referendum. The township, which at one time had separate offices from the city and its own elected officials and administrators, administered general assistance, emergency assistance and also ran several job training programs for residents. City officials said much of the administration was a duplication of services and could be run cheaper under the city. The $780,000 exceeded the $500,000 cost savings estimate officials were predicting at the time of the referendum to dissolve township services. Roughly $353,000 of the savings came through reduced payroll and salary benefit expenses, as well as administrative expenses, the report found. Another $205,000 came in savings for the township supervisor, in charge of general assistance, and township assessor, who oversaw taxpayer assistance programs. Savings related to community action programs occurred through referrals to local community organizations, the report found. At a Fifth Ward meeting last month, Indira Perkins, the city's human services manager, told community members that the changes resulted in a reduced general assistance case load. "When we took the services over from the township, there were over 250 people on general assistance," she said. "We had Chicago residents, and you have to be an Evanston resident to be on these programs." She told residents that as a result of the cost savings, officials "have not put a dent" in the $1.2 million budget set aside for general assistance and emergency assistance, programs which provides stipends and help with lodging for residents in emergency situations, such as displacement in a fire. bseidenberg@pioneerlocal.com Advertisement Twitter @evanstonscribe The following editorial was written by Bloomberg View editors: In his robust defense this week of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, President Barack Obama has reason on his side. But allaying anxiety, economic or otherwise, requires not so much reason as reassurance. The challenge for Obama and other supporters of the deal is to overcome the countrys anti-trade mood without reopening the complex and hard-fought agreement, which would surely collapse in the attempt. For starters, he could build on his budgets wage insurance proposal to create a more sophisticated program to deal with trades economic dislocations. He should also put forward a detailed plan for how U.S. agencies will enforce the TPPs groundbreaking provisions on labor rights and the environment. To reassure those worried by other controversial provisions notably the mechanism for resolving fights between foreign investors and states the U.S. should ask its fellow TPP signers to agree to review the pacts provisions after three years, to make sure that they are working as intended. Of course, its also worth reiterating the case for this deal in particular and free trade in general. The U.S. will be the TPPs largest economic beneficiary in absolute terms. Its provisions have the potential to advance long-standing progressive goals on labor and the environment, dismantle a thicket of protectionist regulations, and reignite global trade liberalization largely on U.S. terms. The deal will also reinforce U.S. strategic interests in the worlds most dynamic region. Moreover, the cost of walking away from the TPP will be measured in more than economic terms. As Singapores visiting Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said this week, the TPP is a test of U.S. credibility and seriousness of purpose. In the face of growing Chinese assertiveness, a U.S. failure to approve the pact will undermine not only its regional alliances but its ability to set the terms of global trade. One of the core tenets of economics is that free trade makes economies more efficient by increasing competition and thus innovation; consumers benefit by gaining access to better goods at lower prices. The impact of any single trade deal on employment is hard to gauge, but in the long run, workers do better in a more productive and competitive economy. Yet such benefits have been overshadowed by campaign rhetoric that seeks to exploit economic insecurity. While Donald Trump promises to protect workers by building walls and starting trade wars, Hillary Clinton has abjured a trade deal she once supported. Political expedience is a powerful force, and it would be naive to argue that free trade is a popular issue this year. But at least one of those candidates knows better. A chaotic Middle East, 10 years later The following editorial appeared in The Kansas City Star on Thursday, Aug. 4: Ten years ago this summer, Hezbollah militants kidnapped two Israeli soldiers. The incident triggered a massive response, as Israels jets bombed Lebanons capital of Beirut while Hezbollah retaliated with rockets. About 1,100 Lebanese were killed, mostly civilian, while 119 Israeli soldiers and 45 civilians died during a 34-day long-clash. Both sides claimed victory. But Israels domestic investigators later described the war as a failure for the country. The war helped prove that Hezbollah was a political and military power in the Middle East. And it created a huge crack in the region that still exists today. Hezbollah now is an absolute regional power. It is stronger at home while becoming an important player in Middle Eastern conflicts. Lebanon has plenty of political problems, with its populations of Sunni, Shia, Christian and Durzia minorities. Hezbollah, which in Arabic means Gods Party, represents Shias political and military power. Its an official political party in Lebanon but also has a militia. While Saudi Arabia and the Sunni Arab League define Hezbollah as a terrorist group, it is embraced by Iran as one of the main assets in the region. The United States considers Hezbollahs militants as a global terrorist group. As a constant enemy of Israel and Western allies, Hezbollah is an obstacle to Middle East stability. Some American experts describe the groups position in Lebanon as a state within the state. But the Islamic State, the worlds No. 1 political concern and the target of many U.S. and Western attacks, has complicated matters. Thats partly because the Islamic State and Hezbollah are fighting each other. Between 2013 and 2014, the Islamic State targeted Hezbollah-dominated areas in nine attacks in Lebanon. In Syria, thousands of Hezbollah fighters sided with Syrian President Bashar Assad and his regime in that countrys civil war, which started in early 2011. Hezbollah, backed by Iran, has become an important unofficial ally of Russia in the Syrian war. While the United States, Turkey and the Western allies wanted to end Assads regime, Hezbollah has fought for it for four years. President Barack Obama wanted to establish a peaceful status quo in the Middle East. However, things have changed dramatically. The Arab Spring, Syrian war and the Islamic State conflict have forced Obama to change his strategy in the region. Obama welcomed the Arab Spring, which began in late 2010, as a peaceful revolution by the people. The hope was that some Arab countries would end up with democratic regimes. But it did not work. The Islamic State also was born and strengthened in the gap years between the Arab Spring and Syrian crisis. Ten years after the war between Israel and Lebanon, it seems many Middle Eastern countries are weaker even as Hezbollah gets stronger. How to deal with the group will be a major question for the next U.S. president, dramatically affecting future Middle East policies. What Zika fighters urgently need from Congress The following editorial was written by Bloomberg View editors: So far, the only mosquitoes in America carrying the Zika virus are confined to one neat square mile north of downtown Miami. And public health officials seem confident that they will be able to keep most of them there. There is no reason for panic, in other words. The U.S. is unlikely to experience a widespread epidemic of Zika. But there is ample reason for frustration, and Congress needs to ensure that state and federal public health authorities get the funding they need. More than 1,650 people in the U.S. have been infected with Zika after traveling to other countries or through sex. The mosquito that carries Zika inhabits a coast-to-coast swath of the southern U.S. So its quite possible that local transmission of Zika will happen in other parts of the U.S. as well. The Gulf Coast is especially vulnerable. Yet Congress has still not allocated a dime toward containing the threat of Zika or developing a vaccine to prevent it. Both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is helping Florida contain its infected mosquitoes, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is trying to better understand Zika and help develop vaccines and treatments, have borrowed money from other parts of their budgets to keep working at full speed. But Anthony Fauci, the NIAID director, has warned that his agency is preciously close to running out of money. The NIAID has too little money to prepare for a second-phase vaccine trial that should be scheduled for January. Some congressional Democrats are calling for an emergency session to finally fund the $1.9 billion Zika spending bill that President Barack Obama sent in February. At the very least, Congress should pass that legislation the moment it reconvenes after Labor Day and without the partisan poison pills Republicans tried to add to a truncated version of the request last month. Its impossible to argue that fighting Zika is not a task for government, and its very difficult to say that more money is unnecessary or wasteful. County officials in Florida, for example, are applying pesticides and dumping standing water, where mosquitoes breed. This kind of slow, painstaking work will need to be accompanied by more research to develop vaccines and medicines and to create better weapons for controlling the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which can carry not only Zika but also dengue, yellow fever and other viruses. Without wasting any more time, Congress needs to make all this work possible. The epic flight by Solar Impulse 2 marks new era The following editorial appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Monday, Aug. 1: The Solar Impulse 2 has landed. More than a year after beginning its 25,000-mile trek around the world using only the sun as a fuel source, Solar Impulse 2 has returned to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, the country where its historic flight began. This is a big deal. For the first time ever, a two-pilot team was able to circle the globe without using a drop of fossil fuel. The 5,070-pound solar-powered aircraft with a 236-foot wingspan was piloted by Solar Impulse 2 chairman Bertrand Piccard and co-pilot Andre Borschberg taking turns for long solo stretches. Though it is a monumental technological breakthrough, it didnt come easy for the pilots. The trip, which achieved average flight speeds of 28 to 56 mph, was delayed for nine months after the aircrafts 17,248 solar cells were damaged during a flight from Japan to Hawaii. Still, Solar Impulse racked up 500 flight hours and glided across four continents, three seas and two oceans. Some of its stops included China, India, Japan, Myanmar, Egypt, southern Europe and the United States. During its trek across America, Solar Impulse stopped in Pittsburgh where Paige Kassalen, a 23-year-old electrical engineering graduate of Virginia Tech, is part of the planes pit crew. (Covestro, where Kassalen works, is the lead corporate sponsor of Solar Impulse.) The strategic breakthrough that this technology represents is undeniable. Clean, renewable energy in the form of sunshine that cant be metered has provided fuel for a flight around the world for the first time in human history. This is an innovation in energy that has implications going forward for every sector of modern industrial society. It isnt too much of an exaggeration to say that Solar Impulse has ushered in a new era. As solar and other non-renewable technology matures, so will the speed and capacity of planes and other modes of transportation to travel the globe without polluting. The days of fossil fuel as a staple of transportation are numbered thanks to the year long flight of Solar Impulse. Work to replace some 3,300 infected trees removed in Lake Zurich because of the emerald ash borer begins next month in the Cedar Creek subdivision. (Terry Harris / Chicago Tribune) Work to replace some 3,300 infected trees removed in Lake Zurich because of the emerald ash borer begins next month in the Cedar Creek subdivision. Lake Zurich trustees approved earlier this month a $47,000 contract with Elk Grove Village-based Brancato Landscaping to perform the first phase of the multi-year replacement program. Advertisement Planting will begin in early to mid-September in Cedar Creek and carry over to a portion of Old Mill Grove this fall, Public Works Director Mike Brown said. Old Mill Grove will be completed next year, followed by Countryside West, he said. Lake Zurich officials have said they spent about $1 million to remove infected ash trees on public rights of way, including those located on parkways in front of homes, municipal grounds, retention and detention basins, and parks. Advertisement Earlier in May the board approved a tree replacement program that will allow residents to pay some of the cost if they desire replacement trees larger than those selected by the village. Property owners can "upgrade" from the standard tree of 1.5 inches in diameter to a larger tree of 2.5 inches in diameter, Brown said. Prices will vary depending on the price of the type of tree selected, he said. For example, a resident could pay $150 to get a larger autumn blaze maple, Brown said. The village's cost to plant a smaller such tree is $200 each, he said. The tree replacement schedule will prioritize neighborhoods where infested trees were first removed, Brown said. Trees will be planted in the same locations where workers removed the infected trees, he said. Selection of species will be recommended by the village arborist and approved by Brown. "A preference will be placed on species that enhance the overall diversity of the village's overall tree population," Brown said. The species list will be reviewed and updated annually, based upon availability, expected costs and progress toward meeting diversity goals for the overall tree population, he said. Brancato's work will include delivery, excavation, planting, backfilling, mulching, watering and removal of excess dirt, Brown sad. The trees are guaranteed for one year from the date of their final inspection and approval, he said. Advertisement Lake Zurich had planned to spread the tree replacement work over 10 years but in 2014, trustees agreed to finish it in three years at the request of the Lake Zurich Tree Commission. "We had a change of direction because of the number of trees that (had) died over the past year," Village President Tom Poynton said. Phil Rockrohr is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press. The Lake Zurich Village Board has awarded a contract to Select Construction Group, of Elgin, to replace the roof and siding at the Barn at Paulus Park, 200 S. Rand Road. (Village of Lake Zurich / Handout) Lake Zurich officials believe demand for the Paulus Park Barn will continue to grow after the roof and exterior undergo a $69,138 facelift. In an unanimous vote earlier this month, the Lake Zurich Village Board awarded a contract to Elgin-based Select Construction Group to replace the roof and siding at the barn, 200 S. Rand Road, which many people rent for private events. It is also used for park programs. Advertisement More people have rented and used the barn in recent years, so the improvements should be well received, said Recreation Manager Bonnie Caputo. "There is always the hope that it will continue to trend up," Caputo said. "Right now, we're very happy with the use and progress in rentals and programs. This will help in presentation. I feel comfortable that folks will be renting a place that looks like it was re-invested in." Advertisement The Lake Zurich Parks and Recreation Department use the Paulus Park Barn for a wide range of programs, including its youth summer camp and weekly specialty camps, such as the magic camp, she said. "Our programming and rentals have gone up there," Caputo said. "We have seen an increase in all programming over the last couple of years." The repairs are needed, particularly on the roof, she said. In a report to the board, Michael Cernock, general services superintendent in the public works department, said staff recommended the repairs because of "the increasing maintenance cost of the exterior." "At this point, we were told we have another year to two years on the roof," Caputo said. "Some of the exterior needs a little TLC. We're investing in a facility that gets used a lot." Lake Zurich officials have no plans to increase rental rates after the renovation, she said. The renovation work will be divided into three parts, beginning with the removal and replacement of all roofing and gutters, Cernock said. The second phase will include removal and replacement of siding and facade trim, he said. The final phase covers removal and replacement of all windows, except five eastside windows that were previously replaced, Cernock said. Advertisement The facility also will remain open during the renovation, Caputo said. "We're still going to have business hours," she said. "There will just be an alternate route to get in, depending on where they are at with the construction." Select Construction was the lowest among three bidders and received a positive review for work it did for the South Barrington Park District, Cernock said. The barn, which is about 40-by-80 feet, can be rented for $60 an hour, with a two-hour minimum, according to the village website. Discounts are available to community and nonprofit groups, the site said. Phil Rockrohr is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press. Lincolnwood officials who organize the annual Diversity Month adopted a new image this year, as they plan fresh events to replace the once-controversial flag display along Lincoln Avenue. Up until last year, a display of more than 60 flags hung along the town's main thoroughfare every August for more than a decade meant to highlight the diverse cultural backgrounds represented in the village. Advertisement The flag display once a rich tradition for the Lincolnwood community came under scrutiny two years ago when heightened tensions in the Middle East in late summer of 2014 divided the community. Some residents at the time gathered at village hall for a public hearing and decried the Palestinian flag's presence among the other countries' flags. Despite some opposition to the flag, Lincolnwood kept Palestine's flag flying until all the flags were taken down in September, when Diversity Month came to a close. None of the flags have returned to Lincoln Avenue since 2014. Advertisement And village officials still are deciding whether to continue the display along with other new events being planned for Diversity Month this year. "The flag program is on hold while the village considers various options," Lincolnwood Police Chief Bob LaMantia said, adding that there are "no immediate plans for the flags." In place of the flags, the volunteer-based Lincolnwood Human Relations Commission is staging a one-day event in Proesel Park Aug. 15 to keep the tradition alive. Until this year, Diversity Month was marked solely by the flag display. "We haven't heard much from the residents about missing the flags since the big 'hoo-ha' that happened a few summers ago," said Rebecca Kohn, chair of the Human Relations Commission. "At one point many years ago, someone decided August would be Diversity Month with no particular rhyme or reason." Commissioners are wanting to spread events that highlight the town's diversity throughout the calendar year, starting with a cultural dance party next week. Between 6:30 and 8:30 p.m., the park shelter at North Kostner and Morse avenues will host dance groups representing different nationalities including Russian, Ukrainian, Serbian, Macedonian, and Indian. Cultural dance groups, including the Chicago Cossacks, the Dukati and Biseri Folklore Ensemble, and the Natraj Dance Academy, will take center stage before the dancers begin a free teaching lesson for the public. Free beverages will be handed to guests and staff from the Lincolnwood Public Library will be there with a freezer filled with ice-cream. Advertisement "It's our first step in trying something new (for Diversity Month), and I think it will be good for the morale of the community," Kohn said. "We're hoping it will be the start of a series of fun activities we'll have over the course of the year instead of limiting ourselves to just one month." A public works project last summer that called for the replacement of the light poles, where the flags were typically hung, forced the village to cancel last year's tradition without making a decision about the flag display. Lincolnwood Mayor Jerry Turry and some village trustees also attended a forum last October at Oakton Community College for public leaders looking to develop programs that embraced diversity on a public level. For now, as the village tries to form new traditions, Kohn said the pressure to make fresh rituals stick shouldn't fall solely on the backs of public officials. "If we don't get a good turnout, I think it will be hard to get support for other more significant events we're kicking around," she said. "We just want people to have fun and come out to connect with each other by having a good time." Natalie Hayes is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press. The second-annual India Day Parade and Celebration steps off 5 p.m. Aug. 14 in downtown Naperville. (Naperville Indian Community Outreach / Handout) With thousands of revelers expected, it's bound to be a big, bright procession and party. The whole community is invited to the second-annual India Day Parade and Celebration 5 p.m. Sunday in downtown Naperville. In addition to offering a taste of Indian culture, the event marks India's independence from the British Empire in 1947. Advertisement "Spectators will experience an amazing colorful parade like none other," said Krishna Bansal, chairman of Naperville Indian Community Outreach, which is hosting the event in association with the City of Naperville and Indian Consulate General. "Large decorated floats and colorful Indian folk, classical and modern dances are some of the highlights," he said. Advertisement With 40 floats and more than 80 entries, the growing parade aims to highlight India's diverse culture. Bollywood star Sunidhi Chauhan will serve as the parade's grand marshal and also will perform a free concert with her troupe following the procession. The parade starts at Naperville Central High School, 440 W. Aurora Ave., and ends at Knoch Park,724 S. West St., site of the celebration and concert. "It's lots of fun for families, with dances, food, drinks, a children's area," Bansal said. The celebration in the park also will include vendors selling Indian ethnic arts, apparel and jewelry, as well as Indian cuisine. This unique event is only the second India Day parade backed by any city in America, Bansal said. Dignitaries slated to attend the parade include Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner, Naperville Mayor Steve Chirico and Consul General of India in Chicago, Dr. Ausaf Sayeed. As part of Naperville's Cultural Outreach Program created in 2013 by then-Mayor A. George Pradel, Indian Community Outreach is a nonpartisan and a not-for-profit organization whose mission is "to embrace, preserve and promote the cultural heritage and contributions of Indian-Americans while educating them to get involved in Naperville's growth." Along with fundraisers, the organization is partially funded by the City of Naperville. As chairman, Bansal was appointed by and reports to Naperville's mayor. In addition to hosting cultural events like this one, Indian Community Outreach aims to serve as a bridge between the Indian-American community and all other communities in Naperville, as well as to build higher levels of civic engagement between local government and the Indian-American community. Advertisement From 1990 to 2010, Indian-Americans became the largest Asian ethnic group in Illinois, according to census data. In particular, the Indian community in Naperville experienced dramatic growth in that time period and now constitutes more than 10 percent of the city's population, Bansal said. In fact, more than 70 percent are first-generation immigrants, according to Indian Community Outreach. Jen Banowetz is a freelance writer. India Day Parade, Celebration and Concert When: 5 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 14 Where: Parade starts at Naperville Central High School, 440 W. Aurora Ave., and ends at Knoch Park, 724 S. West St., for concert Admission: free Advertisement Information: www.napervilleindian.com Harwood Heights has agreed to pay the developer of a Portillo's and Art Van Furniture location planned for the vacant 8-acre lot on the corner of Lawrence and Harlem avenues more than $1 million as part of an economic incentive agreement. Chicago-based Bradford Real Estate the same company behind the Lawrence Avenue Mariano's store that opened three years ago purchased the long-vacant site last year with plans to build the retail center along the busy commercial corner at 7300 W. Lawrence Ave. The village has since offered a $1.075 million financial incentive to the developer, to be paid in general obligation bonds after Sept. 1. Advertisement It was unclear how much of the sales tax dollars the development will eventually generate would be distributed back to the village in return for the upfront payment. "We determined that the benefit we'll get from the sales taxes will pay off the bonds," Harwood Heights Mayor Arlene Jezierny said. We want to fill our vacant properties, and that's what we're doing creating opportunities for our residents to enjoy shopping in our community while reaping the benefits of the tax dollars, so we can eliminate higher taxes." Advertisement A third retailer is expected to join the Portillo's and Art Van Furniture development, according to plans presented to the village, but a lease hasn't been signed yet. Last year, the village sold the lot across the street from where the new Portillo's will open to one of the chain's competitors Buona Beef. The 3,950-square-foot restaurant opened on last fall after the village agreed to give Buona Beef $200,000 in sales tax rebates if it meets the terms of a financial incentive agreement. While village leaders welcome the boost in new sales tax revenue retailers are bringing in to the community, residents near the site of the new Portillo's who attended a series of plan commission meetings last spring weren't keen on the excess traffic and noise the restaurant could bring to the corner. A new traffic light will go up on Lawrence Avenue to help reduce traffic near the main entrance of the 9,900-square-foot Portillo's and a 72,000-square-foot Art Van Furniture store. Plans for the property show two entrances. A main entryway with a new traffic light would face Lawrence Avenue at Octavia Avenue, and a second drive would enter off Harlem Avenue at the north end of the Parkway Bank property near Ainslie Street, according to preliminary site plans presented by the developers. Some of the residents who spoke at the public hearings said they lived on Ainslie Street and were concerned that motorists would use their residential street to get to the retail center. "Ainslie will be more of a secondary entrance to the shopping center," said Luay Aboona, principal for traffic consulting firm KLOA of Rosemont. Aboona added that most traffic would go through a signalized main entrance that will be installed at Lawrence Avenue. Aboona also said traffic signs would be installed restricting delivery trucks and other traffic from going west out of the property onto Ainslie to avoid Harlem. Plans for that traffic signal are still being worked out by the Illinois Department of Transportation, Jezierny said. Advertisement Construction on the site was expected to begin sometime in September, according to the village. Portillo's spokesman Nick Scarpino said the restaurant would likely open in early 2017. Natalie Hayes is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press. For the first eight days Northbrook's new Dunkin Donuts operated, there was no sign letting drivers know not to turn left into it from Dundee Road,. (Irv Leavitt / Pioneer Press) Northbrook's new Dunkin Donuts drive-through store opened late last month with some of the restrictions intended to keep it safe, developed over months of public hearings, not in place. Northbrook officials, however, began enforcing some of the neglected restrictions at the store at Dundee and Pfingsten roads after Pioneer Press questioned their absence. Advertisement Northbrook officials and neighborhood residents had expressed concerns about the safety of the drive-through throughout its 10-month approval process ending in February 2015, because of heavy traffic and a dozen other commercial driveways on the corner. More than 30,000 cars already traveled that stretch of Dundee daily, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation. The resulting safety restrictions included restricting turns to right-in and right-out only on the Dundee Road side. IDOT added another restriction about a year after approval, according to Northbrook officials and the agency, banning left turns from southbound Pfingsten Road into the store property from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. daily. Advertisement Signs advising drivers of the restriction, however, were still not present until Aug. 1, eight days after the store's July 25 opening. IDOT spokeswoman Gianna Urgo said erecting the signs was the responsibility of the developer, and ensuring it was done was up to Northbrook. Drivers were seen by Pioneer Press commonly turning left illegally from westbound Dundee Road into the right-turn-only entrance on that side of the busy store at 2775 Dundee. Manager James Rogers said that starting on the first day the store was open, some drivers made that illegal left turn and drove through his new lot and out the Pfingsten Road side, to avoid the traffic light on the corner. There was no sign warning westbound drivers not to make the turn. Jim Doerr, who said he handles new development for some Dunkin Donuts stores in the region, said Aug. 1 that he had signs on order for Pfingsten Road, but Northbrook mounted temporary signs on barricades the following day. Village Engineer Matt Farmer said Aug. 3 that a no-left-turn sign on the Dundee Road side of the store had faced the wrong way for over a week. Though it correctly told drivers leaving the lot not to turn left onto Dundee, a right-turn-only sign was enough to communicate that, he said. The no-left-turn sign is supposed to be turned 90 degrees, facing westbound Dundee traffic, therefore warning against left turns into the store. David Gutierrez, who identified himself as the head of the Dunkin Donuts store building crew, changed the direction of the sign Aug. 2. Some drivers continued to make illegal left turns into the Dundee Road side after the change was made, and the store manager said Friday that he thinks he knows why: The entrance drivers use has a curb less than 2 inches high, while the adjacent exit has one about 5 inches high. "It makes it too easy," Rogers said. Northbrook Development Director David Schoon said the developers of the doughnut shop knew the sign informing of banned rush-hour left turns on the Pfingsten Road side was supposed to be installed when the store opened. Advertisement "I know they were aware of it because they battled IDOT about that restriction, because they'd rather not have it," he said July 29. Doerr said he knew nothing about such a conflict, and store manager Rogers said he didn't know about the morning left-turn ban on Pfingsten until the signs went up. But when they did, he didn't like them. "There's no way anyone coming from the east can get in here during that time unless they make a U-turn," he said, which might be more dangerous. IDOT didn't answer questions about that problem. Northbrook police said Aug. 3 that there had been no tickets written near the store since its opening, but extra patrols had been added. No accidents had occurred there, according to police. Northbrook Trustee James Karagianis said he likes the business, but he voted against allowing its construction last year over concerns about its safety. He said he felt worse about that Aug. 2. Advertisement "A person exits Greek Feast, goes across all four lanes and enters Dunkin Donuts. I just saw it with my own eyes," he said. Karagianis said he called a village department head and asked if there was anything that could be done to get a raised median put in on Dundee Road, blocking left turns into the store. "And if it's a question of money, Northbrook should pay for it. It's egregious," he said. Farmer said Aug. 3 that adding the non-drivable median would stop illegal entry into the Dundee Road side of the doughnut store, but it also might block left turns from eastbound Dundee into multiple stores on the north side of the street, too. ileavitt@pioneerlocal.com Twitter @IrvLeavitt A rattlesnake of a species that lives in the southwestern United States turned up dead in Northbrook Sunday, but it probably didn't get there all by itself, experts say. A western diamondback rattlesnake, an albino, was found in Wood Oaks Green Park, and turned over to authorities, according to the village of Northbrook, which warned people to watch out for possible brethren of the snake, living or dead. Advertisement That's good advice, said 49-year Chicago Herpetologist Society member Dick Buchholz. "Kids playing with rattlesnake carcasses, if they get into the mouth, can get envenomated," he said. "Dead rattlesnakes do kill a number of people." Advertisement Buchholz, of Naperville, doesn't think a rattlesnake indigenous to Arizona and New Mexico slithered to Northbrook, or smuggled itself into a train or plane, and neither does Illinois Department of Natural Resources Herpetologist Scott Ballard, who said he identified the snake for Northbrook. That's not just because of the unlikeliness of such a trip, but because the snake was an albino, which is relatively rare in the wild, but prized for their glowing yellow skin among collectors. "It's definitely a 'morph,'" said Ballard, referring to a product of the practice of breeding reptiles for collectible properties, especially color. Ballard and Buchholz both think the snake was in someone's collection. It could have gotten loose and been killed by a person or animal, or died in captivity. Buchholz said that the snake, at 3-foot-2-inches long, is "a youngster. And these snakes aren't king of the hill. Lots of things could get them. "Or just as likely, it died, and the owner dumped it in the garbage, and some animal dragged it out." Ballard agreed, and said from the photo he was sent, he couldn't tell how the snake departed this mortal coil. Ballard, the author of the Herp Code, the state law governing reptiles and amphibians, said it's possible the owner of the snake violated the law. People need a DNR permit to keep poisonous snakes, alligators or crocodiles. The owner might not have one, though Ballard said that 99 percent of Illinois venomous reptile owners do. Advertisement But allowing a rattlesnake to wind up in a public park might also be a violation of the Dead Animal Disposal Act. "We're actively investigating, and hopefully will find the owner of it," he said. "Until we get a chance to identify the individual, there is no proof or evidence that there are more out there." The Chicago area's only indigenous rattlesnake, according to herpetologists, is the Eastern Massassauga, and those are rare on the North Shore now. Northbrook spokeswoman Cheryl Fayne-Depersio said anyone who sees a strange snake should leave it alone, and call the police. The herpetologists say a similar snake to the dead one is likely to flee, if it's still among the living. "Certainly, if you see a bright yellow snake out there, don't pick it up," Ballard said. ileavitt@pioneerlocal.com Advertisement Twitter @IrvLeavitt After retiring as Trinity High School's choral director, Linda Crabtree Powell is moving on to work with what she considers "big kids." Powell is the conductor of the newly established Oak Park/River Forest Encore Chorale, for those 55 and older. It's part of the Chicago-area affiliate of Encore Creativity, which is based in the Washington, D.C. area and is the largest chorale organization for older adults in the country. Advertisement "This is that opportunity for people to still be engaged as a participant, not just an audience," Powell said. The chorale will rehearse at Trinity High School in River Forest, and the 15-week session starts Sept. 6. Open to women and men 55 and older, there are no auditions for the chorale. Experienced vocalists and those with no experience singing in a choir are all welcome to register. Advertisement But, Powell added, "it's not going to be watered-down versions of anything." Powell and Jonathan Miller, artistic director and conductor of other Encore Chorale groups in the Chicago area, both mentioned the importance of senior citizens staying mentally and socially engaged, and a choral organization like Encore Chorale provides opportunities for both. "People get to reconnect to their voice, and have an experience they maybe haven't had in a long time," Miller said. "Choirs always create community." A unique aspect to the choral program: daytime rehearsals. The Oak Park/River Forest group will meet at 9 a.m. Tuesdays. Powell hopes the daytime rehearsals encourage participants to grab lunch or coffee together afterward. Miller, a longtime choral conductor, founder of Chicago a Capella and colleague of Powell's for years, conducts Encore Chorale groups in Hinsdale, Evanston, two in Chicago and one that's taking shape in Arlington Heights. "Early on, it was obvious that Oak Park/River Forest was a perfect location for this," Miller said, adding that they expect at least 40 people to sign up. He pointed out that all of the Chicago area Encore Chorale groups are learning and singing the same music this fall, making it easy for participants to make up a rehearsal elsewhere during the week if one is missed. Powell, a River Forest resident, founded the BRAVO! program at Brooks Middle School, prior to directing Trinity's choral program for nine years. She said she feels she's graduated to working with senior citizens. Advertisement "Now I feel comfortable working with voices that are changing," she said. Registration for the 15-week session costs $150. Carla Sloan, River Forest township supervisor, said Encore Chorale is in line with the township's mission of facilitating lifelong learning, and the township is pleased to offer partial scholarships for those in need. "We wouldn't want anyone to not sign up because of the cost," she said, adding that she expects the program to be popular with local seniors. For more information, visit www.encorecreativity.org/locations/affiliates/Chicago or call 312-342-7227. Caitlin Mullen is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press. Lollipop Lamb Chops with a mint chimichurri and warm potato salad paired with a Black Jack with house made vanilla bean simple syrup, whiskey, Creme de Cassis and fresh squeezed lemon juice, are available at Jack Binion's Steak House at the Horseshoe Hammond Casino. (Post-Tribune / Jim Karczewski) A craft cocktail menu, a barrel program and a refreshed wine selection are some of the new offerings at Horseshoe Hammond fine dining staple Jack Binion's Steak House. "Recently we've added a new bar program not typical for up here," said Walter Owens, steak house manager for Horseshoe Hammond. Advertisement "It's all craft cocktails, which happen to be a huge passion of mine. All infusions are done in-house." Sous chef Michael Crook, of Highland, leads the menu at Jack Binion's Steak House where popular dishes include calamari; Jack's Surf & Turf; the Outlaw, a 42-ounce Tomahawk rib eye; the Sugar & Spice salmon; and the seafood tower with shrimp, oysters, mussels, clams, lobster and king crab legs. Advertisement "We feature lollipop lamb chops. They melt in your mouth like cotton candy. They just dissolve in your mouth. They're so tender," said Owens, of Munster. Prices at Jack Binion's Steak House, which can seat up to 160 guests in a comfortable atmosphere, start at $8 for soups and salads, $10 for appetizers, $22 for chops and more, $28 for seafood and $35 for steaks. "We have an amazing view of Lake Michigan. Part of the steak house extends over the lake. It's unlike any other restaurant that we've found in the city," said Owens, who started working with the steak house in December 2014. "One of the big goals when I took over the steak house was to make sure we held true to the spirit and tradition of Jack Binion and how he ran things. Keep it elegant. Keep it nice. Make sure we stuff you and send you home with more food than you know what to do with." Owens was previously the feature bar supervisor for Horseshoe Hammond, working with craft cocktails in Push and the craft beer-focused Sixth Street Bar, which had one of Indiana's largest bourbon and whiskey programs, a portion of which was brought to Jack Binion's Steak House. "We introduced a barrel program. Currently, we feature my Old Fashioned recipe. It's a whiskey-based drink we sweeten up with various natural flavors. Then we put it in an oak barrel that originally aged cognac. "We age it for about three months. It takes on this whole new life. It gives a smoothness and drinkability to the product that you wouldn't find in most other cocktails in other bars." Upcoming plans include a soon-to-debut tasting menu. Advertisement "We have a very young, vigorous chef who is constantly pushing the boundaries and creating new dishes for our guests to try," said Owens. "Very shortly we will be releasing a chef's tasting menu, something that's never been done inside Jack Binion's Steak House, to add more variety and adventure for our patrons. "At Jack Binion's our goal is to provide ultimate legendary service. You can dine and indulge yourself without apology." Hours: 5-10 p.m. Wednesdays-Thursdays, 4-11 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, 4-10 p.m. Sundays. Closed Mondays-Tuesdays. Jack Binion's Steak House is at Horseshoe Hammond, 777 Casino Center Drive, Hammond. Contact 219-473-6028 or www.caesars.com/horseshoe-hammond. Jessi Virtusio is a freelance writer. The Signal: A Doo Wop Rhapsody features, from left, Billy Shelton, Henry Farag, Sheryl Youngblood, Linda Walla, Patrick Pitre, Gene Stewart, Adam Turman, Wilton Crump and Willie Rogers. A performance is scheduled for Aug. 21 at the Acorn Theater in Three Oaks, Mich. (Stephanie Dowell / Handout) Gary's musical story merges with classic rhythm and blues in "The Signal: A Doo Wop Rhapsody." The unique piece of theater pays homage to Gary-born Vee Jay Records, a trailblazing black-owned label that paved the way for Motown Records and released the first Beatles records in America. Advertisement Having hit the road for several years, "The Signal: A Doo Wop Rhapsody" heads into southern Michigan for a 4 p.m. (EDT) Aug. 21 performance at the Acorn Theater in Three Oaks. "It's a whole lot of fun; it's very uplifting," said Henry Farag, owner of Merrillville-based Canterbury Productions, which is dishing no less than 20 throwback tunes in what is billed as a "jukebox musical." Advertisement The show's narrative spins out the real-life experiences of Farag as a boy, and the roots of his infatuation with vintage R&B that grew from a simple, makeshift radio he had. Farag's production zeros in on Vivian Carter, matriarch of Vee Jay Records and a pioneering black female radio personality who was a disc jockey at Gary's WWCA. Promotional material states the show illustrates how a piece of electronic equipment "captures a radio wave, a signal transporting an 11-year-old boy into the world of Vivian's music." With a band providing backup for vocalists, "The Signal: A Doo Wop Rhapsody" will roll out numerous songs that were released on the Vee Jay label, including "Baby What You Want Me to Do" by blues great Jimmy Reed, and the doo-wop flavored "Duke of Earl," which gave Gene Chandler a No. 1 hit on Billboard's pop chart in 1962. "It's good old-fashioned rock 'n' roll," said Farag, a Lakes of the Four Seasons resident. He wrote and directs "The Signal: A Doo Wop Rhapsody," which features a cast of nine that includes Hammond's Willie Rogers, an inductee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame through his membership in the Soul Stirrers. The Soul Stirrers rank as an iconic gospel group that helped launch the career of the legendary Sam Cooke, whom Rogers performed with. At the Three Oaks show, Rogers will sing Cooke's "A Change is Gonna Come," a soulful civil-rights anthem from the '60s. Advertisement "The song is a message song," Rogers, 76, said. Although laced with melancholy, "A Change is Gonna Come" also touted a brighter horizon for racial equality. "It's timeless," Rogers said. He lauds Farag's show for tracing the story of Vivian Carter, who headed a diverse label that in the '50s and '60s released everything from the mainstream New Jersey pop of the Four Seasons to important gospel recordings by the Original Blind Boys of Alabama and Swan Silvertones. Another momentous achievement by Vee Jay was the release in early 1963 of the first Beatles record in America, "Please Please Me." While remembering the music of the Liverpool lads, "The Signal: A Doo Wop Rhapsody" will likewise perform fare by two notable Gary natives: Michael Jackson and the Spaniels, who are known for the seminal doo-wop ballad, "Goodnite Sweetheart, Goodnite." Advertisement Farag was scheduled to bring "The Signal" to Chicago's Museum of Broadcast Communications for three performances this month. However, he canceled those dates because of technical issues in the performance area that involved sound and lighting. He is hoping to bring the production to the Windy City at another time. "We're looking at various theaters right now," the producer said. "The Signal: A Doo Wop Rhapsody" has played Chicago in the past, in addition to several other stops in the Midwest, including an engagement at Theatre at the Center in Munster. Bob Kostanczuk is a freelance writer. Advertisement 'The Signal: A Doo Wop Rhapsody' Where: Acorn Theater, 107 Generations Drive, Three Oaks, Mich. When: 4 p.m. EDT Aug. 21 Tickets: $25 and $30 Information: 269-756-3879 or acorntheater.com/ Property values are up across Porter County, and that's reflected in the assessment notices property owners have started receiving. The notices, mailed Friday, are sending a steady stream of people to the Porter County Assessor's Office website and to the office in the county administration building as people appeal their assessments, Assessor Jon Snyder said Monday. Advertisement But he and Auditor Vicki Urbanik said higher assessed values don't automatically mean higher property taxes. Assessments in Center, Washington and Union townships went up about 3 percent, and between 1 and 2 percent in Westchester Township, Snyder said. Overall, they went up 2 to 3 percent across the county. Advertisement "A lot of people don't want to see their property values go up because they automatically think they're gong to get a higher tax bill, which isn't necessarily the case," he said, adding when the county's assessed valuation goes up, tax rates can go down. "An increase in assessed valuation could translate into a lower tax rate, but it also depends on what a local (taxing) unit decides it needs in its tax rate," he said. Other variables include such deductions as homestead credit. "This year, we did have taxes fall in all but four taxing districts, and two of those were in Valparaiso because of the (school) referendums," Urbanik said, adding the others were in Boone Township and were minimal. Tax rates for the coming year have not yet been established, she said, and if overall assessed valuations go up, taxes might be the same or slightly lower. "It's too early to say it could lead to an increase in you tax bill," she said. The goal of the assessor's office, Snyder said, is to explain what an increased assessment means and to find out why a homeowner wants to appeal because sometimes it's not necessary. Some 2 to 3 percent of the county's 80,000 property parcels are appealed. "The county's (assessment) is up slightly, but when you have an almost $15 billion base, it doesn't move much," he said. "We have a very healthy assessed valuation base." Amy Lavalley is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune. Advertisement Need to appeal? The last day to file an appeal for the 2016 assessment is Sept. 19. Taxpayers can file in person at the Porter County Administration Building, Suite 302,155 Indiana Ave., in Valparaiso; mail an appeal to that address; or file online at portercountyassessor.com. Indiana Lieutenant Governor Eric Holcomb speaks last month on the second day of the Republican National Convention at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. (JIM WATSON / AFP/Getty Images) Humanness is both biography and geography, and to understand who the next governor of Indiana will be, you must understand "The Bloody Eighth." Knowing about Knox County's cultural lineage would be useful, too. Advertisement "The Eighth" is the Eighth Congressional District, which includes Terre Haute, Evansville and Vincennes. At one time, Bloomington was the northern terminus, but Indiana lost a congressional seat in 2000, and Bloomington shifted to the 9th District. That turned the 8th more Republican. Advertisement Folks there appreciate history. Knox County existed as a French-administered frontier county before there was a Hoosier state. Knox County's undulating farms filled the state's first American county. That means something to them. Democrat John Gregg and Republican Eric Holcomb both hail from Knox County, where they grew up and learned political practicalities. Now they'll duel for the governorship. Only vote-seekers who master the "aw shucks" Hoosier vernacular thrive there. They practice retail, handshaking, sitting-at-the-diner, chewing-the-fat politics with the 38,000 county locals. Knox exhibits a rural stubbornness that personifies the entire congressional district. In 2000, the New York Times wrote: "With a populist streak and a conservative bent, this district does not cotton to country club Republicans or to social-engineering liberals More than 95 percent white and about 41 percent rural, the region shares much of the flavor of the Bible Belt." Between 1966 an 1982, district voters jettisoned six incumbent congressman. Some races were grueling and cruel. One was deadlocked for months and had to be settled in the U.S. House. Holcomb grew up in Vincennes and went to Hanover College. Gregg hails from Sandborn 20 miles north and attended Indiana University. Advertisement Their expeditions through political briar patches were decidedly different, though they have known each other for years. Holcomb knew Gregg well enough that he volunteered to imitate Gregg in Gov. Mike Pence's 2012 debate preparations. Gregg was the son of a union family and has plenty of blue-collar shirts in the closet. He's an old-time Democrat in a state that has gone crimson. Gregg dominated his local House races and eventually launched his ascent to Speaker of the House in Indianapolis. When he left the Statehouse in 2002, even Republicans acknowledged at his going-away party that he was one of the nicest guys in state politics. There was a good-natured, mannerly affection for opponents that has not existed there since. Holcomb's political instincts drew him inside the inner sanctum of Hoosier Republicanism. He's the advisor, strategist, and party organizer who probably guaranteed two terms for Gov. Mitch Daniels and got Pence elected against the same John Gregg. He runs winning campaigns as an operator. Advertisement But his constituency has never been voters; rather it's been the people those voters elect. He gained that skill by managing the political life of U.S.. Rep. John Hostetler, a hard-headed conservative who held the 8th District House seat for six terms. Hostetler once publicly snubbed Newt Gingrich, opposed the Iraq War on philosophical grounds, but eventually voted against helping victims of Hurricane Katrina because they might be looting, scam artists. In 2006, the "Bloody Eighth" wearied of Hostetler's taut self-righteousness, and even Holcomb's skills could not save him. Voters tossed him out with less than 40 percent of the vote. He lost to conservative Democratic sheriff Brad Ellsworth by a bigger margin than any House incumbent that year. As for Holcomb, he ran for public office only once in his adult life, and that event is illuminating if you track footprints in the sand. Advertisement In 2000, while still working for Hostettler, Holcomb took his one shot at elective office. In the final days of his campaign for state representative, Holcomb ran an ad in local newspapers accusing opponent and Democratic incumbent John Frenz of supporting bestiality and obscene photographs of children. The basis? Frenz had voted to fund the Kinsey Institute, which the ad described as "the largest library of pornography of its kind in the world." What Frenz had actually supported was the state budget bill, which included routine funding for IU, home to the Kinsey Institute and its sex research center. Post Tribune Twice-weekly News updates from Northwest Indiana delivered every Monday and Wednesday > The ad was so outrageous that the Wall Street Journal mocked Indiana's mean-spiritedness in print. Holcomb lost, but left his imprint. Frenz, a restaurant owner, has told reporters that Holcomb was a skilled hatchet man. Advertisement "If that's what the role is, he'll definitely be able to fill that," he said. Elections for Indiana governor once seemed mannerly and thoughtful. That's an ancient echo. And more to the point, that's not the model "The Bloody Eighth" teaches. David Rutter is a longtime newspaper editor and passable big band trombonist. David.Rutter@live.com The Skokie Village Board this month approved an intergovernmental agreement with the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago allowing for plans for a bicycle path along Howard Street to pedal forward. Village Manager John Lockerby said the path will travel in the parkway just north of Howard Street. Advertisement "As the path proceeds east," he said, "it will be on the (reclamation district) right-of-way near McCormick Boulevard." Village officials say the project required this intergovernmental agreement with the water district because the path will use some of property the latter owns. Advertisement Under terms of the agreement, which has already been approved by the water district, Lockerby said, the water district will provide Skokie with a 25-year lease at the cost of $10. The village is responsible for the construction, installation, operation and maintenance of the facilities in the right-of-way, the pact states. "Once the Illinois Department of Transportation approves this project, final design and utility relocation can begin," Lockerby said. Skokie Director of Engineering Erik Cook said the village received a grant to build the bike lanes and trail between Crawford Avenue and McCormick Boulevard on Howard. The project uses the existing cross-section along Howard with on-street bike lanes west of Hamlin Avenue, he said. At Hamlin, Cook said, the path will be located in the parkway as it heads onto water district property. In the spring of 2014, the village learned it would receive funding for the project. According to the village, the funding came from the Illinois Transportation Enhancement Program a federally funded program that encourages transportation-related projects. The Skokie project calls for an asphalt bituminous bike path to be built along a key east-west corridor combined with an on-street path on Howard, according to officials. The Howard Street bike path is part of an approved Village Corridor Plan intended to link all of the pedestrian-heavy land uses in the heart of Skokie, according to the village. It's also key because of Skokie's north-south bike path to the east. That path begins at the Dempster Street CTA station the Skokie Swift and travels to downtown Skokie and then south through Howard Street to the village boundary. Advertisement The Illinois Transportation Enhancement Program says it is designed to promote alternative transportation options, including bike and pedestrian travel, along with beautifying streets. The federal funds are awarded competitively, and any local or state government is eligible to apply, it says. misaacs@pioneerlocal.com Twitter @SKReview_Mike Western Springs police are investigating a report of vehicular hijacking, battery and motor vehicle theft. It was reported at 3:45 a.m. July 31 that an unknown man stole a 2007 Toyota Avalon by using physical force to remove the driver and owner of the vehicle who was working as a Lyft driver. Advertisement The owner of the vehicle told police he had dropped off several people at a house in the 5300 block of Grand Avenue when one of them began arguing with him about driving him back to Chicago. It is alleged that the man grabbed the driver by the shirt and neck and threw him out of the car. The driver was not injured. The car was later recovered abandoned with a damaged tire rim in Burr Ridge. Advertisement The other passengers told police they didn't know the man who battered the driver. He was described as an African American man, about 30 years old, about 6-feet, 1-inch tall, with a shaved head and wearing a grey hoodie and blue jeans. Deputy Chief Brian Budds said hijacking is a rare crime in Western Springs. "In fact, this is the first bona fide carjacking report the police department has received in many years," he said. He said there are some ways that drivers of such services can stay safe. Some tips are: Do not pick up individuals who fail or refuse to provide personal and/or payment information Know that iIllegal substances unless allowed by law such as open containers of alcohol are not permitted in drivers' vehicles Avoid unsafe or unfamiliar areas if possible Avoid picking up passengers who are highly intoxicated or acting irrationally Advertisement He also said drivers should contact local law enforcement authorities if there is a situation that requires immediate emergency attention. amannion@tribpub.com Twitter triblocalam You are here: Home China's first refrigerated-container train left for Moscow from northeast China's Dalian on Monday. [Photo/Chinanews.com] China's first refrigerated-container train left for Moscow from northeast China's Dalian on Monday, marking the opening of a new transport link between the two countries. The new refrigerated-freight line is 8,600 km long, with trains taking about 10 days to reach Moscow. The train is carrying products worth US$150,000, including pears from Hebei, pomelos from Guangdong and garlic from Shandong. After crossing the border, goods will switch to a Russian freight train in Baikal, Siberia. The new transport link will shorten the journey time by 60 percent as the old route used sea and rail travel. China's refrigerated-product exports to Russia have been on the rise. CREC workers building a railway in Venezuela. [Photo/China Daily] China Railway No 10 Engineering Group Co Ltd, a subsidiary of China Railway Engineering Corporation, is in talks with Brazilian clients to build two big-ticket railway-related infrastructure projects with a total contract value of US$2.6 billion, its executives said. The two major projects include building a port-railway-mine complex in eastern Brazil's Bahia state and a railway infrastructure upgrading project for Brazil's Western Railway Line. Their project values are US$2 billion and US$600 million, respectively. Cui Jun, deputy general manager of CREC No 10 Group, said to further optimize its business in the Latin American market, the company selected Brazil as its priority market for the long run. The company, headquartered in Jinan, Shandong Province, said it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Bahia state government and the China-Latin America Fund, a Chinese government fund, regarding the port-railway-mine complex project, as well as sending a team to the Bamin mine, port and railway siding in Bahia state to conduct a feasibility study. An operational plan has already been drawn up. CREC No 10 Group's project for upgrading the Western Railway Line currently is the subject of talks with National Railway Company of Brazil. The Chinese company started a feasibility study on the project in the first half of the year. "Growth opportunities abound in Latin America's surging demand for railways, roads and power infrastructure projects, especially in the fast-growing markets such as Brazil and Peru where the focus is on sustainable development amid urbanization and regional connectivity," said Yang Zhuo, director of CREC No 10 Group's overseas business department. After entering the Latin American market in 2004, CREC No 10 Group has established companies in Venezuela, Brazil and Peru and begun to fund new projects through the public-private partnership model. The PPP model is one in which a government service and private business venture is jointly funded and operated through a partnership of government and one or more companies from the private sector. Nuclear giant China National Nuclear Corp says it will further strengthen communication with the public and build their confidence in the industry, as China adopts the most advanced technology to ensure nuclear safety. Lei Zengguang, chief engineer of China National Nuclear Corp, says the company has put emphasis on communication with the public to dismiss their concerns about nuclear power. "Our home grown nuclear technology Hualong One features the highest standards of nuclear safety, which is the principle to the nuclear development," Lei said during the second "Open Day" on nuclear science popularization and education. The event will invite students and journalists to visit more than 70 of its subsidiaries, focusing on nuclear power development, nuclear industry system, nuclear technologies application and nuclear safety culture, according to CNNC, one of the country's largest nuclear companies. Companies, including CNNC's institutes, nuclear power stations and nuclear fuel fabrication plant, will be open to the public. You are here: Home A training course for senior foreign police officers on UN peacekeeping missions started in Beijing on Monday. It is the first time China's Ministry of Public Security and the UN have cooperated in this way. The course focuses on passing on China's practical experience. The trainees include 17 senior officers from Angola, Djibouti, Kenya, Liberia, Namibia, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Four Chinese peacekeeping police representatives will also attend the course. Chinese President Xi Jinping announced measures to back UN peacekeeping missions on Sept. 28, 2015. Addressing a peacekeeping summit in the UN headquarters, Xi declared China will help train 2,000 foreign peacekeepers in the next five years. Since 2000, China has dispatched more than 2,400 police peacekeepers to nine peace-keeping mission areas, including Timor-Leste, Liberia and Haiti. At present, 174 Chinese police are still in Liberia, South Sudan and Cyprus. A Chinese woman received 1.72 million yuan (about 258,300 U.S dollars) on Tuesday for a wrongful murder conviction that put her behind bars for 13 years, the Higher People's Court of Yunnan Province said. The court ruled that Qian Renfeng's confession was made under duress and that she was not guilt of the murder charge she was convicted for in February 2002. Qian was working at a nursery where a toddler died of food poisoning and two other children were hospitalized. Qian, who had prepared the children's meals that day, was forced into confessing that she had mixed raticide in the food. It was on the basis of this forced confession that she found guilty of murder. In July 2013, the Yunnan provincial procuratorate reopened her case. The investigation took nearly two years. In May 2015, the procuratorate ruled that there was a lack of evidence to support the conviction, and advised the provincial higher court to rehear the case. The higher court in December last year quashed the sentence, ruling that it lacked sufficient evidence to determine guilt beyond reasonable doubt. She was exonerated and released. Qian had filed for up to 9.55 million yuan (about 1.45 million U.S. dollars) in damages. You are here: Home The Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) announced on Tuesday that it has started investigations into two former senior officials. Zhang Yue, a former member of the standing committee of the Communist Party of China committee in north China's Hebei Province, and Chang Xiaobing, former chairman of China Telecom, were put under investigation separately in suspicion of accepting bribes. The SPP put the two under "coercive measures", which may include arrest, detention, issuing a warrant to compel a suspect to appear, bail pending trial, or residential surveillance. Students and teachers from Luminous Primary School pose for photos with the nine founders of Luminous Future on August. 7. [Photo / China.org.cn] Some 300 students in Yixian County of Baoding City, north China's Hebei Province, will be the lucky benefactors of a new school campus next semester following the completion of Luminous Primary School, whose renovation was funded by nine middle school students from China and the United States. The students offered the fund through their charity Luminous Future, which they established last year in the hopes of ensuring educational opportunities for poverty-stricken students in China and promoting China-U.S. cultural exchanges. "The name itself represents a flicker of light with the power to change the future," said Li Guanghao, co-founder of Luminous Future, who currently studies at the St. Mary's Preparatory School in Michigan. Once the new school is in place, school-age children from four adjacent villages will be able to receive education from kindergarten through the third grade, saving them the trouble of attending more distant schools or having classes in broken campus buildings. They decided to engage in refurbishing the school after seeing its disrepair last summer. At that time, it was called the Dalonghua Nantou Primary School. Knowing that the school's fundraiser had already obtained 1.08 million yuan (US$162,000) and was still short 6,000 thousand yuan (US$90,045), they volunteered to raise the money. The students managed to raise 590,500 yuan (US$88,619) as of last December, when they entrusted the fund to the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation (CSCLF) to renovate the school buildings and to upgrade facilities. Their cooperation with CSCLF aimed to yield higher efficiency as well as to smooth out the fundraiser's legitimacy issues while operating in China. On the day of campus completion, the nine Luminous Future founders even brought two nutrition monitors, each costing around 300,000 yuan (US$45,022), hoping that the instruments would help with the students' health. They also plan to build a small library with access to the internet for the students. "We expect to finish the network layout next year. At that time, we will have video meetings with the students before trying to teach them through the internet," said Li Honglin, another Luminous Future member. No time to fight [By Zhai Haijun/China.org.cn] The current presidential campaign in the United States has featured more unique aspects than any previous campaign in recent history. But one aspect is all too familiar, an untiring advocacy for tougher trade policies with respect to China. Trade economists in the United States are very used to this political ideology. For decades, presidential candidates have enjoyed using sharp attacks on China to gain public attention and to grab votes. As George Washington University professor Robert Sutter has described, "the president-elect, and U.S. politicians in the following years, found that criticizing China and U.S. policy toward China provided a convenient means to pursue political ends." However, another consensus is that right after the presidents take the oath of office, they tend to develop friendlier, non-hostile and bilateral trade relations with China. This is true for both past and present administrations. Academies in China and the United States, in general, recognize that the United States and China are deeply interdependent and interconnected with each other in today's global trade and economy. A sustainable U.S.-China bilateral trade relationship also serves to better the global economy. Inside the United States, the most frequent arguments for a tougher trade policy toward China include the long-lasting U.S. trade deficit with China and jobs exported to China by offshoring and/or outsourcing. These arguments become less convincing today than during the days when trade in goods represented the major form of global trade and Global Value Chains (GVCs) had not burst onto the trade policy scene. With the multitude of complicated global supply chains taking the lead, it is no secret that more than half of China's exports to the U.S. displace exports from other nations rather than American products. Job protection has always been a major political bargaining issue when making U.S. trade policy. The loss of manufacturing jobs in the United States continues to serve as the politicians' top argument for evoking trade protection measures against China. The fact is, due to today's interdependent trade structure and interconnected GVCs, politicalized trade policy against China will produce negative effects with respect to American interests. There is no doubt that China is a vital player in today's Global Value Chains. Many such chains cast the U.S. and China in mutually irreplaceable roles. China's labor advantages will continue to drive its manufacturing competence, while the U.S. will continue to exploit its technological innovation as an advantage. In fact, almost every imported item labeled "Made in China" has some sort of value added derivative from the United States. The solar panel case against China has proven to be a good example of how special tariffs on Chinese imports will negatively impact other interests in the American solar industry; for example, solar cell producers ship off cells to China as part of the supply chain. If local services are counted, the overall employment level in the American solar industry is far larger than employment in the solar panel manufacturing sector. In the words of Paul Krugman , in considering the effect on overall employment, "trade deficits meant two million fewer manufacturing jobs and two million more [jobs] in the service sector." Besides, today's manufacturing industries are more technology-driven than ever before. While traditional low-paying manufacturing jobs are in diminishing, employment opportunities in industries related to robotics and digital technology are booming. Today, "smart manufacturing" is the cornerstone of the American economy, thus ensuring that the manufacturing sector will continue to have a critical role in creating jobs. It is the technology innovation that will drive the future of manufacturing. In addition, China's legacy of cheap labor is changing as well. Labor costs in China are much higher today than they were a decade or even two to three years ago. As traditional manufacturing jobs have been shipped overseas and perhaps will never return to America, tougher trade policies against China will offer little help in terms of job creation in the U.S., and they will contribute little to balance the U.S. trade in goods with China. In academic society, the American economists have never stopped debating the evidence regarding China's role in U.S. job losses. In reality, American politicians have never stopped using the China factor as a means to fight for election votes, but this kind of strategy could easily result in diminished public interest and may go so far as to hurt consumer interests. It is true that the American trade policy possesses super power connotations in the world, but it is also true that today's world, efficient trade policy, in the face of globalization 2.0 and WTO 2.0, requires strategic cooperation rather than confrontation in solving problems related to sustainable trade development. Job creation now challenges every nation. If the United States and China can work together to address such challenges, they will send a strong and positive signal to the global community and to those advocating for economic sustainability. Until now, China and the United States do not have bilateral free trade or investment agreements. But, to date, that has not stopped China from becoming the number one trading partner of the United States in terms of trade in goods. Therefore, to help with U.S. job creation, a sustainable trade policy toward China is necessary. Any seasonal trade policy will result in severe consequences against American interests. What really matters to both sides is a responsible trade policy -- an approach where trade policy is not a popular political tool but a strategic instrument to serve bilateral economic welfare and to support multilateral trade governance. Zhang Lijuan is a professor with Shandong University, China. She is also a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/zhanglijuan.htm Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn. Flash A final declaration of Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran summit reflected the whole range of cooperation opportunities offered by the new format, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in Baku, Azerbaijan on Monday. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (L), Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev (C) and Russian President Vladimir Putin pose for a group photo during a trilateral meeting in Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 8, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua] He made the remarks during a joint press conference with Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Baku. According to Lavrov, the final document of the summit has covered "both political and economic issues with a focus on transport and energy." Lavrov said the three leaders agreed to establish a tripartite mechanism for cooperation at the ministerial level and relevant ministries. Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani have pledged to counter the growing global threat of terrorism in a joint declaration of a trilateral summit here on Monday. The three leaders expressed their willingness to combat terrorism, extremism, transnational organized crime, illicit trafficking in arms, drugs and their precursors, as well as human trafficking and crimes in the sphere of information and communication technologies. They have also recognized that "the unresolved conflicts in the region are a major obstacle to regional cooperation," and underlined the importance of their settlement "on the basis of principles and norms of international law." "The parties will continue the comprehensive development of equal and mutually beneficial cooperation, and to deepen and broaden the political dialogue at various levels across the entire spectrum of issues of mutual interest," the document said. Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran also agreed to deepen cooperation in various sectors of the economy "on the basis of equality and mutual benefit." The three presidents also pledged to take effective measures to develop transportation and communication infrastructure in order to expand the opportunities for passenger and cargo transportation via the North-South corridor. "The parties stressed the importance of an early agreement on the Caspian Sea Convention, and the Foreign Ministers were instructed to intensify the preparation for the Fifth Caspian summit. The new format will have a positive impact on regional processes," Lavrov pointed out, adding that Russia accepted the invitation to attend the next trilateral summit in Iran. Foreign Minister of Iran Mohammad Javad Zarif said that the heads of the three countries agreed to foster cooperation in the areas of security, energy, transit and other areas. Flash A decisive battle in the northern province of Aleppo is looming on the horizon, as the Syrian army and the rebels are preparing and receiving reinforcements for the imminent showdown. Just a couple of days ago, the Jaish al-Fateh rebel group succeeded to drive out the Syrian army from key military bases in the southern countryside of Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor group said on Monday. The rebel group had claimed to have broken the siege of the Syrian army on rebel-held areas in the eastern part of Aleppo city after six days of strenuous attacks. They captured the areas of the military colleges and the roundabout of the southern town of al-Ramuseh, which enabled them to open a narrow route into eastern Aleppo. It turns the table against the government forces, and closes off the road to the government-controlled western part of Aleppo. However, the government says the rebel group has failed to open their desired route into Aleppo. The Observatory said the passage the rebels had opened was insecure for civilians to leave or enter the rebel-held areas inside Aleppo under the heavy airstrikes by the Syrian and Russian air forces. Battles in Aleppo flared last month, when the Syrian army backed by the Lebanese Hezbollah group and Russian airstrikes made sweeping progress in the northern countryside of Aleppo, severing the last supply route for the rebels in eastern Aleppo. The move, while fully secured a siege, has triggered a violent response from the rebels, who launched attacks and endless mortar and rocket shelling on the government-controlled western part of Aleppo city. The Observatory said the prices of all goods have increased fourfold just the day after the rebels closed off al-Ramuseh. Meanwhile, the military forces were reportedly opened another route into western Aleppo from the northern countryside, namely the Castello road, the same road the government severed toward eastern Aleppo. With the blow the Syrian forces received in southern Aleppo, state news agency SANA said the all of the routes into Aleppo are exposed to the Syrian military fire, meaning that the rebels will not fully use the road they had opened. It added that trucks carrying big loads of fuel and all food necessities entered western Aleppo on Monday. Jaish al-Fateh announced Monday that the next phase of battles in Aleppo will be a wide-scale offensive to "liberate the entire city" from the government forces. "We will multiply the numbers of our fighters to be ready for the upcoming battle," the group said in a statement. The Observatory said the group received reinforcements of fighters on Monday, as the pro-government al-Watan newspaper said that the Syrian army and its allies also received the needed military aid for restoring positions they had lost. The army is said to impose "an iron grip" around the areas infiltrated by the rebels to prevent them from expanding toward the city. Jaish al-Fateh, an alliance of several rebel factions, was formed in March 2015 under the supervision and coordination of Saudi cleric Abdullah al-Muhaysini. Some of its factions are active in the provinces of Hama and Latakia. The group seized most of Idlib province in northwestern Syria last year and it is actively supported by Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Military experts said that the group received military aid from Turkey, which explains the sudden rise up and success they had achieved in southern Aleppo. Aleppo is strategic for all warring parties due to its key location beside the Turkish border and as Syria's industrial capital. The large presence of rebel groups, supported by foreign countries, further complicated the situation, while the U.S. has also identified "moderate" rebels located in Aleppo. The battle of Aleppo is decisive, as observers declared that whoever controls Aleppo will gain the upper hand in any potential settlement in Syria. You are here: Home Flash UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday condemned the terrorist attack at a hospital in Pakistan's southwestern Quetta city, calling the attack "particularly appalling." Earlier on Monday, at least 70 people were killed and 112 others injured in a suicide blast inside the emergency ward of the Civil Hospital in Quetta. The blast happened when a large number of lawyers were gathered to collect the body of a murdered colleague, the president of Balochistan Bar Association Bilal Anwar Kasi, who was killed in a separate attack. "The targeting of mourners at a civilian hospital makes the attack particularly appalling," UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq told a daily briefing. "The Secretary-General urges the Government to do its utmost to ensure safety of the population and bring to justice the perpetrators of today's attack," Haq added. Pakistani Taliban faction has claimed responsibility for the terrorist bombing. Flash The opposition Sudan Call Alliance on Monday signed in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa an African Union (AU)-proposed road-map, ending months of controversy over the deal. Last March, the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel on Sudan (AUHIP) proposed a road-map agreement for the Sudanese rivals aiming at ending the war in Sudan. The Sudanese government unilaterally signed the road-map agreement, but the Sudan Call, an alliance bringing together Sudanese armed groups and opposition parties, then refused to sign the deal. The signing of the deal by the opposition opens a window of hope for the possibility of reaching a comprehensive political settlement that ends the Sudanese issues, particularly at Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile regions. Representatives of the Darfur rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM)/northern sector and the leader of the Sudanese opposition National Umma Party signed the document of the deal in the presence of AU representatives. To this end, Sudanese Media Center (SMC) quoted Mahmoud Kan, chairman of the AU liaison office in Khartoum, as saying that "the signing of the road-map by the Sudanese opposition and the armed movements in Addis Ababa today is an important and historic step that is likely to contribute to achieving comprehensive peace and push the wheel of development and stability in the country." "Sincerity of intentions and integrity are the first guarantor for the success of the process which in turn will lead to speeding up cessation of hostilities and cease-fire once and for all the war-affected areas in Sudan," Kan said. Meanwhile, optimism prevails the Sudanese political circles as the signing of the road-map by the opposition and armed groups is expected to contribute to finding a suitable platform for a serious dialogue to reach peace agreements regarding the Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile areas. Head of the Sudanese government negotiating delegation Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamid on Monday vowed to enter into serious negotiations with the Sudan Call alliance after the signing of the document. Speaking to reporters in Khartoum shortly before the delegation left to Addis Ababa earlier on the day, Hamid said that "the government delegation will directly embark on meetings with the opposition alliance immediately after the signing of the road-map." He expressed hope that the other parties would maintain the same political will with which the government delegation would enter the negotiations. In the meantime, Bishara Juma Arur, member of the government delegation, said in a statement that the session, which will be convened on Tuesday between the government delegation and the opposition alliance, will discuss the preliminary arrangements stipulated in the road-map related to cessation of hostilities, a permanent cease-fire and speeding up delivery of humanitarian assistance. Ahmed Bilal Osman, spokesman of Sudan's Higher Coordination Committee of the National Dialogue (7+7 mechanism), was quoted by Ashorooq net as saying that "Sudan Call forces' signing of the road-map in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa will open the door widely for reaching a national vision agreed upon by all parties." Al-Saddiq al-Mahdi, leader of the Sudanese opposition National Umma Party, for his part, expressed in a statement his optimism over the signing of the African proposed road-map. He described the signing of the road-map as a "national event" that all the Sudanese people are waiting for to achieve stability in the country. The AU-proposed road-map stipulates arrangements related to cease-fire at South Kordofan, Blue Nile and Darfur regions, entering a peace process and involving the armed movements in the national dialogue currently convened in Khartoum. Flash A total of 230 terror suspects were detained in Malaysia over the past three years, of whom 84 have been charged, 18 banished and 62 freed, according to the home affairs ministry on Tuesday. The ministry made the announcement during a special briefing to foreign diplomats based in Malaysia, detailing its strategies to address terrorism threats in the country. The ministry said it has enhanced security personnel presence, information sharing with other countries, joint patrol by the police and military, and installation of mobile police booths. Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the briefing is to prevent possible misconception regarding the security situation in Malaysia, especially after the country suffered its first attack linked to the Islamic State (IS) in late June and police in Indonesia foiled a bomb attack on Singapore last week. Ayob Khan, principal assistant director of the counter terrorism unit, said 90 Malaysians have been identified to be involved in IS activity in Syria in which 21 have been killed, including seven as suicide bombers. Ayob said eight Malaysians, who have returned after spending their time in Syria, are now under de-radicalization programs. The authorities also held a similar security briefing to foreign diplomats in April, during which a senior official urged Australian and British governments to withdraw their security alerts for Malaysia, saying the Malaysian government had undertaken all necessary security measures to prevent terrorism in the country. At Tuesday's briefing, Zahid also urged reporters not to sensationalize Malaysia's security threats, saying "We have adopted a very open approach where security is concerned. We do not want to hide anything so that the truth can be known." You are here: Home Flash Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte does not condone extrajudicial killings, a senior government official said Tuesday. Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said Duterte also has ordered an investigation on the alleged salvaging of drug-related suspects. "We would like to make a statement, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte has repeatedly expressed (that) he does not condone extrajudicial killings. But he also admitted that certain individuals may have been salvaged," he said in a news briefing in Malacanang, the presidential palace. Abella was reacting on the statement from the United States State Department expressing concern on the series of killings in the Philippines of suspected drug dealers. Abella said Duterte has ordered Philippine National Police chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa to investigate the drug-related killings. Some reports have said that over 400 people allegedly involved in illegal drugs have been executed since Duterte assumed office on June 30. Abella also defended the president for publicly naming over 150 judges, local government officials, police and military personnel who were allegedly involved in the proliferation of illegal drugs. He said Duterte was just taking the "position of parens patriae." "As parent of nation, he is calling attention to clear and present danger of drugs. It's his moral obligation to make sure public is properly warned of the drug menace," he explained. Over 600,000 drug users and pushers have already surrendered to the authorities. Duterte has said that one hectare land in every military camp in the country would be utilized for the construction of rehabilitation centers for the drug dependents. Buyers line up outside a duty free shop which opened in downtown Shanghai, Aug 8, 2016. YIN LIQIN/FOR CHINA DAILY Consumers flocked to a duty free shop which opened in downtown Shanghai on Monday, although its prices were higher than airport duty free shops. The shop, operated by China National Service Corporation, is an example of the efforts that Chinese enterprises make to unlock the potential of domestic consumers at a time of record low economic growth. Products from more than 100 brands are being sold in the 3,300-square-meter, two-floor store that sits in a commercial complex in Jing'an district, one of Shanghai's busiest commercial hubs. Consumers started lining up waiting for the opening around 9 am, even though it did not open until after 10 am. Because more than 500 consumers were already in the store around 10:15 am, the store had to limit entry to ensure safety and the consumer experience. Customers choose bags in a duty free shop which opened in downtown Shanghai, Aug 8, 2016. YIN LIQIN/FOR CHINA DAILY Chinese consumers older than 16 years who can present documents showing they have arrived from overseas within the past 180 days are eligible to shop in the duty free shop, according to the regulations and policy of the duty free retail sector. According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, the total size of Chinese residents' consumption abroad last year was about 1.2 trillion yuan ($180.16 billion). Analysts said that many opportunities can emerge from consumption upgrading, if some of the consumption abroad is directed back to the domestic market. Customers choose bags in a duty free shop which opened in downtown Shanghai, Aug 8, 2016. YIN LIQIN/FOR CHINA DAILY "It is no exaggeration to say that consumption is one of the pillars of economic growth in China nowadays. As Chinese residents are better traveled than ever, they are exposed to a wide range of products and they wish to buy immediately once they run out. Retailers that can offer them products such as food and other goods at competitive prices are more likely to gain from this emerging opportunity," said Zhang Yuanfan, an analyst with Shanghai-based Yu Song Commerce Consultancy Ltd. Total retail sales of consumer goods in 2015 exceeded 30 trillion yuan, 14.3 percent year-on-year growth, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce. According to a research note from Founder Securities Co Ltd, consumption-related companies including food and beverage firms were among the best-performing ones in the first half of 2016, and the growth is expected to be long-term, instead of a one-off. Customers in a duty free shop which opened in downtown Shanghai, Aug 8, 2016. YIN LIQIN/FOR CHINA DAILY Ma Nan, a 32-year-old mother of two children, said the prices of goods sold in the CNSC duty free shop were lower than those in regular retail channels and the shop saved her the trouble of asking friends the favor of shopping for her goods when they are overseas. "The 69 yuan Belgian chocolate is about 30 percent cheaper than that in the company's own brand name chain store. The Japanese skincare lotion is 380 yuan, 20 percent lower than that on Tmall.com, an e-commerce platform of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. The best thing is that when I want to have them, I buy them immediately," said Ma. Yan Jianxin, deputy manager with the CNSC duty free products segment, said that the store in downtown Shanghai has been trying to differentiate itself from other duty free shops by offering a wide range of products that help meet consumers' day-to-day demands. Customers in a duty free shop which opened in downtown Shanghai, Aug 8, 2016. YIN LIQIN/FOR CHINA DAILY The CNSC store is more like a supermarket of imported goods with 10,000 products from 100 categories, said Yan. Besides the traditional items that consumers may find at airport duty free shops such as perfume, cosmetics, leather goods, luxury accessories and liquor, the store also offers baby food, electronic home appliances and toys, which are rarely seen in duty free shops at airports. "If a consumer wants to buy an imported electronic home appliance but hates to bring the heavy package from another country, shopping for it here can be an option," said Yan. CREC workers building a railway in Venezuela. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY Two projects have combined contract value of $2.6 billion China Railway No 10 Engineering Group Co Ltd, a subsidiary of China Railway Engineering Corporation, is in talks with Brazilian clients to build two big-ticket railway-related infrastructure projects with a total contract value of $2.6 billion, its executives said. The two major projects include building a port-railway-mine complex in eastern Brazil's Bahia state and a railway infrastructure upgrading project for Brazil's Western Railway Line. Their project values are $2 billion and $600 million, respectively. Cui Jun, deputy general manager of CREC No 10 Group, said to further optimize its business in the Latin American market, the company selected Brazil as its priority market for the long run. The company, headquartered in Jinan, Shandong province, said it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Bahia state government and the China-Latin America Fund, a Chinese government fund, regarding the port-railway-mine complex project, as well as sending a team to the Bamin mine, port and railway siding in Bahia state to conduct a feasibility study. An operational plan has already been drawn up. CREC No 10 Group's project for upgrading the Western Railway Line currently is the subject of talks with National Railway Company of Brazil. The Chinese company started a feasibility study on the project in the first half of the year. "Growth opportunities abound in Latin America's surging demand for railways, roads and power infrastructure projects, especially in the fast-growing markets such as Brazil and Peru where the focus is on sustainable development amid urbanization and regional connectivity," said Yang Zhuo, director of CREC No 10 Group's overseas business department. After entering the Latin American market in 2004, CREC No 10 Group has established companies in Venezuela, Brazil and Peru and begun to fund new projects through the public-private partnership model. The PPP model is one in which a government service and private business venture is jointly funded and operated through a partnership of government and one or more companies from the private sector. A stall of China Telecom's cloud computing base in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region at an expo in Beijing, March 4, 2014. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY Low electricity prices have drawn telecommunication companies to the cloud computing center in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, according to an executive of China Telecom Corp's branch in Hohhot, the capital city of the region. "The cost of electricity in Inner Mongolia accounts for around 30 percent of the total operating cost of the data center," said Yuan Xiaodong, operation manager of China Telecom's cloud computing bases in Inner Mongolia and Guizhou province. "In areas south of the Yangtze River, such cost takes up 45 to 55 percent of the total cost." Work on the cloud computing base started in 2012. Hohhot has put 70 billion yuan ($11 billion) into the project to build China's biggest cloud computing data center, with about 4 million servers and business reaching Beijing, Shanxi, Gansu, Heilongjiang, Qinghai and other provinces. The base has attracted the three telecom operating giants in the countryChina Mobile Communications Corp, China United Network Communications Group Co and China Telecomand IT giants like Baidu Inc, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, Tencent Holdings Ltd and Inspur Group Ltd. China Telecom's cloud is the first to be put into operation among the three mobile service providers. It plans to build 42 communication buildings with the capacity to support more than 1.2 million cloud computing servers. "We are going to launch six products in cloud computing, including storage, desktop cloud and host computer," said Yuan. Hohhot has many advantages in the cloud computing industry, said Tian Jianjun, deputy director of the development and reform commission in the city. According to Tian, Hohhot has a strong power generation capacity since it is the largest base of coal-fired power generation in Asia. It is in the temperate continental climate with average temperatures of 8 C. In this cool climate, the equipment in the data center does not require cooling for three months throughout the year, which has significantly lowered the cost. In February, China Telecom's cloud computing base in Hohhot signed an agreement with Inner Mongolia Jingneng Shengle Thermoelectricity Co Ltd, a subsidiary of Beijing Energy Investment Holding Co Ltd. The agreement has lowered the power price from the market price of 0.39 yuan to 0.32 yuan per kilowatt hour. The discounted price has reduced the power cost of China Telecom's cloud computing base in Hohhot in March by 1.03 million yuan. "We are able to offer a lower power price because of the multilateral trading platform," said Guo Jun, general manager of Jingneng Shengle. The trading platform involves the power generator, consumers and the grid. It introduces competition in power generation and trading, which is a breakthrough from the noncompetitive system where the government sets the prices and the grid companies are monopoly suppliers. The multilateral electricity trading platform, which has greatly lowered electricity prices, is a key factor in drawing internet companies to Inner Mongolia, said Guo. China Vanke Co's logo against the backrop of share information [Photo/VCG] Sunac chairman denies reports firm bought a Vanke stake China Vanke Co's shares continued to climb on Monday, although Chinese property developer Sunac China Holdings Ltd denied it had plans to invest in it. In a regulatory filing on Monday, Vanke said Evergrande Group and its subsidaries have increased their stake in Vanke to 5 percent. Vanke's A shares rose 4.39 percent to 21.87 yuan ($3.3) on Monday. Its shares surged 10 percent, their daily limit, on Thursday, and continued to increase 6.51 percent on Friday. Sun Hongbin, chairman of Sunac, denied it had purchased Vanke stakes on Monday after a Chinese media reported that he invested about 1 billion yuan in Vanke and his shareholding ratio could be between 0.5 percent to 0.6 percent. "Neither Sunac nor I purchased stakes in Vanke, and there's no reason or logic to this," said Sun. Sun said in June that he would support Vanke's management team in China's most high-profile battle for corporate control between the embattled real estate developers' leadership and Baoneng Group, its largest shareholder. Media reported on Thursday afternoon that Evergrande was largely purchasing A shares of Vanke. On Monday, Vanke's A shares rose 4.39 percent to close at 21.87 yuan. Evergrande released a statement on Thursday after the stock market closed, saying it has taken a 4.68 percent stake in Vanke worth more than 910 million yuan. Evergrande cited Vanke's "strong" financial performance as China's largest developer as the reason for its investment. Evergrande Chairman Hui Ka Yan may regard his firm's huge purchase of Vanke shares as a move to seek safe havens in assets, experts said. "Good property assets can be wise investment choices because they can generate steady and pleasing returns and the risks are low," said Wang Guojun, a professor at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing. Wang said Chinese companies may have concerns over rising liquidity, and they consequently would seek safe havens in assets. "Vanke is a good investment and Hui has proven to be a very shrewd businessman," said Hong Hao, chief strategist at BOCOM International Holdings Co. DALIAN - China's first refrigerated-container train left for Moscow from northeast China's Dalian on Monday, marking the opening of a new transport link between the two countries. The new refrigerated-freight line is 8,600 km long, with trains taking about 10 days to reach Moscow. The train is carrying products worth $150,000, including pears from Hebei, pomelos from Guangdong and garlic from Shandong. After crossing the border, goods will switch to a Russian freight train in Baikal, Siberia. The new transport link will shorten the journey time by 60 percent as the old route used sea and rail travel. China's refrigerated-product exports to Russia have been on the rise. China Railway Group Limited won the bid for the Bangladesh Padma Bridge Rail Link Project with a total contract value of 20.81 billion yuan ($3.13 billion), according to an announcement released by the group on Tuesday. The construction contract signed with Bangladesh Railway accounts for 3.33 percent of CREC's latest revenue. The project's newly built line, starting from the existing Dhaka station to Jessore, will reach a total length of 168.6 km. With broad track gauge, the single line targets a speed of 120km per hour. The line is projected to reshape the Southwest Bangladesh railway network by passing through the Padma MultiPurpose Bridge, Mawa, and Bhanga, and linking its middle section with the Rajbari-Kashiani Railway and Faridpur-Bhanga Railway that are already in use. The Beijing-based company released that they will construct the line as a single project and the total construction period will last for 54 months. Bargain-hunters flash the Alipay Wallet QR codes on their smartphones at a Hangzhou supermarket checkout to claim a 10 percent discount on their shopping. [Photo provided to China Daily] China's biggest online third-party payment platform Alipay, which has 450 million active users, is expanding into Europe, signing deals with brick-and-mortar retailers to enable Chinese consumers abroad to use the app to make payments in stores, according to a report by Bloomberg. The mobile payment service is expected to be offered to Chinese travelers and expats in France, the UK, Germany and Italy. Alipay has held talks with French department store Printemps, set a deal with French insurance agency Axa Group to sell travel insurance to Alipay's users, and is working with German banking software company Wirecard AG to support its mobile payment service in 69 stores at Munich Airport, said Rita Liu, head of Alipay Europe, Middle-East and Africa, according to Bloomberg. "We're actively looking for partners across Europe -- merchants who want to cater to Chinese tourists or technical providers on the payments side. But we have no plans to target European customers," Liu said. Spending $875 per capita, around 120 million Chinese tourists travelled abroad last year, according to the China Tourism Research Institute. And their favorite travel destinations outside Asia are France, Italy, Switzerland and Germany. Sabrina Peng, president of Alipay International, said at this April's Money 20/20 Europe a conference held in Copenhagen, Denmark that as a lot of Chinese people enjoyed the lifestyle of going out with Alipay rather than a wallet, Alipay has been thinking of bringing the same service to them when they traveled abroad, according to a report by nfcworld.com. Peng said Alipay processed 175 million transactions a day, of which more than 60 percent were made through a mobile device. China's third-party mobile payment market reached a value of ten trillion yuan in 2015, according to a report by French market research firm Ipsos Group Co. Alipay's rival WeChat Pay announced it would fully open to overseas retailers last November, according to a report by Beijing Business Today. Dozens of foreign institutions, including Australia's RoyalPay, have joined WeChat Pay's cross-border payment open system, covering more than 20 countries and regions. Run by Ant Financial, an affiliate of Alibaba Group holding Ltd, Alipay is leading China's mobile payment market with 63.41 percent of the market share in Q1 this year, according to a report by Chinese research firm Analysys. A combo photo shows some relics of the Red Army that will be displayed at an exhibition to mark the 80th anniversary of the success of the Long March, at the National Museum of China in Beijing in September. Around 267 items will be exhibited, including paintings and handwritings related to the Long March. [Photo/81.cn] 40 telecom fraud suspects returned to China from Kenya (Xinhua) Updated: 2016-08-09 09:02 BEIJING - A total of 40 suspects, 35 from the Chinese mainland and five from Taiwan, were brought back to China from Kenya in police custody on Monday, the Ministry of Public Security said. Allegedly involved in 60-plus fraud cases worth 4 million yuan (600,000 U.S. dollars), they belonged to one of two groups arrested by Kenyan police on Nov. 29, 2014, the ministry said in a statement released Monday. Another 36 suspects in the other group were repatriated in April and have been formally arrested. They allegedly swindled more than 26 million yuan out of mainland residents by pretending to be members of Beijing and Shanghai police. The two groups were believed to have colluded in fraud activities and mainland police hope to find out all the facts now that they have all suspects in custody. The mainland police have kept their Taiwan counterparts informed of all developments. Security researchers on Monday revealed the discovery of a cyber-espionage group that has targeted at least seven companies in four countries since 2011. One of the targets allegedly included a Chinese airline, according to California-based computer security company Symantec. It said in a report that a previously unknown group called Strider has carried out spying attacks against selected targets in China, Russia, Sweden and Belgium. Symantec added that the hacking group used an advance piece of malware known as Remsec to target organizations and individuals that would be of interest to national intelligence services. The cyber-espionage group used Remsec to gain access to organization's network and then stole files and other data. By living on the network, rather than on individual computers, the hackers not only had full control of infected machines, but also avoid detection. In a separate report also released on Monday, Kaspersky, a Russia-based software security group, said the targets included government agencies, scientific research centers, military entities, telecoms providers and financial institutions. It added that the techniques used by the spying group, such as piggybacking on known protocols, bypassing air-gaps using hidden data partitions on USB sticks and taking control of network domain servers, all point to a nation-state sponsored attack. It estimated that the whole development and operation of the malware, which it called top-of-the-top in terms of sophistication, would have required several specialist teams and a multi-million dollar budget. This is of course not the first time that a national intelligence service has been accused of hacking networks and computers for spying purposes. Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower, revealed the extent and depth of spying that US intelligence services carry out everyday across the world. Chinese nurse compensated millions for wrong murder conviction (Xinhua) Updated: 2016-08-09 11:17 KUNMING - A Chinese woman received 1.72 million yuan (about 258,300 U.S dollars) on Tuesday for a wrongful murder conviction that put her behind bars for 13 years, the Higher People's Court of Yunnan province said. The court ruled that Qian Renfeng's confession was made under duress and that she was not guilt of the murder charge she was convicted for in February 2002. Qian was working at a nursery where a toddler died of food poisoning and two other children were hospitalized. Qian, who had prepared the children's meals that day, was forced into confessing that she had mixed raticide in the food. It was on the basis of this forced confession that she found guilty of murder. In July 2013, the Yunnan provincial procuratorate reopened her case. The investigation took nearly two years. In May 2015, the procuratorate ruled that there was a lack of evidence to support the conviction, and advised the provincial higher court to rehear the case. The higher court in December last year quashed the sentence, ruling that it lacked sufficient evidence to determine guilt beyond reasonable doubt. She was exonerated and released. Qian had filed for up to 9.55 million yuan (about 1.45 million U.S. dollars) in damages. Claim, compensation of Macao tour bus crash very complicated: insurance expert Xinhua | Updated: 2016-08-09 15:30 MACAO - The claim and compensation of Macao's tour bus crash accident could be very complicated and time-consuming, local news paper reported on Tuesday quoting an insurance expert. At least 32 tourists from the Chinese mainland were injured, three seriously, on Monday when a tour bus crashed into a building in Macao, and the driver was arrested for suspected dangerous driving, the special administrative region's authorities said. According to Macao Public Security Police Force (PSPF), the accident happened when the bus stopped downslope in a street close to the Ruins of St. Paul, one of Macao's famous tourist attractions. A white van rear-ended the bus and the bus driver got off to check the situation. The bus suddenly moved down through the slope without the driver and rammed into a roadside clinic. According to Macao Daily News, the accident involves multiple parties such as the bus owner, tourists, driver, travel agencies, the clinic, the building and households who live there. An insurance expert said if it is the bus' fault, the affected parties could ask the travel agencies for compensation. But given the complicated situation, responsibilities recognition procedure, and possible law suits, it could be as long as one year or even longer. For the injured tourists, the expert added, the easier way could be personal claim under the travel insurance policy, including compensation for medical expense and loss of personal properties. The insurance companies will then come to the insurer of the tour bus for compensation. The Macao SAR government held an emergence response meeting late Monday to coordinate the works of different departments, including transport, public security, health, tourism, immigration, airport management, travel agencies. The meeting discussed accident rescue and treatment, family visit of the injured, and travel document extension for those still hospitalized. Macao's travel office said it reported the accident to the National Tourism Administration and the Tourism Administration of neighboring Guangdong Province. The office will help the families of the injured tourists come to Macao for visit. Yueju Opera telling stories of a loving couple is performed in Yixing, Jiangsu province, August 6, 2016. [Photo/IC] If it rains heavily on Saturday night, some elderly Chinese will say it is because Zhinu, or the Weaving Maid, is crying on the day she met her husband Niulang, or the Cowherd, on the Milky Way. Most Chinese remember being told this romantic tragedy when they were children on Qixi, or the Seventh Night Festival, which falls on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, which is usually in early August. This year it falls on Tuesday, August 9. Folklore Story As the story goes, once there was a cowherd, Niulang, who lived with his elder brother and sister-in-law. But she disliked and abused him, and the boy was forced to leave home with only an old cow for company. The cow, however, was a former god who had violated imperial rules and was sent to earth in bovine form. One day the cow led Niulang to a lake where fairies took a bath on earth. Among them was Zhinu, the most beautiful fairy and a skilled seamstress. The two fell in love at first sight and were soon married. They had a son and daughter and their happy life was held up as an example for hundreds of years in China. Yet in the eyes of the Jade Emperor, the Supreme Deity in Taoism, marriage between a mortal and fairy was strictly forbidden. He ordered the heaven troop to catch Zhinu back. Niulang grew desperate when he discovered Zhinu had been taken back to heaven. Driven by Niulang's misery, the cow told him to turn its hide into a pair of shoes after it died. Zhang Xiaoyou's jiehua painting Old Days of Southern River Towns captures details of a night scene in a typical river town of southern China.[Photo provided to China Daily] In 1940s' Shanghai, a 5-year-old was the only boy studying at a Catholic girls' primary school in the French Concession. His parents then felt their thin and weak son would be better taken care of by the nuns. He was also watched over by his teenage cousin, who also attended the school. The boy, Zhang Xiaoyou, learned how to stitch and often received European postcards as rewards for his work. After school, he liked to browse through picture books at street stands. He loved visiting the nearby St. Peter's Catholic Church, a 1930s Byzantine-style structure, where music from the imposing pipe organ and the murals sparked his interest in art. "My family hoped that when I grew up I would become an architect or a doctor," he says. But Zhang ended up choosing painting as a career. Since his retirement from Tsinghua University's academy of arts and design in the late 1980s, Zhang, now 81, has specialized in reviving the dying art of jiehua, or boundary painting. Jiehua evolved as an important part of Chinese ink-and-wash painting during the Sui (AD 581-618) and Tang (AD 618-907) dynasties. But as it primarily depicted architecture, vessels and vehicles, painters were required to be accurate, proportional and meticulous in their illustrations. They were also allowed to draw lines using rulers. But they needed to master brushwork just like in gongbi (meticulous brushwork) painting. Jiehua provides a visual treat and was useful when producing blueprints for pavilions, terraces and towers. For that reason, the painting style was earlier seen as being too industrial and not artistic enough when compared to the more abstract and elevated shanshui (mountain-and-water) style. But with Zhang's works, one understands how he is working to change that perception, and breathe new life into the jiehua genre. His paintings are now on display, along with the works of former colleagues at Tsinghua University, at the Shaoxing Art Museum in Shaoxing, Zhejiang province, through Aug 31. Among the works are Old Days of Southern River Towns, a 4-meter-long scroll on silk that captures a night scene in a typical river town of southern China in the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). With his attention to detail, Zhang juxtaposes various architectural formsincluding gate towers, arches, roofed bridges, pavilions with open halls and pagodas. Sky Ladder, an explosion installation work by Cai Guoqiang, is shown in a video at an exhibition hosted by Minsheng Art Museum in Beijing.[Photo by Cai Studio/ China Daily] Contemporary art is becoming popular in China on an unprecedented scale. Nearly 3,600 exhibitions were held in the country last year, with March 21 being the busiest day with 61 such shows, according to the Center for Visual Studies, a Peking University affiliate dedicated to the study of traditional and modern culture. The center has published the Annual of Contemporary Art of China for the past decade. It catalogs the events, artists and artworks for each year. Since last year, it has cooperated with Beijing's Minsheng Art Museum to present an exhibition that displays a selection of artworks featured in the journal. A second exhibition based on the report is now being held at the same museum through Aug 22. It shows paintings, sculptural installations, videos and performance art by 36 creators mentioned in the journal for 2015. The first exhibition was held last year, reviewing works from the previous year. Seeing how the participating artists worked last year, one can picture the emerging trends in contemporary Chinese art. The video Sky Ladder, exhibited this time, records an explosion lasting over 2.5 minutes created by well-known artist Cai Guoqiang over Huiyu Island not far from his native Quanzhou city, in East China's Fujian province, at dawn in June 2015. For this, a massive helium balloon was attached to a 500-meter-long "ladder" laced with gunpowder, which turned into a soaring fire dragon in the sky when ignited. Cai, 59, a New York-based artist who designed the fireworks display for the opening of the Beijing Olympics in 2008, says the project embodies his childhood dream of "building a permanent ladder to communicate with the universe". He says the ceremonial process also shows his love for China, which he left more than three decades ago. "It (the project) marks a return to my original point, and it means a new start," says Cai. Similar feelings for family ties are expressed through Beijing-based artist Song Dong's Barcode No 1, an installation made from used wooden window frames of different colors. It was part of his solo show, Surplus Value, at Pace Gallery Beijing last year when he displayed works made of old household items stored by his parents for several decades. Song recycles objects in his art also out of respect for his parents. "They didn't keep these things for themselves but for us, their children, in case we might need them in the future." Worried about what to send to your valentine today? We found eight traditional Chinese gifts that would be a nice choice for you. Ring Unlike modern Chinese women who can take rings as accessories, women were not allowed to wear rings before getting married in ancient China. Still you can take it as a nice gift to send to your lover. I have been in China for not more than three days but already have a story to share. It starts with a beach, moves into a typhoon and doesn't end because there is so much ahead. Having landed in Guangzhou on an international NGO Europe-China twinning project, I have had my mind clogged with grim expectations, mostly influenced by bothered relatives, sympathetic friends and old-fashioned travel guidebooks. The smog, the impossible traffic, the congestion - all these spelled trouble in my mind. Although I am a seasoned traveller and have just returned from Nepal packed with adventurous experience, I was uneasy about being alone in China. Antoaneta Pophlebarova [ Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn] As all good fairytales go, miracles started to happen from the start. I was met by a charming young colleague, seated in a comfortable car and transported fluently to my accommodation. A trip in a boat down the glorious Pearl River and the mesmerizing night skyline of the Tower, the Bridges and the City Giants made me pinch myself to believe it was real. Much to my surprise, my hosts had already booked an excursion to me for the next day - to a city on the beach. My itchy feet were shivering with excitement. So much to see. Where was I going? Did not know, my hosts had not been there but the trip was recommended as interesting. Off we went. A bus packed with Chinese tourists and me at the front, able to say only Ne-hao. The guide, an upbeat young girl did her best to translate herself into English, having such a curious traveller by her side, eager to learn not only about the 18 odds of the area, but about so much more. An abundant lunch with sea food that I had not seen in the largest Aquariums I had visited. A cosy, luxurious hotel. A minute to rest and ... there it comes - the highlight of the trip - the beach. Seriously? My hosts did not know that I come from a sea city and going to the beach is a daily routine in summer months. I thought I would see a museum for a start. And then - imagine my utter disbelief when I saw the beach and the people on it. I had never ever seen so many people in the sea. Too Many! Young and old, some with their clothes on, all with inflated rubber rings into the water. Up to a line that nobody could cross. That is why all were attached to. A boat guarding the other side of the rope. All in bright flamboyant colours, beaming with pure happiness. Never in my life had I seen so much joy of being in the sea! It brought tears to my eyes. The excitement of the people of some remote inland areas that have the chance to see the wast water for a first time, the dream come true to entire families - granparents and grandchildren alike. So moving! So genuine! And then - an announcement of an upcoming typhoon comes. No more beach pleasure. No protest too. If such a ban was ordered in my country few would have regarded it. Just the opposite. All go swiftly back to the buses and the big eviction starts. In a flash. I had never known what a typhoon is like, but when I had to wash out the water on the 25th floor flat for an hour I realized that it is Too Much! Now Nida is gone, life comes back to normal and what I am ready for will be ... the Not Enough. The Not Enough of Chinese warm-hearted hospitality, the stunningly varied and delicious Cantonese cuisine and of the so many dips into a new culture that are ahead. Do not trust guidebooks, they can never keep pace with China's fast forward today. Go and check for yourself. I bet it will never be Enough. The discipline inspection department of Southwest China's Guizhou province recently announced it was canceling the department's "honesty account". The account was established by the local discipline inspection authorities for officials to deposit money or securities they received as gifts or bribes. Those who deposited their ill-gotten gains in the account would receive a reduced punishment. At least 17 provinces established such accounts, but six of them have now abolished them, and the others are expected to follow suit. The honesty accounts have been controversial because some people suppose it is an easy way for corrupt officials to escape punishment. And if those who have profited from graft turn in only part of their illicit gains, they still get their punishment reduced. The cancellation of the honesty accounts indicates that the central discipline inspection authority has strengthened the anti-corruption campaign and Party members should strictly abide by discipline regulations. President-elect Rodrigo Duterte speaks during a news conference in his hometown Davao City in southern Philippines, May 16, 2016. [Photo/Agencies] Via unilateral South China Sea arbitration, Benigno Aquino III drove Philippine-China relations into a hopeless cul-de-sac. But Beijing and Manila do not have to be locked forever in a mutually damaging standoff. After meeting with his Philippine counterpart in Vientiane, Laos, on Friday, Chinese Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng said the South China Sea issue would not affect the two countries' cooperation in economy, trade and investment. He also announced the two countries have agreed to reactivate by the end of the year a joint liaison committee overseeing economic and trade collaboration, which has been suspended for five years. This has happened, in Gao's words, because the new administration of President Rodrigo Duterte in Manila has repeatedly expressed willingness to improve ties through bilateral dialogue, creating favorable conditions for cooperation "in all fields". And both sides believe such a longstanding, historical issue is not the entirety of the China-Philippine relationship. That the two trade ministers have navigated the negative impact of the arbitration and maneuvered such a consensus shows impressive political maturity in handling such an otherwise explosive topic. Without such sophistication, trade could easily degenerate into a tool of vengeance, which would in turn escalate tensions. In an even more inspiring latest development, former Philippine president Fidel Ramos is in Hong Kong as a special envoy of President Duterte seeking to initiate dialogue. Ramos' record as a peace broker at home, and more recently in the Asia-Pacific via the Bo'ao Forum for Asia, offers optimism for the success of his mission. But we are not talking about a matter of regular complexity. The South China Sea conundrum is too complicated to unravel through a couple of rounds of talks. Plus the arbitration has just rendered things uglier with its intrinsically flawed award. The relatively low profile Beijing and Manila have kept over Ramos' visit is a credible sign that both will tread prudently. As the Philippine side has indicated, the visit is an opportunity to compare notes and try to reach "preliminary consensus". Significant as it is, this is only a tentative first step. The first test for Ramos and his Chinese hosts will be whether they can keep the ruling, which is in Manila's favor but Beijing deems invalid, from ruining the momentum of constructive interaction. Each party has difficult decisions to make. But since both parties seem to want to make a breakthrough, they should do everything possible to make it happen. People from Seongju county hold banners to protest against the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), during a rally in Seoul, capital of South Korea, on July 21, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua] THE REPUBLIC OF KOREA is making a historic misjudgment deploying the US' Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense anti-missile system on its soil. Xinhua News Agency commented: The decision to deploy the anti-missile system will bring catastrophe to the Korean Peninsula and destroy the hard-won political mutual trust and economic ties between the ROK and its neighbors in Northeast Asia. Trying to defend the decision to install the THAAD system in Seongju county, southeast of Seoul, a ROK government spokesman on Sunday called China's criticism unreasonable and said it was a response to the "nuclear and missile threats" from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. However, THAAD is incapable of intercepting Pyongyang's short-range missiles, and Pyongyang's overtures for talks have repeatedly been cold-shouldered by Washington and Seoul, which have staged frequent military exercises and flown nuclear-capable B-52 bombers over the Korean Peninsula, in a clear show of hostility against Pyongyang. As the missile system's radar can spy deep into China and Russia, with their decision to deploy THAAD in the ROK, the United States and the ROK have alienated China and Russia by posing a severe threat to their national security. It also represents a threat to the ROK, as the strong snooping capability of THAAD means that it will be among the first targets in case of conflict. And it is unmistakably a strategic misjudgment for Seoul to violate the core interests of its two neighbors. By allowing the US to deploy THAAD on its soil, the ROK has brought more danger than security to its people, and shut the door to peace and reconciliation on the Korean Peninsula. Some analysts have pointed out that the only beneficiary of turmoil in Northeast Asia is the United States, as it relies on the "necessity" of its military presence in the region to remain a hegemonic global power. If Seoul and Pyongyang gradually eased tensions, Washington's military presence in the ROK would be hard to justify. That is why Washington has often discouraged Seoul from talks with Pyongyang and insisted on war drills. The ROK needs to draw lessons from the disastrous conflicts in the Middle East and correct its strategic mistake before it makes itself a powder keg in Northeast Asia. The future of the Korean Peninsula lies in the constructive exchanges and common development of regional countries, with a goal of gradual reconciliation between Seoul and Pyongyang. Deploying THAAD is clearly a move in the opposite direction. It has been a while since I've contributed to this Forum and I figured that since now I am officially on summer holiday and another school year is behind me I would share a post with you. Longnan girls perform spinning thread on the stage in Longnan city of Gansu province, August 3, 2016.[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn] Most Chinese people, some foreigners and all Chinese retailers and restaurateurs know the 7th day of the 7th lunar month is Qixi or Qiqiao, Chinese Valentines Day, but few know its ancient romantic origins. Thanks to the Chinese NGO, Cultural Exchange Organization of Presenting China to the World, dedicated to spreading Chinas rich heritage far and wide, diplomats and representatives from three continents were able to see history come alive in Gansu Provinces Longnan City to bear witness to a ceremony performed by talented amateur thespians. The venerable holiday, which this year occurs on August 9th, has its origin in a time so distant that myth, legend and reality inextricably intertwine. One thing is certain, however: Qixi is the most romantic of all Chinese festivals. As passed down by word-of-mouth from generation to generation the story has several variations but basically recalls the love between handsome Earthbound Cowhand, Niulang and beautiful heavenly fairy, Weaver Maid Zhinv, who excels in needlework. Being from different worlds they couldnt marry and were separated by a river. Their devotion to love touched the magpies and thousands of them formed an avian bridge enabling the lovers to reunite. Even Heaven was moved, and the couple was permitted to meet once a year on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month. Hence Qi Xi or Double Seventh. In ancient China, Qi Xi was adored by girls, especially those who were unmarried. They offered fruit, flowers, sewing kits and incense to the two lovers and begged the gods for a good marriage. Unlike today, when one can order everything online, sewing and needlework were critical domestic skills. In feudal society, Qi Xi lasted 7 days and 8 nights. It was one of the only opportunities for girls to leave home and go out in groups to publically exhibit their talent and beauty. Girls perform sewing and needlework on the stage in Longnan city of Gansu province, August 3, 2016. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn] At the opening ceremony Provincial Vice-governor Xia Hongmin praised the festival for preserving and protecting this national intangible cultural heritage treasure. He said its continued performance and celebration will accelerate efforts to have UNESCO confer on it coveted world intangible cultural heritage status. Newly-arrived Algerian Ambassador Ahcene Boukhelfa said he was deeply moved by the ceremony evoking in him a great emotion. His most important memory is the hospitality and kindness of the people, and the efforts of local authorities to develop and promote Longnan. He said that he was privileged to witness an important aspect of Chinese popular culture which contributes to the magnificence of the diverse traditions of ancient China. Longnan is rich in history and resources. It has seen human activity for 7,000 years. It is the birthplace of Fu Xi, the first of the Three Sovereigns of ancient China who reigned during the 29th century BCE and to whom is attributed authorship of the I Ching. It is a virtual cornucopia of agricultural products, most recently, olives, but also a wide variety of ingredients integral to Traditional Chinese Medicine, so much so that its been called natures medicine cabinet. And its richly endowed with resources such as gold, copper and manganese. Cui Jianghong, Secretary General of Cultural Exchange Organization of Presenting China to the World said the visit to Longnan is just one of many activities. All have a common thread: carrying forward the excellent culture of the Chinese nation, promoting Sino-foreign cultural exchanges, facilitating international economic cooperation, enhancing friendship and exchanges with people from other countries, and serving as an important window for China and the world to know more about each other. The author is a senior adviser to Tsinghua University and former director and vice-president of ABC Television in New York. Tianya Haijiao, also called the end of the earth, is one of the most popular attractions in South China's Hainan province. [Photo/IC] August 9 is Chinese Valentine's Day. Let's take a look at 10 places for lovers to spend a romantic time. No.1 The End of the Earth The End of the Earth (Tianya Haijiao), a romantic and beautiful scenic spot, lies to the west of Sanya city in Hainan province. There is a Romeo and Juliet story. In ancient times, two young lovers, who came from two families with feud, eloped when their families disapproved of their marriage. Unfortunately, when they arrived in Hainan, agents sent by their parents were also there. They had no choice but to jump into the sea together. Suddenly, there was a thunderstorm. They were hit by lightning and changed into the two rocks. As a symbol of love, the two rocks imply that no matter how far it is, I will accompany you to the end of the earth.Because of this story, many young lovers choose this place for their wedding ceremony. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Azeri President Ilham Aliyev and Russian President Vladimir Putin pose for a photo during their meeting in Baku, Azerbaijan, August 8, 2016. [Photo/Agencies] BAKU - A final declaration of Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran summit reflected the whole range of cooperation opportunities offered by the new format, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in Baku on Monday. He made the remarks during a joint press conference with Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Baku. According to Lavrov, the final document of the summit has covered "both political and economic issues with a focus on transport and energy." Lavrov said the three leaders agreed to establish a tripartite mechanism for cooperation at the ministerial level and relevant ministries. Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani have pledged to counter the growing global threat of terrorism in a joint declaration of a trilateral summit here on Monday. The three leaders expressed their willingness to combat terrorism, extremism, transnational organized crime, illicit trafficking in arms, drugs and their precursors, as well as human trafficking and crimes in the sphere of information and communication technologies. They have also recognized that "the unresolved conflicts in the region are a major obstacle to regional cooperation," and underlined the importance of their settlement "on the basis of principles and norms of international law." "The parties will continue the comprehensive development of equal and mutually beneficial cooperation, and to deepen and broaden the political dialogue at various levels across the entire spectrum of issues of mutual interest," the document said. Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran also agreed to deepen cooperation in various sectors of the economy "on the basis of equality and mutual benefit." The three presidents also pledged to take effective measures to develop transportation and communication infrastructure in order to expand the opportunities for passenger and cargo transportation via the North-South corridor. "The parties stressed the importance of an early agreement on the Caspian Sea Convention, and the Foreign Ministers were instructed to intensify the preparation for the Fifth Caspian summit. The new format will have a positive impact on regional processes," Lavrov pointed out, adding that Russia accepted the invitation to attend the next trilateral summit in Iran. Foreign Minister of Iran Mohammad Javad Zarif said that the heads of the three countries agreed to foster cooperation in the areas of security, energy, transit and other areas. A view of Mount Bromo before it erupted in Indonesia in June 2015. [Photo/IC] A lucky photographer has captured Mount Bromo in Indonesia spewing lava and ash in mid-eruption, revealing how a blanket of ash dramatically covers the unspoilt landscape. The scenes have been captured by Ts Kok, 45, a vet from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, who exploring Mount Bromo and Ljen Crater with his friends on horseback. It was pure luck that Ts and his friends timed their trip last June with the volcanic eruption which added a whole new dimension to the already breath-taking landscape. A combination of cheap flights and pictures on social media influenced Ts and his mates to explore the popular tourist destination. China will hold the 13th senior officials' meeting on the implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea on Aug 16, the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying announced on Tuesday. The meeting, to be held in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, will be attended by Vice-Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin and senior officials of the ASEAN countries' foreign ministries, Hua said. Before the meeting, the 18th joint working group meeting on implementing the DOC will be held. "China and the ASEAN countries will, according to the spirit of the joint statement the foreign ministers of China and the ASEAN countries issued on the full and effective implementation of the DOC, continue to have an in-depth exchange of views on implementing the DOC and pushing forward consultations over the 'South China Sea Code of Conduct'," Hua said. BEIJING - China strongly condemned a terrorist attack at a hospital in Pakistan's southwestern Quetta city, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Tuesday. At least 70 people were killed and about 110 others injured in a suicide blast Monday inside the emergency ward of the Civil Hospital in Quetta. "We are greatly shocked and saddened by this terrorist attack which has caused major casualties,"spokesperson Hua Chunying said. "We extend our deepest condolences to the victims and express our heartfelt sympathy to the wounded and the families of the victims," Hua said. Stressing that China opposes terrorism in any form, she said China will continue to support Pakistan's efforts against terrorism. BRUSSELS - Eighty-two percent of European citizens want the European Union to do more in the fight against terrorism, it was revealed Tuesday according to the latest Eurobarometer poll commissioned by the European Parliament. The highest support for more significant EU involvement was seen in Cyprus, Portugal and Italy, all around 90 percent. In Austria, Croatia and Poland where support was relatively the lowest, the rate was as high as three quarters. The survey also found the perceived threat of terrorist attacks varied from 7 percent in Slovenia to 64 percent in France. Differences between the opinions of women and men on this issue were almost non-existent, and older generations demonstrated only slightly stronger support for increased EU involvement against terror compared to the younger generations. However, the survey found that the fight against terrorism is an area with an explicit and very strong perception of a gap between the expectations of EU citizens and the actual level of the union's involvement -- 69 percent considered the current EU involvement to be insufficient. Eurobarometer said measures perceived as the most urgent were blocking the financing of terrorist groups, studying the roots of terrorism and radicalization, and strengthened control of external EU borders. The European Parliament argued that under the existing legal framework, there is still some scope for further developing EU counter-terrorism capacities. Better use of existing tools and improved coordination across policy fields may be a better way forward than hasty adoption of new measures without proper reflection on their possible impact, it advised on the survey result. EU member states' unwillingness to share intelligence seems to be the single most important obstacle to successful cooperation at EU level, lawmakers said. They added that increased contribution to the Schengen Information System, the Europol Information System and other EU information-sharing tools is crucial. The improved technical design of these databases could considerably facilitate border checks and law enforcement. In the short term, cross-matching capabilities of EU databases could be enhanced in order to achieve complete interoperability in the more distant future, the European Parliament said. Russian President Vladimir Putin greets Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in St Petersburg on Tuesday. [Photo/Agencies] Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan looked to rebuild ties as they met on Tuesday for the first time since Ankara downed one of Moscow's warplanes in November. Erdogan's visit to Putin's hometown of St. Petersburg is also his first foreign trip since the failed coup against him last month that sparked a purge of opponents and cast a shadow over Turkey's relations with the West. "Your visit today, despite a very difficult situation regarding domestic politics, indicates that we all want to restart dialogue and restore relations between Russia and Turkey," Putin said after the two leaders shook hands. Erdogan, who has said the trip represents a "new milestone", told Putin that ties had entered a "very different phase", and he thanked the Kremlin leader for his backing after the coup attempt. The shooting down of a Russian fighter jet by a Turkish F-16 over the Syrian border last fall saw Putin slap economic sanctions on Turkey and launch a war of words with Erdogan. But in late June, Putin surprisingly accepted a letter expressing regret over the incident from Erdogan as an apology and quickly rolled back a ban on the sale of tour packages to Turkey and signaled that Moscow would end measures against Turkish food imports and construction companies. Putin was one of the first foreign leaders to phone Erdogan offering support after the coup attempt. https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/out-of-control-toyota-acceleration-blamed-in-california-crash-that-killed-five-010116.html ConsumerAffairs' founder and former editor, Jim Hood formerly headed Associated Press Broadcast News, directing coverage of major news events worldwide. He also served as Senior Vice President of United Press International and was the founder and editor of Zapnews, a newswire service for radio and television. Read Full Bio Five people died when a Toyota Yaris "began to accelerate uncontrollably" while driving on I-10 in the Los Angeles area Thursday, hurtling off the freeway and striking another vehicle near an exit ramp, the California Highway Patrol said. The incident recalled a 2009 freeway accident in which an off-duty CHP officer and his family were killed when their Lexus went out of control and crashed because of an apparent unintended acceleration problem. Millions of Toyotas have been recalled in recent years because of unintended acceleration blamed largely on carpeting that under certain circumstances could cause the accelerator to jam. In the New Year's Eve accident, four adults in the car struck by the Toyota were pronounced dead at the scene and a seven-year-old boy, Michael Pineda, of Van Nuys, died at a nearby hospital. He had been a passenger in the out-of-control Toyota. "Unable to stop" The San Bernardino County coroner said the Toyota driver was "unable to stop or slow the car," which caused them to drive off the freeway at an exit ramp and strike another Toyota traveling on Vineyard Ave. An adult woman, a 16-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl who had been in the Toyota were hospitalized. Those killed in the vehicle struck by the Toyota were identified as Matthew Pusateri, 29, of Mission Viejo; Anthony Flores, 30, of Hemet; Jeffrey Willey, 29, of Huntington Beach; and Monica Flores, 37, of Arcadia. There was no indication of drug or alcohol use, the coroner and CHP investigators said. Earlier incidents Toyota faces hundreds of lawsuits stemming from earlier accidents blamed on unintended acceleration. Some critics have claimed the company's drive-by-wire system -- in which electronics replace the cable that once linked the accelerator pedal to the engine -- is responsible, but Toyota denies that. Toyota was hit with a $1.2 billion penalty in connection with the acceleration and other cases. A joint investigation by NASA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) into the unintended acceleration phenomenon failed to find a common cause and suggested driver error was often at fault. (Photo : REUTERS / Newscom) A pregnant woman in China put her unborn baby's life over her treatment for pancreatic cancer. Advertisement A pregnant woman from Shanghai battled late-stage pancreatic cancer but avoided any treatments that were toxic for the baby till she delivered in December 2015. Battling late stage pancreatic cancer, the brave woman refused to give up on her unborn child although her road to motherhood was a complicated one. She insisted on delaying her cancer treatment until after delivering her baby. She was diagnosed with cancer when she was five months pregnant, thepaper.cn reported. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement Zhang Lijun, 26, came to know about her illness during a regular medical check up. Her doctor suggested that she immediately has her labor induced so she could undergo cancer treatment. But the mother-to-be refused to go by doctors' recommendation and chose to give birth to her unborn child despite the risks. "I've lived for 26 years, but my child hasn't even had the chance yet," Zhang said, according to China Daily. Since Zhang chose not to undergo any treatments that were toxic for the baby, her life got tougher. Her condition started deteriorated rapidly as the cancer grew aggressively. It started affecting the growth of the fetus. She also developed severe jaundice due to the tumor after her 28th week of pregnancy. Finally, to speed up Zhang's delivery, and ensure the birth of a healthy baby, the hospital decided to convince her to allow the baby to be delivered. After considering her family's wishes, Zhang decided to have the baby via a Cesarean section as soon as possible so that she could undergo cancer treatment The baby boy, nicknamed Xiaolongbao, was born in the 30th week of Zhang's pregnancy. He weighed just a bit over one kilogram since he was born three months in advance of Zhang's original due date. Medical examination showed that Zhang's very rare and highly aggressive cancer had spread throughout her body. She was transferred from the obstetric department to the pancreatic department as Palliative treatment was the only choice left. In the face of her inoperable Cancer, Zhang started recording videos for her child to watch in the future. She recorded 18 of them in total, and requested that the child is given one to watch on each birthday. "Agony is a process. I spend every day as my last day," said Zhang, who is currently receiving palliative care. Advertisement TagsCancer, Cancer treatment, Mother's Day, motherhood, mother, Chinese mother (Photo : ITBP) Indian Army soldiers on mountain patrol at 15,000 feet. Advertisement The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) plans to build 54 more border outposts along Arunachal Pradesh's dangerous 1,030 kilometer-long border with China in the latest move confirming Delhi's concern about China's military build-up in the region. ITBP Inspector General Manoj Singh Rawat said the new border posts will be located along the "McMahon Line," the imaginary border also known as the Line of Actual Control (LAC) dividing India and China, to improve security in the state. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement The Line was agreed to by the United Kingdom and Tibet as part of the Simla Accord signed in 1914. It's the effective boundary between China and India but its legal status is disputed by China. China claims ownership of Arunachal Pradesh and says it's part of South Tibet. Gen. Rawat, who is in charge of the North East Frontier Headquarters, also proposed to Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu a permanent stationing of one ITBP battalion at the town of Hollongi near Itanagar, the state capital, to reinforce the Indian Army. He said ITBP plans to open new outposts across Arunachal Pradesh in towns like Likabali, Pasighat and Aalo. He also said the ITBP will be deployed to guard all vital government installations, offices and institutions in the state. But more important, the Inspector General proposed basing ITBP's headquarters in Itanagar instead of at faraway Shillong, capital of Meghalaya and Tezpur in Assam for efficiency in command and control. Chief Minister Khandu agreed to extend all possible cooperation to the ITBP as it expands its security role in his state. He thanked the ITBP for maintaining peace and security in the state, and also lauded its humanitarian assistance extended during natural calamities. ITBP is one of the five Central Armed Police Forces of India established in 1962 in the wake of the Sino-Indian War of 1962. The ITBP is deployed along India's border with China's Tibet Autonomous Region. Last week, India 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. Indian media reported a huge build-up of Chinese military forces all along the 4,057 kilometer 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. Advertisement TagsIndo-Tibetan Border Police, Arunachal Pradesh, India, china, Inspector General Manoj Singh Rawat, Chief Minister Pema Khandu (Photo : Getty Images) Taiwan has condemned Kenya for deporting five of its citizens to China over telecommunication fraud. Advertisement Taiwan on Monday protested against Kenya's decision to deport five of its citizens to China in connection with telecommunication fraud, BBC reported. The deportation took place despite the fact that last week, all five Taiwanese citizens, along with 35 Chinese nationals, were acquitted by a court in Nairobi. Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, which oversees the island's relations with China, said the deportation "shows contempt for human rights" and "hurt the feelings of the Taiwanese people." Like Us on Facebook Advertisement This is the latest in a saga that has seen several Taiwanese citizens being deported from Kenya and other countries to China. The deportations have strained Cross-Strait relations. The deportees are set to be tried for telecommunication scam. China has said that several Taiwanese and Chinese citizens living abroad are involved in telecommunication fraud. China claims the scammers have swindled millions of dollars from Chinese citizens. Taiwan does not have any diplomatic ties with Kenya. The island nation is recognized by only a few countries in the world. China claims that Taiwan, which has been self-ruled since 1950, is a breakaway region that is waiting for unification with the mainland. Advertisement TagsTaiwan, Taiwan and China, Cross-Strait Relations, Kenya, China and Kenya (Photo : Getty Images) One concept for a Dyson Sphere surrounding a star. Advertisement It could be a Dyson Sphere or some fantastic alien superstructure, but whatever it is seems to be "eating-up" an innocuous star named KIC 8462852, also known as Tabby's Star, in our Milky Way. The unnatural and unreal behavior of the light being emitted by this star can't be explained by astronomers. It's so baffling some scientists have said it could only be the result of some incredible alien technology harvesting the nuclear energy from Tabby's Star. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement Astronomers say Tabby's Star continues to exhibit very strange behavior. The star's flickering and dimming can't be explained by any known astronomical phenomena. This star appeared to have two small dips in 2009. There was a large dip lasting almost a week in 2011, and a series of multiple dips that substantially lowered the star's light in 2013. The pattern of dips indicates that the star is orbited by a large, irregular-shaped mass. Scientists believe that whatever it is, it had to have formed recently since it would have been pulled in by the star's gravity and consumed if this object had been there much earlier. A new, unpublished study online at arXiv reports the results of studying images of Tabby's Star taken by the Kepler Space Telescope from 2009 to 2013. The paper reveals astounding results: the star's luminosity varies, sometimes falling by an astonishing 20% over the course of the study period. Even more bizarre, the star's total luminosity decreased by four percent overall over that time. Study author Ben Montet of Caltech said the part that really surprised him was just how rapid and non-linear the dimming was. "We spent a long time trying to convince ourselves this wasn't real. We just weren't able to," he said. Bradley Schaefer of Louisiana State University in another study published earlier this year claims the light output of Tabby's Star has fallen by 19% over 100 years. His claims, however, met with widespread criticism. Montet, however, pointed out the rate of dimming he measured in the Kepler data is about twice what Schaefer found, which "is different, but not necessarily inconsistent." "None of the considered phenomena can alone explain the observations." The new data at arXiv, however, seems to support the assertion the star is dimming at a very, very rapid rate. One of the more fantastic explanations for this phenomenon is the star is flickering because of an "alien superstructure" built by a very advanced alien race. This structure might be a "Dyson Sphere," a popular and hypothetical sci-fi device that completely encloses a star to capture most or all of its energy. This sphere consists of a system of orbiting solar power satellites that completely encompass a star and capture most or all of its energy output. While there hasn't been proof of this hypothesis, it can't be ruled out. Another theory believes the star is blocked by the debris of a smashed planet while still another says the dimming is caused by what's known as "gravity darkening." Experts have ruled out the Dyson Sphere theory following a study by SETI but still can't provide a convincing scientific explanation for this phenomenon. Advertisement TagsTabby's Star, dyson sphere, KIC 8462852, Kepler space telescope, Ben Montet (Photo : Getty Images) The Android Nougat operating system is expected to be released soon. Advertisement Xiaomi has announced that several of its devices will get the new Android in 2017. The latest Google OS Android 7.0 Nougat is making headlines after the company announced that the software would be released soon. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 3, Xiaomi Mi4, Xiaomi Mi5 and Xiaomi Mi Max will receive the update first. The Chinese company has already released the Android Marshmallow OS to a couple of its devices, and some more will get the update soon. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement The upcoming Android Nougat will bring new features, fix bugs and improve overall performance. It is said to feature a tweaked UI with instant control toggles and space-efficient notifications. According to Trusted Reviews, Android Nougat comes with a quick switch and multi-window for excellent multitasking. The new Android operating system will also adopt the Vulkan API support which improves gaming and VR quality. Google has not provided details about when it would roll out the Android operating system. However, it is expected to be available first on Nexus devices such as the 5X and 6P first. There are also rumors that the new Android OS will be unveiled on a new Nexus smartphone manufactured by HTC this year. Advertisement TagsAndroid, Android 7, Android Nougat, Android 7 Xiaomi, Android 7 Release Date (Photo : Getty Images) Pipelines are seen at the TOTAL oil refinery in Leuna, Germany. Advertisement China may increase its gas imports from 53 billion cubic meters per year to between 190-270 billion by 2030, according to Li Yueqiang, head of the China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) International Department. The increase comes as China moves to shift from coal to eco-friendly energy. The initiative is also part of the country's plan to shift focus from heavy industry to services as a growth driver. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement "Despite the fact, the Chinese economy has entered a new stage, and there has been growth slowdown, the demand for gas will increase. This corresponds to the concept of green development of the Chinese economy and the reduction of pollutant emissions," Yueqiang said, according to RIA Novosti. Last month, CNPC vowed to boost gas exploration, production, and pipelines over the next decade. It plans to increase its local gas output by twofold to 180 billion cubic meters by 2020, according to China Daily. In 2015, CNPC managed to produce an estimated 94.5 billion cubic meters of gas, which account for 72 percent of the country's production and almost half of its consumption. Currently, oil giants in China are investing up to 70 percent of their total budget into gas production and 10 percent in gas pipeline construction, Hou Qijun, CNPC planning department head, said. According to RT, Russia will be China's leading natural gas provider. In fact, the countries have already started constructing the Power of Siberia pipeline, which is set to deliver around 38 billion cubic meters of Russian gas to China every year. On the other hand, Beijing and Moscow are reportedly in talks to drill another pipeline, the Power of Siberia-2, to deliver an added 30 billion cubic meters of gas to China every year. Although the said project has not officially been launched, Russian company Gazprom is allegedly preparing for the construction, Vedomosti Daily reported. Advertisement Tagsgas, natural gas, china, cnpc, Oil, Russia, Power of Siberia pipeline (Photo : Reuters) Alibaba is looking to help foreign firms establish a foothold in China. Advertisement Alibaba has announced plans to expand its business operations in Russia. Alibaba Russias Director General Mark Zavadsky said that the company is planning to expand its presence in Russia. The first thing that the company will do is to work more with local Russian companies. He recalled that in June, at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), Alibaba Group CEO Jack Ma outlined a strategy for the company's development in Russia. The strategy includes three phases, which includes shipping of goods from China to Russia. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement These are [both] Russian goods and those Chinese products, which are delivered as a B2B to partnership depots, and continue their way across Russia, he added. Zavadsky noted that the company is already working on the second phase, which is delivering within Russia. The company aims to decrease the delivery time to Russian mega-cities to between five and seven days, Value Walk reported. He said there are a lot of many projects with major vendors importing to Russia in the B2B format and then selling from depots in Russia. In this way, it helps in making delivery faster. Delivery from Russia to other countries is the last stage of Alibaba's business development plan. Moreover, Alibabas Ant Financial Services Group has shown interest in entering the Russian micro crediting market, according to TeleTrader Software. The Chinese micro crediting service is currently looking for the right partner in Russia as the company aims to intensify its operations in the country. Advertisement TagsAlibaba, Russia, Jack Ma, Ant Financial Services Group, chinese e-commerce, e-commerce, Alipay, micro crediting service (Photo : Getty Images) A May 2016 image of developments on Mischief Reef. The latest satellite images collected by a research agency showed China has been building reinforced hangars in the disputed Spratlys Islands. Advertisement An international think tank said on Monday that contrary to Chinese President Xi Jinping's statement that Beijing would not militarize the disputed Spratlys Islands in the South China Sea, recent satellite images show that China has built "reinforced hangars" on several islets capable of housing fighter jets of the People's Liberation Army air force. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington-based research organization, said it collected and examined several satellite photographs which showed Beijing's construction of reinforced aircraft hangars on three reefs--Fiery Cross, Subi, and Mischief-- which all form part of the contested areas in the Spratlys Islands (referred to as the Nansha Islands in China). The CSIS said that although no military aircraft was seen when the photos were taken, its analysis shows that the reinforced hangars on the three islets are large enough to hold fighter jets and bombers. According to the CSIS, among the aircraft that could be housed in one of these hangars is China's H-6 bomber and H-6U refuelling tanker and a transport aircraft. Military facilities The center said that although China claims that the structures are purely for civilian aircraft and other non-military purposes, the size of the hangars in the photos belied Beijing's assertion and suggested that it has been building military facilities on the disputed islets. Based on the photos, the size of the hangars, estimated to be 60-70 feet wide, is large enough to hold Beijing's largest fighter jets. The images also suggest that Beijing has been involved in structural strengthening of the facilities on the islets. "They are far thicker than you would build for any civilian purpose," Gregory B. Poling, director of the center's Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, said on Monday in an interview. "They're reinforced to take a strike." Bombers One of the largest hangars was 200 feet wide, capable of holding China's bombers and refueling tankers, Poling emphasized. Poling said if China decides to deploy these jets, it would likely worsen the situation in the South China Sea region and complicate the disputes with the Philippines and other claimant-countries. He said the move would also push the US to deal with China's militarization of the region. US naval forces continue to conduct freedom of navigation patrols in the disputed waterway. Arbitral court ruling The photos of the hangars in the South China Sea were released less than a month after the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) ruled that there is no legal basis to China's claims of "historic rights" over the contested maritime territory. Beijing refused to recognize the jurisdiction of the court and did not participate in the proceedings, dismissing the verdict as "illegal," "null and void," and a "piece of waste paper." The court said China violated the Philippines' rights to explore its exclusive economic zone by constructing facilities on the Mischief Reef. Days after the verdict was handed down, Beijing conducted massive military drills in parts of the disputed South China Sea. Officials said the drills would train PLA troops to handle "security threats" and to safeguard its maritime rights and interests in the disputed area. Advertisement Tagsreinforced hangars, spratlys, Mischief Reef, satellite photos, Center for Strategic and International Studies, china (Photo : Getty Images) The worlds fastest train with the maximum speed of 380kph will be launched in China next month. Advertisement The world's fastest train that travels at a maximum speed of 380 km per hour will be unveiled in China next month. The new bullet train will run on the Zhengzhou-Xuzhou high-speed railway line starting next month, according to local newspaper People's Daily. Once the train starts operations, the travel time between Zhengzhou, which is located in Central China's Henan province, and Zuzhou, located in the Eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu, will be cut down from 2 hours and 33 minutes to approximately 80 minutes, according to NDTV. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement The new bullet train runs at continuous operating speeds of 350 km per hour, an increase of 50 km/hour from the previous generation of bullet trains. The new trains have achieved a top speed of 400 km per hour during testing. The new generation of bullet trains will mainly serve as public transport for the Chinese population. China has constructed nearly 16,000 kms of high-speed railway tracks connecting a majority of its major cities including the Beijing-Shanghai train, which recorded billions of dollars in profit last year. More of these railway lines are currently under construction in China as the government attemps to boost the economy and improve its transport network by investing in infrastructure. China also aims to be aggressive in the marketing of the high-speed train technology overseas, particularly in neighboring countries like India. A Chinese train company is currenly conducting a feasibility study for an inter-city high-speed train in India. China is also trying to aggressively market its high speed train technology abroad especially in India. A Chinese train firm is currently conducting feasibility study for Chennai-New Delhi high-speed train. Advertisement Tagschina, world's fastest train, train, High-speed train, fastest train (Photo : University of Maryland) Blue whirl Advertisement A new kind of fire that burns clean, or without producing soot, has scientists scrambling to find useful applications for this new discovery. The blue fire was given the name "blue whirl" by researchers at the University of Maryland's A. James Clark School of Engineering that discovered it. Researchers said this previously unobserved flame phenomenon evolves from typical yellow fire whirls, but are smaller, very stable and completely blue, indicating soot-free burning. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement They described the blue whirl is a type of fire tornado, or more accurately a fire whirl, made of flame or ash. Fire whirls can occur when intense rising heat and turbulent winds combine to form whirling eddies of air that can form tornado-like structures sucking in burning debris and combustible gases. Researchers said the blue whirl lacks the prominent yellow color of ordinary flames because it completely burns away soot particles. A blue flame indicates enough oxygen is present for complete combustion to occur. That means there's less soot and fewer pollutants being released into the atmosphere. Researchers said the blue whirls they produced in the lab are far more stable and easy to reproduce than traditional fire whirls, making blue whirls easier to generate and study. They admit the true potential of blue whirls isn't fully known yet. But what they did say is generating blue whirls might be useful in burning oil from maritime oil spills. Current methods of oil spill control involve impounding crude oil into a thick floating layer that's then burned. This process, however, is toxic and releases massive amounts of pollutants into the air, quite apart from the thick and suffocating smoke it emits. Blue whirls could instead be used for a cleaner burn that massively reduces toxic emissions. You can see the video of the blue whirl here. Advertisement Tagsblue whirl, University of Maryland's A. James Clark School of Engineering, fire whirl, soot (Photo : CSIS) Satellite photo of Fiery Cross Reef showing new military hangars for Chinese aircraft. Advertisement China is currently building hangars hardened against bomb attacks for its military aircraft at Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief Reefs in the South China Sea as can be seen in new satellite photos made public by an American think tank based in Washington D.C. These reefs are part of the Spratly Islands China continues to illegally occupy in violation of a ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) on July 12 that concluded China has no legal basis to claim historic rights within its unfounded "nine-dash line" in the South China Sea. China seized these reefs from the Philippines. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement Chinese President Xi Jinping in September 2015 told U.S. President Barack Obama "China does not intend to pursue militarization" in the Spratlys. The latest satellite photos of China's continuing militarization belies that claim. The photos from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) show the construction of what seems to be hardened aircraft hangars at the three reefs. An analysis by CSIS, however, says the hangars on all three islets have room for "any fighter-jet in the People's Liberation Army Air Force." The photos also show a larger type of hangar on the islets that can accommodate either the Xian H-6 strategic bomber; the H-6U aerial tanker (a modified H-6); the Shaanxi KJ200 Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft and the Shaanxi Y-8 medium-range transport. China claims the hangars are for civilian aircraft for nonmilitary use but CSISsays its satellite photos strongly suggest otherwise. CSIS said the smallest hangars are 60 to 70 feet wide, more than enough to accommodate China's largest jet fighters. All the hangars show signs of structural strengthening that might make them harder to destroy. Evidence of the military hangars surfaced a month after the PCA's decision declaring illegal China's claim to own the South China Sea. The PCA's ruling in the case filed by the Philippines has been hailed as a "sweeping victory" against China. Advertisement Tagschina, Fiery Cross, Mischief Reef, Subi Reef, Center for Strategic and International Studies, spratly islands, aircraft hangars, Xi Jinping Survey: FEW clergy speak on candidates by name, but do discuss political issues in pulpit 09 August, 2016 by Gregory Tomlin , | PRINCETON, N.J. (Christian Examiner) A new survey from the Pew Research Center concludes that America's pastors speak often about hot-button political issues from the pulpit, but few speak directly about political candidates like Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. The survey, which was published Aug. 8, ironically comes just weeks after GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump promised in his nomination acceptance speech before the Republican National Convention to repeal the Johnson Amendment in the 1954 Revenue Code, which prohibits pastors from engaging in the public endorsement of candidates from the pulpit. "At this moment, I would like to thank the evangelical and religious community in general who have been so good to me and so supportive. You have much to contribute to our politics, yet our laws prevent you from speaking your minds from your own pulpits," Trump told the Convention. "An amendment, pushed by Lyndon Johnson, many years ago, threatens religious institutions with a loss of their tax-exempt status if they openly advocate their political views. I am going to work very hard to repeal that language and protect free speech for all Americans." In the survey, which examined the religious opinions of more than 4,600 adults for a month-week period from June 5-July 7, 40 percent of Americans said they had attended church at least twice in the months before the poll was taken. Among that group, 64 percent said they heard ministers in their congregations speak on at least one of six social and political topics in a church service. Those topics included religious liberty, homosexuality, abortion, immigration, environmental issues and economic equality. Religious liberty garnered the most attention with 40 percent claiming they had hear their clergy discuss it from the pulpit. Homosexuality was a close second, at 39 percent. Abortion legalized for more than 40 years in the U.S. still merited significant attention at 29 percent. Nearly half, however, claimed that their clergy rarely if ever spoke on political issues from the pulpit. Only 14 percent said their ministers had spoken about a specific candidate and, when that occurred, it was more likely to be done among black Protestant congregations. Nearly one-third (29 percent) of black Protestant church goers told surveyors that they had heard their clergy specifically address support for Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton over the month-long survey period. Only two percent of black Protestant clergy were favorable toward Trump, but as many as 20 percent of black Protestant clergy spoke against him. Only seven percent of the same group spoke against Clinton. Black Protestant clergy were also more likely to encourage their parishioners to vote in the November elections. Six-in-ten (59 percent) said they heard a minister encourage voter turnout for the presidential election. That number was significantly lower among white Evangelicals (47 percent), white mainline Protestants (27 percent) and Catholics (34 percent). In spite of the high numbers of black Protestants who hear stumping for Democrat candidates from the pulpit, most of what American churchgoers hear from the pulpit is conservative, the survey claims. But that doesn't mean most of the denominations vote in conservative fashion. While mostly white evangelical denominations, such as the Southern Baptist Convention, Assemblies of God and Church of the Nazarene, tend to be Republican-oriented, many mainline denominations are generally more liberal and, therefore, oriented toward Democrats. Historically black denominations, such as the National Baptist Convention and African Methodist Episcopal Church, tend to vote Democrat by wide margins (87 and 92 percent, respectively). Like Trump, the Republican platform calls for the elimination of the Johnson Amendment, which has generally been regarded by historians as a type of revenge amendment. It was added to the revenue code after Johnson was opposed for his re-election to the U.S. Senate by members of conservative churches and anti-communist leagues in Texas. Those groups were operating as religious or non-profit organizations with tax-exempt status. Opponents of church's taking stands on political candidates seem to believe that should the provision be lifted, churches will become well-funded Super PACs (political action committees) for conservative candidates. "If the Johnson Amendment were repealed, pastors would be able to endorse candidates from the pulpit, which they're currently not allowed to do by law. But it's also true that a lot more money could possibly flow into politics via donations to churches and other religious organizations. That could mean religious groups would become much more powerful political forces in American politicsand it would almost certainly tee up future court battles," Emma Green, a senior associate editor with The Atlantic, wrote. However, even before the Johnson Amendment was passed in 1954, there was no widespread church involvement in U.S. elections. The churches of America very infrequently endorsed candidates for office and few, if any, put their voices and wallets behind political races, with the exception of the 1928 presidential election. Then, many Protestant ministers and churches advocated in the pulpit and in print against the election of Democrat Al Smith, who would have been the first Roman Catholic president of the United States. To a lesser degree, some Protestant churches did the same during the 1960 presidential election until Sen. John F. Kennedy openly said he would not impose his Catholic views on the presidency and that he, and 40 million other Catholics at the time, should have the same opportunity to run for president as any Protestant American. Alliance Defending Freedom and the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (EFCA) advocate changing the Johnson Amendment to clarify what churches can and cannot do during the election season. Both propose that political speech from the pulpit, which results in no additional or minimal cost to the organization, should be protected. They also claim that if the speech costs more than a minimal amount, then "the Johnson Amendment would only prohibit speech that clearly identifies candidates and directly calls for those candidates' election or defeat." Three priests have been ordained in a refugee camp in Iraq and will now focus on serving those who face persecution for their faith. According to ChristianToday.com, Fr. Roni Salim Momika, Fr. Emad, and Fr. Petros were ordained as priests of the Syriac-Catholic Church in a refugee camp in Erbil. About 1,500 people gathered for the ordination service which took place inside the Aishty 2 refugee camp. About 5,000 people live in the camp after being forced to flee their homes. The three priests themselves were forced to flee their homes in the city of Qaraquosh, along with 50,000 other Christians, when the Islamic State took control of the area. We left Qaraqosh during this time two years ago," Fr. Momika told Catholic News Agency. "Before it was a bad day because we became refugees and ISIS entered to Qaraqosh, but now this day became a good day because it's our ordination and we give hope to our people. Fr. Momika added that his calling is to give Christ to the people. He especially focuses on ministering to young people and women in the camp. Christian Today notes that, before it was overrun by ISIS militants, Qaraqosh was home to Iraqs largest Christian community. Publication date: August 9, 2016 Acts Ministries International, a denomination consisting of 13 churches in the U.S. and overseas, convened from August 4 to 6 for a leadership summit at Church of Southland, located in Anaheim, CA. The denomination has churches located all across the U.S., including in New York, Massachusetts, Georgia, North Carolina, New Jersey, California, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Some churches are more multi-ethnic and diverse in age than others, but most AMI churches tend to be younger with college students and young families, and all AMI churches have lead pastors who are Asian American. AMI holds three major gatherings triennially, following the pattern of first holding a national gathering of lead pastors of AMI churches; then hosting the AMI Leadership Summit; and finally, convening at the AMI General Conference. This year's leadership summit drew about 500 leaders not only from the AMI churches in the U.S., but also from affiliated churches overseas, including from East Asia. "There's a lot of differences that we can focus on," said Young Kim, the lead pastor of Grace Covenant Church in Philadelphia, during the final day of the summit. "But we need to focus on Jesus, who has united us for one purpose." "My hope is that as we get bigger, we would be even more unified; and that as we reach even more nations, that we would be even more unified," Kim said. Acts Ministries International (AMI), which was launched in 2002, is slightly different from other denominations in that there is less of a focus on formal structure or doctrine, and more of a focus on relationship and accountability, according to John Choi, the director of operations at Church of Southland. AMI does ordain pastors and the AMI churches consolidate resources for mission efforts and church planting. "AMI is much more relationship-based," said Choi, who also explained that lead pastors also hold conference calls on a monthly basis. "We all believe in the core things -- the essential beliefs -- but there are also things we agree to disagree upon, like women ordination." "We envision AMI to be more than a denomination or an association," the AMI website states. "It is a community of churches seeking to model the spirituality, vision, and partnership exemplified in the book of Acts." There is structure in certain aspects, however. For instance, two pastors, who are called 'trans-local team leaders,' serve as leaders of AMI: Keith Park, the lead pastor of Church of Southland, and Young Kim, the lead pastor of Grace Covenant Church. For pastors to be ordained, they must be recommended by their lead pastor for licensure, after which they go through an interview process. After they are licensed, they can become ordained anywhere from three to five years thereafter. Churches that want to become a part of AMI must undergo a 'discovery period,' which lasts from one to two years, during which AMI leaders gauge whether the church would be a good fit with AMI and whether the church emphasizes the core values that AMI does, such as church planting and missions. Meanwhile, this year's leadership summit focused on the theme, "Grow Together, Grow Healthy," and had sessions discussing personal growth, relational growth, and kingdom building. Representatives from each church in AMI also took turns throughout the three-day summit to share updates from the past year and prayer requests for the near future. Two pastors, Shan Gian and David Son, were also licensed during this year's leadership summit. Both have been serving at Symphony Church located in Boston, MA. A new Pew Research survey finds that a majority of Americans have heard pastors speak about political issues from the pulpit. About 64 percent of churchgoers said that they heard their pastors speak about at least one of the political issues mentioned in the Pew survey, such as religious freedom, homosexuality, abortion, immigration, environmental issues, and economic inequality. Some 40 percent heard about religious freedom from the pulpit, and the same proportion of respondents (39 percent) heard about homosexuality. About 29 percent of Christians admitted to hearing about abortion. Immigration (27 percent), environment (22 percent), and economic inequality (18 percent) were the other topics discussed frequently at church. Among those who heard about religious freedom, 32 percent reported their pastors defending religious liberty, and only 2 percent said their pastor did not believe it was under attack. About 22 percent said their church leaders were against abortion, and only 3 percent supported abortions. More churches (19 percent) held the view that Christians need to welcome and support immigrants, and only 4 percent advocated for stricter immigration laws. Some 20 percent said that their pastors were against homosexuality, while 12 said their leaders encouraged acceptance. Meanwhile, a lesser proportion has heard pastors speak about political candidates. About 14 percent of Christians who attended religious services in spring and early summer said that their pastors did speak about presidential nominees, and more spoke out in favor of Hillary Clinton. Some 9 percent said that the clergy spoke in support of a candidate. About 6 percent spoke in favor of Hillary Clinton while 1 percent did so for Donald Trump. Around 11 percent of the churchgoers say that religious leaders have opposed a candidate, 7 percent of whom spoke against Trump and 4 percent against Clinton. Some 6 percent heard both opposition and support for the two candidates. Black Protestant churchgoers heard more about political candidates from clergy than white evangelical Protestant Christians. About 28 percent black Protestants heard their pastors speak in favour of Clinton, and only 2 percent spoke for Trump. The leaders spoke more frequently (20 percent) against Trump, while only 7 percent spoke against Clinton. About 3 percent of the white evangelical Protestant pastors spoke against Trump and only 2 percent voiced support for him. "This is the first time we've asked these specific questions in this way," Jessica Hamar Martinez, a senior researcher at the Pew Research Center, was quoted as saying by The New York Times. "We found that many people are hearing at least a little bit about politics from their clergy and religious leaders in their places of worship," she said. "But at the same time, it's a much smaller share who are hearing clergy say something specifically about a presidential candidate." The survey was conducted on 4,602 American adults spread across the country via web and mail, between June 5 and July 7. About 4,172 were interviewed through online survey while another 430 were reached by mail. Among the respondents, about 2,258 had attended a church service at least once in the previous few months. I had the privilege or reading a pre-release version of "God Shines Forth: How the Nature of God Shapes and Drives the Mission of the Church." Here are 20 quotes from the book, which you should pick up. J. D. Vance's new book, Hillbilly Elegy, has hit a national nerve for people on both sides of the political aisle. Rod Drehers recent interview with Vance was so popular that the site crashed. It has become by far the most-read piece ever on TAC (The American Conservative), according to Dreher. In the interview, Vance talks openly about growing up in rural Appalachia, recognizing moral agency among the poor, and, in Drehers words, the need for more honest dialogue about poverty and dysfunction in America. Vance also explores a question that many of us are asking: Why are so many people voting for Donald Trump? My own story has something to do with it. I grew up in a 3,000-square foot home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. When I was young, my mother subscribed to colonial home decorating magazines and our county was almost always highlighted in them. We were not allowed to watch sitcoms, but when I caught a glimpse, I couldn't see the charmthat was my life every day. We were a normal, white, upper-middle-class, large, conservative family. When I was 18, though, my family uprooted suddenly from our (as I see it now) crumbling mirage of normal and moved to a 120-acre working farm in the North Country, New York. We seven kids and our parents moved into an outdated bed and breakfast on the property and set about making it our own. We rolled up our sleeves, tilled the land, made friends with farmers, canned fruit, stockpiled wheat berries, homeschooled our younger siblings, and milked cows. We had moved to the largest county east of the Mississippi and one of the poorestSt. Lawrence County. I was an upper-middle-class kid brought to a poverty-stricken area, surrounded ... 1 home US American Pastors Network President denies he said Hillary Clinton is unfit to be U.S. president because she's a woman Sam Rohrer, president of American Pastors Network, denied reports that he pointed to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's gender as the reason she's unfit for the presidency. Although the businessman and former Pennsylvania representative said he did not cite Clinton being a woman as the reason why he doesn't support her, Rohrer maintained that he still finds the former First Lady as unfit for the presidential post "for many reasons." "(But) no, it's not unbiblical for a woman to be in a position of leadership in government," he told Focus Today in an interview and added that he said it "with a caveat because God has an order for things, not because of superiority of one over the other. But because of order." He also took to Facebook to clarify that he's willing to support "any woman" as long as she qualifies for the position and embodies the biblical criteria of honesty and moral principles. "Hillary Clinton is not Biblically qualified to be President. It's not because she's a woman but because she embraces unbiblical positions," argued the 60-year-old Rohrer. Rohrer's clarifications came after media reported that he made the disputed statement on APN's daily radio show "Stand in the Gap Today." "That statement alone calls into question his own judgment, but beyond that, Christians must ask themselves what the Bible says about a nation's leaders," Penn Live quoted Rohrer as saying after undermining what President Barack Obama said about the Democratic bet's character traits that make her fit for the Oval Office. Clinton now edges her Republican rival Donald Trump on the recent poll conducted by Washington PostaABC News after the two national party conventions that were held last month. According to The Washington Post, Clinton benefited from the convention as well as the incendiary remarks made by Trump against the American soldier killed on duty in Iraq, Army Capt. Humayun Khan, and the tirade he exchanged with the Muslim American parents. home Faith 'Church should not intervene with political struggles,' says Hong Kong bishop Bishop of Hong Kong, Cardinal John Tong, defended the Vatican for not openly criticizing China's records on human rights and said the Church should not intervene in politics. Cardinal Tong argued for the Vatican in his article "The communion of the Church in China with the universal Church," released July 31, where he acknowledged that many people in mainland China expressed their concerns that Vatican officials, including the Pontiff, might be going "against the principles of the Church" as the Holy See and the Chinese government finally reach a seeming mutual agreement on the appointment of Catholic bishops. The bishop also considered it "unfair" that Chinese Catholics criticized the Holy See for not openly condemning the Chinese government for its human rights abuses. "The mission of the Catholic Church is not to change the institution or administrative agency of nations," wrote Cardinal Tong. "It cannot and should not intervene in political struggles. Rather, it should realize the above targets through rational thought and the awakening of spiritual power." He also cited Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI in a 2007 letter that the Church "will not give up striving for social justice, but the Church should not confuse its duty and jurisdiction with that of the government." Cardinal Tong praised Pope Francis for respecting the Chinese people by giving them time "to understand" that the Catholic Church "is not an enemy of the country or an outside invader" and that the Church "has no hostility towards them. The communist state recognizes the state-run Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA) as the official Catholic Church in China while 12 million Chinese Catholics attend an "underground" church that remains loyal to the Vatican. Chinese authorities arrested Msgr. Thaddeus Ma Daqin, auxiliary bishop in Shanghai, after he publicly revoked his allegiance to CCPA during his Episcopal ordination at St. Ignatius Cathedral in Shanghai in 2012. Ma was reportedly subjected to weeks of interrogation. He was stripped of his title as bishop, and he was forced to undergo communist indoctrination classes. A blog post attributed to Ma that circulated in June showed the latest revelation as a turnaround for the detained bishop who recanted his renunciation of CCPA. However, some cast doubts on the authenticity of the blog. home US Franklin Graham defends Houston student suspended for saying 'All lives matter' Evangelist Franklin Graham said a University Student Government vice president was right to say that "All lives Matter" and denounced her suspension for saying so. The president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association took to Facebook on Friday to express his dissenting opinion on the suspension of the vice president of the Student Government Association at the University of Houston over a social media post. "Forgeta #aZBlackLivesMatter, more like a#aZAllLivesMatter," was the controversial post that led to Vice President Rohini Sethi's 50-day suspension from the student body effective Aug. 1. The student body also required Sethi to attend the Libra Project diversity workshop and three cultural events per month. Sethi also needs to submit a reflection letter and present herself in the Senate Meeting on Sep. 28. "Wow. Somebody needs to tell this student government association that their vp was rightaall lives do matter," reacted 64-year-old Graham and added, "Shame on them!" The head of the Samaritan's Purse came to Sethi's defense for her statement by pointing to God, the "Maker and Creator of all life." He asserted that the Creator definitely did not intend for only "one group" to rise above the rest or for one life to be more important than another. "In His eyes, every life matters. And no one should be punished for saying that," said Graham. The much-criticized phrase "All Lives Matter" became a response to the Black Lives Matter movement that came about in protest to the killing of African-Americans by police officers. The deaths of African-Americans Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Philando Castille in Minnesota last month sparked Black Lives Matter protests across the United States. This also triggered several gun shooting incidents that included the targeted killing of police officers. Christian rapper Lecrae slammed the #AllLivesMatter hashtag and likened it to "spitting in the face of black folk." He decried the movement as "extremely selfish" and "unsympathetic to a mourning person." The 36-year-old Grammy winner did agree that all lives do matter, but explained that the Black Lives Matter movement was not meant to claim black lives matter above others, but is a needed movement because for "many" in the United States, black lives do not matter. On whether all lives matter, Lecrae said on Instagram: "Of course they do. But it's very clear that black lives don't to many in this country." In January, our country welcomed home four Americans who had been imprisoned in Iran. At the time, the Obama administration touted its nuclear deal with Iran as a diplomatic victory which opened the door for the prisoners release. Eight months later, we are getting a much different picture of the situation. As the Wall Street Journal reported on Aug. 3, the Obama administration airlifted $400 million in cash to Iran the same day the four Americans were released. The payment contained multiple currencies and was delivered in the dark of night on an unmarked cargo plane. The report also notes, Iranian press reports have quoted senior Iranian defense officials describing the cash as a ransom payment. One year ago, when the administration was in the midst of negotiating its deal with Iran, I publicly stated my concerns about how lifting economic sanctions on Iran would allow global financial resources to flow into a country still included on our list of state sponsors of terrorism. The administrations decision to directly provide the Iranian government with a shipment of $400 million in cash, which is nearly impossible to trace, is unconscionable. The White House claims the $400 million payment was not related to the release of the hostages but rather was making good on a separate deal to repay Iran for a 1979 settlement over military equipment. Even if this account were true, which seems unlikely given the administrations track record of misleading the American people throughout its negotiations with Iran, the timing of the payment alone is enough to embolden our enemies. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the outcry over this payout is coming from those who are flailing in an attempt to justify their continued opposition to the [Iran] deal. However, in the same press conference, Earnest admitted, We know that Iran supports terrorism. We know that Iran supports Hezbollah and the Assad regime. And it certainly is possible that some of the money that Iran has is being used for those purposes, too. As hard as the White House tries to defend these actions, it is clearer than ever the administration will do anything to protect its bad Iran deal, including paying ransom to a state sponsor of terrorism. This situation sets a dangerous precedent. Ransom payments incentivize our enemies to take U.S. hostages. More American lives are now at risk with the administration choosing to pay off and appease our enemies rather than standing against them. We also know Iran funnels significant resources to terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas. This $400 million payment could likely come back to the U.S. and our allies in the form of new weapons and bolstered terrorist activities. The Obama administrations foreign policy is not working, evidenced by mounting aggressions by countries such as Iran, Russia and North Korea, as well as the rise of ISIS. We must show hostile regimes we will not be manipulated and reassert American leadership in our world. home World Muslim woman devotes herself to help Iraq Christians and religious minorities It's a Muslim woman who's devoted herself to helping Iraqi Christians and other religious minorities made victims by the conflict in the Middle East, says the vicar of Baghdad. Rev. Andrew White, the Anglican leader and president of Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East (FRRME), the organization he founded in 2010 to provide emergency relief to Iraqi Christian refugees and religious minorities, revealed the identity of Dr. Sarah Ahmed as the Muslim woman behind the works of FRRME. "She is there protecting all of the Iraqi Christians," Rev. White said in December during a lunch visit in Washington, according to The Christian Post. "You never hear anything about it in the news but you hear about the work I am doing. The work that I am doing is being done by a Muslim caring for the Christians." Ahmed originated from Baghdad and moved to the United States in 2010 to become a dentist. She said her fateful meeting with the former chaplain of St. George's Church in Baghdad during a function in New York led to her recruitment in his organization. Ahmed said she works for "Christians, Yazidis, Jews, everybody else" and that she doesn't feel different from any of them. "For me, we are all equal. I don't differentiate that much," she told The Christian Post in an interview. She believes her Islamic faith, contrary to what many people might think, is one that's "very peaceful and believes in helping others." She also believes in giving back for the life that one has, no matter the religion. "You can not sleep while your neighbor is hungry or suffering. You have to lend a hand," added Ahmed. Ahmed works as director of operations for FRRME and travels all over Iraq to dole out emergency supplies to the civilian victims and even crosses dangerous thresholds just to see for herself the conditions of the internally displaced families. FRRME suspended Rev. White as president on June 23 as the British Charity Commission launched its official inquiry on the foundation's alleged involvement on rescuing sex slaves by paying off their captors, the Islamic State terrorist group. home Entertainment Perry Noble's new book on dating put on hold by Tyndale House Publishers Tyndale House Publishers announced Wednesday its decision to place on hold the latest book by former NewSpring Senior Pastor Perry Noble. The Christian publishing company decided to move Noble's book "11 1/2 Questions To Help You Date Without Regret" from its scheduled release of Sept. 27 to an "unscheduled status." "We plan to review this status at a future date and then evaluate the viability of releasing this book at another time," the company's spokeswoman Margie Watterson told Independent Mail via email. The publicist added that the company still keeps available for purchase Noble's other books "Overwhelmed," Unleash!" and "The Most Excellent Way to Lead." "We live in a culture that doesn't see dating as a big deal. Dating is just what you do on the weekend so you don't have to binge-watch shows on Netflix. Popular speaker and pastor Perry Noble knows better," read the book description on Tyndale's website. The company's website still announced Noble's dating book on a "coming soon" status while Amazon still kept the book open for pre-orders Wednesday night. Noble released a podcast titled "8 Reasons Why You Can't Get a Date or Get Married" on June 26 where he helped single Christians determine the underlying causes for their romantic problems and urged them to "run hard after Jesus." "God said there is a certain order in the processes," said 45-year-old Noble. "We've got to make sure our life is in order." The influential Christian speaker and senior pastor got a huge wake-up call to keep his life in order after the megachurch he founded decided to fire him effective July 1 over his alcohol dependence and strained marriage. The news sent an emotional jolt to the NewSpring community, but Noble himself said he fully supported his termination. He also said he wants to continue "fighting for his wife and daughter and following Jesus" as he announced his decision to check himself into rehab. home Faith Church to bomb ISIS-controlled Iraq with drone-delivered bibles A Swedish church unveiled their plans of using drones to drop thousands of small electronic bibles on Iraqi areas controlled by the Islamic State terrorist group. The Livets Ord or Word of Life church in Uppsala, one of Sweden's largest evangelical free churches, revealed that it wants to reach out to the victims of war by flying drones in the Middle Eastern country. "Our ambition is to pass on the hope and love of the Christian gospel to a population living in closed areas where they are being denied human rights," it said on its website. Apparently, the church decided that drones would be useful in carrying out this ambition. "The bibles are the size of pill boxes and have a display. They require no electricity, but work on their own," Christian Akerhielm, the congregation's mission director, told broadcaster SVT, as reported by newspaper The Local. The church also revealed that it would be working with another unnamed organization in order to complete the mission on the ground. "We start our project in a few weeks and hope to drop thousands of bibles," the church said. The organization recently held the Europe Conference 2016 on July 24 to 31 and hosts a week-long travel tour to Israel, which it considers "the most important place in your life." Senior Pastor Joakim Lundqvist referred to Word of Life as "more than a church building" intent on spreading the Gospel across the world while Akerhielm considered The Great Commission as "of highest priority, we sense its urgency and therefore reach out into many countries and cultures across the world." Minority Rights Group reported last month that the Christian population in Iraq drastically dropped from 1.4 million in 2003 to under 250,000 today. The Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS or Daesh) militant group captured most parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014 where the group established its self-proclaimed Caliphate. The extremists waged a religious war against all unbelievers of Islam and vowed to kill all apostates. Australia's cathedral deans call for prevention of further abuse after Royal Commission The deans of Australia's cathedrals have collectively expressed their regret at the damage caused by clergy and other church officials after hearing reports at their annual conference about the country's Royal Commission on Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. In a joint statement issued from the conference, the deans called for "a process of healing and the prevention of future abuse" as well as public repentance from those involved in carrying out sexual abuse. At the close of the gathering at St James' Cathedral in Townsville, North Queensland, the deans said they had "reported on safeguarding measures in their own cathedrals, affirmed the importance of public acknowledgement and repentance for past wrongs, and the need for transparency and openness of conversation to enable a process of healing and the prevention of future abuse." The Dean of Darwin, Keith Joseph, said more should be done for victims. "Our national Church needs to do more and move quickly on issues of redress for victims, recognising that we are one Body of Christ and therefore together are responsible." he said. "We give thanks for the work of the national Royal Commission and commend the newly appointed Royal Commission looking into issues in the Northern Territory." The Royal Commission has been hearing a series of graphic and highly disturbing examples of sexual abuse in the church. In a recent hearing, a devastating story of mass child rape emerged, perpetrated by an Anglican paedophile ring. The commission heard of the crimes perpetrated by Rev Peter Rushton, an Anglican priest who was Archdeacon of Maitland and who died in 2007. His catalogue of child rape and abuse was finally exposed by an ABC investigation. He led a paedophile ring involving other clergy and lay people from the Newcastle diocese over as many as four decades. Rushton's godson, Paul Gray, told how he was taken to St Alban's School for Boys in Hunter Valley. This was the 1960s, and boys would be raped by groups of men in a locked room, according to Daily Mail Australia. Gray, who was first raped by Rushton when he was just ten years old, wept in the witness box as he testified to being abused alone and in groups of boys, in the boys' school and on church camps. Rushton would even use a knife to cut his back and then smear his body with the blood which he said was "symbolic of the blood of Christ", the Mail said. Calais: Kids' cafe faces demolition, hundreds of children at risk Hundreds of unaccompanied refugee children are at risk of even further suffering as French authorities threaten to demolish one of the only safe spaces for young people in the 'Jungle' camp on the outskirts of Calais. The Calais prefecture will tomorrow decide whether to close down all restaurants and businesses operating in the camp, and among them is the Jungle Books Kids' Cafe. Set up by British teacher Mary Jones, who has also established a makeshift library with the same name, the cafe typically offers two free hot meals a day to around 200 children in the camp who otherwise wouldn't be able to afford to eat. But it also provides a communal space where children can access vital services such as legal advice. Campaigners are determined that the cafe should be saved, and have gained more than 86,000 signatures on a petition to date. "If they decide to demolish the kids' restaurant, I think it would be criminal," Jones told Christian Today. Two weeks ago, French police raided the site and took away all the food and cooking equipment, meaning that they're now able to offer just one meal a day. Authorities justified the raid by saying the cafe didn't meet health and safety standards, though Jones says that with hundreds of hungry children around, food doesn't have any time to go off. And, she added, if all the restaurants are shut down, the alternative is much worse. "It's much more dangerous if 500 people are cooking on one stove in a tent," she said. Moreover, many people, especially newcomers to the camp, sleep in the communal restaurants and shops set up by refugees in the Jungle, though French officials deny it. Demolishing them would mean forcing people out of a safe space to spend the night. The cafe, in particular, is one of the only safe spaces for children. A report released in June by Unicef France and Unicef UK found that sexual violence and forced prostitution is a constant threat for children in refugee camps in Northern France, including Calais. Some young women have exchanged sex for the promise of passage to the UK, researchers said, and children must pay an "entry fee" before they are even allowed to live in the camps. Unaccompanied minors are forced into labour if they can't afford to pay. The Jungle Books cafe, therefore, is a vital space for some of the camp's most vulnerable residents. Though initially set up by Jones, day-to-day it's run by an Afghan refugee, Sikander Noristany, and hopes to provide a home away from home for children struggling to survive without family. "We started doing food because in the evening, kids had nowhere to go," Jones explained. "We wanted food to be like a magnet, and it worked really well in that by serving food the children are used to food from home they come, and they're there most of the day." When people associations or charities working to help unaccompanied children need to talk to a child, they go to the cafe, and usually find who they're looking for. It also holds English and French lessons and serves as a drop-in legal centre. A psychologist regularly spends time in the cafe so the children get used to him, and know who they can turn to if they need help. Many of them are understandably traumatised, having made a perilous journey of hundreds, even thousands, of miles alone. The cafe keeps a register of all the children it feeds their names, and contact details of family in the UK if they have them to help "kickstart" the process of reunification, Jones said. But when the police raided the restaurant last month, they confiscated the lists, and so far have not returned them. It's yet another setback. There's also a youth and a woman and children's centre set up by volunteers in the camp, so the children won't be completely without a space if the cafe is closed. "But with 500,600 unaccompanied children, there's not just not enough space," Jones says. "There needs to be several spaces for kids to go, to do lessons. And we're the only space open in the evening." Having lived in France for 20 years, Jones describes herself as a "migrant". Horrified by what was going on in Calais she first started working in the camp in April 2014, and more than a year on, still makes the brutal 260km round trip to Calais almost every day from her home, where she has her own children to look after. "If you saw my car, you'd believe it," she said, laughing. She's got close to the children over the past year. "They're just lovely, and that's what's so difficult becoming a bit of a mum figure," she said. "They're so sweet. It's heartbreaking." Earlier this year, an amendment to the Immigration Bill tabled by the Labour peer Lord Alf Dubs meant that unaccompanied refugee minors in Europe can now legally be relocated to the UK. However, no children have so far arrived under the scheme, a failure that has been condemned both by campaigners and faith leaders. Lord Dubs, who arrived in the UK as a refugee fleeing Nazi Germany in 1939, has branded it a "national embarrassment". "It's outrageous," Jones said. "If there was a solution for these kids, I'd stop all this tomorrow. If they could all go through on the Dubs amendment, or if the reunification process was hurried up, or the French authorities would create more space in their system and the kids were all fine, I'd stop this tomorrow.... This should be above politics." "We're just a small voice trying to be heard," she added. "There should be an absolute outrage." To sign the petition asking the French authorities to stop the demolition, click here. Christian schools rising in China: 'Chinese parents begging us to teach their kids about Jesus' There's no stopping the growth of Christianity even in a communist-ruled country like China with a leadership that does not tolerate religious freedom. Despite the relentless persecution of Christians in Asia's biggest nation, Christianity is growing there at a phenomenal rate, according to Yu Jie, a best-selling Chinese author, in an op-ed article published in the August edition of First Things. "The number [of Christians in China] grows by several million each year, a phenomenon some have described as a gushing well or geyser," Yu wrote. "At this rate, by 2030, Christians in China will exceed 200 million, surpassing the United States and making China the country with the largest Christian population in the world," he said. Another indication of the growing Christian presence in China is the increasing demand for Christian schools in the country. Speaking to CBN News, Sean Elgut, the headmaster of Veritas Christian Academy of Virginia, said more American Christian schools are rising in China. Elgut said many Chinese parents have expressed openness to Christianity, with some even encouraging their children to learn more about Jesus Christ. "Chinese parents start to realise Christian education is beyond textbooks. The parents want their kids to live with faith. They are begging us to teach them about Jesus," Elgut said. Christianity is also capturing the hearts of Chinese millennials, with some of them professing that the Bible is not just a book but a way of living where they can find pure joy and happiness, two Christian converts told CBN News. "Before attending school, I knew little about Jesus. While I was attending classes, I learned so much about God and His love for His children," Crystal Lu said. "My Christian parents are extremely happy that the Lord finally provided a way for me to know Him, too. My whole family are Christians today." Wang Zhao Yuan, another Christian convert, said biblical values taught in Christian schools have touched his heart. "I also enjoy having one-on-one conversation with the teacher. When they prayed with me, I felt so much better. My heart didn't feel so heavy anymore," Wang said. Don't surrender to China, Cardinal Zen tells Vatican A retired bishop in Hong Kong has said allowing the Chinese government to appoint Catholic bishops would mean "surrender". Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, who retired in 2009, made the comment yesterday following an anouncement by the current bishop, John Tong Hon, that the Vatican and the Chinese government are in dialogue over the appointment of bishops. According to the South China Morning Post, an initial accord has provided for the pope to choose bishops from a list of candidates approved by Chinese bishops and state authorities. The move would be a step forward in China-Vatican relations, where the issue has been a flashpoint for many years. Tong said: "The Apostolic See has the right to choose from the recommended list the candidates it considers as most suitable and the right to reject the candidates recommended by a bishops' conference of China and the bishops in the provinces under it." However, Zen told Apple Daily: "To officially let [the Chinese government] manage the church? That would mean surrender." He added: "Once the relationship has been established, what then? When the pope visits China, and the [central government] selects only the obedient people to meet the pope, what then for those belonging to the underground churches?" The 'underground churches' have been formed by Chinese Catholics in an act of resistance to the state-approved Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association. According to the Catholic church, there are currently 110 bishops in China. Up to 30 of them still operate in underground churches which pledge allegiance only to the pope. Zen said he supported the Vietnamese system under which the Church chose its bishops and the government approved the decision. Evangelical leaders: Texas has 'moral obligation' to stop execution of death row prisoner Four dozen evangelical leaders across the US issued an open letter today seeking to stop the execution of a death row inmate scheduled to be executed on 24 August after being convicted of being an accomplice to a murderer. The group is protesting against the impending execution in Texas of Jeff Wood, who is described as having "intellectual and emotional disabilities" and who drove a getaway car but did not use a weapon in the murder of a petrol station assitant, Kris Keeran, during a robbery on 2 January 1996. Danny Reneau, Wood's former room-mate, was convicted of shooting Keeran in the head. Reneau was executed in 2002. Wood, 42, was convicted under a Texas law known as the 'law of parties,' which makes him equally responsible for crimes committed by his accomplice that "should have been anticipated". "Our faith compels us to speak out in this case, where a looming execution date threatens the life of an individual with significant mental impairments who never should have been sentenced to death," the group wrote. "Officials have a moral obligation to rectify this mistake and stop this execution while they still can...It deeply troubles us when the criminal justice system concludes that some of the most vulnerable in society can be executed and disposed of," the letter said. "All are made in God's image, and as a society we especially must protect those with mental illness and disabilities. Public officials must not shirk this responsibility. We urge them to act now to spare Wood's life." Texans who have signed the letter include: N. Larry Baker, a professor at Logsdon Seminary at Hardin-Simmons University and one-time head of the Southern Baptist Convention Christian Life Commission; Paul Basden, co-founder and senior pastor of Preston Trail Community Church in Frisco; and Bill O'Brien, a former SBC International Mission Board administrator and Samford University professor who how serves as executive director of The Gaston Christian Center in Dallas. National figures joining the call included the Mercer University professor David Gushee, Baptist historians Bill Leonard and Walter Shurden, and Fisher Humphreys, the emeritus professor at Samford University. Other Baptists who signed the letter included the Baylor University professors Derek Dodson, senior lecturer in the religion department, and Ralph Wood, the university professor of theology and literature. Others who signed included LaMon Brown, a retired missionary of American Baptist Churches, USA; Valerie Burton, minister for Christian formation at Baptist Church of the Covenant in Birmingham, Alabama; Carolyn and Larry Dipboye, co-pastors of Grace Covenant Church in Oak Ridge, Tennessee; and Paul Richardson, the former treasurer and board member of the Alliance of Baptists. Family and friends of Wood have set up a webpage Save Jeff Wood aimed at persuading the authorities not to carry out the execution. Wood was due for execution in 2008 but five hours before it was scheduled, a federal judge in San Antonio issued a stay of execution to allow a hearing to determine whether he was mentally competent. Germany: Church forces out sheltering Roma families, including 6 children A Catholic church in Germany has forced out four Roma families from the Balkans including five children and a six-month-old baby who had been sheltering there since early July. After a month of wrangling, the St. Emmeram community center in Regensburg, Bavaria, pressed trespassing charges, stopped providing food and banned refugee helpers from bringing provisions themselves, DW.com reported. Last night, the refugees left the community centre voluntarily after a police presence gathered outside. A spokesman for the church, Jakob Schoetz, told Christian Today that the families "wanted to stay in Germany forever," adding that "this is a question for the Government not the Catholic Church." The spokesman said that church representatives had only ever told the families that, "We can help you, but only for a few days". In a statement, the diocese confirmed that what it called a "protest action" had now ended. "The final 16 people have left the community centre and are on their way to the authorities, who will clear up the remaining business. The community centre is now once again available for church use. The necessary restoration work can begin." The families have now returned to government accommodation. "We said to this group, you have to talk to the Government," Schoetz told Christian Today. "We waited five weeks and daily we spoke to them, saying go back to the government accommodation". On Friday, the diocese said it had "no other choice than to increase the pressure" by pressing trespassing charges, though it added that "an emergency doctor is reachable" for the families, who made up the 16 people, down from a peak of 50 sheltering at the centre in mid-July. On Thursday, the Roma families made what the diocese claimed were "non-satisfiable conditions". Stephan Dunnwald of the Bavarian Refugee Council told DW that the refugees had asked for some kind of guarantee that they could stay in the country. According to a statement on Sunday by the Bavarian Refugee Council, three of the families said that, with a "lack of alternatives," they would like to return to their home countries (Serbia, Macedonia and Kosovo), while the fourth said they would like to go back to the state of Baden-Wurttemberg, where they have "residential tolerance status." In return for their voluntary agreement to leave, they asked the church to supply food until their return could be organised, as well as for help from the Catholic charity Caritas. The Refugee Council condemned the church's actions as "outrageous" and criticised its inaction in helping the families secure safe passage home. "They could find a way if they wanted to guarantee the voluntary exit from the country," said Gotthold Streitberger of the Bavarian Refugee Council. Streitberger told DW that he had been prevented from entering the centre at the weekend. He added that the church had threatened the security guards with dismissal if they did not stop food being taken in. "Some people came with food, and the security guards said politely that it can't be taken in, so they tried to set it down outside, and the children wanted to come out and take it, but that was banned too," he said. Meanwhile the church's priest, Michael Fuchs, accused the refugees of exploiting their own children. "While parents in need normally try to keep their children out of conflicts and publications, these children have been used from the beginning as banner holders, as photo objects on the protest front, and yes, in concrete threats even as potential orphans through the suicide of their parents," he said. "Just for the sake of the children, the parents' actions must now end quickly." Streitberger pointed out that a month-long stand-off was responsible for tensions running high. "You have to remember there was a period of around eight or ten days when the area was completely kettled by police a huge police presence, and there was no access possible at all," he told DW. "And in that time of course [the refugees] were in despair, and it came to some escalation, and someone did say that then they would only leave as a corpse and that their children would be orphans ... but that was about ten days ago and they took that back." Creativity can happen anywhere. This is always a key insight for me as I travel Nebraska and hear from families, businesses and entrepreneurs across our state. Innovative ideas may begin in the private sector, but they need not stay there. They can cross over into the public sector, offering new answers to old problems. This is exactly what has happened at the Omaha VA hospital. An aging facility, the hospital was placed tenth on the VAs list of sites scheduled for major construction and improvement. Tenth. But because of the number of current projects, cost projections and a host of VA budgetary problems, Omaha veterans would not see their new hospital for several years, possibly decades. Seeing a need to expedite this project, lawmakers, concerned citizens and business leaders applied their creativity and came up with a solution. By allowing local communities to be involved with the planning, design and construction, we could provide modern medical facilities for veterans in a timelier manner. By allowing the VA to accept donated funds and buildings, we could speed the process even more. VA Secretary Bob McDonald has embraced this concept, and, last week, I welcomed him to Omaha to meet with business leaders and review plans for modernizing the VA hospital campus. Secretary McDonald and I also witnessed the power of community partnerships as we helped dedicate the new Omaha National Cemetery, itself the result of cooperation between veterans, volunteers, local public servants, and the VA. Thanks to them, families will no longer have to travel, in some cases hundreds of miles, to lay a wreath or share a quiet moment with their departed loved one. The driving force behind these partnerships is the desire of communities and businesses to give back to those who have given so much for them. At its core is the notion that problems should first be handled at the local level by the people who understand them best. It strengthens bonds of community. It produces the strongest results. In the Senate, I have introduced a bill that would empower communities not only in Omaha, but also across our country to follow that desire and better serve our veterans. My legislation would create a pathway for local communities to exercise their expertise and bring together design and medical teams to build first-rate medical facilities for veterans. In these community partnerships, local leaders would manage construction projects from start to finish. With private sector experts taking the lead, the VA can avoid issues that have haunted previous projects. This is also a fiscally responsible solution. The VA has already appropriated millions of dollars to construction projects that are not yet finished. My bill would allow communities to contribute the remaining finances to complete these projects. The VAs financial obligation for the construction of these medical facilities would be limited to the previous appropriation and not one dollar more. My legislation has been referred to the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs. I am hopeful it will be voted out of committee this fall. As with any new idea, there will be challenges. But with cooperation and open communication, we can forge a new way to fund and build the needed infrastructure for our veterans. We know the VA faces an extensive construction backlog that will take years, possibly even decades, to overcome. This innovative approach can bring a first-class, state-of-the-art ambulatory clinic to Omaha within the next few years. I am exceedingly grateful to Secretary McDonald for seeing the potential of this new idea and for taking such an active leadership role in moving it forward. We owe it to our veterans to provide them with the quality care they have earned. Communities across America are ready to do it, and they do not want to wait for Washington. They are ready to act now to restore the veterans health care system. I say we let them. Thank you for taking part in our democratic process. I look forward to visiting with you again next week. Grieving Philippine archbishop pleads for end to extrajudicial killings: 'What has happened to humanity?' The head of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) is in a state of deep shock and grief amid the unabated extrajudicial killings in his country. Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas lashed out against President Rodrigo Duterte's relentless war on drugs in a statement read in all churches in his archdiocese on Sunday, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reports. More than 600 Filipinos have died since Duterte launched his anti-drug campaign right at the start of his term on June 30, Villegas' statement marks the first time a high-ranking Catholic Church official spoke out about the rash of daily killings of alleged drug and other crime suspects, either by the police or alleged members of vigilante groups. The archbishop appealed to the Filipinos' sense of humanity. "There is a little voice of humanity in us that I believe is disturbed by the killings; but that voice of disturbed humanity is drowned out by the louder voice of revenge or silenced by the sweet privileges of political clout," he said. Villegas said every human being is a brother or sister to him. "For the killer and the killed I grieve. We become less human when we kill our brethren," he said. The prelate said he is overcome with grief at the thought that people "do not mind killing criminals in the belief that their murders will lessen evil in the world." "I am a human being. That is all it takes for me to stand up and say, 'Enough.' The humanity in me is hurting each time a fellow human is hurt. [Part] of my humanity dies when a fellow human dies," he said. Villegas pointed out that he does not have to be a bishop or a Catholic to be appalled by the daily news about the killings. "Lay aside the bishop's robes and the CBCP position. I am only a human being. My humanity is in grief. I am in utter disbelief. If this is just a nightmare, wake me up and assure me it is not true. This is too much to swallow," he said. Villegas lamented that only a few Filipinos seem to be disturbed by the killings, wondering if the Philippines is becoming a "killing fields nation" in its zealousness to stamp out illegal drugs. He said he, too, wants to see drug-free Philippines but questioned whether killing crime suspects without due process was "a morally acceptable way to eradicate crime." "From a generation of drug addicts, shall we become a generation of street murderers? [Can] the do-it-yourself justice system assure us of a safer and better future?" he asked. "Is not humanity going down to the dregs when bloodthirsty humans encourage the killers and ask for more blood? When tears are replaced by wide smiles each time a human is killed, I shake my head and ask, 'What has happened to humanity?" Can we still cry with those who cry?'" Villegas said. "In this valley of death, I grieve. In the life after, I will rejoice. Barbarism will not have the last laugh. Reason will prevail. Humanity will win in the end," he said. How male headship undermines our freedom in Christ If you've grown up in a conservative Christian home, especially in America, there's a good chance that you were told that the man has the primary calling in the family. If someone is going to work full time or take on a job that requires a family to relocate, it's going to be the man. I can't point to any particular scripture verse that supports this career-based application of male headship, although I am very familiar with some scripture verses that support this view as well as many others that, in my view, disprove the overall concept of male headship. More often than not, I've heard many sympathetic to male headship explain the burden of the male to take on the primary career as a result of the curse in Genesis 3 an argument that should fall apart if we're going to take the New Testament seriously where Jesus frees us from the curse. Regardless of these biblical arguments, we have another measure for evaluating the worthiness of a perspective: the "fruit" or outcome (Matthew 7:16). If a particular teaching leads to faith, hope, and love, then it is most likely true. A theologian no less than St Augustine shared that love should be our guideline for interpretation, and we could say that the opposite is also true: if a teaching results in judgment, bondage, and hopelessness, then it is most likely not true. In 2007 my wife and I had just purchased a home in Vermont, and we were both labouring at demanding jobs that left us weary and crunched for time. I was particularly ill-suited for the nonprofit job that had become a plan B after attending seminary and realising I didn't fit in as a pastor. I was more or less at a dead end in my career. My wife and I have always viewed ourselves as equals before God, both fully reflecting the image of God (Genesis 1:27). We submit ourselves to God and move together under the Spirit's direction rather than seeing the man as the chief decision maker and financial provider. Some years I've made more money than her and some years she makes more money than I do. However, I still carried a heavy burden from the teaching that I was supposed to be the provider for my family. I couldn't leave my position even if it appeared to be a real dead end in a very unstable organisation. I didn't know what to do, and I couldn't figure out a way to make my actual job skills fit into any particular job. Then, six months after buying our home, my wife brought up an idea: "I think I need to go back to school for my PhD." My head began to spin. Would we have to sell our house? (we did); Would have to move a lot? (we just finished our fourth move since then); What would I do? (no idea). That last question didn't have any easy answers, but as my wife asked me to pray with her about pursuing a PhD programme, I also found an opportunity to hit the career reset button along with her. The truth was that I still believed deep down that breaking out of my nonprofit job and starting from scratch in a new field would prove that I'm a failure. I imagined myself being one of the only men from my graduating class without a steady salary or a clear plan for my career. Knowing that my wife felt peace about starting over again with her career, I joined her in prayer. As we prayed and discussed the future, I finally realised that I needed permission to take the leap into writing full time. This wasn't just the perfect fit for my job skills and background. This was also the perfect fit for our family since my job is portable, able to move with an academic job which she begins this fall. If I had fully bought into the teaching that the man has the primary calling and, most importantly, if my wife had bought into it as well, we would have most likely continued to struggle through our jobs in Vermont far longer than necessary. Most importantly, the burden of providing for my family would have kept me from taking a leap of faith to begin writing full time. Moving forward together in prayer, viewing our careers as a partnership, has given us both the freedom we need to remain open to our gifts and callings. Neither of us has had to make dramatic sacrifices of our identities, gifts, or careers. Rather, we are both free to pray together about our future and to make daily sacrifices for each other. Ed Cyzewski (MDiv) is the author of Pray, Write, Grow, A Christian Survival Guide, and The Contemplative Writer. He writes at www.edcyzewski.com and is on Twitter as @edcyzewski. Iraq: Three young priests ordained in refugee camp to serve persecuted Christians who fled ISIS Exactly two years since ISIS militants forced 50,000 Christians to flee Qaraqosh in northern Iraq, three young priests from the city were ordained in a refugee camp in Erbil, and want to bring hope to the persecuted. Around 1,500 people gathered in a church inside the Aishty 2 camp on Friday, where more than 5,000 people are living after being forced from their homes by Islamic State. Fr Roni Salim Momika, Fr Emad and Fr Petros were ordained as priests of the Syriac-Catholic Church. "We left Qaraqosh during this time two years ago," Fr Momika told Catholic News Agency, adding that it has been a time of challenge and sadness for Christians in Iraq. "Before it was a bad day because we became refugees and ISIS entered to Qaraqosh, but now this day became a good day because it's our ordination and we give hope to our people," he said. Fr Momika has for the past two years been working with young people and women in the refugee camp, and hopes to continue his work there. He wants "to stand with the refugees," he said. His role, he added, is "to give Christ to the people", and instil "power, hope and courage" to Christians who have endured persecution and suffering at the hands of ISIS. Before the militants overran the city in 2014, Qaraqosh was hope to Iraq's largest Christian community, with at least a quarter of the country's Christian population living in the city and its surrounding towns. Justin Welby: We'll stop protests at consecration of women bishops The Church of England is to ban protests at the consecration of female bishops after a campaign mounted by Women and the Church (WATCH). The organisation wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury following protests that disrupted the last four consecrations of women bishops, saying: "Such interruptions create the perception that the Church is willing to allow a woman who has been called by God and the Church, and appointed by the Crown, to be publicly insulted and undermined. "If that is so, it undermines and insults all women: and especially women for whom female bishops are potent symbols of a radical shift in the Church's treatment of women. 'Maybe things haven't changed at all, underneath', they might conclude." WATCH said today: "The Archbishop of Canterbury has informed us that conversations are in progress with the relevant people so that, in future, objections such as that at Canterbury Cathedral in June will not be allowed. Thank you to those who have written in support of our statement." The mechanism for banning protests is not clear and the Archbishop of Canterbury's office declined to comment further for Christian Today. However, at one point in the consecration service the congregation is traditionally asked whether the candidate should be a bishop. WATCH had said: "At the next consecration of female bishops, we hope that things will be arranged differently." According to Law and Religion's David Pocklington, "The indication that 'conversations are in progress with the relevant people' suggests that an internal 'management' solution is being sought, as changes to the congregational acclamation would probably require the approval of General Synod." Rev Stephen Holland, an independent minister from Lancashire, has protested the last seven of the 10 consecrations so far and said his aim was not to prevent them taking place, but just to have his voice heard. Rev Paul Williamson, a Church of England priest in Hanworth, Middlesex, protested at the consecration of Bishop Libby Lane in York but has not attempted any since then. Kosovo: British former priest accused of abuse should not be extradited - court A British former Catholic priest wanted on historic child sex abuse charges should not be extradited to the UK because the crimes were committed too long ago, a court in Kosovo ruled on Monday. Laurence Soper was detained in the western town of Peja - where he had lived for abour five years under the name Andrew Charles Kingston - in May on an international arrest warrant. He is accused of sex offences while he was a teacher in Britain. Soper allegedly committed the offences at St Benedict's School in Ealing, where he was a teacher in the 1970s and 1980s. The former abbot, now in his 70s, reportedly jumped bail in 2011 and a European arrest warrant was issued in 2012. "British citizen Andrew Charles Kingston Soper should not be extradited because offences he has been charged with exceeded the statute of limitations," a spokeswoman at the Basic Court, the first instance court in Peja, said. Soper will remain in custody and the prosecutor has three days to appeal the ruling, she said. Related British former Catholic priest arrested in Kosovo over child abuse allegations This is the second time authorities in Kosovo have rejected the extradition request. In June, a court in Pristina rejected the request, seeking more documents from the British authorities. Soper was arrested in 2010 when a man in his 40s came forward with an allegation of sexual assault at the school, which was also attended by actor Andy Serkis and comedian Julian Clary. He was bailed but did not return to a London police station in March 2011. Kosovo saw fierce fighting in the Balkan wars of the 1990s. Its independence has not been recognised by Serbia and it still suffers from high unemployment and low income. Additional reporting by Reuters. Martin Haskell's clinic accused of violating law by aborting baby of mom under heroin influence An abortion clinic in Ohio owned by the inventor of the partial birth abortion procedure is accused of violating the law when it performed the procedure without consent on a 31-year-old woman who was under the influence of heroin, according to a government report. The Ohio Department of Health (ODOH) released an investigative report showing that the woman arrived at Martin Haskell's Women's Med Center in Dayton on June 11 last year with a friend. The ODOH said the woman could not walk on her own or keep her eyes opened, and her speech was slow, Life Site News reported. Because of her condition, the woman was placed in a wheelchair. Her friend told the clinic's staff that the woman took "two Soma and several Percocet, and probably both Suboxone, and perhaps some heroin, on her way in." Despite her "somnolent state," the abortion doctor did not ask her consent before aborting her baby. After the procedure, the abortionist treated her overdose and transferred her to a hospital. The report said the abortionist's diagnosis was "suspected recreational drug overdose." The clinic's staff knew that the woman was high on drugs and they "aministered Narcan, a drug used to counter opioid overdose, but only after the physician performed the abortion," the government report said. It noted that the clinic violated state law for "failure to ensure a patient was allowed to refuse or withdraw consent for treatment when her physical and cognitive condition precluded her from participating in her treatment." Because of the incident, the Dayton Right to Life lodged a complaint before the State Medical Board of Ohio against Haskell, Dr. Roslyn Kade and Dr. Jeffrey Glazer. According to the complaint, "It is clear that the licensed physician(s) violated the law." "The licensed physician(s) knew that the patient was under the influence of drugs and was semi-conscious. The patient was never given the opportunity to withdraw consent for the procedure, and could not have given legal consent given her state of mind at the time of the procedure," the complaint read. It added, "Further, the licensed physician(s) did not administer medicine to stop the effect of the drug overdose until after she had completed the abortion. This was a clear act of negligence that risked the life of the patient." Tessie Pollock, State Medical Board spokeswoman, told the Dayton Daily News that informed consent is needed to a physician's standard of care. Pakistan: Churches offer prayers after suicide bomb attack kills 70 A suicide attack at a hospital in Pakistan that killed at least 70 people on Monday has been condemned as an "inhuman act" by the Catholic Church in the country. The National Commission for Justice and Peace, part of the Catholic Bishops' Conference in Pakistan, released a statement branding the blast a "tragic killing". "Killing innocent people is [an] inhuman act and totally unacceptable," the statement said. The attack took place at a government hospital in the southewestern city of Quetta. According to medical staff, up to 60 of those killed were lawyers who were there to mourn the death of the president of the Baluchistan Bar Association, Bilal Anwar Kasi, who had been assassinated earlier on Monday by gunmen while on his way to court. Two Islamist groups, Islamic State and Jamaat-ul-Ahrah, a faction of the Pakistani Taliban, have both claimed responsibility for the blast. However, according to Reuters, analysts say ISIS' claim is "unconvincing". International affairs director of the World Council of Churches, Peter Prove, on Monday offered prayers and condolences to the families of the victims. "Deliberately attacking people gathered at a hospital to grieve for Mr Kasi underscores the inhumanity and moral bankruptcy of those who planned and perpetrated it," Prove said. "This atrocity, as so many before it, demands denunciation by all people of faith, good will and simple decency, and prayers and support for the families and communities affected, and for the people and nation of Pakistan." The Church of England also offered a prayer for peace in Pakistan: Pakistani lawyers have today launched a nationwide strike in response to the attack, urging the government to increase protections. 'Spotlight' priest hangs himself in jail after fresh paedophilia allegations A priest convicted of sex abuse has hanged himself in jail following further allegations of paedophilia. Father Bonifacio Buzzi, 57, was found dead in his prison cell in Minas Gerais, in the north of Brazil, the state government said in a statement. According to reports, he had hanged himself with a sheet. Buzzi was facing allegations that he had molested two boys aged nine and 13, and was arrested on Friday after criminal complaints were made. He had previously been convicted of the abuse of a 10-year-old boy and was jailed from 2007 to 2015. Buzzi was cited among the paedophilia cases listed at the end of Spotlight, the Oscar-winning 2015 film based on the Boston Globe newspaper's investigation of sexual abuses by Catholic priests and efforts by the Boston Archdiocese to cover them up. Allegations against Buzzi first emerged in the 1990s in his home state of Santa Catarina. In 1995 he was convicted of molesting two boys in his parish near Mariana after their parents accused him of performing oral sex on their children. Buzzi got a reduced sentence and the Catholic Church obtained a court order allowing him to serve it out at the home of the local archbishop. Additional reporting by Reuters. Syria: War of words as US urges Russia to halt sieges, Russia slams aid politicisation The United Nations Security Council must not allow civilians on both sides of the Syrian city of Aleppo to be cut off from humanitarian aid, the United States said on Monday as Russia accused Washington of politicising a humanitarian issue. Insurgents effectively broke a month-long government siege of eastern, opposition-held Aleppo on Saturday, severing the primary government supply corridor and raising the prospect that government-held western Aleppo might become besieged. The United States, Britain, France, New Zealand and Ukraine organised an informal Security Council meeting on Aleppo on Monday with briefings by a 'White Helmet' rescue worker and two US-based doctors from the Syrian American Medical Society who recently returned from Aleppo. "If the fighting continues it is conceivable that civilians on both sides of Aleppo could be cut off from the basic assistance they need. We cannot allow this to happen," US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power said. Citing UN figures, Power said Syrian government forces were to blame for nearly 80 per cent of the besieged areas throughout Syria. Aleppo, Syria's biggest city before the outbreak of the conflict five years ago, has been divided between government forces and rebels since the summer of 2012. "We once again urge Russia to stop facilitating these sieges and to use its influence to press the regime to end its sieges across Syria once and for all," she said. The United Nations aid chief has called for weekly 48-hour humanitarian pauses in fighting to deliver aid to Aleppo. Russian Deputy UN Ambassador Vladimir Safronkov accused the United States and its western colleagues of politicising a humanitarian issue, urging them to "admit that the main cause of all of the humanitarian problems in Syria is not the counter-terrorist actions by the legitimate government of Syria. "The propaganda and the emotional rhetoric, the unfounded accusations, the information campaign, means that we cannot move toward a political settlement in Syria," Safronkov said. He said the first step toward ending the five-year conflict should be a pooling of efforts to combat terrorism and then a renewal of Syrian peace talks. A crackdown by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on pro-democracy protesters five years ago sparked a civil war, and Islamic State militants have used the chaos to seize territory in Syria and Iraq. The United States and allies began bombing Islamic State militants in Syria nearly two years ago, while Russia began air strikes in support of Assad a year ago. Teenager who called for 'the murder of all Christians' hunted by police Belgian police are hunting for a teenager who has called for "the murder of all Christians" in a video posted on a French website. The 15-year-old, who has not been named, says in Arabic "Oh Allah, destroy the odious Christians" in the film shot in Verviers, the scene of a successful anti-terrorism operation last year. The boy, who has been identified and is on a list of radicalised individuals, adds: "Oh Allah kill them all. Don't spare any of them." The Mayor of Verviers, Muriel Targnion said the video was being taken seriously and has asked the police to trace the boy "as a matter of urgency." A police source said that the teenager, who is the son of a local radical imam, posed a potentially "serious threat" to the public and they wanted to trace him "as soon as possible." Regional Belgian newspaper La Meuse reported that the teenager is the son of a local radical imam, El Alami Amaouch, who is currently facing deportation to the Netherlands. Amaouch is reportedly imam at a mosque in the village of Dison, near Verviers, and has duel Dutch-Moroccan nationality. Belgium's Minister for Asylum and Migration, Theo Francken, said the authorities had repeatedly tried to extradite Amaouch to the Netherlands but he had appealed and this had delayed the deportation. "We have been trying to get him out of the country for the past year but he has appealed," Francken told VRT News. "I can only hope that the Aliens' Council deports him quickly". Francken claimed that the imam was the "spiritual father" of a terrorist cell in Verviers, adding: "It seems that it runs in the family." In January 2015, police disrupted a suspected extremist cell in Verviers. The authorities said that the aim of the terrorists was to kidnap a high-ranking Belgian official and behead him live online. Last month, a Belgian priest was stabbed after letting an asylum seeker into his home ot take a shower. There was no suggestion that the incident was terrorism-related. Exmark Manufacturing employees worked on Tuesday to finish the St. Joseph Catholic School's new playground as they spread 180 yards of certified playground chips and installed a retaining wall. The playground project has taken several weeks and volunteer hours, said Andrew Haake, the principal of the school. Members of the local Knights of Columbus Council 1723, including Haake, worked earlier this summer to transform what was a green space at Seventh and Grant streets (adjacent to the school) into the new playground. "This is a bigger green space with more trees," Haake said. "It will work better. It's a better space for our kids." Members of the Catholic mens organization installed new playground equipment in the new site and relocated the school's playground unit from its previous site, a smaller space between a parking lot and what was the Masonic Center at 601 Grant Street. Now, the relocated playground unit has a new addition extending eastward. Also new is another playground unit designed for 2- to 5-year-olds, a swing set, certified playground chips, a playground timber (retaining wall) and a fence around the premise. St. Joseph Catholic Church and School purchased the property at the corner of Seventh and Grant streets in December 2012. Haake said the property previously held the old convent and, later, a dentistry. At about the same time, the church also signed a contract to buy the building which served as the Masonic Center. Haake said the Masonic building will eventually come down, which is partly why the school wanted to move the playground. Most of the funds for the playground project came from the church's annual gala this spring, Haake said. Other, smaller fundraisers throughout the year also helped. "The gala is our biggest fundraiser of the year," Haake said. "It supports expenditures that are not necessarily in the general fund, like additions for the school." The funds from a previous year's gala went toward a new roof for the school, Haake said. The school earned the help of Exmark Manufacturing employees by applying for a $5,000 volunteer grant through The Toro Foundation, said Merry Coffey and Rod Benson, employees of the company. "Our parent company, Toro, donates the money and our employees donate the manpower," Coffey said. Benson said Exmark notified the public of the grant opportunity and Coffey said they received at least 10 applications. Emark chose St. Joseph Catholic School and Toro approved the choice, Benson said. "We had a lot of really good applications," Coffey said. Coffey said St. Joseph Catholic School was chosen because it qualified as a 501-c3 entity and because the company was interested in using the grant for an outdoor beautification project within Beatrice. Exmark Financial Manager and Donations Committee member Patty Kaufman said the company donates a $5,000 volunteer grant annually. Exmark employees are allowed to work up to 20 hours under company time toward such projects annually. The company donates $5,000 toward supplies necessary in order for the employees to get the job done. In this case, the school used the money for the mulch and retaining wall, Kaufman said. About 12 employees helped with the finishing stages of the school's project on Tuesday. "We ask for volunteers on a website," Coffey said, referring to rounding up employees for the project. "We never have trouble finding people to help." The company provides employees' labor to a variety of projects in Beatrice area communities throughout the year. Exmark's "Big Rock" project this year will be in Wymore -- another beautification project, this time to the city's park. Employees will install $25,000 worth of playground equipment and other features, Coffey said. "Toro is very community-minded," Coffey said. "Exmark always has been, too. But now that we have them behind us, we're able to do a lot more than we used to." Benson said Toro's and Exmark's continuous efforts in community service maks him proud to be part of the company. "I think it's great we're able to give back to our communities," Coffey said. "It's very much appreciated by the organizations." The top 3 ways Christians can get prayer wrong Does prayer work? Most of us assume it does, even if we don't really understand how. If we pray for a fine day for the church barbecue, does God really readjust the weather patterns over the Atlantic so we don't get rained on? Does it mean someone else's barbecue gets rained on instead, and what do they think about that? There are bigger questions, too: what about prayer for healing that isn't answered? Or what about prayer for healing that is answered great, but why doesn't God heal everyone? Most of us are prepared to leave the answer in the realm of mystery, and hope and trust that God knows what he's doing. And that's fine, though there are good answers to these points. But it isn't wrong to ask questions about prayer, because thinking about it can save us from serious mistakes. Unless we really dig down into what the Bible says about it, we can end up with misconceptions that prevent us praying effectively and open us up to a world of disappointment. So here are some of the things we need to be careful about with prayer. 1. We can trivialise it. In his letter to the Philippians, Paul tells them "in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God". It's sometimes translated, "Pray about everything." Some do. Every situation is brought before God, even down to finding a parking space. But a good rule for reading the Bible is always to look for the context and here, the context is anxiety. The sentence is introduced, "Do not be anxious about anything" and it's followed by "And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6-7). In other words: when we are anxious we should pray and God will hear us. It's like a child who's frightened of the dark his parent will run up the stairs and comfort him. But children grow up. And if we are Christians with any degree of maturity, we'll have learned how to cope with the bad stuff. We'll have developed the right reactions and the right Christ-like character to be able to do the right thing and take responsibility for our own behaviour. When we pray, we're asking God to change the world for us. And perhaps sometimes we need to cultivate an acceptance of the present moment, with its discomforts and irritations, and not be so needy. Part of growing up is learning to live with disappointment and frustration, and realising that it's OK not to have everything we want. 2. We can abuse it. Some preachers teach a 'prosperity Gospel', that God wants all his people to be rich like Creflo Dollar, who hit the headlines last year when he asked his followers to donate $65 million for a new, top-of-the-range private jet. This is obviously wrong. But there are other ways of abusing prayer that perhaps aren't so obvious. For example, often teachers on prayer encourage us to be specific in what we ask for. But the danger in being too specific is that we end up telling God what we want, rather than letting him tell us what we need. Prayers can sound as though we're giving God orders. At their worst, this kind of prayer can be used as a weapon. Someone who prays that her minister will be given the gift of preaching more interesting sermons probably has an agenda of her own. There are other dangers too. If there's sometime we feel passionately about maybe a huge moral question like abortion or euthanasia it's easy to assume that God's on our side. It's easy to find ourselves praying other people will see things our way. But we can't co-opt God into fighting our battles for us, no matter how worthy the cause seems. God is free. We abuse prayer when we try to use it to preach our own opinions. 3. We can mechanise it. Apparently once five young students were spending a Sunday in London, so they went to hear the great 19th century pastor Charles Spurgeon preach. While they were waiting for the church to open, a stout, bearded man offered to show them round: "Would you like to see the church's boiler room?" Out of politeness they agreed. He took them down a stairway and quietly opened a door. On the other side was a room with around 700 people praying inside. "This is our boiler room," he said quietly, before introducing himself: it was Spurgeon himself. It's a great story. The idea is that what happens in the church service is powered by what happens in the prayer meeting. But is it really true that the more people pray, and the more intensely they pray, the more likely God is to answer? I believe that God is free to do what he likes. If he chooses to pour out revival on a congregation after 700 people in a basement have prayed for it, he will. If he chooses to do it when it's just one, and she isn't too sure about the whole business, he will. Of course there can be a connection between intense, believing prayer and God's action. But there's no necessary connection. God is not moved by the numbers of people praying. He is not more likely to answer prayers if we gather for prayer at five in the morning, either, or if we go without food while we're praying. That's not how it works. It isn't what we choose to do that matters. It's what God chooses to do. It's all too easy for us to imagine prayer as our side of a bargain, requiring a response from him. But we cannot bribe God or coerce him. The Psalmist says, "Sacrifices and offering you did not desire, but my ears you have pierced" (40:6). The reference is to a servant who is offered his freedom but chooses to stay with his master; the master will "take him to the door or the door-post and pierce his ear with an awl" (Exodus 21:6). Prayer can be the equivalent of sacrifices and burnt offerings. It's good, but we should never imagine that it binds God in any way. Far more important is the deep-down relationship of trust and commitment. Our ears have been pierced; we are marked as his, whether he answers our prayers or not. That doesn't mean prayer meetings are pointless. But what God chooses to do in response to our prayers is up to him. It's not a way of putting pressure on him, it's a way of putting ourselves at his disposal. What he wants to see in the one who prays is the broken and contrite heart. Mark Woods is the author of Does the Bible really say that? Challenging our assumptions in the light of Scripture (Lion, 8.99). Follow him on Twitter: @RevMarkWoods This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Retired Spurs forward Tim Duncan has settled a lawsuit over an altered photograph showing him as an unpaid pitchman for a real estate agent with Keller Williams in San Antonio. Agent Robert Elder, who was the agent that repurposed a Duncan photo for the Realtors professional Facebook page, has resigned from Keller Williams in the wake of the fiasco. In an email, Keller Williams spokeswoman Sarah Marshall said the incident was a very unfortunate situation and no disrepect or harm was intended by the agents actions. In fact, the agent is a huge fan of Mr. Duncan. We worked closely with Mr. Duncans legal team to resolve the matter in a quick and professional manner and the suit has now been settled, she said, adding that the firm takes responsibility for the unfortunate misuse of Mr. Duncans image. Elder joined Bradfield Properties Inc. on Thursday, according to the Texas Real Estate Commissions website. He declined to comment when reached by phone Monday. Duncans lawyers filed a motion to dismiss the case Monday in Bexar County District Court. One of his lawyers, Michael Bernard, confirmed the settlement. I think the issue is over, Bernarnd said. Elders apologized for his actions, and I think were satisfied and moving on, Bernard said The photograph in question wont be appearing on real estate agent Robert Elders professional Facebook page again, Bernard said A nominal amount was paid under the settlement to cover Duncans legal expenses, Bernard added. For a short time following Duncans retirement announcement on July 11, a picture of him holding a framed sign featuring Elders logo and web address was posted to the agents professional Facebook page. Duncan, though, never agreed to be photographed holding the sign or to endorse Elder. On July 15, Duncan sued Keller Williams, Elder and others for misappropriation of the hoop stars name and image. The lawsuit alleged that the defendants altered an image of Duncan taken by San Antonio photographer Sara Brooke Lyons for her 1005 Faces project, which featured subjects in black-and-white photographs holding placards with a short personal message. Duncan participated in the project, holding a handwritten message that said, Good, Better, Best. Never let it rest until your good is better and your better is your best. The altered version of the photograph was posted to Elders professional Facebook page at 11:21 a.m. on July 13. A caption that appeared with the photograph said, Wow! Just WOW! TD took the time to give us some love! Thanks Tim! We love you too man! The photograph was subsequently removed after Duncans representatives asked that it be taken down. The Facebook account was temporarily suspended. Before the page, which has more than 4,100 followers, was suspended, it also showed pictures of actors Eva Longoria, Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne The Rock Johnson each holding a sign with the agents logo and phone number. They appear to have been removed since then. Duncans efforts to protect his image earned kudos from Lyons. Thanks for having my back Tim! she wrote on her Facebook page after the suit was filed. I know he's got more important things going on. What an incredible guy to be willing to fight for image rights; a battle photographers are constantly at odds with. Duncans lawsuit sought unspecified financial damages from the defendants. pdanner@express-news.net Twitter: @AlamoPD Most of us like to have a good time over the summer, but it seems no one does it with as much style or gusto as Houston's celebrities. KPRC anchor Dominique Sasche and Houston-native superstar Beyonce have something in common: both visited the City of Lights this summer, and posted swoon-worthy photos on Instagram to prove it. The formerly televised comedy/music duo Flight of the Conchords will bring its "Flight of the Conchords Sing Flight of the Conchords" tour to town this fall when Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement play the the Cynthia Woods Pavilion on Oct. 25. Hailing from New Zealand, Flight of the Conchords found a bigger American audience with an HBO series that premiered in 2007. The show featured musical pieces interspersed amid fictionalized narratives about two struggling musicians from New Zealand living in New York. It's not surprising that Christie Brinkley's 1891 Hamptons mansion Tower Hill is in perfect shape, considering that her ex-husband, renowned architect Peter Cook, gave it a thorough renovation when he lived there. Cook managed to preserve the integrity of the home's original design. Its centerpiece, a 100-year-old observation tower, is also the namesake of this 20-acre Bridgehampton, New York property, according to Top Ten Real Estate Deals. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Police are searching for two men in connection with the death of another man earlier this year after his body was found in the bed of his pickup in south Houston. Jason Demond Gates is charged with capital murder in the death of Tony Iwu whose body was found about 11:55 p.m. March 6 in the 5000 block of South Acres Drive near Cullen Boulevard, police said. Police said Dominic Germall Wright also is wanted for his role in the case, though officials did not disclose how he was connected to the incident. A woman, Mercedes McDonald, has been arrested and charged with murder for her alleged role in the killing. Iwu's pickup was spotted on fire in a field. When firefighters extinguished the flames they found his body in the pickup bed. Iwu's hands were tied behind his back and he had blunt trauma to his head and neck, according to court documents in the case. Gates, 35, is 5 feet, 9 inches tall and weighs 200 pounds. He has black hair and black eyes as well as tattoos on bis face, neck and arms. He also has a large growth on his forehead. Wright is about 5 feet, 11 inches tall and weighs about 190 pounds. He has brown hair and black eyes. Anyone with information about the case is urged to contact Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS or online at www.crime-stoppers.org. Tips can also be sent by text message. Text TIP610 and tips to CRIMES. Crime Stoppers will pay up to $5,000 for information leading to the arrest of the suspects or charges being filed against them. All tipsters remain anonymous. Matt Rourke/STF AUSTIN -- The Lone Star Rail District expects to lose a key vote in Austin on Monday night, but it has not given up its fight to find a route for passenger rail between Georgetown and San Antonio. Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization Chair Will Conley is expected to pull the Lone Star Rail District project from the CAMPO 2040 plan on Monday night, to be followed by similar consideration at the Alamo Area Metropolitan Planning Organization on August 22. In light of continued developments, primarily since 2008, there exists in these United States a Legal System which operates on a proved Two Tiered approach to justice rendered, which primarily benefits Democratic Elites and Woke Ideological Virtue Signalers, representing their co-dependent wards, to the expressed exclusion of normal hardworking American citizens: What is your suggestion in remedying this widespread injustice and, if not corrected, its existential outcome for our Constitutional Republic? Complete overhaul of the Department of Justice and their enforcers - the FBI - to reflect a far more honest justice system to keep patriots remaining calm. Disband the FBI, and request that congress investigate all unethical and non patriotic practices to partially right the wrongs of a distrusted and politically weaponized "Department of Justice." This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Since classic Hollywood is the theme of Bay Area Harbour Playhouse's "A Night on Broadway" silver anniversary gala, you may see what seem to be movie stars in the audience. That's because audience members are encouraged to come dressed as their favorite star or movie character. "The public is invited to attend the event," said Coleen Reyes, chair of the concert/gala/fundraiser. "Costumes are not mandatory, but they will, of course, add a lot of glamour and glitter." Director Chad-Alan Carr added, "I will definitely be in a tux. It really is going to be spectacular." More Information Want to go? What: "A Night on Broadway" silver anniversary gala, dinner, auctions and cabaret Where: Bay Area Harbour Playhouse, 3803 Texas 3 in Dickinson When: 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 13 (sold out); 2 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 13 Tickets: $30 for evening show, $20 for matinee Information: Visit www.harbourtheater.com or call 281-337-SHOW (7469). See More Collapse At least one alumnus from each of more than 300 shows performed in 25 years at the playhouse will walk the red carpet Aug. 13 when the theater celebrates its 25th year in Dickinson. To assemble the show, Carr arrived Aug. 8 from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where he serves as the founding executive/artistic director of Gettysburg Community Theatre. The 38-year-old grew up in San Leon, graduating from Dickinson High School in 1996. But it was in Carr's first week of seventh grade that he met Bennie Nipper, who opened the theater with her late husband, Oscar, in 1991. "I walked across the school yard to the other side of the parking lot," Carr said. Bennie Nipper met him at the front door and invited him inside to show Carr how the Nippers were restoring and renovating the former Hollywood movie house at 3803 Texas No. 3 in its original art deco style. "From that moment, she took me under her wing," Carr said. "I stuck on mailing labels, folded fliers, stapled, cleaned, put costumes in order and helped arrange the script library." Carr lost count of how many roles he played at BAHP, but his favorite was that of Puck in William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." "I was there through hot, humid and hurricane," Carr said. Attending Sam Houston State University on scholarship, Carr earned a bachelor of fine arts degree in musical theater. He became known as a "triple threat" - performer, director and choreographer - touring the country in stage musicals, including his best-loved show, "Singin' in the Rain." Carr, who is single, signed to help model the nonprofit Gettysburg theater after BAHP. When Carr was invited back to co-direct BAHP's silver anniversary gala, he asked for names and contact information of everybody who had ever participated in a show at the playhouse. "They sent me binders," he said. "Some (contact lists) were so old, there were no email addresses. Some had phone numbers; some had Facebook groups or Facebook pages. If I could just get 10 people back, I would have been happy, but do you know I have more than 50?" They represent current and former performers, crew members or other volunteers from every BAHP show ever produced, he said. As guests arrive at the gala, cocktails and hors d'oeuvres will be served, Reyes said. A dinner buffet catered by Southern Elegance will follow, and then a variety show. Carr promised that the show will feature medleys of songs from every BAHP musical. During the evening, guests can also bid for items in both silent and live auctions, Reyes said. "This is our only fundraising event each year," she added. "Donation items can still be left at the theater, or pickup of items can be arranged by calling 281-337-7469. All donations are tax-deductible and are greatly appreciated." As of Aug. 9, Carr announced that a 2 p.m. Aug. 13 matinee has been added because tickets for the evening gala sold out. The matinee and evening shows will feature the same performance. Tickets for the matinee are $20. Visit https://harbourtheater.com/ or call 281-337-SHOW (7469) for tickets. Bennie Nipper announced July 28 that BAHP is dedicating this year's gala to the memory of Jessica Cain, a talented young actress who vanished on Aug. 17, 1997 after performing in "Oklahoma!" at BAHP. Each year thereafter, Cain was remembered as "missing," along with the honor roll of deceased BAHP thespians, Carr said. Last month, Galveston County authorities confirmed that Cain's remains were found in a pasture near Hobby Airport in Houston where a convicted kidnapper led authorities. "Jessica was a dear young lady," said Nipper. "She believed in community theater and appreciated her chance to be on stage. She was a great role model for the others." This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Three years since nonprofit organization Be An Angel started offering free American Sign Language classes in Houston, plans are in the works for a reunion. The gathering will be for those who have completed all three levels,- beginning, intermediate and advanced - of the ASL classes, which are taught to hearing persons by volunteer instructor Sheila Johnstone. Currently, the advanced class has 100 alumni. "They're always wanting to get together," Johnstone said. "They've bonded so well; it's lovely." More Information For more details Project information: , www.houstontx.gov/council/g/ Comments: The public comment period has been extended until Aug. 12. Send comments to PWEPlanning@houstontx.gov See More Collapse Plans for the reunion are still being finalized, but the gathering probably will take place in September or October at the Tanglewood/Memorial-area Starbucks, where Johnstone and an acquaintance at the time, Richard Tyler, developed the idea for community ASL classes in 2011. "I mentioned to him that I was interested in teaching ASL in my retirement, and since he'd been a director of the board of Be An Angel, he suggested talking with their current board about the possibility," said Johnstone, who has a background in molecular biology, ran her own business as a medical/legal research consultant, is a dancer and plays piano. Johnstone is not deaf, or related to anyone who is, but the dancer in her fell in love with the ASL movements the first time she witnessed them. She later went on to complete the highest proficiency possible in the language. When she approached Be An Angel, which serves children who are profoundly deaf and/or have multiple disabilities, its board embraced the idea of the free ASL classes. Tyler offered to be the program underwriter, and the first class, for beginners, met in October 2013. Not only did the course fill up almost immediately, Be An Angel had to develop a waiting list - a list that since has averaged about 200 names. All I can say is it's wildly popular," said Russ Massey, program director for Be An Angel. As students completed the beginning course, Johnston started getting requests for continued instruction. In response, she gradually developed intermediate and advanced courses in response to alumni demand. "It's hard for me to turn that down because I'm a teacher," Johnstone said. "Teachers like to teach." Initially, T. H. Rogers School, home to the Program for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing for Houston Independent School District, contributed instruction space for the classes. After the school started renovating its building, Johnstone moved the classes to their current home at the Hope and Healing Center & Institute, 717 Sage. Chief Executive Officer Matthew Stanford is a strong supporter of the classes, Johnstone said. The program also has had the ongoing support of Tyler, who continues to underwrite the classes so students can take them at no charge. "Richard Tyler comes to every graduation," Johnstone said. "He is a motivator par excellence." Tyler said he tries to provide perspective on how people succeed in life. "The students see, as with anything you succeed at, you have to be committed to it. "You have to be focused on it, and you have to expect bumps in the road." Several deaf ASL interpreters and instructors work with the advanced students in addition to Johnstone, including Kathy Ladell, Rachelle Guidry and Matt Dickens. "I like my students to see other hand framing, different styles of sign language," Johnstone said. "It's all the same vocabulary, but everyone signs differently." Advanced students are expected to complete a final exam devised by Johnstone: an evening out at a restaurant as a class. There's no talking or writing allowed; students communicate with each other, while eating, in ASL. "If they speak, it's a dollar a word," Johnstone said. "I've made as much as $5 for a class, but with this group (her most recent class), not a penny. It has really, really worked, and they'll never forget that dinner." It has been exciting, Johnstone added, to see how alumni put their training to use. Students have included nurses, therapists of all kinds and special education teachers, who use their training on the job, along with students who want to enhance their communication with friends and family. Students also have been going on to take ASL interpreter training and pursue university degrees in deaf education. "I feel very proud to be a part of the Houston community that helps the profoundly deaf and hard of hearing," Johnstone said. "Of course, I'm teaching the people who hear, but they go forward in the community. "What I do is give them a foundation and confidence." One advanced ASL graduate, Cheryl Crawford, said word about the quality of the classes has spread, and that has contributed to continuing demand for them. "Sheila is fun and obviously a brilliant person," Crawford said. "This is one of the many things she's done in her life, and this is her passion. "Nothing is boring in this class, but Sheila does expect you to work. You have to do your homework and practice. By the end, you really learn ASL." Also volunteering as classroom assistants are Aileen Riley and Monica Guy. Be An Angel will offer beginning, intermediate and advanced ASL courses again after Labor Day. For more information For details about any of these 10-week classes, email russ@beanangel.org. For details about Be An Angel, visit beanangel.org. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate The annual demographic study conducted for Cy-Fair ISD found that the recent economic downturn has affected housing construction and is having a dramatic impact on school enrollment projections from last year. In presenting findings to Cy-Fair trustees, Population and Survey Analysts president Pat Guseman recently said the district, which has an enrollment of 114,000, is nowhere near experiencing the tremendous growth it saw in 2005, when 7,000 students were added to the roster. The past school year, the increase was under 940. "The growth is basically slowing annually," Guseman said. More Information Plan for new school construction 2016: Cy-Park High school 2017: Replacement of the Matzke Elementary campus, a new elementary adjacent to Jowell, a new elementary in Bridgeland, High School 12 2020: a new middle school at a site on Hegar Road 2021: an elementary in the northwest of the district 2023: two elementary schools 2024: an elementary school could be needed in the far south of the district 2025: Middle School 20 2024-2025: High School 13 Sometime after 2025: an elementary school at Bridgeland See More Collapse The district ranks 15 statewide in number of students added, she said. Most of the subdivisions in the district are already built out, and many residents are getting past the years of having children in schools, Guseman said. Enrollment at the kindergarten level declined this year, stemming from a downturn in births five years ago. "Younger homeowners are moving in less than they did historically," Guseman said. About 3 percent of area's total student population, or about 14,000 children and teens, attend charter and private schools. Cy-Fair ISD has a high percentage of parents in manufacturing jobs, and many of those people have been hurt by changes in the energy industry, Guseman said. "Unemployment is picking up a bit," she said. "It's definitely an uptick. This oil price slump is different from the past. We're not going to see a leap upward to what has been such a boom era." Still, Guseman said other recent developments could have a positive impact on those manufacturing jobs. For example, she said, the widened Panama Canal is expected to accelerate Port of Houston traffic by about 15 percent. With the improvements to U.S. 290, the Cypress area should see a positive impact. In addition, the possibility of a Northwest Houston railway stop for the Texas Central Railway, which would be located at the U.S. 290 and Loop 610 interchange, could spur the local economy. In the meantime, the district has been one of the least affected in terms of housing starts. Guseman said Cy-Fair ranks fourth of 62 school districts in the Houston region in new construction. There were 632 new homes in the first quarter of 2015 and 629 in this year's first quarter. "New home starts have remained stable, however new home closings have declined by 8 percent," Guseman said. "Vacant lots in CFISD are up 27 percent from last year." The top growing subdivisions as far as new construction goes in Cy-Fair ISD are Bridgeland, Towne Lake, Westfield Village, Canyon Lake West, with Bridgeland as leader with the largest number of lots. Within 10 years, Population and Survey Analysts projects that the district will encompass 225,600 homes and multifamily development. The district now has 184,000. By 2025, the firm has projected that district enrollment will range between 119,500 and 122,900. After Cy-Park High School opens this year, the district will focus on replacing the Matzke Elementary campus, as well as on construction of an elementary adjacent to Jowell and an elementary in Bridgeland. "In 2017, we have a burst of activity with three new elementary schools," said Stacey Tepera with Population and Survey Analysts. High School 12 is also slated to open in 2017. Teresa Hull, chief of staff and associate superintendent, governmental relations and communications for Cy-Fair ISD, said that monitoring district growth closely helps identify patterns and staffing needs for each campus and guides the administration in deciding if any adjustments are needed for when planned schools will open. "Although the growth has slowed, we are continuing to grow," Hull said. "Long-range planning is critical for growing districts to determine land acquisitions and to determine if future bond proposals are needed." This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Houston rents decreased by 0.8 percent between June and July and rose 0.1 percent since July 2015, according to Apartment List, which maintains a running rental price monitor. The site reports that the median rent for a one-bedroom in Houston is now $1,160 per month, and a two-bedroom is $1,500 per month. Beyond central Houston, Sugar Land is the second most expensive place to rent in the metro area. A two-bedroom in that area is about $1,500 and a one-bedroom sits at about $1,170. While it's second behind Houston, this area has seen a 5.2 percent decrease in rents over the past year, which Apartment List calls the "biggest decline of any city in the Houston metro." Katy and Pearland are, respectively, the third and fourth most expensive places to rent outside of Houston. In Katy, locals see a median of $1,460 for a two-bedroom, and in Pearland it's $1,420. As for the neighborhoods within the city center, the most expensive places to rent now are downtown, midtown and the Upper Kirby/Greenway areas. Downtown Houston has a median rate of $2,500 for a two-bedroom and $1,650 for a one-bedroom. That data is for overall rental rates, although the latest Houston Association of Realtors report puts the average rent for a single-family home at $1,883 per month, which represents a 4.8 percent increase. That same report, from June, says the average rent for a townhome or condominium dropped 5.6 percent to $1,658. Prices aside, Houstonians aren't grading the local rental market very high, a recent Kinder Institute article notes. Public safety, leisure activities and school quality are the chief complaints. That same study marked categories in which Houston renters were happy. The biggest surprise among the highly rated attributes? Commutes. At Katy ISD, about 275 students each year leave school one day and never go back. Reasons for dropping out are many, including teen pregnancy, unstable home lives and the necessity for youths to enter the work force to make ends meet. In 2008, KISD opened Martha Raines High School for academically struggling students, but there hadn't been a location designed for students who have dropped out. Until now. More Information Fast facts What: Grand opening of the Simon Youth Foundation Academy When: Sept. 22 Where: Katy Mills Mall, 5000 Katy Mills Circle, Katy More information: syf.org/ See More Collapse A district academy in partnership with the Simon Youth Foundation will begin this fall at Katy Mills Mall for KISD drop-outs. Classes will commence sometime around September, with a grand opening on Sept. 22, according to SYF spokesperson Jay Kenworthy. "What we look for is for malls to have space and for school districts that are serious about addressing drop-out issues. And we look for school districts willing to support the program," Kenworthy said. "Katy fit all of that." Simon Property Group is the owner of Katy Mills Mall and the founder of the SYF, a nonprofit that partners with public school districts nationwide to create an academy for drop-outs at Simon-owned properties. SYF funds the construction, which usually costs more than $500,000, and leases the space. Districts are responsible for providing the curriculums, educators and program details. Katy ISD will spend roughly $655,000 per year on the program from its general operating revenue, according to the district. The district has a yearly budget that hovers in the $700 million range. SYF has 26 other academies in the country, with the inaugural location opening in San Antonio in 1998. The Katy facility will be the third Texas location and the first in the Houston area. The state's other SYF academy is in El Paso. The program graduates 90 percent of its classes, according to SYF, which provides each academy up to $5,000 in grants for opportunities such as teacher development and distributes more than $1 million in college scholarships to some of its graduates. SYF officials successfully pitched the program to Katy trustees late last year. The district's Raines High School aids at-risk students and potential drop-outs but KISD hasn't had a resource to concentrate on students who dropped out, trustees said last year. "Many times, returning to a traditional school setting is difficult and a challenge to students; so creating a space that is small and unique allows students to enter with a different mindset," said Heather DeVries, the intervention and recovery coordinator at the district's dropout prevention department, in an emailed statement. "Additionally, staff will be focused on identifying and lessening barriers for students that have prohibited them from being successful in their previous school settings." The district was not clear about how many students have enrolled for the academy this year, but the roughly 4,000-square-foot space for the academy located on the east side of the mall has a capacity of about 70, DeVries said. The program is designed for students to experience more one-on-one time with teachers than they would find at regular public schools. The academy will staff six teachers. With movable walls throughout the four classrooms, various teaching spaces can be created, Kenworthy said. The academies typically have more flexible schedules and assignments that adhere to the struggling students. Students will be responsible for their transportation to the mall, DeVries said. The academy's staff has been contacting potential students, who are KISD students who withdrew from a district high school campus during the 2015-16 school year and did not enroll in another academic setting, according to DeVries. School hours will be from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m but will include two separate time sessions to accommodate students' schedules. A 2015 report by the Washington D.C.-based Alliance for Excellent Education said the national dropout rate had dropped by 27 percent from 2008 to 2012. As of 2014, the national dropout rate was 6.5 percent, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. KISD's dropout rate, DeVries said, is 1.2 percent. But the problem has by no means vanished. According to KISD's 2015-16 figures, approximately 42 percent of students are also categorized as at-risk, meaning they're liable to not succeed at school without considerable help. The academy's primary focus is "to assist students in earning their high school diploma and looking beyond to potential life-changing career/post high school opportunities," DeVries said in her statement. When the SYF officials first discussed the program with the school board, some trustees questioned if having a school at a mall would distract students. Kenworthy argued the opposite, saying students are in a secluded part of the mall and can benefit if they also hold a job there, which occurs frequently, he said. "One of the most difficult things is convincing (students and parents) that there are no alternative motives here," Kenworthy said. "Once we're able to show local communities what we do as a foundation, it's usually arms wide open from there." Most people on the SYF Facebook page gave the academy high ratings. Aside from the program at the mall, the SYF will also distribute grant and scholarship money to Raines High School to use for students, improvement of programs and teacher development. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate The University of Houston-Clear Lake will break ground on a 52,000-square-foot, $24.6 million health sciences facility next March. In addition to the expansion, which relates to increased local demand for those in health-care professions, the university is considering establishing a satellite location on the Pearland campus for its Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities. "We have a significant waiting list of people waiting for (autism-related) services related to their children, or in some cases adults, so the idea of having an additional site with this new building - it's one we're taking a serious look at," UH-Clear Lake president William Staples said. An announcement regarding a possible satellite autism center is expected around when the health science facility's opening date in fall 2018. The Pearland campus, 1200 Pearland Parkway, serves around 700 students, and that number is expected to grow when the new building opens. To prepare for the growth, the Pearland Economic Development Corp. vacated the existing campus building this month. The corporation moved to the Business Center, 11233 Shadow Creek Parkway, Suite 235. Its phone numbers and email addresses will stay the same: info@pearlandedc.com and 281-997-3000. "The original building is a little over 30,000 square feet. Of that, about 8,000 square feet is occupied by PEDC," Staples said. "Our plan is to move the nursing faculty into that space and move the campus administration, director of campus operations and staff support into that office suite. The space that will be vacated by that move will be used to expand the library and expand the area for student and enrollment services." 5-year projection "Whenever we add a new program, we do a five-year projection of what enrollment may be," Staples said, adding that the analysis will start soon and be conducted over two years. As part of the projection, he said the university will conduct in-depth conversations with Pearland Independent School District and Alvin Community College to evaluate which programs will best serve students arriving from those districts. UH-Clear Lake officials will also discuss the possibility of making the Pearland campus a four-year university. "Typically there are three areas that always seem to be in high demand: business programs, education programs to educate future teachers, and the third, believe it or not, tends to be psychology," he said. Those core programs exist at the Pearland campus and may be expanded, along with increasing the nursing program, Staples said. Economic impact PEDC President Matt Buchanan said: "The health care and life sciences industry has been a long-standing priority for the PEDC and city of Pearland, and this new addition will have a strong economic impact for the many health care-related employers in our community." "There's a significant growth in hospitals in Pearland," Staples said. "The whole area of health care would serve those communities. Right now at the Pearland campus we have eight baccalaureates and five master's degrees. One thing we're looking at is: What other master's degree programs can we bring in?" This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Northwest Houston residents can get an up-close view of the U.S. national parks with The Pearl Fincher Museum of Fine Arts' summer exhibit of photos and paintings. Photographer Mark Burns, a resident of The Woodlands, drove more than 160,000 miles for more than four years photographing the nation's 59 national parks. He has chosen his favorite 28 images to display at The Pearl in the exhibit called "The National Parks-Select Images." The exhibit, which is on display through Sept. 3, commemorates the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service. The Pearl has paired Burns' black-and-white images next to original paintings of the national parks by artists Thomas Moran, Thomas Hill and Joseph Henry Sharp. More Information Want to go? "The National Parks-Select Images By Photographer Mark Burns" is on display through Sept. 3 at The Pearl, 6815 Cypresswood Drive in Spring. The exhibit commemorates the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service Admission: Free For more information, call 281-376-6322 or visit http://www.pearlmfa.org See More Collapse "That makes it a special exhibition for me," Burns said. "The work of the early artists was very influential. That really led to a lot of the land becoming protected. Their art started a movement to protect the special places." To capture the landscape images, Burns often took photos from the roof of his Toyota FJ Cruiser. And he visited many of the parks several times. He took many road trips, strategically planning his stops to hit all of the parks along the way. One route included New Mexico, Arizona and then to California to visit parks including Joshua Tree, Sequoia, Kings Canyon and Yosemite. Then he would drive through northern California and up through the Pacific Northwest to the Olympic National Park and then east to Glacier and back down to Texas through Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. "I would plan quite thoroughly," Burns said. "I took two to four weeklong trips. Sometimes I would drive 9,000 to 10,000 miles in four weeks." For ten months, Burns rented a house in Santa Fe, New Mexico, because it was a good central location for him to shoot several national parks within a six-hour drive. Burns' chose to shoot his photography in black and white both because of his love of the medium and because of the artistic element. "I love black and white and also it's a great bridge back to the past century," he said. The Pearl's Curator Terry Capps said she was immediately moved by Burns' photography the first time she saw his work. "The first photograph I saw was of White Sands in New Mexico and I was instantly captured," she said. "It brought back so many memories of my childhood; of my parents taking us every summer to a national park. The moment I walked up to that first photograph, all those memories came flooding back to me." The exhibit has been very well-received, Capps said. "The exhibition seems to be pulling at the heart-strings of all that see it," she said. Burns' exhibit was first unveiled at the Forsyth Galleries at Texas A&M in College Station in November 2015. In addition to The Pearl, the entire collection of Burns' photographs is currently on display at the Houston Museum of Natural Science through Sept. 28. Prior to starting his project, Burns had visited about 20 national parks. "I had been to quite a few," he said. "But when you're going to all 59, you see a lot of places. You spent a lot of time there. I went back to many multiple times to get the right weather and visit during different seasons. I wanted to be able to choose, especially some of the bigger parks I went to four or five times, or six times even." Burns has now become an advocate about the need to protect the national parks. "Let's look forward at the next 100 years," he said. "How do we continue to protect them and keep them wild and free, so more people can share the same experience?" Northwest Assistance Ministries is expanding its services to help victims of sexual assault. Earlier this summer, the nonprofit started a new cost-free program to help sexual assault victims. The program, Sexual Assault Services, is run through the nonprofit's Family Violence Center, which has been in operation for 25 years. The new center serves a growing need - northwest Houston area served by NAM has the greatest number of sexual assault reports in the Harris County region, said Sheryl Johnson, director of NAM's Family Violence Center. Until now, northwest Harris County has lacked a cost-free program to help victims of sexual assault. "In order for people to get services, they would have had to travel to Conroe, Humble, Waller County or central Houston," Johnson said. "The NAM service area is basically the size of Austin. They would have to be traveling some distance to get any type of support services." And obtaining services are crucial. Many victims, if not helped, become victimized again, Johnson said. "Any time a violent issue is not addressed for someone, it then becomes the acceptable norm; then it opens that person up to ongoing victimization," Johnson said. "Victims need immediate intervention and long-term healing so they can continue to be a productive member of the community and a happy, healthy individual." NAM is using a state grant to implement the new program, Johnson said. And, with the grant funds, the nonprofit recently hired a coordinator to run the new program, Kelly Carlson. Carlson works directly with victims, providing them with counseling, case management, legal support and community referrals, said Tatiana Shams, NAM's media specialist. Carlson has more than 15 years experience working with sexual assault and domestic assault survivors. "NAM is everything I believe in and my goal is to empower survivors, assist them in carrying out the decisions they make, and give them the support that may be lacking in their lives," Carlson said. The program is an arm of NAM's Family Violence Center, which receives more than 1,200 hotline calls a month, and 1,800 clients a year. The nonprofit will offer a graduated level of services as the program takes off, starting initially with community education and awareness and a hot line for victims. Sexual Assault Services started a Hope and Healing public awareness campaign this summer, mailing information about the program to its 50 area support congregations and community service and business organizations, such as local hospitals and nonprofit services. The information includes a poster to hang up with program details and business cards with the hotline number that can easily be passed out to community members. During the next two years, NAM's goal is to expand the program to add an additional staff member and to conduct hospital accompaniments. And eventually, the goal is to accompany the victims through the entire process, including the judicial process as well. "Adding Kelly and these Sexual Assault Services, allows NAM to address an unmet need for the community NAM serves," Johnson said. "The Family Violence Center offers an environment that is comfortable, welcoming and free of judgment. Our staff and volunteers work patiently with clients to determine their needs, assist them in reaching their goals and, more importantly, begin healing." The Sexual Assault Services hotline number is 281-885-4673 (HOPE). Putting the Second Amendment Militia Myth to Rest: It is an Individual Right When the framers met in Philadelphia in the blazing summer of 1787, fierce debate ensued. The Anti-Federalists and the Federalists squared off to decide exactly how much power would belong to this new central government they were creating, and how to ensure that it wouldn't become tyrannical. Despite the disagreements, however, there were certain ideas and principles that they all agreed on, as some of them had even put their lives on the line to defend them years earlier. Among these were the natural rights that preceded man and government, those inalienable rights that Jefferson eloquently touched on in the Declaration of Independence. The right of self preservation was never a question to the framers. Federalists and Anti-Federalists alike understood that the right to bear arms was essential to a free people. As soon as the flame for American independence began to burn at a heat that frightened the British, they began taking serious gun control measures. It is commonly understood that unwarranted searches and seizures and unfair taxation led to the colonists' revolt, and while this is true, many scholars argue that the attempted confiscation of colonists' firearms is what actually fast-tracked the conflict into violence. Constitutional law expert David Kopel writes, "The ideology underlying all forms of American resistance to British usurpations and infringements was explicitly premised on the right of self-defense of all inalienable rights." This not only sheds light on the philosophical undertones of the Bill of Rights, but also makes clear the practical purposes of the second amendment, which lies in the framers understanding that the right to bear arms is the only sure defense of an individual's other liberties. In contemporary times, however, it is no secret that the second amendment is under attack. Much of this attack has been directed towards the wording of the text. It reads, "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." Gun control advocates like to argue that the second amendment provides only the right for a state to maintain a militia, and not an individual right to keep and bear arms. This is foolish for several reasons and from several perspectives. For example, MarketWatch columnist Brett Arends argues that the contemporary National Guard is what the framers envisioned when drafting this amendment, writing, "The Second Amendment is an instrument of government." The problem with this is, as Historian Tom Woods points out, is that this type of military force is already provided for in Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution. Moreover, such a reading of the Bill of Rights would also just be blatantly inconsistent. Whereas the other nine amendments are widely understood to be protections from government, one would have to make the leap that the second amendment acts as a mere permission slip to join on with a government force. A government force, I might add, that can be federalized, as it was by President Eisenhower in 1957. When the framers spoke of militias, they were referring to the sort that played a crucial role in the winning of the South in the War for Independence. A good example would be Francis Marion's rag-tag group of South Carolinians, who, amidst many loyalist neighbors and superior British forces, were able to cut off British supply lines and drive the Red-Coats back up to Yorktown, where British General Cornwallis would eventually surrender to Washington. This Militia brought their own weapons from home to fight with, not government issued rifles, and used them to fight off tyranny. This is likely a group that the framers had in mind when they proposed the second amendment as it was ratified. Thankfully, we have more than just the words in the Constitution and interpretations of historical events to go by. We have records and documents that reveal to us exactly what the framers were thinking when they decided to ratify the Bill of Rights, more specifically the second amendment. George Mason, whom many consider to be the father of the Bill of Rights, said this of the militia, "I ask, Sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people. To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them." Thomas Jefferson, one who believed in a tight interpretation of the Constitution, who advocated for the legal philosophy that the laws be enforced in the spirit of which they were written, stated, "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." Tench Coxe, a Pennsylvania delegate to the Continental Congress who eventually held posts in the Washington and Jefferson administrations, is responsible for some of the most firm words of the time in support of the people's right to bear arms. Coxe wrote, "As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the military forces which must be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow citizens, the people are confirmed by the article in their right to keep and bear their private arms." The man deemed the father of our Constitution, James Madison, later credited Coxe's writings as an essential part of the Constitution's ratification. Furthermore, the phrase "Well-Regulated" in the text of the second amendment is clarified by Alexander Hamilton in Federalist #29, where he explains that a militia should train to achieve, "the degree of perfection which would entitle them to the character of a well-regulated militia." This would require, especially at the time, that each man have his own weapon to train with and does not refer to government regulation. If that isn't enough, the original wording of the second amendment as proposed by Madison states, "The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; a well armed and well regulated militia being the best security of a free country." Perhaps this wording would have provided less controversy, but nonetheless the meaning of the text remains the same. The evidence, historically and legally, is stacked in favor of the second amendment containing an individual right. Regardless of the facts, however, the second amendment will continue to come under attack. While the Supreme Court got it right with the 2008 Heller decision, the death of Justice Scalia leaves the original intent of the second amendment exposed to the whims of liberal jurisprudence. Some leftists will stick to the belief that the right to bear arms is collective despite the facts, and others will flat out say that they think that the Constitution is outdated and should be done away with. Then, at least, we will know where they really stand. In the Tar Heel State, government mandates require that 12.5 percent of electricity must come from wind, solar, and other forms of renewable energy by 2021. Many advocates consider this a worthy goal, but at what cost to North Carolinians?The bottom line: in our state, the mandates will raise electricity bills, cut economic output by billions of dollars, and cost thousands of jobs.To understand why, let's look at what these mandates actually do.Legislation passed here in 2007 established so-called renewable energy portfolio standards (RPS), setting goals for a growing share of electricity to be generated by renewable energy. The guidelines established benchmarks for public utilities of 3 percent by 2012, 6 percent by 2016, 10 percent by 2018 and 12.5 percent by 2021 and thereafter.Because those forms of energy are more costly and less efficient, state governments eager to be seen as "green" had to make their use by utility companies mandatory. In other words, utility companies and ratepayers have no choice but to comply with these laws.But there's a catch. According to a new study published by the Civitas Institute , North Carolina's RPS will increase state electricity prices by 42 percent by 2020.The experience of other states shows how this happens. Already, residential electricity prices are 29 percent higher in states with mandatory RPS than in states without them, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.It's not surprising then, that many states are facing blowback to RPS. Instead of continuing down this path, North Carolina should look to other states that are proceeding with caution or even scrapping their RPS.At the end of May, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan vetoed a bill to raise his state's RPS from 20 to 25 percent, noting he couldn't support the soaring costs. Last year, West Virginia and Kansas completely repealed their RPS. And the year before that, Ohio hit the pause button on its RPS. In numerous statehouses, legislation has been proposed to either cut RPS or scrap the mandates completely.With the soaring electricity prices associated with RPS, this shouldn't come as a surprise. According to the Brookings Institute, wind power is twice as expensive as conventional power, and solar power is three times as expensive. These higher energy costs are passed on to ratepayers, depressing economic output and disproportionately hurting the poor, who spend a larger fraction of their incomes on electricity.Our new RPS research sheds more light on the degree and scope of these costs and explains how they impact various states differently. Understandably, we find that states with moderate RPS goals experience moderate rate increases, while states with ambitious RPS goals experience more significant rate increases.The economic costs associated with RPS go beyond heftier electricity bills for ratepayers. Because energy is an essential factor of production activities, businesses forced to absorb higher electricity bills must seek to curb expenses elsewhere - often resulting in job or wage reductions.As a result, net economic output in states with RPS is reduced - often by billions of dollars. Our study concludes that North Carolina's RPS will reduce its economic output by more than $7 billion in 2020, for example.By contrast, South Carolina's lower 2.1 percent RPS leads to a much smaller reduction - $198 million - in economic output in the same year.Finally, we know that less economic output means fewer jobs. We anticipate RPS to cost thousands of jobs per state, varying based on each state's unique labor market. For North Carolina, we estimate that RPS will cost our state 50,000 jobs in 2020 alone.Naturally, advocates of RPS will say the mandates create some jobs in building and maintaining solar, wind, and other renewable capacity. The number of these jobs, however, is dwarfed by the job losses caused by reduced economic output.Last year legislation was introduced to freeze North Carolina's RPS at current levels and protect businesses and consumers from harmful spikes in energy costs. Unfortunately, that legislation failed, and disappointingly no legislative momentum to curb the RPS emerged in this year's legislative session.As our research shows and numerous states are recognizing, forcing inefficient and expensive renewable energy into the mix imposes significant harm on the state's economy, especially harming the state's most economically vulnerable.It's time for North Carolina lawmakers to join these other states and ditch our state's renewable energy mandate and provide low-income households relief from rising utility bills. Doing so would also make North Carolina more competitive for job and investment growth. At minimum, it is time to freeze the mandate and more closely examine its real costs. "Hogan Lovells LLP, another U.S. firm hired by the Saudis, is registered to work for the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia through 2016, disclosures show. Robert Kyle, a lobbyist from the firm, has bundled $50,850 for Clinton's campaign" "Many lawyers at Hogan Lovells remember the week in 2004 when U.S. Army Capt. Humayun Khan lost his life to a suicide bomber. Then-Hogan & Hartson attorneys mourned the death because the soldier's father, Khizr Khan, a Muslim American immigrant, was among their beloved colleagues" "... it [MMA, Muslim Minority Affairs] is a Jurisprudence for a group confned to its special circumstances which is allowed what others are not. Its exercise needs an understanding of social sciences, especially sociology, economics, political science and international relations... for the fundamentals of success for the Muslim Minority Jurisprudence it must adhere to the collective earth concept."[link from Arabic here] Thanks to Islamic terrorism analyst and police advisor Walid Shoebat, it's been alleged that the man selected to take a shot at Donald Trump during the Democratic National Convention was not identified honestly by Hillary Clinton.The Muslim who attacked Donald Trump, Khizr Muazzam Kahn, is a Muslim Brotherhood agent, working to bring Muslims into the United States. After reading what we discovered so far, it becomes obvious that Khan wanted to 'trump' Trump's Muslim immigration. https://youtu.be/z1Y8vS1XXlA Khizr Muazzam Khan graduated in Punjab University Law College, as the New York Times confirms, and he specialized in International Trade Law in Saudi Arabia.An interest lawyer for Islamic oil companies Khan wrote a paper, called In Defense of OPEC to defend the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), an intergovernmental oil company consisting of mainly Islamic countries. Kahn is a promoter of Islamic Sharia Law. Khan is also co-founder of the Journal of Contemporary Issues in Muslim Law (Islamic Sharia).Khan's fascination with Islamic Sharia stems from his life in Saudi Arabia. During the eighties Kahn wrote a paper titled Juristic Classification of Islamic [Sharia] Law. In it he elucidated on the system of Sharia law expressing his reverence for "The Sunnah [the works of Muhammad] - authentic tradition of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him)." A snapshot of his essay can be seen here:At the bottom of the page, Kahn shows his appreciation for an icon of the Muslim Brotherhood: "The contribution to this article of S. Ramadan's writing is greatly acknowledged." S. Ramadan is Said Ramadan, head of the Islamic Center in Geneva and a major icon of the Muslim Brotherhood.Ramadan was a writer who wrote material for the Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia, an organization that has been promoting Islamic revivalism and indoctrination to recruit young people in Malaysia to jihadism. It is actually a Malaysian branch of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. Ramadan wrote a book called, Islamic Law: Its Scope and Equity, and a version of it was published for the Malaysian Muslim Youth Movement (a branch of WAMY).World Association of Muslim Youth (WAMY) was created through the collaboration of the Wahhabist and Muslim Brotherhood led by Said Ramadan who was the son-in-law of Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood including Ahmad Bahefzallah, the boss of Huma Abedin (Hillary Clinton's aid) and her parents Mahmoud and Saleha Abedin. It was also financed by the wealthy Abdullah Omar Naseef, another boss of the Abedin family.Said Ramadan, Kahn's source for his writing, was major leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, according to the Islamic scholar, Kemal A. Faruki. Kahn wrote the paper in the eighties while he was in Saudi Arabia, the motherland of Wahhabism, which means that Kahn clearly had a Wahabist connection. According to a recent report , Khan moved from Pakistan to the United Arab Emirates, a hotbed for the Muslim Brotherhood.Kahn currently runs a law firm in New York City called KM Kahn Law Office . According to the website, the the law firm specializes in "immigration services." Most likely Kahn was working to bring Muslims into the country.To understand the inception of Muslim immigration one must study the Muslim Minority Affairs, a paradigm created by Saudi jurisprudence which sparked during the times Khan lived in Saudi Arabia while collaborating with the Saudi kingdom.It is likely that Khan is a Muslim plant working with the Hillary Clinton campaign, probably for the interest of Muslim oil companies as well as Muslim immigration into the U.S.Intelius reveals Khizr M. Khan used to work for Hogan & Hartson and Lovells, which has ties to the Clinton Foundation Saudi interests with using Khan to advance Muslim immigration and advance Muslim Sharia is a lengthy subject. And it has ties to Hillary Clinton's aid Huma Abedin as well. It will take hours of reading just to cover this topic on how it was The House of Saud's "Muslim Minority Affairs" and the Abedins (Huma Abedin and family) that played a central role in using Muslim immigration to infiltrate the west with Wahhbi agenda. The House of Saud had used Huma's father Sayed Zaynul Abedin's work regarding the Muslim Minority Affairs in the West, published in 1998 as part of 29 works to construct a plan to conquer the U.S. with Islam. It is obvious that Khan is upset, that a Trump victory will eliminate and destroy decades of hard work to bring in Islamic immigration into the United States which was spearheaded by agents in Saudi Arabia like Khan and Huma Abedin'a father (Sayed Z. Abedin).With regard to his son, many were the 'Muslim martyrs' who joined the US military. Ali Abdul Saoud Mohamed, for example, enlisted in the Special Forces of the US Army; he was a double working for the US and Al-Qaeda. There is also the example of Hasan K Akbar, a Muslim American soldier who murdered and injured fifteen soldiers. There was Bowe Bergdahl, an American Muslim soldier who deserted his men to join the Taliban, a desertion which led to six American being ambushed and killed while they were on the search looking for him. And of course the example Nidal Malik Hassan, who murdered fourteen Americans in cold blood in Fort Hood. What about Taha Jaber Al-Alwani, a major Muslim thinker for the Muslim Minority Affairs who called on arming Muslims to fight America? An IMMA (Institute of Muslims Minority Affairs) favorite, Taha Jaber al-Alwani, whom the Abedins say is the source for their doctrine is an ardent anti-Semite who by the way, runs the United States Department of Defense program (out of all places) for training Muslim military chaplains in the U.S. military. We translated some of his quotes on the issue of The Muslim Minority Affairs: The Houston school board is expected to vote Thursday to call an election asking voters for approval to send about $160 million to the state next year because the district is considered too property wealthy. Yet even if the board calls the election, to be held Nov. 8, board members may want voters to vote down the measure. It's complicated. If voters say "no" to sending money to the state, the Texas education commissioner then has the power to detach the Houston Independent School District's highest-value properties and to assign them to property-poor districts. That means the owners of these properties likely downtown high-rises would be paying taxes to another school district. The detachment, however, would not be immediate. The commissioner's actions would not take effect until July 3, 2017, according to a timeline spelled out in a Texas Education Agency manual. The Houston school board's attorney, David Thompson, said during a board meeting Monday that the state Legislature reconvenes in January, before the education commissioner would act. That timeline would give lawmakers the opportunity to adjust the school-finance system if they wanted to do so, Thompson said. Leaving the district's fate to lawmakers could be a gamble, as Houston board member Mike Lunceford said Monday. If the Legislature leaves the school-finance system alone and the commissioner ends up taking property from HISD, then the district loses those buildings for all taxing purposes even to repay debt. The loss would hit hard amid the district's ongoing $1.9 billion construction program, funded by a voter-approved bond referendum in 2012. The whole situation stems from the Houston school district for the first time tipping into so-called Chapter 41 status, deemed so property wealthy that the state is supposed to "recapture" funds from the district to share with poorer school systems. The district would have to start paying the state in February, if voters approve the recapture measure. Houston-area districts that paid recapture last year include Galveston, Spring Branch, Deer Park and Sheldon. Galveston ISD paid the most among those, totaling $12.3 million. HISD officials argue that while the district has significant property wealth, about three-quarters of the students in the public school system come from low-income families. HISD board member Greg Meyers called a funding system that punishes the state's largest district "criminal." "You can count on it that I will speak my mind," Meyers said, adding later that he is conflicted about how people should vote. He said he has "serious angst" about having to send money to the state but is concerned that the district could lose property for taxing purposes to repay bonds if the commissioner is forced to act. Thompson, responding to a question from Houston board member Harvin Moore, said the elected trustees are allowed to urge voters to vote a certain way. HISD staff, however, cannot use district resources to advocate a position but can produce informational items. Moore said he expects that voters will say "hell no" to sending money to the state, once they are informed. In case you're not already confused, the ballot item language is spelled out under state law. It would not mention "recapture" or $160 million, but would ask for authorization "to purchase attendance credits from the state with local tax revenues." Mike Chavers moved to Billings more than a week ago and hasn't found a home, but that's a good thing for now for the new head of the Yellowstone Boys and Girls Ranch. Instead of house-hunting and unloading a van full of furniture, he's moved into quarters at the organization's 410-acre main residential campus between Billings and Laurel, where he'll stay for the next few months in an effort to get to know the staff and ins and outs of daily operations. "My first goal is to better get to know the Yellowstone Boys and Girls Ranch and its history and legacy," he said. "We've got a large staff here and I want to build trust. Stage one is to build that trust." Chavers took over as CEO of the organization a nonprofit that serves about 600 youth with severe emotional disturbances through residential treatment on its campus near Billings and community-based services around Montana at the beginning of August. Before that, he spent 22 years with the Indian Oaks Academy, Nexus, near Chicago, and served as its executive director for the last eight years. He takes over for Glenn McFarlane, who served as YBGR CEO for nine years and worked there for more than 25 before retiring in July 2015. While he spent the last quarter-century in Illinois, Chavers has roots in the region, having grown up near Pocatello, Idaho. He said for years he has wanted to move back west. He'd known of YBGR for its work with disturbed youth through his time at Indian Oaks, which provides similar services for hard-to-place youth who have shown harmful sexual behaviors, suffer from behavioral disorders or have severe emotional and behavioral issues that need inpatient care. "It's really a lot of why I came here," Chavers said. "I'd always heard of YBGR and they're known across the country. There's a rich history here that makes a difference in kids' lives. This gave me the opportunity to grow professionally in a values-based organization." He plans to run YBGR in a similar manner to Indian Oaks, including working through both public and internal challenges that can arise when working with youth with emotional and behavioral issues. In 2014, the Chicago Tribune ran a series of articles about youth centers in the state, including one detailing allegations of youth at Indian Oaks abusing other youth there. It was a problem that the academy had identified and addressed prior to the article, Chavers said, and an audit by the State of Illinois that occurred after it ran brought high marks and resulted in no sanctions. "In fact, our admissions grew," Chavers said. "Our population and resources had changed by then. We knew we had to get better and invested $16 million in upgrading our site and staff. It showed through the outcomes." He said he wants to take a similar approach with YBGR. "It's to be an open, honest and transparent organization," he said. "We want to be value-based, not only in dealing with our kids, but also in dealing with the community." After graduating high school in Idaho, Chavers attended college in Chicago, where he studied communications. One of the college's requirements involved volunteer service projects, which landed him at a local Boys and Girls Club. That experience sparked a passion for working with youth that "was more rewarding than anything I'd ever done." Shortly after, he got a job at a residential treatment center in Chicago, which solidified that belief, and led him to a job at Indian Oaks after graduation, starting as a child care worker and working his way through the organization. "Indian Oaks was just a great place to work, and I worked just about every job in the facility at one time," he said. "I've found I want to work in values-based organization and that if could reflect those values, that's how I can do the most good." He said in his new role in Billings, he wants to be a "a solution-finder for families and the community" and to work to better both the organization and the area that supports it. The ranch employs more than 250 people through its programs across Montana, and about 300 when combined with staff at the Yellowstone Academy, which provides on-site educational services to the surrounding area. That results in more than $12 million in annual combined salaries and wages, much of which stays in the Billings area. "I think there's many things that YBGR can and should be contributing to the community," he said. "We want to be good neighbors. It's not just what happens out here at the ranch and I think it's important that we continue to invest in that." That, he said, starts with working to continue to provide an important service to youth who most need the help. In several months, Chavers' wife and youngest child he has two other college-aged children out on their own will join him in Billings. By then, he said, he'll have had the time to learn about and settle in at the head of YBGR and find a more permanent residence off-campus. "I'm just thrilled to be here, and I look forward to becoming a solid part of the Billings community," he said. The federal government has failed to release records under the Freedom of Information Act about controversial immigration raids earlier this year that removed more than 100 mostly Central American women and children from their homes and placed them in a South Texas detention center before deporting many of them, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday. The complaint, in U.S. District Court in Georgia, argues that the Department of Homeland Security and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency violated federal public records law by not releasing documents or providing a "substantive response" to the Southern Poverty Law Center more than seven months after it requested them on Jan 7. "There are serious questions about whether ICE agents' conduct during these raids violated the Constitution," said Lisa Graybill, deputy legal director for the national civil rights advocacy group, which is based in Alabama. "We cannot allow ICE, the nation's largest law enforcement agency, to avoid accountability and violate federal law by withholding these records." Sarah Rodriguez, a deputy press secretary for ICE, said in an email that as a matter of policy the agency does not comment on pending litigation. The raids, which the center said were executed without warrants on Jan. 2 and 3, targeted women and children from Central America living in Georgia, North Carolina and Texas. Some of the immigrants had been granted temporary permission to remain in the U.S., subject to certain conditions. The January operation was President Barack Obama's first large-scale attempt to deport these migrants, who are part of a massive Central American influx over the last two years that shook the administration and became a political flash point in the debate over immigration. It marked a departure from isolated deportations to big, publicized sweeps in an effort to deter more migrants from coming. It targeted adults and children caught crossing the border after May 1, 2014, who had been ordered to leave the country by an immigration court and who Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson initially said would not have been eligible to stay in the U.S. by seeking asylum or through other means. But within days the Board of Immigration Appeals had quickly stayed many of the migrants' removals while it reviewed their cases after attorneys argued they hadn't necessarily exhausted all of their appeals. Immigrant advocates said many of these families were ordered removed without appearing in court either because they don't understand they must or because they are afraid to. Of those who do, the vast majority have no legal counsel to help them navigate the complex asylum process. An analysis of about 26,300 deportation cases involving mostly Central American women with children who arrived after 2014 showed less than 30 percent of these families had attorneys, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. Without counsel, only 1.5 percent were allowed to stay compared to more than a quarter of those with attorneys. The raids were widely condemned by 146 members of Congress and immigrant advocates who said they unfairly targeted vulnerable women and children simply so that the administration could appear tough on immigration. The Southern Poverty Law Center argues the raids might be unconstitutional because many of the immigration agents gained entry to the detained migrants' homes through "deception." Some said they were police officers looking for a suspect, showing a photo of an African-American man to the residents, according to the center's press release. Others claimed they only needed to take the immigrants from their homes to examine electronic shackles they wore as part of an agreement with ICE that allowed them to remain in the country. If an immigrant asked to see a warrant, the agents said to "be quiet," according to the complaint. The requested records would show how and why the agencies pursued the 121 immigrants swept up by the raid. The advocacy group said the January operation's impact has been "considerable," eroding trust between local law enforcement and immigrants who now fear answering their door or going to work, school or church, according to the complaint. "Until we can review the records, the possibility of justice for these immigrants will be out of reach," David Gann, senior associate at Alston & Bird, an Atlanta law firm and co-counsel to the advocacy group, said in a statement. "It is important for DHS and ICE to release their files on these raids." A man died and four other people were injured in a head-on crash Monday night on Texas 99 in west Harris County. The two-vehicle wreck happened around 10:40 p.m. in the 900 block of the West Grand Parkway South near Kingsland, Harris County Sheriff's Deputy Richard Sanders said. A Fort Worth woman allegedly held two Mexican women against their will and forced them to work for her cleaning business was charged on four federal felony counts Friday. Sandra Murra, 64, was convicted of two counts of harboring an illegal alien and two counts of forced labor in federal court in Fort Worth on Friday. READ MORE: California mother reunited with son abducted in 1995 According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Murra left Mexico in 1997 and brought a woman in her 30's identified as V.R. with her to El Paso and then later Fort Worth. In 1998, Murra arranged for a woman in her 20's identified as I.G. to be transported to the United States, the federal agency reports. I.G. and V.R. are Mexican citizens who entered the U.S. illegally. Prosecutors said Murra kept one or both of the women at various residences in El Paso and Fort Worth between September 1997 and April 2011. Murra had a house cleaning business in both cities. READ MORE: 'UFO' abducted by humans in Roswell, NM According to the Department of Justice, Murra represented herself to I.G. and V.R. as "the voice of God" on earth, and required them to listen to religious recordings of Murra reading Bible verses and discussing their meaning while they cleaned homes." Prosecutors said Murra made the women clean three to four homes a day, seven days a week for her business. Murra reportedly did not pay the women and told them they would "go to hell if they did not obey her." According to prosecutors, Murra threatened at least one of the women that she would contact immigration and that she would be buried in a field with other illegal aliens if she did not listen to her. READ MORE: Mexican actress mets with drug lord to ask for case to be dropped The federal agency reports Murra forced the women to clean her house and prepare her meals. I.G. and V.R. had to ask Murra permission to use the bathroom and restricted their food to bread and water, a release from the Department of Justice reads. I.G. was also forced to work at McDonald's for a year in 2001 and Walmart for six months in 2003 after Murra gave her false identification and kept the money she earned, prosecutors said. Murra faces a maximum of 20 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine, but she won't find out her sentence until her court date on Nov. 28. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Who says black cats are unlucky? What would have been a cat-astrophe for one feline had a happy ending after officers with the Miami-Dade Police Department rescued the kitten from the grille of a patrol car. The Tri-City Herald reports that an officer driving the unmarked car heard faint meows coming from the grille of the vehicle, and drove straight to the department's fleet management. You can watch the rescue in the video above. It reportedly took technicians about an hour to free the kitten, which they later named Pikachu, after the popular Pokemon character. "Life is precious," Miami-Dade Detective Daniel Ferrin, a spokesman for Miami-Dade police, told the Miami Herald. "This is what we do as officers. Something happens, we are there regardless." It gets better for little Pikachu: Veterinarians gave her the all-clear, and she went up for adoption Tuesday. Mark Mulligan/Staff AUSTIN -- Attorney General Ken Paxton's displeasure with the Court of Appeals for upholding his felony indictments is not enough to justify a new appeal, prosecutors told the courts Tuesday. Special prosecutors for the state said in a filing with the Court of Criminal Appeals that Paxton's argument to justify a new review of his case to throw out charges against him is full of holes and untimely filed. AUSTIN Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine raised money and pumped up spirits at a Tuesday stop in Texas' capital, calling the state "critically important." "We're serious about Texas, because we know the kind of work you can do," Kaine told a volunteer-appreciation event in an un-air-conditioned building at the Travis County Democratic Coordinated Office. Kaine hoped to raise more than $1 million in Texas this week, according to one familiar with the campaign events, counting a fundraiser at his Austin stop and Wednesday events in Dallas and Fort Worth. The price of entry for the fundraisers ranged from $50,000 for a "chair" to $2,700 for a "champion." Proceeds will go to the the Hillary Clinton-Kaine campaign as far as allowed by federal contribution limits. The rest will be funneled to the Democratic National Committee and then to state parties. Democrats have beyond an uphill climb to win a majority in the presidential race in Texas, but many are hoping controversy-stirring Republican nominee Donald Trump will help them get closer. Spirits were high at the Austin event despite the heat that had many in the crowd sweating. Asked why the venue was picked, one in attendance quipped of the heat, "Hell was taken." When 34-year-old William Sidney Trentham walked away from the Alpha House prerelease center in February 2015, he was having a momentary lapse in judgement, he told Yellowstone County District Court Judge Russell Fagg on Monday. Trentham was sentenced in Yellowstone County on criminal endangerment charges in October 2014 and arrived at Alternatives on Jan. 13. A little over a month later, he left the center and did not return. At his sentencing hearing Montana, Trentham told Fagg he'd had a drink that day and it gave him an excuse to run. The Tennessee man said he headed back to his home state to see his sick father. He said since he was incarcerated for criminal endangerment, he hadn't been home and he had no ties to Montana. He wanted to go home, Trentham said. He wanted to see his father. "It was an irrational, split-second decision," Trentham said. The havoc Trentham had caused in other people's lives because of his criminal behavior was frustrating to Fagg, the judge said. Trentham committed at least six felonies prior to his arrest in Montana and likely more crimes "you didn't get caught on," Fagg said. If Trentham had returned to Alpha House after drinking, it probably would not have amounted to a violation, Fagg said. Because he'd tried to escape, Trentham was facing a 10-year sentence. Fagg granted Trentham's request for a three-year sentence with the Montana Department of Corrections and gave him credit for the year he had already served on the original endangerment charge. RIO DE JANEIRO The USA Gymnastics men's team overcame a slow start Tuesday afternoon to give itself a medals chance in the men's team final, but the Americans gave away too much too early to improve on their fifth-place finish from four years ago. Japan won the gold medal, racing past the field on high bar and floor in its final two rotations to total 274.094 points. Russia took the lead and held on to claim silver with 271.453. Defending champion China mounted a late comeback but could only claim bronze with 271.122 points. The U.S. men scored 268.560 points for fifth place, one spot behind Great Britain at 269.752. After posting the two best scores in qualifying from Sam Mikulak and Jake Dalton, the U.S. faltered in its first rotation Monday. Alex Naddour almost toppled over on his dismount and twice had to put his right hand to the mat to steady himself, and Mikulak twice bounded out of bounds on floor passes. The U.S. scored just 43.757 points on floor and was in eighth and last place after the first rotation. After two falls in qualifying, the U.S. men stayed on pommel horse, but all three men had assorted form breaks to keep their scores in the mid-14s. Naddour led at 14.633, but that was down from 15.366 in qualifying. With 43.699 points, the U.S. was seventh of eight through two rotations. In his first appearance of the day, Chris Brooks, 29, of Houston helped the U.S. team right the ship somewhat on rings, which has not been strength for the team. His 14.666 score helped the U.S. score 44.465 points, but the Americans were still seventh at the halfway point. Finally, with time slipping away, the U.S. men finally had a standout rotation on vault. Mikulak and Dalton both stuck their landings, and they and Naddour all scored above 15 points. That enabled the Americans to pass Germany into sixth and close within striking distance of Brazil and within a half-point of China. As their desperate hour continued, the U.S. came through on parallel bars. Mikulak led off at 15.7, Brooks scored 15.1 and Leyva 15.533 to give the U.S. a chance. Ahead of them, meanwhile, Japan took the lead on high bar over Russia. While the gold medal was being decided on floor, the U.S. again gave itself to stay in the running on high bar. Mikulak scored 15.0 and Brooks 15.108, but Leyva lost his grip on the bar on his simplest of four release moves to end officially the U.S. team's exceedingly slim medal chances. -- WHATS NEXT? Cruz looks to regroup as Trump stumbles, by the Houston Chronicles Kevin Diaz While top Republican leaders and Trump campaign insiders fret about a string of campaign missteps, including a damaging feud with the Muslim family of a fallen U.S. soldier, Cruz, 45, appears to have regrouped with core supporters in Texas who never were reconciled to Trump's nomination. Ted Cruz had endorsed Donald Trump, he would have lost his movement, (Houston delegate Deborah) Kelting said. And that movement is not necessarily just Ted Cruz's movement, it's about corruption in both parties, and the movement sees that Donald Trump is just the flip side of the same coin. -- Following RNC speech, Cruz critics urge McCaul to mount primary challenge, by CNNs Manu Raju and Teddy Schleifer In the wake of Cruz's controversial speech at the party convention where he refused to endorse Donald Trump, the Texas senator's GOP critics believe there could be a new opening for an intraparty challenge. And behind the scenes, GOP donors and Texas politicians have urged Rep. Mike McCaul to consider mounting a bid against him in 2018, according to three sources familiar with the matter. >> Despite 'bitter pill,' Bush calls on Texas GOP to back Trump, by the Chrons Mike Ward >> Abbott makes first public event since hospital stay by the AP -- Texas, UT Ask Judge to Throw Out Lawsuit Challenging Campus Carry, by The Texas Tribunes Matthew Watkins In two separate court filings, lawyers for the university and the state argue that the professors' claims that the law violates their First Amendment rights are unfounded. They also argue that the federal court doesn't have jurisdiction to rule on the state law. -- Family files suit over teen's arrest for homemade clock, by the AP The lawsuit names Irving Independent School District, the city of Irving and the school's principal, and asks a jury to determine the damages. In November, the family asked the district and city to pay $15 million or else face a suit. District spokeswoman Lesley Weaver said in a statement Monday that attorneys for the district will review the suit and determine a course of action. >> Harris County judge: Texas giveaway of mosquito repellent to poor girls, women is too cumbersome, by the Dallas Morning News Bob Garrett SPEED READ Brazil's oil and gas business outshines the Olympics, Houston Chronicle Community concerns deepen over delays in naming city chiefs, Houston Chronicle UNT Dallas Law School in danger of not getting accredited, Dallas Morning News Botched Latin word on UT Tower monument will be fixed, Austin American-Statesman Tim Kaine No Stranger to Texas Democrats and Donors, Texas Tribune Texas GOP deletes tweet that appeared to praise Hillary Clinton, Austin American-Statesman Dem tensions explode in Hispanic Caucus over Trump, The Hill Mixing religion and politics presents 'tricky' balance for Dallas clergy, Dallas Morning News Here's Why Texas Students Wait Weeks for Basic Mental Health Services, Texas Tribune CAPITOL DAYBOOK: No meetings scheduled RACE TO THE WHITE HOUSE -- 50 G.O.P. Officials Warn Donald Trump Would Put Nations Security at Risk, by The New York Times David E. Sanger and Maggie Haberman The letter says Mr. Trump would weaken the United States moral authority and questions his knowledge of and belief in the Constitution. It says he has demonstrated repeatedly that he has little understanding of the nations vital national interests, its complex diplomatic challenges, its indispensable alliances and the democratic values on which American policy should be based. And it laments that Mr. Trump has shown no interest in educating himself. -- Trump tries to reset with economic speech but faces new resistance in GOP, by The Washington Post Sean Sullivan and Jim Tankersley Reading from a teleprompter at the Detroit Economic Club and pausing calmly when protesters interrupted him, Trump assailed Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and cast himself as the only change candidate on economic issues. He did so in part with tax-cutting, regulation-curbing plans that are squarely mainstream in his party and in part with his now-familiar attacks on the forces of globalization that have unnerved many workers. He took swipes at free-trade deals championed by GOP leaders and attacked immigrants and refugees. -- Anti-Trump Republican Evan McMullin to launch independent bid for presidency, by Politicos Louis Nelson In a year where Americans have lost faith in the candidates of both major parties, its time for a generation of new leadership to step up," McMullin said in a statement to ABC News. "Its never too late to do the right thing, and America deserves much better than either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton can offer us. >> Poll: Clinton leads by 13 points among likely voters, Politico >> GOP Sen. Susan Collins: 'I will not be voting for Donald Trump,' CNN -- In complicated Ohio, Trump and Clinton swap voters as they vie for a key state, Los Angeles Times A man suspected of driving drunk with his child in the car gave a security officer a piece of cardboard as proof of insurance. Jesse Jon Strack, 35, appeared Monday in Yellowstone County Justice Court and was charged with criminal child endangerment after Montana State University Billings police arrested him outside a residence hall. Yellowstone County Justice of the Peace David Carter held Strack in lieu of a $10,000 bond and ordered him placed on alcohol monitoring should he be released from jail. Strack was arrested at about 11:30 p.m. Saturday outside Rimrock Hall on the MSUB campus, according to charging documents. Three students standing outside the hall said Strack hit a concrete barrier as he parked outside the building, before getting out and talking to the students. The students told the residence hall security desk that Strack appeared "confused" and "disoriented." They said the man had a small child in the back of his car. University Night Watch went to speak with Strack and asked Strack if he'd been drinking. Strack told the watch he had drank "around three" and handed her a blank piece of cardboard as proof of insurance. The woman reported Strack to University Police. Strack told university police the child in his car was his son. The officers arrested Strack and took him to the Yellowstone County Detention Facility. Strack refused to provide a breath sample to officers. Strack was also held on a $15,000 bond for violating his probation. Strack was convicted in 2014 of fraudulently obtaining drugs. 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. Thomas Craig Pfeifle, 19, of Rapid City, S.D., was identified Tuesday as the man who fell 20 to 30 feet while climbing Granite Peak, said Park County Undersheriff Clay Herbst. Pfeifle was rescued by helicopter on Monday afternoon and flown to Billings Clinic, where he is being treated for a head injury. Granite Peak is Montanas highest point, at 12,808 feet. A call came through Sweetgrass County at about 11 a.m. Monday from one of the man's climbing partners requesting rescue for Pfeifle, who had fallen while climbing Granite Peak, Herbst said. The man was climbing with at least four others and one of them were able to get cellphone service for the first emergency call, Herbst said. The climbers were able to borrow a satellite phone from another climbing group to stay in contact with authorities throughout the rescue, Herbst said. Rocky Mountain Rotors Co-owner Mark Taylor said his company was involved in the rescue of Pfeifle on Monday afternoon. Pfeifle was at an altitude of about 12,200 feet when he was rescued. According to a press release from the Park County Sheriff's Office, he fell near the summit of the 12,808 foot peak. The man had a serious head injury and was taken to Billings Clinic, Taylor said. He was rescued by a Gallatin County high-angle rescue team and flown by helicopter to a separate landing zone near Sky Top Lakes. A medical helicopter from Bozeman then landed to provide medical treatment before he was flown to Billings. Rocky Mountain Rotors also was involved in the rescue of a 71-year-old man who was complaining of chest pains in the area of Sky Top Lakes near Granite Peak. He was flown to Cooke City, according to the press release, where he was moved to an ambulance. He was taken to a hospital in Cody, Wyo., Taylor said. Last month, I warned readers that Microsofts Windows 10 Anniversary Update would likely be somewhat buggy and suggested consumers should wait awhile before installing it. Unfortunately, my advice proved valid. There are widespread reports of significant bugs in the update, and theyre causing systems to freeze, browsers to misbehave, and peripherals including Xbox One controllers to malfunction. Two major antivirus companies also warn that incompatibilities with Windows 10 could open up users to security risks. [ Also on CIO.com: Your step-by-step guide to repairing Windows 10 ] Making matters worse, Microsoft recently changed its policy regarding rollbacks to previous versions of the Windows OS. In the past, users who upgraded to Windows 10 from a previous version had 30 days to reverse the process and restore an older OS. Today, Windows users have a grace period of only 10 days to rollback the Anniversary Update. All major software updates are likely to ship with at least a few bugs. However, the volume and potential seriousness of the Anniversary Updates reported problems seem unusual. By waiting to install the update you lose nothing, and you could save yourself a good deal of wasted time and effort. If you already installed the update and havent experienced any problems, you may not have to worry. If you are having problems, you should perform the rollback as soon as possible. Microsoft will likely fix the issues sooner than later. Windows 10 is ultimately a solid OS, and the update will make it better once its patched. (We asked Microsoft for a comment on the bug reports but have not yet received a response.) Microsoft works closely with security software developers, so its somewhat surprising to McAfee and Avast warn users not to install certain versions of their products on PCs running the latest software. Heres what McAfee (owned by Intel) said in a blog post: WARNING: Intel Security has worked closely with Microsoft to ensure that McAfee security software and hardware products are fully compatible with Windows 10 Anniversary Edition endpoints. However, do not upgrade to the Windows 10 Anniversary Update without first verifying whether your McAfee product is compatible. Microsoft was supposed to check for incompatibilities, according to the McAfee post, but due to time constraints, Microsoft could not implement the intended version check in the Windows 10 Anniversary Update. Seriously? Microsoft couldnt spare the time to protect its customers? Thats not acceptable. Avast offered a similar warning but said most users havent had issues with the update. The problems with the Anniversary Update started to appear soon after the software went live on August 2, according to InfoWorld.coms Woody Leonhard. A related Reddit thread Leonhard cited now has nearly 700 comments. The Windows Start menu was also apparently affected, and according to one report, Microsoft is aware of the issue and has promised, but not yet delivered, a fix. To paraphrase our Brit friends: Keep calm and carry on but dont upgrade your Windows OS. Congress rarely devotes attention or energy to investigating esoteric doctrines of administrative law. But in the last year, amid the Obama administrations ever more aggressive assertions of regulatory power in lieu of legislation (or in defiance of it), Congress has increasingly questioned one of the bedrock legal doctrines undergirding the modern administrative state: Chevron deference. The Chevron doctrine, named for a 1984 Supreme Court case, directs federal judges to defer to federal agencies reasonable interpretations of ambiguous statutes. Unless the statute clearly decides the issue in a case (as statutes rarely do), the courts will largely let the agencys interpretation stand. Chevron deference was once lauded as a victory for the Reagan administration, which fought hard to overcome liberal judges attempts to block its regulatory reforms. Today, however, conservative lawyers largely blame Chevron for facilitating the Obama administrations turbocharged regulatory efforts. The reconsideration of Chevron is part of a broader conservative critique of the courts failure to check executive overreach. Philip Hamburger, who wrote a book-length denunciation of administrative law as unconstitutional, speaks for many when he characterizes Chevron deference as Chevron bias. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has taken up these themes in his own widely read judicial opinions criticizing the modern administrative state as constitutionally illegitimate. Now Congress is taking interest, in a series of hearings questioning the constitutionality and practicality of Chevron, and considering legislation to reform or even abolish it. (I testified at a recent House Judiciary subcommittee hearing, taking no position on Chevron but applauding Congress for finally engaging the issue.) The debate reached a crescendo last month, when the House passed The Separation of Powers Restoration Act to abolish Chevron. The Act would direct courts to interpret statutes de novothat is, with no deference to the agencies. Wherever one stands on these issues, everyone can learn from a new study, Chevron in the Circuit Courts, by law professors Kent Barnett of the University of Georgia and Chris Walker of Ohio State. Barnett and Walker conduct an exhaustive review of how the federal appellate courts have applied Chevron. While other legal scholars have attempted quantitative studies on a smaller scale, Barnett and Walker went to unprecedented lengths to build a comprehensive data set. Their findings (which Marcia Coyle summarized in the National Law Journal) are fascinating. Rejecting the argument that Chevron deference doesnt make a big difference in agency cases, Barnett and Walker find that agencies are 25 percent more likely to win cases when the courts apply Chevron instead of de novo interpretation. The study also found significant disparities among the federal judiciarys regional appellate courts. Federal agencies litigating in the First Circuit (New England) won 83.1 percent of their cases, while those litigating in the Ninth Circuit (the Western states) won just 65.5 percent of theirs. In the D.C. Circuit, the nations most powerful regulatory court, agencies won 72.6 percent of their cases. The new research follows Walkers 2014 study of the extent to which agency officials rely on Chevron and other doctrines in the rulemaking process. Specifically, Walker found that agency officials recognize how powerful a tool Chevron is, and they make the most of it. Chevrons constitutional and practical merits are very much a matter of reasonable debate. Congress deserves credit for engaging the issue, instead of leaving it to the courts. And Barnett and Walker have done yeoman work in bringing light to a hugely consequential but underpublicized subject. Photo by Blogtrepreneur Sen. John Brenden, R-Scobey, who has previously been a good supporter of parks, is not quite accurate when he said, in his July 23 Gazette guest opinion, that the Park Board voted to close Hell Creek. It sounds more like a campaign piece for the Republican candidate for governor that an informative piece. Hell Creek is not closing, nor did the Park Board vote to close it. Sen. Brenden does a great disservice to say that it is closing. The Park Board wants to keep Hell Creek open and make it accessible for everyone to continue to enjoy. But as so often happens, no one wants to pay for it. The large increase in visitation has pushed the capability of the park to the limits. To continue we need some $4.5 million almost half of our annual statewide budget. And it is not even one of our most significant parks or our most significant needs. Visitation throughout all 55 Parks has increased over the last 5 years by 32 percent, yet we have to provide the best services we can for the same budget we had five years ago. It is the smallest budget of any park system of the seven states in the Rocky Mountain West, except North Dakota and they only have 13 Parks to our 55. We are able to provide only 68 percent of the staffing provided by our peer states in the Rocky Mountain West and we have more parks. Park needs millions Right now Hell Creek needs $1 million to put in a water system, $286,000 to put in a sewer system, and more than $1.2 million to upgrade the electrical system. The staff has identified $1.48 million of high priority needs that must be met just to keep us going because of the health and safety concerns. We cant expand the 71 camping sites until we put in a new water and sewer system. User fees normally only pay for about 29 pecent of the costs of upkeep and maintenance. So where do we get the money? Worse, if we had any money, it would have to go to Bannack ($1.5 million) to put in a better fire system we cant let the best ghost town in America burn up. Or it would go to Lewis & Clark Caverns ($1.75 million) whose electrical system was installed in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps boys and is in danger of causing harm if it is not updated. Or it would go Makoshika, which needs $1.3 million to provide water to its campers. The first two of these three projects were in the governors long-range building program which was defeated by the last session of the Legislature by one vote. Hell Creek is owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and leased to the state to use as a park. The Park Board did notify the Army Corps of Engineers that when the existing lease comes up five years from now in 2021, we may not be able to renew it unless we can find some more money to run it. We had hoped that our landlord, the Army Corps of Engineers, might help us out a little with some money for the infrastructure; doing so would greatly improve their land. So far, the answer has been no. We certainly hope we can find a solution. We have five years to do so. But if we cant get any help from the Legislature or the Army Corps of Engineers or the local community, we may not be able to renew the lease. The Army Corps then will undoubtedly do as they have done in other cases: Either contract it out to a concessionaire or run it themselves. I doubt if it will ever close. With 30,000 to 35,000 visitors a year, it is too popular and too important for that. Legislature can help The group that can help us the most is the Montana Legislature, which is now controlled by Republicans. If Brenden would allow $4.5 million for the water, sewer, electrical, and other upgrades at Hell Creek in his infrastructure bill and if he can persuade his Republican colleagues to support it , we will be just fine. If Brenden can persuade his colleagues to support a larger budget for the Parks Division, that would be the best way to make sure the state has the money to keep Hell Creek as a state park when the lease terminates in 2021. The ball is in his court and there is no reason for him to criticize the governor. If Brenden is really concerned about Hell Creek as a state park, I invite him to help us in the Legislature. He is in an excellent position to do so. How much faith should we put in the economic proposals of a presidential candidate who has previously made outrageous and unrealistic pledges to create jobs and then failed to deliver? That was essentially the question that NBCs Tim Russert posed last Tuesday, when he asked Senator Hillary Clinton if her promise to generate 5 million new jobs as president wasnt a little exuberant, given that she had made a similar pledge during her first New York senatorial runto create 200,000 jobs in upstate New York. That promise, Russert pointed out, came to nothing; in fact, upstate New York had actually lost jobs since 2000. Clinton responded with her stock answer: that when she made her upstate pledge, she thought that Al Gore would be the next president, and that the two would work together to revive the region. The blame for not meeting her goal of 200,000 new jobs, she said, belongs with President Bush, whos been unresponsive to the needs of upstate New York. Never mind that the national economy has grown by some 6 million jobs under Bush. Its apparently the presidents fault that few of those new jobs have come to New York State. Clinton has been giving this ridiculous answer to the question about the missing 200,000 jobs ever since her Senate reelection bid in 2006, and the media, for the most part, havent challenged her. Thats par for the course: they gave her a pass when she first made the pledge in 2000, though it was clear even then that she had no hope of delivering on it. Still, now that Clinton is a presidential candidate, you would expect that the media would press her to say something more sophisticated than Its Bushs fault. After all, when she complained, while campaigning for the Senate in 2000, that upstate employment had grown by an annual average of just 0.6 percent since 1992, she didnt point out that we had a Democratic president during most of that period (I think his name was Clinton) and a powerful Democratic congressional delegation from New York in Washington. Instead, under Clintons formulation, the hard times upstate during the 1990s were the fault of the states Republican governor, George Pataki, and the continued decline from 2001 to 2008 is the fault of the countrys Republican president. That tortured logic is perhaps not surprising. When Clinton made her 2000 jobs pledge, she and her supporters never thought that shed be held accountable for it in a state where, once elected, incumbent senators are difficult to unseat. Their confidence was well placed. In 2006, when Clinton was running for reelection, a number of her supporters pointed out that it was never realistic to expect a senator to produce such an abundance of jobs in New York. In an editorial endorsing her, one upstate newspaper even noted that it was state-level policies (high business taxes, excessive regulations) that were really holding back the upstate economy. In other words, we knew all along that Clinton couldnt produce those 200,000 jobs, but we let her shower New Yorkers with that blatantly unrealistic promise all the same. Such media sleight of hand was not inconsequential. Ordinary people in upstate New York clearly bought into Clintons 2000 campaign rhetoric, giving her unprecedented support in sections of the state that hadnt recently been friendly to Democratic candidates. Indeed, as a Clinton campaign official crowed to the New York Times in a 2000 election postmortem, her upstate economic promises worked beyond our wildest dreams. That is, they worked to get her elected. Now Clinton is making similar economic promises nationallynot just 5 million new jobs, but also new green industries and a sharp reduction in childhood poverty. Why should we believe her? Photo by Angela Radulescu Bill de Blasios theatrical arrest at Brooklyns Long Island College Hospitaland the news photos of him in plastic handcuffshelped make him mayor in 2013. Now U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara seems to be measuring him for steel bracelets, andtalk about what goes around coming aroundthe prosecutor has added a controversial land deal to his bill of particulars. Its a long list already, and its fair to wonder just when Bharara intends to bring matters to a close. The de Blasio administration has been under investigation virtually its entire tenure, and an election is coming up next year. Right now, the spotlight has turned to the Rivington House deed-transfer scandal, which involved city waivers of deed restrictions to greenlight luxury condo development of a former AIDS hospital on the Lower East Side. Campaign contributors and others close to de Blasio benefited. While the mayor denied foreknowledge of the deal, its now all but certain that he knew or should have known. But Long Island College Hospital seems slowly to be moving center stage as wellboth on the merits and as a symbol of the mayors unsubtle brand of faux-progressive, transactional politicking. On the merits, because City Hall abandoned its promise to block sale of the hospital site to real estate interests at about the same time that a potential developer says he was solicited for a donation to a now-defunct de Blasio slush fund. This coincidence is what appears to have attracted Bhararas attentionand precipitated a blizzard of federal subpoenas. Symbolically, the episode illustrates de Blasios principal rhetorical techniquedrape an issue in progressive cant, and then convert it to personal or political advantage. What began as a full-throated promise to protect in perpetuity the failing LICHindeed, every hospital bed in Brooklynblossomed into a prime fundraising opportunity. De Blasio apparently pounced; so, in turn, did Bhararas investigators. The 150-year-old Long Island College Hospital had been scandalously underutilized for decades when the State University of New York bought it in 2009. Why SUNY wanted it remains a mystery, but the university soon realized that it had a pig in a poke and moved to unload it. This meant freeing for development the ultra-valuable Brownstone Brooklyn real estate that the hospital sat on. It didnt matter that SUNY promised to retain a state-of-the-art, on-site emergency center; the plan generated intense opposition from local residents, the state Nurses Association, SEIU Local 1199 of the health-care workers union, and a full range of demonstrating politicians, including then-Public Advocate de Blasio. This is about fighting for our hospitals. We have to save them, de Blasio said as police pulled tight the flexi-cuffs during the July 2013 demonstration. Can you tell us now that SUNY will stop its efforts to close Long Island College Hospital? Because if you cant tell us that, were not going anywhere. After de Blasio won the mayors office, he promptly lost interest in LICH, though not the real estate. It finally sold for $240 million to a private developer. Now Bharara has reportedly subpoenaed SUNY for copies of any and all [LICH-related] communications between the university and the mayor, First Deputy Mayor Anthony Shorris, and the administrations chief political operative, Emma Wolf, among others. The subpoenas apparently relate to allegations made earlier this year by developer Donald Peebles, a losing bidder for the LICH property, that de Blasio solicited him personally for a $20,000 contribution to one of the mayors not-for-profit political slush funds, the Campaign for One New York, while the process was still underway. (Peebles said he complied but then asked for his money back.) Bharara is also demanding information from SEIU Local 1199, which contributed $250,000 to the now-inactive nonprofit. Whether the latest subpoenas represent a new investigation of the administration isnt yet clear. If so, it would bring to six the number of known de Blasio probes. Bharara is on point for most of them, but state and city agencies are involved as well, and even the mayors own Department of Investigation is dogging him on the Rivington scandal. Other probes include an investigation into the full range of donations to the Campaign for One New York (The United Federation of Teachers kicked in $350,000 after receiving an ultra-lush contract settlement); a police corruption scandal involving major mayoral campaign contributors; de Blasios interventions in 2014 state legislative campaigns; and the alleged failure of the administration to follow state lobbying rules. To say all of this has cast a pall over City Hall would be an understatement. Its more like a pea-soup fog, and its been hanging for more than two years. New Yorkers arent surprised by fishy governmentsome even find it entertainingbut voters tolerance has limits. Cynicism breeds apathy: routine voter turnout in the low 20 percent range is one symptom. More governmental dysfunction is another. It doesnt help when Bharara himself plays peekaboo with the press regarding his future political plans. Hes entitled to his ambitions, of course, but he needs to finish whats on his plate first. (That would include his long-drawn-out probes of Cuomo administration economic-development programs and related allegations of illicit Albany cronyism.) New York City voters soon will enter another mayoral-election year. Polls show that most arent thrilled with the incumbentand one reason for that doubtless is uncertainty over where all these investigations will wind up. Undue haste is never wise, and Bharara has done yeoman work, but its time for him to write an ending to this book. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images Achizitie de Servicii Tehnice de creare a plantatiilor forestiere de protectie din cadrul primariei Andrusul de Jos si a primariei Vadul lui Isac, r. Cahul Insurance Fraud, Phony Accidents Alleged in Louisiana Parish Louisiana State Police say seven people have been arrested and one is wanted in connection with an alleged insurance fraud scheme involving staged traffic crashes in Jefferson Davis Parish. A state police news release says the investigation began earlier this year. It found that a group of family and friends staged three crashes over five months. The scheme also involved a so-called jump-in crash, in which someone falsely claimed to have been in a vehicle at the time of a crash. Six residents of Jennings and one person from Mamou were arrested Tuesday. All face insurance fraud charges. Some face theft charges. Three face child desertion charges because children were involved in the staged crashes. A 28-year-old woman from Abbeville remains at large in the case. Kentucky Farmers Plead Guilty to Crop Insurance Fraud Two south-central Kentucky farmers have pleaded guilty to crop insurance fraud. The U.S. attorneys office says 53-year-old David Manion and 48-year-old Henry Manion of Allen County admitted making false statements and reports on applications for insurance. The prosecutors office said in a news release the defendants made false statements to influence insurance payments of the Federal Crop Insurance Crop. and Producers Agriculture Insurance Co. The release said David Manion also had insurance provided by Rural Community Insurance Services. The violations occurred between August 2009 and February 2012. The men each admitted intentionally overstating crop damage resulting in losses of more than $1.1 million. Terms of the plea agreement say prosecutors will recommend sentences at the lowest end of the guideline range and the men will be required to make full restitution. New York City Officer Burned Car for $34K in Insurance Money The FBI says a New York City police officer had his Range Rover doused with gasoline and lit it on fire in order to collect $34,000 in insurance money. Special Agent Jason Wake writes in a complaint unsealed Wednesday that Carlos Becker discussed the 2012 arson in recoded conversations. He says the 10-year veteran exchanged several phone calls with an accomplice just hours before the ruined car was discovered. Becker remains in custody following his arrest on mail and insurance fraud charges. Wake says Becker has also pursued claims for a crashed Audi and a BMW that caught on fire. His attorney says she has not yet had an opportunity to discuss the charges with her client. A spokesman for Beckers union didnt immediately return a request for comment. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Two men jailed in Houston, Texas, and accused of using pirated computer software to steal more than 100 vehicles may have exploited an electronic vulnerability to advance auto theft into high-tech crime. Michael Arce, 24, and Jesse Zelaya, 22, focused on new Jeep and Dodge vehicles, which attract big money on the black market in Mexico, authorities said. The men allegedly used a laptop computer to reprogram the targeted vehicles electronic security so their own key worked. The stolen vehicles had a common software thats used by auto technicians and dealers, Houston police officer Jim Woods said. As you get more and more computers installed in vehicles if somebody has that knowledge and that ability, they can turn around and figure out a way to manipulate the system, he said. Fiat Chrysler, which makes Jeeps and Dodges, and police are investigating how the thieves got access to a computerized database of codes used by dealers, locksmiths and independent auto repair shops to replace lost key fobs, said Berj Alexanian, a spokesman at the companys U.S. headquarters in Auburn Hills, Michigan. He said the code database is national and includes vehicles in areas outside of Houston, although he wasnt aware of similar thefts elsewhere. Were looking at every and all solutions to make sure our customers can safely and without thinking park their vehicles, Alexanian said Friday. With more automotive tasks becoming computerized and more cars being linked to the internet, such thefts are likely to increase across the globe, said Yoni Heilbronn, a computer security expert. The auto industry has worked hard in the past year to develop protections, but hackers with multiple motivations will always be looking for ways to get in, said Heilbronn, vice president of marketing for Argus Cyber Security, an Israeli company that works with automakers. While increased computerization brings safety benefits, Heilbronn foresees more thefts, malicious software being installed that shuts down cars until a ransom is paid, and even attacks that disable many cars at a time. The industry, he said, has to install multiple layers of defense. Automakers have been working together to develop best practices and to share information on cybersecurity threats. Companies, including Fiat Chrysler, have their own hacking teams and have offered bounties to outside hackers if they find vulnerabilities. The Houston investigation began in late May with the theft of a Jeep Wrangler near downtown. Leads in that case had been exhausted when investigators received information from federal Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers about vehicles being stolen using a laptop. Arce and Zelaya then were identified as suspects. The two men, who each have criminal records, were arrested last weekend driving a stolen Jeep Grand Cherokee after police had been concentrating on an area of Houston that had been hit previously by auto thieves. They also recovered electronic devices, keys and other tools believed used in the thefts, along with drugs, firearms and body armor. In the Jeep Wrangler case caught on a surveillance video, the suspect got under the hood, cut wires to the horn to disable an alarm and then got inside the SUV. Once inside, he used the database and the vehicle identification number to program a new key fob for the Jeep. Arce remained in jail without bond on charges of unauthorized use of a vehicle, felony possession of a weapon, and possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance. He was set for a court appearance Aug. 26. Zelaya is being held on $500,000 bond on a charge of unauthorized use of a vehicle and was due in court Wednesday. (AP Auto Writer Tom Krisher reported from Detroit.) Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. As a native Montanan who went to school in Bozeman, I know Montana students receive a high quality education. After moving out of state for work and experiencing schools outside of Montana, my wife and I decided to move back to Montana to raise our family. Montanans value public education, and that is why Melissa Romano, a public school teacher from Helena, is the right choice for our next superintendent of public instruction. No matter where they live in Montana, regardless of their background, every child of this state deserves a high-quality education that will prepare him or her to succeed in life beyond the classroom. In order for that to happen, Montana needs an advocate for education and high quality teaching as our superintendent of public instruction. Thats what makes Romano perfect for the job. She is an award-winning teacher, recognized locally and nationally as an outstanding educator and leader. Melissa develops rigorous lessons that challenge students to succeed, lessons that are used by fellow educators across the country. We need that leadership and understanding of how to challenge our youth at the helm of our public schools. We need someone like her who understands what quality instruction looks like, and understands how to motivate students to achieve beyond what even they think is possible. We need someone like Romano who will stand up for public schools, teachers and students. Thats why Im voting for Romano for superintendent of public instruction, and I hope you will too. Danny Waldo Bozeman CLEVELAND, Ohio - Depending on how you count it, the historic La Salle Theatre on East 185th Street in Collinwood is embarking on its second, third or fourth life. Built in 1927 as movie palace, it languished in the 1990s before becoming a vintage auto showroom and then going vacant for about a decade until now. The nonprofit Northeast Shores Development Corp., which helped rescue the building from foreclosure and possible demolition in 2009, is scheduled to launch a $4.1 million renovation Tuesday that will turn the structure into an arts, media, and community center by next May. The theater, which could seat 800 for performances or 450 for weddings, dinners and other catered events, will be used as a performing arts rehearsal or recording space, an exhibit hall, a stage for high school theater and arts programs, and as a meeting space for businesses and community organizations. The La Salle Theatre in 2009. The project will also include renovation of three storefronts that flank the theater lobby on the ground level, and five apartments on the second story. Big lift "This has been a monumental community lift getting this project off the ground,'' said Brian Friedman, director of Northeast Shores, who toured the building Thursday with Ward 8 City Councilman Michael Polensek. "It's been an incredibly bumpy journey," Friedman added, "but we're so excited to come up with creative solutions so the LaSalle can anchor the East 185th Street corridor again." The renovation will include a high-speed Internet hookup that should make the building attractive to musicians who could perform on-site and upload recordings to sound mixing studios elsewhere in the city or the United States, Friedman said. Polensek described the renovation as critical to Collinwood's future. "This is the last neighborhood theater on the northeast side of the city," he said. "This is it. It's the last symbol of the heyday of vaudeville and motion pictures in Cleveland." Waiting, waiting Residents have been waiting for years to see the theater revived. In fact, as Friedman walked out of the building on Thursday, a young woman in a white, southbound sedan stopped on East 185th Street and rolled down her window to shout, "I've been waiting" for the renovation. Referring to the signs posted on the building advertising that work was beginning, she said, "I look at this every day. I'm into theater!" Friedman smiled and joked that the woman, whom he did not recognize, had not been asked by his office to drive by at that precise moment. Located at 823 East 185th St., the theater is the most prominent structure on the 1.2-mile stretch of the road from I-90 north to Lakeshore Boulevard, just south of Lake Erie. Designed by Italian native It was designed by the Italian-born architect Nicola Petti (1880-1929), who also designed the Variety, Kinsman, Imperial, Moreland and Cedar Lee theaters in Greater Cleveland, plus theaters in Canton, Toledo and Mansfield, according to the Cleveland Landmark Commission's website. Named for a 17th-century French explorer of the Great Lakes region, the building features a two-story limestone facade with a central pavilion resembling a neoclassical temple with a triangular pediment on top, like a miniature Parthenon. The ornate La Salle marquee, which features the theater's name in fancy script, will be restored, with digital displays added to its sides in place of the old-timey, movable black letter signs that used to announce films that were playing. Inside the theater's spacious interior, curving walls are sprinkled ornate plaster ornamentation, some of which is in poor condition. However, it's still possible to see small sculptural medallions with bas relief profiles of La Salle and of the 18th-century German playwright Friedrich Schiller, whose "Ode to Joy" was made famous by Beethoven's Ninth Symphony chorale. Friedman said the renovation, designed by LDA Architects of Cleveland, would remove the theater's sloping concrete floor, which once held 1,500 raked seats. The designers will install a new floor with three horizontal terraces connected by stairs and by a wheelchair ramp to provide level spaces for tables and chairs. Plasterwork will be restored, especially in the building's lobby, where damage from age and leaks is visible. Funding for the project includes $645,000 provided through various city programs; $1.7 million in grants, equity and contributions; and $1.7 million in historic tax credits and a mortgage. Friedman said the budget does not include the kind of highly detailed decorative painting recently completed in upgrades of the Ohio and State theaters at Playhouse Square. "We don't have that budget today," he said, smiling, "unless one of your readers makes a contribution to the capital campaign. The will is there, if the resources are." New center of gravity In a larger sense, the renovation of the La Salle will help start a second center of gravity for the arts in Collinwood, following a wave of investments over the past decade in the Waterloo Arts District around the Beachland Ballroom on Waterloo Road, about 30 blocks to the west, into a music and arts mecca. Northeast Shores recently led a $120,000 planning exercise funded with help from the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency to figure out how to improve streetscapes on East 185th Street and encourage investment. "Now that Waterloo is doing well, we're pivoting here," Friedman said. An illustration from the East 185th Street streetscape plan shows the La Salle Theatre in improved surroundings. After its long life as a movie theater ended in the 1980s, subsequent owners tried to turn it into a comedy club or tavern. Polensek credited previous owner John McDonald, who showed vintage automobiles in the theater, with making sure the building's roof was in good condition. Polensek said he secured city of Cleveland landmark status for the building in 2008 to ensure it couldn't be demolished. By then, the building had been acquired through foreclosure by Park View Federal Savings Bank. Northeast Shores bought the theater from the bank in late 2009 for $150,000, Friedman said. It took the next seven years, more or less, to raise capital for the project, which includes federal and state historic tax credits. But now, the La Salle is ready for its next life as a community gathering spot for arts and media. "In this neighborhood, this is the issue," Polensek said. "This building symbolizes the neighborhood." BAY VILLAGE, Ohio -- After serving 16 years, Bay Village Mayor Debbie Sutherland is retiring mid-term. Sutherland announced Tuesday that she'll leave office in October, more than a year before her term is up. Since taking office in 2000, Sutherland has won reelection four times. She plans to start a consulting business after leaving office. Sutherland, one of the few Republican mayors in Cuyahoga County, ran for Cuyahoga County Commissioner in 2008 but was defeated by incumbent Peter Lawson Jones. Sutherland, in the press release, said it was an honor to hold the position and noted the multitude of city officials she's been able to work with, including three council presidents. "Together, we have accomplished much and are reaping the benefits of hard work and tough, disciplined decisions that have made our community so desirable," she said in the release. Sutherland has also worked with 23 councilmen and women during her time as mayor. "When I took on this job, I stated that if I was required to be mired in meaningless minutia rather than big, transformative projects, it would be time for me to move on," she said in the release. "That time has come." Bay Village City Hall Mayor Debbie Sutherland is resigning in October - what's next for her and Bay Village? (Barb Galbincea, cleveland.com) BAY VILLAGE, Ohio -- Bay Village Mayor Debbie Sutherland has decided it's a good time to move on from the position she's held for 16 years. Bay Village is stable, without any big projects on the horizon, she said, and she is looking to move forward into creating a consulting firm that can encourage regional cooperation and operational efficiency. Sutherland will resign in October. "We've taken on a ton of projects and made a lot of progress," she said in an interview Tuesday afternoon with cleveland.com. "We're at a space right now where there aren't a lot of projects in front of us." Sutherland said she plans on splitting her time between Northeast Ohio and Charleston, South Carolina, where she and her husband built a house. Though there are a few things she'll keep an eye on even when she leaves, such as the city's master planning process. She is proud of the city's accomplishments over the past 16 years, including the new aquatic center and other facility improvements. Sutherland has worked with three different council presidents and 23 council members over her time in office. "(This kind of progress) is not something you can do overnight," she said. According to the city's charter, the president of city council succeeds the mayor if he or she resigns before their term is up. Council President Paul Koomar said he needs time to discuss the decision with his family. "It caught all of us off guard," he said. Koomar said he enjoyed working with Sutherland. If Koomar does not accept the position, city council would then appoint a successor, according to the city's charter. The next municipal election is in November of 2017. This story has been updated with comments from Bay Village Council President Paul Koomar. Unknown.jpeg Who invented the ice cream cone? There are several stories about how it came to be -- including one that connects the invention to Northeast Ohio -- though no one knows for sure. (Kristen Davis, cleveland.com) CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Ever wonder who first got the idea to put a scoop of ice cream in an easily transportable, edible container -- the ice cream cone? There are plenty of stories out there, including one that connects its invention to Northeast Ohio, but it still seems the origin of the ice cream cone is a rather murky one - even among the most astute foodies. The most popular story is the cone was created at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis. Food Historian Anne Funderburg's history of ice cream describes seven origin myths for the ice cream cone -- starting with the tale of Ernest Hamwi, an immigrant from Syria who was making zalabia, a wafer dessert, next to an ice cream stand at the fair. When the ice cream stand ran out of cups, the story says Hamwi suggested combining his wafers with the ice cream, which quickly caught on. Hamwi continued to work in the business of ice cream cones, eventually opening the Missouri Cone Company. The International Association of Ice Cream Manufacturers named him as the official creator of the ice cream cone in the 1950s. Still, other stories claim someone else gave Hamwi the idea or invented the cone themselves. Our local connection to the invention of the ice cream cone is that Charles Menches of Akron and his brother, Frank, of St. Louis, Mo., ran ice cream concessions at fairs and events across the Midwest. The family of the brothers claim they came up with the ice cream cone at the 1904 World's Fair when a lady friend took one layer of a baked waffle and rolled it into a cone around the ice cream. They had the idea to wrap a warm waffle around a fid (a cone-shaped splicing tool for tent ropes). The waffle cooled and held its shape to provide an edible handle for eating ice cream. The brothers are also credited with the invention of candy-coated peanuts and popcorn that was sold under the name "Gee Whiz," today known as Cracker Jack, as well as the first hamburger. According to the International Dairy Association, there is no evidence that supports one of the ice cream cone stories over the other. But there are numerous reports that say they were most certainly invented long before that date. WhatsCooking.com says both paper and metal cones were used in France, England, and Germany before the 19th century. Travelers to Dusseldorf, Germany, reported eating ice cream out of edible cones in the late 1800s. An 1807 etching of the Parisian Cafe Frascati shows in the lower right corner of the image a woman licking something out of a hand-held container, which ice cream historian Robin Weir writes is the "first pictorial evidence for ice cream cones." Almost 40 years later, Charles Francatelli's 1846 book "The Modern Cook," described how to make "wafer-gauffres" filled with "filbert-cream-ice" to garnish a molded desert called "Iced Pudding a la Duchess of Kent." The accompanying illustration clearly showed the cone shape, and his gauffres recipe described shaping still-warm wafers into "small cornucopiae" before they cooled and became brittle. Toward the end of the century, Agnes B. Marshall, who ran a cooking school and wrote numerous cookbooks, included a recipe for "Cornets with Cream," which included instructions that the cornets could "be filled with any cream or water ice." Her 1894 book "Fancy Ices" had additional recipes for cornets filled with ice creams -- but, while they were a step closer to the current incarnation of the ice cream cone, they were still elegant deserts meant to be put on a plate and eaten with utensils. In the second half of the 19th century, ice cream bought outside the home was served in a small glass container, called a "penny lick" for the price. You would lick the ice cream out of the glass and return it to the vendor to wash and reuse. This practice wasn't necessarily sanitary, and it could cause delays if too many people wanted ice cream at the same time. The solution: an edible container. The International Dairy Association credits Italo Marchiony with the invention of the cone. Marchiony claimed he had been making edible cups to serve ice cream in New York City since 1896, when he sold lemon ice on Wall Street. He originally used liquor glasses to serve his ice cream in. To reduce his overhead, caused by customers breaking or wandering off with his serving glasses, he baked edible waffle. While the waffles were still warm, he folded them into the shape of a cup, then a cone. His waffle cups made him the most popular vendor on Wall Street and soon afterward, he had a chain of 45 carts. He filed a patent in 1903 for his own ice-cream-cup-making machine. Once cones became popular after the 1904 St. Louis Fair, Marchiony tried to protect his patent through legal channels but failed. Since Marchiony's patent was for only the specific mold construction and there were lots of other ways to mold cones, his patent was not much good. According to some historians, cones were rolled by hand until 1912, when Frederick Bruckman, an inventor from Portland, Ore., patented a machine for doing the rolling. In 1928, Nabisco bought Bruckman's company and rights, but no record of this patent was ever found. It remains unclear exactly which invention story is the true story. But, while the ice cream cone was probably not first invented at the 1904 World's Fair, the fair did serve to popularize the cone as a container. By the 1920s, the cone business had expanded, and in 1924 reached a record 245 million. Now, millions of rolled cones are turned out on machines that are capable of producing about 150,000 cones every 24 hours. Brecksville City Hall 3.JPG The city is Brecksville is considering a six-month moratorium on the cultivation, processing and sale of medical marijuana. North Royalton is doing the same. (Bob Sandrick, special to cleveland.com) BRECKSVILLE, Ohio - The cities of Brecksville and North Royalton may place six-month moratoriums on the growing, processing and selling of marijuana. The moratoriums would give officials in those cities time to study a new state law that will allow patients, starting Sept. 8, to use medical marijuana prescribed by doctors. The law, House Bill 523, was signed by Gov. John Kasich on June 9 and gives municipalities 90 days to react. HB 523 authorizes municipalities to establish their own marijuana regulations. Local governments can restrict locations where marijuana is cultivated, processed and sold, or they can ban the growing and sale of marijuana altogether. However, municipalities cannot stop patients from using medical marijuana. Brecksville Law Director David Matty told cleveland.com Friday that he will recommend a marijuana moratorium to Brecksville City Council. "I want to give council and (Mayor Jerry Hruby) a preliminary education on a 120-page bill," Matty said. "They will have to decide how this will go forward in Brecksville." Donna Vozar, North Royalton's assistant law director, said the Law Department will recommend a six-month moratorium to North Royalton City Council on Sept. 6, two days before the law goes into effect. "Council and the administration would have time to determine how they want to proceed, whether they want to limit (the growing, processing and selling of) medical marijuana or prohibit it entirely, or what kind of regulations they want to impose," Vozar told cleveland.com Monday. Other Greater Cleveland communities have already taken action. Lakewood established a six-month marijuana moratorium in July. Rocky River has introduced legislation that would ban cultivating, processing and dispensing marijuana in that city. Elsewhere in Ohio, Beavercreek, Troy and Piqua have placed six-month moratoriums on the growing, processing and selling of marijuana. Strongsville Law Director Neal Jamison said he is examining HB 523 but has no plans to introduce legislation to Strongsville City Council, at least not yet. "We have not had any specific discussions but we are staying abreast of this issue," Jamison said. Broadview Heights Law Director Vince Ruffa did not return calls. The state law already provides some restrictions to medical marijuana. For example, no one can grow, process or sell marijuana within 500 feet of a school, church, library, playground or park. Also, patients can use marijuana only in vapor form and can't smoke it, the Associated Press has reported. No one is allowed to grow marijuana in their homes. But other details are up in the air and will remain there for a while - even after patients can start using medical marijuana Sept. 8 - and that complicates things. The Ohio General Assembly left regulatory details to the Ohio Department of Commerce, the Ohio Board of Pharmacy, the Medical Board of Ohio and a Medical Marijuana Advisory Committee that hasn't been appointed yet. According to the Associated Press, the 14-member advisory committee will consist of employers, labor representatives, police officers, caregivers, patients, agricultural representatives, mental health workers, addiction specialists, a nurse, an academic researcher, pharmacists and doctors. The regulators have a year to create medical marijuana rules, and even less time to establish rules specifically for marijuana growers. The entire program must be fully implemented within two years. 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. ELYRIA, Ohio -- The 42-year-old Elyria man who shot his girlfriend to death hacked her Facebook page after killing her, police said. He killed himself when confronted by officers. "Never play games with someone emotions or cheat on them when they give you their all, please respect their love and devotion, someone will end up hurt or worse dead," Leonzo Bufford wrote on Kiesha L. Betton's Facebook page. Elyria police Capt. Chris Costantinto confirmed Bufford made the post using Betton's cellphone in the Cleveland area at 1:57 a.m. Monday, almost three hours after he killed Betton in the couple's Elyria home. Someone responded to his statement in Facebook's comments section, writing that Bufford "need to kill himself." "I will," Bufford responded at 2:02 a.m. Never PLAY GAMES WITH SOMEONE EMOTIONS OR CHEAT ON THEM WHEN THEY GIVE YOU THEIR ALL, PLEASE RESPECT THEIR LOVE AND DEVOTION , SOMEONE WILL END UP HURT OR WORSE DEAD Posted by Kiesha Betton on Sunday, August 7, 2016 Bufford also changed Betton's Facebook profile picture at 1:44 a.m. Monday to a photo of the two of them. At 2:20 a.m., police spotted Bufford's car near Interstate 90 at Eddy Road. Bufford fatally shot himself after officers stopped his car at Martin Luther King Jr. Drive near East 105th Street in Cleveland, police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Bufford had also shot an ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend about an hour before his death on Winston Road in South Euclid, police said. Sophia L. Latimer, 50, and Darnell M. Strowder, 58, of Cleveland were still in the hospital in serious condition Tuesday morning, according to South Euclid police. Witnesses told police Bufford accused Betton of cheating and they got into an argument inside the couple's Revere Lane home, Costantino said. Betton's two teenage daughters were present when Bufford shot her about 11:09 p.m. Sunday. Betton, 40, suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the torso and died at University Hospitals Elyria Medical Center, police said. An autopsy is scheduled for Wednesday, and the Lorain County Corner will rule on the official cause of death. Bufford and Betton went to dinner with Bufford's sister and mother in Solon earlier Sunday. Both women told police everything seemed normal during dinner, but Betton was on her cellphone a lot, Costantino said. Bufford's family told investigators he is normally a passive person and this is out of his character. "They are appalled," Costantino said. "They never thought he would do anything like this. From what we've learned, this is so far out of his character." If you wish to discuss or comment on this story, please visit our crime and courts comments section. Like Chanda Neely on Facebook. Follow me on Twitter: SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio -- A 42-year-old Elyria man shot his ex-girlfriend in the stomach, set a car on fire and shot her new boyfriend three times at the woman's South Euclid home early Monday, police said. He shot and killed himself when confronted by police. Leonzo Bufford had already shot his current girlfriend, Keisha L. Betton, to death in Elyria before driving to South Euclid, police said. Sophia L. Latimer, 50, and Darnell M. Strowder, 58, of Cleveland were still in the hospital in serious condition Tuesday morning, according to South Euclid police. Officers responded to several reports of shots fired and two people injured at 1:18 a.m. Monday on Winston Road, just south of Monticello Boulevard in South Euclid. Police found Latimer with a gunshot wound to the stomach inside the house. It's unclear where Strowder was when he was shot. Details about his injuries were not provided. An unidentified man was putting out a car fire set by Bufford outside the house, a police report states. It's unclear who owned the car. Witnesses heard five or six gunshots and saw a black vehicle leaving the scene. Someone identified Bufford as the shooter. Elyria police had obtained a warrant for Bufford's arrest and put out an all points bulletin after he shot Betton just after 11 p.m. Sunday. Witnesses told police Bufford accused Betton of cheating and they got into an argument inside the couple's Elyria home. Betton's two teenage daughters were present when Bufford shot her, police said. Betton, 40, suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the torso and died at University Hospitals Elyria Medical Center. Police following pings from Bufford's cellphone spotted his car near Interstate 90 at Eddy Road. Bufford shot himself in the head after officers stopped the car at Martin Luther King Jr. Drive near East 105th Street in Cleveland, police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Police recovered a .45-caliber Ruger handgun with a 10-round magazine near the car. The bullets in the gun matched shell casings found in the front lawn of Latimer's home, according to a police report. Elyria police were not immediately available Tuesday morning to confirm if that was the same type of gun used to shoot Benton. If you wish to discuss or comment on this story, please visit our crime and courts comments section. Like Chanda Neely on Facebook. Follow me on Twitter: CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The city of Cleveland on Tuesday said it will try to quash the online sale of a hooded sweatshirt that features the police department's logo superimposed on a skull with an incendiary phrase. "The best defense against evil men are good men who are skilled at violence," is emblazoned on the shirt, which is being sold on Teechip for $39.99. The city's lawyers are preparing to draft a letter to the website over the unauthorized use of the logo after cleveland.com sent a picture of the shirt to officials, city spokesman Dan Ball said. "You can't use our logos without express written consent from our communications office," Ball said. "Especially not for profit. That raises a big red flag." The head of Cleveland's police union said Tuesday that he had not seen the shirt. Teechip is among several websites that allow any user to design apparel, phone cases, coffee mugs and posters, and market their design online, according to its website. The company prints the designs on the items, and the seller handles the design and marketing the merchandise. Anyone who uses the website agrees not to "upload, post, email, transmit, or otherwise make available any content that is in violation of copyright law, trademark law, or any other law protecting intellectual property in any jurisdiction, or that violates an individual's right to publicity or privacy," according to the website's terms of service. The phrase on the shirt appears to be derived from a book written by an Oregon-based self-defense author and former police officer. "The only defense against evil, violent people is good people who are more skilled at violence," Rory Miller wrote in the 2012 book "Force Decisions: A Citizen's Guide." A sweatshirt with the same design that featured the Nashville police department's logo drew a cease and desist letter from that city in July, according to WZTV. Howard Vernon court (Adam Ferrise, cleveland.com) CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Cleveland man is accused of aggravated vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of a crash crash that killed a motorcyclist. Howard Vernon, 31, is being held in the Cuyahoga County Jail on $50,000 bond. The crash killed motorcyclist Cortez Prince, 38, of Cleveland. It occurred about 1 a.m. Thursday on East 55th Street, near Scovill Avenue. Vernon was driving his 2001 Chevrolet Malibu south on East 55th Street. Prince was riding in the opposite direction on his 2016 Harley Davidson motorcycle, according to court records. Vernon turned left at Scovill Avenue in front of Prince. The right front part of Vernon's car hit Prince's motorcycle, records show. Prince was thrown off the motorcycle and landed on left edge of East 55th Street. He was taken to MetroHealth Medical Center, where he died of blunt force trauma, the medical examiner said. Vernon left the vehicle behind and he and his passengers walked away from the crash without calling 911, according to police. Cleveland police found the group walking east on Scovill after the crash. Vernon's criminal history includes felony convictions for attempted felonious assault and domestic violence. His traffic record includes driving under suspension convictions in 2008 and 2010 and causing a crash in 2009 at East 105th Street and Elgin Avenue in Cleveland. If you wish to discuss or comment on this story, please visit our crime and courts comments section. The state of Montana might be vast, but its filling quickly with breweries, that is. The Last Best Place has made quite a name for itself i ASEAN officials join hands for a group photo at the 49th annual ministerial meeting in Vientiane on July 24, 2016. It's been a tough year for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) as tensions over China's incursions into the South China Sea have challenged its long-running practices. Asean was originally founded on August 8, 1967, through the signing of the Bangkok Declaration by Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Thailand to promote economic cooperation and regional stability. Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia joined later. The organization has long drawn flak for its adherence to the "Asean way," which entails decision-making by consensus and a non-interventionist approach. That's dented its ability to respond forcefully to tensions in the South China Sea. China has claimed almost all of the South China Sea, a massive body of water that stretches about 1,200 miles from the Chinese mainland; many countries have objected to those claims. Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei and Indonesia all claim territorial rights there. Last month, a tribunal at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, Netherlands, ruled in favor of the Philippines in an arbitration case over the U.N. Convention on the law of the sea, rejecting China's claims. But Asean's response to the Hague ruling had been considered weak, with Beijing-ally Cambodia blocking a stronger statement. "It cannot be denied that decision-making by consensus degrades Asean's ability to act on controversial issues," Bilahari Kausikan, the ambassador-at-large at the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said during a speech on August 4 at a private Asean-related event at the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Center. As Singapore rings in its 51st birthday on Tuesday, one of the island's most well-known sights is also celebrating a key anniversary. It may not top the list of tourist attractions but a public skate park in the midst of a central shopping district has become a cultural iconic for skaters and non-skaters alike. The Somerset Skate Park turned 10 in January, and is widely recognized as a manifestation of the island-nation's multicultural spirit. Somerset Skate Park Por Vida Skateboarding As one of the world's most religiously diverse nations, according to the Pew Research Center, Singapore's population consists of predominantly Chinese, Malay and Indian ethnic groups as well a large circle of expatriatesa mix that's consistently reflected at the skate park. On any given day, skaters from various age groups and backgrounds can be seen practicing tricks, cheered on by a crowd of bystanders-some of whom skate, others who simply hang out at the park for the "good vibes." "There have always been a mix of cultures at the park but everyone is cool with one another, there are always positive energies. I've never seen any nasty things go down," said Tan Lepham, a skateboard instructor and founder of Por Vida Skateboarding. Tan, who's been a regular at the park ever since it was built, notes that the zone is home to a range of communities. "Graffiti artists, break-dancers, bikers, and rollerbladers all hang out there too," he pointed out, noting that skateboarding's carefree lifestyle is a big draw to those who don't practice the sport. As one of the most densely populated countries in the world, Singapore has limited street space for skaters to perfect their skills, underlining the need for specialized zones. Since the National Youth Council (NYC) Skate Park was shuttered in 2004, the Somerset Skate Park became the de-facto spot for the new and experienced to hone their craft when it opened two years later. A second skate park was opened in 2009 on the eastern side of the island to meet rising demand. Youths skateboard in the central business district in Singapore. Edgar Su | Reuters Republican presidential candidate Ohio Gov. John Kasich speaks at a campaign rally at the Crowne Plaza Milwaukee West hotel on March 23, 2016 in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. Getty Images Of the 17 candidates who ran for the Republican nomination, perhaps only two can honestly say they ran the races they intended to run. Donald Trump, the victor, is certainly one of them. John Kasich's aides argue that he's the other. Following his unceremonious departure from the presidential primary in May, the Ohio Republican governor is carrying forward with a sense of vindication, embracing his new role as the "Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval" for vulnerable swing-state Republicans. On Thursday, that found Kasich in Chicago, helping to raise money for Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk, who is in a tough re-election fight against Democrat Tammy Duckworth. After appearing at a fundraiser, Kasich joined Kirk on a tour of 1871, a non-profit incubator for tech start-ups the perfect photo op. At every turn, the Ohio governor is making sure to show America he's looking toward the future. That future looks past Trump and athwart Ted Cruz, who has his own designs on consolidating the GOP in the potential wake of another presidential loss, as post-convention polls indicate is a likelihood. Going forward, Kasich is indicating that he has little intention to change his approach, maintaining his close ties to John Weaver, the man who oversaw his 2016 campaign. "I suspect he doesn't know yet," Weaver told CNBC.com, when asked about Kasich's presidential plans. "The day we got off the plane after he pulled out [out of the race], it was a 1 or 2 percent chance he would ever do it again. But I would say the chance has gone up, because of how outrageous Trump is." Kasich's road to the White House, aides say, is predicated on how Republican primary voters would respond to a shellacking this fall, and whether they would actively seek to broaden the party's tent next cycle. It could also come down to the precise specifics of how 2016 unfolds, particularly in Kasich's home state, a key presidential battleground. But for the moment however long that moment lasts his campaign is feeling justified for keeping its powder dry in the waning days of the primary race, resisting the calls to go nuclear against Trump. "He was widely criticized for [that approach] by some," Weaver said. "Many of those people have come back and apologized to us. No one who has gotten involved with Donald Trump has come back from that relationship unscathed, so the fact he did what he did is looking mighty smart." The Kasich campaign had, for a while, indicated that it would take its fight to the bitter end, the convention floor if necessary, until the candidate abruptly called it quits on May 4, just before boarding a plane to campaign in Washington, D.C. Gaining support of Buckeye Dems A Public Policy Polling survey two weeks ago showed that Kasich has 50 percent support among Ohio voters, a slight dip from where he was this spring. The makeup of his support, however, has dramatically reoriented, gaining the support of Democrats while losing Republicans. According to several knowledgeable sources, Weaver, despite his baggage, remains the odds-on favorite to helm a future Kasich presidential bid. "You either leave these things closer or further apart, and they left closer," said Matt David, who served as the chief strategist for the pro-Kasich Super PAC, New Day for America. Weaver, who is based in Texas, remains on the payroll and is regularly spotted around Columbus. He effectively now serves as the manager of Kasich's "Good Housekeeping" brand. The two have formed a kind of good-cop, bad-cop duo when it comes to Trump, with the consultant taking a much more strident and aggressive tone toward the Republican nominee, especially on Twitter. Kasich has tried to strike a balance, keeping Trump at arm's length while trying to avoid getting into an arm wrestle. In a rare Sunday morning talk-show appearance on CNN's "State of the Union," Kasich went perhaps his furthest in publicly distancing himself from his party's nominee. and yet strained not to avoid a new spat with the blustery billionaire. When asked, for example, about Trump's initial obstinance in supporting the re-election bids of Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, and Senators John McCain and Kelly Ayotte, Kasich described it as "a little bizarre" a clear understatement. Asked about the prospects of eventually endorsing Trump, Kasich suggested it was quite unlikely, but didn't definitively rule it out: "There's so much water over the dam now, it's become increasingly difficult," he said. "But I want, you know, unifying." Speaking to reporters in Chicago on Thursday, Kirk, who has previously declared Trump "too bigoted and racist" to be president, joked that he and Kasich were both suffering from a form of PTSD: "Post-Trump Traumatic Disorder." Kasich, however, was quick to interject: "Make sure to note that he said it," the governor told reporters. "I don't want to have to answer calls for the next week." But Trump is making a mutual nonaggression pact very difficult. During a recent appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press," Trump floated the idea that he could launch a $10 million anti-Kasich super PAC, if he fails to win the presidency. On Sunday, Kasich confirmed to CNN a New York Times report that Donald Trump Jr., the nominee's son, reached out prior to the convention, offering Kasich the running-mate slot and the promise of being in charge of all policy decisions in a Trump administration. (The Trump campaign has subsequently denied this, but several Kasich sources confirmed the account to CNBC.com. While communications have largely ceased between the camps, one source close to Kasich told CNBC.com that Trump surrogates Ben Carson and Newt Gingrich have, in recent weeks, made overtures to the governor in an effort to thaw relations. Carson's spokesman, Armstrong Williams, confirmed to CNBC.com that Carson left a message on Kasich's cell phone late last week, offering himself as a bridge; Kasich, as of Sunday night, had not responded. For now, the Ohio governor is putting most of his attention in the re-election bid of his home-state senator, Rob Portman, who endorsed Kasich's presidential campaign right before the New Hampshire primary. Kasich aides are now predicting a scenario where Trump loses the presidency, the GOP loses seats in the Senate, but Portman prevails. "I think it would be further proof that Kasich is most popular politician in every poll you see," said Scott Blake, a longtime Kasich aide who served as regional political director of his presidential campaign. "We're extremely fortunate to have Governor John Kasich's support and he is hands down our most valuable surrogate," Portman's campaign spokesperson, Michawn Rich, said in a statement. But insiders also express deep concern about a scenario where Ohio ends up handing Clinton the presidency, and Kasich is subsequently blamed for it. In any event, aides insist Kasich does not have his finger in the political winds, and that his machinations are based purely on what he thinks is right for his party and the country. Moreover, as Weaver says, "Anybody who is trying to game-plan out what is going to happen tomorrow, much less what is happening in 2020, is crazy." Skipping convention came down to "manners" Kasich's camp is, however, reveling in the pickle Cruz has found himself in, following his decision to publicly reject Trump from the stage of the Republican National Convention. On CNN Sunday, Kasich contrasted that approach with his decision to simply not attend the event, saying it came down the "manners." "Believe it or not," he said, "I wanted to show respect to the nominee." Chris Schrimpf, a Kasich spokesman, told CNBC.com: "Some people wanted him to do a Ted Cruz-type speech. Other people wanted him to welcome Trump. Neither of those things felt right to him. Ultimately, he thought about doing the right thing. Did it work out this year? Not in the Republican primary, but he certainly has his voice moving forward." In the coming weeks, Kasich plans to use that voice to campaign for two Republicans who have gotten crosswise with Trump: Ayotte and Colorado Rep. Mike Coffman, who recently cut a biting anti-Trump ad. Tom Davis, the former Virginia congressman and longtime Kasich pal, said the governor "gives authenticity for their distance" to the party's problematic standard-bearer. "I think he is providing a service that should be carried out from the top of the ticket, but can't because of [Trump's] petty name-calling and stupid statements," said Blake. Kasich smirks over Cruz A woman poses for a photo by a set of Olympic rings on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro on August 4, 2016 on the eve of the opening of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Tensions boil in the pool Lilly King, the 19-year-old American who called out Russian rival Yuliya Efimova for her two failed drug tests, won gold and backed up her sizable talk of keeping the Olympics clean. She also set an Olympic record in the 100-meter breaststroke. The loss left Efimova sobbing for nearly five minutes. King went on to say that U.S. drug cheats aren't any different, and have no place in these Olympics. American Ryan Murphy took home gold as well, setting an Olympic record in the men's 100 backstroke. More from USA Today: Brennan: Lilly King beats Russian 'knowing I did it clean' Russian Efimova breaks down in tears after losing to King Usain Bolt still a rock, and samba, star All of this set the stage for Michael Phelps, who has been appointment viewing for the majority of his career. It takes some kind of crazy to stare down and possibly taunt Phelps, who captured his 19th gold medal on Sunday night, but that's what reigning Olympic gold medalist Chad le Clos did ahead of their 200 butterfly semifinal. He appeared to shadow box just feet away from Phelps in the ready room, and then continued to stare at him throughout the event. Phelps qualified second, le Clos fourth, meaning that the two will go head-to-head in the final Tuesday night. Basketballteams leave zero doubt After a somewhat nervy quarter and a half, the U.S. men showed little restraint in pounding the Venezuelans to improve to 2-0 in group play. Paul George was the leading scorer with 20 points, but his mere presence should be celebrated after his devastating leg injury two years ago. That's why, after what happened to French gymnast Samir Ait Said, George vowed that he would offer inspiration and "become friends" with him once they meet. The U.S. women had little trouble dispatching Spain for their 43rd consecutive Olympic victory. The total margin of victory over four games for both U.S. teams has been (drum roll) ... 206 points. Like we said, zero doubt. Somuch for the amenities When you're Usain Bolt, you get yourself a personal room in the Olympic Village. Is a TV on top of that too much to ask? Bolt went and bought himself a TV after someone promised they'd pick him up one and didn't come through. The six-time gold medalist was then serenaded by a credentialed reporter at a press conference. Such is life for the swaggering samba star. NBCanalyst does the right thing after controversy After a series of remarks about Simone Biles' adoptive parents Sunday, NBC analyst Al Trautwig issued an apology Monday afternoon. Trautwig sparked a furor online when he suggested the American gymnast's adoptive parents are not really her parents. "They may be mom and dad but they are NOT her parents," he wrote in a since-deleted tweet. Ron and Nellie Biles adopted Simone and her younger sister Adria in 2001. The girls spent time in foster care as Shanon Biles, their biological mother and Ron's daughter, struggled with drugs and alcohol. "I regret that I wasn't more clear in my wording on the air," Trautwig said in a statement emailed by NBC Sports. "I compounded the error on Twitter, which I quickly corrected. To set the record straight, Ron and Nellie are Simone's parents." MaleAmerican gymnasts stumble in team final The United States scored 268.560, rallying in its last three events, but were unable to overcome a sloppy start en route to a fifth-place finish. On floor, Alex Naddour fell on his final tumbling pass and Sam Mikulak went out of bounds on his first two. It didn't get much better on pommel horse, where Mikulak, Naddour and Danell Leyvamanaged to stay on the apparatus but all scored in the 14s. Japan won gold, finishing 2.6 points ahead of the Russian team. Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is partnering with international technology firms such as SAP to help them enter the Chinese market, a region that foreign companies often struggle to compete in. Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of the New York-listed company, will allow foreign firms to bring their software products into China using Alibaba's infrastructure. The 11 technology firms are from the United States, Europe, Japan and Thailand and include the likes of SAP and HERE, the mapping system owned by a conglomerate of German carmakers including Daimler. "Selling into China is not easy. First you would need infrastructure help from someone like Alibaba Cloud where we have the best data centers and network. Secondly, you would have to work with local regulation issues because unlike other countries, China requires cloud operators to hold certain licenses around data regulation. That is where we can help. We help them comply with local regulation," Sicheng Yu, general manager of Alibaba Cloud Global, told CNBC by phone. One of the U.K.'s most avidly pursued trading relationships is threatened by the surprise delay of a planned 18 billion ($23.4 billion) nuclear deal, the Chinese ambassador to the U.K. has warned. Liu Xiaoming, whose tenure as Beijing's man in London has seen a notable warming in relations, warned in an editorial published in Tuesday's Financial Times: "the China-UK relationship is at a crucial historical juncture." "If Britain's openness is a condition for bilateral co-operation, then mutual trust is the very foundation on which this is built," he added. In Ohio, Clinton leads by 43 percent to 38 percent a 5-point shift since July ,when the two candidates were tied. The survey in Iowa shows the Democratic nominee holding a slim 41 percent to 37 percent lead over her Republican rival. In July, Clinton led Trump in Iowa by 3 percentage points. Hillary Clinton leads Donald Trump in three crucial 2016 battleground states, according to new NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist surveys. In Pennsylvania like Ohio a key Rust Belt target for Trump he trails by a double-digit margin. Clinton draws 48 percent to 37 percent for Trump. Prior to the conventions, Clinton led by 9 points over Trump, 45 percent to 36 percent. More worrisome in the Keystone State for Republicans trying to hold their Senate majority, GOP incumbent Pat Toomey also trails the relatively inexperienced Democrat challenging him, Katie McGinty, by 48 percent to 44 percent. The Iowa telephone poll of 899 voters carries a margin for error of 3.3 percentage points, the same margin for error as in the Ohio survey. The Pennsylvania poll of 834 voters carries an error margin of 3.4 points. All three were conducted Aug. 3-7. HELENA The U.S. government, facing rising firefighting costs as blazes rage more frequently and with greater intensity across the West, wants Montana's largest utility to compensate it for a 2010 wildfire near Canyon Ferry Lake east of Helena. Over three days in July 2010, the Lakeside Fire burned nearly 900 acres of federal, state and private land. It destroyed a cabin and two other structures and forced the evacuation of residents north of the lake. More than 200 people from various agencies and led by the U.S. Forest Service responded to the fire. NorthWestern Energy's negligence of a power line caused the fire, according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court. A Forest Service investigation concluded the fire was started after the power line malfunctioned, severed and ignited the grass and timber on the ground. The power line's poles and insulators had not been properly maintained by NorthWestern Energy, the lawsuit said. "The Ward Ranch Line would not have malfunctioned, snapped and caused the Lakeside Fire if defendant had exercised reasonable care in the maintenance and operation of the line," Assistant U.S. Attorney Megan Dishong wrote in the lawsuit. The government seeks $485,855 the cost of fighting the fire plus interest and an unspecified amount in penalties. NorthWestern's attorneys filed a response Monday in which the company denies any liability. Attorney Chad Adams submitted a number of possible defenses, including that the damage caused by the fire was an Act of God, the fault of others not named or caused by the government itself. NorthWestern spokeswoman Claudia Rapkoch said she could not speak in detail about the lawsuit or the cause of the fire, but that the company strongly denies the allegation of negligence. "The company does plan to defend itself in court if it comes to that," she said. Fighting and preventing fires now consumes more than half of the Forest Service's annual budget, and the agency estimates the costs could jump to two-thirds of the budget by 2025 unless changes are made. The costs have risen as fire seasons have grown longer and the size, frequency and severity of fires have increased, agency officials said in a report released last year. But lawsuits such as the one filed against NorthWestern Energy are not part of any new strategy to cut down those costs, said Forest Service spokesman David Smith. "If a responsible party has been identified, the government seeks to recover costs," Smith said. "We've collected from energy companies, mines, and individuals over the years." It may not be uncommon for the U.S. government to sue to recover firefighting costs, but the government should be doing more of it, said J. Curtis Varone, a Rhode Island attorney who runs a blog called Fire Law. "In the U.S. we have historically looked at fire as an accident for which no one is really responsible," Varone said in an email to The Associated Press Tuesday. "Many other countries look at it a bit differently: negligently causing a fire is a criminal act." Some states also have turned to the courts to recover firefighting costs. The Wyoming Supreme Court last year ruled the state could recover money from Black Hills Power Inc. that was spent fighting a 2012 wildfire on state land near Newcastle. Montana also paid more than $13,000 of the cost of the Lakeside Fire, its share for the damage to state lands, according to a cost-share agreement between the Forest Service and the state Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. The state agency is reviewing the federal lawsuit, spokesman John Grassy said. "We haven't made a determination whether or not we'll get involved," Grassy said. Three landowners previously sued NorthWestern Energy over the Lakeside Fire, making similar claims to those contained in the government's lawsuit. One of the landowners settled with the utility for terms that plaintiffs' attorney Thomas Budewitz declined to disclose. One of the other lawsuits was thrown out earlier this year and the other has been suspended, according to court records. This commentary originally appeared on The Hill. With Republicans facing the growing prospect of a landslide defeat that could return control of the Senate and potentially the House to Democrats, 50 leading GOP national security figures announced on Monday that they refuse to vote for Donald Trump because they consider him a danger to American national security. For many months I have written in The Hill that Trump, now the GOP nominee, has a strange and disquieting habit of offering sympathy and praise to foreign dictators who wish America ill. He has favorably tweeted the words of Benito Mussolini, the Italian fascist from darker days. He has had kind words for Kim Jong Il, the mass murdering dictator of North Korea. And the words of mutual praise exchanged between Trump and former KGB officer and Russian strongman Vladimir Putin will someday be legendary in the history of presidential politics. Republicans, independents, swing voters and GOP members of the House and Senate who are staking their re-election campaigns on their support for Trump to be president and commander in chief should thoughtfully reflect on the recent op-ed in The New York Times by former acting CIA Director Michael Morell. The op-ed is titled "I ran the CIA. Now I'm endorsing Hillary Clinton." Morell, who has spent decades protecting our security in the intelligence business, offered high praise for the Democratic nominee and former secretary of State based on his years of working closely with her in the high councils of government. But Morell went even further than praising and endorsing Clinton. In one of the most extraordinary and unprecedented statements in the history of presidential politics, which powerfully supports the case that every Republican running for office should unequivocally state that they will refuse to vote for Trump or face potentially catastrophic consequences at the polls, Morell wrote: "In the intelligence business, we would say that Mr. Putin had recruited Mr. Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation." This brings to mind the novel and motion picture "The Manchurian Candidate," which about an American who was captured during the Korean War and brainwashed to unwittingly carry out orders to advance the interests of communists against America. I offer no suggestion about Trump's motives in repeatedly saying things, and advocating positions, that are so destructive to American national security interests, though Trump owes the American people full and immediate disclosure of his tax returns for them to determine what, if any, business interests or debt may exist with Russian or other hostile foreign sources. Whatever Trump's motivation, Morell is right in suggesting the billionaire nominee is at the least acting as an "unwitting agent" who often advances the interests of foreign actors hostile to America. Most intelligence experts believe the email leaks attacking Hillary Clinton at the time of the Democratic National Convention were originally obtained through espionage by Russian intelligence services engaging in cyberwar against America, and then shared with WikiLeaks by Russian sources engaged in an infowar against America. Do Republicans running for the House and Senate in 2016 want to be aligned with a Russian strongman and his intelligence services engaging in covert action against America for the presumed purpose of electing Putin's preferred candidate? Do they believe Trump when he says he was only kidding when he publicly supported these espionage practices and called for them to be escalated? Do Republicans running in 2016 believe that America should have a commander in chief who has harshly criticized NATO and stated that if Russia invades the Baltic states, Eastern Europe states such as Poland, or Western Europe he is not committed to defending our allies against this aggression? Do Republicans running in 2016 support a commander in chief who has endorsed Britain's vote to leave the European Union, appeared to endorse Russia's annexation of Crimea, and falsely stated that Russia "is not in Ukraine"? Do Republicans running in 2016 favor a commander in chief who disdains heroic American POWs by saying he prefers troops who were never captured, and says he would order American troops to commit torture in violation of the Geneva Conventions and international law? Do Republicans running in 2016 favor a president who campaigns for a ban on immigration of Muslims so extreme that a long list of experts, including retired Gen. and former CIA Director David Petraeus, correctly argue it would help ISIS and other terror groups that seek to kill us? Do Republicans running in 2016 realize that Trump's proposal to build a wall on our borders similar to the Berlin Wall erected by the Soviets, coupled with his defamation of immigrants as rapists and murderers, would not only alienate Hispanic voters for a generation but provide a major boost to anti-American extremists across Latin America more successfully than any words Fidel Castro could say today? I do not question Donald Trump's patriotism. But for whatever reason Trump advocates policies, again and again, that would help America's adversaries like Russia and enemies like ISIS and make him, in Morell's powerful words, "an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation." In "The Manchurian Candidate," our enemies sought to influence our politics at the highest level. What troubles a growing number of Republicans in Congress, and so many Republican and Democratic national security leaders, is that, in 2016, life imitates art, aided and abetted by what appears to be a Russian covert action designed to elect the next American president. If Prime Minister Shinzo Abe caters to public demand and revises the law to allow for an emperor to abdicate, it may cause more harm to his leadership than good. Japan has seen heated debate about the emperor's role as a symbolic monarch after local media reported last month that Emperor Akihito was considering stepping down. Speculation heightened on Monday when the 82-year-old released a rare video message, expressing concern about how old age was impacting his ability to fulfill official duties, which was widely interpreted as a hint that he wished to retire. Japan's constitution forbids an emperor to abdicate before death so legal changes will be necessary for Akihito's wish to materializesomething the public greatly supports. 86 percent of over 1,000 respondents believed abdication should be legalized, according to a recent Kyodo News survey. But once Abe opens debate over revising imperial household law, citizens will use the change to target a greater issue at stakegender equalitywarned Kenneth Rouff, director of the center for Japanese studies at Portland State University. "We can say with considerable certainty that people are going to raise the issue of why women aren't allowed to serve on the throne," he told CNBC on Tuesday. Protesters gather in front of the Thomas McKee Building with signs on November 20, 2014 in Loveland, Colorado. Colorado is one step closer to having two statewide referendums on fracking go to the voters this fall after proponents turned in nearly 200,000 signatures Monday. A last-minute push over the weekend by proponents of the measures appears to have paid off for their cause, allowing them to gather more signatures ahead of the Monday deadline. A grassroots coalition called "Yes for Health and Safety Over Fracking" said it submitted enough signatures to place two initiatives on Colorado's November ballot. The Colorado secretary of state's office confirmed the petition signatures for the two oil and gas measures were turned in Monday before the 3 p.m. local deadline. "The office will now conduct a 5 percent random sample of submitted signatures to determine whether the proposals meet the threshold to make the ballot," a spokeswoman said. "To get on the ballot, proponents need to submit 98,492 valid voter signatures 5 percent of the total votes cast for all candidates for Colorado secretary of state in the last general election." The state has until Sept. 7 to announce whether the two referendums meet the threshold to make the fall ballot. Initiative 75 would give local governments the authority to regulate oil and gas development, including restricting the practice of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Current state law allows local governments to regulate land use related to oil and gas development as long as it does not conflict with state law. Initiative 78 would force mandatory setbacks for oil and gas development in Colorado, including requiring any development or fracking to be located more than 2,500 feet away from both an "occupied structure" or "areas of special concern" such as public places and playgrounds as well as waterways. "We are confident that Coloradans will see these measures for what they are: a backdoor fracking ban that would be economically devastating for our state," said Karen Crummy, a spokesperson for Protect Colorado, an energy industry-backed issue committee fighting measures 75 and 78. This could end up becoming a costly fight at the ballot box. Groups, largely funded by the oil and gas companies, have raised more than $15 million to keep the setback and local control measures from going on the ballot. Analysts have suggested the money raised by these opponents could double in the next several months as they battle to defeat the two anti-fracking initiatives. Proponents of the measures raised less than $500,000 to fund the petition drive. The contributors to the referendum effort include environmental groups such as Food & Water Watch, Sierra Club and Greenpeace, among others. Lauren Petrie, director of the Rocky Mountain region of Food & Water Watch, said: "This is a good day for Colorado, and it's a good day for democracy. These initiatives will give communities political tools to fend off the oil and gas industry's effort to convert our neighborhoods to industrial sites. This is a significant moment in the national movement to stem the tide of fracking and natural gas." The setback initiative would reduce an estimated 90 percent of the surface areas in the state for future oil and gas development or hydraulic fracturing operations, according to an impact report from the Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission. Also, around 85 percent of Weld County an area with about 17,000 oil and gas wells at last count would be unavailable, based on the analysis. "We continue to believe the worst-case scenario, the passage of Initiative 78, affecting up to 90 percent of the state's acreage, is a less likely event," said FBR analyst Benjamin Salisbury in note Tuesday. "However, we reiterate that the low-probability, potentially high-impact risk warrants concern. We believe this uncertainty overhang could affect E&Ps leveraged to the DJ Basin, especially in urban areas, continuing until Election Day should the initiatives officially make the ballot." The Denver-Julesburg Basin runs from the northeastern part of Colorado and into several other nearby states. The proposed Colorado referendums began the petition process in mid-April but it wasn't until mid-May when backers starting accelerating the petition drive and Wall Street started taking notice. Whiting Petroleum , an oil and natural gas exploration and production company based in Denver, rallied slightly Monday on higher oil prices but remained down 32 percent since mid-May at Monday's close. On Tuesday, the stock reversed course and was down more than 4 percent at midday. Bill Barrett Corp. , a Denver-based company with natural gas and oil exploration and development in the Rocky Mountain region, has fallen 30 percent since mid-May through Monday's close. In Tuesday trading, it was up around 2.5 percent. Energy companies exposed to the DJ Basin include PDC Energy , Synergy Resources , Bonanza Creek , "and to a lesser extent" Anadarko Petroleum and Carrizo Oil & Gas , according to the Wells Fargo analyst David Tameron. These stocks were mixed Tuesday with PDC Energy gaining 3.9 percent, while Synergy shed 5.6 percent. "Our initial read is that there is enough to move forward with the signature verification process," Tameron said. However, he cautioned: "To be clear, submitting signatures doesn't mean they're on the November ballot. What it does mean is that the process moves forward. Could be as soon as a week or two, or could be a month before we get final decision on whether they'll be placed on the November ballot." As ice gives way to navigable ocean, the U.S. Coast Guard has estimated that there has been a 300-percent increase in human activity in the Arctic, requiring a new era of public-private partnership. These changing conditions raise the strategic stakes and offer unprecedented new opportunities and challenges for U.S. interests. On the one hand, melting sea ice will create cheaper, faster shipping lanes between the world's major markets and unlock Arctic energy development, creating a race for 22 percent of the world's undiscovered resources many of which lie within U.S. waters. On the other hand, increased sea traffic, overlapping territorial claims, and competing economic interests raise important questions about sovereignty, freedom of navigation, and lawful resource development, necessitating stronger regulations and closer international cooperation. The nations most affected by these dramatic changes have recognized the growing importance of the Arctic and are investing in their communities, economies, and defense. Russia has staked its claim as the undisputed leader in the Arctic, going so far as to plant a titanium flag on the North Pole. This has been accompanied by aggressive investment, including ambitious new Arctic airfields, bases, and energy infrastructure from which it can project power on regional choke points. Russia continues to modernize its nuclear submarines and add new icebreakers to its current fleet of over 40, including the recent launch of the world's largest and most powerful nuclear icebreaker designed for military purposes. Many of our NATO allies five of which are Arctic nations have followed suit. Denmark and Greenland have agreed to develop large deposits of rare earth materials and uranium, while Norway has ramped up production of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the High North. Citing its "unpredictable neighbor to the east," Norway increased its defense budget by 9.8 percent in 2016 in order to protect its investments in the Arctic, announcing plans for $19.8 billion in additional defense spending over the next 20 years, prioritizing investment in Arctic capabilities and platforms such as the F-35 fighter aircraft and new submarines. Close NATO partners Sweden and Finland have also increased defense spending, and while it has no standing army, Iceland agreed in June to allow U.S. forces to be stationed there for the first time since 2006. Conversely, the U.S. has witnessed a worrying decline in its own capability and investment. The U.S. once led the way in Arctic development, constructing the Distant Early Warning (DEW) radar network and the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. Today tells a different story. The U.S. has just two functioning icebreakers, down from the eight it once maintained. Recognizing the significant capability gaps in the Arctic, the White House unveiled its Arctic strategy, creating the Arctic Executive Steering Committee to realign U.S. focus. However, the U.S. government cannot afford to go it alone; as before, the government will depend on the partnership of local communities, our allies, and private infrastructure investment. The Department of Interior's review of its five-year oil and gas leasing program which proposes two new lease sales in the Arctic could not come at a more crucial time. Private investment and U.S. presence in the Arctic have been underpinned by the oil and gas industry, and it is important to keep all options on the table in the rapidly-changing context of the Arctic. It seems odd then, that just as the world's attention turns to the region, there is a vocal minority in the U.S. urging the administration to foreclose the possibility of future Arctic development, turning its back on the region at precisely the moment when we need to be working with our allies and partners to expand our capabilities. As two former Commanders of NATO militaries, let us be clear: removing Arctic lease sales will only further signal a strategic withdrawal from the region. This decision will have a profound effect on our ability to project presence and maintain U.S. interests in the Arctic. Energy and natural resources have long provided the lifeblood for economic investment and growth, buoying the local economy, supporting communities on the North Slope, and providing a foundation for continued military investment. With a resurgent Russia and complicated border issues that require intricate diplomacy, it is time for the U.S. to resume its place as a global leader in the Arctic and back its claims with action. Lyft is going analog. The app is doing something that no other U.S. ride-hailing company has done before: It will sell gift cards. The company told CNBC it will begin selling $20 cards at participating Starbucks shops starting this week. "The partnership, we think, can help us not only reach new people, which is a huge goal of ours, but also get more people to take Lyft more frequently," said Oliver Hsiang, Lyft's vice president of partnerships. The promotion comes as Lyft tries to boost its growth and potentially gain market share from faster-growing rival Uber. Lyft told investors recently that July was a record month for several metrics, including the number of rides it provided, the number of new passengers and drivers, and active passengers and drivers, according to a report in Recode. Lyft has partnered with Starbucks before. Last year, it provided ride services for baristas and offered perks to Lyft drivers and Starbucks reward program members. To entice riders and coffee drinkers to purchase these new gift cards, customers will receive a $5 Starbucks gift card for each Lyft gift card purchased. In addition, people who sign up for Lyft and link their Starbucks account in the app will receive 125 stars, or the equivalent of a free coffee. If that wasn't enough, riders will also earn five stars toward free food and drinks at the coffee chain if they catch a ride between 5 a.m. and 10 a.m. Monday through Friday at least for the next few months, as the offer is for a limited-time only. Hsiang said goal for the app is to "cross-pollinate" Lyft riders and Starbucks coffee drinkers to bolster both companies' foot traffic. "There are lots and lots of Starbucks stores in the cities that Lyft operates, and we know that people are taking Lyft rides to and from these locations," he said. "In fact, Starbucks was the number one most-visited coffee shop for us last year." But, why is a company with a digital platform using traditional gift cards? It's all part of Lyft's strategy, said Hsiang. "The gift cards allow us to get in front of a lot of people who may not be familiar with Lyft, or they can get in front of people who want to gift Lyft to other people," Hsiang said. "What we have learned is that there are lots of people who still prefer to transact through the physical card." For those who prefer the digital realm, consumers can give referral codes to friends and family, inviting them to join the app and receive a free ride. (CORRECTION: The Lyft gift cards are available this week at Starbucks.) Marc Faber, editor of the Gloom, Boom & Doom Report, is well-known his perennially bearish take on the overall market. But there are also some specific stocks of which the investor known as "Dr. Doom" takes a particularly dim view and right now, prime among those is Tesla . "What they produce can be produced by Mercedes, BMW, Toyota, Nissan. Anybody in the world can make it eventually, at much lower cost and probably much more efficiently," Faber said Monday on CNBC's "Trading Nation." "The market for Toyota and these large automobile companies is simply not big enough, but the moment it becomes bigger, they'll move into the field and then Tesla will have a lot of competition." Faber sees this increased competition causing more than a small dent in the company's business and stock performance. "I think Tesla is a company that is likely to go to zero eventually," Faber said. Last week, Bloomberg reported that Mercedes-Benz is entering the electric game in a big way, as it sets to unveil two electric SUVs and two electric sedans under a new line. And in a recent ad, BMW , which makes its own electric cars, tweaked Tesla for making drivers wait around for their vehicles in a recent ad. Recently, Tesla business development executive Diarmuid O'Connell dismissed the company's competitors as having "delivered little more than appliances," in contrast to Tesla's ground-up method of rethinking how cars are powered and driven, according to Automotive News. For Faber, the strategy of shorting Tesla is merely a part of his bearish approach to the market. On Monday, he recommended that "if you are an investor with a lot of nerves and you sleep well at night anyway, then you could hedge the portfolio somewhat by selling short some stocks that are overvalued and are likely to go down" providing Tesla as an example. Tesla's press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Florida Gov. Rick Scott speaks at a press conference about the Zika virus as Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Tom Frieden (L), Congresswoman Frederica Wilson (D-FL) and Florida Surgeon General Celeste Philip (R) look on in Doral, Florida, U.S. August 4, 2016. Hillary Clinton, visiting Florida, is expected to call on Congress on Tuesday to cut short its summer recess and pass funding to fight the Zika virus. Florida's congressional delegation does not appear to need persuading. Republican Gov. Rick Scott said Tuesday that the state's Department of Health has identified four more people in Florida with the virus who likely contracted it through a mosquito bite, bringing the total number of people with locally transmitted Zika to 21. "This is not only an issue affecting us here in Florida this is a national issue," Scott said. "The federal government must stop playing politics and Congress needs to immediately come back to session to resolve this." Late last month, Florida authorities reported what was believed to be the first evidence of local Zika transmission in the continental United States. Soon after, the state identified at least 10 more cases caused by mosquitoes in the Miami-Broward area. The federal government's response has so far been slow. President Barack Obama has requested $1.9 billion for several preventative measures, and a Republican-drafted plan to allocate $1.1 billion failed recently in the Senate when Democrats objected to funding cuts for other health programs. On Thursday, Obama said federal funds to fight Zika are quickly running out. Action does not appear to be imminent, with Congress on its legally mandated August recess. But that hasn't stopped members of the Sunshine State's congressional delegation from calling on their colleagues to cut the vacation short to help fight the virus that causes birth defects. "There are lives at stake and the problem gets worse literally every day," Rep. Alan Grayson told CNBC. "Every single day means more Zika babies and more deaths. The technology that can end this crisis is well understood." Grayson, who is running in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, has held a town hall about the virus. He also called on House Speaker Paul Ryan to end the summer recess and bring Congress back to pass a "clean Zika bill." His opponent in the primary, Rep. Patrick Murphy, said he was "extremely disappointed that congressional leaders decided to leave for the summer without passing critical Zika funding." Democratic Rep. Gwen Graham of northern Florida also demanded that Congress cut short its vacation. "As the third largest [congressional] delegation in the country, if we work together we can make a big difference," she said in a statement. Republicans also want action. In a radio interview Monday, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio said that "Congress needs to come back and get something done, actually pass a bill that has more money. ...So that's why I am calling for Congress to go back this month and get it done quickly." "We've been saying for months how important it is to get out in front of this thing and nip it in the bud," Republican Rep. Richard Nugent said in a statement. "Zika could easily get out of hand and right now, the response has been overwhelmingly penny-wise and pound-foolish. It's past time to get those resources out in the field." Scott has also complained about the lack of action in Washington. While he acknowledged that Obama has offered $5.6 million to Florida while Congress is on recess, he said the president must work with lawmakers on a deal for more substantial funding. Democrat Murphy said: "I stand with the president in urging Congress to do its job and immediately address this crisis. Our families deserve nothing less." UPDATED: This story was updated to include comments from Sen. Marco Rubio and Gov. Rick Scott. CNBC's Tom DiChristopher and Reuters contributed to this report. Its been just over a year since Ron Clyde murdered Stallone Trosper and critically injured James Sonny Goggles when he shot them at a Riverton, Wyo., detox center. Both victims were Native American. Many people believed the shooting was racially motivated, yet Clyde wasnt charged with a hate crime because Wyoming didnt have a hate crime law. A year later the state still doesnt, something Democratic candidates in Fremont County hope to change if elected. Their Republican opponents say such legislation isnt a priority. Chesie Lee, a Democrat running in Senate District 26, said she has long supported hate crime legislation in the state. Last years shooting highlights a need that Lee says dates back to before Matthew Shepard was fatally attacked for being gay in 1998. Wyoming is one of only a few states without a hate crime law, Lee said. It just sends the wrong message that Wyoming doesnt have one, she said. If Im murdered just because someone doesnt like me, than yeah, thats a serious crime and there are penalties for that. But if they murder me because Im a woman, that affects all women. It affects the whole class of people. It affects the whole community. Hate crime legislation not only gives stiffer penalties to crimes targeting groups of people, it also sends a message saying the state doesnt tolerate such crimes and values all its residents, she said. Lee said it would be a high priority for her to pass hate crime legislation if elected. Im not sure what the resistance to it is, she said. Her Republican opponent, Sen. Eli Bebout, said he opposes hate crime laws because the state doesnt need them. Wyoming laws are tough enough on crime, he said. Republican Rep. Lloyd Larsen, who serves House District 54, also sees hate crime legislation as redundant and said there is little support for such laws in the state. I dont think its necessary to draft legislation to cover what we already have covered with very serious penalties, he said. I cant imagine murdering someone I liked. The definition of murder it to take someones life away unwillingly. So is that not hate? Isnt murder always a hate crime? His Democratic opponent, Julia Stuble, disagrees. Stuble was out of the country, but her campaign manager Bruce Palmer said she is in favor of a hate crime law. When its a hate crime, it targets an individual because of hate, but it impacts the entire community, he said. Trospers death was felt throughout the entire Native American community, he noted. Many felt they werent safe. Hate crimes arent always murders, Palmer said. And the same people who say the state doesnt need stricter laws voted to increase penalties for citizen scientists who trespass. Why should we enhance penalties on citizen scientists who may be mistakenly trespassing and not on other things? Palmer said. Hate crime legislation, along with Medicaid expansion, is one of the major issues in this years contested races in Fremont County, Palmer said. Republican Rep. David Miller, who represents House District 55 and is running unopposed, said he doesnt see the need for hate crime laws. Stricter penalties linked to motivation should be left for the judge to decide. Trying to legislate every little thing in life is frankly impossible, he said. And if we start passing this type of legislation there will be unintended consequences. Miller said he didnt have specifics on what those consequences could be, but he wanted to avoid more people going to jail for nonviolent crimes. When violence is involved, he trusts the judicial system to dole out an appropriate and harsh punishment. He also said he couldnt name a case in Wyoming that would even classify as a hate crime. Miller said he didnt know the specifics of the Riverton shooting well enough to say whether it fit the definition. I dont know if it was focused on native or not, he said. To me it smells like a hate crime, so it probably was. But hes in prison for life, and Im not sure what else we can do. Now Samsung has chosen to release this in the summer at its own event -- instead of a major consumer electronics show in Europe as is the custom. The timing is key as it comes just a month before Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 7. Apple has recently been struggling with declining iPhone sales and if the leaks are anything to go by, the iPhone 7 could be a lackluster launch with nothing really to make it stand out. So there are a bunch of iPhone users who bought the iPhone 6, coming to the end of a 2 year contract and now looking at an upgrade. If Samsung gets the marketing right on this one, it could manage to poach some Apple customers, looking for a standout device. UBS noted last week that there are 200 million iPhone users yet to upgrade to a large screen, and Samsung could go after this group as well. After all, large-screen devices are one of the fastest-growing segments in the smartphone market, while the broader industry slows down. The Note 7 may be Samsung's best chance in a long time to make a dent in Apple's customer base. For years the Cupertino colossus has seen sales of its money-maker rising while Samsung lost its way with the Galaxy S5. Now with the South Korean company's revamped portfolio of top-range smartphones in the S7, S7 Edge and Note 7, the tables have turned. It's by no means and easy battle. Speak to any long-time Apple user and they will say the idea of switching from iOS to Android is daunting, even though it's not that hard. And that's what Apple has done so well lock users into its software ecosystem of iTunes, Apple Music, Apple Pay and the rest of its services. No wonder it has become its fastest-growing segment in terms of revenues. But if Samsung can break the shackles of Apple's ecosystem, it has the chance to wrap users in its own world of smartphones, virtual reality, payments and wearables. All eyes are now on Apple and the iPhone 7. Despite a slowdown in tech startup funding and a hammering of certain public tech stocks earlier this year, Bay Area commercial real estate is as hot as ever. "There has been a lot of negative banter about tech slowing," said Hudson Pacific Properties CEO Victor Coleman. In fact, quite the opposite is happening, he said. "Even as certain private companies reign in on expenses, they continue to view the growth of successful business lines and recruiting as paramount, which impacts their space needs positively," Coleman said. This time, the growth is being led by big, established players. Alphabet 's Google and Apple inked the biggest real estate deals in the second quarter of this year, collectively leasing some 230,000 square feet of additional office space in Silicon Valley, according to real estate firm Newmark Cornish & Carey. The two tech giants are already among the largest property owners in the Valley and both added space in Sunnyvale, Calif. which sits in the heart of Silicon Valley adjacent to their sprawling campuses. "Apple, Google, Facebook and Linkedin continue to expand outside of their respective campuses," said Christan Basconcillo, Silicon Valley research manager for real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle. "However, with conditions becoming very tight from an availability standpoint these companies are starting to push into Santa Clara and North San Jose, most notably Google and Apple." Landlord asking rates increased in almost every city in Silicon Valley in the second quarter, approaching a $1 per square foot premium over the previous peak of 2007, said Newmark Cornish & Carey. The other biggest deals came from the China-headquartered Cambridge Industries Group which partners with firms to help with R&D and manufacturing and venture-backed augmented reality rising star Magic Leap. Overseas tech companies are helping to drive momentum, as more and more foreign firms plant flags in the Valley, said Basconcillo. I've woken up every night this past week feeling restless and anxious with thoughts of pregnant women giving birth to babies with Zika-related birth defects. As a mother myself, I cannot sleep thinking of the lifetime of hardships awaiting these women, their children and families. In addition to being a mom, I'm also a physician and former state and federal health official. With this background, I know we have the power to prevent these birth defects, if only there were sufficient funding available from the U.S. government complemented with private sector support. With the Zika public health emergency now in its seventh month, I am greatly concerned by the reluctance to provide resources that will help prevent Zika from affecting more babies. We've seen images of newborn babies in other countries with birth defects stemming from the virus that invades and destroys the brains of developing fetuses, causing microcephaly. Babies exposed to Zika prenatally can have a range of other problems, such as hearing loss, vision problems and developmental delays. Now, in the United States and territories like Puerto Rico, where I recently visited, children are being born with similar birth defects. And Zika has been transmitted by mosquitoes in parts of Miami. I fear it's only a matter of time before we see larger numbers of birth defects here. Babies at risk could be your child, grandchild or neighbor's child. As a physician, I know how devastating severe birth defects can be to families and society. Dreams for a child's bright future are shattered and replaced by endless appointments and financial obligations for medical care and services. And, as a former Medicaid medical director, I've seen how challenging it is for states to pay for the special care needed for these childrenand how frustrated parents can become when limits or denials are enforced. Time is not on our side. Delaying action will lead to greater morbidity, mortality and cost. Based on the latest figures, there are more than 970 pregnant women in the United States and our territories with laboratory evidence of Zikaand that number is likely low. Some of these women are facing agonizing decisions as ultrasound imaging demonstrates abnormalities. Donald Trump created another firestorm when he seemed to suggest violence as a means of preventing Hillary Clinton from nominating judges. "If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do folks," Trump told a crowd in Wilmington, North Carolina on Tuesdsay. "Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is I don't know." The Trump campaign disputed the interpretation that Trump suggested violence, saying he wanted to unify voters who support the 2nd Amendment. "It's called the power of unification 2nd Amendment people have amazing spirit and are tremendously unified, which gives them great political power. And this year, they will be voting in record numbers, and it won't be for Hillary Clinton, it will be for Donald Trump," senior communications advisor Jason Miller said in a statement. Trump's running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, brushed off the interpretations of suggested violence. When asked in an interview with the NBC affiliate in Philadelphia whether Trump implied that violence should be used against Clinton, Pence said: "Of course not." Trump subsequently told Fox News Channel's "Hannity" program that "nobody in that room" thought he meant anything other than to rally support against Clinton, Reuters reported. "This is a strong powerful movement, the Second Amendment," Trump said, according to Reuters. "Hillary wants to take your guns away. She wants to leave you unprotected in your home. This is a tremendous political movement." Speaking to reporters after his victory in the Wisconsin primary, House Speaker Paul Ryan said he hoped Trump would make clear that he didn't intend to incite violence. "It sounds just like a joke gone bad," Ryan said. "I hope he clears it up very quickly." Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook condemned Trump's comments. "This is simple what Trump is saying is dangerous. A person seeking to be the President of the United States should not suggest violence in any way," Mook said in a statement. Threats against Clinton are covered by a special section of the U.S. criminal law code given her status as the wife of a former president and a major party presidential nominee. Secret Service communications director Cathy Milhoan told NBC News that the "Secret Service is aware of the comments." @SecretService: The Secret Service is aware of the comments made earlier this afternoon. Martin Luther King Jr.'s daughter Bernice King wrote in a tweet that she found Trump's comments "distasteful, disturbing, dangerous." Tweet 1 Some politicians took to Twitter to express alarm. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said the comment should not be considered a misstep, instead representing a violent threat "upping the possibility of a national tragedy." Tweet 1 Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., tweeted that the assassination of a president was "Not in any way a joking matter." Tweet 2 Tweet 3 Sen. Elizabeth Warren tweeted that Trump's behavior is a reflection of his underperformance in recent polls. @elizabethforma: .@realDonaldTrump makes death threats because he's a pathetic coward who can't handle the fact that he's losing to a girl. The National Rifle Association, which has endorsed Trump and is airing ads on his behalf, said his remarks were a call for voters to defend the Second Amendment and vote against Clinton. Tweet 3 Tweet 4 -Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this article Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with his on-then-off-then-on-again ally, Russia President Vladmir Putin, signaling the latest restoration of diplomatic and economic relations between Ankara and Moscow. Erdogan met Putin in St Petersburg on Tuesday with talks focusing on re-building trade, energy, economic and military ties, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, as well as discussions about the countries' military action in Syria where a civil war continues. At a joint news conference after the meeting, Erdogan announced that Turkey and Russia would reinstate their annual bilateral trade target of $100 billion, according to Reuters. Erdogan also said talks about reinstating charter flights between the two countries would be accelerated. Putin told reporters after the meeting that Russia and Turkey shared a common goal of resolving the crisis in Syria and that it would be possible to sort out differences in how to handle it, according to Reuters. The meeting marked the first time the leaders have met since their dramatic falling-out over a downed Russian fighter jet, which the Turks alleged had entered its airspace, last November which led to the deaths of the two Russian pilots. The incident blew apart the generally harmonious relations between Turkey and Russia with the latter imposing sanctions against Turkey and accusing it of helping the militant group Islamic State. Russia also threatened to cancel its multibillion-dollar "Turkish Stream" natural gas pipeline that would run from Russia to Turkey, and potentially the rest of Europe, as well as its involvement in the construction of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant in the country. However, on Tuesday, Erdogan told reporters that Putin wanted to build the pipelines quickly, according to Reuters. Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) greets Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during their meeting in Konstantin Palace, August,9, 2016 in Strenla, Saint Petersburg. Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images Frosty relations prior to Tuesday's meeting saw the number of Russian visitors to Turkey, a country which relies heavily on its tourist trade, drop. In June, however, the Kremlin announced that Erdogan had apologized for the downing of the Russian jet. A statement released by the Russian government announced that Turkey had conveyed that it "never had the desire or deliberate intention of shooting down the Russian federation's plane" and that it was prepared to do everything possible to restore friendly ties. The revival of mutually-beneficial grand energy projects like Turkish Stream is expected to play a large part of restoring relations that are lucrative for both countries; Turkey was Gazprom's second largest customer after Germany in 2015. Billion-dollar deals The defrosting of relations and the St Petersburg get-together came at an opportune moment for the two leaders. Both Putin and Erdogan share a similar "strongman" stance towards leadership and both have overseen a revival in conservative, nationalist domestic politics. In addition, both have an awkward relationship with their mutual neighbor, Europe. Erdogan's trip to Russia marks his first foreign trip since an attempted military coup in Turkey on July 15. The coup failed and since then, Erdogan has led a crackdown on tens of thousands of alleged anti-government "plotters." In turn, Europe has warned Turkey not to use the coup attempt as an excuse to restrict civil liberties and political opponents. It has been particularly perturbed at calls for the death penalty to be reinstated for those accused of treachery against Erdogan. On Sunday, Erdogan reiterated at a vast rally in support of his leadership in Istanbul that he would back the return of the death penalty if there was enough popular and parliamentary support for such a move. The EU has told Turkey that it can forget any aspirations for EU membership if capital punishment is reinstated, however. Vested interests Valeant Pharmaceuticals reported quarterly earnings and revenue that fell short of analysts' expectations on Tuesday, but stood by its full-year forecast as it tries to restore investor confidence after facing a storm of criticism over its business practices. Shares of Valeant gained more than 25 percent on Tuesday. CEO Joseph Papa told CNBC that Tuesday's price action reflects increased confidence in the company as it stabilizes and returns to growth. He added that he doesn't agree with speculations that Valeant may have to accept lower prices when it sells off non-core assets. "These assets we're considering to be sold are not going to be in a fire sale. They have real value to potential purchaser," Papa said. He added that he is "very confident" that Valeant will get "fair market value" for these assets. Board member and activist investor Bill Ackman has previously said that Valeant has no plans to sell core assets like Bausch & Lomb. The Canadian drugmaker in the past year has faced intense political and investor scrutiny for its steep drug price increases and unorthodox use of a specialty pharmacy. Valeant, which has about $30.77 billion in debt, also had to appease creditors after missing deadlines for filing financial reports, triggering default notices. The company posted second-quarter earnings of $1.40 per share on $2.42 billion in revenue. Analysts had expected the company to post earnings of $1.48 per share on $2.46 billion in revenue, according to a Thomson Reuters consensus estimate. At events hosted by some of Trump's Wall Street allies , it has become increasingly uncommon to find finance chairs and co-chairs from previous presidential campaigns, that source said. "Folks have definitely checked out," said another Wall Streeter who has access to the campaign finance circuit in New York. It's not the Fed, or regulators, or the industry's least-favorite senators who chide bankers and hedge fund execs from time to time. It's Donald Trump. One finance exec who asked not to be identified and who previously was a staunch supporter of Trump's candidacy described bankers, point blank, as really angry. He's not alone. The Trump campaign did not respond to multiple requests for comment. It isn't any one thing about the Trump campaign that seems to have irked the supporters he needs most. One Wall Street GOPer was critical of the overall message relayed at the Republican National Convention. A hedge fund investor suggested that Trump's pitch to reinstate Glass-Steagall, a set of bank regulations that would potentially crimp business practices on which Wall Street has become dependent, was a curveball to his finance sector supporters. The investor said Trump's pitch Monday to rearrange the corporate tax structure was also a surprise. Although the Republican National Convention is over, Trump continues to surprise Wall Street. Earlier Tuesday, he called the stock market a "big bubble," reiterating prior comments he has made about U.S. shares. It remains to be seen whether Trump's policy declarations will hobble his White House ambitions. His July fundraising haul was sufficient to keep him on Clinton's heels, although Clinton still commands a cash lead. As of the end of July, Trump's campaign had $37 million in cash on hand, compared with Clinton's $58 million. And while Trump has had success fundraising outside of Wall Street, including with a cadre of successful real estate investors including Thomas Barrack or Donald Bren, recent reports suggested that both candidates were disappointed with their Silicon Valley fundraising haul. A Casper man accused of taking an office worker hostage and holding him at knifepoint for nearly four hours wanted files about him that he believed the government had. David Chavis held the victim, identified only as T.M. in court documents, at knifepoint on Friday and threatened to kill him, according to the documents filed Monday in Natrona County Circuit Court. Chavis, 35, is charged with kidnapping, aggravated assault and possession of a deadly weapon with unlawful intent. He faces up to life in prison. The victim was not seriously harmed and was rescued by police. A judge set Chavis bond at $100,000 Monday during his initial court hearing. Chavis, dressed in orange jail scrubs, told the judge he suffered from mental illness, but he did not elaborate. Chavis also said he is homeless. Prosecutor Trevor Schenk said Chavis was sentenced to prison in 2008 and completed his parole in March. Schenk said Chavis has a lengthy and violent criminal history. According to court records, Chavis has convictions for battery, burglary, drug possession, false imprisonment, property destruction, reckless endangering and drunk driving. Police evacuated the Aspen Creek office building near downtown before 9 a.m. Friday after Chavis allegedly entered the victims office and held him with a knife similar to a box cutter to his throat. Police also blocked off streets in the area and heavily armed officers were seen entering the building with rifles. According to the court documents, Chavis made repeated demands for certain court files. Law enforcement entered the office and removed the victim before arresting Chavis, the documents state. SWAT team officers escorted Chavis out of the building around noon. Police have not released the identity of the 51-year-old victim or identified the organization that uses the office where the hostage situation took place. He was released safely to his family after being checked by medical personnel. The victim had injuries to his neck consistent with being held at knifepoint, according to the court documents. Chavis has requested a public defender. A preliminary hearing to establish probable cause in his case will take place within the coming weeks. It was an ambitious gamble even by Vegas standards. In 2013, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh relocated his Amazon-owned shoe company to Las Vegas' downtown district, taking over the building that was once city hall in the rundown area north of the Strip. A year earlier, Hsieh had launched the first half of his bet: the Downtown Project, a $350 million revitalization effort to turn the neighborhood into a mecca for entrepreneurs. He invested his own money, hoping Vegas would become "the co-learning and co-working capital of the world." Nearly five years into the project, results have been mixed. Critics point to a less-than-robust tech scene, layoffs and shuttered businesses as major stumbling blocks, while others applaud the community's transformation. Hsieh told CNBC he's still invested in the project's success, but if he could go back, he'd do a few things differently. Tony Hsieh, former CEO of Zappos "One is we're just now starting construction on an apartment building," he said, referring to the separately funded, 231-unit Fremont9 apartment building, which broke ground in May. The building aims to address a problem business owners often cite: a lack of consistent foot traffic. "Maybe we would have waited until year three to start the new apartment buildings instead of waiting until year four." It's the chicken-and-egg dilemma of investing $50 million in downtown destinations like bars and restaurants to show would-be residents what downtown has to offer before having a place for them to move. "The other thing that we would have done differently, knowing what we know now, is really made our goals much more explicit," Hsieh said. For example, he would have put "collisions" serendipitous encounters between individuals who can drive innovation ahead of co-learning, connectedness and even return on investment. Hsieh intentionally set lofty goals for the project. Speaking at the Aspen Institute in the early days of the project, Hsieh compared the legacy he hoped his Downtown Project would have to the phenomenon of the four-minute mile. For years runners tried and failed to break the mark, which was long thought to not only be dangerous but impossible. In 1954, Roger Bannister was the first to make history, but Hsieh noted others quickly followed suit until the four-minute mile became all but routine. "We want Vegas to be the four-minute mile of the world," he said. "If we can make downtown Vegas a place of inspiration, creativity and entrepreneurial energy and discovery and so on, in probably the place people would least expect it, then there's really no excuse for any other community or city." Visitors stand in Container Park across from a construction site where an owner- independent of the Downtown Project- hopes to open a new two-story Indian restaurant. Mary Stevens | CNBC Hsieh's Downtown Project will turn 5 years old in January, and there are signs of progress. The spark he provided is starting to spread beyond the businesses he originally funded a key benchmark laid out in the Downtown Project's original five-year plan. Business owners independent of the project are moving into the neighborhood now famous for the project's outdoor Container Park, built from repurposed shipping containers and featuring a giant fire-breathing praying mantis that Hsieh adopted from Burning Man. "To see kids and families walking around in a place that was previously pretty dangerous, that's progress," Hsieh said, "and [I'm] pretty happy about that." Built in 2013 using repurposed shipping containers, Container Park houses about 30 small businesses and boutique stores. Mary Stevens | CNBC Some of the original investments the project made are also paying dividends. For example, a few years ago Chef Natalie Young was planning to leave Vegas, the city where she had worked her way up the culinary ranks, when she met with Hsieh. After seven business plans and a $225,000 loan, she was instead planning the design of her new Vegas-based restaurant, Eat. Chef Natalie Young opened her restaurant Eat in 2012 with help from Tony Hsiehs Downtown Project. Its now a multimillion dollar business. Mary Stevens | CNBC On Tuesday, Florida's Department of Health identified four more people in the state with the virus who likely contracted it through a mosquito bite, bringing the total number of people in Florida with locally transmitted Zika to 21. "We've had a few calls on it, but we really haven't seen anything that we would be concerned about in terms of its impact on visitation or bookings," he said in an interview on CNBC's " Closing Bell ." The Zika virus outbreak in Florida has not had an impact on Disney 's theme park business, CEO Bob Iger said Tuesday. A mother and child look over the the Grand Floridian resort and Seven Seas Lagoon as they take the monorail around the Walt Disney World resort in Orlando, Florida. Iger noted that overall, Disney's domestic theme park business is quite strong. He was also pleased with the "flawless opening" in June of Shanghai Disneyland. "It's performed very well, much more than a million people have already visited. People are staying a lot longer per day or per visit than we expected." However, he noted there is softness in a few markets like Brazil, Canada and Europe. Meanwhile, he's unconcerned about any political uncertainty in the U.S. and the potential impact on Disney's business. That's because Disney doesn't tend to look at short-term cycles like the current political environment, Iger said. "We've got a lot of activity as a company," he said, citing the new Star Wars Lands coming in California and Florida and new cruise ships. "Our investments are being made with the long term in mind. That's how we operate. We obviously feel bullish about our prospects in the world overall." Disney released earnings after the bell Tuesday that beat analysts' expectations. CNBC's Ivan Levingston contributed to this story. The James A. FitzPatrick nuclear-power plant in Scriba. Photo credit: Entergy website. SCRIBA, N.Y. Exelon Generation (NYSE: EXC) has agreed to assume ownership and management of operations of Entergy Corp.s (NYSE: ETR) James A. FitzPatrick nuclear-power plant in Scriba. The agreement to continue operation of the plant will save about 600 jobs, the office of Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a news release issued Tuesday morning. Under the deal totaling $110 million, New Orleans, Louisianabased Entergy would transfer FitzPatricks operating license to Chicago, Illinoisbased Exelon, according to a joint news release that Entergy issued Tuesday. Exelon describes itself as the owner of the nations largest nuclear fleet. The New York Power Authority (NYPA) has agreed to transfer the decommissioning trust fund and liability for FitzPatrick to Entergy. Entergy would then transfer the fund and associated liability to Exelon, if regulatory approvals are obtained and the transaction closes. Transaction closure is dependent upon regulatory review and approval by state and federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Justice; the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; and the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC). The companies expect the transaction to close in the second quarter of 2017. The firms credited Gov. Andrew Cuomo with helping to facilitate the transaction. Cuomo had asked the PSC to adopt a clean-energy standard, which will provide hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies, funded by utility customers, to help keep nuclear-power plants open in upstate New York. Clean-energy standard The PSC on Aug. 1 approved New Yorks clean-energy standard (CES), a decision that the IBEW contended would save more than 600 jobs at the FitzPatrick nuclear-power plant. New Orleans, Louisianabased Entergy Corp., which owns the FitzPatrick nuclear-power plant, on July 13 announced that it was in discussions with Exelon for the potential sale of the FitzPatrick nuclear-power plant. Entergy on Nov. 2, 2015 announced plans to close and decommission the plant. Chicago, Illinoisbased Exelon operates the Nine Mile Point nuclear-power station, which is also located in Scriba. The July 13 Entergy news release included a quote from Bill Mohl, president of Entergy wholesale commodities, who indicated we are working with Exelon to come to commercial terms on a sale transaction that depends largely on the final terms and timeliness of the New York State Clean Energy Standard. The clean-energy standard provides bridge support to Upstate nuclear-power plants to ensure that critical progress on greenhouse-gas emissions reductions is sustained as the state works toward achieving its goal to generate 50 percent of New Yorks electricity from renewable-energy sources like wind and solar by 2030, according to Cuomos office. Maintaining zero-emission nuclear power is a critical element to achieving New Yorks ambitious climate goals, Cuomos office added. The CES, which the PSC approved last week, will also spur hundreds of millions of dollars in short-term investments in energy infrastructure in upstate New York, both Entergy and Exelon contend. Without the CES, upstate nuclear plants would have been at risk of closure, the firms added. Cuomo, IBEW reaction Cuomo announced the pending sale at a Tuesday morning rally in support of the FitzPatrick Plant in Oswego County. Saving FitzPatrick is an enormous win for Central New York and the entire state, preserving hundreds of jobs and maintaining a reliable, carbon-free power source for New Yorkers, Cuomo said in the release his office issued. FitzPatricks continued operation is essential both to the regional economy and our nation-leading efforts to power the state with 50 percent renewable energy by 2030. The FitzPatrick nuclear-power plant has helped shape Oswegos middle class by offering well-paying, high-skilled jobs and providing a ladder of opportunity for all New Yorkers, Ted Skerpon, president and chair of the IBEW Local 97 Utility Labor Council, said in Cuomos release. IBEW is short for International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which represents workers at the FitzPatrick and other upstate New York nuclear-power plants. Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com Sen. Aliyu Wamakko (APC-Sokoto) on Monday called on the 2016 prospective pilgrims to Saudi Arabia to seek divine intervention for the country to overcome its current economic and security challenges. Wamakko told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Sokoto that Nigerians expected fervent prayers from the pilgrims for God to turn around the nations socioeconomic activities for good of the country. He said that with God, all things were possible hence the need for Nigerians, irrespective of religious and political differences, to pray for God-chosen leaders to ensure good democratic governance. We have all that it takes to maintain our status as giant of Africa and this would only be possible if Nigerians turned to God to guide our leaders, he said. He also called on Nigerians to disregard political differences and support government at all levels to implement policies and programnes that would better the lot of Nigerians. Wamakko, a two-term former governor of the state, also commended the political commitment of President Buhari for the ongoing fight against insurgency in the north east . He said this was made possible by the professional conduct demonstrated by the military in dealing with the insurgents. He called on Nigerians to support the fight against criminal activities by volunteering intelligence information that could aid the security agencies to provide peaceful environment for the nations political activities to thrive. East of Williston, along the north side of Lake Sakakawea, there are two oil wells about 300 feet apart. Each has their own separate road, wide enough for large trucks, running parallel on land owned by two different people. Thats what happens when you dont have a plan. Had the oil companies or landowners had better communication, maybe they could have shared a road and disrupted less of the land. With the advent of fracking and horizontal directional drilling came a wash of oil producers into the state drilling all across North Dakotas rugged Badlands, staking their claims with hopes of hitting black gold. The boom happened so fast no vision was ever created for its development. Theres no plan for how to deal with it in place; right now its pretty piecemeal, said Rod Backman of Covenant Consulting Group. But production is no longer surging as $100 oil has now slipped to $50 per barrel. A desire for better planning remains and one group is hoping to make that happen. Backmans firm conducted a survey of Badlands stakeholders, funded by the World Wildlife Fund, asking about their concerns when it comes to oil development and how it affects the livelihood and recreation activities of residents and visitors. Backman and a team of industry, conservation and ranching experts interviewed 71 people - 26 members of ranching and grazing associations, 21 state, local and federal government officials and 20 members of conservation groups. They also contacted 11 oil companies and received responses from four officials. The response showed people appreciated the jobs and community revitalization that came with the boom but the survey also revealed widespread support for protection of surface assets. Five unnamed representatives from the four focus areas of government, oil industry, conservation and ranching will meet six times over the next five months with the charge of developing salable solutions. Backman said all actions are being left up to the group of North Dakotans - making it a plan for Badlands users by Badlands users. At the end of that time, it will be up to the group whether to disband or continue. One solution may be a state reclamation policy or other changes to state statutes. The oil industry could be held to the same standard as the coal industry, which is required to have a plan for reclamation before mining activities even start. And having one uniform standard would keep the land safe whether its publicly or privately owned. It also would balance the rights of surface owners and the owners of mineral rights. Backman said, to date, there have been instances of reclamation where no standards existed. Public land stewards may have required the replanting of native grasses but crested wheat or broom grass was planted on private lands. Or a government agency may turn down a permit that affects a fragile part of the landscape but they dont think about the fragility of the surrounding privately owned land. Backman said one rancher opened his eyes to what preplanning can do. The rancher had an oil and gas background and knew what to include in the contract and negotiated for the best road and well placement. Backman said many landowners dont know their rights. North Dakota State University has published some best practice guidelines for what to include in contracts, and, he said, this could be an educational opportunity. Randy Kreil, a former North Dakota Game and Fish official and a member of Backman's survey team, said oil and gas development is going to happen in western North Dakota but better planning and communication could help it happen in a more cohesive manner that protects the region's natural resources. The oil industry and ranching community alike have voiced concern over more regulation, but the group is hopeful, by approaching the challenges in this manner, an agreement can be reached. Thank you for reading! Please purchase a subscription to read our premium content. If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue. The Missourians Opinion section is a public forum for the discussion of ideas. The views presented in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Missourian or the University of Missouri. If you would like to contribute to the Opinion page with a response or an original topic of your own, visit our submission form 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. Some 50 citizens made a valiant effort Tuesday to get the State Health Council to turn back rules permitting radioactive waste disposal in North Dakota, but the council held to the approval it gave a year ago at an illegal meeting. The advisory council to the State Health Department met to replay last Augusts meeting even as it's being sued by two environmental watchdog groups. The original meeting was deemed illegal because the public did not receive proper notice. Despite some very emotional testimony, calls of Why arent you listening to us? along with scientific input, the council voted unanimously on Tuesday to ratify the new rules allowing up to 50 picocuries of radioactive waste from oil and gas production in specially permitted landfills. After the vote, the councils attorney said it will ask a district court judge for a summary judgment to end the lawsuit filed by the Dakota Resource Council and the North Dakota Energy Industry Waste Coalition. The suit challenges any actions stemming from the original, illegal meeting. Assistant attorney Jeff Erickson said the request for a summary judgment would be based on the fact that, by replaying and ratifying the entire agenda from last August, everything that would have happened has happened. The groups attorney, Sarah Vogel, said she intends to continue the suit. The Health Council scheduled Tuesdays do-over after the district court threw out its earlier request to have the case dismissed. The Health Council did slightly amend last years action by voting to study radioactive waste; but what the study will look at and how it will be funded in light of state budget cutbacks were not made clear at the meeting. What is clear is the study wont stop the new radioactive program, which became effective in January. The health department has two current applications for radioactive landfills and one that is shelved, at least for now. The law is the law, and that hasnt been changed, Scott Radig, the departments manager of solid waste programs, said after the councils vote. He said 50 picocuries is very protective of public health, and he would willingly endorse his own relatives to work at such a facility. The citizens opposing the new rules were given 20 minutes to make their case, though many more stood to show they wanted to address the council after driving four hours from far western North Dakota to get to the meeting on time. Council chairman Wade Peterson said he thought the meeting was fair and that citizens had ample opportunity to express their concerns on Tuesday and during public hearings in 2015, while the rules were being written. It seems like a safe level to start with. We do have some work to do to develop what goes into that study, he said. Dennis Wolf, a longtime Dickinson physician, called for the additional study and said hes sympathetic with citizens concerns about radioactivity showing up in water and blowing soils and dust, especially for those who would live near any approved site. Based on possible links to cancer from old uranium mining around Belfield and nuclear testing fallout that affected milk production in North Dakota in the 1960s, Wolf said the state should understand those risks in the bigger picture. I agreed with raising the level, he said, adding that he has seen cancer that could be attributed to radioactivity. The environmental groups brought in Robert Moran, a geochemist from Colorado, who told the council the initial study by Argonne National Laboratories was flawed and lacked good data. He said that study, which provided the basis for the new rules, was all on paper and lacked actual measurements of radioactive waste from North Dakotas oil and gas production supplied either by the health department or independent sources. Having all the data coming from the (oil) industry, thats crazy, he said. Moran said it isnt clear the state has adequate monitoring or good radioactive screening protocols. Vogel said the idea of the council calling for another study after the rules have gone into effect is backward. We got a little, but its really, really late, she said. SHARE Linda A. Klein By Kevin McKenzie of The Commercial Appeal A Baker Donelson senior managing shareholder, Linda A. Klein, on Tuesday became president of the 400,000-member American Bar Association, law firm officials announced in Memphis. Klein, based at Baker Donelsons offices in Atlanta, served a year as president-elect for the ABA, a 138-year-old membership organization supporting the legal profession, before advancing to president for a one-year term. Her term began with the conclusion of the Chicago-based ABAs annual meeting in San Francisco. As president of the ABA, I will continue the associations work to advance justice throughout this country, Klein said in a statement. Klein will focus on legal assistance for veterans, with a new ABA Commission on Veterans Legal Services creating an online resource for veterans and their families, according to Baker Donelson. The initiative also will encourage bar associations and law schools to recruit new and under-employed lawyers to provide more help and will work with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers to promote legal checkups for veterans, families and caregivers. Klein, who earned her law degree at Washington & Lee Law School and her bachelors at Union College in New York, was a managing partner at Gambrell & Stolz in Georgia and led that firms merger in 2007 with Baker Donelson. Her practice includes business dispute resolution with clients in the pharmaceutical, higher education and construction industries. October 22, 2014 -- GreenTech Automotive employees assemble electric cars in the company's newly opened manufacturing facility in Robinsonville, Mississippi. (Brandon Dill/Special to The Commercial Appeal) SHARE By Ron Maxey of The Commercial Appeal A Memphis area carmaker's promising vision of jobs and economic rewards for the region while rolling out environmentally friendly vehicles is looking more questionable than ever after the company missed its first debt payment to Mississippi. Lyn Arnold, president and CEO of the Tunica County Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Foundation, confirmed Tuesday that GreenTech Automotive missed a $150,000 payment due June 30. The payment was the first installment on a state loan of $3 million. Those familiar with the situation say GreenTech is continuing to work to secure funding and that operations continue at its Robinsonville facility in Tunica County. But missing its initial payment also heightens previously aired concerns over whether a small, upstart carmaker will be able to live up to lofty expectations. "They're still operating, still have employees showing up every day," Arnold said in a cautious assessment of the company's status. Arnold said the last figure she heard on employees was about 80, and that she had no production numbers from the private company. Relying on Chinese technology, GreenTech is a McLean, Virginia-based company financed partly by Chinese investors. The company also received the $3 million from the Mississippi Development Authority for its approximately 100,000-square-foot plant on Highway 713. MDA loaned another $1.9 million to buy the site, and the company received tax breaks exempting it from state income and franchise taxes for 10 years, as well as from sales taxes on equipment. MDA spokesman Jeff Rent released a short statement as its only comment. "The Mississippi Development Authority continues to work with GreenTech Automotive as the company secures additional funding," the statement reads. "This is the best course of action to protect the state's investment and to keep Mississippians working at the plant." Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe is the former GreenTech chairman. Tony Rodham, brother of Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton, helped raise Chinese funds for the company. Operating out of a temporary facility in Horn Lake until the Tunica plant was completed in 2014, GreenTech at one time touted plans for up to 250,000 energy-efficient electric cars a year with a $2 billion investment. But from the start, some expressed concerns. "It's a tough market to build a car in, period, even if you're not a startup," Alan Baum of Baum & Associates told The Commercial Appeal at the time of GreenTech's 2012 Horn Lake opening in a former Dover Elevator plant. Former President Bill Clinton attended the opening. Arnold, the Tunica County economic development official, expressed similar concerns Tuesday. "We're always hopeful, of course, that they'll live up to expectations. But in the car business, there are a lot of things that impact it." Horn Lake Mayor Allen Latimer wasn't in office during the time GreenTech operated there, but Latimer said he was never sure how well GreenTech's business model would work. "We like bigger cars than they were talking about," Latimer said. GreenTech's plan was to produce 2-seat and 5-seat electric sedans capable of highway speeds but intended primarily for shorter-distance driving. In Horn Lake, the company was producing "MyCar," an electric vehicle selling for $15,000 to $18,000 with a range of 115 miles. The Roanoke Times reported in May that a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services document showed GreenTech had only 75 employees last year, has produced only 25 cars and has sold none. The newspaper reported the statements were contained in a decision earlier this year denying a green card to a Chinese investor, rejecting company projections that GreenTech would increase employment to 125 this year and 250 by 2018. The newspaper wrote that Nicholas Colucci, chief of the immigrant investor program, signed a decision stating GreenTech had a "general lack of credibility from the failure to meet any projected timelines." U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said it can't discuss individual cases. GreenTech, a unit of Virginia-based WM Industries, didn't respond to a phone call and email seeking comment. The Associated Press contributed to this story. The North Dakota Game and Fish Department advises hunters to be cautious with their dogs around water due to potential health hazards associated with blue-green algae. Late summer and early fall offer prime conditions for blue-green algae growth in many state waters. Ingestion by a hunting dog can lead to severe illness and potential death. Potentially toxic algae blooms occur under conditions of hot, dry weather. Shallow, stagnant water with moderate to high nutrient content provides an optimum environment for algal growth. Water or wind movements often concentrate the algae, and eventually the bloom appears as a blue-green scum floating on the waters surface. The threat diminishes once the weather turns colder. Hunting dogs shouldnt drink or swim in discolored water or where algal blooms are apparent. If dogs retrieve in these conditions, they should be rinsed off immediately and shouldnt be allowed to lick their coat. For additional information about the effects of blue-green algae blooms on hunting dogs, contact the Animal Health Division, North Dakota Department of Agriculture, at 701-328-2655; or a local veterinarian. August 9, 2016 Shelby County Juvenile Court Judge Dan Michael, who was elected two years ago with Juvenile Court under close scrutiny by the Justice Department spoke with the Rotary Club at the University Club about his experiences on the bench. (Jim Weber/The Commercial Appeal) SHARE August 9, 2016 Shelby County Juvenile Court Judge Dan Michael mingles with Rotarians at the University Club before his speech Tuesday. Judge Michael, who was elected two years ago with Juvenile Court under close scrutiny by the Justice Department, spoke with the Rotary Club about his experiences on the bench. (Jim Weber/The Commercial Appeal) By Kayleigh Skinner of The Commercial Appeal Speaking before members of the Rotary Club of Memphis at Tuesday luncheon, Juvenile Court Judge Dan Michael said he has a bill pending in the legislature that would extend the Juvenile Court of Memphis and Shelby County's jurisdiction to 25 years of age. Currently, the juvenile court has jurisdiction over a child until he or she turns 19, Michael said. Youth offenders are often sent into the adult criminal justice system before their brains have developed into maturity during their 20s, he said. Offenders who are sent into the adult criminal justice system are statistically more likely to relapse and end up back in jail within a year and a half of their initial release, he said. Extending the jurisdiction would allow offenders to stay in the juvenile justice system longer and receive the treatment and rehabilitation necessary to lead a productive life upon release, he said. "I have a choice as a judge," he said. "If I send that almost 17-year-old to the adult system, what I do know is that his brain is going to continue to grow, but it's going to grow in a system that has no respect for his future so that when he gets out in 10 years, his brain is going to be wired to what he learned in prison." The system needs to be realigned because " ... If we don't grab the kids early and turn them around, we're not going to solve the problem. We feed 201 Poplar," Michael said. He detailed some of the issues surrounding juvenile delinquency and what needs to happen to make his court "a model for the nation." A June report by David Roush of Juvenile Justice Associates to the U.S. Department of Justice listed multiple allegations of youth spending up to 23 hours of their day locked in a room, only to be shackled and handcuffed when they were not in the room. The detention chief denied the allegations, and Michael told The Commercial Appeal last month that the court has worked tirelessly to divert youth from the system. Roush's report follows the DOJ's 2012 agreement with the court "to resolve findings of serious and systemic failures in the juvenile court that violate children's due process and equal protection rights." Although it's important to change what happens once youth commit crimes, the community also needs to step up and help them before it happens, Michael said. "If we're going to solve this problem, we have to get on the ground where the problem exists," Michael said. People need to help families and children gain access to wraparound services and receive adequate health care and education, he said. It is also important to mentor youth and work on reducing blight in local neighborhoods, he said. "That takes hard work," Michael said. "You can't do it sitting behind your desk writing checks, you have to put on your boots and do it." Officials from the Shelby County Public Defender's Office and Shelby County District Attorney General's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. August 9, 2016 - An officer walks behind Mario Patterson, one of the defendants charged in the 2013 killing of David Santucci, during his trial at the Shelby County Criminal Justice Center on Tuesday. Santucci, 27, was a nurse at Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare when he was fatally shot after leaving Pearl's Oyster House on S. Main St. on August 12, 2013. (Yalonda M. James/The Commercial Appeal) SHARE September 22, 2015 - David Santucci, 27-year-old nurse at Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, was leaving a party at Pearl's Oyster House when police said he was killed in a robbery attempt. (Brad Vest/The Commercial Appeal) August 9, 2016 - Mario Patterson, left, stands with his attorney, Juni Ganguli, as he appears in front of Judge Chris Craft in Division 8 for his trial at the Shelby County Criminal Justice Center on Tuesday. Patterson is one of the defendants charged in the 2013 killing of David Santucci. Santucci, 27, was a nurse at Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare when he was fatally shot after leaving Pearl's Oyster House on S. Main St. on August 12, 2013. (Yalonda M. James/The Commercial Appeal) By Katie Fretland of The Commercial Appeal Two women tried to help a 27-year-old nurse who was lying shot and gasping for air on South Main. One held the victim's hand and comforted him. The other woman applied pressure to his wound, Assistant District Attorney Tracye Jones said Tuesday. "Despite her best effort, David Santucci passed away," Jones said. The trial of 26-year-old Mario Patterson, who is charged with killing Santucci with the intent to commit robbery nearly three years ago, opened Tuesday in Shelby County Criminal Court before Judge Chris Craft. Patterson pleaded not guilty, said attorney Laurie Hall. Jurors in September convicted Dondre Johnson, 22, of first-degree murder in Santucci's Aug. 12, 2013, death. The case of 26-year-old Jerrica Norfleet, who is charged with being an accessory after the fact, is pending. According to testimony in the trial of Johnson, Patterson and Johnson were riding around in a vehicle with Norfleet when talk began about where to find some money. They spotted an older couple and Johnson said something like "let's get them," Norfleet said. But there were too many people around, so they continued to drive. Patterson at some point handed Johnson a gun and Johnson put on a mask, said the prosecutor, Jones. Norfleet snapped a photo with her phone, Jones said. Santucci, a nurse at Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, was found walking alone. He began to walk faster, and Johnson jumped out of the car. Patterson took longer to get out, Jones said. Johnson said something to the victim and the victim told him to get away, according to Norfleet's testimony in Johnson's trial. Johnson replied and "the gun went off," she said. Police received a shots fired call at about 1:48 a.m. to 275 S. Main St., located between Pearl's Oyster House and the Orpheum theater. Santucci was lying in the street wounded in the chest. Patterson, Johnson and Norfleet fled in a gray Pontiac Grand Am, according to an affidavit. They were caught in Foote Homes with the gun and mask still in the car, Jones said. Ballistic evidence from the scene of the shooting matched the gun, Jones said. An attorney for Patterson, Juni Ganguli, argued Tuesday that Johnson was the sole gunman, and that there is no proof that Patterson conspired or planned to kill Santucci. He argued that Patterson's role was virtually equal to that of Norfleet, who is charged with being an accessory. After Santucci was shot, bystanders Sharae Robertson and Taneshia Lawrence, went to Santucci's side to tend to him and stayed until an ambulance came. Robertson applied pressure to his wound. Lawrence got down beside him and comforted him. "He just held my hand extremely tight," Lawrence said. The trial was scheduled to continue Wednesday. By Clay Bailey of The Commercial Appeal A former Millington police officer who left the department earlier this year to join the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation was shot to death Tuesday afternoon during an undercover drug operation in Jackson, Tennessee. Authorities identified the agent as De'Greaun Frazier, who becomes the first TBI officer killed in the line of duty in that agency's history. Frazier, who lived in the Cordova area, was a police officer with the University of Memphis from 2006-2010. He then joined the Millington Police Department in 2010 and remained there until his February resignation. Frazier was also a reserve officer with the Shelby County Sheriff's Office. According to TBI Director Mark Gwyn, Frazier was in the car with an informant and another man conducting an undercover drug purchase. The other man, sitting in the back seat, pulled a gun in a robbery attempt and shot once, striking Frazier, Gwyn said. Frazier, 35, was pronounced dead at Jackson-Madison County Hospital. The suspect was captured nearby. "Agent Frazier was exactly what we look for in a TBI agent: hardworking, enthusiastic and dedicated to making Tennessee a better place to live," Gwyn said. "We are deeply saddened by his death and will work aggressively to investigate this case to the fullest." Millington Public Safety Director Gary Graves said Tuesday that Frazier had been assigned to several divisions, including investigations and the canine unit. He also served with the local Drug Enforcement Administration Task Force. "This is very, very rough," Graves said. "With all of the police shootings that have gone on, it affects the officers. But this one was close to home." Millington Police Insp. Rita Stanback got to know Frazier during his six years with the department, she said Tuesday, adding that Frazier had long wanted to work for the TBI. "We'd talk about the job that he did. He loved doing police work. He always wanted to climb the ladder. TBI was one of the jobs that he talked about doing. He would take any kind of training that he could get that would help move forward. He wanted to work for TBI, to be a TBI agent," she said. "Even though he's gone, he wasn't forgotten. He's still a part of our family here." Millington Insp. Reggie Fields said Frazier leaves behind a wife and two young children. "He was at my office about two weeks ago, and he was showing us new photos of the latest child in his family. That child was less than a year old," Fields said. "Dee Frazier was the best of the best." State Sen. Mark Norris, R-Collierville, said he was briefed on the incident before the TBI press conference. "We mourn this terrible loss," Norris said in a statement. "West Tennessee has lost one of her own. Agent Frazier gave his life in the line of duty doing what our crime fighters do every day risking their lives to keep us safe. He has not died in vain. The war on drugs continues, and we will redouble our efforts to win." Around 2 p.m. Tuesday, Jackson resident Candice Washington, 34, said she heard about four shots from Brianfield Cove and fell to her kitchen floor. When she got up, she looked out and saw a black Navigator stopped in front of her residence. Washington said she got close to the car and saw the agent appeared to be shot in the side of the head near his ear. She said the man standing outside the car told her to back up, saying he was an agent. Both men were in plain clothes, she said. "I saw a black male inside of the Navigator," Washington said. "He looked like he had been shot. His eyes were rolled back and his head was limp." Gwyn said the operation was no different from ones the TBI conducts daily. "I have agents all across this state every day doing what Agent Frazier was doing," the TBI director said. "All you can do is pray they go home safely. Today, that prayer wasn't answered, unfortunately." Reporters Maranda Faris and Tyler Whetstone of the USA TODAY NETWORK Tennessee and staff reporter Jody Callahan contributed to this story. SHARE By Tom Charlier of The Commercial Appeal A fourth resident of Shelby County has become infected with the Zika virus after traveling to areas where the disease is prevalent, Health Department officials said Monday. So far, all the local cases involve people who were infected with the mosquito-borne virus while traveling to areas such as the Caribbean and Latin America, the department said in news release. No locally transmitted cases have been reported, and the virus has not shown up in tests of mosquitoes in the county. However, because the Memphis area is home to one of the mosquito species capable of transmitting Zika, local residents should take precautions to reduce their risk of insect bites as the warm summer weather continues, department officials say. Zika is linked to serious birth defects, such as microcephaly, in babies born to mothers who were infected while pregnant. But in most people, the virus causes only minor illness. August 6, 2016-- Randall Tatum, Memphis City Traffic Engineer, demonstrates the live display at the city's Traffic Management Center at City Hall. (Brandon Dill/Special to The Commercial Appeal) SHARE By Tom Charlier of The Commercial Appeal Not that he's surprised, but Randall Tatum finds that traffic is flowing smoothly at Poplar and Highland, Hickory Hill at Winchester and all the other often-busy intersections and thoroughfares he's monitoring from a sixth-floor perch in Memphis City Hall. "Well, it is a little before evening rush hour," explains Tatum, the city's traffic engineer. Tatum is sitting in the city's new Traffic Management Center keeping watch on an array of giant closed-circuit TV screens and computerized travel-time maps. The center, completed last September, is the most visible component of a $30 million-plus initiative that city officials say has already improved traffic and shaved precious minutes from commute times on several major routes. Five years ago this month, the city began laying 120 miles of fiber-optic cable to connect traffic signals on such roads as Lamar, Winchester, Poplar, Airways, Summer, Germantown Parkway and Stage Road to a coordinated network. The synchronized signal system gives motorists especially rush-hour commuters a good chance of driving through several successive intersections without hitting a red light. The system also enables city engineers to monitor and communicate with the signals, allowing them to tweak the timing of lights when traffic is especially heavy because of a sporting event or festival. To augment the system, closed-circuit cameras are being installed at more than two dozen intersections to give officials live images of traffic. "The cool thing about the cameras is ... I can actually zoom in and out and pan in and out, tilt up and down," Tatum said, demonstrating his remote control of the equipment. Taken together, the components give the city what is known as an Intelligent Transportation System. According to studies cited by the federal Department of Transportation, ITS technology offers cities and states relatively low-cost means to deal with traffic congestion and the increased air pollution it causes. Simply synchronizing signals can produce $58 to $62 in benefits for every dollar spent on the systems, studies indicate. The Memphis system is about 95 percent complete, Tatum said, with all the cable installed and engineers now able to remotely communicate with 407 intersections more than half the city's signalized intersections. Under a separate $7.9 million Shelby County project, another 100-plus intersections will be connected. Except for the camera installation, which was paid for from the city's capital-improvement program budget, the project was funded from grants through the federal Congestion Mitigation Air Quality program and the Surface Transportation Program. Already, city officials are documenting improved traffic flow. Because the system picks up and tracks the Bluetooth signals emitted by motorists' mobile phones, engineers are able to monitor how long it takes a vehicle to travel from one intersection to another. Comparing current travel times with those from before the system was synchronized, officials found that rush-hour commutes along Walnut Grove between Highland and White Station have been cut by 2-4 minutes, with eastbound traffic benefiting the most. Along Poplar, between East Parkway and Yates, travel times in both directions have been cut by an average of 2 minutes. The improvement has been less pronounced on Germantown Parkway, from the Wolf River to Interstate 40. There, northbound and southbound travel times have been cut by one to one and a half minutes, or 5-10 percent, according to city officials. The synchronization of signals helps whisk motorists through heavily traveled corridors much more quickly. The longer the corridor, however, the more likely it is that commuters will hit a red light at a "designed stopping point," Tatum said. "It's not a magic bullet. Just because you have coordinated signal timing, it doesn't mean you're never going to have to stop ...," he said. "It's a tool to try to reduce delay and improve air quality."

Mark Weber/The Commercial Appeal

Chief Juvenile Court Magistrate Dan Michael (right) jokes with Hubon aDutcha Sandridge Jr., while campaigning at Trinity United Methodist Church Thursday afternoon.

SHARE By Samantha Bryson After years of sitting as a magistrate in Juvenile Court, Special Judge Dan Michael was elected to the courts top job Thursday with 54 percent of the vote, besting challenger Tarik Sugarmon in the race to become Juvenile Court judge. Michael will replace outgoing Judge Curtis Person, who is retiring after a single eight-year term. Although judicial elections are nonpartisan, Michael was endorsed by the Republican Party of Shelby County and Sugarmon, currently serving as Memphis City Court administrative judge, was endorsed by the Shelby County Democratic Party. It was a journey I wouldnt take anything for, win, lose or draw, Michael said late Thursday, though he said he stopped shy of claiming victory until the final precinct had reported. With incumbents sweeping the judicial elections in all but two divisions, Michaels 20 years experience in juvenile court may have edged him ahead of Sugarmon. It was unclear throughout the race whether Michaels experience presiding over major crimes and transfer cases would work for or against him, given the deeply-rooted problems in the court cited by the U.S. Dept. of Justice in 2012. The embattled court has been the subject of deep scrutiny since 2009, when a three-year federal investigation cited major faults in the courts treatment of African-American children, widespread civil rights violations and unsafe jail conditions. The DOJ found that African-American children were treated more harshly than others. Compared to white children, they were one-third less likely to receive a warning for the same offense, and more than twice as likely to be transferred to adult court. Two years after the report was released, DOJ status reports show strong progress toward compliance with the federally mandated changes, particularly in the mental health resources available to minors in lockup. Sugarmon campaigned under the slogan, A new vision, a new future, promising to speed up the reforms. He could not be immediately reached for comment Thursday night. The most exciting thing is its over, Michael said. I have met some extremely wonderful people all over this county through this campaign ... Ive met wonderful candidates on all sides of the issues and become friends with a lot of them. In other judicial races, state Senate Democratic leader Jim Kyle claimed the open seat in Chancery Court Part II, besting three opponents to replace Chancellor Arnold B. Goldin, who was appointed by Gov. Bill Haslam to the Tennessee Court of Appeals. Kyle, one of the states longest serving congressmen, has held his seat since 1983 and has said that he would resign from the Legislature if he won. A special election will be held this year to fill Kyles seat for the remaining two years of his four-year term. Of the 40 judgeships up for grabs, incumbent candidates reclaimed all but two seats. General Sessions Judge Joyce Broffitt of Division 9 was unseated by challenger Gerald Skahan, head of the Shelby County Public Defenders capital defense team. Memphis skyline SHARE By Ryan Poe of The Commercial Appeal Memphis City Council voted Tuesday to accept a $500,000 grant to fund a new Office of Comprehensive Planning, which will oversee the crafting of the first citywide strategic development plan since 1981. The Community Foundation of Greater Memphis donated the funds, which will pay for staffing and commodities to support the office, according to the resolution. The city has offered someone the position of office administrator and is awaiting a response. The total cost to assemble the plan is expected to come in at $2 million, including grants. The plan could guide the city for the next 20-25 years, and will be built in a process that could include hundreds of public meetings. SHARE Mark Lovell Curry Todd By Tom Humphrey, USA TODAY NETWORK Tennessee 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 on pushing school vouchers. The returns show Lovell won in early voting, which had ended before Todd's arrest, which could indicate the early July American Federation for Children 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. Dolores 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. June 6, 2012 - Southern Serenity Ranch Tennessee Walking Horse "Walk Hard" is shown by Patrick Thomas at the Germantown Charity Horse Show. "Walk Hard" was thoroughly inspected before entering the ring to ensure there was no evidence of any kind of soring. (The Commercial Appeal/ Nikki Boertman) SHARE By Michael Collins of The Commercial Appeal WASHINGTON Tennesseans will get a chance Tuesday to tell the federal government whether they support a proposal to crack down on an illegal practice sometimes used to give Tennessee Walking Horses their exaggerated gait. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has scheduled a public hearing in Murfreesboro on two major changes to existing federal law that seek to eliminate the controversial practice known as "soring." Though already illegal under the Horse Protection Act, soring is still used by some trainers to deliberately injure the legs and hooves of Tennessee Walking Horses and related breeds to create the animals' high-stepping gait and give them an advantage at horse shows. Chemical agents, chains, pads and other devices are used to inflict pain to the horses' legs and feet so that when they touch the ground, the animals kick up their feet higher than normal. Federal law already bans the use of chemical agents but not the chains, hoof bands and other devices used to cause soaring. All such devices would be banned at horse shows, exhibitions, sales and auctions under the Agriculture Department's proposal. In addition, the Agriculture Department's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service would assume responsibility for training, screening and licensing horse inspectors. Right now, the horse industry is responsible for training its own inspectors to look for evidence of soring. Critics say the self-policing system is ineffective because the inspectors are employees of horse-show organizations and often are exhibitors of Tennessee Walking Horses, which creates a conflict of interest and leaves them with no incentive to find violations. The Murfreesboro hearing is one of five nationwide and the only one in Tennessee on the proposed changes. It will be held at 9 a.m. at the Embassy Suites at 1200 Conference Center Blvd. SHARE By Daniel Connolly of The Commercial Appeal Construction to widen a section of Shelby Drive in Collierville could start by Sept. 1 and last 18 months to 2 years, town engineer Dale Perryman said Monday. The road-widening project aims to handle future traffic related to a new high school. The construction would lead to the temporary closure of Shelby Drive between Sycamore Road and Quinn Road in southern Collierville. Drivers will have to take detours around the closed section of Shelby Drive or can use Tenn. 385 or U.S. 72, Perryman said. At the same time, workers will realign and improve Sycamore Road near the intersection with Shelby Drive. Sycamore Road will remain open. The fast-growing suburb is pumping tens of millions of dollars into a new high school that's expected to become one of the biggest in the area when it opens in August 2018. Collierville's superintendent has said planners are building the school for 3,000 students, but that it could fit up to 3,500, depending on how it's configured. The resulting traffic would put a big strain on Shelby Drive, which is only two lanes wide in the area, with no median. Collierville's Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted Monday night to approve a $6.8 million contract to pay for the road-widening project and related improvements. The original budget for the project was $6.1 million, but Perryman said the cost went up because of poorer-than-expected soil conditions in the area. Contractor Madden Phillips Construction will have responsibility for the road projects as well as for building water and sewer facilities for the area. The company must finish the project by July 13, 2018. That's very close to the expected August 2018 opening date for the new high school. Alderman Billy Patton asked company president John Phillips if he was confident the company could finish the job on time. Phillips said yes. "We understand how important it is to the town to get the school open, get the school up and running." Also Monday, the board approved a plan to construct a new building in what's now a section of shopping center parking lot at the corner of Poplar and Market Boulevard in Collierville. The building would house a new location for Starbucks, which is moving from the other side of Poplar, as well as a Mattress Firm retail store. The board had rejected a similar proposal in April, but the planners revised it to address concerns about parking and safety issues, and this time it met with approval. Patton runs a computer business in the same shopping center and had recused himself in April. This time, he said planners had addressed his concerns. He voted "abstain" while all other members voted yes. The North Dakota National Guard's headquarters at 9 a.m. Wednesday will conduct an active shooter exercise. The purpose of the exercise is to refine response actions to an active shooter and improve security measures at Fraine Barracks. Fraine Barracks, located near the eastern side of the Liberty Memorial Bridge, houses the National Guard headquarters, the North Dakota Department of Emergency Services and State Radio. One or two actors with replica weapons will enter several of the buildings at Fraine Barracks and simulate a shooter randomly firing into offices and at workers. At no time will live ammunition be used in the simulated attack. The duration of the exercise is expected to last about 30 to 45 mins. Nearby residents may notice participation by local law enforcement to include the Bismarck Police Department and West Dakota SWAT team. Observers are reminded that this is an exercise and do not need to call 911 or otherwise alert authorities. SHARE The proposal to double the number of people served by Shelby County's mental health court seems like a reasonable plan for a program that will surely boost the local criminal justice system's efficacy and efficiency. The county is asking for $78,000 from the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services that would be used to pay for a full-time case worker to handle the increased load. Like the county's specialty courts for drug users, veterans and domestic violence, the mental health court is part of a more holistic approach to criminal justice that goes beyond adjudication and punishment. It's also a unifying force in the community, calling for collaboration between the criminal justice system and social services to steer certain offenders away from prison and into programs that will address underlying conditions that led to their arrests. Shelby County's mental health court, presided over by Judge Gerald Skahan, has only been open since late January, but its performance and the critical needs among an estimated 500 people in jail with a diagnosed mental illness have persuaded officials to double the current case load to 50 offenders. Skahan's court is one of at least 150 such courts across the country, according to the Bureau of Justice Assistance in the U. S. Department of Justice. Supporters of the concept cite a 2012 study of mental health courts in two New York City boroughs that concluded that offenders are "significantly less likely to recidivate than similar offenders with mental illness who experience business-as-usual court processing." In Shelby County, the court's clients, most commonly charged with theft, have been arrested an average of 136 times, with records that go back 20 to 25 years, mental health court coordinator Kim Daugherty told The Commercial Appeal. Defendants must plead guilty to stay in the yearlong program, but once they complete it their arrest records are expunged. The program includes mental and physical health care, help with alcohol and drug abuse, housing assistance and, if they are capable, employment assistance. Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell has taken a strong interest in the program, which provides a more effective way to deal with some offenders and creates more efficiency in the local criminal justice system, reserving prison for offenders who truly need to be locked up. In many cases, that doesn't include offenders whose behavior is subject to the influence of a deeply seated condition such as bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. Offenders are still held accountable for their actions, but are put on the kind of productive path that prison can't provide. Like other alternative court programs, the mental health court deserves the support of the community, the state and the federal government. It can help improve the criminal justice system in a way that will create a more just society. SHARE By Josh Rogin Despite what you might read on Donald Trump's twitter feed, the Iranian execution of a nuclear scientist who defected to the United States and then changed his mind was not caused by Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server. The scientist outed himself; it wasn't Clinton's fault. The Iranian government announced Sunday it had executed Shahram Amiri, a nuclear scientist who spent about 14 months in the United States in 2009 and 2010. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., noted on Sunday's "Face the Nation" that Amiri's case had been discussed by top Clinton State Department officials on emails that passed through her private server. "I'm 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 Clinton's private server, there were conversations among her senior advisors about this gentleman," Cotton said. "That goes to show just how reckless and careless her decision was to put that kind of highly classified information on a private server." The Drudge Report ran the story with a banner title, "Clinton email led to execution in Iran?" which Trump promptly retweeted without comment to his 10.7 million followers. The Clinton campaign Monday told me that Republicans and the Trump campaign went over the line by trying to try Clinton's email server to Amiri's execution. "The Trump campaign has never met a conspiracy theory it didn't like. He and his supporters continue to use increasingly desperate rhetoric to attack Hillary Clinton and make absurd accusations because they have no ideas for the American people," said Clinton campaign spokesman Jesse Lehrich. "It's pretty remarkable to baselessly claim that Hillary Clinton is responsible for this tragic death." Asked for clarification, Cotton's office pointed to the Associated Press coverage of Amiri's execution, which noted that Clinton's staff at the State Department seemed to discuss Amiri's case in two emails last year. The emails were released last year. "We have a diplomatic, 'psychological' issue, not a legal one. Our friend has to be given a way out," Richard Morningstar, a former State Department special envoy for Eurasian energy, said in one July 5, 2010 email. "If he has to leave, so be it." Another email, sent by deputy chief of staff Jake Sullivan on July 12, 2010, appears to notify Clinton that Amiri has gone to the Pakistani embassy, which hosts an Iranian interests section, as part of his attempt to go back to Iran. "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." In 2010, I covered Amiri's strange case for Foreign Policy magazine and watched in real time as the Clinton State Department struggled to deal with Amiri's story. When Amiri arrived at the Pakistani embassy, he was asking to be sent back to Iran. He had an elaborate story for how he had gotten there. According to what Amiri told Pakistani and Iranian officials, he was kidnapped in Medina, Saudi Arabia in 2009, on his way to the mosque, thrown in a van, drugged and taken the United States. He claimed he never gave any information to the U.S. government and that he was moved around a lot, staying mostly in Arizona and Washington, D.C. For some unknown reason, 14 months into his capture, the U.S. government put Amiri in a cab and had him shipped back into Iranian hands, according to the story Amiri told just before he returned to Iran. He never explained how or why he was able to record Youtube videos during his alleged capture, each of which had different accounts of what happened to him. U.S. officials at the time told me and many other journalists that Amiri had defected to the United States of his own free will and had helped the U.S. for many years while he was in Iran by providing essential intelligence information about Iran's nuclear program. The Washington Post reported at the time the U.S. government had paid Amiri $5 million. Clinton talked publicly about the case at the time. "He's free to go. He was free to come. These decisions are his alone to make," she said on July 13, 2010. There are several possible explanations as to why Amiri decided to go home and face the judgment of the Iranian justice system, which concluded he was a traitor. The Iranian government may have threatened his wife and 7-year old son. He may have hated life on the run. He may have had a change of heart. But there's no reasonable connection between the discussion of Amiri's case on email by Clinton's staff to Amiri's eventual execution. There's no evidence her server was hacked. The Iranians knew all about Amiri well before the emails were released publicly. His kidnapping story never held water and his fate was sealed long before his sentence was carried out. Add Shahram Amiri to the list of deaths Trump has carelessly speculated that Clinton is responsible for with no real evidence. At least he can't blame her for the Kennedy assassination; he's already got a conspiracy theory for that one. Josh Rogin is a columnist for the Global Opinions section of the Washington Post. South Bismarck residents are complaining about stormwater flooding their neighborhood during heavy rain storms. Recently, 40 residents signed a letter and complaint asking the state Health Department to address inadequate infrastructure along South 12th Street and the surrounding areas. Steve Schwab, one of the petitioners and a former city commissioner, said it has led to flooding and the release of sewage during heavy storms for 20 years. The city acknowledges that stormwater can flood the area, but said it hasnt received any reports of sewage being released. Residents that the Tribune interviewed said sewage has been a problem, but that they havent reported it to the city. Whether there was sewage or not, the problem with stormwater is unhealthy. Flowing water can pick up debris and the resulting water sitting with trash shouldnt be tolerated. This situation needs to be remedied, but it wont come cheaply. Michelle Klose, director of utility operations for Bismarck, said it could cost millions to fix. She warned that even with multiple projects costing in the millions that there still would be flooding beyond the two-year and five-year events. This situation has gone on too long and, unfortunately, if it was occurring in other neighborhoods it would have been likely handled earlier. The residents need to keep the pressure on the city to take action and if a storm brings sewage into the area they need to report it immediately. Schwab offered some suggestions in his complaint to the state. One was to have the city pay a third party to monitor for potential contamination and another was to require an environmental impact statement with the state before any new commercial projects are built in the area. Klose said the city is considering multiple projects in the low-lying areas and other projects in the larger watershed. Box culverts are one possibility and ways to move water west are being reviewed. Klose notes there are a variety of problems, so multiple solutions will be needed. The city commission will look at its options later this month and they need to act as quickly as possible. Klose describes the problems in south Bismarck as complex. However, its time for Bismarck to find solutions. The Bismarck City Commission will review the issue on Aug. 23 and a public meeting is planned Aug. 25. The White House has released a policy that promotes reuse of source code developed by agencies across the federal government. The new Federal Source Code Policy also sets up a pilot program that requires agencies, when commissioning new custom software, to release at least 20 percent of new custom-developed code as open source software (OSS) for three years, Tony Scott, U.S. CIO and Anne E. Rung, chief acquisition officer, wrote in a memorandum to heads of departments and agencies on Monday. The federal government spends every year over $6 billion on software through more than 42,000 transactions, but agencies that procure custom-developed source code do not necessarily make their new code broadly available for reuse by the federal government. Even when agencies are in a position to make their source code available on a government-wide basis, they do not make such code available to other agencies in a consistent manner, resulting in unnecessary duplication and waste of taxpayers dollars, the memorandum added. President Barack Obama's administration announced in 2014 its "Second Open Government National Action Plan," aimed at creating a policy for open source software -- among other objectives. A draft of the Federal Source Code policy was released by Scott in March for public comment. Source code developed by national security agencies will, however, be exempt from the new policy, and continue to follow existing rules and internal policies. Other agencies covered under the policy have to make their "custom-developed code available for government-wide reuse and make their code inventories discoverable at https://www.code.gov," a site being set up by the administration in the next few months. Making source code available as OSS could also help federal software projects, because private users would implement the code and publish improvements, allowing for collaborative benefits such as software peer review and security testing, sharing of technical know-how and reuse of code, according to the memorandum. "By opening more of our code to the brightest minds inside and outside of government, we can enable them to work together to ensure that the code is reliable and effective in furthering our national objectives," Scott wrote in a post Monday introducing the final policy. The source code for the White Houses We The People website tool for petitioning the government has been released as OSS, and agencies like the Department of Defense and the 18F office have pointed to the software reliability and security benefits of OSS. Data.gov, a website for government data run by the U.S. General Services Administration, also runs on open source applications. The open source component of the new policy has its critics, who fear that the code could fall in the wrong hands and be misused. In a post on Monday that tries to dispel myths around the use of open source, 18F wrote that there are several agencies that do classified work and release code that isnt sensitive. The National Security Agency has, for example, released code and documentation for its System Integrity Management Platform under an open source Apache license. Cllr Chris Whitehouse is the Education Spokesman for the Conservative Group of the Isle of Wight Council and Chairman of The Whitehouse Consultancy. Ofsteds reputation is built upon the principle of impartial inspections and assessment of evidence to review the performance of schools and the teachers in them. So its credibility has suffered a serious blow with the ill-informed, inaccurate, and profoundly insulting assertion by its Chairman, David Hoare, that educational challenges on the Isle of Wight are down to inbreeding. This column does not deny that there has been a generational problem with low parental aspiration on the Island, which, combined with poor political decisions in the past, has led to low achievement in many of our schools. For many years the Island was in denial about that, but now we have in place senior leadership teams in most of our schools who understand that they have problems, know what they are, and are driving forward effective agendas to address them. The gene pool on the Island, as it happens, is probably as diverse as any in England outside the main metropolitan cities since it has been a home for seafaring, shipbuilding, military bases, and seasonal labour for centuries. This column challenges Hoare to produce any evidence whatsoever that the island is inbred and, indeed, any evidence to suggest that anywhere in England experiences poor educational standards because of inbreeding. It is arrant nonsense and therein lies the issue for Ofsted and its reputation. Put simply, and things do need to be put simply for Hoare, these remarks have suggested what our legal colleagues might call apparent bias meaning that even if no Ofsted inspectors are actually biased against schools on the Isle of Wight, it would be very difficult for Ofsteds conclusions in respect of Isle of Wight Schools to be accepted as fair whilst Mr Hoare remains in post. Its credibility is holed below the waterline so far as the Island is concerned. His remarks were particularly unfortunate given the genuine cross-party commitment to driving up educational standards about which I have written previously on this site. What is more, we have some of the best head-teachers in England on the Island, including one who is an advisor to Ofsted and another who was the star of the television series Educating Cardiff. Attracting high calibre teachers to the Island has always been a challenge, and whilst we have made great progress in recent years the damage that Hoare has done to the reputation of our Island schools will make it harder to attract those high performers in future. And, how can our children working hard for their exams be other than demotivated by this slur upon their intelligence and their prospects? Put simply again for Hoare, this is not just reputational damage to the Island, its schools, its parents and its children, but it is a serious blow to educational outputs. Is that what Ofsted should be about in Hoares view? I resisted the invitation to call, on the BBC Radio 4 PM Programme (listen here at 35 minutes in), for Hoare to resign, because that would have been a view expressed in anger at the gratuitous insult paid by him to the Island and its families. But, on reflection, given that he has actually damaged the education of children, tarnished Ofsteds reputation, and incensed an entire teaching community, his continued occupancy of his current position would be difficult to justify. Hoare, a merchant banker by background, actually boasted in his remarks, reported in the Times Education Supplement, of popping over to Cowes to drink champagne, no doubt with his posh sailing chums. This does, of course, raise a different question about the kind of person who is appointed to take these elite positions. This site has done a sterling job in systematically identifying and encouraging applications for appointed positions of public office. What we need in future appointments is more women and men whove actually had dirt under their fingernails, whove worked their way up the hard way as opposed to being born into privilege and wealth. The mission of our party should be to smash these ivory towers, to be champions for white van man and blue collar workers, small businessmen and genuine entrepreneurs. I hope that in our former coal-mining Party Chairman, Patrick McLoughlin, and the champion of Essex Man, Robert Halfon, now Skills Minister, we can successfully shift our Partys paradigm in that regard. If they succeed, Conservatives will remain in power for decades. Hoare is not a lone example of the sneering elite, he is, sadly, typical of it. That must end. Rob Leitch is an Assistant Headteacher of a secondary school in South East London. Grammar Schools. Two words which provoke passion, debate and emotion throughout the world of education and beyond. For the advocates of selective education, whose defence of grammar schools seemed like a losing battle under Tony Blair and David Cameron, the political tide seems to have turned quickly. At the other end of the education spectrum, non-selective educationalists, long in the ascendency in educational theory, are now readying themselves for battle. The return of the grammar school wars has arrived, and its not going to be pretty. As a student, I attended both a comprehensive and grammar school. However, during my teaching career, I have only taught in non-selective schools, albeit located in heavily selective areas in North Kent and South-East London one of the final frontiers of grammar school presence. As both student and teacher, I have witnessed first-hand the benefits and consequences of the grammar school system, and am clear that there is a place for new grammar schools, but only with strict conditions: Grammar schools should only be allowed to start or expand in areas which lack an academic offering . Lets not kid ourselves, grammar schools attract the most academically able children. They offer the most academic courses and subjects, particularly at A Level, and as a result of the higher inputs (gifted students), they achieve higher outputs (impressive results). For non-grammars, this basic formula is hugely frustrating. Yet it is wrong for the current postcode lottery to continue. Some areas have a strong academic offering, others do not: new grammar schools could level that playing field, but the Department for Education should only sanction them in specific areas of high need/high deprivation. There must be a diverse and mixed school economy in each local area . A failure of the school system in the past was that too many students were pushed into a one size fits all approach. An excess of similar schools within a small geographical area is bad for a local school economy, parental choice and student engagement. Rather, each area should have a strong academic, creative, vocational and technical offering. The local school economy should reflect the differing skills and talents of young people and the needs of the wider economy whilst also providing the widest possible choice for prospective parents. Ofsted and the DfE must review their criteria for judgements . It is simply not fair to judge and compare schools by attainment outcomes when, in selective areas, the grammar schools will take the top 10-15 per cent of able students from primary schools. The impact on other neighbouring secondary schools is substantial and, if everyone is compared on a generic attainment measure, non-selective school reputations will suffer. Measuring progress from KS3 starting points is a much fairer approach to gauge school success. Ofsted will need to consider and appreciate the relative student profiles of schools in a more meaningful manner than it does at present. Selection testing should be unseen . It is wrong to hold selection tests on specific days, with mock papers available for middle class parents to buy and tutor their children for. If this remains the mode of selection testing, any new grammar schools risk inadvertently reinstating the class system. The fact that houses in my area are worth a premium because they are down the road from local grammar schools show how selective education can create quasi-private institutions the reserve of those who can afford house prices in certain areas or private tutoring. All selection testing should be undertaken by primary schools in a holistic manner, with each making informed, teacher-led recommendations on student potential for an academic route. Furthermore, the introduction of multiple entry points (11+, 12+, 13+ etc) would ensure opportunity and incentive for young people whose academic abilities develop at a later stage. Grammars must continue to play their part in improving social mobility . One of the greatest benefits of grammar schools for most Conservatives is the principle that any bright young child, from any background, can be admitted and succeed. Yet to avoid middle-class ownership of the grammar system, as described above, all new grammar schools should be required to fill a minimum percentage of its placements with bright children from disadvantaged backgrounds. At present, fewer than three per cent of grammar school students enter on free schools meals, compared to a national average of over 15 per cent. If new grammar schools are to be allowed, that figure must change. By reserving allocations for those from disadvantaged backgrounds, advocates can truly believe in the social mobility argument. In the upcoming debate over grammar schools, many will make the fatal mistake of turning the debate into grammars vs the rest. There is no need for this us and them mentality: we need diversity in our school system and, where new grammar schools can enrich the local offer, they should be endorsed. However, the same passion should be applied in equal measure to ensuring that creative, technical and vocational offerings also exist, each with the same level of high expectations that is so often associated with grammar schools. Grammar schools should not be the pinnacle of our education system, but nor should they be the estranged relation: they have an important role to play. A judge Tuesday threw out criminal charges against the head of North Dakotas largest state agency for impeding the investigation into the drowning of a 5-year-old girl, but left open the possibility of reviving those charges. Northeast District Judge Donovan Foughty dismissed the misdemeanor charges of conspiracy to obstruct a government function and refusing to perform a public duty filed in February against Maggie Anderson, executive director of the Department of Human Services. The prosecutor, former McHenry County States Attorney Cassey Breyer, had asked the judge to dismiss those charges against Anderson as well as DHS attorney Jonathan Alm and Laurie Gotvaslee, director of the agencys regional center in Minot. Breyer made her recommendation after the judge last week tossed the same charges against former DHS attorney Julie Leer with prejudice. Citing a lack of evidence, Foughty also dismissed the charges against Alm late Tuesday with prejudice, meaning the state cant refile the charges. He had yet to rule on Gotvaslees case. The judge made the right decision, said Alms attorney, Justin Vinje of Bismarck. However, as requested by the prosecutor, Foughty dismissed the charges against Anderson without prejudice, leaving the door open for the state to refile the lawsuit. Breyer wrote that the state is not alleging that the charges against the Defendant are improper, and she cited additional evidence that arose during Leers hearing last week in Devils Lake as her reason for seeking dismissal. She also noted the state may appeal the Leer case. Attorneys for Anderson, Alm and Gotvaslee all requested their charges be dismissed with prejudice. Gotvaslees lawyer, longtime defense attorney Robert Hoy of West Fargo, blasted Breyer in his motion. Dismissal without prejudice would allow her to avoid public responsibility for her ill-advised decision to file these criminal charges, while perpetuating the claim Ms. Gotvaslee and her co-defendants have someone done wrong and likely committed crimes in connection with the drowning death of a young child, Hoy wrote. As the Court is well aware, none of that is true and it is an injustice to allow the prosecutor to continue casting suspicion upon blameless professionals while avoiding responsibility for her own wrong-headed charging decisions. Breyer, who resigned in June but continued to prosecute the DHS cases while working in private practice, declined to comment. Anderson referred questions to her attorney, Michael Hoffman of Bismarck, who was out of town and unavailable for comment. The charges filed against the DHS workers stemmed from the investigation into the death of 5-year-old Gracelyn Aschenbrenner, who was found unresponsive in the Velva city pool on June 8, 2015, while under the supervision of the KidQuarters child care center. Breyer alleged that the DHS workers allowed KidQuarters to operate unlicensed, failed to notify authorities about it and tried to obstruct the state crime bureaus investigation. Foughty had previously dismissed a felony charge against a fifth DHS worker, former Early Childhood Services Administrator Jennifer Barry. Barry entered a pretrial diversion agreement under which a misdemeanor count of refusing to perform a public duty will be dismissed after three months if she commits no other offenses. A felony charge of tampering with public records and two misdemeanors are still pending against McHenry County social worker Cheryl Johnson, who allegedly asked DHS to backdate KidQuarters expired license to six days before the incident. The centers operator pleaded guilty in March to felony child neglect and operating a child care facility without a license. SUBSCRIBE Sign up with your email address to receive news and updates straight in your inbox. North Dakotas top agriculture official warned Monday that training provided by the Humane Society of the United States on how to handle animal cruelty cases poses a threat to the states livestock industry, but an HSUS spokesman said thats untrue and trainers are only going where invited. Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring said he believes the Humane Societys intentions behind the training are misleading as they have a long history as an animal rights activist organization with the intention of ending animal agriculture. HSUS is encouraging and training law enforcement to identify and seize animals without a veterinary inspection and assessment, he said in a statement. TJ Jerke, the societys state director for North Dakota, said the group supports humane and environmentally sustainable animal agriculture. He noted its field guide for law enforcement officers contains numerous references to seeking a veterinarians expertise. Goehring said in a phone interview that he hadnt read the guide, but added his staffers have some concerns with it. The only training session so far was held May 12 at the Southwest Crime Conference in Dickinson, attended by Dickinson and Bismarck officers. It was led by Michael Gabrielson, a Humane Society consultant and sergeant with the Kettering, Ohio, police department. Jerke said the Humane Society was invited to the conference, and he sent letters in June to all North Dakota sheriffs letting them know the training is available. Were not forcing law enforcement agencies to host these trainings, he said. Theyre inviting us. The Human Society offers the training in partnership with the National Sheriffs Association, and its nothing new, Jerke noted. Last year, 54 seminars nationwide trained 2,262 officers from more than 650 agencies, he said. The training gives law enforcement agencies with ever-shrinking budgets a chance to learn tips and tools for handling animal cruelty and neglect cases in the field, Jerke said. Officers receive professional credit for completing the training, which is free. No additional seminars are scheduled in North Dakota but some agencies have inquired about it, Jerke said. Goehring said in a phone interview that he was shocked, appalled and disturbed to learn about the training and has a great deal of concern about a politically active group such as the Humane Society suggesting it has the tools needed to assess animal abuse, a job that he said should be left to veterinarians. We have competent vets across the state that specialize in treating large animals, and they can make a better assessment, he said, encouraging law enforcement officers concerned about possible animal cruelty to contact the departments Animal Health Division. North Dakota voters defeated a Humane Society-backed measure in November 2012 that would have made it a felony to maliciously and intentionally harm a dog, cat or horse, while at the same time approving a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right of farmers and ranchers to engage in modern farming and ranching practices. The 2013 Legislature made animal cruelty a Class C felony and established a felony offense for animal abuse on a third or subsequent offense. Thank you for joining! Access your Pro+ Content below. CW Nordics: Dealing with digital disruption The Nordic countries are renowned for being home to thriving tech startup scenes, so it is hardly surprising that IT is a disruptive force in the region. In this quarters CW Nordics ezine we look more closely at how the Nordic region is being affected by technology disruption across industry sectors and how organisations are reacting to it. Sussex News Story Saved You can find this story in My Bookmarks. Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right. Note: This is the first in a series examining the positions of several third party and independent presidential candidates on issues covered by the Acton Institute. A previous series covered the Democratic Party platform (see here and here) and the Republican Party Platform (see here and here). Candidate: Evan McMullin Party: Independent candidate Age: 40 (born 1976) Religion: Mormon Education: Bachelors degree in International Law and Diplomacy from Brigham Young University (2001) Masters of Business Administration from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania (2011) Occupations/positions: Deckhand on a commercial fishing vessel (1997) Mormon missionary in Brazil (2001) Volunteer refugee resettlement officer in Amman, Jordan, on behalf of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (2001) Operations Officer with the CIAs National Clandestine Service (served in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia) (1999 2010) Investment Banking Associate, Goldman Sachs (2010-2013) Senior Advisor for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs (2013-15) Chief Policy Director for the U.S. House of Representatives Republican Conference (2015-2016) Position on the Issues: Education Local control, expanded opportunity and a return to fundamentals are vital to reforming our failing education system. Supports expanding charter and magnet schools. Supports eliminating Federal Common Core mandates Government accountability An all-powerful government centered in Washington has eroded the separation of powers in a way that is corrosive to our Republic and our Constitution. Supports stripping the Executive branch of legislative power and returning it to Congress and the individual states. Healthcare Opposes Obamacare. Supports competition, deregulation and innovation in the healthcare system. Supports protecting vulnerable populations, including patients with preexisting conditions. Jobs and the economy America should be the best place in the world for innovation, entrepreneurship and opportunity. Supports reforming a system that too often benefits the politically connected and the corporate elite, while leaving too many Americans behind. Supports reforming the tax code to make it lean, simple and encourage investment here at home. Supports reducing government regulations Poverty Opposes creating additional government programs as the single answer to solving poverty. Those who can work should have to opportunity to work, and those who need the training and education to become productive should receive it. Trade Supports greater access to foreign markets. Supports negotiating stronger trade deals and enforcing the terms of existing agreements to ensure fair competition globally. Closing doors to trade opportunities wont bring back jobs, but it will make life for everyday Americans more expensive, and reduce our ability to sell our goods around the world. Next in this series: The Libertarian Party platform We can't seem to find the page you are looking for. You may have typed the address incorrectly or you may have used an outdated link. A 40-year-old Milford man is now the commander of a Connecticut-built fast-attack submarine based out of the naval sub base in New London. During a change of command ceremony Friday in New London, Cmdr. Matthew Fanning, of Meadowside Road in Milford, saluted as he was rung ashore aboard the USS Hartford. During the change of command ceremony, Fanning relieved former Hartford commanding officer, Cmdr. Thomas Aydt. The USS Hartford, launched in 1993, was built by the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics in Groton. Fanning graduated from the Naval Academy in 1999 and has served in the Navy for 17 years. Prior to graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy, Fanning graduated from St. Josephs High School in Trumbull, the Gunnery in Washington and Old Dominion University. During the ceremony, Fanning praised the ships former commander. "Commander Aydt, congratulations on a job well done and I thank you for turning over a crew of such professional sailors. I'm honored to have the opportunity to build upon the tremendous work you have done." After thanking Aydt, Fanning told the crew this ceremony is about you - you as individuals, you as the crew - and about your success as the lifeblood of the Hartford. Aydt expects Hartford and her crew to continue accomplishing great things. The story of the Hartford begins a new chapter today and I think it will be the best one yet," said Aydt. "I have known Commander Fanning for a while and I can't think of anyone that I would rather see leading Hartford into the future. According to Fannings LinkedIn profile, he is a Navy nuclear engineer and inspector with more than 10 years of expertise in operations and project management on nuclear power plants, has extensive experience in nuclear plant operations, maintenance, and training and was an inspector for the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Examining Board. He inspected aircraft carriers, submarines and training facilities to ensure compliance with reactor safety regulations and certify the adequacy of material, quality assurance, chemistry and radiological requirements. The USS Hartford has had several accidents. In 2003, it ran aground in Sardinia, damaging its rudder, sonar and other electronic equipment. After the accident, the captain and commodore were relived of command. In 2009, the Hartford collided with a transport ship in the Strait of Hormuz injuring 15 crewmen and spilling 25,000 gallons of fuel in the strait. The commander was later relieved of command. After that 2009 accident, it took more than $100 to repair the submarine before it returned to active duty in 2011. In March 2016, the Hartford was one of two submarines to conduct exercises in the Arctic Circle. Like the Connecticut-built USS Nautilus first did in 1958, the Hartford broke through the thick polar ice. During part of that Arctic exercise, U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy spent a weekend on the Hartford. According to the U.S. Navy, the Harford is a Los Angeles class vessel. The Los Angeles class contains more nuclear submarines than any other class in the world. The class was preceded by the Sturgeon class and followed by the Seawolf. Except for USS Hyman G. Rickover, all submarines of this class are named after American cities and a few towns. This system of naming broke the Navys long-standing tradition of naming attack submarines for creatures of the ocean, such as the USS Nautilus. Sixty-two LA class submarines have been built with 41 in active service. Throughout our debates over foreign policy, trade policy, immigration policy, and otherwise, the 2016 election has seen increasing concentrations and divides between nationalism and globalism, each blind in its own way. Those who promote a (supposedly) America first agenda, ignore the impacts to our neighbors across the globe, each created in the image of God and deserving of the same rights and freedoms we enjoy. Meanwhile, the globalists ignore the benefits of local community and national sovereignty, promoting inclusion to the detriment of distinction. This neednt be an either-or divide, and for the Christian in particular, the choice is particularly ill-suited to our basic theological vision. As Peter Leithart explains, when it comes to nationalism vs. globalism, Christians must refuse the choice: We are members of a communion that, now more than ever before, is geographically universal. The church is ecumenical, a worldwide Abrahamic empire (see my Between Babel and Beast). We are members of a real global community, which is not a Davos elite or a subversive Anonymous but a community that includes all sorts and conditions of men and (today especially) women. Our deepest brotherhood isnt with other citizens of our nation but with those who are united with us by the Spirit in the Son. Baptismal water is thicker than blood; the Word unites us more basically than commitment to any Constitution, no matter how wise its political institutions. We cannot be nationalists. On the other hand: The church is a body with many members, each individual member contributing in a unique way to the edification of the whole. The church is a nation of priests that encompasses all nations, tribes, tongues. Nations retain their national identities their languages, histories, and customs when they are disciples by the gospel; their national identities are fulfilled in service to Christ the King. We cannot be globalists. Indeed, in its Kingdom first orientation, the church breathes life into such matters, confounding the dichotomies of the world and the humanistic orthodoxies of the local labor union or the United Nations. Our gratitude for the gifts of citizenship is qualified by our gratitude to our Father, the Giver of all good and perfect gifts, Leithart writes. We never owe our ultimate debt of gratitude to any but Him. In the Gospel, we find our true citizenship, and it transforms our cultural imaginations. From the day-to-day activities of family life and creative service to the high halls of policymaking, we must master what Leithart calls the patriotic-global two-step This stance doesnt translate easily into any policy prescriptions, but the very un-ease of this outlook might play an important political role. Our love for the nearest-neighbor can inoculate us against evangelists of globalism, while our catholicity enables us to resist the lure of America firsters. Our nationalist-globalist mix should inhibit the militarism that has inspired Americas misadventures in war. We serve our fellow citizens who suffer the dislocations that result from a global economy, but we see immigrant communities as fields of mission and service, and often a vibrant source of edification, that the Lord has kindly brought to our doorstep. What Brandon McGinley wrote recently about Catholicism should apply to the Christian churches more generally: When we hear a black man describe police violence; when we hear an undocumented immigrant describe exploitative labor; when we hear a prisoner describe institutionalized brutalization; when we hear a young gay woman describe homelessness our first response must not be to attempt to discredit, to rationalize, to explain away. Rather, we must give them the credit we would expect others to give to us, and try to understand experiences that differ substantially from our own This doesnt mean credulously accepting every narrative or policy proposal that is accompanied by a claim of oppression; we still have to apply our rational faculties. It does mean treating every story with the solicitude we would reflexively grant to members of our own economic, social, racial, and religious tribes. We must learn to master the patriotic-global two-step, at the risk of being misunderstood, despised, and marginalized by both nationalists and globalists. Against globalism and nationalism, the Christian slogan must always be: Kingdom first. Ours is a neighbor-love that recognizes the importance of belonging while embracing the stranger. The policy tensions will remain, but only from this starting point can true human flourishing begin. Connecticut State Police photo A 26-year-old convicted felon has been busted by State Police and Bridgeport detectives after police found he had a loaded .45 caliber semi-automatic handgun and crack cocaine in his possession. Raul Zayas, of Capitol Avenue in Bridgeport, is being held behind bars on $110,000 bond after being charged with criminal possession of a firearm, criminal possession of ammunition, reckless endangerment and possession of narcotics. French companies to manage Havana airport Havana's Jose Marti International Airport -first Cuban gate to the world- and the aerodrome of San Antonio de los Banos, in Artemisa, - will be managed under the modality of concession by the French companies Bouygues Batiment International and Aeroports de Paris. With this mode of administration Cuba seeks to apply the best management practices internationally to achieve higher standards of quality in services to passengers, crew and aircraft, Cuban Deputy Minister of Transport Eduardo Rodriguez told reporters. The announcement took place on Wednesday in the Cuban capital, after concluding the tender process involving several companies from other parts of the world. Rodriguez explained that the concession arrangement means that foreign companies of international prestige and knowledge in this activity, like the ones selected, will lead the administration of the airport together with Cuban entities. He clarified that regulatory activities -Customs, Immigration and Operational Safety- remain under Cuban state control and ratified that all means and facilities making up the airport and the ones to be built in the future will continue to be Cuban property. To a question by ACN on the date the new management will start, he said negotiations will begin to finalize details of the final contract, to be signed next year. However, it was agreed to work with the French companies in the financing and implementation of immediate actions to improve service quality and agility in arrivals and dispatch of luggage, in air terminals of both international and national flights. In the medium and long terms -from 2018 to 2030- airport investments in line with passenger growth estimates are planned, including the extension of the terminal three of the "Jose Marti," to concentrate international traffic in this terminal, he pointed out. The deputy minister stressed that transport and infrastructure are strategic and prioritized elements in Cuban economy and society, so such alliances -the first of its kind in the airport area in the country- will continue to be promoted in other Cuban airfields. He said that the airports in Varadero, Santa Clara, those of the northern cays and Holguin, would be among those selected to hereinafter reach agreements like the one announced for the Jose Marti International Airport. The French companies Bouygues Batiment International and Aeroports de Paris have extensive experience in their respective fields, the first with a history of tourist constructions in Cuba and the second a prestigious operator entity that manages the major airports in France, including the Charles de Gaulle in Paris. In recent years the Cuban Aviation Corporation S.A. has been expanding and modernizing national airport facilities in order to assimilate passenger traffic on the island, with proper operational and aviation safety, in compliance with Cuban Aviation Regulations and in accordance with the standards and practices recommended by the International Civil Aviation organization (ICAO). (acn) 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. 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. Britain is to leave the EU, and a substantial proportion of those who voted for this did so because they want much tighter control of immigration. Indeed, if there is one aspiration that unites most of the British people in these divided days, it is this. But how can it be accomplished? So far, all we really know about Brexit is that it means Brexit. Detail is absent. That is why we should welcome a pamphlet published this week by David Goodhart, of the think-tank Policy Exchange, which offers some practical proposals for curbing Britains soaring population. Scroll down for video The Italian Navy ship Bettica on patrol in the Mediterranean where it rescued 870 migrants in the Sicilian Channel He writes: It would be hard to justify the disruption of leaving the single market if the headline net immigration figure did not fall below 200,000 a year from the current 330,000. Here, he makes an honest start by acknowledging that it is neither possible nor desirable to reduce the number of incomers to zero. Vanishing We need workers with special skills, workers for the NHS and welfare services, for catering and tourism. But we do not need or want the vast numbers currently coming, and here is Goodharts shopping list of ideas for regaining control of Britains borders. First, it is essential to know who is here, and what rights they are entitled to. A decade ago, many people passionately opposed Gordon Browns identity card scheme, first because it would have been phenomenally expensive, and second because it seemed to smack of Big Brother. Goodhart, the former editor of Prospect magazine, who has written a book arguing that immigration should be curtailed as it is undermining national solidarity and the Welfare State, argues that the information is available to monitor people though a population register, incorporating a unique personal number, based on NHS registration. At present, the Department for Work and Pensions, Revenue & Customs and the Home Office do not exchange data about all those who cross their radar as citizens, tax payers and benefit claimants. This is crazy. A decade ago, many people passionately opposed Gordon Browns identity card scheme Beyond EU citizens with an absolute right to come and go which, of course, will stop with Brexit some two million people enter Britain on limited visas, and a substantial portion of these overstay them, many vanishing into low-paid work. Yet at some point they are bound to engage with one of the state bureaucracies, most likely the NHS. The Scandinavians, who are keener than most people on personal liberty, run population registers. It is long overdue for Britain to do the same. According to Goodharts blueprint, such a system would be overseen by a new government department for immigration and integration. This is such an important issue for this country, that it must be right to entrust responsibility to a dedicated Whitehall department. Pending the creation of a new department of state, the Home Office needs to streamline the work permit system, since this will soon need to handle applications from countries in the EU as well as outside it. Goodhart also argues that the Border Force and Immigration Enforcement bodies will need more resources and to offer higher pay in order to raise staff quality and improve motivation. If we care about protecting our borders as much as we tell each other in the pub that we do, then it is time to start financing it properly. He identifies another key issue: the shortage of young British people with the skills and motivation to accept a wide range of jobs currently done by foreigners. We should accept, he says, that seasonal agricultural work and similar jobs will never hold much appeal, and thus we shall continue to need migrant labour to pick strawberries and suchlike. But he proposes a commission, perhaps chaired by Sir David Metcalf, who is finishing his term as head of the Migration Advisory Committee, to explore incentives for employers to hire and train British citizens, as at present they are reluctant to do. Now Niger holds the EU to ransom over migrants: African country used as a route to Europe has demanded cash to fight migration Currently, it is simpler to bring in foreign workers, especially those with technology skills, to whom 151,000 visas were granted last year, including 60,000 for dependants. The ambition behind Goodharts plan is obviously right, but I am sceptical about its practicability unless or until there is a dramatic improvement in the British education system. Every major employer wails about the shortage of STEM skills Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. It would be disastrous for British industry and enterprise in the difficult years that are bound to follow Brexit, if they are prevented from hiring people with appropriate skills, wherever these have to come from. Importantly, Goodhart argues that we need to draw a sharper distinction between people who come here with the ultimate intention of taking up citizenship, and those accounting for two-thirds of the annual intake, including students and workers who are merely birds of passage. Privileges He writes: A temporary citizen should not be a full member, should not have full access to social and political rights (and would not have an automatic right to bring in dependants) and should leave after a few years. The State would then be able to focus its attention and resources on integrating those who make a full commitment to becoming British which should properly mean they accept recognised responsibilities as well as rights. Recent human rights legislation, Goodhart says, has blurred the distinction between citizens and non-citizens. A group of 300 migrants and asylum seekers at the border town of Ventimiglia, Italy We need to become much more particular about whom we permit to share the material and moral privileges of this society. I note he does not mention judges, but some of us believe the judiciary has played an important and unhelpful role, by stretching human rights law to justify admitting to Britain, or allowing to remain here, people who lack the slightest interest in embracing our values or culture. David Goodharts pamphlet is excellent as far as it goes, and should be required reading within our new Government. I regret only that he says nothing about refugees, both political and economic, who are entering Europe in vast numbers from across the Mediterranean, in a mass movement likely to increase exponentially in the years ahead. Whether we are in the EU or out of it, this represents a huge challenge for the British and indeed all governments, to devise a policy for handling huge numbers of people struggling for admission to our prosperous societies. Tough Most people are reluctant to see large numbers admitted with the exception of unaccompanied vulnerable children however strong may be the compassionate case. So what then to do about them? Any new immigration policy for Britain and a new policy we must certainly have has to include consideration of this mammoth problem. Ministers will have to make judgments, in which human rights will be inextricably entangled, about what contribution Britain will, or will not, make to addressing a problem, with no easy answers save for those who believe the Mediterranean boat-crossers can be left to drown. But at least it seems we are now witnessing a good start to a vital debate, with David Goodhart introducing some substantial proposals in place of the fevered referendum campaign rhetoric. Almost all of his ideas, he says, could be introduced without waiting for the outcome of Brexit negotiations. In the years ahead, we face many uncertainties. What is for sure, however, is that millions of Leave voters will never forgive the Tory Government if it fails to introduce tough, realistic controls on immigration, which will need to go far beyond ending free movement for EU citizens. Said he has no idea where the phrase came from or what it means He woke up with the words "the tittywhackers" on his chest A 21-year-old has admitted he has no recollection of how and why he got the words 'the tittywhackers' inked on his chest during a drunken night out. Tom, from Essex, was on a lads' holiday to Kavos, Corfu, last year when he got the 'embarrassing' body art, which he has lived to 'really regret'. Now he hopes another trip can rid him of his mistake as he visits the Tattoo Fixers On Holiday at their pop up shop in Melia, Crete, on the new series of their E4 show for a cover up. Tom, from Essex, was on a lads' holiday to Kavos, Corfu, last year when he got the 'embarrassing' body art, which he has lived to 'really regret' The 21-year-old said he has no idea where the phrase 'the tittywhackers' came from and it never caught on as a phrase Tattoo artists Alice Perrin, Jay Hutton and Sketch were confused when Tom revealed his inking and asked what 'the tittywhackers' meant. 'I have no idea what it means, it must have seemed like a good idea at the time,' Tom replied. 'Maybe I thought I would be a trendsetter, in the way you say "that's the dog's bullocks" or "that's the nuts" you could say "that's the tittywhackers" but it never caught on. He added: 'I never used the phrase "the tittywhackers" before I woke up with it on my chest so I don't have a clue where it came from. 'I don't remember a thing but I wouldn't have chosen it sober, I know that.' As a result of the tattoo, Tom admits he has been the butt of his friend's jokes and he has struggled to keep a girlfriend because of it. Tom admitted the embarrassing tattoo had cost him a girlfriend and it means he hates taking his top off 'My mates started using it to chat up girls, they ask them "what is the worse tattoo you have ever seen?" and then drag me over to show them. It doesn't help me pull any girls at all. 'I had one girlfriend I saw for four months but then she stayed over for first time and saw it that was last time I heard from her.' Tom begged the Tattoo Fixers to give him a tattoo he could be 'proud of' so he can 'take my top off again.' Tom was given a Greek inspired cover up tattoo on Tattoo Fixers On Holiday which he said he loved He said he was interested in Greek mythology which inspired Jay to create a design using the face of the god Zeus and a lightning blot in front of the Parthenon. The dark elaborate cover up left no trace of the old tattoo and Tom said he was delighted with it. He said: 'I love it, is is mad. I love everything about it. I am never going to use the words "the tittywhackers" again.' There's a new superstar on Instagram in the form of a tiny dog with a big heart and even bigger tongue. Chloe Kardoggian is the latest canine superstar on social media, with 99,000 followers on Instagram. The chihuahua, who lives in New York with her family, had a truly huge tongue that she likes to stick out often. Kiss me: Chloe Kardoggian is the latest celebrity pooch on Instagram 'Now I'm crabby': The adorable dog is a 12-year-old chihuahua who lives in New York City Gene Simmons is that you? Chloe has a big heart but an even bigger tongue Chloe's owner snaps photos of the dog both relaxing at home, casually showing off her long tongue, and dressed up for the day. Costumes the dog has worn include a tiara and tutu, pink pajama top and glasses, and a French-style beret and striped top. The tiny dog even has an adorable lobster costume that she dresses up in sometimes. Celebrity: The tiny dog's huge tongue has gained her fans from all over the world Dress up day: Chloe even dresses up in cute costumes like a tiara and tutu (above) Oh la la: And sometimes international inspired outfits for fans worldwide The 12-year-old dog was rescued by her owner two years ago, and has been very happy in her new home. The canine even has an older brother, also a rescue dog, called Cupid. Although Cupid doesn't have his own Instagram account, he does appear in some of Chloe's photos alongside his little sister. Popular: Chloe has over 99,000 followers on Instagram now, making her hot property Save a life: Chloe's owner rescued her, and said she wants to raise awareness of adopting dogs instead of shopping for them 'Now we get to spread the word about senior adoption': Chloe's owner also has another rescue dog called Cupid Khloe, whose Instagram account makes clear she is not associated with the Kardashians, is adorable in every snap, leading to a legion of followers. Whilst she doesn't have as many followers as some famous pups, Chloe's owner told PopSugar she was surprised by the dog's popularity and glad Chloe was raising awareness. Could these cats have the most mesmerising eyes ever? Meet adorable twin cats Iriss and Abyss from Saint Petersburg who have been fascinating people social media with their beautiful heterochromatic (different coloured) eyes. Their proud owner has shared pictures of the pretty cats with over 47,000 of their followers on Instagram. Pretty eyes: Meet twin cats Iriss and Abyss who have heterochromatic eyes Model cats: Their owner said that they are cross bred and that they were lucky to win the genetic lottery Cute: The kitties pose for a close up shot, showing off their beautiful eyes and balancing a red ball on their head Heterochromia is a genetic eye condition that means that someone has different coloured eyes as a result of the melanin level in eyes, according to All About Vision. Their owner, @pdyagilev, clarified in a caption of one of the posts that the cat's are neither Angora or Turkish Van breeds, but that they are cross bred from a white cat (their mother) and a black and white cat (their father). He has shared pictures of the cats posing next to beautiful flower arrangements, perfectly balancing balls on their head and wearing Star Trek uniforms. With their dad: Iriss and Abyss looking photogenic in the arms of their owner Curious kitties: The twin cats sitting next to a flower vase and looking up at the beautiful floral arrangement Happy together: The sister cats were born with heterochromatic eyes which is a genetic mutation which means they have different coloured eyes He also said that through the miracle of mother nature that the cats were born with blond (white) fur and heterochromatic eyes. 'All the pure breeds are the results of generic selection. But the fact, that we have no distinct breed, and got all these fantastic features is truly amazing!' he said. 'Such a chance is one in a million! And we feel so blessed, that we've got that chance!' he added. Live long and prosper! Iriss and Abyss dressed up in cute cat Star Trek uniforms Fur as white as snow: The St. Petersburg kitties owner said 'the fact, that we have no distinct breed, and got all these fantastic features is truly amazing!' Looking great: Iriss and Abyss posing in front of a piece of art they approve of that was recently purchased by their owner Fans of the twin cats have taken to their posts commenting on how photogenic the cats are. One wrote: 'There so beautiful I've never seen anything like this before.' Another said: 'Omg they're so pretty!' Kathryn Blundell said t never would have 'crossed her mind' to have daughter Ayesha, 11, present at her son's birth Guttural screams, expletives, panic, panting and excruciating pain. The final stages of a long labour are probably the most exhausting and frightening moments of your life. When I gave birth to my son Mckenzie it was no different. And although my husband stayed by my head throughout, his complexion was decidedly pale and he did not wish to cut the umbilical cord, a daunting task routinely asked of fathers these days. After all, the sight of your wife in agony can be deeply distressing for men. While I was fortunate to have a relatively straightforward experience when I had my son nine years ago, it would never have crossed my mind to invite my then 11-year-old daughter, Ayesha, to watch her sibling coming into this world. However clever and responsible she was, there were still things from which I needed to protect her. The brutality of birth being one. Thats why I was shocked to read that Jamie Olivers two eldest children, Poppy, 14, and Daisy, 13, were present when their mother Jools pushed their younger brother into the world. As bizarre as Jools and Jamies decision might seem, theyre not the only ones making it. As former editor of Mother & Baby magazine, I became aware of a trend for mothers to want to involve older children in the birthing process starting about five years ago. Many of these women reported wanting to have their children at the delivery to show them that birth is a natural, wonderful thing. I cant help but feel this is a deeply worrying decision, for both the labouring mother and the child witnessing it. Such monumental effort is required to deliver a baby that you need to feel free to let go; to shout, scream, swear with abandon. I cant imagine how inhibiting it must be to have your children there watching, agog. As for the children, while many of them will have been shown birth videos in the run-up by their mothers, nothing can prepare them for the terrifying sight of their normally calm, composed mother enduring such pain. Jools and Jamie Oliver leave the Portland Hospital in central London with the newest addition to the Oliver family Then theres the unpredictability of labour. There are few things more terrifying than the midwife pressing the emergency button when mother or baby is in distress the room immediately fills with paediatricians, senior doctors, anaesthetists, extra midwives a sight which would be terrifying for a young child. Jools Oliver shares a baby photo after birth In the Olivers case, one can only assume their eldest girls were very keen on the idea. Admittedly neither Poppy nor Daisy looks at all distressed in the clan photo taken outside Londons private Portland Hospital. Indeed, had the baby been born in an NHS hospital the children would most likely have been banned from the delivery room only the most progressive hospitals allow siblings to be present at the birth, and mothers have to request this in advance. In my case, my daughter came to visit her new brother the morning after his middle-of-the-night birth. Oblivious to the blood, sweat and tears her mother had shed just hours before, she bounded into the ward, ready to cuddle her freshly washed baby brother. As far as Im concerned, thats exactly as it should be. A woman who was adopted as a baby has forgiven the grandfather who forced her unmarried mother to give her away - and has flown across the world to meet her family for the first time in 40 years. Kristina Musil, 44, who lives in Vienna, Austria, said she had wondered about her birth parents for her entire life, questioning which family members she resembled and even if her birth was kept a secret. Despite numerous attempts to trace her family online, she could never find anything as she only knew her birthdate and that she was from Cincinnati, Ohio. Stanley was the one who forced Kristina's mother to give her up - but she has since forgiven him Kristina Musil finally reunited with her birth family including grandfather Stanley Przybylek after four decades of separation Two years ago, a law change granted more than 400,000 Ohio-born adoptees the right to apply for their birth certificates - after campaigning from Adoption Network Cleveland. This enabled Kristina to find her birth-name - Christian - and also the identity of her mother. After further online searches, she discovered family members had conducted multiple searches for her and eagerly, Kristina reached out to them through Facebook. Last year she was able to contact her family and discovered that her grandfather, who was a Catholic Deacon, forced her unwed mother to give her up for adoption. Kristina also enjoyed a very emotional reunion with her birth father, Sam Moccabee Her mother, Kathy, who had died five years before Kristina was able to find her, had pleaded with her parents to keep her daughter but was sent away to give birth. Kristina has been able to speak to her birth father Sam Moccabee, step brothers and sisters, aunts, as well as her grandfather - who she has since forgiven. After more than four decades wondering about her identity Kristina last month flew 4,000 miles from her home in Austria to Ohio to meet her long lost family for the first time. Kristina, an English teacher, said: 'I feel I have forgiven my grandfather, he did what he thought was best at the time. 'When I first spoke to him all he could say was 'wow, look at you' and couldn't believe how much I looked like my mum. 'He told me he prayed for me every day and never forgot about me, which I took as his way of apologising. Other members of Kristina's family helped her piece together how the family fits Kristina (right) is the spitting image of her birth mother Kathy (left) who died 15 years ago Kathy (right) and Kristina's dad Sam (left) were forced to give her up by her ultra-strict Catholic grandfather 'I'm sure he believes he acted in the best possible way at the time and I forgive him for it. 'My birth-mum's side were extremely strict Catholics and my grandfather was a Deacon at the church so there was no option for her to keep me. 'My aunt told me her memories of my mother fighting with my grandparents to keep me, but in the end she was sent away to give birth and I was adopted. 'Knowing that I was loved so much and that my mum fought for me was huge, I just wish I had the chance to thank her and show her who I've since become. 'I wanted thank my birth family for giving me life and a great upbringing with my adoptive parents, they were incredible to me. 'Ever since I was a child I wondered about my roots though and would play a game with my friends where we would try to figure out which famous person was my mum. 'I spent many years wishing my parents could know what I'd achieved and see where I was, so they could have been proud of me. English teacher Kristina (left) pictured with Betsie Norris who runs the Adoption Network Cleveland 'I'd wanted to obtain my birth certificate for a long time, but due to laws surrounding adoption I couldn't access my records, which was extremely frustrating. 'It felt like a form of discrimination, I was being denied access to information that everyone with a birth family took for granted - there were always missing holes in the story of my life and my identity. 'After the law change I was finally able to obtain my records and contacted my family. 'Meeting them last month was remarkable - it felt like I had been waiting an eternity for the moment where I finally find out who I was.' Kristina was adopted by Janice and Leon Camp who brought her up. Despite her happy upbringing she was always aware she was adopted. Meeting them last month was remarkable - it felt like I had been waiting an eternity for the moment where I finally find out who I was She added: 'I remember sitting at the kitchen table at a young age, colouring, when I turned round to my mum and asked her if I was adopted out of the blue. 'She was really good and told me the story of how they came to adopt me, they were incredible parents and have been very supportive while I've searched for my birth-family.' After obtaining her records, Kristina found that both maternal and paternal sides of her family had tried to look for her online - and managed to track them down through Facebook. Kristina said: 'My birth family had been searching for me in 2011, I was looking at the same time as them, but because my birth name was Christian-Marie, which I presumed was a male's name, I didn't find them. Kristina's adoptive parents Janice and Leon Camp Kristinas who are from Vienna 'It was a massive relief as it was a sign I wasn't a dirty little secret and that some of the family members were looking for me. 'It was very emotional discovering I had so many family members out there, I had to take notes and create a rough family tree to keep track of everyone.' Despite never meeting her mother, Kristina's family members were overwhelmed by how alike she was to her parents. She added: 'During a Skype chat, one of my family's first comments was 'my goodness you look so much like your mom' - in glasses I look like my mum and in contacts like my dad. 'It's a really cool feeling after not knowing who I looked like my whole life, it was satisfying and gave me a deep-seated feeling of belonging somewhere.' Kristina is part of the Adoption Network Cleveland, who has battled to open documents that previously meant adoptees couldn't trace their families. Since the law change two years ago, nearly 9,000 adoptees born between Jan 1 1964 and September 18 1996, have accessed their birth certificates. Betsie Norris, founder of Adoption Network Cleveland, said: 'Being able to get a birth certificate is really validating for adoptees, it's a piece of their history and origins that they have the right to know about. 'The records have been open for a year and a half, every day you hear a new story and a new twist and turn. 'We provide support, education and advocacy, we listen to people who have been touched by these issues and shine a light on them. 'If people hit a road block then it's an opportunity for us to be the voice for a larger group of adoptees. Advertisement Kim Kardashian may have broken the internet with her famous derriere but she's got some competition in Brazil. The 27 women competing to be win the title of best bottom in Brazil got into the Olympic spirit yesterday by running in their own 100-metre sprint - in nothing but skimpy bikinis. Hopefuls in the annual Miss Bumbum contest, Brazil's most popular beauty pageant, brought traffic to a standstill as they ran down the famous Avenida Paulista, the main street of the country's biggest city Sao Paulo. Scroll down for video The 27 finalists of the Miss BumBum competition were out in force yesterday as they took to the streets of Sao Paulo in Brazil to promote this year's competition The raunchy race marked the start of the seventh year of the competition, in which the women, each representing a Brazilian state, are whittled down to 15 who then battle it out in a live final. Each of the entrants wore nothing more than a skimpy orange bikini and a sash with the name of the state they their representing emblazoned on it. The Rio 2016 Olympic Games may have been just around the corner but the women seemed sure to make sure all eyes were on them as they posed for photos. The women took part in a 100m sprint down Avenida Paulista, the main street of the country's biggest city The finalists wore nothing but an orange bikini and a sash displaying the name of the Brazilian state they are representing The bikinis were naturally very revealing in order to best showcase the women's curvaceous posteriors The traffic stopping 27 finalists marched through the streets in trainers so as best to parade their enviable figures. In a country obsessed with the female backside, winners of the hotly-disputed contest become overnight celebrities and often go on to earn millions in modelling contracts and endorsements. The run is the second public outing for the 27 women, who last week posed for photos together on a Sao Paulo beach holding an Olympic flame. One twerking pair of hopefuls leaned in for a kiss ahead of the 100m sprint on Tuesday afternoon in Brazil The women limbered up in unusual ways ahead of the afternoon's race with one woman performing the splits Traffic was bought to a stand still by the 27 women who took to the streets to promote the competition The contestants will now spend the next three months doing whatever they can to win enough telephone votes from the public to win them a place in the grande final on November 9. This year a mother and daughter will compete in the competition for the first time, Bruna Ferraz, 35, representing the state of Rondonia, and Eduardo Morais, 19, for neighbouring northern state Roraima. The women will all compete to become Miss BumBum the owner of Brazil's best bottom over the next few months This year a mother and daughter will compete in the competition for the first time, Bruna Ferraz, 35, representing the state of Rondonia, and Eduardo Morais, 19, The grand final takes place on November 9 with the women relying on telephone votes in order to take home the crown And for the first time this year there will be an edition of the competition for over-50s. Ana Paula Saad, 38, representative of Sao Paulo, said: 'Running down the busiest street in Sao Paulo in just a bikini is the least I'm willing to do to get to the finals. I hope I stood out from the rest, and that more people in my home city will vote for me.' Dani Omeles, 27, who is competing for the state of Amazonas, said she had been preparing for the race for the last week. She said: 'I got up at 5am this morning to do some stretches, then spend the rest of the time putting my make-up on. This means everything to me. I know I've got the best bottom in Brazil, now it's up to me to make everyone else know about it.' The entrant for Goias shows off her curves on Monday and another hopeful showcases some impressive inkings For Gemma, the summer season comes with unbearable expectations... However, this is not true for Gemma Adams, a 31-year-old mother of two When the days get warmer and brighter, so, too, do most people's spirits When the days get warmer and brighter, so, too, do our spirits. At least, this is the common perception of how summer affects our mood, but it doesnt ring true for Gemma Adams. The 31-year-old finds that come springtime she feels increasingly gloomy and it just gets worse with the advent of summer. Summer always makes me feel ten times worse, she adds. Its when everyone else expects you to be happy but it just makes you feel even more that you dont measure up. 31-year-old Gemma Addams finds that come springtime she feels increasingly gloomy and it just gets worse with the advent of summer Id rather it was raining so I can stay at home and snuggle up on the sofa, says Gemma, who works in the civil service. I look forward to the winter you can go to bed at 7pm and no one will bat an eyelid. 'But in the summer, when youre invited to barbecues and the beach and expected to be sociable, it just makes it harder to hide away. It doesnt help that Gemma lives in Cornwall, where the annual influx of holiday-makers only makes her feel more at odds with the carefree mood around her. Its depressing when you see everyone else enjoying themselves and youre just at work having another miserable day. Gemma, who is separated and has a two-year-old son, Joseph, was diagnosed with depression in 2011, following a traumatic ectopic pregnancy, where a fertilised egg implants outside the womb. She has since managed the condition with cognitive behavioural therapy and courses of antidepressants. Although she stopped taking medication in 2013 so she could breast-feed her son, she started taking it again in June. But while some peoples depression gets worse in the summer, there are others for whom depression seems to be triggered by summer itself. Gemma, who is separated and has a two-year-old son, Joseph, was diagnosed with depression in 2011, following a traumatic ectopic pregnancy Many of us will be familiar with the winter blues, or seasonal affective disorder (SAD), but less well known is the fact that a summer variety also exists. Up to 8 per cent of the population are estimated to have winter SAD, and around 1 per cent have the summer version, explains Lance Workman, a professor of psychology at the University of South Wales. But while its a relatively small number who have a serious problem with summer SAD, around 10 per cent of people will find their mood changes for the worse to some degree during the summer months. The symptoms are rather different, however. Those with winter SAD tend to feel lethargic, want to sleep for long hours, have an increased appetite and gain weight. People with a classic case of the summer version, on the other hand, feel agitated rather than lethargic, have difficulty sleeping, poor appetite and weight loss. It tends to be a more anxious form of depression, so rather than feeling unable to do anything you find it hard to sit still, says Professor Workman. While the exact cause of seasonal affective disorder is not fully understood, the winter variant is thought to be linked to a lack of sunlight entering the eye (hence the popularity of light therapy as a treatment). Although she stopped taking medication in 2013 so she could breast-feed her son, Gemma Adams fears she may need to start taking it again The theory is that this disrupts the function of a part of the brain called the hypothalamus, which in turn lowers the production of the brain chemical serotonin, a chemical thought to have a role in mood. Put crudely, serotonin makes us feel more upbeat, says Professor Workman. He adds that serotonin has an antagonistic relationship with melatonin, the hormone that makes us sleepy basically, less serotonin means more melatonin, which is why people with winter SAD tend to feel tired. In contrast, people with summer SAD are thought to produce too little melatonin during the summer months, which means they cant sleep, says Professor Workman. On top of that, serotonin levels that rise with the increased light can in turn lead to irritability in some people, so this may be another factor in the condition. Summer SAD is thought to be down to a combination of sunlight and heat. Seasonal changes in brain chemicals may affect all of us to some degree, but some people are particularly sensitive to the amount of heat and light out there, says Professor Workman, so that it noticeably affects their melatonin or serotonin levels. Indeed some studies have shown that in countries near the Equator, such as India, there is actually a higher prevalence of summer SAD than winter SAD (in contrast, winter SAD is more common in northern latitudes). It doesnt help that Gemma lives in Cornwall, where the annual influx of holiday-makers only makes her feel more at odds with the carefree mood around her There is also a hypothesis that summer SAD may be tied to seasonal allergies. People who found that their mood worsened during high pollen counts were more likely to have a non-winter variety of seasonal affective disorder, according to a study published in the Journal of Affective Disorders in 2007. We know that many people with depression also have evidence of inflammation in their bodies, and allergies can trigger an inflammatory response, so there is a rational basis for this theory, explains Ian A. Cook, a professor of psychiatry and bioengineering and the director of the Depression Research and Clinic Program at the University of California, Los Angeles. But its hard to draw a conclusive pattern as the condition is very under-researched. Whats clear though, is that depression is by its nature a heterogeneous condition, explains Professor Workman, experienced in different ways by different people. Indeed, its not just summer sad that can make people feel low during the warmer months. Holiday periods in general can be especially isolating for people who are prone to depression, says Professor Workman. If you see others having a good time it can make you feel even worse. We know people get depressed at Christmas if they dont have friends and family to enjoy it with, and the same thing can happen in summer when you feel youre meant to be enjoying yourself. Although she has lost a significant amount of weight in recent years, dropping from 18st 9lb to 11st 1lb (she is 5ft 7in) Gemma remains self-conscious about her appearance Financial worries over how to afford a holiday can also contribute, as can the disruption to schedule and routine that come with the summer holidays. Anything that changes your routine can affect your mood, he adds. Another issue is that summer can bring problems with body image to the fore something Gemma Adams can relate to. Although she has lost a significant amount of weight in recent years, dropping from 18st 9lb to 11st 1lb (she is 5ft 7in) she remains self-conscious about her appearance. In winter you can just throw on a big coat and it doesnt really matter what you look like. In the summer, youre supposed to make an effort to look good, she says. At any time of the year, depression can be made worse by whats known as the anniversary effect that is, is a traumatic event, such as a divorce or a bereavement occurred at that time. In Gemmas case, her ectopic pregnancy and subsequent marriage breakdown both happened during the summer months. To help manage the summer blues, Professor Workman suggests planning ahead to make sure that when summer is in full swing you are sleeping as well as possible. To help manage the summer blues, Professor Lance Workman suggests planning ahead to make sure that when summer is in full swing you are sleeping as well as possible For example, to avoid getting woken up too early by the light, get your curtains lined or buy thicker curtains. 'You will sleep longer and that can have a positive effect on other symptoms. He also suggests making sure your bedroom is cool well ahead of bedtime by using a fan for example, and advises cool showers before bed. I also know people who have put ice into plastic bottles and put that into the bed too keep it cool. Extreme heat is to be avoided. Stay indoors during the hottest part of the day but dont vegetate. Early morning or evening walks are a good plan so you dont feel youre letting your health or fitness suffer. Lastly, he recommends picking the type of holiday that wont exacerbate the problem. Its astonishing the number of people who dont like the heat but still feel the pressure to go to Majorca in the height of summer. SYMPTOMS OF SAD A persistent low mood A loss of pleasure or interest in normal everyday activities Irritability Feelings of despair, guilt and worthlessness Feeling lethargic (lacking in energy) and sleepy during the day Sleeping for longer than normal and finding it hard to get up in the morning Craving carbohydrates and gaining weight Advertisement 'You could think about shifting an exotic break to the winter time, when somewhere like the Canaries is less intensely hot but also cheaper. 'Or you could swap longer breaks for a series of long weekends it means less planning (a big ask when youre depressed) and also less time away from the normal routine, which can be difficult for someone prone to depression. For more serious cases, cognitive behaviour therapy and/or antidepressants may also be effective. But for some, it may help simply to recognise that this problem exists and you are not the only one. Twenty-five years ago, if you mentioned SAD, no one know what you were talking about. 'By the mid-Nineties it became well known, but it tends to be associated with the winter. Now this technology is increasingly being used to improve our healthcare The app superimposes graphics and sounds onto images of the real world The smartphone game Pokemon Go was launched in Britain last month Even if youre a staunch technophobe, chances are youve heard of Pokemon Go the popular game where players hunt cartoon creatures that appear to be populating their real-life surroundings. The smartphone game only launched in Britain last month, but now has more than 200 million users worldwide. It is perhaps the best-known example of augmented reality where graphics and sounds, and sometimes smell and touch, are superimposed on to images of the real world (not to be confused with virtual reality, a computer-generated simulation of the real world, which immerses the user, usually via a headset). The smartphone game Pokemon Go only launched in Britain last month, but now has more than 200 million users worldwide But its not just the gaming world where augmented reality is making its mark. The technology, first developed in the early Nineties, is increasingly being used in healthcare to make treatments quicker, safer and more effective, and to help train doctors and nurses. One example is in making hard-to-spot veins easier to see. The exact pattern of everyones veins just under the skin is unique they can therefore be difficult to locate, which can make inserting a drip or drawing blood a challenge. But this can be improved with vein visualisation, a technique which uses infrared light to map the blood vessels hidden beneath the skin and display them on the skin surface. One hand-held device being used by the NHS is AccuVein, which is held over the skin to reveal an image of the veins in that area. Around 81 per cent of clinicians found it improved their ability to insert a cannula (a thin tube for administering medicines), according to a 2014 study in the Journal of Infusion Nursing. Another key area for augmented reality is in improving eyesight. a special visor called Smart Specs. Created by a start-up company from Oxford University, the visor can, for example, create a stencil outline around faces to make the image more pronounced. It also allows the user to zoom in or out or freeze an image. The hope is that it will help people recognise faces and avoid obstacles in their path. Technology used in the popular smartphone app is also being used in medical advances. One example is by making hard-to-spot veins easier to see As part of a UK study, OxSight, the company behind the glasses, loaned prototypes to 300 people with eye conditions such as age-related macular degeneration (damage to the retina at the back of the eye) and glaucoma (where pressure in the eye damages the optic nerve) for four weeks at a time. A version of the product could be on sale early next year. Another big growth area augmented reality is in medical training. For years, doctors and nurses have practised and studied anatomy with the help of mannequins. Now lecturers at Sheffield Hallam University are making these mannequins more realistic by superimposing videos of patients (played by actors) on top of the dummy. By holding a tablet computer over the mannequin, the trainee activates the video of the patient talking. The technology is being used in the universitys nursing and midwifery curriculum, giving trainees range of scenarios to test their communication skills and ability to show empathy. It is said to be more cost-effective and consistent than using the actors in person. The technology is also being used to train and help surgeons during operations. The University of Alabama is using technology similar to the Google Glass to allow a mentor to superimpose a projection of their hands into the surgeons field of sight Researchers at Purdue University and the Indiana University School of Medicine in the U.S. have developed the System for Telementoring with Augmented Reality (STAR), a new way of allowing specialist surgeons to remotely deliver medical instructions to doctors performing an operation. Previous telementoring devices required the surgeon to look away from the patient to a separate screen for instructions from their mentor. With the new system, a transparent screen is placed in front of the operating table while, from a remote location, the mentor draws lines on to the display, indicating whereabouts incisions should be made. In a similar development from the University of Alabama, a mentor can superimpose a projection of their hands into the surgeons field of sight, so they can mimic the experts movements. The idea was originally developed for Google Glass (a wearable computer with an optical head-mounted display). This could be a lifelinethe ability to dial a friend for assistance, says Dr. Brent Ponce, an orthopaedic specialist who devised the concept while serving with the U.S, military in Iraq. Meanwhile, U.S. researchers have looked at using Google Glass to help patients remember to take their medications, by displaying reminders in front of their eyes. Augmented reality may also help rehabilitate stroke patients left with a limp or an unsteady gait. In a trial at Clinique Romande de Readaptation, Switzerland, stroke patients will use a special treadmill where outlines of different body shapes and postures are projected on to the belt. Patients adapt their gait to the images, and get feedback, which is designed to speed up recovery. By forcing the user to go out in search of creatures to hunt, it may help combat obesity and stave off type 2 diabetes, says Dr Deidre Harrington of the University of Leicester Participants will train three to five times a week for 30 minutes on the augmented-reality treadmill, while a control group will use an ordinary treadmill. Even Pokemon Go may have health benefits. By forcing the user to go out in search of creatures to hunt, it may help combat obesity and stave off type 2 diabetes, suggests Dr Deirdre Harrington, a lecturer in physical activity, sedentary behaviour and health at the University of Leicester. Experts often blame the amount of time people spend in front of screens for people not being active enough, says Dr Harrington. A toddler whose stomach was so bloated she could not eat or drink was found to be carrying her unborn twin. Doctors were astonished to find the 7lb 11oz (3.5kg) mass of bone, flesh and hair inside the girl's abdomen. The parasite had been feeding off Nisha, after forming an umbilical cord-like structure that leached its twin's blood supply. She was finally diagnosed with 'foetus in fetu', a rare condition with only 200 cases ever reported worldwide. Nisha had been struggling to eat or drink anything and was constantly crying as a result of the parasite growing in her abdomen Surgeons operated for two hours (left) to remove the mass of bone, flesh and hair (right) which had been leaching off her blood supply since before she was born The shocking discovery was uncovered after her parents Raju and Sumathi, suspected a tumour and rushed her to hospital. They said the 15-month old had been crying for weeks and could not eat or drink anything. She was taken to Sri Ganapathy Krishna Hospital, a private health centre in Tamil Nadu, southern India. Doctors initially thought she had a huge cyst and were astonished to find the growth in her stomach. The doctors then immediately carried out surgery to remove it. Paediatric Surgeon Dr Vijayagiri, who performed the operation, said: 'I first believed she had a cyst or tumour till the ultrasound and scan showed that there were bony areas, calcified region and a teratoma-like structure (a tumour containing tissues and organs). Nisha's mother, Sumathi, had not been able to go for scans during her pregnancy. She noticed her daughter's stomach was enlarged from birth and suspected a tumour Doctors were astonished when scans revealed the 'foetus in fetu' in her stomach 'That was when I suspected that it was a foetus-in-fetu and quickly looked up some literature. 'It was only when I removed the structure, could I confirm that it was definitely a foetus. WHAT IS FOETUS IN FETU? Foetus in fetu is an incredibly rare condition that affects only one in five million live births. It is a condition where the malformed foetus is found in the body of its twin. The foetus is found in the abdomen in 80 per cent of cases, although there have been reports of it occurring in the skull. There are only 200 reports of it ever happening. While the diagnosis is gaining popularity, the World Health Organisation has classified 'foetus in fetu' as a variant of mature teratoma, a type of cancer where the tumour is well-developed. Advertisement The surgery, which lasted for two hours, was further complicated as Nisha's left kidney had completely attached to the tumour. 'Other organs like the pancreas, a portion of the spleen and left side of the colon were attached to the foetus and the blood vessels were splayed around the structure,' he said. 'So we had to remove and detach the blood vessels and move the organs away from the foetus without injuring them.' Nisha, who weighed 18lb (8kg) before the removal of the foetus, was born with a swollen stomach. But her parents, who earn very little as labourers, were forced to ignore it until it grew abnormally large. Following surgery this week, Nisha is said to be recovering well and is expected to be discharged within days. Sumathi, 28, said: 'She always had a slightly larger than normal stomach but we ignored it until she stared crying endlessly and began having issues breathing and having food. 'We had never gone for scans before or during her birth. A newborn baby girl with Zika-related birth defects has died in Texas. It is the first case of a death from the mosquito-borne virus in the state. The child became infected in the womb while her mother traveled to Latin America, Texas health officials said on Tuesday. She died in Harris County shortly after birth and had microcephaly, a birth defect marked by small head size that can lead to severe developmental problems in babies. Scroll down for video Zika baby death in Texas: A girl (not picture, file image) died shortly after being born this week in Texas. She became infected with Zika in the womb when her mother went to Latin America As of July 28, 479 pregnant women in America had been diagnosed with Zika. To date, 15 infants have been born in the US with birth defects related to the virus. Another six fetuses were stillborn, miscarried or aborted. U.S. health officials have concluded that Zika infections in pregnant women can cause microcephaly. 'The mother and baby are classified as travel-related cases, and there is no additional associated risk in Texas,' the department said in a statement. The department said the infant died recently, but did not say precisely when. It also did not identify the country to which the mother had traveled, the name of the mother or the baby's gender. The mosquito-borne virus has been linked to a spike in microcephaly in Brazil. The Zika outbreak first came to light last fall in Brazil and has spread rapidly in the Americas. To date, 15 infants have been born in the US with birth defects related to the virus. Another six fetuses were stillborn, miscarried or aborted Texas has reported 97 cases of Zika infection, including the two infants with microcephaly, the department said, adding there have been no reported cases of Zika transmitted by mosquitoes in Texas. Florida is the only U.S. state where people have has been infected locally by a mosquito bite. The news comes as Florida struggles to contain the virus in Miami. On Monday, the state reported its 17th case of locally-transmitted Zika - this time in another county. The patient resides in Palm Beach County, a few miles north of Miami, which is the epicenter of America's current localized outbreak. A British woman has astounded doctors with a 100-year-old kidney that is still going strong - and thought to be the worlds oldest successfully transplanted organ. Sue Westhead was in her twenties when she received the organ from her mother, who was 57 at the time, after being diagnosed with kidney disease in 1973. It was estimated to function for no more than two decades before needing a replacement but the 68-year-old from Wearside has defied medical expectations with it lasting more than double that. Sue Westhead, 68, has astounded doctors because her 100-year-old kidney is still working Mrs Westhead received the organ from her mother, who was 57 at the time, during her 20s. It was predicted to function for 20 years but has defied medical expectations Mrs Westhead admitted she would have been happy with five years use at the time of the operation, when her skin was yellow and she could barely walk. Her mother Ann donated her kidney at Newcastles Royal Victoria Infirmary after her daughter was told she had the equivalent of a tenth of her kidney function. Doctors told the family the transplanted organ from a living donor can only last a maximum of 20 years before a further transplant is required - but forty-three years later it is still going strong. She puts the medical miracle down to looking after herself - and rigorously taking nearly 20 pills a day to make sure her donated organ isnt rejected. Upon hearing that she might have the oldest surviving transplanted kidney in the world, she told BBC Newcastle: Its absolutely mind-blowing. Every superlative you can think of. She added: It was a pretty scary time...even when I was still on the ward people were dying I remember thinking if I get five years Ill be happy. That was 43 years ago and my kidney is heading for 101 years-old in November. I think its down to my mothers good genes. She must have come from good stock. Speaking yesterday, Mrs Westhead said it is 'absolutely mind-blowing' the kidney has lasted so long. She is pictured on her wedding day Before the transplant Mrs Westhead was turning yellow and couldn't walk. She says her mother 'gave her life' My Mum literally gave me life, because I wouldnt have lived much longer. I could hardly walk, I was a different colour - I was yellow and all of a sudden I had a rosy glow. According to BBC Newcastle, no one at the British Transplantation Society, the Human Tissue Authority, NHS Blood and Transplant, Kidney Research UK, knows of any other person in the UK who has a transplanted kidney thats more than 100 years-old. Professor Derek Manas, president of the British Transplantation Society, said: Its an amazing story of encouragement and hope for people on dialysis and for encouraging people to donate as living donors or to join the Organ Donor Register. I think Sue must be one of the longest survivors. John McCafferty, from Newport Pagnell, was the longest surviving heart transplant survivor but died earlier this year aged 73 Mr McCafferty, pictured with wife Ann, was officially recognised by Guinness World Records in 2013 after his transplant at Harefield Hospital in west London on October 20, 1982 Mr McCafferty pictured with wife Ann and son Iain after his transplant in 1982 However, it is impossible to verify whether Mrs Westhead has the oldest living transplanted kidney in the world due to the limited recorded data. In February, the worlds longest surviving heart transplant patient died 33 years after his life-saving operation. John McCafferty was officially recognised by Guinness World Records in 2013 after his life-saving transplant at Harefield Hospital in west London on October 20, 1982. Despite being told it would only add five years to his life, he went on to live for more than three decades with the new heart until he died of sepsis and renal failure aged 73. Last year, around 3000 kidney transplants were carried out in the UK but there remained more than 5000 people on the waiting list. The main role of kidneys is to filter waste from the blood and to convert them to urine but if they lose the ability, waste builds up and can be life-threatening. Janata Darbars have caught the fancy of Punjab politicians these days. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, for instance, has started organising Sangat Darshan (Janata Darbar) in far-flung areas of the state to distribute funds and listen to people's grievances. But these events, organised by the CM, havent seen smooth sailing. Controversies have arisen from the fact that Congress workers and MLAs were not allowed to attend. Punjab Congress chief Capt Amrinder Singh (right) listening to people's grievances at his Janata Darbar An interesting detail about his Janata Darbars was that they were also organised in the constituencies of opposition MLAs to woo voters. Taking a cue from him, Punjab Congress chief and former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh also launched Lokan Da Darbar. Singh listened to the grievances of the people and told them to submit their complaints to his party workers, who in turn promised that this would be done as soon as the Congress formed its government in the state. Everybody knows what Badal does in his Sangat Darshan programmes. He showers government funds on Akali Dal leaders. These programmes have become a source of wasting public money. People get no solution. I would assure them of a time-bound resolution by setting up a task force in the first 100 days of the Congress government, said Singh, who started his Janata Darbar from Jalalabad, Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badals constituency. CM Badals reaction to the Captains barbs was equally scathing. He compared his Lokan Da Darbars to imperial darbars. He also slammed Singh for imitating him and said that during his tenure as chief minister, the Captain never bothered to meet the people and was engaging in a futile exercise to woo them. Captain (Amarinder) is a king who wants to attain power for enjoying it rather than serving the people. He is gifting false hope to the people as he indulges in self-glorification and bashes political rivals in his programmes. He goes into hibernation after assuming power. The voters of his constituency (Amritsar), where he rarely pays a visit, can tell the truth, said Badal senior. The third politician who could not avoid the lure of Janata Darbars is AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal. He has so far organised community-based meetings and rallies in the state to woo various sections of voters. He has also asked people to accept money in case it is offered by the rival parties and justified it by saying that it actually belongs to them. The numerous Janata Darbars have resulted in a war of words between the Congress and the AAP. The Punjab Congress Committee ridiculed Delhi Chief Minister more as a personal monologue than a public dialogue. Captain Amarinder allows the public to speak and ask questions instead of making self-promotional monologues. Citing massive support for the Captain, Rana alleged that Kejriwal had been trying to copy the Congress model but failed miserably on that front. Kejriwal, given his self-righteous arrogance, cannot listen to others or take questions from them, he observed. The Punjab Congress vice-president maintained that the Delhi CM has spent crores of rupees on the advertisement campaign ahead of his Talk to Kejriwal programme, that virtually ended up in Listen to Kejriwal. Taking a dig at Kejriwal, he reminded how these advertisements were circulated more in Punjab newspapers than in Delhi, where he is and should be answerable to the public about what he has done during the past one-and-a-half years. The AAP, in return, has accused the Captain of arm twisting his party to fulfil his ambition to become a chief minister. AAP leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira said that a careful perusal of the Captains political innings confirmed that he only believed in victory and could never play the role of an effective Opposition leader. After leading the Congress to a debacle in 2007 and 2012, the Captain went into wilful political exile and was unable to face the wrath of the current Badal government. His complete absence from the Vidhan Sabha as a legislator from Patiala (2007-14) and zero performance as deputy leader in the Lok Sabha from 2014 onwards, also substantiate our allegations that he is a non-performer, non-serious and a failed leader, said Khaira. The AAP said that the Captain has defended himself and family members in various corruption cases, by paying hefty fees to high-profile lawyers in the High Court and the Supreme Court, but never bothered about the party workers who were facing as many as 50,000 cases. Amarinder Singh and his party will lose the 2017 assembly elections in Punjab like the two humiliating defeats in 2007 and 2012. But will he make a commitment to the people of Punjab that he will not run away from active politics and will perform his duty as an Opposition leader? Because, as stated earlier, the Captain is in the habit of cooling his heels either in cozy places of Himachal Pradesh, or safe overseas havens like Dubai and London, after his party suffers defeat, alleged Khaira. Janata Darbars are an important way to attract voters. While the ruling Akali Dal openly uses these gatherings to influence people by offering on-the-spot solutions, the AAP and the Congress are feasting on those who return empty-handed from Badals Sangat Darshans. Brides being used to fulfil foreign dreams Paramjit Kaur, chairperson of Punjab State Women's Commission, has been receiving harassment complaints from girls Boat tragedies and foreign jails have failed to dampen the spirits of Punjabis, who continue to adopt novel ways to fulfil their foreign dreams. The latest is to invest in a bride by sponsoring her education, IELTS test and foreign trip. The Punjab State Women Commission was shocked when it started receiving complaints of this nature. In her complaint, Navpreet Kaur, a resident of Bathinda in Punjab, told the commission that she got married on September 27, 2014, to a local man who wanted to marry a woman with an IELTS certificate. When she failed to go abroad, he allegedly started torturing her. She has now approached the Punjab State Women Commission for help. This is not an isolated case. The commission has received half-a-dozen such cases where women have been subjected to harassment by their in-laws when they couldn't qualify in the IELTS tests or get a student visa. The boys in Punjab, Malwa belt in particular, are not as educated as the girls. The boys are either nouveau riche or belong to moneyed families. They approach a poor family whose daughter is brilliant, but not in a position to pursue higher studies. "They sponsor her education and even the marriage expenses. She is sent abroad for studies to pave the way for a spouse visa. She is harassed if the dreams fail to take off at any stage, says Paramjit Kaur Landran, chairperson of the Punjab State Women Commission. Preeti Katoch, 23, who hails from Pathankot in Punjab, wants to pursue higher studies in microbiology. She knows several girls who come from remote areas. Girls do IELTS for a plethora of reasons, and marrying an NRI is one of them. It has become a trend to go abroad. These are not marriage but business proposals, she says. The trend has resulted in the word IELTS being frequently used in matrimonial ads. This has also led to the mushrooming of institutes all over Punjab which provide training in IELTS and groom women and men to earn the IELTS tag or a student visa. According to an estimate, nearly 50,000 people get student visas in Punjab every year. While a sizeable chunk of boys drop out of school in the middle, girls outnumber them in senior secondary classes and later pursue higher studies. Kashmir is rising to the boil again, with predictable reactions coming from all sides of the debate. The Kashmiris believe they have a cause, but its definition is not clear. They cannot be independent. Joining Pakistan is not an available option. If they really want to join a radicalised, terrorist-ridden state in which Muslims kill each other, Sufi shrines are attacked, and Shias are killed by Sunni jihadis - then it will certainly mean the end for Sufism and "Kashmiriyat". Kashmir is rising to the boil again, with predictable reactions from all sides of the debate. (Pictured: A masked Kashmiri protester stands during a protest against India after a day-long curfew in Srinagar) Integration The yearning for azadi by the Valley Muslims is not easy to grasp or appreciate. It is amorphous, and has no objective basis. Constitutionally, J&K already has substantial azadi. Indians can buy property in far-off Switzerland, but cannot buy land or property and settle in J&K. This special status has unfortunately hindered the integration of the Valley Muslims with the rest of the country, and has kept alive separatist sentiments. The Pakistanis are fueling the current turbulence in the Valley with PM Nawaz Sharif treating militant Burhan Wani (pictured) as a hero and declaring him a martyr The anti-Indian Valley leadership cannot be politically blind to comparative realities in neighbouring countries. How much autonomy has Islamic Pakistan given to Pakistan-occupied Kashmirs (POK) Muslim population - even without terrorism, infiltration, or external aggression from India? Pakistan is allowing an outside power - China - to entrench itself in POK, even though China is suppressing its own Muslim population in an adjacent territory. A Kashmiri Muslim man and a girl eat rice distributed by volunteers to the attendants of patients outside Kashmir's main hospital in Srinagar Why dont the Valley's Muslim leaders question the fictitious azadi and demand real autonomy for their brethren? Is it that Islamic Pakistan has the right to deny freedom or self-rule to POK Muslims, but non-Islamic India must grant freedom to the clamouring Valley Muslims? Is the azadi demand a political aspiration, or an expression of religious identity? The Valley Muslims should actually value affiliation to a state that shows a remarkable tolerance of political dissent stretching even to sedition, and only ever deploys force within limits. Kashmiri protesters clash with Indian government forces in Srinagar The Pakistani state has dealt with Baluchis seeking azadi extremely brutally, using F-16s, artillery and tanks to crush opponents in tribal areas, and causing massive civilian displacement. How much autonomy has China given to the so-called Tibetan Autonomous Region? Unlike in Tibets case, India has not made demographic changes in J&K, nor has it settled outsiders there. The anti-Indian Valley leadership cannot be politically blind to comparative realities of people living in China and Pakistan. (Pictured: Kashmiri protesters offer funeral prayers to six militants killed by Indian forces during a protest in Srinagar) Nor has India interfered in Kashmir's local religious practices, or destroyed religious sites. India has not imposed Hindi on the people and generally interfered with their cultural practices, as China has done in Tibet. No leader of the Valley Muslims is like the Dalai Lama - living in forced exile abroad. India has not done in J&K what the Chinese have done in East Turkestan, where Hans have been settled in large numbers and the practice of Islam severely curtailed. Critique The critique that the Valley Muslims have been denied the fruits of Indian democracy is not entirely tenable after years of instability. Terrorism puts democracy on trial, as we see in Europe after multiple terrorist attacks on its soil. France has extended the state of emergency once again after the Nice attacks and has to grapple with concerns that the tougher laws needed to combat terrorism may affect democratic freedoms. The yearning for azadi by the Valley Muslims is not easy to grasp or appreciate. It is amorphous, and has no objective basis. (Pictured: An Indian policeman uses a stick to adjust concertina wire as he lays a barricade on a road during a curfew in Srinagar) In J&Ks case, the terrorist problem is of a much higher magnitude as it is state-sponsored by Pakistan. The democracy-avid Valley Kashmiris should therefore have risen against the terrorists, the separatists, and their sponsors in the name of democracy, rather than supporting their political agenda through the ethnic cleansing of Hindus. Not to mention the street violence, stone-pelting, the waving of the Islamic State flag, treating terrorists as heroes, and obstructing military operations against them. Election Even after recent free and fair elections and the unique experiment of a coalition between a soft separatist party and a strong nationalist one, we still hear a grievance concerning the "democratic aspirations" of the Kashmiri people being thwarted. The word "alienation" used to describe the state of mind of the Valley's Muslims is attributed to Delhis misguided policies. Policies that overlook the reality that these Muslims have simply not connected with Delhi - politically, emotionally, ethnically and religiously as part of their own version of "the unfinished agenda of Partition". Is the azadi demand a political aspiration, or an expression of religious identity? The Pakistanis are fueling the current turbulence in the Valley, unconcerned about repercussions on ties with India, with Nawaz Sharif treating militant Burhan Wani as a martyr, pronouncing that Kashmir will one day be Pakistans, and allowing jihadi leaders to demonstrate in Islamabad against the visit of Indias home minister. This is the same Sharif who is supposedly committed to a genuine friendship with India. Our Pakistan apologists will dutifully explain his provocations as covering his flank against the military. The Opposition will seek to embarrass the government for the failure of its policy. Some civil society figures, moved by self-guilt, will rue our collective failure to win the hearts and minds of the Kashmiri people. They must know of a tested political strategy for winning the hearts and minds of people in overwhelmingly Muslim majority areas under non-Muslim authority, even if secular and democratic. Their counsel could benefit Europe too in its task of winning the attachment of its small Muslim minorities to the idea of its liberal democracy. King Sulaiman has heeded concerns raised by Delhi about Indian workers in his state After New Delhi raised concerns about nearly ten thousand Indians who had lost their jobs and were in dire conditions in Saudi Arabia, the kingdom is now actively addressing the grievances of all expatriate communities, including Indians hit by the decline in its economy. On Sunday, King Sulaiman issued directives to the Finance Ministry and Ministry of Labour and Social Development to ensure the welfare of the workers, many of whom have not been paid salaries since December last year. The two ministries have been asked to ensure contracting companies are not paid government dues, unless they settle the pending salaries of their employees in accordance with the official Wage Protection Program. A picture posted by Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj shows Indians being provided with food after a tweet for help was received. An amount of SR (Saudi Riyal) 100 million will be deposited in the Saudi Arab Fund account to help workers of all nationalities who have faced physical and psychological hardships over the last few months. The Finance Ministry has been asked to deduct the amount the government spends addressing grievances from the accounts of companies who have not followed the law. Sushma Swaraj had intervened to get help for thousands of starving Indians in Saudi Arabia After External Affairs Minister Sushma Swarajs recent directive to provide rations to thousands of starving Indians in Saudi as well as resolving their issues, Indian Envoy Ahmad Javed met with the kingdoms Deputy Minister of Interior. Subsequently Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh visited the Indian camps in Jeddah, and also met the Labour Minister in Riyadh. Meanwhile, another junior minister M J Akbar worked the phones with his counterparts in Saudi and Kuwait. The investment industry's leading body has condemned 'hidden fees hysteria', claiming fund performance over recent years is proof that costs aren't hitting returns delivered to investors. Investors have been frustrated for years that fuller information about costs is not available from the industry. But in order to counter claims that such costs unfairly subtract from investment returns, detailed analysis of fund performance between 2012 and 2015 was released today by the Investment Association. 'The report finds zero evidence that funds' returns are affected by hidden fees lurking within, suggesting that "hidden fund fees" may in reality be the "Loch Ness Monster of investments",' it said. Mythical beast: The IA likens 'hidden fund fees' to the Loch Ness Monster The IA, an industry body bankrolled by fund managers, highlighted the headline findings as follows: 'Equity fund returns are 0.71 per cent above index returns per annum, higher than the -1.59 per cent underperformance expected based on charges and transaction costs, suggesting there are not hidden fees in funds 'The average portfolio turnover rate in equity funds is 40 per cent, which also brings the hidden-fees hysteria, and claims of fund manager overtrading, into doubt.' It noted that: 'Critics state that hidden fees lie within but fail to identify conclusive signs of their existence.' The IA soon plans to publish a Disclosure Code, aimed at standardising the way fees are presented to investors, which will include 'implicit' cost estimates where they are hard to pin down because they are variable. The study of fund performance was carried out by Fitz Partners, a research company specialising in fund fees and expenses. It can be found here. Jonathan Lipkin, director of public policy at the IA, said: 'The industry should be judged on its actual delivery, not on perceptions of delivery. Our research with Fitz Partners is a detailed empirical analysis of equity fund performance in the context of quantified charges and costs. 'If you look at the actual performance delivered to fund investors, this is the proof point and we do not see evidence of high transaction costs, either explicit or implicit.' HOW MUCH DO FEES HURT? Research by consumer group Which? shows that if you invested 10,000 in a fund with no charges and it grew by 6 per cent annually for 20 years, you would get a return of 32,071 just over 22,000-worth of growth. However, if that fund had a charge of say 1.67 per cent your return would be reduced to 23,344. Around 9,000 of your growth would have gone on charges. Check out our fund charges calculator here. If you input the size of your investment and your charge, it will show you the impact. Why are 'hidden fees' so controversial? Knowing what your fund costs is important because even charges that look low will eat into your returns significantly over time. Read more here and see the box on the right. Fund managers must give details of their set management charges, but used to just give an 'annual management charge' or AMC. However, this is incomplete as dealing, legal and administration charges, performance fees for the fund manager and even marketing costs can add significantly to the cost. The 'total expense ratio', or TER, used to be a more accurate though still not a full measure, but new EU disclosure rules have seen this replaced by the 'ongoing charge figure' or OCF which is similar. See the box below. Further European rules were expected to force the finance industry to cough up even more specific figures in future, but it is unclear what impact the Brexit vote and negotiations will have on measures like this. WHAT IS AN ONGOING CHARGE? The ongoing charge is the investing industry's standard measure of fund running costs. The bigger it is, the costlier the fund is to run. The ongoing charge figure can be found in the Key Investor Information Document (KIID) for any fund, usually at the top of page two. To track down these documents, put the fund name and 'KIID' together in an internet search engine. Variable charges are a particularly vexed issue, because they might spike one year and have a negligible impact on investment costs in the following year, depending on how much trading a fund manager carries out. The variable charges are as follows: Dealing commission: This is the charge fund manages pay to brokers to undertake trades. They pay less than ordinary investors because they can buy in bulk Stamp duty: A Government tax of 0.5 per cent. Bid offer spread: The difference between the price managers have to pay, and the price at which they can sell, when carrying out transactions. The bid offer spread constantly changes, so will be different at the points when they buy and when they sell. What is the response to the IA report? The True and Fair Campaign, run by Gina Miller who co-founded wealth manager SCM private, has long called for investment charges to be made more transparent. She claimed today's report from the IA was 'not worth the paper it is printed on'. 'Of course over the long-term the returns from investment after costs must equal the market returns less all the costs (including transaction costs). 'Selecting arbitrary time periods or funds, does not change this basic fact. Instead, the IA has taken a short time period, of just three years and a convenient time for analysis in which many active funds fared well due to their inherent small/mid cap size bias. 'They have also ignored completely the spread element of transaction costs and survivorship bias.' On the latter, she said: 'There is no mention whatsoever or attempted adjustment to account for survivorship bias whereby funds that perform well tend to grow whereas funds that perform badly get closed or merged into other funds so disappear from the data for analysis.' The IA disagreed with the criticisms made by the True and Fair Campaign and defended the analysis in its report. Gina Miller: Calling for investment charges to be made more transparent Laith Khalaf, senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: 'I think there has been some hysteria and over exaggeration of the effects of hidden fund fees on the performance of investment funds, but it's not right to suggest there is no work to be done on making disclosure better. 'There are fees which currently investors don't get to see in terms of disclosure, and these are variable fees like commission and stamp duty which the IA is working towards standardising. 'There is progress in getting more disclosure of these variable fees, which aren't hidden because they are in reports and accounts, but they are just not easy for investors to get hold of.' Khalaf said that the transactional charges incurred by funds dont appear in the ongoing charges figure disclosed by funds on their factsheets. 'There is a genuine question over the correct presentation of these charges, because they are variable, and so an annual calculation may give a misleading impression of the regular costs to investors. 'Transaction charges are an important factor in returns, but most fund managers are rewarded based on their performance, so wont trade unless they believe it will be of benefit to investors. The issue is therefore one of disclosure rather than mis-placed incentives.' He added: 'Investors must also take performance into account when choosing a fund, in reality the dispersion of returns is much more heavily influenced by manager skill than charges. 'Over the last 10 years the best performing UK stock market fund has returned 12.7 per cent a year, the worst has returned just 1.2 per cent.' Clear charges: Knowing what your fund costs is important because even charges that look low will eat into your returns significantly over time Justin Modray, director of Candid Financial Advice, said: 'Fund dealing fees remain a hidden cost of investing, although as theyre reflected in fund performance they shouldnt be a concern provided a manager is performing well. Managers who deal a lot and perform badly will probably struggle to attract investors in any case. 'A bigger concern is that the additional costs reflected in fund annual ongoing charge figures seldom seem to fall, as a percentage, when funds grow in size. 'These costs ae typically custodian, audit and marketing fees, which are incurred by the fund over and above the annual management fees they charge. This suggests fund managers are either awful at negotiating with their suppliers or are failing to pass on economies of scale to investors. 'Fund managers need to tighten their belts and give investors a fairer deal when their funds significantly increase in size.' John Blowers, head of Trustnet Direct, said: 'Its easy to say hidden fees dont exist but we believe investors still want to see more transparency. 'In an ideal world we would have a single figure highlighting all costs - neither the TER or OCF achieve this - and when costs cant be quantified up front, again this should be highlighted. It was once the case that the food sector had more individuals on the annual Rich List than any other industry. But the emergence of telecoms, property and industrial firms means that the billionaires running these giants now pepper the list. There are signs of a renaissance in food and drink, though, and there is one part leading the resurgence the artisan sector. Posh biccies: There are signs of a renaissance in food and drink, though, and there is one part leading the resurgence the artisan sector Small distilleries are popping up, bakeries are flourishing, on-farm creameries making hand-crafted cheeses are opening and there's even a shop in Malton, Yorkshire, that sells only hand-crafted butter. Britain has become a nation of foodies with an insatiable appetite for finely produced goods. There's even a School of Artisan Food, based at Welbeck in Nottinghamshire, which runs an array of courses ranging from bread-making to brewing. Big business is waking up to the sector's huge potential. Take Dorset Cereals, the high-end Dorchester muesli maker. It was started in 1989 by entrepreneur Terry Crabb, who sold it to the management in 2005. Three years later the business was snapped up by Wellness Foods in a 50million deal. By 2012, the company had sales of 36million and profits of nearly 16m an extraordinary margin. So extraordinary, in fact, that in 2014 Associated British Foods coughed up a reported 70million for the business to add to its Jordans and Ryvita portfolio. FOOD FACTS One in eight of all manufacturing jobs in the UK is in food, with exports worth 19bn 30,000 food and drink firms set up every year When an artisan cafe called Harris + Hoole was launched, it met with rave reviews until customers discovered it was run by Tesco 421,000 tons of artisan bread are produced in the UK every year British foodmakers launch 16,000 products annually more than in France and Germany combined In 2012, Scottish mail-order butcher Donald Russell was snapped up for 30million by the Vestey Food Group. Previous to that, specialist chocolate maker Green & Black's was sold to Cadbury in a 20million deal. It seems large companies have neither the skill nor the innovation to start niche brands, so they buy them instead. More recently, in April this year, Thomas J Fudge's luxury biscuit maker, run from a bakery in the West Country, was sold to its management after being in family hands for 100 years. The Fudge family started the business in 1916, originally delivering freshly baked bread by horse and cart to the north Dorset farming community. Today its range of sweet and savoury biscuits is sold in supermarkets, with customers including Waitrose, Tesco and Marks & Spencer. When the family looked for an exit route to end their involvement they brought in 51-year-old food veteran Paul Vita, who had previously worked at Ferrero and Allied Bakeries. Vita liked what he saw so much that he decided to buy the business himself with the help of private equity backer Livingbridge. 'So far Livingbridge have been excellent, very supportive. It's early days yet but so far so good,' he says. In 2015, Fudge's produced approximately 6.5million biscuits per week. It grew at double the premium market growth rate, with a turnover of 11million and profit before tax of 331,000. Now Vita wants to establish Fudge as the UK's No1 premium biscuit brand. The firm employs 120 people, with 100 in the bakery, and Vita says he is confident about the future. Although premium biscuits make up just 4 per cent of the biscuit market as a whole, the segment is growing 10 per cent per annum whereas, according to Vita, there is no growth for large-scale biscuit bakers. Vita says: 'There's an increasing demand from customers who want to know where the ingredients come from, how they've been sourced and how the biscuits have been made. 'For instance, every single one of our Florentines has been hand-dipped in chocolate and if I said to you, 'You can have three Hobnobs or one Florentine,' I know what I'd choose.' Dorchester muesli maker Dorset Cereals was started in 1989 by entrepreneur Terry Crabb, and eventually snapped up by Wellness Foods in a 50m deal Devon farmer Peter Greig comes from a family of food retailers, but his model for success is based on mail order delivery of locally sourced meat from a network of 25 Devon farms. He also has a butcher's shop in Exeter and a turnover of more than 1million. Greig, 59, has ambitions to grow that to 2million in short order. Growth has been tricky because he knows he has to sustain the integrity of the supply chain. He also sells ready meals, and the firm has started selling its meat into the restaurant trade. Greig says: 'When we started this business, the tide of food culture was flowing in a very different direction. 'Then it was price, but now more and more people are seeking integrity of the product.' Greig knows each of the farmers he works with and he knows which farm every bit of meat he sells comes from. Potato farmer William Chase moved into producing vodka and gin after selling Tyrrells The horsemeat scandal helped fuel growth not just for Greig but for the whole artisan food and drink sector. It is now easier to raise money for small food ventures than it has ever been. But, a word of caution is needed. In 2002 William Chase, a Herefordshire potato farmer who was having a tough time, decided to branch out into producing crisps under the Tyrrells brand name. He nurtured small farm shops and refused to sell to Tesco. Nevertheless, business boomed and six years later Chase sold to Langholm Capital for 30million. They did not see eye to eye and, shortly afterwards, not only did Langholm start selling to Tesco, it also cancelled buying Chase's potatoes and bought cheaper ones instead. Five years later and Langholm turned round and sold Tyrrells for 100million. Yesterday it was sold to US firm Amplify Snack Brands for 300million. Elsewhere, Green & Black's former owner William Kendall has been critical of Cadbury's and, now, Kraft's stewardship of the firm, citing the need for immediate results once they had acquired it. But once a food entrepreneur, always one. And what on earth was Chase going to do with all his unsold potatoes? Turn them into spirits, of course William Chase gin and vodka, to be precise. 'Simples': Comparethemarket.com looks one step closer to a 2bn stock market float Comparison website Comparethemarket.com looks one step closer to a 2billion stock market float after it appointed bankers to oversee its listing. BGL Group, which owns the website known for its meerkat TV adverts, has hired JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley to advise on an initial public offering expected early next year. Comparethemarket has cashed in on consumers becoming price-savvy and keen to shop around for the best deals. In BGLs latest accounts, for the year to June 2015, it reported revenues up by 2.4million to 507.2million and said this was thanks to growth in market share. As well as Comparethemarket, BGL has a life insurance business, Beagle Street, and brokers so-called white label insurance for companies. BGL is owned by two South African dynasties founders the Douw Steyn family and the Enthoven family behind the chicken restaurant Nandos. The humane treatment of farm animals -- once an issue on the margins is now squarely in the mainstream. Photo by David Paul Morris/For The HSUS 1.8K shares Yesterday, on its front page, the Washington Posts Karin Brulliard reported on the animal protection movements running the table with major American food retailers on the issue of cage confinement of hens. They are all converting to cage-free, as Ive written about numerous times in the blog and also in detail in The Humane Economy. The catalyst came less than a year ago in the form of McDonalds, which announced a cage-free egg sales policy. Encouraged by The HSUS and other groups, nearly 200 other retailers followedjust about every big name brand in fast food, restaurant chains, food service, and the grocery sector. Within the last month, Publix, after we launched a powerful advertising campaign, became the 25th of the top 25 grocers to get on board with our cage-free campaign. Before we clinched the case on the battery cage issue, we focused on gestation crates. And again, it was McDonalds that played a major role, announcing in February 2012 that it would phase out the purchase of pork from operators that confined the pigs. Last week, the Chicago Tribunethe paper of record in the city that made stockyards famousran an extraordinary series about the problems associated with industrial pig farmingfocusing on the manure loads, food safety issues, animal welfare problems, and other problems linked to large-scale operations. Senator Dick Durbin, the number two Democrat in the U.S. Senate and a former chairman of the agriculture appropriations subcommittee, decried the abuse of the animals and said reforms are needed. I can remember when we launched Proposition 2 in California in 2008; there was very limited coverage of animal welfare issues in agriculture, little political support for our positions, and virtually no food retailers on our side (one exception was Whole Foods Market). Not one of the major newspapers in the nation opposed confinement of animals on factory farms. Now virtually all of them, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, and USA Today, oppose cage confinement of farm animals as a routine housing system. And in terms of news coverage, its no longer that unusual to see the kind of in-depth treatment on display this past week. As we enter the election season, Question 3 in Massachusettswhich restricts confining animals or selling animal products from confinement operationsdoes not even have a formal opposition committee yet. That opposition still may come, but by this time in the campaign in California on Proposition 2, our opponents had already raised millions in what turned out to be a vain attempt to defeat the measure. But make no mistake, this is by no means a settled issue, and agribusiness interests havent capitulated. They still oppose our anti-confinement campaigns. They are suing to invalidate the laws weve worked to pass. Theyve only recently quieted down a bit on their ag-gag measuresmeasures that bar taking pictures or videos of animals on factory farms or ban undercover investigations by other meansbecause of the beating theyve taken in the press. But their biggest offensive now is passing right to farm measures in Midwest states, where they are trying to block any local or state lawmaking to restrict any practices in agriculture. The Oklahoma Farm Bureau and other agribusiness interests in Oklahoma have already raised a million dollars for a right to farm measure on the November ballot. Theyre probably illegally funding the campaign through the misappropriations of check off funds for different agricultural commodities forcing farmers to pay for political initiatives and programs that they dont support. We will be working hard to pass Question 3 in Massachusetts in November and to block SQ 777 in Oklahoma. Well need your help. But as we look back over the last eight years, the sand has shifted on these issues, and the animals now face a much different future than they did less than a decade ago. An issue once on the margins is now squarely in the mainstream. 1.8K shares Bradford-based supermarket Morrisons is expanding its home delivery service nationwide after securing a new deal with online partner Ocado. At present, only around half of the UK population can get their shopping delivered by Morrisons, which does not cover areas like Scotland or the South West. The supermarket is also boosting the number of non-food goods it sells online, in a bid to rival the likes of Tesco and Asda. Nationwide delivery: Bradford-based supermarket Morrisons is expanding its home delivery service nationwide after securing a new deal with online partner Ocado Morrisons said its online business will continue running at a loss in the short-term, but should generate 100million in future years. David Potts, Morrison's chief executive, said the changes will allow the supermarket to reach millions more customers. He added: 'The new investments in online growth are further examples of Morrisons building a broader business and will allow millions more customers all over Britain to enjoy Morrisons' good-quality fresh food and great value for money.' The new deal will see the supermarket extend its reach by allowing items to be picked up from nearby stores for home delivery, as well as from Ocado's new customer fulfilment centre in Erith, south-east London, due to be completed in 2018. Morrisons currently charges between 1 to 3 for home delivery and has said it is not planning on increasing delivery charges. Limited reach: At present, only around half of the UK population can get their shopping delivered by Morrisons, which does not cover areas like Scotland or the South West Currently, only households in the Midlands are offered a same-day delivery service. Once the supermarket's Erith warehouse is completed, the same-day service will also be available in the south of London. Over the next few months, Morrisons will also offer Ocado's range of non-food products on its home delivery service for the first time. Morrisons said the roll-out of its nationwide home delivery service would not be completed this year. Offerings: Over the next few months, Morrisons will also offer Ocado's range of non-food products on its home delivery service for the first time Morrisons first struck up a deal with Ocado in 2013, in a deal worth 170million. The re-negotiated terms of its deal with Ocado will also see Morrisons end its profit- sharing agreement once the store-picking service is up and running. Ocado will likewise see fewer restrictions which currently prevent it from working with other retailers, although it has still agreed not to partner with major players Tesco, Asda , Sainsbury's and discounters Aldi and Lidl. Earlier this year, Morrisons entered into a deal with Amazon, giving the supermarket the chance to sell hundreds of its products via the US online giant. In March, Morrisons announced it made a pre-tax profit of 217million for the year to 31 January, after slumping to a 792million loss a year earlier. So a flatbed lorry driver has been arrested today on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving after a generator fell from his vehicle in Sussex village and killed a local pedestrian and injured two others. Yesterday, a teenager was given six years' detention for mowing down a mother on an Edinburgh pavement. Hot hatch racers are using the A1 as a racetrack. A reckless driver narrowly misses three pedestrians as he mounts his BMW on the pavement to avoid traffic. Road safety campaigners and police slam the 'lenient' driving ban given to motorist, 21, who was clocked going at 154mph in a 70mph zone. Two young sisters left paralysed by Jaguar Land Rover manager who pulled in front of their family car in road rage chase. Jaguar Land Rover manager Andrew Nay crashed into a car in a road rage chase (pictured) leaving two young sisters paralysed. These are obviously newsworthy incidents, one or two sensational you might argue, but I reckon that if six articles appear on one website in the space of a few weeks then they're not THAT rare - especially as these are just the ones who got caught. That they exist at all is enough. They are the tip of a selfishness iceberg on our roads, a swell of car-based idiocy thats flourished in our self-entitled age. In the space of about 12 hours on Sunday I witnessed more than half a dozen appalling bits of driving around Surrey and south-west London. Most of them were whilst out on my bike with three fellow riders. In four cases drivers decided to overtake blind on narrow rural roads only to be forced back in by an oncoming car, putting the safety of the cyclists they were passing at serious risk - and at one point putting us into the hedge. At no point were we riding two abreast, always single file. (Cyclists get so used to the dangerous overtake that it barely raises a comment anymore; we have become inured.) Another involved a car coming round a narrow bend at something like 50 miles an hour: in the confines of the lane it felt like 80mph and if any of us had drifted towards the middle of the road, wed have been dead. Yet another involved a motorist trying to beat a one-way roadworks light: she took the chicane of cones so fast that she nearly could not manoeuvre at the end to avoid us. If we had made the mistake of actually setting off when our light went amber / green, wed have been barged off the road like nine-pins, at the least. Great-grandfather and cyclist Don Lock was stabbed to death in an alleged road rage attack following a collision involving his car and another vehicle on the A24 at Findon, near Worthing last year. These six close shaves are just the worst among two-dozen instances of poor, careless or aggressive driving I witnessed over the course of a five-hour 90-mile bike ride. It didnt stop there: out with my wife in the evening, we saw a BMW saloon swerve from an oblique junction into a local road of shops and cafes (30mph limit, but should of course be 20) at something like 50mph before accelerating yes accelerating - away. Later, trying to cross a different road (again 30 limit, again should be 20) near our home we had to leap out of the way to avoid another saloon car doing c.50mph. There are two zebra crossings within 300 yards of each other on this stretch and the car flew through both without a dab on the brakes. I admit I am finely tuned to spotting aggressive motoring but we see this sort of thing pretty much every day in an area of the country which, despite being fairly genteel, seems to be plagued by car-thugs. It's not the Grand Prix: Speed limits are unnecessarily high in many urban and residential areas - and many British motorists take advantage of it. It is clear that a significant minority of British drivers put their time and their 'needs' above the safety of other road users and pedestrians. In a few decades, the driverless car will be perfected and the driven car must be made obsolete, preferably by law. Until then the Government and the insurance industry should take radical steps to help residents of rural and urban communities reclaim their neighbourhoods from the lorries, the lunatics - and those Great British Motorists who like toddlers think they can do what they like, and explode with rage and indignation when questioned about it. More than 4,400 firefighters battled hundreds of forest blazes in Portugal as a man admitted causing a huge Spanish wildfire by lighting soiled toilet paper. The National Civil Protection Authority in Portugal said by late afternoon almost 1,500 vehicles and 32 water-dumping planes were deployed at 702 wildfires, some of which have been burning for days. Meanwhile, after raging for six days, a Spanish wildfire which started when a German lit his spoiled toilet paper was finally brought under control as 500 residents were evacuated and a forest worker was killed. More than 4,400 firefighters battled hundreds of forest blazes across Portugal on Monday, authorities said, as the annual summer wildfire season hit a peak The National Civil Protection Authority in Portugal said by late afternoon on Monday almost 1,500 vehicles and 32 water-dumping planes were deployed at 702 wildfires, some of which have been burning for days A fire fighter is silhouetted agaist the flames and smoke while fighting a forest fire in S. Joao do Monte, Viseu region, Portugal, earlier today The fires spread quickly through mostly pine and eucalyptus forests that are tinder-dry after weeks without significant rain The fires spread quickly through mostly pine and eucalyptus forests that are tinder-dry after weeks without significant rain. In Spain, authorities said firefighters had managed to bring a six-day-old forest fire on the Atlantic island of La Palma under control and were allowing evacuated residents to return to their homes. The regional government for the Canary Islands archipelago said the measure affected 500 residents evacuated a day earlier from the town of Villa de Mazo. The fire claimed the life of one forest worker and has destroyed more than 4,000 hectares (9,900 acres) of forest on the volcanic island off the northwest coast of Africa. An unnamed 27-year-old German man admitted to police that he had started the fire accidentally by burning soiled toilet paper. Some 350 firefighters, supported by four planes and eight helicopters dumping water, were battling the fire. The National Civil Protection Authority classified eight wildfires in the north of the country as major blazes that were out of control Meanwhile, in neighboring Spain, authorities said Monday that firefighters had managed to bring a six-day-old forest fire on the Atlantic island of La Palma under control and were allowing evacuated residents to return to their homes Spanish troops intervened Tuesday as a wildfire near the eastern city of Valencia spread to a nature reserve after laying waste to some 1,400 hectares (3,500 acres) of land, regional authorities said. The fire, whose cause was unclear, broke out on Monday at Artana, some 60 kilometres (40 miles) north of Valencia, an emergency services spokeswoman said, adding it had not spread to residential areas. Overnight, the fire reached Sierra d'Espadan, an ecoregion known for its cork oak forests and home to foxes as well as endangered species of bats. The local government sent in more than 300 people, including 130 soldiers, backed up with 27 planes and helicopters to try to keep the blaze from spreading as it encroached on the fringes of the reserve. Spain's meteorological office says several regions are currently at high risk of wildfires owing to dry weather and soaring temperatures notably on the Mediterranean coast, the northwestern province of Galicia and Andalusia in the deep south. The regional government for the Canary Islands archipelago said the measure affected 500 residents evacuated a day earlier from the town of Villa de Mazo The fire claimed the life of one forest worker and has destroyed more than 4,000 hectares (9,900 acres) of forest on the volcanic island off the northwest coast of Africa An unnamed 27-year-old German man admitted to police that he had started the fire accidentally by burning soiled toilet paper Spanish troops intervened Tuesday as a wildfire near the eastern city of Valencia spread to a nature reserve after laying waste to some 1,400 hectares (3,500 acres) of land, regional authorities said Meanwhile, in neighbouring Portugal, daytime temperatures in recent days have exceeded 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) and in some northern cities exceeded 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) on Monday. Despite the dramatic scenes no injuries were reported, though some families had to evacuate their homes and some farm buildings burned down. Forest fires commonly occur in Portugal, and elsewhere in southern Europe, in the summer. Portuguese firefighters blame poor forest management for the destruction of large areas of woodland each year. Three major wildfires blackened swaths of forest near Aveiro, some 200 kilometers (120 miles) north of Lisbon, where one blaze was advancing along a five-kilometer (three-mile) front. Further north in Porto, the country's second-largest city, district authorities activated an emergency plan granting authorities special powers such as the requisitioning of privately owned heavy machinery. A child rape victim says she cannot forgive Hillary Clinton for defending her rapist in court 40 years ago, saying the Democratic presidential candidate attacked her credibility despite knowing that her assailant was guilty and later laughed about it in a taped interview. Kathy Shelton was just 12 years old when a 41-year-old drifter raped her on the side of a desolate Arkansas road in 1975. Now, four decades later, she has agreed to be named and pictured for the first time in this Daily Mail Online exclusive because she is furious that her rapist's defense attorney - Hillary Clinton - has been portraying herself as a lifelong advocate of women and girls on the campaign trail. SCROLL DOWN FOR EXCLUSIVE VIDEO Kathy Shelton was just 12 years old when 41-year-old Thomas Alfred Taylor raped her on a desolate Arkansas road in 1975 Clinton (pictured in 1974 as a lawyer for the Rodino Committee) served as Taylor's lawyer in 1975, when she was just 27 years old 'It's put a lot of anger back in me,' said Shelton, now 54, in an exclusive interview at her Springdale, Arkansas, home in August. 'Every time I see [Clinton] on TV I just want to reach in there and grab her, but I can't do that.' In 1975, Clinton served as the defense lawyer for Thomas Alfred Taylor, a 41-year-old factory worker accused of raping Shelton after luring her to his car. Taylor pleaded down to 'unlawful fondling of a minor' and served less than a year in prison after Clinton was able to block the admission of forensic evidence that linked her client to the crime. In a lengthy interview with the Daily Mail Online, Shelton said Clinton is 'lying' when she claims to be a lifelong defender of women and girls. Shelton said Clinton accused her during the case of 'seeking out older men', and demanded that the 12-year-old undergo a grueling court-ordered psychiatric examination to determine whether she was 'mentally unstable'. 'I don't think [Clinton's] for women or girls. I think she's lying, I think she said anything she can to get in the campaign and win,' Shelton said. 'If she was [an advocate for women and children], she wouldn't have done that to me at 12 years old.' While Shelton gave an anonymous interview to the Daily Beast in 2014, she said wants to start speaking out publicly, in part because 'I think a lot of people would look at [Clinton] in a different way' after hearing her story directly. 'I want to speak to the world. Out there at the White House, so everyone can hear me,' said Shelton. 'That's always been my thing since the anger's built up. I want to speak out like [Clinton] does, and let the whole world hear it.' For decades, Shelton said she had no idea that Clinton was the same woman as the lawyer who defended her rapist in 1975. During the case, Clinton accused the 12-year-old of 'seek[ing] out older men' and 'engag[ing] in fantasizing' in court affidavits, and later laughed while discussing aspects of the case in a recently-unearthed audiotape from the 1980s. On the audiotape, Clinton indicated that she believed Taylor, her client, was guilty, saying that his ability to pass a lie detector test 'forever destroyed my faith in polygraphs'. Shelton's (pictured left as a child and right as an adult) rapist's defenses lawyer was now-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Shelton says she's furious that Clinton has been portraying herself as a lifelong advocate of women and girls on the campaign trail She also laughed while describing how she was able to get a world-famous New York City blood expert to question the admissibility of forensic evidence that was misplaced by the crime lab after it was tested. The tape, which Shelton said discredits the notion that Clinton truly cared about protecting young girls, raises new questions that she wants to ask Clinton directly. 'I heard you on tape laughing,' said Shelton. 'I just want to know, you've got a daughter and a grandbaby. What happens if that daughter of yours, if that would have been her [who was assaulted at age 12]?' 'You would have protected her. You don't know me, so I'm a piece of crap to you,' added Shelton, who lives in the same small northwest Arkansas town where she was raised by a single mother. 'Who cares about me, as long as you can win your first case as an attorney?' I don't think [Clinton's] for women or girls. I think she's lying, I think she said anything she can to get in the campaign and win. If she was, she wouldn't have done that to me at 12 years old. - Kathy Shelton The criticism of Clinton comes as Democrats seek to highlight the candidate's early career legal work in support of women and children. At the Democratic National Convention last month, the candidate and her surrogates repeatedly highlighted Clinton's year-long stint at the Children's Defense Fund after she graduated from law school in 1973. 'I went to work for the Children's Defense Fund, going door-to-door in New Bedford, Massachusetts, on behalf of children with disabilities who were denied the chance to go to school,' said Clinton in her speech. 'It became clear to me that simply caring is not enough. To drive real progress, you have to change both hearts and laws,' she added. Former president Bill Clinton also praised his wife's work at the Children's Defense Fund, and Donna Brazile told the convention that during that in the 1970s, 'Hillary didn't want to talk about anything other than how to make children's lives better'. One year after her job at the Children's Defense Fund ended, 27-year-old Clinton moved to Fayetteville, Arkansas, where she married Bill Clinton. There, she helped launch a legal aid clinic at the University of Arkansas, which provided legal advice to individuals who could not afford it. Shelton (pictured aged 12 with her mother) was raised in Springdale, Arkansas by a single mother In 1975, Clinton was given the most consequential criminal case of her legal career defending Taylor on charges of first degree rape, after the defendant requested a female attorney. Since then, Clinton has spoken about the case only rarely, writing in her biography that she successfully 'cast doubt on the evidentiary value of semen and blood samples the prosecutor claimed proved the defendant's guilt in the rape'. After the Roy Reed interview was published in 2014, Clinton defended her role, saying that as an attorney she was required to defend her client to the best of her ability, despite the nature of the crime. 'I asked to be relieved of that responsibility but I was not and I had a professional duty to represent my client to the best of my ability, which I did,' Clinton said. According to Shelton, Clinton's public response left many questions unanswered. 'She didn't mention that she was laughing and saying [Taylor] was guilty. I guess as a lawyer it is your responsibility to defend someone,' Shelton said. 'But if she's for women and children, why would she defend someone knowing that a 12-year-old got raped?' she added. Shelton said she 'wasn't surprised' that Clinton has yet to express sympathy for the plight she went through as a victim. She said: 'If she brought it up there would probably be some questions asked that she wouldn't be able to answer. 'Because after laughing on that tape, she's pretty much stuck in knowing that she lied, knowing that it happened to me. And that tape's out there to be listened to by anybody.' On May 10, 1975, Shelton, an outgoing 12-year-old tomboy, had been riding her bike around the neighborhood when she first encountered Taylor - who worked at a paper factory at the time - and an underage male at one of her friend's houses. Shelton still lives in the same small northwest Arkansas town where she was. Pictured above is her home in Springdale The Washington County Sherriff's Office said the case files from the assault were unavailable and may have been lost in a flood, making it difficult to compile an independent account of the case. But according to a timeline reported by Newsday in 2008, Shelton got into Taylor's truck after he said he would take her to get a soda. Taylor drove to a 'weedy ravine', where he and his 15-year-old male acquaintance raped her. Taylor and his 15-year-old accomplice denied raping Shelton, although one unnamed witness of the attack told prosecutors that he overheard Taylor sexually assaulting Shelton, according to court records. She didn't mention that she was laughing and saying [Taylor] was guilty. I guess as a lawyer it is your responsibility to defend someone. But if she's for women and children, why would she defend someone knowing that a 12-year-old got raped? - Kathy Shelton 'They denied it and said I asked for it,' said Shelton. 'Do you think I would ask to have several stitches down there and not have kids? No, I wouldn't.' Shelton said she was a virgin before she was raped, and her mother was very strict about her relationships with members of the opposite sex. 'My mom didn't even let me start dating until 18 and then I didn't want to because of what happened,' said Shelton. 'I didn't deserve itI was a virgin, let's put it that way, when it happened. And I was totally freaked out.' Shelton said she was physically beaten during the attack. 'I can't cuss, but [Taylor] was calling me the 'b' word, and [saying] 'You like it, you know it',' said Shelton. 'Slapping me and hitting me with his fist.' A witness to the assault told the prosecutor that 'he overheard Thomas Taylor having had sexual relations with the victim'. Medical examinations 'reflected that the victim herein had, in fact, had sexual relations consistent with the time stated by her wherein she was attacked,' according to court filings. Shelton said she managed to escape her attackers to a nearby house that had a light on, and later woke up in the hospital. Shelton, pictured biting into an ice cream bar at a Baskin Robbins shortly after the attack, said it took her a long time to trust men again following the traumatizing rape Shelton recounted the brutal assault that she said left her with severe internal and external injuries. She said she was knocked into a coma, and later required stitches in her genital area. 'When I came out of the coma, I had several stitches down there. They tore me up bad,' she said. 'The doctors said there was a 99 percent chance I couldn't have kids. I have been with a couple men after that, it took me a long time to grow there. But I never had any kids.' As a result of the attack, Shelton said doctors told her it was unlikely she would ever be able to have children. She said she was devastated by the prognosis. 'When I was younger I really wanted a kid so bad,' said Shelton, who has never had children. 'I love kids.' Hillary Clinton, pictured above in 1979 with husband Bill, was Taylor's defense lawyer. Despite spending years working for the Children's Defense Fund, once Clinton was appointed she dove in to defend her client with characteristic vigor On May 13, 1975, Taylor was charged with first-degree rape, which carried a sentence of 30 years to life in prison. Although the court initially appointed a male attorney to represent him, Taylor later demanded a female lawyer. The lawyer Taylor received was Hillary Clinton, who has given varying accounts about how she ended up on the case. In an unpublished interview in the 1980s with Arkansas reporter Roy Reed - which was first reported by the Washington Free Beacon in 2014 - Clinton said she agreed to take the case as a personal favor to the prosecutor. 'The prosecutor called me a few years ago, he said he had a guy who had been accused of rape, and the guy wanted a woman lawyer,' said Clinton in the interview. 'Would I do it as a favor for him?' HILLARY CAUGHT LAUGHING ABOUT RAPE CASE ON TAPE Hillary Clinton joked about the guilt of an accused child rapist she defended in court, according to long-buried audio recordings from the 1980s that were first published in 2014. During a taped interview with Arkansas reporter Roy Reed in the 1980s, Clinton can be heard laughing at several points while recounting her legal defense of Thomas Alfred Taylor, the 41-year-old man who was accused of raping a 12-year-old girl in 1975. 'I had [Taylor] take a polygraph. Which he passed which forever destroyed my faith in polygraphs,' said Clinton, chuckling. Although the interview was not published at the time, Reed later donated the recording to the University of Arkansas Special Collections library. It was first published by the Washington Free Beacon in 2014. Clinton said the 'sad part' of the case was the 'prosecutors had evidence,' including Taylor's underwear that was stained with blood and semen. According to Clinton, crime lab investigators cut out the stained section of fabric when they tested it, but accidentally threw it away afterward which gave Clinton an opening to get the key piece of evidence against her client tossed. Clinton took the underwear to New York where she tracked down a famous forensics expert, who confirmed for her that there was no material left on the underwear for the defense to independently test. Clinton said she returned to Arkansas and handed the prosecutor a clipping of the renowned forensic expert's biography. 'And I said, 'Well, this guy's ready to come from New York to prevent this miscarriage of justice,' said Clinton, laughing. 'So we were gonna plea bargain.' The charges against Clinton's client were dropped from first degree rape which carried a 30-years-to-life prison sentence to unlawful fondling of a minor. Taylor was sentenced to less than a year in prison. On the recording, Clinton said she took the case in which Taylor was accused of raping a 12-year-old girl after luring her into his car as a favour to the prosecutor. 'A prosecutor called me years ago, said that he had a guy who was accused of rape, and the guy wanted a woman lawyer,' said Clinton. 'Would I do it as a favour to him?' Clinton gave a slightly different account in 2014 after the tape was published. She said she was appointed to the case and had asked the judge to remove her, but the judge ordered her to stay on. The prosecutor told CNN a similar story. Advertisement Later, Clinton said she was ordered by the court to defend Taylor, and unsuccessfully petitioned the judge to remove her from the case. The prosecutor gave a similar account to CNN in 2014. Whatever the circumstances, once Clinton was appointed she dove in to defend her client with characteristic vigor. One of Clinton's first moves was to raise questions about the credibility of the 12-year-old victim. In a July 18, 1975, affidavit, Clinton asked the court to order Shelton to undergo a psychiatric examination from a doctor selected by the Taylor's legal team. The evaluation was necessary, she argued, because Shelton was 'emotionally unstable.' 'I have been informed that the complainant is emotionally unstable with a tendency to seek out older men and engage in fantasizing,' wrote Clinton. 'I have also been informed that she has in the past made false accusations about persons, claiming they had attacked her body.' The 12-year-old girl also 'exhibits an unusual stubbornness and temper when she does not get her way', argued Clinton. Clinton has been portraying herself as a lifelong advocate of women and girls on the campaign trail Shelton said Clinton accused her during the case of 'seeking out older men' in court papers Clinton made a motion for Shelton to go through a psychiatric exam as part of the 1975 trial Clinton said she spoke to a child psychology expert who told her that 'children in early adolescence tend to exaggerate or romanticize sexual experiences', and that this was particularly true for 'adolescents with disorganized families,' such as Shelton's. Although Clinton's legal maneuver would likely be prohibited today under Arkansas rape shield act, the law was not passed until two years after the case. Shelton said one of her worst memories of the case was being questioned repeatedly by appointed experts. 'It got so bad that I told my mom I wasn't going back, and whatever happened, happened,' said Shelton. 'It's sad that a 12-year-old had to go through what I had to go through, because for days I cried and cried and cried over it.' It got so bad that I told my mom I wasn't going back, and whatever happened, happened. It's sad that a 12-year-old had to go through what I had to go through, because for days I cried and cried and cried over it. - Kathy Shelton In the end, the psychiatric examination wouldn't make or break the case, Clinton disclosed in her interview with Reed. The prosecution's case centered around forensic evidence - a pair of blood-and-semen stained underwear worn by Taylor. 'The sad thing was,' said Clinton, 'The prosecutor had evidence. A pair of underpants, which was bloody.' But, Clinton explained, the crime lab had accidentally thrown away the soiled section of cloth after testing it. She took the remnants of the underwear to a renowned forensic expert in New York City. He told Clinton there was not enough blood left on the clothing for the defense team to conduct its own independent testing. Clinton returned to Arkansas and presented the prosecutor with the famed forensic expert's biography. 'I said, 'This guy's ready to come from New York to prevent this miscarriage of justice',' Clinton told Reed, breaking into laughter. 'So we were gonna plea bargain.' Shelton said she decided to start speaking out publicly, in part because 'I think a lot of people would look at [Clinton] in a different way' after hearing her story directly The prosecution affidavit shows that investigator Kim Smith spoke to people who Shelton said were present when the incident occurred Taylor, who had been facing 30 years to life in prison, was able to plead to significantly reduced charges. 'Got [Taylor] off with time served in the county jail,' Clinton said. 'He'd been in the county jail about two months.' According to court records, Taylor was sentenced to one year in the county jail with two months reduced for time served. At one point on the tape, Clinton suggested to Reed that she believed Taylor was guilty of rape. 'Of course, [Taylor] denied [raping her] I had him take a polygraph, which he passed - which forever destroyed my faith in polygraphs,' said Clinton, chuckling. Shelton said this was one of the most upsetting parts of the tape. '[Clinton] was just trying to make herself big and look good, and it's what she's doing now,' said Shelton. 'She's not for women or children. 'I think if she got called in another case of a rape, and she didn't know the people, I think she'd do the same thing again.' Shelton said she has led a difficult life since 1975. She previously struggled with drug addiction, and, about a decade ago, she served time in prison for fraudulent checks. Shelton told a Newsday reporter who interviewed her in jail in 2008 that she had no hard feelings toward Clinton for defending Taylor. But she said after the memories of the case came back and the Roy Reed tapes were released, she is no longer forgiving. 'I've been in trouble before and I think it's because of the life I led,' said Shelton. 'That can make you think bad thoughts, and go down a wrong road, thinking I'm no good.' The city of Springdale, where Shelton grew up and still lives, is the fourth largest city in Arkansas Taylor, who was 41 at the time, was charged with rape in the first degree after attacking Shelton in 1975 The rape in the first degree saw a sentence of 30 years to life, but in the end, Taylor was sentenced to only one year in prison Shelton said for years after the assault she also found it difficult to have friendships with men or be alone with them. 'For years I would hardly even be around men,' she said. 'I felt like I wanted nothing to do with men at all. I would dress like a guy so they'd leave me alone.' Shelton, who says she's is a lesbian, also said she has not dated for many years and prefers to be on her own. Since 2008, Shelton said she has turned her life around. She lives in a modest rental house in the same town where she was born. She likes to spend time at home with her two cousins and their children, who call her 'Aunt Kathy', and other friends in the area. [Clinton] was just trying to make herself big and look good, and it's what she's doing now. She's not for women or children. - Kathy Shelton Shelton went to therapy for over a decade after the rape. In one photo of her taken shortly after the attack, she gives a toothy smile as she bites into an ice cream bar at a Baskin Robbins. Her brown hair is cut in a shaggy style and she is wearing a boyish button-down plaid shirt. She said the photo was taken by her therapist, remembering that she was allowed to take that day off from school. In the photo, Shelton looks younger than her 12 years. Today she looks older than 54, with wrinkles and heavy bags under her piercing blue eyes. She said she sometimes finds it hard to talk about the attack, all these years later. 'Sometimes I still break down and cry, since it's been brought back up,' she said. 'I'm trying right now not to tear up, but it's kind of hard sometimes.' But she said that won't stop her from speaking out about what she went through - even if it is politically uncomfortable for one of the world's most powerful women. An 'extremely radicalised' 16-year-old girl has been charged with preparing to carry out a terror attack in France and supporting ISIS. The teenager, arrested in the Melun area of southern Paris, was accused of using the Telegram social media app to spread calls by the terror group to launch an attack. A judge charged the teenager with taking part in a 'criminal terrorist association' and 'inciting to commit terrorist acts through an online communication medium.' She has been placed in custody. The teenager, arrested in the Melun area of southern Paris, was accused of using the Telegram social media app to spread calls by the terror group to launch an attack (file picture) Investigators said the girl was 'extremely radicalised' and was the administrator of a chat group dedicated to ISIS propaganda on Telegram, which has been used by suspected jihadis to communicate, deputy prosecutor Laure Vermeersch said. Vermeersch said no specific targets had been mentioned by the teenager, who had no criminal history before. Her name wasn't released. Investigators are now trying to trace other participants of the chat group and know whether the girl had possible accomplices in her alleged attack plot or in spreading ISIS propaganda. The girl was arrested Thursday in the Paris suburb, during a police operation. It is not the first time an underage girl has been detained in France under suspicion of trying to commit an attack. Parliament has extended the measure for six more months after a truck attack in the southern city of Nice on Bastille Day (July 14) that killed 85 people and was claimed by ISIS In March, two girls aged 15 and 17 were charged with taking part in a criminal terrorist association for allegedly plotting to attack a target, possibly a Paris concert hall, in a copycat action of November's Bataclan massacre in the capital. But investigators acknowledged the plot was not in an advanced stage. France has lived under a state of emergency for nearly nine months, since the deadly attacks in November in Paris that killed 130 people. Thousands of Nigerian refugees indoctrinated in Boko Haram camps are heading to Europe's shores as a famine intensifies, security sources have warned. Five children are dying an hour with 250,000 at risk of starvation while parliament remains hamstrung in a political wrangle. Despite being Africa's oil-rich country Nigeria's civil war with Islamic terrorists has left the north-east Borno region devastated with three million refugees. Starving: Thousands of Nigeria refugees indoctrinated in Boko Haram camps are heading to Europe's shores as a famine intensifies, security sources have warned Crisis: Five children are dying an hour with 250,000 at risk of starvation while parliament remains hamstrung in a political wrangle Britain has committed to spending 860 million in foreign aid to Nigeria, which now boasts Africa's largest economy, to help support the country's efforts to crush Boko Haram terror group, which has been responsible for a spate of outrages, including the kidnapping of hundreds of Nigerian schoolgirls. But intelligence sources report human traffickers from the ISIS-backed terror group are transporting girls and young men across the Sahara into Libya. Some trained suicide bombers and militants are heading for Europe while others are travelling to fight for Islamic State in Syria. 'They will soon start showing up on the Mediterranean's shores,' a source linked to Nigeria's National Intelligence Agency said. 'Some of these people are trained suicide bombers and fighters, including children as young as ten. They have all been indoctrinated by Boko Haram and they could soon turn up in Europe's capitals.' Meanwhile Nigeria's parliament is struggling to pass legislation as President Muhammadu Buhari's administration presses 'politically motivated' charges against the Senate President, Bukola Saraki. Sen Saraki has accused the administration of a 'witchhunt' after the president failed to get his own supporter into the powerful Senate President post last year. Refugees: Despite being Africa's oil-rich country Nigeria's civil war with Islamic terrorists has left the north-east Borno region devastated with three million refugees Trafficking: But intelligence sources report human traffickers from the ISIS-backed terror group are transporting girls and young men across the Sahara into Libya 'This case needs a swift conclusion for the country to unite and tackle the very serious issues of famine, security and a stumbling economy,' he told the Mail. Sen Saraki, a Nigerian politician educated at Cheltenham College, Gloucs, is attempting to get parliament to pass a motion to grant 215million in aid to tackle the emergency. 'This famine must not happen on our watch. I have seen the plight of these people with my own eyes and it is desperate. The government is making every effort to ensure money is available to fully address this issue.' Mr Saraki, who helped expose a massive oil corruption scheme under President Goodluck Jonathan's administration, denies allegations of asset declaration irregularities likening them to a House of Cards plot with President Buhari trying to remove him from post. Extremists: Britain has pledged 860million on the fight with Boko Haram which has seen three million refugees displaced in the north east of the country Brainwashed: Intelligence sources have told MailOnline some of those people trafficked are trained suicide bombers and fighters, including children as young as ten Mr Saraki warned of 'a shadow government' within the president's administration, adding: 'They are using executive powers for their own agenda. It is an abuse of process that threatens our democracy and our country.' Some are calling the Borno famine 'Biafra 2.0' referring to the civil war in which three million starved to death in the late 1960s. Dr Yodi Alakija, a British public health expert who has just returned from Borno region, said it was a 'international crisis'. 'The UN requires Nigeria to declare it a humanitarian disaster to get relief. This is not a time for politics or game playing. Five children are dying an hour every single day. Movement: Refugees are being trafficked from Nigeria to Niger, through Libya and on the treacherous journey across the Mediterranean to Italy and Greece Journey: The trip organised by people smugglers is highly likely to end in death as makeshift, overcrowded boats capsize and migrants' bodies are found washed up on Libyan beaches 'This requires urgent action. We need people to drop their political differences and come together. They can fight later when the children are ok.' With dozens of oxen leading the way, a 200-year-old schoolhouse has been dragged back to its original location. For decades the Orleans County Grammar School in Vermont served as a Grange hall in Brownington, a hilltop village near the Canadian border. But town officials decided they wanted to move the 30-by-40-foot white clapboard-sided house a third of a mile up the road to restore the village's historic district to its 19th-century condition. With dozens of oxen leading the way, the 200 year old Orleans County Grammar School in Vermont is moved back to its original location Town officials decided they wanted to move the 30-by-40-foot white clapboard-sided house a third of a mile up the road to restore the village's historic district to its 19th-century condition The 105-ton timber-frame school building was moved yesterday up a hill by an engine on the back of a barge-like rolling platform that filled both lanes of the narrow country road. But to show what moving the schoolhouse might have looked like in the 1800s, 44 oxen led the way as if they were pulling the building, drawing a crowd of more than 900 people. Peggy Day Gibson, director of the Old Stone House Museum in Brownington said: 'We were going to let the oxen take it if they could and help them out if they needed it. 'So we're doing this for show, and we're doing it for fun, and we're doing it to get the community involved.' The 105-ton timber-frame school building was moved yesterday up a hill by an engine on the back of a barge-like rolling platform with the oxen leading in front Besides the engine pushing the schoolhouse up the hill, utility crews also lowered power lines and communications cables so the 34-foot-high building could have clearance. And the event appeared to be even better attended than organizers hoped. Local resident Dawn Perry said: 'We should be selling T-shirts' who suggested the shirts might say, 'I was there for the second moving of the schoolhouse.' Caught up in the entrepreneurial spirit, her husband, Everett 'Sonny' Perry, surveyed the crowd and replied: 'Too bad I wasn't ready for our yard sale. That would have been good.' The schoolhouse, first relocated in 1869 to be closer to the town center, is now back at the small hilltop campus where Alexander Twilight opened it in 1823 and was its schoolmaster After being moved, the schoolhouse was placed next to a newly built foundation and will be slid onto that later this week. The foundation will be fronted with slabs of granite, to give it a more historically accurate appearance. The building is 'solid as a rock,' said Bob Hunt, education director for the museum. Once in place, he said, 'it should be good for another 200 years'. The schoolhouse, first relocated in 1869 to be closer to the town center, is now back at the small hilltop campus where Alexander Twilight opened it in 1823 and was its schoolmaster. Twilight is the town's central historical figure and was the first African-American to graduate from an American college or university, getting a degree from Middlebury College. The impetus for the move came two years ago, when the town was told it could no longer get insurance for a building without indoor plumbing or a modern heating system. The pair ar e even buried at the same cemetery in California They were like two kids playing hooky, having food fights, gossiping, horsing around, being children all over again,' writes the author It was Liz's influence that drew Michael to move out of his family home in 1987 and buy the property that would become Neverland The 'Thriller' singer ordered decorators to paint a suite at his ranch the color of her violet eyes; she gave him an elephant called Gypsy Michael brought his chimp Bubbles to tea with the Hollywood celebrity and the two formed a devoted partnership From sharing tea with a chimpanzee to afternoons spent watching Disney movies, Michael Jackson and Elizabeth Taylors friendship was the oddest in Hollywood. Drawn together by their megawatt star-power, difficult childhoods and drug problems, the pairs relationship was as intense as it was bizarre, according to a new book out later this month. Michael wooed Liz with grand gestures like ordering decorators to paint a suite at his Neverland ranch the same shade of violet as her eyes. She responded by buying him an elephant which she shipped in from Asia. An unusual gift! Liz gave Michael an elephant called Gypsy, adding to the growing menagerie at the Neverland ranch in California, according to this photo - one of a set from an auction. Their intense friendship was characterized with extravagant presents and childlike hobbies Their curious and intense friendship spanned more than two decades. The King of Pop saw the Hollywood star as Mother Teresa, Princess Diana and Peter Pan's Wendy rolled into one, according to a new book Such gestures ensured they stayed together for almost 30 years. The unlikely friendship was built on a chance to regress and be children all over again' says author Donald Bogle in Elizabeth and Michael: The Queen of Hollywood and the King of Pop - A Love Story, to be published by Simon and Schuster on August 30. When they first met in 1984, they both had so much in common and felt that they had somebody who understood their troubled lives. Michael became a star at 8 years old with his brothers in The Jackson 5. But his father Joe used to beat him so badly he left him mentally scarred for life. Liz became a star at 12 with the film 'National Velvet' despite her father being a drunk who used to 'bat her around', something she rarely talked about. Michael brought out the mothering side in Liz, who thought she could 'save' him. The two former child stars, both with troubled pasts, formed a powerful friendship that allowed them to 'be children all over again' Bogle writes that when they were together 'Elizabeth and Michael were clearly in their own world, one that few could understand. Or enter'. Asked to describe Liz, Michael once called her a warm cuddly blanket that I love to snuggle up to and cover myself with'. By 1983, the year before they met, Liz's career was on the decline just and Michael's was on the rise. She had entered the Betty Ford Clinic for addiction to prescription drugs but it did nothing to diminish her in Michael's eyes. Bogle writes that Michael was obsessed with her and set out not only to meet her but also to win over. Michael was the one who did the courting and was 'like a young lover in pursuit'. Bogle writes: 'There would be moments of romantic agonizing about her yet he would come to treasure every minute of it. 'Jackson wanted to really meet her, to make a connection, then to see her again and again and to get to know her and for her to get to know him, This was what he wanted. Something deep inside Michael Jackson needed Elizabeth Taylor...though he probably couldnt articulate what he wanted from her. She was both a star goddess and a mother goddess.' Michael's pet chimpanzee Bubbles, seen left with a picture of Michael, attended one of their first meetings after Liz agreed he could join them for tea. Bubbles reportedly slept in a crib in Michael's bedroom. The ape now lives at a sanctuary in Florida For Michael, Liz was 'part of his dreams' and the 'embodiment of Hollywood history'. They met six months after the death of Richard Burton, the love of her life who showered her with jewels and provided a replacement of sorts. Burton died in August 1984 and that December Michael invited Liz to see one of the final dates on his Victory tour in Los Angeles. But when the box he arranged for her and her entourage had poor sight lines she left. Michael then called her to beg her forgiveness. Bogle writes that after that they talked on the phone every day then something magical happened during those phone conversations...Michael and Elizabeth became hooked on each other.' On one of their first dates Liz invited Michael over for tea. He asked if he could bring Bubbles with him, his chimpanzee and she agreed as she loved animals. She later recalled: We spent more and more time with each other. Just became really good friends. Told each other everything.' The pair enjoyed indulging one another's odd tastes - Michael showered Liz with expensive jewelry while she responded by gifting the animal lover an elephant Liz provided Michael with a direct, living link to Hollywood history. Michael later recalled: I got to learn so much from her. Shell tell me about James Dean and Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy and Montgomery Clift. She tells me what they were really like. They also bonded over children, loved toys and games and cartoons. Michael described her as playful and youthful and happy and finds a way to laugh and giggle even when shes in pain. Michael told Liz about how he coped with racism. She told him how to deal with fame. The other thing that bonded them were their medical problems. Michael had burns from a 1986 commercial for Pepsi that still caused him agony. He also had Vitiligo which caused his skin to whiten. She had suffered back and hip pain for years. Bogle writes that for Liz, Michael was everything she wanted. Liz spent a lot of time at Neverland, Michael's infamous Californian theme park, where the two would watch Disney films. Michael also hosted Liz's seventh wedding to construction worker Larry Fortensky in 1991 - and paid the $1.5 million bill Michael and Liz caused a media storm when they arrived as a 'couple' at the American Music Awards With his lost boy quality, with his heightened sensitivity, with his Pepsi accident, even with his use of drugs to dull his physical pain, he was reminiscent of Monty Clift, with whom she shared so much, and perhaps of James Dean and Rock Hudson, all troubled, all conflicted, all trying to come to terms with their childhoods and their fame. 'With each of them she had felt there were no secrets...while Elizabeth never thought of Michael or the others as weak, she clearly believed she could save people, and perhaps she believed she could help Michael to save himself.' Michael was under her spell' and they were seen together at Liza Minnelli concerts, Bruce Springsteen gigs and the opening night of the Los Angeles Ballet. They spent their afternoons watching Walt Disney films, going to theme parks and playing with animals at Neverland. On the set of a 3D science fiction film called Captain EO, which was only shown in Disney theme parks in the 1980s and 90s, Elizabeth spent days in Michael's trailer. The book says they were like two kids playing hooky, having food fights, gossiping, horsing around, being children all over again during those off hours on the movie set. Their official coming out party as a couple was at the 1986 American Music Awards. The two often looked intimate together, as seen here at the Elizabeth Taylor Tribute Concert at the Royal Albert Hall in 2000 Liz appearing with Michael was the showstopper and her appearance backstage wearing a blue chiffon dress caused a stampede among the media as photographers scrambled to get her picture with the King of Pop. Michael became used to Liz's expletive-laden rants which embarrassed him due to his upbringing as a Jehovahs Witness. During the early years of their friendship, Michael loved playing the part of gentleman escort, at her beck and call, making sure she was comfortable, making sure any request to a waiter or whomever was taken care of,' writes the author. She was high maintenance - but so was he. In fact the book says that he enjoyed keeping her high maintenance high. Michael showered her with gifts including a 17 carat diamond ring, a diamond bracelet, diamond necklaces and ruby encrusted watches. For him it was money well spent so he could be part of a classic old Hollywood with its greatest star. Together they enjoyed the company of many other celebrities, including dinner with Lionel Richie in 1993 Such was Liz's hold on Michael that it angered his family; his father because he was so controlling and his mother Katherine because she was wary of outsiders - she once supposedly said that Elizabeth stole my son. It was also under her influence that he moved out of his family home in 1987 and bought the $17 million, 26 acre ranch in Los Olivos which became Neverland. The sprawling property had a number of guest rooms including the Elizabeth Taylor suite which had an enormous king sized bed. Michael supposedly wanted to paint it violet like Taylors eyes but the painters could not get the color right. Michael's busy touring schedule meant that they met for 'intense reunions' every few months. One of their meetings was at Saint Johns Health Center in Santa Monica in June 1990 when Jackson was being treated for chest pains having collapsed under the pressure of trying to finish the album Dangerous. Liz was going through another relapse in her battle with prescription drugs and her weight had ballooned again. Michael turned away his own family from his hospital bed because Elizabeth had arranged to come down and see him. Elizabeths visits lifted his spirits although some family members felt once again that Michael was becoming too close to her, especially when Michael preferred to spend time with her alone.' Michael hosted her wedding to construction worker Larry Fortensky in 1991, her seventh husband, at Neverland and insisted on paying the $1.5 million bill. She thanked him by sending him an elephant called Gypsy she had shipped in from Asia. He responded with a gift of his own - a huge wall-sized tapestry of her face. The exchanges went on for years and they slipped into a routine where they would go and see a film together on Thursdays - sometimes they stayed at Neverland but other times they went out in disguise. The book says that they would sit at the back and hold hands. Elizabeth loved A Bugs Life and playfully hounded him time and again to see it with her. They were nearly neighbors and both had homes in the Bel Air and Beverly Hills neighborhoods of Los Angeles and Michael would invited her over for egg sandwiches in the afternoons. In 1997, Michael presented Elizabeth with the song he wrote for her called Elizabeth, I Love You, which he performed at her 65th birthday party. Michael sang to Liz in her honor for her 65th birthday. Liz called their relationship 'the purest most giving love I've ever known' In interviews she called her relationship with him the purest most giving love Ive ever known. She said: I dont think anyone knew how much we loved each other. Such was their closeness that Liz was one of the loudest voices who came to Michael's defense when he was accused of child abuse in 1993 and 2005. She flew to Singapore to help him the first time and in 2003 when he was arrested she went on the attack on his behalf. She said at the time: I believe Michael is absolutely innocent and that he will be vindicated.' She also said that she had spent nights at Neverland with nothing untoward happening. She said: There was nothing abnormal about it. There was no touchy-feely going on. We laughed like children, and we watched a lot of Walt Disney. There was nothing odd about it. Michael's death in 2009 nearly destroyed Liz who was dealing with her own health issues yet again. She wrote on Twitter: My heart, my mind, are broken. Im home from the hospital sore, but intact. Of course Im still grieving for Michael...I always will. My heart...my mind...are broken. I loved Michael with all my soul and I cant imagine life without him. We had so much in common and we had such loving fun together. The two were even united in death and two years later she was buried in the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California - the same cemetery as Michael was laid to rest. While Liz was reticent about talking about Michael, he was fulsome in his praise of her. He once said: I can confide in her and trust her. In my business you cant trust anyone...because you dont know whos your friend. 'Because youre so popular, and theres so many people around you, youre isolated too. Becoming successful means that you become a prison. Hillary Clinton has a commanding national lead of 13 points among likely voters in a new survey. Clinton hit 50 percent in a Monmouth University poll that looked at both registered voters and those who are most likely to cast a ballot in the general election based on past behavior. Trump trails at 37 percent. Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson had a seven-percent slice of the vote in the Monmouth poll and Green Party candidate Jill Stein was at two percent. When all registered voters were included in the survey, the results shifted slightly to 46 percent for Clinton and 34 percent for Trump and the same level of support for Johnson and Stein. Nearly two-thirds of all voters say they do not believe that Clinton is telling the truth about her emails, 64 percent, but roughly the same amount think it's time to move on, 63 percent. Hillary Clinton has a commanding national lead of 13 points among likely voters in a new survey Voters have mixed feelings about Trump's on-again, off-again relationship with Vladimir Putin, with 45 percent saying it concerned them and 49 percent saying they don't particularly care if he's friendly with the Russian president They had mixed feelings about Trump's on-again, off-again relationship with Vladimir Putin, with 45 percent saying it concerned them and 49 percent saying they don't particularly care if he's friendly with the Russian president. Taken after both parties' conventions had concluded, the Monmouth poll shows Clinton solidifying Democratic support and Trump failing to make new in-roads with Republicans. In June, 81 percent of Republicans told Monmouth's pollsters they were backing Trump. The next month 79 percent said the businessman had their support. That number remained unchanged in the early August poll. Clinton has steadily made gains with Democrats, from 85 percent in June to 88 percent in July and 92 percent now. She also came out of the two-week battle with a higher approval rating than Trump did, 37 percent to Trump's 26 percent. Neither candidate has solid Independent support heading into the final months of the general election. Trump had a nine-point head start on her but dropped from 40 percent to 33 percent after Republicans' and Democrats' respective gatherings in Cleveland and Philadelphia, where they spent a substantial amount of time trashing the other party. Clinton 31 percent of Independents behind her before the conventions and now has three in 10 with her after. Johnson benefited the most when it comes to Independent support from the parties' productions. He jumped to 16 percent with Independents from 9 percent. Taken after both parties' conventions had concluded, the Monmouth poll shows Clinton solidifying Democratic support and Trump failing to make new in-roads with Republicans. One of the businessman's supporters is shown above outside his speech today in Detroit, Michigan After Trump's very bad week, one national poll had given the embattled Republican a glimmer of good news. A Reuters/Ipsos poll, released Friday, had Trump down by only 3 points, instead of losing to rival Clinton by nearly double-digits, as a number of other surveys, including the Monmouth one that came out today, have shown. Earlier in the week, Clinton was ahead by 8 points in the survey. By Friday about 42 percent of likely voters preferred the Democratic former secretary of state, while 39 percent said they were supporting Trump, with a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3 percent suggesting the race was dead even. The poll may have been an outlier, though, as it is inconsistent with a bevy of other surveys that have been published since the election. Clinton's (left) been seeing positive poll results all week, but a Reuters/Ipsos poll that was released Friday shows that Trump (right) could only be 3 points behind The poll may have been an outlier, though, as it is inconsistent with a bevy of other surveys that have been published since the election. Above, Clinton supporters are seen at her rally Monday in Tampa Two polls that were released Sunday still gave Clinton in a commanding lead. First there was the ABC News/Washington Post poll that shows Clinton 8 points ahead. She's receiving 50 percent support from registered voters, while he gets 42 percent. When third-party candidates were added to the mix, Clinton still comes in first place int he survey. She receives 45 percent of the vote, Trump gets 37 percent, Libertarian Party nominee Gary John receives 8 percent and Green Party candidate Jill Stein walks away with 4 percent. The Reuters/Ipsos poll shows the presidential race to be much tighter than all the others - which means it could be wrong An ABC News report on the poll pointed out that Trump's numbers haven't fallen, they just haven't improved since he became the official GOP nominee last month in Cleveland, Ohio. Before the Republican National Convention, Clinton was leading him by 4 points. The poll indicated a laundry list of trouble areas for Trump. Seventy-nine percent of Americans said that the brash billionaire doesn't show enough respect for the people he disagrees with. Another 70 percent said they were anxious about a Trump presidency. Sixty-seven percent said he lacks the personality and temperament to be president. Sixty-four percent said they doubt his understanding of world affairs. Sixty-two percent said he's not honest and trustworthy. Sixty-one percent said he's unqualified for the job. Sixty percent believed he's biased against minorities and women. And 63 percent viewed him unfavorably overall. Nearly three-in-four Americans, 73 percent, including 59 percent of Republicans, said Trump mishandled his dispute with the Khans, a Muslim-American Gold Star family who stood onstage and condemned him at last week's Democratic National Convention. They lost their middle son in Iraq. Two other new national polls show Clinton 8 and 9 points ahead of her Republican rival. Statewide polls show her ahead by double-digits in Virginia and in striking distance in Arizona Demographically speaking, Clinton has opened up a wide lead with women 23 points and also lead Trump by 19 points among college-educated white women. To put this in context, in 2012, President Barack Obama beat his challenger, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, by the biggest gender gap in history the Democrat won women by 12 points. Clinton's lead against Trump is now nearly double. Morning Consult's latest poll likewise showed Clinton opening up a 9-point lead over Trump, after months of the two candidates being neck-and-neck. Now 46 percent of registered voters surveyed said they'd select Clinton, while 37 percent support Trump. The new poll indicates that he's lost ground and she's gained. New CBS News Battleground Tracker polls show Clinton has pulled out in front of Trump in the swing state of Virginia, perhaps aided by her vice presidential pick, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine. She now leads The Donald by 12 points in the commonwealth of Virginia, 49 percent to 37 percent. In Arizona, typically a state that Republicans easily win, Clinton's within striking distance, with 44 percent of likely voters selecting Trump and 42 percent liking Clinton. Pollsters say Clinton is being bolstered by the high Latino vote in the Western state. Finally, Clinton is ahead by 2 points in Nevada, 43 to 41 percent, where she's doing well with Latino voters, but Trump is having luck with older whites. Greens Senator Scott Ludlam is the fourth federal politician who has now vowed to risk being fined thousands of dollars rather than put his name on the 2016 Census form. He joins fellow Greens senators Sarah Hanson-Young and Janet Rice along with Independent senator Nick Xenophon to declare they'll withhold their names from the form on Tuesday because of serious privacy concerns. Senator Ludlam said breaches affecting the US State Department, CIA and the Australian Department of Immigration and Border Protection were clear examples of how data collection can go wrong, according to a report by the ABC. '(They) weren't able to prevent to prevent themselves from being hacked if these big, well resourced entities aren't able to protect people's private information, there's nothing about the ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) that gives you confidence that couldn't happen in the future,' he told the website. Scroll down for video Australian Greens Co-Deputy Leader and Communications spokesperson Senator Scott Ludlam is the latest federal politician to confirm he will not be putting his name to the Census Even the former head of the ABS condemned the 'unnecessary intrusion' in the census that will be completed on Tuesday night This is the first year that the Australian census can be completed online and controversially, will also retain people's names and addresses for four years rather than 18 months. The Greens Communications spokesperson labelled the ABS response to privacy concerns as being 'wholly inadequate'. 'The ABS has stated that there's been no significant change, that they're merely extending the retention period from 18 months to four years,' he wrote on his website. 'What they've failed to realise is that public trust in government to keep personal information private is at an all-time low. 'In the years since the last census we've seen both a dramatic increase in citizen surveillance, and the existence of long-suspected citizen surveillance programs confirmed. This is the first year that the Australian census will retain people's names and addresses for four years rather than 18 months Three Greens senators including Sarah Hanson-Young will refuse to provide their name to the 2016 Australian Census because of privacy concerns Independent senator Nick Xenophon (pictured) has declared he'll withhold his name from the 2016 Australian census form because he has serious privacy concerns. He says people might choose to lie on census forms because they feared their personal data being misused 'We've seen states and territories ramp up attacks on speech, assembly and protest. We've just concluded a double dissolution federal election campaign that was called in response to a government attack on workplace rights.' He pointed out that similar proposals to change the Census in 2006 and 2011 were abandoned after close scrutiny. 'Last year the ABS completed a farcical secretive internal process and gave themselves the all-clear. It's a process that wouldn't pass a university ethics test for a survey,' he added. 'Retention of name and address information should never proceed without the informed consent of the survey subjects.' Senator Xenophon agreed that the ABS had failed to make a compelling case for why names were necessary and 'trashing' the right to privacy Senator Xenophon acknowledges he risks prosecution and is prepared to be fined $180 a day or up to $1800 for not complying with the rules. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has defended this year's census and insist that the inclusion of names are vital to ensure accuracy Several Australian politicians have now pledged to leave their names off the 2016 Census 'I do not take this step lightly,' he said, clarifying that he wasn't not encouraging other people to follow his stand because that would be illegal. 'This is a decision I'm making on my own,' he said. Senator Xenophon warned people might lie on census forms because they feared their personal data being misused. He said it could undermine public trust in the census and he also raised concerns about data being potentially sold to private companies. 'Rather than be a snapshot of the nation this census will morph into a mobile CCTV that follows every Australian.' The ABS stressed that there are 'extremely robust safeguards in place to protect the privacy and confidentiality of the information collected' but its former boss has called the edict an 'unnecessary intrusion' for Australians The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has defended this year's census and insist that the inclusion of names are vital to ensure accuracy, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. The ABS stressed that there are 'extremely robust safeguards in place to protect the privacy and confidentiality of the information collected'. Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said she won't be putting her name or her daughter's name on their census form because of privacy concerns. The senator said she was prepared to risk the fines. Even the former head of the ABS has condemned the 'unnecessary intrusion' and violation of the 'inherent human right' to privacy, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. Wherever mens fashion goes, Ben Cobb is there. This summer, in London, Milan, Paris and New York, there he was, seated in the front row at almost every runway show. And when hes on the street outside the venues, the street-style photographers cant resist taking his picture. He has a signature look, with the dark mustache, the tightly fitted, flare-legged trousers, the silk shirt unbuttoned halfway to the navel. A Vogue blog post focused on Mr. Cobb in making the case for the return of the sleazy guy. Its natural to assume that his head-to-toe retro look is a fashion-world costume. But for Mr. Cobb, the editor in chief of the British fashion magazine Another Man, every day is, sartorially speaking, 1974. The decade called to him, and he listened. Most things I love fall into that whole era for some reason, Mr. Cobb said. The fashion in that era I still think theres something really magical about that time that, for me anyway, never gets boring. gold bridesmaid dresses Mr. Cobb was sitting in the bar of his hotel, the Loews Regency, between appointments during his visit to New York last month. He had on Gucci flares, a white Louis Vuitton shirt and black Saint Laurent boots. Necklaces dangled from his neck. Now and then patrons looked at him in wonder, as you would when encountering unfrozen 70s Man. Mr. Cobb, 40, who is soft-spoken, said he arrived at his signature look many years ago through watching period films specifically, Italian cult horror and crime movies like Four Flies on Grey Velvet and Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man. The aesthetic in the movies is incredible, he said. All the men looked amazing. Speaking more broadly about Hollywood actors in that period, like Robert Redford and Jack Nicholson, he added, They were allowed to express themselves and be every version of masculinity. Mr. Cobb was asked how he has been able to dress like Maurizio Merli or Robert Redford in Three Days of the Condor during the recent era of skinny jeans and shrunken suits. Does he wear a lot of vintage? I have Saint Laurent blazers, a couple of suits, he said. With some of the blazers, the proportion of the lapels, it can almost veer into parody. You never want to be a caricature. Instead, he said, he finds plenty of choices in todays luxury mens wear, especially as much of it seems to recycle the 1970s. Hes partial to Tom Ford, Gucci, bits of Fendi and Dries Van Noten, and when he finds something he likes, he buys in multiples. At the moment, I get all my trousers from Gucci, he said. I have these trousers in loads of different colors. I love them. Shoe-wise, I love Hedis Saint Laurent boots. After it was announced that Hedi Slimane would be leaving the label, I went and bought a whole bundle, Mr. Cobb said. He was born and raised in London, the son of a graphic designer father and a mother who studied fashion at Central Saint Martins. Now he lives in an apartment in that citys Maida Vale neighborhood painted dark brown with gold accents in the decor. The inspirations for his home were the 70s-era designer David Hicks and Billy Baldwin, the noted purveyor of Hollywood Regency. I live in a bubble, Mr. Cobb said. Still, despite his retro aesthetic, he sees himself as of the moment. True style, he said, is mixing the old and the new in a way that reveals your personality. Youve chosen those things and put them together in a certain way, and thats what gives them that cohesiveness, Mr. Cobb said. So how did he feel about being called sleazy in Vogue? Did he take it as a compliment? I take everything as a compliment, Mr. Cobb said, smiling. Thats the best way through life, right? One persons sleaze is anothers romanticism. http://www.queeniebridesmaid.co.uk/blue-bridesmaid-dresses-uk As insecticide rained down on a popular district in Miami, state health officials began to investigate Palm Beach County's first case of non-travel related Zika. Gov Rick Scott's office announced Monday that the person recently traveled in Miami-Dade County, which according to the Palm Beach Post, is the only county so far to report locally transmitted cases of Zika. The statement noted that the Florida Department of Health (DOH) 'still believes active transmissions are only taking place within the identified area that is less than one-square mile in Miami-Dade County'. As insecticide rained down on a popular district in Miami, state health officials began to investigate Palm Beach County's first case of non-travel related Zika. Pictured is a plane releasing insecticide on the Wynwood area of Miami Gov Rick Scott's (center) office announced Monday that the person recently traveled in Miami-Dade County, the only county so far to report locally transmitted cases of Zika Just 70 miles away, Wynwood, a popular district in Miami, has been turned into a ghost town as the area hasn't seen it's usual hustle and bustle of visitors, shoppers and tourists Scott said he has directed the DOH and the Department of Education to 'closely work together to ensure students, parents, educators and district leaders have all the resources and guidance they need to combat the Zika virus'. 'DOH, DOE and the Florida Board of Governors will begin distributing Zika teacher toolkits and materials for school districts, public state colleges and public universities to help educate students and their families,' the statement read. Just 70 miles away, Wynwood, a popular district in Miami, has been turned into a ghost town as the area hasn't seen it's usual hustle and bustle of visitors, shoppers and tourists, according to CBS Miami. Several visitors have been scared away because of the recent announcement that 16 people have been infected with the Zika virus by mosquitoes in the Wynwood area. Federal health officials last week warned pregnant women to avoid the neighborhood and a one-square-mile area around it. On Sunday morning, a plane was spotted dropping insecticide over the neighborhood. Health officials announced on August 1 that Zika had turned up in the Wynwood neigborhood Several visitors have been scared away since the announcement that 16 people have been infected with the Zika virus by mosquitoes in the Wynwood area Early Sunday morning, a plane (pictured) was spotted dropping insecticide over the neighborhood Miami-Dade Mosquito Control has been using a particular insecticide called 'Naled' for decades and said they have been doing so safely. Florida teams will also continue to monitor mosquito traps and evaluate conditions Health officials announced on August 1 that Zika had turned up in Wynwood. They clarified this week that the actual infections were limited to a 500-square-foot residential area north of the art district, and that area has since been bombarded with insecticides. Florida's Health Department has said there's no evidence of mosquitoes transmitting Zika elsewhere in Miami. Miami-Dade Mosquito Control has been using a particular insecticide called 'Naled' for decades and said they have been doing so safely, according to CBS. The pest control group said they expect to fly the aerial missions indefinitely. Senior officials are 'deeply concerned' about the national security consequences of selling off NSW's state energy supplier Ausgrid to a Chinese company as part of a $10 billion privatisation deal. Treasurer Scott Morrison is close to revealing his final decision on whether to allow a Chinese company to buy a 99-year lease on more than half of Ausgrid, which supplies power to about 5.2 million people. And concerns within the federal government have grown after intelligence services caught Chinese spies conducting 'brazen' espionage, AFR reported. Official figures said there were at least 60 cyber attacks on Australian energy networks in the last financial year. There are national security fears over plans to sell NSW electricity infrastructure Ausgrid (stock image) to a Chinese company through a 99-year lease Official figures said there were at least 60 cyber attacks on Australian energy networks in the last financial year (stock image of Bayswater Power Station in the NSW Hunter Valley) Most of the concern regarding the sale of Ausgrid relates to Chinese state-owned company State Grid Corporation. However, there are also fears over Hong Kong company Cheung Kong International. If Mr Morrison decides to veto the deal, it will pull the plug on funding the NSW Liberal government's new infrastructure projects. It would also potentially stifle future foreign investment and put pressure on Australia's foreign debt. 'That's the job. There are no easy decisions. This is not an easy decision and there are implications of the decision either way. Foreign investment is a very sensitive issue out there in the public and it has to be managed carefully,' Mr Morrison said, according to AFR. 'I take every foreign investment decision on its merits, case by case, and I try to do what is the right thing for Australia,' Mr Morrison told 2GB radio on Monday. The Treasurer said Australia needed to ensure it had foreign investment. 'But above and beyond all of that national security outranks everything.' Ausgrid provides power to Sydney, Central Coast and the Hunter Region. Scott Morrison is close to revealing a final decision on whether to allow a Chinese company to buy a 99-year lease on more than half of Ausgrid, the NSW electricity infrastructure (Mr Morrison pictured on Thursday) 'But above and beyond all of that national security outranks everything,' Mr Morrison said about the potential sale of Ausgrid Senator Nick Xenophon is against the potential decision and thinks it should prompt more transparency. 'It begs a bigger question that we need some sensible reforms similar to other countries, similar to New Zealand, for a more transparent foreign investment framework,' he told ABC radio. Liberal frontbencher Angus Taylor hit back at critics of foreign investment, claiming it is extremely important in Australia. 'If foreign investment stopped tomorrow your mortgage rates would go through the roof immediately,' he told Sky News. Ausgrid provides power to Sydney, Central Coast and the Hunter Region (stock image of electricity worker) But the national interest test would include national security considerations, he said. 'We can't compromise national security.' Opposition Leader Bill Shorten warned the government shouldn't rush the decision, unlike with the Port of Darwin. 'For me, the matter of foreign investment comes down to Australian jobs, prices that consumers and families pay and of course, where relevant, national security,' he told reporters in Melbourne. He contrasted the measures to the enhanced security given to London Britain currently only has three but this is due to increase to seven Armed guards should travel on board passenger ferries to keep the English Channel safe, a senior Tory MP and Theresa May ally has urged. Royal Naval vessels patrolling the Mediterranean should also be recalled to beef up security closer to British shores, Charlie Elphicke, the Dover MP said. Mr Elphicke, who has also served as a whip, warned the government should follow the lead from France and take security threats from terrorists and people smugglers more seriously. Royal Naval vessels patrolling the Mediterranean should also be recalled to beef up security closer to British shores, Charlie Elphicke, the Dover MP said He sent a report to Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, setting out the case for sea marshals. Tory MP Mr Elphicke has urged the government to set up a Dover patrol made up of the Coast Guard, Royal Navy, and Border Force overseen by the Royal Marines. Britain has just three vessels protecting 7,723 miles of coast, although this is due to go up to seven. This is in contrast to Italy, which has a patrol of 600 vessels to protect 4,722 miles of coastline. Cash-strapped Greece even has more vessels than the UK, with 240 patrolling 8,497 miles of coastline. Mr Elphicke said: A century ago the Dover Patrol kept the White Cliffs of Dover and the English Channel safe in time of war. Now we need to declare war on the cross Channel people-traffickers with a New Dover Patrol. We need more ships on patrol in the English Channel. The Government should recall Royal Naval currently patrolling the borders of Mediterranean nations - who have more border control vessels than we do - to keep the English Channel safe and secure. He contrasted it to the enhanced security given to London, with 600 more armed officers being deployed on the streets of the capital. Mr Elphicke pointed out Britains borders were constantly being targeted by people smugglers and potential terrorists. Five Iranians were trafficked to Winchelsea in Sussex last week. In May, traffickers were caught transporting Albanians to Dymchurch in Kent. The National Crime Agency pointed to a wave of crime carried out by small crafts. France introduced armed sea marshals on French vessels last week. Brittany Ferries carried out a seaborne security exercise involving military personnel on a ferry from the Portsmouth in the UK to Caen in France. Brittany Ferries carried out a seaborne security exercise involving military personnel on a ferry from the Portsmouth in the UK to Caen in France (file photo) Three hours into the six-hour crossing, at about 5.30pm, three sea marshals landed on the ship by helicopter. All of the marshals were part of the French military. They patrolled the bridge and passenger areas when they landed. Up to 800 passengers onboard were warned about the exercise in advance via announcements in English and French. They were not allowed on the outside decks at the time of the helicopters arrival. The sea marshals remained on board until the ferry docked in Caen several hours later. The exercise followed numerous terror attacks in Belgium, Germany and France where President Francois Hollande faces growing demands to improve security. President Hollande said that his government would set up a National Guard to improve security. He said in an official statement that initial parliamentary talks on the formation of the force would take place in September, so that this force can be created as fast as possible to protect the French. The body is almost entirely funded by Max Mosley, who has been a key figure in calls for tougher Press regulation A decision seen by many as a major threat to the future of Britains free Press will be made at a public meeting on August 23 when many people will be away on holiday. Organisers of the Press Recognition Panel were accused of cynically preparing to bury bad news after they slipped out the announcement with just two weeks notice. Campaigners fear that the meeting will see approval for the would-be Press watchdog Impress rubber stamped. The body is almost entirely funded by Max Mosley, who has been a key figure in calls for tougher Press regulation after he sued the now-closed paper News Of The World after it printed photos of him taking part in an orgy with prostitutes. Critics question whether the body can be independent given its reliance on 3.8million in donations from Mr Mosleys family. Impress applied in January to be officially recognised by the PRP, which was set up under the Cameron governments controversial Royal Charter. The Charter was agreed by the three main political parties after the Leveson Inquiry into the practices of the Press recommended voluntary, independent self-regulation. If Impress is recognised, it could trigger implementation of a draconian law under which newspapers may have to pay the legal costs of people who sue them even if the newspaper wins its case. The PRP has announced it will decide whether to grant the body official recognition at a public meeting in central London. It also recently slipped out new guidance stating that if a regulator is funded by a third-party, [it] does not... mean a regulator is automatically not independent. Last night Mike Harris, from free speech campaign group 89up, said: This smacks of the PRP preparing to bury bad news. No national or regional newspaper has signed up to Impress. The majority including the Daily Mail are overseen by the Independent Press Standards Organisation, which has said it will not seek official recognition under the Charter. Bob Satchwell, executive director of the Society of Editors, said: It does seem strange that the PRP should choose to make its decision when most people with an interest are likely to be on holiday. He added: The majority of major publishers have long-term contracts with Ipso. The industry has voted with its feet. Grammar schools have a higher proportion of pupils from ethnic minorities than the average secondary school, official figures reveal. There are nearly double the percentage of non-white children at schools that still have the 11-plus compared to those at secondary moderns. Children from ethnic minorities make up roughly 28 per cent of those at grammars, compared to around 16 per cent of children at secondary moderns. The figures come as Theresa May faces a backlash from some of her MPs over a proposal for a wave of new grammar schools Overall, non-whites make up some 22 per cent of all secondary schools, statistics for January 2015 show. The figures come as Theresa May faces a backlash from some of her MPs over a proposal for a wave of new grammar schools. The Prime Minister is examining whether next-generation grammars could form a central part of her social mobility agenda. A grammar school statistics briefing paper, published by the House of Commons library, notes: Grammar schools had a considerably higher proportion of non-white pupils than secondary moderns and above the national average. There are now 114 schools in England classified as secondary moderns. They are found in areas with selective systems and take children who do not get into a local grammar. The disproportionately high proportion of black and Asian children in grammar schools has been attributed to the high aspirations of many ethnic minority families. They have a strong belief in the value of education, viewing it as a route to social mobility, and invest more heavily in home tutoring than white British parents, experts have claimed. Five years ago three-quarters of children at state selective schools were from a white British background, but by last year the proportion had fallen to just over two-thirds. An announcement heralding a wave of new grammars could come as early as the Tory party conference in October and would bring about the first completely selective schools for 20 years. Mark Pritchard said thegrammars were not in the Tory election manifesto and the Prime Minister has no mandate to bring it forward But a Tory backbencher warned yesterday that Mrs May would not have the support of enough Conservative MPs for Parliament to give the green light to new grammars. Mark Pritchard said the idea was not in the Tory election manifesto and the Prime Minister has no mandate to bring it forward. The MP for The Wrekin, in Shropshire, told Radio 4s World At One: I dont think theres any political legitimacy for the policy and I doubt there would be enough support within the parliamentary party in the Commons. It would be a significant shift in Conservative education policy. Fellow Tory MP Neil Carmichael, who is chairman of the Commons education committee, told Radio 4 that he would currently oppose the move. He said: The principle of thinking that having a handful of additional grammar schools is going to solve our social mobility issues is one which I would wish to really challenge. Fundamentally I dont think a return to grammar schools is the way forward. Mr Carmichael, who has two grammars in his Stroud constituency, added: I think the creaming off of the best is actually detrimental to the interests of the most. But planning minister Gavin Barwell, whose son is at a grammar, said he supports lifting the ban on new grammar schools. He said the Prime Minister wanted bright youngsters from the more deprived parts of the country to get the same opportunities as their more affluent peers. The Croydon Central MP said allowing some to open in areas where parents wanted them might make some sense. Advertisement Witnesses have described the gruesome scenes at a Kansas theme park where a boy, 10, was decapitated when he was thrown out of a waterslide's raft and into the safety netting above. Caleb Thomas Schwab, the son of a Kansas state legislator, was killed while riding the 168-foot-tall Verruckt ride at Schlitterbahn Waterpark - the world's tallest - on Sunday, August 7th. Esteban Castaneda, who was at the Kansas City waterpark, told ABC 7 he heard loud booms coming from the ride before noticing a body wash down after a raft. Scroll down for video Witnesses have described gruesome scenes at a Kansas theme park where a boy, 10, was decapitated when he flew off a waterslide and smashed into the safety net Witnesses say Caleb flew off the ride at around 50ft from the ground and hit the netting Kansas Police Department issued the above statement in response to the death of Caleb Schwab on the Verruckt Water slide The height requirement to ride Verruckt is at least 54 inches tall and riders must be at least 14 years old, according to the park's website. Riders have to climb the ride's 264 steps to the top before taking the 168-foot plunge at 65 mph When he ran forward to help, he saw a lifeguard desperately trying to hold back a gathering crowd. As he looked down, he says he saw the young boy who appeared to have been decapitated. Two women, still strapped into the raft, were injured with another witnesses describing one as having blood pouring down her face. One of those women's jaw was broken and the other had a broken face bone, according to reports. They have not been named but one woman described it as the 'worst day of her life.' In a worrying development, the waterslide has reportedly never been inspected by the state since opening two years ago. There are no federal inspection laws for waterparks in the U.S., and inspections are handled on a state-by-state basis. State inspectors reportedly last checked the waterpark in 2012, well before the Verruckt opened in 2014. This file photo shows Schlitterbahn's 168-foot-tall Verruckt speed slide/water coaster in Kansas City, Kansas Caleb was understood to be sat at the front of the raft and was ejected as it hit the second drop (pictured) some 50ft from the ground. The two female passengers behind Caleb suffered serious facial injuries as he left the raft and hit the netting above Police spokesman Officer Cameron Morgan said the boy's cause of death has not been confirmed. But officers are conducting a death investigation at the park WHY WASN'T WORLD'S TALLEST SLIDE INSPECTED? There are no federal inspection laws for waterparks in the U.S., and inspections are handled on a state-by-state basis. State inspectors reportedly last checked the waterpark in 2012, well before the Verruckt opened. 'All of the regulations are really done at the state and local level with respect to amusement parks and waterparks. 'There are no federal standards and so it really is up to the park operators, the manufacturers of the rides and the states to make sure this is a safe environment," said Deborah Hersman, president and CEO of the National Safety Council.' Advertisement Kansas City Police confirmed the boy had died from a 'fatal neck injury at the end of the ride, in the pool'. Kobey Lyons told the Dailymail.com that he'd been told by woman at the park that day that the velcro straps on the ride were not working properly on the day of the tragedy. He said that blood was spotted 'all over the slide' which had tarps thrown over it to cover it. The boy's body was covered up with a sheet. The front seat of the raft - where Schwab most likely sat - was empty. Another witness Kelsey Friedrichsen said she's seen Caleb fly out of the ride after the first drop and hit the netting enclosing the ride before plummeting 50ft. There were also suggestions that the harness on the raft was not working correctly. She then saw Caleb's body on the ground and his family standing nearby crying. Castaneda's wife Leslie, told The Kansas City Star that she had seen the blood-streaked ride shortly after the horrific incident and Caleb's distraught family gathered nearby. 'I saw his (Caleb's) brother. He was screaming,' she said. ''I'm really having a tough time with it. I really am.' She added that the brother - who had seen Caleb die - told a theme-park worker, 'I just saw my little brother die because of one of your attractions.' '(The boy) looked skinny,' she added. 'He shouldn't have been on that ride.' Another source at the scene said that the raft did not have enough people inside - it is allegedly supposed to have 400lbs weighing it down. Kansas City Police confirmed Caleb (pictured) had died from a 'fatal neck injury at the end of the ride' The youngster was just ten years old when he was killed in the horrific accident. The ride used to have a minimum age restriction of 14 Paul Oberhauser told CBS News that his safety belt came off while riding with a friend and his 9-year-old son about two weeks ago. "As soon as I hit the bottom of the first curve the shoulder strap just kind of busted loose," Oberhauser said. He said he had to grip the handles using his legs and told park staff what happened once he got down. "They kinda said, 'Oh no, really,' or something, 'Yes, that's not good.' And so it sounded like you know they were gonna do something about it," Oberhauser said. The Verruckt- German for insane - is the highest waterslide in the world. It remained closed today amid the investigation. SCHLITTERBAHN WATERPARK SUED THREE TIMES SINCE OPENING IN 2014 T he Schlitterbahn waterpark, in Kansas city - where Caleb Schwab tragically died on the Verruckt ride Sunday, has been sued three times for negligence since 2014. In March 2014, Linda Stomboly sued the water park alleging she was seriously injured in August 2012 on the King Kaw white water rapids attraction, KCUR reports. She said her flotation tube collided with another tube during the descent sending her flying. While trying to get back in her tube, her leg became stuck 'resulting in multiple spiral fractures of her tibia and fibula,' according to the suit, which was settled for $20,000. Robert Boepple filed his lawsuit just two months later claiming he suffered injuries to his head, neck, back, arm and spine when his toe got caught on a 'protruding item' on the Boogie Bahn surfing ride. His case was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum. The third suit was brought by Frances Logan which alleged she had been severely injured on the park's King Kong River ride when the inner tube she was riding tipped over and her left foot hit a concrete wall. She claimed there were no lifeguards on duty at the time to help and she had to be saved from the water by waterpark customers. Her case was also settled, according to her lawyer. Advertisement One report says that it used to have an age restriction of 14 when the ride opened at Schlitterbahn in 2014. It also had a minimum height of 54 inches and a combined weight of all riders in the raft to be between 400 and 550 pounds. But officials scrapped the age restriction, deeming the height requirement sufficient. An image, obtained by Heavy, shows netting being removed from a portion of the ride following the tragic incident on Sunday. Investigators are treating the death as a 'civil matter' rather than a criminal incident, a police spokesman said Monday, as the park and Kansas authorities pressed to sort out what caused the tragedy. The Wyandotte County coroner's office began a post-mortem examination on Monday. Margaret Studyvin, an administrative assistant with the department, said it wasn't clear when or if autopsy results would be made public. Meanwhile, an online fund has raised more than $25,000 to cover funeral expenses for the family Kansas City police spokesman Officer Cameron Morgan said no police report was available of the incident and deferred additional questions to the park. Caleb's heartbroken family were seen crying at the waterpark on Sunday (pictured left is a file image of the boy's father Rep Scott Schwab at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kansas in 2015) Pictured right is the Verruckt safety board at the park In an email Monday, Winter Prosapio, spokeswoman for Schlitterbahn, said the park would not be 'participating in any further media interviews at this time.' A day earlier, she told reporters that Caleb had been at the park with family members, adding 'We honestly don't know what's happened.' Riders go down the slide in multi-person rafts. Because of heavy demand, rides are scheduled by reservation at the time the park opens each day. The park's website touts the ride as the 'ultimate in water slide thrills,' subjecting 'adventure seekers' with a 'jaw dropping' 17-story drop, 'only to be blasted back up a second massive hill and then sent down yet another gut wrenching 50-foot drop.' Verruckt was certified as the world's tallest waterslide by Guinness World Records. The tragedy happened on day the park offered lawmakers and other elected officials a buffet lunch, hot dogs and hamburgers. State Rep. Scott Schwab, an Olathe Republican, and his wife, Michele, released a statement asking for privacy as the family grieves. 'Since the day he was born, he brought abundant joy to our family and all those he came in contact with,' the statement said. A funeral for Caleb is scheduled for Friday afternoon at Olathe's Life Mission Church, Kansas. Schlitterbahn has been sued three times since 2014 although never for the waterslide (file picture). Paul Oberhauser who visited the park two weeks ago told CBS News that his velcro safety belt came off while riding with a friend and his 9-year-old son about two weeks ago An image shows netting being removed from a portion of the ride following the tragic incident on Sunday Authorities initially said the victim was 12 years old, but Clint Sprague, a pastor acting as the family's spokesman, said Caleb was 10 and is one of the couple's four sons. House Speaker Ray Merrick told the Kansas City Star that Schwab's family was 'the center of his world.' Verruckt's 2014 opening was repeatedly delayed, though the operators didn't explain why. Two media sneak preview days in 2014 were canceled because of problems with a conveyor system that hauls 100-pound rafts to the top of the slide. In a news article linked to the news release announcing a 2014 delay, Schlitterbahn co-owner Jeff Henry told USA Today that he and senior designer John Schooley had based their calculations when designing the slide on roller coasters, but that didn't translate well to a waterslide like Verruckt. In early tests, rafts carrying sandbags flew off the slide, prompting engineers to tear down half of the ride and reconfigure some angles at a cost of $1 million, Henry said. A promotional video for a show about building the slide includes footage of two men riding a raft down a half-size test model and going slightly airborne as it crests the top of the first big hill. Prosapio said Sunday that the park's rides are inspected daily and by an 'outside party' before the start of each season. Without specifically mentioning water slides, Kansas statutes describe an 'amusement ride' as 'any mechanical or electrical device that carries or conveys passengers along, around or over a fixed or restricted route or course or within a defined area for the purpose of giving its passengers amusement, pleasure, thrills or excitement.' Such rides, according to the statute, commonly are known as Ferris wheels, carousels, parachute towers, bungee jumps and roller coasters. State law leaves it to the Kansas Department of Labor to adopt rules and regulations relating to certification and inspection of rides, adding that an amusement ride at a permanent location 'shall be self-inspected by a qualified inspector at least every 12 months.' Caleb's death is not the first at a Schlitterbahn facility. In 2013, lifeguard Nico Benavides, 20, was killed at the company's park on South Padre Island, Texas, when a mechanical door slammed on the guard's head. The park was hit with fines of $96,000 although they settled for $66,000. Meanwhile, the Kansas Schlitterbahn has been sued three times for negligence since 2014, although none were related to the Verruckt water slide,KCUR reports. In a statement Monday afternoon, Schlitterbahn said it was 'deeply and intensely saddened for the Schwab family and all who were impacted by the tragic accident.' The park was tentatively scheduled to reopen Wednesday, but 'Verruckt is closed,' according to the statement. Messages left Monday with Kansas' Labor Department were not immediately returned. Kansas state Sen. Greg Smith, an Overland Park Republican, said that although state law doesn't specifically address waterslides, it's clear they 'would fall into that category.' He called any potential legislative action spurred by Sunday's tragedy premature, saying the investigation of Caleb Schwab's death should be given time to unfold. 'Until we have those facts it's too early to specify what we can do legislatively,' Smith said. However, there is no evidence Clinton's private email server was hacked Trump claimed 'people are saying' Amiri was killed due to Clinton's emails Republican Donald Trump is suggesting that rival Hillary Clinton's emails may be responsible for the death of an Iranian nuclear scientist who was executed for spying for the United States. Hours after an unusually disciplined speech on his economic plan for the country, Trump, using the 'people are saying' sentence structure he often favors to make accusations, tweeted Monday night: 'Many people are saying that the Iranians killed the scientist who helped the U.S. because of Hillary Clinton's hacked emails.' He didn't say which people he meant. Clinton's campaign says he's making up those 'people.' Republican Donald Trump suggested that rival Hillary Clinton's emails may be responsible for the death of an Iranian nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri last week The FBI has said there is no evidence that Clinton's emails were hacked due to her use of a private account and server during her tenure as secretary of state. Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill tweeted: '"Many people are saying" = "I made this up". Merrill added that after Trump's morning speaking to the Detroit Economic Club and sticking closely to his script, 'the muzzle was bound to come off.' Trump's speech was designed in part to reassure Republicans unnerved by a disastrous week of self-inflicted feuds with an assortment of people, from grieving Muslim American parents to the leaders of Trump's own party. Clinton's campaign cast his tweet Monday night as evidence that, in the words of spokesman Josh Schwerin, 'There's just no resetting Donald Trump.' Trump isn't the first to suggest there could be a link between Clinton's emails on her private server and the execution of Shahram Amiri. Clinton said Trump made up the claim and there has been no evidence the emails on her private server were hacked Arkansas Republican senator Tom Cotton said on CBS's 'Face the Nation' Sunday that 'on Hillary Clinton's private server, there were conversations among her senior advisers about this gentleman'. 'That goes to show just how reckless and careless her decision was to put that kind of highly classified information on a private server,' he said. Amiri, an Iranian scientist, defected to the U.S. at the height of Western efforts to thwart Iran's nuclear program. When he returned in 2010, he was given a hero's welcome and greeted with flowers by government leaders. Then he mysteriously disappeared. Amiri's case indirectly found its way into the spotlight last year with the release of State Department emails sent and received by Clinton. One 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. Shahram Amiri (pictured) was executed on Wednesday in Iran for being a 'spy for the United States' '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 Iranian-interests section at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington 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. Hillary Clinton is being sued by the parents of two Americans who were killed in the 2012 Benghazi attack, for allegedly revealing their locations to the enemy in emails sent from an unsecured - and easily hacked - server. The lawsuit alleges the former Secretary of State was directly responsible for the deaths of Sean Smith, a State Department communications specialist, and CIA contractor Tyrone Woods, two of four men who died on the night of September 11, 2012. Smith's mother Patricia Smith and Woods' father Charles Woods are suing Clinton for wrongful death and negligence, but also for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Scroll down for video Hillary Clinton is being sued by the parents of Sean Smith (left) and Tyrone Woods (right), who were both killed in the 2012 Benghazi attack The suit claims that Clinton's 'extremely careless' handling of classified government data on a private email server also led to Smith and Woods' deaths in the terrifying attacks, which were later recreated in the movie 13 Hours. The lawsuit references the Democratic presidential nominee's infamous email scandal multiple times, alleging that her 'reckless' use of a private server to handle classified information meant it was compromised. 'It is highly probable, given Defendant Clinton's history of reckless handling of classified information, that Defendant Clinton, as Secretary of State, sent and received information about Ambassador Christopher Stevens and thus the U.S. Department of State activities and covert operations that the deceased were a part of in Benghazi, Libya. 'This information was compromised from the second that it left Defendant Clinton's private email server and easily found its way to foreign powers including, but not limited to Russia, Iran, China and North Korea,' the lawsuit states. 'Having used a secret private email server that we now know was used to communicate with Ambassador Christopher Stevens with confidential and classified government information, and which we also now know was likely hacked by hostile adversaries such as Iran, Russia, China and North Korea aligning with terrorist groups, it is clear that Hillary Clinton allegedly negligently and recklessly gave up the classified location of the plaintiffs' sons, resulting in a deadly terrorist attack that took their lives,' Klayman said in a statement, the Boston Herald reports. Sean Smith's mother Patricia addresses the Republican National Convention on July 18 Dorothy Narvaez-Woods (right), widow of former Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods, listens to Hillary Clinton testify before the House Select Committee on Benghazi October 22 last year The suit also accuses Clinton of making defamatory statements to the media by saying the plaintiffs were lying when they said that she told them the attack was motivated by an anti-Muslim YouTube video, Mediate reports. In the complaint, Larry Klayman, an attorney for the families, wrote: 'During her campaign for President, Defendant Clinton has negligently, recklessly, and/or maliciously defamed Plaintiffs by either directly calling them liars, or by strongly implying that they are liars, in order to protect and enhance her public image and intimidate and emotionally harm and silence them not to speak up about the Benghazi attack on at least four separate occasions.' An emotional Patricia Smith addressed the crowd at the Republican National Convention last month, where she blamed Clinton for her only child's death. 'That night, we lost sons, brothers, fathers and husbands. We lost four brave Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice for the county they chose to serve and the American people lost the truth. 'For all of this loss, for all of this grief, for all of the cynicism the tragedy in Benghazi has wrought upon America, I blame Hillary Clinton.' She added: 'I blame Hillary Clinton personally for the death of my son.' Daily Mail Online has contacted a representative for Clinton for comment. A Jetstar Boeing Dreamliner forced to make an emergency landing on Sunday in Guam because of engine problems had the engine in question replaced just three months prior. Flight JQ12 was heading from Narita, Japan, to the Gold Coast when it was diverted to the Pacific island after the pilot was alerted to possible oil pressure issues in one of the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner's General Electric GEnx engines. The one-year-old plane had its original engine replaced three months ago, meaning it has gone through two engines within 12 months, according to The Australian. A Jetstar Boeing 787 Dreamliner forced to divert to Guam mid-flight on Sunday because of engine problems had the engine in question replaced just three months prior (stock image) The one-year-old plane has gone through two General Electric GEnx- 1B engines (pictured) within 12 months 'This is a relatively new engine so it's unusual to have an issue like this so soon,' a Jetstar spokesman said. 'We have asked engine manufacturer GE for an explanation. GE has a team which is working with our engineers to understand what occurred.' There have been nine separate in-flight issues with the GEnx engine on the Boeing 787 during the past year, including a Qatar Airways 787 flight travelling from Norway to Qatar that was forced to shut off its engine and divert the plane. A General Electric spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia that the GEnx-1B engine has 'more than three million hours of operation on more than 250 air planes.' Flight JQ12 was heading from Narita, Japan, to the Gold Coast when it was diverted after the pilot was alerted to possible oil pressure issues in one of the GEnx engines (stock image) 'GE is actively supporting Jetstar to ensure that the Boeing 787 returns to airline service as soon as possible. The engine event is under investigation,' she said. 'GE continually monitors and analyzes the performance of the GEnx fleet in service. Based on the engine fleets service history, we are not aware of operational issues that would hazard the continued safe flight of aircraft powered by these engines.' Qantas will receive eight Boeing 787s with GEnx engines in October this year and integrate them into their international fleet, replacing five older Boering 747s. A General Electric spokeswoman said the incident is under investigation but argued that the engine is safe (pictured is a maintenance technician works on a jet engine of a Boeing C-17) Flight JQ12's more than 300 passengers spent 24 hours in Guam before continuing to the Gold Coast on Monday morning on another Jetstar 787 Dreamliner Flight JQ12's more than 300 passengers spent 24 hours in Guam before continuing to the Gold Coast on Monday morning on another Jetstar 787 Dreamliner. Some frustrated passengers 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. Severe weather warnings issued across parts of Australia as residents are warned to brace themselves against snow, damaging winds and rain on Tuesday night. Perth residents felt the chill on Monday with the coldest August day in six years, while Sydneysiders sweltered on Tuesday on the warmest day of the month so far with temperatures of 22 degrees. The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a severe weather warning for damaging winds reaching up to 120 km/h in parts of NSW. Simon Allen, from the bureau, says a severe cold front sweeping through the south-east of Australia will cause the strong winds. 'Once the front moves through residents in South Australia, Victoria and southern NSW should feel temperatures drop,' he said Severe weather warnings issued across parts of Australia this week as residents are warned to brace themselves against snow, damaging winds and rain Perth residents felt the chill on Monday with the coldest August day in six years, as snow fell heavily in the Stirling Range south-east of the city FORECAST: WHAT THE WEATHER LOOKS LIKE AROUND AUSTRALIA SYDNEY Tuesday: Min 14, Max 22. Showers Wednesday: Min 13, Max 23. Cloudy Thursday:Min 10, Max 18. Partly Cloudy Friday: Min 8, Max 18. Mostly Sunny Saturday: Min 9, Max 19. Partly Cloudy BRISBANE: Tuesday: Min 13, Max 22. Sunny Wednesday:Min 12, Max 25. Sunny Thursday: Min 14, Max 25. Showers Friday: Min 11, Max 23. Mostly Sunny Saturday: Min 11, Max 23. Late Shower ADELAIDE Tuesday: Min 9, Max 17. Windy Wednesday: Min 8, Max 16. Mostly sunny Thursday: Min 9, Max 14. Showers Friday: Min 9, Max 17. Partly Cloudy Saturday: Min 8, Max 16. Partly cloudy DARWIN Tuesday: Min 23, Max 32. Mostly sunny Wednesday:Min 20, Max 32. Sunny Thursday: Min 20, Max 32. Sunny Friday: Min 20, Max 32. Sunny Saturday: Min 20, Max 32. Sunny MELBOURNE Tuesday:Min 8, Max 17. Showers, Windy Wednesday: Min 9, Max 13. Showers Thursday: Min 7, Max 14. Shower Friday: Min 8, Max 15. Possible shower Saturday: Min 8, Max 15. Showers CANBERRA Tuesday: Min 7, Max 16. Partly Cloudy Wednesday: Min 7, Max 14. Showers Thursday: Min 4, Max 12. Partly Cloudy Friday: Min -1, Max 13. Partly Cloudy Saturday: Min 3, Max 14. Cloudy HOBART Tuesday:Min 8, Max 15. Showers Wednesday: Min 8, Max 13. Showers Thursday: Min 4, Max 13. Showers Friday: Min 7, Max 15. Possible Showers Saturday:Min 7, Max 15. Possible Shower PERTH Tuesday: Min 7, Max 17. Showers Wednesday: Min 7, Max 18. Showers Thursday: Min 10, Max 19. Showers Friday: Min 6, Max 18. Partly cloudy Saturday: Min 7, Max 18. Partly cloudy Advertisement Emergency services are advising locals in parts of the South West Slopes, Snowy Mountains and the ACT to move vehicles under cover or away from trees and secure loose items around the house. Damaging winds are also expected to blow through Victoria, as the bureau also issued a severe weather warning for people in the Central, South West, North Central and parts of the East Gippsland, North East, West and South Gippsland and Wimmera Forecast Districts. Strong northerly winds of around 90 to 100km/h are forecast on Tuesday ahead of a cold front which will enter western Victoria during the afternoon and cross the State overnight. Ski resorts in Canberra will benefit from the cold front as another 30-40cm of snow is expected to fall over the coming days, as well as snow falling to 800m in NSW, VIC and Tasmania, the Courier Mail reports. Severe weather warnings have been issued in various locations across Australia, as some residents enjoy the flurry of snow in the Stirling Ranges in the WA's southern region Around 5000 homes in Western Australia were left without power as trees were uprooted from strong winds reaching up to 118km/h The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a severe weather warning for damaging winds reaching up to 120 km/h in parts of NSW The risk of damaging winds is expected to extend to Alpine areas of West and South Gippsland, East Gippsland and the Northeast district during Tuesday evening with peak gusts reaching 110km/h. Over to the west of the country, as a weather system bears down, Western Australia is experiencing some seriously snowy scenes the Stirling Ranges in the states southern region. Zheng Yongnian, director of the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore.[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn] Attorneys should not use cases to violate country's laws, or will be penalized in any country, a leading China studies expert said on Friday. "Lawyers have lost their status by stirring up social activism," Zheng Yongnian, director of the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore, told China Daily, adding that when these activities violate the country's laws, the government will act against them, regardless of their status, he said. Zheng's comments come after Zhou Shifeng, a lawyer formerly managing the Fengrui Law Firm, was convicted of subverting state power and sentenced to seven years in prison on Thursday. According to a statement from Tianjin No 2 Intermediate People's Court, Zhou, 52, had long been influenced by anti-China forces and was plotting to overturn the country's political system, especially after 2011, when he met Hu Shigen, the leader of an illegal organization. Zhou used his law firm as a platform to manipulate public opinion by encouraging like-minded attorneys and residents to make noise over sensitive issues, the verdict said. "Lawyers could take part in political activities, as they do in the US or elsewhere, but they should not change the cases to political affairs, especially those affairs that violate laws," Zheng said. Zheng said these lawyers were not carrying out activities for the country and the society, but were doing them out of private interests. Zhou said activities such as disrupting judicial orders caught the interests of some overseas forces. "They've been actively wooing me, and want to use us to challenge court hearings and China's entire judicial system, making trouble for the Chinese government," he confessed, adding that these outside forces want to overturn the leadership of the Communist Party of China. When foreign influences were behind the activities attacking a country's political and judicial system, causing chaos and social instability, any country would not sit idly, Zheng said. The US and Singapore will not do so either. Foreign media and governments have double standards on Zhou's case, Zheng said. They do not allow these kinds of activities to happen in their countries, but they support such ones to overturn the ruling of Communist Party of China. Zheng warned those who want to change China's political system of color revolutions. "What the consequence of color revolutions will be? Look at what happened in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia." Zheng said that what happened in those regions did not really represent people's interests, but the opposite. Chinese government held a public trial on Zhou's case, which shows the country's progress in the rule of law governance, Zheng said. Zheng also suggested that China should mull and improve regulations for judicial system. "China's some regulations are too abstract, macroscopic and nonspecific," Zheng said, adding that "China should define what is rule of law and establish its own discourse. In Singapore and Western countries, associations of lawyers have detailed regulations to ban lawyers to take illegal ways to achieve their purposes. Learning from previous lessons, he suggested that China needs to know how to improve its governance under the guidance of rule of law, how to make people understand rule of law, and most importantly, how to educate lawyers and judges of rule of law. "If lawyers and judges, who should know law best, do not understand the spirit of law and abide by law, the whole society will not obey laws and lead to a chaotic state," Zheng said. Lawyers have their advantages in interpreting laws and should play a positive role in achieving the rule of law, he said. "Zhou and other lawyers know law but still break it," Zheng said, adding that they can only attract people knowing little of law and discontent with the government and society, but can't confuse those who have basic law knowledge. Western countries take several centuries to establish rule of law and China has started to do it for decades. "Rome is not built in one day, and so is rule of law, Zheng said. The 49 victims of the Orlando nightclub massacre died after being hit by more than 200 gunshot wounds between them, autopsy reports revealed. Almost two months after a gunman opened fire in Pulse nightclub on June 12, the autopsy reports for all of the victims who died in the attack have been released. They reveal that the victims who died sustained more than 200 bullet wounds, a report by the Orange County coroners office said, the Orlando Sentinel reports. However, it is not clear if or how many of these bullets hit more than one person. Scroll down for video The 49 victims of the Orlando nightclub massacre, including Brenda McCool (left), died after being hit by more than 200 gunshot wounds between them. Gunman Omar Mateen (right) was brought down in a hail of bullets by police three hours after the siege began The number does not account for the shots fired at the 53 people who survived the horrific massacre. Collectively, the dead and survivors had a collective 260 bullets fired at them. The reports, released by the Orange County Medical Examiners Office on Monday, show that 20 of the victims were shot in the head, ClickOrlando.com reports. They support witness accounts of the shooting in the crowded club, including that some were shot multiple times before lone gunman Omar Mateen was brought down in a hail of bullets by police. Only two victims had traces of soot, gunpowder or stippling, meaning most of the victims were likely more than 3 feet away when they were shot in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. The autopsies show that about half of the victims had five wounds or more, and one victim had 13 wounds. The large number of head injuries and multiple wounds on victims suggests Mateen was targeting his victims rather than shooting randomly, said Josh Wright, a former Florida Department of Law Enforcement firearms analyst who now has a forensics consulting firm in Tallahassee. 'I wouldn't expect to have those many hits on those many people if you weren't actually trying to take aim and make sure you hit your target rather than running around, spraying bullets,' said Wright, who has no connection to the case. Evidence of the way the shooter fired at people could be found in the autopsy report of an 18-year-old girl who was shot once near her jaw and twice through her upper body. When her body was found, one hoop earring dangled from her right ear and the other was tangled in her hair. The autopsy reports of all 49 victims have been released almost two months after a gunman opened fire in Pulse nightclub on June 12. Above, a memorial for the victims Edwin Rodriguez writes the names of the victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting at the front of the nightclub building on June 21 The medical examiner found that a 30-year-old man died from a complex gunshot wound after a bullet entered his left arm, exited his chest and re-entered his neck. One victim was shot in the head, suffering three high-velocity gunshot wounds, the medical examiner wrote. Another man died while his wounds were being treated in the parking lot outside the club after being shot in the head. And in the autopsy report for cancer survivor Brenda McCool, the medical examiner wrote the 49-year-old had tattoos which said mommy and my son is my hero. The autopsy of 29-year-old Mateen, an American of Afghan descent, showed that he was hit in his head, neck, chest, abdomen, right calf and right foot. A toxicology report showed that there were no illicit drugs or alcohol in his system. Mateen was killed by police who stormed the club after a three-hour siege. The autopsy reports will likely be among evidence considered in a U.S. Justice Department review of the Orlando Police Department's response to the shootings. Above, an aerial shot shows the scene shortly after the massacre The autopsy reports will likely be among evidence considered in a U.S. Justice Department review of the Orlando Police Department's response to the shootings. Mateen opened fire at around 2am on June 12 in the club before taking hostages in a bathroom. During the shooting, Mateen used an assault rifle and pistol that had been legally purchased. Police negotiated with him for about three hours before breaking a hole in a wall, which allowed hostages to escape. Mateen was shot dead by police when he emerged from the hole, police have said. Advertisement Michael Phelps cruised through to the finals of the men's 200m butterfly on Monday - cheered on by baby Boomer, his fiance and even Hollywood star Matthew McConaughey. The 23-time Olympic medal winner shot Chad le Clos - the South African swimmer who snatched gold from him at the same event in London 2012 - a death stare ahead of the event as the swimmers prepared for the race. But it was his Hungarian rival, Tamas Kenderesi, that he needed to worry about after Kenderesi took the fastest time of the night, completing the race in 1:54.73. The 23-time Olympic medal winner had shot South Africa's Chad le Clos a death stare ahead of the event as the swimmers prepared for the race Phelps, wearing his Team USA tracksuit before he entered the pool, looked furious as he waited for the race Furious: Phelps certainly had his game face on ahead of the race Old rivals: Phelps shot Chad le Clos - the South African swimmer who snatched gold from him at the same event in London 2012 - a death stare ahead of the event as the swimmers prepared for the race And then the 23-time Olympic medal winner looked away Phelps, who picked up his 19th gold medal on Sunday, came in second in 1.54.12 while le Clos was third at 1.55.19. The 31-year-old US swimmer came nowhere close to beating his own world record for the men's 200m butterfly event of 1:51.51. He also still holds the Olympic record for the event. The finals of the men's 200m butterfly at the Rio Olympic Games 2016 will be held tomorrow evening. Concentrating: Phelps then appears to spit after his old rival Chad le Clos takes a seat Phelp's three-month-old son Boomer, held by his fiance Natalie Johnson, also looked unimpressed before the race Three-month-old Boomer looked adorable dressed in red, white and blue and big, star spangled headphones Baby Boomer wasn't the only one backing his dad in the race, Hollywood actor Matthew McConaughey was also spotted in the crowd watching the race The 11.19pm semifinal was largely viewed as a formality but the Phelps clan are clearly relishing every chance to see him race before he retires after Rio 2016, as fiance Nicole Johnson, was joined by their son Boomer, and Phelps' mom Deborah. The same went for Dallas Buyers Club star McConaughey, 46, who kept a low profile by joining paying spectators to cheer on his swimming idol. 'I'm cool man,' he told Daily Mail Online. 'Having a great time.' Phelps' family and fans had already seen him secure gold on Sunday night by swimming the second leg for the triumphant 4x100m freestyle relay team for Team USA. Michael Phelps has cruised through to the finals of the men's 200m butterfly event on Monday evening in Rio (pictured) USA's Michael Phelps competes in the 200m butterfly semifinals during the swimming competitions at the 2016 Summer Olympics Phelps, who picked up his 19th gold medal on Sunday in the men's freestyle relay, came in second at the men's 200m butterfly Leonardo de Deus of Brazil (top) and Michael Phelps of USA (bottom) compete during a men's 200m Butterfly semifinal race Competitors dive in at the start of the men's 200m butterfly semifinals race on Monday at the Rio Olympic Games The semifinals of the men's 200m butterfly event was won by Hungary's Tamas Kenderesi who overtook Phelps to complete the race in 1:54.73 Butterfly is Michael Phelp's weakest Olympic event after he lost out to South African rival le Chad at the London 2012 Games who took the gold (Phelps is pictured swimming in the men's 200m butterfly semifinals) Phelps will complete in the finals of the butterfly event tomorrow evening where he will be hoping to add another gold to his collection The 23-time Olympic medal winner competed in the semifinals of the men's 200m butterfly losing out to Hungary USA's Michael Phelps looks on after coming second in the Men's 200m Butterfly Semifinal at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium in Rio de Janeiro Winner Hungary's Tamas Kenderesi, right, is congratulated by second placed United States' Michael Phelps after the race The swimmer appeared at the Olympic pool with red marks all over his body - caused by 'cupping' therapy which has become popular among swimmers and other athletes in Rio And he showed no signs of letting up tonight as he came comfortably eased through as one the fastest eight qualifiers with a time of 1:54:12. If Phelps was a country he would already be 40th in the all-time Gold medal winners table - above the likes of Argentina, Mexico and Austria. He could win as many as five more by the end of the week. RUSSIA LIKENS CUPPING THERAPY TO DOPING On Monday, Russian state TV controversially attempted to compare the technique to prohibited meldonium doping. Cupping - an ancient Chinese remedy to help blood flow - has become very popular among US athletes including Phelps. 'Following the Hollywood trend, the method was adapted by athletes,' a news anchor for Russia 24 said Monday, Mashable reported. 'According to them, vacuum-based massage improves circulation and overall well being, suggesting that muscle repair happens faster after physical exertion. In other words, the net effect from such practices in many ways, is not unlike those of meldonium.' Several Russian athletes have been punished for testing positive for meldonium - which was listed as an illegal drug under International Olympic Committee (IOC) regulations in January. Advertisement The 31-year-old retired in 2012 but returned to swimming two years later to extend his golden legacy, becoming the first male American swimmer to qualify for five Olympic Games. And while little Boomer is unlikely to remember nights likes this, his father's swelling trophy cabinet - which also includes two silvers and two bronzes - will be a timeless reminder of his peerless legacy. The tot was swaddled in his trademark patriotic stars and stripes baby carrier bearing his dad's initials and had on his customized Team USA ear protectors. Johnson bounced him up and down tenderly before the action got underway, but the 31-year old began cheering and clapping enthusiastically as her famous fiancee was announced in lane three. As the action began she stood up, carefully cradling Boomer is his protective sling and was seen crossing her fingers and glimpsing up at the big screen to check who was ahead. With one last look at the screen she pumped her fists in celebration after seeing Phelps take one of the all important final qualifying spots. The family will surely be pool-side again tomorrow night giving fans another yet chance to coo over the cute little boy who is fast becoming a social media sensation. Johnson and Boomer joined Phelps in Rio despite the dangers of the Zika virus, with the star insisting he has taken all the necessary precautions to protect his family. The couple have been dating on and off since 2007 but announced their engagement in February last year. She announced her pregnancy last November. Johnson, who was crowned Miss California in 2010, has been adding to her son's emerging fame by uploading cute pictures to her Instagram, including one showing Boomer enjoying a Facetime chat with his dad. 'There's absolutely nothing in this world like watching your son talk to his daddy on FaceTime,' she wrote. The family of United States' Michael Phelps, mother Debbie, left, and his fiance Nicole Johnson holding their baby Boomer watch the swimming competitions Johnson holds her three-month-old son Boomer as she sits with her soon-to-be mother-in-law Deborah Phelps at the Rio Olympics Phelps' fiance Nicole Johnson, who is wearing patriotic red, white and blue, holds her son Boomer as she watches the swimming competitions Phelps recently celebrated his nine-year anniversary with fiance Johnson who has flown out with their son to watch him compete United States' Michael Phelps' adorable son Boomer drools a little while watching the swimming competitions at the 2016 Summer Olympics Nicole Johnson, fiance of United States' Michael Phelps, chats on the phone as she holds their baby Boomer during the swimming competitions Nicole Johnson, right, the fiancee of United States' Michael Phelps, and his mother Debbie smile as they appear to read a message on their phone Nicole Johnson the fiancee of United States' Michael Phelps, holding his baby Boomer, watches the swimming competitions The little boy also has his own Instagram page where he is seen clutching his favorite green frog stuffed toy and posing in a series of cute Team USA-inspired baby grows. One caption reads: 'I'm ready to see some more fast swimming!! Go get em daddy!!! Go get em USA!!!'. The swimmer appeared at the Olympic pool with red marks all over his body - caused by 'cupping' therapy which has become popular among swimmers and other athletes in Rio. 'Cupping' - an ancient Chinese remedy - is used to help blood flow in sore or problem areas for swimmers. Some techniques involve heated cups, which Phelps favors. He even included footage of himself having the treatment in his new promotional called Rule Yourself. Phelps, 31, retired in 2012, but returned to work in 2014, to ready himself for Rio. He is the first male American swimmer to qualify for five Olympic Games. Team USA are dominating the swimming events, picking up 14 Olympic medals including four gold, four silver and fix bronze. Trailing the Americans are Team Australia with two gold and one bronze medal, followed by Team Hungary who have two golds. Statement! Swimmer Lilly King once again called out her her doping Russian rival winning gold for team USA and taking another jab at Yulia Efimova King looks ecstatic after taking gold for Team USA especially after beating Efimova, who was caught in a doping scandal By a finger (wag): King wins the gold medal ahead of Russia's silver medalist Efimova in the 100m breaststroke finals Today, American Ryan Murphy took gold in the men's 100m backstroke, finishing in just 51.97s, followed by Xu Jiayu of China in second and David Plummer, also of Team USA, came in third. They had less luck in the men's 200m freestyle where USA's Conor Dwyer won bronze after he was beaten by Sun Yang of China, who won gold, and Chad le Clos of South Africa in second . Female swimmer Lilly King put her money where her mouth is on Monday night, romping to victory in the 100m breaststroke final after she called her closest Russian rival a drugs cheat - and took another shot at her minutes after securing gold Yulia Efimova, who was caught in a doping scandal, was booed when her name was announced in the women's 100m breaststroke final. King started strongly and maintained the lead with Efimova trailing right behind her. 'We can still compete clean and do well in the Olympic games and that's how it should be,' said King after finishing first. King said she hoped her win 'made a statement' about playing fair. Yesterday, Kathleen Baker of the U.S. was fastest in the women's 100 backstroke, China's Sun Yang led the way in the men's 200 freestyle and Camille Lacourt of France set the pace in the men's 100 back. Team USA's Cody Miller took bronze in the men's 100m breaststroke final, losing out to Britain's Adam Peaty who broke the world record with a time of 57.13. In second place was South Africa's Cameron van der Burgh with a time of 58.69. United States' Ryan Murphy (pictured) celebrates after winning the gold medal in the men's 100-meter backstroke final during the swimming competitions USA's Ryan Murphy competes in the Men's 100m Backstroke heat during the swimming event at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Russia's Evgeny Rylov, left to right, USA's Ryan Murphy and China's Xu Jaiyu compete in a heat of the 100m breaststroke during swimming competition at the 2016 Summer Olympics It's Darth Phelps! Web users share hilarious pictures of swimmer shooting a VERY unfriendly look at his rival Chad Le Clos Twitter users began using the hashtag #phelpsface to mock the swimmer's serious demeanor 'Oh my God that cupping is serious business,' one Twitter user joked as they posted a photo of Phelps as Darth Maul In a mock up of a news flash, this Twitter user joked Phelps was 'possessed by Satan' A social media user compared Phelps to a petulant child who didn't get his Pepsi A speech bubble jokes that Le Clos has never heard of Harambe, the 17-year-old silverback gorilla who was shot and killed at Cincinnati Zoo after a child fell into his enclosure If looks could kill... Phelps' furious glare appears to set the South African's hair on fire Senator Susan Collins, one of the most moderate Republicans in the Senate, said Monday she will not be voting for Donald Trump for president. 'This is not a decision I make lightly, for I am a lifelong Republican,' Collins wrote in an op-ed column in The Washington Post. 'But Donald Trump does not reflect historical Republican values nor the inclusive approach to governing that is critical to healing the divisions in our country.' Collins also said she does not support Trump's rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton. Senator Susan Collins, one of the most moderate Republicans in the Senate, said Monday she will not be voting for Donald Trump for president The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In the essay posted Monday night on the Post website, Collins wrote that, over time, she has 'become increasingly dismayed' by Trump's 'constant stream of cruel comments and his inability to admit error or apologize.' Three incidents led her to the 'inescapable conclusion that Mr. Trump lacks the temperament, self-discipline and judgment required to be president.' They include his apparent mocking of a reporter with a disability (Trump says he wasn't mocking the man), his criticism of a judge's Hispanic heritage and his criticism of a Muslim family whose son was killed fighting in the Iraq War. Collins said she also was dismayed that Trump minimized the heroism of Senator John McCain, a prisoner of war in Vietnam for five years, and insulted Fox News host Megyn Kelly in a debate a year ago. 'I had hoped that we would see a "new" Donald Trump as a general-election candidate one who would focus on jobs and the economy, tone down his rhetoric, develop more thoughtful policies and, yes, apologize for ill-tempered rants,' she wrote. Collins said she couldn't support Trump after he appeared to mock a reporter with a disability (Trump says he wasn't mocking the man), critique a judge's Hispanic heritage and critique a Muslim family whose son was killed fighting in the Iraq War 'But the unpleasant reality that I have had to accept is that there will be no "new" Donald Trump, just the same candidate who will slash and burn and trample anything and anyone he perceives as being in his way or an easy scapegoat.' Her column was published the same day Trump sought to reset his struggling campaign with an unusually disciplined speech in Detroit and reassure Republicans unnerved by a string of feuds he started in recent days. Before the night was through, though, he tweeted that "many people" are saying Clinton is linked to the execution of an Iranian scientist. Former Labor MP Eddie Obeid's sentencing for wilful misconduct has been postponed by weeks after the disgraced politician suffered a mild stroke on Thursday, but his attorneys insist it is not 'a delaying tactic.' Obeid, 72, who was rushed to St Vincent's Hospital last week and discharged on Monday, was found guilty of misconduct in public office in June for failing to disclose his family's direct financial stakes in two restaurants in Circular Quay in 2007. He is facing a possible 14 year jail term. Scroll down for video Former Labor MP Eddie Obeid's (centre) sentencing hearing for a wilful misconduct conviction has been postponed by weeks after the disgraced politician suffered a mild stroke on Thursday A sentencing hearing for Obeid was scheduled on Friday, but his attorney's appealed to the court on Tuesday to delay the hearing for at least two weeks, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. Supreme Court Justice Robert Beech-Jones ordered the court to reconvene on August 18 'with a view to receiving an update on Mr Obeid's medical condition and fixing a further date for submissions on sentence some weeks hence'. 'According to a neurologist he was at the time experiencing unsteadiness and subsequently found to have suffered an acute stroke,' Justice Beech-Jones said, overlooking medical records provided to the court. Obeid's attorney Brad Hughes, SC, said there will be a comprehensive view of the politician's health problems in late August. 'It's not a delaying tactic at all,' Mr Hughes told the court. Obeid, 72, (right) who was rushed to St Vincent's Hospital last week and discharged on Monday He was accused of corruption by the state's Independent Commission Against Corruption. During the 72-year-old's trial, the jury heard that in late 2007, Obeid spoke about the plight of Circular Quay leaseholders to then-deputy chief executive of NSW Maritime Authority, Steve Dunn, in an attempt to reap financial benefits. But Obeid never disclosed his family's direct financial stakes in two restaurants along the prime foreshore strip. Obeid, who has had two heart bypass surgeries, will remain on bail until sentencing, when prosecutors are expected to push for a jail term. Three young girls have fallen from a Ferris wheel at a county fairground in eastern Tennessee as witnesses screamed in horror to stop the ride. Greeneville Police Detective Capt. Tim Davis said all three fell approximately 30 to 45 feet from the same basket of the ride at the Greene County Fairgrounds shortly before 7pm on Monday evening, according to the The Greeneville Sun. An eyewitness, Dakota Ragan, told WCYB.com, that he saw the girls rocking their basket as the ride started. 'I saw the kids, they were just rocking the thing, which I didn't think was such a big deal, most people rock it anyway', Ragan said. 'But they were rocking it hard'. Scroll down for video Three young girls have fallen from a Ferris wheel at a county fairground in eastern Tennessee. The tipped basket can be seen above Members of the Greeneville Fire Department help people off the ferris wheel at the Greene County Fair According to Ragan, the rocking caused the basket to hit a neighboring basket, causing it to get stuck upside down. 'They hit and I guess the force just brought them back and they went right over', he said, describing the moment the three fell to the ground. Greeneville Police Detective Capt. Tim Davis says the oldest of the three victims is a 16-year-old girl. The detective says officers were interviewing witnesses and all carnival rides would be shut down for the night. 'We treat it like a crime scene until we determine there's no foul play,' Davis said. 'We don't know at this time what caused the accident.' Witness Gregory Lynthacum, whose daughters were on the Ferris wheel at the time of the incident, described horrified people screaming at the ride's operator to stop the wheel after the girls fell from the top of the wheel. He said the girls fell after their car seemed to get stuck as the wheel lifted them upwards. 'It was like watching water pouring from a glass,' he told WJHL. 'They bounced off the metal bridging of the ride and eventually hit the ground.' Emergency crews unload riders from the Ferris wheel at the Greene County Fair in Greeneville on Monday evening Officers were interviewing witnesses and all carnival rides were shut down for the night. Ladders are seen at the scene to transport riders to safety Police said all three fell 30 to 45 feet from the same basket of the ride at the Greene County Fairgrounds shortly before 7pm County-Greeneville EMS operations director T.J. Manis says those who fell were taken a hospital in Johnson City - two by helicopter and one by ambulance. Davis said later on Monday night that all three victims were responsive and answering questions. He added that Family Attractions, the company that provides the rides, will have 24 hours from the time of the accident to file a report with state regulators as well as have a third-party inspection to check the safety of other rides. Each son is supposed to receive only $50,000 each as an inheritance The only changes made to the estate were to include the couple's children Jeri said the sons were never in the estate plan as major Jeri Thompson (pictured), the second wife of Tennessee senator Fred Thompson, who died in November 2015, is accused of changing the senators will to exclude his two adult sons The adult sons of a late U.S. senator didn't lose out on an inheritance due to the senator's second wife because no changes that would have impacted the sons were made to the estate plans, according to a filing in the family's lawsuit. Tennessee senator Fred Thompson, who died in November 2015, only made changes to his will ensuring that a part of his estate went to his two young children with Jeri Thompson, 49, according to legal documents. 'Each of (Thompson's sons') alleged claims against (Jeri Thompson) in this matter is founded upon a single premise that (Jeri Thompson) took something that belonged to (Thompson's sons) either through her own actions or by influencing the actions of Senator Thompson. 'That premise is unsound, unsupported and contradicted by the undisputed facts of this case. 'No person made any changes to Senator Thompson's estate plans in October 2015 that caused any change in (Thompson's sons') position,' the response states. Thompson, who served in the senate from 1994 until 2003, died at age 73 last year. His adult sons Tony and Dan Thompson filed a lawsuit last week against Jeri Thompson and accused her of influencing Thompson to change his estate plans when he 'lacked the requisite mental capacity'. Jeri (pictured with her two young children with Thompson) denies this and said Thompson (pictured, top) only made changes to include their children together Thompson's adult sons Tony (left) and Dan Thompson (right) filed a lawsuit last week against Jeri Thompson and accused her of influencing Thompson to change his estate plans Jeri Thompson argued that that is false and that the only changes that were made to support the couple's two young children. An attorney is reported to have met with Thompson a month before his death but determined he was unable to make changes to his estate, Jeri Thompson said in her filing. 'Senator Thompson did consider making some such changes, and as a result, Waller began gathering information and drafting documents in preparation for the possible changes. An attorney is reported to have met with Thompson a month before his death but determined he was unable to make changes to his estate, Jeri Thompson said in her filing Jeri Thompson said the changes only allowed her children to be included and the plan never had a major distribution to his two adult sons 'But Senator Thompson's condition worsened before the documents could be completed and Senator Thompson could review and sign them,' the response states. Jeri Thompson said the changes only allowed her children to be included and the plan never had a major distribution to his two adult sons. '(The adult sons) were not primary or contingent beneficiaries either before or after the change. 'Nor did the change have any effect on Senator Thompson's estate or the funds distributed to Senator Thompson's heirs,' her response states. Jeri Thompson was listed as the primary beneficiary in Thompson's will and she is supposed to pass along $50,000 to each of the adult sons. Ivanka Trump is facing questions over her commitment to working mothers after a woman who designs her fashion line said she didn't receive paid maternity leave. At the Republican National Convention last month, Trump pledged that her father would revolutionize support for working mothers. And the 34-year-old has built her platform and brand around this cause and has even written a book called Women Who Work, according to the Washington Post. But a fashion designer for the G-III Apparel Group, a group contracted to design her clothing line, which is also used by brands such as Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein, said the company only allows 12 weeks of unpaid leave, the Post reported. Ivanka Trump (center at Republican Convention) is facing questions over her commitment to working mothers after a woman who designs her fashion line said she didn't receive paid maternity leave At the Republican National Convention (RNC) last month, Trump pledged that her father would revolutionize support for working mothers. The 34-year-old has even built her platform and brand around this cause and has written a book called Women Who Work But a fashion designer for the G-III Apparel Group, which also works with the likes of Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein, a group contracted to design her clothing line, said the company only allows 12 weeks of unpaid leave The fashion designer, who wished to remain anonymous, has been an employee for the company nearly four years and became pregnant last year. When she discovered that the apparel group does not offer workers a single day of paid maternity leave, she ended up blowing through her vacation days, draining her savings and relying on her husband's income after she gave birth to their son. The woman told the Post that it's hard 'emotionally' getting back to work after having a child, but it's harder when you know 'you're returning to a company that doesn't value your choice to be a mother'. A representative from the Ivanka Trump brand, a 12-employee business, told Daily Mail Online of the brand's own maternity policy: 'We offer eight weeks of paid leave. 'In addition, since we have flexible working hours with a focus on results rather than face time, we are supportive of all working moms who some days may need or choose to work from home. 'We also have flexible vacation days; we do not have set limits. We believe in measuring results and not face time in the office. We don't track vacation days and are supportive of our team members taking vacation when they need it. We also support team members working outside of the office when they need to.' The spokesperson added: 'Those women employed by G-III who work on the Ivanka Trump brand are employed by G-III, a publicly held company, and not by Ivanka Trump.' Trump, who leads the family-friendly police on Donald Trump's campaign, has said that 'policies that allow women with children to thrive should not be novelties,' and instead 'they should be the norm'. Brand consultants told the Post that the fact that Trump's business partnership contradicts her platform could hurt her reputation. Five past and current employees have told the Post that G-III has no paid parental leave. A document provided by one employee for the company showed that 'Family MEDICAL Leave,' becomes available 'after 1 year of employment'. 'Up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave (in accordance with Federal and State laws).' In March, Trump told Business Insider that she believes 'parental leave is enormously important'. The fashion designer, who wished to remain anonymous, has been an employee for the company nearly four years and became pregnant last year. She said she ended up blowing through vacation days, draining her savings and relying on her husband's income But a representative of the Ivanka Trump brand said her company offers eight weeks of paid leave to new mothers and flexible work hours for parents. Brand consultants said the fact that Trump's business partnership contradicts her platform could hurt her reputation 'Part of building a company whose goal is to empower women in all aspects of life is that I've given my team some leeway to determine what parental leave looks like for each of them individually,' she said. Trump has dedicated her advocacy to what has since become her signature hashtag: #WomenWhoWork. 'It's a celebration of women working at all aspects of their lives,' her website notes. 'Women who transition between their various roles in professional and personal capacities: building careers, raising children, nurturing relationships and pursuing passions.' But advocacy for Women Who Work contrasts with that of her father's who in the past has said: 'I think that putting a wife to work is a very dangerous thing.' In the US, employers aren't required to keep paying workers after they have given birth. Nearly 58 per cent of American companies with 1,000 or more employees fund maternity leave at full or partial compensation, according to a 2014 Labor Department study. A man who allegedly bashed his girlfriend to death in their apartment told paramedics she had suffered a fit when they found her unconscious with severe head injuries. Rhonda Baker, 26, was allegedly beaten to death by her boyfriend Onitolosi Latu, 28, in the couple's two-bedroom apartment on Bathurst Street in Liverpool, Sydney's south-west, on Sunday. Court documents revealed Ms Baker had a 12-month Apprehended Violence Order against Latu, but the couple continued to live together and Latu was ordered to not assault, stalk or intimidate her, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. Rhonda Baker (pictured), 26, was found with horrific head injuries at her Liverpool apartment in Sydney's south-west on Sunday Latu reportedly called triple zero around 4.30am on Sunday and told them Ms Baker had suffered a seizure. Ms Baker's (pictured) cousins paid tribute to her on Facebook after hearing the news she had passed away on Sunday After finding Ms Baker with severe head injuries, they notified police who arrested and charged Latu with her murder. Ms Baker's cousins paid tribute to her on Facebook after hearing the news she had passed away on Sunday. 'Even though you were a year younger, gosh were you were the dominant one and yet all the aunties and mama's loved you. Rest in love my beautiful,' one wrote on Facebook. The family all shared a photo collage of the 26-year-old on their Facebook pages. On Monday, Latu did not apply for bail at Liverpool Local Court and will appear in Campbelltown Local Court on September 19. Rhonda Baker, 26, was allegedly beaten to death by her boyfriend Onitolosi Latu, 28, in the couple's two-bedroom apartment (pictured is the apartment complex) on Bathurst Street in Liverpool A Cincinnati police officer who killed a Jamari Porter (above) had no choice but to open fire, authorities said A Cincinnati police officer who killed a knife-wielding robbery suspect had no choice but to open fire, authorities said Monday, as the city released surveillance video that showed the man lunging at the officer. The soundless video shows Jawari Porter lunging at the officer sitting in the driver's seat of a police cruiser that had just arrived in the downtown area - then being pulled down onto a sidewalk by a second officer within seconds. The footage was released on Monday after a prosecutor concluded the shooting of the 25-year-old on Sunday morning was justified. 'This was a vicious, violent attack on the officer,' police Chief Eliot Isaac said. 'This officer had no other course of action.' The county prosecutor agreed, informing police that he found Officer Anthony Brucato's actions justified and there was no need to take the case to a grand jury. Scroll down for video The city released surveillance video (above) that showed Porter lunging at the officer Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said Porter tried to stab the officer with a 'folding lock-blade-style knife.' 'It is clear this assailant attempted to cause serious physical harm to Officer Brucato,' Deters said in a statement. Deters said he had viewed surveillance video of the violent Sunday morning encounter at Government Square downtown, and reviewed police reports. He said Porter tried to stab Brucato with a 'folding lock-blade-style knife.' He and his fellow officer were wearing bulletproof vests. Brucato suffered a forearm abrasion, Deters said. The soundless video shows Porter lunging at the officer sitting in the driver's seat of a police cruiser that had just arrived in the downtown area on Sunday morning Porter is then seen being pulled down onto a sidewalk by a second officer within seconds The soundless surveillance video from an overhead angle shows a man lunging at an officer in the driver's seat of a police vehicle that had just stopped on the street behind him, then quickly being pulled backward and down onto a sidewalk by another officer. Police said Porter was suspected of robbing a Cincinnati grocery store 20 minutes earlier by holding a knife on a security guard. Isaac said two officers investigating the robbery spotted Porter on foot and pulled over their vehicle. Brucato, a 25-year police veteran, was getting out of the driver's side when Porter charged him, Isaac said. Police said it's believed Brucato fired six times, striking Porter multiple times. Porter died at the scene. The other officer didn't fire, the chief said. Mayor John Cranley said: 'We could have been in a situation where an officer was killed. This man tried to kill a Cincinnati police officer, viciously.' Brucato, a 25-year police veteran, was getting out of the driver's side when Porter charged him Police said it's believed Officer Brucato fired six times, striking Porter multiple times Police said Porter was suspected of robbing a Cincinnati grocery store 20 minutes earlier by holding a knife on a security guard (above) Court records show Porter last year was ruled incompetent to stand trial and was ordered into mental health treatment. Hamilton County court documents show a judge in September last year found Porter was mentally ill when he had faced charges of assault and resisting arrest. A July 2015 police affidavit stated Porter continued to try to attack an assault victim while and after police used a stun gun on him. An assistant public defender who represented Porter last year said the office's involvement ended after the case moved to probate court. Sunday's was the third fatal shooting this year of a suspect by an on-duty Cincinnati police officer. Jamari Porter tried to stab Officer Brucato with a 'folding lock-blade-style knife' (pictured) Satellite images have revealed how Beijing is building aircraft hangars and control towers for its fighter jets on disputed islands in the South China Sea. Hangars constructed on Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief Reefs in the Spratly islands, have room for any jet in the Chinese air force, a Washington-based think tank claims. China claims most of the South China Sea, through which $5trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims. Satellite images have revealed how Beijing is building aircraft hangars and control towers for its fighter jets on disputed islands in the South China Sea Hangars constructed on Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief Reefs in the Spratly islands, have room for any jet in the Chinese air force, a Washington-based think tank claims China claims most of the South China Sea, through which $5trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims The images have emerged about a month after an international court in The Hague ruled against China's sweeping claims in the resource-rich region - a ruling emphatically rejected by Beijing. Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies said in a report: 'Except for a brief visit by a military transport plane to Fiery Cross Reef earlier this year, there is no evidence that Beijing has deployed military aircraft to these outposts. 'But the rapid construction of reinforced hangars at all three features indicates that this is likely to change.' The United States has urged China and other claimants not to militarise their holdings in the South China Sea. China has repeatedly denied doing so and has in turn criticised US patrols and exercises for ramping up tensions. The United States has urged China and other claimants not to militarise their holdings in the South China Sea Close up images, including illustrations of planes, show the hangars would be able to accommodate any of China's fighter jets The United States has urged China and other claimants not to militarise their holdings in the South China Sea 'China has indisputable sovereignty over the Spratly islands and nearby waters,' China's Defence Ministry said in a faxed response to a request for comment on Tuesday. 'China has said many times, construction on the Spratly islands and reefs is multipurpose, mixed, and with the exception of necessary military defensive requirements, are more for serving all forms of civil needs.' Ties around the region have been strained in the lead-up to and since The Hague ruling. China has sent bombers and fighter jets on combat patrols near the contested South China Sea island Other facilities including unidentified towers and hexagonal structures have also been built on the islets in recent months China has sent bombers and fighter jets on combat patrols near the contested South China Sea islands, state media reported on Saturday. Japan has complained about what it has said were multiple intrusions into its territorial waters around another group of islands in the East China Sea. The hangars all show signs of structural strengthening, CSIS said. 'They are far thicker than you would build for any civilian purpose,' Gregory Poling, director of CSIS's Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, told the New York Times, which first reported on the new images. 'They're reinforced to take a strike.' After a 10-year-old boy was killed on the world's tallest waterslide, another family has shared their story of a terrifying close call on the ride. Caleb Thomas Schwab, the son of a Kansas state legislator, was decapitated after he plummeted from the 168-foot-tall Verruckt ride at Schlitterbahn Waterpark in Kansas City on Sunday. Meanwhile, the Conrad family are regular visitors to the waterpark with season passes - and say they'd never had any problems until one trip last summer when Kenneth Conrad and his best friend Matt had gone on the Verruckt. Matt's Velcro harness snapped off after the first drop - and he was forced to hold on until the end with just his hands as the ride reached speeds of up to 65 miles an hour. Scroll down for video Kenneth Conrad (center) rode the Verruckt ride at at Schlitterbahn Waterpark with his best friend Matt (right, without his harness) Matt's Velcro harness snapped off after the first drop - and he was forced to hold on until the end with just his hands as the ride reached speeds of up to 65 miles an hour 'As we were going down, we went down the first one, and as we were approaching the second one, he was in the back and you could hear him say that his strap came off and when we hit, he was real tense, shaken, because his strap had come completely off and literally he was using all of his force to hold him onto the slide,' Conrad told Fox4. Matt did not file a complaint after his harness came off during the ride that day last year, but after Schwab's death, he is planning to report the incident. Conrad's wife Erica, who snapped a picture of her husband and Matt on the ride - which showed the latter's harness missing - says the news of the boy's death is 'devastating.' 'It was very devastating, very devastating news and like I said, we have children around the same age and had anything ever happened, I just can`t even fathom what I would be going through,' she told the local news station. On Monday, witnesses described the gruesome scene at the Kansas theme park after the 10-year-old was decapitated when he flew off a waterslide and hit a safety net. Esteban Castaneda, who was at the Kansas City waterpark, told ABC 7 he heard loud booms coming from the ride before noticing a body wash down after a raft. Erica and Kenneth Conrad said their friend had a terrifying close call on the waterslide where a 10-year-old boy died on Sunday Witnesses have described gruesome scenes at a Kansas theme park where a boy, 10, was decapitated when he flew off a waterslide and broke through safety net Witnesses say Caleb flew off the ride at around 50ft from the ground and hit the netting When he ran forward to help, he saw a lifeguard desperately trying to hold back a gathering crowd. As he looked down, he says he saw the young boy who appeared to have been decapitated. Two women, still strapped into the raft, were injured with another witnesses describing one as having blood pouring down her face. One of those women's jaw was broken and the other had a broken face bone, according to reports. They have not been named but one woman described it as the 'worst day of her life.' The front seat of the raft - where Schwab most likely sat - was empty. Kansas City Police confirmed the boy had died from a 'fatal neck injury at the end of the ride.' Another witness Kelsey Friedrichsen said she's seen Caleb fly out of the ride after the first drop and hit the netting enclosing the ride before plummeting 50ft. There were also suggestions that the harness on the raft was not working correctly. This file photo shows Schlitterbahn's 168-foot-tall Verruckt speed slide/water coaster in Kansas City, Kansas Police spokesman Officer Cameron Morgan said the boy's cause of death has not been confirmed. But officers are conducting a death investigation at the park She then saw Caleb's body on the ground and his family standing nearby crying. Castaneda's wife Leslie, told The Kansas City Star that she had seen the blood-streaked ride shortly after the horrific incident and Caleb's distraught family gathered nearby. 'I saw his (Caleb's) brother. He was screaming,' she said. ''I'm really having a tough time with it. I really am.' She added that the brother - who had seen Caleb die - told a theme-park worker, 'I just saw my little brother die because of one of your attractions.' '(The boy) looked skinny,' she added. 'He shouldn't have been on that ride.' Another source at the scene said that the raft did not have enough people inside - it is allegedly supposed to have 400lbs weighing it down. The Verruckt- German for insane - is the highest waterslide in the world. It remained closed today amid the investigation. Another report says that it used to have an age restriction of 14 when the ride opened at Schlitterbahn in 2014. Kansas City Police confirmed Caleb (pictured) had died from a 'fatal neck injury at the end of the ride' The youngster was just ten years old when he was killed in the horrific accident. The ride used to have a minimum age restriction of 14 It also had a minimum height of 54 inches and a combined weight of all riders in the raft to be between 400 and 550 pounds. But officials scrapped the age restriction, deeming the height requirement sufficient. Investigators are treating the death as a 'civil matter' rather than a criminal incident, a police spokesman said Monday, as the park and Kansas authorities pressed to sort out what caused the tragedy. The Wyandotte County coroner's office began a post-mortem examination on Monday. Margaret Studyvin, an administrative assistant with the department, said it wasn't clear when or if autopsy results would be made public. Meanwhile, an online fund has raised more than $25,000 to cover funeral expenses for the family Kansas City police spokesman Officer Cameron Morgan said no police report was available of the incident and deferred additional questions to the park. Caleb's heartbroken family were seen crying at the waterpark on Sunday (pictured is a file image of the boy's father Rep Scott Schwab at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kansas in 2015) In an email Monday, Winter Prosapio, spokeswoman for Schlitterbahn, said the park would not be 'participating in any further media interviews at this time.' A day earlier, she told reporters that Caleb had been at the park with family members, adding 'We honestly don't know what's happened.' Riders go down the slide in multi-person rafts. Because of heavy demand, rides are scheduled by reservation at the time the park opens each day. The park's website touts the ride as the 'ultimate in water slide thrills,' subjecting 'adventure seekers' with a 'jaw dropping' 17-story drop, 'only to be blasted back up a second massive hill and then sent down yet another gut wrenching 50 foot drop.' Verruckt was certified as the world's tallest waterslide by Guinness World Records. The tragedy happened on day the park offered lawmakers and other elected officials a buffet lunch, hot dogs and hamburgers. State Rep. Scott Schwab, an Olathe Republican, and his wife, Michele, released a statement asking for privacy as the family grieves. 'Since the day he was born, he brought abundant joy to our family and all those he came in contact with,' the statement said. A funeral for Caleb is scheduled for Friday afternoon at Olathe's Life Mission Church, Kansas. Schlitterbahn has been sued three times since it opened in 2014 although never for the waterslide (file picture) Authorities initially said the victim was 12 years old, but Clint Sprague, a pastor acting as the family's spokesman, said Caleb was 10 and is one of the couple's four sons. House Speaker Ray Merrick told the Kansas City Star that Schwab's family was 'the center of his world.' Verruckt's 2014 opening was repeatedly delayed, though the operators didn't explain why. Two media sneak preview days in 2014 were canceled because of problems with a conveyor system that hauls 100-pound rafts to the top of the slide. In a news article linked to the news release announcing a 2014 delay, Schlitterbahn co-owner Jeff Henry told USA Today that he and senior designer John Schooley had based their calculations when designing the slide on roller coasters, but that didn't translate well to a waterslide like Verruckt. In early tests, rafts carrying sandbags flew off the slide, prompting engineers to tear down half of the ride and reconfigure some angles at a cost of $1 million, Henry said. A promotional video for a show about building the slide includes footage of two men riding a raft down a half-size test model and going slightly airborne as it crests the top of the first big hill. Prosapio said Sunday that the park's rides are inspected daily and by an 'outside party' before the start of each season. The height requirement to ride Verruckt is at least 54 inches tall and riders must be at least 14 years old, according to the park's website. Riders have to climb the ride's 264 steps to the top before taking the 168-foot plunge at 65 mph The Verryckt water slide (pictured) opened in July 2014 after its opening date was pushed back three times for additional safety testing Without specifically mentioning water slides, Kansas statutes describe an 'amusement ride' as 'any mechanical or electrical device that carries or conveys passengers along, around or over a fixed or restricted route or course or within a defined area for the purpose of giving its passengers amusement, pleasure, thrills or excitement.' Such rides, according to the statute, commonly are known as Ferris wheels, carousels, parachute towers, bungee jumps and roller coasters. State law leaves it to the Kansas Department of Labor to adopt rules and regulations relating to certification and inspection of rides, adding that an amusement ride at a permanent location 'shall be self-inspected by a qualified inspector at least every 12 months.' Caleb's death is not the first at a Schlitterbahn facility. In 2013, lifeguard Nico Benavides, 20, was killed at the company's park on South Padre Island, Texas, when a mechanical door slammed on the guard's head. The park was hit with fines of $96,000 although they settled for $66,000. Meanwhile, the Kansas Schlitterbahn has been sued three times for negligence since opening in 2014, although none were related to the Verruckt water slide, KCUR reports. In a statement Monday afternoon, Schlitterbahn said it was 'deeply and intensely saddened for the Schwab family and all who were impacted by the tragic accident.' The park was tentatively scheduled to reopen Wednesday, but 'Verruckt is closed,' according to the statement. Messages left Monday with Kansas' Labor Department were not immediately returned. Kansas state Sen. Greg Smith, an Overland Park Republican, said that although state law doesn't specifically address waterslides, it's clear they 'would fall into that category.' He called any potential legislative action spurred by Sunday's tragedy premature, saying the investigation of Caleb Schwab's death should be given time to unfold. 'Until we have those facts it's too early to specify what we can do legislatively,' Smith said. A DJ was banned from a hospital radio station after he claimed to be broadcasting naked in an online video. Nigel Bateman, 54, appeared topless in a Facebook Live clip before his show at Broadgreen Hospital, Liverpool, joking that he wasn't wearing any clothes because it was too hot in the studio. Radio bosses suspended Mr Bateman hours after the video appeared, claiming it would damage the station's standing with the NHS Trust that runs the hospital. Suspended: Radio presenter Nigel Bateman, 54, pictured topless, joked he was broadcasting naked because the studio at Broadgreen Hospital, Liverpool, was too hot The presenter, who had worked at the station for 28 years, said he was also told he could no longer go near the hospital. 'It was just a bit of fun and it seems like the committee don't have a sense of humour,' he said. 'And you see guys on a building site not wearing tops while they work. 'I used Facebook Live to promote the show, and said I had stripped off because of the heat as a bit of a joke. Lots of people "liked" it on Facebook. 'I'm not even allowed to go near the building. I think it's a bit much.' The part-time DJ, who claims to have listeners in Egypt, Australia and the US, said the clip had been part of a long-running joke about him presenting naked. He claimed the committee at volunteer-run Radio Broadgreen sent him an email the same day the video was posted last month, telling him it was 'inappropriate'. 'Inappropriate': The DJ was banned by bosses at Radio Broadgreen, based at Broadgreen Hospital, Liverpool, pictured. He had worked at the station for 28 years The email is said to have added that the committee felt they had 'no choice' but to suspend him until further notice and asked him to stay away from the building. Mr Bateman added: 'I've been upset today. I've been there for 28 years, and I've been suspended with my show removed from the website as though I don't even exist. 'I'm at a loose end now. I'm unemployed, and care for my disabled family. I do it for the listeners, but also it gives me something to do.' A petition to have him reinstated has been launched on the Ipetitions website. Footage has revealed the horrifying moment a woman drinks a cup of ice coffee her friend allegedly laced with cyanide in the moments before her gruesome death. The confronting video shows former Sydney design student Mirna Salihin as she unsuspectingly brings the cup of poisoned ice coffee to her lips and appears to react as if in pain. Her former friend, Jessica Wongso, who is charged with Ms Salihin's murder by cyanide, sits with her as she drinks the fatal concoction. Scroll down for video CCTV footage has revealed the moment Jessica Wongso (left in organge top) sat down with friend Mirna Salihin (right in white T-shirt) before she sipped on a cup of coffee and died The former Sydney design student (pictured) appears to react as if she is in pain after she unsuspectingly brings the cup of poisoned ice coffee to her lips and takes a sip Ms Salihin clutches at her face, shakes her head then almost instantly slumps in her chair, her head dangling backwards. Her husband, Arief Soemarko, told ABC's 7.30: 'She's obviously in pain. Several times she wave[s] her hand at her mouth. 'I heard that the poison itself it, it's corrosive and it destroys everything that's in the way. I heard also that her stomach was destroyed because of the poison. 'I'm really devastated on how she felt that day.' The pair had been friends for seven years when Wongso allegedly poisoned Ms Salihin on January 6, 2016 at a restaurant in Jakarta, Indonesia. The pair had been friends for seven years when Wongso allegedly poisoned Ms Salihin on January 6, 2016 at a restaurant in Jakarta, Indonesia (Pictured: CCTV footage of the friends) They had lived together while studying at Billy Blue Design College in Sydney and in June, a court in Jakarta heard prosecutors suspected the alleged murder was driven by revenge, according to The Age. Now, documents have revealed Wongso - an Australian resident - suffered serious mental health problems, the ABC has reported. The Australian Federal Police documents were given to Indonesian police and they have been used to help support Indonesia's pursuit of Wongso. Documents have revealed Wongso (pictured in court) suffered serious mental health problems An Indonesian court heard that in 2015 Ms Salihin had allegedly told Wongso to end her relationship with a then-boyfriend because he was a drug dealer and 'rough' According to the ABC, a lack of evidence had meant the case against her was almost dropped. The file includes details of Wongso's behaviour in the 12 months before the alleged murder, including suicide attempts, threatening colleagues, an alcohol-fuelled road accident, suspicions of vandalism of her ex-boyfriend's car, and an apprehended violence order he took out against her. Wongso's lawyer has claimed the file has been misused by police in Indonesia. An Indonesian court heard that in 2015 Ms Salihin had allegedly told Wongso to end her relationship with her then-boyfriend because he was a drug dealer and 'rough', The Age reported. Wongso organised the deadly catch up with Ms Salihin (pictured) and another Billy Blue student at Olivier Restaurant She eventually broke off the relationship and to avenge her pain, 'the defendant planned to take away Mirna's life', according to prosecutors. To implement this plan, they allege Wongso reconnected with Ms Salihin through the online messaging service WhatsApp on December 5, 2015 - one day before she arrived in Indonesia from Australia. Wongso then organised a catch-up with Ms Salihin and another Billy Blue student - Boon Juwita (known as Hani) who also studied at Billy Blue - at Olivier Restaurant in the Grand Indonesia mall. Wongso arrived before the other women and ordered Ms Salihin's favourite drink - an iced Vietnamese coffee. Wongso arrived before the other women and ordered Ms Salihin's favourite drink - an iced Vietnamese coffee (Pictured: police re-enactment) After it was placed on the table, she allegedly moved to the middle of the booth seat, placed the coffee to her right and arranged three gift bags around it so no witnesses could see the coffee. Soon after she returned to her original seat, pushing the drink towards the middle of the table and moving the three gift bags to the side. When Hani and Ms Salihin arrived, she said: 'This (coffee) is for you Mir, you said you wanted (it).' Ms Salihin drank it, exclaiming: 'This is really not good, this is awful.' Wongso's legal team criticised the prosecution's case, saying they had not provided any evidence as to where the cyanide was allegedly purchased or how their client allegedly administered it into the drink Two minutes later, prosecutors say, she collapsed. Her head fell to the back of the sofa and she began foaming at the mouth and had a 'blank look' on her face. Hani called her name and tried to wake her up but Wongso, prosecutors alleged, just sat there quietly without reacting or helping. An autopsy later found an anomaly in her stomach caused by a corrosive agent while the amount of cyanide found in the iced coffee - 298mg - was well over the lethal dose for a woman of Ms Salihin's size, prosecutors say. Doomed Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 dived at a rapid speed of up to 20,000 feet a minute, according to a new report. The plane began its nose dive at 8.19am (GMT+8) on March 9, 2014 when its fuel tanks were empty and its engines stopped, The Australian reported. The left engine was the first one to go and the right one followed about 15 minutes after that, which led to the jet's slowdown and it losing its ability to stay elevated. Doomed Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 (pictured) dived at a rapid speed of up to 20,000 feet a minute, according to a new report This would have caused the nose to dip and hurtle towards the ground in a downwards spiral before it sped up and ascended again. It would have then slowed down and the nose would have once again dipped and kept falling. Scientists believe this pattern would have continued until the plane plunged into the water with 'catastrophic' force after analysing signals sent between the jet and a satellite. Australian Transport Safety Bureau's Greg Hood told The Australian pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah would not have been able to steer the plane as it plummeted from the sky. He added the new report also placed the plane's wreckage was in the area where Australian officials were still searching two years later. This revelation comes after Malaysian officials said one of MH370's pilots plotted a path over the Indian Ocean on a home flight simulator, but warned this did not prove he deliberately crashed the plane. The new report placed the wreckage in the search area (pictured is a pilot searching for MH370) where Australian officials are still looking for it two years later Australian Transport Safety Bureau's Greg Hood told The Australian pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah would not have been able to steer the plane as it plummeted from the sky The Malaysia Airlines jet was carrying 239 passengers and crew when it disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014. It is believed to have crashed into the Indian Ocean, but an extensive hunt off Australia's west coast is drawing to a close without any sign of the plane. Pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah had used a home-made flight simulator to plot a very similar course to MH370's presumed final route, Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said. Officials said Mr Shah plotted a path over the Indian Ocean but this did not prove he deliberately crashed the plane But he emphasised this was just one of thousands of practice routes discovered on Zaharie's hard drive. 'There is no evidence to confirm that [the pilot] flew the plane into the southern Indian Ocean,' he told reporters at a press conference Thursday. The discovery of the flight simulator data was first reported last month by New York Magazine, which said the FBI had recovered the deleted files. But the end point of the simulated route was some 900 miles (1,450 kilometres) from the area where the plane is believed to have gone down, the report said. Zaharie was the subject of intense media speculation when MH370 first vanished, with reports scrutinising everything from his political beliefs to his mental health for clues as to what could have happened. A Melbourne pub has cancelled an event titled 'Eat Sleep Rave P**sy Repeat' after it was accused of 'promoting rape culture'. A party due to take place at the Railway Hotel in Brunswick in the city's north on Friday August 12 was inundated with comments from angry patrons slamming it as 'sexist'. Following the furore on social media this week the establishment cancelled the rave, which was being hosted by an outside promoter not linked to the venue. The Railway Hotel in Brunswick, Melbourne, has cancelled an event to be held at their pub 'The event in question was brought top out attention yesterday morning when it was posted on our Facebook,' a spokesman for the Railway Hotel told Daily Mail Australia. He said the pub immediately removed the event from their Facebook page and contacted the promoter and 'advised that we didn't want it to go ahead'. The marketing 'It was perhaps ill-thought out marketing strategy but there was no malicious intent,' the spokesman said. Before the event was taken down the Facebook page had been inundated with comments accusing the hotel of 'encouraging rape culture' and creating an unsafe place for females. Titled 'Eat Sleep Rave P**sy Repeat' the party was run by an outside promoter Patrons criticised the event, with some slamming it for 'promoting rape culture' 'I know where to go on August 12th I if want to get sexually assaulted and listen to s*** music', one woman wrote on the event page. 'Solid job on promoting and encouraging rape culture,' another patron wrote according to Fairfax. Two sisters, ages three and five, and their 17-year-old female baby sitter drowned in a swimming pool in a southern Colorado mobile home park, police said Monday. Pueblo police were investigating what led to the drownings but said no foul play was suspected, The Pueblo Chieftain reported. Police said the babysitter was believed to have been watching them at the time of the incident. Two sisters, ages three and five, and their 17-year-old female babysitter drowned in a swimming pool in a southern Colorado mobile home park, police said Monday. The incident occurred at the Pueblo Grande Village (pictured) 'I think it's just a horrible tragedy,' Capt. Joe Garcia said. The names of the victims weren't immediately released. Officers responding to an emergency call shortly after 2pm tried to revive the victims at Pueblo Grande Village, a mobile home park located north of downtown Pueblo, about 105 miles south of Denver. But their efforts failed and the girls were pronounced dead by the coroner's officer, according to the Pueblo Police Department. Details about how the apparent drownings occurred are unclear at this time. Police said an investigation into the drownings is ongoing. Security footage has caught the 'very shocking' moment a man dressed as a woman placed a torch in his rectum and defecated in a hair salon's parking lot while touching himself and staring at CCTV cameras. The man, who was wearing a skirt, tank top stuffed with tissues and heels, wandered around the parking lot of WA Salon Supplies, a training salon in Midvale, a west Perth suburb, for two hours in the early morning hours of Sunday. When owner Natasha Newton came to work the following day, she said she feared someone had tried to break in because of damage to the front door, but got quite the fright when she watched the security footage. Scroll down for video Security footage has caught the moment a man dressed as a woman defecated in a west Perth hair salon's parking lot while touching himself in the early morning hours of Sunday (pictured) 'I was very shocked, actually,' Ms Newton told Daily Mail Australia. 'It's hard to explain because you just don't expect to see that, if you know what I mean it was very weird.' Ms Newton said she watched the man pull up to her shop in a utility truck before getting out and randomly walking around the car park. 'He got there, had a good look around and looked right into the camera,' Ms Newton said, adding that she believed the man wanted to be seen. The man, dressed in a bra and heels, (pictured) is also seen placing a torch up his rectum and staring at the CCTV cameras at WA Salon Supplies in Midvale 'He then went into his car, undressed, played with himself and popped a torch up his you know what,' Ms Newton said. He continued to touch himself inappropriately while defecating and releasing the torch in the middle of the car park, all while staring at the camera, she said. The man is seen using a wad of toilet paper before throwing it away from him. Ms Newton said during the two hour 'random' incident, the man changed outfits three times and in one frame he appeared to be wearing a wedding ring. 'He'd gone out and had his fetish for the night and gone home to the missus,' owner Natasha Newton said, commenting that it appeared the man (pictured) was wearing a wedding ring 'He'd gone out and had his fetish for the night and gone home to the missus,' she said. The footage has been handed over to WA police and an investigation is ongoing. The first pictures have emerged of Donald Trump's mother in Scotland, before she left her 'lonely life' in the Outer Hebrides to emigrate to the United States. Yes, Trump - the man who wants to build a wall to keep out immigrants from Mexico - is the son of a immigrant himself. His mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, was born in 1912 and grew up in the village of Tong on the isle of Lewis. Now photographs have emerged of Mary before she crossed the Atlantic and met Fred Trump, who she married in 1936. Donald Trump's mother Mary Anne MacLeod, aged 14, sits on the windowsill of a house in the village of Tong on the island of Lewis, off the coast of Scotland. In the 1920s brick houses were slowly replacing traditional 'blackhouses' - built with thatched roofs - in the Hebrides One shows the teenage Mary sitting on the windowsill of a house. Fred Trump, a New Yorker who started out building homes in Queens, eventually became a property developer and millionaire. But Mary was born of humble origins. Her father was the village postmaster who also worked as a fisherman but the MacLeod family had only just emerged from centuries of crushing poverty in the Outer Hebrides, a rural economy built on crofting and fishing. The Daily Record says Mary wrote to a penpal Agnes Stiven, in the Scottish city of Dundee, in her teens and they formed an enduring friendship. By 1934 the shy and naive Scots lassie Mary Anne MacLeod had become a glamorous New Yorker. This photo, taken on the steps of a Long Island swimming pool, shows her with a fashionable haircut A young Donald Trump, left, is pictured with his mother and mother and siblings Maryanne and Fred junior The photographs Mary sent her over the next few years show how Trump's mother turned from a shy and lonely Scot, living on a remote island, to a glamorous and outgoing American thriving in 1930s New York. The earliest photograph shows Mary and another woman - possibly one of her sisters - collecting flowers on her native island of Lewis in 1926. Two years later a photograph shows Mary and Agnes meeting up in Glasgow. In 1930 Mary set sail on the SS Transylvania - she was one of 363,000 Scots who migrated to the US over the preceding decade. Mary was the fourth of the MacLeod sisters to migrate to America and Agnes explained: 'Mary's older sister in New York invited her to visit her there...and soon afterwards her sister found her a job as a nanny with a wealthy family in a big house in the suburbs of New York.' Donald Trump, with his father Fred and mother Mary in 1992. Fred, who started out as a housebuilder in Queens, met the young Scottish immigrant in 1934 Donald Trump's mother grew up on the island of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides and emigrated to the United States by ship from Clydebank, near Glasgow. Her penpal Agnes Stiven lived in Dundee But the following year New York was devastated by the Wall Street Crash and Mary lost her job as a nanny. Mary returned briefly to Scotland in 1934, having by then met Fred Trump, himself the son of German immigrants. Agnes went to see her in Glasgow and recalled: 'I saw Mary off on board the ship at Clydebank that evening and that was the last time we saw each other until 61 years later in London.' But they continued to write to each other and send photographs. Mary sent a snap - the equivalent of a selfie - of herself in a swimming costume on the steps of a pool in Long Island, where wealthy New Yorkers went for their summer holidays in the era of The Great Gatsby. Trump, his wife Melania (in blue) and the rest of the Trump clan. Melania, who was born in Slovenia, became a US citizen in 2006 Donald Trump, seen here with his daughter Ivanka during a visit to the Turnberry golf course in Scotland, which he owns and has invested heavily in She married Fred in 1936 and would have five children - Maryanne, who would become a judge in the US Court of Appeals - Fred junior, Elizabeth, Robert and wee Donald. While Mary married one of New York's most eligible bachelors Agnes, a skilled linguist, went to work in Germany and married a man who ended up as a tank commander in Hitler's army. After the war they divorced and she returned to Britain with her children. Half a century later Agnes was watching television when her ears suddenly pricked up. In 1995 a documentary about Donald Trump - by then a famous entrepreneur with interests in casinos and hotels - mentioned Donalds mother, 'a Scot originally Mary MacLeod from Lewis'. On a whim Agnes sent a letter to Trump Towers and was delighted to receive a reply from her old friend. A passenger was arrested at Heathrow airport after he was seen acting suspiciously and loitering near the exit of a British Airways flight. Police stormed the jet when it landed in London yesterday morning. Witnesses said the man had been wandering around the aisles and had been disruptive on board flight BA098 from Canada. Police stormed the flight yesterday morning after reports of a passenger acting suspiciously Passenger Eric William, 37, told the London Evening Standard: 'The captain advised everyone to stay seated when we landed until the police and ambulance personnel were on board and we were told we could leave. 'We landed and they boarded and attended the person at their seat where the crew had them confined. 'We all waited a while until they decided to let all the passengers leave first. The crew seemed genuinely upset.' The man was taken off the flight when it touched down on the runway after officers were alerted to the incident Police confirmed a male passenger was taken off the flight when it landed at 8.36am at Terminal 5. A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: 'It was reported that a man had been disruptive on an inbound flight from Canada. 'Officers attended and a man was arrested for failing to comply with the directions of cabin staff. 'He has been taken directly to hospital for medical treatment. Enquires continue. ' A spokesman for British Airways added: 'Our crew requested medical services to meet the flight to provide assistance. A former employee of fast food chain Chipotle has been awarded $550,000 in compensation after claiming she was fired from her job because she was pregnant. Doris Garcia Hernandez had worked as a food prep worker at the M Street store in Washington DC between 2011 and 2012, when she discovered she was expecting a baby. However, she claims that as soon as she told her supervisor, named David, he said he would have to approve her bathroom breaks and announce them to every employee in the store. A former employee of fast food chain Chipotle has been awarded $550,000 in compensation after claiming she was fired from her job because she was pregnant (file picture) According to the New York Post, Hernandez also alleged that she would be harassed in front of her colleagues if she took too long and that the supervisor also told her she wasn't allowed to drink water. She says she was finally fired in front of all of her colleagues when she left her shift early to attend a doctor's appointment, which prompted Hernandez to file the pregnancy discrimination suit. A US District Court in Washington DC heard the case and awarded her the compensation and punitive damages. However, it is not the first time Chipotle has come under fire for its treatment of female workers. In July 2013, Lauren Lindo, who worked at one of their restaurants in Culver City, California won $109,580 claiming wrongful termination based on her sex and pregnancy. And a jury in Cincinnati has also awarded $600,000 in damages to three former female Chipotle employees for wrongful termination based on their gender. The Mexican chain of restaurants is in the middle of a campaign to woo back customers after several scandals including one that saw two E.coli outbreaks linked to company (file picture) Chipotle has refused to comment on the cases. The chain of Mexican restaurants is in the middle of a campaign to woo back customers after several scandals including one that saw two E.coli outbreaks linked to company. More than 50 people in 14 states fell ill due to the outbreaks, according the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It saw the restaurant chain grapple to overcome a series of food-borne illnesses it has been linked to since October that have driven away diners, hammered its high-flying stock and spawned both a federal criminal probe and a shareholder lawsuit. The South Carolina board of education gave tentative approval Tuesday to standards that will define and limit the role of police working in schools , minimizing their role in routine disciplinary matters. The board also gave early approval to regulations that would more clearly define what forms of student disruption warrant a law enforcement response under the states controversial disrupting a school law. The policies come at the recommendation of a state task force that was assembled after a video of a violent arrest of a teen girl drew widespread criticism as it spread on the internet last year. The girl, a student at Spring Valley High School in Columbia, S.C., was dragged from her desk by a school resource officer after she refused to follow a teachers instructions to put away her cell phone. Some who submitted comments to the state board argued that the policies dont go far enough. Limiting the Role of School Resource Officers As sworn law enforcement officials, the school resource officers should only be called when a students behavior has exceeded the level of disruptive conduct, as determined by school administration, based on district policy, or the student is engaging or has engaged in criminal conduct (see Regulation 43- 279 for levels of disruptive and criminal conduct), the proposed school police policy says. A school resource officer should be the first line of contact for local law enforcement to ensure that the matter is resolved expeditiously to decrease significant interruption to the learning process. The role and expectations of school resource officers currently varies among districts, says the policy, which also requires schools to create agreements outlining the responsibilities of law enforcement officers before placing them in their schools. The other regulation seeks to clarify a state law that critics have highlighted as a contributor to unnecessary student arrests and overly punitive school environments . As I wrote in January: The school resource officer arrested the girl and another classmate, who protested the interaction, on charges of "disrupting a school." Under that law, South Carolina students are arrested for offenses that aren't always considered crimes when they are committed off school grounds. In response to the video, some state lawmakers are working to revise South Carolina's "disrupting a school" statute, which prohibits acting "in an obnoxious manner" in a school and behavior that interferes with or disturbs "in any way or in any place the students or teachers of any school or college." ... Their efforts come as advocacy groups around the country are pushing for changes to similar laws in other states. While efforts to limit school-based arrests have largely focused on school and district policies and practices, revising broad state laws that are often used to refer students to law enforcement is also important, they argue. "We're criminalizing what is a lot of routine student behavior," said Sarah Hinger, a staff lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union. "What student disruptions rise to the point of being criminal is very much dependent on how school officials and police officers react and interact with that student behavior." And, because the laws are open to subjective interpretation, they help contribute to higher rates of arrest for minority students, civil rights groups say." State lawmakers have tried and failed to revise or replace the disrupting a school law in the past. Similar efforts have also failed in other states. The new policy in South Carolina is designed to promote more consistent discipline practices statewide by reducing the amount of subjectivity involved in discipline decisions. It sets three levels of misconduct, ranging from behavioral issues like tardiness at Level I to disruptive behaviors, like fighting or abusive language to staff, at Level II, and criminal issues, like assault and major vandalism, at Level III. Suggested consequences within the Level I misconduct category range from verbal reprimand to detention. Level II misconduct includes sanctions ranging from temporary removal from class to expulsion, while Level III misconduct includes sanctions ranging from out-of-school suspension to appropriate action within the criminal justice system. A student who commits a Level II offense may be referred to an outside agency, like law enforcement, the policy says. Some scholars and childrens advocates who submitted comment on the policy argue that it didnt go far enough and still leaves loopholes for overly punitive school discipline. Unfortunately, the proposed regulations miss a significant opportunity to more clearly separate school discipline from law enforcement , Josh Gupta-Kagan, a University of South Carolina law professor, wrote to the state board. Worse, the proposed regulations would codify (I believe unintentionally) a problematic policy of turning every school disturbance into a matter for law enforcement. Photo: A series of screen grabs from video taken by a Spring Valley High School student last year shows Ben Fields, a sheriffs deputy, forcibly removing a student from her desk after she refused to leave her high school math class in Columbia, S.C. Fields was fired, and the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating the incident. --AP Photos Further reading about school police and school resource officers: Follow @evieblad on Twitter or subscribe to Rules for Engagement to get blog posts delivered directly to your inbox. Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale is to tie the knot with her long-term partner after getting engaged during a romantic getaway. The 34-year-old and Louise Riddell, 33, exchanged rings while on holiday in Port de Soller, Majorca, last week. Although the couple have been together since 2008, Ms Dugdale only publicly revealed she is gay four months ago. Kezia Dugdale, right, has announced that she is engaged to long-term partner Louise Riddell The Scottish Labour leader said the couple 'couldn't be happier' after exchanging rings on holiday in Majorca 'I am utterly thrilled to be marrying the love of my life and we can't wait to start planning,' she said. 'We hope this news brings a smile to a few people's faces and we'll certainly be toasting all those campaigners and activists who made marriage equality possible.' Miss Riddell, a lecturer at Edinburgh College, took to Twitter to share a photograph of their rings taken while on holiday. She wrote: 'She put a ring on it.' Both rings were purchased from Glasgow jeweller James Porter and Son. Dozens of well-wishers took to social media to congratulate Miss Dugdale and Miss Riddell. Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson posted on Twitter: 'Huge Congrats to @Kezdugdale & @Real_Riddell on their engagement. Jen & I are delighted for you both. Lovely news.' Former Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont wrote: 'Happy times, lovely news.' Mid-Fife and Glenrothes Nationalist MSP Jenny Gilruth said: 'Huge congratulations to my pals @kezdugdale & @Real_Riddell on their engagement. Lovely news.' Ms Riddell posted a photo on Twitter of the couple after they exchanged rings. They have been together since 2008, although Ms Dugdale only came out as gay publicly four months ago Scottish Conservative leader Rith Davidson was among those offering congratulations Miss Dugdale disclosed that she was gay in an interview in April. She posed alongside Miss Riddell for the first time the following month as the couple cast their votes in the Holyrood election. Miss Dugdale is the fourth Scottish party leader to come out as gay or bisexual, after Miss Davidson, Green co-convener Patrick Harvie and Ukip's David Coburn. In May, Miss Davidson announced that she and her long-term partner Jennifer Wilson had become engaged. Slaughtered: Rachel Nickell was stabbed 49 times and sexually assaulted on Wimbledon Common in South West London in July 1992 Nearly a quarter of a century after a crime which appalled the nation, Rachel Nickells son has returned for the first time to the scene where he witnessed his mothers slaughter. He made a lone pilgrimage to the isolated spot on Wimbledon Common where she was stabbed 49 times and sexually assaulted. There, Alex Hanscombe knelt down and prayed for the 23-year-old devoted mother, expressing gratitude for all she did for him during their precious time together. He said: Thank you mother for everything you gave me. I will always love you.' It was on a hot summers day in July 1992 that Alex, then a month short of his third birthday, was found clinging to his mothers blood-stained body, begging her to get up. For more than two decades, Alex avoided returning to the death scene although the memories of what happened that horrific day were never far away. Horrific memories: Alex Hanscombe, who at the age of three witnessed the rape and murder of his mother, is pictured in Barcelona where he now lives with his father Andre Long-running case: In 2008, serial rapist and triple killer Robert Napper (left) admitted stabbing Rachel to death. His conviction destroyed any continuing, misguided belief that Colin Stagg (right), formerly the chief and only suspect, had anything to do with the crime But now 27, he made a spur of the moment decision to return to where his mother died in such grotesque circumstances. His trip came during research for his book on the case, which is being published in January next year, to coincide with the 25th anniversary of Rachels death. Detailed discussions have taken place with film makers keen to adapt Alexs story for the Big Screen and plans are also afoot for a TV documentary. Speaking in Barcelona, where he lives with his father Andre Hanscombe, 53 Rachels former partner - Alex said that until recently he didnt feel the need to return to the scene of his mothers stabbing. It wasnt that I didnt want to go, but living abroad and having a different life, you move on, he said. When I went back to study in London six years ago, I didnt have the desire to go to the Common. On this occasion, I was in London on a short visit, and it felt like something told me to go back there, to see if being back there brought back any memories or triggered something inside of me. Investigation: Alex made a lone pilgrimage to the isolated spot on Wimbledon Common where his mother was murdered. Police are pictured searching the scene in July 1992 Probe: Police conduct a fingertip search on Wimbledon Common following the 1992 murder I was alone and took the Tube across town, and came out at Wimbledon station. At the beginning, I didnt know exactly where I was heading, I didnt know the route to get from the Tube station to the Common. I went into a newsagents and I asked "do you know the way to the Common?" and they said "no" so I went into the store next door and asked the same question again, and they said "no". When I did actually get to the spot, where she was murdered, I knelt down and said a prayer for my mother, saying how grateful I was for everything she had given me Alex Hanscombe So I just started walking in what I felt was the right direction and eventually as I started to get to the bottom of the Common it started coming back to me, I had a strong feeling of going back home, I could feel my mothers energy around me, stronger than ever before, and I just started walking naturally. I walked past the spot where strangers had picked me up, from where the ambulance had come to collect me, then I made my way back up the route we followed that morning, and back to the spot where my mother was murdered. He said he was not scared of going back. It was curiosity, wanting to go back there. To see what it would bring up, without any expectations, he said. It was in January last year and I think I got there at about 4 oclock in the afternoon. Revisited the scene: Alex knelt down at Wimbledon Common and prayed for the devoted mother, expressing gratitude for all she did for him during their precious time together For more than two decades, Alex avoided returning to the death scene although the memories of what happened that horrific day were never far away It had been a sunny day, like the day my mother was murdered, but it was getting dark because it was winter. I was on the Common for about an hour and when I did actually get to the spot, where she was murdered, I knelt down and said a prayer for my mother, saying how grateful I was for everything she had given me. That was when something magical happened, which I will be discussing in detail in my book. The book, Letting Go a Sons Journey to Find Peace, has taken four years to write and is going into print after a fierce battle between rival publishers. It is likely to make uncomfortable reading for Scotland Yard, with Alex promising to reveal new details and documents exposing the forces shambolic handling of the case. In 2008, serial rapist and triple killer Robert Napper, then 42, admitted stabbing Rachel to death bringing to a close one of the most tragic and baffling crime mysteries in living memory. His conviction for her manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility destroyed any continuing, misguided belief that Colin Stagg, formerly the chief and only suspect, had anything to do with the crime. Police at the scene in 1992: Detectives missed a series of chances to arrest Napper before his four-year spree of sex and rape attacks was brought to a close Searching: Police refused to link Napper to the Wimbledon Common murder despite glaringly obvious similarities and the pleas of a Crown prosecutor to consider him a serious suspect Detectives missed a series of chances to arrest Napper before his four-year spree of sex and rape attacks was brought to a close. Had they taken the first chance to interview him about a rape in 1989, he would never have been at liberty to continue. Then they failed to identify him as a suspect for a further series of rapes and refused to link him to the Wimbledon Common murder despite glaringly obvious similarities and the pleas of a Crown prosecutor to consider him a serious suspect for Rachels murder. The Yards misguided obsession with Stagg the subject of a highly controversial honeytrap operation involving a blonde undercover officer known as Lizzie James and a subsequent police smear campaign resulted in the Pagan devotee receiving a grovelling apology from the Met and a 706,000 compensation pay-out. There was no public apology to Rachels family even though detectives were compelled to admit that had Napper been apprehended back in 1989, Rachel need not have died. Alex has vowed to name the senior officers who he says let him and his family down. He said: It was never my intention to write a book, or to become a writer in any way. It was basically me reaching a point in my life where I felt I had reached an understanding about the things which had happened and I felt that it was my obligation to share it with not only the people who had offered me so much support over the years, but also to inspire people who might be going through difficult situations. It will go back to Nappers first attack, to all the mistakes that were made when he first confessed to his mother about a rape that he had committed, all the way up and to when he was brought to trial in 2008, plus the leaked official documents that we later received, detailing for the first time all the mistakes that the police had tried to bury and the action we attempted to take to put things right. Over the years I have seen how people react very positively to hearing about my experiences. From that I have learned to embrace the story more and now I want to share my experiences more widely, he said. Later in the clip, the talented young ape throws in some forward rolls Enhances performance by holding onto straw as he rotates on back orangutan spins around on his back to entertain visitors to zoo At times animals can be a little shy when it comes to showing off to members of the public at a zoo. But this young orangutan appeared to be in his element breakdancing for visitors. This humorous footage was captured by Douglas Cowley on a recent trip to Australia's Melbourne Zoo. Performer: The ape breakdances while close to the glass wall of his enclosure in Melbourne The video shows the baby ape lying on his back, close to the glass wall of his enclosure. While holding his legs up in the air, he spins around on the floor as visitors - including a young girl - watch in wonderment. The orangutan breakdances for a little while before deciding his performance needs a little prop to enhance it. Reaching out to the side, while rotating slowly, the baby ape grabs some straw and continues to spin with it in his hand. He then momentarily stops and leans his head backwards to look up at the watching crowd - as if looking for some applause. Show off! The orangutan holds his legs up in the air and spins around on the floor for visitors Fan: A little girl watches the performance as the ape continues to try and impress spectators After a short break, the ape then places his feet up on the glass and begins spinning himself around once more. Later in the video, the orangutan showcases more of his skill by throwing in some forward rolls. He then spins on his back - this time extremely quickly so that he is nothing more than a blur of tan-coloured fur. The clip concludes with the young girl looking up at the camera smiling, suggesting the ape has finally won over his crowd. Prop: The ape reaches out and grabs some straw before spinning on his back once more Theresa May caused shock by pausing the 18billion Hinkley Point scheme China has delivered a thinly-veiled warning to Theresa May against cancelling the Hinkley Point nuclear power plant. The Chinese ambassador to London suggested 'mutual trust' between the countries will be damaged if the huge project does not go ahead. The new Prime Minister caused shock when she pressed pause on the 18 billion scheme just hours after the EDF board gave it the final go-ahead in July. David Cameron and former chancellor George Osborne made it a priority to attract investment from the fast-growing superpower, and a Chinese nuclear firm is jointly funding Hinkley Point C with French energy giant EDF. However, allies of Mrs May including her chief of staff Nick Timothy have voiced doubts about whether it it wise to allow China to be so closely involved with key infrastructure. Writing in the Financial Times today, Liu Xiaoming said that he hoped the UK would 'keep its door open' to China. Urging a quick decision, he outlined his country's experience in managing nuclear plants and Britain's energy needs. In his article, the ambassador insisted that the safety and security of the plant was ensured by the UK's regulatory authorities and China's record of 30 years of safe operation of nuclear facilities. He said Chinese companies had invested more in the UK than in Germany, France and Italy combined in the last five years and this was partly down to mutual trust and respect between the two countries. Supporters say the Hinkley Point power plant is crucial to ensure steady energy supplies He said the mutual trust was the foundation for bilateral co-operation. 'Right now, the China-UK relationship is at a crucial historical juncture,' he said. 'I hope the UK will keep its door open to China and that the British government will continue to support Hinkley Point - and come to a decision as soon as possible so that the project can proceed smoothly.' He warned it had not been easy for the two countries to come this far. 'As long as both sides cherish what has been achieved and continue to expand and deepen our co-operation across the board, bilateral relations will maintain their strong momentum and work for the well-being of both the Chinese and British people,' he added. An Austrian mayor has said his town has had enough of Afghan migrants carrying out sexual assaults as it emerged that some locals have discussed setting up vigilante patrols. The Mayor of Moedling, south of the Austrian capital Vienna, spoke out after a girl was groped by four men in a restaurant toilet. Local media said nobody came to help the girl when she cried for help and that the perpetrators, reported to have been young asylum seekers, were able to flee. The Mayor of Moedling, south of the Austrian capital Vienna (file picture), spoke out after a girl was groped by four men in a restaurant toilet One group of residents has reportedly talked about setting up vigilante patrols amidst growing unrest in the town. It comes against a backdrop of unease in the country following a number of similar attacks recently. Over the weekend, two young mothers pushing prams claimed to have been attacked in a park in daylight. The suspect groped and fondled one of the young women, and when the second mother tried to stop him, he attacked her instead and tried to rip off her dress. Police later arrested a 20-year-old man who they said was an asylum seeker from Afghanistan who had arrived in the spring. He is currently being held in investigative custody. A policeman has been given points on his licence after speeding in a Lamborghini he and colleague wrongly seized from a car hire firm. Two officers stopped the 200,000 supercar near London's Heathrow Airport in June and seized the vehicle after claiming it was incorrectly insured. Firm boss Erwyn Mackee, who strongly disputed any problem with the insurance, was left doubly furious after he got the car back and its tracker showed it having done more than 60mph in a 30mph zone. The Met Police have now admitted one of their officers has got penalty points on his licence over the incident and another has faced internal action. This Lamborghini was seized by police and a tracker later caught it doing 60mph in a 30 zone Mr Mackee owns City Supercars in London, a firm which hires out Lamborghinis, Ferraris and Bentleys for thousands of pounds a weekend to wealthy clients. In the early hours of June 2 this year, one of his drivers was pulled over as he drove a 200,000 white Lamborgini Huracan, which was due to be taken to Yorkshire for use at a wedding. Mr Mackee told officers his insurance had recently been renewed and its details were not yet on the Motor Insurance Database. He emailed the documents to police there and then. But officers insisted the documents could be fakes and seized the luxury vehicle, which was later returned to the company after police admitted their mistake. Mr Mackee accused the police of 'joyriding' in his car, adding: 'They must have not had much to do last night and just wanted to look at the car.' A Scotland spokesman told MailOnline that police had since established the Lamborghini had adequate insurance and two officers had faced action. A film made on the night of the incident shows the car before it was wrongly seized by police Tracking data from his car shows it then being driven at more than twice the speed limit The spokesman added: 'After becoming aware of the car owner's concerns, an internal investigation was conducted. 'The police officer who drove the car was given three penalty points on his police driving record. A second officer was subject to management action. 'We are in the process of reimbursing the owner of the car the statutory 150 removal fee.' Police chiefs have refused to name the officers involved. Investigators have revealed that DNA found on the body of murdered New York jogger Karina Vetrano does not match anybody known to police as they set up surveillance cameras around the park where she died. The 30-year-old caterer and speech pathologist had gone out running last Tuesday near her home in Queens but she did not return. Later that day, her body was found in Spring Creek Park near a jogging trail by her father Philip, a retired firefighter. Investigators have revealed that DNA found on the body of murdered New York jogger Karina Vetrano, pictured, does not match anybody known to police Her clothes were in disarray indicating she may have been sexually assaulted while an autopsy showed she had died from strangulation. Detectives working on the murder case have investigated several leads but none have proved significant. Now a law enforcement source has told Newsday that a DNA sample recovered from Miss Vetrano's body has not proved a match with anyone known to the authorities. Meanwhile at a public meeting at St Helen Roman Catholic Church, president of Queens Borough Melinda Katz announced there would be security cameras set up around the park where Miss Vetrano died. Police search the Spring Creek Park in Queens, New York, where Miss Vetrano's body was found. It has been announced surveillance cameras are to be set up around the park Miss Vetrano's body was found by her father Philip, a former firefighter with the FDNY She explained: 'If you enter the park, if you leave the park you will be photographed.' It comes after Miss Vetrano's mother warned that her daughter's killer must know the world is seeking justice. Speaking outside the family home in Howard Beach, Cathy Vetrano said: 'The whole world will know what a pathetic, puny, weak piece of filth you are. 'I guarantee you - you will pay forever. While her father Philip explained that the family is counting on the hard work by the NYPD to find the killer. Yesterday the victim's mother Cathy warned that her daughter's killer would 'pay forever' for their crime Mrs Vetrano also branded the killer 'a pathetic, puny, weak piece of filth' while speaking outside her home in Howard Beach He said: 'Justice will be served.' Miss Vetrano's parents spoke out just a day after laying their daughter to rest in her funeral held at St Helen Roman Catholic Church in Howard Beach, Queens on Saturday. There was standing room only available at the service, which was broadcast on speakers to those who could not fit inside the church. Reverand Francis Colamaria, who delivered the eulogy, said Vetrano was dedicated to health and fitness. This parish, this family, this neighborhood, our city, is gathered here in prayer racked by grief by the loss of Karina,' he said. On Saturday, Miss Vetrano was laid to rest after her funeral at St Helen's Catholic Church in Queens Vetrano's coffin was draped in white and gold. Members of the FDNY lined up outside the door of the church as Vetrano's coffin was brought inside. Her father is a veteran of the force. Vetrano's funeral comes just after police found the jogger's missing sneaker and earphones about 60 feet away from her battered body. The blue and gold New Balance sneaker and the earphones were found in opposite directions of each other in the tall-weeded park. A British Airways flight was targeted in a laser beam attack as it prepared to land at London's Heathrow Airport last night. The beam was shone at BA flight 759 from Bergen in Norway as it came in to land at 9.20pm. Nobody was hurt in the incident and, according to a Metropolitan Police spokesman, no arrests have been made. Officers from Hounslow are continuing to investigate. The incident was the latest in a string of laser pen attacks on passenger jets that have sparked safety concerns. Experts have warned that lasers can dazzle pilots - and if they are distracted at a critical time, such as during take-off or landing, the result could be disastrous. This is how powerful a laser can look to pilots when it is shone at their aircraft Such laser incidents can create major dangers when aimed at aircraft (file picture) especially takeoff and landing. Pilots can be dazzled by the beams and even have their eyesight damaged In April, experts warned that 1,500 planes had been targeted by lasers over the UK in the space of 12 months. Such attacks are on the rise in the UK, with an average of four a day, according to an editorial published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology. Figures from the Civil Aviation Authority show more laser incidents were reported at Heathrow than any other airport in the UK last year. A total of 121 such attacks were recorded during the course of 2015 compared with 168 the previous year. Birmingham airport was the second worst affected by the problem. The plane was targeted as it headed in to Heathrow in London from Bergen in Norway. The attack happened moments before it landed at 9.20pm Shining a laser at a plane is a criminal offence in the UK and a conviction can carry a maximum of five years in prison. However, the British Airline Pilots' Association (Balpa) wants tougher measures imposed. Former RAF and BA pilot Stephen Landells, flight safety specialist at Balpa, told MailOnline earlier this year: 'People need to realise that shining a laser at an aircraft endangers the passengers, the crew and people on the ground.' While it is illegal to shine a laser pen, such as the one pictured, at a plane, the pilots' association wants them classified as potential weapons in order to clamp down on yobs who use them The association has called for all but the lowest-powered lasers to be restricted and wants them recognised in law as potential weapons in the same way knives are. This would mean police would have improved powers to search people they suspect are carrying a laser, confiscate it and arrest them unless they have a good reason for having it. A British Airways spokesman declined to discuss the incident that happened yesterday but said: 'The safety of our customers and crew is always our top priority. 'Our pilots report any incidents so that the authorities can investigate and take appropriate action. A British holidaymaker is fighting for her life after she fell on a dance floor at a Greek nightclub and a 15-stone gas canister toppled from the bar onto her face. Invoice clerk Laurie Jay Balfour, from Edlington, South Yorkshire, was partying with friends two days into her holiday in Zante when the freak accident happened. The 25-year-old is now in a coma after being airlifted to hospital in Athens. Invoice clerk Laurie Jay Balfour (pictured), from Edlington, South Yorkshire, was partying with friends two days into her holiday in Zante when the freak accident happened Ms Balfour had only just gone onto the dance floor with friends Claire Tomlinson and Lauren Brown at a club on the Laganas Strip party zone when she fell Laurie Jay Balfour is pictured, far right, with friends just hours before the accident happened Ms Balfour had only just gone onto the dance floor with friends Claire Tomlinson and Lauren Brown at a club on the Laganas Strip party zone when she fell. Somehow, she dislodged a nitrogen gas cylinder which her friend said was just 'perched' on the bar. Lauren, 24, said: 'Claire turned round and saw what had happened to Laurie and said there was that much blood there that it looked like a murder scene. 'Her eye immediately swelled, blood was pouring out her broken nose as she lay there.' Bar staff acted quickly and there was a medical centre two doors down. She added: 'They attached a mask to Laurie to aid her breathing and called an ambulance to take her to the hospital. 'Afterwards the doctors said that if the medical centre wasn't there that she wouldn't have made it. Ms Balfour somehow dislodged a nitrogen gas cylinder which her friend said was just 'perched' on the bar Her friends have set up a fundraising page which has already raised more than 4,000 to help the family 'The doctors would only speak to immediate family. We were waiting there for five hours, sobbing and not knowing what would happen. 'They kept saying to us 'it's a big disaster, it's a big disaster' when we asked how she was. We thought she was dead.' Ms Balfour, from Edlington, near Doncaster, was airlifted by an army jet to Athens where medics performed emergency brain surgery to save her life in the early hours of the morning of August 3. Lauren added: 'Fluid had gathered on the brain and she had a bleed so the hospital had to remove part of Laurie's skull to allow any swelling not make matters worse. 'Laurie is such a funny, bubbly and caring person, I really can't believe this has happened to her. 'She would do anything for anyone, she's such a good person.' The 25-year-old invoice clerk is now in a coma after being airlifted to hospital in Athens The only child's parents Deana and Philip are keeping a bedside vigil in Athens. Her friends who have now returned devastated to the UK say Ms Balfour is still fighting for her life. She has shown tiny signs of brain activity over the last 48 hours, giving her loved ones hope she will pull through. Her friends have set up a fundraising page which has already raised more than 4,000 to help the family. Lauren added: 'I can't imagine what her parents are going through. She's their only child and this has been so awful for everyone. 'We just want to be able to help them with whatever they need, because it's going to be a long road to recovery for Laurie, and who knows how long it's going to take. 'The insurance company have been informed and are hopefully going to pay out for her medical treatment, but at the moment her parents are having to pay for everything out of their own pockets. Australians have taken a swipe at Chinese Olympian fans by accusing gold medallist Sun Yang of loving Star Wars' unpopular character Jar Jar Binks on social media. The controversial swimmer won gold in the 200 metre men's freestyle on Tuesday but has since been subjected to ridicule amid the bitter war of words against Australian gold medallist Mack Horton over doping. The pair have been embroiled in an ongoing feud since Horton called Yang a drug cheat both before and after the Australian won gold in the event on Saturday. And to add more fuel to the fire, Australians are taking the jab at Chinese supporters in a hilarious exchange on Twitter by claiming Yang is a fan of Jar Jar Binks - a goofy amphibious character who irritated fans in the 1999 film The Phantom Menace. Scroll down for video Olympic viewers have created memes of the Chinese swimmer following his bitter rift with Australian gold medallist Mack Horton who called him a drug cheat over the weekend Australians have claimed Yang's favourite Star Wars movie is the 1999 film 'The Phantom Menace' featuring Jar Jar Binks (right) - a goofy amphibious character who irritated fans Australians are swiping at Chinese fans by accusing Yang of loving Star Wars' Jar Jar Binks Titus O'Reily said: 'Not only is Sun Yang a drug cheat, his favourite Star Wars movie is The Phantom Menace because of Jar Jar Binks. He also hates puppies.' The comment sparked after a Sun Yang supporter hit back at the 'drug cheat' claims about the Chinese swimmer, calling of Australians to show 'evidence'. 'Please respect the truth. He didn't take the drug, and the Star Wars things you mentioned are fabricated by yourself,' Ivy Ray tweeted. 'Show me valid evidence. Please don't quote "he said", "she said" or "we think".' The comment sparked after a Sun Yang supporter hit back at the 'drug cheat' claims Viewers have created memes of the Chinese swimmer in response to the 'drug cheat' claims And Australians didn't hold back, with one woman creating a meme of Yang celebrating after winning gold, with a speech bubble saying: 'I love Jar Jar Binks from the popular film franchise "Star Wars"!' 'I found some evidence, I can't believe he chose that significant moment to say that,' Ti Butler tweeted along with the image. Dave Slater posted a photo of Yang holding up a medal with a face of Jar Jar Binks on it. Gold Olympian medallist winner Horton of Australia (centre) pictured with Yang (right, silver) Australians are taking the jab at Chinese supporters in a hilarious exchange on social media And one man defended the Star Wars character who irritated fans in the 1999 filmed 'Now do the reverse! Jar Jar Binks holding a medal with Sun Yang's head on it!' Brad Sabbath said in a response to the image. Pattus M wrote: 'y'know, I heard Sun Yang is a fan of Jar Jar Binks.' Gold Medal B***es said: '#SunYang has an inner thigh tattoo that reads 'mesa swim safa- Jar Jar Binks'.' The superintendent of Baltimore County, Md., schools wants to set aside the gifted and talented label for students in favor of a more inclusive category, a move that has some parents worried, the Baltimore Sun reports . Dallas Dance, the superintendent of the 111,000-student district (not to be confused with Baltimore City schools) wants to codify a category called advanced academics, which would include gifted and talented students as well as students taking Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses. From the Sun article: Baltimore County selects its [gifted] students in 3rd and 5th grades based on achievement and other, more subjective criteria, including personality, creativity, curiosity, and ability to concentrate. Roughly one-fifth of students qualify. In the past, such students typically were given their own classes, in which teachers guided them through a curriculum developed specifically for them. But last year, the county changed its approach. In the elementary grades, teachers now teach different levels of students in the same classroom. They break students into groups by ability, and then work their way around the classroom, instructing each of the groups according to its level. Educators say the small-group model allows them to move students in and out of groups more easily. ... [Wade Kerns, the county's coordinator of advanced academics] said the term gifted and talented is too narrow to encompass the range of the district's offerings for bright students. But advocates for the gifted and talented said the proposal may run afoul of state law. The National Association for Gifted Children, which maintains a national database on state policy, notes that Maryland is required both to identify and provide services for students who are gifted and talented . Baltimore County officials say its new policy will still follow those mandates. That doesnt comfort some. When you dont name a population, identification issues arise, Julie Miller-Breetz, a parent of gifted and talented children, told the newspaper. Related Stories: for the latest news on special education policies, practices, and trends. A Muslim Uber driver who was jailed for life for the murder of a shopkeeper he believed had disrespected the Prophet Muhammad saluted his supporters as he was led away from the dock today. Tanveer Ahmed, 32, travelled from Yorkshire to Glasgow to confront Asad Shah, 40, at his store in the city's Shawlands area before pulling out a knife and stabbing him 30 times in March. Ahmed, of Bradford, West Yorkshire, claimed to have been offended by clips Mr Shah had posted online which he said 'disrespected the Prophet Muhammad'. The father-of-three was today jailed for a minimum of 27 years at the High Court in Glasgow. As Ahmed was led away, he raised a clenched fist and shouted loudly: 'Praise for the Prophet Muhammad, there is only one Prophet.' Tanveer Ahmed, 32, travelled from Yorkshire to Glasgow to confront Asad Shah at his store in the city's Shawlands area before pulling out a knife and stabbing the 40-year-old on March 24 As Ahmed was led away, he raised a clenched fist and shouted loudly: 'Praise for the Prophet Muhammad, there is only one Prophet.' Some of the 40 supporters (pictured) who attended today's sentencing responded by raising their arms and repeating the phrase Some of the 40 supporters who attended today's sentencing responded by raising their arms and repeating the phrase as he was taken out of the dock. Meanwhile, new CCTV footage has emerged which shows the moment Ahmed confronted Mr Shah about his religious beliefs in the small newsagents just minutes before he fatally stabbed him. The court heard 'pillar of the community' Mr Shah was stabbed 30 times with a kitchen knife and his head was stamped on in the vicious assault outside his shop. Mr Shah's brother and a shop assistant had tried to fend Ahmed off as he launched his attack on the popular businessman but could not prevent the brutal murder. Today, new CCTV footage has emerged which shows the moment Ahmed confronted Mr Shah about his religious beliefs in the small newsagents just minutes before he fatally stabbed him As Ahmed (pictured) was led away from the dock following his sentencing, he raised a clenched fist and shouted: 'Praise for the Prophet Muhammad, there is only one Prophet' The court heard that Ahmed, a Sunni Muslim, drove from Bradford to Glasgow on March 24 and engaged in a discussion with Mr Shah, who belonged to the Ahmadi sect of Islam, at his store before pulling out a knife and attacking the shopkeeper. En route to Glasgow he had watched online footage of Mr Shah and made the comment 'something needs to be done, it needs to be nipped in the bud'. The respected businessman was stabbed 30 times and had his head stamped on in the vicious assault outside the shop, pictured, in the Shawlands area of Glasgow In CCTV footage of Mr Shah's murder Ahmed is seen arriving at the shop at around 9pm, where Mr Shah was working with assistant Stephen McFadyen. His brother Athar, a personal assistant, was working in the basement below. Advocate deputy Iain McSporran told the court the pair conversed 'intensely' in Urdu. 'His demeanour and gestures are at least consistent with his account that he was attempting to persuade the shopkeeper to his point of view,' he said. Ahmed, pictured in a court sketch, claimed Mr Shah 'disrespected Islam by claiming he was a prophet' 'From what we can see of Mr Shah, he is responding but not apparently agreeing with the accused. 'The accused, having apparently not received the response he was looking for, reaches into the robes he is wearing and removes a knife with which he attacks Asad Shah, moving behind the counter to do so.' 'Stephen McFadyen, who was working nearby in the shop, approaches and attempts to assist but the incident is fast moving and he is unable to prevent the attack, involving repeated stab wounds aimed at the head and upper body, continuing.' Mr Shah's funeral, pictured, was attended by family, friends and politicians of several different faiths Police seized an Uber taxi, pictured, belonging to Ahmed from a road in Glasgow near the shop Mr Shah can be seen attempting to flee outside, where the 'determined' attack continued despite attempts from Mr McFadyen and Mr Shah's brother to intervene. The barrister said: 'While the attack continued, with the accused kneeling on the victim, pinning him to the ground, Stephen McFadyen bravely reached for the knife and grabbed it from the accused, running across the road and placing it in bushes out of harm's way. 'The accused then began punching, kicking and stamping with full force on the prone body of Asad Shah, who was long past being in any position to defend himself. 'Many blows were delivered to his head and face, despite Athar's repeated pleas for him to stop. 'The attack ceased suddenly and the accused walked calmly to a bus shelter nearby where he sat, head bowed as if in prayer.' A passing GP and nurse attempted to help Mr Shah, who was taken to hospital but he died shortly before 10pm. Almost every bone in his face was shattered. When police found Ahmed in the nearby bus shelter, he said: 'I respect what you do and I have nothing against you and so I am not going to hurt you. I have broken the law and appreciate how you are treating me.' Police Scotland, pictured at the scene, have warned the country is 'no place for religious intolerance' in the wake of the murder Scottish officers, pictured at the scene, worked with colleagues in West Yorkshire Police on the case The Shah family, who moved to Scotland from Pakistan in the 1990s to escape persecution, belong to the Ahmadi sect of Islam whose beliefs differ from the majority of Muslims. The court heard their belief that Prophet Muhammad was not the final prophet was a view many consider blasphemous. The sect believes that founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmad is the messiah and a prophet, and it was this which 'offended Ahmed's faith'. The court heard Mr Shah had posted videos on Facebook and YouTube which could be interpreted as him claiming that he was a Prophet. 'It so offended his [Ahmed's] feelings and faith that he had to kill him,' Mr McSporran said. Police cordoned off the scene of the attack, pictured, and roads were closed for several hours Forensic teams, pictured, were seen scouring the road for evidence while witnesses reported seeing pools of blood on the ground HOW AHMADI MOVEMENT DIFFERS FROM OTHER BRANCHES OF ISLAM Mr Shah was a member of the Ahmadi movement, a minority denomination of Islam which is seen as heretical by some orthodox Muslims because they believe that founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmad is the messiah and a prophet. In some predominantly Muslim countries Ahmadis are persecuted, and in Pakistan a constitutional amendment passed in 1974 declaring Ahmadiyya non-Muslims. The Ahmadi movement, which has its origins in British-controlled northern India in the late 19th Century, identifies itself as a Muslim movement and follows the teachings of the Koran. However, it is regarded by orthodox Muslims as heretical because it does not believe that Mohammed was the final prophet sent to guide mankind, as orthodox Muslims believe is laid out in the Koran. The religion is believed to have around 10 million followers. The Ahmadiyya community faces restrictions in many Muslim nations, where followers are constantly persecuted Sources at a Glasgow mosque say there are only 500 Ahmadi in Scotland, with around 400 of them based in and around Glasgow. Many of them are thought to have known Mr Shah. Advertisement In a statement released through his lawyer after the killing, Ahmed said : 'If I had not done this others would have and there would be more killings and violence in the world.' Mr Shah was described by his family as a 'brilliant' man and a 'well-known and clearly much-loved member of the community'. A statement released on behalf of the family said: 'Asad's family have lost a peaceful, kind and loving brother, son and uncle who can never be replaced. 'Most of his family have now left or are in the process of leaving Scotland, a country they came to seek safety in. 'They are grateful to the Lord Advocate, Crown Office and Police Scotland for their hard work and compassion.' Defence counsel Gordon Jackson QC said the attack was 'not motivated by animosity against a particular community', or because Mr Shah wrote a message on social media for his Christian friends. He added that Ahmed took a knife with him because he wasn't sure of the reaction he would get but not intend to use it, until the situation was 'enflamed'. Mr Jackson said: 'He wished reason, he wished to talk, he wished to get some acknowledgement from Mr Shah as to what he was saying, some acknowledgement of the wrongfulness as far as he was concerned.' He said: 'Things were said, which to his mind was so disrespectful, that he just lost it. The irony is he won't repeat them he simply will not repeat what was said even to me.' Mr Shah was described as a 'well-loved member of the community' and many people gathered outside the shop, pictured, in the aftermath to pay tribute to him At the High Court in Glasgow judge Lady Rae told Ahmed: ' This was a barbaric, premeditated and wholly unjustified killing of a much loved man who was a pillar of the local community. 'He was described as a peaceful and peace-loving man and family man who went out of his way to show respect for those of any faith.' She branded the attack as 'an appalling display of merciless violence' as he ignored the pleas from Mr Shah's brother to stop. She added: 'No one in any civilised country including Scotland has the right to take the life of another whatever offence that individual perceives that he or she has suffered. 'It is vitally important in modern society that respect and tolerance for others of any race, creed, colour, ethinc origin or religious belief is maintained and protected by the law of the land.' She added: 'I note with considerable concern that you have expressed no remorse whatsoever for this appalling crime.' The family said after his killing: 'He was a brilliant man, recognising that the differences between people are vastly outweighed by our similarities. 'Asad left us a tremendous gift and we must continue to honour that gift by loving and taking care of one another.' Customers who laid flowers, pictured, also described Mr Shah as a 'pillar of the community' and a 'wonderful and gentle man' Floral tributes, pictured, were also left outside the scene while a silent vigil was attended by hundreds of people including Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon A victim statement from the shopkeeper's family - his wife, parents and six siblings - said they could no longer live normal lives and some intend to leave Scotland. His parents said: 'We brought our children to this country to seek refuge from Pakistan in 1991 fleeing persecution, religious hatred, discrimination and a danger to our lives because we were Ahmadis. 'We never thought that we could be in danger here. 'We feel imprisoned by our pain and suffering and we have little hope of ever having a normal life again. 'Most of the family, unable to live with this turmoil, pain and fear, has taken a decision to leave Scotland forever.' Religious leaders said it was the 'first time that an Ahmadi Muslim has been killed on British soil because of his beliefs'. Rafiq Hayat, National President of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association UK, said: 'In Glasgow, as in many parts of the world, we have witnessed the evil of a warped and poisonous ideology of hate, that is at war with the whole of humanity. 'Our thoughts and prayers are with Mr Shah and his family who have suffered immensely as a result of this brutal killing. No one should suffer or be murdered, least of all for their faith. 'But out of this dark episode we also saw the spirit of humanity, as the city came together in a show of solidarity to show their support for Mr Shah and to take a united stand against extremism. 'Mr Shah's only crime was to spread a message of love and compassion and the whole city paid tribute to him for his kindness and care. 'No matter how brutal the crime and how evil the ideology, the people of Glasgow and the UK have made clear that we will not let hate prevail. 'We welcome the fact that justice has been served and our community will continue to work with others in this proud and great city to build a legacy of love.' Mr Shah's customers and friends flocked to the store the day after the attack to lay flowers and tributes to the shopkeeper they described as a 'pillar of the community' and a 'wonderful and gentle man'. A silent vigil was held outside his shop attended by hundreds of people including First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. A teenager accused of killing an American tourist and injuring five other people in London's Russell Square appeared at the Old Bailey today. Zakaria Bulhan, 19, is charged with the murder of retired teacher Darlene Horton, 64, who was knifed to death in central London just hours before she was due to fly home. The Norwegian national, of Somali origin, is also charged with the attempted murder of Martin Hoenisch, Lillie Selletin, David Imber, Bernard Hepplewhite and Yovel Lewkowski, who were all injured in the same attack. Zakaria Bulhan, 19, (left) is accused of murdering retired teacher Darlene Horton, 64, (right) at Russell Square last Wednesday evening Bulhan, pictured in a court sketch, appeared at the Old Bailey and will face trial next February Bulhan, who moved to the UK in 2002, was arrested on Wednesday 3 August after police were called to reports of a man attacking people with a knife at around 10.30pm. He appeared in court today by videolink from Wandsworth prison. Baby-faced Bulhan, wearing a green and yellow, prison-issue jumpsuit sat behind a desk during the brief hearing, where the defendant was not represented. He spoke only to confirm his name. The Recorder of London, Judge Nicholas Hilliard, QC, set a provisional trial date for 6 February. The scene last week after pedestrians were injured in a series of knife attacks Floral tributes have been laid at the scene where a US tourist was stabbed and later died Mother-of-two Ms Horton, was visiting London with her university professor husband Richard Wagner, who was teaching summer classes in the UK. They had planned to return home to Tallahassee, in Florida the following day. Israeli tourist Yovel Lewkowski, 18, who was visiting London from Tel Aviv, was stabbed in the upper arm during the attack. An online casino has been slammed after trolling Madeleine McCann's family in a sick tweet about Manchester United's new 100million signing Paul Pogba. Bookmakers' Fruity King Casino sparked outrage after comparing United allowing the French midfielder to leave for Juventus only to buy him back again to Kate and Gerry McCann leaving their children alone on the night their daughter vanished. The couple had left Madeleine and her younger brother and sister in their apartment in the Portuguese holiday resort of Praia da Luz while they went out for dinner at a tapas restaurant. An online casino has been slammed after trolling Madeleine McCann's family in this sick tweet about Manchester United's new 100million signing Paul Pogba The Fruity King Casino tweet said: 'Letting Poga go on a free, then buying him back @ 100m. Worst decision since the McCanns went for dinner. #Pogback'. But the message was met with fury from Twitter users, who branded the firm unprofessional and 'shameful'. One wrote: 'What a lovely company you must be to make fun of an abducted child. #Blocked.' Another said: 'Slightly disgusting for a company wanting to get big #getsomemorals.' Kate and Gerry McCann (right) had left Madeleine (left) and her younger brother and sister in their apartment in the Portuguese holiday resort of Praia da Luz while they went out for dinner at a tapas restaurant And one user added: 'Wow, does somebody somewhere actually think this is funny? What an embarrassment of a company you are.' Fruity Casino sent the tweet just days after it was announced that British police searching for Madeleine, who vanished in 2007 aged three, had 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'. The Fruity King message was met with fury from Twitter users, who branded the firm unprofessional and 'shameful' It was hoped the tests could be carried out on hairs recovered from the flat that the family, from Rothley, Leicestershire, were staying in. Former Prime Minister David Cameron, 49, launched Operation Grange in May 2011 - an investigation into the disappearance. 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. Manchester United's world-record signing was announced overnight, with Pogba (pictured) rejoining the club he left for next to nothing in 2012 The announcement was 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. Manchester United's world-record signing was announced overnight, with Pogba rejoining the club he left for next to nothing in 2012. The 23-year-old will wear the No 6 shirt and has signed a bumper 290,000-per-week, five-year contract to work under Jose Mourinho. There is also the option to extend for a further year. The deal to bring him to Old Trafford will reach 100m once add-ons and agents' fees are taken into account. The Pogba tweet is not the first time Fruity King has been at the centre of a controversy. In April the firm posted a picture of Amy Schumer in her underwear with the caption: 'Don't call Amy Schumer plus-size. Behind every fat woman there is a beautiful woman. No seriously, your in the way (sic.)' It came just hours after the 34-year-old expressed dismay at being labelled 'plus-sized' by Glamour magazine, taking to Instagram to say that it was 'not cool'. And in January the firm was labelled 'utterly disgraceful' in January after tweeting a photograph of the Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure with his wife of 12 years, Gineba, saying: 'Sure she's bubbly but someone needs to remind Yaya Toure he's on 22,000-a-week. Start abusing this privilege.' Delta passengers face a second day of disruption today as the airline has cancelled another 300 flights and scrambles to find seats for customers who were unable to travel yesterday. The carrier says they are still operating in 'recovery mode' following a crippling power outage at their global headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, which saw all planes grounded for at least five hours on Monday. They were able to get their computers working again mid-way through yesterday morning - but by then thousands of passengers were left stranded with more than 700 flights canceled and 2,600 delayed. The Delta check in area at Tokyo's Narita Airport was packed full of people waiting to check in for their flights this morning The airline are trying to find seats for passengers whose flights were canceled from Japan as well as board passengers scheduled to fly today Delta check in agents had thousands of passengers to process at Narita Airport in Tokyo this morning Two weary young travellers sit on a luggage trolley as they wait in a long line with their parents to check in for their Delta flight in Tokyo Today the knock-on effect of the systems crash is still being felt after Delta announced that at least 300 services would be axed, adding to the misery of customers. Most of the cancelled flights will affect services due to depart this morning. They also face the challenge to find enough seats on planes during the busy summer season to accommodate the tens of thousands of passengers who were unable to travel yesterday. Airlines depend on huge, overlapping and complicated systems to operate flights, schedule crews and run ticketing, boarding, airport kiosks, websites and mobile phone apps. Even brief outages can snarl traffic and cause long delays. It has been predicted that it could be tomorrow at the earliest before the Delta schedule returns to normal. Meanwhile the company urged customers that are set to travel with them today to check the status of their flight on their website or phone app. It comes as it emerged that more than 1,000 passengers were forced to spend the night at Narita Airport in Tokyo yesterday due to Delta's computer crash. And although flights were resuming from Japan to the United States this morning, passengers were warned more delays could be expected. One Delta passenger uses his luggage as a place to rest his legs while waiting in front of the airline's ticket counter in Tokyo Two bored looking young boys caught up in the Delta computer shutdown try to amuse themselves as they wait in line in Tokyo airport More than 1,000 passengers were forced to spend the night at Narita Airport in Tokyo after their Delta flights were cancelled yesterday American Jeff Quigley, who managed two hours of sleep at the airport after his flight to Manila was delayed, said: 'What a nightmare. I fly four to eight times a month, and this is the worst thing I've experienced so far.' A spokesman for Narita Airport confirmed that more than 1,000 passengers stayed overnight in the terminal by sleeping in an arrival lobby. Among the cancelled Delta flights from Tokyo were two to Honolulu and one each to New York, Minneapolis, Los Angeles and Atlanta. The carrier is now also facing serious questions over what led to the catastrophic computer failure - but they won't reveal the details of what happened. The FBI have insisted the glitch was not the result of a hack or any criminal activity. The airline began to hand out snacks and other refreshments at Newark Liberty International Airport as thousands of flights were canceled or delayed Lines to check in snaked right down the terminal at Baltimore Washington International on Monday as Delta's computers stayed down for more than five hours Delta Airlines passengers wait in line at a ticket counter yesterday at Newark Liberty International Airport, one of the major transport hubs surrounding New York City A spokesman for Delta Airlines told Daily Mail Online they had been informed it was a 'power outage'. A spokesman for Georgia Power said that the company believes a failure of Delta equipment caused the airline's power outage. He said no other customers lost power. Delta declined to comment on the power company's report. However it has led to concerns over why there wasn't a backup generator or a better contingency plan in place. Delta's CEO Ed Bastian apologized to passengers on Monday, insisting his staff did everything they could to get their systems back to full capacity. In a video posted on Delta's social media channels, Bastian said: 'I'm speaking to you today from our operations and customer center where we've got Delta teams working around the clock to restore our system capability. 'As I'm sure you can appreciate, it's a all hands on deck effort. We lost power about 2:30 this morning, which caused us to implement the ground stop that we put in place at five. 'I apologize for the challenges this has created for you with your travel experience. The Delta team is working very, very hard to restore and get these systems back as quickly as possible.' Passengers pack in to the Delta Airlines boarding area at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas yesterday to wait for their delayed flight Huge queues were spotted elsewhere around the world yesterday morning, including the departures hall at Rome's Leonardo Da Vinci airport The power failure didn't just impact airports, but also shut down the airline's websites, apps, booking systems and phone services. It meant passengers travelling to the airport or preparing to leave could not get information on their flight. Delta said customers whose flights were canceled or delayed more than three hours could get a refund and $200 in travel vouchers. Travelers on some routes can also make a one-time change to the ticket without paying Delta's usual change fee of $200 for domestic flights and up to $500 for international flights. Yesterday in Richmond, Virginia, Delta gate agents were writing out boarding passes by hand. In Tokyo, a dot-matrix printer was resurrected to keep track of passengers on a flight to Shanghai. Some passengers said they were shocked that computer glitches could cause such turmoil. Others took it in stride. Barbara Gaines, holds up handwritten boarding cards she was given as she passed through Edinburgh, Scotland, on the way to New York's JFK yesterday In Washington DC, the a massive line formed at the Delta check-in desks as staff were unable to process passengers Delta passengers wait at the gate at Orlando International unable to go anywhere due to the grounding of all of the airline's flights yesterday morning Ashley Roache, who was delayed while travelling from Lexington, Kentucky, to New York's La Guardia said: ' By the time I showed up at the gate the employees were already disgruntled, and it was really difficult to get anybody to speak to me or get any information. 'The company could have done a better job of explaining ... what was happening.' While Ryan Shannon, another passenger on the Lexington-to-New York flight, said passengers boarded, were asked to exit, waited about 90 minutes and then got back on the plane. Once Delta cleared flights to take off, 'we boarded and didn't have any problems. There is always a delay, or weather, or something. I travel weekly, so I'm used to it,' Shannon said with a laugh. Delta ranks as the third-largest in the world by number of passengers carried, with 138.8million travelers last year, according to industry group IATA. The parents of fallen American soldier Humayun Khan have blamed Donald Trump for rising intolerance towards Muslims. Khizr Khan and his wife Ghazala said most Americans did not agree with Trump's 'nonsense' but they said he had given a voice to an intolerant and xenophobic minority. The Khans first made headlines last month when they spoke at the Democratic National Convention and were then involved in a row with Trump, who claimed the soldier's mother had not been allowed to speak up for religious or cultural reasons. Scroll down for video Mr Khan and his wife, seen here at the Democratic National Convention, say the majority of Americans are decent and are appalled by Trump's jingoism Trump was widely perceived to have blundered by criticizing a Gold Star family and his aides have been furiously trying to move on, despite the GOP candidate himself refusing to apologize for his remarks. Trump's campaign chief Paul Manafort said: 'He said he respects and is totally sympathetic to the sacrifices that family has made. And he's talking about the son, and he's talking about the family.' But now, in an interview with USA Today, the Khans have gone on the offense again, claiming Trump was to blame for a growing intolerance towards Muslims. Mr Khan said things had changed a great deal since they first came to the US from Pakistan, via Dubai, in 1980. They said they had been made welcome and neighbors had offered food, cake and drinks when they first moved in and their refrigerator was not working. Critics from both parties have questioned whether Trump had the empathy and understanding to be president after he lashed out in reaction to the speech Mr Khan made at the Democratic National Convention Captain Humayun Khan, pictured, died a heroic death in Iraq in 2009 while serving in the United States Army. He was the first University of Virginia graduate killed in combat since Vietnam But now Mr Khan, 66, said: 'You see people wearing scarves, people are pointing fingers at them and throwing them out of flights and calling them names when they pass by and all of that. 'Most Americans are against this kind of nonsense, but there is an element that has gotten voice, has been encouraged by this political rhetoric, and especially this election season has made it worse.' Mr Khan said Trump's call to ban all Muslim immigrants and his corrosive remarks about Mexicans had encouraged a certain minority of Americans. 'The voices that wouldn't dare because they were afraid of the decent America to condemn them... have gathered courage to show their ugliness,' he said. The couple have received hundreds of letters and cards at their home - mostly positive - often addressed simply to 'Mr and Mrs Khan, Charlottesville, VA'. They fill a cardboard banker's box and are still coming in thick and fast. Mr and Mrs Khan say they will read and respond to as many as possible. Mr Khan said when they go out to dinner or to community events the American-born children of Muslim immigrants sometimes come up to him. 'They would come to me, personally close to me, and they'll say "Mr Khan, you're a lawyer. Will we be thrown out of this country?"' He said some had told him their classmates taunt them at school, saying: 'You will be thrown out when Trump becomes president.' Mrs Khan said she had received a call from her niece, who had grown up in the US but spent the last two years in Pakistan. 'She called me "Auntie, I'm so disturbed because all I have heard in Pakistan, Trump is going to teach Muslims a lesson".' A 24-year-old killed when he looked out of train window on the Gatwick Express has been described as a 'railway fanatic' who had just landed his dream job as a train engineer. Simon Brown, 24, from East Grinstead, in Sussex, suffered fatal injuries when he was struck in the head by a signal gantry on Sunday afternoon. Railway obsessive Simon Brown had just started a new job as an engineering technician for Hitachi near Bristol and had moved to the city with his girlfriend Missy Wilson (pictured right) His family today paid tribute to the railway obsessive who had recently been hired as an engineering technician with Hitachi overseeing the introduction of new electric trains on the Great Western mainline. He had previously worked as an apprentice with Southern Trains, the firm which operated the Gatwick Express service he was travelling on when he died. His father, Mike Brown, a former City worker, said: 'As soon as he could toddle, Simon was into trains. At nine he volunteered with the Bluebell (heritage) Railway in West Sussex and became a station master. 'He worked on a Great Northern restoration project and left school at 18 to start an apprenticeship with Southern Trains. 'He'd only got the job with Hitachi a couple of months ago and had moved to Stoke Gifford (near Bristol) to be with his girlfriend.' Mr Brown died after being struck by a signal gantry when he stuck his head out of a window Mr Brown's girlfriend Missy Wilson, a student education leader at the University of the West of England, was being comforted by her family at her home in Kilgetty, Pembrokeshire. The pair were pictured smiling together last month at Miss Wilson's graduation ceremony. Mr Brown first volunteered as a nine year old on the Bluebell Line, a steam heritage railway near his family home in East Grinstead, Sussex In joint tribute with Mr Brown's family, she said: 'Simon was a warm, loving individual whose unbounded passion and enthusiasm for life and all things related to trains of any kind from model railways through steam to modern day rail transport infected everyone he met. 'He will be sorely missed not only by his partner, his family and his friends but also by his many colleagues throughout the rail industry.' Mr Brown's family and girlfriend (Missy Wilson, pictured together left) paid tribute to the railway obsessive, calling him a 'lovely' man who would 'help everyone' His friend Reuben Smith, 24, said: 'Simon was always there if you needed him and saw the best in everyone. 'I heard about his death yesterday through some friends and I'm still in shock. Yesterday I didn't want to believe it.' A funding page has been set up by Mr Smith, who was works as a rail conductor, to help pay for Mr Brown's funeral and raise money for a memorial train at Bluebell. Writing on his fundraising page, Mr Smith said: 'Simon was a great friend of ours and a real light in the railway world. He was always smiling, cheerful and would bend over backwards to help anyone. There's now a massive hole in our close-knit community where he was. 'He has been taken from us at the age of 24 - it's far too young. 'Please donate. I want to help ease the burden of the cost of the funeral for his parents.' His younger sister Sian today flew back from Australia following the tragedy. An investigation is under way into the circumstances surrounding the incident which happened as the Victoria-bound train approached Wandsworth Common. Police and ambulance crews rushed to Wandsworth Common station in south west London Inspector James Tyrrell, from the British Transport Police,said: '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. 'The death is not being treated as suspicious and a file will be prepared for the coroner.' Southern Trains said the train was running on time and not delayed. A London Ambulance spokesman added: 'We were called at 5.34pm to reports of an incident at Wandsworth Common Railway Station. 'We sent an ambulance crew, a single responder in a car and an incident response officer to the scene, alongside London's Air Ambulance. 'But sadly, despite the efforts of the crews, the patient was pronounced dead by the doctor from the air ambulance.' A Seven network commentator introduced swimmer Sun Yang as 'one of China's cheats' instead of one of the country's 'stars' during the live 2016 Rio Olympics coverage. Chinese Olympics supporters slammed swimmer Mack Horton online over his bitter feud with Sun Yang after the Australian labelled his rival a drug cheat when he won gold in the 400 metre freestyle final on Saturday. Now, Seven newsreader Amanda Abate could attract the same furore after introducing the swimmer as a cheat during a brief update that aired in Australia on Tuesday night. Seven newsreader Amanda Abate introduced swimmer Sun Yang as one of China's 'cheats' instead of one of the countries 'stars' during the live 2016 Rio Olympics coverage Chinese supporters slammed Mack Horton (middle) online over his bitter feud with Sun Yang (right) after he labelled his rival a drug cheat when he won gold in the 400 metre freestyle 'Some big names of swimming are lining up to support Aussie gold medallist Mack Horton, with mounting backlash from China for calling one of its cheats, sorry, one of its stars a drug cheat,' Abate said, adding that Yang had won gold in the 200m freestyle final on Tuesday. Her co-host Ryan Phelan acknowledged the error as a 'slip of the tongue' before proceeding with the days highlights. 'Slip of the tongue with Sun Yang?' he asked, adding that 'it happens'. 'I definitely didn't mean that, but look everyone it is a talking point,' she responded. 'Some big names of swimming are lining up to support Aussie gold medallist Mack Horton, with mounting backlash from China for calling one of its cheats, sorry, one of its stars a drug cheat,' Abate said as footage of Yang and Horton rolled on screen She also mentioned that Yang had won gold in the 200m freestyle final on Tuesday Yang earlier said he was confident he would be able to take out the gold in the 200m final Abate tweeted about the incident shortly after, stating she had a 'Freudian slip' and responded to a fan who picked up on the blunder. 'Not chuckled so much for a while.. Oops, hopefully no one else was listening,' one man wrote to the Seven reporter. 'Like the Chinese...?' she responded with the hashtag 'please don't troll me'. Abate told another twitter fan it was simply an 'unintentional slip'. Abate tweeted about the incident shortly after, stating she had a 'Freudian slip' and responded to a fan who picked up on the blunder The Seven correspondent said it was an 'unintentional slip' and begged not to be 'trolled' Yang appeared to be in much higher spirits as he held up his first Rio gold on Tuesday A tearful Yang was consoled by his adoring fans after Horton beat him for gold in 400m final This comes after Australian Olympic Team chef de mission Kitty Chiller defended Horton's right to speak out about 'the need for clean sport and flat out refused China's demands for an apology over the controversial comments. 'Mack obviously has very strong views about the need for clean sport, as every single one of us does,' she told reporters. 'He has every right to express his views and his displeasure in that sense. 'We have no intention of making an apology.' HORTON AND YANG'S RIO OLYMPIC GAMES RIVALRY May 2014: The Chinese Swimming Association imposed a three-month ban on Chinese Olympic gold medallist Sun Yang after he tested positive for the stimulant trimetazidine. Sun said he used the drug to treat the heart condition angina pectoris and claimed he was not aware it had been added to the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) banned list four months earlier. January 2015: Trimetazidine was downgraded by WADA to be classified as a 'metabolic modulator' and not a stimulant. August 4, 2016: Australian swimmer Mack Horton accused Yang of trying to break his concentration by splashing him as they trained in the competition pool two days before the Games started. The pair were due to face off in the men's 400 metre freestyle. August 4, 2016: The six-foot Chinese swimmer was pictured being 'stared down' by Australian swimmers Daniel Smith and Joshua Palmer on the bus back to the Athletes Village after the splashing incident. August 7: Horton launched a scathing attack on the Chinese champion, labelling him a 'drug cheat', just before he defeated him to win gold in the 400m freestyle. August 7: Sun was filmed as he broke down in tears in front of adoring fans before declaring he did not know who Horton was. He told reporters ahead of their match up in the 1500m freestyle finals: 'I am the king, the new world' August 8: Chinese fans bombarded Horton with online abuse and demanded an apology over the comments. August 8: Australian Olympic Team chef de mission Kitty Chiller defended Horton's right to speak out about 'the need for clean sport and flat out refused China's demands for an apology over the comments. Advertisement Australian Olympic Team chef de mission Kitty Chiller (pictured) defended Horton's right to speak out about 'the need for clean sport and flat out refused China's demands for an apology over the controversial comments 'Mack (pictured) obviously has very strong views about the need for clean sport, as every single one of us does,' Chiller told reporters Chinese communist publication the Global Times also weighed in on the scandal, calling Australia 'a country on the fringes of civilisation', while degrading images of Horton have also been uploaded on Chinese social media by angry fans. In a scathing piece, Australia was described as a 'British offshore prison' who should be ashamed of their 'disgraceful' athletes and 'evil media'. The Australian media was then berated for their coverage of the ongoing feud between Sun and Horton, who will meet again in the 1500 metre at the weekend. Degrading images of Horton have been uploaded on Chinese social media by angry fans After claiming gold in the 200 metre freestyle (pictured), Sun admitted the spat with Horton had been taking its toll After claiming gold in the 200 metre freestyle, Sun admitted the spat with Horton had been taking its toll. 'These two days there's definitely been some regret, a lot has been on my mind. I haven't slept that well,' he told Chinese television. 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 A teenage ISIS recruit has posted a Facebook tribute to his uncle and brother, who are believed to have been killed fighting for the terror group. Ibrahim Iqbal, 15, who is feared to have fled to Syria with 11 members of his family put up chilling pictures showing himself wielding an AK47 rifle and pledging allegiance to IS. The chilling photographs were accompanied by references to his brother Junaid, 16, and their uncle Ahmed Dawood, 23, and invoking a common prayer used to honour the dead, he wrote: 'May Allah accept them'. He also posted pictures of himself with his brother, on the same Facebook account he used as a schoolboy in Bradford, and worrying photographs of an array of ammunition and grenades. The Facebook profile has since been removed, and police are investigating the posts. Ibrahim was 14 when he disappeared from his Bradford home last year with his brothers Junaid, 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. Scroll down for video 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 invoked common prayer used to honour the dead as he wrote about his brother and uncle Ahmed Dawood, 23, (left, with Ibrahim) adding: 'May Allah accept them' 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]. Ibrahim also posted pictures of weapons and ammunition and urged Muslims 'to wage jihad in the UK' Three sisters and their nine children are feared to have joined Islamic State 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. On Sunday evening, 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. Ibrahim's Facebook page also said that he is from Bradford, his nickname was Abu Mutasim, that he was was also known as Shotta Ibby, works as bein (sic) a legend and even attended Harvard University. A spokesman for the North East Counter Terrorism Unit, which is leading the investigation into the familys disappearance, said: 'We are aware of posts made on social media. These are currently being reviewed to establish if any offences have been committed.' From left, clockwise, Junaid Ahmed Iqbal, Ibrahim Iqbal, Ismaeel Iqbal and Zaynab Iqbal are believed to be in Syria The unit, based in Leeds, West Yorks., took over the case from West Yorkshire Police which had been liaising with authorities in Turkey. The Dawood 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. On Sunday, Mohammed Shoaib, the husband of Khadija, who fled with their two children, Muhammad Haseeb, five, and Maryam Siddiqui, seven, condemned his nephews actions. The sales adviser said: I have had no contact with them. I havent seen the pictures so I have no idea but obviously if theyve done this I am against them. Theyre wrong and we condemn them. Ishtiaq Ahmed, a spokesman for Bradford Council for Mosques said the community was 'very concerned' by the Facebook posts. 'If it is confirmed that these pictures are real then it will raise additional alarm bells that young people are being used by the so-called Islamic State to propagate their violent game and entice other young people from Britain to join.' Councillor Taj Salam (Lab, Little Horton), whose ward includes where the families were living, also said it was worrying news. 'We do not know whether the images are genuine but it must be really upsetting for the husbands who are still here,' he said. 'They are still searching for their families. Advertisement This is the moment a cheeky baby elephant took a breather and used his worn-out friend as a chair. The young animal poked his companion with his trunk before sitting on him in Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. But despite the weight on his side, the sleeping elephant did not seem to mind and carried on lying down. Don't mind me! pictures captured a cheeky baby elephant taking a breather and using his worn-out friend as a chair The young animal poked his companion with his trunk before sitting on him in Serengeti National Park, Tanzania Holidaymaker Julie Lindenmayer, who took the picture, said: 'I think the elephant was concerned about his friend at first. 'He was poking it with its trunk like it was trying to see if it was OK, and when there was no reaction, it just sat down. 'We were all a little worried about the one lying down. We thought maybe it was sick or injured, but once it got up, it ate some grass and looked fine.' The pictures were captured by 34-year-old holidaymaker Julie Lindenmayer, a zookeeper from Miami in Florida. Despite the weight on his side, the sleeping elephant did not seem to mind and carried on lying down Working as a zookeeper, Lindenmayer sees a lot of wild animals, but the sight of an elephant sitting on its friend amazed her Working as a zookeeper, Lindenmayer sees a lot of wild animals, but the sight of an elephant sitting on its friend amazed her. Lindenmayer, from Miami, Florida, added: 'A sighting like this is something that will stay with me for a lifetime. An Uber passenger claims her driver branded her a slut before kicking her out of the cab when she told him he had been driving her home in the wrong direction. Frances Carbines, 27, was already having a bad day after splitting from her fiance - and had been for dinner in Shoreditch, East London, with friends to cheer her up. Her friend booked her an Uber home and put in her postcode, but the driver started heading south instead of going to her home in Crouch End, North London. Allegations: Frances Carbines, 27, claims her driver branded her a slut before kicking her out of the cab when she told him he had been driving her home in the wrong direction She claimed he told her thats the address and the system is never wrong, and she urged him to stop, but he said: Were going to Brixton and that is that. After the British Council worker threatened to call police, she claimed he stopped in the middle of a dual-carriageway at Waterloo Bridge and told her to get out. Miss Carbines said: I said I couldnt possibly get out there with all the traffic. He then called me a slut as I was leaving and commented about my short skirt. Uber is carrying out an investigation but has disputed Mrs Carbiness version of events, denying that the driver had been abusive towards her. It is believed her friend entered the wrong road name into the Uber app, with there being two streets with the same name in Brixton and Crouch End. The friend is said to have selected the one in Brixton in error, which is why the driver - who is said to be highly-rated by the company - headed south. However Miss Carbines was left shaken and in tears as she was stranded in the early hours of the morning six miles away from home. Miss Carbines was left shaken and in tears as she was stranded in the early hours of the morning six miles away from home She said: I was crying in the dark, with no money and no clue where I was. I couldnt afford to get a bus as I was overdrawn. The 27-year-olds day had gone from bad to worse after her fiance had broken up with her that morning via a Facebook message after seven years together. She said: My best friend and boyfriend of seven years, broke off our engagement Sunday morning by Facebook message. We were meant to get a shared ownership house and he is pulling out, he has really hurt me and made me face being homeless or having to leave London. Miss Carbines, who works in cultural relations for the British Council for projects in Beirut and Pakistan, said he was eventually picked up by a black cab driver, who agreed to take her to Crouch End. She added: Luckily a taxi stopped and took me back. I eventually got home, I had no cash so luckily my mum was in and gave him 20 even though the meter said 30 - it was all we had. He said that it was fine. Miss Carbines is now the lookout for the driver that came to rescue her and has urged him to come forward. Quite a journey: Miss Carbines was taken from the restaurant in Shoreditch south towards Brixton - and let out at Waterloo, from where she took a taxi six miles north to Crouch End She said: I really want to find the driver and give him the 10 and buy him a drink - he saved me. Miss Carbines has also demanded an apology from Uber after the experience she had received. An Uber spokesman said: We have called the rider in question so we can investigate these allegations, but have yet to receive a response. The driver in question has confirmed he was going to Brixton to an address that was pre-entered into the rider app. The driver has told us that the rider became angry that they were going to the entered destination and requested to exit the car. Pennsylvania Will Soon Tax Netflix; Chilling Still Free Referred to as the 'Netflix tax,' Pennsylvania will soon start charging a sales tax on digital downloads and online streaming services. The six percent tax will apply to video, music, and app subscription services like Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, and Apple Music. So is binge watching about to bust your budget? Probably not, and here's why: (Not) Pay Per View The six percent sales tax is applied only to the subscription fee, not to each show or movie you watch or song you listen to. So when you pay your $11.99 a month for Netflix Premium, that's when you pay the sales tax. And you won't be taxed when you call in sick to finish the entire Season 3 of House of Cards in one sitting. (And for those of you who don't like math, that comes out to around $8.63 per year to ignore your pet and the dishes for 4 hours a night.) Location, Location, Location Also, Pennsylvania's streaming tax is based on billing address, and we're just going to guess that not every Pennsylvania resident blowing through past seasons of Grey's Anatomy is logging on with their own account. We're not telling you to log on to Netflix with someone else's account (after all, you might go to jail for that), we're just pointing out that Pennsylvania's tax only applies to account's registered with a Pennsylvania address. Taxing the Internet IRL Cities, states, and the federal government have long had the authority to tax product and service sales, but figuring out how to apply that to internet sales and services has proved challenging. It's one thing to tax point-of-sale DVD purchases, but how do you tax DVD rentals arranged online? And this is no small thing for states to try and figure out -- according to Yahoo Finance, annual DVD sales plummeted from $20.2 billion to just $10 billion over the last decade. That's left states like Pennsylvania and Kentucky and cities like Chicago looking to replace that lost revenue with telecommunications and "cloud taxes." So even if you don't live in the Keystone State, your streaming might get a little more expensive in the future. Follow FindLaw for Consumers on Facebook and Twitter (@FindLawConsumer). Related Resources: Father has been charged with reckless homicide in his daughter's death But investigators later found Timea had been shot inside the home Batts told police she had been shot while walking back, detective added She had just returned home from school day according to authorities An 11-year-old girl died after being shot by her father on her first day of school, police said. Timothy Batts, 29, shot and killed his daughter Timea Monday at their home in Hendersonville, a suburb north of Nashville, according to authorities. He first told investigators that someone else had shot her as she walked back from school, Detective Sergeant Jim Vaughn said. Batts drove his daughter to the hospital, where she died. Investigators then determined that Timea had been shot inside the home. Timothy Batts (right), 29, shot and killed his daughter Timea (left) on Monday at their home in Hendersonville, a suburb north of Nashville, according to authorities She had just come back from her first day of school when the shooting occurred, authorities said. Timea, a sixth grader in Sumner County, lived with her father and two younger siblings. She was pronounced dead at 4.27pm on Monday, according to The Tennessean. Batts now faces charges of reckless homicide, tampering with evidence, false reporting and other charges in connection with the shooting death of his daughter. He remains held on a $1million bail and is due to appear in court on August 24. 'Timea was a bright and kind girl who was well loved by her classmates and teachers, Sumner County Schools spokesperson Jeremy Johnson, said about Timea.' Neighbors held a candlelit vigil for Timea on Monday night, WSMV reported. Timea (pictured left and right) lived with her father and two younger siblings. She had just come back from her first day of school when the shooting occurred, police said Incredible drone footage from rebel forces in Syria has captured the scale of the battle in Aleppo which claimed nearly 5,000 lives last month alone. Militants trying to overthrow the Assad regime have been locked in violent clashes with government troops for years, but in a major push last week, a coalition of rebels, Islamists, and jihadists cut off the regime's own main access road on the southern edges of the city. Drone footage from South Aleppo shows a massive rebel barrage on the Syrian military's artillery college to soften defenses before performing a ground assault. The operation is carried out by the Jaish al-Fath alliance, which is composed of hardline Islamist groups like Ahrar al-Sham and the newly branded Jabhat al-Fatah, formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda's Syrian branch and is labelled a counter-assault to stop the brutal Syrian offensive in the area. Incredible drone footage from rebel forces in Syria has captured the scale of the battle in Aleppo which claimed nearly 5,000 lives last month alone Militants trying to overthrow the Assad regime have been locked in violent clashes with government troops for years, but in a major push last week, a coalition of rebels, Islamists, and jihadists cut off the regime's own main access road on the southern edges of the city Incredible drone footage from rebel forces in Syria has captured the scale of the battle in Aleppo which claimed nearly 5,000 lives last month alone A second video shows the Western-backed rebel group Din Nour el-Zinki fighting on the ground in Aleppo and a third video reveals heavy U.S. artillery being found in terrorist-held areas of the city. More than two million people in Syria's Aleppo are in danger of coming under total siege, the United Nations has warned, calling for immediate access to the heavily bombed city. Ferocious fighting has rocked divided Aleppo in recent weeks, with rebels and regime forces seizing rival access routes and cutting off residents. In a statement on Monday, the UN's top humanitarian official in Syria, Yacoub El Hillo, and regional coordinator Kevin Kennedy called for a 'humanitarian pause' in the hostilities. Two million people in the city are living in fear of besiegement, including up to 275,000 people trapped in east Aleppo, the statement said. Fighting in Aleppo, Syria's former economic powerhouse, flared in late June when government forces closed in on the Castello Road, the last route into rebel-held parts of the city A second video shows the Western-backed rebel group Din Nour el-Zinki fighting on the ground in Aleppo and a third video reveals heavy U.S. artillery being found in terrorist-held areas of the city More than two million people in Syria's Aleppo are in danger of coming under total siege, the United Nations has warned, calling for immediate access to the heavily bombed city Ferocious fighting has rocked divided Aleppo in recent weeks, with rebels and regime forces seizing rival access routes and cutting off residents The fighting in Aleppo is reported to have killed at least 130 civilians and 700 soldiers in the last nine days alone, and has damaged hospitals, clinics, and the city's power and water networks. 'The UN stands ready to assist the civilian population of Aleppo, a city now united in its suffering,' the statement read. 'At a minimum, the UN requires a full-fledged ceasefire or weekly 48-hour humanitarian pauses to reach the millions of people in need throughout Aleppo and replenish the food and medicine stocks, which are running dangerously low.' Fighting in Aleppo, Syria's former economic powerhouse, flared in late June when government forces closed in on the Castello Road, the last route into rebel-held parts of the city. The road was severed in mid-July, sparking food shortages and skyrocketing prices in the eastern districts. In a major push last week, a coalition of rebels, Islamists, and jihadists cut off the regime's own main access road on the southern edges of the city. Each side has used their newly acquired territory to bring food and other supplies into neighbourhoods of the city they control, but the roads are still not safe for civilians to use. 'When used to intentionally deprive people of food and other items essential to their survival, siege tactics constitute a war crime,' the UN statement said. More than 290,000 people have been killed since Syria's conflict erupted in March 2011. In a big rebel push, an intensive airstrike campaign took place on Sunday as insurgent groups put up a massive defense to protect the new corridor and gain new ground. The fighting in Aleppo is reported to have killed at least 130 civilians and 700 soldiers since the end of July, and has damaged hospitals, clinics, and the city's power and water networks Rebels breached the Syrian government siege on opposition neighborhoods in the city of Aleppo, opening a corridor in the south and marking a major military breakthrough Rebels breached the Syrian government siege on opposition neighborhoods in the city of Aleppo, opening a corridor in the south and marking a major military breakthrough. The push prompted an intensive airstrike campaign Sunday as insurgent groups put up a massive defense to protect the new corridor and gain new ground. The battle for Aleppo, Syria's largest city and former commercial heart, is pivotal for the Syrian civil war. It is not clear whether the rebels would be able to keep their new gains, but the breach causes a dent in the Syrian government's new confidence and territorial expansion, bolstered by Russian air support. It is not clear whether the rebels would be able to keep their new gains, but the breach causes a dent in the Syrian government's new confidence and territorial expansion, bolstered by Russian air support The rebels hailed the breach as a major collaborative achievement a week after launching their counteroffensive In a major offensive Saturday, an alliance of over two dozen rebel groups pushed government forces and allied fighters out of parts of the southern Ramouseh district, including from a number of military colleges, a bakery, a post office, a parking lot and a section of the highway In a major offensive Saturday, an alliance of over two dozen rebel groups pushed government forces and allied fighters out of parts of the southern Ramouseh district, including from a number of military colleges, a bakery, a post office, a parking lot and a section of the highway. The rebels hailed the breach as a major collaborative achievement a week after launching their counteroffensive. Fighters besieged in the city coordinated with the Army of Conquest alliance, which includes the Levant Conquest Front, the rebranded al-Qaeda branch in Syria, based in neighboring Idlib province. The Levant Conquest Front had announced it was breaking ties with the global terror network a week earlier, citing as a motive the desire to improve coordination with local rebel groups. The media arm of Lebanon's Hezbollah, the Shiite militant group fighting alongside the Syrian government, conceded the rebels' advance, adding that airstrikes leveled one of the military colleges after forces withdrew. Syrian State news agency SANA denied the siege was broken and said the government had declared that operations were still ongoing in the area. It said warplanes targeted rebel vehicles and locations in the area Sunday. The Levant Conquest Front posted pictures of loot from one of the military academies, the artillery school, including armored vehicles and ammunition. 'The turning point was the fall of the artillery school,' said Islam Alloush, spokesman for the Jaysh al-Islam rebel group and a former Syrian army officer, who said artillery was always viewed as 'god of war' in the military. Alloush said the rebel groups put in massive efforts and ammunition into the battle, adding that his group - which is strongest near Damascus - had mobilized fighters from five neighboring provinces to take part. RUSSIAN MOTHER MAIMED AFTER THROWING HERSELF ON BOMB TO PROTECT HER CHILDREN IN ALEPPO, SYRIA A Russian mother-of-three has lost a hand and a leg protecting her children from a bomb in war-torn Syria. Irina Barakyat, who lives with her Syrian husband Ahmed in the city of Aleppo in north-western Syria, threw herself on the bomb which was thrown through her window as the family sat down to dinner. She suffered horrific injuries when the bomb exploded, and her right hand and right leg had to be amputated by a local hospital. Irina Barakyat, who lives with her Syrian husband Ahmed in the city of Aleppo in north-western Syria, threw herself on the bomb which was thrown through her window as the family sat down to dinner But she is still in a serious condition and her family are now trying to raise the funds for her - and her son - to be flown to Moscow for life-saving treatment. Mrs Barakyat, who has been living in Syria for 13 years, thought only of her two sons and five-year-old daughter - when the homemade explosive device was thrown into the room. A relative said: "I saw the bomb fly into the room. I was thrown to the side, and all I saw was Irina trying to throw it out - it didnt explode immediately." When Mrs Barakyat discovered that she couldnt throw the bomb outside, she ran instead to cover her children with her body. The device exploded sending pieces of shrapnel into her leg and arm which were so badly injured that doctors had to amputate her right hand and her right leg up to the knee. But Mrs Barakyat's left leg is also badly injured and, with the war-ravaged country desperately short of medical supplies, she urgently needs treatment in the west. Her friend, Natalya Shibarek, said: "The only way to save Irina is to undergo treatment in a hospital in Moscow. "Her son also suffered a serious leg injury. Now friends and family are trying to raise the money to send Irina and her son to Moscow." Advertisement He said it is expected the government and allied troops will fight back, but added rebels will protect their hold on the strategic corridor which would allow for a new lifeline for the rebel-controlled part of Aleppo, in the east and north. Another rebel commander, Hossam Abu Bakr from Ahrar al-Sham, a major faction in the Army of Conquest alliance, said his fighters are working to secure the corridor by expanding their hold. 'The worst method the regime uses is not chemical weapons but it is the sieges, the slow death,' Abu Bakr said, speaking via Skype from the frontline. 'We will not allow the repeat of the tragedy of sieges imposed elsewhere in Syria.' The U.N. says there are about 18 besieged and hard-to-reach areas, almost all encircled by government forces. Last month, the Syrian government seized the Castillo road, the only route into rebel-held areas in Aleppo. The U.N. said 300,000 people were trapped inside, making eastern Aleppo one of the largest besieged areas in Syria. The government and major ally Russia had offered safe corridors for residents to leave rebel-held areas, an offer met with skepticism from the locals who viewed it as an attempt to depopulate the area. The rebel advance in the Ramouseh district now threatens a major highway linking the government-controlled part of Aleppo to the outside world. The Castillo road remains under government control but activists say it regularly comes under fire. Rami Abdurrahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said food prices in government-held parts of Aleppo have already gone up. He said some 700 fighters from the government and the insurgent side were killed in the week of fighting. State news agency SANA said one girl was killed in rebel shelling of government areas near the frontline. A doctor in rebel-held Aleppo, Farida, who declined to give her last name out of concern for the safety of her family in government held-areas, said an intense bombing campaign is taking place inside the city. She said there were reports that one truck carrying vegetables had entered the besieged area, but said she had not seen it, suspecting the vegetables were quickly sold. She said residents have a great need for basic commodities and fuel. Dr Zaher Shaloul, a Syrian-American doctor from Chicago, said medical facilities in eastern Aleppo are routinely targeted, creating a situation where people are dying from treatable conditions for lack of medical care and basic supplies Experts have painted a graphic portrait of barrel bombings, attacks on medical facilities, chemical weapons use and the ongoing suffering inside the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo. Dr Zaher Shaloul, a Syrian-American doctor from Chicago, said medical facilities in eastern Aleppo are routinely targeted, creating a situation where people are dying from treatable conditions for lack of medical care and basic supplies. Shaloul, who last visited Aleppo in July, said he asked a nurse there what she wanted most from the United Nations and she replied that she wanted help evacuating a 10-year-old girl named Shahd who was wounded by a barrel bomb and is now dying due to a shortage of medicine. Shaming the international community for its inaction at an informal Security Council meeting Monday organized by the United States, he said: 'We don't need condemnations, prayers or pointing fingers, we had enough of that. 'I ask you to meet the people of Aleppo and see them as humans. 'I have one request, besides saving Shahd, visit Aleppo yourself and meet with its doctors, nurses and patients. 'If three doctors from Chicago were able to do that, you can do it,' Shaloul told diplomats. Shahloul then showed slides showing women and child victims, one of them a child he said was injured in a chlorine gas attack at an informal He said only 35 physicians remain in Aleppo where 15 health care facilities had been attacked in July alone. Currently, more than 250,000 people are besieged by government forces in the eastern part of Aleppo, a city that has been divided into rebel and government-controlled parts since 2012 U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power called on the Security Council to 'send a clear, unified message that these sieges must end, and that there's no justification for cutting innocent people off from basic aid.' Currently, more than 250,000 people are besieged by government forces in the eastern part of Aleppo, a city that has been divided into rebel and government-controlled parts since 2012. The government completely closed the main road into the rebel-held areas of Aleppo on July 17, effectively cutting off all supplies and exit routes. Rebels breached the Syrian government siege on opposition neighborhoods in Aleppo on Saturday, opening a corridor in the south and marking a major military breakthrough, but observers said civilians still don't have a safe route out because of intense airstrikes and shelling in the area. Also Monday, U.N. officials in Syria urgently called for a humanitarian pause to repair Aleppo's damaged water and electricity infrastructure and provide aid to those trapped in the eastern part of the city. 'Water available through wells and tanks in Aleppo is not nearly enough to sustain the needs of the population. The U.N. is extremely concerned that the consequences will be dire for millions of civilians if the electricity and water networks are not immediately repaired,' said the statement signed by Yacoub El Hillo, U.N. resident coordinator for Syria, and Kevin Kennedy, regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syria crisis. 'At a minimum, the U.N. requires a full-fledged ceasefire or weekly 48-hour humanitarian pauses to reach the millions of people in need throughout Aleppo and replenish the food and medicine stocks, which are running dangerously low,' the statement continued. Abdullah Nawhlu, a member of Syrian Civil Defense, a neutral and impartial humanitarian group, speaking by video from Aleppo, described a dire situation with rapidly dwindling stocks of food and fuel, not to mention medical supplies. 'If the siege of Aleppo continues ... greater humanitarian disasters will happen, as there will be no medicine for the injured and no flour for people to bake with,' Nawhlu said as a constant barrage of gunfire could be heard in the background. 'We are speaking about a siege of 350,000 people, not 10 or 50 or 100 people. We're talking about 350,000 humans, a huge humanitarian disaster that will shame humanitarian organizations forever.' U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power called on the Security Council to 'send a clear, unified message that these sieges must end, and that there's no justification for cutting innocent people off from basic aid.' 'To this end, we once again urge Russia to stop facilitating these sieges, and to use its influence to press the regime to end its sieges across Syria once and for all,' Power said. Russia responded by accusing the U.S. of playing politics with a humanitarian issue. have raised $24,00 to bring his body home to Australia A friend of an Australian man who fell to his death from his seventh floor room at a Bangkok hotel does not believe he committed suicide. Melbourne man Joshua Edward Beath, 25, was found naked, lying on his back in a pool of blood by the hotel maid, 24 hours after checking in with a Thai woman on July 29. Chris Vargas, a friend of Mr Edward for the past eight years, was unable to comprehend why Mr Beath would want to kill himself while naked, reported The Courier Mail. Scroll down for video Australian man Joshua Beath, 25, fell to his death from the seventh floor of a Bangkok hotel Grieving friends and family of have raised tens of thousands of dollars to bring 'beefy's' (pictured) body home 'I don't think he could have committed suicide, he was not that kind of person. He loved life and was very positive and enthusiastic about life in general,' she said. 'And because the body was found naked ... who commits suicide when naked? It's nonsense.' Ms Vargas also noted that Mr Edward had an unstable relationship with a Thai girlfriend and has questioned if that was the woman he was with at the time of the incident. 'It was an on and off relationship, that's what I know,' she said. The woman he checked in with had left the hotel by the time police arrived. Ms Vargas has been attempting to piece the story together asking if there is any CCTV footage in order to identify the woman he entered the hotel with. Although Ms Vargas is unaware of the exact circumstances why Mr Beath had travelled to Thailand she believes he had plans to stay there for a month. Mr Beath checked into a four star hotel on Bangkok's Surawong Road (pictured) with a Thai woman the day before he died Grieving friends and family of Mr Beath have raised tens of thousands of dollars to bring his body home. A GoFundMe page dedicated to 'Beefy' raised $24,000 of a 30,000 target, The Daily Telegraph reported. The page now appears to have been taken down. 'Thursday 28th of July 2016, a young guy with a big heart and a friend to everyone was taken from us far too soon in a tragic accident in Thailand,' the page read. 'Please help us raise money to help bring Josh Home and help send him off to Heaven with the send off he deserves.' 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 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. 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. It is the tallest spire in Britain and an awe-inspiring piece of 14th century architecture, but for years tourists have only been able to see it under a gloomy spotlight. Now, thanks to a donation from a volunteer guide, they will finally have the chance to appreciate the amazing network of wooden scaffolding inside Salisbury Cathedral. Robert Stiby, 79, who has worked as a guide at the cathedral for eight years, forked out 5,000 to have a series of new lights installed to show off the inside of the spire in all its glory. Robert Stiby paid 5,000 of his own money to light up the inside of Salisbury Cathedral spire Following the installation, visitors can now marvel at every single beam and fully appreciate the engineering that went into building the spire The former broadcast journalist, who leads visitors up the 332 narrow steps to inspect the inside of the spire, had grown frustrated by the lack of light during his tours. He told cathedral bosses he thought new light bulbs should be put in - but, despite agreeing with him, said they did not have the funds to carry out the work. Intent on seeing his idea come to light, the grandfather-of-nine decided to raise the money himself. Mr Stiby said: 'When I first saw the lights come on I felt very fulfilled. I did it in the hope that greater numbers of people would visit the cathedral' Mr Stiby, from Standlynch, near Salisbury, said: 'I have wanted to add lights up there for many years. 'I told the powers that be about my idea but unfortunately they didn't have the funds for it. 'So I willingly put the money up myself. I have supported them for many years and I was delighted to do it.' He added: 'Beforehand you couldn't see to the top of the spire or properly see all the intricacies inside. 'Now you can see every single beam and it is possible to fully appreciate the astonishing engineering that went in to building the spire. 'When I first saw the lights come on I felt very fulfilled. 'Everybody has said what a difference it makes and people are completely wowed by what they can see. I did it in the hope that greater numbers of people would visit the cathedral.' Mr Stiby said everyone had been wowed by what they can see following the light installation Canon Edward Probert, chancellor and sub-dean of Salisbury Cathedral, welcomed Mr Stiby's generosity and said the volunteer was the 'lifeblood of our community'. He added: 'In this case, it means that what was once clothed in darkness is now illuminated and the formerly hidden glory of the medieval structure can be seen.' The cathedral's medieval spire was constructed in the early 14th century and the wooden framework - a series of beams which criss-cross up the spire - is believed to have been installed between 1364 and 1376. Mr Stiby's generosity does not stop there. He has given the cathedral another 5,000 to improve the lighting above the nave. The cathedrals medieval spire was built in the early 14th century. It is octagonal in shape and, when combined with the tower, stands at 404ft, making it the second tallest in Europe The 79-year-old was given an OBE for his services to the broadcasting industry in 2007. He was awarded the medal after a successful career which began when he helped found Capital Radio and Talk Radio in 1972. For nearly 30 years he was chief executive of The Local Radio Company and he played a part in the founding of more than 30 local radio stations across the country. A Chinese tour guide stabbed a woman to death and seriously wounded her husband after demanding they vacate a table at a luxury Kenyan safari lodge, police said. The attack happened at Keekorok Lodge in the Masai Mara game reserve in south western Kenya, where the couple - also Chinese - were having dinner. The assailant, identified as Lee Changqin, is said to have demanded that they leave their table, prompting an argument, before he stabbed them both in the chest. The stabbing occurred at Keekorok Lodge in Masai Mara (file picture), a large game reserve in south western Kenya Narok County Commander Abdi Galgalo said the arrested man works for a Chinese tour company. The deceased woman is 45-year-old Luo Jinli and her husband, who suffered injuries, is Dong Ya, 47. Rift Valley county police chief Gideon Kibunjah said Changqin was arrested and is undergoing interrogation before being arraigned in court. Narok County Commander Abdi Galgalo said the arrested man works for a Chinese tour company 'The woman died while undergoing treatment in hospital while her husband is still in hospital,' Kibunjah told AFP by telephone. 'The man is in custody.' New documentary is based on Orry-Kelly's long-lost manuscript Women I've Undressed, which lay forgotten for 30 years before being found in his great-niece's friend's Hollywood legend Cary Grant was secretly gay and lived with his male costume designer lover in New York, according to a new documentary. The British star, born Archibald Leach in 1904, married five times but none of the relationships lasted, prompting speculation about his sexuality. This was boosted by his close friendship with the American actor Randolph Scott, with whom he shared a house for 12 years. Now a new film based on the autobiography of the acclaimed three-time Oscar-winning costume designer Orry-Kelly claims Grant was secretly gay but covered up his sexuality so he could make it in Hollywood. Scroll down for video Cary Grant, one of Hollywood's biggest stars in the 1950s and 1960s, shared a house in Malibu for 12 years with Randolph Scott (pictured together), which fueled rumors about his sexuality. Years earlier he had lived with costume designer Orry-Kelly in New York after the pair met in the city in 1925 when Grant was 21 years old Hollywood legends: Grant (left) may have been one of Tinseltown's biggest stars in the 1950s, but Orry-Kelly was equally as famous in Hollywood circles. He won three Oscars for costume design and dressed almost all of the leading ladies of the day (pictured right measuring Marilyn Monroe for her outfits on Some Like It Hot in 1959) In Orry-Kelly's long-lost book, Women I've Undressed, he hinted at his relationship with Grant, but the documentary goes a step further and says the pair were lovers. The film claims Grant denied his true sexuality and reinvented himself to succeed in a homophobic industry. The pair met in New York in January 1925 when Cary Grant then still known under his birth name of Archibald was 21 and broke and Orry-Kelly, an Australian immigrant, was also struggling to make ends meet. They moved in together and lived together on and off for nine years during which time they both made it to - and made it in - Hollywood where they continued to share digs for a couple of years until Grant moved in with Randolph Scott, who he met in 1932. The documentary uses interviews with friends and associates, as well as archive footage showing Orry-Kellys work. He was considered one of the greatest costume designers of all time and designed for for stars such as Marilyn Monroe in Some Like it Hot, Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca and Bette Davis in Jezebel, among others and ran the Warner Bros costume department from 1932 to 1944. The documentary states outright that Kelly and Grant were lovers. Film historian William J. Mann says in the documentary: 'It (New York) was a city of bachelors. You were surrounded by men who were openly living in ways you couldn't imagine back home.' A star and her designer: Orry-Kelly was a three-time Oscar-winner who dressed almost every Hollywood siren. Here he is photographed in white tie alongside Bebe Daniels Cary Grant's good looks and charming masculinity made him a huge box office star and he often starred opposite beautiful women, such as Grace Kelly (pictured together in To Catch a Thief) but Orry-Kelly was apparently annoyed by Grant's obsession with blonde women, stating: 'He always comes home to me.' Kellys own autobiography, the manuscript for which as found in his great nieces friends laundry cupboard where it had lain forgotten for 30 years, stopped short of claiming Grant was his boyfriend but he was clearly annoyed by his obsession with blonde women, adding 'he always comes home to me'. The documentary also tells of occasional violence between Kelly and Grant. Kelly claimed to have been knocked out cold by Grant, or Archibald as he still was then, for three hours for ignoring guests at a party. Katherine Thompson, who wrote the documentary, told the New York Post: 'The physical violence between the men was not uncommon between homosexual men of the period. 'A combination of self-loathing and confusion was manifested in a punch-up or, on another occasion, Grant throwing Kelly out of a moving vehicle.' Grant finally hit the big time with The Philadelphia Story in 1940 and began to guard his public image. The documentary's Australian director, Gillian Armstrong, described Grant as a victim of his era. She told Out Magazine: 'There was such a pressure to conform to what was considered an ordinary, normal life. 'Orry refused to hide his sexuality with a fake marriage. He had such a great sense of personal integrity, and we wanted to capture that sense of bravery in the film.' Grant, on the other hand, married five times. His first marriage in 1934 lasted a year. His second, to Barbara Hutton, one of the wealthiest women in the world with an inheritance of $50million from her grandfather, lasted three years. A marriage to his co-star Betsy Drake followed and proved to be his longest. They were married for 12 years. In this undated photograph, Cary Grant and Randolph Scott show their athletic prowess. Grant takes a swing at a speed bag while Scott lifts weights. The two lived together for 12 years at the height of Grant's fame in the 1950s and 1960s Just good friends? Grant and Scott posed for photographs in their home in Santa Monica Here Grant and Scott are photographed playing with a ball at the beach house they shared in Malibu In 1965 he took a fourth wife - the actress Dylan Cannon who was 33 years his junior. In 1966 fathered a daughter by her but the marriage broke up after just two years. He married again in 1981 to a woman who was 47 years his junior. Grant denied being gay throughout his life. He is quoted as himself having told the director Peter Bogdanovitch that he had nothing against gays. Im just not one myself. In 2011 Grant's daughter Jennifer, his only child, wrote a memoir in which she claimed her father had enjoyed it when people said he was gay, claiming it 'made women want to prove the assertion wrong'. He threatened to sue gossip columnist Hedda Hopper for implying he was not 'normal'. Years later, in 1980, Grant actually sued comedian Chevy Chase for slander after he joked that he was a homosexual during a talk show on NBC. Hillary Clinton's campaign is refusing to disavow the father of Orlando nightclub shooter Omar Mateen, who showed up at her Kissimmee, Florida rally last night and said he was a supporter. Seddique Mateen, whose son Omar killed 49 people at Pulse nightclub on June 12, was seen grinning as he watched the Democratic presidential nominee speak. Today the Clinton campaign twice ignored requests for comment from Dailymail.com. The candidate was also seen blowing air kisses at the conclusion of her stop at the Borinquen Medical Center in Miami while ignoring a reporter's question on the matter. Scroll down for video Seddique Mateen, the father of the Orlando nightclub shooter, has been spotted at a Hillary Clinton rally in Kissimmee, Florida. He is circled far left in the seats with a mustache A grinning Mateen is seen giving a thumbs down alongside other Hillary Clinton supporters as they were addressed by the former first lady. Her campaign have insisted they did not know he was there The pro-Taliban political activist, whose son Omar killed 49 people at Pulse Nightclub on June 12, sat with a smile on his face behind the Democratic presidential nominee The former secretary of state started her address to the crowd on Monday by paying tribute to the victims of the horrific terrorist attack that shocked the world just two months ago. She was speaking at the Osceola Heritage Park - which is just a 30 minute drive from where the worst mass shooting in American history took place. Mateen, a pro-Taliban political activist, later said he was there because he's a member of the Democrats and had been 'invited'. On Tuesday, a senior official in the Democratic party told DailyMail.com he wasn't invited and he was not on any of their email lists. Mateen blended into the crowd of supporters as they listened to the former first lady talk about jobs and parts of her economic policy. He stood alongside cheering fans holding signs reading 'Stronger Together' while wearing a red Mercedes Benz cap. At some points he took out his cell phone and took pictures of Hillary while she was on stage. After the event, Mateen spoke with local TV station WPTV. He showed the station a sign he had made for Hillary, confirming that he is backing her in November. He said: 'Hillary Clinton is good for United States versus Donald Trump, who has no solutions. 'I wished that my son joined the Army and fought ISIS. That would be much better.' Later on in the speech, Mateen (circled) was seen taking a picture of the presidential candidate on his phone. Just a few seats to Mateen's left was a woman wearing a Pride t-shirt Mateen seemed to blend in with the crowd by wearing a Mercedes Benz cap Mateen then claimed he was a member of the Democratic party and had been 'invited' to the event. Hillary Clinton is good for United States versus Donald Trump, who has no solutions Seddique Mateen, father of the Orlando nightclub shooter at a Clinton campaign event It is not known whether he had been personally asked to attend, or had received the offer as part of an email chain. When asked whether Clinton knew he was at the rally, he insisted: 'It's a Democratic party, so everyone can join.' Then he was asked if those in the crowd would be surprised if he was there. He said: 'Why should they be surprised? I love the United States, and I've been living here a long time.' Earlier in the evening, he said he had been 'supporting the federal government' in the wake of the shootings by his son - but he would not elaborate. The grinning Mateen watched as Clinton began her speech by showing her admiration for the Florida community in the wake of the horrifying mass murder. 'I just have to tell you how grateful I am for the leadership and the people of Orlando and Central Florida for your love and compassion,' she told the crowd. Omar Mateen (left and right) opened fire at the nightclub in Orlando and shot 100 people, leaving 49 people dead. He was then killed when SWAT teams stormed the venue 'And I know how many people, loved ones and friends, are still grieving. And I want them to know that we will be with you. 'We will be with you as you rebuild your lives, as you rebuild hope for the future, because we can't ever let that kind of hatred and violence break the spirit, break the soul, of any place in America.' Mateen is known for his controversial political views and video ramblings. Mateen said he attended the event because he was supporting the Democrat. He said: 'Hillary Clinton is good for United States versus Donald Trump, who has no solutions' Just 24 hours after his son opened fire in the gay nightclub he released a video saying: 'On the issue of homosexuality, it can be punished only by God, it is not the business of a person. 'But he (Omar) has killed those people, and I am so saddened.' In the same footage he condemned his son's attack as the 'act of a terrorist'. The political activist also insisted his son was not radicalized, adding: He wasnt because he had no beard, and he was just a regular person going to work and coming back and taking care of his wife and his kids. The father said he has no idea why the attack occurred and he didnt notice anything irregular in his sons behavior. Mateen later showed off a sign he had made for Hillary to show off at the event I couldnt believe that was my son because my son got an education, hes born in the United States in New York and he finished high school here in Florida, and he got his associate degree in criminal justice, he told ABC News. He had a lot of love and care, and I couldnt believe that this is what he was doing. And if he was alive I would ask him one question: Why? He later caused upset when he tried to palm off some of the blame for his son's attack on Pulse nightclub's security. In the aftermath of the massacre he told Sky News: 'The first thing I want to say is that the club should have had good security. The club (with) 300 or 400 people are coming, they should have had a good security. 'My personal feeling (is) he is responsible, the club is responsible for not having good security. If there was a good communication with the security there, they could have protected much better.' When asked whether Clinton knew he was at the rally, he insisted: 'It's a Democratic party, so everyone can join In other videos posted online before the shooting, he expressed gratitude toward the Afghan Taliban, while denouncing the Pakistani government. Posts include topics such as 'Rise Afghan people against Pakistan' and 'Intelligent service and Military of Pakistan real Enemy of the USA (sic)'. In one video, the elder Mateen holds up a sign that reads: 'ISI Pakistan and Military is Destroying 14 years of US work in Afghanistan to cut AID to killers'. And in another, according to the Washington Post, he tells the camera: 'Our brothers in Waziristan, our warrior brothers in [the] Taliban movement and national Afghan Taliban are rising up. Inshallah the Durand Line issue will be solved soon.' The elder Mateen, who once claimed to be a candidate for president in Afghanistan, condemned his son's actions, but also said homosexuals should be punished by God Mr Mateen came to the U.S. from Afghanistan more than 30 years ago and once described himself as its 'revolutionary president.' Kabul-based political analyst Ahmad Saeedi said Mateen was a fierce anti-communist. He was a captain in the ranks of the mujahedeen who fought the Soviet occupation in the 1970s and 1980s, Saeedi said. A former Afghan official said the 'Durand Jirga Show' appears on Payam-e-Afghan, a California-based channel that supports ethnic solidarity with the Afghan Taliban, which are mostly Pashtun. The videos are full of anti-American rhetoric and inflammatory comments. The Clinton campaign later insisted Mateen had not been invited to the event. She is seen waving to the crowd before her speech on Monday night Republican and former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was one one of the first politicians to slam his appearance. She wrote 'unbelievable' and included a link to an article In an April 2015 video, Mateen said he and his supporters had called on the Taliban to join the peace initiative by current Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. Mateen once had 'a brief and inconsequential meeting' with Rep. Ed Royce, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the California Republican said in a statement. 'Royce said he routinely meets Afghan-Americans and he vaguely recalls a discussion about relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan with Mateen. In a video dated May 23, 2015, Mateen declared himself a candidate for the Afghan presidency. 'Afghanistan's sovereignty is in danger due to the free hand of foreigners on our territory, and the result is that 95 percent of the country is not under the government's control,' he said, a reference to the influence of Pakistan. Pictures show the aftermath of the mass shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida. Broken windows show where SWAT team entered during the standoff that lasted for hours A mourner stands alongside crosses honoring the 49 victims of the massacre on the one month anniversary Omar Mateen, who was born in New York, gunned down revelers in the gay nightclub with a rifle he had legally purchased Seddique's son Omar walked into Pulse nightclub in Orlando around 2am on June 12 armed with a .223-caliber AR-15-type rifle and a 9mm semi-automatic handgun that was legally purchased and began shootingat random. He engaged in a gun battle with an off-duty police officer who was working security at Pulse, and then went deeper into the nightclub, killing a total of 49 innocent people. America Luke Richardson, a former special police constable, has been jailed for having a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl A paedophile policeman who used his uniform to gain unauthorised access to schools has been jailed for sexual activity with a 14-year-old girl. America Luke Richardson, a former special police constable with Greater Manchester Police, abused his position to try to meet children and had a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl. The 22-year-old was today jailed for five years after he admitted seven counts of sexual activity with a child, one count of meeting a child following grooming and one count of taking indecent photographs of a child. Richardson was suspended from the police in January 2014 after it emerged he was using his role inappropriately and he had entered a school on patrol without authorisation. It was later discovered that, despite his expulsion from the force, he had used stolen police uniform to get into a sixth form college. In 2015, an investigation began into child abuse claims and Richardson's computer, phone and tablets were seized. The investigation discovered the former special constable had been meeting up with a 14-year-old girl from Essex. The confiscated phone and computer equipment revealed 4,000 messages had been sent to the girl in Essex and the victim told detectives that the pair had met up in a hotel booked by Richardson. Manchester Crown Court (pictured) heard he used his uniform to gain entry to a school In December 2015 he was charged with a number of sexual offences and was remanded into custody. He was handed the five year sentence at Manchester Crown Court today. After Richardson was jailed, Manchester Police Superintendent Mark Kenny said: 'I am pleased that America Luke Richardson is now off the streets and unable to harm any more young girls. 'We are continuing to investigate the possibility that Richardson may have more victims and we are appealing for anyone who may have been approached inappropriately by him online, or in person to come and speak to police. Chicago police officials on Tuesday were bracing for gang-led retaliation for the July shooting of unarmed black teenager Paul O'Neal, with one armed group reportedly readying a sniper to pick off cops. The heads of three notorious gangs based in the city's crime-ridden West Side met recently to plan their revenge by targeting senior members of the Chicago Police Department, according to a report in Monday editions of The Chicago Sun-Times. The city reportedly issued a warning to its officers to remain vigilant in light of these developments just one month after the deadly shooting spree in Dallas which killed five police officers. Micah Xavier Johnson, 25, of Mesquite, Texas, a military veteran who'd served in Afghanistan, ambushed the officers who were on duty during a protest against police-involved killings of two detained African-American civilians in Louisiana and Minnesota. According to the report, the meeting in Chicago was held on Thursday between the leadership of the gangs Vice Lords, Black Disciples and Four Corner Hustlers. A frame grab taken from a handout body cam video shows a police officer (right) searching unarmed detained teenager Paul O'Neal in Chicago O'Neal, 18, died following a car chase during which officers shot at his vehicle, a violation of department policy because he wasn't armed An attorney for the family of O'Neal (pictured here taking a selfie) called the fatal shooting 'a police execution', a statement which was condemned by the head of a local officers union The Sun-Times reported that the Four Corner Hustlers has taken the lead in providing the weapons to the other two groups. The organization is also said to be planning to deploy a sniper who will be tasked with shooting members of law enforcement. When asked to respond to the report, the Chicago Police Department told the Sun-Times that it would not comment on what security precautions it has taken to thwart the alleged plot. Tensions remain high in America's third-largest city just days after video footage emerged of the moments leading up to the fatal shooting of Paul O'Neal, an 18-year-old African-American teen. O'Neal was gunned down by officers back in July after he stole a car and got into a chase with cops which ended in the city's South Shore neighborhood. Last week, demonstrators in downtown Chicago blocked streets and traffic while protesting the shooting. Footage of O'Neal's death, released last week, has caused outrage in part because the bodycam belonging to the officer who fired the fatal shot was not turned on. The head of a local police union blamed the attorney representing O'Neal's family for making statements that he says exacerbate tensions. GANGS OF CHICAGO VICE LORDS Also known as the Almighty Vice Lords Nation, the Vice Lords were founded in 1958. Believed to number between 30,000 and 35,000 members, the gang is considered an extensive criminal enterprise whose activities range from drug trafficking, robbery, extortion, fraud, and murder. BLACK DISCIPLES Considered a rival to the Vice Lords, the Black Disciples is a nationwide organization of predominantly African-American members. Founded in the 1970s, it has resorted to trafficking, money laundering, murder, and robbery to finance its activities. FOUR CORNER HUSTLERS Active since the 1960s, the group formed an alliance with the Vice Lords that became known as People Nation. Its network engages in drug trafficking, auto theft, robbery, and homicide. Advertisement 'We had inflammatory and false rhetoric coming from (O'Neal family attorney Michael Oppenheimer) and statements that weren't true,' Dean Angelo, the president of Lodge 7 of the Fraternal Order of Police, said. 'You also have a lead investigator in police-involved deaths talking about how shocking and disturbing this is.' Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson has raised concerns over the footage, admitting officers were at fault for firing at the vehicle O'Neal was driving even before they fatally shot him in the back. According to Chicago department policy, officers should never fire at a moving vehicle unless the occupant is armed and firing back. 'We just came from watching Chicago police officers execute Paul O'Neal,' Oppenheimer said last week in comments to the local press. 'We just watched the family watch the execution of their loving son.' 'What I saw was cold-blooded murder,' Oppenheimer said, calling the video 'beyond horrific.' 'You don't shoot dogs that are running away.' Johnson responded to the shooting by stripping the officers involved in the incident of their 'police powers', according to the Sun-Times. That decision was supported by his boss, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Footage also shows O'Neal handcuffed and face down on the ground in a growing pool of blood while cops seem to discuss turning their body cameras off. Hundreds of protesters take to the streets of Chicago demanding the dismissal of police officers involved in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teen in July 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. 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. Johnson attempted to explain the missing footage by saying the officer in question had only been using the camera for a week and so didn't know how to operate it. But demonstrators pointed out that it is extremely convenient that the only cop's camera that wasn't working was the one who fired the fatal shot. Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets of Chicago on Sunday evening to protest the fatal shooting of unarmed black teenager Paul O'Neal by police Protesters, organized by a group of Chicago high school girls according to CBS, gathered Sunday evening in Millennium Park. Ashanti Lumpkin, 17, addressed the crowd inside the park, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. She said: 'We are here today fighting for the people, six feet under, whose death ignited a nation. 'We are here today to fight so the next generation won't have to. We are here today to let them know that we will not go away. People are outraged after cops released footage of the shooting - except the moment the fatal shot is fired because that officer's bodycam 'wasn't turned on' 'We will not be silenced. And we will keep fighting until justice is won. Enough is enough.' Protest organizer Maxine Wint added: 'We knew they killed him before [the video], but seeing the videos and seeing how they acted with each other, it just made it seem like our lives don't matter.' Taking off through downtown streets lined with police officers, the activists at time blocked portions of Michigan and Chicago avenues and Adams, State and Lake streets. A bodega clerk in the Bronx was caught in a deadly crossfire early Tuesday morning after a man stole an NYPD sidearm and fired it into a store 15 times, police claim. Cops were called at around 1am to break up a fight between Efraim Guzman, 30, and customers and staff at A&M Deli Grocery, the NYPD said. As Guzman was being dragged out, however, he managed to grab an officer's gun and fire it, hitting the 49-year-old victim once, NBC New York reported. Scroll down for video Shootout: Investigators (pictured) say Efraim Guzman shot and killed a 49-year-old man with a gun he grabbed off a cop at around 1am Tuesday. The cops were breaking up a fight, they said Location: The shooting took place at A&M Deli Grocery in the Bronx, after Guzman fought staff and customers who were ejecting him for walking in to sell cellphone accessories 'Guzman made a very fast move and basically ripped the gun out of the officer's holster,' an NYPD official said. One officer attempted to shield the victim but was unable to stop him from being hit, police said. They don't believe he was the intended victim. During the fracas, Guzman was himself shot twice by an officer. The victim, who is not being named by police, worked at N&A Food across the street from A&M Deli Grocery, both on the corners of East 198th Street and Valentine Avenue. Guzman had entered N&A Food and attempted to sell cellphone accessories before being turfed out by the victim, NYPD said. When the victim saw Guzman entering A&M, he followed him in to warn the clerks there - allegedly sparking a confrontation that saw Guzman fighting off around seven customers plus A&M staff. But when police arrived to take Guzman away, things spiraled out of control. Victim: The victim worked at N&A Food across the road, and had gone to A&M to warn them about Guzman. However cops say the N&A worker was not the intended victim The injured Guzman is now in police custody at St. Barnabas Hospital, where he is in stable condition. The victim was pronounced dead at the same hospital. Locals told Pix11 that the victim was a hard worker who saved money for his family back in Africa. '(He) was a good man, he worked real hard to send money back to his family. He would always be cleaning, never in trouble or arguing with anyone,' said Jose Cruz. Julio Espana agreed: 'He was a great worker for many years many years. I came here from Puerto Rico when I was 16 and he was there working - one of the best.' Guzman has previously been arrested on weapons, assault, robbery and drug charges. Reuters TV App Will Help You Stay on Top of the News, on the Go You need to know what's going on in the world, but you've rarely got time to sit down for the nightly news, let alone read through a newspaper. Sure, you can scan through social media or quickly browse a website, but that's a pretty haphazard way to stay informed of major news events. That's where the Reuters TV app comes in. (Disclosure: Reuters is FindLaw's sister company.) Reuters TV allows you to get high-quality, authentic journalism no matter how busy you are, by creating a customized news video stream that adapts depending on how much time you have to spare. News for Busy People So much of today's news is distributed based on older models of media -- the 30-minute news broadcast, for example, or the international section of a newspaper. It's your job to sift through those sources, working them into your schedule. Reuters TV reverses that dynamic. You don't adjust your schedule to catch the news, the news adjusts for you. Tell the app how much time you have to spend on the news and it will put together a specially-made broadcast, just for you. You don't have to worry about commercials or unnecessary commentary, and if you're interested in a video, you can skip it with the push of a button. For example, if you want to spend 20 minutes getting the news, Reuters TV will put together a broadcast that covers everything from the emperor of Japan, to A. Rod's retirement from the Yankees, to crackdowns in Turkey. If you've only got five minutes to spare today, the broadcast is pared down to just the basics. It's like being able to schedule a personalized version of the daily news. Fast, but Not Superficial Worried that a five or ten minute stream isn't enough to really get deep into the day's news? Reuters TV also highlights featured stories, bringing together top reporting on important topics. You can watch 8 stories on "inside secretive North Korea," for example, or 24 on the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. And the app allows you to access the news even when you don't have service. You can download your personalized broadcasts for later viewing, and even set the app to download broadcasts automatically. So whether you've got an hour to delve into the day's news or just a few minutes to catch up on current events, this could be the app for you. Related Resources: Donald Trump on Tuesday pounded a group of 50 Republican national security experts who signed a stinging letter against him a day earlier, saying they're part of the reason the world is in horrible shape and they're worried no one in a Trump administration would ever ask for their opinion. 'I wasn't using any of them,' Trump told Fox Business Network host Maria Bartiromo on Tuesday, 'and they would have loved to have been involved with the campaign.' Trump called the signers 'Washington establishment people that have been there a long time. Look at the terrible job they've done. I hadn't planned on using any of these people.' 'Take a look at the Middle East. Take a look at the problems that we have,' he added. 'And the last people I want to use are the people that have been doing it for the last long period of time.' Scroll down for video Donald Trump clobbered a group of 50 Republican national security experts who signed a stinging letter against him, saying 'they would have loved to have been involved with the campaign' 'Trump is not "part of the club" Thank God!' said former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani as he explained why institutional Washington is aligned against the Republican nominee 'So we, and you know, they don't feel relevant because of that, and they form a group and they go out and try to get some publicity for themselves and they hope that somebody else other than Trump wins because that way they can get a job.' Trump promised a list of his national security advisers would be revealed in September. 'And these are people that are current people, not people from the past like you just mentioned before.' Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani told 'Fox & Friends' on Tuesday that the choice to ignore voices from the previous generation is a sign that 'he's running against the Washington insiders.' 'These are the people who have been running policy for the last eight or ten years, 12 years,' he said. 'The American people have delivered a judgment on that. They say America is headed in the wrong direction. These are the people who headed it in the wrong direction.' Giuliani also suggested that no one on the list would ever support Trump because he's from outside institutional Washington and 'they dont know him.' 'Everybody who has run for president has been part of the club, right? Mitt Romney was part of the club. John McCain was part of the club. John Kerry was part of the club. Al Gore was part of the club.' 'Trump is not "part of the club",' he concluded. 'Thank God!' Trump was also on 'Fox & Friends' on Tuesday to talk about his tax plan Monday's scathing letter labeled Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, as having the potential to be 'the most reckless president in American history.' 'None of us will vote for Donald Trump,' the letter announced. It was signed by brand names in the national security realm including former CIA and NSA head Michael Hayden and the first two secretaries charged with leading the Department of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff. Soon after the letter's release, Trump swatted back calling it 'politically motivated' and grouping the signatories together with his rival Hillary Clinton. They 'are the owners of the disastrous decisions to invade Iraq, allow Americans to die at Benghazi, and they are the ones who allowed the rise of ISIS,' Trump said. 'He would be the most reckless president in American history,' 50 Republican national security experts warned of Donald Trump on Monday but The Donald fired back on Tuesday. saying they're just frustrated that he's not seeking their advice President George W. Bush's original two Department of Homeland Security secretaries Tom Ridge (left) and Michael Chertoff (right) both signed a letter advising against electing Trump Former NSA and CIA head Michael Hayden was also among the dozens of GOP national security experts vowing not to vote for the party's current nominee, Donald Trump 'The names on this letter are the ones the American people should look to for answers on why the world is a mess, and we thank them for coming forward so everyone in the country knows who deserves the blame for making the world such a dangerous place,' he added. DONALD TRUMP RESPONDS TO THE 'POLITICALLY MOTIVATED' LETTER The names on this letter are the ones the American people should look to for answers on why the world is a mess, and we thank them for coming forward so everyone in the country knows who deserves the blame for making the world such a dangerous place. They are nothing more than the failed Washington elite looking to hold onto their power, and it's time they are held accountable for their actions. These insiders - along with Hillary Clinton are the owners of the disastrous decisions to invade Iraq, allow Americans to die at Benghazi, and they are the ones who allowed the rise of ISIS. Yet despite these failures, they think they are entitled to use their favor trading to land taxpayer-funded government contracts and speaking fees. It's time we put our foot down and declare that their gravy train is over: no longer will Crooked Hillary Clinton and the other disasters in Washington get rich at our expense. Instead, I offer a better vision for our country and our foreign policy- one that is not run by a ruling family dynasty. It's an America first vision that stands up to foreign dictators instead of taking money from them, seeks peace over war, rebuilds our military, and makes other countries pay their fair share for their protection. Together, we will break up the rigged system in Washington, make America safe again, and we will make America great again. Advertisement 'They are nothing more than the failed Washington elite looking to hold onto their power, and it's time they are held accountable for their actions,' The letter's backers included Republicans from every GOP administration stretching back to President Richard Nixon and extending to President George W. Bush. 'From a foreign policy perspective, Donald Trump is not qualified to be President and Commander-in-Chief,' they warned. 'Indeed, we are convinced that he would be a dangerous President and would put at risk our country's national security and well-being.' The experts noted a difference between Trump and politicians in the past who weren't well-versed in the world. 'Unlike previous Presidents who had limited experience in foreign affairs, Mr. Trump has shown no interest in educating himself,' they pointed out. 'He continues to display an alarming ignorance of basic facts of contemporary international politics. Despite his lack of knowledge, Mr. Trump claims that he understands foreign affairs and "knows more about ISIS than the generals do".' If the letter seems like deja vu, that's because the right-leaning national security community has joined forces before, with 60 experts signing a letter in March warning voters that a Trump presidency would make 'America less safe' and 'diminish our standing in the world.' Chertoff was among those who signed that letter as well. Voters seemingly shrugged off the warning as Trump continued to win by huge margins in the primaries, including by nearly 19 points in Florida, where a home state son, Sen. Marco Rubio, was also on the ballot. Now with the general election in full swing and with a larger, more moderate voter base to sway Trump's actions finally seem to be impacting his poll numbers. Last week's squabble with the Muslim-American parents of a soldier who was killed in Iraq seemed to damage Trump's numbers, putting Clinton nearly double-digits ahead. Though a Reuters-Ipsos poll that came out Friday indicated the race could still be close. The national security experts pleaded with the American people in the final paragraph of the screed. 'We understand that many Americans are profoundly frustrated with the federal government and its inability to solve pressing domestic and international problems,' the letter said. 'We also know that many have doubts about Hillary Clinton, as do many of us,' the cohort of Republicans added. 'But Donald Trump is not the answer to America's daunting challenges and to this crucial election,' they warned. 'We are convinced that in the Oval Office, he would be the most reckless President in American history.' The world's only professional 'foot archer' has revealed how - and why - she began combining gymnastics, archery and fire to shoot flaming arrows. Orissa Kelly's stuntman brother challenged her to shoot a bow and arrow with her feet, but she went one step better by adding fire. And now the 21-year-old former artistic gymnast for Great Britain has swapped life as an aerialist for a career in what she calls foot archery. Scroll down for video Paradise: Orissa Kelly the 'foot archer' shows off her flexibility during a photoshoot in the Maldives Shooting: Orissa prepares to fire a flaming arrow. Just as she completes her pose, her legs are covered in a flammable liquid and set on fire on purpose Flexible Orissa, from St Albans, Herts, said: 'I have been a gymnast my entire life but when I was performing as an aerialist I was quite sick of being compared to others. 'Why try and be the best when you can be the only one? So I came up with an act no one else did. 'My brother saw someone doing it online and he bet me a fiver I couldn't do it. Challenge accepted. I then thought this could be an act!' Alight: She combines archery with flaming arrows to set her daring performance on fire Globetrotter: Orissa has travelled all around the world showing off her unique act since she created it in 2015 Back bending: The 21-year-old's array of gymnastic moves are shown in sequence in this photo Trained: Orissa is a former artistic gymnast for Great Britain and swapped life as an aerialist for 'foot archery' The daring gymnast picked up foot archery in April 2015 before taking it to the stage in October the same year. It was not until Orissa shared a video of her unique flexible skills online that interest came flooding in. Orissa said: 'When I first started clients thought it was too dangerous, which it isn't unless I hit somebody! Then suddenly in March I made a proper video and in one day I had four different phone calls from four different countries.' Former life: Orissa is pictured here dangling in the air during her aerialist career The 21-year-old has not gone home since she received those phone calls and is currently performing in the Maldives after touring Mauritius, Switzerland, Dubai and Egypt. Orissa is the sister of a stuntman and a female boxer so she thinks it is no surprise she has chosen a career in a similarly dangerous sport. Orissa said: 'My friends all think it's really cool and have been super supportive. My mum just tells me whatever I want to do just it and I'll support you.' Australian Olympic swimmers who have been subjected to early morning drug tests only hours after they return home from competing in Rio have slammed officials for robbing them of 'valuable sleep'. The Australian swimming team said they have no objection to being tested by the Olympic anti-doping agency but complained the process has been mismanaged and has disturbed their rest and recovery time, Seven News reported. 'The athletes get back from the swim events at about 3am each morning... just hours later, at around 8 or 9am, literally knocking at their bedroom doors, the drug testers are there interrupting valuable sleep and rest,' Chris Reason reported from Rio. Scroll down for video Olympic swimmers who have been subjected to early morning drug tests only hours after they return home from competing have slammed officials for robbing them of 'valuable sleep' He said Australia swimming champion Cameron McEvoy was tested for the ninth time in 12 months as he was preparing for the mens 4x100m freestyle relay final. According to the Gold Coast Bulletin, the Australian team feel they are being targeted by testers before races as payback for speaking out against doping. Australian swimmer Mack Horton created controversy after calling Sun Yang a 'drug cheat' before he beat the Chinese swimmer and claimed gold in the 400m freestyle. The Chinese Swimming Association imposed a three-month ban on Chinese Yang after he tested positive for the stimulant trimetazidine, which he claimed was used to treat a heart condition. Australia swimming champion Cameron McEvoy was tested for the ninth time in 12 months as he was preparing for the mens 4x100m freestyle relay final The Bronze medallist was reportedly 'interrupted' during his preparations for the final Chris Reason said athletes are being disturbed only hours after they go to sleep Australian swimmer Mack Horton created controversy after calling Sun Yang a 'drug cheat' before he beat the Chinese swimmer and claimed gold in the 400m freestyle event Horton, 20, said he had no respect for his rival and urged other Olympic athletes to name drug cheats in their sport. ' 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.' Other distinguished names in the sport - including American Michael Phelps, Lilly King and French swimmer Camille Lacourt - have thrown their support behind Horton after his comments attracted criticism from Chinese Olympic supporters. A court has heard she will have to wait until she can get the money But her Saudi sheikh former husband died shortly after the ruling Christina Estrada will have to wait for her 75million divorce settlement after her billionaire ex died after the ruling A former Pirelli model who was awarded 75million in a divorce settlement from her Saudi sheikh ex-husband will be forced to wait for her money. Ex-supermodel Christina Estrada, 54, was awarded the settlement from her former husband Saudi billionaire Dr Walid Juffali at the High Court in London last month. The settlement, one of the largest in British legal history, includes cars, jewellery and property around the world. Mrs Justice Roberts ordered the ex-husband hand over the money and assets by the end of July, but he died from lung cancer soon after the case concluded, causing delays to the payment. A High Court hearing today was told a Saudi Arabian lawyer by the name of Abdullah Nassief had written to the court on behalf of the family to request more time following the death. Dr Juffali's family was not represented in court for the short hearing today. Charles Howard QC, representing Ms Estrada, raised with the judge the prospect of enforcement action against Dr Juffali's family to ensure the lump sum was paid. However Mrs Justice Roberts declined to make any orders today, and instead listed another hearing. She said she would invite Dr Juffali's daughters from his first marriage, Hallah and Dina, to proceedings. Dr Walid Juffali, pictured with Ms Estrada, died shortly after the divorce ruling was made Mrs Justice Roberts said: 'It is important to note at this early stage, following the sad death of Dr Juffali, that he engaged with these proceedings throughout his life, and that unfortunately he has passed away before implementation of my order. 'But I have seen in this relatively early stage following his death, a letter from Saudi Arabian lawyers, who are likely to be instructed regarding the estate, acknowledging they are aware of what is going on. 'I am not dealing with a situation where the door has been slammed shut.' Ms Estrada was told her ex-husband's daughters from his first marriage will be invited to a future hearing The judge ordered there would be a directions hearing in October to further discuss the case. She added: 'I hope we will get this sorted out without the need for further litigation.' Speaking outside court Frances Hughes of Hughes Fowler Carruthers, who represent Ms Estrada, said: 'This is a difficult time for the whole family and Christina Estrada is grateful for the continual support of Walid Juffali's extended family. 'Mrs Justice Roberts said she hoped and expected that this would be quickly resolved and we concur with this view.' As well as the 53million, Ms Estrada has been awarded a Lamborghini or a sum to equivalent value and a 160,000 Range Rover. The judge in the case also ruled a blue diamond ring, worth 4million, should be given back to Ms Estrada by her ex-husband. A mother-of-three from California says she has been getting death threats on social media after she had a friend kill a bear that had repeatedly broken into her home. Julie Faith Strauja, 34, moved to Forest Falls - a town of about 1,000 in the San Bernardino Mountains - last month with her three children, aged five, six and nine years old. Strauja became concerned for the safety of her family after a black bear entered her home two days in a row in late July, on one occasion attacking her dog, Nugget. Facing backlash: Julie Faith Strauja, 34, a mother-of-three from Forest Falls, California, has been getting threats on social media after having a friend kill an invasive bear This is the bear, a 400-pound male, that was shot dead on July 31 near Ms Strauja's home Mama Grizzly: Strauja, pictured here with her sons and daughter, became concerned for the safety of her family after a black bear entered her home two days in a row in late July 'I have three little kids, and it was pretty terrifying to come home to a bear in the kitchen,' Strauja told KABC-TV. Strauja obtained a depredation permit from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to shoot the invasive bear, which her friend ended up doing after the predator, a 400-pound male, tried to enter her home on July 31. 'I haven't regretted my decision at all. But the way the people in this town initially responded was initially disheartening,' Strauja told the San Bernardino Sun. Strajua, a self-described animal lover who has fostered more than a dozen dogs over the years, said she has been subjected to vicious attacks on social media, with one woman posting her home address online and inviting others to 'make her life a living hell.' There kind of was a mob mentality, Strauja told the Los Angeles Times. People walking by my house yelling bear killer and obscenities. Four-legged victim: Strauja's dog, Nugget, was injured when the bear broke into her home Last resort: The 34-year-old had obtained a depredation permit from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and had a friend shoot the 400-pound male bear on July 31 Some neighbors said Strajua should have found an alternative way to handle the situation instead of rushing to have the bear destroyed. They don't hurt you as long as you leave them alone, Pennie Justin said. My son walks home at two o'clock in morning. No problem. Strauja said she did try other measures, including taking her trash indoors after the bear broke into the garage and using mace to chase it off. DFW spokesman Andrew Hughan said some Forest Falls residents may have illegally fed wild animals, which can cause them to lose their natural fear of humans. 'At the end of the day this is not a bear problem, it's a people problem,' he said. During a special community meeting held on Monday to address to the bear matter, Kevin Brennan, a biologist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, told those in attendance that it wasn't Strauja's friend who killed the animal, but rather those people who had been feeding it. 'A fed bear is a dead bear,' he said. 'Intentional feeding is probably one of the most selfish things you can do. That bear ends up dead.' Angry neighbors have been harassing the mother-of-three both online and in person over the bear's killing The 34-year-old homeowner says she had tried scaring the bear away and does not regret her decision to have the animal killed, having exhausted all other options A Forest Falls resident said she was saddened by the death of the animal, which she had dubbed 'Big Red' after its reddish fur. The woman, a native of Utah, said Big Red had stopped by her home the night before he was killed. He wasnt this mean, aggressive bear that theyve made him out to be, she told The Washington Post. The woman has since launched a GoFundMe campaign hoping to raise $10,000 to purchase bear-proof trashcans, signs and related educational materials for the community. Education of cohabitation with new residents may stop situations like this from happening, she writes in the fundraisers description. After all my goal is for human and animals safety. According to information on DFW's website, Californias black bear population has doubled over the past 25 years, reaching 25,000-30,000 by some conservatism estimates. Kevin Brenna, the department's resident biologist, put that number at 45,000, telling the Forest Falls community meeting on Monday: 'we've got no shortage of bears.' This owl appears to be playing a game of hide-and-seek as she peeks out of a hole in a hollow tree in a Canadian wilderness. She is almost perfectly camouflaged and nearly impossible to spot, as her ash-coloured feathers blend in with the bark of the dead birch tree. But the bird of prey is given away by her bright yellow beak as she peers out of the hole. Can you see her? The hollow in the tree makes the perfect hidey hole for the owl. If you cannot see her scroll down the page The female owl is actually nesting inside the tree, keeping her eggs warm, and she made the hole herself so she could be on the look-out and communicate with her male partner as he hunts for food. Canadian photographer Anthony Bucci studied and tracked the owls for months so that he could capture these breathtaking images in Langley, British Columbia. Anthony, from Abbotsford, British Columbia, said: 'I first noticed an owl sitting in a large maple tree, so I took some photographs of it and I made a quiet whistle sound with my mouth. 'Shortly after I made the whistling sound, I heard some noise come from behind me - a scratching and clawing sound. 'I turned around to see what the noise was and the female barred owl climbed out of the birch tree and sat on top of the tree and looked at me.' How about now? This dead birch tree in British Columbia is temporarily home for this barred owl as she sits on her eggs and waits for them to hatch Oh there you are! The owl's plumage is the perfect camouflage Anthony was about 50ft away from the owl as she climbed out of the tree, as he stood in a field. He said: 'I visited this place, which seemed to be nesting spot for the barred owl, over the course of a month or so. 'The female owl was sitting on eggs and waiting for them to hatch. 'The male perched across from the birch tree would go hunt for rabbits and bring them to her while she sat on the eggs. 'The reason the owl was in the tree was for nesting purposes and to keep her eggs warm. 'When I found where the owl was resting in her nest, I thought it was amazing that they had chewed out the side of the tree for a hole to look out. Ready for take-off: The bird opens its fantastic wingspan and prepares to fly off but she will not venture far from her nest The barred owl is native to North American. Its sometimes known as a rain owl, a wood owl, a striped owl or even an eight hooter 'I went back the next day to view the nest and set up my cameras. 'I brought a chair and I sat at the location for about eight hours and I was finally able to get a photo of the female barred owl peeking out the hole of the dead birch tree.' Anthony explained that the owls had made the hole in the tree so the female could watch the male perched in a tree across from her. They would make calls back and forth, and this way the female wouldn't have to leave her nest and have potential predators come and take her eggs away. The photographer added: 'I felt very lucky to have a nesting owl close to home and I was very happy I was able to visit it almost every day. 'Owls are a tough species to find as they are mainly nocturnal. I was very fortunate to have found this nesting area. Sarah Williams is accused of killing Sadie Hartley after she had an affair with her partner Ian Johnston Alleged stun gun killer Sarah Williams had an affair with a third ski instructor while still in a relationship with her 75-year-old long-term lover, a jury has been told. Williams was in a long-term relationship with married father David Hardwick at the time she is accused of having murdered love rival Sadie Hartley, whose partner Ian Johnston she is said to have become obsessed with following an affair. Her murder trial has already heard that Williams had also embarked on an 'intense, passionate' affair from 2011 to 2012 with married Thai martial arts gym owner, Somapat Sitiwatjana. They first met when he taught her to ski on the indoor slopes of Manchester's Chill Factore complex. The trial has now been told there was a fourth man in her life, another ski instructor called Andy Poole, in the build-up to Ms Hartley's killing. Williams's affair with ex-fireman Ian Johnston began in September 2013 and eventually led, the prosecution say, to the defendant stabbing to death his partner, Ms Hartley, after he refused to leave her. Williams is said to have murdered Ms Hartley (right) after an affair with Mr Johnston (left) The ski firm sales adviser allegedly drove to their home in Helmshore, Lancashire, and incapacitated Ms Hartley with a 500,000-volt stun gun before she launched the frenzied attack. Mr Johnston, 57, also a ski instructor, was in Switzerland at the time of the killing on January 14 where he was waiting for 60-year-old Ms Hartley to join him on holiday two days later. On Tuesday, the jury was read a statement by another ski instructor, Andy Poole, who confirmed he had a year-long relationship with Williams starting in 2012 - months after they met at the French ski resort of Tignes in January that year. The delivery driver said he stayed in the same ski lodge as Williams and Mr Hardwick, and that he swapped text messages and phone calls with Williams on his return to the UK. The court has previously heard Williams saw Somapat Sitiwatjana (left) behind his wife's back. She had been in a long-term relationship with married David Hardwick (right) It developed into a sexual relationship after they met up several times, he said. In the statement given in January this year, he said: 'I did have feelings for Sarah but was aware she was still with David who was her long-term partner. 'My relationship with Sarah lasted 12 months and eventually broke down because Sarah would not leave David and I wanted a proper relationship.' He said they stopped seeing each other by 'mutual agreement and with no hard feelings'. They had stayed in touch and had no reason to fall out with Williams who he always got on well with, he added. Ms Hartley was knocked out with a stun gun and then repeatedly stabbed at her home Giving evidence at Preston Crown Court last week, Williams admitted she sent letters to Ms Hartley and Mr Sitiwatjana's wife, Janet, in which she detailed her relationships with both their partners after she stopped seeing them. Williams, 35, was also said to have harassed Mrs Sitiwatjana, which the defendant denies. Labelled in court as a 'sugar daddy', semi-retired businessman Mr Hardwick admitted he paid for a string of holidays - up to 12 a year - for himself and Williams, with more already booked when she was arrested. He also gave her 75,000 towards buying a house and transferred 320 per week into her bank account. Williams, of Chester, denies murdering Ms Hartley. Flowers at the scene of the murder in Helmshore, Lancashire in January this year Her co-defendant, Katrina Walsh, 56, of Chester, said to have helped her friend plot the killing, also denies murder. The jury was told that horse riding instructor Walsh will not give evidence in her defence. A Massachusetts woman is accused of biting off a chunk of a rookie police officer's ear during an arrest early on Sunday. Emma Wiley, 19, is being held without bail in Salem, as she faces charges including aggravated assault and battery, assault and battery causing serious bodily injury, resisting arrest and mayhem, The Salem News reported. Salem Police said patrolwoman Jessica Rondinelli 'lost a large section of the outer portion of her ear' when the teen bit it as Rondinelli was attempting to arrest her shortly before 1am. Moments before the incident, Wiley was spotted with a fistful of hair by police outside of Tavern in the Square on Washington Street during a large fight. Scroll down for video Arrested: Emma Wiley (above), 19, is being held without bail in Salem, as she faces charges including aggravated assault and battery. She is accused of biting off a police officer's ear Patrolwoman Jessica Rondinelli (above center) lost a large section of the outer portion of her ear' when the teen bit it during an arrest attempt on early on Sunday Rondinelli and patrolman Robert Monk saw Wiley trying to throw another woman onto the ground while she screamed uncontrollably, a police report states. Rondinelli and Monk pulled Wiley away from the other woman, and struggled to lead her away and arrest her. 'I'll (expletive) kill you all,' Wiley yelled, according to the police report. 'Don't (expletive) touch me.' Wiley went 'dead weight' as the two officers attempted to carry her to the police cruiser. While trying to put her into the car, Wiley continued to yell and started kicking. Rondinelli was trying to get Wiley's legs into the car when she lunged forward and bit down on the officer's ear, taking a large section off. Moments before the shocking incident, Wiley (above) was spotted with a fistful of hair by police outside of Tavern in the Square on Washington Street during a large fight Rondinelli (above second right) and patrolman Robert Monk saw Wiley trying to throw another woman onto the ground while she screamed uncontrollably 'She has my ear, she bit my ear off,' Rondinelli, who worked her first shift as an officer on July 1, yelled according to the police report. Rondinelli was rushed to Salem Hospital, where doctors were unable to re-attach the portion of her. She is r going to have to undergo reconstructive surgery on it, WFXT reported. Wiley continued to yell threats to police while she was being driven to the police station following her arrest. She reportedly claimed, 'I know every police officer on the Marblehead Police Department, and you're going to regret this in more ways than you could ever imagine.' During Wiley's arraignment on Monday, prosecutor Megan MacKenzie told Salem District Court Judge Allen Swan, 'This officer is forever maimed due to this defendant's actions.' Rondinelli (above second right after being sworn in as an officer last month) and Monk pulled Wiley away from the other woman, and struggled to lead her away and arrest her The incident happened outside of Tavern in the Square (file above), as Wiley had used a fake driver's license to get into the bar. Wiley is due back in court on August 30 In addition, MacKenzie noted that Wiley had a long history of interactions with police in Marblehead, where is from, though she has no prior criminal charges. Mark Barry, Wiley's attorney, said that she is a sophomore at Salem State University and that she suffers from depression, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder, for which she takes medications, The Salem News reported. 'This is a 19-year-old woman who was over-served at a bar,' Barry told the judge. Outside of court, Barry said that his client was using a fake Rhode Island license to be admitted into the bar where she was served five or six mixed drinks. MacKenzie fired back that the teen's mental illness and alcohol use 'does not account for this kind of malicious behavior.' A twelve-year-old boy will enroll at Cornell University this fall to major in engineering - the latest development in a lifetime of academic achievements. Jeremy Shuler, of Grand Prairie, Texas, began to talk just six months after being born and had mastered two languages by the time he turned 18 months old. His appetite for reading and mathematics increased over the years. This fall, while most children his age head to middle school, Jeremy will take his first classes at his Ivy League college. He plans to major in applied and engineering physics and minor in mathematics, following in his aerospace engineer parents' footsteps. Scroll down for video Jeremy Shuler (pictured with his parents at his high school graduation), of Grand Prairie, Texas, will enroll at Cornell University this fall aged just 12 years old His parents, Harrey (left) and Andy (right) took care of Jeremy's education but soon ran out of things to teach him - even though both of them are engineers Andy and Harrey, Jeremy's father and mother, will move from Texas to New York to take care of Jeremy while he goes to Cornell in Ithaca, according to Texas Tech University. Jeremy, who loves to read mathematics books and novels such as Diary Of A Wimpy Kid or the young adult series Divergent, was two when he mastered English and Korean, his mother's native language. At that age, he could also read books by himself. And just six years later, at just eight years old, Jeremy began his high school curriculum. Harrey, who has a doctorate in aerospace engineering, quit her job to home school Jeremy. But both parents soon ran out of things to teach their gifted son and realized it was time to send him to college. Jeremy (pictured as a toddler) began to talk just six months after being born and had mastered two languages by the time he turned 18 months old At Cornell, Jeremy (pictured as a child) plans to major in applied and engineering physics and minor in mathematics, following in his aerospace engineer parents' footsteps In addition to mathematics books, Jeremy (pictured) likes to read books such as Diary Of A Wimpy Kid and the young adult series Divergent Jeremy started preparing for his SATs in 2014, when he was just 10 years old. He came out in the 99.6 percentile of all seniors. In order to attend college, Jeremy needed a high school diploma or a GED - but couldn't get a GED because he was too young. So he enrolled at Texas Tech University, in a program that allowed him to earn credits regardless of his age. Jeremy began applying to college in 2015 and received his acceptance into Cornell's College Of Engineering in March this year. 'I was excited when I found out I got accepted to Cornell,' Jeremy told Texas Tech University. 'It is the best choice for me.' His father holds a bachelor's of science in mechanical engineering from the same school. Jeremy graduated with a high school diploma just a few months ago and can thus head to Cornell this fall. 'He is a very advanced student for his age who already has demonstrated an incredible ability to learn at the collegiate level,' Cornell Engineering Dean Lance Collins said. 'While this is highly unusual, we feel that with the strong support of his parents who will be moving here to provide him a place to live and study and his unusual talents and thirst for knowledge, he will be able to thrive as an engineering student and take advantage of all that Cornell has to offer.' His father Andy (pictured with Jeremy in an earlier shot) has asked for a transfer at his company so that both parents can move to New York State with Jeremy this fall Jeremy's mother Harrey (pictured with him) who has a doctorate in aerospace engineering, quit her job to home school Jeremy At age 10, Jeremy (pictured) began preparing for his SATs. He wants to study calculus, physics in mechanics and spatial relativity during the fall semester Jeremy will not live on campus but instead has been asked to remain with his parents during his college years. His father has obtained a transfer from Texas to New York State and all three will live near Cornell. Jeremy wants to study calculus, physics in mechanics and spatial relativity during the fall semester, with an introduction to computing and either an introduction to linguistics or intermediate Latin. 'We've been to Cornell a few times, visiting family, and their food is good, which is very important,' Jeremy said. 'I'm also excited to learn new things and make new friends. Cornell will be different, though, especially in the first few weeks as I'll need help to navigate campus and get used to life at school because I've been home-schooled my whole life.' Jeremy, who wants to pursue a career in academia, could get a doctorate degree before he turns 21. In the meantime, he is on track to graduate with the class of 2020 at age 16. Naked images of students from elite girls' private schools have reappeared online in a Google drive folder, despite it being shut down by police six months ago. Hundreds of explicit images of young girls from Perth, some of whom are sleeping and believed to be under-age, were removed from Google Drive in February after they were inexplicitly leaked to the public in a humiliating online campaign. A similar Google drive folder, which reportedly contains individual folders with up to 30 photos from social media in each, appeared online on Tuesday, with police now under pressure to remove its content. Hundreds of explicit images of young girls have been leaked online in the sophisticated campaign (stock image) According to WA Today, police have started to remove the images but Cyber Safety Solutions spokeswoman and former police officer, Susan McLean, slammed law enforcement officials for allowing the young girls to be 're-victimised'. 'The online stuff at the moment seems to fall into a vacuum of too hard, or 'we'll just get rid of it and that fixes the problem', which of course it doesn't,' she said. 'All those girls in the first drive are now being re-victimised and that is not acceptable,' she added. Ms McLean said slammed police for not doing enough to deter individuals from posting illegal or explicit images online without consent from the subject. It is believed the images were taken from social media sites including Facebook and Snapchat. Western Australia Police told WA Today an investigation was launched into the incident in February but could not indicate if any arrests had been made and only said another state's police division took over. 'The investigation into a similar matter earlier in 2016 resulted in that site being removed, and a number of potential offences being detected,' a spokesman told WA Today. 'Information relating to those offences were passed on to the relevant authority for investigation' Following the initial leak, principal of Perth's Methodist Ladies' College Rebecca Cody said pictures of several students featured in the site. Methodist Ladies' College also had victimised students and said they have contacted police over the matter 'We understand that some of the photographs are innocuous, except they are private and were distributed without consent; others involve nudity and as such, it was our fundamental duty to block access to the site via our internet connection and to inform the police,' she said. Presbyterian Ladies' College, also in Perth, confirmed some of its students were pictured on the online folders. 'The girls did not consent to their images being shared and the police have been notified,' the school said in a statement. Police earlier warned those who access the site may be committing a crime, especially considering some of the girls featured may be under-age, Yahoo reported. A young woman has been critically injured in New York after a rooftop argument with her on-off boyfriend ended with her plunging four stories. James Ellis, 24, allegedly pushed Tyshay Culber, 19, from the roof of the building in the Bronx but as she fell he grabbed hold of her, only for her to slip from his grasp and fall around 50ft. The New York Daily News said Mr Ellis was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after the incident on Sunday and is being held on $100,000 bail. Tyshay Culber (pictured) was taken to Lincoln Hospital initially but later transferred to Belvue Hospital, where she is still in intensive care, being treated for severe internal injuries Miss Culber was rushed to Bellevue Hospital, suffering from a broken pelvis and serious internal injuries, including a badly damaged aorta. The pair were allegedly having a heated argument on the roof of Ellis's building in Morrisania around 2am. Court papers quoted by the Daily News allege he pushed her but immediately grabbed her as she fell off the roof. 'Babe, I can't hold on any more,' he allegedly told her, seconds before she fell to the ground. Ellis lived in this building on Franklin Avenue in the Morrisania district of the Bronx and the couple had gone up onto the roof to have a conversation, which developed into a heated argument Culber's mother, Tenisha Williams, 38, claimed: 'He grabbed her and held her dangling in the air, and then he let her go. He knew what he was doing. He wanted to murder my child.' Mrs Williams said her daughter was still in intensive care: 'She's not out of the woods yet. She can't tell us much because she's in so much pain.' Tanika Thompson, a mutual friend of Culber and Ellis, said they 'fought a lot' and added: 'I'd always see them out here arguing and chasing each other.' A German family travelled to Russia before claiming asylum - insisting their homeland is no longer safe because of the influx of migrants. Carola Griesbach, 51, and her husband Andre, 45, drove the 1,400 miles from northern Germany to Moscow's Red Square in a VW camper van to escape the 'German dictatorship'. Two of their daughters, Dominique and Julia, along with four of their grandchildren were also crammed into the van. A German family travelled to Russia and claimed asylum. Andre Griesbach (left), daughters Julia (left centre) and Dominique (right centre), and wife Carola (right) are pictured with their grandchildren. They are holding a Russian flag under a family variance of the Saxony flag Carola Griesbach, 51, and her husband Andre, 45, drove the 1,400 miles from northern Germany to Moscow's Red Square in a VW camper van to escape the 'German dictatorship' The family left Germany for a number of reasons including that they were concerned about the number of migrants entering the country. However, since arriving on New Year's Eve in 2015, they have been stranded at a small motel in a forest outside the Russian capital with the authorities knocking back their claims for asylum. The Russian government considers Germany a 'safe' country and the family are not allowed to become asylum seekers in Russian. But the Griesbachs claim they had no time to organise more suitable paperwork. Andre said: 'We have been worried ever since we staged a protest against the German Government outside the Bundestag [Parliament] from September to December 2013. Carolas daughters Dominique and Julia enjoy some time by a by a fountain with their children The family left Germany for a number of reasons including that they were concerned about the number of migrants entering the country 'We don't feel like Germany is a safe place for us, or to bring up children. 'When we left Germany in December 2015 we had no time to organise anything. 'We only got a tourist visa just so we could enter the country. There was no time to arrange a work visa.' Since arriving in Russia's famous Red Square, the family have been relying on the good will of the Russian people and legal technicalities to allow them to stay. The Griesbachs claim that the agreement between Russia and Germany to stop fighting in 1918 was no true peace agreement, and that therefore the countries are still at war. In this scenario, they argue, the Russian state has a duty to protect them. And they are desperate to stay. Andre said: 'We want to stay here and work. We are not interested in living off the state. 'I've had plenty of people offer me work, as a farmer, or a construction worker. I built my own house in Germany. I could also work as a translator or a German language teacher. 'In Germany you need so many qualifications to get some jobs, but in Russia you can just do it. I'll be happy to work once the Russian government lets me. 'We are really hoping we can stay. We are really free here.' Work as a translator might be a long way off, however. Their case is not being helped by their lack of understanding of Russian, and their survival funds are drying up fast. Andre added: 'My Russian is not very good so we have to have all the documents translated. Two of their daughters, Dominique and Julia, along with four of their grandchildren were also crammed into the van Since arriving on New Year's Eve in 2015, they have been stranded at a small motel in a forest outside the Russian capital with the authorities knocking back their claims for asylum 'As we don't have much money left, we are relying on the good will of local people to help us. 'But the Russian people are unbelievably helpful. No one can beat them in this respect. We certainly would not get this kind of help from Germans, because they are far too selfish.' As well as the selfishness of their fellow Germans, the Griesbach's complaints about Germany range from the number of refugees and lack of democracy to forced immunisation and the 'early sexualisation' of children. Andre said: 'People believe Germany is a democracy but it's not. 'It's morally corrupt and people don't about anything like punctuality or crime anymore. There is no society. 'Russian society is much better, and Putin is a much better example of a leader. The German state is corrupt, so he is much more democratic than Merkel. 'They are inviting all the immigrants over so they can stir up trouble in the country and start the war the government wants. 'No country but Germany wants so many foreigners in their country. 'The Americans' wars, the Syrian war, Germany helps pay for all of this stupidity. 'The child protection services are so quick to take children away from their parents. They get paid to do it, and it's almost like child trafficking.. We were worried it would happen to us. 'And the children are sexualised far too early through clothes and pictures and books. There's no way to fight against it. 'It's a lot better in Russia. They care about the family and put it first.' Carola said: 'Everyone knows the situation in the German media, and on the relationship between migrants and violence is. The media reports on a small part. The Griesbach's complaints about Germany range from the number of refugees and lack of democracy to forced immunisation and the 'early sexualisation' of children The family has faced ridicule in Germany with one social media user saying 'it's a shame that the children have to suffer for the idiocy of the parents and grandparents' 'It's not safe for children or women in Germany anymore. 'The Police rarely look into cases, because they are prevented from doing so by the system or they are attacked by the so-called asylum seekers. 'But let me make it clear - we don't have anything against asylum seekers. We have a duty to help people worse off than ourselves.' As for the rest of the relatives back at home, the family say they have their complete support. Andre said: 'They didn't find it great that we left without telling them at all. 'But we speak over Facebook and now they support us. 'We won't see them again unless they come here to visit. Going anywhere in the EU is out of the question for us.' Many Germans do not feel the same, however. The asylum seekers have been ridiculed online by their compatriots. Lars Klingenberg wrote: 'Quite honestly, I don't know whether I should laugh or cry because of the children. 'Before I stuff money down your throats, I'd rather give money to a local refugee organisation that looks after real refugees and asylum seekers.' Miami-Dade Police engaged in a real-life game of Pokemon Go on Monday, when they rescued a kitten nicknamed Pikachu lurking inside the engine of a cop car. A lieutenant heard the kitten's meows as he was driving to work, and took the car to the department's fleet services for inspection. A worker there helped pop off the grille of the Dodge Avenger and rescued the baby cat hiding inside. A black kitten was rescued on Monday, after it was found meowing for help from inside the engine of a cop car It's unclear how the black kitten, which police nicknamed Pikachu after the Pokemon character, found its way into the grille of the car in the first place It appears that Pikacu was not seriously hurt in the incident. She spent a few hours at police headquarters on Monday before being taken to animal services Pikachu rests inside a cardboard box after being rescued from the cop car on Monday Police nicknamed the kitten Pikachu, after the yellow Pokemon creature. It's still unclear how Pikachu made her way into the car's engine, but it appears she was not seriously harmed. After spending a few hours at police headquarters on Monday, where she was provided with food and water, cops took Pikachu to animal services. Pikachu will be put up for adoption at the agency soon. A female officer holds Pikachu as the cat was taken to Animal Services on Monday The divisive leader of the Philippines may have just put his government on a diplomatic collision course with the United States. President Rodrigo Duterte, a man who has often been compared to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump due to his penchant for flippant public remarks, called the American ambassador to Manila 'a homosexual' and a 'son of a bitch' who 'really annoys me'. The remarks were reported by the news site Breitbart. The president took aim at the ambassador, Philip Goldberg, who made headlines recently by criticizing the then-candidate Duterte for his remarks about regretting the fact that he did not participate in the gang rape of a young woman in Davao City. Duterte was mayor of Davao City for 22 years before ascending to national office. Scroll down for video US Secretary of State John Kerry (center) stands between Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte (right) and US ambassador Philip Goldberg during a meeting in Manila During an appearance before soldiers on Friday, the president recounted a meeting he held with US Secretary of State John Kerry. Washington's top diplomat flew to the Southeast Asian country last month to confer with the newly elected leader over a recent decision by The Hague to rule in Manila's favor in a maritime dispute with China. While Duterte said that he found Kerry to be 'okay', he 'had an argument with their ambassador, that bakla [homosexual]'. 'Son of a bitch, he really annoys me', Duterte said. There is no indication that Goldberg is a homosexual, which makes it more likely that the president used the term in a derisive manner. Duterte (left) was unhappy over Goldberg's criticism of his remarks which seemed to make light of a gang rape that took place in the president's hometown Duterte has generated controversy on numerous occasions with his abrasive speaking style. Last week, he challenged Trump to a fistfight after the GOP hopeful said that as president he would seek to ban Filipinos from the US. According to a report in The Adobo Chronicles, the president was none too pleased at The Donald's remarks. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump (pictured giving an address in Detroit) drew the ire of Duterte when he called for a ban on Filipino nationals entering the US 'I will not take any insult on my Filipino people sitting down,' Duterte said. 'Let's settle this once and for all, extra-judicially.' Addressing Trump directly, Duterte said, 'If you are too scared to come to Manila, I can come meet you in Las Vegas, at the Trump Towers or at the MGM Grand Arena.' In June, the president slammed human rights campaigners as 'stupid' for criticizing his calls for the death penalty to be used for revenge. Duterte made the statement during a lengthy speech in his hometown of Davao where he discussed the war he plans to wage on crime and his vision for the nation. Inmates at the Quezon City jail in Manila are pictured here. Congestion in Filipino prisons has been made worse by Duterte's anti-drug crackdown, rights groups charge The premier said: 'These human rights (groups), congressmen, how stupid you are. I believe in retribution. Why? You should pay. When you kill someone, rape, you should die.' Duterte, 71, won the June presidential elections in a landslide after campaigning largely on a platform of ending rampant crime. The president warned that the Philippines was in danger of becoming a narco-state. He promised that tens of thousands of people would die, with security forces being given shoot to kill orders. Since winning Duterte has also promised to give bounties to police for killing drug dealers, and also encouraged ordinary citizens to kill or arrest suspects. Police in Manila enforce an overnight curfew for minors, one of the measures used by Duterte in his bid to reduce crime throughout the country The leader has been accused of links to vigilante death squads during his nearly two decades as mayor of Davao, which rights groups say have killed more than 1,000 people. Local and foreign human rights groups have expressed deep concern about his plans as president, fearing an explosion of extrajudicial killings similar to those seen in Davao. The United Nations' human rights chief, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, this month urged Duterte not to reintroduce the death penalty, while criticizing other elements of the planned war on crime. 'The offer of bounties and other rewards for murder by vigilantes, and his encouragement of extrajudicial killings by security forces, are massive and damaging steps backwards which could lead to widespread violence and chaos,' Zeid said. With just three days before assuming the presidency, Duterte stood firm. Katlyn Kinateder, 27, was charged Monday with first-degree intentional homicide Police in Wisconsin have released the audio of a 911 call in which a mother admits to the murder of her two-year-old son. The chilling phonecall was made by 27-year-old Katlyn Kinateder on August 4 from inside her Sheboygan Falls home. Kinateder can be heard telling the operator: 'I killed my son.' When the operator asks how she killed the boy, Kinateder replies: 'I strangled him.' Kinateder adds: 'I think I've lost my mind.' Kinateder later told detectives she was 'was tired of looking at him', police said. Scene: The mother was armed with a knife when cops arrived at the apartment building. An officer is seen putting the weapon in an evidence bag Police received a 911 call from a woman at 2.55pm on Thursday that a toddler had been strangled to death at an apartment in the 700 block of Woodview Avenue in Sheboygan Falls Sheboygan Falls Police chief Steven Riffel told reporters on Friday the officers involved in this case were wearing body cameras Sheboygan Falls Police said they were dispatched to an apartment on Woodiew Avenue. Upon entering the apartment, officers were confronted by a woman armed with a knife, according to the complaint obtained by Fox 6 News. The woman was standing at the top of the main stairway leading to her apartment. Sheboygan Falls Police drew their firearms and ordered her to drop the knife. The complaint states the woman began to descend the stairs still holding the knife. When she reached the outside walkway, she put the knife on the ground and obeyed officers' commands to walk away from the knife and lay on the ground. She was then tased and handcuffed. Police take away evidence from the scene last Thursday. Kinateder remains in custody Police then searched the apartment for the little boy. Officials say he was found inside a cardboard box that been put in a hallway closet, stacked below two other cardboard boxes. The boy, named Dexter Kinateder, was pronounced dead in hospital. During an interview with detectives, Kinateder admitted to killing her child. While in the 911 she is hard saying she strangled the boy, Kinateder reportedly told police she placed a plastic bag over his head and suffocated him. She also said she came at officers with the knife because she wanted them to 'shoot her dead'. Kindateder has been charged with one count of first degree intentional homicide, and one count of moving, hiding, burying the corpse of a child Sheboygan Falls Police Chief Steven Riffel told reporters on Friday the officers involved in this case were wearing body cameras. An Australian soldier sentenced to death for murdering a colleague has been released from an Afghan jail following a presidential pardon. Robert Langdon, 44, was convicted in 2009 for killing an Afghan security guard, whom he shot in the head and body while escorting a convoy to an American base. His initial death sentence was commuted to 20 years in the infamous Pul-e-Charkhi prison outside Kabul. But after receiving a presidential pardon Mr Langdon returned home to his family in Adelaide on Tuesday night. Robert Langdon walks free from an Afghan jail following a presidential pardon Mr Langdon, who always maintains his innocence, was found found guilty of killing the man and trying to blame the murder on a Taliban ambush. 'Mr Langdon's sentence was 20 years in prison - only one and a half years of his sentence was left,' General Habibullah Rizwan, the chief of staff at the General Directorate of Prisons, said. In Afghanistan, a day and a night in prison are counted as two days. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani pardoned Langdon after a request from the Australian government, Rizwan said. 'We handed him over to the Australian embassy's representative and his lawyer about a week ago.' Lawyer Kimberly Motley, who took on Langdon's case pro bono in 2013, said 'the case was mishandled internally and externally within the Afghan legal system,' from the beginning in 2009. Robert Langdon, 44, was convicted in 2009 for killing an Afghan security guard, whom he shot in the head and body 'We are very pleased with Rob's release and would like to thank the Australian Embassy in Kabul and the Afghan government for their compassion and hard work,' Motley told DPA. Motley, who has successfully represented more than a dozen foreigners from the Afghan jails, said Mr Langdon 'is in good spirits and is looking forward to being reunited with his family and friends'. The Australian government raised Mr Langdon's case 'a number of times with senior Afghan officials,' a spokesperson with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade told DPA, adding that the Australian Embassy in Kabul provided consular assistance to Langdon. His initial death sentence was commuted to 20 years in the infamous Pul-e-Charkhi prison (pictured) 'He certainly has been released and the family, of course, are very, very pleased about that,' Stephen Kenny, Mr Langdon's family lawyer in Australia, told the ABC. According to Wall Street Journal, Langdon is the last Western prisoner held in the infamous Pul-e-Charkhi prison outside Kabul, where he was held in the same maximum-security cellblock that held members of al Qaeda and Taliban. Harrowing footage has emerged of the moment a young Syrian boy desperately tries to stop his mother from removing her niqab after the family were rescued from the clutches of ISIS. The boy and his mother had been freed from the terror group's rule in the shattered streets of Manbij, in Syria, when she uncovered her face to wipe away her tears. The little boy, who is used to living in fear that his mother will be punished if she doesn't cover her face, attempts to pull the black material back over her mouth. A terrified young boy was filmed trying to cover his mother's face again after they were rescued from ISIS But his mother places her hand on his chest to reassure him and sweeps the black material over her head. Underneath the niqab she is wearing a leopard print shirt. The pair were filmed sitting on the back of a truck on Saturday after Kurdish forces of The People's Protection Units hunted down the last remaining Islamic State group jihadists holed up Manbij. US-backed fighters, the Arab-Kurdish alliance known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, expelled IS from the town at the weekend after more than two months of ferocious fighting. In a video shared by Syrian Democratic Forces the boy tries to pull the black veil back over his mother's face as she wipes her tears The distraught mother tries to reassure her son but keeps her face uncovered The pair were rescued on Saturday as SDF fighters liberated the Syrian town of Manbij The video also shows the moment children, adults and the elderly were rushed to shelter protected by the Kurds as gunfire was heard all around them. Local people dashed across the street to safety before being ushered away on trucks. AFP correspondents were the first foreign media to enter the former jihadist bastion on Sunday, alongside SDF fighters eager to announce its 'liberation'. 'Daesh is finished. The town will be liberated in the coming hours,' SDF fighter Ibrahim al-Hussein said, using the Arabic acronym for the group. He was flanked by ruined residential and commercial apartment blocks that saw some of the most intense street battles. The video also showed men, women and children running to safety across the shattered streets of Manbij Apart from the green camouflage of SDF fighters, the streets of Manbij are colourless - grey dust, charcoal cement blocks and burnt metal strewn everywhere. Rifles slung comfortably over their shoulders, the SDF fighters are clearly proud of their triumph in what was once a major transit point along IS's supply route from the Turkish border down to its bastion of Raqa. With air support from the US-led coalition, the SDF began its assault on Manbij on May 31, surging into the town itself three weeks later. A woman removes a niqab she was wearing under ISIS rule in her village after Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) took control of it, on the outskirts of Manbij city, Syria, on June 9 But the offensive was slowed by a massive jihadist fightback using suicide attackers and car bombs, before a major push last week saw the SDF seize 90 percent of the town. According to the United Nations, more than 78,000 people have been displaced since the attack began. Now, the SDF is preparing to clear the 'security quarter', a central district where the last pocket of jihadists is thought to be. The alliance estimated that some 130 jihadists are still in the area. 'We are very close to the security quarter. Just 75 metres (yards) and we will storm it,' fighter Abu Ammar tells AFP. A woman approaches a Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) fighter to kiss him after the fighters entered Manbij, Syria, on August 7 But he also warned that 'Daesh is using every malicious tactic in the book, from booby-trapped cars to human shields'. Fayyad al-Ghanem heads the Raqa Falcons Brigade, an Arab contingent of the SDF. His hand on the walkie-talkie at his hip, Ghanem said that storming the centre 'has been delayed because we are trying to protect civilians and get them out... without causing them any harm'. 'Daesh is now resorting to burning their homes and planting explosives to slow our offensive,' he said. In Manbij on Monday, Arab fighters in the SDF said they would allow the last remaining IS men to leave if the jihadists freed residents in the security quarter. Advertisement From a chrome Mercedes-Benz McLaren to a silver Lamborghini Aventador, Britain's supercar season is back. The stunning Arab-owned cars are among hundreds flown into London from the Middle East each summer. These vehicles from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, which also include a Rolls Royce, were seen today in Mayfair. Parked outside The Dorchester, the vehicles are accompanied by wealthy Arabs fleeing the Middle East heat. The arrival has become a regular event, with rich Arabs trying to outdo each other with their modified cars. The owners often ship their cars ahead of the summer so they are here when they arrive in July and August. Other Arabs are happy to spend up to 40,000 to have their supercars packed up and put on a cargo plane. In previous years a Mercedes with Swarovski crystals and a 1million Pagani Huayra have attracted attention. Chrome covered: A Mercedes car with a Kuwaiti numberplate is parked by The Dorchester hotel in London's Mayfair today Close up: The SLR McLaren is among hundreds of cars now flown into Britain by Middle Easterners every summer New surroundings: The vehicles have been accompanied by wealthy Arabs fleeing the scorching heat of the Middle East Aventador: A Lamborghini car with a Kuwaiti numberplate is parked in Mayfair as Londons supercar season returns Extravagant: The cars' arrival has become a regular event in recent years, with rich Arabs seeking to outdo each other Expensive: The owners normally ship their cars over in the months up to the summer, so they are here when they arrive Stunning sight: A Rolls Royce car with a Saudi Arabian number plate is parked by The Dorchester in London today Three out of four managed to keep eye-contact with female counterpart were told what glasses did before experiment An eye-opening investigation has worked out that it typically takes men just one second to look at a woman's breasts when meeting for the first time - with one man doing so in just 0.4 seconds. MailOnline enlisted the help of eight men to wear state-of-the-art glasses to finally examine whether their eyes wander when they are introduced to women. The glasses they were wearing capture the conscious - and more importantly, subconscious - movements of the eye. Half of the group were informed that the spectacles tracked their eye, but the first four were not - and all looked down at their cleavage almost immediately. Even those who knew they were involved in the investigation struggled to stop their eyes straying and one man couldn't help himself from looking - doing so in just one second. MailOnline enlisted the help of four females to find out exactly what men look at during first-time introductions Eight male volunteers were asked to take part in the test. These four men did not know what the glasses did going into the experiment Meanwhile, out of the volunteers who did know, Stephen took just 0.4 seconds before he glanced at Olivia's breasts when he met her for the first time. Another man, Tristan, took slightly longer to glance at Rebecca's chest and did so after 0.6 seconds. Chris took the longest - two seconds - to look down as he met Julia for the first time. The first volunteer, Dan, took one second to peep at Ruth's chest - making the average time one second. Dan was the first man to take part in the experiment and politely introduced himself to Ruth The glasses, which have an accuracy rating up to 95 per cent, recorded Dan looking elsewhere During the video, Dan introduced himself to Ruth and appeared to do so very politely with a quick shake of the hand. But the glasses, which have a staggering 85-95 per cent accuracy rating, showed his subconscious gaze briefly veered away from her eyes and towards her chest. He said: 'I wasn't really aware of where I was looking at the time. 'Obviously, it's important to make eye contact when you meet someone for the first time, but I also think it's pretty natural to scan the person from head to toe. Dan, who said he thinks it is pretty natural to scan a person from head to toe, admitted that he was relieved he wasn't the only one to get a red cross Tristan was the third man to take part in the test and stared Rebecca in the eye while saying hello After a short while Tristan's gaze started to wander, and the glasses recorded him looking away from Rebecca's eyes 'I did feel like I was wearing something from Ghostbusters though, so that made it a little unnatural. I'm just relieved I wasn't the only one to get a red cross.' Next to take part in the test were the four participants who knew the glasses would track their gaze. First to introduce himself was Ryan, who seemed positively transfixed by Olivia's teeth, while maintaining a steady gaze at her face. The glasses capture the conscious - and more importantly, subconscious - movements of the eye Stephen was introduced to Olivia and looked at her teeth and eyes while shaking her hand The eye-tracking glasses found that the participant momentarily looked down during the introduction Leo also passed the test with flying colours as well as John, who claims he always maintains eye contact when making conversation with a new person. John said: 'I was aware of what the glasses do going into the room, which may have influenced where I looked. 'Having said that I would like to think I look someone in the eye when I first meet them. I would probably look at the rest of the person after a while though.' Olivia was one of the participants who took part in the test and was introduced to both Stephen and Ryan Rebecca took part in the investigation and volunteer Tristan took just 0.6 seconds to look at her breasts Volunteer Dan took just one second to look at Ruth's chest when he met her for the first time Volunteer Julia was introduced to Ashley and Chris, who both failed the eye-tracking experiment Ashley was also in the group who knew what the eye-tracking glasses did going into the test, but still managed to fail - and took just one second to look at Julia's breasts. There are two theories as to why men's eyes subconsciously sneak a peek at a woman's breasts - and sometimes other body parts including her hips - when being introduced for the first time. One idea is that the trait has evolved as a way of males subconsciously inspecting a potential mate for childbearing. Researchers say women with larger chests and slim waists have higher levels of the female hormone oestrogen, indicating greater fertility. Next to take part in the test were four participants who knew the glasses would track their gaze Ashley knew what the eye-tracking glasses did going into the test, but still managed to fail The glasses showed that Ashley failed the test less obviously than the four participants who didn't know what the spectacles did John, who claims he always maintains eye contact when making conversation with a new person, passed the test with flying colours THE BOYS WHO DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT THE EXPERIMENT Dan - 1 second (Ruth) Chris - 2 seconds (Julia) Tristan - 0.6 seconds (Rebecca) Stephen - 0.4 seconds (Olivia) Advertisement A soldier accused of murder claims his then-14-year-old girlfriend is the only one to blame for her mother's death. Army Spc. Caleb Barnes allegedly killed Cheryl Silvonek, 54, with the help of schoolgirl Jamie Silvonek in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in March 2015. The teenager has already pleaded guilty to killing her mom, and has been sentenced to 35 years in jail, but Barnes insists he has nothing to do with the slaying. His lawyer told the jury his client was innocent at the beginning of his trial, according to the Morning Call. Accused killer Army Spc. Caleb Barnes claims his then-14-year-old girlfriend Jamie Silvonek is the only one to blame for her mother's death He added that Silvonek wanted her mother dead. He calls her a liar and manipulator. Barnes allegedly killed Cheryl Silvonek, 54, with the help of schoolgirl Jamie Silvonek in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in March 2015 The attorney said the victim objected to the age difference between Barnes and her daughter. But prosecutors say it was Barnes who wielded the knife when Cheryl Silvonek was fatally stabbed in 2015. Jamie Silvonek, who's now 15, has agreed to testify against Barnes. Investigators have said they recovered deleted text messages between her and Barnes in which the teen was plotting her mother's killing, including one that read: 'I want her gone.' Miss Silvonek also admitted criminal conspiracy, evidence-tampering and abuse of a corpse following the slaying of her mother. 'I was a monster. There is no sugarcoating it and there is absolutely no sympathy,' the girl told the court. Miss Silvonek said the couple discussed killing her mother for a week and Barnes talked about weapons he planned to use. Barnes insists he was nothing to do with the slaying, claiming Silvonek wanted her mom dead because she disagreed with their age gap Jamie Silvonek, who's now 15, has agreed to testify against Barnes. Investigators have said they recovered deleted text messages between her and Barnes in which the teen was plotting her mother's killing, including one that read: 'I want her gone' 'He had proposed that we kill her and we had discussed things such as luring her away, me luring her away,' Miss Silvonek said. And he made a comment such as, "I already have my knives picked out".' The teenager, who was charged as an adult, was accused of conspiring with Barnes to kill her mother in the driveway of her home. Prosecutors allege that Barnes stabbed Ms Silvonek before going to a restaurant with her daughter and then buying gloves and bleach. Woman, who is pregnant, suffered head injuries and stab wounds with the woman who is in a critical condition A man was charged with critically injuring a pregnant woman after she was stabbed. Petar Petrov, 30, a Bulgarian national of Edmonton, north London, was charged with the attempted murder of a woman, aged in her 30s, at an address in Densworth Grove in the capital. He is further charged with attempted destruction of her unborn child during the alleged attack last Friday. Petar Petrov, 30, was charged with the attempted murder of a woman, aged in her 30s, at an address in Densworth Grove (pictured) in the capital Petrov will appear at Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court tomorrow. A Metropolitan police spokesman said: 'Detectives from Enfield CID are investigating. 'The incident is believed to be domestic. The victim was the partner of the man charged. 'She suffered head injuries and stab wounds, and remains in a critical condition at an east London hospital.' A judge has revoked the special probation given to a former University of Connecticut student who went on a drunken tirade about jalapeno-bacon macaroni and cheese. Luke Gatti, 20, whose alcohol-fueled meltdown over fast food in October 2015 was caught on video and watched millions of times, had the privilege taken away after he was arrested in May. The ex-student is accused of hitting a female police officer while trying to escape rehab in Florida. It now means his criminal record could follow him for the rest of his life, if he is convicted. Former University of Connecticut student Luke Gatti, 20, has had his special probation revoked after he was arrested trying to escape from rehab in Boca Raton, Florida. He was charged after going on drunken tirade about jalapeno-bacon macaroni and cheese last year He will also be thrown out of his accelerated probation program. On May 28, Gatti was just hours into a treatment program as a result of the drunken rant, but then he tried to escape Boca Raton's Wellness Resource Center in barefoot. Gatti is believed to have just been transferred from another detox center where he had gone through several withdrawals. He didn't make it very far before he was tackled to the floor by officers. Eventually he gave in, but it wasn't until after they had been involved in a scuffle that allegedly left the guards injured. On Monday, Gatti pleaded under the Alford doctrine Monday to misdemeanor breach of peace and was fined $100. Under the doctrine, a defendant doesn't admit guilt but acknowledges there's enough evidence for a conviction. He was also removed from the probation program, which could have resulted in the dismissal of charges if he stayed out of trouble, the Journal Inquirer reported. He was also removed from the probation program, which could have resulted in the dismissal of charges if he stayed out of trouble. But Gatti was arrested at a Florida substance-abuse rehabilitation center in May and charged with battery on a police officer. Gatti was charged at UConn last October after he belittled a food service manager in a confrontation that was recorded and widely viewed online. According to reports following his latest arrest, Gatti was furious after doctors refused to give him pain relief to help with his withdrawal symptoms, according to a police report. Gatti, whose alcohol-fueled meltdown over fast food in October 2015 was caught on video and watched millions of times, had the privilege taken away after he was arrested in May He later returned to the clinic, where a police officer was waiting for him. The former UConn student said he 'did not care if he got hurt or if he hurt himself and wanted to be left alone', the report said. He tried to flee again, so the cop tried to take him into custody, but he hit her. Another police officer grabbed Gatti, causing them to fall into a door and knock it off of its hinges. After being threatened with a Taser, he was eventually persuaded to give himself up and was booked into jail, the police report said. Gatti later told cops: 'I just want to die.' He was later released on a $5,000 bond and is due back in court next month. Gatti was arrested last October after his nine-minute stand-off with the cafeteria's manager over bacon jalapeno mac and cheese ended in a scuffle. Gatti was arrested last October after his nine-minute stand-off with the cafeteria's manager over the food ended in a scuffle In a recording of the incident, the manager is seen calmly telling Gatti that he will not be served because he brought alcohol into the building, which is prohibited, and also because they are out of the dish Gatti is so desperate for. 'Try Subway,' the manager tells him. But Gatti refused to comply and instead repeatedly hurled abuse at the manager. When the manager asked his age, Gatti admitted he was 19 and was therefore drinking underage. This is getting posted somewhere and youre gonna look like a f****** tool,' Gatti said after noticing the incident was being filmed. 'Just let me get some mac and cheese,' he added. The manager stood firm and told him: 'You are not welcome here. You have booze on your breath, you told me you're underage.' Despite various employees and fellow students trying to calm Gatti down, he continued to berate the manager and even shoved him. His latest arrest means his criminal record, stemmed from the confrontation almost 12 months ago, could follow him for the rest of his life, if he is convicted Then, after Gatti shoved the manager again, the footage shows a cook pulling the student into a wrestling hold and forcing him to the ground, shouting: 'I told you, you don't touch my boss.' I was just trying to get f****** food, Gatti shouted. You don't do it by assaulting people, he was told. When the police eventually arrived and handcuffed Gatti, he started crying, adding: F***! Im absolutely f*****. In a final insult to the manager, Gatti tried to spit at him before being taken out of the building. Gatti later apologized. He issued a grovelling video acknowledging that he was intoxicated and said he was ashamed of his behavior. He is no longer enrolled at UConn. School officials won't say if he left on his own or was expelled, but he was banned from all school property. He was previously a student at the University of Massachusetts and was arrested twice last year on disorderly conduct charges. During one of those arrests, Gatti was accused of using a racial slur against a police officer, according to court filings. In December last year, Gatti was sentenced to a year of probation, a course of substance abuse treatment and community service. Edward Daly (pictured), 82, Bishop of Derry from 1974 until 1993, has died Heartbroken parishioners and well-wishers today queued up to pay their final respects to the Catholic priest who waved a blood-stained white handkerchief during the Bloody Sunday shootings. Bishop Edward Daly, 82, famously brandished the rag as a symbol of ceasefire as he attempted to help a fatally injured demonstrator in Londonderry in Northern Ireland in January 1972. Father Day led the church in the city through some of the darkest days of the conflict and believed the violence of the Troubles was futile and morally unjustified. But he died on Monday at the age of 82 and his remains were brought to St. Eugene's Cathedral in Derry last night. And well-wishers today paid their respects to the late retired Bishop of Derry after queuing up inside the cathedral. His funeral will take place on Thursday. Hugh McMonagle, who helped Father Daly by carrying fatally injured civil rights protester Jackie Duddy on Bloody Sunday, was today seen resting his hand on the late priest's head as he paid his final respects. Scroll down for video Father Edward Daly waving a bloodstained handkerchief as he tended the dead and dying after British troops opened fire on demonstrators in Londonderry in January 1972 Parishioners and well-wishers paid their final respects to the late retired Bishop of Derry, Edward Daly His body was laid to rest at St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry, Northern Ireland The famous Catholic priest will be remembered for waving a blood-stained white handkerchief during the Bloody Sunday shootings Archbishop Eamon Martin, leader of Ireland's Catholic Church, said: 'Bishop Edward will be remembered as a fearless peace-builder - as exemplified by his courage on Bloody Sunday in Derry - and as a holy and humble faith leader.' Paratroopers opened fire on Bloody Sunday and killed 13 people. Fourteen were injured, and another was to die later. It has been described as one of the catalysts of the IRA and the 30-year conflict, which left more than 3,000 dead and many others injured. Civil rights demonstrators seeking one man, one vote and other concessions from the unionist-dominated government of Northern Ireland had gathered for a march in Londonderry. At the time Dr Daly was a curate aged 39 from Belleek who served at St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry. People queued up to pay their respects after the famous Catholic priest died yesterday aged 82 One woman visited the cathedral in Londonderry on Tuesday to pay her respects to the late bishop Hugh McMonagle, who helped Dr Edward Daly by carrying fatally injured civil rights protester Jackie Duddy on Bloody Sunday in January 1972, today paid his respects to the late priest On Tuesday, a couple looked at the mural on Free Derry Corner depicting an image of Bishop Daly waving the white flag in 1972 The priest absolving a dying man during the Bloody Sunday massacre. Thirteen people were killed during the incident The remains of the late Bishop were brought to St. Eugene's Cathedral in Derry on Monday evening He joined the march as it passed the cathedral en route to the city centre. The priest was near John 'Jackie' Duddy, 17, when he was shot by soldiers. He anointed him and gave him the Last Rites. Dr Daly and other marchers attempted to bring him to safety and the priest led the way with a handkerchief in his hand. The remains of the late Bishop were brought to St. Eugene's Cathedral in Derry on Monday evening. They will remain there until Requiem Mass on Thursday afternoon before he is buried in the cathedral's grounds. Years of controversy have surrounded Bloody Sunday and the decision of the troops to open fire. Bishop Daly said: 'I felt a responsibility to tell the story of what I saw and what I saw was a young fella who was posing no threat to anybody being shot dead unjustifiably.' Archbishop Martin said the late clergyman took a personal interest in those who suffered miscarriages of justice. A visitor to the church rests their hand on the famous Catholic priest on Tuesday after he passed away on Monday They will remain there until Requiem Mass on Thursday afternoon and burial in the grounds of the Cathedral The clergyman was awarded the freedom of the city of Derry last year alongside his Church of Ireland counterpart and close friend Bishop James Mehaffey, hailing the rich 'tapestry of cultures' which made up his adopted home 'His untiring advocacy for the Birmingham Six, the victims of Bloody Sunday and for the families of those murdered by paramilitaries earned him respect from some, suspicion from others,' he said. 'As a gifted spiritual leader and communicator, his words touched the hearts of many people, but his ministry was not confined to preaching. 'He walked with his people in their struggles and joys and was most at home out in the streets, parishes and communities of his diocese.' Dr Daly had served in the city since 1962, walking its deprived streets whose inhabitants suffered decades of underinvestment amid violence and political manoeuvring. He was Bishop of Derry from 1974 until 1993, stepping aside after suffering a stroke. In recent years he has battled a long-term illness. The cleric was a prolific writer and in latter years helped the dying in his role as chaplain at Foyle Hospice in Derry Bishop Edward Daly in 2010 holding a portrait of Jackie Duddy who was shot dead in the Bogside area of Derry on Bloody Sunday. The cleric was a prolific writer and campaigner The clergyman was awarded the freedom of the city last year alongside his Church of Ireland counterpart and close friend Bishop James Mehaffey, hailing the rich 'tapestry of cultures' which made up his adopted home. The cleric was a prolific writer and in latter years helped the dying in his role as chaplain at Foyle Hospice in Derry. Archbishop Martin said: 'He was a gentle shepherd whose immense contribution to the spiritual and moral well-being of the people of Derry diocese during a troubled time shall never be forgotten. He picked up eight penalty points which put the team in third place But his nine-year-old horse Santano II knocked two rails in the final run The Australian equestrian team have won a bronze medal a nail-biting eventing final. The team final came down to the wire on Day Four of the Rio Olympics at the Equestrian Centre in Deodoro, with Australian Christopher Burton needing to deliver a flawless performance in his last run to claim the gold. But the dual Olympian and his nine-year-old jet black horse, Santano II, knocked over two fences, picking up eight penalty points to leave Australia on 175.30 points, just short of the German team, who claimed silver and the French who claimed gold. Christopher Burton and his nine-year-old jet black horse, Santano II, knocked over two fences in the Australians final run, earning his team the nations fourth bronze medal He is pictured here clearing a jump during the Cross Country Eventing Australian Sam Griffiths is seen here riding Paulank Brockagh Stuart Tinney got Australia off to a terrible start on Tuesday, racking up 17 penalties, with Sam Griffiths' penalty-free round keeping the team in the medal hunt. Australia went into the final day in the gold medal position on 150.30 points ahead of New Zealand (154.80) and France (161). Burton - who lies second in the eventing world rankings - got halfway through before attracting a penalty when his black gelding knocked a rail with his hind leg, with the second last hurdle was the final bar to fall. Burton is also in individual gold medal contention after his second placing in the initial dressage phase and a textbook ride across country last night. Pressure is on: Burton needed to deliver a flawless performance in his last run to claim the gold After the dual Olympian's final run Australia were left on on 175.30 points, just short of the German team, who claimed silver and the French who claimed gold Australia won the teams title at the Barcelona, Atlanta and Sydney Olympics, while Matt Ryan was the last Australian to win the individual event in Barcelona in 1992. Australia were looking to get back into the history books at Rio, after a tough competition at London 2012 ended Australias strong streak of eventing medals. Australia has claimed podium finishes at Mexico City 1968 (team bronze), Montreal 1976 (team bronze), Barcelona 1992 (individual and team golds), Atlanta 1996 (team gold), Sydney 2000 (team gold) and silver in Beijing 2008. Australian Stuart Tinney on Pluto Mio competes during the Cross Country Eventing on Day 3 Huge metal structures have been abandoned since they were decommissioned in 1956 Maunsell gun towers were constructed to help gunners shoot down opposition aircrafts Red Sands Sea Forts were built in Thames Estuary in 1943, seven miles off coast of Whitstable, Kent Advertisement These haunting photographs have captured the ruins of the sea forts designed to protect London against Nazi attacks during World War II. The Red Sands Sea Forts were built in the Thames Estuary in 1943 and still tower above the waves just seven miles off the coast of Whitstable, in Kent. The huge metal Maunsell gun towers, which were constructed to help gunners shoot down opposition aircrafts, have been abandoned since they were decommissioned in 1956. Haunting photographs show the abandoned sea forts designed to protect London against Nazi attacks during World War II The huge metal Maunsell gun towers were built in the Thames Estuary in 1943, seven miles off the coast of Whitstable, in Kent The forts, constructed to help gunners shoot down opposition aircrafts, have been abandoned since they were decommissioned in 1956 Polish photographer, Marzena Grabczynska Lorenc, took the pictures of the battered gun towers. She said: 'It's hard to imagine how it felt to be stationed there during WWII and spend months inside of the forts surrounded by water. 'When I saw them, those huge towers were standing alone in the ocean all abandoned and forgotten. 'I have always been drawn to these kind of places, where mystery and history goes hand in hand. These forts have been left to rot since their decommission.' Three sets of Maunsell Forts were built in the Estuary - the Nore forts off the coast of Sheerness, which have now been demolished, and the Red Sands and Shivering Sands forts further out Polish photographer, Marzena Grabczynska Lorenc, took the eerie pictures of the battered gun towers She described the Maunsell forts as an 'important part of history' and said their 'incredible design' should be preserved Each fort became home to 265 men during the Second World War, from both the army and the navy 'They were built to defend London against German planes - they are an important part of history and their incredible design should be preserved,' she said. 'Where else can you see massive bunkers standing on long legs in the middle of the ocean looking like invaders from a work of science-fiction? 'Now, they are just empty, rusty, and there's a really eerie feeling.' The Thames Estuary forts were assembled after the main London Blitz and they jointly shot down 22 enemy aircraft, 30 V1 flying bombs, and also accounted for a U-boat Charity Project Redsands was created to help stabilise and renovate the forts with the hope of using them in the future Last year, retired businessman David Marriot Cooper unveiled plans to convert the forts into a luxury hotel complex THAMES ESTUARY SEA FORTS The giant fortresses, named after their designer Guy Maunsell, were constructed to protect the UK from aerial or naval attacks from Nazi Germany. Three sets of Maunsell Forts were built in the Estuary to this design - the Nore forts off the coast of Sheerness, which have now been demolished, and the Red Sands and Shivering Sands forts, further out. These bastions were assembled after the main London Blitz and they jointly shot down 22 enemy aircraft, 30 V1 flying bombs, and also accounted for a U-boat - undoubtedly saving hundreds of lives. The seven towers of Red Sands were placed approximately six miles off Minster, Isle of Sheppey, over the period July 23 to September 3, 1943 and each fort became home to 265 men, from both the army and the navy. Advertisement A few years ago, Project Redsands was created to help stabilise and renovate the forts with the hope of using them in the future. In 2015 , retired businessman David Marriot Cooper unveiled plans to convert the forts into a luxury hotel complex after being approached by the charity. He has written to authorities about the idea but is still looking for a hotel developer to fund the project. Ms Marzena said she faced great difficulty when exploring the inside of the towers, with some of the less stable ones rocking due to high winds. The 51-year-old said: 'Standing inside the fort, you can feel it slightly moving with stronger winds. 'My husband and I met with a captain and we boarded the X-Pilot boat as we were greeted with a sunrise and the abandoned sea giants. 'We were only able to go inside the safest one. Inside, the forts are almost empty and the rusty walls are stripped bare - I would not want to be there during a big storm.' He has written to authorities about the idea but is still looking for a hotel developer to fund the project Ms Marzena said she faced great difficulty when exploring the inside of the towers, with some of the less stable ones rocking due to high winds The giant fortresses are named after their designer Guy Maunsell and were constructed to protect the UK against aerial and naval attack It will be an affair to remember for this mistress after her lover's wife returned home to find them in them in bed together - and furiously filmed the dramatic moment on her phone. Footage shows the wife bearing down on the naked mistress as she backs into the corner of a Bangkok house after she was found in flagrante with the married man. Local news reported that the wife had returned home early and found a pair of shoes outside. When she entered she allegedly found her husband having sex with the 24-year-old woman on the sofa. In the video the mistress wails desperately at a high pitch while the cheated wife yells angrily at her before grabbing the blanket away from her and forcing cornering the naked woman The mistress cowers pitifully in by a row of shoes crying miserably before being packed out of the apartment - still naked - without the man showing an ounce of support In the video the mistress - who at first clutches onto a blue blanket to protect her modesty - wails desperately at a high pitch while the cheated wife yells angrily at her. She points her finger at the treacherous woman before grabbing the blanket away from her and forcing cornering her. The mistress cowers pitifully in by a row of shoes crying miserably but the jilted woman shows no mercy as the two shout at each other. Meanwhile the white t-shirted husband is quick to exculpate himself tries to explain it was all a misunderstanding and the pair weren't together - but he hardly raises his voice and seems to make no impression on his other half who grows even more incensed. According to local news, the young mistress can be heard saying her 'parents never treated me like this' and 'you don't have to do this to me'. But the other woman reportedly calls her a 'disgusting w***e' without pausing in her diatribe. With the husband hardly sticking up for his lover the young woman finds herself packed out of the apartment - still naked - while the man hastily passes her some pants, a phone and her bag. The man hastily passes her some pants, a phone and her bag as she is forced to wait in the hallway for the lift. The mistress slumps against the wall moaning loudly Forced to wait in the hallway for the lift, the mistress slumps against the wall moaning loudly as the wife shouts her last furious words at her before ending her filming. It's understood the incident took place about 3am on July 31 at the Huay Kwang Condominiums in Bangkok. The wife and her husband had reportedly ended their relationship before he was with the young woman. Footage of the dramatic moment was uploaded online and has gone viral - causing netizens to debate over who was most in the wrong. Pattaya News reported that the mistress, identified only as Miss A, has since complained to police over her treatment and the release of the video. She claims to have suffered a 'serious loss of face' after the clip went viral. 82 per cent of children enrolled in childcare were not Children are being fitted with GPS tracker to monitor how active they are Preschoolers attending childcare centres are being fitted with GPS trackers in an effort to monitor whether they are getting enough exercise. Researchers from The University of Western Australia are putting Perth childcare centres under the microscope by fitting children with accelerometers dubbed 'Superman belts' to measure their body movement, Perth Now reported. The research comes after a pilot study found 82 per cent of children enrolled in childcare centres were not meeting physical activity guidelines. UWA population health researcher Hayley Christian said the study will look at how centres could encourage youngsters to be more active. Preschoolers attending childcare centres are being fitted with GPS trackers in an effort to monitor whether they are getting enough exercise (stock image) 'Physical activity in young children has broad health benefits such as instilling active behaviour, improved bone development, reduced risk of obesity, and enhanced cognitive and psychosocial development,' Dr Christian said. The data, which has already collected from more than 800 families across 40 childcare centres, has found on average children are only achieving two of the three hours a day of recommended physical activity. 'Our pilot study in 2014 provided the first objective measure of preschoolers' physical activity while attending childcare centres and the contribution it makes towards them achieving the Australian physical activity guidelines,' Dr Christian said. 'With the early years such a critical period for promoting physical activity, childcare centres are the ideal setting for targeting strategies aimed at increasing the levels of activity in children.' The study will look at how centres could encourage kids to be more active (stock image) The study found 82 per cent of children enrolled in childcare were not meeting physical activity guidelines (stock image) Dr Christian said the project will examine the types of key elements needed in outdoor play spaces to best promote exercise for children. She said the team would work with partners in the early education and care sector to develop a set of practice guidelines for the design of healthier environments. 'The findings from this project are likely to positively influence policy and practice relating to the physical activity and health of children attending childcare,' she said. Richard Winsor Ohrn admitted faking his own disappearance in Florida in April last year and must now pay the US Coast Guard $1m. He will be sentenced in October A Florida financier who admitted to faking his own death last year must pay the US Coast Guard $1million for the 20 missions they wasted looking for him, a court has ruled. Richard Winsor Ohrn, 46, from Boca Raton, Florida, pleaded guilty Monday to communicating a false distress message in March 2015. A court order was made demanding that he sell his home and tell the government about all of his assets before he is sentenced in October, the Sun Sentinel reported. Ohrn, who has been out on $1million bail since he was charged in February could now face up to six years in prison or a fine of $250,000 but may be sentenced to probation instead. His home is currently assessed at $550,000 but has a greater market value. In admitting his guilt, the Navy veteran said that he had suffered a nervous breakdown after being accused of stealing $15,000 from an elderly couple while working as a financial adviser with Chase Bank. According to the NY Daily News, he bizarrely called his local Sheriff's Office four days after his disappearance to say that he was safe. When called in for questioning he said that he decided to 'just go away' due to his anxiety. Scroll down for video Ohrn moored a rented motorboat off Boynton Beach Inlet (pictured) and returned to shore in a raft. He was found after calling police to tell them he wasn't dead No charges were brought against him for the embezzlement claim, but Chase fired him and he was stripped of his broker privileges. Ohrn was reported missing on March 31 last year, having bought a truck, an inflatable boat and a motor boat several weeks previously. He also rented a Sea Ray boat, which he took out into the ocean. He then moored the motor boat six miles off Boynton Beach Inlet, Florida, where it was later spotted by the crew of a passing yacht. On board the motor boat was blood and a broken pair of glasses - deliberately placed to give the impression of a struggle. Ohrn, meanwhile, had used the inflatable boat to make it back to the shore before driving to Albany in south Georgia, where he holed himself up in his nephew's apartment before he contacted police. In the three days he was missing, the Coast Guard went on 20 search missions in the Atlantic, costing almost $400,000. Ohrn was honorably discharged from the Navy in 2006 after serving in Southeast Asia and Australia. He had worked for Wells Fargo prior to his work at Chase but his contract there was terminated over irregularities. His later trouble at Chase saw him fired from there and reported to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. After he returned to Florida, Ohrn agreed to a settlement with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, which saw him banned from any association with regulated brokerage. A dentist who sparked an NHS recall of 22,000 patients because of poor hygiene at his practice has told of his 'total shock' at allegations of malpractice and insisted he cared for many of his patients 'as friends'. Desmond D'Mello, who ran the Daybrook Dental Practice in Gedling, Nottinghamshire, described the investigation into the accusations as 'callous and very humiliating'. D'Mello, 62, faces more than 50 allegations of malpractice - a series of alleged hygiene failures, including not changing his gloves between appointments, and accusations that he irresponsibly prescribed drugs to a patient, the General Dental Council (GDC) in London has heard. Desmond D'Mello described the investigation into the accusations of poor hygiene as 'callous and very humiliating' He was suspended on June 13, 2014 after a whistleblower secretly filmed him allegedly breaching clinical standards across three days. D'Mello, who has been a dentist for nearly 38 years and began his own practice in 1980, has not attended the hearing but sent an email addressing the charges to the committee. In the statement, read to court, he said: 'As you can imagine, this was a total shock to me and I have to say that the way the three officers from NHS England handled the whole situation was callous and very humiliating. 'I was so shocked to be accused of such serious failings in infection control, I offered them a chance to carry out an inspection immediately.' He said that the results of the 'mass blood screening' of his patients for blood-borne viruses at the end of 2014 had produced positive results 'far below' the average for the population. 'I hope this very low positive result proves that the evidence caught on the illegal covert filming does not reflect the way I practised dentistry over the previous 38 years,' D'Mello said in his statement. The hearing has heard how 22,000 patients listed on the practice database were written to and offered blood testing following the allegations, with around 6,000 coming forward. NHS England said that 4,526 patients of D'Mello were tested following the recall, with five of these found to have hepatitis C. None were diagnosed with hepatitis B or HIV. The statement, parts of which were read in private due to confidentiality issues, concluded: 'I loved my job and found it an honour and privilege to treat my 22,000 patients, many of whom I cared for as friends. NHS England said that 4,526 patients of D'Mello at Daybrook Dental Practice were tested following the recall, with five of these found to have hepatitis C. None were diagnosed with hepatitis B or HIV 'Several of my own family were my patients out of which half of them were general medical practitioners.' He added that he was 'no longer any risk to public health' and had applied for 'voluntary erasure' from the GDC register on two occasions. D'Mello, who qualified in 1977, had a contract with the NHS for the financial year 2014-15 worth nearly 675,000, the hearing heard. Catriona Peterson, dental adviser for NHS England's Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire team, which was involved in the investigation, said D'Mello's practice was contracted for 29,000 units of dental activity, each worth 23.25. D'Mello faces 56 allegations. Dental nurse Caroline Surgey faces 20 allegations, including failing to inform the NHS of the 'poor standard of infection control' at the surgery. Yesterday at the General Dental Council a professional practice committee decided the millionaire's misconduct hearing should be heard in his absence after he failed to attend and did not send any legal representation. David Bradly, representing the GDC, said: 'The council's submission is that he has chosen not to attend the proceedings at all. 'While of course he may be disadvantaged by not being present, the difficulty for him is to be balanced against the the public interest in proceeding.' He pointed out there would be not appropriate for the committee to adjourn the proceedings as it is unlikely D'Mello would attended a re-listed hearing. The dentist's 56 charges include failure to change surgical gloves and failure to wear a surgical mask (file image) Bradly said: 'In the public interest the council applies to your committee to proceed with this hearing in Mr D'Mello's absence.' He showed the committee a letter from the solicitors Branbers, which had previously represented D'Mello from November 10, 2015. In it they said: 'For the reasons set out, we confirm our client does not intend to participate in the ongoing fitness to practice proceedings.' The dentist's 56 charges include failure to change surgical gloves and failure to wear a surgical mask. He is also accused of failing to maintain adequate infection control by using instruments which had not been decontaminated before use. D'Mello also faces allegations of managing patients in an inadequate manner including in the way he issued prescriptions. A Kentucky judge surprised a suspect in a burglary case when she allowed him to meet his newborn son for the first time in her courtroom last week. The touching encounter between inmate James Roeder, 24, and his baby boy was captured on video inside Judge Amber Wolf's Jefferson County district courtroom Friday morning. Roeder and his 25-year-old wife, Ashley Roeder, are co-defendants in a burglary case and have been prohibited by the judge from making contact with one another. Judgement call: Kentucky judge Amber Wolf (left) made and exception Friday and allowed suspect James Roeder (right) to meet his newborn son Partners in crime: Roeder's wife, 25-year-old Ashley Roeder (seen in a pink shirt), is a co-defendant in a burglary case Judge Wolf told the couple she was making an exception by allowing the husband to meet his baby after ordering the Roeders not to make contact with one another Emotional moment: Ashley Roeder is seen in this screenshot wiping her eyes as her spouse kisses and cradles their infant son The judge was wrapping up James Roeder's hearing and was preparing to begin a hearing for his wife just before 11am when she noticed the woman hold up a baby for him to see when her husband entered the courtroom. 'And it occurred to me after we finished this case that he had not met his baby - who was 30 days old - and that he was not going to get an opportunity to meet his baby anytime in the near future,' Wolf later told the station WDRB. In the grainy courtroom footage, Judge Wolf instructs James Roeder not to say anything about his case before summoning his wife to come forward with their baby so that the father could meet him for the first time. Judge Wolf later confessed that she herself was overcome with emotion in the moment Tissues for everyone: The judge passed a box of tissues to the teary-eyed husband and wife Precious moment: James Roeder was in jail when his wife delivered their baby, and the judge told him he was not likely to see him anytime soon Ashley Roeder then comes forward carrying their son. I know you have a no-contact order between you and Mrs. Roeder that I issued -- and I am not changing that, Judge Wolf reminds the couple. 'I'm making a temporary exception right in front of me, on the record, so that you can meet this baby. This is your son,' she says with a smile. The new mom then hands the baby to her husband, who cradles the infant in his arms and kisses him several times. 'Do you see his little shirt?' Judge Wolf asks. 'Yeah...yeah,' James Roeder replies. In the video, the husband and wife appear to wipe their eyes as he hands his son back to Ashley. Judge Wolf, who appears to be on the brink of tears herself, then passes a box of tissues to the young couple. James and Ashley Roeder, pictured in their mugshots, were arrested in May for allegedly stealing six TVs from a warehouse Following the emotional meeting, James Roeder was led out of the courtroom, and Judge Wolf thanked his wife 'for letting me be a part of that.' At the conclusion of Ashley Roeder's hearing, the judge told those present in the courtroom: 'if you aren't teared up, then you're just heartless.' Speaking to WDRB on Monday, Wolf described the first meeting between father and son, which she made possible, as 'probably one of the best things I've ever done.' It wasn't really a judge thing, she noted. I think it was just more of a human thing. Troubled couple: The husband and wife from Kentucky (pictured in various mugshots) have a long history of arrests involving various charges, including robbery Wolf confessed that it was difficult for her to hold back tears in the moment. 'I think everybody was a little bit touched by it, and I just hope it gave him a little bit of closure and impacted him in a positive manner,' Wolf told the station. The Roeders were arrested in May on burglary charges stemming from an incident that took place on February 9, in which the pair allegedly stole a half-dozen flat-screen TVs from a warehouse. Online records show that both the husband and wife have extensive criminal records. Mrs Roeders Facebook page indicates she also has an older child. Less than two weeks earlier, Judge Wolf made headlines when she became outraged after a female inmate, who was not wearing pants, was brought into her courtroom. Ko Kyaw Ko Ko, a leader of All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU), doesnt take issue with the ruling National League for Democracy [NLD] holding a ceremony for the 21st Century Panglong Conference, but choosing to do so on the anniversary of the 8888 Uprising is manipulating the historic day for the governments own personal agenda, he said. Ko Kyaw Ko Ko told SHAN that he accepts that the 21st Century Panglong Conference should happen, but it should include real political dialogue and be inclusive of all the countrys armed groups. Currently, it cant guarantee equality and self-determination for the ethnic groups; therefore it shouldnt be aligned with the 8888 Uprising anniversary in any way. The 8888 Uprising in 1988 was a series of nationwide demonstrations and a general strike to end the one-party system and establish a federal union based on democracy. Thousands were murdered by the Burma Army after soldiers opened fire on crowds. Many were arrested in the subsequent crackdown. Ko Kyaw Ko Ko said: The NLD and its leader are in the political arena today because many people have made a huge investment and their blood has been shed. One must question what they [the NLD] can give back to the public in return in recognition of their sacrifices. A party must be able to take responsibility in leadership when persuading the public. Simply speaking, I want to say they must have accountability. Although Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is zealously planning to hold the 21st Century Panglong Conference, it cant guarantee ethnic equality like during the 1947 Panglong Conference held by her father Bogyoke Aung San and many of the ethnic leaders at the time, Ko Kyaw Ko Ko said. The public wants democracy and self-independence. They dont want the Panglong Conference under the 2008 Constitution. They dont want Panglong that is disguised as federalism but is just a bad inheritance of the NCA [nationwide ceasefire agreement]. The so-called NCA has been strongly criticized after only 8 of the countrys 21 armed groups signed itmainly because the previous Thein Sein government chose to exclude 3 groups that it fought with in the last two years. Reporting by Sai Aung Saing for SHAN Translated by Thida Linn Edited by BNI staff Police believe the victim may have been targeted and THC in remainder of his drink A Subway employee is accused of sneaking meth and THC into a cop's lemonade, police say. Tanis Ukena, who works at a Layton, Utah branch of the sandwich shop, was arrested on charges of giving a poisonous substance to a uniformed officer. Suspicions were raised after a Layton police sergeant reported feeling unwell immediately after her was served a drink by Ukena at the restaurant on Highway 193 on Monday. He said he felt impaired while driving his patrol car and even struggled to find the brake pedal when approaching a red light. Tanis Ukena (pictured on arrest) was arrested on charges of giving a poisonous substance to a uniformed officer When he finally arrived at Layton Police Department, he was unable to answer questions from his superiors. Surveillance video from the Subway, shows Ukena pouring the officer's drink, according to a Davis County Jail report seen by Deseret News. 'In the video, (Ukena) is seen filling the drink portion of the order at the drive-up fountain area,' the report states. 'For some unknown reason, he walks away from the fountain machine out of camera view. He then returns to the drink where he is seen spending what seems to be an unusual amount of time getting it ready to deliver to the sergeant.' The sergeant later noted that the lemonade 'tasted funny,' according to the jail record. 'The (sergeant) began feeling the effects of being drugged,' the report says. 'While approaching an intersection that had a red light, he had difficulty getting his foot to move to the brake pedal.' Suspicions were raised after a Layton police sergeant reported feeling unwell immediately after her was served a drink by Ukena at the restaurant on Highway 193 (pictured) on Monday The report continued that when he arrived at the station, he was unable to answer questions and drifted off. Police spokesman, Lt. Travis Lyman, said the officer was taken to hospital but has since been released. A drugs test found traces of meth and THC in the remaining liquid of the officer's drink. Ukena denies slipping methamphetamine and THC - the active ingredient of marijuana - into the drink. Investigators believe Ukena targeted the cop because he was a police officer, 'but we don't know for sure,' Bobrowski said. Subway spokesman Shawn Cook says the company is shocked and is cooperating with police. Mother Rosanna sent message of thanks for the support she's received 'She was 100 per cent into her job. She graduated top of her class at Boston The grieving mother of the Google executive murdered and dumped just half a mile from her Princeton home has expressed her profound gratitude for the support of the small Massachusetts community at this, her darkest hour. Rosanna Marcotte, 58, sent her message of thanks to law enforcement and the people of the community that 'refuses to succumb to fear' to residents who gathered Tuesday evening for a candlelight vigil in remembrance of 27-year-old Vanessa Marcotte. One present at the vigil, led by Pastor Linda Michel in the town's First Congregational, told Daily Mail Online: 'Mrs Marcotte was too grief stricken to be there but she sent a message saying how thankful she was for the support of the community and law enforcement. 'Right now this town is reeling and we're trying to find healing and peace at a time of aching spirits and hearts.' Scroll down for video Slain: Vanessa Marcotte, 27 (pictured left and right) disappeared on a jog while visiting her mother in Massachusetts Sunday afternoon and was found dead in the woods that night Remembering: Residents gathered Tuesday evening for a candlelight vigil in remembrance of 27-year-old Vanessa Marcotte Mourners leave the church after a vigil in remembrance of 27-year-old Vanessa Marcotte Members of the local fire service and police stood guard outside the white clapboard church allowing those close to the family and those simply moved to attend 'space' to grieve and pray together. The congregation, several hundred strong, filled the church and its gallery, singing hymns and offering silent prayers. According to Pastor Michel the town has had its share of strife and sorrow 'but no hour has been more sorrowful than this.' Some wept as they held candles aloft and Pastor Michel urged them to reach out to Vanessa's family in letter and by telephone. Earlier, Daily Mail Online spoke with Vanessa's father, John, outside his home in nearby Leominster, where Vanessa was raised. He spoke of his torment over his only child's death and appealed to the public to help catch her killer. John, 64, said: 'How can anything ever be all right again when your only child has been horribly murdered?' Volunteer fire department personnel stand outside the church during the vigil for Vanessa Marcotte Vigil: The congregation, several hundred strong, filled the church and its gallery He said: 'I'd ask people to pray that whoever did this is caught. She was the best kid in the world. Graduated top of her class.' Google account manager Vanessa, 27, lived in New York and was home visiting her mother, Rossana, in nearby Princeton over the weekend. She went out for a jog on Sunday afternoon and never returned. A source told Fox25 in Boston that investigators were examining the possibility that Marcotte was sexually assaulted and set on fire, with burns to her hands, head and feet. Barely 24 hours earlier her father saw her for what would be the last time. He recalled: 'I was with her. We went out to eat at the Chop House on Saturday night. After that, the next day, she was dead.' Trembling with emotion Marcotte said that there was nobody in his daughter's life who would wish to harm her though he said that this was 'part of the investigation'. According to her father, Vanessa didn't have a serious boyfriend instead, he said: 'She was 100 per cent into her job. She graduated top of her class at BU. She knew how smart she was.' Marcotte explained that Vanessa had recently got a new manager at Google and was 'excited' about her future with the company she loved. Marcotte was returning home after being with law enforcement, he explained, since 4 o'clock this morning. State troopers move in: Massachusetts officers were searching woodland around the area where the Google executive's body was discovered on Sunday night Search under way: State police crime investigators were on the scene close to Brooks Station Road in Princeton, MA, where the body of the murdered jogger was found Search under way: State police crime investigators were on the scene close to Brooks Station Road in Princeton, MA, where the body of the murdered jogger was found He said: 'I haven't even had a shower or anything. I've been at the police station since 4 o'clock this morning.' He expressed gratitude to law enforcement saying: 'If you could understand what the State Police have told us there's not one negative note [about Vanessa]. 'They're going above and beyond what they have to to find this person. They've been in constant contact with us, the District Attorney, everybody, constantly. 'They've kept us in the loop and offered all sorts of assistance.' Meanwhile the small community of Princeton, MA, is trying to make sense of the act of violence that has shaken all who live there. Vanessa's body was found in woodland off Brooks Station Road, a picturesque and quiet stretch where locals often stroll or jog. Joanna Kay, manager of local meeting spot Mountainside Market Place Bakery and Cafe, explained: 'This is the sort of thing you think might happen in New York or a big city but not here. Homecoming: The 27-year-old was visiting with her mother (pictured right) in Princeton 'I walk that stretch of road every morning. Yesterday I walked it carrying Mace. This morning I didn't walk it at all. People are afraid.' Daily Mail Online has learned that a witness spotted Vanessa walking along Brooks Station Road around 1pm police are focusing their investigation between the hours of 1pm when she left her mother's house and 4pm. According to the witness Vanessa was talking animatedly on her cell phone and appeared happy and engaged in her conversation. Her body was found in nearby woods by a K9 unit at 8.20pm. Authorities would not specify how she died but say her death appears to be a homicide. An autopsy is scheduled. Promising career: The Boston University graduate had worked as an account manager at Google in New York City for nearly two years Officials would not say how Marcotte died but mentioned a 'horrible set of facts' 'We have a horrible set of facts, horrible circumstance,' district attorney Joseph Early Jnr said on Monday. He added that it was unclear whether Marcotte's killing was a random act of violence and urged local residents to remain vigilant and exercise caution. 'People should be concerned,' Early told the press. Marcotte's employer, Google, said in a statement: 'Vanessa Marcotte was a much loved member of the Google team, working in our New York office for the last year and a half, and known for her ubiquitous smile, passion for volunteer work and love of Boston sports. 'We are deeply shocked and saddened, and our thoughts are with her family and friends'. Ronald Harper, 63, was paid more than 50,000 in return for showing favour to heating, building and energy firms A deputy property manager in the Royal Household was today warned he faces jail for helping companies win lucrative contracts at some of London's most iconic residences. Ronald Harper, 63, was paid more than 50,000 in return for showing favour to heating, building and energy firms over a five year period. The work at Buckingham Palace, St James's Palace and Kensington Palace, was funded by the Civil List, now called the Sovereign Grant, and came straight out of taxpayer's pockets. Harper's services to the Queen were recognised when he was made a Member of the Royal Victorian Order in 2004. It can now be revealed that he was convicted earlier this year of conspiracy to make corrupt payments between 2006 and 2011 in relation to Melton Power Services (MPS). Harper pocketed 'at least 55,000' in bribes from MPS for helping them win the lucrative contracts. The case can be reported finally after Harper was today found guilty of another corruption charge - involving BSI Nordale after a second linked trial. Directors of BSI Nordale Christopher Murphy, 54, and Aseai Zlaoui, 39, were both convicted alongside Harper of making corrupt payments to win palace contracts. BSI won contracts for work at both Buckingham Palace and St James' Palace thanks to Harper, Southwark Crown Court heard. Harper's brother-in-law Alan Rollinson, 67, was earlier convicted of laundering 20,000 from BSI but cleared of laundering thousands of pounds in profit for MPS. MPS company director Steven Thompson, 62, earlier admitted conspiracy to commit fraud, while Thompson and GO Power director Glynn Orridge, 66, admitted fraudulently using their companies as part of the conspiracy. Judges Nicholas Loraine-Smith thanked jurors for their hard work. Directors of BSI Nordale Christopher Murphy, 54, and Aseai Zlaoui, 39, (pictured) were both convicted alongside Harper of making corrupt payments to win palace contracts He said Harper had 'quite brilliantly disguised' the scheme and warned he is 'certainly going to go to prison for quite a long time'. The charges arose following an investigation by Leicestershire Police's Financial Investigation Unit. Harper, who was responsible for more than 2million worth of palace contracts, took thousands of pounds in bribes from companies hoping to gain the lucrative deals. Buckingham Palace, St James' Palace, Clarence House and Windsor Castle are among the properties that were overseen by him during his time in the role. David Durose, prosecuting, said: '[Harper] received what were in effect bribes from companies with who he had dealings to show favour to them in the course of his employment. 'Some of the payments that he received as such bribes were disguised as being paid through the bank accounts of others.' His job description was 'to procure works in the most cost-effective manner' for the palaces. 'He had a key role to play in the awarding of contracts from outside businesses to provide services to the Royal Household.' Harper extended a contract with MPS on a yearly basis without considering competitors - despite knowing that this was not standard procedure. Harper's brother-in-law Alan Rollinson (pictured right, with Harper) was earlier convicted of laundering 20,000 from BSI but cleared of laundering thousands of pounds in profit for MPS MPS received contracts from the Royal Household worth 569,000 between 2003 and 2012 - though it is not believed that all of these were corruptly awarded. Until 2008 Thompson was a partner of MPS - which provided 'high voltage electrical equipment'. That year the company was sold to the Freedom Group which supposedly made their dealings with Harper more difficult due to Thompson no longer being the boss. The takeover saw the MPS partners take home 'almost 4million' between them which was related to Harper receiving 22,000 in 2009 in part from Thompson's account. 'There were further unexplained cash deposits into Mr Harper's bank accounts totalling in excess of 20,000,' Mr Durose added. In February 2010 Thompson made a cheque out to cash for 2,500 which the prosecutor noted had 'Ron Harper' written on it. Corrupt payments were made to Harper from MPS Ltd through 'inflated invoices'. Mr Durose explained sub-contractors would overcharge the household for work carried out so that Harper could take a cut. 'Everybody is on the take in relation to some of these deals,' the prosecutor claimed. Harper, who was responsible for more than 2million worth of palace contracts, took thousands of pounds in bribes from companies hoping to gain the lucrative deals As well as Harper getting a portion of the profit Thompson was also handed a cut for organising the deals. Mr Durose also suggested that MPS having a Royal Warrant would likely have meant they were 'a more attractive proposition'. During the first trial jurors were shown an email from Thompson which had a number of documents attached. The email, sent on November 20, 2006, had the subject line 'Buckingham Palace Distribution Board' and related to a potential quote for work to be done at the palace. Attached, along with a quote from MPS, were falsified quotes pertaining to be from two other companies vying for the contract. On both of these quotes the word 'trunking' was spelt incorrectly as 'truncing' and the prosecutor suggested this had been due to a copy and paste approach to their creation. Mr Durose explained that these quotes were higher than the MPS quote so that it would appear the Royal Household were getting the best value for money. Thompson asked others to 'print them off, sign them' and to use 'the lads or Sue' for the signatures on the fake quotes. He also asked a colleague to post them from Nottingham and London which is where the two companies supposedly behind the quotes were based. Mr Durose said: 'It is clear from the email that there is an implication that Mr Thompson has effectively fabricated some quotes for other companies to submit to Buckingham Palace along with the quote from his company MPS.' Mr Durose explained that similar false quotes had also been found in relation to a contract at St James' Palace. A later email outlined the proposed split of funds between MPS employees and Harper. Thompson supposedly told a colleague that he would gain '1,500 for a day at Buckingham Palace' and mentioned initially that he would pocket 1,000 and that 'Ron gets 4,727' - though these figures were later recalculated. BSI were paid almost 750,000 for work at the palaces which made up more than 75% of their turnover for two years running. Harper had been Murphy's line manager at Harrods before he left and Zlaoui began working for the luxury store as an engineering and energy manager. Harper had been Murphy's (pictured) line manager at Harrods before he left and Zlaoui began working for the luxury store as an engineering and energy manager A notebook belonging to Zlaoui was found which showed 'the system being exploited' as it featured notes including 'make some up' following a meeting with Harper. Two payments of 10,000 each were paid by BSI to Rollinson, purporting to be for 'various items of furniture', but the money eventually wound up with Harper receiving his bribe. Rollinson paid off Harper's wife's credit card bill after marking one of his cheques as 'Kim and Ron's' - which was later scribbled out. Harper, of Churchgate, Glemsford, Sudbury, Suffolk, was today (tues) found guilty conspiracy to make corrupt payments and cleared of a second count of the same offence. He was convicted of one charge of conspiracy to make corrupt payments following his first trial in June. Murphy, of Witham, Essex, and Zlaoui, also of Witham, were each convicted of one charge of conspiracy to make corrupt payments. Rollinson, of Leigh-On-Sea, Essex, was found guilty of one count of converting or transferring criminal property. Orridge, and Thompson, both of Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, had earlier admitted fraud charges. Harper was earlier cleared of corruption relating to alleged payments from former director of DWEC David Woodhams, 48, who was also found not guilty. Harper and Harry Howard, 80, director of Atlantic 2000, was cleared of corruption relating to Howard's company - relating to an oil, tank and boiler system given to Harper. Howard, of Racefield Hamlet, Chadderton, Oldham, had denied conspiracy to make corrupt payments. Police officers discovered a meth lab in a very unlikely place Monday - underneath the parking lot of a Wal-Mart store in western New York. The lab, which contained chemicals, spray paint and a substance that is believed to be methamphetamine, was discovered by patrolling officers in a sewer under the Amherst supermarket. 'It happens all over the country, all over the state.' Captain Scott Chamberlin told WGRZ. 'It's out of the ordinary for Amherst. Has it happened before? Yes.' Patrol officers found a meth lab underneath a Wal-Mart car park in Amherst, New York, Monday. Pictured: investigators hauled up chemicals and other items from a manhole Bottles full of liquids were brought up for testing from the drain. Police said there was never any risk to the public The lab was discovered by officers on patrol, looking for unusual activity. By Monday morning, Special Operations Response Team (SORT) investigators in hazmat suits had cordoned off a section of the car park and were taking evidence from a manhole leading to the culvert. Witness Dawn Clowed told WGRZ she was worried about the situation. 'I mean, are we breathing in all this meth as we stand here?' she asked. 'Are, you know-- I mean, this is crazy. Just not a safe environment, I mean, you can't feel safe anywhere anymore.' Specialists test substances found in the lab, which was also accessible from a man-size culvert. Police confirmed that the lab was no longer active Police said there was no risk to the public; Wal-Mart, as well as much of its parking lot, was allowed to remain open. The lab was later confirmed to be old and inactive, but the fact that it had existed at all baffled some. 'I seen men suited up, and I didn't know if somebody got hurt or, you know, I didn't know,' said Marie Jamieson of Kenmore. 'And then I was talking to somebody, and they said it was a meth lab. I'm like a meth lab? In Walmart's parking lot? You know, that's crazy!' Authorities say they plan to look at the Wal-Mart store's surveillance video to see if it shows people using the culvert. No arrests have been made yet. Rudy Giuliani suggested on Tuesday that Hillary Clinton caused the death of Shahram Amiri, an Iranian national who was hanged on Sunday in the Islamic republic for 'revealing secrets to the enemy.' Hillary Clinton used her private email server to discuss details of the Iranian nuclear scientist who was put to death for giving information to the CIA. 'Today it was revealed that some of those Hillary Clinton emails contain the name of a man named Amiri,' Giuliani said while warming up a crowd in Wilmington, North Carolina for Donald Trump. 'Amiri was executed by the Iranians several days ago.' 'Remember Hillary told us there was no top secret information on her emails? Remember she told us that?' the former New York City mayor asked a crowd estimated at 7,000 people. 'Well, she lied!' 'And I don't know the connection between that and the death of Mr. Amiri, but what I do know is it put a lot more attention on him. When they found those emails, it put a lot more attention on him. It certainly put him at great risk, even if they didn't find them.' Trump asserted Monday in a tweet that '[m]any people are saying that the Iranians killed the scientist who helped the U.S. because of Hillary Clinton's hacked emails.' But Amiri's defection, and his eventual return to Iran, were covered in news reports media in 2009 and 2010. Clinton's email messages were redundant to information available from major newspapers. Rudy Giuliani warmed up Donald Trump's crowd in Wilmington, North Carolina on Tuesday, suggesting that Hillary Clinton caused the death of an Iranian-U.S. double agent Iranian nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri, who was accused of giving information to the CIA, was executed in Iran on Sunday Hillary Clinton used her private email server to discuss details of the Iranian nuclear scientist while he was in the United States Giuliani said that when FBI Director James Comey declared that Clinton was 'extremely careless,' with classified information in her private emails, 'he was being kind!' 'I used to be a U.S. attorney,' he said. 'If she applied for a job with a U.S. attorney with me, I wouldn't be able to hire her. You know why? She wouldn't pass an FBI background check.' Amiri's alleged crime was allegedly informing the U.S. government about Tehran's extensive nuclear program during Clinton's controversial tenure as secretary of state. At the time she stressed he was in the country of his 'own free will'; she described him in her emails as 'our friend.' Amiri 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.' Trump and Giuliani both lashed out at Clinton for maintaining a homebrew email server in her home while she was America's top diplomat and then deleting more than half of its contents. Giuliani said he could never hire Clinton as a prosecutor when he worked for the Justice Department because she couldn't pass an FBI background check 'She's not a leader. And she is a liar,' Trump said. Thirty-three thousand emails are gone, okay? ... How do you get rid of 33,000 emails? Who sends 33,000 emails?' 'She's so guilty. She's so guilty,' he said, talking about accusations that she broke espionage laws by exposing top-secret documents to prying eyes. 'I think it's a tremendous blotch on our country. I really mean that.' Giuliani said Clinton cares more about her Wall Street speaking-engagement paydays than about middle-class Americans, and leveraged her government influence to guarantee those windfalls for her husband, the former president. 'She's thinking about the $1.2 million that UBS gave Bill Clinton when she made a call to the IRS to try to help UBS,' he said. 'In the old days when I was a prosecutor, you went to jail for that!' 'We need someone to come in with a broom and clean the damned place out,' Giuliani said of the Washington, D.C. swamp. 'Clean it out!' 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.' 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. Amiri's disappearance will raise concerns about the future of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian aid worker being held by Tehran 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. Giddings has several tattoos, including a Donald Duck on his neck The hostage was unharmed and the shot officer is expected to recover The white supremacist then allegedly took a woman hostage in a Subway He allegedly shot a Gladstone officer who stopped him for traffic violation Jeffrey Carl Giddings, 45, is said to have gone on the rampage Monday An Oregon man with 'Aryan Pride' tattooed on his forehead has been arrested after allegedly shooting a police officer and taking a woman hostage in a Subway sandwich shop on Monday. White supremacist Jeffrey Carl Giddings, 45, went on the rampage after being stopped while riding his bicycle at around 6.30pm, Gladstone Police Department said. Sgt Lee Jundt was chasing Giddings for a municipal traffic code violation when Giddings pulled out a gun and shot him in his ballistic vest, police told Oregon Live. Scroll down for video Arrested: Jeffrey Carl Giddings (pictured, in April), 46, was arrested Monday for allegedly shooting an officer then taking a woman hostage in a Subway sandwich shop Siege: SWAT officers and police negotiators surrounded the Subway where Giddings, who had been stopped on a traffic violation, was allegedly holed up Shots: When negotiations broke down, snipers fired two shots, non-fatally injuring Giddings, who was then arrested. He already had a warrant out against him for heroin possession Giddings, who has an active arrest warrant for heroin possession out on him from Klamath County, is then said to have entered a Subway sandwich shop. There police say the heavily tattooed man took a woman hostage while officers surrounded the building - but negotiations broke down and the police were forced to act. Aftermath: The hostage was uninjured after the SWAT team (pictured) freed her, and the injured officer - who was hit in his ballistic vest - is expected to recover 'He was not giving up. He was not cooperating with the police,' Sgt Brian Jensen told KGW. 'The hostage was in fear for her life.' SWAT snipers fired two shots, non-fatally wounding Giddings, who was then arrested at around 8.10pm. He is currently being treated at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center for non-life-threatening injuries. The hostage was unhurt. Jundt, who has been on the police force in Gladstone for 20 years, is expected to recover. A mugshot of Giddings, taken in April, shows his face to be covered with tattoos, including 'Aryan Pride' written over his eyebrows, 'F*** the Feds' on his bottom lip, and Donald Duck on his neck. He has an Iron Cross on his chin that can be associated with Nazis. On his cheeks he has 16 and 23, which is racist no matter which direction he means it to face. When 23/16 equates to or 'White Power' for the W is 23rd latter and P 16th. But 16/23, in which case it is usually intended to mean P/W for 'peckerwood', slang for white trash, now often slang for white supremacist prisoners. The Celtic Cross on his left cheek is a commonly used white supremacist sign, also used by Norwegian Nazis and the KKK. Huma Abedin, Hillary Clintons longtime aide, left the former Secretary of States daily schedule on her bed in her unlocked hotel room during a conference - despite having a burn bag for such items, according to recently released emails. Another 296 pages of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's emails were released on Tuesday by Judicial Watch, which is currently suing the State Department under Freedom of Information Act laws in an attempt to recover all of Clinton's emails. One email revealed that during a conference in Trinidad and Tobago on April 18, 2009, aide Melissa J Lan emailed fellow aide Huma Abedin to ask for Clinton's 'day book binders', which are thought to be private. Another 296 pages of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's emails were released on Tuesday. One email reveals that one point, then-Secretary of State Clinton's daily schedule was was left on a bed in an unlocked hotel room Abedin responded: 'Yes. It's on the bed in my room. U can take it. My door is open. I'm in the lobby.Thx.' Another Clinton aide appears annoyed in one email, after realizing Clinton's schedule was sent to an authorized State Department email address rather than an unsecured, non-state government account. While it appears Abedin left Clinton's schedule out in the public in 2009, she testified in June that Clinton burned her daily schedules while serving as secretary of state. 'If there was a schedule that was created that was her Secretary of State daily schedule, and a copy of that was then put in the burn bag, that ... that certainly happened on ... on more than one occasion,' Abedin told lawyers representing conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch, according to the New York Post. While Clinton admitted to deleting personal emails from her homebrew server, this was the first time anyone in Clinton's State Department inner circle admitted to destroying public records while on the job. Of the 296 pages of State Department records released on Tuesday, 44 email exchanges had not been previously turned over. Pictured above, Abedin speaks in Clinton's ear The 'burn bag' is used to discard sensitive or classified documents. A former State Department employee told the New York Post it was unprecedented for a diplomat to handle schedules this way. 'I spend eight years at the State Department and watched as four U.S. ambassadors and two secretaries of state shared their daily schedules with a variety of State Department employees and US officials,' Richard Grenell, a former diploma and U.S. spokesman at the United Nations told the Post. 'I've never seen anyone put their schedule in the burn bag because every one of them had a state.gov email address and therefore their daily schedules became public records, as required by law,' Grenell added. Abedin had been asked the question, 'And during your tenure at the State Department, were you aware of your obligation not to delete federal records or destroy federal records?' The Judicial Watch lawyer did not press her with a follow-up. Abedin testified in June that Clinton burned her daily schedules while serving as secretary of state The conservative group was given permission to depose Clinton's State Department aides as part of an ongoing Freedom of Information Act lawsuit rooted in Abedin's unique employment setup. Abedin was allowed to work both at the State Department and for the outside consulting firm Teneo. She performed duties for the Clinton Foundation as well. Today she serves as Clinton's vice chairwoman for her presidential campaign. The Post noted that the Associated Press, in another lawsuit, had been seeking Clinton's schedule from throughout her time as secretary of state, suing for access to those documents in 2015. The polygamous family from TV's 'Sister Wives' have been given more time to pursue their Supreme Court appeal in their attempt to legalize 'multiple marriages.' Kody Brown and his four wives are suing the state of Utah to end a law that makes plural marriages a felony, arguing it violates their right to freedom of speech and religion. An appeals court had previously thrown the suit out, but now the fundamentalist Mormon family have until September 10 to file a Supreme Court appeal. Kody Brown and his four wives (all pictured) say polygamous marriages can be just as healthy as monogamous unions, and are suing Utah to decriminalize 'multiple marriages' The reality TV stars - Kody, and wives Robyn, Christine, Janelle and Meri - tried to sue Utah in 2012. They said that an investigation by local authorities after the 2010 premiere of 'Sister Wives' infringed on their rights to freedom of speech and religion. Officially, only Kody and Robyn are married; he considers his other wives to have a 'spiritual union' that does not break state laws. Though the investigation was closed without filing charges, the Browns say they had to flee the state and the threat of prosecution still hangs over their heads. The Browns (pictured with their children) succeeded in having laws overturned in 2014, but an appeals court reinstated them. They are now appealing to the Supreme Court A federal judge sided with them and overturned key parts of the state's bigamy law in 2014, making it legal to cohabit with multiple people and claim to be married. But the 10th Circuit appeals court overturned that decision in April this year. Its judges decided that the Browns couldn't sue because they weren't charged under the law, so they didn't consider the constitutional issues. The Browns' attorney, Jonathan Turley, argued that the investigation amounted to government abuse, but in an opinion handed down in May, the court refused a request to reconsider the case. If they succeed in continuing their appeal, it will be the first time the Supreme Court has considered the issue of polygamy for more than 100 years. This week the Browns were given until September 10 to lodge their appeal with the Supreme Court, which has not considered the issue of polygamy for more than 100 years Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes has pledged to leave polygamists alone unless they break other laws. fundraiser emailed Hillary to push for someone to get a job at the State Department - and she told Abedin to 'help' foundation, to set up access to an ambassador for a billionaire donor Clinton's closest aide was told by Doug Band, of the A Clinton Foundation official pressed Hillary Clinton's top aide Huma Abedin to give special State Department access to a major donor who was accused of laundering money from Nigeria, according to emails released on Tuesday. Doug Band, a top official at the Clinton Foundation, emailed Hillary Clinton aides Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills in April 2009 and asking for Gilbert Chagoury, a billionaire Lebanese businessman who pledged $1 billion to the Clinton Global Initiative, to be connected with the U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Jeffrey Feltman. Chagoury, a former confidante of brutal Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha, was convicted in 2000 of laundering Nigerian money to Switzerland in connection with the Abacha regime. Under a plea deal, he agreed to pay Nigeria $66 million, and the Swiss government later expunged his conviction. SCROLL DOWN TO READ THE SECRET EMAILS Did she break the law? New emails reveal how Clinton's aide Huma Abedin was told what to do by a Clinton Foundation boss - even though she worked for the State Department The Clinton whisperer: Huma Abedin at the then presidential candidate's side in 2008, before the two went to the State Department Ties: Gilbert Chagoury, a Nigeria-born Lebanese billionaire who was convicted of money-laundering, was asked to be given access to a US ambassador According to U.S. diplomatic cables published by Wikileaks, Chagoury has also been a key financial backer of pro-Hezbollah Lebanese politician Michel Aoun. At the time of Band's request to connect Chagoury with the U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon, Aoun was running for parliament in Lebanon on the Hezbollah-aligned bloc. In an October 2007 cable, the prime minister of Lebanon noted Chagoury's ties to Aoun and 'suggested that the U.S. deliver to Chagoury a stern message about the possibility of financial sanctions and travel bans against those who undermine Lebanon's legitimate institutions.' In 2010, it was discovered that Chagoury had been added to the U.S. No-Fly terror list and barred from boarding a private jet in New Jersey. He was able to obtain a 'waiver' to fly, and was later removed from the list and received a written apology from the U.S. government. Chagoury pledged $1 billion to the Clinton Global Initiative in 2009 and has contributed between $1 million and $5 million to the Clinton Foundation. In another email released by Judicial Watch, Band asked Abedin to help look for job openings for an 'important' associate, whose name is redacted from the message. Band forwarded an email to Abedin from the unnamed individual that was headlined 'A favor' 'Hi Doug,' said the April 22, 2009 email. 'I really appreciated the opportunity to go on the Haiti trip; it was an eye-opening experiences seeing both the depravity and promise of that island.' The rest of the email is redacted. Order: Doug Band (left) emailed Huma Abedin to tell her that it was 'very imp' for the billionaire Clinton Foundation donor to get access to Jeffrey Feltman, the ambassador to Lebanon (right) Band passed on the message to Abedin with the note 'Important to take care of [redacted name].' Abedin responded that the individual was 'on our radar' and 'Personnel has been sending him options.' More favors: Clinton fundraiser Lana Moresky wrote a lengthy attempt to get someone a State Department job In a third email, Clinton fundraiser Lana Moresky emailed Hillary Clinton and asked her about finding a State Department job for an individual whose name is redacted. '[Redacted] is looking for an opportunity to meet with a knowledgeable [Department of State] person to learn more about the structure and positions available,' wrote Moresky in the April 29, 2009 email. Clinton forwarded the message to Abedin with the note 'Can you pls followup and help [redacted]?' Judicial Watch said in a press release that the State Department favors 'seem in violation of the ethics agreements that Hillary Clinton agreed to in order to be appointed and confirmed as Secretary of State.' 'No wonder Hillary Clinton and Huma Abedin hid emails from the American people, the courts and Congress,' said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton in a statement. 'They show the Clinton Foundation, Clinton donors, and operatives worked with Hillary Clinton in potential violation of the law.' One day after announcing she wouldn't be supporting her party's nominee, moderate Republican Sen. Susan Collins warned that the election of Donald Trump would 'make a perilous world even more dangerous.' 'I worry about his tendency to lash out and his ill-informed comments would cause dangerous events to escalate and possibly spin out of control at a time when our world is beset with conflict,' Collins told CNN's Jamie Gangel. 'I do believe that he has the potential to cause world events to spin out of control in a dangerous way,' Collins reiterated. Yesterday, Collins penned an op-ed for the Washington Post in which she stated that she would in no way support Trump. Scroll down for video Senator Susan Collins, one of the most moderate Republicans in the Senate, said Monday she will not be voting for Donald Trump for president 'This is not a decision I make lightly, for I am a lifelong Republican,' she wrote. 'But Donald Trump does not reflect historical Republican values nor the inclusive approach to governing that is critical to healing the divisions in our country.' In the essay posted Monday night on the Post website, Collins wrote that, over time, she has 'become increasingly dismayed' by Trump's 'constant stream of cruel comments and his inability to admit error or apologize.' Three incidents led her to the 'inescapable conclusion that Mr. Trump lacks the temperament, self-discipline and judgment required to be president.' They include his apparent mocking of a reporter with a disability (Trump says he wasn't mocking the man), his criticism of a judge's Hispanic heritage and his criticism of a Muslim family whose son was killed fighting in the Iraq War. Collins pegged Trump's tiff with the Khan family as her main reason when talking to CNN today. 'The tipping point for me was his attack on the Khans,' Collins told Gangel. 'When he showed absolutely no empathy or compassion for their terrible loss and instead attacked the two gold star parents, and also attacked their religion.' 'That was just the final straw for me,' Collins added. In the Washington Post, Collins also said she was dismayed that Trump minimized the heroism of Senator John McCain, a prisoner of war in Vietnam for five years, and insulted Fox News host Megyn Kelly in a debate a year ago. 'I had hoped that we would see a "new" Donald Trump as a general-election candidate one who would focus on jobs and the economy, tone down his rhetoric, develop more thoughtful policies and, yes, apologize for ill-tempered rants,' she wrote. Collins said she couldn't support Trump after he appeared to mock a reporter with a disability (Trump says he wasn't mocking the man), critique a judge's Hispanic heritage and critique a Muslim family whose son was killed fighting in the Iraq War 'But the unpleasant reality that I have had to accept is that there will be no "new" Donald Trump, just the same candidate who will slash and burn and trample anything and anyone he perceives as being in his way or an easy scapegoat.' Her column was published the same day Trump sought to reset his struggling campaign with an unusually disciplined speech in Detroit and reassure Republicans unnerved by a string of feuds he started in recent days. Before the night was through, though, he tweeted that 'many people' are saying Clinton is linked to the execution of an Iranian scientist. A Clinton campaign aide responded, 'Many people are saying = "I made this up."' Collins said yesterday that she does not support Trump's rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton. She expanded that point today on CNN. 'I have a lot of concerns about Hillary Clinton, and I am not going to support her,' she said. Collins admitted that the two worked together well in the Senate, but the Maine Republican was turned off by what she heard in Clinton's Democratic National Convention speech, which sounded to her like more big government: 'Promises of free this and free that.' She worried a Clinton presidency would further bankrupt the country. 'I also am concerned that her answers in the investigation of her emails do not match up with what the FBI found,' she noted. 'And those are issues that stand in the way of my supporting her,' Collins said. She added that if the Libertarian Party ticket flipped and former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld was leading it, as opposed to his current running mate, former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, she would be comfortable supporting it, 'because I know Bill Weld well and I respect him a great deal,' she explained. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump hit a new low today by suggesting at a campaign rally that "The Second Amendment" could prevent Hillary Clinton from choosing Supreme Court Justices as President of the United States. In a video clip circulating today from a campaign event in Wilmington, NC, Trump jokes that the "Second Amendment, people" might be the only thing that could stop a President Clinton from selecting Supreme Court justices during her term. This appears to be a fancy Trump way of saying to his "base" that she should totally be assassinated, and specifically, shot to death with a gun. Just like so many other Americans are shot to death with guns, here in America, land of abundant gun violence. It's a very hilarious joke! From a very funny guy who'd like to be our President. So funny. Update: From the New York Times account, now up: The Trump campaign released a statement insisting opaquely that Mr. Trump had been referring to the "power of unification." "Second Amendment people have amazing spirit and are tremendously unified, which gives them great political power," said Mr. Trump's spokesman, Jason Miller. "And this year, they will be voting in record numbers, and it won't be for Hillary Clinton, it will be for Donald Trump." Guy behind Trump immediately realized what he said was a problem. https://t.co/F3mSP9GLqt Chris Vannini (@ChrisVannini) August 9, 2016 Donald Trump: "Hillary wants to essentially abolish the Second Amendment." pic.twitter.com/jEppTyaUbS POLITICO (@politico) August 9, 2016 Here's what @realDonaldTrump just said (joked?) about what you can do if Clinton gets to pick her SCOTUS judges. pic.twitter.com/RMCHRsiD6m Ali Vitali (@alivitali) August 9, 2016 Here's Trump saying that maybe "the 2nd Amendment folks" can maybe prevent Hillary from choosing judges. pic.twitter.com/2lS2nHxpPI Candace Smith (@CandaceSmith_) August 9, 2016 VideoTrump: "If she gets to pick her judges nothing you can doAlthough the 2nd Amendment people maybe there is" https://t.co/eeofxE9qL4 Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) August 9, 2016 I'm just not sure we're ready for Make America Assassinate Again. John Schwartz (@jswatz) August 9, 2016 [HT: @samsteinhp thanks Gina!] He wants US to extradite the man he claims is responsible for the uprising Turkey's president cozied up to his 'dear friend' Vladimir Putin on Tuesday to send a message to his Western allies who he believes didn't support him after the failed coup. Recep Tayyip Erdogan has pressed the US to extradite the man he claims was behind the failed insurrection, and has sought more funds and visa-free travel from the European Union. It's unclear what leverage improved ties with Russia could give him. Putin, in turn, expects Turkey to become more accommodating of Russia's interests in Syria and move faster on major energy projects - demands Ankara could find difficult to meet. Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan cozied up to his 'dear friend' Vladimir Putin on Tuesday to send a message to his Western allies who he believes didn't support him after the failed coup After their talks in St. Petersburg's ornate Konstantin Palace, both leaders emphasized their shared desire to rebuild ties, but it remained unclear if they could reach common ground on the Syrian crisis. While Moscow has backed Syrian President Bashar Assad throughout the nation's civil war and further bolstered that support by launching an air campaign last September, Turkey has pushed for Assad's removal and helped his foes. Putin said he and Erdogan would have a separate discussion on Syria later Tuesday involving top diplomats and intelligence officials. Repeatedly calling Putin his 'dear friend,' Erdogan refrained from mentioning any sticking points after the talks, saying he expects ties to fully blossom again soon. He said Turkey is ready to implement a natural gas pipeline project proposed by Moscow and a deal for Russia to build Turkey's first nuclear power plant. Both projects were announced years earlier, but had been held back by commercial disputes even before Turkey's downing of a Russian jet at the Syrian border last November. The shoot-down, which Putin called a 'treacherous stab in the back,' brought relations to a freezing point where they remained for seven months until Erdogan apologized to Russia in June. Recep Tayyip Erdogan has pressed the US to extradite the man he claims was behind the failed insurrection, and has sought more funds and visa-free travel from the European Union. It's unclear what leverage improved ties with Russia could give him Putin responded by ordering his government to start rebuilding ties with Turkey, and when Erdogan faced the botched coup attempt on July 15 the Russian leader quickly offered his support. Erdogan emphasized that pledge of support, saying 'it was very important for us psychologically. It offered us moral support and showed Russia's solidarity with Turkey.' While Putin also spoke of rebuilding ties, he sounded more cautious, warning that it will take time to fully restore them. Moscow has accused the Turkish government of turning a blind eye to the flow of weapons and supplies to the Islamic State group and other extremists in Syria. While the Kremlin has tempered its rhetoric amid the rapprochement, Putin will most certainly push Erdogan to cut support for the rebels engaged in a fierce battle with Assad's forces in Aleppo. Moscow could use economic levers to force Turkey to compromise on Syria. Turkey badly needs the flow of Russian tourists to resume, and Turkish farmers, construction companies and other businesses badly need to regain access to the Russian market, which has been shut to them after the plane's downing. Putin said Tuesday that charter flights to Turkey could resume 'in the near future,' but added that 'painstaking work is ahead to revive trade and economic cooperation.' Putin, in turn, expects Turkey to become more accommodating of Russia's interests in Syria and move faster on major energy projects - demands Ankara could find difficult to meet 'This process has been launched, but it will take some time,' the Russian leader said. While ties with Russia can't substitute Turkey's economic and security cooperation with the U.S. and the EU and its membership in NATO, Erdogan clearly hopes to use the Russia card to strengthen his hand in disputes with his Western partners. Turkey has pressed the United States hard to extradite Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric the government blames for the failed coup. Gulen has repeatedly denied any involvement. The dispute has strained U.S.-Turkish ties, with some Turkish officials implying Washington could have been behind the coup. The Obama administration has strongly denied that. Speaking after the talks with Putin, Erdogan reiterated his contention that Gulen was behind the failed insurrection and alleged that the coup plotters were also responsible for the crisis in relations with Russia. He didn't touch on Ankara's demand for Gulen's extradition. The failed coup saw renegade Turkish military officers using jets, helicopters and tanks try to take power in a night of violence that left more than 270 people dead. Since then, about 18,000 people have been detained or arrested and nearly 70,000 others suspected of links to Gulen have been suspended or dismissed from the civil service, judiciary, education, health care and the military. Erdoganheaped praise on Putin for offering support after the coup, saying: 'We are strongly determined to take our relations to the pre-crisis and even higher level' (pictured, rally in Ankara to protest the coup on July 15) Turkish officials have fumed at expressions of concern over the sweeping crackdown from European officials and rights groups, and accused the West of failing to show support for a democratically elected government. Ankara also lashed out at the EU for failing to uphold its end of an EU-Turkey agreement on migration. The deal, struck in March, helped stem the flow of migrants from Turkey to the nearby Greek islands in exchange for an EU pledge of funds and visa-free travel for Turks. But plans to ease visa rules have run into trouble and Erdogan accused the EU earlier this month of failing to deliver the promised funds. In contrast with his criticism of the US and the EU, Erdogan heaped praise on Putin for offering support after the coup, saying: 'We are strongly determined to take our relations to the pre-crisis and even higher level.' Hillary Clinton went into the belly of the beast in Florida today and toured a health center in a Zika hot zone. Clinton visited Borinquen Medical Center in the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami, an area where 17 people have tested positive for the mosquito-bourne virus. As she toured the facility the Democratic presidential candidate met a pregnant hospital staffer who said she was worried about becoming ill and was relieved when she tested negative. The woman, who was photographed speaking to Clinton but wishes to remain anonymous, said she now wears long sleeves, despite the summer heat, and sprays herself with OFF bug spray. Hillary Clinton met a pregnant hospital staffer today who said she was worried about catching Zika and was relieved when she tested negative The woman, who was photographed speaking to Clinton and is seen in the back to the right but wishes to remain anonymous, said she now wears long sleeves, despite the summer heat, and sprays herself with OFF bug spray H Clinton went into the belly of the beast in Florida today and toured a health center in a Zika hot zone Clinton visited Borinquen Medical Center in the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami, an area where 17 people have tested positive for the mosquito-bourne virus She's seen here inspecting a can of bug spray during her tour of the health center In addition to her tour, Clinton delivered remarks at the medical center, which she used to demand that Republicans in Congress interrupt their summer break to resolve a dispute with Democrats over Zika funding. She then stopped by a campaign field office for Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz in Davie and delivered remarks on the Democrat's behalf as the embattled legislator beamed nearby. Wasserman Schultz chaired the Democratic National Committee until two weeks ago. She resigned on the eve of the party's convention after Wikileaks released thousands of hacked emails belonging to DNC officials, some of which showed a concerted effort to help Clinton seal the deal during the nomination process. Within minutes, Clinton's campaign announced that she'd joined the Democrat's bid in an advisory roll. Clinton's primary opponent, Bernie Sanders, has previously accused Wasserman Schultz of putting her finger on the scale for Clinton and said she should resign as party chair. He is also backing the congresswoman's primary opponent, Tim Canova, whom he sent out a fundraising email for earlier today. The primary in August 30. Clinton told a group of 30 volunteers at the field office this afternoon that Wasserman Schultz has been a 'leader' in Congress and 'has done a tremendous job in raising the importance of the issues that concern all of you.' That Wasserman Schultz, age 49, has 'young children brings a perspective to the Congress that is sorely missing,' Clinton said, bringing up the 'woman card' and the lawmaker's support for policies she's proposing like paid family leave. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton greets members of the audience after speaking to medical professionals while visiting the Borinquen Health Care Center In her remarks she demanded that Republicans in Congress interrupt their summer break to resolve a dispute with Democrats over Zika funding The former U.S. senator said she doesn't want to 'unduly alarm' people. 'But we also need to get more resources and treat this as the public health challenge that it is' 'Im here today with a very simple message: I cant think of anyone who deserves your support for reelection starting with the primary on Aug. 30, more than my friend Debbie,' she said. 'And I am committed to doing whatever I can to support her as she returns to the Congress with your support by her side because we have a lot of work to do. And thats what Im really focused on.' Clinton also took the opportunity to bash her own opponent during the remarks. 'Just yesterday he gave an speech about the economy and there were many things about it that were quite striking,' she said, 'and my eyebrows went up when he said he wanted to abolish the estate tax, which would be about a $4 billion gift to him and his family.' The presidential candidate says she has a 'different view' - 'I want to go where the money is, which means going after the wealthy so they pay their fair share to support this country that we love and that has done so much for all of us.' At the health facility Clinton said she was 'delighted' to learn more about the medical professionals' work to prevent the spread of Zika PETA rotesters are seen outside of Borinquen Health Care Center before U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton spoke about the Zika virus She then stopped by a campaign field office for Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz in Davie and delivered remarks on the Democrat's behalf as the embattled legislator beamed nearby. Wasserman Schultz chaired the Democratic National Committee until two weeks ago At the health facility Clinton said she was 'delighted' to learn more about the medical professionals' work to prevent the spread of Zika. 'You are on the front lines, not only on behalf of Zika but on behalf of all of our public health challenges,' she said. Clinton commented on the 1,900 cases of Zika that have been discovered across the country and said more needs to be done to bring people in for testing, especially pregnant women. 'Just yesterday, a father wrote to me telling me that his wife is 23 weeks pregnant, and they were alarmed to discover that her office is in Wynwood,' she said. 'And of course, we told them to come here, come somewhere, get tested. Dont be scared. Get informed.' She said women need to 'find out' if they have it like the pregnant woman she met during her tour. 'I just heard from a woman that I met just a few minutes ago who is four months pregnant,' she said. 'Find out what to do. Her test was negative, but there are additional precautions that need to be taken going forward to ensure a healthy baby. ' Clinton told a group of 30 volunteers at the field office this afternoon that Wasserman Schultz has been a 'leader' in Congress and 'has done a tremendous job in raising the importance of the issues that concern all of you' That Wasserman Schultz, age 49, has 'young children brings a perspective to the Congress that is sorely missing,' Clinton said, bringing up the 'woman card' and the lawmaker's support for policies she's proposing like paid family leave The former U.S. senator said she doesn't want to 'unduly alarm' people. 'B ut we also need to get more resources and treat this as the public health challenge that it is.' 'I am very disappointed that the Congress went on recess before actually agreeing on what they would do to put the resources into this fight,' she said. 'And I really am hoping that they will pay attention. 'In fact, I would very much urge the leadership of Congress to call people back for a special session and get a bill passed, get a bill that is focused on combating Zika passed.' Clinton said Republican leaders in Congress should immediately call lawmakers back to Washington and pass the bipartisan funding bill that was already approved in the Senate. 'The Senate passed a bill. And unfortunately, a different bill was passed in the House, and no agreement could be reached before they went out on recess,' she stated. 'So pass the bipartisan bill from the Senate, or come up with a new compromise that does the same and, in fact, tries to get those resources moving as quickly as possible. ' The Horton family have issued an apology, but sadly for China the recipient was not their star swimmer Sun Yang. Mack Horton's father has instead expressed his sympathy for the thousands of people who have been targeted online after his son called Yang a 'drug cheat'. 'We probably just need to apologise to every Horton who has a name like Mack because they have really copped a fair shellacking over the last couple of days,' Andrew Horton said, according to the Daily Telegraph. Scroll down for video Mack Horton's (second from left) father Andrew (second from right) has apologised for anyone who has faced backlash on social media following his son's comments Horton called Sun Yang (pictured) a 'drug cheat' after the Chinese swimmer was banned for doping in 2014 The Olympian's father said despite the swift social media backlash, he is incredibly proud of his son for highlighting such a crucial issue in sport. 'I think it's very much a general conversation that's going on among all parents and competitors and officials,' he said. It comes as Horton revealed on Tuesday he had been assured by other athletes supporting his decision to call out drug cheats. 'It has been really great to have that support. That is sort of what needs to happen for a change to happen,' the gold medallist said. His comments have been echoed by other swimmers including Olympic great Michael Phelps and American breaststroke gold medallist Lilly King. When asked what the past few days had been like for him, Horton said he had gained 30,000 new Instagram followers. Andrew Horton said anyone with a similar name to his son or their family 'have really copped a fair shellacking over the last couple of days' Horton defeated Sun in the men's 400 metre freestyle event on Saturday 'I have just been focusing on the process and that is what you have to do at times like this.' The spat between Horton and Sun has been going on since the Olympic games kicked off in Rio last week. The Australian gold medallist called his Chinese rival a 'drug cheat' both before and after he beat him in the men's 400 metre finals. Sun was then filmed crying shortly after the race, despite claiming a silver medal in the event. The Chinese star is pictured here sulking after winning silver in the event Sun was then filmed by a fan crying shortly after his loss to the Australian swimmer The next day when asked about his loss, Sun claimed he did not even know who Horton was, and declared: 'I am the king, the new world'. Sun is a popular hero in China, despite his repeated brushes with controversy - which include serving a drugs suspension in secret in 2014. Sun's three-month doping ban - for taking a banned stimulant he said was for a heart complaint - was only announced after he had completed it. His son, Hugh Grosvenor, who is Prince George's godfather will inherit the entire estate at the age of 25 It is understood the father-of-four had a heart attack at his shooting estate, Abbeystead House He has suddenly died aged 64 at the Royal Preston Hospital in Lancashire on Tuesday night Advertisement The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge joined members of the Royal Family in paying tribute to the Duke of Westminster, who died suddenly yesterday. In a statement through their Kensington Palace office William and Kate said: The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were very sad to learn of the Duke of Westminsters passing yesterday. Their thoughts are very much with his family this morning. Billionaire duke, Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor the third richest man in Britain who was worth an estimated 9 billion- is believed to have died of a heart attack at his grouse shooting estate, Abbeystead House in Lancashire at the age of just 64 on Tuesday afternoon. The Duke of Westminster (pictured with the Queen in November 2004) became suddenly ill at Abbeystead House in Lancashire, his grouse shooting estate, on Tuesday and later died aged 64 at Royal Preston Hospital, also located in Lancashire Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, the 6th Duke, was described by friends as a shy man who was 'rich but not grand' and very much a product of his upbringing in rural Ireland. He is pictured here in 2015 The Duke's death means that his son Hugh Richard Louis Grosvenor (left, pictured with his mother, Natalia at a wedding in June 2013) will now inherit the entire estate at the age of just 25 The Duke And Duchess Of Westminster with their newborn son, Hugh Richard Louis Grosvenor, in 1991 The father-of-four, the 6th Duke, was the richest property developer in the UK, whose vast wealth comes from estates in Oxford, Cheshire, and Scotland as well as huge swathes of Mayfair and Belgravia. His tragic death means that his son Hugh will now inherit the entire estate, including the family seat in Cheshire, Eaton Hall, at the age of just 25. A spokesman for the family said last night: 'It is with the greatest sadness that we can confirm that the Duke of Westminster, Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor (64) died this afternoon at Royal Preston Hospital. 'He was taken there from the Abbeystead Estate in Lancashire where he had suddenly been taken ill. 'His family are all aware and they ask for privacy and understanding at this very difficult time. The Duke (centre) as a young boy with his sisters, Lady Jane (left) and Lady Leonora (right) The Duke and his new wife Natalia Phillips smile happily on their wedding day outside St Mary's Church in Luton in 1979 The Duchess with the couple's three eldest children, Lady Edwina, Lady Tamara and Hugh as they listen to a speech made by their father in 1992 Lady Tamara is married to one of Prince William's best friends, Ed Van Cutsem. They are pictured on their wedding day in November 2004 with The Duke (next to the bride), the Duchess (second from right), Hugh (between his parents) and bridesmaid Lady Viola (front row, second from left) Lady Tamara with her husband, Ed Van Cutsem emerge from Chester Cathedral following their wedding. Lady Edwina married television presenter, Dan Snow - the son of veteran broadcaster Peter Snow - in 2010 The Duke with his youngest daughter, Lady Viola, 23, at the funeral of Hugh Van Cutsem in Brentwood in 2013 'No further comment will be made for the time being but further information will follow in due course.' Gerald and his wife have three daughters as well as their son: Lady Tamara, who is married to one of Prince William's best friends, Edward van Cutsem, 36; Lady Edwina, 34, married to television presenter and historian Dan Snow; and 23-year-old Lady Viola. A senior royal source told the Mail that the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, as well as other senior royals, had been informed. A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said: 'Her Majesty the Queen is aware of the news about the Duke of Westminster. 'A private message of condolence is being sent from The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh to the family.' A spokesman for Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall said they had also been told of the death of their great friend. 'Their Royal Highnesses are aware and are deeply shocked and greatly saddened.' Lady Tamara's wedding was attended by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, and both William and Harry acted as ushers during the ceremony. The Duke of Westminster is pictured, right, with the members of the Royal family It is understood the Duke, worth an estimated 9 billion, had a heart attack at Abbeystead House in Lancashire (pictured) The Duke, pictured arriving at St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in 2003, wasn't meant to inherit the title he had always intended to be a beef farmer but after his uncle died without heirs, his father, Robert, inherited the title and his life was laid out before him The Duke, with Prince Charles in 2011 in Newcastle, was a confidante and close friend of many senior royals. Prince Charles asked him to become a private mentor and guide to a young Prince William, who in turn asked Gerald's son, Hugh, to be godfather to his own first born, Prince George The Duke of Cambridge with the Duke of Cambridge enjoy lunch together during a conference on illegal wildlife trafficking at the World Bank headquarters in Washington in December 2014 The 6th Duke of Westminster was pictured with his wife Natalia and his older sister Lady Leonora Lichfield at St Paul's Cathedral in June this year for a service to mark the Queen's 90th birthday A confidante and close friend of many senior royals, Prince Charles asked him to become a private mentor and guide to a young Prince William. His wife is also Williams godmother. Following the birth of his own son, Prince George, in 2013, William asked Geralds son Hugh to be one of his godfathers. William, Kate and Prince Harry are all regular visitors to Grosvenor properties, including their boar hunting lodge in Spain. The Duke also frequently lent the family his private Cessna jet with William and Kate using it earlier this month to fly to France for their summer holiday. He is pictured here with Prince Andrew, Duke of York, at the Royal Windsor Horse show on May 16, 2016 Gerald Grosvenor (pictured in September 2012) was passionate about helping those less fortunate than him, working for many years with young offenders and drug abusers as well as campaigning on rural issues The Duke, pictured with actress Elizabeth Hurley at Chester Zoo in 2000, was an 'introspective' man, friends say, and one who was lonely in many ways The Duke's sprawling family seat, Eaton Hall in Cheshire, where his children were all brought up Gerald was made a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order a personal gift of the Queen in 2012, in addition to being a Knight of Garter and a Companion of the Order of the Bath. He was also an executor of Princess Diana's will. Yet friends have described the shy, chain-smoking Duke as being 'rich but not grand' and very much a product of his upbringing in rural Ireland. In fact he wasn't meant to inherit the title he had always intended to be a beef farmer but after his uncle died without heirs, his father, Robert, inherited the title and his life was laid out before him. MEET THE 25-YEAR-OLD NEW DUKE OF WESTMINSTER... AND HIS THREE SISTERS Hugh Richard Louis Grosvenor, who was asked to be Prince George's godfather by Prince William in 2013, will inherit his father's entire 9billion estate The 25-year-old son of the late Duke of Westminster is set to inherit his father's entire 9billion estate. Hugh Richard Louis Grosvenor, who was asked to be Prince George's godfather by Prince William in 2013, will also receive the family seat in Cheshire, Eaton Hall. The inheritance comes after his 64-year-old father Gerald tragically died at Royal Preston Hospital in Lancashire on Tuesday. A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said that her Majesty the Queen was aware of the news about the Duke and will send a 'private message of condolence'. And Hugh, who is now the 7th Duke of Westminster, will inherit his father's wealth, which includes around 100 acres of Mayfair and 200 acres of Belgravia - two of the most expensive areas in the UK. The land is so costly that, in 2002, the Grosvenor Group sold a 65sq ft parking space in Mayfair for 65,000. Unusually for the children of hereditary peers, Hugh and his three sisters, Tamara, Edwina and Viola, were educated at a state primary school on The Wirral, near their home before attending a private day school, Mostyn House. Hugh and his siblings were later pupils at co-educational Ellesmere College in Shropshire. The school costs up to 10,296-a-term to attend, with alumnae including rugby player Bill Beaumont and Michael Chapman, the former Archdeacon of Northampton. He went on to study countryside management at Newcastle University, and later was a student at the University of Oxford. After graduating, Hugh worked in estate management for the Grosvenor Group before becoming an accounts manager at coffee recycling firm bio-bean, which collects waste coffee grounds and converts them into biofuels and biomass pellets. Speaking of his son in 1992, the Duke had told The Independent: 'My main object will be to teach him self- discipline and a sense of duty. He's been born with the longest silver spoon anyone can have, but he can't go through life sucking on it. He has to put back what he has been given.' Hugh is the 6th Duke of Westminster's only son and although the young man has led a quiet life, he did celebrate his 21st birthday in style. It was reported that his landmark bash cost 5million and featured an A-list guest list including Prince Harry. The Prince, 31, was among 800 guests who enjoyed entertainment from world-famous comedian Michael McIntyre and British hip-hop duo Rizzle Kicks. The extravagant celebration was held in a marquee in the garden of the family's 10,872-acre estate in Cheshire, and photographers and the media were barred from the occasion. The Duchess of Westminster (second from left) with her children Lady Edwina (left), Hugh (third from right), Lady Tamara (second from right), and Lady Viola (right). Lady Edwina's husband, Dan Snow is pictured next to the Duchess Hugh will receive the family seat in Cheshire, Eaton Hall (pictured), which sits on a 10,872-acre estate, and is where the new Duke and his sisters grew up At the time Hugh, who was a student at Newcastle University, told The Chester Chronicle: 'The party was simply amazing a birthday and a party I will never forget. 'It is the beginning of a new era in my life and I look forward to the challenges that lie ahead.' The dress code for his birthday party was 'black tie and neon' and it was reported that the security was so tight that the doors of vehicles taking guests to the party had been sealed with tape to prevent gate-crashers. He gave a speech in which he joked about growing up with his three sisters and thanked his parents for their unconditional love. Vanity Fair described him as 'baby-faced' and 'absurdly rich', while the Tatler List declared: 'Hughie's a Newcastle graduate with his own wine collection who goes wild for girls in neon.' Hugh's eldest sister, Lady Tamara, 36, married one of Prince William's closest friends Edward van Cutsem, at Chester Cathedral in 2004. City banker Edward is Prince Charles's godson, and the brother of George's fellow godparent William van Cutsem. The wedding was attended by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, and both William and Harry acted as ushers during the ceremony. However, Prince Charles did not attend, reportedly after learning that Camilla Parker-Bowles, now the Duchess of Cornwall, had been assigned a seat several rows back. The eldest of the Grosvenor siblings, Lady Tamara, 36, pictured left with her husband Edward Van Cutsem, and Lady Edwina, 34, (right) who is a keen campaigner for prison reform Hugh, 25, pictured at Prince George's christening in 2013, and the youngest of the four siblings, Lady Viola, 23 The couple have two sons, Jake, born in 2009, and Louis, who was born in 2012. Hugh's second eldest sister, Lady Edwina, 34, married television presenter Dan Snow, the son on veteran broadcaster Peter Snow, in Bishops Lodge in Woolton, Liverpool, in 2010, a far more low-key affair than Tamara's. The couple met in 2008 at the wedding of her cousin, Rosie Innes-Ker, and have a daughter, Zia, born in 2011, and a son, Wolf, who was born in 2014. Lady Edwina, whose godmother was Princess Diana, is a passionate prison reform campaigner, and helped set up The Clink chain of restaurants, which are located within prisons and staffed by inmates with a view to help them prepare for life after their release with a view to gaining employment. She studied sociology and criminology at Northumbria University and has said her interest in helping prisoners began at a young age, and has spoken about her father taking her to meet recovering addicts at a drug rehabilitation centre in her early teens. Hugh also has a younger sister, Lady Viola, 23, who is an ambassador for the anti-bullying charity Kidscape, which described her as 'extremely passionate about taking a hands-on approach to supporting vulnerable young people'. She has said she wants to train as an art therapist in the hope of setting up her own charity for children and young people. Hugh is likely to have to take on responsibility for the Westminster Foundation, the charitable body which manages the philanthropic activities of the Grosvenor family. It was set up in the 1970s and since then has awarded over 40 million in grants. His mother Natalia, the Duchess of Westminster, is Prince William's godmother and his father was extremely protective of his four children. He reportedly refused to send them to boarding school and enrolled them at a state primary before taking them to a private day school near the family home in Cheshire. Despite the fact Hugh will take the largest share of the family fortune, his sisters are also set to inherit considerable trust funds. Advertisement The Duke was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace in 2008 'It wasn't until his teens that it began to dawn on him that he was heir to this unimaginable fortune,' said one. He became the sixth Duke of Westminster at 27, but his legacy always weighed heavily on his shoulders. Friends described him as an 'introspective' man, one who was lonely in many ways, and, it has been reported, came close to a nervous breakdown in 1998, when he said the pressures of business and the great number of public appearances he was making overcame him. HOW THE DUKE'S 8M CESSNA WAS THE ROYALS' PRIVATE JET OF CHOICE The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge regularly borrowed the Duke of Westminster's 8million Cessna jet for their private trips and holidays, including a visit to France last month. Kate and William were also said to have used the aircraft, which would cost 12,000-a-day to hire, in March, when they took their children to the pretty village of Courchevel in the French Alps on their first family holiday. At the time, royal officials declined to comment on whether the family took a commercial flight or a private plane although the timings and the fact that they werent spotted at an airport suggested that they may well have taken a private jet. Prince George also flew on the plane when he was just a few weeks old, travelling up to Scotland to visit his great-grandfather, Prince Philip. The couple also used it to fly to Balmoral last summer to see the Queen on her annual temporary residence. Advertisement The Duke had previously insisted he wasn't interested in his wealth, saying in a rare interview: 'Not interested in material things. Honestly. It would drive me bonkers if I thought too deeply about it.' Gerald Grosvenor was passionate about helping those less fortunate than him, working for many years with young offenders and drug abusers as well as campaigning on rural issues. During the 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak he donated 500,000 to farmers affected by the crisis. The Duke was President of disability charity Scope until 2006 and remained a passionate supporter of the cause. Its chief executive, Mark Atkinson, said today: We are very sad to hear the news that the Duke of Westminster has died. During his time as Scopes President, the Duke was a passionate advocate of our work, supporting disabled people and their families across the country. Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones at this time. Another charity with which he was associated, the RNIB, said: We are deeply saddened by the news that our great friend and former President The Duke of Westminster has passed away. His Grace made a tremendous contribution during his 25 years as Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) President. He steered us through some of the most significant times in RNIBs history, most notably becoming a membership organisation and ensuring we are driven by blind and partially sighted people; the redevelopment of a world class service for children with sight loss and complex needs RNIB Pears Centre for Specialist Learning in Coventry; and the launch of a national helpline as a single point of contact for anyone in the UK enquiring about sight loss. The enthusiasm and dedication His Grace showed over so many years was a real asset; it was our privilege to work with him as President until 2012 and to continue to benefit from his friendship and support as our Honorary Life President from that time forward. He will be greatly missed and our thoughts are with his family and friends at this sad time. Of his wealth the Duke once said: 'Given the choice, I would rather not have been born wealthy, but I never think of giving it up. I can't sell. It doesn't belong to me.' In his early 20s, on becoming trustee of the estate, he had been forced to abandon his dream of a career in the Armed Forces, but later satisfied his love of all things military by serving in the Territorial Army. He was hugely impassioned about his work as head of the TA, having joined in 1970 as a trooper and moving up the ranks to be appointed a two star general in 2004. Paying tribute, the Soldiers' Charity, which the duke supported, said he had been involved in the 'championing of soldiers and veterans' and 'will be very fondly remembered'. A security officer at the Duke's sprawling Eaton estate, on the outskirts of Chester, refused to discuss the Duke's death but said: 'We are all in limbo, you will need to wait for our communications manager to ring you.' The duke was on his Abbeystead Estate - described as an 'area of outstanding beauty' with 'rolling hills' by the Grosvenor Estate website - when he was taken unwell. A spokesman for North West Ambulance Service confirmed there had been an 'incident' but refused to confirm any more details. He said a statement was being prepared. A spokeswoman for Lancashire Police said officers were called at around 5pm on Tuesday and made aware of the death of a 64-year-old man at Royal Preston Hospital. 'He was airlifted to hospital after he had been taken ill whilst walking in the Trough of Bowland. There are no suspicious circumstances and a file will be passed to the coroner,' she added. THE COUNTRY BOY WHO ONLY WANTED TO BE A BEEF FARMER He had insisted he wasn't interested in his wealth, saying in a rare interview: 'Not interested in material things. Honestly. It would drive me bonkers if I thought too deeply about it' As the 6th Duke of Westminster, Gerald Grosvenor was Britain's richest property magnate, owning swathes of Mayfair and Belgravia and estates in Oxford, Cheshire and Scotland. The duke was a close friend of senior royals and Prince Charles asked him to mentor his son William, who in turn asked his son Hugh to be godfather to Prince George. He was made a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order a personal gift of the Queen in 2012, in addition to being a Knight of the Garter and a Companion of the Order of the Bath. He was an executor of Princess Diana's will. Brought up in a remote part of Northern Ireland in a simple, rural, unaffected and unspoilt way, it was not until he was in his teens that it began to dawn on him that he was heir to a huge fortune. The duke remembered his childhood on Ely island in the middle of Loch Erne as idyllic, frugal and isolated. Enniskillen, the nearest town, was seven miles away. He said: 'Popping down to the corner shop to buy sweets was a bit of a safari. It was a wonderful foundation for life. I am a country person by birth and inclination.' He hated his schooldays at Harrow, leaving with just two O-levels, and failed the entrance exam to the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. He thought he would end up as a beef farmer in Northern Ireland. Then his uncle died and his father inherited. 'We had never talked about it,' the duke said. 'The great thing was that my father allowed me to be a child without thinking that I was going to be a duke, or that I should be different from my next-door neighbour.' Some believe he never really got over the fact that he was different. A friend remembers going up by train to visit him in Chester, thinking she would be picked up by chauffeured limousine. Instead, it was just Gerald in a battered Land Rover and baggy corduroys. Yet this was the man who owned 133,000 acres in Scotland, Lancashire and Cheshire. He also controlled the most priceless land in central London 300 acres in Mayfair and Belgravia, on some of which the American embassy sits. He was said to be introspective and his riches stopped him having close friends. Acquaintances describe him as a 'rather lonely man'. He was once photographed sitting alone on a bench in Trafalgar Square eating a sandwich. The duke insisted money was not important, saying in a rare interview: 'Not interested in material things. Honestly. It would drive me bonkers if I thought too deeply about it.' The four passions in his life were his family, his businesses, his charities and the Territorial Army of which he became commanding officer and was especially proud. He joined in 1970 as a trooper and moved up the ranks to be appointed a two-star general in 2004. Close to a nervous breakdown some years ago, he cited his relative lack of personal achievement, and was desperate about failing to live up to the family motto 'Virtue Not Ancestry'. One day he woke up and found he simply could not get out of bed. He later recalled: 'At that moment all my wealth counted for nothing.' It was why the Territorials meant so much. 'It is something that he himself earned. It had nothing to do with being a duke,' said a friend. Yet four years ago, he abruptly quit after a failed attempt to overhaul the TA's image. He wanted to change its name to Army Reserve, but was opposed. The duke was also passionate about helping those less fortunate than him, working for many years with young offenders and drug abusers as well as campaigning on countryside issues. Advertisement The family business that started with a 17th century marriage and turned 300 acres of swamp, pasture and orchards into some of the world's most desired property By Abe Hawken The multi-billion pound business owned by the Grosvenor family started 338 years ago when an ancestor of the 6th Duke of Westminster married a wealthy heiress. In 1677, Sir Thomas Grosvenor wed Mary Davies who had just inherited a medieval manor in Middlesex - now part of London - and 500 acres of swamp, pasture and orchards to the west of the capital. The land that she received remained relatively untouched until the Grosvenor family began developing the area in 1720. Around 300 acres of the original land which Miss Davies inherited before she met her husband remain with the family today. In 1677, Sir Thomas Grosvenor (left) wed Mary Davies (left) who had just inherited a medieval manor in Middlesex It forms the Grosvenor's London estate which contributed to Gerald Grosvenor's 9billion fortune - which his only son Hugh, 25, has just inherited. The first development the family got involved in was in the early 18th century when they built on the northern part of their land in London - an area which is now known as Mayfair. The area was built as a fashionable residential district - centred on Grosvenor Square - and it has now become an exclusive part of the city's West End. It took its name from the fair held there each May until well into the 19th century and the unique character of the area continued to evolve through its redevelopment. The Grosvenor family's second big development came around 100 years later and was another exclusive part of London - Belgravia. It is just one mile south west of Mayfair and was developed by the family after the end of Napoleonic Wars and the conversion of Buckingham Palace - which is just one mile east. The Grosvenor family's first development was in Mayfair, central London, in the early 18th century (pictured) The family then went on to develop an area one mile south west of Mayfair, now known as Belgravia (pictured) The area takes its name from one of the Duke's subsidiary titles, Viscount Belgrave, and the village of Belgrave is just two miles from the Grosevnor's family country seat in Cheshire. During the 1820s, Thomas Cundy, the family's surveyor, created a masterplan for what was to become the lavish area in west London. Mr Cundy, together with builder Thomas Cubitt, oversaw the creation of the estate which overlooked the upmarket streets and private gardens. And after developing the two parts of central London, the family business expanded on a global scale. Colonel Gerald Hugh Grosvenor (left) was the 4th Duke of Westminster but died in 1967 aged 60. His brother, the 5th Duke of Westminster, Robert George Grosvenor (right), was replaced by his son Gerald Grosvenor, the 6th Duke of Westminster WHY HUGH WILL INHERIT THE LOT, DESPITE HAVING TWO OLDER SISTERS Primogeniture was also applied to the British monarchy until 2013 when the law was amended. As a result, Princess Charlotte will retain her place in the line of succession if her parents have another son Although Hugh Grosvenor is the third of his father's four children, he will inherit the Duke of Westminster's title and his entire 9billion estate. This is because of primogeniture, the right of the firstborn male child to inherit the family estate, even if he has older sisters - as is the case with Hugh. The Normans introduced the common law to the UK in 1066, and it puts male children ahead of female children, irrespective of age. Variations on primogeniture have since modified the right of the firstborn son to the entirety of a family's inheritance. Ministers have also labelled the rules 'discriminatory', and called for further talks about changing the laws, while critics of primogeniture include Lady Kinvara Balfour, whose grandfather was the 17th Duke of Norfolk. She hit out at the 'archaic, mad and bonkers' law last year, after her mother, Lady Tessa, missed out on inheriting Arundel Castle in West Sussex. Instead the property, which dates back 1,000 years to the reign of King Henry I, passed to her younger brother Edward. The tale of succession is supposed to have inspired Lord Fellowes of West Stafford, a close family friend, to write Lady Mary's story in Downton Abbey, which sees Lady Mary denied the keys to the house, which passes to long-lost cousin Matthew Crawley. Primogeniture was also applied to the British monarchy until 2013, when, under the Succession to the Crown Act 2013, the law was amended before the birth of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's first child to ensure the throne would pass to them, whether it was a boy or a girl. This only applies retrospectively to people born after October 28, 2011, so it did not affect the current immediate line of succession. The move brought the UK in line with most European monarchies, who had already established an equal law of succession. It also means Princess Charlotte, will not be usurped from fourth in line to the throne if her parents go on to have any more sons. Now only Spain, Liechtenstein and Monaco are left with the old system. Advertisement During the second half of the 20th century, the business expanded into the Americas and developed Annacis Island and Vancouver in Canada in the 1950s. The family business then moved into Australia during the 1960s before they started developing in Australia in the 1960s. They then moved to Asia in the early 1990s and continental Europe just before the millennium. In April 2000, the firm moved into new London officers and the business was headed by the 6th Duke of Westminster, who was Chairman of the Trustees. The hugely-successful company remains privately owned. A DNC staffer shot dead in an affluent suburb of Washington D.C. last month may have leaked 20,000 party emails to Wikileaks, Julian Assange has hinted. Seth Conrad Rich, 27, was gunned down in the street in the early hours of July 10 while on the phone to his girlfriend. In an interview with Dutch television on Tuesday, Assange said that 'our whistleblowers go to significant efforts to get us material and often very significant risks'. In the same breath he cited Rich's murder 'on the streets of Washington just a few weeks ago'. On the same day, Wikileaks offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to a conviction in Rich's murder. This has added fuel to conspiracy theories that Rich leaked embarrassing emails that were released at the start of the party's convention, revealing that the party had conspired against Bernie Sanders and leading to the resignation of Democratic party chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz on July 24. Scroll down for video Murdered: Seth Conrad Rich (pictured), 27, was gunned down in Washington D.C. last month Reward: Wikileaks is offering a $20,000 reward for information leading to a conviction in the death of Seth Rich Rich was shot twice in the back. His body was found covered in bruises on the 2100 block of Flagler Place NW, but he still had his watch, cell phone and wallet on him. P olice have uncovered no clues to help solve his murder despite offering a $25,000 reward. D.C. police chief Cathy Lanier has said that Rich may have been killed in an attempted robbery, but his family insist nothing was taken from him and the trail has gone cold. His father Joel Rich told KMTV in July: 'If it was a robbery, it failed because he still has his watch, he still has his money, he still has his credit cards, still had his phone so it was a wasted effort except we lost a life.' A police report seen by DailyMail.com also states the circumstances surrounding Rich's homicide are 'unknown'. In the interview with Nieuwsuur, Wikileaks chief Assange said: 'Whistleblowers go to significant efforts to get us material and often very significant risks as a 27-year-old, works for the DNC who was shot in the back - murdered - just a few weeks ago for unknown reasons as he was walking down the street in Washington.' Wikileaks chief Julian Assange floated the theory that Rich had leaked DNC emails The reporter interrupts him to say: That was just a robbery, I believe, wasn't it?' Assange then replies: 'No, there's no finding so...' He is again interrupted to ask what he is trying to suggest. The Wikileaks founder replies: 'I'm suggesting our sources take risks. They become concerned to see things occurring like that.' When he is directly asked if Rich was one of Wikileaks' sources, Assange refuses to answer, saying only: 'We don't comment on who our sources are.' He goes on to say: 'We have to understand how high the stakes are in the United States and that our sources face serious risks. That's why they come to us so we can protect their anonymity.' But Rich's father described the online claims as 'bizarre'. He told the Washington Post: 'I don't think I want to comment. I hope the additional money helps find out who did this. 'I don't want to play Wikileaks' game.' Wikileaks published thousands of emails that rocked the Democratic National Committee on the eve of the party's convention. Assange says his group is in possession of 'a lot' of material related Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and that it will come out as the campaign proceeds. This latest interview combined with the Wikileaks offer of a reward for information leading to a conviction in Rich's shooting has reignited the conspiracy theories that have been posted online including claims he leaked DNC emails or that he was on his way to speak to the FBI when he was shot. Reddit user The_Donald also constructed a timeline that links Rich to the Clintons, as pointed out by Heat Street. He then says Rich developed a relationship with environmentalists supporting Bernie Sanders. They then suggest this relationship was somehow connected to his death. There is no evidence to suggest any of these claims are true. DailyMail.com has contacted the FBI for comment. Police looked on outside the synagogue as Rich's casket was put into the hearse following his funeral on Wednesday July 13 Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has previously suggested the DNC leak may have been the work of an insider. But he told DemocracyNow he didn't know their identity, and wouldn't reveal it if he did. In an interview with Britain's ITV, he also suggested that anyone within the Democratic organization could have had access to the trove of emails. Rich's death came after a spate of robberies in the neighborhood and DC police are now investigating if the murder is connected to those. According to NCB Washington, on Tuesday, Metropolitan Police Department Assistant Chief Peter Newsham said: 'At this time, we don't have any information to suggest that the case is in any way connected with his work at the DNC.' The Exchange Tower does not much resemble the Lubyanka, dreaded home of the KGB and departure point from this earth for many a luckless victim of the Soviet regime. an executive producer. But the more suspicious detect a whiff of Moscow Centre hanging around this unremarkable modern block in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle. Here, on the sixth floor, something curious is occurring. This is the new UK headquarters of Sputnik, the Russian state news agency, paid for by that lover of fearless investigative journalism and President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin. Russian state news agency Sputnik has made the sixth floor of the Exchange Tower in Edinburgh its new headquarters. Former political adviser Oxana Brazhnik (left) is heading the operation and Johanna Ross (right) is the executive producer Now, with due respect to Scotlands handsome capital, one would imagine that a major international news agency basing itself in the UK would maintain its head office in London, for the simple reason that more things happen there. But Sputnik has chosen to go north of the border - which has got people asking questions. And the answer, for some, is that Edinburgh is not so much a venue for Sputnik as a target - for long-term Russian subversion aimed at shattering once and for all the union between Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom. Moscow - which shares none of the Scottish National Partys qualms over nuclear weapons - would dearly like to see the back of Britain both as a force in international affairs, and as a nuclear force, so the thinking goes. And Scottish independence would leave the UK a diminished power with no home for its Trident-missile-armed nuclear submarines, currently berthed on the Clyde. Russian state media serve one real purpose, say critics: to further the strategic aims of the Kremlin. Sputniks ultimate job, therefore, is to pump out a steady stream of stories targeted at a non-Russian audience, the aim being to undermine Britain in Russian eyes a military and intelligence adversary second only to the United States. Vladimir Putin is paying for the new UK headquarters of Sputnik It is part of Russian doctrine to go in as deep as possible into an enemy society and strike there, says security analyst Bruce Jones. Part of that strategy in Britain is to encourage a schism between Westminster and Holyrood. As part of this disinformation offensive, Sputnik and international television channel RT, formerly Russia Today, have been happy to publish conspiracy theories based on the most tenuous evidence. For example, Sputnik, whose slogan is to tell the untold has continued to publish on its website the claim that the 2014 referendum on Scotlands independence was rigged. In revenge for Western coverage of the invasion of Crimea, Russian media latched on to allegations from Russian election observers of tampering with referendum ballot papers. Roundly dismissed by British and international organisations, these spurious claims nevertheless sparked a 100,000-strong petition in Scotland demanding a recount. Russia was said to be pro-Brexit because it would weaken the EUs resolve to stand up to Putin. Perhaps thats why credence was given by Sputnik to the preposterous idea that the murder of the Labour MP Jo Cox during the referendum campaign on Britains EU membership was in some way connected to the Remain campaign. Russian state media serve one real purpose, say critics: to further the strategic aims of the Kremlin. Pictured, the Exchange Tower in Edinburgh A Labour councillor and Leave campaigner, Brendan Chilton, expressed his outrage at being cited as a source for the theory, and is complaining to Sputnik. I am appalled at how Sputnik have presented this, he said. You can see the quotes they have used in the article are very selective indeed. Its as if they have just taken anything Ive said, selected which bits theyd like, and put them in their own article, peddling their own view of things. But when a conspiracy turns out to be real - and implicates the Kremlin - as in the case of Alexander Litvinenko, the former Russian intelligence officer poisoned by radioactive polonium slipped into his tea in a London hotel, the Russian media can be relied upon to dismiss it. This global information war now being waged by the Putin regime includes tactics more worrying than straightforward propaganda, such as the possible hacking and subsequent leaking by Russian intelligence of compromising emails belonging to the U.S. Democratic National Committee. The emails, which exposed the DNCs bias towards Hillary Clinton, and resulted in high-profile resignations, have been aired on Wikileaks, Julian Assanges website. The Russian chief of the Sputnik bureau in Edinburgh, however, says any talk of a propaganda campaign is nonsense. Oxana Brazhnik, a striking blonde, says she is simply heading a legitimate news operation. I am not an agent, she says. And as for choosing the Scottish capital - well, thats just down to rent. If you start searching for this size of office in Central London it will be ridiculously overpriced and we decided: No, we will invest in people, she says. Sputnik, she claims, has the same relationship with the Russian government as the BBC does with our government. Mrs Brazhnik, 33, a former political adviser and public relations executive from Moscow with no previous career in journalism, invited the Mail into her office to deny claims of a hidden agenda. Mrs Brazhnik (left), 33, a former political adviser and public relations executive from Moscow has no previous career in journalism. Ms Ross (right) is a 30-year-old native of Dundee is an ardent Scottish nationalist and a Russophile But as we talk, Mrs Brazhnik (her husband lives in Russia) remarks: Certainly, there is an informational war. Yes, it is what we see now, actually. It is what is happening on BBC or [the U.S. channel] CNN. Sputnik, which operates an international radio station, website and a news wire service, is a successor to RIA Novosti, the Russian state international news agency, and the Voice of Russia radio station. Its parent company is Rossiya Segodnya, headed by Putins propagandist-in-chief, TV anchorman Dmitry Kiselev. Sitting with Mrs Brazhnik in Edinburgh is Johanna Ross, an executive producer. This 30-year-old native of Dundee is an ardent Scottish nationalist and a Russophile. I heard that Sputnik was opening an office in Edinburgh and thought: This is exactly what I want to do, she says. I wanted to get the message out there that, no, Russia is not trying to take over the world; no, Putin does not want to invade the Baltic States. The reporting of the Ukraine was completely unjust. We have to get the truth out there. Ross was educated at Edinburgh, Glasgow and St Petersburg universities, and is fluent in Russian. Putin has approval ratings that are through the roof, she says. The leadership he has shown - the way he has preserved peace and avoided World War III breaking out - is only to be admired. While telling people in the West to stop being silly and Russophobic, Ross is not averse to a bit of Anglophobia. Take this, from one of her articles for the website Russia Insider, published last year under the byline Johanna Ganyukova, her marital surname. As a Scottish Nationalist born and bred, I am hardly unfamiliar with a countrys desire to free itself from the clutches of an imperialist aggressor... More than any country, we [the Scots] have known what it means to be dictated to by another country and told that our culture, language and traditions are inferior. Russia was said to be pro-Brexit because it would weaken the EUs resolve to stand up to Putin. Perhaps thats why credence was given by Sputnik to the preposterous idea that the murder of the Labour MP Jo Cox (pictured) during the referendum campaign on Britains EU membership was in some way connected to the Remain campaign Another article attacks the Mails Max Hastings for daring to repeat the widely accepted view that Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down by a Russian surface-to-air missile system as it passed over the disputed territory of eastern Ukraine in July 2014. Seriously, where is the evidence? There is just as much evidence to suggest that it was the Ukrainian army who shot down the plane in the first place, wrote Ross. Mrs Brazhnik - who has lived in Edinburgh for a year - strikes a slightly more conciliatory note than Ross. She is also modest, stating: I have no connections to any (Russian) establishment. She under-sells herself. Before working as a public relations adviser on the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics - a sign of the confidence placed in her - she was political adviser to Vyacheslav Volodin, a powerful member of President Putins inner circle banned from the West for his part in the annexation of Crimea. Bruce Jones says: This young lady has been associated for a long time with the highest echelon of Russian government and she would understand inherently what is good for the cause. Both Sputnik and RT are funded by the Russian government. RTs official budget last year was 13.85 billion roubles (161 million), while that of Rossiya Segodnya was 5.8 billion roubles (67 million). The conspiracy tales these organisations propagate form part of the Kremlins so-called Active Measures - disinformation and destabilisation campaigns intended to further Russian foreign policy objectives. Earlier this year, Parliament was presented with a report prepared by Jonathan Eyal, of the Royal United Services Institute, and Ben Nimmo, a former Nato press officer. They concluded: Russias information warfare in the UK can best be thought of as an attempt to airbrush reality. Both RT and Sputnik regularly and systematically violate journalistic standards in a way which serves the Kremlins interests. Sputnik employs eight people but has a target of 25 staff. A Chinese swimmer has become an internet celebrity after a hilarious interview at the Rio Olympics. Fu Yuanhui had just finished racing in the 100 metre backstroke semi-finals on August 7 when she conducted the interview with China Central Television Station (CCTV) and was shocked to find out from the journalist of the time she posted. After she was informed of her time, she stared at the camera with her mouth wide open in shock, reports the People's Daily Online. Shocked! Fu Yuanhui was shocked to find out that she had gone faster than expected Famous: The interview with journalists from CCTV was shared thousands of times online 20-year-old Fu, representing People's Republic of China, posted a time of 58.95 seconds in the semi-final held at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium. The woman from east China's Hangzhou city told a reporter from CCTV: 'I thought it was 59 seconds. Am I that fast?' As she spoke with the journalist, she was completely surprised with her result, pulling shocked faces. Since her interview she has become a hit online with people posting screenshots of Fu's surprised face. Faster than expected: 20-year-old Fu posted a time of 58.95 seconds in the semi-final 'This is really cute!' People have praised the swimmer online for her genuine reaction Funny: She has been praised for her results and efforts along with her genuine excitement On China's Twitter-like Weibo, people have praised her for her genuine reaction and have also expressed gratitude at her efforts in representing China. One user wrote: 'This is a more natural reaction. We are proud of your results and efforts.' While another commented: 'This is actually really cute.' And another user said: 'Every time I see this, I laugh!' Since the interview was broadcast, the number of followers on her social media account on Weibo has risen from 56,000 to over three million in two days. On August 9, Fu went on to compete in the finals of the 100 metre backstroke winning a bronze medal. Katinka Hosszu from Hungary took the gold medal position, while the USA's Kathleen Baker took the silver medal. Fu Yuanhui shared the bronze position with Canada's Kylie Masse. Fu (far right) won a bronze medal in the 100 metre backstroke final. She is seen at the medal ceremony with (left to right) Silver medalist Kathleen Baker of the United States, gold medal medallist Katinka Hosszu of Hungary and another bronze medalist Kylie Masse of Canada Shocking footage has emerged of a young Chinese girl sent somersaulting over the edge of a shopping cart before banging her head on the ground. The video was filmed in Jincheng City, China's Shanxi province on August 7, reports Huanqiu, an affiliation with the People's Daily Online. The child is filmed standing in a shopping cart before it then gets stuck and she somersaults to the ground. Not a good idea: The young girl was stood in the trolley going up the escalator at the time Shocking: As the trolley becomes stuck, the child is pushed forwards by the force of the stop Horrifying: The young girl somersaults to the floor banging her head on the way Footage from the incident shows the young girl standing in a trolley as it travels towards the supermarket. There is an adult holding the trolley as it makes its way uphill. When the trolley reaches the top, it becomes stuck on the edge of the escalator and stops. As it becomes stuck, the child lunges forwards and somersaults to the floor, banging her head as she lands. According to Chinese media, the young girl suffered slight injuries and is recovering. Tragic occurrence: The girl falls to the floor as onlookers are horrified by the incident According to Chinese media the girl was injured in the incident but is recovering well Experts on child safety warned that it's dangerous to allow children to stand in a shopping cart when taking an escalator. China's escalator safety has been under intense scrutiny in recent years ever since the widely covered incident where a mother pushed her son to safety before she died, becoming trapped in the machine. CCTV footage captured the moment Xiang Liujuan stepped off an escalator with her two-year-old son when the footplate suddenly collapsed. Scientists have long suspected there may be a fourth type of ghostly particle coursing through the universe, and finding it could help to explain some of physics greatest mysteries. But after analyzing roughly 100,000 neutrino events at the IceCube particle detector at the South Pole in search of the sterile neutrino, scientists now say with near certainty that no such particle exists. The discovery of this hypothesized particle would extend the neutrino family to four known flavours, challenging the Standard Model of physics while helping to fill gaps in our understanding of the universe. Scroll down for video After analyzing roughly 100,000 neutrino events at the IceCube particle detector at the South Pole in search of the sterile neutrino, scientists now say with near certainty that no such particle exists. The facility in Antarctica is pictured above THE 'STERILE' NEUTRINO The sterile neutrino is a hypothetical fourth type of neutrino. So far, there are just three known types of neutrinos: muon, electron, and tau. A fourth type would have mass, different from the others, and interact gravitationally. It has yet to be discovered, but studies have suggested it can be 'caught' by observing its influence on the other types of neutrinos. If discovered, the sterile neutrino could help to explain the mysterious origins of dark matter, and even resolve issue of the universes matter and antimatter imbalance. Advertisement At any given moment, there are trillions of neutrinos travelling through your body, the researchers explain. These particles have almost no mass and rarely interact with matter, earning them the ghostly description. Physicists have identified three types of neutrinos: muon, electron, and tau but in recent decades, several experiments have hinted at the presence of a fourth type of particle, the sterile neutrino. Discovering an additional form of neutrino could help to explain the mysterious origins of dark matter, and even resolve issue of the universes matter and antimatter imbalance. If you throw in a fourth neutrino, it changes everything, explain Francis Halzen, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of physics and principal investigator for the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a massive detector embedded deep in the ice beneath the South Pole. Sterile means it doesnt interact with matter itself, although it can dramatically interfere with the way conventional neutrinos do. The hypothetical sterile neutrino has mass, according to the researchers, different from the other types. Along with this, it interacts only gravitationally, making it extremely difficult to detect. But, it can be caught by observing its influence on the other types of neutrinos. At any given moment, there are trillions of neutrinos coursing through your body, the researchers explain. These particles have almost no mass and rarely interact with matter, earning them the ghostly description WHAT IS DARK MATTER? When physicists study the dynamics of galaxies and the movement of stars, they are confronted with a mystery. If they only take visible matter into account, their equations simply don't add up: the elements that can be observed are not sufficient to explain the rotation of objects and the existing gravitational forces.There is something missing. From this they deduced that there must be an invisible kind of matter that does not interact with light, but does, as a whole, interact by means of the gravitational force. Called 'dark matter', this substance appears to make up at least 80 per cent of the universe. Advertisement This elusive fourth form was suggested in 1990 at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the 1990s, and more recently at the Daya Bay nuclear reactor facility near Hong Kong. Using data from the IceCube particle detector, however, two independent analyses have determined with 99 percent certainty that the eV-mass sterile neutrino does not exist. Findings from the study were published in the journal Physical Review Letters. The facility contains 5,160 light-detecting sensors frozen in Antarctic ice more than a mile below the South Pole. To reach this conclusion, the researchers used atmospheric neutrinos those which are created when cosmic rays crash into particles in the Earths upper atmosphere. Earth acts as a screen to filter out other particles, as only neutrinos can travel through the planet unimpeded. When neutrinos crash into nuclei, they create a muon, and leave behind a streak of blue Cherenkov light. In their search, the scientists examined events in the 320 GeV to 20 TeV energy range, where sterile neutrinos would produce a very distinctive signature. But, no such signature was found. Like Elvis, people see hints of the sterile neutrino everywhere, says Halzen. There was this collection of hints, and theorists were convinced it exists. According to Halzen, failing to detect this particle means that the origin of neutrino mass, and the purpose of it, remains a mystery. This new result highlights the versatility of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, says Olga Botner, a professor of physics and astronomy at Uppsala University in Sweden and the spokesperson for the IceCube collaboration. The Masaya Volcano, otherwise known as the 'Mouth of Hell', is an active volcano in Nicaragua which regularly erupts, posing a real danger to people in the area. Predicting when the volcano may erupt is difficult. But researchers are now connecting it to the internet to allow them to keep a closer eye on its activity. A team led by a man who describes himself as a 'volcano diver', is installing dozens of Wi-Fi sensors inside Masaya to monitor the volcano's activity in real time. Scroll down for video The Masaya Volcano, otherwise known as the 'Mouth of Hell', is an active volcano in Nicaragua which regularly erupts, posing a real danger to people in the area THE 'MOUTH OF HELL' The Masaya Volcano National Park comprises an area of 21 square miles (54 square kilometres) and includes two volcanoes and five craters. The volcanoes have erupted several times in history, and were feared by both the indigenous people and the Spanish conquerors. It contains the Masaya volcano, also known as the 'mouth of hell' which is one of Nicaragua's most active and usual volcanoes. It regularly erupts, with the last major eruption in 2008, when the volcano blasted plumes of ash 3.8 miles (6.1 kilometres) into the atmosphere. Advertisement The Masaya volcano is one of Nicaragua's most active and usual volcanoes. It regularly erupts, with the last major eruption in 2008, when the volcano blasted plumes of ash 3.8 miles (6.1 kilometres) into the atmosphere. The Nicaraguan government has now teamed up with General Electrics (GE) and adventurer, Sam Cossman, who is known as the 'volcano diver', to install Wi-Fi sensors inside the volcano. In a video on GE's Facebook page, Guillermo Caravantes, a volcanologist working on the project, said that Masaya poses 'a real danger'. He added: 'We could potentially have millions of lives at risk. 'It could happen at any time and the problem is, we are not able to predict when this could happen or what sorts of signs from the volcano.' Tourists have been flocking to the breathtaking spectacle in Nicaragua as spewing lava lights up the night sky. The sensors fitted on the 'Mouth of Hell' could help keep both tourists and locals safe from an eruption The team working on the project, includes riggers, engineers, and even a former astronaut. They will descend up to 365 metres (1,200 feet) into Masaya to install more than 80 Wi-Fi sensors, which will gather real-time data, including gas levels, temperatures, gravity and atmospheric pressure. The data will be collected in a GE database, where it will be free to access by the public. The Masaya Volcano National Park comprises an area of 21 square miles (54 square kilometres) and includes two volcanoes and five craters Speaking to The Verge, Mr Cossman said: 'The goal is essentially to install all these sensors and create the most effective early warning system in the world.' Although the technology is only being implemented in Masaya, Mr Caraventes says that it has the potential for huge applications across volcanoes worldwide. In the video, he said: 'The long-term goal is to connect all volcanoes. 'This would be fantastic. Like doctors, we'd be able to monitor the vital signs of the volcanoes in real time.' Elton Simpson is one of the two men who fired assault rifles at people gathered for a "Draw Muhammad" event in Garland, Texas before being shot to death by an off-duty police officer; in the weeks leading up to the attack, Simpson had corresponded with an undercover FBI agent who urged him to "Tear up Texas." When a Daily Beast reporter phoned the FBI to ask about the message, the FBI spokeswoman Carol Cratty hung up on her. This is the latest in a string of domestic terror incidents that involved undercover agents and informants who provided encouragement, plans, and even weapons to would-be terrorists. "It would certainly be inappropriate for an FBI undercover agent or cooperating witness to provoke or inspire or urge a person to commit an act of violence," Michael German, a former FBI agent now at the Brennan Center for Justice, told The Daily Beast. "I could imagine an undercover agent thinking it was just the hyperbolic rhetoric they are participating in, and it wasn't an intent to go to Texas and do harm. "The affidavit raises a lot more questions than it answers, and I would hope that overseers within Congress and the Justice Department would want to take a hard look at the scope of this investigation," he added. The texts were included in the indictment, released Thursday, of Erick Jamal Hendricks of Charlotte, North Carolina. He was charged with conspiring to provide material support to ISIS. The 35-year-old tried to recruit other Americans to form an ISIS cell on secret compounds and introduced an undercover agent to one of the Draw Muhammad attackers, according to the FBI. Affidavit in Support of an Application for a Criminal Complaint and Arrest Warrant [Shawn Scott Hare/FBI] FBI Agent Apparently Egged on 'Draw Muhammad' Shooter [Katie Zavadski/Daily Beast] (via The Intercept) It was the site of one of the most infamous battles in American history when Mexican forces wiped out the Texian soldiers defending the Alamo before leaving it in ruins. Now the original main gate into the compound in San Antonio may have been discovered by archaeologists nearly 300 years after it was first built. Excavations have revealed the remains of foundations of what may have been the original south wall of the Alamo Mission shortly after it was built by the Spanish in the early 18th Century. Scroll down for video Archaeologists believe they may have uncovered part of the original wall (pictured) that formed the main gate into the Alamo mission compound build by Spanish colonialists nearly 300 years ago. The gate was located along the south wall of the compound THE ALAMO MISSION The Alamo was one of the earliest Roman Catholic missions to be established by the Spanish in Texas. It was initially named Mision San Antonio de Valero after Saint Anthony of Padau and the viceroy of New Spain, the Marquess of Valero. The mission began life in 1718 as a temporary mud, brush and straw structure close of the headwaters of the San Antonio River before it was moved several times to its current location in 1724. Over several decades the complex expanded to provide residence for the priests, a church, workshops and a barracks to house the Indians who lived at the mission. By the 19th century the complex had become known as the Alamo and served variably as a prison during the Mexican War of Independence and later a hospital. After the buildings were transferred to Mexican control in 1921, it became a military. It was surrendered to the Texians in 1835 before being recaptured by the Mexicans in the Battle of the Alamo in 1836. Advertisement Early maps of the mission and fortress compound show there had been a gate into the compound along this wall that was later filled in, perhaps as part of attempts to fortify the compound. Following the Battle of the Alamo in 1836, where between 182 and 257 Texians died, Mexican troops further fortified the compound. However, when the Mexican army later retreated, it tore down many of the Alamo's walls and set fires in some of the buildings. Archaeologists working with the Reimagine the Alamo project, however, have been conducting excavations at the compound in an attempt to reveal some of the original Spanish colonial building. At a press conference held on Monday, they revealed they may have uncovered a trench filled with stones held together with caliche slurry a form of mortar made from lime and water. Kristi Miller Nichols, project archaeologist from Raba Kistner Environmental, one of the firms involved in the excavation, said they encountered the stone foundations around three feet beneath the surface. She said: 'We are exposing those stones. We don't know exactly what to call it yet, so we are just calling it the architectural feature. It seems to be a Spanish colonial architecture. 'We are doing the research right now back in the office as well as trying to interpret what we are seeing out here. 'There are several different maps to look at, there are lots of different interpretations as to where to the south gate is. The Alamo is better known as the site for one of the most famous battle's in American history (illustrated), but before it was occupied as a fortress, it had been a Spanish colonial mission The wall appears to have been constructed using stones that were thrown into a trench (pictured) filled with a lime-based concrete known as caliche The Alamo (Alamo chapel pictured) was left in ruins after Mexican troops retreated and destroyed much of the compound in 1836. Archaeologists have been conducting excavations as part of a project to piece together the site's entire 300 year history 'If you look at some of the old maps, you note that this area has a gate at one point and then at another point it is a full on wall.' The four week dig is part of a project to develop a new attempt to tell the entire 300 year history of the site. The Alamo was originally known as the Mision San Antonio de Valero after being founded as a Roman Catholic mission by the Spanish to educate Native Americans after their conversion to Christianity. However, in 1793 it was abandoned and at the start of the 19th century it was converted into a military fortress. An adobe brick wall was also found on the west side of the historic compound in Texas The Alamo plaza outside the mission chapel (pictured in 1860) was once ringed with a wall that surrounded the entire compound and protected it from attack During the Texas revolution the fort was surrendered to the Texian Army in 1835 but the soldiers garrisoned there were wiped out by the forces of Mexican President General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. The massacre is widely credited with having galvanised Texian determination to resist the advancing Mexican Army. The Alamo site is now regarded as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Archaeologists believe the adobe wall they discovered (pictured) could have been part of a building that was later destroyed Earlier in the excavations, archaeologists discovered an adobe wall at another location beneath the Alamo Plaza, where the west wall of the complex is thought to have been built. Bone button templates, ceramics and the rusted remains of nails have all been uncovered during the dig. But experts now believe the stone foundations they have uncovered to the south of the compound may be their most significant find yet. Nesta Anderson, the dig's lead investigator and senior archaeologist at Pape-Dawson Engineers, said: 'We are certainly in the right location for the main gate.' Many expectant parents will chat away to their babies in the womb. But it appears that humans are not the only species who like to communicate with their young before they are born. New research has shown that dolphin mothers sing to their unborn calves by singing their name. The mothers teach their babies their signature whistle before birth and in the two weeks after, which the animals use to identify one another. Scroll down for video The mothers teach their babies their signature whistle, which is our equivalent to a name, before birth and in the two weeks after SIGNATURE WHISTLES Signature whistles are sounds made by dolphins, used to identify different individuals. Dolphin calves will eventually make their own individual whistle, but in the first stages of life, they use their mothers. The researchers studied a dolphin mother at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in California, who gave birth to a dolphin baby called Mira in 2014. They recorded 80 hours of sounds from the mother, baby, and other dolphins in the enclosure, during the two months before birth, and two months after birth. The recordings showed that the mother dolphin began increasing her signature whistle two weeks before birth, and continued to do so for two weeks after birth, before tapering off. In contrast, the other dolphins in the enclosure did not produce their own signature whistle at very high rates during this time. Advertisement Researchers from the University of Southern Mississippi, have suggested that the mothers teach their babies the whistle as part of the imprinting process. Signature whistles are sounds made by dolphins, used to identify different individuals. Dolphin calves will eventually make their own individual whistle, but in the first stages of life, they use their mothers. Previous studies have shown that mother dolphins whistle their signature tune more in the days before birth. However, this is the first study to look at how a mother dolphin whistles in the presence of other dolphins, before and after birth. The researchers studied a dolphin mother at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in California, who gave birth to a dolphin baby called Mira in 2014. They recorded 80 hours of sounds from the mother, baby, and other dolphins in the enclosure, during the two months before birth, and two months after birth. The recordings showed that the mother dolphin began increasing her signature whistle two weeks before birth, and continued to do so for two weeks after birth, before tapering off. Signature whistles are sounds made by dolphins, used to identify different individuals In contrast, the other dolphins in the enclosure did not produce their own signature whistle at very high rates during this time. Speaking to Live Science, Dr Audra Ames, lead researcher said: What the other dolphins might be doing here is remaining quiet so the calf does not imprint on the wrong signature whistle. Once the mother began tapering off the signature sound, the other dolphins then resumed their usual noises. Mother dolphins begin increasing their signature whistle two weeks before birth, and continue to do so for two weeks after birth, before tapering off Baby dolphins begin to develop their own signature sound at around two months old. They usually develop a whistle very different to those around them, to avoid confusion. Dr Ames added: 'We actually do see that human babies develop a preference for their mother's voice in the last trimester. 'We don't know if that's something that's going on here, but it could be something similar.' Students who had a more positive relationship with their teacher showed less aggressive behaviour up to age 15 How the pupil felt about their teacher could help predict bad behaviour Researchers looked at more than 1,000 schoolchildren in Switzerland Being taught by a good teacher between 10 and 11 can stop children turning into bad-tempered teenagers, a study has found. Teens who had good relationships with their tutors were found to be 38 per cent less aggressive. They were also found to be 18 per cent more 'pro-social' co-operative or altruistic - compared to teenagers who had mixed feelings or negative towards their teachers. Researchers looked at more than 1,000 schoolchildren in Swiss schools and found that how pupils felt about their teacher was the most important factor in predicting good or bad behaviour (stock image used) BAD BEHAVIOUR Swiss researchers looked at more than 1,000 schoolchildren in Zurich schools. Of 100 different characteristics, how pupils felt about their teacher was the most important factor in predicting good or bad behaviour. Students who had a more positive relationship with their teacher showed less aggressive behaviour right up to age 15. Advertisement The impact of having a positive relationship between a teacher and a student in the formative pre-teen years can last way beyond when they have left their class. Even four years later, the teens were 10 per cent less aggressive two years later, and 9 per cent less aggressive four years later. Positive feelings toward their teacher also resulted in students displaying an average of 56 per cent less 'oppositional defiant' behaviour: such as argumentativeness and vindictiveness toward authority figures. This was still reduced by 22 per cent up to three years later. The students were assessed with survey questions such as : 'In moments when someone was sad or in pain, how often have you tried to comfort them?' for pro-social behaviour, and 'How often have you hit, kicked or bitten other people?' for aggressive behaviour. Having a good teacher had more impact on pupil behaviour than other interventions such as anti-bullying programmes and counselling. Previous research has found that a good teacher relationship can reduce anti-social behaviour in infants. Working on improving the relationship between teachers and pupils could promote better classroom behaviour in schools that rely on disciplinary tactics such as detention and excluding disruptive pupils from class. The study's lead author Dr Ingrid Obsuth said: 'Teachers play an important role in the development of children. Students who feel supported tend to be less aggressive and more prosocial, and we now have evidence that this is the case from preschool right through to adolescence. The impact of having a positive relationship between a teacher and a student in the formative pre-teen years can last way beyond when they have left their class (stock image used) 'Educational and school policies should take this into consideration when supporting teachers in fostering their relationships with students.' The research was conducted by members of the Violence Research Centre at Cambridge's Institute of Criminology, along with colleagues from ETH Zurich and the University of Toronto. The findings are published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence. The researchers analysed data from 1067 Swiss young people being schooled across Zurich in 56 of the city's schools. Students who experienced a change of teacher between the ages of 9 and 10 were used for the study. The scientists looked at 100 different characteristics or experiences that could account for good or bad behaviour. These included the child's background, past behaviour, the way the child was parented and the gender of the teacher. They then matched students with similar scores in all respects except one: how they felt about their teacher and how their teacher felt about them. The only difference between each student in the pair was whether they had a positive relationship with their teacher or not. It was how the pupil feels about their teacher rather than the other way round that was found to be the most important for predicting good or bad behaviour. The authors said that students who saw themselves as having a more positive relationship with their teacher engaged in fewer aggressive behaviours right up to age 15. Professor Manuel Eisner of Cambridge University, the senior author on the study, said: 'Most adults remember some teachers that they admired and that fit their learning needs, and others that they felt hard done-by. This 'This is not necessarily only because they have more or less supportive teachers. Each child will respond differently to a teacher's style and personality. Researchers studied ancient genetic data of Malayan flying lemurs which pushes the More than 35 million people worldwide are living with HIV, yet little is known about the diseases evolutionary history and origin. Until recently, the oldest known lentiviruses the family from which HIV belongs were thought to date back to 12 million years ago. But new research into lemurs suggests that lentivruses may have emerged as early as 60 million years ago. New research into lemurs suggests that lentivruses may have emerged as early as 60 million years ago. The research, from the Czech Academy of Sciences, used genetic data from the Malayan flying lemur EVOLUTION OF LENTIVIRUSES Lentiviruses come from around nine evolutionary branches, and affect a range of animals, including primates, cats and horses. Dr Elleder explained: Classical viruses, including lentiviruses, evolve very fast, because they have very high mutation. For example, in the case of HIV, scientists can tell apart samples that originated in the 1980s and 1950s. However, the lentivirus found in this study was endogenous, meaning it inserts itself into the DNA and passes between generations. This means it has a much smaller rate of change, which allowed the researchers to reconstruct how they might have looked tens of millions of years ago. Advertisement The research, from the Czech Academy of Sciences, used genetic data from the Malayan flying lemur. The researchers looked at three samples of ancient genetic data, which revealed that lentiviruses may have originated as early as 60 million years ago. Lentiviruses are slow viruses with long incubation periods that cause a wide range of diseases in different animal species. Dr Daniel Elleder, who led the study, told MailOnline: We first found evidence of this lentivirus by a computational screen of all available animal genomes. To our surprise, the resulting age (40-60 millions of years) was much higher than all the three previously known lentiviruses. Lentiviruses come from around nine evolutionary branches, and affect a range of animals, including primates, cats and horses. Lentiviruses come from around nine evolutionary branches, and affect a range of animals, including primates, cats and horses. Pictured, an artwork of a HIV cell in the blood Dr Elleder explained: Classical viruses, including lentiviruses, evolve very fast, because they have very high mutation. For example, in the case of HIV, scientists can tell apart samples that originated in the 1980s and 1950s. However, the lentivirus found in this study was endogenous, meaning it inserts itself into the DNA and passes between generations. This means it has a much smaller rate of change, which allowed the researchers to reconstruct how they might have looked tens of millions of years ago. The findings were published in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution. In future studies, the team hopes to follow the timeline even deeper into the past by surveying a broad spectrum of animals, hoping to identify more pieces of the puzzle of lentivirus evolution. Future missions may need to focus on certain depths or blast size, they say Signs of life may be buried deep beneath the Martian surface, where organic compounds are protected from solar radiation and the harsh chemical processes above. To access these materials, scientists have analyzed rock samples that have been blasted to the surface by meteorite impacts but so far, the results have been inconclusive. Now, researchers say the nature of these blasts may incorrectly imply the absence of life, wiping out any signs that may once have been there. Scroll down for video Scientists have analyzed rock samples from Mars that have been blasted to the surface by meteorite impacts, but so far, the results have been inconclusive. Now, researchers say these blasts may wipe out any signs that may once have been there SEARCHING FOR ALIEN LIFE In the search for alien life, scientists have analyzed rock samples that have been blasted to the Martian surface by meteor impacts. It's thought that these rocks, which originate from beneath the surface, may contain organic compounds. Buried underground, the compounds would be protected from solar radiation and the harsh chemical processes above. But in the new study, researchers found that the meteorite blasts which carry the rocks to the surface may also destroy any evidence of life. Advertisement In a study published to the journal Scientific Reports, researchers from Imperial College London and the University of Edinburgh replicated meteorite blasts in the lab, focusing on those produced by meteorites roughly 10 meters in size. The team subjected different types of organic matter to extreme pressure and temperature in a piston cylinder device. Then, they used a pyrolysis-gas chromatography mass spectrometry to conduct a chemical analysis. This revealed that pressure from the impact destroyed long chain hydrocarbon-dominated matter, the organic compounds found in microbial and algal life. But, the organic compound found in plant matter dominated by aromatic hydrocarbons was mostly resistant to the pressures, though it experienced some chemical changes. The researchers say these findings could help to guide future missions to the best locations or blast types on Mars to search for life. The researchers say these findings could help to guide future missions in the search for life on Mars. Moving forward, they will investigate the effects of a wide range of temperatures and pressures to find the specific conditions that would allow organic material to survive Organic compounds may survive impacts of a certain size, they explain, or scientists may need to focus on rocks taken from a certain depth. Weve literally only scratched the surface of Mars in our search for life, but so far the results have been inconclusive, says Professor Mark Sephton, co-author of the study, from the Department of Earth Science and Engineering at Imperial College London. Rocks excavated through meteorite impacts provide scientists with another unique opportunity to explore for signs of life, without having to resort to complicated drilling missions. 'Our study is showing us that we may need to be nuanced in our approach to the rocks we choose to analyse. HAS ALIEN LIFE GONE EXTINCT? Researchers based at the Australian National University argue that life may well have emerged multiple times on other planets following the heavy bombardment of wet rocky worlds by asteroids. But they said almost all of this life would go rapidly go extinct unless it was able to evolve fast enough to regulate greenhouse gases and so maintain stable surface temperatures. While many planets could have potentially been habitable, and may have once teemed with microbial life, they argue, runaway heating or cooling would have left their surfaces inhospitable. The researchers say that while both Mars and Venus may once have been planets that could have hosted life four billion years ago, any life there failed to stabilise the environment. This resulted in Mars becoming a frigid desert while Venus became a boiling hothouse. Advertisement Moving forward, the researchers will investigate the effects of a wide range of temperatures and pressures. Doing this would help them to find the specific conditions that would allow organic material to survive a blast. The study is helping us to see that when organic matter is observed on Mars, no matter where, it must be considered whether the sample could have been affected by the pressures associated with blast impacts, says Dr. Wren Montgomery, co-author of the study from the Department of Earth Science and Engineering. We still need to do more work to understand what factors may play an important role in protecting organic compounds from these blast impacts. You may now have another excuse to binge watch television shows and take naps during the day. A new study reveals that intelligent people live a more sedentary lifestyle, as they rarely become bored and spend more time lost in their own thoughts. Researchers found that those who fill their day with physical activity are often 'non-thinkers,' and do so to stimulate their minds in order to escape their own thoughts. Science has just given individuals an excuse to binge watch television shows and take naps during the day. A study reveals that people with a high IQ rarely become bored and spend more time lost in their own thoughts, while living a more sedentary lifestyle WHAT THE STUDY FOUND In the study, participants were sorted using a 'Need for Cognition' test. Based on this, half were deemed 'thinkers' and the others were 'non-thinker's. Participants were each given an 'actigraphy device' to wear over seven days. This allowed the team to monitor the 60 students' movement and activity levels, and receive a stream of data to analyze. After the seven days, the team compiled the data and found the 'thinkers' were much less active than the 'non-thinkers'. Advertisement In a study published to the Journal of Health Psychology, researchers from the Florida Gulf Coast University explained that 'the relationship between cognition and physical activity is an important question for the human experience, and the interaction likely extends across the lifespan.' The researchers pulled from previous works to explain that physical activity levels are associated with physical behavior. For example, a past study found that those deemed non-thinkers became bored much easier and also experienced the negative effects that comes with it. Those with high 'need for cognition' appeared to avoid this behavior because they were able to provide their own mental stimulation. 'Thus, high-NFC individuals seem more content to 'entertain themselves' mentally, whereas low-NFC individuals quickly experience boredom and experience it more negatively,' reads the paper. The team at Florida Gulf Coast University used a tool, which is about 30 years old, to test a group of students for their study. This 'Need for Cognition' questionnaire rates people with how strongly they agree or disagree with statements such as 'I really enjoy a task that involves coming up with new solutions to problems' and ' I only think as hard as I have to'. The tool has been used for more than three decades to examine the link between 'enjoyment of effortful cognitive endeavors and other variables related to cognitions,' the team writes in the published study. Researchers found that those who fill their day with physical activity do so to stimulate their minds in order to escape their own thoughts or because they are more prone to boredom. For the study, participants were given an 'actigraphy device' to wear for seven days which would measure the wearer's activity levels To understand if laziness is a sign of intelligence, the team selected 60 undergraduate students from Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. Half were deemed 'thinkers' and the other 'non-thinker's these labels were given to individuals after they completed the Need for Cognition test. Each individual was then given an 'actigraphy device' to wear over the next seven days . This allowed the team to monitor the 60 students' movement and activity levels and received a stream of data to analyze. After the seven days, the team compiled the pulled samples and found the 'thinkers' were much less active than the 'non-thinkers'. ARE YOU A THINKER OR NON-THINKER? : TAKE THE 'NEED FOR COGNITION TEST' Answer the questions as following: 1 = extremely uncharacteristic; 2 = somewhat uncharacteristic; 3 = uncertain; 4 = somewhat characteristic; 5 = extremely characteristic. 1. I would prefer complex to simple problems. 2. I like to have the responsibility of handling a situation that requires a lot of thinking. 3. Thinking is not my idea of fun. 4. I would rather do something that requires little thought than something that is sure to challenge my thinking abilities. 5. I try to anticipate and avoid situations where there is likely a chance I will have to think in depth about something. 6. I find satisfaction in deliberating hard and for long hours. 7. I only think as hard as I have to. 8. I prefer to think about small, daily projects to long-term ones. 9. I like tasks that require little thought once I've learned them. 10. The idea of relying on thought to make my way to the top appeals to me. 11. I really enjoy a task that involves coming up with new solutions to problems. 12. Learning new ways to think doesn't excite me very much. 13. I prefer my life to be filled with puzzles that I must solve. 14. The notion of thinking abstractly is appealing to me. 15. I would prefer a task that is intellectual, difficult, and important to one that is somewhat important but does not require much thought. 16. I feel relief rather than satisfaction after completing a task that required a lot of mental effort. 17. It's enough for me that something gets the job done; I don't care how or why it works. 18. I usually end up deliberating about issues even when they do not affect me personally. Using the 9-point scale, the highest possible score on the Need for Cognition Scale is 72 (18 items multiplied by 4 points each) and the lowest possible score is -72. Source: Wabash College Advertisement However, the weekends proved to be the same for each group, as 'activity levels for high- and low-NFC individuals did not differ significantly'. 'It is important to note that part of the 'weekend effect' in our study may be due to our sample population, which consisted of college students,' explains researchers. 'Although college students are a standard participant pool in the vast majority of experimental psychology studies, their behavior and habits may be more indicative of young adult behavior than adult behavior in general.' After the seven days, the team compiled the pulled samples and found that they 'thinkers' were much less active than the 'non-thinkers'. However, the weekends proved to be the same for each group, as' activity levels for high- and low-NFC individuals did not differ significantly' 'It is reasonable to assume that this 'weekend effect' may change as people progress through different life stages, which is a question that future researchers may want to consider.' Researches also note that those who are more intelligent and lazier may endure negative side effects from their sedentary lifestyle. 'Ultimately, an important factor that may help more thoughtful individuals combat their lower average activity levels is awareness,' shares the British Psychological Society regarding the study. 'Awareness of their tendency to be less active, coupled with an awareness of the cost associated with inactivity, more thoughtful people may then choose to become more active throughout the day.' Bosavern Community Farm, near St Just, is about as far west as you can go on British soil before you fall off a cliff and into the Atlantic. It is a deeply green, not-for-profit working farm, growing fruit, vegetables and herbs, and raising chickens. The income produced enables its volunteers to visit schools, spreading the word about ethical farming as well as hosting regular community events. Rugged beauty: Sweeping views from the top of Cape Cornwall, near Bosavern campsite Camping here is quite the opposite of glamping not quite wild, but as close as you can get. The field could do with a haircut and has just one cold tap. And if it rains, your only refuge is 'The Hive', a room above a barn with chairs, tables, board games, kettle and sockets. The toilets, christened 'treebogs', are a pair of booths with deep pits beneath. You sprinkle a generous handful of sawdust on top. Inside each is a framed picture of a similar set-up in Pakistan, headlined 'Twinned'. My boys were even more miffed to learn there's no hot shower though the camp has now got a temporary gas-heated one and a solar-heated shower is in the pipeline. Even so, such Spartan provisions do not seem to bother the rest of the children holidaying in the little enclave Bosavern has space for just ten tents. They delight in joining egg-gathering and Cornish new potato-picking sorties, or wandering at will over the farm's 34 acres. Make a splash: Eye-catching surf spot Sennen Cove (pictured) is not far from the farm And there's plenty to do in the area. Within a ten-mile radius of the farm is the incomparable Minack open-air theatre, the surf spot Sennen Cove and the artists' hamlet of Lamorna. And if you are carless, St Just is only a ten-minute stroll. Here is a town in miniature, largely free from tourist tat, with fine pubs, fish and chips, village-baked pasties, a post office and a cash machine. What else do you need? Fed and watered, you can pop into the tiny parish church, whose incense-infused bare granite walls house Cornish saints. Peace at last. Portuguese water dogs are more than at home There was no denying that Atira and Quilha were real old sea dogs. Here they were, in the chill of the Atlantic, off a lonely cape in the Algarve, on the edge of Europe, battling through the foaming surf, as if born to it. Which indeed they were. Some way behind, I was doing my own version of the doggy paddle as we raced each other to retrieve a rubber ball. No contest. The bobbing heads and waggy tails of the mother and daughter Portuguese water dogs skimmed across the ocean like torpedoes, barking with pure canine joy at these marine frolics. Old sea dogs: Portuguese water dogs were bred as shipmates and are always up for a swim Back on dry land, after a brisk shake of the salty sea from their shiny black coats, Atira and Quilha were once again jumping up against their mistress Carla Peralta, begging for the ball to be thrown into the waves for more aquatic larks. This canine pair are the unlikely but loveable latest attraction for holidaymakers in southern Portugal. Families on holiday at the Conrad Algarve resort are booking time with Atila and Quilha for the pleasure of swimming with them. Children love them. Portuguese water dogs have been around since Roman times. They were indispensable crew on local boats, plunging into the water to drive tuna into nets, retrieving broken lines and carrying messages around the fleet. When technology made them redundant the breed almost died out, but today they are becoming one of the world's most popular pedigrees. President Obama and his family have two as pets. 'They are truly happier in water than on land,' says Carla. 'Sometimes we sail to deep water and all jump in the sea together, splashing about like crazy.' The Conrad hotel, just 20 minutes from Faro airport and within the 300-acre watery, wooded Quinta do Lago park, offers a series of adventures: road safaris through the cork forests of the Serra de Caldeiro mountains, clam picking in the Ria Formosa, home to nesting storks. Break from the routine: The Conrad hotel, near Faro airport, offers a series of activities Most of its leisure activities are more sophisticated, but in an increasingly technological world where machines dictate our lives, people are enchanted by a simple aquatic romp with Atira and Quilha. It's said that every dog has its day. For the Portuguese water dog, theirs has come again. The Ryanair passenger who ran onto the tarmac at Madrid's main international airport is a Bolivian national who is now facing a hefty fine. Amazing footage published today showed the mystery traveller jumping off the jet bridge with two bags in his hands and sprinting across the edge of the runway to try to board the plane. And this afternoon it emerged initial reports claiming he had missed his budget flight were wrong and he had managed against all odds to get on the plane and reach his destination. The holidaymaker nervously dangles his legs over the edge of the jet bridge before jumping The man, who was late for his flight, seemed to hesitate before jumping off the jet bridge The man, who missed the plane's final boarding call, fell about eight to 10ft from the bridge The footage was posted on Facebook by a Spanish trade union. A Civil Guard spokesman in his sunshine destination - Gran Canaria - said he was stopped when he reached the holiday island and identified so he could be reported for an airport security infraction. The spokesman said: 'He breached a range of security measures when he saw he was going to miss his flight and despite the efforts of ground personnel to stop him, managed to run across the tarmac as the plane was preparing to taxi out to the runway.' A source close to the case said the desperate man was a Bolivian national who was believed to have been travelling alone. He said: 'He wasn't arrested but he was identified so his name could be passed to Guardia Civil officers in Madrid for them to take the appropriate action. 'They didn't manage to identify him in Madrid. 'The pilot presumably agreed to let him on board because he had a boarding pass but he was lucky not to have been stopped in Madrid because we're currently on terror alert level 4 and he could easily have been mistaken for a terrorist with all the consequences that come with that. 'The man in question is now likely to face a very high fine.' A spokesman for Spanish Airports Authority AENA said the unnamed offender had broken a firm alarm in an apparent diversionary tactic. He said: 'The incident happened around 9pm on Friday. 'We called the Civil Guard in after he breached security and broke a firm alarm before reaching the tarmac. 'We don't know what happened after the Civil Guard were called. The only person who can answer the question of why he acted like he did is the man who protagonised this incident. 'It is definitely a first for this airport.' After landing on his feet, the tourist waves his hand in an attempt to flag down the plane The man speaks to an employee inside a small vehicle that is used to pull luggage carts In a major security breach, the tardy traveller got past staff at the gate and jumped off the jet bridge with two bags in his hands - landing on the tarmac eight to 10ft below - after the Boeing 737 had already pulled back from the terminal. The foolish holidaymaker sprinted across the apron to try and stop the plane from taking off without him, but was intercepted by stunned ground crew members at Madrid's main international airport. DO YOU KNOW THE MAN? Do you know the man in the video? Email chris.kitching@mailonline.co.uk. Advertisement Footage of the bizarre incident was recorded by a ground crew member at Adolfo Suarez Madrid-Barajas Airport and posted on Facebook by the Workers' Commissions trade union. Video shows the man nervously sitting on the edge of the jet bridge with his bags in tow before leaping off. After landing on his feet he waves his hand in an attempt to flag down the plane and briefly speaks to a worker in a vehicle used to pull luggage carts. Shocked viewers said the man should be charged by police or even banned from flying With his bags in hand, the man sprints across the tarmac to stop the plane from leaving The man made it onto the apron as he approached a plane, but was intercepted by employees Footage of the bizarre incident was recorded by a ground crew member at the airport Two employees (left) stop the man as he approaches the Ryanair plane The man runs towards his plane - putting himself in an incredibly dangerous situation as aircraft taxi to and from runways - but is stopped by two employees. A Ryanair spokesman called it a 'security breach' and deferred comment to airport police. The union wrote online: 'This is how passengers in Madrid behave when they don't arrive in time for their flights. 'This particular passenger was missing a Ryanair flight and, unbelievably, skipped several security protocols established by [operator] AENA in their airports. 'We're talking about level 4 security protocols! Not even with all those protocols we can feel safe...' MailOnline Travel has contacted the Workers' Commissions union for comment. Shocked viewers flooded the Workers' Commissions union's Facebook page with comments. Some suggested the man should be charged by Spanish police and banned from flying, while others criticised security measures at the airport. One viewer wrote: 'This guy should have been arrested by the security forces and identified so he can not only travel with [Ryanair] but any airline.' Another viewer wrote: 'It's not the fault of the passenger who bypassed the security controls. It is the responsibility of those in charge of the controls.' A member of the union wrote on Facebook that he or she has witnessed 10 incidents in seven years where passengers have forced open a gate's doors. Do you know the man in the video? Email chris.kitching@mailonline.co.uk. Advertisement Scandinavia, Iceland and Scotland are usually known for their icy exteriors, but in a new series of pictures the countries have been lit by rosier hues. The awe-inspiring images have been taken by the photographer George the Explorer, also known as George Turner. Turner describes himself as a '20-something British landscape and wildlife photographer exploring the world.' The 26-year-old from Dorset has spent the last two years documenting scenery from some of the wildest places on earth by visiting remote areas of countries in the Northern hemisphere. In the images, the giant-sized beauty of the countryside in these cold climates is shown in a different light as they are often captured in the height of summer. Deserted lakes, rural villages and craggy mountain tops all feature in the beautiful pictures, taken on Turner's trusty Nikon 17-35mm f2.8 lens. A picture of Seljalandsfoss on the southern coastline of Iceland during sunset on a cold evening that had a wind chill of minus ten degrees Celcius Kayaking under the midnight sun in Hossa, Finland. To get to this spot, Turner and his friend had to paddle for over an hour into the wilderness A view of Reine from its namesake, Reinebringen, Norway. Turner said of this picture: 'We spent over 4 hours at the top but even 40 wouldn't have been enough' Fishermen's hut in front of mountains, surrounded by the Atlantic ocean in Lofoten - an archipelago and a traditional district in the county of Nordland, Norway Turner said of this picture of a lake in Finland: 'In northern Finland, these sunsets last for hours' A picture of the Icelandic Mount Vestrahorn, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. The spot is very popular among photographers A puffin bird shows off its vividly-coloured bill during Turner's recent photography trip to Iceland A lake in the mountains above an ocean surrounded by mountains, in Lofoten A picture of Castle Stalker in Appin, Argyll, with the sun setting over Loch Laich The Fairy Pools on the Scottish Isle of Skye, which Turner says is one of his favourite places The view from the top of Reinebringen, Norway. Turner said of the hike to get there: 'After a tough-ish hike up, you reach a narrow mountain ridge and this view opens up before you. It feels unreal. Almost other-wordly' This image shows Turner's friend skateboarding down an empty road on Lofoten as the sun sets behind the mountain In the 2012 election, as it became clear Barack Obama was polling better than Mittens Romney, it was claimed the polls were "skewed" in favor of Democratic candidates. Turned out that the polls underestimated Obama's margin of victory. But with Donald Trump trailing Hillary Clinton in similar fashion four years on, the "unskewers" are back. It's looking rough right now for Trump voters. Fivethirtyeight's Polls-only forecast gives Clinton an 87% chance of winning, and the electoral map (with a 364-to-172 landslide college) is plainly as much as it is possible for a Democratic candidate to gain under any circumstances. If Trump spent the next 100 days running naked smeared in his own excrement, Clinton might pick up South Carolina as well British families are taking legal action against tour operators after they fell ill with severe symptoms of food poisoning or gastric illness while on holiday in Mexico. The allegations surfaced as British health chiefs warned travellers to be wary after a number of tourists were struck down with crippling food poisoning at resorts in an area south of Cancun. The Barraclough family, from Sheffield, claimed their two-week holiday was ruined when they came down with diarrhoea and vomiting just days into their trip. The Barracloughs - father Mark, 33, mum Sarah, 33, and children Bryony, 7, and Alexander, 3 The Barracloughs said they witnessed coatis (left) eating off plates at the Sandos resort (right) The Barracloughs - father Mark, 33, mother Sarah, 33, and children Bryony, 7, and Alexander, 3 - were staying at the Sandos Caracol Eco Resort in Riviera Maya after booking with Thomas Cook. They said they continue to experience symptoms after returning in June and have been treated by a GP. Sarah Barraclough said a GP told her she may be suffering post-infective irritable bowel syndrome, and tests confirmed both children were infected with cryptosporidium, a parasite that causes cryptosporidiosis, a bowel infection known as gastroenteritis. She said: 'The fact the kids also got ill just added insult to injury and we want to know what caused our illness. 'We have real concerns about the standards of the hotel in general, as well as the food hygiene practices in place there.' She said the family complained during the holiday, but doesn't feel their complaints were taken seriously. Julie Hughes was infected with the cyclospora parasite after a visit to Riviera Maya She added: 'We are still not 100 per cent and simply wish we'd never gone on this holiday as it was a complete nightmare and we'd never knowingly put the health of our children at risk.' The family has hired the law firm of Irwin Mitchell to investigate the cause of their illness. A spokeswoman for Thomas Cook said: 'Nothing is more important to us than the safety and well-being of our customers, and we will always work with our hotel partners to investigate any sickness or incidents reported while on holiday. 'We are in discussions with the Barracloughs solicitors on their claim.' Irwin Mitchell said it represents two other holidaymakers who claimed they fell ill at the same hotel in 2015, and has been contacted by another family-of-four that allegedly fell ill there last June. The Barracloughs claimed food was served lukewarm and on occasions reused for later meals, and there were birds and coatis, mammals that are part of the raccoon family, eating off plates. The family also claimed water was leaking from a pipe in their room and the hotel pool was dirty, and other families appeared to have similar symptoms. In separate cases, a number of UK holidaymakers have been infected with the cyclospora parasite, thought to come from a foodstuff supplied to hotels. Julie Hughes, a 55-year-old grandmother from Runcorn, Cheshire, claimed she was ill for a month and lost a stone after suffering diarrhoea and vomiting on a trip to the Sensimar Seaside Suites and Spa, a Thomson resort in Riviera Maya, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of meeting her husband. She said: 'We were celebrating 40 years together and had been at the resort for over a week when I started vomiting and having the most horrendous diarrhoea. I was in so much pain. 'I lost a stone as a result of the sickness and I still have to watch what I eat a month on. 'I'm so disappointed that the holiday was ruined as we were using part of my mum's inheritance to celebrate 40 years together. Instead of a romantic trip I ended up terribly ill.' Amy Tudge fell ill while celebrating her third anniversary with boyfriend Edward Munsen Amy Tudge, 22, from Windsor, Berkshire, was celebrating her third anniversary with boyfriend Edward Munsen, 23, when she fell ill at the Sensimar Seaside Suites and Spa at the start of June. She said: 'We came back thinking we had had the best holiday ever and planning to return again. But two days later we were struck down by the worst sickness and bad stomach we have ever had. 'I am very careful about what I eat and drink abroad as I don't even have ice in my drinks and use bottled water to brush my teeth. 'The resort was the last place I would expect to get ill but when I went to the doctor on my return they said I had contracted cyclospora. We were both sick on and off for a month and it was awful.' Leanne Oades, a travel lawyer at Slater and Gordon, who represents Mrs Hughes and Miss Tudge, said: 'We have been inundated by people travelling to this resort and the Riviera Maya generally. 'All appear to have been suffering from the same debilitating vomiting and diarrhoea illness cyclospora that lasts for several weeks.' A Thomson spokeswoman said: 'TUI UK and Ireland has been advised of a number of sickness cases associated with an issue called cyclospora in the Riviera Maya region of Mexico. 'There is not a particular hotel, hotel chain or tour operator implicated and the source of the infection is still being investigated. 'We are working with relevant partners and authorities both in Mexico and the UK to ensure customer well-being and to investigate the matter. 'While the cases that we are aware of involve several different hotels suggesting the source is likely to be a foodstuff that has been distributed to hotels within the region, we always encourage customers to follow guidance from official health bodies such as the NHS and NaTHNaC, which have up-to-date advice on staying safe and healthy abroad.' Around half a million Britons visit Mexico every year. Meanwhile, Fitfortravel, an arm of NHS Scotland, said people planning holidays to Mexico should be alert, even in luxury resorts. The Fitfortravel website states that the majority of cases have stayed in all-inclusive resorts in the Riviera Maya area on the coast of Quintana Roo state, south of Cancun. Most praised the 'strange humour' and the deeply ingrained pub culture taps for hold and cold, and old class rules Most Brits grow up watching American TV, and are thus pretty well-acquainted with the culture. But for so many Americans who first venture to the UK, there seem to be plenty of surprises; Marmite, strange taps, and a vastly different drinking culture among them. Question-answer sites Quora and Reddit provide a goldmine of insights from across the pond on how Britain differs from the land of stars and stripes. Here are some of the best. American tourists and expats have taken to the internet to reveal what they honestly think about British culture (stock photo) 'What is it like to be an American living in the United Kingdom?' posed Quora last week, inviting an influx of comments. 'More diverse, less aggressive, and insanely expensive,' surmised Milwaukee-expat Andrew Shannon. He added: 'People will judge you as an American within seconds,' either, apparently, as 'intelligent and business savvy' or 'loud, annoying, and likely carrying a concealed weapon'. Another Reddit user accused the British public of sounding 'condescending' and 'a little uppity at times'. Mr Shanon was careful to point out, however, that Brits are just as quick to stereotype one another as they are to judge tourists. 'They sort themselves into a class system from "toff" to "chav" by quickly judging each other based on accent, birthplace, school, and job,' he wrote. Almost every American who submitted their views on Britain mentioned its jovial pub culture. Pictured, The Churchill Arms - a very patriotic drinking hole in London's Notting Hill British aspects he admired included free healthcare, the Tube, and the long holidays - Americans are entitled to only around ten days a year, compared with 26 days in the UK. Several other contributors across Quora and Reddit mentioned the more 'relaxed' office culture, where boozy lunch meetings and workplace swearing are both socially acceptable. Less popular with Mr Shanon was the smaller food portions, disruptive transport strikes, and 'exorbitant' prices. The Tube in London got the thumbs up for general speed and convenience, but was criticised for its frequent strikes Almost every American who submitted their views mentioned Britain's drinking culture. 'Booze starts promptly at 5pm,' one wrote. 'Beers during lunchtime meals are much more frequent than it would be in the U.S.' another commented. One woman simply told MailOnline Travel: 'You guys drink, like, LOADS.' While the pub culture was generally spoken about favourably, some disagreed. While most Americans appeared to enjoy Britain's drinking culture, others said it was excessive (stock photo) 'The drinking culture leaves something to be desired, unless you really like getting horrendously drunk,' one woman from California wrote on Quora. 'Its a badge of honour to get sick and not remember what you did the night before. And if youre not into that, youll have a hard time fitting in and really becoming friends with a lot of locals.' This user also remarked: 'You cant really climb into their fold by becoming rich like you can do in America, you have to be born into it, or youre not "really" one of them.' Several users warned that Brits tend to mercilessly mock Americans, but that this should be taken with a pinch of salt. Britain's food got mixed reviews, with many Americans noting the much smaller portion sizes 'The people loved to take a jab at me being an American,' one wrote. 'You need to have a sense of humor as it is all done in good fun.' Britain's food got mixed reviews, but did well on the beer, cider and cheddar cheese front - although many complained of the 'severe lack of Mexican food' here. To this post, one defensive Brit replied on Reddit: '[Mexico] is a country about 6,000 miles away that we have no strong historical links with. 'If you want a foreign cuisine in your country, live next door to them, or colonise them.' One tourist remarked, '[Brits] sort themselves into a class system from "toff" to "chav" by quickly judging each other based on accent, birthplace, school, and job (stock photo) Topics of politics and history cropped up a number of times, with one writing: 'I was there when George W. Bush was president. I learned to apologize about being American repeatedly.' Less obnoxiously religious, strange but entertaining sense of humor Another wrote of Britain's 12th century castles: 'In American we think of 1776 as being a long time ago. I did learn that British people don't consider America to have a culture.' Quirks that confounded plenty of Americans also included Marmite, 'carpet on the f***ing bathroom floors?!' and separate taps. 'You want to wash your hands?' one lamented. 'It's either boiling hot or freezing cold.' Other quibbles included separate bathroom taps (left) and the mighty Marmite spread (right) One man's summary of his visit to the UK went viral last year. Scott Waters, a 66-year-old American tourist posted a number of amusing insights. 'Everything is generally older, smaller and shorter,' he stated. 'There are no guns. People don't seem to be afraid of their neighbors or the government. 'Their paper money makes sense, the coins don't. All the signs are well designed with beautiful typography and written in full sentences with proper grammar.' Scott Waters, a 66-year-old American tourist (pictured) wrote a highly amusing list of his observations on Facebook, which went viral last year Overall, it appears that while there is plenty of culture shock material for Americans in the UK, it's generally more charming than offensive. 'I found things to be more expensive and homes to be smaller but people to be happier,' one said. She's just enjoyed the trip of a lifetime with daughter Betsy on a Disney cruise. But Denise Van Outen will soon be jetting off on another vocation, this time not only with her daughter, but also with ex-husband Lee Mead and her current boyfriend in tow. While this may sound like a recipe for disaster, the 42-year-old star explained to OK! magazine how their amicable break-up has allowed them to co-parent their six-year-old daughter. Scroll down for video Mother daughter team: Denise Van Outen explained to OK! magazine how her amicable break-up with Lee Mead has allowed them to co-parent their six-year-old daughter Betsy While Denise and Betsy were away, Lee celebrated his 35th birthday, but he didn't mind not getting to spend it with his little girl. He was fine. Hes on tour with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and he was doing two shows that day, so he wouldnt have seen much of her anyway. 'When youre not together [as parents] theres always something one of us will miss out on, but its just the way it goes. West End Star: The couple originally met when Denise was a judge on TV talent show Any Dream Will Do, which contestant Lee went on to win Still good friends: Lee recently holidayed with Denise and Betsy in Dubai Happier times: They wed in the Seychelles in April 2009 after a whirlwind 18 month romance and were married for four years before their split in 2013 The latest edition of OK! magazine is on sale from Tuesday, with Denise's full interview inside The couple originally met when Denise was a judge on TV talent show Any Dream Will Do, which contestant Lee went on to win and secured the leading role in the West End production of Joseph And The Technicolour Dreamcoat. They wed in the Seychelles in April 2009 after a whirlwind 18 month romance and were married for four years before their split in 2013, however the pair have remained good friends. Denise now in a relationship with with stockbroker Eddie Boxshall, who she began dating after they met via mutual friends in 2014. And far from her new relationship proving a problem, the three actually get on well. The three of us are going on a sunshine holiday in a couple of weeks time with a big group of friends. Weve all booked different hotels in the same place and then well all meet up. However, Denise did admit to having missed Eddie while she was away on her mother daughter trip, but said: We dont live together so were used to being apart. Marnie Simpson's Celebrity Big Brother romance with housemate Lewis Bloor is heating up, with the two even enjoying a shower together on Monday's episode. And now, in an interview with OK! magazine, her mother Sharra Kyle says she is 'not worried' about her 24-year-old daughter's on-screen antics, no matter how far they go. She said: 'Ive seen her having sex on Geordie Shore and all I can do is be there for her and support her. Im her biggest fan and I love her unconditionally.' Getting steamy: Temperatures are rising on Celebrity Big Brother as Marnie Simpson and Lewis Bloor continue to grow closer, as seen in this game of truth or dare last week Approval: Marnie's mother Sharra Kyle labelled Lewis a 'gentleman' Last week Ex On The Beach hunk Stephen Bear sought to wind Lewis, 26, up by planting a smooch on Marnie's lips. Talking to Big Brother in the Diary Room, Bear, 26, brazenly declared: 'If I want to kiss Marnie I will. Lewis really likes Marnie, Marnie doesnt really like him.' Marnie's mother clearly disagrees. 'I think she only has eyes for Lewis!' she said. Lewis seems like a real gentleman, hes the sort of man Id like Marnie to be with. Tender moments: Marnie's mother tells OK! that she isn't worried about her daughter having sex on the show. Ive seen her having sex on Geordie Shore and all I can do is be there for her and support her,' she said. 'Im her biggest fan and I love her unconditionally He's the one: 'I think she only has eyes for Lewis!' Sharra said. Lewis seems like a real gentleman, hes the sort of man Id like Marnie to be with Mum's the word: Sharra's full interview is available in OK! magazine Marnie has experienced her share of upset when it comes to romance, having endured high-profile breakups with Ricky Rayment and Aaron Chalmers. Ricky quit TOWIE so that he could propose to Marnie on Geordie Shore, after dating her for just six months, but she dumped him in September 2015 before they even set a date. Marine had a notoriously on-off relationship with Aaron - another Geordie Shore alum. Comparing her daughter's former love interests to TOWIE star Lewis, Sharra had only kind words. Theyre both lovely boys,' she said. 'Things with Marnie and Ricky happened too quickly, it was all a whirlwind, which is why it didnt work out. I liked Aaron but they had trust issues. Read the full story in this week's OK! Magazine - out today. Mila Kunis and her husband Ashton Kutcher have an estimated combined net worth of $170 million. But the 32-year-old actress insists her kids won't grow up with a sense of entitlement. The brunette beauty told Australian radio hosts Kyle and Jackie 'O' Henderson on Monday morning, that the couple will be 'teaching [their children] from a very early age that, "mommy and daddy may have a dollar but you're poor".' Scroll down for video Parenting advice: Mila Kunis has revealed her and Ashton Kutcher will teach their kids to appreciate their blessings and not take wealth for granted Mila also revealed that she discussed with Ashton how they would 'raise a child not to be an a******' before they even started a family. The Ukrainian-American beauty went on to describe how the couple are 'self-made' successes despite their extremely poor upbringings. She said: 'We both came from pretty solid poverty backgrounds and grew up very poor. Nothing's been handed to us.' Self-made: The 32-year-old actress described both her and Ashton's poor upbringings and said: 'Nothing's been handed to us' Mila recalled having tomato soup for dinner and said it's bittersweet that their children will never know what it's like to struggle. 'On one hand it's beautiful, they'll never know what it's like to have ketchup soup for dinner but they'll never know how to appreciate things,' the That '70s Show star said. Mila's comments come after she revealed that she bought $90 wedding bands for herself and Ashton from Etsy - an online market place for vintage and handmade goods. Modest: The brunette beauty revealed she bought $90 wedding bands for her and her husband from online market place Etsy Despite her husband forking out a sizeable amount for her Tiffany & Co. engagement ring, Mila revealed she keeps it hidden away. 'My engagement ring is in a safety deposit box and I'm like: "I can't wear this because someone's going to chop my hand off for it",' the actress told Kyle and Jackie 'O'. Mila and Ashton wed in July last year, however they first met on the set of That '70s Show in 1998. The couple share one daughter, 22-month-old Wyatt Isabelle, and they are expecting their second. There was good news and bad news for Alex Mytton on Made In Chelsea: South Of France. On the plus side he made a quick recovery from bravely taking the difficult decision to break up with long-term partner Nicola Hughes (by text), mostly by heroically managing to have sex with Olivia Bentley. On the other hand, there were growing fears that poor Alex had suffered a recurrence of his mind blanks, the tragic condition that ruined his relationships with Binky and others, not to mention stopping him enjoying all the infidelity he had inflicted on them. Mixed: There was good news and bad news for Alex Mytton on Made In Chelsea: South Of France Strangely these alcohol-induced black-outs only struck when Alex did something shameful, in this case trying to hook up with Frankie, his best bud Jamies girlfriend. So at first when Frankie, Sam, and Lucy Watsons sister took turns to tell Jamie all about it, Mytton looked blankly bewildered. So no change there then you might think What?! he cried. Curse those wretched mind-blanks ! I dont want you thinking I would do that ! Alex blustered to Jamie, courageously adopting the moral high ground. Regret: Alex told Olivia he regretted sleeping with her having just broken up with girlfriend Nicola Hughes Former flame: He admitted he still had feelings for ex girlfriend Nicola In hindsight Alex insisting I want to clear this up by putting Frankie on the spot and demanding did I try it on with you? wasunwise. Unfortunately, unlike Alex Frankie not only did remember but he had. Alex had drunkenly propositioned her in the back of a taxi, holding her hand as he purred wed make such a good couple, and arguing Jamie might as well not come back. Amazingly, at the exact moment that the evidence against him became overwhelming Myttons memory loss was suddenly, magically, cured. I said it as a joke obviously... Alex suggested feebly and admittedly anything was better than putting his hands up (to Frankies version of events that is). Mind blank? Alex did something shameful, in this case trying to hook up with Frankie, his best bud Jamies girlfriend Awks: When Frankie, Sam, and Lucy Watsons sister took turns to tell Jamie all about it, Mytton looked blankly bewildered. Jamie was predictably appalled, not initially by Alexs trying it on with his girlfriend but by the very possibility that she could have behaved like Jamie had been himself. True, Frankie turning down Alex was not really on a par with Jamie sharing a bed with two girls before Frankie arrived. (Arrived in Cannes that is, not in the bed too.) When Frankie heard about the pardy, reacting with a combination of dismay and outrage, Jamie didnt blame himself for what hed done but Sam for telling everyone what hed done. Frankie had told him that Lucy Watsons sister had told her that Olivia had told her that Sam had told her that Jamie had told him that he had been moaning that being in a relationship with Frankie was like a full-time job and he felt trapped. Taste of his own medicine? Jamie was predictably appalled, not initially by Alexs trying it on with his girlfriend, but by the very possibility that she could have behaved like Jamie had been himself I cant trust you any more, Jamie tutted, as if he were the one who had been betrayed How could you say that?! Jamie protested to Sam, which was almost word-for-word what Frankie had said to Jamie. I cant trust you any more, Jamie tutted, as if he were the one who had been betrayed. This then was the main thing we learned from episode two of the series. Men, you just cant trust them generally or to admit what theyve done, even when theyve been caught. Mind you, youd think that - like the girls on MiC: SoF we would know that by now. Here are five other lessons from this weeks show. Itll be interesting to see how everyone reacts, carped Stephanie Pratt to her friends about the news that Alex had slept with Olivia. Because when I said Alex was good-looking, you guys stopped talking to me for months ! So no apology then? she sniped/sulked 1. Stephanie Pratt is still being literally crucified Itll be interesting to see how everyone reacts, carped Stephanie Pratt to her friends about the news that Alex had slept with Olivia. Because when I said Alex was good-looking, you guys stopped talking to me for months ! Never mind that not only when Nicola still with Alex when Stephanie did this, Nicola was actually with them in Mauritius at the time. Still it was good to see Stephanie had let it go. So no apology then? she sniped/sulked. OK yah, bumbled Louise, trying to sound as posh as the other gals, adding: Hi ham sorr-air yew-hoo felt alien-aid-ed. Hi actual-air wouldnt whish that uporn henny worn. Poor little (orange) Louise was so upset she had to share her feelings with Sam several times. OK yah, bumbled Louise, trying to sound as posh as the other gals, adding: Hi ham sorr-air yew-hoo felt alien-aid-ed. Hi actual-air wouldnt whish that uporn henny worn. Hi haff been haffing such fun hair ! she protested. Then Stephan-air just has to go-ho and low-air the tone. Its hall about hurr. I literal-air couldnt look her in the hi. I had to stare into the ocean. Mind you staring vacantly was her default expression. No wonder Steph didnt notice. The row had gone down in MiCs history as The War of Mauritius and Stephanie was still casting herself in the role of victim. I got literally crucified a few months ago for just saying Alex was good looking ! she complained, although it was really literally (unfortunately). Now were all joking around about it. Harr you jeal-urgh-zzz? harrumphed Louise. Would you rar-thair it were you with Alex rather than O-livi-air? On and on it went, until Boule, a newcomer to the whole affair, appealed for calm interjecting: lets forget about it. Lets move on. Hopefully the scriptwriters were listening - even if they had written that line for him. Toff versus Olivia: With two women fighting over him, Francis Boule is the Spencer Matthews/playa of this series 2. With two women fighting over him, Francis Boule is the Spencer Matthews/playa of this series I find Francis so sexy. Is there something wrong with me? cried MiCs tiny toff, Toff. In a word? Yes. I didnt even wake up with The Fear ! she continued. I woke up and was like: Ah ! Boule ! Nice ! Well anythings better than Richard Ken Barlow Dinan. Sadly for her (or luckily), Francis was more interested in Olivia even if she herself was more interested in Alex. But then as he said told Toff: people hook up the whole time. It doesnt mean that theyre necessarily in a relationship. In this series? It hardly ever does. Moving on: It was only after Alex Mytton had slept with Olivia Bentley that we learn he had split up with long-term girlfriend Nicola Hughes 3. Breaking up with someone is the hardest thing in the world even by text It was only after Alex Mytton had slept with Olivia Bentley that we learn he had split up with long-term girlfriend Nicola Hughes. Their break-up was certainly news to his pals Jamie, Sam, Francis, and co. It was possibly news to Nicola too. This is the hardest thing in the world, Mytton had told her sensitively. But its not going to work. Well, not told exactly. More like texted. Some people might say it was cowardly, Alex mumbled, reading his friends minds (and ours). You might be thinking ALL people was more accurate, although to be fair to Alex some would go for spineless, pathetic, or appalling. Basically I got ploughed by Alex Mytton, she told her pals. Toff also saw a bit of sausage. 4. When they say romance is dead its because it is How are you? Olivia Bentley asked when - by pure coincidence - she happened to bump into old Alex on The Morning After The Night Before they hooked up. He had already told Sam he regretted it, adding chivalrously: to be honest I remember very little about it.' Now the smooth-talking devil told Olivia I feel a little bit ropey today, showing he knew how to make a girl feel special by adding: Im kind of a bit annoyed with myself - breaking up with Nicola and then leaping into bed with someone else. I do have a lot of feelings for her. Poor guy. It was almost as he genuinely believed he was the victim rather than Nicola or Olivia. Mind you, Olivia wasnt much more romantic. Basically I got ploughed by Alex Mytton, she told her pals. Toff also saw a bit of sausage. No wonder French is the Language of Love. I hadnt seen you for two weeks. I was emotionally trapped. I was missing you and all these kind of things 5. Jamies excuses are almost as bad as his behavour They say people like Jamie Laing are born with a silver spoon in their mouths. So when Frankie heard what hed been saying about their relationship and what hed been up to with two girls at his house pardy, perhaps we could also say he was laying it on with a silver trowel. He denied he had said he felt trapped by his relationship with Frankie or at least that he meant what it sounded like. I hadnt seen you for two weeks. I was emotionally trapped. I was missing you and all these kind of things. Poor guy...Thank heavens then, he tried, that Frankie had turned up in Cannes when she did (albeit too late to have stopped him from sleeping with two other girls). Thank you for surprising me ! he blustered, sycophantically. It was the best surprise ever. Cos actually weirdly enough, I did miss you lots. Have you been well-behaved? she asked, knowing he hadnt This was weird because he had slept with someone else. Two girls in fact. Have you been well-behaved? she asked, knowing he hadnt. What do you mean well behaved? In what kind of sense? he fumbled, playing for time. There was a pardy in our flat but obviously nothing happened. Did anyone stay in your bed? Frankie persisted, again knowing they had. Yeah but I just wanted to sleep. Honestly I didnt do anything with anyone, I swear on my life. Me and Mytton were running away from people. His own protestations of innocence were transparent enough. But it was when Jamie claimed this about Alex Mytton that Frankie shouldve known for sure: he was lying. She's the stunning Australian model that doesn't look a day over thirty. But on Sunday, Megan Gale celebrated her 41st birthday. The brunette beauty's long-term partner, AFL player Shaun Hampson, couldn't be with her on the day, so instead he surprised her with a homemade cake on Monday. Scroll down for video Birthday girl: Megan Gale celebrated her belated 41st birthday on Monday with a special cake baked by her beau, AFL player Shaun Hampson 'While we didn't get to share my birthday together yesterday due to being in different states...' wrote Megan on Instagram. She continued: '...my amazing man gave me a great belated birthday homecoming and had baked me a red velvet cake from scratch!' The star finished: 'Don't think any man has done that for me before,' before adding the hashtag, '#hesakeeper.' 'My amazing man gave me a great belated birthday homecoming and had baked me a red velvet cake from scratch!' the brunette beauty wrote on Instagram Megan and Shaun, who is 12 years her junior, have been dating for five years and share one son together, two-year-old River. They previously shared that they named their son after the couple's parents. '... River Alan Thomas Hampson. Rivers is my Mum's maiden name, Alan after my Dad, Thomas for Shaun's Dad and the last name just like his Daddy's,' she wrote on Instagram. In love: Megan and Shaun, who is 12 years her junior, have been dating for five years and share one son together, two-year-old River While River is the apple of her eye, Megan has spoken about the possibility of welcoming a sibling for her cherubic tot. 'You do fall in love with them so much and all the different phases that they go through, and I love being pregnant too,' she told AAP. 'I love the idea of another one and perhaps giving him [River] a little play friend,' she concluded. Megan will make her return to TV in Australia's Next Top Model alongside Jennifer Hawkins, Alex Perry and guest judges Cheyenne Tozzi and the Stenmark twins on on the highly popular Fox 8 show, now in its tenth season. She's only 28 but she's already worried about ageing. On Monday, reality star Nicole 'Snooki' LaValle shared video clips on Snapchat of herself sitting in her plastic surgeon's office for a little tweaking with Botox. It's a year since Dr. Ratmin Kassir first pumped up her pout and the Jersey Shore felt confident enough to go back for more, according to Toofab.com. Scroll down for video Getting the point: On Monday, reality star Nicole 'Snooki' LaValle shared video clips on Snapchat of herself in her plastic surgeon's office for a little tweaking with Botox 'Today I'm getting needles in my face,' she dished in the first clip. 'Getting my first Botox in my forehead. And I'm doing a little plump in my lips, too.' Going into not-too-gory detail the 4ft8 celebrity posted updates showing each of the procedures as they happened. 'Here we go guys, Mommy!' she quipped as Dr Kassir touched up her forehead, which really didn't look like it needed any treatment. 'Here we go guys!': Dr. Ratmin Kassir injected Botox into her forehead, which really didn't look like it needed any treatment 'First botox is not bad at all. He put a vibrator on my forehead and then a needle. Still scary,' Snooki said. Then the Chile-born beauty also got her lips done. In a selfie she posted last August when she had her pout pumped up for the first time, Snooki said: 'I've always hated my thin lips and never thought I had the balls to get needles in my lip to perfect them but I did!' Perfecting her pout: It's the second time the mother-of-two has had filler in her lips She faced a backlash from fans but the star replied: 'I honestly don't care what people say about me because they don't know me. 'I always say I'm not living for them, I'm living for myself. People talk, that's just our nature. People are a**holes", so you just gotta deal with it.' Snooki and her husband Jionni LaValle share two children: Lorenzo, who will turn four this month, and Giovanna, who will be two in September. Taking a break: Chloe Ferry has told OK! magazine that she is stepping away from the surgeon's chair for a while She's known for her love of surgery. But Chloe Ferry has told OK! magazine that she is stepping away from the surgeon's chair for a while. The 21-year-old Geordie Shore star revealed the surgeries she's had so far- but added she is taking a break.. for now. Ive had my nose done, an eye brow lift and Ive had lip and cheek fillers and Botox. I feel much better about myself now compared to when I first walked into the Geordie Shore house. And admitting she may have more in the future, she says: For now I want to give it a bit of a rest. Addressing hot topic of the moment, co-star Marnie Simpson's Big Brother antics, she addressed rumours the CBB contestant's romance with Lewis Bloor is a showmance. They knew each other before going in and I always thought something might happen. Honest: Ive had my nose done, an eye brow lift and Ive had lip and cheek fillers and Botox. I feel much better about myself now compared to when I first walked into the Geordie Shore house 'They make a very good-looking couple. She wont have sex in the house, though, shed be too afraid to do that. And the reality star defended Marnie against claims she bullied Saira Khan, explaining: Marnie is not a bully whatsoever. 'Getting your boobs out is not being a bully. It's real: Addressing hot topic of the moment, co-star Marnie Simpson's Big Brother antics, Chloe addressed rumours the CBB contestant's romance with Lewis Bloor is a showmance 'I walk around Geordie Shore with my t*ts out all the time, thats not me being a bully, its just me being free! And she backs her co-star as a winner, because shes such a nice girl. Shell be fine with everyone, but the minute someone annoys her theyll know about it. Marnie doesnt hold back if someone has p***ed her off she can hold her own. He famously dated Kim Kardashian. But since Reggie Bush's tumultuous love affair with the reality star, which spanned three years, he has gone on to find happiness with Armenian dancer Lilit Arvagyan. And the 31-year-old running back' s wife of two years has swiftly become a celebrity of sorts on Instagram, posting both sweet snaps of her happy family life and racy selfies that even give Kim a run for her money. Scorching: Reggie Bush's wife, Lilit Arvagyan, has garnered 162K Instagram followers by posting both sweet family snaps and racy selfies that even give Kim a run for her money The gorgeous mother of two, who has drawn comparisons in the past with Kim, has a whopping 162,000 followers on Instagram. And it is no mystery as to how she got such a robust following as she has clearly mastered the art of sharing provocative photos online. The busty and curvaceous dancer populates her account with steamy bikini snaps interspersed with idyllic shots of her family life with the pro athlete. Adorable: The couple's daughter Briseis is only a few months older than Kim's daughter North Mouseketeer! Lilit celebrated her daughter's third birthday in May with a sweet snap of her wearing a Minnie Mouse hat 'Bad intentions': The gorgeous dancer is certainly not afraid to show some front Gym life: The duo have made fitness a priority and often take selfies at the gym together In one photo, Lilit scoots up against a pool hand rail while wearing a provocative and revealing swimsuit. She captioned the racy image: 'Just sometimes I'll take a sexy picture. Nothing is more motivating than seeing change in my own body.' 'For me it's very slow 2-3 pounds a month maximum. Today I'm my own motivation Monday. Play time is over back to the gym.' Kisses: The couple look to have found a great deal of happiness together Growing family: The husband and wife share two children together, daughter Briseis and son Uriah Nightlife: The doting mom and wife shared a snap of a night out with her famous footballer husband 'All I need': Reggie seen here cuddling his adorable daughter Briseis Meanwhile, Reggie and Kim dated on and off from 2007 to 2010, before he went on to marry his current wife Lilit, who does bare a resemblance to his famous ex and like Kim is also of Armenian decent. Bush confirmed Lilit was pregnant with their first child in October 2012, two months before Kim announced that she was pregnant with then boyfriend Kanye West. Speaking at the time of his happy announcement, Bush told Florida's Paul and Young Ron Morning Show. 'I have a little one on the way. We're pretty excited.' Curves ahead! The dancer certainly has a body to rival Kim's, seen here with a friend 'Perfect': Lilit appears to be basking in all the joys of motherhood The athlete began dating Lilit, a dancer, five years ago in 2011. Within a year they were expecting their first child and in May of 2013 they welcomed daughter Briseis. In July of the following year the couple tied the knot in a ceremony in San Diego. Reggie and Lilit welcomed their second child Uriah on their one year anniversary on July 12 2015. He's got a type: Reggie dated Kim off and on from 2007 to 2010, seen here in 2009 Having a bill for $1 million in unpaid taxes drop through one's letterbox must be a little stressful. So perhaps it is understandable Tori Spelling was looking a little worse for wear after being spotted out and about in Los Angeles on Monday. In fact it seems the Beverly Hills 90210 star is taking measures to ease the stress, as she was spotted leaving a Thai massage parlour in the upmarket Encino area. Scroll down for video Under s-tress: Tori Spelling sported a lifeless mane as she stepped out in LA Monday after it emerged she had been hit with a $1M tax bill And a rubdown was surely the order of the day, as the 43-year-old was looking rather worse for wear in a monochrome maxi dress, which she combined with a pair of black sandals. But it was her lank, lifeless pink hair that really caught they eye, its straw-like texture perhaps proving too much colouring can lead to damaged strands. She looked a world away from the mature beauty who impressed in a black and white minidress, as well as a glossy mane of flowing locks, as she headed out for dinner with husband Dean McDermott last week. It had seemed the financially troubled star was on an upward curve, with a proposal to re-marry her husband and ab appearance in Lifetime's reboot of her 1996 TV movie Mother, May I Sleep with Danger? In need of some release: She was no doubt feeling better after being pounded at a Thai massage parlour in the posh Encino area Lank: The self-styled actress' mane was looking greasy and lifeless from every angle Stunning: By contrast her mane was looking full of lustre as she headed out to dinner last Tuesday But it has been reported that the federal government has slapped her and Dean McDermott with a tax lien for a hefty $707, 487.30 in unpaid taxes. And the 43-year-old and her 49-year-old husband are likely have an even greater debt, as that shocking figure only accounts for unpaid taxes accrued in 2014. Earlier this month the couple had been hit with another tax lien, this time from the state of California. The lien, which was also for unpaid taxes from 2014, was set to cost the celebrity couple $259, 108.23. This must be some sort of Spelling mistake: No doubt Tori will have lots of explanations on how she ran up her whopping tax bill Seeing the world through tinted spectacles: She completed her look with a pair of shades Meanwhile, the combined tax liens are not the only fees the family-of-six are struggling with these days. Back in January American Express sued Tori for failing to make payments on her $37, 981.97 credit card bill. It was reported that the reality star had attempted to make a payment back in June of last year, for $1, 070, but it had bounced. The company is demanding that Tori pay the delinquent balance in full, including the accrued interest. And off she goes: Perhaps she had a pressing appointment with an accountant to attend Porsha Williams has been rushed to hospital after collapsing in a parking lot. The Real Housewives Of Atlanta star was 'gasping for air' before falling to the ground in a Atlanta shopping mall lot on Monday Fire and Rescue came to the scene after multiple witnesses dialed 911, TMZ reported. Fainted: Porsha Williams has been rushed to hospital after collapsing in a parking lot The 35-year-old was then taken to nearby Piedmont Hospital, and was said to be 'doing okay'. According to the site, sources claim she fainted due to not eating. The reality star is prone to fainting spells: in March of this year she suffered a 'medical emergency' aboard a flight. Reports at the time claimed she fainted in her seat while en route to Miami from Atlanta. 911: The Real Housewives Of Atlanta star (Pictured in December with castmates Cynthia Bailey and Kim Fields) was 'gasping for air' before falling to the ground in a Atlanta shopping mall lot on Monday Porsha was in first class when she began to feel woozy. Flight attendants put a call out for doctors on board, and three responded. The reality star, who was travelling alone at the time, came to with the help of a sugar pill from one of the doctors. She was met by paramedics upon arrival, who checked her condition and said she was fine, and were happy to see her on her way. Her sister Lauren told the TMZ that Porsha 'has a low blood sugar issue and has had fainting spells in the past'. Porsha is expected to return to season nine of RHOA when it returns in November; casting has yet to be officially announced with fans waiting to see if Nene Leakes is returning, and if Kim Fields has officially left They looked to have a tight-knit friendship while co-hosting I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here Now! earlier this year But Joel Creasey has confirmed he and Heather Maltman are no longer in contact. During an interview with New Idea, the 25-year-old comedian admitted: 'I haven't really heard from Heather'. Scroll down for video Out of touch: Joel Creasey has confirmed he and Heather Maltman are no longer in contact after they co-hosted I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here Now! earlier in the year Daily Mail Australia has contacted Heather for comment. The funnyman - who appeared on I'm A Celebrity as a contestant in 2014 - went on to reveal that it was unlikely the pair's spin-off show would return next year after receiving low ratings. 'I'm not sure,' Joel said, adding: 'I've been to Africa now two years in a row.' Separate ways: The 25-year-old comedian admitted 'I haven't really heard from Heather' The fall out between the show's two hosts comes months after the pair laughed off rumours they disliked one another. 'Were totally friends,' Joel told Confidential in April. He told the publication that while he is keen for a second season of the show, the ball is firmly in Heather's court, admitting: 'I dont know what her schedule is'. During the airing of the spin-off, the pair received a heap of social media backlash, with some fans labelling Joel and Heather's on-screen banter as 'forced' and 'cringeworthy. Putting it aside: It comes months after the pair laughed off rumours they disliked one another Last week Channel 10 announced the reality television series, which is filmed in South Africa, would be returning in 2017. 'My Darling Doctor [Chris Brown] and I are hanging to return to our luxurious jungle paradise to watch the poor celebrities battle it out with various predators there may be some animals there too,' Julia Morris told news.com.au. Chris added: 'I cant wait to hear those jungle drums calling us back there again in 2017.' Lindy Klim and her boyfriend Adam Ellis have been inseparable since debuting their romance earlier this year. And the handsome Brit also joined the 38-year-old Balinese beauty and her three children on their most recent holiday to Singapore. Showing off his tattoo collection as he posed shirtless alongside Lindy, the hunk made sure to hold his gorgeous girlfriend close as they lounged on a sunbed. Scroll down for video Holiday bliss! Lindy Klim shared an Instagram photo of herself posing alongside her tattooed beau Adam Ellis during their trip to Singapore 'Thanks for having us Singapore... We had a blast!' Lindy captioned the holiday snap. The brunette stunner has been sharing plenty of sun-soaked photos throughout the trip, although this is the first time Adam has been featured. For their poolside snuggle, Lindy flaunted her taut tummy in a black bikini, which she wore underneath an unbuttoned shirt. Family fun: Lindy's three children Stella, Frankie and Rocco were also on the trip She kept her hair tied up and slicked back as she accessorised with a headband and retro sunglasses. On Sunday, the mother-of-three shared a cute family photo of herself in bed with daughters Stella, 10, and Frankie, five, and son Rocco, eight. 'Robe life in Singapore,' the model captioned the image as her kids flashed their cheeky smiles. Making memories: The family's adventures also took them to the zoo and Universal Studios Last week, the family's adventures took them to Universal Studios as well as the zoo. Earlier this year, Lindy enjoyed a short trip to America with her new beau, shortly after she announced her split from Michael Klim. A spokesperson for the estranged couple said in February: 'It is with much respect for each other that Michael and Lindy Klim have agreed to formally separate, believing that this decision is best for their family. Whirlwind romance: Lindy and her English beau Adam debuted their romance earlier this year, shortly after the Balinese beauty announced her split from Michael Klim '(Their) children will always remain their highest priority, and their happiness will be Michael and Lindys primary focus. We ask that you respect their privacy at this time.' Speaking with Daily Mail Australia, the pretty model confessed she didn't predict falling back in love so soon after her recent split. '[It's] completely not what I expected, to fall back into another relationship, but he's so lovely,' she said cheerfully. 'It's about time I got on with my life.' He admitted to winning the heart of fiancee Sylvia Jeffreys by sending her love letters spritzed with his own signature cologne. But on Tuesday, Peter Stefanovic was reluctant to reveal the location of his upcoming Bucks Party during an appearance on the Fitzy & Wippa show. When asked by Ryan 'Fitzy' Fitzgerald where his Bucks Party would be, the 33-year-old danced around the question. Scroll down for video Where's he having it? Peter Stefanovic evaded questions about his upcoming Bucks Party during an appearance on Fitzy & Wippa on Tuesday 'We just got to keep the people guessing!' he laughed. The broadcast journalist continued: 'Sporting Bet came out with the odds, Thailand is coming in at 2-1 3-1 to Las Vegas in 3 or 4-1.' He finished: 'Yes odds have come out!' Read it: Peter is currently on the promotional trail for his new book, Hack in a Flak Jacket Speaking with Nova 96.9's Fitzy and Wippa earlier this month, Sylvia revealed she has already had to put a stop to some of her future brother-in-law Karl's wild bachelor party plans for his brother Peter. Sylvia explained: 'I think Karl is much more excited about the bucks which probably doesnt surprise you than he is about the wedding. He floated the idea of a week in Thailand for the bucks which I have already shut down.' The radio duo laughed and Michael 'Wippa' Wipfli quipped back: 'My god, He wouldnt come home alive'. Ryan 'Fitzy' Fitzgerald echoed the thoughts and exclaimed: 'A bucks week in Thailand!?' Hearing their shocked responses Sylvia was quick to say: 'I can't tell you how glad I am that you think that's outrageous too.' Still shocked about the week long party plans, Wippa added: 'It's ridiculous. I mean if it was a quiet group of guys maybe, but the Stefanovics i'm concerned about!' 'We just got to keep the people guessing!' The star didn't want to reveal the location of his Bucks Party Peter is currently on the promotional trail for his new book, Hack in a Flak Jacket. While appearing on The Kyle and Jackie O Show yesterday, Peter admitted that the love letter he sent to Sylvia was sprayed with his own cologne. 'I wrote her a letter, I did it old-school,' said the star. 'I actually sprayed it with a bit of cologne:' Peter Stefanovic spritzed a love letter with his own cologne to win over Sylvia Jeffreys He continued: 'It just said that I enjoyed working with her over Christmas, because we did the Today show over 2013.' It was at this point that Peter made the cringe-worthy confession about marking the letter with his signature scent. 'I actually sprayed it with a bit of cologne,' he chuckled as Kyle Sandilands groaned, before adding: 'I cheesed it up.' 'It just said that I enjoyed working with her over Christmas:' The first smelly letter expressed Peter's feelings about working with the blonde beauty on the Today show In June, Sylvia opened up to Show + Tell about the love letters Peter used to court her back in the early days of their relationship. 'It was just nice things, about having a nice time working together and wishing me well,' she said, referring to the content of the romantic messages. She added: 'There's something for a 33-year-old man to sit down and hand-write a letter and post it to you. It doesn't matter what's in that letter but that's a gesture in itself.' 'It doesn't matter what's in that letter but that's a gesture in itself:' Sylvia has previously expressed how much she appreciated Peter's romantic gesture The happy couple officially got engaged in June during a romantic trip to Europe. Sharing a picture to Instagram of the pair together, Peter wrote: Asked my missus to be my wife and she said yes.' 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. Asked my missus to be my wife and she said yes:' The pair got engaged in Europe back in June She jetted to Melbourne to spend some quality time with fellow Bachelor contestant Sarah MacKay over the weekend. But during the early hours of Tuesday, Heather Maltman was rushed to hospital after suffering from severe abdominal pain. The 29-year-old reality TV star shared an image of herself being loaded into an ambulance on social media. Scroll down for video Emergency: Heather Maltman was rushed to hospital during the early hours of Tuesday after suffering from severe abdominal pain Alongside the image, she explained: 'Welcome to Melbourne. Hope you enjoy your stay at the HOSPITAL!!!!! 'Woke up poor @ladysarahmackay and @t_morrie with pain in my abdomen so bad I thought I was giving birth to a... 'Turns out might be appendicitis. Woooooo #luckygirl and even in my state of ambulance needs at 4am... Still managed to be bad a**' Details: She explained on social media:'Woke up with pain in my abdomen so bad I thought I was giving birth to a...Turns out might be appendicitis' Daily Mail Australia has contacted Heather for comment. Despite being in pain, the media personality formed the 'rock on' hand symbol as she crunched over on the bed. She displayed a pained facial expression as she screwed her face tight. Her friend, Tessa Morrie, who was also with her at the time, commented on the social media post in a bid to make light of the situation. Helping hand: The media personality (L) was staying in Melbourne with fellow Bachelor contestant Sarah MacKay (R) on Monday when the incident occurred She joked: 'I know you nearly died and you were totally out of it and passed out - but paramedic guy was HOT.' Heather quickly replied: 'What?!?! I remember none of the events.' Many fans sent their well wishes to the up-and-coming actress on the post, with one writing: 'Oh myPlease get well soon xx.' Keira Maguire's colourful family history came to light on Monday when it was revealed the Bachelor contestant was raised in a polygamous cult fronted by her father Alistah Laishkochav. The 30-year-old was brought up in Bells Beach, Victoria amongst her father's nine wives and her 63 siblings. While some of Keira's siblings go by the surname Maguire, other share the last name Manson, including her half-siblings Shei, Sam, Mayena, Huana and Naomi Manson, who all grew up in a compound under the control of their cult-leader father Alista. Scroll down for video Keira's former cult family: The Bachelor's Keira Maguire grew up in a polygamous cult with 63 siblings led by Alistah Laishkochav Uncanny surname: Some of Keira's half-siblings share the last name Manson In a statement to Daily Mail Australia, Keira revealed she left the cult when she was young, but has since reunited with her family. 'My mother removed my family from that environment when I was five years old, over 25 years ago,' the reality TV contestant said. She added: 'I was brought up by my mother and grandmother in Brisbane in a loving, caring and compassionate household. 'I had a wonderful childhood and I am extremely grateful to both my mother and grandmother for the upbringing which they provided me and my siblings. Polygamist: Alistah moved to the Bells Beach compound in 1983 after attracting a group of women to his lifestyle 'Although I have since met and reunited with my family, I have never had a relationship with Alistah Laishkochav,' she concluded. Keira and her full-blood siblings Ty, Sean, Shath, Leilani and Jade moved to Queensland with their mother Michelle after the cult was dissolved in 1993. Alistah had moved to the Bells Beach compound in 1983 after attracting a group of women to his lifestyle while living in Sydney in the 1970s. Twisted: Alistah ruled his clan with a rod of iron and borrowed elements of Judaism, Mormonism, Islam and the beliefs of Pacific Islanders to justify having multiple wives New life: Keira revealed her mother removed her from the cult along with her siblings when she was five He ruled his clan with a rod of iron and borrowed elements of Judaism, Mormonism, Islam and the beliefs of Pacific Islanders to justify having multiple wives. The Australian reported the leader strongly believed a UFO would take the group from earth in 1988. Encouraged to chant every night, Laishkochav's were also led to believe all outsiders were 'evil' and that they could only be saved by God. Over the years, his brood grew so large that Laishkochav admitted to CBS-TV's Hard Copy that he received a staggering $250,000 per year in welfare payments. Convicted: Alistah was convicted of 20 child sex offences and sentenced to seven years and six months in jail in 2000 It's not suggested that Keira or her family are associated with the infamous Charles Manson or his family, or ever engaged in any wrongful activities whatsoever. However Laishkochav, a former policeman, who real name is Ian Lowe, was convicted of 20 child sex offences and one charge of reckless injury in 2000. He was sentenced to seven years and six months in jail and died years later. They are two of Brazil's most beautiful stars. And both Alessandra Ambrosio and Adriana Lima definitely did not disappoint at their latest gala together. The two 35-year-old models looked absolutely stunning as they attended the Brazil Foundation Ball in Rio de Janeiro on Monday night. Dynamic duo: Alessandra Ambrosio and Adriana Lima looked stunning as they attended the Brazil Foundation Ball in Rio de Janeiro on Monday night Both Victoria's Secret Angels brought they fashion A-games as they attended the event from the organisation that works to promote equality, social justice and economic opportunity for Brazilians. Alessandra showed off her toned torso as she wore a two-piece silver number featuring a see-through top. Both the top and bottoms were adorned with jewels and metallic lining as she teamed the look with matching shiny silver heels. Shining star: The 35-year-old model showed off her toned torso as she wore a two-piece silver number featuring a see-through top Looking good: Both the top and bottoms were adorned with jewels and metallic lining as she teamed the look with matching shiny silver heels Her highlighted brunette tresses were worn down into waves as she sported pink blush and lip for the occasion. Adriana looked just as glamourous as she sported a nude and black pattered halter gown. She wore her raven-coloured locks down over her shoulders as she wore evening make-up highlighted by smokey eye make-up and pink lip. Pretty in patterns: Adriana, 35, also looked glamourous in a patterned nude and black number Scintillating: She showed off some serious back in the sexy dress Gorgeous: She wore her raven-coloured tresses down for the occasion Beautiful: The Victoria's Secret Angel always looks prepared for a photo opportunity Spokesmodel: It was a busy night for Adriana as she was interviewed at the gala No doubt the dynamic duo are enjoying being back in their home country as they celebrate the Olympic Games. Earlier in the day the two stunners appeared on the Today Show to show viewers and hosts Billy Bush, Al Roker and Natalie Morales some local delicacies. Hosts with the most: The two stars appeared on the Today Show earlier that day to show viewers and hosts Billy Bush, Al Roker and Natalie Morales some local delicacies Cheers! Alessandra also made sure to suggest pairing the food with the country's national cocktail, a Caipirinha, made with cachaca, sugar and lime Podium-worthy pants: For her appearance, Adrina wore a pair of high-waisted emerald green flared pants Done in one: The 35-year-old made the look even more glamorous by wearing a black one-shouldered top with the look. She is seen here with hosts Al Roker, Hoda Kotb and Matt Lauer The modelling duo explained the tasting spread which included acaraje, a dish made from beans fried into ball and stuffed with shrimp, moqueca, which is a fish stew with coconut milk, and bolo prestigio, a chocolate and coconut cake. While backstage at the morning chat/news show, Alessandra and Adriana met opening ceremony hunk, Pita Taufatofua. Both the models made sure to pose up with the Tongan taekwondo star who got hearts racing when he lead the Tongan team oiled up and shirtless. Up close and personal: Someone Alessandra was excited to meet backstage at The Today Show was athlete and opening ceremony hunk, Pita Taufatofua 60 Minutes star Michael Usher has left Channel Nine after being poached by rival network Seven. He will appear in a newly formatted 'news special series' for Seven after 23 years at his old network. It is the latest in a string of woes for 60 Minutes which earlier this year saw presenter Tara Brown and several other crew members facing jail in Lebanon after a bungled attempt to recover an Australian woman's children from their father. Scroll Down For Video New role: Channel Seven has poached well regarded 60 Minutes journalist Michael Usher for a news special series Confirming the news on Tuesday, a network spokesman told Daily Mail Australia they wished Michael well in his new venture. 'I can confirm Michael Usher has left the network and Channel Nine wish him well,' the spokesman stated in an email to the Daily Mail Australia on Tuesday. Sevens Director of News and Public Affairs Craig McPherson celebrated the coup in a statement, confirming he will be joining its 'News and Public Affairs team'. 'We couldnt be more pleased to have Michael joining Australias number one news team,' Mr McPherson said. 'Widely regarded as one of the countrys foremost investigative journalists, his passion and experience will further strengthen our dedicated team. 'Michael will be instrumental in future news programming including presenting the Seven News Investigates series currently in production.' Beginnings: Michael started at the Nine Network in 1999, working as their Olympic Games reporter and covering the 2000 Sydney Games Michael has been working at Nine since 1999 when he joined their Olympics coverage in preparation for the 2000 Sydney Games. The father-of-three was then assigned to the Nine Network's US bureau as a foreign correspondent before being posted to their London office, covering Europe and the Middle East. During his time abroad, he covered 9/11 attacks, bombings in London and Madrid, the Iraq war and many more breaking news stories. In 2006, Michael returned to home to his native Australia and presented Nightline for two years, before joining 60 Minutes where he remained until August this year. The announcement comes after 60 Minutes involvement in the botched recovery of Sally Faulkner's two young children in Lebanon. Ms Faulkner (centre right) and the 60 Minutes crew, including Brown (centre left), were jailed after the bungled operation but were able to return to Australia in April after Nine reached a plea bargain to secure the release of its staff Ms Faulkner and the 60 Minutes crew, including journalist Tara Brown, were jailed after the bungled operation but were able to return to Australia in April after Nine reached a plea bargain to secure the release of its staff. It is understood that they were released after Nine reached a US$500,000 deal with the father. Channel Nine's news boss has since admitted that the network needs to reconsider the current strategies on big-money stories. Darren Wick said Channel Nine needs to take responsibility for its actions and analyse the situation to understand what went wrong. 'We can't sit here and think: "we didn't do anything wrong, we had a bit of bad luck". 'You make your own luck,' Mr Wick said, according to the Daily Telegraph. Bryce Dallas Howard vamped it up at the Hollywood premiere of Pete's Dragon outside El Capitan Theatre on Monday. The 35-year-old Golden Globe nominee - who styles herself - dressed her curvaceous 5ft7in figure in a green animal-print pencil dress and black stilettos. 'When you're not a sample size or if you don't have a direct relationship with a designer or if you don't have a lot of notice - those size 6 dresses aren't available,' Bryce lamented on E!'s Live From the Red Carpet in January. Scroll down for video Making them green with envy: Bryce Dallas Howard vamped it up at the Hollywood premiere of Pete's Dragon outside El Capitan Theatre on Monday 'I like having lots of options for a size 6 as, opposed to maybe one option.' The nepotistically-privileged redhead - whose father is Ron Howard - sported a cabernet pout and a sleek side-parted updo for the glamorous event. Howard was joined on the astroturf carpet by her castmates 11-year-old Oakes Fegley and 14-year-old Oona Laurence, who play Pete and Natalie in the family flick. Not seen Monday was the Jurassic World star's husband of a decade - Seth Gabel - with whom she has a son Theodore, 9, and a daughter Beatrice, 4. @brycedhoward has arrived at the World Premiere of #PetesDragon! A video posted by Disney's Pete's Dragon (@disneypetesdragon) on Aug 8, 2016 at 7:10pm PDT Styles herself: The 35-year-old Golden Globe nominee dressed her curvaceous 5ft7in figure in a green animal- print pencil dress and black stilettos Bryce lamented on E!'s Live From the Red Carpet in January: 'When you're not a sample size or if you don't have a direct relationship with a designer or if you don't have a lot of notice - those size 6 dresses aren't available. I like having lots of options for a size 6 as, opposed to maybe one option' Buys her own dresses: The nepotistically-privileged redhead - whose father is Ron Howard - sported a cabernet pout and a sleek side-parted updo for the glamorous event Cute! Howard was joined on the astroturf carpet by her castmates 11-year-old Oakes Fegley and 14-year-old Oona Laurence, who play Pete and Natalie in the family flick Oakes & Oona are here! #PetesDragon A photo posted by Disney's Pete's Dragon (@disneypetesdragon) on Aug 8, 2016 at 7:32pm PDT 'Chillin with my hunny': Not seen Monday was the Jurassic World star's husband of a decade - Seth Gabel - with whom she has a son Theodore, 9, and a daughter Beatrice, 4 In Pete's Dragon, the SAG Award winner plays a skeptical forest ranger called Grace Meacham, who discovers the woods-dwelling wild child. Robert Redford, Wes Bentley, and Karl Urban also appear in the 3D CGI-infused flick about a boy's bond with a dragon called Elliot. The Walt Disney movie - hitting US theaters Friday - is a remake of the cartoon-style original, which scored Oscar nominations for original song and score back in 1978. Also at El Capitan was the handsome Wes - who plays a lumber mill owner called Jack - rocking a burly beard with his shiny black suit. Doesn't believe in dragons: In Pete's Dragon, the SAG Award winner plays a skeptical forest ranger called Grace Meacham, who discovers the woods-dwelling wild child Shot in New Zealand: Robert Redford, Wes Bentley, and Karl Urban also appear in the 3D CGI-infused flick about a boy's bond with a dragon called Elliot Throwback: The Walt Disney movie - hitting US theaters Friday - is a remake of the cartoon-style original, which scored Oscar nominations for original song and score back in 1978 The SAG Award winner - who turns 38 next month - flashed a big smile after reuniting with his onscreen daughter Oona inside the theater. Comedian Patton Oswalt made his first public appearance since the tragic April 21 death of his wife Michelle McNamara and mother of his seven-year-old daughter Alice. The 47-year-old Emmy nominee - who was still wearing his wedding band - is completing the late true-crime writer's unfinished book on The Golden State Killer. Grammy winner Josh Gad - who last starred in The Angry Birds Movie - sported stubble and a pork-pie hat for the festivities. For a role? Also at El Capitan was the handsome Wes - who plays a lumber mill owner called Jack - rocking a burly beard with his shiny black suit Grinning duo: The SAG Award winner - who turns 38 next month - flashed a big smile after reuniting with his onscreen daughter Oona inside the theater Mourning: Comedian Patton Oswalt made his first public appearance since the tragic April 21 death of his wife Michelle McNamara and mother of his seven-year-old daughter Alice Stay strong! The 47-year-old Emmy nominee - who was still wearing his wedding band - is completing the late true-crime writer's unfinished book on The Golden State Killer Angel from Hell's Constance Marie donned white skinny jeans, while The Celebrity Apprentice's Brooke Burke-Charvet sported a striped two-piece selected by stylist Isabelle Banham. Extra host Mario Lopez escorted his five-year-old daughter Gia, while bassist Pete Wentz posed with his seven-year-old son Bronx and his pal. Speaking of Saved by the Bell, Cooking Channel star Tiffani Thiessen brought along her six-year-old daughter Harper. Old friend of Bryce's! Grammy winner Josh Gad - who last starred in The Angry Birds Movie - sported stubble and a pork-pie hat for the festivities Fierce after 40! Angel from Hell's Constance Marie donned white skinny jeans, while The Celebrity Apprentice's Brooke Burke-Charvet sported a striped two-piece Off to the #petesdragonpremiere so excited! A photo posted by Brooke Burke-Charvet (@brookeburke) on Aug 8, 2016 at 4:19pm PDT omg! This is gonna be so fun!!! #DisneysPetesDragon premiere!! My little is #RedCarpet Ready!!!! A photo posted by Constance Marie (@goconstance) on Aug 8, 2016 at 6:44pm PDT The former castmates - formerly known as A.C. Slater and Kelly Kapowski - took a selfie together after taking their seat with their kids. 'Gia & I loved seeing @tiffanithiessen & her adorable little mini-me Harper!' the 42-year-old Daytime Emmy winner captioned his Instagram. My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 star Joey Fatone and his wife Kelly Baldwin - posing with six-year-old daughter Kloey - will celebrate their 12th wedding anniversary next month. Fathers-of-two! Extra host Mario Lopez escorted his five-year-old daughter Gia, while bassist Pete Wentz posed with his seven-year-old son Bronx and his pal Mini-me! Speaking of Saved by the Bell, Cooking Channel star Tiffani Thiessen brought along her six-year-old daughter Harper Reunited! The former castmates - formerly known as A.C. Slater and Kelly Kapowski - took a selfie together after taking their seat with their kids *NSYNC! My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 star Joey Fatone and his wife Kelly Baldwin - posing with six-year-old daughter Kloey - will celebrate their 12th wedding anniversary next month On my way to see #PetesDragon premiere I know I am 12 yrs old ! Joey Fatone (@realjoeyfatone) August 9, 2016 Designer Rachel Roy donned floral cropped trousers alongside her two daughters - Tallulah, 8, and Ava, 16 - with ex-husband Damon Dash. Last Man Standing's Joely Fisher and her husband of nearly 20 years - cinematographer Christopher Duddy - posed with their daughters True, 10, Olivia, 7, and Skylar, 15. Longmire's Lou Diamond Phillips suited up with his third wife Yvonne and their eight-year-old daughter Indigo. Becky? Designer Rachel Roy donned floral cropped trousers alongside her two daughters - Tallulah, 8, and Ava, 16 - with ex-husband Damon Dash Substantial cleavage: Last Man Standing's Joely Fisher and her husband of nearly 20 years - DP Christopher Duddy - posed with their daughters True, 10, Olivia, 7, and Skylar, 15 "Pete's Dragon" at the El Capitan Great Summer Flick...We love ELLIOT #summer #dragons #worldpremiere #disney A photo posted by Joely Fisher (@msjoelyfisher) on Aug 8, 2016 at 9:24pm PDT Hot air balloon dress: Longmire's Lou Diamond Phillips suited up with his third wife Yvonne and their eight-year-old daughter Indigo After insulting his fellow contestants, threatening to murder people and getting so drunk he appeared to soil his swimming shorts, the protein lover was removed from the resort by host Chris Harrison. Furious with the decision, Chad Johnson said 'F*** you Chris Harrison. Come at me,' before storming off up the road. Asked by Chris where he was going, he said: 'I dont know. I guess to Tijuana or something. On a scale of one to f*** off, f*** off.' Drama: After insulting his fellow contestants, threatening to murder people and getting so drunk he appeared to soil his swimming shorts, the protein lover was removed from the resort After finally finding his way into a minivan, Chad lamented: 'I cant ever be The Bachelor, I cant ever do anything. What am I going to do after this?' Eating slices of meat in the back of the car, he added: 'If you come at me, like 25 people, Im going to say some things that are slightly offensive, slightly funny. What do you expect? Its fun. 'They were all vibing me until they realized they were not supposed to be vibing me because Im bad. 'They can all go f*** themselves now because now I know not one girl was willing to stand up and be like "I get it. Please let him stay."' Standing his ground: Furious with the decision, Chad said 'F*** you Chris Harrison. Come at me,' before storming off up the road; Host Chris Harrison pictured Shamelessly pouring himself a large drink in the back of the vehicle and claiming the girls had initially been 'vibing' his 'meat tastes,' he said: 'I shouldnt have drank that first night. Drinking alcohol f***ed me. D*** it. Do you know how many people Ive got to kill?' After last weeks love affair gone wrong with Chad, Lace turned her attentions back to Grant but expressed concern that her brief dalliance with the meat loving bad boy might have jeopardized her chances. Keeping it real: After last weeks love affair gone wrong with Chad, Lace turned her attentions back to Grant She told the cameras: 'I feel like the whole Chad thing has ruined my connection with Grant. I had a mini connection with Grant and then Hurricane Chad came out, so Grant is being super distant right now. I think the Chad thing got to him. He doesnt know how to act with me.' Fireman Grant, however, poured water on Laces flames of worry and reassured her: 'Last night never happened. Thats how Im looking at it. I dont want you to think that I dont want to get to know you, because I do.' Calming her fears: Fireman Grant, however, poured water on Laces flames of worry and reassured her: Last night never happened' Even Laces confession that her fiery experience with Chad left her with 'bruises all over the place' didnt put Grant off and the pair shared a passionate kiss on the beach which moved to the bedroom. Lace covered the night cam with a blanket, but microphones picked up some contented noises and her telling her new fling: 'You have to get on top.' 'At least we covered the camera,' she said, not realizing that the blanket was no longer in place. 'Can you imagine if they show' she said, before gasping and pointing at the lens pointing in their direction. Oops: 'At least we covered the camera,' Lace said, not realizing that the blanket was no longer in place. 'Can you imagine if they show' she said, before gasping Leah, meanwhile, entered Paradise disappointed that Chad was no longer there and soon turned her attentions to Nick. After spending the day together at a Mexican festival, she said: 'Nick is very hot. He looked good. Id wash my laundry on those abs. Im really attracted to that lumberjack look.' The pair shared a kiss on the beach and Leah confessed she was 'smitten' but moments later Nick received a date card and invited single mother Amanda out. Focused: Leah, meanwhile, entered Paradise disappointed that Chad was no longer there and soon turned her attentions to Nick With a crestfallen Leah back at the resort, Nick and Amanda enjoyed a dinner date together and then locked lips in front of a fire on the sand. 'This is the best first date Ive ever been on,' Amanda declared. With the rose ceremony looming and two women set to lose their place in Paradise, Sarah turned her attentions to Vinny and Carly had her first kiss with Evan. Steamy moment: Nick and Amanda enjoyed a dinner date together and then locked lips in front of a fire on the sand But while Evan claimed it was all 'butterflies and explosions,' Carly branded the smooch 'terrible.' I dont understand how that man has two children, she said. 'He cant even get it together for a really good kiss.' Before the ceremony, Sarah and Izzy both fought for Vinnys attention, while he confused matters by kissing them both. Kisses: Before the ceremony, Sarah and Izzy both fought for Vinnys attention; Vinny pictured with Sarah Second makeup session: He confused matters by kissing them both; Vinny pictured with Izzy Nick told Leah he was picking Amanda, causing Leah to immediately move in on Daniel. She told the muscly Canadian: 'I have a lot of layers.' 'Like an onion,' he agreed, 'Are you going to make me cry at all?' Decision making time: Nick told Leah he was picking Amanda, causing Leah to immediately move in on Daniel; Daniel pictured Daniel, however, kept his options open and chatted to Sarah and made it abundantly clear that he was enjoying having the power of handing out a rose. 'The big dog here gets to decide who he wants and I liked talking with Sarah more,' he said. 'The thing is, I have standards and Im not going to drop down to the pigeon level, but if I was just going to bang someone tonight it would be one of the twins.' Surprise: Daniel, however, kept his options open and chatted to Sarah and made it abundantly clear that he was enjoying having the power of handing out a rose While Grant handed his rose to Lace, Evan picked Carly and Nick chose Amanda over Leah. Jared gave his rose to Emily, which automatically saved her twin sister Haley, Vinny opted for Izzy and Daniel chose Sarah over Leah meaning Leah and Jubilee were sent home. Jubilee, who had hoped to receive Jareds rose, said: 'Im more disappointed that I would ever go for someone that would be so interested in identical twins who he probably cant tell apart over me.' A sobbing Leah cried: 'What a f***ing joke. Why did I do this? I just feel like a fool again.' Disappointment: Jubilee, who had hoped to receive Jareds rose, said: 'Im more disappointed that I would ever go for someone that would be so interested in identical twins who he probably cant tell apart over me.' Sad: A sobbing Leah cried: 'What a f***ing joke. Why did I do this? I just feel like a fool again' Just as Nick, who has been the Bachelorette runner-up twice, thought he might finally be lucky in love with Amanda, Josh arrived as a new contestant in Paradise and set his sights on the mother-of-two. Josh, who beat Nick to the heart of Andi Dorfman on The Bachelorette before splitting with her last year, told Chris Harrison: 'I want to find a wife more than anything. I want to find somebody to spend the rest of my life with and I think this is a good opportunity. Its worked before so I believe in the process. 'Having a public break up was very tough but it was a great learning experience. Im more than ready to fall in love again. Thats for sure.' It started with a kiss: Josh arrived as a new contestant in Paradise and set his sights on the Amanda, a mother-of-two Josh, who said he was not afraid to date the same woman as Nick again, wasted no time in asking Amanda out and the pair spend a romantic day on a boat together. When asked about his break up with Andi and her subsequent tell-all book, he said: We had very different values and were just very different in a lot of ways. Confident: Josh, who said he was not afraid to date the same woman as Nick again, wasted no time in asking Amanda out and the pair spend a romantic day on a boat together 'She had some not very kind things to say. Its very unfortunate that she would depict me in such a false way. Its like how am I supposed to comment on these excerpts that people are sending me to a fictional story?' Amanda, for one, did not appear fazed by Andis claims and locked lips with Josh while Nick paced the beach alone back at the resort. 'For the second time I look pathetic and I wonder about Joshs intentions,' said. Ready to find love: Amanda, for one, did not appear fazed by Andis claims Josh told the camera: 'I know that Nick wants Amanda but, honestly, I dont care.' When Josh returned from his date with Amanda, he did not seem concerned about rubbing it in Nicks face, while his love rival appeared hurt that he hadnt spoken to him about his intentions first. 'You always want to bring some kind of drama to the situation and thats cool,' Josh told Nick. Can't keep their hands off each other: Amanda and Josh locked lips back at the resort after their date, which was also filled with smooches 'I dont hold grudges, I dont do anything like that. Im in it for the right reasons trying to find love, trying to find somebody and we had an incredible time today just so you know.' Nick said: 'I dont care. Ive never seen someone so unapologetic for being an a** for no reason.' To the point: 'You always want to bring some kind of drama to the situation and thats cool,' Josh told Nick But after watching Josh kiss Amanda in front of his face, Nick admitted: 'Amanda was the only woman I was romantically interested in so, for the second time, Josh could end my time here.' While tensions were simmering between Josh and Nick, Evan and Carly also had a fiery evening as they spent a date setting a world record for the longest habanero pepper kiss. Devastated: After watching Josh kiss Amanda in front of his face, Nick admitted: 'Amanda was the only woman I was romantically interested in' Not looking forward to it: Evan and Carly also had a fiery evening as they spent a date setting a world record for the longest habanero pepper kiss With an eager crowd watching, the pair ate one pepper each before locking lips for one minute and 40 seconds. Carly immediately rushed to the bathroom to be sick following their hot smooch. 'Just to set the record straight I threw up not just from the pepper,' she said. Bachelor in Paradise continues on Tuesday. Mid-kiss: With an eager crowd watching, the pair ate one pepper each before locking lips for one minute and 40 seconds He is not the sort of person one wants to receive a death threat from. But gangster rapper 50 Cent was only playing around when he told Power creator Courtney Kemp Agboh he was going to kill her for supposedly including a shot of his manhood on the show. The 41-year-old New Yorker, who plays Kanan in the crime drama, took her to task on his Instagram page, partially thanks to the creative use of an eggplant icon. Get Courtney or die trying: 50 Cent playfully threatened Power creator Kemp Agboh for including a shot of his manhood on the show (seen together in June) The raging In Da Club rapper said: 'Man I just saw episode 4, of POWER... Courtney I'm a kill you, this is not funny. 'I think I just saw my (eggplant icon) in a scene. What the f*** Courtney call my phone NOW!!!' Fiddy, real name Curtis Jackson, certainly caused quite the stir with the revelation, particularly among his rabid female fanbase. One fan, MissquelabI, said: 'I was gonna rewind it but I was watching it with my man.' 'I just saw my eggplant': The gangster rapper playfully used an icon to signal his outrage No quarter: The unapologetic star caused quite the stir among his rabid female fanbase with his declaration Another to lather the P.I.M.P favourite's ego was Atalldrynk, who told him, 'We all loved it. 1/2 of American is salacious, so you go. Nice a** too.' Crime drama series Power airs on the premium cable Starz channel, and is now in its third season. It follows the antics of a New York City nightclub owner, who is also a major player in one of the Big Apple's biggest illegal drug networks While it was created by Courtney, Fiddy serves as both one of the stars and as the producer. They're hard at work battling through the trials and tribulations of another dramatic series of TOWIE. And some of the female cast-members gave their social media followers a Monday treat as they stripped off in racy behind-the-scenes snaps from a day of filming. Appearing to have shot scenes for a girly slumber party, Kate Wright, 25, Danielle Armstrong, 28, and Georgia Kousoulou, 25, showcased their impressive cleavages in hot pink lingerie. Scroll down for video Pink to make the boys wink: TOWIE's Kate Wright and Danielle Armstrong stripped off in racy behind-the-scenes snaps from Monday's filming Covering up in matching silk dressing gowns, the trio looked as though they were having an absolute ball as they worked their magic in front of their camera phones. Georgia simply captioned one of the shots: 'On Mondays we wear pink.' The girls were also joined by TOWIE new girl Amber Dowding, 23, who stripped off to reveal her toned and tanned bikini body in another behind-the-scenes shot from their day of filming. Displaying her trim curves, the hairdresser slipped into a floral bandeau bikini as she snapped a selfie in front of the mirror. Pretty in pink: Appearing to have shot scenes for a girly slumber party, Kate, 25, and Danielle , 28, were joined by Georgia Kousoulou, 25, as they showcased their impressive cleavages Making an impact: The girls were also joined by TOWIE new girl Amber Dowding, 23, who stripped off to reveal her toned and tanned bikini body in another behind-the-scenes shot Amber, who is dating TOWIE co-star Chris Clark, cheekily captioned the shot: 'Happy Monday.' Not wanting to be left out from the selfie action, Megan McKenna, 23, delighted her 1.3 million Instagram followers by posting a bathroom snap in a plunging white sheer negligee. Posing with her brunette locks swept over her shoulder, the former Celebrity Big Brother star captioned the snap: 'That bathroom selfie..' Angelic: Not wanting to be left out from the selfie action, Megan McKenna, 23, delighted her 1.3 million Instagram followers by posting a bathroom snap in a plunging sheer negligee Megan is happily loved-up with TOWIE co-star Pete Wicks, 26, while Danielle is in a long-term relationship with cast member James Lock, 29, and Georgia's boyfriend is Tommy Mallet, 24. Kate is newly-single after announcing her split from TOWIE heartthrob Dan Edgar, 26, during last month's The Only Way Is Mallorca summer spin-off. The girls are soon set to be joined by a couple of new faces, with Love Island winners Nathan Massey and Cara De La Hoyde set to make a guest appearance on Sunday night's episode of TOWIE. Girls' day: Covering up in matching silk dressing gowns, the group looked as though they were having an absolute ball as they worked their magic in front of their camera phones Here comes trouble! The girls are soon set to be joined by Love Island winners Nathan Massey and Cara De La Hoyde, who will make a guest appearance on Sunday night's episode of TOWIE The loved-up pair were pictured joining close pals and The Only Way Is Essex regulars Tommy and Georgia for a fun-filled double date as they shot scenes on Monday. Nathan got to know Tommy when the pair worked together, with Nathan as Tommy's apprentice at a carpentry company several years ago. The boys have since stayed in touch and remained close friends, so much so that Nathan is currently looking to move into flats in the same block as Tommy and Georgia. The couple's special appearance will air on Sunday at 10pm on ITVBe. Sporty: Danielle and Georgia were seen filming scenes for the ITVBe show in Essex last week Working it: Boutique owner Danielle looked great as she slipped her toned curves into skintight jeans, a black motif vest and a silver bomber jacket for a low-key look That's what friends are for: Danielle, 28, and Georgia, 25, have grown close after appearing in TOWIE together for the past few years She split with former Bachelor boyfriend Blake Garvey in April after 18 months together. And Louise Pillidge appears to be happily moving on with her life as she stepped out on Thursday for the first time since relocating to the Gold Coast. The 28-year-old cut a stylish figure dressed in an on-trend corporate outfit and showed off her new brunette locks, another recent change since the breakup. Scroll down for video Moving forward: Louise Pillidge appears to be happily moving on with her life following her split with former Bachelor Blake Garvey as she stepped out on Thursday in a chic outfit, seen for the first time since relocating to the Gold Coast The former reality television star wore a white blouse that she wore tucked into her high-waisted trousers, which emphasised her figure. Adding some height to her look, she donned a pair of patent black stiletto pumps and strolled through the shopping centre with ease. Louise wore her now brunette locks styled into a side part and loosely curled through the lengths with a section tucked behind her ear. Changed woman: The 28-year-old cut a stylish figure dressed in an on-trend corporate outfit and showed off her new brunette locks, another recent change since the break-up Making friends: Louise popped into a local cafe during the outing and enjoyed a lively chat with another woman as she waited at a table The lifestyle blogger accessorised her look with a thin leather necklace she wore tied in a knot that matched her quilted black handbag. She added to her look with a small pair of sparkling earrings and a fresh glowing make-up look paired with a simple pink pout. Louise popped into a local cafe during the outing and enjoyed a lively chat with another woman as she waited at a table. Enjoying life: Louise wore her now brunette locks styled into a side part and loosely curled through the lengths with a section tucked behind her ear Sophisticated: The former reality television star wore a white blouse that she wore tucked into high-waisted trousers, which emphasised her figure The former Bachelor contestant couldn't wipe the smile off her face as she made her away around her new suburb and looked to be in high spirits. Louise strolled through the shopping centre with a newspaper in hand and looked content on her own as she moves on with her single life. In April, Blake and Louise called off their 18-month romance - but caused controversy yet again by posing for an awkward 'break-up' photo shoot in New Idea. Exploring: The former Bachelor contestant couldn't wipe the smile off her face as she made her away around the shops in teetering high heels and clutching a newspaper Fashionable favourite: The lifestyle blogger accessorised her look with a thin leather necklace she wore tied in a knot that matched her quilted black handbag Going solo: Louise strolled through the shopping centre and looked content on her own as she moves on with her single life The reality couple said in a tell-all interview with the magazine they'd been 'walking on eggshells' and had undergone three months of couples' counselling. The pair also cited constant media scrutiny as one of the reasons for their split, not being able to move forward after the controversy surrounding the finale of Blake's season of the hit dating series. In the months since their breakup she has spent plenty of time with her parents at their home in New South Wales' Jindabyne in the Snowy Mountains region. Former Bachelor star Blake has recently deleted all of his social media accounts, but Louise has been happily posting about her new life. New home: In the months since their break-up she has spent plenty of time with her parents at their home in New South Wales' Jindabyne in the Snowy Mountains region Kate Waterhouse and her husband Luke Ricketson have confirmed the arrival of their second daughter Grace Gabriel. Former professional rugby player Luke announced the happy news in a gushing Instagram post on Tuesday as he uploaded a first glimpse of his and Kate's little bundle of joy. 'Our new little princess Grace Gabriel', wrote the doting father in the caption before adding a love heart emoji and tagging his wife @katewaterhouse7. Baby joy! Kate Waterhouse and her husband Luke Ricketson have confirmed the arrival of their second daughter Grace Gabriel A slew of celebrities showered the Ricketson-Waterhouse brood with well-wishes, including blogger Nadia Fairfax, former Bachelor winner Anna Heinrich and TV personality Larry Emdur. Hours later, Kate uploaded another glimpse of the newborn tot, captioned with: 'Our little angel Grace Gabriel Ricketson arrived on 8.8.16. Very blessed and so in love.' She also took to Instagram two days ago to share a photo of herself in her last days of pregnancy, with her eldest child, two-year-old Sophia, scooped up in her arms. 'Our new little princess Grace Gabriel': Former professional rugby player Luke announced the happy news in a gushing Instagram post on Tuesday Her little angel! Hours later, Kate uploaded another glimpse of the newborn tot, captioned with: 'Our little angel Grace Gabriel Ricketson arrived on 8.8.16. Very blessed and so in love' 'Ready to meet my little sister #babybump #sisters #SophiaEdie', she wrote in the caption, implying that the birth of her second child was imminent. The exciting news comes just a week after Kate and Luke sold their swanky investment property in Sydney's suburb of Randwick. The couple had placed the property on the market in late July for a whopping $1.5million, 13 years after purchasing the location for $940,000. According to Domain, Kate and Luke have been searching for a new family home in Mosman as an upgrade from their current Balmoral Beach apartment. 'Ready to meet my little sister': While Kate, who is no doubt recovering from the birth, has not yet updated her fan on the birth via social media, she did take to Instagram two days ago with a photo of herself holding her two-year-old daughter Sophia Moving mansions: The exciting news comes just a week after Kate and Luke sold their swanky investment property in Sydney's suburb of Randwick Growing her brood: Kate gave birth to her first child around two years after her wedding to Luke Kate gave birth to her first child around two years after her wedding to Luke. Speaking to Daily Mail Australia about her her motherhood experiences, the glamorous brunette said: '[Sophia's] growing up, she's crawling everywhere, she's keeping me very busy, that's for sure.' She dated the former rugby league player for five years before they tied the knot in an intimate ceremony in Italy. She revealed a jaw-dropping amount of cleavage two months ago at the 2016 Pinky Promise Gala. And casino heiress Francesca Packer, 21, wasn't afraid to put another pair of assets on display as she sauntered through Sydney's affluent suburb of Double Bay in skin-tight black jeans on Tuesday. The niece of James Packer, who earlier in the day attended a meeting with her PR manager Roxy Jacenko, added height to her shapely legs with a pair of nude platform heels. Leggy lady! Francesca Packer, 21, wasn't afraid to put another her shapely legs on display as she sauntered through Sydney's affluent suburb of Double Bay in skin-tight black jeans on Tuesday She also layered up from the winter chill in a soft pink blazer and striped scarf, while shielding her eyes from onlookers with a pair of over-sized, square-framed sunglasses. Her look was complete with a set of red nails, a designer handbag and a pair of pearl stud earrings. It comes after Francesca reportedly purchased a high-rise apartment in Sydney's harbour-side suburb of Elizabeth Bay. Under cover heiress: She also layered up from the winter chill in a soft pink blazer and striped scarf, while shielding her eyes from onlookers with a pair of over-sized, square-framed sunglasses She's not shy! She revealed a jaw-dropping amount of cleavage two months ago at the 2016 Pinky Promise Gala According to The Daily Telegraph, the heiress secured a two-bedroom space in the Encore building on Elizabeth Bay Road, paying $2.1 million in an off-market purchase. The publication reports the apartment was sold by the Odillo Maher family, and needless to say, the daughter of Gretel Packer and Nicholas Barham will be quite comfortable with her new living arrangements. The two-storey luxury apartment has two spacious bedrooms, as well as two bathrooms. Swanky abode: It comes after Francesca reportedly purchased a high-rise apartment in Sydney's harbour-side suburb of Elizabeth Bay The master bedroom features deluxe ensuite facilities, while a study zone and internal laundry are thrown into the mix. The Encore building itself also flaunts an array of extra conveniences, including a pool, spa and gym for tenants to enjoy. According to realestate.com.au, the apartment was previously sold in 2012 for $1.625 million. The paedophile at the head of the polygamous cult where The Bachelor star Keira Maguire was raised boasted about his ability to satisfy five women every night. Chilling footage taken in 1992 shows Alistah Laishkochav comparing himself to King Solomon and insisting he was 'not greedy' for having nine wives. The self-styled messiah, who was jailed for sexually assaulting four young girls between 1987 and 1991, encouraged other men to adopt his depraved lifestyle. Scroll down for video Depraved: Alistah Laishkochav (pictured), who was at the head of the polygamous cult where Bachelor star Keira Maguire was raised, boasted about his ability to satisfy five women a night Speaking from his Byron Bay compound in NSW, Laishkochav, who fathered 64 children, including Keira, told A Current Affair: 'King Solomon had so many wives. 'I'm not that greedy, surely. He had 70 wives and 500 concubines. When it comes to women. I'm selfish. 'I don't think I am more special than any other man and I believe any man can do what I do and satisfy four to five women a night.' Cult: Laishkochav (centre) was the leader of a polygamous cult and he had 64 children with nine wives Dark past: Bachelor star Keira Maguire (pictured) confirmed that she grew up in a religious cult He revealed that he often slept with four of his wives in one night, but never together so that each wife would be satisfied twice or three times a week. When asked about whether his nine wives ever bullied him, Laishkochav - who passed away in 2012 - said: 'Yes'. The cult leader's wives, including Keira's mother Michelle, were also interviewed for the 1992 program and gave an insight into why they decided to live in the commune. Michelle, who stayed with the 's easide sect' for more than a decade, justified her decision to share her husband with eight other women. 'Can you love more than one child?' she said in the historic footage. 'Do you just love the one? Or even, say, three or two, no, you love them all.' Explanation: Keira's mother Michelle (pictured), who stayed with the 'seaside sect' for more than a decade, justified her decision to share her husband with eight other women Justification: Michelle (far right) revealed that she felt secure with Laishkochav because she was not constantly worrying about who her husband was cheating with Escape: Michelle fled the cult and took her children with her when Keira was five-years-old She revealed that she felt secure with Laishkochav because she was not constantly worrying about who her husband was cheating with - it was all out in the open. 'I'd don't have the fear of sitting at home wondering whether my husband is somewhere shopping for another woman,' she said. Michelle gave birth to Keira at the first commune in Bells Beach, Victoria, before moving to the hippie town of Byron Bay with the group. They stayed until Kiera was five-years-old at which point Michelle decided to remove her family from the sect. 'Once the ego sets in, they think they can do it anything,' she said in the 1992 clip. Paedophile: The former policeman, whose real name was Ian Lowe, controlled the group from his Bells Beach compound in Victoria Twisted: The cult leader (circled) was also convicted of throwing a plank of wood at the head of one of the children, pictured is the group in the 1980s Life at the compound was so strict, no one dared question the strange beliefs and instructions of the self-styled guru who was dubbed the 'controller' by his wives. The polygamist is understood to have slept with all nine of his de facto wives in one bedroom, while his children had to share with as many as 15 others. Over the years, his brood grew so large that Laishkochav admitted to CBS-TV's 'Hard Copy' that he received a staggering $250,000 per year in welfare payments. He ruled his clan with a rod of iron and borrowed elements of Judaism, Mormonism, Islam and the beliefs of Pacific Islanders to justify having multiple wives. Cult leader: Bachelor star Keira Maguire's father Alistah Laishkochav (pictured) was jailed for 20 child sex offences and had 64 children with nine wives Keira's former cult family: The reality TV contestant's family consisted of her father Alistah Laishkochav's nine wives and their 64 children The Australian reported the leader strongly believed a UFO would take the group from earth in 1988. Encouraged to chant every night, Laishkochav's were also led to believe all outsiders were 'evil' and that they could only be saved by God. The former policeman, whose real name is Ian Lowe, was jailed for more than seven years in 2000 after being found guilty of 20 sexual offences against four young girls. He was found guilty of sexually penetrating a child under 10 as well as three counts of attempted penetration of a child and 16 counts of indecent assault. The despot abused the girls, who were aged between seven and 11, over a four-year period from 1987 to 1991. Keira would have only been three-years-old at the time. Harem: Laishkochav had nine wives and slept with all of them in one bedroom Communal living: He borrowed aspects from a number of different religions and gave his children Hawaiian names Hippie lifestyle: Many women joined the group after meeting Laishkochav in the 1970s During his trial, one of the victims told the court she was aged between seven and nine when Laishkochav molested her 'every other day'. She also revealed how Laishkochav would threaten her with violence to ensure she stayed silent about the sexual abuse. The girl said Laishkochav told her: 'God would punish me and he would hurt me', according to The Age. An eight-year-old girl also revealed how Laishkochav would kiss her and tell her she would eventually become his wife, the Australian reported. Another victim told the trial Laishkochav would slap his children and tell them they had the devil in them. Convicted: In 2000 he was jailed for seven years and six months after being convicted of 20 child sex offences and one charge of reckless injury Control: He had 64 children and they would sleep in a room with as many as 15 others Bizarre: While living in Sydney in the 1970s he began attracting a group of mainly young females to his communal lifestyle Revelations: A Current Affair expose is set to reveal the secrets of the cult on Tuesday Communal living: The cult leader can be seen playing guitar in video footage The cult leader, whose real name was Ian Lowe, was also convicted of throwing a plank of wood at the head of one of the children. Keira, 29, told Daily Mail Australia that she has never had a relationship with Laishkochav, and fled the cult when she was just five-years-old with her mother and some of her siblings. 'My mother removed my family from that environment when I was five years old, over 25 years ago,' she said. 'I was brought up by my mother and grandmother in Brisbane in a loving, caring and compassionate household. 'I am extremely grateful to both my mother and grandmother': Keira told Daily Mail Australia she's thankful to her nan (pictured) for her upbringing after leaving the cult Upbringing: The former policeman exerted his strict control over the group - which Keira (pictured) was a part of until the age of five - from his Bells Beach compound in Victoria. 'I had a wonderful childhood and I am extremely grateful to both my mother and grandmother for the upbringing which they provided me and my siblings. 'Although I have since met and reunited with my family, I have never had a relationship with Alistah Laishkochav.' She concluded: ' Alistah Laishkochav is not relevant to who I am nor does he define me.' As reported in Woman's Day, the reality TV starlet kept her dark past hidden from The Bachelor's producers and only told them that her 'father died 30 years go.' Up until the age of five, Keira lived with her mother Michelle and their extended family in Bells Beach, Victoria before moving to Byron Bay. Keira's mother Michelle took her and her siblings Leilani, Shath, Jade, Ty and Sean to Queensland, where they began a new life. Her biggest secret: The social media star kept her extended family hidden from The Bachelor's producers Laishkochav, who was born in Auckland, moved to Australia from New Zealand in 1969. At 25, he married his first wife in a Mormon Church, where he was introduced to the concept of polygamy. The polygamist drew his beliefs from sections of the Jewish, Muslim and Mormon religions. He attracted a number of women to his communal lifestyle while living in Sydney in the 1970s. They all moved to the Bells Beach compound in Victoria in 1983 where the brood rapidly expanded. Laishkochav and his nine wives and 64 children then moved to Byron Bay. Lookalike: Keira left the cult with her sister Leilani (pictured) and their mother Michelle, along with three other siblings in 1993 Big family: Some of Keira's siblings, including her brother Shath have reunited since leaving the cult Brother: Keira's brother Sean still lives in Brisbane, where they were raised by their mother and grandmother after leaving the cult Scattered around Australia: Keira's other full-blood brothers Ty (L) and Shath (R) now live in separate states in Queensland and Victoria respectively The cult dissolved in 1993 following allegations of Laishkochav's offences. The Courier Mail reported that Laishkochav was deported back to his native New Zealand in 2008 after completing his jail term. Speaking at the time, his son Shem Baker told the publication: 'He's over there, isolated and with no support'. He said his life 'completely changed' when Laishkochav's crimes came to light. 'We had to live with the fact he molested these children and as a result, in many ways, we lost our father. He let us down.' New life: The blonde lifestyle blogger now lives in Sydney's Eastern suburbs and works as a real estate account manager Close-knit bunch: Keira's aunt Gail (pictured) was also one of Laishkochav's nine wives Keira's half-brother Moke has confirmed to Woman's Day that he is related to the blonde and revealed 'the family find it hilarious' that their relative has landed on television. The shocking revelations come after the confident blonde took a break from social media following cyber abuse directed at her. 'I've been staying away from social media, but I did have a look at my page and someone called me a c***,' Keira told OK! magazine. She said she was not happy with her villain status, but has decided to ignore it because she does not want to be a 'miserable mess'. Keira has ruffled feathers in the house following multiple confrontations with other contestants, including Eliza St John and Alex Nation. 'Alistah Laishkochav is not relevant to who I am nor does he define me': Keira told Daily Mail Australia when asked about her father's past But the outspoken real estate professional, who is friends with Richie Strahan's cousin Lisa Clark, said she did not exaggerate her opinions for the camera. 'If anything I had a filter and tended not to say much because trust me, if I did actually say what I thought, shit would be going down,' she said. Keira said the constant steam of confrontations left her feeling drained during filmed. Actress filed for divorce in May after just 15 months of marriage Their Hollywood divorce has seen as many surprise twists as a big budget thriller. And now it seems that Johnny Depp and his legal team are preparing for yet another explosive reveal, as the actor prepares to face Amber Heard in court. According to reports, the 53-year-old actor and his team are 'locked and loaded' with witnesses and a brand-new secret photo for when he goes head-to-head with his estranged wife, 30. Scroll down for video Some surprises up his sleeve? It seems that Johnny Depp and his legal team are preparing for yet another explosive reveal during the actor's impending court date with Amber Heard TMZ alleges the actor's lawyers have a mysterious photo and nearly 24 witnesses for the trial to support his claims that Amber is when she say he 'brutalized' her. According to the website Johnny's legal documents regarding the photo explain: 'For privacy reasons, this exhibit is being served on petitioners [Amber and team] and will be supplied to the court at the time of hearing.' The photograph being produced by Johnny's team is a brand new piece of evidence, and as of yet it is not known what it depicts. Alongside the mystery picture the Black Mass star is also said to have a number of witnesses, which will back up his claims. Locked and loaded: According to reports, the actor, 53, and his team are 'locked and loaded' with witness and a secret photo for when he goes head-to-head with his estranged wife, 30 The two responding officers on May 21, the night Amber says Johnny attacked her, are claimed to be on the list. And it is reported that both of the officers will testify they saw no evidence of injury, nor was anything broken in the loft apartment where the incident is alleged to have taken place. Alongside the officers are five concierge workers from the building, all of whom saw Amber between May 21 and May 27. The five people are alleged to have said in depositions they saw no injuries on Amber's face during this time period. Ready to fight: TMZ alleges the actor his lawyers have a mysterious photo and nearly 24 witnesses for the trial to support his claims that Amber is when she say he 'brutalized' her A real mystery: According to Johnny's legal documents explain: 'For privacy reasons, this exhibit is being served on petitioners and will be supplied to the court at the time of hearing' Two security guards who were in the unit on May 21 will also testify that Johnny did not strike Amber, states TMZ. Three stand-out names on the list are said to be Jodi Gottlieb (Amber's publicist), the couple's housekeeper Hilda Vargas and Amber herself, who is being called as a hostile witness. The website reports: 'We're told Depp's lawyer, Laura Wasser, tried taking Gottlieb's deposition but she was not available. And Gottlieb is important because she was allegedly present during discussions between Amber and her lawyer.' A long list of witnesses: Alongside the photograph the Black Mass star is also said to have a number of witnesses, which will back up his claims - nearly two dozen reprotedly The amgic number: Three stand-out names on the list are Jodi Gottlieb (Amber's publicist), the couple's housekeeper Hilda Vargas and Amber herself, who is being called as a hostile witness While it goes on to say Hilda is an important witness for Johnny as he list states, 'Ms. Vargas will testify about a discovery in the home'. Johnny's team are also said to be planning on referring to a number of exhibits during the trial. These are said to include Amber's domestic violence arrest report from the State of Washington and documents from the Australian dog smuggling case. It's believe Johnny's lawyers will press the point that his estranged wife lied when she told authorities she didn't know it was illegal to bring the dogs into the country. Digging up her past: Johnny's team are also said to be planning on referring to a number of exhibits during the trial, relating to Amber's credibility Going back in time: These are said to include Amber's domestic violence arrest report from the State of Washington and documents from the Australian dog smuggling case This latest twist comes just hours after reports emerged stating that Amber did not testify at her deposition on Saturday. According to the New York Daily News, Amber spent the entire day at the offices of lawyer Laura Wasser's firm, Wasser, Cooperman and Mandles, which is representing Johnny in the split. A source said: 'She was there and ready to proceed. She never refused to go in.' Did she talk? This latest twist comes just hours after reports emerged stating that Amber did not testify at her deposition on Saturday (pictured) Present but silent? Amber is said to have spent the entire day at the offices of lawyer Laura Wasser's firm, Wasser, Cooperman and Mandles, which is representing Johnny in the split Amber didn't answer a single question during the day, and did not enter the conference room. She apparently spent nine hours waiting to be called into the room, while her lawyers attempted to reach a settlement with Johnny's lawyers. And according to TMZ, the actress was waiting in an office nearby while the lawyers held discussions, and a videographer and court reporter were also in attendance. according to TMZ, the actress was waiting in an office nearby while the lawyers held discussions, and a videographer and court reporter were also in attendance Amber arrived an hour and a half late to the deposition, and the website reports that she was in the building from 11.30am until 9pm. Her lawyer Samantha Spector arrived at 10am on Saturday morning at the offices in Century City, Los Angeles. Amber was driven to the front of the building at around 11.30am before finding a more private entrance. The website captured film of her getting out of a car with her beefy bodyguard and flanked by her lawyers in an underground parking lot. What could have happened: It was previously believed she was set to be grilled by lawyers over her allegations the Hollywood actor was 'verbally and physically abusive' towards her And sources reported that both sides tried to reach a settlement on Friday night but negotiations fell apart at around 9pm, something her lawyers later denied. It was previously believed the Rum Diaries actress was set to be grilled by Johnny's lawyers over her allegations the Hollywood actor was 'verbally and physically abusive' towards her throughout their relationship. It was also thought Johnny could also be in attendance at the deposition in spite of his current retraining order which prevents him from seeing Amber, should she consent to his presence. Was he even there? TMZ reported that Johnny was due to attend his own deposition this week, and settlement talks are ongoing between the couple TMZ reported that Johnny was due to attend his own deposition this week, and settlement talks are ongoing between the couple. It was recently reported that Amber believes Johnny is purposely stalling their divorce. The blonde beauty has filed legal documents accusing him of refusing to hand over financial details to settle the case. It emerged last week the 53-year-old movie star was demanding his wife of 15-months sign a non-disclosure agreement before he hands over any paperwork. Hold up: Johnny is purposely stalling his divorce, according to estranged wife Amber It calls for a $100k fine every time his financial info is leaked by Amber or even her accountant. TMZ reported on Tuesday that Amber branded the stipulation 'ridiculous' and just a ploy to thwart the case. The pair initially failed to settle on a date for Amber's deposition; Depp's team had proposed August 3 and 8, but Heard claimed she cannot since she was in London filming Justice League. The site claimed she offered to fly back on a Saturday, but was told the actor's team is not willing to work weekends. Move along: The 30-year-old has filed legal documents accusing him of refusing to hand over financial details to settle the case In the court documents obtained last week, Johnny's lawyer Laura Wasser claimed Amber has been telling the media information about the former couple, who are not thought to have had a pre-nuptial agreement. In addition to asking the court to order his financial dealings to be kept, he wants other information that will be part of the proceedings such as witness statements to remain private too. According to People, he is also asking that any experts or witnesses called to give evidence in the case be required to sign nondisclosure agreements. 'Amber's need for financial information to resolve this case is distinct from the public's appetite for celebrity divorce,' Johnny's legal documents state. Johnny pointed out that media scrutiny of his break-up with Amber is intense, calling it 'one of the most heavily publicized celebrity divorces in recent memory.' Clash: The couple - who had been married for 15 months when Amber filed for divorce in May - are locked in a bitter legal fight and Johnny, 53, is now asking a judge to require the actress to sign a confidentiality agreement He said he had asked his estranged wife 'has inexplicably refused to sign any agreement' consenting to keeping details of their relationship and divorce private. The Pirates of The Caribbean star also wants a judge to rule that requests by Amber's legal team for information about his finances prior to their relationship are unwarranted, and that attempts to obtain financial information from his Hollywood Vampires bandmates be quashed because they're 'irrelevant.' The now former couple - who met on the set of 2011 film The Rum Diary and were married for just 15 months - have been embroiled in the bitter legal battle since announcing their split in May. Amber has been granted a temporary restraining order against Johnny after claiming in court that her decision to file for divorce from him was prompted by the actor physically attacking her with an iPhone, leaving her with a bruised eye. 'Irrelevant': Johnny has alleged in court documents that Amber, 30, is seeking informaiton about the finances of his Hollywood Vampires bandmates including Alice Cooper, pictured with Johnny, and Joe Perry She alleged that 'during the entirety of our relationship, Johnny has been verbally and physically abusive to me'. In recent weeks, Johnny has been selling off some of his assets including paintings by Basquiat. He has doubled the asking price on his French estate, which is set on 37 acres of land and comes complete with more than a dozen buildings, to 42 million. And he has also listed his seven-bedroom Venetian mansion for 9 million. Last week, Amber met up with her ex-girlfriend Tasya Van Ree, who she split from five years ago, at Republique in Los Angeles. Sources close to the actress also denied last week she was seeing billionaire Elon Musk after 'spending a lot of time' together, insisting they have been close friends for years. She's been very vocal about her love of her fuller lips. And Charlotte Crosby made sure her perfect pout was centre stage as she modelled for her upcoming clothing collection for In The Style at newly-opened restaurant Menagerie in Manchester. The 26-year-old slipped into a pair of her line's sexy grey shorts, which made the most of her enviably slim legs. Scroll down for video Flaunt it! Charlotte Crosby made sure her perfect pout was centre stage as she modelled for her upcoming clothing collection for In The Style Displaying her favourite assets for all to see at her photoshoot, the reality star exhibited tiny waist thanks to the high-waisted number. Enjoying herself at the fashion shoot, the star teamed a grey tee with cheeky eye motif to up her style factor as she struck a number of poses. Accessorising her look, Charlotte donned an on-trend black velvet choker that wrapped around her slender neck as she injected some height into her petite frame with a chic light grey strappy sandal that hugged her slender limbs. Pouting to perfection, Charlotte was sure to give major attention to her medically enhanced lips with a swipe of matte nude lipstick. Legs eleven: The reality star flaunted her long limbs in a chic pair of high-waisted grey shorts with white check detailing Tongue-in-cheek: The former Geordie Shore star cheekily stuck out her tongue whilst being photographed in her stylish ensemble Having a laugh! Charlotte had a giggle at something she saw on an iPhone as she posed for her shoot Amping up her sex appeal, the reality star opted for a dramatic warm bronzed eye that was sure to make her chocolate brown peepers pop. Styling her blonde ombre locks in a soft bouncy curl, the former MTV star also modelled a number of fashionable looks at the shoot including a long sleeved beige romper with white and navy pinstripe. Boasting a high neckline, the playsuit cinched in her honed waist with a tie waist belt to display her hourglass figure. While in another shot, the TV star was sure to parade her perfect pins again in her own bardot white arrow print dress with the fashion brand that skimmed her thigh as she teamed the look with a sky-high white sandals and simple but chic tan satchel over her shoulder. Pin-credible! The 26-year-old beauty modelled a number of fashionable looks at the shoot including a long sleeved beige romper with white and navy pinstripe Look back! Charlotte had a look at her shots from her In The Style shoot Goldie locks: The Northern lass styled her blonde ombre locks in a soft bouncy curl Cinched in: Boasting a high neckline, Charlotte's playsuit cinched in her honed waist with a tie waist belt to display her hourglass figure Sultry: The TV star was sure to parade her perfect pins again in her own bardot white arrow print dress with the fashion brand Meanwhile, Charlotte has been moving with her life since splitting from on/off boyfriend Gary 'Gaz' Beadle as she took to her Snapchat to share a saucy video of her canoodling up to model Ash Harrison. Partying the night away at Neighbour Bar and Restaurant in Manchester in the early hours of Sunday morning, the long haired hunk leans in to plant a slew of kisses on the reality star. Charlotte - who was linked to TOWIE's Mario Falcone last month after a series of flirty Twitter exchanges - looked thrilled as her rumoured new man cosied into her. Chic: Charlotte was sure to give major attention to her medically enhanced lips with a swipe of matte nude lipstick Eye-catching: Amping up her sex appeal, Charlotte opted for a dramatic warm bronzed eye that made her chocolate brown peepers pop While the former Big Brother contestant kept his focus on her, the Sunderland-born stunner looked in her element in the party hotspot as she smouldered into the camera. And if the rumours about her fledgling romance to Ash are true, then the Geordie lass has a heartthrob on her hands, given that he's currently signed to London's MOT Models. As well as lending his chiselled good looks to photoshoots around the world, the 6 ft 2 chap also has his own male swimwear line Sink. MailOnline have contacted Charlotte's rep for comment. Leggy display: Charlotte injected some height into her petite frame with a chic light grey strappy sandal that hugged her slender limbs Bachelor star Keira Maguire's mother defended her choice to live as one of the nine wives of a sick cult leader by saying she did not have to worry about him cheating. Footage taken in 1992 showed Keira's mother, Michelle, discussing why she decided to stay with paedophile Alistah Laishkochav - who fathered 64 children. Speaking from the Byron Bay commune in NSW, the mother-of-six said: 'I don't have that fear of sitting at home and wondering whether my husband is seeing the secretary or the shopkeeper. Scroll down for video Justification: Bachelor star Keira Maguire's mother Michelle (far right) revealed why she lived as one of the nine wives of cult leader Alistah Laishkochav 'I don't have that fear of thinking is he going to come back and love me,' she told A Current Affair. She justified being part of his harem for more than a decade - alongside her sister Gail - by saying that she believed people are able to love more than one individual. 'Can you love more than one child,' she asked. Explanation: Keira's mother Michelle (pictured), who stayed with the 'seaside sect' for more than a decade, justified her decision to share her husband with eight other women Dark past: Bachelor star Keira Maguire (pictured) confirmed that she grew up in a religious cult 'Because if you have six children or even three or two. Do you just love the one, of course you don't, you love them all.' Michelle also insisted that she found the self-styled messiah - who told his followers he was Jesus Christ - attractive. She was not alone, as many of his other wives described him as 'intelligent' and 'sexy' with one saying she was 'really in awe of him'. Michelle gave birth to Keira at the first commune in Bells Beach, Victoria, before moving to the hippie town of Byron Bay with the group. But eight months after the footage was taken, Michelle fled the cult with her six children, closely followed by two others wives. Depraved: Alistah Laishkochav (pictured), who was at the head of the polygamous cult where Bachelor star Keira Maguire was raised, boasted about his ability to satisfy five women a night Cult: Laishkochav (centre) was the leader of a polygamous cult and he had 64 children with nine wives She took Keira - who was just five-years-old at the time - and her siblings Leilani, Shath, Jade, Ty and Sean to Queensland, where they began a new life. Michelle revealed that she decided to leave the cult in 1993 because the power had gone to Laishkochav's head. 'Once the ego sets in, they think they can do it anything,' she said. Another former wife added: 'It blew up into an argument and we told him he had to leave.' Paedophile: The former policeman, whose real name was Ian Lowe, controlled the group from his Bells Beach compound in Victoria Twisted: The cult leader (circled) was also convicted of throwing a plank of wood at the head of one of the children, pictured is the group in the 1980s Seven years after the wives walked out, Laishkochav was found guilty of sexually abusing four young girls. The former policeman, whose real name is Ian Lowe, was jailed for more than seven years in 2000. He was found guilty of sexually penetrating a child under 10 as well as three counts of attempted penetration of a child and 16 counts of indecent assault. The despot abused the girls, who were aged between seven and 11, over a four-year period from 1987 to 1991. Keira would have only been three-years-old at the time. Cult leader: Bachelor star Keira Maguire's father Alistah Laishkochav (pictured) was jailed for 20 child sex offences and had 64 children with nine wives Keira's former cult family: The reality TV contestant's family consisted of her father Alistah Laishkochav's nine wives and their 64 children Keira told Daily Mail Australia that she has never had a relationship with Laishkochav, and fled the cult when she was just five-years-old with her mother and siblings. 'My mother removed my family from that environment when I was five years old, over 25 years ago,' she said. 'I was brought up by my mother and grandmother in Brisbane in a loving, caring and compassionate household. 'I had a wonderful childhood and I am extremely grateful to both my mother and grandmother for the upbringing which they provided me and my siblings. 'Although I have since met and reunited with my family, I have never had a relationship with Alistah Laishkochav.' Convicted: In 2000 he was jailed for seven years and six months after being convicted of 20 child sex offences and one charge of reckless injury Communal living: He borrowed aspects from a number of different religions and gave his children Hawaiian names Harem: Laishkochav had nine wives and slept with all of them in one bedroom She concluded: ' Alistah Laishkochav is not relevant to who I am nor does he define me.' As reported in Woman's Day, the reality TV starlet kept her dark past hidden from The Bachelor's producers and only told them that her 'father died 30 years go.' In the footage taken in 1992, Laishkochav boasted about his ability to satisfy five women every night. He also compared himself to King Solomon and insisted he was 'not greedy' for having nine wives. 'King Solomon had so many wives,' he said. Bizarre: While living in Sydney in the 1970s he began attracting a group of mainly young females to his communal lifestyle Revelations: A Current Affair expose is set to reveal the secrets of the cult on Tuesday 'I'm not that greedy, surely. He had 70 wives and 500 concubines. When it comes to women. I'm selfish. 'I don't think I am more special than any other man and I believe any man can do what I do and satisfy four to five women a night.' When asked about whether his nine wives ever bullied him, Laishkochav - who passed away in 2012 - said: 'Yes'. Life at the compound was so strict, no one dared question the strange beliefs and instructions of the self-styled guru who was dubbed the 'controller' by his wives. Communal living: The cult leader can be seen playing guitar in video footage Control: He had 64 children and they would sleep in a room with as many as 15 others The polygamist is understood to have slept with all nine of his de facto wives in one bedroom, while his children had to share with as many as 15 others. Over the years, his brood grew so large that Laishkochav admitted to CBS-TV's 'Hard Copy' that he received a staggering $250,000 per year in welfare payments. He ruled his clan with a rod of iron and borrowed elements of Judaism, Mormonism, Islam and the beliefs of Pacific Islanders to justify having multiple wives. The Australian reported the leader strongly believed a UFO would take the group from earth in 1988. Encouraged to chant every night, Laishkochav's were also led to believe all outsiders were 'evil' and that they could only be saved by God. 'I am extremely grateful to both my mother and grandmother': Keira told Daily Mail Australia she's thankful to her nan (pictured) for her upbringing after leaving the cult Upbringing: The former policeman exerted his strict control over the group - which Keira (pictured) was a part of until the age of five - from his Bells Beach compound in Victoria. During his 2000 trial, one of the victims told the court she was aged between seven and nine when Laishkochav molested her 'every other day'. She also revealed how Laishkochav would threaten her with violence to ensure she stayed silent about the sexual abuse. The girl said Laishkochav told her: 'God would punish me and he would hurt me', according to The Age. An eight-year-old girl also revealed how Laishkochav would kiss her and tell her she would eventually become his wife, the Australian reported. Another victim told the trial Laishkochav would slap his children and tell them they had the devil in them. The cult leader was also convicted of throwing a plank of wood at the head of one of the children. Her biggest secret: The social media star kept her extended family hidden from The Bachelor's producers Lookalike: Keira left the cult with her sister Leilani (pictured) and their mother Michelle, along with three other siblings in 1993 Laishkochav, who was born in Auckland, moved to Australia from New Zealand in 1969. At 25, he married his first wife in a Mormon Church, where he was introduced to the concept of polygamy. The polygamist drew his beliefs from sections of the Jewish, Muslim and Mormon religions. He attracted a number of women to his communal lifestyle while living in Sydney in the 1970s. They all moved to the Bells Beach compound in Victoria in 1983 where the brood rapidly expanded. Laishkochav and his nine wives and 64 children then moved to Byron Bay. Big family: Some of Keira's siblings, including her brother Shath have reunited since leaving the cult Brother: Keira's brother Sean still lives in Brisbane, where they were raised by their mother and grandmother after leaving the cult Scattered around Australia: Keira's other full-blood brothers Ty (L) and Shath (R) now live in separate states in Queensland and Victoria respectively The cult dissolved in 1993 following allegations of Laishkochav's offences. The Courier Mail reported that Laishkochav was deported back to his native New Zealand in 2008 after completing his jail term. Speaking at the time, his son Shem Baker told the publication: 'He's over there, isolated and with no support'. He said his life 'completely changed' when Laishkochav's crimes came to light. 'We had to live with the fact he molested these children and as a result, in many ways, we lost our father. He let us down.' New life: The blonde lifestyle blogger now lives in Sydney's Eastern suburbs and works as a real estate account manager Close-knit bunch: Keira's aunt Gail (pictured) was also one of Laishkochav's nine wives Keira's half-brother Moke has confirmed to Woman's Day that he is related to the blonde and revealed 'the family find it hilarious' that their relative has landed on television. The shocking revelations come after the confident blonde took a break from social media following cyber abuse directed at her. 'I've been staying away from social media, but I did have a look at my page and someone called me a c***,' Keira told OK! magazine. She said she was not happy with her villain status, but has decided to ignore it because she does not want to be a 'miserable mess'. Keira has ruffled feathers in the house following multiple confrontations with other contestants, including Eliza St John and Alex Nation. 'Alistah Laishkochav is not relevant to who I am nor does he define me': Keira told Daily Mail Australia when asked about her father's past But the outspoken real estate professional, who is friends with Richie Strahan's cousin Lisa Clark, said she did not exaggerate her opinions for the camera. 'If anything I had a filter and tended not to say much because trust me, if I did actually say what I thought, shit would be going down,' she said. Keira said the constant steam of confrontations left her feeling drained during filmed. 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But Brynne Edelsten, 33, appears to have well and truly moved on, making her first public appearance with new boyfriend, Ian McAllister, on Tuesday. The controversial socialite posed solo against the media wall at the FashionAid launch in Melbourne, before cosying up to her kilt-clad new beau on the red carpet. Scroll down for video 'It's going really well': Brynne Edelsten cuddled up to new beau Ian McAllister at the Fashion Aid launch in Melbourne on Tuesday, as the couple made her first public appearance together Confirming the romance, Brynne told the Herald Sun of her blossoming relationship: 'It's only new, but it's going really well'. Ian has made several fleeting appearances on Brynne's social media over the past few weeks, with the happy couple even celebrating Christmas in July together. In one photo, Brynne and Ian are seen posing arm-in-arm in front of a Christmas tree, while Brynne's is seen running amok at their feet. 'Celebrating Christmas in July with friends! Thank you, Ian, for inviting Juddy and me! What a fun time!' she gushed in the caption. 'It's only new': The 33-year-old socialite confirmed the blossoming romance at the event Smitten: The new couple, who are understood to have been dating for the past few months, appeared smitten with one another In a subsequent snap, Brynne is seen sitting next to Ian and a group of festive merrymakers at a heavily-laden dinner table. 'Christmas in July Dinner with these gorgeous people!', she wrote in the caption. It comes after Brynne revealed she was on Tinder, showing off her profile to photographers while partying in the city. Silly season! Ian has made several fleeting appearances on Brynne's social media over the past few weeks, with the happy couple even celebrating Christmas in July together 'Christmas in July Dinner with these gorgeous people!' In a subsequent snap, Brynne is seen sitting next to Ian and a group of festive merrymakers at a heavily-laden dinner table A representative for the blonde model confirmed it was indeed her account. 'Yes, that's Brynne's Tinder account,' the representative said, before adding: 'She's a single girl and like lots of single girls she's just exploring her options.' Meanwhile, Brynne has been making an effort to remain positive despite being embroiled in legal proceedings against her ex-husband Geoffrey. 'I'm moving forward and trying to put everything behind me and be positive', she told the Herald Sun. 'She's just exploring her options': Brynne's representatives have previously confirmed that she used dating app Tinder as a way to find love A globe-trotting lifestyle means shes no stranger to some of the worlds more picturesque coastal locations. So it was perhaps inevitable that Swedish model Victoria Silvstedt looked very much in her element during an appearance in Sardinia on Monday. The 41-year old looked typically stunning in a black and white spotted bikini as she idled on the beach close to the Mediterranean islands idyllic Porto Cervo resort. Scroll down for video Stunning Swede: Victoria Silvstedt looked typically stunning in a black and white spotted bikini as she idled on the beach close to the Mediterranean islands idyllic Porto Cervo resort Given her glorious surroundings Victoria was in high spirits as she relaxed on her sun lounger before getting to her feet and making her way towards the shoreline. With temperatures continuing to soar across the Mediterranean Victoria took advantage of the inviting water by wading in for a brief dip. Careful to protect herself the blonde kept her sunglasses on as she waded deeper into the water before making her way back to the shore. Making a splash: As temperatures soared Victoria cooled off in the shallow Mediterranean surf Familiar sight: A globe-trotting lifestyle means Victoria is no stranger to some of the worlds more picturesque coastal locations, so it was perhaps inevitable that the Swedish model Victoria Silvstedt looked very much in her element Toned and trim: The model showed off her slender physique as she idled on the sand Drying herself off with a large beach towel, Victoria once again showed off the physique that has helped win her modelling contracts with the likes of Chanel, Christian Dior and Givenchy. She was later seen adjusting her bikini bottoms before relaxing in the shade, where she furiouslly brushed her knotted hair before stretching out to top up her already impressive tan. Victoria's latest sexy display comes after she enjoyed her annual trip to Eden Roc Hotel in Cannes in June while flaunting her ample assets in a white bikini. Wet and wild: Given her glorious surroundings Victoria was in high spirits as she splashed around in the water Looking good: As always the blonde model was an eye-catching sight during her latest appearance in Sardinia Shady lady: Victoria kept her sun glasses on while swimming close to the shoreline Here she comes: The model made quite an exit following her brief dip in the ocean A bum deal: The model's famously pert posterior was on display as she made her way back to her sun lounger Getting the message: Victoria checked her phone after wrapping herself in a large beach towel A regular visitor to the South of France, the model had also topped up her tanned in Saint Tropez last month. The jet setting former Playmate of the Year has recently appeared on a Swedish reality series alongside a host of famous personalities, which was broadcast on TV3. Victoria has previously talked about her introduction to modelling and her discomfort with the catwalk. Straightening up: The blonde adjusted her polka-dotted bikini top after finding her sun lounger Opening up: Despite enjoying prolonged success Victoria has previously talked about her introduction to modelling and her discomfort with the catwalk Don't mind me: The Swedish star was hard to miss as she reclined on her sun lounger Let's get this straight: At one point the model appeared to be struggling with her bikini bottoms Striking: Victoria revealed a pair of nicely toned legs as she tided her sun lounger Speaking to Female First, she said: I started very young to model in Paris when I was 18. 'I remember like starving myself to fit into the clothes and it was an amazing experience but you know I did shows for Valentino, Chanel, so it was really prestigious. But it never felt like it was my thing, I'm not like a runway skinny model, I'm more curvy. It was torture, I put myself through starvation, you know torturing myself.' Sorting it out:Victoria was seen furiously combing her hair after relaxing in the shade Busy girl: The jet setting former Playmate of the Year has recently appeared on a Swedish reality series alongside a host of famous personalities, which was broadcast on TV3 That'll do: She later stretched out in a bid to top up her already impressive tan She could never be accused of hiding away her fantastic figure. And Demi Rose - the rumoured former flame of Kylie Jenner's rapper beau Tyga, 26 - didn't disappoint her 2.8 million Instagram followers on Monday when she posted a sexy snap in a barely-there peach bikini. Showcasing her incredible curves for all to see, the Instagram model, 21, pouted away as she worked her magic in front of the camera. Scroll down for video Peachy: Demi Rose didn't disappoint her 2.8 million Instagram followers on Monday when she posted a sexy snap in a barely-there peach bikini Demi playfully captioned the shot: 'I can't tell if this is my b***h face or not'. With a lacy white kimono trailing over her arms and spilling onto the floor, she posed in high leather heels which wound around her ankles. Standing in a patch of bright sunlight, in front of a swimming pool, the Birmingham-born brunette looked poised and confident. With her long dark locks tumbling over her shoulders, Demi wore smokey-eye make up and went for a contoured look to accentuate her striking features. Work it: Last week, the Instagram star proved that she didn't need to slip into swimwear to turn heads as she arrived for dinner at Novikov restaurant in London Last week, the Instagram star proved that she didn't need to slip into swimwear to turn heads as she arrived for dinner at Novikov restaurant in London. Turning the pavement into a runway all her own, the raven-haired stunner worked a black catsuit that clung to each of her impeccable contours. With the catsuit accentuating her tiny waist and hourglass figure, she looked relaxed and happy, ready for a fun night out. The hip-hugging garment tied behind her neck and featured a deeply plunging neckline with cross-strap detailing across her chest. Busty display: The skin-tight garment tied behind her neck and featured a deeply plunging neckline with cross-strap detailing across her breasts Demi, who hails from Sutton Coldfield in the West Midlands, extended her perfect pins in a pair of sky-high stilettos that laced up to her ankles. Understandably confident in her figure, she seemed serene and self-assured as she glided into the restaurant. When she turned to enter the exclusive Mayfair restaurant, Demi showed off her peachy posterior, which is also a fixture of her increasingly popular Instagram account. The social media favourite became the talk of the globe this summer after being pictured with Tyga on several occasions, including during a trip to the Cannes Film Festival. Despite seeming inseparable from Demi, Tyga took to Twitter at the time to insist he wasn't dating anyone new, telling his followers: 'Single. Focused. Blessed. Living Life (sic).' Together: In May, Demi shared a pic of her and Tyga getting close at the Cannes Film Festival But things have been moving at a whirlwind pace since the Ayo hitmaker got back together with his ex Kylie Jenner, with the pair even sparking engagement rumours after she showcased a giant diamond on her ring finger on social media. However, in July E! reported that the couple were not engaged. 'Kylie has brought up marriage with Tyga to her friends lately, both jokingly and seriously,' a source told the website. The insider added that the couple have also spoken of the subject. 'It wouldn't happen now but she's been thinking about it more and wants a future with him,' said the insider. She's famed for her mental arithmetic on Countdown. And Rachel Riley proved she was good at figures - especially showing them off - as she headed out on a shopping trip in London this week. The 30-year-old showed off her toned and tans legs in a thigh skimming pair of striped cotton shorts, tailored to loosely to fit her slim waist. Scroll down for video Short and sweet: Countdown's Rachel Riley proved she was good at figures - especially showing them off - as she headed out on a shopping trip in London this week Paired with a crisp white T-shirt and funky silver backpack, the presenter checked her phone as she walked. With no need for heels, the number-whizz opted for flat brown sandals buckled around the ankle and toe. With plenty of of extra bags, the blonde TV favourite had a full black suede tote as well as a cloth bag, a paper bag full of purchases and her trusty rucksack. Catching a tan: The 30-year-old showed off her toned and tans legs in a thigh skimming pair of striped cotton shorts, tailored to loosely to fit her slim waist Best foot forward: With no need for heels, the number-whizz opted for flat brown sandals buckled around the ankle and toe Clearly in the mood for some retail therapy, Rachel enjoyed the sunshine while window shopping. A retro pair of mirrored cream sunglasses finished off her summery look, with her light locks neatly tied up in a bun on the back of her head. While she kept her make-up natural and light, a touch of pink lipstick gave a boost to her natural glow. Rachel met her current boyfriend, Russian Pasha Kovalev when they were dancing partners on Strictly Come Dancing back in 2013. Eyes down: With plenty of of extra bags, the blonde TV favourite had a full black suede tote as well as a cloth bag, a paper bag full of purchases and her trusty rucksack In an interview with the Daily Mail in March, the Essex native admitted she was learning Russian to help her communicate with Pasha's family better. Rachel said: 'His mum doesn't speak English, and his brother isn't that confident speaking it - the first time I met them all I couldn't understand a word. It's a bit unnerving. 'But now when he Skypes his mother in Siberia I can say a few words, or work out what they're talking about.' Rachel was married to her university sweetheart Jamie Gilbert when she was partnered alongside Pasha on Strictly Come Dancing in late 2013. She recently enjoyed a jaunt in Bali. And Gamble Breaux showed off her post-holiday glow while attending Fashion Aid launch in Melbourne on Tuesday. The Real Housewives of Melbourne star arrived at Bond Bar in a quirky minidress that featured gold detailing and exaggerated shoulder puffs. Scroll down for video Sparkling: Gamble Breaux showed off her trim pins as she posed before photographers sporting sparkling silver peep-toe stilettos at the Fashion Aid launch in Melbourne on Tuesday The 45-year-old reality star's trim pins were on full display as she posed before photographers sporting sparkling silver peep-toe stilettos. Her long blonde locks were swept up in a chic updo and she opted for flawless evening makeup, that featured smokey eyes, blush and a nude lip. The Melbourne Art collector posed alongside her husband Dr Rick Wolfe at the event, which merges fashion and music to ultimately support cancer charities. Coupled up: The Melbourne Art collector posed alongside her husband Dr Rick Wolfe at the event, which merges fashion and music to ultimately support cancer charities Glowing: The 45-year-old reality star flaunted post-holiday glow, having just returned from a trip to Bali Gamble's co-star Susie McLean also attended while dressed in a form-fitting little black dress. With one hand on her hips and sporting a beaming smile, mother-of-two Susie posed for a few snaps before enjoying the festivities. The 47-year-old divorcee flaunted her toned arms and a hint of thigh in her figure-hugging outfit. Beaming: Gamble's co-star Susie McLean also attended while dressed in a form-fitting little black dress Socialites: Other familiar faces at the event included socialite Brynne Edelsten and Fashion Aid ambassadors Ruby and Lucy Brownless Bachelor reunion: Channel Ten reality stars Tolyna Baan, Georgia Tripos, Sasha Zhuravlyova, Laura Williams and Aimee Psellos of the Bachelor posed for a group photo Other familiar faces at the event included socialite Brynne Edelsten and Fashion Aid ambassadors Ruby and Lucy Brownless. Channel Ten reality stars Tolyna Baan, Georgia Tripos, Sasha Zhuravlyova, Laura Williams and Aimee Psellos of the Bachelor posed for a group photo. Former Bachelor villain Emily Simms showcased her slender frame in a black playsuit. Married At First Sight's Erin, Clare, Mark and Christie were also pictured enjoying the night. Trim pins: Former Bachelor villain Emily Simms showcased her slender frame in a black playsuit Mingling: Married At First Sight's Erin, Clare, Mark and Christie were also pictured enjoying the night Elegant: Channel Nine presenter Jo Hall looked elegant in an all-grey ensemble Going strong: Big Brother stars Cat Law and Lawson Reeves appeared to be going strong while posing alongside one another, three years after the show Channel Nine presenter Jo Hall looked elegant in an all-grey ensemble. Big Brother stars Cat Law and Lawson Reeves appeared to be going strong while posing alongside one another, three years after the show. Radio host Dave Hughes also made an appearance dressed in a baby blue shirt paired with dark jeans and a black jacket. They shocked viewers when they stripped naked for a 'romantic shower' on Monday night's episode of Celebrity Big Brother. And it seems that Marnie Simpson and Lewis Bloor are well and truly falling for each other, as the couple gush about how 'perfect' they truly are for each other. However, it would appear the Essex boy, 26, may not be quite on the same page as his Geordie love-interest, 24, as he admitted: 'Love with someone isnt on my radar.' Scroll down for video It must be love! It seems that Marnie Simpson and Lewis Bloor are well and truly falling for each other, as the couple gush about how 'perfect' they truly are for each other In scenes set to air on Tuesday evening's installment of Channel 5's popular reality show, the couple appear the picture of young love - but all the while Lewis appears to be harboring doubts. Indulging in a saccharine display, the couple couldn't help but gush about their mutual feelings of attraction - declaring themselves 'perfect' for each other. And despite having only been romantically involved with each other for less than a fortnight, Lewis declared: 'I know I can be with you and I want to be with you.' Full-on romance? However, it would appear the Essex boy, 26, may not be quite on the same page as his Geordie love-interest, 24, as he admitted: 'Love with someone isnt on my radar' Pushing on with his declaration of love, the former TOWIE star added: 'I feel like a full man, whole, the best version of me!' Agreeing with his words completely, the Geordie Shore star reciprocated and told her new beau: 'I feel like the luckiest girl in the world!' However it seems their romance is already showing cracks, as Lewis - who boasted he'd slept with over 100 girls - confessed he was having doubts about the couple's longevity. 'I feel like a full man': Despite having only been romantically involved with each other for less than a fortnight, Lewis declared: 'I know I can be with you and I want to be with you' 'The luckiest girl': Agreeing with his words completely, the Geordie Shore star reciprocated and told her new beau: 'I feel like the luckiest girl in the world!' Foolishly confiding his doubts in house trouble-maker Stephen Bear, Lewis admitted: 'She is amazing but I have so much I want to do! 'Falling in love with someone isnt on my radar; I have work to do.' And, in a scary display of prescience, Marnie confessed her own misgiving in the diary room, telling Katie Waisel: 'It feels like fate! I really hope he doesnt go. I really hope this isnt all an act.' Having doubts about her? However it seems their romance is already showing cracks, as Lewis confessed he was having doubts about the couple's longevity 'Falling in love with someone isnt on my radar': Foolishly confiding his doubts in house trouble-maker Stephen Bear, Lewis admitted: 'She is amazing but I have so much I want to do! Their declaration of love, and the revelation of doubts, comes just 24 hours after viewers were left shocked when Marnie stripped completely naked. The Geordie Shore stalwart left fans open-mouthed as she gave fans an eye-popping display of full-frontal nudity after a 'romantic shower' with Lewis. TV executives chose not to censor the steamy scenes, which saw Marnie and Lewis dash out of the bathroom after the brunette was seen on her knees inside the shower. Not shy: Their declaration of love, and the revelation of doubts, comes just 24 hours after viewers were left shocked when Marnie stripped completely naked In steamy shower scenes which she shared with housemate Lewis Bloor, the brunette was initially seen on her knees - although it wasn't clear what she was doing. Minutes later, she was feeling body confident as she paraded around, naked. Deftly displaying her private parts without much shame, she seemed to find the incident hilarious as she giggled throughout. Looking for something? In steamy shower scenes which she shared with Lewis, the brunette was initially seen on her knees - although it's not exactly sure what she was doing Cheeky: The cameras captured the extremely cheeky moment that the brunette was seen in the shower on her knees Yikes: Luckily, Marnie's mother has said that she loves the star 'unconditionally' no matter how far she goes on TV Letting it all hang out: The Geordie Shore star left nothing to the imagination in her latest antics on the Channel 5 series, which was left uncensored by TV executives Giddy: Deftly displaying her private parts without much shame, she seemed to find the incident hilarious as she giggled throughout Searching for a towel, she continued her banter with Lewis as she showed off her assets for the cameras. Feeling the need to warn her, Lewis could be heard yelling: 'Marnie, you're completely naked!', but she just shrugged her shoulders and carried on regardless. Seemingly influenced by her carefree attitude, he too then proceeded to flash himself at both Marnie and the TV audience. Catching a glimpse of his manhood, her eyes widened and she seemed to get even more giddy. Loved-up: Marnie eventually got changed and spoke to Big Brother in the Diary Room about the incident - and her feelings for Lewis Full-frontal: Searching for a towel, she continued her banter with Lewis as she showed off her assets for the cameras That's quite an eyeful! Marnie didn't have a care in the world as she showed off for viewers Rushing back into the shower, Marnie then flashed her derriere to all and sundry before eventually getting changed and speaking to Big Brother in the Diary Room. Gushing with delight, she said: 'I just had the most romantic shower in my life! I would never do anything more than shower with him and kiss him. 'Ive never had a boy treat me how he treats me! I feel so lucky. He is just perfect.' Incredulously, she then declared: 'I dont ever want to leave this house!' Good-time girl: The reality TV contestant said it was 'the most romantic shower in my life' Cheeky! Seemingly influenced by her carefree attitude, he too then proceeded to flash himself at both Marnie and the TV audience Too much? Catching a glimpse of his manhood, her eyes widened and she got more excited Naturally, Twitter was quick to respond. One person simply wrote 'vomits all over television #CBB', while another added: 'Trying to unsee Lewis and Marnie'. One user added: 'Anyone who believes Marnie and Lewis generally like each other, wake up, they have exactly the same management.' Some viewers couldn't quite believe that Channel 5 decided to air the nudity in full on Monday. 'They just showed a full d*** shot on celebrity big brother, when will america!' asked one male fan. Shock: Some viewers were surprised to see that Channel 5 did not muzz the essential areas, with some suggesting that the nudity was tactical on Lewis' part 'Celebrity Big Brother is just everyday Lewis nudes like wow... not even to censor it' another said, pointing out how many times they'd seen Lewis naked now. And some were more distracted by Lewis' nudity than by the raunchy display in the house on Monday. 'Everything changes when eviction looms @lewis_bloor getting your tackle out for votes d*** move #CBB #loveaw****shot' 'Lewis definitely got his p**** out for air time and to gain the votes of 99.9% of female #CBB viewers undoubtedly' The scenes follow days of flirting and kissing between the pair, which has fascinated TV viewers since their arrival in the CBB house. Bold: Rushing back into the shower, Marnie the flashed her derriere to all and sundry Waxing lyrical: The Geordie Shore star said 'Ive never had a boy treat me how he treats me!' It's not the first time that viewers have seen nudity from Marnie, nonetheless. Earlier into her appearance, she shocked and disappointed viewers when she flashed her bare breasts at Saira Khan in a bid to make her laugh. Unfortunately for Marnie, the scenes were interpreted more like 'bullying' by the British public. Meanwhile, things have been heating up between Marnie and Lewis for some time, especially after Marnie boldly asked Lewis if he was feeling 'horny' earlier this week. He replied: 'When I wake up in the morning... the first night we slept together, I was like, "Oi oi, missed ya boy."' Awkward: Marnie has also found romance with Stephen Bear during this series of CBB Some nudity: Marnie has already flashed her bare breast on the programme, but some interpreted it as bullying behaviour towards Saira Khan Earlier this week, Marnie's mother Sharra Kyle came forward to say she is 'not worried' about her 24-year-old daughter's on-screen antics, no matter how far they go. She told OK! magazine: 'Ive seen her having sex on Geordie Shore and all I can do is be there for her and support her. Im her biggest fan and I love her unconditionally.' Lewis isn't the only on-screen romance Marnie has experienced so far though. Already, the pretty brunette has exchanged a kiss with Stephen Bear, who now seems more taken with Chloe Khan. Are you horny? Marnie appeared to ask Lewis if he was horny earlier this week Asked whether she believes Marnie is particularly taken with Lewis, Sharra confirmed: 'I think she only has eyes for Lewis! Lewis seems like a real gentleman, hes the sort of man Id like Marnie to be with. Marnie seemed panicked this week when Lewis accidentally let on exactly how much he like the Geordie Shore star. Proclaiming his love through the art of rap music, the TOWIE star is thought to have accidentally dropped the 'L-bomb'. 'Lewis just dropped the L-bomb,' Marnie told housemates Frankie Grande, Ricky Norwood and Katie Waissel this weekend. Romance: Things have been heating up between Lewis and Marnie for some time Protective: Lewis seemed to find himself in a love triangle with Bear at one time She explained: 'He sang, "Her name is Marnie" and then he just broke song and said, "And I just love her" and then he went "And there is Saira' and carried on".' Lewis later admitted to Marnie that he believed he could fall in love with her in just 10 days. 'I've learnt to deal with people with different walks of life,' he told her, as they chatted in the toilet. 'I've learnt what upsets me, what triggers I have. 'Like things I really care about, like unresolved issues I didn't really understand I had. And that you can fall in love with someone in ten days.' She replied straight away:0' Oh my God, you know I feel exactly the same way don't you?' Celebrity Big Brother continues on Channel Five at 9pm on Tuesday night. Another turbulent episode was pushed to one side as Lindsay Lohan made a memorable appearance in Sardinia on Monday evening. The former child star appeared to be in good spirits while celebrating De Grisgono founder Fawaz Gruosi's 64th birthday at Hotel Cala di Volpe on the island's picturesque Porto-Cervo resort. But her sweeping navy blue gown very nearly caused a catastrophic wardrobe malfunction by partially exposing her breast as she posed for photos with fellow guest Harvey Weinstein. Scroll down for video Oh dear: Lindsay Lohan's sweeping navy blue gown very nearly caused a catastrophic wardrobe malfunction by partially exposing her breast as she posed for photos with fellow guest Harvey Weinstein in Sardinia on Monday evening However the fashion faux pas did nothing to cloud her mood and Lindsay was on form while chatting with guests including Danish model Nina Agdal and veteran reggae star Shaggy. Likewise Hollywood mogul Harvey, who appeared nonplussed by the calamitous wardrobe malfunction as he reflected on the party later that night. This truly was a spectacular party, there were at least 20 yachts arriving bringing some of the richest families in Europe to come and celebrate,' he said. 'It was an unbelievable birthday party reminiscent of the great glamour of the past that the De Grisgono brand stands for." High spirits: The former child star appeared to be upbeat while celebrating De Grisgono founder Fawaz Gruosi's 64th birthday at Hotel Cala di Volpe on the island's picturesque Porto-Cervo resort On the night Lindsay, 30, was also seen posing for a fun selfie with hunky actor Rick Yune - best known for his appearance as James Bond nemesis Zao in 2002 smash Die Another Day. Her latest public appearance comes after disturbing images emerged of a violent beach fight with ex-fiance Egor Tarabasov in Mykonos last week. The pictures show a tussle occurring after Lindsay and Egor argue in a black 4x4. The actress hurls his mobile phone on to the sand and flees the car. He chases her, grabs her roughly from behind in an attempt to grab the handset back and twists her arm behind her back. Speaking to the Mail On Sunday, Lindsay admitted that the relationship she had hoped would bring marriage and children is violent, unstable and at an end for the moment at least. Say cheese: The 30-year old later posed for a fun selfie with hunky actor Rick Yune - best known for his appearance as James Bond nemesis Zao in 2002 smash Die Another Day Pals: Lindsay rubbed shoulders with veteran reggae star Shaggy - another guest on the night Good times: Danish model Nina Agdal - wearing St. John sequined 'Ziani' knit gown - shared a laugh with De Grisgorno founder Fawaz Gruosi She said: 'I realise now you can't stay in a relationship just for love,' she says. 'No woman can be hit and stay with that person if that person isn't prepared to say sorry.' The incident in Greece followed other episode two weeks ago, this time in London, after Lindsay posted a series of bizarre tweets accusing Egor of cheating on her with Russian designer and socialite Dasha Pashevkina. 'I shouldn't have said things about Dasha. I've apologised to her,' she added. Controversy: Her latest public appearance comes after disturbing images emerged of a violent beach fight with ex-fiance Egor Tarabasov in Mykonos last week Lindsay also sparked speculation she is expecting a baby after tweeting a photo of herself with a fake baby bump from her 2009 film Labour Pains, writing: 'I am pregnant.' However best friend Hofit Golan - with whom she is currently holidayuing in Sardinia - went on record last week to insist the former child star is not pregnant. Real Housewives of Atlanta star Cynthia Bailey and Peter Thomas have sold their Atlanta home amid their ongoing separation and expected divorce. The sale of the four-bedroom, five-bathroom home for an estimated $699,000, according to TMZ, comes less than a month after Thomas and Bailey put it up for sale in late July, and about five months after the couple separated in March. The home is currently in escrow, as Peter has moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, while Cynthia has sought to remain in Atlanta. Scroll down for video Calm before the storm: Cynthia Bailey and Peter Thomas, seen here in February just prior to their separation, have sold their Atlanta home amid their split Where the heart was: The couple have sold their 4,500 sq. ft property months after their separation, closing another chapter in their relationship Breath of fresh air: The home came with two outdoor terraces, perfect for summertime living What's cooking: The home featured a large kitchen area with state-of-the-art amenities Bailey - a 49-year-old stunner who originally hails from Tuscumbia, Alabama - has been a key player on the highly-rated Bravo hit for the past six years. Last month, she told E! that she was hoping to avoid 'an ugly divorce,' adding, 'I still love Peter ... I just don't want to be married to Peter anymore.' Bailey, whose July 24, 2010 nuptials were filmed and broadcast on Bravo in January of 2011, said that reality TV was not the reason their relationship crumbled - even after a controversy on the show last season in which Peter was seen seductively touching another woman. Nice digs: The home had a quaint living room complete with a luxury couch and mounted TV Quick turnaround: Bailey and Thomas needed less than a month to sell the lush Georgia property 'Regardless of if we were on the show or not, our issues would have happened anyways because it's just personalities and it's just chemistry and it's also compatibility,' Bailey said. Bailey - who has a 16-year-old daughter named Noelle Robinson from a previous relationship with actor Leon Robinson - spoke supportively of her estranged husband, vowing to 'better friend to him' and stay on amicable terms. 'I still root for him,' she said. 'I want him to win. I still love and support him. We are just not going to be married anymore.' Dinner time: Bailey's old home also had a nice dining room area - perfect setting for a reality TV screaming match Stunning stairway: The home's hardwood floor made for a nice, rustic feel Bailey said she was not looking back on the marriage with anger or regret, as she felt like she 'gave it all [she] could give. 'I can't speak for every women on the Earth, but I know what I am able to do and I feel like I have done as much as I can do and still be happy and still respect my husband and still love my husband.' Bailey said that their March separation - in which Thomas moved out of Georgia to focus on a Charlotte restaurant he owns - was a step in the right direction for both of them. Keeping his cool: Thomas, seen here in this recent Instagram shot, has remained cordial with his estranged wife Cynthia, who has said she's trying to avoid a messy celebrity split 'The more we got used to not being together and living together, the easier this divorce is going to be,' she told the outlet, adding, 'I think the time apart has been good for him as well.' Bailey, a statuesque former Wilhelmina model, said that with her relationship problems in her rear-view mirror she was hoping to build on her career in fashion with her accessories line, Cargo. 'I love fashion and wanted to do something in this lane,' she said, nothing she hopes 'to be the female Michael Kors of accessories.' Mainstay: Bailey (far right) seen here with her RHOA castmates, has been a regular on the reality show the past six years They're frequently seen enjoying a girls' night out on the town. But it seems Megan Rees and her BFF Lauryn Goodman were feeling the heat during a trip to Brighton on Monday, and decided to indulge their sweet tooth. Cooling down thanks to their tasty treats, the Ex On The Beach star, 21, and her beauty blogger friend ensured that all eyes were on them, thanks to their racy summer looks. Scroll down for video The sweet life: It seems Megan Rees and her BFF Lauryn Goodman were feeling the heat during a trip to Brighton on Monday, and decided to indulge their sweet tooth Strolling along the beachfront in Brighton, the duo ate ice cream to help battle the scorching heat that has hit the UK this week. Megan - who shot to fame on series three of MTV's reality romance show - certainly wasn't afraid to show some skin in her maroon crop top and maxi skirt combo. Looking the picture of body confidence as she sashayed along the beach in the famous seaside down, the Welsh beauty flashed an ample amount of flesh. Opting for a plunging halter-neck crop top, the blonde reality star ensured that her ample assets were firmly highlighted. Summer style: Cooling down thanks to their tasty treats, the Ex On The Beach star, 21, and her beauty blogger friend ensured that all eyes were on them, thanks to their racy summer looks Meanwhile the navel grazing nature of the garment allowed the MTV star to flaunt her taut and tummy at the same time. Pairing her top with a matching maxi skirt, which featured a thigh-high slash, Megan ensured that her gym-honed legs were firmly on display. She rounded her look off with a pair of black strappy wedges, which only served to further define her legs. Keeping accessories to a minimum, Megan only accessorised with a pair of aviator shades and her trusty iPhone. Showing some skin: Megan certainly wasn't afraid to show some skin in her maroon crop top and maxi skirt combo, and neither was Lauryn - who mirrored her friend's sizzling wardrobe Wearing her blonde hair pushed back off of her face, the pretty reality star allowed her natural looks to shine through, thanks to a minimal palette of make-up. Lauryn - sister of Megan's fellow Ex On The Beach alumni Chloe - looked the picture of summer in her white crochet crop top and sparkling layered maxi dress. The stunning beauty blogger rounded her outfit off with a pair of peep-toe white wedges, which mirrored her friend's choice in footwear. Last month, she filmed a stretch of the Fifty Shades sequels in Paris. And on Monday, Dakota Johnson brought a bit of the city's signature style back to her country. The 26-year-old was spotted exuding effortless glamour as she left a Radiohead concert with a friend at Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium. Scroll down for video Girls' night out: On Monday night, Dakota Johnson and a friend attended a Radiohead concert at Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium The daughter of Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson sported an elegant orange turtleneck with candy red earrings. Black leather boots artfully matched the Fifty Shades Of Grey star's black and gold purse, and a pair of faded grey skinny jeans tightened around her pencil-thin legs. The granddaughter of Tippi Hedren wore her hair in a sleek topknot and carried a glass water bottle as she left the show. Radiohead have been making headlines during their Los Angeles engagement. A bit of respite: The 26-year-old was recently at work on the back-to-back filming of Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed During Thursday night's performance, frontman Thom Yorke said onstage, 'I have a great idea. [Why not] put a paranoid megalomaniac in charge?,' which Billboard reported as a dig at Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. The morning after the show, Dakota shared a flashback photo of her mother to wish her a happy 59th birthday. 'Happy birthday mama pajama. Thanks for teaching me everything I know,' she captioned the Instagram post. Hitmaker: The franchise's first installment, Fifty Shades Of Grey, became one of the highest grossing R-rated films of all time Dakota followed it up with another picture of the mother, writing: 'Dang, girl.' Dakota has been hard at work on the back-to-back filming of Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed, the sequels to her breakthrough film Fifty Shades Of Grey. The trilogy are based on EL James' massively successful novels, and the first movie became one of the highest grossing R-rated films of all time. 'Thanks for teaching me everything I know': The following morning, she wished her mother Melanie Griffith a happy 59th birthday via an Instagram post 'Dang girl': Dakota followed it up with a sexy picture of her actress mom on set back in the day The infamously raunchy series did, of course, supply the actors with plenty of sex scenes to perform. In April, the Texan actress told Interview the process was 'not ... comfortable. It's pretty tedious.' At the time, she was filming the sequels in Vancouver, and confided, 'I've been simulating sex for seven hours straight right now, and I'm over it.' Fifty Shades Darker is slated for release in 2017, Fifty Shades Freed in 2018. Vanessa Hudgens gave her 5ft1in figure a big boost with $995 Stella McCartney 'Elyse' creepers at Radiohead's concert at LA's Shrine Auditorium on Monday night. The half-Filipina 27-year-old paired her platforms with a black suede fringed jacket and matching hat selected by stylist Natalie Saidi. The three-time Grammy-winning British band also played the same venue last Thursday. Scroll down for video Shoe in: Vanessa Hudgens gave her 5ft1in figure a big boost with $995 Stella McCartney 'Elyse' creepers at Radiohead's concert at LA's Shrine Auditorium on Monday night Leggy lady: The half-Filipina 27-year-old paired her platforms with a black suede fringed jacket and matching hat selected by stylist Natalie Saidi Celeb favorite! The three-time Grammy-winning British band also played the same venue last Thursday The Grease: Live starlet - who boasts 42.1M followers - has been romancing her live-in beau Austin Butler for five years. Vanessa will celebrate the Shannara Chronicles heartthrob's 25th birthday on August 17 following a recent lavish holiday in Italy. Despite her frequent exercise sessions, the High School Musical alum admitted to having body insecurities just like everyone else. 'I think the stomach region for all girls is something we all struggle with. The pooch! I think we all know what that pooch is,' Hudgens revealed to PeopleStyle last week. 'We work so hard to make [the pooch] go away.' '#MostHandsomeManAlive': Missing Monday was the Grease: Live starlet's live-in boyfriend of five years, Austin Butler Last sighting: Vanessa will celebrate the Shannara Chronicles heartthrob's 25th birthday on August 17 following a recent lavish holiday in Italy (pictured August 1) The Freaks of Nature actress will next rough it on the September 12 episode of NBC's Running Wild with Bear Grylls. The brunette millennial will also play insurance claims adjuster Emily Locke in the DC Comics superhero sitcom Powerless, which premieres January 2 on NBC. 'I feel like a lot of the superhero shows are always about the superheroes. but what about the other people who are trying to live their lives while these superheroes are having these epic battles?' Vanessa told EW at San Diego Comic-Con. 'You don't necessarily need superpowers to be a powerful person, so she's stumbling her way through that all.' That face! The Freaks of Nature actress will next rough it on the September 12 episode of NBC's Running Wild with Bear Grylls Retcon gang: The brunette millennial will also play insurance claims adjuster Emily Locke in the DC Comics superhero sitcom Powerless, which premieres January 2 on NBC He started Made In Chelsea: South Of France on the hunt for love, after declaring himself gay and not bisexual. But it looks like Ollie Locke hasn't had to look for long because he was spotted looking utterly smitten with a handsome new man last week. Enjoying a romantic break by the sea in Cornwall, the 28-year-old seemed to have discovered a suitor closer to home than the French Riviera. Scroll down for video New love? Ollie Locke appeared to have found himself a new man when he was pictured in Cornwall getting tactile with a male counterpart at the weekend The pair were escaping London once again, just weeks after Ollie returned from his summer break in France with the cast of MIC. It's not clear whether Ollie's new lover - who goes by the name of Nick, according to The Sun newspaper - is a Chelsea native like Ollie's pals, or whether they met across the pond in France. Now resting up in his home-from-home of Cornwall, Olly certainly seemed to shed his Riviera wardrobe sharpish, finding in favour of country garbs to suit the weather on the Cornish coast during their dog walk. New man? Ollie's mystery suitor has been identified as 'Nick' but it's not clear whether they met at home or abroad Summer of love: In Cannes, Ollie declared himself on the hunt for love Always perfectly coiffed, Olly sported his trademark side-swept hairstyle as he dressed for windier weather. He took in the coastline wearing matching wellies to his male counterpart as they walked Olly's beloved dog Bear. Olly was certainly hands-on with the tall, dark and handsome mystery man, rubbing his shoulders and touching his face. Locke of love? The Made In Chelsea star formerly identified with being bisexual Moving on: Now, he says he's hoping for his first gay relationship Dating: Previously, the hunk has dated high profile females on the show The duo made the perfect match, with Ollie's other half proving to share the same sense of humour and a love of dogs. Despite being accompanied by a female on the beach, too, Ollie only seemed to have eyes for his mystery man. On arrival in Cannes this summer, Olly declared that he was looking for his first gay relationship. 'I'm going to snog lots of men in the Riviera,' he told best friend Binky Felstead in the opening episode. Matchy, matchy: The men were in perfect sync, wearing matching wellie boots Dog lovers: They also seemed to share a love of dogs on the beach walk Windy weather: Ollie will have been more acclimatised to French Riviera weather And when kinky Binky set up her formerly bisexual BFF with an online dating profile, he admitted that it was the most action he'd had in months. Olly has previously had girlfriends Ashley James and Chloe Green on the E4 reality show, but declared himself bisexual in 2011. Now Ollie says: 'It's the first time the viewers have seen me as gay instead of bi. I do say the words "I am a gay man".' 'I lived with a woman last year when I was off camera and we had two dogs together,' he continued to The Sun. Hanging out: Ollie was escaping London again with a female pal (right) Out of London: The Chelsea native has not long since been back from France The other man in his life: Ollie is completely besotted with his dog Bear, too Ollie split from his last girlfriend Catherine Louise Radford in December, but says he's ready to have his first boyfriend after previously only 'seeing' other men. He went on: 'I want to experience my first gay relationship whether that's on or off camera. I don't mind. But I want to have one. I'm ready.' The reality TV star further specified that he was looking for an older boyfriend as he goes 'gay for the summer'. Laugh out loud: The trio certainly seemed to share a sense of humour 'Its the start of a new chapter,' he told Star magazine, and on his taste in men, he added: 'Will from [the sitcom] Will & Grace. Id like a lawyer aged 34 to 40.' During his stint on Celebrity Big Brother in 2014, Ollie candidly confessed that he had never slept with a man. 'I think everyone does think Im fully gay. But its not like that. Ive never slept with a guy. 'This is the first time Ive ever said it on television, but its done. Ive never slept with a guy in my life. I think everyone kind of assumes that I have.' Part of the family: Ollie looked happy and relaxed with the handsome suitor They were all part of the same social experiment which saw them marry strangers on the second series of Married At First Sight earlier this year. And Clare Verrall looked delighted to be spending the night at Fashion Aid in Melbourne with Erin Bateman, Christie Jordee and her former partner from the show Mark Hughes. The 31-year-old also looked comfortable as she cosied up beside Adam Nelson, who is no stranger to the reality search for love after starring on the 2016 series of Farmer Wants A Wife. Scroll down for video Reality reunion! Clare Verrall attended Fashion Aid in Melbourne with fellow Married At First Sight brides and a groom and happily cosied up with Farmer Wants A Wife's Adam Nelson Clare wore a shimmering black evening gown that featured a geometric print design throughout, and flashed a big smile to the camera. Mark looked dapper in a navy suit and wrapped his arm around Christie who wore a black and white lace frock. Their close behaviour comes after they both took to social media in early June to announce that they had called it quits after attempting a relationship after the show. Meanwhile, Erin flaunted her slim figure in a black dress that featured a daring neckline and wore her dark locks loose around her shoulders. Girls' night: The 31-year-old vivacious blonde took to social media to post happy snaps from the night out and cuddled up with her former 'brides' calling it a '#bridereunion'. Amicable split? Mark and Christie cuddled up together at the event and their behaviour comes after they both took to social media in early June to announce that they had called it quits Clare has been very active on social media since her time on the show, where her relationship with 'husband' Jono Pittman didn't last the distance after their fiery clashes. The vivacious blonde took to social media to post happy snaps from the night out and cuddled up with her former 'brides' calling it a '#bridereunion'. Looking for love? Clare hinted in the caption to one happy snap of the boys, that both male reality stars were still single Over: Clare has been very active on social media since her time on the show, where her relationship with 'husband' Jono Pittman didn't last the distance after their fiery clashes In another photo posted by Clare, she hinted both Mark and Adam were still looking for love in a caption alongside a shot of the boys appearing quite jolly at the event. She wrote next to the image: 'Some very sharply dressed farmers in need of wife's' and tagged both of them in the post. Farmer Wants A Wife star Adam's relationship with Hayley ended shortly after the show and he has since changed his look and now sporting a rugged beard. Danish pop band Lukas Graham announced on Tuesday they are cancelling the Australian leg of their upcoming tour. Due to the group's frontman Lukas Forchhammer suffering from extreme exhaustion, their tour dates in Melbourne and Sydney have been cancelled and even a gig in Tokyo, Japan has been shelved. A statement released by the 27-year-old read: 'We are really sorry to be missing you all this time but we look forward to coming back and seeing you all in the future.' Cancelled: Danish pop band Lukas Graham announced on Tuesday they are cancelling the Australian leg of their upcoming tour The statement, released by their Australian tour promoters Frontier, also added they 'sincerely apologises to those affected by this cancellation.' The news comes just days out from their first performance, which was due to take place in Tokyo on August 10. This was set to be followed by shows in Melbourne on August 13 and Sydney on August 16. Lukas took to Twitter before the cancellation of their shows was officially announced and posted: 'Your own bed > Any other bed in the world', Hinting that he was unwell, he added: 'The medicin [sic] is in our water, our food and in our minds. Not in their pills ... But at the end of it all, sleep is the cure'. No tour: Due to the group's frontman Lukas Forchhammer suffering from extreme exhaustion, their tour dates in Melbourne and Sydney have been cancelled In 2013 the pop-soul group signed with Warner Bros. Records and shortly after relocated to the U.S. for short periods of time to record music. Since then, the band has shot to international success with the release of their hit song 7 Years, which reached Number One on the ARIA charts. The trio, who also includes drummer Mark Falgren and bassist Magnus Larsson, have performed on both Late Night With Seth Myers and The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Another time: A statement released by the 27-year-old read: 'We are really sorry to be missing you all this time but we look forward to coming back and seeing you all in the future' Going global: In 2013 the pop-soul group signed with Warner Bros. Records and shortly after relocated to the U.S. for short periods of time to record music Their self-titled debut album, Lukas Graham, reached Number One on the Australian charts and they toured throughout the U.S. and Canada earlier this year. At this point in time Frontier have not announced replacement shows but have offered refunds to all ticket holders. The band are set to perform throughout North America in November although it is unclear when they will resume touring. He was once known as the man so great he needed two names but 10 years on the boy who wore combat boots to the beach is not mincing his words about his reality co-stars. Justin ''Bobby'' Brescia never wanted to be a Hollywood star, he wanted to cut hair, play music and surf, so it is no wonder he is not willing to be diplomatic when it comes to the celebrities producers once called his friends. The 34-year-old The Hills star put the show's popular lead on blast in a new interview with Broadly. Scroll down for video Not mincing his words: Justin ''Bobby'' Brescia (pictured earlier this year) has branded his former co-star Lauren Conrad a 'twisted' diva Unexpected response: The 34-year-old star put the show's popular lead on blast in a new interview, which comes after LC starred in a new MTV special The Hills: That Was Then, This Is Now (pictured) Justin Bobby said told the website that Lauren Conrad - the show's sweetheart - was more of a diva then she let on. The rocker said of LC, who just starred in a Hills special, That Was Then, This Is Now: 'She wasn't the most down-to-earth.' Blaming her early rise to fame first through Laguna Beach then The Hills, Justin continued: 'You get a young girl like that, who has been on TV since she was 18, and her whole life's exposed - how do you get an actual normal person at that point? 'You don't get someone who's down-to-earth and someone who's loving and caring. You get someone who's f*****g twisted.' 'She wasn't the most down-to-earth': Blaming her early rise to fame first through Laguna Beach then The Hills, Justin said, 'You get a young girl like that, who has been on TV since she was 18, and her whole life's exposed - how do you get an actual normal person at that point?' The truth: The 34-year-old (pictured with on-screen love Audrina Patridge in 2007) did not stop there, saying, 'You get someone who's fucking twisted' Surprising he had much nicer things to say about this other co-stars Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag, who were renowned for manipulating their lives to make for better television. He told Broadly: 'I really liked them a lot. I liked that their love stayed true - I mean they had so much [ridicule] for doing what they're doing, and they're still together, and they're still saying, ''F**k you.'' That to me is like, ''You guys won all the way around.''' After the Hills finished Justin did his best to distance himself from the show, heading to Nicaragua to surf and run a hair salon for a few years. They won in the end: Surprising he had much nicer things to say about this other co-stars Spencer Pratt (pictured 2008) and Heidi Montag as Justin said they stayed in love despite everything the did and all the ridicule they faced for it He returned to focus on his music which he performs as BobbyrocK with bandmate David Dariani. While he has popped up in the media a few times since then, Justin looked very different to his Hills days in the photo shoot for the latest interview. Sitting by the Roosevelt Hotel's pool in Hollywood, the cherub-faced but grungy bad boy with perfect stubble and long flowing locks was gone - though he still had on boots and a biker jacket to sit by the pool. Left the scene: After the Hills finished Justin (pictured on the show) did his best to distance himself from the show, heading to Nicaragua to surf and run a hair salon for a few years New focus: He returned to LA to work on his music which he performs as BobbyrocK with bandmate David Dariani In his place was a man who would have been able to slip past even the most ardent fans thanks to a much longer and scruffier beard, wayward hair and a drawn out face of someone dedicated to living life rather than being ready for his close up. On the show he was a little scruffy but he was always ready for his close up, especially as he confused and wowed his on-screen love Audrina Patridge with his philosophies on love, life and being called a boyfriend. While when he first arrived on the show he was said to be a man from Audrina's past who had left her in Las Vegas after romantic fling but Justin said that was not the case. New JB: The star looked very different in the new interview shoot. On the show he was a little scruffy but he was always ready for his close up, especially as he confused and wowed Audrina with his philosophies on love, life and being called a boyfriend He had met Audrina at her work Quixote Studios where he two worked part time while also being Maroon 5's hairstylist. '[She was] super sweet. She asked to maybe get her hair done, and then we just exchanged information and stayed in contact. Then, eventually, both our schedules freed up, and I cut it.' Producers spotted him and offered him 'triple' the amount he was earning touring with Maroon 5 and cutting hair to be on The Hills. A cut above the rest: While when he first arrived on the show he was said to be a man from Audrina's past but he actually worked with Audrina and cut her hair when MTV producers spotted him Wanting to minimise the impact of the show on his life he wanted to be called Bobby, after his middle name which is Robert. But when Audrina kept slipping and saying Justin and the rest of the cast noticed he ended up being Justin Bobby. Or as Lauren and Lo Bosworth dubbed him 'a man so great he needed two names'. The tale of two Justins: Wanting to minimise the impact of the show on his life he wanted to be called Bobby, after his middle name which is Robert, but it did not stick and he ended up being called Justin Bobby Justin did not - like most of the MTV cast - appear on last week's special That Was Then, This Is Now. While many had hoped that the special would be a 10 year reunion show it was instead a look at what Lauren is doing now. Spender told DailyMail.com exclusive, the special was because Lauren 'doesn't want to share any limelight with anybody else'. She's put her party girl lifestyle firmly behind her, embracing a healthy regime and shunning showbiz events. But Tara Palmer-Tomkinson was spotted looking a little dishevelled as she stepped out in London on Monday, appearing very different from her former self. The 44-year-old former It girl was seen struggling with a heavy shopping bag as she made her way down the street, clutching a wad of cash in one hand. Scroll down for video Shopping up a storm: Tara Palmer-Tomkinson was spotted looking a little dishevelled as she stepped out in London on Monday Tara donned a grey cardigan, looking a little scruffy in the casual garment, which appeared to have rips in it. The star showed off her long legs in pair of patchwork trousers, emblazoned with colourful motifs. She went make-up free behind a large pair of sunglasses and wore her shoulder-length brunette bob in a tousled style. Big spender: The 44-year-old former It girl was seen struggling with a heavy shopping bag as she made her way down the street, clutching a wad of cash in one hand Dressed down: Tara donned a grey cardigan, looking a little scruffy in the casual garment, which appeared to have rips in it Tara's appearance came after she made a rare public appearance at a London party last month, showing off her new chic hairdo. The socialite, who has long been plagued by speculation her nose had caved in following years of drug abuse, recently confessed he had caved in following years of drug abuse, insisted that her 'crooked' face was not 'all from drugs', that she may suffer from facial dysmorphia. 'I look this way - I'm not going to go out and have surgery,' she told Closer. Heavy lifting! Tara appeared to be struggling with her heavy duty bag after hitting the shops Leggy lady: The star showed off her long legs in pair of patchwork trousers, emblazoned with colourful motifs 'I'm 44 and it definitely hits you; there is pressure to have surgery.' Tara, who is Prince Charles' goddaughter, added: 'I find it hard and I buy every anti-ageing cream there is. But I'm not going to change myself. She also told the magazine how she works hard to maintain her size 8 figure with regular salsa classes, body control stretches and healthy eating. Tara's appearance came after she made a rare public appearance at a London party last month, showing off her new chic hairdo. Despite seeming to exude confidence, the socialite recently revealed cruel taunts over her looks 'devastated' her. Tara opened up to the Mail On Sunday about how cruel comments are made about her appearance including references to her face and body. She adds: Ive had a lot of horrid things said and written about my body. I am 44 and I dont lie about my age. I dont do Botox, I barely wear make-up. I know Im not an oil painting but Im very content with who I am, although I would say Im a work in progress.' She was busy promoting her upcoming thriller Disorder at the AOL Build Speaker series in New York City. And Diane Kruger showed off her fashion sense for the appearance, sporting a playfully embroidered pink jacket. The 40-year-old looked to be in good spirits as she modeled the sophisticated look, also flashing a smile as she discussed the Alice Winocour-directed picture. Scroll down for video Sophisticated: Diane Kruger showed off her fashion credentials in a Valentino look as she visited AOL Headquarters in New York City on Tuesday to promote thriller Disorder Diane's shiny, pink jacket featured a black stripe up the side, and parrot and floral embellishments along the front, with embroideries of more birds and a pineapple on the back. She sported the jacket over a long-sleeved, light blue and white button down, which fell to around the star's mid-thigh. She covered the shirt dress with a long, sheer black lace skirt, which hit at just above her ankles, coupling it with a pair of black, Christian Louboutin pumps. Happy to be here! The blonde beauty showed off a smile at the AOL Build event In good company: She was joined by the film's director, Alice Winocour, who looked chic in an all-black ensemble Animated: Diane looked to be enjoying herself as she animatedly discussed the upcoming thriller The Inglourious Basterds star coupled her Valentino look with stylish, $3,700 Chanel cross body purse. She covered her eyes with a pair of over-sized sunglasses, and wore her long, blonde tresses in a center part, and styled in soft waves. The National Treasure actress showed off her toned pins as she stopped to sign a wall in AOL Headquarters during her visit. Lovely in lace! The Inglourious Basterds star showed off her toned pins in a long, sheer black lace skirt Playful: Diane accessorized with a pink and black jacket with parrot and pineapple embroidered embellishments, as well as a pair of black, Christian Louboutin pumps Keeping busy: The German actress was spotted at the AOL event shortly after returning from a 'workation' in Sri Lanka Diane had joined filmmaker Alice at the AOL Build event, pulling a small smile as she posed beside her. The upcoming film will follow an ex-soldier with PTSD (Matthias Schoenaerts), who is hired to protect the wife and child of a wealthy Lebanese businessman while he's out of town. Despite the apparent tranquility on Maryland, Vincent perceives an external threat. Diane had recently returned from a trip to Sri Lanka for a 'workation' - after splitting with longtime boyfriend Joshua Jackson. Coming soon: Diane's upcoming thriller Disorder - directed by Alice Winocour and also starring Matthias Schoenaerts - hits theaters August 12 The couple made an announcement on July 18 that they 'decided to separate and remain friends,' as People reported. Diane's upcoming thriller Disorder is due in theaters on August 12. Wardrobe change: Diane changed into another chic outfit later in the day Lucifer star Rachael Harris has welcomed her first child. The 48-year-old confirmed on Tuesday that she and violinist husband Christian Hebel are the proud parents of a baby boy. Henry Harris Hebel came into the world on July 19, and the couple told People: 'Mommy, Daddy and baby Henry are REALLY enjoying getting to know each other.' New parents: Rachael Harris and Christian Hebel have welcomed their first child together, a son named Henry. They are pictured here in April Rachael also took to Twitter to share the happy news, writing: 'So @christianhebel & I had a son & I think it's the best thing we've done next to becoming TSA Precheck #WeAreInLove.' And Christian, 40, tweeted: 'No words can describe how I feel right now. Introducing Henry!' Rachael and Christian's representative didn't reveal if baby Henry was born via a surrogate. However the actress did not appear to be pregnant when she attended the Riverkeeper's 50th Anniversary Fishermen's Ball in May. No bump here: The couple's rep didn't reveal if baby Henry was born via a surrogate, however Rachael did not appear to be pregnant when she attended the Riverkeeper's 50th Anniversary Fishermen's Ball in May The creative couple tied the knot in a very low-key ceremony at New York City Hall in May of last year. Rachael wore a simple grey dress, while their famous friends N eil Patrick Harris, his husband David Burtka and Kelly Ripa acted as witnesses. The pair married after an eight-month engagement. Rising star: The 48-year-old is currently starring in Lucifer, and is also well-known for her roles in The Hangover, Diary Of A Wimpy Kid and Suits Christian got down on one knee and popped the question while they were in Italy to attend David and Neil's wedding. Rachael was previously married to actor Adam Paul from 2003 till 2008. The blonde has been starring in Lucifer since it kicked off last year, and is also well-known for her roles in The Hangover, Diary Of A Wimpy Kid and Suits. Eagle-eyed viewers noticed something quite peculiar during the first trailer for Christopher Nolan's highly-anticipated Dunkirk. One extra among a sea of 1,500 supporting artists broke character as he was spotted smirking while the rest recoiled in fear at the sound of incoming German bombers flying above them in the 56-second-long preview. Film fans took to Twitter following the debut of the trailer last Thursday to discuss the extra's light-hearted reaction to the approaching bombers. Scroll down for video Ruining the scene: One extra among a sea of 1,500 supporting artists broke character as he was spotted smirking in the trailer for Christopher Nolan's highly-anticipated 2017 WWII film Dunkirk Terror: The rest of the supporting ensemble recoiled in fear at the sound of incoming German bombers flying above them in the 56-second-long preview which was released on Thursday The particular scene which was shot in dull tones and focused on the bleak, raw nature of the 1940s French coastline- the exact spots where 76 years ago 338,000 British, French and Belgian troops were evacuated in Operation Dynamo. 'Dunkirk extra looking positively delighted about the prospect of being bombed by Nazis,' @ChristophHooton noted on Twitter. And he wasn't the only one as @MKsongbird revealed: 'Now my eyes gravitate to that not so "in the moment" extra in the Dunkirk teaser every single time.' @SAlienxandra offered his opinion, simply stating: 'Dunkirk Trailer - Best Extra Fail Ever', while @GrogsMovieBlogs seemed fed up: 'Stop saying the #Dunkirk teaser is amazing. Nothing happens in it except for a really bad extra being a really bad extra'. Despite the unfortunate facial expression from the extra, the score proved to be tense as it reached the climax of the troops grouped together. Rather chillaxed: The extra doesn't look too flummoxed, unlike his comrades Standing out for all the wrong reasons: The supporting artist seemed surprisingly content about the oncoming turmoil of events, while the rest of the extras had quite a different reaction 'Looking delighted': @ChristophHooton sarcastically made the observation about the smiling extra Not so in the moment: Another user couldn't help but focus on the oops moment 'Really bad extra': @GrogsMovieBlogs seemed frustrated at the trailer None of the film's star names feature in the trailer, with the eerie landscape all that's required to portray the desperate nature of the situation. The footage is interspersed with dramatic text reading, 'At the point of crisis. At the point of annihilation. Survival is victory.' At one point a lone soldier can be seen trudging towards the crashing surf, while another shot shows rows of dead bodies partially covered by sand. The vast scale of the project has been nothing short of breathtaking with 1,500 extras lined up on the beaches of Dunkirk, in the exact spots where 76 years ago 338,000 British, French and Belgian troops were evacuated in Operation Dynamo. The horror of war: Despite the unfortunate facial expression from the extra, the score proved to be tense as it reached the climax of the troops grouped together Director Nolan assembled his men alongside cardboard cut-outs to bolster the number of troops for the dramatic scenes. The acclaimed director, who boasts the likes of The Dark Knight trilogy, Inception and Interstellar on his resume, has paid astonishing attention to detail while filming the project. He drafted in a fleet of vehicles, which included a Spitfire and a French T-47 Class Destroyer, Maille-Breze, for an authentic reproduction rather than relying on CGI. Bleak: None of the film's star names feature in the trailer, with the eerie landscape the focus Full of tension: The footage is interspersed with dramatic text. It reads, 'At the point of crisis. At the point of annihilation. Survival is victory' Alongside the ship, which has been anchored near the beach since filming commenced, Supermarine Spitfire - the RAF's famed single-seater fighter of the period - have been put through their paces in aerial shots. The film features Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Sir Kenneth Branagh and Mark Rylance as well as One Direction star Harry Styles in his move debut. Slash Film reported that the big names in the cast are taking on the films supporting roles, with the young newcomers - like Styles - taking centre stage. Dunkirk opens in 1940 with hundreds of thousands of British and Allied troops hemmed in by the German army on the beaches of northern France. Solitary: The chilling scenes were accompanied by no dialogue, just a chilling ticking Grim: The barren beach and the dull English Channel appear to merge into one The British launched Operation Dynamo to save them between May 7 and June 4; 338,000 arrived safely in England. Among the fleet were hundreds of privately owned boats popularly known as the little ships. Nolans film is the first recreation of the evacuation since the 1958 original starring John Mills, Richard Attenborough and Robert Urquhart. It is slated for release in July 2007 with filming having taken place in Holland as well as the UK and Los Angeles. Tunisia local polls will not be held on time: commission Tunisia will not be able to hold local elections in March 2017, electoral commission chief Chafik Sarsar said late Monday. "Let's forget (that date), we aren't talking about it any more," Sarsar told private radio station Express FM. No official date had yet been set, but officials had said they were likely to be held either on March 12, 19 or 26. The President of the Tunisian Independent High Authority for the Elections, Mohammed Chafik Sarsar answers AFP journalists' questions during an interview on April 26, 2016 in Tunis Fethi Belaid (AFP/File) Sarsar explained that in order for a new date to be agreed, a new electoral law must be passed. "When will (the law) be passed? We don't know," said the official, adding that the path towards local elections was "blocked" -- particularly now that parliament is in summer recess. "A great majority of politicians don't think the local elections are important, they don't consider them to be a priority, and they would like them to be postponed," Sarsar said. "Some parties would like them to be held as late as possible because they aren't ready for them." Despite a popular revolt that removed longtime strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011, Tunisians have not yet had a chance to vote for local representatives. After the revolt, local governments were disbanded and replaced with special delegations that were meant to be temporary. "It is necessary" to hold local elections, Sarsar said, "because Tunisian citizens need to have efficient, legitimate local governments." The revolution that began in Tunisia spread to many parts of the Arab world, with mass protests in Egypt, Libya, Syria and Yemen. In every country except Tunisia the revolution was followed by violent turmoil or, as in Syria's case, a devastating civil war. While Tunisia is regarded as a beacon of the Arab Spring, it still faces many challenges, with the transition to democracy struggling at times through chaotic moments. The economy is at pains to recover and there are fears that widespread joblessness will cause social unrest. A jihadist threat has also emerged, with militant groups carrying out several attacks. Prime Minister-designate Youssef Chahed began talks last week aimed at creating a unity government to tackle the challenges. If his cabinet wins the backing of parliament, the 40-year-old Chahed will become the North African country's youngest premier since it won independence from France in 1956. Orlando gay club dead felled by 200 bullets: report The 49 people who were killed in June in the Orlando gay nightclub massacre were struck by 200 bullets, local media reported Monday, quoting coroners. The victims who died sustained 200 bullet wounds -- without counting shots that hit the 53 injured people who survived, a report by the Orange County coroners' office said, according to the Orlando Sentinel newspaper. Reached by AFP, the coroners' office said it would release a full statement on Tuesday. Lone gunman Omar Mateen -- a 29-year-old American of Afghan descent -- opened fire early on June 12 in the Pulse nightclub before taking hostages in a bathroom Brendan Smialowski (AFP/File) Lone gunman Omar Mateen -- a 29-year-old American of Afghan descent -- opened fire early on June 12 at about 2:00 am (0600 GMT) in the Pulse nightclub before taking hostages in a bathroom. Three hours passed as he remained in contact with police negotiators, who blasted their way into the club around 5:00 am. New York-born Mateen was ultimately killed in the crossfire. Americans have reeled from a string of recent shootings, including the Orlando massacre -- the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history -- which was carried out by a man authorities say was radicalized online. In Dallas, Texas, five police officers were killed in July in a sniper-style attack, while three officers were gunned down in Baton Rouge, Louisiana just days later. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has pledged to strengthen gun safety laws including expanding background checks for all gun purchases. More women win power but still few and far between Led by Angela Merkel, Hillary Clinton and Theresa May, there have never been so many experienced and ambitious women in positions of influence, even if they remain heavily outnumbered. Clinton has already made history by becoming the first female presidential nominee of a major US political party in her bid for the White House in November. "This is historic, just as Barack Obama was historic. There is no question about that," said Ester R. Fuchs, professor of public affairs and political science at Columbia University, referring to the first black US president. German Chancellor Angela Merkel (L) and British Prime Minister Theresa May meet in Berlin on July 20, 2016 John Macdougall (AFP/File) Across the Atlantic, "Iron Lady" Margaret Thatcher broke the glass ceiling decades ago when she became British prime minister in 1979, and last month May did it again. Chancellor Angela Merkel has led Germany since 2005, while South Korea, Chile, Brazil, Bangladesh and Liberia are also led by women -- as is the International Monetary Fund (IMF). But these leaders remain in a minority and their numbers are only gradually increasing. A study by the Pew Research Center last year found women led only about 10 percent of UN member states. "Even while the number of female leaders has more than doubled since 2005, a woman in power is hardly the norm around the world," it said. - 'Sheet of steel' - There are regional variations, with Finland, Norway and Iceland well used to female leadership, and South and Southeast Asia and South America performing better than elsewhere, according to UN Women, the United Nations body championing gender equality. Past leaders include Indira Gandhi in India, Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan, and Argentina's Cristina Kirchner, while Aung San Suu Kyi is currently de facto leader of Myanmar. But it took until 2005 for Africa to have its first female elected leader, in Liberia's Ellen Johnson Sirleaf -- although the continent has a better record on ministers. At the start of 2015, only 17.7 percent of all government ministers in the world were female, but it was more than 30 percent in Cape Verde, Rwanda and South Africa. In Japan, Yuriko Koike last month became the first female governor of Tokyo, a rare breakthrough in a male-dominated society. One of the 64-year-old's key tasks will be smoothing the capital's troubled road to the 2020 Olympics, hit by a series of embarrassing scandals and soaring costs. She has acknowledged it was a struggle to get where she is, once noting that Japan did not so much have a glass ceiling as a "sheet of steel" that women had to break through. In Italy, another country where men still hold sway, Virginia Raggi and Chiara Appendino were elected this year as mayors of Rome and Turin respectively. But Sofia Ventura, professor of political and social sciences at the University of Bologna, said their elections cannot yet be called a turning point. "We are in a complex phase, with steps forward but strong cultural habits," she said. - Different style - In Spain, which has been in political deadlock for months, the advent of more women could help bring a different style of politics, said Juan Jose Garcia Escribano, professor of political sociology at Spain's University of Murcia. "I believe that Spaniards will find it more and more normal that the country could be run by women who could find solutions to problems, such as economic ones, that men largely created and seem unable to solve," he said. Arantxa Elizondo, a professor at the University of the Basque Country, said women on the left of politics or in reformist movements are forging a new path. Citing Madrid mayor Manuela Carmena and Barcelona's Ada Colau, she noted they have raised issues that were previously excluded from politics, "issues related to the daily lives of people". The problem is that "there is a different standard for a woman than there is for a man", noted Fuchs. "When you look at Hillary Clinton's history you can see it so clearly. They want a man to be tough but when a woman is tough that means she is difficult as opposed to strong." So when will a woman lead the United States? "In 1937, when Gallup did its first poll on it, only 33 percent of the country said they would vote for a woman," Fuchs said. Since 2012 this figure has been 95 percent. Whether this translates into actual votes remains to be seen. Ten women holding power worldwide Chancellor Angela Merkel has led Germany since 2005 Tobias Schwarz (AFP/File) Hillary Clinton has made history by becoming the first female nominee of a major US political party in her bid for the White House Gregg Newton (AFP/File) Aung San Suu Kyi is currently de facto leader of Myanmar Hoang Dinh Nam (AFP/File) 10 powerful women They still face a fight for their rights, but women have begun to break through the glass ceiling and join the select group of global political leaders. Here are 10 of the most powerful women in the world: - Angela Merkel - Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and democratic icon in Myanmar, became state counsellor after years under house arrest and landmark November 2015 elections Narong Sangnak (Pool/AFP) Merkel, 62, became Germany's first woman chancellor in 2005 and has led the biggest economy in Europe ever since, winning a third four-year term in 2013. She is a key world leader whose opinion carries weight during financial and economic crises, on political issues and the question of global migration. She has a physics doctorate and was named the world's most powerful woman in 2015 by Forbes magazine. - Theresa May - May, 59, became Britain's second woman prime minister -- after Margaret Thatcher -- on July 13, following the resignation of David Cameron. He quit after Britons voted to leave the European Union. Interior minister since 2010, May, who cautiously campaigned for remaining in the EU, will be responsible for negotiating an extremely delicate divorce from the union. - Hillary Clinton - Clinton, 68, a former US first lady (1993-2001), New York State senator and secretary of state under President Barack Obama, now eyes the White House herself, having become the first woman to win a major party's nomination in the 2016 presidential election. - Aung San Suu Kyi - The 71-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate, a democratic icon in Myanmar, was barred from becoming president by a constitution inherited from the country's military junta. Instead, after years under house arrest and landmark November 2015 elections, she became state counsellor, the de facto prime minister, and placed a man from her inner circle in the presidential role. - Ellen Johnson Sirleaf - Dubbed the "Iron Lady", Liberia's Sirleaf, 77, made history when she became Africa's first elected woman president in November 2005. She then also won the Nobel Peace Prize. The economist, a former international civil servant and finance minister, won a second term in 2011. - Michelle Bachelet - Chile's Bachelet, 64, is the only woman leader now in power in Latin America. A former opposition leader who was tortured under the regime of Augusto Pinochet, she was also the region's first woman defence minister before serving as president of Chile from January 2006-2010. In December 2013, Bachelet won a second term. - Christine Lagarde - Lagarde, 60, is the first woman to head the International Monetary Fund, taking over in 2011 in the midst of a debt crisis. She has just been reappointed as head of the IMF. A former corporate lawyer, Lagarde was also France's first woman finance minister. - Janet Yellen - Yellen, 69, was named in 2013 as head of the US Federal Reserve, a post held exclusively by men until then. A former Harvard University professor, she was also former US president Bill Clinton's chief economist. - Irina Bokova - Bulgarian Bokova, 64, became in 2009 the first woman to head the UN cultural organisation UNESCO, which deals with education, cultural heritage and freedom of expression. Re-elected in 2013, the career diplomat has put UNESCO at the centre of the fight for women's equality. She is on the short list of candidates for the post of UN secretary general. - Margaret Chan - A 68-year-old physician who headed Hong Kong's health department during bird flu and SARS epidemics, Chan is director-general of the World Health Organization and has made women's health a priority for that UN body. Ten women holding power worldwide Xi's here to stay: China leader tipped to outstay term Already China's most powerful leader in decades, President Xi Jinping will probably seek to extend his term to more than 10 years, analysts say, the first Communist Party chief to do so since Deng Xiaoping. The ruling party's leaders have reportedly gathered at their secretive annual Beidaihe retreat on the northern Chinese coast, where discussions are expected to focus on the composition of its next all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee (PSC). The 19th Party Congress, slated for next year, will decide a new PSC line-up, traditionally seen as indicating Xi's most likely successor after he steps down, due in 2022. Willy Lam, expert on politics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said there was a 60 to 70 percent chance that Xi would refuse to give up the role of party general secretary Wang Zhao (AFP/File) But Xi has thus far delayed anointing an heir. And while Chinese Communist leaders have often maintained influence after their official retirement, scholars and analysts increasingly believe Xi will try to stay in office beyond his standard term. "A lot of analysts now see it as a given" that Xi will seek to stay party general secretary, the country's most powerful post, said Christopher K. Johnson, a former CIA analyst and now China specialist at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. Willy Lam, expert on politics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said there was a 60 to 70 percent chance that Xi would refuse to give up the role. Doing so would violate the unofficial rule set by Deng Xiaoping, who led China from 1978-1989, that general secretaries stay in office no longer than 10 years. That principle has helped smooth transfers of power within the party since the 1990s. As well as ensuring regular renewal at the top, and opportunities for different Communist Party factions to dominate at different times, the concept also seeks to prevent the emergence of a despot. - 'No heir apparent' - China's constitution sets term limits for presidents and ministers, but there is no such rule for the party secretary. Analysts say if Xi's close ally Wang Qishan, a PSC cadre who is due to retire, is allowed a second term it could establish a precedent for the party chief. Xi has made his enduring ambition clear by installing himself as chairman of most of the powerful new groups within the party, said Victor Shih, professor at the University of California, San Diego. Doing so "increases the threshold for anyone to replace him," he told AFP. "Moreover, there is no heir apparent now." Xi has already smashed several unwritten party rules since ascending to general secretary in 2012, Johnson noted. His anti-corruption drive felled the once hugely powerful security chief Zhou Yongkang, breaking the tacit understanding that former top leaders were immune to such campaigns -- and giving him an incentive to stay in power. More time as president could allow Xi to follow through on long-promised reforms and bolster his more assertive foreign policy in the South China Sea, experts say. Xi's allies could argue a longer term would let him pursue his ambitious targets of national rejuvenation and doubling 2010 per capita income by 2020, in time for the 100th anniversary of the party's founding. - Modelled on Putin - Xi has already reduced the strongest potential source of challenges by establishing his grip over the military and police, Lam said. The Party last week imposed tighter controls on the Communist Youth League, a key power base of Xi's rivals which has produced some of the country's top leaders, including former president Hu Jintao as well as premier Li Keqiang. Analysts say Xi sees an enviable model in Russia's Vladimir Putin, who has successfully kept power for well over a decade by bouncing between the offices of president and prime minister. "Like his good friend Putin, (Xi) wants to have more than two terms in power," said Lam. But while Xi has openly admitted he admires Putin, following his example presents challenges, said Bo Zhiyue, professor of Chinese politics at the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. "Putin can switch his positions without losing his power, but in Chinese politics that's not possible," he told AFP, adding that staying on as general secretary but not retaining the presidency would make Xi a "less powerful leader". And the collapse of Russia's own Communist predecessor, the Soviet Union -- something Xi sees as anathema -- itself holds warnings for the Chinese leader, said the University of California's Shih. In Moscow, a series of increasingly geriatric leaders held power until their deaths, he pointed out, which was "partly responsible for the sclerosis in late Soviet politics". Analysts say Xi Xinping sees an enviable model in Russia's Vladimir Putin, who has successfully kept power for well over a decade by bouncing between the offices of president and prime minister Greg Baker (POOL/AFP) More time as president could allow Xi Jinping to follow through on long-promised reforms and bolster his more assertive foreign policy in the South China Sea, experts say How Hwee Young (POOL/AFP/File) Foreign Facebook love revives Cambodian PM 'click farm' row With its regular live broadcasts, routine tirades and daily -- often curiously intimate -- photo posts, the Facebook page of Cambodian strongman Hun Sen has won a remarkable five million fans. But a surge of "likes" from countries including India and the Philippines has reignited allegations that his digital adoration is purchased from so-called "click farms". The 64-year-old prime minister, a once self-confessed tech dinosaur who tolerates little dissent, has embraced Facebook with gusto in the last year after opponents used the platform to reach out to younger voters. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen (centre) has embraced Facebook to reach out to younger voters Tang Chhin Sothy (AFP/File) He has vowed to remain prime minister until he is 74 with the next elections due in 2018. To do so he will need the support of Cambodia's youth -- a huge, tech-savvy demographic who voted in droves for the opposition at the last polls, wearied by the endemic corruption, rights abuses and political repression seen as the hallmarks of Hun Sen's rule. With loyalists controlling nearly all of Cambodia's mainstream media outlets, Hun Sen was initially wary of social media. But in the last year he has embraced the digital sphere -- while ramping up prosecutions against people for online comments. His slick page now documents everything from live broadcasts of speeches and meetings with villagers, to more personal moments like the premier kicking back in a white bathrobe or sporting a wet, see-through singlet at the beach. But that success has been dogged by allegations that a significant chunk of fans come from "click farms" -- networks of fake and real users controlled by digital middlemen who sell likes. In recent months, opposition groups, local media, analysts and even many of Hun Sen's own Facebook followers have all remarked on the unusual and erratic surges in likes his page receives. - Nearly half of likes foreign - An AFP analysis of Hun Sen's Facebook followers over the last six months using data from SocialBakers.com shows two periods when overseas likes have dramatically spiked -- the most recent in the last three weeks. Only 55 percent of Hun Sen's five million Facebook followers now come from inside Cambodia. Many of the likes originate in countries notorious for hosting click farms such as India, Indonesia and the Philippines. In contrast, 82 percent of followers for Sam Rainsy -- the country's most prominent opposition politician -- are Cambodian. That has led Rainsy, who currently lives in self-exile in France, to accuse Hun Sen of buying friends. "In his deceitful but childish logic, Hun Sen needs to push his popularity on Facebook in order to justify his repressive policies," he told AFP by email. - Moped rides and cash gifts - India now accounts for the largest chunk of overseas love for Hun Sen's page -- some 562,000 fans, or 11.4 percent, dwarfing even neighbouring Thailand where there is a huge diaspora of Cambodian workers. In March and April, Indian likes tripled from 175,000 to 517,000. Then from early May the rate of likes dipped slightly, only to once more rebound between July 4 and August 1 taking the number from 512,000 to 560,000. Similar patterns have taken place this year with fans from the Philippines and Indonesia. Between February 15 and May 9, Indonesian likes more than tripled from 42,000 to 150,000 and then stopped. Hun Sen's page then garnered a sudden 35,000 further likes over the last three weeks. Philippine likes also tripled over the same period, levelling off until mid July, since when they have surged from 207,000 to 259,000. Hun Sen has repeatedly denied allegations his fans are purchased. "I think it is a pride for our nation that foreigners pay attention to the leader of our government through modern technology," Sok Eysan, a spokesman for the ruling Cambodian People's Party, told AFP. "If we have money we will build roads, wells and health centres for the people, we would not spend money on buying Facebook likes," he added, saying the click farm allegations were being fuelled by "jealous" opposition politicians. The page itself has become a matter of personal pride to Hun Sen, who frequently refers to its success and the fact he passed Rainsy in the digital popularity stakes earlier this year. His posts portray him as an avuncular and accessible man of the people. In one recent video that went viral, Hun Sen gave a motorbike taxi driver a ride on his own bike before handing the man $1,000. "Now you can change your motorbike, but don't change your wife," Hun Sen told the man with a chuckle. Ou Virak, an independent political analyst, said there were "very limited reasonable explanations" for why Hun Sen's Facebook account has seen such time-limited surges in overseas likes. But he added that it was no surprise he and other politicians had flocked to social media in a country where two thirds of the population are under 30. "It makes sense they are chasing their constituents," he told AFP. A Cambodian man in Phnom Penh browses through his smartphone displaying photos of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on the leader's Facebook page Tang Chhin Sothy (AFP) Photographers took pictures of the Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen for his Facebook page during a cermony marking the 37th anniversary of the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime in January Tang Chhin Sothy (AFP/File) Pakistan lawyers strike as dazed city mourns bomb victims Pakistan's lawyers boycotted courts and staged protests nationwide Tuesday after a horrific suicide bombing at a Quetta hospital which killed 72 people including many of their colleagues. Monday's bloodletting, with medics battling to save scores of injured amid scenes of carnage, left the southwestern city reeling. Police stood guard Tuesday at the Civil Hospital, where the bomb tore through a crowd of some 200 lawyers who had gathered there the previous day to mourn the fatal shooting of a colleague. Pakistani lawyers protest in Lahore on August 8, 2016 ARIF ALI (AFP) Officials said Tuesday the death toll had increased to 72, with more than 100 injured. Both the Pakistani Taliban and the Islamic State group have asserted responsibility for the attack, though neither claim has been verified by Pakistani authorities. The IS claim, if true, would make it the group's deadliest attack so far in Pakistan, where it has struggled for purchase. Scores of lawyers held rallies in major cities including Islamabad, Karachi and Quetta Tuesday. "It's very tragic. Our seniors who were our intellectuals have been killed and may God reward them in heaven," lawyer Ghulam Muhammad told AFP in Quetta. Soldiers patrolled near-empty streets in the city, as most public transport shut down, with markets and schools closed in mourning. In graveyards around the city tearful families laid their loved ones to rest beneath a scorching sun. "What can I say about my brother? The whole city is gloomy over the loss of almost the entire leadership of the legal community," said Abdul Hameed, whose younger sibling Abdul Rasheed Khokhar was buried Tuesday. In Islamabad and in Karachi, lawyers called for the authorities to protect civilians. "This is not time only for weeping and crying and for lamenting, this is a time for practical steps," said Sheikh Asmuddin in the capital. Pope Francis said he was "deeply saddened" by the attack, joining a chorus of international condemnation. - Competing claims - The Pakistani Taliban faction that claimed the attack, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), was formed in 2014. It also claimed responsibility for Pakistan's deadliest blast so far this year -- the Lahore Easter bombing, which killed 75. The US State Department last week designated JuA a terrorist group, calling it "a splinter group of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)". Hours after the JuA announcement the Islamic State group also claimed the attack in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province. The Middle Eastern jihadists have struggled in Pakistan due to competition from well established extremist groups such as the Taliban. Attacks claimed by IS in Pakistan are rare, the most significant being a 2015 bus assault in Karachi that killed 47 people. The group has made some inroads in Afghanistan, where it has carried out attacks in the east near the border with Pakistan in a tussle for supremacy with the Afghan Taliban. Last month IS said it carried out twin suicide bombings that left 80 people dead in Kabul, the deadliest attack in the city since 2001. But officials denied that was a turning point for the group, saying it is under heavy pressure in its eastern strongholds from US airstrikes and an Afghan ground offensive. Senior analyst Rahimullah Yousafzai cast doubt on both claims to the Quetta bombing, saying there was little previous evidence of either JuA or IS being active in Balochistan province. But he added that suicide bombers can strike anywhere, so "we cannot rule it out". The claims may not be competing at all, he added, suggesting the possibility of a joint attack. "Nothing is concrete," he said. The security situation in Balochistan is already murky and confused. The province, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, has major oil and gas resources but is afflicted by Islamist militancy, sectarian violence and a separatist insurgency. It is also the site of China's ambitious $46 billion infrastructure project linking its western province of Xinjiang to the Arabian Sea via Pakistan. Pakistan's army said Monday that the Quetta attack was "specially targeting" the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. The project has been hit by numerous separatist attacks in the past but China has said it is confident the Pakistani military is in control. The army has repeatedly been accused by international rights groups of abuses in Balochistan. Graphic locating the Civil Hospital in Quetta, Pakistan where at least 70 people were killed in a suicide bombing on August 8, 2016, claimed by both the Taliban and Islamic State group - (AFP Graphic) Pakistani journalists hold oil lamps during a vigil to pay tribute to their colleagues and lawyers who were killed a day after a suicide bombing at the Civil Hospital in Quetta, in Islamabad on August 9, 2016 Aamis Qureshi (AFP) MH370 plunged into ocean at high speed: report MH370 plunged into the ocean at high speed -- up to 20,000 feet a minute -- reinforcing analysis that the missing Malaysia Airlines jet crashed in the current search zone, a report said Tuesday. The Boeing 777 disappeared on March 8, 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people onboard. An extensive underwater hunt in the southern Indian Ocean has not yet found the crash site, fuelling speculation it may be outside the current search zone, particularly if someone was at the controls at the end of the flight. The sharp dive was confirmed by new data analysis by Australia involving signals sent between the plane and a satellite, report says Manan Vatsyayana (AFP/File) A manned plane could have been glided down, allowing it to enter the water outside the 120,000 square kilometre (46,000 square mile) area being searched, some experts have suggested. But extensive testing by aircraft manufacturer Boeing and new Australian defence department data analysis both suggest that -- regardless of the possible actions of one or both of the pilots -- the jet dived into the ocean at high speed, The Australian reported. Once MH370 ran out of fuel and the engines flamed, it slowed before plunging down towards the water in a series of swoops -- dropping from 35,000 feet at a rate of between 12,000 feet a minute and 20,000 feet a minute, Boeing said, according to the report. The sharp dive was confirmed by a new data analysis by Australia's defence department involving signals sent automatically between the plane and a satellite, the head of the agency leading the MH370 hunt said. Australian Transport and Safety Bureau chief Greg Hood said this supported the view MH370 "was likely to have crashed in the 120,000 square kilometre (46,000 square mile) area now being searched," the paper said. The area was defined under the ATSB's "most likely" scenario that no-one was at the controls and the plane ran out of fuel. "The Australians leading the search do not doubt that the pilot may well have been responsible for the jet's disappearance but they say critics of the search strategy are wrong to assume that means they are looking in the wrong place," the report added. Malaysian officials said last week that one of the pilots used a home-made flight simulator to plot a very similar course to MH370's presumed final route, but warned this did not prove he deliberately crashed the plane. Kuwait posts budget deficit after 16 years of surplus Lower oil prices have pushed Kuwait into a rare budget deficit, ending 16 straight years of surpluses for the energy-rich Gulf state, the finance minister said. The OPEC member recorded a budget shortfall of 4.6 billion dinars ($15.3 billion) in the fiscal year which ended on March 31, Anas al-Saleh said in a statement carried by the KUNA news agency late Monday. It was the first shortfall since the fiscal year to March 1999. Oil and Finance Minister Anas al-Saleh speaks during a parliament session at the Kuwait's national assembly, in July 2016 Yasser Al-Zayyat (AFP/File) Revenues dropped by 45 percent to $45.2 billion while spending was cut by 14.8 percent to $60.5 billion, the minister said. Oil income was $40.1 billion, a slump of 46.3 percent from the previous year, he said. Oil accounted for 89 percent of total revenues, down from 95 percent in previous years. Saleh told parliament last month that Kuwait plans to tap international debt markets through bond issues to finance the deficit. He said the emirate would borrow up to $10 billion in US-denominated bonds from international markets, in both conventional and (Islamic) sukuk issuance. The ministry will borrow another $6.6 billion in both conventional and Islamic instruments from the domestic market, Saleh said. In previous years Kuwait built up a sovereign wealth fund worth around $600 billion that is invested mostly in the United States, Europe and Asia. Kuwait is projecting a deficit of $28.9 billion in the current fiscal year which began on April 1. As part of efforts to reduce the shortfall, the cabinet last week decided to raise the price of petrol by up to 83 percent, the first increase in almost two decades. Last year, it raised the prices of diesel and kerosene. It has also decided to lift electricity and water charges on foreign residents. The ratings agency Moody's said late Monday that the fuel price reforms will boost Kuwait's credit ratings because they will lower current expenditures and bolster government finances. New terminal for Indonesian capital's crowded airport The main airport serving the Indonesian capital Jakarta on Tuesday opened a new terminal that will allow the overcrowded aviation hub to handle tens of millions more passengers a year. Air passenger numbers are soaring in Indonesia, the world's biggest archipelago nation and Southeast Asia's top economy, as a growing middle class increasingly chooses to fly but ageing infrastructure is struggling to keep up. The $380 million terminal at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, a vast, futuristic-looking structure, will be able to handle about 25 million passengers a year once fully operational by March next year. The $380 million terminal at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport will be able to handle about 25 million passengers a year once fully operational Bay Ismoyo (AFP) The other three terminals at the country's busiest airport are currently handling about 60 million passengers a year, way over their capacity. The first flights, domestic services by flag carrier Garuda, took off early Tuesday. The terminal will start off handling only domestic Garuda flights before later running international services. Speaking at the terminal opening, Garuda chief executive Arif Wibowo hailed it as a "great milestone" that will help provide a better service for customers. Eman Suherman, an Indonesian passenger at the terminal, said he was "proud" of the terminal, adding: "It's beyond our expectations." The terminal will eventually be connected to central Jakarta, about 30 kilometres (18 miles) away, by a rail link. There is currently no rail line between the airport and city centre, leaving passengers facing monster traffic jams to get into Jakarta at busy times. The terminal's opening was delayed for more than a month after the government ordered alterations following the discovery that an important area was not visible from the air traffic control tower. As well as ageing infrastructure, the Indonesian aviation sector faces problems with safety and has suffered a string of deadly crashes in recent years. Myanmar's Suu Kyi sets date for crunch peace talks Myanmar will begin long-planned talks with armed ethnic groups at the end of the month, as the government's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi targets peace as a prelude to rebooting the economy. Several complex ethnic conflicts simmer across Myanmar's poor and militarised borderlands, hampering efforts to build the country's economy after the end of junta rule. Some groups who fought the army for decades have signed ceasefires but those are fragile, adding urgency to Suu Kyi's task. Myanmar's State Councellor and Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi(centre) wants to thrash out a deal on greater federal autonomy for ethnic groups in exchange for peace Hoang Dinh Nam (AFP/File) For the first time, peace talks will include groups that have ceasefires in place as well as those outside of the agreements. "The first meeting of the '21st century Panglong' conference will be held on 31 August," according to a statement posted late Monday on the Facebook page of State Counsellor Suu Kyi. Panglong refers to a historic conference held in 1947 by her independence hero father -- Aung San -- that saw major ethnic groups commit to joining Myanmar. But that deal collapsed under the junta that took control several years after Aung San's assassination and embarked on almost 50 years of devastating rule. The date of the talks emerged after discussions between Suu Kyi and army chief Min Aung Hlaing on Monday in the capital Naypyidaw. Suu Kyi appears to have developed a good relationship with the senior general in the four months since her National League for Democracy (NLD) party won a parliamentary majority in elections. At a speech on Monday marking the anniversary of a brutal 1988 army-led crackdown against student protesters, Tin OO, an NLD veteran and former general who joined the democracy movement, said it was important to find common ground with the military in the push for peace. But disagreements over issues such as federal rule, ownership of lucrative natural resources, disarmament of rebels and an end of operations by Myanmar's army have impeded progress on talks. The areas beset by conflict are also hot-beds of illegal logging, jade mining and drug smuggling, further complicating the picture. Suu Kyi wants to thrash out a deal on greater federal autonomy for ethnic groups in exchange for peace. It is so far unclear which of the dizzying array of ethnic groups and armies will attend the talks, although recent signs have been positive. "I think many ethnic armed groups will ask the government to join the conference," Sai Wan Leng Kham of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy party told AFP. The lawmaker, whose constituency in Shan State is near one of the conflict zones, explained Suu Kyi's flurry of peace overtures to rebel groups would likely draw many to the table. Entertainment / Music by Staff Reporter Three Zimbabweans based in South Africa and Australia have reportedly been identified as being the chief social "media terrorists".According to state run Herald, the suspects are Victor Dube (resident in South Africa), Jeff Judah Hosanna (South Africa) and Tapiwa Marimbe (Australia).As usual the Herald said the suspects are working with MDC-T officials to send "messages containing threats of violence, murder as well as armed and landmine attacks against ordinary Zimbabweans and Government officials".Quoting an unnamed security source, the Herald said: "Should the three wish to clear their names, they are welcome to present themselves to the Zimbabwean police as soon as possible. The long arm of the law will reach out to them even if it means using international police machinery. Interpol is one such agency used to reach out to cross border criminals."We will work with other governments to extradite those who originate terrorist activities taking advantage that they are out of the country."Government warns Zimbabweans to desist from communicating with these and other terrorist suspects. Should anyone receive such terrorist messages, they are advised to inform the police and provide details of the person from whom they received such messages. Resending such terrorist messages to any person is aiding and abetting the terrorists. Therefore, those that resend such messages become accomplices of the originators and will be held accountable." Thailand to hold general election in 2017: junta chief Thailand will hold a general election in 2017, the country's junta chief confirmed Tuesday, his first comments since voters backed a new military-crafted constitution in a referendum. Sunday's vote in support of the charter was the first test of public opinion since the 2014 coup, although campaigning was curbed and open debate banned ahead of the polls. "The election will be held late 2017 as planned," Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha, who as army chief seized power two years ago, told reporters. Thailand's Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha seized power as army chief two years ago Wang Zhao (AFP/File) Since the vote key allies the European Union and the United States have called on Prayut to hold elections as swiftly as possible and lift curbs on civil liberties imposed since his takeover. Previous election date promises by Prayut have slipped. The military says the new constitution will purge Thailand of corrupt civilian politicians and restore stability after nearly a decade of political turmoil including two coups. But critics say the charter will augment military power and straitjacket elected officials. Under the new charter the upper house will be entirely appointed, including six seats reserved for the military, while a proportional voting system will likely reduce the influence of major parties. The senate will also have a voice in picking a non-elected prime minister if the lower house is deadlocked, while it will be easier to impeach a civilian leader. Unofficial results released by the Election Commission on Sunday showed 61 percent of the country backed the document, with 39 percent voting "no". But turnout, currently estimated at 55 percent, was subdued. Full official figures will be released on Wednesday. Thailand has been bitterly divided ever since a 2006 coup that toppled Thaksin Shinawatra as prime minister. Years of competing protests and instability followed. In 2014 the army seized power once more, toppling Thaksin's sister Yingluck. The country's populous and poor north and northeast, a Shinawatra stronghold, was one of the few regions to vote against the charter. Addressing those voters, Prayut said: "I can see you suffering. I will take care of you. But I have to take care of other regions too." The Shinawatra clan have won all general elections since 2001, harvesting votes by promising greater wealth and opportunity to the nation's rural poor. But the family is loathed by an arch-royalist Bangkok elite which is backed by the military, and by southern voters who accuse the clan of corruption and populism. It is not yet known whether Thailand's generals will lift curbs on political gathering ahead of the 2017 elections. Israel arrests UN Gaza employee 'for aiding Hamas' Israel said on Tuesday it had arrested a United Nations employee for allegedly providing "material assistance" to the Islamist movement Hamas. Engineer Waheed Borsh, who has worked for the UN Development Programme (UNDP) since 2003, was arrested on July 16 and indicted in a civilian court in Israel on Tuesday, a government statement said. He is the second humanitarian worker to be charged by Israel in the past week with aiding Hamas. Palestinian youths wait outside the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) offices during a 2015 rally in Gaza City Mahmud Hams (AFP) The statement said Borsh, 38 and from Jabaliya in northern Gaza, had been recruited by "a senior member of the Hamas terrorist organisation to redirect his work for UNDP to serve Hamas' military interests". It said he had confessed to a number of charges, including helping to build a military jetty in the northern Gaza Strip with UNDP funding that was later used by Hamas naval forces. The statement also said the charges demonstrate "how Hamas exploits the resources of international aid organisations at the expense of the civilian population of the Gaza Strip". The announcement follows the charging on Thursday of the Gaza head of US-based NGO World Vision with diverting millions of dollars of international aid money to Hamas. Thousands flee fierce fighting in Afghanistan's Helmand Fierce fighting in Helmand has sent thousands of Afghans fleeing to the capital of the southern opium-rich province, sparking a humanitarian crisis as Taliban insurgents besiege the city despite intensified US air strikes. The Taliban advance on Lashkar Gah has compounded fears that the city was on the brink of falling into insurgent hands, even as US and Afghan officials insist that they will not allow another urban centre to be captured. Local officials warned on Tuesday that the provincial capital was struggling to cope with an influx of people fleeing the fighting across Helmand, seen as the focal point of the expanding insurgency. Afghanistan's Helmand province has seen a recent increase in militant attacks, with fighters seizing more territory in the volatile province since NATO troops withdrew in 2014 Noor Mohammad (AFP/File) "Around 30,000 people have been displaced in Helmand in the past several weeks. Most of them are coming to Lashkar Gah," Omar Zawak, the provincial governor's spokesman, told AFP. "It difficult for the city to contain all of them. Families, children, women, all have to sleep on the streets. There is a shortage of food and clean water. We need urgent support." The turmoil in Helmand, blighted by a huge opium harvest that helps fund the insurgency, underscores a rapidly unravelling security situation in Afghanistan. The defence ministry on Monday confirmed that heavy fighting had flared in Nad Ali district, where government troops sought to dislodge insurgents who overran a neighbourhood only a few kilometres from Lashkar Gah. Militants have also carried out attacks in Nawa district, just south of Lashkar Gah. - 'Great fear' - Panicked Lashkar Gah residents voiced fears that the city could fall, saying insurgents had heavily mined the roads from neighbouring districts and exhausted soldiers were running out of food supplies. "The Taliban are in control of all the roads leading to Lashkar Gah," resident Haji Qayum told AFP. "The police checkposts are falling one by one. There is a great fear the capital may fall to the Taliban." The Taliban briefly captured northern Kunduz city in September last year, the first city to fall to the insurgents in their biggest victory in 14 years of war. The Taliban effectively control or contest 10 of the 14 districts in Helmand, the deadliest province for British and US forces in Afghanistan over the past decade. The insurgents are flushing an elite new commando force into Helmand, which they call "Sara Khitta" -- the Red Brigade in Pashto. "They are a highly-trained, well-armed unit with modern equipments including night vision goggles," a Taliban commander in Nad Ali district told AFP, without revealing their exact number. An Afghan security official in Kabul confirmed the existence of the new Taliban unit in Helmand, but played down their impact on the battle field. Meanwhile, the US has stepped up air strikes supporting Afghan forces on the ground, highlighting the intensity of the battle in Helmand. "The situation down there remains tense and somewhat contested," NATO said in a statement. "It remains an ongoing security concern and there has been fighting down there for the last several weeks. We remain confident that the Afghan forces are fighting effectively and that they will continue to secure Lashkar Gah." NATO officially ended its combat mission in December 2014, but US forces were granted greater powers in June to strike at the insurgents as President Barack Obama vowed a more aggressive campaign. France seals 1 bn euro military helicopter sale to Kuwait France will supply 30 military helicopters to Kuwait in a deal worth over one billion euros ($1.1 billion) that French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian signed in the Gulf state on Tuesday. The agreement to buy the versatile Airbus Caracal helicopters is part of a 2.5 billion euro package of deals that the two countries agreed in October 2015. France has given Kuwait military support since the 1990 invasion of the country by Saddam Hussein's Iraqi forces. Kuwait inked a deal with France to buy 30 Eurocopter Caracal multi-role helicopters for its military Alexander Klein (AFP/File) The two countries are also fighting together in the international coalition against the Islamic State jihadist group. "With this deal, Kuwait further strengthens the strategic partnership which has bound together our two countries for several decades, while we are currently engaged side-by-side in the fight against Daesh in Iraq and Syria," Le Drian said in a statement, using the Arabic term for Islamic State. Kuwait's army will use 24 of the helicopters mainly for search and rescue missions and for transport purposes, but they are also fitted with machine guns allowing them to offer ground troops cover from the air. China warns UK ties at 'crucial juncture' over Hinkley nuclear plant China's ambassador to Britain urged London on Tuesday to approve a Beijing-funded nuclear power plant as soon as possible, warning that relations between the two countries were at "a crucial historical juncture". "Right now, the China-UK relationship is at a crucial historical juncture. Mutual trust should be treasured even more," Liu Xiaoming wrote in an article in the Financial Times newspaper. "I hope the UK will keep its door open to China and that the British government will continue to support Hinkley Point -- and come to a decision as soon as possible so that the project can proceed smoothly." A computer-generated image of EDF's two proposed nuclear reactors at Hinkley Point in southwest England On July 28, Britain's new government said it was delaying final approval of the 18-billion (21-billion-euro, $23 billion) project to build Hinkley Point, the country's first new nuclear plant in a generation. China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN) is due to take a 6-billion stake in the project, which will be led by French energy giant EDF. Analysts warned the delay could jeopardise ties between Britain and China, the world's second biggest economy, at a time when London needs to build strong trade ties following its vote to leave the European Union. Chinese state media had reacted to the delay by saying it "adds uncertainties to the 'Golden Era' of China-UK ties" -- but the ambassador's comments go further. The delay on a final decision, which is now expected in September, appeared to mark a change in attitude by new Prime Minister Theresa May. Her predecessor David Cameron, who stepped down after the Brexit vote, had made ties with Beijing central to his economic policy. There are questions in Britain over whether Hinkley Point represents value for money and regarding its environmental credentials. World Vision questions Hamas aid theft accusations World Vision questioned Tuesday Israeli accusations that tens of millions of dollars in aid were funnelled off to the Islamist movement Hamas, calling the alleged sum "hard to reconcile" with reality. An Israeli court on Thursday charged the NGO's Gaza head Mohammed al-Halabi with funding "terror". According to the Shin Bet internal security agency, he diverted $7.2 million (6.5 million euros) each year since 2010 to Hamas and its military wing, though the charge sheet does not specify an amount. A Palestinian militant and Hamas supporter takes part in an anti-Israeli protest in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis in September 2015 Said Khatib (AFP/File) Part of it was allegedly used to build attack tunnels from blockaded Gaza into Israel. World Vision International president Kevin Jenkins said in a statement the organisation was conducting an investigation into the allegations and "condemns any diversion of funds from any humanitarian organisation". "If any of these allegations are proven to be true, we will take swift and decisive action." But he said the organisation "have not seen any of the evidence," and suggested the numbers were exaggerated. "World Vision's cumulative operating budget in Gaza for the past ten years was approximately $22.5 million, which makes the alleged amount of up to $50 million being diverted hard to reconcile," the statement read. The NGO has suspended its operations in Gaza. The statement said Halabi became the NGO's Gaza head in 2014 and would have only had the personal authority to sign off a budget up to $15,000. The NGO said it carried out extensive background checks on its staff. Halabi's lawyer has also rejected the accusations as baseless, saying his client was held without charge or access to legal support for several weeks after his June 15 arrest. The NGO has 150 staff across Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, providing aid to around 560,000 people. The group said its work helped more than 92,000 children last year. First coalition air raids in three months hit Yemen capital Saudi-led coalition warplanes have resumed air strikes on Yemen's capital for the first time in more than three months, shutting down the airport on Tuesday, residents and an airport official said. Coalition spokesman General Ahmed Assiri confirmed that the air strikes against Iran-backed rebels had restarted and led to the closure of Sanaa airport, saying warplanes hit military targets "around" the city. The raids in Sanaa began late the previous day and intensified on Tuesday, residents said. The Saudi-led coalition launched an air campaign in support of Yemen's President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi in March 2015 Fayez Nureldine (AFP/File) The Huthi rebels' spokesman, Mohammed Abdulsalam, accused the coalition on Facebook of "committing heinous crimes" by targeting a food factory inside Sanaa on Tuesday, causing casualties. He spoke of other strikes in the rebel strongholds of Saada, Hajja, and Ibb. The raids come less than 72 hours after UN-brokered peace talks were suspended following the appointment by the Shiite rebels and their allies of a council to run Yemen. A ceasefire came into effect on April 11 but failed to hold as all parties traded accusations of violations. Assiri said the coalition had respected the truce for three months but had resumed operations because of increased violations by the rebels and the failure of peace talks in Kuwait. He confirmed that flights had been suspended at Sanaa airport for at least 72 hours. "Operations are ongoing, and this could endanger flights," Assiri told AFP. Sanaa airport director Khalid al-Shayef said the facility would be shut for 72 hours, starting from Tuesday morning, on the order of Saudi Arabia. Sao Tome PM hails end of political 'cohabitation' after vote The prime minister of Sao Tome and Principe on Tuesday said his country had entered an era of stronger governance after his ally Evaristo Carvalho was elected president. "This is a new moment ... the end of cohabitation," Patrice Trovoada said on national television, referring to the often-fractious tradition of power-sharing. "The conditions are now ripe for greater cohesion in government and for better institutional relations," said Trovoada, who predicted parliament and the judiciary would also benefit from the change. Supporters of Sao Tome Independent Democratic Action (ADI) party candidate Evaristo Carvalho wear T-shirts and hold placards picturing the politician as they celebrate his victory in the presidential election first round on July 18, 2016 Samir Tounsi (AFP/File) Africa's second smallest state, Sao Tome and Principe is a tiny archipelago off the coast of Gabon. Although considered a beacon for democracy in West Africa, the former Portuguese colony has also been riven by turf wars between the prime minister and head of state. The state has had "cohabitation" between political forces since a multiparty system was introduced in 1991. Trovoada had squabbled repeatedly with defeated president Pinto da Costa, with whom there was a family history of animosity. The win by Carvalho, his ally, in Sunday's election for the presidency should end friction between the two offices, Trovoada said. Carvalho is expected to play a mediator's role, while Trovoado will wield the real power with the support of the centre-right Independent Democratic Action (ADI) party, which has a majority in parliament. "Sao Tome and Principe needs a new era of work, a new era of mutual help, with political consistency and stability in government. We must all work to take the country forward," Carvalho said in his own televised address. The ADI faces a "great responsibility", he said. Carvalho, the 74-year-old vice-president of the ADI party, won Sunday's second round of the presidential poll with a little more than 42,000 votes from an electorate of about 111,000, according to provisional results. As in Portugal, the president does not govern but serves as a mediator in disputes in the nation of about 200,000 inhabitants, which became independent in 1975 and today relies on international aid to sustain 90 percent of its economy. After Pinto da Costa found himself in second place during the first round of the election on July 17, with 24.83 percent of votes against 49.8 percent for his main rival, the 79-year-old leader backed out of the race. Anti-Trump wave courses through Republican ranks More Republicans broke ranks Tuesday with their party's White House nominee Donald Trump, issuing dire warnings that his recklessness and lack of policy chops would put the United States in danger. Facing sinking poll numbers and anger in the party over his repeated stumbles and divisive rhetoric, Trump's campaign has struggled to turn the page from a strong grassroots primary effort to a more mature head-to-head battle with Democrat Hillary Clinton. On Monday, 50 former senior Republican national security officials warned in an open letter that if Trump were elected, he would be "the most reckless president in American history." Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, pictured on August 6, 2016, has garnered disdain from a large swath of America's political, defense and security establishment for his unorthodox -- some say downright dangerous -- views Scott Eisen (Getty/AFP/File) Those tough comments drew a sharp reply from Trump, who painted the group as "nothing more than the failed Washington elite looking to hold onto their power" and saying they should be "held accountable" for making the world less safe. Influential US Senator Susan Collins then piled on, saying the nominee was "unworthy" of America's highest elective office and would not receive her support. On Tuesday, the intra-party bleeding continued. The latest Republicans to jump ship are a pair of former Environmental Protection Agency administrators who blasted Trump for having "shown a profound ignorance of science" and for dismissing climate change as a hoax. William Ruckelshaus, who served under presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, and William Reilly, who worked with George H.W. Bush, said backing away now from crucial progress on global climate initiatives "would set the world back decades." "We Republicans should be shocked, outraged even, at the prospect that all this progress, this legacy will be repudiated and rolled back by Donald Trump," they said in a statement released by Clinton's campaign, which they now support. - 'Cruel comments' - In an op-ed piece for The Washington Post, Collins -- a moderate senator from Maine -- did not pull punches. "Donald Trump does not reflect historical Republican values nor the inclusive approach to governing that is critical to healing the divisions in our country," Collins wrote. "I have become increasingly dismayed by his constant stream of cruel comments and his inability to admit error or apologize," wrote Collins, who portrayed Trump as a candidate "who will slash and burn and trample anything and anyone he perceives as being in his way or an easy scapegoat." Trump has garnered disdain from a large swath of America's political, defense and security establishment for his unorthodox -- some say downright dangerous -- views, such as his professed admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his apparent readiness to scuttle America's central role in the NATO military alliance. Trump has also raised concerns over his recent war of words with the parents of a Muslim American soldier killed in a suicide bombing in Iraq. Further to the shock and dismay of many in America's political class, he has even questioned why the nation has bothered to develop nuclear weapons if it has no intention of putting them to use. Retired four-star general Barry McCaffrey spoke out against Trump, declaring him unfit for the Oval Office and saying it was "remarkable how little he knows" about national security. "Why he's so out of the loop on these issues is hard to imagine," McCaffrey told MSNBC. - Unfit for office - While the US security experts did not say they would vote for Clinton, they declared Trump unfit for office, echoing Clinton's criticism by saying that he "lacks the character, values, and experience to be president" and displays "alarming ignorance of basic facts" of international politics. The 70-year-old New York real estate mogul also has shown no willingness to learn about national security threats, "acts impetuously" and lacks self-control, said the experts, including former homeland security chiefs Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff and former CIA director Michael Hayden. Trump rejected the group as the "insiders" who, "along with Hillary Clinton -- are the owners of the disastrous decisions to invade Iraq, allow Americans to die in Benghazi, and they are the ones who allowed the rise of ISIS," Trump said, using an acronym for the Islamic State jihadist group. "I offer a better vision for our country and our foreign policy -- one that is not run by a ruling family dynasty." While several GOP lawmakers have openly rejected Trump, Scott Rigell became the first House Republican to announce he will vote for Libertarian Gary Johnson in November. "I think our party has made a terrible mistake in elevating Donald Trump," Rigell told MSNBC Tuesday. Trump "is so lacking in judgment and temperament and in character that I think he really represents a true risk to our country, and I can not in good conscience support him." Supporters of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at a rally on August 6, 2016 in Windham, New Hampshire Scott Eisen (Getty/AFP) Senator Susan Collins, pictured on July 29, 2016, said Donald Trump was "unworthy" of America's highest elective office and would not receive her support Astrid Riecken (Getty/AFP/File) Retired four-star general Barry McCaffrey, pictured in 2009, said it was remarkable how little Donald Trump knows about national security Chip Somodevilla (Getty/AFP/File) De Niro, Moore to star in TV crime series: reports Filmmaker David O. Russell has tapped Oscar winners Robert De Niro and Julianne Moore to star in a new television series, reports said Tuesday. The as yet untitled show will be a crime thriller, possibly set in the 1990s, and set to run for several seasons, according to film website Deadline. The project, expected to be a serialized miniseries, is reportedly being offered to cable and streaming outlets and has already garnered several competitive offers, various media are reporting. US actor Robert de Niro, pictured on May 16, 2016, looks poised to star opposite Julianne Moore in a new series from filmmaker David O. Russell Valery Hache (AFP/File) Russell -- whose films include 2013 crime comedy "American Hustle" and 2015 biopic "Joy" -- executive produced SyFy's "Outer Space Astronauts," but has never directed a television series. In 2014, he co-wrote a TV series set in a private country club, ABC's "The Club," but left the project without explanation and the show never aired. Moore is no stranger to the small screen, having won an Emmy for playing Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin in HBO TV movie "Game Change." De Niro -- who worked with Russell on "Silver Linings Playbook" and "Joy" -- is due to appear as financier Bernie Madoff in the network's forthcoming film "Wizard of Lies." Both Moore and De Niro and have also appeared as guest stars on comedy "30 Rock." Movie stars were at one time hardly ever seen in TV series, but in recent years some of the most talked-about performances by big name Hollywood actors have been on the small screen. HBO's "True Detective," which debuted in 2014, starred Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, with Colin Farrell, Rachel McAdams and Vince Vaughn picking up the reins in the second season. Other recent shows with silver screen A-listers include Showtime's "House of Lies," with Don Cheadle and -- perhaps the most successful of all -- Netflix political drama "House of Cards," with Kevin Spacey in the lead role. News / Local by Staff Reporter A photo showing President Mugabe's hand has gone viral online. Zimbabweans online have been asking if Vaseline is among the products banned for import into the country.Others have suggested that 51-year-old Grace might have forgotten to apply lotion on her 92-year-old husband before he left the State house.It is not clear how the masses concluded that it's Mugabe on the photo since the face is not visible. Father of Orlando gunman at Clinton rally The father of the gunman who killed 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida was spotted at a speech Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton gave to supporters in the swing state. Seddique Mateen was caught on camera seated in the audience behind Clinton during her campaign appearance Monday night in Kissimmee, a town 23 miles (37 kilometers) south of Orlando. Mateen's son, Omar, proclaimed his allegiance to the Islamic State group during the June 12 massacre at the Pulse nightclub, which ended after three hours when police finally stormed the venue and shot him to death. A man identified as Seddique Mateen (C-red ball cap), whose son shot and killed 49 people and injured 53 others inside the Pulse nightclub, sits with supporters at a rally for Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in Kissimmee, Florida Gregg Newton (AFP) It was the deadliest mass killing on US soil since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. Clinton, on a trip through the crucial swing state, opened her speech with a tribute to the 49 people who lost their lives in Orlando. Mateen, an immigrant from Afghanistan, was approached by a reporter from the local WPTV television station and asked about his presence at the rally. "Why should they be surprised? I love the United States, and I've been living here a long time," he said. "Hillary Clinton is good for United States versus Donald Trump, who has no solutions," he said. The rally was open to the public and about 3,000 people attended. "This individual wasn't invited as a guest, and the campaign was unaware of his attendance until after the event," the Clinton campaign said in an email sent to reporters. On Tuesday, the Orange County medical examiner's office released the official autopsy reports for the victims of the Orlando shooting. Jews and Arabs clash over ailing hunger striker Jewish and Arab protesters traded punches Tuesday outside an Israeli hospital where a Palestinian prisoner is on hunger strike, and police said they made arrests on both sides. Bilal Kayed has been refusing food for 56 days in protest at his detention without trial by Israel and was moved from prison to Barzelai hospital, in the southern city of Ashkelon, when his health deteriorated markedly. The Physicians for Human Rights NGO says his vision is failing, he has difficulties standing and that doctors have warned he could be at risk of a stroke. Israeli police arrest a Palestinian protestor during a demonstration in support of Palestinian prisoner Bilal Kayed, who has been fasting for 53 days over his detention without trial, outside the Ashkelon hospital where he is held, on August 9, 2016 Ahmad Gharabli (AFP) Palestinian officials say he has kidney problems. On Tuesday Arab and some Jewish supporters of Kayed picketed the hospital, some carrying banners reading "Administrative detention is not legal," a reference to an Israeli practice allowing detainees to be held without trial for renewable six-month periods. Arab Israeli MPs were among the protesters. Right-wing Israelis, some shouting "death to terrorists", staged a counter-demonstration and the two sides exchanged punches, an AFP journalist at the scene reported. When police intervened, the right-wingers threw rocks at officers. Police said they arrested 10 Jews and three Arabs suspected of public disorder, assaulting police or interfering with police in the performance of their duty. They did not say if the Arabs arrested were Israeli citizens or Palestinians from annexed east Jerusalem, who have free access to Israel. Kayed was to have been released in June after serving a 14-and-a-half-year sentence for activities in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, labelled a terrorist organisation by Israel, the European Union and the United States. Instead, Israeli authorities ordered he remain in custody until further notice. Israel says administrative detention allows authorities to hold suspects while continuing to gather evidence, while Palestinians, human rights groups and members of the international community have criticised the system. Of more than 7,500 Palestinians currently in Israeli jails, about 700 are being held under administrative detention, Palestinian rights groups say. US approves $1.15 bn tank, weapons sale to Saudi The United States has approved the possible sale to Saudi Arabia of up to 153 tanks, hundreds of machine guns and other military gear in a deal worth $1.15 billion, the Pentagon said Tuesday. The announcement coincided with news that Saudi-led coalition warplanes had resumed air strikes on Yemen's capital for the first time in three months, killing 14 people and shutting the airport after UN-brokered talks were suspended. State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said she was "very concerned" by Tuesday's casualty reports, but did not directly comment when asked if the State Department worried US weapons being sent to Saudi Arabia could be used against civilians. Tanks drive during the Northern Thunder military exercises in Hafr al-Batin, on March 10, 2016 Fayez Nureldine (AFP/File) "We regularly talk to our partners and our allies around the world. You know, civilian casualties are obviously of grave concern to us," she said. According to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), Riyadh had requested the possible purchase of up to 133 American M1A1/A2 Abrams tanks that would be configured to Saudi needs, plus another 20 to replace damaged tanks in their fleet. Additionally, the deal would include 153 .50-caliber machine guns, 266 7.62mm M240 machine guns, smoke grenade launchers, armored recovery vehicles and a range of other hardware. The US State Department has approved the "possible" sale and notified Congress on Monday, the DSCA said. Congress has 30 days to block the sale, though is unlikely to do so. "This proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of a strategic regional partner which has been and continues to be a leading contributor of political stability and economic progress in the Middle East," the DSCA said in a statement. "The addition of these tanks and recovery vehicles to the (Saudi military's) inventory will enhance Saudi Arabia's ability to support its soldiers in the field and to defend the Kingdom's borders." - 6,400 dead - The Pentagon announcement made no mention of the conflict in Yemen, where the Saudi-led coalition intervened in March last year after Shiite Huthi rebels and allied forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh overran Sanaa. Tuesday's raids included a strike on a food factory in Yemen's rebel-held capital Sanaa, medics said. Factory director Abdullah al-Aqel gave a higher toll of 16 killed and 10 wounded, adding that all the victims were workers. The Al-Aqel factory, which makes potato chips and is near a military equipment maintenance center targeted in the raids, was struck during working hours, he added. The UN says more than 6,400 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Yemen since the coalition air campaign began last March. The fighting has also driven 2.8 million people from their homes and left more than 80 percent of the population needing humanitarian aid. Saudi Arabia also forms part of the US-led coalition fighting Islamic State jihadists in Syria and Iraq. Last November, the United States approved a $1.29 billion deal to replenish the Saudi air force's arsenal, depleted by its bombing campaign in Yemen. US judge issues arrest warrant for rapper Tyga A Los Angeles judge issued an arrest warrant on Tuesday for US rapper Tyga after he failed to appear at a hearing in a lawsuit brought by his former landlord. Tyga, who was due in court in Santa Monica, failed to pay a $480,000 judgment against him for back rent and damage at a Malibu home he rented in 2011. The rapper's landlord, Gholamreza Rezai, went to court in 2012 claiming that Tyga missed a $16,000 monthly rent payment, skipped out on his lease and left the home in need of major repairs. Tyga, pictured on May 12, 2016, failed to pay a $480,000 judgment against him for back rent and damage at a Malibu home he rented in 2011 Dave Kotinsky (Getty/AFP/File) The Grammy-nominated California rapper also allegedly installed a dance pole in the middle of the master bedroom without permission. Tyga, who has been dating Kylie Jenner, claimed poverty, refusing to pay the settlement ordered by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Nancy Newman. He was scheduled to be questioned under oath about his finances. Newman signed a bench warrant, which is typically issued in the case of a failure to appear for trial and could lead to Tyga being jailed, with bail set at $10,000. According to TMZ.com, the landlord's attorney noted recent media reports that Tyga bought Jenner a $200,000 car for her birthday. Green-water mystery as Chen ties diving record at Rio Olympics China's Chen Ruolin shrugged off an inexplicably green Rio diving pool to tie team-mate Wu Minxia's two-day-old record of five career diving gold medals on Tuesday. China's magnificent divers stayed unbeaten in the Olympics as Chen and Liu Huixia won the women's 10m synchronised competition, taking China to three-for-three in its bid for an unprecedented eight-event sweep. But much of the attention at the event was directed at the diving well's bizarre transformation from light-blue the day before to a murky green, the latest embarrassing hiccup for the Rio Games. China's duet Chen Ruolin and Liu Huixia compete in the Women's Synchronised 10m Platform Final during the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, at the Maria Lenk Aquatics Stadium, on August 9 Martin Bureau (AFP) Venue spokesman Simon Langford said water tests found "no risk whatsoever to athletes' health." "We are investigating to determine what the cause of the situation was, but we are happy to report that the competition was successfully concluded," he said. It ended happily for the often under-appreciated Chen, 23, who is now firmly among the sport's greats. On Sunday, the 30-year-old veteran Wu became the first to the five-gold milestone by taking the women's 3m synchronised springboard with Shi Tingmao, passing legends like American Greg Louganis and former Chinese springboard diva Guo Jingjing. Chen paid tribute to the senior Wu as her "idol." "I know she won five gold medals and that is very, very incredible. But to be honest I haven't personally thought much about that," Chen said. "All of us have tried very hard in our training and we have won our medals because of our dedication." - 'Green Games' - Chen and other divers said the green water was not a factor. "I don't think this affected us in any way," Chen said. The Chinese fought off a spirited challenge from Malaysian silver medallists Pandelela Rinong and Cheong Jun Hoong, while Canada's Meaghan Benfeito and Roseline Filion replicated their London 2012 bronze. With the typical Chinese combination of grace and muscular precision, Chen and Liu held on to a slim early lead to finish at 354.00 points, just 9.44 points clear of the Malaysians. It was a three-peat gold in the event for Chen, who won with different partners in Beijing and London. She also ruled the individual 10m platform in those Games, but is not entered for Rio. The cheerful and cheeky Chen was coy on whether she would retire or compete in future Games. "If I were to retire - if - I would cheer on those that come after me, but I haven't really thought that far ahead," she said. No team has swept all eight men's and women's golds since the number of medals doubled at Sydney 2000 with the addition of synchronised events. China fell one gold shy in 2008, and two short in London. Malaysia's finish marked the best-ever by women from that country. Pandelela won an individual bronze in 2012, the first-ever medal by a Malaysian woman. On Wednesday, China's Qin Kai goes for his third straight mens synchronised 3m springboard title, pairing with Cao Yuan, who won London gold in the 10m synchro. Gold-medal holders He Zi and Shi Tingmao also will compete later in the Games for the women. The diving ends on the Games' second-to-last day with its most anticipated contest, the men's 10m individual platform. Chinas reigning world champ Qiu Bo will look to avenge the upset loss in London to David Boudia of the United States that left him with silver. Joining them will be Chen Aisen, who won gold Monday in the 10m mens synchro, and British star Tom Daley. The 22-year-old Briton, who took bronze in Monday's event with Daniel Goodfellow, was one of those who looked askance at the green water. "Ermmm... what happened?!" he tweeted, with a photo of the green pool. US special ops troops in Libya's Sirte: report American special operations troops have for the first time started directly supporting Libyan forces battling the Islamic State group in their key stronghold of Sirte, The Washington Post reported Tuesday. US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Post the commandos were working from a joint operations center on the outskirts of Sirte. The Pentagon last week announced it had started an air campaign in Sirte following a request for help from the Libyan Government of National Accord. Citing unnamed officers allied with the Libyan government and Western security officials, the Washinton Post reported that American and British personnel had been seen in Sirte several times Mahmud Turkia (AFP/File) The Post said the US forces are operating alongside British troops, and are helping to coordinate American airstrikes and providing intelligence to partner forces. The Pentagon would not comment on the specifics of the Post story, but has previously acknowledged small US teams are helping gather intelligence in Libya. "The US is providing unique capabilities -- notably intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and precision strikes -- that will help enable GNA-aligned forces to make a decisive, strategic advance," Pentagon spokeswoman Henrietta Levin said in a statement. "A small number of US forces have gone in and out of Libya to exchange information with local forces, and they will continue to do so as we strengthen the fight against ISIL and other terrorist organizations," she added, using another acronym for the IS group. The Pentagon said the Libyan government has established joint operations rooms, but stressed they are away from the front lines. Citing unnamed officers allied with the Libyan government and Western security officials, the Post also said American and British "personnel" in body armor and wearing military fatigues had been seen in Sirte several times. French President Francois Hollande last month announced that three French troops had died in a helicopter accident while taking part in "dangerous intelligence operations" in an undisclosed location in Libya. Libyan sources said the aircraft had been shot down. The troubled North African nation spiraled into chaos after longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi was ousted and killed in October 2011, with two governments vying for power and armed groups battling to control vast energy resources. Exploiting Libya's power vacuum, IS jihadists established a foothold in Libya, especially in Sirte. UN fails to condemn N. Korea after China draws link to THAAD The UN Security Council failed to agree Tuesday on a statement condemning North Korea's launch of a missile that landed near Japan after China sought to include language opposing the US missile defense system in South Korea. The United States had circulated a draft statement that strongly condemned the August 2 launch and expressed particular concern that the ballistic missile landed near Japan. China proposed adding that "all relevant parties shall avoid taking any actions which could provoke each other and escalate tensions, and shall not deploy any new anti-ballistic missile stronghold in Northeast Asia with an excuse of dealing with threats of the DPRK nuclear and missile programs," according to a draft obtained by AFP. South Korean activists hold placards during a rally against a plan on deployment of the US-built Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), outside the Defence Ministry in Seoul on July 13, 2016 Jung Yeon-Je (AFP/File) US Ambassador Samantha Power called for a "strong, swift response from the Security Council" following an emergency meeting last week to discuss the latest missile test. Power had said that the US agreement with South Korea to deploy the THAAD missile defense system was "purely defensive" and in response to North Korea's drive to refine its capabilities. China, Pyongyang's closest ally, had sought to delete from the text a sentence expressing concern that the missile "impacted near Japan." Diplomats said negotiations on the council statement, which must be agreed by consensus, had reached a dead end. It was the second time in two months that the council has been unable to agree on condemnation of North Korea, due to objections from China. The council last adopted a statement condemning North Korea for two medium-range missile tests on June 23. North Korea has been hit by five sets of UN sanctions since it first tested an atomic device in 2006. Trump jab at Clinton seen by some as threat of violence Donald Trump was once again at the center of a firestorm Wednesday, this time over controversial comments interpreted by some as a threat of violence against presidential campaign rival Hillary Clinton. Trump's intended message was not immediately clear, but lawmakers, former national security officials and other critics expressed concern that he had advocated, possibly in jest, that Clinton or her Supreme Court nominees could be shot. "Hillary wants to essentially abolish the Second Amendment," Trump told a rally in Wilmington, North Carolina, referring to the US Constitution's clause that enshrines "the right to bear arms." Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses the audience during a campaign event at Trask Coliseum on August 9, 2016 in Wilmington, North Carolina Sara D. Davis (Getty/AFP) "If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks," Trump said. "Although the Second Amendment people -- maybe there is, I don't know," he said, in remarks that some deemed his most explosive and most offensive to date. Trump earlier appeared more focused on delivering his typical campaign stump speech about Clinton, telling supporters she would represent four more years of President Barack Obama, "but maybe worse," and sparring with her over policy. "I gave a massive tax decrease yesterday," Trump said, referring to economic plans he unveiled Monday. "Clinton, she's going to double up your taxes." But then Trump drew attention away from his message with his "Second Amendment" remarks. - Struggling in the polls - It was the latest in a long string of Trump trip-ups -- including his clash with the parents of a Muslim American soldier killed in action -- that have marred his campaign since he officially won the nomination last month, prompting several Republicans to reject his candidacy. Clinton's campaign decried Trump's "dangerous" language and demanded in a statement that presidential hopefuls "not suggest violence in any way." Trump's team fired back to say the 70-year-old Manhattan billionaire simply meant that gun rights advocates were a powerful voting force. "Second Amendment people have amazing spirit and are tremendously unified, which gives them great political power," senior Trump communications advisor Jason Miller said. The National Rifle Association, America's largest pro-gun lobby, put forth that Trump was correct in saying it would be hard to protect the Second Amendment if Clinton appoints new justices. "But there IS something we will do on #ElectionDay: Show up and vote for the #2A!" the group posted on Twitter. Trump is struggling to transition from his strong grassroots primary performance to a more mature head-to-head battle with Clinton. He suffers from sinking poll numbers, including a Quinnipiac University survey released Tuesday that shows him trailing Clinton in crucial battleground states Ohio and Pennsylvania, and virtually tied in Florida. Democratic lawmakers expressed shock about Trump's comments. "In this clip, Trump's either calling for an armed revolt or the assassination of his opponent. Despicable," Democratic congressman David Cicilline posted on Twitter along with footage of Trump's remarks. - 'Incredible insensitivity' - The Secret Service -- which is tasked with protecting both Trump and Clinton -- said it "is aware of the comments," but did not say whether they merited an investigation, which some Democratic lawmakers have called for. At a later rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina Trump avoided addressing his controversial comments. But the supporter who introduced him, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, sought to clarify the remarks, insisting Trump had not aimed to incite violence. "What he meant by that was, you have the power to vote against her," Giuliani said. Trump's repeated stumbles and divisive rhetoric have angered Republican Party grandees. Former CIA director Michael Hayden blasted the "Second Amendment" comments. "It suggests either a very bad-taste reference to political assassination and an attempt at humor, or an incredible insensitivity," he told CNN. Hayden was among 50 former senior Republican national security officials who warned in an open letter Monday that if Trump were elected he would be "the most reckless president in American history." Influential Republican US Senator Susan Collins piled in, saying the nominee was "unworthy" of America's highest elective office and would not receive her support. Joe Scarborough, a former member of the House of Representatives and now a television host, wrote in the Washington Post that Trump's Second Amendment remark was the final straw. "What else could Trump do that would be worse than implying the positive impact of a political assassination?" the former US lawmaker wrote. "The Republican Party needs to start examining quickly their options for removing the Republican nominee," Scarborough said. New York artist Scott LoBaido unveils a 'Patriotic Lawn T' in support 2016 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in the area of Castleton Corners on Staten Island, New York on August 9, 2016 Kena Betancur (AFP) A man identified as Seddique Mateen (C-red ball cap), whose son shot and killed 49 people and injured 53 others inside the Pulse nightclub, sits with supporters at a rally for Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in Kissimmee, Florida Gregg Newton (AFP) Black man killed by LA police 'not suspect' in carjacking The Los Angeles County Sheriff admitted Tuesday an African-American man shot dead by a deputy was not connected to a carjacking that led to the confrontation. Donnell Thompson, 27, was gunned down on July 28 in the latest in a series of controversial shootings of black men by police that have sparked protests across the country. The incident took place as officers were hunting a carjacking suspect who had allegedly fired at deputies, hitting their patrol car. Donnell Thompson, 27, was gunned down on July 28 in the latest in a series of controversial shootings of black men by police that have sparked protests across the country Mandel Ngan (AFP/File) However the sheriff's department said in a statement Tuesday that it had determined "that there is no evidence that Mr Thompson was in the carjacked vehicle." The admission, which comes on the second anniversary of Michael Brown's shooting in Ferguson, Missouri, prompted Thompson's family to call the killing racially motivated and demand a public apology. A resident of LA's Compton neighborhood had called 911 after finding Thompson lying in his yard, the sheriff's department said, after deputies had already arrested the carjacking suspect. One of Thompson's hands was hidden from view and he failed to respond to numerous commands, the department added. Deputies were worried that he had been involved in the carjacking and was still armed, and when he finally stood up and charged at them, one of them fired at him, the department said. No weapon was recovered, and the deputy has subsequently been reassigned to non-field duties. Thompson's oldest sister, Matrice Stanley, told reporters outside a meeting of the LA County Board of Supervisors that her brother's "mentality was like a 16-year-old." The 44-year-old nurse said she believed race had played a role in the killing of her brother, who went by the nickname "Bo Peep" and was just 5 feet 3 inches (1.60m) tall. Video of the confrontation is inconclusive, according to Dawn Modkins of Black Lives Matter, who said that the family's lawyers would decide when and if to release it. Modkins said deputies "riddled him with rubber bullets" before fatally shooting Thompson. She called for the Board of Supervisors to push plans forward for a civilian oversight commission, adding: "Our police and our sheriff's department can no longer be allowed to police themselves." Compton station deputies had been patrolling early in the morning on July 28 when they stopped a motorist for a traffic violation. After running the vehicle's plates they determined it had been stolen, the sheriff's department reported. The motorist sped off, and deputies chased the vehicle to an apartment block, where Special Enforcement Bureau personnel were dispatched. "Deputies encountered Mr Thompson shortly after the carjacking suspect who had opened fire on our deputies was arrested," the statement said. The sheriff's department said it was conducting "an exhaustive review of the sequence of events" that will be presented to the Los Angeles district attorney's office. Electric car maker misses debt payment to Mississippi JACKSON, Miss. (AP) Electric car maker GreenTech Automotive, which once planned to build 250,000 cars a year and invest $2 billion in an impoverished corner of Mississippi's Delta region, has missed a debt payment to the state of Mississippi. Mississippi Development Authority spokesman Jeff Rent confirmed Monday that the Tunica County company didn't pay $150,000 due June 30. That was the first payment on a $3 million state loan. "The Mississippi Development Authority continues to work with GreenTech Automotive as the company secures additional funding," Rent wrote in an email. "This is the best course of action to protect the state's investment and to keep Mississippians working at the plant." In this June 13, 2016, photograph, production cars are parked outside the GreenTech Automotive manufacturing plant in Robinsonville, Miss. GreenTech Automotive has missed a debt payment to the state of Mississippi. Mississippi Development Authority spokesman Jeff Rent confirmed Monday, Aug. 8, 2016, that the Tunica County company did not pay $150,000 due June 30. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)(AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis) Previously, GreenTech has raised money from Chinese people who can obtain permanent U.S. residency by investing $500,000 and creating 10 jobs. However, GreenTech may have fallen out of favor with green card granting authorities. The Roanoke Times reported in May that a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services document showed GreenTech had only 75 employees last year, has produced only 25 cars and has sold none. The newspaper reported the statements were contained in a decision earlier this year denying a green card to a Chinese investor, rejecting company projections that GreenTech would increase employment to 125 this year and 250 by 2018. The newspaper wrote that Nicholas Colucci, chief of the immigrant investor program, signed a decision stating GreenTech had a "general lack of credibility from the failure to meet any projected timelines." U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said Monday that it can't discuss individual cases. GreenTech, a unit of Virginia-based WM Industries, didn't respond to a phone call and email seeking comment. Rent said he doesn't know if Mississippi sent GreenTech a default notice. Under the loan agreement that Mississippi signed with GreenTech in 2011, a default notice would let the state demand all money back immediately and possibly seize GreenTech's property. Besides the $3 million loan, Mississippi also loaned Tunica County $1.9 million to buy the site for GreenTech. The company has also been certified for state tax breaks exempting it from state income and franchise taxes for 10 years, and from sales taxes on equipment. Mississippi officials said in May they were renegotiating agreements with the company because GreenTech failed in its pledge to hire 350 workers. Democratic Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe's former investment with GreenTech was attacked by Republicans in 2013 as he campaigned for office, and the involvement of Hugh Rodham, the brother of Hillary Clinton, also brought scrutiny. McAuliffe has said he divested his interest in GreenTech. He resigned as the firm's chairman in December 2012. McAuliffe acknowledged in May that he's under federal investigation for business dealings before he became governor. His lawyer, James W. Cooper, said Justice Department officials told him they have been looking into McAuliffe's foreign sources of income before he became governor in 2014 and whether he violated the law by lobbying the U.S. government on behalf of foreign interests. Cooper told The Associated Press that officials said they have found no evidence McAuliffe engaged in such lobbying. A law enforcement official told The Associated Press earlier that McAuliffe is the subject of a federal investigation related to campaign finance. Cooper said investigators didn't discuss campaign contributions. The inspector general of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security found last year that the department's current deputy secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, violated agency ethics policies but didn't break any laws when he intervened in visa proceedings for GreenTech and two other projects. Mayorkas has denied he influenced any agency decisions for political purposes. The AP reported last year that McAuliffe rebuffed requests by the inspector general for an interview. ___ Follow Jeff Amy at: http://twitter.com/jeffamy. Read his work at http://bigstory.ap.org/author/jeff-amy News / Local by Staff Reporter A police base in Bulawayo's Emakhandeni suburb caught fire yesterday in a suspected bombing case.National police spokesperson Chief Superintendent Paul Nyathi confirmed the incident but cautioned against hasty conclusions that the fire could have been caused by a petrol bomb.He said police were yet to conclude their investigations.No one was injured in the incident which is suspected to have occurred in the early hours of yesterday morning.This follows two attacks on police bases in Bulawayo recently.Last month, a police base was petrol-bombed in Magwegwe suburb but the fire was extinguished before it could spread. In February, a group of five daring robbers struck at a police base near Amakhosi Cultural Centre where they attempted to sexually assault a female cop.Chief Supt Nyathi said: "First, it's premature to say the police base was petrol-bombed. We're still conducting investigations but there's a likelihood that our guys who were at the base could have used an electric heater which caused the fire," said Chief Supt Nyathi.He issued a stern warning that police will stop at nothing to protect their members from attack. Chief Supt Nyathi said members of the public should know that police bases are there to provide law enforcement services closer to communities. Cheap fix could end $1 million fight over heat on death row BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) The state of Louisiana has spent more than three years and over $1 million in taxpayer money to fight a lawsuit that claims three death row inmates are exposed to dangerous heat levels in their cells. A possible low-tech solution costs less than $2,000 and would avoid the need to install a more expensive air conditioning system inside Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, according to court testimony Monday for the long-running litigation. A court-appointed special master told U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson that the three inmates have been moved to new cells where cool air is piped in through a vent from a guard station. Prison officials also recently installed a plastic curtain to trap the cool air and equipped each inmate's cell with "Cajun cooler" systems, described in a court filing as an ice chest, a fan and a duct that emits cool air. The special master, Paul Hebert, said temperatures in the inmates' new cells are now "well within a normal condition" since the state began experimenting with the new heat control measures in late June. Jackson is ordering an independent air conditioning systems expert to inspect the inmates' new cells. He scheduled an Aug. 22 hearing for expert testimony before he decides whether the new measures could be a permanent solution. More than two years ago, the judge ruled that Louisiana imposes unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment once the heat index on death row exceeds 88 degrees. Hebert said the heat indexes in the inmates' cells are "hardly approaching 80 degrees" since the prison implemented the new measures, which he described as "very effective." Last year, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said any remedy should be limited to the three plaintiffs, not all 85 death row inmates, and invited the state to provide relief without installing air conditioning. Although the state's attorneys dispute that the new measures should be a permanent fix, the judge expressed frustration that it has taken years for the state to employ a possible remedy that is so simple and cheap. He also noted that politicians have seemed "reluctant to make the tough decisions" that could have resolved the case long ago. Jackson also said it was "maddening" and "very troubling" that attorneys for both sides waited weeks to inform him that they began experimenting with the new remediation measures. "I am convinced that there were efforts to conceal information from the court," he said. "I won't ascribe reasons or motives to anyone at this point." Mary Roper, an attorney for the state, said officials never intended to withhold information from the judge or "do something underhanded." Before the prison implemented the new measures, the three inmates received one cold shower a day, ice chests in their cells and fans outside them. The state has argued those measures adequately protected the plaintiffs, all of whom have medical problems that can be exacerbated by the heat. Roper suggested that the new measures shouldn't be a permanent solution, due to concerns about mold growing in the prison and rising temperatures in the guard station that pipes cool air into the inmates' cells. Mercedes Montagnes, an attorney for the three inmates, said the conditions in their new cells are "far superior" to those in their previous cells. But she urged the judge to consider a way to continue monitoring the conditions if the case is resolved by the new measures. Documents obtained by The Associated Press through public records requests showed the state's corrections department and attorney general's office have accrued at least $1,067,000 in expenses fighting the inmates' lawsuit. Most of the money has gone to private attorneys on both sides of the case. The state had to cover inmates' attorney fees under a settlement with Attorney General Jeff Landry's office. A plaintiffs' expert has estimated it would cost about $225,000 to install air conditioning on death row's six tiers. Man pleads not guilty in killing of Washington state couple EVERETT, Wash. (AP) A man pleaded not guilty Monday after prosecutors said he killed a rural Washington state couple and buried their remains. John Blaine Reed, 54, was arraigned in Everett and entered the pleas on two counts of aggravated murder and one count of unlawful possession of a firearm. Monique Patenaude, 46, and Patrick Shunn, 45, were shot April 11 near Oso, a small community northeast of Seattle that was the site of the nation's worst landslide disaster in 2014. John Blaine Reed talks to his public defenders Whitney Rivera, right, and Paul Thompson during his arraignment at Snohomish County Courthouse, on two counts of aggravated murder and one count of unlawful possession of a firearm for the killings of his former neighbors Patrick Shunn and Monique Patenaude, Monday, Aug. 8, 2016, in Everett, Wash. Patenaude and Shunn were shot April 11 near Oso, a small community northeast of Seattle. Reed is accused of killing Patenaude and Shunn over a long-standing property feud. (Andy Bronson/The Herald via AP, Pool) Reed is accused of killing Patenaude and Shunn over a long-standing property feud. Authorities have said Reed was a former neighbor who shared a driveway with the couple. After the slayings, Reed fled to Mexico with his 49-year-old brother Tony Reed with money and a vehicle from their parents, according to prosecutors. More than two months later, Mexican authorities arrested John Reed and turned him over to authorities in Arizona. He returned to Snohomish County Friday and was booked into jail. He is being held without bail. Tony Reed previously turned himself in and led detectives to the couple's gravesite in the woods near their home. He has pleaded guilty to two counts of rendering criminal assistance for helping hide the bodies. Review: 'Pete's Dragon' (pleasantly) stays earthbound NEW YORK (AP) After an exhausting summer buffet of set pieces, superheroes and whatever s-word you might use for "Suicide Squad," the gentle "Pete's Dragon" is a welcome palate cleanser. Where other summer movies are chest-thumping, it's quiet; where others are brashly cynical, it's sweetly sincere; where others are lacking in giant cuddly dragons, "Pete's Dragon" has one. Few may remember the 1977 Disney original, in which a young boy's best friend was a bubbly dragon invisible to others. As part of Disney's continuing effort to remake its animated classics in live-action, "Pete's Dragon" has been confidently reborn as an earnest tale of green-winged wonder. David Lowery, a veteran of the independent film world and the director of the lyrical crime drama "Ain't Them Bodies Saints," inherits a far bigger film. But his "Pete's Dragon" still maintains the homespun feel of an American fable. Spielberg-light, you might call it. This image released by Disney shows Oona Laurence as Natalie, left, and Oakes Fegley as Pete, right, with Elliot the dragon, in a scene from "Pete's Dragon." (Disney via AP) The film begins, in the "Bambi" tradition, in parental tragedy. Pete's family is driving through a remote Pacific Northwest forest with Pete nestled in the backseat of the station wagon, reading a children's book about a dog named Elliott. A deer sprints out and, in poetic slow-motion, the gravity of the car's interior is upended. The car flips off the road and Pete staggers from the crash. Flashing forward six years, Pete (Oakes Fegley) is a wild 10-year-old orphan living in the woods alone except for his magical companion, the dragon Elliott. As far as CGI creatures go, Elliott is an irresistible one. Furry as a fairway, he's like an enormous emerald-green puppy. Far from the "Game of Thrones" dragon variety, he's more adept at chasing his own tail than breathing fire. He's also the subject of local folklore, mostly as told by Robert Redford's wood-carving storyteller. But it's his forest ranger daughter Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard) that first encounters Elliott and ultimately leads to the dragon's discovery. Grace coaxes Elliott back into society and into the fold of her family. She has a daughter, Natalie (Oona Laurence) and lumber mill-running husband Jack (Wes Bentley). It's the push by a logging company where Jack's brother, Gavin (Karl Urban) is a gun-totting lumberjack into the forest that simultaneously begins flushing out Pete and Elliott from their home in the trees. The lush forest (New Zealand, again, subbing for North America) reigns over "Pete's Dragon," a tale scored with soft bluegrass and exuding an environment-friendly love for the beautiful and exotic splendors of nature. When competing interests come for Elliott, they are really fighting for the soul of the forest. There are Spielbergian gestures here of magic and family and faith, perhaps better orchestrated than Spielberg's own recent try at a Disney film, "The BFG." But it's missing a spark, a sense of danger and maybe a little humor. The lean simplicity of "Pete's Dragon" is its greatest attribute and its weakness. It doesn't quite achieve liftoff until the film's final moments. But it does at last catch flight, finally soaring beyond its humble folksiness. "Pete's Dragon," a Walt Disney Co. release, is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America for "action, peril and brief language." Running time: 103 minutes. Three stars out of four. ___ Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP This image released by Disney shows Oakes Fegley in a scene from "Pete's Dragon." (Matt Klitscher/Disney via AP) This image released by Disney shows Bryce Dallas Howard, left, and Oakes Fegley in a scene from "Pete's Dragon." (Matt Klitscher/Disney via AP) This image released by Disney shows Oakes Fegley in a scene from "Pete's Dragon." (Disney via AP) No charges against sister after body found in their home BEND, Ore. (AP) A district attorney in Oregon says he won't file charges against a woman who lived for months in a house with the dead body of her sister, saying that while norms of decency may have been violated, no crime was committed. Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel said Monday that Christine Freise, 63, died in November 2015 of natural causes in La Pine. Her sister, Elizabeth Freise, left her in her bed. In April, paramedics came to the house after Elizabeth was injured, and noticed a stench. Authorities discovered Christine Freise's decomposed body, several dead and live cats and garbage covering the floors. 13 injured when motor home rear-ends tour bus in Alaska ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) Thirteen people required hospitalization after a motor home slammed into the back of a bus that was turning into a wilderness lodge near Alaska's Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. The extent of injuries from late Sunday morning accident near Copper Center, Alaska, were not known, an Alaska State Trooper spokesman said Monday. At least one ground ambulance took some of the injured to a nearby medical facility in Glennallen, Alaska, while a helicopter and at least one fixed wing aircraft took others to hospitals in Wasilla and Anchorage, about 160 miles to the west, Troopers spokesman Tim DeSpain said. The northbound bus had 32 people on board, and it was struck just before 11 a.m. Sunday as it attempted to turn off the Richardson Highway into the Copper River Princess Wilderness Lodge, DeSpain said. The motor home with four people inside was driven by Jesse Johnson, 47, of Anchorage. The bus was from North Pole Tour, located in North Pole, Alaska. It had Korean writing on the side, DeSpain said, and the same language appears on the company's website. A man who answered the phone at North Pole Tour on Monday afternoon declined comment to The Associated Press and said the owner was not available. Lynn Williams, a manager at the lodge, also declined comment to the AP per company policy. 2nd Kauai resident contracts Zika virus while traveling LIHUE, Hawaii (AP) County health officials say a Kauai resident who recently traveled to the South Pacific contracted the Zika virus. This is the 10th case of imported Zika in the state and the second travel-related case on Kauai this year. Officials say Hawaii has no locally acquired Zika cases, and no mosquitoes are transmitting the disease in the state. In announcing the recent case Monday, officials say the Kauai resident is past the point of being infectious to mosquitoes. The mosquito-borne virus continues to spread in various regions across the world. Travel-related cases are expected to increase this year. Health officials advise travelers to prevent mosquito bites when they return from areas with mosquito-borne disease outbreaks. NYC woman visiting mom in Massachusetts found slain in woods PRINCETON, Mass. (AP) A New York City woman who disappeared on a walk while visiting her mother in Massachusetts was found slain in the woods, investigators said Monday. Vanessa Marcotte, 27, was reported missing after failing to return from a Sunday afternoon walk in Princeton, Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. said. Her body was found Sunday night by a state police canine unit about a half-mile from her mother's home. Authorities say her death appears to be a homicide. An autopsy was scheduled. Early said authorities didn't know if the attack was a random act. "We have a horrible set of facts; a horrible set of circumstances right now," Early said. "People should be concerned. We are asking them to use an abundance of caution." Police Chief Michele Powers urged town residents to remain vigilant. Officials asked anyone with any information to contact authorities. No other details were immediately released. Marcotte, a graduate of Boston University, worked for Google, and the company released a statement Monday expressing shock. "Vanessa Marcotte was a much loved member of the Google team, working in our New York office for the last year and a half, and known for her ubiquitous smile, passion for volunteer work and love of Boston sports," the company said. "We are deeply shocked and saddened, and our thoughts are with her family and friends." Javier weakens to rainstorm as it swirls past Mexico's Baja CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico (AP) Tropical Storm Javier blew past the southern end of Mexico's Baja California Peninsula and then weakened to a rainstorm Tuesday. Authorities had evacuated people from low-lying areas around the resort city Cabo San Lucas but no damage or flooding was reported. By midafternoon, Javier's winds had weakened to 25 mph (40 kph) and the storm accelerated its forward progress, moving northwest at 10 mph (17 kph), the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. Women prepare food for people who are in a temporary shelter in Papatlazolco, Mexico, Monday, Aug. 8, 2016. Mountain communities in two Mexican states are recovering from weekend mudslides that killed dozens during heavy rains brought by remnants of Hurricane Earl. (AP Photo/Pablo Spencer) It was skirting up the Pacific Coast of Baja California about 25 miles (40 kph) southeast of Cabo San Lazaro. On Monday, authorities in Cabo San Lucas set up 10 storm shelters, mostly at local schools, and moved about 900 people from homes in low-lying areas near streams and gullies. The resort was closed to navigation, and some owners of smaller fishing boats were seen pulling them onto shore and hauling them away on trailers. Meanwhile, towns in central and eastern Mexico continued to clean up from the remnants of Hurricane Earl, which triggered landslides that killed 48 people in Veracruz and Puebla states over the weekend. Among the casualties of Earl were at least 35 people who died in multiple mudslides in the mountainous north of Puebla, Gov. Rafael Moreno Valle said. Officials said rain amounts equivalent to an entire month of normal precipitation fell in one night in some areas. In neighboring Veracruz, 13 people lost their lives when mudslides hit the towns of Coscomatepec, Tequila and Huayacocotla, Gov. Javier Duarte said. A federal agent removes mud from a house damaged by a mudslide in Xaltepec, Mexico, Monday, Aug. 8, 2016. Mountain communities in two Mexican states are recovering from weekend mudslides that killed dozens during heavy rains brought by remnants of Hurricane Earl. (AP Photo/Pablo Spencer) Mexican soldiers remove mud and debris off a bridge damaged by a mudslide in Xaltepec, Mexico, Monday, Aug. 8, 2016. Mountain communities in two Mexican states are recovering from weekend mudslides that killed dozens during heavy rains brought by remnants of Hurricane Earl. (AP Photo/Pablo Spencer) Relatives attend a funeral service for the Perez Vasquez family that was killed by a mudslide, in Xaltepec, Mexico, Monday, Aug. 8, 2016. Mountain communities in two Mexican states are recovering from weekend mudslides that killed dozens during heavy rains brought by remnants of Hurricane Earl. (AP Photo/Pablo Spencer) A resident inspects damage to his house affected by a mudslide in Xaltepec, Mexico, Monday, Aug. 8, 2016. Mountain communities in two Mexican states are recovering from weekend mudslides that killed dozens during heavy rains brought by remnants of Hurricane Earl. (AP Photo/Pablo Spencer) News / National by Staff reporter Masvingo Provincial Affairs Minister Senator Shuvai Mahofa is still ailing and failed to "inspect the guard of honour" on Monday.Mahofa spent three months hospitalized in South Africa suffering from an undisclosed ailment.She was last seen in the office before the 15th Zanu-PF Annual National People's Conference held in Victoria Falls where she reportedly went down following a stomach problem.She resumed duties in March.On Monday, she was the guest of honor at Masvingo Provincial Heroes' Acre celebrations.According to the Herald, Mahofa boycotted inspecting the guard of honor.Instead Psychomotor Activities Minister Josaya Hungwe took the responsibility."Minister Hungwe then inspected the guard of honor in place of Senator Mahofa, who is still battling poor health."Senator Mahofa then read the Presidential speech after the crowd had been entertained by various groups. She then led others in laying wreaths at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier". Japan protests to China over ships around disputed islands TOKYO (AP) Japan's foreign minister summoned China's ambassador Tuesday and lodged a protest over the increased number of Chinese vessels in waters near disputed islands in the East China Sea. The move by Fumio Kishida comes as the number of Chinese coast guard ships around the islands has nearly quadrupled over the past few days to as many as 13, a record number since China started sending ships to the region in September 2012 after Japan nationalized the islands' ownership. Kishida told Chinese Ambassador Cheng Yonghua that the ships must leave the area, saying their presence has escalated tensions between the countries. He said their repeated infiltration and unilateral attempt to change the status quo were unacceptable. Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, left, meets Chinese Ambassador to Japan Cheng Yonghua at foreign ministry in Tokyo Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. Kishida summoned Chinas ambassador to his ministry, lodging a protest over the increased number of Chinese vessels getting in and out of the waters near the disputed islands in the East China Sea. (Katsuya Miyagawa/Kyodo News via AP) The Japanese Coast Guard said at least two of the 13 Chinese vessels have been in the Japanese territorial waters around the islands despite repeated warnings for them to leave. Gun batteries were seen on several of the ships, officials said. Cheng told reporters as he left the ministry that the increase in the China's coast guard fleet was to oversee the increased activity of the Chinese fishing boats. "Please understand that it's an effort by the Chinese side to avoid further complications to the situation." Cheng said both sides need to make efforts through diplomatic dialogue to keep the situation under control. The ambassador also reiterated China's territorial claims to the islands. Hundreds of Chinese fishing boats have also been seen accompanying the coast guard vessels, just as a fishing season in the East China Sea opens. China also claims Japan-controlled Senkaku islands and calls them the Diaoyu islands. Relations between Japan and China have long been strained over their wartime history, a sensitive topic during the summer because of end-of-the-war anniversaries. Japanese media reports say the recent escalation in China's activity around the disputed islands may be seen as a warning against planned visits by members of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, which honors war criminals among the war dead, for the Aug. 15 anniversary to mark the end of World War II. ___ Follow Mari Yamaguchi at https://www.twitter.com/mariyamaguchi Find her work also at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/mari-yamaguchi Some Delta systems haven't recovered fully from outage DALLAS (AP) Delta Air Lines said Tuesday that some computer systems are still working slowly more than a day after an outage crippled the airline and led to more than 1,500 canceled flights. The system the airline uses to check in and board passengers as well as dispatch its planes is still slow, said Gil West, Delta's chief operating officer. West offered Delta's most detailed explanation yet of what happened Monday to trigger the global computer outage: A critical piece of equipment failed at the airline's Atlanta headquarters, causing a loss of power, and key systems and equipment did not switch over to backups as designed. Delta passengers stand in line as the carrier slogged through day two of its recovery from a global computer outage, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016, in Salt Lake City. By early afternoon, Delta said it had canceled about 530 flights as it moved planes and crews to reset its operation. Nearly 1,200 Delta flights had been delayed, according to tracking service FlightStats Inc. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer) Delta passengers endured hundreds more canceled and delayed flights as the carrier slogged through day two of its recovery from the meltdown. By late afternoon Tuesday, the airline said it had canceled 680 flights as it moved planes and crews to "reset" its operation. Another 1,900 Delta flights had been delayed, according to tracking service FlightStats Inc. In a video posted on the airline's website, CEO Ed Bastian said Delta probably will have cancelations and delays Wednesday too, although he didn't give numbers. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx's office said the government was talking to Delta about technical issues surrounding the outage, but gave no specifics. The Transportation Department said it also made sure Delta provided information about customer refunds on its website and was reviewing the consumer complaints that it had received. Delta's hub in Atlanta was the epicenter of problem flights on Tuesday, with lines that were much longer than the day before. Debbie McGarry left Switzerland on Monday and was still stuck Tuesday at the Atlanta airport, far from her Arizona home. Hopes of getting on a plane were raised and dashed overnight. By 3 a.m., passengers were getting irate. "Some of the men were yelling," she said. "I thought there might be a fistfight." Tuesday's disruptions followed about 1,000 cancelations and 2,800 delayed flights on Monday. The airline's computer systems were back online after a few hours Monday, but the ripple effects lingered. "We are still operating in recovery mode," Dave Holtz, senior vice president of operations, said Tuesday. Delta extended a travel-waiver policy to help stranded passengers rearrange their travel plans. It offered refunds and $200 in travel vouchers to people whose flights were canceled or delayed at least three hours. And Delta said it gave hotel vouchers to "several thousand" customers including 2,000 in Atlanta. Delta's challenge Tuesday was to find enough seats on planes during the busy summer vacation season to accommodate the tens of thousands of passengers whose flights were scrubbed. Airlines have been packing more people in each plane, so when a major carrier has a technology crash it's harder to find seats for the waylaid. Last month, the average Delta flight was 87 percent full. Confusion among passengers Monday was compounded as Delta's flight-status updates crashed as well. Instead of staying home or poolside at a hotel until the airline could fix the mess, many passengers learned about the gridlock only after they reached the airport. They were stuck. A spokesman for the local electric company, Georgia Power, said the problem started with a piece of Delta equipment called a switchgear, which direct flows within a power system. No other customers lost power, he said. Airlines depend on huge, overlapping and complicated systems to operate flights, ticketing, boarding, airport kiosks, websites and mobile phone apps. Even brief outages can now snarl traffic and, as the Delta incident shows, those problems can go global in seconds. Last month, Southwest Airlines canceled more than 2,000 flights over four days after an outage that it blamed on a faulty network router. United Airlines and American Airlines both suffered outages last year United has struggled with several meltdowns since combining technology systems with merger partner Continental Airlines. ___ Joan Lowy in Washington, AP video journalist Johnny Clark and Jeff Martin in Atlanta contributed to this report. David Koenig can be reached at http://twitter.com/airlinewriter Delta passengers stand in line as the carrier slogged through day two of its recovery from a global computer outage Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016, in Salt Lake City. Travelers on Delta Air Lines endured hundreds more canceled and delayed flights on Tuesday as the carrier slogged through day two of its recovery from a global computer outage. By early afternoon, Delta said it had canceled about 530 flights as it moved planes and crews to reset its operation. Nearly 1,200 Delta flights had been delayed, according to tracking service FlightStats Inc. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer) Delta passengers stand in line as the carrier slogged through day two of its recovery from a global computer outage Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016, in Salt Lake City. Travelers on Delta Air Lines endured hundreds more canceled and delayed flights on Tuesday as the carrier slogged through day two of its recovery from a global computer outage. By early afternoon, Delta said it had canceled about 530 flights as it moved planes and crews to reset its operation. Nearly 1,200 Delta flights had been delayed, according to tracking service FlightStats Inc. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer) Delta passengers stand in line as the carrier slogged through day two of its recovery from a global computer outage Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016, in Salt Lake City. Travelers on Delta Air Lines endured hundreds more canceled and delayed flights on Tuesday as the carrier slogged through day two of its recovery from a global computer outage. By early afternoon, Delta said it had canceled about 530 flights as it moved planes and crews to reset its operation. Nearly 1,200 Delta flights had been delayed, according to tracking service FlightStats Inc. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer) New York man pleads guilty in death of wife of 51 years GLOVERSVILLE, N.Y. (AP) A 70-year-old upstate New York man has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for killing his wife of 51 years with a camping tool and fire poker. Frank Ostrander of Gloversville pleaded guilty in Fulton County Court on Monday. He faces 20 years in state prison when he's sentenced on Oct. 3. Ostrander told investigators he argued with his wife, Sally, on Feb. 10, and later attacked her with a hatchet or camping shovel as she slept. Detective Sgt. Mike Calbet testified that Ostrander told him he hit her several times in the head before the tool broke. Calbet says Ostrander then struck her with a fire poker before stabbing her with another object. Her body was found by emergency crews summoned by a 911 call. ___ Prosecutor: Pennsylvania attorney general had sought revenge NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) A desire for revenge drove Pennsylvania's attorney general to leak secret criminal files to the press to embarrass a rival and then lie about it to a grand jury, prosecutors said as Kathleen Kane's perjury and obstruction trial opened Tuesday. Kane, 50, was once a rising star in the state's Democratic party, using her then-husband's trucking fortune to run for statewide office after stints as a Scranton prosecutor and stay-at-home mother. Her 2012 campaign criticized the pace of the office's child sex abuse investigation of Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. The chief deputy attorney general, Frank Fina, had led that investigation. When Kane took office, he moved on. Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane leaves the courtroom for a short recess on the second day of her trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa., Tuesday, August 9, 2016. Kane faces perjury and other charges related to the alleged leak of secret grand jury materials. (Dan Gleiter/PennLive.com via AP, Pool) The feud nonetheless sizzled, and she suspected him of planting a Philadelphia Inquirer article a year later that faulted her for not charging anyone in a statehouse bribery sting. "I will not allow them to discredit me or our office," Kane wrote to a media strategist that day, according to emails shown in court Tuesday. "This is war." Kane, out for revenge, gathered documents from a Fina-led grand jury case from 2009 that had likewise been dropped, prosecutors said. The case involved J. Whyatt "Jerry" Mondesire, an NAACP leader in Philadelphia. He became collateral damage when a story ran in 2014, they said. "He was just a casualty in her war of revenge. She was after Frank Fina," Assistant District Attorney Michelle Henry said in opening statements. Kane had given the confidential documents to top assistant Adrian King, who passed them on to campaign consultant Josh Morrow, who passed them to the Philadelphia Daily News, she said. Rather than address her critics at a news conference, Henry said, Kane deployed "cloak and dagger" techniques. Kane then lied repeatedly about the leak to a grand jury, Henry said. "I don't know what Adrian gave to Josh," she told the grand jury, according to excerpts shown in court. "What I said to Adrian was, 'People need to know about this.' He agreed." But she said that she neither passed King any documents nor told him which ones to deliver. Bruce Beemer, who headed the criminal section, testified that he was stunned when he saw the Daily News article because he knew the Mondesire leak must have come from their office. He returns to court Wednesday for more testimony. The defense, in opening statements, told jurors that Kane wouldn't have risked her career over a feud with Fina. "(He) left 10 minutes after she arrived," veteran New York trial lawyer Gerald Shargel told jurors in opening statements. "It just does not make sense that she would risk her reputation and her career (over him)." But Fina, after going to work for Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams, fanned the flames when he revived the statehouse probe and secured several convictions. Kane had deemed the case flawed by sloppy detective work and a focus on black lawmakers from Philadelphia. Kane is charged with perjury, a felony, and misdemeanor counts of conspiracy, obstruction and false swearing. She lost her law license over the charges and did not seek re-election this year. The trial is expected to last a week. Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane, center, walks to the courtroom during a short recess on the second day of her trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa., Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. Kane faces perjury and other charges related to the alleged leak of secret grand jury materials. (Dan Gleiter/PennLive.com via AP, Pool) Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane leaves the courtroom for a short recess on the second day of her trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa., Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. Kane faces perjury and other charges related to the alleged leak of secret grand jury materials. (Dan Gleiter/PennLive.com via AP, Pool) Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane leaves the courtroom for a short recess on the second day of her trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa., Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. Kane faces perjury and other charges related to the alleged leak of secret grand jury materials. (Dan Gleiter/PennLive.com via AP, Pool) Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane walks to the courtroom during a short recess on the second day of her trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa., Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. Kane faces perjury and other charges related to the alleged leak of secret grand jury materials. (Dan Gleiter/PennLive.com via AP, Pool) Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane, center, walks into the courtroom on the second day of her trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016 in Norristown, Pa. An ethics board accused Kane of "egregious conduct" amid criminal charges she leaked grand jury material to a newspaper to embarrass enemies and then lied about it under oath. (Dan Gleiter/PennLive.com via AP, Pool) Who is Naruhito, Japan's likely next emperor? TOKYO (AP) Japanese Emperor Akihito's video message this week, though subtle, suggested that he wishes to abdicate, and the attention now goes to his elder son, the first in line to Japan's Chrysanthemum throne. In his 10-minute recorded message Monday, Akihito primarily cited his old age and concerns that it may become difficult for him to fulfill his duties, but some palace watchers say a hidden reason for his desired abdication might be his successor. Like his father, the son, Naruhito, is a soft-spoken and smiley man. A bit stocky at age 56, he's married to a Harvard-educated former diplomat, Masako, who has been ill for more than a decade and seldom appears in public. But she is better known abroad and his presence is often eclipsed whenever she comes out. FILE - In this July 7, 2013, file photo, Japan's Crown Prince Naruhito, right, plays the viola during a concert of the Gakushuin university's alumni in Tokyo. Emperor Akihitos video message on Monday, Aug. 8, 2016, though subtle, conveyed his wish to abdicate, and the attention now goes to his elder son Naruhito, the first in line to Japans Chrysanthemum throne. Naruhito would be the 126th emperor in a line believed to date to the fifth century. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi, Pool, File) Having a father who has tried to break down Japan's ancient imperial traditions to bring his cloistered family closer to the nation, Naruhito was raised as a new breed of royals who grew up in a family seen as a model for the nation. His name in Chinese character means a person with heavenly virtues. His mother, Michiko, the first commoner to become empress, helped to bring in fresh changes to the palace in child-rearing and education. The couple eliminated a wet nurse for Naruhito, born Feb. 23, 1960, and his two younger siblings. When they went on official trips and left Naruhito behind, they handed his nannies a list of rules for the then-prince in what was known as a "Naru-chan Kempo," or "Constitution." Naruhito attended Gakushuin, a private school for former aristocrats. After graduating from college, he studied at Oxford University, living in a dorm for two years for the first time while earning a master's degree in Thames River water transport systems. An avid hiker, skier and viola player, Naruhito first met Harvard-educated diplomat Masako Owada at a party in 1986, but it took him eight years of waiting and two rejections before he won her heart in what is remembered as a modern-day royal romance. Their marriage raised expectations of adding a modern face to imperial institutions, but Masako is still recovering from stress-induced mental conditions she developed after giving birth to their daughter, following criticism that she had failed to produce a boy. The succession law allows only male emperors, so Naruhito's only child, Aiko, 14, cannot inherit the throne. Instead, his younger brother Akishino, 50, is second in line, and Akishino's son Hisahito, 9, is third. Discussions on changing the law to allow female succession ended with Hisahito's birth. For more than a decade, Naruhito has mostly traveled alone while performing his traditional duties, unlike his father, who is almost always with his wife by his side. This raises a question as to whether Masako can do even part of the work Michiko has done as empress. Palace watchers and experts say Akihito wants to abdicate possibly to help smooth the transition, rather than waiting until the last minute to burden his son with such a heavy immediate responsibility. Naruhito would be the 126th emperor in a line believed to date to the fifth century. The emperor is a purely symbolic figure today, with no political power. Akihito is known as a strong proponent of Japan's war-renouncing constitution, repeatedly showing support for the charter, which stipulates his symbol status. "(Akihito) reflects obviously the mistakes and the errors made earlier on in his father's (Hirohito's) reign," said Robert Campbell, a University of Tokyo professor who is an expert of Japanese history and culture. "That's something I think everyone hopes will be carried on into his son's reign." ___ Follow Mari Yamaguchi at https://www.twitter.com/mariyamaguchi Also find her work at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/mari-yamaguchi FILE - In this March 18, 2014, file photo, Japan's Princess Aiko, center, accompanied by her parents Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako, arrives to attend her graduation ceremony at the Gakushuin Primary School in Tokyo. Emperor Akihitos video message on Monday, Aug. 8, 2016, though subtle, conveyed his wish to abdicate, and the attention now goes to his elder son Naruhito, the first in line to Japans Chrysanthemum throne. Naruhito, 56, married to a Harvard-educated former diplomat Masako, who has been ill for more than a decade and seldom appears in public. But she is better known abroad and his presence is often eclipsed whenever she comes out. (Toru Hanai/Pool Photo via AP, File) FILE - In this Dec. 23, 2007, file photo, Japan's Emperor Akihito, center, stands as Crown Prince Naruhito and his wife Crown Princess Masako enter a bulletproof balcony at Imperial Palace in Tokyo for a public appearance by the emperor. Akihitos video message Monday, Aug. 8, 2016, though subtle, conveyed his wish to abdicate, and the attention now goes to his elder son, Naruhito, the first in line to Japans Chrysanthemum throne. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi, File) Rights advocate opposes Australian vote on same-sex marriage CANBERRA, Australia (AP) A leading gay rights advocate and former judge on Tuesday urged Parliament to prevent a popular referendum on legalizing gay marriage in Australia. Michael Kirby, a former High Court judge who headed a United Nations inquiry into human rights abuses in North Korea in 2014, wrote in The Australian newspaper that a popular vote against gay marriage would likely set back the cause of marriage equality for decades. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull went to elections on July 2 promising to hold a referendum by the end of this year on whether Australia should recognize same-sex marriage. The center-left opposition Labor Party promised to allow Parliament to decide the issue if it won power and avoid the divisive public debate that would surround a popular vote. Kirby, a 77-year-old who has been in a same-sex relationship since 1969, urged the new Senate to reject legislation that would allow the plebiscite when it sits for the first time this month. "Defeat in a plebiscite on same-sex marriage would kill the reform, probably for decades," Kirby wrote. "A defeat in Parliament alone would do no more than delay the inevitable for a short time." Opposition leader Bill Shorten said he agreed with Kirby that a plebiscite "is a second-best option for marriage equality." But Shorten has not committed Labor to blocking the referendum in the Senate, where the conservative government holds a minority of seats. Kirby said the government proposed a referendum in the hope that it would fail. While opinion polls showed that most Australians wanted marriage equality, the surprise result of the Brexit referendum in which Britain voted in June to leave the European Union and the high failure rate of referendums in Australia served as warnings, he said. "Brexit is an illustration of what can happen where a popular vote is chosen contrary to a nation's democratic and parliamentary tradition and launched for internal political reasons," Kirby said. Former Philippine President Fidel Ramos talks China ties HONG KONG (AP) Former Philippine President Fidel Ramos said Tuesday that he wants to focus on points of common interest with China such as tourism and commercial fishing as part of efforts to smooth relations with Beijing roiled by the South China Sea dispute. Current Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has asked the 88-year-old Ramos to act as his special envoy to pave the way for talks with Beijing after a ruling last month by an international arbitration tribunal invalidated China's expansive territorial claims in a case put forward by the Philippines. Ramos spoke with reporters Tuesday in Hong Kong, where he said he plans to meet old friends with links to officials in Beijing as a prelude to further contacts. Former Philippine President Fidel Ramos listens to a question during a press briefing at the Philippines consular office in Hong Kong, China, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. Former Philippine President Fidel Ramos flew to Hong Kong on Monday for talks aimed at rekindling ties with China that have been strained by long-seething disputes in the South China Sea.(AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) "That's why we're standing by, and if there's any development, the general consul will be the first one to know and she will inform us," Ramos said. China has denied Philippine fishermen access to traditional grounds lying within the Philippines' 200-nautical-mile (370-kilometer) exclusive economic zone, an area Ramos implied the countries could share. Discussing an agenda for talks, Ramos pointed to "some irritations that we would like to eliminate or at least remedy so that we can have common points of interest." "One of them is more tourism, more fishing in the common fishing ground, which is within the Philippine (exclusive economic zone), but where the Chinese fishermen have also identified as being part of their traditional fishing grounds," Ramos said. China refused to participate in the arbitration case or recognize the ruling, and insists bilateral negotiations are the only appropriate forum to discuss such issues. The Philippines has complained it was forced to go to the body in the Hague, Netherlands, because bilateral talks had gone nowhere. While the government has yet to formally comment on Ramos' mission, China's official Xinhua News Agency said in an editorial Tuesday that it "brings a whiff of hope that the two countries will return to bilateral negotiations over the issue." "Ramos' visit, which represents the first concrete step on the Philippine side to engage in bilateral talks with China on the South China Sea, could open a new chapter in settling disputes," Xinhua said. China's project of creating whole new islands from sand piled atop coral reefs in the highly contested Spratly group has been a particular source of tension with the U.S. New satellite photos show work proceeding on what seem to be hardened concrete airplane hangars suitable for housing Chinese air force planes, including strategic bombers and inflight refuelers. The photos were collected and studied by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank, and reported in The New York Times. They show construction work on man-made islands at Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief reefs. China has said the new islands are primarily to assist fishermen and other causes, as well as to reinforce its sovereignty claims. China also says that the islands should be able to defend themselves, and that it is entitled to build whatever structures it wishes on them. Former Philippine President Fidel Ramos holds up what he says are photos of Chinese President Xi Jinping when he visited the Philippines in his youth during a press briefing at the Philippines consular office in Hong Kong, China, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. Former Philippine President Fidel Ramos flew to Hong Kong on Monday for talks aimed at rekindling ties with China that have been strained by long-seething disputes in the South China Sea.(AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) Former Philippine President Fidel Ramos puts his arm around a journalist during a press briefing at the Philippines consular office in Hong Kong, China, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. Former Philippine President Fidel Ramos flew to Hong Kong on Monday for talks aimed at rekindling ties with China that have been strained by long-seething disputes in the South China Sea. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) Pork pie problem: UK food traditions to lose EU support BUILTH WELLS, Wales (AP) Welsh farmers like Rees Roberts, who has 1,000 acres with sheep, cattle and crops, can expect to earn a premium on their meats thanks to a certificate of regional authenticity. But that marker of distinction the same kind that ensures Champagne can only come from the French region of the same name is granted by the European Union and is now at risk after Britain voted to leave the 28-country bloc. The certificates, of which there are 73 across Britain for goods like Stilton cheese and Melton Mowbray pork pies, not only help farmers earn more but also shape rural communities' identities. Add to that the loss of $3.97 billion in EU subsidies for U.K. farmers, potential new tariffs and fears that agriculture will not be prioritized in trade talks with the EU, and the decision to leave the 28-nation bloc promises to be painful. In this photo taken on Monday, July 18, 2016, a butcher carries a pigs head at Smithfield Market in London. Welsh farmers like Rees Roberts, who have 1,000 acres with sheep, cattle and crops, can expect to earn a premium on their meats thanks to a certificate of regional authenticity. But that marker of distinction _ the same kind that ensures Champagne can only come from the French region of the same name _ is granted by the European Union and is now at risk after Britain voted to leave the 28-country bloc. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth) "The voters weren't thinking it through," said Roberts, 65, as he discussed the uncertainty with fellow farmers at a fair in the village of Builth Wells. For Welsh farmers, EU membership cushioned against tough times. Sheep flocks have fallen in size by 20 percent since a 1999 peak, while farmers' real annual average incomes have tumbled nearly a third since 2003 to 22,500 pounds, or $29,250, according to government figures. The potential loss of preferential trade with Europe has left Wales rushing to export its lamb and beef to the United States, with the government submitting a 1,000-page proposal to the U.S. Agriculture Department last month ahead of upcoming trade talks in April. The move was driven in part by concerns that negotiations over the next two years on Britain departing the EU will prioritize London banking jobs, while downplaying the needs of those in the hinterlands without the posh salaries. "There are many concerns of how influential agriculture will be in these negotiations, both in terms of trade and direct financial support when compared to the powerful sectors such as financial services," said Dai Davies, chairman of the Welsh meat promoter Hybu Cig Cymru. Davies was at the Royal Welsh Show in Builth Wells among the largest agricultural fairs in Europe to listen to farmers' concerns and answer their questions. A sense of seriousness and urgency dominated the mood, despite the sheep shearing contests, food stalls and a folk rendition of Beyonce's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)." Even though Wales is a net beneficiary of EU support, it voted to leave the EU by 53 percent to 47 percent, a fact that reflects the complexities of global trade. Many people in rural Britain, including Wales, are against the EU because the open borders required by membership challenges their sense of national identity. In some voters' minds, globalization is synonymous with regulations, immigrants and the loss of jobs to low-cost countries in Eastern Europe or China. Those emotions come even though the union also has carved out markets for goods linked to Britain's heritage. Listening to Davies was Roberts, who said he worries that the terms of foreign trade will change, causing him to lose some access to the EU's 508 million residents. He hopes that the U.K. will settle on a new trade agreement with the EU similar to Norway's. That would give them access to the EU's single market but require the U.K. to keep receiving EU migrants, something many of those voting to leave are against. Some U.K. farmers do depend on migrant labor to pick their produce. "Accepting the migrants wouldn't be a problem for me," said Roberts. Next to him was John Foulkes, who has a flock of 3,000 and estimates that the protected geographical indicator for Welsh meat adds a 2.6 percent premium to the 80-pound ($104) price he charges for a typical lamb. The protected status for "West Country Beef and Lamb" is a standard of quality and authenticity for example, sheep have to get at least 70 percent of their food by foraging the hills of this corner of Britain. Many such markers could no longer be valid internationally, depending on how Britain leaves the EU, since it is the bloc that has enshrined them in international trade deals. To regain them, Britain might need to introduce its own protections and likely has to renegotiate trade deals, not just with the remaining EU countries but also other nations that Britain had deals with through the EU. Most purveyors of products with EU protected status described the post-Brexit environment as hazy. Some have safety in trademarks that are internationally recognized regardless of EU membership, while others worry about the damage to Britain's brand on the continent and the complex network of trade deals that extend from the EU to Asia and South America. Stilton cheese enjoys trademark protections dating back as far as 1966 that should ensure its gourmet status, said Billy Kevan, dairy manager at the cheese maker Colston Bassett. He expects cheesemakers to be fine, but said a major unknown is whether European public opinion turns against Stilton as a means of protesting the Brexit vote. Some British cheesemakers cannot easily sever ties with the continent. One of the leading exporters of the protected Stilton cheese is Tuxford & Tebbutt, which is owned by Arla Foods, a company based in Denmark. Stilton cheese can only hail from three counties in England, making it a vital industry in those communities. Tuxford & Tebbutt employs 100 people in Melton Mowbray, a town of 25,000 where the local pork pies also enjoy protected status. Stilton generates $78 million a year for the community, the pork pies another $78 million and an additional $91 million comes to the community through food tourism, said Matthew O'Callaghan, chairman of the United Kingdom Protected Food Names Association. The Melton Mowbray pork pies could lose their EU protections, O'Callaghan warned, which could expose many of the bakers to cheaper copy-cat competition. "It means that anybody could make a Melton Mowbray Pork Pie, for example in Poland not use the proper recipe, so make it in hoops, not using cured pork, use less than 30 percent pork, make a cheaper imitation," he said. "Now that's going to cost us jobs." For Scotch distillers, the big risk is not so much in the trademark but losing trade deals with countries like Colombia, South Africa and South Korea that had been agreed on as part of the EU. David Frost, the president of the Scotch Whisky Association, is a former government official responsible for trade policy and EU issues. He says the British government lacks enough negotiators to swiftly set up new trade deals if Brexit leads to the end of trade agreements with these emerging economies. And that could hurt one of the few British industries that by its name can't possibly be outsourced overseas, says Frost. "We're rooted in Scotland and we always will be." In this photo taken on Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2016, Tim Brown, the owner of the the Melton Cheeseboard, weighs out some cheese in his shop in Melton Mowbray, England. The marker of distinction for British food, the same kind that ensures Champagne can only come from the French region of the same name, is granted by the European Union and is now at risk after Britain voted to leave the 28-country bloc. The certificates, of which there are 73 across Britain for goods like Stilton cheese and Melton Mowbray pork pies, not only help farmers earn more but also shape rural communities identities. (AP Photo/Jonathan Shenfield) In this photo taken on Monday, July 18, 2016, a butchers hangs meat, at Rhonda Meats Ltd at Smithfield Market, in London. Welsh farmers like Rees Roberts, who have 1,000 acres with sheep, cattle and crops, can expect to earn a premium on their meats thanks to a certificate of regional authenticity. But that marker of distinction _ the same kind that ensures Champagne can only come from the French region of the same name _ is granted by the European Union and is now at risk after Britain voted to leave the 28-country bloc. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth) In this photo taken on Monday, July 18, 2016, butchers prepare cuts of meat at Rhonda Meats Ltd at Smithfield Market, in London. Welsh farmers like Rees Roberts, who have 1,000 acres with sheep, cattle and crops, can expect to earn a premium on their meats thanks to a certificate of regional authenticity. But that marker of distinction _ the same kind that ensures Champagne can only come from the French region of the same name _ is granted by the European Union and is now at risk after Britain voted to leave the 28-country bloc. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth) In this photo taken on Monday, July 18, 2016, a butcher hangs pieces of meat, at Rhonda Meats Ltd at Smithfield Market, in London. Welsh farmers like Rees Roberts, who have 1,000 acres with sheep, cattle and crops, can expect to earn a premium on their meats thanks to a certificate of regional authenticity. But that marker of distinction _ the same kind that ensures Champagne can only come from the French region of the same name _ is granted by the European Union and is now at risk after Britain voted to leave the 28-country bloc. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth) In this photo taken on Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2016, Stephen Hallam, managing director of pork pie makers Dickinson and Morris, works in their kitchens in Melton Mowbray, England. The marker of distinction for British food, the same kind that ensures Champagne can only come from the French region of the same name, is granted by the European Union and is now at risk after Britain voted to leave the 28-country bloc. The certificates, of which there are 73 across Britain for goods like Stilton cheese and Melton Mowbray pork pies, not only help farmers earn more but also shape rural communities identities. (AP Photo/Jonathan Shenfield) In this photo taken on Monday, July 18, 2016, judges observe different sheep breeds as part of the Royal Welsh Show in Builth Wells, Wales. UK farmers stand to lose a lot from Britains exit from the European Union. The EU currently protects 73 types of regional produce, such as Stilton and pork pies, with markers that allow them to earn more on the marketplace. Those are now at risk, as are millions in subsidies. (AP Photo/ Joshua Boak) US destroyer visit latest twist in China-US military ties QINGDAO, China (AP) The visit of the U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer USS Benfold to the northern Chinese port of Qingdao this week is the latest development in a long-term effort to build trust between the countries' militaries amid tensions and a rivalry for dominance in Asia. Though China resents the highly visible presence of the U.S. armed forces in Asia, especially the South China Sea, it has gradually overcome its reluctance and shown a willingness to engage that the sides hope will help avoid conflicts. Below is a look at the Benfold's visit and some of the steps the sides have taken to build their relationship: ___ FILE - In this Monday, Aug. 8, 2016, file photo, a Chinese military band plays as the guided missile destroyer USS Benfold arrives in port in Qingdao in eastern China's Shandong Province. The visit of the U.S. Navy's USS Benfold to the northern Chinese port of Qingdao this week is the latest development in a long-term effort to build trust between the countries' militaries amid tensions and a rivalry for dominance in Asia. (AP Photo/Borg Wong, File) WHAT'S THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE VISIT? The Benfold's visit is the first to China by an American warship since Beijing responded furiously to a Hague-based international arbitration tribunal's ruling that its expansive South China Sea maritime claims had no basis in law. The fact the visit went ahead appears to show that Beijing now values the military-to-military relationship too much to allow it to be derailed by other events as was once the case. Qingdao is the base of China's northern fleet and is thus less sensitive than ports to the south closer to hotspots, such as Taiwan and the South China Sea. ___ HOW HAVE THE SIDES RESPONDED TO THE ARBITRATION RULING? China was incensed by the ruling and declared it null and void. It renewed its commitment to defend its sovereignty claims and continue work on man-made islands in the Spratly island group that have been heavily criticized by the U.S. and others as adding to regional tensions. Beijing has also launched what it says will be regular aerial patrols over the South China Sea and says it will consider whether to declare an air defense identification zone over all or part of the water body. The U.S. has called on China to respect the ruling, but has not staged another freedom of navigation mission in which its ships sail near China's artificial islands, which draw warnings and rebukes from Beijing. ___ WHAT HAVE THE SIDES DONE TO BUILD TRUST? Apart from exchanging visits, China and the U.S. have sought to reach agreements on the rules of the road and work with each other on non-combat oriented training missions. At a multilateral forum in Qingdao in 2014, the two navies agreed to a Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea that seems to have allowed them to avoid confrontations. Last year, they added a similar agreement on aerial encounters between their military pilots that calls for, among other things, maintaining a secure distance, communicating clearly and avoiding rude body language. This year, China also took part in the world's largest maritime drills, known as RimPac, hosted by the U.S. every two years near Hawaii. ___ WHAT'S THE OUTLOOK FOR THE FUTURE? Catholic church in Germany ends protest by Balkan migrants BERLIN (AP) A Roman Catholic diocese in Bavaria says it has ended a five-week protest at a church building by migrants from the Balkans. Some 50 migrants started camping out at Regensburg Cathedral early last month, demanding the right to stay in Germany and protesting the Balkan nations' designation as safe countries. A few days later, most moved to a vicarage across town. The Regensburg diocese said that, after three weeks, some of the migrants embarked on a hunger strike and later started threatening to kill themselves and their children. The diocese said it was "no longer responsible" to allow them to stay and demanded that they leave. In this Aug. 8, 2016 picture police officers standing in front of the parish hall of St. Emmeram where refugees were living in Regensburg, Germany.The Roman Catholic diocese in Bavaria says it has ended a five-week protest at a church building by migrants from the Balkans. Some 50 migrants started camping out at Regensburg Cathedral early last month, demanding the right to stay in Germany and protesting the Balkan nations' designation as safe countries. A few days later, most moved to a vicarage across town. The diocese said the last 16 people were persuaded to leave Monday by police. (Armin Weigel/dpa via AP) News / National by Staff Reporter THE Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces General Constantino Chiwenga yesterday distanced himself from Team Lacoste - a faction aligned to Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa who is reportedly positioning himself to succeed aging President Robert Mugabe.Asked on media claims that he was supporting a faction led by Mnangagwa, Chiwenga said, "That is nonsense. Do you believe in that? People who peddle such kind of nonsense are not worth their soul."Ironically, Chiwenga who is rumoured to be part of a clique of war veterans 'sick and tired' of Mugabe's rule professed his undying support for the nonagenarian saying the Zimbabwe Defence Forces will never accept any unconstitutional change of government and will stand firm and unequivocal by Mugabe.Speaking at a press conference yesterday ahead of the 36th anniversary of the ZDF Day Commemorations to be held today, General Chiwenga said the ZDF has been watching events in the country which have a serious potential to disturb peace."These have to stop and people must focus on developmental programmes. The history of this country cannot, and will never be rewritten. It was only done once by colonialists in the Berlin Treaty, who by act of conquest, declared that they had brought civilisation and religion into Africa including Zimbabwe, as though we did not have our own religions and civilisation.""...Therefore, the ZDF will never accept any unconstitutional change of Government and we stand firm and unequivocal by the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe and commander-in-chief of the ZDF, his Excellency Mugabe," he is quoted as saying by the Herald."It follows that the ZDF, while remaining apolitical, would not tolerate or support any unconstitutional change of Government in the country, whether internally or externally induced," Chiwenga added.But the ZDF have been accused of being partisan by openly supporting Zanu PF.Chiwenga who in the past has threatened to deal with 'elements burnt on destabilising the country said the ZDF "will take deliberate steps to ensure that the country's Constitution in its entirety, is not only protected and defended but is also upheld, sustained and supported at all times." Pakistanis mourn attack on lawyers and a deadly culture war QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) Many Pakistanis were in deep mourning on Tuesday, a day after a suicide bombing that targeted lawyers killed 70 people in the city of Quetta, touching a chord in the country's long-simmering culture war. By targeting lawyers, Islamic radicals appeared to take aim at a pillar of the country's budding civil society and a symbol of the supremacy of secular law in a modern state. Across the country, many courts were closed and lawyers staged rallies in support of their colleagues. But in Quetta, the capital of the southwestern province of Baluchistan, the streets were deserted. Shops were shuttered, and markets and schools closed to mourn those killed. "People are scared, and they ask, 'for how long the violence will continue?'" said Mohammad Saleem, who works at the market. Pakistani lawyers offer funeral prayers for their colleagues killed in a Monday bombing in Quetta, under tight security, outside the Supreme Court building in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. Pakistani lawyers are mourning colleagues slain in a shocking suicide bombing the previous day in the southwestern city of Quetta that killed scores of people, mostly lawyers. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash) Senior attorney Mohammad Ashraf stood with several fellow lawyers outside a Quetta court building, a spot where he had often gathered for breaks with many of the lawyers killed in the bombing. The perpetrators "cannot be called humans," he said with anger. "We request that the government tracks down and punishes all those who killed innocent lawyers and other people," he added. Tariq Lodhi, a former head of Pakistan's main civil spy agency, told The Associated Press that the attack was carried out by militants to "terrorize lawyers and judges," who are handling cases involving militants accused of carrying out attacks in the country. A prominent local lawyer, Bilal Kasi, the president of the Baluchistan Bar Association, was on his way to work when he was shot dead by gunmen early Monday. After his death, around 100 lawyers gathered at Quetta's government-run Civil Hospital, where a suicide bomber attacked those mourning. Survivors later described scenes of panic as the blast ripped through the emergency room, littering it with body parts. Two journalists who had been covering the event for Pakistani TV were killed, but many of the dead and wounded were lawyers. In a statement, Ahsanullah Ahsan, a spokesman for the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar a breakaway faction of the militant Taliban group said its fighters killed Kasi and dozens of lawyers at the hospital. Ahsan's group has been behind several attacks in Pakistan in recent years, including a deadly Easter Sunday bombing in a park in the eastern city of Lahore that killed at least 70 people. But in what was likely an opportunistic statement, the Islamic State group also claimed responsibility for the Quetta attack later on Monday. There have been instances of competing claims in previous attacks in Pakistan. It was not the first time that militants in Pakistan have targeted lawyers. Last year, gunmen in the northwestern city of Peshawar killed Samiullah Khan Afridi, a former lawyer for the Pakistani doctor who helped the U.S. find Osama bin Laden. Earlier this year, the son of the supreme chief justice of Sindh High Court was kidnapped, and a suicide bomb attack outside a courtroom in Pakistan's north-east killed 11 people in March. The Quetta bombing was, however, the deadliest attack to hit Pakistan's legal community. Bilal Kasi, the first lawyers targeted, was among the most outspoken lawyers in Baluchistan province and was popular for campaigning for improvements to the judiciary. Tahir Hussein, an advocate, said his friend Kasi practiced criminal law and was not involved in any cases involving militants. He did not believe that militants had specifically targeted lawyers. "Terrorists do not differentiate between doctors and engineers and lawyers or policemen. They kill people to spread fear," Hussein said. Yet lawyers also represent a powerful segment of Pakistan's civil society, which has played a key role in turning popular opinion against Islamic militant groups such as the Taliban. Many Pakistanis, particularly religious conservatives, tolerated or even supported the Taliban and opposed the military's campaign against militants. But this changed in the wake of a series of brutal attacks against civilians, such as an attack on a school in Peshawar that killed 156 people in 2014. Pakistan's growing civil society has been vocal of its opposition to the narrow, rigid interpretation of Islam espoused by groups such as the Taliban. Many of the lawyers killed were pursuing cases involving human rights violations. The legal community has also emerged as a powerful political actor in Pakistan. In 2007, lawyers launched a campaign against then-President Pervez Musharraf for sacking the chief justice, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry. Later, political parties joined the campaign and Musharraf was forced to quit in 2008 and Chaudhry was reinstated. For militants, lawyers are representatives of a civil society that increasingly rejects their hard-line interpretations of Islam, and agents of the Pakistani state, which has declared open war on Islamic militant groups. The government does not publish statistics, but dozens of militants are known to have been tried in military and civilian courts in the past year alone. The Quetta hospital bombing was planned to inflict the maximum number of civilian casualties. It follows a series of large-scale attacks on civilian targets this year, including the storming of a school in north-eastern Pakistan in January, when 20 people were killed, and the Easter Sunday bombing. The brutality of such attacks have undercut militants' support base, but they also underscore concerns that insurgents are still capable of striking in major cities, despite government claims of dismantling various terror networks. Outside the courtroom later Tuesday, Sanaullah Zehri, the chief minister in the Baluchistan province, struck a defiant note. He pledged the government would trace and punish those linked to the hospital attack, vowing that the "blood of innocent people will not go to waste." ___ Associated Press Writers Ahmed in Islamabad and Maamoun Youssef in Cairo contributed to this report. Pakistani lawyers offer funeral prayers for their colleagues killed in a Monday bombing in Quetta, outside the Supreme Court building in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. Pakistani lawyers are mourning colleagues slain in a shocking suicide bombing the previous day in the southwestern city of Quetta that killed and wounded scores of people, mostly lawyers. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash) Pakistani lawyers offer funeral prayers for their colleagues killed in a Monday bombing in Quetta, outside the Supreme Court building in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. Pakistani lawyers are mourning colleagues slain in a shocking suicide bombing the previous day in the southwestern city of Quetta that killed and wounded scores of people, mostly lawyers. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash) Pakistani security troops stand guard outside the Supreme Court as people gather to pray for victims of a bomb blast Monday in Quetta, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. Pakistani lawyers are mourning colleagues slain in a shocking suicide bombing the previous day in the southwestern city of Quetta that killed and wounded scores of people, mostly lawyers. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash) Pakistani civil society activists light candles Peshawar, Pakistan to pay tribute to the victims of a bombing in Quetta, Monday, Aug. 8, 2016. The bomber killed dozens of people and wounded many others in an attack that struck a gathering of Pakistani lawyers on the grounds of a government-run hospital in the southwestern city of Quetta on Monday, police and doctors said. (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad) Pakistani civil society activists light candles in Peshawar to pay tribute to the victims of bombing in Quetta Monday, Aug. 8, 2016. The bomber killed dozens of people and wounded many others in an attack that struck a gathering of Pakistani lawyers on the grounds of a government-run hospital in the southwestern city of Quetta on Monday, police and doctors said. (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad) Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif talks to a survivor of a bombing with Pakistani army chief Gen. Raheel Sharif, right, at a hospital in Quetta, Pakistan, Monday, Aug. 8, 2016. The bomber killed dozens of people and wounded many others in an attack that struck a gathering of Pakistani lawyers on the grounds of a government-run hospital in the southwestern city of Quetta on Monday, police and doctors said. (AP Photo/Arshad Butt) Chinese ambassador warns relations with UK at crossroads LONDON (AP) China's ambassador to Britain has warned that U.K.-Chinese relations are at a crossroads following the U.K. government's delaying of a decision on a new nuclear power plant backed by Chinese investment. In an article for Tuesday's edition of the Financial Times, ambassador Liu Xiaoming made a direct link between the future of relations and the fate of the 18-billion-pound ($23 billion) Hinkley Point project. He described ties as at a "crucial historical juncture" and stressed the importance of "mutual trust" to the two countries' relationship. Britain's new Prime Minister Theresa May surprised the business world when she stalled the deal last month in order to review the power project in southwestern England, financed by a Chinese nuclear power provider and French energy giant EDF. The delay threw into doubt the "golden era" of ties proclaimed by Chinese President Xi Jinping during a visit to Britain last year. The ambassador wrote that he hoped "the U.K. will keep its door open to China." He urged the British government to decide as soon as possible to proceed with Hinkley Point. Some British politicians and diplomats are wary of the enthusiasm the previous government of Prime Minister David Cameron showed for boosting ties with Beijing. Britain rolled out the red carpet for Xi during a lavish state visit in October, complete with a stay at Buckingham Palace as the guest of Queen Elizabeth II. The two countries signed more than 30 billion pounds in trade agreements during the trip, as Cameron said Britain would be China's "partner of choice" in the West. The visit also saw protests by pro-Tibet and human rights demonstrators concerned about the British government's lavish welcome for the Chinese leader. A mother has shared photos of her 18-year-old son smiling with friends and praying by the side of a runway - moments before she watched him die in a skydiving accident. Tyler Turner was killed after jumping out of a plane with an instructor over Lodi, California, on Saturday. Francine Salazar Turner has described how she stood helpless on the ground and watched her son, an aspiring engineer, plummet from the skies. She also revealed her horror at the school who kept sending up jumpers as she waited for hours for her son's body to be recovered. Moments before he was set to make his first skydive, Mrs Salazar Turner tightly hugged her son, then he told her: 'I love you Mom.' Scroll down for video Tyler Turner is seen praying next to a runway, moments before he died in a skydiving accident in Lodi, California The aspiring engineer, 18, is seen posing and smiling with friends moments before the horrifying fall His mother, Francine Salazar Turner (left), has described how she stood helpless on the ground as she watched her son plummet from the skies She wondered which of the skydivers was her 18-year-old son, and the instructor he was strapped to. Her uncertainty would soon turn to tragedy as the two connected men would die when their shared parachute failed to open. The instructor, whose name has not been released, was found Saturday with his hand on the lever for a backup parachute but it was never pulled, she said. Turner made the jump with three friends who landed safely. His mother called him an adventurous spirit who was willing to try anything just about anything including the jump that was on his bucket list of things to do in life. 'One of the last things they wanted to do was go on a skydiving trip they've been talking about,' Salazar Turner said about her son and his friends. 'I hate for any other mother to go through this.' He had a mild case of cerebral palsy and walked with a crouched gait that did nothing to dampen his zest for life, Salazar Turner said. Turner had graduated from high school with honors and had been bound for the University of California at Merced this month to study biomedical engineering Turner had graduated from high school with honors and had been bound for the University of California at Merced this month to study biomedical engineering. On Saturday, his mother drove Turner and his best friend to the Parachute Center in Lodi, east of San Francisco, where she says they joined two other friends and sped through a safety video. Before going up in a plane, Tyler Turner knelt at the edge of the jumping area and said a quick prayer. He gave his mom a tight hug and told her he loved her. Salazar Turner said she was appalled that the center continued sending people up to jump while she waited for word about her son. She thought the center might halt operations. 'I'm out there waiting for my son to be recovered, for hours, and they just kept jumping over my head,' she said. Salazar Turner said she paid $175 for her son's jump, which included a video recording that is now in the hands of federal investigators. The four friends filled out paperwork but didn't finish watching the safety video before they were hustled into gear, she said. San Joaquin County Sheriff's deputies talk with Bill Dause, the owner of the Lodi Parachute Center. He has insisted the teen's tragic death was an accident Mrs Salazar Turner said she was appalled that the center continued sending people up to jump while she waited for word about her son Bill Dause, owner of the Parachute Center, said the instructor was a veteran who had about 700 previous jumps. Dause said he sympathized but there was nothing he could do. The wind and other conditions were perfect, he added. 'It was just an accident,' he told The Associated Press on Monday. California wildfire surges, thousands of homes threatened LAKE ARROWHEAD, Calif. (AP) A wildfire threatening homes in Southern California's rugged San Bernardino Mountains grew to over 12 square miles Tuesday while authorities reopened Highway 1 on the state's central coast after parts were closed due to the huge wildfire just north of Big Sur. Mandatory and voluntary evacuations covered 5,300 homes in the Southern California fire area between mountain communities around Lake Arrowhead and the high desert city of Hesperia to the north, said Lyn Sieliet, a U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman. The number of people who left was not known. Southwest winds pushed the fire northward through the mountains toward the desert. A San Bernardino County firefighter is shrouded in dust and smoke as handcrew members and bulldozer cleared smoldering debris from a wildfire in Hesperia, Calif., Tuesday. Aug. 9, 2016. (James Quigg/The Daily Press via AP) Schools in Hesperia were closed as a precaution because of the fire's movement and two neighboring districts also shut down for the day due to poor air quality caused by smoke. More than 900 firefighters aided by retardant-dropping air tankers and water-dropping helicopters had just 6 percent of the fire contained, but no structures had been lost since it erupted at 12:10 p.m. Sunday. The cause remained under investigation. Overnight prospects looked good for firefighters, with temperatures dipping into the low 60s and humidity rising. Meanwhile, California's biggest wildfire expanded to more than 104 square miles north of scenic Big Sur. An army of more than 5,000 firefighters and a fleet of air tankers and helicopters made progress, however, surrounding 50 percent of the nearly 3-week-old fire. Due to increased wind and flames from the spreading fire, Highway 1 was closed Monday night but reopened early Tuesday. More temporary closures could follow. Some residents have been allowed to return to their homes, but some evacuation orders remained in place, while others were reduced to warnings. Five state parks on Highway 1 between San Francisco and Los Angeles remained closed. The fire, which has destroyed 57 homes, damaged three others and led to the death of a bulldozer operator in an accident, was caused by an illegal campfire. Flames from a wildfire rise up a ridge in Hesperia, Calif., Tuesday. Aug. 9, 2016. Mandatory and voluntary evacuations covered 5,300 homes in the Southern California fire area between mountain communities around Lake Arrowhead and the high desert city of Hesperia to the north, said Lyn Sieliet, a U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman. (James Quigg/The Daily Press via AP) Summit Valley Resident Tom Flury watches San Bernardino County firefighters mop up the smoldering remains from a wildfire in Summit Valley, Calif., Tuesday. Aug. 9, 2016. (James Quigg/The Daily Press via AP) San Bernardino County Firefighter Mike Callaway battles flames from a wildfire in Hesperia, Calif., on Monday, Aug. 8, 2016. Smoke plumes roiling from flaming ridges of the San Bernardino Mountains blew all the way across the Mojave Desert to Las Vegas as California's latest big wildfire chewed through timber and brush Monday. Hundreds of firefighters, aided by 16 aircraft, battled flames that spread across 7 square miles on the northern side of the rugged mountain range about 60 miles east of Los Angeles. (James Quigg/The Daily Press via AP) A wildfire burns in late evening Monday, Aug. 8, 2016, in Hesperia Calif. Smoke plumes roiling from flaming ridges of the San Bernardino Mountains blew all the way across the Mojave Desert to Las Vegas as California's latest big wildfire chewed through timber and brush Monday. Hundreds of firefighters, aided by 16 aircraft, battled flames that spread across 7 square miles on the northern side of the rugged mountain range about 60 miles east of Los Angeles. (James Quigg/The Daily Press via AP) Onlookers watch helicopters collect water from Papoose Lake to battle a wildfire in Lake Arrowhead, Calif., Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. A wildfire threatening homes in Southern California's rugged San Bernardino Mountains grew Tuesday while authorities reopened Highway 1 on the state's central coast after parts were closed due to the huge wildfire just north of Big Sur. (Rachel Luna/The Sun via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT A thank you sign posted in front of a resident's home in Deer Lodge Park, Calif. on Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. A wildfire threatening homes in Southern California's rugged San Bernardino Mountains grew to nearly 11 square miles Tuesday while authorities reopened Highway 1 on the state's central coast after parts were closed due to the huge wildfire just north of Big Sur.(Rachel Luna/The Sun via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT Helicopters collect water to battle the Pilot fire from Papoose Lake in Lake Arrowhead, Calif. on Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. A wildfire threatening homes in Southern California's rugged San Bernardino Mountains grew to nearly 11 square miles Tuesday while authorities reopened Highway 1 on the state's central coast after parts were closed due to the huge wildfire just north of Big Sur. (Rachel Luna/The Sun via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT A S-64E Sikorsky Skycrane arrives at Lake Arrowhead, Calif, to gather water do perform water drops at the Pilot Fire near the lake on Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. (David Pardo/The Daily Press via AP) A DC-10 drops fire retardant on the Pilot Fire as seen from hwy 173 in Lake Arrowhead, Calif, on Tuesday, Aug 9, 2016. (David Pardo/The Daily Press via AP) An airtanker drops fire retardant on the Pilot fire burning near Deer Lodge Park, Calif. on Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. A wildfire threatening homes in Southern California's rugged San Bernardino Mountains grew to nearly 11 square miles Tuesday while authorities reopened Highway 1 on the state's central coast after parts were closed due to the huge wildfire just north of Big Sur. (Rachel Luna/The Sun via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT Poll: Young Americans favor LGBT rights on adoption, more WASHINGTON (AP) Young people in America overwhelmingly support LGBT rights when it comes to policies on employment, health care and adoption, according to a new survey. The GenForward survey of Americans ages 18-30 found that support for those policies has increased over the past two years, especially among young whites. But relatively few of these young adults consider rights for people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender to be among the top issues facing the country. According to the findings, 92 percent of young adults support HIV and AIDs prevention, 90 percent support equal employment, and 80 percent support LGBT adoption. Across racial and ethnic groups, broad majorities support training police on transgender issues, government support for organizations for LGBT youth and insurance coverage for transgender health issues. FILE - In this June 26, 2016, file photo, a woman holds a rainbow flag during the NYC Pride Parade in New York. Young Americans overwhelmingly say they support LGBT rights when it comes to employment, health care and adoption. Thats according to a new GenForward survey, which finds 92 percent of young adults support HIV and AIDs prevention, 90 percent support equal employment, and 80 percent support LGBT adoption. Across ethnic groups, large majorities of Americans aged 18 to 30 favor training police on transgender issues, government support for LGBT youth organizations and insurance coverage for transgender health issues. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File) GenForward is a survey by the Black Youth Project at the University of Chicago with The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The first-of-its-kind poll pays special attention to the voices of young adults of color, highlighting how race and ethnicity shape the opinions of the country's most diverse generation. In the past two years, support has increased from 69 percent to 84 percent among young whites for policies such as allowing gays and lesbians to legally adopt children. Support among this group for employment equality for LGBT individuals rose from 84 percent to 92 percent. The poll also suggests support for allowing adoption by gays and lesbians has increased among Hispanics over the past two years, from 65 percent to 75 percent. Christie Cocklin, 27, a self-identified multiracial American from Providence, Rhode Island, says that LGBT rights are just common sense. "People who don't identify as heterosexual are human like we are, and should be entitled to the same kind of rights," she said. "I have friends who are LGBT and I feel that it's discrimination to not allow them adoption or employment or whatever." Young Asian-Americans, African-Americans and Latinos are more likely to support insurance coverage for transgender health issues in general than when certain specifics are mentioned. Eighty-three percent of Asian-Americans support insurance coverage for transgender health issues, but only 63 percent say so when gender reassignment surgery and hormone treatments are specifically mentioned. Similarly, support for insurance coverage drops from 69 percent to 57 percent among African-Americans, and from 74 percent to 57 percent among Latinos. Sixty-two percent of young whites favored insurance coverage of transgender health issues regardless of whether that specifically included gender reassignment surgery and hormone treatments. While young Americans favored LGBT rights on every issue in the poll, only 6 percent, including fewer than 1 in 10 across racial and ethnic backgrounds, consider the LGBT rights one of the top issues facing the country. Among those who self-identified as LGBT, 17 percent said it is one of the country's top issues. The poll of 1,940 adults age 18-30 was conducted July 9-20 using a sample drawn from the probability-based GenForward panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. young adult population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points. The survey was paid for by the Black Youth Project at the University of Chicago using grants from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Ford Foundation. Respondents were first selected randomly using address-based sampling methods, and later interviewed online or by phone. ___ Online: GenForward polls: http://www.genforwardsurvey.com/ Black Youth Project: http://blackyouthproject.com/ Dubai-based courier Aramex sells stake to Australia Post DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) The Dubai-based courier Aramex says Australia's postal service has bought a 4.5 percent stake in the company. Aramex confirmed the purchase by Australia Post in a disclosure to the Dubai Financial Market on Tuesday. It didn't provide financial terms. UK coast guards warn sightseers away from oil rig on beach LONDON (AP) Police are warning people to stay away from an oil rig that was blown onto a remote Scottish beach in a storm. The Transocean Winner drilling rig was being towed when it broke free of its tug and ran aground on the Isle of Lewis off Scotland's west coast on Monday. Environmental groups have expressed concern, but coast guards say the risk of pollution is low. Salvage crews are working to recover some 280 tons of diesel on board. People observe the Transocean Winner drilling rig off the coast of the Isle of Lewis, Scotland, after it ran aground in severe weather conditions, Tuesday Aug. 9, 2016. The oil rig, carrying 280 tonnes of diesel, broke free of its tug and ran aground on the remote Scottish island where it is being monitored by a counter-pollution team. (Andrew Milligan / PA via AP) Local politicians are calling for an emergency towing vessel to be based in Scotland's Western Isles after reports it took the coast guard 18 hours to reach the rig. Scottish National Party lawmaker Angus MacNeil says he also wants to know "why this oil rig was being towed in severe winds." The Transocean Winner drilling rig is seen off the coast of the Isle of Lewis, Scotland, after it ran aground in severe weather conditions, Tuesday Aug. 9, 2016. The oil rig, carrying 280 tonnes of diesel, broke free of its tug and ran aground on the remote Scottish beach where it is being monitored by a counter-pollution team. (Andrew Milligan / PA via AP) A coastguard helicopter winches a salvage expert aboard the Transocean Winner drilling rig off the coast of the Isle of Lewis, Scotland, after it ran aground in severe weather conditions, Tuesday Aug. 9, 2016. The oil rig, carrying 280 tonnes of diesel, broke free of its tug and ran aground on the remote Scottish island where it is being monitored by a counter-pollution team. (Andrew Milligan / PA via AP) A coastguard helicopter prepares to winch a salvage expert aboard the Transocean Winner drilling rig off the coast of the Isle of Lewis, Scotland, after it ran aground in severe weather conditions, Tuesday Aug. 9, 2016. The oil rig, carrying 280 tonnes of diesel, broke free of its tug and ran aground on the remote Scottish island where it is being monitored by a counter-pollution team. (Andrew Milligan / PA via AP) A coastguard official monitors the Transocean Winner drilling rig off the coast of the Isle of Lewis, Scotland, after it ran aground in severe weather conditions, Tuesday Aug. 9, 2016. The oil rig, carrying 280 tonnes of diesel, broke free of its tug and ran aground on the remote Scottish island where it is being monitored by a counter-pollution team. (Andrew Milligan / PA via AP) In Miami, Clinton to call on Congress to act on Zika virus WASHINGTON (AP) Hillary Clinton will call on Congress to return to Washington and pass emergency funding for the Zika response during a visit to a Miami neighborhood dealing with the first U.S. outbreak of the disease. On Tuesday afternoon, the Democratic presidential candidate plans to tour the Borinquen Medical Center, a health clinic close to the Wynwood area where 16 non-travel related cases have been diagnosed. She will demand Republican leaders bring Congress back in session to either pass stalled legislation or craft a new bipartisan compromise bill to provide funding for testing, treatment and research on the disease, according to aides briefed on her plans. Clinton's running mate, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, has already said he'd return to Washington for a vote on a Zika bill. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton greets members of the audience after speaking at a rally at Osceola Heritage Park, in Kissimmee, Fla., Monday, Aug. 8, 2016. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) Until this month, the only known Zika cases in the United States were in people who had recently traveled to Latin America and the Caribbean. Federal officials last week warned pregnant women to avoid the Miami neighborhood and a 1-square-mile area around it. Public health experts worry about the disease spreading: Florida health officials said on Monday they're investigating a case of Zika virus infection in Palm Beach County that was likely contracted in the United States. Lawmakers left Washington in mid-July for a seven-week recess without approving any of the $1.9 billion that President Barack Obama requested in February to develop a vaccine and control the mosquitoes that carry the virus. Both sides have been pointing fingers since. Obama, Clinton and Democrats blame Republicans for politicizing the legislation by adding a provision to a $1.1 billion take-it-or-leave-it measure that would have blocked Planned Parenthood clinics in Puerto Rico from receiving money. Republicans say the administration has not spent money that has already been provided and is trying to play politics in an election year. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has signaled he is in no rush to return. Writing in the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader last week, he criticized Democrats for balking at passing the bill. He said they'll get another chance after Labor Day when Congress is back in session. McConnell spokesman Don Stewart said Tuesday that Senate Democrats were holding up the bill through the "use of a filibuster." "We would love for Sen. Kaine and others to end that filibuster and pass the bill, but it doesn't sound like they're prepared to do that," he said. "Apparently they believe an earmark for Planned Parenthood in the future is more important than preventing the threat of Zika now." Stewart added that there were opportunities to move quickly on the legislation, saying: "whenever they're ready to stop blocking funding for anti-Zika efforts and funding for our veterans, we'll be here waiting." Clinton supported the initial Senate bill, which her policy aide Ann O'Leary called "a critical first step to protect public health and ultimately save lives" in a post on the website Medium. She laid out a plan to combat the virus last March, which included allocating $1.8 billion in emergency funds. A month later, she dispatched two of her aides to Puerto Rico, where hundreds of cases have been detected, to meet with medical professionals. "Zika is real. It's dangerous. And if we're serious about stopping this epidemic in its tracks, then there's no time to waste," Clinton wrote in a June op-ed in the Sun Sentinel. ___ Saudi-led coalition hits food factory, killing 14 civilians SANAA, Yemen (AP) Airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition bombed a food factory in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa early on Tuesday, killing 14 civilians working on an overnight shift, according to a factory official and medics. Five women were among those killed in what effectively was the resumption of heavy bombardment by the Saudi-led alliance targeting Yemen's Shiite rebels and allied forces loyal to Yemen's ousted president. The resumption comes after U.N. peace talks on Yemen collapsed over the weekend in Kuwait. The airstrikes also signal the end of a fragile truce declared by the United Nations in April to pave the way for peace talks. Firefighters work to extinguish fire at a food factory that was hit by Saudi-led airstrikes, in Sanaa, Yemen, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed) The conflict in Yemen pits the internationally-recognized government of Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and his allies, backed by the Saudi-led coalition of Arab states, against Shiite rebels known as Houthis who overran and captured Sanaa in September 2014. Since the Saudi-led coalition launched airstrikes against the Houthis, the war has claimed 9,000 lives, displaced some 2.4 million people and pushed the Arab world's already impoverished country to the verge of famine. The bombing of the factory located in western Sanaa is one of series of airstrikes that rocked the capital and at least five other provinces, presumably targeting suspected rebel positions such as barracks housing Houthis and their allies, ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh's forces. According to medics and the factory official, a large hangar used by the al-Aqel food company in Sanaa was hit in one of the overnight airstrikes. Photographs posted by activists on social media show torn and charred bodies at the location. The same factory was hit in airstrikes in January, though there are no visible Houthi camps or barracks in the vicinity of the factory. The nearest rebel post is nearly 1.5 kilometers (mile) away. The factory official and the medics spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing retribution by the Houthis. Yemen's SABA news agency, which is now under Houthi control, said dozens of airstrikes pounded Sanaa, the Houthis' northern stronghold of Saada, the western cities of Taiz and Jouf, and the Red Sea ports of Makha and Houdeida over the past 24 hours. In the mountainous region of Nihm, east of Sanaa, forces loyal to Hadi's government escalated fighting with Houthi militias and allied forces, as part of a new campaign supported by the Saudi-led coalition to seize Sanaa, now under Houthi control. Brig. Gen. Mohammed al-Maqdishi, the army chief of staff loyal to Hadi's government, urged civilians to stay away from Houthi positions. In the past three days, security and medical officials said the fighting has claimed the lives of dozens of fighters from both sides, in the region which is only 65 kilometers (40 miles) from Sanaa. They said that relief workers have been unable to retrieve the bodies of fighters who were killed. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. UNICEF said on Tuesday that four children were reportedly killed and three others wounded in fighting on Saturday. "Children are paying the heaviest price of the conflict in Yemen," the agency said in a statement. Since the beginning of the conflict, UNICEF said that a total of 1,121 children have been killed and another 1,650 injured. "The actual numbers are likely to be much higher," the agency said. UNICEF was referring to reports of killings of nine civilians on Saturday. The Saudi-led coalition has also closed the airspace around Sanaa, suspending flights to and from the airport, and preventing a Houthi rebel delegation from making its way back to Yemen after the talks ended without progress in Kuwait, according to Houthis' spokesman Mohammed Abdel-Salam. Since the start of two-year war, the Saudi-led coalition has controlled of the airspace over neighboring Yemen. A worker loks for survivors amid the rubble of a food factory that was hit by Saudi-led airstrikes, in Sanaa, Yemen, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. A Yemeni factory official and two medics say a Saudi-led airstrike has killed 14 civilians working on an overnight shift in the capital, Sanaa. They say the airstrikes were targeting Yemen's Shiite rebels in Sanaa but instead one of them hit a food factory. The heavy bombardment comes on the heels of the failed U.N. peace talks in Kuwait between Yemen's internationally-recognized government and the Shiite rebels known as Houthis. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed) Smoke rises after Saudi-led airstrikes hit a food factory in Sanaa, Yemen, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. A Yemeni factory official and two medics say a Saudi-led airstrike has killed 14 civilians working on an overnight shift in the capital, Sanaa. They say the airstrikes were targeting Yemen's Shiite rebels in Sanaa but instead one of them hit a food factory. The heavy bombardment comes on the heels of the failed U.N. peace talks in Kuwait between Yemen's internationally-recognized government and the Shiite rebels known as Houthis. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed) Firefighters work to extinguish fire at a food factory hit by Saudi-led airstrikes in Sanaa, Yemen, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. A Yemeni factory official and two medics say a Saudi-led airstrike has killed 14 civilians working on an overnight shift in the capital, Sanaa. They say the airstrikes were targeting Yemen's Shiite rebels in Sanaa but instead one of them hit a food factory. The heavy bombardment comes on the heels of the failed U.N. peace talks in Kuwait between Yemen's internationally-recognized government and the Shiite rebels known as Houthis. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed) Firefighters work to extinguish fire at a food factory hit by Saudi-led airstrikes in Sanaa, Yemen, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. A Yemeni factory official and two medics say a Saudi-led airstrike has killed 14 civilians working on an overnight shift in the capital, Sanaa. They say the airstrikes were targeting Yemen's Shiite rebels in Sanaa but instead one of them hit a food factory. The heavy bombardment comes on the heels of the failed U.N. peace talks in Kuwait between Yemen's internationally-recognized government and the Shiite rebels known as Houthis. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed) Firefighters work to extinguish fire at a food factory hit by Saudi-led airstrikes in Sanaa, Yemen, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. A Yemeni factory official and two medics say a Saudi-led airstrike has killed 14 civilians working on an overnight shift in the capital, Sanaa. They say the airstrikes were targeting Yemen's Shiite rebels in Sanaa but instead one of them hit a food factory. The heavy bombardment comes on the heels of the failed U.N. peace talks in Kuwait between Yemen's internationally-recognized government and the Shiite rebels known as Houthis. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed) Workers work to extinguish fire at a food factory that was hit by Saudi-led airstrikes, in Sanaa, Yemen, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed) UK man jailed for killing shopkeeper over Islam 'disrespect' LONDON (AP) A British man who killed a fellow Muslim because he felt he had disrespected Islam has been sentenced to at least 27 years in prison. Tanveer Ahmed admitted stabbing and beating shopkeeper Asad Shah to death at his Glasgow convenience store in March. Prosecutors said Ahmed, 32, told police his actions were motivated by Shah's "disrespect (for) the Quran, the Prophet Muhammad, Allah and faith." Shah was a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community, which differs from mainstream Islam in that it doesn't regard Muhammad as the final prophet. Ahmed did not know his victim but had seen statements he had posted online. News / National by Thobekile Zhou President Robert Mugabe's son, Chatunga is now spotting a dreadlocks, which his father detests.In September 2012, Mugabe sparked a diplomatic tiff with Jamaica after he said that their men were only interested in smoking dope, singing all day and some of them twist their hair."In Jamaica, they have freedom to smoke cannabis, the men are always high and universities are full of women."The men want to sing and do not go to colleges, some of them twist their hair. Let us not go there," said Mugabe then.However, today his son appeared alongside his mother spotting dreadlocks during Defence Forces Day celebrations.Grace occasionally twist her hair. Questions swirl around state agency in case of missing girl MIAMI (AP) Records show that the woman who told a Miami judge that her missing toddler is dead was on Florida's welfare agency's radar when the girl and her twin brother were born. The Miami Herald (http://hrld.us/2aHlcV1 ) reports that while the search continues for Angela Dufrene, just-released records from the Department of Children and Families renew questions about the agency's oversight of at-risk children. When Angela and her twin brother were born in April 2014, Marjorie Dufrene was under DCF supervision following a child abuse arrest and six separate investigations. The child's disappearance was discovered in July after an anonymous tip spurred a DCF investigation. Police believe Angela was last seen in November 2015 and her brother was removed from Dufrene. Her three older children are in Broward County with their father. Putin, Erdogan agree on steps to mend relations ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) Turkey's president cozied up to his "dear friend" Vladimir Putin on Tuesday in a visit intended to send a message to his allies in the West, whom he blames for what he considers a lack of support after a failed coup. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has pressed the United States to extradite the man he claims was behind the failed insurrection, and has sought more funds and visa-free travel from the European Union, but it's unclear what leverage improved ties with Russia could give him. Putin, in turn, expects Turkey to become more accommodating of Russia's interests in Syria and move faster on major energy projects demands Ankara could find difficult to meet. Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, greets Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Konstantin palace outside St.Petersburg, Russia, on Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. President Erdogan travels to Russia to meet with President Putin for the first time since apologizing in late June for the downing of a Russian fighter jet along the Syrian border in November last year. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko) After their talks in St. Petersburg's ornate Konstantin Palace, both leaders emphasized their shared desire to rebuild ties, but it remained unclear if they could reach common ground on the Syrian crisis. While Moscow has backed Syrian President Bashar Assad throughout the nation's civil war and further bolstered that support by launching an air campaign last September, Turkey has pushed for Assad's removal and helped his foes. Putin said he and Erdogan would have a separate discussion on Syria later Tuesday involving top diplomats and intelligence officials. Repeatedly calling Putin his "dear friend," Erdogan refrained from mentioning any sticking points after the talks, saying he expects ties to fully blossom again soon. He said Turkey is ready to implement a natural gas pipeline project proposed by Moscow and a deal for Russia to build Turkey's first nuclear power plant. Both projects were announced years earlier, but had been held back by commercial disputes even before Turkey's downing of a Russian jet at the Syrian border last November. The shoot-down, which Putin called a "treacherous stab in the back," brought relations to a freezing point where they remained for seven months until Erdogan apologized to Russia in June. Putin responded by ordering his government to start rebuilding ties with Turkey, and when Erdogan faced the botched coup attempt on July 15 the Russian leader quickly offered his support. Erdogan emphasized that pledge of support, saying "it was very important for us psychologically. It offered us moral support and showed Russia's solidarity with Turkey." While Putin also spoke of rebuilding ties, he sounded more cautious, warning that it will take time to fully restore them. Moscow has accused the Turkish government of turning a blind eye to the flow of weapons and supplies to the Islamic State group and other extremists in Syria. While the Kremlin has tempered its rhetoric amid the rapprochement, Putin will most certainly push Erdogan to cut support for the rebels engaged in a fierce battle with Assad's forces in Aleppo. Moscow could use economic levers to force Turkey to compromise on Syria. Turkey badly needs the flow of Russian tourists to resume, and Turkish farmers, construction companies and other businesses badly need to regain access to the Russian market, which has been shut to them after the plane's downing. Putin said Tuesday that charter flights to Turkey could resume "in the near future," but added that "painstaking work is ahead to revive trade and economic cooperation." "This process has been launched, but it will take some time," the Russian leader said. While ties with Russia can't substitute Turkey's economic and security cooperation with the U.S. and the EU and its membership in NATO, Erdogan clearly hopes to use the Russia card to strengthen his hand in disputes with his Western partners. Turkey has pressed the United States hard to extradite Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric the government blames for the failed coup. Gulen has repeatedly denied any involvement. The dispute has strained U.S.-Turkish ties, with some Turkish officials implying Washington could have been behind the coup. The Obama administration has strongly denied that. Speaking after the talks with Putin, Erdogan reiterated his contention that Gulen was behind the failed insurrection and alleged that the coup plotters were also responsible for the crisis in relations with Russia. He didn't touch on Ankara's demand for Gulen's extradition. The failed coup saw renegade Turkish military officers using jets, helicopters and tanks try to take power in a night of violence that left more than 270 people dead. Since then, about 18,000 people have been detained or arrested and nearly 70,000 others suspected of links to Gulen have been suspended or dismissed from the civil service, judiciary, education, health care and the military. Turkish officials have fumed at expressions of concern over the sweeping crackdown from European officials and rights groups, and accused the West of failing to show support for a democratically elected government. Ankara also lashed out at the EU for failing to uphold its end of an EU-Turkey agreement on migration. The deal, struck in March, helped stem the flow of migrants from Turkey to the nearby Greek islands in exchange for an EU pledge of funds and visa-free travel for Turks. But plans to ease visa rules have run into trouble and Erdogan accused the EU earlier this month of failing to deliver the promised funds. In contrast with his criticism of the U.S. and the EU, Erdogan heaped praise on Putin for offering support after the coup, saying: "We are strongly determined to take our relations to the pre-crisis and even higher level." Putin responded in kind, saying that "higher interests of our peoples, our nations require the restoration of our ties." ___ Isachenkov reported from Moscow. Associated Press writers Suzan Fraser in Ankara and Nataliya Vasilyeva in Moscow contributed to this report. France sells 30 Caracal military helicopters to Kuwait PARIS (AP) France has agreed to sell 30 Caracal military helicopters to Kuwait as part of the countries' strategic partnership. France defense ministry said in a statement that Tuesday's deal is worth more than 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion). France and Kuwait signed major defense deals in October last year. US gives Lebanon $50 million of new military assistance BEIRUT (AP) The United States has delivered $50 million worth of military assistance to Lebanon's army to help it battle against Muslim extremists near the border with Syria. U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Elizabeth H. Richard told reporters at Beirut's port that the latest assistance is in "an entire ship full of military equipment." A U.S. Embassy statement said the shipment includes 50 armored Humvees, 40 Howitzers and over 1,000 tons of ammunition. The U.S. has been speeding up delivery of ammunition to help Lebanon's military combat jihadi groups near the border with Syria. In March, Washington delivered three Huey II helicopters, raising to 10 the number of such U.S.-made aircraft in Lebanon's fleet RAF helicopter catches fire after landing on Wales mountain LONDON (AP) A Royal Air Force training helicopter made an emergency landing on a mountain peak in Wales and then burst into flames, Britain's defense ministry said Tuesday. The Ministry of Defense said four military personnel and a civilian aboard the Griffin training helicopter got out safely after the aircraft developed a "technical issue." It said that "subsequently the aircraft caught fire." One person involved in the training exercise was on the ground, and also was unhurt. In this image provided by The National Trust, a thick plume of smoke rises from Yr Aran, a peak in the Snowdonia mountain range after a helicopter made an emergency landing in north Wales, Tuesday Aug. 9, 2016. Britain's defense ministry says a Royal Air Force training helicopter made an emergency landing on a mountain peak in Wales and then burst into flames, after developing a technical fault. All four people aboard the helicopter escaped safely. (The National Trust via AP) Photos taken by hikers showed a thick plume of smoke rising from Yr Aran, a peak in the Snowdonia range in north Wales. Police and the ambulance service said they were at the scene. The helicopter is based at RAF Valley, an air base where Prince William was posted between 2010 and 2013 as a Royal Air Force search-and-rescue pilot. In this image provided by The National Trust, a thick plume of smoke rises from Yr Aran, a peak in the Snowdonia mountain range after a helicopter made an emergency landing in north Wales, Tuesday Aug. 9, 2016. Britain's defense ministry says a Royal Air Force training helicopter made an emergency landing on a mountain peak in Wales and then burst into flames, after developing a technical fault. All four people aboard the helicopter escaped safely. (The National Trust via AP) Man with rifle calls crisis line, then gets fatally shot CIRCLEVILLE, Ohio (AP) An Ohio sheriff says a man called a military veterans' crisis line in the middle of the night and then confronted responding deputies with a rifle and was fatally shot. Pickaway County Sheriff Robert Radcliff says the crisis line notified his office the caller had a rifle and was threatening to kill himself. Authorities have provided no details about why the man was shot. Radcliff told The Columbus Dispatch (http://bit.ly/2aCHzv9 ) it didn't appear the man, Ron Smith, fired during the Tuesday morning encounter outside a home northwest of Circleville. The sheriff says the two veteran deputies who responded called for backup from neighboring Madison County and later reported shots had been fired. Radcliff says the Franklin County sheriff's office is investigating. He says Smith's wife and two children were home but were unhurt. ___ This story's headline has been corrected to show the man called a crisis line, not deputies. ___ Florida university student sues over cheating suspension ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) A University of Central Florida student is suing the school after being accused of sneaking out a cellphone during a test. Taylor Seitz tells the Orlando Sentinel (http://bit.ly/2bcf4bT) her punishment was "egregious." She was barred from attending classes for two semesters after the February incident. She filed the lawsuit in Orlando Circuit Court in July. Seitz wrote a letter of apology, calling the incident "one of the biggest mistakes" of her life. Seitz says her assistant professor and the head of the department assured her the punishment would be failing the course and taking a workshop on academic integrity. Instead she was ordered to go through a formal discipline process. She also was placed on discipline probation for the rest of her undergraduate career. The university didn't comment on the lawsuit. ___ Beyond 'Obamacare': State initiatives refocus health debate WASHINGTON (AP) Moving beyond "Obamacare," political activists are looking to state ballot questions to refocus the nation's long-running debate over government's role in health care. This fall, California voters will decide whether to lower some prescription drug prices, while Coloradans will vote on a state version of a "single-payer" government-run health system, similar to what Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders proposed in his unsuccessful bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. Sanders supports both the California and Colorado initiatives, said spokesman Michael Briggs. FILE - In this July 25, 2016 file photo, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during the first day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Moving beyond Obamacare, political activists are looking to ballot questions in a couple of major states as a new election-year front in the nations long-running debate over the role of government in health care. California voters will decide whether to limit what drug companies can charge many state programs, while Coloradans will vote on a state version of a single-payer government-run health system, similar to what Sanders proposed in his hard-fought but unsuccessful bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File) "We are in the process of building a new organization to keep a lot of the energy going," he said. "Backing those kinds of ballot initiatives is one of the major things that we are focusing on." Pharmaceutical companies and insurers are spending millions of dollars to defeat the two ballot questions. The measures are among the more far-reaching health care questions to be decided by voters around the country on Election Day. With ballots still being finalized in some states, other questions may include raising tobacco taxes, expanding use of marijuana for medical treatment and allowing terminally ill patients to have physician assistance in dying. A proposal in Ohio to limit drug costs didn't make it on the ballot this year, but proponents are pushing for a vote in 2017. California's Proposition 61 would bar drug companies from charging state programs more than the discounted price paid by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. There would be exemptions, however. For example, it would not apply to medications purchased through private insurers who contract with the state to cover beneficiaries in the Medi-Cal program for low-income people. Opponents of the California initiative have reported $69.6 million in contributions, mainly from pharmaceutical companies. That's more than seven times the $9.4 million that supporters have raised. Those amounts guarantee national visibility for the battle. In Colorado, a measure known as Amendment 69 would create ColoradoCare, a government-financed system that would cover most state residents, largely replacing private insurance. Seniors would continue to rely primarily on Medicare. Opponents have raised $3.6 million, more than five times the $678,000 reported by supporters. The nation's second-largest insurer, Anthem, donated $1 million to the opposition. As envisioned, Colorado's new public health care system would be paid for with tax increases and with federal and state money that now goes to programs such as Medicaid, and for subsidized insurance under President Barack Obama's health care law. Federal approval would be needed under a provision of the Obama law that takes effect next year, allowing states to redesign their health care systems. The tax increase features a new 10 percent levy on wages and other income. Employers would pay two-thirds of the new payroll tax, with workers responsible for the rest. The taxes would raise $25 billion in 2019, the earliest the program could start. A recent nonpartisan study projected that as currently structured, ColoradoCare would post a small deficit starting in its first year and the shortfall would keep growing. With the presidential campaign consumed by questions about the candidates' character and temperament, the traditional debate over issues has been downplayed. Republican Donald Trump has pledged to repeal Obama's health care law, while Democrat Hillary Clinton would build on it. The California and Colorado initiatives steer the conversation away from the highly scripted back-and-forth on "Obamacare." The two proposals are strikingly different, said John McDonough, a former U.S. Senate Democratic aide who worked on the federal health overhaul. The Colorado plan seeks a total transformation of the health care system, while the California initiative reflects concerns about the rising cost of many medications. Which ballot question has a better chance? "Of the two, I probably think the prescription drug piece, because people have so much anger and antipathy toward the pharmaceutical industry," said McDonough, now a professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Supporters of the California drug costs proposal say it would save state taxpayers money; opponents say such savings are not a sure thing and the whole scheme could prove to be unworkable. Supporters of ColoradoCare say it would guarantee coverage for all and reduce administrative costs; opponents fear it would lead to more tax increases. Both proposals face strong business opposition, but that does not worry the Sanders' camp. "He's been involved in longshot campaigns for most of his career," said spokesman Briggs. ___ Associated Press writers Kristen Wyatt in Denver, Juliet Williams in Sacramento and Ann Sanner in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this story. ___ Online: California Proposition 61: http://tinyurl.com/zquo5jp Poland's Kaczynski meets with Hungary's Orban WARSAW, Poland (AP) The leader of Poland's conservative ruling party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, met on Tuesday with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a meeting of two right-wing and nationalistic leaders moving their Central European nations in a similar direction. Though Kaczynski holds no official position within the Polish government, he is widely considered to be the nation's most powerful person, guiding both the prime minister and the president. He has expressed admiration for Orban's strong governing style one that Orban himself calls "illiberal" which has raised concerns abroad about the state of Hungary's democracy. Since Kaczynski's Law and Justice party took power in November, it has also come under international scrutiny for steps which the European Union says erode the rule of law. Conservative Polish politicians who were with Kaczynski posted photos on Twitter of the two leaders in the Hungarian parliament and on a boat going down the Danube River. Kaczynski's party has taken a path similar to that of Orban, including greater government control over the judiciary and the media. They have also found common ground on migration, strongly opposing European Union attempts to resettle refugees among member states. One area where they differ is on Russia. Kaczynski has long been very skeptical of Moscow, while Orban in past years has pursued closer ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin as he has sought energy deals with Russia. The Hungarian government said in a statement that Kaczynski visited Hungary at Orban's invitation and "they discussed the political situation in Europe during an informal conversation lasting all afternoon." Zika reports blamed for business downturn in Miami's Wynwood MIAMI (AP) Business has plummeted in Miami's Wynwood arts district since Zika infections were reported there, according to gallery and restaurant owners who want government officials to speed up their response and help offset their losses. At an emergency meeting Monday, the Wynwood Business Improvement District urged state, local and federal officials to hasten efforts to clear mosquitoes that carry the virus from the area. It also asked for recovery funds to make up for lost business since the U.S. mainland's first locally acquired Zika cases were reported in the neighborhood north of downtown Miami. Ken Bercel took out a $15,000 loan to keep his Lost and Found Saloon open after customers stopped coming, The Miami Herald reported Tuesday (http://hrld.us/2aHVLZf ). "Money is coming out of our savings, our banks, our lenders, just to keep the business open right now," said Bercel. "How do we finish this summer?" Florida now reports 21 people have contracted the virus locally, including four new cases likely caught through a mosquito bite within a 1-square-mile zone encompassing Wynwood, according to a statement Tuesday from Gov. Rick Scott. It's the only area where active Zika transmissions have been taking place, according to a separate statement from Florida's Department of Health. Hillary Clinton, who visited Miami on Tuesday and toured a health clinic near Wynwood, called on Congress to immediately return to Washington to pass legislation to provide emergency funding for Zika testing, treatment and research. The Democratic presidential candidate's running mate, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, has already said he'd return to Washington for a vote on a Zika bill. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned pregnant women to avoid traveling to Wynwood. Pregnant women who live there have been told to take extra precautions to avoid mosquito bites. The virus is primarily transmitted by certain tropical mosquitoes but also can be contracted through sex with an infected partner. Most people who contract Zika only experience mild flu-like symptoms, but it can lead to severe brain-related birth defects if women are infected during pregnancy. Miami-Dade County is using aerial spraying of pesticides in the affected area, in addition to door-to-door inspections. Scott has urged people to continue patronizing Wynwood businesses. The Miami Parking Authority has announced special rates in Wynwood for its monthly art walk on Saturday and on Wednesdays through Aug. 31. An international "open for business" campaign by the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau will help promote special events and deals in Wynwood, said Rolando Aedo, the agency's senior vice president of marketing and tourism. Some residents and tourists remain undaunted by the advisory and have continued visiting the neighborhood with trendy boutiques, a lively bar scene and bold outdoor murals. But the Herald reports business owners are taking significant losses. At R House, a restaurant and lounge, executives said business Saturday was down 90 percent. "You're saying we're open for business but nobody is coming," R House owner Rocco Carulli said. When a reporter on Monday approached Zak Stern, owner of the cafe Zak the Baker, he replied, "Surely there's something else you can report on." ___ News / National by Thobekile Zhou President Robert Mugabe was today silent on the pay delays for the military during his Defence Forces Day speech.Mugabe restricted himself to revealing that the military recently bought a new fleet of vehicles to carry troops, cars for its staff and buses to transport personnel to work."Efforts are still under way to provide decent accommodation to members of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces," he said, without giving details.He added "Our forces are often deployed under the auspices of international bodies like the United Nations....our soldiers without exception have demonstrated the highest level of discipline, they indeed make us proud,""Although the war of liberation ended 36 years ago, our country is still faced with remnants of war in the form of unexploded ordinates particularly so along our border with Mozambique where our ZDF is involved in demining....they provide support to ZRP in the guarding of the country's key installations".The military and other civil servants have endured two straight months of lengthy salary delays. UK PM presses Rouhani over detained British-Iranian woman LONDON (AP) British Prime Minister Theresa May has urged Iran's president to resolve the case of a British-Iranian woman who faces trial on security-related charges. May's office says she spoke by telephone Tuesday to President Hassan Rouhani and "raised concerns" about Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and other dual nationals. It says May "stressed the importance of resolving these cases as we worked to strengthen our diplomatic relationship." Charity worker Zaghari-Ratcliffe was detained in April while trying to fly out of Iran with her toddler daughter. She has been accused of planning the "soft toppling" of the government and faces trial on unspecified charges. Infant's death is first Zika-related fatality in Texas HOUSTON (AP) Texas reported its first Zika-related death Tuesday after a baby girl whose mother traveled to El Salvador while pregnant died shortly after birth in a suburban Houston hospital. The girl, who died a few weeks ago, had microcephaly linked to the Zika virus, said Dr. Umair Shah, executive director of Harris County Public Health. "We are devastated to report our first case of Zika-associated death and our hearts go out to the family," Shah said. Test results linking the death to Zika were confirmed Friday. The mother had traveled while pregnant to her native El Salvador and returned to Harris County in her second trimester. Officials did not release her name. The only other confirmed Zika-related death in the U.S. was that of an elderly Utah man who died in June. He suffered from additional health conditions. Florida is the only U.S. state that has reported homegrown Zika transmission by mosquitoes, in Miami-Dade County. Texas has reported 97 Zika cases, all contracted during travel abroad. Harris County has reported 31 Zika cases, including 14 in Houston. Last week, Texas officials announced that the state's Medicaid program would provide mosquito repellent to all expectant mothers and women between the ages of 10 and 45. Harris County Judge Ed Emmett doubted the efficiency of that program and said he would work with local and state officials as well as corporate partners to get the spray directly to residents. "How many people are going to go get a prescription for bug spray? I think the more realistic way is to find corporate partners and make it happen," he said. ___ In Uganda, solar power plant amid African bush inspires hope SOROTI, Uganda (AP) In this electricity-starved rural part of Uganda, men ride bicycles several kilometers (miles) to the nearest market town simply to charge their phones. That should change with the construction nearby of one of the largest solar plants in sub-Saharan Africa, where two-thirds of the population is without electricity and countries increasingly explore alternative sources of power. Frustrated by the slow pace of rural electrification in this East African country of 36 million people, many Ugandans have been investing in their own solar panels to light their homes at night and keep small businesses running. But even the cheapest solar units can cost at least $100, a challenge when Uganda's per capita income is $703, according to U.N. figures. In this photo taken Thursday, June 30, 2016, Ugandan engineers fix solar panels at a solar plant in Soroti about 300 kilometers east of Uganda capital Kampala. In this electricity-starved rural part of Uganda, men ride bicycles several kilometers (miles) to the nearest market town simply to charge their phones. That should change with the construction nearby of one of the largest solar plants in sub-Saharan Africa, where two-thirds of the population is without electricity and countries increasingly explore alternative sources of power. (AP Photo/Stephen Wandera) Villagers near Soroti are watching with enthusiasm the construction of a solar photovoltaic plant in their neighborhood. In the blistering heat, workmen install tables into dry earth. Shiny solar panels will be fixed atop them across a 33-acre field. When the plant is launched later this year it will have the capacity to generate 10 megawatts of power, which will be added to Uganda's national grid. The solar plant is expected to supply electricity to 40,000 homes and businesses in the area, a big deal in a country that is still heavily dependent on hydroelectric power for its energy needs, said Philip Karumuna, an engineer managing the project. Hydroelectric plants depend on the flow of water, making them vulnerable to dry spells or droughts. "We have a lot of sunshine, but then we are not utilizing it," said Ambrose Kamukama, a maintenance engineer at the plant. "By all means, the government should do more of this." In Soroti, the sun shines almost daily, a key factor in choosing to locate the plant here. Surrounded by grasslands in which cattle graze and monkeys play, the town is located nearly 300 kilometers (186 miles) from the capital, Kampala. The town's small hotels and businesses need a constant supply of power to thrive, but they rarely get it. When power fails, resident Stephen Okot just sits back and waits, often for hours, making it impossible to meet deadlines or win new customers for his business making metal doors and windows. He hopes the new solar plant will end the power blackouts. Soroti Hotel manager David Mugoda said the power cuts force him to run a gas-guzzling generator that eats into his profits, for instance when milk in the freezer goes bad. "Power doesn't go often, but when it goes you can curse your life," he said. "When you really need (power), that is when it goes off." The Soroti solar plant is financed under a scheme called GET FiT, a renewable energy facility funded by the European Union and supported by the governments of Germany, Norway and the UK, according to Access Power, a Dubai-based firm that is jointly operating the plant with Eren RE of France. The plant is hopefully "only just the beginning for many more to come," Kristian Schmidt, head of the EU delegation to Uganda, said at the ground-breaking ceremony in March. Energy experts say similar renewable energy projects will help diversify Africa's energy mix. In 2014, a solar plant outside Rwanda's capital, Kigali, added 8.5 megawatts to that country's grid, boosting energy generation capacity by about 6 percent. That plant and the one under development in Uganda are the biggest solar plants in sub-Saharan Africa outside South Africa, according to Eren RE. With better planning African governments can increase the continent's generation of renewable energy, said Dickens Kamugisha who runs the Uganda-based Africa Institute for Energy Governance. "We should not be praising the government for building big dams," he said, referring to Uganda's government, which has been spending heavily on new hydropower stations. "Our solution to most of the poor people should be solar." Play It Forward: 'Pokemon Go' players encouraging donations CONCORD, N.H. (AP) Some "Pokemon Go" players are asking participants to bring a canned food item or cash for charities to gatherings for the popular game. Players in Concord and Manchester, New Hampshire, have started Poke-Aid. The Facebook group asks fellow players searching for the digital creatures on their smartphones to bring the donations to Pokemon meetings in parks and other public places. There's a similar effort in Connecticut. Pat O'Mara noticed how people started gathering at designated "Pokecrawls" in Manchester and organized two "Play it Forward" events in Livingston Park. "I started thinking, 'This many people in that area just to play 'Pokemon Go.' Why not set up food drives and also clothes because we're getting closer to winter,'" the 20-year-old organizer said Tuesday. "There's a lot of homeless. ... I wanted to help out as much as I can." O'Mara said he'd like to expand the events to include blood drives and walks to raise awareness of cancer. The Latest: Kansas lawmaker wants to review ride oversight KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) The Latest on the investigation into the death of a boy killed while riding the world's tallest waterslide at a water park in Kansas City, Kansas (all times local): 4:15 p.m. A Kansas legislator says he wants to examine the state's relatively light oversight of amusement park rides like the waterslide on which a 10-year-old boy was killed. This June 2016 photo provided by David Strickland shows Caleb Thomas Schwab, the son of Scott Schwab, a Kansas state lawmaker from Olathe. Caleb died Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016, while riding the Verruckt, a water slide that's billed as the world's largest, at the Schlitterbahn Waterpark in Kansas City, Kan. (David Strickland via AP) Democratic state Sen. David Haley of Kansas City said Tuesday that he's hoping there will be bipartisan support for a review. He said people shouldn't be risking their lives in having fun at an amusement park. Kansas requires annual inspections of permanent rides but has parks do the inspections. The state Department of Labor is required to randomly audit inspection records. Caleb Schwab died Sunday at the Schiltterbahn Waterpark in Kansas City, Kansas. He was the son of Republican state Rep. Scott Schwab of Olathe. House Majority Leader Jene Vickrey said lawmakers' immediate focus is on supporting the Schwab family. ___ 3:20 p.m. The operator of a Kansas waterslide on which a 10-year-old boy was killed last weekend say that 17-story ride will remain shut down for the remainder of the season. Schlitterbahn Waterpark in Kansas City, Kansas, closed the Verruckt ride after Caleb Schwab died Sunday. Police said that son of Kansas lawmaker Scott Schwab sustained a fatal neck injury, though authorities and the park haven't said specifically how that happened. Schlitterbahn also announced Tuesday that "a limited portion" of the park will reopen at noon Wednesday, and that park officials won't be offering media interviews. The waterslide is billed as the world's tallest, measuring 168-feet high. ___ 12:20 p.m. At least two people who've ridden the waterslide on which a 10-year-old boy was killed over the weekend say shoulder straps snapped or popped off during the ride in Kansas City, Kansas. Paul Oberhauser told local television station KCTV that the safety restraints on his raft on the Verruckt waterslide weren't working properly when he rode it on July 26 at the Schlitterbahn Waterpark. The Nebraska man says his shoulder strap "busted loose" during the ride and he "just held on." A video shot by his wife shows it loose at the ride's end. He says he told workers about the loose strap. Kenneth Conrad told WDAF-TV that he rode the waterslide last year with a friend whose shoulder strap came "completely off." Conrad's wife snapped a photo at the end of the ride showing the strap missing. Conrad says he didn't file a complaint with the park. The park's spokeswoman didn't immediately return a message Tuesday from The Associated Press seeking comment on the claims. ___ 12 p.m. A funeral is set for a state lawmaker's 10-year-old son who was killed while riding a Kansas waterslide billed as the world's tallest. Police say Caleb Thomas Schwab died Sunday of an unspecified neck injury while riding the 168-foot-tall Verruckt at the Schlitterbahn Waterpark in Kansas City, Kansas. Neither investigators nor park officials have released specifics about how the boy sustained his fatal injuries. Caleb was the son of Republican state Rep. Scott Schwab. A family spokesman, the Rev. Clint Sprague, says visitation will be held Thursday evening at LifeMission Church in Olathe. A memorial service is scheduled for Friday afternoon. The park is tentatively scheduled to reopen Wednesday, though the waterslide remains closed. ___ 11:35 a.m. A spokesman for police in Kansas City, Kansas, says the death of a boy killed while riding a waterslide at a local water park is considered a criminal investigation because a death was involved. Officer Cameron Morgan confirmed Monday that police were investigating the death of 10-year-old Caleb Schwab. He said investigators didn't believe anything criminal happened, so it would be a "civil matter." On Tuesday, he clarified that the investigation is a criminal case because a death was involved, as is standard procedure. He reaffirmed that police don't believe any criminal wrongdoing occurred and are investigating to rule out that any crime was committed. Caleb was one of three passengers riding in a raft on the Verruckt waterslide at Schlitterbahn Waterpark when the accident occurred. Emergency responders found the boy dead in a pool at the end of the ride. The other passengers sustained minor facial injuries. ___ 1 a.m. Kansas City, Kansas, police say a 10-year-old boy who was killed while riding the world's tallest waterslide died of a neck injury. Police say Caleb Schwab was one of three passengers riding in a boat Sunday on the Verruckt waterslide at Schlitterbahn Waterpark. According to a police statement, an off-duty officer working at the water park notified dispatch of the accident around 2:30 p.m. Emergency responders arrived to find the boy dead in a pool at the end of the ride. Police say two women who also were in the boat but not related to the boy sustained minor facial injuries and were treated at area hospitals. FILE - In this July 9, 2014 file photo, riders are propelled by jets of water as they go over a hump while riding a water slide called "Verruckt" at Schlitterbahn Waterpark in Kansas City, Kan. A 12-year-old boy died Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016, on the Kansas water slide that is billed as the world's largest, according to officials. Kansas City, Kansas, police spokesman Officer Cameron Morgan said the boy died at the Schlitterbahn Waterpark, which is located about 15 miles west of downtown Kansas City, Missouri. Schlitterbahn spokeswoman Winter Prosapio said the child died on one of the park's main attractions, Verruckt, a 168-foot-tall water slide that has 264 stairs leading to the top. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File) FILE - In this Wednesday, March 18, 2015 file photo, Kansas state Rep. Scott Schwab speaks at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. The young son of a Kansas state lawmaker died on a water slide that is billed as the world's largest, according to officials and the boy's family. Authorities did not immediately identify the child who died Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016 at Schlitterbahn Waterpark in Kansas City, Kansas, but state Rep. Scott Schwab and his wife released a statement saying it was their son Caleb Thomas Schwab. (AP Photo/Nicholas Clayton, file) FILE - This Nov. 2013 file photo shows Schlitterbahn's new Verruckt speed slide/water coaster in Kansas City, Kan. A 12-year-old boy died Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016, on the Kansas water slide that is billed as the world's largest, according to officials. Kansas City, Kan., police spokesman Officer Cameron Morgan said the boy died at the Schlitterbahn Waterpark, which is located about 15 miles west of downtown Kansas City, Missouri. Schlitterbahn spokeswoman Winter Prosapio said the child died on one of the park's main attractions, Verruckt, a 168-foot-tall water slide that has 264 stairs leading to the top. (Jill Toyoshiba/The Kansas City Star via AP, File) Plea deal for 1 of 5 charged in fatal Indiana house blast INDIANAPOLIS (AP) One of five people charged in a deadly house explosion that devastated an Indianapolis neighborhood has reached a plea deal weeks before his scheduled trial, a prosecutor said Tuesday. Gary Thompson, 45, agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit arson resulting in serious bodily injury in a plea agreement that calls for a 30-year prison sentence, with 10 years suspended and two years of probation. Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry said he informed residents of the neighborhood rocked by the Nov. 10, 2012, natural gas blast about Thompson's plea deal Monday night. FILE - In this Jan. 30, 2015 file photo, Gary Thompson, left, is escorted into a court hearing in Indianapolis. Thompson, one of five people charged in a deadly house explosion that devastated an Indianapolis neighborhood in November 2012 has reached a plea deal weeks before his scheduled trial, a prosecutor said Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. (Kelly Wilkinson/The Indianapolis Star via AP) NO SALES; MANDATORY CREDIT "As we explained to the residents last night we felt this was an appropriate resolution," he said. "A significant consideration always for me in a resolution is when a defendant is willing to acknowledge their involvement and accept responsibility for the crime." The plea agreement, which needs a judge's approval, was filed in Marion Superior Court on Tuesday. A change of plea hearing for Thompson is scheduled for Friday. Thompson's attorney, Heather Dean Barton, called the plea agreement "a fair disposition for all the parties involved" but said she could not comment beyond that until a judge accepts it. Thompson had faced a September trial on two counts of murder and other charges in the explosion that killed a couple who lived next door and damaged or destroyed more than 80 homes. Prosecutors alleged Thompson knew of plans to tamper with the natural gas flow of the home of co-defendant Monserrate Shirley and ignite the gas using a microwave on a timer. Court documents allege the house was destroyed in a scheme to collect $300,000 in insurance and there were two unsuccessful attempts to burn it down before the blast. Curry said prosecutors "have believed all along" that Thompson and another co-defendant, Bob Leonard, entered Shirley's house when Leonard's half brother, Mark Leonard, was out of town with Shirley, his then-girlfriend. But prosecutors aren't sure who actually tampered with the home's gas line and set the microwave timer, Curry added. Shirley pleaded guilty in January 2015 to two counts of conspiracy to commit arson. Her cooperation led to charges against Thompson and another alleged co-conspirator, Glenn Hults. Authorities said Mark Leonard was the mastermind behind destroying Shirley's home and enlisted the four others. He was convicted in July 2015 of murder, arson and conspiracy to commit insurance fraud and sentenced to two life sentences without parole plus 75 years. Bob Leonard was convicted in February of murder, arson and other charges and also sentenced to two consecutive life sentences without parole, plus 70 years. Hults, the last of the five, is scheduled to stand trial in November on a charge of conspiracy to commit arson. Curry said that when Hults' trial is concluded, he expects Shirley, who faces 20 to 50 years in prison, will be sentenced in December, and once that occurs "everything will be resolved by year's end." Beauty pageant head killed in Mexico, 5 killed outside bar MEXICO CITY (AP) Authorities in northern Mexico said Tuesday the murder of the director of the Miss World Mexico beauty pageant was a targeted killing. A Sinaloa state official who was not authorized to be quoted by name said that armed men stopped Hugo Castellanos in a vehicle he was travelling in and kidnapped him. They apparently let his companions go and then killed him. Castellanos' body was found Sunday in a stolen vehicle, along with cash and documents, in the Sinaloa state capital of Culiacan. The area is known for its drug trade and drug capos have been known to bribe or pressure pageants to award titles to their girlfriends. Prosecutors are investigating possible motives, and the official said they have not ruled out the idea of a link between the killing and the pageant business. According to local media, Castellanos had attended a Miss Sinaloa pageant before he was kidnapped and killed. And in southern Mexico, meanwhile, prosecutors said five men died late Monday in a hail of bullets outside a bar near the Guerrero state capital of Chilpancingo. A total of 123 shell casings from assault rifles were found at the scene of the shootings. The Latest: 1 critical, 2 stable after Ferris wheel fall GREENEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) The Latest on an investigation into how three people fell from a Ferris wheel at a county fair in Tennessee (all times local): 12:45 am A doctor says one of three girls who fell from a Ferris wheel during a county fair in Tennessee suffered a traumatic brain injury and remains in critical condition. Members of the Greeneville Fire Department help people off the ferris wheel at the Greene County Fair in Greeneville, Tenn., Monday, Aug. 8, 2016. A few people who fell 30 to 45 feet from a Ferris wheel in Tennessee were responsive and answering questions Monday night, police said. (O.J. Early/The Greeneville Sun via AP) Dr. Bracken Burns, director of trauma services for Johnson City Medical Center, said the critically injured 6-year-old was in the seat with her 10-year-old sister and a 16-year-old female, who were both in stable condition Tuesday. Burns said the 10-year-old suffered injuries to her forearms. He said he couldn't give out information on injuries that the 16-year-old suffered. Greeneville Police Capt. Tim Davis said the three fell Monday night at a county fair when their seat flipped over. Asked about reports that the seat was rocking before it flipped, Davis said police have not been able to confirm that but they are still interviewing people. ___ 10:45 am Police say one of three people who fell from a Ferris wheel during a county fair in Tennessee suffered a head injury and remains hospitalized in serious condition. Greeneville Police Capt. Tim Davis said during a news conference the other two were responsive and answering questions after falling 30 to 45 feet Monday night. He had said earlier all three were alert and responsive, but said Tuesday morning he had received new information. A second person also remained hospitalized. Davis said the three fell when the car flipped over. The oldest was a 16-year-old girl. Asked about reports that the seat was rocking before it flipped, Davis said police have not been able to confirm that but they are still interviewing people. Officials say fair rides were closed Tuesday and won't reopen until a third-party inspection is complete. The crew of the Newlead Castellano already had reason to complain, having not been paid for roughly two months when the cargo ship sailed into Savannah to offload a shipment of imported sugar. Then U.S. marshals seized the 590-foot ship, forcing it to drop anchor off the Georgia coast and wait out a legal dispute between the vessel's owners and their creditors. Nearly four months have passed and 15 crew members remain stuck on board a few miles out to sea, within view of the beach sands of Tybee Island. But legally they are prohibited from setting foot on land because they are foreign nationals with limited visas. The Newlead Castellano is pictured docked at Colonial Terminals in Savannah, Georgia for refueling and supplies on Tuesday. A legal battle over debt has left the cargo ship and its 15-member crew stuck off the coast of Georgia for nearly four months Crew members look on from the deck of The Newlead Castellano cargo ship. A judge ordered the ship idled while creditors sued the ship's owner, saying they were owed $7.1 million 'It's fairly calm, a little boring,' said Alan Swimmer, president of National Maritime Services, whose job is to secure the ship and care for its crew as a court-appointed custodian. 'There are some standard watches they have to perform, whether the ship is operating or not. 'So they're performing daily duties, probably doing a little bit of fishing in between.' The crew, all Filipinos save for a Greek engineer and a Romania electrician, got caught in the middle of a legal battle after the Newlead Castellano's owner, Newlead Holdings of Greece, fell behind on its debt payments. Four creditors who loaned the owner cash to buy the ship filed suit on April 19 in U.S. District Court, saying they were owed $7.1 million. A judge ordered federal marshals to seize the ship before it left Savannah, and days spent idle at sea turned into months. The ship's first officer, Cecilio Calo Yting, told The Associated Press the ship's owner had not paid the crew for more than two months when the vessel was seized. Reached on Facebook and communicating via online instant messages, Yting said the crew was well. Still, he complained of boredom and the inability to come ashore to go shopping. Crew members pull supplies onto the deck of the ship. The cargo vessel has been stranded near Tybee Island for several months. U.S. marshals seized the Newlead Castellano in mid-April after it sailed into Savannah with carrying sugar 'We are fortunate that this happened here in the U.S.,' said Yting, who noted the crew has been getting paid while idled and has been promised back wages owed by its previous employer once sailors leave the ship. 'Praise God all things worked together for good.' Now the crew's ordeal is nearing an end. The ship was sold on Monday at auction for $7.4 million. Court records identified the buyer as Strategic Shipping Inc. A U.S. District Court judge on Wednesday scheduled a hearing to confirm the sale on Monday. Since being seized in April, the Newlead Castellano has made monthly trips into port in Savannah to refuel and restock supplies mostly groceries such as chicken, fish, fruits and vegetables for the crew. Creditors who had the ship seized have been footing the bill, as well as paying the crew's wages, said Todd Baiad, the creditors' attorney. Baiad said creditors have spent more than $500,000 looking after the ship and crew. He has made several trips to the ship to pay the sailors and even arranged for a local Roman-Catholic priest to come aboard and hold Mass for the crew. The crew's ordeal is nearing an end as the ship was sold on Monday at auction for $7.4 million. Once a judge approves the sale, the sailors will be able fly home 'When I go out there, I've got a briefcase full of cash I'm handing them, so they're happy to see me,' Baiad said. Morale seemed to be good. 'I think being a mariner and sailor, one of the issues you face is being out at sea for a great length of time. But they're happy and ready to go home.' Thomas Bass Jr., an attorney for Newlead Holdings subsidiaries named in the court case, declined to comment when reached by phone on Tuesday. Once a judge approves the sale of the ship, the crew will likely be bused to Atlanta to board flights to their home countries, Swimmer said. Once they set foot on land, he said, the sailors will remain under guard to ensure they don't try to stay in the U.S. Swimmer said his company handles roughly 35 cases a year in which commercial ships get seized in disputed between creditors and their owners. Usually the parties reach an agreement within a few days and the ships get released. But roughly 20 per cent take a month or longer, he said. GOP source: Trump, Pence to appear at Evansville fundraiser INDIANAPOLIS (AP) GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump and running mate Mike Pence are expected to headline a southern Indiana fundraiser next week where seats cost a minimum of $10,000 and an upscale package costs 25 times that. An invitation obtained by The Associated Press says the "casual attire" reception, dinner and photo opportunity will be Monday in the Ohio River city of Evansville at the home of former Black Beauty Coal Co. chairman Steve Chancellor. A source with knowledge of the inner workings of the campaign says both Trump and Pence are expected to attend. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. The fundraiser is the just the latest Pence has held in Indiana on Trump's behalf. Before being tapped as Trump's running mate, Pence hosted a fundraiser last month in downtown Indianapolis. Another Indiana fundraiser is being planned for later in the month or early September, the source said. Chancellor, who is CEO of the American Patriot Group holding company, has hosted Republican fundraiser events before. In 2012, he held an event for Republican nominee Mitt Romney at his home. In 2004, a fundraiser he hosted was attended by former President George H.W. Bush, retired Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf and former Vice President Dan Quayle. Tickets to Monday's event range from $10,000 for two, up to $250,000. Donors who purchase a $25,000 pair of tickets will attain "eagles membership benefits" and be eligible to attend a private roundtable, a reception and have their photo taken. From there the levels of donor distinction go to, with those who pay $100,000 earning "regent" membership and donors of $250,000 attaining a "chairman's council membership." News / Regional by Thobekile Zhou District Heroes Arces in Plumtree and Beitbridge are in a state of neglect, government officials have said.In Plumtree, at Bulilima-Mangwe District Heroes Acre located in Bulilima District Home Affairs Deputy Minister, Obedingwa Mguni who is also MP for Mangwe made an appeal to the community "from the border town and the two rural districts to contribute towards sprucing up the districts' shrine" he is quoted saying.In Beitbridge, Senator Tambudzani Mohadi also " bemoaned the poor state of the district's shrine and challenged members of the community and local leaders to pull resources together, and upgrade the area".However, according to state media reports there where no complaints on neglect in other provinces.This has now been the norm for officials to raise the complaints which are not acted upon. A young black man who was allegedly shot to death by a neigborhood watch 'vigilante' while leaving a house party in North Carolina had moved from Harlem as a baby because his mother had wanted a better life for her three sons. Kouren-Rodney Bernard Thomas, 20, was killed early Sunday when a man living two doors down from the party called police to complain of 'hoodlums' in his neighborhood, and then fired a shotgun out of his garage, according to authorities. The suspect, Chad Cameron Copley, has been charged with murder. Kouren-Rodney Bernard Thomas (pictured) was killed early Sunday, allegedly shot to death by a neigborhood watch 'vigilante' while leaving a house party in North Carolina. Chad Cameron Copley (left) has been charged with murder Thomas was described by his mother Simone Butler-Thomas as loving, funny, and so careful that his family called him 'Safety 101.' 'This man took my baby's life,' Butler-Thomas, said in a phone interview from her home in Louisburg. 'He didn't deserve this. No child deserves it,' she said while stifling sobs. 'These people with guns, they just figure that when there's a bunch of black kids, they're hoodlums. These kids were not hoodlums. 'They were raised in families with mothers and fathers. They went to school. They were young.' Butler-Thomas was born and raised in New York, but she left with her three sons in 2001 for their safety because she thought Harlem was too dangerous. Thomas is pictured smiling widely in a dress shirt and black apron after a 2015 event he worked as a caterer Chad Cameron Copley, 39, has been charged with murder. Above, he is pictured being led into a courtroom at the Wake County Judicial Center in Raleigh 'I brought my kids down here when they were babies because I didn't want to have my children raised in New York. I wanted them to have a life and be safe,' she said, her voice cracking. 'We tried to come back to New York a couple of times, but they liked the South better up until now. It was easy living, nice people. But not anymore,' she added to the New York Daily News. Thomas had a job at McDonalds, a girlfriend attending East Carolina University, and was weeks away from moving into his first apartment, she said. 'He's a loving, loving boy. He was funny,' she said. 'We called him 'Safety 101' because he wouldn't start the car unless everybody had their seatbelts on and their cell phones away.' She added: 'He loved life. He loved his family. He loved his friends. He was not a street boy.' The 20-year-old was walking with a friend, David Walker, to their car parked down the street early Sunday when the shot came from the suspect's house, said Butler-Thomas, who spoke with friends and witnesses to find out what happened. She said the young men had arrived at the house party to find it had spilled outside, and decided to leave after about 15 minutes because the friend had heard there were no girls there. Raleigh Police said Copley, 39, was arrested hours after he fired a shotgun from inside his garage and hit the victim. Jail records show he was being held without bond on a murder charge. Copley's lawyer, Raymond Tarlton, asked that his client not be judged until more facts are available. 'It's under investigation. We'd caution restraint and ask folks not to rush to judgment,' he said by phone, declining to discuss any details. Copley, who apparently called police to complain about 'hoodlums' near his house, was charged with murder after he shot and killed a black man outside, authorities said Copley, 39, was arrested hours after he fired a shotgun from inside his garage and hit the victim. Above, his house is pictured on Tuesday During a 911 call from Copley's house shortly before 1am on Sunday, a man said 'we've got a bunch of hoodlums out here racing,' and told the dispatcher he was taking action. 'I am locked and loaded. I'm going outside to secure my neighborhood,' the man said. He asked for officers to come, but refused to give his address and hung up. On a second call from the Copley home about seven minutes later, the man said he fired a shot, and that someone was hit. 'We have a lot of people outside of our house yelling and shouting profanity. I yelled at them 'please leave the premises.' 'They were showing firearms so I fired a warning shot. And, uh, we got somebody that got hit.' Asked who was outside, the caller said: 'There's black males outside my freaking house with firearms.' Walker denied this. 'It was silent,' he told The News & Observer in Raleigh. 'No fighting and no arguing and no one waving guns.' The party's host, Jalen Lewis, also denied seeing anyone with a gun among the 50 or so people at his party. Thomas was near Copley's mailbox when he was fatally shot, he told WTVD. Police spokesman Laura Hourigan said state law prevents authorities from confirming the caller's identity. No one answered the door at Copley's tree-shaded, two-story home in a northern subdivision of Raleigh on Tuesday. In the door of the attached garage, cardboard replaced a shattered glass window pane whose shards remained on the driveway, which runs roughly 40 feet to the mailbox at the street. Thrice-widowed, woman faces trial in 2nd husband's death NEW ORLEANS (AP) Jury selection began Tuesday for the trial of a thrice-widowed woman charged in her second husband's 2006 death in New Orleans a case linked to her third husband's later, mysterious death in Mississippi. Emma Raine, 52, faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison if convicted of second-degree murder in the shooting death of Ernest Smith. She has pleaded not guilty. Her third husband, James Raine, also was implicated in Smith's death. Prosecutors called it a plot to benefit from life insurance proceeds. James Raine was also shot to death. His body was found in his home in 2011 in Pearl River County, Mississippi. Pearl River Sheriff David Allison said Emma Raine is a suspect in that death as well. The trigger-man in Smith's death, Alfred Everette, was convicted in 2014. Prosecutors at Everette's trial said Emma Raine's first husband died under mysterious circumstances in 1994. With prosecutors, the defense team and Raine watching, state District Judge Tracey Flemings-Devallier began questioning potential jurors around midday. Earlier Tuesday, defense attorney Martin Regan outlined in open court a possible plea deal that was being discussed. But after closed-door meetings in the judge's chambers, the trial proceeded without a deal. Feds bust drug ring that labeled containers as sea cucumbers BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) An international drug ring that used containers labeled "sea cucumbers" to send millions of dollars' worth of cocaine, heroin and fentanyl to western New York via California and Mexico has been busted, federal authorities announced Tuesday. U.S. Attorney William Hochul said 17 people have been indicted on federal drug trafficking and money laundering charges as part of the investigation dubbed "Operation Lockjaw." The ring linked to Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel used front companies in California and the Buffalo area to smuggle narcotics on pallets of goods purporting to be sea cucumbers, used in Chinese cuisine, officials said. The Drug Enforcement Administration said the sting netted more than $2.5 million worth of illegal drugs, which included the equivalent of 1.5 million hits of cocaine and 2.7 million hits of heroin. The traffickers sent about $20 million from Buffalo-area banks to California in a one-year period, authorities said. The drug ring turned the city of Buffalo into "ground zero" for fentanyl and heroin trafficking in New York, said James Hunt, DEA special agent in charge. Christians say defeating IS won't make Iraq safe for them IRBIL, Iraq (AP) As operations to retake the militant-held city of Mosul ramp up, Iraqi Christians displaced from the area by the Islamic State group say that even if the militants are defeated militarily, the country will not be safe for minorities. Qaraqosh, the biggest Christian town on the Nineveh plains in Iraq's north, fell to IS more than two years ago and remains under militant control. Most of its displaced inhabitants are living in camps in Iraq's Kurdish region. Hundreds of others fled to neighboring countries, Europe, the United States and further afield. On the edge of Irbil's historically Christian neighborhood of Ankawa, 1,200 identical white trailers arranged in neat rows shelter some 5,000 people. A handful of families here say they will return home the day their town is liberated. But many say they would rather leave for abroad. Despite the string of military defeats suffered by IS, they say the militants' incursion into Iraq has thrown the future of the country's minority groups into further uncertainty. In this Aug. 8, 2016 photo, Raad Bahnam Samaan's son looks out the window as his sister stands outside the caravan where their family has been living in Irbil, Iraq. The family was forced to flee their hometown of Qaraqosh when Islamic State militants took control of the place two years ago. (AP Photo/Alice Martins) "If organized migration were possible, then I can say that 90 percent of the inhabitants of this camp would leave," said camp manager Father Emanuel Adel Kelo. Raad Bahnam Samaan, his wife and five children fled their home in Qaraqosh in early August 2014, joining the 150,000 Iraqi Christians who left towns and villages around Mosul for areas under Kurdish control. In the face of the IS advance, Kurdish forces known as the Peshmerga largely withdrew from the outskirts of Mosul, and the towns and villages fell rapidly into the militants' hands. After months of living in cramped quarters in a dusty camp for displaced civilians, Samaan and his family tried to leave the country through a United Nations resettlement program but without success. Samaan says the more than two years of being stuck in limbo has dulled his sense of optimism. "There is always hope," he said of returning home, "but when? Nobody knows. It might be a year, two years, a day, a couple of days. Three or four years from now if we go home there won't be anything left of our house." Christians once constituted a sizeable minority in Iraq but their numbers have dwindled since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion as many have emigrated to the West to escape violence. "I see no future for us (here)," Samaan said. His son, Iva, 25, is engaged to be married but the camp is at capacity and he can't secure a private trailer to share with his wife to be. "The boys are growing up," Samaan said, "how can I secure their future?" When Samaan reflects on what life may be like in a liberated Mosul, he says he worries the upheaval caused by IS will have strained sectarian tensions in Iraq beyond repair, making enemies of people who were once his neighbors. "We'll still be afraid. I will go to Mosul and I will be afraid because they will say, here comes the Christian," he said. ___ Associated Press Writer Salar Salim contributed to this report. In this Monday, Aug. 8, 2016 photo, Rami Hannah Qaroumi, an Iraqi Christian from Qaraqosh, sits in the Assyrian church where he works in Irbil, Iraq. Rami fled to France with his family, but after a few months decided to come back to Iraq. He is now once again considering going back to Europe. (AP Photo/Alice Martins) In this Monday, Aug. 8, 2016 photo, Sabryia, a Christian from Qaraqosh, cuts a fabric at her small shop in a camp for Iraqi Christians displaced by war in Irbil, Iraq. She fled her town when Islamic State militants took control two years ago. As operations to retake the militant-held city of Mosul ramp up, Iraqi Christians displaced from the area by the Islamic State group say even a military defeat of the extremists in Iraq will not make the country safe for minorities again. (AP Photo/Alice Martins) In this Monday, Aug. 8, 2016 photo, Christian women gather at an Assyrian church in Irbil, Iraq to mourn the death of a member of their community who died in Europe. As operations to retake the militant-held city of Mosul ramp up, Iraqi Christians displaced from the area by the Islamic State group say even a military defeat of the extremists in Iraq, will not make the country safe for minorities again. (AP Photo/Alice Martins) In this Monday, Aug. 8, 2016 photo, Christian women gather at an Assyrian church in Irbil, Iraq, to mourn the death of a member of their community who died in Europe. As operations to retake the militant-held city of Mosul ramp up, Iraqi Christians displaced from the area by the Islamic State group say even a military defeat of the extremists in Iraq, will not make the country safe for minorities again. (AP Photo/Alice Martins) In this Monday, Aug. 8, 2016 photo, a man walks in a camp for Christians displaced by war in Irbil, Iraq. As operations to retake the militant-held city of Mosul ramp up, Iraqi Christians displaced from the area by the Islamic State group say even a military defeat of the extremists in Iraq, will not make the country safe for minorities again. (AP Photo/Alice Martins) Emails: North Dakota faced complaints over Sioux image signs BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) North Dakota's Transportation Department was threatened with a civil rights complaint in the months before it decided to drop its nearly century-old image of a famous Sioux warrior from thousands of highway signs. Department officials said the possible complaint played no part in their decision, but emails released to The Associated Press in response to a public records request showed that top officials closely monitored the progress of the complaint as well as a talk radio show where callers offered opinions on the image. The Transportation Department this summer began replacing more than 4,400 state highways signs with the silhouette of Marcellus Red Tomahawk in favor of an outline of North Dakota. The effort will take up to a decade to fully phase out under the agency's sign replacement program that's funded at about $500,000 annually. FILE - This May 2016 file photo provided by the North Dakota Department of Transportation shows a road sign with the rectangular outline of the state of North Dakota. North Dakota's Transportation Department was threatened with a civil rights complaint before it dropped its nearly century-old image of Sioux warrior Marcellus Red Tomahawk in favor of the outline of North Dakota on thousands of highway signs. Transportation Director Grant Levi said Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016, the threat played no part in switching the signs. (North Dakota Transportation Department photo via AP, File) Transportation Director Grant Levi said Tuesday the threats and potential legal action had nothing to do with changing the signs. "It was not the basis of our decision," Levi said. He said the change was done to pay tribute to the agency's 100th birthday next year and get in step with other states' signage. He said the agency had internal discussions about the change months before it received any criticism about them. Marcellus Red Tomahawk became the first elected chairman of the Standing Rock reservation, which straddles the North Dakota-South Dakota border, in 1914. He is best known outside the tribe as a government policeman involved in the killing of Sitting Bull a quarter-century earlier during an attempt to arrest the Sioux chief, who defeated Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer at the battle of Little Bighorn. His profile was featured on state road signs starting in 1923, and word of its removal dismayed some descendants and tribal members. "The reason why Red Tomahawk is on those signs was to honor that tribal relationship," Standing Rock Sioux Chairman Dave Archambault II said. "All of the sudden, they want to take that honoring away. We're not happy." Documents obtained by the AP through the state's open record laws show the agency took complaints from Deborah Gaudet of Taos, New Mexico in 2015. Gaudet, a former North Dakota resident who is not Native American, began a letter-writing campaign in June of that year, calling for the Red Tomahawk signs to be replaced. Gaudet called Red Tomahawk "merely an agent of a genocidal federal policy" for his role as a government policeman involved in the killing of Sitting Bull. "North Dakota should want to symbolize itself with something other than a symbol of Sitting Bull's killer," Gaudet said in an interview. "It's a romanticized idea of the past, while Native people in North Dakota are still living in extreme poverty and without the buffalo." Emails indicate Levi and troopers corresponded about criticism from Gaudet, who also called state officials several times. "Did we get Civil Rights involved?" Levi asked in a June 2015 email. An official with the agency told him the Civil Rights department within the agency had "talked to her and documented her complaints." Emails also show that top Highway Patrol officials made Levi aware of a Fargo-based radio talk show that aired shortly after Gaudet's letters appeared in some of the state's biggest newspapers, where callers were asked to give their opinions of the Red Tomahawk signs. In September 2015, Ron Henke, DOT's deputy director of engineering, proposed changing the signs in a "decision document," to which Levi agreed. Levi said three descendants of Red Tomahawk were notified of the sign swap in December. Judith Red Tomahawk, of Mandan, Red Tomahawk's great-granddaughter, said there are dozens of descendants in the Dakotas and Montana who should have had the opportunity to comment on the move. She said criticism of the signage has come from "Indian wannabes" and that her family and the tribe want to keep the imagery. She praised her great-grandfather, whom she said never spoke English but worked with non-Native farmers and ranchers to establish cattle and crops on the 2.3 million-acre reservation. "It was an honor to have those signs," she said. "I don't know why people can't grasp that. People don't know how much it means to us." Gaudet also criticized the North Dakota Highway Patrol, which has used Red Tomahawk's image on shoulder patches and trooper vehicles since the early 1950s. In a telephone interview, she told the AP that she will continue to push for troopers' patches and vehicle signage to be removed, and will likely file a formal complaint to do so. Highway Patrol Lt. Tom Iverson said the troopers have no intention of removing the imagery, which has been used with permission from Red Tomahawk's descendants. "We adopted this profile of Red Tomahawk in a sense it was almost gifted to the agency," Iverson said. "We feel it is important to honor and continue using that image." Man arrested after running onto Madrid tarmac to catch plane MADRID (AP) Spanish police have arrested a man who they say ran onto the tarmac at Madrid's Barajas airport to catch a Ryanair flight to the Canary Islands after he somehow missed boarding. A spokesman for the AENA airport authority said the man was arrested on arrival in the Canary Islands Friday. The spokesman said the man passed through security to the boarding area with a ticket for the flight but somehow missed the opportunity to board properly. He broke through fire escape doors and into an unused passenger tunnel, then jumped from there down to the tarmac with his bags. A video posted on Facebook, apparently by airport workers, showed the man running across the tarmac. It was not clear how he then got onto the plane. Ryanair spokesman Robin Kiely said the incident is a matter for Madrid airport police, since the video relates to a security breach at the airport. Police did not identify the man and a police spokeswoman said he would most likely be fined. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as neither was authorized to be identified publicly. ___ Frenchman gets maximum jail term for visiting Islamist sites PARIS (AP) A French court has given a convert to Islam the maximum two-year jail term for repeatedly visiting extremist websites that incite people to commit attacks and show beheading videos. His lawyer said Tuesday that the court in Chartres, south-west of Paris, went beyond the prosecutor's recommendation of a one-year sentence. Yannick Loichot, 31, acknowledged he visited dozens of Islamist websites but claimed he did it just "out of curiosity," his lawyer Gregory Martin-Dit-Neuville said in a phone interview. He won't file appeal. 3 pollsters beaten then rescued from mob in southern Mexico MEXICO CITY (AP) Three employees of a polling company were rescued Tuesday from a mob in southern Mexico that beat them bloody after apparently mistaking them for thieves. Inhabitants of the town of Centla, in the Gulf coast state of Tabasco, attacked five employees of the SIMO Consulting firm, including two women and three men. Three of the poll workers, including one woman, were held for hours and beaten, while two others were protected by a local official. The company said in a statement that the Monday night attack left three of its employees injured, one seriously. The mob apparently mistook them for thieves. The company denied they were involved in any illegal acts. The pollsters were freed Tuesday morning in a joint operation by federal police, marines and soldiers. "People cannot take the law into their own hands," state Interior Secretary Gustavo Rosario said. "The state government condemns these acts." Similar mob incidents have been incited in Mexico by false reports of crimes. Chief: Police returning to Dallas shooting scene overwhelmed DALLAS (AP) Several Dallas police officers interviewed in the investigation into the fatal shooting of five officers last month were overwhelmed when they returned to the scene and some could need five years of treatment, Police Chief David Brown said. Brown told the Dallas City Council that more than 300 witnesses have been interviewed about the July 7 shooting at the conclusion of a peaceful protest march in downtown Dallas. He said he expects the department to be dealing with the trauma of the shooting that took the lives of four Dallas police officers and a Dallas Area Rapid Transit Officer for years to come. But counseling isn't the only aspect Brown said he expected to stretch into the foreseeable future. When asked by Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings when the investigation into the shooting would be complete, Brown said he did not want to use a specific timeframe. He said instead that a typical investigation for a single police shooting takes about six months. Dallas Police Chief David Brown arrives to speak during a city council budget meeting at Dallas City Hall, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016, in Dallas. Brown says several officers testifying on the fatal shooting of five colleagues last month were overwhelmed when they returned to the scene and that some could need up to five years of treatment to recover from the trauma. Brown told the city council that more than 300 witnesses have been interviewed in the investigation into the shooting July 7 during a protest march in downtown Dallas. (AP Photo/LM Otero) With many more officers, many more weapons and the use of a robot-deployed bomb that killed 25-year-old shooter Micah Johnson, the current investigation could stretch much longer. Several officers interviewed in the investigation had to postpone giving their accounts at first because they were unable emotionally to walk through the scene and explain the events of that night, Brown said. The chief outlined the investigative process. He said after the police criminal investigation was completed, it would be forwarded to the District Attorney's office, which would decide with the help of a grand jury if the officers' gunfire and use of a bomb was justified. The police department would then conduct an administrative investigation to determine if the officers complied with the department's use-of-force policies, he said. Brown has asked that related information be exempted from open records requests until it's complete. "Once all that is concluded, much of what we have investigated is being subject to open records. But during this time, we ask for an exception to open records until ... we start the administrative investigation," Brown said. A call to the District Attorney's office asking whether it had begun its portion of the investigation was not returned Tuesday. Brown said there was a "potential for civil litigation" but gave no indication he was aware of a lawsuit. Meanwhile, Brown said he has fast-tracked funds to pay for more advanced tactical gear vests and helmets to better protect officers in the future. He said the ballistics vests worn by many officers in July didn't stand up to the rifle Johnson used. Family films span generations for Bryce Dallas Howard LOS ANGELES (AP) Bryce Dallas Howard remembers as a child watching the 1977 film "Pete's Dragon" on repeat until the VHS was worn out. She even hung onto her old "Pete's Dragon" board book to read it to her two children. So when she heard there was a script for a new take on the fantastical story of a little boy and his dragon friend, she actively sought it out. What started as pure, sentimental curiosity led to a starring role in Disney's new version of "Pete's Dragon " from indie director David Lowery. Howard plays the park ranger who stumbles upon this mysterious boy (Oakes Fegley) living in the woods and becomes his protector as they unearth the mystery of this so-called dragon who he claims is his friend. The film is out Friday. "This movie is so sentimental for me because it reminded me of a lot of those movies I loved growing up that had real gravitas to them and real emotion," Howard said. "You felt transported." In this July 15, 2016 photo, actress Bryce Dallas Howard, a cast member in the film "Pete's Dragon," poses for a portrait at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP) As the progeny of two generations of entertainers, including her mother, actress and producer Cheryl Howard, and father, actor, director and producer Ron Howard, it's no surprise that movies have been a backdrop in Howard's life for as long as she can remember. In fact, her first sentence was uttered at a showing of "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial." (It was, she's told, "E.T. fly!"). Those films hold a special spot for Howard as reminders of her family legacy, her emotional development and how she's passing that on to her own children. Howard shares a few of those stories: A FAIRY TALE LEGACY Howard's grandparents, Rance Howard and the late Jean Speegle Howard met as teenagers doing a touring children's production in Oklahoma of classic fairy tales like Snow White and Cinderella. They even married on the tour dressed in their costumes, with her grandmother as Snow White and her grandfather as a huntsman. "I come from a family who has a very romantic notion of fairy tales and that seeping into reality," Howard said. Her grandmother imparted on her a love of classic Disney animated films through repeated viewings and trips to Disneyland. A talented seamstress, she would also make her costumes from her favorites like "Snow White," ''Cinderella," and "Alice in Wonderland." LEARNING FROM DARKNESS In the films she loved growing up and in this new interpretation of "Pete's Dragon," Howard has always seen the value in family films that don't shy away from trauma and darkness. "The reality of life is that trauma exists and you can move forward from trauma. You can heal from trauma," Howard said. "That's the power of Disney. It's not just there to entertain, it's there to enlighten. I know they provided me with a lot of growth ... Children are going to create monsters. If you try to shelter a child completely from all dangers, they're going to be ill-equipped for the world. These movies are kind of giving children the tools to deal with those monsters so that they can learn to face them in their own way." PASSING THE TORCH While many parents can't wait to inundate their children with the films they loved from their youths, Howard and her husband, actor Seth Gabel, have a little more patience and an overriding theory. "We mess this up all the time, but, if we can, we want to space them out so that the movies come at a time in their life when they're asking themselves similar questions," Howard said. "My son is 9 , he's going into fourth grade, he's really coming into this place where there is independence and mischief and friendships independent from the family, so we just showed him 'Aladdin.'" For her 4 year old daughter, it's still all about "Frozen," which has meant a slew of questions about the definition of words like "fractal," ''effigy," and "unconscious." "In delaying it, it doesn't just become something that they watched when they were younger. It's something that they really look forward to and understand and hopefully can see the big picture," she said. "My parents are always encouraging (us) to be a little less precious, which is kind of ironic. They were very precious!" ___ Follow AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ldbahr In this July 15, 2016 photo, actress Bryce Dallas Howard, a cast member in the film "Pete's Dragon," poses for a portrait at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP) In this July 15, 2016 photo, actress Bryce Dallas Howard, a cast member in the film "Pete's Dragon," poses for a portrait at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP) This image released by Disney shows Bryce Dallas Howard, left, and Oakes Fegley in a scene from "Pete's Dragon." (Matt Klitscher/Disney via AP) In this July 15, 2016 photo, actress Bryce Dallas Howard, a cast member in the film "Pete's Dragon," poses for a portrait at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP) "Merck More than a Mother" supports Jackline Mwende - a Victim of Infertility Stigma in Kenya Through "Empowering Berna" Project, Merck aims to empower infertile women economically and socially across Africa NAIROBI, Kenya, August 8, 2016/APO/ -- "Merck More than a Mother" (www.MerckGroup.com) initiative will support Jackline Mwende, the recent victim of infertility stigma, throughout the rest of her life after having her hands chopped off by her husband for failing to bear children. Merck aims to empower infertile women across the continent through access to information, health and change of mind-set through their initiative that been launched in June 2015 "More than a Mother" "JackelineMwende, a young woman of 27 years from Machakos County in Kenya whose both hands were chopped off - not by thieves but by her own husband for failing to bear children. It is so shocking that someone would go to such an extent to batter his own wife and leave her nearly dead. Infertility should never be a reason to separate, hurt or kill your partner. There are so many options out there available to manage infertility" said Hon. Joyce Lay, Member of Parliament and the Ambassador for Merck More than a Mother' in Kenya. "Through -Empowering Berna-project, Merck will support Jackeline Mwende throughout the rest of her life to empower and enable her to become an independent productive member in society. Merck More than a Mother' initiative will provide Mwende with a monthly income of $250 , then will establish a business for her in which she will be able to generate a sustainable monthly income of not less than $250. At the same time Merck will provide her with prosthetic hands in addition to the needed physical and physiological rehabilitation to enable her to support herself and stand on her own two feet despite the challenge of her brutal disability that was caused by the stigma of infertility even though her husband is the one who was found with the infertility problem, yet she is still the one who bore the devastating consequences of the public stigma associated with it." said Kelej. "Mwende didn't deserve what she went through and especially that her husband is the one who was found with the infertility problem and not her. Society, government and all stakeholders need to continue to join hands with Merck in their campaign to encourage the acceptance people live with infertility because the stigma associated with infertility puts pressure on them to a point where they do crazy and criminal things. We need to know that it's a shared responsibility, not just for the couple but for the society too," Joyce Lay added. "Jackline Mwende's story is the reason all people should appreciate Merck More than a Mother' initiative. No sane person should torture a woman for failing to produce children. Men should not think that their failure to be a biological father is due to women's infertility. Why torture a fellow human being and inflict such permanent bodily harm for a fault that could be yours?. No amount of justice in the courts of law will bring back Mwende's arms. Justice will only prevail if Mwende's case marks a turning point in society that appreciates one fact- "that women are women irrespective of their ability to bear children. They need to be respected," emphasized Hon. Sarah Opendi, Uganda Minister of State of Health and Uganda ambassador of Merck more than a Mother. "This terrible violence Mwende suffered ny5tghas emphasized the significance of Merck More than a Mother' initiative for Africa. Merck More than a Mother' will continue working closely with partners to create a culture shift and to empower infertile women economically and socially through "Empowering Berna" Project to ensure no other woman in Africa should ever go through such violence, humiliation or misery again," Rasha Kelej emphasized. Distributed by APO on behalf of Kariuki Communication. Media Contact: Lizabeth Kariuki - Editor Kariuki communication. lizbethkariuki@gmail.com About "Merck more than a Mother" initiative (www.MerckGroup.com): In many cultures, childless women still suffer discrimination, stigma and ostracism. Infertility can transform from an acute, private distress into a harsh public stigma with complex and devastating consequences. An inability to have a child or to become pregnant can result in being greatly isolated, disinherited or assaulted. This may result in divorce or physical and psychological violence. "Merck More than a Mother" initiative aims to define interventions to reduce the stigma and social suffering of infertile women, empower them and raise awareness about male infertility and the necessity for a team approach to family building among couplesacross the continent. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), lower levels of development are thought to be associated with higher levels of non-genetic and preventable causes of infertility. For instance, poor nutrition, untreated sexually transmitted infections (STIs), unsafe abortion, consequences of infections caused by the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) or child marriage, exposure to smoking, leaded petrol and other environmental pollutants can lead to infertility. About "Empowering Berna" Project: "It is very important to empower infertile women through improving access to awareness, health and change of mindset so they can bear children as part of their human rights. In case they can no longer be treated, Empowering Berna' project will contribute towards empowering and training them to establish their own small business so that they can be independent and re-build their own lives, a woman is more than a mother, Empowering Berna' initiative will prove this every day." Rasha Kelej, Chief Social Officer of Merck Healthcare. To watch the transformation of childless women after meeting "Merck more than a Mother" please watch videos below: Stories of four infertile women who have been supported through the "Empowering Berna" Project: Merck More Than A Mother - The Story of Empowering Grace Kambini - http://apo.af/KJy7Id Merck More Than a Mother with Berna Amullen, Uganda - http://apo.af/WyqXYp Merck More Than A Mother - The Story of Empowering Noonkipa Mpalush - http://apo.af/LKUDh6 The harrowing story of Jackeline Mwende , a victim of infertility Stigma in Africa : JacklineMwendeMunywoki from Machakos, Kenya is the recent victim of the brutal physical and psychological assault that women in Africa face as a result of being infertile and are unable to bear children even when they are not the ones with the problem. She recently had her hands chopped off by her husband of five years for not conceiving and giving birth. JacklineMwendewho says she had a stable upbringing, in a loving home where she grew up with six of her siblings narrates how she came to lose her hands because of not being able to have children in her marriage. Her parents did their best to take her to school from kindergarten up to primary school class 8. Upon completing her studies, Mwende enrolled in a tailoring school where she learnt how to sew and make garments. It was at this school that she met and fell in love with Stephen Ngila her husband. They got married in 2011. "A year into the marriage and with no child, I began to notice changes in my husband. He had picked up bad habits such as drinking alcohol and started to become abusive. It was at this point that I confided in my parents, who were also wondering why I had not become pregnant yet. They advised me to leave the marriage since it was becoming abusive," Mwende narrates. "As an avid church goer, I also sought advice from my pastor," she adds. Even at the start of the violence in the marriage, both she and Ngila would go to seek counselling from him.The pastor advised both of them to live in harmony; however, Ngila ignored. The pastor advised her to stay with her husband, of which she tried as long as she could. Both Mwende and Ngila went to hospital for diagnosis. It was confirmed that Ngila- the husband- was infertile. "I constantly pleaded with Ngila to go to hospital to seek a treatment for his infertility, but he always made up excuses. He would say that he would go after work but never did," she says sadly. Their marriage continued to get strained and the abuse increased because Mwende had not borne a child. On several occasions, the couple wound up at the police station due to their fights and arguments. The couple eventually separated and Mwende set up her own small shop from where she was getting some income to support herself and even her parents. On August 1st 2016 in the evening, Mwende was peacefully eating her dinner when she heard a knock on the door. When she went to open the door, Ngina who was drunk started to attack her with a panga machete and cut off her left hand. In shock, Mwendecollapsed on the floor while Ngina continued to hit her with the machete on her face, and cut off her other right hand. "Today you have decided to kill me?" Mwende recalls screaming at Ngila. His intent was to kill her, but she continued screaming until her neighbours came to her rescue and Ngila escaped. She was taken to the hospital for treatment and she is currently on medication and nursing her wounds which will always be a constant reminder that the reason she is in the state she is now is because she never bore any children. "If it is God's will that I do not have a child, I am content with this," Mwende bravely said. She is hopeful for her future and grateful for all the support the community has given her. She would not like any other couple to go through what she has experienced and advises couples to seek solutions together if they cannot have a child, and visit the hospital for check-up's regularly. Cubans head into perilous Panama jungle to avoid deportation BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) About 1,000 Cubans intent on reaching The United States have opted to cross into Panama in the perilous Darien Gap jungle region rather than submit to deportation and return to their homeland, a spokesman said Tuesday. Most of the hundreds of Cubans who had been stranded since May in miserable conditions in the steamy Colombian town of Turbo near the Panamanian border have now departed, said William Gonzalez, the government ombudsman for the region. The government said Monday that only 350 remained. Gonzalez said they included 80 remaining at a makeshift shelter where sanitary conditions were poor. Fourteen Cubans who accepted voluntary repatriation were flown to Cuba on Saturday on a Colombian military plane. A spokesman for the Cuban migrants, 34-year-old Aliex Artiles, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that rather than face deportation, many of his compatriots had ventured into the Darien Gap, a lawless and roadless expanse where rebels and criminal syndicates operate. "They took the dirt path into the jungle," said Artiles. "I calculate there were more than 1,000." He said others had headed south for Ecuador, which had long been a transit country for Cubans until its government began cracking down. Cubans who fear that detente with Havana will lead the U.S. government to end the preferential immigration treatment that Cubans now get when reaching U.S. soil have been heading by the thousands for North America. But they've been stymied by a crackdown on migration by Central and South American nations that have their borders to the Cubans. More than 7,000 Cubans were stuck in Costa Rica for weeks earlier this year when Nicaragua closed its border to them. They were eventually airlifted to Mexico and El Salvador to continue their journey. Thousands of others took shelter in Panama before it tightened its border with Colombia. The migrants stranded in Turbo had requested safe passage to Mexico, but its government turned them down. Colombia's migration office said in a statement Monday that "to permit the passage of irregular migrants to other countries is to open the door to criminals dedicated to human trafficking; this would also multiply the number of irregular migrants, given our strategic geographical position for networks dedicated to migrant trafficking." The government says it has deported more than 5,500 such migrants since May, mostly Cubans and Haitians. The migration office said none of the Cubans in Turbo had sought asylum in Colombia. But Gonzalez, the ombudsman, said one family four had approached him with the request and the case was being considered. Artiles, the spokesman, told the AP he planned to leave Turbo on Wednesday. He would not say where he was going. The Latest: Utah police shooting draws small protest SALT LAKE CITY (AP) The Latest on a Utah prosecutor's ruling that a Salt Lake City police shooting of a teen was justified (all times local): 8:20 p.m. About 25 protesters holding signs that read "Black lives matter" and "Disarm the police" gathered on Tuesday night in downtown Salt Lake City to protest the clearing of two police officers who shot a teenager. Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill speaks during a news conference Monday, Aug. 8, 2016, in Salt Lake City. Police were justified in shooting and critically wounding a 17-year-old Somali refugee in a confrontation that sparked unrest and protests in Salt Lake City earlier this year. Gill said officers acted appropriately when they fired at Abdi Mohamed because police believed the teen was about seriously injure or kill another man with a metal stick. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer) Members of the group Utah Against Police Brutality and other local activists called for a Utah prosecutor to resign after he ruled the shooting justified this week and instead moved to charge the teen. Protester Carly Haldeman said officials are not being transparent with the public by refusing to release body camera footage from the Feb. 27 shooting. Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill says police were justified in shooting then 17-year-old Abdullahi "Abdi" Mohamed because police believed he was about to harm a man with a metal broom handle. Mohamed survived, and he now faces charges of robbery and drug possession. He has not yet entered a plea. ___ 2:45 p.m. A Utah prosecutor says he encourages people to voice their concerns and he is willing to meet with those upset about his decision to clear two Salt Lake City officers in the shooting of a teenager. Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill says he thinks it's important to question public institutions. He says protesters who want to discuss the case can attend citizens meetings he holds. A group called Utah Against Police Brutality plans to protest outside Salt Lake City's city hall building, calling for Gill to release police body camera footage of the shooting and to resign. Gill says police were justified in shooting then 17-year-old Abdullahi "Abdi" Mohamed in February because police believed he was about to harm a man with a metal broom handle. Mohamed survived and now faces charges. ___ 1:45 p.m. Salt Lake City police say they plan to monitor a Tuesday night protest over a police shooting of a teenager. But officers don't plan to have much of a presence. Detective Greg Wilking says police don't anticipate any violence, and they recognize people's right to gather and protest. The group Utah Against Police Brutality says about 100 people are expected to turn out Tuesday night outside the city hall building to protest a prosecutor's decision to clear two officers who shot the teen four times in February. The group says Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill has failed to uphold basic civil liberties by announcing this week that he was charging the teen, Abdullahi "Abdi" Mohamed. Gill says officers acted appropriately because then 17-year-old Mohamed was about to seriously injure or kill a man with a metal broom handle. The teen survived. ___ 12:50 p.m. One of the organizers of an anti-police brutality rally says about 100 people are expected to turn out Tuesday night to protest a Utah prosecutor's decision that two police officers were justified in shooting a teenager in February. Stephen Michael Christian of Utah Against Police Brutality said Tuesday that Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill has failed to uphold basic civil liberties by justifying the shooting by clearing the two officers and announcing that he was pursuing charges against the teen, Abdullahi "Abdi" Mohamed. Utah Against Police Brutality is calling for Gill to resign. Gill announced Monday that that the officers acted appropriately when they fired at then 17-year-old Mohamed on Feb. 27 because police believed he was about to seriously injure or kill a man with a metal broom handle. Mohamed was hospitalized in a medically induced coma but survived. FILE - In this March 3, 2016 file photo, Muslima Weledi holds a photograph of her cousin Abdi Mohamed, a 17-year-old Somali refugee critically wounded in a high-profile police shooting in Utah, during a interview, in Salt Lake City. Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said officers acted appropriately when they fired at Mohamed because police believed he was about to seriously injure or kill a man with a metal broom handle. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File ) FILE - In this Feb. 27, 2016 file photo, police stop a person as he walks away from a crowd that formed after an officer-involved shooting at on South Rio Grande Street in Salt Lake City. Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said officers acted appropriately when they fired at Abdullahi "Abdi" Mohamed because police believed he was about to seriously injure or kill a man with a metal broom handle. (Lennie Mahler/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, File) Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill speaks during a news conference Monday, Aug. 8, 2016, in Salt Lake City. Police were justified in shooting and critically wounding a 17-year-old Somali refugee in a confrontation that sparked unrest and protests in Salt Lake City earlier this year. Gill said officers acted appropriately when they fired at Abdi Mohamed because police believed the teen was about seriously injure or kill another man with a metal stick. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer) Waterslide complaints surface after Kansas boy dies on ride KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) At least two people who rode in the last year on the same Kansas waterslide where a 10-year-old boy was killed say nylon shoulder straps came loose during the raft ride featuring a 17-story drop. It's unclear whether the straps on "Verruckt" German for "insane" played any role in Sunday's death of Caleb Schwab, a Kansas lawmaker's son. Police and Schlitterbahn Waterpark have yet to explain how Caleb sustained a fatal neck injury on the 168-foot-tall ride, which the park said Tuesday would be closed for the remainder of the season. On the 2-year-old waterslide certified by Guinness World Records as the world's tallest, riders sit in multi-person rafts that begin with the steep drop, followed by a surge up a second hill before a 50-foot descent to a finishing pool. Along the way, riders clutch ropes along the inside of the raft. In his July 9, 2014 photo taken from a video recording, Associated Press reporter Bill Draper rides on Verruckt in Kansas City, Kan. The nylon Velcro straps that hold riders in, can be seen in the photo. At least two people who rode in the last year on the same Kansas waterslide where a 10-year-old boy was killed say Velcro shoulder straps came loose during the raft ride featuring a 17-story drop. It's unclear whether the straps on "Verruckt" _ German for "insane", played any role in Sunday's death of Caleb Schwab, a Kansas lawmaker's son. (AP Photo/Bill Draper) Riders are harnessed in with two nylon seatbelt-like straps one that crosses the rider's lap, the other stretching diagonally like a car shoulder seatbelt. Each strap is held in place by long Velcro-style straps, not by buckles. Ken Martin, a Richmond, Virginia-based amusement park safety consultant, questioned whether the straps were appropriate for what he called "nothing more than a roller coaster with water." In early tests, rafts carrying sandbags flew off the slide, prompting engineers to tear down half of the ride and reconfigure some angles. A promotional video about building the slide includes footage of two men riding a raft down a half-size test model and going slightly airborne as it crests the top of the first big hill. "I think they designed this ride, and they figured since stuff was flying out, we better do something to keep people from flying out," he said. "I think we have a serious issue with the restraint system. Period." Although he has not seen or ridden Verruckt, Martin said a more solid restraint system that fits over the body similar to those used in roller coasters may have been better. Jon Rust, a professor of textile engineering at North Carolina State University, said the material used on the straps, commonly called hook and loop, isn't designed to keep a person in the seat. It also can get old and degrade with use. "It's got to be used in a safe manner, and that doesn't include stopping someone's fall or preventing someone's ejection," Rust said. Paul Oberhauser told local television station KCTV his shoulder restraint "busted loose" on his Verruckt raft July 26. The Nebraska man said he "just held on," and a video shot by his wife shows the strap loose at the ride's end. Oberhauser said he reported the matter to park workers. Kenneth Conrad told WDAF-TV that during his trip down the waterslide last year with a friend, the friend's shoulder strap came "completely off." Conrad's wife snapped a photo at the end of the ride showing the strap missing, and Conrad didn't file a complaint with the park. The park's spokeswoman didn't return messages Tuesday from The Associated Press seeking comment on the claims. In a statement, she said "a limited portion" of the park will reopen at midday Wednesday. Each rider on the Verruckt must be at least 54 inches tall, and the group's weight is limited to a total of 400 to 550 pounds. Caleb was seated with two women unrelated to him and who sustained minor facial injuries. Police were investigating the death as a criminal case although police spokesman Cameron Morgan said Tuesday that designation did not mean they suspect foul play. Caleb's parents Republican state Rep. Scott Schwab and his wife, Michele have requested privacy and have not spoken publicly since the death of Caleb, whose funeral is Friday. Verruckt's 2014 opening repeatedly was delayed, though the operators didn't explain why. Two media sneak preview days in 2014 were canceled because of problems with a conveyor system that hauls 100-pound rafts to the top of the slide. Kansas statutes governing amusement rides don't specifically mention waterslides. State law leaves it to the Kansas Department of Labor to adopt rules and regulations relating to certification and inspection of rides, adding that a permanent amusement ride must be scrutinized at least once a year by "a qualified inspector." Regulations require only that owners of permanent amusement rides retain records for a year and rides are randomly selected quarterly for a records audit. Documents released Tuesday by the state department showed that in June 2012, a records audit found that the park was not maintaining records of testing for current and previous years. The report said that instead of such testing, "visual inspections are conducted annually and daily." There was no record of a state response, and the audit was marked "pass." There were no indications of further records audits, and department officials did not immediately answer questions about why that was so. The state requested documentation from Schlitterbahn "to ensure all safety requirements have been followed." Department officials didn't immediately provide additional details. ___ This version of the story corrects the last name on the byline. ___ Associated Press writers Jim Suhr, Bill Draper and Margaret Stafford in Kansas City and John Hanna in Topeka contributed to this report. This June 2016 photo provided by David Strickland shows Caleb Thomas Schwab, the son of Scott Schwab, a Kansas state lawmaker from Olathe. Caleb died Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016, while riding the Verruckt, a water slide that's billed as the world's largest, at the Schlitterbahn Waterpark in Kansas City, Kan. (David Strickland via AP) FILE - In this July 9, 2014 file photo, riders are propelled by jets of water as they go over a hump while riding a water slide called "Verruckt" at Schlitterbahn Waterpark in Kansas City, Kan. A 12-year-old boy died Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016, on the Kansas water slide that is billed as the world's largest, according to officials. Kansas City, Kansas, police spokesman Officer Cameron Morgan said the boy died at the Schlitterbahn Waterpark, which is located about 15 miles west of downtown Kansas City, Missouri. Schlitterbahn spokeswoman Winter Prosapio said the child died on one of the park's main attractions, Verruckt, a 168-foot-tall water slide that has 264 stairs leading to the top. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File) FILE - In this Wednesday, March 18, 2015 file photo, Kansas state Rep. Scott Schwab speaks at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. The young son of a Kansas state lawmaker died on a water slide that is billed as the world's largest, according to officials and the boy's family. Authorities did not immediately identify the child who died Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016 at Schlitterbahn Waterpark in Kansas City, Kansas, but state Rep. Scott Schwab and his wife released a statement saying it was their son Caleb Thomas Schwab. (AP Photo/Nicholas Clayton, file) FILE - This Nov. 2013 file photo shows Schlitterbahn's new Verruckt speed slide/water coaster in Kansas City, Kan. A 12-year-old boy died Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016, on the Kansas water slide that is billed as the world's largest, according to officials. Kansas City, Kan., police spokesman Officer Cameron Morgan said the boy died at the Schlitterbahn Waterpark, which is located about 15 miles west of downtown Kansas City, Missouri. Schlitterbahn spokeswoman Winter Prosapio said the child died on one of the park's main attractions, Verruckt, a 168-foot-tall water slide that has 264 stairs leading to the top. (Jill Toyoshiba/The Kansas City Star via AP, File) 'My friends might be dead' - 911 tapes of shooting released SEATTLE (AP) Young people attending a house party in Washington state where a gunman opened fire last month frantically told a dispatcher that their friends were bleeding to death, according to newly released tapes of the calls. Snohomish County authorities released the 911 calls Tuesday that were received after three people were fatally shot at a party July 30 in Mukilteo north of Seattle. Prosecutors have filed three aggravated first-degree murder against 19-year-old Allen Ivanov in the fatal shooting of his ex-girlfriend and two young men. Police say Ivanov admitted that he committed the shootings at a home. They say he was upset that his ex-girlfriend, Anna Bui, appeared to be moving on with her life after their recent breakup. CORRECTS DATE OF SHOOTING TO JULY 30, NOT JULY 31 - FILE--In this Aug. 1, 2016, file photo, Allen Ivanov, accused of fatally shooting three people July 30, 2016, at a house party in Mukilteo, Wash., appears at Snohomish District Court in Everett, Wash., via video link from the Snohomish County Jail. Young people attending the party where a gunman opened fire frantically told a dispatcher their friends were bleeding to death according to newly released tapes of the calls Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016 (Mike Siegel/The Seattle Times via AP, file) In addition to Bui, of Everett, Jordan Ebner, of Lake Stevens, and Jacob Long, of Everett, were killed. They were all 19 and recent graduates of Kamiak High School in Mukilteo, a waterfront city of 21,000 people. A fourth person, 18-year-old Will Kramer, was wounded. Some of the people at the party were not immediately clear about what happened. "Firecrackers went off, and now my friends are bleeding to death," one caller told the dispatcher. But a crying woman knew it was gunfire. "Someone came and shot at my friend's house," she told the dispatcher. "They're bleeding to death on the floor. They're unconscious." Another caller said they were having a party and someone came in and started firing. He told the dispatcher "my friends might be dead," but said he didn't know who did the shooting. A female caller who was hiding in the bathroom told the dispatcher that the shooter was Allen Ivanov. "He shot his girlfriend," she said. A young man then got on the phone and gave the dispatcher a description of Ivanov. "He's 5-11 or 6 feet tall," the man said. "He's very thin." "There are some people that appear dead," the man said, adding that the shooter ran away. "His ex-girlfriend is dead." Ivanov had purchased an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle the week before the shooting, according to court records. He made threats on social media of committing a mass shooting, the records said. On the night of the party, he crept up to the house and looked in a window and saw his ex-girlfriend with another man, Mukilteo Police Detective John Ernst wrote in a probable-cause statement. Ivanov went back to his car, read the instruction manual for the rifle, loaded the magazine and returned to the house, Ernst wrote. He entered through a side door and shot Bui twice, Ernst wrote. He continued through the house and shot a man who was running toward the house, and then he shot two more men in the driveway before leaving. A Snohomish County District Court judge ordered Ivanov held without bail. Prosecutors can seek the death penalty with aggravated murder charges in Washington state, but Gov. Jay Inslee has declared a moratorium on capital punishment. __ Follow Martha Bellisle at https://twitter.com/marthabellisle FILE--In this July 31, 2016, file photo, friends of victims huddle together during a prayer as hundreds gather for a community vigil for the victims of a shooting at a house party, killing three teenagers and wounding one. Young people attending the party where a gunman opened fire frantically told a dispatcher their friends were bleeding to death according to newly released tapes of the calls Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. (Genna Martin/seattlepi.com via AP, file) FILE--In this Aug. 1, 2016, file photo, a friend of the Mukilteo shooting victims reacts as Allen Ivanov appears at Snohomish District Court in Everett, Wash., via video link from the Snohomish County Jail. Young people attending the party where a gunman opened fire frantically told a dispatcher their friends were bleeding to death according to newly released tapes of the calls Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. (Genna Martin/seattlepi.com via AP, file) Witnesses: Shots fired in Ferguson after car hits protester FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) Gunfire broke out during a demonstration in Ferguson, Missouri, on the second anniversary of Michael Brown's death, disrupting what had been a peaceful gathering Tuesday night but apparently wounding no one. Witnesses told an Associated Press reporter that a car sped through a group of protesters who were blocking a street during the demonstration marking two years since the unarmed black 18-year-old's fatal shooting by a white police officer. They said the car struck a young man so hard that he flew into the air. As the car drove away, shots were fired, they said. "A lady came down and hit a protester knocked the shoes off his feet," said Sharon Cowan, who was at the scene. "Hit him, and he rolled and he bounced." Protesters hide behind cars after shots were fired Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016, in Ferguson, Mo., during a demonstration on the second anniversary of Michael Brown's death. Witnesses told an Associated Press reporter that a car sped through a group of protesters who were blocking a street during the demonstration marking two years since the unarmed black 18-year-old's fatal shooting by a white police officer. They said the car struck a young man so hard that he flew into the air. As the car drove away, shots were fired, they said. (Robert Cohen/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP) The man appeared to be badly injured and was put into a private car to be taken to a hospital, she said. Heather De Mian, who frequently livestreams protests in the St. Louis area, said she screamed when the man was hit. "Then when the bullets flew, I started screaming some more," she said. Police responded to reports of gunfire but had found no evidence that anyone had been struck, said Ferguson spokesman Jeff Small, who declined to speculate about why the shots were fired. By around 10 p.m., the protesters had disbanded. Earlier in the day, a few hundred people gathered for a memorial service and moment of silence along Canfield Drive at the spot where Brown was fatally shot by officer Darren Wilson after a confrontation on Aug. 9, 2014. A state grand jury declined to press charges against Wilson, and the U.S. Justice Department later cleared him, concluding that he had acted in self-defense. He resigned in November 2014. Brown's death led to months of sometimes-violent protests in Ferguson. It was also was a catalyst for the Black Lives Matter movement, which rebukes police treatment of minorities and has grown following several other killings of black men and boys by police, such as Tamir Rice in Cleveland and Philando Castile in Minnesota. Brown's father, also named Michael Brown, said in a brief speech during the memorial service that the anniversary was a sad day for him and his family, and for the world, too. "My son built families up, opened the eyes of the world and let them know this ain't right," he said. "This color is not a disease. This color is beautiful. Black is beautiful." The 2014 shooting also led to a Justice Department investigation that found patterns of racial bias in Ferguson's police and municipal court system. The federal agency and the city agreed this year to make sweeping changes. This month, more than 60 organizations affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement released a list of six demands and 40 recommendations for how to achieve policing and criminal justice reforms. Brandy Shields, 19, went to school with Brown and remembered him as a kid who "never got into trouble." Shields comforted a little girl who was crying at the service. "It'll get better," Shields told the child. "We have to make it better, but it'll get better." Sharon Cowan chants as she marches Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016, in Ferguson, Mo., on the second anniversary of the death of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old who was shoot by a white police officer. (J.B. Forbes/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP) Sharon Cowan chants as she marches on the way to a candle light vigil on the spot where Mike Brown was killed on Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016, in Ferguson, Mo. The demonstration marked two years since the unarmed black 18-year-old's fatal shooting by a white police officer. (J.B. Forbes/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP) Michael Brown, Sr., center, watches as white doves fly away after 4.5 minutes of silence during a memorial ceremony for Brown's son Michael Brown on Canfield Drive in Ferguson, Mo., Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. August 9 marks the second anniversary of Brown's fatal shooting by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. Brown's death sparked local protests that spread around the world and breathed live into the Black Lives Matter movement. A St. Louis County grand jury and an investigation by the Department of Justice found that Wilson was justified in shooting Michael Brown. (David Carson/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP) The grave of Michael Brown in St. Peters Cemetery in Normandy as seen on Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. August 9th marks the second anniversary of Brown's fatal shooting by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. Brown's death sparked local protests that spread around the world and breathed live into the Black Lives Matter movement. A St. Louis County grand jury and an investigation by the Department of Justice found that Wilson was justified in shooting Michael Brown. Many in the community are still not satisfied that justice was served. (David Carson/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP) Cal Brown, left, and her husband Michael Brown, Sr. get emotional during a memorial ceremony for Brown's son Michael Brown on Canfield Drive in Ferguson, Mo., Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. August 9 marks the two year anniversary of Brown's fatal shooting by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. Brown's death sparked local protests that spread around the world and breathed live into the Black Lives Matter movement. A St. Louis County grand jury and an investigation by the Department of Justice found that Wilson was justified in shooting Michael Brown.(David Carson/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP) The grave of Michael Brown in St. Peters Cemetery in Normandy as seen on Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. August 9th marks the second anniversary of Brown's fatal shooting by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. Brown's death sparked local protests that spread around the world and breathed live into the Black Lives Matter movement. A St. Louis County grand jury and an investigation by the Department of Justice found that Wilson was justified in shooting Michael Brown. Many in the community are still not satisfied that justice was served. (David Carson/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP) Putin and May speak over the phone, agree to meet MOSCOW (AP) The Kremlin says Russia's President Vladimir Putin has spoken to British Prime Minister Theresa May for the first time since she took office. In Tuesday's call, both leaders "expressed dissatisfaction with the current parameters of cooperation in both the political and economic sphere," according to the Kremlin. Russian-British ties have been strained by the 2006 poisoning death of ex-Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, the Ukraine crisis and other issues. Russian President Vladimir Putin, together with visiting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, attends a meeting with businessmen in the Konstantin palace outside St. Petersburg, Russia, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday after talks with Russia's President Vladimir Putin that the two nations can rebuild their damaged ties and make them even closer, promising to back major energy projects with Russia. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko) The Kremlin said Putin and May agreed to develop a dialogue between security agencies on issues related to aviation security, and made plans for a personal meeting in the "near future." It noted that May confirmed Britain's intention to participate in ceremonies marking the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the first British WWII convoy in the Russian city Arkhangelsk this month. However, it is unclear why he was taken back into custody this week Prosecutors have tried to have him taken into custody since his release Christopher Hubbart (pictured), 65, also known as the notorious 'pillowcase rapist', was taken back into custody on Tuesday, two years after his controversial release from a California psychiatric hospital A notorious rapist who muffled his victim's screams with a pillowcase was back in custody Tuesday, two years after he was released from a psychiatric hospital over the protests of prosecutors and women who feared he would attack again. Christopher Hubbart, 65, was taken into custody, said Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles district attorney. Officials said that Hubbart had 'failed to meet the terms' of his release, the Los Angeles Times reported. In order to be released Hubbart agreed to wear a GPS bracelet, not associate with other convicts and avoid television shows, movies or digital media that 'act as stimulus to arouse', according to court documents. Hubbart has been returned to Coalinga State Hospital, according to the Los Angeles Times. Hubbart, who was dubbed the 'pillowcase rapist,' has been in and out of prisons and state psychiatric hospitals since his first rape conviction in 1972. He has acknowledged raping at least 40 women, several following stints behind bars. After re-offending and serving more time, Hubbart was declared a sexually violent predator in 2000 and committed to a state-run psychiatric hospital. A Northern California judge in 2013 ordered Hubbart released after doctors said he had completed treatment and was fit to live in the community. Hubbart has been in and out of prisons and state psychiatric hospitals since his first rape conviction in 1972 and has acknowledged raping at least 40 women The judge ordered that he live in Southern California near where he grew up, though his notoriety made it difficult to find housing. When he was released in 2014, he moved into a small house in the desert on the outskirts of Palmdale. Prosecutors had fought his release, and angry residents of the Antelope Valley about 40 miles north of Los Angeles had protested and burned effigies outside. Hubbart had been living under guard and had to comply with strict conditions that included wearing a monitoring device around his ankle, attending therapy and undergoing lie detector tests and random searches of his home. When he was released in 2014, he moved into a small house in the desert on the outskirts of Palmdale but prosecutors worked to get him back into custody Prosecutors tried to have him returned to custody last year after the batteries in his ankle monitor twice ran too low. A judge denied the request. Robison had no other information about why Hubbart was picked up and referred calls to the Department of State Hospitals. A state hospitals spokesman could not confirm Hubbart was in custody because of state and federal privacy laws that prevent the release of patient information. Small protest in Utah after police cleared in teen shooting SALT LAKE CITY (AP) A small band of protesters calling for an end to police brutality and the resignation of a Utah prosecutor demonstrated in Salt Lake City on Tuesday night after two officers were cleared in the shooting of a teenager. About 25 members of Utah Against Police Brutality and other activist groups stood on the downtown city hall steps holding signs that said "Disarm the Police" and renewing a call for officials to release police body camera footage from the Feb. 27 shooting. "Ultimately, we believe that our public officials and the city and county levels have failed to pursue justice," said Stephen Michael Christian, a member of Utah Against Police Brutality. The group held similar protests over the past few months where marchers blocked traffic and condemned police violence in Utah and around the country, but Tuesday night's gathering was small and peaceful. Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill speaks during a news conference Monday, Aug. 8, 2016, in Salt Lake City. Police were justified in shooting and critically wounding a 17-year-old Somali refugee in a confrontation that sparked unrest and protests in Salt Lake City earlier this year. Gill said officers acted appropriately when they fired at Abdi Mohamed because police believed the teen was about seriously injure or kill another man with a metal stick. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer) About 50 feet away, four police officers on bicycles kept an eye on the group as protesters took turns on a microphone, quoting Martin Luther King Jr. and chanting "Release the footage!" The Salt Lake City shooting occurred as police said they stumbled upon a fight between the teenager, a Somali refugee, and a man over $1.10 from a failed drug buy near the city's crowded homeless shelter. The two officers shot then 17-year-old Abdullahi "Abdi" Mohamed four times, sending him into a coma that nearly killed him. He survived but his health condition Tuesday was not known. Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill cleared the two officers of any wrongdoing Monday, saying they acted appropriately because they believed Mohamed was about to seriously injure or kill the man with a metal broom stick. Gill also announced he was charging Mohamed, who is now 18, with aggravated robbery and possessing drugs with intent to distribute. Mohamed was charged as a juvenile and is expected to make his first court appearance Wednesday, but Gill said he wants to charge the teen as an adult. Mohamed's attorney, Alicia Memmott, had no comment Monday and did not respond to message on Tuesday. Mohamed came to the U.S. with his family in 2004 from a refugee camp in Kenya, his cousin Muslima Weledi said. Court records show he started getting in trouble with police at age 12 and spent time in juvenile detention centers for theft, trespassing and assault. His family has disputed accounts that he was brutally attacking the man. Weledi has said that witnesses told her Mohamed had a wooden broomstick and misunderstood police commands to drop the stick. The shooting became another flashpoint in the nation's discussion about the use of force by police against minorities. Gill said he was methodical and brought in an outside expert on police use of force because of the public outcry. He said he will not release the police body camera footage because it's evidence in the case against the teenager. "I think we should question our public institutions. That's absolutely what a healthy democracy should do," Gill said Tuesday, when asked about the protest. He said he invites the demonstrators to sit down and talk with him. ___ Associated Press writer Brady McCombs contributed to this report. FILE - In this March 3, 2016 file photo, Muslima Weledi holds a photograph of her cousin Abdi Mohamed, a 17-year-old Somali refugee critically wounded in a high-profile police shooting in Utah, during a interview, in Salt Lake City. Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said officers acted appropriately when they fired at Mohamed because police believed he was about to seriously injure or kill a man with a metal broom handle. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File ) FILE - In this Feb. 27, 2016 file photo, police stop a person as he walks away from a crowd that formed after an officer-involved shooting at on South Rio Grande Street in Salt Lake City. Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said officers acted appropriately when they fired at Abdullahi "Abdi" Mohamed because police believed he was about to seriously injure or kill a man with a metal broom handle. (Lennie Mahler/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, File) Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill speaks during a news conference Monday, Aug. 8, 2016, in Salt Lake City. Police were justified in shooting and critically wounding a 17-year-old Somali refugee in a confrontation that sparked unrest and protests in Salt Lake City earlier this year. Gill said officers acted appropriately when they fired at Abdi Mohamed because police believed the teen was about seriously injure or kill another man with a metal stick. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer) If Trump can't get along with GOP, how will he govern? WASHINGTON (AP) Beyond the immediate fallout from his rocky relationship with party elders, there's a longer-term reality for Donald Trump: Should he win the presidency, he'll have to work closely with the same GOP leaders he's vilified on the campaign trail. He has taken modest steps in recent days to ease tensions, yet a growing chorus of experienced Republicans is warning that the billionaire businessman's brash and divisive approach will make it difficult for him to govern effectively. "He hasn't been able to get along with his own party as the nominee. How is he going to get along with them when he has to govern?" asked Rick Tyler, a former aide to Ted Cruz's presidential bid. "If Trump can't get along with the sitting speaker, and has poor relationships with sitting members of the Legislature, the idea of fashioning a conservative legislative agenda seems to me virtually nonexistent." FILE - In this June 21, 2016, file photo, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. Beyond the political fallout from Donald Trumps rocky relationship with party elders lies a fundamental reality: should he win the presidency, the brash billionaire will have to work closely with the same GOP leaders he vilified on the campaign trail. Trumps unorthodox approach has triggered a steady stream of defections among longtime Republican officials and policy experts in recent days vowing not to vote for the Republican nominee under any circumstances. They include Collins. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File) Tyler may not be an impartial observer. But it seems clear that Trump's turbulent relationships with Republican leaders could take on greater significance after Election Day. A President Trump may need Cruz or "Lyin' Ted" as Trump calls him to help confirm his Supreme Court picks. He may need Florida Sen. Marco Rubio or "Little Marco" to help implement his immigration priorities. And President Trump's broader governing agenda will surely require the cooperation of House Speaker Paul Ryan, whom Trump thrust into a political firestorm a week ago by refusing to endorse him. Trump ended that feud by endorsing Ryan late Friday along with Arizona Sen. John McCain and New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte after four days of manufactured chaos, but the episode left bad blood. A steady stream of defections has continued, with longtime Republican officials and policy experts vowing not to vote for the GOP nominee. They include Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a four-term Republican senator, who announced Monday she could not support Trump and "his constant stream of cruel comments." "Donald Trump does not reflect historical Republican values nor the inclusive approach to governing that is critical to healing the divisions in our country," Collins wrote in The Washington Post. She is not alone. Several Republican senators, including Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Mark Kirk of Illinois, have said they won't vote for Trump. Others, such as Jeff Flake of Arizona and Mike Lee of Utah, have so far refused to endorse him. Trump's team says it's not for lack of effort by the candidate. One early backer, Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y., notes that Trump has made multiple trips to Capitol Hill to talk to his critics. He says there's only a handful of holdouts. "Once Mr. Trump is the president of the United States and shows that willingness to reach out, and not be dictatorial, but rather collaborative, I think they may just disappear automatically," Collins said of the Republican critics. "I think it's going to be a very collaborative effort." Yet Trump has shown little ability to moderate his approach for any significant period of time. After pummeling Cruz with personal insults during the primary season, Trump resurrected a conspiracy theory linking Cruz's father to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy the day after the Republican National Convention. A demonstrated expert in parliamentary obstruction tactics, the Texas senator sits on the powerful Judiciary Committee, which has the power to endorse or reject Supreme Court nominees before they are reviewed by the full Senate. The next president may well need to fill more than one court vacancy. Beyond Cruz, the committee features several other GOP critics: Lee, Flake and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham. "Donald Trump shows no sign of being able to reach out to people who have been his adversaries," said Vin Weber, a former Minnesota Republican congressman who is refusing to vote for Trump. It's unclear to what extent a frustrated Trump might turn to executive actions should Congress reject his wishes. The Republican nominee has railed against President Barack Obama's use of executive orders, yet Republican skeptics fear Trump might trigger what Weber called a "constitutional crisis, or at least a constitutional confrontation" should Congress deny his priorities. Trump would have little time to address his governing challenge. As president, he would have just 73 days the time between Election Day and the inauguration to find roughly 4,000 high-level staff members to run the most powerful government in the world. They won't include 50 Republican senior national security leaders who signed a letter this week warning that he "would be the most reckless president in American history." Asked about the letter, Trump lashed out at the group, many of them veterans of the George W. Bush White House, as being "Washington, establishment people" who have done "a terrible job." Still, a Trump ally, Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., said things seem to be moving in the right direction after a "tough week" with "a lot of self-inflicted wounds." "If he wins, it'll be good, despite what might be happening now," King said. Lawyer: Teen girl, not soldier boyfriend, killed her mother ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) A lawyer for a soldier accused of killing his then-14-year-old girlfriend's mother after she objected to their age difference told a jury on Tuesday only the girlfriend is to blame. "Jamie Silvonek wanted her mother dead," attorney Richard Webster said as 22-year-old Army Spc. Caleb Barnes' murder trial got underway. "She killed her own mother." But prosecutors contend it was Barnes, who's from El Paso, Texas, who wielded the knife when Cheryl Silvonek was fatally stabbed in March 2015. FILE - In this May 14, 2015, file photo, Army Spc. Caleb Barnes, center, is escorted to court for a preliminary hearing in Allentown, Pa. As a murder trial gets underway for Army Spc. Caleb Barnes, accused of killing his then-14-year-old girlfriend's mother after the woman objected to their age difference, his attorney Richard Webster told a jury Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016, that Cheryl Silvonek was fatally stabbed by her daughter Jamie Silvonek in March 2015. (Bill Adams /The Express-Times via AP, File) MANDATORY CREDIT Jamie Silvonek, who's now 15, has pleaded guilty and is serving 35 years to life in prison. She has agreed to testify against Barnes, who was 20 or 21 at the time. During her plea deal hearing in February she called herself "a monster" and said she realizes she deserves no sympathy. Webster told jurors there isn't any physical evidence that proves Barnes killed Cheryl Silvonek, but he did concede that his client helped bury her body. He called Jamie Silvonek a "liar" and a "manipulator." Investigators have said they recovered deleted text messages between Jamie Silvonek and Barnes in which she was plotting her mother's killing, including one that read: "I want her gone." Cheryl Silvonek found out about their relationship in early March 2015 and ordered them to end it, according to court documents. A day later, the teenager told Barnes she wanted her parents dead, the documents said. On March 14, 2015, Cheryl Silvonek learned that Barnes, who was based at Fort Meade in Maryland but was off duty at the time, intended to take her daughter to a concert in Scranton. "He is not coming to this house," Cheryl Silvonek texted to her daughter, who had taken the SAT college entrance exam that morning, according to a police affidavit. The teenager then texted Barnes, "She threatened to throw me out of the house. I want her gone," the affidavit said. Later, she wrote to him, "Just do it," authorities said. Cheryl Silvonek agreed to drive her daughter and Barnes to the show. Prosecutors said it was her "last ditch effort" to get them to end the relationship. On their way, the teenager and her boyfriend continued texting each other. "I love you. We can do this. We'll just drive her car then, right?" Jamie Silvonek wrote, the affidavit said. Barnes replied in a text, "No. That leaves us as the suspects." Cheryl Silvonek, 54, was fatally stabbed in the driveway of her Upper Macungie Township home early on March 15, 2015, hours after taking her eighth-grader daughter and the daughter's boyfriend to the concert, court documents say. Police found her body in a shallow grave a few miles from the family's home. Her blood-soaked car was nearby. Cheryl Silvonek's husband and Jamie Silvonek's father, David Silvonek, has blamed his wife's killing on Barnes. Opinion / Columnist You cannot have your cake and eat it too! This is just plain common sense but tyrants like Mugabe think otherwise.When it comes to holding free, fair and credible elections, Mugabe has been deaf, blind and dumb because he repeatedly ignored all calls for meaningful change to ensure elections are free and fair. He has blatantly rigged the elections to secure a landslide victory. And yet after the elections he has been quick to claim the legitimacy and protection given to the winner of free, fair and credible elections."I was elected by the people. As long as the people and party says continue, I continueIf I still have the energy, I still have the life, the blessings of God, I will continue." Was Mugabe's defiant reply to the historic war veterans' statement denouncing him as a dictator and demanding his resignation.Mugabe's cronies who have never cared about rule of law, justice, human rights, free and fair elections, etc. are joining the tyrant in proclaiming his political legitimacy and their willingness to defend his continued rule. "The Zimbabwe Defence Forces will never accept any unconstitutional change of Government and will stand firm and unequivocal by President Mugabe who was duly and democratically elected by the people of Zimbabwe, the Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) General Constantino Guveya Dominic Nyikadzino Chiwenga has said," said a report in The Chronicle."It follows that the ZDF, while remaining apolitical, would not tolerate or support any unconstitutional change of Government in the country, whether internally or externally induced," said Chiwenga.Does Chiwenga know what being apolitical means or he is just parroting what he has heard others saying? He is on record, saying he would not "salute anyone with no liberation war record". He should know that in the last 16 years the Army has played a major role in the intimidation, beating, raping and even killing of civilians to help Mugabe and Zanu PF stay in power. And Chiwenga himself is a member of the Joint Operation Command, the shadowy "parallel government", as Tendai Biti called it, complete with its own illegal sources of funds that has ruled Zimbabwe for decades now.And yet today General Chiwenga wants to cut a figure of an outstanding public figure and defender of the constitution and the people. He is not fooling anyone with that!No amount of pretending and propaganda can change the fact that Zimbabwe is de facto one-party dictatorship in which elections are routinely rigged. The country is in a real economic mess because of 36 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption. Other than the few ruling elite, including Chiwenga and Mugabe, who have grown filthy rich the overwhelming majority of the people have suffered as unemployment soared to dizzying heights of 90% and as much as 76% of our people now in abject poverty."Where contradictions exist, we must be able to dialogue, bearing in mind that we are one people. We should learn to synchronise our approaches and have a common vision where the nation thinks with one mind, hears with one ear, speaks with one voice and collectively pulls in one direction," Chiwenga argued.There lies the heart of our political problem; one which simpletons like Chiwenga and tyrants like Mugabe, blinded by their stupidity and/or greed, have failed comprehend. Why should a nation of 14 million be forced into a straitjacket to speak with one voice, think with one mind and, most notable of all in a dictatorship, rig the elections to ensure the victory of one Robert Gabriel Mugabe regardless he is a proven corrupt and murderous tyrant!"It is the ZDF's hope, therefore, that the internal component of this asymmetric threat to the country will take heed and desist from these divisive activities for the betterment of the whole nation," said Chiwenga, threateningly. General Chiwenga, you are a simpleton (Mugabe has always surrounded himself with simpletons to do his dirty bidding) so I will put this in plain and simple language so even you, a simpleton, will understand. Please understand that: 1) Mugabe rigged the last elections so stop all this nonsense of Mugabe was "dully and demo-cratically elected by the people of Zimbabwe". We all know he rigged the elections and stubbornly refused to release such key documents as the July 2013 voters roll because it is the smoking gun.2) Mugabe has used the ZDF staff to carry out some dirty vote rigging activities, as a senior of-ficer in the Army you General Chiwenga would know the details. It is therefore nonsense for you of all the people to claim that "ZDF is apolitical".3) The present de facto Zanu PF dictatorship has failed to deliver freedom, justice, human rights and dignity and economic prosperity. The economic hardships brought on by the dec-ades of criminal waste of human and material resources are socially and politically unsus-tainable.4) The social unrest that we have seen in the country is from the people demanding an end to their economic suffering. Listen to the people because they will never stop until the country has meaningful political change leading to free, fair and credible elections; the pre-requisite for meaningful economic recovery.5) You can join Mugabe in denying that the Zanu PF dictatorship has failed the nation and most end; what matters here is that it has failed and that regime change is already upon us. When ZDF fight the people demanding change the Army will not fighting to preserve the country's independence, etc. but rather to perpetuate the corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship.6) There will be a thorough investigation into the conduct of elections in Zimbabwe, especially the July 2013 elections; no stone will be left unturned in the drive to establish the facts. If it should be established that the elections were indeed rigged and that people like yourself General Chiwenga known this and even played a part in this treasonous act then you must know that you and all those responsible will be punished!After 36 years of propping a corrupt and tyrannical dictatorship with disastrous consequences to the nation it is high time that people like General Chiwenga opened their eyes and accepted this system has failed and must therefore be changed. The choice here is not of whether or not to accept change but rather whether it is going to be peaceful or violent change; by resisting change the regime is per se electing violent change. The Latest: Pennsylvania attorney general's testimony aired NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) The Latest on Pennsylvania Attorney General (all times local): 4:45 p.m. Trial evidence shows that Pennsylvania's attorney general told a grand jury she never leaked secret documents to the press. Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane, center, walks into the courtroom on the second day of her trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016 in Norristown, Pa. An ethics board accused Kane of "egregious conduct" amid criminal charges she leaked grand jury material to a newspaper to embarrass enemies and then lied about it under oath. (Dan Gleiter/PennLive.com via AP, Pool) First-term Democrat Kathleen Kane is charged with perjury and obstruction for allegedly publicizing grand jury files about an investigation of a civil rights leader. Excerpts of Kane's grand jury testimony are being aired as her trial begins Tuesday in suburban Philadelphia. The excerpts show Kane acknowledging that she wanted the public to know her predecessors had dropped the investigation and discussed it with top deputy Adrian King. Prosecutors say he admits routing it to a reporter through Kane's political consultant. Another deputy, Bruce Beemer, testified that he was stunned when he saw the resulting news story because he knew the leak must have come from their office. ___ 11 a.m. Pennsylvania's attorney general has gone on trial in a perjury and obstruction case that prosecutors say stems from her drive for political revenge. They say Democrat Kathleen Kane was incensed about a news article that faulted her for not charging anyone in a statehouse bribery sting. So they say Kane leaked grand jury material to the media to embarrass the former staff lawyer she thought planted the story. The documents showed he had similarly dropped an investigation into an NAACP leader. Assistant District Attorney Michelle Henry says the NAACP official became collateral damage in Kane's "war" on former staff lawyer Frank Fina. The defense tells jurors in opening statements Tuesday that Kane wouldn't have risked her career over a feud with Fina. The trial is expected to last a week. ___ 1 a.m. NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) A jury of six men and six women has been seated to decide if Pennsylvania's attorney general leaked grand jury information and lied about it under oath. Kathleen Kane's perjury and obstruction trial comes a year after she was indicted over the 2014 leak to a Philadelphia newspaper. The first-term Democrat insists she did nothing wrong. But prosecutors say she exposed details of a 2009 investigation into a civil rights leader who was never charged. Kane did not run for re-election. She says the charges are payback for her crusade to root out judges, lawyers and others who traded racist, sexist and pornographic emails. Lawyers questioned 100 potential jurors behind closed doors Monday at the suburban Philadelphia courthouse. The trial is expected to last about a week. Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane, center, walks into the courtroom on the second day of her trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016 in Norristown, Pa. An ethics board accused Kane of "egregious conduct" amid criminal charges she leaked grand jury material to a newspaper to embarrass enemies and then lied about it under oath. (Dan Gleiter/PennLive.com via AP, Pool) Ellen Granahan Goffer, twin sister of Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane, walks into the courtroom on the second day of Kane's trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown,Pa., Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. Kane faces perjury and other charges related to the alleged leak of secret grand jury materials. (Dan Gleiter/PennLive.com via AP, Pool) Turkey unlikely to drop Syria rebels in latest realignment BEIRUT (AP) Minutes after news broke of a coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, government-held areas in Syria broke out in celebratory gunfire, heralding what they believed was the removal of the leader they blame for fueling their country's five-year civil war. Erdogan survived the insurrection, and judging by the surprise reversal of rebel fortunes in Aleppo this week, so has his government's support for the Syrian opposition. But Turkey, post-coup, is realigning, and as tensions with the West soar, Erdogan has shown a desire to mend fences with Russia, a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad. On Tuesday, following talks in St. Petersburg, Russia, with President Vladimir Putin, the Turkish leader agreed to hold a separate discussion on Syria, involving top military and intelligence officials. FILE - In this Monday, Oct. 11, 2010 file photo, Syrian President Bashar Assad, right, shakes hands with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left, at al-Shaab presidential palace in Damascus, Syria. Within minutes of news breaking of a coup against Recep Tayyeb Erdogan, government-held areas in Syria broke out in celebratory gunfire that lasted throughout the night. In bars across the capital Damascus, revelers celebrated the news, drinking to the removal of Turkey's strongman they blame for fueling their country's five-year civil war. But Erdogan survived, and judging by the surprise reversal of rebel fortunes in Aleppo this week, so has his support for the rebels. (AP Photo/Bassem Tellawi, File) The meeting Erdogan's first trip abroad following the July 15 failed coup attempt comes amid boiling tensions over the contested northern city of Aleppo near the Turkish border, with both nations supporting opposing sides. Here is a look at the Turkish involvement in Syria and how Turkey's latest post-coup realignment may play out: HISTORY OF RELATIONS Erdogan was among the first world leaders to demand Assad step down, calling him a "murderous butcher" after his forces opened fire on demonstrators months after protests against him erupted in 2011. It was a dramatic shift in relations between the two leaders, who had developed close personal ties and overseen the dramatic rapprochement between their two countries after they nearly went to war in the late 1990s over Syria's hosting of the main Kurdish leader, Abdullah Ocalan. Erdogan had personally pushed back against U.S. pressure to isolate Assad at the start of the Iraq war. As Washington accused Damascus of allowing foreign fighters into Iraq, Erdogan invited Assad to vacation in Turkey, maintaining that good relations were necessary with his neighbor, who was helping him against Kurdish rebels seeking independence. Erdogan also personally mediated between Israel and Syria in 2008 to resume peace talks, at a time when Ankara was on good terms with Israel. Erdogan, whose Justice and Development Party has roots in Turkey's Islamic movement, is a strong backer of the Muslim Brotherhood, a global Islamic group that played an important role in the uprisings in Egypt and Syria, starting in 2011. As a man who prided himself on being the main democratic leader with Islamist credentials in the region, this and his early bet that Assad's days were numbered, may be the single most important reasons behind the irreparable rift between the two leaders. SUPPORT FOR REBELS While residents in Assad strongholds celebrated the coup attempt against Erdogan as it unfolded last month, thousands of Syrians in Istanbul demonstrated in support of the Turkish leader. That's because Erdogan's government has been one of the most hawkish supporters of the predominantly Sunni Muslim insurgency against Assad. The country hosts most of the Syrian opposition and has served as a staging area for the fighters, providing them with offices, training facilities, intelligence and other logistical support. As the only NATO country bordering Syria, its air bases have been used for coalition airstrikes against the Islamic State group. Border controls were an issue between Washington and Ankara, as foreign fighters trickled into Syria from Turkey in droves during the early years of the conflict. Last year, amid growing frustration with U.S. inaction on Syria and casting aside Washington's concerns about aiding extremists groups, Turkey and Saudi Arabia started a new and aggressive strategy to help rebel groups bring about the fall of Assad. After years of being at odds, the agreement struck between the two regional powerhouses led to the setting up of a joint command center in the Syrian province of Idlib. That coalition, called the Army of Conquest, wrestled control of Idlib province from Assad's forces last year, ushering in a Russian aerial campaign that began in September to help Assad's flailing forces. "The Army of Conquest was a Turkish-led project, said Faysal Itani, a researcher with the Washington-based Atlantic Council. That alliance, led by al-Qaida's branch in Syria, managed to breach the government siege on Aleppo this week. An Aleppo activist said thousands of ethnic Turkic fighters, who have become an important feature of the battleground in Syria funneling through Turkey, were the decisive factor in the battle. Borders were also kept open for the wounded to travel out of Syria, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the matter to the media. WILL THE FAILED COUP AFFECT SYRIA? It's too early to tell whether the political turmoil in Turkey following last month's failed coup will affect Turkish involvement in Syria's civil war. But the massive and surprisingly well coordinated counteroffensive by rebels in Aleppo this week appears to have been supported at least in part by Turkey. For years Turkey has built up insurgent groups in Aleppo province, which it used as a tool against Assad and its Kurdish enemies. Aleppo is the most important battleground for Turkey, because of its proximity and its historic ties. The breach of the siege in Aleppo was a tactical win for Turkey, Itani said. Ahmed Ramadan, a member of the Turkey-based Syrian opposition, said it is unlikely the Turkish-Russian rapprochement will undermine Ankara's support for the rebels. He said it was time for Moscow to realize there is no military solution in Syria. "Aleppo battle pushes the political process forward and not the other way around," he said. Erdogan, so far, has shown no sign of throwing in the towel. "We don't want Syria's disintegration, but the departure of Bashar Assad," the Turkish leader said in an interview with Russia's Tass news agency. He added, however, that "mutual action by Russia and Turkey" was necessary to solve the Syrian conflict. MENDING TIES Tensions between Turkey and Russia peaked in late 2015 after Turkey shot down a Russian warplane it said had entered Turkish airspace from neighboring war-torn Syria. In June, Erdogan sent a much-anticipated letter of apology to Putin. Sinan Ulgen, a former Turkish diplomat and visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe, said the issue of Syria is the most difficult topic facing the two leaders as they met Tuesday, and mending ties is unlikely to cause dramatic changes in Ankara's policies toward Syria given its large investment and public support for the Syrian opposition over the years. Still, Turkey has had to down scale its ambitions in Syria amid lack of enthusiasm from the international community for regime change, Ulgen said. That may make Turkey more willing to push opposition groups it has influence over, on the political track, he said. "That is something Turkey and Russia could agree on," he said. Syria and its allies have blamed Turkey and Saudi Arabia for the failure of previous rounds of talks to try to end Syria's civil war, by backing opposition demands for Assad's removal. For that reason, the latest rebel gains in Aleppo battle are significant for Turkey as well as the opposition. While the opposition demonstrated its military abilities, "Turkey demonstrates to the international community that it has something to bring to the table," Ulgen said. AL-QAIDA ON THE RISE The breach of the siege in Aleppo was a tactical win for Turkey and its allies, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, in which the rebranded al-Qaida played an important role. Known as Jabhat al-Nusra, or the Nusra Front, before breaking ties with al-Qaida, the rebel alliance was key to the battlefield victory. "Turkish thinking about Jabhat al Nusra has always been that it could be folded into the broader insurgent movement and thus was a manageable potential threat," Itani said. "If that is what's happening, then good for Turkey. But the group has a longer-term goal in mind to dominate the insurgency." "It would not be in Turkey's interest at all to have al-Qaida controlling northern Syria," he said. FILE - In this Saturday, July 16, 2016 file photo, people chant slogans as they gather at a pro-government rally in central Istanbul's Taksim square, Turkey. Within minutes of news breaking of a coup against Recep Tayyeb Erdogan, government-held areas in Syria broke out in celebratory gunfire that lasted throughout the night. In bars across the capital Damascus, revelers celebrated the news, drinking to the removal of Turkey's strongman they blame for fueling their country's five-year civil war. But Erdogan survived, and judging by the surprise reversal of rebel fortunes in Aleppo this week, so has his support for the rebels. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel, File) FILE - This file image posted on the Twitter page of Syria's al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front on Tuesday June 14, 2016, which is consistent with AP reporting, shows a Nusra Front tank firing at Syrian troops and pro-government gunmen at the hilltop of Khalsa village, southern Aleppo, Syria. Arabic, bottom right, reads, "heavy shelling ahead of advances on Khalsa." Within minutes of news breaking of a coup against Recep Tayyeb Erdogan, government-held areas in Syria broke out in celebratory gunfire that lasted throughout the night. In bars across the capital Damascus, revelers celebrated the news, drinking to the removal of Turkey's strongman they blame for fueling their country's five-year civil war. But Erdogan survived, and judging by the surprise reversal of rebel fortunes in Aleppo this week, so has his support for the rebels. (Al-Nusra Front Twitter page via AP, File) Legal group issues private emails Clinton did not turn over WASHINGTON (AP) The State Department has turned over 44 previously-unreleased Hillary Clinton email exchanges that the Democratic presidential nominee failed to include among the 30,000 private messages she turned over to the government last year. They show her interacting with lobbyists, political and Clinton Foundation donors and business interests as secretary of state. The conservative legal group Judicial Watch obtained the emails as part of its lawsuit against the State Department. They cover Clinton's first three months as secretary of state in early 2009, a period for which Clinton did not turn over any emails to the State Department last year. The government found the newly disclosed messages during a search of agency computer files from longtime Clinton aide Huma Abedin. In one instance, Clinton exchanged messages with a senior Morgan Stanley investment executive whom she met with later that year at her office in Washington. They were among 246 pages of Abedin messages turned over to Judicial Watch. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks to medical professionals after taking a tour of Borinquen Health Care Center, in Miami, Fla., Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016, to see how they are combatting Zika. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) Clinton campaign officials did not immediately answer questions about the issue. The emails are separate from a larger batch of several thousand work-related emails that FBI officials recovered from Clinton's private server. Clinton's legal team turned over more than 30,000 emails from her server to the State Department last March but only after deleting another 30,000 messages that Clinton's team deemed private and personal. The FBI plans to turn over the reconstructed Clinton emails to the State Department for public release. The new Clinton emails include a February 2009 message to her from Stephen Roach, then-chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, saying he planned to testify to Congress that week and was "happy to help in any way I can." Roach later met with Clinton over the summer for 30 minutes, according to Clinton calendars obtained by The Associated Press. In another email, Clinton's chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, informed her that National Security Agency and State Department officials discussed an attempt to develop a modified blackberry for Clinton that might be used when she worked in a restricted State Department office that did not allow private phones. Clinton called the development "good news," but she continued using a private Blackberry tied to her private server. ___ Khalmurzaev wins Russia's 2nd judo gold of Rio Olympics RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) Undefeated all year, Khasan Khalmurzaev is now the Olympic champion. The sixth-seeded Russian beat Travis Stevens of the United States to win the judo gold medal Tuesday in the 81-kilogram division. It was Russia's second gold in judo at the Rio de Janeiro Games. "I know (Stevens) and he is strong," the 22-year-old Khalmurzaev said. "So I did all I can to win this gold medal. Russia's Khasan Khalmurzaev celebrates after winning he gold medal the men's 81-kg judo competition at at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber) "I saw on TV that I am the winner of these games and I can't believe it." In the final, Khalmurzaev and Stevens fought for control of each other's uniform. Stevens appeared to have a lapse of concentration which allowed Khalmurzaev a slight gripping advantage, and that was enough to let the Russian throw Stevens for an ippon score to automatically end the contest. Stevens then crouched over, his hands covering his face. Until the final, Stevens had looked unbeatable. The Pan American Games champion overcame longtime rival Avtandili Tchrikishvili with a stranglehold so powerful that the Georgian was forced to tap out, leaving him in tears. The bronze medals were won by Sergiu Toma of the United Arab Emirates and Takanori Nagase of Japan. Despite the widespread Russian doping scandal, the country's entire judo team was allowed to compete in Rio. Russian President Vladimir Putin is the honorary president of the International Judo Federation, the sport's governing body. "We watched the final announcement that we would be allowed to go," Khalmurzaev said, "but the goal was always just to keep training." In the women's 63-kilogram division, top-seeded Tina Trstenjak of Slovenia took gold, following in the footsteps of London Games champion Urska Zolnir in the same category. Zolnir is now on Trstenjak's coaching team. Trstenjak beat second-seeded Clarisse Agbegnenou of France. The women's bronze medals were won by Yarden Gerbi of Israel and Anicka Van Emden of the Netherlands. Britain's Scott on wrong side of wind shift in Finn opener RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) The last guy who won the Olympic gold medal in sailing's Finn class was knighted by Princess Anne at Buckingham Palace a few months after the London Olympics. So imagine the pressure on Britain's Giles Scott, who at 29 is making his Olympic debut and following in the enormous wake of Ben Ainslie. And if being the overwhelming favorite wasn't heavy enough, crazily shifting and then dying wind coming off hulking Sugarloaf Mountain caused mayhem in the opening Finn race of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics on Tuesday. Scott finished 17th, which, coupled with his third place in the second race, has him sitting 10th overall. China's Xu Lijia is reflected in a puddle as she hoses off her boat after competing in the Laser Radial women sailing race at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. (AP Photo/David Goldman) "It's certainly not the way you want to start an Olympic Games, with a 17th," Scott said after coming ashore. "Let's just say I wasn't particularly happy. Unfortunately these things happen in regattas and it certainly happened to me in regattas over the past four years. It certainly doesn't make things easy but there's still a lot to play for." Denmark's Jonas Hogh-Christensen, who took the silver behind Ainslie in 2012, called the first race "a mockery of sport" because of the big wind shift. The second race, he said, "was a proper race. The first one was a bit idiotic, to be honest. They could have canned it and restarted it but I think we were under the scrutiny of being on TV." Still, the Dane is in better shape than Scott, sitting sixth overall after finishes of 13th and second. The leader is Vasilij Zbogar of Slovenia, who finished third and first. Hogh-Christensen led the whole way in 2012 until Ainslie finished ahead of him in the medals race to take the gold. It was Ainslie's fourth straight gold medal and fifth medal overall, making him the most successful Olympic sailor ever. Ainslie then moved on to the America's Cup. He helped Oracle Team USA rally to retain the Auld Mug in 2013 in one of the biggest comebacks in sports, and then started a British syndicate. Scott is a member of that team, Land Rover BAR, which hopes to win back the silver trophy that was plucked away from a British fleet by the schooner America in 1851. First, though, Scott has to figure out how to prevail on Guanabara Bay. "It was tricky," Scott said. "The Sugarloaf course we were on today is notoriously difficult. The breeze comes straight down over the Sugarloaf hill there and it just provides really tricky, unpredictable winds and I think the vast majority of sailors had a good and a bad, apart from the Slovenian who did very well." Scott said he came off the starting line better in the second race than he did in the first. "It was still an incredibly hard race to get through," he said. "It was incredibly tight, tight, tough racing." Is he up for the challenge of sailing his way up the standings? "I'd better be, hadn't I?" he said. How did the first race go for Hogh-Christensen? "I thought I was controlling the race pretty well," he said. "Then it shifted probably 30 degrees up the first beat. But I still managed to get up there, almost in first but rounded in third. Then it shifted another 35 degrees, the wind died, filled in 35 degrees from the right, lost a lot of boats in that and didn't really manage to get it right for the rest of the race and ended up 13th. There were a lot of good guys who sort of just kept going further and further back." That course will be used for the medals race on Aug. 16. In the women's Laser Radial, defending gold medalist Lijia Xu of China had a remarkable comeback, finishing third and first to jump back into first place. She had the lead after the first two races Monday, but was disqualified from the second race after a protest hearing, dropping her to 38th. In the men's Laser, Robert Scheidt of Brazil had a 27th and fourth and dropped to eighth overall. He's trying to become the first sailor and first Brazilian to win six Olympic medals. Both windsurfer classes tightened up. Britain's Nick Dempsey went 1-4-14 to keep the lead, but it's by only one point over defending gold medalist Dorian van Rijsselberghe of the Netherlands, who went 4-1-1. In women's windsurfing, Flavia Tartaglini of Italy went 1-1-4 to take the lead from France's Charline Picon (4-5-10). ___ Follow Bernie Wilson on Twitter at http://twitter.com/berniewilson Nick Dempsey, from Great Britain, smiles after crossing the finish line of the RS:X Men sailing race at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue) Hungary's Maria Erdi washes her face after competing in the women's Laser Radial sailing race at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. (AP Photo/David Goldman) RNC hires strategists to help woo African-American voters WASHINGTON (AP) The Republican National Committee is trying to strengthen its outreach to black voters by hiring a new national director of African-American engagement and bringing on new advisers and strategists to bolster its efforts to bring in more minority voters. Ashley Bell, who was one of the 18 black delegates at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, started this week as an RNC senior strategist and national director of African-American engagement. Bell is also founder and co-leader of the 20/20 Leaders of America, LLC, a bipartisan group of African-American leaders and elected officials "united to elevate issues disproportionately affecting communities of color above partisan politics," according to the group's website. Its Democratic leader is Mayor Aja L. Brown of Compton, California. Ashley D. Bell speaks during an interview with The Associated Press Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016, in Washington. Bell, who was one of the 18 black delegates at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, started this week as an RNC senior strategist and national director of African-American engagement. (AP Photo/Paul Holston) Bell said if Republicans can get personal conversations started with the African-American community about issues that blacks care about, their candidates may have a chance in contests against Democrats. It's healthy for blacks to have actual choices between the two major parties, he said. "If we leave every African-American voter where they feel they have a legitimate choice, then we've won the day," Bell said. He will be joined by Elroy Sailor and Shannon Reeves. Sailor, who used to work for Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, said he will serve as an advisory capacity to RNC Chairman Reince Priebus while Reeves, a political science professor at Alabama A&M University, will work with the party on creating a database of black voters. All of them have important jobs to help convince black voters to consider the GOP that extends beyond this November's election, Sailor said. "Ashley is focused on tactics, strategies, elections; Shannon is focusing on the X's and O's, the number, the data; I'm focused three-dimensionally on institutional infrastructure, sustainability," he said. "So when you look at the approach, it is a very comprehensive, that is a winning approach." The Republican Party has made a focus on getting more minority voters into its ranks, in part because racial and ethnic minorities are expected to make up a majority of Americans within about 30 years. "We are growing our long-term commitment to engaging with black voters and being the party that promotes new models to solve old problems," Priebus said. The number of African-American voters has increased steadily: 12.9 million in 2000, 14 million in 2004, 16 million in 2008 and 17.8 million in 2012. In the last presidential election year, 2012, blacks for the first time voted at a higher rate, 66.2 percent, than did whites, with a rate of 64.1 percent, or Asians or Hispanics, with rates of about 48 percent each. Few of those votes went to Republican candidates; most African-American voters do not identify themselves as Republican. Exit polls conducted for The Associated Press and the networks showed that only about 6 percent identified themselves as GOP voters in 2004, and 4 percent did so in 2008 and 2012. "We are growing our long-term commitment to engaging with black voters and being the party that promotes new models to solve old problems," Priebus said. Tennessee leaves ride safety approval to private inspectors NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) Investigators have not yet determined how a Ferris wheel seat flipped over at a Tennessee county fair, sending three children plummeting 30 to 45 feet to the ground. But the accident that left a 6-year-old girl with a traumatic brain injury sharpened the focus Tuesday on how carnival ride operators are regulated. After a 2014 audit found shortcomings in Tennessee's regulatory program for rides at fairs and amusement parks, state officials decided to get out of the inspection business altogether. Now, the state relies on private inspectors hired by operators and other states' regulators to determine whether roller coasters, zip lines and Ferris wheels are safe. Authorities said the three youngsters fell from the ride at the Greene County Fair in eastern Tennessee on Monday night. Members of the Greeneville Fire Department help people off the ferris wheel at the Greene County Fair in Greeneville, Tenn., Monday, Aug. 8, 2016. A few people who fell 30 to 45 feet from a Ferris wheel in Tennessee were responsive and answering questions Monday night, police said. (O.J. Early/The Greeneville Sun via AP) In a follow-up to the audit last year, the agency said Tennessee law does not require the state to hire its own inspectors. Funding for the Amusement Device Unit was requested for the budget year ending in June but was denied. Lawmakers this year did approve nearly $490,000 to bolster the state's Amusement Device Unit with five new employees. They are not inspectors but will be assigned to work on permitting and verification of compliance with inspection and insurance requirements. Within two years, those jobs are supposed to be paid for through program fees. The Ferris wheel at the Greene County Fair was operated by Valdosta, Georgia-based Family Attractions Amusement. It had received its permit to operate in Tennessee based on an inspection made in Indiana in June. Dr. Bracken Burns, director of trauma services for Johnson City Medical Center, said the critically injured 6-year-old was in a seat with her 10-year-old sister and a 16-year-old female, who were both in stable condition. Burns said the 10-year-old suffered injuries to her forearms. He said he couldn't give out information on injuries that the 16-year-old suffered. Family Attractions Amusement did not immediately return a message left on the voicemail of the phone number listed on its last inspection report. According to the Greeneville News ( http://bit.ly/2b5UwT5 ), the company was fined in 2013 for violating safety laws in North Carolina after a Vortex ride suddenly lurched into motion as riders were disembarking, injuring four riders and a ride operator. The Greene County incident was the eighth injury incident reported to Tennessee authorities on amusement rides this summer: They included fractured wrists and knee caps for a woman ejected from a ride in Gatlinburg, and in Pigeon Forge, a broken arm on a roller coaster and injured backs from doing back flips at a trampoline park and being hit from behind on an alpine coaster. Tennessee recognizes other states' inspections for up to three months before requiring a new permit, according to state Department of Labor and Workforce Development spokeswoman Jennifer Farrar. Because of Monday's accident, the operators will have to have a new third-party inspection conducted before the ride can qualify for a new annual permit in Tennessee, Farrar said. Responsibility for ride inspections was shifted from the state Department of Commerce to the Department of Labor and Workforce Development in 2009. But the 2014 comptroller's audit found that department had failed over the ensuing years to develop a "viable amusement device regulatory unit." According to the audit, mistakes in record-keeping and a lack of inspectors gave rise to "serious concerns about whether the unit is able to ensure that all amusement devices in the state are appropriately permitted and inspected both annually and following accidents and fatalities." Former marksman: Police watchdog 'treating officers like criminals' A former firearms officer has claimed the police complaints watchdog "seems to be treating officers as criminals". Tony Long was cleared of murder last year, a decade after he shot suspected armed robber Azelle Rodney. Mr Long, an ex-Metropolitan Police marksman, told Radio Times scrutiny was expected - but he argued "t he problem is the interpretation of the rules and the way in which officers are treated". Figures showed the number of authorised police firearms officers fell for the fourth year in a row He said: "Today, the Independent Police Complaints Commission seems to be treating police officers as criminals. "My former colleagues are saying: 'We will stand by for a Paris-type attack, but when you want us to go out and do an intelligence-led operation against criminals you might need to satisfy us that the intelligence is perfect, or we're not going out'. I think we're quite close to that situation." Mr Long, who will be featured on Secrets of a Police Marksman on Channel 4 on August 18, added that he was "absolutely confident" his actions in shooting Mr Rodney were correct. He was found not guilty at the Old Bailey in July last year. Last month official figures revealed that the number of authorised police firearms officers (AFOs) fell for the fourth year in a row. As of the end of March there were 5,639 AFOs in forces across England and Wales as of March 31 - down by eight compared with the previous year when there were 5,647. It means the number has dwindled by more than 1,000 in the last five years. At the time they were published, the Government said the figures did not include an "uplift" in armed policing capability to be delivered over the next two years. A drive to boost the police service's firearms capacity was launched in the wake of the Paris attacks. However, rank-and-file leaders have repeatedly questioned where the additional personnel will be drawn from. An IPCC spokesman said: "We recognise the challenging and dangerous circumstances in which firearms officers operate but it is right that when there is a fatality there is an independent investigation. Public warned off beach after oil rig runs aground People are being urged to stay away from a beach on the Western Isles as salvage teams work to secure an oil rig carrying 280 tonnes of diesel that ran aground after being blown ashore in severe weather conditions. The drilling rig Transocean Winner is being monitored by a counter-pollution team after grounding on the western side of the Isle of Lewis in the early hours of Monday. The semi-submersible rig became detached from its tug during a towing operation. Severe weather prevented the crew of the Alp Forward from reconnecting the tow line. The Transocean Winner oil rig ran aground on the Isle of Lewis after high winds hampered a towing operation No-one was on board the rig when it grounded at Dalmore beach near Carloway, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said. The beach is said to be a popular visitor area but coastguard teams and Police Scotland are now enforcing restricted access to the site to ensure specialist equipment can reach the scene. Environmental groups have raised concerns about the incident but the coastguard said the pollution risk was believed to be low. UK Coastguard commander Mark Rodaway said: 'We understand that this incident is of interest to people living in the area, but we're really asking them to stay away to ensure easy access for emergency services and salvors. ''Also the last thing we want is for people to be injured or worse trying to get a closer look on remote cliff paths.'' The UK government is responsible for managing the response with Hugh Shaw, the Secretary of State's Representative for Maritime Salvage and Intervention, travelling to Lewis. Local politicians have united in a call for an emergency towing vessel to be reintroduced for the Western Isles. SNP MP Angus MacNeil campaigned on the issue after the previous emergency tow was removed. He said: ''T his could have been a very different outcome, and it is another example of why we need to have an emergency towing vessel on the west coast of Scotland. "The UK government must return the ETV to Stornoway - a tug is an insurance policy for an unusual but possible event. ''I am also calling on the UK government to carry out an immediate investigation as to why this oil rig was being towed in severe winds west of the Hebrides and I'm seeking further details regarding the response time - which the Maritime and Coastguard Agency has said took 18 hours.'' Highlands and Islands Labour MSP Rhoda Grant said: ''The one remaining emergency tug that covers the north and west coast is based in Orkney and takes an estimated eight hours to reach the north Minch and a staggering 12 hours to reach Barra Head from its Orkney base. Police probe Greenwich nightclub blaze A fire which left a man in a critical condition in hospital with serious burns is being investigated by police. Scotland Yard said detectives from Greenwich CID were investigating the blaze at a south-east London nightclub, believed to be Studio 338. The man, in his 20s, was taken to an east London hospital and the Metropolitan Police said he was left "fighting for his life". Firefighters battled a large blaze in Greenwich, London (@JackVsJose/PA) Police were called to Boord Street, Greenwich, by the London Fire Brigade at 11.55am on Monday. Fourteen men were arrested on suspicion of arson. They were taken to south London police stations and later de-arrested. More than 12 hours after police were called, cordons were still in place at the scene and police said inquiries continued with investigators from the London Fire Brigade. T he Health and Safety Executive has also been informed. Around 100 firefighters and 15 fire engines attended the blaze at its height, which sent smoke into the sky which could be seen across the capital. The LFB said it broke out on Tunnel Aveneue and a large part of the ground floor of the club and part of its first floor had been alight. An industrial warehouse and a scrap paper processing yard, along with 40 pallets of paper, were affected. Some gas cylinders were also affected and a safety cordon was put in place until the cylinders were cooled. Just before midnight on Monday, eight fire engines and around 60 firefighters and officers remained at the scene. Station manager Andy Walton said: "Firefighters are making good progress but there is still quite a lot of smoke coming from the fire so we are still advising people to avoid the area if possible and for those living nearby to continue to keep their doors and windows closed as a precaution. "Crews will remain at the scene throughout the night fighting the fire from outside the nightclub as the building is too structurally unsafe for our firefighters to enter. They are also dealing with deep seated pockets of fire which are still affecting the paper processing site." Opinion / Letters Kuwe Mnumzana Mbonisi Gumbo,After reading your letter written to Mnumzana Trevor Ncube today on Bulawayo 24, I feel compelled to write you this letter but certainly not a reply to your grievances. I am just highlighting many issues regarding our situation in the region that borders on your letter, is there anything good coming out of Mathebeleland? I am writing you at my own risk, great risk aware of reprisals arising from my response. I will dare to take the consequences of my words; I have done so before I will do it again where I feel there is need to talk!To repeat what we all know, Mathebeleland was and still is marginalized since we got our independence in 1980. The barbaric Gugurahundi atrocities followed by a silent genocide in both North and South Mathebeleland are well known to us. Because people risked their lives in documenting the atrocities, Gugurahundi atrocities are recognised even by the US, President Barack Obama spoke about genocide when he met the Woza courageous women in the White House. Bulawayo is a shadow of its own; many companies have relocated to other places for many reasons, one of which is water scarcity in the city and of course the refusal of Zanu PF to complete Zambezi-Mathebeleland Water Project.There are currently serious food shortages that are worse and lethal in some parts of Mathebeleland. There are already cases of people dying because of none availability of food right in Bulawayo. The Food-Aid distribution is mainly on party lines, reducing the people of Mathebeleland to sell their souls and become holders of Zanu PF cards ever to survive famine. Schools are teaching in Shona language, or are Shona speaking, most children in the region do not understand Shona, making it extremely challenging for the children of Mathebeleland to perform well in their academic achievements. I can go on about the challenging issues in Bulawayo and Mathebeleland, the list is too long.Girl children are not given the same privileges as the boys in getting education. This is our cultural problem and not that of the government. Women empowerment is minimal or none existent in most parts of Mathebeleland, that has to do with central government that is selective in dealing with community development projects. This is perhaps what Mr. Trevor Ncube would be putting on board, issues that marginalize the region as well as putting across to the people of Mathebeleland what ideas what projects could be targeted to uplift the region, helping to help ourselves. The media will be able to differentiate in its correspondence where solutions to the region should be concerted by many to bring tangible developments on the ground.Let me not waste time you're and come to the crunch of my writing you this letter. I am a regular reader of Trevor Ncube Mail & Guardian. His newspapers make a very good reading and in most case they are factual, certainly not tabloids. Yes his media coverage is sometimes selective; you rightly ask pertinent questions why his media coverage is mostly focused on personalities of selected regions of Zimbabwe. As the owner of AMH he could have his own prerogative; where and who to put emphasis on in his publishing for business sake.Mr. Gumbo is; how many Mthwakazi groups do we have in Mathebeleland? Why there are several different groups and parties not unite to one entity or two and fight for what we feel we are lacking in our region. Don't you think Mthwakazi is defragmented, I personally do not know the difference between one with the other. Most people in Bulawayo I have managed to talk to will concur that leadership differences in Mthwakazi groups are threshed out outside Mathebeleland without the knowledge of the people you want to represent with their most pertinent grievances. It could be that Trevor Ncube is also finding it challenging to really take on board which of the groups or political parties to support, let's not forget that media houses have their sympathies and in some cases "not" really none partisan as we would like to believe their advertisements.I will agree with Trevor Ncube if his reporters ignored the visit made by some King from South Africa to Bulawayo not so long ago. The audacity of the whole King (forget his name) tells the men from Mathebeleland to be polygamous, have many women so that they have many children. This message is not only stupid but backward. We women in Mathebeleland are fighting abject poverty that was created by Gugurahundi atrocities, women whose husbands are working in South Africa are barely managing with the children they already have but we are told to be in polygamous institutions and still have more children! In most parts of Mathebeleland our men folk left for South Africa because there was no work for them in today's Zimbabwe. Surely South Africa is a life-line for most villagers in both Mathebeleland North and South even Bulawayo.The whole King is wholly ignorant about the plight of Ndebele women. Just one example, is he aware of the fact that to give birth in hospitals there are birth fees to be paid, if not they don't pay, there are corridors in hospitals where young women are detained until they paid the birth fees? If we cannot manage the very children we have, how are going to manage even many more we are told to have? It is easy to make a child yes, it is how to maintain a child when it is conceived (few health services, no pre natal clinics available to all) until it is born and then come the great work of bring the child up with merger resources. Does the whole King know that most girls miss out school in some parts of Mathebeleland North and South even Bulawayo, education is out of reach of many families because of poverty, pure poverty.How are we going to empower our children especially girls with empowerment projects to meet global obligations if they continue to receive conflicting messages coming from regional figure-heads? Mathebeleland is not an island but part of the global development. Does the whole King know that we have challenges of drought and availability of water? ElNino is prevalent especially in Mathebeleland and most families depend on hand-outs from developed countries.I will agree with Trevor Ncube if his reporters did not take on their media coverage the pleas for the restoration of Mathebeleland. The people of Mathebeleland were not asked if they wanted the restoration of Mthwakazi. What the people of Mathebeleland mandated in the constitution was the devolution of power, that each province gets its autonomy to run its affairs separate from the central government. It is not fair to the people of Mathebeleland to push restoration down their throats without any consultations through a referendum: do we want a restoration or not?Trevor Ncube will say no to his reporters if they report traditional events in Bulawayo where girls are supposed to dance with their upper bodies undressed for all to see, some wholesale p*rnography for free. The reviving of u Mhlanga in Bulawayo impedes all development regarding girl-children and young women empowerment. We have rape cases whose fault is put paid on girls wearing mini-skirts and mini-dresses. How do you on one hand legitimize open-breasts-dances- u Mhlanga and on the other hand delegitimize wearing of mini-skirts? Now if the girls are exposing those body parts that define sexual enticement, a recipe for rape, it is indeed a vicious circle of violence against young girls and young women. Those Mhlanga dances long past their sale by date. We women will ask for a ban of such dances that reduce women to subjects of sex under the pretext of cultural and traditional expressions of Ndebele people in the coming dispensation. Young women and girls cannot be objects of sex in 2016I will agree with Trevor Ncube if he told his reporters to drop altogether the news about some Mthwakazi leaders who approached King Zwelithini Khumalo in Zululand for protection. We the people of Mathebeleland are supposed to get protection from whom? Are we not intelligent enough, professional enough to fight marginalization of Mathebeleland on our own without any outside assistance? This very King of Zululand has no executive powers to effect change in Zimbabwe. He is a traditional figure-head, a benefit receiver; he cannot sustain his kraal without monthly receipts benefits from the ANC government, whose party he despised during the liberation eraAre the people of Mathebeleland going to be subjects of the King Zwelithini, all of a sudden? The purpose of King Mzilikazi's leaving Zululand altogether, has it be threshed through so that we can accept to be subjects of him? Have we been asked if we wanted to be subjects of the King of Zululand? Is Mathebeleland going to be a protectorate of Zululand? I have never talked to Ncube but I can imagine if he said nope to such coverage.Trevor Ncube knows how tainted King Zwelithini is regarding Xenophobia utterances the King made carelessly because he thinks he is above the law. King Zwelithini is a controversial persona. His utterances that ignited xenophobic disturbances in Kwazulu Natal and Durban areas were very nasty, if he was a person of integrity he would be ashamed of what he did and said because lives were lost in those xenophobic killings. "We ask foreign nationals to pack their belongings and go back to their countries." That was King Zwelithini verbatim.Not long ago, King Zwelithini Khumalo openly despised the ANC government, preferred the Apartheid government he thought was good for all the peoples of South Africa. On the 8th of December 2015, "the official King of Zululand has announced that the country was economically militarily and socially better under white Afrikaner rule and that history will judge blacks as only having destroyed everything that they had inherited from the white government"Here is a King who is out of touch with global developments. ANC government may not be delivering the fruits of independence; there is no basis to make comparisons to apartheid regime. This is evident that the King benefited during the Apartheid era for his stand against ANC and other liberation movements, he never supported the struggle for independence for once. It is for this reason that he is sadly politically bankrupt when it comes to Africa current affairs. His hate-speeches and calling "other" lice and ticks should be condemned by all well-meaning peoples of this Earth. And this is the King we are supposed to be subjects to. King Mzilikazi will turn in his grave just by this move they have done behind our backs. It would appear as if such moves are personally rewarding than seeking genuine answers for the people of Mathebeleland. The answers to the challenges facing Mathebeleland are in Zimbabwe, period.We seek the devolution of power to all provinces in Zimbabwe so that Mthwakazi can manage its own affairs separate from the central government that has marginalized us. The constitution is clear about this, the devolution is enshrined in the new constitution were the people of this region unanimously agreed to devolution. However we (I say we, because I have consulted a number of people) feel when Mthwakazi groups speaks on our behalf we should be consulted first. I do not exonerate AMH for selectively concentrating on other regions than Mathebeleland. We need to do more as people from Mathebeleland, the raisons de'etre why Mathebeleland is marginalized is generally accepted by all in the region, even Mrs. Teresa Makoni was shocked about evidence of marginalization all over to see, when she visited Mathebeleland North not so long ago.We have projects at place and we wish to empower our growing girls and young women so that we are lot left behind in national and global developments. We shall ask Trevor Ncube to do more and be more vocal in his media coverage to uplift isizwe sika Mthwakazi, the people of Mathebeleland. His media coverage is indeed to some extend selective. We know too that it is his prerogative to cover what he thinks is good for his business.It's high time traditional Kings and other traditional leaders had education as criteria to qualify to be of traditional authority. Most of these traditional leaders lack educations and enlightenment to manage their authority for the good of all their "Subjects." Shopkeeper's killer defiant as he starts jail term for Muslim 'prophet' murder A Muslim taxi driver who executed a popular shopkeeper for claiming he was a prophet remained defiant with a clenched-fist raised as he was led to jail to serve a minimum of 27 years. Tanveer Ahmed, 32, travelled from Yorkshire to Glasgow to confront Asad Shah over his claims before pulling out a knife and repeatedly stabbing the 40-year-old at his newsagent shop. Ahmed, who did not know Mr Shah, claimed to have been offended by clips the shopkeeper had posted online which he said ''disrespected the Prophet Muhammad''. Tanveer Ahmed has been jailed for at least 27 years (Police Scotland/PA) The Bradford father-of-three was given a life sentence at the High Court in Glasgow after admitting the murder in Glasgow's Shawlands area on March 24. Judge Lady Rae told Ahmed he must serve a minimum of 27 years before being considered for release. He would have been given a longer sentence had it not been for his guilty plea. She said he had carried out a "brutal, barbaric, horrific crime" for which he had shown no remorse and even appeared proud of what he had done, and described the calculated nature of the murder as "chilling", saying he had carried out what was in effect an "execution". As Ahmed was led away, he raised a clenched fist and shouted loudly: "Praise for the Prophet Muhammad, there is only one Prophet." Some of his supporters in the courtroom responded by raising their arms and repeating the phrase. The murder shocked the close-knit community in the south side of the city where several vigils were held in the wake of the tragedy. Ahmed had watched a clip featuring Mr Shah on his mobile phone as he travelled to Glasgow on the day of the murder and was heard in a phone message to say "listen to this guy, something needs to be done, it needs nipped in the bud". When he arrived at the shop, Ahmed said he warned the shopkeeper he was there to kill him and asked him to stop claiming to be a prophet. Mr Shah's brother and a shop assistant tried to fend him off as he launched his attack on the popular businessman, described by locals as a ''pillar of the community''. The Shah family, who moved to Scotland from Pakistan in the 1990s to escape persecution, belong to the Ahmadi sect of Islam whose beliefs differ from the majority of Muslims. The court heard their belief that Prophet Muhammad was not the final prophet was a view many consider blasphemous. The family said they were now moving away from Scotland. A statement released on their behalf said: "Asad's family have lost a peaceful, kind and loving brother, son and uncle who can never be replaced. "Most of his family have now left or are in the process of leaving Scotland, a country they came to seek safety in. "They are grateful to the Lord Advocate, Crown Office and Police Scotland for their hard work and compassion." Chief Superintendent Brian McInulty, local policing commander for greater Glasgow division, said: "Our thoughts continue to be with the family of Asad Shah, whose presence in the community is very much missed by everyone who knew him. "I hope that the sentencing today will reassure the immediate community in Glasgow's south side as well as communities all across Scotland that acts of violence such as this are utterly unacceptable and cannot be justified." Lord Advocate James Wolffe QC said: "Asad Shah was a well-liked and respected member of the community who was savagely murdered by a total stranger. "This was a brutal, unprovoked and relentless attack on an unsuspecting victim. It has left his family and friends devastated at the loss of a kind and peace-loving man. "Tanveer Ahmed's crime has rightly been condemned by communities across Glasgow and the rest of the country." Chinese ambassador urges quick decision on Hinkley Point Britain's relationship with China is at a "crucial historical juncture", the Chinese ambassador in London has warned, as the Government prepares to make a decision on the Hinkley Point nuclear project. Liu Xiaoming, writing in the Financial Times, said that he hoped the UK would "keep its door open" to China. Urging a quick decision, he outlined his country's experience in managing nuclear plants and Britain's energy needs. Hinkley Point C power plant is being financed by a Chinese nuclear power provider and French energy giant EDF (EDF Energy/PA) The Hinkley Point C power plant, due to be built in Somerset, is being financed by a Chinese nuclear power provider and French energy giant EDF. Prime Minister Theresa May caused shock when she ordered a last-minute halt to finalising the 18 billion project just hours after the EDF board gave it the final go-ahead in July. In his article, the ambassador insisted that the safety and security of the plant was ensured by the UK's regulatory authorities and China's record of 30 years of safe operation of nuclear facilities. He said Chinese companies had invested more in the UK than in Germany, France and Italy combined in the last five years and this was partly down to mutual trust and respect between the two countries. He said the mutual trust was the foundation for bilateral co-operation. "Right now, the China-UK relationship is at a crucial historical juncture," he said. "I hope the UK will keep its door open to China and that the British government will continue to support Hinkley Point - and come to a decision as soon as possible so that the project can proceed smoothly." He added that it had not been easy for the two countries to come this far, saying: "As long as both sides cherish what has been achieved and continue to expand and deepen our co-operation across the board, bilateral relations will maintain their strong momentum and work for the well-being of both the Chinese and British people." Meanwhile, Jon Trickett, Labour's shadow business secretary, accused Mrs May of "bungling negotiations" over Hinkley Point. He said: "I am deeply concerned whether the Prime Minister has the diplomatic skills that are needed to renegotiate Britain's trade relations with the rest of the world. "This is the person, after all, that chose to appoint a Foreign Secretary with the sensitivity of a clown. "But any loss of Chinese investment matters all the more because of this Government's continued failure to develop a modern industrial strategy and provide the infrastructure and other investment needed to deliver it. Man held over murder of loyalist paramilitary in Belfast A 42-year-old man has been arrested by detectives investigating the murder of a prominent paramilitary. Ulster Defence Association (UDA) member John Boreland, 46, was shot several times with a shotgun outside his apartment in north Belfast on Sunday night. Detectives believe the shooting of the known criminal was linked to disputes between rival loyalist factions. Senior paramilitary John Boreland, who was murdered with a shotgun outside his north Belfast home. A 42-year-old man has been arrested over the shooting. Police said the suspect was detained in north Belfast on Monday night. Mr Boreland, a father of three, survived a murder bid in 2014 and had been made aware of a death threat in recent weeks. There have been mounting tensions between loyalist gangs in north Belfast in recent weeks. Loyalist gunmen have been responsible for dozens of murders since the organisations supposedly went on ceasefire in the 1990s. Many killings have been linked to feuds and turf wars among rivals. The latest shooting has prompted further questions about the authenticity of the ceasefires. James Guy refuses to dwell on defeat to convicted drugs cheat Sun Yang James Guy refused to dwell on defeat to convicted drugs cheat Sun Yang despite missing out on an Olympic medal as the Chinese swimmer won gold on Monday. Australia's Mack Horton won Saturday's 400 metres freestyle ahead of Sun and afterwards was scathing in his criticism of the man he beat into silver, prompting threats on social media from China. Sun, who has served a lenient doping suspension since the London 2012 Games where he won two titles, responded to win the 200m freestyle on Monday. James Guy missed out on a medal in the 200m freestyle, finishing just 0.26 seconds off a podium spot Siobhan O'Connor qualified fastest for Tuesday's 200m individual medley final to give Britain hope of a third medal in the pool after Adam Peaty's 100m breaststroke gold and Jazz Carlin's 400m freestyle silver. That was after Guy, world champion ahead of Sun in 2015, finished fourth. "It's devastating really. Fourth is the worst place you can get," the 20-year-old from Bury said. "I can see where Mack is coming from and I'm great friends with Mack. "It's quite difficult. He (Sun) has done his time. FINA (swimming's world governing body) have said he's here. "I'm going to race him. I can't say, 'You're not swimming'. He's here, I've got to deal with it and move on. "That's what I've tried to do and unluckily I've come fourth." On Horton's comments, Guy said: "He's speaking from the heart. I'm the opposite really - I keep things to myself. But that's Mack for you. He's a great guy." Guy was sixth in the 400m on Saturday and desperate to make amends in his favoured event. The Millfield swimmer had snuck into the final by 0.01secs and made an outside charge for the podium from lane eight which did not come off. Sun won gold in one minute 44.65 seconds, South Africa's Chad le Clos was second in 1min 45.20secs and Conor Dwyer of the United States third in 1:45.23. Guy clocked 1:45.49 and world record holder Paul Biedermann of Germany was sixth in 1:45.84. Guy feels he is struggling for form. "The first few days I let the swimming control me and I wasn't controlling the swimming," he said. "I think this has showed that I'm not 100 per cent right and something's not quite there. "I think it must be the taper. I've swum amazingly well for the last four years and everybody has their off summer. "I will do everything I can to turn it around for the relay and 100m fly as well." Britain are world champions in the 4x200m freestyle relay, which takes place on Tuesday, but the USA were without Michael Phelps in Kazan last summer. Guy added: "We've got a shout. We need everyone to be on their game because the Americans are the top dogs. "We're the defending world champions, we hold the trophy and it's going to be a dogfight to try to get a medal." Another convicted doper, Russia's Yulia Efimova, had to settle for silver in the 100m breaststroke as USA's Lilly King won gold. Michael Phelps, who has railed against drug cheats in Rio, is targeting his 20th Olympic gold after qualifying second quickest for Tuesday's 200m butterfly final in 1:54.12. Hungary's Tamas Kenderesi went through in first place in 1:53.96. Le Clos, who beat Phelps to gold at London 2012, advanced in fourth place in 1:55.19. He was perhaps fatigued from his exertions in the 200m freestyle final. Laszlo Cseh of Hungary was third quickest in 1:55.18. Katinka Hosszu, another Hungarian, won the 100m backstroke, claiming her second gold following her 400m individual medley win on Saturday. Hosszu was then second fastest qualifier in the 200m individual medley as O'Connor advanced quickest in a British record of 2:07.57. She is now the joint fifth fastest in history after equalling the time Ye Shiwen of China set en route to London 2012 gold. Ye was fourth quickest, while Hannah Miley missed out on the final, placing 12th. O'Connor took inspiration from Peaty and Carlin's exploits. "I was in tears watching Adam and Jazz, just so inspiring," she said. "I was so buzzing afterwards. Hopefully there's more to come from the rest of the team." The world bronze medallist was referring to herself, after a first personal best in the event in two years, since she won Commonwealth Games gold in Glasgow. "It's been a long time coming," she added. "It's a big shock (to be in lane four as fastest qualifier), but people have had other races this evening. Theresa May and Vladimir Putin agree to improve relations - Kremlin Teresa May has spoken to Russian president Vladimir Putin for the first time since she became Prime Minister. The Kremlin said both leaders expressed dissatisfaction with UK-Russian relations and pledged to improve ties. The UK's relationship with Russia became increasingly strained under former prime minister David Cameron, following Mr Putin's support for the Syrian regime, the Ukraine crisis, and the recent inquiry in to the 2006 poisoning death of ex-Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko. Vladimir Putin has spoken with Theresa May by telephone Mrs May said she hoped the nations could push forward in an "honest" way despite their differences. The pair will meet at the G20 summit of world leaders in China next month. A Downing Street spokeswoman said the leaders discussed common security threats faced by both countries when they spoke on the phone on Tuesday afternoon. She said: "The Prime Minister noted the importance of the relationship between the UK and Russia and expressed the hope that, despite differences on certain issues, they could communicate in an open and honest way about the issues that mattered most to them. "The Prime Minister and president agreed that British and Russian citizens faced common threats from terrorism, and that co-operation on aviation security in particular was a vital part of the international counter-terrorism effort. "They looked forward to seeing each other at the G20 summit in China next month." The pair agreed to develop a dialogue between their security agencies over aviation security, the Kremlin added. Claudio Ranieri agrees new deal with champions Leicester Leicester boss Claudio Ranieri has agreed a new deal at the Premier League champions, Press Association Sport understands. The Italian guided the Foxes to the top-flight title last season and has pledged his long-term future to the club. Leicester are yet to confirm the reports Ranieri has agreed to extend his contract beyond the initial three years he signed last summer, when he was a shock appointment. Claudio Ranieri stunned the Premier League by winning the title with Leicester last season It is claimed any new contract will not include a release clause, with confirmation expected in the coming days. Ranieri has always stated he was happy at the King Power Stadium and, last season, said he was in no rush to extend his deal despite their improbable success. He replaced Nigel Pearson last summer and was installed as one of the favourites for the sack, with Leicester 5,000-1 to win the Premier League. But they lost just three league games all season to claim a shock title by 10 points and will be one of the top seeds in the Champions League draw later this month. They lost the Community Shield 2-1 to Manchester United at Wembley on Sunday and start the defence of their title at Hull on Saturday. Jamie Vardy and Kasper Schmeichel have signed new contracts at the Foxes during the summer with Vardy rejecting a move to Arsenal in June after the Gunners triggered his release clause. Thailand's women leave men in shade with 58kg one-two By Brian Oliver RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Thailand's women weightlifters have made it two golds and one silver from three attempts and will aim for another medal on Tuesday when their fourth and final female team member competes in the 63kg competition. They have been helped by the exclusion of doping cheats from other countries, but the driving force behind their success is a woman who treats the weightlifters as her own children and has negotiated lucrative sponsorship deals to fund a national performance centre and keep training full-time. After Sopita Tanasan's victory in the 48kg on Saturday, the opening contest of the Rio Games, Thailand followed up with a one-two in the 58kg contest on Monday. Sukanya Srisurat won from Pimsiri Sirikaew, with Kuo Hsing-Chun of Taiwan taking the bronze. Both medallists attributed Thailand's success to Boossaba Yodbangtoey, the president of the Thai Amateur Weightlifting Association (TAWA) whose husband, Intarat, is vice-president of Thailand's Olympic committee and of the International Weightlifting Federation. Srisurat had tested positive at a youth event just after her 16th birthday and served a two-year ban. When asked why she had doped she said she had not made the decision herself, was too young to know what she was taking and had returned to the sport as a clean athlete "because I never give up". Boossaba said: "I have no children of my own so these girls are like my own children. I would never do anything to harm them. They have all been tested many times before coming to Rio." Srisurat's doping offence was caused by her club, Boossaba said, not the national association. Srisurat was one of seven Thai teenagers who tested positive at youth events in 2011. There have been no positives since then. Thailand has won five gold medals in weightlifting, all by women. They have five men in Rio but none is expected to challenge for gold. When Boossaba was asked why there was such a disparity between men and women she said: "Because the men are like teenagers, on the edge and hard to control. They want to go out and we have to get security to watch them at our training camp... The women are mostly from poor families and they all work hard." TAWA is backed by the national electricity authority for 16 million baht (less than $500,000) a year for the four-year Olympic cycle. "We don't have government support," said Boossaba. "The power authority is our main sponsor and we have other supporters from the private sector." The state does provide Olympic medallists with big rewards, and Srisurat will be given about 12 million baht (about $340,000), said Boossaba. "She will be rich!" London Metal Exchange to launch gold spot, futures contracts By Clara Denina LONDON, Aug 9 (Reuters) - The London Metal Exchange (LME) said on Tuesday it is planning to launch spot and futures contracts for gold and silver in the first half of 2017, adding to its list of products which includes copper and aluminium. The 139-year old exchange is working in collaboration with the World Gold Council, an industry body backed by gold mining companies such as Barrick Gold and Goldcorp, and is supported by five banks and proprietary trader OSTC, which have committed to provide liquidity. "The initiative has been driven by the need for greater market transparency, to support and aid ongoing regulatory change, provide additional robustness to the precious metals market, broaden market access," the exchange and its partners said in a statement. Financial market transparency has been a major focus for regulators after evidence of price manipulation in lending rates between banks in the Libor scandal in 2012. As regulators continue to review commodity markets, the bullion industry is braced for further changes that could ultimately include a mandatory central clearing or more expensive bilateral trading. Banks and bullion operators have looked for ways to preserve London's role as a major global trading centre, while increasing transparency of a market which can trace its roots back to the 17th century. The London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), another industry body whose members are mostly banks, refiners and dealers, separately asked exchanges and technology firms in October last year to bid for services such as a gold exchange or a clearing platform. London currently dominates the global over-the-counter gold trade with an estimated $5 trillion changing hands every year, while New York's Comex contract sets the benchmark for futures. The LME plans physically delivered spot, futures and options contracts. The gold will be 100 ounces in size (worth around $133,600 at current prices) and silver 5,000 ounces. All contracts will be cleared through LME Clear, the exchange's clearing house, which has an annual traded notional value of $12 trillion. LIQUIDITY The World Gold Council CEO Aram Shishmanian said that they had initially engaged with around 30 firms, but only Goldman Sachs, ICBC Standard Bank, Morgan Stanley , Natixis and Societe Generale signed up to support the contracts from the launch day. After the transformation of precious metals benchmarks in 2014, led by a regulatory drive to make them more robust to attempts of manipulation, banks have become more cautious. Several of them have run into trouble with regulators over misdemeanours in their precious metals trading business. The benchmarks are widely used by producers, consumers and investors to trade and value the metal. Gold and silver are among the eight major market benchmarks that are regulated by Britain's watchdog Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The LME, which runs the platinum and palladium price benchmarks, will look at extending spot and futures contracts to these two metals, the LME's chief executive Garry Jones told Reuters. The world's oldest and largest market for industrial metals, owned by Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing had suspended a clearing service for OTC gold and silver trades in 2014, which was run in conjunction with London clearing house LCH.Clearnet, when market-making members including UBS and JPMorgan stopped providing data to participate in price-setting mechanisms. London Metal Exchange cuts fees, but is it too little too late? Andy Home By Andy Home LONDON, Aug 8 (Reuters) - The London Metal Exchange (LME) has just unveiled a package of measures designed to "strengthen its role as the global liquidity centre for metals trading". There are several components, including reducing charges for position transfers and lowering initial margin rates. The real headline grabber, though, is a cut in the fees charged for what the exchange terms "short-dated carries", which means anything between the next business day and 15 calendar days forward. This marks a reversal of the fee hikes instituted at the start of 2015, the expiry date of a previous "no-change" honeymoon period promised by Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEx) when it bought the venerable London institution in 2012. Some sort of concession on these trading costs has been widely expected for some time. LME volumes have been falling, in stark contrast to those on its transatlantic rival CME. Broker discontent has been rising to the point that some are looking at establishing a new metals trading platform under the stewardship of previous LME chief executive Martin Abbott. nL8N18Z33Q It would be tempting to view such tensions as a clash of the old and the new, traditionalist members resisting the urge of HKEx to monetise its massive $2.2 billion outlay on the LME. But this tug-of-war on trading fees cuts to the very heart and soul of the London market as a global setter of base metals prices. Because the cost of doing business on the exchange is causing a seepage of liquidity from the industrial user-base that has formed the historical backbone of the LME's price discovery credibility. The question is, though, has the LME left it too late to try and reverse this trend? THE PROBLEM WITH "TOM" The whole issue of how much short-dated carries cost on the LME and why it matters can be distilled down to one specific trade, "tom-next", collective short-hand for "tomorrow-next". Even within the LME's unique prompt date structure, "tom-next" is something of a curiosity. A trade borrowed from the currency markets, it effectively allows positions to be rolled from day to day without having to be cashed out. Industrial users, whether producers, manufacturers or traders, love it for the flexibility it affords in managing inventories. And they used to love it even more because it was a very low-cost trade, or even a free trade if a friendly broker was prepared to absorb the cost, as many traditionally did. That changed with those January 2015 fee hikes and the resulting impact has been increasingly clear to see on exchange volumes. Aluminium, for example, is the LME's most liquid contract. Volumes were down by 8.9 percent in the first half of this year, a performance that masks a much sharper 30.5-percent contraction in "tom-next" trading. As industrial players reduce their foot-print on "tom-next" and other short-dated spreads, money men are increasing theirs, but mostly on the LME's more vanilla forward prompt dates and mostly via the exchange's electronic trading platform. These contrasting trends explain the concern, both among LME brokers and the exchange itself, that the London market risks losing its industrial credentials. After all, if the London market forfeits both its industrial users and its weird and wonderful date structure, it forfeits its competitive advantage over rival, more conventional futures exchanges such as CME or, further down the road, a Chinese market such as the Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE). TOO LATE? TOO LITTLE? It's probably fair to say that the LME's concession on short-dated spread fees hasn't been greeted with the jubilation exchange officials might have hoped for. That's partly down to the timing and size of these fee cuts. It's been 20 months since they were increased and that's 20 months of collective complaint by both brokers and clients, many of whom have simply voted with their feet. Moreover, while the LME can boast it is reducing the fees by 44 percent for exchange members, costs are still a far cry from the minimal levels that made "tom-next" the most liquid spread in the LME's labyrinthine spread structure. It's far from certain the exchange has moved fast or far enough to reverse the steady drift of industrial hedgers away from the market. But that's also because fees are only part of the broader problem of industrial participation on the LME anyway. Another unique characteristic of the LME is the fact that it is a credit-driven forwards market, customers negotiating credit lines with their brokers and obviating the need for cash margining. Credit, however, has become a far scarcer resource than it once was, particularly for the sort of smaller industrial player that has formed the historical bedrock of the exchange's user base. The costs associated with regulation, meanwhile, have also risen with some brokers now preferring to deal with their clients on an over-the-counter basis rather than jump through the hoops of segregated accounts. Fee hikes, credit contraction and regulatory costs have combined to make LME trading a more expensive and more difficult forum for "Main Street" players. And they have accordingly evolved their trading practices, most particularly in the form of netting off positions before transacting on the LME and opting for cash-funded accounts rather than credit lines. And in some cases, just not using the exchange at all. COMPETITION None of which is to say that the LME is facing some sort of cataclysmic collapse. It still benefits from its historical position as price discovery forum for the global base metals industry, a preeminence that is not going to disappear overnight. But the threats are multiplying. Both CME and ShFE have been enjoying strong volume growth over the last couple of years and while it would be easy, as LME officials have at times done in the past, to dismiss both as merely forums for speculation rather than hedging, that may be starting to change. Emboldened by its foray into the world of physical aluminium premium trading, CME has just launched a North American aluminium alloy contract, a niche product that appears directly targeted at the sort of smaller manufacturer that would have once used the LME for its risk management tools. And while there is no doubt that ShFE volumes are inflated by a day-trading investment crowd, its relatively new nickel contract, launched last year, appears to be gaining industrial traction in the form of physical arbitrage between the Chinese and international markets. The global base metals space has been transformed from a unipolar world centred on London to a multipolar one in which regulation and costs mark the competitive battleground. The LME has just shown that it understands this evolution but the jury is out on whether it has done enough to tilt the playing field back in its favour. China envoy to Japan: East China Sea dispute should be resolved through diplomacy TOKYO, Aug 9 (Reuters) - The Chinese ambassador to Japan said he told Japan's foreign minister that the islands in the East China Sea, claimed by both countries, were an integral part of China's territory and that the two nations' dispute should be resolved through diplomacy and dialogue. "I told him that the Diaoyu (islands) are an integral part of Chinese territory and that it is natural that Chinese ships conduct activity in the waters in question," Cheng Yonghua told reporters after meeting with Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida on Tuesday. This Free Program Teaches Underprivileged Girls About Computer Science Every day, thousands of people come to the American Museum of Natural History to learn about science. They explore the exhibits that were painstakingly curated by scientists and broken down by data visualists to spread a love of science. ADVERTISEMENT But the museum goes beyond the public space to spread knowledge. BridgeUp: STEM, a 120-hour program that teaches underprivileged girls about computer science and programming, is about a month underway. During the first week, the students learned python. Since then, theyve moved on to SQL and other programming languages. Sponsored in 2014 by the Helen Gurley Brown Fund to create opportunities for women that help bridge the gender gap in computer science-related fields, the program is designed to teach computer science to nerdy girls in a safe, test-free environment where they can explore and ask questions. Teaching the girls are five Helen Fellows whove been hand-selected by the museum. Theyve either studied computer science in college or learned it for the program, and they divide their time between education and research, working in different aspects of the museum that they specialize in. Ace is a 14-year-old girl who was born in Dubai. She moved to her current home, Jamaica, Queens, when she was in second grade. On my visit in mid-July, shes one of a small handful of students in the room wearing a hijab, or headscarf. On July 14, Ace is learning python. Not the snake, the computer programming language. Natalia Rodriguez, a Helen Fellow, with Aisha, a 14-year-old Brown Scholar. Shes one of about 30 girls who are this summers batch of Brown Scholars at the museum. Because Ace, whose real name is Aisha, was absent yesterday, one of the Helen Scholars, Natalia Rodriguez, is working with her one-on-one to help her catch up. Sometimes it does get tough overall, Aisha says. When you reach a conclusion, its really exciting to see what youve created. The way she and Rodriguez interact, its as if they've known each other for much longer than a week. Rodriguez is amazed at how fast her students pick up the code. When I took it [in college], I thought it was hard, and then the girls will be like, Oh, yeah, thats intuitive, says Rodriguez, 23, who lived in Mexico until she was 10 and studied computer science at Southwestern University. She specializes in data visualization, and when she came here two months ago, she worked on a virtual reality tree of life. Since becoming a fellow, Rodriguez has been able to speak at the United Nations Headquarters, and plans on attending more conferences throughout the year-long fellowship. Before an internship in college at Fast Company, Rodriguez was on her way to becoming a journalist as an English major and computer science minor. After learning how the industry was moving toward datavis, as she casually calls data visualization, she flip-flopped the two. Looking around the classroom, an outside observer would think of the diversity as fairly indicative of NYCs multicultural roots; it is, however, intentional. We want to broaden the pipeline for young women, for kids from low-income backgrounds, to be able to engage in and succeed in science learning here, says Ruth Cohen, the museum's director of the center for lifelong learning and senior director of education strategic initiatives. The goal is to go as deep as we can with these individual young women to help them think about whether or not this is something they want to pursue as they continue in high school and in college. Cohen knew that the program had attained at least some of that goal when all of the girls from the first cohort were interested in continuing on as research interns, working more closely with the Helen Fellows. ADVERTISEMENT After that, they had to invent a third year, taking the girls to partner companies and colleges like Google and John Hopkins University. Its purpose is for the scholars to get a glimpse of their potential careers in programming. I think that it can be isolating still in this day to be a nerdy girl who wants to spend her summer in a science museum, says Cohen, so to have the opportunity to be with girls like that is so important because it validates who they are and what they want in learning. Like Cohen, the fellows also hope for change in the computer science industry. Having this community that is standing behind you and growing will eventually disseminate out into changing the culture itself, says Lillie Schachter, 23, a new fellow whose first day was the Monday before I came to visit. "By widening the type of person that has access to this technology...I think thats how we can change the world. Malio Kodis, 24, first fell in love with the museum when she was in seventh grade, after she won an award for her essay on an invasive ginger species in her backyard. In order to become one of the first Helen Scholars, Kodis taught herself Python for six months before applying. She studied geology and evolutionary biology at Brown University. Malio Kodis, 24, one of the first Helen Scholars, observes the class. I taught a web development internship group and at the end I asked them all what they wanted to do, Kodis says. One of her students who was passionate about social justice and immigration rights said she would use her newfound skills to develop a website that allowed immigrants to share their stories and let their voices be heard by a new audience. My goal as a part of this program is to bring voices to the table that might not be a part of the conversation...If she goes to college, which she will, shell be a first generation college student. Now that she has the tools to make a website, she can use it for her family. Though the four fellows I spoke with had more than enough to say about their love of science, they also expressed it visually, like wearing their hearts on their sleeves. When we met that first Thursday, Kodis was wearing gold hoop earrings that had real snake vertebrae. Another fellow, 25-year-old Emily Carlson, was wearing an astronaut shirt from the museums space shop: They kind of fit together well so it forms an overall pattern, so it looks cool from a distance. It is technically a boys shirt but gender is over. As one of the original fellows, Carlson was able to teach a group of interns, middle school students, and girls in BridgeUp. They went into the field, Central Park, to study birds; observing penguins and vultures, and then graphing the results. She taught them all of it from scratch. How did Carlson discover the fellowship? Tumblr, she says. I was scrolling through Tumblr. I follow a lot of science blogs along with the standard cute puppies. In order to become a Helen Fellow, women who've either graduated college or are in their senior year must know computer science and be outstanding in their fields, whether it be data visualization (Rodriguez), education (Schachter), conservation biology (Konis), or astronomy (Carlson). In order to become a Brown Scholar, girls have to have grades that are at least B average, and enough time to really commit to the program. They dont need a packed resume, and its actually preferred that they dont. Weve countered that entirely and thought more about how we can best serve a person, Schachter, who studied computer science at Connecticut College, says. By focusing on girls who are excited and focusedyou dont come in and do this for six weeks if youre not interested in trying to learn somethingbut that are maybe not necessarily being challenged so much in school and maybe arent necessarily being challenged as much as they could be, thats where were focusing. To learn more about the Helen Fellowship, go to the Museum of Natural Historys website, here. More From BUST How 'Ghostbusters' Is Breaking Barriers For Women In STEM A History Of Star Trek's Portrayal Of Women Women In Virtual Reality, So Far Taiwan stocks flat; Cathay Financial up on earnings TAIPEI, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Taiwan stocks were little changed on Tuesday as investors looked to earnings reports for direction. As of 0229 GMT, the main TAIEX index was up fractionally at 9,156.40 points, after closing at 9,150.26 in the previous session. The electronics subindex was also little changed, while the financials subindex was up 0.2 percent. Cathay Financial, parent of Taiwan's biggest life insurer, rose 1.6 percent. The company reported a net profit of T$14.19 billion ($455 million) for July, without giving a year-earlier figure. Colombia expands land restitution to war-torn south amid peace efforts By Anastasia Moloney BOGOTA, Aug 9 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Colombia is expanding its land restitution programme into former no-go areas in the country's war-torn south aiming to return land stolen from farmers by illegal armed groups, the government has said as peace talks advance. Between 6.5 and 10 million hectares (38,610 square miles) of land - up to 15 percent of Colombian territory - has been abandoned or illegally acquired through violence and fraud by leftist rebels and paramilitary groups during Colombia's five-decade war, according to the government. Following a historic ceasefire signed in June with rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), new areas once considered too dangerous for officials to enter, have now opened up, allowing the government to step up its land restitution programme and enabling more displaced families to return home. "We announce we are entering those municipalities hardest hit by violence," Ricardo Sabogal, who heads the government entity charged with overseeing land restitution, told reporters last week. "It's a huge challenge in terms of restitution and we will do justice in the heart of areas where people were forced to abandon their lands and were dispossessed of their lands by the FARC." He said the government's land restitution programme, which started in 2011, would now target six provinces in Colombia's south including former guerrilla strongholds and jungle areas it has previously been unable to enter. Nearly 7 million Colombians, many of them poor farmers, have been forced to flee their homes to escape violence by warring factions, according to government figures. Some of the land they left behind was abandoned and left idle for years. Other land was seized by paramilitary and guerrilla groups with farmers often pressured by the armed groups to sell out at cut-rate prices. Under the land restitution programme, about 200,000 hectares of land has so far been handed back, together with land titles awarded by judges, benefiting about 20,000 Colombians. But this accounts for just a fraction of the stolen and abandoned land. Of the some 80,000 land claims lodged to date with the authorities less than half are being processed, hampered by red tape and difficulties in sorting out who has legal title. Violence and threats made against land rights campaigners has also undermined gains made in land restitution efforts. The office of the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights in Colombia documented 41 rights activists were killed in 2015, including land rights campaigners. The issue of returning stolen and abandoned land to its rightful owners and Colombia's unequal land distribution have been key discussion points at peace talks taking place in Cuba. The talks, which started nearly four years ago, are now in their last stages, with an accord expected within weeks. The government and FARC rebels are finalising a roadmap that would see around 7,000 rebels hand in their weapons and establish a truth commission and special tribunals to try former combatants. NAACP leaders arrested during voting rights protest in Virginia Aug 8 (Reuters) - NAACP President Cornell William Brooks and Stephen Green, the body's youth director, were arrested on Monday in a congressman's district office in Virginia over a six-hour sit-in protest on voting rights, the NAACP said. The men were cited for the protest at the office of U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte in Roanoke, Virginia to demand restoration of parts of the Voting Rights Act, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People said in a statement. "With the fate of our national moral character at stake, we must hold our elected leaders responsible to act to uphold the constitutional rights guaranteed for all citizens to vote and participate in our democracy," Brooks said. The pair, and a small group of protesters, had hoped to persuade Goodlatte, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, to hold hearings on state voting laws proposed after the Supreme Court ruled that nine states no longer had to get federal approval for voting rule changes that affect minorities. During the last several years, a handful of states have tried to enact laws tightening curbs on the identification voters must show in order to cast a ballot. Critics say such provisions aim to cut turnout by minorities and poor people, who rely more on flexible voting methods and are less likely to possess state-issued photo IDs. Proponents of such laws say they aim to eliminate voter fraud. A 2012 study at Arizona State University showed in-person voter impersonation on election day to be virtually non-existent, however. Federal courts have recently blocked laws in states such as Texas, North Dakota, North Carolina and Wisconsin as being discriminatory and violating the U.S. Voting Rights Act. Remedies to combat unconstitutional voting discrimination are in place, Goodlatte said in a statement to media. "We will continue to monitor this very important issue to ensure the voting rights of all Americans are protected," he said. Poland - Factors to Watch Aug 9 Following are news stories, press reports and events to watch that may affect Poland's financial markets on Tuesday. ALL TIMES GMT (Poland: GMT + 2 hours): GETIN NOBLE BANK Poland's financial regulator has asked the economic stability body KSF to opine on whether to recognise the bank, Poland's sixth-biggest, as "systemically important" and require it hold a capital buffer equal to 0.25 percent of its risk exposure, Getin Noble Bank said on Monday. RAILWAY Poland's state railway will this year launch construction tenders worth 9.3 billion zlotys ($2.41 billion), daily Rzeczpospolita reported. By the end of next year, the signed tenders' value could reach 17 billion zlotys, daily Puls Biznesu reported separately. COAL MINING Poland's struggling state coal miner PGG will likely begin to make profit at the turn of 2017 and 2018, PGG's chief executive told daily Dziennik Gazeta Prawna. PZU Poland's largest insurer PZU is looking to sell the sanitary fittings manufacturer Armatura later this year, daily Puls Biznesu reported. ENEA Poland's Enea is considering buying a 1800 megawatt power plant from France's Engie, daily Puls Biznesu reported, adding the price could reach over 1 billion zlotys. ****Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.**** Czech Republic - Factors To Watch on Aug 9 PRAGUE, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Here are news stories, press reports and events to watch which may affect Czech financial markets on Tuesday. ALL TIMES GMT (Czech Republic: GMT + 2 hours) =========================ECONOMIC DATA========================== Real-time economic data releases.................... Summary of economic data and forecasts........... Recently released economic data.................. Previous stories on Czech data............. **For a schedule of corporate and economic events: http://emea1.apps.cp.thomsonreuters.com/Apps/CountryWeb/#/2E/events-overview ==========================NEWS================================== CEZ: CEZ says it cuts 2016 guidance for earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to 58 billion crowns ($2.38 billion) from 60 billion, mainly due to extended outages at its nuclear power plants Story: Related stories: INDUSTRY: Czech industrial output rose by a higher-than-expected 3.9 percent year-on-year in June, data from the Czech Statistics Bureau (CSU) showed on Monday. Story: Related stories: CEE MARKETS: The zloty and the forint gave up some of last week's gains on Monday as some investors were cautious before the publication of second-quarter economic output data in Central Europe later this week. Story: Related stories: ---------------------- MARKET SNAPSHOT ------------------------ Index/Crown Currency Latest Prev Pct change Pct change close on day in 2016 vs Euro 27.007 27.053 0.17 -0.03 vs Dollar 24.389 24.537 0.6 1.9 Czech Equities 862.37 862.37 1.48 -9.83 U.S. Equities 18,529.29 18,543.53 -0.08 6.34 Pvs close or current levels vs prior domestic close at 1500 GMT For real-time stock market index quotes click in brackets: Warsaw WIG20 Budapest BUX Prague PX For updates on CEE currencies TOP NEWS -- Emerging markets Prague Newsroom: +420 224 190 477 E-mail: prague.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (Reporting by Prague Newsroom) PRESS DIGEST - Bulgaria - Aug 9 SOFIA, Aug 9 (Reuters) - These are some of the main stories in Bulgarian newspapers on Tuesday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. -- A French citizen sought by France to face charges of "activities related to terrorism", is in custody at the National Investigation Service in Sofia, the prosecutors said. The court will hold a hearing on Wednesday on the European arrest warrant issued against the man, who is believed to be a brother-in-law of Cherif Kouachi, who was one of the perpetrators of the terror attack on Charlie Hebdo satirical newspaper in Paris last year(Trud, 24 Chasa, Standart) -- Bulgaria will send 20 tonnes of mineral water to the residents of neighbouring Macedonia's capital Skopje struggling with the devastation caused by a severe rainstorm and flash flooding that killed at least 21 people (Trud, Standart) Ataturk's revival a symbol of Turkey's fragile post-coup unity By Asli Kandemir and Daren Butler ISTANBUL, Aug 9 (Reuters) - After years of being gradually eclipsed as President Tayyip Erdogan forges a "new Turkey" with Islam firmly at its heart, the secular republic's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk has, for now at least, made a comeback in the wake of a failed coup. At a rally of more than a million people in Istanbul on Sunday, Erdogan drew a parallel between the spirit of the young officer who founded modern Turkey in 1923 and the civilians who took to the streets on July 15 to try to stop rogue soldiers in tanks and helicopters from seizing power. "The belief that helped war veteran Mustafa Kemal start and win the war of independence was running through all Turkey's cities on July 15," Erdogan told the Istanbul rally, portraits of himself and Ataturk blowing in the breeze on either side of the huge stage. From a leader bent on raising a "pious generation", it seemed a major gesture of conciliation, an attempt to bridge a deep divide in Turkish society reaching back to 1923, when Ataturk forged the secular republic from the ruins of an Ottoman theocracy and banished Islam from public life. Since the failed coup, Ataturk's portrait has been hung from the headquarters of the ruling AK Party, founded by Erdogan and rooted in political Islam, and its leaders have repeatedly invoked him - a revered figure for the country's secularists - as a symbol of unity. Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the main opposition CHP, the party of Ataturk, told Sunday's rally a "door of compromise" had been opened in the nation of almost 80 million and that a new Turkey had been ushered in in the wake of the coup. But for all the euphoria, sustaining such a spirit of cooperation would mean overcoming deep division over the direction of a nation with a secular constitution but overwhelmingly Muslim population. "This is a limited consensus. It's a very basic agreement that democracy is better than a military junta and that we all want justice. Nobody expects anyone to forget where they stood on July 14," said a senior government official. Engin Altay, a senior CHP lawmaker, said the AK Party appeared to be invoking Ataturk to try to quell an atmosphere of "pessimism and panic" after the coup attempt and said it was an open question whether the spirit of unity would last. "It depends on whether, after emerging from this trauma, the AK Party can adopt a compromise policy without becoming drunk on, or poisoned by, power. If it fails to do so and says 'we got power from the people and will do whatever we say', they will again slam the state against the wall," he told Reuters. "MARRIAGE OF CONVENIENCE" Erdogan has cautiously pushed a conservative Islamist agenda since the AKP came to power in 2002. Opponents see in his promotion of religious education, tighter laws on alcohol, and strictures on daily life an attempt to undermine the country's secular foundations. Ataturk's presence has gradually been felt less, having for decades loomed large, his piercing blue eyes staring from posters, his statue in pride of place in schools, public buildings and town squares. The CHP was in uproar in 2013 over the removal of his silhouette and the Turkish Republic abbreviation from state medals and some public buildings. But the coup bid, which Erdogan says was staged by the followers of U.S.-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, has provided a common enemy. Secularists loathe Gulen's religious movement, whose members have assumed prominent positions in the state bureaucracy, and are pleased to see it under attack. More than 60,000 people in the military, judiciary, civil service and education have been detained, suspended or placed under investigation over alleged links to Gulen since the coup. The government may be forced as a result to work more with its secularist opponents, commonly known as Kemalists, as it replaces purged officials, particularly in the military, which for decades saw itself as the guardian of the secular order. "This requires the government to recalibrate its relations with Kemalism ... which it has demonized throughout its 14-year rule," said Gonul Tol, director of the Washington-based Middle East Institute's Center for Turkish Studies. "The military will have to accept working under an Islamist government while the government will have to respect the Kemalist core of the military," she said. "But I don't think this marriage of convenience will last. Once the government has enough loyal personnel ... the Kemalists will be discarded." HISTORIC OPPORTUNITY A return to the founding principles of the modern republic could help ease divisions in a country that has become increasingly polarised in recent years. But in Erdogan's references to Ataturk, some see political opportunism rather than a sincere attempt to bridge an ideological rift. "The switch is the result of strategic necessity rather than personal choice," said Deniz Ulke Aribogan, international relations professor at Istanbul University. "This brutal coup attempt created an opportunity for Erdogan to become the president of the whole country ... We have to wait and see what comes next," she said. Erdogan's core supporters see him as the champion of the pious Anatolian masses, a strongman restoring religion to the centre of public life after decades of rule by what they see as Western-facing Kemalist elites. He has been careful in his choice of words, referring to Ataturk simply as Mustafa Kemal, his name as a military officer when he led the Turkish National Movement to victory in the war of independence after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire. Ataturk, "Father of the Turks", was bestowed on him a decade later, after he introduced reforms replacing Arabic with Latin script and promoting Western dress and women's rights. Some in conservative religious circles have already questioned the references to him, criticising what they say legitimises a secularist ideology they battled for decades. "All they've done is feed the idea that the ideology of Ataturk is the only foundation for legitimacy in politics and that other movements are illegitimate," wrote columnist Hakan Albayrak in the conservative Karar newspaper, criticising those who hung Ataturk's image on the AKP building. Parts of the crowd booed as Kilicdaroglu spoke at Sunday's rally, dismissing his call that politics should now be kept out of the mosques, as well as the courthouses and barracks. His presence on the stage alongside Erdogan would have been unthinkable three weeks ago. It could yet cost the CHP some supporters, who remain suspicious of Erdogan's motivation. European shares flat, Altice jumps after results LONDON, Aug 9 (Reuters) - European shares steadied in early trading on Tuesday, with gains in companies such as Altice and financials offset by weaker commodities-related stocks that tracked prices of crude oil and industrial metals lower. Shares in Altice surged more than 10 percent after the company said second-quarter core operating profit grew 2.7 percent, beating a Reuters poll, as its businesses in Portugal and the United States offset the steep decline in profitability at SFR. The STOXX Europe 600 Basic Resources index fell 0.8 percent, the worst sectoral performer, as prices of crude oil and major industrial metals such as copper and aluminum fell 0.6 to 1.0 percent. The broader STOXX 600 index was little changed in early trading. Danish jewelry maker Pandora fell 5.3 percent, the top decliner in the pan-European STOXX 600 index, after its second-quarter profits came in below market consensus. U.S. air strikes show limits on Libya intervention By Aidan Lewis TUNIS, Aug 8 (Reuters) - While U.S. jets and drones are pounding Islamic State in the Libyan city of Sirte, Western powers are unlikely to expand their military involvement rapidly, anxious to avoid exacerbating factional divisions as the government they support struggles to establish itself. The United Nations-backed government asked for the U.S. air strikes which began on Aug. 1, but it has still not made a long-awaited request for broader security help - including a possible easing of an international arms embargo on the factions which emerged during and after the 2011 overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi. "They know that the international community is ready to help with training and advice, but specific requests are not emerging yet," said a Western diplomatic source. Forces aligned to the Government of National Accord (GNA), which set up in Tripoli four months ago, have battled for weeks to remove Islamic State fighters from Sirte, the jihadist group's former North African stronghold. Now U.S. "Operation Odyssey Lightning" is targeting tanks, armed pick-up trucks and fighting positions in the slowly shrinking area of Sirte that Islamic State still holds, easing the passage for Libyan ground forces. However, the GNA has moved slowly to formulate its own security strategy and seek more foreign help, handicapped by internal political splits, a lack of capacity, and sensitivity to criticism that it is dependent on external support, Libyan and Western officials say. Discussion of a 5,000-strong Italian-led peacekeeping mission has fizzled out, and foreign ground intervention has been limited to small-scale special forces deployments. Coastguard training is being planned, but programmes to train and equip national security and police forces have yet to be developed. One request that is expected sooner or later is for exemptions to the U.N. arms embargo. World powers said in May they were ready to consider this to help the GNA combat Islamic State, but much depends on its ability to show that arms will not end up in the wrong hands, from a Western point of view. Among the likely recipients would be fighters from the city of Misrata, which lies roughly midway between Tripoli and Sirte. They have backed the GNA, providing security in Tripoli and leading the battle against Islamic State in Sirte, Gaddafi's home town. However, the loyalty of Libya's armed factions has been fickle in the past and the GNA's leadership, or Presidential Council, has yet to form a unified military command structure. "Only regular units under the command of the Presidential Council will get an exemption from the arms embargo," U.N. Libya envoy Martin Kobler told Reuters. "The Presidential Council has to be accepted as the Supreme Commander of the army. The question is does it really have control over the Misrata forces? Maybe yes, maybe no." LOUD REJECTION The Misrata brigades say they will return home after securing Sirte from Islamic State, also known as ISIS. However, some people see a risk of renewed conflict between loose alliances of armed groups that fought for control of Tripoli in 2014. The fear is that the Misrata brigades will end up fighting forces loyal to Khalifa Haftar, a military commander based in eastern Libya. Haftar and his allies have so far loudly rejected the GNA, and foreign powers intervening anywhere in Libya risk being seen to take sides among the local factions. "The challenge for the West will always be to surgically fight ISIS whenever that implies not getting dragged into Libya's civil war," said Mattia Toaldo, a Libya expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations. The limited foreign involvement so far has met with a mixed reception locally. While the United States and Britain are popular around Misrata, France is out of favour there. French special forces have been operating for months in the eastern city of Benghazi, where fighters loyal to Haftar have been battling opponents including Islamic State. After three French soldiers were killed last month in a helicopter crash south of Benghazi, confirming their presence, there were protests in Misrata and Tripoli, and the GNA summoned the French ambassador. However, the U.S. strikes against Islamic State - both in Sirte and in the western city of Sabratha in February - have provoked few protests. Libyan militants returning from fighting in the Syrian civil war helped to implant Islamic State in the country in 2014, but the group has struggled to win support or hold territory, with most local people regarding it as a malign import dependent on foreign fighters. The GNA-backed forces wonder why the U.S. strikes did not come sooner. "We just want this fight to end, we'll take any help we can get," said one commander on the Sirte front line. But that openness does not extend to the idea of foreign boots on the ground, or broader efforts to end the security vacuum that allowed Islamic State to gain a foothold. "The need for outside help with training is certainly recognised at senior political level," the diplomat said. But in discussions about a peacekeeping force, the Libyan position was very clear - nothing like the 'Green Zone', the secure international area of Baghdad, would be acceptable. Pakistani lawyers go on strike after dozens killed in attack By Mehreen Zahra-Malik and Gul Yusufzai ISLAMABAD/QUETTA, Pakistan, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Pakistani lawyers staged a nationwide strike on Tuesday after dozens of colleagues were slain in a suicide bombing that killed at least 70 people at a hospital in the southwestern city of Quetta. Medical staff said up to 60 of those slain in the bombing at a government hospital were lawyers who had gathered to mourn the assassination earlier on Monday of the president of the Baluchistan Bar Association, Bilal Anwar Kasi. Islamic State was one of two Islamist militant groups to claim responsibility for the atrocity, although officials and analysts said they had doubts over whether the Middle East-based movement was behind the blast. It was the latest, and deadliest, in a string of attacks against lawyers in Pakistan, seen by some militants as an extension of the government and so legitimate targets. "How weak and pathetic are these people who target hospitals, where women and children, where patients, go to get treatment?" Ashtar Ausaf Ali, Pakistan's attorney general, said on Tuesday at a protest outside the Supreme Court in the capital Islamabad. Supreme Court Bar President Ali Zafar called for the government to do more to protect lawyers. "Lawyers are relatively more vocal against militancy and they are fighting cases against people accused of terrorism, so it would make sense that they are being targeted," said Ali Malik, a Lahore-based lawyer. "An attack on lawyers makes a mockery of the law enforcement agencies, it undermines the promises of the state against terrorists and breeds fear among vulnerable citizens." DOUBTS OVER CLAIMS The bombing in Quetta, the provincial capital of Baluchistan province, was initially claimed by Jamaat-ur-Ahrar, a faction of the Pakistani Taliban that is fighting to overthrow the government and impose strict Islamic law. Later, however, Islamic State said one of its fighters carried out the attack, in what would mark an escalation in the ability of the group, or its regional offshoots, to strike in Pakistan. "A martyr from the Islamic State detonated his explosive belt at a gathering of justice ministry employees and Pakistani policemen in the city of Quetta," Islamic State's Amaq news agency reported. Some Pakistani analysts were sceptical. "The ISIS claim seems very unconvincing," said Imtiaz Gul, director of the Center for Research and Security Studies in Islamabad. "The claim of responsibility by Jamaat-ur-Ahrar is more credible," said Muhammad Amir Rana, head of the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies. He noted that Jamaat had sworn loyalty to Islamic State's Middle East leadership in 2014, but later switched back to the Taliban. "Every time they have carried out an attack, they have taken responsibility independently (of Islamic State)," Rana said. It remains unclear what ties, if any, Jamaat has to Islamic State, whose leadership is a rival to both the Taliban and al Qaeda over claims to represent the true Islamist Caliphate. In September 2014, Jamaat-ur-Ahrar rejected the Pakistani Taliban during a leadership struggle and swore allegiance to Islamic State, also known as Daesh. By March 2015, the group was again swearing loyalty to the main Pakistani Taliban. The reason for its return to the fold remains murky, but Jamaat also never specifically disavowed Islamic State. Only last week, Jamaat was added to the United States' list of global terrorists, triggering sanctions. Baluchistan, which borders Afghanistan, is home to many militant groups, most notably sectarian outfits who have launched a campaign of suicide bombings and assassinations of ethnic Hazaras - Persian-speaking Shi'ites who mostly emigrated from Afghanistan and are a small minority of the Shi'ite population in Sunni-majority Pakistan. "Many groups based in Baluchistan have an anti-Shia agenda, so they find ideological linkages with ISIS," said a military official who was based in Quetta until 2015. 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Related Readings Buying A Suit - A Shopper's Guide Best Casual Blazers For Men Best Casual Dress Shoes For Men AskMen may get paid if you click a link in this article and buy a product or service. To find out more, please read our complete terms of use. 2-Oil down 1 pct on glut worry, API cites surprise U.S. crude build By Barani Krishnan NEW YORK, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Oil prices fell 1 percent on Tuesday, extending losses in post-settlement trade after preliminary data showed a surprise U.S. crude stockpile build last week, heightening worries about a global petroleum glut. The market also lost the previous day's upward momentum as speculation fizzled that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other oil producers would embark on another round of talks on price cooperation after their failed effort in April. Trade group American Petroleum Institute (API) reported U.S. crude stockpiles rose by 2.1 million barrels during the week to Aug. 5. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected a 1 million-barrel drawdown instead. The U.S. Energy Information Administration will issue official inventory data on Wednesday (EIA). "To make a significant difference, you need a net draw of 1 or 2 million barrels across the crude, gasoline and distillates balances," said Phil Davis, trader at PSW Investments in Woodland Park, New Jersey. "I think you'll see WTI going back below $40 in the next couple of weeks and fall will likely be a terrible time for oil." WTI, or the West Texas Intermediate benchmark for U.S. crude , settled down 25 cents, or 0.6 percent, at $42.77 a barrel. It fell as much as 55 cents after the release of the API data. More than 16,500 lots of WTI put options for $40 were traded on Tuesday as traders hedged against a potential market tumble. Brent crude settled the session down 41 cents, or almost 1 percent, at $44.98 a barrel. It slid to $44.76 after the API numbers. Just a day ago, oil prices had rallied, with WTI gaining nearly 3 percent, rebounding from last week's selloff when it fell to an April low of $39.19. Analysts and traders have warned of a glut in both crude and refined oil products this summer, pointing particularly to the lag in U.S. gasoline demand despite the peak season for driving in the United States. OPEC's biggest producers have also been pumping near record high levels. In separate data issued on Tuesday, EIA said it expected a smaller decline of 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) in U.S. crude oil production in 2016 than the 820,000-bpd drop it forecast a month ago. It said an uptick in drilling will lead to more output later this year. Japan warns China of deteriorating ties over East China Sea dispute By Kiyoshi Takenaka and Eric Beech TOKYO/WASHINGTON, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Japan warned China on Tuesday that ties were deteriorating over disputed East China Sea islets, and China's envoy in Tokyo reiterated Beijing's stance that the specks of land were its territory and called for talks to resolve the dispute. The diplomatic tussle comes amid simmering tension as China builds on outposts in the contested South China Sea, including what appear to be reinforced aircraft hangars, according to new satellite images. Ties between Asia's two largest economies have been strained in recent days since Japan saw a growing number of Chinese coastguard and other government ships sailing near the East China Sea islets, called the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. The flurry of Chinese incursions into the waters follows a period of sustained pressure on China over its activities in the South China Sea, and China's criticism of what it sees as Japanese interference in that dispute. Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida called in Chinese ambassador Cheng Yonghua for the second time since Friday and told him China was trying to change the status quo unilaterally, the Japanese foreign ministry said. Kishida told Cheng the environment surrounding Sino-Japanese ties was "deteriorating markedly", the ministry said. The Chinese diplomat said after the meeting that he had told Kishida the islands, which are controlled by Japan, were an integral part of China's territory and the dispute should be resolved through dialogue. "I told him ... it is natural that Chinese ships conduct activity in the waters," Cheng told reporters. Dozens of Chinese vessels sailed near the islands on the weekend raising alarm in Japan. Cheng was called in by Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Shinsuke Sugiyama last Friday over the incursions into what Japan see as its territorial waters. The United States, its Southeast Asian allies and Japan have questioned Chinese land reclamation on contested islands in the South China Sea, particularly since an international court rejected China's historic claims to most of that sea last month. China has refused to recognise the court ruling on a case brought by the Philippines. Japan called on China to adhere to it, saying it was binding, but Beijing responded by warning Japan not to interfere. RAPID CONSTRUCTION Satellite images taken in late July over the South China Sea show that hangars constructed on Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief Reefs in the Spratly islands, have room for any fighter jet in the Chinese air force, the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said. The think-tank said in a report there was little evidence that China had deployed military aircraft to the outposts, but the "rapid construction" of reinforced hangars suggested that was likely to change. "They are far thicker than you would build for any civilian purpose," Gregory Poling, director of CSIS's Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, told the New York Times, which first reported on the new images. "They're reinforced to take a strike." A U.S. navy commander said it had not been confirmed that the hangers were for military use, but uncertainty about them could add to tension. "That increases the angst and the uncertainty, that lack of transparency, and that is generally destabilising as opposed to a stabilising action," U.S. Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Scott Swift told reporters on a visit to the Chinese port city of Qingdao. China claims most of the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims. The United States has urged China and other claimants not to militarize their holdings there, prompting repeated denials from China that it is doing so. Instead, China has blamed U.S. patrols and exercises for ramping up tension. "China has indisputable sovereignty over the Spratly islands and nearby waters," China's Defence Ministry said in a response to a request for comment on Tuesday. "China has said many times, construction on the Spratly islands and reefs is multipurpose, mixed, and with the exception of necessary military defensive requirements, are more for serving all forms of civil needs," it said. Former Philippines President Fidel Ramos said he was optimistic about what he has described as an ice-breaking trip to Hong Kong during which he hoped to meet experts and officials in an effort to rekindle ties with China soured by the dispute. "The idea is to use the South China Sea as a place to save lives, but not to kill people or to destroy lives," he told reporters. Catfish spawn climate solution for Kenya's dryland farmers By Isaiah Esipisu MBEERE, Kenya, Aug 9 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Farmers in Kenya's eastern and northern drylands have found a way to stay afloat as water becomes scarcer: cultivating catfish. "This is my new source of income," said Sylvester Kinyori, 32, who operates a kiosk in Isiolo town where he sells fish products from local farmers who have turned to aquaculture. Kinyori, who hails from Turkana, a pastoralist area in northeast Kenya, now earns a living from selling cooked fish fingers prepared from catfish fillets, eggs and bread. Small-scale farmers started rearing fish here four years ago, after an aid agency introduced them to a simple way of trapping and storing rainfall run-off in what are known as "home dams". The water is stored in reservoirs sunk in the grounds of a household compound, fitted with a thick polythene lining to stop it percolating away into the soil. The technique was developed by members of the Yatta community in eastern Kenya who had teamed up to end their reliance on food aid, called "mwolio" in the local Kamba language. After the success of "Operation Mwolio Out", in 2009 ActionAid Kenya decided to introduce home dams to hundreds more households in east and northeast Kenya. These regions are semi-arid, sometimes receiving annual rainfall of less than 150 mm (5.91 inches). They have seasonal rivers, some of which flood for just a few hours after heavy rains, leaving women with no option but to dig deep into the riverbed to access the little water left under the sand. DRYING CLIMATE A long-term analysis of Kenya's climate trends, published by the U.S. government in 2010, showed rainfall had declined in central food-producing areas since the 1960s. And it predicted large parts of the country would experience a drop of more than 100 mm in long-season rainfall by 2025, along with a temperature rise of around 1 degree Celsius from 1975. That underlines the importance of efforts to help farmers adapt to shifts in the climate. When it rained in 2012 in the Kitui and Isiolo regions, some households managed to trap water in their home dams. They then decided to introduce young fish into the ponds. John Njiru from Mashamba village in Mbeere explained that nearly all the farmers started with the African tilapia, which had been popularised across Kenya by the government as the best species for aquaculture on farms. But the yields were disappointing, prompting a change in tactics when it rained again in 2014. "We all went for the catfish species, given the fact that those who tried (it) in 2012 were not as disappointed as some of us who went for tilapia," said Njiru. In 2015, those who enjoyed a good haul of catfish were motivated to invest more, so as to profit from the unusual September rains linked to the global El Nino weather phenomenon. Njiru said the village experiment had shown catfish - which have distinctive whisker-like filaments around their mouths - could be more resilient to a harsh climate than tilapia, withstanding higher temperatures. "We are happy because we can eat the fish, and sell it to generate income," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "It's my hope that fish farming in this region will stand the test of time given the tough and changing climatic conditions." Mature catfish sell for KES 500 ($4.93) each at the local market. To hasten their growth, many farmers also breed tilapia to feed the catfish. BREEDING BUSINESS Meanwhile, growing demand for catfish fingerlings is spawning more business for local people. Rhoda Mwende from Kanyonga village in Mbeere South Sub-County has mastered the complex art of breeding and hatching the young fish. The single mother of three, who just five years ago depended on food aid, sold 40,000 catfish fingerlings to local farmers after the September rains, earning her KES 400,000. Following the long rainy season in April, she sold more than 80,000 fish, earning her over KES 800,000. She has bought 1.5 acres (0.61 hectare) of land with the proceeds, where she lives with her children and her mother. Mwende has mastered the entire catfish breeding process - from injecting the female fish with hormones to stimulate egg production, to squeezing eggs out of the fish and removing semen manually from male fish to fertilise the eggs. "It is amazing to see people who depended on food aid just a few years ago turn around their lives using an idea nobody had ever thought of," said Dinah Wambua, field officer for ActionAid in Makima, Mbeere. The farmers harvest the fish from the home dams when water levels drop, and wait again for the next elusive rains before introducing new fingerlings. A full-sized home dam - about 20 feet (6.1 m) square and eight feet deep - can provide water for an average family of eight for domestic use and irrigation for at least an acre of land for a year, according to Njue Njangungi, agricultural extension officer for Mbeere's Kyome Thaana ward. Such a dam can also hold 1,000 catfish fingerlings. "Home dams are a double win for us," said Elizabeth Musyoka from Kithambioni village in Kitui, east of Nairobi. French wheat exports to plunge in fallout from poor crop By Gus Trompiz PARIS, Aug 9 (Reuters) - France's soft wheat exports outside the EU could drop by 60 percent this season as it faces the worst yields in 30 years and erratic grain quality after bad weather hit crops, consultancy Agritel said. The steep fall in exports may allow Germany to overtake France as the EU's top wheat exporter in 2016/17, while other exporters from Russia to the United States that are seeing bumper crops should also benefit from limited French supplies, Agritel said on Tuesday. French soft wheat exports outside the European Union are expected to fall to 5.1 million tonnes in 2016/17, from 12.8 million last season. That would be below German exports, projected at 6.65 million despite rain risks in Germany, it said. "France is probably going to lose this season its place as the EU's biggest wheat exporter," Michel Portier, head of Agritel, told reporters. France's export prospects would be limited by both a dramatic drop in harvest output, which Agritel sees falling 30 percent from last year's record to 28.68 million tonnes, and low specific weights, a common measure of wheat quality. Forecasters have in the past month slashed their outlook for the wheat crop as harvesting has shown severe effects from heavy rain, limited sunshine and plant disease during spring. Agritel estimated the average French soft wheat yield at its lowest since 1983 at 5.48 tonnes per hectare, below a farm ministry estimate on Friday that pegged the yield at 5.57 tonnes a hectare, already the lowest level since 1986. The share of milling-grade wheat was expected to drop below 40 percent from 70 percent more typically in France, Pierre Begoc, Agritel's international director, told the Thomson Reuters online Global Ags Forum. Lost trade in wheat and other weather-affected crops, a major export driver for France, could have a negative impact of 3 billion euros ($3.3 bln) on the country's trade balance, according to Agritel. Fellow consultancy ODA estimates a similar impact. The poor harvest and low market prices, linked to large global supplies, could also cause wheat farmers to lose 500-600 euros a hectare on this year's crop, Agritel said. The French government has promised temporary financial relief for grain growers, after previously focusing its efforts on livestock farmers. The overall crop picture could change, however. There was a lot of wheat still to harvest in the far north and quality was looking better in export zones and could also be improved by cleaning and sorting grain, Begoc said. France may import more wheat this season, with Agritel forecasting 900,000 tonnes against 430,000 last season, although volumes would depend on prices, it said. New U.S. aid delivery to Lebanon army to counter militant threat BEIRUT, Aug 9 (Reuters) - The United States delivered 50 armoured vehicles, 40 artillery pieces and 50 grenade launchers to the Lebanese army on Tuesday, part of its efforts to bolster Lebanon against a threat from militant groups in neighbouring, conflict-ridden Syria. The equipment, worth $50 million, is part of an aid package that has now topped $220 million this year, making Lebanon the fifth-biggest recipient of American military assistance, U.S. ambassador Elizabeth Richard said during the delivery. Fighting between Islamic State and other Islamist militant groups in Syria often flares in the mountains along Lebanon's northern frontier and the violence has periodically spilled across the border. Eight Islamic State suicide bombers targeted a Christian village in Lebanon near the Syrian frontier last month, killing five and raising fears of a new campaign of attacks. Fighters from Islamic State and other groups also stage regular incursions across the poorly demarcated border around the northern Lebanese town of Arsal, which they briefly overran in 2014 before the army drove them out. Lebanon has a weak government and a number of countries support its armed forces as a bulwark against destabilisation in a country where around a quarter of the population are Syrian refugees. This year Saudi Arabia, traditionally an important financial backer of the Lebanese state, suspended $3 billion in aid to the security forces over what it saw as growing closeness between Beirut and Iran, Riyadh's main regional foe. European airport traffic demand seen slowing after rocky H1 - ACI Europe BERLIN, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Traffic demand at European Union airports is expected to slow over the course of the second half of the year due to security fears and Britain's decision to leave the European Union, airport association ACI Europe said on Tuesday. Passenger traffic at EU airports rose 4.8 percent in the second quarter of 2016, slowing sharply from the 8.2 percent seen in the first quarter. "EU airports are also likely to see a continued softening of passenger traffic on the back of lower consumer confidence fuelled by terrorism and the decision of the UK to leave the EU, as well as major full service airlines reining in capacity," ACI Europe Director General Olivier Jankovec said in a statement. Major European carriers such as Lufthansa and British Airways owner IAG have said they will trim growth plans this year. The bright spots in the first half were secondary airports where low-cost traffic is growing, such as Berlin Schoenefeld, Cologne-Bonn and Barcelona, said ACI Europe, whose members include Fraport, Groupe ADP and Aena . The situation was markedly worse for Turkey's airports, which saw a 17.5 percent slump in passengers in the first half of the year. "Since these traffic figures do not yet reflect the full impact of the Istanbul-Ataturk airport terrorist attack and the failed coup in Turkey, we expect a further worsening of airport traffic performance over the summer and for the remainder of the year," Jankovec added. UK supermarket Morrison expands Ocado home delivery deal LONDON, Aug 9 (Reuters) - British supermarket WM Morrison agreed improved terms with its online partner Ocado which will allow it to extend home delivery across the country using its own stores to provide some products. Morrisons said a profit share agreement would be cancelled and its research and development fee to Ocado would be reduced, as well as removing a restriction on supplying goods directly from its supermarkets. The two companies started to work together in 2013, enabling Morrisons to launch an online business, albeit years later than its three bigger rivals Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda. The supermarket announced a separate wholesale deal to supply Amazon with fresh and frozen food in Britain earlier this year. The agreement boosted shares in both Morrisons and Ocado, with Morrisons rising to a nine-week high and Ocado to 12-week highs. Morrisons was trading up 2.1 percent at 192.1 pence at 0930 GMT, while Ocado was up 2 percent at 281.7 pence. Ocado said the deal should boost earnings, although the impact on profit would be limited in the current and next financial year. Analyst Clive Black at Shore Capital said the long-running talks had concluded to mutual benefit. "It provides a more sustainable economic prospect for Morrisons to build out its online capability in Britain whilst providing a lifeline to Ocado in its grocery fulfilment activity in its home market," he said. Under the terms of the deal, Morrisons will take space in Ocado's fourth customer fulfilment centre, being built in Erith, south of London. It will also contribute to building costs. Morrisons will use Ocado's technology to help meet orders from its own stores, extending its online business across the country, apart from Northern Ireland where it does not have shops. Saudi-led attacks on Yemeni capital resume, 13 killed, residents say ADEN, Aug 9 (Reuters) - At least 13 people were killed on Tuesday in the first air strikes by a Saudi-led coalition on the Yemeni capital in five months, residents said, as the head of the U.N. expressed concern about the escalation in the fighting. Fighting has intensified since U.N.-sponsored peace talks between the Houthis, backed by forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, and the internationally recognised government ended on Saturday without an agreement. Medics put the death toll at 13. Most of the casualties were women working at the al-Aqel potato chip factory in the Nahda district of the capital. Residents said the factory was inside an army maintenance camp that had been hit by repeated air strikes since fighting began in March last year. The Houthi-run news agency has put the death toll at seven, including five women, and said 13 people were injured. Footage from the scene showed firefighters battling flames inside the factory, while rescue workers carried casualties wrapped in clothes away. Residents and local Yemeni media also reported air strikes in the Red Sea port city of Hodeida and other parts of Yemen. The Saudi-led coalition is backing Yemeni forces loyal to the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who are trying to oust Iran-allied Houthi forces from the capitol, Sanaa. Hadi was forced to flee Yemen to Saudi Arabia as Houthi forces advanced on his headquarters in Aden in March 2015. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was concerned about the reports of increased fighting, a U.N. spokesman said on Tuesday, but added the world body was unable to independently verify reports of civilians deaths. "What is clear, however, is that the reported escalation in fighting exacerbates the already dire humanitarian and human rights situation and the suffering of the Yemeni people," the spokesman, Farhan Haq, said in a statement. FLIGHTS SUSPENDED At least nine civilians were killed by coalition air strikes in Nehm district, east of Sanaa on Sunday night, residents said on Monday, as forces loyal to Hadi forces stepped up an offensive in the area. The United Nations children's Fund said in a statement on Tuesday that four children were "reportedly killed" on Sunday in Nehm but did not say who was behind the attacks. UNICEF said that it had verified that 1,121 children have been killed and another 1,650 injured since the conflict began in 2015. Coalition also forced the suspension of flights into Sanaa International Airport for 72 hours from late on Monday, an airport official and aid agency sources said. The head of the Houthi delegation to the Kuwait peace talks, who was returning home after the negotiations ended, said in a Facebook posting that he and his team were stranded in Oman by the flight ban. In a separate development, residents in Azzan in the province of Shabwa in southern Yemen said Al Qaeda militants had dismantled their checkpoints and had withdrawn from the city on Tuesday following air strikes - apparently by the Saudi-led coalition - targeting their positions there. China determined to battle on two fronts as North Asian tensions spike By Michael Martina and Tim Kelly BEIJING/TOKYO, Aug 9 (Reuters) - As China diplomatically confronts the United States and South Korea over new missile defences and intensifies pressure on Japan at sea over disputed islets, Beijing is signaling it is prepared to stand its ground on two key regional fronts. Mainland analysts see little immediate chance for an easing of tensions now roiling across Northeast Asia, saying a rising China is showing it is keen to shape its own battlefield despite fresh threats. "This action is China saying to the world that it has the ability to fight two regional conflicts on its doorstep," said Ni Lexiong, a naval expert at the Shanghai University of Political Science and Law. "If is actively making provocations in our South China Sea, then in the East China Sea, on its doorway, it will face a little pressure," Ni said. Beijing's claims to much of the South China Sea were invalidated last month in an emphatic ruling by an arbitration court in The Hague in a case brought by rival claimant, the Philippines. The region's deepening fault lines after the ruling were exposed at the weekend as a fleet of Chinese coast guard and fishing vessels sailed near Japanese-controlled islets in the East China Sea. Japan warned China on Tuesday ties were "deteriorating markedly". Tokyo worries that Chinese control of the South China Sea, through which much of the oil it imports is shipped, threatens its national security and takes Beijing a step closer to extending its influence into the Western Pacific. Japan has cranked up assistance recently to two countries who have territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea, the Philippines and Vietnam. Japan's administration of the disputed islands it calls Senkaku, and China calls Diaoyu, puts them under the long-standing security treaty between Washington and Tokyo. Kevin Maher, a Washington security consultant and a former head of the State Department's Office of Japan Affairs said he thinks China is trying to warn Japan not to interfere in the South China Sea after Tokyo strongly endorsed the Hague ruling. China "wants to see how far they can push until they get pushed back," Maher said. "Their ultimate goal is hegemony in the South China Sea and the East China Sea." MISSILE DEFENCE At the same time, South Korea's presidential Blue House rebuked China for criticising Seoul's decision to deploy an advanced U.S. anti-missile defence system, urging Beijing to instead work harder to rein in North Korean nuclear and missile tests. While China has grown increasingly irritated over North Korea's nuclear and missile tests, it vehemently opposes South Korea's decision to host a Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) unit with the U.S. military. Beijing sees THAAD's radar system, capable of peering into China's military installations, as part of Washington's strategy of containment, with the two powers clashing over China's possible militarisation of rocks and reefs in the disputed South China Sea. Recent satellite photographs show China appears to have built aircraft hangars that could accommodate any fighter jet in its air force on artificial islands it is building on reefs in the South China Sea, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington think tank. THAAD's location was announced a day after The Hague court ruled against China's claims in sea, through which some $5 trillion of cargo passes annually. South Korea and the United States have said THAAD would only be used in defense against North Korean ballistic missiles. Washington's alliances with Japan and South Korea are crucial to its strategic pivot to Asia but the three countries have been coordinating with China over the years in a flagging effort to curtail North Korea's nuclear ambitions. North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test and 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. The economic stakes in the region are high as well: Japan, South Korea and China account for a quarter of the world's economy and tensions among them risk having a chilling effect on trade and investment at a time of slower growth. Yet the strong economic ties and the stumbling diplomacy could help defuse potential clashes. "China has its own limits to where it can go," said Lee Tai-hwan, director of the China studies centre at the Sejong Institute near Seoul. "It can't simply stop complying with U.N. sanctions against North Korea. They don't want to leave a bad example in relations with neighbouring countries by doing something bad to South Korea." Record new HIV cases in Philippines prompt call for action By Beh Lih Yi JAKARTA, Aug 9 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The Philippines has posted a record number of new HIV infections, prompting campaigners to call on authorities to step up efforts to battle the potentially deadly disease. A total of 841 new cases were recorded in June, the highest ever monthly figure since the country's first reported case in 1984, according to the health department's latest statistics released this week. Over 90 percent, or 777 cases, were transmitted through sexual contact, the majority of them among men who have sex with men. Injecting drug users accounted for 60 new cases and the remaining four were cases of mother-to-child transmission. New cases of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) which can lead to AIDS have been rising in the Philippines, bucking the international trend which shows new infections falling. "This is a cause of concern for us," Gerald Santos from Manila-based campaign group Project Red Ribbon told the Thomson Reuters Foundation on Tuesday. "But to look at it with the glass half full, it also shows awareness is at an all-time high, meaning more people are aware of HIV and are getting tested." However, he said the actual number of new infections could be higher, as stigma associated with HIV prevents at-risk group from getting tested. "The government should double their efforts in spreading awareness about HIV before it is too late," added Santos, the group's treasurer. The Philippines saw new infections double between 2001 and 2012, according to a U.N. AIDS agency (UNAIDS) report in 2013 which showed the epidemic was also expanding in Indonesia and Pakistan. Increasing infections among injecting drug users sharing contaminated needles combined with low condom use and high fertility rates have raised concern over "downstream" HIV infections - when the virus spreads to people not typically at risk of HIV, like children who acquire the virus through mother-to-child transmission. There have been 34,999 HIV cases in the Philippines since record-keeping started in 1984, with 83 percent diagnosed in the last five years, according to the health department. EUROPE POWER-Forecasts for more solar and wind supply curb spot FRANKFURT, Aug 9 (Reuters) - European prompt power prices fell on Tuesday on forecasts of higher solar and wind power output in Germany, more nuclear reactor capacity in France, and lower demand. "We're truly in the middle of the annual holidays while nuclear supply is up day-on-day," one trader said. German baseload power for Wednesday delivery was 1.95 euros lower at 27.25 euros ($30.21) per megawatt-hour (MWh) while the equivalent French contract was 1.7 euros lower at 27.4 euros. Weather patterns that drive output at wind and solar plants are currently very changeable, although broker Marex Spectron said in a note it was short-term bullish. Cold air was forecast to be arriving in the region during the next few days, cutting average temperatures quite significantly, which "could increase demand," it said. Thomson Reuters data showed that solar power output in Germany will likely rise to 7.2 gigawatts (GW) on Wednesday compared with 4.8 GW recorded on Tuesday. Wind supply would gain 1.1 GW to stand at 6.7 GW on Wednesday. Demand was forecast to fall by 0.2 GW in Germany and by 1 GW in France, the data showed. In the French nuclear sector, availability went up by 4.9 percentage points to 68.5 percent of the total. Forward power prices were boosted by firmer levels in the coal and gas forward markets. German baseload power for delivery next year, gained 55 cents to 27 euros/MWh. The equivalent French contract, which is less liquid, rose by 35 cents to 32.45 euros/MWh. Crude oil prices fell on continued worries of a global supply glut and profit-taking, which outweighed upward momentum from a possible meeting of oil producers to discuss supply. European coal for 2017 delivery jumped 4.6 percent to $59.4 a tonne, having recently lost sight of the $60 level. Front-year EU carbon allowances shed 2 percent to 4.85 euros a tonne. Stinky cheese ice cream becomes Czech summer hit LOSTICE, Czech Republic, Aug 9 (Reuters) - An ice cream made out of a traditional pungent cheese has become a surprise hit in a small Czech town, with happy buyers scooping all the innovative producer can make. Tvaruzek, or Tvaruzky in plural, is a mature yellowish cheese with a strong taste and smell that is more usually enjoyed with bread, possibly onions and, inevitably in the Czech Republic, beer. "Lot of people think it will be salty, but it is really a fairly sweet ice cream with a Tvaruzky cheese taste," cafe owner and ice cream maker Roman Cincara said. Cincara adds sugar and other ingredients to balance out the cheesy taste and the odour is somewhat suppressed by the low temperature. He has applied to have his recipe patented and his cafe in the eastern town of Lostice, the home of Tvaruzky cheese which is popular throughout the country, was bustling with business the past weekend, selling all 400 portions available. Customer Lukas Pupik was convinced. "Superb. Sweet-salty, great. It really tastes like Tvaruzky." Mystery magic spells unearthed with ancient skeletons in Serbia KOSTOLAC, Serbia, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Archaeologists are trying to decipher magic spells etched onto tiny rolls of gold and silver that they found alongside skeletons of humans buried almost 2,000 years ago. "The alphabet is Greek, that much we know. The language is Aramaic - it's a Middle Eastern mystery to us," Miomir Korac, chief archaeologist at the site in eastern Serbia, told Reuters. The skeletons were found at the foot of a massive coal-fired power station where searches are being carried out before another unit of the electricity plant is built on the site of an ancient Roman city. Last week, after carefully brushing away soil from the bones, Korac's team found two amulets made of lead that, when opened, were each found to rolls of precious metal - silver and gold - covered in symbols and writing. They believe the inscriptions are magic spells, taken to the grave to invoke divine powers to perform good or evil. "We read the names of a few demons, that are connected to the territory of modern-day Syria," archaeologist Ilija Dankovic said at the dig, as more skeletons from the 4th century A.D. were being uncovered. The fragile, golden and silver scrolls - which once unrolled look like rectangles of foil similar in size to a sweet wrapper - may never be fully understood. They are the first such items discovered in Serbia but resemble amulets of "binding magic" found in other countries, Dankovic said. "They were often love charms, ordering someone to fall in love, but there were also dark, malignant curses, to the tune of: 'may your body turn dead, as cold and heavy as this lead,'" he said. Singapore sends manatees to Guadeloupe to help build population SINGAPORE, Aug 9 (Reuters) - A Singapore aquarium has sent two male manatees to the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe for what it says is the world's first repopulation programme for the species. Wildlife Reserves Singapore said the manatees, Junior and Kai, were chosen as they have reached sexual maturity and are best friends because of their similar age. Kai was born on Oct. 8, 2009, and Junior on Feb. 2, 2010. The pair were sedated and set off for their 34-hour journey on Monday in crates lined with sponge. They will be sprayed with water during their trip to keep their skin moist. Wildlife Reserves Singapore said they will be the first arrivals at the protected bay of Grand Cul-de-sac Marin, where the National Park of Guadeloupe is heading a repopulation project. Listed as "vulnerable" on the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, manatees have seen their numbers decline in the last century because of hunting, net entrapment and collisions with motorboats, Wildlife Reserves Singapore said. Valeant looks to sell billions in assets to cut debt, stock soars By Rod Nickel and Caroline Humer Aug 9 (Reuters) - Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc will sell billions of dollars of non-core assets and could accept offers for its main businesses, its chief executive said on Tuesday, as the drugmaker worked to restore investor trust after a year of bad news. Valeant's U.S. shares rose more than 25 percent, touching a two-month high, after the company outlined its reorganization and sell-off plan, and also confirmed full-year forecasts. Even so, the stock is down nearly 90 percent from a year ago. Last fall, political concerns about Valeant's sharp drug price increases and investor scrutiny of its dealings with pharmacy Philidor RX dragged down Valeant's shares. Congress and several U.S. government agencies also opened investigations and the company restated earnings earlier this year. Since then, its largest investor and board member, activist Bill Ackman, has been leading a drive to try to stabilize the company. New Chief Executive Joe Papa joined in May, replacing longtime CEO Mike Pearson. Papa announced a few small sales on Tuesday, and said Valeant was eyeing $8 billion worth of sales for non-core assets. He added in an interview that he may go further, after receiving unsolicited interest in core businesses as well. Valeant's Bausch & Lomb eyecare, dermatology, Salix gastrointestinal and consumer over-the-counter businesses are core, Papa said. He would not say if Valeant received interest in Bausch. "We have to think about any alternative in front of us as we look to improve shareholder value," Papa said in the interview. "We're going to take anything that we get, from an offer or unsolicited bid, very seriously." The Laval, Quebec-based company still has $30.77 billion in long-term debt, a legacy of Pearson's strategy of expanding through serial mergers and acquisitions. SECOND QUARTER FALLS SHORT On Tuesday, Valeant reported adjusted second-quarter earnings and revenue that fell short of analyst expectations, but stuck by full-year forecasts. "I don't want to suggest for an instant that there (aren't) challenges, but we like our position for 2016," Papa said during a during a conference call. Valeant has previously missed deadlines for filing financial reports due to the sales and earnings restatements, triggering default notices. It has repaid $1.29 billion in debt this year and wants to renegotiate lender agreements to give itself a larger "cushion," Papa said. That action on debt lifted shares, according to Oliver Marti, a portfolio manager at Columbus Circle Investors. "The stock is really driven by cash flow and covenants with the focus on stabilizing the business, and making progress on paying down debt. That is what they showed this quarter," Marti said. Valeant said it will break into three business segments around its Bausch & Lomb eyecare business; branded products including gastrointestinal drug Xifaxan and toenail treatment Jublia; and certain products including Obagi skin care treatments. It said its core geographies are the United States and Canada. Wells Fargo analyst David Maris, a long-time critic, questioned on the call whether the plan was just "new paint on the same old shed." Valeant is being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission as well as the U.S. Attorney's offices in Massachusetts and New York. The government is looking at its pricing practices and its patient assistance programs. Valeant said it still expected full-year revenue of $9.9 billion-$10.1 billion and adjusted earnings of $6.60-$7.00 per share. Second-quarter revenue fell to $2.42 billion from $2.73 billion a year earlier. Analysts on average had expected revenue of $2.46 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Market blast kills two, wounds 15 in north Afghanistan MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan, Aug 9 (Reuters) - A bomb in a crowded in market in the north Afghanistan city of Mazar-i-Sharif on Tuesday killed at least two people and wounded 15, police officials said. Mazar-i-Sharif, an important commercial centre near the border with Uzbekistan, has generally been spared the violence unleashed by insurgent groups battling the NATO-backed government in Kabul. The attack on Tuesday was carried out by a suicide bomber, said police commander Baba Jan. "The bomber detonated his explosives in the main market and all the victims are civilians," he said. The Ministry of Interior, however, reported that a bomb had been hidden in a cart. Israel says U.N. aid used by Hamas By Dan Williams JERUSALEM, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Israel accused Hamas militants on Tuesday of siphoning off U.N. aid meant for Palestinian civilians, its second allegation this month of misuse of international relief funds in the Gaza Strip. Going public with the arrest in July of Wahid Abdallah al Bursh, a Palestinian engineer with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Israel's Shin Bet security agency said he had confessed to being recruited in 2014 to help Hamas. Among "various assignments" he performed on behalf of Gaza's dominant Islamist group was assistance in building a maritime jetty for its fighters "using UNDP resources," the Shin Bet statement said without providing further details on that charge. It said Bursh also persuaded his UNDP superiors to prioritise the neighbourhoods of Hamas operatives when earmarking money for reconstruction in Gaza, which was devastated by a 2014 war with Israel. "This investigation proves yet again the way in which Hamas exploits aid resources of international groups in the Gaza Strip which are meant for the civilian population," the Shin Bet said, adding Bursh had been indicted in an Israeli court. Last week, Israel indicted a senior Palestinian staffer with the U.S.-based charity World Vision on charges of funneling millions of dollars to Hamas in Gaza. That suspect, Mohammed El Halabi, denied the charges, as did Hamas, while World Vision said it had yet to see evidence to back up Israel's allegations. It was not immediately clear how Bursh would plead to the charges against him. The UNDP had no immediate comment. Hamas dismissed the new allegations as a bid by Israel, which along with neighbouring Egypt blockades Gaza, to control the enclave. "These (allegations) are par for the course of an Israeli plot to restrict the work of international relief agencies operating in Gaza in order to tighten the Gaza blockade," said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri. Israel informed U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's office and the UNDP director in New York of Bursh's arrest and details from his indictment, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman said. The spokesman said Israel expected U.N. condemnation of Hamas' alleged use of the Gaza aid system and that the relevant agencies "will take concrete measures to ensure that humanitarian activities actually assist those in need in Gaza". Responding on Monday to the Israeli indictment against Halabi, the U.N. Coordinator for Humanitarian Aid and Development Activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Robert Piper, voiced alarm. "If proven by a due legal process, these actions deserve unreserved condemnation; Gaza's demoralized and vulnerable citizens deserve so much better," he said in a statement. But World Vision was sceptical at the Shin Bet's allegation that Halabi had siphoned off about $7.2 million a year in charity money for Hamas since 2010. The indictment filed against Halabi speaks more generally of "millions of dollars". Five Malian soldiers missing after attack claimed by Islamists BAMAKO, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Five soldiers are missing after clashes with militants in central Mali at the weekend, military officials said on Tuesday, in the latest in a string of attacks on army and U.N. forces claimed by the Islamist group Ansar Dine. Fighting broke out near the village of Tenenkou in the Mopti region on Sunday afternoon and continued into Monday, army spokesman Souleymane Maiga said. Defense ministry spokesman Diarran Kone said five soldiers had disappeared, one other was injured, and vehicles were lost in the clashes. In a statement posted online, Ansar Dine said it had ambushed the Malian army, killing and wounding soldiers and looting weapons and vehicles, according to SITE Intelligence Group. Ansar Dine claimed an attack in July on an army base that left 17 soldiers dead and six missing. It later released a video of five Malian soldiers it said it had taken prisoner in the raid, according to SITE. The group also claimed responsibility for several attacks on vehicles that killed a U.N. peacekeeper and injured five others on Friday and Sunday. Islamist militant groups took advantage of an ethnic Tuareg uprising in 2012 to seize northern Mali before a French-led intervention drove them back a year later. PRESS DIGEST- Canada-Aug 9 Aug 9 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories from selected Canadian newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. THE GLOBE AND MAIL ** Canada's unemployment rate increased to 6.9 per cent after the country lost 31,200 jobs in July. Job creation is said to be the worst this year since the global financial recession of 2008-2009. (http://bit.ly/2aWq8rP) ** U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is reiterating his threat to quit NAFTA if he wins the election in November, pledging to completely revamp the free-trade deal with Canada and Mexico, and to also withdraw from the agreement if he does not obtain the terms he wants. (http://bit.ly/2aWurDr) ** Amnesty International is calling for a stop-work order on British Columbia's Site C hydroelectric dam worth $8.8 billion, saying the project on the Peace River threatens the human rights of the local people. A report released by a human-rights advocate on Tuesday called on the federal and provincial governments to immediately suspend all construction approvals and licenses related to the project. (http://bit.ly/2b3brVc) NATIONAL POST Iraqi court closes corruption case against Speaker BAGHDAD, Aug 9 (Reuters) - An Iraqi court closed a corruption case brought against Parliament Speaker Salim al-Jabouri by Defence Minister Khaled al-Obeidi, citing lack of evidence, a judiciary spokesman said on Tuesday. In parliament last week, Obeidi accused Jabouri and five other MPs of lobbying for businesses seeking contracts to sell overpriced planes, vehicles and other goods to the armed forces. He said they sought to influence ministry appointments and some tried to blackmail him. All six denied the accusations. The spokesman, Judge Abdul Sattar al-Bayraqdar, told state television: "The evidence is lacking." A travel ban imposed on Jabouri because of the accusations was lifted on Tuesday, the speaker's spokesman, Imad al-Khafaji, said. Obeidi made the accusations while appearing before parliament on Aug. 1 to respond to separate corruption allegations at his ministry. He called his summons to address MPs a "conspiracy by the corrupt." The Defence Ministry has been accused by lawmakers of wasting billions of dollars in public funds and weakening the armed forces to the point where they collapsed in 2014 in the face of the threat from Islamic State militants, under the previous government, led by Nuri al-Maliki, who was also acting defence minister. Islamic State seized a third of Iraqi territory but has since been pushed out of many of those areas by Shi'ite Muslim militias and a military that is slowly being rebuilt with the support of a U.S.-led coalition. The armed forces are preparing to try to recapture Mosul, Islamic State's capital in Iraq. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who succeeded Maliki in 2014, has made the fight against corruption a priority but his efforts have been met with resistance and caused major disruption to Iraqi politics. Iraq ranks 161 out of 168 on Transparency International's Corruption Index. Note: Because this piece was posted belatedly, events referred to as last week actually happened two weeks ago, and those referred to as this week happened last week 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. . ..Analysis from Israel..07 August '16..Its unclear why, 16 months after the election, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suddenly decided last week to apologize for his Election Day warning that Arabs were going to the polls in droves, especially since his explanation that he was referring to a specific political party rather than Arabs as a whole may seem like a distinction without a difference: The vast majority of Arabs vote for that specific party, and the vast majority of that partys voters are Arabs. Nevertheless, in one sense, his remarks proved very timely: The previous few weeks had provided ample evidence of just how right he was to warn against that party, the Joint List, and this week, even more evidence arrived.This weeks news was that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had actively worked to turn out the vote for the Joint List. That isnt actually surprising, since the partys own voters have long complained that its primary concern is the Palestinian cause rather than the welfare of Israels Arab citizens. But given Abbass energetic campaign against Israel in international forums, Israelis are understandably unhappy that he effectively also has representatives in Israels parliament.Even more outrageous, however, is what happened during the two weeks preceding Netanyahus apology. Twice during those weeks, one of three parties that ran together as the Joint List took the unprecedented step of publicly condemning a leading Arab state for forging warmer relations with its own country, the one in whose parliament it serves. Then, not content with trying to undermine Israels foreign relations, it even voiced support for anti-Israel terrorist groups. And these statements were made not by the Joint Lists radical fringe, but by Hadash, the party generally considered the most moderate of the three the one whose chairman, who also heads the Joint List as a whole, likes to compare himself to Martin Luther King, Jr. Putin and Erdogan move to restore Russia-Turkey ties By Olesya Astakhova and Andrew Osborn ST PETERSBURG/MOSCOW, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Russia and Turkey moved towards restoring full trade and economic relations on Tuesday when Russian President Vladimir Putin met his visiting counterpart Tayyip Erdogan, at a time when both countries have strained ties with the West. Putin said he wanted a "full-spectrum restoration of relations", which were damaged when NATO member Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near the Syrian border late last year. "Life changes quickly," Putin told a news conference after holding talks with Erdogan in St Petersburg, adding that Russian sanctions imposed on Turkey over the plane downing could be lifted step-by-step. Erdogan, whose strongman-style leadership is often likened to Putin's, was equally upbeat: "Both sides are extremely determined and have the necessary will to take our relations back to where they were and even to improve them further." The meeting paves the way for a resumption of Turkish food imports to Russia, of Russian charter flights to Turkey, and raises the prospect of cooperation between Moscow and Ankara on the Syrian civil war despite them backing opposing sides. Russia and Turkey have two of the biggest militaries in the world and Erdogan's trip is being closely watched in the West where some officials fear his growing detente with Moscow could affect Ankara's links with NATO. The Turkish president's visit to Russia is his first foreign trip since a failed military coup in Turkey last month, in which more than 240 people were killed. Ties with the West have been strained in the aftermath of the coup. Turkey has been incensed by the concerns expressed by Washington and European capitals about Ankara's subsequent crackdown on suspected plotters, but what is sees as indifference to the coup attempt itself. As Ankara sealed its rapprochement with Russia, at home it warned of rising anti-American sentiment and of risks to a migrant deal with the European Union, in remarks which underlined how bad its ties with the West are. The Russian president said a restoration of ties with Turkey would increase stability in "in the whole world" as the leaders met in a Tsarist-era palace just outside Putin's home city of St Petersburg. Putin stressed his backing for Erdogan's handling of the attempted coup, noting he had been one of the first world leaders to phone him and offer his support. He said he hoped Ankara could fully restore order in Turkey. "I want to again say that it's our principled position that we are always categorically against any attempts at unconstitutional actions," he said. "I want to express the hope that under your leadership the Turkish people will cope with this problem (the coup's aftermath) and that order and constitutional legality will be restored." TURKSTREAM Putin said the two men would later on Tuesday discuss Syria, a conflict where the two countries find themselves on opposing sides, with Moscow backing President Bashar al-Assad and Ankara wanting him out of power. Progress there could be a tough ask given the complexities of the conflict and their different loyalties, but repairing business ties promises to be an easier task. "As a result of the talks we held today, we have taken steps to take our relations with Russia to where they should be politically, economically and culturally," said Erdogan, who said they had agreed on setting up a joint Russian-Turkish investment fund and to increase cooperation on defence. Stalled Russian work on the Akkuyu nuclear power plant was set to be restarted too, he said. The two leaders said they had also agreed to revive a gas pipeline project, known as TurkStream, which is meant to be supplying Ankara with additional volumes of Russian gas and to increase deliveries to the European Union in the future. Russia has been considering a number of projects to supply Europe with gas bypassing Ukraine - but the EU has opposed most projects as it seeks to cut its reliance on gas from Moscow, which already provides a third of its supplies. Russia's Energy Minister Alexander Novak said the first line of TurkStream to supply Ankara with gas could be built as early as 2019 but that solid guarantees from the EU were needed before a second line taking gas from Russia to the bloc across Turkey could be built. Turkish officials have said Erdogan's visit to Russia is not intended to signal a fundamental shift in Ankara's geopolitical stance. Turkey hosts American troops and warplanes at its Incirlik air base, an important staging area for the U.S.-led fight against Islamic State militants in neighbouring Iraq and Syria. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier played down Western concerns, telling the Bild daily that he was not worried about Turkey and Russia improving ties. Germany arrests suspected high-ranking IS militant -Bild newspaper BERLIN, Aug 9 (Reuters) - German authorities have arrested a suspected high-ranking Islamic State militant in the western town of Mutterstadt, according to a Bild newspaper report on Tuesday. The newspaper quoted a spokesman from the Rhineland-Palatinate interior ministry confirming the arrest. He is suspected of being a "high-ranking representative of the militant terror group IS," the newspaper said. US approves $1.15 bln sale of tanks, other equipment to Saudi Arabia WASHINGTON, Aug 9 (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department has approved the potential sale of more than 130 Abrams battle tanks, 20 armored recovery vehicles, and other equipment to Saudi Arabia, worth about $1.15 billion, the Pentagon said on Tuesday. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which oversees foreign arms sales, said the sale would contribute to the national security of the United States by improving the security of a regional partner. British PM May raises case of detained woman with Iran's Rouhani LONDON, Aug 9 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May raised concerns on Tuesday with Iran's President Hassan Rouhani over several cases involving dual British-Iranian nationals, including imprisoned aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, May's office said. Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 37, has been detained since early April and is accused by Iran's Revolutionary Guards of trying to overthrow the Iranian government. "The Prime Minister raised concerns about a number of consular cases involving dual nationals, including that of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, and stressed the importance of resolving these cases as we worked to strengthen our diplomatic relationship," May's office said after the two leaders spoke on the telephone. Zaghari-Ratcliffe works for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, a London-based charity that is independent of Thomson Reuters and operates independently of Reuters News. British PM May raises case of detained aid worker with Iran's Rouhani DUBAI/LONDON, Aug 9 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May raised concerns on Tuesday with Iran's President Hassan Rouhani over several cases involving dual British-Iranian nationals, including imprisoned aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, her office said. Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 37, who was detained in early April as she tried to leave Iran after a visit with her two-year-old daughter, is accused by Iran's Revolutionary Guards of trying to overthrow the Iranian government. Her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, has dismissed the Revolutionary Guards' accusation. During a telephone call, May, who took office last month after Britain's June 23 vote to leave the European Union, and Rouhani agreed their two countries should seek to advance their relationship. "The prime minister raised concerns about a number of consular cases involving dual nationals, including that of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, and stressed the importance of resolving these cases as we worked to strengthen our diplomatic relationship," a spokeswoman for May's office said. Zaghari-Ratcliffe works for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, a London-based charity that is independent of Thomson Reuters and operates independently of Reuters News. Several Iranian dual nationals from the United States, Britain, Canada and France have been detained in the past few months and are being kept behind bars on various charges, including espionage or collaborating with a hostile government. May and Rouhani also spoke about the implementation of the deal made between Iran and foreign powers about its nuclear programme, with May saying Britain would make efforts to enhance banking cooperation with Iran. Since international sanctions over Iran's nuclear programme were lifted in January, the world's big banks have continued to stay away because they fear being penalised by remaining U.S. sanctions over issues such as money laundering. May and Rouhani also agreed to work on forming closer ties at various levels, a top Iranian official was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA. U.S. approves $1.15 bln sale of tanks, equipment to Saudi Arabia By Idrees Ali WASHINGTON, Aug 9 (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department has approved the potential sale of more than 130 Abrams battle tanks, 20 armored recovery vehicles and other equipment, worth about $1.15 billion, to Saudi Arabia, the Pentagon said on Tuesday. The approval for land force equipment coincides with Saudi Arabia leading a military coalition in support of Yemeni forces loyal to the exiled government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi who are trying to oust Iran-allied Houthi forces from the capital, Sanaa. Human rights groups have criticized the coalition's air strikes because of the deaths of civilians. The U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which implements foreign arms sales, said that General Dynamics will be the principal contractor for the sale. "This sale will increase the Royal Saudi Land Force's (RSLF) interoperability with U.S. forces and conveys U.S. commitment to Saudi Arabia's security and armed forces modernization," the agency said in a notice to lawmakers posted on its website. Lawmakers have 30 days to block the sale, although such action is rare. Saudi Arabia and its mostly Gulf Arab allies intervened in Yemen's civil war in March 2015 after the Houthi movement had pushed the Hadi administration into exile in Saudi Arabia. On Tuesday, the Saudi-led military coalition conducted air strikes on Sanaa for the first time in five months, residents said, after U.N.-backed peace talks to end the conflict broke down at the weekend. Medics said nine civilians were killed in a strike on a potato chip factory in the Nahda district of the capital. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch called on the United Nations General Assembly in June to suspend Saudi Arabia from the U.N. Human Rights Council until the military coalition stops killing civilians in Yemen. "The Saudi-led coalition's campaign in Yemen has been devastating for civilians (and) the U.S. should be suspending arms sales to Saudi Arabia, not approving more," said Kristine Beckerle, a researcher with Human Rights Watch. Sudan begins ceasefire talks after opposition signs roadmap to peace KHARTOUM, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Talks to secure a lasting ceasefire in Sudan's three war-ravaged regions began on Tuesday, a day after an opposition coalition signed on to a roadmap for ending hostilities and achieving political reconciliation. There has been fighting between the Sudanese army and rebels in the southern regions of Kordofan and Blue Nile since 2011, when adjacent South Sudan declared independence. Conflict in Darfur began in 2003 when mainly non-Arab tribes took up arms against the Arab-led government based in the capital Khartoum. The roadmap, brokered by the African Union, marks the first time the country's major opposition groups have signed a deal with the government since regional fighting reignited in 2011. The accord spells out a process for reaching a permanent ceasefire, endorses a national dialogue between the government and opposition rebel and political groups, and includes provisions for immediate humanitarian assistance. Although violence has eased in recent years, an intermittent insurgency has continued. At least 130,000 people have fled fighting in the central Jebel Marra area of Darfur since mid-January alone. Khartoum signed the AU plan in March, but opposition groups, many of which call for the overthrow of veteran President Omar al-Bashir, refused at the time to follow suit. "We signed yesterday in Addis Ababa after the African intermediary agreed to include our demands in the agreement," Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) spokesman Jibril Bilal said. The Darfur leader was referring to a clause ensuring preliminary meetings in the Ethiopian capital among all political groups before a national dialogue in Khartoum. "The signing of the roadmap is a positive step, but the more complex stage will come with talks revolving around a ceasefire and a political solution," said Bilal. Signatories to the roadmap included many of the country's most prominent opposition and rebel groups, from JEM and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-North) to the Umma Party, the largest opposition party. "We welcome the opposition signing of the roadmap and today the government begins to engage in negotiations with armed rebels over a ceasefire...We are optimistic...It's important that a creasefire is reached to stop the war," government spokesman Ahmed Bilal said. Holdouts to the roadmap remain, however, with the Sudan Liberation Movement, a major rebel force in Darfur, and the country's communist party refusing to sign. Chinese guide stabs, kills tourist in Kenya's Maasai Mara NAIROBI, Aug 9 (Reuters) - A Chinese tour guide stabbed and killed a tourist who was visiting Kenya's famed Maasai Mara Game Reserve after an argument over the seating arrangement for dinner, police and a lodge manager said on Tuesday. John Kiruti, manager of Keekorok Lodge, which is within the park, said the woman, also a Chinese citizen, sustained serious chest injuries in the incident late on Monday and died as she was being transferred to another tourist camp for treatment. Her husband sustained serious stomach injuries. "The tour guide who had brought three clients from his country for two nights differed with the couple ... over the sitting arrangement at dinner time," Kiruti said. "After a brief exchange of words, he drew a knife and stabbed the two, fatally injuring the woman and injuring her husband." Kiruti said the couple's two children, aged nine and 12 years old, watched as the incident took place. "The hotel staff rushed to restrain the guide. The kids are still in shock. We making plans to take them to Nairobi," he said. Police later arrested the guide. "We are holding him until investigations are over. It was a sad incident that is deeply regretted," Narok County Police Commander Abdi Galgalo said. Syrian govt forces advance in southwest Aleppo, close off rebel route - pro-Damascus media BEIRUT, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Syrian government forces and their allies recaptured territory from rebels in southwestern Aleppo on Tuesday, Hezbollah's Al Manar television and pro-Damascus Al Mayadeen reported. The advance, supported by heavy air raids, seized an area of called Telat al-Snobarat on the southwestern outskirts of Syria's largest city, according to Al Mayadeen. Israel says U.N. aid used by Hamas By Dan Williams JERUSALEM, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Israel accused Hamas militants on Tuesday of siphoning off U.N. aid meant for Palestinian civilians, its second allegation this month of misuse of international relief funds in the Gaza Strip. Going public with the arrest in July of Wahid Abdallah al Bursh, a Palestinian engineer with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Israel's Shin Bet security agency said he had confessed to being recruited in 2014 to help Hamas. Among "various assignments" he performed on behalf of Gaza's dominant Islamist group was assistance in building a maritime jetty for its fighters "using UNDP resources," the Shin Bet statement said without providing further details on that charge. It said Bursh also persuaded his UNDP superiors to prioritise the neighbourhoods of Hamas operatives when earmarking money for reconstruction in Gaza, which was devastated by a 2014 war with Israel. "This investigation proves yet again the way in which Hamas exploits aid resources of international groups in the Gaza Strip which are meant for the civilian population," the Shin Bet said, adding Bursh had been indicted in an Israeli court. The UNDP said in a statement that Bursh, a contractor, had been detained by Israel on July 3 and said it was greatly concerned by the allegation and that it "has zero tolerance for wrongdoing in all of its programmes and projects." The agency said Bursh had provided services to its rubble removal project in Gaza and the Israeli allegations relate to about 300 tonnes, or seven truckloads out of about 26,000, from the project which has cleared about one million tonnes of rubble and 2,761 unexploded ordnance. CHARITY Last week, Israel indicted a senior Palestinian staffer with the U.S.-based charity World Vision on charges of funnelling millions of dollars to Hamas in Gaza. That suspect, Mohammed El Halabi, denied the charges, as did Hamas, while World Vision said it had yet to see evidence to back up Israel's allegations. It was not immediately clear how Bursh would plead to the charges against him. Hamas dismissed the new allegations as a bid by Israel, which along with neighbouring Egypt blockades Gaza, to control the enclave. "These (allegations) are par for the course of an Israeli plot to restrict the work of international relief agencies operating in Gaza in order to tighten the Gaza blockade," said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri. Israel informed U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's office and the UNDP director in New York of Bursh's arrest and details from his indictment, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman said. The spokesman said Israel expected U.N. condemnation of Hamas' alleged use of the Gaza aid system and that the relevant agencies "will take concrete measures to ensure that humanitarian activities actually assist those in need in Gaza". Responding on Monday to the Israeli indictment against Halabi, the U.N. Coordinator for Humanitarian Aid and Development Activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Robert Piper, voiced alarm. "If proven by a due legal process, these actions deserve unreserved condemnation; Gaza's demoralized and vulnerable citizens deserve so much better," he said in a statement. But World Vision was sceptical at the Shin Bet's allegation that Halabi had siphoned off about $7.2 million a year in charity money for Hamas since 2010. The indictment filed against Halabi speaks more generally of "millions of dollars". Syrian refugees create app to cut through German bureaucracy By Sebastien Malo NEW YORK, Aug 9 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - As a Syrian migrant arriving in Berlin, Munzer Khattab could barely say a word in German, let alone fill out a pile of forms in the language. So over the past year Khattab has not only learned German but also worked with five other Syrian refugees or asylum seekers to design a smartphone app to make forms less daunting. The app, called 'Bureaucrazy', to be launched in January, will translate various forms into Arabic and English for newcomers facing a pile of paperwork ranging from registering with authorities to opening a bank account. It will also provide them with a map with Berlin offices that all newcomers need to navigate and deal with other questions about red tape that can leave asylum seekers in knots. Khattab, 23, who fled his coastal hometown of Latakia last year to avoid military service in Syria, said the inspiration came as he ploughed through more than a dozen registration forms in German after arriving in Berlin. "Even when we asked Germans they had problems understanding the forms," Khattab told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a telephone interview. "If the Germans found them unreadable, how could we read them?" The app's name stemmed from Khattab, whose first language is Arabic, being caught out mispronouncing the word 'bureaucracy'. "Someone heard it and said 'Bureaucrazy? What did you say? That's a cool name'," said Khattab. Khattab and his partners developed the app as part of a program in computer-coding they are taking at ReDI, a Berlin non-profit school with a mission to integrate refugees. It won a local software development contest and later drew praise at the Startup Europe tech conference earlier this year. The developers believe it will help migrants fleeing violence and poverty, more than a million of which have entered Germany in the past year. Crude oil to carrots: geothermal makeover eyed for Alberta's old wells By Nia Williams CALGARY, Alberta, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Disused oil and gas wells dotting Canada's energy heartland may bear fruit for Alberta's farmers under a proposal to use waste heat from the idle facilities to allow crops to grow, even in the country's harsh winter conditions. Provincial legislator Shaye Anderson wants the Alberta government to allow an old well to be converted to geothermal energy to heat an 8,000 square-foot greenhouse. Currently the wells can only be used for extracting hydrocarbons. The Living Energy Project pilot could help tackle the issue of Alberta's 78,000 disused wells and provide jobs for thousands of unemployed oilfield services workers, laid off as a result of the two-year slump in global crude prices. If accepted, the plan would mark the first time in Canada that disused wells have been used as a tool in agriculture. In the United States, there are two projects in Wyoming and one in North Dakota where oil wells are used for power generation. "There are thousands of wells in Alberta that are just sitting there," said Anderson, who formally submitted the proposal on Monday. "Instead of saying we need federal money to clean them up, we can use them for other purposes." Alberta Energy Minister Marg McCuaig-Boyd said in an emailed statement the province will consider the plan as it implements its climate plan, which features renewables such as geothermal. The pilot project will centre on a former oilfield water disposal well in Leduc, central Alberta, which has been inactive for more than five years. Provided the government gives the green light, renewable company Sundial Energy Ltd will insert polyethylene pipe, used in high-pressure plumbing, down the wellbore's steel casing to a depth of more than 1 kilometre, where temperatures are 70-80 degrees Fahrenheit (21-27 degrees Celsius). A fluid containing water blended with methanol and a pump conditioner, to prevent freezing and rusting, is pumped on a continuous closed loop between the bottom of the well and the surface, where the heat is extracted. The closed loop means the fluid does not come into contact with hydrocarbons underground or produce on the surface. Nick Wilson, director of the Living Energy Project, said abandoning a disused well can cost up to C$300,000, while converting it to geothermal and putting a greenhouse on top would be less than half that. He sees potential for the energy and agriculture industries to work together, with farmers splitting the capital expenditure with an oil company that is facing the cost of abandoning a well. "Alberta definitely has a severe problem when it comes to abandoned wells," said Greenpeace campaigner Mike Hudema. "It's good that MLAs (provincial legislators) are looking at creative suggestions for how to deal with it." U.S. judge upholds 14-year sentence for ex-Illinois governor CHICAGO, Aug 9 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Tuesday upheld the 14-year prison sentence for imprisoned ex-Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich despite his emotional courtroom plea for leniency after an appeals court last year set aside part of his public corruption conviction. Scotland's Sturgeon makes surprise visit to Germany By Erik Kirschbaum and Elisabeth O'Leary BERLIN/EDINBURGH, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon met the deputy foreign minister of Germany on Tuesday, seeking to strengthen her ties with Europe's economic powerhouse in the wake of Britain's vote to leave the EU - a move Scotland overwhelmingly rejected. Sturgeon has said that Scotland, where 62 percent of voters backed staying in the European Union, must not be dragged out against its will and that she would start preparing for independence to keep Scotland's post-Brexit options open. The surprise visit to establish contact with Berlin may not, however, sit well with some European countries, such as Spain and France, that have been wrestling with regional separatist movements and are opposed to holding any direct talks with Scotland on the terms of Brexit. "The situation in Scotland won't be repeated anywhere else, unless Spain suddenly decides to leave the EU and I don't think that will be the case anytime soon," Sturgeon told Germany's ARD TV, dismissing those fears. "Scotland is in a unique situation...and I think that under these circumstances it's important to stay open for all possible options. And I think that it would be very positive for the rest of the EU if part of Great Britain, if not all of Great Britain, should remain part of the European family of nations." In what was her first visit to an EU capital as first minister since a meeting with EU leaders in Brussels days after Britain's June 23 EU referendum, Sturgeon met Michael Roth, one of Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier's top deputies and also Germany's European Affairs Minister. "Today's discussion has been a welcome and constructive opportunity to strengthen our relations to discuss the way forward for the European Union and how all voices can be heard in that process," Sturgeon said in a statement in Edinburgh. "Scotland chose to remain in the European Union, and the solidarity shown toward Scotland as an enthusiastic part of the EU - demonstrated once again in today's talks here in Berlin - has been very welcome." The meeting, however, did not take place at the German Foreign Ministry, which declined to say where it was held. Sturgeon set out the perspective of Scotland, whose resounding vote to stay in the EU was overridden by Britain's overall 52-48 percent outcome in favour of leaving. The head of Scotland's devolved nationalist government has vowed to explore all the possibilities for Scotland to stay in the EU despite the referendum result. In a statement on the German Foreign Ministry website, Roth said: "We had a very pleasant and constructive conversation between two passionate Europeans. I hope that the United Kingdom will find a way forward so that at the end of the day Europe will profit as a whole." Executed Iranian nuclear scientist unfairly tried, said he was innocent -mother By Bozorgmehr Sharafedin and Yeganeh Torbati DUBAI/WASHINGTON, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Iranian security forces may have pressured nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri, hanged last week for spying for the United States, to admit to crimes he did not commit, his mother said in an interview this week. Amiri leapt to the global spotlight in 2010 when he claimed first that U.S. agents had abducted him and then that he was in the United States of his own free will. The same year, he returned to Iran where he was welcomed as a hero but then detained and tried on charges that he divulged nuclear secrets. "When I was saying goodbye to him before his execution, he told me not to be sad as he had done nothing wrong," Marzieh Amiri told Reuters in a telephone interview. "He asked me to tell everyone that he was innocent. He was saying his conscience was clear," she said. Her son's closed-door trial was unfair and he was not properly represented, she said. She did not know the full name of the lawyer, who as a result could not be reached for comment. "They should have held a public trial," she said. "I am not angry with the government or the Supreme Leader (of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei). I am angry with extremist security forces who were on his case, trying to prove he was a spy and who maybe forced him to confess to things he hadn't done." Iranian judiciary officials could not be reached for comment. Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, spokesman for Iran's judiciary, told reporters Amiri received a fair trial and the case followed standard judicial procedure. "He ... had contacted Iran's number one enemy, America, and had given our most secret and vital information to them," Mohseni Ejei said on Sunday, according to the state broadcaster. "I AM AN IRANIAN" In June 2010, Iranian state television showed Amiri, then 32, saying in a video he was in Arizona after U.S. and Saudi intelligence forces kidnapped him a year earlier during a religious pilgrimage abroad. In a second video soon afterwards, Amiri said he was in the United States voluntarily and wanted to dispel "rumors" that had been spread about him. "I am an Iranian, and I have taken no step against my homeland," he said. As a young man with a talent for electronics in the Iranian city of Kermanshah, Amiri would tote his toolbox to friends' houses and fix their broken appliances, his mother said. He won a coveted scholarship from the defense ministry to further his studies and eventually became a researcher in radiation safety at the defense ministry-affiliated Malek Ashtar University of Technology, visiting sites associated with Iran's nuclear program. According to a U.S. official involved in the case, the Central Intelligence Agency recruited Amiri in Iran and helped extract him using the pilgrimage. But U.S. officials had doubts about the depth of Amiri's knowledge and access to the most sensitive information. Amiri was questioned, given a new identity and a home in Arizona, and paid around $5 million, the officials said. However he began telling his handlers he missed his young son and wanted to return to Iran, though they warned he likely would face imprisonment or worse and might never see his son. Arriving in Tehran in July 2010, he was greeted by his son, reporters and Iran's deputy foreign minister. Someone placed a wreath around his neck and he flashed a "V" for victory while clutching his son. CLEAR CONSCIENCE Marzieh Amiri said her son was free on his return and even took a vacation in Iran with his family. "But one day they suddenly arrested him ... When we followed up, (the security forces) said, 'It's for his own protection. He is our guest'." He was held in isolation in Tehran, his mother said. His wife filed for divorce, and he became nervous and suffered from high blood pressure "His loneliness was killing him," she said, adding she visited him once or twice a month. "He told me he prefers to die as he could not tolerate the isolation any more." Maldives approves defamation law criticised by U.N. By Shihar Aneez and Ranga Sirilal COLOMBO, Aug 9 (Reuters) - The Maldives legalised criminal defamation on Tuesday in a move criticised by the United Nations and which the opposition said was aimed at stifling dissent. Best known as a paradise for wealthy tourists, the Indian Ocean archipelago has been mired in political unrest since Mohamed Nasheed, its first democratically elected leader, was ousted in disputed circumstances in 2012. President Abdulla Yameen's administration went ahead with the defamation law despite criticism from the United Nations, rights groups and Western nations including the United States, Britain, Germany and the European Union. The United Nations said it was "very worried" about the law. The law criminalises defamatory speech, remarks, writings and other actions including a gesture and targets actions against "any tenet of Islam" in the Muslim-majority country. The bill was passed by a 16-vote majority led by Yameen's ruling Progressive Party of Maldives. Those found guilty will be fined between 50,000 Maldivian rufiya ($3,200) and 2 million rufiya ($130,000) or face a jail term of between three and six months. Publications, including websites, found carrying "defamatory" comments could also have their licenses revoked. "So basically it's crippling freedom of expression including on the basis of defamation of religion, national security and social norms," said Mona Rishmawi, chief of the Rule of Law branch at the U.N. human rights office. The opposition coalition said in a statement the new law would seriously hinder investigative journalism. "The bill prevents journalists from reporting allegations if the accused refuses to comment, preventing coverage of speeches at political rallies, and gives government authorities sweeping powers to target the media," it said in a statement. Transparency Maldives, condemning the bill, said its passage through parliament had not addressed the serious concerns raised by local media organisations, political parties, civil society groups and international organisations. Zaheena Rasheed, editor at Maldives Independent news website, said the law was clearly aimed at muzzling the media after a series of threats, murder attempts, numerous death threats and physical attacks on news organisations. "This is a final push to shut down the remaining media outlets. We have fought really hard. We are not giving up. We are going to contest the bill at the Supreme Court on its constitutionality," she said. Olympics-Judo-Slovenia's Trstenjak wins gold, France on the board By Chris Gallagher RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Slovenia's Tina Trstenjak defeated Clarisse Agbegnenou of France in the women's -63kg category at the Rio Games on Tuesday, becoming her country's second Olympic champion in judo. After breaking Brazilian fans' hearts by topping Mariana Silva in the semi-finals, top seed Trstenjak handily beat Agbegnenou by ippon less than two minutes into the final. Israel's Yarden Gerbi and Anicka van Emden of the Netherlands won bronze. Agbegnenou's silver snapped a medal drought for France, seen as a top contender in Rio but which had come up short in the first three days of judo action. China's unease over THAAD thwarts U.N. censure of North Korea missile By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS, Aug 9 (Reuters) - The United Nations Security Council has been unable to condemn the launch of a missile by North Korea that landed near Japan because China wanted the statement to oppose the planned deployment of a U.S. anti-missile defense system in South Korea. North Korea launched a ballistic missile last Wednesday that landed in or near Japanese-controlled waters for the first time, the latest in a series of launches by the isolated country in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions. The 15-member council held a closed-door meeting on the same day, but has been unable to agree on a U.S.-drafted statement to condemn the launch, which was almost identical to two previous statements issued by the council on North Korea (DPRK). China proposed that the statement also say "all relevant parties shall avoid taking any actions which could provoke each other and escalate tensions, and shall not deploy any new anti-ballistic missile stronghold in Northeast Asia with an excuse of dealing with threats of the DPRK nuclear and missile programs." Beijing has said Washington's decision last month to deploy a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system would only worsen tensions on the Korean peninsula. China's U.N. mission also did not want the statement to express concern that the missile landed near Japan, telling council diplomats in an email, seen by Reuters: "We believe that the response of the council is based on violation of Security Council resolutions, not the place where the missile impacted." Japan and the United States said they could not accept the proposed changes to the draft by China and on Tuesday dropped the bid for a Security Council statement. "To propose that this council should criticize purely defensive steps that states have taken to protect their people from the DPRK's clear and repeated ballistic missile threats ... would be manifestly inappropriate and would send entirely the wrong message to the DPRK," the U.S. mission to the United Nations told council diplomats in an email. After the Security Council meeting last Wednesday, U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power rejected suggestions the decision to deploy the anti-missile defense system in South Korea had provoked ballistic missile tests by North Korea. Kashmir is on the boil again with predictable reactions from all sides. The Kashmiris believe they have a cause, but its definition is not clear. They cannot be independent. Joining Pakistan is not an available option. If they really want to join a radicalised, terrorist-ridden state in which Muslims are killing each other, Sufi shrines are attacked and Shias killed by Sunni jihadis, it will mean "Kashmiriyat" and Sufism are defunct. Integration The yearning for azadi by the Valley Muslims is not easy to grasp or even appreciate, as besides being amorphous it has no objective basis. Constitutionally, J&K already has substantial azadi. Indians at large can buy property in far-off Switzerland but cannot buy land or property and settle in J&K. This special status has unfortunately hindered integration of the Valley Muslims with the rest of the country and has kept alive separatist sentiments. The anti-Indian Valley leadership cannot be politically blind to comparative realities. How much autonomy has Islamic Pakistan given to Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir's (POK) Muslim population, even without terrorism, infiltration or external aggression from Indian soil? Pakistan is allowing an outside power - China - to entrench itself in POK, even though China is suppressing its own Muslim population in adjacent territory. Why don't the Valley's Muslim leaders, who press for more contacts with POK to affirm the historical unity of J&K and for preserving cross-LoC people-to-people affinities, question the fictitious azadi there and demand real autonomy for their putative brethren across. Is it that Islamic Pakistan has the right to deny freedom or self-rule to POK Muslims but non-Islamic India must grant it to the clamouring Valley Muslims? Is the azadi demand then a political aspiration or an expression of religious identity? The Valley Muslims should actually value affiliation to a state that for all its deficiencies shows a remarkable tolerance of political dissent stretching even to sedition, and deploys force within limits. The Pakistani state has dealt with Balochis seeking azadi extremely brutally. It has used F-16s, artillery and tanks to crush opponents in tribal areas, causing massive civilian displacements to boot. How much autonomy has China given to the so-called Tibetan Autonomous Region? Unlike in Tibet's case, India has not made demographic changes in J&K, settled outsiders there, interfered in local religious practices, destroyed religious sites, imposed Hindi on the people and generally interfered with their cultural practices. No real leader of the Valley Muslims is in forced exile abroad like the Dalai Lama. India has not done in J&K what the Chinese have done in East Turkestan where Hans have been settled in large numbers and the practice of Islam curtailed severely. The Pakistanis are, as expected, fuelling the turbulence in the Valley. Critique The critique that the Valley Muslims have been denied the fruits of Indian democracy is not entirely tenable in view of the disturbed conditions in the state since decades. Terrorism puts democracy on trial as we see in Europe after multiple terrorist attacks on its soil. France has extended the state of emergency once again after the Nice attacks and has to grapple with concerns that tougher laws needed to combat terrorism may affect democratic freedoms. In J&K's case, the terrorist problem is of a much higher magnitude as it is state sponsored by Pakistan. The democracy-avid Valley Kashmiris should have, therefore, risen against the terrorists, the separatists and their sponsors in the name of democracy rather than support their political agenda through ethnic cleansing of Hindus, constant hartals, demonstrations, street violence, stone-pelting, exposing children to law and order enforcement, waving of Islamic State flags, treating terrorists as heroes and obstructing military operations against them. Election Even after recent elections have been demonstrably free and fair and a unique experiment of a coalition between a soft separatist party and a strong nationalist one - possible only under a democracy - the grievance about the "democratic aspirations" of the people being thwarted continues to be ventilated. The word "alienation" to describe the state of mind of the Valley Muslims is attributed to Delhi's misguided policies, overlooking the reality that these Muslims have in their majority not connected fully with Delhi politically, emotionally, ethnically and religiously as part of their own version of "the unfinished agenda of Partition". The Pakistanis are, as expected, fuelling the current turbulence in the Valley, unconcerned about repercussions on ties with India, with their PM Nawaz Sharif treating terrorist Burhan Wani as a hero, declaring him a martyr, pronouncing that Kashmir will one day be Pakistan's and allowing jihadi leaders to demonstrate in Islamabad against the visit of India's home minister. It is the same Sharif who is supposedly committed to genuine friendship with India. Our Pakistan apologists will dutifully explain his provocations as covering his flank against the military. The Opposition will seek to embarrass the government for failure of policy. Some civil society figures, moved by self-guilt, will rue our collective failure to win the hearts and minds of the Kashmiri people. They must know of a tested political strategy for winning the hearts and minds of people in overwhelmingly Muslim majority areas under non-Muslim authority, even if secular and democratic. Their counsel could benefit Europe too in its less challenging task of winning the attachment of its small Muslim minorities to its liberal democracy, one in which it has not fully succeeded so far. Even as casualties soar to a record high in restive Kashmir, the Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) Hospital in Srinagar is bearing the brunt of the crisis, which has left at least 57 dead and over 6,000 wounded in just a month of unrest. Since July 8, when the Valley erupted in the wake of the deaths of militant commander Burhan Muzaffar Wani and his two associates, the SMHS Hospital has been flooded with patients even as the government struggles to restore law and order. J&K CM Mehbooba is yet to visit any of the hospitals. The surgical ward 15 is overcrowded. Two to three patients share a bed. Amid sobs, doctors struggle to treat the wounded, whose number keeps rising. Lying by his side on the bed, middle-aged Naseema Banu is nursing her son, Raja, who fell prey to pellets on August 5, in their native Kupwara, some 60 miles from Srinagar. From forehead to toes, Raja's body bears multiple perforations, all visible to human eye. As doctors remove the cotton sheet covering his bare body, one can easily count more than 300 wounds, which have mostly swollen as reddish black blisters, some oozing out blood and pus. On touching his perforated chest, one can feel air entering his body through the tiny, deadly pores. Raja, a class 12 student, was wounded on August 5 when, during a protest, the police fired pellets in the direction of three children in the frontier district. His medical records reveal the patients condition continues to be critical. Suddenly, a phone call to one of his attendants aggravates the situation. Police has again asked his father about Rajas return from hospital as they need him for questioning. Upon learning about a veiled threat from the police, the mother-son duo cries bitterly. His life is over. While he is dying of internal injuries, police fear is killing him by inches, the mother cries. In a bid to console the wounded, doctors ask their families not to lose heart, but take inspiration from others, particularly, teenager Zahid Ahmed of Damhal Hanjipora, admitted to ward-12, the adjacent ward. Since August 5, Zahid is helplessly alone as no one from his family could attend him due to the strict curfew back home in south Kashmir. He was brought to the hospital by one of his fellow villagers Tabassum Ahmed. As per his medical records, Zahid has suffered multiple pellet injuries over chest, abdomen and upper hips. He is unable to utter a word, and his condition is also critical. His attendant, however, is apprehensive that policemen in civvies have already taken their details for the registration of FIRs. Raja and Zahid are two of the 1,000-odd wounded undergoing treatment at the SMHS Hospital. As per official records, the majority of the wounded have suffered bullet and pellet injuries while at least 350 of them, including 14-year-old schoolgirl Insha hailing from the apple town of Shopian, have already lost their eyesight. Fearing profiling by police, however, many of the wounded, after getting initial treatment, flee from the hospital. Its mostly the critically wounded who stay back whereas others have been fleeing the hospital midway their treatment, confirmed Doctors Association of Kashmir President Dr Nisarul Hassan. But then some are simply unable to flee. Mob control measures have already rendered around 20 youth paraplegic. Nineteen-year-old Shani from south Kashmirs Bijbehara, which is chief minister Mehbooba Muftis constituency is admitted at Post-Anesthesia Care Unit of SMHS Hospital. The last time this girl stood was to watch protests on July 9, when a bullet hit her spine, leaving her paralysed for life. Similar is the plight of 17-year-old Shahid from South Kashmirs Kokernag, who suffered a spine injury when beaten up by the security forces. Mehbooba is yet to visit any of the hospitals while most of such destitute are offered meals by humanitarian groups like the one operating from nearby mosque at Gole Market Karan Nagar. As doctors discuss the challenges the hospitals confront, suddenly some people rush in shouting. Be prepared, 40-50 more wounded are being rushed in from Bijbehera and elsewhere. A few minutes later, ambulances start arriving. While some lend a helping hand to shoulder the wounded, others shout pro-freedom slogans. In the meantime as bleeding patients are rushed in, operation theaters run short of surgical tables. Not taking the risk of waiting for operation theatres to be free, some doctors decide to hurriedly operate upon some with comparatively minor injuries in the dressing room. A few of the wounded with visibly contorted limbs are straight referred to the Bones and Joints Hospital, Barzulla. At the B&J Hospital, ward 17 is flooded with spine chilling tales of the wounded with contorted limbs and fractured bones. Sobs reverberating across the deck only add to the gloom. Among the wounded is a 70-year-old woman, nursing her fractured hip. Doctors apprehend she may not be able to walk again. The aged woman is being consoled with stories of Shani and Shahid, the young paraplegic duo. Here too, according to the doctors, the police has been busy profiling the wounded protesters, forcing many of them to abandon treatment. The Valleys sole super-speciality hospital SKIMS at Soura, on the other hand, looks more under police control. As per the hospital authorities, police have barred them from sharing any details of the wounded. Back at the SMHS Hospital, as more casualities are rushed in, pro-freedom sloganeering gets louder. By now, the police rush in to quell protests. Teargas shells are again fired right inside the hospital building. Within moments its hazy; lung-chocking smoke has enveloped the hospital. Unable to bear the itching gas, Rameez, the pellet injury patient at ward 12 starts vomiting. Lying by his side his mother cries for medical help. But why is Naseema lying on the bed by her son when other wounded could be adjusted in her place? American Red Cross seeks blood donors to help resolve a critical shortage of blood and platelets. A blood drive is held from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday at Sentara Martha Jefferson Hospital at 595 Martha Jefferson Drive. (434) 979-7143. Area public schools participate in the free or reduced-price lunch program, which is administered through the Virginia Department of Social Services for families who meet certain income and assistance requirements. Details are available at any public school or by calling 211. Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors Young Professionals Network continues its All Hands in Supply Drive through Sunday, collecting supplies and monetary donations for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Virginia. A list of needed supplies and drop-off bins will be available at the Charlottesville Walmart at 975 Hilton Heights Road and the Gordonsville Walmart at 165 Camp Creek Parkway. (434) 817-2396. International Rescue Committee holds an citizenship information session for immigrants interested in applying for U.S. citizenship at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 23 at Northside Library at 685 W. Rio Road. (434) 979-7772. Job Corps holds an information session on its program that provides no-cost technical training and education for young people ages 16 through 24 who qualify as low-income. The program offers hands-on training in more than 100 career technical areas, including automotive and machine repair, construction, finance and business services, health care, hospitality, information technology, manufacturing, renewable resources and others. Job Corps also offers the opportunity to earn a high school diploma or a GED, plus preparation for college and resources for English language learners. The information session is held at 10 a.m. Thursday at Virginia Workforce Center at 2211 Hydraulic Road. Information sessions are held on the second Thursday of each month. (703) 671-5300. National 811 Day, celebrating the call before you dig service required before excavation projects of any size can begin, is observed with food, music, giveaways and more from noon to 2 p.m. Thursday at Better Living Building Supply on U.S. 29 North. (434) 970-3686. Orange County Office on Youths Stuff the Bus campaign is collecting school supplies to be distributed to local families in need. A bus will be parked in the Locust Grove Walmart parking lot and the Town of Orange office building parking lot. Distribution of supplies will begin on Aug. 22. Additional drop-off locations, distribution times and locations and details are available at orangecountyva.gov/officeonyouth. (540) 672-5484. Orange Downtown Alliance seeks donations of backpacks and school supplies for its Kids Backpack Campaign, which supplies backpacks filled with school supplies to local children in need. Details and a list of needed items are available at theoda.org or (540) 672-2540. Piedmont Virginia Community College offers Getting Started information sessions, providing an introduction to PVCCs degree and certificate programs and information about placement tests, student services and other resources. A Getting Started session is held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at the Back to School Bash at the Sprint Pavilion on the Downtown Mall. Additional sessions will be held at various locations through August. pvcc.edu/outreach. (434) 961-5275. A Student Orientation, Advising and Registration session for prospective students, required for 2016 high school and homeschool graduates and non-graduates who are first time college students interested in pursuing a degree or certificate beginning with the fall 2016 semester, is held from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Thursday at the Charlottesville campus at 501 College Drive. Participants will receive assistance with registering for classes and learn about PVCC resources and student services. Prospective students must apply to PVCC and take math and English placement tests. Advance registration for SOAR is also required. pvcc.com/soar. (434) 961-6581. Piedmont Virginia Community College holds information sessions about its culinary arts associate degree program from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday and Monday at the PVCC Jefferson School City Center at 233 Fourth St. NW. Attendance at one of the sessions is required for any new student wishing to pursue an associates degree in applied science in culinary arts in the fall 2016 semester. pvcc.edu/culinary. (434) 961-6581. Senior Statesmen of Virginia holds the 5th Congressional District Candidates Forum with Jane Dittmar and Tom Garrett currently confirmed to speak from 1:30 to 3 p.m. Wednesday at the Senior Center at 1180 Pepsi Place. (434) 974-7756. A project to co-locate two general district courts within Court Square in downtown Charlottesville could soon be back on track following months of uncertainty. The long-awaited solution: Construction of a new garage downtown, paid exclusively by the city, according to a source familiar with the city and Albemarle Countys ongoing negotiations for the project. This new development in the ongoing negotiations may also create an opportunity for the city to figure out another crux it is facing with a separate partner and community stakeholder: the Charlottesville Parking Center. In an interview Monday, Bruce Williamson, Lepold & Freed attorney and member of the Charlottesville-Albemarle Bar Association (CABA), said the Charlottesville City Council is planning to build a new parking garage downtown. Last week, Williamson said, the city sent the county a letter that said it would offer to pay for the construction of a new parking garage that would service the proposed city-county general district courthouse in the Levy Opera House at 350 Park St., right across from the historic county circuit courthouse. The project has been estimated to cost nearly $47.5 million, according to the countys capital improvement program. The county has allocated $31.7 million to the project over the next five years, and the city has put forward $500,000 for a feasibility study and $6.4 million for implementation. But a definitive plan has not been adopted. Last fall, they developed a term sheet, Williamson said. It was never finalized, but they agreed to nearly every term relating to the building regarding costs, ownership and all essential terms except for the parking. Earlier this year, the proposed co-location project was essentially suspended after the county began entertaining the thought of either relocating its court system or the McIntire County Office Building outside of the city in order to stoke economic development within the county. An option county officials have studied is moving its County Office Building to somewhere in the county. This move, officials have said, would allow the county to relocate its near-capacity general district court to McIntire Road. County officials have been withholding a report on the potential economic impacts of relocating its offices to the county, citing a working papers exemption in the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. As chairman of the CABAs bench-bar relations subcommittee, Williamson said officials from the city and county have kept him in the loop regarding negotiations and proposals. While the county had invited the city to co-locate its general district court at the McIntire Road property, Williamson said the city denied that offer. Instead, Williamson said the surface parking lot at Seventh Street and Market Street, which the city and county co-own, could become the site of a new parking garage that would serve both courts. The notion of a new parking garage was discussed in the spring, he said. The city asked the county if it would pay $2.5 million for the garage, trying to solicit a contribution. Negotiations underway Earlier this summer, Albemarle County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Liz Palmer noted that the construction of a garage at that site could meet the countys parking needs. It is a small lot for a parking garage but could accommodate adequate parking for the courts, she said in a June 22 email. The City is developing a long term parking plan which I assume will include a parking garage, she said in the email. I do not know which area they consider best for the garage. It may well be a larger garage that can accommodate shoppers and businesses in addition to the court parking. Williamson said the effort to build an even larger parking garage over the city and countys co-owned parking lot could result in an attempt to acquire the Lucky Seven convenience store and Guadalajara Mexican Restaurant properties on Market Street. On Monday, Palmer responded vaguely to questions about the alleged offer from the city: The city has been very cooperative in addressing this. However, because the county is still exploring alternative location options, the negotiations concerning parking for this project have not advanced. With several hundred spaces in the garage, Williamson said, at least 100 of them would be conveyed to the county to serve the new courthouse. Thats not to say there might be other options, he said, But it would make sense to build it there to serve the general district courts and provide the county the number of spaces theyve requested. Assistant county executive Lee Catlin echoed Palmers comments. Active negotiations are still underway, and issues related to the potential economic impacts of potential relocation of the County courts have been part of the discussions, Catlin said in an email. We anticipate providing a full public presentation of all information regarding this topic, including all relevant economic impact information, later this fall once negotiations have reached an appropriate point. Water Street solution? The would-be garage also could present the chance for the city to resolve its ongoing dispute with the Charlottesville Parking Center, which sued the city earlier this year over a rate-setting dispute at the Water Street Parking Garage. As the city has concurrently been quarreling with CPC over whether to raise rates at the Water Street garage which both entities own spaces in CPC officials have maintained that the city is fighting a losing battle because CPC owns the ground lease underneath that garage. Once again summoning the existence of a lease-mandated rent reset scheduled for 2024, a CPC letter sent to city officials on Monday laid out three scenarios that could end the agonizing dispute thats enveloped some in the downtown business community. One of the scenarios explicitly mentions the possibility of CPC purchasing the surface lot at Market and Seventh streets and building a new garage with approximately 300 spaces. Contingent on the city selling its spaces in the Water Street garage, CPC would pay to build the new garage and convey 100 spaces in either the new garage or the Water Street garage to the county. Another listed scenario suggests the city could sell its spaces in the Water Street garage and build its own garage at the Market Street surface lot in front of the SNL Financial building. In this case, CPC would agree to continue managing operations at the Water Street garage on a status quo basis with its rates over the next two to three years, never exceeding whats charged at the Market Street Garage, which the city owns outright. A third scenario entertains the possibility of CPC simply selling its spaces in the Water Street garage to the city. That option also would include a potential sale of the entire property, meaning the city could own the garage outright with no more interference from CPC. Dave Norris, the former city mayor and current CPC general manager who authored the letter, said the citys only other option would be to continue litigating the case an unfavorable route for both parties. It is easy to imagine the city and CPC will each be hampered in their quests to independently build new parking downtown while simultaneously engaged in complex litigation against each other, Norris wrote, noting that it could adversely affect taxpayers because of legal costs. Once burned, twice shy Following a closed session meeting Monday, two city councilors were coy when asked about the plans to resolve both issues. At this point, we cant talk about anything that happened regarding the letters, said Councilor Wes Bellamy. Honestly, Im not sure whats going to happen, he said. Theres a lot of different things that are possible. While we desperately want to work well with the county, we have to do whats best for the city. Noting that the council discussed the CPCs letter and real estate in town, Councilor Bob Fenwick said he was not familiar with the citys alleged offer to build a new parking garage at no cost to the county. I think I know who told you that. I dont know where he got that information, but that may have been supposition from talk thats been going on for two or three months, he said. Fenwick acknowledged the demand for new parking downtown but did not divulge how the city could potentially fund a new garage project or clinch a commitment from county. Asked if he thinks it may be prudent for the city to sell its interest in the Water Street garage so it can build a new garage, Fenwick said the relationship as it is now is problematic, as the intention of a for-profit venture may not have the publics best interest in mind. Once burned, twice shy that might be one way to put it. RICHMOND House Appropriations Chairman S. Chris Jones, R-Suffolk, said Tuesday that he has invited the university to make a presentation on the Strategic Investment Fund to his committee on Sept. 19. After the state Auditor of Public Accounts has completed its report on the fund, a joint meeting of the higher-education subcommittees for the House and Senate money committees also will hold a hearing, he said. The joint meeting will be an opportunity to get a full picture of the fund from both perspectives, including the origin of fund resources and its creation and purpose, Jones said in a statement. He said that meeting was arranged with Sen. Majority Leader Thomas K. Norment Jr., R-James City, who is Senate Finance co-chair, although no date has been set. Jones did not return a call seeking comment, but his statement said the issue should be examined carefully and fairly through the appropriate and proper oversight channels. A group of 11 senators and delegates which does not include the chairmen of either money committee is demanding UVa turn over all documentation related to the fund. At issue is how such a large sum of revenue was assembled into one fund and whether any surplus funds should have been used to lower tuition costs for students. Last week, the university released nearly 2,000 pages of records and reopened its books to the state auditor and inspector general in response to the legislative inquiry. The response also included a 10-page narrative and a separate 16-page executive summary. But the legislators Monday sent another letter to President Teresa A. Sullivan and Rector William H. Goodwin Jr. seeking more details and reminding them that under state code, the rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia shall be at all times subject to the control of the General Assembly. UVa replied with a statement that the university is confident that these reviews will demonstrate how seriously the board and administration take their fiduciary responsibilities and our commitment to transparency in our financial reporting. UVas statement also included comments from Goodwin that the fund is 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. The fund, formally approved by the board of visitors in February, is expected to generate as much as $100 million annually to finance new programs. In his statement, Jones noted that the 2016-18 state budget significantly increased funding for higher education. We were also very clear that access and affordability should be the top priority of every college and university, including UVa, he said. The fund, which has slipped from its initial value of $2.3 billion, was disclosed last month by Helen Dragas after her second term on the board expired June 30. Dragas, who sought to remove Sullivan while serving as rector in 2012, alleged the university had created a slush fund to spend on pet projects. WILMINGTON, N.C. Donald Trump ignited a fresh political firestorm Tuesday by declaring gun rights supporters might find a way to stop Hillary Clinton if she defeats him and then names anti-gun Supreme Court justices. Democrats pounced, accusing him of openly encouraging violence against his opponent. The Republican presidential nominee has been working this week to move past distracting campaign disputes, but once again he put himself at the center of a blazing controversy. First, he falsely claimed that Clinton, his Democratic opponent, wants to "essentially abolish the Second Amendment." She has said explicitly and repeatedly that she supports the Second Amendment right to own guns, though she does back some stricter gun control measures. Trump then noted the power Clinton would have to nominate justices to the Supreme Court. "By the way, if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people maybe there is, I don't know," Trump told supporters at a rally in Wilmington, North Carolina. "But I'll tell you what. That will be a horrible day." Trump's campaign sought to quell the controversy with a statement that blamed the "dishonest media" for misinterpretation. And Trump's running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, said Trump was talking about the clear election choice for pro-gun voters, not encouraging violence against Clinton. "Of course not," Pence said in an interview with NBC Philadelphia. "Donald Trump is urging people around this country to act consistent with their convictions in the course of this election." Yet from Trump's foes, the reaction was swift and unforgiving. Clinton's campaign manager, Robby Mook, called the comments "dangerous." Priorities USA, a super PAC supporting Clinton, said Trump had "suggested that someone shoot Hillary Clinton." Across the country, Democratic House and Senate candidates piled on, working to tie Trump's comments to their GOP opponents. And the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, which has endorsed Clinton, said Trump was encouraging gun violence "based on conspiracy theory about Hillary Clinton." Tweeted Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat: "@realDonaldTrump makes death threats because he's a pathetic coward who can't handle the fact that he's losing to a girl." The National Rifle Association, the gun lobby that has endorsed Trump, came to his defense. The group wrote on Twitter that "there's nothing we can do" if Clinton is elected while urging voters to defeat her in November. The controversy immediately overwhelmed Trump's intended campaign-trail focus: the economic plan he unveiled just a day earlier and was promoting during a series of rallies in the most competitive general election states. It also reinforced the concern, voiced by many worried Republicans, that he cannot stay disciplined and avoid inflammatory remarks that imperil not only his White House prospects but the re-election chances of many GOP lawmakers. Clinton's supporters are hoping the latest Trump trip-up will lead yet more of his fellow Republicans to defect. A day earlier, Maine Sen. Susan Collins became the latest to declare she won't vote for her party's nominee, explicitly pointing to his "constant stream of cruel comments." The U.S. Secret Service, responsible for both Clinton's and Trump's protections, said it was aware of what Trump had said but declined to say whether it planned to investigate. Contrary to Trump's remarks, Clinton has made her support for gun rights a key piece of her stump speech in a bid to pre-empt attacks from Trump and groups like the NRA. Still, she supports reinstating a federal assault weapons ban, expanding background checks and barring purchases by domestic abusers, among other steps. "I'm not here to repeal the Second Amendment," she said in her Democratic National Convention speech. "I'm not here to take away your guns. I just don't want you to be shot by someone who shouldn't have a gun in the first place." Clinton spent Tuesday in Florida calling for emergency public health action on the Zika virus while visiting the Miami area dealing with the first U.S. outbreak. At a local health clinic, she urged Congress to cut short its summer recess and immediately pass funding for a Zika response. "Everybody has a stake in this. And that's really why I'm here," Clinton said. "We don't want to wake up in a year and read more stories about babies like the little girl who just died in Houston." It's an issue that could affect votes in this crucial swing state where she has held a small advantage in recent polls. So far, Trump has not addressed the issue in depth, though he told a Florida television station last week that Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, "really seems to have it under control in Florida." Obama, Clinton and Democrats blame Republicans for politicizing the legislation by adding a provision to a $1.1 billion take-it-or-leave-it measure that would have blocked Planned Parenthood clinics in Puerto Rico from receiving money. Republicans, in turn, say the administration has not spent money that has already been provided and it's the Democrats who are playing politics in an election year. FREDERICKSBURG The U.S. Justice Department is investigating to determine if Culpeper County's Board of Supervisors discriminated against a local Muslim congregation when it turned down a pump-and-haul sewage request for an Islamic prayer house in April. They are reviewing our pump-and-haul policy to see if we are in compliance with the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, County Administrator John Egertson confirmed Tuesday. By a 4-3 vote, the supervisors turned down a request by Mohamed Nawabe and the Islamic Center of Culpeper to build a small prayer house on a one-acre parcel off State Route 229 just north of the Ira Hoffman Lane intersection. Supervisors Jack Frazier, Bill Chase, Gary Deal and Steve Walker voted to deny Nawabes pump-and-haul request (the land is not conducive to a conventional septic system). Supervisors Alexa Fritz, Bradley Rosenberger and Sue Hansohn voted against the motion to deny. The issue originally came before the supervisors at their March meeting, but was quickly tabled for 30 days. That move came on the heels of political activist Kurt Christensens email to the supervisors and to the media raising concerns about the permit being on the agenda. Several supervisors later acknowledged that in the days prior to the April vote they were criticized by residents who were concerned about the prayer house. Fritz, who is chairman of the board, displayed a photo of a hate sign in her district. Islamic Center one of only two applications denied in past 20 years The Islamic Center parcel on Rixeyville Road is located less than a mile from town utilities. The boardroom was filled with angry citizens on the morning of the vote. Pump-and-haul permits had been a rather routine matter in previous years, with Egertson pointing out that about 15 had been granted since 1995. One was for a parcel of land on which a Lutheran congregation had planned to build a church. That application was later renewed without discussion. Despite the board's rejection of the permit, Nawabe bought the land and continued his fight to have a prayer house there. He has stated that the facility would only be used by about 15 persons per week and would not disturb the neighborhood. This is not something to hurt the community, Nawabe said Tuesday. This is just some place to worship. Nawabe, an American citizen and Culpeper businessman who hails from Afghanistan, said that he has begun clearing the trees and bushes on the property and has received a permit to demolish the long-abandoned house. He said the local fire department will likely burn the building. Egertson said he did not know exactly how the Justice Department will conduct its investigation or when the county should expect to learn the results of the probe. He was, however, confident that no discrimination would be found. I think they will find that were wholly compliant [with the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act], the county administrator said. Last week, the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to freeze all pump-and-haul requests for 120 days while the present ordinance concerning issuing such permits is updated. WISE Tanessa Patterson crushed her Suboxone and snorted it through a straw. William Hicks mixed his with water in a spoon, heated it, drew it into a syringe and injected it into his arm. Misti Perry put two or three doses under her tongue and waited for them to dissolve. They all felt the familiar numbness of the painkillers that years before had trapped them in the downward spiral of addiction. Soon, they were hooked on box in the much the same way they had been addicted to the drugs Percocet, Opana, heroin that made them eligible to take Suboxone in the first place. Suboxone, a mixture of the synthetic opioid buprenorphine and the overdose reversal drug naloxone, has become the go-to drug in the U.S. for helping people to stop taking painkillers or heroin. Virginia aims its substance-abuse funding toward medication-assisted treatment, which is meant to combine a drug such as Suboxone with recurring counseling sessions. Studies suggest that addicts are less likely to relapse if the drug is used as part of a complete treatment program. But recovering addicts, elected officials and law enforcement agents throughout the mountain towns near the southwestern tip of Virginia say the drug is more menace than miracle. Its the most-abused, most-sought-after street drug across this region, which has been flooded with the drug like nowhere else in the state. Federal funding for drug courts requires localities to offer Suboxone in their treatment programs. Some judges have said theyd rather do without the funding or even close their courts rather than agree to using Suboxone. For maybe the rest of the country, Suboxone is a savior, but its actually been a plague in our county, said Brian Patton, commonwealths attorney in Russell County. We have an issue with the federal government saying you have to use this in our drug court. We dont have a heroin problem. We dont have an oxycodone problem anymore. We have a buprenorphine problem. It seems counter-intuitive for us to give it to them. *** The total amount of buprenorphine distributed here more than doubled any other region of the state in 2014, according to a database from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration that tracks controlled substances. Adjusted for population, this region and the northeastern tip of Tennessee that includes Johnson City, Bristol and Kingsport see the drug prescribed at eight times the national average and nine times the Virginia average. Oxycodone and the painkiller epidemic struck harder in Wise and Russell counties and the other rural counties they border than anywhere else, so it makes some sense that the region would need more of the recovery drug. But Suboxone hasnt lived up to early expectations, officials across the region say. Instead, it too often is the new fuel that keeps people in active addiction and tears apart families. Tiffany Sanders, the child protective services supervisor in Wise County, said her case workers deal with the consequences of Suboxone abuse nearly daily. Its just destroying the families in their situation. The kids are often not able to stay in the homes because the drug problems are getting too bad, Sanders said. What we find is theyre often neglected because the money goes towards their addiction. The utilities arent paid. The children arent receiving the care they need basic needs because theres no money to get that. Theres been times children have been injured because you have caretakers under the influence who cant adequately supervise their kids, caretakers driving around under the influence with their children in their car. It really does affect them in every degree. Sanders remembers hearing in training sessions how Suboxone wasnt going to make people high and that patients eventually would be weaned altogether. But day after day, she encounters people who have been injecting the drug or taking it for years with no endpoint in sight. Some law enforcement leaders say drugs are to blame in at least 90 percent of all the crime they see, and more often than not, the drug being blamed is Suboxone. The coal mining jobs that used to drive the economy here mostly have evaporated, leaving people unemployed or working in jobs that pay less than half of a coal-mining wage. Buprenorphine is most prescribed as the name-brand Suboxone in pills or strips that dissolve under the tongue. A version called Subutex, meant to be used almost exclusively by pregnant women, includes the synthetic opioid with none of the drug-blocking naloxone added. In theory, the drug satiates the brains desire to take other opioids without providing a euphoric high and triggers instant sickness and withdrawal if a user tries to mix it with painkillers or heroin. In reality, Suboxone sells for about $25 a pill here, and Subutex goes for double that. Those whove used them rank the high alongside the strongest painkillers they ever took even similar to heroin. I got the same feeling I got when I was on Oxycontin. I got the same feeling. That narcotic high, said Perry, 38, who fell back into a pattern of addiction five years ago when she started taking Suboxone strips. I didnt have to take a whole Suboxone a day. One or two lines of that a day would rock your world. Perrys addiction began with painkillers prescribed more than a decade ago after surgery. After almost a year of steady prescriptions, Perrys body needed it. So when the doctors cut her off, she turned to friends and old acquaintances to buy pills. The pills consumed her life. They cost her a marriage and custody of her children, and they landed her in jail. Six months after her release in 2010, she called a local clinic about starting Suboxone. Shed remained clean and found a new job since her release, but she had a craving and picked up the phone. Within half an hour, she had a prescription. Once I started going to the clinic, everything started falling apart, Perry said. She lost her job. She started selling some of her drugs, because she couldnt afford the $540 every month to see her doctor and fill her prescription. She totaled her car because she nodded off while driving with prescription Suboxone and Xanax in her system. And she ended up back in jail for violating probation. *** But for people dealing with the issue here, it often can seem like their stories never bubble to the surface in Richmond, across Virginia and in Washington. Gov. Terry McAuliffe came to Wise County last month to visit the countrys largest free medical clinic. The previous month, he attended a discussion on the painkiller epidemic in nearby Abingdon alongside U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and the governor of Tennessee. In a brief interview after the he visited the medical clinic, McAuliffe was quick to mention the volunteers who gave away free kits of the overdose revival drug naloxone. He referred to the opiate crisis as a huge issue. But when the topic turned to Suboxone, McAuliffe had questions. Why do they do that instead of heroin, which is now so cheap? McAuliffe asked a reporter, who then explained more about the drug. You say its prescribed by the doctor? He suggested that more detailed questions should go to Bill Hazel, Virginias secretary of health. Dr. Ben Carey, an addiction psychiatrist from Virginia Beach who volunteered at the clinic, said he was surprised by the stories about Suboxone here stories he doesnt hear in his corner of the state or at his California office. Theoretically this should be a much safer medicine for people who need analgesics, Carey said. But Im hearing things since Ive been here that are things I didnt know, about people abusing Suboxone. ... In theory it works very well, but if its being abused, its being abused. Mellie Randall, director of the states Office of Substance Abuse Services, said in a February interview that you cannot get high from Suboxone. The state added $11 million to its budget for battling the opiate epidemic, with the money expected to be matched by federal funding. That money will go primarily toward incentives meant to increase access to medication-assisted treatment such as Suboxone. And, federal regulations changed last month to increase the limit for doctors prescribing buprenorphine from 100 patients to 275. Studies have shown that patients exposed to drug therapy such as Suboxone are more successful than those who try to quit cold turkey. One study last year found that people using Suboxone or methadone were 50 percent less likely to relapse. But a key word thats missing in too many settings is assist, which means the drugs should be used in tandem with intensive counseling, Hazel said. Suboxone by itself is not adequate treatment for substance abuse. It is safer than heroin. Youre not going to die from the overdose. People tend to function better when theyre on it, but I wouldnt call that treatment, Hazel said. (Paired with counseling), it does help a lot of people. The evidence is that it is very useful. Virginia law doesnt require counseling alongside the prescription of Suboxone. And a state work group forming regulations on the drugs use needs to make the requirements more stringent than they have in their latest draft, Hazel said. Counseling should be required, not strongly recommended, he said. Were going to have to need to be careful with this, Hazel said. Hazels argument about the relative safety of Suboxone rings true to even some of its most vocal critics in the Virginia mountains. There have been 47 reported overdoses that included buprenorphine in Virginia since 2007, most of them in the western part of the state. But prescription painkillers took 213 lives in Virginia during the first three months of this year, and heroin claimed an additional 103. Circuit Judge Michael Moore, who oversees the drug court program in Russell County, doesnt allow Suboxone in the program. He said two clinics in the county have good programs with oversight and counseling. But nothing stops addicts who get kicked out there from finding another clinic or making the hour drive into Tennessee to places where the prescriptions are easier to get, he said. I believe our Suboxone issue is different than anywhere else in the state. So when people from New York or Washington say youre on the wrong side of this medication-assisted treatment issue, I say you dont know where I live. ... Its led to more crime and more families being displaced, more children in foster care, less people in the workforce. Moore said. Its such a tough issue. If my kid was shooting up oxy, I would try to get them on Suboxone. To be truly clean, I think, would be a higher goal. Even as Suboxone use has expanded across the state, overdose deaths havent shown any signs of decline. Drug overdoses, which have been the leading cause of accidental deaths in Virginia for the past two years, increased almost 30 percent in the first quarter of 2016 compared with the same time last year. *** Perry spent 14 months in jail after her wreck, with distribution charges for selling Subutex and Xanax hanging over her. The judge asked for one reason why he shouldnt lock her up again. She told him that if he did, shed just go back to getting high when she was released. She was asking not only for mercy but for help. Perry spent 10 months assigned to drug court. She found a job, attended daily meetings and reported for drug tests. Today, she has been clean for three years, and she is rebuilding her relationship with her children. Perry is adamantly opposed to Suboxone treatment, which she said seems to enrich doctors on the backs of poor, addicted patients. Were not going to stop getting high until they stop writing it for us. Im living proof that I dont have to have it, Perry said. I dont want to ever feel like that again. Youre hustling every day for that. Youre not living a normal life when youre on Suboxone. I dont care what anybody says. But inside the Watauga Recovery Center in Abingdon, business development director Penny McElroy said doctors see patients every day who are thriving with the combination of Suboxone and counseling sessions offered there. People who take Suboxone properly soon feel nothing from the drug, and its only effects are to stop them from going into withdrawal and kill their cravings for more dangerous opiates, she said. Is it the best thing that were doing? I dont know. I dont know what the answer is. But I know that without it, theyd all be dead. Thats the theory behind harm reduction: How do we keep these people alive long enough for that light bulb to go off? McElroy said. No wonder law enforcement has a problem against buprenorphine issues, because they see doctors prescribing it irresponsibly in places, and we try not to do that. McElroy said treatment is helping more people than its harming, but officials in law enforcement encounter only those who are struggling. Maybe we are seeing the worst of the worst, but Ive seen enough of it in our community to know its killing our community, said Chuck Slemp, the commonwealths attorney in Wise. Theyre spending all their money on drugs rather than being able to support health care for their children. They cant invest in their future and save up for retirement, because theyre living from addiction to addiction, from pill to pill. ... I think that we can do better and that we should do better. RICHMOND -- Armed with an autopen, Gov. Terry McAuliffe said two weeks ago that he had all he needed to swiftly but individually restore voting rights to more than 200,000 felons. But McAuliffe, D, has since decided that he needs something else: time. McAuliffe brought delegates to their feet at last month's Democratic National Convention when he vowed to defy the state's highest court, which had just struck down his April executive order to restore voting rights to felons who had completed their sentences. He said the 200,000 felons would have their rights back in the space of two weeks. That self-imposed deadline came and went Monday without a single felon's rights having been restored. McAuliffe's spokesman, Brian Coy, said the governor is taking the time necessary to make sure the rights-restoration orders are handled properly. "The headline here is, 'Governor ensures process is correct,' " Coy said. "We're making sure we fully comply with the court's order, making sure he's done a review of the individuals in question here, and then he will take action." Coy declined to lay out a new timetable but said no action would be taken before the state Board of Elections meets Wednesday to discuss the matter. McAuliffe was criticized by Republicans and some Democrats for his handling of the original executive order, plagued by multiple errors. The administration accidentally restored rights to 132 sex offenders who were still in custody, for example, as well as to convicted murderers still on probation in other states. Some of those critics were not sure what to make of the delay. "We're waiting to see what he does," said Del. Rob Bell III, R-Albemarle, a candidate for state attorney general in 2017 who has led the charge against McAuliffe's original clemency order. "Obviously he's made various public comments about finding a way to circumvent [the court ruling]. ... We'll see what he comes up with and we will review it." McAuliffe's slower approach caused some embarrassment for his political action committee, Common Good VA. Last week, it issued a fundraising email trumpeting his action to restore rights. "After the Republican-led operation to overturn the Governor's Restoration of Rights, we still managed to individually restore rights to over 30,000 new registered voters in Virginia with a promise not to stop until all 200,000 Virginians have their voice returned!" read the email, which the Richmond Times-Dispatch first reported. The next day came a correction: "To clarify, Gov. McAuliffe is in the process of reviewing thousands of cases of Virginians who were stripped of their right to vote by Republicans and the Virginia Supreme Court, but he has not yet restored those individuals' civil rights. It is his intention to abide by the order of the state Supreme Court and also to grant as many Virginians the right to vote as possible within the law, on an individual basis. The Governor remains committed to ultimately ending the system of discrimination and disenfranchisement in our Commonwealth." In April, McAuliffe issued a broad executive order to restore voting rights to more than 200,000 felons who had completed their sentences. McAuliffe said the move would help felons rejoin society and move Virginia away from a policy that disproportionately affects the black community. Republicans said McAuliffe was trying to help Hillary Clinton, a close friend and political ally, by pumping up the voting rolls with black voters. Exit polls show African Americans tend to vote Democratic. GOP leaders, also upset that the order covered violent felons, contended that McAuliffe had overstepped his authority by restoring those rights en masse instead of individually, as every previous governor had. They filed suit and prevailed with the Supreme Court, which in late July agreed that governors can restore rights only on a case-by-case basis. The court ordered that 13,000 felons who had registered to vote since the April order be removed from the rolls. McAuliffe, who considered the order one of his biggest achievements, told Virginia convention delegates that he would use an autopen to individually sign orders for all 200,000. "By the end of this week, I will have restored the rights of all 13,000!" McAuliffe declared at a breakfast for the state party delegation two weeks ago. "And in two weeks, all 206,000 will have their rights back, folks!" virginia-felons _____ STAUNTON A partnership between an organic farm striving to get locally grown produce to the wider community and the Central Shenandoah Health District (CSHD) has resulted in the first mobile farmers market. The idea, which came to fruition last month, is to make it easier to get fresh, nutrition-packed, locally grown produce into the hands of low-income families who cant get to the areas more traditional farmers markets. We were working with the Farmers Market Fresh Nutrition Program [to provide] low-income families with vouchers for fresh, locally grown produce, said Diane Hawkins, a nutritionist with the CSHD. The program is funded through a partnership between the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Unfortunately, we found many of our participants werent spending their vouchers. Problem was, on the days farmers markets were held, many of the WIC recipients had transportation or scheduling conflicts. Unable to get to the market, not only were they not spending their vouchers on produce, they werent getting the nutrition the program was designed to supply. Then came an idea. We thought, if participants arent able to make it to the market, we should bring the market to them, said Hawkins. Looking to get the ball rolling, she decided to contact Stauntons Project Grows. With its commitment to providing access to organic, sustainably grown produce to the greater Augusta County community, the 10-acre vegetable farm seemed a perfect partner. When the [CSHD] reached out to us in January and asked if wed be interested in establishing a mobile farmers market, we were ecstatic, said Jenna Clarke, interim executive director at Project Grows. As weve been running both the Staunton and Waynesboro markets for quite a while, we knew we had the experience to make this happen. Tapping its network of Augusta County farmers, Project Grows organized a weekly market at the Staunton-Augusta Health Department, in Staunton. The market, which opened July 8, is held each Friday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., with voucher participants from Waynesboro shuttled to the department by the CSVHD. While the pilot program just got under way a month ago, it is already achieving excellent results, according to Hawkins. Weve seen a vast increase in voucher redemption, she said. Its great to see people eating healthy and supporting local, small-scale agriculture at the same time. Meanwhile, the market appears to be helping forge a sense of community as well. To experience people coming is a really positive experience, said Clarke. I think the produce has a certain inspirational effect. I cant tell you how many times Ive overheard people trading recipes and cooking stories with one another. Its all been really positive and connecting. Eric J. Wallace is a news correspondent for the News Virginian. FLORIDA - USA - Be careful of the sink hole, it used to be the American state of Florida but is now just one big deep hole. One minute it was there, the next it was gone, Jose Alvarez, 46, a sugar cane picker told local news stations around the state line. According to news reports a huge sink hole swallowed up the 65,000 square mile state in one fell swoop taking major cities like Miami, Tampa Bay, Orlando, Jacksonville all to the bottom of the 12,000 foot deep hole. Bubb Waczinski from New York City was about to travel to Orlandos main attraction, Disney World with his family of four but they missed the plane by twenty minutes. Good thing we missed the plane because later on we heard the whole state of Florida was swallowed up. All I want to know is do I get my money back? Shit cost me a fortune. President Obama has declared the whole of Florida a disaster zone, while the Republicans have shown their anger that it was not Washington DC that got swallowed up but the Sunshine State instead. Meanwhile Google Earth will have to adjust its map and satellite images to factor in the massive hole where Florida once used to be. Icysis Toney may be years away from applying to university, but the 13-year-old from Indian Brook First Nation in Nova Scotia is already keen to explore her options. So when she heard about an immersive Aboriginal health sciences program that was happening at Dalhousie this summer, she wanted in. "I really wanted to find out what university is like," says Icysis, one of 18 Indigenous students from around the Maritimes who attended the Aboriginal Health Sciences Junior University from July 11-15. Icysis Toney (Sipekne'katik First Nation), seated, with Treena Mitchell (Lenox Island First Nation) & Ryan Corbin (Wolfville). The program, now in its fifth year, brings Indigenous youth to Dal for a week of experiential learning about different health professions ranging from dentistry and nursing to physiotherapy and health promotion. The goal: to inspire more young people from Indigenous communities to pursue careers in the health professions. For Icysis, the program provided a chance to immerse herself in the university where her own mother studied years ago, and to learn more about medicine, dentistry and paediatrics three areas she says she is interested in. While she and many of the other campers are still years away from deciding on what theyll study in university, piquing their interest in the health professions early on is important, says Kara Paul, managing director of the Aboriginal Health Sciences Initiative (AHSI) at Dal. AHSI aims to increase the number of Aboriginal youth entering into health professions programs at Dal and to encourage the development of health curriculum that is more in tune with Aboriginal cultural competencies. Throughout the year, the group sends an outreach coordinator to different schools and events in Aboriginal communities across the Maritimes to share information about health-career options professions and gauge interest among different students. Interested students can then apply to attend the junior university, which gives them a more immersive experience in a university setting. Most participants are between 14 and 16 years old and heading into those crucial years when they are making decisions about what classes to take in high school. Those choices often impact what they are able to study later on, says Paul. "The program informs them about the pathway to a career of their choice," says Paul. "So this is the next step in our recruitment strategy, bringing them here to actually experience the health professions." From state-of-the-art simulations to traditional knowledge The students are encouraged to explore direct-entry programs in the health sciences, such as respiratory therapy and kinesiology, in addition to those longer-term professional programs such as dentistry and medicine. Typically they might think about a dentist, doctor or nurse and they dont realize there is this whole array, says Paul. We want to open them up to the possibilities. Particpants get to take part in the types of engaging demonstrations and simulation activities they might encounter in real health-care situations, such as drilling and filling cavities, assessing patient balance in a physio clinic, and performing diagnostic ultrasounds. Over the years, Paul has made a point of weaving in more traditional approaches to the health sciences during the week as well, and this years program was no exception. On the Thursday, the young students all piled into a bus for a field trip to Peggys Cove. Along the way they learned about some Indigenous creation stories and took part in a medicine walk where they learned how to identify different traditional medicines and what they are used for. This is knowledge thats been handed down over thousands of years from our ancestors and Elders and its still alive today. We still use these medicines, says Paul. I want to ensure that students understand that Indigenous knowledge is valid and important. An impact that lasts Paul says several participants from past years have gone on to study in health-related fields, many at Dal. Brianna Noseworthy, who just finished her first year in Nursing at Dal, says taking part in the program in 2013 while in Grade 11 helped her build connections with professors and others at Dal and prepare for the transition to university. Without that program, I dont think I would be where I am today, she says, noting that Paul was particularly instrumental along the way as she forged her path to Dal. This summer, the 19-year-old off-reserve, non-status Mikmaq from Lower Sackville, N.S., decided to help out by becoming a counsellor in the program; shes one of several junior university alumni over the years whove done so. She says the youth really looked up to her and the other counsellors and were interested in hearing tips on how to be successful in their studies. It was an amazing experience. Im happy I had the opportunity to mentor them, she says. I hope that the program has opened their eyes to the possibilities of what they can do with their lives. The total revenue of Idea Cellular increased by 7.9 per cent at Rs 9,486.64 crore in the reported quarter compared to Rs 8,791.54 crore a year ago. New Delhi: Shares of telecom operator Idea Cellular on August 9 plunged over 6 per cent after the company reported a sharp decline of 74.5 per cent in consolidated net profit for three months period ended June 30. The scrip after a weak opening, further lost 6.35 per cent to Rs 96.55 - its 52-week low - on BSE. At NSE, shares of the company tanked 6.15 per cent to Rs 96.75. Idea Cellular on August 8 reported a sharp decline of 74.5 per cent in consolidated net profit at Rs 217 crore for three months period ended June 30, largely on account of spectrum purchase. The company had posted a profit of Rs 851.6 crore in the same quarter a year ago. Idea Cellular however maintained that the financial results are not comparable due to one-time payment related to spectrum purchase. The financial performance of reported quarter includes "full impact of spectrum acquired by Idea in March 2015 (Rs 30,140 crore investment) and February 2014 Auction (Rs 10,420 crore investment) for renewal of mobile licences in nine service areas expired between December 2015 and April 2016 as well as spectrum acquired for 3G and 4G services in multiple circles. The total revenue of Idea Cellular increased by 7.9 per cent at Rs 9,486.64 crore in the reported quarter compared to Rs 8,791.54 crore a year ago. Says fiscal 2015-16 was one of the continued global volatility across different markets. Mumbai: Tata Motors chairman Cyrus Mistry today asked his unhappy shareholders to be patient as the company is passing through a tough turnaround amidst global uncertainty which may even impact its highly successful British operations under the JLR brand. "Shareholders should have to be patient about Tata Motors. Please don't expect big bonuses and dividends too early. I know that 0.20% for the fiscal year 2016 is embarrassing. But it's a signal of better times to come," Mistry told the shareholders at the 71st AGM of the company here this evening. The company today declared a dividend of 20 paise for ordinary shares and 30 paise for 'A class shares, which will be paid out of its reserves. It can be noted that for the first time in 14 years, Mistry had told irate shareholders at the last AGM that the company was not in a position to pay dividends for 2014-15, a decision he had termed as painful. The company had declined dividends for two consecutive years in 2000-01 and 2001-02. "I am pained for not being able to give the rightful dividend. My personal belief is that it's a bad day for the company. I feel extremely unfortunate this day. Let me tell you it does not give me any pleasure to deny your rightful dividend. I know that many of you depend a lot on the dividend," Mistry had told the shareholders at the last AGM when the company had skipped dividend. Addressing the shareholders today, Mistry said "it's very rare that a company makes such a massive turnaround on its operational profitability in a short span. It's the beginning of turnaround on our standalone operations." Stating that fiscal 2015-16 was one of continued global volatility across different markets he said he does not see the new financial year to be any different. "Chinese slowdown continues to be an important global economic factor. It will further accelerate and likely to affect the JLR operations," he said, adding Brexit will also add to global uncertainty as it has created an uncertain business environment in Europe. He said newly-launched Tiago has received really good response and expressed hope that forthcoming SUV Hexa and the compact sedan Kite 5 launches are likely to help volumes. Tata Motors' consolidated gross revenue for 2015-16 rose 5% to Rs 2,80,097 crore, while net profit stood at Rs 11,108 crore. JLR revenues rose to 22.2 billion pounds while its net income stood at 1.3 billion pounds. Its standalone revenue rose 18% to Rs 46,647 crore and had reported a net income of Rs 234 crore against a net loss of Rs 4,739 crore in 2013-14. During 2015-16, Mistry said JLR continued to grow in all its markets except China with wholesale volume growing 16% to 5,44,085 units and retail sales rising 13% driven by new Jaguar XF and the XE range and the Discovery Sport, and the all-new performance SUV the F Pace. New Delhi: Hitting back at cellular operators over allegations of 'bias', regulator Trai today said it will continue to work with regard to consumer protection, fair play and growth of the industry. "The allegations of bias against Trai are baseless," Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) Chairman R S Sharma told PTI. Sharma's comments come a day after cellular operators' body COAI termed the regulator's recent consultation on call connect charges as "unfair" on incumbent operators and alleged that Trai's discussion paper was an indicator of "bias creeping in". "Trai will continue to work in the areas in which it is mandated to work...We will continue to perform functions assigned in the Trai Act, with regard to consumer protection, Quality of Service, encouraging competition, fair play and growth of industry," Sharma said. COAI had questioned the regulator's urgency in initiating the process of interconnect review, which the association claimed "favours new entrants". "We have sought a meeting with the Telecom Minister and the Telecom Secretary so that the matter can be debated in a transparent manner," COAI director general Rajan Mathews said today. Last week, Trai started the review of interconnection charges -- paid by one telecom operator to another for connecting phone calls -- against the backdrop of 4G and Internet telephony changing the way consumers communicate. At present, the termination charges for a mobile to mobile local and national long distance call is pegged at 14 paise per minute while the termination charges for international incoming call to wireless and wireline stands at 53 paise per minute. Trai has sought public view on how domestic termination charges should be computed -- cost based or Bill and Keep (BAK) -- for maximisation of consumer welfare, adoption of more efficient technologies and growth of telecom sector. In BAK method, each telecom operator bills its own subscribers for outgoing traffic that it sends to other interconnecting network and keeps the revenue received from its subscribers. Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) had accused Trai of trying to introduce 'Bill and Keep' method, saying that such a move would mean that new operators would not have to pass on payment to existing operators, while the latter will have to 'incur costs'. "This is a misguided effort from Trai that will help new entrants, at the cost of the incumbent...We are extremely disturbed by this, this further tilts the level playing field," Mathews had alleged yesterday. New Delhi: Telecom giant Vodafone has renewed its multi-million dollar engagement with IBM to manage IT services support for its India arm for another five years. Under the new contract, IBM will manage IT services support for Vodafone India's IT infrastructure and applications environment, a move that will help the telecom operator derive benefits like enhanced customer experience, cost optimisation, scalability of IT infrastructure and overall improvement in efficiency of network operations. IBM will also support Vodafone India's IT environment transition into IBM hybrid cloud, allowing the telecom services company to leverage and integrate existing IT resources and data assets with private cloud environments. The hybrid cloud platform will enable delivery of faster and more insightful data intelligence and support faster decision-making, the companies said in a statement. The companies did not disclose the terms of the deal. According to Greyhound Research estimates, the deal has been signed in the range of USD 750-850 million and can be expected to cross USD 1 billion by 2023. "It is critical to note the current contract is 25 per cent bigger compared to the first one signed in 2007 (USD 600 million) - but there's more to it. In 2007, the value of USD 600 million stood at Rs 2,364 crore (calculated using the rate of USD 1 = Rs 39.4). Per current exchange rate, USD 750 million stands at Rs 5,000 crore (calculated using the exchange rate of USD 1 = Rs 66.7). Popular perceptions aside, Vodafone has chosen to play a safe bet," it said in a research note. The agreement builds on the existing 8-year relationship between Vodafone India and IBM. Vodafone Essar had agreed a five-year IT outsourcing deal with IBM in 2007 and the partnership was later extended for another three years. While the companies had not disclosed the size of the deal, it was estimated to be around USD 1 billion. IBM also has a similar IT management deal with Vodafone India's rival Bharti Airtel. "We are a technology driven organisation and introducing the latest advances is key to delivering the best of experiences to our customers. Partnering with IBM will help us enhance customer experience with intuitive capabilities and build a cost optimised, flexible and scalable IT infrastructure," Vodafone India Director Technology and Network Vishant Vora said. Vanitha Narayanan, Managing Director at IBM India, said the company's leading edge capabilities will help strengthen Vodafone India's vision of delivering differentiated client experiences. Greyhound Research said the 'hybrid cloud strategy' will benefit Vodafone on multiple accounts, including improved customer experience and cost optimisation. "We believe IBM will be expected to take ownership in aspects like number of tickets raised and turn-around time for resolution. Furthermore, the vendor can be expected to offer an outcome-based model (with OPEX payments) to make this engagement a true win-win. Also, two key pillars of this deal are automation and analytics," Greyhound Research said. As part of the deal, IBM India can well be expected to help automate the data-intensive processes for such systems and reduce (if not eliminate) human dependence, it added. They were told Didi wanted first to sort out its own challenges in China, said a person with direct knowledge of Olas plans. New Delhi: Didi Chuxing's acquisition of Ubers China business last week reshapes the landscape in Asia's growing ride-hailing sector, and leaves India's Ola more vulnerable to attack by Uber in its $12 billion home market. Four months ago, Ola executives met with Didi hoping the Chinese firm would invest fresh capital to help it fight Uber Technologies Inc which, with its deeper pockets, has made rapid inroads into India. They were told Didi wanted first to sort out its own challenges in China, said a person with direct knowledge of Olas plans. Didi and Uber have raised and spent billions of dollars in a discount slugfest to win drivers, passengers and market share in China. Didi, now worth around $35 billion, last year invested about $30 million in Ola, which is also backed by Japans SoftBank Group, and the two are allies in an anti-Uber group that also includes US-based Lyft and Southeast Asia-focused Grab. This (Didi/Uber China) deal changes the dynamics of how they (Didi) will invest in India, said the person, who didnt want to be named because the discussions were private. If Didi invests more in Ola, its effectively betting against Uber, its new partner in China, the person said. Its not clear whether Didi would provide equity or debt to Ola, which has raised around $1.3 billion in funding and is valued at over $5 billion. SoftBank Capital, Olas key investor, faces its own financial issues and is selling assets to raise cash and reduce debt, which may pose another fundraising challenge for Ola, which was aiming to raise another $1 billion this year. Ola did not respond to an email request for comment. Didi said in an email that it will focus in the coming months on ensuring smooth integration internally. It did not comment on its meeting with Ola. Didi has no immediate overseas investment plans, said a person with direct knowledge of the matter. The stakes are high in India, already one of the world's fastest growing taxi markets. Ola and Uber have burnt through investors money and clashed in legal battles over alleged dirty-tricks tactics and pricing. After the Didi deal, Uber is even more focussed on India, which it has previously called its No. 2 priority overseas market, doubling down on resources, staffing and technology deployed there, said two people familiar with Uber's plans, one of whom is based in the United States. The US believed absence of a BIT with India an impediment to expanding trade between the two countries. New Delhi: India is likely to sign a treaty with the US for speedier action to boost investment agreements, Parliament was informed today. The US has expressed desire to sign a treaty similar to the Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) signed with Japan and Korea, Minister of State for Finance, Arjun Ram Meghwal said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today. "However, Japan and Korea FTAs were signed based on the earlier Model Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) text of India but the negotiations with the US will be on the basis of the new Indian Model Bilateral Investment Treaty text," Meghwal said. He was replying to a question on whether the US has been pressuring India to accede to a treaty similar to FTA that the country had signed with Japan and Korea. Meghwal said technical discussions with the US side have been held on the ongoing basis to speed up the pending bilateral investment treaty. Earlier, the US had expressed concerns that the absence of a bilateral investment treaty with India is an impediment to expanding trade between the two countries. The US has pitched for tax certainty and fairness, less regulatory burden, adequate infrastructure and power as well as access to legal services. Richard Rahul Verma, the US Ambassador to India, in February had urged the government to permit US law firms and lawyers to set up base in India, calling for "reciprocity". He contended that there was no citizenship requirement for Indian lawyers who wish to establish offices in the US. "We think it is important because it would contribute to economic growth and foreign direct investment," he had said. Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had also called for re-negotiating India's bilateral investment pacts and replace them with new ones. "India proposes to renegotiate all those bilateral investment pacts whose initial validity has expired and to replace them with new Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs)," she had said in Parliament last month. Government has imposed custom duty at a rate of 20 per cent on export of sugar to conserve stocks in the country and ensure its availability. New Delhi: Sugar production during the ensuing season of 2016-17 could be lower compared with the current year's estimated output of 252 lakh MT due to drought that hit Maharashtra and Karnataka, Parliament was on August 9 informed. Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution C R Chaudhary, however, said there is sufficient sugar stock available in the current season to meet demand of 255 lakh MT and the government has already taken steps to prevent a price rise of the commodity. "Due to drought in the states of Maharashtra and Karnataka there is possibility of decrease of in sugar production in the country during the ensuing sugar season 2016-17 as compared to estimated production of 252 lakh MT in the current season," Chaudhary said in a written reply in Lok Sabha. The minister, however, said it is too early to estimate the sugar production for season 2017-18 at this stage stating that sugar production during a particular season depends on a variety of factors, including area under cultivation, yield, drawal of cane for crushing by mills and recovery of sugar. On the availability of sugar for the ongoing season, he said: "With an opening stock of 90 lakh MT and estimated production of 252 lakh MT, the availability of sugar in the current sugar seasons is sufficient to meet estimated demand of 255 lakh MT." The minister further said in order to keep a check on rise in price of sugar, the government has imposed "stock holding and turnover limits on sugar". "Further, government has imposed custom duty at a rate of 20 per cent on export of sugar to conserve stocks in the country and ensure its availability," Chaudhary said. In reply to another query, the minister said due to surplus sugar production in the last five consecutive sugar seasons over domestic consumption and depressed sugar prices, the liquidity of sugar mills have been adversely affected leading to accumulation of cane price arrears to farmers. "As on July 31, 2016, Rs 6,598 crore are outstanding against sugar mills for each of the last three years and the current year," the minister added. He said the Centre has taken several initiatives to help the sugar industry resolve liquidity problems and thereby facilitate clearance of cane price arrears to the farmers. Incentive of Rs 483.87 crore on raw sugar export, interest free loans of Rs 6,420 crore under SEFASU, and notification of production subsidy at a rate of Rs 4.5 per quintal cane crushed to offset cane cost, are some of the measures taken up to support the sugar industry, he added. The film will see the 48-year-old actor playing a naval officer for the first time in his career. (Photo: Viral Bhayani) Mumbai: Akshay Kumar feels the unique thing about his upcoming release Rustom is a woman having an extramarital affair. Rustom is an upcoming crime-mystery film based on the real-life incident of Naval Officer K M Nanavati, who was tried for the murder of his wifes lover. Featuring Akshay Kumar and Ileana DCruz in the lead roles, the film shows a new dimension in a relationship. Usually, in a Hindi film, a man gets into an extramarital affair and his wife forgives and accepts him and then they live happily. But there was no film where a woman has an extramarital affair and asks for forgiveness and the husband decides whether to forgive or not. I think this is the USP of the film. Nobody can deny that this doesnt happen in real life, Akshay said in an interview here. Directed by Tinu Suresh Desai Rustom is slated to release on August 12. The film will see the 48-year-old actor playing a naval officer for the first time in his career. I did not take to books or started lessons and learning about the rules and regulations of Indian Navy. I did not meet anyone from the Navy, he said. There was a naval officer who was guiding us on how to salute and wear badges, how the walk should be, how the uniform should be worn, he added. The Airlift star said after wearing the uniform his way of walking changed completely. There is something when you put the uniform you feel responsibility. It makes you feel you are the man and take charge. I envy people who wear the uniform, he added. Rustom is produced by Neeraj Pandey and this will be Akshays third collaboration with him post-Special 26 and Baby. The screenplay is really good. He wouldnt even come to me without a good story. We are making another couple of films, he said. The exhibit - entitled "Always Frida" - is being displayed at the Florida Art Gallery in Caracas marking the 109th anniversary of Kahlo's birth. An art gallery in the Venezuelan capital is honoring the late Mexican artist Frida Kahlo with an exposition featuring the works of 50 female Venezuelan artist. The exhibit - entitled "Always Frida" - is being displayed at the Florida Art Gallery in Caracas marking the 109th anniversary of Kahlo's birth. Kahlo, whose reputation has bloomed in Venezuela especially in the last decade, is famous mainly for self-portraits and her depiction of female experiences and forms. "In this exhibition we are featuring art masters as well as amateur artists, all very representative of our country and, in fact, all female. I am really pleased that they all had a chance to work on their vision of Frida in the freest manner possible," Mirla Soto, the exhibition's curator told Reuters. Kahlo, whose life was fraught with tumultuous affairs including with Leon Trotsky and Josephine Baker, died in 1954 at the age of 47. The frequency of sexual activity in older adults is lower than in younger adults, but the majority maintains interest in sexual and intimate behaviour. (Photo: Pixabay) Washington D.C.: Putting up at retirement homes limits older adults' rights to sexual freedom because of a lack of policies regarding the issue and the actions of staff and administrators at these facilities. According to a Georgia State University study, though assisted-living facilities emphasize independence and autonomy, the staff and administrators behave in ways that create an environment of surveillance. This indicates conflict between autonomy and the protection of residents in regard to sexual freedom in assisted-living facilities. Regulations at these facilities may vary, but they share a mission of providing a home-like environment that emphasizes consumer choice, autonomy, privacy and control. Despite this philosophy, the autonomy of residents may be significantly restricted, including their sexuality and intimacy choices. Sexual activity does not necessarily decrease with age. The frequency of sexual activity in older adults is lower than in younger adults, but the majority maintains interest in sexual and intimate behaviour. While assisted-living facilities have many rules, they typically lack systematic policies about how to manage sexual behaviour among residents, which falls under residents' rights, said author Elisabeth Burgess. "Residents of assisted-living facilities have the right to certain things when they're in institutional care, but there's not an explicit right to sexuality," Burgess said. "There's oversight and responsibility for the health and wellbeing of people who live there, but that does not mean denying people the right to make choices. If you have a policy, you can say to the family when someone moves in, here are our policies and this is how issues are dealt with. In the absence of a policy, it becomes a case-by-case situation, and you don't have consistency in terms of what you do," he stated. The study that involved participant observation and semi-structured interviews with administrative and care staff, residents and family members, as well as focus groups with staff, found that residents had rights to sexual and intimate behavior, but they provided justifications for exceptions and engaged in strategies that created an environment of surveillance, which discouraged and prevented sexual and intimate behaviour. They emphasized their responsibility for the residents' health and safety, which often took precedence over other concerns. Staff and administrators expressed concern about consent and cognitive impairment. More than two-thirds of residents in assisted-living facilities have some level of cognitive impairment, which can range from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer's Disease or other forms of dementia. They felt responsible for protecting residents and guarding against sexual abuse, even if a person wasn't officially diagnosed. The study has been published in Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences. New Delhi: A 12-year-old boy who entered an unknown building while chasing his kite was allegedly sexually assaulted and brutally thrashed with a rod by three men who lived there, police said. The boy had entered the house after his kite snapped and landed on the roof. When he tried to get the kite back, the accused allegedly caught him, and inflicted injury on him with a heated knife, police said. The mother alleged the boy was sexually assaulted by the accused for several hours before they freed him with a warning to not to report the matter to the police. The mother said the men also tried to injure the child on his private parts. The police have arrested the three accused and a case of abduction and assault of minor under the POCSO act has been registered, a senior police officer said. The boy was taken to LBS hospital where a medical examination was also conducted on him, police said. The family of the boy joined by locals also staged a demonstration on the Vikas Marg demanding strict punishment for the accused. All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) protest against Bulandshahr gangrape and women violence in front of Vidhan Sabha in Lucknow. (Photo: PTI) Bulandshahr: A week after the gangrape of a woman and her 14-year-old daughter on a highway in Uttar Pradeshs Bulandshahr district, the police nabbed the main accused and two of his accomplices. A gang of six men had brutally gangraped a woman and her teenage daughter at gunpoint on last week after dragging them out of a car in Bulandshahr on NH-91 when they were travelling with their family from Noida to Shahjahanpur. The prime suspect has been identified as Saleem Bawaria. He has been taken into custody along with his accomplice Zuber and another one, police said. Remaining 3 accused in Bulandshr case arrested after week long chase across east India, Uttar Pradesh's Director General of Police said on Twitter. Sources close to police revealed that Saleem and his gang often travelled by buses and trains to avoid police check posts and patrols. As a modus operandi, they keep iron rods, rinch cutters and other similar material to stop moving vehicles and hold them captive on gunpoint before performing robberies and other crime, according to a report in the Hindustan Times. Uttar Pradesh Police had earlier arrested--Naresh (25), Bablu (22) and Rais (28)--and detained a dozen others after launching a massive hunt for the bandits suspected to be behind the crime. The incident had sent shock waves across the country, rocked Parliament and led to widespread criticism of the law-and-order situation in Uttar Pradesh. Apparently rattled by the outcry, senior minister in the Samajwadi Party government Azam Khan had remarked that he suspected a "political conspiracy" behind the incident, evoking widespread condemnation. Accusing the Samajwadi Party government of "protecting and appeasing" criminals ahead of the Assembly polls slated next year, BJP had asked Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav to seek a CBI probe in the case if he has any "shame" left. Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said he would order a CBI probe if the family demanded. On Monday, Allahabad High Court had sought to know from the Uttar Pradesh government why the investigation in Bulandshahr gangrape case be not handed over to the CBI. Directing the state government to file its reply by August 10, a division bench of Chief Justice D B Bhosale and Justice Yashwant Varma also sought a report on status of probe in the case, including the "criminal antecedents, social background and political affiliations, if any", of the accused persons. THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a suspected case of skimming using wireless magnetic data receivers, over Rs 2.4 lakh was stolen by fraudsters from dozens of individuals who used three ATM machines, including the one next to the state police headquarters here. The thieves withdrew money from a nationalised bank in South Mumbai on Sunday using the data from the card that was suspectedly leaked and stored by thieves in the past weeks. Around 16 people registered complaints with the police in the city on Monday and bank officials confirmed to have received around 12 complaints and several distress calls from victims. All of the victims had used SBI and SBT bank ATMs at Althara, Vellayambalam and Vattiyoorkavu in the past week. Most of them realised about the attacks after receiving SMS messages of money being withdrawn from their accounts on Sunday. I lost Rs 10,000 and another Rs 7,000 in quick succession and my account was left with Rs 700 on Sunday afternoon. I could not contact the branch as it was holiday but managed to block the card by calling customer care. On Monday morning, when I reached my branch to file a complaint, I found that many others had also turned up with the same problem. So we registered a case with the local police, said Anu Chandran, a victim. The police said there could be more victims as many, including senior citizens, might not be aware that they have been robbed. The police managed to recover a spy device embedded to smoke detector from the Althara branch of SBI. The forensic team was verifying the device which has chipset and memory card all powered by a mobile phone battery. It cannot be confirmed whether there was a camera inside, said city police commissioner Sparjan Kumar. IG (Thiruvananthapuram Range) Manoj Abraham said that this could be a case of phishing where bank details might have been stolen online from rigged ATM machines. A special team backed by cyber cell officials has started a probe. A 56-year-old woman from Mumbra town allegedly killed her daughter-in-law and the latter's mother as she was upset over her son paying more attention to his wife. (File Photo/Representational Image) Thane: A 56-year-old woman from Mumbra town in the district allegedly killed her daughter-in-law and the latter's mother as she was upset over her son paying more attention to his wife, police said on Tuesday. Rashida Akbarali Wasani yesterday served some sedative-laced food to her daughter-in-law Salma Makdum Wasani (24) and her mother Shamim Latif Sheikh (54), a resident of Kurla in Mumbai, at her home in Mumbra. After consuming the food, the two victims fell asleep. Rashida then allegedly pulled out a sharp weapon and hit them with it. She slit their throats and chopped their ears, Police Inspector Sukhada Narkar said. The accused went to Mumbra police station on Monday night and informed about the incident. Subsequently, she was arrested and charged under sections 302 (murder) and 328 (causing hurt by means of poison, etc with intent to commit an offence) of IPC and also relevant sections of the Maharashtra Police Act, Narkar said. Salma was married to Rashida's son Makdum Wasani for about four years and the couple was recently blessed with a child, following which the victim's mother had come over to their house to help her. However, Rashida was irked since sometime as she felt that her son paid more attention to his wife and ignored her. A manhunt will be launched to arrest all gang members. The further arrest and interrogation may expose several other crimes committed by this gang in other states too, police said. (Photo: Representational Image/PTI) Noida: Meerut zone IGP Sujit Pandey on Tuesday said 18 teams have been constituted to bring all the culprits in the Bulandshahr rape case to book. Addressing a press conference here, he said two torches, a mobile phone and Rs 340 were found from the possession of the main accused, Saleem Bawariya. The earrings and foot rings of the victims were also recovered from him, Pandey said, adding the accused claimed that they had done a reece of Kithore area on July 27. They accused said they reached Hapur on July 28 via a mini bus and switched off their phones. They drank at a nearby liquor shop before looting and raping the mother-daughter duo on NH-91 on July 29, police said. After committing the crime, the accused fled to Jharkhand, he said, adding an accused named Fati was absconding. A total of six persons have been arrested in this connection. The Meerut IG said 18 teams have been formed and 28 locations identified for nabbing all the accused in the case. Pandey said around 10 to 11 persons are part of the dacoit gang. "A manhunt will be launched to arrest all gang members. The further arrest and interrogation may expose several other crimes committed by this gang in other states too," he said. Chennai: An Ola cab driver is accused of setting his wife ablaze inside a moving car on Sunday morning, while his shocked children watched the horrifying scene from the backseat. He has been arrested by the Chennai police. The incident took place when the family of four was travelling in the car. Soon after, an argument broke out between 30-year-old Jayaram and his wife Prema, following which he pulled out a bottle of petrol and poured it on his wife. The accused then allegedly set his wife on fire as his children watched the terrifying scene. Jayaram somehow managed to jump out of the burning car. As his wife battled the flames, she managed to break open the windows of the car and threw her children out. After setting Prema on fire, Jayaram tried to cover up the incident terming it as a 'suicide.' He called for an ambulance and took his wife to the hospital where she succumbed to her injuries. However, in a statement to the police before her death, Prema named her husband as the culprit. During investigation, police found out that Jayaram would often fight with Prema over money issues. Panaji: Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar on Tuesday said he has come to know about drugs being sold outside reputed educational institutes in the state, and said the government is taking steps to tackle the menace. "It is high time that we should act against the sale of drugs. I have heard that such things are going on outside the educational institutes, it is happening outside some of the most reputed educational institutes," Parsekar said in the state Assembly, replying to a question by BJP MLA Carlose Almeida. "Drugs are sold in small kiosks or even by some taxi operators outside the educational institutions. I have already spoken to police. We need to tackle this menace. Our youth will be destroyed if this continues," the chief minister said. Parsekar said when Almeida had asked a written question before the start of the Assembly session, there was not a single case of drug peddling reported in Vasco town for last three years. "But when the question was taken for reply from the (police) department, within three days two cases were registered. I know it cannot be a coincidence that during last three years there was no case and suddenly two cases were registered in three days," he said. Almeida had alleged that police were hand in glove with drug peddlers in Vasco city. The CM said he has asked the police to be strict in dealing with the drug menace. "I am taking it as an important task for the state of Goa," he said. New Delhi: Anti-AFSPA activist Irom Chanu Sharmila ended a 16-year hunger strike -- thought to be the world's longest -- on Tuesday to stand for election. Here are five things to know about the woman known as the "Iron Lady of Manipur". Who is Irom Sharmila? The 44-year-old poet and activist was born in a small village in the remote and insurgency-wracked northeast Indian state of Manipur. She belongs to the Meitei ethnic group who dominate Manipur. She began fasting in 2000 after allegedly witnessing the army kill 10 people at a bus stop near her home. She has been held in judicial custody almost ever since, and has spent much of the last 16 years confined to a hospital ward. What is her hunger strike about? She is campaigning for the repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Manipur, a remote and impoverished Indian state that is home to a number of separatist insurgent groups. The controversial act allows India's security forces to shoot on sight and arrest anybody without a warrant and is in force in Indian-administered Kashmir and across much of the northeast. Last month the Supreme Court ordered an investigation into the use of "excessive and retaliatory" force by police and the military in Manipur. How has she been kept alive? She has been force-fed via a nasal drip in hospital. Images taken when she emerges from hospital to make one of her frequent court appearances in Manipur show her looking emaciated and frail, with plastic tubes taped to her nose. What will she do next? She plans to stand for office in upcoming state elections in Manipur and continue her fight through politics for the repeal of the AFSPA. She has said she will stand as an independent candidate. She has also said she intends to marry her fiance, a British national of Indian origin, whom she has corresponded with by letter. How much support does she have? Amnesty International declared her a Prisoner of Conscience in 2013 and she has received several prestigious international prizes, including a lifetime achievement award from the Asian Human Rights Commission. But support in her home state has waned and in recent years she has hinted at her frustration with this. Some in Manipur have criticised her choice of partner because he is from outside the state, with one insurgent group threatening to kill her if she marries him. New Delhi: Former Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Kalikho Pul was found hanging in the chief ministers official residence on Tuesday, barely weeks after the Supreme Court unseated him from power. The 47-year-old was yet to vacate the chief ministers residence because his home was being renovated. He allegedly hanged himself from the ceiling fan in his bedroom, a top police officer said. Read: Modi, leaders from across political line, condole Kalikho Puls death Pul was found by one of his three wives. According to the doctors, the death occurred between 7 and 7:30 am. Pul, who is survived by four children, had not met any outsider for the past seven days, according to his family. MHA sources confirmed that no suicide note has been found and the reason of suicide could be depression. Kalikho Pul rebelled against Congress Chief Minister Nabam Tuki in late 2015. He was made acting CM of the state on February 19, 2016, propped up by the support of 12 other rebel MLAs and the BJP. Read: Arunachal Pradesh declares 3-day state mourning following Kalikho Puls demise In December last, in an Assembly session convened in a hotel, the Congress rebels led by Pul and BJP MLAs voted out the Tuki government. He served for four and a half months before the Supreme Court ended his reign. In a first-of-its-kind ruling, the top court removed the government in power and ordered the Congress government be restored. Tukis appointment was illegal, the court said, as the Governor did not have any power to summon an Assembly bypassing the government. Read: Arunachal govt announces magisterial inquiry into Pul's death The top court reinstated the Tuki government, wound back the clock and held all decisions made under the Pul government were illegal. Tuki made way for Pema Khandu as the Congress chief minister. Meanwhile, a group of people who had assembled outside Pul's residence turned unruly and demanded that the Chief Minister and his council of ministers resign immediately on account of Pul's alleged suicide. Scores of his supporters gheraoed Chief Minister Pema Khandu's bungalow in Niti Bihar area and demanded a probe into Pul's "unnatural" death. They also set on fire an under-construction building of the Deputy chief minister and damaged two official bungalows. Supporters said they would not allow Pul's body to be taken out of the bungalow and demanded that he be buried inside the premises. A coffin, which was brought from outside, was damaged and set on fire by the crowd before the assembled media. A section of the supporters headed towards the official residence of Deputy CM Chowna Mein, less than 100 metres away, damaged the outer wall and at least 10 vehicles parked in the premises. Protestors also damaged the official bungalow of Industries Minister Tapang Taloh. A high-level cabinet meeting was on and police reinforcements, including state police and ITBP, were sent to the high-security VVIP zone where the ministers' residences were located. Pul's body will be kept at the bungalow for public to pay respects, official sources said. Pul has served as the finance minister in Chief Minister Gegong Apangs cabinet from 2003 until 2007. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Board of Direct Taxes to complete the probe in two months into the allegations against Mohd Iqbal, a former legislator in Uttar Pradesh that he had amassed disproportionate assets to the tune of Rs 10,000 crores. A Bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur and Justices AMK Kanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud passed this order after hearing senior counsel Haren Raval, appearing for petitioner Ranvir Singh, Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh and counsel for Mr. Iqbal strongly opposing the PIL. In response to the notice the ASG informed the court that the ED and CBDT were examining the report of the Serious Fraud Investigation Office in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs which has indicated that prima facie most of the companies floated by Mr. Iqbal are fake companies and there is a possibility of money laundering. The ASG sought three months for completion of the probe by ED and CBDT in the light of the findings of SFIO. The bench, however, asked them to finish the probe in two months and file a status report in the court. When Mr. Raval submitted that though a copy of the complaint was given to the CBI, nothing had happened, the Bench asked the CBI to look into the allegations and pass appropriate orders in accordance with law. In his petition, the Petitioner alleged that Mr. Mohd. Iqbal, former BSP MLC has accumulated assets worth Rs.10,000 crores and all the evidence has been annexed to substantiate his allegations. It was alleged that Mr. Iqbal had amassed disproportionate assets using laundered and black money, i.e. unknown sources of income, who is known to work as liaison with State Government and head the mining mafia in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana and is also the founder Chancellor of Global University, Saharanpur. It said many of these companies in which Mohd. Iqbal or his family members are shareholders in over 111 companies, which have zero or minimal revenues while their share capital runs in hundreds of crores of rupees. This is clearly tax evasion and use of funds generated through black money. Such illegal funds are parked in these sham companies with no operations but huge share capitals. Mr. Iqbal also owns huge properties across U.P., Haryana, Uttarakhand, and several Gulf countries where he has close financial links. Since Mohd. Iqbal is a sitting legislator, the declaration of assets filed by him in U.P., Vidhan Sabha only discloses his assets to be worth Rs.3.50 crores, whereas publicly available information shows his assets to be worth over Rs.10,000 crores. He sets up hundreds of companies to be used as conduits for concealing his black monies. The Bench made it clear to the ED, Income Tax department or the Ministry of Corporate Affairs or any other authority to conduct an independent probe into the petitioners complaint and submit a report to the court on the next date of hearing after six weeks. Last month, India had lost the arbitration case in a Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) tribunal based in the Hague over its space marketing PSU Antrix Corp annulling a contract with Bengaluru-based private multimedia firm Devas. (Photo: Representational Image/PTI) New Delhi: The government is studying the Hague tribunal's orders on Antrix-Devas deal and will file appeal against the verdict at an "appropriate time" in the international tribunal, ISRO Chairman said on Tuesday. Last month, India had lost the arbitration case in a Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) tribunal based in the Hague over its space marketing PSU Antrix Corp annulling a contract with Bengaluru-based private multimedia firm Devas. The tribunal ruled that the Indian government had acted "unfairly" and "inequitably" in cancelling the contract involving use of two satellites and spectrum. "We are studying the court orders and will file appeal against the PCA tribunal at appropriate time. The appeal will be filed in the," ISRO Chairman and Secretary in Department of Space A S Kirankumar said. The tribunal had found that the Indian government's actions in annulling the contract and denying Devas commercial use of S-band spectrum constituted an "expropriation". Under the deal signed in 2005, Antrix was to provide 70 MHz of the scarce S-Band wavelength to Devas for its digital multimedia services by leasing 90 per cent of the transponders in ISROs GSAT-6 and GSAT-6A satellites. Devas, in turn, was to pay Antrix a total of USD 300 million over 12 years. New Delhi: The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has asked broadcasters to give prime coverage to the north east region, especially while covering national events like the Republic Day. In a letter to private satellite TV channels, the ministry referred to the recommendations of the committee headed by M P Bezbaruah, a member of North-Eastern Council, on the concerns of the people of north east living in other parts of the country. It is important for the media to reach out to put north east on the national stage and prime coverage should be given to the north east region in the media, the ministry said. It said in case of national events like the Republic Day, commentators should cover the event in the most effective way of presenting the north east. As Bollywood plays a prominent role in forming images in minds of people, use of north east locales for movies should be encouraged. Such incentives may also encourage popular serials in TVs to look at the north east and even to include stories from the region in such serials, it said. It also asked the media to be careful while covering sensitive race related issues and ensure that they become agents of diffusion of tension. Indian Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar summoned Pakistani High Commissioner Abdul Basit on Tuesday to lodge protest against over Pakistan's continued support to cross-border terrorism in Kashmir. (Photo: PTI) New Delhi: Amid growing strain in ties, India on Tuesday summoned Pakistani envoy Abdul Basit and issued a strong demarche over Pakistan's continued support to cross-border terrorism in Kashmir, which has fuelled unrest in the Valley. Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar called Basit to his South Block office and lodged a strong protest over the issue as he made a specific reference to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist and Pakistani national Bahadur Ali, who was captured recently in North Kashmir during an encounter. "Jaishankar called in the Pakistan envoy and issued a strong demarche on continuing cross border terrorism from Pakistan. "Demarche made specific reference to LeT terrorist and Pak national Bahadur Ali who was apprehended recently," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said. Ali, born in the Zia Bagga village of Pakistan, was arrested by Indian authorities in Jammu and Kashmir on July 25 with weapons (AK 47 rifle, live rounds, grenades, grenade launcher etc), and also sophisticated communication equipment and other material of Pakistani/international origin, according to the demarche issued to Basit. "Bahadur Ali has confessed to our authorities that after training in Lashkar-e-Taiba camps, he was infiltrated into India. He was thereafter in touch with an 'operations room' of LeT, receiving instructions to attack Indian security personnel and carry out other terrorist attacks in India," it said. Basit's summoning comes on a day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached out to people of Kashmir, which has been witnessing widespread unrest for over a month triggered by the killing of Hizbul commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with the security forces. As many as 55 people have lost their lives in these incidents of violence. The ties between India and Pakistan have seen growing bitterness after Pakistan and its Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif made provocative statements on the Kashmir situation in the wake of Wani's killing on July 8. Not only did Sharif praise Wani and hailed him as a "martyr" but he also asserted "Kashmir will one day become Pakistan", a comment which evoked a sharp reaction from External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, who said his dream of the state becoming a part of his country "will not be realised even at the end of eternity". The chill in bilateral relations was on full display during Home Minister Rajnath Singh's visit to Islamabad for a SAARC ministerial meet last week when he and his Pakistani counterpart Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan not only avoided a proper handshake but Singh also left without attending the lunch hosted by Khan. Mumbai: Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday said that the Maharashtra government will press for the extradition of Islamic preacher Zakir Naik, if he does not return to India on his own. Government has received a report on Zakir Naik from police commissioner of Mumbai. There are many indictments in the report, said Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis to ANI. Many unlawful activities have been pointed out pertaining to the organisation of which Zakir Naik is the leader. Certain activities are attributed to him as well. Maharashtra government is studying the report and will soon share it with the Ministry of Home Affairs. In consultation with the MHA, we will decide the future course of action Fadnavis added. The Mumbai Police probing the alleged provocative speeches of Islamic televangelist Zakir Naik, who is under the scanner of various Central agencies as well, has submitted its report to Maharashtra Home department, a senior official said on Tuesday. The report will now be vetted by the Home department and sent to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for further action, Principal Secretary (Home) Vijay Satbir Singh said. Read: Zakir Naik's aide, 3 others booked by Mumbai police for alleged IS recruitment The Mumbai Police was asked to probe Naik's past speeches available online, to see if any of them could have inspired youths to join terrorist organisations, amid reports that his preachings inspired some of those involved in Dhaka terror strike. The city police was also conducting a joint inquiry (with other probe agencies) into the functioning of Naik's Islamic Research Foundation (IRF), to scrutinise the finances it has received from various parts of the world. Naik, who is now abroad, has been facing heat over allegations of inspiring some of the Dhaka attackers through his speeches. There were media reports that "provocative" speeches had inspired some of the terrorists who carried out Bangladesh's worst terror attack at a cafe in Dhaka that left 22 people dead on July 1. Naik had a lengthy interaction with Indian media via Skype from Saudi Arabia on July 15, rubbishing the charge that his sermons had inspired terror activity, including the Dhaka attack. He has ruled out returning to India this year and claimed his remarks were "blown out of context" and that he has never inspired any terror activity. Stating that he is a "messenger of peace", Naik had also accused Indian media of running a trial against him by hyping on unverified reports and doctored clippings and statements being shown out of context. Meanwhile, the city police on Monday registered a case against an IRF employee and three others, including two arrested earlier by Kerala police in connection with alleged ISIS recruitment case in the southern state. They have been booked under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and IPC section 120-B (criminal conspiracy), a senior police official said on Tuesday. New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday described BJP's proposed 'Tiranga Yatra' between August 15-22 as a symbol of social harmony and unity and asked party leaders to put in efforts to make it a success. He promoted the yatra as a measure to spread harmony at the BJP's Parliamentary Party meeting. The theme song for the BJP's 15-day exercise '70 Saal Azadi-Zara Yaad Karo Kurbani' to mark Independence Day was also released in the meeting, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar told reporters after the meeting. Kesiraju Srinivas, popularly known as Ghazal Srinivas, who holds a record for singing in most languages, has composed the song, he said. Modi also asked the party leaders to publicise recent initiatives of the government like the passage of GST Bill in Parliament, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar told reporters after the meeting. "The Tirana Yatra will be a symbol of development, social harmony and unity. It will spread harmony," Modi said. Schools should discuss the lives of freedom fighters as it will inspire students, he said, adding, pupils should visit memorials associated with the martyrs. He asked party MPs to carry out the Tiranga Yatra on two-wheelers and visit all corners of the country, Kumar said. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Kumar also spoke at the meeting. The Monsoon session of the Parliament has been productive with 11 bills passed in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha each. Commenting on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's condemnation of vigilante cow protectors, BSP chief Mayawati said he was sleeping like Kumbhkarna for last two years. (Photo: PTI) New Delhi: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Monday assailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his 'delayed' condemnation of vigilante cow protectors, saying he was "sleeping like Kumbhkarna" for the last two years and made the statements to woo Dalit voters ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls. "Modi was silent for the last two years. He slept like 'Kumbhakarna' (the mythological character in Ramayana who slept for six months at a stretch). He has woken up now because assembly elections are going to take place in Uttar Pradesh and some other states. "He knew that he would not get a single Dalit vote. He gave the statements to get Dalit votes," she said. Mayawati's criticism of the Prime Minister came after his denunciation of the cow vigilantes, twice in two days in Delhi and Telangana. Seeking to contain the damage to BJP government in his home state Gujarat, going to polls next year, following the Una Dalits flogging incident, and similar episodes in some other states, PM Modi had yesterday and the day before come down heavily on the so-called cow protectors, calling them "anti-socials" who should be "punished". Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the public meeting to mark launch of 70th Freedom Year Celebrations in Bhabra village, Alirajpur district on Tuesday. (Photo: PTI) Bhabhra (MP): The freedom that every Indian enjoys can be felt by Kashmiris too, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in Alirajpur, Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday in a strong gesture towards violence-ridden Kashmir which is battling over 30 days of curfew. Some people are causing a lot of harm to Kashmir a place we give so much love to, Modi said addressing a gathering at freedom fighter Chandrashekhar Azads birthplace in the tribal-dominated Alirajpur. The Prime Minister wished that every Kashmiri youth would have a bright future. Modi appealed for peace and harmony, and asked the youth to keep Kashmir as "heaven" on earth. He appealed to those holding guns in Kashmir to give it up and take up ploughs to turn Kashmir green for the benefit of its people. Modi deplored the actions of some misguided youth in Kashmir, saying, "Boys who should be holding laptops, bats and balls in their hands and dreams in their hearts are the ones carrying stones." "We are the people who walk the path that Atal Bihari Vajpayee took when it comes to Kashmir," he claimed. Modi thanked the Congress and the country for dealing with the situation in Kashmir in a mature way. He said through development, the Centre along with the Mehbooba Mufti government in Jammu and Kashmir was doing their best to find a solution to all problems. Modi pledged all help for the betterment of Kashmiris. "Kashmir wants peace. Whatever Kashmiris want for betterment of their livelihood, the Centre will help. We want development for Jammu and Kashmir," he stated. Perhaps in a veiled reference to India's unity, Modi said, "Our flag inspires the people to change the future of India. It inspires desh-bhakti in us." Modi is the first Prime Minister to visit the birthplace of Azad, Madhya Pradesh minister Vishwas Sarang said. Speaking at the event, Modi said, "It is my good fortune to be here. I bow my head at the birthplace of Chandrashekhar Azad. Many of us were born in a free India. But freedom fighters got the honour to sacrifice their lives for the nation." Modi also paid rich tributes to the revolutionary leader. The PM paid floral tributes at the statue of Azad at his birthplace, known as 'Azad Kutia'. The Prime Minister said that for those born after Independence, living for the sake of the nation was an honour. Bhabhra town, where Modi spoke, has been rechristened Chandrashekhar Azad Nagar by the BJP government in memory of the revolutionary leader. The Prime Minister, accompanied by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, also visited an exhibition based on Azad's life. Later in the day, Modi will launch a campaign '70, Azaadi Yaad Karo Qurbani' on the occasion at Jothrada, about 7 km from Bhabhra, and address a meeting. Earlier, the Chouhan welcomed Modi at Indore airport on his arrival from Delhi. Then Modi, along with Chouhan, went to Bhabhra in an IAF helicopter where he was welcomed by state BJP president Nandkumar Singh Chauhan, Women and Child Development Minister Archana Chitnis and Minister of State for Cooperatives (Independent Charge) Vishwas Sarang, among others. Three BSF personnel, including an officer, and a militant were killed on Monday in an operation in Macchil sector near the Line of Control in Kupwara in Kashmir. (Photo: Representational Image/PTI) Srinagar: The BSF on Tuesday said the encounter in Macchil sector in north Kashmir, in which three BSF personnel and a militant were killed, was an attempt by Pakistan's Border Action Team (BAT) with support from Pakistani army to infiltrate militants into the Valley. "Yesterday early morning, there was an encounter. Apparently, it seems, a BAT (Border Action Team) action where the Pakistani army has given fire support to infiltrate some of the militants," Additional DG BSF Arun Kumar told reporters here. He said the attack was part of a series of such incidents on the borders in both the Kashmir Valley as well as in Jammu region. "One of them (infiltrators) was killed. He was carrying one AK 47 and a grenade. When our company commander rushed and spotted him, he exchanged fire. In addition to our three martyrs, some of our other soldiers have suffered minor injuries and this is in a series of incidents where, under the operation of army and BSF, infiltrators are being neutralised in encounters both at the Srinagar and Jammu frontiers," he said. "In Rajouri also, just a few days back, we killed three of them. So, I think, this seems to be in series of that," the Additional DG BSF said. Kumar said the infiltrators took advantage of the low visibility amid bad weather to reach the BSF post. "The fencing around our posts has broken at many places and it is a less distance from the posts. They also took advantage of bad weather during early morning when the visibility is low," he said The officer said the forces responded in an brave manner to thwart the infiltration attempt. "We got one body that was on our side but how many casualties are on the other side, that we will know. I hope there has been more damage to them," he said. Kumar said surveillance at the border has been increased in view of the "desperate" infiltration attempts by militants. "The surveillance has been increased. We work under the operational command of the army. Naturally, what happens is that when the snow melts the activity increases and we take precautions to make their attempts unsuccessful," he said. "The intelligence sources have warned us. There are people sitting on another side and are trying their best to infiltrate to this side. I think, the way things are happening, they cannot succeed without the active support of Pakistan army," he said. Three BSF personnel, including an officer, and a militant were killed on Monday in an operation in Macchil sector near the Line of Control in Kupwara in Kashmir. While rejecting the bail application, Justice Nirmal Jeet Kaur said since the trial of the case has reached its fag end, it was not appropriate to grant the bail. (Photo: PTI) Jodhpur: The Rajasthan High Court on Tuesday rejected the bail application of self-styled godman Asaram Bapu, who is facing rape charges. This was the ninth regular bail application of Asaram to be rejected. An interim bail plea was rejected by the high court last month. While rejecting the bail application, Justice Nirmal Jeet Kaur said since the trial of the case has reached its fag end, it was not appropriate to grant the bail. Prosecution counsel PC Solanki said the court also rejected the argument of defence that the trial of the case was taking long. A teenage girl had accused Asaram of sexual assault at his ashram in Manai village near Jodhpur. The girl belonging to Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh was a student at the ashram. Following her complaint against Asaram, he was arrested by Jodhpur Police on 31 August, 2013 and has been in jail since then. Sonia Gandhi prayed for peace of the departed soul. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi also expressed his condolences. (Photo: PTI) New Delhi: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday expressed shock at the untimely and tragic demise of former Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Kalikho Pul. Extending her condolences to Puls family, Gandhi prayed for peace of the departed soul. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi also expressed his condolences. Shocked and deeply saddened at the untimely demise of Kalikho Pulji. My heart goes out to his family and loved ones, he tweeted. Pul was found dead at the Chief Ministers official residence in Itanagar earlier on Tuesday. Read: Weeks after being removed as Arunachal CM, Kalikho Pul hangs self Expressing his solidarity, former Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Nabam Tuki in a statement said, It is sad and really unfortunate that a young leader Kalikho Pul is no more with us. May God give strength to his family. It is a loss for the entire state of Arunachal Pradesh. The entire Congress family is with his family in this moment of grief. Pul was the chief minister for around four months after the state was placed under Presidents Rule following a series of dramatic developments, which witnessed the Congress government being voted out by party rebels along with the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In February, Pul was sworn-in as the Arunachal Pradesh chief minister with the support of 18 dissident Congress legislators, two independents and 11 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs who gave him outside support in the 60-member assembly. Nabam Tuki, who was earlier the chief minister, was dismissed following days of turmoil, after 21 of the 47 Congress MLAs including Pul -rebelled against him. Arunachal Pradesh was placed under Presidents Rule on January 26. Last month, the Supreme Court ordered the restoration of the earlier Congress government in Arunachal. New Delhi: With Indo-Pak ties continuing to slide sharply downhill, India has summoned Pakistani envoy Abdul Basit and issued a strong demarche to protest against Pakistans continued support to cross-border terrorism in Kashmir, pointing specifically to Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) terrorist and Pakistani national Bahadur Ali, who was captured recently in Kashmir during an encounter. New Delhi said Islamabad's continued support to terrorism was contrary to assurances given by the Pakistani leaders at the highest level and said India was prepared to grant the Pakistan High Commission consular access to the captured terrorist who has requested legal aid and assistance to meet his family. Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar called Mr. Basit to his South Block office and lodged a strong protest over the issue. Pakistan had last month summoned the Indian High Commi-ssioner to protest against the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani whom Islamabad termed a Kashmiri leader. Basits summoning comes on a day when Modi reached out to the people in the Kashmir. Irom Sharmila Irom Sharmila addresses a press conference after a court appearance in Imphal, in the north-eastern state of Manipur, India, on Tuesday. (Photo: AP) Guwahati: The Iron Lady of Manipur Irom Chanu Sharmila was released by a court on Tuesday in Imphal on a personal bond and assurance to break her 16-year old fast demanding repeal of Armed Forces Special Powers Act (Afspa) in Manipur. Ms Sharmila appeared before the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate of Imphal West, Lamk-hanpau Tonsing on Tuesday and was granted bail on personal bond of Rs 10,000. Those present when she broke her fast said, With her first taste of food, she winced, then broke down and wept for several moments. A section of her supporters and family members are not happy over the way Ms Sharmila decided to break her fast. Bombarded with questions about her political future and her plans, the 44-year-old Ms Sharmila said, This is my life. I want equality... I am called the Iron Lady of Manipur and I want to live up to it. She reasserted that she wants to contest the Manipur election next year as an independent candidate. I want to be the chief minister of Manipur to make positive changes..... If I become chief minister, the first thing I will do is to remove the AFSPA, she told reporters here. She has already announced that she wants to marry. For years, she has exchanged letters with Desmond Coutinho, a Goa-based British citizen who has also met her. Asked whether she was a woman in love, Ms Sharmila replied, It is natural. Earlier in a brief remark to the media while waiting for her release order, she said, I am being seen as a strange woman. Why can't people see me as an ordinary person? I am cut off from everyone. Hubballi: The arrival of the Indian institute of Technology (IIT) is changing the academic environment of the twin cities of Hubballi-Dharwad and neighbouring districts with private tutorials mushrooming overnight and several education institutions offering special courses to help school students gain admission to the premier institute. Both the tutorials and education institutions are receiving overwhelming response in Dharwad, which is already an education hub. With an eye on the IIT, private schools have shortlisted high school students based on their skills, ideas and parental support for specialised training along with their regular curriculum. Experienced faculty have been chosen and an attractive tuition fee structure worked out to interest the students. Several education institutions also plan to provide more training to these students using experts with an IIT background once they enter PU. "Our students cannot hope to get admission to the IIT for the next two years as their academic standards do not match its requirements currently. But foundation courses have begun in many schools from this year to prepare them for it. We ourselves are conducting special classes for batches of 40 students in classes VIII, IX and X, said Mr Vishwanath Nagathan, headmaster of the SVN English Medium High School in Dharwad. The initiative of the schools and tutorials to prepare high school students for admission to the IIT has excited parents, who now believe it could be within their reach. But some academicians believe they are waking up a little late to the possibility. Although Bihar and Andhra Pradesh did not have IITs in the past, many students from these states managed to get admission to these institutes elsewhere. Students need to have such ambition and parents must support them even if there is no such institute in their region. After all a common entrance is conducted at the all- India level for admissions to them, said principal of the BVB engineering college, Ashok Shettar. Hyderabad: Around 70,000 households in Hyderabad, mostly in the suburbs, do not have individual toilets. Officials said that as per the Samagra Kutumba Survey, residents of these households relieve themselves in open places, drains or railway tracks. In many unauthorised colonies and notified or non-notified slums in GHMC limits, people are defecating in the open due to lack of individual toilets. It should be remembered that under the Swachh Bharat scheme, every household will get Rs 12,000 to construct toilets. Speaking on toilet issues in Greater Hyderabad, the mayor said, The focus is on individual and community toilets. For individual houses, the GHMC is identifying toilet-less houses and toilets will be constructed with state and Central funds. For community toilets suitable spots with 1000 sq.yds of land is being identified and bio-urinals will be installed or new toilets will be constructed. He added, The GHMC has provided application forms for the construction of individual toilets in all circles. People can fill up the forms and submit it to deputy municipal Commissioners. The applications will be processed by the GHMC head office and handed over to commissioner and director of municipal administration (CDMA). Households where old toilets need remodelling can apply for the construction of new toilets and the government will provide funds for that. SRINAGAR: Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, on Tuesday donned the mantle of his predecessor former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in breaking his silence on the one-month-old turbulence in Kashmir saying the Centre is looking for development solutions to the people's problems. But his assertion has come as a big disappointment to many people here and opposition mainstream parties and separatists alike described it as being ignorant of the reality on the ground and based on inaccurate feedback on the situation. After hearing the Prime Minister speak at a gathering at Bhabra, Alirajpur, in Madhya Pradesh, many people in the Valley and fellow Kashmiris living outside quickly took to the social networking sites, Facebook and Twitter, to complain that Mr Modi has not uttered a single word on the loss of human lives during the unrest. Mr Modi also said, Indians loved Kashmir but there are some elements who were hurting the great tradition of Kashmiriyat. Though he acknowledged that dialogue resolves issues in a democracy, he chose not to speak on chief minister Mehbooba Muftis suggestion to revive talks with Islamabad on Kashmir. Reacting to Mr Modis assertion that his government believes in Mr Vajpayees mantra of Insaniyat, Jamhooriyat and Kashmiriyat (humanity, democracy and Kashmiriyat the ethno-national and social consciousness and cultural values of the Kashmiri people), Kashmiri poet and author Khalid Bashid Ahmed wrote on his Facebook timeline, Insaniyat through bullets and Jamhooriyat through pellets. Many on the social networking sites lamented that he spoke of Kashmir and not Kashmiris. The BBMP will be the biggest beneficiary of CM Siddaramaiahs belated move to clear the encroachments-it can ensure the smooth flow of storm water and also get richer by at least Rs 1 lakh crore-the value of the properties it would be recovering! Is this the proverbial lull before the storm? On Tuesday, BBMP and revenue officials engaged in the demolition exercise to clear encroachments on storm water drains, let their bulldozers rest and carried out the markings for structures to be razed. The drive is likely to resume on Wednesday after the confusion over the extent of demolitions to be carried out is cleared. But even as the mortar and bricks come tumbling down, the big question remains-can civic agencies like BBMP ever escape the taint of first allowing illegal structures to come up and then send in the JCBs to bring them down? The BBMP will be the biggest beneficiary of CM Siddaramaiahs belated move to clear the encroachments-it can ensure the smooth flow of storm water and also get richer by at least Rs 1 lakh crore-the value of the properties it would be recovering! Facing flak for Mondays chaos over conflicting claims from the revenue department on the extent of properties to be removed for encroaching on drains and lake beds in the city, the BBMP went slow on the demolitions on Tuesday, making sure revenue officials had done the necessary markings before letting its bulldozers loose. But it is losing no time in preparing the list of structures to be pulled down and having it approved by BBMP commissioner N. Manjunath Prasad for speedy evictions. With revenue officials marking the drains in Bommanahalli, Mahadevapura and Yelahanka, the demolitions here are likely to proceed full scale on Wednesday. The BBMP has its task cut out if it is serious about clearing all the encroachments on rajakaluves or Storm Water Drains (SWD) as around 1,932 such properties have been identified across the city. Chief Minister Siddaramaiahs promise to bulldoze the properties built on raja kaluves, irrespective of how big or small they may be, has, however, reinforced its resolve to intensify the drive to arrest the flooding the city has been regularly experiencing in rain. A four storeyed building, just a few meters from the BBMP head office on JC road is sitting bang on top of a stormwater drain. On Tuesday, Mayor Manjunath Reddy reiterated that encroachments would not be tolerated. However influential their owners may be, they would be brought down, he promised. Although some of the property owners had managed to get a stay on the demolitions, the BBMP intended to engage in legal battle to vacate the stays and recover the stretch of drain encroached on to allow smooth flow of storm water, he said. The agency which claims to have removed 862 illegal structures, is preparing lists of more buildings to be demolished and will hand them over to the respective joint commissioners executing the evictions, according to him. As far as punishing builders responsible for the encroachments and the officials who colluded with them, Mr. Reddy said the BBMP had furnished the documents necessary to a committee headed by Additional Chief Secretary, Mahendra Jain, which was investigating the matter. Criminal cases will be filed against the encroachers and officials, he added. If the BBMP acts on the orders of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to deal with encroachers and land sharks with an iron fist, it could not only arrest the annual flooding, but also becomes richer by at least rupee one lakh crore! But there are conflicting figures on encroachments of lakes and storm water drains. While the survey department claims there are over 14,000 such encroachments over 1,000 acres, the BBMP believes there are only 1,923. Even so, considering the average guidance value of properties in core areas of the city is not less than Rs 5,000 per sq. ft, if all the encroached land is recovered, the government stands to gain tremendously, point out sources. Currently, every flooding in Bengaluru has been bleeding the BBMP and the state government financially owing to the relief measures and repairs required in its aftermath, they note. The bulldozers at work Yelahanka: Revenue officials and the BBMPs demolition task force were provided tight police security as they marked around 150 structures in Doddabommasanda, ward no. 10 on Tuesday in the midst of protests by the people. The marked structures will be demolished starting Wednesday, according to Mr Sarfaraz Khan, joint commissioner, Yelahanka zone, BBMP. BBMP demolition plan "Sites in Thanisandra have messed with the alignment of the drain flowing into the Dodda Bommasandra lake. We plan to request more police security and continue with our demolition in the area starting Wednesday, the officer said. On Monday a mechanics garage and half of a paying guest accommodation built over a storm water drain in Ramachandrapura were demolished. The latter property worth about Rs 15 crore belonged to one Mr. Patel, according to BBMP officials. At the start of the demolition drive on Saturday, the task force cleared 1.5 km of built-up encroachments starting from Chamundeshwari ward, demolishing a closed parking lot of an apartment complex and the toilets and changing room of a swimming pool. Mahadevapura: The demolition of 10 villas in Shubh Enclave on Haralur Main Road, off Sarjapur Road, that began on Saturday continued on Tuesday. By the end of the day almost 70 per cent of the work was done. While two buildings in the centre of the raja kaluves alignment were razed to the ground another building was half demolished . Portions of seven other villas, including porticos, compound walls and parking area were also demolished, according to engineer Malathi, who supervised the demolition work between the Kasavanahalli and Kaigondanahalli lakes in Shubh Enclave. We have cleared encroachments over 5 meters of the drain as of now. Another 2.4 meters has to be verified by the tahasildar and the revenue departments survey team on Wednesday before we can proceed further, the officer said. Bommanahalli: People of Avani Sringerinagar continued to demolish their encroaching properties themselves using private labour. BBMP officials have given them time till Wednesday to complete the task. Meanwhile, the revenue departments survey officials marked a fresh set of buildings that were encroaching on the raja kaluves alignment for demolition. HC dismisses plea against demolition The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday sought to know from BBMP and the state Government on how they intend to take action against erring officers, who are involved in granting sanction to the plan, providing conversion orders and issuing occupancy certificates to houses that were constructed on the primary drains (rajakaluves). The court passed the directions while dismissing a petition filed by one Nama Krishnaiah, a resident of MCHS Colony, 6th Sector in HSR Layout, who had approached the court seeking directions to BBMP to restrain them from damaging his house after his car parking area was demolished by the palike during the recent demolition drive. However, the court ordered to list the matter on August 23, for the purpose over suitable action against the erring officials. Earlier the petitioner's advocate submitted before the court that the palike has demolished a part of the house building that was constructed on 10,200 sq feet on Sy number 57, Kasavanahalli village, Varthur hobli in Bengaluru South taluk without issuing proper notice to the petitioner. Neither the village maps show the existence of rajakaluve in this location nor does the BDA's comprehensive development plan (CDP), 1995, the advocate argued. However, the palike maintained that that village maps broadly indicate the presence of raja kaluves. Further, it made it clear to the court that the palike has taken up the action in the larger public interest to remove encroachment on the raja kaluves. Is the BBMP being selective? The BBMP is delaying updating the list of encroachers on its website. On Tuesday it uploaded details of only two zones, leaving the people of the remaining six zones on tenterhooks. Many are also beginning to ask why there are no demolitions in the core of the city and are accusing it of being selective. But its officials say it is first tackling encroachments in areas that saw unprecedented floods recently. Also, such a drive in the core areas will need preparation as it could affect traffic and create law and order issues, they claim. Will the Mahendra Jain committee report hold water? Although the state government has set up a committee headed by additional chief secretary, Mahendra Jain to look into the encroachments, most of the officials involved have either retired or died, point out sources. A paramilitary trooper aims a sling shot towards Kashmiri protestors during clashes at a protest in the Batmaloo area of Srinagar on Tuesday. (Photo: AFP) New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Jammu and Kashmir government and the police to have a humane approach while dealing with the current situation in the Valley following the killing of Hizbul Mujahedeen commander Burhan Wani. Making this oral observation a Bench comprising Justices P.C. Ghose and Amitava Roy stayed a Jammu and Kashmir High Court order, upholding a sessions courts direction to register an FIR against Deputy Superintendent of Police Yasir Qadri for the killing of a youth, Shabir Ahmad Mir. Without registering the FIR, the State rushed to the apex court contending that FIR against police officers will demoralise the force and anti-social elements will take advantage of the situation. The Bench while entertaining appeal filed by the J&K government also stayed the initiation of contempt by the High Court for not complying with its directions. The apex court bench asked the police to investigate the matter without suspending or arresting the DSP and submit the report to the court in a sealed cover on August 12. Meanwhile, the Bench stayed the order for registration of an FIR against the DSP on a complaint by a man whose 26-year-old son Shabir Ahmad Mir was allegedly shot dead by the police officer. According to the complaint, the DSP, along with a police team, had entered their house and shot dead his son Shabir and assaulted his mother when she intervened. The state in its appeal questioned the haste shown by the magistrate in ordering the FIR on the same day she had received the complaint without seeking response of the state police. You should be seen to be treating the people with love and affection, the Bench told Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi and Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, when they pleaded for stay of the HC order. Mehta, informed the court that anti-national elements were instigating people to file false cases of murder against policemen to demoralise the security forces. The securitymen were dealing with a difficult situation and their modus operandi was in national interest, he contended. Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday granted some respite to the Telangana state government by selectively staying an order of a single judge that had struck down a Government Order, Ms No. 123, issued for acquiring land from the land owners through mutual consent for public projects. While staying the single judge order, the High Court made it clear that the stay will be applicable only to the land being procured for the National Investment and Manufacturing Zone (NIMZ) in Medak district. A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice U. Durga Prasad Rao, while dealing with an appeal from the state against the single judge order, said it would hear separately the petitions challenging GO 123 with regard to procurement of land for irrigation projects. The present interim order will be confined simply to the land procurement for the NIMZ. The bench advised the government to issue a GO extending the compensation to the families affected by land acquisition for NIMZ. Telangana gets conditional go-ahead The bench advised the government to propose a better compensation package than the benefits envisaged under Schedule 2 of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013. It ruled that no farmer shall be displaced till completion of the entire land acquisition process. Also, no obstruction shall be caused to the landowners in continuing with their farming activities. The bench said the court would permit registration only after perusing the GO that would be issued by the government to provide compensation to the families affected by the NIMZ and posted the case to August 11. Earlier, counsel for the petitioners referred to the court a complaint that there was no proposal to compensate tenant farmers, in the government affidavit. The Central Act 2013 proposes employment to one person from each of the affected families under Schedule 2 (4). As per the provision, the government has to give training and provide a job. Or else, government should pay Rs 5 lakh to each family as one-time compensation, or pay Rs 2 000 per month for 20 years in accordance with the price index. When petitioners counsel said some landowners who had small pieces of land were not showing interest to sell their land, the Advocate-General responded that the government would not take a cent of land if an owner was not interested in selling. Harish sees Congress in Naidus conspiracy Irrigation minister T. Harish Rao on Tuesday welcomed the High Court vacating a single judges stay on land acquisition and said that GO 123 benefitted farmers. We have made an open offer to farmers. Let them choose either GO 123 or 2013 Act. But I can assure you that GO 123 benefits farmers, the minister asserted. Asked about TPCC president Uttam Kumar Reddys decision to move the Supreme Court against the HC division benchs stay, he quipped, Let him go. He alleged Opposition parties the Congress and the Telugu Desam have joined the AP government and AP Chief Minister N. Chandra-babu Naidus conspiracy to stall the irrigation projects in the state. Chennai: Andhra Pradesh government constructing a check dam across Palar river and its police arresting 32 Tamils in connection with red sanders echoed in Lok Sabha on Monday with AIADMK MPs raising the issue demanding Union governments intervention. Raising the issue of construction of a check dam across Palar during zero hour, Namakkal MP P.R. Sundaram said the Union government should instruct the Andhra Pradesh government to desist from constructing new check dams or increasing the height of existing structures across Palar and its tributaries. Construction of check dams by Andhra Pradesh over Palar would badly affect northern districts of Tamil Nadu since they depend on the water from the river for drinking purpose. Therefore, I urge that the Prime Minister immediately intervene in this issue and take it up with the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh and ask him to stop building of check dams across Palar river permanently, he said, as other AIADMK MPs also associated themselves with the issue. Arani MP V. Elumalai, while raising the issue of 32 Tamils arrested by the Andhra Pradesh police, said they were arrested by the Andhra Pradesh police at Renigunta Railway Station and have been charged under sections 109 and 120 B of the Indian Penal Code and under section 20 (1) (d) of the Andhra Pradesh Forest Act. I fail to understand how these innocent persons were arrested on the suspicion that they would have gone there to cut red sandalwood. Madam, India is an independent country. Any person can travel to any place, as there is freedom of movement. I want to know whether, at present, there is any restriction to this freedom? Can the poor be arrested on the basis of mere suspicion? he asked. Bathinda: Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh on Monday stormed into Sangat Mandi police station and warned officials against registering "fake" cases against Congress workers allegedly at the behest of the ruling Akalis. During the 'Halke Vich Captain' programme, more than 4000 people submitted 2873 complaints among which over 60 per cent pertained to "fake FIRs", a party spokesman said. Amarinder stormed into the police station after listening to the grievance of a local resident, Baldev Singh, about a land dispute case which had been registered at the Sangat Mandi police station for the last two years. "Instead of registering his complaint and resolving the case, the Sangat Mandi Thana had registered a fake FIR against him at the station," Amarinder said. He told Baldev to accompany him to the police station at immediately where he met the local SHO and DSP and raised the matter, who gave him the "assurance" that it will be resolved within 10 days, the spokesman said. "Respect the uniform you are wearing and ensure that you resort to no injustice at the behest of the Akalis whose days are numbered now," Amarinder told police officials. "I have nothing personal against you but if I find any of you harassing or victimising any of my party workers, it will be more than personal for me and I will neither forget nor forgive it," he said, adding, "all those police officials found guilty of having framed the Congress workers must be ready to go to jail along with their Akali mentors." Instead, the cops took a complaint from the perpetrator and produced the couple before a court, which remanded them in judicial custody to Puzhal prison. Chennai: A 2006-Batch IAS officer of Gujarat cadre reportedly pulled strings to save his brother who harassed a 21-year-old-woman besides indulging in fisticuffs with the latter's husband who resisted his moves on his wife, during the wee hours on Monday. The official managed to get his brother go scot-free since the cops did not even take the complaint from the couple. Instead, the cops took a complaint from the perpetrator and produced the couple before a court, which remanded them in judicial custody to Puzhal prison. The incident took place in an apartment complex in Anna Nagar, Shanthi Colony. The arrested were identified as Preetha (21) and Shivakumar (30), both running a franchise of a beauty salon chain. The couple returned home around midnight after participating in a domestic ceremony. At around 12.30 am, Raghu, another resident of the same apartment complex, came knocking at their doors in an inebriated condition and wanted them to take their car out to make way for his car. Subsequently, a wordy altercation broke out which escalated as Raghu pushed Preetha down and in the process her nightdress was partially torn. Shivakumar who came to Preetha's rescue was engaged in fisticuffs before other neighbours stepped in to broker peace among the duo. The couple chose to sleep through the night after speaking to the landlord who suggested that a complaint could be registered on Monday morning. The cops who arrived at the complex at around 2 am, took Shivakumar with them on Raghu's insistence. Preetha, who went to Arumbakkam police station to lodge a complaint against Raghu, was also placed under arrest. The cops refused even to provide the CSR. It seems some IAS and IPS officer nexus had worked in between which has converted the victims into perpetrators. Both my sister and brother-in-law ended up behind bars, Sreeam, Preethas brother told DeccanChronicle. Chennai: Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa extended help to Sri Lankan government by deputing officers to guide them in the tsunami rehabilitation, state revenue minister R.B. Udhayakumar claimed. After their friendly countries China and Pakistan turned down to help, Sri Lankan government sought Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaas assistance who dispatched state government officers to guide them in rehabilitation work, the minister said in reply to DMK legislator and former fisheries minister K.P.P. Samy who claimed that DMK government in 2006 allotted Rs 1,000 crore for tsunami rehabilitation. The devastating tsunami hit the states coast on December 26, 2004, causing extensive damages to life and properties. Post-tsunami rehabilitation work undertaken by Tamil Nadu government was appreciated across the world. Even former US President Bill Clinton who visited Tamil Nadu praised rehabilitation work of Tamil Nadu government, he said. It all started with Mr Samy when participating in the debate on the demand for grants for fisheries and dairy development said that the then chief minister M. Karunanidhi in 2006 convened a meeting of 13 coastal district collectors to review tsunami rehabilitation work and allotted `1,000 crore for it. Refuting the DMK members claim, fisheries minister D. Jayakumar said that AIADMK government allotted Rs 1,495 crore for the rehabilitation works and accused the DMK government of not spending the allotted amount. There cannot be a worst administration than DMK government. You allotted `258 crore but spent mere Rs 60 crore, he said. To Mr Samys query to show a single house constructed by the then AIADMK government, the revenue minister said that DMK government proceeded with the rehabilitation roadmap prepared by CM Jayalalithaa. Of the 89,132 new houses proposed, 74,138 were built. It was Chief Minister Jayalalithaa who laid down the road map, he said, amid strong opposition by DMK members. If you can patiently listen, I will tell you with the government order numbers. I kindly urge the DMK member not to misguide the House with wrong information. Moreover, people will not believe you, he said. Prime Minister Narendra Modis unequivocal and strong condemnation of gau rakshaks (cow protectors) is expected to go a long way in reining in the cow vigi-lantes who have virtually unleashed a reign of terror. The PM rightly called them anti-socials who are running shops in the name of cow protection. He appears to be in high dudgeon and his anguish should jolt the administration out of slumber. Vigilantism of all kinds is rising, reflecting the crumbling of the administrative-judicial system and lack of peoples faith in it. Mob lynching incidents too are increasing. In one of the most macabre incidents, Syed Sarifuddin Khan, a 35-year-old from Assam accused of rape, was dragged and beaten to death in Dimapur, Nagaland, by a mob of thousands. He was accused of rape by a Naga woman who is his wifes cousin. He was arrested and had been in jail 10 days when a mob of several thousands, including a large number of young women, stormed Dimapur Central Jail on March 5, 2015. Barbarism knew no bounds as he was dragged out, beaten and pelted with stones, stripped naked, tied to a motorcycle and dragged, injured and bleeding for 7 km when he succum-bed to his wounds. The bloodthirsty mob, still dissatisfied, the strung his body up on a fence for onlookers to see and jeer. Cow vigilantism is, however, somewhat different as it is done in the name of religion. The cow enjoys a hallowed position in Hindu tradition. Kamdhenu is a divine bovine-goddess considered the mother of all cows. Also called Matrika goddess, it is known to fulfil all human wishes. As myth goes, she is one of the 14 ratnas that emerged out of the churning of the cosmic ocean. There was a fierce battle between sage Vashistha and king Vishvamitra for the possession of Nandini, the cow-daughter of Kamdhenu. Actually, Vishvamitra was dumb-founded to see that a poor sage had given lavish food to thousands of his kinsmen in the forest and wanted to know how could it be possible. Vashistha divulged the secret: that Nandini, gifted to him by Indra, provided everything. Vishvamitra lost the battle and, realising the potency of spiritual attainments, renounced kingdom and went on a long penance. Lord Ramas ancestor, king Dilip, was childless. Dilip and his wife Sudakshina got a son, Raghu, with the blessing of the cow. Kalidasas epic Raghuvamsha is focused on Raghu. Besides this, the cow has been an integral part of the Indian economy and agriculture. Its products are valued highly and panchagavya (a solution of cows urine, dung, milk, butter and curd) was given to children to make them immune to diseases. However, more than its medicinal efficacy, the myth about its spiritual power pervades Hindu tradition. This finds a place in the Indian Constitution: Article 48 mandates that the State shall endeavour to organise agriculture and animal husbandry on modern and scientific lines and shall, in particular, take steps to preserve and improve breeds, and prohibit the slaughter of cows and calves and other milch and draught cattle. In Muhammad Hanif Quareshi & Others vs State of Bihar, the Supreme Court ruled in 1958 that the protection under this article was confined only to cows and calves, and to those animals that are capable of yielding milk or of doing work as draught cattle, but doesnt extend to ones that are no longer milch and draught cattle. But overturning this in State of Gujarat vs Mirzapur Moti Kureshi Kassab, the court had in 2005 upheld a total ban on the slaughter of cows and their progeny. Again, in Akhil Bharat Goseva Sangh vs State of Andhra Pradesh, the Supreme Court clarified in 2006 that Article 48 did not require the State to impose a total ban on the slaughter of bovine cattle, including the cow and its progeny. In his book Secularism and the Constitution of India, former Chief Justice of India P.B. Gajendragadkar has said Article 48 has accorded recognition in somewhat guarded and hesitant form to Hindu sentiments on cows. Whether it is Hindu sentiment or Indian tradition, which includes the followers of other religions, the cow has had an exalted position. It has doubtless played a role in Indian politics too. But one thing should be made clear: the cow cannot be protected at the cost of human beings. The flogging of dalit youths at Una, Gujarat, on the charge of slaughtering a cow, that was later found to be untrue, reflects on the morbid mind of some who abuse the name of religion. It will be germane to mention an incident from Swami Vivekanandas life. Once some cow protectors came to seek financial help from him. He refused to give any help, saying he didnt have money, but if he had, he would first work for the welfare of man. They protested that man suffers misery and pain due to his sins. The Swami retorted that if so, then cows also suffer due to their sins. At this, the cow protectors were left speechless. All animals deserve human love. This is the philosophy that led to the enactment of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960. The bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha by Rukmini Devi Arundale, a nominated member, as a private members bill, and it is one of the few major laws enacted as a private Bill. Ms Arun-dale was a strict vegetarian. In 1977, Prime Minister Morarji Desai had proposed her name for the presidency, but she refused, saying that she would not have felt comfortable serving non-vegetarian dishes to foreign dignitaries at Rashtrapati Bhavan. One should be humane like Swami Vivekananda or Rukmini Devi Arundale. The cow is on a different pedestal altogether from other animals, but whatever its spiritual or religious significance, it cant subordinate man to an inferior position. The killings of the alleged killer of cows is pure barbarism, one that finds no sanction in Hinduism. Cow protectors, instead of ensuring that cows dont starve, indulge in violent histrionics. It is imperative that the government act swiftly to identify and punish the peddlers of such barbarism. The similarities between Pakistan and Turkey are eerie both were born of Islamic lands that portended an aspired identity of modernism and secularism. Both nations have seen the sparring and oscillation of rule between the armed forces and civilian leaders. Both are continuously trying to rationalise and nuance their inherent religious tendencies with the post-modern necessities of integrating with the global order. Both have had bloody histories of managing minorities, the Kurds with Turkey and Pakistan with its myriad sectarian trysts. They are the only two Islamic nations with nuclear weapons on their soil (while Pakistan has its own arsenal, Incirlik airbase in southeast Turkey is Natos top nuclear weapons-storage facility). While Bangladesh is testimony to Pakistans behavioural infamy, Turkey is associated with the Armenian genocide. Between the two, they are undoubtedly the two most powerful militaries in the Islamic world, with standing armed forces that are professional and revered in popular perception and culture. The commonality of the multiple strains, instincts, institutions and compulsions have given them a unique relationship and partnership between themselves, that held its own in the most trying of times: the 1971 India-Pakistan war saw rare and active Turkish support for Pakistan, both diplomatic and military. It wasnt just Pakistans Quaid-e-Azam, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who looked up to Turkish revolutionary Mustafa Kemal Ataturk as a role model, but, it is said, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who spent nearly 10 years of his childhood in Turkey and spoke fluent Turkish, also modelled himself as Ataturks modern avatar. Fittingly, in 2009, Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was honoured with Pakistans highest civilian award, Nishan-e-Pakistan, in recognition of the highest service degree of service to the nation of Pakistan. On the face of it, Pakistan is like Turkey, even today civil rule is in place but the brooding shadow of the generals looms in the background. But Turkeys recent failed coup attempt has thrown up stark questions on the popular perceptions about its armed forces. While its true that the military putsch was not a unified attempt and lacked the groundswell of uniformed fraternity, the unprecedented scenes of civilians hauling out uniformed soldiers from their armoured vehicles and publicly flogging them on the streets, was an unimaginable spectacle for a country that is known to revere its soldiers. Adding to the insult was the veritable joining-of-hands by people of all political groups from Mr Erdogans Justice and Development Party (AKP) to the Opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP) and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). Irrespective of bitter politics and bad blood among various entities, the combined angst and disgust at the prospect of a military takeover was simply overwhelming. Clearly, the popular democratic impulses and framework nurtured assiduously by President Erdogans efforts since 2003 have taken deep roots also the simultaneous neutering and defanging of the military top brass with the gradual chipping-away of powers and purging the barracks of non-compliant cadres, has literally saved the long night for Mr Erdogan and Turkeys democracy. The current landscape in Pakistan is markedly different the ruling politicians are losing the reins of state control and popular perceptions vis-a-vis the Pakistan Army. The dominant role in Pakistan has shifted from the National Assembly in Islamabad to the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi. It is Gen. Raheel Sharif, not his less imposing namesake, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who is seen as the nations saviour. In the ongoing turf war over control of the game-changing China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, or managing international affairs and diplomacy, Army House has emerged as the must-stop port of call for any foreign dignitary, and the Army chiefs frequent visits to Riyadh, Kabul or Washington D.C. to discuss strategic affairs shows who is the real boss in Pakistan. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman Imran Khan stirred the hornets nest by stating people will celebrate a military takeover in Pakistan... Democracy here is threatened by Nawaz Sharifs monarchy, not the military. He went on to say that Pakistanis would celebrate and distribute sweets if that happened. In an ominous move, an obscure party called Move on Pakistan put up posters on the main streets of the nations big cities with a commanding photo of Gen. Raheel Sharif and a singular message: For Gods sake, take over. The popular perception of the Army being the only entity that is selfless, patriotic and can get things done is at an all-time high. Aiding the image is the visible fightback by the Pakistan Army in the form of Operation Zarb-e-Azb in the northwest, and in operations in Balochistan and even on the trigger-happy streets of Karachi. Even from the subcontinental proclivity towards anti-incumbency sentiments, the timing augurs well for the military (the last military regime was that of Gen. Pervez Musharraf in 2008). Pakistans political parties, unsurprisingly, lashed out over the attempted coup in Turkey. An understandably nervous Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif demonstrated his finest democratic beliefs with: We deeply admire the resolve of the brave and resilient Turkish people, who stood up against the forces of darkness and anarchy to express their support and commitment to democracy. Pakistan Peoples Party chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari added, for good measure, that the people of Turkey deserve to be complimented for coming out into the streets and face military tanks and artillery with bare hands to force the coup makers to run. In reality, however, the average Pakistanis perception on a potential military takeover cant be safely imagined or likened to ground realities in Turkey. The fundamental difference is that while popular disillusionment in Turkey is with one partys ideological moorings and agenda, the popular disenchantment in Pakistan is with the composite perceptions of ineptitude, corruption and inability of the entire political class, in contrast with the Armys solidity and decisiveness. Pakistan isnt Turkey, and all eyes are on Gen. Raheel Sharif and his supposed retirement in September 2016. In a bid to make its interface more user-friendly, search giant Google has tied up with restaurant search and discovery service Zomato and Swiggy to help users track down nearby places, from its native search service. According to reports, the venture will help users to reserve tables at nearby restaurants and food deliveries from Zomato, and only food deliveries from other services such as Swiggy, Dineout and Bytplus. From now, whenever users search for a restaurant on their smartphones, they will see options such as Place an order or Find a table in its native search results. After making a preferred choice, the user will be redirected automatically to the mobile websites of these companies to complete the order. In its official blog, Google said: From today, when people search for a nearby restaurant on their phone, theyll see an option to Place an order in the search results. The service has been made available on both iOS and Android platforms. In addition to seamless food ordering and table reservation, Google has also announced another nifty feature in form of offline maps feature to facilitate long journeys without incurring large amount of mobile data. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. The cyber security experts have said that such hackers are being monitored and tracked online daily. Websites today are not safe and hackers around the world are constantly breaching online portals with great ease. In a recent case, on August 2, 2016 a data programme used by an Indian national bank was breached by a pro-Pakistani hacker Afzal Faizal, reported Mail Today, with inputs from cyber security experts. The report stated that Faizal, who had earlier breached over thousand Indian websites, has claimed to have gained access to an E-payment gateway of an Indian national bank. The security officials, however, claim no financial loss or data leaks. In a statement to Mail Today, a senior cyber security officer said, Faizal, and other members of Pro-Pakistani hacking community, have carried out some serious attacks recently. They have hacked several government websites in north-eastern and southern states of India. They have also made a breakthrough in web security system of many banks and educational institutions. They are mocking the Indian web security at a time when the country is pushing for Digital India. According to the report, the intruder had managed to hack more than a thousand websites, including those of Indian embassies in Tajikistan, Romania, Greece, Turkey, Mexico City, Sao Poal and Pretoria. "Hey Indian Government, Don't Mess with Us," was seen posted by the hackers on the breached websites. The cyber security experts have said that such hackers are being monitored and tracked online daily. They also believe that Faizal was recently tracked in Dubai, and is potentially routing his attacks from South-Asian countries, including Indonesia. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. A clone of popular Finland-based meta-search engine Torrentz has remerged online after it officially shut down its main website operations last week. The new clone torrentz2.eu repapered online on Tuesday to continue the legacy of one of the more popular names among the list of torrent sharing websites. The popular torrent aggregating website shut its operations last week silently after leaving an emotional message for its users. One of the main reasons for the closure of the website can be linked with the unfortunate fate suffered by Kickass Torrents, where the alleged owner Artem Vaulin was arrested and the worlds most popular piracy website was shut down. The site, launched as a normal search platform in 2003, was one of the oldest and most hyped platforms for searching torrent files. It expanded its operation later to become a meta-search engine; it even gave option to copyright holders to block certain files. With the recent crack down on online pirated content providing websites, most websites might have to shut down operations to avoid further legal burdens. However, a large section of people explained that taking down torrent websites will not curb piracy as there are many other factors that lead to circulation of pirated content. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. India ranks fifth in terms of highest percentage of endpoints exposed to malware attacks. (Representational image) Mumbai: A recent report by security software firm Sophos highlighted the increasing number of online attacks on Indian businesses, suggesting strong encryption policies can change the existing scenario. As per a SophosLab research, Indias threat exposure rate has been pegged at 16.7 per cent, ranking fifth in terms of highest percentage of endpoints exposed to malware attack. The research said cyber-criminals have developed a keen sense of luring organisations on the basis of location, language and disguise, leading to an acute increase in the number of targeted attacks. Global Experts have explained that digital attackers have taken the aid of advanced malware including deadly ransomwares, which involve locking or capturing an organisations valued data and demanding money to unlock it. In future, ransomware have been predicted to become deadlier, allowing hackers to take control of an organisations entire network security. Not only financial and IT companies but Government websites also face similar obstructions due to lack of updated security tools. Mohit Puri, Head of Pre-sales, Sophos India and SAARC, said, "India faces increased risk from cyber-criminals due to its high economic growth, which has left several companies to re-think their security strategy." Reactive to attacks, not proactive Though Puri mentioned that Indian enterprises have been trying to prevent such attacks, large fissures in network security have made the task easier for online criminals. One of the major reasons for companies failing to prevent advanced cyber-attacks can be attributed to the lack of pragmatic solutions, albeit their awareness about the situation. Puri said, While companies are aware about security threats to our systems, we are still not there in terms of how we are trying to mitigate these threats. According to Sunil Abraham, Director of The Centre For Internet and Society (CIS), there are manifold issues that have led to the scenario of Indias poor online security. He said that Indian businesses and financial organisations recognize the situation but do not want to allocate budget for updating their security infrastructure. The problem with cyber-security is just like smoking; people are aware of it but they do not care about the warnings. Companies know about the looming threats but need an episode to make a move towards updating their network infrastructure, Abraham added. Enterprises also struggle due to the absence of sufficient cyber-security professionals in the country. Abraham said, There are uncountable software professionals in India but the story is totally opposite when it boils down to cyber-security professionals. Weak encryption adoption According to technology enthusiast Blaise Crowly, Co-Founder & Head Of Security Design Gladius & Schild, Cryptographya broader form of encryption can be defined as a branch of mathematical algorithms that can be used to securely protect data. It is the one of the strongest form of all defence mechanisms against cyber attacks, Crowly added. However, a Sophos assessmentState of Encryption Todaywhere 1,700 Indian IT managers were surveyed, showed the ignorance of companies towards integrating strong encryption tools. Out of the total number of participants, only 61 per cent agreed that better encryption adoption can help companies in preventing proprietary data breaches. However, others surveyed seemed reluctant on updating their security infrastructure or gave odd reasons. 18 per cent felt that encryption would help avoid incurring additional costs after a breach and 23 per cent just wanted to avoid negative publicity of the company. Even in case of banks, reports suggested that most banks do not follow Reserve bank of Indias (RBI) standard 64/128 bit encryption policy due to laxity and unavailability of funds. Indian organisations need to take a second look at their security posture and deploy up-to-date synchronized security solutions that are able to combat todays threats as well as tomorrows, said Puri. Governments role A 2015 CIS study, titled How India Regulates Encryption mentioned that under section 84A of the IT Act, the government has the sole authority to prescribe modes and methods of encryption. Though the government has not yet issued any rules in exercise of these powers, it had released earlier released a draft encryption policy on September 21, 2015. However, it failed to pass it due to wide-spread criticism regarding certain mandates in the draft. In addition, the Internet Service Providers (ISP) License Agreement, between the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) and Internet Service Providers (ISP), limit the use of encryption up to 40-bit key length in symmetric algorithmsan extremely weak standard. Although it cannot be enforced if organisations employ third-party encryption systems, it becomes extremely expensive for them. In such a scenario, companies hesitate in using better encryption standards. CIS Director Sunil Abraham said, To solve the issue, the government should work towards incentivising and enforcing strong security infrastructure which will help companies get these features at a lower price. Adding to the aforementioned statement, Crowly highlighted that current security standards set by the government cannot adeptly counter advanced threats. OpenSSL, LibNaCl and similar protocols provide free implementation of encryption schemes that companies can use. The only issue is that companies and government agencies should show proper diligence in hiring experts in this field, Crowly concluded. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. Police officers direct family members away from a fatal shooting at Pulse Orlando nightclub in Orlando. (Photo: AP) Miami, United States: The 49 people who were killed in June in the Orlando gay nightclub massacre were struck by 200 bullets, local media reported Monday, quoting coroners. The victims who died sustained 200 bullet wounds -- without counting shots that hit the 53 injured people who survived, a report by the Orange County coroners' office said, according to the Orlando Sentinel newspaper. Reached by AFP, the coroners' office said it would release a full statement on Tuesday. Lone gunman Omar Mateen -- a 29-year-old American of Afghan descent -- opened fire early on June 12 at about 2:00 am (0600 GMT) in the Pulse nightclub before taking hostages in a bathroom. Three hours passed as he remained in contact with police negotiators, who blasted their way into the club around 5:00 am. New York-born Mateen was ultimately killed in the crossfire. Americans have reeled from a string of recent shootings, including the Orlando massacre -- the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history -- which was carried out by a man authorities say was radicalized online. In Dallas, Texas, five police officers were killed in July in a sniper-style attack, while three officers were gunned down in Baton Rouge, Louisiana just days later. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has pledged to strengthen gun safety laws including expanding background checks for all gun purchases. Clinton's Republican White House rival Donald Trump has sought to paint Democrats as soft on crime and national security. "Many people are saying that the Iranians killed the scientist who helped the US because of Hillary Clintons hacked emails," tweeted Trump. (Photo: Twitter) Washington: Commenting on Hillary Clinton's hacked email scam, Donald Trump has yet again taken a dig at the Democratic Presidential candidate, accusing her of being behind the execution of an Iranian scientist. Iran on Sunday executed a scientist who was accused of spying and passing on Iran's confidential and vital information to US. Soon after, Trump took to Twitter to express his views. "Many people are saying that the Iranians killed the scientist who helped the US because of Hillary Clintons hacked emails," tweeted the Republican Presidential nominee. In response, he was trolled by the hashtag #Manypeoplearesaying. Here's what people have to say about Trump's comments on Clinton: #ManyPeopleAreSaying @realDonaldTrump is a secret Muslim. Not me. But many people do say that. pic.twitter.com/Jv4hUG8xlm Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) August 9, 2016 #ManyPeopleAreSaying it was impossible to lose money in the casino biz during the 1995-2005 boom. But one person did pic.twitter.com/Fwu182k0Ml The Daily Edge (@TheDailyEdge) August 9, 2016 #ManyPeopleAreSaying that Donald's pervy creepiness toward Ivanka goes back decades. pic.twitter.com/5UTtYmsK44 Hillary Is Coming! (@HillaryIsComing) August 9, 2016 #ManyPeopleAreSaying these hands cannot even hold a whole piece of chicken no i am serious many people pic.twitter.com/VW5NqEliax darth (@darth) August 9, 2016 #manypeoplearesaying that Trump and Putin end their nightly phone calls with a battle of "You hang up! No *you* hang up!" TrumpsTaxes (@TrumpsTaxes) August 8, 2016 #ManyPeopleAreSaying The Iranian scientist would give up the Trump hair secret. Justin (@SputnikAZ) August 8, 2016 #ManyPeopleAreSaying Trump was the hand model for this pic.twitter.com/KsyeVvP3QQ jacqui (@heyjdey) August 8, 2016 Trump was formally anointed his party's nominee last month after beating 16 rivals in the primary contests. McMullin has never held public office and is unknown to American voters. (Photo: Twitter/ AP) Washington: Republicans disenchanted with Donald Trump as the party's presidential candidate plan to put forth a conservative alternative, former top House Republican aide and former CIA officer Evan McMullin, his new campaign announced on Monday. The development was first reported by MSNBC and BuzzFeed. McMullin could not be immediately reached for comment. McMullin will be pitched as an option for conservatives who have never warmed to Trump and who remain adamantly opposed to Democrat Hillary Clinton, although his chances of success in the November 8 election are near zero. "He is running, first and foremost, out of a deep love for this country, and because he understands the true brand of American leadership that is required to be Commander-in-Chief," an email sent by his campaign to supporters said. Trump was formally anointed his party's nominee last month after beating 16 rivals in the primary contests. But many Republicans have been concerned about Trump policies such as his proposal to put a temporary ban on Muslims entering the country and about his free-wheeling, often insulting rhetoric. McMullin has never held public office and is unknown to American voters. In addition to also lacking a quick source of campaign cash, he will face immediate hurdles to try to get his name on enough ballot papers to make himself a serious candidate. Texas, for example, requires third-party candidates to get more than 79,000 signatures from residents who did not vote in either the Republican or Democrat primary. And the deadline for that was in early May. Deadlines to get on the ballots have also lapsed for the large states of North Carolina, Illinois and Florida. The best McMullin could likely hope for would be to simply play spoiler to Trump in a handful of states, eating away at the New York real estate developer's ability to win states that are generally reliably Republican. McMullin would join two other third-party hopefuls - Gary Johnson, who was nominated by the Libertarian Party, and Jill Stein, who will represent the Green Party. In recent polls that included Trump, Clinton, Stein and Trump, the third-party candidates have both struggled to get above 10 percentage points each in the polls. McMullin has been a frequent critic of Trump on social media, calling him an authoritarian and criticising his stance on civil rights as well as his refusal to release his tax returns. McMullin most recently served as the House Republican Conference's chief policy director and has worked in Congress since 2013, according to a profile on LinkedIn. He previously spent 11 years as an operations officer for the Central Intelligence Agency. The House Republican Conference, in a statement, said McMullin no longer worked there, effective Monday morning. Trump, meanwhile, was seeking to reset his campaign with a big economy policy speech on Monday after a rough patch last week. He was widely criticised, including by some senior Republicans, for engaging in a public dispute with the parents of a Muslim American soldier killed in Iraq. Vanessa Marcotte, 27, was reported missing after failing to return from a Sunday afternoon walk in Princeton, Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. said. (Photo: Instagram) Princeton: A New York City woman who disappeared on a walk while visiting her mother in Massachusetts was found dead in the woods, investigators said Monday. Vanessa Marcotte, 27, was reported missing after failing to return from a Sunday afternoon walk in Princeton, Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. said. Her body was found Sunday night by a state police canine unit about a half-mile from her mother's home. Authorities say her death appears to be a homicide. An autopsy was scheduled. Early said authorities didn't know if the attack was a random act. "We have a horrible set of facts; a horrible set of circumstances right now," Early said. "People should be concerned. We are asking them to use an abundance of caution." Police Chief Michele Powers urged town residents to remain vigilant. Officials asked anyone with any information to contact authorities. No other details were immediately released. Marcotte, a graduate of Boston University, worked for Google, and the company released a statement Monday expressing shock. "Vanessa Marcotte was a much loved member of the Google team, working in our New York office for the last year and a half, and known for her ubiquitous smile, passion for volunteer work and love of Boston sports," the company said. "We are deeply shocked and saddened, and our thoughts are with her family and friends." The rural town of Princeton has about 3,500 residents and is 40 miles west of Boston. Early says Marcotte grew up in nearby Leominster. Washington: A top national security advisor to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has said the US will treat Pakistan "harshly" and "cut off" assistance if it continues to be the "safe haven" for terror groups like Taliban, Haqqani and al-Qaeda. "We need to have some tough love conversations with the leaders of countries who pretend to be our friends, but who also collaborate with our enemies," Lt General (rtd) Michael T Flynn, has said in his latest book "How We Can Win the Global War Against Radical Islam and Its Allies" that hit the book stands last week. "Countries like Pakistan need to be told that we will not tolerate the existence of training camps and safe havens for Taliban, Haqqani, and al-Qaeda forces on their territory, nor will we permit their banks and other financial institutions to move illicit funds for the terror network," said Flynn. In the war against terrorism, he listed India as one of the countries with which the US needs to strengthen its relationship. "Diplomacy alone will not be sufficient; at the moment, nobody takes us seriously. We will have to demonstrate the ability and the resolve to crush our enemies. We should start with strengthening our relationships with Israel, Jordan, and Egypt," he said. "We will also need to revive our working relations with countries such as Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, India, and Argentina," Flynn wrote. Flynn who served as the director of the Defence Intelligence Agency, commander of the Joint Functional Component Command for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance and chair of the Military Intelligence Board is one of the few top Pentagon leadership to have supported Trump. Among those shortlisted for Trump's vice presidential pick, Flynn is considered close to Trump and his top national security advisor. "They are going to have to choose and if they continue to help the jihadis, we are going to treat them harshly, cutting them off from American assistance, and operating against enemy safe havens," Flynn said, adding that the same tough approach applies to the financing of the jihadi network. "Over the years, the terrorists have raised a lot of money from individual donors (sometimes contacted in person, other times online), but criminal activities are a much more important source of money. Some of the best intelligence work carried out by the American government has been done in this area," he said. Cooler overnight temperatures helped firefighters battle wildfires that have raged for several days on mainland Portugal. (Photo: AP) Lisbon: Officials say a major forest fire in Portugal's Madeira Islands has destroyed at least six homes and forced the evacuation of more than 200 people. Meanwhile, cooler overnight temperatures helped firefighters battle wildfires that have raged for several days on mainland Portugal. Cable news channel S.I.C Noticias showed flames licking at homes around Madeira's capital Funchal on Tuesday as it encroached on the city's suburbs. Eight firefighters required medical treatment after inhaling smoke as high winds fueled the blaze in the island off northwest Africa. Patients were evacuated from a small hospital as a precaution. The National Civil Protection Service said nine major wildfires were out of control in mainland Portugal. Almost 3,400 firefighters with 18 water-dumping planes and some 1,160 vehicles were in action. Ahmadiya Muslim shopkeeper Asad Shah had uploaded hundreds of videos about his spiritual beliefs to Facebook and YouTube, most of which were filmed behind the counter of his shop. (Photo: AFP) London: A 32-year-old man who had admitted murdering a Ahmadiya Muslim shopkeeper for what he perceived as disrespect to Islam was on Tuesday sentenced to life imprisonment by a UK court which described the incident as an appalling display of merciless violence. Tanveer Ahmed, a Sunni Muslim from Pakistan, stabbed Asad Shah outside his store in the Shawlands area of Scotland in March. The 40-year-old victim, who belonged to the Ahmadiya minority community in Pakistan, later died in hospital. The killer was told on Tuesday, by Glasgow High Court that he would serve a minimum of 27 years in prison. This was a barbaric, premeditated and wholly unjustified killing of a much loved man who was a pillar of the local community. He was described as a peaceful and peace-loving man and family man who went out of his way to show respect for those of any faith, Judge Lady Rae told Ahmed at the sentencing hearing. She branded the attack as an appalling display of merciless violence. She added, No-one in any civilised country including Scotland has the right to take the life of another whatever offence that individual perceives that he or she has suffered. It is vitally important in modern society that respect and tolerance for others of any race, creed, colour, ethnic origin or religious belief is maintained and protected by the law of the land. I note with considerable concern that you have expressed no remorse whatsoever for this appalling crime. At a hearing last month, the court had been told that when Ahmed was interviewed by police he said his actions were motivated by Shahs disrespect towards Muslim faith. Shah had been granted asylum when he fled violence in Pakistan to join his family in Scotland in 1998. It also emerged in court that Ahmed, a cab driver, was in Glasgow a couple of days before the murder with a friend who knew Shah and who showed Ahmed Shahs Facebook page. The shopkeeper had uploaded hundreds of videos about his spiritual beliefs to Facebook and YouTube, most of which were filmed behind the counter of his shop. CCTV footage of the attack showed Ahmed pulling a knife out and moving behind the counter and stabbing Shah repeatedly. Shah was taken to hospital in Glasgow, but despite surgery he could not be saved. Chief Superintendent Brian McInulty, of Police Scotland, said, Religious intolerance in any form is simply not tolerated in our society and Police Scotland will work in partnership with our communities to eradicate such behaviour. In late June, Putin surprisingly accepted a letter expressing regret over the incident from Erdogan as an apology and quickly rolled back a ban on the sale of package holidays to Turkey and signalled Moscow would end measures against Turkish food imports and construction firms. (Photo: AP) Saint Petersburg: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday looked to rebuild ties as they met for the first time since Ankara downed one of Moscow's warplanes in November. Erdogan's visit to Putin's hometown of Saint Petersburg is also his first foreign trip since the failed coup against him last month that sparked a purge of opponents and cast a shadow over Turkey's relations with the West. "Your visit today, despite a very difficult situation regarding domestic politics, indicates that we all want to restart dialogue and restore relations between Russia and Turkey," Putin said after the two leaders shook hands. Erdogan, who has said the trip represents a "new milestone", told Putin that ties had entered a "very different phase" and thanked the Kremlin leader for his backing after the coup attempt. The shooting down of a Russian fighter jet by a Turkish F-16 over the Syrian border last fall saw a furious Putin slap economic sanctions on Turkey and launch a blistering war of words with Erdogan that seemed to irrevocably damage burgeoning ties. But in late June, Putin surprisingly accepted a letter expressing regret over the incident from Erdogan as an apology and quickly rolled back a ban on the sale of package holidays to Turkey and signalled Moscow would end measures against Turkish food imports and construction firms. Now in the wake of the failed July 15 coup attempt, there are fears in Western capitals that NATO-member Turkey could draw even closer to Moscow -- with Erdogan bluntly making it clear he feels let down by the United States and the European Union. Putin was one of the first foreign leaders to phone Erdogan offering support after the coup attempt and shares none of the scruples of EU leaders about the ensuing crackdown. In the latest sign of rocky relations with the West, Turkey's justice minister on Tuesday warned that the United States will "sacrifice relations" unless it extradites Pennsylvania-based preacher Fethullah Gulen, blamed by Ankara for the failed coup. Back to business Relations between Turkey and Russia -- two powers vying for influence in the strategic Black Sea region and Middle East -- have historically not been straightforward. Yet before the plane downing crisis, Moscow and Ankara managed to prevent disputes on Syria and Ukraine harming strategic cooperation on issues like the TurkStream gas pipeline to Europe and a Russian-built nuclear power station in Turkey. Those projects were all put on ice with trade between the two countries falling 43 percent to $6.1 billion in January-May this year and Turkey's tourism industry seeing visitor numbers from Russia fall by 93 percent. Now with Russia mired in economic crisis due to Western sanctions over Ukraine and low oil prices along with Turkey's outlook flagging, both men want to get business started again. Turkish media said Erdogan's entourage was made up of over half a dozen ministers including his son-in-law energy minister Berat Albayrak and the powerful head of the country's National Intelligence Organisation (MIT) Hakan Fidan. Friends for real The earlier uptick in relations between Turkey and Russia was built on a macho friendship between Putin and Erdogan, two combative leaders in their early 60s credited with restoring confidence to their nations in the wake of financial crises but also criticised for clamping down on human rights. But after such a bitter dispute -- which saw Putin accuse Erdogan of stabbing Russia in the back and profiting from an illegal oil trade with the Islamic State group -- it will take a lot for the pair to reheat relations. Russia, which is conducting a bombing campaign in support of Erdogan's foe President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, transformed the balance of the Syrian civil war last September when it intervened militarily, to Turkey's consternation. Erdogan has insisted that Assad must still go -- a position opposed by Putin -- but told Russian media that the conflict at the heart of the falling out with Moscow could now become the focus for renewed cooperation between the two sides. "Russia is a main, key and very important player in establishing peace in Syria," Erdogan said in comments translated into Russian. "The problem needs to be solved with the help of joint steps between Russia and Turkey." The Hamas summer training camps were dedicated to Al-Quds Intifada, a Palestinian name for attacks on Israelis in Jerusalem. (Photo: YouTube Screengrab) Jerusalem: Following the footsteps of the dreaded Islamic State group, a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist organisation, popularly known as Hamas, has been providing young children with military training to stab Israeli soldiers. According to a report in the Mirror, children as young as 10 are being provided military training and and being taught how to use assault rifles in several camps organised by Hamas. The camps were attended by around 30,000 children as well as teenagers, Middle East Research Group said. One of the camps was named as 'Knife camp', where children were taught how to stab an enemy. It comes after the wave of increasing stabbing incidents in Israel. Apart from being taught how to use knives and rifles, children were also encouraged to participate in mock drills conducted by jihadists. They were also to practically demonstrate attacks. The Hamas summer training camps were dedicated to Al-Quds Intifada, a Palestinian name for attacks on Israelis in Jerusalem. The girl, who was taken into custody, is reportedly staying with her mother. (Photo: YouTube Screengrab) Firozkoh, Ghor: A 55-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly marrying a six-year-old girl in Afghanistan, in the latest case highlighting the scourge of child marriages in the war-battered country. The incident took place near Firozkoh in Afghanistan's Ghor province. According to a report in the Daily Mail, the minor victim, identified as Gharibgol, was given to the older man, Seyed Abdolkarim, by her father in exchange for a goat, along with other food items including rice, tea, oil and sugar. Soon after the wedding, the girl's father as well as her alleged husband were arrested by local police, following a complaint by a concerned relative who informed them about the crime. In his statement to the police, the girl's father said that he sold his daughter only because he was incapable of feeding his family. The victim's father also told police that his daughter's husband had promised that he would not have sex with the girl until she turns 18. After the illegal marriage, Abdolkarim took the girl to his native place where a witness to the incident caught him undressing the girl at night. The girl, who was taken into custody, is reportedly staying with her mother. Women's bureau in Afghanistan is seeking a divorce and have said that they will ensure that the girl's father is stripped off parental rights. This incident comes in the wake of recent case where an elderly Afghan cleric was arrested for marrying a six-year-old girl, who later claimed that her parents gave him the girl as a religious offering. Kathmandu: Nepal wants to develop trilateral relations with its two big neighbours - India and China, the country's new Prime Minister Prachanda said on Tuesday. Prime Minister and CPN-Maoist Centre chairman Prachanda, during a meeting with delegates from China Institute of Contemporary Relations at the Prime Minister's official residence here told them that he was "keen to welcome the Chinese President Xi Jinping," who is expected to visit Nepal in a couple of months. "Nepal wants to develop a reliable and long lasting friendship with the northern neighbour," Prachanda said, adding "he wants to develop trilateral relations with the two big neighbours India and China". The delegates from the state-run Chinese think-tank told Prachanda that "China wanted to establish a constructive and sustainable relations with Nepal," according to a statement issued by the Prime Minister's office. They also expressed desire to exchange experience and knowledge regarding the post-earthquake construction, to extend cooperation and to help Nepal in mega projects. The delegation also asked the Government of Nepal to build infrastructure to bring in more Chinese tourists in Nepal, the statement said. The 61-year-old Prachanda was elected Prime Minister on Wednesday for the second time after his brief stint with premiership came to an end in 2009. He was Prime Minister from 2008 to 2009 before a disagreement with the President over his attempt to sack the army chief brought his period in office to an early end. Islamabad: Needling India yet again, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday said that he was "obliged" to become the voice of the "oppressed" people of Kashmir and would "leave no stone unturned" to make the world understand the "plight" of the people in the Valley. Sharif chaired a preparatory meeting for the upcoming UN General Assembly (UNGA) attended by his foreign affairs advisor Sartaj Aziz, special assistant on foreign affairs Tariq Fatemi, foreign secretary Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry, Pakistan's permanent representative in the UN Maleeha Lodhi, and Pakistan's ambassador to the US Jalil Abbas Jilani and other senior officials. The meeting reviewed the agendas to be included in the next session of UN General Assembly in which the premier is expected to participate, said a statement from his office. "It is an obligation for me as Prime Minister of Pakistan to become the voice of Kashmiris who have been oppressed in Kashmir. I will leave no stone unturned to make the world understand the plight and the legitimate struggle of the people of Kashmir," said Sharif. The meeting observed that "Kashmir remains an unfinished agenda of the UN and accordingly India must realise that Kashmir is not its internal matter, rather it is a matter of regional and international concern". Sharif said that the denial of right of self-determination for Kashmiris is one of the persistent failures of the UN. "The right of self-determination is the basic right of Kashmiris and we will make every effort to make Kashmiris a captain of their own ship," the statement quoted Sharif as saying in the meeting. Last week, Sharif had said Kashmir was witnessing a "new wave of freedom movement" and asked his country's diplomats to apprise the world that Kashmir was "not an internal matter of India". House Republicans reacted with dismay today (Jan. 26th, 2021) to the news that the Biden Administrations Department of the Interior has suspended land transfers to Alaska including land transfers long promised to Alaska Native veterans of the Vietnam War. Interior Department Order No. 3395 suspends authorizations for the departments bureaus and offices to grant rights of way, easements, or any conveyances of property or interests in property, including land sales or exchanges. This may include federal allotments to Alaska under the Alaska Statehood Act and the Alaska Native Allotment Act of 1906. I am very concerned that our new federal administration is delaying keeping its promises to some who served honorably, said Rep. David Nelson (R Anchorage, and currently serving as an officer in the Alaska Army National Guard). If the new administration can drag its feet on its promises to veterans, it can do the same to our current servicemen and servicewomen. I have heard of servicemembers who served at the time some who received their allotment and some who have not and I know how important land is to our cultural identity as Alaska Natives, said Rep. Josiah Patkotak (N Utqiagvik). In their service they have missed their rightful claim to land and that isnt right. The time for resolving this is overdue and shouldnt be delayed for any reason. No one who serves in our armed forces honorably should be penalized for serving but to our dismay, thats exactly what we did to my Alaska Native comrades-in-arms in Vietnam, said Rep. Laddie Shaw (R Anchorage), a retired US Navy SEAL and Vietnam War veteran. Whether for the Alaska Territorial Guard during World War II or Alaska Native servicemembers in the Vietnam War, the federal government has a pattern of giving short-shrift to the contributions of my Alaska Native brother and sister veterans. Its time to break that pattern and acknowledge them for the heroes they all are. For my entire career, I have fought for our veterans to get all of the benefits they so richly deserve continued Rep. Shaw, who also previously served as Director of Veterans Affairs under Gov. Tony Knowles. Im glad to stand with my caucus as we continue to do so. Share this: Tweet Email by 1st Lt. Balinda ONeal Dresel The Alaska National Guard is transporting goods for the Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA) to the remote village hub of Bethel, in order to provide discounted groceries to eligible military- and DoD-affiliated patrons during a one-day event scheduled on Aug. 7. Between July 14-19, authorized customers may request desired items in advance to be available for purchase at the sale. Commissary grocery shopping is an earned benefit that is accessible to those near or able to drive to a military installation. Alaska is one-fifth the size of the continental U.S. and travel to most village communities is not accessible via road travel. Alaskan retirees, for example, in these remote locations are not able to readily use their Commissary shopping benefits, and this is a challenge DeCA and the Alaska National Guard are working to address. Due to the uniqueness and geographical isolation in Alaska, it can be challenging for eligible personnel to get access to the benefits that they have earned through service to their country, said Command Chief Master Sgt. Winfield Hinkley, Alaska National Guard Senior Enlisted Leader. We are proud to partner with DeCA to help realize their goal of providing commissary benefits to all eligible patrons. In addition to providing the facility for the event, the Alaska National Guard is assisting by providing required personnel, transportation and equipment. The event will take place at the Alaska Army National Guard Aviation Facility and the Alaska Air National Guard is transporting the goods on a C-17 Globemaster III aircraft. There is a very real possibility that during a disaster we could be called upon to provide food to a local community, said Hinkley, who explained that people are our greatest resource and this includes veterans, retirees, active service members and their families. This training mission is two-fold as it affords us the opportunity to demonstrate our capabilities while supporting the local community. Representatives from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Rural Health Programs, State of Alaskas Office of Veterans Affairs, and Alaska National Guards Warrior and Family Services and Retirement Services, and volunteers from the Alaska State Defense Force will also have staff on site to support and provide information for attendees. This mission is another way to demonstrate our commitment to take care of our members, families and retirees from recruitment through retirement, said Hinkley. In order to better prepare for the one-day event, the Alaska National Guard is requesting that eligible patrons suggest quantities of desired items until July 19 to facilitate the number of each product that will be available on site. Item quantities will be limited. Please see the attached list of available items and provide input to Staff Sgt. Paul Wilbanks at [email protected] or to request a copy of available items via contact Wilbanks at 907-545-0549. On the day of the event, goods will be available to be purchased on a first come, first serve basis. No reservations will be taken. According to DeCA, the on-site sale method of payment will be cash and credit card only, no checks. Below is list of authorized patrons who may make purchases at the sale. Shoppers must ensure they meet eligibility requirements and have proof of eligibility. Uniformed personnel Wage Marine personnel Retired personnel Authorized family members of the personnel listed above Medal of Honor recipients 100 percent disabled veterans DoD civilian employees stationed outside the U.S. Official DoD and U.S. military services organizations and activities Hospitalized veterans DoD presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed (PAS) officers DoD civilian employees assigned to the U.S. Territories and Possessions DoD civilian employees on official temporary duty (TDY) orders in overseas locations Military personnel of foreign nations Bulk sales to non-DoD government departments or agencies in overseas areas Civilian employees of non-DoD U.S. government departments or agencies outside the U.S. and outside the U.S. Territories and Possessions American National Red Cross (ARC) personnel United Service Organization (USO) United Seamens Service (USS) Organizational representative DoD civilian employees residing on an installation within the U.S. U.S. Non-governmental organizations, firms under contract to the DoD, and their employees stationed outside the U.S., and outside the U.S. Territories and Possessions Non-DoD U.S. federal employees serving in the U.S. Territories and Possessions Authorized patrons are required to present one of the following identifications to purchase: DoD Common Access Card (CAC), DD Form 2, DD Form 1173, or DD Form 1173-1 DD Form 214 Official ID card issued by the military service of which the patron is affiliated, NOAA, or USPHS Official DoD forms presented with positive ID such as DD Form 4, Enlistment/ Reenlistment Document Armed Forces of the U.S.; DD Form 1610, Request and Authorization for TDY travel of DoD personnel DD Form 1618, Department of Defense (DoD) Transportation Agreement Transfer of Civilian Employees to and within continental U.S. There will be an opportunity for eligible patrons with expired identification cards to be verified through an on-site Defense Enrollment Eligibility Repotting System liaison. Please be sure to bring your expired ID or other form of identification. Event dates are subject to change due to inclement weather, so patrons are encouraged to check with SSG Paul Wilbanks on day of event. Share this: Tweet Email Tennessee played a pivotal role in the passage of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which gave women the right to vote. During a hot summer in 1920, Tennessee became the final state needed to meet a requirement that three-fourths of states approve the amendment in order for it to become federal law. Genny Carter, a librarian at the Library & Archives, will discuss the political battle that raged in Nashville preceding Tennessee's vote on the amendment during the next event in our free lecture series. Her talk, titled "Womens Suffrage: Tennessee and the Passage of the 19th Amendment, will be held in the Library & Archives auditorium Aug. 20 from 9:30 a.m. until 11 a.m. Her presentation will focus on items in a new online collection about the women's suffrage movement, which was created using the many documents and photographs stored at Library & Archives. This collection includes letters, telegrams, political cartoons, broadsides, photographs and audio clips. Most of the material comes from the papers of prominent pro-suffrage lobbyist Carrie Chapman Catt, anti-suffrage lobbyist Josephine A. Pearson and Governor Albert H. Roberts. The collection is online here: http://bit.ly/TNwomensuffrage. "I'm pleased that we now have this collection online to provide easier access to people who like to learn more about this important event in our state's history," Secretary of State Tre Hargett said. "I'm sure this talk will help raise awareness about the materials we have and why they are historically significant." Although the lecture is free and open to the public, registration is required due to limited seating in the auditorium. To register, please visit: http://suffrage.eventbrite.com. The Library & Archives is located at 403 Seventh Avenue North, just west of the State Capitol in downtown Nashville. Free parking is available around the building Vicki Goldston will be the special speaker and Christian Collier will be presenting some of his poetry this Sunday, 11 a.m. at Christ Unity, 105 McBrien Road. Bio on Vicki Goldston: A desire to help others live life abundantly is what drew Vicki to the ministry. Blessed herself with loving teachers and spiritual guidance in her own life, Vicki sees her call as one of passing on to others the support and guidance others gave her. Her deepest wish is to be of service and to facilitate transformation and spiritual growth. Vicki is originally from Chicago, has lived in Cleveland, Oh., St. Marten, Virginia Beach, and currently resides in Florence, Al. She has a BA in Communications, from Case Western Reserve University, and is a candidate for masters of divinity from the Johnnie Coleman Theological Seminary. She is a contributing author for Mark Hansens book, The Miracle of Tithing, and is author of Be S.A.F.E. (Still, Aware, Faithful, Excellent). be - open on be 5203 ChattanoogaandsurroundingareaswillsoonabletoenjoyGuthries fresh,hot,fast,goldenfried chickenfingers.GuthriesnewestToGolocationisset toTuesday,Aug.16,andwillatBrainerdRoad. This To-Go location will offer the complete Guthries menu including The Guthries Box, The Bucket, The Sandwich, the famous Sweet Tea and, of course, the Signature Sauce in a drive-thru-style restaurant. Were excited about our continued growth in the Chattanooga area, said Guthries President Joe Kelly Guthrie. We have many long--time Guthries fans in Chattanooga and are very blessed to be a part of the community. Guthries new location at 5203 Brainerd Road in East Brainerd will be open Monday through Saturday from 10:30 a.m. until 9 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. until 9 p.m. Guthries unique blend of Golden Fried Chicken Fingers, crispy crinkle cut fries, buttery Texas toast, creamy coleslaw and Signature Sauce has seen its share of copycats, but Guthries is the original chicken finger specialist. Hal Guthrie gave us all something very special and uniquely good when, now over 50 years ago, he gifted a hungry public with his golden fried chicken fingers, said store owner Will Garrett. Each time we open a new store, it is our pleasure to pass along and share the great taste of Guthries. Garrett also owns Guthries restaurants in Trenton and Ringgold. Guthries celebrated 50 years of tradition in 2015, and the restaurant chain continues to grow. This spring, Guthries was voted Alabamas Best Restaurant Chain by al.com readers. Guthries operates locations throughout Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee and is quickly expanding across the country. LOS GATOS, Calif. August 8, 2016 Tela Innovations, Inc. announced that Samsung Electronics Co, Ltd. has entered into an agreement to license Telas extensive portfolio of semiconductor related patents. Samsung, a global leader in semiconductor design and manufacturing, joins Qualcomm, Google and TSMC as licensees of Telas innovative solutions for scaling complex chip designs to more advanced manufacturing nodes. Terms of the deal are confidential. Tela has developed technology that addresses the physical design constraints imposed by lithography limitations at geometries of 28nm and smaller. Its extensive patent portfolio is available for licensing to semiconductor and electronics companies to address design challenges at advanced technology nodes. A description of Telas patent portfolio as well as a listing of all of Telas U.S. patents can be found on Telas website. About Tela Tela Innovations is a privately-held company based in Los Gatos, California that provides solutions addressing the challenge of scaling semiconductor design and manufacturing to advanced process nodes. Tela was founded in 2005 by a team of experts in semiconductor IP, design automation and process technology, and is backed by a number of venture firms and corporate investors. For more information on the company visit www.tela-inc.com. 14 Actors Who Have Actual Things And Places Named After Them! Chattanooga Hamilton County Retired Teachers Association will host its annual picnic on Thursday at Chester Frost Park Pavilion Hamilton County Park. All Chattanooga and Hamilton County Retired Teachers Association members, newly retired teachers and prospective members are invited to attend. There will be a meeting followed by lunch, provided by the Chattanooga Area Schools Federal Credit Union. Fellowship will begin at 10 a.m. with a brief meeting at 10:45 am. Lunch will be at 11:30 a.m. Door prizes will be provided from the Chattanooga Area Schools Federal Credit Union. The meeting is to honor newly retired teachers and to introduce the scholarship recipients. The 2016-2017 Scholarship winners are: Alexander Fugatt, majoring in Education, attending UTC; Sydney Crumley, graduate of Soddy Daisy High School, will attend Lee University; Elizabeth Clark, graduate of East Hamilton High School, will attend Lee University; and Carlyah Edwards, graduate of Chattanooga School for the Arts & Sciences, will attend UTC. Ranveer Singh To Star In Shimit Amins Next Film? The Xiaomi Mi Air Purifier is reportedly headed to India sometime this year. According to reports, India Head Manu Jain confirmed that the device is amongst Xiaomis planned launches in India this year. The company had earlier confirmed that the Mi Box may also come to India this year. It would seem Xiaomi plans to expand its ecosystem in the country majorly, in 2016. Xiaomis significant popularity in the smartphone space in India will be bolstered by products like its Air Purifiers etc. The companys business model revolves around building an ecosystem of products, just like Apple. So far, though, Xiaomi has been unable to really kickstart this ecosystem in India. Apart from smartphones, Xiaomi also sells headphones, Mi LED lamps, and other products, which can all be considered smartphone accessories. In China, Xiaomis ecosystem is huge, with has non-electronic equipment like the Mi Pen, a Mi-branded suitcase and more. Xiaomi wants to be established as a company that makes high quality products, while making profits through its ecosystem model. To do this, it will have to bring other products to India, while also striking deals with content partners for things like the Mi TV. Speaking of the Mi TV, Xiaomis much talked about television has been missing from the Indian market forever now. In fact, when Xiaomi first entered India with the Xiaomi Mi 3 smartphone, the company had showcased the first generation Mi TV and announced a price for the same. Xiaomi has since been silent on when the TV would actually come to India, even as two more generations of the TV have passed in China. Company executives, like Hugo Barra, have often cited lack of content sources as the reason for the delay. When we discussed the Mi Box with the company, Xiaomi said it is trying to integrate DTH TV boxes into the device. This is of course to solve the content problem, and does make sense. However, some would say Xiaomi is taking too long. Interestingly, local Chinese competitor, LeEco, has spent less than half the time Xiaomi has in India, but is now selling both TVs and smartphones here. LeEco has been able to strike partnerships with YuppTV, Eros Now and more for content, while also promising more content deliveries throughout the year. The delay in launching other products may have frustrated Mi fans, but Xiaomi is not rushing things in India, its biggest market outside of China. The company will have to catch up to its competitors, but taking time may be the right way to go. Xiaomi received a lot of bad publicity when it had to withdraw the Mi 3 a few weeks post launch, and we have also received many complaints, on Twitter, about Xiaomi devices recently. It is understandable that Xiaomi is focussing on these issues before flooding the market with products. At the end of the day, the best product wins, but not without proper support and delivery mechanisms. Great Western Mining announced on Tuesday the signing of a cooperation agreement for the initial development of its M1 copper-gold prospect in Mineral County, Nevada. The AIM and ESM-traded firm said the agreement is with neighbouring interest holder Crown Point Gold & Silver Mining, and includes 34 of the company's claims in the immediate vicinity of the historic Huntoon Mine. Crown Point holds six adjoining claims. Under the agreement, GWM and Crown Point will share resources and cooperate in exploiting the potential of the Huntoon Mine Area including shared use of existing access roads. The initial period of the agreement will be three years, extendable by mutual consent. Crown Point will be permitted to follow commercially exploitable veins originating on its own ground into GWM's claims with profits shared between the parties. Any farm-out or sale of acreage will be conducted as a joint operation with the benefits accruing to both parties. This agreement represents a significant milestone in the potential commercialisation of M1, said Great Western chief executive David Fraser. Crown Point has already recovered encouraging grades of Gold from its 6 Huntoon Area claims, the potential of which extends into GWM's claims. Fraser said Crown Point's success can be correlated with the anomalous gold readings which GWM has established over a wide area. We look forward to working with Crown Point on the development of the area around the Huntoon Mine and will update shareholders as work progresses." Linda Klein, senior managing shareholder at Baker Donelson, became president of the American Bar Association today at the conclusion of the ABA Annual Meeting in San Francisco. She will serve a one-year term ending in August 2017."It is an honor and privilege to lead this great association. I have dedicated my career to the law and the legal profession. As president of the ABA, I will continue the Association's work to advance justice throughout our country," Ms. Klein said.During her term as president, Ms. Klein will focus on improving access to justice and providing legal assistance for our nation's veterans. The new ABA Commission on Veterans' Legal Services will create a comprehensive online resource to address legal needs specific to veterans and their families, highlighting relevant local resources for assistance.The commission will also work with law schools and bar associations to improve the availability of affordable legal services through the use of new and under-employed lawyers and with Veterans Administration medical facilities to promote legal check-ups for veterans, their families and caregivers.She will also emphasize two civic initiatives: one that mobilizes ABA resources to promote voting in the upcoming elections and another that will support the rights of all children to a quality education.Before being chosen as ABA president-elect in 2015, Ms. Klein served as chair of the ABA's House of Delegates, the second-highest elected office in the organization, from 2010 to 2012. She has also served as chair of the Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section, chair of the Committee on Rules and Calendar of the House of Delegates, chair of the Coalition for Justice and chair of ABA Day, the Association's Congressional outreach effort.Ms. Klein's practice includes most types of business dispute resolution, including contract law, employment law and professional liability, working extensively with clients in the construction, higher education and pharmaceutical industries.In June 1997, Ms. Klein became the first woman to serve as president of the State Bar of Georgia. During her term, she devised a proposal and advocated for the state to allocate funding for Georgia Legal Services and Atlanta Legal Aid to hire lawyers to help indigent victims of domestic violence. She organized a statewide group of community organizations and local and minority bar associations that together convinced the General Assembly to appropriate $2 million. Since then, the annual appropriations have helped thousands in Georgia with legal issues related to domestic violence.Ms. Klein was one of the first women to lead a prominent Georgia law firm. She served as managing partner of Gambrell & Stolz beginning in 2001 and led the firm's 2007 merger with Baker Donelson, becoming a Baker Donelson board member and Georgia managing shareholder.The State Bar of Georgia has recognized Ms. Klein with the Randolph Thrower Award for Lifetime Achievement in Diversity (2009) and the Distinguished Service Award (2015), the highest honor bestowed by the State Bar of Georgia. In 2004, the American Bar Association honored Ms. Klein with the prestigious Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award.Ms. Klein is listed in The Best Lawyers in America, Who's Who in America and Chambers USA. She is regularly named to the Super Lawyers top 100 lawyers in Georgia and among the top 50 female lawyers in Georgia by Super Lawyers. In 1998, Georgia Trend Magazine named her one of the 100 most powerful and influential Georgians.Ms. Klein earned her J.D. at Washington & Lee Law School in Virginia and her B.A. at Union College in New York.With nearly 400,000 members, the American Bar Association is one of the largest voluntary professional membership organizations in the world. As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law. Brazil-focused nickel development company Horizonte Minerals announced its unaudited financial results for the six months ended 30 June 2016 on Tuesday. The AIM-traded firm once again reported nil revenue, and a loss from operations of 786k, widening from the 538k loss at the same time last year. Its total loss before tax for the period was 956k, compared with 624k. During the half, Horizonte was issued with its Preliminary Environmental Licence for the Araguaia Project by the Para State government, which its board described as a significant milestone. Following the award of the licence, Horizonte can now work towards the Installation Licence, which will permit construction of the project. It also completed the acquisition of the Glencore Araguaia Project, and the combination of the two Araguaia projects created one of the largest nickel saprolite projects globally. Horizonte said it was in the final stages of delivering a new pre-feasibility study on the combined Araguaia Project with the aim of demonstrating the project will be one of the most competitive advanced nickel projects in the marketplace. It was continuing to consolidate land position with award of additional licence areas south of GAP totalling around 20,000 hectares. A cost reduction plan was completed to lower the overall operating costs while maintaining project development. Horizonte reported a strong cash position of 1.6m at period end. In the last six months despite the very tough market conditions for the resource sector, the company has delivered a number of significant milestones at Araguaia which we are developing as the next major nickel project in Brazil, said chairman David Hall. Australian gold and copper miner SolGold said Ecuador was becoming a strong exploration and mining destination due to recent developments at other mining companies in the region. Miner Lundin Gold agreed terms on an investment protection agreement for the Fruta del Norte mining project with the Ecuadorean government, just seven months after its exploitation agreement completed, as Odin Mining revealed plans to merge with Ecuador Gold and Copper. SolGold's chief executive Nick Mather, said: These developments are a strong endorsement of Ecuador as an exploration and mining destination by both government and industry. Both Lundin and Odin are headed by resource industry executives with strong track records in exploration development and finance. It's pleasing to see." The company said that Lundin Golds investment protection agreement provides further tax stability in conjunction with the exploitation agreement and existing laws in Ecuador. Lundins chief executive, Ron Hochstein said the company continues to enjoy the continued support the Ecuadorian government and local communities and rated the legal stability and economic certainty due to the investment protection agreement. The investment protection agreement includes a fixed tax rate at 22%, income tax rate also fixed at 22% and exemption from the capital outflow tax of 5% on payments of principal and interest to financial institutions outside of Ecuador. In light of developments in Ecuador, SolGold raised $21.5m financing, which is expected to close on 24 August. Canadian investment and merchant bank Maxit Capital agreed to subscribe for 268.8m ordinary shares at 0.08 cents per ordinary share for gross proceeds of about $21.5m. Plus there is an option for up to a further $15m shares. SolGolds Cascabel project has 14 targets with copper gold porphyry characteristics. Only one of the targets, Alpala, has been drilled so far with 23,700 metres of core over 18 holes. Mather added: "Intense interest in the project by major companies provides the SolGold board and management with confidence that this project is of global significance. Shares in FTSE 100 listed SolGold were down 0.73% to 6.82p at 0841 BST. These were the movements in the most widely-followed 10-year sovereign bond yields: US: 1.54% (-5bp) UK: 0.58% (-3bp) Germany: -0.08% (-1bp) France: 0.14% (-1bp) Spain: 1.00% (+1bp) Italy: 1.12 (0bp) Greece: 8.27% (-3bp) Portugal: 2.80% (-3bp) Japan: -0.08% (-4bp) Gilts gained amid a raft of bullish triggers, as the Bank of England failed to meet its target for purchases of bonds with a maturity greater than 15 years on Tuesday. The Old Lady on Threadneedle Street received offers from investors to sell it 1.118bn worth of long-dated instruments, compared with its target of 1.17bn. News of the shortfall pushed yields lower. In the previous session, the first day of purchases under its extended programme of quantitate easing, the BoE received 3.63 times the number of Gilts maturing in between three and seven years which it had offered to unburden investors of. The yield on the benchmark 30-year Gilt finished the day five basis points lower at 1.39% after hitting an intra-session low at 1.36%. Among the other bullish triggers of the session were the slightly weaker than expected UK manufacturing output figures for the month of June and an estimate from the National Institute for Economic and Social Research that gross domestic product shrank 0.2% month-on-month in July. Nevertheless, the NIESR was quick to highlight the volatility inherent in monthly estimates, cautioning readers not to draw too many conclusions from the data yet. Factory production fell at a 0.3% month-on-month clip in June (consensus: -0.2%), ONS said, while estimates for the previous month were nudged slightly lower by government statisticians. Also worth noting, in remarks to The Times the MPCs Ian McCafferty said quantitative easing could be bolstered and Bank Rate cut further should recent survey evidence pointing to a weak economy pan out. However, he believed it best to act in a gradual manner. The relationship between the UK and China was at a crucial historical juncture over the development of the Hinkley Point nuclear power plant, Beijings top diplomat in the UK said. Chinas ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming, wrote in the Financial Times that there was a link between the governments decision to delay going ahead with the nuclear reactor and the future of bilateral ties between the two nations. Contracts were to be signed in July to go ahead with the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant, but were put on hold by Theresa May as she had concerns regarding security and wanted more time to asses the plans. The 18bn Hinkley Point was being built by French state energy provider EDF and a Chinese consortium was providing about 16bn for the energy project which upon completion was expected to provide for about 7% of the countrys energy needs. Liu said: Hinkley Point is not the result of some whimsical idea or rushed decision. It is the considered outcome of a mutually beneficial tripartite partnership between Britain, France and China. The decision by May to delay developments has thrown the golden-era of ties with China into doubt. When president Xi Jinping visited the UK last year it was part of former prime minister David Cameron and former chancellor George Osbornes plans to forge closer bilateral ties with the two nations. Nearly 40bn worth of investment deals were made with China during the state visit. Liu said in his article that Chinese companies had invested more in the UK over the past five years than in Germany, France and Italy combined. Britain takes pride in being a country that is open to foreign investors. Rightly so. It is exactly because of such openness that China has become the UKs second-largest non-European trading partner. Britain is one of the key destinations for Chinese companies seeking to invest overseas. Liu said he hoped the British government would come to a swift decision on Hinkley Point but mutual trust was needed. If Britains openness is a condition for bilateral co-operation, then mutual trust is the very foundation on which this is built [] I hope the UK will keep its door open to China and that the British government will continue to support Hinkley Point. Technology venture capital company IP Group s half year pre-tax losses narrowed and while it remained cautious about the short-term impact of the Brexit vote, it was confident about the long-term prospects. For the six months ended 30 June, adjusted loss before tax narrowed by 56% to 31.1m compared to the same period last year. Net assets, excluding intangibles, fell by 2.4% to 683.5m. Portfolio realisations increased to 14.5m from 400,000. Net cash and deposits at 30 June were 174.7m, a decrease of 20.4% compared to the same period last year. This reflects a net fair value decrease of 24.5m largely as a result of a reduction in the value of holdings in three of its AIM-listed portfolio companies, Avacta (7.1m), Xeros Technology (7.1m) and hVIVO (4.4m). These were partially offset by contributions from other companies in the portfolio including, Ceres Power Holdings for 4.2m. The fair value of IP Groups portfolio increased by about 10% to 525.7m compared to the same period a year ago. The company strengthened its partnerships with several US universities and also signed agreements with the University of Washington and Johns Hopkins University. Both universities have large research and development budgets as for 2016 it is $2.1bn and $1.1bn respectively. Capital provided to portfolio companies and projects was 12.8m and IP Group's portfolio companies raised about 38m of new capital during the half year. One of its companies, Oxford Nanopore Technologies reported significant technical and commercial progress, including the launch of a number of new products and services, and its first promethlon instrument. The FTSE 250 listed company said that following the countrys decision to leave the European Union the UK, it is facing a period of uncertainty. In the short-term the company said there may be some impact on specific portfolio companies, but in the long-term the company said the fundamentals of the business are strong and maintained the commercialisation of science remains compelling. Chief executive Alan Aubrey, said: "It is pleasing to report that a number of our portfolio companies have made excellent commercial progress during the period across all four of our sectors - healthcare, technology, cleantech and biotech - although broader economic conditions have had an impact on the value of some of our AIM-quoted holdings. IP Group has partnerships with 14 of the UK's and 5 of the US's leading research universities, a portfolio worth 525.7m, a strong cash balance of 174.7m, an experienced management team and a healthy pipeline of new opportunities. This leaves the group well positioned to respond effectively to, and capitalise on, opportunities in the second half of the year." Shares in IP Group were down 4.31% to 153.29p at 0926 BST. Investment bank Old Mutual is to sell its Old Mutual Wealth Italy subsidiary to insurance company Ergo Italia , which is owned by private equity firm Cinven , for 278m. The sale is expected to be completed in the next six months is part of Old Mutuals strategy to divest its Continental Europe business in order to focus on British and cross border markets. Proceed will be retained by Old Mutual for general corporate purposes. At 31 December 2015, Old Mutual Wealth Italy had 7bn of funds under management and contributed 22m of post-tax earnings for the year. Shares in the FTSE 100 listed Old Mutual were up 0.46% to 219.80p at 0857 BST. Specialty chemicals company Synthomer reported an increase in first-half profit thanks to ongoing improvements in Europe and North America. In the six months to the end of June, pre-tax profit rose to 61m from 58.7m in the first half of 2015, on revenue of 446.2m, up from 432.3m. Earnings per share were up 19% to 13.8p and the group declared an interim dividend of 3.5p per share, 9.4% higher than the previous year. In Europe and North America, the performance was driven by positive momentum in construction and coatings, functional polymers and foam markets. In Asia and Rest of the World, the improved performance was driven by firming margins relative to the first half of last year. Volumes and margins achieved in the nitrile business were broadly in line with the strong performance experienced in the second half of 2015, the company said. Chairman Neil Johnson said: This is an encouraging first half performance. It reflects continued improvement in our Europe and North America segment, where we have controlled costs and increased focus on R&D investment to drive growth of higher margin products, and another strong performance in our Asia and Rest of World business. Looking ahead, we remain cautiously optimistic for the full year. In Europe and North America, notwithstanding the Brexit vote and the ensuing unsettled economic outlook and currency markets, we expect to make continued progress. At 1040 BST, Synthomer shares were flat at 383.80p. China has issued its sternest warning yet to the UK that bilateral ties stand at a crucial historical juncture over Londons deferral of an 18bn nuclear power project. Liu Xiaoming, Chinas ambassador to the UK, drew a clear link between Beijings desire to see an early go-ahead for the controversial Hinkley Point power project and the future of the UK-China relationship. - Financial Times British shoppers have shrugged off fears that Brexit would hamper consumer spending after fresh figures showed retailers enjoyed the strongest sales growth since January. The upbeat research comes despite fears by the highly-respected KPMG Ipsos Retail Think Tank that the political uncertainty would lead to a dampening of consumer confidence which would hurt the retail sectors fortunes. - Telegraph EDFs decision to press ahead with the construction of an 18 billion nuclear power station at Hinkley Point was invalid after crucial information was withheld from some board members, French unions said yesterday. Three unions representing 80 per cent of EDF employees claimed that Jean-Bernard Levy, the chairman, knew the British government would delay its decision on Hinkley before the French utilitys board gave final approval to the investment. - The Times The UK could strike a trade deal with the European Union within two years but will struggle to win concessions on free movement of labour, according to one of Britains most experienced trade negotiators. Roderick Abbott, a former EU ambassador to the World Trade Organisation, thinks the UK might conclude a trade deal with Brussels in 24 months a faster timetable than estimated by some European leaders, who have warned of talks stretching on for five years or more. - Guardian The cost to the taxpayer of the bungled contract to clean up some of Britains oldest nuclear power plants may grow further as a new batch of companies considers suing the government body ruled to have mishandled the tender, including possibly the consortia that included Serco, Amec, Atkins and Rolls-Royce. A High Court judge ruled on July 29 that the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) handed the 7 billion contract to decommission 12 nuclear sites to the wrong company, leaving it exposed to a claim for damages estimated at 200 million. - The Times Downing Street has dismissed pressure to slow the implementation of the national living wage in the face of lobbying from businesses concerned about rising salary bills. But Theresa Mays official spokeswoman pointed to her pledge, immediately after she became prime minister last month, to govern in the interests of families struggling to make ends meet. - Guardian The Reserve Bank of Australia could be forced to cut the cash rate to 1% in the next 12 months and even resort to US and European-style monetary easing if global headwinds continue to weigh on the economy, experts have warned. Despite already cutting the rate twice in 2016 to unprecedented levels, the central bank faces a scenario where a deteriorating economic outlook brings at least two more reductions. - Guardian Barclays has become the first bank to agree a deal with New York and other American states over its part in rigging Libor, opening the way to further settlements with other key lenders involved in the scandal. Eric Schneiderman, the New York attorney-general, said Barclays had agreed to pay it and 43 other states a total of $100 million to settle their claims against the bank over its manipulation of the US dollar Libor rate in what is seen as the first of several similar payouts. - Telegraph A long-running pensions quirk that created a pay gap between men and women workers is to come before an employment tribunal this year, after a trade union for Lloyds Bank staff launched a case that it thinks could be worth 300m. Women who earned guaranteed minimum pension (GMP) payments at the bank are losing out on up to 2,000 each, according to Lloyds Trade Union, which is co-ordinating the discrimination case. - Telegraph Healthy fast-food chain Leon is to create 1,000 new jobs after raising 19m to open 50 new restaurants. The restaurant group said that it had tapped alternative lender OakNorth for the financing after traditional banks were scaling back loans following Britains vote to quit the EU. - Telegraph In an attempt to reset a campaign recently flogged by a series of controversies, Donald Trump outlined an economic vision for the US, including dramatically slashing taxes, and took sharp aim at Hillary Clinton. In a nearly hour-long speech, unusually reading from a teleprompter, the Republican presidential nominee suggested Detroit itself was an example of the living, breathing example of my opponents failed economic agenda. - Guardian British taxpayers have stood behind billions of pounds of short-term loans to customers of Airbus which are now under a bribery and corruption criminal investigation by the Serious Fraud Office. The reliance of Airbus on UK Export Finance, an arm of the British government, to oil the wheels of multibillion-pound aircraft deals in the Middle East, Russia, China and Latin America can be revealed after an investigation by The Times into Airbus transactions. At least 30 international trade deals worth more than $20 billion to American businesses are stuck in limbo because of a political spat over the fate of the US Export Import bank. The bank, similar to UK Export Finance, supports trade by financing and insuring foreign purchases of American goods for customers unable or unwilling to accept the credit risks of such deals. But it has become a pawn in a battle between a tiny faction of Republicans, who denounce it as corporate welfare. - The Times A German court is accelerating a series of claims against Volkswagen following last year's emissions scandal. The regional court in Braunschweig said it will pick one case to act as a model to help resolve as many as 170 other damages claims, the closest thing Germany has to class-action lawsuits common in the US. - Telegraph News Corp is pinning its future hopes on its real estate websites after full-year earnings were dragged down 28% by its newspaper publishing business. Worldwide pre-tax earnings at Rupert Murdochs media empire for the 12 months to 30 June were $US684m ($A894m), down from $US945m a year earlier, the US-based company reported on Tuesday. - Guardian Shares in Meggitt, the leading British aerospace group, have leapt to a ten-month high on speculation that investors are moving in on some forthcoming takeover action. Elliott Capital Advisors, an activist US investment group with a base in London, revealed yesterday that an accumulating stake in Meggitt had taken it above the 5 per cent level at which it has to disclose its interest under City rules. It is understood that meetings have been held between representatives of Meggitt and Elliott. Both organisations declined to comment. - The Times Lending Club revealed some of the damage wrought by its governance scandal as it posted a net quarterly loss 20 times wider than a year ago, and said it was looking for a new chief financial officer. The San Francisco-based company, which bills itself as the worlds largest online marketplace connecting borrowers and investors, said that originations of loans between April and June came to $1.96bn in the period, down 29 per cent from the previous quarter but fractionally higher than a year ago. - Financial Times Defined benefit pension schemes will come under the spotlight in the wake of the BHS inquiry with MPs set to look at what can be done to give regulators more power to go after employers who fail to meet their obligations to staff. The work and pensions select committee, which jointly drafted last months damning report into the failure of BHS, has begun a further inquiry into pensions regulation. - The Times Millions of tonnes of food are thrown away in the UK every year, with Britain wasting more than any other European country. Now a group of entrepreneurs have built an app that they hope will cut down on waste by allowing restaurants to sell food that they otherwise would have thrown away at knock-down prices. Too Good To Go, an app that launched in several UK cities this year and is now arriving in London, shows users local restaurants that are willing to sell high-quality dishes for between 2 and 3.80 often less than half the normal price. - Telegraph Digitimes Research: LeEco acquires Vizio, Samsung Electronics poised to offer QLED TVs China-based OTT (over the top) operator LeEco will acquire a 100% stake in US-based LCD TV vendor Vizio in a bid to rank among the globally five largest LCD TV vendors, while Samsung Electronics has applied for the trademark Samsung QLED with US Patent... The premium content you are trying to open requires News database subscription. Please sign in if you wish to continue. Content from this article was part of a complete Digitimes Research Chinese-language report that has not yet been translated into English. If you are interested in an English version of the report or wish to receive more information about the report, click here to contact us and we will get back to you as soon as possible. Digitimes Research also provides quarterly tracking services for market sectors such as China Smartphone, China Smartphone AP, Taiwan ICT and Taiwan FPD. Click here for more information about Digitimes Research Tracking services. Save my User ID and Password Some subscribers prefer to save their log-in information so they do not have to enter their User ID and Password each time they visit the site. To activate this function, check the 'Save my User ID and Password' box in the log-in section. This will save the password on the computer you're using to access the site. Note: If you choose to use the log-out feature, you will lose your saved information. This means you will be required to log-in the next time you visit our site. Cleveland has received a $50,000 Tourism Enhancement Grant from the state to be used for sound and lighting at the stage at Greenway Park. The Tuesday check presentation was made in front of the stage. Twenty-nine communities across the state shared part of the nearly $1 million grant program. There were 61 applications. Cleveland's share, $50,000, was the maximum one community could receive. The Tourism Enhancement Grant program was funded by the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development, Tennessee Department of Tourist Development and with the assistance of the Appalachian Regional Commission. The grant program grew out of a statewide listening tour, said Jody Sliger of the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development. She and Dave Jones, East Tennessee Regional Manager, Tennessee Department of Tourist Development, presented the check to city leaders. The grants are to be used to enhance tourism infrastructure, Sliger said. These enhancements will then encourage even more tourism. Tourism is already a nearly $18 billion industry in Tennessee, Jones said. Teaming the state's Department of Economic and Community Development and the Department of Tourist Development for this grant was a good thing to do, he said. "We are constantly enhancing and extending our greenway," Mayor Tom Rowland said. "With this grant we will continue doing that here at the Greenway Stage, making it even better for future events." "We appreciate this support," said City Councilman Avery Johnson. "Our people love the greenway, he said. The enhanced stage will just add to that popularity, he said. "The goal is to make the greenway park a destination, allowing more people to come and explore other areas including our restaurants," said Brian Moran with the city government. Hungry for comfort food? Here are five destinations to try in Columbus Subscriber content preview ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) 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 that the barrier wall is part of the new security plan following the death of 2-year-old Lane Graves of Omaha, Nebraska. The boulder wall is going up along the beaches of the Seven Seas Lagoon where several resorts are located. . . . Reservist hits USAF F-35 trans-Atlantic milestone A native Arizonan and 944th Fighter Wing Reserve pilot achieved his lifelong goal while also hitting a milestone for the Air Force last month. Maj. Daniel Daehler, 944th Operations Group Det. 2, F-35 instructor pilot, flew an F-35 Lightning II from Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, to Royal Air Force Fairford, England, making it his first trans-Atlantic flight and the first U.S. Air Force F-35 trans-Atlantic flight. Growing up you read about Charles Lindberg crossing the Atlantic and its been a cool life goal to do at some point, said Daehler who transitioned to the F-35 aircraft from the F-16 earlier this year. I never had the opportunity to make the flight when I flew F-16s, it just never worked out. So getting to make my first trans-Atlantic flight as part of a historic milestone for the Air Force in the F-35 was awesome. The historic flight required seven air-refuelings and just over seven and a half hours to complete. The F-35 is a pretty remarkable aircraft. It has more capabilities, is better able to face todays threats, can go into contested areas, and the technology is superior. Its also a decently comfortable cockpit; more room than the F-16, which helps during a long flight. The trip to the United Kingdom was in support of the Royal International Air Tattoo at Fairford in southern England. The group from Luke flew three F-35s to the air show allowing the crowds to witness an aerial performance and were able to get up close to the aircraft with a static display. Daehler spent most of his time during the air show talking with spectators and answering questions about the F-35. There was a lot of interest from the folks attending the air show, a lot of people just coming up to see the jet for the first time, said Daehler. Most of the questions I got were about what its like to fly and my opinion of the aircraft. I told them what I tell everyone. Its like a spaceship, it brings a lot more capability, explained Daehler. The technology inside is awesome. Its just years and years ahead of where we are with the F-16. The group also spent time before the airshow talking with individuals who had come out to watch the preshow. When asked what his favorite thing about the trip was Daehler said, Just the opportunity to fly the airplane across the Atlantic for this historic event and seeing the views. Its really remarkable flying up the East coast of the U.S. to Greenland. Greenland was clear both ways, going there and coming back and its a surreal life experience seeing Greenland with the mountains jetting out of the water, glaciers, snowcap, and icebergs floating in the water. This trip across the Atlantic is also much more than just attending an airshow, added Daehler. Its an important milestone for the F-35 and its ability to forward-deploy. The F-35 is a multi-role, next-generation fighter that combines advanced stealth with speed, agility and a 360-degree view of the battlespace. The F-35 will form the backbone of air combat superiority for decades to come and replace legacy tactical fighter fleets with dominant air-to-air and air-to-ground capabilities to deter and defeat potential adversaries. Chinese antitrust regulator extends review of Marriott-Starwood $13.6 bn merger The Chinese antitrust regulator has extended its review of the Marriott International - Starwood Hotels & Resorts merger by up to 60 days, although the planned $13.6-billion merger does not create any anti-competitive issues in the country. China's ministry of commerce (MOFCOM) review is the only remaining approval for the deal, after the transaction has already been cleared by regulators in more than 40 countries, including the US, the European Union and Canada, and also approved by shareholders of both companies. Both Marriott and Starwood said in a statement that, ''at the request of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), they have agreed to extend the time period for MOFCOM to complete its review of the Marriott-Starwood merger transaction. This additional review period, known as phase three, could last up to 60 days.'' ''Marriott and Starwood continue to believe that their planned merger transaction poses no anti-competitive issues in China. Approval by China's Ministry of Commerce is the only remaining merger clearance required before the transaction may close.'' ''The companies have received unconditional premerger clearances from regulatory authorities representing over 40 countries worldwide, including the United States, the European Union, Canada, Chile, Colombia, India, Japan, Mexico, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, and Turkey,'' the statement added. In March, Marriott clinched the deal to acquire Starwood Hotels & Resorts for $13.6 billion beating a competitive bid from China's Anbang Insurance Group-led consortium. (See: Marriott hikes bid for Starwood Hotels & Resorts to $13.6-bn revised) The Anbang consortium backed away from the deal since the transaction could have invited scrutiny from the US Committee on Foreign Investment, an interagency panel that reviews deals that could harm national security. The Marriott-Starwood deal would create the world's largest hotel chain with more than 5,500 hotels and 1.1 million rooms. The combined brands would include Marriott International, Ritz-Carlton, JW Marriott, Sheraton, Ritz Carlton, the Autograph Collection, Westin, Le Meridien, St. Regis, and Aloft. Starwood has more than 1,200 properties in around 100 countries with brands that include The Luxury Collection, W, Westin, Le Meridien, Sheraton, St. Regis, Aloft, and Element luxury hotels and resorts. With annual revenues of more than $14 billion, Maryland-based Marriott has more than 4,400 properties in 87 countries and territories. The company operates and franchises hotels under 19 brands, including: The Ritz-Carlton, Bulgari, EDITION, JW Marriott, Renaissance Hotels, Marriott Hotels, Delta Hotels and Resorts, Marriott Executive Apartments, Marriott Vacation Club, Courtyard, Residence Inn, and others. A recluse convicted of sexually abusing a young boy in County Donegal in the 1960s and 70s has been jailed for two years. A recluse convicted of sexually abusing a young boy in County Donegal in the 1960s and 70s has been jailed for two years. Brian McMahon (63), of Temple Street, Sligo, had pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to 35 charges of indecent assault of the boy between 1966 and June 1974 at two locations in Ballyshannon. He was convicted by a jury of 31 of the charges earlier this year. McMahon was six years older than the victim who was aged 10 when the offences started. McMahon was also convicted to one charge of indecently assaulting the boys younger brother, between September 1973 and September 1974, also in Ballyshannon. The victim was aged 13 at the time. Both men have given permission to reporters to name McMahon. Garda Gerard Mullane told Caroline Biggs SC, prosecuting, that the victims were also subjected to physical abuse by McMahon, particularly the older brother, who, he said got the brunt of the physical assaults. Gda Mullane said McMahon would make the boys masturbate. Some of the abuse took place in a cow shed or in fields. He added that McMahon, who grew up in foster homes, lives in rented accommodation in Sligo. He said he lives alone, keeps cats and is more or less a recluse. Defence Counsel Brendan Grehan SC pointed out that there were no charges in relation to violence inflicted on the brothers. Mr Grehan said that his client was fostered out for years and was effectively a recluse or loner. He asked Mr Justice Paul Carney to take into consideration McMahons age and personal circumstances. In his victim impact statement, the older brother told the court he did not have any recollection of happy childhood moments, due to the physical and sexual abuse during what he described as the most vulnerable part of his life. He said at the time he didnt have the vocabulary to describe what was inflicted on him. In an effort to cope throughout his life, he immersed himself in his work and worked hours far in excess of the working week. I have no self-confidence, he said, adding that he has difficulty trusting and confiding in others. He has endured nightmares since the trial. I have lost my childhood forever, he said. His younger brother, in his victim impact statement, said he has endured an emotional, painful path due to the violence, intimidation, terror and completely irrational behaviour of McMahon. He said the incident meant the creation of an environment of secrecy and he built up a shell of protection in an effort to cope. Mr Justice Carney imposed a sentence of two years on each charge, to run concurrently. Padraig Duggan, musician, songwriter and founding member of the Irish Celtic music pioneers, Clannad, died early today (Tuesday), aged 67, in Dublin. Padraig along with twin brother, Noel, were the youngest of six children of Aodh (Hugh) and Maire Duggan, and grew up in the Gaoth Dobhair Gaeltacht. Clannad was formed in the early 1970s through regular performances in the family pub, Leos Tavern. After winning the Letterkenny Folk Festival in 1973, they embarked on a busy touring schedule, finding initial success in Europe, and especially Germany. Their music was a blend of Irish traditional songs from Donegal and contemporary influences of the day, including the Beach Boys, the Beatles, the Mamas & the Papas and Joni Mitchell. However their breakthrough, and the start of their worldwide acclaim, came in 1982 when their theme song for the TV mini-series, Harrys Game, became a UK hit. Clannad also became the first act to perform in the Irish language on BBCs Top of the Pops. Padraig was a brother of Baba (Maire) Brennan, wife of the late Leo Brennan, who passed away in June of this year. Padraig passed away in Blanchardstown Hospital following a recurring illness. He is survived by his wife, Jan, and extended family. Padraigs wake will be at his home, 29, Turret Road, Palmerstown, Dublin 20, from 6pm to 10pm today, Tuesday, and from 9am to 12 noon tomorrow, Wednesday. Removal in Gaoth Dobhair, arriving at St. Marys Church, Derrybeg, at 7pm tomorrow, Wednesday, and funeral Mass at 1pm on Thursday. Pictured: Clannad 1988, Padraig Duggan far left. Photo Tim Jarvis. A 33-year-old man accused of being involved in an armed raid on a Louth post office, appeared before Dundalk district court last week so his bail money could be lodged. The defendant had been remanded in custody with consent to bail when he was brought before the Criminal Courts of Justice in Dublin last Tuesday charged with robbery at Clogherhead Post Office on the third of May last. The defence solicitor explained to Judge Deirdre Gearty at the vacation sitting in Dundalk the next day that her client Philip Leonard had been granted bail by Judge ONeill in the CCJ the day before and he had been remanded in custody with consent to bail until then so his family could lodge the bail money. After it was confirmed that 1,000 had been lodged an investigating officer asked for an adjournment until October or later as he said It is a complicated case. Judge Gearty remanded Philip Leonard on bail to Drogheda District Court on the fourth of November. As part of his bail conditions, the accused must reside at his brothers address at The Cresent, Tredagh View, Marleys Lane Drogheda. He must also sign on daily at Drogheda Garda Station, observe a curfew from 10pm to 8am and have no contact with the alleged injured party, or his co-accused. Its a common condition for small business owners: the 3am stare at the bedroom ceiling and the nagging concern of how to grow the business faster. The staring is usually accompanied by a bout of the if onlys. If only I could allocate more to the marketing budget; if only we could get the website humming; if only the team had more time to dedicate to activities that actually grew the business. If only. If only. If only. Increasingly, Australian small to medium enterprises are finding a way to fast-track their business growth by adding expertise to their staff that not only increases overall productivity but also moves the business further and faster along the experience curve. Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) allows SMEs to access experienced and talented staff who can help compress a five-year business plan into maybe two or three years. Once considered the domain of only the large multinationals, even small businesses are now establishing international capabilities by tapping into the growing pool of experienced professionals in English-speaking countries such as the Philippines. That means Australian marketing managers who previously might have also handled activities such as graphic design and search engine optimisation can now afford to have those tasks run by expert staff offshore, freeing them up to concentrate on work that grows revenue. For an Australian SME that is trying to achieve as much as they can on a tight budget, adding more firepower to areas like webpage design, digital marketing and SEO can vastly accelerate growth. One of the great myths of offshoring is that it is restricted to low-level functions such as outbound call centres. An experienced offshore recruiter can source highly experienced teams of professionals with expertise in graphic design, digital marketing, accounts receivable, data processing and other functions that have traditionally diverted business owners away from the core activity of profitable growth. This allows smaller businesses and start-ups to access roles they traditionally would not have been able to early on in their growth cycle (enabling them to grow quickly and potentially add more resources at the local level down the track). We are aware of an SME with one employee, a chartered accountant, who was having to perform menial data processing tasks and account entry functions. By offshoring the data and account entry component, the accountant was able to spend more time with upper management on growing the business. They were also able to be upskilled in the latest industry software and became more active in modelling and forecasting which give more visibility on growth. Another SME, a start-up within the technology sector, had difficulty hiring the development talent they required to code they had their head developer and other key staff performing basic tasks and coding functions rather than taking charge of the strategic side of the project. Once they realised they could recruit highly skilled developers offshore, and did so, local staff were able to focus on the bigger picture. Without offshore labour, the start-up would have been incredibly slow to market. Now theyre able to grow and as a result, may be able to begin employing local staff quicker. We see the same story over and over again, with a range of white collar roles including web development, copywriting and graphic design. The rapid improvement in global telecommunications means running a team overseas is little different to running a team in another state. With high-speed video and voice over IP, managers can oversee team members in a city such as Manila with the same effort as managing staff in, say, Adelaide or Perth. The Philippines in particular offers particular advantages to an Australian business looking to quickly advance their growth. The Filipino workforce is highly skilled and technically proficient, with 400,000 new graduates each year adding to the talent pool of business administration, marketing and communications. The offshoring industry has operated in the Philippines for more than 20 years so more than 4 million trained local workers have experience working for international companies. The industry is now the second largest contributor to GDP in the Philippines and the government has established special economic zones where offshoring businesses receive tax incentives and other forms of government assistance. Offshoring for Australian small businesses is not about cost-cutting, the focus is on growth. With careful planning and finding expert help to recruit an offshore team, SME owners can hopefully sleep a little easier at night. About the author 10-Year-Old Boy Shot In The Back Monday Night In North Lawndale By Stephen Gossett in News on Aug 9, 2016 3:22PM A 10-year-old boy was shot on Monday night in North Lawndale, according to Chicago police. The boy, identified by reports as Tavon Tanner, was standing on the sidewalk in front of his home, in the 3900 block of West Polk Street, near South Pulaski Road, while his family was on the front porch. At about 10:15 p.m., family members heard shots but did not see the offender, a police spokeswoman told Chicagoist. Washington had been shot in the back; he was taken to Mt. Sinai Medical Center and listed in critical condition. Tavons mother, Mellanie Washington, 39, heard at least five shots, ABC 7 reports. She said it took a moment to realize what had happened."I didn't even know (Tavon) was next to me until he fell backwards through the doorway when I was crawling in the house," she said told ABC. "He was talking and we didn't even know he was shot at first, until we saw blood on his shirt."' Tavons twin sister reportedly shouted, Twin, dont leave me! Police do not have a suspect in custody as of Tuesday morning. It was my first time to have a tour with Carlos Celdran so when Lido Cocina Tsina extended an invitation for a walking tour at Downtown Manila (a.k.a. Chinatown in Manila / Binondo / Escolta / Sta. Cruz) I had a little hestitation but decided to go anyway. I just thought Downtown Manila is part of the Philippines rich history and culture, and having to see the place with an expert to guide us, it should be more interesting than what I already know from a previous visit at the area, especially on a Chinese New Year! Heres what can you see at Downtown Manila PLACE OF FAITH Binondo Church Sta Cruz Church Great Wall of Chinatown Here is where you will find the cross being honored with an incense. A cross of Buddihsm and Catholicsm since Buddihsm is not a religion you can actually mix it with any religion . FOOD STOPS Best Lumpia in Town It is hidden inside the Uy Su Bin Building where you can find original Chinese building/ architecture. You need to find the New Po Heng Lumpia House signage along the street then go pass by the narrow hallway , at the end is the carrinderia where the lumpia is sold. Life Changing Fried Siopao By Shangai Fried Siopao for Php18.00 only! It is actually a cross of siomai and siopao. It taste really good and price is really affordable! Best Hopia in Town Of course at Eng Bee Tin, the house of many flavored hopia just by the archway Original Lido Cocina Tsina House and their famous Pork Asado The building was actually demolished for some issues. But the signage is there Lido Cocina Tsina is celebrating its 80 years in the Philippines with 18 branches in the country. It was the original Panciteria Lido built in 1936 the one built in 1945 is totally different. This is actually what we came for, or well they were the one who spearheaded this tour. Thank you! OTHER ATTRACTIONS Eskinita de Escolta Carlos described it as how the Manila city streets should be narrow and diverse and thriving. Well at least the place does not stink and the streets are clean. Places to buy Lucky Charms and Crystals Chinese are known for Feng Shui and those who practice and believe it uses different kinds of charms and crystals for different wishes and aspirations in life. This is the street to be. Plus you can also see in this area where the original Printing Press was . Hub Make Lab 143 Escolta A new place for booming local artist sell their products and services here. You can find different items from artworks, handicrafts and there is a coffee shop inside as well. Arches they have lots of it! They like Markers of their territory hehe Chinatown in Manila Old buildings they have lots of it! All you have to do is look up to see them! To see everything in action you may want to watch this Vlog I made of our Downtown Manila Walking tour with Carlos Celdran. This was actually a 2-3 kilometer walk but it didnt feel like it because we had so many interesting stops along the way. How about you, have you seen Binondo like this before? How about experiencing a tour with Carlos Celdran? Tell me about it! Stay gorgeous everyone! From Community Policing To The Business Of Food, Discover The Blue Sky Bakery Speaker Series By Sponsor in Arts & Entertainment on Aug 9, 2016 5:00AM Community Policing: A View from the Streets Thursday, August 25, 7-9 pm Join Blue Sky Bakery for a thought-provoking discussion on one of the biggest challenges facing Chicagoans: how police and community members can work together to reduce violence. The panel will include a police officer who has also served as a Marine in Afghanistan. He will discuss his experiences with community-building in the Middle East, and how it informs his current work. Several youth enrolled in the Blue Sky Bakery transitional jobs program will also participate. These youth live in some of the most violent neighborhoods in the US, and have a complex relationship with the criminal justice system. Moderating the conversation will be Stephanie Kollman, Policy Director of the Children and Family Justice Center at Northwestern. Get tickets today. Making It: The Business of Food Tuesday, September 13, 7-9 pm Join Blue Sky Bakery for a candid discussion with entrepreneurs behind four of Chicago's most popular food businesses: Michael Ciapciak, Owner, Bang Bang Pie & Biscuits Paula Haney, Owner, Hoosier Mama Pie Co. Sandra Holl, Owner, Floriole Cafe & Bakery Elizabeth Madden, Owner, Rare Bird Preserves The conversation will be moderated by Janet Fuller, a James Beard-nominated food writer and the former Food Editor of the Chicago Sun-Times. The evening will include Crafthouse Cocktails from Charles Joly, beers from Begyle Brewing, and desserts from all of the panelists. Get tickets today. This post is brought to you by Blue Sky Bakery. Countryside unveils the first in a series of Knowsley developments The wait is over for Huyton house hunters seeking a larger, modern property as Countryside releases 35 four and five bedroom homes at the highly anticipated Harrington Place. Prices start at 324,950. Harrington Place is first of three Knowsley developments to be launched for sale on the open market by Countryside this year, offering local families the opportunity to reserve a new, high-quality home off-plan. Show homes at the former Huyton Leisure Centre site will be available to view this autumn and will come complete with Countrysides unrivalled specification as standard and will be available through a range of home buying initiatives, including the popular Help to Buy scheme, which only requires a 5% deposit. Second steppers looking to trade up for a spacious, brand new home will also be able to do so using Countrysides Part Exchange scheme, through which buyers can move without the worry of selling their existing home on the open market. Peter Vella, Regional Sales and Marketing Director for Countryside, commented: The launch of Harrington Place is the first of a number of developments coming soon to the area. This partnership with Knowsley Council will see 583 new homes built across the borough, all of which are designed to cater for demand in not only first time buyer homes, but also aspirational buyers and families looking to upscale into a bigger property. The interest that weve had in the new Knowsley homes has been phenomenal and were excited to embark on what is shaping up to be a highly successful venture with Knowsley Council to enhance the area. Knowsley Councils Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Economic Development, Cllr Mike Murphy, said: Im delighted that Countrysides Harrington Place development is set to come to the market. Our ambition is to provide more high quality homes in Knowsley to cater for the increasing demand from our residents and people who wish to move to the borough. Our partnership with Countryside is enabling us to deliver that aim. For more information, visit countryside-properties.com. Donald Trumps visit to Detroit yesterday seems to have made news largely because he didnt say anything outrageous and wasnt goaded into lashing out at over a dozen protesters who interrupted his speech. He stood quietly during each outburst then said, Thank you, as if he were to be commended for not telling the crowd to beat the daylights out of the protesters. It was an uncharacteristic show of self-restraint that turned his teleprompter-aided speech into a lackluster, low-energy appeal to upper class, wealthy Americans. As Mark Sumner put it at Daily Kos, Trump appeared to be observing a competitive ping pong match as he apparently looked back and forth between a pair of teleprompter screens, observing each side of the room for a paragraph at the time. Perhaps thats what he means by pivot. (This is from a guy, by the way, who just last year said, I say we should outlaw teleprompters for anybody, right? for anybody for anybody running for president..) Trump was so proud of himself for sticking to his scripted speech, in fact, that he used it to raise funds in an email later that afternoon. [A] group of left-wing protesters interrupted me over ten times in an attempt to get us off message, he wrote (referring to himself in the royal us.) I have news for them: IT DIDNT WORK! We stayed on message and delivered our positive platform to America. Give me all your money. Its an astonishing reality this year that the biggest news out of a Trump speech is that he didnt lose his stuff and didnt say anything epically stupid (unless referring to titties like Detroit counts.) However, his speech did have some other things worth talking about, particularly as they pertain to Michigan and Detroit, in particular. In Trumps view, the cause of the economic disaster in Detroit is over regulation and high taxes. She supports the high taxes and radical regulation that forced jobs out of your community, he said. Upon taking office, I will issue a temporary moratorium on new agency regulations. As anyone who has paid even the slightest amount of attention over the past five decades knows, Detroits problems have little to do with over-regulation. They have more to do with the systemic racism since World War II described in Thomas Sugrues must-read book The Origins of Urban Crisis and the offshoring of manufacturing that benefits people like Donald Trump himself. Its also a little ironic to come to Michigan to talk about the burden of regulations when just a half hour north, Flint residents are still bathing in bottled water because their water is poisoned with lead. His moratorium on new agency regulations will put a halt to new consumer protections under the Dodd-Frank bill along with a host of other very beneficial protections. In fact, this moratorium is a boon for corporate America. I know, youre #shockednotshocked. Heres the Washington Posts take: Freezing all pending federal regulations would include many Wall Street regulations created by the Dodd-Frank legislation passed in the wake of the financial crisis. Trumps energy agenda would open new sections of American coastal waters to offshore oil drilling and sweep away the Obama administrations efforts to fight climate change. Both moves have frequently found widespread support among Republican lawmakers and in conservative policy circles. You can read their entire fact-checking of Trumps Detroit speech HERE. With apparently no self-awareness whatsoever, after decrying regulations in America, Trump went on to decry the lack of regulations in China: China is responsible for nearly half of our entire trade deficit. They break the rules in every way imaginable. China engages in illegal export subsidies, prohibited currency manipulation, and rampant theft of intellectual property. They also have no real environmental or labor protections, further undercutting American workers. Trumps biggest announcement in Detroit was the creation of a new, simplified tax code that would have only three brackets: 12 percent, 25 percent and 33 percent. He would also repeal the estate tax, establish a maximum corporate tax rate of 15 percent, and allow families to deduct their childcare expenses. This all sounds enticing until you realize that only the wealthy will actually benefit from his proposals. Again, I realize that you are #shockednotshocked. The Clinton campaign pounced on this with a hard-punching ad: Trump may have made news by not making an idiot out of himself yesterday but it has done nothing to help him. Major Republicans have declared they arent voting for him including Sen. Susan Collins of Maine just yesterday. A cadre of 50 senior GOP national security officials signed a letter saying Trump lacks the character, values and experience to be president and would put at risk our countrys national security and well-being. His poll numbers continue to plummet. His campaign isnt just a train wreck or a dumpster fire. Its a train full of burning dumpsters plunging off a cliff. Its not enough for Hillary Clinton to defeat Donald Trump. She must CRUSH Donald Trump. That will help ensure that the Republican Party never nominates someone like him ever again and it will show the world which is watching in horror as our election unfolds that we are better than this. That we wont elected a racist, sexist, bigoted, narcissistic bully to be president. And, more importantly for a state like Michigan, it will ensure that he drags his entire Party down with him so that Democrats can regain control over the House of Representatives and put an end to policies and laws that are based on the disproven premise that government should be run like a business. Trump epitomizes that way of thinking and Michigan is its unfortunate poster child. The time for talk is over. Its now time for all of us to suit up and start knocking doors and making calls to elect Democrats up and down the ballot in November. Dont sit on the sidelines this year. There is simply too much at stake. 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While a conversation about police accountability reform can be reasonable, he said in a statement, the idea that a bunch of gang members would threaten violence against the men and women every Chicagoan relies on for their own safety is absolutely unacceptable. News of the reported alert surfaced on Monday after the Sun Times published a controversial article that reported leaders of the Vice Lords, Black Disciples and Four Corner Hustlers met on Thursday to talk about the idea of targeting officers. The piece was met with a fair bit of criticism from some corners of the media. FOP claims 3 gangs plotting to snipe at cops. Is this real? Or diversion from #PaulONeal killing? https://t.co/vsjLSt9NT0 Mike Klonsky (@mikeklonsky) August 9, 2016 This is just police propaganda written up by the @Suntimes https://t.co/EK0QLQu2p6 sam leo stecklow (@samstecky) August 9, 2016 Causing further controversy, police union president Dean Angelo was quoted as saying rhetoric from the attorney of Paul ONeals family and statements by Sharon Fairley, the leader of Chicagos police accountability board, the Independent Police Review Authority, were responsible for the threats. The unarmed O'Neal, 18, was fatally shot in the back by a police officer after a police pursuit on July 29. "We had inflammatory and false rhetoric coming from [attorney Michael Oppenheimer] and statements that werent true, Angelo said, according to the Sun Times. You also have a lead investigator in police-involved deaths talking about how shocking and disturbing this is. So disturbing and wrong. Also disturbing that FOP blames IPRA and O'Neal family attorney for threats. https://t.co/xSPSxFoODR chicagogirl606 (@chicagogirl606) August 9, 2016 When asked for comment, a Chicago police spokeswoman provided the following statement to Chicagoist: It is routine practice for officer safety alerts to be disseminated by Districts and CPIC concerning any potential threats to police but to safeguard the integrity of operations, the department does not comment on any specific security measures that may be implemented. The spokeswoman confirmed that no officers had been targeted by West Side gang members on Monday or Tuesday afternoon. Emanuel's full statement is indicative of a mayor struggling to balance competing criticismssome from a police union that frequently finds him unsupportive, and some from activist circles who condemn his handling of the Laquan McDonald and Paul O'Neal shootings, among other grievances. He's created a tightrope for himself, to be sure. By giving credence to Angelo's controversial claims, he definitely takes a precarious step. Statement from Mayor Emanuel pic.twitter.com/Nmlxs5kDTQ ChicagosMayor (@ChicagosMayor) August 9, 2016 Chicagoist has reached out to the Fraternal Order of Police and the IPRA for comment and will update this post as necessary. Two anti-fracking measures are one step closer to appearing on Colorados Nov. 8 ballot. Local environmental groups have collected at least 98,492 signatures for measures 75 and 78, which will allow voters to decide the fate of oil and gas operations in the state. Now, the petitions only need to pass a validation review by the Secretary of States office to make it onto the ballot. As EcoWatch reported, initiative 75 would amend the state constitution to enable local governments the option to enact regulations more protective of health and safety than those required by the state, largely addressing the Colorado Supreme Courts recent decision to strike down local fracking bans approved by voters in the cities of Fort Collins and Longmont. Initiative 78 would create 2,500-foot buffer zones between homes, schools and sensitive areas like playgrounds and water sources, and all new oil and gas development. Yes For Health and Safety, a coalition of groups pushing the two ballot initiatives, celebrated their achievement. I am thrilled that the people of Colorado will have their voices heard, said Tricia Olson, the executive director of Health and Safety Over Fracking. I am so so grateful to our hundreds and hundreds of Colorado volunteers and to the organizations that stepped forward. WE DID IT! Petitions are in and not even Goliath could stop us! pic.twitter.com/BZdTCJnpWu Yes4Health&Safety (@YesHealthSafety) August 8, 2016 This is a good day for Colorado, and its a good day for democracy, said Lauren Petrie, the Rocky Mountain Region director of Food & Water Watch. These initiatives will give communities political tools to fend off the oil and gas industrys effort to convert our neighborhoods to industrial sites. This is a significant moment in the national movement to stem the tide of fracking and natural gas. Colorado is the seventh-largest oil and gas producing state in the country. A study by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission found that 90 percent of the states surface acreage would be unavailable for oil and gas development if the setback measure passes. In its counter campaign, energy companies have funneled millions of dollars to Protect Colorado, an industry group that aims to defeat the two measures. Energy companies Anadarko Petroleum Corp and Noble Energy Inc in the past month each increased their contributions to the group by $2.5 million, bringing their total donations to $6.55 million and $5 million, respectively, according to the latest campaign finance filing, Reuters writes. Protect Colorado issued a statement in reaction to the successful signature campaign: We are confident that Coloradans will see these measures for what they are: a backdoor fracking ban that would be economically devastating for our state, Karen Crummy, the groups communications director, said. If passed, they would eliminate 90 percent of all new oil and natural gas development. This means more than 140,000 of our friends and neighbors will lose their jobs, and everyone in the state will surrender $217 billion in economic activity over the next 15 years. These initiatives would also allow the government to take private property, costing taxpayers billions of dollars in compensation costs. This is not the Colorado way and is out of step with the majority of Coloradans who support responsible oil and natural gas development. The groups Decline to Sign campaign included a barrage of radio, television and print advertisements. Billboards were plastered in Fort Collins and Denver metro with phrases such as, Think before you ink, its decline to sign. According to Yes For Health and Safety, In the final weeks, men hired by front groups for as much as $25/hour took to the streets to harass and intimidate petitioners and to keep interested parties from signing petitions. The Colorado Independent alleges that Big Oil and Gas has gone beyond an orchestrated, multi-year operation in trying to sway public opinion on frackingthey have also tried to stack the political deck in their favor. The publication noted: With $10 million dollars in media reserve in late 2014, CRED [Coloradans for Responsible Energy Development] ran ads in the U.S. Senate race between Mark Udall and Cory Gardner and mobilized industry foot soldiers to canvass when any new towns started signaling that they, too, might want to pass moratoria on drilling. In 2015, the industry group made a preemptive strike in Fort Collins, which involved making sure that the right city council members got elected to the city council to stop a potential fracking ban, according to the transcript. According to another piece by The Colorado Independent: As of Aug. 1, the industry had raked in $15 million in contributions to defeat the two initiatives, out-raising supporters of the campaigns by a ratio of 35-to-1. The Yes for Health and Safety Over Fracking coalition noted in a press release that its team members gathered signatures on a relatively small budget using mostly volunteer petitioners. Thanks to the ARISE Music Festival in Loveland, Colorado this past weekend, petitioners were able to connect with more Coloradans and get any last minute signatures still needed. Olson was joined by Paul Bassis, co-founder of ARISE; Maria Orms of North Metro Neighbors for Safe Energy; Jon Bowermaster, director of Dear President Obama; and Joel Dyer, editor of the Boulder Weekly, at a press event at ARISE on Aug. 5 to discuss the two anti-fracking ballot initiatives. Paul Bassis (far left), co-founder of ARISE, spoke during a press event at the ARISE Music Festival in Loveland, Colorado, on Aug. 5. The panel discussion focused on the two Colorado anti-fracking ballot initiatives. Stefanie Spear This is what a true grassroots campaign looks like, Orms said. Its moms and dads, grandparents taking action to protect all that we hold dear. The oil and gas industry thought it could silence us by spending millions on advertising, but our state is not for sale. Orms is a resident of Thornton, an area that has seen increased oil and gas development. While she does not live immediately next to a fracking well, she detailed to The Colorado Independent how she and her daughter, a 17-year-old athlete, developed asthma despite never having prior related health problems. After receiving an asthma inhaler from a doctor, the doctor told her, Im handing these out right and left to everyone. In the ballot campaign video below from Yes for Health and Safety, the narrator describes how 90 percent of fracking happens next to schools, playgrounds and hospitals and that people living near these sites are becoming sick. The Colorado Independent described how Orms believes that fracking operations might have exacerbated the diagnosis: She remembered that the previous year, there had been an airplane zigzagging back and forth over the neighborhood, and figured out that it was an effort to take air quality measurements. Orms started looking for studies that might have come out of those flights, and learned that they had measured elevated concentrations of chemicals that can accelerate the creation of ground-level ozone, also known as smog. These chemicals, including volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, are a byproduct of the industrial processes involved in extracting natural gas. On hot summer days, which are getting hotter all the time as the planet warms, the presence of increased ground-level ozone can cause, among other things, what she and her daughter now had: asthma. Yes for Health and Safety is now planning for another round of campaigning to build support throughout the state once the petitions are confirmed by the states auditing process. Thousands of Weld County residents signed because they have first-hand experience of what its like to have toxic fracking wells in their backyards. Farmers signed. Oil workers signed. Republicans signed and Democrats signed, Therese Gilbert of Weld Air and Water said. This is a non-partisan issue because it is a health and safety issue. Our elected officials have not listened to our concerns, and more and more families across Colorado are now having to fight industrial fracking sites going in right next to their childrens schools. The people of Colorado have spoken: protect communities from #fracking! Ballot initiative submitted! pic.twitter.com/hZDoOa8IKv Oil Change International (@PriceofOil) August 8, 2016 The failure of the state to protect our health and safety has forced the people to take matters into their own hands, said Jeanette Pidanick of North Metro Neighbors for Safe Energy. By Robert McSweeney Rising sea surface temperatures in the North Atlantic are likely to be behind a recent surge in cases of diarrhoeal diseases from marine bacteria in northern Europe and the U.S. East Coast, a new study says. In their analysis that goes back to 1958, the researchers show that levels of Vibrio bacteriawhich can cause illness in humans and even deathhave been increasing as sea surface temperatures rise. Vibrio cholerae bacteria. James Cavallini / Science Photo Library Further ocean warming as a result of climate change could exacerbate this spread of marine bacteria, the researchers say, potentially bringing more human infections in future. Marine Bacteria There are around 110 different types of Vibrio bacteria floating around in our oceans. They are typically found in warm, slightly salty coastal waters and river estuaries. Some of these bacteria cause sickness in people and animals. Humans pick them up by consuming water or seafood that carries the bacteria or through cuts in the skin when swimming. The most well-known Vibrio is cholera, a diarrhoeal disease that can cause severe dehydration and death if not treated. This study considers other strains of Vibrio bacteria, such as Vibrio vulnificus and Vibrio parahaemolyticus, which cause similar, though usually less severe, symptoms. These types of illness are known collectively as vibrosis, which can lead to complications, such as blood poisoning. Previous research has linked outbreaks of Vibrio infections around the world to warm sea surface temperatures. Warmer conditions mean a longer summer window for Vibrio bacteria to grow and a greater chance of their survival. This conclusion has been reached in studies of Chile, Peru, Israel and the Baltic states. The new study, just published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, says that a warming Atlantic Ocean is the main reason for an unprecedented number ofVibrio cases in North Atlantic countries in recent years. This includes a spate of cases contracted by swimmers during the European summer heat wave in 2006. Plankton Sampling One of the main limitations for scientists trying to work out how ocean warming is affecting Vibrio bacteria is the availability of data. Bacteria are typically measured by microbiologists by collecting and analyzing water samples, said lead author Dr. Luigi Vezzulli, an associate professor in microbiology at the University of Genoa. However, as he explains to Carbon Brief, this isnt without difficulty: This approach is costly and time consuming and historical Vibrio data are generally lacking. Vezzulli and his colleagues found a way round this problem by instead analyzing samples of tiny marine creatures called zooplankton, on which Vibrio bacteria tend to hitch a ride. Scientists have been collecting samples of plankton in the North Atlantic since 1958 via the Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) survey. The CPR actually gets its name from the instrument that, when towed behind ships, collects plankton over huge areas of ocean. Using the samples from nine locationsshown in the map belowthe researchers analyzed the DNA of the preserved plankton to create a record of how Vibrio bacteria numbers have changed over the past six decades. Vibrio sampling areas in the North Atlantic. Each red rectangle indicates where samples were collected over the period 1958-2011. The inset image shows the CPR instrument. Vezzulli et al. (2016) The findings show that concentrations of the different Vibrio bacteria have increased in line with rising sea surface temperatures (SSTs) for eight of the nine North Atlantic locations. The only exception was at Newfoundland. This is likely because, despite a warming ocean, SSTs in this region still average around 7C, the paper says, which is a bit cold for most Vibrio bacteria. You can see how sea surface temperatures in the North Atlantic have changed over the 21st century in the map below. Coastal regions of western Europe and Canada have warmed the mostby as much as 1.5C in some places, as shown by the red shading. Vezzulli said its clear that SSTs and Vibrio bacteria are linked: From long-term data it is apparent that the level of these pathogens is rising in the ocean as a result of global warming. Change in North Atlantic sea surface temperatures, calculated as the difference between the averages over the years 1890-1958 and 2000-11. Red and orange shading indicate areas of particular warming. The black dots show the Vibrio sampling areas. Vezzulli et al. (2016) Marine Bacteria in a Time of Climate Change As the North Atlantic has warmed and concentrations of Vibrio bacteria have increased, the number of Vibrio infection cases in northern Europe and the U.S. Atlantic coast have also risen, the paper says. There could be several reasons for this, the researchers note, such as people being more likely to go out swimming in warm conditions. But the data suggest that the number and spread of Vibrio bacteria in the water is a strong factor. This means the rising SSTs could be leading to more Vibrio infections in humans, the paper says: The evidence is strong that ongoing climate change is influencing outbreaks of Vibrio infections on a worldwide scale. Therefore, the continued rise in global SSTs in future years may exacerbate the growth and spread of Vibrio bacteria, the researchers conclude. The study is a stunning collaboration that integrates major disciplines, including climate, oceanography, microbiology and public health, said Prof. Drew Harvell, a professor in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at Cornell University, who wasnt involved in the study. She tells Carbon Brief: The implications of these finding are that warming events will increase risk to human health from ocean-based Vibrio bacteria. Another conclusion from the study is that better monitoring for Vibrio infections may be necessary, Vezzulli said: This is particularly true for Northern Europe where, despite the substantial increased in the number of Vibrio infectionsincluding many fatalitiesin recent years, vibrosis [except cholera] are not notifiable diseases. This means that doctors and hospitals in European countries are not currently required to inform their government when they treat someone with a Vibrio infection. More comprehensive data collection on Vibrio cases would help scientists keep tabs on how these diseases are being affected by climate change, Vezzulli concludes. This article was reposted with permission from our media associate Carbon Brief. 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... 'Freedom Square' March Will Mark 2nd Anniversary Of Michael Brown's Death By Gwendolyn Purdom in News on Aug 9, 2016 4:07PM On Aug. 9, 2014, the killing of unarmed teenage Michael Brown by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri shined a national light on the deep-rooted epidemic of violence against black citizens at the hands of law enforcement, ignited conversations about police brutality across the country and launched movements like Black Lives Matter. To honor Brown and the impact his death has had in the past two years, Chicago groups are planning a morning moment of silence, a sign-making event and an evening march Tuesday. Today! Aug 9, 2016 11:55 AM-12:00 PM CST: National Moment of Silence in memory of #MikeBrown #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/mJ5yhWeTpY Black Lives Matter (@Blklivesmatter) August 9, 2016 From 11:55 a.m. Tuesday through 12 p.m., the Black Lives Matter movement organizers will hold a national moment of silence in memory of Michael Brown, according to a post on Twitter. At 1 p.m., activists and community members are invited to join in a crafting event to make signs for a later march at the Freedom Square site on the city's West Side. Organizers are requesting supplies such as sheets, canvas and other materials. Activists from the Ferguson-inspired Let Us Breathe Collective, the Black Youth Project 100 and other groups have occupied the North Lawndale site for 19 days to demonstrate against the infamous Homan Square site across the street, voice their opposition to the so-called "Blue Lives Matter" ordinance, and build community with free food, supplies and cultural exchanges. Following the afternoon crafting session, a march in Mike Brown's memory will take place from 7 to 9, according to Freedom Square's Facebook page. In the post, Freedom Square organizers wrote: " Today marks the anniversary of Mike Brown's execution. The day that sparked a movement of love and beautiful rage. Today we too honor Sandra Bland, Korryn Gaines, Rekia Boyd, Sky Mockabee, Paul O'Neal, Jonathan Mills, Jessica Hampton. All those lost to state and community violence, you are etched into our memory. Today at FreedomSquare we will be holding intentional space to memorialize our fallen to the war the U.S. wages on black lives and black communities everyday. The commemorative events come just days after Chicago activists took to the streets to protest the police shooting death of another black man, Paul O'Neal. The Chicago Police Department's release of several videos showing the killing stirred national outrage last week. Chicagoist has reached out to Freedom Square organizers and others for more details on Tuesday's events and will update this post if we hear back. Artists from 13 countries have gathered in northwest China's Qinghai Province, as the 10th China International Folk Art Festival was kicked off in the provincial capital of Xining on Monday. An actress from Mauritius performs during the opening ceremony of the 10th China International Folk Art Festival in Xining, capital of northwest China's Qinghai Province, Aug. 8, 2016. Artists from 13 countries and regions took part in the festival. [Photo/Xinhua] The event, scheduled to last till Aug. 13, is jointly hosted by China Federation of Literary and Art Circles (CFLAC) and the Qinghai provincial government. Shi Honggang, chair of Xining art theater, said the festival will not only broaden the horizons of the audience in Qinghai, but raise the profile of Qinghai's art. David Mclaughlin, art director of Ireland Titanic dance theater company, said it is the first time for the company's original dance drama Titanic to be performed in China. The development of art is dependent on the inheritance, exchange and innovation of art lovers, he said. Launched in 1990 with the approval of the State Council, the festival has been held triennially by CFLAC and a domestic city. 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 The British Library announced Monday that it will hold a new exhibition about the magic of Harry Potter in autumn 2017, marking the 20th anniversary of the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. From medieval descriptions of dragons and griffins, to the origins of the philosopher's stone, the exhibition will take readers on a journey to the heart of the Harry Potter stories, said the library in a statement. The exhibition will showcase an extraordinary range of wizarding books, manuscripts and objects, and combine centuries-old British Library treasures with original material from Bloomsbury's and J.K. Rowling's archives. "We at the British Library are thrilled to be working with J.K. Rowling and with Bloomsbury to mark the 20th anniversary of Harry Potter, and to inspire fans with the magic of our own British Library collections,"said Jamie Andrews, head of Culture and Learning at the British Library. Rebecca McNally, publishing director and editor-in-chief of Bloomsbury Children's Books, spoke of her excitement for the new event. "The British Library is a magical place for book lovers," Rebecca said. "They are the perfect partners for a once-in-a-lifetime exhibition exploring a once-in-a-lifetime cultural phenomenon, a thrilling celebration of magic and imagination with Harry Potter at its heart." The exhibition will open on Oct. 20, 2017, and run until Feb. 28, 2018. Douglas and Peel firefighters called to barn fire Fire crews from Peel and Douglas attended a fire in Peel last night which took three hours to put out. Firefighters were called out following a report of an out of control bonfire - it had set alight to approximately 20 large round hay bales stored in a nearby barn on the Peel Road in St Johns. The barn only received superficial damage due to a prompt call for help from a farm worker. The marching band parade at the Edinburgh Military Tattoo on August 5. [Photo/Xinhua] The 2016 Edinburgh Festival is being held through to August 29, during which Chinese dramas featuring Tang Xianzu and William Shakespeare's works will be performed, to mark the 400th year of the two great playwrights' deaths. The festival is also part of bilateral commemorations for the two literature giants, advocated by Chinese President Xi Jinping. It is also a crucial link for China to promote cultural exchanges and the Belt & Road Initiative. A number of art troupes from China will perform at the festival. Hunan Kunqu Opera Troupe's Romeo and Juliet, Jiangxi Opera Troupe's Four Dreams at Linchuan, Zhejiang Kunqu Opera Troupe's The Peony Pavilion, Shanghai Theatre Academy's Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Night's Dream & Nanke Dream co-produced by University of International Business and Economics in China and University of Leeds will be performed, just to name a few. You are here: Home The higher people's court of south China's Guangdong Province on Monday established a bankruptcy division to deal with "zombie companies". "Zombie companies" are economically inviable businesses, usually in industries with severe overcapacity, kept alive only with support from the government and banks. The division will focus on bankruptcy and compulsory liquidation cases, offering guidance to other courts in the province and exploring ways to regroup or close down "zombie companies". At the end of 2015, China's Central Economic Work Conference emphasized the importance of supply-side reform and the clearance of "zombie companies" as a way to cut overcapacity. Tan Ling, deputy head of the court, said the new division enables better implementation of the Bankruptcy Law and appropriate treatment of different cases. Guangdong has set a target of closing or regrouping of all its zombie companies within three years. Li Cheng, director of Guangdong state-owned assets supervision and administration commission, said a total of 3,385 companies in the province were identified as "zombies", 2,333 of which are marked for closure. Just three weeks after thousands of Southwest Airlines flights were canceled due to a technical problem, rival firm Delta Air Lines experienced a similar catastrophic system failure on Monday, resulting in the cancellation of about 1,000 flights and the delays for about 2,900 others. The massive system failure resulted from a power outage in the company's headquarters, located in Atlanta. According to a spokesman for Georgia Power, the cause of the outage seemed to be solely due to the company's equipment, since no other customers lost power in the area. Trebor Banstetter, a spokesman for Delta Air Lines, explained that the power outage, which happened at around 2:30 a.m. EST, was caused by a failed switchgear, a piece of equipment very similar to conventional circuit breakers. What was particularly notable, however, was the fact that key systems and network equipment did not automatically switch over to backup systems once the outage happened. Nevertheless, Banstetter stated that the airline does not believe that the system failure was the result of a cyber attack. Delta Air Lines' systems were back online a few hours later, but the damage to its intricate booking systems was already done. With its passengers being stuck in lines for hours due to the system breakdown, the airline has announced that it would be handing out refunds and travel vouchers to passengers who were affected by the technical breakdown on Monday. In an official announcement, Delta Air Lines stated that it would be offering refunds in the form of $200 travel vouchers for passengers who were directly affected by the system issues. Apart from this, Delta has also announced that passengers who would wish to change their flights can do so without paying a fee. Unsurprisingly, many passengers were disgruntled by the delays, especially since the power outage affected all of the airlines' systems. Thus, even those who were monitoring the status of their flights through mobile devices were not aware of Delta's massive system failure. Ashley Roache, one of the passengers whose flight was delayed, expressed her frustration over the incident. "By the time I showed up at the gate the employees were already disgruntled, and it was really difficult to get anybody to speak to me or get any information. The company could have done a better job of explaining what was happening," Roache stated. Not all passengers were furious about the incident, however. Ryan Shannon, one of the airline's frequent flyers, stated that such delays are always possible. "Once Delta cleared flights to take off, we boarded and didn't have any problems. There is always a delay, or weather, or something. I travel weekly, so I'm used to it," he said. A quiet Monday afternoon in the neighborhood of Hendersonville, Tenn. quickly turned tragic on Monday afternoon, as sixth-grade student Timea Lashay Batts lost her life after being shot as she returned home from school. According to the initial report from Timea's dad, 29-year-old Timothy Batts, the young girl had been shot at some point between her bus stop and her home. Batts further reported that by the time the 11-year-old girl reached her house, she was already bleeding from a gunshot wound. Timea's father quickly drove her to TriStar Hendersonville Medical Center, where she was later LifeFlighted to Vanderbilt University Medical Center. At around 5:30 p.m. on Monday, however, the young girl ultimately succumbed to her injuries. The Henderson Police Department immediately delved into the case. However, the lack of witnesses, as well the fact that there were no suspects, made the search for Timea's killer very difficult. Even the neighbors reported that no gunshot had been heard during the time when the 11-year-old was supposedly shot. It was at this point when things took a rather interesting and somewhat disturbing turn. With no leads to follow, police began to explore the possibility of the young girl accidentally shooting herself. After acquiring a search warrant, authorities searched the 11-year-old's house. A few hours later, police announced that an arrest had been made. Timothy Batts was charged with reckless homicide, tampering with evidence, false reporting and possessing a firearm as a felon. Hendersonville police Det. Sgt. Jim Vaughn described why Timea's father was arrested. "The evidence tells me that it happened inside," Vaughn stated, referring to the shooting. With the slaying of the 11-year-old shaking the neighborhood, officials from Sumner County Schools released a statement about Timea. "Our entire school district is grieved to learn of the tragic loss of one of our sixth-grade students, Timea Lashay Batts. Timea was a bright and kind girl who was well loved by her classmates and teachers. She will be greatly missed at Knox Doss Middle School at Drakes Creek," the announcement stated. "It is our understanding from communicating with authorities that today's tragic event in Hendersonville was not school related. The incident did not occur on the bus or at the bus stop. We have no reason to believe that there is any threat to student safety on any of our school campuses due to this tragic event." Though police have not announced the specifics of the case, early reports state that Timothy Batts is currently being held on a $1 million bond. The lynch mobs of right-wing Hindu nationalists have become more brazen than before. Lynching is defined as an act of extrajudicial punishment by a group, usually an informal one. Vigilante gangs who take the law into their own hands have been rather active in recent times: from Dadri in Uttar Pradesh when a mob killed Mohammad Akhlaq in September 2015 for allegedly storing beef in his home to July 2016 when four young Dalit men were publicly flogged in Una, Gujarat, on the unsubstantiated suspicion that they had killed a cow. The lynch mentality that pervades sections of the current ruling regime has gone beyond turning a blind eye towards their supporters who physically attack the weak and the vulnerable. Those in positions of power and authority are tacitly and overtly encouraging the intimidation of those whose views are different from theirs. The message that is being sought to be conveyed is loud and clear: do not meddle with us; we can make your life miserable. At a public function in Pune, Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar remarked: One actor has said that his wife wants to live outside India. It was an arrogant statement the company which he was endorsing was an online trading company. Some of our people are very smart There was a team which was working on this The company should learn a lesson they had to pull his advertisement Such people who speak against the country need to be taught a lesson His utterances were bound to raise a controversy, and when they did Parrikar disingenuously said he had not named any person. Everybody knew who he was referring to. In November, actor Aamir Khan had publicly spoken about his sense of insecurity because of growing intolerance in the country and stated that his wife had expressed apprehensions about the future of their child if they continued to live in India. Soon afterwards, Snapdeal, a company engaged in electronic commerce, decided not to renew its endorsement contract with the actor reportedly after many of its customers had uninstalled its app from their phones. What the defence minister confirmed is common knowledge: the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) engages the services of online supporters, most of them anonymous and described as trolls, who do much of the cyberbullying on its behalf. South China Sea. [file photo / Xinhua] China will open a laboratory in Hainan province in November that will focus on the use of marine resources in the South China Sea, a provincial official said. The State Key Laboratory of Marine Resources Utilization in the South China Sea, initiated by the Hainan Science and Technology Department and Hainan University, must finish recruitment for the research team before operations officially begin, said Shi Yiyun, head of the department. The laboratory will study how to use marine bio-resources, new materials and marine mineral resources as well as how to resourcefully use marine information, Shi told China Daily. It will also focus on the use of marine organisms for medical purposes and ways to protect the marine ecology, he said. With the help of the laboratory, China will make better use of marine resources in the South China Sea and cultivate more marine talent, he added. Li Jianbao, head the laboratory and also president of Hainan University, said that the facility will be built into a key national laboratory to provide support in both technology and talent for China's South China Sea strategy. "There will be around 40 researchers in the laboratory, but we are going to select 24 first from relative areas within the university, and introduce talent from home and abroad later," said Chen Yongjun, deputy director of the laboratory. The laboratory, with a planned five-year operation, will receive 10 million yuan ($1.5 million) annually from Hainan's provincial government for construction, daily operations, research projects and talent recruitment. "The laboratory will be application-oriented, which fits the nation's strategies for the Belt and Road Initiative and the South China Sea, and it surely will play an important role in using the marine resources of the South China Sea," said Huang Bangqin, a professor of marine biology at Xiamen University's Environment and Ecology College. Huang said the laboratory will also have a positive effect on China's exercising sovereignty rights in the South China Sea. "Because only when we know better about the South China Sea can we better safeguard our nation's rights," he said. Four score years ago, the Chinese Red Army clinched the victory of the 25,000-li (7767 miles) Long March from 1934 to 1936. Here are some foreign participants we will never forget. General Hong Shui [File photo] Hong Shui, a general of two countries Hong Shui (known as Nguyen Son in Vietnam), inspired by late Vietnamese President Ho Chi Minh, took part in the Chinese revolution and went on the Long March undertaken by the Red Army. He was the only foreigner who went through from the founding of the Chinese Red Army to the victory of China's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. Hong was conferred the rank of Major General of the Chinese People's Liberation Army in 1955. He was also a Major General in the Vietnam People's Army. It is rare for someone to be a general of two countries. Hong was born in 1908 in Hanoi, and came to China in 1925. He entered Whampoa, China's first modern military academy, in 1926, and joined the Communist Party of China (CPC) the next year. Hong was versatile and was highly appreciated by late Chairman Mao Zedong. During the Long March, he made great contributions to the publicity of the Red Army and the Party, inspiring the Red Army soldiers and winning support from the masses. After his troops suffered several setbacks and were finally disrupted, Hong set off on the Long March alone. Having gone through all kinds of hardships and difficulties, he managed to walk to Yan'an, Shaanxi Province in early 1936. In 1945, Hong returned to Vietnam to fight against French colonialists. He came back to China in 1950. In 1956, a year after he'd been made a major general by the Chinese government, Hong was diagnosed with lung cancer. He returned to Vietnam and passed away in October of that year. For two times during the Long March, Hong was mistakenly accused as an international spy and was expelled from the Party. He was readmitted to the Party after CPC central committee corrected the accusations in time. His Chinese name means "flood." It was said that he once likened himself to a torrent of water, charging irresistibly through life's rugged landscape, against all the odds. Follow China.org.cn on Twitter and Facebook to join the conversation. WASHINGTON, DC -- A solar storm that jammed radar and radio communications at the height of the Cold War could have led to a disastrous military conflict if not for the U.S. Air Force's budding efforts to monitor the sun's activity, a new study finds. On May 23, 1967, the Air Force prepared aircraft for war, thinking the nation's surveillance radars in polar regions were being jammed by the Soviet Union. Just in time, military space weather forecasters conveyed information about the solar storm's potential to disrupt radar and radio communications. The planes remained on the ground and the U.S. avoided a potential nuclear weapon exchange with the Soviet Union, according to the new research. Retired U.S. Air Force officers involved in forecasting and analyzing the storm collectively describe the event publicly for the first time in a new paper accepted for publication in Space Weather, a journal of the American Geophysical Union. The storm's potential impact on society was largely unknown until these individuals came together to share their stories, said Delores Knipp, a space physicist at the University of Colorado in Boulder and lead author of the new study. Knipp will give a presentation about the event on August 10, 2016 at the High Altitude Observatory at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. The storm is a classic example of how geoscience and space research are essential to U.S. national security, she said. "Had it not been for the fact that we had invested very early on in solar and geomagnetic storm observations and forecasting, the impact [of the storm] likely would have been much greater," Knipp said. "This was a lesson learned in how important it is to be prepared." Keeping an eye on the sun The U.S. military began monitoring solar activity and space weather - disturbances in Earth's magnetic field and upper atmosphere - in the late 1950s. In the 1960s, a new branch of the Air Force's Air Weather Service (AWS) monitored the sun routinely for solar flares - brief intense eruptions of radiation from the sun's atmosphere. Solar flares often lead to electromagnetic disturbances on Earth, known as geomagnetic storms, that can disrupt radio communications and power line transmissions. The AWS employed a network of observers at various locations in the U.S. and abroad who provided regular input to solar forecasters at the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), a U.S. and Canadian organization that defends and controls airspace above North America. By 1967, several observatories were sending daily information directly to NORAD solar forecasters. On May 18, 1967, an unusually large group of sunspots with intense magnetic fields appeared in one region of the sun. By May 23, observers and forecasters saw the sun was active and likely to produce a major flare. Observatories in New Mexico and Colorado saw a flare visible to the naked eye while a solar radio observatory in Massachusetts reported the sun was emitting unprecedented levels of radio waves. A significant worldwide geomagnetic storm was forecast to occur within 36-48 hours, according to a bulletin from NORAD's Solar Forecast Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado on May 23. Radar 'jamming' As the solar flare event unfolded on May 23, radars at all three Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) sites in the far Northern Hemisphere were disrupted. These radars, designed to detect incoming Soviet missiles, appeared to be jammed. Any attack on these stations - including jamming their radar capabilities - was considered an act of war. Retired Colonel Arnold L. Snyder, a solar forecaster at NORAD's Solar Forecast Center, was on duty that day. The tropospheric weather forecaster told him the NORAD Command Post had asked about any solar activity that might be occurring. "I specifically recall responding with excitement, 'Yes, half the sun has blown away,' and then related the event details in a calmer, more quantitative way," Snyder said. Along with the information from the Solar Forecast Center, NORAD learned the three BMEWS sites were in sunlight and could receive radio emissions coming from the sun. These facts suggested the radars were being 'jammed' by the sun, not the Soviet Union, Snyder said. As solar radio emissions waned, the 'jamming' also waned, further suggesting the sun was to blame, he said. During most of the 1960s, the Air Force flew continuous alert aircraft laden with nuclear-weapons. But commanders, thinking the BMEWS radars were being jammed by the Russians and unaware of the solar storm underway, put additional forces in a "ready to launch" status, according to the study. "This is a grave situation," Knipp said. "But here's where the story turns: things were going horribly wrong, and then something goes commendably right." The Air Force did not launch additional aircraft, and the study authors believe information from the Solar Forecasting Center made it to commanders in time to stop the military action, including a potential deployment of nuclear weapons. Knipp, quoting public documents, noted that information about the solar storm was most likely relayed to the highest levels of government - possibly even President Johnson. The geomagnetic storm, which began about 40 hours after the solar flare and radio bursts, went on to disrupt U.S. radio communications in almost every conceivable way for almost a week, according to the new study. It was so strong that the Northern Lights, usually only seen in or near the Arctic Circle, were visible as far south as New Mexico. Societal impact According to Snyder and the study authors, it was the military's correct diagnosis of the solar storm that prevented the event from becoming a disaster. Ultimately, the storm led the military to recognize space weather as an operational concern and build a stronger space weather forecasting system, he said. The public is likely unaware that natural disasters could potentially trick contemporary military forces into thinking they are under attack, said Morris Cohen, an electrical engineer and radio scientist at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta who was not involved in the new study. "I thought it was fascinating from a historical perspective," he said of the new study. The May 1967 storm brought about change as a near miss rather than a full-blown catastrophe, according to Cohen. "Oftentimes, the way things work is something catastrophic happens and then we say, 'We should do something so it doesn't happen again,'" he said. "But in this case there was just enough preparation done just in time to avert a disastrous result." ### The American Geophysical Union is dedicated to advancing the Earth and space sciences for the benefit of humanity through its scholarly publications, conferences, and outreach programs. AGU is a not-for-profit, professional, scientific organization representing more than 60,000 members in 139 countries. Join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and our other social media channels. Notes for Journalists This research article will be freely available for 30 days from the date of publication. A PDF copy of the article can be downloaded at the following link: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2016SW001423/pdf After 30 days, journalists and public information officers (PIOs) of educational and scientific institutions who have registered with AGU can download a PDF copy of the article from the same link. Journalists and PIOs may order a copy of the final paper by emailing a request to Lauren Lipuma at llipuma@agu.org. Please provide your name, the name of your publication, and your phone number. Neither the paper nor this press release is under embargo. Delores Knipp will give a presentation about the May 1967 event on Wednesday, August 10, 2016 from 3:00 - 4:00 pm at the High Altitude Observatory at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, 3080 Center Green Drive, Boulder, Colorado, 80301. The presentation is open to the public and will be held in the Center Green 1 Auditorium. More information can be found here. The presentation will also be webcast live through the following link: https://ucarconnect.ucar.edu/live?room=cg1aud#.V6TLgLgrJ2Q. Title: "The May 1967 Great Storm and Radio Disruption Event: Extreme Space Weather and Extraordinary Responses" Authors: Delores. J. Knipp: Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, and High Altitude Observatory, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, U.S.A.; A. C. Ramsay, E. D. Beard, A. L. Boright: Retired from US Air Force, Air Weather Service.; W. B. Cade: Baylor Institute for Air Science, Baylor University, Waco, Texas, U.S.A.; I. M. Hewins, R. McFaddem: Boston College, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.; W. F. Denig: National Centers for Environmental Information, NOAA, Boulder Colorado, U.S.A.; L. M. Kilcommons: Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, U.S.A.; M. A. Shea, D. F. Smart: Retired from US Air Force, Air Force Research Laboratory. Contact Information for the Authors: Delores J. Knipp: +1 (303) 492-2393, delores.knipp@colorado.edu AGU Contact: Lauren Lipuma +1 (202) 777-7396 llipuma@agu.org University of Colorado-Boulder Contact: Trent Knoss +1 (303) 735-0528 Trent.Knoss@colorado.edu From a striking sunrise in the Kalahari Desert, to a wren's nest built under the saddle of a parked bicycle, and geometric land patterns created by earthworms, this year's BMC Ecology Image Competition includes a fascinating array of ecological open access images which are free to use. Davide Gaglio from Percy Fitzpatrick Institute, University of Cape Town won for his silhouette of antelope grazing against the sunrise in the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa. The image was the best of entries chosen from over 140 entries. There were two overall runners up and five category winners including Behavioral and Physiological Ecology; Conservation Ecology and Biodiversity Research; Landscape Ecology and Ecosystems; Community, Population and Macroecology; and the Editor's Pick. Now in its fourth year, the BMC Ecology Image competition celebrates biodiversity, natural beauty and biological interactions, captured by ecologists' expert observational and photographic skills. The eight winning images and 18 commended images highlight the fine-tuned interactions of predator, prey, parasites and pollinators. All the images are released under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). Guest judge Dr. Matthew Palmer, Columbia University, said: "The winning image is strikingly beautiful, particularly the colors and the composition, but it also tells several stories. The Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park spans the border of South Africa and Botswana and is an example of cooperation and shared management between countries - a peace park. However, large areas of this park were leased for the extraction of natural gas in 2014, which may have negative effects on the park's wildlife." "Troglodytes bicycletes" by second runner-up Raf Aerts, University of Leuven, Belgium, is an example of urban ecology. Matthew Palmer said: "We typically think of ecology and nature as being separate from human spaces, this image of a Eurasian wren building its nest under a bike seat reminds us that nature and human space can converge." An aerial shot captured by a drone shows a mysterious geometric pattern in the earth below, which actually arises from foraging activity of earthworms. The image, submitted by Delphine Renard of University of California Santa Barbara, won the Landscape Ecology and Ecosystems category. Highly commended entries include the eyes of a parasitic wasp lurking in a caterpillar pupa; a group of sand bubbler carbs scouting the beach; rainbow lorikeets taking a refreshing bath in a water pump, and an illuminated swarm of moths. ### Media Contact Alanna Orpen Junior Press Officer BioMed Central T: +44 (0)20 3192 2054 E: alanna.orpen@biomedcentral.com Notes to editor: 1. Winning and commended images are available. Please contact Anne Korn for the media files. 2. BMC Ecology Image Competition 2016: the winning images Julia Simundza, Matthew Palmer, Josef Settele, Luke M. Jacobus, David P. Hughes, Dominique Mazzi, Simon Blanchet BMC Ecology 2016 During the embargo period, please contact Anne Korn for a copy of the editorial. After the embargo lifts, the article will be available at journal website here: https://bmcecol.biomedcentral.com/articles/DOI10.1186/s12898-016-0090-z Please name the journal in any story you write. If you are writing for the web, please link to the article. All articles are available free of charge, according to BioMed Central's open access policy. 3. BMC Ecology is an open access, peer-reviewed journal that considers articles on environmental, behavioral and population ecology as well as biodiversity of plants, animals and microbes. 4. BioMed Central is an STM (Science, Technology and Medicine) publisher which has pioneered the open access publishing model. All peer-reviewed research articles published by BioMed Central are made immediately and freely accessible online, and are licensed to allow redistribution and reuse. BioMed Central is part of Springer Nature, a major new force in scientific, scholarly, professional and educational publishing, created in May 2015 through the combination of Nature Publishing Group, Palgrave Macmillan, Macmillan Education and Springer Science+Business Media. http://www.biomedcentral.com BINGHAMTON, NY - A more powerful and efficient electric car could be here sooner than you think, thanks to a new consortium that includes Binghamton University, State University of New York. The White House recently announced the creation of the Battery500 Consortium, a multidisciplinary group led by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and working to reduce the cost of vehicle battery technologies. The Battery500 Consortium will receive an award of up to $10 million per year for five years to drive progress on DOE's goal of reducing the cost of vehicle battery technologies. The group aims to triple the specific energy relative to today's battery technology while achieving 1,000 electric vehicles cycles. This will result in a significantly smaller, lighter weight, less expensive battery pack (below $100/kWh) and more affordable electric vehicles. M. Stanley Whittingham, distinguished professor of chemistry at Binghamton University, will lead his Energy Storage team in the charge. "We hope to extract as much energy as possible while, at the same time, producing a battery that is smaller and cheaper to produce," said Whittingham. "This consortium includes some of the brightest minds in the field, and I look forward to working with them to create lithium batteries that will power future electric vehicles more affordably." The team will design new electrode and cell architectures, pairing lithium metal as the negative electrode with two different materials for the battery's positive electrode. In this redesigned battery, the prevention of unwanted side reactions will significantly improve battery performance. Other Battery500 Consortium members include: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Brookhaven National Laboratory Idaho National Laboratory SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory Stanford University University of California, San Diego University of Texas at Austin University of Washington IBM (advisory board member) Tesla Motors, Inc. (advisory board member) The consortium also welcomes ideas from others, recognizing that diversity in experience and opinions often results in better solutions. The team will set aside 20 percent of its overall budget for "seedling projects," or work based on proposals from throughout the battery research community. ### Malignant cancers strike certain organs, such as the colon or breast, more often than others. In an Opinion publishing August 9 in Trends in Cancer, researchers propose that this vulnerability in some organs may be due to natural selection. Humans can tolerate tumors in large or paired organs more easily than in small, critical organs, such as the heart, and so the larger organs may have evolved fewer mechanisms to defend against cancerous cells. "The organs that are the most important to keeping you alive and capable of reproduction, such as the heart, brain, or uterus, may enjoy a better protection against cancer, all other things being equal," says Frederic Thomas, an evolutionary biologist at the Center for Ecological and Evolutionary Cancer Research in France. "We are not saying that this is the main factor to explain the different susceptibility of organs to cancer, but it is a factor that contributes with others." Many oncologists have explained the difference in rates of organ cancer by looking at either external risk factors, such as smoking or UV light exposure, or internal factors, such as how often cells must divide in an organ. Thomas and his coauthors, including senior author Beata Ujvari, an evolutionary ecologist at Deakin University in Australia, now propose this evolutionary theory to supplement the current understanding. The team suggests that natural selection has favored strong anti-cancer protection for small organs that are critical to human survival and reproduction. "Organs that are large or in pairs could potentially accumulate larger numbers of oncogenic manifestations without being impaired, whereas small and important organs like the pancreas could be easily compromised with only a few tumors inside," says Thomas. Therefore, so the theory goes, the pancreas should be better at defending against cancer compared to an organ like the kidney, if all other factors are equal. Anti-cancer protection mechanisms vary from organ to organ, but in general, they make an organ resistant to tumor formation. The researchers also recommend that cancer biologists think of individual organs as specialized islands with their own environmental conditions (such as the level of oxygen, acidity, or water), where the survival of cancer cells depends on is the hospitality of the local environment. "Malignant cells are living entities--it's just impossible that they are not influenced by the ecological conditions," says Thomas. "It clearly means that certain organs are more favorable than others to malignant perturbation." Thomas, Ujvari, and their colleagues are now working to test their hypothesis. "A complete analysis requires that we take into account all the possible confounding factors," emphasizes Thomas. "We cannot just look at existing statistics on cancer and the size of the organs and make a correlation to see if it works or not." Currently, the team is running a long-term experiment with mice to measure the accumulation of cancerous and precancerous mutations inside different organs. The research is part of a new international collaboration between Deakin University and the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). "It's a novel hypothesis that deserves to be explored," says Thomas. "We hope this paper will stimulate research in that direction." ### This study was supported by the ANR (Blanc project EVOCAN), the CNRS (INEE), and an International Associated Laboratory Project France/Australia. Trends in Cancer, Thomas et al.: "Evolutionary Ecology of Organs: a Missing Link in Cancer Development?" http://www.cell.com/trends/cancer/fulltext/S2405-8033(16)30079-6 While the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) pandemic fuels tuberculosis (TB) outbreaks, it does not drive the development and transmission of multidrug-resistance in TB patients as previously suspected, according to a study published in eLife. The findings, from a collaboration between Norwegian, British and Argentinian scientists, also show that TB drug resistance is not more likely to evolve in HIV-positive patients compared to HIV-negative patients. "It is already known that a parallel HIV pandemic amplifies the TB epidemic, with ongoing efforts around the world to tackle these potentially fatal diseases," says lead author Vegard Eldholm, a research fellow at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. "Among the estimated 1.5 million people who died from TB in 2015, about 200,000 cases involved multidrug-resistant TB and 400,000 were HIV co-infected. However, it is not clear exactly how much of an effect HIV has had on drug resistance in the most common form of TB, Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb)." To explore the impact of HIV co-infection on Mtb drug resistance, Eldholm and his team analysed the genomes of 252 TB isolates from patients belonging to the largest outbreak of multidrug-resistant TB in South America to date. The isolates were collected from patients with known HIV status from the mid-1990s until 2009. The team used the genomes to create a time-labelled phylogenic tree, a diagram showing the inferred evolutionary relationships among the mutations within the sampled patients. They then applied a new mathematical model optimized for TB to reconstruct how the disease spread among individuals. Finally, they combined the results of both methods to estimate the length of the TB latent period - the time from infection to infectiousness - and identify the patients in who TB strains evolved drug-resistance mutations. "We saw no significant differences in the rate at which mutations occur in the genomes of strains in HIV-positive and negative patients. This suggests that drug resistance is not more likely to evolve in HIV-positive patients," says co-corresponding author Francois Balloux, Professor of Computational Systems Biology at University College London. While the team's reconstruction of disease transmission among individuals did not reveal a significant impact of HIV co-infection on the ability of patients to transmit TB, their estimates of TB latency confirm that HIV co-infection accelerates the development of active TB. "HIV prevents some cells from doing their job in the immune system, meaning the body is unable to fight off a large number of infections," Eldholm explains. "The disease therefore provides TB with a pool of susceptible hosts, amplifying the rate of co-infection. Indeed, for this reason, HIV patients at a major hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina, played a central role in fueling South America's largest multidrug-resistant TB epidemic in the early 1990s," he adds. ### Reference The paper 'Impact of HIV co-infection on the evolution and transmission of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis ' can be freely accessed online at http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.16644. Contents, including text, figures, and data, are free to reuse under a CC BY 4.0 license. Media contact Emily Packer, eLife e.packer@elifesciences.org 01223 855373 About eLife eLife is a unique collaboration between the funders and practitioners of research to improve the way important research is selected, presented, and shared. eLife publishes outstanding works across the life sciences and biomedicine -- from basic biological research to applied, translational, and clinical studies. All papers are selected by active scientists in the research community. Decisions and responses are agreed by the reviewers and consolidated by the Reviewing Editor into a single, clear set of instructions for authors, removing the need for laborious cycles of revision and allowing authors to publish their findings quickly. eLife is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Max Planck Society, and the Wellcome Trust. Learn more at elifesciences.org. Boston, MA - Levels of a widely used class of industrial chemicals linked with cancer and other health problems--polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs)--exceed federally recommended safety levels in public drinking water supplies for six million people in the U.S., according to a new study led by researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). The study will be published August 9, 2016 in Environmental Science & Technology Letters. "For many years, chemicals with unknown toxicities, such as PFASs, were allowed to be used and released to the environment, and we now have to face the severe consequences," said lead author Xindi Hu, a doctoral student in the Department of Environmental Health at Harvard Chan School and Environmental Science and Engineering at SEAS. "In addition, the actual number of people exposed may be even higher than our study found, because government data for levels of these compounds in drinking water is lacking for almost a third of the U.S. population--about 100 million people." PFASs have been used over the past 60 years in industrial and commercial products ranging from food wrappers to clothing to pots and pans. They have been linked with cancer, hormone disruption, high cholesterol, and obesity. Although several major manufacturers have discontinued the use of some PFASs, the chemicals continue to persist in people and wildlife. Drinking water is one of the main routes through which people can be exposed. The researchers looked at concentrations of six types of PFASs in drinking water supplies, using data from more than 36,000 water samples collected nationwide by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from 2013-2015. They also looked at industrial sites that manufacture or use PFASs; at military fire training sites and civilian airports where fire-fighting foam containing PFASs is used; and at wastewater treatment plants. Discharges from these plants--which are unable to remove PFASs from wastewater by standard treatment methods--could contaminate groundwater. So could the sludge that the plants generate and which is frequently used as fertilizer. The study found that PFASs were detectable at the minimum reporting levels required by the EPA in 194 out of 4,864 water supplies in 33 states across the U.S. Drinking water from 13 states accounted for 75% of the detections, including, in order of frequency of detection, California, New Jersey, North Carolina, Alabama, Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, Georgia, Minnesota, Arizona, Massachusetts, and Illinois. Sixty-six of the public water supplies examined, serving six million people, had at least one water sample that measured at or above the EPA safety limit of 70 parts per trillion (ng/L) for two types of PFASs, perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). Concentrations in some locations ranged as high as 349 ng/L for PFOA and 1,800 ng/L for PFOS. The highest levels of PFASs were detected in watersheds near industrial sites, military bases, and wastewater treatment plants--all places where these chemicals may be used or found. "These compounds are potent immunotoxicants in children and recent work suggests drinking water safety levels should be much lower than the provisional guidelines established by EPA," said Elsie Sunderland, senior author of the study and associate professor in both the Harvard Chan School and SEAS. ### Other Harvard Chan authors of the study included Philippe Grandjean and Courtney Carignan. Funding for the study came from the Smith Family Foundation and a private donor. "Detection of Poly- and Perfluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs) in U.S. Drinking Water Linked to Industrial Sites, Military Fire Training Areas, and Wastewater Treatment Plants," Xindi C. Hu, David Q. Andrews, Andrew B. Lindstrom, Thomas A. Bruton, Laurel A. Schaider, Philippe Grandjean, Rainer Lohmann, Courtney C. Carignan, Arlene Blum, Simona A. Balan, Christopher P. Higgins, and Elsie M. Sunderland, Environmental Science & Technology Letters, online August 9, 2016, doi: 10.1021/acs.estlett.6b00260 Link to the Environmental Science & Technology Letters paper: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acs.estlett.6b00260 The study is based on publicly available data provided by the U.S. EPA at this link: https://www.epa.gov/dwucmr/occurrence-data-unregulated-contaminant-monitoring-rule Additional information on the U.S. EPA data can be found at this Environmental Working Group link: http://www.ewg.org/enviroblog/2015/08/your-drinking-water-contaminated-toxic-non-stick-chemicals PFASs and reduced immune response Another Harvard Chan School study, led by Grandjean, adjunct professor of environmental health, published in Environmental Health Perspectives (embargoed until Tuesday, August 9, 2016 at 8:00 AM ET), also suggested negative health impacts of PFAS exposure. That study looked at a group of about 600 adolescents from the Faroe Islands, an island country off the coast of Denmark. Those exposed to PFASs at a young age had lower-than-expected levels of antibodies against diphtheria and tetanus, for which they had been immunized. The findings suggested that PFASs, which are known to interfere with immune function, may be involved in reducing the effectiveness of vaccines in children. Funding for this study came from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, NIH (ES012199); the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (R830758); the Danish Council for Strategic Research (09-063094); and the Danish Environmental Protection Agency as part of the environmental support program DANCEA (Danish Cooperation for Environment in the Arctic). "Serum Vaccine Antibody Concentrations in Adolescents Exposed to Perfluorinated Compounds," Philippe Grandjean, Carsten Heilmann, Pal Weihe, Flemming Nielsen, Ulla B. Mogensen, and Esben Budtz-Jrgensen, Environmental Health Perspectives, online August 9, 2016, doi: 10.1289/EHP275 Visit the Harvard Chan School website for the latest news, press releases, and multimedia offerings. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health brings together dedicated experts from many disciplines to educate new generations of global health leaders and produce powerful ideas that improve the lives and health of people everywhere. As a community of leading scientists, educators, and students, we work together to take innovative ideas from the laboratory to people's lives--not only making scientific breakthroughs, but also working to change individual behaviors, public policies, and health care practices. Each year, more than 400 faculty members at Harvard Chan School teach 1,000-plus full-time students from around the world and train thousands more through online and executive education courses. Founded in 1913 as the Harvard-MIT School of Health Officers, the School is recognized as America's oldest professional training program in public health. Note: This release was updated on August 10, 2016. The luxury goods market for the ultra rich encompasses jewelry, cars, clothes, tableware, ornaments and much more. If luxury hotels, travel and other services are included alongside retail sales, this sector amounted to $1 trillion dollars in 2015. As such, there is a vast grey market for goods that mimic the priciest brands but sell to people who are less well off. Ian Phau and Min Teah of Curtin Business School, at Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia, explain how, "brand familiarity is postulated to be a mediator between perception of luxury and product evaluation. It is found that mimicry influences perception of luxury and product evaluation of the mimic brand." Writing in the Inderscience publication Luxury Research Journal, the team discusses the implications for brand managers, practitioners and academics carrying out research in business and marketing. The team points out that in economically turbulent times, brand mimicry has taken a strong hold in consumers' daily consumption and choice and imitation of luxury brands by clothing manufacturers, car designers and others is becoming the norm as the stratum below the ultra rich aspire to some kind of materialistic equity with those they perceive as being better off than themselves. Most research into brand mimicry has investigated the black market for facsimile and fake products as opposed to legitimate mimicry that does not attempt to pass itself off as the original designer label or marque. When those characteristics are present in the mimic product, the transference of exclusivity, luxury and prestige are high, but the cost is usually lower. However, the existence of mimics in the marketplace diminishes how well the original models are received. The perception of those products as luxurious, exclusive and desirable is lessened. Of course, there is also the possibility that a mimic brand is actually better quality, longer-lasting and more functional or useful than the original model. But, those characteristics are not what is necessarily being sought by the materialist rather they generally wish to align themselves with the luxurious brand so that they feel greater personal worth and exude that feeling in the presence of others. ### Phau, I. and Teah, M. (2016) 'The influence of brand mimicry on luxury brands', Luxury Research J., Vol. 1, No. 2, pp.93-109. For patients with the most common type of noninvasive breast cancer, routine testing for estrogen and progesterone receptors in tissue taken at the first "needle" biopsy is both unnecessary and wasteful, according to results of a study led by Johns Hopkins pathologists. The results for people with ductal carcinoma in situ or DCIS were persuasive enough that The Johns Hopkins Hospital last January ended the practice of routinely conducting so-called core needle biopsy hormone receptor testing. "If you apply our local results nationally, these unnecessary initial hormone receptor tests currently come with an annual price tag of around $35 million," says Pedram Argani, M.D., professor of pathology and oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and senior author of a study published in the August issue of the American Journal of Surgical Pathology. "Our results indicate that's an expense without any justification. If these tests were routinely eliminated, the savings would be substantial." Argani also directs the Breast Pathology Service at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins. Each year thousands of women -- and a small number of men -- have "core needle biopsies," a sampling of suspect breast tissue carried out under a local anesthetic by a radiologist. In the laboratory, pathologists determine if the small cylinder of extracted tissue contains cancer and, if it's there, make an initial classification of what kind--either noninvasive or invasive. The study focused solely on people newly diagnosed with DCIS, a noninvasive cancer that's still contained within the milk ducts of the breast where it originated, and has not spread in the breast or elsewhere. For the study, the Hopkins team reviewed the pathology and medical records of 58 such patients who, within a two-year period beginning in January 2011, had core needle biopsies showing DCIS and follow-up excision at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. The rationale for doing the testing has always been that patients with hormone receptor-positive DCIS after excision can take relatively nontoxic medications such as tamoxifen to block the receptors and help prevent the DCIS from recurring. However, there are multiple reasons not to automatically ("reflexively") test a core biopsy showing DCIS for hormone receptors, Argani says. First, regardless of the core biopsy hormone receptor testing results, the standard of care in the U.S. after needle biopsy for DCIS is that the breast tissue still remaining in the suspect area is surgically removed (excised) by lumpectomy or mastectomy. Hence, the core biopsy hormone receptor results do not affect therapy. Second, Argani adds, "almost 20 percent of the time, the excision reveals that the noninvasive DCIS that the core needle biopsy caught is actually accompanied by invasive breast cancer. So you have to receptor-test the invasive cancer that the core biopsy missed. That means the testing of the core biopsy with DCIS was useless." Third, when the surgical excision contains DCIS alone (as it does about 80% of the time) and the core biopsy result was negative, most physicians would recommend retesting of the DCIS in the surgically excised specimen since hormone receptor expression can be heterogeneous and a small biopsy could miss a positive area. While hormone-blocking therapy specifically for receptor-positive DCIS can modestly lower the chance of tumor recurrence, prior studies have shown that therapy ultimately has no effect on a patient's survival. Plus, hormone-disabling medications like tamoxifen carry side effects, including a higher than usual risk of blood clots. "Two-thirds of our DCIS study patients did not receive hormone therapy," Argani says, "even after excision confirmed their hormone-receptor positive DCIS status. So analyzing their needle biopsies or surgical excisions for receptors would have clearly been unnecessary for them." Today, approximately one woman gets a DCIS diagnosis for every four women diagnosed with invasive breast cancer, the National Cancer Institute reports. Fortunately, for DCIS--a Stage 0 cancer--the outlook is good. The 10-year survival rate for women after a lumpectomy is 96 to 98 percent, apparently regardless of other treatment. The average age of discovery is in the mid-50s. In the Hopkins study, unnecessary early receptor analysis cost about $140.00 per patient for preparing a trustworthy stained slide and for the pathologist's study of it. "Extrapolating that to the roughly 60,000 U.S. patients diagnosed with DCIS yearly puts the cost at about $8.5 million," Argani adds. "The unnecessary cost of automatically testing DCIS in excisions when the information is not used is $26.5 million, which adds up to $35 million dollars per year in the U.S." The millions saved could save 9,000 children and adults from dying of malaria worldwide, the study authors say, or provide 61,000 hungry American families a year's food. ### Also on the research team: first author Christopher VandenBussche, Ashley Cimino-Mathews, Ben Ho Park, Leisha Emens and Theodore Tsangaris. Funding from the study was from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Platelets are small anucleated blood cells responsible for stopping bleeding. They detect blood vessel damage and agglutinate, creating aggregates and stopping the blood loss. This process is called hemostasis (from the Greek "haimatos" -- blood, "stasis" -- stop). Platelets become able to aggregate and plug the wound upon activation. Scientists consider that the platelet is one of the simplest cells in the human body, because the goal of its life is to decide whether activate or not. But despite this relative simplicity, numerous questions remain about the mechanisms of its functioning. The article is devoted to the platelet activation process. Its lead author is professor of the Department of Medical Physics of MSU, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Mikhail Panteleev. There are two kinds of activated platelets: "ordinary" ones (capable of aggregation) and "super-activated" (procoagulant platelets, able to accelerate coagulation). When activated, the aggregating platelets change their shape from discoid into an amoeboid one, with multiple "legs" (filopodia) to improve interacions and spreading on the surface. These platelets form the main body of the platelet thrombus. The super-activated platelets become spherical and enlarged (they are also called 'balloons'). They are able to enhance the clot and accelerate the blood clotting reaction. One of the mysteries in the field of hemostasis and thrombosis is how these cells get divided into two kinds when activated? What determines a platelet's fate? The team of scientists figured out a crucial puzzle of the platelet signaling. The central player in this decision turned out to be mitochondria. It is believed that mitochondria -- the organelles that are present in almost all animal (and plant) cells -- including platelets provide them with energy due to redox reactions. 'But it seems that platelets need mitochondria not only for energy, or even not at all for energy, but for a quick suicide,' begins Mikhail Panteleev the story. Scientists managed to show how the platelet's programmed death (mitochondrial necrosis) follows a chain of processes leading to the transition of the platelets into the super-activated state. In other words, to get super-activated, a platelet must die, as its mission begins from the moment they are 'dead'. For this reason, platelets are also called "kamikaze cells". 'It was not clear before how a platelet makes the decision of what type to become. We have deciphered the sequence of events: how the signal goes within the platelet, and how the cell decides to die,' Mikhail Panteleyev tells. Together with the colleagues from Dm. Rogachev Scientific and Medical Center, Center for Theoretical Problems of Physicochemical Pharmacology, Russian Academy of Sciences and the Faculty of Therapeutics, Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University, researchers found that the activation process is as follows. A platelet has many activators, but the chief among them are: collagen, ADP and thrombin. Platelets detect different concentrations of an activator, and respond with a varying frequency of the calcium impulses in the cytoplasm. This phenomenon is called calcium oscillations. Platelets' mitochondria absorb and store the calcium, and when its concentration exceeds the critical level, the process of the mitochondrial necrosis (a rare version of programmed cell death) of platelets starts: calcium and reactive oxygen species are released from mitochondria, ATPases begin to destroy ATP instead of synthesizing it, the cell cytoskeleton collapses, and the platelet size greatly increases. As a result, at the outer membrane of the enlarged spherical platelet, a lipid called phosphatidylserine appears, which is responsible for rapid blood clotting. And all this is happening within seconds. Last year, the same group of researchers published in the Molecular BioSystems an article about the theoretical mechanism of mitochondrial necrosis, and in the present paper this process has been experimentally proven. Moreover, another article by Mikhail Panteleyev and his colleagues from the Faculty of Physics and Faculty of Fundamental Medicine, MSU, was accepted for publication ("Systems biology insights into the meaning of the platelet's dual-receptor thrombin signaling"). Scientists explain an exciting puzzle of the platelet intracellular signaling structure: it was the first to show that the same activator influences two receptors in the platelet to achieve maximum sensitivity. ### The transient form of genetic information, the RNA, is processed in a similar manner in the cells of both organisms. These mechanisms seem to be at work throughout the whole animal kingdom. Scientists from the Max Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC) and their international partners showed this in a genome-wide study on flatworms whose results have now been published in the scientific journal eLife. Stem cells are cellular all-rounders and can differentiate into any tissue. They hold great potential for regenerative medicine, which is why they are subject to intense study. Planarians, small free-living flatworms, are especially interesting for researchers due to their remarkable ability to regenerate any lost body part through their many stem cells. The specific activation of certain genes is responsible for the special abilities of stem cells. Genes are transcribed into the transient RNA format, which in turn serves as a blueprint for proteins. Additionally, the RNA is usually processed through a mechanism called "splicing": sections of the RNA are recombined anew, and so-called "intron" sequences are cut out from the RNA, while "exon" sequences are retained. Where there is a selection of different versions of exons, the cell may choose from among them in a targeted manner. This "alternative splicing" may result in the creation of different versions of a single protein with different properties. Until now, it was not known whether alternative splicing also controls stem cell properties in planarians. To learn more about this process postdoctoral researcher Dr. Jordi Solana who works in the lab of Prof. Nikolaus Rajewsky at the Berlin Institute for Medical Systems Biology (BIMSB), part of the MDC, collaborated with by Dr. Manuel Irimia of the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona and the team of Prof. Benjamin J. Blencowe of the University of Toronto. The researchers recently published their findings in the scientific journal eLife. Solana is interested in the stem cell biology of the planarian Schmidtea mediterranea. He is working in the team of Nikolaus Rajewsky, which is known for its expertise in systems biology and uses flatworms as model organisms. On this project he joined forces with Irimia, who specializes in RNA splicing. "At a level of detail unparalleled thus far, we analyzed which genes are being transcribed in either the mature cells or stem cells of the flatworms and then processed by alternative splicing," said the researchers. The researchers identified splicing processes that operate only in the stem cells of the worms, and identified numerous alternative exons responsible for stem cell-specific protein variants. Surprisingly, introns were often not removed from the RNA, which meant that no more functioning proteins could be generated. The researchers also found small exon snippets - "micro exons" - in fully developed cells. In subsequent experiments, the scientists switched off the proteins that control alternative splicing. One of these proteins is MBNL, which suppresses the production of stem cell-specific protein variants. They also discovered that the CELF protein counteracts MBNL by stimulating the production of these variants. During development from a stem cell to a tissue cell the two factors competed for predominance. This interaction between MBNL and CELF has been previously described only in mammalian cells. "In our study we identified new mechanisms that we weren't aware of from the usual studies into mammalian stem cells. With this knowledge, it's now possible for us to look in a targeted manner for the same processes in human cells," says Solana. Group leader Prof. Nikolaus Rajewsky, who is an expert on the systems biology of RNA, says: "I found it particularly fascinating that it's impossible to understand how MBNL without knowing about the function of CELF. Maybe other splicing factors compete or cooperate in a similar way." The scientists' work also raises fundamental questions about the function of stem cells in animals. Solana: "To find the antagonism between MBNL and CELF in flatworms is interesting from an evolutionary biologist's perspective. For the first time, we described mechanisms in stem cells in organisms from extremely distant branches of the evolutionary tree. What we found is probably a fundamental process throughout the animal kingdom." ### A citizen walks past a Transit Elevated Bus (TEB) which is on road test in Qinhuangdao, north China's Hebei Province, Aug. 2, 2016. [Xinhua Photo] The production center for an innovative bus that straddles highway lanes to allow cars to pass beneatha sort of moving tunnelappears deserted with no sign of construction, raising questions about the scheduled launch in 2017. In December, Huaying Group, headquartered in Beijing, signed a contract with the local authorities in Zhoukou, Henan province, to produce the Transit Elevated Bus in a manufacturing and research center covering 0.67 square kilometers. The bus looks like a giant double-decker but is hollow on the ground level. Passengers can sit on the top floor while cars pass below. However, according to a Beijing Youth Daily report on Monday, the site is now full of thick weeds, and some nearby farmers feed their sheep in the area. A local farmer surnamed Yuan told reporters that a groundbreaking ceremony was held last month. "They built a platform. People who stood on the platform were dressed up. It seemed like it was a big day, but there has been no activity since," said Yuan. Du Guangxian, a local official, said the project has been delayed. "The environmental impact assessment of the project has not been approved yet, and many documents are still waiting to be signed," he was quoted as saying by Beijing Youth Daily. Huaying Group is expected to produce 1,000 buses annually, according to the contract, which included an investment of 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion). Asked why the groundbreaking ceremony was held before full approval had been received, Du said it was to push the development of the project. "We heard concerns about the project before. Some doubted its technology and feasibility, but we eventually decided to initiate the project and then evaluate whether it is a good project or not," he said. The project is expected to be put into operation in one year with an expected output value of 5 billion yuan to 10 billion yuan. Hurricane Earl began as a tropical wave that was tracked by the National Hurricane Center (NHC) from the African coast to the Caribbean Sea. The tropical wave drenched the Dominican Republic, where it was blamed for the deaths of six people. Southwest of Jamaica on Aug. 2, 2016, the tropical wave developed a closed circulation, and Earl was upgraded to a tropical storm. On Aug. 3, Earl became a hurricane when it was located about 150 miles east of Belize. On Aug. 4 Earl made landfall just southwest of Belize City, Belize, at about 2 a.m. EDT (6 a.m. UTC). At landfall Earl had winds of about 81 mph (70 knots). Earl weakened to tropical depression intensity over the Yucatan but regained tropical storm wind speeds of about 58 mph (50 knots) when it emerged over the Bay of Campeche. On Aug. 6, Earl hit Mexico again just south of Veracruz. Earl was then disrupted by Mexico's rough terrain and dissipated. Data from NASA's Integrated Multi-satellite Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) were used to estimate the amount of rain that fell from Aug. 2 through Aug. 8. GPM is the Global Precipitation Measurement mission, a joint mission of NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The analysis, created at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, showed rainfall over the period from when Earl became a tropical storm until Earl's remnants interacted with an area of disturbed weather along the Pacific coast. Some areas in extreme southern Mexico received up to 43.3 inches (1,100 mm) of rain. The IMERG analysis showed the extreme amount of rain that was dropped by Earl over Belize, Guatemala, eastern Mexico and Mexico's Pacific coast. According to the official Twitter account of Luis Puente, Mexico's national civil protection coordinator, at least 40 people were reported killed by landslides in the Mexican states of Puebla and Veracruz. The remnants of Earl interacted with an area of disturbed weather along the Pacific coast of Mexico and aided in the formation of a tropical depression that became Tropical Storm Javier on Aug. 7. ### In the past few years, optical atomic clocks have made spectacular progress, becoming 100 times more precise than the best caesium clocks. So far, their precision has been available only locally, since frequency transfer via satellite cannot provide sufficient resolution. This has recently changed thanks to a new direct optical connection between France and Germany, established by joint work of Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) in Braunschweig, Systemes de Reference Temps-Espace (LNE-SYRTE) in Paris, and Laboratoire de Physique des Lasers (LPL) in Villetaneuse. High-precision optical frequencies can now "travel" through a 1400 km optical fibre link between LNE-SYRTE and PTB, where the most precise optical clocks in Europe are operated. The first comparison between the French and German optical strontium clocks confirms the high expectations placed in the connection. It represents the first frequency comparison of its kind across national borders: the fully independent clocks agree with an unrivalled fractional uncertainty of 5 10e-17. The scientists report their results in the current issue of Nature Communications. Their successful collaboration is a first step towards a European network of optical clocks providing ultrastable high-precision optical reference signals to diverse users. This will benefit various research areas, with applications in fundamental physics, astrophysics and geoscience. Comparisons of clocks at the highest resolution allow a wide range of very sensitive physical experiments, for instance, the search for time-dependent changes of fundamental constants. Also, the apparent rate of a clock depends on the local gravitational potential: comparing two clocks measures the gravitational redshift between them, and thus yields their height difference. Such measurements provide data points for the geodetic reference surface, the so-called "geoid". This research approach is pursued jointly by physicists and geodesists in the Collaborative Research Centre 1128 ("geo-Q") of the German Science Foundation (DFG). Today's most precise atomic clocks are based on optical transitions. Such optical clocks can provide a stable frequency with a fractional uncertainty of only a few 10e-18. This is approximately 100 times more precise than the best caesium fountain clocks, which realize the unit of time, the SI second. However, clock comparisons using frequency transfer via satellites are limited to a frequency resolution near 10e-16. For this reason, scientists from PTB and from two French institutes in Paris (Systemes de Reference Temps-Espace, LNE-SYRTE and Laboratoire de Physique des Lasers, LPL) have been working for several years on an optical fibre connection between the German and the French national metrology institutes, PTB and LNE-SYRTE. The 1400 km long link is now completed: it is based on standard telecom optical fibres and optical power losses of 200 dB (10e20) are compensated by means of specially developed amplifiers. Furthermore, frequency fluctuations added during the propagation along the fibre are actively suppressed by up to 6 orders of magnitude. This allows the transmission of optical signals with very high stability. The German part of the link uses commercially rented optical fibres and facilities of the German National Research and Education Network (DFN). The French part of the link uses the network for Education and Research RENATER, operated by the GIP RENATER. Approximately midway, signals from LNE-SYRTE and PTB meet at the IT Centre of the University of Strasbourg, so that the clocks of the two institutes can be compared there. The partners involved are: Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Institut fur Erdmessung (IfE) der Leibniz-Universitat Hannover, Laboratoire de Physique des Lasers (Universite Paris 13/Sorbonne Paris Cite/CNRS), LNE-SYRTE (Observatoire de Paris/PSL Research University/CNRS/Sorbonne Universite/UPMC Univ. Paris 6/Laboratoire National de Metrologie et d'Essais), and the GIP RENATER (CNRS, CPU, CEA, INRIA, CNES, INRA, INSERM, ONERA, CIRAD, IRSTEA, IRD, BRGM, and the MESR). In a first comparison using the most stable optical clocks of PTB and LNE-SYRTE, the link lived up to the high expectations. Frequency fluctuations between the two strontium optical lattice clocks of less than 210e-17 were observed after only 2000 s of averaging time, and the link itself supports fast clock comparisons with an uncertainty below 10e-18. As both clocks are based on the same atomic transition they should theoretically supply exactly the same frequency - except for the gravitational redshift due to the 25 m difference in height between the two institutes. This was indeed confirmed within the clocks' combined uncertainty of 510e-17, corresponding to a height uncertainty of only 0.5 m. The partners consider this successful collaboration the first important step towards a European network of optical clocks connected by optical fibre links which could successively be joined by the optical clocks of further European metrology institutes. This should place them in a leading role for the dissemination of optical reference frequencies. As a long-term perspective, such a network may provide ultrastable high-precision optical reference signals (like those currently available from metrology institutes) to a broad range of users. Various research areas will benefit from this, including fundamental research (to test the fundamental laws of physics), geoscience and, last but not least, metrology. This work also clears the path towards a redefinition of the unit of time, the SI second, through regular international comparisons of optical clocks. ### Contacts for the strontium clocks: Dr. Christian Lisdat, PTB Working Group 4.32 Optical Lattice Clocks, phone: +49 (0)531 592-4320, e-mail: christian.lisdat@ptb.de Dr. Jerome Lodewyck, LNE-SYRTE, CNRS phone: +33 (0) 1 40 51 22 24, e-mail: jerome.lodewyck@obspm.fr Contacts for the optical fibre link: Dr. Gesine Grosche, PTB Working Group 4.34 Frequency Dissemination with Fibres, phone: +49 (0)531 592-4340, e-mail: gesine.grosche@ptb.de Dr. Paul-Eric Pottie, LNE-SYRTE phone: + 33 (0) 1 40 51 22 22, e-mail: paul-eric.pottie@obspm.fr Scientific publication C. Lisdat et al.: A clock network for geodesy and fundamental science. Nature Comms. 7:12443 (2016), DOI 10.1038/NCOMMS12443 When faculty members at Rochester Institute of Technology's National Technical Institute for the Deaf were creating a new degree program in mobile application development, they looked to cross-platform developer Xamarin Inc. for guidance and expertise. The result of this collaboration is the fall launch of a new academic program, which recently received approval by the New York State Education Department and earned a grant from the National Science Foundation of more than $820,000. Funding from the three-year NSF grant, "RoadMaPPs to Careers: A New Approach to Mobile Apps Education featuring a Mapp for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students," will train and equip students in RIT/NTID's information and computing studies department where the new program will be housed, and is based on the Xamarin cross-platform approach to mobile application development. Headquartered in San Francisco, Xamarin assisted in the development of the new associate degree program, and company representatives serve on the advisory board for curriculum review. The company recently was acquired by Microsoft. "Xamarin has given us access to their 'Xamarin University' curriculum materials, provided data we needed for our program and grant proposals, came to campus to carefully review our plans and gave us invaluable guidance," said Elissa Olsen, chairperson of RIT/NTID's information and computing studies department. "We are so pleased that they have agreed to serve on our program advisory board and continue to guide the program in the future based on industry trends." The company also will support student-learning activities such as career awareness events and will hire students for co-op and full-time employment. "We are proud that Xamarin will play a major role in the overall success of the mobile app development program, not only because the curriculum uses the Xamarin platform, but also because our experts will advise and assist the team on all aspects of the program," said Bryan Costanich, vice president of education services at Xamarin Inc. "This is a unique opportunity to work with the deaf community to provide training and employment in one of the fastest growing industry segments." ### HOUSTON - (Aug. 9, 2016) - In partnership with Houston Independent School District (HISD), Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy is launching the largest-of-its-kind study to assess the health needs of the district's 215,000 students, three-quarters of whom are considered economically disadvantaged. These children are at an increased risk of inferior health outcomes, impaired development and reduced educational success. Quianta Moore, a scholar in health policy at the Baker Institute, plans to conduct a needs assessment of the physical, social and mental health of children within the district. "This project is an opportunity to not only determine the health needs of children within HISD, but also to use this data as a representative sample of the needs of children within all of Houston," said Moore, the project's principal investigator. "Obtaining this information is the first step toward improving access to health and social services and ultimately improving child health in Houston." Assata Richards, director of the Houston-based Sankofa Research Institute, will serve as co-investigator of the first phase of the study, which is supported by Houston Endowment and will begin at the start of the school year. The three-year study will involve analysis of the approximately 250 schools within HISD. The researchers will survey fourth- to 12th-grade students, school staff and parents via an online questionnaire, hold focus groups and use community-based participatory research to conduct an in-depth survey of a representative sample that includes 70 schools. Moore said a needs assessment will guide the appropriate allocation of resources and investments into improving child health in Houston and can be used by the HISD board, school administrators and principals to make decisions about nurse staffing and health services within schools. "A needs assessment is needed to inform and guide health service decisions so that finite dollars can be invested appropriately within our city," she said. "Moreover, this needs assessment will identify gaps in access to care within neighborhoods and opportunities for increased health care and social services. Overall, this project has the potential to be replicated and impact child health policies within other school districts, cities and statewide." Moore's research focuses on developing empirically informed policies to advance the health of children. Specifically, she focuses on access to care in vulnerable populations through school-based clinics, telehealth and health education. Her most recent work involved identifying and making policy recommendations to address access to HIV prevention for high-risk adolescents. ### For more information or to schedule an interview with Moore, contact Jeff Falk, associate director of national media relations at Rice, at jfalk@rice.edu or 713-348-6775. Related materials: Moore bio: http://bakerinstitute.org/experts/quianta-moore. Follow the Baker Institute via Twitter @BakerInstitute. Follow the Center for Health and Biosciences via Twitter @BakerCHB. Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews. Founded in 1993, Rice University's Baker Institute ranks among the top five university-affiliated think tanks in the world. As a premier nonpartisan think tank, the institute conducts research on domestic and foreign policy issues with the goal of bridging the gap between the theory and practice of public policy. The institute's strong track record of achievement reflects the work of its endowed fellows, Rice University faculty scholars and staff, coupled with its outreach to the Rice student body through fellow-taught classes -- including a public policy course -- and student leadership and internship programs. Learn more about the institute at http://www.bakerinstitute.org or on the institute's blog, http://blogs.chron.com/bakerblog. Among patients with severe aortic stenosis (narrowing of the aortic valve) undergoing transcatheter aortic valve implantation, the use of a cerebral protection device (a filter that captures debris [tissue and plaque] dislodged during the procedure) reduced the number and volume of brain lesions, according to a study appearing in the August 9 issue of JAMA. Although the clinical outcomes of transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI; replacement of the aortic valve, delivered via a blood vessel with a catheter) have improved considerably during the last decade, stroke, which is associated with a 3-fold increase in mortality following TAVI, remains an important concern. Adding to this concern is the observation that ischemic lesions are found in as many as 80 percent of TAVI patients. Numerous devices have been developed to protect the brain from injury caused by embolic debris during TAVI, although clear evidence of the efficacy of any embolic protection device in TAVI is still missing. Axel Linke, M.D., of the University of Leipzig, Germany, and colleagues randomly assigned 100 higher-risk patients with severe aortic stenosis to undergo TAVI with a cerebral protection device (n = 50; filter group) or without a cerebral protection device (n = 50; control group). Brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed at study entry, 2 days, and 7 days after TAVI. The researchers found that the number of new brain lesions 2 days after TAVI was lower in the filter group (4) than in the control group (10). New lesion volume after TAVI was lower in the filter group (242 mm3) vs in the control group (527 mm3). Regarding adverse events, 1 patient in the control group died prior to the 30-day visit. Life-threatening hemorrhages occurred in 1 patient in the filter group and 1 in the control group. Major vascular complications occurred in 5 patients in the filter group and 6 patients in the control group. One patient in the filter group and 5 in the control group had acute kidney injury, and 3 patients in the filter group had a thoracotomy (surgical incision into the chest wall). "Larger studies are needed to assess the effect of cerebral protection device use on neurological and cognitive function after TAVI and to devise methods that will provide more complete coverage of the brain to prevent new lesions," the authors write. (doi:10.1001/jama.2016.10302; the study is available pre-embargo to the media at the For the Media website) Editor's Note: The Leipzig Heart Center received a grant from Claret Medical and Medtronic. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, etc. Editorial: Improving Outcomes From Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation The results from this trial demonstrates 2 important points, write Steven R. Messe, M.D., of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and Michael J. Mack, M.D., of the Heart Hospital Baylor Plano, Plano, Texas, in an accompanying editorial. "First, as other studies have noted, emboli to the brain that cause infarction detected on MRI are very common with TAVI. In this trial, acute lesions on MRI were present in virtually all patients enrolled, although the vast majority of these lesions were quite small. Second, use of an embolic protection device can successfully reduce cerebral infarct number and volume. Whether that reduction translates to a meaningful improvement in clinical outcomes will require more study, but the findings represent a compelling and encouraging start." ### (doi:10.1001/jama.2016.10316; the editorial is available pre-embargo to the media at the For the Media website) Editor's Note: Please see the article for additional information, including financial disclosures, funding and support, etc. Media Advisory: To contact Axel Linke, M.D., email Axel.Linke@medizin.uni-leipzig.de. To contact editorial co-author Steven R. Messe, M.D., email Lee-Ann Donegan at Leeann.Donegan@uphs.upenn.edu. To place an electronic embedded link to this study and editorial in your story These links will be live at the embargo time: http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?doi=10.1001/jama.2016.10302 http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?doi=10.1001/jama.2016.10316 Among U.S. adults with diabetes from 1988 to 2014, the overall prevalence of diabetic kidney disease did not change significantly, while the prevalence of albuminuria declined and the prevalence of reduced estimated glomerular filtration rate increased, according to a study appearing in the August 9 issue of JAMA. Diabetes mellitus is the most common cause of chronic kidney disease in the world, leading to multiple complications including end-stage renal disease, cardiovascular disease, infection, and death. Chronic kidney disease in the setting of diabetes or diabetic kidney disease (DKD), manifests clinically as albuminuria (the presence of excessive protein in the urine), reduced glomerular filtration rate (GFR; a measure of kidney function), or both. Changes in demographics and treatments may affect the prevalence and clinical manifestations of diabetic kidney disease. Ian H. de Boer, M.D., M.S., of the University of Washington, Seattle, and colleagues analyzed data of 6,251 adults with diabetes mellitus participating in National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys from 1988 through 2014. The researchers found that the prevalence of any diabetic kidney disease, defined as persistent albuminuria, persistent reduced estimated (e) GFR, or both, did not significantly change over time from 28 percent in 1988-1994 to 26 percent in 2009-2014. However, the prevalence of albuminuria decreased progressively over time from 21 percent in 1988-1994 to 16 percent in 2009-2014. In contrast, the prevalence of reduced eGFR increased from 9 percent in 1988-1994 to 14 percent in 2009-2014, with a similar pattern for severely reduced eGFR. Significant heterogeneity in the trend for albuminuria was noted by age and race/ethnicity, with a decreasing prevalence of albuminuria observed only among adults younger than 65 years and non-Hispanic whites, whereas the prevalence of reduced GFR increased without significant differences by age or race/ethnicity. In 2009-2014, approximately 8.2 million adults with diabetes had albuminuria, reduced eGFR, or both. The authors write that the lower prevalence of albuminuria observed over time may be attributable to a higher rate of prescribed diabetes therapies (glucose-lowering medications, renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system [RAAS] inhibitors, and statins). And that while reasons for the increasing prevalence of reduced eGFR cannot be conclusively discerned from these data, it is possible that hemodynamic effects of RAAS inhibitors and improved blood pressure control could contribute to lower eGFR. Alternatively, an increasing duration of diabetes may be contributing to kidney damage. ### (doi:10.1001/jama.2016.10924; the study is available pre-embargo to the media at the For the Media website) Editor's Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc. Media Advisory: To contact Ian H. de Boer, M.D., M.S., call Bobbi Nodell at 206-543-7129 or email bnodell@uw.edu. To place an electronic embedded link to this study in your story This link will be live at the embargo time: http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?doi=10.1001/jama.2016.10924 Army medical research funding has supported the development of innovative technologies to assist injured Service members and improve their quality of life. For example, advances in prosthetics for those with loss of limbs have enabled them to regain independence in work, sports, and in their daily lives. In contrast, restoring vision has been more challenging. In May 2014, experts in various science, technology, and regulatory disciplines from the Government, industry and academia were brought together by the US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC) to evaluate the maturity of visual prosthesis technology. The group consensus on the readiness for prototyping within this area was, "Yes!" As a first step, the Clinical and Rehabilitative Medicine Research Program, on behalf of the USAMRMC, released the Vision Prosthesis Pilot Study Award funding opportunity in 2015. This initiative sought to fund research exploring novel technologies contributing to the development of a working visual prosthesis prototype for individuals who have sustained severe macular degenerate or traumatic eye injury. The USAMRMC is now announcing the three successful awardees. "When the eye and optic nerve are severely damaged, the hope of a cortical visual prosthetic is that by directly stimulating the brain's visual cortex, it can restore sight," said Dr. Kenneth Bertram, Principal Assistant for Acquisition, USAMRMC. "We are very pleased that the initial funding brings us three different approaches to the development of visual prostheses." Skipping the damaged optic nerve: Dr. Joseph Rizzo's team, from Massachusetts Eye and Ear, has been a leader in this research through the collaboration of Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on the Boston Retinal Implant Project (BRIP). For those with severe injury in both eyes, as sometimes occurs with blast injuries, both the eyes and the optic nerves may be damaged. As a result, making the connection of an image from the prosthetic eye to the brain is a challenge. The BRIP group has developed a wireless and implantable neural prosthesis for use in the retina. However, this device relies on a functional optic nerve. With this award Dr. Rizzo's team will develop and test a prosthesis to electrically stimulate the lateral geniculate nucleus -- a key relay center in the brain's visual processing pathway -- that will allow signals to skip over the damaged optic nerve and reach visual centers in the brain. Cleaning up that image: Dr. Andrew Weitz and his team from University of Southern California, Roski Eye Institute, have focused on the difficulty of generating precise images with a cortical visual prosthesis. In a cortical visual prosthesis, cameras capture patterns of light and relay those patterns to electrodes implanted in the brain's visual cortex. The electrodes deliver current to nerve cells in the visual cortex, causing them to fire and create an image in the subject's visual field. A key problem in this approach is that in addition to stimulating the target nerve cells, electrodes can also stimulate passing nerve axons that lead to more distant visual cortex nerve cells, causing them to also fire. The result can be an inaccurate image polluted by multiple spots of light appearing all over the patient's visual field. To attack this problem, Dr. Weitz's team developed a novel fluorescence imaging technique to map the patterns of cells that are activated by electrical stimulation. Using this technique in experiments in the retina, Dr. Weitz's team identified varying electrode stimulus waveform shapes that avoid axons and confine the retinal activation to the area around the electrode. Using funding from this award, the team is now developing waveforms that will enable them to repeat this success in the visual cortex. This will guide the design of microelectronic arrays and stimulus generator hardware for use in a prototype cortical visual prosthesis. The prediction is that this cortical visual prosthesis will produce visual field images that better match the world in front of the subject. Doing it without electrodes: Dr. Joseph Kao, professor of physiology at University of Maryland School of Medicine Center for Biomedical Engineering & Technology (BioMET), is exploring the use of optical photostimulation ? using focused light flashes to photo-release neurotransmitter molecules that stimulate neurons in the brain's visual cortex. Normally, light coming in through the eye stimulates cells that send signals back through the optic nerve, and on through the brain, to release chemicals called neurotransmitters. The neurotransmitter turns on cells in the visual cortex, allowing us to see. Instead of implanting electrodes into the visual cortex, Dr. Kao with colleagues from BioMET and University of Maryland, College Park, plan to synthesize a neurotransmitter molecule whose activity is blocked by a photosensitive "cage." Exposure to a flash of light breaks the cage to unleash the fully active neurotransmitter. The team will test the ability of a small light-emitting device placed on the surface of the brain to activate caged neurotransmitter deeper in the visual cortex, activating neurons and producing an image. Developing and validating a technology based on photo-releasable neurotransmitters could enable a less invasive approach for vision prosthetics. "This is only the beginning," said Dr. Bertram, "...some obstacles and direction will be found through the studies of these prototypes. Our initiative is to restore vision and improve the quality of life for our wounded Warriors and other Americans who have become blind." ### FINDINGS Bisphenol S, a chemical used to manufacture polycarbonate water bottles and many other products such as epoxy glues and cash receipts, is an increasingly common replacement for bisphenol A, the of which was discontinued because of concerns about its harmful effects on the reproductive system. In a new study, UCLA researchers have found that BPS is just as harmful to the reproductive system as the chemical it replaced. BPS damages a woman's eggs and at lower doses than BPA. BACKGROUND While looking for replacements to toxic chemicals, manufacturers tend to choose substitute chemicals that, while technically different, often share similar physical properties. Due to increasing consumer pressure, companies have replaced BPA with other related compounds now found in many "BPA-free" products. However we do not know how safe these substitutes are. These uncertainties led the researchers to ask whether BPS could impart detrimental effects on reproduction similar to BPA's. METHOD The researchers exposed a common laboratory model, the roundworm, to several concentrations of BPA and/or BPS that approximate the levels of BPA and/or BPS found in humans. They followed the worms through the duration of their reproductive periods and measured their fertility. The researchers observed that compared to the controls, worms exposed to either BPA or BPS, or combination of the two, had decreased fertility. Surprisingly, these effects were seen at lower internal BPS doses than those of BPA suggesting that BPS may be more damaging to the reproductive system. This was especially significant when they examined the viability of young embryos. IMPACT These findings are also a cause for concern in humans as the same reproductive processes that are disrupted by BPS in roundworms are found in mammals. Furthermore, as noted above BPS products are already found in a plethora of consumer products. "This study clearly illustrates the issue with the 'whack-a-mole' approach to chemical replacement in consumer products," said Patrick Allard, assistant professor of environmental health sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, and the study's senior author. "There is a great need for the coordinated safety assessment of multiple substitutes and mixtures of chemicals before their use in product replacement. But the good news is that a number of governmental programs and academic labs are now moving in that direction". ### AUTHORS The authors of the study are Yichang Chen, Le Shu, Zhiqun Qiu, Dong Yeon Lee, Sara Settle, Shane Que Hee, Donatello Telesca, Xia Yang and Patrick Allard, all of UCLA. JOURNAL The study was published in the journal PLOS Genetics. FUNDING The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (R00 NIH/NIEHS R00ES020353); National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences' Training in Molecular Toxicology (T32 NIH/NIEHS ES015457); Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing; and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund's Innovation in Regulatory Science Award. RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- Researchers at the University of California, Riverside have identified a weakness in the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) of all Linux operating systems since late 2012 that enables attackers to hijack users' internet communications completely remotely. Such a weakness could be used to launch targeted attacks that track users' online activity, forcibly terminate a communication, hijack a conversation between hosts or degrade the privacy guarantee by anonymity networks such as Tor. Led by Yue Cao, a computer science graduate student in UCR's Bourns College of Engineering, the research will be presented on Wednesday (Aug. 10) at the USENIX Security Symposium in Austin, Texas. The project advisor is Zhiyun Qian, an assistant professor of computer science at UCR, whose research focuses on identifying security vulnerabilities to help software companies improve their systems. While most users don't interact directly with the Linux operating system, the software runs behind-the -scenes on internet servers, android phones and a range of other devices. To transfer information from one source to another, Linux and other operating systems use the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) to package and send data, and the Internet Protocol (IP) to ensure the information gets to the correct destination. For example, when two people communicate by email, TCP assembles their message into a series of data packets--identified by unique sequence numbers--that are transmitted, received, and reassembled into the original message. Those TCP sequence numbers are useful to attackers, but with almost 4 billion possible sequences, it's essentially impossible to identify the sequence number associated with any particular communication by chance. The UCR researchers didn't rely on chance though. Instead, they identified a subtle flaw (in the form of 'side channels') in the Linux software that enables attackers to infer the TCP sequence numbers associated with a particular connection with no more information than the IP address of the communicating parties. This means that given any two arbitrary machines on the internet, a remote blind attacker without being able to eavesdrop on the communication, can track users' online activity, terminate connections with others and inject false material into their communications. Encrypted connections (e.g., HTTPS) are immune to data injection, but they are still subject to being forcefully terminated by the attacker. The weakness would allow attackers to degrade the privacy of anonymity networks, such as Tor, by forcing the connections to route through certain relays. The attack is fast and reliable, often taking less than a minute and showing a success rate of about 90 percent. The researchers created a short video showing how the attacks works. Qian said unlike conventional cyber attacks, users could become victims without doing anything wrong, such as downloading malware or clicking on a link in a phishing email. "The unique aspect of the attack we demonstrated is the very low requirement to be able to carry it out. Essentially, it can be done easily by anyone in the world where an attack machine is in a network that allows IP spoofing. The only piece of information that is needed is the pair of IP addresses (for victim client and server), which is fairly easy to obtain," Qian said. Qian said the researchers have alerted Linux about the vulnerability, which has resulted in patches applied to the latest Linux version. Until then, Qian recommends the following temporary patch that can be applied to both client and server hosts. It simply raises the `challenge ACK limit' to an extremely large value to make it practically impossible to exploit the side channel. This can be done on Ubuntu, for instance, as follows: 1. Open /etc/sysctl.conf, append a command "/net.ipv4/tcp_challenge_ack_limit = 999999999". 2. Use "sysctl -p" to update the configuration. ### Titled "Off-Path TCP Exploits: Global Rate Limit Considered Dangerous," the paper is available on Qian's lab website. In addition to Cao and Qian, Zhongjie Wang, Tuan Dao and Srikanth V. Krishnamurthy from UC Riverside, and Lisa M. Marvel, from the United States Army Research Laboratory, contributed to the work. The work is funded by Army Research Laboratory (ARL Cyber Security CRA) and Nation Science Foundation under Grant 1464410. Irvine, Calif., Aug. 9, 2016 -- The Gulf of Maine coastline, historically home to one of the richest shellfish populations in the U.S., is undergoing a dramatic change, with once-flourishing wild blue mussels all but disappearing, according to a study led by University of California, Irvine ecologists. After comparing contemporary survey data with 40 years of historical benchmarks, Cascade Sorte, assistant professor of ecology & evolutionary biology at UCI, and colleagues from around the U.S. report that the blue mussel numbers have declined by more than 60 percent along the gulf coastline, which stretches from Cape Cod north to the Canadian border. The mussels used to cover as much as two-thirds of the intertidal zone, but they now cover less than 15 percent. Among the suspected reasons for this are warming oceans and increased human harvesting, Sorte said. Elevated air and water temperatures push the mussels out of their comfort zone, heightening physiological stress and, ultimately, mortality rates. Study results appear in Global Change Biology. Link to study: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.13425/full "The Earth is in the midst of a biodiversity crisis," Sorte said, "and the Gulf of Maine is one of the fastest-warming areas of the global ocean, so the impacts of ocean warming are likely to happen much sooner there." Blue mussels play an important role as filter feeders, removing bacteria, heavy metals and toxins from the water. They are a foundation species in the intertidal community that create habitat and enlarge the diversity of life supported by a locale. Their decline is of great concern, Sorte added, because it could precipitate "cascading extinctions" among other species. The researchers note that the loss of mussels is coinciding with a restructuring of the intertidal community. "The shoreline looks completely different than it used to," Sorte said. "Where mussels were one of the most abundant and iconic species, now barnacles and algae dominate. The local inhabitants see these changes happening before their eyes." Other studies on the Gulf of Maine have documented a decrease in native species and an increase in invasive species, as well as more southern fish. To inform future conservation efforts, Sorte said, her research provides a database of historical and contemporary baselines of mussel populations and dynamics in the gulf. The data underscores the importance of anticipating not only changes in diversity, but also changes in the abundance and identity of foundation species, which can have a domino effect in the ecosystem. So what can be done for the blue mussels of Maine? Sorte said that more research - such as monitoring physiological stress levels and mortality rates in the mussels, along with harvesting practices - is needed to fully understand what's causing the decline and where their parent populations are. These findings could guide future management decisions about conservation actions, such as protecting the most important parent populations. "The lesson so far - from what we saw in this study and what others have documented around the world at other warming 'hot spots' - is that key foundation species are disappearing, and this can lead to regime shifts and large-scale, even catastrophic, changes in the ecosystem," Sorte said. ### Kylla Benes of UCI, Victoria Davidson of Washington's Whitman College, Marcus Franklin of Cornell University, Meredith Doellman of the University of Notre Dame, Ron Etter and Robyn Hannigan of the University of Massachusetts Boston, and Jane Lubchenco and Bruce Menge of Oregon State University contributed to the study, which received support from a Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sea Grant, the National Science Foundation (DEB-1050694), the David & Lucile Packard Foundation and the Wayne & Gladys Valley Foundation. About the University of California, Irvine: Founded in 1965, UCI is the youngest member of the prestigious Association of American Universities. The campus has produced three Nobel laureates and is known for its academic achievement, premier research, innovation and anteater mascot. Led by Chancellor Howard Gillman, UCI has more than 30,000 students and offers 192 degree programs. It's located in one of the world's safest and most economically vibrant communities and is Orange County's second-largest employer, contributing $5 billion annually to the local economy. For more on UCI, visit http://www.uci.edu. Media access: Radio programs/stations may, for a fee, use an on-campus ISDN line to interview UCI faculty and experts, subject to availability and university approval. For more UCI news, visit news.uci.edu. Additional resources for journalists may be found at communications.uci.edu/for-journalists. HOUSTON, Aug. 8, 2016 - Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death in the U.S. With one in every four deaths occurring each year, the five-year survival rate after a heart attack is worse than most cancers. A big part of the problem is the inability of the human heart to effectively repair itself after injury. A team of University of Houston researchers is trying to change that. Physicians and biologists are developing strategies to help regenerate heart muscle cell formation. Among them are developmental biologists in UH's College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, whose work has added novel, powerful tools to achieve this. Their findings are published in the Aug. 8 early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), one of the world's most-cited multidisciplinary scientific journals. The human heart is an organ that doesn't regenerate, and the number of heart muscle cells drops as a person ages. Cells lost during injuries, such as from a heart attack, are gradually replaced by connective tissue, a process called fibrosis. This leads to the loss of pump function, which is the underlying reason cardiovascular diseases are as deadly as cancers. "We have uncovered new regulators of heart formation," said assistant professor of biochemistry Yu Liu, one of the lead authors of the study. "Compared to most others, these new regulators, which are a small RNA species called microRNAs, act early in the multistep heart formation process. They are easier to deliver into human bodies, and thus have a shorter path to clinical use." In trying to find a solution, Liu and his colleagues focused on learning how a heart is formed in an embryo. Specifically, they are curious as to whether the new regulators they uncovered will convert an abundant cell type, called human fibroblasts, into heart muscles. Robert Schwartz, Cullen Distinguished Professor of biochemistry and also an author on this study, is a pioneer in making heart muscle cells from fibroblasts, which is now a widely adopted strategy. "We were the first in converting human fibroblasts into cardiomyocytes," Schwartz said. "I expect these microRNA regulators to be potent, either acting alone or in combination with the existing agents we have." In a project with NASA's Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, Schwartz is exploring how the unique environment in space can assist in the creation of heart muscle cells out of fibroblasts. The microRNAs they uncovered will add substantially to his toolbox in this effort. Once considered genetic junk, microRNAs have emerged as a major player in gene regulation. Using mouse genetic tools, Liu and his team were able to track the process of heart muscle cell formation in a dish. Their work involved several screening steps. Most importantly, they first identified approximately 140 microRNAs in the earliest ancestor cells of the heart. Next, they screened for the ones that function in driving heart muscle cell formation, and the miR-322/503 cluster emerged as the top finding in both screenings and laid the basis for their work. Supported by multiple grants from the American Heart Association, Liu hopes to be able to use these microRNAs to treat human heart attack and subsequent heart failure within the next five to 10 years. Beyond this manuscript, they have developed several mouse models in house and hope to make more exciting discoveries down the road. ### Additional UH collaborators on this study included Preethi Gunaratne, associate professor of biochemistry and a genome sequencing pioneer in the field of microRNA research, and Xiaopeng Shen, a postdoctoral fellow in Liu's lab and first author of the article. Part of the research included in the paper is Shen's thesis work, which he completed as a graduate student in biochemistry at UH. Twitter handles: @PNASNews @UHouston @UH_News @American_Heart Facebook pages: PNAS, UH College of Natural Sciences & Mathematics (NSM), University of Houston, American Heart Association Hashtags: #heartdisease About the University of Houston The University of Houston is a Carnegie-designated Tier One public research university recognized by The Princeton Review as one of the nation's best colleges for undergraduate education. UH serves the globally competitive Houston and Gulf Coast Region by providing world-class faculty, experiential learning and strategic industry partnerships. Located in the nation's fourth-largest city, UH serves more than 42,700 students in the most ethnically and culturally diverse region in the country. For more information about UH, visit the university's newsroom at http://www.uh.edu/news-events/. To receive UH science news via email, sign up for UH-SciNews at http://www.uh.edu/news-events/mailing-lists/sciencelistserv/index.php. COLUMBIA, Mo. - According to the U.S. Census, 37 percent of Missourians live in rural communities and have limited access to health care, particularly mental health care. A new graduate education program at the University of Missouri has received nearly $700,000 from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to train psychology doctoral candidates in integrated, primary health care settings, in an effort to improve health care for underserved populations with mental health and physical disorders. "Placing psychology doctoral candidates within primary health care agencies will enhance the current infrastructure in Missouri's communities and improve comprehensive care for patients," said Laura Schopp, professor of health psychology and co-principal investigator for the training program. "For example, a patient with diabetes may need psychological help to address mental barriers that could be preventing them from changing their behavior. Having psychologists working side-by-side with primary care providers should result in better patient outcomes and savings to the state in Medicaid dollars." The funding will support several training partnerships and placements throughout Missouri including: Missouri Department of Mental Health and Community Mental Health Centers Missouri Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Family and Community Medicine Clinics in the MU School of Medicine MU Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders Harry S Truman VA Medical Center Fort Leonard Wood Army Post "Previous research has indicated the need for a comprehensive approach to health care," Schopp said. "If we treat the whole person--mind and body--patients will have significantly better health outcomes. This new training program will allow people to help patients that do not have access to the psychological care that they need." The HRSA Graduate Psychology Education program at MU is being led by Brick Johnstone, professor of health psychology in the MU School of Health Professions. Along with Schopp, the program is being assisted by Eric Hart, associate clinical professor of health psychology and training director; Renee Stucky, professor at the Comprehensive Pain Management Center in the MU School of Medicine; Nikole Cronk, associate teaching professor of family and community medicine in the MU School of Medicine; and psychologists from the MU department of health psychology. This project is supported by HRSA of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under grant number 1D40HP29827-01-00 for $699,772 over a three-year period. As required by the grant, MU provides some benefits to graduate students who contribute to this work. This information or content and conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government. ### COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Front-line protection of U.S. communities against disease epidemics relies on seamless information sharing between public health officials and doctors, plus the wherewithal to act on that data. But health departments have faltered in this mission by lacking guidance to effectively strategize about appropriate "IT investments. And incidents like the current Zika crisis bring the issue to the forefront," says Ritu Agarwal, Robert H. Smith Dean's Chair of Information Systems and Senior Associate Dean for Faculty and Research at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business. Agarwal, with a team of UMD researchers, recently finished a two-year "intensive analysis" of the rollout of an electronic health records system in Montgomery County, Md., and a local primary care coalition, which works with a system of hospitals and clinics designed to provide safety net services to low-income patients. "We uncovered a host of barriers and obstacles to effective use of information, including the complexity and usability of the software, the inability of the software to support certain unique public health reporting needs, the learning curve for public health workers, and the lack of standards for effective data exchange," Agarwal says. "All of this does not bode well, either for crisis response or for proactive crisis anticipation." Their findings are published in Frontiers in Public Health Services and Systems Research and detail a new tool, a Public Health Information Technology (PHIT) Maturity Index, to better understand and counter the shortcomings they observed. "Health departments can apply the index to assessing their IT capabilities, benchmarking with their peers, setting specific goals and fostering a cycle of continuous improvement," says coauthor and researcher Kenyon Crowley, deputy director of the Center for Health Information and Decision Systems (CHIDS) in the Smith School. Prior to late-July confirmation of U.S. Zika cases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Thomas Frieden warned: "Make no mistake: The Zika virus is an emergency that we need to address." But Congress recessed for summer without approving emergency funding to combat the virus linked to microcephaly-stricken newborns. But the challenges facing public health managers run deeper than a lack of funding, says Agarwal. "Health officials need to know the source of the infection, who the infected individual has contacted, where it occurred and the circumstances under which it occurred. The list goes on," she says. "In other words, a complete and accurate picture of every incident is the foundation for developing an effective response strategy." "Public health managers can deploy the [PHIT Maturity] index to "measure their departments' progress in using IT to support its public health mission, or in other words, its journey towards maturity," Agarwal says. Agarwal says "fulfilling the mission" broadly would mean information from Zika diagnoses, for example, is flowing to the right public health official whether it's from patient-hospital encounters stored in a state health information exchange or a primary care setting when a patient presents for treatment or even when such cases are documented at a public health care service location. Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the researchers collected data through staff interviews, staff observations, patient focus groups, and staff surveys to create the index with a questionnaire and scoring guide. It's divided into four IT-based categories: Scale and scope of use; quality; human capital, policy and resources; and community infrastructure. History Lesson "The early-2000s SARS epidemic is a good illustrator of information as one of the most critical tools in addressing any type of public health crisis," says Agarwal. "[Cases] spread like wildfire with more than 8,000 people becoming infected globally over a three-year time frame. "That number may have been substantially lower if information about new cases had been monitored and shared to get an accurate picture of the prevalence and spread of the disease." More recently, a Texas Ebola case illustrated a public health worker as unprepared to act on access to a hospital's electronic health records containing information about the patient's travels that could have resulted in immediate action, Agarwal says. "But no one paid attention to it." Both cases, collectively, show the importance of "seamless data integration across acute care (hospitals), primary care (clinics and other ambulatory facilities), and public health delivery locations," she says. "And of course, all of this has to occur while simultaneously maintaining the privacy of pertinent patient data." In positive trends, Agarwal says "syndromic surveillance" has been a core aspect of the Meaningful Use standards enforced by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and electronic health records adoption is on the rise by as much as 55 percent, according to estimates. "But resource-strapped departments remain unable to utilize the data effectively," Agarwal says. "We have a long way to go." Read More The Public Health Information Technology Maturity Index: An Approach to Evaluating the Adoption and Use of Public Health Information Technology by Kenyon Crowley, UMD's Robert H. Smith School of Business; Robert S. Gold, UMD School of Public Health; Sruthi Bandi, UMD's iSchool; and Ritu Agarwal, UMD's Robert H. Smith School of Business, appears in the April 2016 issue of Frontiers in Public Health Services and Systems Research. Forthcoming Conference CHIDS will host its annual Workshop on Health IT and Economics on Oct. 21-22, 2016, at the Westin Georgetown in Washington, D.C. The event is designed to deepen the understanding of health IT design and its resultant impact and to stimulate new ideas with both policy and business implications. ### In the journal, Nature Communications, a team of Danish researchers reports that they have developed a new class of artificial proteins. In the long term, the results could lead to better treatment of cancer and diabetes. Nature has created a host of proteins, which come in many forms, and which have many functions in our body. They are the body's principal, and hardest working building blocks. For example, some of them provide our muscles with strength; while others make sure that our cells receive messages. In spite of this natural diversity, in the past 20 years or so there has been great scientific interest in creating artificial proteins, in part stimulated by drug development opportunities. Now a team of Danish researchers from University of Southern Denmark, University of Copenhagen and University of Aarhus report that they have developed a new method of creating artificial proteins. Nature's smallest building blocks Artificial proteins are made from the smallest of nature's building blocks. In this case the team of researchers have succeeded in combining so-called oligonucleotides (short DNA molecules) with peptides (small proteins). The peptides coiled around one another effectively, creating an artificial protein. We forced three building blocks together and managed to make them form a protein mimic, says Professor Jesper Wengel of SDU. He is the head of the BioNEC (Biomolecular Nanoscale Engineering Center) research centre. He believes that the work has significant potential: We have shown that it is possible to enforce peptides together by this approach. It paves the way for testing countless new combinations, which could create new artificial proteins with functions, which nature itself has not created, but which we need. Artificial proteins have a longer lifetime Knud J. Jensen, Professor at the University of Copenhagen's Chemistry Department, explains: When you work with artificial proteins, you have better control over the proteins' properties. This is valuable when you are developing new, protein-based drugs and enzymes. In general, proteins have a very short lifetime in a body, a key parameter which can be improved for artificial proteins. The researchers hope that, in the future, artificial proteins can be used to treat some of the major diseases like cancer or diabetes. First artificial proteins were developed in the nineties In the 1970s, researchers began to chemically manufacture proteins that resembled the natural proteins. In the 1990s, work started on creating artificial proteins that have a completely different chemical design than the natural proteins. An important part of this work is the synthetic molecule LNA (locked nucleic acid), which was developed almost twenty years ago by Jesper Wengel and Poul Nielsen at SDU. LNA led to the establishment of the biotech company, Santaris Pharma, which was recently acquired by Roche, one of the world's biggest pharmaceutical corporations, for DKK 2.5 billion. Today biotech companies and researchers all over the world use LNA. ### Thyroid hormones are involved in controlling many functions of the human body: They influence sugar, lipid and protein metabolism, regulate body temperature, heart rate, circulation and many more functions. In children, they also control the development of the brain and nerves as well as bone growth. No wonder that hyperthyroidism has several detrimental effects in the affected patients. Typical symptoms include persistent restlessness, irritability, insomnia, inexplicable weight loss, excessive sweating and an increased pulse. Untreated hyperthyroidism has severe consequences, including, most importantly, a higher mortality for cardiovascular disease. Search for the responsible mutations In many cases, such a hyperfunction is triggered by thyroid tumours, most of which are benign. Among them, the so-called autonomous adenoma accounts for the majority. Its genesis is in general well understood: "We know that special mutations in certain genes are responsible for around 70 percent of all autonomous adenomas," says Dr. Davide Calebiro from the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology and the Bio-Imaging Center of the University of Wurzburg. However, it has been unknown until recently whether these mutations alone are sufficient to prompt thyroid cells to proliferate and produce excessive hormones, or whether additional factors have to be present. Also, it was unclear which factors are involved in the genesis of the remaining 30 percent of autonomous adenomas. Publication in the Journal of Clinical Investigation In the search for other causes of the disease, an international team of researchers, led by Davide Calebiro, Luca Persani from the University of Milan and Ralf Paschke from the University of Calgary, have now scored a success. Their results have been published in the current issue of Journal of Clinical Investigation (JCI) - Davide Calebiro is the first author of the study. Researchers from the group of Professor Martin Fassnacht from the Wurzburg University Hospital also participated in the study. The Interdisciplinary Center for Clinical Research (IZKF) of the University of Wurzburg supported the work. "For our study, we examined 19 autonomous adenomas using whole exome sequencing," Calebiro describes their approach. This technique does not investigate the entire genome of the cells; rather the focus is on the so-called exons of the genes - which are the pieces that are actually translated into proteins. Usually, the exons ("exome") account for 1-2% of the total DNA. "We were able to show that a significant number of these adenomas carry a mutation in a gene that is involved in controlling cell proliferation and differentiation", Calebiro further explained. Gene mutation causes increased cell proliferation EZH1 - or Enhancer of Zeste Homolog 1 - is the scientific name of this gene. EZH1 mutations work synergistically with the other known mutations, leading to the formation of autonomous adenomas. Moreover, functional studies show that EZH1 mutations modify signal pathways that cause thyroid cells to proliferate. "We were able to show that a hot-spot mutation in the EZH1 gene is the second most common genetic defect in autonomous adenomas," Davide Calebiro puts the result of their recently published work in a nutshell. In his opinion, the frequent association of EZH1 mutations with those in previously known genes points to a "two-hit model". Accordingly, the first mutation increases the disposition for the formation of tumours, whereas the second triggers the disease process. ### Recurrent EZH1 mutations are a second hit in autonomous thyroid adenomas. Davide Calebiro, Elisa S. Grassi, Markus Eszlinger, Cristina L. Ronchi, Amod Godbole, Kerstin Bathon, Fabiana Guizzardi, Tiziana de Filippis, Knut Krohn, Holger Jaeschke, Thomas Schwarzmayr, Rifat Bircan, Hulya Iliksu Gozu, Seda Sancak, Marek Niedziela, Tim M. Strom, Martin Fassnacht, Luca Persani, Ralf Paschke. Journal of Clinical Investigation, online published 08.08.16. doi:10.1172/JCI84894 CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Whitehead Institute researchers have identified the pre-mouth array--an area of the developing face in embryonic frogs--that "unzips" to surround the mouth opening. Their work highlights the precision necessary to create the mouth and identifies the cellular mechanisms that drive its formation. "All biological holes--openings--that form in the embryo are fascinating because they would become a catastrophic wound if they do not form precisely," says Whitehead Member Hazel Sive, who is also a professor of biology at MIT. "We call these 'scheduled holes' and the mouth is a crucially important example. Mouth formation involves many steps that ensure the opening happens at the right time and at the right place-- when the cells are connected with the correct junctions to be exposed to the outside and where the opening connects to a prepared region, in the case of the mouth to the digestive system. But I was so surprised when we found that this process is initiated in frogs several days before the mouth actually opens." The Sive lab has studied mouth formation in Xenopus frogs for many years. Because mouth formation occurs early in embryonic development and is highly conserved across species, model organisms, such as frogs and fish, provide fundamental insights into key developmental events that are difficult to observe and study in humans. In the most recent work, which is published in the August 2 issue of Cell Reports, Sive lab researchers led by Laura Jacox, then a graduate student pursuing a dual DMD-PhD degree through the Harvard School of Dental Medicine and the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology program, monitored a region of the embryo known as the Extreme Anterior Domain (EAD). Within the EAD, which the Sive group has identified as the earliest element of facial development, they noted that a group of cells reorganizes to form a "pre-mouth array" that indicates where the mouth opening will later form. The pre-mouth array begins as a square, eight cells wide and high, and morphs into a two-cell wide by twenty tall column. This transformation is a process called convergent extension, a crucial embryonic mechanism of cell reorganization. As the larvae prepares to begin feeding, the two rows of cells unzip down the middle to surround the oral opening that connects the digestive system to the outside. The team observed that pre-mouth array formation occurs as 'neural crest' cells (that later form bones and muscles of the face) come to lie on either side of the EAD. They proposed that these cells send a signal to EAD cells instructing them to reorganize and form the pre-mouth array. Supporting this proposal, they showed that the neural crest and the Wnt/PCP signaling pathway, specifically a Wnt11 signal, triggers pre-mouth array formation. Jacox acknowledges that this research clarifies a piece of a highly complex, carefully orchestrated process. "There's a lot of craniofacial development that we don't understand," says Jacox, a co-author of the Cell Reports paper who will soon become a resident in orthodontics at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. "If we hope to understand why craniofacial anomalies happen in humans and how to treat them at an earlier point to avoid years of surgery and orthodontics, we need to obtain a better handle on what's going on. Recognizing what is required to form a mouth and the face and how it's regulated is a step toward understanding how these processes can be disrupted." ### This work was supported by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR 1R01 DE021109-01 and F30DE022989) and Harvard University's Herschel Smith Graduate Fellowship. Hazel Sive's primary affiliation is with Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, where her laboratory is located and all her research is conducted. She is also a professor of biology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Full Citation: "Formation of a ''pre-mouth array'' from the extreme anterior domain is directed by neural crest and Wnt/PCP signaling" Cell Reports, August 2, 2016. Laura Jacox (1,2,3,4,5), Justin Chen (1,2), Alyssa Rothman (1,2). Hillary Lathrop-Marshall (1,3) and Hazel Sive (1,2). 1. Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, 9 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA 2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA 3. Harvard School of Dental Medicine, 188 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA 4. Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology Program, Harvard Medical School, 250 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA 5. Biological Sciences in Dental Medicine Program, Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, 1350 Massachusetts Avenue, Holyoke Center 350, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA You are here: Home Flash A splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing in Quetta that killed nearly 70 people and injured around 100 on Monday. "We claim the responsibility for the Quetta martyrdom attack," the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (TTP JA)said. "The TTP JA first targeted Bilal Anwar Kasi, president of the local lawyers association, and then a bomber struck the protesting lawyers and the gov't officials," the TTP JA spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said in a statement sent to the local media. He warned of more such attacks. TTP JA is a splinter group mainly comprised of the Taliban militants from Mohmand tribal region that border Afghanistan. The group is considered more hardliner within the Taliban and routinely claims responsibility for attacks in the country. Meanwhile, Minister for State for Interior, Baleegh ur Rehman, told the National Assembly on Monday evening that 69 people were confirmed dead and 108 others were injured. Flash Japan on Monday issued an order for its self-defense forces to shoot down any projectile heading toward the country's territory, in anticipation of potential missile launches by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), local media quoted government sources as saying. The order issued by Defense Minister Tomomi Inada is apparently aimed at ensuring that the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) is ready to intercept projectiles at any time as the use of mobile launch pads could make DPRK's missile launch preparations difficult to detect in advance, according to Kyodo News. The Japanese government had previously issued intercept orders on a case-by-case basis after signs of launch preparations by the DPRK had been detected. The DPRK reportedly launched a medium-range missile last week, which landed within what Japan describes as its exclusive economic zone in the Sea of Japan, following the launch of three missiles in July and two in June, in violation of UN Security Council resolutions. The pound (GBP) exchange rate continued its downtrend on Tuesday as AUD bulls beat back major rivals despite mixed Australian data and US dollar softness. The Australian Dollar has been in a strong trend higher versus the US dollar for close to two months and analysts forecast more of the same. The Pound plunged lower against the Australian Dollar later on Wednesdays session as investors reacted with concern on news that the Bank of Englands (BoE) latest quantitative easing measures were not going as planned. The BoE was unable to meet its 1.17bn target by 52m due to a lack of sellers on government bonds. This has caused bond prices to rise and yields to fall, with 2019 and 2020 bonds now experiencing negative yields for the first time in history. The Aussie dollar has been on strong form on Wednesday in spite of disappointing Home Loans and Investment Lending results, benefitting from the softness of the US Dollar. Investors also reacted positively to comments from departing Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Governor Glenn Stevens, who encouraged the government to do more to support the domestic economy. Since earlier in the day, Sterling has fallen even lower against the Australian Dollar due to the publication of a fresh GDP estimate from NIESR. The institutes July findings suggest that not only had the UKs economy began to contract in July, but that the economy could enter a technical recession by the end of 2017 if these trends continue. GBP/AUD has shed around 6 cents in value since last weeks high of 1.7605, as a surprisingly sturdy Australian Dollar capitalised on the Pounds BoE-influenced weakness. The pair traded near weekly lows of 1.6940 on Tuesday. Latest Pound/Aussie Dollar Exchange Rates On Friday the Pound to British Pound exchange rate (GBP/GBP) converts at 1 Today finds the pound to pound spot exchange rate priced at 1. The GBP to NZD exchange rate converts at 1.999 today. The GBP to USD exchange rate converts at 1.162 today. Please note: the FX rates above, updated 28th Oct 2022, will have a commission applied by your typical high street bank. Currency brokers specialise in these type of foreign currency transactions and can save you up to 5% on international payments compared to the banks. Pound (GBP) Slumps Against the Australian Dollar (AUD) as Domestic Data Fails to Impress Despite not necessarily being influential in a post-Brexit-vote Britain, Tuesdays gloomy June UK ecostats may have indicated that Julys figures could be even worse. While industrial production came in as expected and confirmed that the UK industry sectors Q2 growth had been its best quarterly growth since 1999, this figure meant nothing for July activity and onwards. Other figures were comparatively negative, with UK Manufacturing contracting a further -0.3% in June from Mays revised low of -0.6%. This brought manufacturing down from 1.5% to 0.9% year-on-year. Britains June trade deficit figures also disappointed, with the deficit itself coming in at a seven-month-high due to Britains reliance on EU imports. While a weak Pound could help to relieve the deficit in the coming months and years, this figure revealed the reliance UK citizens have on EU imports, which gave some investors a little more Brexit-gloom. Australian Dollar (AUD) Sturdy Despite NAB Figures and Warnings The Australian Dollars rally slowed on Tuesday, but it was still able to power further against the unappealing Pound despite new economic data and warnings from the National Australia Bank (NAB). The NABs business conditions score for June was revised down from 12 to 11, and Julys score came in at 8. Even worse was the business confidence score which worsened from 6 to 5 in June, and printed 4 in July. The NAB followed up with a bearish economic forecast for Australia and the RBAs upcoming actions. Bloomberg reported; Australias central bank will cut interest rates to 1 percent within a year to combat weak inflation and rising unemployment and could then turn to unconventional monetary policy, according to Alan Oster, the chief economist at National Australia Bank Ltd. The Reserve Bank of Australia is seemingly less worried than we thought about using up some of its valuable remaining monetary policy ammunition, Oster said, referring to two cuts in the past four months to a record-low 1.5 percent. The case for further cuts from the RBA appears to be mounting. Despite this, news that prices of iron ore, Australias most lucrative commodity, had neared $62 per tonne in a surge in appeal this week boosted Aussie sentiment and kept the currency afloat. GBP/AUD Forecast: More Australian Ecostats Ahead The Australian Dollars remarkable sturdiness could be undermined in the coming days if Australian data fails to meet expectations. Wednesday will see the release of Westpacs August consumer confidence report, as well as Australian home loan and investment lending figures. Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Governor Glenn Stevens will also make a speech in Sydney. With Stevens stepping down as Governor in mid-September, investors will eye his speech for comments on potential future easing as well as comments on his departure. Stevens will hold one more RBA policy decision before he leaves, on the 6th of September. Augusts consumer inflation expectation figure will be released on Thursday, followed by credit card purchases on Friday. As for UK data, theres little on the horizon this week besides a house price balance report from RICS on Thursday, and construction output figures on Friday. Sterlings recovery chances are limited, but it could advance a little more solidly if this weeks Australian news disappoints markets. Sterling has flopped against the Canadian dollar today, owing to the outcome of a recent RICS survey The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) house price balance for July has shown a significant drop in post-Brexit housing prices, with only 5% of those surveyed reporting cost increases. Given that most economists are predicting this to be the tip of the iceberg, it seems that future house price balance data could only paint a more alarming picture of the state of the UK housing market. The Canadian Dollar continued to take advantage of the weak US Dollar throughout the day, advancing against the Pound despite mixed commodity news. Prices of oil, Canadas primary export, looked to continue to drop in the coming days due to an uptick in US production of the commodity. News that Saudi Arabian oil output had reached record levels for the nation in July will also weigh on oil prices going forward. This could well cause the Loonie to abandon much of its recent gains in the coming days, but for now GBP/CAD continues to drop due to risk-sentiment and a weak Pound. Demand for the Pound continued to deteriorate in spite of the BoEs reassurance that it will make up for Tuesdays gilt purchase shortfall in future auctions, with investors not encouraged by the implications for the central banks easing bias. A weak US Dollar has continued to support the Loonie, meanwhile, with markets inclined to favour commodity-correlated currencies as a result. There was no support for the Canadian Dollar (CAD) on the back of the June Building Permits data, which showed an unexpected contraction of -5.5% on the month. This seemed to point towards greater weakness within the Canadian economy, which has been increasingly reliant on a booming house market in the midst of the global oil oversupply glut, and raised the possibility of the Bank of Canada (BOC) moving away from its neutral outlook. However, the Pound Sterling to Canadian Dollar (GBP/CAD) exchange rate was unable to particularly strengthen in response to the bearish data, thanks to a lack of confidence in the outlook of the UK economy. Latest Pound/Canadian Dollar Exchange Rates On Friday the Pound to British Pound exchange rate (GBP/GBP) converts at 1 The live inter-bank GBP-GBP spot rate is quoted as 1 today. Today finds the pound to us dollar spot exchange rate priced at 1.162. The GBP to AUD exchange rate converts at 1.812 today. NB: the forex rates mentioned above, revised as of 28th Oct 2022, are inter-bank prices that will require a margin from your bank. Foreign exchange brokers can save up to 5% on international payments in comparison to the banks. Pre-referendum UK data did not offer a rallying point to the Pound on Tuesday, with the countrys trade deficit widening far more sharply than investors had anticipated in the run-up to the Brexit vote. Comments from Bank of England (BoE) policymaker Ian McCafferty added downside pressure to the GBP exchange rate complex, with the notorious hawk commenting that: If the economy proves to have turned down in line with the initial survey signals, I believe that more easing is likely to be required, but that can easily be delivered in coming months. The prospect of further monetary easing, as well as signs that the domestic economy was in a less-than-robust state even before the referendum result was known, naturally offered markets little reason to favour the Pound Sterling. Disappointing Canadian Housing Data Could Boost GBP/CAD Exchange Rate Further data pertaining to the Canadian housing sector is due for release over the coming days, with the latest Housing Starts and New Housing Price Index figures likely to provoke further Loonie volatility. If these provide further evidence that momentum within the housing market has slowed then the GBP/CAD exchange rate could return to an uptrend, with weaker data encouraging the odds of the BOC returning to an easing bias in the near future. A more robust showing, on the other hand, could bolster demand for the higher-yielding Canadian Dollar, particularly if crude oil prices can sustain their latest rally. Weaker GDP Estimate Predicted to Soften Pound Exchange Rates Further Confidence in the Pound is expected to remain weak in anticipation of the NIESR Gross Domestic Product estimate for the three months to July, which is expected to show a slowing in growth. Should the Brexit vote be shown as having a more severe impact on the UK economy then the GBP/CAD exchange rate is likely to trend sharply lower, lending further weight to the BoEs dovish outlook. If the estimate proves less bearish, however, the Pound could see something of a rally against rivals in spite of persistent uncertainty over the full impact of the referendum outcome on the domestic economy. Setup an LLC or Freelance Can he work from an apartment or does he have to have a office? Hi Guys,My friend wants to set up a translating personal assistant business in Dubai and he is wondering if he should G&Cuk said: So I'm moving to Dubai in a couple of months. I've been informed / researched that I cannot rent an apartment until I have a residency visa which I received after around 3 months of living / working ? Is this right? If so where can I stay for 3 months on a budget ? Please help! Thankyou Hi everyone,So I'm moving to Dubai in a couple of months.I've been informed / researched that I cannot rent an apartment until I have a residency visa which I received after around 3 months of living / working ? Is this right?If so where can I stay for 3 months on a budget ?Please help!Thankyou Click to expand... Sounds like the company is only going to process the residency after you have completed the probation period - technically this is against the rules, as officially you cannot work until you have received the work permit which is the first part of the process of obtaining the full residency.Accommodation is available all over Dubai, but the choice is going to depend upon the location of your employment, commuting is a major consideration when choosing where to live.Whilst your residency is going through, you'll be able to hire a car on your UK license (if you have one) but it is best to also have it supported with an International Driving Permit (obtained from the country of license origin prior to coming out).If you're not a driver, then location is all the more important. The general is cars older than 5 years should only be eligible for third party cover, but insurers do make exceptions to the rule sometimes for some vehicles. Third party cover pays for repairs to other vehicles or buildings, road signs etc if it's your fault; fully comprehensive repairs your own car as well if it's your fault - if your car is damaged and it's someone else's fault then their insurance should pay to repair your car. Fault is often subjective and based on whatever the reporting police officer or SAEED guy (in Abu Dhabi) decides at the time.. I would offer a different assessment on property value in the UAE . The flat I rent for example was purchased in 2014 for 1.3 mil AED . Before the fire in our building my landlord had it on the market for 1.0 mil AED and no takers in a year. After the fire who knows how little it is worth , the fire in the Torch erased tons of value from the unaffected units so I am sure this building will have the same effect. Besides the downturn in oil affecting Russian and Gulf investors there is an odd perception with apartments for Gulf buyers where they do not want a " used " apartment or Villa. New Villas / buildings are what sells . This suppresses the value of existing real estate. To me this is a rent don't buy country . I agree with the above posters , rent in UAE buy in London. Flash U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Monday outlined the details of what he called "America First" economic plan to rebuild momentum of his campaign, as protesters repeatedly interrupted him. Donald Trump takes the stage on the last day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, the United States, July 21, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua] During an hour-long speech at the Detroit Economic Club, Trump blamed Hillary Clinton, his Democratic rival, for America's economic woes and announced new proposals of tax breaks and cutting regulations to stimulate the sluggish growth, trying to refocus his campaign on the economy. But his speech was interrupted more than 10 times by a series of shouting protesters, who were escorted out of the hall by security officials. A highlight of Trump's economic proposals laid out on Monday was "an across-the-board income tax reduction," proposing reducing the current number of federal income tax brackets from seven to three. "We will work with House Republicans on this plan using the same brackets they have proposed, 12 percent, 25 percent, and 33 percent. For many American workers, their tax rate will be zero," Trump said, adding that it would be "the biggest tax revolution since the Reagan Tax Reform" in 1980s. The current top individual tax rate is 39.6 percent. Trump also vowed to reduce corporate tax rate to 15 percent from 35 percent and make all child-care expenses tax free, emphasizing that all policies should be geared toward "keeping jobs and wealth inside of the United States." He said he would "bring back trillions of dollars from American businesses that are now parked overseas" with applying a 10-percent tax, and reinvested the money in states like Michigan that had serious problems. The Republican presidential nominee also called for a temporary moratorium on new agency regulations and would seek to roll back regulations that reduce employment. "I will ask each and every federal agency to prepare a list of all of the regulations they impose on Americans which are not necessary, do not improve public safety, and which needlessly kill many, many jobs. Those regulations will be eliminated quickly," he said. Continuing his anti-trade rhetoric on the campaign trail, Trump promised to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and other trade deals, to strengthen trade enforcement and apply tariffs to other trading partners. But U.S. business leaders and economists have warned that Trump's proposed high tariffs on other countries could drag the U.S. economy into a prolonged recession and cause heavy job losses that would fall hardest on low- and middle-income workers. "Several nonpartisan research organizations have warned that these tariffs would cause the loss of up to 4 million American jobs and impose a regressive consumption tax on the typical American family of more than 2000 U.S. dollars annually," Thomas Donohue, president and chief executive of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said in a commentary on Monday. "Trade opposition may be politically convenient in this campaign, but it's bad policy for our country," he said, warning that retreating on trade would undermine U.S. economic growth, endanger American jobs and harm U.S. global leadership. Trump's economic speech comes at a critical time when polls show him falling behind Clinton widely after a disastrous week that includes days of his dispute with parents of a Muslim American soldier killed in the Iraq war. It also comes after Trump's announcement of a 13-men economic advisory council last week, which includes real estate developers, hedge fund managers, bankers, and major donors for his campaign. "Donald Trump's plan is just a repackaging of trickle-down economics and it doesn't help our economy or the vast majority of Americans," Clinton said on Monday via its official Twitter account. She will give her economic speech in Michigan on Thursday. Flash Delta Airlines grounded all its flights for several hours yesterday because of a system-wide computer breakdown, making for a messy day at airports around the world. Even after the US carrier lifted the order about six hours into the snafu, it warned of continued cancellations and delays, as tens of thousands of passengers around the globe were left stranded. Travelers crowded ticket counters, lay on the ground in airports and tried to grin and bear it. Ticket agents were reduced to checking people in manually, news reports said. The carrier blamed the computer problem on a power outage in its hub in Atlanta, Georgia. Flights have resumed but on a limited basis, Delta said in a statement after flights had been grounded for about six hours. However, the ripple effect of the meltdown will drag on. Customers heading to the airport should expect delays and cancellations, the statement said. While inquiries are high and wait times are long, our customer service agents are doing everything they can to assist, it added. It also said there would be some lag time in the display of accurate flight status at delta.com, the Fly Delta App and from Delta representatives on the phone and in airport. Luciano Resende, 40, waiting at Londons Heathrow Airport to fly to San Francisco, said it was slow going. I guess it has been a long time since they used the manual process, Resende said. At Los Angeles International Airport, people waiting for red-eye flights to the east coast dozed in a crowded waiting area, many of them wrapped in red blankets. By 10pm Beijing time, the airline said it had cancelled about 300 flights. It operates more than 15,000 a day along with its alliance partners. Nearly 400 others were delayed, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware. The timing of this problem is particularly bad because Monday morning is one of the busiest times for both airlines and travelers as business travelers begin their work week, said Daniel Baker, FlightAwares CEO. Delta said the power outage in Atlanta that caused the computer meltdown began at 2:30am. Lines of passengers backed up at Delta ticket counters at US airports. At Los Angeles, passengers on a flight to New York had to get off their plane and return to the terminal, NBC News reported, while some people slept near departure gates at Las Vegas. As compensation for the inconvenience, Delta offered refunds to travelers whose flights are cancelled or significantly delayed. People on some routes are being allowed to make a one-time change to their travel plans. A vast number of flight delays normally creates a cascading problem that affects airline traffic for days. Monday, August 8, 2016 Fired Fox News creator Roger Aisle hired renowned feminist lawyer and teacher Susan Estrich to defend him against the sexual harassment law suit filed by former Fox Blonde Gretchen Carlson. Responding to shock and disappointment among some feminists and others that Estrich would abandon her principles to defend such a client, Slates feminism reporter Nora Caplan-Bricker authored a post titled The One Good Reason for a Trailblazing Feminist Lawyer to Defend Roger Ailes. This is in the category of a supposedly enlightening post that actually makes readers less informed. There only needs to be one Reason for a Trailblazing Feminist Lawyer to Defend Roger Ailes, and it is a great reason. Susan Estrich is a lawyer; lawyers defend people who are sued; lawyers do not have to agree with, support or approve of a clients alleged actions requiring such a defense; and theres is no reason in legal ethics or any other ethical system that argues that a U.S. citizen shouldnt have access to the best representation possible. For her part, Estrich has said that she is taking the case because The individual gets convicted long before he or she has had an opportunity to defend himself. And thats not fair, whether it is happening to a woman or a man. Thats the civil law equivalent of the late Johnnie Cochran defending his accepting O.J. as a client by saying, In this country, everyone has the right to be treated as innocent until found guilty by a jury of his peers. Partial translation of both statements: Im a lawyer, and I dont judge my clients. Thats not my job. My job is to help them use the law and legal system for their own purposes and protection, like any other citizen. Ive written about this aspect of lawyers vital function in society, one that non-lawyers just cannot seem to grasp, so many times. Heres a recent post; but maybe this one from 2015 is more on point. That one was about progressive legal icon and Harvard law prof Larry Tribe representing Peabody Energy, the worlds largest private-sector coal company, in a lawsuit that sought to invalidate some EPA regulations adverse to their horrible, evil, earth-destroyingbut legal!business. Tribe was called a traitor to the Cause of turning the U.S. into a wind and solar run nation, and I explained that the attacks on him, like all such attacks, were based on a stubborn lack of comprehension by non-lawyers, writing.. That is what lawyers do, and what they exist to do: represent citizens and companies as they seek to avail themselves of their guaranteed right to use the law to protect their interests. The public and media just dont get it, and appear to be immune from educating on the subject: what your lawyer personally believes about your cause doesnt matter. His or her job isnt to judge you or your purpose. It is to give you the chance to use your rights to due process and the courts to have the law work for you rather than against you, and to have your position, if legal, serious and offered sincerely, represented by the best legal talent available. Whether or not Tribe personally believes or supports the position being taken by his client is irrelevant to his role, unless he is so unprofessional (as in emotional and unable to overcome his own biases) that he cant represent a client whose objectives he opposes. Then he would be obligated to refuse the representation. Then he would also be a poor lawyer, and Lawrence Tribe is anything but. Replace Larry Tribe in that paragraph with Susan Estrich, and save me some time. Thanks! There are other good reasons For A Trailblazing Feminist Lawyer to Defend Roger Ailes, you know. Like M-O-N-E-Y. Thats a perfectly good and ethical reason, since lawyers sell their skills, advice and professional expertise just like any other profession. Im sure that Ailes is paying her a lot of money, in part because she is a lawyer with feminist credentials. In the 90s, when Swiss banks tried to keep the gold and art they had received from Nazis after the Nazis had stolen it from the Jews they exterminated, the banks hired a lot of distinguished Jewish-American lawyers to battle the representatives of the World Jewish Congress and various Jewish organizations bringing the lawsuits. These lawyers werent traitors to their race and religion. They were true to the values of their profession. Caplan-Bricker tries to explain Estrichs conduct by noting that she and Ailes are friends. Thats such an insult to Susan Estrich. So she likes Ailes, and that is all it takes to allow her to want to defend a man she may think or know is a sexual predator and a workplace harasser? Its a job, thats all, the job shes been trained for, a job without which all of us are sitting ducks to have our lives messed up by powerful, rich and predatory people using the law to their advantage, and against ours. Part of Estrichs job is making statements that support her high-profile client, even though she knows that they are functionally and legally meaningless. The man described by the media is simply not the man I know, Estrich wrote to the Washington Post. I dont think anyone in the business has done more to promote the careers of women than Roger. As for the first sentence, all it means is that Ailes didnt harass her, which is hardly a surprise. The second part is not quite deceit, but misleading as a true statement that doesnt mean what she seems to be suggesting it means. It isnt unusual for executives who assist and mentor women to also harass them, often without knowing thats what they are doing. As an authority on sexual harassment, Estrich knows this better than anyone. Said celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred, grandstanding as usual, If Mr. Ailes had approached me, theres no amount of money I would accept to represent him. The bottom line is, my credibility is not for sale, my reputation is not for sale, my conscience is not for sale. Baloney. Allreds credibility and reputation is exactly what she sells, and her conscience has nothing to do with it. Any lawyer can choose to take only cases she believes in as a matter of ideology, but that practicing activism, not law. Finally, I find it ironic that those claiming that a feminist cannot competently and ethically represent Roger Ailes are validating and endorsing the flawed logic of Donald Trump, who was excoriated by these same people for stupidly suggesting that a Mexican-American judge shouldnt insist on doing his job when called upon to adjudicate a matter involving someone whose statements and conduct the judge had reason to oppose. _____________________ Pointer: Fred Source: Slate Welcome to the News Release Wire Selection Control Panel. Instant News Wire Tuesday, August 9, 2016 From the New York Times media columnist, Jim Rutenberg, in a piece called Trump Is Testing the Norms of Objectivity in Journalism: If youre a working journalist and you believe that Donald J. Trump is a demagogue playing to the nations worst racist and nationalistic tendencies, that he cozies up to anti-American dictators and that he would be dangerous with control of the United States nuclear codes, how the heck are you supposed to cover him? Because if you believe all of those things, you have to throw out the textbook American journalism has been using for the better part of the past half-century, if not longer, and approach it in a way youve never approached anything in your career. If you view a Trump presidency as something thats potentially dangerous, then your reporting is going to reflect that. You would move closer than youve ever been to being oppositional. Thats uncomfortable and uncharted territory for every mainstream, nonopinion journalist Ive ever known, and by normal standards, untenable. Mr. Trumps candidacy is extraordinary and precedent-shattering and to pretend otherwise is to be disingenuous with readers. t would also be an abdication of political journalisms most solemn duty: to ferret out what the candidates will be like in the most powerful office in the world.It may not always seem fair to Mr. Trump or his supporters. But journalism shouldnt measure itself against any one campaigns definition of fairness. It is journalisms job to be true to the readers and viewers, and true to the facts, in a way that will stand up to historys judgment. To do anything less would be untenable. Observations: 1. The column disqualifies itself in the very first sentence. If youre a working journalist and you believe that Donald J. Trump is a demagogue playing to the nations worst racist and nationalistic tendencies, that he cozies up to anti-American dictators and that he would be dangerous with control of the United States nuclear codes, how the heck are you supposed to cover him? How? Factually. Fairly. Objectively. Of course. What the journalist believes is irrelevant and inconsequential. The journalists job is to report facts, undistorted by what the journalist believes and feels. Doing otherwise is an abuse of position and a breach of ethics. That a Times journalist would have to ask the question reveals how arrogant and untrustworthy the field of journalism has become. 2. How is what Rutenberg describes regarding Trump any different from myriad previous examples when the news media decided it was appropriate to slant its reporting because its journalists felt their political views deserved to prevail? The mainstream media, decided to actively promote the candidacy of Barack Obama, with uncritical saturation coverage, soaring accolades, and a near total absence of skepticism. News sources, especially the Times, have minimized the significance of Obama fiascos, helped Administration cover-ups of misconduct in episodes like the IRS mistreatment of conservative groups, and blatantly lobbied for policies they believed in, like restricting gun ownership, same-sex marriage and the Affordable Care Act. Is Rutenberg kidding? Throw out the textbook American journalism has been using for the better part of the past half-centurydoes he mean the textbook of journalism ethics from which the Times developed this, its standard of fairness in its Code of Standards and Ethics The goal of The New York Times is to cover the news as impartially as possible without fear or favor, in the words of Adolph Ochs, our patriarch and to treat readers, news sources, advertisers and others fairly and openly, and to be seen to be doing so that textbook? When was the last time any honest reader of sound mind could argue that the New York Times was as impartially as possible? How stupid and gullible does the Times think its readers are? 3. If you view a Trump presidency as something thats potentially dangerous, then your reporting is going to reflect that. Not if youre a competent and ethical professional, it wont. Does a lawyer who thinks her client is guilty let the quality of her representation reflect that? Not if she has any business practicing law. If a surgeon would be happier if a patient were dead, would that doctor withhold medical treatment? Not if the doctor follows his professions values. The difference is that journalists make up their ethical standards as suits their whims and biases at the moment. They are not true professionals at all. 4. Mr. Trumps candidacy is extraordinary and precedent-shattering and to pretend otherwise is to be disingenuous with readers.' This is pure rationalizationsix of them, in fact. Any rule or standard can be ignored by using these handy excuses 13. The Saints Excuse: Its for a good cause 14. Self-validating Virtue 25. The Coercion Myth: I have no choice! 28. The Revolutionarys Excuse: These are not ordinary times. 31. The Troublesome Luxury: Ethics is a luxury we cant afford right now 40. The Desperation Dodge or Ill do anything! ..and all in the service of the most corrupting standard of all: the ends justify the means. 5. In brief, the New York Times has told us that its reporters doing anything less than abandoning objective, non-partisan, impartial journalism would be untenable. The New York Times has just openly jettisoned journalism standards and ethics, as well as journalism itself, and called upon its colleagues to do the same. It has declared that rejecting integrity is integrity, and rejecting fairness is fair. 6. Somewhere, somehow, American journalism forgot that its function in a democracy is not to force-feed the public what its practitioners believe, but to inform the public thoroughly and competently so it can form its own beliefs. If the New York Times is truly the flagship of American journalism, then American journalism is corrupt, untrustworthy, undemocratic, and dead. Tuesday, August 9, 2016 As employers, were required to provide fair compensation to our nanny and that means either providing a solid hourly, weekly, or monthly rate. Many families feel that paying a flat rate is the simplest and most efficient way to do things; however by law a nanny is an hourly employee and entitled to pay for all hours worked at the hourly rate, and may be entitled to overtime. Because the Fair Labor Standards Act specifies that household workers are to be paid hourly, improperly wording your compensation offer to the nanny can put you at risk to unpaid wage and unpaid overtime claims. The bottom line: there is still a lot of confusion surrounding the idea of nannys salaries. So, what information is correct? As an employer, its important to understand how to appropriately pay our nannies within the parameters set by the law. The Fair Labor Standards Act states that nannies must be paid for every hour they work and live-out nannies are required overtime pay if they work over 40 hours a week. That means that paying your nanny a set salary stated in weekly or monthly wages is illegal. As an employer, it is common to see some of these misconceptions that happen with the nanny/salary dilemma. Misconception #1: Live-in nannies dont earn overtime so they can have a salary. State laws vary, but some states require that live-in nannies are paid overtime. In addition, live-in nannies are protected by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) which requires that they must be paid for each hour worked. Therefore, salaries are prohibited. Misconception #2: Nannies can be paid salaries as long as overtime is paid. The definition of a salary is a fixed amount paid every week of the year, no matter how many hours your nanny works. Saying that she will be paid overtime means that she will not be paid a salary. However, read on to learn how you can make your agreement comply with the FLSA's rules on hourly rates and overtime! Protect yourself from unpaid wage and unpaid overtime claims! When it comes to negotiating your nannys payment schedule, work with an hourly rate based on a typical work week, whatever that looks like for your family. Some families will need a nanny 40 hours a week, some will need them more or less. Take what you think is a fair salary and translate that into an hourly rate (HWS' free hourly rate calculator will do the math for you!), making sure to include that breakdown in your work agreement. Instead of using the term salary, shift your thinking to include language such as guaranteed hours or hourly wages. And last but not least, be sure that the designated pay and schedule falls into line with FLSA. Can I offer a guaranteed weekly wage that is legal and protects me from overtime calculations? Many families solve this dilemna by guaranteeing a weekly wage, and stating it in FLSA compliant hourly and overtime rate language. For example, you have a live out nanny in Connecticut. She typically works 5 9-hour days per week and you want to pay her $800 weekly. Occasionally you may need her for an extra hour or two, or you may return home early and dismiss her early. If you write your compensation agreement properly, you can pay the same amount every week (within boundaries) and keep the situation legal. How? If you normally schedule your nanny for 45 hours, and will never need her more than 48 hours in a week, write your compensation agreement as follows: Employee Weekly compensation of $800.00 gross, based on an gross hourly wage of $15.38 and a 48 hour work week. Employee guaranteed minimum Weekly compensation of $800.00 gross. Weekly hours worked in excess of 40 per week to be compensated at $23.08 gross per hour. Written this way no matter what the week works out to, so long as total hours never exceed 48, you are covered. If you need her for 50 hours in a given week, add the 2 hours at $23.08 to her gross pay and do the calculations from there! Need help? Give HWS a call at 800.626.4829 or schedule a free consultation - we are here to help! Related Posts: Nanny Net Wage Agreement: Be Careful The Single Reason Why Paying Your Nanny Net is a Bad Idea! My Caregiver Wants to Take Home $600 a Week. What Does That Mean? Flash The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) said on Monday that it was concerned about the reported increase in sexual violence in South Sudan, calling for stronger support for women and girls to protect their safety, health and rights. As fighting continued in South Sudan, women and girls faced increased risk of sexual violence, including being attacked while they sought firewood and food, Farhan Haq, the deputy UN spokesman told reporters here. Also, they resorted to desperate measures, such as survival sex, to feed themselves and their families, Haq said. Sexual violence and rape were plaguing Juba, the capital of South Sudan, following the latest outbreak of violence, with at least 120 cases reported since fighting restarted on July 7, the United Nations said late last month. The UNFPA was working to scale up efforts to meet the immediate needs of survivors, including post-rape care, and to reduce the risk of sexual violence. The UNFPA estimated that 300,000 people in Juba required life-saving services within the next three months for sexual and reproductive health, including safe birth, and to prevent and respond to gender-based violence. Urgent action was needed to protect the health of mothers and newborns, given that 3,000 births were expected in Juba in the next three months, the UN agency said. In addition, about 600 pregnant women were likely to face pregnancy complications that needed comprehensive emergency obstetric care and quality health services to save their lives. Even before the recent fighting, the situation was dire in South Sudan, which has one of the highest maternal and infant death rates in the world. Due to lack of required infrastructure and capacity, only 11 percent of births were attended by skilled workers, the UNFPA said, adding that it was working with partners to provide life-saving midwifery services throughout the war-torn country. Another UNFPA priority was the delivery of much-needed reproductive health supplies and equipment, it said. The UN agency was providing a steady supply of emergency reproductive health kits to protect the right to sexual and reproductive health services across the country. More than 50 service providers have been trained to manage rape and provide psychological first aid to survivors in some 15 facilities nationwide. The UNFPA plans to expand this life-saving service to 24 health facilities over the next year. The UN agency and its partners were also scaling up community mobilization to encourage sexual violence survivors to seek timely support. Out of UNFPA's 2016 humanitarian appeal of 13.3 million U.S. dollars to serve 3.9 million people in South Sudan, only 3.9 million dollars had been received. A minimum of 996,000 dollars was urgently needed for Juba in the next three months to fund reproductive health supplies, ambulance support, dignity kits with hygiene and safety items, tents for women's safe spaces, and training for medical volunteers, it added. So here we are in the middle of August, and the market is barely concerned that Ohio and Michigan crops are stressed for moisture. For the first time in several weeks the USDA corn condition ratings declined from the record levels we have been seeing, but the market shrugged off the decline. Weekly ratings declined two percent to 74 percent good and excellent, but market analysts noted that decline was normal this time of year. Normal is not what Ohio and Michigan farmers are seeing, and that was reflected in the report. Declining yields In fact, those states were responsible for the average decline. Ohio was down a staggering seven percentage points to 47 percent good and excellent. Michigan was down four points to 54 percent. Those ratings would inspire higher prices if ratings decline were more general or if the weather looked worse. In fact, weather forecasts are looking for more-than-normal rainfall in the next few days, even in the East. Locally we are expecting 90-degree temperatures for a few days, but if we get a little rain that is not necessarily bad. Rain in Ashtabula County and Trumbull County has been spotty of late. This is what happens when we depend upon thunderstorms and get no general, all-day rains. Kinsman and Cortland have sometimes seen two inches of rain when other areas have only had a trace. I asked Mike Badger in our Ashland office yesterday if his sadly dry area got any rain. His answer was, Yes, a hundredth of an inch! Just sprinkles Sounds like sprinkles on the windshield. For those local farmers looking at stressed corn, it is hard to absorb the remark I am reading in the CHS Hedging newsletter this morning. Wrapping up corn is the remark: A few eastern corn belt areas may still need some moisture, but overall corn potential is still looking very good. Corn prices have been steady for the last week. We put in the contract low on Aug. 2 at $3.29 December futures. This Tuesday, Aug. 9, we are trading at $3.33-1/2, down one and a quarter. This means we are four and a half cents off the low, but also we have seen a $1.16-1/2 decline from the high in the middle of June. Soybeans have seen prices supported by good export news. USDA says the crop is still unchanged from last week at 72 percent good and excellent. That would be negative for prices, since the market may have a little August fear of weather premium built in, but we are 22 percent ahead of last year for new crop export commitments. Wheat news Meanwhile, world wheat news has been mostly negative for prices. Most of the worlds major producers had great crops this year, and the resulting poor prices have been noted even by the major non-grain news outlets. This morning, USA Today put out a story about how the large production world-wide was resulting in prices below the cost of production for the farmers. They cited yields of as much as 80-bushels per acre, but did not say where. We had northeast Ohio producers with yields over 100 bpa this season. Just this morning I saw statistics that the Russian wheat crop would be 3.89 tons per hectare, up from $3.36 last year. The exception to good yields has been France, where they have had record rains. Last year the French produced 40.6 million tons, but they are reduced to 29.5 million tons this year. The crops here and worldwide have led to a general decline of prices on the December futures of $1.25. We had a high of $5.51-1/2 in early June, but a low of $4.26-1/2 last Tuesday, Aug. 2. We had bounced over 12 cents recently, but are down four cents at $4.34 3/4 this morning. Seeing the story this morning reminded me of the rule of thumb traders always used regarding the Wall Street Journal. It was always said that, once a big grain price trend was reported on the front page of that paper, the trend was over. I hope that is true this morning. It would indicate a move back to higher prices! Midwest spinach production explained in detail Learn how spinach performs in the Midwest and seasonal considerations in a new publication from ISU. The Action Group on Johne's, a cattle disease, has launched an industry consultation on Phase II of the Action Johnes Initiative. Johnes Disease is a chronic, debilitating and irreversible infection of cattle which is common in many herds. While as few as 1-5% of cows in any year will show clinical signs of scour or wasting, more of the herd will be affected and suffer reduced output. Animals with Johnes Disease are likely to be culled earlier, and are also likely to be affected by other conditions, including chronic mastitis, lameness and high somatic cell counts. Throughout The Action Group on Johnes 'Phase I', milk buyers accounting for just over 80% of milk supply in Great Britain signed up to the Initiative and around 50% of dairy farmers have engaged in a form of surveillance. Speaking about the consultation, Lyndon Edwards, Chairman of the Action Group Johnes, said Phase I of the Action Johnes Initiative made "great progress". 'Strengthening industry engagement' Mr Edwards said: "We want to build on this strong foundation to make further progress in managing and reducing the incidence of Johnes. "We believe the key to success is strengthening industry engagement with vets. "As a result, Phase II includes a requirement for a much closer working relationship between dairy farmers and their vets. "The objective is to ensure the effective application on dairy farms of the six control strategies developed by the Action Group. Mr Edwards said the group's proposals for Phase II will chime in with the cattle industrys focus on BVD. He continued: "The principles for tackling both diseases are fundamentally the same. "In both cases, farmers need to assess the level of biosecurity and disease risk on farm, define the disease status of the herd, create an action plan and monitor progress. "It therefore logical that farmers should tackle both when they can." Long term project "Farmers can be confident that vets will have the expertise the industry needs for Phase II," said Mr Edwards. "The British Cattle Veterinary Association has set up an excellent online training course and only vets that have passed this course will be able to sign-off activity on farms as meeting the requirements of Phase II. "We realise that the dairy sector has suffered badly from low prices over the past two years but tackling Johnes is a long term project that requires sustained application regardless of where we are in the price cycle. "The Action Group remains confident that farmers will benefit tremendously from managing and reducing the incidence of Johnes in the national dairy herd and all industry feedback will be welcome to identify the best ways to work together to achieve that objective." The industry launched the Action Johnes Initiative to reduce the economic impact of Johnes on the industry, to improve animal health and welfare, maintain international competitiveness and ensure sustainability. An additional factor is the role of Johnes in anti-microbial resistance because of the other disease conditions associated with it. UK farmers and growers must have access to a skilled and flexible labour source or there could be a devastating impact across many farming sectors, the NFU has warned today. The call comes as many farmers up and down the country work around the clock to bring in the nations harvest. After the UKs decision to leave the EU, the NFU said its immediate concerns centred on farmings ability to access essential markets as well as farmers being able to source essential labour and trade on a level footing with their competitors. With some farming sectors, such as horticulture, relying heavily on non-UK seasonal and year-round workers, the NFU has today called for access to labour to be a key consideration in the on-going talks to shape a new domestic agriculture policy. Last month, a briefing paper published by the Food Research Collaboration called for Britain to invest in its agricultural workforce to cope with changes in migration policy after Brexit. Cruicial in 'day-to-day' tasks NFU President Meurig Raymond said horticulture is already experiencing labour shortages which "looks set to get worse." Mr Raymond said: "And we know its not just horticulture that will be affected. "Non-UK workers are often employed in a whole host of roles throughout farming and are crucial in day-to-day tasks as well as at peak times as we are now experiencing with harvest. "We have already written to the Brexit minister, David Davis, about our concerns, and we continue to meet with Government departments to work on behalf of our members. "We want to seek assurance that they will be able to have access to the labour they need so they can continue to produce food for the nation. "There are many ways in which the challenge of accessing labour could be solved and we are consulting with our members over the coming weeks to help find the best solutions. "I plan to share their views with the new team at Defra to ensure these grassroots ideas help to shape the new domestic farm policy which is needed - one that puts food and farming at its heart." Labour use on-farm Poultry producers are reliant on non-UK staff throughout their businesses, whether it is in the office, hands on work, or to helping getting turkeys ready for Christmas. They also say they are concerned of the knock-on effects with processing plants which also use many non-UK workers. For crops, non-UK workers are crucial especially during the harvest season. And in addition, for tasks that can only be done by hand such as roguing crops1, labour is essential and relied upon by organic farmers. One farmer said he could be forced to end organic production as it would be unsustainable and impossible to meet customer demands. Dairy and livestock farmers will use non-UK workers in a variety of roles, from herdsmen to tractor drivers, or are reliant on support from non-UK vets, for services such as TB testing. Also, non-UK labour is essential for the meat processing industry. Without reliable access to workers processing costs could rise and our ability to compete in world markets could be significantly reduced. The latest Profitable Lifetime Index (PLI) genetic rankings for daughter-proven Holstein bulls have been published today (9 August) by AHDB Dairy. The list continues to show a shift towards Fat and Protein improvers to help meet the requirements of changing milk contracts. A strong emphasis is also emerging on low maintenance costs and longer lifespans within the rankings. First place: Kings-Ransom Erdman Regaining the number one position with a PLI of 645 is Kings-Ransom Erdman. This Planet son and breed-leading Lifespan transmitter now scores an outstanding +0.9 for this important trait, equivalent to an extra nine months of productive life. He also shares the strongest Maintenance score of -22 in the top 20, meaning he breeds small, efficient daughters with the lowest predicted maintenance feeding cost, calculated through a combination of stature and other body traits. As well as leading the proven Holstein sires, Erdman ranks fourth in the multibreed Spring Calving Index (SCI) rankings, also released today. This underlines the benefits his lower-maintenance daughters, fertility (+12.3 Fertility index) and low SCC score (-20) will bring to spring block calving herds. Second place: Lepacha Loberry New entry in second place is all-rounder Shamrock son Lepacha Loberry. He confirms his earlier genomic predictions with a PLI of 618, and transmits a nice balance of production and fitness traits with a strong Maintenance score of -17. Third place: Gen-I-Beq Lavaman Former number one Gen-I-Beq Lavaman moves to third place. Now with 531 UK daughters contributing to his production proof he is the highest ranked reliability sire. He transmits high milk quality (+0.14 for both Fat% and Protein%) and with the best TB Advantage score in the top 20, around 2.8 percent fewer of his daughters are predicted to become infected during a TB breakdown. Fourth place: De-Su Rookie In fourth place is another new entry De-Su Rookie 11057 with a PLI of 608. A son of Bookem, who transmits high Fat at +37.9kg and an excellent SCC score (-21), he is also the third-highest Type Merit transmitter in the top 20 at +1.81, the highest being +1.98 from other Bookem son S-S-I Bookem Morgan at number 12. High Protein at +24.2kg and +0.10% help Delta G-Force to number five in the rankings, and holding his position at number six is United-Pride Erdman Evan, a son of the top sire Erdman who matches his sires excellent Maintenance score of -22. Co-op Robust Cabriolet climbs to seventh with high Fat% (+0.19) and excellent direct and maternal Calving Ease scores at +1.4 and +3.2 respectively. This Robust son ranks just ahead of his paternal half-brother and superb daughter-Fertility Index transmitter (+14.5) De-Su Ransom in eighth. Completing the top rankings are Tollenaars AltaMicro at ninth and Teemar Shamrock Alphabet at 10. 'Changing milk contracts' Commenting on the genetic trends amongst the Holstein bulls, Marco Winters, head of animal genetics for AHDB Dairy, says: "The strengthening in Fat kg, Fat% and Protein% scores within the top 10 bulls show the response to the changing milk contracts and will afford plenty of choice to farmers aiming for these traits. "But notable overall is the quality of fitness traits displayed by the top PLI sires, in particular in the Fertility Index, which is now having a direct impact on cow fertility in the national herd. "The Fertility Index calculation is based on insemination data, calving interval and condition score. "The improvements we see in bulls being used since the index was introduced in 2005 represent a reduction of around 2.5% in the 56-day non-return rate and six fewer days in calving interval." Today, August 9, marks the day in the calendar where the British larder would run bare if we fed the nation only British food from January 1. This figure is based on the UK's current self-sufficiency of 61% - a figure which has stagnated for the past 15 years. For example, in 1989, the UK's self-sufficiency stood at 75% - and has since gradually declined. NFU President Meurig Raymond says British farming must remain 'exciting' The National Farmers Union has said the UK Government has a "real opportunity" with post-Brexit policymaking to reverse the downward trend in the nations self-sufficiency in food. The union believes the British market is a vitally important one for farming and food production as well as the UK economy. NFU President Meurig Raymond said that for the first time in 40 years, the UK Government has an opportunity to create policies which will "really work" for businesses in the UK. 'Competitive, dynamic and exciting' Mr Raymond said: "For food production to thrive in this country, we need to see policies which will stimulate a competitive, dynamic and exciting farming industry. "The British food and drink industry, which farming underpins, is the biggest manufacturing industry in the UK; its worth 108 billion and employs nearly four million people. "This industry needs British farming to thrive in order to continue its success. "Increasing our self-sufficiency in food isnt about closing off the markets we have in other countries or being protectionist about our food production. "Its about capitalising on what this country is good at we have world-class standards for food production in terms of traceability and animal welfare. "We have a massive opportunity for British farming, but, if its not seized, we risk exporting our ability to produce food to other countries without the standards British farming upholds as well as increased exposure to the volatility of global markets." Renewable energy continues to garner a larger share of the British energy market, and with the uncertainty posed by Brexit that trend is set to endure. According to Jeremy Moody of the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers (CAAV), the renewable energy market is changing rapidly, with growing opportunities for landowners to capitalise on rising demand. Mr Moody said renewable energy offers opportunities for small and large businesses alike. "For farmers looking to build resilience into their business renewable energy offers an income that is independent from the risks of agriculture," he said. According to Juliet Davenport OBE, founder of Good Energy, renewable energy now makes up nearly a quarter of the UKs electricity production, with a 21% increase between 2013 and 2014. Jeremy Moody, secretary and adviser to the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers However, the UK still imports 60% of its energy requirement, and with the weaker Pound that will make imported power more expensive, she adds. Although the Brexit vote could undermine investors confidence in the short-term, the UK energy market is changing fast, with a sharp increase in the number of small-scale sites. "In 2000 our electricity came from about 1,000 sites now its closer to one million," says Ms Davenport. "That is hard for the National Grid to manage, especially as most of that is solar photo-voltaics, so its a challenge to match up supply with demand peaks and troughs. "Were going to need much more flexibility in the system." 'Battery storage becoming common' Battery storage is becoming practical and could soon be common, says Ms Daveport. New technology is developing to convert excess electricity into hydrogen to power cars, or into gas to feed into the mains grid. Although the Government is steadily cutting tariff support, the capital costs of new projects are declining, and the growth of crowd funding offers significant opportunities for potential developers, says Ms Davenport. The private supply of energy to neighbouring businesses is also a growth area, with associated lower costs and potentially simpler agreements. The UK government has seeked to reassure the veterinary sector that those workers from outside the EU will be allowed to stay in the UK, despite Brexit. Following the EU referendum result, the British Veterinary Association wrote to the Secretary of State and to Environment Ministers in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland requesting an early statement. Almost half of veterinary surgeons registering in the UK qualified from veterinary schools elsewhere in the EU, according to statistics from the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS). Scotlands Fergus Ewing By mid-July the UK Government had made a statement to clarify that there has been no change to the rights and status of EU nationals in the UK, and UK nationals in the EU, as a result of the referendum. It also stated: "When we do leave the EU, we fully expect that the legal status of EU nationals living in the UK, and that of UK nationals in EU member states, will be properly protected." This week BVA has received replies directly from the Ministers in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland outlining that, while the rights of non-British EU citizens is not a devolved matter, their priority is to ensure the best outcome for their current constituents and acknowledging the importance of animal health and welfare. Northern Ireland's Michelle McIlveen The letter from Scotlands Cabinet Secretary for the Rural Economy Fergus Ewing, outlined that: "The First Minister is seeking guarantees from the UK Government that the residency status and other existing rights of the 173,000 EU citizens living in their respective countries will remain unchanged now and in the future." These points were echoed in the letter from Wales Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs, Lesley Griffiths. "The First Minister has also made it clear there are many sectors of business, which depend on EU citizens to fill vital posts and damage to public services and the wider economy would be immense if EU citizens were required to leave the country. "I appreciate this could cause difficulties in relation to the veterinary profession and delivery of our Animal Health and Welfare programmes and policies in Wales." Similarly, the Northern Ireland Minister of Agriculture Michelle McIlveen, acknowledged the vital contributions EU citizens make to animal health and welfare. "I will also endeavour, given the importance of animal and veterinary public health to the local economy, to ensure that this concern is represented in the composite Northern Ireland input into the final United Kingdom negotiating position and strategy." The new Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Andrea Leadsom MP, has offered to meet with BVA President Sean Wensley to discuss these and other priority issues for the veterinary profession. The BVA is establishing a Brexit working group to prioritise and develop policies on the key issues that should be raised in forthcoming discussions and negotiations. Vaccination of cattle is the most effective option for controlling the spread of lumpy skin disease, European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) experts say. This is one of the main findings of a scientific statement on the effectiveness of different options for controlling the spread of this economically damaging disease. The work was requested by the European Commission following the rapid spread of the disease in Greece and Bulgaria and other Balkan countries. Lumpy skin disease is a viral disease that affects cattle and is transmitted by blood-feeding insects, such as certain species of flies and mosquitoes, or ticks. EFSA experts say that when vaccination is thoroughly applied, partial culling of affected animals is as effective in eradicating the disease as whole-herd culling, which is currently required under EU legislation. In particular, vaccination is most effective if applied before the virus enters a region or a country. Experts recommend that vaccination is applied uniformly across all areas. EFSA used a mathematical model for simulating the spread of the disease according to different control measures. Lumpy skin disease is present in many African countries. Since 2012, it has been spreading from the Middle East to south-east Europe. The risk of further spread of the disease is high. Third series of Clarkson's Farm in production, Amazon confirms Many growers experiencing crop damage By Diego Flammini Assistant Editor, North American Content Farms.com Soybean farmers in parts of Missouri, Tennessee and Arkansas are experiencing crop damage as a result of whats believed to be illegal use of dicamba. The older herbicide has been recently used to help manage glyphosate-resistant weeds. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, a Missouri Department of Agriculture representative said theres been more than 100 complaints of pesticide drift in four Missouri Bootheel counties. The symptoms match what we would expect coming out of dicamba, Kevin Bradley, an associate professor with the University of Missouris division of plant sciences, told the Post-Dispatch. Getty Many farmers have planted Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybeans, but the dicamba-based herbicide made for the Xtend beans hasnt been approved by the Environmental Protection Agency. This situation has led some farmers to use other dicamba herbicides for weed management, which can cause harm to neighboring fields through drifting. It basically boils down to the fact that you have a very sensitive crop in soybeans planted in close proximity to crops that are a GMO that is able to withstand dicamba, Bradley told the Post-Dispatch. And some people made dicamba applications, allegedly, and hurt (other) peoples crops. Terry Weaver, a farmer near Holcomb, Missouri, said hes worried some victims may seek legal action to make up for losses. Kade McBroom, who operates Malden Specialty Soy, said dicamba travels easily and makes pinpointing the source difficult. State Rep. Don Rone said hes going to pre-file legislation in December which would increase the penalties for those who misuse or illegally spray herbicides or pesticides. From DeLaval News, www.delaval.com Dr. Michael Brouk, a professor at Kansas State University, has chosen to work with DeLaval during his one- year working sabbatical as an advisor to the companys Dairy Management Advisory Team in North America, addressing automated milking concerns for large herds. He will consult on matters such as facility design with regards to heat abatement, cow comfort and cow flow. He will also explore additional ways to utilize data captured by the Voluntary Milking System (VMS) to improve dairy cow management. His sabbatical with DeLaval will last until June 1, 2017. DeLaval's commitment to robotic milking in the form of a Dairy Advisory team demonstrates their passion to our great industry, says Brouk. I have been impressed with the desire of many in the organization to take automated milking to a higher level of milk production. For me this is not simply a process that ends next year, but rather the beginning of a new focus in my career. Dr. Brouk hopes to develop new teaching methods and extension modules to assist students, dairy producers and the general public to gain a better understanding of automated milking systems. He also believes there is the possibility to develop new areas for future research. I view automated milking systems as having a greater impact on our industry than the bulk tank. It is not just about automatic milking, it is about all the information that is available to manage cows and improve the herds health, milk quality and productivity. Francisco Rodriguez, Marketing Manager of Automated Milking Systems and Feeding for DeLaval says Dr. Brouks experience with dairy management and facility design perfectly complements DeLavals in-house knowledge of robotics. His expertise with good management practices, combined with the full breadth of DeLavals integrated solutions, will help robotic dairy producers present and future achieve their performance goals. Dr. Bouk has an extensive background in dairy science. He holds a Doctorate degree in Animal Science with an emphasis in Dairy Cattle Nutrition from South Dakota State University. Dr. Brouk has been a faculty member at Kansas State University for 19 years. His time is split 70/30 between extension services and teaching. Dr. Brouk has managed the development of state-wide extension programs in the areas of dairy cattle nutrition, management and heifer development. His areas of research include heat abatement, dairy cattle and heifer nutrition, dairy facilities and forages. Source : Delaval What was it like to be an Oath Keeper? John Zimmerman can tell you Mark PiethTwo international experts appointed by the Panama government to investigate the use of anonymous offshore companies to evade taxes and hide assets quit Friday because of government interference. Professor Mark Pieth, chair of the Basel (Switzerland) Institute on Governance, told the BBC he resigned from the Panama Papers commission after the government said it would pre-approve all findings. Joseph Stiglitz, a Columbia University economics professor and Nobel Prize winner, also resigned Friday. Pieth said, They told us they were going to decide in the end whether [the panels report] is going to be publicized or not. Panama president Juan Carlos Varela set up the seven-member panel in April. He said it would function as an independent commission to review Panamas laws and financial regulations. Stiglitz said Friday: I thought the government was more committed, but obviously theyre not. Its amazing how they tried to undermine us. Pieth said Panama officials are in a state of denial. They were basically saying well, what weve been seeing in the Panama Papers is something that you observe everywhere in the world,' he said. Joseph Stiglitz Panamas Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the BBC it had a strong and real commitment to transparency and international cooperation. It said the resignations resulted from internal differences. In early April, the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) started publishing the Panama Papers more than 10 million records leaked from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca. In May, the ICIJ launched a searchable database that used the Panama Papers to index 320,000 offshore companies and the people behind them. The documents named at least a dozen current world leaders and more than 120 other politicians and officials. Its not always illegal to own or control anonymous companies. But the companies are sometimes used to evade taxes, launder money, and hide assets. In a statement on its website, Mossack Fonseca said in nearly 40 years of operation, it hasnt been charged with criminal wrongdoing. We are not involved in managing our clients companies, the statement said. After the ICIJ published the Panama Papers, the United States and UK announced steps to restrict the use of anonymous companies. Since the documents were published, Mossack Fonseca closed its offices in Jersey, Isle of Man and Gibraltar, and cut back its presence in Nevada and Wyoming. ____ Richard L. Cassin is the publisher and editor of the FCPA Blog. Hell be the keynote speaker at the FCPA Blog NYC Conference 2016. Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux enjoyed a low-key anniversary celebration. Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux The couple marked a year since they tied the knot in a secret ceremony on August 5, and the 44-year-old actor flew to Los Angeles from Australia, where he has been working on the upcoming season of 'The Leftovers', to ensure he would be with his wife on their special day. A source told People magazine: "Justin flew from Australia to LA to spend their anniversary week with Jen. "They relaxed at home, had dinner with friends and had a small anniversary celebration at home." While the 'Cake' actress adores being married to Justin, she previously insisted she had felt like they were husband and wife for a long time before they tied the knot. She said: "We felt married for so long. Married life is so normal and fun and not much different." Jennifer - who was previously wed to Brad Pitt - has praised her man for making her so happy and she says she's never met anyone who could make her laugh as much as the 'Zoolander No.2' scriptwriter. And the 47-year-old screen beauty believes the constant laughter in her life helps keep her young at heart. She shared: "I'm lucky because Justin is the funniest person I've met, and we make each other laugh. Laughter is one of the great keys to staying youthful." The former 'Friends' star has never felt healthier since she reached her 40s and she also feels wiser than at any other point in her life. She said: "I feel better in my 40s. Not only do you feel better in your body physically, but you're mentally better. "Because, say, in your 20s, you didn't know s**t. For me, in my 30s, I was just trying to figure it all out. Then when you hit 40, you're like, 'Oh, OK. I got this.' "There are women who've hit 50 who are stunners, like shocking. We just take better care of ourselves." The driver of the Prius that crashed into Kris Jenner's Rolls-Royce is believed to have lived inside his car. Kris Jenner Jack Way is said to be homeless after his motor was destroyed when he reportedly ran a red light near the 60-year-old momager's home in Calabasas, Los Angeles, last week. The aspiring actor-and-model has told TMZ that he is having to ask his friends if he can stay with them because he's unable to pay for a new car as he doesn't have driver's insurance. However, Jack is now believed to have hired a top lawyer called Larry H. Parker to represent him. It comes after he admitted he wouldn't stand a chance against the 'Keeping Up With the Kardashians' star in a legal battle. At the time, he told a TMZ photographer that he would require legal help to advise him on his next step. However, he's worried about Kris' wealth and fame standing her a better chance of winning a legal dispute. According to the website, Jack has a lot of respect for the reality star, despite cutting her up on the 101 freeway in Calabasas. Meanwhile, the showbiz matriarch has already replaced her $250,000 luxury convertible. Just one day after the collision, a new car was spotted being delivered to her home. Despite initial reports that Kris had broken her wrist in the collision, she insisted she was fine. She said: "I'm feeling really blessed. Just sore and shaken." The brunette beauty was showered with flowers and gifts from her family. She shared a picture of balloons, spelling out "Love you mom" from her son Rob Kardashian, and wrote: "love you too Rob!!!! Thank you for the beautiful balloons and for loving me the way you do!! @robkardashian #love (sic)." And Khloe sent flowers, with Kris posting a picture and writing: "Beautiful flowers from my Bunny... Thank you @khloekardashian #biggestheart #lovebug #family #blessed (sic)." Winona Ryder had a "really nice" stalker. Winona Ryder The 'Stranger Things' actress found a guy who regularly appeared in her movies as an extra "really creepy", but when she reported him to her director, the man insisted he was "not even obsessed" with her any more as he had moved on to another star, Alyssa Milano. Asked if she'd ever had a stalker, she said: "Yeah. I did. I had a few. One was really nice. He kept showing up as an extra on movies, and you don't know. You have to be careful. So I told the director, because he was kinda creepy. And I got this letter in my trailer the next day that was like, 'I was just trying to get work as an extra! Just so you know, I'm not even obsessed with you anymore, I'm obsessed with Alyssa Milano now!' So he kind of left me for Alyssa Milano." The 44-year-old actress admitted she has been verbally abused by fans when she declined their request for a picture. She told New York magazine: "I've been called a **** to my face by someone who was just saying they were a fan. I was with my parents having dinner. It was actually kind of upsetting, because it upset my parents, and then I got upset. You know that scene in 'The King of Comedy' where Jerry Lewis is at a pay phone? 'Will you sign the thing, will you sign the thing?' 'I hope you get cancer!' " Winona insists she has no idea how social media works but is thankful she doesn't have a presence on the likes of Twitter or Instagram as it protects her from online abuse. She said: "I'm not on social media. I don't actually know how to use it. And I hear that awful people could then... I say that, and it makes me sound too sensitive." Ben-Hur is set to be one of the must-see movie events of the autumn as the classic story of Judah Ben-Hur is brought to the big screen for a new generation. Ben-Hur The movie marks the return of Timur Bekmambetov to the director's chair and is a remake of the 1959 classic, which is based on the book Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace. Jack Huston take over the role of Judah Ben-Hur - which was made famous by Charlton Heston over fifty years ago - and you can see him in action in this great new clip from the film. Take a look: Huston is one of the most exciting British actors around and Ben-Hur sees him team up with filmmaker Bekmambetov for the first time. Bekmambetov has brought us movies such as Wanted and Day Watch in recent years and this is his first feature since Yolki 1914 back in 2014. John Ridley, who won an Oscar for his work on the 12 Years A Slave screenplay, teams up with Keith R. Clarke to pen the script. The director has brought together a terrific cast as Toby Kebbell, Rodrigo Santoro, Nazanin Boniadi, Morgan Freeman, Ayelet Zurer, and Pilou Asbk all star alongside Huston. Ben-Hur is the epic story of Judah Ben-Hur (Huston), a prince falsely accused of treason by his adopted brother Messala (Kebbell), an officer in the Roman army. Stripped of his title, separated from his family and the woman he loves (Boniadi), Judah is forced into slavery. After years at sea, Judah returns to his homeland to seek revenge, but finds redemption. Ben-Hur is a timeless story and I cannot wait to see this adaptation, which brings this tale to a new audience. Ben-Hur is released 7th September. by Helen Earnshaw for www.femalefirst.co.uk find me on and follow me on The royal's car used to transport Prince George home from the hospital is set to be auctioned off. Prince George The Range Rover Vogue SE, which was used to ferry the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's first born home from the hospital to Kensington Palace, following his birth in 2013, is set to be sold on an online auction Charity Stars, according to Hello! online. The website described the item as: "The historic association of having served two future Kings and a future Queen is making this vehicle one of the most sought after in the history of Royal vehicles. "It has attracted significant global interest from families expecting their first-born child, as new parents will not only be able to enjoy the luxury and prestige of the car itself, but in being a part of the royal couple's historic story, during their "once in a life-time opportunity" to drive their baby home from hospital." And the organisation are honoured to host the auction. The company's managing director, Robert Robinson, said: "Here at CharityStars.com we have now raised over 2.5 million net for a wide variety of charities and we look forward to seeing that grow and grow." Meanwhile, it is rumoured the 4 x 4 vehicle will fetch over 150,000, which is more than double its reserve price, and profits made from the sale will be donated to charities Sun Screen IT and Stand Down, which is a military mental health charity providing support for the armed forces. The all black car was originally supplied to the royals via Land Rover's VIP Department, and was customised with additional features to suit the needs of the royal family. The mode of transport was recorded to have had a total of eight bids placed on it on Monday (08.08.16) with the highest bid tallying up to almost 50,000, one third of what is expected. Have you noticed a zit or two on your face just before your period? Heres how you can deal with pesky hormonal acne. Lets start with why you get them. The answer is pretty simple. Ten to seven days before your period, your estradiol (female sex hormone) levels drop. These hormones are produced by the ovaries. Around this time, testosterone (male sex hormone) takes over the estradiol level, causing a hormonal imbalance that contributes to oily skin and breakouts. Higher testosterone levels are responsible for acne-prone skin and clogged pores. But there are ways to stop the nasty eruptions. Hack: The answer is salicylic acid. Salicylic acid helps de-gunk and de-grease pores. The moment you feel an eruption taking place, slather on a clay mask. It will suck out grime from the pores. Also, make sure you drink plenty water and increase your intake of foods that are rich in antioxidants. Practise meditation as high stress will increase zit-causing hormones. Next Story : Not Your Average Gift: Our Handpicked Thoughtful Diwali Gifts The Bangladesh government is planning to introduce pension facilities for apparel workers of all export oriented units to ensure their retired life is smooth and hassle free.This was revealed by state minister for labour and employment Mujibul Haque Chunnu while speaking to journalists and added by saying that all workers will come under the facilities gradually. The Bangladesh government is planning to introduce pension facilities for apparel workers of all export oriented units to ensure their retired life is smooth and hassle free. This was revealed by state minister for labour and employment Mujibul Haque Chunnu while speaking to journalists and added by saying that all workers will come under the facilities # He further said that the government has taken several steps in the direction which also includes creating a special welfare fund for the garment workers, to which, around Taka 89 lakh has already been deposited.Chunnu also added that the funds available in the government's labour welfare fund now totals to Taka 171 crore, of which around Taka two crore has already been given to various workers as assistance. (AR) Fibre2fashion News Desk - India Nearly 25 new textile technologies will be launched at the 10th India International Textile Machinery Exhibition (ITME 2016), India biggest textile machinery fair to be held in Mumbai in December 2016.These 25 technologies include eight for the spinning sector, seven for processing and nine for weaving, Sanjiv Lathia, chairman of India ITME 2016 informed reporters in Coimbatore. Nearly 25 new textile technologies will be launched at the 10th India International Textile Machinery Exhibition (ITME 2016), India biggest textile machinery fair to be held in Mumbai in December 2016. These 25 technologies include eight for the spinning sector, seven for processing and nine for weaving, Sanjiv Lathia, chairman of India ITME 2016 informed.# Additionally, 162 new companies, including 32 from overseas countries will partake and exhibit their textile machineries at the trade show.A major attraction will be green technology and waste water technologies from India, China and Italy, which will provide much required solutions for Indian textile companies, Lathia said.Sanjiv Lathia also added that this time there will be an exclusive hall for digital printing, testing and measuring equipment, dyestuff and chemicals . (AR) Fibre2fashion News Desk - India By combining two genes which can improve its output of Bt toxins, a research paper from Delhi University has claimed to have hiked Bt cotton's level of resistance to pests.The amount of Bt toxins produced, when the two genes are combined in a cotton plant rises by 4 to 5 times higher than those available in the market currently. By combining two genes which can improve its output of Bt toxins, a research paper from Delhi University has claimed to have hiked Bt cotton's level of resistance to pests. The amount of Bt toxins produced, when the two genes are combined in a cotton plant rises by 4 to 5 times higher than those available in the market currently. According to the paper, th# According to the paper, this development can prove crucial in dealing with insect attacks that may increase because of global warming.In recent times, pink bollworm has been able to break the protection provided by currently available Bt cotton.As per the researchers, one Bt toxin protein is targeted at the cytoplasm while the other is targeted at the plastids that are the site of photosynthesis and many other biochemical pathways in the plant. (AR) Fibre2fashion News Desk - India Birmingham City University academics are developing an 'Internet of Clothes' or a connected wardrobe that addresses the problem of unworn clothes by reminding a person to wear them, or give them away to charity.The 'Internet of Clothes' initiative will tag garments using RFID, in which every day clothing will tweet and message users, asking to be worn depending on the weather and frequency of wear. Birmingham City University academics are developing an 'Internet of Clothes' or a connected wardrobe that addresses the problem of unworn clothes by reminding a person to wear them, or give them away to charity. The 'Internet of Clothes' initiative will tag garments using RFID, in which every day clothing will tweet and message users, asking to be worn depe# If these notifications are ignored, the garments will get in touch with a clothing charity and ask to be recycled, with the organisation automatically sending out a mailing envelope for returns, the University said.According to the University, the project aims to challenge people's relationship with clothing usage, as most own four times as many clothing as against 20 years ago, but regularly only wear about 20 per cent of them.Mark Brill of Birmingham City University explained, The connected wardrobe is a practical, engaging concept to encourage people to think about their clothing consumption.The project has been shortlisted among 12 other projects for a Network for Innovations in Culture and Creativity in Europe (N.I.C.E) Award, in which 20,000 will be distributed among four winners of the award. (AR) Fibre2fashion News Desk - India The Fijian Government today received oil spill response equipment from the New Zealand Government to minimise the effects of oil spills on Fijis marine environment. Speaking at the official handover ceremony at the Kings Wharf in Suva this morning, the Assistant Minister for Local Government, Housing and Environment Hon. Lorna Eden thanked the New Zealand Government for its continued support towards Fijis maritime sector. Minister Eden said the protection of Fijis marine environment from accidental oil spills was vital in light of an increased maritime trade and other maritime activities locally and within the region. The primary purpose of responding to marine spill is to minimise the negative impacts on the marine environment, coastal communities, tourism industry and Fijis economy as a whole, Minister Eden said. The equipment worth $1.25million was part of the recommendation made by a team which carried out the Marine Pollution Risk Assessment for Fiji in February 2015. This team included Fijis Department of Environment, Maritime New Zealand, Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Program (SPREP) and the Maritime Safety Authority of Fiji. After completion of this assessment, a recommendation made was to establish oil spill response equipment stockpiles and necessary facilities in high risk areas such as Ports of Suva, Lautoka, Levuka and Malau to address Tier II/III marine spills. The National Response Capability will be overseen by MASF and strategic stakeholders such as Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, Ministry of Local Government (Municipalities), Ministry of iTaukei Affairs (Provincial Councils), Ministry of Defense, National Fire Authority, Department of Environment and Agencies under the National Strategy for Marine Spill Response for Fiji Waters, Assistant Minister Eden said. She said the establishment of oil spill response equipment in high risk areas together with the guidance of the National Strategy for Marine Spill Response for Fiji Waters will provide a platform and proactive approach that will allow Fiji to effectively respond to major spills in our waters. MSAF officials will also undergo further training to use this specialised equipment. Akshay Kumar is playing a Parsi in his upcoming film Rustom but he says that it was not difficult for him to essay this character on-screen as he has a lot of Parsi friends. The actor told a leading news agency, "I have lots of friends who are Parsis. One of my best friends in school was a Parsi. My manager is also a Parsi. So I have a lot of Parsi friends and I know people from the community. Therefore, it wasn't a difficult role to portray.'' Akshay will be seen in the role of a Navy officer in Rustom. He revealed that in real life too, he tried to get into Merchant Navy, "My father was in the Army, so there was one time when it would have been possible that I would have been in the Merchant Navy, but things did not work out... Something else was written in my destiny, so here I am in front you.'' Also Read: 3 Hotties! Sridevi's Picture With Daughters Jhanvi Kapoor & Khushi Kapoor Is Just Adorable! Talking about action in Bollywood, he said, "Action has changed a lot over the years. We have started getting so much help from Hollywood, from the Chinese film industry, from Hong Kong and Australia... So we are getting a lot of technology here now.'' "Because of this, we have changed a lot (in action) and we will keep on changing. As much as the business of the films are going to increase, the action will change,'' he added. Akshay Kumar's Rustom is set to release on August 12. He may fight several goons all at once in his films, but in real life actor Tiger Shroff says he is extremely scared of his mother. Son of Jackie Shroff and Ayesha, Tiger says the only similarity between his upcoming superhero character in A Flying Jatt and him is that they both listen to their mothers. "I do a lot of work outside my house. In my house, my mother is my superhero. In one way, I am very alike to my character. Both, the superhero and me, are scared of my mother. I listen to everything which she says. She is stronger than me," Tiger told reporters here. Directed by Remo D'Souza, the superhero film stars Tiger in the lead role of a guy with supernatural powers. It is a known fact that the 26-year-old actor is a huge fan of Hrithik Roshan, so, when asked if he has plans to show the film to him, Tiger said, "I hope so. If he has time from his schedule and if he wants to, then we would love to, of course." The film will be Tiger's third movie, after Heropanti and Baaghi and the actor says he is most confident about A Flying Jatt as he wanted to be a superhero during his childhood. "The expectations have increased from me. I have done three films so far and I am most confident about 'A Flying Jatt'. I wanted to be a superhero since childhood. Whatever I do, dance, action, I used to do it like a superhero." Produced under the banner of Balaji Motion Pictures, the film also stars Jacqueline Fernandez and features Australian actor Nathan Jones in a negative role. The film is scheduled to release on August 25. Inputs From PTI This celebrity father-son duo has never been in good terms with each other, thanks to the son's casanova image and reckless nature. Now, the gossip mills suggest that this young actress has widened the gap between the duo. The son, who has already made his mark in the industry as an actor, is exactly opposite to his famous elder brother, who is well-known for his respectable behaviour. Things worsened after he started dating his co-star from a recent film. Reportedly, the parents of the actress have complained to the father, about his son. The father who is a senior actor-cum-writer of the industry is disappointed with his new affair and has warned him to stay away from the actress. If the rumours are to be true, the producer of the young actor's debut directorial venture decided to drop the project, citing his irresponsible nature. He failed to start the works of the movie, despite receiving a handsome amount as an advance. Instead, he went on to concentrate on his acting career and signed several projects. It was the elder brother of the actor, who stopped the producer from a legal battle by paying a compensation. But now, the brother has also decided to not support him anymore. Can you guess whom we are talking about? Nivin Pauly, the Mollywood actor is all set to make a mark in the Tamil industry soon, with some promising projects. In a recent interview, Nivin opened up about his priorities. The actor says that his focus is doing good films, not achieving stardom in any particular industry. Nivin says that his priority while doing a film is not the language, but the script and character. Recently, he had attended the audio launch of Vikram's Iru Mugan, as a special guest. Later, a few online portals reported that Nivin is planning to concentrate more on Kollywood, hereafter. The reports pointed out his active association with the Tamil celebrities as a sign of the actor's changing interests. But Nivin Pauly assured that he has no plans to leave Mollywood for other industries. He is currently filming for the upcoming Tamil venture, directed by debutante Gautham Ramachandran. Nivin has also signed some promising projects, including film-maker Atlee's production venture. In Malayalam, the actor will be next seen in Sidhartha Siva's untitled film, which is likely to release for Navarathri. Nivin is also starring in his next production venture, directed by debutante Althaf. Divyanka Tripathi and Vivek Dahiya got married on July 8, in Bhopal. The couple is celebrating their one month anniversary. Her sister Priyanka and brother-in-law Sameer have sent an adorable gift for the couple! Posting the picture of the gift Divyanka wrote, "OMG! This #MemoryBox is more like a #TreasureBox I'll keep safe forever! #FirstAnniversaryMonth gift from my sister . Love you Priyanka and Sameer jijaji #NiharikaExpressions #CoffeTableBook #Creative #HandmadeWeddingAlbum. The gift includes the wedding album, which has the memorable moments of Divyanka and Vivek. The pictures also have quotes. Yeh Hai Mohabbatein actors Divyanka and Vivek's marriage was a much talked about affair in the Television industry. It was nothing less than a Bollywood affair. The duo had organised two receptions - one in Chandigarh for their family members and another in Mumbai, for their industry friends. The Mumbai reception was a grand affair as well. The who's who of the Television industry attended the event. Divyanka and Vivek have planned for their honeymoon in November. They even added that it will be an international location! Immediately after marriage, DiVek got back to their work. Divyanka has resumed the shoot for the show Yeh Hai Mohabbatein, while Vivek is doing two shows - YHM (where he plays the role of Abhishek) and Kawach (seen as Rajbir). VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 08/08/16 -- Fortress Paper Ltd. ("Fortress Paper" or the "Company") (TSX: FTP) reported 2016 second quarter operating EBITDA of $6.3 million, an increase of $5.2 million and $2.2 million over the previous quarter and prior year comparative period, respectively. The Dissolving Pulp Segment generated operating EBITDA of $3.2 million and the Security Paper Products Segment generated EBITDA of $4.7 million. Corporate costs included in operating EBITDA were $1.6 million. The Company is also pleased to announce the addition of Ezra Gardner to the Board of Directors (the "Board"). "Management is pleased to report another positive quarter of operating EBITDA, our best consolidated operating EBITDA result since the restart of Thurso after its conversion to a dissolving pulp mill," stated Yvon Pelletier, Chief Executive Officer. "Overall results are much improved over the prior quarter and prior year. Although the second quarter results at Thurso were below management's expectations, the trend is positive and encouraging. Despite a decline in average realized US dissolving pulp prices and unfavourable US exchange rates in the second quarter compared to the first quarter, operating costs contributed to a much improved result. The costs were in the low $800 range for June and July with cogeneration revenues back on track for the third quarter. We look for continued improvements at the mill from our lean six sigma project teams, which are already improving costs and reliability at the mill. Landqart continues to meet management's expectations. The Landqart sale leaseback of land and building combined with the LSQ sale have provided for improved balance sheet flexibility to manage obligations and seek opportunities for growth." Second Quarter 2016 Segment Results Dissolving Pulp Segment generated operating EBITDA of $3.2 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2016 representing an increase of $1.9 million when compared to the first quarter of 2016. The results for the quarter ended June 30, 2016 were favourably impacted mainly by improvements in productivity. Operating EBITDA results for the second quarter of 2016 increased by $1.1 million compared to the second quarter of 2015. The results of the second quarter of 2016 compared to the second quarter of 2015 were impacted by higher dissolving pulp prices and favourable foreign exchange rates on sales. During the quarter ended June 30, 2016, the FSC mill sold 39,931 ADMT of dissolving pulp compared to 31,762 ADMT and 39,664 ADMT in the previous quarter and prior year comparative period, respectively. Security Paper Products Segment operating EBITDA was $2.9 million higher when compared to the first quarter of 2016 and $1.3 million higher compared to the second quarter of 2015. The Landqart mill sold 2,714 tonnes of security paper in the second quarter of 2016, compared to 2,655 and 2,745 tonnes of security paper sales in the first quarter of 2016 and second quarter of 2015, respectively. Security paper production includes banknotes, which result in varying degrees of costs and margins depending on the complexity of the security features included. Management's Outlook Dissolving Pulp Segment Dissolving pulp prices began improving in May 2016; yet still remain below trend pricing which continues to impact results. However, management believes that improving market conditions, a relatively favourable foreign exchange rate to the US dollar and further anticipated improvements in production costs will add to the positive momentum at the FSC mill. The viscose staple fibre ("VSF") and rayon filament markets, which are key drivers in dissolving pulp demand, have experienced improved supply and demand balance and improved pricing since bottoming in 2015. The price of rayon filament has maintained consistent pricing in 2016, which is 7% above its 2015 lows. VSF prices in August 2016 are higher by approximately 21% over the prior year and approximately 32% from the 2016 low in January. Management continues to focus on cost reductions, production improvement and power generation to improve margins at the FSC mill. The Lean Six Sigma program, recently implemented at the FSC mill, resulted in both the elimination of the blockage issue experienced during the first quarter of 2016 and uptime improvements in the digester area of the mill. The Lean Six Sigma program will now focus on mill efficiency improvement for the winter months. The collective agreements with unionized employees at the FSC mill expired on April 30, 2016. Bargaining negotiations are completed and the union membership has voted in favour of the new collective agreement. During the second quarter of 2016, the Company signed an asset purchase agreement providing for the sale of the buildings, equipment and other ancillary property relating to the non-operating pulp mill and sawmill, as well as the energy generation, connection and transmission plant and related equipment, located in Lebel-sur-Quevillon, Quebec for an aggregate purchase price of $15.4 million. The purchase price comprised of: (i) a $7.0 million secured note; (ii) the assumption by the purchaser of up to $7.5 million of the liabilities under an environmental trust agreement; and (iii) certain other liabilities totaling approximately $0.9 million. The transaction completed in July 2016. Concurrent with the sale, the Company assigned and transferred the $7.0 million note to a lender of the Company as early repayment of principal amounts due in 2017 in respect of its outstanding loan at the FSC mill. In addition, as consideration for such early repayment of principal and a guarantee of the note provided by the Company, the lender has agreed to defer an aggregate of $6.3 million of quarterly principal payments otherwise payable September 30, 2017, December 31, 2017 and March 31, 2018, without penalty or interest accruing on such amounts for one year. The remaining principal amount will be amortized in equal quarterly installments commencing June 30, 2018 over the remaining term of the loan. Security Paper Products Segment The Landqart mill continues to build on a strong order book for the remainder of 2016 and 2017, comprised of a mix of new and repeat orders. Results at the Landqart mill for the quarter ended June 30, 2016 were higher than the first quarter of 2016 and consistent with management expectations. A new piece of equipment for the finishing line has been ordered to eliminate the main bottleneck at the mill in order to increase finished product capacity by up to 15%, depending on product mix, by the third quarter of 2017. Capital expenditure for the project is estimated at CHF 4.0 million of which the majority is financed on favourable terms. During the second quarter of 2016, the Company entered into a sale and leaseback agreement for the sale of its land and buildings relating to its security paper business in the Security Paper Products Segment for the aggregate purchase price of CHF 44.5 million (approximately CDN $59 million), which completed in July 2016. The agreement provides for the leaseback to Landqart of such lands and buildings pursuant to a 20 year triple-net-lease, which is renewable for an additional two 10 year periods on the same terms and conditions with Landqart having certain repurchase rights. For a summary of significant developments please refer to the Management's Discussion and Analysis for the three and six month periods ended June 30, 2016 (available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com). Selected Financial Information The selected financial information presented herein is qualified in its entirety by, and should be read in conjunction with, the Company's unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements as at and for the three and six month periods ended June 30, 2016 and the related notes thereto and Management's Discussion and Analysis, which are available on SEDAR. Reference is made in this news release to operating EBITDA (defined as net income before interest, income taxes, depreciation, amortization, non-operating income and expenses and stock-based compensation), which the Company considers to be an indicative measure of operating performance and a metric to evaluate profitability. Operating EBITDA is not a generally accepted earnings measure and should not be considered as an alternative to net loss or cash flows as determined in accordance with IFRS. As there is no standardized method of calculating this measure, the Company's operating EBITDA may not be directly comparable with similarly titled measures used by other companies. Reconciliation of operating EBITDA to net loss reported in accordance with IFRS is included below. Selected Financial Information and Statistics (thousands of dollars, except shipments, unaudited) Q2 2016 Q1 2016 Q2 2015 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sales 87,993 80,012 74,028 Operating EBITDA(1) 6,307 1,055 4,051 Net income (loss) 6,893 (13,041) (7,497) Paper shipments (tonnes) 2,714 2,655 2,745 Pulp shipments (ADMT) 39,931 31,762 39,664 (1) See Net Loss to Operating EBITDA Reconciliation. A conference call to discuss the financial results for the second quarter 2016 will be held on August 9, 2016 at 9:00 a.m. (PDT). To participate in the conference call, please dial one of the following numbers: 604-681-8564 Vancouver 403-532-5601 Calgary or International 780-429-5820 Edmonton 416-623-0333 Toronto 613-212-0171 Ottawa 514-687-4017 Montreal Toll Free Dial in Number: 1-855-353-9183 from Canada and USA Participant pass code: 15086# Conference Reference Number: 1202168# A replay of the conference call will be available until midnight, September 8, 2016. To access the replay, listeners may dial 1-855-201-2300 from Canada or the USA or dial 403-255-0697 from local Calgary or International. The conference reference number is 1202168# and the participant pass code to access the replay is 15086#. A presentation to complement our first quarter earnings conference call is available under the "Investor Relations" section at www.fortresspaper.com or by sending a request to info@fortresspaper.com. Financial Reconciliations Net Loss to Operating EBITDA Reconciliation: (thousands of dollars, unaudited) Q2 2016 Q1 2016 Q2 2015 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Net income (loss) 6,893 (13,041) (7,497) Income tax expense 5 5 46 Foreign exchange loss (gain) 561 852 (53) Net finance expense 5,229 5,179 4,676 Amortization 7,672 7,882 7,270 Change in fair value of marketable securities 288 137 (518) Stock based compensation 34 41 127 Reversal of impairment on property, plant and equipment (14,375) - - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Operating EBITDA 6,307 1,055 4,051 Appointment of New Director Fortress Paper is pleased to announce the appointment of Ezra Gardner to the Board of Directors of the Company. Mr. Gardner is a co-founder and a partner of Varana Capital Partners, LP, a New York based investment partnership. Prior to founding Varana in 2009, Mr. Gardner was Lead Project Manager and Managing Partner at KCPS/Omnium Capital Management, a $500 million asset management fund based in Tel Aviv, designed to develop the fund management industry in Israel. Mr. Gardner also held the position of Head of Equity Proprietary Trading within UBS' New York based Fundamental Investment Group and served as a member of the U.S. Trading Committee, where he managed a team of portfolio managers and support staff and over $1 billion of investments. Mr. Gardner also held roles at MSD Capital (Michael Dell's family office) and JP Morgan Investment Banking focusing on M&A and capital markets. Mr. Gardner holds Bachelors of Arts degrees in Economics (with honors) and International Relations from Brown University. The Company Fortress Paper operates internationally in two distinct business segments: dissolving pulp and security paper products. The Company operates its dissolving pulp business at the Fortress Specialty Cellulose mill located in Canada, which has expanded into the renewable energy generation sector with the construction of a cogeneration facility. The Company operates its security paper products business at the Landqart mill located in Switzerland, where it produces banknote, passport, visa and other brand protection and security papers. Forward-Looking Information This news release contains certain forward-looking information that reflects the current views and/or expectations of the Company with respect to its expectations, beliefs, assumptions, estimates and forecasts about its business and the industry and markets in which it operates. The reader is cautioned that forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors which are difficult to predict and that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information, which is qualified entirely by this cautionary statement. Examples of such forward-looking information contained in this news release include statements relating to: the growth and future prospects of the Company's business; market conditions for dissolving pulp; expectations relating to the renewal of collective agreements; and the benefits that may accrue to the Company as the result of certain dispositions and cost reduction and production improvement initiatives. Assumptions underlying the Company's expectations regarding forward-looking information contained in this news release include, among others: that the Company will be able to effectively market its products; the ability of the Company to realize significant cost-savings from production improvements, cost reduction initiatives and the cogeneration facility at the Fortress Specialty Cellulose Mill; that equipment will operate at expected levels; that labour relations will remain positive; and that the Company's assumptions relating to dissolving pulp markets will be accurate. Persons reading this news release are cautioned that forward-looking information represents predictions only, and that the Company's actual future results or performance are subject to certain risks and uncertainties including, without limitation: that market conditions for dissolving pulp will not improve or will worsen; the Company will not realize anticipated cost savings from its cost reduction initiatives; equipment will not operate as intended; that work stoppages or other disturbances may occur as a result of delays in or the failure of negotiations of new collective agreements; and other risk factors detailed in the Company's most recent Annual Information Form and other filings with Canadian securities regulatory authorities. These risks, as well as others, could cause actual results and events to vary significantly. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking information, except as required by applicable securities law. Contacts: Fortress Paper Ltd. Mr. Yvon Pelletier Chief Executive Officer 604-904-2328 info@fortresspaper.com www.fortresspaper.com CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - The Australian dollar weakened against its major currencies in the Asian session on Tuesday. The Australian dollar fell to 1.4539 against the euro and 78.03 against the yen, from yesterday's closing quotes of 1.4491 and 78.36, respectively. Against the U.S., the Canadian and the New Zealand dollars, the aussie dropped to 0.7622, 1.0049 and 1.0682 from yesterday's closing quotes of 0.7650, 1.0060 and 1.0714, respectively. If the aussie extends its downtrend, it is likely to find support around 1.50 against the euro, 74.00 against the yen, 0.74 against the greenback, 0.97 against the loonie and 1.04 against the kiwi. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. CALGARY, ALBERTA -- (Marketwired) -- 08/09/16 -- Mkango Resources Ltd. (TSX VENTURE: MKA)(AIM: MKA) (the "Corporation" or "Mkango"), is pleased to announce results of the airborne geophysical survey (the "Survey") covering approximately two thirds of its Phalombe licence. The Survey was part of a US$25 million World Bank funded nationwide airborne geophysical programme. The airborne radiometric survey highlights a number of exploration targets within the Phalombe licence. The Songwe Hill rare earths project, for which Mkango announced an updated pre-feasibility study in November 2015, was not covered by the Survey. Apart from Songwe Hill, there are two other identified vent systems in the Phalombe licence, Nkalonje and Namangale. In both cases, the Survey indicates strong thorium radiometric anomalies coincident with the vents, which, similar to Songwe, are expressed as steep hills rising above the surrounding plain. Thorium radiometrics are known as a highly effective tool for rare earths exploration and the Songwe Hill carbonatite is also characterized by a thorium radiometric anomaly, identified through previous geophysical surveys. Unlike Songwe Hill, the Nkalonje and Namangale vent systems do not feature large areas of outcropping carbonatite, the host rock for rare earths at Songwe Hill. However, both contain outcrops of carbonatite veins and dykes suggesting that there may be potential for a carbonatite body below surface, in particular at Nkalonje, where the new airborne magnetic survey indicates that the vent complex coincides with a magnetic low. A map showing the thorium radiometric anomalies superimposed on a topographic map, indicating local infrastructure, and the locations of Nkalonje and Namangale can be accessed via the following link: http://www.mkango.ca/i/maps/Results-of-Airborne-Radiometric-Survey-(Th)-on-Topo-Aug.jpg William Dawes, Chief Executive of Mkango, stated: "The airborne survey further supports the rare earths exploration potential of the broader Phalombe licence area. The Songwe project itself has significant resource upside, both laterally and to depth, and together with other targets in the Phalombe licence, underpins Mkango's potential to be a long term, sustainable producer of rare earths. We believe ongoing infrastructure developments in Malawi will catalyse mineral development, and, with ongoing Government and stakeholder support, Mkango's objective is to spearhead development of Malawi's very substantial rare earths resource base." "We continue to explore partnership opportunities for both the Songwe and Thambani projects with a view to accelerating exploration and development of the projects for the benefit of all stakeholders." Nkalonje and other areas in the Phalombe licence including Songwe and satellite rare earth occurrences will be further investigated as part of the HiTech AlkCarb research project. Mkango is an industry partner in HiTech AlkCarb, a EUR5.4 million research project funded under the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme in partnership with University of Exeter, British Geological Survey, GeoAfrica Prospecting Services, Terratec Geophysical Services, Eberhard Karls University of Tubingen, Mendel University in Brno, University of St Andrews, Natural History Museum, A Speiser Environmental Consultants, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland and Gabriele d'Annunzio University of Chieti-Pescara. The scope of the research project encompasses developing new geological models to explore for 'hi-tech' raw materials (such as the rare earth elements, scandium, niobium, tantalum, zirconium, hafnium and fluorspar), improving and developing interpretation of geophysical and downhole data, building exploration expertise in hi-tech raw materials and ensuring knowledge exchange between Europe and Africa and assessing environmental and socio-economic impacts of mining for these raw materials, and develop best practice. Scientific and technical information, contained in this release has been approved and verified by Dr. Scott Swinden of Swinden Geoscience Consultants Ltd, who is a "Qualified Person" in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 --Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. Change in Corporate (Registered) Address The Corporation also announces that its corporate (registered) address has been changed to 706 27 Avenue NW, Calgary, Alberta, T2M 2J3, Canada, with immediate effect. About Mkango Resources Ltd. Mkango's primary business is the exploration for rare earth elements and associated minerals in the Republic of Malawi, a country whose hospitable people have earned it a reputation as "the warm heart of Africa." Mkango holds, through its wholly owned subsidiary Lancaster Exploration Limited, a 100% interest in two exclusive prospecting licenses in southern Malawi, the Thambani licence and the Phalombe licence. The main exploration target in the Phalombe licence is the Songwe Hill rare earths deposit, which features carbonatite hosted rare earth mineralisation and was subject to previous exploration in the late 1980s. Mkango completed an updated Pre-feasibility study for the project in November 2015. Mkango's strategy for Songwe is to further optimise the project with a view to maximising efficiency and reducing costs, thereby providing a strong platform both for entering into partnerships, marketing and offtake arrangements. The main exploration targets in the Thambani licence are uranium, niobium and tantalum. In January 2015, Mkango announced the first set of assay results of 142 soil and rock chip samples from 9 trenches, which returned variably anomalous uranium, niobium and tantalum values in most trenches, ranging up to 4.70 % U3O8, 3.25 % Nb2O5 in soil and up to 0.42 % U3O8, 0.78 % Nb2O5 and 972 ppm Ta2O5 in rock chips. In July 2016, the Corporation announced the results of an airborne geophysical survey covering approximately two thirds of the licence area, highlighting a number of significant radiometric and magnetic anomalies. The company's corporate strategy is to develop new sustainable sources of rare earth elements and other minerals geared to growth in the low carbon "green" economy, technology and the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This news release may contain forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are based will occur. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve numerous assumptions, known and unknown risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, that contribute to the possibility that the predictions, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statements will not occur, which may cause actual performance and results in future periods to differ materially from any estimates or projections of future performance or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors and risks include, without limiting the foregoing, delays in obtaining financing or governmental or stock exchange approvals. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release. Except as required by law, the Corporation disclaims any intention and assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities law. Additionally, the Corporation undertakes no obligation to comment on the expectations of, or statements made by, third parties in respect of the matters discussed above. The TSX Venture Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any equity or other securities of the Corporation in the United States. The securities of the Corporation will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") and may not be offered or sold within the United States to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons except in certain transactions exempt from the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act. Contacts: Mkango Resources Limited William Dawes Chief Executive Officer UK: +44 207 3722 744 Canada: +1 403 444 5979 will@mkango.ca Mkango Resources Limited Alexander Lemon President alex@mkango.ca SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP Nominated Adviser and Broker Jeff Keating , Caroline Rowe UK: +44 20 3470 0470 BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - Destatis is set to release Germany's foreign trade data for June in the pre-European session on Tuesday at 2:00 am ET. Exports are forecast to rise 1.1 percent on a monthly basis in June after falling 1.8 percent in May. The trade surplus is expected to increase to EUR 23 billion from EUR 21 billion. Ahead of the data, the euro showed mixed trading against its major rivals. While the euro rose against the Swiss franc, it held steady against the U.S. dollar, the yen and the pound. As of 1:55 am ET, the euro was trading at 0.8531 against the pound, 1.0896 against the Swiss franc, 1.1079 against the U.S. dollar and 113.48 against the yen. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. GLASGOW (dpa-AFX) - Aggreko plc (AGK.L) announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire substantially all of the assets associated with, and used in connection with DRYCO, LLC a specialist in moisture control, drying, heating, and cooling applications within the shipping, manufacturing, food processing, construction, and industrial painting industries. Aggreko said the acquisition will add more than 60 experienced and skilled employees and more than 6,000 fleet assets to the Rental Solutions business. Chris Weston, Chief Executive, said: 'This acquisition combines the deep technical strength of two highly respected market leaders and provides our customers with an unparalleled range of solutions that can address their HVAC and moisture control needs. It also gives Aggreko an opportunity to further support our rapidly expanding customer base within the shipping, food & beverage, and painting & coatings industries.' Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Legal & General Group Plc (LGEN.L) reported Tuesday that its first-half profit before tax attributable to equity holders climbed 23 percent to 826 million pounds from last year's 672 million pounds. Profit after tax went up 22% to 667 million pounds, and earnings per share grew 24% to 11.27 pence. Adjusted earnings per share were 11.20 pence, compared to 9.79 pence last year. Adjusted operating profit grew 10% from last year to 822 million pounds. First-half net cash generation increased 16% to 727 million pounds from last year's 629 million pounds. Further, the company said that for this interim dividend and going forward, the Board has decided to adopt a formulaic approach to setting the interim dividend, being 30% of the prior year full year dividend. The company therefore declared an interim dividend of 4.00p per share. The company said the lifetime mortgage market grew 24% in first half to 934 million pounds and is on track to exceed 2 billion pounds for the first time in 2016. The company said it is targeting to write up to 500 million pounds of lifetime mortgages new business in 2016, which would represent approximately 25% of the market. Nigel Wilson, Group Chief Executive, said, 'There are many different views of the outlook for economic growth, the state of financial markets and political uncertainty. We reflect this in our approach to risk management. While we cannot be immune to this uncertainty, we remain confident that we will continue to deliver attractive returns for shareholders, great value to customers and better outcomes for society.' Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. EDINBURGH (dpa-AFX) - British insurer Standard Life plc (SL.L) Friday reported that its first-half profit attributable to equity holders fell to 226 million pounds from 1.21 billion pounds in the same period last year. Earnings per share were 11.4 pence, down sharply from last year's 56.6 pence. The prior-year period's results reflect a hefty gain on the sale of the company's Canadian business to Manulife. However, earnings from continuing operations for the latest period rose to 226 million pounds or 11.4 pence per share from last year's 69 million pounds or 3.2 pence per share. Operating profit before tax from continuing operations was 341 million pounds, up 18 percent from 290 million pounds in the same period last year. Total revenue for the first half rose to 7.70 billion pounds from last year's 5.67 billion pounds. The company's board has proposed an interim dividend of 6.47 pence per share, an increase of 7.5 percent from the year-ago period. Looking ahead, Standard Life said that targeted investments to further its diversification agenda, together with a sharpened focus on operational efficiency will increase its pace of strategic delivery. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 08/09/16 -- Gold Standard Ventures Corp. (TSX VENTURE: GSV) (NYSE MKT: GSV) ("Gold Standard" or the "Company") today announced assay results from the first three step out core holes at the recently discovered North Dark Star oxide gold deposit on its 100%-owned/controlled Railroad-Pinion Project in Nevada's Carlin Trend. The results significantly increase the size of the North Dark Star deposit while also enhancing its prospective grade and establishing the orientation of a favorable trend supporting the potential for further expansion of the higher grade zone. The primary objective of this year's drill program at North Dark Star was to find a continuation of the high grade zone discovered in core hole DS15-13 (15.4m of 1.85 g Au/t and 97.0m of 1.61 g Au/t) at the end of last year's drill program (see January 21, 2016 news release). DS16-08, located 100m south of DS15-13, returned multiple, significant, oxidized intercepts containing gold values above the cut-off grade established in the Dark Star NI43-101 resource estimate announced on March 3, 2015 (see news release). DS16-08 returned a 126.2 meter section grading 3.95 g Au/t including higher grade intervals of 44.0m of 4.70 g Au/t, 17.9m of 5.6 g Au/t and 7.9m of 10.7 g Au/t (Please click the following link to see section maps and drill plan: http://goldstandardv.com/lp/north-dark-star-drill-results/). Jonathan Awde, CEO and Director of Gold Standard commented: "North Dark Star is continuing to exceed our expectations and is becoming a major Nevada (Carlin) gold discovery. With these first few holes, we have successfully found the orientation of the thick, high grade mineralized zone discovered last year. We will now be focusing more of our current drill program on the North Dark Star area while also enhancing access so we can extend the drill season as late as possible. Near surface, oxide deposits with these grades clearly have outstanding economic potential." A conference call will be held by the company tomorrow (Wednesday August 10, 2016) at 11:00 a.m. PDT to discuss today's release and the continuing exploration program at Railroad Pinion. Dial-in numbers are provided at the end of this press release. Key North Dark Star Highlights -- DS16-08 intersected a thick, vertically-extensive, oxidized intercept of 126.2m of 3.95 g Au/t approximately 100m south of discovery hole DS15- 13. Mineralization occurs in decalcified, variably silicified, pervasively oxidized and collapse brecciated debris flow conglomerate, bioclastic limestone, calcarenite, calcareous sandstone and silty limestone (click the following link for pictures of core :http://goldstandardv.com/lp/north-dark-star-drill-results/). Oriented core measurements from this hole confirm that the favorable Pennsylvanian-Permian carbonate stratigraphy hosting this mineralization has a northerly strike and is moderately to steeply dipping to the west. Mineralization in DS16-08 comes to within 90m of surface and is open in multiple directions. True widths are estimated at 70-90% of drilled thicknesses. -- DS16-05, located approximately 50m north of DS15-13, intersected multiple zones of oxidized mineralization including 24.1m of 1.28 g Au/t. -- DS16-02, located approximately 70m to the east and up-dip from DS15-13, intersected multiple near-surface zones of oxidized mineralization including 23.2m of 0.72 g Au/t. All of the DS16-02 gold intercepts are less than 50m below the topographic surface. True widths are estimated at 70-90% of drilled thicknesses North Dark Star drill results are as follows: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Drill Hole Method Azimuth Incl. TD (m) Thickness Grade (g Intercept (m) (m) Au/t) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- DS16-02 Core 090 -45 285.1 11.0 - 13.4 1.5 0.15 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 33.5 - 37.5 4.0 0.45 -------------------------------- 42.8 - 52.1 9.3 0.50 -------------------------------- 100.0 - 102.0 2.0 0.18 -------------------------------- 107.9 - 131.1 23.2 0.72 -------------------------------- Including 123.4 - 128.0 4.6 1.80 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- DS16-05 Core 090 -55 384.8 3.6 - 4.8 1.2 0.17 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.3 - 10.6 3.3 0.19 -------------------------------- 32.3 - 34.0 1.7 0.17 -------------------------------- 38.6 - 44.5 5.9 0.18 -------------------------------- 49.1 - 50.6 1.5 0.16 -------------------------------- 53.0 - 55.7 2.7 0.17 -------------------------------- 67.4 - 71.9 4.5 0.25 -------------------------------- 78.5 - 81.4 2.9 0.16 -------------------------------- 86.0 - 97.4 11.4 0.21 -------------------------------- 177.4 - 182.6 5.2 0.20 -------------------------------- 187.4 - 189.1 1.7 0.15 -------------------------------- 197.2 - 200.3 3.1 0.17 -------------------------------- 216.5 - 218.9 2.4 0.44 -------------------------------- 225.6 - 249.7 24.1 1.28 -------------------------------- 255.5 - 258.2 2.7 0.38 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- DS16-08 Core 090 -45 408.8 76.3 - 76.8 0.5 0.30 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 89.0 - 93.0 4.0 0.23 -------------------------------- 100.9 - 107.3 6.4 0.46 -------------------------------- 110.1 - 112.5 2.4 0.47 -------------------------------- 114.0 - 135.3 21.3 0.67 -------------------------------- 147.8 - 154.4 6.6 0.16 -------------------------------- 157.2 - 159.6 2.4 0.22 -------------------------------- 165.2 - 291.4 126.2 3.95 -------------------------------- Including 179.6 - 223.6 44.0 4.70 -------------------------------- Including 247.0 - 264.9 17.9 5.60 -------------------------------- Including 275.0 - 282.9 7.9 10.7 -------------------------------- 334.4 - 338.7 4.3 0.45 -------------------------------- 349.7 - 355.8 6.1 0.43 -------------------------------- 359.1 - 362.5 3.4 0.20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (i) Gold intervals reported in this table were calculated using a 0.14 g Au/t cutoff. Weighted averaging has been used to calculate all reported intervals. True widths are estimated at 70-90% of drilled thicknesses. Mac Jackson, Gold Standard's Vice president of Exploration stated: "The outstanding oxide intercept in DS16-08 is nearly triple the grade times thickness of last year's discovery hole. It clearly demonstrates the strength and potential of the Carlin-style gold system at North Dark Star. In the bigger, regional picture, North Dark Star is strategically located where the Carlin Trend intersects a north trending belt of permeable Penn-Perm carbonate rocks, an excellent host for gold deposits. With these results in our initial offset holes, we are confident there is more gold to be found at North Dark Star and throughout our large, 115 square km. Railroad-Pinion property on the Carlin Trend." Gold Standard Venture President and CEO, Jonathan Awde, and vice-president of exploration, Mac Jackson, will host a conference call and webcast with analysts and investors to review the drill results on Wednesday, August 10, 2016 at 11:00 AM Pacific time. A live slide presentation will be available for viewing during the call from the link provided below. Conference call To participate in this conference call, please dial the following number approximately 10 minutes prior to the starting time: Local / International: 416-640-5946 North American Toll- Free: 1-866-233-4585 Webcast A webcast presentation will also be available for viewing in conjunction with the conference call. To access the webcast, please visit: http://momentumstreaming.com/index.php?id=120769 Callers can alternatively refer to the newly posted slides on Gold Standard's website that will be referenced during the meeting. For those unable to listen live, the webcast will remain available at the above link for one year following the call. Sampling Methodology, Chain of Custody, Quality Control and Quality Assurance: All sampling was conducted under the supervision of the Company's project geologists and the chain of custody from the project to the sample preparation facility was continuously monitored. A blank or certified reference material was inserted approximately every tenth sample. The North Dark Star core samples were delivered to Bureau Veritas Mineral Laboratories preparation facility in Elko, NV. The samples are crushed, pulverized and sample pulps are shipped to Bureau Veritas certified laboratory in Sparks, NV or Vancouver, BC. Pulps are digested and analyzed for gold using fire assay fusion and an atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) finish on a 30 gram split. Over limit gold assays were determined using a fire assay fusion with a gravimetric finish on a 30 gram split. All other elements are determined by ICP analysis. Data verification of the analytical results includes a statistical analysis of the standards and blanks that must pass certain parameters for acceptance to ensure accurate and verifiable results. Drill hole deviation is measured by a gyroscopic down hole survey that has been completed on all holes by International Directional Services of Elko, NV. Final collar locations are surveyed by differential GPS by Apex Surveying, LLC of Spring Creek, Nevada. The scientific and technical content and interpretations contained in this news release have been reviewed, verified and approved by Steven R. Koehler, Gold Standard's Manager of Projects, BSc. Geology and CPG-10216, a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. ABOUT GOLD STANDARD VENTURES - Gold Standard is an advanced stage gold exploration company focused on district scale discoveries on its Railroad-Pinion Gold Project, located within the prolific Carlin Trend. The 2014 Pinion and Dark Star gold deposit acquisitions offer Gold Standard a potential near-term development option and further consolidates the Company's premier land package on the Carlin Trend. The Pinion deposit now has an NI43-101 resource estimate consisting of an Indicated Mineral Resource of 31.61 million tonnes grading 0.62 grams per tonne (g/t) gold (Au), totaling 630,300 ounces of gold and an Inferred Resource of 61.08 million tonnes grading 0.55 g/t Au, totaling 1,081,300 ounces of gold, using a cut-off grade of 0.14 g/t Au. The Dark Star deposit, 2.1 km to the east of Pinion, has a NI43-101 resource estimate consisting of an Inferred Resource of 23.11 million tonnes grading 0.51 g/t Au, totaling 375,000 ounces of gold, using a cut-off grade of 0.14 g/t Au (announced March 3, 2015). The 2014 and 2015 definition and expansion of these two shallow, oxide deposits demonstrates their growth potential. Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) nor the NYSE MKT accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This news release contains forward-looking statements, which relate to future events or future performance and reflect management's current expectations and assumptions. Such forward-looking statements reflect management's current beliefs and are based on assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation, statements about our proposed exploration programs and future potential results are forward looking statements. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Risk factors affecting the Company include, among others: the results from our exploration programs, global financial conditions and volatility of capital markets, uncertainty regarding the availability of additional capital, fluctuations in commodity prices; title matters; and the additional risks identified in our filings with Canadian securities regulators on SEDAR in Canada (available at www.sedar.com) and with the SEC on EDGAR (available at www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml). These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and, except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances. CAUTIONARY NOTE FOR U.S. INVESTORS REGARDING RESERVE AND RESOURCE ESTIMATES All resource estimates reported by the Company were calculated in accordance with the Canadian National Instrument 43-101 and the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy Classification system. These standards differ significantly from the requirements of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for descriptions of mineral properties in SEC Industry Guide 7 under Regulation S-K of the U. S. Securities Act of 1933. In particular, under U. S. standards, mineral resources may not be classified as a "reserve" unless the determination has been made that mineralization could be economically and legally produced or extracted at the time the reserve determination is made. Accordingly, information in this press release containing descriptions of the Company's mineral properties may not be comparable to similar information made public by US public reporting companies. On behalf of the Board of Directors of Gold Standard, Jonathan Awde, President and Director Contacts: Gold Standard Ventures Corp. Jonathan Awde President 604-669-5702 info@goldstandardv.com www.goldstandardv.com Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - August 9, 2016) - Coronet Metals Inc. (TSXV: CRF) (FWB: 2CM) (OTC Pink: CORMF) ("Coronet" or "the Company") is pleased to provide progress update on current developments. The White Caps Gold Mining Project ("White Caps" or "the Project") Through its wholly-owned subsidiary, "White Caps Mining Company" ("WCMC"), the Company controls the former producing White Caps Gold Mine and processing mill, along with an estimated 250,000 tonnes of historic tails and mine dumps *. Further to the July 27, 2016 press release, six drill holes have been outlined for the White Caps dumps and 23 holes proposed for the drilling the White Caps tailings. Coronet's management and operations team is meeting with a Drilling Contractor this week to outline and formalize the drilling program. This work, together with the metallurgical work (see below) will form the basis to upgrade or verify the historical estimates of the quantity of the gold bearing tailings and mine dumps as a NI 43-101 compliant mineral resources or mining reserves. Further to the June 23, 2016 press release, the Company has initiated hydrometallurgical process development work at an independent laboratory in Vancouver. The laboratory conducted extensive testing on the White Caps tailings and dumps material to determine optimal processing in order to maximize gold recoveries. The process used by the lab, which is proprietary, is a "green" technology which will ensure cleaning up and restoring the tailings in an environmentally friendly manner. The initial results continue to support favorable grades, but more importantly the process was successful in extracting the gold from the material and the recoveries were excellent. More testing will be concluded this coming week with formal results to be reported. The Dixie Queen Gold Mine ("Dixie Queen") Due Diligence Coronet's management and operations team has visited the site and is very pleased with early indications of what seems to be a very promising discovery. The due diligence includes independent sampling of high grade gold veins which is currently being tested at ALS laboratories in Vancouver, BC. Coronet's team is confident that there is a gold discovery and a small drilling program was proposed to determine next steps towards a final agreement. The Dixie Queen is an ideal fit with Coronet's business model of pursuing production-oriented assets in proven gold-producing jurisdictions. In addition to the above two projects the Company is actively pursuing other near-term, promising high value gold and silver projects that will play to its existing strategy, which is acquiring precious metals mining projects which have the potential for both near-term cash flow and exploration upside in safe, mining friendly, jurisdictions. The goal is to derive low cost production from high value deposits and pay for these acquisitions from cash flow as opposed to issuing stock which is dilutive for its shareholders. * References to tonnages are historical estimates. The estimated tonnage of 250,000 tonnes was provided by the two different mining (name the company) engineering companies in October 2011 that the Company engaged to provide an estimate. The stockpile measurement is a technique to measure the volume and weight of commodity stockpiles. It is a scientific/ instrumental method, using Total Station equipment to determine the volume of the stockpile quantity. While the Company believes that the historical tonnage estimate is useful to guide future work on the project it cautions readers that these historical estimates should not be relied upon. ** http://www.oceanagold.com/our-business/united-states/haile-gold-mine/ About Coronet Metals Coronet Metals Inc. is engaged in the business of acquiring, exploring and developing natural resource properties, with a focus on precious mineral properties/projects which have the potential for both near-term cash flow and significant exploration upside potential. Coronet's White Caps Gold Project is near the town of Manhattan in Northern Nye County. The Project is well in line with its strategy of acquiring precious metals mining projects which have the potential for both near-term cash flow and exploration upside. The Company has launched a fresh new web site so please visit www.coronetmetals.com for more information on the project, the history of the area and up to date information regarding its near-term plans, execution and strategy. Forward Looking Information This news release contains forward-looking statements and other statements that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements are often identified by terms such as "will", "may", "should", "anticipate", "expects" and similar expressions. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this release are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations are risks detailed from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulations. The reader is cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of any forward-looking information may prove to be incorrect. Events or circumstances may cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted, as a result of numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. As a result, the Company cannot guarantee that any forward-looking statement will materialize and the reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking information. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and the Company will only update or revise publicly any of the included forward-looking statements as expressly required by Canadian securities law. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its regulation services provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION AND ENQUIRIES: Theo van der Linde President and CFO Tel: +1 604-336-3193 Email: tvanderlinde@coronetmetals.com Two months to go until the world's largest and most influential energy event 261 Speakers from 84 Countries, including 48 Ministers Momentum is building towards the 23rd World Energy Congress, due to take place in Istanbul between 9th and 13th October, just two months away. Government ministers from almost 50 countries are among the 261 influential senior leaders confirmed to speak at the event. The 23rd Energy Congress will be a critical juncture in shaping the future of the global energy landscape at a time when the industry is at a crucial transition. The Congress is established as the most influential and inclusive gathering of senior leaders from all segments of the energy community. The range of players signed up from across the energy spectrum include international exhibitors such as Saudi Aramco, Sonatrach, ITER, Engie and Qatar Petroleum, while industry speakers include Rachel Kyte, from the global Sustainable Energy for All initiative, Bob Dudley, BP CEO, Alexey Miller, Gazprom Chairman of the Management Board and Steve Bolze, GE Senior Vice President and CEO, Power and Water. EDF was confirmed last week as the latest silver sponsor of the event. CNN is also confirmed as the event's international broadcast partner, while Turkish official wire Anadolu Agency will be the global communication partner of this significant event. CNBC had already signed up as the international business media partner. The four-day programme leads delegates through the critical issues facing the energy industry under the theme "Embracing New Frontiers": Monday 10th October Vision and scenarios for the future of the global energy system, an exploration of the most dynamic areas and game-changers shaping the energy of tomorrow. Tuesday 11th October Business and resource management opportunities, ways to respond to the new challenges of adaptation and innovation to ensure a secure and reliable energy system. Wednesday 12th October Policy solutions to secure prosperity and address the necessary institutional change to balance the World Energy Trilemma. Thursday 13th October Africa: Securing a sustainable energy future, exploring the critical drivers and innovations to secure a sustainable energy future for the region. Hasan Murat Mercan, President of the Turkish Member Committee, World Energy Council commented: "The Congress is an excellent platform for all companies and organisations in the energy sector to come together, network, share ideas and collaborate on the future challenges and opportunities. "Turkey is positioned at the crossroads of the most important energy markets at a time of profound global change, which makes it a good base for the event. Preparations for the Congress are progressing well and all necessary precautions are being taken to ensure that it runs smoothly and securely." Register as a delegate via: https://secure.eventmagix.com/2016_wec_media/ to hear from world energy leaders from industry, governments and international organisations as well as the media, universities and energy industry associations. ENDS ABOUT THE WORLD ENERGY CONGRESS The triennial World Energy Congress is the World Energy Council's global flagship event, is the premier international, multi-energy forum for participants to better understand energy issues and solutions from a global perspective. The World Energy Congress has gained recognition since the first event in 1923 as the premier global forum for leaders and thinkers to debate solutions to energy issues. In addition to the discussions, the event provides an opportunity for executives to display their technologies and explore business opportunities. For more information about the World Energy Congress 2016 and to register, visit: http://www.wec2016istanbul.org.tr/ Follow the Congress at @WECongress for regular updates. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160809005733/en/ Contacts: Grayling for World Energy Congress Roisin Miller +44-(0)-203-861-3952 worldenergycongress@grayling.com The personal blog of Peter Lee a.k.a. "China Hand"... Life is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel, and an open book to those who read. You are welcome to contact China Matters at the address chinamatters --a-- prlee.org or follow me on twitter @chinahand. DGAP-Media / 09.08.2016 / 11:03Digital Transformation in the Event Industry - Hype or Real Benefit? XING Events Starts Online Survey among Organisers and AttendeesMunich, 09 August 2016 - Today, XING Events (www.xing-events.com), the experts in attendee management and event marketing, start their large-scale online survey among organisers and attendees about digitalisation in the event industry.Link to the survey: For organisers:http://bit.ly/xingeventssurveyorg For attendees:http://bit.ly/xingeventssurveyattHow does digital transformation manifest itself on the event market? Where does the industry stand at present, and what changes are expected in the near future? Which opportunities and challenges relating to digital transformation do organisers anticipate, and how are event visitors perceiving this development?Digital transformation entails various changes in existing business models and structures in the event industry. How these changes are perceived as an opportunity and what challenges arise are two of the questions asked in XING Events' survey among organisers and visitors of business events. A particularly interesting aspect will be comparing the organisers' and visitors' perspective on the topic.In addition to the survey results, and using best practice examples, XING Events will provide recommendations for event organisers to show how they can benefit from digital transformation.About XING Events XING Events is the only provider that combines event management software and business networking. With XING Events, organisers have already sold and billed 8 million tickets worldwide at more than 210,000 professional events.XING Events aims to support organisers with the best solution for every stage of their business events. Before the event, organisers can reach their target groups on XING and provide any new attendees with a professional ticket shop. During the event, organisers will be provided with customised solutions for all conceivable admissions scenarios. After the event, exclusive opportunities for customer relationship and community management are offered through XING Groups.As part of XING AG, the social network for professional contacts, XING Events connects more than 10 million potential participants in German-speaking regions with relevant events. As an expert in events with professional standards, XING also creates a bridge between the online and the offline world by bringing people together at events.Press materials | information | links XING Events:www.xing-events.com Press materials:www.xing-events.com/press Products:https://en.xing-events.com/our-servicesYour press contact at XING Events Myriam van Alphen-Schrade Sandstrae 33 D-80335 Munich Phone: +49 89 5 52 73 58-32 myriam.schrade@xing.comEnd of Media Release-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Issuer: XING EVENTS Key word(s): Enterprise09.08.2016 Dissemination of a Press Release, transmitted by DGAP - a service of EQS Group AG. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.The DGAP Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases. Archive at www.dgap.de --------------------------------------------------------------------------------490593 09.08.2016 Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. PAR Technology Corporation (NYSE:PAR) today announced that its indirect wholly-owned subsidiary, Rome Research Corporation (RRC), has been awarded a five-year, $13.6 million contract from the U.S. Navy to provide Teleport Commercial Satellite Terminal services at the Global Information Grid (GIG) facility in Lago Patria, Italy, and other remote locations. The GIG is the global network of information capabilities, processes and personnel for collecting, processing, storing, disseminating and managing information on demand for use by military commanders, policy makers and support personnel. The grid supports Department of Defense (DoD), national security and related intelligence community missions and functions (strategic, operational, tactical and business) in war and in peace. The GIG provides capabilities to operating locations that include bases, posts, camps, stations, facilities, mobile platforms and deployed sites. It also provides interfaces to coalition, allied and non-DoD users and systems. "Our employees are passionate about what they do to support the warfighter and we are honored that the Navy continues to entrust RRC with this mission-critical contract," commented Matthew Cicchinelli, President of PAR's Government Business. "The company's expertise and knowledge in operating teleport systems at this and other locations were important factors in the award decision." ABOUT PAR TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION PAR Technology Corporation's stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol PAR. PAR's Hospitality segment has been a leading provider of restaurant and retail technology for more than 35 years. PAR offers technology solutions for the full spectrum of restaurant operations, from large chain and independent table service restaurants to international quick service chains. Products from PAR also can be found in retailers, cinemas, cruise lines, stadiums and food service companies. PAR's Government Business is a leader in providing computer-based system design, engineering and technical services to the Department of Defense and various federal agencies. For more information visit http://www.partech.com or connect with us on Facebook and Twitter. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160809005335/en/ Contacts: PAR Technology Corporation Christopher R. Byrnes, 315-738-0600 ext. 6226 cbyrnes@partech.com www.partech.com OCEAN VIEW, Delaware, August 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Therapeutic Respiratory Devices Market size is estimated to reach USD 23.65 billion by 2024; as per a new research report by Global Market Insights, Inc. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160418/799556-a ) Growing geriatric population, rising prevalence of chronic disorders, and increased demand in home healthcare institutions are the major factors slated to drive therapeutic respiratory devices market size. Technological advancements and presence of untapped opportunities in countries such as India, China, and Japan are expected to be key opportunity areas for industry participants over the forecast timeframe. Request for a sample of this research report @ https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/696 Global therapeutic respiratory devices market size is predominantly driven by the PAP devices. Rising prevalence of sleep apnea coupled with growing geriatric population are the key contributing factors. Furthermore, rising preference of this equipment owing to easy portability and rapid relief are responsible for expected growth. PAP devices was followed by the oxygen concentrators market owing to rising demand in home healthcare and growing demand for oxygen therapy among patients. Product innovation has led to application in the treatment of chronic as well as acute respiratory conditions, thereby propelling growth. Respiratory monitoring products utilize software applications for ensuring data collection and analysis from ventilators equipped across the healthcare system. However, the number of users tends to decline with the increase in use duration owing to the ambiguity regarding usage and side effects such as morning headaches. In case of oral appliances, a similar pattern has been observed. Use of this equipment causes excess saliva build up and muscle soreness thereby leading to reduce in patient compliances. North America was the largest regional segment, with revenue estimated at over USD 3 billion in 2015. This was mainly due to U.S. therapeutic respiratory devices market share, which contributed more than half of the North American revenue on account of high respiratory disorder prevalence and promising regulatory scenario. India, China, South Africa, and Brazil should witness lucrative growth in the forecast years owing to advancing healthcare infrastructure, favorable political and regulatory scenario, and advent of new companies in these regions. Browse key industry insights spread across 126 pages with 60 market data tables & 11 figures & charts from the report, "Therapeutic Respiratory Devices Market Size By Product (Nebulizers, Humidifiers, Oxygen Concentrators, Positive Airway Pressure, Ventilators, Capnograph, Gas Analyzer), By Technology (Electrostatic Filtration, HEPA Filter, Hollow Fiber Filtration, Microsphere Separation), By Filter (Nebulizer, Humidifiers, Positive Airway Pressure, Oxygen Concentrators, Ventilators), Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (U.S., Canada, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, China, India, Japan, Mexico, Brazil, South Africa), Application Potential, Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2016 - 2024" in detail along with the table of contents: https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/therapeutic-respiratory-devices-market Key insights from the report include: Global therapeutic respiratory devices market size was USD 8.82 billion for 2015, with revenue forecast to reach USD 23.65 billion by 2024, at 11.7% CAGR. Electrostatic technology will continue to dominate overall revenue throughout the forecast timeline, and was pegged at USD 3.1 billion in 2015. Large patient pool of COPD, asthma, and sleep apnea along with high level of awareness regarding the treatment of respiratory diseases will drive the U.S. therapeutic respiratory devices market share. Germany and France together contributed around 47% to the European revenue in 2015. The therapeutic respiratory devices industry is characterized by stringent FDA regulations, and huge capital investment in launching new products. India, Japan, and China therapeutic respiratory devices market share will drive demand in Asia Pacific. Japan has largest number of geriatric population, LATAM growth was driven by Brazil and Mexico. Key companies include Philips Healthcare, GE Healthcare, Covidien, Invacare, Smiths Medical, Care Fusion, etc. Mergers, acquisitions, and R&D investments represent the major strategies practiced by incumbent players. Make an inquiry for purchasing this report @ https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/696 Global Market Insights has segmented the therapeutic respiratory devices industry on the basis of product, technology, filter and region: Global Therapeutic Respiratory Devices Product Analysis (Revenue, USD Million; 2012 - 2024) Nebulizers Humidifiers Oxygen Concentrators PAP Devices Ventilators Capnographs Gas Analyzers Global Therapeutic Respiratory Devices Market Technology Analysis (Revenue, USD Million; 2012 - 2024) Electrostatic Filtration HEPA Filter Technology Hollow Fiber Filtration Microsphere Separation Global Therapeutic Respiratory Devices Filters Market Analysis (Revenue, USD Million; 2012 - 2024) Nebulizers Filters Humidifiers Filters PAP Devices Filters Oxygen Concentrators Filters Ventilator Filters Global Therapeutic Respiratory Devices Market Regional Analysis (Revenue, USD Million; 2012 - 2024) North America U.S. Canada Europe Germany France Spain Switzerland Italy Asia Pacific Japan China India Latin America Brazil Mexico MEA South Africa Browse Related Reports: Sleep Apnea Devices Market Size By Therapeutics [Airway Clearance System, Adaptive Servo-Ventilation, Positive Airway Pressure (PAP), Oral Appliance, Oxygen Device], By Diagnostics [Actigraphy System, Polysomnography Device (PSG), Respiratory Polygraph, Single-Channel Screening Device (Pulse Oximeter)] Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (U.S., Mexico, UK, Germany, Japan, China, India, Brazil), Application Potential, Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2016 - 2023: Read More Precision Medicine Market Size By Technology (Big Data Analytics, Gene Sequencing, Drug Discovery, Bioinformatics, Companion Diagnostics), By Application (Oncology, CNS, Immunology, Respiratory), Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (U.S., Canada, Germany, UK, France, Scandinavia, Italy, Japan, China, India, Singapore, Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia), Application Potential, Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2016 - 2023: Read more About Global Market Insights Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology. Contact Us: Jack Davis Corporate Sales, USA Global Market Insights, Inc. Phone: 1-302-846-7766 Toll Free: 1 888-689-0688 Email: sales@gminsights.com Web: https://www.gminsights.com PUNE, India, August 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a new market research report "Lab Informatics Market by Product (CDS, EDC, LES, ECM, ELN, LIMS, SDMS), Component (Software, Services), Delivery (On-Premise, Hosted, Cloud) & Industry (CROs, Pharma, Biotechnology, Chemical, Petrochemical, F&B, Agriculture, Oil, Gas) - Forecasts to 2021", published by MarketsandMarkets, The global market is expected to reach USD 2.97 Billion by 2021 from an estimated value of USD 2.20 Billion in 2016, growing at a CAGR of 6.2% during the forecast period. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 ) Browse 191 market data Tables and 42 Figures spread through 225 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Lab Informatics Market" http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/lab-informatic-market-203037633.html Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report. The report analyzes and studies the major market drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges in North America, Europe, Asia, and the Rest of the World (RoW). The laboratory informatics market is witnessing significant growth across the globe owing to factors such as the increasing need for laboratory automation, technological advancements, increasing availability of cost-effective informatics solutions, rising pressure to comply with regulatory requirements, and increasing adoption of laboratory informatics in biobanks/biorepositories, academic research institutes, and contract service organizations. Cloud-based laboratory informatics solutions and emerging countries offer huge growth. Lack of integration standards for laboratory informatics and lack of trained professionals are the major factors that may limit the growth of the market to a certain extent. The laboratory informatics market is segmented on the basis of product type, deployment model, component, industry, and region. Based on product type, the market is segmented into Electronic Data Capture (EDC) & Clinical Data Management Systems (CDMS), Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS), Electronic Lab Notebooks (ELN), Laboratory Execution Systems (LES), Scientific Data Management Systems (SDMS), Chromatography Data Systems (CDS), and Enterprise Content Management (ECM). The LIMS segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR mainly due to the systems' ability to increase workflow efficiencies by removing manual data entry and transcription errors. On the basis of region, the laboratory informatics market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia, and the Rest of the World (RoW). In 2016, North America is expected to dominate the market, followed by Europe. This can be attributed to the growing demand for the integration of laboratory systems, rising government funding for research activities, growth in biobanks, need for early drug discovery, increasing replacement of old legacy systems with Commercial Off-the-Shelf Laboratory Information Management Systems (COTS LIMS), easy availability of laboratory informatics products and services, and stringent regulatory requirements across industries.. Asia is projected to be the fastest-growing region during the forecast period. Factors such as increasing R&D activities and the development of supporting infrastructure in research laboratories have generated a demand for laboratory informatics solutions in the Asian region. Ask for PDF Brochure: http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownload.asp?id=203037633 The Laboratory Informatics Market is highly competitive. Prominent players in the market include Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. (U.S.), LabWare, Inc. (U.S.), Core Informatics, LLC (U.S.), Abbott Informatics (U.S.), LabVantage Solutions, Inc. (U.S.), LabLynx, Inc. (U.S.), PerkinElmer, Inc. (U.S.), Waters Corporation (U.S.), Agilent Technologies, Inc. (U.S.), and ID Business Solutions Ltd. (U.K.). Browse Related Reports: Lab Automation Market by Equipment & Software (Robotic Arm, Microplate Readers, LIMS), Applications (Drug Discovery, Clinical Diagnostics), Type of Automation (Modular, Total Lab), & End Users (Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals) - Global Forecasts to 2020 http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/lab-automation-market-1158.html Laboratory Information Management Systems/ LIMS Market by Product (COTS & Legacy), Delivery Mode (On-premise, Hosted, Cloud), Component (Software & Services), End User Industries (Healthcare, CRO, Petrochemical, Oil and Gas, Chemical) - Forecast to 2019 http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/laboratory-information-management-systems-market-250610373.html About MarketsandMarkets MarketsandMarkets is the largest market research firm worldwide in terms of annually published premium market research reports. Serving 1700 global fortune enterprises with more than 1200 premium studies in a year, M&M is catering to a multitude of clients across 8 different industrial verticals. We specialize in consulting assignments and business research across high growth markets, cutting edge technologies and newer applications. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. M&M's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "RT" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. The new included chapters on Methodology and Benchmarking presented with high quality analytical infographics in our reports gives complete visibility of how the numbers have been arrived and defend the accuracy of the numbers. We at MarketsandMarkets are inspired to help our clients grow by providing apt business insight with our huge market intelligence repository. Contact: Mr. Rohan Markets and Markets UNIT no 802, Tower no. 7, SEZ Magarpatta city, Hadapsar Pune, Maharashtra 411013, India 1-888-600-6441 Email: sales@marketsandmarkets.com Visit MarketsandMarkets Blog @ http://mnmblog.org/market-research/healthcare/healthcareit Connect with us on LinkedIn @http://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsandmarkets Thousands of men, women and children urgently need humanitarian assistance BAGHDAD, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Some 70,000 people have fled fighting in central Iraq in search of safety, according to the global organization Mercy Corps. The massive movement of civilians comes as forces advance on the city of Mosul, an ISIS stronghold. Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110818/DC54665LOGO-a "We expect that an additional 200,000 people will be on the move within the next two weeks," says Su'ad Jarbawi, Mercy Corps' country director in Iraq. "The journey is dangerous; families leave extreme conflict and are exposed to temperatures exceeding 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit). They lack access to water, food and other basic essentials. When they reach safety, there is limited support in host communities already overstretched by the ongoing conflict." Mercy Corps is providing displaced families with cash assistance to enable them to purchase what they need once they reach safety. "We believe cash distributions are the most rapid, efficient and dignified manner of providing humanitarian aid," says Jarbawi. "Even a small amount of cash lets people choose how they prioritize their individual needs - and this kind of program infuses cash into the local economy." "We are working hard to mobilize our network of local partners and Iraqi youth volunteers as quickly as possible to meet the needs of those escaping the violence and looking to build better lives," she says. Mercy Corps has operated continuously in Iraq since 2003, and since then has provided assistance to 5 million Iraqis affected by war, violence and displacement in all 18 governorates. Mercy Corps is currently addressing the needs of conflict-affected populations, including displaced Iraqi civilians, refugees from Syria and Iraqi host communities. Join us and support Mercy Corps' work in Iraq and elsewhere in the world. SHANGHAI, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- One of China's premier intellectual property protection firms, Sinofaith, presented a promising approach to facilitate identification, disruption and dismantling of transnational organized networks behind theintellectual property crimes, at the Regional Intellectual Property Crime Conference in Central Asia convened from July 6-7 in Lianyungang City, Jiangsu province. Sinofaith President Kevin Sun and vice president Joann Chan spoke at the conference with Chan describing the growing importance of online markets and their IP problems. She explained that Sinofaith provides "one-stop" IP protection and management services for three main types of IP: trademark rights, patent rights and copyrights. Overall, Sinofaith has provided "one-stop" IP protection solutions for over 200 brands both domestic and global. One of the key areas of Sun's speech was helping national intellectual property institutions continue to strengthen capacity-building and providing intellectual property users with convenient and efficient, finely-honed services to help them make better use of the intellectual property system. He also highlighted that in recent years, Sinofaith has actively explored, practiced and innovated in the traditional intellectual property services and protection area, using the "Administrative-Criminal law enforcement information sharing platform", the IPRSEE Platform (the Internet intellectual property rights monitoring platform), and the IPRTXT Platform (copyright monitoring and trading system). China recognizes that intellectual property is an important resource for national economic development. So it is acting to help the success of its "the Belt and Road" initiative by taking the lead in enhancing the protection of intellectual property (IP) and intellectual property rights (IPR). Several International conferences on IP protection have been held during the summer, bringing attention to China's growing role in this crucial field. As the largest professional intellectual property services providerin China, Sinofaith has maintained close cooperation with many well-known intellectual property organizations at home and abroad including Interpol and has played a positive role in some major international cooperation projects. Sinofaith will attend Interpol's (International Criminal Police Organization) upcoming general assembly in September, which will be held in London. Contact: Cassie Liu T: +86-755-8359 9993 M: +86-182-1952-0863 cassie@proexpo.cc TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 08/09/16 -- Pasinex Resources Limited (CSE: PSE)(FRANKFURT: PNX) (the "Company" or "Pasinex") announces results from 23 underground drill holes which completes its 2015 drilling campaign at the Pinargozu zinc mine in Turkey. Pasinex has a 50% equity interest in Pinargozu. The 23 (PPU15-031 - PPU15-053) underground drill holes averaged 92 metres in length for a total of 2,123 metres. Drill hole PPU15-042 cut 3.5 metres with recovered core averaging 36.1% zinc. These drilling results follow on and confirm the zone of high-grade non-sulphide zinc mineralization which is deeper and to the east of the main zone as reported in the July 6th News Release. Table 1: Summary Highlights of Drill Assay Results ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Core Length Interval Core Recovery Drill Hole # Metres(i) Zn Grade %(ii) %(iii) From (metres) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- PPU15-045 3.5 36.1 27 51.5 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- PPU15-048 2.4 34.5 14 47.1 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- PPU15-053 1.4 48.0 58 41.9 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- PPU15-039 1 46.0 73 50.4 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- PPU15-042 1.6 26.25 99 49.0 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (i) True widths have yet to be determined. (ii) Zinc mineral is predominantly non-sulphide and specifically Smithsonite (which is zinc carbonate) (iii) Poor core recoveries may not be representative of the mineralized interval Steve Williams, CEO of Pasinex commented "These results continue to show us finding high grade zinc mineralization at Pinargozu. We are encouraged with the prospects of finding a sulphide-rich mineralized zone below our current mine workings. Since the zinc fluids came from the earth's mantle, we are systematically searching for a larger sulphide body. Although the current political scene in Turkey is volatile, our operations and staff are unscathed. We continue with business as usual, including ongoing drilling. Recently, we have been working on a third adit which is now open and from where we are now extracting a greater volume of Direct Shipping Ore (DSO) while we look for additional zones deeper in the zinc-rich materialized system." A full table of assays from this batch of drilling is available by following this link: http://bit.ly/2b18aFK. Map (Figure 5) of all drill holes covered in this release is available by following this link: http://bit.ly/2b8blKz (Figure 5). This drilling confirms an extension to the east of the main non-sulphide mineralized zone - see these links: http://bit.ly/29oHmPe (Figure 3) & http://bit.ly/29eMsKD (Figure 4). A total of 11 of the 23 drill holes intersected a mineralized horizon averaging 1.1 metres in apparent thickness within a range between 10 centimetres and 3.5 metres and averaging 31.7% zinc in a grade range between 7.9% and 48% Zinc. Average core recovery through the friable non-sulphide mineralized horizon was 57%. Four drill holes intersected a second lower mineralized zone within five metres of the upper horizon. A total of 12 drill holes did not intersect any significant mineralization. There is a sharp cut-off between high grade mineralization and barren host carbonate rock. Narrow zones of lower grade mineralization can abruptly transition to thicker higher grade parts of the system. The mineralizing system delineated to date is almost exclusively high-grade zinc with local pockets of high grade silver. Lead concentrations in the mineralized zones encountered is generally well below one percent. Drilling was undertaken from drill pads shown in Figure 3. Fan drilling from the underground stations was both lateral and vertical to provide coverage. Figure 4: Pinargozu Long Section (Looking West) is available at the following address: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/PSE-Fig4.pdf. Pinargozu Zinc Mine Current mining at 60 to 100 tonnes per day is predominantly exploiting non-sulphide high grade zinc carbonate mineralization. The grade of the mined material consistently exceeds the 25% zinc threshold for direct shipping to zinc processing plants. Pinargozu is one of several exploration targets along the Horzum Zinc Trend (HZT). The HZT controls a series of Carbonate-Replacement-Deposit (CRD) type mineral occurrences. The HZT extends north for at least 8 kilometres from the old Horzum mine, currently operated by Pasinex's joint venture partner, Akmetal Madencilik San ve Tic. AS (Akmetal AS - see link to Figure 2: http://bit.ly/28WVEVN. The HZT has been prospected and mapped but has not been systematically-explored. Pasinex is the first to apply advanced exploration technology and CRD exploration concepts and models to the HZT district. Quality Control and Data Verification Samples were assayed in the SGS laboratory in Ankara. Zinc, lead and silver, assays were obtained by multi-acid (4-acid) digestion/ICP-AES Package (33 Elements) - Zn (lower detection limit: 1 ppm/upper detection limit: 10,000 ppm) code ICP40B. For high grade zinc multi-acid (4-acid) digestion/AAS Package code AAS43B. Analytical accuracy and precision are monitored by the submission of blanks duplicate samples inserted at regular intervals into the sample train by Pasinex personnel. Duplicate pulp samples are sent to the ALS laboratory in Izmir as an umpire ISO-compliant check to confirm analytical accuracy. Drill-core samples were prepared at a standard non-certified facility at the Horzum Mine. External quality control on sample preparation is assured by reference to regular selection of duplicate coarse reject samples which are now sent to SGS. SGS-Ankara's quality system complies with the requirements for the International Standards ISO 9001: 2000 and ISO 17025: 1999. Qualified Person EurGeol, P.Geo. John Barry, a qualified person as defined by NI 43-101, has supervised the preparation of the scientific and technical information that forms the basis for this news release. Mr. Barry is responsible for all aspects of the work, including the quality control and data verification and has confirmed all procedures, protocols and methodologies used. Mr. Barry is a director and shareholder of the Company. About Pasinex Pasinex Resources Limited (CSE: PSE)(FRANKFURT: PNX) is a metals company which is a 50% owner of the high grade Pinargozu zinc mine which is in production and, under its DSO Program, is shipping directly to zinc smelter / refiners from its mine site in Turkey. The Company has a strong technical management team with many years of experience in mineral exploration and mining project development. The mission of Pasinex is to build a mid-tier zinc company based on building a large land within a productive CRD district in Turkey. The Pinargozu Mine is included in the 50-50 company, Horzum Arama Isletme AS (Horzum AS), which is a corporate joint venture between Pasinex and Turkish mining house, Akmetal Madencilik San ve Tic. AS (Akmetal AS). Akmetal AS is one of Turkey's largest family-owned conglomerates with the nearby past-producing Horzum zinc mine. Visit our web site at: www.pasinex.com On Behalf of the Board of Directors PASINEX RESOURCES LTD. "Steve Williams" The CSE does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. This news release includes forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause the actual results of the Company to be materially different from the historical results or from any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. All statements within, other than statements of historical fact, are to be considered forward looking. Although Pasinex Resources Ltd. believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, continued availability of capital and financing, exploration results, and general economic, market or business conditions. There can be no assurances that such statements will prove accurate and, therefore, readers are advised to rely on their own evaluation of such uncertainties. We do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements. Contacts: Pasinex Resources Limited Steve Williams President/CEO 416.861.9659 info@pasinex.com CHF Investor Relations Cathy Hume 416.868.1079 ext. 231 cathy@chfir.com NANAIMO, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 08/09/16 -- Troymet Exploration Corp. (TSX VENTURE: TYE) ("Troymet") is pleased to report the results of its Phase I drill program on the Wildcat gold project, Utah, held under option from Renaissance Gold Inc. Ten reverse circulation (RC) holes, totalling 1,328.9 metres, were drilled to test targets in the Southeast (SE), Core, and High Grade Hill (HGH) target areas (Table 1). Highlights Positive drill results in the SE target area, where the target is shallow, oxide gold mineralization, have opened up a large, and previously undrilled/unrecognized area for Carlin-style gold mineralization. Drill results indicate parallels can be drawn with the Long Canyon gold deposit in northeast Nevada in that silty limestones carry gold mineralization beneath limestones that are nearly devoid of gold mineralization. Drilling in the Core area has resulted in the recognition of an ENE-tending, sub-vertical zone of jasperoidal gold mineralization. Drilling and road cuts on High Grade Hill exposed geologic features and mineralization styles that are not evident at the surface. These include a potentially interconnected system of mineralized cave fills and breccias, possible associated intrusive rock, and gold-enriched non-silicified cave fill beneath, peripheral to, and along strike of the high grade jasperoid. Southeast (SE) Target Area Holes WCR16-08 (Rattler) and WCR16-09 (Rattler Breccia) were drilled to test for mineralization in favourable Big Horse member silty limestones beneath Te and Hg soil anomalies and zones of alteration/sanding/decalcification in Light-colored member limestones (News Release of May 10, 2016). The two holes, located 385 metres apart, are the first holes drilled on these targets. Hole WCR16-08 intersected a long run of anomalous gold (22.9 metres of 0.062 g/t Au from 65.5 to 88.4 metres, plus 18.3 metres of 0.051 g/t Au from 103.6 to 121.9 metres, plus two smaller intervals of 4.5 metres of 0.075 g/t from 44.2 to 48.7 metres and 3.0 metres of 0.045 g/t from 94.5 to 97.5 metres), in the uppermost 97.5 metres of the Big Horse member. Anomalous mercury, tellurium and antimony broadly coincide with the anomalous gold interval (54.8 metres of 1,060 ppb Hg from 68.6 to 123.4 metres and 59.4 metres of 1.50 ppm Te from 64.0 to 123.4 metres) (Table 2). Hole WCR16-09 intersected anomalous gold near the bottom of the hole (7.0 metres of 0.040 g/t Au from 152.4 to 159.4 metres), just before intersecting gold-mineralized material in the Joy Fault, where drilling stopped due to poor recovery related to friable and clay altered rock, and loss of sample material into open fractures. Evidence of gold mineralization within the Joy Fault/immediate footwall was obtained in the form of distinctive ferruginous clay-rich siltstone chips assaying from 0.14 to 7.5 g/t Au. The length and average grade of this mineralization remains unknown. Two zones of anomalous gold were encountered in the upper part of the hole. One corresponds to a hydrothermal breccia; the second, a diffuse zone of anomalous iron oxides and some sulfides in limestone and calcareous siltstone (Table 2). The Joy Fault is a large caldera-bounding fault with multiple periods of motion. Gold mineralization is present within or adjacent to the Joy Fault indicating it has served as a mineralizing conduit. Tellurium is strongly anomalous, with 6.1 metres assaying 5.29 ppm Te that includes the zone of hydrothermal breccia, and 13.7 metres of 1.39 ppm Te at 83.8 to 97.5 metres. These significant results confirm the presence of Carlin-style gold mineralization predominantly within un-silicified silty limestones of the Big Horse member. In contrast, the overlying Light-colored member limestones, which outcrop at the surface and do not have a clastic component, are nearly devoid of gold mineralization. A similar relationship occurs at the recently discovered Long Canyon gold deposit in northeastern Nevada, where limestones a short distance stratigraphically above a major gold deposit are not anomalous in gold. The prospective Big Horse member silty limestones are concealed at shallow depths over an approximately 1 km2 area and are cut by the Joy Fault, a mineralizing conduit. Untested drill targets include the Big Horse member, the Joy Fault and adjacent hangingwall volcanic rocks, nearby hydrothermally altered intrusive rocks, and zones of sanding with anomalous Te and Hg that have locally penetrated into the Light-colored member throughout the area. Core Target Area Two holes (WCR16-01 and WCR16-10) were drilled to offset gold mineralization intersected in an historic two-hole fence (one of these historic holes intercepted 22.9 metres grading 1.27 g/t Au). Hole WCR16-01 intersected mineralization approximately 25 metres to the west, including 22.9 metres of mineralization grading 0.228 g/t gold within which was 18.3 metres grading 0.274 g/t gold (Table 2). Together, the three holes plus surface subcrop of jasperoid define an ENE-trending, sub-vertical zone of gold mineralization adjacent to a cross-fault. Mercury (548 ppb over 38.1 metres) overlaps and extends above the gold mineralization in hole WCR16-01. Tellurium, likewise, overlaps and extends above the anomalous zone (1.62 ppm over 50.3 metres including 3.49 ppm over 13.7 metres). Hole WCR16-10 tested for extensions to the mineralization in a down faulted block southeast of hole WCR16-01. Most gold mineralization in this hole occurs in the interval from 12.2 - 29.0 metres, including 7.6 metres grading 0.083 g/t gold, a second interval of 4.6 metres grading 0.146 g/t gold, and a third containing 1.5 metres grading 0.130 g/t gold. These zones overlap and lie above a zone of jasperoids and hydrothermal breccias from 24.4 - 29.0 metres (Table 2). Tellurium and mercury are distinctly anomalous (59.4 metres of 1.51 ppm Te from 0 to 59.4 metres, 6.1 metres of 448 ppb Hg from 24.4 to 30.5 metres, and 4.6 metres of 487 ppb Hg from 44.2 to 48.8 metres). This mineralization does not lie in the same sub-vertical plane of mineralization defined by nearby holes DM-26, DM-27, WCR16-01 and jasperoid subcrops at the surface. It may be an extension of this mineralization or it may represent additional anomalous mineralization in the hanging wall of the NE-trending cross-fault near where it intersects the Joy Fault. Jasperoids and silicified chips were also obtained from near the bottom of the hole in the Joy Fault, but recovery was very poor because of friable and clay altered rock. Additional intercepts of gold mineralization were encountered in hole WCR16-02 drilled approximately 100 metres southwest of holes WCR16-01 and WCR16-10. These intercepts include two 6.1 metre thick intervals with the first grading 0.038 g/t gold and the other 0.078 g/t gold, and a third interval 1.5 metres thick grading 0.130 g/t gold (Tables 1, 2). High-Grade Hill (HGH) Zone Three short holes (WCR16-05, WCR16-06 AND WCR16-07) tested beneath subcrop and float of a dark-green jasperoid with gold concentrations ranging from 10 to 301 g/t Au (based on six surface rock chip samples; News Release of Nov. 17, 2015). Holes WCR16-05 and WCR16-06 intercepted what appears to be a mineralized cave/fill system vertically below and along strike of the high grade jasperoid. Sample recovery was poor to absent within and below the caves; however, WCR16-05 returned scattered chips of silicified and iron-oxide-enriched limestone assaying up to 0.132 g/t Au, while hole WCR16-06, drilled approximately 40 metres south of WCR16-05, returned chips of porphyritic igneous rock (no dikes or igneous material have been observed at the surface). The access road to holes 05, 06, and 07 exposed two zones of mineralization in bedrock; one zone consists of 2.5 metres of brecciated jasperoid grading 0.128 ppm Au and 34 ppm Te, and the other zone consists of 1.1 metres sanded cave fill with jasperoid clasts with a composite assay of 0.290 g/t Au and 31 ppm Te. The gold concentrations were higher in cave fill (0.301 ppm) than in the jasperoid (0.168-0.288 ppm Au). Hole WCR16-07 intersected moderate iron oxides on fractures indicating the cave system is irregular or parallel to the bearing of the hole. The drill holes and road cuts on High Grade Hill exposed geologic features and mineralization styles that are not evident at the surface. These include a potentially interconnected system of mineralized cave fills and breccias, possible associated intrusive rock, and gold-enriched non-silicified cave fill. All of these features are peripheral to a larger recessive zone that could be the surface expression of a much larger mineralized cave-collapse system. A 100-meter-long Au-Te-Ag-Sb-Pb soil anomaly is approximately centered on this recessive zone. Analysis Drill, rock and soil samples were analyzed by ALS Global, Reno, an ISO 17025 accredited laboratory. Qualified Persons All technical data, as disclosed in this press release, has been verified by the Company's qualified persons Kieran Downes, Ph.D. P.Geo. and Mark Coolbaugh, Ph.D., CPG. Both are Qualified Persons as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Troymet, through its wholly owned subsidiary Troymet USA LLC ("Troymet USA"), holds an option to acquire a 70% interest in the Wildcat property from Renaissance Exploration, Inc. ("RenEx"), a wholly owned subsidiary of Renaissance Gold Inc. Under the terms of the option agreement, Troymet USA has retained RenEx as its contractor to take advantage of RenEx's expertise and established infrastructure. Troymet USA is exclusively responsible for the planning, execution and supervision of all exploration programs. About Troymet Exploration Corp. Troymet Exploration Corp. is a junior exploration company with a solid treasury and with projects in British Columbia (Redhill and Golden Eagle), Manitoba (McClarty Lake) and Utah (Wildcat). Troymet operates the Wildcat, Redhill and Golden Eagle projects. Hudbay Minerals Inc. is the operator of the McClarty Lake joint venture and must contribute $1,151,052 in joint venture expenditures before Troymet is required to fund its participating interest. Troymet retains a 2% net smelter returns royalty (NSR) on the Key property, British Columbia, which was sold to New Gold Inc. in 2013. TROYMET EXPLORATION CORP. Kieran Downes, Ph.D., P.Geo., President, CEO & Director Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. This news release contains certain forward-looking information. All statements included herein, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking information and such information involves various risks and uncertainties. In particular, this news release contains forward-looking information in respect of: the Wildcat Project, including the exploration potential and analogous deposit potential of the Wildcat Project; future data analysis, sampling plans and exploration plans on the Wildcat Project; exploration targets and the potential of such exploration targets; and the Phase I drill program of the Wildcat Project, including the commencement of drilling, the budgeted metres to be drilled and the number of drill holes in Phase I. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. This forward-looking information reflects Troymet's current beliefs and is based on information currently available to Troymet and on assumptions Troymet believes are reasonable. These assumptions include, but are not limited to: the current share price of Troymet's common shares and the ability to raise future equity financing, if needed, at prices acceptable to Troymet; Troymet's current and initial understanding and analysis of the Wildcat Project; the ability of Troymet to discover viable exploration targets and the results of exploration on the Wildcat Project; Troymet's general and administrative costs remaining constant; Troymet's cost assumptions for its exploration programs at the Wildcat Project and the market acceptance of Troymet's business strategy. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Troymet to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such risks and other factors may include, but are not limited to: the early stage development of Troymet and its projects, and in particular, the Wildcat Project; general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; capital market conditions and market prices for securities, junior market securities and mining exploration company securities; commodity prices; the actual results of current exploration and development or operational activities; competition; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; accidents and other risks inherent in the mining industry; lack of insurance; delay or failure to receive board or regulatory approvals; changes in legislation, including environmental legislation, affecting Troymet; timing and availability of external financing on acceptable terms; conclusions of economic evaluations; and lack of qualified, skilled labour or loss of key individuals. A description of other assumptions used to develop such forward-looking information and a description of other risk factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking information can be found in Troymet's disclosure documents on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. Troymet does not undertake to update any forward-looking information except in accordance with applicable securities laws. Table 1: Drill Hole Specifications ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elevat Hole Northing Easting ion Azimuth Dip Length Zone ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (m) (m) (m) ( degrees ) ( degrees ) (m) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WCR16 -01 4385289.3 318549.2 1754.5 9 -45 207.3 Core ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WCR16 -02 4385228.3 318473.4 1759.1 80 -45 158.5 Core ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WCR16 -03 4384979.0 318833.0 1768.2 261 -46 140.2 Core ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WCR16 -04 4384895.0 3318810.1 1771.6 260 -50 140.2 Core ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WCR16 -05 4384574.3 318265.2 1797.1 84 -45 70.1 HGH ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WCR16 -06 4384551.4 318311.0 1791.8 221 -44 42.7 HGH ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WCR16 -07 4384529.3 318293.8 1790.1 44 -85 36.6 HGH ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WCR16 SE -08 4383564.8 320409.7 1783.0 215 -80 182.9 (Rattler) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WCR16 SE -09 4383319.3 320706.5 1768.5 353 -50 182.9 (Rattler Bx) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WCR16 -10 4385290.8 318554.0 1755.7 80 -45 167.6 Core ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Projection, datum: UTM Zone 12, wgs84 Table 2: Drill Hole Results ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hole From To Interval Au Te Hg ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (m) (m) (m) g/t ppm ppb ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WCR16-01 0.0 6.1 6.1 0.032 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18.3 41.1 22.8 0.228 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- incl 21.3 39.6 18.3 0.274 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.5 39.6 38.1 548 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0.0 50.3 50.3 1.62 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- incl 27.4 41.1 13.7 3.49 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WCR16-02 0.0 6.1 6.1 0.038 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10.7 16.8 6.1 0.078 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 56.4 57.9 1.5 0.155 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WCR16-03 67.1 71.6 4.5 0.053 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WCR16-04 NSR ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WCR16-05 NSR, Cave ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WCR16-06 NSR, Cave ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WCR16-07 NSR ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WCR16-08 44.2 48.7 4.5 0.075 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 65.5 88.4 22.9 0.062 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- incl 70.1 73.1 3.0 0.109 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 94.5 97.5 3.0 0.045 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 103.6 121.9 18.3 0.051 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 68.6 123.4 54.8 1,060 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 64.0 123.4 59.4 1.50 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WCR16-09 54.9 57.9 3.0 0.073 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 94.5 97.5 3.0 0.042 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 152.4 159.4 7.0 0.040 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 85.4 88.4 3.0 452 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 94.5 97.5 3.0 865 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 53.3 59.4 6.1 5.29 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 83.8 97.5 13.7 1.39 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 152.4 159.4 7.0 0.710 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WCR16-10 12.2 19.8 7.6 0.083 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- incl 13.7 16.7 3.0 0.120 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 24.4 29.0 4.6 0.146 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 47.2 48.7 1.5 0.130 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12.2 18.3 6.1 340 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 24.4 30.5 6.1 448 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 44.2 48.8 4.6 487 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0.0 59.4 59.4 1.51 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- incl 36.6 48.8 12.2 2.40 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contacts: Troymet Exploration Corp. Investor Relations 250-729-0453 info@troymet.com www.troymet.com CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - At 8:15 am ET Tuesday, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. releases Canada housing starts data for July at 8:15 am ET Tuesday. Ahead of the data, the loonie traded mixed against its major rivals. While the loonie slipped against the aussie, it bounced off from its early lows against the euro, yen and the greenback. The loonie was worth 1.4566 against the euro, 77.74 against the yen, 1.0080 against the aussie and 1.3147 against the greenback as of 8:10 am ET. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. The following editorial appeared in the Aug. 3 Wisconsin State Journal: After recent hot weather and with more on the way, air conditioners and fans are taxing Wisconsins electrical grid. Its a good thing the state is slowly but surely moving toward renewable energy, despite resistance from top elected officials. More than half of Wisconsins electricity comes from coal, and a big share of the rest is natural gas. When we ramp up consumption, we spew more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change. That will mean hotter days in the future. Granted, Wisconsins share of greenhouse gas emissions is small in the global climate. We could stop burning fossil fuels entirely, and it wouldnt come close to fixing the problem. But that misses the point. Climate change is the result of many such small greenhouse gas contributions that add up to something terrible. So Wisconsin must reduce emissions along with everyone else. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, only 8.4 percent of Wisconsins net electricity generation came from renewables in 2015. Under Gov. Scott Walker and Attorney General Brad Schimel, the state is stalling improvement. They continue to fight the Environmental Protection Agencys clean energy goals. But the energy sector is making progress anyway. The most recent evidence is a wind turbine project approved for St. Croix County in western Wisconsin. A judge had halted the project once over some neighbors concerns. But the Public Service Commission last month signed off on a revised plan that addresses the judges ruling. Highland Wind, the company behind the project, could start building by the end of the year, though additional litigation might delay that. At least two more wind projects are in the works. Some concerns about renewable energy may warrant further investigation, such as the effects of wind turbines on humans, bats and birds. Those should not be deal breakers, though, as long as industry and academic researchers continue to honestly research and tweak the technology to minimize problems. Skyscrapers kill birds when they fly into windows, but we dont ban them. Companies such as Highland Wind make free-market decisions, but the market exists in the context of those EPA goals and probably other federal mandates down the road. Power companies are prudently hedging their bets that the future is in renewable energy and required reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The energy industry has good fiscal reasons to pursue renewables, too. Costs are decreasing as the technology matures. Meanwhile, coal and other fossil fuels will likely cost more in the future. Wind and other renewable power sources especially solar, which can succeed in small-scale, dispersed uses will be a big part of Wisconsins, Americas and the worlds energy future. Some concerns about renewable energy may warrant further investigation, such as the effects of wind turbines on humans, bats and birds. Those should not be deal breakers, though, as long as industry and academic researchers continue to honestly research and tweak the technology to minimize problems. Skyscrapers kill birds when they fly into windows, but we dont ban them. VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 08/09/16 -- Callinex Mines Inc. (the "Company" or "Callinex") (TSX VENTURE: CNX)(OTCQX: CLLXF) is pleased to announce that it has granted a total of 1,800,000 stock options to officers, directors, consultants and employees of Callinex. The options were granted for a period of 5 years, expiring on August 8, 2021, and each stock option will allow the holder to purchase a common share of Callinex at an exercise price of $0.38. About Callinex Mines Inc. Callinex Mines Inc. is focused on discovering and developing copper and zinc rich mines within prolific Canadian VMS mining jurisdictions. The Company is actively exploring its Pine Bay Project, located in the Flin Flon mining district of Manitoba, which hosts significant historic VMS deposits that are within close proximity to a processing facility. The larger project portfolio hosts three significant zinc rich mineral resources including the Point Leamington, Nash Creek and Superjack Projects located in Eastern Canada. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Some statements in this news release contain forward-looking information. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to future expenditures. These statements address future events and conditions and, as such, involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the statements. Such factors include, among others, the ability to complete contemplated work programs and the timing and amount of expenditures. Callinex does not assume the obligation to update any forward-looking statement. Contacts: Callinex Mines Inc. Max Porterfield President and Chief Executive Officer (604) 605-0885 info@callinex.ca International Recruiting Firm Goes Live on Xactly, Improving Sales Visibility While Reducing Risk and Complexity Xactly (NYSE: XTLY), a leading provider of cloud-based incentive solutions, announced that global recruitment firm SThree, one of the largest IT recruiters in Europe, has automated its sales compensation initiatives in the cloud with Xactly IncentTM software. Today, SThree has a flexible solution to manage its sophisticated compensation structure that reduces risk while also improving visibility and motivation across the company's fast-growing global team. The race for talent has never been more crucial than it is today, and recruiters must move quickly to find and onboard new talent for their clients. With Xactly, SThree's team is able to easily track commissions anytime, from any mobile device. This new level of transparency is driving increased trust in the numbers and motivation across the SThree team. In addition, the team will be able to use "what-if" estimation tools to model the value of various deal structures, allowing them to maximize their payout potential while also helping the organization reach its goals. "Xactly strategically fits our move to cloud in replacing a legacy homegrown set of systems with a state-of-the-art cloud based and mobile offering," said Lance Fisher, CIO of SThree. By retiring a complex homegrown compensation system and basic spreadsheets, SThree was able to gain an intelligent system of record for all of its compensation programs. This provides the company better accuracy and control, while also reducing risk and delivering a clear audit trail. Xactly also enables SThree to run robust reports across its historical and current data sets to look at trends and the true reward cost of each deal. Moreover, with Xactly Modeling, the company can model the impact of future compensation plan changes to better understand their potential impact and anticipated results. Additional Resources Xactly Corporation Follow Xactly on Twitter, Facebook, and the Xactly Blog Tweet this: .@SThreeCareers chooses Xactly to improve visibility and motivation across its growing global team https://youtu.be/GOC36DCBx5U About Xactly Xactly is a leading provider of enterprise-class, cloud-based, incentive compensation solutions for employee and sales performance management. We address a critical business need: To incentivize employees and align their behaviors with company goals. Our products allow organizations to make more strategic decisions, increase employee performance, improve margins, and mitigate risk. Our core values are key to our success, and each day we're committed to upholding them by delivering the best we can to our customers. 2016 Xactly Corporation. All rights reserved. Xactly, Xactly Incent, the Xactly logo, and "Inspire Performance" are registered trademarks or trademarks of Xactly Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160809005408/en/ Contacts: Blanc Otus Public Relations Kristin Reeves, 415-856-5145 kristin.reeves@blancandotus.com TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 08/09/16 -- Frontier Rare Earths Limited ("Frontier" or the "Company") (OTCQX: FREFF) announces the filing of its Q2 2016 MD&A and Financial Statements which includes an update on the Company's activities and strategic initiatives. The regulatory filings are available on the company's website at www.frontierrareearths.com/regulatory-filings-a-statements/ and under Frontier's issuer profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. About Frontier Rare Earths Limited Frontier Rare Earths Limited (www.frontierrareearths.com) is a mineral exploration and development company principally focused on the development of the Zandkopsdrift rare earth project, located in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa and one of the largest, high grade undeveloped rare earth deposits worldwide, and the Lurio graphite project, a large flake graphite deposit in Mozambique. Contacts: Paul McGuinness Chief Financial Officer +353 1 4966 006 www.frontierrareearths.com AUSTIN, TX -- (Marketwired) -- 08/09/16 -- Edgile, a leading cybersecurity and risk consulting services firm, today announced the addition of Kevin Berman to its executive team as the West Region Partner in charge of Edgile's highly respected Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) Practice. This announcement comes on the heels of Edgile's new Managed Security Services as the company executes on its expansion strategy. The growth and diversity of cyber threats and highly publicized breaches have led to demands for regulatory measures based on best practices. As a result, the enterprise GRC market is expected to grow from $19.4B in 2016 to $38B by 2021 according to industry analyst estimates. Mr. Berman joins Edgile from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP where he initiated and rapidly grew PwC's Global Performance GRC Practice. He subsequently oversaw the end-to-end GRC market strategy, resources and Fortune 500 client engagements while leading the practice in the West region. Prior to PwC, Mr. Berman was a consultant with a leading GRC Technology provider, and a consultant within the KPMG Information Risk Management (IRM) Practice. "Customer loyalty is the real engine behind Edgile's growth," said Don Elledge, Edgile CEO. "Kevin's deep subject matter expertise and command of customer requirements make him an ideal leader to drive the integration and expansion of Edgile's GRC capabilities across market segments." "Edgile is a clear leader in the IT Risk and Security space with a stellar reputation for excellence and matching capabilities such as IAM, IT risk/security, and GRC content," said Kevin Berman. "The opportunity to add long-term sustainable value to clients in the market by expanding upon Edgile's GRC capabilities and offerings is significant." Earlier this year, Edgile received a minority investment from ABRY Partners, a Boston-based private equity firm, to help accelerate the company's expansion and leadership position. Edgile's steady growth and profitability can be attributed to its forward-looking, business-aligned security approach, which transforms the perception of cybersecurity from a risk reduction activity into a strategic imperative for its clients. About Edgile Founded in 2001, Edgile provides strategic security and risk consulting services to Fortune 500 companies. Edgile's stellar reputation is built on high quality services, leading-edge practices, and a focus on the most challenging security issues. Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3042087 Contact: Cindee Mock OrionX Email Contact 650-255-2975 AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS -- (Marketwired) -- 08/09/16 -- Global Digital Marketing Group (GDM Group), the digital performance marketing company that empowers the world's leading brands and agencies to engage global audiences, today announced that it has appointed Mark Hassin as its first chief revenue officer. Hassin will be based in Menlo Park, CA and will report to Dmitry Atamanyuk, CEO of GDM Group. In this new role, Mark will be leading all GDM Group's global revenue-related activities. As the head of the company's sales team, he will be responsible for the sales operations, business development, advertisers/publishers sales and account management teams. "We are thrilled to welcome Mark to the GDM Group team," said Dmitry Atamanyuk, CEO of GDM Group. "His impressive work experience in fast growing companies, as well as with well-known brands, will play a large role in his ability to grow GDM Group." Prior to GDM Group, Hassin spent three years at Tipalti, a global mass payment solution, as the chief revenue officer. Mark established Tipalti's office in Silicon Valley and built a sales team that led the company to over 200 percent growth year-over-year and over two billion in transactions. Before Tipalti, Mark was VP of strategic accounts at BlueSnap (formerly Plimus, acquired by a private equity for $115M) and CEO of a top 10 digital agency in Israel, Publicis Webimage. "As a full cycle digital company with unique technical solutions driven by performance, GDM Group is opening a new frontier in internet marketing," said Hassin. "I'm enthusiastic to join a team of performance-focused innovators who are helping brands and agencies engage new audiences and scale their businesses." About Global Digital Marketing Group Global Digital Marketing Group (GDM Group) is a digital performance marketing company that empowers the world's leading brands and agencies to engage global audiences. GDM Group's family of solutions delivers a comprehensive set of marketing services, including performance, mobile, video, programmatic marketing and media buying. Through the GDMG umbrella, clients are able to drive revenues and increase brand awareness while expanding their existing markets and entering new ones - both domestic and global. Headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands, GDM Group is operating through its 6 offices, located in Toronto, Shanghai, Amsterdam, Tel Aviv, Berlin and Kiev. The world's largest brands including Alibaba Group, Baidu, Booking.com, LightInTheBox, RocketInternet and more rely on GDM Group's global footprint and dedicated teams to expand their business and accelerate growth. Learn more at http://gdmgroup.com/. Media Contact Brook Terran Blast PR for GDM Group 805-570-3309 Email Contact SANTA CLARA, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 08/09/16 -- ComputerCare, a world-class managed services and repair provider for warranty and non-warranty computers, mobile devices and servers, today announced it has achieved Premium Service Provider status from Apple. This coveted accolade is given only to an elite tier of Apple Authorized Service Providers in recognition of their extraordinary commitment to technical excellence and customer service. According to Apple, "Premium Service Providers consistently deliver exceptional repair support and customer experience that meet Apple's exacting standard for high-quality repair and prompt service." With locations in Santa Clara, Calabasas, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, New York and Dublin, Ireland, ComputerCare adheres to the strictest levels of warranty and non-warranty support and repair for a host of Apple products, including iPhones, MacBook Pros, MacBook Airs, iPads and more. The company also recently launched a same-day iPhone display repair service in the Bay Area. This service, which requires no appointments or waiting at a Genius Bar, will expand to other locations in the future. "At home or at work, most of us can't live without our computers and mobile devices. When they break, we need them fixed as soon as possible. While hardware support and repairs should be a painless process, that's often not the reality. At ComputerCare, our goal is to deliver the absolute best level of customer service and complete repairs quickly and conveniently," said Georgia Rittenberg, Vice President of ComputerCare. "I'm very proud of our Apple certified technicians and staff who helped us achieve this exclusive Premium Service Provider certification." In addition to being an Apple Premium Service Provider, ComputerCare is also certified to provide warranty service and repair for Lenovo, Toshiba and HP devices. With experienced, dedicated technicians, ComputerCare handles all repairs from start to finish, eliminating the need for IT departments to rely on manufacturer support, phone troubleshooting, coordination of shipments to depot, and store appointments. About ComputerCare Founded in 2004, ComputerCare is an authorized repair center for the world's leading hardware manufacturers, including Apple, Lenovo, Toshiba and HP. In addition, the company provides a variety of managed IT services, delivering specialized hardware support tailored to the needs of businesses of all sizes. ComputerCare promises the highest level of support, while providing added value services, and fast turn-around times. For more information about ComputerCare's range of services, contact (650) 475-5500 or info@computercare.net. Visit us on the web at www.ComputerCare.net, or follow us on Twitter (@ComputerCareUSA), Facebook or LinkedIn. Media contact: Mark Chisholm E: Email Contact T: +1-253-444-5477 Innovation and superior service help company reach the uppermost echelon of Microsoft Dynamics partners worldwide GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colorado, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --Ciber, Inc. (NYSE: CBR), a leading global information technology consulting, services and outsourcing company, and a long-time Microsoft business solutions partner, was honored to be named a member of the 2016 President's Club for Microsoft Dynamics at the Microsoft Dynamics Partner Recognition Event on July 11th in Toronto, Canada. Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150708/234002LOGO The Microsoft Dynamics President's Club honors high-performing Microsoft Dynamics partners with commitments to customers that are reflected in their business success and growth. This prestigious group represents the top 5% of Microsoft Dynamics partners worldwide. With more than twenty years as a Microsoft partner, this accolade confirms Ciber's commitment as a leader in delivering flexible, scalable and extendable solutions for managing key relationships alongside associated information and financial platforms. Ciber earned the 2016 President's Club distinction for transformative solutions delivered in the Financial Services, Public Sector and Education, Not for Profit, and Manufacturing sectors that incorporated the Microsoft platform including; Microsoft Dynamics CRM, ERP and Office 365. Ciber's deep domain expertise in these sectors enables its teams to concentrate on understanding the business drivers affecting each marketplace, and working in partnership with clients, develop practical solutions to help them gain competitive advantage. "Ciber is delighted to have our success and dedication to our clients recognized by Microsoft," said Andy Cowdrill, Client Partner, Ciber Microsoft Practice. "This induction into Microsoft Dynamics President's Club enables us to accelerate our ability to drive marketplace improvements and to help more clients succeed in reaching their goals." Ciber leverages the robust, scalable functionality of Microsoft Dynamics products to build frameworks and technologies that address an array of business challenges including supplier and customer management, document control and compliance, operational efficiency, cost reduction, information retrieval, centralized customer information and management information. Ciber's solutions also empower employees across all verticals by providing a single-source, 360-degree view of the customer. About Ciber, Inc. Ciber is a global IT consulting company with approximately 5,500 employees in North America, Europe and Asia/Pacific. Ciber partners with organizations to develop technology strategies and solutions that deliver tangible business value. Founded in 1974, the company trades on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: CBR). For more information, visitwww.ciber.com and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google Plus and our blog. Contact: Scott Kozak Global Communications, Investor and Industry Relations 303-967-1379 skozak@ciber.com MIAMI, FL -- (Marketwired) -- 08/09/16 -- Ami James Brands, Inc. (OTCQB: AJBI) ("Ami James Brands" or "Company"), a licensing and brand management company which has evolved from its roots in the tattoo industry, is pleased to provide this update regarding the Company's recent progress. "Over the course of the last sixty days, Ami James Brands has embarked on a corporate journey that has seen it expand its board of directors, strategic advisory board, corporate joint ventures, and expansion into secondary markets," stated Ira Morris, Corporate Secretary of Ami James Brands. "Our collaborative hat collection with 'Frank's Chop Shop' is making great progress with designs now nearing completion. This is a very important project for us. With an established distribution network through New Era Cap Company, it provides us an opportunity to quickly get our new brand and designs in front of a large international and domestic audience." "The Company also expanded its team with well-known designer Ashley Olan who has been brought on to provide a diversified design perspective and to establish broader consumer appeal. AJBI also appointed Mathew Kirsh to its strategic advisory board where he will focus on assisting and expanding corporate merchandising and accessories. AJBI also announced it will be expanding into the temporary tattoo business and the multi-billion dollar personal wipe business with an Ami James Tattoo Wipes product line for artists and consumers." "Ami James has a vision to bring his brand to the forefront of the apparel and accessory marketplace. With the addition of designers and an established team of advisors, we will be able to complete our goal of manufacturing, distribution and retail. It's been very exciting watching all these new business opportunities unfold for the Company. We anticipate our brand to be well received and we really look forward to seeing continued progress and even exploring other new categories for potential expansion," concluded Morris. About Ami James Brands, Inc. (AJBI) Ami James Brands, Inc. is a licensing and brand management company with its core business rooted in the tattoo industry. From apparel and fashion, to consolidating the fragmented tattoo industry, artist and entrepreneur Ami James is arguably the most recognizable face in the tattoo world. The Company is based in Miami, Florida, the home of the legendary "Miami Ink" tattoo studio, the Love Hate Social Club. For additional information regarding Ami James Brands, Inc. visit www.amijamesbrands.com. Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: Certain statements in this news release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of Rule 175 under the Securities Act of 1933 and Rule 3b-6 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and are subject to the safe harbor created by those rules. All statements, other than statements of fact, included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding potential future plans and objectives of the Company, are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The Company undertakes no duty to revise or update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this release. Contact: Investor Relations (888) 481-5999 (Toll-free) E-mail: ir@amijamesbrands.com Website: www.amijamesbrands.com MONTREAL, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 08/09/16 -- Genius Properties Ltd. (CSE: GNI) ("Genius" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that funding has been approved for the Blockhouse Gold District under the 2016-17 Nova Scotia Mineral Incentive Program ("NSMIP") for their Shared Funding Grant Application (NSMIP-SFG-2016-03). The Review and Evaluation Committee for the NSMIP supports the project and has approved $60,000 to explore licenses in Blockhouse, Lunenburg County. All funds awarded by NSMIP are to be directed at paying up to 50% toward any combination of drill contract costs, core analysis and trenching completed on the project. The Blockhouse property exploration program for the summer of 2016, as submitted in the grant application, is estimated to cost approximately $250,000. As per the Department of Natural Resources of Nova Scotia, applications were evaluated by a panel of three from the department's Geoscience and Mines Branch. Evaluations were based on the quality and merit of the work proposal and the potential that the project could lead to a new mineral discovery or significantly advance a project. The proposed exploration program includes several trenches along the strike of the Prest Vein, exposing this vein initially every 50 meters using the original exploration and diamond drilling results from a 1983 diamond drilling program that had intersected the Prest Vein over a strike distance of 300m at various depths projected to surface as a location guide. The 1983-84 exploration program report on file with the Ministry (AR 89-105), was led by James E. Tilsley P. Eng.. The Tilsley report demonstrates continuity in the Prest fissure vein along strike (approx. 300 meters) and to depth (approx. 90meters), along with intriguing gold assays results over variable vein widths ranging between 0.05 ounces per ton over 0.4 meters up to 0.622 ounces per ton over 0.31 meters. Following the aforementioned surface trenching program, a short geophysical program is proposed where a ground grid will be established with a base line and cutting offset lines every 50 meters. The new trenches along with historical drill holes will be tied into this grid along with various surface historical mine workings (shafts, ventilation raises, surface buildings, etc.). The survey lines will be used for an Induced Polarization ("IP") survey to ascertain chargeability of the vein system with the aim of identifying chargeable components along the vein system as potential drill targets. IP anomalies will be prioritized for follow-up diamond drilling of the program currently estimated to entail 1000 meters of diamond drilling in 5 holes. Drill-holes will be designed to intersect the IP anomalies as well as the projected down dip extension of the Prest fissure style veins while attempting to identify and intersect saddle type veins in the vicinity of the Prest vein. Encouraging gold "in vein" intersections would add to the economic potential of the property. If the surrounding host rocks proximal to the veins carry gold as well, this greatly enhances the potential. Exploration is set to begin in September 2016 under the auspices of Neil D. Novak, P.Geo., a registered professional geologist residing in Ontario. Mr. Novak provides management and other services through his privately owned consulting corporation Nominex Ltd., with nearly 4 decades of exploration management experience in various geological settings across Canada and worldwide, and is a recent addition to the Board of Directors of Genius. A team of contractors and subcontractors with demonstrable proficiency in various aspects of the exploration program will be assembled over the next few weeks through a tendering process that will be overseen by Mr. Novak working in conjunction with the original vendors of the Blockhouse property to Genius as such, local Nova Scotia service providers will be given preference where possible in the spirit of the Shared Funding Grant Program. The contents of this press release have been prepared, reviewed and approved by Neil D. Novak, P.Geo., a Qualified Person pursuant to NI 43-101 technical disclosure and reporting guidelines. About Genius Properties Genius is a Canadian mineral exploration company focused on developing projects with some of the world's most critical metals and minerals. Genius is the ideal partner for exploration companies and capital pool companies looking for a qualifying transaction and projects of merit. Neither the CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Contacts: Genius Properties Ltd. Stephane Leblanc President and CEO (418) 717-2553 slconcept@hotmail.com OTTAWA, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 08/09/16 -- Editors Note: There are four images associated with this release. Introducing Corel Painter 2017, the latest version of the industry's most powerful and creative digital paint software which continues to set the standard for professional artists. With an expansive collection of painting tools, Painter 2017 not only offers an unrivaled ability to emulate traditional art, but also the power to redefine what's possible in digital art. Ground-breaking features like Texture Painting, Dab Stencils and Glazing Brushes offer incredible power to a range of creative sectors and workflows. Boosted performance comes together featuring an easier-to-use interface with enhanced property bars, new Artist Layouts and Palette Drawers, making it faster than ever to create your masterpiece. "Each version of Painter pushes the envelope by consistently adding new features that quickly become the benchmark for professional artists of every background and industry," said Chris Pierce, Product Manager for Corel Painter. "With Painter 2017, we're innovating with features like Texture Painting which provides new possibilities for your artwork and can even help transfer your Painter techniques to the world of 3D. Artist Layouts give you the tools you need to work in any style, while performance enhancements deliver the power you need to create on a deadline." "Whether you're making characters come to life for a video game or animation, capturing someone's soul in a portrait, or captivating readers with a manga adventure, you've never experienced a more creative or inspiring artistic environment," added Pierce. New features in Painter 2017 deliver incredible creative possibilities to artists working in fine art, gaming, film, comics, manga, photography, illustration and beyond: -- NEW! Texture Painting: Bring any character, environment or object to life with new texture painting. Create or import a texture source inspired by earthly and industrial materials, skin types or even art styles and then seamlessly blend the source directly into your painting. Take advantage of full control over the texture color, luminance, location and distortion to create an amazingly realistic work of art. -- NEW! Artist Layouts: Just getting started with your new project in concept art, fine art, illustration, photo art or manga? With just the click of a button, Painter will automatically streamline and organize its user-interface layout to bring you the essential tools and controls needed for your particular workflow. -- NEW! Dab Stencils: Intelligently mask your brush dab before applying paint to the canvas. Work with enhanced control and creativity for everything from basic blending brushes to watercolors and even impasto. Choose from a variety of stenciling media to achieve a subtle and controlled application of artistic elements in your final work. -- NEW! Glazing Brushes: Control the evolution of your painting using velvety, translucent paint transitions inspired by the work of Renaissance masters. Revolutionary smoothing within the dab opacity will eliminate any harsh transitions and evenly blend colors for a luminescent finish. -- NEW! Interactive Gradient Tool: Quickly sculpt, color and shade your masterpiece with newfound speed, precision and control. Simply drag and drop a gradient and edit the color and opacity in the context of your painting using the enhanced node control. Modify the transparency, merge modes and smoothing to further fine-tune and get the exact look you want. -- NEW! Gradient Express Paint: Whether you need a backdrop for your new concept design or photo art, or want to quickly fill a large area with rich, stroke-filled paint, the new Gradient Express Paint feature allows you to apply a wide variety of painting styles automatically to any gradient. -- NEW! Palette Drawers: Now you can organize palettes and reduce clutter by freeing up precious painting real estate. Combine panels, brush variants and custom palettes in a convenient grouping that can be opened and closed on command. -- NEW! Workflow and Interface Enhancements: Work faster than ever with the enhanced Property Bar that gives instant access to brush selection, brush controls, papers, flow maps and more. With the updated Brush Selector, eliminate the need for multiple clicks every time you want to grab a brush. Use the enhanced Eyedropper tool to get the exact color you want, when you need it. Pricing and Availability: Painter 2017 is available in English, German, French, Japanese and Traditional Chinese for $429 USD/ $499 CAD / EUR 424.95 / GBP 314.95. Registered owners of any previous version can purchase for the upgrade price of $229 USD/ $269 CAD / EUR 218.95 / GBP 159.00. Find the 30-day free trial, box and electronic download versions at http://www.painterartist.com/. Join the Conversation - Connect with Corel Painter users on Facebook: www.facebook.com/corelpainter - Follow our Twitter updates at @CorelPainter About Corel Paint Programs: Corel is the proud creator of Corel Painter, the world's most realistic paint program. Whether you're a budding artist or a creative professional, Painter gives you the freedom to create digital art without boundaries. The Corel Painter portfolio also includes Painter Essentials, the complete home art studio, ParticleShop, a Particle brush plugin for Photoshop, CorelDRAW and PaintShop Pro, and mobile apps that let you create digital art on the go. Boasting some of the industry's best-known brands, Corel's product lines also include CorelDRAW Graphics Suite, Corel PaintShop Pro, Corel VideoStudio, Corel WordPerfect Office, Roxio, Pinnacle and WinZip. For more information about Corel Paint Programs, please visit www.painterartist.com. 2016 Corel Corporation. All rights reserved. Corel, the Corel logo, the Corel Balloon logo, Painter, CorelDRAW, Essentials, PaintShop, Particle, ParticleShop, Pinnacle, Roxio, VideoStudio, WinZip and WordPerfect are trademarks or registered trademarks of Corel Corporation and/or its subsidiaries in Canada, the U.S. and elsewhere. All other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners. Patents: www.corel.com/patent To view the images associated with this release, please visit the following links: http://www.marketwire.com/library/20160808-1065267a_800.jpg http://www.marketwire.com/library/20160808-1065267b_800.jpg http://www.marketwire.com/library/20160808-1065267c_800.jpg http://www.marketwire.com/library/20160808-1065267d_800.jpg Contacts: Media Contact Alex Brazeau Corel PR alex.brazeau@corel.com www.painterartist.com The following editorial appeared in Saturdays Chicago Tribune. Secretary of State John Kerry extolled diplomacys power in January when Iran freed several imprisoned Americans, including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian. But was it the power of diplomacy that cinched the release or was it the might of $400 million in cash? Brief background: In January, the U.S. dispatched a cargo plane loaded with $400 million in foreign currency to Iran, The Wall Street Journal reports. This happened just as the Iranian nuclear deal with the West kicked in and economic sanctions lifted. The payment was portrayed by the U.S. as a partial settlement in a decades-old Iranian claim over a soured deal to buy U.S. military equipment. But the timing of the payment prompted senior Justice Department officials to object, according to the Journal. People knew what it was going to look like, and there was concern the Iranians probably did consider it a ransom payment, one official told the paper. Thats exactly how senior Iranian defense officials have reportedly described it publicly since then. President Barack Obama denies a quid pro quo, citing longstanding policy that the U.S. doesnt pay ransoms. But, Jonathan Tobin writes in Commentary magazine, reality may be different: Paying ransoms to terrorists or terrorist regimes is a practice that, at least in theory, the U.S. opposes. But like Israeli governments who also talk tough about not negotiating but then agree to lopsided deals, American leaders usually pay up if that is the only way to gain the release of U.S. hostages. But this deals done. The moneys safely in Tehran, where it may help the mullahs bankroll terrorists around the globe. The recriminations over whether it was or wasnt a ransom payment likely will subside. What remains important: Iran took Americans as de facto hostages. They were innocents arrested and held on trumped-up charges; Rezaian was convicted in a secret trial. The $400 million that the U.S. paid to help settle the claim or to gain the release or both is a pittance compared with the frozen billions released to Iran in the nuclear deal, and the billions more that could flow into Irans economy as Western companies return there in force. But Iran isnt satisfied. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is now furiously backpedaling from the deal he once embraced. He accuses the U.S. of breaching its pledges and obstructing and damaging Irans economic relations with other countries. Khameneis gripes arent new. In April, he demanded that the Obama administration help make Tehrans financial dealings with foreign companies and banks easier by allowing transactions involving dollars in certain circumstances. We argued against that relaxation because Iran hadnt earned any favors from the U.S. It still hasnt. Today, Iran is struggling to find financing from foreign banks still skeptical about doing business with the repressive regime. Deals for Iran to buy more than 200 jetliners from Boeing and Airbus are up in the air after the U.S. House passed a bill in July aimed at blocking the sales. The price of oil, Irans lifeblood, is down. One unfortunate solution to economic doldrums? Iran has taken yet more Americans captive in recent months and demanded the release of another $2 billion. The new victims include Reza Robin Shahini, of San Diego, who went to Iran to visit his ailing mother in May. On July 11, he was arrested on suspicion of crimes against Iran, The Washington Post reports. Two other U.S. citizens and several dual nationals from Britain, Canada and France are also being held, the paper says. So dont be surprised if the mullahs press their new demands and take still more Americans prisoner. They did get the $400 million. LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM -- (Marketwired) -- 08/09/16 -- Kaseya, the leading provider of complete IT management solutions for Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and small to midsized businesses, today revealed plans for its first-ever Kaseya Connect Europe. This Kaseya partner and customer conference will take place November 15-17, 2016 in Barcelona Spain. Registration for the event is now open. Following the success of Kaseya Connect 2016 held in May in San Diego, California, Kaseya now launches Kaseya Connect Europe in order to provide EMEA partners and customers a Europe-focused version of the popular event. This conference will provide a unique opportunity for Kaseya's Europe, Middle East and Africa communities to come together to gain new actionable insights and tangible skills that can be put to immediate use to help them grow business and optimise technical operations. Attendees will: 1. Network with peers, other business owners, value-added resellers, users and industry experts 2. Enjoy Technical Presentations and hands-on demos, enabling them to increase expertise in Kaseya solutions and better understand future trends 3. See the Latest Product Releases and roadmaps, hear first-hand what's coming and get hands-on experience with the latest versions of Kaseya VSA, Kaseya BMS, Kaseya AuthAnvil, Kaseya Traverse and Kaseya 365 Command products 4. Meet Kaseya Executives as they discuss Kaseya's strategy, product vision and answer any questions from customers and partners Sponsors and exhibiting partners of Kaseya Connect Europe include: APC by Schneider Electric Bitdefender Kaspersky Lab StorageCraft StratoGen WEBROOT Prior to the formal conference, there will be an MSP M&A Symposium to take place on Tuesday, Nov. 15. This half day symposium is free and is open to all MSP executives whether they are a Kaseya customer or not. Kaseya has developed this M&A Symposium as a forum specifically focused on how mergers and acquisitions impact MSPs throughout their lifecycle. MSPs should attend this Symposium to learn why an M&A strategy is critical for MSPs of all sizes and at all stages of development, best practices for creating an M&A strategy and executing against it and to learn the different perspectives of buyers and sellers in M&A courtships. Learn more about Kaseya Connect Europe and the pre-conference M&A Symposium at: http://europe.kaseyaconnect.com Kaseya Connect Europe 2016 Conference Details When: Nov. 16-17, 2016 (Pre-conference M&A Symposium Nov. 15) Where: Hilton, Barcelona, Spain Agenda and Registration: http://europe.kaseyaconnect.com/ About Kaseya Kaseya is the leading provider of complete IT Management solutions for Managed Service Providers and small to midsized businesses. Kaseya allows organisations to efficiently manage and secure IT in order to drive IT service and business success. Offered as both an industry-leading cloud solution and on-premise software, Kaseya solutions empower businesses to command all of IT centrally, manage remote and distributed environments with ease, and automate across IT management functions. Kaseya solutions currently manage over 10 million endpoints worldwide and are in use by customers in a wide variety of industries, including retail, manufacturing, healthcare, education, government, media, technology, finance, and more. Kaseya, headquartered in Dublin, Ireland is privately held with a presence in over 20 countries. To learn more, please visit www.kaseya.com. Media Contact Taunia Kipp Kaseya 415-694-5700 x1973 taunia.kipp@kaseya.com Keynote speakers will provide essential insights and emerging best practices at 11th Annual New Product Innovation & Development: A Frost & Sullivan Executive MindXchange MOUNTAIN VIEW, California, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Frost & Sullivan is pleased to announce that Lowinn Kibbey,Global Head, Johnson & Johnson Human Performance Institute, and Brian David Johnson, Futurist in Residence, Center for Science and the Imagination, Arizona State University, will be keynote speakers at the 11th Annual New Product Innovation & Development: A Frost & Sullivan Executive MindXchange. The event will take place January 9-11, 2017 at the San Diego Marriott, La Jolla, CA. To register and download the event agenda for the 11th Annual New Product Innovation & Development: A Frost & Sullivan Executive MindXchange please visit: www.frost.com/pds Kibbey's opening keynote, Energizing Leadership and Leveraging Technology and Disruption for Transformational Growth, will offer important takeaways from his leadership role at Johnson & Johnson's Health & Wellness Solutions, Inc. He will draw upon his experiences in providing vision and direction to core businesses at Johnson & Johnson, as well as his expertise in implementing new strategies, business models and partnerships. Kibbey recently spearheaded the launch of the Health and Wellness Technology Accelerator and will share key observations from that undertaking. Johnson's session, Adapting Your Product Strategy & Execution to Win the Business of the Consumer of the Future, will leverage his expertise as a futurist who works with organizations to develop actionable 10-15 year visions of what it will be like to live in the future. Futurecasting utilizes ethnographic studies, technology research, cultural history, trend data, global interviews and even science to provide a pragmatic roadmap of the future. Johnson will share strategies and insights that will help participants win the business of their consumer of the future. The event theme, Visionary Strategy and Leadership in Transformational Times, will address the dynamic market changes, disruptive technologies and shifting customer expectations that are driving business transformation and the necessity this creates for businesses to adjust their product and innovation strategies to remain competitive. Product development and innovation teams will leave with novel ideas and insights to help them address these formidable challenges, as well as introduce and execute new product and service initiatives intelligently and quickly. For additional information, please email: events.us@frost.com or call Matthew McSweegan at 516-255-3812. About Frost & Sullivan Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today's market participants. Our "Growth Partnership" supports clients by addressing these opportunities and incorporating two key elements driving visionary innovation: The Integrated Value Proposition and The Partnership Infrastructure. The Integrated Value Proposition provides support to our clients throughout all phases of their journey to visionary innovation including: research, analysis, strategy, vision, innovation and implementation. The Partnership Infrastructure is entirely unique as it constructs the foundation upon which visionary innovation becomes possible. This includes our 360 degree research, comprehensive industry coverage, career best practices as well as our global footprint of more than 40 offices. For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector and the investment community. Is your organization prepared for the next profound wave of industry convergence, disruptive technologies, increasing competitive intensity, Mega Trends, breakthrough best practices, changing customer dynamics and emerging economies? Contact: Chiara Carella Corporate Communications - Global Director P: +44 (0) 207-343-8314 E: chiara.carella@frost.com http://www.frost.com Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "ICT Market Report 2016/17 (PDF)" report to their offering. This is the new edition of the annual ICT Market Report. Inside you find up-to-date information and insights on ICT market developments in Europe and beyond. The report was written before the British referendum on EU membership, therefore, we discuss its possible impact but the outcome of the vote is not factored in our quantitative market forecasts. The Brexit is bound to negatively affect the European economy and ICT markets alike; to what extent, though, will also depend on further developments and decisions being taken in the UK and Brussels. Moreover, it is important to emphasize that the main market and technology trends that are analyzed in our new report remain valid and relevant despite the outcome of the British referendum. As previous reports the current edition is the result of a long-standing cooperation between Bitkom Research and a broad range of partners. Market data and analysis were provided by IDC, a leading global market intelligence firm. The report was produced in co-operation with a group of international ICT experts, the EITO Task Force. This group brings together experts from partner associations across Europe, the EU Commission, as well as our sponsors. The ICT Market Report 2016/17 provides the reader with a big picture of key market trends as well as detailed information at the country level. The report focuses on developments in Europe while also covering major international ICT markets such as the U.S., Japan and China. The report was prepared by IDC in close collaboration with the EITO Task Force. It provides the reader with an intimate understanding of the dynamics and trends in European and worldwide ICT markets: Country-level data for 29 European ICT markets Country-level data for Brazil, China, India, Japan, Turkey, USA Analysis of ICT market developments in 9 European countries Analysis of key market and technology trends in Europe Detailed market data and forecasts (2013-2017) by IDC Key Topics Covered: Preface Executive Summary A The European ICT Market 1 The ICT Market of Western Europe 1.1 Western Europe: ICT Market Dynamics and KeyTrends 1.1.1 Macroeconomic Developments Affecting the ICT Market 1.1.2 Key Technology Trends Reshaping the ICT Environment and Industry 1.1.3 IT Market Developments by Segment 1.1.4 Telecommunications Market Development by Segment 1.2 Western Europe: Data Tables 1.3 Western Europe: Country Analyses 1.4 Other Western European Countries: Data Tables 2 The ICT Market in Central and Eastern Europe 2.1 Central and Eastern Europe: ICT Market Dynamics and Key Trends 2.2 Central and Eastern Europe: Data Tables 2.3 Central and Eastern Europe: Country Analysis Serbia 2.4 Other Central and Eastern European Countries: Data Tables 3 The ICT Market in the EU: Aggregate Data Tables B The ICT Market in Non-European Countries 1 Brazil 2 China 3 India 4 Japan 5 Turkey 6 USA C The Global ICT Market D Summary Data Tables by Country For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/vggl75/ict_market_report View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160809005861/en/ Contacts: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 Sector: Computing PUNE, India, August 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a new market research report "Personal Identity Management Market by Application (Access Control and Content Management), Service (Professional Services and Managed Services), Deployment Type (On-Premises and Cloud), Vertical, and Region - Global Forecast to 2021", published by MarketsandMarkets, the market size is estimated to grow from USD 7.37 Billion in 2016 to USD 12.76 Billion by 2021, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 11.61%. (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 ) Browse 50 market data Tables and 44 Figures spread through 127 Pages and in-depth TOC on"Personal Identity Management Market" http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/personal-identity-management-market-244499986.html Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report. The increasing technology trend of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and Choose-Your-Own Device (CYOD) within organizations has introduced many security threats associated with identity thefts. As the frequency of sophisticated attacks on critical infrastructure are growing, the Personal Identity Management Market is expected to gain traction in the next five years. Access control application to play a key role in the Personal Identity Management Market Access control is expected to play a key role in changing the Personal Identity Management landscape during the forecast period and it also expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. This application provides identity managers with real-time management of all the activities with user devices such as smartphones, tablets, and laptops along with high security against malicious threats within the enterprises. Cloud-based deployment is expected to be the fastest-growing deployment model Cloud deployment is expected to be the fastest-growing deployment model in the Personal Identity Management Market as it benefits organizations with increased scalability, speed, 24/7 services, and enhanced management capabilities. Cloud Personal Identity Management solutions are available according to customer demand, wherein customers can start or stop any service, at will. Request For Sample Pages - http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestsample.asp?id=244499986 North America is expected to contribute the largest market share; Asia-Pacific (APAC) to grow at the highest CAGR North America is expected to hold the largest market share and dominate the Personal Identity Management Market from 2016 to 2021. The changing adoption needs of cloud applications, BYOD, and mobile practices along with meeting the strict compliance regulations are driving the organizations in North America to adopt Personal Identity Management applications. Various companies such as IBM, VMware, CA Technologies, Microsoft, Oracle, and Okta among others are operating in the market space. APAC offers potential growth opportunities for the Personal Identity Management Market to grow, as countries in the region are investing heavily to enhance access control and content management solutions. The major vendors in the Personal Identity Management Market include IBM Corporation (U.S.), VMware (U.S.), CA Technologies (U.S.), Microsoft (U.S.), Oracle (U.S.), and others. Browse Related Report Identity and Access Management Market by Component (Provisioning, Directory Services, Password Management, SSO, & Audit, Compliance, and Governance), by Organization Size, by Deployment, by Vertical, and by Region - Global Forecast to 2020 http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/identity-access-management-iam-market-1168.html About MarketsandMarkets MarketsandMarkets is the largest market research firm worldwide in terms of annually published premium market research reports. Serving 1700 global fortune enterprises with more than 1200 premium studies in a year, M&M is catering to a multitude of clients across 8 different industrial verticals. We specialize in consulting assignments and business research across high growth markets, cutting edge technologies and newer applications. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. M&M's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "RT" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. The new included chapters on Methodology and Benchmarking presented with high quality analytical infographics in our reports gives complete visibility of how the numbers have been arrived and defend the accuracy of the numbers. We at MarketsandMarkets are inspired to help our clients grow by providing apt business insight with our huge market intelligence repository. Contact: Mr.Rohan Markets and Markets UNIT no 802, Tower no. 7, SEZ Magarpatta city, Hadapsar Pune, Maharashtra 411013, India 1-888-600-6441 Email: sales@marketsandmarkets.com Visit MarketsandMarkets Blog @ http://www.marketsandmarketsblog.com/market-reports/telecom-it LinkedIn @ http://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsandmarkets VIENNA, VA -- (Marketwired) -- 08/09/16 -- The National Blood Clot Alliance (NBCA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are kicking off the next phase of their widely acclaimed Stop the Clot, Spread the Word campaign, with an important focus on blood clot risk reduction among hospitalized patients. Up to 900,000 people are affected by blood clots in the United States each year. About half of these blood clots occur during a hospital stay, or within 90 days of an inpatient hospital admission or surgical procedure, with many diagnosed after discharge. About 100,000 people die due to blood clots each year, which is greater than the annual number of deaths in the U.S. due to AIDS, breast cancer, and motor vehicle crashes combined. While anyone can develop blood clots, people who are currently or recently hospitalized, recovering from surgery, or receiving cancer treatment are at increased risk. "Many blood clots can be prevented," explains Coleen A. Boyle, PhD, MSHyg, Director of CDC's National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities. "Improving education for both patients and healthcare providers is essential and a key step to saving lives. Increased awareness can protect more patients from developing deadly blood clots and help those who do get treatment sooner." The Stop the Clot, Spread the Word campaign, made possible by funding from CDC to NBCA, is focused on improving recognition of blood clot risks among hospital patients, and also improving awareness of blood clot signs and symptoms. When caught in time, blood clots can be safely treated. The symptoms of blood clots in the legs (deep vein thrombosis or DVT) include pain, swelling, tenderness, and redness or discoloration of the skin. Symptoms of blood clots in the lungs (pulmonary embolism or PE) include shortness of breath, sharp chest pain that worsens with a deep breath, and coughing up blood. The newly unveiled Stop the Clot, Spread the Word campaign materials encourage people headed to the hospital or just returning home from a hospital stay to ask themselves one potentially life-saving question: What is the plan for blood clot prevention surrounding my hospital stay? "About 70 percent of blood clots can be prevented, but fewer than 50 percent of hospital patients receive the recommended prevention measures," explains Michael B. Streiff, MD, FACP, Associate Professor of Medicine and Pathology, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, Maryland, and Chair of NBCA's Medical & Scientific Advisory Board. "For this reason, people who may be facing a hospital stay should take control of their care and work with their doctors to develop a prevention plan." According to Dr. Streiff, the best way to prevent blood clots is to increase awareness of risk factors. While hospitalization, surgery, and trauma are major risk factors for blood clots, several additional risk factors include pregnancy, cancer and some cancer treatments, and the use of estrogen-based birth control and hormone therapy. "As the leading patient advocacy organization representing people affected by blood clots and clotting disorders nationwide, NBCA has long been focused on the diverse information needs of the many individuals we serve," says NBCA's CEO Randy Fenninger, who is the survivor of blood clots in both lungs. "We're proud of the unparalleled quality of educational resources stemming from our Stop the Clot, Spread the Word campaign and honored to continue this important work in partnership with our colleagues at CDC." NBCA originally developed this five-year awareness initiative in 2014, in response to a CDC Funding Opportunity Announcement, to combine a broad-based public awareness effort with patient-centered educational tools. The campaign seeks to educate the public about blood clot risks, signs, and symptoms, and also is geared toward individuals at increased risk for DVT/PE, including hospitalized patients, pregnant women, and people affected by cancer. Campaign materials for each patient group will be introduced, focusing first on the information needs of hospitalized patients. NBCA is a nonprofit, voluntary health organization dedicated to advancing the prevention, early diagnosis and successful treatment of life-threatening blood clots, such as deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, and clot-provoked stroke. NBCA accomplishes its mission through programs that build public awareness, educate patients and healthcare professionals, and promote supportive public and private sector policy. Please visit www.stoptheclot.org/spreadtheword for more information about blood clots. Embedded Video Available Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3041973 Embedded Video Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3042223 Contact: NBCA Lisa Fullam lfullam@stoptheclot.org 301.825.9217 Sara Wyen swyen@stoptheclot.org 301.825.9219 CDC Media 404-639-3286 media@cdc.gov WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Republican party's White House nominee Donald Trump has unveiled his economic policy. During his speech at the Detroit Economic Club Monday, Trump vowed to kick-start the U.S. Economy by cutting taxes, reviewing regulation, and unshackling the American energy industry. Trump said his economic vision will unleash the power and productivity of US business and entrepreneurship, bringing prosperity, creating jobs and improving the lives of working families. The four pillars of Trump's speech were Tax Reform, Trade Reform, Regulatory Reform, and Energy Reform. He said the Tax Reform will benefit working families while ensuring the wealthy pay their fair share. The policy also highlights dramatically reducing taxes for everyone and streamline deductions. Other tax reforms included: Exclusion of Childcare expenses from taxation; limiting Business income tax o 15 percent for every business; making corporate tax competitive and making the US the most attractive place to invest; ending death tax. The policy stated that under Trade Reform, NAFTA will be renegotiated, and the TPP will be canceled. A Trump Government will label China as a currency manipulator. Trump made it clear that his Government will not enter into any trade deal unless it increases US economic growth and strengthens its manufacturing base. He will also issue an executive order to impose a regulatory moratorium on new agency regulations. The reforms also include repealing and replacing Obamacare. Trump vowed that he will rescind all the job-destroying Obama executive actions including the Climate Action Plan and the Waters of the U.S. rule. Trans Canada will be required to renew its permit application for the Keystone Pipeline. The Paris Climate Agreement (limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius) will be canceled, and all payments of U.S. tax dollars to U.N. global warming programs to be stopped, the statement said. Trump also promised to lift restrictions on American energy, which will increase GDP annually by $100 billion, create 500,000 new jobs, and increase wages by over $30 billion over the next seven years. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de Moderate Growth in Revenue and Net Profit HONG KONG, Aug. 9,2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Highlights Bus shelter advertising revenue, net of value added tax, increased by 3.9% to HK$889.6 million . The depreciation of the RMB reduced revenue growth by approximately 5.2% . The depreciation of the RMB reduced revenue growth by approximately 5.2% EBITDA increased by 3.9% to HK$356.7 million . The depreciation of the RMB reduced EBITDA growth by approximately 5.2% . The depreciation of the RMB reduced EBITDA growth by approximately 5.2% EBIT increased by 2.0% to HK$169.1 million . The depreciation of the RMB reduced EBIT growth by approximately 5.3% . The depreciation of the RMB reduced EBIT growth by approximately 5.3% Net profit increased by 7.0% to HK$108.0 million . The depreciation of the RMB reduced net profit growth by approximately 5.6% . The depreciation of the RMB reduced net profit growth by approximately 5.6% Basic earnings per share increased by 6.5% to HK19.95 cents The Directors have proposed payment of a special dividend of HK37 cents per share (1H2015: Nil) Clear Media Limited ("Clear Media" or the "Company", together with its subsidiaries, the "Group") (SEHK Stock Code: 100), the largest bus shelter advertising panel operator in China, is pleased to announce its interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2016. The Group's total turnover for the six months ended 30 June 2016 increased by 3.9% year on year to HK$889.6 million. The depreciation of the RMB reduced revenue growth by approximately 5.2%. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation ("EBITDA") for the period increased by 3.9% year on year to HK$356.7 million (1H2015: HK$343.4 million). The depreciation of the RMB reduced EBITDA growth by approximately 5.2%.Earnings before interest and tax ("EBIT") increased by 2.0% to HK$169.1 million (1H2015: HK$165.9 million). The depreciation of the RMB reduced EBIT growth by approximately 5.3%. Net profit for the period increased by 7.0% year on year to HK$108.0 million (1H2015: HK$100.9 million). The depreciation of the RMB reduced net profit growth by approximately 5.6%. Basic earnings per share for the first half of 2016 increased by 6.5% year on year to HK19.95 cents (1H2015: HK18.73 cents). The Directors have proposed payment of a special dividend of HK37 cents per share (1H2015: Nil). As of 30 June 2016, Clear Media operated the most extensive standardized bus shelter advertising network in Mainland China, with a total of more than 47,000 panels (1H2015: 44,000) covering 26 cities. Revenue, net of value added tax, from the bus shelter advertising business increased by 3.9% year on year to HK$889.6 million (1H2015: HK$855.8 million). The depreciation of RMB reduced revenue growth by approximately 5.2%. The average selling price before value added tax (the "ASP") decreased modestly by 6.6% year on year during the first half of 2016 due to incentives offered to retain customers' spending with the Group. The average number of bus shelter panels increased by 7.6% year on year. The overall occupancy rate increased to 61.3% (1H2015: 59.2%). For the six months ended 30 June 2016, revenue before value added tax ("gross revenue") from the Group's bus shelter advertising operations in the key cities of Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing increased by 10.7% year on year to HK$542.1 million (1H2015: HK$489.7 million). Among the three key cities, the revenue performance was led by the operation in Shanghai, followed by Beijing and then Guangzhou. Gross revenue from Shanghai increased by 28.9% year on year to HK$134.5 million (1H2015: HK$104.3 million), attributable to a 9.5% increase in the average number of bus shelter panels and a higher occupancy rate at 58.1% (1H2015: 45.3%). The ASP decreased by 8.1%. Gross revenue from Beijing increased by 10.5% year on year to HK$248.8 million (1H2015: HK$225.1 million), mainly due to a 2.5% increase in the average number of bus shelter panels and a higher occupancy rate at 74.4% (1H2015: 66.2%). The ASP decreased by 4.0%. Gross revenue from Guangzhou slightly decreased by 0.9% year on year to HK$158.9 million (1H2015: HK$160.4 million), attributable to a 5.5% decrease in ASP and a decrease in occupancy rate to 60.1% (1H2015: 64.5%). The average number of bus shelter panels increased by 12.6%. Gross revenue from all mid-tier cities, where the Group has operations in, decreased by 4.0% to HK$393.8 million (1H2015: HK$410.0 million) for the six months ended 30 June 2016, mainly due to a 10.1% decrease in ASP and a decrease in occupancy rate to 58.4% (1H2015: 58.9%). The average number of bus shelter panels increased by 7.7%. As of 30 June 2016, the Group operated a total of 257 digital advertising panels in Nanjing (1H2015: 209). Sales generated from the new digital operation amounted to HK$6.7 million for the six months ended 30 June 2016 (1H2015: HK$7.0 million). Mr. Han Zi Jing, Chief Executive Officer of the Group, said: "We expect to maintain our capital expenditure budget for 2016 at a similar scale to 2015 as we continue to identify acquisition opportunities in major cities and new cities to extend the breadth and depth of the reach of our networks, capitalizing on the favorable asset price levels." Mr. Joseph Tcheng, Chairman of the Group, said: "The operating environment is expected to remain challenging in the second half of 2016. Our management expects revenue performance from customers in different industries to be mixed. In the long run, Clear Media maintains its optimistic stance towards prospects of the out-of-home advertising sector in China on the back of the country's persisting growth in consumer spending and continuing urbanization Financial Highlights Income statement highlights for the six months ended 30 June 2016 (HK$'000) 2016 (Unaudited) 2015 (Unaudited) % Change Turnover 889,568 855,794 +3.9% EBITDA 356,708 343,356 +3.9% Net profit 108,044 100,929 +7.0% Basic EPS (HK cents) 19.95 18.73 +6.5% Special DPS (HK cents) 37 Nil N/A Balance sheet highlights (HK$'000) 30 June 2016 (Unaudited) 31 December 2015 (Audited) Cash and cash equivalents 622,088 689,322 Net assets 2,745,688 2,802,442 About Clear Media Limited Clear Media is the largest bus shelter advertising panel operator in China, with leading market shares of more than 60% in top-tier cities, and also a broad presence in the fastest growing cities across the country. We provide one-stop solutions for countrywide advertising campaigns for our customers. Listed on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong since 2002 under the stock code 100, Clear Media's largest shareholder is Clear Channel Outdoor (NYSE: CCO), one of the world's largest outdoor media companies. For more information on Clear Media, please visit: www.clear-media.net. For further information: Clear Media Limited Mr. Jeffrey Yip Director of Investor Relations, Company Secretary Tel: +852-2235 3977 Fax:+852-2235 3911 Email: jeffrey.yip@clear-media.net iPR Ogilvy & Mather Natalie Tam/ Peter Chan / Clara Liu / Jenny Leung Tel:+852-2136 6182/ 2136 6955/ 3920 7631/ 3920 7678 Fax:+852-3170 6606 Email: clearmedia@iprogilvy.com To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/clear-media-announces-interim-results-for-the-six-months-ended-30-june-2016-300311082.html WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Senator Susan Collins, R-Maine, joined a growing list of Republican lawmakers backing away from Donald Trump with a scathing rebuke of the GOP presidential nominee. In an op-ed piece published by the Washington Post late Monday, Collins went so far as to call Trump 'unworthy' of being president. 'I will not be voting for Donald Trump for president,' Collins wrote. 'This is not a decision I make lightly, for I am a lifelong Republican.' She added, 'But Donald Trump does not reflect historical Republican values nor the inclusive approach to governing that is critical to healing the divisions in our country.' Collins specifically cited Trump's attacks on a disabled reporter, federal Judge Gonzalo Curiel, and the parents of a fallen Muslim soldier as reasons for her decision. The Republican Senator argued that Trump's comments and his subsequent refusal to apologize are proof that the real estate tycoon lacks the temperament, self-discipline and judgment required to be president. 'I had hoped that we would see a 'new' Donald Trump as a general-election candidate - one who would focus on jobs and the economy, tone down his rhetoric, develop more thoughtful policies and, yes, apologize for ill-tempered rants,' Collins wrote. 'But the unpleasant reality that I have had to accept is that there will be no 'new' Donald Trump, just the same candidate who will slash and burn and trample anything and anyone he perceives as being in his way or an easy scapegoat,' she added. 'Regrettably, his essential character appears to be fixed, and he seems incapable of change or growth.' Collins did not indicate who she would vote for instead of Trump and did not mention Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in her piece. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. HYDERABAD, India, August 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Mordor Intelligence announces the publication of their research report on the sleep apnea devices market. The report titled, "Global Sleep Apnea Devices Market Growths, Trend and Forecast (2016-2021)" discusses the current landscape and outlook of the market. The global sleep apnea device market accounted for USD 3.75 billion in 2015 and is estimated to account for USD 4.03 billion in 2016 and USD 5.7 billion in 2021 growing at a CAGR of 7.45% during the forecast period. The report is an amalgamation of the current market scenario, its future prospects and forces driving the market as well as those that are restraining the growth of the market. It highlights the market geographically in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Middle East & Africa. Emphasis is given to the key players within the market. Sleep apnea refers to condition of either small pauses in breathing or the presence of shallow or infrequent breathing especially during sleep. It can be either obstructive sleep apnea, central sleep apnea and mixed sleep apnea. The increase in the relative number of sleep apnea cases is mostly apprehended to rise in notable conditions like Type II diabetes, obesity, coronary artery disease, cognitive heart failure, stroke, hypertension and atrial fibrillation. Recent studies have concluded that seven out of 10 cases of Type II diabetes patients complain about the presence of sleep apnea and nearly 75% patient with hypertension also have sleep apnea. This has been a major driving factor for the sleep apnea device market. Browse Related Reports Here The report has segmented the sleep apnea device market broadly based on the diagnostic devices (PSG, Pulse Oximeters, Actigraphy devices, others), therapeutic devices (CPAP devices, BiPAP devices and others), Oxygen devices (Oxygen concentrators, portable oxygen concentrators, liquid portable oxygen), oral appliances and ASV devices. Geographically, the market is segmented in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa and Latin America. The diagnostic device of the sleep apnea devices accounted for over 45% of the share owing to technical advancements in the devices and wide spread awareness among people through government and NGO initiatives. North America accounted for the major share in the market of over 35% of the market value owing to the rapid developments in the healthcare infrastructure in US. However, it is estimated that the Asia-Pacific sleep apnea device market will grow with the highest CAGR during the forecast period owing to the growing economic feasibility of the patients and the growing awareness. Companies that dominate the sleep apnea device market are GE Healthcare, ResMed, Philips Healthcare, Carefusion, Cadwell among others. About Mordor Intelligence: Mordor Intelligence is a global market research and consulting firm. Our singular focus is to provide research insights for business success. Our research team has expertise in diverse fields like Agriculture, Healthcare, ICT, Chemicals, Manufacturing, Logistics, Electronics and Automotive. However diverse the expertise maybe, everyone in our team shares one common trait - 'we love data and we love providing solutions to clients using that data'. Seeing your business flourish based on our solutions and strategy is what we love the most. For information regarding permissions and sales, please contact: info@mordorintelligence.com Media Contact: Madan Gopal AVP - Marketing & Strategy Email: madan@mordorintelligence.com Direct Line:+1 661-210- 4568 TUSTIN, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 08/09/16 -- Logomark -- the industry-leading promotional products supplier -- is pleased to announce the winners of its 12 Weeks of Summer campaign. Grand prize winner Paula Scheidler of American Solutions for Business in Oregon won a dream trip for two to Southern California, a visit to the Logomark facility in Tustin, Calif., dinner with Logomark CEO Trevor Gnesin and his executive staff; as well as two days of fun in the sun. Gorilla Marketing in Riverside, Calif., Melissa Anderson of New Clients Inc. in Richmond Va. and Linda Newman of Brilliant Marketing Ideas in San Diego, Calif. each won customizable beach cruisers. Logomark's award-winning 12 Weeks of Summer campaign ran from May to July 2016 and in addition to offering great prizes, the program highlighted weekly new product releases and promotions through social media. Logomark's promotional videos also impressed viewers and generated laughter. Promo Marketing Magazine sought to settle the battle for favorite promotional video in an online poll, and based on 7,973 votes, Logomark was announced the winner July 29. "Our 12 Weeks of Summer was a huge success and I am so excited for all of our winners," says Scott Pearson, Logomark executive vice president - CRO. "Not only were we able to showcase some of Logomark's newest products perfect for summer, but it was a way for us to show our appreciation to our customers and thank them for their support and loyalty." No purchase was necessary for sweepstakes entrance. To have been eligible to win the grand prize trip, participants needed to sign up for new product announcement emails between May 1 and July 31. To have been eligible to win one of three beach cruisers, participants needed to follow Logomark on Instagram and post a fun summer photo with a Logomark product using #12WeeksOfSummer. Throughout the duration of the campaign, Logomark also raised funds for the Independent Living Resource Center (ILRC), a non-profit organization, which has been committed to helping people with all kinds of disabilities -- physical, mental and developmental -- for the past 30 years. Logomark employees raised $5,000 for the ILRC to purchase beach wheelchairs by selling $5 phone wallets with the IRLC logo -- 100 percent of the proceeds went towards the cause. To donate directly to the cause, visit www.ilrc-trico.org. For more information, please visit www.logomark.com. ABOUT LOGOMARK: Founded in 1993, Logomark is a premier supplier of personalized gift and promotional products for the North American and global advertising specialty market. The company is a certified member of the Quality Certification Alliance, ensuring standards that deliver the highest levels of product safety. Providing more than 3,000 top-quality products in diverse categories, Logomark persistently reinvents the promotional products industry exceptional product selections, innovative solutions and unequaled customer support. Logomark offers a complete line of products, an easy-to-use mobile app, an award-winning website and is ranked 8th in product searches on the industry's leading search platform. For more information on the company's broad line of quality promotional products, please call 800-789-4438 or visit www.logomark.com. Technavio's latest report on the global bag heat sealing equipment marketprovides an analysis on the most important trends expected to impact the market outlook from 2016-2020. Technavio defines an emerging trend as a factor that has the potential to significantly impact the market and contribute to its growth or decline. Sharan Raj, a lead analyst from Technavio, specializing in research on packaging sector, says, "The primary customers of bag heat sealing equipment are distributed across verticals, including the food, pharmaceuticals and personal care, and industrial sectors. The demand and importance of bag heat sealing equipment is growing moderately across the globe as a result of which the leading manufacturers of bag heat sealing equipment are focusing on automation and enhancement of the technologies used. Geographically, Europe dominates the market with approximately 36% of the market share. The US, Germany, and the UK are the main contributors to the global market, while APAC is expected to show the fastest growth rate during the forecast period. The top three emerging trends driving the global bag heat sealing equipment market according to Technavio transportation and logistics research analysts are: Demand for automatic impulse sealers Technological advancements Increase in market consolidation Demand for automatic impulse sealers There has been a continuous shift from manual to automatic welding, which is a recent trend witnessed in the market. The need to automate manufacturing processes has been a major requirement in the market due to increasing shortage of skilled labor worldwide. These sealers provide fast sealing operation and are preferable for high production jobs. Several manufacturing companies in the packaging industry rely on the automation process to increase productivity and efficiency of their processes. The manufacturers of bag heat sealing equipment focus on designing products that perform tasks with high levels of precision, over long periods. Also, this equipment is expected to perform high-speed, error-free operations in situations where both repetition and accuracy are important. Hence, the growing need for automation is expected to help in the growth of the market during the forecast period. Technological advancements The global bag heat sealing equipment market is expected to be driven by advances in technology and product innovation during the forecast period. The market is experiencing an increase in consumer demand for innovative products, which exhibit a higher degree of flexibility in terms of upgrading the operational capabilities. Many vendors have been investing in R&D to enhance their existing product line and develop equipment with advanced technical specifications. "Companies are increasingly focusing on enhancing the product and process technology as technological advancement is a decisive factor for a profitable business," says Sharan. Increase in market consolidation One of the significant trends in the global bag heat sealing machinery market is an increase in mergers and acquisitions. To access the untapped market, a number of mergers and acquisitions and strategic alliances are expected to take place in the market during the forecast period. Many large vendors and emerging contenders in the market are looking for mergers and acquisitions to enhance their market presence. Major players, including Bosch Packaging Technology, and the GEA Group are trying to increase their market share. For instance, Bosch Packaging Technology announced its plan for a joint venture in India with Klenzaids Contamination Controls. Tetra Laval acquired Miteco, a provider of solutions for fruit juices, soft drinks, and liquid food in 2014. In addition, mergers and acquisitions enable companies to enhance their distribution channels and improve their market reach. Top Vendor Offerings: Company Products offered Barry-Wehmiller AeroSeal bag sealer Integral PBOM sealer Integral poly bag sealer Integral poly woven bag sealer Bosch Packaging Technology Bag sealing machines GEA Vertical form fill sealer Impulse sealers Pro Mach Lift seal heat sealer Automatic flange sealer Sonoco Alloyd Semi-automatic sealing machines Automatic sealing machines Reconditioned sealing machines Parts and service Source: Technavio Browse Related Reports: Global Packaging Tape Printing Market 2016-2020 Global Petcare Packaging Market 2016-2020 Global Flat Pouches Market 2016-2020 Do you need a report on a market in a specific geographical cluster or country but can't find what you're looking for? Don't worry, Technavio also takes client requests. Please contact enquiry@technavio.com with your requirements and our analysts will be happy to create a customized report just for you. About Technavio Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. The company develops over 2000 pieces of research every year, covering more than 500 technologies across 80 countries. Technavio has about 300 analysts globally who specialize in customized consulting and business research assignments across the latest leading edge technologies. Technavio analysts employ primary as well as secondary research techniques to ascertain the size and vendor landscape in a range of markets. Analysts obtain information using a combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches, besides using in-house market modeling tools and proprietary databases. They corroborate this data with the data obtained from various market participants and stakeholders across the value chain, including vendors, service providers, distributors, re-sellers, and end-users. If you are interested in more information, please contact our media team at media@technavio.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160809005074/en/ Contacts: Technavio Research Jesse Maida Media Marketing Executive US: +1 630 333 9501 UK: +44 208 123 1770 www.technavio.com August 9, 2016; Copenhagen, Denmark; Interim Report for First Half 2016Highlights-- Net Sales of DARZALEX (daratumumab) by Janssen for the first half of 2016 were USD 209 million, resulting in royalty income of USD 25 million (DKK 168 million) -- 2016 financial guidance improved -- Announced European conditional marketing authorization of DARZALEX for heavily pre-treated or double-refractory multiple myeloma -- Achieved USD 30 million milestone for first commercial sale of DARZALEX in Europe -- Announced positive topline result in Phase III POLLUX study of daratumumab in relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma -- Announced that U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted priority review to sBLA for ofatumumab (Arzerra) in combination with fludarabine and cyclophosphamide (FC) in relapsed chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) -- Announced that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) issued a negative opinion for Arzerra as maintenance therapy in relapsed CLL -- Announced Phase III studies of ofatumumab in relapsing multiple sclerosis"The two major highlights during the second quarter were the rapid European approval of DARZALEX and positive Phase III data from the POLLUX study. DARZALEX was successfully launched by our collaboration partner Janssen shortly after the approval, triggering a milestone payment of USD 30 million to Genmab. We were also very excited about the Phase III POLLUX study data which showed that daratumumab in combination with lenalidomide and dexamethasone led to a significant improvement in progression free survival in treatment of relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma," said Jan van de Winkel, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Genmab.Financial Performance First Half-- Revenue was DKK 524 million in the first half of 2016 compared to DKK 281 million in the first half of 2015. The increase of DKK 243 million, or 86%, was mainly driven by higher royalty and milestone revenue under our daratumumab collaboration with Janssen. -- Operating expenses were DKK 366 million in the first half of 2016 compared to DKK 244 million in the first half of 2015. The increase of DKK 122 million, or 50%, was due to the additional investment in our pipeline of products, including the advancement of tisotumab vedotin, HuMax-AXL-ADC, HexaBody-DR5/DR5, DuoBody-CD3xCD20, and our other pre-clinical programs. -- Operating income was DKK 158 million in the first half of 2016 compared to DKK 212 million in the first half of 2015. The decrease of DKK 54 million, or 25%, was driven by the one-time reversal of the ofatumumab funding liability of DKK 176 million in 2015 combined with increased operating expenses in 2016, which were partly offset by higher revenue in 2016. -- On June 30, 2016, Genmab had a cash position of DKK 3,762 million compared to DKK 3,493 million at December 31, 2015. This represented a net increase of DKK 269 million, which was driven primarily by income from operations and the proceeds from the exercise of warrants for DKK 82 million.Business Progress Second QuarterDaratumumab-- May: Achieved a USD 30 million milestone triggered by the first commercial sale of DARZALEX in Europe. -- May: Announced that the European Commission (EC) granted a conditional marketing authorization for DARZALEX for heavily pre-treated or double-refractory multiple myeloma. The approval followed a positive recommendation for DARZALEX from the CHMP of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in April. -- May: Announced that the Phase III POLLUX study (MMY3003) of daratumumab in combination with lenalidomide and dexamethasone in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma met the primary endpoint at a pre-planned interim analysis (Hazard Ratio (HR) = 0.37 (95% CI 0.27-0.52), p<0.0001). Patients who received treatment with daratumumab in combination with lenalidomide and dexamethasone had a 63% reduction in risk of their disease progressing, compared to those who did not receive daratumumab. The median progression free survival (PFS) for patients treated with daratumumab in combination with lenalidomide and dexamethasone has not been reached, compared to an estimated median PFS of 18.4 months for patients who received lenalidomide and dexamethasone alone. Janssen will engage in a dialogue with health authorities about the potential for a regulatory submission for this indication. -- April: Reported more detailed data from the Phase III CASTOR (MMY3004) study of daratumumab in combination with bortezomib and dexamethasone versus bortezomib and dexamethasone in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma. The study met the primary endpoint of improving PFS; HR = 0.39, p<0.0001. The median PFS for patients treated with daratumumab has not been reached, compared to median PFS of 7.2 months for patients who did not receive daratumumab. -- April: Announced that MorphoSys filed a complaint at the U.S. District Court of Delaware against Genmab and Janssen Biotech, Inc. (Janssen), for patent infringement under U.S. patent no. 8,263,746 based on activities relating to the manufacture, use and sale of DARZALEX in the United States. Genmab and Janssen disagree with the allegations made by MorphoSys in its complaint for patent infringement and intend to vigorously contest those allegations.Ofatumumab-- June: Announced that the CHMP of the EMA issued a negative opinion on the use of Arzerra as maintenance therapy for patients with relapsed CLL. -- June: Announced that Novartis will start Phase III studies of the subcutaneous formulation of ofatumumab in relapsing multiple sclerosis (MS) with enrollment of patients to start in September 2016. -- May: Announced that the U.S. FDA granted Priority Review to the supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) for the use of ofatumumab in combination with FC for the treatment of patients with relapsed CLL.Subsequent Event-- July: The U.S. FDA granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation for DARZALEX injection in combination with lenalidomide and dexamethasone, or bortezomib and dexamethasone for the treatment of patients with multiple myeloma who have received at least one prior therapy. Breakthrough Therapy Designation is a program intended to expedite the development and review of drugs to treat serious or life-threatening diseases in cases where preliminary clinical evidence shows that the drug may provide substantial improvements over available therapy.Outlook Genmab is improving its 2016 financial guidance published on April 20, 2016 and reiterated on May 10, 2016, due to increased revenue and operating expenses resulting in increased operating income and cash position.Conference Call Genmab will hold a conference call in English to discuss the results for the first half of 2016 today, Tuesday, August 9, at 6.00 pm CEST, 5.00 pm BST or noon EDT. The dial in numbers are:+1 212 444 0481 (US participants) and ask for the Genmab conference call +44 20 3427 1914 (international participants) and ask for the Genmab conference callA live and archived webcast of the call and relevant slides will be available at www.genmab.com.Contact: Rachel Curtis Gravesen, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations & Communications T: +45 33 44 77 20; M: +45 25 12 62 60; E: r.gravesen@genmab.comThe interim report contains forward looking statements. The words "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "intend" and "plan" and similar expressions identify forward looking statements. Actual results or performance may differ materially from any future results or performance expressed or implied by such statements. The important factors that could cause our actual results or performance to differ materially include, among others, risks associated with product discovery and development, uncertainties related to the outcome and conduct of clinical trials including unforeseen safety issues, uncertainties related to product manufacturing, the lack of market acceptance of our products, our inability to manage growth, the competitive environment in relation to our business area and markets, our inability to attract and retain suitably qualified personnel, the unenforceability or lack of protection of our patents and proprietary rights, our relationships with affiliated entities, changes and developments in technology which may render our products obsolete, and other factors. For a further discussion of these risks, please refer to the section "Risk Management" in Genmab's annual report, which is available on www.genmab.com and the "Significant Risks and Uncertainties" section in the interim report. Genmab does not undertake any obligation to update or revise forward looking statements in the interim report nor to confirm such statements in relation to actual results, unless required by law.Genmab A/S and its subsidiaries own the following trademarks: Genmab; the Y-shaped Genmab logo; Genmab in combination with the Y-shaped Genmab logo; the DuoBody logo; the HexaBody logo; HuMax; HuMax-CD20; DuoBody; HexaBody and UniBody. Arzerra is a trademark of Novartis AG or its affiliates. DARZALEX is a trademark of Janssen Biotech, Inc.CVR no. 2102 3884Genmab A/S Bredgade 34E 1260 Copenhagen K DenmarkDownload the full Interim Report for the first half of 2016 on attachment or at www.genmab.com.Attachment:https://cns.omxgroup.com/cds/DisclosureAttachmentServlet?messageAttachmentId=581197 FORT LAUDERDALE, FL and DAVIE, FL--(Marketwired - August 09, 2016) - Florida's State Surgeon General and Secretary of Health Celeste Philip, M.D., M.P.H., will address degree candidates from Nova Southeastern University's (NSU) Health Professions Division (HPD) at its Commencement on Friday, August 19 at 2 p.m. in the Arena at the Don Taft University Center (3301 College Ave., Fort Lauderdale). Dr. Philip will receive an honorary doctor of humane letters degree as part of the ceremonies, which include candidates from NSU's College of Nursing and College of Health Care Sciences. "Dr. Philip has dedicated her career to improving people's access to health care throughout the state of Florida and beyond," said Fred Lippman, R.Ph., Ed.D., HPD chancellor. "She is a great role model for our future practitioners because her focus on prevention and public health mirrors two important tenants of health care that we emphasize in our curriculum and training." Dr. Philip was appointed to this position by Gov. Rick Scott in 2016. She is board certified in family medicine, preventive medicine and public health. Dr. Philip has previously served as the interim state surgeon general, deputy secretary for health, deputy state health officer for Children's Medical Services, as interim director for three county health departments, and as interim chief for the health department's Bureau of Communicable Diseases. As the medical director for the Health Department in Polk County, Dr. Philip chaired the Polk Health Care Alliance Infrastructure Committee and served on the board of the Lakeland Volunteers in Medicine, through which she provided primary care to uninsured patients. She is a board member of the Florida Healthy Kids Corporation and on the Health Initiatives Committee Advisory Group to the Florida Board of Governors. Dr. Philip's contributions to public health extend beyond state lines. She is president of the American Heart Association's six-state Greater Southeast Affiliate, and she served as an epidemic intelligence service officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Philip graduated magna cum laude from Howard University in Washington, D.C., with bachelor's degrees in English and Spanish. She earned a Master of Public Health degree in Maternal and Child Health and a Doctor of Medicine from Loma Linda University in California. She completed her residency at Florida Hospital in Orlando and has remained committed to improving health in Florida throughout her career. More information on NSU's Commencement exercises can be found online at www.nova.edu/commencement. About Nova Southeastern University (NSU): Located in beautiful Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Nova Southeastern University (NSU) is a dynamic research institution dedicated to providing high-quality educational programs at the undergraduate, graduate, and first-professional degree levels. A private, not-for-profit institution with more than 26,000 students, NSU has campuses in Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Jacksonville, Miami, Miramar, Orlando, Palm Beach, and Tampa, Florida, as well as San Juan, Puerto Rico, while maintaining a presence online globally. For more than 50 years, NSU has been awarding degrees in a wide range of fields, while fostering groundbreaking research and an impactful commitment to community. Classified as a research university with "high research activity" by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, NSU is 1 of only 50 universities nationwide to also be awarded Carnegie's Community Engagement Classification, and is also the largest private, not-for-profit institution in the United States that meets the U.S. Department of Education's criteria as a Hispanic-serving Institution. Please visit www.nova.edu for more information about NSU and realizingpotential.nova.edu for more information on the largest fundraising campaign in NSU history. Jeremy Katzman, M.B.A., APR Office of Public Relations 954-262-1535 (office) 954-661-7000 (cell) j.katzman@nova.edu Marla Oxenhandler Office of Public Relations 954-262-5315 (office) 954-770-9204 (cell) marla.oxenhandler@nova.edu Montreal, Quebec--(Newsfile Corp. - August 9, 2016) - Peak Positioning Technologies Inc. (CSE: PKK) (OTC Pink: PKKFF) ("Peak" or the "Company") today announced that it has published an updated investor presentation to provide more details on its Chinese operations. The presentation is now available for download in the "Investor Relations" section of the Company's website under the "Investor Presentation" subsection at www.peakpositioning.com. The Company would like to invite those with questions after downloading and viewing the presentation to use the form available on the "Contact Us" page of the website to send in their questions to the Company. Questions about the presentation submitted by 11:59pm EST on Friday August 12 will be considered for the compilation of a list of the top ten most relevant and frequently asked questions. The Company will then publish that list of the top 10 questions, along with the answers to those questions, on its website by 7:00pm EST on Wednesday August 17. About Peak Positioning Technologies Inc.: Peak Positioning Technologies Inc. is an IT portfolio management company whose mission is to assemble, finance and manage a portfolio of high-growth-potential companies and assets in some of the fastest growing tech sectors in China, including Fintech, e-commerce and cloud-computing. Peak provides its shareholders with exceptional growth potential by giving them access to the fastest growing sectors of the world's fastest growing economy. For more information: http://www.peakpositioning.com. Contact information: Cathy Hume CEO CHF Investor Relations Phone: 416-868-1079 ext.: 231 Email: cathy@chfir.com Or Carl Desjardins Managing Partner Paradox Public Relations Inc. Phone: 514-341-0408 Email: carldesjardins@paradox-pr.ca Or Johnson Joseph President and CEO Peak Positioning Technologies Inc. Phone: 514-340-7775 ext.: 501 Email: investors@peakpositioning.com LONDON, August 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- -Finalists announced for 2016 Lloyds Bank National Business Awards -Visithttp://www.nationalbusinessawards.co.uk for shortlist Over 140 of Britain's leading businesses, business leaders and social enterprises, of all sizes and disciplines, have today been revealed as finalists for the 2016 Lloyds Bank National Business Awards, including ten companies shortlisted for the Amazon Digital Business of the Year Award. The finalists for this award are: Green Man Gaming Zopa Carpet Runners UK The Workplace Depot FanDuel Missguided Paymentsense SyndicateRoom Extreme Couponing UK Look Fabulous Forever Open to any pure play or multi-channel organisation trading online, this award recognises those best optimising all aspects of e-commerce to achieve growth and strong financial performance through exceptional customer experience. "It's great to see companies large and small, in a range of sectors, and across the country, making forward strides in e-commerce and becoming worthy finalists for this year's Digital Business of the Year," said Doug Gurr, UK Country Manager, Amazon. "These companies are demonstrating new ways of improving the customer experience, increasing exports, growing their companies and creating more jobs, and we're delighted to be celebrating those going digital." The finalists were chosen from the hundreds of businesses that entered or were nominated across 18 award categories. They will now prepare for live presentations to an expert judging panel who will decide the overall winners. Described as "the Oscars of great British business" by former Prime Minister, David Cameron, this year's prestigious award ceremony will take place on Tuesday 15th November 2016, at the Grosvenor House, Park Lane, where the winners will be revealed. For the first time, Conor McGinn MP recently hosted a reception for the Lloyds Bank National Business Awards at the House of Commons. This enabled finalists to meet fellow entrants, the National Business Awards Advisory Board members, judges (who they will present to in September) and sponsors of each category. Mat Gazeley, Zopa's Head of PR commented, "We are delighted to be shortlisted for digital business of the year in the National Business Awards. This is testament to our fantastic team and we look forward to the final results later in the year." Tom Broughton, Group Brand Director of the Lloyds Bank National Business Awards said: "The acceptance and integration of all aspects of ecommerce to the benefit of a company can be a difficult process, but one with huge benefits if done successfully. This shortlist is a collection of companies who have done just that." Visit http://www.nationalbusinessawards.co.uk for a full list of all finalists or for details on how to attend the event. For National Business Award images and logos visit ubm.box.com/v/nba-2016-press-area About the National Business Awards Open to organisations of all sizes from all sectors across the UK, the National Business Awards is the UK's most prestigious independent business recognition platform with its particular emphasis on excellence, innovation and ethical business. Now in its 15th year, the National Business Awards connects the nations' professionals through its annual awards ceremony; year-round thought leadership and round table events; and is UBM plc's flagship awards programme. Visit http://www.nationalbusinessawards.co.uk for further information or follow us on Twitter @businessawards. 2016 categories include: The QBE Insurance New Exporter of the Year in association with Exporting is GREAT The Customer Focus Award The Amazon DigitalBusiness of the Year The Howard Kennedy Employer of the Year The Lloyds Bank New Business of the Year The Duke of York New Entrepreneur of the Year The Lloyds Bank Small to Medium-Sized Business of the Year The Vonage Business Enabler of the Year The Grichan Partnership Sustainable Business Award The Duke of York Award for University Entrepreneurship The Business Award for Arts and Creative Services The Innovation Award The Smith & Williamson Scale-Up Business of the Year The Lloyds Bank Positive Social Impact Award Inflexion Entrepreneur of the Year The Lloyds Bank Mid-Market Business of the Year About UBM EMEA The National Business Awards is organised by UBM EMEA. UBM EMEA connects people and creates opportunities for companies across five continents to develop new business, meet customers, launch new products, promote their brands and expand their markets. Through premier brands such as MD&M, CPhI, IFSEC, TFM&A, Cruise Shipping Miami, the Concrete Show and many others, UBM EMEA exhibitions, conferences, awards programs, publications, websites and training and certification programs are an integral part of the marketing plans of companies across more than 20 industry sectors. NEW YORK, August 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Anticipated expansion and upgrading of power transmission and distribution networks to boost GCC insulators market through 2021 According to TechSci Research report "GCC Insulators Market By Rating, By Type, Competition Forecast & Opportunities, 2011 - 2021", insulators market in GCC is projected to reach US$ 409 million by 2021, on account of increasing investments in power projects driven by expanding population base, growing manufacturing sector, and rapid expansion of infrastructure projects such as railways, sea ports, etc. Insulators are widely used in transmission and distribution networks to prevent energy loss by acting as a barrier between current carrying cables and supporting towers. Over the next five years, anticipated expansion of transmission and distribution networks in GCC nations to supply power from source of generation to demand location is projected to drive demand for insulators in the region. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140117/663730 ) Power Generation Capacity in GCC Countries, 2013 (Megawatts) Power Generation Capacity in Country Megawatt Saudi Arabia 53.62 United Arab Emirates 27.23 Kuwait 14.7 Qatar 7.95 Oman 5.81 Bahrain 3.94 Browse 15 market data Tables and 36 Figures spread through143 Pages and an in-depth TOC on "GCC Insulators Market" https://www.techsciresearch.com/report/gcc-insulators-market-by-rating-low-voltage-medium-voltage-and-high-voltage-by-type-porcelain-composite-and-glass-competition-forecast-and-opportunities-2011-2021/751.html On the basis of ratings, GCC insulators market is categorized into low voltage insulators, medium voltage insulators and high voltage insulators. Low voltage insulators segment accounts for the largest share in the region's insulators market on account of rapid expansion of low voltage distribution lines to cater to the growing electricity demand from the residential segment. Saudi Arabia dominates GCC insulators market due to growing housing sector and increasing inclination of the country to diversify into non-oil sectors such as manufacturing, real estate, infrastructure, etc. Insulators market in the GCC region is dominated by global electrical equipment manufacturers such as ABB, NGK insulators and Toshiba Gulf FZE. "Growing infrastructure developments and increasing focus of GCC nations to develop their manufacturing sector is projected to boost demand for electricity in the region over the next five years. Moreover, growth of real estate markets in the region is driven by rapidly growing population base in these countries. In order to cater to rising need for housing, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have initiated several housing and real estate projects. Moreover, in order to address the rising demand for electricity, various major GCC countries have announced massive investments in power sector projects, particularly in power transmission and distribution segment, which would drive demand for insulators in the coming years." said Mr. Karan Chechi, Research Director with TechSci Research, a research based global management consulting firm. Download Sample Report @ https://www.techsciresearch.com/sample-report.aspx?cid=751 Customers can also request for 10% free customization on this report. "GCC Insulators Market By Rating, By Type, Competition Forecast & Opportunities, 2011 - 2021" has evaluated the future growth potential of insulators market across the GCC region and provide statistics and information on market structure, industry behavior and trends. The report includes market projections and demand forecasting. The report is intended to provide cutting-edge market intelligence and help decision makers take sound investment evaluation. Besides, the report also identifies and analyzes emerging trends along with essential drivers, challenges and opportunities available in the insulators market in the GCC region. Browse Related Reports GCC Switchgear Market By Type, By End User, Competition Forecast and Opportunities, 2011 - 2021 http://www.techsciresearch.com/report/gcc-switchgear-market-by-type-low-medium-and-high-voltage-by-end-user-utilities-residential-industrial-and-others-competition-forecast-and-opportunities-2011-2021/645.html Saudi Arabia Electric Motors Market By Type (AC and DC), By End User, By Application, By Rating, Competition Forecast and Opportunities, 2011 - 2021 http://www.techsciresearch.com/report/saudi-arabia-electric-motors-market-by-type-ac-and-dc-by-end-user-residential-manufacturing-commercial-real-estate-etc-by-application-pumps-compressors-fans-etc-by-rating-competition-forecast-and-opportunities-2011-2021/615.html Saudi Arabia Power & Distribution Transformers Market Forecast & Opportunities, 2020 http://www.techsciresearch.com/report/saudi-arabia-power-and-distribution-transformers-market-forecast-and-opportunities-2020/584.html About TechSci Research TechSci Research is a leading global market research firm publishing premium market research reports. Serving 700 global clients with more than 600 premium market research studies, TechSci Research is serving clients across 11 different industrial verticals. TechSci Research specializes in research based consulting assignments in high growth and emerging markets, leading technologies and niche applications. Our workforce of more than 100 fulltime Analysts and Consultants employing innovative research solutions and tracking global and country specific high growth markets helps TechSci clients to lead rather than follow market trends. Contact Mr. Ken Mathews 708 Third Avenue, Manhattan, NY, New York - 10017 Tel: +1-646-360-1656 Email: sales@techsciresearch.com Connect with us on Twitter - https://twitter.com/TechSciResearch Connect with us on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/techsci-research DUBLIN, August 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Global Semi Trailer Market - Analysis of Growth, Trends Progress and Challenges (2015-2020)" report to their offering. The Global Semi trailer truck market is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 6.48% during the 2015-2020 period. Asia Pacific is the largest market for Semi trailers and will grow at the fastest pace going into 2020. Many of the Heavy Commercial Vehicles in India are outdated and due for replacement. Strict emission norms will result in replacement demand, driving the growth in the Semi-Trailer Market in India. Slow manufacturing growth in India will be a big restraint for the market as it is the largest single market outside the United States for Semi trailers in the world. Iran will be one of the most promising markets for the Semi-Trailers as the lifting of sanctions allows international players to enter a market, which has been starved of quality products. Daimler, Paccar and Volvo are some of the important players in the Global Semi Trailer market. The market has been segmented by vehicle type (Low boy, flatbed, refrigerated, dry van), by tonnage (Up to 50 tonnes, 50-100 tonnes, 100 + tonnes) and by Geography (North America, South America, Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa). The Report Offers: Market analysis for Global Semi Trailer Market specific assessments and competition analysis on global and regional scales Market definition along with the identification of key drivers and restraints Identification of factors instrumental in changing the market scenarios, rising prospective opportunities, and identification of key companies that can influence this market on a global and regional scale Extensively researched competitive landscape section with profiles of major companies along with their market shares Identification and analysis of the macro and micro factors that affect Global Semi Trailer Market on both global and regional scales A comprehensive list of key market players along with the analysis of their current strategic interests and key financial information Companies Mentioned: China International Marine Containers Daimler Ag Hyundai Translead Kogel Trailer Gmbh Navistar Paccar Scmitz Cargobull Ag Utility Trailer Manufacturing Company Volvo Wabash National Corporation Report Structure: 1. Introduction 2. Executive Summary 3. Market Overview And Trends 4. Market Dynamics 5. Global Semi Trailer Market, By Vehicle Type 6. Global Semi Trailer Market, By Tonnage 7. Global Semi Trailer Market, By Geography 8. Competitive Landscape 9. Key Vendor Analysis(Overview, Products & Services, Strategies) 10. Future Outlook Of The Market 11. Disclaimer For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/rpvfv8/global_semi Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 08/09/16 -- Southern Silver Exploration Corp. (TSX VENTURE: SSV) (OTCQB: SSVFF) (FRANKFURT: SEG1) (SSE: SSVCL) ("Southern Silver") reported today 2016 drilling on its Cerro las Minitas project has successfully identified a new mineralized extension on the project and continues to demonstrate the continuity of contact skarn around the margin of the central intrusion each of which could significantly expand the overall size of the project. A total of 3236 metres of core drilling was completed in the 2016 Phase I program, consisting of three new holes which tested the lateral and depth extensions of the Blind and El Sol deposits on the west side of the Central Intrusion as well as an extension of hole CLM-001 which tested down dip and along strike of the Mina La Bocona zone located on the eastern side of the Central Intrusion. Drill results identified a thick interval of continuous polymetallic semi-massive and massive sulphide mineralization in drill hole 16CLM-088 which forms part of a new, previously unrecognized, extension of the Blind and El Sol deposits. The mineralization occurs in skarn at the contact with the Central Intrusion, at depth and well outboard of the known deposits and appears to flatten into a sub-horizontal orientation in this area. Geological modelling has outlined a 450 metre by 450 metre gently-dipping target area to the west of the main intrusive neck which is partially constrained by thick mineralized intercepts from previously reported holes including: -- a 30.4m down hole interval averaging 107.4g/t Ag, 0.40% Cu, 1.1% Pb and 2.3% Zn (275g/t AgEq) in drill hole 16CLM-088 (see NR-14-16; June 13, 2016); -- a 7.6m down hole interval averaging 43g/t Ag, 1.1g/t Au, 0.3% Cu, 0.5% Pb and 2.8% Zn (270g/t AgEq) in drill hole 15CLM-081 (see NR-14-15; Dec 1, 2015); and -- a 55.2 metre down hole interval averaging 41g/t silver, 0.7% lead and 5.3% zinc (202g/t AgEq) in drill hole 13CLM-066 (see NR-17-13, October 24, 2013) Delineation of this target area is a high priority for future drilling on the property which if successful could have a significant positive impact on the cumulative mineral resources of the project. This target remains to be tested and neither the lateral dimension nor thickness of mineralization has been confirmed at this time. Select assay composites from the 2016 drill program include: Table 1: Select Assay Composites from the 2016 Drill Program ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hole # From To Interval Est. TT Ag Au (m) (m) (m) (m) (g/t) (g/t) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16CLM-087 529.1 532.0 2.9 2.3 5 0.21 inc. 531.4 532.0 0.6 0.4 21 0.63 16CLM-087 723.3 732.8 9.6 7.6 20 0.02 inc. 723.3 724.5 1.3 1.0 50 0.06 and inc. 728.6 729.4 0.8 0.6 96 0.04 16CLM-087 809.5 811.6 2.1 1.7 23 0.02 inc. 810.4 811.6 1.3 1.0 38 0.03 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16CLM-088 134.1 135.0 1.0 0.5 26 0.03 16CLM-088 683.7 714.0 30.4 29.5 107 0.07 inc. 683.7 691.0 7.3 7.1 190 0.13 and inc. 702.3 714.0 11.8 11.4 100 0.04 inc. 712.7 714.0 1.3 1.3 178 0.01 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16CLM-089 917.9 943.9 26.0 --- 1 0.32 16CLM-089 981.5 1052.0 70.5 --- 13 0.02 inc. 1014.7 1024.0 9.4 --- 30 0.06 inc. 1022.4 1024.0 1.6 --- 63 0.07 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11CLM-001 751.1 759.6 8.6 --- 16 0.02 inc. 758.6 759.6 1.0 --- 80 0.02 11CLM-001 864.5 876.0 11.5 --- 12 0.15 inc. 865.7 867.0 1.3 --- 41 1.18 11CLM-001 887.7 897.4 9.8 --- 20 0.02 inc. 896.0 897.4 1.4 --- 112 0.04 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hole # Cu Pb Zn AgEq Comments (%) (%) (%) (g/t) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16CLM-087 0.0 0.1 0.0 25 Anomalous composite; Previously Reported inc. 0.0 0.5 0.2 89 16CLM-087 0.3 0.1 1.0 87 Anomalous composite; Previously Reported inc. 0.1 0.3 2.2 145 and inc. 2.8 0.5 4.9 585 16CLM-087 0.4 0.0 0.1 72 40% Internal Dilution; Previously Reported inc. 0.7 0.0 0.1 115 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16CLM-088 0.0 0.8 0.3 66 Previously Reported 16CLM-088 0.4 1.1 2.3 275 Previously Reported inc. 0.4 3.4 5.5 552 and inc. 0.5 0.6 1.9 242 inc. 0.9 2.0 3.3 453 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16CLM-089 0.0 0.0 0.0 25 Anomalous composite; New Assays 16CLM-089 0.2 0.1 0.1 45 Anomalous composite; New Assays inc. 0.7 0.1 0.2 118 40% Internal Dilution inc. 1.9 0.1 0.3 281 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11CLM-001 0.1 0.2 0.2 36 Anomalous composite; New Assays inc. 0.1 0.8 0.9 153 11CLM-001 0.2 0.0 1.6 105 Anomalous composite; New Assays inc. 1.1 0.0 7.7 506 11CLM-001 0.2 0.2 0.1 55 Anomalous composite; New Assays inc. 1.0 1.1 0.8 291 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Analyzed by FA/AA for gold and ICP-AES by ALS Laboratories, North Vancouver, BC. Silver (greater than 100ppm), copper, lead and zinc (greater than 1%) overlimits assayed by ore grade ICP analysis, High silver overlimits (greater than 1500g/t Ag) and gold overlimits (greater than 10g/t Au) re-assayed with FA-Grav. High Pb overlimits (greater than 20%) assayed by titration. AgEq was calculated using the approximate 2 year trailing average metal prices of: US$18.2/oz silver, US$1240/oz gold, US$2.8/lbs copper and US$0.9/lbs lead and US$0.9/lbs zinc. AgEq calculations did not account for relative metallurgical recoveries of the metals. Ore-grade composites calculated using a 80g/t AgEq cut-off and less than 20% internal dilution, except where noted; anomalous intercepts calculated using a 10g/t AgEq cut-off. New drill results from the western and eastern margins of the Central Intrusion continue to highlight the exploration potential of the contact skarn style of mineralization. Hole 16CLM-089 tested three mineralized zones, including two within the main Contact Skarn of the Central Intrusion about 200 metres to the southeast of the Blind and El Sol deposits. Drilling identified a +100 metre thick interval of skarn at depths of over 800 metres below surface. Two zones of interest were identified within the Contact Skarn including a 26 metre interval (down hole) averaging 0.32g/t Au and 1.2g/t Ag starting at 917.9 metres depth and a deeper 70.5 metre zone (down hole) of anomalous Ag enriched mineralization averaging 44.7g/t AgEq which includes a 9.4 metre Cu-enriched interval averaging 30.5g/t Ag and 0.7% Cu. The extension of hole CLM-001 intersected over 100 metres of variably mineralized Contact Skarn on the eastern side of the Central Intrusion and targeted an area over 200 metres along strike from the Mina La Bocana zone and at depths of over 650 metres below surface. Drilling intersected several zones of anomalous polymetallic and base metal mineralization including a 1.3 metre interval (down hole) averaging 1.18g/t Au, 41g/t Ag, 1.1% Cu and 7.7% Zn (506g/t AgEq) within a broader 11 metre silver and copper-enriched, anomalous zone averaging 105g/t AgEq. Results from drill holes CLM-001 and CLM089 confirm the continuity of mineralized skarn around the Central Intrusion and to depths of over 650 metres which remain open for further target development. To view Figure 1: Plan Map showing the distribution of 2016 Drill Holes at Cerro Las Minitas, please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/1065354fig1.pdf The Company's Blue Sky exploration of the gravel covered portions of this +130 sq. km. property continues with soil sampling, prospecting and ground VLF identifying multiple anomalous areas for follow-up work in the coming months to refine drill targeting. The property is highly prospective and is on trend with the Avino gold and silver mine to the west and to Hecla's San Sebastian gold and silver mine to the east, which recently reopened in January, 2016. Cerro Las Minitas Project Exploration on the company's flagship Cerro Las Minitas property, Durango Mexico is funded by Electrum Global Holdings L.P. ("Electrum"), which is financing a broad range of exploration activities to earn a 60% interest in the project through a US$5.0M option earn-in on the property, with Southern Silver acting as operator. The Cerro Las Minitas project contains an estimated Inferred Resource of 17.5Mozs silver and 237Mlbs of lead and 626Mlbs zinc (77.3Mozs AgEq) and an estimated Indicated Resource of 10.8Mozs silver, 189Mlbs lead and 207Mlbs zinc (36.5Mozs AgEq).(1) A total of 91 drill holes for 35,955 metres have now been completed on the Cerro Las Minitas project with exploration expenditures of approximately US$8.35 million spent on the property to date. About Southern Silver Exploration Corp. Southern Silver Exploration Corp. is a precious metal exploration and development company with a focus on the discovery of world class mineral deposits in north-central Mexico and the southern USA. Our specific emphasis is the Cerro Las Minitas silver-lead-zinc project located in the heart of Mexico's Faja de Plata which hosts multiple world class mineral deposits such as Penasquito, San Martin, Naica and Pitarrilla. We have assembled a team of highly experienced technical, operational and transactional professionals to support our exploration efforts in developing the Cerro Las Minitas project into a premier, high-grade, silver-lead-zinc mine. The Company engages in the acquisition, exploration and development either directly or through joint venture relationships in mineral properties in major jurisdictions. Our property portfolio also includes the Oro porphyry copper-gold project located in southern New Mexico, USA. 1. The 2016 Cerro Las Minitas Resource Estimate was prepared following CIM definitions for classification of Mineral Resources. Resources are constrained using mainly geological constraints and approximate 10g/t AgEq grade shells. The block models are comprised of an array of blocks measuring 10m x 2m x 10m, with grades for Au, Ag, Cu, Pb, Zn and AgEq values interpolated using ID2weighting. The models identified at a 150g/t AgEq cut-off, an indicated resource of 3,724,000 tonnes averaging 90g/t Ag, 0.05g/t Au, 2.3% Pb, 2.5% Zn and 0.09% Cu and a cumulative inferred resource of 6,611,000 tonnes averaging 82g/t Ag, 0.17g/t Au, 1.6% Pb, 4.3% Zn and 0.2% Cu. Mineral Resource cut-offs are estimated using an average long-term price of $15/oz silver, $1,100/oz gold, $2.75/lb Cu, $0.90/lb lead and $0.90/lb zinc and metal recoveries of 82% silver, 86% lead and 80% zinc. AgEq calculations did not account for relative metallurgical recoveries of the metals. All prices are stated in $USD. Mineral Resources are conceptual in nature and as such do not have demonstrated economic viability. The current Resource Estimate was prepared by Garth Kirkham, P.Geo. of Kirkham Geosciences Ltd. who is the Independent Qualified Person responsible for presentation and review of the Mineral Resource Estimate. Robert Macdonald, MSc., P.Geo, is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and responsible for the supervision of the exploration on the Cerro Las Minitas Project and for the preparation of the technical information in this disclosure. On behalf of the Board of Directors Lawrence Page, Q.C., President & Director, Southern Silver Exploration Corp. For further information, please visit Southern Silver's website at southernsilverexploration.com. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release may contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and therefore involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward looking statements include the timing and receipt of government and regulatory approvals, and continued availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions. Southern Silver Exploration Corp. does not assume any obligation to update or revise its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent required by applicable law. Contacts: Southern Silver Exploration Corp. 604.641.2759 ir@mnxltd.com www.southernsilverexploration.com VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 08/09/16 -- Redzone Resources Ltd. ("Redzone" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE: REZ) announces that it has appointed Craig Roberts to its Board of Directors. Mr. Roberts is a mining engineer with over 30 years of operations, consulting and investment banking experience. This includes work on feasibility studies for numerous mining projects worldwide, investment banking/due diligence roles in over 200 institutional equity financings and significant experience advising management and boards on both friendly and hostile transactions. In connection with Mr. Roberts' appointment the Company has granted Mr. Roberts 150,000 stock options exercisable for 5 years at an exercise price of $0.20. The TSX Venture Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-Looking Statements - Certain information set forth in this news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of Redzone, including, but not limited to the impact of general economic conditions, industry conditions, dependence upon regulatory approvals, and the availability of financing. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. Contacts: Redzone Resources Ltd. Michael Murphy President and Chief Executive Officer 604.649.2350 michael.murphy@redzoneresources.ca TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 08/09/16 -- Step up to the starting line - the mad dash for back-to-school shopping is set to begin with 77 per cent of parents indicating that they will spend as much, if not more, than they did last year to get their children ready for the upcoming school year. With back-to-school just around the corner, Initiative has conducted a study targeting full-time students 18-24 and parents of school aged children 3-17 to understand consumer behavior around this busy time. According to Statistics Canada, the total value spent on children's (excluding infants) clothing and accessories during back-to-school (Q3) is $552 million. "Having well defined creative and an aggressive media strategy are critical if you're a retailer hoping to cut yourself a piece of this pie," said Nish Shah, Vice President Strategy for Initiative. "Our research offers insight into student-parent spending power, what they are purchasing and other relative trends. Beyond clothes, shoes and school supplies, increasingly parents are shopping for the best cellular plan." On average, parents plan to spend $480 on back-to-school products (excluding tuition), more than double the average of $208 spent by kids 18-24 years. Just over a third of parents will spend between $101-$250 for back-to-school, while a quarter will spend up to $500. One in five spends less than $100, while 11 per cent spend over $1,000. This year, 18 per cent of parents will spend more on back-to-school products than they did last year and 59 per cent will spend the same. Before any spending occurs, four in five (79%) parents will conduct research in advance for back-to-school items needed. Two-thirds of parents research within five weeks from start of school, while half (48%) are within 3 weeks. Debit cards are used most often to pay for back-to-school purchases, used by 46 per cent of parents and 48 per cent of 18-24 year-old students. Four in ten parents use credit cards (39%), with three times as many using a card with points (31%) versus one without points. Only 28 per cent of students 18-24 years use a credit card. "Budgeting for back-to-school is a stressful time for most Canadians," added Shah. "Despite the immediate need to pay for clothes and school supplies, we were encouraged to see that most parents have a plan in place to help their children pay for a post-secondary education." To help fund higher education, the majority of parents stated they currently have a Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP) in place (57%), while 16 per cent have heard of RESPs and intend to start one. There is an opportunity to educate parents about these plans. Almost 3 in 10 were not familiar with RESPs (28%): 8 per cent intend to find out more, while 20 per cent did not intend to find out more. WHAT'S ON THE SHOPPING LIST? -- Clothing = 53% Parents vs. 47% Students -- Shoes = 48% Parents vs. 34% Students -- Lunch supplies = 38% Parents -- School supplies = 50% Parents vs. 60% Students -- Computer = 15% Parents vs. 30% Students -- Cell phone = 9% Parents vs. 29% Students In surveying full-time students 18-24 years, they indicated parents are twice as likely to be paying for their back-to-school shopping than students themselves. Four in ten stated the parents paid for most or all (39%) of the expenses, while 22 per cent of students paid for all their own purchases. Over half (54%) stated the parents paid for at least 50 per cent of the expenses. When asked what most influences back to school purchase decisions, their own preference was stated most often (54%), followed by social media 12 per cent and friends/family (10%). Newspaper ads/flyers (9%), store websites (8%) and on-line ads/search (6%) also had influence on their back to school purchases. The on-line study was conducted from July 10-15 based on 400 respondents who were parents with children 3-17 and 100 full-time students 18-24 years. About Initiative Initiative is a global communications network within IPG Mediabrands, one of the world's preeminent media services entities and part of Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG). Initiative employs more than 2,500 creative and dynamic colleagues in 94 offices in 73 countries managing approximately $14 billion in billings annually. Initiative's comprehensive range of communications services include: insight and strategy, analytics, media planning and buying, digital communications, branded content creation, evaluation and accountability services and social media strategy and community management. Contacts: SELECT Public Relations Andrew Findlater 416-659-1197 afindlater@selectpr.com MANITOWOC Rose Marie J. Derks, 77, a Manitowoc resident, passed away Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016, at St. Marys Home at the Felician Village, Manitowoc. Rose Marie was born Jan. 26, 1939, in Stanley, daughter of the late Henry and Veronica (Wagner) Derks. She graduated from McDonell Central Catholic High School with the class of 1956, and received her Masters Degree in hospital and health care administration, from Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio. Rose Marie was a member of the Hospital Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis in Springfield, Ill. In that time she worked in the business and administrative offices for several of the Communitys hospitals in Illinois and Wisconsin. In 1988, she moved to Manitowoc, and worked as business manager for Drs. Bast and Finnegan, SC. Rose Marie retired from Holy Family Memorial Medical Center as an administrative assistant in 2008. She was an active member of St. Francis of Assisi parish and considered them her family in Manitowoc. She was an avid pro-life activist, especially for the rights of the unborn, and actively participated in the March for Life in Washington, D.C., and Chicago, as well as the 40 Days for Life Campaign in Green Bay, and Manitowoc. Her life was spent supporting life at all ages, from protecting the unborn, to children, to serving funeral luncheons for families in the Manitowoc area. Rose Marie was an active member of the Lakeshore CEW Community. She enjoyed exercising, especially on the elliptical, walking and biking. She loved all the wonders of nature, from trees to flowers and all the beautiful colors the world had to offer. Above all else, she loved her family and enjoyed spending as much time as possible with them. Survivors include four sisters and two brothers-in-law, Helen Bowe, Chippewa Falls, Kathryn and Neil Haselwander, Eau Claire, Joyce and Bob Rogalski, Stevens Point, Wis., Mary Kay Riley, Twin Cities, Minn.; two brothers and sisters-in-law, George and Joann Derks, Eau Claire, Ted and Linda Derks, Chippewa Falls; three sisters-in-law, Henrietta Derks, Bloomer, Dale Derks, Pell Lake, Wis., and Diane Ruiz, Waukesha, Wis.; 23 nephews; and 22 nieces; many great-nieces, great-nephews, other relatives and friends also survive. She was preceded in death by two sisters and three brothers-in-law, Veronica and Ronald Poirier, Dolores and Art Connor, Luke Bowe; and three brothers, Norman, James and John Duane Derks. Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 11, at St. Francis of Assisi on Grand, Manitowoc. Officiating at the Mass of Christian Burial will be the Rev. Michael Warden. Burial will take place at St. Pauls Catholic North Cemetery in Bloomer, at a later date. The family will greet relatives and friends from 4 until 8 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 10, at the Pfeffer Funeral Home, Manitowoc. A prayer service and rosary service will conclude the visitation at 8 p.m. led by Deacon Rich Bahnaman. The visitation will continue from 9:30 a.m. until 10:45 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 11, at St. Francis of Assisi on Grand, Manitowoc. Expressions of sympathy may be sent to the family by visiting www.pfefferfuneralhome.com. The Pfeffer Funeral Home, Manitowoc, is assisting the family with funeral arrangements. The family would like to thank Dr. Baatz and the caring staff at Holy Family Cancer Center, Home-care Health Services, and Holy Family Memorial. The family also extends a special thanks to all of the wonderful friends and acquaintances that have supported Rose Marie during her time in Manitowoc, and especially during her illness. LIVERPOOL, England, Aug. 9,2016 /PRNewswire/ --More than 600 graduates from the University of Liverpool's online programmes celebrated their graduation during ceremonies and events in Liverpool between 18 and 22 July 2016. They are part of a graduating class of over 1,300 students, representing 126 countries, who have recently completed University of Liverpool masters and doctoral degrees, and postgraduate certificate programmes online. ALogo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140325/CL90134LOGO "We are honoured that our newest alumni who chose to study online with the University of Liverpool also made the trip from around the world to join us in the celebration on campus. This is testimony to the importance of the occasion in their lives," said the University's Vice-Chancellor, Professor Janet Beer. "We are so proud that many of our online graduates are already applying their new knowledge, skills and research in their workplaces and communities globally." In addition to attending the campus ceremonies, the graduates, their family and friends, and faculty members, were welcomed at the Online Graduates' Recognition Ceremony & Reception, at the Lutyens Crypt (next to the university campus) on 20 July. The event honoured graduates from several online programmes receiving the Student of the Year and Dissertation of the Year awards, and provided an opportunity for all online graduates to meet and network with their peers from around the world. The Student of the Year Awards - for outstanding performance throughout an online degree programme - were awarded to: Luis Correal , an MSc in Project Management graduate in Canada , an MSc in Project Management graduate in Erin Gilgan , a Master of Public Health (MPH) graduate in Switzerland , a Master of Public Health (MPH) graduate in Shazia Haq , an MSc in International Accounting and Finance graduate in Qatar , an MSc in International Accounting and Finance graduate in Robert Miller , an LLM in Technology and Intellectual Property Law graduate in Canada , an LLM in Technology and Intellectual Property Law graduate in Miriam Morrissey , an MSc in Global Human Resource Management graduate in Saudi Arabia , an MSc in Global Human Resource Management graduate in Matthias Nott , a Master of Business Administration (MBA) graduate in Switzerland , a Master of Business Administration (MBA) graduate in Jeff Quail , an MSc in Applied Psychology graduate in Canada , an MSc in Applied Psychology graduate in Cloud Quinn, an MSc in Information Systems and Technology graduate in the UK Anne-Kathrin Weber , an MSc in Project Management graduate in Germany The Dissertation of the Year Awards - for an outstanding dissertation - were awarded to: Ignas Galvelis , an MSc in Software Engineering graduate in the UK , an MSc in Software Engineering graduate in the UK Angela Naa Saku Okai , an LLM in International Finance Banking Law graduate in Ghana , an LLM in International Finance Banking Law graduate in Hayley Jean Rahman , an MSc in Clinical Research graduate in the UAE , an MSc in Clinical Research graduate in the UAE Fayyaz Samji , a Master of Public Health (MPH) graduate in Canada , a Master of Public Health (MPH) graduate in Sabrina Spangsdorf, an MSc in Applied Psychology graduate in Denmark "What I enjoyed most about studying online with the University of Liverpool was gaining an international perspective on a variety of current public health topics and issues through weekly module discussions with my fellow classmates. These invaluable experiences can only come from studying with professionals from around the globe who are actively working locally in their respective fields," said MPH graduate Fayyaz Samji, Youth Employment Consultant and Job Developer for 360kids, a non-governmental organisation in Toronto, Canada. Graduates from online programmes have the option to receive their degree certificate in person (alongside campus graduates) at graduation ceremonies held twice a year at the University of Liverpool. Designed for working professionals, the University of Liverpool's fully online learning model enables students to earn an advanced academic degree without interrupting their career - from wherever they are based in the world. Students enjoy an engaging, global and highly collaborative learning experience that provides them with the knowledge and skills to achieve immediate professional impact. For more information about the University of Liverpool's online programmes, visit www.online.liverpool.ac.uk. About the University of Liverpool Online Programmes The University of Liverpool ranks in the top 1% of universities worldwide as listed in the International Handbook of Universities, published by the International Association of Universities (2014), and is a member of the UK's Russell Group of research-led universities. More than 10,000 students from more than 160 countries are studying for postgraduate certificates, masters and doctoral degrees online with the University of Liverpool. These programmes are provided in partnership with online learning expert, Laureate Online Education. For more information about Laureate, visit www.laureate.net. CARSON CITY, NV -- (Marketwired) -- 08/09/16 -- In the news release, "Ametherm Sample Kits Now Available From Digi-Key" issued earlier today by Ametherm, we are advised by the company that in the "Buy It Now" section, the URL embedded in "Ametherm Standard Sample Kit" has changed. Complete corrected text follows. Ametherm Sample Kits Now Available From Digi-Key CARSON CITY, NV -- Aug 09, 2016 -- Ametherm today announced that sample kits of the company's inrush current limiters and NTC sensing thermistors are now available from leading electronic component distributor Digi-Key Corporation. Digi-Key is stocking Ametherm's Standard, Mega, Mini, and Sensor Sample Kits. "With our convenient sample kits, designers can test a range of Ametherm's most popular inrush current limiters and NTC sensing thermistors, making it quick and easy to find the right part to provide reliable circuit protection and high-accuracy temperature compensation and measurement in their applications," said Medhi Samii, vice president of engineering at Ametherm. "We are very excited to have Digi-Key offering the kits and providing greater access to this flexibility for our customers around the world." Ametherm's Standard Sample Kit consists of nine 120 VAC and 240 VAC inrush current limiters from the company's SL series. The devices feature resistance values at 25 degrees C of 10 ohm, diameters from 3 mm to 32 mm, and steady-state current from 1.0 A to 15.0 A. For single- and three-phase input voltages up to 680 VAC, the Mega Sample Kit features five inrush current limiters from Ametherm's MegaSurge series. The devices offer diameters from 14 mm to 37 mm, up to 500 J of input energy, steady-state current to 18 A, and resistance values at 25 degrees C of 10 ohm, 30 ohm, and 150 ohm. The Sensor Sample Kit of NTC sensing thermistors includes four probe assembly types -- ring lug, threaded hex nut and tip, epoxy, and steel housing. Constructed of specially formulated metal oxide ceramic materials that are extremely accurate in temperature sensing, the devices feature resistance values at 25 degrees C from 10 k ohm to 100 k ohm, beta of 3,950 K and 4500 K, thermal time constant down to 10.0 s, and maximum power of 125 mW. The kit also includes a device from Ametherm's ACCU-Curve series of interchangeable thermistors. Offering tight tolerance of +/- 0.2 degrees C and a fast thermal time constant of 7.0 s, the epoxy-coated device can be potted in a variety of housings. Ametherm products are recognized by Underwriters Laboratories (UL) and the Canadian Standards Association (CSA International) for ensured safety, and many are RoHS-2-certified (with Exemption 7a and 7(c)-1). The devices are optimized for a wide range of applications, including AC motors, power supplies, motor drives, audio amplifiers, battery chargers, air sensors, HVAC systems, high-speed computers, MRIs, and X-ray machines. Follow Ametherm at its company blog, http://www.ametherm.com/blog/. Buy It Now: Ametherm Standard Sample Kit Ametherm Mini Sample Kit Ametherm Mega Sample Kit Ametherm Sensors Sample Kit About Ametherm Ametherm, headquartered in Carson City, Nevada, was founded in 1994 and specializes in thermistors for temperature sensing and inrush current limiting in industrial, automotive, AMS (avionics, military and space) and many other markets. Ametherm's devices are some of the highest rated in the industry and are available in customized versions to meet the needs of specific applications. For more information, visit www.ametherm.com or call 800-808-2434. Link to product image: http://www.redpinesgroup.com/Ametherm/160804Ametherm.jpg Agency Contact: Bob Decker Redpines +1 415 409 0233 Email Contact Ametherm Contact: Lori Morton Ametherm +1 775 884 2434 Email Contact MONTREAL, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 08/09/16 -- Aurvista Gold Corporation ("Aurvista" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE: AVA)(OTC PINK: ARVSF)(FRANKFURT: AV2) is pleased to highlight historic and more recent diamond drill hole results from the 40 plus years of exploration work at its Douay Gold Project ("Douay") in 15 major exploration programs. Douay is located 40 km SW of the Matagami Zinc Base Metal Camp and 150 km N of the Val-d'Or-Malartic Gold Camp (both in Quebec). As a number of new exploration projects in Quebec have been making headlines in recent months, Douay still remains one of the premier undeveloped gold projects in Quebec based on its past drilling results and Mineral Resources estimates(i). Selective historic gold assay intervals from the higher gold grade zones at a cut-off grade at 5 g/t gold are outlined in the following table (refer below for a complete list of assay intervals, and refer to Tables 3 and 4): ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- GOLD CORE DDH # GRADE FROM TO LENGTH(i) GOLD (year drilled) (g/t) (m) (m) (meters) ZONE ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- D-102 (2005) 15.01 283.10 291.30 8.20 Douay West ------------------------------------------------------------- 84637 (1990) 21.18 307.21 317.69 10.48 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 40688 (1981) 15.81 312.91 328.27 15.36 Main ------------------------------------------------------------- 54483 (1976) 7.12 160.90 174.07 13.17 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 70531-2 (1992) 11.93 371.03 378.26 7.23 531 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4140-93-01 (1993) 10.73 182.00 187.00 5.00 NW ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- DO-12-97 (2012) 5.36 304.50 313.50 9.00 Adam-Porphyry ------------------------------------------------------------- Included in 1.07 255.00 438.00 183.00 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- DO-11-61 (2011) 6.67 98.00 110.00 12.00 10 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- DO-92-20 (1992) 8.47 412.76 416.05 3.29 20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (i) Core lengths equal true widths of the gold mineralization. Douay was initially explored from 1973 to 2010 for its higher grade gold potential with the discovery of 7 lenses ("Douay West", "10", "20", "531", "Central", "Main" and "NW"), followed by the 2005 discovery of a lower grade bulk gold porphyry (the "Main Porphyry"). Exploration of the "Main Porphyry" was revived by Aurvista during the Company's 2011 and 2012 drilling campaigns in light of the exploration and mining successes at the multi-million ounce Canadian-Malartic and Detour Lake bulk lower grade gold deposits. Drilling of the "Main Porphyry" led to the discovery of an additional higher grade lens, the "Adam-Porphyry" Zone, and a lower grade corridor ("South Porphyry"). It is important to remind shareholders, stakeholders and prospective investors of past exploration successes at Douay leading to the discovery of the 8 higher grade zones and the 2 lower grade corridors within a 10 km by 3 km wide segment (or 30 km2) of the 20 km trend of the Casa Berardi Deformation Zone (the "CBDZ") on Douay (refer to the Company news releases dated December 17, 2014). All of this work recently led Aurvista to define a sizeable Mineral Resource estimate(i): representing 2.7 million tonnes at 2.76 g/t gold for 0.2 million ounces of gold in the Indicated category with an additional 115 million tonnes at 0.75 g/t gold for 2.8 million ounces of gold in the Inferred category (at a 0.3 g/t gold cut-off), or 2.5 million tonnes at 2.98 g/t gold for 0.2 million ounces of gold in the Indicated category with an additional 61.8 million tonnes at 1.06 g/t gold for 2.1 million ounces of gold in the Inferred category (at a 0.5 g/t gold cut-off grade). Aurvista remains committed to the continued exploration of Douay with its near term exploration objective of increasing the quantity and quality of mineral resources by extending the higher grade gold lenses or by defining new ones with gold grades similar to those intersected in the past (refer to the table above, and Tables 3 and 4.) Aurvista's management firmly believes: - The upside potential of the under-explored Douay Project is significant for a lower grade bulk gold-type system containing a number of higher grade gold lenses of variable sizes and grades; - There has never been any historical mining on Douay, hence the higher grade gold lenses remain intact; - Less than one-sixth of the Camp-scale size gold system at Douay has been explored via diamond drilling in any detail based on the distribution of the known higher and lower grade gold zones and location of drill holes; - The gold system remains open along strike beyond the 10 km known trend and at depths below -400 m; - The main gold target is the largely untested "Main Porphyry", encompassing the Adam-Porphyry Zone. which was Aurvista's 2012 discovery containing (at a 3 g/t gold cut-off) 383,000 tonnes grading 22.29 g/t gold for 274,500 ounces in the Inferred category within a lower grade envelope of 55.1 million tonnes at 1 g/t (at a 0.5 g/t cut-off) also in the Inferred category, and the "South Porphyry"; - The "Main Porphyry" is flanked by the largely unexplored NW Zone which to date contains 1 million tonnes grading 2.71 g/t for 87,000 ounces of gold in the Inferred category, and the Douay West Zone containing 2.33 million tonnes at 3 g/t gold for 225,000 ounces in the Indicated category and an additional 1.26 million tonnes at 1.8 g/t gold for 73,000 ounces in the Inferred category (both zones at a 0.5 g/t cut-off); and - Douay West is sufficiently advanced in order to go into pre-feasibility or feasibility mode if deemed beneficial. Douay has seen 15 major exploration programs since 1973 (Table 1 can be accessed using the following link): - The first 13 programs were focused on the discovery and exploration of 7 higher grade gold zones over an 8 km stretch of the Casa Berardi Deformation Zone; - From 1973 to 2010, the previous vendors completed 144,783 meters of drilling in 575 diamond drill holes, while Aurvista completed the last two programs and essentially focused its efforts on the higher grade Douay West Zone and the lower grade bulk gold porphyry, and drilled from 2011 to 2014 some 42,955 meters in 127 diamond drill holes; and - Aurvista's drilling led to the discovery of 1 higher grade gold lenses - the "Adam-Porphyry" Zone - and 2 lower grade bulk gold target - "Main Porphyry" and "South Porphyry"; Diamond drilling for the entire project was mostly focused on the higher grade gold zones: - Diamond drilling totaled 187,738 meters in 702 drill holes (Table 2 can be accessed using the following link), with an additional 165 Reverse Circulation drill holes dating from the late 1980's; - There were 95,941 individual samples taken for gold assays, of which 317 assay intervals greater than 0.3 g/t gold were composited to delineate the 7 higher grade gold zones (Table 3 can be accessed using the following link) demonstrating the kilometric distribution, variability and continuity of the gold mineralization from bedrock surface to a -400 meter depth over a known 8 km strike length; and - There are 43 assay intervals greater than 5 g/t gold from the "Douay West", "Main", "531", "10", "20", "Adam-Porphyry" and "NW" zones (Table 4 can be accessed using the following link) Aurvista is committed to the continued exploration of Douay The Company is planning a two-staged exploration campaign on the Project for the period June to December 2016 with the prime objective of determining the best of the 25 defined targets identified in 2014-2015 with a view of significantly increasing the current Mineral Resource estimates(i). The First Stage campaign will complete the Priority Targeting Program (the "Program") in two areas where management is confident additional gold mineralization will be discovered, the first being in the 8 km by 3 km wide (at its longest and widest points) SE-tilted parallelogram-shaped polygon enclosing the Douay-Style Mineralization ("DSM") containing all the known gold zones ("Douay West", "10", "20", "531", "Central", "Main", "NW", "Adam-Porphyry", "Main Porphyry" and "South Porphyry") and current Mineral Resource estimates(i). The second area is the 6 km by 1 km wide cluster of EM INPUT anomalies conductors running along the southwest boundary of the DSM that have affinities to Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide or VMS mineralization associated with gold. The Second Stage campaign will consist of a 4,000 meters of drilling to delineate additional gold and/or copper-gold mineralization on the best targets. The Summer Program will include: - Completing an airborne geophysical Magnetic, Electromagnetic and Radiometric survey of the central portion of the Douay Project to define key contacts and faults which could be linked to gold and any potential base metal bearing massive sulphide lenses within the 6 km by 1 km Copper-Gold corridor to a depth of -150 meters. - Re-logging selective previous and historical drill core for litho-geochemical and thin section work along key gold mineralized and non-mineralized sections across the Douay Project, all to define the chemical signatures and alteration mineralogy of the known gold and/or base metal mineralization. This will assist the airborne geophysical survey in the vectoring towards additional gold mineralization; and the drilling of the best priority targets that could potentially lead to the expansion of, and better quality, mineral resources. The technical contents in this news release have approved by Mr. Jean Lafleur, M. Sc., P. Geo., President and CEO for Aurvista Gold Corporation, a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101. (i) Mineral Resource estimates reported in this news release were estimated in accordance with the definitions contained in the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) Standards on Mineral Resources and Reserves Definitions and Guidelines that were prepared by the CIM Standing Committee on Reserve Definitions and adopted by the CIM Council on November 27, 2010. Of note, tonnes and ounces have been rounded as per NI 43-101 standards. About Aurvista Gold Corp. Aurvista Gold Corporation is a junior gold exploration and development Company with 85,689,121 shares shares outstanding trading on the TSX Venture Exchange in Canada, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and OTC Pink Sheets in the US. Aurvista's only asset is the Douay Gold Project, consisting of a 100% owned interest in 250 contiguous claims totaling 133.1 km2, plus a 90% interest in 5 contiguous claims totaling 0.2 km2 and a 75% interest in 32 contiguous claims totaling 11.9 km2. In total there are 287 claims covering 145.3 km2 located along a 20 km segment of the Casa Berardi Deformation Zone in the prolific Abitibi Greenstone Belt of northern Quebec. The 32 joint venture claims are with SOQUEM, occupying the central northern portion of Douay, and such ownership is subject to Aurvista completing a further $175,000 of approved work with no time limitation on this work. In August, 2012, Aurvista updated the Mineral Resources estimates(i) that included all drilling completed to the end of March 2012. Douay contained Mineral Resources estimates(i) of 2.7 million tonnes of Indicated Resources at 2.76 g/t gold for 238,000 ounces (above a 0.3 g/t gold cut-off grade) or 3,458,000 tonnes grading 2.98 g/t gold (at a 0.5 g/t gold cut-off grade) for 235,500 ounces. There were additional Inferred Resources of 115 million tonnes at 0.75 g/t gold for 2.75 million ounces (above a 0.3 g/t gold cut-off grade) or 62 million tonnes grading 1.06 g/t gold for 2.1 million ounces (above a 0.5 g/t cut-off grade). Details can be viewed on the Company's website at www.aurvistagold.com. NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS PRESS RELEASE. Forward-Looking Statements This news release may contain forward-looking statements based on assumptions, uncertainties and management's best estimate of future events. Actual events or results could differ materially from the Company's expectations and projections. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. When used herein, words such as "anticipate", "will", "intend" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. For a more detailed discussion of such risks and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, refer to Aurvista Gold Corporation's filings with Canadian securities regulators available on www.sedar.com or the Company's website at www.aurvistagold.com. Contacts: Aurvista Gold Corporation Mr. Jean Lafleur, P. Geo. President and CEO, Director Cell +1 514 927 3633 Aurvista Gold Corporation Mr. Bryan Keeler Chief Financial Officer +1 416 504 4126 www.aurvistagold.com SAN DIEGO, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 08/09/16 -- ImageWare Systems, Inc. (ImageWare or IWS) (OTCQB: IWSY), a leader in mobile and cloud-based, multi-modal biometric identity management solutions, has issued financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2016, as well as a corporate update to highlight the company's progress since its last quarterly update on May 10, 2016. Operational Highlights Partnered with Fujitsu RunMyProcess to provide turnkey integration of ImageWare's GoVerifyID for solutions developed on the RunMyProcess platform used by Fortune 1000 companies in 45 nations. Licensed GoVerifyID to Telos Corporation for use with HPE Aruba ClearPass, which is being sold on Amazon Web Services (AWS) as well as Telos' own private and secure Telos Ghost cloud. Commenced sales efforts with HPE Aruba Clear pass reseller network. Launched IWS Biometric authentication service with partner AWS and TransUnion to provide turnkey biometric service. GoVerifyID successfully integrated with CA Technologies security products. Appointed Dot Hill veteran and current Seagate Technology Executive Vice President Dana Kammersgard to board of directors. Management Commentary "Biometrics is now forecasted to be a $30 billion-plus market over the next few years and we continued to make progress with our various commercial partners to be ready to address this market," said Jim Miller, ImageWare's chairman and CEO. "This included an expansion of our partnership with Fujitsu to provide turnkey integration of GoVerifyID onto Fujitsu's RunMyProcess platform, enabling digital transformation for leading companies around the world. We also signed an agreement with Telos Corporation, which is the first reseller agreement signed through our partnership with Aruba. Telos will now become a reseller of GoVerifyID in conjunction with their sales and distribution of HPE Aruba ClearPass. "To help expand our footprint in the commercial market, we recently appointed technology veteran Dana Kammersgard to the board of directors, who brings extensive industry expertise to ImageWare. We look forward to leveraging his deep industry contacts, as well as his proven ability in taking small organizations and growing them into leaders of their respective industries." "Subsequent to the quarter," continued Miller, "we signed a five-year OEM agreement with a major mobile ID management provider, bringing multi-modal biometric user authentication to the identity governance and administration market. Given the growing commercial adoption for biometrics across a wide range of industries, we continue to believe we are well positioned to grow and scale our business in the out years." Second Quarter 2016 Financial Results Total revenues in the second quarter of 2016 were $1.0 million compared to $1.7 million in the same year-ago quarter. The difference is primarily due to the impact of non-recurring revenue recognized in 2015 upon completion of a major identity management project for Los Angeles World Airports. Gross margin in the second quarter of 2016 increased significantly to 72.4% compared to 52.9% in the year-ago quarter, primarily due to 2015 containing an uncharacteristically high cost of professional services revenue incurred with the project discussed above. Net loss in the second quarter of 2016 was $2.1 million or $(0.02) per basic share, compared to $1.8 million or $(0.02) per basic share in the year-ago quarter. On June 30, 2016, cash and cash equivalents totaled $0.3 million compared to $3.4 million on December 31, 2015. Total debt was $1.5 million compared to no debt at December 31, 2015. Subsequent to the quarter, the company borrowed an additional $0.5 million and now has approximately $3.5 million available on its existing line of credit. Conference Call ImageWare will hold a conference call today at 5:00 p.m. Eastern time (2:00 p.m. Pacific time) to discuss its second quarter 2016 results. The company's Chairman and CEO Jim Miller and CFO Wayne Wetherell will host the conference call, followed by a question and answer period. Date: Tuesday, August 9, 2016 Time: 5:00 p.m. Eastern time (2:00 p.m. Pacific time) Toll-free dial-in number: 1-888-504-7960 International dial-in number: 1-719-325-2341 Conference ID: 4356802 Please call the conference telephone number 5-10 minutes prior to the start time. An operator will register your name and organization. If you have any difficulty connecting with the conference call, please contact Liolios Group at 1-949-574-3860. The conference call will be broadcast live and available for replay at http://public.viavid.com/index.php?id=120606 and via ImageWare's investor relations section at www.iwsinc.com. A replay of the conference call will be available after 8:00 p.m. Eastern time on the same day through September 9, 2016. Toll-free replay number: 1-877-870-5176 International replay number: 1-858-384-5517 Replay ID: 4356802 About ImageWare Systems, Inc. ImageWare Systems, Inc. (OTCQB: IWSY) is a leading developer of mobile and cloud-based identity management solutions, providing biometric, secure credential and law enforcement technologies. Scalable for worldwide deployment, ImageWare's biometric product line includes a multi-biometric engine that is hardware and algorithm independent, enabling the enrollment and management of unlimited population sizes. ImageWare's identification products are used to manage and issue secure credentials, including national IDs, passports, driver's licenses, smart cards and access control credentials. ImageWare's digital booking products provide law enforcement with integrated mug shot, fingerprint livescan and investigative capabilities. ImageWare is headquartered in San Diego, CA, with offices in Portland, OR, Washington, D.C., and Ottawa, Ontario. For more information on ImageWare Systems, Inc., please visit www.iwsinc.com. Forward Looking Statements Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "intend," "may," "plan," "project," "predict," "if," "should" and "will" and similar expressions as they relate to ImageWare Systems, Inc. ("ImageWare") are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. ImageWare may from time to time update these publicly announced projections, but it is not obligated to do so. Any projections of future results of operations should not be construed in any manner as a guarantee that such results will in fact occur. These projections are subject to change and could differ materially from final reported results. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, see "Risk Factors" in ImageWare's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2015 and its other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission under the Securities 3 Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the dates on which they are made. CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS June 30, December 31, 2016 2015 --------- ------------ Assets: Cash $ 327 $ 3,352 Accounts receivable, net 274 349 Inventories 74 46 Other current assets 185 69 Property and equipment, net 141 162 Other assets 31 98 Intangible assets, net 112 117 Goodwill 3,416 3,416 --------- ------------ Total Assets $ 4,560 $ 7,609 ========= ============ Liabilities and Shareholders' Equity (Deficit): Current liabilities $ 3,036 $ 2,406 Convertible line of credit to related party net of discount - - Pension obligation 1,592 1,511 Shareholders' equity (deficit) (68) 3,692 --------- ------------ Total Liabilities and Shareholders' Equity (Deficit) $ 4,560 $ 7,609 ========= ============ SELECTED COMPARATIVE FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS In thousands, except share and per share amounts Three Months Ended Six Months Ended June 30, June 30, ------------------------ ------------------------ 2016 2015 2016 2015 ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- Revenues Product $ 356 $ 1,022 $ 759 $ 1,400 Maintenance 640 673 1,280 1,287 ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- Total Revenues 996 1,695 2,039 2,687 Cost of Revenue Product 56 589 130 663 Maintenance 219 209 424 420 ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- Gross Profit 721 897 1,485 1,604 72% 53% 73% 60% Operating Expenses General & administrative 899 788 1,905 1,704 Sales and marketing 743 717 1,416 1,368 Research and development 1,318 1,114 2,631 2,148 Depreciation and amortization 35 41 70 83 ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- Total Operating Expenses 2,995 2,660 6,022 5,303 ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- Loss from operations (2,274) (1,763) (4,537) (3,699) Interest (income) expense, net 36 (2) 46 435 Other (income) expense, net (200) - (200) (46) ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- Income (loss) from continuing operations before income taxes (2,110) (1,761) (4,383) (4,088) Income taxes 4 6 6 8 ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- Income (loss) from continuing operations (2,114) (1,767) (4,389) (4,096) Net income (loss) $ (2,114) $ (1,767) $ (4,389) $ (4,096) Preferred dividends (309) (302) (657) (506) ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- Net income (loss) available to common shareholders $ (2,423) $ (2,069) $ (5,046) $ (4,602) =========== =========== =========== =========== Per share data - basic Net income (loss) from continuing operations $ (0.02) $ (0.02) $ (0.05) $ (0.04) Preferred dividends (0.01) - - (0.01) ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- Basic income (loss) per share available to common shareholders $ (0.03) $ (0.02) $ (0.05) $ (0.05) =========== =========== =========== =========== Basic weighted-average common shares 94,298,567 93,674,349 94,185,967 93,595,433 Investor Relations: Liolios Cody Slach Tel 1-949-574-3860 Email Contact TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 08/09/16 -- Nutritional High International Inc. (the "Company" or "Nutritional High") (CSE: EAT)(OTCQB: SPLIF)(FRANKFURT: 2NU), along with its joint venture partners, are pleased to announce that construction of its medical marijuana dispensary in Effingham, IL, has been completed and the dispensary is substantially ready to open its door to patients, upon fulfilling the final pre-requisites required by Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation ("IDFPR"). The pictures of the newly renovated facility, which will operate under the name "The Clinic Effingham" ("TCE"), have been posted on the Company's social media pages at www.facebook.com/Nutritional-High-255291184657443/ and www.facebook.com/TheClinicEffingham. In anticipation of commencing operations, The Clinic Effingham will be holding an open house on August 15, 2016 from 3 to 6 p.m. at its location at 1009 Ford Avenue, Effingham, IL. During the open house, The Clinic Effingham will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony, offer the public an opportunity to tour our state of art dispensary and meet our clinic staff, hold a free patient certification seminar and provide more information about the medical cannabis program. The management team has worked hard to cultivate a good relationship with the community and the city to promote safe and responsible use of cannabis for those suffering from debilitating medical conditions and looks forward to having the opportunity to open its doors to its neighbours in Effingham and throughout District 12. Nutritional High CEO Jim Frazier commented, "We are very excited to announce this key milestone in the Company's business and look forward to being rolling out our business in the State of Illinois. We are thankful to both our local joint venture partners, and local authorities for their warm welcome and appreciate the trust they have placed in our Company." The grand opening launch date for The Clinic Effingham will be announced upon securing licensing approval of the Company's wholly owned subsidiary, NH Medicinal Dispensaries Inc. ("NHMD"), by the Illinois Department of Financial & Professional Regulation. About Nutritional High International Inc. Nutritional High is focused on developing, manufacturing and distributing products and nationally recognized brands in the hemp and marijuana-infused products industries, including edibles and oil extracts for nutritional, medical and adult recreational use. The Company works exclusively through licensed facilities in jurisdictions where such activity is permitted and regulated by state law. For updates on the Company's activities and highlights of the Company's press releases and other media coverage, please follow Nutritional High on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google+. About The Clinic Effingham The Clinic Effingham represents a partnership between Ataraxia, GTI and Nutritional High. This partnership includes leading Illinois dispensary and cultivation operators with a track record of successfully serving patients and positively impacting the communities in which they operate. NEITHER THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE NOR OTC MARKETS GROUP INC., NOR THEIR REGULATIONS SERVICES PROVIDERS HAVE REVIEWED OR ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE. This news release may contain forward-looking statements and information based on current expectations. These statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those implied by such statements. Such statements include submission of the relevant documentation within the required timeframe and to the satisfaction of the relevant regulators, completing the acquisition of the applicable real estate and raising sufficient financing to complete the Company's business strategy. There is no certainty that any of these events will occur. Although such statements are based on management's reasonable assumptions, there can be no assurance that such assumptions will prove to be correct. We assume no responsibility to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances. Company's securities have not been registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or applicable state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold to, or for the account or benefit of, persons in the United States or "U.S. Persons", as such term is defined in Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act, absent registration or an applicable exemption from such registration requirements. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in the United States or any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. Additionally, there are known and unknown risk factors which could cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information contained herein. All forward-looking information herein is qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement, and the Company disclaims any obligation to revise or update any such forward-looking information or to publicly announce the result of any revisions to any of the forward-looking information contained herein to reflect future results, events or developments, except as required by law. Contacts: Nutritional High International Inc. Jim Frazier CEO 321-516-7171 jfrazier@nutritionalhigh.com Transcend Capital Inc. Etienne Moshevich Investor Relations 604-681-0084 et@transcendcapitalinc.com TA'XBIEX, Malta, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The newly appointed board of directors at the Dating.com Group and SOL Network companies has met for the first time in Malta where it took important decisions on its growth and progress. The Dating.com Group and SOL Network companies have appointed a new board of directors, which met for the first time on July 25, 2016 in Ta'xbiex, Malta. The new directors made a number of important decisions regarding recruitment, finance, marketing, customer support, and legal issues. The board reaffirmed its commitment to retaining and developing all of the online dating websites within its umbrella group including Dating.com, AnastasiaDate.com, AsianDate.com, AmoLatina.com, and AfricanDate.com. A New Strategy for Decision Making The first board meeting took place in Malta following a management decision by the chief shareholders in the Dating.com Group and SOL Network companies, Alla Gubenko and Alexey Negin. The shareholders decided to replace one solely responsible CEO with a board of directors consisting of six highly motivated experts who will act as joint decision makers. The new board of directors is expected to bring a competitive dynamic to the company, boosting creativity and helping the business to grow. The first board meeting took place at Dixcart House, Ta'Xbiex, where the Dating.com Group has just opened a new office. All directors were satisfied that the new office will be a great asset to the development and progress of the business. The directors also discussed the future of the online dating industry and focused on those technologies that will be most in demand. The board decided to place high priority on mobile applications for its main projects Dating.com, AnastasiaDate.com, AsianDate.com, AmoLatina.com, and AfricanDate.com. Alla Gubenko, key shareholder in the Dating.com Group, explains the importance of Malta: "Malta has already showed us that this country is a good source of highly-trained customer support, digital marketing professionals, and IT development experts. Now we hope that our new management strategy will increase the effectiveness of those experts to help us make further progress." About Dating.com Group The Dating.com Group includes Dating.com, AnastasiaDate.com, AsianDate.com, AmoLatina.com, and AfricanDate.com, which bring together over 20 million international users and more than 80 million online visitors annually. Additionally, over 1.5 million conversations are exchanged onsite daily. The Dating.com Group is a family of sites that offers the premium experience of international online dating to facilitate exciting and romantic companionship between members all over the world. The service increases the chances of members to meet someone new, discover unique places, explore new cultures, and do things they would never have had the chance to do before. Dating.com now covers over 32 countries and offers the technology to help members take communication further than ever. TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 08/09/16 -- Pizza Pizza Royalty Corp. (the "Company") (TSX: PZA), which owns the Pizza Pizza and Pizza 73 Rights and Marks, released financial results today for the three months and six months ended June 30, 2016. Second Quarter highlights: -- Royalty Pool sales increased 1.5% -- Same store sales increased 0.9% -- Monthly dividend increased 2.4% in June 2016 -- Restaurant network grew by five, net locations Year-to-date highlights: -- Royalty Pool sales increased 2.4% -- Same store sales increased 1.7% -- Restaurant network grew by seven locations -- Royalty Pool of restaurants increased by six, effective January 1, 2016 SALES For the three months ended June 30, 2016 ("Quarter"), System Sales from the 736 restaurants in the Royalty Pool increased by 1.5% to $132.3 million from $130.3 million in the prior year quarter when there were 730 restaurants in the pool. For the six month period, Royalty Pool System Sales increased 2.4% to $265.3 million from $259.1 million in the same period last year. Total Royalty Pool System Sales for the Quarter and the six months increased over the comparative periods in 2015 as a result of the reported same store sales growth ("SSSG"), and the impact of net new restaurants added to the Royalty Pool on January 1, 2016. The six months ended June 30, 2016 system sales also benefitted from the extra day of sales in February 2016 due to the leap year, which management estimates to be approximately $1.0 million. SSSG, the key driver of yield growth for shareholders of the Company, increased by 0.9% (6.0% - 2015) for the Quarter when compared to the same period in 2015. Year-to-date, SSSG increased by 1.7% when compared to the same period in 2015 (4.2% - 2015). SSSG is not affected by the additional day in the leap year as SSSG is calculated using the 13-week and 26-week comparative basis. SSSG Second Quarter Year-to-Date (%) (%) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2016 2015 2016 2015 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pizza Pizza 2.8 6.0 3.8 4.1 Pizza 73 (7.8) 5.7 (7.9) 4.7 Combined 0.9 6.0 1.7 4.2 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- SSSG is driven by the growth in the average customer check and in customer traffic both of which are affected by changes in pricing and sales mix. During the Quarter and for the six months, the average check increased while customer traffic decreased when compared to the same periods last year. Paul Goddard, CEO, Pizza Pizza Limited ("PPL"), said: "At our Pizza Pizza restaurants, with the majority operating in a robust Ontario economy, we have taken selective price increases to offset rising food costs in order to maintain restaurant profitability. As can happen with price increases, we saw a slight contraction in customer traffic. At our Pizza 73 locations, we continue to encounter economic uncertainty in Alberta which is negatively affecting consumer spending patterns. Our Pizza Pizza sales represent 80% of our overall business, so positive sales growth at this brand offsets the sales reductions at Pizza 73." MONTHLY DIVIDENDS AND WORKING CAPITAL RESERVE In June 2016, the Company increased the monthly dividend by 2.3% to $0.0713 per share. On an annualized basis, the dividend was increased by $0.019 to $0.8556 per share. The previous dividend increase was in November 2015, when the Company increased the monthly dividend by 2.5% to $0.0697 per share or $0.8364 annualized. The Company declared shareholder dividends of $5.2 million, or $0.2107 per share, for the Quarter compared to $5.0 million, or $0.2040 per share, for the prior year comparable quarter. The payout ratio was 103% for the Quarter and was 94% for the prior year comparable quarter. For the six months ended June 30, 2016, the Company declared dividends of $10.3 million, or $0.4198 per share, compared to $9.6 million, or $0.4041, for the prior year comparable period. The payout ratio was 102% for the six months and was 96% in the prior year comparable period. For Canadian federal tax purposes, the dividend is considered a taxable eligible dividend. The Company's working capital reserve is $4.8 million at June 30, 2016, which is a decrease of $133,000 for the Quarter. The decrease in the reserve was the result of higher taxes payable by the Company and an increase in the dividend in June 2016. The reserve is available to stabilize dividends and fund other expenditures in the event of short- to medium-term variability in System Sales and, thus, the Company's royalty income. With this reserve in place, going forward, the Company will continue to target a payout ratio at or near 100% on an annualized basis. The Company does not have capital expenditure requirements or employees. EARNINGS PER SHARE ("EPS") Fully-diluted EPS for the quarter was $0.208 per share compared to $0.173 per share for the same quarter in 2015. The increase in earnings for the Quarter and six months is attributable to increased royalty income and a decrease in interest expense, offset by an increase in current tax expense. Additionally, prior year earnings were negatively impacted by the non-cash swap termination costs recognized in April 2015 of $1.2 million. However, instead of EPS, the Company considers "adjusted" EPS(1) to be a more meaningful indicator of the Company's operating performance and, therefore, presents fully-diluted adjusted EPS. Adjusted EPS for the Quarter decreased 4.2% to $0.216 compared to $0.225 in the same quarter last year, and decreased 1.4% for the six months ended June 30, 2016. The prior year adjusted earnings benefited from a non-recurring tax deduction in the second quarter provided by the "non-cash swap termination costs" mentioned above. The benefit from the tax deduction increased adjusted EPS by $0.0107 in the second quarter of 2015. Without the tax deduction, adjusted EPS for the Quarter and six month period would have increased 0.8%(2) and 1.1%(3), respectively, over the prior year comparable periods. (1) Adjusted earnings and adjusted EPS are not recognized measures under International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS") and may be calculated in a manner that differs from that used by other issuers. For additional information about the calculation and use of these measures, please see "Reconciliation of Non-IFRS Measures" in the Company's Management's Discussion & Analysis ("MD&A"). (2) 3 months ended June 30, 2016 Adjusted EPS of $0.216 compared to 3 months ended June 30, 2015 Adjusted EPS $0.225 less $0.0107 tax benefit or $0.2143 (3) 6 months ended June 30, 2016 Adjusted EPS of $0.435 compared to 6 months ended June 30, 2015 Adjusted EPS $0.441 less $0.0107 tax benefit or $0.4303 CURRENT INCOME TAX EXPENSE Current income tax expense for the Quarter was $1.4 million and $2.8 million for the six months. For the 2015 comparative quarter and six months, the current tax was $1.1 million and $2.3 million, respectively. The increase in tax expense over the prior year is largely due to the Company's increased ownership percentage of Pizza Pizza Royalty Limited Partnership earnings in the current year coupled with the fact that the prior year's taxable income was reduced by the "non-cash swap termination costs" mentioned above. Of particular note is that the Company's earnings from operations before income taxes, calculated under International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS"), differs significantly from its taxable income, largely due to the tax amortization of the Pizza Pizza and Pizza 73 Rights and Marks. The amount of the tax amortization deducted is based on a declining basis and will decrease annually. RESTAURANT DEVELOPMENT The number of restaurants in the Company's Royalty Pool increased by six to 736 on the January 1, 2016 Adjustment Date. The number of restaurants in the Royalty Pool remained unchanged through June 30, 2016. During the Quarter, PPL opened seven restaurants and closed two. By brand, for the Quarter, Pizza Pizza opened three traditional and four non-traditional restaurants; two non-traditional locations were closed. There was no change in the Pizza 73 locations. For the six month period, PPL opened 11 restaurants and closed four, increasing the overall number of restaurants by seven. By brand, for the six months, Pizza Pizza opened five traditional restaurants and five non-traditional locations; two non-traditional locations were closed. Pizza 73 opened one non-traditional location; two non-traditional locations were closed. Readers should note that the number of restaurants added to the Royalty Pool each year may differ from the number of restaurant openings and closings reported by PPL on an annual basis as the periods for which they are reported differ slightly. SELECTED FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS The following table sets out selected financial information and other data of the Company and should be read in conjunction with the unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements of the Company. Readers should note that the 2016 results are not directly comparable to the 2015 results because of an extra day of royalty revenue in 2016 due to the leap year, in addition to the fact that there are 736 restaurants in the 2016 Royalty Pool compared to 730 restaurants in the 2015 Royalty Pool. 3 months ended 6 months ended (in thousands of dollars, except number of restaurants, days in the period, and per June 30, June 30, June 30, June 30, Share amounts) 2016 2015 2016 2015 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Restaurants in Royalty Pool 736 730 736 730 Same store sales growth(1) 0.9% 6.0% 1.7% 4.2% Days in Period 91 91 182 181 System Sales reported by Pizza Pizza restaurants in the Royalty Pool(5) $ 110,769 $ 107,138 $ 221,978 $ 212,403 System Sales reported by Pizza 73 restaurants in the Royalty Pool(5) 21,484 23,125 43,366 46,713 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total System Sales $ 132,253 $ 130,263 $ 265,344 $ 259,116 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Royalty - 6% on Pizza Pizza System Sales $ 6,646 $ 6,428 $ 13,319 $ 12,744 Royalty - 9% on Pizza 73 System Sales 1,934 2,081 3,903 4,204 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Royalty income $ 8,580 $ 8,509 $ 17,222 $ 16,948 Interest paid on borrowings(2) (331) (379) (663) (864) Administrative expenses (162) (139) (326) (264) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Adjusted earnings available for distribution to the Company and Pizza Pizza Limited(4) $ 8,087 $ 7,991 $ 16,233 $ 15,820 Distribution on Class B and Class D Exchangeable Shares(3) (1,633) (1,557) (3,277) (3,631) Current income tax expense (1,409) (1,069) (2,784) (2,259) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Adjusted earnings available for shareholder dividends(4) $ 5,045 $ 5,365 $ 10,172 $ 9,930 Add back: Distribution on Class B and Class D Exchangeable Shares(3) 1,633 1,557 3,277 3,631 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Adjusted earnings from operations(4) $ 6,678 $ 6,922 $ 13,449 $ 13,561 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Adjusted earnings per share(4) $ 0.216 $ 0.225 $ 0.435 $ 0.441 Basic earnings per share $ 0.208 $ 0.173 $ 0.423 $ 0.383 Dividends declared by the Company $ 5,186 $ 5,022 $ 10,334 $ 9,575 Dividend per share $ 0.2107 $ 0.2040 $ 0.4198 $ 0.4041 Payout ratio(4) 103% 94% 102% 96% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (1) SSSG means the change in period gross sales of Pizza Pizza and Pizza 73 restaurants as compared to sales in the previous period, where the restaurants have been open at least 13 months. Additionally, for a Pizza 73 restaurant whose restaurant territory was adjusted due to an additional restaurant, a Step-Out Payment may be added to sales to arrive at SSSG. SSSG does not have any standardized meaning under IFRS. Therefore, these figures may not be comparable to similar figures presented by other companies. See "Reconciliation of Non-IFRS Measures" in Management's Discussion & Analysis ("MD&A"). (2) The Company, indirectly through the Partnership, incurs interest expense on the $47,000 outstanding bank loan. Interest expense also includes amortization of loan fees. See "Interest Expense" in the Company's MD&A. (3) Represents the distribution to PPL from the Partnership on Class B and Class D Units of the Partnership. The Class B and D Units are exchangeable into common shares of the Company ("Shares") based on the value of the Class B Exchange Multiplier and the Class D Exchange Multiplier at the time of exchange as defined in the amended and restated Pizza Pizza licence and royalty agreement (the "Pizza Pizza Licence and Royalty Agreement") and the amended and restated Pizza 73 licence and royalty agreement (the "Pizza 73 Licence and Royalty Agreement") (together, the "Licence and Royalty Agreements"), respectively, and represent 20.4% of the fully diluted Shares at June 30, 2016 (December 31, 2015 - 19.9%). During the quarter ended March 31, 2016, as a result of the final calculation of the equivalent Class B and Class D Share entitlements related to the January 1, 2015 Adjustment to the Royalty Pool, PPL was paid a distribution on additional equivalent Shares as if such Shares were outstanding as of January 1, 2015. Included in the three months ended March 31, 2016, is the receipt of distributions of $22 pursuant to the true-up calculation (March 31, 2015 - PPL received $80). (4) "Adjusted earnings from operations", "Adjusted earnings available for shareholder dividends", "Adjusted earnings per Share", and "Payout Ratio" do not have any standardized meaning under IFRS. Therefore, these figures may not be comparable to similar figures presented by other companies. See "Reconciliation of Non-IFRS Measures" in the Company's MD&A. (5) System Sales (as defined in the Licence and Royalty Agreements) reported by Pizza Pizza and Pizza 73 restaurants include the gross sales of Pizza Pizza company-owned, jointly-controlled and franchised restaurants, excluding sales and goods and service tax or similar amounts levied by any governmental or administrative authority. System Sales do not represent the consolidated operating results of the Company but are used to calculate the royalties payable to the Partnership as presented above. A copy of the Company's unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements and related MD&A will be available at www.sedar.com and www.pizzapizza.ca after the market closes on August 9, 2016. As previously announced, the Company will host a conference call to discuss the results. The details of the conference call are as follows: Date: Wednesday August 10, 2016 Time: 9:00 a.m. ET Call-in number: 416-340-2218 / 866-223-7781 Recording call in number: 905-694-9451 / 800-408-3053 Available until midnight, August 24, 2016 Passcode: 2401591 A recording of the call will also be available on the Company's website www.pizzapizza.ca. Forward Looking Statements Certain statements in this report may constitute "forward-looking" statements which involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward looking statements. When used in this report, such statements include such words as "may", "will", "expect", "believe", "plan", and other similar terminology. These statements reflect management's current expectations regarding future events and speak only as of the date of this report. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties, including those described in the Company's annual information form. The Company assumes no obligation to update these forward looking statements, except as required by applicable securities laws. Contacts: Pizza Pizza Limited Curt Feltner Chief Financial Officer (416) 967-1010 x307 cfeltner@pizzapizza.ca www.pizzapizza.ca and www.pizza73.com or www.sedar.com Pizza Pizza Limited Christine D'Sylva Vice President, Finance & Investor Relations (416) 967-1010 x393 cdsylva@pizzapizza.ca www.pizzapizza.ca and www.pizza73.com or www.sedar.com CALGARY, ALBERTA -- (Marketwired) -- 08/09/16 -- Canadian Natural Resources Limited (TSX: CNQ) (NYSE: CNQ) ("Canadian Natural" or the "Company") announces that on August 9, 2016, it priced C$1.0 billion principal amount of 3.31% medium-term notes due February 11, 2022 at a price of C$99.985 per C$100 principal amount to yield 3.313% to maturity to be sold to investors in Canada. Net proceeds from the sale of the notes will be used for general corporate purposes relating to the Company's core regions of operations. The Company may also use the net proceeds for repayment of indebtedness. RBC Dominion Securities Inc. and BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. acted as joint lead agents and joint bookrunners for the offering. CIBC World Markets Inc., Scotia Capital Inc., TD Securities Inc., Merrill Lynch Canada Inc., AltaCorp Capital Inc., and Desjardins Securities Inc. acted as co-agents. The sale of the notes will be the first issuance under the Canadian base shelf prospectus dated October 30, 2015 that allows for the issuance of debt securities in an aggregate principal amount of up to C$3.0 billion. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or other jurisdiction. Canadian Natural is a senior oil and natural gas production company, with continuing operations in its core areas located in Western Canada, the U.K. sector of the North Sea and Offshore Africa. Certain information regarding the Company contained herein may constitute forward-looking statements under applicable securities laws. Such statements are subject to known or unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements. Refer to our website for complete forward-looking statements www.cnrl.com Contacts: Steve W. Laut President Corey B. Bieber Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice-President, Finance Mark A. Stainthorpe Director, Treasury and Investor Relations Canadian Natural Resources Limited 2100, 855 - 2nd Street S.W. Calgary, Alberta, T2P 4J8 Canada Phone: (403) 514-7777 (403) 514-7888 (FAX) ir@cnrl.com www.cnrl.com Consolidated Condensed Interim Financial Statements for the six months ended June 30, 2016 of HS Orka hf. (the "Company") were approved at a Board of Directors meeting on 9 August 2016. The financial statements of HS Orka hf. are prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the European Union and are stated in ISK. The financial statements can be found on the Company's website: http://www.hsorka.is Company profit for the period was ISK 1,278 million (YTD 2015: ISK 142 million) and operating revenue was ISK 3,507 million (YTD 2015 ISK 3,824 million). The reduction in revenues is largely due to decreases in generation, and sales to fish smelters due to a poor fishing season. Net finance income was ISK 874 million (YTD 2015: expense ISK 1,568 million). The major driver for the variance was due to an increase in aluminum prices since year-end which drove up the fair value of the embedded derivatives and resulted in a gain of ISK 841 million (YTD 2015: loss of ISK 1,239 million). In addition, net exchange rate differences were positive of ISK 150 million (YTD 2015 negative of ISK 282 million). A total comprehensive profit of ISK 1,193 million was recorded in the period against a profit of ISK 75 million in 2015. The Company's equity ratio is 62.3% compared to 58.6% at year-end 2015. Further information can be provided by Asgeir Margeirsson, Managing Director of HS Orka hf., tel. 520 9300 / 855 9301. Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 08/09/16 -- Tudor Gold Corp. (the "Company" or "Tudor Gold") (TSX VENTURE: TUD) is pleased to announce that it has closed its previously announced non-brokered private placement, which has been fully subscribed. The Company raised gross proceeds of $3,000,000 through the issuance of 3,000,000 common shares at a price of $1.00 per common share (the "Shares"). Finders in connection with the private placement will receive finders' fees totaling $186,066.35 in cash. Tudor Gold intends to expend the proceeds raised from the private placement primarily on further exploration of its Treaty Creek property and for general working capital purposes. The Shares issued under the private placement are subject to a hold period under applicable Canadian securities laws expiring on December 10, 2016. Company Website The Company is also pleased to announce that it has opened its corporate website, which can be found at www.tudor-gold.com. About the Company Tudor Gold is focused on being a significant explorer in British Columbia's Golden Triangle, an area which hosts multiple past-producing mines and several large deposits that are approaching potential development. The Company has a 60% interest in both the Electrum and Treaty Creek properties, and a 100% interest in the Mackie, Eskay North, Orion, Fairweather, Delta and the High North properties, all of which are located in the Golden Triangle area. There are no known resources or reserves on any of the Company's mineral properties, and the presence of mineral deposits on properties adjacent to or in close proximity to the Company's mineral properties is not necessarily indicative of mineralization on the Company's properties. Walter Storm, President and Chief Executive Officer Cautionary statements Certain statements contained in this press release constitute forward-looking information. These statements relate to future events or future performance. The use of any of the words "could", "intend", "expect", "believe", "will", "projected", "estimated" and similar expressions and statements relating to matters that are not historical facts are intended to identify forward-looking information and are based on the Corporation's current belief or assumptions as to the outcome and timing of such future events. Actual future results may differ materially. The forward-looking information contained in this release is made as of the date hereof and the Corporation is not obligated to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. Because of the risks, uncertainties and assumptions contained herein, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The foregoing statements expressly qualify any forward-looking information contained herein. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Contacts: Tudor Gold Corp. Aris Morfopoulos Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary 604-721-2650 604-608-3878 (FAX) www.tudor-gold.com Farmers Business Network, Inc., a San Carlos, Calif.-based independent farmer-to-farmer network, raised $20m in funding. The round was led by Acre Venture Partners, with participation from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers LLP, GV (formerly Google Ventures), and DBL Partners. The company, which has raised nearly $48m in funding, intends to use the funds to further expand its farmer network, farm analytics and FBN Procurement Services. Launched commercially in 2015, FBN is an independent network which connects farmers to share farm data and gain insights and make improved agronomic and financial decisions. FBN members receive analytics on seed performance, agronomic practices, input prices, and yield benchmarking based on over 55 million acre-events of real world data from the FBN community of farms. The FBN Procurement Services works directly with input manufacturers to deliver members reduced input prices, which are published online. It will expand the service nationally this year while also adding other product lines beyond ag chemicals. FinSMEs 09/08/2016 Finexio, a San Mateo, CA-based Smart B2B payment network, raised $1M in seed funding. The round was led by James R. Heistand with participation from Loeb.nyc, and a number of angel investors from the fintech industry. The company intends to use the funds to further enhance its payment platform and develop additional integrations. Led by Ernest Rolfson, CEO, and David McGuerty, CTO, Finexio is a smart B2B payment network that eliminates commercial paper check spend by identifying and routing payments through a network of closed loop networks. Payments on the Finexio rails are pushed into a suppliers bank accounts at fees lower than prevailing commercial payment costs. Finexio integrates into large payment aggregators, accounts payable automation, and procurement software platforms. FinSMEs 08/08/2016 Workit Health, an Oakland, CA and Ann Arbor, MIbased innovative digital program for overcoming addictive behaviors, raised a $1.1m in seed funding. The round was led by Montage Ventures and Lux Capital with participation from Invest Detroit Ventures First Step Fund, Wakestream Ventures, Impact Engine, and strategic angel investors. Co-founded by Lisa McLaughlin and Robin McIntosh, Workit provides a 90-day digital program that pairs one-on-one support from professionally-certified counselors with interactive, customized digital content. The core of the program is based on evidence-based therapies for addiction, including Motivational Interviewing (MI), Relapse Prevention Therapy, (RPT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and Brief Interventions (BI). The interactive curriculum continually adapts to each individuals evolving needs and feedback. Workit Health is currently participating in the Healthbox Studio in Los Angeles and is an alumnus of Seamless Internet of Things Accelerator in Grand Rapids, MI. It was previously a tenant of the non-profit Ann Arbor SPARK incubator and selected as the IT Sector Winner in the 2015 Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition. FinSMEs 09/08/2016 The ninth day of August should be a joyous occasion. Today, Irom Sharmila, a symbol of peaceful resistance unlike any in contemporary India, will end her hunger strike, which has been in effect for the last 16 years. For this better part of two decades (where she was kept alive via official force-feeding through a tube), she has sacrificed no less than her entire being to the cause of repealing the brutal Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (Afspa), 1958 from her state, Manipur. This has been to no avail, and realising the practical futility of her protest, she will now enter politics. Nation-states are not known to bend to the will of one individuals personal activism. It is unsurprising that, after 16 years, Afspa remains in effect; even if it had been dispensed with, it would not have been due to a sole fast. However, civil society can always react with empathy to stunning acts of courage, like the one in question. More so in the case of those who can wield influence in their respective fields and command public opinion, namely the middle class-up. This was something around which a movement (passing the boundaries of Manipur) could have been built in a relatively apolitical manner. Sadly, the compassion reserved for the likes of Anna Hazare did not extend from Ramlila Grounds to Imphal. The attitude or ignorance towards Sharmila is typical of mainland India, which, all said and done, still barely registers the North East. For this overwhelming majority, 9 August will pass like any other day. Sharmila may not even score a faint blip on the radar of civil society. There is an inherent hypocrisy to what infuriates humans beings. When a man recently threw an unsuspecting dog from a roof, its video immediately went viral and there was (rightly) a spontaneous outpour of indignation from different parts of the country. But Sharmilas situation is a continuum; it does not occur as one instance, but continues to exist. An act of cruelty can invoke outrage, but to behold repeated cruelty ushers in a certain normalisation. Just as with poverty or caste or Palestine, there seems to be a liberal fatigue about keeping up with the unceasing drone of injustice. Therefore, the passage of time is not directly proportional to the increase in outrage or support. This has slowly dawned on Sharmila, one painful day at a time. We love to create heroes, whether in politics or cinema or sport, but they need to ingratiate themselves within a collective Indian psyche which is fickle and illogical. It is remarkable that more people outside Manipur ie people not used to scrutinising politics and society will know about Mary Kom than Irom Sharmila. A cause or feat needs a tamasha around it to really be identifiable. Our empathy needs the trigger of glamour. If big money and material proliferation is what it takes in India to penetrate the national conciousness in a truly national way, then Irom Sharmila T-shirts should be sold from Bengaluru to Delhi. There should be a pellet-spray of films from major production houses aimed at accurately depicting her plight. From cups to coasters to full-length advertisements on the first three pages of The Times of India, her tubed face should stare at the Great Indian Consumer. That, perhaps, will get civil society to appreciate a woman who gave up her best years for a just cause through the sacrifice of her body; a person with no chance of success in a long-overlooked state removed from the consciousness of the liberal elite. In any case, one muted reality will stand: She has done more for the democratic identity of India than all the individuals and institutions across spectra whose mechanical repetition of the word democracy has left it limp. Irom Sharmila began her fast when 10 civilians were shot dead in Malom, Manipur, allegedly by the Assam Rifles. Since then, she has constantly been arrested, force-fed, released, and re-arrested in a dull cycle. The charge is attempted suicide. On a level of governance, it may be argued that persisting with savage laws in the face of native discontent could, like with Sharmila, also qualify as attempted suicide. And the same should be relentlessly argued by a general public still insensitive to events outside its proximal interest. Maybe it will be sensitised if Bollywood ever sees business in the North East. Tokyo: Japan's Fair Trade Commission has raided the offices of Amazon.com Inc's local unit on suspicion of pressuring retailers to offer products at lower prices than on rival sites, the Nikkei business daily said on Monday. The paper, which cited unidentified sources with knowledge of the case, did not say when the raid took place. A Japan Fair Trade Commission spokesman said he could not confirm the report but added: "I won't say the contents are incorrect." An Amazon Japan spokeswoman declined to comment. Amazon Japan's website booked net sales of $8.3 billion last year, equivalent to 7.7 percent of Amazon.com's worldwide net sales. By comparison, main rival Rakuten Inc recorded e-commerce revenue in Japan of 263.9 billion yen ($2.9 billion) in the same period. Amazon's practices toward retailers and e-commerce partners have also come under scrutiny in Europe. Germany's Federal Cartel Office began an investigation in November into Apple Inc and Amazon after complaints that publishers were being forced to accept "unreasonable conditions" for the marketing of audio books. And the European Union last year opened an antitrust investigation into Amazon's e-book business, examining whether clauses in contracts prevented publishers from offering more favorable deals to Amazon's competitors. Apple and Audible, Amazon's audiobook business, declined at the time to comment on the German investigation. On the EU probe, Amazon said it was confident its agreements with publishers were legal and in the best interests of readers. Britain's Office of Fair Trading and Germany's Federal Cartel Office probed Amazon's conditions for third-party sellers trading on its "Marketplace" platform between 2012 and 2013. Both bodies closed their investigations after the company altered policies that banned traders from selling products offered on Amazon more cheaply elsewhere. Kochi: Apollo Tyres is investing about Rs 3,000 crore to double manufacturing capacity of its truck and bus radial tyres, according to its Chairman Onkar S Kanwar. He further said that domestic tyre manufacturers are facing "big challenges" from cheap imports from China, which has now accounted for up to 35 percent of the market in India. "The company is investing almost Rs 3,000 crore in doubling of capacity of truck and bus radial tyres," Kanwar told reporters late evening Monday, ahead of the Annual General Meeting of the company here. He said the expansion of the company's Chennai facility to increase the truck-bus radial facility from 6,000 tyres per day to 12,000 tyres per day is underway. Apollo Tyres is investing Rs 2,700 crore towards this expansion. The first phase of expansion is likely to be completed by October 2016, he added. Commenting on the cheap imports from China, he said: "Today they have 30-35 percent of market share. They are taking that much share in the truck and bus radial tyres. This is really impacting the market. That is a big challenge. We have taken up with our government authorities. They are looking into it." Kanwar noted that the countries like the US has imposed 35 percent import duty on Chinese tyres and all other avenues have been closed for them but "we have opened up our market" for them. "Today we have competition from all the multi-nationals -- GoodYear, Bridgestone, Continental etc...So there is competition. You have to fight that competition but you cannot fight a competition which is not in market economy. Unfortunately, Chinese (are) not a market economy," Kanwar said. He said Appollo Tyres have done "very well this year despite challenges". "Last year our company had a turn over of Rs 11,700 crore...with a net profit of Rs 317 crore. This is despite challenges," he said. Kanwar said the entry into the two-wheeler tyre space has made Appollo Tyres a full range player. "The company's two-wheeler tyres have been well received by the customers and business partners. Seeing this demand, the company is increasing the number of outlets selling two-wheeler tyres from 2,000 currently, to 3,000 outlets very soon," he said. He said the first tyres from Appollo Tyres' greenfield facility in Hungary is expected to roll out early next year. "The capacity will then be gradually ramped up over the next few years. Once ready, this facility will have capacity to produce 5.5 million passenger car and light truck and 675,000 heavy commercial vehicle tyres," Kanwar said. The facility will produce both Appollo and Vredestein brand of tyres and will complement Appollo Tyres' existing facility in the Netherlands, he added. He said the acquisition of Reifencom GmbH, Germany based leading tyre distributor with both online and offline presence will help the company improve its mix of distribution channels in Germany and Europe. Mumbai: Signalling more consolidation in the cluttered life insurance space, HDFC and Max groups Monday decided to merge their life insurance businesses to create the biggest private life insurer with combine asset base of Rs 1.1 lakh crore in a complex multi-stage share swap deal. Under the merger deal, the Max Group will also get an Rs 850 crore non-compete fee for not entering the life insurance business for the next four years. The boards of HDFC Life, Max Life, Max Financial Services and Max India decided to amalgamate their businesses to create a Rs 25,500-crore entity under the label of HDFC Life through a 3:7 share swap under which a Max shareholder will get three HDFC Life shares for every seven in an old share deal. The merger will make HDFC Life the largest private sector life insurer with close to 10.8 percent (up from 6.5 percent now and Max life has 4.3 percent) and with an AUM of Rs 1.10 trillion, replacing ICICI Prudential which currently is the largest private sector player. HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh said post-merger, HDFC Life will become a publicly traded company and he expects to complete the merger process over the next 12 months. "We will proceed with the regulatory filings and I expect the merger to close in 12 months. The merger will make our consolidated market share 10.8 percent with an AUM of Rs 1.10 trillion," Parekh said. The merged entity will command a valuation of over Rs 65,000 crore, HDFC Life managing director and chief executive Amitabh Chaudhary told reporters. The merger is arrived at through a composite scheme of arrangement under which the life insurance business of Max Financial Services, currently held as Max Life, will be demerged into HDFC Life. "As per the agreed valuation and exchange ratio, the relative valuation of HDFC Life and Max Life will be 69 per cent and 31 per cent respectively," the companies said. Post merger, HDFC will hold 42.5 percent in HDFC Life, Standard Life will continue to hold 24 percent, Max Group will have 6.6 percent stake in the company. Other shareholders, Axis Bank and PES will collectively own the rest of the shares. Terming the deal as a long-term value creation for shareholders of HDFC Life, Parekh said Analjit Singh and his team have created a strong and robust team following a strategy of consistent and strong growth to create value for both shareholder and policy holders. For the merger of Max Life into Max Financial Services, shareholders of Max Life will get one share of Max Financial Services for every 4.98 shares of Max Life. For demerger of the life insurance undertaking from Max Financial Services into HDFC Life, shareholders of Max Financial Services (post the amalgamation with Max Life), will get 2.33 shares of HDFC Life for each share of Max Financial Services. Earlier, HDFC and Max groups had entered into an "agreement to evaluate a potential combination through a merger of Max Life and Max Financial into HDFC Life through a scheme of arrangement". As per reports, insurance regulator IRDAI had expressed concerns over transfer of liabilities related to businesses other than life insurance to the merged entity, if Max Financial and Max Life were merged into HDFC Life in totality. Asked about overlapping of key employee positions post-merger, Chaudhari said there could be some issues on this but "our intension is to retain talent as much as we can and create growth opportunities". After the merger, the new company will have 601 branches (HDFC Life's 398 and Max's 211) and 23,620 employees (HDFC over 15,100 and 8,780 at Max) at the present combined head count. The Rs 25-trillion domestic life insurance space is cluttered with 23 players, but the four private players alone control over 65 percent of private life market and while other 19 put together hold 35 percent. The state-run LIC still enjoys close to 70 percent of the market pie. As a part of the deal, in consideration of the non-compete and non-solicitation obligations undertaken by the Max Group promoters, the merged insurance entity will be paying a non-compete fee worth Rs 850 crore to the promoter group of Max Financial Services. "The term of non-compete clause will be four years since the payment of an upfront fee of Rs 501 crore which will be payable post completion of the proposed transaction. This will be followed by three equal annual instalments totalling Rs 349 crore, taking the total fee to Rs 850 crore," the companies said. HDFC Life has also entered into a trademark licence agreement to use the Max brand as part of life products that will transition from Max Life, for seven years post merger. HDFC and Standard Life Mauritius Holdings will continue to be the promoters of the merged HDFC Life and HDFC will cease to be the holding company of HDFC Life post-merger but will hold 42.5 percent in the company. The proposed transaction needs to be approved by the shareholders id HDFC Life, Max Life, Max Financial Services and Max India apart from regulatory approvals from Irdai and Sebi and the courts. Before the merger of Max Life with HDFC Life, Max Life will be demerged from Max Financial Services and subsequently Max Financial Services would be merged into Max India. As of March 2016, HDFC Life had total premium of Rs 16,313 crore and an AUM of Rs 74,247 crore while Max Life, which is a joint venture between Max Financial Services and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance of Japan) had a premium income of Rs 9,216 crore and AUM of Rs 35,824 crore. The Edinburgh-based Standard Life holds 35 percent stake in HDFC Life, in which HDFC owns 61.63 percent. For HDFC, this will be the second merger announcement this month after HDFC Ergo General Insurance announced takeover of 100 percent stake in L&T General Insurance. Owing to the Max deal, which would involve swap of shares without any cash changing hands, HDFC Life has put on hold its proposed IPO. Max Life is a joint venture with Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Company. Max Financial owns 68 percent stake in Max Life, while Mitsui Sumitomo owns 26 percent. I battled Polio during my grade school days. Thanks to the wonder drug penicillin, I survived. This was before the iron lung and polio vaccine, so the drug was administered quite freely to turn the tide of the infectious disease. My butt served as the pin cushion for penicillin. That, and the frequent hot packs, slowly allowed for improvement so that I could finally straighten out my arms and legs during the month-long hospital stay. The nurses followed a daily routine. Penicillin became my lifesaver, along with those itchy steaming woolen clothes that covered a good portion of my body. At first, while still lying in bed at home, my joints stiffened up and I broke out in a rash. It appeared to be a case of chicken pox, but it wasnt. And because I was on sulfa drugs, my sickness was supposedly a reaction to the drug. My brother Lee, who was on a short leave from service, convinced the doctor to hospitalize me. Im not sure that Dr. Bruenig ever made the distinction between polio and rheumatic fever. Fortunate was I that the inflammatory disease, or diseases, did no major damage to my heart, nor did I end up with deformed legs in need of braces. And my hospital stay was a true learning experience in that the nurses kept pushing me to exercise my limbs. Not only that, but they put together a little book in which they penned encouraging notes. That was essential in my battle. I was always anxious to pick up the book after the nurses wrote in it and left my room. Youre in the Army now I and a number of farm kids from Minnesota and Wisconsin were sworn in at the Milwaukee Road Station in downtown Minneapolis. We were then bused to Fort Sheridan near Chicago, and eventually flown out to Seattle for our military haircuts and clothing. Four months of heavy weapons training at Fort Lewis supposedly made me a soldier that could kill if needed. It was never explained to me how we were to tell the good from the bad Koreans. There was never any mention of the Chinese and Russians becoming involved in the so-called Korean Conflict. And I regret that ear protection was never provided as we fired rifles, machine guns and tank busters. By todays standards, my hearing loss is such that not even surgery can correct it. What about the Army? Our drill sergeants really made it a daily task to be in our face. And the younger cadre did the same but without the intensity. We learned quickly not to take that step forward when a weekend pass was promised. Peeling spuds over a weekend wasnt all that bad. And when those weekend passes were finally issued, wed group up and head for Seattle or Tacoma. This was a Seattle without the Space Needle yet. On one weekend pass, we found a lookout spot overlooking Puget Sound where we were able to watch as Guy Lombardos Tempo IV Speed Boat was revving up for the upcoming races. As we neared the completion of our training, there was always the question of where will we go next: Korea or Europe? Our unit eventually ended up in Korea following a long boat ride with stops in Alaska and Sasebo, Japan. Our boat tossed and turned for three days when we ran into a tropical storm. Not only were we Army boys struggling to keep our food down, even the Navy kids were sprawled out on the floor in the lunch room with their metal food trays sliding around. I was fortunate that I was given a job to provide some music over the ships PA system. That kept my mind focused because seasickness was no stranger to me. We changed ships in Sasebo. We then steamed to Korea where we landed at Inchon. We were greeted by battle-tested troops who just loved to have fresh recruits report for duty so they could scare the hell out us with their war stories. Be ready to hit the deck, they told us as we boarded rail cars for a ride through the mountains. Our assignment was with the Transportation Battalion at Chunchon in the central part of Korea and only a short distance from the DMZ, the zone that separated North Korea from South Korea. I got to drive a truck, a so-called deuce-and-a-half. With no previous truck-driving experience, and thanks to an automatic transmission, I just fell in line and followed the truck ahead of me as we brought back veterans from the front lines. Someone back at Battalion Headquarters must have read my background and I was eventually assigned to S1 and the court marshaling cases that frequently arose. Picking up supplies in Seoul and bargaining with the importers was another assignment that I undertook. It could be troubling at times when the Koreans would push their young children into the middle of the alleys so that our convoy had to stop. They then would attempt to steal supplies and tools from our trucks and trailers. Korea was an experience I dont regret being involved in. I was proud to serve. I just dont think that our government was totally frank with us as to the countries, such as Russia and China, and their supplying of weapons and personnel. They should be held accountable for the 35,000 casualties we suffered and the additional POW/MIAs still unaccounted for. Yes, the United States somewhat blunted the territorial takeover by communists in the Far East by throwing our support to South Korea. Maybe there should have been a clearer understanding of whom our friends and enemies are. New Delhi: Condemning the attacks on Dalits, RSS on Monday termed as "inhuman" the violence and asked state governments to take action against elements trying to "disturb communal harmony and trust". VHP, an RSS affiliate, however, vowed to continue its work related to protection of cow, saying they have been doing it for a long time and will continue the work. "We appeal to all the sections of the society to remain aware of elements who want to disturb the environment of communal harmony and trust. We expect the administration to take speedy action against such individuals and groups who break the law," RSS general secretary Bhaiyaji Joshi, second in chain of command after its Sar Sanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat, said in a statement. Significantly, RSS had also issued a statement on Sunday denouncing the attacks on Dalits. He said taking law in one's own hands to harass Dalits was not only illegal but also inhuman. While declining to comment on the attacks on Dalits and Muslims by cow vigilantes, VHP joint general secretary Surendra Jain said there was a lot of controversy over it. "We will not like to comment on the issue. However, cow protection has been going on since long. We will continue to work for it," Jain said. The comments by RSS and VHP came in the backdrop of Prime Minister Narendra Modi strongly rebuking perpetrators of violence on Dalits in the name of cow protection, telling them, "if you have to shoot, shoot me" but stop attacking "my Dalit brothers". Facing increasingly bruising opposition assault on his government and BJP over attacks on Dalits and on the issue of cow vigilantes, Modi had on Sunday 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. Joshi said that several political parties and leaders of various castes are trying to create a situation of uncertainty through half baked information which is not conducive to harmony. RSS also would like to appeal to political parties and various heads that there is a need to normalise the situation of uncertainty through public cooperation, Joshi said. "By sympathising with the victims, there is a need to think that such incidents do not take place," Joshi said in the statement. However, Modi faced flak from some Hindutva groups with the chief of a right wing organisation sending him a legal notice and alleging that his comments will encourage cow smugglers. "Modi said over 70-80 percent of those working to protect cows are anti-social elements. I have asked him to clarify what evidence he has to back his statement. His comments are a big setback to cow protectors as they will be now seen as a villain by the society," Akhil Bhartiya Hindu Mahasabha president Swamy Chakrapani said. "Cow smugglers will receive a boost and attack cow protectors more aggressively now," he added. Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha president Chandra Prakash Kaushik demanded that the prime minister withdraw his comments as they have hurt the Hindu community. Modi had yesterday 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. In Meerut, Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha activists accused the BJP of "betraying" the trust of the Hindus and conducted a special 'havan' for Modi's "good sense". National vice-president of the outfit Ashoke Sharma was critical of Modi for describing cow vigilante groups as "anti-socials" and "militants". He added that the 'havan' was conducted at the Hindu Mahasabha office at Sharda Road so that the prime minister started thinking about the "Hindu cause" again. He alleged that due to these "dubious" activities of the BJP, India could not become a "Hindu nation". Talking to reporters in Nagpur, RSS ideologue and former spokesperson MG Vaidya said the government should take a strict action against those who attack Dalits in the name of cow protection. "When there is a law against cow slaughter and provision of punishment for such acts, the so-called cow protectors should inform the police instead of taking law into their own hands," he said. The RSS veteran said "such elements" are defaming Hindu religion. He dismissed any association of the self-proclaimed cow vigilantes who target Dalits with Sangh Parivar. "The government should find out the credentials of such elements so that truth comes out before people," he added. Lucknow: Three more persons, including the main accused in the Bulandshahr gangrape case, have been arrested, taking the total number of those nabbed in connection with the incident to six, a police official said on Monday. Declining to give details, he said that all the three accused were picked up by the police during raids. Among them was the main accused Salim Bawariya, he said, but did not disclose the place from where the arrests were made. These arrests are in addition to three persons picked up earlier. Director General of UP Police Javeed Ahmed had earlier said, "The names of other accused are almost clear and efforts are on to arrest them." A group of dacoits had brutally raped the woman and her 13-year-old daughter at gunpoint after dragging them out of a car in Bulandshahr on NH-91 when they were travelling with their family from Noida to Shahjahanpur on 29 July. Later, another police official said the three accused were arrested from Meerut, after a week-long chase. The arrests come on a day the Allahabad High Court sought within a week an appropriate reply from the Uttar Pradesh government on a PIL seeking a direction for a CBI probe into the Bulandshahr gangrape case. Uttar Pradesh Police had earlier arrested--Naresh (25), Bablu (22) and Rais (28)--and detained a dozen others after launching a massive hunt for the bandits suspected to be behind the crime. Accusing the Samajwadi Party government of "protecting and appeasing" criminals ahead of the Assembly polls slated next year, BJP had asked Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav to seek a CBI probe in the case if he has any "shame" left. Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said he would order a CBI probe if the family demanded Abdul Aziz Kala, an ambulance driver who works at SMHS hospital in Srinagar, shows me multiple bruises on his right leg, as if someone had sliced him with a sharp razor multiple times. The culprit, he explains, are both protesters and paramilitary soldiers. These bruises were from the most recent beating, which took place a week ago, when he was taking three injured protesters on the outskirts of the city towards Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital, where majority of the injured in the clashes are brought for treatment. We are at the mercy of protesters and soldiers on the streets, Kala, 46, said inside the SMHS hospital, where almost every ward is overfilled with people injured in the current unrest in valley. Kala has been beaten three times in the last four weeks; recently, protesters beat him when they noticed him carrying the medical staff inside his ambulance. And after leaving the staff, while coming back towards the hospital, he was ordered by a group of CRPF men to remove a bundle of concertina wire spread on a road to make way for his ambulance. I injured myself while removing wires. They know we are ambulance drivers, they should ask for the ID but despite that, they order us to come down and remove the wire, he explains. Outside the hospital main entry of the hospital Mukhtar Ahmad, another ambulance driver, has just brought an injured boy from a periphery hospital. The front mirror of the ambulance van is broken, and small pieces of glass are still scattered inside. Ahmad was recently carrying a 9-year-old boy, injured in Natipora area of Srinagar, towards SMHS when solders noticed an injured boy inside the van and broke the front shield and windowpanes of his ambulances. This did not happen even in the worst years of militancy, when people were killed on the streets but we still managed to get injured to the hospital. But after every passing day, the job is becoming difficult, Ahmad says, while staring at a grave (in the main compound of the hospital) of Ghulam Nabi Bhat, an ambulance driver who was killed by BSF troops in Batwara area of Srinagar on 20 July, 1992 while driving an injured towards the hospital. Ours is a noble profession but buy every morning, since the unrest began, my wife tells me to sell chicken instead of driving ambulance, he says. The ambulance drivers, particularly from south of Kashmir, have the most gut-wrenching stories to tell, apart from the injured, blinded, maimed and bullet-ridden victims of the ongoing unrest in Kashmir. Shafkat (name changed), who works as an ambulance driver in Anantnag hospital, drove the bullet-ridden body of a teenaged victim who was fired upon by the forces during clashes with protesters last month. As soon as the victim was lodged inside, nearly a dozen attendants filled the ambulance and started shouting slogans. We were about to reach Bijbehra when forces forcibly stopped the ambulance and dragged attendants out and started beating them, Shafkat told Firstpost on the phone. I thought that was it. But then they came for me, grabbed me by my collar and started beating me with sticks, he added. After almost ten minutes, he drove his ambulances towards Srinagar through deserted streets, before a police vehicle chased him and forced him to turn towards Pampore hospital. A video, which has gone viral on the social networking sites, shows policemen barging inside his ambulance and dragging out the attendants accompanying the injured. Had the hospital staff not intervened, they would have dragged the patient too from the ambulance, he said. After dozens of attacks against the ambulance drivers both by protesters and paramilitary forces and police, Hurriyat leaders were forced to issue statements asking the youth to desist from attacking the ambulances. Youth should maintain discipline and desist from attacking the ambulances, medicos and journalists, Hurriyat leader Shabir Ahmad Shah said. Suhail Masoodi, director of Centre for Research and Development Policy, a policy think tank based in Srinagar, says the protection of the wounded during an armed conflict is the first founding principle of the Geneva Convention, to which India is a signatory. Although it is not a full blown war, during the armed conflict, it has to be ensured that effective help for the sick or wounded medical or humanitarian personnel and facilities must be respected and protected in all circumstances, he says. According to Directorate of Health Services, Kashmir, government forces and protesters have damaged more than 120 ambulances since the present began on 8 July in Kashmir. There is ambivalence among officials for registration a legal case against the forces and protesters, as the issue will make the ambulances more vulnerable to such attacks. Riyaz Ahmad Khan, transport head of the Directorate of Health Services, Kashmir says there have been instances in which windscreens, side and rear windows, lights, tyres and body all were damaged, apart from beating the drivers. Policemen have often targeted ambulances which has been recorded on camera by people. Whenever they notice an injured protester inside the ambulance they attack and break the windows, often beating the drivers too, he says. But it is not just the policemen protesters too have created hurdles in carrying the patients from different parts of Kashmir. he added. Most of the drivers say if the attacks continue they might have to stop working, which could create another major crises in the valley as the clashes continue and hospital continue to receive injured from different parents of the Kashmir region. Imphal: Manipuri political activist Irom Sharmila will break her 16-year long hunger strike against the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act on Tuesday. Sharmila has been campaigning against AFSPA which provides special powers to handle insurgents in the North East and Jammu and Kashmir also. The 42-year-old activist, also known as Manipur's 'Iron Lady' had announced on 26 July to end her hunger strike on 9 August, the next date of her court hearing. She made the announcement in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Imphal west, L. Tonsing. Sharmila also announced that she will marry and contest the Manipur assembly elections next year as an independent candidate. She was termed a 'Prisoner of conscience' by Amnesty International and recipient of various prizes. Sharmila has declined food or drink for the last 16 years, seeking repeal of the controversial AFSPA. She is on forcible nose feeding. Sharmila began a hunger strike in November 2000, following the killing of 10 civilians by security forces. She was arrested by the Manipur government in 2000 under section 309 of the Indian Penal Code, which prohibits an attempt to commit suicide. University of Wisconsin-Madison student Brooke Evans was recently featured in a Glamour article for a less than glamorous reason she spoke frankly about her six year struggle with homelessness as a student. The article uses Evans as an example of the growing number of homeless college students across the nation. The article cited the over 59,000 applicants for federal aid who identified as homeless in 2015, as well as recent studies showing that more than 10 percent of students surveyed were struggling with homelessness in some form. These numbers echo research from the Wisconsin HOPE Lab, a research project at the UW-Madison. The lab studies the topic of affordability and equitable outcomes in postsecondary education. A 2014 study from the center found that half of community college students surveyed around the nation were at risk of hunger or homelessness. A 2016 study of four-year Wisconsin campuses found that over a fourth of students reported being hungry and 4 percent were unable to pay rent. Originally a student at UW-La Crosse, Evans transferred to UW-Madison in her sophomore year. Once there, she couch surfed and lived out of her car. When she originally sought help from UW-Madison counselors, they suggested she stop attending school until she could afford it. I would imagine that Brooke did meet some resistance, UWMadison Dean of Students Lori Berquam said in the article. None of us knew homelessness was that much of an issue then. And also, maybe there was the school pride of Madison is doing really well, and thats not a problem on our campus. Evans grades fell, and she dropped out in 2013, to be readmitted the next year. She returned with a renewed sense of purpose. And thats when I decided to become an activist, Evans said in the article. Using a pseudonym, she wrote for the student paper about the struggles of being a homeless student. That fall, she proposed a campus food pantry. Debate on the proposal motivated her to talk publicly about her homelessness to raise support for the project and awareness of the issue. The proposal passed, and the pantry, known as The Open Seat, is now open. The pantry is staffed by part-time student workers, paid from $3000 in student fees appropriated by the Associated Students of Madison. The pantry distributes donated food. Kevin Helmkamp, associate dean of students at UW-Madison, said the number of students utilizing the pantry has seen steady growth since it opened earlier this year, and he expects growth to continue as more students become aware of the pantry. "It certainly has demonstrated that it's well worth doing," he said. The students running the pantry have been tracking what items are in demand, and are learning more as the process continues, he said. "I think the students who started the pantry deserve a lot of credit for being very thoughtful in their approach and showing commitment to doing the job well," said Helmkamp. Evans has also worked with the HOPE Lab to generate ideas to help low-income and struggling students. Food and shelter are priorities, but she also wants to help low-income students have more typical college experiences, for example, by offering free Badger games tickets. I dont think people realize how exclusive entry into some of these spaces feels, she said in a Capital Times article in February. UW-Madison has several other programs to help low-income and struggling students. Last year, 3,900 UW-Madison students received Pell Grants, federal subsidy grants used to pay for college. The UW-Madison Office of Child Care and Family Resources provides financial aid for childcare for parents students. Theres also The Odyssey Project, an introduction to the humanities program for low-income adults. It aims to act as a springboard into college. In February, UW-Madison spokeswoman Meredith McGlone said Chancellor Rebecca Blank has made increasing need-based aid a priority. The Dean of Students Office also grants emergency student loans, and this year hired a case manager to help connect students to available resources. FASTrack and BANNER are two university programs that distribute grants and work opportunities to low-income students to about 1,000 students a year. While we can and will do more, data show the successes we're already having supporting students, McGlone said in a CapTimes article earlier this year. After rescuing thousands from Saudi Arabia and war-struck Yemen, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is going all out to help distressed Indians. And, it's not just those who are missing. Swaraj is helping Indians, who have lost their passports or are on the brink of their visa expiration. She is also assuring her assistance to couples, as Times of India puts it, "Sushma Swaraj talks tough, is also a romantic at heart." Faizan Patel, a Mangalore-based photographer, on 4 August tweeted that to Swaraj that his wife's passport went missing, two days before their honeymoon. In a series of tweets, Patel expressed hope at finding the missing passport. Just two days before our trip, my wife's passport goes missing!!! Faizan Patel (@faizanpatel) August 4, 2016 Seems like I am travelling alone tonight via @TurkishAirlines. My wife has her passport misplaced. Fingers crossed that we find it soon. Faizan Patel (@faizanpatel) August 6, 2016 It looked like Patel was also partly happy about the whole affair. He tweeted pictures of him with his wife, saying "Travelling to Italy without wifey. #Yay #PartyTime". He even went to the extent of putting a picture of his wife on the seat beside him in the flight and tagged Swaraj. To his surprise, Swaraj replied. Swaraj told Patel to ask his wife to contact her. Ask your wife to contact me. I will ensure that she is with you on the next seat. pic.twitter.com/sktnOMkg0a @faizanpatel Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) August 8, 2016 My office has reached you already. You will get a duplicate Passport tomorrow. @faizanpatel https://t.co/FV6BisvqgP Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) August 8, 2016 The couple thanked Swaraj profusely. Minister par excellence @SushmaSwarajBJP I am glad we have you. You're a beacon of hope. Regards, - Sana & Faizan Faizan Patel (@faizanpatel) August 9, 2016 However, this is not the first time that Swaraj has taken up the case of a couple who might get separated from each other. According to reports, Swaraj came to the aid of another distressed Haryana couple. They met on Facebook and married soon after. However, the wife's tourist visa was expiring and the couple was dreading their separation. A newspaper wrote about it and the report caught Swaraj's eye. I spoke to Jahana and her husband. She told me that at this moment she wants to go back to her country. Her husband reiterated this. Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) July 27, 2016 Seems like Swaraj cannot take even a day off. If it isn't rescuing missing Indians, it's uniting couples who have drifted away due to passport-visa problems. Who is the external affairs minister going to rescue now? Two of controversial preacher Zakir Naik's aides Arshi Qureshi and Rizwan Khan have been booked by the Mumbai police for forceful conversion and radicalisation, reported The Indian Express. They are currently under the Kerala police custody. This comes a day after the Home Ministry issued an inspection notice to Naik's Islamic Research Foundation for alleged violations under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), according to The Hindu. Reports suggest that the police will soon widen the net and probe people associated with Naik's foundation. Hindustan Times reported that police action was taken after Mumbai Central resident Abdul Majid Abdul Kader filed a complaint against Arshid Qureshi, a guest representative officer with IRF and Rizwan Khan, who has also been linked to the foundation. Reacting to the Home Ministry's proposal to ban the Mumbai-based organisation and term it illegal, IRF issued a statement, "IRF has taken a note of certain media reports citing the law ministry's attempt to ban the foundation under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). This is truly shocking. There is no evidence to show that Dr Naik ever promoted terrorism or indulged in any unlawful activity. If the government registers a case under UAPA, it will be gross misuse of the draconian Act," reported DNA. Qureshi and Khan were jointly arrested by a police team from Kerala and Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) from Mumbai on a complaint filed by Ebin Jacob, brother of Merin alias Mariyam that she was radicalised by her husband Yahiya with the help of Qureshi. Later, the two were brought to Kochi. The Kerala police have even confirmed Islamic State links of Qureshi. Naik, a city-based televangelist who also runs Peace TV, has been under the scanner of various agencies after one of the attackers involved in the Dhaka terror strike posted that he had been influenced by the preacher. With inputs from agencies The government may have won a painfully long war on the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill in the Parliament on Monday, but the issue of Kacha bill and Pakka bill continues to be a riddle. During the passage of the Constitution (122nd Amendment) Bill, better known as GST Bill on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said GST was "crucial" for ending tax terrorism besides reducing corruption and black money. While the PM may have breathed a sigh of relief, the trading community isnt putting its feet up just yet. The economists are equally skeptical. The reason is the duel between Kacha Bill and Pakka bill. The PM said in the Parliament, The 'kacha bill' and 'pakka bill' system in our country has helped mobilise black money. GST will help put an end to this. Though the trading community has hailed the passage of GST Bill, they strongly feel that they alone cannot be responsible for the circulation of kacha bill in the market. There is a general perception that traders dont issue pakka bill, which is wrong. There are instances where a trader didnt give pakka bill to a customer, but in large number of cases customers avoid taking it, because they would have to pay tax at 12.5 percent rate on the goods they purchased. Even, government officials dont take bills against the purchases they make, so as to avoid paying tax, said Praveen Khandelwal, secretary general, Confederation of All India Trades (CAIT). Kacha bill versus pakka bill Kacha bill or temporary bill is the one issued by a trader to a customer on purchase of an item, say furniture, but it doesnt reflect in the books of account of the trader. Thus he avoids paying income tax. This bill can be issued on a simple piece of paper or as an estimate. There is no record of the sale made. Pakka bill is the one which is issued on a proper bill and the same transaction is mentioned in the books of accounts. Record is maintained and the trader pays income tax. Why kacha bill? Despite being a dishonest transaction, customers still accept a kacha bill so as to avoid paying tax entirely. Instead of paying the bona fide 12.5 percent tax on goods purchased, they negotiate it at 5 percent and thus save paying 7.5 percent tax. On the other hand, the shopkeeper or the trader avoids paying income tax, as no mention about the transaction is recorded. It leads to generation of black money in huge quantum. We completely agree with PMs statement on the issue of tax terrorism and kacha bill. But, traders alone cant be held responsible for this. The other factors responsible for generation of temporary bill are high rate of taxes, complex tax system, multiple administration having no accountability, unfettered discretionary powers, consumer avoids taking permanent bill, etc, said Khandelwal. Kacha bill a disadvantage, claim traders The traders claim that the system of kacha bill has caused losses to honest traders due to uneven playing field and unhealthy competition. A trader who doesnt pay tax has no overhead cost; whereas an honest trader has to spend more on tax and other costs. Ultimately, the one who issues pakka bill and is honest in transactions, suffers due to unhealthy competition. The GST regime should ensure strict punishment for tax offenders, but at the same time the honest trader shouldnt be harassed unlike now where inspector raj thrives. Processes have to be simplified and there should be a mechanism of ombudsman in GST, he adds. Until we have high tax rates, harassment by tax inspectors and complex procedures, this system of kacha bill will persist. Prior to implementation of GST, the government should create awareness and provide information on the legal aspects of this new tax reform to traders through workshops. The government also has to ensure a mechanism on how petty retailers in rural areas, who work manually would deal with the e-system of GST, added Navneet Agarwal, regional general secretary, Akhil Bharatiya Udyog Vyapar Mandal, Madhya Pradesh. Economists equally skeptical Its very difficult to prevent this trend of issuing fictitious bills. Its a common practice with builders, who accept major portion of the price of a house in cash and no receipt is given to the consumer. Unless strict measures are taken to prevent black money generation, such practices will continue. Traders continue to remain out of tax net through kacha bill, remarked Arun Kumar, economist and retired professor, Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University. Even, computerisation cant prevent fudging of accounts. Weve seen it in Indias biggest accounting fraud Satyam case, where fictitious fixed deposits worth Rs 6,000 crore were created by manipulating the software. So, it cant be claimed that the GST regime will completely stop black economy, he added. New Delhi: Following persistent demand by a united Opposition, the government on Tuesday agreed to have a debate on the prevailing Kashmir situation in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday with Home Minister Rajnath Singh seeking support from all sections to resolve the "complicated" issue. Opposition leaders, including those of Congress, CPM, SP and JD(U), also expressed serious concern over the continuance of curfew for over a month in the Kashmir valley. They sought a stop to the use of pellet guns on protesters, sending of a parliamentary delegation there to talk to all sections of people and an all-party meeting. As they raised the issue during the Zero Hour, Home Minister Rajnath Singh walked in to the House and promptly concurred with Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad for a discussion on the Kashmir situation on Wednesday. Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien said there was no problem as both sides have agreed to discuss the matter. Singh also admitted that the situation was "serious" and sought the support of all sides in resolving the "complicated problem". Earlier, Azad referred to the situation and said "curfew has entered 31st day in Kashmir on Tuesday. We don't want to accuse the government on the situation, rather we are ready to help control the situation there. Innocent women and children are dying. Your security forces are dying. Why are you shying away from debate." "Why are we witnessing a 'tamasha'," he said and added that no doubt there was bad situation in Kashmir in 2008 and 2010 when he and Omar Abdullah headed the government there. "Convene an all party meet in Delhi in a day or two and send a delegation to Kashmir" as the whole nation is watching, Azad said. Sitaram Yechury (CPM) asked "why are you not sending a delegation to Kashmir...Send it on 12 August itself and for heaven's sake, make an announcement to stop the use of pellet guns." He also stressed the need for "starting a political process" to end the turmoil in Kashmir. Sharad Yadav (JD-U) sought to know the government's strategy on Kashmir saying whole country was concerned. He also demanded immediate stopping of the use of pellet guns. Ram Gopal Yadav (SP) said the "people can question us as to what we did. We want a delegation to be sent to Kashmir as a part of the country is burning and it is impacting the entire nation." BSP Supremo Mayawati also demanded an immediate debate on it and attacked the prime minister for his statement on Dalits as "mischievous" and "driven by politics". Mayawati said "there have been atrocities on Dalits for the last two years. When Parliament session was on, the prime minister gave his comments on the issue outside the House. It would have been better if he says this in Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha. He did not make his statement here and the statement outside shows that his Dalit policy is mischievous and driven by politics." She also demanded a debate on Kashmir in the House in presence of the prime minister. Sukhendu Sekhar Roy (Trinamool) said the situation in Kashmir has worsened due to mismanagement by the government and it is still alarming. Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, however, said we have asked the home minister and debate can be held tomorrow as the government too wants to bring Kashmir developments to the mainstream. Kurien said, "I concede that it is a very important issue ...I am directing Naqvi to contact the home minister and convey his availability today or tomorrow", to which Naqvi said that Home Minister has already consented for Wednesday. Naresh Agarwal (SP) sought to know as to why it was not taken up despite the government agreeing to it on Monday. Amid the din, Yechury said every day's delay on Kashmir was resulting in loss of lives of innocent youths there. When CPM member TK Rangarajan said the debate could be initiated in the presence of other ministers, the Deputy Chairman said he too wanted a debate on the issue but felt that home minister should be present. "What is the point in defence minister or civil aviation minister giving a reply on the issue," he asked. At this juncture, Azad agreed that there would many things which only the prime minister and home minister would be privy to. The "follow-up" action after the discussion would also have to be taken by the home minister, Azad said and suggested that rather than have the Zero Hour and Question Hour, the Kashmir situation should be discussed from 11 am onwards. By calling for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to resume former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayees open-hearted negotiations with Pakistan, Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti has obliquely called Modi to account for his arrogant remark during a speech in Srinagar on 7 November last year that he did not need anyones advice. By reiterating that advice, at a time when he and his colleagues are desperate for advice in the face of the current crisis in Kashmir, Mehbooba has subtly made the point that PM Modi would have done well to take that advice when her father gave it. Just a few minutes before the prime minister had waved away the advice last November, Mehbooba Muftis father, the then chief minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, had suggested that Vajpayees path should be followed. In response, Modi sought to nuance Vajpayees call for 'insaniyat ke dayare mei baat-cheet' (talks in the ambit of humanity) to 'insaniyat, jamhooriyat, Kashmiriyat' (humanity, democracy, Kashmiri ethos - whatever that combo may mean!) While doing that, Modi had added gratuitously that he did not need anyones advice on how to deal with Kashmir. He seemed to believe he had enough experience but, as it turns out, Kashmiri teenagers have given him and his colleagues the experience of a lifetime over the past month. Although the Muftis popularity had slid noticeably over the previous year, a wide spectrum of Kashmiris had taken umbrage at the snub implied in that rude remark. Modis lack of grace has evidently stuck in Mehboobas mind; after all, she idolised her father. She said in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly just a few weeks ago that she had told her late father at that time that she did not like what the prime minister had done. But her father had told her that these were small matters compared to the huge task they had undertaken. She compared this far-sighted attitude of her fathers with that of Sheikh Abdullah more than 60 years earlier, when he too had taken up a gigantic task in the wake of the messy partition of the subcontinent. (She did not directly note that that earlier task had gone somewhat awry.) The fact that Mehbooba reiterated the need to revives Vajpayees vision right after meeting Home Minister Rajnath Singh in New Delhi on Monday indicates that she is dedicated to that peacemaking project, which she perceives as her fathers legacy as much as Vajpayees. Engaging with Pakistan for a mutually agreeable solution is a key part of that vision. To be sure, Modi had already revised his strategy with regard to Pakistan about a month before he visited Srinagar and made that speech. Since at least the beginning of October last year, the ground was being prepared for Indo-Pak rapprochement. Senior figures in the security establishment confirm that Modis stopover in Pakistan on his way back from Kabul last Christmas had been carefully scripted. It would nevertheless have behoved a man in his office to have accepted with good grace Mufti Sayeeds reference to the crucial need for India-Pakistan rapprochement as the Vajpayee line. After all, Vajpayee was not only a predecessor in Modis august office, he belonged to the same party and parent organisation the RSS too. And, Mufti was not just his senior in politics, he had been Home Minister of India when Modi was just a national secretary, not even general secretary, in the BJP. Now that Mehbooba has reiterated her fathers advice at such a challenging time in South Asias history, it would behove the prime minister and his hubristic advisors to show grace. That might help assuage Kashmiri sentiments, which have a tendency to be ultra-sensitive. That in turn might help to stave off the disaster in South Asian relations that is staring all of us in the face. Auto refresh feeds "I will not accept that this problem is just one created by Pakistan or separatists," he said. "You cannot escape the issue by just blaming Pakistan for the problems in Kashmir," he said. "Just because of good tourism in one season in Kashmir, you cannot think you solved the problem. If you do not pay attention to this problem, it will turn into a law and order problem." "There must be a conspiracy being hatched by Pakistan. But you have to look at the measures you are taking to counter it," Yechury told the government in Rajya Sabha. In response, a beleaguered Arun Jaitley said that BJP will take strict action against Dayashankar Singh. "I should tell Mayawati ji that the party shares her grief over this issue, I will look into this matter, we stand with her...I am personally hurt that a BJP party person used such derogatory words against Mayawati," he said. "This is not only a woman's issue. This is a man's issue," said TMC MP Derek O'Brien. Congress leader Renuka Chowdhury stressed on the fact that the man making such remarks was none other than the vice president of the UP unit of BJP and demanded that he be arrested. "A man speaks with such language on the day both houses are discussing issues on violence on Dalits?" she said. "The nation will not forgive BJP for this, especially with what is going in Gujarat," ANI quoted Mayawati as saying. "There are wars of thoughts and ideas in the House, but never have I used derogatory words against anyone ever," she said. "The insulting words used against me are against all of womankind," said Mayawati. "Dayashankar Singh should be arrested. Otherwise, if in response to this people get violent, it will not be on my conscience," she added. UP BJP vice president Dayashankar Singh's cheap remark against BSP chief Mayawati created uproar in the Parliament as Opposition leaders attacked the Modi government over the issue. In response, a beleaguered Arun Jaitley said that BJP will take strict action against Dayashankar Singh. "I should tell Mayawati ji that the party shares her grief over this issue, I will look into this matter, we stand with her...I am personally hurt that a BJP party person used such derogatory words against Mayawati," he said. "This is not only a woman's issue. This is a man's issue," said TMC MP Derek O'Brien. Congress leader Renuka Chowdhury stressed on the fact that the man making such remarks was none other than the vice president of the UP unit of BJP and demanded that he be arrested. "A man speaks with such language on the day both houses are discussing issues on violence on Dalits?" she said. "The nation will not forgive BJP for this, especially with what is going in Gujarat," ANI quoted Mayawati as saying. "There are wars of thoughts and ideas in the House, but never have I used derogatory words against anyone ever," she said. "The insulting words used against me are against all of womankind," said Mayawati. "Dayashankar Singh should be arrested. Otherwise, if in response to this people get violent, it will not be on my conscience," she added. UP BJP vice president Dayashankar Singh's cheap remark against BSP chief Mayawati created uproar in the Parliament as Opposition leaders attacked the Modi government over the issue. "On one hand, BJP did a lot of things to celebrate Ambedkar Jayanti and assured Dalits that they will do a lot to celebrate it. On the other hand, Dalits still do not have reservation rights in the private sector," she added. "The legal rights which Ambedkar created for the backward sections of the society will only reach the society when honest work is done for providing those rights to them," she said. "Even after the country got independence, whether it is Congress rule or BJP rule, the sad truth is that the Dalits are still suffering," Mayawati said in the Rajya Sabha. "There is an urgent need to change the mindset of the major political parties of the country towards Dalits," she said. "I have to tell the Union government that this is a serious matter. I ask the government to give justice to the Dalit victims in Gujarat. It is not enough to just send the Gujarat CM to meet them. Action needs to be taken against authorities which were negligent. They should be arrested," she said. "In the name of protection of cows, a lot of unfair things are being done. Injustice against Dalits is being done in the name of protection of cows," said Mayawati in the Rajya Sabha. Crimes against Dalits being done in the name of cow protection, says Mayawati "Instead of making Dalits a political weapon, Congress, BJP and other parties should be reminded that they should rise above petty politics and work for the development of backward sections," she said. "The victims often do not get justice in case of a CID probe," said Mayawati in the Rajya Sabha. "Gujarat government did not act quickly enough. It was only when the media picked up this issue that some action was taken." "This Una incident case should run in a fast track court. We also demand that one of the judges should be a Dalit," Mayawati said. "Forget about Dalits getting justice, even their FIR is not filed many times and the latest example is the Una (Gujrat) incident," she also said. Deputy Chariman PJ Kurien denies that the House is taking the subject lightly. Rajya Sabha is currently debating Aam Aadmi Party lawmaker Bhagwant Mann's video of him entering Parliament by crossing several security layers. Mann then posted it on social media, inviting attack from MPs across party line, who termed his act as a security breach. In the video, which went viral, Mann was seen showing entry gate through which MPs enter Parliament House and saying how strong is the security. "The car is registered with the Lok Sabha. It has a censor, which has the vehicle details. As soon as so you come near the gate, the censor identifies the car and announces the name and number of the car," Mann says in the video with him crossing several layers of the security. On the fifth day of the Monsoon Session (Friday), Aam Aadmi Party MLA Bhagwant Mann's filmed a video entering Parliament by crossing several security layers, which eventually caused uproar in both the Houses. Mann, who posted it on social media, invited attack from MPs across party line, who termed his act as a security breach. As soon as the House assembled, she informed it about the action being taken on the issue which had led to the adjournment of Lok Sabha proceedings on July 22. "The inquiry committee shall inquire into the serious security implications and related aspects.... (and) suggest suitable remedial measures to avoid recurrence of such incidents in future and recommend appropriate action in the matter," the Speaker said. The member is "advised not to attend the sittings of the House" until a decision is taken in the matter, Mahajan said. Mann was not present in the House. The panel has also been asked to "suggest remedial measures" so that such episodes are not repeated. Mahajan has formed the nine member panel headed by BJP MP Kirit Somaiya which includes Anandrao Adsul (Shiv Sena), Meenakshi Lekhi, Satya Pal Singh (both BJP), B Mahtab (Biju Janata Dal), Ratna De Nag (Trinamool) and K. C. Venugopal (Congress) and other members. Therefore, the "act of the member" has put the security of the Parliament in peril, she said. Mahajan said she had consulted leaders of all political parties and everyone supported her actions on this issue. Describing Parliament as "sanctum sanctorum" of democracy, Mahajan recalled that on 13 December, 2001, security personnel had sacrificed their lives protecting the parliament and after that entire security system was reviewed and overhauled. It put "security of the parliament in peril", Mahajan added. Mann has been asked to appear before the panel by 10.30 am tomorrow and make his submission. Addressing the Lok Sabha as soon as it reassembled after the weekend break, Mahajan said taking audio video footage of security zones in the parliament by Punjab's Sangrur MP Mann on July 21 and putting them on social networking site was improper. "The act of the member of audio-visual recording of the Parliament and posting it on the social media puts the security of Parliament in peril," the Speaker said, adding that several members had expressed concern over the issue on Friday last. The panel, chaired by BJP member Kirit Somaiya, has been asked to submit its report by August 3, while Mann has time till tomorrow morning to submit his explanation to the committee. Acting tough, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan today said AAP MP Bhagwant Mann's videography of the Parliament House complex had put its security "in peril" and asked him not to attend the House till a decision is taken on the matter while setting up a nine-member panel to probe the issue. The Lok Sabha is likely to discuss The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Bill today. Apart from this, the Lower House is also slated to discuss The Institutes of Technology (Amendment) Bill. Sasikala Pushpa began crying in the House over the issue of attacks on women in the country. She has alleged that she was harassed and was being forced to quit her post. "So what if we disagreed with you? This is not the country we are used to living in," O'Brien said. "The Prime Minister needs to come in the House and say that we can live in the India we know, the India of unity and diversity." "For Rs 15, they (Dalits) are being killed because they are Dalits. I am a gau sevak. But in the name of gau sevaks, don't cross the line. This is a sitaution which has gone beyond the border of this country. Since they are taking these decisions, they must listen to what the UN had to say about this country," he said. "The curb on religious fundamentalism, this is a dangerous situation. If it happens and happens and happens, it is a decision. This is a decision of this government. Otherwise, the Defence Minister would not have said what he said yesterday," TMC MP Derek O'Brien said, referring to Parrikar's remarks that Aamir Khan needs to be taught a "lesson" because of his remarks on intolerance. An angry Parrikar responded by saying that he did not take the name of any person in the video. "Since the BJP government came to power, they targeted Muslims first. Now, they are committing atrocities against the Dalits. The Prime Minister should come to the Parliament and clarify on what is happening," Mayawati said. CPI(M)'s Sitaram Yechury responded to Parrikar and said, "What he said is objectionable. That cannot be acceptable. Tomorrow, are you going to threaten me? If he is raksha mantri, kiska raksha ho raha hai?" Defence Minister Parrikar responded to the uproar in the Rajya Sabha over his remarks against Aamir Khan and said, "Let them see the video themselves and make up their minds." "We should think about the respect for women. In Bareilly, a teacher was abducted during daytime. This is not right. The government should speak. Why is the government silent?" she said. "There are rapes taking place against Dalit women everywhere in the country. The government should take this matter seriously," Mayawati said. Naqvi agreed with her and said the government was ready for a discussion. "I am really embarrassed for standing here and talking about the same issue once again, even after the Nirbhaya gangrape...I want a discussion on women's protection. I do not care which place. I do not want politicising of this issue," Jaya Bachchan said in the Rajya Sabha. An emotional Jaya Bachchan got up in the Rajya Sabha and demanded a discussion on the issue of safety of women. "In view of seriousness of matter, Bhagwant Mann is further advised not to attend the sessions of Parliament for further two weeks," she said. "The chairperson (of the committee) has sought extension of time for further two weeks. I have accepted the request for extension," Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said. On the issue of AAP MP Bhagwant Mann being barred from the Parliament for making a video of the Parliament House complex, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said that the committee probing this issue had asked for more time. "This legislation will only be passed after a serious discussion. I hope the Finance Minister passes the Bill not on the strength of his numbers, but on the basis of logic," Chidambaram said. "Government tried to pass the GST Bill without the support of the principal Opposition and I am happy they failed," he said. "Many issues are still outstanding issues and still need to be resolved. We had earlier tried to pass the GST Bill with the support of the Opposition and we failed," he said. "I welcome the friendly tone of the Finance Minister's speech. I think the tone and approach has changed over the last few weeks," Congress leader and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram said. "People of India expect low indirect taxes. There are many voices in the government which speak for the corporate, but someone must speak for the people. I am doing that," Chidambaram said in the Rajya Sabha. "When this Bill is passed today, we will prepare for the next stage of the debate, which is the Central GST Bill. I want an assurance from the Finance Minister....This is a very important legislation. I want an assurance that when that Bill is brought, that will be brought as a Financial Bill and not as a Money Bill," Chidambaram said. "Persuade all parties and sections of the people that a standard of 18 percent is the most appropriate," he added. "The worry that we have is creeping taxation. But that is what Parliament is for. Taxation is the exclusive power of the Parliament. It is ultimately Parliament which calls the shots in taxes," he said. "I, on behalf of my party, loudly and clearly demand that the GST rate should not exceed 18 percent," Chidambaram said in the Rajya Sabha. Bill in next stage of GST debate should be brought as a Financial Bill: Chidambaram Chidambaram warns that a rate too high, something like 23 percent, will be inflationary. He insists that the Bill needs to be passed as a finance Bill. The critical point we shouldnt be miss here is that the Congress is pitching for 18 percent standard GST rate and isnt ready to give up on this point in any case. This comment is crucial since the NDA government has not yet arrived on a single rate. Chidambaram attacks the Narendra Modi government, saying it does not care about the problems of the common people. Chidambaram stresses on the point that the rate should be changed only with the permission of Parliament, and thus makes Congress compromise formula that the GST rate should be included in the GST Bill, though his party is willing to compromise on the earlier demand that the rate should be included in the constitution. According to Firstpost Financial Editor Dinesh Unnikrishnan, P Chidambaram has hit the core point in his speech the final GST rate. Chidambaram positions Congress as the voice of poor and emphasises on the fact that standard GST rate should not exceed 18 percent on the lines of what governments chief economic advisor, Arvind Subrmanian, suggested. "It (GST) violates states' autonomy. It results in permanent revenue loss to the state of Tamil Nadu. We strongly oppose this Bill," AIADMK MP A Navaneethakrishnan said in the Rajya Sabha. "We have moved an amendment that the compensation should be for at least 5 years," he added. "Tamil Nadu will lose Rs 9270 crore because of GST. This is not a small amount," he said. "Till date, the revenue-neutral rate has not been fixed by the government," he said, adding that this was a problem in the GST Bill. "Petroleum and petroleum products must be kept outside GST permanently. We can save our people only then," he said. "It is a well-known fact that Tamil Nadu is a manufacturing state. It is also known that this method of taxation is destination-based. We strongly oppose that," he said. He then went on to elaborate on the changes which AIADMK wanted in the GST Bill. "The composition of the GST Council is not fair. The weightage of each state's vote should be in proportion to their representation in the country," said the AIADMK MP in the Rajya Sabha. "Now let me tell you about the ping pong match," O'Brien said "I'm feeling like a teenager in the presence of these senior lawyers," O'Brien said. "There is the politics of the Bill. GST can also be interpreted as the Girgit Samjhauta Tax," TMC MP Derek O'Brien said in the Rajya Sabha. TMC MP Derek O'Brien has always been dramatic in his speeches, and his speech during the GST Bill is a perfect example. The money has to first come from Centre to states and then from states to local bodies. If the availability of funds to local bodies gets delayed, that can seriously hamper functioning of local bodies, Patel cites. In a larger context, this problem is not for MCGB alone. It would apply to all big and small local bodies across the country in the GST regime. Patels remarks suggest the magnitude of challenge the Modi government has while implementing the revolutionary tax regime. Patel raises the challenge of GST implementation. Under the GST regime, when various indirect taxes including sales tax, VAT and Octroi get consolidated in one uniform tax rate, will large local bodies such as MCGB get funds on time for its daily functioning? Patel asks. Firstpost Financial Editor Dinesh Unnikrishnan says that NCP Rajya Sabha MP Praful Patel raises an interesting case of states within the states, citing the example of Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGB), which under Octroi alone garners about Rs 8000 crore to Rs 9000 crore per annum. "The Prime Minister should come to the House apologise to the nation. If he cannot come, we will be happy even if Finance Minister Jaitley apologises," Budania said. "It was Congress which forced you to follow the right path of this Bill." "At that time, the then Gujarat CM had said that this Bill is against the welfare of the nation. Today, the same man who is now PM, said that this Bill is benefitial for the nation," he said. "When the Congress had brought this Bill to the Parliament, then BJP had protested against it," said Narendra Budania, Congress MP from Rajasthan. PM Modi should apologise to the nation for his U-turn on GST Bill: Congress in Rajya Sabha "We have given this notice for discussion to wake up the government. It is unfortunate that the Taj of Hindustan is burning but the central government cannot feel the heat. Which kind of heat will wake up the Kashmir government?" Azad said. "Today, it has been 30 days since curfew was imposed in Jammu and Kashmir. I do not think that any state in India has seen curfew for 30 days since Independence," Congress leader Azad said. "Please call for an all-party meeting and send a delegation to Kashmir," he said. "This cannot be solved through law and order machinery," he said. "The silence of the Prime Minister is more eloquent than words. He is sending the message that the government does not care about the situation in Kashmir." "This is one of the most grave situations I have risen in to speak. I have not seen continuous curfew for 30 days in my life. How can we remain silent? More than 1000 incidents of firing have been reported in a month. More than 8000 have been injured. 60 are dead. It is inhuman and criminal. Why are we using pellet guns? I am told that even Israel does not use pellet guns against Palestinians," CPI(M)'s Sitaram Yechury said. "If you (BJP) were not opposing this Bill at that time, this Bill would have been passed two years ago. So, you are actually responsible for delaying the Parliament passing this Bill, but we are taking the blame," he said. "Why was it that in 2011, some ministers who are sitting on that side were opposing this Bill?" Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said in the Lok Sabha. "Today, the Parliament is going to take a big step for the freedom from tax terrorism," he said. "Some people will know the condition of taxation in our country," he added. "Today is 8 August. On this day many years ago, Mahatma Gandhi had moved the nation with 'Bharat choro' slogan," PM Narendra Modi said in the Lok Sabha. "Therefore, who won and who lost is not a matter of debate," the Prime Minister further said. "But the credit for this Bill does not belong to one party. It belongs to the culture of Indian democracy," Modi said. "It is true that someone created this Bill while someone else nurtured it," he said. "Just as someone gave birth to Krishna and someone else raised him," he said. "The most important requirement was the creation of trust between Centre and the states. The most important thing was to not decide this on the basis of sheer numbers. That is why I have earlier said that democracy is not just about numbers," he said. "We were successful in taking care of a lot of flaws with the GST Bill. 'Ek manch, ek manth, ek marg, ek manzil' is the mantra behind GST which all of us have experienced," the PM said. "Sometimes, there were doubts about the GST. When I was the CM, even I had doubts about GST. And today, because of seeing GST continuously as a CM, my viewpoint changed when I viewed it as Prime Minister," Modi said. "All Centre and states need to unite to create a mechanism for Ek Bharat," PM Modi said in the Lok Sabha. I had different view of GST because I looked at it earlier from the point of view of a CM: PM Modi in Lok Sabha "A message will go to the people through GST that the consumer is the king," Modi said. "GST gives a guarantee of security to small traders and businessmen. It will result in economic growth." "Despite our differences, we made efforts to take GST forward," he said. "A uniformity in the processing of taxation will come through GST." "In the entire discussion of GST, none of us used it as a platform for politics. We rose above politics for the welfare of the nation," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in the Lok Sabha. GST will send the message that the consumer is the king: PM Modi in LS "Even during the all-party meeting, I had said that the credit for the GST Bill goes to all political parties," the Prime Minister said. "It is a matter of great strength for Indian democracy that all of us are making efforts to take this forward together," he said. "It is also true that we need to have IT-preparedness and legal preparedness. In the world, even the countries which are praised for their democracy find it tough to deal with Bills," he said. "Because of GST, the taxpayer will realise that he will benefit from honesty. Therefore, we will succeed in bringing down the generation of black money," Modi said. "There will be data integration. Because of a strong cross-checking mechanism, a seamless method which will help in catching any wrongdoing will be created," the PM said. "GST will help in curbing corruption and black money," Modi said. "Corruption will move towards zero because of GST," he said. "When something happens in Africa, the Prime Minister tweets about it. But when the Taj of India is burning, the heat is not reaching the central government," he added. "We were told that he spoke on Kashmir issue in Madhya Pradesh because the CM told him to do so. This shows that the Parliament means nothing to the PM and he would not have spoken on the Kashmir issue if the Chief Minister had not asked him to do so," he said. "This is the fourth time we are asking the Prime Minister to provide a statement in the House," Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said in the Rajya Sabha. PM spoke on Kashmir in Madhya Pradesh just because the CM told him to do so: Azad in RS "When you truly feel pain from the heart, it will reach Kashmir," he said. "When you say Kashmir is an integral part of India, it should not only be on paper. There should be integration of hearts and minds. What about the integration between federal and state government?" said Azad. "Law and order in Kashmir in not just in the hands of Jammu and Kashmir police, but also in the hands of paramilitary forces," Azad further said. "If someone says that Mehbooba Mufti should alone solve the problem in Kashmir, that is not possible for her," he added. "Kashmir is secular. The destruction of Kashmiriyat and insaniyat is not happening because of democracy but because of the pellet guns," he said. "There is a difference between communalism and separatism. Militants are also targeting Muslims. Militancy has no religion," Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said in the Rajya Sabha. "You can only keep Kashmir in India when you treat Kashmiris as equals," he said. "Shoot the people but do not use pellet guns. Pellet Guns are worse than live bullets. It is worse than killing people," he further said. "The Prime Minister said that the people of the country love Kashmir. But the people of Kashmir should also love the country," JD(U)'s Sharad Yadav said. "Merely repeating what Atal Bihari Vajpayee said is not going to create that trust. Create that trust by stopping the communal polarisation that is taking place in the country," he said. "If everyday you talk about abrogating Article 370, you talk about love jihad, ghar wapsi, are you creating trust?" said Yechury. "Unless you address the central question of the promises made to the people of Kashmir at the time of independence, this problem will not be solved," he said. "The problem today can only be solved if you initiate a political dialogue. I have urging this government that this can only come through with an atmosphere of trust. "The trust deficit exists (in Kashmir) because of the string of betrayals of the promises made," said the CPI(M) leader. He also took a dig at the government's foreign policy and said, "When you want to wish Happy Birthday, you go to Pakistan." "If other governments have engaged in dialogue in the past, what is preventing this government from initiating the political dialogue?" Yechury said. "The threat we face today is not a mere question of autonomy. There is also an orchestrated terrorist threat in Kashmir," he said. "Today, there is an attempt to create dual power in Kashmir," Dasgupta further said. "Let us remember that dialogue cannot be done if we are going to tie the hands of the executive." "While I agree with Sitaram Yechury that we need a form of political approach, the form and time of that approach should be different," he said. "We have been talking about development and healing hearts and unfortunately, we have come across a rather big emotional divide. At an earlier time, it was thought that Article 370 would facilitate the process of integration. But we may have actually hardened the emotional divide," he said. "A lot of the people who have taken to the streets may be spontaneous. But there is also a large degree of pre-meditation in the protests," he said. "That was the death of Burhan Wani. The death of any Indian should be a source of anguish. But Burhan Wani never considered himself an Indian. And what do you say about a person who glamourises terrorism?" Dasgupta said. "The problem we face in Kashmir today is somewhat different from the problems we have faced earlier," he said. "Three months ago, Kashmir was peaceful. We had a unique political experiment. It was an alliance between the Valley and Jammu, something which was unique and encouraging. And then something broke loose," he added. "While we try to evolve a consensus on this issue, we should sometimes be brutally frank about what we are dealing with," Swapan Dasgupta, nominated MP, said in the Rajya Sabha. "I wish people in this Parliament talked about sending a delegation to AIIMS, where a girl injured by pellet guns is admitted," he said. "Why do we only remember Kashmir when it is burning? Guns will not solve any problem," he said. "The people of this country should understand what the problem in Jammu and Kashmir is." "Why wasn't there any problem in Kashmir until 1987?" said a dramatic PDP MP Nazir Ahmad Laway in the Rajya Sabha. Why do we remember Kashmir only when it is burning? asks PDP MP in Rajya Sabha Congress MP Jyotiraditya Scindia: When we are talking about Swachh Bharat, we should first clean our minds. Fringe elements have now turned into the Centre today. Why the Home Minister didn't visit Rohith Vemula? PM made a strong statement: Shoot me, not the Dalits. But why he didn't include Muslims? Muslims can never be part of Hindu nationalism but they are a part of Indian nationalism. Sexual violence against Dalit women has increased. About eight lakh Dalits are dependent on selling skins, bones of dead cows, what will they do now? AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi: No democracy in the world has prioritise animal life over human life. But the Indian democracy has. Why do gua rakshaks have come to power? The credit goes to the idealogy of ruling party. What right do so-called gau rakshaks have to look at what I eat? NK Premchandran, RSP MP from Kollam: The attrocities against the Dalits is politics. Educational, economical and social upliftment is the need of the poor. We all should work together and committ ourselves in taking action in order to stop the atrocities on Dalit. Also, I would appeal all the state governments to take strictest action against anti-social elements who try to disrupt the harmony of secular fabric of the country. It is pointless to blame the other government. Why did we celebrate Ambedkar's 125th anniversary with such genuinty? Respecting Ambedkar is like respecting India. Seva Bharati, an RSS organisation, is one of the organisations which has been majorly active at the grassroots for the upliftment of Dalits. Dalit community has contributed a lot towards Indian heritage. When India was under the British Rule, no matter how atrocities were inflicted on them, still they stood by India. They never demanded a separate country. We in the government emphathise with the Dalits. On PM Modi's silence, Singh said, "Has any PM spoken during all discussions in Parliament? When PM spoke on the atrocities, and gau rakshaks, I issued an advisory that strict action should be taken against such gau rakshaks. Our biggest challenge is to counter the twisted mentality of the perpetrators. What happened in Una was extremely condemnable. "This is rumour that after BJP came to power that the atrocities on Dalit have increased. Just ask yourselves if this is true. Show me the data records. I don't want to point fingers at any political party. But following figures would explain: In 2013, 39,346 cases were registered against atrocities, 40,300 and 35,564 were registered respectively," Singh said. "We can make India world's best country if we consider humanity above all. There are many articles in our Indian constitution for Dalits. But there is a need for effective laws to act on these articles. Our government is working at socio-economic development of the Dalits." "It is painful that even after 70 years of independence we are still discussing atrocities on Dalits. We cannot deny that there are people from several castes and religion. We should not politicise the atrocities on Dalits," Singh said. On Friday, 12 August, 2016 the bills for consideration and passing in the Lok Sabha are Mental Health care Bill,2016 and Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2016. Congress leader Anand Sharma said that the government should not be hypocritical. He said, "When administrators have high salary, MLAs have a good rise, why don't we get the same treatment?" Ram Gopal Yadav, SP, Uttar Pradesh raised the issue of the low wages of the members of Parliament. He said, "The pay of the MP's is only a fraction of ministers in Telangana Assembly or Delhi Legislative Assembly. We are asked to reduce our expenditure but we cannot do that when we have to entertain people of our constituency. The rising inflation also makes it difficult for us to sustain ourselves." In the Question Hour in the Lok Sabha Congress leader Shashi Tharoor raised the issue of failing start-ups in India. He said, "The government has given tax incentives to the start-ups but everyone knows that they don't make any money in the first few years. Hence the tax incentives should be given to the angel investors." After GST this is the second resolution which has been adopted unanimously. She added, "This house earnestly appeals to all sections of society in India to work for the early restoration of normalcy and harmony. This is to restore confidence in people and youth in general. The resolution is adopted unanimously." Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan announced that the resolutions proposed on the Kashmir issue has been passed. She said,"This house expresses serious concern over the violence in Kashmir Valley. Everyone here conveys loss of life caused by the deteriorating situation. The house is of the firm view that there cannot be a compromise on security." Dubbing passage of the GST Constitution Amendment Bill as historic, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday said that manufacturing taxes and VAT will come down with the new national sales tax but the same for services tax will be decided by states and Centre. The Goods and Services Tax (GST), which will subsume over a dozen central and state levies including excise duty, service tax and VAT, is "perhaps the most important" tax reform, he said soon after Rajya Sabha overwhelmingly voted for the legislation. "Today is a historic day for the reason that Rajya Sabha has passed the GST bill which have been held up for a very long time. All members present at the time of voting, voted in favour of the bill," Jaitley told reporters in Parliament House. Thanking Congress and other opposition parties for supporting the legislation, he said proceedings in the Upper House demonstrated to the world that this is a great day for Indian democracy and Indian federalism. "In fact Indian democracy and Indian federalism are at there very best in as much as all national political parties and regional parties, state governments have come together to usher a major taxation reform.. The government wanted to build a larger consensus, which we succeeded in doing," he said. Asked if the implementation of the GST would mean rise in cost of air travel, mobile bills and eating out because of incidence of service tax going up in the new regime, he said that tax rate would be decided by the GST Council, comprising of the Centre and the states. "Manufacturing taxes will certainly will come down, VAT will come down. What level services taxes are to be kept is a discretion of GST Council. It will depend on what states along with Centre will decide," he later told Times Now. On Congress demand for not converting the supporting GST legislation as Money Bill, Finance Minister said he has not pre-decided on bringing the Bills as Money or Finance Bills. "Once the GST is implemented, it will bring basic changes as far as the Indian tax structure is concerned, it will converge India into one unified market, with one unified tax in the country, it will improve the base of taxation, it will make evasion extremely difficult. "The central and state governments have to work together to make this a great success. Overall, I think we had an excellent debate," he told reporters. He said although every state government is on board in order to implement one of the most important taxation reform in India, the fact is that it has been passed unanimously all regional and national parties have actively supported it. Congress hoped that subsequent legislations for its implementation like CGST and IGST bills would be brought in the Winter Session as financial and not money bills. Former Finance Minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said he was only half satisfied with the Finance Minister's promise made in the Upper House in this regard. "It's a half promise. Therefore, I am half satisfied," he told reporters after the passage of the Constitution Amendment Bill. Chidambaram said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has assured that he will hold discussions with the Congress party before bringing the bills. Senior Congress leader and former Law Minister Kapil Sibal cited the example of Aadhaar Bill to claim the new legislations could be converted into Money Bills to block voting. "We have seen the Aadhar Bill was converted into a money bill and we were not given the right to vote on it. We have doubt that this GST bill will also be turned into a money bill whereby a discussion on it will take place in Rajya Sabha but members will not be allowed to vote on it. We are concerned over it," he said. "We hope that it will be a financial bill and there will be a discussion on it and we will be given the right to vote on it," he said. Another Congress member Renuka Chowdhury said, "They have considered many of our aspects. Have to wait and see what happens in the winter session." NCP leader Praful Patel said it is very good that the Constitution amendment bill to bring GST was passed with general consensus. "It is good for the country and states will also benefit, especially those which considered themselves as backward as they will get more revenue. "We hope that the Bill to be brought by government in November will also be passed with general consensus. Finance Minister has given an assurance that whatever bill will be brought, it will be honoured," he said. Earlier in the day, Congress had made it clear to the government that firm assurances for keeping the GST rate capped at 18 per cent and bringing subsequent legislations needed for its rollout as financial bills alone could ensure its support to the long-pending Constitution Amendment bill. "We also demanded an assurance that the CGST and IGST should not be moved as money bill. The Central GST and Integrated GST are bills which will apply on taxpayers, on common man. They must be debated and voted upon by both Houses of Parliament. We hope to get assurance from the Finance Minister. If these assurances are forthcoming, we will be able to support," Chidambaram told reporters. The GST Bill will finally be taken up for discussion in the Rajya Sabha. India Inc had said it is looking forward to introduction of the much-awaited Goods & Services Tax (GST), saying it would be a very significant step in the field of indirect tax reforms in India. The government has circulated official amendments to the GST bill to drop 1 percent additional tax and include a definite provision in the statute for compensating states for revenue loss for 5 years as it gears up to discuss the long-pending bill in Rajya Sabha. The eleventh day of Parliament's Monsoon Session on Monday began with AIADMK Rajya Sabha member Sasikala Pushpa's statement where she said that she was facing a "life threat" and was being "compelled to resign". Sasikala, who hit the headlines for slapping DMK leader Tiruchi Siva at the airport on Saturday, said: "I am receiving an unconditional apology from Tiruchi Siva. Something was spoken against my party leader and I behaved like that." The parliamentary proceedings over the day saw the passage of the Indian Medical Council (Amendment) Bill, 2016, and the Dentists (Amendment) Bill, 2016, that provide for putting the NEET in place for admission to medical and dental courses across the country from next year; and National Institutes of Technology, Science Education and Research (Amendment) Bill, 2016 in Rajya Sabha. The Enforcement of Security Interest and Recovery of Debts Laws Amendment Bill 2016 was moved in the Lok Sabha for consideration and passing. Key proceedings/issues discussed in Lok Sabha: Supplementary demands over additional spending The government sought parliament's nod for additional spending of Rs 1.03 lakh crore, though the cash outgo will only be Rs 20,948.26 crore. Presenting the Supplementary Demands for Grants for 2016-17 in the Lok Sabha, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley sought parliament's approval for a transfer of Rs 5,000 crore towards National Employment Guarantee Fund and Rs 1,000 crore for providing funds to Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves for Sovereign Strategic Crude Oil Reserve at Vizag, Mangalore, and Pudur. Bill for speedier recovery of bad loans passed The Enforcement of Security Interest and Recovery of Debts Laws Amendment Bill 2016 was moved in the Lok Sabha for consideration and passing. Piloted by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, the bill seeks to amend four laws the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002; the Recovery of Debts due to Banks and Financial Institutions Act, 1993; the Indian Stamp Act, 1899; and the Depositories Act, 1996. Special status: TDP MPs protest in Parliament Unhappy over the Centre's stand on special status to Andhra Pradesh, TDP, a partner in NDA government, staged protests both inside and outside Parliament. Seeking immediate announcement for special status, the MPs of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) tried to disrupt the proceedings in the Lower House. Holding placards and raising slogans in support of their demands, the TDP members in the Lok Sabha began the protest as soon as the house met for the day. They rushed to the speaker's podium, demanding that the government fulfill its commitments under Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act. Speaker Sumitra Mahajan repeatedly appealed to members to return to their seats but they continued the protest. The Speaker conducted the proceedings amid the uproar before adjourning the proceedings till 2 pm. Attack on Dalits and Muslims Opposition members expressed concern over growing attacks on Dalits and minorities and called for stern action against cow vigilante groups which have been targeting them. Raising the issue during Zero Hour, Trinamool Congress leader Sudip Bandopadhyay underlined the need for action against those targeting the Dalits and Muslims to uphold secularism and communal harmony. Key proceedings/issues discussed in Rajya Sabha: GST Bill listed for Wednesday The government has listed the GST bill for discussion in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, hoping it will be passed through consensus, but the opposition Congress said that consultation is still on over the issue and an agreement is not yet finalised. In view of the development, the BJP has issued whip for all its Rajya Sabha members to be present in the house for the next three days. "The GST bill is listed for Wednesday. We hope it will be passed through consensus," Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said. Bills to put in place NEET passed The Rajya Sabha passed by voice vote the Indian Medical Council (Amendment) Bill, 2016, and the Dentists (Amendment) Bill, 2016, that provide for putting the NEET in place for admission to medical and dental courses across the country from next year. The bills provide for a Constitutional status to the 'National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) and seek to amend the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956, and the Dentists Act, 1948. Responding to a debate on the bills in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of Health and Family Welfare Jagat Prakash Nadda said the whole exercise was aimed to stop multiplicity of examinations, to bring transparency to curb corruption and to stop exploitation of students. Uproar over Manohar Parrikar's comments on Aamir Khan Rajya Sabha witnessed a brief uproar by opposition members over alleged remarks by Manohar Parrikar against actor Aamir Khan even as the Defence Minister denied having said what was been quoted to him. During the Zero Hour, Derek O'Brien (TMC) raised the issue of "dangerous" rise in religious fundamentalism in the country, saying the government, ministers and people associated with the ruling party were "shooting their mouths off every day". "The Prime Minister needs to come and say these are in fact mistakes, this is not thinking of the government. Prime Minister come here and assure us that we can live in the India we know Unity in Diversity". As soon as he finished his Zero Hour mention, Leader of Opposition and senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad quoted a report which said 'Parrikar takes a swipe at actor Aamir; those who speak like this must be taught a lesson'. "So may I ask him (Parrikar who was sitting in the House) what lesson he is going to teach us...The entire nation should be told what type of action and lesson he is going to teach the minorities of this conuntry," Azad said. To this, Parrikar said: "I would only say one thing. Let the members see the video...and make up their mind". However, this did not pacify the agitated opposition. Vote for America's Good Not 'Lesser of Two Evils' Challenges Evangelist Alveda King WASHINGTON, Aug. 9, 2016 / Christian Newswire / -- Evangelist Alveda King, Director of Civil Rights for The Unborn, Priests for Life, releases the following and is available for comment: This Presidential election, many are saying they will vote for the "lesser of two evils." Won't it be better to vote for "what's good for America?" Voting on the issues trumps evil hearts and personalities. A colleague writes: "We hear the phrase: 'lesser of two evils' a lot...This year, we have witnessed much voting hand-wringing with many people of faith claiming that it is evil to ever vote for 'the lesser of two evils', or for any evil at all. I have concluded that this lesser of two evils phrase is really a canard; a false picture of the electoral choice. Yes, we should never ever vote for evil; only for good. Hence, in a binary election, we should only vote for the good. As for both candidates appearing to be evil, remember that all of us are a mix of good and evil." (Jeremiah 17:9) So, let's overlook personal personality preferences; vote for the candidate with the greater potential to deliver on the issues most closely aligned with our faith and what is good for America. This choice may be uncomfortable. But remember, we're trusting God's wisdom instead of a human candidate. (Proverbs 3:5-8) For me, it's sanctity of human life, procreation, racial justice, economic growth and stability, a positive work ethic, good health, safe borders, domestic harmony, good jobs, sustainable values based education, family stability, and a God guided U. S. Supreme Court; all biblical. Even the building of the wall. It's not a first! Ezra and Nehemiah did that. Walls aren't evil; it's the intent that's important. If the walls protect the citizens and yet have gates of legal entry to those in need, or desirous of becoming U. S. citizens, such walls aren't evil. Note that in Nehemiah's day, the people had a mind to work. Handouts and entitlements weren't on the agenda. (Nehemiah 4:6) Let's pray and act now, and return to God; if not for ourselves, then for future generations. Finally, let's agree with Daniel in prayer: Oh Lord our God, "lean down and listen to [us]. Open your eyes and see our despair. See how [much of America] lies in ruins. We make this plea, not because we deserve help, but because of your mercy. O Lord, forgive. O Lord, listen and act! For your own sake, do not delay, O my God, for your people and your city bear your name." Amen. Tokyo: More than 1,000 people spent the night at Narita airport outside Tokyo because of the computer shutdown that halted Delta Air Lines flights worldwide. Flights were resuming Tuesday morning at Narita, but Delta spokeswoman Hiroko Okada said some more delays were expected. "What a nightmare," said American Jeff Quigley, who managed two hours of sleep at the airport after his Monday afternoon flight to Manila was delayed until the next morning. "I fly four to eight times a month, and this is the worst thing I've experienced so far." Narita is the Asia-Pacific hub for Delta and several other US airlines, so multiple flights arrive from the US and then fan out to destinations in much of Asia. The shutdown, triggered by a power outage at a Delta facility in the US, stranded many passengers in Japan. Six flights were cancelled, affecting 1,733 travelers, Okada said. Another 15 flights were delayed. The shutdown happened Monday afternoon, so many of the delays stretched overnight, forcing many more to find a place to sleep Katsuaki Tomimura, a spokesman at Narita airport, said more than 1,000 stayed overnight in an arrival lobby at the airport. The canceled flights were two to Honolulu, and one each to New York, Minneapolis, Los Angeles and Atlanta. Washington: Delta Airlines scrapped hundreds of flights and delayed many more as it digested the aftermath of a computer meltdown. Even after the US carrier lifted its initial flight grounding order about six hours after the computer snafu struck, it warned of continued cancellations and delays, as tens of thousands of passengers around the globe were left stranded. Travellers crowded ticket counters, stretched out on the ground in airports and tried to grin and bear it. Ticket agents were reduced to checking people in manually, news reports said. The carrier blamed the computer problem on a power outage in its hub in Atlanta, Georgia. Flights resumed but on a limited basis, and Delta warned the ripple effect of the computer breakdown would drag on. "While systems are improving and flights are resuming, delays and cancellations continue," the carrier said in a statement around midday. Teams were working "around the clock" to bring systems back online, Delta CEO Ed Bastian said in a video message from the airline's operations center. "As I'm sure you can appreciate, it's an all hands on deck effort," he said. "I apologise for the challenges this has created for you with your travel experience." Luciano Resende, 40, waiting at London's Heathrow Airport to fly to San Francisco, said it was slow going. "I guess it has been a long time since they used the manual process," Resende told NBC News. At Los Angeles International Airport, people waiting for red-eye flights to the east coast dozed in a crowded waiting area, many of them wrapped in red blankets. The airline said it had cancelled 427 flights. Of 6,000 scheduled to have taken off by that time of day, it operated 1,590. Delta has more than 15,000 flights a day along with its alliance partners. "The timing of this problem is particularly bad because yesterday morning is one of the busiest times for both airlines and travelers as business travelers begin their work week," said Daniel Baker, FlightAware's CEO. At the Olympic Games in Rio, athletes are vying to own the podium. Meanwhile, to the north of Brazil, Republican Presidential candidate for the United States, Donald Trump, has taken full ownership of a campaign of odium. If there had been an Olympic competition in shooting off your mouth and shooting yourself in the foot, the Don would have been entirely on target. In the world of presidential politics, though, he finds himself with a bulls-eye painted on his back. As Hillary Clinton gave her acceptance speech in Philadelphia and the balloons came tumbling down, one that was rapidly burst was Trumps brief lead in the polls. Since then, his numbers have cratered as he dug a big hole for himself. Trump may have cannily crafted his message on political incorrectness, but theres a difference between that and behaving incorrectly in politics. Positioned as the anti-establishment candidate, fulminating on trade pacts that created Americas 'Rust Belt', where jobs were lost as manufacturing fled; or on Clintons foreign policy blunders as secretary of state or even against illegal immigration, has broad appeal. But each time his narrow-mindedness asserts itself, he drowns in his own bile. Earlier this campaign season, Trump found his support dwindling as he attacked the judge hearing a case in California against Trump University, not over of the merits of the lawsuit but over the judges Hispanic background. He appears to have learnt nothing from that error, since his latest trough is linked directly to his viciousness against the parents of a Pakistani-American martyr of the Iraq war, simply because they dared to criticise him at the Democratic National Convention. Opposing the system is fine, even calling Hillary Clinton the devil or monster will only bruise his standing, but hes been battered each time he has become personal. When Trump attacks the system, he bounces; when he attacks individuals, he flounders. As he does so, he tosses away issues that were gift-wrapped for him to open and exploit. For instance, terrible economic numbers even as Clinton vies for what is a third term of the Obama Administration. Or, with an offhand comment hoping Russian hackers would turn over Clintons cache of deleted emails to the FBI, he buttressed her campaigns narrative that Moscow was enabling Trump. As the DNC ended, Trump told his supporters that he had been advised to refrain from directing his fire at the array of speakers that lambasted him on that stage. He was asked to focus on the target Clinton. Instead, as in the past, he ignored such counsel and collapsed. Over the past few days, Trumps bipolar campaign has taken another mood swing. At rallies, hes adopting a gentler, more conciliatory tone, except when it comes to going after "Crooked Hillary". On Monday, he gave an economic policy speech in Detroit, the Motor City that has found its status as an automobile capital of the world punctured and instead acquired that of an urban disaster zone. It was focused on policy rather than polemics. This, in times of financial anguish, needs to his unwavering theme. He also endorsed the re-election campaigns of Republican Senator (and former Presidential candidate) John McCain and Speaker of the US House of Representatives (and Mitt Romneys running mate in 2012) Paul Ryan. Trump, being Trump, though, could not resist a jibe at Somali refugees during an event in Maine. In another presidential cycle, Trumps campaign would have been buried under his pile of trash-talking. The only reason he remains politically alive is that his rival is possibly the weakest candidate the Democrats could have nominated, with unfavourable numbers that achieve the unthinkable nearly matching those of Trump. The majority of Trumps speeches are extempore, and he boasts about not using a teleprompter. Recently, he has taken to using notes that he reads from, on economic data or victims of terrorism. Thats a slight move away from a campaign that has been unscripted, and an operation that is ad hoc. Getting back on message and staying there could be his slender opportunity to get to the White House. But given Trumps temperament, another meltdown is imminent because thats what the script so far suggests. Washington: Fifty senior Republican national security officials have issued a stinging rejection of their party's White House nominee Donald Trump, warning he would be "the most reckless president in American history" if elected. The group, some of whom had already announced they would not vote for Trump, included former homeland security chiefs, intelligence directors, senior presidential advisors and a former US trade representative. They served under Republican presidents from Richard Nixon to George W Bush. "We are convinced that he would be a dangerous president and would put at risk our country's national security and well-being," they wrote in a statement published in The New York Times on Monday. While they did not say they would vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton - indeed they expressed "doubts" about her -they were clear in stating that "none of us will vote for Donald Trump." The experts essentially declared the brash billionaire unfit for office, echoing Clinton's criticism by saying that Trump "lacks the character, values, and experience to be president" and displays "alarming ignorance of basic facts" of international politics. The New York real estate mogul also has shown no willingness to learn about foreign affairs or national security threats, "acts impetuously" and lacks self control, the statement said. "He is unable or unwilling to separate truth from falsehood," the group wrote, saying Trump possesses a set of "dangerous qualities" that should disqualify him from the presidency. "We are convinced that in the Oval Office, he would be the most reckless president in American history." They warned that the political neophyte's "erratic behavior" has alarmed America's closest allies and that he fails to recognize the indispensible nature of such diplomatic relationships. The signatories include Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff, the first and second homeland security secretaries under president George W Bush, former director of National Intelligence John Negroponte and Bush-era CIA director Michael Hayden. Also in the group are former US Trade Representative and World Bank president Robert Zoellick and Eric Edelman, former national security advisor to vice president Dick Cheney. The group joins members of the security establishment who have already come out against Trump, including former CIA director Michael Morell, who last Friday accused Trump of being an "unwitting agent" of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Tokyo: The Japanese city of Nagasaki on Tuesday marked 71 years since its destruction by a US atomic bomb, with its mayor lauding a visit by US President Barack Obama to Hiroshima earlier this year. A bell tolled as thousands of people, including ageing survivors and relatives of victims, observed a minute's silence at 11.02 am (0202 GMT), the exact moment the of the blast. Some 74,000 people died in the initial explosion, while thousands of others perished months or years later from radiation sickness. The attack came three days after the US dropped the first ever atomic bomb on Hiroshima, which ultimately killed 1,40,000 people. Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue lauded Obama's landmark May visit to Hiroshima the first ever by a sitting US president. "Knowing the facts becomes the starting point for thinking about a future free of nuclear weapons," Taue said, calling on other world leaders to visit his city. Local officials and those who survived the bombing called for strict adherence to Japans post-war tradition of pacifism and were critical of the Japanese government. "The government of Japan, while advocating nuclear weapons abolition, still relies on nuclear deterrence," the mayor said, calling it a "contradictory state of affairs". Hiroshima mayor Kazumi Matsui on Saturday marked the commemoration of the bombing of his city, also citing Obama's visit. He said the visit was proof the US President shared his city's view of the "absolute evil" of nuclear weapons. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in his address in Nagasaki, called on world leaders to honour the global Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. "We must not allow a repeat of the horrible experiences of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that happened 71 years ago," Abe said. Abe has moved to extend the scope of Japan's military and deepen the nation's alliance with Washington in the face of threats from China's expanding military strength and unpredictable North Korea. North Korea last week test fired a ballistic missile that landed in waters off Japan's coast for the first time. Swallowing the bitter pill of humiliation of his father by Donald Trump, George P Bush, son of the former Florida Governor and presidential aspirant Jeb Bush, has urged Republican activists to support Trump in the November general elections in the US. "From Team Bush, it's a bitter pill to swallow, but you know what? You get back up and you help the man that won, and you make sure that we stop Hillary Clinton," Bush told hissupporters at an event in Texas during the weekend. George, is the fourth generation of the famous Bush family. His grandfather George H W Bush and uncle George W Bush were the presidents of the US. His father Jeb Bush lost the Republican presidential primaries to Trump. At present, George is the Texas land commissioner and Republican victory chairman. Canberra: Australian defence scientists who analysed signals from missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 have revealed the Boeing 777 fell very fast before crashing into the Indian Ocean off the coast of Western Australia. Australian media reported on Tuesday that data analysis and manufacturer simulations showed it was likely the aircraft lost engine power before falling out of the sky at a rate of up to 20,000 feet per minute on 8 March, 2014, Xinhua news agency reported. An aircraft attempting a regular landing - or a crash landing in water - would descend at a rate of around 2,000 feet per minute, raising doubts over previous predictions that the plane "landed" intact in the water before breaking up, the analysts said. Australian scientists believed that prior to its final moments, the jet made a number of automated "handshake" signals with satellites on the ground near Perth in Western Australia. After six of those handshakes, a seventh, out-of-sequence signal came from the jet, indicating engine failure likely from lack of fuel. The data gives life to the theory that MH370 fell out of the sky, and did not glide to a final crash-landing spot in the Indian Ocean. Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) chief commissioner Greg Hood said the scientists' analysis of the signals closely matched a flight scenario in which there was no pilot at the controls at the point of impact - in contrast to previous theories about how MH370 went down. Hood said the signal data meant MH370 likely crashed in the 120,000-square-km search area now being combed by Australian authorities. If the aircraft had glided to a final resting place - as previous theories had hinted - the plane may have gone down outside of the current search area. MH370 was a scheduled passenger flight from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing. It had 239 passengers and crew on board when it disappeared on 7 March 2014. Beijing: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is playing the "China-bashing card" in an attempt to rescue his falling poll numbers but has no real ideas to resolve the two nations' differences, China's official news agency said Tuesday. Responding to a speech Monday in which the candidate accused China of breaking trade rules "in every way imaginable," Xinhua such "inflammatory" rhetoric was meant to appeal to blue-collar Midwestern voters. It called the remarks dangerous and said they offered nothing of substance to improve bilateral relations. Trump "played the China-bashing card once again in his latest attempt to rectify his falling popularity," Xinhua said. Trump accused China of illegally subsidising exports, manipulating its currency and stealing intellectual property, all recurring themes in his campaign. Trump's criticism has focused almost exclusively on trade practices with few mentions of China's authoritarian political system or human rights abuses. "At the center of my plan is trade enforcement with China. This alone could return millions of jobs into our country," Trump said in the speech that focused on economic policy. Xinhua said Trump had not only betrayed traditional Republican support for free trade, but also ignored the importance of China to his own business. Trump has claimed to have done major deals with Chinese customers, but given few specifics. Items in his Trump-branded clothing line have been produced in China. "China-bashing is a recurring theme every four years, and by now it's become quite dull," Xinhua said. "Let's hope the next time around that future presidential (contenders) have something more substantial to say about America's relationship with China. US voters deserve better." Judicial Watch Uncovers New Batch of Hillary Clinton Emails Huma Abedin Emails Show Clinton Foundation Donor Demands on State Department WASHINGTON, Aug. 9, 2016 / Christian Newswire / -- Judicial Watch today released 296 pages of State Department records, of which 44 email exchanges were not previously turned over to the State Department, bringing the known total to date to 171 of new Clinton emails (not part of the 55,000 pages of emails that Clinton turned over to the State Department). These records further appear to contradict statements by Clinton that, "as far as she knew," all of her government emails were turned over to the State Department. The new documents reveal that in April 2009 controversial Clinton Foundation official Doug Band pushed for a job for an associate. In the email Band tells Hillary Clinton's former aides at the State Department Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin that it is "important to take care of [Redacted]. Band is reassured by Abedin that "Personnel has been sending him options." Band was co-founder of Teneo Strategy with Bill Clinton and a top official of the Clinton Foundation, including its Clinton Global Initiative. Included in the new document production is a 2009 email in which Band, directs Abedin and Mills to put Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire and Clinton Foundation donor Gilbert Chagoury in touch with the State Department's "substance person" on Lebanon. Band notes that Chagoury is "key guy there [Lebanon] and to us," and insists that Abedin call Amb. Jeffrey Feltman to connect him to Chagoury. Chagoury is a close friend of former President Bill Clinton and a top donor to the Clinton Foundation. He has appeared near the top of the Foundation's donor list as a $1 million to $5 million contributor, according to foundation documents . He also pledged $1 billion to the Clinton Global Initiative . According to a 2010 investigation by PBS Frontline, Chagoury was convicted in 2000 in Switzerland for laundering money from Nigeria, but agreed to a plea deal and repaid $66 million to the Nigerian government. Clinton's top aides' favors for and interactions with the Clinton Foundation seem in violation of the ethics agreements that Hillary Clinton agreed to in order to be appointed and confirmed as Secretary of State. For example, Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton on January 5, 2009, in a letter to State Department Designated Agency Ethics Official James H. Thessin: "For the duration of my appointment as Secretary if I am confirmed, I will not participate personally and substantially in any particular matter involving specific parties in which The William J. Clinton Foundation (or the Clinton Global Initiative) is a party or represents a party." As preparation for Hillary's upcoming visit to Asia, Stephen Roach, chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, on Feb. 11, 2009, sends Hillary a copy of his upcoming testimony before Congress in which he would condemn any U.S. efforts to criticize Chinese monetary policy or enact trade barriers... Quetta: A suicide bomber in Pakistan killed at least 70 people and wounded more than 100 on Monday in an attack on mourners gathered at a hospital in the southwestern city of Quetta, and Islamic State claimed responsibility. The bomber struck as a crowd of mostly lawyers and journalists crammed into the emergency department to accompany the body of a prominent lawyer who had been shot and killed in the city earlier in the day, Faridullah, a reporter who was among the wounded, told Reuters. Abdul Rehman Miankhel, a senior official at the government-run Civil Hospital, where the explosion occurred, told reporters that at least 70 people had been killed, with more than 112 wounded. "There are many wounded, so the death toll could rise," said Rehmat Saleh Baloch, the provincial health minister. Islamic State's Amaq news agency reported the Middle East-based movement was behind the atrocity. If true, it would mark an alarming development for Pakistan, long plagued by Islamist militant violence but most of it locally-based. "A martyr from the Islamic State detonated his explosive belt at a gathering of justice ministry employees and Pakistani policemen in the city of Quetta," Amaq said. Jamaat-ur-Ahrar, a faction of the Islamist militant Pakistani Taliban group, earlier said it carried out the attack, although the group is believed to have claimed responsibility for bombings in the past that it was not involved in. "The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Jamaat-ur-Ahrar (TTP-JA) takes responsibility for this attack, and pledges to continue carrying out such attacks," said spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan in a statement. Only last week, Jamaat was added to the United States' list of global terrorists, triggering sanctions. US condemnation The White House condemned the attack. "We remain resolute in joining with the people of Pakistan in confronting terrorism in Pakistan and across the region," it said in a statement. Television footage showed scenes of chaos at the hospital in Quetta, with panicked people fleeing through debris as smoke filled the corridors. Bodies lay strewn across a hospital courtyard shortly after the blast and pools of blood collected as emergency rescuers rushed to identify survivors. The motive behind the attack was unclear, but several lawyers have been targeted during a recent spate of killings in Quetta, the provincial capital of Baluchistan, which has a history of militant and separatist violence. The latest victim, Bilal Anwar Kasi, was shot and killed while on his way to the city's main court complex, senior police official Nadeem Shah told Reuters. He was the president of Baluchistan Bar Association. The subsequent suicide attack appeared to target his mourners, said Anwar ul Haq Kakar, a spokesman for the Baluchistan government. "It seems it was a pre-planned attack," he said. Ali Zafar, president of the Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan, told reporters in the eastern city of Lahore, "We (lawyers) have been targeted because we always raise our voice for people's rights and for democracy ... Lawyers will not just protest this attack but also prepare a long-term plan of action." Police cordoned off the hospital following the blast, with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Army Chief General Raheel Sharif paying visits to the wounded on Monday evening. In January, a suicide bomber killed 15 people outside a polio eradication centre in an attack claimed by both the Pakistani Taliban and Jundullah, an Islamist militant group that has pledged allegiance to Islamic State in the Middle East. Monday's attack was the deadliest in Pakistan since an Easter Day bombing ripped through a Lahore park, killing at least 72 people. Jamaat-ur-Ahrar also claimed responsibility for the bombing. Quetta has long been regarded as a base for the Afghan Taliban, whose leadership has regularly held meetings there in the past. In May, Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed by a US drone strike while travelling to Quetta from the Pakistan-Iran border. New Delhi: President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday extended greetings to the government and the people of Singapore on their National Day on August 9 and said there was a vast untapped potential in sectors like defence and infrastructure development between the two countries. In a message to Singapore President Tony Tan Keng Yam, Mukherjee said: "On behalf of the government and the people of India and on my own behalf, it is with great pleasure that I extend warm greetings and felicitations to you and to the people of Singapore on your National Day." The National Day of Singapore commemorates its independence from Malaysia in 1965. The President said the bilateral relations between India and Singapore are marked by a long tradition of close cooperation. "In recent years, our ties have strengthened and intensified to our mutual benefit. Both our governments desire the expansion of our relationship in all its aspects. "While we have elevated our relationship to that of a strategic partnership last year and enhanced our economic cooperation, vast untapped potential still exists in many sectors -- particularly defence and security, infrastructure development and people-to-people contacts," Mukherjee said. The following is the full text of his greetings to Singaporeans: ST PETERSBURG/ISTANBUL Russia and Turkey took a big step towards normalising relations on Tuesday, with their leaders announcing an acceleration in trade and energy ties at a time when both countries have troubled economies and strains with the West. President Vladimir Putin received his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan in a Tsarist-era palace outside his home city of St Petersburg. It was Erdogan's first foreign trip since last month's failed military coup, which left Turkey's relationship with the United States and Europe badly damaged. The visit is being closely watched in the West, where some fear both men, powerful leaders ill-disposed to dissent, might use their rapprochement to exert pressure on Washington and the European Union and stir tensions within NATO, the military alliance of which Turkey is a member. Putin said Moscow would gradually phase out sanctions against Ankara, imposed after the Turks shot down a Russian fighter jet near the Syrian border nine months ago, and that bringing ties to their pre-crisis level was the priority. "Do we want a full-spectrum restoration of relations? Yes and we will achieve that," Putin told a joint news conference after an initial round of talks. "Life changes quickly." Cooperation would be increased on projects including a planned $20 billion gas pipeline and a nuclear power plant to be built in Turkey by the Russians, Erdogan said, as well as between their two defence sectors. "God willing, with these steps the Moscow-Ankara axis will again be a line of trust and friendship," Erdogan said. The leaders were to discuss the war in Syria, over which they remain deeply divided, in a subsequent closed-door session. Progress there is likely to be more halting, with Moscow backing President Bashar al-Assad and Ankara wanting him out of power. Turkey has been incensed by what it sees as Western concern over its post-coup crackdown but indifference to the bloody putsch itself, in which rogue soldiers bombed parliament and seized bridges with tanks and helicopters. More than 240 people were killed, many of them civilians. Putin's rapid phone call expressing his solidarity to Erdogan in the wake of the failed putsch had been a "psychological boost", the Turkish president said. ANTI-AMERICAN SENTIMENT Turkish officials, by contrast, warned on Tuesday of rising anti-American sentiment and of risks to a crucial migrant deal with Europe, in a sign of deteriorating relations. Erdogan blames Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric who has lived in self-imposed exile in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania since 1999, and his followers for the failed coup. Turkey has launched a series of mass purges of suspected Gulen supporters in its armed forces, other state institutions, universities, schools and the media, prompting Western worries for the stability of the NATO ally. Denmark's ruling party said on Tuesday the EU should end accession negotiations with Turkey completely over Erdogan's "undemocratic initiatives", the latest European country to condemn developments in Turkey. Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said hostility towards the United States was rising among Turks and could be calmed only by the extradition of Gulen, who denies any involvement in the coup and has condemned it. "There is a serious anti-American feeling in Turkey, and this is turning into hatred," Bozdag said in an interview with state-run Anadolu Agency, broadcast live on Turkish television channels. "It is in the hands of the United States to stop this anti-American feeling leading to hatred." Despite the timing of the Russia visit, Ankara has insisted that Erdogan's meeting with Putin is not meant to signal a fundamental shift in Turkish foreign policy. Turkey hosts American troops and warplanes at its Incirlik Air Base, an important staging area for the U.S.-led fight against Islamic State militants in neighbouring Iraq and Syria. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told the Bild daily that he was not worried about Russia and Turkey improving ties. "I do not believe that relations between the two countries will become so close that Russia can offer Turkey an alternative to the NATO security partnership," he said. NUCLEAR AND ENERGY DEALS Putin told Erdogan that he hoped Ankara could fully restore order after the failed coup, saying Moscow always opposed unconstitutional actions. "I want to express the hope that under your leadership the Turkish people will cope with this problem and that order and constitutional legality will be restored," he said. Erdogan's meeting with Putin was only his second with a foreign head of state since the coup, following a visit to Ankara by the Kazakh president on Friday. Turkish officials have questioned why no Western leader has come to show solidarity. Turkey and Russia would reinstate their annual bilateral trade target of $100 billion, Erdogan said, which had been abandoned after Russia imposed the sanctions. Tourism revenue, a mainstay of the Turkish economy, has been hit hard by an 87 percent dive in Russian visitors in the first six months of the year. Putin said the question of resuming Russian charter flights to Turkey, halted under the sanctions, would be solved in the near future. The two leaders said also agreed to revive the gas pipeline project, known as TurkStream, meant to be supply Turkey with additional volumes of Russian gas and increase deliveries to Europe in the future. Russia has been mulling a number of projects to supply Europe with gas bypassing Ukraine, but the EU has opposed most of them, eager to cut its reliance on gas from Moscow. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said the first line of TurkStream to supply Turkey could be built as early as 2019 but that solid European guarantees were needed before a second line from Russia to the EU across Turkey could be built. Stalled Russian work on the Akkuyu nuclear power plant in Turkey would also be restarted, the two leaders said. In 2013, Rosatom won a $20 billion contract to build four reactors in what was to become Turkey's first nuclear plant, but construction was halted after the downing of the jet. (This version of the story has been refiled to correct quote in fifth paragraph to "full-spectrum") (Additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk, Tuvan Gumrukcu, Seda Sezer and Daren Butler in ISTANBUL, Alexander Winning, Lidia Kelly and Dmitry Zhdannikov in MOSCOW, and Madeline Chambers in GERMANY; Writing by Nick Tattersall and Andrew Osborn; Editing by Patrick Markey and David Stamp) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Quetta: At least 70 people died when a suicide bomb tore through a crowd of mourners gathered at a Pakistani hospital Monday, in an attack claimed by both the Taliban and Islamic State group. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif called for security forces to "decimate" terrorists after the blast at the Civil Hospital in the Balochistan provincial capital Quetta, which also wounded more than 100 people. The bomber struck a crowd of some 200 people made up mainly of lawyers and journalists that had gathered to mourn the president of the Balochistan Bar Association, who was shot dead on Monday. Bilal Anwar Kasi was attacked by two unidentified gunmen as he left his home for work. A faction of the Pakistani Taliban, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, claimed responsibility for both the assassination of the lawyer and the blast at the hospital. A spokesman vowed it would carry out more attacks "until the imposition of an Islamic system in Pakistan". Hours later, the Islamic State group also said it was behind the blast, which it claimed killed 200 people, the SITE monitoring agency reported. Bomb disposal unit chief Abdul Razzaq told AFP it was a suicide attack. "The bomber had strapped some eight kilograms of explosives packed with ball bearings and shrapnel on his body," he said. The head of the provincial health department, doctor Masood Nausherwani, gave a death toll of 70, with 112 injured. An AFP journalist was about 20 metres (70 feet) away when the bomb went off. "There were huge black clouds and dirt," he said. "I ran back to the place and saw dead bodies scattered everywhere and many injured people crying. "There were pools and pools of blood around and pieces of human bodies and flesh." Nurses and lawyers wept as medics from inside the hospital rushed out to help dozens of injured, he said. Pervez Masi, who was injured by pieces of flying glass, said the blast was so powerful that "we didn't know what had happened". "So many friends were martyred," he said. "Whoever is doing this is not human, he is a beast and has no humanity." 'Particularly appalling' UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attack, saying it was "particularly appalling" that it targeted mourners at a hospital. France's President Francois Hollande denounced the "abominable act", while the European Union said there was "no justification for such acts of terrorism". The US joined the chorus of condemnation, which the State Department said had targeted "two of the most important pillars of every democracy" the judiciary and the media. Pakistan is grimly accustomed to atrocities after a nearly decade-long insurgency. A military operation targeting insurgents was stepped up last year and saw the death toll from militant attacks fall to its lowest since the formation in 2007 of the umbrella Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). But analysts have warned the group is still able to carry out major attacks. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, part of the TTP, also said it was behind the deadliest attack in Pakistan so far this year, a bombing in a crowded Lahore park that killed 75 people on Easter Sunday. The group has claimed responsibility for other suicide blasts, attacks on teams carrying out polio vaccinations and called for jihad in Myanmar. Middle Eastern jihadist group IS has been scrabbling for purchase in Pakistan, largely due to competition from well established extremist groups such as the Taliban. Balochistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, has major oil and gas resources, but is afflicted by Islamist militancy, sectarian violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims and a separatist insurgency. Pakistani hospitals have been targeted by militants before, with a bomb killing 13 at a Karachi hospital in 2010. ROME The son of Iran's deposed shah has appealed to Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi to intervene to help an Iranian activist jailed in Italy, saying he risks execution if he is extradited. Reza Pahlavi, whose late father was toppled by the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, wrote to Renzi on Monday, two days after Mehdi Khosravi was arrested in a hotel in Lecco, near Lake Como in Italy's Alpine north. Lecco police said in a statement they had carried out an international arrest warrant issued by the Iranian government which aimed to have the 37-year-old extradited "for the crime of corruption". Pahlavi posted the letter, written from his Paris office and addressed to Renzi personally, on a Twitter account where he describes himself as an "advocate of secularism and parliamentary democracy in Iran". "Any attempt to force Mr Khosravi's return to Iran will lead to his incarceration, torture and possible conviction and execution as a political and human rights opposer of the regime," the letter said. Pahlavi said Khosravi had been living in Britain as a political refugee since fleeing the Islamic Republic shortly after "the 2009 demonstrations and uprising" surrounding disputed elections. "This critical humanitarian matter requires your indispensable intervention so that Mr. Khosravi can return to the United Kingdom." A spokesman for Renzi directed a request for comment to Italy's foreign ministry, which declined to comment. Iran's application of the death penalty, which has drawn repeated criticism from human rights organisations, leapt last year, according to the United Nations, which counted nearly 1,000 executions. Khosravi felt unwell after his arrest and was taken to hospital before being transferred to prison, the Lecco police statement said. A judge responsible for preliminary investigations has yet to formalise Khosravi's detention, the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported on Tuesday. (Reporting by Isla Binnie; editing by Mark Heinrich) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Saint Petersburg: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan jets into Russia on Tuesday for his first meeting with counterpart Vladimir Putin since the two strongmen leaders began healing a bitter feud over Ankara's downing of a Russian warplane. Erdogan's visit to Putin's hometown of Saint Petersburg is also his first foreign trip since the failed coup against him last month that sparked a purge of opponents and cast a shadow over Turkey's relations with the West. "This visit seems to me a new milestone in bilateral relations, beginning with a clean slate, and I personally, with all my heart and on behalf of the Turkish nation salute Mr Putin and all Russians," Erdogan said in an interview with Russian state media. The shooting down of a Russian fighter jet by a Turkish F-16 over the Syrian border last November saw a furious Putin slap economic sanctions on Turkey and launch a blistering war of words with Erdogan that seemed to irrevocably damage burgeoning ties. But in a shock reversal in late June, Putin accepted a personal expression of regret over the incident from Erdogan as an apology and immediately rolled back a ban on the sale of package holidays to Turkey and signalled Moscow would end measures against food imports and construction firms from the country. Now in the wake of the failed 15 July coup attempt in Nato-member Turkey, ties between the two sides could be bolstered even further - with Erdogan bluntly making it clear he feels let down by the United States and the European Union. Putin was one of the first foreign leaders to phone Erdogan offering support and, unsurprisingly, sharing none of the scruples of EU leaders about the ensuing crackdown. "While Turkish-Russian ties are subject to their own uncertainties, this deterioration of relations with Western powers could accelerate a Turkish-Russian rapprochement," said analysts from the European Council on Foreign Relations. Relations between Turkey and Russia - two powers vying for influence in the strategic Black Sea region and Middle East - have never been straightforward and their predecessor Ottoman and Russian empires fought three centuries of war. Yet before the plane crisis, Moscow and Ankara managed to prevent disputes on Syria and Ukraine harming strategic cooperation on issues like the TurkStream gas pipeline to Europe and a Russian-built nuclear power station in Turkey. Those projects were all put on ice with trade between the two countries falling 43 per cent to USD 6.1 billion in January-May in the year 2016 and Turkey's tourism industry seeing numbers from Russia fall by 93 percent. Your Days Should Be Numbered Author tells how the Catholic Church's liturgical calendar provided a spiritual renewal SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 9, 2016 / Christian Newswire / -- Chene Heady was a devout Catholic whose daily concerns were shaped primarily by forces other than his faith: career demands as a college professor, financial decisions, scheduling conflicts, etc. He worked long hours, and had limited regular interaction with his wife, also a busy professional, and young daughter. He was the typical overextended and anonymous modern Catholic man until he tried a fascinating experiment that drastically rearranged his life, which he chronicles in his encouragingly honest memoir, NUMBERING MY DAYS: How the Liturgical Calendar Rearranged My Life. After reading about the importance of the Catholic Church's liturgical year, Heady decided to take on the challenge of living as though the Church's calendar, not the secular one, stood as the center of his life. He observed the Church's seasons and feasts, and meditated on its daily readings, every day for a year. It was an immensely rewarding decision, as Heady found that his life, and his relationships, including with his wife and daughter, became more meaningful and fruitful. One of the myriad ailments afflicting the modern world is the loss of the sense of the sacredness of time, a deafness to the rhythms that accentuate a truly Catholic life. Heady provides the antidote in NUMBERING MY DAYS, and describes how the liturgy is our universal story and alters our imperfect existence, even when we believe we're stretched thin and feel as though our lives are devoid of meaning. "Through engaging personal stories, Chene Heady shows just how much it will change your life to center your days on the liturgical calendar," says Jennifer Fulwiler, author of Something Other Than God. "Highly recommended." Click HERE for a list of our other web sites Click HERE to get filtered opportunity reports by email, starting at only $21.95/month. User login is required to use this feature. Register here Contact us if you like to have a single PDF file with each report send in your email each day. New Book from Catholic Answers Press Tackles Difficult Passages in the Bible SAN DIEGO, Aug. 9, 2016 / Christian Newswire / -- Catholic Answers Press announced today the publication of Hard Sayings: A Catholic Approach To Answering Bible Difficulties, the exciting new book by acclaimed author Trent Horn Hard Sayings draws upon Horn's years of expertise in defending and explaining seemingly contradictory messages found in the Bible. "I hope the book will increase confidence in the inspiration and reliability of Sacred Scripture," Catholic Answers Director of Publications Todd Aglialoro said. Aglialoro added that Hard Sayings would give Catholics "the knowledge and arguments needed to respond to skeptics who claim that the Bible is too incoherent." Tackling some of the most difficult to comprehend scenes in scripture, Horn explains passages that atheists use to discredit the Word of God. This masterfully written book dissects an array of arguments, including whether the Bible is nothing more than unscientific non-sense. Horn explains why some gospel passages don't concur with one another, and gives lucid explanations as to why God would order genocidal campaigns. Covering everything from verses that contradict history to those that appear to sanction slavery or the slaughter of innocent people, Hard Sayings makes even the most difficult passages easy to understand. 2000 - 2022 24 .- . focus-news.net, () . 24 . 24 . . 24 . home World Youth in Uganda suffer persecution for turning to Jesus Christ Young Christian converts in eastern Uganda suffer physical injuries and were consequently disowned by their parents after turning to Christ. Eight children ranging from ages 9 to 16 from four families in Busalamu village, Bukanga Sub-County, Luuka District suffered serious beatings from their parents after converting to Christianity early this year. They took refuge at a church building on June 29 and are currently staying with several church members after their parents disowned them. The 29-year-old Pastor Brian Mukisa of the Power Gates Church led the young people to Christ. He used to hold worship services at a rented building nearby but had to move 10 kilometers away on June 15 after a group of Muslims led by Bavakuno Ibra, Kalemba Farouk, and Imam Jengo reportedly destroyed the first site on May 25. "Your church activities will not be tolerated in this area," the pastor quoted one of the Muslims as telling him, according to Morning Star News. "If you do not leave our village, then we shall soon come for your life." Pastor Mukisa also said that the young Christians disowned by their parents need money to continue their education and that some of them needed funds for medical treatment. "The parents have totally disowned them as infidels," said the pastor. "They need prayers to come to terms with the separation from parents for choosing Christ." He implored for prayers and financial assistance for both the persecuted Christians and his church. "Busalamu is a Muslim stronghold, and any church presence here will meet with strong resistance," said Pastor Mukisa. "We are worshipping in a temporary church structure, and we also appeal for financial assistance in assisting both the persecuted young children and our young upcoming church." Two separate murders by Muslim hardliners also happened in different villages of Luuka District in June. Muslim relatives poisoned an infant baby whose mother fed during the fasting hours of Ramadan, while the other murder resulted from a Catholic woman's adamant refusal to give her land for a Muslim mosque. We know some visitors come to the website because a domain name leads them to here. If you are interested in buying When a company reports its quarterly earnings, management often presents just a sketch of how the company performed. But equally important for investors is the conference call, where management's commentary provides the full picture of the company's recent performance. Let's look at some highlights from Johnson Controls' (JCI 1.77%) most recent conference call to help discern the full picture for Q3 2016. Hitachi is a hit Looking to expand its building efficiency segment offerings -- air conditioning and refrigeration in particular -- Johnson Controls entered into a joint venture with Hitachi in 2015. Based on the Q3 conference call, the endeavor is a resounding success. In addressing the joint venture, Alex Molinaroli, Johnson Controls' chairman, president, and CEO, reported: Our Hitachi joint venture continues to exceed our expectations and I'd just give you a little bit of color on, if you look across the regions we are seeing strong performance in China, Japan, and Taiwan and we are starting to see some opportunities in North America as we've made significant investments in both product and sales. Excluding foreign exchange, the building efficiency segment reported a 48% year-over-year improvement in segment margin -- an improvement which management attributed "primarily to the volumes in North America and Asia and the contribution of the Hitachi joint venture." That's putting it mildly. According to the company's 10-Q, the joint venture with Hitachi yielded $826 million in sales for the quarter and $111 million in segment income. Just the start of start-stop? Management's enthusiasm for seizing the start-stop vehicle market opportunity is no surprise. Earlier in the summer, it announced its intent to invest $780 million from 2015 through 2020 to expand its absorbent glass mat (AGM) battery manufacturing capacity. Found in start-stop vehicles, whose engines shut off when the engine is idle, AGM batteries are designed to handle the additional stresses placed on them as the vehicles maintain power to other systems until the driver releases the brake or clutch. What does come as a surprise, though, is the success the company is already recognizing from its AGM offerings. According to management, "start-stop growth, which is the future of our business over the next five years" increased 22% year over year during the quarter, driven primarily by the Americas and China, which increased 78% and 79%, respectively. Things are already rolling Come Halloween, as millions change their appearances and transform into ghouls and goblins, Johnson Controls will also be changing its look. Less macabre, Johnson Controls anticipates Oct. 31 will be the first day of its new identity -- the first-day absent of the automotive interiors business, which it's spinning off into the new entity, Adient. Although Oct. 31 will be the first day Adient is operating as a separate, legal company, Bruce McDonald, Adient's chairman and CEO, reported that the company is well ahead of schedule: So for all intents and purposes, we are operating independently within Johnson Controls, we've got a four months kind of running in parallel health until we get to our true separation which will be at the end of the October. Besides adhering well to the expected timeline of events, management is also crediting itself with how well it has been able to execute the transition in terms of staying on budget. Previous estimates had targeted separation costs between $400 million and $600 million, and according to McDonald, management is "tracking well within those estimates." The takeaway Although it was glad to report its success in beating Q3 estimates by $0.04 and reporting EPS of $1.07, management was especially keen on identifying the factors that will contribute to its future success. In doing so, investors have a clear list of items they can track to also gauge the company's operations. For one, Hitachi significantly contributed to growth in the building efficiency segment, but management expects the growth to continue. Likewise, AGM revenue growth in both the Americas and Chinese markets drove gains in the power solutions segment, but management believes there's plenty of market opportunity left to seize. Look in the coming quarters for continued increases in sales for start-stop batteries, for slowing growth could suggest management's enthusiasm for expanding production capacity may have been misguided. And lastly, investors should keep an eye on how well the Adient separation is progressing. If November rolls around and the company is not operating on its own, Johnson Controls may be looking at separation costs exceeding the planned $600 million. Oil prices are in a funk. It's been more than a year since the price of a barrel of crude oil broke below the magic price of $50 a barrel -- and even longer since the halcyon days when a barrel of dinosaur juice cost $100 and up. Cheap oil has blown holes in the budgets of big Middle Eastern oil producers such as Saudi Arabia, and wrecked the stock prices of many a publicly traded oil company, to boot. At the same time, however, a revival in oil prices earlier this year has helped to raise the share prices of certain stocks from the dead. Despite all the bad news in the markets in general, shares of Chevron (CVX 1.17%), for example, are up 18% over the past 52 weeks -- and one analyst believes they could go even higher. Here's what you need to know. 1. Oil stocks took it on the chin Despite how well Chevron stock has performed in recent months, the stock has clearly suffered from the long-running rout in oil prices. Two years ago, Chevron cost $127 a share. But priced at $101 and change today, Chevron stock remains down 20% from that price. Looked at another way, a 20% decline is still a better performance than the near-50% decline at rival ConocoPhillips (COP 0.42%), or the 38% sell-off that Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A) (RDS.B) shares have experienced. (ExxonMobil (XOM 2.93%), on the other hand, is down only 10% from a couple years ago.) 2. The more things change, the more they stay the same All of these declines can be tied back to the relatively low cost of oil today. Low oil prices, after all, beget low oil profits for the companies that sell the oil. But as explained today in a post on StreetInsider.com, analysts at Piper Jaffray's Simmons investment banking subsidiary are forecasting a turn in the oil market that could do wonders for the stock prices of the oil majors -- and Chevron in particular. According to Simmons, "CVX does not offer the deeply discounted valuation" of some of its rivals. But what it does offer is "impressive financial resilience and dividend sustainability alongside leading operational leverage." So while Simmons admits that Chevron stock may not be as cheap as Shell, for example, the analyst argues that Chevron's "premium valuation" is nonetheless "warranted." 3. But wait! Isn't Chevron unprofitable? Yes, Chevron is unprofitable today. In fact, S&P Global Market Intelligence data show that Chevron has incurred losses of $746 million over the past 12 months. Then again, Shell and Conoco are unprofitable, too, reporting losses of $4.8 billion and $7.1 billion for the same period, respectively (and Exxon stock sells for a rich 35 times earnings, which tells us it's not very profitable, either). Those numbers alone tell you that Chevron is in better financial shape than some of its rivals today. Meanwhile, Simmons insists that the key to investing profitably in the oil industry isn't to focus on a stock's profitability today, but on where the oil industry as a whole is in the oil cycle. This, argues the analyst, tells you more about the profits that a company will earn in future years. The most important thing: Where are we in the oil cycle? As luck would have it, The Wall Street Journal answered this very question in an article that ran over the weekend. As the Journal explained, "[C]rude prices had nearly doubled from early February to early June, with the U.S. benchmark approaching $52 a barrel before sinking by over $10 in less than two months. But there is reason to believe that the fourth time will be the charm." While oil prices touched $26 a barrel in February, the Journal thinks such low prices are "unlikely to be revisited soon," and indeed, argues that the oil market is now close to reaching "equilibrium." According to the paper, oil majors such as Chevron, Conoco, Exxon, and their peers are planning to cut a combined $100 billion from their capital spending on oil infrastructure this year. Relative to expectations set two years ago, that's 40% less investment in bringing new oil to market than previously planned. This investment, when combined with a planned 10% decline in oil production this year, suggests that in both the short term and the long term as well, the oil industry plans to invest much less in bringing oil to market, tightening oil supply to match oil demand -- and stabilizing prices. Endgame What's the result then, and what can investors expect? In the Journal's estimation, and it seems in Simmons', too, oil prices of $50 to $70 look to mark the "equilibrium" point, and will be sustainable. If correct, that means we could see a run-up in oil prices of anywhere from 16% to 63%, and perhaps as soon as later this year. That's where we are in the cycle. And if Simmons is right, that's how close we are to a big jump in Chevron stock as well. Southern Co. (SO 1.80%) reported second-quarter financial and operating results on July 27, delivering steady profits that met investor expectations, on a small decrease in the amount of power the utility generated and sold. The company also announced (another) cost increase in its ongoing Kemper plant project, raising estimates for the plant's completion, while taking an estimated $38 million loss in the quarter on costs related to the plant's construction. Southern also announced that it will spend more money on capital investments for the full year than previously anticipated, both on capital construction and acquisitions, even as some of those existing projects take longer and cost more to complete than initially promised. So what does all this new spending mean for Southern Co. now and in the future? Let's take a closer look at the utility giant's quarterly results. The numbers Metric Q2 2016 Q2 2015 Change Revenue $4,453 $4,337 2.7% Net income $638 $629 1.4% Earnings per share $0.68 $0.69 (1.4%) Adjusted earnings per share $0.74 $0.71 4.2% Southern Co. saw its GAAP net income rise in the quarter, though earnings per share declined slightly because of the issuance of approximately 34 million new shares -- a 3.7% increase -- over the past year to raise capital. But at the same time, one of the big projects Southern has been raising capital for, its Kemper plant in Mississippi, weighed on earnings again in the quarter, as the company continues to spend more than expected to finish the project and bring the plant online. Adjusting for the non-recurring losses related to the Kemper plant, as well as $44 million in acquisition costs in the quarter, earnings per share increased slightly. And while GAAP earnings are important -- since many companies regularly have "non-recurring" items for which they report adjusted earnings to reflect -- breaking things out helps investors see both the impact of items such as capital projects and acquisitions on the bottom line each reporting period. It also helps better measure a company's operating performance. Key happenings in the quarter The company said there were two key drivers behind its earnings growth in the quarter: Lower expenses, particularly lower non-fuel operations and maintenance expenses across its regulated utility businesses. Strong results from Southern Power -- its electricity wholesaler -- which reported 4.4% growth in wholesale Kilowatt-hour sales, helping absorb the decline in KwH sales at its utilities. Southern also said it's accelerating its investments in new projects, as well as increasing its spending on acquisitions. Back in February, management said the company would spend $7.3 million in capital expenditures in 2016, and $8 billion on acquisitions. In its updated forecast, the company said it will spend $10.2 billion on capex and $9.9 billion in acquisitions this year, a 31% increase. Southern will use both debt and share issuance to pay for much of this capital spending, but management says the new capacity in its utility business, along with its expanded natural gas infrastructure, would lead to better per-share earnings over time. One particular area of its business where Southern bumped up its planned spending was its Southern Power wholesale subsidiary. In February, the company had planned to spend $2.4 billion there, but that amount was increased 88% to $4.5 billion, largely aimed at renewables: The vast majority of these investments will be in renewables, particularly solar and wind, which make up a very small percentage of Southern Co.'s total mix currently. Southern Co. also announced at the end of the second quarter that all relevant regulators had approved its pending merger with AGL Resources, and on July 1, the merger was completed. On July 11, AGL Resources was renamed Southern Company Gas, and the company intends to spend $800 million on capital projects at the subsidiary this year. On July 10, Southern Co. also announced a new joint venture with natural gas infrastructure giant Kinder Morgan (KMI 0.33%), acquiring a 50% equity interest in the Southern Natural Gas pipeline system from the company. Southern Co. will pay $1.47 billion for its interest in the pipeline, while Kinder Morgan will continue to operate it. Notably, Kinder Morgan plans to use the proceeds it receives from Southern Co. to reduce its debt, which was over $43 billion at last report, while Southern Co. said it will finance the purchase, which both companies expect will close before the end of 2016. On the earnings call, management also talked about the acquisition of PowerSecure, which it made early in the second quarter. While the $400 million acquisition was relatively small for a behemoth like Southern Co., CEO Tom Fanning highlighted the importance of how it will help the company address how distributed power, such as the growth of rooftop residential solar, is expected to affect utilities in the coming years. Fanning said that "this business is a way to play offense in the energy efficiency/distributed infrastructure sector, extending our customer-focused business model beyond the meter." Looking ahead Even while the Kemper project continues to cost more than anticipated and take longer to bring online, Southern Co. hasn't been shy about investing in capital expansion, as the big increase in capex and acquisitions guidance showed. And while at least part of it -- particularly in the wind and solar spending -- was a unique product of timing because of some big changes with tax credits and renewables, it's evident that management also sees the benefit to diversifying its business away from being solely a power producer and seller. This is where big investments into the natural gas infrastructure and utility businesses come into play, though it will take some time for those investments to add to the bottom line. Company guidance is for third-quarter earnings per share of $1.16, and full-year EPS between $2.76 and $2.88. Microsoft's Windows 10 Anniversary Update introduced a host of cool new features for consumers. Enhanced Cortana functionality, Windows Hello authentication for third-party applications, and a redesigned Windows Store are just a few of the updates that are designed to improve the one-year-old operating system (OS). However, in Microsoft's never-ending quest to be the OS of choice for business as well as general users, the company also introduced new Windows 10 features specific to the enterprise. Mostly focused on security, the IT-focused Anniversary Updates are minor tweaks that won't upend the user experience (UX) but they are likely to put a smile on the face of IT administrators and their bosses. The changes, which are primarily (but not exclusively) security-related, are designed to simplify data protection, improve workflow management, and enable remote collaboration. In this article, we'll examine seven Windows 10 Anniversary Update features that IT professionals will love. 1. Windows Information ProtectionWindows Information Protection (WIP) is a new Windows 10 feature that gives businesses the ability to encrypt enterprise data as it's downloaded to an employee-owned device. Here's an example of what WIP is trying to safeguard against: If your human resources (HR) manager copies and pastes sensitive employee data from Microsoft SharePoint to his or her email app, then that data is now out of your company's control and can be distributed freely. However, with WIP, any designated enterprise app or web location (in this case, SharePoint), when combined with a WIP-enabled device (your employee's smartphone), will automatically encrypt information that is downloaded to the device (the sensitive HR data). With WIP, your IT departments can block the apps into which employees copy and paste. If an employee attempts to copy and paste from an enterprise app into a blocked app, he or she will see a notification stating that the data transfer was restricted. You can also allow your employees to make the decision by giving them the ability to override the restriction, and you can also create a silent permission, which lets the transfer occur without alerting the employee (but sends an alert to IT letting them know the transfer has occurred). 2. Better Mobile Device ManagementWith Windows 10, business users were able to sideload apps (that is, download on one device and transfer to another) using product keys. This meant that employees with access to the app product keys could download apps onto any Windows 10-enabled device without direct IT oversight. With the new update that focuses on mobile device management (MDM), sideloading of apps will only be allowed through the app management console controlled by your organization's IT department. This enables your business to control where business apps and the data contained in those apps live. Also on the MDM front, Microsoft now allows IT admins to purchase off-the-shelf retail Windows 10 Mobile devices and enroll them into mobile device management before assigning them to users. By using Windows Imaging and Configuration Designer to build an ideal configuration (more on this later), IT can deploy the template configuration to multiple devices by connecting them to a Windows PC (tethered deployment) or through an SD card. 3. Windows DefenderThe most important Windows Defender update give you the ability to run malware scans offline with one click. Previous iterations of the anti-malware tool forced users to install a separate program, restart the device, and load the bootable media before the scan could run. Now, all users need to do is open the Windows Defender app and click "Download and Run" to run an offline scan. The new "Block at First Sight" feature provides additional protections against unwanted files. Typically, when Windows Defender encounters a suspicious file, it will run a test to determine whether the file is benign or malicious. However, while the test is being run, the file is alive on your device. With "Block at First Sight," Windows Defender locks the file so that it can't infiltrate your system. 4. Windows Hello for BusinessYou might already be familiar with Windows Hello, the facial recognition reader that locks and unlocks your Windows 10 device by scanning the contours of your face (or other biometrics and gestures). Consumers had been able to use Windows Hello as their sole entryway into Windows 10 devices since the OS launched last year. However, business users were required to enable Microsoft Passport and Windows Hello to take advantage of the facial recognition functionality. With the update, Microsoft has combined Passport and Hello under the Windows Hello name. Users who were taking advantage of both apps shouldn't notice a difference in functionality, but news users will know the combined features as Windows Hello for Business. 5. Remote Connect to Microsoft Azure Active Directory Windows 10 has always enabled remote connections to Active Directory PCs. However, the Anniversary Update gives users the ability to connect to remote PCs that are joined to the Microsoft Azure Active Directory. If you're not sure what this means, remote connect on Active Directory allows IT to access PCs that are within a physical network. With Azure Active Directory, IT is able to remote connect to any computer that is plugged into the cloud service. This gives remote connectors much greater reach, as the connection is able to extend beyond the confines or a physical network. 6. Shared PC Mode Although this isn't exactly a new Windows 10 feature, it's new to the Enterprise user. Shared PC Mode gives IT the ability to enable access to one device for multiple users. Think of it as a Surface Pro 4 that your local Best Buy store uses to track inventory, or to research product specifications. With Shared PC Mode, any clerk working at that Best Buy location will be able to access the device, as well as his or her own private storage, and access his or her own cloud-based Microsoft apps and files. Business users will be able to control how users sign into the device, who can create an account on the device, when accounts are cached, and how the computer undergoes maintenance. 7. Easier Provisioning IT professionals will absolutely love this new feature. Rather than installing a new image for each device in order to configure end-user laptops and tablets, the Anniversary Update allows IT to specify desired configurations and settings for target devices. Essentially, IT can define a single desired configuration and then apply that configuration to multiple devices via a provisioning wizard. So, if your company hires 100 new users, rather than setting the configuration 100 times on each new device, IT can create a desired configuration and deploy it in one fell swoop across all of the new Windows 10 PCs, tablets, or smartphones. This article originally appeared on PCMag.com. A high-tech, futuristic McDonalds has opened in St. Joseph, Missouri. Franchise owner Chris Habiger described the technology integrated throughout the restaurant and its impact on jobs. When you walk into the restaurant you have interactive kiosks you can customize the burger of your dreams. Then you go over to our refill stations and you can customize your Coca-Cola with flavor shots. In our party room for kids, you can rediscover your creativity on many light board tables and interactive games. So weve really integrated technology throughout the entire experience, Habiger told the FOX Business Networks Maria Bartiromo. Habiger said the strategy was based on changing consumer tastes. I think its important that we blend the lines between quick service and fast casual. The consumer that were after, and I think consumers in general, are seeking a higher quality food in a more inviting atmosphere in their dining experience, he said. But, he said, despite potentially facing a minimum wage hike, for now the tech would not replace staff. In fact, the franchise is currently growing its headcount. I dont envision a time, anytime soon, when well replace our wonderful staff with robots. Ive never met a robot that can do what our amazing staff can do at our restaurant. So the kiosks, its kind of a misnomer, people think of the kiosks as job killers but its really just the opposite. Its really more for personalization and customization for our customers. Were hiring at our McDonalds, in fact we hired over 100 people for this particular restaurant and were continuing to hire so there are fantastic opportunities, he said. Moon Express wants to send you into outer space. During an interview on the FOX Business Networks Varney & Co., co-founder and chairman Naveen Jain outlined the companys plan to monetize the moon. To rephrase John F. Kennedy, we chose to go to the moon not because its easy but because its a good business. And what makes it a good business is that there are $16 quadrillion worth of minerals on the moon. The cost of going to the moon used to be billions of dollars, now the cost of our mission to the moon is going to be under $10 million, he explained. While the space industry is notorious for immense research and development expenses, Moon Express has managed to keep costs low. The total cost from the companys inception to the first landing on the moon is going to be under $50 million. And that means including developing everything. Going forward, the cost is going to be $10 million [per mission]. And thats what makes it a great business, he said. Moon Express just became the first private company given permission by the U.S. government to leave the Earths orbit and go to the moon, representing an immense victory for mankind. Not only is it a great business, but we can bring back Helium 3, an isotope of helium that has no radioactive activity, which means it can power this planet for generations to come. But even more importantly, the moon has water, which is hydrogen and oxygen. That means rocket fuel and a fuel for humanity. Jain says he sees humans inhabiting the moon in the near future. One day, when we settle down on the moon, we can have oxygen and rocket fuel to come back. That means now, you can start to have a real honeymoontaking your honey to the moon, he said. Oil prices are in a funk. It's been more than a yearsince the price of a barrel of crude oil broke below the magic price of $50 a barrel -- and even longer since the halcyon days when a barrel of dinosaur juice cost $100 and up. Cheap oil has blown holes in the budgets of big Middle Eastern oil producers such asSaudi Arabia, and wrecked the stock prices of many apublicly traded oil company,to boot. At the same time, however, a revival in oil prices earlier this year has helped to raise the share prices of certain stocks from the dead. Despite all the bad news in the markets in general, shares ofChevron(NYSE: CVX), for example, are up 18% over the past 52 weeks -- and one analyst believes they could go even higher. Here's what you need to know. Is a new day dawning for oil stocks like Chevron? Image source: Getty Images. 1. Oil stocks took it on the chin Despite how well Chevron stock has performed in recent months, the stock has clearly suffered from the long-running rout in oil prices. Two years ago, Chevron cost $127 a share. But priced at $101 and change today, Chevron stock remains down 20% from that price. Looked at another way, a 20% decline is still a better performance than the near-50% decline at rivalConocoPhillips(NYSE: COP), or the 38% sell-off thatRoyal Dutch Shell(NYSE: RDS-A)(NYSE: RDS-B) shares have experienced. (ExxonMobil(NYSE: XOM), on the other hand, is down only 10% from a couple years ago.) 2. The more things change, the more they stay the same All of these declines can be tied back to the relatively low cost of oil today. Low oil prices, after all, beget low oil profits for the companies that sell the oil. But as explained today in a post onStreetInsider.com, analysts at Piper Jaffray's Simmons investment banking subsidiary are forecasting a turn in the oil market that could do wonders for the stock prices of the oil majors -- and Chevron in particular. According to Simmons, "CVX does not offer the deeply discounted valuation" of some of its rivals. But what it does offer is "impressive financial resilience and dividend sustainability alongside leading operational leverage." So while Simmons admits that Chevron stock may not be as cheap as Shell, for example, the analyst argues that Chevron's "premium valuation" is nonetheless "warranted." 3. But wait! Isn't Chevron unprofitable? Yes, Chevronisunprofitable today. In fact,S&P Global Market Intelligencedata show that Chevron has incurred losses of $746 million over the past 12 months. Then again, Shell and Conoco are unprofitable, too, reporting losses of $4.8 billion and $7.1 billion for the same period, respectively (and Exxon stock sells for a rich 35 times earnings, which tells us it's notveryprofitable, either). Those numbers alone tell you that Chevron is in better financial shape than some of its rivals today. Meanwhile, Simmons insists that the key to investing profitably in the oil industry isn't to focus on a stock's profitability today, but on where the oil industry as a whole is in the oil cycle. This, argues the analyst, tells you more about the profits that a company will earn in future years. The most important thing: Where are we in the oil cycle? As luck would have it,The Wall Street Journalanswered this very question in an article that ran over the weekend. As theJournalexplained, "[C]rude prices had nearly doubled from early February to early June, with the U.S. benchmark approaching $52 a barrel before sinking by over $10 in less than two months. But there is reason to believe that the fourth time will be the charm." While oil prices touched $26 a barrel in February, theJournalthinks such low prices are "unlikely to be revisited soon," and indeed, argues that the oil market is now close to reaching "equilibrium." According to the paper, oil majors such as Chevron, Conoco, Exxon, and their peers are planning to cut a combined $100 billion from their capital spending on oil infrastructure this year. Relative to expectations set two years ago, that's 40% less investment in bringing new oil to market than previously planned. This investment, when combined with a planned 10% decline in oil production this year, suggests that in both the short term and the long term as well, the oil industry plans to invest much less in bringing oil to market, tightening oil supply to match oil demand -- and stabilizing prices. Endgame What's the result then, and what can investors expect? In theJournal'sestimation, and it seems in Simmons', too, oil prices of $50 to $70 look to mark the "equilibrium" point, and will be sustainable. If correct, that means we could see a run-up in oil prices of anywhere from 16% to 63%, and perhaps as soon as later this year. That's where we are in the cycle. And if Simmons is right, that's how close we are to a big jump in Chevron stock as well. A secret billion-dollar stock opportunity The world's biggest tech company forgot to show you something, but a few Wall Street analysts and the Fool didn't miss a beat: There's a small company that's powering their brand-new gadgets and the coming revolution in technology. And we think its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early in-the-know investors! To be one of them, just click here. Fool contributorRich Smithdoes not own shares of, nor is he short, any company named above. You can find him onMotley Fool CAPS, publicly pontificating under the handleTMFDitty, where he currently ranks No. 308 out of more than 75,000 rated members. The Motley Fool owns shares of ExxonMobil. The Motley Fool recommends Chevron. 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. Image source: Getty Images. American Express (NYSE: AXP) is a great company. It's returns on equity are best in class, and its brand is ubiquitous around the world among the most-affluent and sought-after customers. However, when it comes to dividend investing, American Express stock leaves a lot to be desired. For income investors, I think it may be time to forget American Express company. Here are three better options in the credit-card and payments business. Company Stock Ticker Dividend Yield American Express Company AXP 1.82% Discover Financial Services DFS 2.15% JPMorgan Chase JPM 3% First Republic Bank FRC 0.89%* *Yes, this is a pretty low yield. Bear with me for just a moment, and I'll explain the rest of the story. Data source: Google Finance. Discover Financial Services has a similar business model, but with more dividends The first American Express alternative is a company with a very similar business model, Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS). Like AMEX, Discover is a payment processor, managing the digital transactions between consumers and businesses anytime a Discover-branded credit card is used at check out. Like American Express, Discover provides banking services to its clients, like deposit accounts and loans. American Express has traditionally been the bigger fish in the pond compared to Discover. However, in recent years, Discover has outperformed its larger competitor in several meaningful ways. Discover's annual revenue has grown faster than American Express's over the past five- and 10-year periods, and its stock's performance has beaten AMEX's by a mile, for example. DFS data by YCharts. American Express has better returns on equity than Discover, and that fact helps contribute to Discover's slightly lower price-to-earnings ratio. However, the lower valuation also helps to drive Discover's dividend yield higher, even though both companies have comparable dividend-payout ratios. If it's the credit-card business you're after, try JPMorgan Chase Credit cards and payment services are only a slice of JPMorgan Chase's (NYSE: JPM) massive operations, but income investors with an eye toward this niche should still consider the bank and its 3% dividend yield.As of the second quarter, JPMorgan was the largest bank in the U.S. by total assets and quarterly net income. It was also the largest credit-card issuer based on loans outstanding. A credit-card issuer is the actual lender that holds the credit-card debt. That contrasts with payment processors like Visaor MasterCard, which manage the digital infrastructure that connects the credit issuers with the merchants and consumers in the transaction. Credit issuers primarily make money through interest income, while payment processors charge fees on each transaction. American Express is a hybrid of the two, acting as both payment processor and credit issuer when consumers use their AMEX cards. This megabank trades at just less than 11 times its trailing 12-month earnings, a lower multiple than each of the other U.S. megabanks (except for the beleaguered Citigroup). To me, that valuation is a bargain. Its returns on equity are well above the industry average, its balance sheet is well-capitalized, and the bank has one of the strongest records of performance in all phases of the credit cycle. On the same trailing 12-month basis, its dividend yield is more than double that of Bank of America's, and nearly four times higher than Citi's. In my view, JPMorgan is a diversified and stable financial services giant, still offers investment exposure to the credit-card and payments market, and is attractively valued at current prices. Plus, its dividend yield is significantly higher than American Express's. First Republic Bank isn't a major credit-card player, but check it out, anyway First Republic Bank (NYSE: FRC) is a niche bank, insofar as any institution with over $64 billion in total assets could be considered niche. First Republic's niche is providing financial products tailored to the needs of the nation's wealthiest individuals. The bank is based in California, but does business in a handful of select coastal cities on the East and West coasts, which are chosen because of the high concentration of wealthy and ultra-wealthy individuals who live there. By focusing on the financial elite, First Republic is able to maintain exceptional credit quality. That protects both profits and capital throughout the economic cycle because the wealthiest individuals have the capacity to continue making their loan payments even when the economy hits a speed bump. The bank's numbers show just how well the concept works. For example, the average mortgage borrower at First Republic between September of 2014 and June of 2016 had a credit score of 774, $618,000 in liquid assets, and put down an average down payment of 40%. Maintaining such high credit standards has not slowed down the bank's financials, either. Second-quarter revenue was up 17% year over year, tangible book value per share increased 13.8%, and the bank originated an all-time record $6.5 billion in new loans during the quarter. Looking longer term, the bank's enterprise value has increased at a compounded annual growth rate of 23% since the bank was founded in 1986. But the dividend only yields 0.89%. That's true of the bank's common stock. From time to time, though, First Republic will also issue preferred shares to fund its growth. There are currently seven issues of preferred shares outstanding, each with dividend yields above 5%. Preferred stock investments come with their own set of risks distinct from common stock, but in this case, I think First Republic has the stability and the track record to justify a closer look at these big preferred dividends. A secret billion-dollar stock opportunity The world's biggest tech company forgot to show you something, but a few Wall Street analysts and the Fool didn't miss a beat: There's a small company that's powering their brand-new gadgets and the coming revolution in technology. And we think its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early in-the-know investors! To be one of them, just click here. Jay Jenkins has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends MasterCard and Visa. The Motley Fool recommends American Express and Bank of America. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Image source: Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers. What: Shares of Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers (NYSE: RBA) are reversing after trending higher throughout 2016 and are dropping 11% Tuesday afternoon, after second-quarter results fell short of Wall Street expectations. So what: The company's second-quarter revenue checked in at $158.8 million, a bit short of the Thomson Reuters consensus estimate of $161 million. That filtered down to the bottom line, too, as its second-quarter earnings per share reached $0.37 but was far short of consensus estimates calling for $0.44 per share. There were multiple factors putting pressure on the company's second-quarter results. Ritchie Bros. noted that there was a sudden decline in global equipment pricing in June, throughout multiple sectors, because of an imbalance between supply and demand. That's an issue that seems to be working itself out, as management indicates that pricing appears to be stabilizing. Results were also negatively affected by increasing competitive pressure and higher operational and G&A costs. Now what: There was a bit of a silver lining for investors, though. "Nevertheless, we are encouraged by our strong July performance, with GAP [gross auction proceeds] up 8%, indications that pricing may be stabilizing, and a robust pipeline going into the rest of the year. We are also excited that more than half of our GAP in Q2 was generated online, which reinforces that our multichannel and digital strategy is gaining momentum." said CEO Ravi Saligram in a press release. That the digital strategy is gaining momentum is a good sign of things to come, with the potential for the momentum to continue throughout the remainder of 2016. Graphic source: Ritchie Bros. investor presentation. Ritchie Bros. has a long history of growing its auction business, and while the company struggled to reach estimates during the second quarter, it seems more akin to a speed bump than a derailed company. As pricing stabilizes and the company continues to focus on its digital strategy, expect better days ahead. A secret billion-dollar stock opportunity The world's biggest tech company forgot to show you something, but a few Wall Street analysts and the Fool didn't miss a beat: There's a small company that's powering their brand-new gadgets and the coming revolution in technology. And we think its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early in-the-know investors! To be one of them, just click here. Daniel Miller has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Data source: South Jersey Industries Inc. South Jersey's energy production business vastly improved: CEO Michael Renna,commenting on the company's results, said: Our second-quarter performance reflects our continuing focus on driving growth through our core business lines. Strong year-over-year growth in our utility and in our wholesale business provides the foundation for near- and longer-term performance. We also experienced marked improvement in our energy production business. After undergoing some significant changes in 2015, this area has rebounded well, delivering stronger operating performance in 2016 than in 2015, both for the second quarter and year to date. The company's energy production business has been under pressure, in part because of a bad bet on Atlantic City. In last year's second quarter, the company recorded a $10.9 million writedown from an investment in the central energy facility for the now defunct Revel Casino property in Atlantic City. It was an investment the company made as part of a joint venture to take over construction and management of the facility's power plant project in 2011. However, that bet went south when Revel closed in 2014. Looking forward South Jersey's aim in the future is to avoid risky bets like Revel. Instead, it has a strategy to achieve "growth from high-quality, repeatable, low-risk earnings streams," according to Renna. So far that strategy is working, leading the company to reaffirm its economic earnings-per-share target of between $1.29 and $1.35 for 2016. Further, it continues to progress toward its long-term goal to deliver $150 million of annual economic earnings by 2020. A secret billion-dollar stock opportunity The world's biggest tech company forgot to show you something, but a few Wall Street analysts and the Fool didn't miss a beat: There's a small company that's powering their brand-new gadgets and the coming revolution in technology. And we think its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early in-the-know investors! To be one of them, just click here Valeant Pharmaceuticals said on Tuesday it would reorganize, and stood by its full-year forecast, as it attempts to restore investor confidence after facing a storm of criticism over its business practices. The Canadian drugmaker has faced intense political and investor scrutiny in the past year for its steep drug price increases and unorthodox use of a specialty pharmacy. Valeant, which has about $30.77 billion in debt, also had to appease creditors after missing deadlines for filing financial reports, triggering default notices. "We continue to make progress towards stabilizing the organization," Chief Executive Joseph Papa, who took over from Michael Pearson in May, said in a statement. "We are also announcing a new strategic direction for Valeant today, which, at its heart has a mission to improve patients' lives, and will involve reorganizing our company and reporting segments." Valeant, which will hold a conference call at 8:00 a.m. ET, did not elaborate on its reorganization plan. Donald Trump touted lower taxes and he doubled down on renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement [NAFTA] as he unveiled his economic plan on Monday in Detroit. Despite being the partys nominee, some members of the GOP still arent on board with Trumps stance on trade. However former Nucor CEO and a Trump campaign trade advisor, Dan DiMicco, said the plan is on point during an interview on the FOX Business Network. His speech today was one that really put forward a vision for us becoming a more globally competitive country when it comes to doing business with the world, he said. And the four areas he highlightedall of them have equal importance. Taxes, trade, regulation and with respect to energy. Previously, Trump announced a four-point plan regarding trade with China, calling the country a currency manipulator. Weve been in a trade war with China for 20 years. Except, theres been an undeclared trade war where China has declared war on us and we have not responded. During that period of time our GDP has suffered, probably on average 2% less than it would have been. Weve not had the formation of 20 million jobs that wouldve happened. And the massive trade cheating has to stop, DiMicco said, adding, free trade only works if people play by the rules. The former Nucor CEO said trade is one area that is most important to Trump, especially during his bid for the White House. This is something hes passionate about and its not a Johnny come lately type of thing. During an interview on the FOX Business Networks Countdown to the Closing Bell, Gene Sperling, former National Economic Council Director, reacted to Donald Trumps economic plan. If you look at how [Trumps] tax code has been judged, almost 90% went to the top 1%. What he has doubled down on is this 15% solution. That means that not only will the biggest companies pay 15%, but everybody who has any type of pass-through income. More than half of the 400 richest people in the U.S. have pass-through income, he explained. The former top advisor to President Bill Clinton and President Obama said Trumps 15% corporate tax proposal is regressive. "Anybody who has any kind of business income, whether youre a consultant, a lobbyist, a hedge fund manager, investment banker, or corporate lawyer, you would now pay 15%, lower than most middle-income families. The largest multi-national companies that people think have paid too little would pay 15%. I dont know whether his first economic plan or his second plan will win the gold medal for which is the most regressive and most contributes to income inequality, but itll be a tight race," he said. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton is scheduled to outline her own economic policy in Detroit on Thursday. Sperling said expect her speech to touch on how to encourage jobs in the U.S. that are win-wins. "That means a major infrastructure plan, that means the largest jobs plan since WWII. Shes going to focus on manufacturing, on innovation, on small business, he said. Polygamist Kody Brown of "Sister Wives" fame have been granted more time to pursue an appeal in their case against Utah, FOX13 reports. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor granted the family until Sept. 10 to file a petition of certiorari to have the nation's top court review their case. The reality star and his wives sued Utah in 2012 over its historic ban on plural marriage. The Browns were under investigation for bigamy after their TLC reality show aired. They claim the ban on plural marriage infringes on their religious freedom and right to privacy. In April, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver said the Browns cannot sue Utah because the family never faced charges and local prosecutors later said they would not prosecute consenting adults with multiple wives. The panel's decision reverses a 2013 ruling that removed the threat of arrest for polygamous families. U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups had found that the possibility of prosecution drove the Browns out of the state and that key parts of Utah's bigamy law violated their right to privacy and religious freedom. The Supreme Court has not considered a polygamy case in more than 100 years. There are about 30,000 polygamists in Utah, according to court documents. They believe polygamy brings exaltation in heaven a legacy of the early Mormon church. The mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints abandoned the practice in 1890 and strictly prohibits it today. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Three babies at Prince Georges Hospital Center in Maryland tested positive for bacteria that could cause a potentially deadly infection after two babies died last week. The bacteria pseudomona was found in the water pipe that supplies the hospitals neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), it was reported today. No direct link has been established between the deaths and the test results, but its suspected the bacteria contributed to the premature newborns deaths, WJLA reported. According to NBC Washington, the hospital is removing nine babies from the NICU and taking them to at the University of Maryland Childrens Hospital. The hospital is not disclosing when the pseudomonas bacteria was detected or when the babies died, NBC reported. "While the investigation into the positive bacterium cultures is ongoing by qualified experts, our top immediate priority is the safe and efficient transfer of patients and providing support to our NICU families and staff," the Cheverly, Maryland, hospital said in a statement. The pipe in question is being treated and the rest of the hospital is being tested for the bacteria. Serious pseudomonas infections usually occur in people in the hospital and/or with weakened immune systems and can lead to severe illness and death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Despite an abundance of advice to use sunblock, sometimes sunburn happens. One expert, Susan Chon, associate professor of dermatology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, explains what goes on in the skin when it burns and what to look for in the medicine cabinet, and the kitchen, for relief. Risk Factors Peoples risk for sunburn varies, depending on where you fall on the Fitzpatrick Skin Type Scale, Dr. Chon says. If you have red hair, blue eyes and freckles, you are probably a skin type 1 and will almost always burn and almost never tan, she says. People with darker skin, and more pigment, may be closer to the other end of the scale, type 6, and will likely never burn. Still, Dr. Chon says she has met fair-skinned ranchers in Texas who are out in the sun all day and dont burn or show signs of precancerous cells. They just have good genes, she says. When people get too much sun, their skin is damaged by overexposure to harmful ultraviolet rays. The skin releases cells that signal the blood vessels to dilate. That leads to redness, pain and swelling, and a feeling of tightness, of the skin. Moisture will be drawn from the body. Some peoples bodies eventually produce more melanin, a naturally occurring pigment, to tan the skin in an attempt to prevent UV rays from causing further damage. So if youve gotten darker during a day at the beach, you may have already suffered a burn, Dr. Chon says. While many people associate the pinkness with a healthy glow, Dr. Chon cautions that a glow is quite the opposite. Sunburn is damage, and the long-term effects can be seen later in life with prematurely aging skin, wrinkles and even cancer, she says. Click for more from the Wall Street Journal. A Missouri woman who recently gave birth is hitting back at a stranger who shamed her for showing stretch marks at her local swimming pool. Fox4News.com reported that in early August, Lexi Sinclair, of Kansas City, went to the pool wearing a bikini with her 4-month-old son Christian in tow. In a Facebook post thats going viral, Sinclair explains a seemingly friendly encounter with an unnamed woman in her 50s that quickly turned sour. At first, the woman asked about Christians weight, sleeping habits and age, Sinclair wrote in the Aug. 2 post. But next, her comments shifted toward Sinclairs own biology. She then proceeded to tell me that the men at the pool would feel more comfortable if I was in a one-piece swimsuit because a bikini isn't appropriate for a mother, especially one who's still recovering, Sinclair wrote in the post, which she marked with a feeling proud expression on the social media site. Anyone who knows me knows I had a few words ... she continued in the post. But instead I just smiled, kissed my son and told her, I'm proud of my body. In just one year I've gained 50 pounds, and lost 37. I've grown a human and given birth to a beautiful miracle. My body provided food for my child. So, no, my body might not be the best sight for other men to see. My stretch marks and tummy pudge might not be sexy. But they're proof that I've done something amazing, and I have a man that loves me and finds me even sexier and more beautiful now. As of Tuesday morning, Sinclars message, which includes a photo of her and Christian, had garnered support from more than 24,000 people who have expressed their support by sharing the new moms post. President Barack Obama on Thursday said it was time for Congress to lay aside politics and to act to provide additional money to combat the Zika virus before government funding dries up. "Our experts at the CDC, the folks on the front lines have been doing their best in making due by moving funds from other areas, but now the money we need to fight Zika is rapidly running out," Obama said at a press conference at the Pentagon. He warned that development of a vaccine for the virus could be delayed if Congress does not provide any more money and urged Americans to contact lawmakers to pressure them to take up the issue. Concern over the threat from Zika, which can cause a birth defect called microcephaly marked by small head size that can lead to severe developmental problems in babies, has risen since Florida authorities last week detected the first signs of local transmission in the continental United States. Zika funding remains stalled six months after Obama asked the Republican-led Congress to approve $1.9 billion in emergency funds. Forty-one Democratic U.S. senators on Thursday sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan urging them to summon lawmakers back from their summer recess to vote on emergency funding to fight the virus. But, Ryan accused Democrats of obstructing the funding and said the Obama administration has failed to spend existing funds to prevent the spread of the mosquito-borne virus. Congress has interrupted its own recesses at least eight times since 1998, most recently in 2013 when lawmakers returned early to debate the use of military force in Syria, according to congressional records. The latest round of finger-pointing indicated there was little chance lawmakers would cut short their seven-week summer break to vote on Zika funding. A $1.1 billion compromise failed after House Republicans attached language that would place restrictions on abortion and defund part of Obama's signature 2010 healthcare law. Senate Democrats, who blocked the measure twice before Congress left Washington last month, want Republicans to agree on a new funding measure that drops those provisions, a step Republicans reject. "We need the White House and Senate Democrats to drop politics and put the public's health first. We hope for a change of heart, and soon," Ryan wrote in an opinion piece in the USA Today newspaper. McConnell spokesman Don Stewart invited Democrats to allow the current bill to pass by unanimous consent at a perfunctory session on Friday. The parents of two Americans killed in the 2012 terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya, filed a lawsuit against Hillary Clinton claiming, among other things, wrongful death and defamation. From a purely legal standpoint, a roll of toilet paper has more value. No one doubts the heartache these parents have endured. And no one should question the valor of their sons who lost their lives. However, this lawsuit is so groundless and specious that it threatens to diminish our memory of them. The plaintiffs claim that Clintons extremely careless handling of confidential and classified government information on her private email server caused the deaths of Tyrone Woods and Sean Smith. Clinton was surely careless. Indeed, her conduct was probably criminal, notwithstanding FBI Director James Comeys tortured logic in not recommending prosecution. But the plaintiffs in this civil lawsuit cannot possibly prove that Clintons emails were the proximate cause of the Benghazi attack. Not a chance. First, the plaintiffs would have to establish that Clinton authored an email giving the specific time, date, location and other information on the whereabouts of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and others on Sept. 11, 2012. So far, it doesnt exist. There is no evidence of it. Second, theyd have to demonstrate that someone hacked Clintons server and gave the supposed email to the terrorists. Or, in the alternative, the terrorists did the hacking all by themselves. Again, there is no evidence of that. Yes, Comey said it is possible Clintons server was hacked successfully. But there is no proof it ever happened. How do you prove that? In all likelihood, the plaintiffs cannot. Third, theyd have to show the supposedly hacked email caused the terrorists to launch their deadly attack. Absent a terrorist willing to testify or some other documentary evidence substantiating the causal connection, it cannot be done. It is inherently unprovable. The U.S. doesnt even know who most of the terrorists are. Good luck getting them to come to Washington D.C. to testify in federal court. Thus, the wrongful death cause of action is legally fallacious. Pure fiction. Defamation, by either slander or libel, is a false statement that damages someones good name and reputation. It is extremely difficult to prove. The parents claim that Clinton told them a lie that an anti-Muslim video caused the terror attack. Then, when Clinton later denied saying it, she was implying that the parents were, themselves, lying. Hence, the defamation. As legal claims go, this one is thin. Razor thin. Clinton insists she never told the parents that a video was to blame for the attack. She says other parents overheard the conversation and corroborate her claim. If so, then Clinton, who has a history of telling whoppers when it comes to her email server, may actually be telling the truth. And truth is a complete defense to defamation. But whatever explanation Clinton offered the parents for the cause of the attack, it was likely her opinion. And opinion is protected speech in a defamation case. Game over. Moreover, Clinton never said the plaintiffs lied. One of the allegedly defamatory statements cited in the lawsuit is an interview in which a questioner asked, Somebody is lying. Who is it? Clinton responded by saying, Not me. Thats all I can tell you. Well, thats not defamation. Not by a long shot. A plaintiff must do more than simply imply a falsehood. Finally, if the parents are considered public figures by virtue of their numerous television appearances, they will have a nearly insurmountable burden of proving that Clinton acted with whats called malice. That is, she knew her statements were false or acted with reckless disregard for the truth. In a case like this, how can that be proved? It cant. Therefore, the defamation cause of action is really quite delusional. It will never survive the most basic courtroom challenge. Most of the allegations of wrongdoing happened while Clinton was serving as Secretary of State. As such, she is entitled to qualified immunity. It is an affirmative defense which shields government officials from damages for civil liability, unless their actions are found to violate an individuals federal constitutional rights. It appears that Clinton was acting in the course and scope of her official duties, so it will be nearly impossible for the plaintiffs to pierce the broad immunity protection. There are other claims for damages in the lawsuit, but they are equally implausible. For example, the parents are suing for negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress. In law school, students are taught that, if all else fails, sue for emotional distress. The trouble is, judges went to law school, too. Most of them view it as an act of desperation in a feeble or sham lawsuit. In this case, it is worse than weak. All the emotional distress claims are tied directly to Clintons emails. And, again, the plaintiffs cant prove that Clintons server was hacked and that terrorists got their hands on her emails which then prompted their attacks. Whatever federal judge is assigned this case will not be oblivious to who filed it. Larry Klayman is the plaintiffs lawyer. A political conservative and known Clinton nemesis, he filed more than a dozen cases against the administration of President Bill Clinton and is the definition of litigious. His Wikipedia page makes for interesting reading. Check it out. Two federal judges have banned him from their courtrooms for life. He even sued his own mother. The parents who agreed to be represented by Klayman have done themselves no favors. His role as their attorney will raise an immediate red flag to the judge that this case is, in all likelihood, politically motivated. Never a good thing. Expect the defense to file a motion to dismiss. Expect it to be granted. If the plaintiffs are lucky, theyll simply walk away with nothing. If they are unlucky, theyll get hit with sanctions for bringing a frivolous lawsuit. The candidate challenging ousted Democratic National Committee boss Debbie Wasserman Schultz for her Florida House seat in this months party primary is filing a federal complaint claiming the congresswoman illegally utilized DNC resources to undermine his campaign. Democrat Tim Canovas campaign says it is basing its claim largely on the leaked DNC emails that showed group staffers attempted to undermine Sen. Bernie Sanders presidential run. Those emails resulted in Wasserman Schultz resigning as DNC chairwoman before the partys convention last month. The complaint to the Federal Election Commission appears to reference other emails concerning Canova. The emails establish that on numerous occasions the DNC, under Wasserman Schultz's direction and control, used its resources to track my campaign, interfere with my campaign events and to assist the Wasserman Schultz campaign in her personal communications strategy, Canova said in the complaint. The complaint in part states that Wasserman Schultz had a legal obligation to institute a firewall between her campaign and the DNC but instead used her position with the DNC and the resources of the DNC to improperly benefit her congressional campaign, according to the campaign. Sanders, who long accused Wasserman Schultz of rigging the election for front-runner Hillary Clinton in part through the debate schedule, in May endorsed Canova. The primary, in which Canova will try to keep Wasserman Schultz from winning a seventh term in Floridas 23 congressional District, is Aug. 30. The Canova campaign did not respond Monday to a request for specific emails to substantiate its complaint. However, a review of the roughly 19,000 emails shows Canovas name appeared in 80 of them. The name of Ryan Banfill -- whose LinkedIn page shows he works for Debbie Wasserman Schultz for Congress and Democratic National Committee -- appeared in roughly 1,050 of them. Neither the DNC nor the Wasserman Schultz campaign returned a request Monday for comment. Many of the emails related to Canova are found in the DNCs daily gathering of news stories. However, at least 15 relate to his request for access to Democratic state party voter files under the subject line Urgent Question. Canova apparently was granted access and alleged Wasserman Schultz attempted to block his effort. Other emails address how Wasserman Schultz should handle Sanders endorsement of Canova. In another, Alaska Democratic Party Executive Director Kay Brown discussed a Canova speech being delayed. When contacted Monday by FoxNews.com about the exchange, Brown said, Ill call you back, then hung up the phone. A May 22 email flags Sanders effort to share fundraising money with Canova. Not cool, wrote Kaplanj@dnc.org, identified as DNC National Finance Director Jordan Kaplan. For months, Debbie Wasserman Schultz pretended to be unaware and unconcerned about my campaign, Canova wrote. But as we grew, the emails show she was quite concerned. She should have spent less time attacking my campaign with DNC resources and more time representing the actual people of my district. House Speaker Paul Ryan is the clear favorite to win his Wisconsin primary race on Tuesday, but regardless of the outcome the unexpectedly competitive contest serves as a stark reminder of voter concerns about his performance as leader of the GOP-controlled House. Challenger and conservative businessman Paul Nehlen has taken the same populist message that Donald Trump used to win the Republican presidential nomination to challenge Ryan in his district. Several months ago, polls had Ryan leading by as much as 80 percentage points. Polls still indicate a blowout victory sending Ryan to a 10th term -- barring an Eric Cantor-style, poll-defying upset loss -- but Nehlen has closed the margin somewhat, and at the very least drawn national attention to a once-overlooked contest. Further, that attention has put the spotlight on the criticism Ryan continues to face on Capitol Hill, months after being elected speaker last October. Nehlen -- who has campaigned across the states 1st Congressional District in a yellow dump truck that reads Dump Paul Ryan -- has largely focused on Ryans tentative support for the Obama administrations Trans Pacific Partnership, which critics argue will send more heartland manufacturing jobs overseas. Win or lose, this is a win because weve cut the head off the globalist snake, Nehlen spokesman Noel Fritsch told FoxNews.com on Tuesday, arguing that Ryan has substantially backed off his support for TPP in recent days. Fritsch several days ago dismissed the most recent poll -- by Remington Research Group in which Ryan was up by 66 points -- as a farce. The Ryan campaign has argued essentially every poll has its candidate with a big, double-digit lead and on Tuesday predicted victory. Ryan also recently received Trump's endorsement -- though the Republican presidential nominee initially withheld it. Nehlen has said that delay sends a clear signal to Wisconsin voters that Ryan is not his preferred candidate in this race. The race has attracted national attention in large part because of the cautionary tale of the 2014 GOP primary in which House Majority Leader Eric Cantor was upset by Tea Party-backed candidate David Brat. Polling showed Brat trailing by about 30 percentage points on that day, but he won. In an interview last week with WND/Radio America, Brat said Ryan is much more attentive than Cantor to his district and its voters, but, It looks like there is going to be a race there. Brat said he ran almost exclusively on the illegal immigration issue, which House leadership has yet to resolve and that has now morphed into the refugee crisis. And he argued that Ryan and his team are not responsive to debt and deficit issues. Leadership is under a challenge right now from the American people, Brat said. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott made his first public appearance since being hospitalized last month with severe burns. Abbott attended the groundbreaking Monday afternoon of a nearly $900 million new harbor bridge in Corpus Christi. The project will eventually replace the aging hat-shaped bridge that's a signature landmark of the coastal city. Abbott didn't refer to the extensive second- and third-degree burns he incurred on his lower legs and feet after being scalded July 7 while vacationing in Wyoming. His office won't say exactly how he was burned. Abbott missed the Republican National Convention and underwent treatment at San Antonio's Brooke Army Medical Center. He was scalded the same day a sniper killed five Dallas police officers. Abbott held a news conference the next day but didn't disclose at the time he was injured. DENVER Violent altercations in prisons can be dangerous for inmates and prison staff alike. Now, a new small study suggests that showing nature documentaries to inmates may help to ease aggression in prisons. The study took place in the Snake River Correctional Institution in Oregon, in a maximum-security unit housing 48 inmates. Over a year in which half of the inmates had an opportunity to watch nature videos projected in a recreation yard, those who saw the videos were involved in 26 percent fewer violent infractions than those who didn't. "This is equivalent to 13 fewer violent incidents over the year," study researcher Patricia Hasbach, a clinical psychotherapist in a private practice, said at a presentation on Friday at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association. [Nature Photography: 101 Animal Shots You'll Go Wild Over] Introducing nature The reduction is important, Hasbach said, as most violent altercations end in injury for either inmates or staff. The researchers conducted their study in a cellblock that had two recreation yards one for one side of cells, and one for another. The inmates on both sides were similar to each other (regarding demographics and time on the cell block, for instance), and the recreation yards were overseen by the same officers. This enabled the researchers to vary only whether the inmates had access to nature videos. The videos showed everything from oceans to African savannas. Surveys revealed that 80 percent of the inmates who saw the videos said they felt calmer after viewing them, Hasbach reported. Seventy percent said they remembered the nature videos later, in times of stress, and were able to calm themselves down. The researchers could find no downsides of the videos everyone surveyed disagreed, for example, that the videos made them more agitated. In in-depth interviews, inmates spoke of the benefits of the nature imagery. "I thought about what I would do if I could," one inmate told researchers of his time watching the videos. "I wonder if there were bears in those mountains. I wonder what I'll do when I'm out of here. I tell my kids we're going camping" Nature therapy The precise type of imagery didn't seem to matter, as long as it was varied. "Nothing in particular," one inmate said when asked his preferences. "Something other than four walls." The researchers didn't test whether other types of videos would have had similar effects, Hasbach said, but previous research in health care settings has found nature videos to be more mentally beneficial than other content, such as daytime television, urban scenes and abstract art. Other psychological research has found that nature-based activities improve function in kids with attention deficit disorder and that outdoor activities boost self-esteem. Just the color green may boost mood and motivation during exercise. Prison officials are now transferring the nature videos to other parts of the facility, Hasbach said, and a lower-security women's prison in Oregon is also starting the same program. Prisons in six other states have contacted the researchers for information on how to institute similar video programs in their own correctional facilities, she said. Original article on Live Science. Copyright 2016 LiveScience, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. A rare sight was recently captured by scientists aboard a deep-sea exploration vessel: the skeleton of a fallen whale. Researchers say these bony remains provide a feast of nutrients for sea creatures, including bone-eating "zombie worms." Newly released video footage from the Exploration Vessel Nautilus shows the whale bones on the seafloor, in what researchers term a natural "whale fall." "Coming across a natural whale fall is pretty uncommon," a Nautilus researcher said in the video. "Most of the ones that have been studied have been sunk intentionally at a certain spot." [Extreme Life on Earth: 8 Bizarre Creatures] The ecological impacts of a whale fall are far-reaching. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), whale carcasses provide a "sudden, concentrated food source and a bonanza for organisms in the deep sea." Scavengers arrive on the scene first, consuming the soft tissue over the course of a few months, and the remaining detritus can enrich the ocean floor sediment for more than a year, NOAA said. The whale skeleton itself is also a rich supplier of resources particularly for a type of parasitic creature often referred to as zombie worms (Osedax roseus) because they feast on the dead. "They burrow down into the bone and digest the lipids," a Nautlius researcher said in the video. According to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, the species was discovered feasting on a rotting gray whale carcass in 2002. In what could be considered an evolutionary hack to avoid searching for a mate, only female worms perform the necessary drilling to get to the fat within the bones. "The males live inside the females sometimes 100 males to one female," Nautilus researchers said. Skeletons from whale falls also serve as a hard substrate for invertebrate colonization. "It almost looks like a type of anemone," the Nautlius researchers said, while observing a mysterious white orb on the whale's jawbone. Upon further inspection, though, the scientists said the orb was likely a coral making use of the surface. Based on the shape of the whale jaw, the researchers speculated it was a baleen species, and could have been a juvenile, based on its relatively small size. The new footage offers insights into the fate of a peculiar object that was spotted recently by an Australian fisherman. The strange, floating object turned out to be a bloated whale carcass, which scientists say will eventually result in a whale fall after it deflates and sinks to the seafloor. The Exploration Vessel Nautilus, a 210-foot-long (64 meters) research vessel operated by the Ocean Exploration Trust, is investigating the Southern California continental margin from July 24 to Aug. 12. Original article on Live Science. Copyright 2016 LiveScience, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Some of the U.S. soldiers killed in a sneak attack at the governor's office in the Shiite holy city of Karbala last week may not have died on the scene and may have been briefly abducted before being killed, U.S. officials said Friday. U.S. officials speaking on the condition of anonymity said the bodies of four of the five soldiers killed in the attack had been found as many as 20 miles away from the scene. The brazen assault, 50 miles south of Baghdad on Jan. 20, was conducted by nine to 12 militants posing as an American security team. They traveled in black GMC Suburban vehicles the type used by U.S. government convoys had American weapons, wore new U.S. military combat fatigues and spoke English. The raid, as explained by Iraqi and American officials, began after nightfall at about 6 p.m. on Jan. 20, while American military officers were meeting with their Iraqi counterparts on the main floor of the Provisional Joint Coordination Center (PJCC) in Karbala. The first U.S. military statement on the raid, which reported five soldiers killed and three wounded, said, "the PJCC is a coordination center where local Iraqi officials, Iraqi security forces and coalition forces stationed within the center meet to address the security needs of the population." Iraqi officials said the approaching convoy of black GMC Suburbans was waved through an Iraqi checkpoint at the edge of Karbala. The Iraqi soldiers believed it to be American because of the type of vehicles, the distinctive camouflage American uniforms and the fact that they spoke English. One Iraqi official said the leader of the assault team was blond, but no other official confirmed that. A top Iraqi security official for Karbala province told the AP that the Iraqi guards at the checkpoint radioed ahead to their compatriots at the PJCC to alert them that the convoy was on its way. Iraqi officials said the attackers' convoy divided upon arrival, with some vehicles parking at the back of the main building where the meeting was taking place, others parked in front. The U.S. military in Baghdad received a first report of the attack about 6:15 p.m., the senior U.S. military officials said. The attackers threw a grenade and opened fire with automatic rifles as they grabbed two soldiers inside the compound. Then the guerrilla assault team jumped on top of an armored U.S. Humvee and captured two more soldiers, the U.S. military officials said. One U.S. soldier was killed in the melee at the compound, and three were wounded. The attackers fled with the four and the computer and headed east toward Mahwil, in neighboring Babil province, about 25 miles away, the U.S. military officials said. Iraqi officials said the U.S. military found the four U.S. soldiers in the Suburbans near Bu-Alwan, a village near Mahawil. U.S. officials in Iraq, who had seen incident reports of the assault, said the documents indicated two of the soldiers were found in one of the Suburbans at one location and two others in a second Suburban elsewhere. The exact locations were not specified, they said. Both sides agreed that when found three soldiers were dead and one was wounded and died as U.S. troops rushed the service member away for treatment. Three days after the attack, the U.S. military in Baghdad announced the arrest of four suspects in the attack and said they had been detained on a tip from a Karbala resident. No further information was released about the suspects. The Associated Press and FOX News' Nick Simeone contributed to this report. Security researchers have identified a complex malware dubbed ProjectSauron that hid, undetected, within a number of organizations for five years. Cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab described ProjectSauron as an extremely sophisticated platform for cyber-espionage Monday. The malware, it added, is designed to conduct long-term campaigns through stealthy survival mechanisms. The spying malwares name refers to Sauron, the all-seeing antagonist in J.R.R Tolkiens The Lord of the Rings. The actor behind ProjectSauron has a high interest in communication encryption software widely used by targeted governmental organizations, Kaspersky Lab noted. It steals encryption keys, configuration files, and IP addresses of the key infrastructure servers related to the encryption software. The malware is even capable of stealing data from computers that are not connected to the internet, harnessing USB drives that store stolen data in an area invisible to the computers operating system. Also known as Strider, ProjectSauron was identified by Kaspersky Lab in September 2015. The malware was operational as early as June 2011 and remained active until April 2016, according to the security company, although may still affect some computer systems. Kaspersky Lab found more than 30 organizations infected by the malware in Russia, Iran, Rwanda and possibly Italy. Many more organizations and geographies are likely to be affected, it added. Government, scientific research, military and financial organizations have been attacked, as well as telecommunication providers. Kaspersky Lab says that it worked with industry partners and law enforcement agencies to notify the victims. In a blog post Sunday, security company Symantec said it has identified attacks in Russia, China, Sweden, and Belgium, citing evidence of infections in 36 computers across seven separate organizations. The groups targets include a number of organizations and individuals located in Russia, an airline in China, an organization in Sweden, and an embassy in Belgium, it explained. Symantec reports that the malware used to conduct spying attacks contains a reference to Sauron. It opens a back door on an infected computer, can log keystrokes, and steal files, Symantec said. As hackers develop ever more sophisticated technologies, cybersecurity presents a constant challenge for governments, businesses, and users. Earlier this week, for example, tech security firm Check Point identified vulnerabilities affecting 900 million Android smartphones and tablets that use chipsets from component maker Qualcomm. Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers Thousands of Delta Air Lines passengers were stuck in airports around the world trying to get out on flights Monday, after a power outage crippled the airline's global computer systems for hours. Delta canceled more than 650 flights by the early evening. More than 2,000 were delayed, representing about one third of the airline's entire schedule. In Richmond, Virginia, boarding passes were written out by hand. In Tokyo, a dot-matrix printer was resurrected to keep track of passengers on a flight to Shanghai. In New York, self service check-in kiosks were dark. The company said travelers would be entitled to a refund for cancellations or serious delays. Travelers on some routes can also change their tickets free of charge. "We apologize to customers who are affected by this issue, and our teams are working to resolve the problem as quickly as possible," the company said in a statement. It noted that flight status systems, including airport screens, were incorrectly showing flights on time, something the company was trying to address. Many passengers, like Bryan Kopsick, 20, from Richmond, were shocked that computer glitches could cause such turmoil. "It does feel like the old days," Kopsick said. "Maybe they will let us smoke on the plane, and give us five-star meals in-flight too!" Early confirmation of the troubles first came in an official account that responds to customers via Twitter. The company had said its IT systems were down "everywhere." The Atlanta-based carrier said the outage began at around 2:30 a.m. Eastern. Delta lifted its ground stop shortly after 8:30 a.m. Eastern but warned that travelers could expect significant delays and more cancellations. Flights in the air at the time of the outage were operating normally. "Passengers become increasingly reliant on their ability to check in online (and) check their flight status," said Daniel Baker, CEO of tracking service FlightAware.com. "Not only are their flights delayed, but in the case of Delta the website and other places are all saying that the flights are on time because the airline has been so crippled from a technical standpoint." People all over the world were affected. Stephen Smith, 32, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, had been stuck on the ground for hours at Tokyo's Narita Airport on a flight that was supposed to go to Shanghai. Smith took solace in the fact the air conditioning on the plane was working and said it seemed everyone on board was fine. "Waiting game at this point," he tweeted to The Associated Press. Computer outages are a periodic plague for airlines. Last month, Southwest Airlines canceled more than 2,000 flights over several days after an outage that it blamed on a faulty network router. Unions called for the airline to replace the CEO, but the board gave him a vote of confidence. United has suffered a series of notorious delays since it merged with Continental as the technological systems of the two airlines clashed. Lines for British Airways at some airports have grown longer as the carrier updates its systems. The Associated Press contributed to this report. In one of the most romantic gestures imaginable, an Austrian man proposed to his long-time girlfriend on a flight to Greece. In addition, the couple then went through the actual wedding ceremony during the journey as well. According to ABCNews.com, groom Jurgen Bogner reached out to Austrian Airlines to organize not only the proposal on the couples flight to Athens, Greece, but also the entire wedding ceremony as well. Bogners now-wife, Nathaly Eiche, was completely stunned by the proposal and the ceremony, which included an engagement ring, wedding gown, bridal bouquet, wedding bands, a violinist and an official to perform the actual marriage. Eiche believed she was heading on a simple vacation with her boyfriend, but she soon realized what was happening when Bogner proposed. While that would have been enough for most couples, Bogner revealed that both of their families were also on the flight and ready for the actual wedding ceremony. More from TravelPulse 5 Things to See in Tonga (Besides That Shirtless Flagbearer) Why You Should Never Grab Your Bags During An Airplane Evacuation Skiing In Argentina? Yup, Skiing in Argentina The Flight Ahead: Surviving Long Haul Flights Comfortably Experience Pokemon Go Like Never Before at These 4 Hotels As in many traditional wedding ceremonies, Eiche was able to walk down the aisle of the plane with her father. Due to the restricted space, her father walked behind the bride instead of next to her and took care of her dress. Photos of the ceremony and inflight reception were shared online: In addition to the celebration, the unknowing passengers onboard the flight also received party favors and shared champagne with the newly married couple. After the ceremony was over, Bogner and Eiche were also able to meet the captain and first officer. Business intelligence is no longer a luxury that only big organizations can afford. The need for BI-driven insights might be more pronounced in companies that deal with large amounts of information, nowadays, even SMEs and entrepreneurs need to make data-driven decisions. BI is all about turning data into insightful and actionable information. This includes information that can be used to improve sales, eliminate wasteful processes, and identify opportunities for growing your company. In other words, it is essential for making business decisions that are based on solid facts. However, a lot of small enterprises are hesitant to implement BI, due to worries about cost and effort. Thanks to some major tech advances in recent years, these assumptions are now false. Nowadays, powerful BI is accessible to everyone. Analysis platform costs have come down, data is increasingly stored in the cloud, implementations are faster, computers can now teach themselves and interfaces are so easy to navigate that the non-analysts among us can find their own correlations and trends. Here are four challenges associated with BI operations and some advice for contending with them. 1. Business intelligence is expensive. The price of deploying BI is a primary concern among SMEs. In addition to the cost of acquiring the right software, looking for qualified individuals such as data science experts, IT infrastructure professionals and consulting analysts may sound terrifying to a cash-strapped company. Related: 3 Enterprise Business Intelligence Trends That Can Benefit Your Business This is no longer the case with the rise of self-service BI (SSBI) platforms. Today, some platforms make SSBI accessible to small businesses without requiring anyone to shell out major cash for deployment. For a small business, you should also opt for BI vendors that offer scalable solutions with minimal TCO. To save time in locating a BI plan that fits your business, there are also products such as Sisense that provide flexible BI solutions to businesses of all sizes. Sisense can manage a combination of structured and unstructured sets of data, which you can parse and analyze without the need for complex coding. Which brings us to the next point. 2. Business intelligence requires extensive training. Another factor that has made SMEs turn away from BI is the perceived need for extensive training. In the past, an individuals competence with BI was measured through certifications and hands-on experience with data analysis. This, in turn, has called for additional training in data management applications. SSBI, on the other hand, delivers insightful and actionable information without needing data scientists to collect, prepare and analyze complex data and process it into reports that management can understand. In fact, analysis has become so efficient that even large providers are pushing SSBI, such as Microsoft with its Power BI platform. Related: Look for These 5 Business Intelligence Tool Attributes to Effectively Drill Into Big Data With SSBI services, you can streamline all the critical processes within a single platform from compiling data to presenting visual reports. A great SSBI platform usually has an organized and intuitive interface that doesn't require the user to become experts with specialized query languages like SQL. Perhaps the only training you need is getting familiar with the visual interface after you choose the right BI platform. This should not be a problem, since better agile BI platforms offer an extremely usable, point-and-click interface. You can also refer to online guides and video tutorials available on YouTube or your BI platform's website resources. 3. Business intelligence is time consuming. This may be true for the traditional implementation of business intelligence. In the stone ages of 2010, implementing a BI solution required the deployment of dedicated hardware and customization of specialized software. Add to that the time invested in personnel training, and these preparations used to take weeks -- if not months -- to complete. However, consider this. What can be done by an entire IT department can now be done in a single office PC in less time. By eliminating the need to install additional software and hardware, you can have a BI tool up and running within minutes. This is what you can do with an SSBI platform. Apart from rapid deployment, you can also save time by eliminating the need for IT experts to compile data and generate reports. Bear in mind that one of the biggest challenges of traditional BI is the overwhelming growth of data and their sources. Related: What Self-Service Business Intelligence Is and How to Use It This is where a simplified platform becomes useful. With a seamless and intuitive interface, you can quickly pull data from virtually unlimited sources and generate visual reports with a few clicks. There are even open-source solutions like those developed on top of Apache Hadoop that can handle this for you. 4. BI requires a huge infrastructure investment. In the past, expensive enterprise BI solutions required huge hardware resources. In addition to bloating the price of deployment, these data warehouses and processors also increased the time needed for setting up. However, with modern solutions, you can start implementing BI either with the hardware you already have or by running on virtualized infrastructure in the cloud. The fact is that most SSBI platforms can efficiently employ the hardware resources of an office PC for all data processes. For example, Sisense's in-chip technology leverages the CPU memory to speed up the processing of data by up to 100 times. You no longer need to purchase a SQL server or any additional hardware to start using BI to empower your decision-making. Remember that modern BI is all about simplicity and efficiency. With the arrival of self-service platforms, even SMEs and startups now have access to actionable and fast business intelligence, despite lacking the buying power of larger corporations. SSBI likewise helps overcome the biggest challenges of enterprise BI -- from data preparation all the way to visualization. Every once in a while, a great innovator comes along with an idea so revolutionary, it not only disrupts an industry, it changes the world: how we get places, how we meet people, and in the case of entrepreneur showman Jeff Beacher, how we get drunk. At our performances, we have midgets dressed like Oompa-Loompas who are attached to ziplines -- they fly around dropping bottles of booze on tables, he says. Welcome to Beacher's Madhouse, a vaudeville cabaret show where flying vodka-laden Oompa-Loompas are probably the sanest thing you will see. On any given night over the past decade, audience members have seen acts like the worlds oldest stripper shaking what her mama gave her, followed by Mini Kim Kardashian and Mini Kanye West " giving birth" onstage to a tiny bundle of joy, Mini Amanda Bynes. And laughing their asses off one table over are some of the biggest stars on the planet. Beacher built his madhouse as an outlet for his creativity and, really, just a way to have some fun. After I graduated high school, I went to community college for about a month before I dropped out. School wasnt for me," he tells Entrepreneur. "I was a guy with a high EQ and not the highest IQ. Some people are really good actors and actresses, some are really good accountants. I just happen to be the best in the world at marketing. I just knew it as an instinct. Im just wired that way. It is something that I love. Related: 10 Instagram Branding Lessons From Mexican Drug Lords Over the years, his Madhouse has enjoyed residences in The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, at The Hard Rock and MGM casinos in Vegas and has toured the country bringing its unique brand of insanity to a theater near you. As you might imagine, the journey of this weird and wonderful show has been bumpier than, well, the journey of a little person ziplining around a nightclub. After a run at the MGM that Beacher says nearly killed him, he pressed pause on the crazy machine to take some time to regain his health and his sanity. This September, after over a year-long break, the show is returning to the Hollywood Roosevelt, promising to be bigger and more bizarre than ever. With less than a month to go before the curtain rises, Entrepreneur spoke with the master of the Madhouse about its colorful history and its freaky future. In the beginning "I started the show based on the fact that I never went to college. I felt like I missed out -- I never had the frat house parties. So I created this party where you could sit at a table, have drinks and have a really crazy experience. It started on Broadway. We had one midget and some dancers and we did a lot of audience interaction. What I didnt realize was that I created what everyone calls 'experiential.' I started engaging the audience in everything that was going on." Related: 18 Movies Every Entrepreneur Should Watch Famous faces in the crowd "Weve had nights with 40 celebrities in the audience in a room that holds 150 people. Theres a lot of networking and follow through to make that happen. But in the end, you have to have a really good product or else no one is going to want to come see it." Famous faces on the stage (in miniature form) "Whenever we do a Mini Katy or Mini Miley, the real stars love it. When Kim Tripp, who played Mini Kim Kardashian, passed away a couple of months ago, the real Kim Kardashian tweeted a really sweet message for her." The (Mini) Kiss off "The only time I got a legal letter is when we had Tiny Kiss, a midget band who dressed like Kiss. I got a letter from Kisss attorney and I called him back myself and told him Im not backing down. A week later, I get another call: 'Hey, this is Gene Simmons.' I said sure it is, and hung up. And he called back and said, 'No, this is really Gene Simmons.' And I recognized the voice and it was really him. I was like, 'Oh shit.' He said, 'I heard youve been spoofing Kiss,' and I was like, 'Yeah, but it is all in good fun.' And he said, 'Is it cool if I come down to the Hard Rock to see it?' So he came down and got on stage and played with them, so it was awesome. It turned into a great relationship and were still friends to this day." Related: KISS Co-Founder Gene Simmons Says To Be Successful, Think 'Me' First Wiring of a madman "I was adopted, which I think had a lot to do with the way I am wired. My parents died when I was very young, which I didnt realize at the time gave me insecurity and abandonment issues. I was adopted by an amazing family, and that made me always want to be the best. I wanted to prove to my father that hey, you made the best decision in adopting me." The price of success "I became so obsessed with succeeding, with being the coolest person in the room and having the coolest room packed with models and celebrities that I stopped taking care of myself. By 2014, I was 410 pounds. We had a $100 million, 20-year deal with the MGM to open a theater there, but my life was going in the wrong direction. On the outside, it was great -- we were selling out every night. But on the inside, I was an absolute complete disaster. Emotionally, mentally, spiritually, physically. So I had to make a change." Related: 7 Funny Quotes with Serious Leadership Lessons Get it together "I focused on getting my mind and body clear. And I did that. Between 2014 and 2015, I lost 215 pounds. Two of my best friends, Larry Rudolph, who manages Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears and Steven Tyler, and his fiancee Jennifer Barnet, who owns XCYCLE, sat me down and got me on an exercise program. One thing Ive been proud of my entire life is that I dont do drugs. But the problem was that I thought, well if Im not doing drugs, Im healthy! It's OK to eat or gamble, not realizing that those were my drugs. It was just filling voids. "I made the decision to leave the MGM and went back to L.A. to be happier and healthier. We had a huge financial deal with MGM, but I needed to get out of the Vegas environment. How did people react? Any time you have an idea, there are four people that tell you it is a great idea, four people who tell you thats the worst idea ever and two people who dont care. But I did it and a year and a half later, Im in the best physical, emotional and financial shape Ive ever been in." The future "My original goal was that I wanted to have 30 theaters around the world, to have Beachers in every major city. I was obsessed with the live experience and didnt want to put anything online because people are always copying us. But I realize now that that online is how we can be in every home in America. When we re-open, well also be launching an online portal, a cross of Maxim meets Ripleys Believe It or Not. There will be gorgeous girls, celebrity content, interviews, a three-headed turtle, the worlds tallest man -- all the craziest oddities in the world from our show. We were stuck in the $7 to $10 million revenue mark for years under the old model. Now I believe with touring, online content, branding and merchandising, were putting ourselves in the direction of a billion-dollar company." The show must go on "I want to leave something behind that lasts, I want to do something that can live on when Im gone, similar to Walt Disney. I was a very angry person back in the day, and Ive learned that a more nurturing, loving environment will bring out the best in people around you. The people around you are the most important asset in your business. You need to make sure that theyre good people who have your best interest at heart and you need to take care of them as well." President Beacher? "P.T. Barnum is a huge inspiration to me. A lot of people say Donald Trump is like P.T. Barnum. No, I have no aspirations to be president, but I do have a Mini Donald Trump in the show! And a Mini Hillary. Theyre getting ready to wrestle." Leaders from three Chicago gangs reportedly met last week to discuss plans to kill police officers in response to the officer-involved shooting death of 18-year-old Paul ONeal. The Chicago Sun-Times, citing an alert issued to Chicago officers, reported Monday that the meeting took place on Thursday between the gangs Vice Lords, Black Disciples and Four Corner Hustlers. According to the paper, the Four Corner Hustlers have provided guns and pinpointed a sniper in place. However, authorities are still unsure where the alleged sniper spot is placed. The gang is also funneling weapons to the other two gangs. Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi declined to comment on the situation, saying the department does not comment on any security measures. Dean Angelo, the president of Lodge 7 of the Fraternal Order of Police, said the ONeal family attorney and statements from the Independent Police Review Authority were to blame for the threats. We had inflammatory and false rhetoric coming from (Michael Oppenheimer) and statements that werent true, Angelo said. You also have a lead investigator in police-involved deaths talking about how shocking and disturbing this is. The threats come after the officer-involved shooting death of the man. Police chased the teen into a South Shore neighborhood on July 28 after he allegedly stole a vehicle. Video released last week purportedly showed some chaos before ONeals death. Police said the body camera of the officer who shot and killed him wasnt recording. Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Monday it was too early to decide whether police officers need more training. He said he supported Superintendent Eddie Johnsons decision to strip police powers from the officers who fired their weapons at ONeal. Johnson hasn't said what policies they may have violated, but department policy largely prohibits shooting at a vehicle if it's the only threat to officers. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Click for more from the Chicago-Sun Times. As Father Josiah Trenham prepared to read the Gospel, several parishioners discreetly scooped up their babies, retreated up the aisles of St. Andrew Orthodox Church and out into the spring air, so as not to allow the crying of little ones to disturb the divine liturgy. The time-honored tradition was shattered when a car passed by the Riverside, Calif., church, slowing down as the front passenger leaned out of his window and bellowed menacingly through a bullhorn, according to witnesses. Allahu Akbar! the unidentified man repeated several times as the unnerved parents drew their infants close and exchanged worried glances. Witnesses were able to give Riverside police a description of the green Honda Civic, but not of the three occupants. Some told police they believed one or more of the men may have been taking photographs, according to Officer Ryan Railsback. Although Trenham insisted multiple congregants heard the Arabic phrase, Railsback noted no mention of it was in the police report. Whatever the case, no law was broken even if an unmistakable message was sent and received. Be calm and to keep a special vigilance over the property and our children while we are at church, Trenham wrote in an email to parishioners in which he recounted the disturbing event. Pray that these provocative young men might repent of their intimidation and be saved. Trenham told FoxNews.com last week the situation remains tense and tenuous, and said the church now has security officers on hand for all regular services. "It is a deep sorrow to live this way in the 'new America, he said. The incident took place on April 12, some four months after a terror attack left 14 dead in nearby San Bernardino, and just over three months before a French priest was killed by ISIS-linked jihadists in his church. The events, whether far or near, underscore a grim new reality for pastors such as Trenham: Instead of offering sanctuary from evil, churches could in fact be attractive targets for terror. "Many churches are now hiring self-defense instructors for classes or security guards that include off-duty police," said Ryan Mauro, a professor of Homeland Security at Liberty University and national security analyst for the Clarion Project. "If you are an Islamist terrorist seeking self-glory, executing a priest will bring you more attention than executing an average civilian." While no lethal terror attacks have occurred inside a U.S. church to date, experts like Jeff King, president of International Christian Concern, notes the threat tally is growing. "I'm pretty sure there will be attacks in the future, King said. Until [radical Islam is defeated], we can expect Christians, including in the West, to rationally tighten security measures and try to protect themselves from attack." In February, Khial Abu-Rayyan, 21, of Dearborn Heights, Mich., was arrested after he told an undercover FBI agent he was preparing to "shoot up" a major church near his home on behalf of ISIS. A month earlier, the Rev. Roger Spradlin of Valley Baptist Church one of the biggest congregations in Bakersfield, Calif. told attendees that they had received a threat written in Arabic. "Undercover officers were then placed during worship services, Valley Baptist spokesman Dave Kalahar said. The FBI continues to investigate along with the local task force." Last September, an Islamic man clad in combat gear was charged with making a terrorist threat after entering Corinth Missionary Baptist Church, in Bullard, Tex., and claiming that God had instructed him to kill Christians and "other infidels." A year earlier, police were called to Saint Bartholomew's Catholic Church in Columbus, Ind., after the house of worship was vandalized with the word "Infidels!" along with a Koranic verse sanctioning death for nonbelievers. Similar graffiti was found that same night at nearby Lakeview Church of Christ and East Columbus Christian Church. St. Bartholomew Pastor Clem Davis said he doesnt know if the threat was legitimate, but said little can be done to harden a target whose mission is to welcome all. "I don't know that there is any real protection against the 'lone wolf' mentality, not without infringing on everybody's freedoms," Davis said. "We don't have metal detectors, people go in and out. Churches are family-orientated, public, tax-supported spaces; so they may appeal to some as a target." Synagogues have faced increasing threats in recent years, too. Earlier this year, the FBI disrupted a plot by a Muslim convert to blow up the Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center, in Aventura, Fla. A 2014 audit by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) found that anti-Semitic incidents rose 21 percent across the country that year. Eastern Orthodox Christians, who in many cases suffered persecution at the hands of radical Muslims in their Middle Eastern homelands, believe they may be singled out because of their heritage. Mass at St. Andrew typically attracts up to 400 worshippers with roots in Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Russia and Greece. "We have guards now; we never used to have guards, said St. Andrew attendee Solomon Saddi, a Syrian-American Christian. They keep an eye on everyone and talk to the faces that aren't familiar," he continued, referring to the aftermath of the April incident. "It is a very dangerous time for us even in America." In San Diego's Iraqi-Christian community, known as Chaldeans, many local churches have had to dip into their collection baskets to hire security. "There is a concern over attacks," said a parishioner at St. Peter Chaldean Catholic Church. "Everyone knows that a church, especially like St. Peter, is a risk. But everyone tries not to let their fear get in the way of their faith." The July 26 murder of the Rev. Jacques Hamel, in the Normandy town of St.-Etienne-du-Rouvray sent shock waves around the world, and signaled to U.S. law enforcement that it could happen here, said Horace Frank, assistant commanding officer of the Counter-Terrorism and Special Operations Bureau of the Los Angeles Police Department. "We see things happen in other countries and worry about them happening here," Frank said. "You always have to be worried about copycats. That's why we focus on prevention, trying to look ahead." Franks division works with Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh groups to discuss such topics as terrorist reporting, suspicious activity and active shooter training. "We reach out to churches and they reach out to us. You have to be aware, you have to be vigilant," Frank said. "It's a concern not just in Christian communities, but all faith communities." Jamie Brennan contributed to this report A new fall semester is about to begin. And while American college students struggle to pay for their higher education and long to be the fortunate recipients of college scholarships, illegal immigrants find their path lined with institutionalized supports, loads of scholarship money -- and a healthy dose of "go get 'em kid," as they break U.S. law. This isn't an underground network of support. These entities who push avenues for illegals to obtain higher education are hiding in plain sight. Just this May, former Secretary of Homeland Security and current University of California president Janet Napolitano announced a three-year commitment to support illegal UC students university-wide. "We are committed to continuing a path forward for undocumented students at the University of California," Napolitano said in a website message. "This funding will further strengthen the university's undocumented student initiative, and help ensure that these students receive the support and resources they need to succeed." The university reports it will earmark a staggering $8.4 million through the 2018-19 academic year for undocumented student support across 10 campuses, which will be divided among three initiatives -- the federal DREAM loan program will receive $5 million a year for at least three years, making student loans available to illegals who are not eligible for federal aid. Additionally, $2.5 million will go to funding textbooks for illegals, funding payroll for student services coordinators, and offering graduate and undergraduate fellowships for illegals. And incredibly, if students are here illegally, they can visit the UC's Undocumented Legal Services Center, which receives a whopping $900,000 per year to advise illegal students on how to become educated while breaking the law. In Chicago, Loyola University students conceived and then overwhelmingly approved the Magis Scholarship Fund to benefit illegals -- to be paid for by legal students and their hard-working parents. Their vote was approved by the supposed grownups in the room, the University's Board of Trustees. The scholarship's mission is to not only help "undocumented" undergrads with school costs, according to the school's website, but also to "jumpstart conversations in and outside the classrooms." "There are so many undocumented students who are working hard at Loyola but unfortunately can't receive federal financial aid," said Catalina Cipri, co-president of the Latin American Student Organization (LASO), on the university website. "So it often compromises their ability to work as hard in school because they have to work to pay for their tuition." "Yeah, I worked hard, too, to pay my tuition -- I had two jobs because my parents couldn't make ends meet," said one Maryland man after hearing of the scholarship. "To hand [money to] people who are here illegally without taking care of our own -- which includes those who have taken the legal path to citizenship -- is a slap in the face to all of us." An additional $2.50 "student fee" is added to each Loyola University student's semester tuition bill -- raising roughly $50,000 each year for the fund. The scholarship is a joint partnership between LASO and the Student Government of Loyola Chicago. Framing is everything. Even websites meant to disseminate general information about colleges have jumped on the "college for illegals" bandwagon. Says bestcolleges.com, "Undocumented students should not hesitate to express their desire to go to college. Thanks to the Family Education Rights and Privacy act, school officials can't disclose personal information (including immigration status) about students." But shouldn't each person's status be known if he or she is seeking to spend taxpayer money on individual betterment? "So my own children receive less money for college, potentially, than illegals who pay no taxes and who do nothing for this country but take every bit they can from it, and from us," said one father of four from New York. "It's outrageous, really. They're also very likely taking the seat of an American college student, who could have been where they are." This outraged father is absolutely right, according to one immigration policy organization. "Schools are placing U.S. students at a disadvantage by designating a portion of seats to foreign students -- this is done largely to garner more money for the schools," Marguerite Telford, director of communications for the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) in Washington, D.C., told LifeZette. "But when you give seats to illegal aliens, it reduces the number of seats available to U.S. citizens." Supportive administrators and scholarships at the drop of a hat are not the only perks for illegals in today's higher-education landscape -- how about a little in-state tuition thrown in, too? "A couple of states allow illegals to pay in-state tuition, which is kind of strange - you can't be a U.S. citizen residing in Virginia and get in-state tuition in other states, yet someone who shouldn't even be in the country can," said Telford. "American students and their families lose spots in our education system." Oh, the scholarships. If you are here when you shouldn't be, organizations, corporations and universities are dying to throw bushels of money your way. MALDEF, a civil rights organization for Latinos, lists at least 50 different scholarship opportunities for illegal aliens -- including scholarships funded by Microsoft. The tech giant will pay partial or even full tuition for a full year for someone here illegally. The Kaiser Permanente Health Care Career Scholarship Program awards $2,000-$10,000 scholarships to illegal aliens, and PFLAG National Scholarship Program will fund illegals who self-identify as LGBT with $1,000 to $5000 a year if they have a plan to work within the LGBTQ community after graduation. Much of this, if not all of it, is supported by the Obama White House. The administration's "Partnerships for Refugees" website lists many ways the private sector can do more, including these goals on the education front: "Establishing scholarship funds to support access to higher education for refugees, and providing free flights, textbooks and housing assistance to refugees who are traveling to the United States to attend college." CIS is all too familiar with this. "There was an emphasis recently on getting the private sector to sponsor employment contracts and scholarships, too -- the governments want to bring in more refugees, and there is a maximum that can be brought here. How do you get around that? You find other ways to bring them in. Bringing them in on different visas circumvents those caps on numbers, or the offer of college scholarships. It's a workaround." All of which puts our own legal American students last -- even as good and hardworking parents struggle every day to give their children a great education against a rising tide of difficulty. Zeze Rwasama's Idaho nonprofit gets $900 a head to meet Syrian refugees at the airport and help them adjust to their new lives in America, but some critics say the rush for federal tax dollars could put local communities at risk. As director of the College of Southern Idaho Refugee Center, Rwasama is part of a broad network of contractors, faith-based organizations and charities working with the State Department to screen, transport and assimilate U.S.-bound refugees. They have played a vital role in bringing nearly 10,000 Syrian refugees to the U.S. over the last 12 months, a number slated to rise dramatically next year. We Americans are saving lives, Rwasama, himself a Christian refugee from Rwanda, told FoxNews.com. Because of my taxpayer dollars, they have a safe place to live. Critics of the vetting process say such organizations also have a duty to the unsuspecting communities into which they introduce potentially dangerous strangers. Several state lawmakers told FoxNews.com the governments push to expand the program have created a taxpayer-funded gold rush that could expose cities and towns across America to crime and even terrorism. Its about money, not Christian love, said State Sen. Kevin Bryant, R-S.C. Neither the FBI nor The National Archive of Criminal Justice Data keep statistics on refugee crime, refugees have been linked to a handful of crimes around the nation. They include the alleged rape of a special needs girl in Rwasama's town of Twin Falls, Idaho, and an alleged sex assault last month on a 13-year-old girl in a public swimming pool in Lowell, Mass. Bryant, as well as lawmakers in New York and Nebraska, has drafted legislation that would hold contractors responsible when refugees commit crimes and it can be shown that they should have been denied entry under the program or flagged once here. Were not trying to prevent refugee resettlement, but there needs to be accountability, said Matt Slater, spokesman for State Sen. Terrence Murphy, R-N.Y. Murphy is sponsoring a bill that would require contractors to fingerprint and monitor refugees receiving taxpayer dollars. The measure also would act as an alert mechanism for local officials who are often unaware of the federal distribution of refugees into their communities. A Nebraska bill would require the nonprofits to reimburse local and state governments for court costs for refugee crime and carry a $25 million indemnity for civil lawsuits arising from the actions of refugees they help settle. There are nine primary voluntary agencies who, with their affiliates and sub-contractors, participate in the screening, transfer and placement process of mostly Syrian refugees into the United States. The pace of Syrian refugees entering the U.S. has surged in recent weeks, government figures show, putting the Obama administration on track to meet its target of admitting 10,000 Syrian refugees before the end of September. The numbers are expected to rise dramatically: According to the federal Department of Health and Human Services Refugee Resettlement Director Robert Carey, the administration is asking for $2.2 billion to resettle 213,000 new refugees including 100,000 Syrians over the next few years. The U.S. effort is part of a much broader United Nations bid to resettle 480,000 Syrian refugees in Europe and the U.S. amid a civil war that UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi has called "the biggest humanitarian and refugee crisis of our time." Refugees from dozens of other countries in the Middle East and Africa have also poured into Europe through the sometimes chaotic effort. The State Department and other agencies involved in vetting Syrian refugees say they are taking steps to speed up the process, including a "new pathway" for Syrians with relatives in the United States. Critics have questioned how Syrian refugees can be properly screened, given a lack of documentation in their homeland and virtually no cooperation between Damascus and host countries. In the U.S., local lawmakers acknowledge their proposals are aimed at addressing an issue that begins far from their jurisdiction and ends in their backyards. We need to protect our people first, Slater said. If the federal government isnt going to do it, the states need to step up. State Sen. Thomas Croci, R-N.Y., a former U.S. Navy lieutenant who served in various intelligence roles in both the Bush and Obama administrations, doubts that screeners in refugee camps abroad or contractors stateside can adequately tell who is a danger and who is not. I saw this in Afghanistan when someone would come to us giving their name and tribe and the Afghan partner standing next to me would say, No way, said Croci, a Republican. There are small traits an American wouldnt know. In Western nations, babies get a footprint, a Social Security number and, in some cases, even DNA. In places like Syria or Afghanistan you may never have contact with the government. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Leon Rodriquez stands by the vetting procedure. I refute the widely held view that we dont have anything to vet against, Rodriguez told reporters on a recent conference call. The numbers that have been denied entry are large. Rodriquez later said 7 percent of prospective refugees are denied, and added that 99 percent who gain entry are Muslim. The State Department oversees the refugee resettlement process, which is initiated by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. According to the Department of Homeland Security website, Re-settlement Support Centers conduct prescreening interviews and initiates biographic checks. Resettling refugees in the U.S. is costly, if not dangerous. According to a 2015 Center for Immigration Studies report, the cost per family is $257,481. That includes the screening effort, transportation, housing, payment to contractors and stipends that can top $1,100 per month while refugee heads of households find jobs. The figure does not include welfare and food stamps, which refugees are eligible for. The race to bring in refugees and help them blend into communities around the nation is creating the wrong incentives for contractors, said Ann Corcoran, of Refugee Resettlement Watch. The U.S. State Department should not be head-hunting for industry, Corcoran said. The driving force is money, not humanitarian. Rwasama acknowledged the risk in bringing in refugees. But he believes the process employed in the U.S. is much safer than in Europe, where refugees move about more freely and have been directly tied to several acts of terrorism and crime. Yes, this program could bring in terrorists, he said. However, I dont think a terrorist is going to use a program that takes 18 to 24 months or has contact with U.S. officials. A U.S. immigration official accused in a federal report of hindering law enforcement agents seeking a suspect in the San Bernardino terror attack and then lying about it has been nominated for a prestigious award for telling her employees to stay calm and fetching one who was eating lunch in his car. FoxNews.com reported in June that Irene Martin, who heads the San Bernardino U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office, had been nominated for the Department of Homeland Security Award for Valor. But the department refused to say what Martin had done to earn consideration for an award previously given to government employees who saved people from sinking ships and burning cars and confronted gun-wielding criminals. The answer was only revealed through a Freedom of Information Act request. As the Dec. 2, 2015, attack unfolded a mile and a half away, Martin warned [her] employees to be very careful and to be vigil (sic) about their surroundings, according to the nominating petition. When Martin learned that one member of her staff was sitting in his car after returning from lunch, a security guard refused to go and get him, saying the office was under lockdown. [Director] Martin took it upon herself to walk out to the parking lot, locate the employee and escort him back inside where he would be safer, the petition stated, adding that she also soothed members of the public who were temporarily stranded in the building. Martins actions on that terrible day demonstrated not only her professionalism and exceptional leadership, but also her compassion and caring for her employees and the public we serve, read the nomination. A section on the nominating form for listing Special Honors and Awards for the past 5 years was left blank. Basically, Ms. Martin followed standard operating procedures for an emergency situation in the area by addressing the staff, suspending programs and sending everyone home early its what thousands of supervisors around San Bernardino must have been doing that day, said Jessica Vaughan, director of Policy Studies for the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington-based research institute. The nomination was made by Martins supervisors in Washington on March 3, just over a week before the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General John Roth launched his investigation into Martins behavior the day after the attack. Roths probe found that Martin blocked five armed Department of Homeland Security agents seeking the man authorities now say supplied the firepower in the deadly attack. The report also said she lied to investigators about her actions. Vaughan said she suspects the award nomination was put forward to give cover to Martin, who may have broken the law. It certainly appears that the agency is trying to distract from that misconduct by puffing up this incident into an award nomination, Vaughan said. The agency leaders appear to believe that egregious poor judgment and a serious act of obstruction can be canceled out by another good deed. It doesnt work that way. The DHS award is described as the highest departmental recognition for extraordinary acts of valor by an employee or group, occurring while on or off duty and is reserved for those who have demonstrated extraordinary courage in a highly dangerous, life-threatening situation or emergency under extreme stress and involving a specific act of valor, such as saving another persons life or property. Martins initial actions occurred as Tashfeen Malik and Syed Farook killed 14 and wounded 22 at the Inland Regional Center, a social services facility where Farooks county co-workers were having a Christmas party. Authorities believe Enrique Marquez, who had an appointment with Martin's staff the next day when the authorities showed up, gave the jihadist couple the guns used in the attack. Martins role in the next days turf war was exposed by unidentified whistle-blowers who went to Senate Homeland Security Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., who then requested the Inspector Generals investigation. Roths report found Martin improperly hindered the work of five armed agents on site just 24 hours after the attack. It noted DHS agents were sent to the USCIS building to arrest Marquez, who authorities were frantically trying to track down. Marquez, it turned out, had not shown up for his scheduled appointment at the USCIS building, but Martin kept agents waiting 30 minutes before meeting with them, and another hour before she turned over the USCIS file on Marquez. Marquez was eventually arrested and is being held on charges related to supplying the guns as well as marriage fraud. Martin also lied to the Inspector Generals investigators, according to the June 6 report, about her role in what has been characterized as a turf battle. Lying to federal investigators is a felony and can result in dismissal and criminal charges. We concluded that the USCIS Field Office Director at the San Bernardino office improperly delayed agents from conducting a lawful and routine law enforcement action, the report stated. We have also concluded that the Field Office Director was not candid with OIG investigators during her interview. A Tennessee father already wanted for attempted homicide said he accidentally shot and killed his 11-year-old daughter after her first day of middle school on Monday afternoon because she yelled and scared him, according to Sumner County court documents. Timothy Batts, 29, was arrested on reckless homicide, tampering with evidence, false reporting and other charges in connection with the shooting death of Timea Lashay Batts, The Tennessean reported. The dad said he had been sleeping and was awakened by a noise, causing him to grab a gun from underneath his dresser, according to his arrest affidavit. When Timea, coming home from her first day of sixth grade, yelled and scared him, Timothy fired, hitting the young girl in the torso. Timea Batts was shot dead after coming home from her first day of 6th grade. Her dad charged overnight @NC5 pic.twitter.com/xxJzeIFFfc Dan Kennedy (@NC5_DanKennedy) August 9, 2016 Timothy originally told police his daughter had already been shot when she arrived home from school, Detective Sgt. Jim Vaughn said. Batts drove her to a hospital, where she died. Investigators later determined, however, that Timea had been shot inside the home. The defendant came to the police department later and stated he wanted to tell the truth about what happened, and admitted the story he previously told was not the truth, police documents viewed by The Tennessean stated. At the time of the shooting, Batts was already wanted for attempted homicide stemming from a 2012 incident, The Tennessean reported. He also has past drug possession convictions and four convictions for driving on a suspended license or without a license. Batts has three probation violations on his record and was charged with aggravated assault in 2008. Batts is set to appear in court on Aug. 24. The Associated Press contributed to this report. The chancellor at University of California Berkeley has an exit plan in case student protesters storm his office. Nicholas Dirks, the school's chancellor, installed a $9,000 escape hatch in a hallway outside his office to "provide egress" if potential student protesters descend on the administration building, according to the campus newspaper, The Daily Californian. The emergency exit -- built late last month -- was ordered in response to an April 2015 protest during which students stormed the chancellors suite and staged a sit-in outside his office, the paper reported. Students reportedly banged on desks and chanted loudly before being escorted out of the building, some in handcuffs. Campus spokeswoman Claire Holmes confirmed construction of the door inside California Hall, telling the paper it was installed as a safety measure to "provide egress to leave the building." The new door did not sit well with some students at the public university. "There has to be other ways to handle student concerns and protests than simply building ways to avoid them," ASUC Senator-elect Chris Yamas told the paper. "The chancellor seems elitist and out of touch and inaccessible to the students," Yamas said. Student protests have erupted on the grounds of the California university for decades, but none ever resulted in a chancellor being physically harmed, Yamas said. Funds for the escape hatch were approved by the school's president under Be Smart About Safety, a university-wide pool of money set aside for risk prevention. The door was also roundly criticized in an Aug. 1 staff editorial published by the school paper. "The money used to construct the exit, while not substantial relative to other UC construction projects, came from a pool of funding to be allocated toward risk services, including protections for campus employees," the editorial said. "Its concerning that, at a time when campus safety is a national issue and UC Berkeley affiliates are frequently the victims of crimes on and near campus, campus is focusing risk prevention efforts at the uppermost level." The new escape door was installed four months after the school finished building a $700,000 security fence around University House, Dirks' private residence, to keep out student protesters. The Daily Californian reported that student activists protesting for workers rights marched to the chancellors house last November and jumped over the fence while it was still under construction. The protesters proceeded to vandalize the property -- with some throwing burning torches. University officials, meanwhile, have insisted that he door was requested by the staff, not Dirks, according to multiple reports. University spokesman Dan Mogulof told The Guardian that the term "escape hatch" was a "concoction of a 19-year-old headline writer." "Its a door," Mogulof told the website. A business owner works hard to build a strong, positive online reputation. Yet, as weve seen, it can be all too easy to make headlines for things we post online. Even if those posts are on personal social media accounts, all it takes is one media outlet to make it into a headline and a business could suffer reputation damage. It is possible to have both a professional reputation and a personal account that doesnt cause harm to it. Yes. You just have to choose whether youre going to express your opinions and interests freely, but very privately, or you want to carefully moderate your words and be more public. Here are a few options for having a personal social media account if you run a business. Dont post it. The safest option is to keep your personal accounts as moderate and professional as possible. This means if you take a trip with your family and you want to share it with your relatives and former classmates, youll need to be aware that the public could see that information. As your company grows, you could see one of those photos shared across social media with your business name mentioned in it, even when you didnt intend for your vacation to be linked to your business. If youve done something that is somehow controversial, it could even lead to boycotts and permanent reputation damage. Related: 6 Keys to a Positive Online Presence and Reputation Keep it undercover. One of the best ways to carve out a private space for yourself is to lock down all of your personal accounts. You can set your Facebook page to friends only and make the account hidden in search results, both on Facebook and on public search engines. Set your Tweets to protected and make your main photo one that your business associates and customers wont recognize. You should also realize this plan isnt 100 percent foolproof. Unfortunately, even if you take the utmost care, someone in your small social circle could choose to share your information publicly if its juicy enough. Assign a personal social media moderator. You may have a social media manager for your business, but this doesnt extend to your personal accounts. Or you may not have a social media manager at all. Consider asking someone to moderate your personal posts, whether this is your businesss social media person or someone new. You could even ask a trusted friend, relative or business associate to review any of your posts before they go live and offer advice on whether something could be damaging or not. If youre concerned about your career, you may even consider setting a social media strategy that could help you build a strong online brand personally, which will eventually lead to connections that will help you professionally. Related: Why Online Reputation Management Is Like Brushing Your Teeth Use an alias. If you feel restrictions are too stifling, consider setting up your social media profiles under a name that cant be easily found by those who know you through your business. This could be a nickname you had in college, a maiden name or a completely made-up name that you share only with friends. The key is to ensure that if someone tries to track you down through these sites, they wont be able to find you. For small or newer business owners, this plan could easily work for years, since only casual users will be searching for your name on various social media sites. Related: 10 Steps to Building an Impeccable Professional Reputation It is possible to have an active personal social media presence. By putting controls in place and making an effort to monitor what you say, you can interact with friends and relatives without putting your business in jeopardy. A soldier accused of fatally stabbing, strangling and burning the body of the mother of his then-14-year-old girlfriend argued Tuesday that only the daughter was to blame for her moms death in Pennsylvania in 2015. Prosecutors claimed they unearthed text messages 21-year-old Caleb Barnes sent to his then-girlfriend Jamie Silvonek showing that he feared losing his job at Ft. Meade in Maryland if Cheryl Silvonek called the cops to complain about the couples age difference, The Morning Call reported. I have the knives picked out, said one chilling text, which prosecutors flashed on a large screen in the courtroom as Barnes trial got underway Tuesday. As trial opens, Caleb Barnes blames Jamie Silvonek for mother's murder https://t.co/F9XBCJnOLq pic.twitter.com/AVXmrlUiWu The Morning Call (@mcall) August 9, 2016 But Barnes lawyer, Richard Webster, told the jury that Jamie was a liar and manipulator and wanted her mother dead. She killed her own mother, Webster said, while admitting that Barnes helped bury the Upper Macungie Township woman. Jamie Silvonek, who was charged as an adult, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to 35 years to life in state prison in February. Though Jamie testified at her plea hearing that shes dead and its my fault, she didn't absolve Barnes of blame, according to records obtained by The Morning Call. Jamie is set to testify at Barnes trial. Jamie Silvonek appeals 35 year to life sentence in mother's slayinghttps://t.co/vCld8Bg0gO pic.twitter.com/Q5SSP8babg The Morning Call (@mcall) March 17, 2016 Prosecutors said the couple killed Cheryl Silvonek as they sat in her SUV after Cheryl drove the pair to a rock concert in Scranton on March 15, 2015. The trio was in the vehicle in the Silvonek driveway at 1 a.m. and Cheryl was attempting to convince Barnes and Jamie to break up, authorities allege. Thats when Cheryl was beaten, strangled and stabbed in the neck multiple times. Prosecutors believe Barnes held the blade. Barnes team said Jamie wielded the knife. Barnes allegedly confessed to burning Cheryls body before the pair buried her in a shallow, snow-filled grave, Lehigh Valley Live reported. Officials said the two then went to Walmart to purchase bleach to clean the murder scene. Cheryls body was found later that morning and Jamie and Barnes were soon arrested. Authorities allegedly found the couple naked in Jamies bed. I was a monster, Jamie said during her plea hearing. There is no sugarcoating it and there is absolutely no sympathy. Theres no mitigating factors. In my opinion, theres absolutely nothing. J.C. Newman Cigar Company has announced it has formed a new boutique cigar division called Fourth Generation Cigar Company. As a part of its launch, it has announced three new cigar brands that have already shipped to retailers The American, The Admiration, and The 1954. In addition, the cigars will be produced at the companys Ybor City El Reloj factory, thus returning handmade cigars to that factory. The division is being spearheaded by Drew Newman and his wife Ariel Peters. Drew happens to be the great-grandson of company founded Julius Caeser Newman, thus the name Fourth Generation. Its a brand that not only is meant to be boutique but also meant to showcase the U.S. cigar industry something that the Newman family has deep ties to. Our family and so many others make wonderful cigars overseas. With the J.C. Newman Fourth Generation Cigar Company, our goal is to prove that world-class cigars with unique heirloom American tobaccos can be hand rolled in America once again, said Drew Newman in a press release. What is important to us is quality and craftsmanship, commented Ariel Peters. Like small-batch distilleries and craft breweries, we want to source in America as much as we can and be open and transparent about the entire supply chain and production process. J.C. Newman Company President Eric Newman added, One hundred years ago, there were 150 factories in Tampa that hand rolled 500,000 cigar a year. As the last cigar factory still operating in Tampa, we are thrilled that our companys fourth generation, my son Drew and Bobbys sons Dawson and Paxton is keeping Ybor Citys cigar-making tradition alive. We are a 121 year old, four generation American family-owned and operated company, and we are very proud to be hand rolling cigars in America once a gain, just like our grandfather did a century ago, said Bobby Newman. As for the new brands, a Cigar Aficionado report says initial production will occur in Nicaragua until necessary renovations to El Reloj are completed. Here is a look at the three lines: The American This is described as a 100% American cigar. It is highlighted by the use of a Florida Sun Grown wrapper, grown by Jeff Borysiewicz. This marks the first major release where the Florida tobacco is being used as a wrapper component. The American also uses Connecticut Broadleaf binder grown by seventh generation grower John Foster, and a combination of Connecticut Habano and Pennsylvania tobacco for the filler. The cigar will come in four sizes: No. 1 (7 x 47), No. 2 (6 x 54), No. 3 (4 1/2 x 50), and No. 4 (6 1/8 x 52, Torpedo). Pricing will be in the $16.00 to $18.00 range. The cigars will packaged in ten count boxes with a total of 25,000 cigars produced. The brand name is actually the name of the first brand produced at the Newmans El Reloj factory when it opened in 1910. In addition to The American being produced in U.S. the boxes for this cigar are also being produced in the U.S. Admiration This is described a bright, bold cigar that brings together American and Nicaraguan tobaccos. This brand was the second one produced at the El Reloj factory when it opened in 1910. The blend use a Connecticut Shade wrapper, a Connecticut Broadleaf binder grown by Foster and Nicaraguan fillers. The cigars will come in four sizes: No. 1 (7 x 47), No. 2 (6 x 54), No. 3 (4 1/2 x 50), and No. 4 (6 1/8 x 52, Torpedo). The cigars are packaged in ten count boxes. Pricing is $16.00 to $18.00. Production will also be limited to 25,000 cigars per year. The 1954 This is described as a recreation of Stanford Newman (Drews grandfather)s Cuesta Rey No. 95. This was a very popular premium cigar during the 1950s and 1960s. The 1954 is significant because it represents the year J.C. Newman moved from Cleveland Ohio to Tampa. The logo of this cigar is a cross of contemporary and classic elements and depicts Stanford Newman smoking a cigar. There will be one size and it pays homage to the original 6 1/4 x 42 size of the No. 95 size. This is a very limited production (1,954 cigars). Pricing will be at $19.54 and wit will be sold in boxes of ten. Details of the blend are not being disclosed until January, 2017, but the tobacco is described as very special. A man claiming to be an Army veteran reportedly left a threatening voicemail for a Texas mosque, religious leaders said. According to WFAA-TV, worshippers at the Watauga Masjid Center in Watauga are feeling violated and threatened. Worshippers have said they have received hateful messages before, but this one felt different. This individual screamed several expletives on the phone, Mujeeb Khalil, a member of the Watauga Masjid board of directors, told the station. We feel threatened by these calls. And I dont know what this brother is mad about. The station obtained a transcript of the message in which many expletives were used. More than a dozen profanities were used. It's just not American to behave like this. Not the America that I know, Vincent Simon, another worshipper at the mosque told WFAA-TV. Simon said he is a Muslim and a veteran and told the station that the person should go and sit down with mosque leaders and talk to them about what theyre really about. Alia Salem of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said the hateful message is the kind of talk that adds fuel to the fire. There's a lot of people who are reading a lot of info online and unfortunately it adds to them becoming radicalized in their thinking towards Muslims, she said. And so they want to take some sort of action. The Muslim community said theyre relying on Watauga police and federal authorities in Dallas for protection. Click for more from WFAA-TV. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said Tuesday that a man fatally shot by a deputy last month wasn't the carjacking suspect they were seeking. The department said in a statement that deputies encountered 27-year-old Donnell Thompson, who was black, shortly after the carjacker crashed the stolen vehicle, fled into a neighborhood and was arrested early on July 28. After a resident called 911, deputies spotted Thompson lying in a yard with one hand concealed from view and were concerned that he may be connected to the carjacking suspect, the statement said. Thompson was initially unresponsive to numerous commands then stood and charged deputies, prompting one who believed Thompson was armed to fire at him, the statement said. The investigation has included gunshot residue testing, DNA testing to determine if Thompson had been in the carjacked vehicle, interviews with witnesses, deputies and family members, and fingerprinting, the department said. "We have determined that there is no evidence that Mr. Thompson was in the carjacked vehicle, nor that he was involved in the assault on the deputies," the statement said. Dawn Modkins, a spokeswoman for Black Lives Matter Long Beach, described Thompson as having diminished mental capacity and being extremely quiet, reserved and non-confrontational. She said the family believes he was lying down because he was likely scared. She doubts the Sheriff's Department's assertion that he charged deputies. "He probably saw them coming and he just laid down," Modkins said. The family planned to demand answers Tuesday from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. They want an answer from the board on how it's going to hold the sheriff accountable, she said. "They want public apologies. They want an apology for criminalizing him, for devaluing him before they knew who he was," Modkins said. The deputy who fired at Thompson has been reassigned to duties not in the field. The department said an administrative review of the case was continuing and the investigation file will ultimately be turned over to the county district attorney for review. A New York City woman found dead in Massachusetts on Sunday had burns to her head and feet, and police are investigating if she was sexually assaulted and then set on fire, FOX 25 reported Tuesday, citing sources. Police said they did not yet know whether 27-year-old Vanessa Marcotte was sexually assaulted, but a state police source told WCVB that she was found naked in the woods in Princeton. "We have a horrible set of facts; a horrible set of circumstances right now," Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. said on Monday. Marcotte, who worked as an account manager for Google in New York, was visiting her mom in Massachusetts and went out Sunday for a walk or jog at 1 p.m. When she hadnt come back three hours later, her family called police. A K-9 found Marcottes body in a wooded area just a half mile from her moms home at 8:20 p.m. We are concerned about the safety of our town residents and visitors that enter out town, Princeton Police Chief Michele Powers said. We would ask people to pay attention to their surroundings. Police said they were investigating Marcottes death as a homicide but did not know whether or not the attack was random. Nothing at this point connects Marcottes death to a recent similar murder in New York, Early told The Boston Herald. Karina Vetrano was found dead in tall grass near a jogging path in Queens last week. Authorities said Vetrano may have been sexually assaulted. An autopsy on Marcotte has yet to be completed. Police are canvassing the area near where her body was found to see if neighbors have any surveillance cameras that may have captured Marcotte or her killer, WHDH reported. Marcottes death is the first murder in 30 years to occur in Princeton, a town of about 3,500 people that is around 40 miles west of Boston. Stuff doesnt happen in Princeton, resident Terry Heart told WHDH. Were just shocked. Everyones shocked. In a statement Monday, Google said it is deeply shocked and saddened. Vanessa Marcotte was a much loved member of the Google team, working in our New York office for the last year and a half, and known for her ubiquitous smile, passion for volunteer work and love of Boston sports, the company said. Marcotte was a 2011 graduate of Boston University, which also mourned her death. We're so terribly sad for her family and friends, Colin Riley, the executive director of media relations at Boston University, told ABC News. They're in our thoughts and prayers. The Associated Press contributed to this report. A Utah sandwich shop employee has been arrested on accusations he put methamphetamine and THC into the drink of a uniformed police officer. A probable cause statement filed Tuesday says the Layton police sergeant immediately felt impaired after getting the drink at a Subway restaurant Monday. He struggled to find the brake pedal of his patrol car at a red light and couldn't answer questions at the police station. Police Lt. Travis Lyman says the officer has been released from a hospital and is OK. Tanis Ukena was arrested on suspicion of surreptitiously giving a poisonous substance. He denied the allegations. Lyman says police don't know why Ukena drugged the drink. It's unclear if Ukena has an attorney. No listed phone number for him could be found. Subway spokesman Shawn Cook says the company is shocked and is cooperating with police. A teenage boy accused of fatally stabbing his 3-year-old brother and assaulting his 9-year-old sister in the Phoenix suburb of Youngtown likely will be tried as an adult, authorities said. The 16-year-old suspect has been booked into the Durango Juvenile Detention Center on suspicion of second-degree murder, aggravated assault and endangerment, said Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, whose office is handling the investigation. The boy's name isn't being released because he's a juvenile. "This 16-year-old I'm sure will be tried as an adult and will be in our jails," Arpaio said at a news conference Monday. Arpaio said the teen has no history of mental illness, and there have no prior calls made to the home, located about 25 miles northwest of Phoenix. Sheriff's officials said Tuesday there were no updates to release in the case, and there still was no word on a possible motive. Arpaio called it "a vicious, vicious, horrific murder" and said the suspect "was covered in blood" when he was spotted running from the house late Saturday night when sheriff's detectives arrived and tackled the teen. Neighbors called 911 after seeing the suspect's 17-year-old brother carry his injured sister and a 4-year-old sibling out of the home and seek help. The 9-year-old girl has been treated and released from a hospital, Arpaio said. The sheriff wouldn't disclose what detectives found when they executed a search warrant of the Youngtown home and didn't say if a weapon had been recovered. Neighbors said the family had lived in the home for about six years, and they seldom saw the children outside. The children's mother was at work at the time of the incident Saturday night. "We have to get forensic experts to interview the underage witnesses," Arpaio said. "We still have to finish this investigation." Entrepreneurs know best that when there is a need, they should be the ones to fill that need. But when that need is a deeply important human need, businesses must take a different approach. Solving these problems can be incredibly rewarding, but it isnt easy. Companies with give-back programs -- such as TOMS Shoes -- have to find a way to sell product and be profitable, but also to give back to the community. Often, companies will adopt a one-for-one policy, where a customer purchases an item and the company donates one to match. Still, this road can be long. Despite the challenges these companies may face, they continue to chase their core mission: to help others. We talked to the founders of several companies with inspiring give-back programs to see how they did it: Related: 3 Ways Your Social Business Will Be Better Than a Charity ... Jacqueline and Scot Tatelman, co-founders of STATE STATE Bags Can you give us a brief description of STATE? Scot: STATE Bags is a Brooklyn-born, one-for-one bag company. For each bag we sell, we hand deliver a fully stocked backpack to American kids living in situations of need. We carry out motivational bag drops to try to get kids to beat the odds around them. Jacqueline: We have backpacks for men, women and kids. We are combining fashion with function and fun. Weve really expanded and introduced some accessories. Our mission is amazing and its who we are, but we are equally proud of our product. What inspired you to start this company? Scot: Jacqueline and I started a nonprofit summer camp eight years ago for kids living in tough neighborhoods in Brooklyn. We started seeing kids carrying their stuff in trash bags and it tore us up and didnt make any sense. At the same time, seeing companies serving kids overseas doing great work, but our focus was kids here so we wanted to take that one-for-one model home. Why is a give-back program important for you? Scot: Its a huge part of everything we do. We were working with kids in underfunded, overlooked neighborhoods way before this company was even created. We were seeing and hearing stories for a really high need happening in our backyard. More so, not just for stuff, they need positive role models and messaging. Before we were selling bags, we were giving bags. Its who we are. Jacqueline: One of the things we have seen is that oftentimes they arent allowed to just be kids. They have to take care of siblings, parents, grandparents. There is so much going on in their lives. They get a new possession but they get the opportunity at our bag drops to just be kids. They soften, they dance, theyre silly, even if its just for an hour. Thats something that always hits with me. How many backpacks have you given away? Scot: We have donated thousands and thousands across the country in over 30 cities. We are donating over 30,000 bags this summer. Have you changed the program at all? Scot: Its evolved. The mission was so important but we started leading with the mission, but we quickly noticed that if the product isnt cool then we are dead in the water. We can have a great mission and authentic story, but if people arent interested in the product we cant sell bags to give bags. Now we lead with the product, and we are selling a lot of bags, which means we can give a lot of bags. What have you learned from the process? Jacqueline: Every single day we are learning something new. We came into the business a little raw. Every day is a learning curve. Its hard to build a brand. Its hard to get people to convert to your brand or even just pay attention to what youre doing. We are still climbing that mountain. Heather Hasson, co-founder and CEO of FIGS Can you give us a brief description of the company and your product? FIGS is a lifestyle company for healthcare professionals that gives back. Our product is awesome medical apparel -- scrubs, life wear and under scrubs. We design and manufacture the products that we feel today's healthcare professional deserves to keep with their 12-plus-hour shifts and help bring some comfort and happiness to their day. What is your give-back program? How does it work? Our give back program is called "Threads for Threads." For every pair of scrubs sold, we give a pair to a healthcare provider in need around the world. We also name all of our products after places we've donated. Giving back is a huge part of everything we do. Why is your give-back program important? And what impact has it made? We feel very passionately about our Threads for Threads program. The impact it's made on the people we give to is first and foremost. Over 75,000 scrubs have been donated across 26 countries. It really impacts our customers as well. Many of them become doctors, nurses, health practitioners so they could give back, help people, make a difference. Threads for Threads allows them to effortlessly continue that mission and extend it around the world. The actual act of donating the scrubs also has an impact on reducing the spread and infection of disease, when a clean scrub is worn it can reduce the rate of infection by over 66 percent, so the medical benefits are significant and very meaningful to us. Related: Richard Branson, Sara Blakely and Other Entrepreneurial Stars Are ... Stacey Effman, cofounder 12|12 12|12 Can you give us a brief description of the company and your product? 12|12 was started by two moms who felt the market was lacking quality, super soft, organic clothing options for modern parents looking to give their kids a clean beginning. Our values are kinder, simpler, greener, better. For every purchase, we donate an item from our collection to Baby2Baby. What is your give-back program? How does it work? Through our get and give initiative, for every purchase, we donate an item from the collection to Baby2Baby, a charitable organization that serves over 100,000 children a year. Why is your give-back program important? And what impact has it made? When starting this company, it was important to us to not only serve our customers, but to serve a greater good as well. We want to be able to impact the lives of children in need, and we want our children to be raised with these values as well. Its about creating a company that is more than its products and brand, that is about something bigger than itself, bigger than us. We want to know that we are leaving the world a little better off than before we started. How many products have you donated or given away? To date, we have donated over 150 baby garments. We are still new, with big plans to be donating many more times that and are looking forward to making a difference in the lives of numerous children in need. The more we can tell people about us, the more we can donate. Have you changed your program to make it more efficient or impactful? What have you learned? Republican Donald Trump is suggesting that rival Hillary Clinton's emails may be responsible for the death of an Iranian nuclear scientist who was executed for spying for the United States. Hours after an unusually disciplined speech on his economic plan for the country, Trump, using the "people are saying" sentence structure he often favors to make accusations, tweeted Monday night: "Many people are saying that the Iranians killed the scientist who helped the U.S. because of Hillary Clinton's hacked emails." Iran executed Shahram Amiri this week for spying for the United States, acknowledging for the first time that the nation secretly detained and tried a man who was once heralded as a hero. Trump didn't elaborate on which people had linked Amiri's execution to Clinton's emails. The FBI has said there is no evidence that Clinton's emails were hacked due to her use of a private account and server during her tenure as secretary of state. Also, the emails released by the State Department provide information similar to what U.S. officials had already discussed publicly at the time. Tweeted back Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill: "'Many people are saying'='I made this up.'" Merrill added that after Trump's morning speech to the Detroit Economic Club and sticking closely to his script "the muzzle was bound to come off." Trump's speech was designed in part to reassure Republicans unnerved by a disastrous week of self-inflicted feuds with an assortment of people, from grieving Muslim American parents to the leaders of his own party. Clinton's campaign cast his tweet Monday night as evidence that, in the words of spokesman Josh Schwerin, "There's just no resetting Donald Trump." Trump isn't the first to suggest there could be a link between Clinton's emails on her private server and Amiri's execution. Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton said on CBS's "Face the Nation" Sunday that there "were on Hillary Clinton's private server, there were conversations among her senior advisers about this gentleman." Amiri first vanished in 2009 while on a religious pilgrimage to Muslim holy sites in Saudi Arabia, but resurfaced 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. When he returned to Iran in 2010, he was given a hero's welcome and greeted with flowers by government leaders. Then he mysteriously disappeared. Iranian officials said this week that he was tried in a death-penalty case that was upheld by an appeals court. Amiri's case indirectly found its way into the spotlight last year with the release of State Department emails sent and received by Clinton. U.S. officials already had discussed his case publicly in 2010, including a $5 million payment offered to him if he stayed in the U.S. The State Department emails released to the public are mostly noteworthy because they provide an insider account of deliberations at the time. One 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. Clinton's decision to store her emails on a private server in her New York home sparked an FBI investigation and has become a dominant issue in the presidential campaign. ___ AP Writer Catherine Lucey contributed to this report from Miami. Recently, we helped a large mechanical contractor turn around its business. And we were successful in taking the company from loss to profit. However, the problem wasn't solved because, before we arrived, the owners had taken out several business and personal loans to keep the company afloat. Related: If Your Business Flops, It's Probably Due to One of These 7 Causes As a result, shortly after it started making a profit, the company hit a cash-flow crisis. At first, the owners, couldnt understand why, if they were making money, they had a problem with cash. Further, they wanted to know why they weren't paying down the principle on the loans they had accumulated. Simply put, they wanted to know why they werent making money? The answer lies in understanding the differences among profit, cash flow and return on investment (ROI). We explained to the owners that their accountant was correct; the company was profitable. The number on the bottom of their income statement was positive. In short: If the revenue you realize each month exceeds the expenses that generated that revenue, you are profitable. And, this is good. However, it does not necessarily mean that you have positive cash flow. A business may be very profitable, but if its inventory, accounts receivable and/or fixed assets are growing rapidly, it may not have a positive cash flow. Growing these three accounts requires cash. In the case of our mechanical contractor, the company was growing for the first time in years. The owners were spending cash to buy inventory, among other things. However, these are all balance-sheet accounts that do not immediately affect the income statement. Therefore, they have no impact on profitability. It is absolutely possible for a business to be profitable and hemorrhaging cash at the same time. Our contractor in fact didnt have cash -- one of the reasons it wasn't able to pay down the balances on its loans. That's why we moved to stem the problem by instituting collection procedures and other processes that helped the contractor manage its crisis, come through this short-term struggle and avoid a future disaster. If you find that your company is in a similar situation, ask your accountant to analyze your monthly cash flow over the past couple of years. It is possible that your cash is being spent to grow assets. If this isnt the case, we suggest that you have an independent third party do a thorough check for embezzlement. Weve seen thieves pull amazing stunts to make the books look right on the surface even as they siphon cash out of the business. Related: 5 Ways To Boost Your Business' Cash Flow It is also possible to have a profitable business, and even a positive cash flow, but not have a good ROI. While our contractor's actual number was much larger, lets say the owners initially funded the enterprise with a $150,000 investment. Lets also assume that they hadnt put any further cash into the business. Now, lets assume that their annual profit was $1,500 and that this was also the cash flow. ROI is calculated as: profit divided by investment. So, in our company's case, the ROI would be 1 percent -- hardly an impressive performance. At this rate, it would take 100 years to earn back the original investment. Depending on the specifics of your own business situation, we suggest that you target at least a 10 percent to 20 percent return on investment. To return to our clients initial question, they are now making money. The business is profitable. The next question is, how profitable? This is often measured by return on sales (ROS) which is calculated as profit divided by sales. The appropriate ROS target is a function of the specific situation, but for many businesses, a 10 percent ROS is a good target (obviously, more is better). It is important to understand profitability and to make sure that this translates into an acceptable positive cash flow. As a finance expert told us, You cant buy beer with profit; you can only buy beer with cash. Finally, make sure that your ROI is acceptable. If you are achieving your target ROS, but still not getting the ROI you need, the reason is likely that you need to grow your sales without making an additional investment. In other words, you need to improve your asset utilization (sometimes expressed as "sales divided by assets"). Assessing the financial health of your business is not a one-dimensional exercise. However, if your ROS is acceptable, your profit is translating into cash flow and you have a good ROI, you can rest assured that the financial health of your business is good. Related: 3 Ways to Track the True Value, Not Just Return on Investment, of Your Content Marketing By the way, our client is on track to be completely debt free in four years. Given the amount of debt he began with, this is a spectacular achievement. One New Jersey high school student is pushing Washington to throw a lifeline to an Afghan translator who served alongside U.S. Marines, then sought refuge in Germany after being denied safe haven in America. Alex Joshua, 16, of Scotch Plains, says he recently started a White House petition after reading on FoxNews.com about the struggle Sami Kazikhani has faced since he was forced to flee his homeland. He served U.S. troops as a translator during the war in Afghanistan, but was outed as a collaborator and faced death at the hands of the Taliban. Its a shame that so many people are risking their lives for the country and not being given to opportunity to come here, Joshua told FoxNews.com. Its absolutely ridiculous. Obama is fighting like hell to get Syrian refugees into the country but what about the 10,000 translators and others who helped our soldiers? Foxnews.com has reported extensively on Kazikhani and the issues he has faced since working for the U.S. military. Marked for death in his homeland after his cover was blown at a family wedding, Kazikhani, who was lauded by Marines he once served, was forced to flee last year. His escape came even as he was applying for safe passage to the U.S. with his wife Yasmiin and infant daughter Roxanna under a special visa program designed for those who served our troops. After tribal elders ordered his death, Kazikhani fled first to Turkey, then made the dangerous trip across the Aegean Sea just weeks ago after being ordered to leave. He and his family eventually made their way to Germany, where they have been in administrative limbo ever since. His supporters say he has more than earned a place in America for himself and his family. All coalition allies offer special visas for interpreters who served their troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the U.S. process is fraught with paperwork that can turn bureaucratic snarls into life and death for Afghans accused of being traitors and now actively hunted down by the Taliban, ISIS and Al Qaeda. I became a translator because I wanted to serve my country and because I was able to speak English," Kazikhani told FoxNews.com in an interview conducted via Facebook Messenger late last year. "I thought I could also be helpful to the coalition forces as well. "But there were many who absolutely did not like the people who worked with NATO," he said. "Especially interpreters. Kazikhani and his family have spent a majority of the time since then in Germany living at a center for refugees, but in a interview this past June, the translator expressed concern after government officials there told him his family would be sent back to Afghanistan. "The German politicians are saying that Afghanistan is now a safe country, he told FoxNews.com by phone. We're really nervous for what is happening here. We are living in uncertainty and we also fear what will happen next. Attempts to contact Kazikhani for this article were unsuccessful. It was not immediately clear whether he and his family were still in Germany or back in Afghanistan. As with most petitions posted on Whitehouse.gov, the Administration is obligated to review the issue once they hit 100,000 signatures within 30 days. Matt Zeller, a former U.S. Army Intelligence officer who fought to bring to the U.S. another translator who saved his life in Afghanistan and started an organization called No One Left Behind to help others with SIV visas, said Joshuas effort makes him proud. I think the fact that random Americans, who werent even old enough to remember the reason we went to Afghanistan, can recognize the importance of us keeping out word to those who helped us, it gives me a lot of hope, Zeller said. The fact that the still know the importance of honoring our promises and the willingness of complete strangers to something like this says a lot. Iran's former hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sent a letter on Monday to President Barack Obama, asking him to "quickly fix" a U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing families of people killed in attacks linked to Iran to collect damages from some $2 billion in frozen assets. While writing that his letter "is by no means of (a) political nature," Ahmadinejad's message to Obama arrives amid swirling speculation that the hard-line politician may run as a candidate in Iran's presidential election next year. It also comes as average Iranians largely have yet to see the benefits of Iran's nuclear deal with world powers -- something a discontent Ahmadinejad and other hard-liners could mine in any potential campaign against moderates. In the letter, posted on a website associated with the former president's office, Ahmadinejad focuses on the Supreme Court's decision in April. The court's 6-2 ruling allows families of victims of the 1983 Marine barracks bombing in Beirut and other attacks linked to Iran to collect monetary damages from Iran. At risk for Iran is $1.75 billion in bonds, plus accumulating interest, owned by Iran's Bank Markazi and held by Citibank in New York. "It is the clear expectation of the Iranian nation that the particular case of property seizure ... be quickly fixed by your excellency and that not only the Iranian nation's rights be restored and the seized property released and returned, but also the damaged caused be fully compensated for," the letter said. "I passionately advise you not to let the historical defamation and bitter incident be recorded under your name," Ahmadinejad added. Ahmadinejad's letter was delivered to the Swiss Embassy in Tehran, which has overseen America's interests in the country in the years after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and U.S. Embassy takeover. Embassy officials declined to comment. It's unclear what steps Ahmadinejad expects Obama to take. There was no immediate comment from the White House regarding the letter. The timing of the letter, however, is interesting as Ahmadinejad's name continues to circulate as a possible challenger to moderate President Hassan Rouhani in Iran's coming May 19 election. Rouhani's administration negotiated the nuclear accord, which put limits on Iran's atomic program in exchange for the lifting of crippling economic sanctions. While Ahmadinejad previously served two four-year terms, Iranian law calls only for a one-term cooling-off period before he's eligible to run again. How Iranians would react to another Ahmadinejad run, however, remains to be seen if and when it happens. Under his presidency, Iran found itself heavily sanctioned over the nuclear program as Ahmadinejad questioned the scale of the Holocaust and predicted the demise of Israel. His disputed 2009 re-election saw widespread protests and violence. Two of his former vice presidents have since been jailed for corruption. In secret, behind locked gates, our Nation's Oldest City dumped a landfill in a lake (Old City Reservoir), while emitting sewage in our rivers and salt marsh. Organized citizens exposed and defeated pollution, racism and cronyism. We elected a new Mayor. We're transforming our City -- advanced citizenship. Ask questions. Make disclosures. Demand answers. Be involved. Expect democracy. Report and expose corruption. Smile! Help enact a St. Augustine National Park and Seashore. We shall overcome! Islamic State and the Taliban, after more than a year of fierce combat, have forged a patchwork cease-fire across much of eastern Afghanistan that has helped both insurgencies regroup and counter U.S.-backed efforts to dislodge them. Until several months ago, Islamic State fought bloody battles with local Taliban units over fighters and territory in several provinces. The long-running Taliban insurgency has sought to stamp out its smaller rival, which only emerged in 2014. Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces took advantage of the conflict, engaging the militants on multiple fronts to push them back and reclaim territory they held. But recently, Afghan officials say, the two insurgencies have worked out local deals to stop fighting each other and turn their sights on the government. The upshot is that Islamic State has been able to focus on fighting U.S.- backed Afghan forces in Nangarhar province and shift north into Kunar province, establishing a new foothold in a longtime Taliban and former al Qaeda stronghold. They fought deadly battles with the Taliban before. But over the past two months, there has been no fighting among them, said Gen. Mohammad Zaman Waziri, who commands Afghan troops in the east. Islamic States presence in Afghanistan is still nascent. Even in its stronghold Nangarhar, Afghan officials estimate the group remains several times smaller than the Taliban. And the cease-fire between them could break apart at any time. But Islamic State has exploited the relative peace with its rival to extend the reach of its deadly attacks. In July, Islamic State claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in Kabul that killed more than 80 people, one of the worst attacks in the capital since 2001. Islamic States alliance with the Taliban comes as the U.S. steps up efforts to combat it. A joint Afghan-U. S. operation against Islamic State in February was hailed as a success until it became clear the militants had regrouped and were regaining lost ground. In recent weeks, the U.S. military has pulled more troops into Afghanistan for a new joint offensive with Afghan forces involving heavy airstrikes and operations targeting commanders. The U.S.-Afghan operation in the east has cleared Islamic State strongholds in several districts in Nangarhar province, driving the militants further into mountainous areas close to the border and north to Kunar and Nuristan provinces. The top U.S. military commander in the country, Army Gen. John Nicholson, said the cease-fire between the militant groups in Kunar didnt reflect a broader agreement. Theres still a conflict even though they may have a local cease-fire in place, he said. Theres always been a live-and-let-live dimension to some of the social fabric. Click for more from The Wall Street Journal. Belgian police on Tuesday were hunting for a 15-year-old boy seen on a recent video calling for the murder of all Christians. Footage published on a French website reveals the unnamed teenager speaking in Arabic, proclaiming, Oh Allah, destroy the odious Christians. Oh Allah Kill them all, The Telegraph reported. The teenager, who is the son of a radical imam, is also quoted as stating, Dont spare any of them, in reference to the annihilation of Christians. The video, recorded in Verviers, has city government officials on high alert. Mayor Muriel Targnion ordered police to uncover the boys whereabouts as a matter of urgency, according to reports. Police have identified the boy and have confirmed he was on a list of radicalized individuals, but withheld his name, The Telegraph added. A Belgian newspaper claims the boys father is an Islamist leader named El Alami Amaouch. Belgian law enforcement officers reportedly have sought to deport the imam to the Netherlands. Belgiums Minister for Asylum and Migration, Theo Francken, called Amaouch the "spiritual father of a group of terrorists in Verviers. Describing the teenage son's video, Francken said, It seems that it runs in the family. Verviers was the site of a January 2015 anti-terror raid that resulted in more than a dozen arrests. Investigators say Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected ringleader of the November 2015 massacre in Paris, may have previously directed a terror cell based in Verviers. Officials have made previous attempts to deport Amaouch but have faced delays from his appeals, Francken added. The powerful commander of an Iran-backed Shiite militia in Iraq -- whom the U.S. freed after the kidnapping deaths of four American soldiers in 2007 -- has hinted that his fighters could blend in with Iraqi forces to kill Americans on the battlefield in Mosul. Qais al-Khazali, leader of the paramilitary group Asaib Ahl al-Haq, "brags that he can wear any uniform in the Iraqi military, meaning that right now, his men are part of the Iraqi security forces that our men and women are training and advising. All he has to do is give the order," former military intelligence officer Michael Pregent told Fox News' Heather Nauert on "America's Election HQ" Monday. "He will return to violence, and he has American blood on his hands." The militia commander told Reuters last month, "The Americans do not trust us because we resisted them during the occupation. There is no prospect (for cooperation)." He also claimed the U.S. did not want to destroy the Islamic State outright, but simply wanted to "exploit" the Sunni terror network as part of its goal to draw new borders across the Middle East. The U.S. captured al-Khazali in 2007 and accused him of helping mastermind a sophisticated attack on an Iraqi government compound in the southern city of Karbala, in Shiite territory. Of the five U.S. soldiers who died in the January 2007 attack, according to U.S. officials, four had been kidnapped and executed several miles away. The militant leader was handed over to Iraqi officials in 2010 around the same time a militia freed the British hostage Peter Moore. The U.S. denied it was a "quid pro quo," saying al-Khazali's release was part of a security agreement to move some suspects into Iraqi custody. Eventually, al-Khazali reappeared on the battlefield. "We were fighting Al Qaeda during the surge, but a lot of people don't know that we were also targeting the very same militias that are now part of this coalition. And anybody who was in the military then, or in the intelligence commmunity, can't understand why we are now working with these Shia militias," Pregent told Fox News. He said Iran's elite Quds force helped set up the 2007 raid. Families of some of the U.S. soldiers killed sued Iran last year, accusing its government of directing the attack with the help of its militias. The Pentagon announced last month the U.S. would send more than 500 additional troops to Iraq in order to help its army try retaking Mosul from ISIS. Fox News' Heather Nauert contributed to this report. Polish officials say the leader of Poland's conservative ruling party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, has met with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Hungary. Though Kaczynski holds no official position within the Polish government, he is widely considered to be the most powerful person in Poland, guiding both the prime minister and the president. He has in the past expressed admiration for Orban's strong governing style one that Orban himself calls "illiberal" and which has raised concerns abroad about the state of Hungary's democracy. Since Kaczynski's Law and Justice party took power last November it has also come under international scrutiny for steps which the European Union says erode the rule of law. Kaczynski and Orban also held an hours-long private meeting in January, generating much speculation about what they discussed. Sudan's major rebel groups on Tuesday announced they signed on to an African Union-backed plan to end the deadly fighting in war-torn areas including Darfur, AFP reported. Violence in the Blue Nile, South Kordofan and Darfur regions reportedly has killed tens of thousands of people over the past several years, forcing millions of others to leave their homes. Government officials claim the Darfur conflict has ended, but analysts claim rebel groups have tried to gain the upper hand there since 2003. The Sudanese government signed the peace deal in March, but rebel groups refused to join the agreement until Monday, AFP added. It would clear the way for negoations aimed at a permanent ceasefire while allowing aid groups into the area. Sudan Call, a group made up of Sudanese rebels and opposition political parties, confirmed the news Tuesday. Part of the statement from the group read, "The top priority is to stop the wars and deliver humanitarian aid to people affected." Analysts said much of the fighting stemmed from accusations that the government had turned a blind eye to the region. In neighboring South Sudan, a proposed United Nations resolution would establish a 4,000-strong regional force to provide security in the capital and deter attacks on U.N. sites where over 30,000 civilians have sought refuge from the fighting. The draft resolution, circulated by the United States and obtained Monday by The Associated Press, would make the regional force part of the U.N. peacekeeping force in South Sudan and raise its strength to 17,000 soldiers and international police. The African regional bloc known as the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, or IGAD, announced late Friday that South Sudan's government has accepted the deployment of a regional force, reversing its previous rejection. The draft resolution calls for a vote on an arms embargo against the country if Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reports that South Sudan's authorities have blocked deployment of the regional force. The Associated Press contributed to this report. There are fears that Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan, could fall to the Taliban. Militants have besieged the city despite US airstrikes and local officials have warned that without support from the central government the whole province "will collapse soon". The insurgents have seized areas only a few miles from the city centre and they reportedly control all roads leading to Lashkar Gah. Exhausted soldiers are running out of food and police checkpoints are "falling one by one", according to residents. The Taliban effectively control or contest 10 of the 14 districts in Helmand, the deadliest province for British and US forces in Afghanistan over the past decade. Heavy fighting has broken out in Nad Ali district between Afghan government troops and militants as insurgents also carried out attacks in Nawa district, just south of Lashkar Gah. The situation has been made worse by roads in the region being heavily mined by the Taliban. It has sent an elite new commando force into Helmand called 'Sara Khitta' - the Red Brigade in Pashto. "They are a highly trained, well-armed unit with modern equipment including night vision goggles," said a Taliban commander in Nad Ali district. If it takes Lashkar Gah, it would be the second provincial capital it has captured since being toppled in a US-led military campaign 15 years ago. The insurgents briefly held the northern city of Kunduz last October before being driven out by American-backed Afghan troops. Click for more from SkyNews.com Bach to Rock Music School Franchise Continues Its Dynamic Growth America's Music School Announces New Schools Opening in California and Maryland BETHESDA, MD (PRWEB) August 09, 2016 - Bach to Rock(B2R), Americas music school for students of all ages, announced today the signing of franchise development agreements to launch two new schools in the states of California and Maryland in early 2017. The innovative music school brand is experiencing a burst of growth with 14 additional franchised locations slated to break ground in the next two years. The present development plans in California and Maryland include: North County San Diego, California: Husband and wife team Rick and Amy Walker are eager to tap into the strong musical tradition rooted in their family-oriented community. Their backgrounds are well-suited for the venture. Rick is an environmental, health and safety professional, as well as a part-time working musician in the band Sometimes Julie, which released its second CD in April, 2016. Amy is an IT trainer and instructional designer, with a foundation in education. Owning a Back to Rock franchise is an opportunity to combine our respective interests to deliver a truly unique service. We aim to quickly become a valuable resource for people of all ages in our community, said the couple. Husband and wife team Rick and Amy Walker are eager to tap into the strong musical tradition rooted in their family-oriented community. Their backgrounds are well-suited for the venture. Rick is an environmental, health and safety professional, as well as a part-time working musician in the band Sometimes Julie, which released its second CD in April, 2016. Amy is an IT trainer and instructional designer, with a foundation in education. Owning a Back to Rock franchise is an opportunity to combine our respective interests to deliver a truly unique service. We aim to quickly become a valuable resource for people of all ages in our community, said the couple. Ellicott City, Maryland: Franchise investor Sameer Patel is a Bach to Rock grassroots success story. Starting out as an involved parent with two children enrolled at the Bethesda, Maryland B2R school, he quickly progressed to become the franchise investor of the recently opened Bristow, Virginia B2R school. Now he is opening his second location in the Baltimore-Washington suburb of Ellicott City. I continue to be impressed by the impact our music education curriculum has on children and adults. The transformation that happens and the joy that emanates from our students and their families is truly remarkable. Im excited to help more people express their creativity through our fun and inventive music instruction program, said Patel. Bach to Rock is enjoying one of our strongest years thanks to the confidence of existing franchise investors such as Sameer Patel, and the entrepreneurial spirit of new franchisees like Rick and Amy Walker, said Brian Gross, president of Bach to Rock. Our proven business model and music education philosophy offers a winning proposition for business owners and aspiring music students of all ages, Gross continued. Bach to Rock franchisees are provided with an array of tools to position them for success, including extensive hands-on training, marketing and public relations support and a proprietary web-based management system, along with demonstrated techniques for business growth. Franchisees also benefit from multiple revenue streams such as individual and group classes, early childhood education programs, state-of-the-art recording studios, summer and winter camps, birthday parties and more. Bach to Rock is expanding at a robust and steady pace. The franchise has repeatedly been named to Entrepreneurs Franchise 500 and was listed in the Top Ten Trending Categories for 2016. Most recently, Bach to Rock won Best of Bethesda Magazine 2016 with first place in the Best Kids' Art or Music Classes category as the readers' pick. In 2014, Inc. Magazine named Bach to Rock one of the fastest-growing private companies in America for the third consecutive year. Franchise Times has ranked it as one of the 500 Powerhouse Brands and on its Next 300 Franchise System list. Bach to Rock is currently seeking qualified candidates to open franchise locations in markets across the country. Individuals seeking to own and operate a Bach to Rock should possess a minimum net worth of $500,000 and liquid assets of at least $100,000. While music experience or ability is not necessary, candidates should have a passion for music and be able to build a strong team of committed musicians to ensure the schools success. Franchisees can expect their initial investment to range from approximately $370,000 to $522,500, including a $35,000 franchise fee. To learn more about music school franchise ownership opportunities with Bach to Rock, as well as its veteran and franchise referral programs, contact Ralph Rillon, vice president of franchise development, at 1-855-227-7570 or franchise@bachtorock.com, or visit http://www.bachtorockfranchise.com. About Bach to Rock Bach to Rock (B2R) is a music education school for students of all ages from early childhood through high school and beyond. B2R knows learning music should be fun and students learn best when they play music they enjoy. Weekly ensemble instruction and band formations lead to public concerts, Battle of the Bands and recording sessions in B2Rs professional recording studios. B2R builds technique, fosters teamwork and enhances self-esteem through private lessons, band instruction, and public performances. Bach to Rock opened its first corporate-owned location in 2007 in Bethesda, MD., and with the latest opening in Rocklin, California has now grown to 16 with schools in California, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Texas. Eight franchised schools are scheduled to open in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Georgia, New York, North Carolina, and Texas with an additional 20 schools in development nationwide. Follow B2R on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/BachtoRock and on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/BachtoRock. For more information, visit http://www.bachtorock.com or call 1-877-227-8558. SOURCE Bach to Rock Media Contact: Angela Sakell Bach to Rock 240-620-3031 asakell@bachtorock.com ### Comments: Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. Disqus Multi-Unit Development Fuels Toppers Pizzas Strong Second Quarter; Positions Brand for Further Expansion in Second Half of 2016 Fast-Growing Better Pizza Franchise Continues to Steal Market Share from the Industrys Key Players WHITEWATER, WI (PRWEB) August 09, 2016 - Toppers Pizza, the leading better pizza franchise thats successfully taking on the nations largest pizza chains, is fueled by one bold mission: never settle. This motto, printed on every Toppers Pizza box, is represented in all aspects of the brands business, from its fearless approach to shaking up the industry with new products and flavors to its strong digital presence and loyal social media following. It has also led to a strong start for the brands development in the first half of 2016. In the second quarter alone, Toppers Pizzas saw sales increase 5.2% as it added to its rapidly growing franchise system by opening the brands second Sioux Falls, South Dakota location and one unit in Kansas City, Missouri. The brand also signed three additional multi-unit development franchise deals that will ultimately open up 41 new locations for business. Six of those units will be in North Carolina, 13 will be in Colorado and Wyoming and 22 will be located in Virginia and Maryland. Were incredibly excited about the opportunity to continue to expand the Toppers brand nationwide. Our model and focus on multi-unit development continues to give us the chance to steal business away from the big guys in the industry, said Scott Gittrich, founder and president of Toppers Pizza. Were 100 percent confident that our commitment to convenience and quality, along with our delicious, made-from-scratch products, will instantly become fan favorites in new communities across the country. Toppers expansion deal in Colorado and Wyoming is being led by Todd Geatches and Clayton Hartman, co-owners of the Rocky Top Management group. They both bring a wealth of franchise knowledge to the tableGeatches helped Papa Johns grow from 400 locations to more than 2500 in his role as district manager, and Hartman has three decades of experience addressing the complex needs of high-net worth foundations and business owners. The brands expansion efforts in Virginia and Maryland are being spearheaded by Mike McLaughlin, who also spent years working for franchise concepts like Papa Johns and Five Guys Burgers & Fries. He decided to invest with Toppers in order to be a part of the next big name in the growing pizza industry. The infrastructure that Toppers has in place on the corporate level makes it incredibly well suited to take the brand to the national level. Its passion for creating unique menu options really separates the brand from other major chains in the industry, which is why I decided to franchise with Toppers over other pizza brands, said McLaughlin. That heightened level of dedication isnt limited to Toppers menu. The brand also constantly works to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to technology, recently hiring its first ever vice president of information technology, Tony Ellis. As a key member of the brands leadership team, he will take the brands overall technology strategy, innovation and execution to the next level. His first priority is creating a cloud-first and mobile-first approach to technology. Hell also be the driving force behind Toppers efforts to launch a next generation e-commerce platform. Seamless technology is essential for any organization, and its something that Toppers Pizza has always excelled at. Thats why Im thrilled to build on the brands strong momentum by making sure its digital presence is helping Toppers grow at a rapid rate, said Ellis. Offering superior technology to both our customers and local franchise owners is just another way that the brand outshines the competition in the pizza industry. Toppers Pizzas strong second quarter builds off the momentum it created from one of its most successful years to date. In 2015, 73 percent of Toppers stores broke sales records. That impressive growth led to the brand being named one of the top-five fastest-growing brands in the entire limited service pizza restaurant category of the 2016 Technomic Top 500 Restaurant Chain Report, one of QSR Magazines Top Franchise Deals and one of the top food and beverage franchises by the Franchise Business Review. The brand also recently celebrated its impressive year at the annual Toppers Pizza convention in Orlando, Florida, where hundreds of corporate staff, franchisees and location team members came together to recognize the outstanding individuals who drive the brands expansion efforts forward with prestigious awards. Going forward into the rest of 2016, Toppers will continue to rely on its strong franchisee and team member network to continue its record-breaking growth. By signing these major multi-unit franchise deals and stepping up our technology efforts, Toppers Pizza is poised for rapid growth in the months and years to come, said Gittrich. Were going to keep capitalizing on the momentum thats been building all year, and continue our tradition of never settling when it comes to our development and expansion efforts. About Toppers Pizza Capitalizing on the booming better pizza category and fueled by the passion of Founder & President Scott Gittrich and a team of experienced industry veterans, Toppers Pizza has formulated the perfect recipe to appeal to both pizza enthusiasts and savvy investors. Headquartered in Wisconsin, Toppers is one of the fastest growing better-pizza chains in the United States. The brand has doubled in size over the last three years and completely sold out three states based on growth spurred by both existing franchisees and established multi-unit operators. Now with restaurants in 12 states and with territories immediately available across the country, Toppers is on its way to becoming a nationwide brand. Toppers is committed to quality and consistency throughout the system, and plans to maintain corporate ownership of 25 percent of all locations while the brand expands to continuously improve on best practices and product development. Toppers fanatics love the brands fresh, handmade and customizable pizza baked in about 6 minutes and delivered extremely fast, with more than a million combinations of fresh, high quality toppings, and the brands signature line of flavored Topperstix and baked Buffalo wings. In 2014, Entrepreneur Magazine ranked Toppers as one of the top 500 franchises in the U.S and QSR Magazine listed the company as one of the years Best Franchise Deals. For more information on how to join the rapidly growing Toppers family and for a sneak peek into the Toppers experience, visit http://www.toppersfranchise.com/. SOURCE Toppers Pizza Contact: Lauren Boukas No Limit Agency +1 (312) 526-3996 ### Comments: Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. Disqus Stratus Building Solutions to Focus Efforts on East Coast Business Development International janitorial service and franchising company announces plans to further expand across the East Coast. LOS ANGELES, CA (PRWEB) August 09, 2016 - Stratus Building Solutions, after recently announcing expansion into Canada, the company headquarters is now looking to focus on further Eastern US expansion. Recently opening to two more locations this year, San Jose and New Orleans, accounting to 27 locations nationwide; Stratushas established a solid presence in the West and Midwest and is looking to magnify its presence in the East. Leader in green commercial cleaning services, a $52 billion industry, andEntrepreneur Magazine ranked #7 Fastest-Growing Franchise, Stratus Building Solutions seeks a number of locations for its newest regional franchise. All the way up the East Coast from Miami, Orlando, Atlanta, Charlotte, Raleigh, Richmond, Washington, DC, Boston and out to Pittsburgh are all target locations for development to build a strong brand on the Eastern United States to accompany the West's and Midwests strong brand notoriety. These metropolitans especially are great fit for ourRegional Master Franchise model for their abundant and notably varied types of businesses, as well as large base populations who would utilize our janitorial services and invest in our Unit Franchise model, states Afshin Cangarlu, CEO. About The Stratus Building Solutions The Stratus Building Solutions franchise business model is built on a two tier system; Master Franchises that operate as the regional franchisors, selling and offering support to their Unit Franchisees, who focus on commercial cleaning, janitorial and customer service. The Stratus Building Solutions Master Franchise model focuses on sales and marketing to two different consumer bases, including recruiting new Unit Franchisees and offering support to those franchisees by targeting commercial cleaning and janitorial customers. Master Franchise owners are typically experienced sales, marketing and business development professionals who have spent a great deal of their careers in Corporate America looking for then next step in their careers and are interested in going into business for themselves, states COO, Channen Smith who also came from a similar background in Healthcare prior to purchasing his first Master Franchise in Denver, which lead to a partnership to acquire the Stratus Franchise Headquarters in 2015. It is a great opportunity to go into business for yourself, without sacrificing current comforts like a regular schedule and office environment, he adds. There are still many available Master regions in major metropolitan across the United States and Canada also prime for expansion including Dallas, San Antonio, New Mexico, Chicago, Minneapolis, Indianapolis and Edmonton and Toronto in Canada. SOURCE The Stratus Building Solutions Contact: Rachel Frazier Stratus Building Solutions +1 (888) 981-1555 ### Comments: Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. Disqus Your Pie to Host First-Ever Your Fest Celebration in Athens, Georgia With a Community-first Focus, The Inaugural Your Fest Event Will Partner with a Local Charity to Help End Childhood Hunger ATHENS, GA. (PRWEB) August 09, 2016 - When Drew French founded Your Pie, his mission was simple: Do every small thing with passion and greatness. Thats why, for years, French had always dreamed about giving back to a community that had supported and embraced his brand from the very beginning - Athens, Georgia. Now, that dream is finally coming to fruition. On August 20th, the first-ever Your Fest will make its debut in the Athens community, and its an event created to celebrate what Your Pie is all about: a place where people, communities, great beer, great pizza and the arts come together for one amazing, unforgettable experience. Ive been wanting to have an event like Your Fest for a very long time. I wanted it to highlight the true core of Your Pie - and thats community. It creates an entirely new - and much more personal - way for us to connect with everyone that has supported our brand from the moment we first opened our doors, French said. But most importantly, it gives us a chance to truly thank our community by giving back in a very meaningful way. French is referring to Your Fests tagline: To End Childhood Hunger. A lot of kids in his community struggle with food insecurity during the summer months when school lunches arent available - and French wanted to harness the power of the Your Pie Family to do something about it. For the inaugural Your Fest, French has partnered with Action Ministries Smart Lunch, Smart Kids. Nearly one million children in Georgia schools are eligible to receive free or reduced-price lunch - a crucial meal that disappears in the summer. Smart Lunch, Smart Kid ensures that these children are fed during school breaks. A portion of proceeds from Your Fest will go to next years programs so that they can continue providing meals to as many children as possible. For every one of Your Pies Peach Prosciutto Pies thats sold, theyll also donate one pizza back to the charity. During the summer months, thousands of kids lose they only meal they can count on. We wanted to team up with a charity that has always made a difference in these kids lives and help supplement those meals during this time of year, French said. By bringing hundreds of people together for Your Fest, were also helping to raise awareness and get more people involved. Pizza, craft beer and live music are also at the core of Your Fest. In addition to the sounds of local bands, like headliner Wrenn, and tastes of local brews, 11 chefs from some of Athens best restaurants, including Peter Dale of The National, Seabear and Condor Chocolates; Gena Knox of Fire and Flavor; and Charlie Mustard of Jittery Joes will be whipping up their own pizza concoctions in a craft pie cook-off. Your Pie will donate $2,000 to the winning chefs charity of choice. French hopes to use the first Your Fest as a launching point, and eventually, his plan is to not only make it an annual event, but to extend it into every other Your Pie community as well. All of our Your Pie restaurants are super local and very much involved in their communities. We want to continue to grow Your Fest every single year, with the hope that as it becomes bigger, well make a bigger impact and raise more awareness for our cause, French said. Childhood hunger will continue to be Your Pies mission in each of our communities. Tickets for Your Fest cost anywhere from $15 to $75, and the event will take place on Saturday, August 20 from 1 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. at the Terrapin Beer Co., in Athens Georgia. About Your Pie Your Pie is the worlds originator of the quick-serve, brick-oven, customized personal pizza category. A culinary entrepreneur since his teenage years, Your Pie founder Drew French combined his passion for innovative restaurant concepts with brick oven technology to create the highest quality pizza available at incredible speed. Drawing from family recipes from the island of Ischia, Your Pie uses hand-tossed dough, only fresh ingredients, homemade pizza sauces and salad dressings, and offers vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free pizzas, as well as traditional pizzas. Customers who dine at Your Pie have come to expect the best tasting pizza served with speed without sacrificing flavor. Your Pie is a state of mind and the brand stands by its motto to express your inner pizza, investing in local communities and encouraging diners to let their culinary creativity run wild. For more information about Your Pie or franchising opportunities, please visit http://www.yourpie.com. SOURCE Your Pie Contact: Lauren Boukas No Limit Agency +1 (312) 526-3996 ### Comments: Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. Disqus Aroga Worldwide, a Direct Sales Company, Partners with Internet Radio Host, Launching Internet Radio Show, Showcasing Products and Customer Testimonials. Aroga Worldwide has partnered up with, Internt Radio Host, Adam Broker, staying better connected with Aroga's Customers and Distributors around the Globe. Providing an opportunity for Aroga's Customers and Distributors to get updates and share personal product experiences about Aroga's Acu-Point Holograms. -- Aroga Worldwide, based in Ontario Canada, and maker of Acupoint RealTime Holograms, is blazing a new trail in communications between Corporate, Customers and Independent Distributors. As companies search for unique ways to retain customers and Reps, Aroga worldwide is absolutely "thinking outside of the box", with its new Internet Radio Show called Grove's Avenue. Aroga Independent Distributor, and seasoned Internet Radio Host, Adam Broker, brought the idea to Aroga's CEO, Grove Bennett, to host a weekly Radio Show that features Grove Bennett, and a rotation of guest speakers. "In my experience with other Direct Sales companies, I knew that most CEOs and Executives don't communicate on a regular basis with customers and Distributors in the field, and if they do any communications at all, it's typically through static email blasts, or via a company wide conference calls that are usually scripted and sometimes filled with hype. After spending time with, and getting to know our CEO, I knew that a weekly radio show would allow our Customers to "meet" the Man behind Aroga, while conveying the true vision of Mr. Bennett, and allow our Customers and Reps to stay "up to date" and feel a true connection with the company." ~Adam Broker, Internet Radio Host, "Accu Man" Grove's Avenue, airs weekly, and brings a breath-of-fresh-air to the world of Networking. The show features a commercial-free, interview-style radio show, that is truly engaging and informative. The show includes recent company updates, and relevant insight by Mr. Bennett, as well as scheduled speakers and call-in guests. Groves Avenue, typically covers current topics about Aroga Worldwide, and features guests' testimonials about their personal experiences with Arogas' Acu-Point Holograms. As the Internet has changed many industries, including publishing, music, and communications, it has also opened new opportunities for those who see the value in doing live broadcasts. With the ability to reach an unlimited audience, live Internet broadcasts are a great way to attract new customers, and keep current customers and Distributors engaged. According to Aroga's CEO, Grove Bennett, the company has plans to expand the use of live Internet Radio Broadcasts, by offering the platform as a communication tool for Aroga's Global Distributor Force. According to Bennett, there are currently plans to tie in the platform with other business tools, soon to be offered through Aroga Worldwide' Sister Division, Aroga Media. Listeners can tune-in to Groves' Avenue, every Wednesday, at 12 Noon Pacific / 3 pm Eastern, by visiting: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/arogaworldwide More About Aroga Worldwide: Aroga Worldwide, is one in a group of six companies under the umbrella of Aroga Holdings Corp, a publicly listed company. Aroga CEO, Grove Bennett, has an extensive business resume. Having the experience of running private and public companies, from operations, manufacturing, business development, finance and customer relations. Bennett has worked within the major credit card and banking industries, and even headed up a team that developed training programs for Integrated Maintenance Training System (IMTS), a maintenance training system for the F/A:18 Fighter Jet and a $44MM Canadian contract to the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Royal Australian Air Force. Aroga's Acu-Point Holograms are are small, portable and disposable. Each Quantum Infused Hologram is smaller than a US Quarter, and thinner than a postage stamp. The energy is infused into a design, that can best be described as a circuit, or chip technology. The Holograms stick to the skin with a non-allergenic adhesive, and can be worn as long as needed. Each Hologram is color coded to remind the user of which application the Hologram is recommended for. As a do-it-yourself product, the user not only benefits from the convenience of the Holograms, but can save considerable amounts of money using Aroga's Acu-Point Holograms. Currently, Aroga offers six different Holograms in its product lineup that support the body. The Holograms are aptly named, addressing pain relief (called Relief), a sleep aid (called Sleep), an energy enhancement (called Energy), a weight control (called Fit), a mental clarity (called Focus), and a sexual support Hologram (called Pleasure). For Aroga Holdings Corp, Investor Information, send email to: InvestorRelations@ArogaCorp.com More About Aroga Media: Aroga Worldwide' Sister Division, Aroga Media, holds a Google Reseller Agreement. The Aroga Media division continues to support, promote and build on the Google Apps for Work platform focusing on the products, and services available in this incredibly versatile and powerful suite of applications. As a Google Apps reseller, Aroga Media's business plan calls for a focus on both the commercial and educational markets. For more information, please visit https://www.arogaworldwide.com/egrant Contact Info: Name: Eric Grant Email: egrantonline@gmail.com Organization: QastMe Phone: +1 206-227-7821 Video URL: https://youtu.be/Ho6FZmd8Btc Source: http://marketersmedia.com/aroga-worldwide-a-direct-sales-company-partners-with-internet-radio-host-launching-internet-radio-show-showcasing-products-and-customer-testimonials/127007 Release ID: 127007 For more information visit r Recent Press Releases By The Same User Agarwood Essential Oil Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 4.2% During 2016 to 2022"> (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Cyber Weapon Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Landscaping and Gardening Expert Trevor McClintock Launches New Locally Optimized Website (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Sleep apnea devices Market is Evolving At A CAGR of 7.5% by 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Agriculture Technology Market 2017 Global Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Global VR Helmet Market by Manufacturers, Technology, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Pierre Charles Launches Blog Post About Business Opportunity Leads A new blog post on the topic of generating business opportunity leads has been launched by Pierre Charles. The article discusses how to obtain targeted leads for a website or product. -- Pierre Charles is pleased to make available a new blog article about business opportunity leads and how to generate them easily. A number of concepts are discussed on the topic. The target of the information is marketers or entrepreneurs seeking improved traffic to a website. The concept of lead generation is not as difficult as it may seem, but finding targeted leads who are interested in the product or service which is being sold is the hard part. Finding a significant number of leads, or people who are interested in the products available for sale, can be done through the use of lead capture pages. These web pages are strictly designed to focus solely on capturing the contact information of people interested in types of products or services. These contacts are sold to firms who are looking for a particular type of person who are interested in what they are selling. One popular product category is that of business opportunities. The blog posting discusses business opportunity lead generation and how it can become a source of revenue. There are a number of popular opportunities available, and all are more effective online than offline. The principles are the same in either case. The product can be any of several types. The most important aspect is to act promptly upon the leads that are received. The additional key element in lead generation is to capture contact information from those who are interested in the product or service. The two methods of obtaining targeted leads are to purchase specific leads from a company or a develop the leads through personal efforts of the business owner. The second method involves designing a lead capture page on the internet which encourages the reader to provide a name and email address. This contact information is both targeted and timely. For more information, please visit http://www.bestmlmmarketing.com/mlm-lead-generation/business-opportunity-lead-generation/ Contact Info: Name: Pierre Charles Organization: Pierre Charles Address: 2-906 Watson St, Ottawa, Ontario K2B 6B9 Phone: (613) 404-6058 Source: http://marketersmedia.com/pierre-charles-launches-blog-post-about-business-opportunity-leads/127015 Release ID: 127015 For more information visit r Recent Press Releases By The Same User Agarwood Essential Oil Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 4.2% During 2016 to 2022"> (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Cyber Weapon Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Landscaping and Gardening Expert Trevor McClintock Launches New Locally Optimized Website (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Sleep apnea devices Market is Evolving At A CAGR of 7.5% by 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Agriculture Technology Market 2017 Global Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Global VR Helmet Market by Manufacturers, Technology, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) San Diego Solar Installers - 4 Sons Solar Announces Wholesale Solar Panels San Diego Solar Installers - 4 Sons Solar announces new wholesale prices on solar panels to SoCal residents and business owners. 4 Sons Solar Electric invite customers to a free no obligation solar analysis with their new "No Money Down" wholesale program. -- San Diego Solar Installers - 4 Sons Solar Announces Wholesale Prices On Solar Panels To SoCal Residence and Business Owners. The solar installation company is offering discounted rates to encourage more homeowners to take advantage of solar energy, reports greenenergyinstallers.com San Diego, California With concerns about global warming and fossil fuel depletion on the rise, alternative energy sources are getting more attention these days, and many homeowners are considering installing solar panels to save energy and cut their monthly bills. While solar panels can represent considerable savings - more than $100 a month in some parts of the country - they are not inexpensive to install. To offset the potentially prohibitive expense of new solar panels, the San Diego solar energy company 4 Sons Solar Electric is offering wholesale prices for homeowners. "A lot of customers are put off by the price of solar panels, but we are doing everything we can to make it easier for home owners to use solar energy," said company spokesperson Thorin Lee. "We are offering wholesale rates at the deepest discount possible, and we also offer HERO financing with no money down, which makes us competitive with any other southern california solar installers." HERO stands for the Home Energy Renovation Opportunity program, which offers low-interest 100% financing for energy-efficient or renewable energy products in California to qualifying homeowners, with repayments made through property tax collection. "Once they buy the panels," Lee continued, "homeowners can start saving money on their energy bills, and they also become eligible for tax breaks and rebates from the power company." Another benefit of HERO financing is that the debt can transfer to the next owner if the house is sold before the debt is paid off. "We tell our customers that they only have to pay for the solar panels while they're using them. Not only do solar panels considerably increase the value of a home, the next owner will very likely take on the cost of paying for them. If you're planning to sell your home in the foreseeable future, it's a good thing to keep in mind," said Lee. 4 Sons Solar Electric sells exclusively American and German-made products because of their high quality and reliability. "There are fewer issues with the modules we sell because they have gone through a lot of third-party testing before they reach the market," explained Lee. "Our solar panels last a minimum of 25 years. Other solar panel companies san diego may be selling cheaper products, but we stand behind the quality of what we offer our customers." With the incentive of wholesale pricing for homeowners, Lee hopes to see more people taking advantage of the cost-saving and environmental benefits of solar energy. "Depending on the size of your home, your energy use, and the area where you live, solar energy can pay for itself in a relatively short time. We encourage homeowners to contact us to find out whether solar panels are truly an affordable solution for their homes." About 4 Sons Solar Electric 4 Sons Solar Electric, the best solar company san diego, offers wholesale solar panels and dealer discounted rates to homeowners. The company uses American and German-made quality components. They require no money down, and they offer HERO financing with the lowest qualifying rates. 4 Sons' goal is to help customers lower their energy bills while increasing the value of their homes with solar panels. 4 Sons invites customers to call or fill out a form on their website for a free analysis. For more information, please visit http://greenenergyinstallers.com Contact Info: Name: Thorin Lee Organization: 4 Sons Solar Electric Address: 864 Grand Ave. #508 San Diego, CA 92109 Phone: 619-919-5469 For more information, please visit http://greenenergyinstallers.com Contact Info: Name: Thorin Lee Organization: 4 Sons Solar Electric Address: 864 Grand Ave. #508 San Diego, CA 92109 Phone: 619-919-5469 Release ID: 127020 For more information visit r Recent Press Releases By The Same User Agarwood Essential Oil Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 4.2% During 2016 to 2022"> (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Cyber Weapon Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Landscaping and Gardening Expert Trevor McClintock Launches New Locally Optimized Website (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Sleep apnea devices Market is Evolving At A CAGR of 7.5% by 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Agriculture Technology Market 2017 Global Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Global VR Helmet Market by Manufacturers, Technology, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) FranquiasBaratasz.com.br Launches Informative Franchising Blog FranquiasBaratasz offers an informational blog and website on the topic of franchising. The site focuses on franchises which are inexpensive and lucrative. -- Edevaldo Lima, CEO of FranquiasBaratasz.com.br is pleased to announce the launch of an informative blog and website to explain how to understand and locate inexpensive franchises with excellent monthly billings. Such entities are a means of safer developments in the economic situation of the country. In today's business environment, there are inexpensive franchises for nearly every market niche, making it easy to find the right franchise for each potential entrepreneur. According to Edevaldo Lima, speaking in a recent interview, "The franchise has proved to be a more solid business model than most, according to data from Brazilian Association of Franchising (ABF). The failure rate of micro-enterprises is more than three of ten start-ups during the first two years of business experience in the market. For franchises, the failure rate drops to only five percent. Our new blog focuses only on low cost models with excellent returns." The Franquias Baratas Z website and blog is divided into various categories with content for each of the topics. These categories include Success Franchises, Virtual Franchises, and Micro Franquias. There is also a list of franchises which meet the standards set by the site, as well as internet types. The blog site contains much information about franchising so that interested entrepreneurs can learn most about its benefits compared to traditional business. These include a business that is tried and tested. The business model has been tested by the franchisor and has proven to be successful. The reputation is well-known. One of the greatest benefits of an economical franchise is the brand. The franchisee has the benefit of all the advertising and brand authority. Much of the work of issues for staff training, location, logistics and other details are completed by the franchisor. The comprehensive nature of the website helps to review details about the business which assist in making a decision. For more information, please visit http://franquiasbaratasz.com.br/ Contact Info: Name: Edevaldo Lima, CEO Organization: FranquiasBaratasz.com.br Address: 7 Setembro, N 15, Centro, Penedo-AL, Brasil Source: http://marketersmedia.com/franquiasbaratasz-com-br-launches-informative-franchising-blog/127005 Release ID: 127005 For more information visit r Recent Press Releases By The Same User Agarwood Essential Oil Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 4.2% During 2016 to 2022"> (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Cyber Weapon Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Landscaping and Gardening Expert Trevor McClintock Launches New Locally Optimized Website (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Sleep apnea devices Market is Evolving At A CAGR of 7.5% by 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Agriculture Technology Market 2017 Global Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Global VR Helmet Market by Manufacturers, Technology, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Lipsig Personal Injury Attorneys Open Office In Queens, NY The personal injury lawyers of Lipsig, Shapey, Manus & Moverman are proud to announce the opening of their new office locations in Queens, NY. -- Suffering a serious injury in an unexpected accident is often a life-changing experience that can be difficult to cope with. Many personal injury victims are left trying to deal with the consequences of expensive medical bills, lost income, serious pain and emotional suffering, yet don't know where to turn for help. Fortunately, there is hope for those who have been seriously injured due to the negligence of others. Personal Injury Attorneys In Queens, New York The experienced lawyers at Lipsig, Shapey, Manus & Moverman have been helping personal injury victims in New York City for decades and are proud to announce the opening of their new office location in Queens, New York. The new personal injury law office is strategically located to serve personal injury victims seeking legal representation in the Queens community and surrounding neighborhoods. To see photos of the new personal injury law office in Queens, click here. With years of experience handling all types of personal injury cases, the Lipsig lawyers understand what it takes to uncover negligence in a personal injury lawsuit and obtain fair compensation for their clients. In fact, the Lipsig Law Firm has successfully recovered over $500 million dollars in verdicts and settlements for their clients in the past. In addition to other types of personal injury cases, the Lipsig lawyers represent clients injured in car accidents, construction accidents, slip and fall accidents, and medical malpractice claims. Get Legal Help Today By Sheduling A Free Consultations Contacting an experienced attorney is one of the most important steps after a serious accident or injury. The Lipsig lawyers offer free consultations for those seeking legal assistance after being injured in a serious accident. Get legal help today by calling 929-239-4664 to schedule a free consultation with a New York lawyer who can explain the legal options available to those injured in personal injury accidents. Contact Info: Name: Thomas Moverman Email: info@lipsig.com Phone: 929-239-4664 Organization: Lipsig, Shapey, Manus & Moverman Source: http://www.prreach.com/pr/25523 Release ID: 127055 For more information visit r Recent Press Releases By The Same User Agarwood Essential Oil Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 4.2% During 2016 to 2022"> (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Cyber Weapon Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Landscaping and Gardening Expert Trevor McClintock Launches New Locally Optimized Website (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Sleep apnea devices Market is Evolving At A CAGR of 7.5% by 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Agriculture Technology Market 2017 Global Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Global VR Helmet Market by Manufacturers, Technology, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Wallin & Klarich Awards 2016 Wallin & Klarich Scholarship Award to Victoria Tang Orange County criminal defense law firm Wallin & Klarich awards $3,000 scholarship to first-year law student pursuing a career in criminal law. -- TUSTIN, CALIFORNIA - Wallin & Klarich, A Law Corporation today announced Victoria Tang as the recipient of the 2016 Wallin & Klarich Scholarship. Ms. Tang will be attending The University of California, Berkeley, School of Law starting this fall. She will receive $3,000 from Wallin & Klarich, A Law Corporation to be applied toward her school tuition, books and/or any materials required for her studies. The Wallin & Klarich scholarship is an annual scholarship available to all college seniors in California who will be attending their first year at an accredited California law school the following fall. In addition, those applying must have achieved a cumulative minimum GPA of 3.0 in undergraduate studies. Based in Tustin, California, Wallin & Klarich practices criminal defense and thus awards the scholarship only to a student who is interested in pursuing a career in criminal law. Applicants for the Wallin & Klarich scholarship were asked to construct an essay describing why they want to become a criminal justice attorney, and detailing the challenges they have faced in order to get to where they are today and how those challenges have shaped who they are as a person today. "We had many applicants for this scholarship. After reading about the challenges she overcame, Ms. Tang stood out to us as the best candidate for the 2016 Wallin & Klarich scholarship. We congratulate Ms. Tang and wish her continued success on her journey to a career in criminal law," said Wallin & Klarich Senior Partner Paul Wallin. Ms. Tang is the second winner of the scholarship, which was awarded for the first time in 2015. The 2015 Wallin & Klarich Scholarship award winner, Raul Ibarra, is currently attending Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles, California. The goal of the Wallin & Klarich Scholarship is to aid students who have overcome obstacles to be admitted to law school and now face the financial burden of attempting to obtain a degree in law school. About Wallin & Klarich: Wallin & Klarich, A Law Corporation has established itself as a premier criminal defense and family law firm in Southern California by successfully representing individuals and families in their time of legal need since 1981. The firm believes that every person is entitled to the highest quality legal assistance and commits to aggressively defending its clients. For more information, please visit https://www.wklaw.com/scholarship/ Contact Info: Name: Paul J. Wallin, Esq. Email: marketing@wklaw.com Organization: Wallin & Klarich, A Law Corporation Address: 17592 Irvine Blvd. Tustin, CA 92780 Phone: 714-730-5300 Release ID: 127030 For more information visit r Recent Press Releases By The Same User Agarwood Essential Oil Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 4.2% During 2016 to 2022"> (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Cyber Weapon Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Landscaping and Gardening Expert Trevor McClintock Launches New Locally Optimized Website (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Sleep apnea devices Market is Evolving At A CAGR of 7.5% by 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Agriculture Technology Market 2017 Global Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Global VR Helmet Market by Manufacturers, Technology, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Swing set installers team in Maryland and Virginia launched by Furniture Assembly Experts Furniture Assembly Experts is a widely-popular and highly-trusted USA's one of the leading company, which was established in 2013. Furniture Assembly Experts provide comprehensive furniture assembly, disassembly and furniture delivery service in Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia at affordable rates -- Highly-trusted, well-known leading furniture assembly service provider, Furniture Assembly Experts after the success of their other comprehensive furniture assembly, disassembly and furniture delivery service - now launches one more amazing service - the Swing Set Installing Service. Furniture Assembly Experts states on its website, "We assemble and install swing set from any retail store in Washington DC, Maryland and northern Virginia. We assemble ready to assemble swing set that comes in a Flat Pack at the Customer`s home or place of business, daycare, recreational centers, nursery, elementary school, high school and middle schools. We specialize in Ready-To-Assemble playset from all major brands and store Manufacturers such as: Kmart, Walmart, Sears, Costco, Amazon, Sam's club, Gorilla, Skyfort, Home Depot, Lowe's, Wayfair, etc." The Furniture Assembly Experts has specially assigned a team for this service. Thought this may be a new service for Furniture Assembly Experts, but still Furniture Assembly Experts' Swing set installers team has been very carefully selected by Furniture Assembly Service. The entire team has years of swing set installation experience and they are highly-skilled, so they exactly know how to install any kind of swing sets, no matter how complicated it is - no swing set installation job is a problem for the expert swing set installers of the Furniture Assembly Experts. Each swing set cost hundreds and thousands of dollars, but it is usually quite difficult for people to install the swing set in a proper manner - especially for people who hold no experience of installing complicated swing sets - so their money goes to complete waste. But, this will happen not anymore because the best and the most affordable swing set installation in Virginia is now here to serve the people of Virginia with fast and affordable swing set installation service, but Furniture Assembly Experts' also offer swing set installation in Maryland and in Washington DC as well. So, not matter if one requires top-notch swing set assembly service in any area of Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia - Furniture Assembly Expert is there to help now. The need of this service can be analyzed by the fantastic response that Furniture Assembly Experts have received after the launch of this service. Several people have already hired this service of Furniture Assembly Experts, they love it and they highly-recommend it to others. About: Furniture Assembly Experts is a widely-popular and highly-trusted USA's one of the leading company, which was established in 2013. Furniture Assembly Experts provide comprehensive furniture assembly, disassembly and furniture delivery service in Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia at affordable rates. For more information, please go to www.SwingSetassemblyservice.com For more information, please visit http://www.SwingSetassemblyservice.com Contact Info: Name: Furniture Assembly Experts Organization: Furniture Assembly Experts Address: 9418 annapolis RD suite 204 Source: http://marketersmedia.com/swing-set-installers-team-in-maryland-and-virginia-launched-by-furniture-assembly-experts/127071 Release ID: 127071 For more information visit r Recent Press Releases By The Same User Agarwood Essential Oil Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 4.2% During 2016 to 2022"> (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Cyber Weapon Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Landscaping and Gardening Expert Trevor McClintock Launches New Locally Optimized Website (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Sleep apnea devices Market is Evolving At A CAGR of 7.5% by 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Agriculture Technology Market 2017 Global Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Global VR Helmet Market by Manufacturers, Technology, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Thermalabs Launches Two New Body Scrub Exfoliators Thermalabs has introduced two brand new body scrub exfoliators -- Two new body scrub exfoliators from Thermalabs are now available in the market. It's been a long time coming for these new releases since Thermalabs promised to announce them some months ago. The products are under the Supremasea brand name. This is a recently-launched sub-brand that will oversee production and marketing of the company's new line of top-line skin care products based on unique salts and mineral salts extracted from the Dead Sea. Thermalabs is one of the most innovative young firms in the cosmetics industry. Despite opening its doors just three years ago, the company has managed to furnish the market with at least 20 premium products. These include self-tanning lotions, tanning accessories, beach-related accessories, skincare moisturizers, and lotions, as well as organic healthcare products. The company's focus on natural and organic ingredients that actually boost health has been seen as one of its major success points. Thermalabs also appears to be obsessed with quality. The firm subjects all its new products to comprehensive and lengthy testing before making them available to users in the market. The Lavender exfoliator is a top of the line product that features a natural, organic formula. It helps exfoliate the skin so as to remove the outer layer of Dead cells. It also facilitates the repair and nourishing of damaged skin through the regeneration of skin cells. The product keeps the skin supple and leaves it with a mild fragrance. According to Thermalabs, this exfoliator is ideal for people looking to make their skin healthier, as well as individuals looking to suppress skincare conditions such as eczema, acne, skin burns and insect bites. It restores the skin's natural radiance and delivers a pleasing fragrance. In addition to microscopic grains of mineral salts from the Dead Sea, Thermalabs Lavender Organic exfoliator also contains Sweet Almond Oil, Wheat Germ Oil, and Calendula Oil, among many other unique ingredients. Thermalabs Organic Vanilla Patchouli exfoliator is a premium, natural formula designed from incredible Dead Sea salts. The product triggers the repair and nourishment of damaged skin, with regeneration of skin cells. It also leaves the skin moisturized, and gives it a relaxing mild fragrance. According to Thermalabs, it's ideal for all skin types and works great with both men and women. The product easily delivers the many benefits of exfoliation. For instance, it restores optimum skin healthy, promotes blood circulation and removes residual dirt. Some of its main ingredients include microscopic grains of Dead Sea mineral salts, Vanilla oil, and Patchouli oil (which is known to deliver multiple benefits when it comes to skin regeneration). Both these exfoliators, Organic Lavender and Organic Vanilla Patchouli, are available to customers on Amazon.com. The company traditionally launches all its releases on Amazon, as well as on its official website - Thermalabs.com. The products are currently selling at an introductory price rate that's 73% lower than their list price. For more information, please visit http://www.thermalabs.com/home Contact Info: Name: Jennifer Parker Organization: Thermalabs Address: 450 West 58th Street New York, NY 10019 Phone: (877) 266-6257 Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M319jHUOovY Source: http://marketersmedia.com/thermalabs-launches-two-new-body-scrub-exfoliators/126958 Release ID: 126958 For more information visit r Recent Press Releases By The Same User Agarwood Essential Oil Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 4.2% During 2016 to 2022"> (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Cyber Weapon Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Landscaping and Gardening Expert Trevor McClintock Launches New Locally Optimized Website (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Sleep apnea devices Market is Evolving At A CAGR of 7.5% by 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Agriculture Technology Market 2017 Global Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Global VR Helmet Market by Manufacturers, Technology, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Arcadia Painting Plus Launch New Website To Promote Their Services Locally Online Arcadia Painting Plus has created a new locally optimized website to promote their painting services to citizens of Chicago and the surrounding area. -- Painting is an essential part of creating an inviting space, whether it be homes, offices or commercial buildings. A high quality, flawless paint job can make any space feel more premium, and creating that finish is an art all to itself. As such, individuals are best served trusting the experience of a professional painter, and Arcadia Painting Plus offers the very best painting services in Chicago and the surrounding areas. The company has just launched a brand new website, designed to be specially locally optimized in order to make them more easily discoverable within their service areas. The new Arcadia Painting Plus website was created by the Carpentersville Painters to better represent their services online. As such, it has a comprehensive overview of their residential and commercial, exterior and interior painting services, replete with high quality images of their work and a detailed breakdown of their unique approach. What's more, the site is fully optimized to ensure it is easily discoverable through search engines like Google and Bing, so more clients than ever can find the services they're looking for from the best Painters Carpentersville IL has to offer. The site is fully responsive, loading seamlessly on any device or screen size, making it ideal for those searching for painters on the move. A spokesperson for Arcadia Painting Plus explained, "We are excited to be able to launch the new website and we look forward to introducing ourselves to new customers via this new medium. The updated website is targeted solely at our service areas, and will enable people to discover us without the need for a personal recommendation or referral. The website has full details on all our work and services, and an impressive portfolio to demonstrate the incredible quality of our finished work. What it can't do, however, is convey the absolute commitment to a stress-free, satisfying customer experience, which is why we encourage people to get in touch for a free quote." About Arcadia Painting Plus: Arcadia Painting Plus offers high end, affordable painting services in Chicago and the surrounding areas. With over fifteen years of experience, their expert team of painters are capable of delivering outstanding results to both residential and commercial clients, for interior and exterior painting. They are fully committed to outstanding customer service. For more information, please visit http://arcadiapaintingpluspro.com/ Contact Info: Name: PRWhirlWind Organization: PRWhirlWind Source: http://marketersmedia.com/arcadia-painting-plus-launch-new-website-to-promote-their-services-locally-online/127162 Release ID: 127162 For more information visit r Recent Press Releases By The Same User Agarwood Essential Oil Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 4.2% During 2016 to 2022"> (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Cyber Weapon Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Landscaping and Gardening Expert Trevor McClintock Launches New Locally Optimized Website (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Sleep apnea devices Market is Evolving At A CAGR of 7.5% by 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Agriculture Technology Market 2017 Global Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Global VR Helmet Market by Manufacturers, Technology, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Hearing Awareness Week Expo 2016 Helen King Hearing Solutions, exhibitor at the DRC Hearing Awareness Week Expo 2016, announced Hearing Awareness Week event will be held in Hellenic Club, Matilda Street, Phillip on 24 August 2016. -- Hearing-impaired, deaf communities and hearing service providers looking for the latest information on deafness and hearing care, can register to attend DRC Hearing Awareness Week Expo 2016 scheduled for 24 August 2016. Helen King Hearing Solutions provides hearing aids in Canberra, is exhibiting at this year's event, which will cover key issues such as: 4 Million Australians are Hearing Impaired or Deaf - The Week begins Sunday 21 August 2016. It aims to eliminate the stigma, isolation, lack of work opportunities, and the associated health issues to improve the overall quality of life for people with deafness or hearing impairment. Hearing loss affects one in six Australians, from newborn babies to the elderly - Hearing Awareness Week is an opportunity to focus on the needs of the one in six people who are Deaf or hearing impaired or have a chronic ear disorder. It is also an opportunity to explain to all Australians the risks associated with long-term exposure to excessive noise, often in the workplace Innovation, Technology and Digital Hearing Aids - As technology advances, many people with hearing loss benefit from hearing aids and cochlear implants. These innovations have made a positive difference in the way that people with hearing loss communicate. Full details on the event can be found on the ACT Deafness Resource Centre website at http://www.actdrc.org.au/expo2016. When asked about the reasons behind exhibiting at this event, Helen King said: The 2016 EXPO draws attention to issues and concerns of the Deaf and hearing impaired. It hosts an exciting program of speakers and exhibitions. It is a once in a year opportunity for the hearing-impaired and Deaf communities and the organisations that provide their services to meet in the one place. Join in, and help celebrate the diversity of community. The Helen King Hearing Solutions website has details about the sessions at this year's event. Interested parties can visit the website at: http://hkhearingsolutions.com.au. For more information, please visit http://hkhearingsolutions.com.au Contact Info: Name: Helen King Organization: Helen King Hearing Solutions Address: Unit 1/30, Bougainville Street Manuka, ACT 2603 Phone: 02 6162 4545 Release ID: 127048 For more information visit r Recent Press Releases By The Same User Agarwood Essential Oil Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 4.2% During 2016 to 2022"> (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Cyber Weapon Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Landscaping and Gardening Expert Trevor McClintock Launches New Locally Optimized Website (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Sleep apnea devices Market is Evolving At A CAGR of 7.5% by 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Agriculture Technology Market 2017 Global Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Global VR Helmet Market by Manufacturers, Technology, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Free Freightnet Membership List your company in the Freightnet directory. It's Free, it's Easy and your company can be displayed in front of potential freight buyers within 24 hours. Summers reporting season has started with companies issuing their reports but following a spate of poor economic data and a base rate cut, analyst opinion is divided over prospects for UK PLC. Some analysts believe UK investors may be in for some disappointments, with Joshua Mahony, market analyst at IG, anticipating further volatility. He said initial declines in crude and a decline in the US dollar towards the end of the first week in August had caused fundamental-driven volatility to be on the increase. While he believed UK banks - which had already suffered greatly in the immediate aftermath of the vote to leave the European Union - had already priced in a lot of bad news, he said investors should be aware of any potential contagion in the sector in the form of potential outflows. He said: A report from Durham University in July, citing the potential for a UK banking crisis has been largely disregarded by the markets, with the financial sector representing one of the only green marks of the FTSE map. People looking to dip their toe into stock market investing may want to consider investment trusts as a first port of call to achieving consistent dividend growth Mark Taylor That being said, with the recent anxiety that has flared up in the European banking sector, and the potential for outflows following the referendum, it makes sense to be aware of any potential contagion in the sector. Indeed, some financials have had a rough ride. On 29 July, Barclays Group reported its profit before tax fell 20.7 per cent, compared to the first half of 2015. Specialist insurer Standard Chartered then reported first half underlying profit before tax of $1bn, which was down 46 per cent year-on-year, but, according to analysts at Hargreaves Lansdown, represented a significant improvement on the $1bn loss in the second half of 2015. So while it reported a 46 per cent loss year on year, its performance was better than expected and actually pleased investors, meaning the market pushed Standard Chartered shares up 4.8 per cent. A rate cut to 0.25 per cent by the Bank of England on Thursday (4 August) posed some questions as to banking profitability in the months ahead, although as Nicholas Hyett, equity analyst for Hargreaves Lansdown, said, he believes quite a lot of bad news is already baked into bank share prices at the moment. Advisers polled by FTAdviser Advantage were less sanguine, believing there is a lot more bad news to come this reporting season. According to the poll, carried out on the FTA_Advantage website, 67 per cent of advisers believe that this summers earnings season will be subdued. Only 33 per cent showed confidence. One person who believes there will be renewed confidence in the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 is Mark Taylor, chief executive of Selftrade, who said the Bank of Englands first base rate cut since March 2009 would drive more people away from cash and into the stock market. A number of fund managers have said it is difficult to be sector specific when choosing which areas could benefit from the UK slipping into a recession, as Fidelitys investment director warned moving into classic defensive areas is a risky manoeuvre. Last week, the Bank of England brought the base rate down to a new low of 0.25 per cent, as it looked to stop the UKs economic slowdown from worsening following the Brexit vote. But investment experts have said it is difficult to predict the type and severity of the downturn, suggesting it is best to take a bottom-up approach when choosing where to invest if the UK does stay in negative growth territory. Matthew Jennings, investment director at Fidelity International, said the classic stocks investors buy when they expect an economic downturn are tobacco, consumer staples, healthcare and utilities. Moving into those classic defensive areas now is a risky manoeuvre. Matthew Jennings But he said it is not as simple as buying certain sectors and waiting for the recession to come, because the market has been pricing-in a slowdown for some time. Mr Jennings said the valuations of many of these defensive stocks are now at all time highs. Moving into those classic defensive areas now is a risky manoeuvre, because you will have to pay extremely high valuations for those stocks. He said there is a wide gap between these domestic cyclical companies and the more defensive companies which people have been crowding into, adding: Its a bit late to try to move into this defensive group of stocks. Hugh Yarrow, who co-manages the 934m Evenlode Income fund with Ben Peters, said some companies could become quite interesting if there is a recession, pointing to high quality businesses where the yield is not quite high enough for the fund to invest in at the moment. If a recession were to happen, then more domestically exposed business models are likely to underperform, he explained, adding those companies that were weak after the referendum result are likely to be the obvious candidates in terms of continued underperformance. From our perspective, we like to invest in quality businesses when they are attractively valued, so when sectors become unfashionable then that can provide opportunities, stated Mr Yarrow. But our approach means there are some big domestic sectors which we dont have much exposure to, and we wont even if they are cheap because of our focus on high returns and high capital. Mike Webb, chief executive of Rathbone Unit Trust Management, said a recession would probably suit his funds, because their UK equity exposure focuses on cash-generative businesses with a good margin of safety. That really is the only way you are able to protect investors capital, he said, noting any recession is likely to be a short-lived anyway. If there is a recession, multi-asset funds will become more popular because of their diversification and as they are outcome-orientated within risk targets. Savills UK residential transaction business increased its underlying profits by 37 per cent to 7.4m during the first half, which included the costs of new office openings, compared to 5.4m during the same period last year. Residential transaction fee income rose by 10 per cent to 57.2m by 30 June - from 51.8m in 2015 - on the back of a significant increase in transaction volumes in advance of the stamp duty increase in April. In the second hand sales market, Savills overall transaction volumes were up by 14 per cent in London and 23 per cent in the country market. The average value of London residential property sold by Savills in the period was 2.5m - down from 3m during the first half last year - and 1m in the country. The lower London average value indicates further progress in implementing our strategy to expand in London markets with values below 1.5m, explained the first half results. The new build market also displayed resilient performance, with national transaction volumes increasing by 26 per cent over the first half of 2015. Since the EU referendum there has been an expected reduction in activity, however there is evidence of increased demand, according to Savills, particularly from overseas buyers. Transactions are completing, particularly where vendors are prepared to accept small discounts, the statement added. Group revenue was up 14 per cent from 547m to 622.7m year-on-year during the first six months, although overall profit before tax was down 3 per cent from 26.4m to 25.5m. During the period, the group incurred an aggregate restructuring charge of 1.7m - up from 500,000 in the first half of 2015 - and acquisition related costs of 15m - up from 10.6m last year. The restructuring charge related principally to the integration of Smiths Gore with the Savills UK business. Group chief executive Jeremy Helsby said that looking to the second half, at this stage, in the traditionally quieter summer period and so soon after the EU referendum result, it is not possible to obtain a clear read on the direction of activity in a number of the groups principal markets, although the fundamental attributes of real estate as an investment class remain strong. peter.walker@ft.com The Investment Association (IA) has challenged the suspicion that funds carry hidden fees which hurt returns, claiming it has found zero evidence of such a trend. Using data from fund research firm Fitz Partners, a study from the IA has analysed explicit transaction costs, portfolio turnover rates and returns for 1,350 equity fund accounts, based on pre-RDR share classes which incorporated both adviser and platform fees. The trade body noted that, given an average bundled ongoing charges figure (OCF) of 142 basis points (bps), and transaction costs of 17 bps, one might expect fund returns to fall short of benchmark returns by 159bps - the sum of....the OCF and transaction costs. However in its publication, Investment Costs and Performance: Empirical Evidence of UK Fund Industry Delivery, the IA argued this was not the case. Contrary to this expectation, funds actually covered both ongoing charges and explicit transaction costs and delivered returns higher than that of the benchmark, the report said. The IA said its analysis also suggested more challenging to quantify implicit costs - such as the bid/offer spreads involved in trading a security - were not a significant drag on returns. It added: We are careful not to overinterpret this data, given that it is based on a transaction costs database which covers only the period from 2012 to 2015. However, the analysis offers strong empirical evidence of recent industry performance in the context of charges and transaction costs across a large sample of UK funds. The report follows research by the Transparency Task Force, published earlier this year, which suggested more than 100 different costs and charges were being applied to pensions and investments. The IA, which said its own findings suggest hidden fees were in reality the Loch Ness Monster of Investments, also attempted to dispell fears that excessive churn in portfolios could be driving up costs. Our analysis of portfolio turnover rates also contradicts criticisms that fund managers overtrade and that the ensuing transaction costs are several multiples of disclosed charges, the report said. According to the research, the average portfolio turnover rate in equity funds over the period stood at 40 per cent. Fitz Partners founder Hugues Gillibert said: This research makes no judgement as to what could be considered the right level of fund fees or what could be qualified as cheap or expensive, but by taking into account all costs borne by the funds and in turn by the investors and its potential impact on funds returns, it measures the actual value added by performing asset managers and the unlikely presence of significant transaction costs. The IA added that its forthcoming disclosure code would standardise fee disclosure, including implicit cost estimates across all investment products. The trade body will launch a public consultation on the code later this year. The number of businesses now compliant with the auto-enrolment system has passed 200,000, as small and micro employers flood into the AE regime, The Pensions Regulator has revealed. That was more than double the number of businesses that were compliant at the beginning of the year. However, the total number of people auto-enroled in a workplace pension only rose by approximately 10 per cent - from 5.9 million to 6.5 million - illustrating the small size of the businesses now staging, TPRs Declaration of Compliance revealed. It was a huge rise from the first declaration of compliance in January 2013, when just 33 of the UKs largest companies had joined the AE system, representing 33,000 employees. In one of his first public statements since becoming pensions minister, Richard Harrington welcomed the figures, saying the figures demonstrated that there is real momentum growing. Employers are crucial to the success of automatic enrolment and its fantastic that more people than ever before are now saving for a secure future, he said. TPR said in a statement that more than 156,000 small employers had now complied with AE. That was more than tree times the number of large and medium employers put together. Charles Counsell, TPRs executive director for automatic enrolment, said the 200,000 mark was an important milestone and demonstrated the overall success of AE. However, he said there were challenges ahead as more than a million more employers completed their duties. In the second quarter of 2016, TPR was forced to use its powers on non-compliant employers 4,489 times. That accounted for a third of the total number of times the regulator has used its powers since the inception of AE in 2012. Employers should look out for envelopes from The Pensions Regulator arriving in their mail. In August, we are sending around 60,000 letters to employers alerting them to the fact that they have a month to go before they need to act, he said. TPR urged employers to use the duties checker on TPRs website to find out exactly what they need to do. james.fernyhough@ft.com Harvest is well under way, but the early part has been a fairly start-stop affair. This is largely down to two reasons: the first being the variability of crops coming fit to harvest, and the second being Cornish sunshine or rain, as it is more commonly known. My winter barley crops have proved no different from what seems to be the trend this year, with yields down by varying degrees on the past two years. See also: Read more from our Arable Farmer Focus writers Bushel weights are also quite variable, with location being key: any thin or hungry ground has suffered. The better barley crops have been on land where stubble turnips for sheep have been in the rotation, which proves the benefit of organic matter return. The Maris Otter barley grown for malting showed the greatest variation within a variety. All the fields were grown within a mile of each other on similar low-lying ground, but about a third was hit hard by barley yellows dwarf virus (BYDV), despite seed treatment and follow-up cypermethrin sprays. The remainder seemed to have escaped relatively unscathed. This is, I believe, a result of the abnormally mild winter conditions we experienced. The first oilseed rape to be cut looks to have yielded satisfactorily, judging by the combine meter, despite the seed size appearing slightly smaller. At the time of writing, I have not had any over a weighbridge, but heres hoping at least the price seems to heading in the right direction. I said last month that we were running behind with our bulb harvesting programme. Well, thanks to a superhuman effort by the team we have managed to catch up and finish everything in time. It is also good to have a crop to report where the harvested yield is actually better than last year. This, as we all know, can be a double-edged sword, with increased quantities reaching the market. However, sales are progressing steadily at this stage. The weakness in sterling, thanks to Brexit, is helping the export position, which is crucial for the success of this crop. In general, price volatility looks like it is going to be a more significant factor than usual this year. Risk management as well as using all the options available is going to be key. Jeremy Oatey manages 1,200ha of arable land near Plymouth in Cornwall and is 2013 Farmers Weekly Arable Farmer of the Year. Cropping includes wheat, barley, OSR, oats, beans, potatoes, onions, swedes and daffodils. Hundreds of Welsh farms may still be under threat from tough EU-led environmental regulations, despite the UKs vote to leave the European Union. The prospect of a significant expansion of Waless nitrate vulnerable zones (NVZs), driven by the EU Commissions Nitrates Directive, was a reason some farmers voted to leave the EU. But the Welsh government says it is pressing ahead with what it says is an important action to address growing water-quality issues arising from diffuse pollution. See also: How to meet NVZ rules when expanding a dairy Unions lobbying against expansion fear up to 2,000 landholders may not be spared tough new limits on fertiliser and manure spreading. NFU Cymru farm policy adviser Peter Howells said it was unclear how the Welsh government intended to move forward on this issue. Until we negotiate an exit from the EU, Wales is still subject to the rules and regulations that come with EU membership. Once we do exit, and depending on the terms of that agreement, we might still be bound by several pieces of regulation, including the Nitrates Directive. The Welsh government has confirmed that a consultation on possible expansion will get under way in September. The EU vote will not have any impact on the form of the consultation as we are still a member of the European Union and subject to the relevant EU directive, said a spokesman. This consultation process is likely to take 12 weeks and, adding on time to consider responses, make recommendations and hear appeals, this would appear to rule out a January 2017 designation. Mr Howells predicted that mid-2017 would be the earliest the government could hope for. We find it odd that the Welsh government is considering the introduction of very draconian and unpopular EU legislation at this time, he added. We believe theres an opportunity for the industry to work with the Welsh government on a voluntary and more targeted approach, which would deliver better results than a prescriptive and inflexible EU directive. About 2.4% of land in Wales comes under NVZ regulations, but additional sites in Anglesey, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire are being considered. (This blog entry is a translation and merge of two blog posts previously published in MareaIndie's Spanish blog) Not long after programmers start using Unity, we learn that we can add new entries to the editor menus easily. It's something as simple as creating a parameterless static method (return type is not relevant) in an editor class (inside any directory called Editor) and use the MenuItem attribute: [MenuItem("Custom/Scripted Ops")] public static void ScriptedOps() { // Do something } From these menu items we can run all kinds of processes, from the simplest to the most complex: validate assets or configurations, generate localization reports, open a new window for a tool... The best use I've found for this, however, is to simplify the burdersome task of generating builds. And that's because the standard build generation steps are: File->Build settings... Ensure all relevant scenes are selected and the first one is the boot scene. Check and set the platform (and sub-platform and architecture, if relevant). Check and set the right options for the build (development, null, checks...). (Optional) Verify that platform specific settings in Player settings... are properly set. Press Build. Select output directory (or create a new one) and executable name. Accept. Wait. Test the build. If something failed, go back to 2. If you need to create several builds for different platforms, after waiting you'll need to repeat the same steps. The more platforms you switch between, the longer the process is, and the higher the chances of making a mistake. Taking advantage of MenuItem, we can create static methods to make builds with preset configurations, saving ourselves a few mistakes and mishaps. At this point, it is important to note that almost any option required to configure builds, no matter the platform, can be set via scripts on Unity. The most common entry points to this functionality are UnityEditor.PlayerSettings and EditorBuildSettings, each including access to platform specific settings. Heart&Slash is (or will shortly be) available for Windows, Linux, MacOS X, PS4, Xbox One and Tomahawk F1 (a Chinese Android console codenamed Fuze). Even with that wide spectrum of targets, I haven't found an option I needed which could not be set from scripts somehow. But, truth be told, some options require a little more trial and error than I enjoy, until you decypher their meaning and possibilities. [MenuItem("Builds/Win 64bits/DRM Free")] public static void BuildWin64NoDRM() { string[] levels = new string[] { "Assets/Test_Levels/LoadingScreen.unity", "Assets/Test_Levels/Main_Menu.unity", "Assets/Test_Levels/Credits.unity", "Assets/Test_Levels/Tutorial.unity", "Assets/Test_Levels/Test_Level.unity", "Assets/Test_Levels/Death_Menu.unity" }; UnityEditor.PlayerSettings.runInBackground = false; string message = BuildPipeline.BuildPlayer( levels, "../Builds/DRMFree/Win64/GameTitle.exe", BuildTarget.StandaloneWindows64, BuildOptions.ShowBuiltPlayer); if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(message)) UnityEngine.Debug.Log("Win64 build complete"); else UnityEngine.Debug.LogError("Error building Win64: " + message); } Once we have an entry in the menu, the steps required to have a new build are: Builds->Win 64bits->DRM Free Worldwide Wait. Test the build. If something went wrong, check the project. If changes to anything related to the build code was changed recently, check it's alright. Back to 1. Of course, nowadays many Unity developers are used to Cloud build, which is pretty much as simple as this. The way it works is similar, with the added benefit of outsourcing the build itself to another machine. Unfortunately, Cloud Build is not available for exotic platforms, mainly consoles. Most of the things I'll comment in this post can either be done directly from Cloud Build, or executed from there calling static methods. Some simple things we can do from scripts: Configure the path in which the build will be generated to include the current date and time. Configure BuildOptions for development builds (BuildOptions.development | BuildOptions.AllowDebugging). Include different scenes for demo/release/test build. And, one of my favourite, we can also create static methods to call some of the others, creating several builds at once: [MenuItem("Builds/PC All Platforms/DRM Free")] public static void BuildAllPCNoDRM() { BuildWin32NoDRM(); BuildWin64NoDRM(); BuildMacOSNoDRM(); BuildLinuxNoDRM(); } Now, if we need to create several builds at once, we just need to select the right options and let the PC do it's job. Meanwhile, we can keep working on something else, check twitter or the mail. Remember to check Unity from time, to make sure things are progressing nicely, and once it's finished, check the builds. The Cloud Build equivalent to that would be running several targets at once. One other important aspect to take into account is that these static methods can be used from Jenkins or any other Continuous Integration system you use (even if it's just a few batch files). Editor static methods can be invoked as pre-build, build or post-build commands using Unity's command line arguments: "C:\Program Files\Unity\Editor\Unity.exe -quit -batchmode -executeMethod BuildWin64NoDRMWorldwide" Cloud Build lets us configure methods to call before and after starting to work on the build, so this approach can be used, too. There are some other tasks which are a little harder to integrate into Cloud Build, but most are still usable as commands. We'll check some of them in the next pages. For what's coming next, I first need to give a little bit of context. Heart&Slash currently has: 7 platforms: Win32, Win64, Linux, MacOS X, PS4, Xbox One and Tomahawk F1. 10 text languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean and Japanese 1 language with localized images: Simplified Chinese 3 store-related builds for PC: Steam, GOG and what I call DRMFree. These should probably count as platforms. Demo versions with specific scenes for Tomahawk F1, Win32, Win64, Linux and MacOS X. These are store independent. It's easy to see that generating these many builds from Build settings... is out of the question. It was a good thing, then, that before the project grew into such nightmare, we had already integrated a system pretty much like what I explained in the previous page. For each new platform or configuration, it was just a matter of figuring out how to properly make builds for it (the hard part) and then add new methods to reproduce those steps. After testing the builds ran correctly, it was done. From the moment we knew how to create a properly working build manually for a platform, it took at most 1 day to have it scripted. Most of that time was spent reading docs or forum entries about documented or undocumented options, generating, deploying and testing the builds. Afterwards, the most complex platforms have required at most 1-2 more days of work. We made improvements to how we managed them, added new functionality (i.e. patch builds or script only builds) or fixed stuff we learnt we were not using properly. Adding new configurations to already scripted platforms could take from 1 to 3 hours, most of them dedicated to testing. Now, let's get our hands dirty. Even if most of the tricks I'll explain from here on are extremely useful in projects with this many targets, smaller projects can still take advantage of them. Configuration prefabs Because of the huge amount of possible combinations of languages per build, we needed to use several tricks. The first and basic one is keeping a list of references to language configurations in a prefab. This prefab was called LanguageLoader.prefab and had the ingenuously named script LanguageLoader. Each referenced language is another prefab which includes the list of text files which contain its translations, localized texture atlases, dynamic and static fonts, etc. But then, because there are many possible combinations of languages, we needed to configure LanguageLoader for each build, removing languages as needed (and reverting the prefab afterwards; thank you for existing, VCSs!). After doing it like that twice and getting it wrong the third time (in this case, two out of three is very bad, my dear Meat Loaf), I decided to find another way. After discussing it with a friend and exposing some of the alternatives I had come up with, we agreed on a good enough solution: I'd keep one LanguageLoader prefab per platform/region/language combination and overwrite the LanguageLoader the build actually uses from the build script. [MenuItem("Builds/Win 64bits/DRM Free Worldwide")] public static void BuildWin64NoDRMWorldwide() { string[] levels = new string[] { "Assets/Test_Levels/LoadingScreen.unity", "Assets/Test_Levels/Main_Menu.unity", "Assets/Test_Levels/Credits.unity", "Assets/Test_Levels/Tutorial.unity", "Assets/Test_Levels/Test_Level.unity", "Assets/Test_Levels/Death_Menu.unity" }; // Overwrite LanguageLoader System.IO.File.Copy("Langs/LanguageLoader_NoDRM_WorldWide.prefab", "Resources/Langs/LanguageLoader.prefab", true); // Reimport the prefab, because otherwise Unity will use the "Library" imported version. AssetDatabase.Refresh(); UnityEditor.PlayerSettings.runInBackground = false; string message = BuildPipeline.BuildPlayer( levels, "../Builds/DRMFree/Win64/GameTitle.exe", BuildTarget.StandaloneWindows64, BuildOptions.ShowBuiltPlayer); if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(message)) UnityEngine.Debug.Log("Win64 build complete"); else UnityEngine.Debug.LogError("Error building Win64: " + message); } This can also be of help for people who need to generate region restricted builds. If you intend to soft launch your Android game in Brazil, but don't want it to leak into other markets, you can easily generate builds with only Portuguese Brazilian in them. Meanwhile, you can still generate builds with all languages for internal purposes. You can be worried that your Steam game might be purchased in China, sold outside for much less than its $// price and activated in other regions. Generate China exclusive keys and grant the access to builds with nothing but Simplified Chinese. Display only platform relevant menu entries With that many possible configurations, in the end we have 40 menu items displayed under Builds. That's counting catch-all entries like "PC_GOG_AllPlatforms", "PS4_AllRegions" or special dev builds. No matter how well organized your menu hierarchy is, 40 entries cannot be easily managed. Add to that the little problem that mistakenly clicking on a different platform will trigger Unity's asset reimporting madness. In our game it might take from 15 to 60 minutes, including reverting to the platform you originally intended to click on. You might try to cancel the reimport, reset the project and trust Unity to take everything back to the original platform, but I've always found that a bit scary. While I was starting to get mad at this, I talked to my friend @cookingsource about a related problem (to be explained below). Part of the solution he proposed could be easily applied here, so I modified all [MenuItem] entries so that they'd be surrounded with platform related #if: #if UNITY_STANDALONE [MenuItem("Builds/Win 64bits/DRM Free Worldwide")] #endif #if UNITY_PS4 [MenuItem("Build/PS4/Package SCEE")] #endif And done. Now, the builds menu only displays from 4 to 10 options, all of them relevant to the current Unity target platform. Making a mistake is now harder and a lot less time consuming. Copy files into the build Once a build is finished, there might be some cases in which you need to copy files into it. I do this for changelog files and Open Source licences. Some platforms might require this approach, too. For example, for a while, we needed to overwrite some dlls and signed files from the apk and regenerate it with a new signature. System.IO.Directory.CreateDirectory("../Builds/DRMFree/Win64/GameTitle_Data/Licenses"); System.IO.File.Copy("Licences/LicenseFile.txt", "../Builds/DRMFree/Win64/GameTitle_Data/Licenses"); Delete files from the build Since Unity 5.0 (or 5.1, I'm not sure) it's possible to select which platform a dll/so/dylib applies to. That's great, but it can sometimes be too little. In PC, for example, you might have Steam and GOG dlls around. And you don't want to send GOG a build with Steam.dll in it. You might also have some files in StreamingAssets which are only used in some platforms. But everything in StreamingAssets is always copied into the build. In these cases, you might need to delete files after Unity completed the build process: // We're making a platform independent build, so no store dll should be in it. System.IO.File.Delete("../Builds/DRMFree/Win64/GameTitle_Data/Plugins/Steam.dll"); System.IO.File.Delete("../Builds/DRMFree/Win64/GameTitle_Data/Plugins/GOG.dll"); Store related compilation directives This specific case might be of less use for others, but for us it is quite relevant. Also, this is the problem which @cookingsource helped solve. As mentioned before, Heart&Slash will be available for Steam. GOG and other virtual PC stores (I refer to them as DRMFree, but GOG is DRM free too, and Steam could mostly be if they ditched the on-line installation). Steam and GOG, in particular, have specific APIs to manage achievements, languages, users, input, etc. Because Unity does not discriminate dlls beyond platform and architecture, we have the problem that it is a bit hard to ensure your build is not using Steam functionality, even when it shouldn't. The solution, as always in these cases, was to use compilation directives: STEAM_BUILD and GOG_BUILD would help us select which code ran in each case: #if UNITY_STANDALONE #if STEAM_BUILD // Steam specific code #elif GOG_BUILD // GOG specific code #else // Store independent code #endif #endif But modifying compilation directives in Unity is really bothersome. So we decided we could create new menu items to switch from one store to another. And, event better, we can display build entries for the current store only. #if UNITY_STANDALONE && !STEAM_BUILD [MenuItem("Build/Switch to Steam")] #endif public static void SwitchToSteam() { string defines = PlayerSettings.GetScriptingDefineSymbolsForGroup(BuildTargetGroup.Standalone); defines = AddCompilerDefines(defines, "STEAM_BUILD"); defines = RemoveCompilerDefines(defines, "GOG_BUILD"); UnityEngine.Debug.Log("Compiling with DEFINE: '" + defines + "'"); PlayerSettings.SetScriptingDefineSymbolsForGroup(BuildTargetGroup.Standalone, defines); } #if UNITY_STANDALONE && !GOG_BUILD [MenuItem("Build/Switch to GOG")] #endif public static void SwitchToGOG() { string defines = PlayerSettings.GetScriptingDefineSymbolsForGroup(BuildTargetGroup.Standalone); defines = AddCompilerDefines(defines, "GOG_BUILD"); defines = RemoveCompilerDefines(defines, "STEAM_BUILD"); UnityEngine.Debug.Log("Compiling with DEFINE: '" + defines + "'"); PlayerSettings.SetScriptingDefineSymbolsForGroup(BuildTargetGroup.Standalone, defines); } #if UNITY_STANDALONE && (STEAM_BUILD || GOG_BUILD) [MenuItem("Build/Switch to No Platform")] #endif public static void SwitchToNoPlatform() { string defines = PlayerSettings.GetScriptingDefineSymbolsForGroup(BuildTargetGroup.Standalone); defines = RemoveCompilerDefines(defines, "STEAM_BUILD", "GOG_BUILD"); UnityEngine.Debug.Log("Compiling with DEFINE: '" + defines + "'"); PlayerSettings.SetScriptingDefineSymbolsForGroup(BuildTargetGroup.Standalone, defines); } private static string AddCompilerDefines(string defines, params string[] toAdd){ List splitDefines = new List(defines.Split(new char[] { ';' }, System.StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries)); foreach (var add in toAdd) if (!splitDefines.Contains(add)) splitDefines.Add(add); return string.Join(";", splitDefines.ToArray()); } private static string RemoveCompilerDefines(string defines, params string[] toRemove){ List splitDefines = new List(defines.Split(new char[] { ';' }, System.StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries)); foreach(var remove in toRemove) splitDefines.Remove(remove); return string.Join(";", splitDefines.ToArray()); } Now you can delete Steam's dlls from your project and if GOG compiles properly, you're safe. Or Steam and GOG's dlls, and check the DRMFree builds. Configure text fields using the contents of a file In one specific platform of which I cannot say much (NDA), there's a text field whose contents depend on the region the build is for. It is easy to forget to change that, and you will only realize once the build fails at the very end. The text to include in that field is also kind of sensitive. To the point that I don't feel comfortable having it uploaded to the repository. So I keep these region specific files right besides the project, in region specific directories. And with a little bit of code we can read the required file and write its contents into the field: string path = "../PlatformConfigs/" + region + "/signature.txt"; UnityEditor.PlayerSettings.NDAPlatform.secretField = System.IO.File.ReadAllText(path); This idea of keeping region specific configurations in sibling directories is one I use quite often. It makes choosing which one to use depending on the build requested very easy. Anything else you might want to automate Many of these processes can be also run from any scripting language. Maybe not setting fields and such, but definitely copying, deleting, renaming, etc. What's important is understanding that making tasks like these easy to invoke and replicate will help you erase potential problems or, at the very least, transform them into small nuisances. Choosing a proper tool (or the only one available, in some cases) and reducing the number of steps you need to remember for any given task will always be an improvement. Do you use any other tricks or scripted solutions to different problems? Feel free to comment them, so all of us can sleep a little more in the future. Edit: In the end, Heart&Slash has not been approved for GOG, so we could have saved ourselves part of the work. Still, it wasn't that much work in the end, as most of it was still needed for the DRM Free builds. The big GDC Europe 2016 conference is kicking off next week in Cologne, Germany, and today organizers would like to quickly highlight some of the great expert sessions that will be taking place at the show. That means you have until this Wednesday, August 10th at 11:59 PM Pacific to register online to attend the show. After that deadline, you'll have to register on-site at an increased price! There's too many to run down in a single blog post, so today we're going to focus on two big tracks of talks at GDC Europe: The Production track and the Business, Marketing and Management track. While they each have a distinct focus, both offer a wealth of practical insight for both freshly-minted and veteran game makers. For example, GDC Europe attendees can check out the Production track talk "Alien Cultures: Rebooting 'Master of Orion' with a Global Team" for an in-depth look at the process of rebooting a beloved strategy game in a way that both satisfies diehard Master of Orion fans while simultaneously showcasing the appeal of space strategy games to a new audience. Wargaming's Chris Keeling and Jacob Beucler both worked closely on the project, and in their talk they'll discuss how the Master of Orion team overcame obstacles and managed remote third-party teams across multiple languages, time zones, and cultures. Plus, Modern Dream (Typing of the Dead: Overkill) director and cofounder Oliver Clarke, who also helped cofound U.K. coworking space Arch Creatives, will be delivering a great Production talk on "Game Hubs: A Quest to Revolutionize Game Production." His talk will provide a clear understanding of what Game Hubs are, why they're popping up around the world, what the advantages are for developers -- and what major pitfalls to avoid. His talk will also provide ideas on how to set one up, and afford you a better understanding of their potential to improve your game production process. And for game business insights, consider attending a talk like "What Top Apps Do With IAP That the Rest Don't." from Amazon developer evangelist Mike Hines. Amazon has collected data about how mobile game players engage with IAP and reviewed how the most profitable apps are using IAP to monetize successfully. As a result, Hines plans to share two levels of data: how the top 50 did differently (Retention data, session length data, units sold and price data) and what they did differently to get those results. It turns out there are a handful of things that most of the top 50 do that other games don't. Hines will share that knowledge -- along with a truckload of actionable data -- with attendees. Elsewhere on the Business track, Thomas Reisenegger -- an experienced PR consultant at Ico Partners who's assisted with PR for games like League of Legends -- will deliver a talk on "Guerrilla Marketing - Games PR with Little Money, Much Insanity and Maximum Impact" in which he'll share some hard-won lessons on getting your game noticed. He'll break down the concept of guerrilla marketing a video game, walk you through examples best practices (and worst practices), then showcase data on what sort of effect this strategy can have on media coverage and game sales. Plus, he'll deal with the question of what it takes to come up with -- and pull off -- a successful PR stunt. More details on these and all other announced talks are now available in the online GDC Europe 2016 Session Scheduler, where you can plan out your conference week and later export it to the up-to-the-minute GDC Mobile App! GDC Europe 2016 will also continue to offer business and matchmaking opportunities to all attendees with a developer-focused Expo Floor area and networking events throughout the show. For more information, please visit the GDC Europe website. Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Americas The Truth Behind 19 Kids & Counting Star Josh Duggar Allegations, Family Turned Their Backs On Him? "19 Kids & Counting" star Josh Duggar was accused by Matthew McCarthy for using his photo in many social media accounts including the controversial Ashley Madison site. The action resulted in many nasty messages and canceled projects to McCarthy. Josh Duggar Sued Over Stealing Random Photo A Los Angeles based DJ and photographer Matthew McCarthy filed a lawsuit last week against the "19 Kids & Counting" star Josh Duggar as earlier reported by Game & Guide. After six months of rehabilitation for his pornography and sexual addiction, Josh Duggar recently returned from Reformers Unanimous in Rockford, Illinois. After seemingly getting over the sexual scandals, another issue was thrown at him by a Los Angeles DJ. According to McCarthy, his photo was used by Josh Duggar on his various social media accounts, ET Online reported. His photo was allegedly used by Josh on his Twitter, Ok Cupid and Ashley Madison accounts. The last one is a popular cheaters' hook-up website according to Daily Mail. Josh Duggar admitted to owning an Ashley Madison account last year after the scandal broke out. Josh Duggar narrated that the McCarthy's photo was found after he entered the phrase "random guy" on Google. McCarthy said that Josh's actions resulted to harassing and humiliating messages with people calling him "DJ Duggar" and "Duggar's Boy Toy." This is particularly unsettling since he is a DJ. Gigs were canceled soon after because of the scandal. Josh Duggar is being sued by the guy whose pic he used for his Ashley Madison profile https://t.co/gKjDDEBkfq pic.twitter.com/nuskF9KVAv New York Post (@nypost) August 6, 2016 McCarthy Asks For Monetary Compensation The hurtful messaged did not only cause emotional anguish in Matthew McCarthy, but it also caused havoc to his career. Now, McCarthy is asking monetary compensation for the loss of income, job security and reputation from Josh Duggar. Meanwhile, the family released a statement that Josh will continue professional counseling and will focus on rebuilding relationships with his family. However, Josh was notably missing when Jim Bob shared a few memories of his family on their website. Josh Duggar's scandal last year resulted in the cancellation of their reality series "19 Kids & Counting" in TLC. Rick and Morty Season 3 Air Date, Spoilers, News & Update: Vin Diesel To Voice Evil Morty or Mr. Meeseeks? Thousands of fans are now excited for the upcoming airing of "Rick and Morty" Season 3. Now, new reports claim that Vin Diesel is going to join the Adult Swim series as Mr. Meeseeks. Vin Diesel to voice Mr. Meeseeks in 'Rick and Morty' Season 3 Christian Times reports that Vin Diesel could possible voice returning character Mr. Meeseeks in "Rick and Morty" Season 3. During the San Diego Comic-Con 2016, creator Dan Harmon has admitted that he would want to add the "Fast & Furious 8" actor to the popular animated show. Dan Harmon reportedly said that he would like to meet Vin Diesel in person so they could talk about his possible involvement to "Rick and Morty" Season 3. "I kind of want to meet Vin Diesel, and I kind of want to have a conversation with him," he shared. "He's a big D&D fan, and I think he'd be great for the show." With this, fans cannot help but speculate that Vin Diesel could be voicing Mr. Meeseeks. Both Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon have reportedly confirmed the return of the blue alien. However, it remains to be seen what Mr. Meeseeks will be doing on his upcoming return. Other reports, on the other hand, say that Vin Diesel will be voicing Evil Morty and not Mr. Meeseeks. Aside from Mr. Meeseeks, another character that fans should watch out for in "Rick and Morty" Season 3 is Evil Morty, who is expected to bring chaos in the show. Though these reports could be true, Vin Diesel has not yet confirmed his involvement to the upcoming "Rick and Morty" Season 3. So, fans should wait until everything is already finalized. 'Rick and Morty' Season 3 to follow Inter-dimensional Cable plot Meanwhile, GamenGuide has previously reported that "Rick and Morty" Season 3 could possibly follow the inter-dimensional cable plot. In other words, the upcoming installment would require audience participation. Adult Swim has previously admitted that it is currently working on the "Rick and Morty" Season 3. Hence, it could be impossible that the upcoming installment will be out within this year. "Rick and Morty" Season 3 is expected to hit small screens in December 2016. Stay tuned to GamenGuide for more "Rick and Morty" Season 3 spoilers, news and updates! 'Vikings' Season 4B Air Date, Spoilers, Latest News & Update: Here's Why Ivar The Boneless Is Ragnar's Most Dangerous Son [PHOTO] There are big hopes for Ivar the Boneless in "Vikings" Season 4 Episode 11. Ragnar Lothbrok has already teased about the world being afraid of his youngest son. But what is it about Ivar that makes him so terrifying? Alex Hgh Andersen proves his character is a major bad-ass with a new Instagram post. "Vikings" Season 4B Premiere: Alex Hogh Andersen's Ivar The Boneless Gets Bloody In Another Battle? Alex Hgh Andersen recently shared a photo on Instagram from the "Vikings" set. The image shows the young actor covered in blood. One bright blue eye is also bloody, which probably suggests that Ivar the Boneless will get injured in "Vikings" Season 4B. The image confirms that "Vikings" Season 4B will feature more bloodshed courtesy of Ragnar's sons. It also looks like Alex Hgh Andersen is filming a possible attack on a castle. Could it be King Aelle's castle in Northumbria? A photo posted by Alex Hgh Andersen (@alexhoeghandersen) on Aug 4, 2016 at 12:22pm PDT "Vikings" Season 4B Premiere: Ivar The Boneless Carves The Blood Eagle On King Aelle Of Northumbria? Game & Guide has previously reported that Ragnar Lothbrok will possibly be killed by King Aelle in a pit of snakes. His enraged sons are expected to avenge his death by attacking Northumbria. Fan are looking forward to Alex Hgh Andersen's Ivar the Boneless personally carving the blood eagle on King Aelle in "Vikings" Season 4B. Sounds bloody enough? "Vikings" fans are quite familiar with the blood eagle, which Ragnar used to execute Jarl Borg in Season 2. There is a possibility that the same method of execution will be used on King Aelle, as based on the Norse tales. The "Vikings" Season 4B premiere date has not yet been announced. However, fans are hoping that the new season will air on History by October or November. Microsoft Surface Pro 5 Release Date, News & Update: Tablet Arriving in 2017? New Impressive Specs, Features, Design Details Revealed The Surface Pro is the first generation 2-in-1 detachable device manufactured and designed by Microsoft. Rumors say that Microsoft is gearing up for the release of Surface Pro 5 but, sadly, the tablet will likely be released on 2017. Nevertheless, the tablet is said to have the Intel's next-gen Kaby Lake chipset. The Surface Pro 5 is supposed to be released this June but, as Tech Times reported, Intel confirmed that it would be releasing the next-gen Kaby Lake processor by the end of 2016. But, because the device did not debut in June, Microsoft has opted to go ahead of Kaby Lake powered Surface Pro 5, and the tablets will be released next year instead. However, according to the The Country Caller, the previous Surface devices of Microsoft might not have been the best. However, both Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 managed to attract attention with their elegant design. Will Microsoft Surface Pro 5 break the curse? Additionally, Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 are built with Magnesium, which could be the same case for their next generation models such as the Microsoft Surface Pro 5. The built quality of both was decent, but the hinges on the devices were questionable and this is where Microsoft could look to improve in their next generation models. According to the rumors, Microsoft Surface Pro 5 is expected to feature the same display as its predecessor had. However, the upcoming device will improve the resolution of the display screens. Surface Pro 5 could feature 4K displays that will make high-definition videos a treat to watch out for. Moreover, Surface Pro 5 will be offering top of the line hardware to users. The upcoming Surface Pro 5 will definitely offer the latest Intel Kaby Lake processor that will drastically improve the processing power as compared to its predecessors. The efficiency of the Intel Kaby Lake processor will ensure that the Surface Pro 5 battery life will be maximized. The Microsoft Surface Pro 5 is scheduled to be released this fall. However, Microsoft has bigger plans for the hybrid tablet. So, it is expected to launch in early 2017, which means that they will run on the upcoming Windows 10 Redstone 2 operating system. 'Man of Steel 2' Release Date, News & Update: Warner Bros. Pushing Through with Project, Film to Arrive in 2018? With the success of this year's "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" despite the critics reviews, it seems that Warner Bros. is looking to continue Clark Kent's journey as the "Man of Steel." While a sequel has not been talked about for quite some time also in part of this year's collaborative flick, it seems that the studio is still looking to create a sequel for the 2013 film that knighted Henry Cavill as a movie star. It's been three years since the David S. Goyer-written film opened and closed to a whopping $668 million worldwide, establishing it as a successful interpretation of the DC Comics hero. But is Warner Bros. looking to continue on Superman's journey with "Man of Steel 2?" The answer is yes. The Wrap reports that a sequel is currently in active development at Warner Bros. In fact, fans need not worry about Superman being pushed aside by Ben Affleck's Batman and "Justice League," (which trailer debuted during this year's SDCC), because the sequel is now "a top priority for the studio." The source also told The Wrap that "getting the character right for audiences is of tantamount importance." One thing's for sure though, it's way too early to figure out what story may unravel with Superman's "Man of Steel 2." For one, both "Wonder Woman" and "Justice League" are arriving next year. While Superman has no role in "Wonder Woman," he will be teaming up again with the other DC Universe superheroes for "Justice League." "Aquaman," on the other hand, is set to arrive in July 2018. If the studio adheres to that timeline, it seems that "Man of Steel" may arrive in early 2018, following the two-per-year film schedule. The standalone Batman flick featuring Affleck at the helm does not have a release date set yet, so that's another ball in the air for the studio. Fans can rest easy now, though, knowing that their favorite otherworldly superhero will be back to further his story on the big screen. Darren Stehle has a list of people he has called or visited every six months for more than a decade. But Stehle doesnt do it for a simple chat or to catch up. He's looking to see if theyll sell him a Volkswagen. The 46-year-old Corvallis man has owned more than 100 Volkswagen vehicles since he first began collecting them 30 years ago. In the summer and fall, Stehle drives hundreds of miles almost every day searching for rare and unwanted Volkswagens (in particular, Beetles) in the hopes of adding them to his collection. And if Stehle finds one that catches his eye, hes willing to wait out anyone. A lot of people will not part with them no matter how much you offer them, Stehle said. You gotta be ready to buy it when theyre ready to sell it. Or sometimes even later than that. An older guy in Jefferson I talked to about a decade ago said Im not selling anything, but my wife will probably sell something to you after Im dead, Stehle recalled. So Id check back every six months and Id go knock on the door and hed answer and tell me nothing was for sale. And wed talk about VWs and chat for awhile, and Id leave. One time I came back one time and sure enough, his wife answered the door. The woman told Stehle that her husband had recently passed away, but the husband made sure to remind her of his promise to Stehle before he died. I ended up getting all of the VWs, he said. Theres cars Ive got that took me 20 years to get from people. Its a lot of work and a lot of time, but that one time you find that treasure and you take it home and drive it, that makes it all worth it. I love the hunt. The ladder Stehle, who hoped to become a professional skateboarder as a teen, said it was never his intention to become a Volkswagen fanatic. But that changed one day in 1985 after a skating session in Lebanon when Stehle was 15 and he saw an old 1964 Volkswagen Type-3 Squareback rusting away outside of a shop. It looked like it had been sitting for a while, but it was just a cool car. A lot of skaters like the wagon because you can put surfboards and skateboards in the back, he said, recalling that he also discovered his love for haggling that day. The shop owner told me it was $60. I told them I had $40 and it didnt have a motor. So he sold it to me for $40. Stehle spent the next several months restoring the car and eventually getting it to the point where he could drive it, before eventually trading it in for a 1979 Volkswagen Rabbit. After high school, he traded in the Rabbit, this time for a 1972 Volkswagen Westfalia camper bus. You start off with the ones that are cheaper and more common and, its weird to think of it this way, you try to climb the ladder of Volkswagen, he said. And you climb higher and higher and find the more rare and cooler ones. And you start making a little more money and a better job, so you start selling those old ones, sometimes selling two at a time to buy one cooler one. While he'll buy almost any rare car with a VW logo on the front, Stehle said it's the Volkswagen Beetle that remains his favorite. The cars, originally built during World War II as a more-affordable alternative, achieved cult status in the 1960s and became associated with hippie and surf culture. Stehle said he loves them for their affordability, the ease of restoration and quirky style. "God made Volkswagens light so you could push them when you needed to," Stehle said. "Its a cool thing to be a part of. Its a laid-back style of car, but it can turn into an obsession." The Love Bug Stehle, who also has a love for all things Disney, currently has a 1963 Volkswagen Beetle Sunroof "Herbie the Love Bug" replica, complete with racing stripes and the racing number 53 based on the 1968 film "The Love Bug" and its sequels. "I always loved Herbie when I was a little kid," Stehle said. "The first one came out before I was born, but they would play the Disney movie on ABC once a weekend, so I've seen it dozens of times and I still love it." In addition to the Herbie replica, Stehle has a 1952 Zwitter, 1974 Thing and 1955 Beetle Sedan. He said he loves his current collection, but he's always looking to add another. Every time I thought I would hold onto the Volkswagen I had, something else would draw me back in, he said. Now, I drive for hundreds of miles, going down side streets and back alleys looking, and if I see one, I go and ask the owner. And if he says nothings for sale, Ill check back every six months and ask again. Stehle said the most hes ever spent on one Volkswagen was $20,000, but thats because he found his prized treasure a 1952 Volkswagen Split-Window Beetle. A lot of people havent even seen one in person, he said. Im sure its the only one in the Corvallis and Albany area. I know a few of them in the state now, but there didnt used to be any. Theyre really rare. Stehle said he has limits and makes sure to control his obsession. There are guys that are way more into it than I am, he said. I am by no means on the top of this thing. Some guys spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for one. For me its a hobby, for a lot of these people its a way of life. But I do have a Volkswagen tattoo on my shoulder. 1927 2016 Dr. Ellen Tan Drake passed away peacefully on Aug. 5, 2016. Ellen was born in 1927 in Beijing, China, to a prominent Ching dynasty family of scholars and diplomats. Her grandmother on her fathers side was a niece of the Empress Dowager, and her grandfather on her mothers side was the ambassador to the court of Queen Victoria of England. As an infant, her family moved to Shanghai where she grew up. Her family fled China in 1940 due to the Japanese invasion. They spent World War II in Washington, D.C., where her father, Wai H. Tan, worked for the war effort and Ellen attended high school. The Tans moved back to Shanghai after the war, but Ellen stayed in the United States for college, attending Bryn Mawr College in Philadelphia. Ellen returned to China for summer vacations until she graduated from college in 1949, with a degree in geology. That year the Communists took over China and the rest of the family left China for good. Ellen never went back. The family was given residency status in the United States by a special Act of Congress sponsored by Sen. Prescott Bush, father and grandfather to the Presidents Bush, and close friend and fraternity brother of Ellens father. While in graduate school at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, Ellen met Charles (Charlie) Drake, a graduate student in physics. They married in 1952, and moved to New Haven, Connecticut, where Charlie was a physics Ph.D. student and later a faculty member at Yale University. Their three children were born in New Haven. Ellen worked at Yales Peabody Museum of Natural History, where she was the founding editor of Discovery, the museums magazine. The family moved to Corvallis in 1966, where Charlie was a physics professor and later chairman of the Physics Department at OSU, and where Ellen earned a masters degree and a PhD in marine geology. One of Ellens greatest interests was the history of geology, particularly the 17th century naturalist, Robert Hooke, about whom she wrote several well-received journal articles and a book, Restless Genius: Robert Hooke and his Earthly Thoughts. During these years the Drakes periodically lived in Europe, including a year in Oxford, England, and a year in Tubingen, Germany. Ellen and Charlie moved to Bend in 2010 to be near their eldest daughter. Charlie passed away in 2013. Ellen is survived by her children, Judy Drake of Bend, Robert Drake of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Linda Drake of Olympia, Washington; and seven grandchildren. This log includes incidents in which there might have been a public disturbance or a risk to the public. Information comes from the Corvallis Police Department, the Benton County Sheriffs Office and Oregon State Police. It does not include all calls for service. The status of incidents might change after further investigation. Locations are approximate. People arrested or suspected in crimes are considered innocent until proven otherwise. Corvallis Police Department MONDAY, AUG. 8 DUII: 3:30 a.m., Northwest Third Street and Northwest Monroe Avenue. An officer arrested Yingxue Yang, 21, of Corvallis, after the officer reportedly observed her back into another car and then drive away. She reportedly had a blood alcohol content of 0.16 percent and was charged with DUII, failing to perform the duties of a driver when property is damaged, and reckless endangering. SATURDAY, AUG. 6 DUII: 12:45 a.m., Northwest Fifth Street and Northwest Monroe Avenue. An officer arrested Mark Wayne Peres for charges of DUII, refusing a breath test, and failure to obey a one way designation. Officers reportedly obtained and executed a warrant to collect a sample of Peres blood after he refused to take a breath test. FRIDAY, AUG. 5 DRUGS: 9:20 p.m., Southwest Tunison Avenue and Southwest Butterfield Drive. An officer arrested Damian Cortes Brewer, 27, of Corvallis for two outstanding warrants and reportedly found Suboxone in his wallet. He was additionally charged with unlawful possession of a schedule II controlled substance. Benton County Sheriffs Office SUNDAY, AUG. 7 FLEEING POLICE: 8:35 p.m., Grange Hall Road and Highway 34. A car reportedly fled at high speeds after a deputy attempted to stop it and crashed after about a mile. The driver, Michael Everett Hoover, 34, of Corvallis, was arrested for charges of DUII, reckless driving, second degree criminal mischief and attempting to elude in a vehicle. SATURDAY, AUG. 6 DUII: 11:15 p.m., Highway 99W at milepost 94. A deputy arrested Nicholas Allen Phillips, 27, of Albany, for charges of DUII, reckless driving and reckless endangering. A drug recognition expert reportedly concluded he was under the influence of marijuana and a central nervous system depressant. FRIDAY, AUG. 5 DUII: 10:29 p.m., South Ninth Street and Applegate Street, Philomath. A deputy arrested Michael Allan McDonald, 59, of Tangent, for a charge of DUII. A drug recognition expert reportedly concluded he was under the influence of marijuana, a narcotic analgesic and a central nervous system stimulant. F.Y.I. is a community calendar. To accommodate demand for the print edition, we ask that items be brief and include time, date, place, address, admission cost and a contact number for publication. Inclusion of items is at the discretion of the Gazette-Times. Further information is available at 541-758-9524 or jane.stoltz@lee.net. Assistance WEDNESDAY Emergency food boxes, by appointment, North Corvallis Ministry Center, 5050 N.E. Elliott Circle. Appointments: 541-220-1040. Stone Soup lunch, 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., gymnasium, St. Marys Catholic School, 501 N.W. 25th St. Free meal for those in need. Vets United, noon to 2 p.m., multipurpose room, Community Outreach Inc., 865 N.W. Reiman Ave. Support for veterans; round-table discussion. Senior Health Insurance Benefits Assistance (SHIBA), 12:30 to 3:30 p.m., Corvallis Senior Center, 2601 N.W. Tyler Ave. Free, confidential, impartial Medicare counseling and education. Appointments required; call 541-812-0849. Emergency food boxes, 1:30 to 4 p.m., St. Vincent de Paul Society Corvallis Conference Food Pantry, campus of St. Marys Catholic Church, 501 N.W. 25th St. No appointment needed. A thrift store is in the same building; proceeds help support the pantry. Information: 541-757-1988, Ext. 317. Classes WEDNESDAY Academy for Lifelong Learning, 10 a.m., College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific Northwest, Western University Campus, 200 N.W. Mullins Drive, Lebanon. Luke Rauch presents "Tour of the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific Northwest." Information: 541-737-9405 or admin@academyforlifelonglearning.org. Events WEDNESDAY Wobbler story time, 10 a.m., Corvallis-Benton County Public Library, 645 N.W. Monroe Ave. For ages 1 and 2. Rise and Shine Story Time, 10 a.m., Philomath Community Library, 1050 Applegate St. Ages 2 to 4. Information: 541-929-3016. Reading Education Assistance Dogs, 1:30 to 3 p.m., Corvallis-Benton County Public Library, 645 N.W. Monroe Ave. Bring your favorite book and read to a friendly dog. Sports physicals, 6 to 7:30 p.m., Philomath Family Medicine, 1219 Applegate St. The Philomath Booster Club is offering physicals, which are required every two years. Paperwork is available at Philomath High School or at the event. Cost: $25. "Meet the Author: Cory Frye," 7 p.m., Grass Roots Books & Music, 227 S.W. Second St. Frye will read from and sign copies of his book, Murder in Linn County, Oregon: The True Story of the Legendary Plainview Killings. Government WEDNESDAY Benton County Board of Commissioners meeting with community development, natural areas and parks, and public works directors, 9 a.m., Avery Facility, 360 S.W. Avery Ave. Benton County advisory board and committee applicant interviews, 1:30 p.m., small meeting room, commissioners' office, 205 N.W. Fifth St. Corvallis Area Metropolitan Planning Organization Policy Board, 5 p.m., Sunset Meeting Room, Sunset Building, 4077 S.W. Research Way. Corvallis Downtown Advisory Board, 5:30 p.m., Madison Avenue Meeting Room, 500 S.W. Madison Ave. Adair Village Planning Commission, 6 p.m., city hall, 6030 N.E. William R. Carr Ave. Health WEDNESDAY Walk with the Doc, 7:30 a.m.; meet at the Oak Creek Drive entrance to Bald Hill Path. Doctors from The Corvallis Clinic's Obstetrics and Gynecology Department lead the walk. Sign up: 541-754-1267 or www.corvallisclinic.com/walkwithdocobgyn. American Red Cross mobile blood drive, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., FIRST Corvallis, 320 S.W. Second St. Benton Health Center, 1 to 7 p.m., 530 N.W. 27th St. Family medicine for infants, children and adults. Insurance, Medicare, Medicaid accepted. Information: 541-766-6835. Lincoln Health Center, 1 to 7 p.m., 121 S.E. Viewmont Ave. Insurance, Medicare, Medicaid accepted. Information: 541-766-3546. Monroe Health Center, 1 to 5 p.m., 610 Dragon Drive, Monroe. Insurance, Medicare, Medicaid accepted. Information: 541-847-5143. Rapid HIV testing, 2 to 4:30 p.m., First Christian Church, 170 E. Grant St., Lebanon. Appointments: 541-740-0405. Free medical clinic, 6 p.m., Community Outreach, 856 N.W. Reiman Ave. Provides care to low-income people without health insurance. Provides primary medical care and referrals to those needing further medical attention or services offered by other agencies. Organizations WEDNESDAY The Mid-Valley Bicycle Club offers rides open to the adult public on Saturdays and Wednesdays. In-formation: www.mvbc.com. Corvallis Morning Rotary, 7 a.m., Osborn Aquatic Center, 1940 N.W. Highland Drive. Information: 541-223-1270. Quilts from Caring Hands, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Starker Forests conference rooms, Philomath Scout Lodge, 660 Clemens Mill Road. Quilting and visiting every week as members work on children's quilts to be donated to charity. Information: 541-602-6685 or www.quiltsfromcaringhands.com. Corvallis Bicycle Collective, noon to 4 p.m., 707 N.W. 11th St. Fix up your bicycle with free use of tools and advice; affordable used bicycles and parts. Information: 541-224-6885 or www.corvallisbikes.org. Kiwanis Club of Corvallis, noon, Papa's Pizza Parlor, 1030 S.W. Third St. Information: 541-619-5506 or www.kiwaniscorvallis.org. Philomath Lions Club, noon, annex, Benton County Historical Museum, 1045 Main St., Philomath. Information: 541-929-5006. Corvallis Bridge Club, 1 p.m., Heart of the Valley Bridge Center, 1931 N.W. Circle Blvd. Sign up 20 minutes beforehand. Regular and novice duplicate bridge. Information/partners: 541-740-1072 or www.corvallisbridge.org. Reunions Corvallis High School Class of 1966 50-Year Reunion, Aug. 18 through 21, Corvallis. Information: 503-837-0218 or kentsmith48@minetfiber.com. Support groups WEDNESDAY Support group for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. Information: Center Against Rape and Domestic Violence hotline, 541-754-0110. Her Journey. Faith-based class for women impacted by domestic violence. Information: 866-262-9284. Alcoholics Anonymous: 7 a.m., noon, room 11, First Christian Church, 602 S.W. Madison Ave. 7 a.m., upstairs, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Corvallis, 2945 N.W. Circle Drive. Noon, First United Methodist Church, 1165 N.W. Monroe Ave. 5:30 p.m., library, pastoral center, St. Marys Catholic Church, 501 N.W. 23rd St. 6 p.m. (mens meeting), Acme Counseling, 129 N.W. Fourth St., Suite 100. 6:30 p.m., upper room, Monroe United Methodist Church, 648 Orchard St, Monroe. 7 p.m., Crossroads Christian Fellowship, 2555 N.W. Highland Drive. Narcotics Anonymous: Noon to 1 p.m., 115 N.W. Sixth St. 7 p.m., room 11, First Christian Church, 602 S.W. Madison Ave. 7 p.m., New Life Fellowship, 1412 Applegate St., Philomath. Information (24 hours): 1-877-233-4287 or www.lblna.org. Sex Addicts Anonymous, noon, room 11, First Christian Church, 602 S.W. Madison Ave. Information: 541-757-2204. Parkinsons Disease Support Group, 12:15 p.m., Corvallis Senior Center, 2601 N.W. Tyler Ave. Information: 520-860-0628. Youth Motivating Others Through Voices of Experience, 6 p.m., Grace Lutheran Church, 435 N.W. 21st St. Opportunity for ages 14 to 25 with experience in the mental health, Department of Human Services or juvenile justice systems to meet and learn to advocate for themselves and others. Information: 541-740-6306 or hilary.ofsn@gmail.com. Started the show with full intentions to feature a bunch of quiet music by Eno and Basinsky... well I got distracted by the Hawaiian Pups and never looked back. This all comes of reading Kim Gordon's memoir "Girl In A Band" (which I highly recommend) and listening to a bunch of Sonic Youth albums all weekend. Also reading some of the chapters in "The History of Rock'n'Roll in Ten Songs" by Greil Marcus... fascinating chapters on Joy Division and Etta James for sure. Broken English Marianne Faithful - Broken English - Island Lon Bella Damien Jurado - Visions of Us on the Land - Secretly Canadian - Visions of Us on the Land - Night Beat Moon Duo - Shadow of the Sun Baby Judy Hawaiian Pups - Split Second Precision - Portrait Public Image Public Image Limited - First Edition Kool Thing Sonic Youth - Goo - David Geffen Company Shadow of a Doubt Sonic Youth - Screaming Fields of Sonic Youth - David Geffen Company Before The Flood Reuben Hollebon - Terminal Nostalgia - Bright Antenna/Cadence - Terminal Nostalgia - Flowers In My Heart 16 Horsepower - Heel on The Shovel (single) Dead Man's Hand Lord Huron - Strange Trails - I Am Sound Records Don't Make 'em Like They Used To The Harpoonist and the Axe Murder - A Real Fine Mess - Indie - A Real Fine Mess - Wang Dang Doodle Whitehorse - The Northern South Vol. 1 - Six Shooter Records - The Northern South Vol. 1 - Little Bones The Tragically Hip - Road Apples - MCA - Road Apples - Locked In The Trunk of a Car The Tragically Hip - Fully Completely - MCA - Fully Completely - Sweet Water Pools The Screaming Blue Messiahs - Bikini Red Transmission Joy Division - The Complete BBC Recordings So What The Pack A.D. - Positive Thinking - Cadence - Positive Thinking - Yes I Know The Pack A.D. - Positive Thinking - Cadence - Positive Thinking - Fog (Black Windows) The Joy Formidable - Hitch - Cadence - Hitch - The Ground Walks, With Time In A Box Modest Mouse - Strangers To Ourselves - Epic Antidote Gang Signs - Geist - Geist Xed Eyes Holy Fuck - Congrats - Last Gang Records - Congrats - Needs Odonis Odonis - Post Plague - Indie - Post Plague - Superpower Dreamland Warrior Soul - Last Decade Dead Century - David Geffen Company Article Protecting the worlds oceans an important goal of Germanys climate diplomacy The worlds oceans are vital to our survival. They regulate the global climate and are a source of food and income for billions of people. Only a very small part of the seas enjoys legal protection, however. Our diplomats are working in New York right now to change this state of affairs. clarajancita at 9-08-2016 11:08 AM (6 years ago) (f) The Ministry of Niger Delta has announced the conclusion of a single project in almost a decade of existence. The Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs has announced the successful completion of its first governmental project within its 8-years of existence after being created by the late President Musa Umaru Yar'dua in the heydays of intense Niger Delta militancy to bring government closer to the people. The Ministry of Niger Delta has announced the conclusion of a single project in almost a decade of existence. The Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs has announced the successful completion of its first governmental project within its 8-years of existence after being created by the late President Musa Umaru Yar'dua in the heydays of intense Niger Delta militancy to bring government closer to the people. The humble announcement was made on Monday by the honourable Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Uguru Usani in Abuja while addressing the News Agency of Nigeria. It has two ministers previously Ufot Ekaette and Godsday Orubebe both of who are from the oil-rich region as the incumbent. Mr. Usani said it was regrettable that no project had been commissioned or completed since the establishment of the ministry in 2008, except a cassava processing plant in Ondo State by the present administration. He decried the destruction of oil facilities by Niger Delta Avengers, arguing that no matter the provocation, it was wrong for the group to destroy the environment that bore the people`s heritage. He said the region was everybodys business and that no personal or collective interest was worth the destruction of oil pipelines in the region. The humble announcement was made on Monday by the honourable Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Uguru Usani in Abuja while addressing the News Agency of Nigeria.It has two ministers previously Ufot Ekaette and Godsday Orubebe both of who are from the oil-rich region as the incumbent. Mr. Usani said it was regrettable that no project had been commissioned or completed since the establishment of the ministry in 2008, except a cassava processing plant in Ondo State by the present administration.He decried the destruction of oil facilities by Niger Delta Avengers, arguing that no matter the provocation, it was wrong for the group to destroy the environment that bore the people`s heritage.He said the region was everybodys business and that no personal or collective interest was worth the destruction of oil pipelines in the region. Quote Lets come together as one to protect our communities; lets preach love, peace, tolerance, patience and dialogue with one another, Mr. Usani said. Lets convince ourselves that it is our region and that we have nowhere to go to, if we destroy it. The minister urged the people of the region to support the President Muhammadu Buhari, saying that they had benefitted more from it him than any other Nigerian president. The minister urged the people of the region to support the President Muhammadu Buhari, saying that they had benefitted more from it him than any other Nigerian president. Post Reply I am a metro reporter on Gistmania, I have been publishing news materials for over 5 years Posted: at 9-08-2016 11:08 AM (6 years ago) | Hero clarajancita at 9-08-2016 11:15 AM (6 years ago) (f) A Google employee from New York City who disappeared on an afternoon jog while visiting her mother in Massachusetts has been found murdered in the woods. Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. said Monday that 27-year-old Vanessa Marcotte was reported missing after failing to return from a run between 1pm and 4pm in Princeton. A Google employee from New York City who disappeared on an afternoon jog while visiting her mother in Massachusetts has been found murdered in the woods. Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. said Monday that 27-year-old Vanessa Marcotte was reported missing after failing to return from a run between 1pm and 4pm in Princeton. Her body was discovered at around 8.20pm Sunday by a state police K9 unit near Brooks Station Road, about a half-mile from her mother's home. A source told Fox25 in Boston that investigators were examining the possibility that Marcotte was segxwally assaulted and set on fire, with burns to her hands, head and feet. Authorities would not specify how she died but say her death appears to be a homicide. An autopsy is scheduled. ' Her body was discovered at around 8.20pm Sunday by a state police K9 unit near Brooks Station Road, about a half-mile from her mother's home. A source told Fox25 in Boston that investigators were examining the possibility that Marcotte was segxwally assaulted and set on fire, with burns to her hands, head and feet.Authorities would not specify how she died but say her death appears to be a homicide. An autopsy is scheduled. ' Quote We have a horrible set of facts, horrible circumstance,' Early told reporters during a news conference. He added that it was unclear whether Marcotte's killing was a random act of violence and urged local residents to remain vigilant and exercise caution. Early told reporters during a news conference.He added that it was unclear whether Marcotte's killing was a random act of violence and urged local residents to remain vigilant and exercise caution. Post Reply I am a metro reporter on Gistmania, I have been publishing news materials for over 5 years Posted: at 9-08-2016 11:15 AM (6 years ago) | Hero Counter-ISIL Strikes Target Terrorists in Syria, Iraq From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release SOUTHWEST ASIA, Aug. 8, 2016 U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in Syria and Iraq yesterday, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today. Officials reported details of yesterday's 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 Abu Kamal, a strike destroyed 83 ISIL oil tankers. -- Near Manbij, four strikes struck four separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed seven ISIL fighting positions. -- Near Mar'a, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL mortar system and an ISIL fighting position. Strikes in Iraq Fighter, remotely piloted aircraft and rocket artillery conducted eight strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq's government: -- Near Kisik, a strike destroyed an ISIL tunnel entrance. -- Near Mosul, two strikes struck an ISIL headquarters and destroyed two ISIL fighting positions and degraded an ISIL tunnel. -- Near Qayyarah, two strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed six ISIL rocket systems, three ISIL assembly areas, an ISIL tactical vehicle and an ISIL mortar system. -- Near Ramadi, a strike destroyed an ISIL mortar system, an ISIL supply cache and an ISIL fighting position. -- Near Sinjar, a strike suppressed an ISIL mortar position. -- Near Sultan Abdallah, a strike destroyed two ISIL weapons facilities, an ISIL headquarters and an ISIL vehicle bomb storage facility. 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, Denmark, France, Jordan, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Vinson Completes V-22 Osprey Fleet Battle Experiment Navy News Service Story Number: NNS160808-01 Release Date: 8/8/2016 9:18:00 AM By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Kristina Young, USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) Public Affairs PACIFIC OCEAN (NNS) -- Aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) completed a Fleet Battle Experiment (FBE) for the future Navy variant CMV-22B Osprey. Commander, Naval Air Forces conducted the FBE, July 22 through Aug. 4. The experiment explored, analyzed and documented the characteristics of operating a detachment of MV-22s for the carrier strike group as a replacement for the Navy's C-2A Greyhound carrier on-board delivery (COD) platform. "We look forward to the flexibility the CMV-22B will bring the carrier strike group," said Vice Adm. Mike Shoemaker, commander, Naval Air Forces. "The analysis and conclusions from this experiment will inform future concept of operations and how we will employ this aircraft and integrate it within the carrier air wing." During the FBE, 34,590 pounds of cargo and 563 passengers were transported to and from the ship via the MV-22B Ospreys. One notable advantage of the V-22 as the carrier on-board delivery platform is its ability to deliver logistic support to the carrier at night. "Overall, it was a successful evaluation," said Cmdr. Lucas Kadar, Carl Vinson's air boss. "The Ospreys were able to integrate into the carrier environment seamlessly. It gives us a lot of options, a lot of flexibility, in the sense that we can recover it more as a helicopter or sometimes we can treat it more like a fixed wing aircraft." Future CMV-22B detachments will capitalize and build on the flexibility, mobility, responsiveness, and independence of today's C-2A Greyhound detachments. "I believe there's a lot of value added by having this aircraft on board the ship," said Kadar. "For being in the initial stages of evaluating the suitability of the V-22 to conduct the carrier on-board delivery mission, it went surprisingly well." "The Ospreys bring the best of both worlds as far as the platform types go," added Kadar. "I look forward to seeing how the program continues to progress." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Momsen Visits Subic Bay at Midway Point of Deployment Navy News Service Story Number: NNS160808-05 Release Date: 8/8/2016 9:47:00 AM By Chief Mass Communication Specialist (select) Jay C. Pugh, U.S. 3rd Fleet Public Affairs SUBIC BAY, Republic of the Philippines (NNS) -- The guided-missile destroyer USS Momsen (DDG 92) arrived in Subic Bay, Republic of the Philippines Aug. 8 as part of a U.S. 3rd Fleet Pacific Surface Action Group (PAC SAG). The regularly scheduled port call reinforced the U.S. Navy's commitment to theater security cooperation and freedom of navigation operations within the Asia-Indo-Pacific region. "Momsen's presence here sends a powerful message to the world about our commitment to the stability of the region," said Cmdr. Elaine Brunelle, Momsen's executive officer. "We are skilled professionals committed to enhancing maritime security through bilateral cooperation with our partners throughout the Indo-Asia-Pacific." The port call also marked Momsen's midway point as part of a historic PAC SAG. Under the operational control of U.S. 3rd Fleet, the PAC SAG, which consists of the guided-missile destroyers USS Spruance (DDG 111), USS Decatur (DDG 73) and Momsen, with embarked Destroyer Squadron (CDS) 31 - is conducting routine patrols, maritime security operations and theater cooperation activities to enhance regional security and stability. While in port, Momsen will complete a voyage repair period and her crew will participate in community outreach events and take advantage of various tours offered by Morale, Welfare and Recreation. "Momsen's outreach activities will promote American goodwill through our Sailors taking part in activities that help the local communities in each port of call," said Senior Chief Fire Controlman Thomas Masanotti. "All host nations we've visited have received our Sailors with great appreciation. We have always been welcomed at each event and been thanked graciously upon its completion." Indeed, Momsen Sailors participated in four community outreach activities during previous port calls in Busan, Korea, Sasebo, Japan, Singapore and Darwin, Australia. The projects ran the gamut of cultural interactions with senior citizens, children, disabled citizens and beautification efforts. The crew aboard Momsen will also focus on mission essential maintenance during the voyage repair. "Sometimes there is special equipment required that the ship does not have on board to calibrate gauges, valves, tools and so on," said Chief Interior Communications Electrician Justin Hohlbein, Momsen's maintenance manager. "Pulling into a port like Subic Bay offers us the chance to have these types of jobs completed and the accomplishment of corrective maintenance of mission essential items is necessary for a ship to deploy or to continue on its deployment." The U.S. Navy maintains a presence in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region to help preserve peace and security and to further partnerships with friends and allies. The presence of the PAC SAG on this deployment contributes to freedom of navigation and lawful use of the sea, as well as furthers operational training and enables an exchange of culture, skills and tactical knowledge. Spruance also completed its portion of the deployment participating in the Oceania Maritime Security Initiative (OMSI). OMSI is a secretary of defense program leveraging Department of Defense assets transiting the region to increase the Coast Guard's maritime domain awareness, ultimately supporting its maritime law enforcement operations in Oceania. U.S. 3rd Fleet leads naval forces in the Pacific and provides the realistic, relevant training necessary for an effective global Navy. Third Fleet works constantly with U.S. 7th Fleet. The forces of both Fleets complement one another across the spectrum of military operations in the Pacific. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Dambusters Conduct Milestone Exercises with Japan Air Self-Defense Force Navy News Service Story Number: NNS160808-18 Release Date: 8/8/2016 2:43:00 PM By Lt. Brian Dallaire, Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA 195) Public Affairs ATSUGI, Japan (NNS) -- Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) and Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 5 conducted the 2nd annual Benkyoukai training event Aug. 1-4. The weeklong event, led by the "Dambusters" of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 195, incorporated Dissimilar Air Combat Training (DACT) with the Japanese 302nd Tactical Fighter Squadron (TFS). "We are incredibly pleased with the results from this most recent round of training and are already looking forward to the next Benkyoukai event," said Capt. John Enfield, commanding officer of CVW 5. "The next series of events will significantly expand the number of participants as [U.S. Navy] and JASDF forces continue to build upon a strong start." The first Benkyoukai, a Japanese word which translates to mean 'partnership and collaborative learning,' took place in April and incorporated F-15J Eagles from the 305th TFS, F-4EJ Phantom II fighters from the 302nd TFS, and F/A-18E Super Hornets from VFA-195. The first event marked a historical interaction since it was the first time in over a decade U.S. Navy tactical aircraft have worked directly with the JASDF. Multiple training missions enabled each unit to evaluate its performance and provide methods to enhance training for future combat readiness. The lessons learned from Benkyoukai I carried forward to Benkyoukai II, providing more efficient interactions and advanced training. "The continuation of these exercises is vital to strengthening the relationship between Japanese and United States Navy forces," said Cmdr. Guy Snodgrass, commanding officer of VFA-195 and creator of the Benkyoukai initiative. "This unique opportunity enhances a bilateral partnership between aviation units, while improving tactical integration with our host nation partners and critical Indo-Asia-Pacific allies." Throughout Benkyoukai II, air combat maneuvering sorties were conducted, enabling each nation's pilots to test their abilities against their counterparts. Multi-plane events were incorporated into Benyoukai II to build on the established foundation of the last exercise. The "Liberty Bells" of Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron (VAW) 115, operating the E-2C Hawkeye, participated during multi-plane events to provide real-world integration of air intercept controller tactics. "Our air crew continue to be impressed by the level of professionalism and capabilities of our Japanese allies," said Cmdr. David Waidelich, commanding officer of VAW-115. "These opportunities are a vital part of building the confidence required to operate effectively alongside each other." Plans to continue the Benkyoukai events are being organized and developed for next year. CVW-5 is the U.S. Navy's only continuously forward-deployed air wing, operating from Naval Air Facility Atsugi, Japan, and embarked aboard aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76), operating from Yokosuka, Japan. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Armed groups kill 14 in DR Congo's troubled east Iran Press TV Mon Aug 8, 2016 5:57PM Armed groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have killed at least 14 people during overnight attacks in the country's troubled east, the army and local officials say. Captain Guillaume Ndjike, the DRC's army spokesman, said on Monday that the fatalities occurred during multiple attacks which were carried out overnight against both civilians and military positions in the country's eastern province of North Kivu. Ndjike blamed the deadly assaults on Mai-Mai militiamen and Rwandan Hutu rebels from the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) operating actively in the troubled region. The army spokesman said seven people were shot dead or hacked to death with machetes in the town of Kibirizi, located about 85 kilometers northeast of the capital, Goma. Another four civilians were killed in Kashalira while a soldier and a civilian lost their life in Kahunga, he said, referring to two towns in the Rutshuru territory situated in the southern part of North Kivu. Local reports said a young Hutu rebel was also shot dead by Mai-Mai fighters in the attacks. Ndjike said some 150 houses were also set on fire by the assailants. Congo has been facing numerous problems over the past few decades such as grinding poverty, crumbling infrastructure and a war in the east of the country which has dragged on since 1998. The Rwandan FDLR, a Hutu group based in eastern DRC, is seeking the overthrow of the Tutsi-led government in Kigali. The rebel group includes several people wanted internationally in connection with the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, which left at least 800,000 people dead, mainly from the Tutsi minority. The rebels are also accused of carrying out attacks in neighboring DRC and committing serious human rights violations, including recruiting child soldiers and rape. In February 2015, the DRC army launched an offensive to flush out the FDLR rebels from the areas where they have been wreaking havoc for more than two decades. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Two Indian border guards, one fighter killed in Kashmir Iran Press TV Mon Aug 8, 2016 10:33AM Clashes have broken out between Indian troops and militants in Kashmir, leaving two border guards and a fighter dead. The Indian army confirmed on Monday that three persons were killed in a gunbattle near the de facto borderline known as the Line of Control. India often blames Pakistan for "rebel" attacks in the region, accusing Islamabad of giving arms to pro-independence fighters and sending them across the borderline to launch attacks on Indian forces. India has an estimated 500,000 soldiers deployed in the restive territory. Large parts of the territory, including Srinagar which is the largest city and the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, have been under a strict military curfew for the past month. The region has been the scene of widespread anti-India protests, triggered by the killing of a popular pro-independence leader. Several deadly protests have followed since, with over 50 people killed and nearly 4,000 injured in the protests. Tens of thousands of people have died in Kashmir since the late 80s when the armed rebellion against the Indian rule over the Himalayan territory began. Since India and Pakistan won independence from British rule in 1947, the rivaling neighbors have both been claiming the region in full but have partial control over it. India controls two-thirds of Kashmir while the remaining one-third is under the Pakistani rule. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Japan accuses China of intensifying tension in disputed waters Iran Press TV Mon Aug 8, 2016 7:46AM Japan has accused China of intruding into what Tokyo considers as its territorial waters in East China Sea, pledging to respond firmly but calmly to the alleged trespassing. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said on Monday that Japan would continue to urge China not to escalate the dispute which has drawn in trans-regional powers, such as the US. Suga claimed that a total of 14 Chinese vessels had entered "contiguous waters" at the weekend, 12 of which had remained in the area early on Monday. He said several Japanese agencies, including the Coast Guard, would cooperate to deal with the situation. Government sources said the Coast Guard has beefed up its patrols in the region over the weekend. Japan has so far issued multiple protests to Beijing, including one which was made on Friday over the discovery of what Tokyo calls the installation of a radar system on a Chinese offshore gas platform. Tokyo said it discovered the radar facility along with surveillance cameras installed on one of China's gas-drilling platforms in June. A Foreign Ministry spokesman called for the "immediate removal of the equipment," saying Japan "cannot accept" the radar. Tokyo is locked in a separate territorial row with Beijing on an uninhabited yet strategically important island group in the East China Sea. Earlier this month, China's Defense Ministry said in a statement that two Japanese jets had taken "provocative" actions near a pair of Chinese jets in the East China Sea on June 17. The Chinese aircraft had been on routine patrol when they met the Japanese jets and responded "decisively" to the provocations, the statement said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Argentina Declassification Project Fact Sheet Office of the Spokesperson Washington, DC August 8, 2016 President Obama announced during his March 2016 visit to Argentina that the United States would embark on a comprehensive effort to identify additional records related to human rights abuses committed under Argentina's dictatorship. In a ceremony to commemorate the victims of the dictatorship at the Parque de la Memoria in Buenos Aires, President Obama said, "to continue helping the families of the victims find some of the truth and justice they deserve, I can announce that the United States Government will declassify even more documents from that period including, for the first time, military and intelligence records, because I believe we have a responsibility to confront the past with honesty and transparency." On August 4th, Secretary Kerry delivered an initial set of newly declassified records to President Macri. Totaling approximately 1,000 pages, these records are primarily from the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, Ronald W. Reagan Presidential Library, and George H.W. Bush Presidential Library. Today, these records have been made available to the public at https://icontherecord.tumblr.com/, and will be made available at each of the Presidential Libraries. The declassification project represents an historic effort by U.S. Government agencies and departments to search, identify, review for public access, and provide records that shed light on human rights abuses in Argentina between 1975 and 1984. In 2002, the United States declassified over 4,000 State Department cables and other documents from the period of the Argentine military dictatorship. These records have helped Argentina hold human rights abusers accountable, for example, by supporting Argentine criminal investigations involving human rights violations under the dictatorship. This new effort requested by Argentine President Mauricio Macri and human rights groups involves over 14 U.S. Government agencies and departments, and is being led by the Office of the Director for National Intelligence (ODNI) with support from the White House. This project involves hundreds of hours of agency staff resources, including records managers, archivists, historians, and declassification and information access professionals. U.S. Government officials are searching their records for relevant information to review for potential public release. The responsive records are being reviewed on a "word-for-word" basis a more exacting and revealing process than the typical reviews agencies conduct on their historical records, when they release or withhold entire records on a "pass-fail" basis. U.S. Government agencies are conducting this declassification effort through five major tasks: The U.S. government is making available to the public records related to human rights abuses that occurred between 1975 and 1984 in Argentina. This is a comprehensive search of hundreds of Federal records series and hundreds of thousands of pages to identify relevant individual documents for review and potential release. The ODNI is coordinating an interagency public access review of relevant records. This review is expected to be completed in late 2017. The U.S. government is making records from the Gerald R. Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald W. Reagan and George H.W. Bush Presidential Libraries available to the public. Records from the Presidential Libraries are of great historical interest, given their importance in documenting U.S. decision-making at the highest level. Archivists at the four Presidential Libraries are searching their holdings for relevant documents and providing them for interagency review. This review is expected to be completed in late 2016. The U.S. government is making responsive portions from the President's Daily Brief (PDB) available to the public. The President's Daily Briefs are considered the CIA's most important intelligence product, providing information on the most significant global national security issues. The release of the relevant portions of these PDBs is only the third time in history any PDBs have been declassified, and the first ever Carter-era PDBs publicly released. This review is expected to be completed in late 2016. The U.S. government is making previously withheld information from the Department of State's 2002 declassification project available to the public. While the Department of State declassified its cables and records that provided evidence of human rights abuses, it withheld some information for national security classification or statutory-based restrictions. The Department of State and other relevant agencies are re-reviewing these cables and records in an effort to publicly release additional information. This re-review is expected to be completed in late 2016. The U.S. government is making the 1977-1981 Foreign Relations of the United States South America volume available to the public. The Historian's Office at the Department of State is expediting the publication of this volume, with the goal of publishing the Argentina and Regional Issues chapters by late 2017. The release of this initial set of documents is the first step in a lengthy and ambitious declassification process. In the coming months, there will be more records declassified from the four Presidential Libraries, followed by newly-declassified Federal agency and department records in 2017. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address UN rights experts 'gravely concerned' by reports of reprisals against Burundian lawyers 8 August 2016 Gravely concerned by reports that four Burundian lawyers who provided information to the United Nations Committee on Torture (CAT) are being subjected to reprisals, the body said today that it has sent a letter to the Ambassador of Burundi to the United Nations in Geneva seeking assurances that no member of Burundian civils society would be subjected to such treatment for cooperating with the CAT. In a press statement issued by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the Committee said the four lawyers Armel Niyongere, Lambert Nigarura, Dieudonne Bashirahishize and Vital Nshimirimana had contributed to an alternative report by a coalition of Burundian non-governmental organizations for the its review, and three were present at the review in Geneva on 28 and 29 July. According to the Committee, on 29 July, a Burundian prosecutor asked the President of the Bujumbura Bar Council to strike the lawyers off the professional register, alleging that they had committed several offences, including involvement in an insurrectionist movement and an attempted coup. The Committee's letter, signed by Chair Jens Modvig and Rapporteur on Reprisals Alessio Bruni, notes that the prosecutor requested sanctions against the lawyers, rather than an inquiry to establish the facts, "which raises concerns with respect to presumption of innocence." It goes on to state that this concern "is all the stronger given that the (prosecutor's) request came on the same day that the Burundian delegation, presided over by the Minister of Justice, indicated they would not be participating in the second session of dialogue with the Committee, citing the alternative report by Burundian civil society in particular as the reason." Mr. Modvig and Mr. Bruni also point out that the Committee raised the issue of reprisals after the last regular review of Burundi in 2014. They reminded the Burundian Government that reprisals contravene Article 13 of the Convention against Torture, to which the country has been a party since 1993. Article 13 states that complainants and witnesses should be protected against all ill-treatment or intimidation as a consequence of making a complaint or giving evidence. Given the gravity of the cases detailed in their letter, Mr. Modvig and Mr. Bruni have asked for a reply from the Burundian authorities by 11 August and stressed that they remain available for any meeting with the Burundian ambassador before then. The Committee is due to publish its findings on Burundi on 12 August. Members of the CAT are independent human rights experts drawn from around the world, who serve in their personal capacity and not as representatives of States parties. The Committee's concluding observations are an independent assessment of States' compliance with their human rights obligations under the treaty. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Analysts Laud Plan for Regional Force Deployment in S. Sudan by Waakhe Simon Wudu August 08, 2016 Analysts in South Sudan say partners in the peace process must quickly move beyond the peace resolutions passed Friday by regional bloc IGAD and pave the way for the regional protection force expected to be dispatched soon. Professor Jacob Chol, head of the college of political science at the University of Juba, welcomed resolutions passed by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, especially the deployment of a regional protection force in an effort to restore stability in South Sudan. But actions speak louder than words, he said, and unless action is taken soon, the resolutions will be worth not much more than the paper they're written on. "What is important here is to be able to serve this idea now," he said, noting that IGAD and South Sudanese officials needed to discuss and agree upon the size of the protection force and how it should be funded and supported. Chol said hostilities must immediately cease in the parts of South Sudan where combat operations continue. He said negotiations by the SPLM and the SPLM-IO, under the engagement of the IGAD partners, most be focused on bringing peace to South Sudan. Analyst Augustine Ting Mayay, a researcher with the Juba-based Sudd Institute, agreed. "The first thing that needs to be done is to stabilize the security of the country," Mayay said. "There has been no conflict in Juba in particular, but they are having some minor violent activities taking place in the periphery." Mayay reiterated that IGAD must act swiftly to restore peace in South Sudan: "If we are not taking action on [the resolutions,] they may not deliver any objective." Return by Machar IGAD officials have also called for SPLM-IO leader Riek Machar to return to Juba, resume his duties as first vice president and rejoin implementation of the peace agreement signed last August. A top member of the SPLM-IO said he was cautiously optimistic that the deployment of a protection force could bring a return to calm in Juba and help parties get back on track with implementing the peace deal. Mabior Garang de Mabior, the former water and irrigation minister appointed by Machar, said the decision by IGAD to send a protection force into Juba was a step in the right direction, but that the lack of political will by the government's leaders was largely to blame for the slow progress in implementing the peace deal signed a year ago. Deng Bior Deng, secretary-general of the Democratic Change Party, said additional forces could help restore confidence in Juba's security situation. He said the tense atmosphere in Juba had taken a toll on people who worry about more fighting. "If there is something that can separate the fighting parties and then secure the lives of the civilians, then we would welcome it," Deng said. Garang said that he had not spoken directly to Machar since July, but that the former first vice president called for an outside protection force to help provide a buffer between the warring parties. Ayen Bior contributed to this report from Washington. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address 50 Top GOP Security Experts: 'None of Us Will Vote for Donald Trump' by Ken Schwartz August 08, 2016 Fifty former Republican national security advisers, intelligence chiefs and trade representatives have signed a letter saying, "None of us will vote for Donald Trump." They have served every U.S. Republican president from Richard Nixon to George W. Bush, and include former CIA Director Michael Hayden, former Homeland Security Directors Michael Chertoff and Tom Ridge, former Trade Representative Carla Hills and a number of ex-deputy secretaries of state. It is some of the bitterest commentary on the Trump campaign by members of his own party to date. 'Most reckless' The strongly worded letter not only says Trump is unqualified to be president, but that he would be a dangerous commander-in-chief and "the most reckless president in American history." "He lacks the character, values and experience ... he weakens U.S. moral authority ... he lacks self-control and acts impetuously. He cannot tolerate personal criticism. He has alarmed our closest allies with his erratic behavior." They accuse Trump of displaying "alarming ignorance of the basic facts of contemporary international politics" and say he shows no willingness to learn. "All of these are dangerous qualities in an individual who aspires to be president and commander-in-chief with command of the U.S. nuclear arsenal." Trump was equally as harsh, calling the 50 part of the "failed Washington elite" insiders who, along with Hillary Clinton, made "disastrous decisions to invade Iraq, allow Americans to die in Benghazi and ... allowed the rise of ISIS [Islamic State]." But his focus Monday was on the economy, and he unveiled his latest plans in the struggling Midwestern city of Detroit, headquarters of the U.S. car industry. Trump's plans include large tax cuts for individuals and corporations, suspending regulations he says stifle business, and reviving the controversial Keystone oil pipeline that would run from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Trade deals He also said he would rewrite the North American Free Trade Agreement and pull the United States out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which the Senate has not yet passed. He calls both trade agreements bad deals that give all the advantages to all signatories except the U.S. "We now begin a great national conversation about economic revival for America," Trump said. "It's a conversation about how to make America great again for everyone ... especially for those who have the very least." In a rare moment at a Trump rally, the sharp-tongued candidate stood by quietly as police escorted protesters out of the hall, instead of his making wisecracks and encouraging the audience. In St. Petersburg, Florida, Democrat Hillary Clinton assailed the Trump plan, saying he is trying to make "old tired ideas sound new." 'Trickle-down economics' She said Trump is repackaging "trickle-down economics," a term used for benefits for the wealthy and corporations with the view that they will help the middle and lower class by reinvesting in the economy and creating jobs. Historians say trickle-down economics has never worked, and Clinton cited economists who believe Trump's tax breaks for the wealthy would bring back recession. Clinton plans to release her economic plan later this week. She already has said she would create millions of jobs by focusing on rebuilding crumbling infrastructure and making the rich pay "their fair share" of taxes. Also Monday, a former CIA official and Republican congressional aide announced plans to run for president as what he calls a conservative alternative to Trump. "America deserves much better than either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton," Evan McMullin said Monday. He will struggle to get his name on the ballot in many states, including some so-called battleground states where he could siphon votes away from Trump. It is unclear what party, if any, McMullin would represent. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Opposition, Rights Group Say Dozens Killed in Ethiopia Protests by Salem Solomon August 08, 2016 Dozens of people were killed and hundreds more injured when Ethiopian security forces opened fire on anti-government protesters over the weekend, according to opposition parties and a human rights group. Amnesty International says at least 97 people died during the protests across the restive Oromia region and in parts of the Amhara region. In Oromia, two officials with the opposition Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC) say more than 30 people were killed during protests Saturday and Sunday. Party vice president Mulatu Gemechu told VOA's Horn of Africa Service that the deaths were spread across 12 different towns and cities. One of the cities worst hit was Bahir Dar, the Amhara region's capital. The opposition Semayawi party canceled a planned rally, citing lack of permission from authorities, but demonstrators still gathered Sunday to voice support for the Oromia protesters and demand that local governance issues be addressed. Witnesses who spoke to VOA say security forces shot live rounds at the crowd. Amnesty reports at least 30 people were killed there. The spokesperson of the Amhara regional government, Negussu Tilahun, said seven people were killed, and that the government has a responsibility to protect the country and to uphold the law. Amnesty reports another seven deaths from live fire in the city of Gondar on Saturday. Two more people were killed in the town of Sharwa in the Amhara region, and protests also took place Saturday in Meskel Square, in the heart of Addis Ababa. The U.S. embassy in Addis Ababa said it is deeply concerned about the "extensive violence." An embassy statement noted that many of the demonstrations took place without authorization, but said citizens should have the right to gather peacefully and to express their opinions. Government response The Ethiopian government blames the opposition inside and outside the country for organizing what it calls "unauthorized protests by forces of violence." According to a statement by the government communications office, some protesters were carrying lethal weapons, including explosives. Opposition leaders deny these allegations, stating that the protesters were peaceful and unarmed. The government has shut down access to social media since late Friday. Earlier that day, Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn warned people not to join the protests. "We don't know who takes ownership or is behind these protests and sometimes they are organized by outside anti-peace forces with aims to destabilize this country and are organized through Facebook messages," he said. "These things don't have owners, and they are illegal. Therefore participating in illegal protests clashes with and goes against our country's constitution," he added. The focus of the protests is the situation in Oromia, where locals began agitating last year against a plan that would incorporate regional lands into the capital, Addis Ababa. The plan was officially canceled but anti-government demonstrations have continued. The Oromia region is one of Ethiopia's nine ethnically-based states. It surrounds Addis Ababa and includes much of central and southern Ethiopia. In Addis on Saturday, protesters held signs that read "We Want Self-Governance to be Respected" and "Stop Looting Land." Others held signs that read "Stop Killing Oromo People." No deaths were reported from the Addis protests, however, witnesses say police beat demonstrators to break up the rally. Opposition leaders warn that the Ethiopian government's use of excessive force against civilians will lead to the disintegration of the country. Speaking to VOA today, Terunhe Gemta, the spokesperson of the Oromo Federalist Congress called on the government to learn from experiences of countries like Somalia, Yemen and Syria. The spokesperson for the Oromia regional government was not available for comment. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Colombian AF general commands air component during joint exercise By Capt. Bryan Bouchard, 12th Air Force (Air Forces Southern) Public Affairs / Published August 09, 2016 DAVIS-MONTHAN AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. (AFNS) -- For the first time, a Colombian general led the simulated air war during U.S. Southern Command's annual Panamax exercise from July 29-Aug. 4 at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. Colombian Air Force Brig. Gen. Sergio Andres Garzon Velez acted as the Combined Forces Air Component commander for the fictitious Multi-National Forces-South during SOUTHCOM's largest annual exercise. "My takeaway from this exercise is confidence," Garzon said. "Confidence to share information, to share some ideas during operational execution." The scenario of Panamax involved a multi-national force involving 19 nations ranging from Canada to Chile to support the fictitious country of "New Centralia" against a guerilla force, which not only threatens that nation's security but also the security of the Panama Canal. "If we respond to something around the world in our area of cooperation, if we have partner nations who are able to command and control, it really enables our operation to go further," said Lt. Gen. Chris Nowland, the 12th Air Force (Air Forces Southern) commander. The role of the air component commander is to act as a subordinate commander to the multi-national forces commander, providing airpower into the theater of operations, according to Brig. Gen. Donald Lindberg, the mobilization assistant to the 12th Air Force (AFSOUTH) commander. He was paired with Garzon not only during Panamax, but also during exercise Key Resolve in South Korea earlier this year. While the air component operates from Davis-Monthan AFB, other components operated from multiple locations around the U.S. as well as in Santiago, Chile. Working with partner nations during exercises, such as Panamax, provides connective tissue between different countries, which can help streamline processes for the future if there is ever a mission where a coalition may be involved. "It goes back to the partner nation concept," Lindberg said. "Partner doesn't mean that the U.S. does everything. We partner with them and they have the opportunity here to get out in front, and have command and control of partner nation air forces." More than 35 partner air force officers from about a dozen Western Hemisphere countries participated in the air portion of the exercise, and helped solidify the relationships and bonds which the Airmen of AFSOUTH strive to maintain throughout the year. "We have demonstrated unity of effort," Garzon said. "If we are ever called upon, we can work together to accomplish the mission." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address COLUMBUS Lee Rupp, by his own admission, is the go-to guy for information about the Loup River flood of Aug. 12-13, 1966. The Monroe-area native, former state senator and retired fishery biologist still has occasion to reflect back on the flood that many have deemed to be the worst in the history of the Loup River basin. The most recent occasion for Lee to reminisce was Sunday, when he spoke at a Platte County Historical Society program on the 50th anniversary of the Loup flood, credited with causing millions of dollars in damage over about a 6,500-square-mile area. Rupp, 78, who was raised on a farm near the Loup River, now often refers to a well-worn map he obtained from the U.S. Geological Survey that shows the width and extent of flood damage caused a half-century ago by a turbulent Loup and its tributaries. "The Loup is flood-prone because its basically a north-south river, while the adjoining Platte River is an east-west river, Rupp said. The flood was mainly caused by heavy rainfall that centered over the lower North Loup River valley and moved east into the Cedar River valley and other major tributaries of the Loup River. Less permeable land in these areas resulted in high water runoffs that spilled into lower regions of the Loup River basin. It was the perfect storm of events. Thats why it was such a disaster, Rupp said. He added that the 1966 flood not only exceeded all other Loup River floods during that general time period, but is believed to have been the greatest in recorded history for the area. It rained 4 to 10 inches over an area of 2,200 square miles, Rupp said. The floodwater runoff was flowing four times the flow rate of the Missouri River, he added. At the time of the flood, Rupp was a young member of the Monroe Volunteer Fire Department. It was his duty to help evacuate the entire town of Monroe, which had a population of about 260, when it appeared that flood damage to a nearby Loup Public Power District canal might cause the town to be inundated. Everybody was evacuated to a hilltop north of town for four hours, Rupp said. But the floodwater, after busting out of the canal, returned to the Loup River channel and avoided the community. Other towns and farms along the Loup basin were not so lucky, Rupp noted. The Loup was 3 miles wide around Oconee at the time, he said. Rupp also recalled how far floodwater extended within Columbus once the deluge reached the city. Sixteenth Street was the north bank of the Loup River then, he said. Rural areas along the Loup between Columbus and Fullerton still show the scars and dramatic changes in topography caused by the flood, Rupp said. The flood took thousands of acres of riverside pasture land out of production. You can still see rusty barrels sticking out of the ground when you go into some of those areas, Rupp said. The power and depth of the flood became evident to Rupp when he was sent to check on some family owned farm pasture after the waters receded. I was walking in the pasture and smelled a stench. I looked up and, at about 14 feet high, a 300- to 400-pound calf was dead in the crotch of a tree, Rupp said. Even though memories of the 1966 flood may have eventually faded for others, it would resurface for Rupp throughout parts of his career. It was occasionally brought up during his time as a fishery biologist for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission between the 1960s and 1982. Later, as District 22 representative in the Legislature between 1982 and 1988, Rupp worked with state agencies by supplying them with information on how to get flood-ravaged property along the Loup, no longer viable as ag production ground, converted to state or privately owned wildlife recreation areas. Our recreational access to areas (along the Loup) is now a thousand times greater than it was back then, Rupp said. And, over the years, Rupp has continually been asked to show others his USGS map illustrating how far the Loup wandered from its banks in 1966. That 50-year flood is still fresh in the minds of those who loan money to those who are building anything in that flood plain, Rupp said. Rupp takes a practical attitude about whether the right set of circumstances might result in another Loup River flood on the scale of the one seen in 1966. Never say never about Mother Nature, he said. Military Strikes Continue Against ISIL Terrorists in Syria, Iraq From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release SOUTHWEST ASIA, Aug. 9, 2016 U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in Syria and Iraq yesterday, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today. Officials reported details of yesterday's strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports. Strikes in Syria Attack and remotely piloted aircraft conducted seven strikes in Syria: -- Near Dayr Az Zawr, a strike destroyed nine ISIL oil tankers. -- Near Manbij, four strikes struck three separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL fighting position, an ISIL vehicle and an ISIL tactical vehicle. -- Near Mara, a strike destroyed an ISIL front-end loader. -- Near Palmyra, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL vehicle. Strikes in Iraq Attack, fighter, and remotely piloted aircraft and rocket artillery conducted eight strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq's government: -- Near Baghdadi, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit. -- Near Hit, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL fighting position. -- Near Kisik, two strikes destroyed 30 ISIL rocket rails and 10 ISIL rockets and suppressed an ISIL mortar position. -- Near Mosul, two strikes struck a large ISIL tactical unit and destroyed three ISIL vehicles, an ISIL mortar system and an ISIL assembly area and denied ISIL access to terrain. -- Near Qayyarah, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit. -- Near Sultan Abdallah, a strike struck a large ISIL tactical unit and destroyed eight ISIL assembly areas, an ISIL weapons cache and an ISIL vehicle. 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, Denmark, France, Jordan, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Afghan civilians flee to Lashkar Gah as Taliban advances in Helmand Iran Press TV Tue Aug 9, 2016 6:7PM Thousands of Afghan civilians have fled to the provincial capital city of Lashkar Gah as the Taliban militants are reportedly advancing on several areas of the southern province of Helmand. Omar Zawak, a spokesman for Helmand's governor, warned on Tuesday that the provincial capital was struggling to cope with an influx of people fleeing fierce fighting across the troubled region. "Around 30,000 people have been displaced in Helmand in the past several weeks. Most of them are coming to Lashkar Gah," Zawak said, adding, "It [is] difficult for the city to contain all of them. Families, children, women, all have to sleep on the streets. There is a shortage of food and clean water. We need urgent support." Meanwhile, the Taliban advance has also compounded fears that the troubled provincial capital city is on the brink of falling into the militants' hands. NATO has voiced concern over the intensity of the ongoing battle in Helmand. "The situation down there remains tense and somewhat contested," the statement read, adding, "It remains an ongoing security concern and there has been fighting down there for the last several weeks. We remain confident that the Afghan forces are fighting effectively and that they will continue to secure Lashkar Gah." Panicked residents have also expressed fears that Lashkar Gah could fall. "The Taliban are in control of all the roads leading to Lashkar Gah," AFP quoted resident Haji Qayum as saying, adding, "The police check posts are falling one by one. There is a great fear the capital may fall to the Taliban." On Monday, the Afghan Defense Ministry confirmed that heavy fighting had flared in Nad Ali and militants overran a neighborhood only a few kilometers from Lashkar Gah. In addition to that, the Taliban militants have also carried out attacks in Nawa district, just south of Lashkar Gah. Taliban effectively controls or contests 10 of the 14 districts in the opium-rich Helmand province. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address France sells 30 military helicopters to Kuwait Iran Press TV Tue Aug 9, 2016 12:32PM France and Kuwait agreed Tuesday upon the purchase of 30 Airbus Caracal helicopters in a deal worth more than one billion dollars. Paris will provide the versatile helicopters to Kuwait as part of a 2.5-billion-euro package of deals that the two sides agreed in October 2015. The agreement comes nine months after France and Kuwait signed other major military deals. French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the increasing military cooperation between France and Kuwait is meant to boost the regional capability in the fight against the Takfiri Daesh terrorists. "...with this decision, Kuwait further strengthens the strategic partnership that has been linking our two countries over several decades," the French defense minister said, adding that France and Kuwait have been operating "side by side in the fight against Daesh in Iraq and Syria." France reached mega deals with Saudi Arabia last year to provide the kingdom with some modern military equipment. The issue of deals has sparked concerns as the regime in Riyadh continues the deadly campaign against Yemen. Kuwait is also involved in the Saudi military aggression. Many have also accused France of triggering an arms race in the Persian Gulf region as other countries there are in search of more modern weapons to deter potential threats by the Saudis and their allies. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Saudi air raids claim 33 civilian lives in Yemen Iran Press TV Tue Aug 9, 2016 5:12AM At least 30 civilians have been killed as Saudi fighter jets pounded several Yemeni provinces in a blatant violation of a UN-brokered ceasefire between the warring sides there. On Tuesday, Saudi fighter jets bombed several targets in the capital, Sana'a, including a food factory. At least 14 people, including three employees of the factory, have lost their lives in the attack, said Yemen's al-Masirah television. Saudi warplanes also bombed an area in the Kushar district of the northwestern Hajjah Province, killing three people and injuring several others. Elsewhere, the Saudi air raids hit the al-Sama' military base in the Arhab district of Sana'a Province as well as the military base of Hamza in the province of Ibb. Two civilians lost their lives in an airstrike on a fuel station in Ibb. Saudi military aircraft also carried out five raids on the Ta'izz airport. Later in the day, they targeted Wazaiyah District in the province, leaving seven people dead. Riyadh's jets further launched over a dozen attacks against the districts of Saqayn and Sahar in the northern province of Sa'ada and the headquarters of the 310th Armored Brigade in Amran Province. At least six civilians died in similar Saudi raids in the Qatabir region of Sa'ada. The airstrikes come in violation of the truce agreement that came into effect in April before the start of UN-backed negotiations between Yemen's Ansarullah movement and the Saudi-backed government of former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. The talks to end Yemen's conflict once again broke down over the weekend, with pro-Hadi militants announcing a new Riyadh-backed military operation near Sana'a. On Sunday, residents of towns near Sana'a said the Saudi strikes, which came as air cover for the ground offensive by Riyadh's mercenaries, killed nearly 10 civilians there. Saudi Arabia has been engaged in a military campaign against Yemen for more than a year in support of Hadi, who has resigned as Yemen's president but seeks to forcefully grab power. Nearly 10,000 people have been killed and over 17,000 injured since the onset of the Saudi aggression began. Yemenis say most of the victims are civilians. On Monday, the Norwegian Refugee Council warned that Yemen is facing an irreversible humanitarian catastrophe some 500 days into the deadly Saudi military campaign. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Milosevic 'Exonerated'? War-Crime Deniers Feed Receptive Audience August 09, 2016 by Gordana Knezevic Strange mid-summer news: A U.K.-based pundit, in an op-ed piece in RT, sensationally claims that the late Slobodan Milosevic has been "exonerated" by the UN court that deals with war crimes that took place during the Balkan wars of the 1990s. Milosevic, the former president of Yugoslavia who died in his cell in The Hague a decade ago while awaiting trial on a host of war crimes charges, has long been accused of masterminding those wars. But in discussing the verdict from a separate case issued by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Neil Clark argues in RT that it had quietly cleared Milosevic of responsibility for war crimes. "The ICTY's conclusion, that one of the most demonized figures of the modern era was innocent of the most heinous crimes he was accused of, really should have made headlines across the world," Clark writes. "But it hasn't. Even the ICTY buried it, deep in its 2,590-page verdict in the trial of Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, who was convicted in March of genocide [at Srebrenica], war crimes and crimes against humanity." Clark asks why there was no official announcement or press conference regarding Milosevic's "exoneration." He goes on to thank journalist and researcher Andy Wilcoxon, who wrote early this month about the March 24 Karadzic judgment, for this supposedly game-changing discovery regarding international justice. So, has the man who oversaw the worst atrocities committed in Europe since World War II been declared innocent? Clark has been making a name for himself as a leading apologist for Milosevic, for Serbian war crimes, and more recently for Putin's actions in Ukraine. But this time he has really gone too far. This is a perfect example of fact-bending journalism. I sent an e-mail to the ICTY to get their reaction to the Wilcoxon and Clark reports on Milosevic's supposed exoneration. The ICTY replied: "The Trial Chamber of the Karadzic case found, at paragraph 3460, page 1303, of the Trial Judgement, that 'there was no sufficient evidence presented in this case to find that Slobodan Milosevic agreed with the common plan' [to create territories ethnically cleansed of non-Serbs]. The Trial Chamber found earlier in the same paragraph that 'Milosevic provided assistance in the form of personnel, provisions and arms to Bosnian Serbs during the conflict'." The Trial Chamber did not in fact make any determination of guilt with respect to Milosevic in its verdict against Karadzic. Indeed, Milosevic was not charged or accused in the Karadzic case. The fact that a person is, or is not, found to be part of a joint criminal enterprise in a case in which he is not charged has no impact on the status of his own case or his own criminal responsibility. In short, the trial against Karadzic was against him and him only, and therefore has no impact on the separate case against Slobodan Milosevic. Karadzic, meanwhile, was found guilty of crimes against humanity and genocide, in case Clark has any reservations about Karadzic's role in the Balkan wars. The full judgement against Karadzic is publicly available here. If one rather bland, months-old, morsel of legalistic caveat is the prize catch for Clark after trawling through several thousand pages of transcripts of the Karadzic trial, then it is a rather poor one. One is left with the impression that apologists for dictators and deniers of mass crimes continue to excel in the mendacious art of clutching at straws -- in this case, a single straw. Milosevic's Army, Media Milosevic's death in custody means that his trial will never resume, and the facts of the case against him will never be established in a court of law -- and so Clark and his ilk can continue to imagine an alternate reality. While that is unfortunate, I can only confront Clark (and Wilcoxon) with my own experience. I remember the morning in early April 1992 when the tanks of the Yugoslav Army besieged Sarajevo. (Milosevic was, of course, the president of Yugoslavia at the time.) I lived in the Kosevsko brdo neighborhood, and because of shelling I was unable to make it to the newspaper where I worked. I could see the smoke rising from buildings downtown. From my balcony, I could also see the heavy artillery in the hills above my neighborhood. My phone was still working, as the main post office and telephone exchange was not burned down until May 2. To my surprise I received a call from the Belgrade radio station Politika. A journalist wanted me to describe what was going on in Sarajevo. For a moment I was happy that someone from Belgrade wanted to know about the suffering of civilians. Many people in Belgrade had friends and relatives in Sarajevo. I was naively hoping that if people in Belgrade found out what was going on, that the army was waging war on civilians in Bosnia, they would be moved to protest its actions. Concerned that the line could be cut at any moment, I described everything I knew about the Yugoslav Army's attack on the city, without pausing to catch my breath. The Belgrade journalist on the other end told me that we would go live in a few minutes. He then asked me if I could repeat what I had just told him, but without mentioning the Yugoslav Army. "Could you just report on the damage you see, since we do not know who is shooting?" he requested. In despair I explained to my colleague in Belgrade that I did know who was shooting -- that was the point. I told him that from my window I could even make out the red-star insignia of the Yugoslav Army painted on tanks whose barrels were smoking. He then asked me: "Are you a Serb?" I said yes, but I still have eyes and ears. He apologized, and explained that they could not put me on air after all. They just needed a report on the damage done to the city. They were not allowed to mention the Yugoslav Army. Being under fire and besieged in my city was bad enough, but not being able to report on what I could see around me made it even worse. I felt helpless, humiliated. The media in Belgrade were controlled by Milosevic, and the army was under his control. This was just the beginning of the siege of Sarajevo that would last more than 1,000 days, from April 6, 1992, to February 29, 1996. Nearly 14,000 people (civilians) were killed, including almost 2,000 children. 'Creeping Rehabilitation' The fact that the trial against Milosevic was never brought to a conclusion does not change his role in the history of Serbia and of the Balkans. Serbia still refuses to deal with that past -- not only with its actions in neighboring states, but crimes committed in Serbia itself. Several assassinations of prominent politicians during Milosevic's rule are still unsolved. The most prominent is that of Ivan Stambolic, who was preparing to oppose Milosevic in the Serbian presidential election in 2000 when he was killed by security forces while jogging. There is also the slaying of Serbian journalist Slavko Curuvija. Or the attempted assassination of former Foreign Minister and opposition party leader Vuk Draskovic. The list of Milosevic's victims, or would-be victims, is much longer, of course. The witnesses are disappearing, while people who were part the Milosevic regime are back in power, or inching closer. The leader of the Serbian Socialist Party, Ivica Dacic, was parading Milosevic's grandchild around during his election campaign in April. This creeping rehabilitation of Milosevic and his regime in Serbia is being abetted by outside forces with their own agendas, whether anti-NATO, pro-Russian, or reckless indulgence of conspiracy theories -- like the Texas-based Ron Paul Institute, which helped carry the invented news on Milosevic's "exoneration." This article in the Daily Beast helped me understand the background and motives of Milosevic's apologists abroad According to Serbian historian Latinka Perovic, Serbia's failure to rebuild relations with its neighbors is due to the failure of Serbian society to understand -- and deal with -- the causes of the breakup of Yugoslavia, and Serbia's role in the wars. The mentality of the 1990s endures, she explained in an interview with RFE/RL. There are many reasons why Serbia has yet to shed the dangerous delusions that led to the catastrophic wars of the 1990s, including the sense of victimhood that is behind the continued denial of war crimes committed in its name. But the process of truth and reconciliation in the region is not helped by unscrupulous war crime deniers like Clark. He seems to enjoy the notoriety of being contrarian, even if it means proclaiming the innocence of war criminals and mass murderers. Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/milosevic-war-crime- deniers-feed-receptive-audience/27910664.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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US Delivers $50Mln in Military Equipment to Lebanese Army - US Ambassador Sputnik News 19:10 09.08.2016 The United States has delivered over $50 million in military assistance, including weapons and artillery, to the Lebanese Army, US Ambassador to Lebanon Elizabeth Richard said during a ceremony at the Beirut Port on Tuesday. WASHINGTON (Sputnik) The US ambassador explained that the equipment will help Lebanese soldiers defend the country's borders as well as "take the fight to the enemy" and combat extremists. "What we have here is really about $50 million worth of equipment: there are 50 Humvees, there are 40 Howitzers, there are 50 grenade launchers, and there is over 1,000 tons of ammunition," Richard told reporters. Lebanon is the fifth-largest recipient of US military financing in the world, Richard noted. Washington has provided more than $221 million in weapons and training to the Lebanese security forces so far in 2016, according to the US embassy in Beirut. Daesh group has claimed responsibility for terror attacks inside Lebanon, including the November 2015 double suicide bombing in Beirut that killed at least 37 people. Lebanon has been in a state of political turmoil and without a head of state since President Michel Suleiman's term expired in May 2014. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Tensions Escalate Between China, Japan Over Disputed Islands by VOA News August 09, 2016 Japan says relations with China are "remarkably deteriorating" over the continued appearance of Chinese naval ships sailing near a group of disputed islands in the East China Sea. The Foreign Ministry in Tokyo issued a statement Tuesday saying Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida issued the warning Tuesday when he summoned Chinese ambassador to Japan Cheng Yonghua to issue a formal protest. The ministry says Kishida accused Beijing of trying to unilaterally "change the status quo" over the islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. Cheng told reporters after the meeting that he told Kishida that it was natural for the ships to operate in the waters near the islands. "With regards to the current situation in relevant waters, both countries need to work together to control the situation, avoid escalating and complicating the situation and eventually resolve the problem properly, following the spirit of the four-point consensus that China and Japan reached in November 2014," said Cheng. Chinese coast guard and fishing vessels have been spotted sailing near the islands over the past several days, despite Cheng's being summoned last Friday by Vice Minister Shinsuke Sugiyama over the issue. Relations between Japan and China, two of the world's biggest economies, have been plagued for decades by territorial disputes, aggravated by China's lingering bitterness over Japan's aggressive behavior during World War II. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address India to Provide Cost Incentives to Use Homemade Version of GPS Sputnik News 16:24 08.08.2016(updated 17:54 08.08.2016) According to official sources, India's government is exploring several options, including reduced charges for air navigation services. The Indian government may soon announce incentives to airline operators for installing the locally developed Aided Geo Augmented Navigation system (GAGAN). The aviation ministry, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the Airports Authority of India are expected to meet the airlines soon to discuss the matter. GAGAN is intended to provide accurate navigation services over the Bay of Bengal, Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean, the Middle East and part of Africa. Gagan works by augmenting and relaying data from GPS satellites with the help of two augmentation satellites and 15 earth-based reference stations. It corrects any anomalies in the position data and gives accurate routes, landing guidance and time-saving information to the pilots. Gagan also fills a vital gap between the coverage areas of the EU's "European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service" (EGNOS) and Japan's "Multi-functional Satellite Augmentation System" (MSAS). When it launched the system in July 2015, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) claimed "GAGAN is better than any GPS as it ensures that at any given point in time, the measurements are reliable." However, the flight operators seem to be reluctant to take to the indigenous technology, forcing the government to have to second-guess its decision to make it mandatory for all aircraft flying in Indian airspace to install GAGAN receivers starting from April 1, 2019. Later, the date was revised to May 2019. However, operators have yet to negotiate with aircraft makers the installation of GAGAN receivers on board the 660 new planes which they have ordered. These include narrow-body, wide-body and small ATR turboprop planes that would start arriving next year. Currently, Indian carriers use a GPS-based air navigation system that requires GPS-GNSS (global positioning system and global navigation satellite system) receivers for air navigation and operational use such as landing, take-off and general flight operations. Launched in July 2015, the 77.4 mln rupiah GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation system is being jointly developed by the Airports Authority of India and the Indian Space Research Organisztion. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address China releases weaponry research project information People's Daily Online (Xinhua) 15:31, August 07, 2016 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 U.S. dollars). 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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Trump Says Clinton E-Mails To Blame For Iranian Scientist's Execution August 09, 2016 by RFE/RL U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said his rival Hillary Clinton's e-mails may be responsible for the death of an Iranian nuclear scientist who was executed for spying for the United States. "Many people are saying that the Iranians killed the scientist who helped the U.S. because of Hillary Clinton's hacked e-mails," he tweeted on August 8. Senator Tom Cotton, a Trump supporter, also suggested a link between the Democratic candidate's e-mails, sent when she was U.S. secretary of state in 2010, and the execution of Shahram Amiri on August 7. Cotton told CBS that "there were conversations among her senior advisers about this gentleman" in her e-mail correspondence, which was released to the public last year after her private e-mail system came under investigation. Amiri, who was privy to details of Iran's then-secret nuclear program, defected to the United States in 2009 but returned in 2010 after claiming that he had been kidnapped by the CIA and wanted to return home. He was initially greeted as a hero, but then dropped out of sight. His case appeared to be discussed by Clinton aides in the e-mails. One e-mail 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 e-mail 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 e-mail, sent by Sullivan on July 12, 2010, appears to obliquely refer to the scientist just hours before his appearance at the Iranian-interests section at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington demanding that he be allowed to return to Iran. "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. Republicans are charging that the e-mails, which were made public after repeated demands from Clinton's GOP detractors, tipped off the Iranian government that Amiri was in U.S. custody, where he could have divulged secrets, and was viewed as "our friend." Iranian judicial spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejeie said on August 7 that Amiri was executed for "revealing the country's top secrets to the enemy." Clinton's campaign did not immediately respond to the charges. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau declined to discuss the specifics of the Amiri case. But Trudeau repeated U.S. concerns about Iran's lack of respect for human rights and an impartial judiciary. "We have constantly and publicly expressed our concerns about Iran's human rights record through a range of channels," she said. With reporting by AP and AFP Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/trump- says-clinton-emails-to-blame-iranian- scientists-execution/27909847.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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Japan military on alert for possible N Korea missile launch: Report Iran Press TV Mon Aug 8, 2016 1:35PM Japan's new Defense Minister Tomomi Inada has ordered the nation's military to be ready to destroy any missiles fired by North Korea, a local media report says. Inada, a close confidante of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe with staunchly nationalist views, issued the order without mentioning any indication that Pyongyang is preparing to launch such a missile, Japan's public broadcaster NHK reported on Monday. Inada, previously the ruling party's policy chief, is also expected to renew the readiness order every three months so that Tokyo can seamlessly maintain a state of alert, the report added. However, a Japanese Defense Ministry spokesman declined to confirm the report. On August 4, Inada criticized North Korea over its military activities in the troubled region, stressing that Pyongyang "is repeating militarily provocative acts such as nuclear testing and a series of ballistic missile launches." Inada's appointment came last Wednesday, the same day North Korea launched two intermediate-range missiles. One of the projectiles reportedly exploded shortly after takeoff and the second landed in the Sea of Japan some 250 kilometers (155 miles) off the country's northern coast. The launches followed a North Korean threat of "physical action" over the planned deployment of an advanced US anti-missile system in South Korea. They also came just weeks before the start of large-scale joint South Korea-US military exercises. 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. North Korea says it will not give up on its nuclear deterrence unless Washington ends its hostile policy toward Pyongyang and dissolves the US-led UN command in South Korea. There are around 3,000 US troops permanently stationed in South Korea. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Japanese Prime Minister Urges Gov't to Consider Emperor's Concern Over Age Sputnik News 13:54 08.08.2016 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Monday that the government needed to seriously consider and pay close attention to Emperor Akihito's words, which indicated his fear that his age could make it difficult to fulfill his duties. TOKYO (Sputnik) Earlier in the day, Emperor Akihito, 82, expressed concern that it might become increasingly difficult for him to fulfill the role of a monarch as a symbol of the nation and unity of the Japanese people. Akihito did not explicitly say he wanted to abdicate, as Japan's constitution bans the monarch from delivering political statements. "Given the age of the Emperor and his current responsibilities for participation in public events, we need to think about the emperor's concern and carefully examine what can be done," Abe said in a televised address, broadcast by NHK. On July 13, media reported that Akihito intended to abdicate in favor of his eldest son Crown Prince Naruhito within a few years, citing his age. The abdication, which has not happened in Japan for two centuries, would require an amendment to the Imperial Household Act, as it does not currently allow demising the crown. Akihito ascended to the Japanese throne in 1989 after Emperor Hirohito's death. A merely ceremonial role in Japan's political system, the emperor is a symbol of the nation and of national unity according to the Japanese Constitution. In 2012, he underwent successful heart bypass surgery. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Japanese Emperor Makes Subtle Plea to Abdicate by Brian Padden August 08, 2016 Japanese Emperor Akihito made a rare televised address to the nation Monday to argue that he is becoming too old and too frail to carry out his duties. "When I consider that my fitness level is gradually declining, I am worried that it may become difficult for me to carry out my duties as the symbol of the state with my whole being, as I have done until now," Akihito said in his address. The 82-year-old emperor is reportedly in declining health. In recent years he has had heart surgery, bronchitis and has been treated for prostate cancer. The emperor cannot simply abdicate his throne because the 1947 Imperial House Law states that imperial succession can occur only upon an emperor's death. The emperor stopped short of advocating that parliament change the law because he did not want to be seen as interfering in national politics. "He was asking for the understanding of the Japanese people in his situation. His message did not have any political impact nor diplomatic impact," said Japan analyst Hosaka Yuji with Sejong University in Seoul. Japanese opinion polls show 80 to 90 percent public support changing the law so that the emperor can abdicate. But some traditionalists in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's conservative ruling coalition are reluctant to open the abdication issue up for debate, because the process could introduce other changes they strongly oppose, like allowing women to inherit the throne. Prime Minister Abe was non-committal in his response to the emperor's subtle plea to change the imperial succession law. "Considering the emperor's age and burden on his duties, I think about his mental fatigue. I think we should carefully think what is possible according to his message," Abe said. Symbol of unity Born in 1933, Akihito ascended to the throne in 1989 after the death of his father, Hirohito, who was considered a deity until Japan's defeat in World War II. The occupying American forces stripped the emperor of his powers, and defined his role in the new post war constitution as "a symbol of the state and of the unity of the people." Akihito is a popular figure and is seen as a more approachable and engaging emperor than his father. He even broke with tradition to marry a commoner, the Empress Michiko. In countries like China and the Philippines Akihito has tried to heal the wounds of World War II by expressing remorse for the death and destruction caused by Japan. While the emperor does not overtly take sides in Japanese politics, Akihito has made recent statements that seemed critical of conservative Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling coalition. Abe and his nationalist supporters have tried to downplay the military's alleged past war crimes and maintain that Japan should not have to apologize in perpetuity for World War II. To mark the 70th anniversary of end of the war last year, the emperor delivered a much more conciliatory message than Abe when he said, "Looking back at the past, together with deep remorse over the war, I pray that this tragedy of war will not be repeated, and together with the people express my deep condolences." The emperor has also been a strong proponent of preserving the pacifist constitution that Abe wants to revise to expand the powers of the military. Crown Prince Naruhito Akihito's son and heir, 56-year-old Crown Prince Naruhito, has already taken over some of his father's official duties. The crown prince is expected to support his father's positions in support of the pacifist constitution and in maintaining a conciliatory approach in dealing with concerns from Japan's neighbors. "When his ideology on peace is needed for some cases, there is a possibility that he can play a role as a young power broker which could influence the current situation," said Hosaka. Last year, during a discussion about Japan's participation in forcing as many as 200,000 women into sexual slavery during the war, Naruhito seemed to rebuke nationalists who tried to deny or minimize these claims. "It is important to look back [at] our past with modesty and pass down correctly the miserable experience and the historic path Japan took," he said. Youmi Kim in Seoul contributed to this report. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Pakistan Faces Doubts on Curbing Terror Front by Noor Zahid, Naseer Ahmad Kakar August 08, 2016 The Pakistani government says it wants to introduce a new counter-extremism policy. But as Monday's bombing in Quetta shows, Pakistan has a long way to go to stop the carnage that has plagued the country, analysts say. "A new counterterrorism policy in Pakistan would be a good thing, but I worry it could just be window dressing that papers over the broader problem," Michael Kugelman, senior researcher at the Woodrow Wilson Center, told VOA. Kugelman said that the militant extremism problem would not end if Pakistan continues to "refuse to crack down on all forms of terrorism and all forms of terrorist groups." Pakistan's National Counter-terrorism Authority (NACTA), which monitors and proposes counter-extremism strategies, is in the process of forming a new national counter-extremism policy in the country, officials said. "A national counter-extremism policy will be introduced within two months," NACTA chief officer, Ehsan Ghani told VOA. School reforms According to Ghani, the policy will propose new laws as well as amendments to some existing laws in the country. It would also propose reforms in the education sector, including the widespread Madrassa system, to change the "mindset" in the country so the people be tolerant. But Peshawar-based defense analyst Saad Mohammad Khan, a retired military leader, said the new laws and policies cannot be effective if they are not properly enforced. "Extremism is everywhere in the society," Khan added in the interview with VOA. "It is present in our houses, in our schools, offices, market..." Khan said that unless the entire education system is overhauled, extremist views would be nurturing even in the mainstream and secular schools. "Children are taught that we [Pakistanis] are better human beings than others, and that other people [nations] are anti-Islam," Khan told VOA. "When those children grow up, most are paranoid which leads them towards extremism." According to Khan, prominent members of the ruling Muslim League, which is not an Islamist party, have shown opposition to changing the current curriculum in Pakistani schools. Experts say many madrassas in Pakistan have been a source of militancy in both Pakistan and in neighboring Afghanistan. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial government was scathingly criticized last month for a $3 million grant it recently allocated to Darul Uloom Haqqania madrassa, a controversial Islamic seminary that some critics call the "University of Jihad." Taliban sympathies Headed by former senator Samiul Haq, the madrassa houses about 4,000 students and is widely known for links to, and publicly expressed sympathies for, the Taliban who are fighting local and U.S.-led international forces in Afghanistan. That association has won the Islamic cleric the title of "Father of the Taliban." "You also have an environment in Pakistan that enables extremism," said Kugelman. "Networks of religious institutions and clerics as well as powerful victimization narratives that fuel the hardline ideologies that allow militancy to thrive." "I cannot imagine a new counterterror policy would do much to address this. The bottom line is that killing terrorists will not make terrorism go away," Kugelman said. Anti-terror chief Ghani told VOA that under the government's National Action Plan, an action plan established in January 2015 to crackdown on terror networks in Pakistan, the government has taken a number of stern actions to counter extremism, including the closure of "98.4 million unregistered cellphone sim cards" in the country. He acknowledged, however, that a number of terror and banned group leaders still appear on television channels in Pakistan to further their agenda. US military aid In Washington, the Pentagon has withheld $300 million in military aid to Pakistan because of insufficient action by Pakistan against the Haqqani terrorist network. "The U.S. congress has shown that it is unhappy with Pakistan's continuing support for groups like the Haqqani network that continues to fight Afghan and the U.S. forces in Afghanistan. And we saw that with the blocking of the U.S. government funding for F-16s sale to Pakistan," Lisa Curtis, a senior researcher at the Washington-based Heritage Foundation, told VOA. Curtis said that ongoing Pakistan military operations against militants in the tribal region has reduced violence in Pakistan but other militant groups should be targeted too. "The Zarb-e-Azb operation has reduced violence in Pakistan but the U.S. also has concerns about other militant groups operating in the region and there are disagreements on these issues between Washington and Islamabad," Curtis said. "There will be a change The frustration will grow. Whoever is the next U.S. president, it is likely to develop tougher policies towards Pakistan and demand more changes with regard to its policies toward Taliban.." Pakistan denies the allegations, saying it does not distinguish between "good and bad" militants. "We have taken decisive action against terrorists and extremists and also cooperate widely with other countries to defeat it," said Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nafees Zakaria. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Kingdom of Saudi Arabia - M1A2S Saudi Abrams Main Battle Tanks and M88Al/A2 Heavy Equipment Recovery Combat Utility Lift Evacuation System (HERCULES) Armored Recovery Vehicles (ARV) Media/Public Contact: pm-cpa@state.gov Transmittal No: 16-32 WASHINGTON, Aug 9, 2016 -- The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for M1A2S Saudi Abrams Main Battle Tanks and M88Al/A2 Heavy Equipment Recovery Combat Utility Lift Evacuation System (HERCULES) Armored Recovery Vehicles (ARV), equipment, training, and support. The estimated cost is $1.15 billion. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency delivered the required certification notifying Congress of this possible sale on August 8, 2016. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has requested a possible sale of up to one hundred fifty-three (153) M1Al/A2 Tank structures for conversion to one hundred thirty-three (133) M1A2S Saudi Abrams configured Main Battle Tanks and twenty (20) battle damage replacements for their existing fleet; one hundred fifty-three (153) M2 .50 Caliber Machine Guns; two hundred sixty-six (266) 7.62mm M240 Machine Guns; one hundred thirty-three (153) M250 Smoke Grenade Launchers; twenty (20) M88A l/A2 Heavy Equipment Recovery Combat Utility Lift Evacuation System (HERCULES) Armored Recovery Vehicle (ARV) Structures for conversion to twenty (20) M88Al/A2 HERCULES ARVs; one hundred sixty-nine (169) AN/VAS-5 Driver Vision Enhancer-Abrams (DVE-A); one hundred thirty-three (133) AN/PVS-7B Night Vision Devices; four thousand two hundred fifty-six (4,256) Rounds M865 Training Ammunition; and two thousand three hundred ninety-four (2,394) Rounds M831Al Training Ammunition. Also included are M1Al/A2 Tank and M88Al/A2 ARV overhaul, conversion and refurbishment services; Special Tools and Test Equipment; Basic Issue Items; Program Management Support; Verification Testing; System Technical Support; Advanced Gunnery Training System (AGTS); Deployable Advanced Gunnery Training System (DAGTS); Transportation, Binoculars, Camouflage Netting; spare and repair parts; communications equipment; personnel training and training equipment; tool and test equipment; repair and return; publications and technical documentation; Quality Assurance Team (QAT); U.S. Government and contractor engineering, technical and logistics support services; and other related elements of logistics and program support. The total estimated value is $1.15 billion. This proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of a strategic regional partner which has been and continues to be a leading contributor of political stability and economic progress in the Middle East. This sale will increase the Royal Saudi Land Force's (RSLF) interoperability with U.S. forces and conveys U.S. commitment to Saudi Arabia's security and armed forces modernization. The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not alter the basic military balance in the region. The proposed sale will improve Saudi Arabia's capability to meet current and future threats and provide greater security for its critical infrastructure. The addition of these tanks and recovery vehicles to the RSLF's inventory will enhance Saudi Arabia's ability to support its soldiers in the field and to defend the Kingdom's borders. Saudi Arabia will have no difficulty absorbing these vehicles into its armed forces. The principal contractor will be General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS), Sterling Heights, Michigan. There are no known offset agreements in connection with this potential sale. Implementation of this sale will not require the assignment of any additional U.S. Government or contractor representatives to Saudi Arabia. Support teams will travel to the country on a temporary basis. There will be no adverse impact on U.S. defense readiness as a result of this proposed sale. This notice of a potential sale is required by law and does not mean the sale has been concluded. All questions regarding this proposed Foreign Military Sale should be directed to the State Department's Bureau of Political Military Affairs, Office of Congressional and Public Affairs, pm-cpa@state.gov. -30- NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address 2,000 terrorists killed in Syria, Russia military ops in Aleppo in 2 weeks: Russian media Iran Press TV Mon Aug 8, 2016 8:12AM Syrian military operations and Russian airstrikes have claimed the lives of some 2,000 terrorists from Daesh and al-Nusra Front now renamed Fateh al-Sham Front and their allied groups in Syria's northern city of Aleppo, Russian media say. The heavy casualties have been caused in the main stage of the liberation operation for Aleppo, which began two weeks ago, IRNA reported Monday, citing a Russian state television channel. According to the report, many militants were also injured in the operation, which has also destroyed armored vehicles and weapon depots. Syrian forces have managed to liberate vast areas in the southern part of Aleppo from the control of the militants in ongoing operations. Militants are said to be using civilians as human shields in parts of Aleppo still under their control. The militants have also been targeting the civilians attempting to leave the city through the humanitarian corridors set up by Syria and Russia. Aleppo has been divided since 2012 between government forces in the west and the militants in the east. The conflict in Syria began in 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 United Nations said it would no more update its death toll for Syria because it could not verify the figures that it received from various sources. Damascus accuses Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar of being among the main supporters of the Takfiri militants in Syria. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Jubilant Syrian Rebels Promise Aleppo Offensive Far From Over by Jamie Dettmer August 08, 2016 Syrian military officials insist rebels have failed to lift the Assad regime's weeks-long siege of Aleppo, arguing the insurgents have managed only to breach government lines by opening a thin corridor in the southwest. But the ferocity of government and Russian airstrikes the past 24 hours suggests the rebels have managed to deliver a major blow, one the regime now is desperately trying to reverse. The rebel breach will likely complicate high-level discussions between the United States and Russia on the targeting of jihadist militias in the war-shattered country. The rebel offensive was led by a jihadist militia, Jabhat al-Nusra that announced last month it is cutting ties with al-Qaida. The rebranded Jabhat Fateh al-Sham has aimed to expand its influence over other rebel armed groups. Its leader, Abu Muhammad al-Julani, said in an audio message Friday the success of the then unfolding rebel offensive in Syria's second largest city is due in large part to "the coalescence and unity of the factions against the enemy." The offensive saw jihadists and hardline Islamists coordinating with more moderate insurgent groups aligned with the Fatah Halab Operations Room featuring Western-backed Free Syrian Army militias. In all, 22 insurgent groups have been involved in the week-long offensive, a-first of-its-kind for the rebels. The offensive has consisted of two prongs, rebels attacking from the city's eastern districts into the government-held southwest and insurgents mounting a push from the countryside west of Aleppo into the city. Russian airstrikes The United States has been pushing Russia to distinguish between moderate rebel groups and jihadists with its blistering airstrikes on the insurgents. The Kremlin has long insisted all those fighting to oust their longtime ally President Bashar al-Assad are terrorists, mimicking the Syrian government's position. The Syrian government's news agency, Sana, disputed Monday rebel claims of having broken the siege. Quoting military sources, Sana said regime forces had managed to isolate rebel factions who had "infiltrated" several military academies in southwest Aleppo and are now engaged in mopping up resistance. Syria officials argued also the corridor the rebels had opened into the besieged rebel-held eastern part of the city had "not been secured by the terrorists and is still controlled by Syrian fire." Assessing gains But observers dismiss government claims. Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, argued the breach amounted to one of the most significant defeats dealt to the government since the conflict started in March 2011. The breach of government lines prompted celebrations in Aleppo and opposition group video posted online appears to confirm rebel claims, as does Syrian government video showing waves of airstrikes on the southwest. A convoy of half-a-dozen rebel pick-up trucks laden with fruit and vegetables entered the besieged area Sunday through the newly-opened corridor, activists and residents told VOA. Though not enough provisions to feed the up to 300,000 people estimated to be living in rebel-held districts, the convoy amounted to a symbolic act of defiance. With fierce government bombardment it is unlikely the rebels can transport significant amounts of food and medicine. Rebels say their advance is far from over. They say they have seized a large chunk of the Western district of Ramouseh, blocking an important supply route for the government. Fearing the 1.5 million residents living in the Western part of the city could come under siege by the rebels, government forces sped dozens of trucks loaded with food and fuel to government-held districts, according to the Syrian Observatory. The rebel offensive has buoyed the spirits of the political leaders of the rebellion. Anas Alabdah, president of the Syrian Coalition, said the spectacular gains made by rebel fighters conveyed a clear message to the Assad regime, Iran and Russia, "they will not be able to defeat the Syrian people or dictate the terms of a settlement." The Army of Conquest, the coalition of rebel groups led Jabhat Fatah al-Sham which in March 2015 managed to take control of Idlib province to the north-west of Aleppo, said in a statement Sunday that it would "double the number of fighters for this next battle." It announced it had "started a new phase to liberate all of Aleppo." The coalition added: "We will not rest until we raise the flag of the conquest over Aleppo's citadel." That may be beyond the rebels's abilities, say military analysts, and the government and foreign Shi'ite militias loyal to the regime are moving fast to try to contain the breach. The Iraqi paramilitary force, Harakat al-Nujaba, said in a statement it is dispatching 2,000 fighters to help drive back insurgents. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Deporting Taiwanese to China a human rights violation: spokesman ROC Central News Agency 2016/08/08 18:14:39 Taipei, Aug. 8 (CNA) The decision by Kenyan police to send five Taiwanese nationals to China after they were acquitted by a Kenyan court violated their human rights and went against international norms, Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang () said Monday. Huang said it was regrettable that Kenyan authorities caved in to pressure from Beijing and handed over the Taiwanese nationals to China, despite a court ruling stipulating that the five should be sent back to Taiwan. The government will try to use an agreement on joint crime fighting and judicial assistance signed between Taiwan and China in 2009 "to demand the Chinese side to send back our people as soon as possible, so their personal freedom and legal rights can be protected," Huang said. Cabinet spokesman Tung Chen-yuan () said, meanwhile, that Taiwan's government will lodge a serious protest to Kenya and China for their pursuit of the Taiwanese nationals considered by Beijing as fraud suspects. Tung also reiterated the government's stance of seeking the return of Taiwanese nationals from China to face investigations into their alleged crimes at home. The five Taiwanese nationals, along with 35 Chinese citizens, were found not guilty running unlicensed telecom operations and engaging in organized crime by a Kenyan court on Aug. 5 because of what the court said was the prosecutors' failure to prove their case. Because Taiwan does not have a presence in Kenya, Taiwan's representative to South Africa John Chen () had spent a lot of time in Nairobi to deal with the case and prevent the country from handing over Taiwanese nationals to China. But despite his efforts, international media coverage of the case and efforts by human rights groups, the five Taiwanese were put on a chartered flight to China on Sunday evening, Kenyan time. The five Taiwanese nationals acquitted on Aug. 5 were arrested along with several others in November 2014 for allegedly staying in Kenya without proper documentation and running illegal telecom operations, which were later linked to fraud schemes targeting people in China. The other 23 Taiwanese arrested in 2014 were acquitted for the same charges in April, but they and 22 Taiwanese arrested for similar allegations in early April were deported to China -- eight of them on April 8 and the other 37 on April 13. Taiwan sent a delegation to China in late April to visit the Taiwanese deported by Kenya and detained there and negotiate Taiwan's participation in the Chinese investigation. It sent another delegation in May after Malaysia handed over 32 Taiwanese fraud suspects to China on April 30. In late June, Cambodia also handed 32 Taiwanese nationals arrested for alleged involvement in fraud rings busted in the Southeast Asian country over to China. China used to work closely with Taiwan on cracking down fraud rings based in a third country and allowed Taiwan to take back Taiwanese suspects to face the judicial process at home. But after many of the suspects faced little more than slaps on the wrist in Taiwan, China began taking a more active role by working directly with the third country to tackle the fraud rings mostly composed of Taiwanese and Chinese nationals. Part of Beijing's campaign has been to have the third countries send the Taiwanese to China for investigation on the grounds that most of the fraud victims were in China. China's reduced communications with Taiwan after President Tsai Ing-wen () took office on May 20 also led to a halt of negotiations on issues related to the Taiwanese fraud suspects touched upon by the previous Taiwanese delegations that visited China. (By Sophia Yeh, Tai Ya-chen and Kay Liu) enditem/ls NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Turkey threatens to scrap EU refugee deal without visa waiver Iran Press TV Mon Aug 8, 2016 3:40PM Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned that his administration may scrap a controversial refugee deal with the European Union (EU) if the bloc does not meet Ankara's visa waiver demand. President Erdogan told France's Le Monde newspaper on Monday that the EU had not kept its promise to kick off a visa-free travel plan for Turkish citizens in June. The president also threatened that if Turkey's demands are not met, the country would stop the readmission of refugees heading for Europe. "The European Union is not behaving in a sincere manner with Turkey," Erdogan said, adding, "If our demands are not satisfied then the readmissions will no longer be possible." In early August, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu threatened to tear up the deal and send hundreds of thousands of refugees and asylum-seekers to Europe if Turkish citizens are not granted visa-free travel to the EU's Schengen Area within months. Cavusoglu demanded the EU drop visa requirements for Turkish citizens by October. The EU is in a standoff with Turkey on the future of an agreement signed in March to stem the flow of refugees and asylum seekers to Europe. Under the deal, Turkey has committed to taking back all the asylum seekers and refugees who have used the Aegean Sea to illegally reach Greece. In return, Ankara was promised financial aid, the acceleration of visa liberalization talks and progress in its EU membership negotiations. Negotiations over the deal for visa-free travel have been faltering. Turkey reportedly refuses to make changes to its anti-terror laws, as required by the EU. Hundreds of thousands of refugees are fleeing conflict-ridden zones in Africa and the Middle East, particularly Syria, and attempt entry into Europe without applying for a visa. The influx has hit the bloc hard, particularly the countries on its external borders. Renewed standoff between EU and Turkey The renewed standoff comes against a backdrop of growing disquiet in the EU over Erdogan's crackdown following last month's failed coup. Turkey says it could reintroduce capital punishment following the July 15 failed coup against Erdogan. A German government spokesman has said that Ankara will have no place in the EU if it reinstates the death penalty to punish alleged coup plotters. Concerns over the potential collapse of the deal with Turkey have reportedly prompted EU officials to consider a "Plan B" - striking a similar deal with Greece, instead of Turkey. Greek Migration Minister Yannis Mouzalas recently told German daily Bild that the EU needs to come up with an alternative plan for tackling the refugee crisis. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Erdogan Vows Death Penalty for 18,000 Arrested for Mutiny Citing Will of People Sputnik News 00:44 08.08.2016(updated 01:48 08.08.2016) Speaking before the massive crowd of people that gathered at the Istanbul's waterfront for anti-coup rally on Sunday, Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledged to return the death penalty that was canceled in the country over ten years ago. The "Democracy and Martyrs' Rally" rally was gathered at Istanbul's Yenikapi area to demonstrate "Turkish unity" following aborted overthrow of the government that rattled the country on July 15. During his highly emotional speech, Erdogan vowed to cleanse the country from all the supporters of Fethullah Gulen, an exiled cleric whom Turkish authorities blame the putsch attempt on. The president claimed that he supports the demands from people to reintroduce the capital punishment for participants of the mutiny. He noted that he would sign such a law into power if the parliament adopted it. "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 country's 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." On July 15, a group of rebels attempted to overthrow the government in Turkey. The major standoff between the putschists and supporters of the government unfolded in Ankara and Istanbul, the country's major cities. As the mutiny was crashed, some 246 civilians were killed and more than 2,000 wounded. Over 18,000 people suspected of plotting the coup, have been arrested, accoring to Deutsche Welle. The last time death warrant was enforced in Turkey in 1984. Two decades later, Ankara abolished capital punishment in a bid to comply with EU standards for further incorporation of the country into the bloc. Earlier, President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker threatened that the EU will suspend the process of accession of Turkey to the union, if the death penalty is restored. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address We all want to restart dialogue, Putin tells Erdogan Iran Press TV Tue Aug 9, 2016 12:51PM Russian President Vladimir Putin met with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Saint Petersburg Tuesday, a sign of normalization of relations that soured after the shooting down of a Russian warplane by a Turkish jet last November. President Putin said the visit shows the desire to "restore dialogue, relations" between Moscow and Ankara. "Your visit today, despite a very difficult situation regarding domestic politics, indicates that we all want to restart dialogue and restore relations between Russia and Turkey," Putin stated. The visit was the first meeting between the two heads of state since relations broke down over the shooting down of the Russian aircraft over Syria in 2015. It was also Erdogan's first foreign trip since the failed coup in Turkey on July 15. Putin also stated that he was one of the first foreign leaders to have a telephone conversation with Erdogan offering support after the abortive coup. "I know that I was one of the first who called you to express support regarding the crisis," Putin said. "I want to say once again that this is our principled position, we are against any unconstitutional actions." Erdogan said the Turkish people were "happy" that Putin had expressed his support following the attempted coup. The Turkish president also expected the two countries to "enter into a very different phase with the steps we will take and have taken." The Turkish president earlier said in an interview with Russian media that Ankara is ready to reset relations with Moscow. While Ankara is apparently eager to improve ties with Moscow, Russia has maintained a more reserved approach. Last November, the Turkish military shot down a Russian Su-24 aircraft during an anti-terror mission in the Syrian skies near the Turkish border. Ankara claimed that the Russian jet had violated its airspace despite repeated warnings. Moscow, however, rejected the allegation, saying the aircraft remained in the Syrian skies throughout its mission and received no warnings from the Turkish military. In response, Russia imposed a series of sanctions against Turkey, saying the bans would not be lifted until Moscow received an apology from Ankara. Putin and Erdogan held a telephone conversation in late June and agreed to meet in person. The call came after the Kremlin said Putin had received a letter from Erdogan, in which he had apologized to his Russian counterpart over the incident. The meeting comes against the backdrop of growing tensions between the West and Ankara over Turkey's crackdown following the failed coup. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Putin, Erdogan Vow New Era Of Close Relations August 09, 2016 by RFE/RL The presidents of Russia and Turkey vowed to open a new period of close relations as they rebuild ties between their countries after a nearly seven-month rupture over Ankara's shooting down of a Russian warplane last year. Speaking on August 9 during a visit to St. Petersburg, Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Vladimir Putin that Turkey was entering a "very different period" in relations with Russia, and that cooperation between the two countries would help solve regional problems. He also vowed to rebuild military, economic, and cultural cooperation. "Your visit today, despite a very difficult situation regarding domestic politics, indicates that we all want to restart dialogue and restore relations between Russia and Turkey," Putin said. Turkey, whose economy has also slowed in recent years, has come under increased Western criticism over Erdogan's crackdown on opponents following an unsuccessful coup attempt on July 15, during which 230 people were killed. Russia remains mired in economic crisis following a steep decline in world oil prices and the imposition of U.S. and European Union sanctions in response to Moscow's 2014 takeover of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula and support for armed separatists in eastern Ukraine. "Both have good reasons to mend fences," says Kristian Brakel, an Istanbul-based analyst for the German Council on Foreign Relations. "Both are in economic difficulty and both are looking for a counterbalance to the West." But for all the statements of good will and restoring ties, one of the biggest issues vexing the two countries' relations -- the conflict in Turkey's neighbor Syria -- appeared to go unresolved. Erdogan has been a vocal foe of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and has actively participated in the U.S.-led effort to hit terrorist groups in Syria as well as bolster moderate rebels. Moscow, for its part, has been a longtime backer of Assad, supplying his regime with weapons and using the Mediterranean naval port of Tartus. Russia's air campaign, launched in September 2015, has helped Assad's forces on the battlefield. Putin told reporters he and Erdogan would hold further discussions on Syria later on August 9. "I think it is possible to align our views and approaches," he said. Erdogan also signaled that the Syria issue was a priority, telling the Russian state news agency TASS ahead of the visit that Russia was "a main, key and very important player in establishing peace in Syria." Still, Brakel said, the two leaders' visions for Syria are so dramatically opposed that it is clearly difficult to find some common understanding on it. "It's very hard reconcile these two approaches; one is black, the other is white," Brakel told RFE/RL. Coup Fallout In the wake of last month's coup, Western powers rallied to Erdogan but have also expressed concern over his mass purges of alleged supporters. Ankara has arrested or detained over 20,000 people and suspended or fired tens of thousands from their jobs on suspicion of being associated with the movement of cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former Erdogan ally living in self-imposed exile in the United States. Erdogan rejected the Western criticism as he met with Putin on his first foreign trip since the attempted coup. Turkey's justice minister warned earlier on August 9 that the United States would "sacrifice relations" unless it extradites Gulen as Ankara has requested.But Washington insists that Ankara must present convincing evidence of the cleric's involvement in the coup, something Gulen himself has denied. "I want to again say that it's our fundamental position that we are always categorically against any attempts at unconstitutional actions," Putin told the news conference. "I want to express the hope that under your leadership the Turkish people will cope with this problem [the coup's aftermath] and that order and constitutional legality will be restored." For both leaders, the visit appeared to publicly put an end to their own dispute, which saw ties plunge following the shooting down of a Russian jet by a Turkish F-16 near the Syrian border in November. As punishment, Russia imposed a ban on the sale of package tours to Turkey -- a popular destination for Russian vacationers -- and slapped an embargo on Turkish agricultural imports and construction firms. Trade between the two countries reportedly plummeted 43 percent to $6.1 billion in January-May this year, and the number of Russian tourists visiting Turkey fell by 87 percent in the same period. But Moscow also paid a price as the spat shelved progress on Turk Stream -- a proposed Russian natural gas pipeline that is to pump 31.5 billion cubic meters of gas to Turkey annually. Russia's construction of a nuclear power station on Turkey's Mediterranean coast was also put on hold. At times, the dispute over the Russian warplane's downing appeared to take a distinctly personal tone. Putin called it a "stab in the back" and accused Erdogan of and having links to the illegal trading of oil with the extremist group Islamic State. In late June, however, Putin accepted Erdogan's expression of regret as an apology and signaled that Moscow was ready to do business again. With reporting by RFE/RL correspondent Mike Eckel; Reuters, AP, AFP and TASS Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/putin-erdogan-talks- st-petersburg-russia-turkey/27910622.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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Putin Wants to Restore Full Ties With Turkey by Daniel Schearf August 09, 2016 Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed to work toward restoring full relations with Turkey, but said rebuilding trade ties will be time consuming. "Ahead of us lies painstaking work to resuscitate trade and economic cooperation. This process has already started but it will take some time," Putin said Tuesday after meeting with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in Saint Petersburg. Erdogan said the two countries will restore their yearly bilateral trade target of $100 billion and will speed up the resumption of charter flights from Russia to Turkey. The Turkish leader also said he is ready to build a natural gas pipeline with Russia and negotiate a deal to construct Turkey's first nuclear power plant. The two agreed to meet later to seek common ground over how to resolve the crisis in Syria. Turkey and Russia support opposing sides in the conflict. Erdogan is turning to Russia after post-coup criticism from the West and in an effort to mend relations with Russia after Turkey shot down a Russian fighter plane along the Syrian border last year. "Your visit today, despite a very difficult situation regarding domestic politics, indicates that we all want to restart dialogue and restore relations between Russia and Turkey," Putin told Erdogan. Alexander Baunov of the Carnegie Moscow Center said, "It is significant for both because both of them have to bargain hard with the West. Putin is about sanctions and about normalizing the relations, about bringing them more (to) business as usual." "Erdogan wants, of course, that after crushing the coup he is criticized too much by the Western politicians, journalists, and media," Baunov added. "For him to bargain means to show that he can get closer to Russia and alienate himself from the West." Erodgan was livid after Western nations that condemned the coup attempt last month also criticized him over his massive crackdown in response to the putsch. Russia was quick to condemn the insurgents. More than 270 people died during the failed attempt by some elements of the military. Erdogan has blamed a Turkish cleric exiled in the United States for orchestrating the coup. Erdogan viewed the Western response as betrayal, says Moscow State Institute of International Affairs' Victor Mizin. "So, what he decided, it's some kind of his version of 'pivot to the East,' promoting the relations with such countries like Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan," says Mizin. But the relationship with Russia is the most important tactically, and not just for Turkey. "Now it's very important (for Russia) to turn this country which was the spearhead of NATO against the Soviet Union in the past, and where so many intelligence assets or radars had been placed to monitor Russian military activity, to draw it back to Russia and to resume good relations," says Mizin. Jet downing The face-to-face talks in St. Petersburg are expected to focus on restoring economic ties that were severed after Turkey's F-16 shot down Russia's SU-24, resulting in the deaths of one jet pilot and a rescue pilot killed during a recovery attempt. The incident sparked finger-pointing, Russian sanctions, and fears of a wider conflict between Russia and the NATO member. Moscow accused Ankara of supporting terrorism while Turkey accused Russia of violating its airspace and bombing civilian targets inside Syria. Russia imposed costly economic sanctions on Turkey, including banning Turkish food imports as well as Russian vacationers from visiting Turkey, striking a multi-billion dollar blow to the country and its important tourist trade. But, a surprisingly fast rapprochement came in late June after Erdogan gave a long-demanded apology, expressing regret to the families of the two pilots in a letter to Putin. More recently, he accused the pilots of the Turkish F-16 of being involved in the coup. They were earlier arrested. Political analysts say while Erdogan's quick 180-degree turn was motivated by the economic damage caused by lost Russian trade, tensions with his Western allies in Europe and the United States have spurred the face-to-face meeting with Putin. Not all common ground Some minority calls inside Turkey for Ankara to seek a strategic partnership with Russia to replace ties with the United States and the European Union are unlikely to gain ground. "At the same time I think it would be unrealistic to think that Turkey could be banished or ousted from NATO as certain American experts, especially on the conservative side would suggest because, as I said, strategically, Turkey is too important," says Mizin. While progress in the talks is expected on economic issues, the conflict in Syria remains a sticking point. Russia's bombing campaign in support of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad had already put a chill on relations between Moscow and Ankara, which supports rebel groups in Syria's five-year civil war and wants to see Assad leave power. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Alan Burkitt-Gray speaks to Don MacNeil, chief operating officer of GTT, about its company restructuring after coming out of Chapter 11 and its strategic roadmap for the next 12 months. Frontier Cooperative was the place to be Aug. 2 as the crowd filled one of the loading and unloading stations at the newly completed dry fertilizer terminal to watch officials cut the ribbon on the project and hear Gov. Pete Ricketts speak. The free beer and steak dinner were probably part of draw, too. Frontier, which is based in Brainard, announced the expansion in July 2015. Agronomy manager Levi Durnal said the Schuyler location was selected for the dry fertilizer expansion because of its railroad access, which allows fertilizer to be ordered in bulk and easily shipped to a storage facility. Any time you can bring in bigger amounts, its better, said Durnal. Schuyler is pretty much central (to other Frontier facilities), so we can ship (dry fertilizer) in and send it out to our locations. The facility can store 22,000 tons of fertilizer, receive 800 tons an hour and load 250 tons an hour for transport. Frontier hired two full-time employees to run the facility in the offseason and will hire a third for the busy season. Durnal said the facility cost $8.5 million to build. Before cutting the ribbon, Ricketts talked about how important agriculture is as an economic driver in Nebraska and his efforts to reduce costs such as property taxes and regulatory burdens from the Environmental Protection Agency. Local officials, including Mayor David Reinecke and several city council members, stopped by the facility to take a look. Its a good investment in Schuyler, said Reinecke. State Sen. Jerry Johnson also attended the ceremony and toured the facility. When I started in the coop system in 1962, we unloaded 100-pound bags. Wed unload them off the rail car by hand. Everything has grown in agriculture, said Johnson. (The facility) is quite an asset to Schuyler. Youve got to stay ahead. Goa News online offers latest Goa news from Goa including sports, politics, cultural and local news from Goa. A local community organizer associated with Black Lives Matter condemned the recent vandalism against two churches done in the movements name. On Saturday morning, Christ the King Lutheran Church on Franklin Turnpike had Black Power, BLM and vulgar language spray-painted on the front of the building. A house, a vehicle and a barn were also found vandalized Saturday with similar graffiti. River Oak Church of God on River Oak Drive was vandalized Sunday morning with graffiti calling Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown and Freddie Gray martyrs for the Black Lives Matter movement. I was very disappointed that someone would take the message of Black Lives Matter and put a negative spin on it, said Ebony Guy, a community organizer associated with Black Lives Matter and the Danville chapter of Virginia Organizing. Black Lives Matter is pro-community, not anti-police, Guy said. The goal of the movement is to bridge the gap between the community and law enforcement. Guys work in the Dan River Region with Virginia Organizing includes highlighting the availability of Danville Police Department citizen complaint forms and advocating for the restoration of rights for ex-offenders. A statement from the Black Lives Matter: Southside Virginias Facebook account stated the organizers were heartbroken regarding the recent acts of vandalism in Danville. We stand with our community in the hopes the culprits are soon caught, the statement continued. There is no Black Lives Matter chapter in Danville, Guy said. She is one of several supporters and allies of Black Lives Matter. According to the Black Lives Matter national website, one misconception about the movement contradicts the messages of vulgarity aimed at white people spray-painted on the churchs walls. The statement black lives matter is not an anti-white proposition, the website states, and its supporters do not encourage violence toward white people or police. The vandalism takes away the core message of Black Lives Matter and is causing people unnecessary stress and financial burden, she said. Danville police said they are still investigating the incidents and there are no new updates. They encourage anyone with information about these incidents to contact Danville Crime Stoppers at (434) 793-0000 or crimetips@danville.gov. TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Aug 8, 2016) - Palamina Corp. (TSX VENTURE:PA) has closed a non-brokered private placement offering (the "Offering") comprised of 8,000,000 common shares at a purchase price of $0.15 per share for aggregate gross proceeds of $1,200,000. The directors of Palamina authorized a $200,000 increase beyond the original $1,000,000 contemplated Offering, as the issue was oversubscribed. No broker commissions were paid and the Company continues to move forward with no warrants as none were issued. Five officers and directors of the Company (the "Purchasing Insiders"), purchased an aggregate of 8% of the securities issued pursuant to the Offering. The Offering was considered and approved by the board of directors of the Company, with the directors who purchased shares under the Offering declaring a conflict and recusing themselves from voting on their participation in the Offering. There was no materially contrary view or abstention by any director approving the Offering. Pursuant to Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"), the purchase by the Purchasing Insiders was a "related party transaction" but the Company was exempt from the requirements to obtain a formal valuation or minority shareholder approval in connection with the Offering. Net proceeds of the Offering will be used to further the Company's exploration projects, fund possible new acquisitions and for general working capital. All securities issued pursuant to the Offering are subject to a four month and one day hold period. The Offering is subject to TSX Venture Exchange acceptance of regulatory filings. ABOUT PALAMINA Palamina was formed following the acquisition of Soltoro Ltd. by Agnico Eagle Mines. Palamina is directed by a group of proven mine finders focused on securing and holding advanced mining assets in the Americas. Palamina has 100% interest in three exploration projects in Mexico. Palamina has 22,574,713 shares issued after giving effect to the private placement and trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol PA. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as the term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. TORONTO, Aug 8, 2016 - Carpathian Gold Inc. (CSE:CPN) (the "Company" or "Carpathian") is pleased to announce the results of the Company's Annual General Meeting ("AGM") held on August 4, 2016. All matters submitted to the shareholders for approval as set out in the Company's Notice of Meeting and Management Information Circular, both dated July 6, 2016, were approved by the requisite majority of votes cast at the AGM. A total of 363,419,765 common shares, representing 40% of the votes attached to all outstanding shares as at the record date for the meeting, were represented at the AGM. The Company's existing directors being Stan Bharti, Guy Charette, David Danzinger, Matt Simpson and Peter Tagliamonte were re-elected. In addition, the Company would like to welcome Scott Moore and Justin Reid who were also elected to serve on the Company's Board of Directors. Shareholders also approved the following: the appointment of McGovern Hurley Cunningham LLP as auditors of the Company for the ensuing year at the remuneration to be fixed by the directors, the ratification and approval of the Advance Notice Policy adopted by the Company, the change of the Company's name to "EURO SUN MINING INC.", a consolidation of the Company's common shares on the basis of one new common share for up to every 20 existing common shares, and the ratification and approval of the Shareholders Rights Plan adopted by the Company. Final results for all matters voted on at the AGM will be filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on the Company's website.Carpathian Gold is a mining company focused on the development of its 100%-owned Rovina Valley gold and copper project located in west-central Romania. Rovina is the second largest gold deposit in Europe.Caution regarding forward-looking information: This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, without limitation, statements regarding the election of directors. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including risks inherent in the mining industry and risks described in the public disclosure of the Company which is available under the profile of the Company on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on the Company's website at www.carpathiangold.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.The CSE does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.G. Scott Moore, Chief Executive Officer+1-416-861-5903info@carpathiangold.comwww.carpathiangold.com 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. All monetary amounts are expressed in U.S. dollars, unless otherwise indicated. TORONTO, Aug. 8, 2016 /CNW/ - IAMGold Corp. ("the Company") today announced the commencement of a tender offer to purchase for cash from each registered holder (each, a "Holder" and, collectively, the "Holders") up to $150,000,000 in aggregate principal amount (the "Maximum Tender Amount") of the Company's outstanding 6.75% Senior Notes due 2020 (the "Notes") (the "Offer"). The Offer is being made by the Company pursuant to the Offer to Purchase dated August 8, 2016 (the "Offer to Purchase") and the related letter of transmittal (the "Letter of Transmittal" and, together with the Offer to Purchase, the "Offer Documents"). The table below summarizes certain payment terms of the Offer: Description of Notes CUSIP / ISIN Nos. Outstanding Principal Amount Maximum Tender Amount Tender Consideration(1) Early Tender Payment(1) Total Consideration(1)(2) 6.75% Senior Notes due 2020 CUSIP: 450913AC2; C4535AAA8 ISIN: US450913AC25; USC4535AAA81 $635,000,000 $150,000,000 $940 $30 $970 _______________________________ (1) Per $1,000 principal amount of Notes tendered and accepted for purchase. (2) Includes the Early Tender Payment. The Offer will expire at 12:00 midnight, New York City time, on September 2, 2016 (one minute after 11:59 p.m., New York City time, on September 2, 2016), unless extended or earlier terminated (such date and time, as may be extended, the "Expiration Date"). The early tender deadline for the Offer will be 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on August 19, 2016 (such date and time, as may be extended, the "Early Tender Time"). Holders of the Notes must validly tender their Notes at or before the Early Tender Time in order to be eligible to receive the Early Tender Payment (as defined below) in addition to the Tender Consideration (as defined below). The Notes tendered may be withdrawn prior to 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on August 19, 2016 (such date and time, as may be extended, the "Withdrawal Deadline"), but not thereafter, except as required by applicable law. The total consideration for each $1,000 principal amount of the Notes is $970 (the "Total Consideration"), which includes an early tender payment of $30 per $1,000 principal amount of the Notes (the "Early Tender Payment") and a tender payment of $940 per $1,000 principal amount of the Notes (the "Tender Consideration"). The Early Tender Payment is payable only to Holders who tender and validly deliver their Notes prior to or at the Early Tender Time. Holders validly tendering and not withdrawing Notes prior to or at the Early Tender Time will be eligible to receive the Total Consideration (including the Early Tender Payment) on the Early Settlement Date (as defined below) in respect of Notes accepted for purchase. Holders validly tendering their Notes after the Early Tender Time and prior to or at the Expiration Date will be entitled to receive the Tender Consideration, namely an amount equal to the Total Consideration less the Early Tender Payment, on the Final Settlement Date (as defined below) in respect of notes accepted for purchase. In addition, Holders whose Notes are purchased in the Offer will receive accrued and unpaid interest in respect of their purchased Notes from the last interest payment date to, but not including, the applicable Settlement Date (as defined below). Payment for Notes that are validly tendered at or prior to the Early Tender Time and not validly withdrawn at or prior to the Withdrawal Deadline, and accepted for purchase in the Offer, will be after the Early Tender Time but prior to the Expiration Date (the "Early Settlement Date"), and is expected to be on or about August 22, 2016. Payment for Notes that are validly tendered after the Early Tender Time, but at or prior to the Expiration Date, and accepted for purchase in the Offer, will be promptly after the Expiration Date (the "Final Settlement Date", and the Final Settlement Date and the Early Settlement Date each being a "Settlement Date") and is expected to be on or about September 6, 2016. If the aggregate principal amount of Notes validly tendered in the Offer exceeds the Maximum Tender Amount, then, subject to the terms and conditions of the Offer, the Company will accept Notes on a pro rata basis as described in the Offer to Purchase. If an aggregate principal amount of Notes that equals or exceeds the Maximum Tender Amount is validly tendered at or prior to the Early Tender Time and accepted for purchase, Holders who validly tender Notes after the Early Tender Time will not have any of their Notes accepted for purchase. The Company's obligation to accept for purchase, and to pay for, the Notes validly tendered pursuant to the Offer is subject to, and conditioned upon satisfaction or waiver of, certain conditions, including the completion of the Company's previously announced equity offering, as set forth in the Offer Documents, in the sole discretion of the Company. The Offer is not conditioned on any minimum participation by the Holders. The Company may increase the Maximum Tender Amount in its sole discretion but is under no obligation to do so. There can be no assurance that the Company will exercise its right to increase the Maximum Tender Amount. Notes may be tendered and will be accepted for payment only in denominations of $2,000 and any integral multiple $1,000 in excess thereof. Any tender of Notes the proration of which would otherwise result in a return of Notes to a tendering Holder in a principal amount below the minimum denomination of $2,000 principal amount may be rejected in full or accepted in full in the sole discretion of the Company. The Dealer Manager for the Offer is: Citigroup Global Markets Inc. 390 Greenwich Street, 1st floor New York, New York, 10013 U.S.A. Attention: Liability Management Group U.S. Toll Free: +1 800-558-3745 Collect: +1 212-723-6106 The Information and Tender Agent for the Offer is Global Bondholder Services Corporation. To contact the Information and Tender Agent, banks and brokers may call +1-212-430-3774, and others may call U.S. toll-free: +1 866-470-4500. Additional contact information is set forth below. Global Bondholder Services Corporation By Mail, Hand or Overnight Courier: By Facsimile Transmission: 65 Broadway, Suite 404 New York, NY 10006 USA Attention: Corporate Actions E-mail: info@gbsc-usa.com (for eligible institutions only) +1 212-430-3775/3779 Attention: Corporate Actions Confirmation by Telephone +1 212-430-3774 Holders of the Notes are urged to read the Offer Documents carefully. Any questions or requests for assistance in relation to the Offer Documents may be directed to the Dealer Manager at its telephone number set forth above or to the Holder's broker, dealer, commercial bank, trust company or other nominee for assistance concerning the Offer. Requests for additional copies of the Offer Documents may be directed to the Information and Tender Agent at the addresses and telephone numbers set forth above. Documents relating to the Offer, including the Offer to Purchase and the Letter of Transmittal, are also available at http://www.gbsc-usa.com/iamgold/. This announcement is neither an offer to purchase nor a solicitation of an offer to sell any of the Notes or any other securities. The Offer is being made solely pursuant to the Offer Documents. The Offer is not being made in, nor will the Company accept tenders of Notes from, any jurisdiction in which the making or acceptance thereof would not be in compliance with the securities, blue sky or other laws of such jurisdiction. None of the Company, Computershare Trust Company, N.A., Computershare Trust Company of Canada, the Dealer Manager or the Information and Tender Agent is making any recommendations to the Holders as to whether or not to tender all or any portion of Notes. Holders must decide whether to tender Notes, and if tendering, the amount of Notes to tender. Forward Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking statements. All statements, other than of historical fact, that address activities, events or developments that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future (including, without limitation, statements regarding the terms and timing for completion of the Offer, including the acceptance for purchase of any Notes validly tendered and the expected Early Tender Time, Expiration Date and Settlement Date thereof, the potential increase to the Maximum Tender Amount, the potential extension of the Withdrawal Deadline, the satisfaction or waiver of certain conditions of the Offer, the expected, estimated or planned gold production, cash costs, margin expansion, capital expenditures and exploration expenditures and statements regarding the estimation of mineral resources, exploration results, potential mineralization, potential mineral resources and mineral reserves) are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by use of the words "will", "continue", "expect", "estimate", "intend", "to have", "plan" or "project" or the negative of these words or other variations on these words or comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's ability to control or predict, that may cause the actual results of the Company to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things, without limitation, risks inherent to completion of the Offering, failure to meet expected, estimated or planned gold production, cash costs, margin expansion, capital expenditures and exploration expenditures and failure to establish estimated mineral resources, the possibility that future exploration results will not be consistent with the Company's expectations, changes in world gold markets and other risks disclosed in IAMGOLD's most recent Form 40-F/Annual Information Form on file with the SEC and Canadian provincial securities regulatory authorities. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement. About IAMGOLD IAMGOLD is a mid-tier mining company with four operating gold mines on three continents. A solid base of strategic assets in Canada, South America and Africa is complemented by development and exploration projects and continued assessment of accretive acquisition opportunities. IAMGOLD is in a strong financial position with extensive management and operational expertise. SOURCE IAMGold Corp. Vancouver - ALX Uranium Corp. (ALX or the Company) (TSXV: AL; FSE: 6LLN; OTCQX: ALXEF) is pleased to provide the following update on exploration activities for its Perch and Hook-Carter Properties located within the Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan. Perch Property The Perch Property consists of one mineral disposition totaling 1,682 hectares (4,156 acres) located along the northeastern margin of the Athabasca Basin (see Figure 1). The property is situated approximately 65 km east of Stony Rapids, Saskatchewan. The edge of the Athabasca Basin runs through the middle of the property such that the northern portion of the Property is underlain by basement rocks and the southern part of the property is covered by Athabasca Group sandstone. Uranium targets within the property are therefore at shallow depths. A 4 km-long conductor and coincident magnetic low runs northeast-southwest through the central portion of the property. A ground gravity survey consisting of approximately 470 stations is planned to commence in mid-August. The gravity survey will consist of twenty-four (24) 900 metre long lines running northwest-southeast perpendicular to the conductor. Lines are planned at 100 metre spacing with 50 metre stations. The gravity crew will be based in the nearby community of Stony Rapids and a helicopter based in Stony Rapids will provide transportation to the property. Hook-Carter Property The Hook-Carter Property is comprised of twenty-four mineral dispositions encompassing approximately 16,458 hectares (40,668 acres) within the Patterson Lake South (PLS) camp and covers the northeastern extensions of three known conductive trends: a. Patterson Lake Corridor; b. Derkson Corridor; and c. Carter Corridor. The Property is situated along these conductive trends, between the prolific deposits in the PLS area to the southwest and the recent property purchase of Cameco Corp. to the northeast (See ALX News Release dated February 25, 2016). Since 2012, at least seven unique uranium deposits and showings have been discovered along the Patterson Lake Corridor (see Figure 2): a. Triple R Deposit; R1620E, R600W, and R840W Zones (Fission Uranium Corp.); b. Arrow Deposit and Bow Zone (NexGen Energy Ltd.); and c. Spitfire Zone (Purepoint Uranium Group Inc., Cameco Corp., AREVA Resources Canada Inc.). These recent discoveries occur along an approximately 14 km long portion of the Patterson Lake Corridor and lie 8.5 to 22 km southwest of the Companys Hook-Carter Property. To date, exploration within the Patterson Lake Corridor has identified predominately basement-hosted uranium mineralization associated with gravity low or resistivity geophysical anomalies, electromagnetic (EM) conductors, and in some cases highly anomalous radon geochemistry. These features provide a unique context that can help guide future exploration within the region. Prior exploration at the Hook-Carter Property, including airborne geophysics (gravity, magnetics, MegaTEM and VTEM) and ground resistivity surveys confirmed the Patterson Lake Corridor extends for at least 12.7 km in a northeasterly trend across the property. During 2014, geophysical modeling was completed by Condor Consulting Inc. (Condor) of Lakewood, Colorado for three conductors along a small portion of the Patterson Lake Corridor, and five drill holes were recommended to test the conductors. The estimated depth to the sub-Athabasca unconformity within the area is expected to range from 320 to 500 metres. To the east, the Derkson Corridor extends over a 5.8 km strike length on the Hook-Carter Property. This exploration corridor is highlighted by historical drill hole DER-04 located approximately 4.5 km south of the Hook-Carter Property which returned 0.24% U and 1.35% Ni over 2.5 metres in basement rocks about five metres below the unconformity and. The Derkson Corridor has been explored on the property by previous airborne geophysics (gravity, magnetics, MegaTEM and VTEM) as well as ground resistivity and TDEM surveys. Similar geophysical modeling has been completed by Condor which recommended five drill targets where depths to the sub-Athabasca unconformity are expected to range from 350 to 470 metres. To the west, the Carter Corridor has seen limited exploration, with historical work including airborne MegaTEM and VTEM surveys. The Hook-Carter Property covers two separate portions of the Carter Corridor, with strike extensions of approximately 2 km each. 2016 Exploration ALX recently completed an advanced combined airborne and ground Sub-Audio Magnetic Transient Electromagnetic (HeliSAM TEM) geophysical survey conducted by Discovery Intl Geophysics Inc. in partnership with Gap GeoPhysics Australia Pty Limited over the Patterson and Carter Corridors of the Hook-Carter Property (see ALX News Release dated March 23, 2016). The survey lines were flown 100 metres apart with a helicopter-borne transient EM receiver and covered two large areas approximately 3.8 km long by 1.9 km wide (W1/W2 area) and 2.3 km long by 1.9 km wide (A1 area). A total of 115 line-km of HeliSAM TEM was completed. In addition, Peridot Geoscience Ltd. (PGL) of Ottawa, Ontario recently completed a multi-media and geochemical review of the Hook-Carter property by comparing the distribution of geochemical and radiochemical signatures characteristic of uranium mineralization processes against interpreted litho-structural features to identify anomalous areas within the Hook Lake-Carter Property. The distribution of geochemical and radiometric uranium mineralization signatures relative to their geophysical and topographic setting was further reviewed to prioritize target areas within the Hook-Carter Property. Three specific areas were identified as preferred targets for follow-up: HKC-A, HKC-B and HKC-C (see Figure 3). Areas HKC-A and HKC-B lie along the Patterson Lake Corridor. Both areas are located at the apparent intersection of north-northeast radiometric trends with a 120 cross-cutting structure. A target area defined in a 2014 interpretation report by Condor utilizing data from 2006 Airborne EM (MegaTEM and VTEM) lies within the HKC-A anomaly area. Area HKC-C lies along the Derkson Corridor. The area shows radiometric uranium and thorium anomalies near historical drill hole HK-005 and geochemical anomalism at the top of previous holes EHK-001 and -002. This was one of the target areas originally proposed for drilling by Condor. In order to define and finalize targets, ALX intends to carry out gravity surveys in these three areas prior to drilling. Dependent on weather conditions for access and drilling, up to two drill holes will be completed to test a group of targets along the Patterson Corridor. One to two additional drill holes will also be completed to test targets along the Derkson Corridor. Mikwam Property Galena International Resources Inc. (Galena) has executed a Letter of Intent with ALX to acquire a 100% interest in the Mikwam gold property. Galena will acquire the property in consideration of a cash payment of C$20,000 and the issuance of 2,000,000 common shares of Galena to ALX. In addition, on closing of the acquisition, Galena will grant ALX a net smelter returns royalty (the NSR Royalty) equal to 0.5% of Net Smelter Returns from the property. Galena shall have the right, at any time, to acquire one-half of the NSR Royalty (0.25%) from ALX in consideration of a cash payment of C$1,000,000. The transaction is subject to completion of due diligence, final documentation and TSX Venture Exchange approval. NI 43-101 Disclosure Technical information in this news release has been reviewed and/or prepared by Sierd Eriks, P.Geo., VP Exploration who is a qualified person, in accordance with the Canadian regulatory requirements set out in National Instrument 43-101. About ALX Uranium Corp. ALX Uranium Corp. was formed as the result of a business combination between Lakeland Resources Inc. and Alpha Exploration Inc. ALX is based in Vancouver and its common shares are listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "AL", on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol 6LLN and in the United States OTCQX under the symbol ALXEF. ALX is actively exploring a portfolio of early-stage properties. Technical reports are available on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) for several of the Companys active properties. ALX continually and proactively reviews opportunities for new properties, whether by staking, joint venture or acquisition. For more information, please visit the corporate website at www.alxuranium.com or contact Roger Leschuk, Corporate Communications at Ph: 604.681.1568 or TF: 1.877.377.6222 or email: rleschuk@alxuranium.com On Behalf of the Board of Directors ALX Uranium Corp. "Jonathan Armes" Jonathan Armes President, CEO and Director Cell: 416.708.0243 Ph: 604.681.1568 TF: 1.877.377.6222 Email: jarmes@alxuranium.com FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS: Statements in this document which are not purely historical are forward-looking statements, including any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Forward looking statements in this news release for example include and are not limited to references to reporting of location of conductors; indication that DC Resistivity and gravity surveys may be conducted; all references to future exploration in the area; and the completion of up to two drill holes to test the targets. It is important to note that actual outcomes and the Company's actual results could differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. Risks and uncertainties include economic, competitive, governmental, environmental and technological factors that may affect the Company's operations, markets, products and prices. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially may include misinterpretation of data; that we may not be able to get equipment or labour as we need it; that we may not be able to raise sufficient funds to complete our intended exploration and development; that our applications to drill may be denied; that weather, logistical problems or hazards may prevent us from exploration; that equipment may not work as well as expected; that analysis of data may not be possible accurately and at depth; that results which we or others have found in any particular location are not necessarily indicative of larger areas of our properties; that we may not complete environmental programs in a timely manner or at all; that market prices may not justify commercial production costs; and that despite encouraging data there may be no commercially exploitable mineralization on our properties. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 09, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Asante Gold Corp. (CSE:ASE) (FRANKFURT:1A9) (the "Company") announces that the Special Committee of the Board has reached agreement with Goknet Mining Company Limited (Goknet) to close the acquisition of the Kubi Mining Leases on terms as substantially contained in the Kubi Definitive Option Agreement dated 28th February 2015. See: http://www.asantegold.com/news/kubi-gold-project-ghana-option-agreement. Asante will acquire the Kubi Mining Leases by issuing seven million treasury shares and reserving for future delivery to Goknet a total of 8,000 ounces of gold, and thereafter reserving for Goknet a 2% Net Smelter Return royalty (the Kubi NSR). Royal Gold Inc. of Denver holds a 3% Net Proceeds of Production royalty, and the Ghana Government a statutory 10% free carry equity and 5% NSR royalty interest. Asante plans to further explore and if warranted develop Kubi as a custom milling and direct shipping underground operation. It is located on major deep seated auriferous structures associated with AngloGold Ashantis 66 million ounce* Obuasi Gold Mine and Perseus Mining Ltd.s 6.6 million ounce* Edikan Gold Mine (* pre-mining resource, source company annual reports). In addition the Company will acquire Goknets interests in eight prospecting licenses: two totaling 38 sq km adjoining to the west of the Kubi Mining Leases; and six contiguous licenses totaling 270 sq km located on the Asankrangwa Gold Belt 15 km to the south west and along strike of the Asanko Gold Mine. Each of these licenses has had considerable exploration work completed and many have drill ready targets outlined. These licenses are in the process of being transferred to Goknet from a third party, subject to the consent of the Minister of Lands, Forestry and Mines. To purchase the licenses, the Company will issue up to a maximum of three million treasury shares. Shares will be issued pro-rata on a license by license basis if as and when valid title is registered in the name of the Company. Goknet will retain a 2% Net Smelter Return royalty on each license acquired by the Company. Douglas MacQuarrie, President & CEO states, Acquiring Kubi at a cost of circa $18 million or US$40 per ounce of NI 43-101 gold resources1, is a major step forward for the Company. Kubi has near term development potential, an excellent location and considerable grade and resource ounce upside. Share dilution has been minimized by using gold forward and NSR royalty payments. The addition of the southern half of Goknets highly prospective Ashanti II concessions to our current Betanase Option and Fahiakoba concessions give us exceptional discovery upside and growth opportunities. Our immediate focus is to complete a financing to commence the driving of a decline at Kubi for the resource to reserve upgrade drilling and to fund aggressive exploration on our other holdings. By Order of the Board, "Douglas R. MacQuarrie" President and CEO 1 Current NI 43-101 resource estimate for the Kubi Main gold deposit was completed by SEMS Exploration Services Ltd. of Accra, Ghana: Measured Resources 0.66 million tonnes @ 5.30g/t for 112,000 ounces; Indicated Resources 0.66 million tonnes @ 5.65g/t for 121,000 ounces; and Inferred Resources 0.67 million tonnes @ 5.31g/t for 115,000 ounces, and is filed on SEDAR. Scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Douglas R. MacQuarrie, P.Geo. (B.C.) Geology & Geophysics, the President and CEO of the Company, who is a "qualified person" under NI 43-101. Neither IIROC nor any stock exchange or other securities regulatory authority accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. For further information please contact: Douglas MacQuarrie, President and CEO, tel: +1 604-558-1134; E-mail: douglas@asantegold.com Doreen Kent, Shareholder Communications, tel: +1 604-948-9450; E-mail: d.kent@eastlink.ca Kirsti Mattson, Media Relations, tel: +1 778-434-2241; E-mail: kirsti.mattson@gmail.com Florian Riedl-Riedenstein, Director; E-mail: frram@aon.net Additional information is available on our web site at: www.asantegold.com VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA / TheNewswire / August 9, 2016 / MGX Minerals Inc. ("MGX" or the "Company") (CSE: XMG / FKT: 1MG) reports that in connection with the previously announced Rights Offering (the "Offering") (see press release dated July 27, 2016), the Rights are set to commence trading on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the ticker symbol XMG.RT beginning at the open of trading on August 10, 2016. All shareholders of MGX at the close of business on the record date of August 12, 2016 will be entitled to take part in the Offering. The Rights will expire at 2 p.m. Pacific Standard Time (PST) on September 16, 2016 (the "Expiry Time"). The Offering is being conducted on the basis of one Right for each common share of the Company held. Four Rights entitle the holder to purchase one Unit ("Unit") of the Company at a subscription price of CA$0.18 per Unit. Each Unit consists of one common share and one-half of one purchase warrant ("Warrant"), with each whole Warrant exercisable into one common share of the Company at a price of CA$0.20 for a period of 24 months from the issuance date. Shareholders who fully exercise their Rights will be entitled to subscribe for additional Units, if available as a result of unexercised Rights prior to the Expiry Time, subject to certain limitations set out in the Company's rights offering circular. Further details of the Offering are available under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com. About MGX Minerals MGX Minerals (CSE: XMG) is a diversified Canadian mining company engaged in the development of large-scale industrial mineral portfolios in western Canada that offer near-term production potential, minimal barriers to entry and low initial capital expenditures. The Company operates lithium, magnesium and silicon projects throughout British Columbia and Alberta. For further information, please visit the Company's website at www.mgxminerals.com. Contact Information Jared Lazerson Chief Executive Officer Telephone: 604.681.7735 Email: jared@mgxminerals.com Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking information or forward-looking statements (collectively "forward-looking information") within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking information is typically identified by words such as: "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "intend", "estimate", "potentially" and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking information provided by the Company is not a guarantee of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking information as a result of various factors. The reader is referred to the Company's public filings for a more complete discussion of such risk factors and their potential effects which may be accessed through the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Copyright (c) 2016 TheNewswire - All rights reserved. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - August 9, 2016) - Thunderstruck Resources Ltd. (TSXV: AWE) ("Thunderstruck") is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the portfolio of base metal and gold properties in Fiji it had previously had under option. "This purchase is significant in a number of ways," stated Bryce Bradley, President and CEO. "Anglo spent nearly $10 million (today's dollars) drilling these assets in the late '70s, and we have been able to acquire the properties for just about 2% of Anglo's expenditures." "With clear title to the land, in what appears to be the beginnings of a bull market, Thunderstruck is poised to bring significant shareholder value in the coming months. Thunderstruck's current market cap is only a fraction of the money already spent in the ground by Anglo. With strengthening commodity prices and an experienced team on the ground in Fiji, our future is very exciting," noted Bradley. Under a Share Sale Agreement dated August 5, 2016, with Aljen Holdings Pty Ltd. (a private Australian company) and Alan and Jenny Wolstencroft (the principals of Aljen Holdings Pty Ltd., and collectively, the "Vendors") Thunderstruck will acquire Aljen (Pacific) Limited ("Aljen"), the private Fijian company holding the portfolio of properties (the "Properties"). Pursuant to the Share Sale Agreement, Thunderstruck, through its wholly owned Fijian subsidiary, will acquire all of the issued and outstanding securities of Aljen for an aggregate of AUS$233,000 plus VAT payable in cash and the issuance of an aggregate of 1,800,000 common shares of Thunderstruck as follows: (a) AUS$158,000 plus VAT in cash and 450,000 common shares will be paid and issued on closing; (b) A further AUS$75,000 plus VAT and 350,000 common shares will be paid and issued within five business days of Thunderstruck receiving certain landowner approvals relating to their Wainaleka VMS asset, provided however that if such approvals are not obtained on or before August 5, 2018, this payment obligation will cease; and (c) 1,000,000 common shares are issuable in the event Thunderstruck or its successors either (i) identifies an indicated mineral resources (or better and as prepared in compliance with NI 43-101) containing a minimum of 250,000 ounces of gold or 3,000,000 tonnes of copper, zinc or silver on the Properties or (ii) completes a prefeasibility study on the Properties. Brien Lundin, a co-founder and Director commented, "The suite of exploration properties acquired by Thunderstruck comprises nearly 4% of the main island of Fiji, and includes two high-grade, VMS zinc/copper targets (Nakoro/Wainaleka) already discovered in previous drilling by Anglo, one large copper/gold porphyry target (Rama Creek) and a promising gold target outlined by sampling (Liwa Creek). We have over 40 years of exploration and drilling data, including drill core, from these assets. All of these targets are finally open for exploration by Thunderstruck, as well as potential joint venture, and we are eager to begin work." As a result of Thunderstruck acquiring Aljen, the Share Sale Agreement will (i) supersede the Option Agreement dated July 11, 2014, under which Thunderstruck was to pay an aggregate of AUS$600,000 in cash, issue an aggregate of 1,500,000 in shares and incur AUS$1,500,000 on the Properties over a three-year period, and (ii) release Thunderstruck from certain obligations to parties other than Aljen. Completion of the transaction is subject to; (i) the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange (the "Exchange'), (ii) the approval of Investment Fiji and the Reserve Bank of Fiji, (iii) the renewal of the special prospecting licenses for a further 12-month term and (iv) the completion by Thunderstruck of a non-brokered private placement generating aggregate gross proceeds of at least $200,000, which conditions are to be satisfied or waived by Thunderstruck within two months of the date of the Share Sale Agreement. All shares to the Vendor will be subject to four-month resale restrictions in accordance with the Canadian securities legislation and the policies of the Exchange. In conjunction with the transaction, Thunderstruck has arranged a concurrent non-brokered private placement to raise up to $400,000 through the sale of up to 8,000,000 units at a price of $0.05 per unit (the "Financing"). Each unit will comprise one common share and one-half of one share purchase warrant. Each whole warrant will entitle the holder to purchase of a further common shares at a price of $0.10 per share for a period of 36 months from closing. The warrants will be subject to accelerated exercise provisions such that if the closing price of Thunderstruck's common shares exceeds $0.20 per share for a period of 20 consecutive trading days, Thunderstruck may give notice of the acceleration of the warrants' term to a period of 30 days following such notice. The net proceeds of the Financing will be used to pay the Vendor for the acquisition, including a man-portable Winkie drill. The Company will also be conducting an exploration program this fall on its Nakoro and Rama Creek properties, details of which will be provided in subsequent news releases. The Financing is subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. No finder's fees will be payable on any portion of the Financing. About Thunderstruck Resources Thunderstruck Resources is a Canadian mining exploration company with highly prospective VMS and Precious Metals projects in Fiji. The Company provides investors with exposure to a diverse portfolio of assets rich in copper, zinc, silver and gold in a politically safe and stable jurisdiction. Thunderstruck trades on the Toronto Venture Exchange (TSXV) under the symbol "AWE". For additional information, please contact: Bryce Bradley, President, Chief Executive Officer and Director Telephone: (604) 349-8119 Email: Bryce@thunderstruck.ca or, visit our website: http://www.thunderstruck.ca Neither the TSX Venture Exchange Inc. nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release contains certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". Although Thunderstruck believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in forward looking statements. Specifically, there is no assurance the default alleged under the Option Agreement will be cured on the terms set out above or at all or that the Option Agreement will not be terminated). Forward looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of Thunderstruck's management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by law, Thunderstruck undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change. VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA / TheNewswire / August 9 , 2016 -- Anfield Resources Inc. (TSX.V: ARY) (OTCQB: ANLDF) (FRANKFURT: 0AD) ("Anfield" or "the Company"), is pleased to announce that the Company's common shares have been accepted for trading on the OTCQB Venture Market in the United States, under the ticker "ANLDF", effective immediately. Anfield Resources common shares will continue to trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "ARY". Corey Dias, Anfield's CEO, stated, "We are pleased that Anfield's common shares have commenced trading on the OTCQB Marketplace. This gives the Company access to a potentially larger capital pool in the U.S. through an additional convenient and transparent forum. The listing will also increase awareness of Anfield's continued progress amongst prospective investors. Finally, given that Anfield's assets are located in the U.S., we look forward to the prospect of gaining greater exposure and liquidity in this market". About OTCQB The OTCQB, part of the OTC Markets Group, is a venture stage marketplace for early and developing U.S. and international companies. Companies are required to meet eligibility standards aimed at improving the information available to investors. OTCQB will include Real-Time Level 2 quotes and the OTC Disclosure & News Service to help companies improve information experience to their investors. About Anfield's Properties Anfield is an energy metals exploration, development and near-term production company that is committed to becoming a top-tier energy-related fuels supplier by creating value through sustainable, efficient growth in its energy metals assets. Anfield is a publicly-traded corporation listed on the TSX-Venture Exchange (ARY-V), the OTCQB Venture Market (ANLDF) and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (0AD). On behalf of the Board of Directors Anfield Resources Inc. Corey Dias, Chief Executive Officer Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Contact: Anfield Resources Inc. Clive Mostert Corporate Communications 780-920-5044 info@anfieldresources.com www.anfieldresources.com Safe Harbor Statement THIS NEWS RELEASE CONTAINS "FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS". STATEMENTS IN THIS NEWS RELEASE THAT ARE NOT PURELY HISTORICAL ARE FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS AND INCLUDE ANY STATEMENTS REGARDING BELIEFS, PLANS, EXPECTATIONS OR INTENTIONS REGARDING THE FUTURE. EXCEPT FOR THE HISTORICAL INFORMATION PRESENTED HEREIN, MATTERS DISCUSSED IN THIS NEWS RELEASE CONTAIN FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS THAT ARE SUBJECT TO CERTAIN RISKS AND UNCERTAINTIES THAT COULD CAUSE ACTUAL RESULTS TO DIFFER MATERIALLY FROM ANY FUTURE RESULTS, PERFORMANCE OR ACHIEVEMENTS EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED BY SUCH STATEMENTS. STATEMENTS THAT ARE NOT HISTORICAL FACTS, INCLUDING STATEMENTS THAT ARE PRECEDED BY, FOLLOWED BY, OR THAT INCLUDE SUCH WORDS AS "ESTIMATE," "ANTICIPATE," "BELIEVE," "PLAN" OR "EXPECT" OR SIMILAR STATEMENTS ARE FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS. RISKS AND UNCERTAINTIES FOR THE COMPANY INCLUDE, BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO, THE RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH MINERAL EXPLORATION AND FUNDING AS WELL AS THE RISKS SHOWN IN THE COMPANY'S MOST RECENT ANNUAL AND QUARTERLY REPORTS AND FROM TIME-TO-TIME IN OTHER PUBLICLY AVAILABLE INFORMATION REGARDING THE COMPANY. OTHER RISKS INCLUDE RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH SEEKING THE CAPITAL NECESSARY TO COMPLETE THE PROPOSED TRANSACTION, THE REGULATORY APPROVAL PROCESS, COMPETITIVE COMPANIES, FUTURE CAPITAL REQUIREMENTS AND THE COMPANY'S ABILITY AND LEVEL OF SUPPORT FOR ITS EXPLORATION AND DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES. THERE CAN BE NO ASSURANCE THAT THE COMPANY WILL BE ABLE TO COMPLETE THE PROPOSED TRANSACTION, THAT THE COMPANY'S EXPLORATION EFFORTS WILL SUCCEED OR THE COMPANY WILL ULTIMATELY ACHIEVE COMMERCIAL SUCCESS. THESE FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS ARE MADE AS OF THE DATE OF THIS NEWS RELEASE, AND THE COMPANY ASSUMES NO OBLIGATION TO UPDATE THE FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS, OR TO UPDATE THE REASONS WHY ACTUAL RESULTS COULD DIFFER FROM THOSE PROJECTED IN THE FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS. ALTHOUGH THE COMPANY BELIEVES THAT THE BELIEFS, PLANS, EXPECTATIONS AND INTENTIONS CONTAINED IN THIS NEWS RELEASE ARE REASONABLE, THERE CAN BE NO ASSURANCE THOSE BELIEFS, PLANS, EXPECTATIONS OR INTENTIONS WILL PROVE TO BE ACCURATE. INVESTORS SHOULD CONSIDER ALL OF THE INFORMATION SET FORTH HEREIN AND SHOULD ALSO REFER TO THE RISK FACTORS DISCLOSED IN THE COMPANY'S PERIODIC REPORTS FILED FROM TIME-TO-TIME. THIS NEWS RELEASE HAS BEEN PREPARED BY MANAGEMENT OF THE COMPANY WHO TAKES FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR ITS CONTENTS. Copyright (c) 2016 TheNewswire - All rights reserved. Danish-inspired? So last season. This October ex-winemaker Tim Burvill brings Danish steakhouse concept A Hereford Beefstouw to Melbourne along with authentic tables, chairs, floorboards, light fittings and a team of six Danish builders to install them. Take that, imitators. The Duckboard Place location (next to Pastuso) is a sibling for Burvill's Adelaide restaurant of the same name; the only southern hemisphere outposts of A Hereford Beefstouw, owned in partnership with Lars Damgaard who oversees 15 Scandinavian locations. It's not a one-way street; Burvill is also a Hereford beef farmer (talented guy) and pretty soon his export-quality dry-aged South Australian beef, on the menu in Adelaide and Melbourne, will be shipped over to his Danish friends. On the menu: Char-grilled fillet steak with fries and herb butter. Photo: Supplied The group has brought on Danish designer Thomas Jensen for the Melbourne fitout: a single storey bar and dining room set around a central open kitchen based on the Danish outposts; however, Burvill says the concept isn't a chain but an institution. "They've been going for 45 years ... each restaurant is an evolution on the next." The venue will have specific Melbourne touches (including an all-Victorian craft beer list) but the concept follows suit with a cute paper order form for self-selecting your chosen cut, degree of doneness and whether you'd like access to the unlimited salad bar. A Hereford Beefstouw is due to open mid-October at 22 Duckboard Place; beefstouw.com. Michelle Gaitan/Standard-Times Jon Mark Hogg, a San Angelo attorney specializing in labor law, spoke at the monthly San Angelo Chamber of Commerce luncheon Tuesday. SHARE Dan Koenig, new chamber of commerce president. - photo by Ken Grimm By Mike Kelly of the San Angelo Standard-Times Jon Mark Hogg warned the chamber luncheon crowd they were about to be bored. "I tried to talk (interim chamber president) Peggy (Arnold) out of this, but she wanted it anyway." His presentation, however, was an eye-opener for any businesses that have employees paid on management salaries that are overtime-exempt. Under new rules set to take effect in less than four months, the salary threshold for such employees will more than double, and employers, he said, are faced with the prospect of increasing those workers' salaries, reclassifying them as hourly employees and paying overtime, or keeping them on 40-hour weeks and hiring additional workers to fill the remaining hours. "It's boring unless you get a call from the Wages and Hours Division (of the Department of Labor)," he said. Hogg, a San Angelo lawyer specializing in labor law, was speaking to about 300 people at the monthly luncheon meeting of the San Angelo Chamber of Commerce in the McNease Convention Center on Tuesday. He explained that the law being updated was the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, passed during the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration, which included regulations that are now taken for granted minimum wage, overtime provisions and prohibitions against child labor. The new rules update Department of Labor regulations that have been in place since 2004. The current wage threshold for FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act) exemption from the overtime rule is $455 a week, or $23,660 a year; under the new rule effective Dec. 1, it will be $913 a week, or $47,476 a year. The amendment has been in the works since 2014 under an initiative from the White House, which noted that the old exemption threshold for management overtime exemption delivered a wage lower than the poverty level for a single-income family of four while allowing unlimited unpaid overtime. The new rule, unlike previous iterations of the FLSA, includes a provision for adjustment every three years. According to a White House analysis, the new rule is expected to affect about 370,000 workers in Texas, or slightly less than 3 percent of the civilian labor force in the state. The analysis projected that 35 percent of workers who are FLSA-exempt as management personnel will be affected by the rule. Exempt employees those who are paid a fixed salary without regard to hours worked fall under several descriptions in the law, Hogg said. They include executive, professional, administrative and computer workers, all of which have to include specific elements in their jobs, called "duty tests." Hogg said the abrupt magnitude of the increase "has caused a lot of consternation among employer groups." "So, you ask, 'What can I do?' " Hogg said. "Well, you can pay them more, that's the easiest thing." But that might be too much of a financial crunch for some businesses, and taking exempt employees into hourly status and paying them overtime could be equally expensive, he said. "You could also restructure it into more jobs, and I think that's what the Department of Labor intended," he said. His tip was to consult the Society of Human Resources Management website shrm.org for more information. Hogg practices law with Jackson Walker LLP in San Angelo, with specialties in labor and employment law, litigation, constitutional and public law. He also served as a San Angelo City Council member from 2006-10, representing Single Member District 5. New president The chamber also welcomed its new president, Dan Koenig, who started his job Monday. "I look forward to helping your businesses and San Angelo grow," Koenig said. "It's only been a few short days, but San Angelo really does feel like home. You have a solid and strong chamber, and it's an honor to be here." Koenig was chosen for president from among several applicants during a monthslong search process. He held previous chamber leadership positions in Overland Park, Kansas; Bellevue, Nebraska; and Council Bluffs, Iowa. Chamber board chair Jamie Akin thanked Peggy Arnold for her months of work as interim president following the sudden death of the former president, Phil Neighbors, in February. Arnold got a standing ovation from the crowd. This 2006 file photo provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows a female Aedes aegypti mosquito in the process of acquiring a blood meal from a human host. (Photo: James Gathany, AP) SHARE By Liz Szabo, USA TODAY The Zika virus has claimed the life of a Texas baby, health officials reported Tuesday. The baby, whose mother had traveled to Latin America during her pregnancy, died shortly after birth. The infant was born with microcephaly, a condition in which a baby's head is abnormally small and, in most cases, brain development is incomplete. The baby was born in Harris County, which includes Houston. It's the first Zika-related death in Texas. Zika-related brain damage in fetuses "is one of the saddest congenital birth outcomes imaginable," said Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. "The case highlights that ZIka is not just producing babies with small heads. . . .We should expect many similar deaths, and also stillbirths." Fifteen babies in the U.S. have been born with Zika-related birth defects, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Seven women have lost pregnancies due to Zika. Those numbers could grow. Nearly 1,000 pregnant women in the continental U.S. and territories have been infected with Zika. Miami is battling a local Zika outbreak in the Wynwood neighborhood that has infected 17 people. More than 7,300 Americans have been diagnosed with Zika, including 1,825 in the continental U.S. and Hawaii, according to the CDC. Texas officials say the mother and her baby posed no risk to others. Last month, Texas reported its first case of microcephaly linked to Zika, also in Harris County. Zikas impact on unborn babies can be tragic, and our hearts are with this family, said John Hellerstedt, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services. Our central mission from the beginning has been to do everything we can to protect unborn babies from the devastating effects of Zika. As a part of Thomson Reuters, FindLaw.com and all subdomains are governed by Thomson Reuters privacy policy. Thomson Reuters is a global company made up of multiple legal entities such as FindLaw. The information FindLaw.com collects may differ from other entities within Thomson Reuters based on the type of service provided. Thomson Reuters privacy policy provides information about cookies, including links on how to manage cookie settings. Thomson Reuters also offers information about how interest-based advertising is used. Contact Us If you have any questions or comments related to our privacy policy or data protection practices, please contact our Privacy Team at privacy.enquiries@tr.com or at: General Counsel, Privacy Thomson Reuters 610 Opperman Drive Eagan, Minnesota 55123 United States of America For questions and/or comments regarding a specific page on FindLaw.com, please select a topic so we can direct it to the most appropriate source. Otherwise, you can reach us about these specific issues: General Questions. All emails are read and responded to. Newsletters. You can subscribe to or unsubscribe from a FindLaw newsletter. Ratings & Reviews. Let us know how were doing. Case Removal Request. Request removal of a case or document from FindLaw.com. (Do not request removal from search engines or other non-affiliated sites). You can visit our FindLaw Management page to learn more about our team. Vona Hudson, elections administrator for Tom Green County, (left) takes a number during a test run of the county' s new vote centers system. SHARE By Staff Report Tom Green County election administrator Vona Hudson said recent rulings on Texas' voter ID laws, and the state's acquiescence in easing restrictions, will require retraining of election workers throughout the state. "We are expecting record-setting turnout in November," Hudson said. "So, locally, we are looking at retraining more than 100 people." According to Hudson, the final details have not been worked out, and with Election Day nearing, she said they feel the impending deadline. "You bet," she said. "I will be a much happier person when we find out exactly what we have to do right now we don't know." In late July, a federal appeals court ruled Texas's voter ID law illegally discriminates against minorities in violation of the Voting Rights Act. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton characterized the ruling as "unfortunate." Last week, the state bowed to Justice Department pressure and agreed to relax the restrictions for November's elections. According to the agreement, registered voters may vote without a photo ID. Voters who arrive at the polls without identification will need to sign an affidavit certifying they are a U.S. citizen, and present proof of residence a utility bill, paycheck stub or other document showing a physical address. The state must provide those affidavits in four languages: English, Spanish, Chinese and Vietnamese. The rules also state poll workers may not question any voters lacking identification. The terms currently await the approval of U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos of the Southern District of Texas in Houston. The state's education commissioner has ordered Kentucky public school superintendents to immediately stop using a form of Aikido training to restrain students.The letter, sent Tuesday, came in response to concerns that staff at Jefferson County Public Schools and at some other school districts had been using a method called Aikido Control Training to physically restrain students.It also follows concerns recently raised by members of a state oversight panel on child abuse that the method can result in injuries including broken bones.Kentucky Education Commissioner Stephen Pruitt said he understands that only five school districts have had staff members trained in the Aikido method, but said the cease-and-desist letter was sent to all school districts as a precaution."We must do all that we can to ensure that our students are treated with the highest level of dignity, respect and care," Pruitt's letter said.Pruitt said the Kentucky Department of Education's main concern with the training was that it includes prone or supine restraint techniques. A prone restraint is where a student is held in a face-down position and pressure is applied to the body to keep the student in that position; a supine restraint is the same thing, but with the student lying in a face-up position.Some have suggested that the use of prone and supine restraint techniques increase the risk of harm to those being restrained, in part because inadvertent pressure could cause breathing or other issues. Several states, including Kentucky, have banned the use of such techniques in schools. The political newcomer who failed to unseat House Speaker Michael Madigan in the March primary filed a federal lawsuit Monday alleging a litany of misdeeds by the powerful Democrat, his political organizations, other candidates in the race and an unrelated state agency.Jason Gonzales insisted he wasn't "being a sore loser." At the center of his complaint are the signs, mailers and commercials that Madigan's political organization plastered throughout the Southwest Side House district, advertising that painted Gonzales as a career criminal and "convicted felon."Gonzales has acknowledged running afoul of the law during his teenage years in cases involving forgery and illegally using a credit card. He was pardoned in 2015 by then-Gov. Pat Quinn. Gonzales contends the pardon means he's no longer a convicted felon, and that Madigan defamed him by publicizing his criminal history.Madigan shrugged off the lawsuit. Gonzales "cannot be trusted and his lawsuit is without merit," Madigan said in a statement distributed by his political organization."According to Gonzales' own court filing today, his criminal activity 'resulted in several arrests, criminal charges, and felony and misdemeanor convictions,'" Madigan said in the statement. "Voters of my district soundly renominated me based on my strong record of service, giving me more than 65 percent of the vote, and they emphatically rejected Jason Gonzales because they knew he couldn't be trusted."Gonzales' sudden arrival on the political scene ahead of the March Democratic primary stoked speculation that he had been put up by Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, who is warring with Madigan. Gonzales' campaign also got financial backing from a number of donors who've supported Rauner in the past.At the time, Gonzales denied being a Rauner plant, a stance he reiterated Monday."This is my own doing. I've been wanting to run against Speaker Madigan for six years, before Gov. Rauner was even in office," Gonzales said.Despite describing himself as a "progressive Democrat," Gonzales enlisted a Republican former Cook County commissioner as his attorney in the case. Anthony Peraica is best known for storming the county clerk's office with a crowd of supporters that pounded on windows during a technology-driven, vote-counting meltdown as he lost a 2006 bid for county board president.Also named in the lawsuit is the Prisoner Review Board, which released information about Gonzales' criminal record to the media. Additionally, Gonzales is suing the two other individuals whose names appeared on the ballot in the primary for the 22nd House District, which Madigan has held since 1971.Gonzales contends that the individuals joined the ballot in order to dilute the vote and ensure a victory for Madigan. Gonzales won just 27 percent of the vote, and the other two candidates won less than 8 percent combined.Peraica decried what he contends is a "long-standing practice in the County of Cook, state of Illinois, of putting phony, sham candidates on the ballot."Gonzales said the lawsuit "isn't about me crying because I lost.""It's about justice for every candidate who has come before and will go ahead. This stuff has got to stop. These fraudulent, illegal tactics have got to stop." Joe McNamara, a state representative in Rhode Island, likens medical tourism in his state to the iconic line in "Field of Dreams": If you build it, they will come. Or so he hopes.People have been traveling faraway to get health-care needs met for centuries. For many, this type of tourism might conjure up images of wealthy Americans heading to developing countries for elective cosmetic surgeries at half the cost -- topped off with a beach recovery.But the practice has started to shift stateside, as a few legislatures work to attract medical tourists to their own states.McNamara had a lightbulb moment while attending a medical tourism conference. There, he heard about a man who went to Costa Rica for a $5,000 knee replacement surgery -- a mere fraction of the average $31,000 price in the U.S. While the surgery went well, he couldnt stop complaining about his lodgings, said McNamara. I realized then that we had the necessary infrastructure -- like nice hotels and world class medical facilities -- for medical tourism here in Rhode Island."U.S. states obviously can't compete with the low prices of health care in South America or Eastern Europe. But they can offer more specialty services and higher quality recovery facilities.For his part, McNamara is trying to make it easier for health facilities to expand their services by removing some of the bureaucratic barriers that can keep them from developing. The legislature already approved $48 million for a medical office complex in the town of Warwick that will provide more specialized services. If city council approves, McNamara's dream of Rhode Island as a medical destination could become a reality.Florida, perhaps the most obvious medical tourism destination in the U.S., is also trying to get in on the action. In 2014, the state allocated $5 million to the states medical tourism industry, with more than half of the money going toward grants that would help market the Sunshine State as a destination for patients and medical conferences.Florida has feasted on tourism, so I wanted to pivot our focus on the medical aspect of travel. We want people to come and receive care in world class facilities, then of course recover on the beach, said Florida state Sen. Aaron Bean.I grew up working as a waiter and bartender in a small beach town. I know the transformative power tourists can have," said Bean. "On top of that, medical tourists will spend up to 10 times the amount that a regular tourist will spend."The state is expected to get preliminary data from grantees soon showing whether or not that $5 million has paid off.Efforts like these aren't without controversy. Some argue it's a waste of money that could be better used on something else.Leigh Turner, a co-author ofsaid "A common complaint I hear is that medical tourism doesnt do anything to promote local access to care. Why would a state use funds when there are basic questions around health equity within the state?In Turners home state, Minnesota, theres a $6.5 billion effort to build the Destination Medical Center in Rochester. Using the Mayo Clinic as its core, the goal is to make the town a global destination for all things health and wellness. Approved by the city council in 2015, the plan is expected to span 20 years.Using resources that already exist, like the Mayo Clinic, is a good place to start if state lawmakers want to build a medical tourism industry, said Turner.Ask yourself what you can do to increase the numbers of people already visiting a certain clinic. Do you need a coordination office, do you need to boost advertising? Capitalize on a market that already exists." JavaScript is disabled on your browser. CORDIS website requires JavaScript enabled in order to work properly. Please enable JavaScript. Starting in December, Texas will try something new to get parents to pay child support: withhold their vehicle registration.The move is a controversial attempt to get more noncustodial parents to pay child support on-time and in-full. But some family and antipoverty advocates say the policy will have unintended consequences.If you penalize people, there are a small subset who will start paying, but I dont think thats the majority of the people," said Nune Phillips, a policy analyst with the Center on Law and Social Policy. It is potentially going to make the problem worse.Under the new approach, if parents are at least six months late on their payments, the state Department of Motor Vehicles will refuse to renew their annual vehicle registration until they start paying again. In Texas, people can drive their cars for five days with an expired registration; beyond that time, they risk a fine of up to $200.All 50 states already restrict, suspend or revoke driver's licenses when parents fail to pay child support -- a policy that the Obama administration has recently discouraged. But Texas would be one of the firstto take the extra step of using vehicle registration as a bargaining chip. At least two other states, Iowa and Louisiana , have similar policies.Parents who lose their vehicle registration will have a harder time making payments, said Gabriel Vasquez, a spokesman for the First Focus Campaign for Children, because it "will seriously hinder that parent from going to work and earning the money needed to pay the proper child support, he said. We think this policy is counterproductive.But Janece Rolfe, the communications director for the Texas Attorney Generals Office, which is spearheading the new approach, said the state's experience with license sanctions makes her optimistic about using vehicle registration as another lever.Parents, faced with the likelihood of a suspended license, call us and do make a payment arrangement, she said. (The state, however, doesn't track why a parent eventually pays late child support, so there's no evidence showing how many pay because of the threat of temporarily losing their license.)Whether the new policy triggers an increase in collections or an uptick in unregistered vehicles will likely depend on parents ability to pay in the first place. Last year in Texas, Rolfe said about 20 percent of parents didn't pay any child support. According to a 2006 federal study of nine states, 70 percent of late child support payments are owed by parents who make $10,000 or less a year. For these parents, the average child support obligation equals about 83 percent of their reported incomeaccording to the Urban Institute.Its not about being a dead-beat dad,'" said Rebecca Vallas, director of the left-leaning Center for American Progress. "Its about being too poor to pay.Refusing someone's vehicle registration, said Vallas, is just the latest example of government policies that do disproportionate harm to the poor. In the past year, the Obama administration has discouraged punitive policies like the one in Texas. A proposed federal rule requires courts to take into account people's ability to pay in setting child support payment levels and in imposing sanctions. In March, the Justice Department also wrote a letter to state and local courts encouraging them "to avoid suspending drivers licenses as a debt collection tool, reserving suspension for cases in which it would increase public safety."Parents in danger of losing their vehicle registration will receive notice by mail several months before the deadline.The hold on peoples vehicle registration will go away once the parent and the state arrange a payment plan. Partial payments will be enough to process the renewal application.Deborah Weinstein, executive director of the Coalition on Human Needs, stresses that the payment plans must be realistic "because so many people cannot work if they cannot drive."It remains to be seen how often Texas will take this approach. But in Iowa, the Department of Health and Human Services rarely uses vehicle registration as a sanctioning tool and always looks at parents' employment and financial status first."This is one of the last things we will do," said Amy McCoy, an Iowa department spokeswoman. "Punishment isn't always the best route to getting payment." A three-term northern Virginia mayor will resign after being arrested on drug charges, reports CBS affiliate WUSA-TV in Washington, D.C.City of Fairfax Mayor R. Scott Silverthorne allegedly tried to trade two grams of methamphetamine for sex acts in what turned out to be an undercover sting operation, police said last week.Silverthorne plans to resign Thursday, WUSA reports. His attorneys say he is not a drug dealer.The mayor was arrested Thursday night after meeting at a Tysons Corner hotel just outside the Capital Beltway with undercover detectives he approached through a website used to arrange casual sexual encounters between men, Fairfax County police said at a press conference.Police Capt. Jack Hardin said they received a tip that Silverthorne had been arranging drugs-for-sex encounters. Police then set up an online profile on the website, and within two days Silverthorne made contact online with the detective who set up the profile, Hardin said."We had information on what the mayor was looking for, what types of activities" he wanted to engage in, Hardin said.Silverthorne, who also worked as a substitute teacher in Fairfax County Public Schools, was arrested and gave a full confession, police said. He was released on his own recognizance while he awaits a preliminary hearing Oct. 31 on a felony charge of drug distribution and a misdemeanor charge of possessing drug paraphernalia. On Monday, in the evening, at Government House, His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC and Mrs Kaye de Jersey hosted a reception in support of the 2016 Royal Queensland Show, The Ekka, where His Excellency addressed guests. Description GIS - 09 August, 2016 : A gender quota requiring all public companies listed on the Stock Exchange to have at least one woman on their Board of Directors was hailed as a bold initiative in addressing womens empowerment and gender equality by the Minister of Gender Equality, Child Development and Family Welfare, Mrs Marie-Joyce Perraud, yesterday at the National Assembly during the debates on the 2016-2017 Budget. The Minister stated that this initiative is an important milestone in the history of the country as through this measure, more women will be able to break the glass-ceiling and ultimately aspire to reach and participate at the highest level of decision-making within these organisations. Highlighting Governments strong commitment and political will to have a just and equitable society by elevating the status of, and nurturing respect for, women and enabling them to be at par with men, Mrs Perraud referred to the provision of funds in the Budget for the setting up of a Parliamentary Women Caucus. The Caucus will regroup women Members of Parliament from all political parties to discuss on issues and policies relating to women in society. The Minister also welcomed the introduction of the Gender Development Index for Mauritius to measure progress in gender equality as well as the concept of gender analysis in five main Ministries to conduct gender analysis of services offered and formulate policy responses. Mrs Perraud said that it was yet another stepping stone towards ensuring that gender permeates in all policies and programmes, as well as fulfilling the national commitments as regards "Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality", the United Nations project to make gender equality a lived reality by 2030. The Ministry of Gender Equality, Child Development and Family Welfare has been allocated a total budget of Rs 451m for financial year 2016-2017. Minister Perraud elaborated on the various plans and proposals to cater for Mauritian families and enhance the services being provided to them. The projects span several spheres. Domestic violence From July 2015 to June 2016, 225 new cases for males and 1771 new cases for females of domestic violence have been reported to the Ministry. Projects to combat domestic violence comprise: Adoption of the new Protection from Domestic Violence Act for better protection to victims of domestic violence; Setting up of a command centre for domestic violence to act as a one stop department for all issues pertaining to domestic violence including support to all members of family; Setting up of additional shelters for women victims of domestic violence with the collaboration of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs); Implementation of the Domestic Violence Information System which is a computerised system for the registration of reported cases of domestic violence; and A study to better understand the phenomenon of Intimate Partner Violence. Family Welfare Regarding family welfare, the Ministry intends to: Develop a Costed Action Plan on the implementation of the recommendation of the Assises de la Famille with a view to take concrete measures for the promotion of family welfare with the collaboration of stakeholders; and Embark on an information campaign on the Special Collaborative Programme for Support to Women and Children in Distress to encourage NGOs to come up with innovative solutions to contemporary problems of women and children in distress. Child Protection Several measures are being carried out to set the foundation of an enabling environment essential for the holistic and integral development of the child. These measures consist of: T he finalisation of the Child Care and Protection Bill, which will provide, among others, for structures, services and means for promoting and monitoring the sound physical, psychological, intellectual, emotional and social development of children; The implementation and reinforcement of the Child Protection Register, an innovative computerisation project that aims at enabling the Child Development Unit (CDU) to record and address cases of children in distress reported at its level with increased efficiency; The restructuring of the CDU around three proposed pillars namely Child Protection Services, Rehabilitation and Reintegration Services, and Child Care /Guidance and Development, with additional staffing to strengthen psycho-social support to children in distress; Ensuring that the largest number of eligible existing creches benefit from the grant of up to Rs 200,000 under the Support to Child Day Care Centres Scheme with a view to enhance their level of service delivery to small children attending the creches; and The Reinforcement of the Early Childhood Development project which encompasses supportive legal and institutional frameworks, capacity building, licensing of Day Care Centres, development of strategies for parent education and community awareness, development of curriculum and learning material for ECD and integration of children with special needs. Description GIS 09 August, 2016: An order of 10 000 doses of vaccines has been placed with a laboratory in Botswana following an outbreak of the Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) in Rodrigues and Mauritius. The statement was made by the Minister of Agro-Industry and Food Security, Mr Mahen Seeruttun at the National Assembly yesterday. An order of 10 000 doses of vaccines has been placed with a laboratory in Botswana following an outbreak of the Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) in Rodrigues and Mauritius. The statement was made by the Minister of Agro-Industry and Food Security, Mr Mahen Seeruttun at the National Assembly yesterday. He added that analysis of a set of blood samples received on 31 July 2016 from Rodrigues was carried out the following day at the Animal Health Laboratory at Reduit and the tests were positive to the FMD. The disease was first detected in Rodrigues and then extended to Mauritius. Consequently, several teams comprising Veterinary officers and Extension Officers of FAREI have been constituted and have been visiting the different breeding places in Mauritius to enquire about the health of the animals and to advise the breeders concerned not to effect any transfer of the animals from one place to another around the island. Mr Seeruttun recalled that on 2 August 2016, officers of his Ministry, visited one particular farm in Vallee des Pretres containing 80 animals including animals imported from Rodrigues on 15 July 2016, and suspected clinical cases of FMD were detected. Following the detection of the disease, a Crisis Committee comprising representatives of the Ministry, Food and Agricultural Research and Extension Institute, the Ministry of Environment, Sustainable Development, and Disaster and Beach Management, the Ministry of Local Government, the Police Department as well as the Chamber of Agriculture and the Mauritius Meat Producers Association was set up for a better monitoring of the situation. With regard to Rodrigues the situation has been worsening and the Rodrigues Regional Assembly has declared the whole of the island as quarantine zone, said the Minister, adding that over the weekend, a Veterinary Epidemiologist of the Indian Ocean Commission has proceeded to Rodrigues as well as senior officials of the Ministry to take stock of the situation over there. Measures are also envisaged to cull all the animals in the reported infected farms in Rodrigues. Additionally a strict control is also being exercised at the airport to ensure that no raw meat is carried by passengers coming from Rodrigues. Organised by the Mauritius Oceanography Institute (MOI), the workshop is being attended by around 30 participants namely National Focal Point from Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) member states and Eastern African countries as well as the technical focal points from the National Beneficiary Institutions Participants will receive training on different ways to communicate scientific information contained in MESA products/bulletins to decision makers and policy makers by identifying the most appropriate policy audience, preparing policy briefs, preparing various types of written communication materials, and preparing policy presentations. Present at the opening ceremony, the Minister of Minister of Ocean Economy, Marine Resources, Fisheries, Shipping and Outer Islands, Mr Premdut Koonjoo stated that the MESA project comes at an opportune time to strengthen our planning capacity in various sectors of the economy including environmental protection, food security, marine resources management and climate change. Marine research and innovation, he said, are essential inputs to informed policies and management and is critical to developing solutions, to and opportunities from, these challenges. Mr Koonjoo recalled that in this context Government is taking major steps to position MOI as a Centre of Excellence in oceanography. A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed with the National Institute of Oceanography Goa towards the setting up of a World Class Research Institute of Oceanography in Mauritius. A sum of Rs 20 million has also been earmarked for the purchase of a multi-purpose vessel for research, surveys and training of fishermen and skippers. Speaking about marine science communication, Minister Koonjoo highlighted that it can drive the science cycle. Communicating what we know leads to greater public understanding, informed debate, potential options and solutions, and a foundation from which sound policy and decisions can be made, he said. The MESA project The MESA project is a contractual project between the MOI and the African Union Commission with funding and endorsement from the European Union. The MOI has been entrusted by the IOC to be the Regional Implementation Centre for the IOC thematic action on Marine and Coastal Management. The overall objective of the IOC THEMA is to increase the decision-making and planning capacity of institutions mandated for marine and coastal management in IOC member states and in neighbouring countries of the Mozambique Canal, by enhancing access to and exploitation of relevant Earth Observation applications. MESA utilises Earth Observation (EO) and satellite technologies to generate critical products and information services for the socio-economic development of African people as well as sustainable environmental management. The project is not only supporting the African general public, scientists and institutions but also African decision-makers and planners in designing and implementing policies and development plans for sustainable development, thereby enhancing the socio-economic conditions of the African population. 18F at a Glance What is it? 18F is a contracted service that operates as digital consultancy to help agencies buy, build and share modern software using agile development and human-centered design. Who works for 18F? Software developers, Web designers, policy analysts, researchers, data scientists and digital project managers. When was 18F created? 18F was co-founded on March 19, 2014 by former Presidential Innovation Fellows Greg Godbout, Aaron Snow and Hillary Hartley. Where does it operate? 18F is based at the General Services Administrations headquarters at the intersection of 18th and F streets in Washington, D.C. (the cross streets that its named after). 18F also has offices in San Francisco, Chicago, and New York, and many staff members who work remotely nationwide. How is it funded? 18F receives money for its digital services from federal agencies that contract its services. This money goes into the Acquisition Services Fund thats managed by the GSAs Federal Acquisition Services. How is it organized? 18F is part of the General Services Administration, an agency that manages federal land and helps agencies buy goods and services. Within the GSA, 18F operates inside the Technology Transformation Service (TTS), a core GSA service line created in 2016 to innovate and improve government technology. What are some of 18F's major projects? The group has performed a number of projects since it was founded, and GSA describes a few of its key projects as follows: 1 // Beta.FEC.gov is a website revamp for the Federal Election Commission that makes its records easily searchable. 2 // MyUSCIS is a new service that helps users navigate the immigration process within the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). 3 // USCIS Identity, Credentialing, and Access Management (ICAM) Development is a login and identity verification system for people wanting to interact with USCIS, and currently is in use by hundreds of thousands of citizens. 4 // eRegulations platform is a Web-based application that makes regulations easier to find, read and understand. 5 // The College Scorecard is a clearinghouse tof the clearest, most accessible and reliable national data on college cost, graduation, debt and post-college earnings. 6 // Cloud.gov is a platform that gives government teams the ability to develop, run and manage Web applications without the complexity and cost of building and maintaining infrastructure. 7 // a draft of U.S. Web Design Standards offers open-source UI components and visual styles to create beautiful, consistent experiences across federal government websites. Procurement18F also has worked to make government IT more affordable by shrinking the size of contracts and heightening competition by opening up agency IT contracts to small businesses. Head to the corner of 18th and F streets in Washington, D.C., and youll find the cream-colored facade of the General Services Administration (GSA). Its one of the many block buildings that line the stately parks and sidewalks of our nation's capital. But this building in particular houses a gamut of GSAs federal procurement and property management activities and serves as the headquarters for 18F, the widely publicized digital consultancy named after the buildings cross streets. Founded in March 2014 , 18F was organized during the fallout and eventual fix of the national health-care exchange HealthCare.gov . The site was the primary vehicle for the Obama administrations highly contested 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare). Despite hard work and good intentions, HeatlhCare.gov crashed upon its October 2013 launch which renewed the intensive opposition from Republican legislators seeking to use the sites troubles as a reason to dismantle Obamacare.Against such pressures, the Obama administration turned to Silicon Valley experts from Google, Microsoft, Oracle and elsewhere to ensure the platform met ACAs looming enrollment deadlines. This support, plus around-the-clock work, not only resulted in success, it also seeded a desire to systematize the expertise across agencies.The president charged U.S. Chief Technology Officer Todd Park with the task, who strategized with thought leaders within the White House Presidential Innovation Fellows program (PIF).The year-long fellowship, created in 2012 to answer government problems with outside innovation, included participants Hillary Hartley, Aaron Snow and Greg Godbout. The trio worked with GSA leadership and several other PIFs to create 18F a team that aimed to not only improve federal IT management, but also reshape how all buying, building and sharing of technology in government is done.The group's structure required three big ingredients: access to serve agencies across the federal government; a mission that modernized IT and procurement; and the willingness of leading technologists, contracting specialists and policy experts to sacrifice lucrative private-sector salaries to improve their country. Miraculously, the founders were granted all three, and on March 19, 2014 then-GSA Administrator Dan Tangherlini officially announced 18Fs launch.Very much a startup within government, 18F operates as a digital consultancy to help agencies buy, build and share modern software. The group, composed of about 200 employees, does not choose its projects or customers. Instead, federal agencies contract 18Fs various teams to answer specific challenges. These developers, data scientists, designers, researchers, policy analysts and contracting specialists then go to work applying tech startup operating principles like agile development, human-centered design, open source code and data-driven decision-making to enable an array of IT solutions. With these contracting revenues, 18F is required to pay for all its operating expenses.A few of 18Fs hallmark tech projects include its ongoing work to continually enhance HealthCare.gov, improving the benefits claims service at the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, expediting the immigration application process at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and reworking the Federal Election Commissions website into a user-friendly database of searchable financial election records.18Fs most prolific contributions, however, likely exist within IT procurement. 18F has implemented a number of practices to make government IT become more affordable by shrinking the size of contracts, heightening competition, and opening up federal work to startups and small businesses.18Fs micro-purchase initiative created a Web platform for agencies to freelance low-cost coding jobs to technologists and businesses. Its Agile Delivery Services Blanket Purchase Agreement (Agile BPA) built a program for startups and companies to provide open source technology at competitive pricing, and 18Fs state and local IT consulting program which provide services to federally funded state projects may save California and other states millions with a new child welfare system upgrade. Through 18Fs influence, California officials broke down what would have been a costly contract into more smaller, more manageable, competitively priced contracts that ask for open source code code that can be freely reused by other states.The achievements have brought 18F both praise and resistance , as established government IT firms that worried about added competition and preserving large contracts have lobbied to isolate 18F's procurement activities. Internally, former GSA Administrator Dan Tangherlini has also said that the GSA's Federal Acquisition Service, which manages 18F's funding, has expressed concern about the group's growth and its ability to recover costs something it estimates to accomplish by 2019 or sooner.In what some might deem a protective gesture against an incoming presidency, in March 2016 the Obama administration created the Technology Transformation Service to house 18F, PIF and the GSA's Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technology. The hope is that the structural adjustment will allow 18F's work to endure for years to come. For optimal browsing, we recommend Chrome, Firefox or Safari browsers. The U.S. Department of Energy thinks it can solve two of the largest obstacles standing in the way of the electric car.Many experts have asserted that the limited range of modern electric vehicles and the amount of time it takes to charge the batteries are the primary reasons why they still make up a miniscule portion of the automobile market less than 1 percent , according to HybridCars.com. But with a pair of research projects, the DOE is betting that it can more than double the energy density of lithium-metal batteries and dramatically increase the speed of charging.The energy density project which Pacific Northwest National Laboratory will lead in conjunction with eight other research institutions is called Battery500. Thats because the project is aiming to pack 500 watt-hours of energy per kilogram into lithium batteries, compared with todays average 170-200 watt-hours per kilogram. That means cars would essentially be able to travel 2.5 to 2.9 times farther without increasing the weight of their batteries.The news comes in the context of a few companies standing poised to release fully electric cars in the next two years with the kind of range experts think the mass market can get behind. A 2013 survey from the California Center for Sustainable Energy found that 57 percent of electric car drivers wanted a range of at least 150 miles on a single charge; Teslas upcoming Model 3 promises 215 miles, and the Chevrolet Bolt will offer 200.Doubling that range would mean either car could drive about as far as the gas-powered Toyota Camry, one of the best-selling cars in the U.S. The Battery500 project will receive $10 million from the DOE every year for five years to conduct its research.The fast-charging program, also funded through the DOE, is in an earlier stage. The White House announced July 21 that the department will seek to conduct a study by the end of the year on whether 350-kilowatt fast chargers are feasible. Such a charger, according to the announcement, would be able to charge a battery with 200 miles of range in 10 minutes not much longer than a stop at a gas station.Thats a big deal for the usefulness of electric vehicles too. According to a February study from the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, battery-electric vehicles can keep up with gasoline-powered and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles for short trips but not long ones. Any trip of 250 miles or more in a battery-electric car might involve something like an hour of charging with a direct current level-two fast charger, while a gas-powered or fuel cell car wouldnt have to stop at all during that time frame.During a 1,000-mile trip about the distance from Chicago to New Orleans, or New York to Orlando, Fla. a battery-electric car might need five-and-a-half hours of charging.The implementation of DC fast charging has the potential to impact many technology areas and tackle key technological barriers associated with high-rate charging [50 kW and above], and fast charging increases the utility of [electric vehicles], aides in their adoption." IIJA & ARP Broadband Funding Cisco is helping communities like yours bridge the digital divide to power a more inclusive future for all. Our experts in mass scale infrastructure, community broadband, and security can help you get started today at www.cisco.com/go/digitaldivide. (TNS) -- The city of Rochester, Minn., is ready to leave residential parking stickers in the past.As early as Sept. 1, the city's parking enforcement could operate entirely by automated license plate readers and a digital database.About 2,000 Rochester residents currently hold parking permits in the city's 133 established residential parking zones . The zones help to preserve on-street parking space for residents and businesses in the zones and daytime care providers.In the past, permit holders have displayed a permit tag on their vehicle's license plate, or put a temporary tag on the vehicle's dashboard.A new technology would allow community service officers the city's parking enforcement to use automatic license plate readers to scan license plate letters and numbers instead of looking for a permit.The license plate reader equipment is attached to the officers' vehicles and can operate while the officer slowly drives through a residential permit parking area. The device reads license plate numbers and checks them against the city's database of permit holders, specific to each of the 133 permit zones."As (community service officers) drive through, if a license plate is flagged for a vehicle that shouldn't be there, the officer can pull it up and immediately issue a ticket," City Clerk Aaron Reeves said.The city uses three parking control vehicles to patrol residential permit parking areas. As of Aug. 1, the vehicles have been equipped with automatic license plate readers, Reeves said.The technology should save time and also resolve some of the most common complaints related to residential permit parking for example, people borrowing permits or applying for and selling a permit."It really eases the enforcement process and makes it more efficient, and it's also going to take care of some of the complaints we get of people using tags that probably shouldn't be," Reeves said.License plate reader technology has had other law enforcement applications , such as identifying vehicles associated with warrant subjects or suspects of major crimes. The Rochester Police Department would support some criminal information being available to parking enforcement officers who are not sworn police officers."From my perspective, I think it is important to give them the information that they need to not only do their jobs more efficiently, but also to keep them safe," Rochester Police Department Sgt. Chad Blanchette said in an email to the Post-Bulletin.The license plate reader equipment could alert a parking enforcement officer to a vehicle that is associated with a warrant subject, or a vehicle that is stolen, Blanchette said. In that situation, Blanchette would want the community service officer to be aware of the situation and be able to request assistance before taking enforcement action, he said.The city's license plate reader program for parking enforcement has not yet been finalized but is scheduled to take effect Sept. 1. For more residential permit parking information, see the city of Rochester website at rochestermn.gov (TNS) -- Tomorrows cars will be efficient and heavily wired. That was the thrust of discussions during last weeks four-day Center for Automotive Research Management Briefing Seminars at Grand Traverse Resort & Spa.Just about everything you own will be connected, James Lievois told a crowd of hundreds.Lievois is Mazdas CFO and senior vice president of finance, administration and information technology for North American operations. He spoke during a breakout session titled The Car of Tomorrow. Lievois said the average person looks at an electronic device 46 times a day, a frequency sure to increase in the future. The futures cars, he said, need to address consumers desire to be connected at all times.Technology topics were featured heavily in breakout sessions throughout the week. Connected and Automated Vehicles: The Future is Now (Almost). Manufactured Materials of the Future: Optimizing the Material Mix for Mobility. Automotive Cybersecurity: Protecting Privacy and Defeating Hackers.But the push at the event for ever-advanced technology was balanced by recognition of the global need for affordable transportation and changes in consumer preference.Disruptors business startups that shake up an established industry were a big topic of conversation during the week. Lievois mentioned several examples. Starbucks disrupted the coffee shop scene. Uber disrupted the taxicab industry. Netflix disrupted the television scene. Airbnb disrupted the hospitality industry.The auto industry faces similar pressure from several directions. Tesla carved out a niche with its electric cars. Two or more families who share a single car reduce the demand for new vehicles. Bicycles and mass transit, particularly in big cities, are many millennials transportation of choice.Consumer demand will rule the future of the car industry, Lievois said. Carmakers need to adjust their thinking to satisfy that demand and to head off possible disruptors. Two sessions at the seminars centered on how automakers can fight back against disruptors. Automotive Strategy: The Disruptors: The Good, The Bad, and the Opportunity. Advanced Powertrain Forum: Will the Disruptors Bring Disorder?This isnt about us knowing exactly what were going to do, Lievois said of Mazda. Were still figuring that out.The first step in creating competitive automotive products is figuring out what consumers really want. Those desires have over time included muscle cars, luxury cars, safe cars, plain cheap transportation and self-driving vehicles. Todays consumers want all those things. But most of all, they seem to want emotional satisfaction.Story continues below videoMillennials want experiences, not things, Lievois said. Today we (automakers) compete with other brand-experience providers. Customer engagement is the new frontier.Carmakers today strive to connect their products with emotional experience. Thats why advertisements feature an existential Matthew McConaughey or a laughing group of well-dressed millennials out on the town. Car ads dont highlight the car itself, but the emotion of experiencing life in a car.Practical people of all ages, though, also seek value. They want a car that is inexpensive to buy and operate. Some companies specialize in tightening efficiency to deliver the best possible vehicle at the lowest possible price.Hinduja Tech Limited, part of the 70,000-employee Hinduja Group, staffed a booth at the seminars and displayed an example of a vehicle it designed and prototyped for Nissan. The Datsun Redi-GO will soon sell in India at a base price of just $3,559. Options with air bags, power steering and various electronics can bump the price to $4,214. Creating a vehicle that sells for such a low price requires efficiency in both design and manufacturing.Its mostly removing what is not needed, said Faiz Ahmad, senior vice president and global business head of engineering for Hinduja. We dont want to do anything that is not required.The company specializes in conceptualizing vehicles, creating efficient ways to design and manufacture parts and building prototypes. It blends manufacturers specifications for technology, features and price. Hinduja is done with the project once the prototype is complete. The carmaker itself in this case Nissan manufactures the vehicle.We contract the whole design, Ahmad said. After that, its a customer project.The Datsun Redi-GO features a 3-cylinder engine that allows the car to travel 60 miles on a gallon of gasoline. It has a very basic dashboard and interior, seats five people and has four doors. The car is small, but a 6-foot-tall American fit easily into the drivers seat of the car parked outside GT Resort. It felt much like a 1960s Austin Mini, also tiny with a spartan interior.Hinduja devoted a 240-person team for several months to design the Redi-GO and build a prototype from scratch, said Ahmad. The company has offices in Novi, Germany, France, Japan, the United Kingdom and India.Other companies including Penske, Permatex, Covisint, Thirdware and Visual Components staffed booths at the resort to tout their products and services. (TNS) -- It was Sean Parkers house, but it was hardly his scene.The food station lines, rote candidate remarks and hordes of well-mannered donors chatting under a backyard tent did not scream renegade. Neither did the guest of honor, Hillary Clinton, whose campaign netted more than $1 million breezing through that June fundraiser at Parkers Los Angeles home.Parker is the man who terrorized the music industry with his file-sharing technology at Napster, inspired a sinister Justin Timberlake acting performance with his scheming at Facebook, and threw environmentalists into a fit with his fairy-tale-themed wedding in a California redwood grove. Yet, here he was doing legwork for the old guard of politics.The 36-year-old Silicon Valley oligarch once vowed to rattle the established order of Washington. But several years into a multiplatform, multimillion-dollar effort that seeks to transform politics through technology, campaign cash and a few big ideas, the renowned rule-breaker is finding that the rules of politics are not easily broken.Parker is a curiosity in Washington: a billionaire eager to engage in politics, but without a signature cause. His agenda is murky, and can even be contradictory. He might emerge as the anchor donor in a big campaign to rid money from politics during one election, and then take a lead in funding efforts to protect some of the most entrenched incumbents in another. His ideology defies definition.Members of his team, several of whom were interviewed for this story (Parker declined), describe an almost quaint motivation. Allies say the billionaires overarching goal is a government that is more responsive to its voters, its entrepreneurs, its needy.The approach, though, is very different from the one Silicon Valley typically takes with Washington, in which impatient tech entrepreneurs try to apply their fast-moving business model to the lumbering machinery of government, and often find themselves tangled inside it.A lot of these big-time investors come into town and have a lot of disdain for policymakers in D.C., said Steve Glickman, executive director the Economic Innovation Group, a think tank in Washington that Parker is funding. Sean is interested in building relationships here. That is unique. His take is not that they should just subscribe to the Silicon Valley way of doing things.The behind-the-scenes coalition-building contrasts sharply with some of Parkers headline-grabbing political spending.He was one of the most generous donors to the Mayday political action committee launched by his friend and fellow open-Internet activist Lawrence Lessig, who attracted big money and a lot of media attention to a failed bid to pack Congress with campaign finance reformers.The big checks Parker wrote for a similarly high-profile effort to make Congress friendly to gun control also yielded unimpressive results. The $2.5 million he contributed to a popular California marijuana legalization measure came only after other billionaires blazed the trail.Where Parker is having the biggest impact on the political world may just be in bolstering the status quo. His money was a big factor in keeping a Senate seat in the hands of Thad Cochran, a moderate Republican from Mississippi whose 2014 re-election bid was threatened by a tea party insurgent. He helps Republicans cozy with the Chamber of Commerce fend off tea party insurgents through another PAC. He gives generously to Democratic Party accounts. He opened his house to Clinton donors.The pattern suggests that is not so much a whim or calculated business move, but a personal project. Parker is approaching government dysfunction in the same way he is his $250 million effort to find a cure for cancer. Both are scourges of society that are complex and intractable. And in both cases, Parker is trying to work his way deep into the networks of entrenched operators and decision makers and nudge them toward alternative paths.Much of the work takes place out of the public eye, at the Economic Innovation Group, launched last year. The obscure think tank has attracted top Washington policy talent to help develop, articulate and carry through Parkers vision for spreading prosperity to the many American cities losing ground amid the economic recovery. Predictably, the framework focuses on policies that would draw the kind of entrepreneurship and venture investment that has enabled Silicon Valley and other innovation hubs to thrive to places investors dont usually consider.The work is unglamorous and slow-going. The team has been churning through data models, meticulously assembling and revising legislation and engaging in the humbling task of congressional coalition-building.Hes not one of those guys who just flies into Washington and says, You need to do this, this and this, said Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., who was a guest at a dinner recently where Parker brainstormed with a small, bipartisan group of up-and-coming lawmakers. He was not pushing or peddling anything. It was more, Here is what I am working on and taking the temperature of what we thought could move in the House.Still, Silicon Valley bravado doesnt disappear when the billionaire shifts focus to Washington. He is zealous in his belief that technology will drastically change how the electorate engages, motivating millions of people who sit out politics to rise up and force the kind of action on issues such as gun control and campaign finance that the progressive PACs he backed could not.People have learned how to use Twitter and Facebook to build a movement, but the question for us was whether it is having a long-term impact, said Michael Polansky, a longtime business partner of Parkers. We wanted to take it to the next level and say, how do we connect these grass-roots communities back into a meaningful system?Lets say you care about gun control, Polansky said. Instead of generally recruiting all your Facebook friends, we can help you recruit people in districts that are competitive and meaningful. And when it comes time for the election, we can re-engage users who have pledged their votes for certain things, help get them to polls, and help them take positions on the ballot.Early in the presidential race, as the spotlight shifted to Silicon Valley and Republican candidates were tripping over one another to project a hipness to the sharing economy and embedding Silicon Valleys values into their campaign message, Parker granted several of them an audience.Among those he met with were Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Parker had even given money to Rubios and Pauls Senate accounts. He was sending a clear signal: Innovators like him would not be taken for granted again. Many had felt betrayed by the large financial contributions tech innovators made to President Barack Obama, a candidate who they thought said all the right things on his visits out West but ultimately did not fully deliver for the innovation economy.We could have had a shot at Sean, Charlie Black, a Republican consultant in Washington who advises Parker and other tech innovators, said of bringing him to the GOP side in the presidential race.But those Republican politicians failed. GOP voters rallied behind Donald Trump, a candidate whose main use for Silicon Valley is to antagonize it. Parker and other unconventional donors had nowhere to turn to shake up the race.Eventually, 500 Hillary Clinton donors would pay $2,700 each to be in his backyard.2016 Tribune Co. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. New Technology, New Audience The Rise of Scanner JOE (TNS) -- The city is cutting off the public's ability to listen to Anchorage police and emergency-response radio traffic, saying the broadcasts pose a threat to officer safety and victim privacy.After a legal review and conversations between top police and city leaders, "we have determined the negative consequences of our current practice outweigh the benefits," wrote municipal manager Michael Abbott in a letter to local media organizations Friday.That means the Anchorage Police Department will not reinstate the broadcast of its radio traffic on the internet service Broadcastify, which had been suspended in recent months. The Anchorage Fire Department will move to encrypt its over-the-air radio communications, Abbott wrote.Some local media outlets say they have serious concerns about transparency and newsgathering if they can't monitor police scanner traffic.At the same time, a citizen effort to satisfy the thirst for up-to-the-minute information on local police activity seems to be flourishing.The "Anchorage Scanner JOE " private Facebook group now has more than 30,000 members equal to roughly one in every 10 people in Anchorage.Deprived of scanner access for months, people have been making up to a hundred posts to the page per day reporting stolen trucks, taking pictures of SWAT team standoffs, noting car crashes and road closures with varying degrees of specificity and accuracy and asking many versions of "what's up with these cop cars in my neighborhood?""When the scanner isn't available the page kind of becomes the scanner," said volunteer page administrator Jacki Tigg Mathis.Traditionally, media organizations have used police radio communications as a way to report on breaking news events as they unfold.But in recent years, online streaming broadcasts of scanner radio traffic through apps like Broadcastify have allowed anyone with a smartphone to listen in on the 24-hour-a-day chatter between police dispatchers, officers and other emergency responders as they respond to calls.But police officials say criminals are listening, too.The Anchorage Police Department encrypted its own over-the-air radio communications years ago, said spokeswoman Jennifer Castro. Around 2013 the department began offering an un-encrypted stream on Broadcastify, one of the most popular streaming sites. The idea was that APD could put the stream on a time delay and yank the broadcast off the air in sensitive situations where it might reveal tactical information."The idea was that there needed to be a balance as far as maintaining what the public can listen in on, at the same time giving us an advantage to have more control over the scanner traffic," she said.But not everyone in the department was happy having a large public audience or in some cases news media listening in on their movements.In one incident in 2012, scanner chatter suggested that a student had a gun in a classroom at a local high school, Castro said. A news organization tweeted about it before police even arrived on the scene, which Castro said police believed could have compromised safety."That was the event that really started discussions," she said.Tensions over public scanner traffic only grew as a citizen audience flourished.At the beginning of 2016, Anchorage police took scanner traffic off the air after a string of armed robberies."We don't want the bad guys to hear what we're doing," APD spokeswoman Anita Shell said at the time.In February, the driver of a stolen rental car was arrested. As an officer was moving the suspected stolen vehicle, he heard on the radio the time-delayed broadcast of the scanner traffic announcing he would be pulling the man over.Castro argues that kind of encounter illustrates the vulnerability police face when anyone can tune in to hear what they're doing.In citing officer safety as a primary reason to suspend the scanner broadcasts, Abbott, the city manager, said there had been instances when "police were fired on and there may have been information from the scanner system used in those engagements."In the letter announcing the decision to media outlets, he wrote that the scanner had been used to "attempt to ambush officers."Castro said she did not know details of any such cases but maintained that the open scanner feed could hinder police work."Criminals were using our scanner feed to their tactical advantage," she said.A legal review of city scanner practices also suggested that broadcasting police activity could violate state statutes that prohibit sharing the addresses or phone numbers of witnesses or victims of crimes, Abbott said.He said he didn't know of any formal complaints or litigation against the city related to privacy concerns.No law compels local police departments to share their internal radio communications with the public, according to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that pushes for open records. But such access allows news organizations to quickly report breaking news, and promotes transparency in policing, the committee argued in a 2012 statement.Not having access to police scanners can " undercut the press's ability to report information" in a complete, accurate and timely way, the organization wrote.Increasingly, departments are taking them off the air. Departments from Pasadena, California, to Newtown, Connecticut, have pulled their scanner traffic off the air, though major police departments, such as Chicago, continue to broadcast scanner traffic online to an audience of thousands.Abbott said that Anchorage was the only large police department in Alaska to broadcast its scanner traffic besides Juneau."We're really joining the mainstream here," he said.There are no immediate plans to enhance the police department's methods of disseminating information, which rely on the Nixle alert system , news releases to media and an online crime-mapping tool called RAIDS , Abbott said.Castro, the police spokeswoman, said the Nixle system should tell citizens quickly about information the department deems to be of public concern.But some say that system doesn't offer information as quickly as people want it to. On Monday, a Nixle release about a homeowner shot during an attempted burglary at 2 a.m. wasn't released until 12:55 p.m., nearly 11 hours later.In the void left by the scanner, a new kind of citizen movement had flourished.Jacki Tigg Mathis has been an administrator on the Anchorage Scanner JOE Facebook page since February 2015. Often homebound with fibromyalgia and post-traumatic stress disorder, she says posting on the site is her way of connecting with the city she has lived in for more than 40 years.Tigg Mathis said she has spent up to 18 hours a day on nights when she can't sleep listening to the scanner and posting to the page.She believes the city needs to be able to listen to what police are doing. People who use the Anchorage Scanner JOE page want to know "if it's OK for their children to go play in the park."The thirst for information she has seen from members of the Facebook page didn't go away when the police scanner went offline."It's just worked its way into the community, the page has," she said.In one recent incident, a SWAT team and police were trying to get a guy holed up in a trailer to come out, Tiggs Mathis said. People were posting pictures and updates to the audience of 30,000 as it happened.Unlike the scanner, it was not on a time delay."If there's an accident or a man running from police and they pull out the K-9s, they are going to get a live post on the page because there's no scanner to listen to," she said. GREENSBORO A man who was shot multiple times by police early Monday morning is in stable condition at the hospital today. Dominique Raphael Poe, 27, of Greensboro, was shot once in the left shoulder and in the hip area by three officers about 5:40 a.m. Monday, according to police. Police spokeswoman Susan Danielsen said today Poe is in stable condition with injuries that are not life-threatening at the hospital. Police are continuing to review body camera footage and interview witnesses to determine what happened. The incident began at an apartment complex at 2705 McArthur Drive, where Poe is accused of putting a gun to a person's head after learning his mother had died on Sunday. The address is where Poe's mother lived, Danielsen said. Police had already responded to the apartment complex shortly after midnight about Poe, who left and came back later that morning. About 5:40 a.m., officers responding to the apartment complex heard two shots fired behind the complex, at 2709 McArthur Drive, and saw Poe with a handgun. Officers talked with Poe for more than 10 minutes trying to get him to drop the weapon, but he refused and pointed it at the officers, prompting the three officers to fire, police said. The three officers in the shooting were identified as Officers A.L. Dellinger, K.R. Pattman and D.A. Young III. Dellinger has been with the department since March 2009; Pattman since January 2013 and Young since November 2013. All three are currently assigned to administrative duties while the shooting is being investigated, Danielsen said. Going to need a shorter cup code Photo: Starbucks For many years, nondairy users had one option at Starbucks: soy. Last year, coconut milk randomly materialized, but the chains never given almond milk any serious love. Until now: According to a press announcement, Americas most popular dairy alternative will finally hit stores nationwide next month. The rollout will occur in two stages: First, on September 6 at cafes in five regions New York, Northern California, the Pacific Northwest, the Northeast, and the Mid-Atlantic. Then, by the end of the month, it will expand to all Starbucks locations. The chain says it will cost 60 cents extra and has light almond notes without any added flavoring. Veg News, an obvious proponent of this dairy-free addition, says a memo to employees noted that a My Starbucks Idea proposal (submitted back in 2011) begging the company to add almond milk is now up to almost 100,000 votes, making it one of the most-requested ideas of all time. (Starbucks has cited allergy concerns in the past to explain its foot-dragging.) In keeping with the theme of Japan always getting all of the cool stuff first, Starbuckss locations over there have been offering almond milk for more than a year now. Its even been the centerpiece of several promo drinks, suggesting it might be one way to help American stores reverse flagging sales if done right. The United States of Soda. Photo: Melissa Hom Grub Street doesnt advocate drinking carbonated sugar water on a regular basis, but sometimes you just need some soda. Or pop. Or maybe youre one of those people who calls everything Coke. Whatever you call the beverage, Americas love affair with soda runs deep. When the desire hits, turn to one of these regional favorites instead of the big brands that you see everywhere. Foxon Park Gassosa Price: $19 for a 12-pack of 12-ounce bottles In any of the New Haven areas famous pizzerias, youll find these local old-school bottles. The Connecticut companys lineup includes the Italian-American flavor called Gassosa, a very refreshing lemon-lime style. Manhattan Special Price: $25 for a five-pack of ten-ounce bottles Long before someone decided espresso with tonic was trendy last year, Manhattan Special turned espresso into soda. Made with coffee beans and cane sugar, its as much an iconic New York soft drink as Dr. Browns Cel-Ray. Vernors Ginger Ale Price: $17 for a 12-pack of 12-ounce cans The countrys oldest ginger ale still being produced, the Detroit hometown favorite emphasizes sweetness over spice. Its aged for three years in oak barrels and tastes like vanilla and caramel. AJ Stephans Birch Beer Price: $2 for each 12-ounce bottle Birch beer is the unofficial soft drink of the Northeast, but its not very well known outside it. The Boston companys version of the root-beer-like soda, traditionally made with birch-tree bark, is minty and a little sweeter than other brands. Faygo Redpop Price: $20 for a 12-pack of 12-ounce cans A lesser-known style, Red Pop is Faygos reigning king of flavors, and another nostalgic Michigan favorite. Its cream soda with strawberry flavoring, essentially, and tastes like liquefied candy. (Pro tip: It makes a great float with a couple of scoops of vanilla ice cream.) Ironbeer Price: $9 for a six-pack of 12-ounce cans Originally from Cuba and now produced in Miami, this Florida oddity tastes like cola spliced with a juicy, Sprite-like citrus soda. Canfields Chocolate Fudge Price: $30 for 24 12-ounce cans Living up to its name, Canfields soda hailing from Chicago tastes like creamy milk chocolate. Think of it as the midwestern equivalent of an egg cream. Vermont Sweetwater Country Apple Jack Price: $23 for six 12-ounce bottles For all of the fruit-flavored sodas, theres not much in the way of apple sodas. Leave it to Vermont to create one worth drinking: Its tart, sweet, and flavored with a hint of cinnamon, and it tastes of actual apples. Ale-8-One Price: $19 for a 12-pack of 12-ounce cans A Kentucky fixture, the caffeinated ginger ale emphasizes the refreshing elements of ginger ale and is lighter than some of the super-spiced favorites. Photo: Melissa Hom Abita Root Beer Price: $31 for a 12-pack of 12-ounce bottles New Orleans brewery Abita has a side hustle producing robust root beer, which it makes with cane sugar, herbs, vanilla, and yucca for foaminess. Its definitely sweeter than usual and has a pronounced vanilla character. Sioux City Prickly Pear Price: $31 for a 12-pack of 12-ounce bottles An early entrant in the modern classy-soda genre, midwestern brand Sioux City uses prickly pear, another fruit atypical in American soda, for this bottle with a beautiful color. Moxie Price: $37 for 24 12-ounce cans Moxie is a go-to for weird-soda hunters. It has as many detractors as loyal enthusiasts, and yet it has long been the unofficial drink of Maine. In fact, since 2005, its been the official state drink, too. Its known for its potent bitterness, which is derived from gentian-root flavoring. In the glory age of Negronis, that seems like an asset. Blenheim Ginger Ale Price: $23 for a six-pack of 12-ounce bottles A must-drink on the regional soda circuit, South Carolinas old-school ginger ale comes in both fiery red cap and milder gold cap variations. Not overly carbonated and sporting a seriously gingery flavor, even the mild version will cause your nostrils to flare if you swig it too fast. Photo: Melissa Hom Dublin Fru Fru Berry Soda Price: $20 for a six-pack of 12-ounce bottles Most famous for its discontinued Dublin Dr. Pepper, this Texas producer also makes this oddly named bubblegum-pink soda. It tastes something like the concentrate of jelly beans and Jolly Ranchers, with a hint of cotton candy for good measure. For true sugar-lovers, this is what soda is all about. Fitzs Cream Soda Price: $21 for a 12-pack of 12-ounce bottles Famous for its root beer, the St. Louis company goes all in on the spices with its cream soda, too. Squirt Price: $20 for a 12-pack of 12-ounce cans Squirt is better known (and more widely available) than many of these soft drinks, yet the iconic grapefruit soda nevertheless tastes as tart and refreshing as you remember it. Frostie Concord Grape Soda Price: $31 for a 12-pack of 12-ounce bottles Frostie is a grape soda of the order of Grapico, which means it doesnt contain a drop of actual grape juice. Which is exactly what you want sometimes, and it hits the right notes with its opaque purpleness and tart-sweet flavor profile. Herbal Dr. Enuf Price: $44 for 24 12-ounce bottles Billing itself as the original energy booster drink and an excellent source of vitamins, Dr. Enuf was created by Mountain Dew inventor Tri-City but remains a Tennessee and Virginia obscurity. The original Dr. Enuf is like a lemon-lime soda with a medicinal kick, but consider the even more unusual ginseng and guarana-fortified cherry version. The Strategist is a series of smart, obsessive shopping guides from the New York Magazine section of the same name. Weve scoured the web to bring you the best of the best. Some of our latest conquests include water bottles, steak knives, hand-blenders, ice-cube trays, iced coffee, cult condiments, and grills. If you buy something through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Please note that all prices are subject to change. Sued. Photo: Clint Spaulding/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images The Four Seasons sadly closed last month, but, as with any dysfunctional family, the restaurants drama ceases to end. Booted restauranteurs Alex von Bidder and Julian Niccolini have plans to open a restaurant on Park Avenue just five minutes away from the original, inside the landmarked Seagram Building. But two of their former business partners are now suing to prevent them from using the Four Seasons name and logo. Apparently, they all signed a licensing agreement under a company called Four Trees Global. Regardless, the name should go the way of the auctioned-off mid-century furniture gone forever, and only existing as a beautiful memory. Its strange enough that the Major Food Group has to rename the space once it takes over in 2017. And wont it feel depressing for von Bidder and Niccolini to open a new restaurant that tries to mimic the brilliance of the original? Theyre better off starting anew. The Galaxy Note7 has become the most pre-ordered Galaxy smartphone in Samsung's home country of South Korea, according to a new report out of the country. Specifically, the company has received more than 200,000 preorders for the phone in just two days, which is double that of the Galaxy S7. It's worth mentioning that the Note7 is being aggressively marketed by Samsung in the country. The company is offering several deal to those who purchase the handset, such as a free Gear Fit 2 (worth KRW 198,000, or $177), 50% discount on screen repair, as well as a KRW 100,000 gift card that can be used at Samsung Pay Mall. The phone, which is set for a global launch on August 19, costs KRW 988,900 (around $895 at current exchange rates) in South Korea. Via These are the best offers from our affiliate partners. We may get a commission from qualifying sales. Haiti - FLASH : Transfer of private school students to public schools ! In a Circular on the management of effectives of Universal Schooling Program Free and Compulsory (PSUGO), Jean Beauvais Dorsonne, the Minister of National Education and Vocational Training explains that in order to ensure better management of PSUGO "[...] both educationally and administratively, taking into account the limitations of resources at the State level, it was decided to generalize for all classes the transfer of child beneficiaries [of PSUGO] of private schools to public schools, from the 2016-2017 school year. This will be done in concert with the zone inspectors, under the authority of departmental directors, with the support of technical directorates involved in the implementation of PSUGO, including the Department of Fundamental Education (DEF), the Directorate of Planning and External Cooperation (DPCE) and the Directorate of Support for Private Education and of Partnership (DAEPP). However, some exceptions will be granted with the approval of the Minister, in areas where there are no public schools. MENFP asks to department directors o take all necessary measures for the implementation of this measure, to better governance in the education sector and the improvement of services provided to the population as part of schooling projects." One may wonder what objectives are really pursued in this circular (other than demagogic) whose implementation is somewhat utopian, let's recall that "PSUGO allowed to 1,465,974 children to have free access to basic education through 8,400 schools including 6,262 private schools (785,674 students) and 2,138 public schools (680,300 students) at national level" (source Ministry of Social Affairs - December 2015). It will require the Minister explain to us in which public infrastructure it intends to host at the new school year, those few extra 700,000 students from from private schools...? HL/ HaitiLibre Annual Report FY2015-16 From Honolulu County Auditor, August, 2016 City Auditor's Message The Office of the City Auditor (OCA) issued four performance audit reports in fiscal year 2016. The audit reports, which are summarized later in this report, related to: (1) the Department of Environmental Services' H-POWER contracts and procurement practices; (2) the city's Handi-Van paratransit service; (3) Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART); and (4) the city's information security and risk management program. Other reports included our sixth Service Efforts and Accomplishments (SEA) report, four National Citizen Survey reports, and the Citizen-Centric Report for 2015. Through the efforts of the city auditor office, the National Research Center awarded Honolulu the 2015 Voice of the People Award for Transformation in Safety. The city auditor also received the Association of Government Accountants distinguished local government leadership award for 2016. OCA continues to administer the charter-mandated audit of the citys financial statements. KMH LLP, an external accounting firm, completed the following audits for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2015: the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR); the Public Transportation System Bus and Paratransit Operations Financial Statement; Sewer Fund Financial Statements; Management Letter; and Single Audit of Federal Financial Assistance programs. The Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) Statement 68 required the city to restate its financial statements for the bus and paratransit operations and to restate the city CAFR. OCA passed its fourth peer review in November 2015. The peer review was coordinated under the Association of Local Government Auditors (ALGA) peer review program, which utilizes reciprocal peer review teams. The multi-tasking OCA staff also participated in a peer review of the Clark County, Nevada audit shop. OCA continued to assist other audit offices by providing professional, administrative, training, audit assistance, and support. This year, the city auditor extended support to the Office of the County Auditor - Maui County; Office of the County Auditor - Kauai County; Office of the Legislative Auditor County of Hawaii; Office of the Auditor State of Hawaii; and 11 other entities. OCA also coordinated continuing professional education meetings and seminars for Hawaii state and local auditors through its active participation on the University of Hawaii School of Accountancy Advisory Board and the Association of Government Accountants. In September 2015, OCA helped plan and conduct a two-day seminar for local, state, federal, and private sector auditors. Other activities throughout fiscal year 2016 included eight seminars on federal, state, and local government accounting, auditing, budgeting, and financial management practices; training on information technology security; and introduction to new audit tools such as meta-data and data analytics. To promote government public service as a career, OCA mentored two students through the OCA Internship Program; made presentations to accounting students from the University of Hawaii, Manoa and West Oahu campuses; served on the University of Hawaii at Manoa, School of Accountancy Advisory Board; and developed a government accounting and auditing program for the University of Hawaii. The OCA staff also updated the OCA website and Facebook page. OCA staff remain active in professional organizations. OCA members submitted articles for national and local publications on auditing the board of water supply, and homelessness and affordable housing. Additionally, OCA audit staff continue to serve on the AGA-Hawaii chapter board of directors and committees; AGA national committees; ALGA national board of directors; and the ALGA award and education committees. Other staff are active with the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, the Institute of Internal Auditors, the Institute of Internal Controls, and ISACA. OCA staff continue to improve professionally. A staff member attained a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) certification from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. The CFE credential denotes proven expertise in fraud prevention and detection. Another member was awarded the Certified Internal Controls Auditor (CICA) by the Institute for Internal Controls. The CICA designation is granted to accounting and audit professionals who demonstrate expertise in internal controls. OCA continually strives to provide high quality audits that add value to the City and County of Honolulu. Through our reports, we hope to fulfill our mission of promoting honest, efficient, effective, and fully accountable city government. OCA was privileged to be designated as one of the top 20 performance audit offices in North America by the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA). Read Full Report UPCOMING REPORTS: Boone native Jeff Little and his trio will return to Joe Shannons Mountain Home Music Concert Series with a 7:30 p.m. performance at the Harvest House in Boone on Aug. 13. Little is a bluegrass, blues, honky-tonk, jazz, and rock and roll piano player. He is one of a kind thats why hes called, The Piano Man of the Blue Ridge. His distinctive style has been described as breathtaking in its speed, precision and clarity. When asked what kind of music he plays, Little stated, Im originally from Boone where my family owned a music store on King Street. Even though Im a piano player, I was very influenced by acoustic music from this area. Its very traditional, inspired by Doc Watson and other musicians. Doc always used to call it tradition plus music from the tradition of this area but you can play any song you choose to play. With his rack-mounted harmonica and vocals, Little can be a one-man show. However, Saturdays audience will also be treated to former two-time National Banjo Champion and guitar wiz Steve Lewis and bass player Josh Scott. This configuration, known as The Jeff Little Trio, has played on Mountain Home Music for a number of years. These shows can seem like being invited to a family reunion what with all of Littles kin folk who turn out to see and hear him turn loose on the baby-grand piano at the Harvest House. Why, it can take a whole year for that piano to cool down after this yearly concert of Little heating up the ivories with his lightn fast renditions of mountain fiddle classics like Down Yonder and banjo favorites like Foggy Mountain Breakdown. Combined with the hot-licks of Lewis playing both guitar and banjo, plus the rock-steady bass lines from Scott well this is a show you will not want to miss! This concert is supported by the following private sponsors: The Ned Trivette Family; Sarah Borders in celebration of Tom and Cherye Paces 50th Wedding anniversary, Dr. E. Frank and Tara Hancock; Diana White, Norma and Jack Suddreth; Merida H. Steele In Honor of John H. Steele; Lynn Hubbard; and The Estate of Joe Shannon. The United Way Sponsorship is Courtesy of Jack & Karen James. Business Sponsors include; The Mast Store, Stick Boy Kitchen, and Freds Mercantile, Mountain Time Publishing and the High Country Press. Additional support is provided by; The Watauga Arts Council, The NC Arts Council, and Boone TDA, The Anne and Alex Bernhardt Foundation, a component fund of the North Carolina Community Foundation. Joe Shannons Mountain Home Music is also proud to be included as a site on the Blue Ridge Music Trails of North Carolina (BlueRidgeMusicNC.com). Tickets cost $18 in advance and $20 at the door. Student tickets are $10. Children 12 and younger are admitted free. Advance tickets may be purchased online at www.mountainhomemusic.org, and at the Mast General Store (Boone and Valle Crucis), Freds Mercantile on Beech Mountain, Stick Boy Bread Company(345 Hardin St, Boone), as well as Pandoras Mailbox on Main Street in downtown Blowing Rock. Share this: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Reddit Pocket The Crossnore School held its dedication for The Young Childrens Village on Friday, August 5, 2016. The dedication was held in front of the newly completed Yandle Cottage with remarks from Brett A. Loftis, Chief Executive Officer. A campus like this is the only way sibling groups can stay together, Loftis told the attendees. And here we see these kids go from merely surviving to actually thriving. Residential cottages are the basis of the programs offered at The Crossnore School. Up to nine children live in a cottage with two cottage parents, and they operate just like many families. Although each child has their own bedroom, siblings are placed in the same cottage as often as possible, and each cottage has their own cottage dog. Children learn to care for their surroundings and to meet the responsibilities of living in a family. The children attend school at Marjorie Williams Academy, Crossnores charter school, and participate in after-school activities, sports, and part-time jobs for the older kids. Yandle Cottage was the first cottage to be completed and is expected to have its first residents in the next few weeks. Florences Cottage and Lewis Cottage will follow quickly behind. These three cottages will become home to 27 more children, who will also enjoy playing on the adventure playground centrally located in the heart of the Young Childrens Village. The Young Childrens Village was part of The Crossnore Schools successful Second Century capital campaign, which was completed in 2015. It was built as a result of the strategic planning process to maximize space on Crossnores campus to serve more children. This strategic plan has also resulted in a partnership with Winston-Salems The Childrens Home, where an additional 25 children are being served now, with plans to increase that number to 100 over the next year. For more information, please contact Holly Barrett, Director of Communications at (828) 733-4305 or [email protected] About The Crossnore School: The Crossnore School is a non-profit residential foster care home for children in crisis. Located in the quaint town of Crossnore, NC, the School is nestled on 85 acres in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. The mission of The Crossnore School is to provide a Christian Sanctuary of hope and healing where students in need rise above their circumstances and excel both in school and in life. For more information about The Crossnore School, please visit www.crossnoreschool.org. Share this: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Reddit Pocket Ginseng Workshops in September If you own mature forestland (or a nice wooded backyard) with good soil and drainage, ginseng may be a viable way to produce income from your underutilized woods. Ginseng is a tricky plant to grow successfully and takes between 7-10 years to reach a size favored by the Asian markets to which it is exported. The market for ginseng has averaged over $800 per dried pound over the last few years. Cooperative Extension will be hosting a series of classes & field demonstrations on wild-simulated ginseng production in September at the Watauga County Agricultural Conference Center, 252 Poplar Grove Road. Dr. Jim Hamilton from Cooperative Extension will provide an overview of ginseng production and field demonstration on how to successfully plant wild-simulated ginseng. Topics will include: Background on ginseng Site selection, soil fertility requirements, & companion plants Site preparation Planting methods Production issues(pest mitigation & poaching issues) The market for ginseng September Ginseng Workshops at the Ag Conference Center: Sept. 7 @ 2 3:30 p.m. 20 participants max Sept. 8 @ 4 5:30 p.m. 20 participants max Wild Simulated Ginseng Production: Classroom Presentation September 29 6 8 p.m. 40 participants max Cost to attend field and/or classroom workshop is $75. Participants will receive a starter kit of pound of stratified ginseng seed and a copy of Growing & Marketing Ginseng and other woodland medicinals (a value of over $100). Seed and guidebook supplies are limited to the first 40 total paid registrants. Please call or come by the Watauga County Extension Office to register for workshop sessions. Checks may be made out to Watauga County CES. It is recommended that you send in a soil sample of the area you are thinking about planting and bring your soil report to the workshop. Additional seed may be available upon request. This workshop series is made possible through a grant from the North Carolina Specialty Crop Block Grant Program and PHARMN (Preserve Heritage Agriculture & Regional Markets Nowwww.pharmn.org) For more information, contact Dr. Jim Hamilton at the Watauga County Cooperative Extension at 264-3061 or at [email protected]. NICKELS FOR KNOW-HOW REFERENDUM The Watauga County Nickels for Know-How Referendum will be held on Tuesday, November 1, 2016 at the Watauga County Extension Office from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Watauga County Extension Director Jim Hamilton says that the referendum is being held to let users and produces of feed or fertilizer decide if they wish to continue the self-assessment program. This program has been in place since 1948, and the law requires that a new referendum be held every six years. A 2/3 favorable vote will mean that growers are willing to continue to assess themselves to support agricultural research and education. The assessment is fifteen cents per hundred pounds on feed and fertilizer produced in North Carolina. The funds, about $1.4 million annually, are collected by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, and then allocated by the NC Carolina Agricultural Foundation, Inc.s 148 volunteer Board of Directors to support agricultural research and extension projects at NC State University benefitting agriculture in North Carolina. For more information on the referendum please call your County Extension Office at: 828.264.3061. Farmers Eligible for Damage Assistance From July 8 Straight-Line Wind Storm A Straight-Line Wind Storm on July 8, 2016 has caused severe damage (uprooted and downed trees, permanent fence damage and many limbs and branches to clean up on farmland) in several areas of Watauga and Avery County. Farms suffering severe damage may be eligible for assistance under the Emergency Conservation Program (ECP) administered by the Watauga/Avery Farm Service Agency. A producer qualifying for ECP assistance may receive cost-share levels not to exceed 75 percent of the eligible cost of restoration measures. The following types of measures may be eligible: removing debris from farmland restoring permanent fences Producers who have suffered a loss from this natural disaster may contact the Watauga/Avery FSA County Office and request assistance from Aug. 1 through Aug. 31, 2016. Please contact the Farm Service Agency at 828 264-3850, ext, 2 for more information. Share this: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Reddit Pocket By Jessica Lyons Presented by the Winkler Organization, the annual Back 2 School Festival will return this weekend for a fourth year to help kids of all ages in Watauga County pick up needed school supplies and everything they need to succeed this year. From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 13 at Watauga High School, the event will be completely free of cost for families who attend. Festivities will take place in the schools gyms and lunchroom, and attendees with children with special needs may attend as early as 9 a.m. to avoid the crowd. The festival is designed to help the nearly 1,500 students who receive free or reduced lunches and the 31 percent of families who live below the federal poverty in Watauga, one of the most impoverished counties in the state of North Carolina. Our mission is to make sure that every child starts off school feeling confident and prepared, said Todd Carter, development director at the Hospitality House and Back 2 School communications coordinator. The budget for school supplies for one child not including haircuts and new shoes is $117 per child, and were trying to ease that burden for families. The free will provide kids a new back pack, school supplies, new shoes and free haircuts from local professionals to help them start the school year right. There will be prom and formal dresses available for high schoolers this year, as well. The buses accepting pack the bus supply donations will be parked in front of the Yadkin Bank in Boone until Friday. There is still currently a high demand for more composition notebooks, highlighters, Elmers glue sticks and safety scissors that are needed before the event Saturday. Last year, close to 850 students attended to receive free school supplies, so the festival is preparing for 1,000 students this year. Along with school supplies, the festival will also host 33 different organizations that offer other resources for families in Watauga. Nobody wants to be the odd kid out and start the year without school supplies, Carter said. Kids cant learn if they dont have the right supplies to work on assignments and projects. The festival will have many mascots, including Yosef and the Chick-Fil-A Cow in order to add a more festive vibe to the event while kids shop around for the backpacks and shoes that they want. A free lunch will also be served to anyone who attends the event. Anyone interested in volunteering at the event can do so by filling out the form on the website by Thursday. The website will also include a list of sponsors, how to donate and what is available for students and families who attend the event. Avery County will also host its Back to School Bash on Saturday, Aug. 13. For more information, call 828-733-6006. Share this: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Reddit Pocket To the Editor: It is difficult to believe that summer is almost over, and on August 22 students will be coming back to school. I do hope our students have spent time with their families, enjoyed their summer vacation, and are excited about coming back to school to experience another year of learning. We have had a great summer together. With generous assistance from the community, we have had an impressive summer school program for our young people and staff. We have offered our teachers leadership opportunities through several workshops, STEM Camp for our rising ninth grade students, Camp Med for our junior and senior allied health sciences students, and work-based learning and job placement for other students. Relying on our own community, we have had a very successful Administrators Retreat and have an exciting orientation planned for our new teachers. In addition, we have dedicated teachers who have advanced their skills by attending classes and others who are preparing for National Board Certification. We also have applied for and received several grants to enhance student opportunities. This year we are anticipating an enrollment of over 2,000 students in our school system. I want to take this time to thank our entire community for their support of our school system and each student we serve. When we recruit teachers to our school system, we share with them the support we receive from parents and our entire community. Without the help of many hard working individuals, we would not be ready to start school this year. Our maintenance staff and custodians have worked very hard getting buildings ready for students. Our teachers are putting in long days preparing the classrooms and lessons. Our teacher assistants and school clerical workers are working diligently to have everything ready when students enter that first day. Many of our child nutrition employees have worked throughout the summer providing meals for the summer feeding program and will continue to serve nutritious meals during the school year. Our transportation department has been active this summer in getting our buses ready to go, reviewing bus routes, and making them as efficient as possible. Consequently, we are very proud of the work that has been accomplished this summer and are excited about the 2016/2017 school year. This year, I encourage students to set goals to make this the best year they have ever had, to work hard, and to get involved in their schools. I also appreciate the way our students represent our school system and encourage them to continue to use the lessons they have learned at home, in the faith community, and at school to be good citizens in our community. It is always encouraging to hear the positive stories of how Avery County Schools graduates make a difference in our community and in the lives of others. We continue to focus on students and their successes. Therefore, one of our primary goals is to continue to reduce or eventually eliminate our drop out rate. In the past, we had far too many students dropping out of school, and it will take all of us working together to continue to reduce the number of young people who are leaving school before graduating. Over the last four years, we have cut in half the number of students who have dropped out and have been a leader in North Carolina in the graduation cohort rate. While this is a significant reduction, we still have a lot of work ahead of us if we are to provide each student in our school system a quality education. If anyone in our community would like to share ideas they may have in reducing the dropout rate, I would love to hear from you. For us, another important goal is to create community schools. We believe that our schools should once again be the center of the community where they are located. We want to open the schools for community use and to invite the community to visit with us, for our schools belong to the community. To create a learning environment where students can be successful is another major goal. It is important for us to let our students know that we care about them, and we want them to be successful. In order for our students to be as successful as possible, we will continue a collaborative, cooperative working relationship between the schools, the parents, the businesses/industries, the community college and the entire community. If we set a goal to help students achieve success, and we expect our schools to provide opportunities for success, then all of our students will have a greater chance to succeed. With everything all of us have been faced with in terms of economic downturns, budget cuts, budget uncertainty, and shortage of staff, we have experienced incredible accomplishments and it is due to dedicated people, positive attitudes and community support. I also want to remind everyone of our third annual Back to School Bash for our families which will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 13, 2016 in the Avery High School gym and cafeteria. This event brings together community partners to offer FREE school supplies and information vital for a safe, successful school year. The Back to School Bash will feature law enforcement, fire/safety demonstrations, required forms to complete, free/reduced lunch applications, school registration packets, information about student health and insurance, various activities, FREE haircuts, clothing, backpacks, school supplies and food! The day once again promises back-to-school assistance for families, as well as a time to celebrate the start of another new school year. We continue to need volunteers to assist with the event so please feel free to contact me if you would like to volunteer. As another school year begins, lets be aware of the importance of watching out for school buses. Be extra alert when you are driving and see a school bus. Please know that there are no roads in Avery County where you do not stop when the school bus red stop sign is out. It is also very important that our students be very cautious when entering and exiting the bus. My hope and prayer is that this school year will be the best ever for our school system and for each student we serve. If we, as a school system, can help you, we want to hear from you. I have an open door policy, and I encourage you to visit with me at your convenience. If you are unable to stop by our office, please feel free to call me. I would love to discuss your concerns regarding our school system. I am always open to suggestions on how we can better serve our community. I am looking forward to the new school year and working with you to provide each of our students the best education possible. Sincerely, David Burleson Superintendent Share this: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Reddit Pocket In July, the Conservation Trust for North Carolina (CTNC) and Blue Ridge Conservancy (BRC) jointly purchased a 179-acre property along the Blue Ridge Parkway in Ashe County. The Cranberry Creek tract shares nearly 1.2 miles of boundary with the Blue Ridge Parkway, and is considered a high priority conservation area by the National Park Service (NPS). The property includes mixed hardwood forests and pine stands, offering scenic views from the Parkway. It adjoins the Parkway from mileposts 249.7 to 250.9, an area that contains the origin of Cranberry Creek, a tributary of Meadow Creek. The land also contains a residual wetland associated with the remnants of a pond that has been drained. The propertys unique ecological characteristics could provide habitat for the federally threatened Bog turtle, a rare species known to occur in the vicinity. CTNC and Blue Ridge Conservancy plan to donate this land to the National Park Service for inclusion in the Parkways official boundary. The addition of this property to the Parkway will help increase the connectivity of protected lands in the area, benefiting the public by preserving vistas and promoting healthy waterways. Protecting large areas of continuous land leads to an even greater cumulative impact on wildlife habitat, water quality, and scenic vistas, said Mark Woods, Blue Ridge Parkway Superintendent. The addition of the Cranberry Creek tract represents not only an increased area of conserved land, but a greater connectivity between parts of the Parkway. We are grateful to Fred and Alice Stanback of Salisbury who made it possible for this beautiful property to become part of the Blue Ridge Parkway, said Margaret Newbold, CTNC Associate Director. Folks will be able to enjoy the land from the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, which runs parallel to the Parkway right through the Cranberry Creek tract. The Blue Ridge Parkway is one of the National Park Services most visited places. Conserving the natural beauty of our mountains and natural resources in Ashe County will benefit the local economy, said Walter Clark, Blue Ridge Conservancy Executive Director. The Conservation Trust for North Carolina has now conserved 62 properties on the Blue Ridge Parkway, totaling 33,136 acres. Blue Ridge Conservancy has conserved 207 properties in Allegheny, Ashe, Avery, Mitchell, Watauga, Wilkes, and Yancey Counties, totaling 19,150 acres. The New River Conservancy (http://www.newriverconservancy.org), based in West Jefferson, also conserves land in Ashe County. Share this: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Reddit Pocket The data indicate that the value of exports rose to 4.9 billion euros, far exceeding the expectations of analysts and economists. Economists at Nordea, for example, had forecast that the value of exports would fall by 5.59.0 per cent from the previous year. Finland recorded a year-on-year increase of five per cent in the value of its exports in June, according to preliminary data released by Finnish Customs on Monday . Finnish Customs points out that the increase in the value of exports is largely attributable to the delivery of a 480 million euro ship to Germany. Without the delivery, it adds, the value of exports would have decreased by some five per cent from the corresponding period last year. It would consequently be premature to talk about the recovery of exports, concludes Henna Mikkonen, an economist at Danske Bank. Good news about the development of exports have been few and far between already for some time, and the previous time an increase in exports was registered was in July 2015. The growth registered in June, however, can be attributed to a major ship order from Germany, she says. She also acknowledges that the five per cent decline in exports that would have been registered without the ship delivery would not have been as steep as the declines recorded earlier this year. The delivery also ensured that the value of exports from Finland to other member states of the European Union rose by 15 per cent year-on-year in June, while that of exports to non-member states dropped by 7 per cent. The preliminary data show that exports to Germany and Sweden increased particularly, while those to other major trading partners decreased. Our major trading partners have, with the exception of Russia, undergone economic growth in recent years, while Finland's share of global trade has declined. The overall volume of exports including both goods and services remains almost 20 per cent below the levels recorded before the downturn, reminds Mikkonen. She estimates that export-oriented industries have been hamstrung not only by their focus on low-demand goods, such as investment goods and paper, but also by competitiveness problems. The competitiveness pact struck earlier this summer was much needed, but we will have to wait for its effects to kick in. Willingness to invest in Europe may take a hit in the wake of Brexit, which could further limit the export opportunities of Finland and undermine the positive effects of the pact, says Mikkonen. We will have to wait for the real impact of Brexit, but preliminary data on economic developments in Europe have exceeded expectations. The United Kingdom's own economy, on the other hand, is clearly weakening. Finland has especially exported forest industry products to the United Kingdom, she continues. Economists are also waiting anxiously for data on second-quarter industrial orders and gross domestic product that are scheduled for release later this week. Aleksi Teivainen HT Photo: Vesa Moilanen Lehtikuva Source: Uusi Suomi GE touts bright future for lighting sales IT support worker Andrew Wolfe shows a zebra printer to U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows (left) as GE plant manager Dave Martin looks on. EAST FLAT ROCK How many people does it take to change a light bulb? Related Stories One. How many does it take to change the light bulb industry? Five-hundred and fifty. Theyre working at General Electrics Lighting Solutions plant in East Flat Rock. Pete Sessions, the chair of the powerful House Rules Committee, took notice. The Texas Republican, who represents an area with 7,000 GE employees, was talking to a regional sales rep for General Electric who mentioned a model of innovation at the GE plant in East Flat Rock. Passing through the mountains, Sessions decided to check it out. Sessions, an early supporter of Donald Trump, was en route to Winston-Salem for a Trump rally that night. He invited U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows to join him for the GE tour. What the congressmen saw was an American factory that is growing its product line through technology and adding jobs. The GE plant, which has about 550 employees, has added 100 in the past two years, and brought on 15 just in the past two weeks, plant manager Dave Martin told Sessions and Meadows. GE has invested $60 million in the East Flat Rock plant since 2011 and plans to invest another $10 million in the next year, Martin said. The key to growth has been technological advancement and manufacturing agility that guarantees on-demand delivery. GE Lighting has evolved from a maker of light bulbs to a multidimensional energy management company, Martin said. If it sells a shopping mall a parking lot lighting package, the mall might buy solar- and battery-powered lighting, security lighting, timers and the software to manage it all. The local plants assembly lines have been updated, too. Collaborative robots work alongside humans, Martin said. If it goes to hit something like yourself it stops. I think it even says sorry when it touches you. Sessions praised the companys inventiveness. Youve come back and said Were going to retool for the future and its going to be here in North Carolina, he said. Thats a great story. You didnt get lost in the new world. Youre at the epicenter now. This is why I came today. To hear the story. This is about America. Theres room to grow, too. There are 60 million roadway lights in America. Twenty million of them are GE, said David George, a senior manufacturing engineer, and every single one was made here in this factory. Ive been here since 1996, he added. This is as bright a future as Ive ever seen. The Grace B. Luhrs University Elementary School will be seeing another change this school year. The Shippensburg Area School District board of directors unanimously approved the 2016-17 handbook, which includes a change in hours at the school. Luhrs school is located on the Shippensburg University campus but is part of the Shippensburg school district. The change was made as part of a new affiliation agreement between the school district and the university. Previously, the enrollment procedure at Luhrs school gave top priority to children of university employees. The Pennsylvania Department of Education demanded that the procedure be changed in order to give equal enrollment to all children in the district; in addition, the school district was required to provide transportation to Luhrs school students. According to Superintendent-elect Chester Mummau, Luhrs students will ride one bus to the intermediate school and transfer to another bus that will transport them to the Luhrs school. He said it provides equal access for all students. Transportation shouldnt be something that would prohibit students from going there (Luhrs school), he said. Before the vote Monday, the board heard from several residents who opposed the change in hours. Todd Crawley was concerned about student safety and asked directors several questions, including whether they had conducted a risk assessment prior to making a decision. He said 100 percent of parents would not require busing, so a change in school hours should not be necessary. Kristin Cornell said the starting time is unrealistic. She said she sees buses picking up other students in her neighborhood at 8:30 a.m., and there would be no possible way for the bus to drop off students at other schools and get to Luhrs by 8:45. She said Luhrs students would probably start school at 8:50 a.m. or 8:55 a.m., and estimated they would lose 7 1/2 days of instructional time per year if school did not start on time. Steve Smith, director of Luhrs school said he is also concerned about safety. He said the hours of 7:45 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. were established seven years ago because there is less traffic on campus at that time. He promised that he and other school staff will monitor traffic in the school drop-off area to make it as safe as we can. Other business The board also approved 8-0 Monday the hiring of middle school assistant principal Scott Shapiro as principal of James Burd Elementary School, and Bethany Bridges as assistant supervisor of special education for the district. Shapiro will replace Nicole Donato, who resigned this summer. A native of York, Shapiro graduated from Kutztown University with a bachelors degree in elementary education and special education, and from York College with a masters degree in educational leadership. He is now working toward his doctorate at Immaculata University. He taught second grade and primary emotional support before coming to Shippensburg as middle school assistant principal two years ago. Mummau said Shapiro was one of nine applicants selected from a strong pool of 20 for a final-round interview before a panel of teachers, parents and administrators. Hes a strong instructional leader, Mummau said. He has two years of administrative experience ... (and) an elementary teaching background. We felt he was the right person for the job. Applications for the position of middle school assistant principal will be accepted until Aug. 24, Mummau said. Bridges, of Bloomsburg, has a bachelors degree in leadership of children and adults with disabilities from Mansfield University, a masters degree in speech pathology from Bloomsburg University, and a supervisor of special education certificate from the University of Pittsburgh. She has been a speech pathologist in the Elizabethtown Area School District since 2008. Bridges will assist the supervisor of special education, Kay Gillet. The job of assistant supervisor of special education is a new position created this year. Also at Mondays meeting, Joe Wachter, director of facilities and operations, offered a preliminary report on a solar energy program that he said will result in a 26-percent savings in the districts energy consumption. Wachter said the $1.5 million project will be completed by Sunvestment, of Reading, at no cost to the district. Solar panels will be placed on a 3- to 5-acre area of land near the districts maintenance barn, located between the middle and high schools, and allow the district to sell power back to Penelec (the districts energy provider), he said. A Minnesota man surrendered to police Monday after an investigation into vending machine thefts in Upper Allen Township in 2014. Upper Allen Township Police reported that Olaf Hientje Beckmann, 47, of Cook, Minn., was developed as a suspect, with the help of detectives with the Douglas County Sheriff's Office in Wisconsin. He was arrested and charged with two counts each of felony burglary, felony criminal trespass, misdemeanor theft by unlawful taking, misdemeanor theft by deception and summary criminal mischief. Beckmann waived the charges to higher court Monday during a preliminary hearing in front of Magisterial District Judge Mark Martin, who set bail at $2,000 unsecured, which he posted. A formal arraignment is scheduled for Oct. 20. The charges stem from the theft of money from vending machines in the township on May 5, 2014. Police said the robber posed as a maintenance employee to work on the machines, going to the break area of two businesses that were open at the time. Police said the robber drilled the vending machine locks and stole the cash inside. Willie O'Dea, Fianna Fail TD and spokesperson for Social Protection, has said that Brian Cowen could have been a good leader, but was "overwhelmed" by the magnitude of the banking crash. O'Dea, who was first elected to the Dail in 1982, has held a number of positions during his political career, and was Minister for Defence from 2008-2010, when Mr Cowen was Taoiseach. In a wide-ranging interview for the Paul Williams podcast for Independent.ie, O'Dea spoke about the challenges the government faced during the financial crash. O'Dea said that he knew Mr Cowen "very well" as he had taught him law at UCD. "He had a fantastic brain, but when he took over the leadership I think he was just overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the problem with which we were confronted," he said. O'Dea said the crash happened very suddenly and that the banks were not telling them the truth about what was happening behind the scenes. He also noted that the party lost its way during the boom years. "We presided over a period of tremendous economic growth in which quite a number of people got extremely wealthy. Ideology "And the natural tendency of people who get very wealthy in a society is to gravitate towards the party in power. And in my humble opinion, we finished up with too many of those guys hanging off us," he said. "We lost our way to a certain extent. "You must also recall that we were in power for a while with the Progressive Democrats, and I think that maybe too much of their ideology was reflected in economic policy, even though the pensions and social welfare etc increased fairly steadily for that period of time." He also reflected on the wiping out of his party in the 2011 General Election. "What wiped out Fianna Fail quite frankly in the election [was] the decision taken quite consciously by the cabinet to put in place the measures which ultimately saved the economy. "The hardest thing in Irish politics, or in any democratic society, is when you put an expenditure programme in place, to cut down is the hardest thing it was either that or economic destruction." He said that the General Election nearly wiped them out entirely. "For two years after the 2011 election, it was an open question whether the party would survive or not. In other words, we had a near-death experience." In coming back from the "near-death experience", O'Dea said that Fianna Fail has learned some important lessons. "The party has learned that it's not just a question of giving everybody what they want as Sinn Fein for example propose to do, or as the left propose to do. "We've learned that people are more intelligent, people have moved on from that. "People recognise a solid policy, a policy that takes into account not just the present but the future. And that is more and more a feature of the Irish political landscape." He also spoke extensively about Sinn Fein, and said he doesn't believe Gerry Adams "for a moment" when he said he wasn't in the IRA. "Obviously he was a member of the IRA, nobody seriously believes he wasn't," he said. He also suggested that an Ireland with Sinn Fein in government would be "a very sinister place." "I would be worried about it. I don't think it would be a very democratic place. "I would feel that if Sinn Fein was leading the government in this country that criticism would not be tolerated. "You could be subject to the midnight knock - you could be subject to somebody calling to see you to talk to you. "I don't think they're a democratic organisation and I don't think practising democracy is in their forte. "I don't think they would respond very well to criticism if they were in the driving seat." He also considered Fine Gael's popularity and performance in the last General Election, and said that if Enda Kenny had called an election sooner, he would have done better. He said that the Brian Cowen's administration suffered the same fate. "I'd hate to think of how many votes we lost every day from the time Brian should have gone to the time he actually did go," he said. Compromise O'Dea also weighed in on the likely candidates to take over from Enda Kenny when he steps down as leader of Fine Gael. "Varadkar is a very large personality," he said. "Frances Fitzgerald would also fancy her chances. She ticks all the boxes. "She could come through as a compromise - we could have our first Limerick Taoiseach." However, he also noted that Simon Coveney is seen as a "safe pair of hands" and a "traditional Fine-Gaeler". HARRISBURG A 23-year-old Ukrainian man accused of faking his name and age while attending a Pennsylvania high school and having sex with an underage girl pleaded guilty Monday. Artur Samarin entered the plea to a number of fraud and sex charges, which carry penalties of up to 40 years in prison and $90,000 in fines. Since Samarin has no sentencing deal, It will be up to Dauphin County Judge Deborah Curcillo to choose his punishment during sentencing scheduled for September. He also faces federal fraud charges and could be deported. Samarin, thin and pale and dressed in a yellow county prison uniform, said little as he stood before the judge with his lawyer, Adam Klein. He told the judge he had been speaking English for more than three years and understood the charges against him. Klein said Samarin consulted with an immigration attorney before deciding to enter the pleas. Samarin, who called himself Asher Potts, is accused of having sex with a 15-year-old girl. The arrest affidavit said Samarin told a detective in February he had sex with the girl in the fall of 2014, when he was 22. He had impressed teachers and community leaders while attending John Harris High School in Harrisburg and had been accepted into a college in Florida before authorities concluded he was considerably older and was a Ukrainian citizen who overstayed a student work visa. This position will further enhance my ability to serve as an effective problem solver and allow me to assist in continuing to move Pennsylvania forward with a commonsense conservative agenda, Bloom said in a news release. Im humbled by the confidence placed in me to serve as a deputy whip and I look forward to this new opportunity to constructively and proactively advocate for the interests of the citizens of our community and our Commonwealth. PM Narendra Modi launches Mission Bhagiratha in Telangana Published: August 8, 2016 Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched Mission Bhagiratha with an objective to provide safe drinking water to all. The scheme is the brain child of Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao. It was launched by state Government at Komatibanda Village, Gajwel in Medak District of Telangana. Key Facts Mission Bhagiratha is a water grid project that aims to provide safe drinking water to all even to remotest places in Telangana. Its objective is to provide 100 litres of clean drinking water per person in rural households and 150 litres per person in urban households. Under it safe drinking water will be provided to about 25000 rural habitations and 67 urban habitations. Apart from providing a sustainable and permanent solution to the drinking water woes, it also aims to rejuvenate more than 45000 water tanks. Besides, Prime Minister also laid foundation stones for other important development projects in Telangana. It includes 1600 MW Thermal Power station of NTPC at Ramagundam, 1200 MW Thermal Power Station of Singareni Collieries in Adilabad district. Month: Current Affairs - August, 2016 Topics: Government Schemes mission bhagiratha Narendra Modi Public health States Telangana Latest E-Books : , CCTV More women, juveniles help drive need for more space at the jail A truck reported stolen from Illinois was located locally recently along with a stolen firearm after a stop and hold was put out to local police that the suspect may be in the area. Thomas Harmon, 31 of Godfrey, Illinois, is being charged with a class C felony of possession of a controlled substance, a class C felony of tampering in the first degree, a class C felony of unlawful possession of a firearm, and a class D felony of resisting arrest. According to a probable cause statement, on July 7 central dispatch broadcast information of a stolen 2006 Chevy truck along with two stolen firearms, a 45 caliber pistol and a 380 caliber pistol. The stolen truck was taken from Madison County, Illinois, by Harmon and was believed to be in the Desloge area. The report said further information was also broadcast that Harmon would use deadly force if approached by law enforcement. The stolen truck was located at Red Cedar Lodge and as the deputy approached the truck he saw Harmon in the front seat. The deputy reported that he gave Harmon several commands to show his hands, but he refused to comply with the deputys commands. Harmon attempted to start the stolen truck in a possibly attempt to flee and there were several officers surrounding the truck. The report said that for the officers safety and to keep Harmon from fleeing, the deputy broke out the passenger side door window of the truck to gain access to Harmon. After the window was broken, the deputy saw a gun in its holster on Harmons right hip. He then yelled out to the other officers gun, gun, gun! so they knew he was armed. The report said Harmon was then tased to keep him from using the gun on law enforcement or himself. Harmon was then removed from the truck and gun was secured and he was placed under arrest. On the front seat of the truck officers found a glass pipe and a baggie of meth, which field tested positive for methamphetamine. The report said Harmon also had an active parole warrant for arrest through the state of Missouri. Harmon was being held in the St. Francois County jail on a $100,000 bond. This domain has expired. If you owned this domain, contact your domain registration service provider for further assistance. If you need help identifying your provider, visit https://www.tucowsdomains.com/ As activist Irom Sharmila breaks her 16-year-fast, attempt to commit suicide for which she was prosecuted is all set to be de-criminalised in India. Eight years after the Law Commission recommended de-criminalisation of attempt to suicide in 2008; the Rajya Sabha passed The Mental Health Care Bill, 2013 on Monday. Its likely to be passed by the Lok Sabha during the current session of Parliament, paving the way for de-criminalising attempt to suicide. Under the Bill, there is a presumption of mental illness in favour of a person attempting to commit suicide. It provides that unless proven otherwise, any person attempting to commit suicide will be presumed to be suffering from a mental illness at that time and will not be punished under the Indian Penal Code (IPC). At present, attempt to suicide is an offence under Section 309 of the IPC attracting a simple imprisonment for a year or fine or both. According to government data, 134,799 people committed suicide in 2013 compared to 135,445 in the previous year. There is no official data on the number of attempted suicides. Terming the provision as inhuman, the Law Commission had recommended scrapping of the law saying, repeal of the anachronistic law would save many lives and relieve the distressed of his sufferings. Read| Irom Sharmila: The Iron Lady who waged a war against Afspa However, the UPA had rejected the report of the Law Commission that advises the government on legal issues. It would not be just and fair to inflict additional legal punishment on a person who has already suffered agony and ignominy in his failure to commit suicide When a troubled individual tries to end his life, it would be cruel to visit him with punishment on his failure to die, the commission had said in its 210th report on Humanisation and Decriminalisation of Attempt to Suicide. It made a similar recommendation in its 42nd report in 1971. The panel took note of the fact that countries in Europe and North America had repealed such provisions and the World Health Organisation, International Association for Suicide Prevention and Indian Psychiatric Society were in favour of doing away with Section 309. The report, however, stressed that assisting or encouraging another person to (attempt to) commit suicide must not go unpunished. Describing Section 309 as a double punishment for a person fed up with life, the panel said it was also a stumbling block in prevention of suicides and improving the access of medical care. The report had said: It is unreasonable to inflict punishment upon a person who on account of family discord, destitution, loss of a dear relation or other cause of a like naturedecides to take his own life. In such a case, the unfortunate person deserves sympathy, counselling and appropriate treatment, and certainly not the prison. The Supreme Court too had in 2011 recommended to Parliament to consider decriminalising attempt to suicide, saying the provision had become anachronistic. A person attempts suicide in a depression, and hence he needs help, rather than punishment, it had said. A bench headed by justice Markandey Katju, which legalised passive euthanasia in India, said: Although Section 309 has been held to be constitutionally valid in Gian Kaurs case, the time has come when it should be deleted by Parliament as it has become anachronistic. The NDA government had told the Rajya Sabha in December 2014 that it was considering repeal of Section 309 IPC. Then Minister of State for Home Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary had said since law and order was a state subject, views of all states and union territories had been sought on the law panels recommendations. The government decided to go ahead with de-criminalising attempt to suicide after it got the backing of 22 states and union territories. Four states - Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Sikkim; and union territory of Delhi did not fully support the move to repeal Section 309 IPC. However, a parliamentary standing committee which examined the Bill -- noted that persons may attempt suicide due to a number of reasons which may not be related to their mental health. But the provision regarding presumption of mental illness will subject every person who has attempted suicide to mental health treatment. It recommended that such a person should be presumed to be under severe stress instead of suffering from a mental illness. Once the Bill is passed by both the Houses and notified in the official gazette after Presidents assent, lakhs of attempt to suicide cases would vanish overnight, bringing relief to the over-burdened judiciary. 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Ireland United States Minor Outlying Islands United States of America Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe For days now, people who live in Kashmir, and know well the state, had been airing anxieties over the deteriorating situation in the Valley thats witnessing a new phase of militancy, driven largely by religion and the belief that Muslims cannot co-exist with Hindu India. In this backdrop, Prime Minister Narendra Modis invocation of his much venerated predecessor, Atal Bihar Vajpayees principal of Jamhoritya, Insaniyat aur Kashmiriyat to deal with the Kashmir issue couldnt have been delayed. What make the overture doubly significant are reports of a Track-2 outreach to stakeholders including Kashmiri separatists. The initiative is led by organisations and individuals close to the RSS and key players at the Centre. So strong is the sentiment in the valley that even relatives of important PDP ministers have tended to join protests to save their homes and hearths from being attacked, a senior leader who worked closely with Mehbooba Mufti and her father, Mufti Sayeed, told this writer. He said deep factional divisions in the police and the state Cabinet left the administration incapable and unwilling to rise to the challenge. In the police there are men and middle-rung officers owing allegiance to the Peoples Democratic Party, the National Conference and their seniors warring at the top. Then there are cabals coalesced by vested interests. The governance crisis is accentuated by rival camps headed by senior Cabinet ministers. The result: One arm of the administration is unaware of what the other is up to? Illustration: The chief minister claiming that she was clueless about the encounter that left Burhan Wani dead! The PM has made a general statement. What count are the specifics, remarked former deputy chief minister Muzaffar Baig. He said New Delhi should be activating back-channels with Islamabad to encourage the Hurriyat to join as and when the intra-Kashmir dialogue materialises. Objectively speaking, the pitfalls on the way to setting up talks might not be easy to negotiate in the Valley thats on the boil. A source privy to the mood in the Kashmir countryside maintained the Patnitop conclave to draw up the Track 2 blueprint hasnt gone down well with the agitating youth. They were badly advised. The impression that has gone out is the Modi regimes Kashmir policy isnt independent of the RSS, the source said. Well-meaning though, the PMs promise of bettering lives through development and livelihood opportunities isnt enough to break the ice amid all-round alienation and mourning over the dead and those crippled by pellets. Theres need for substantive unilateralism as making aggrieved sections agree to talks might take time. Amnesty Internationals Prisoner of Conscience Irom Chanu Sharmila ended her 16-year-long hunger strike against the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (Afspa) on Tuesday. While her decision to do so should have been accepted in the right spirit, radical groups have criticised for her surprising decision. This is unfair. What Irom Sharmila wants to do with her life is her decision; she must not be asked to bear the Afspa cross for ever. For those looking for reasons behind her decision, the 44-year-olds comments provide some clues. At a hearing in a local court, Irom Sharmila said: I have been fasting for the last 16 years. I havent got anything from it yet. I am ending my fast today. I want to try a different agitation now. I will contest against the chief minister of Manipur in the upcoming state elections. Read: Irom Sharmila ends 16 year fast against Afspa, wants to join politics Later to the media, she said: I am being seen as a strange woman. Why cant people see me as an ordinary person? I am cut off from everyone, she said. People say politics is dirty but so is society. While Irom Sharmilas I want to be CM and repeal Afspa a bit far-fetched , I think her comments shows not only her sadness for failing to change the course of history but also desperation to get out the cage (as she once described her situation in a poem), how utterly lonely her walk has been till now and how the people of Manipur (yes, Manipur too) --- and more importantly of the country --- have not been supportive enough of her cause. In fact, to me, the despair in her words and voice shows that India has failed Irom Sharmila and not vice versa. And, who was keeping her cut off from everyone? It is well known that Irom Sharmila became a brand name of sorts for human rights activists and, if she now thinks that she has been used by people around her, its a sad commentary on how petty the business of human rights can be. Read: 10 things you need to know about Iron Lady Irom Sharmila By ending her fast, Irom Sharmila has handed over the baton of the struggle against Afspa to the people. If the cause is strong enough, it will continue on its own steam, with or without Irom Sharmilas fast. Those who are carping needlessly about her decision must realise that Irom Sharmila has not abandoned the cause; she has decided to change her game plan. And those who are saying that her love interest has been planted by the Indian government to wean her from the struggle are belittling her superhuman efforts to scrap Afspa. Read: Irom Sharmila has done the right thing by ending her fast SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A suicide attack at a hospital in Balochistan on Monday, which killed at least 70, has yet again exposed the complex nature of terrorism in Pakistan and the fault-lines in its war against terror. Bilal Anwar Kasi, a prominent lawyer, was gunned down on Monday morning as he was on his way to work. Later a suicide attack took place outside a hospital as scores of people had gathered to mourn Kasis death. A splinter faction of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar claimed responsibility for the attack and vowed to carry out more such attacks. Interestingly, the Islamic State has also claimed responsibility for the attack. Read | Scenes of blood, rage and pain in Quetta as blast claims several lives The Quetta attack, primarily points to two things: There is an increasing rivalry among terror groups to establish supremacy, and it is ironic for the Pakistan government to condemn terror attacks when terrorists often roam freely within the country. It is not uncommon for different terror groups to claim responsibility for an attack. There were multiple claimants for the 2014 Wagah border bombing. As seen in neighbouring Afghanistan, there is a growing fight among terror groups in Pakistan to establish supremacy. The Monday attack, if carried out by the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, is a sign that the outfit can operate in a deadly manner even after its leader Omar Mansoor was killed in a US drone strike in Afghanistan in July. The Jamaat-ul-Ahrar is known to pick soft targets its attack on a Peshawar school in 2014 and on churches in Lahore in 2015 and this March prove this. The Islamic State is trying to increase its presence in the country and a Quetta-like attack cannot be ruled out. Read | Posters sprout in Pakistan asking army chief to oust government A reason for terror groups spreading has been Pakistans double-faced response to terrorism. The Pakistani establishment speaks about combating terror and defeating such forces while at the same time lending space and supporting jihadi groups groups whose ideologies often align with the States position. And thats no coincidence. Speaking from both sides of the mouth has made Pakistan an unreliable ally on the war on terror and has misled the world about its true intentions. In March, after a Taliban attack outside a local court in Charsadda killed 17 people, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said that for Pakistan fighting the war against terrorism is the moral obligation it was necessary for a peaceful tomorrow for the country and our future generations. But without concrete actions these words have little resonance. Read | Afghanistan: The war the world forgot Moreover, his silence towards some terror leaders and groups exposes his earlier statements as hollow. During the recent Saarc home/interior ministers meet in Islamabad, terrorists were out on the streets protesting, barely a few kilometres from the venue. Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin, a designated terrorist by India and the EU, was seen leading the protests in Islamabad. Then there is the question of Islamabad and Rawalpndi shielding Dawood Ibrahim and Hafiz Saeed. In an ideal world, after an attack like the one in Quetta, one would expect Pakistan to act responsibly, to act tough on terror groups and ensure the safety of its people. But the Balochistan chief minister, Sanaullah Zehri, has blamed Indias Research & Analysis Wing (R&AW) for the attack. Blaming India has been the easiest and laziest route the Pakistani establishment takes to divert public attention from blaming its failures in combating terror. Read | In Pakistan, family of US drone strike victim demand justice If Pakistan is serious about eliminating the threat terror poses, it cannot cherry-pick terror groups it cannot nurture some and attack some. Then US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, bluntly put across this message at a press conference in Pakistan in 2011: You cant keep snakes in your backyard and expect them to only bite your neighbour. Eventually those snakes are going to turn on whoever has them in the backyard. Twitter: @vijucherian SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON China and India are scheduled to exchange a series of high-level visits over the next three months. A visit to Delhi by Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi on August 12 will be followed by that of Chinese state councillor and former foreign minister Yang Jiechi, who is Beijings designated special representative for border negotiations. In September, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will travel to Hangzhou to attend the G-20 Summit while Chinese President Xi Jinping is slated to attend the Brics Summit in Goa in October. The visits are taking place at a critical time in India-China relations. Recent developments have imposed strains on the relationship and though these high-level exchanges are Chinas design to maintain strategic equilibrium, they and especially the summits offer the potential for the leaders to discuss substantive and troubling issues. Read | Sino-India relations defined more by rivalry than partnership Since April 2015, particularly, there has been a qualitative upgradation in Chinas relationship with Pakistan. With the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Beijing dispelled all ambiguity on its stance on the Kashmir issue to overtly support Pakistan. The proposed construction of 51 infrastructure, energy-and military-related projects in the CPEC, with many sited in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), Gilgit and Baltistan, accord Chinas de facto acknowledgement to Pakistans occupation of these territories. To protect the huge Chinese investment, Islamabad has begun to potentially bend borders with India by fully integrating Gilgit and Baltistan, including nominating observers to its Parliament. Read | The grand dream could become a nightmare The CPEC will bind Pakistan to China since power generation, transport, commerce, R&D and the defence of Pakistan will all be increasingly tied to Chinese investment and interests. Bilateral intelligence cooperation has intensified and there is a definite military component to the CPEC. A $ 44 million secure fibre optic cable, for example, links the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) West Zones South Xinjiang Military District headquarters directly with the Pakistan Army GHQ in Rawalpindi. The West Zone is tasked with safeguarding Chinas borders with Afghanistan, Pakistan and India in addition to protecting Chinese investments and nationals in the CPEC. China, meanwhile, is raising a division-strength private army for deployment in the CPEC, to supplement the Pakistan Armys 10,000-man special force. An unmistakable signal of enhanced Sino-Pak military collaboration, including in the Arabian Sea, was the arrival of a Chinese nuclear submarine to Karachi in May this year. It is a first by a Chinese nuclear submarine to any port in South Asia. Of equal concern to India is Chinas assistance to Pakistan in the design and development of tactical nuclear missiles. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had planned to discuss, on the sidelines of the Nuclear Summit (Mar 31-Apr 1), China extending diplomatic or other substantive support to Pakistan to counter US insistence that Pakistan go slow on the development of its tactical nuclear weapons. Chinas opposition to India joining international organisations has also spilled out into the open. It raised specious arguments to stymie Indias entry to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) in June, continues to oppose Indias entry to the UNSC as a permanent member and blocks Indias requests in the UN Sanctions Committee on terrorists harboured by Pakistan. In all these cases it is working in close collusion with Islamabad. Read | Anti-India or pro-Pakistan? Behind Chinas NSG veto India must raise these and other issues of concern like the qualitatively different border intrusions during forthcoming interactions despite negligible expectation that there will be forward movement, including in the border negotiations or on the issue of stapled visas for the residents of Arunachal Pradesh or Jammu and Kashmir. Chinas official media has, in fact, laid claim to Ladakh describing it as Little Tibet. Read | China elevates Tibet command to prepare for likely conflict with India Chinese President Xi Jinping is presently under pressure with China facing a degree of isolation consequent to the decision of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, which dismissed all its claims in the South China Sea. Xi Jinping, who has been strongly pushing nationalism and communist ideology to bolster the CCPs legitimacy, is preparing for the 19th Party Congress late next year and cannot afford to be domestically perceived as weak. Chinas charge daffairs and career diplomat Liu Jinsongs remark of April 19 that in future someone may dispute ownership of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and its repetition in June, need to be viewed in this backdrop. They underscore approval at the highest echelons. Neither will Wang Yi, a member of the 18th Central Committee (CC) of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) who served eight years in the Northeast Construction Army Corps in Heilongjiang Province, yield ground and could, in fact, have been instructed to adopt a tough stance. Jayadeva Ranade is former additional secretary in the cabinet secretariat and is president, Centre for China Analysis and Strategy The views expressed are personal A resident of Khanugaon allegedly attempted suicide and two of his neighbours suffered cardiac arrest as the Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) began razing properties in the locality on Monday, as part of its anti-encroachment drive around the Upper Lake. We have stopped a man from committing suicide. There are two other elderly residents who have suffered cardiac arrest after seeing the BMC notice, Mohammed Saood, the corporator of ward 8, claimed. The civic body had recently launched a drive to remove encroachments 50 metres around the Upper Lake, and had issued notices to 92 properties 47 commercial and 45 residential to vacate the land within 24 hours. The commercial premises, including Congress leader Kailash Mishras wine shop, were razed on Monday while the residential properties were not touched. Panicked residents, who claimed to be living in the locality for over 70 years since the time of Nawabs, staged a protest at the BMC office on Saturday, claiming that they had requisite documents for their properties. We have copies of documents which show that we have not occupied this land illegally. If BMC is adamant to remove all the properties from here, they should give us both land and compensation, said Faiz Khan, a resident of Khanugaon. Congress and BJP corporators backed the distressed residents. Khanugaon comes in my ward, and I can assure that these houses are not encroached properties. These people were all workers for Nawab families in Bhopal. They have stayed here for more than 70 years, BJP corporator Mohammed Saood said. An encroachment is one which has taken place in less than 5 years. They have their property papers and thus they cannot be asked to vacate their houses all of a sudden, he added. Activists accused BMC officials of corruption and said the anti-encroachment drive was to cover up their irregularities. Every resident of Bhopal knows that the civic body is trying to cover up the encroachment of a private hospital, which is also a major business group. If they are removing all commercial properties, why are they not removing that hospital which is built on the Upper Lake area? asked Pradeep Khandelwal, a social activist. BMC authorities said they would restore the Bhopal Development Plan of 2005 and decide the actual boundaries of the Lake. Madhya Pradesh transport department banned on Tuesday the services of taxi aggregators Ola and Uber in the state. The ban was imposed in view of surge pricing referred to as peaktime charge by the companies. The Motor Vehicle Act doesnt have any provision regarding peak time charge, said Sanjay Tiwari, regional transport officer, Bhopal. Tiwari said the fares decided by two taxi aggregators were against the norm as they were higher than the government rates. There were regular complaints coming against the mobile application based taxi services of violation of Central Motor Vehicles Act. The ban has been imposed with immediate effect after the directive of the minister, said the statement released by the state government on Tuesday evening. According to transport department sources, about 700-800 taxis that operate in Bhopal alone. The governments decision will badly hit our income. I have taken the car on loan. It will be difficult for me and many others like me to repay the loan, said Sanjay Kumar, a taxi driver from Kolar. The representatives of the two companies couldnt be contacted for comments. Sunny Leone has been part of several hit dance numbers such as Laila (Shootout At Wadala; 2013), Baby Doll (Ragini MMS 2; 2014) and Pink Lips (Hate Story 2; 2014), among others. Earlier this year, she also shot for a reworked version of the yesteryear hit Laila O Laila, for Shah Rukh Khans next. Now, the actor will shoot for a dance number with Ajay Devgn for director Milan Luthrias film. Director Milan Luthria says Ajay Devgn and Sunny Leones combination will be fantastic. Sunny has been part of some wonderful and successful songs. But this time, I feel their combination (Ajay and her) will be fantastic. They are also among the most popular stars online. So, I am confident that they will create a lot of curiosity, says Milan. Read: I cant work in films forever, says Sunny Leone The director met Sunny for the first time at producer Bhushan Kumars sister Tulsi Kumars wedding last year. I sensed a nice aura around Sunny. She is a beautiful and vivacious girl. We clicked instantly, and she expressed a desire to work with me. When this opportunity came up, I thought, Why not? So, I met her. Bhushan (who has produced the film) was also happy, he says, adding that the song will add a lot of spice to the film. Read: Sunny Leone 3.0: How to build a brand that outlasts porn The director says he will try presenting Sunny in a different avatar in the song. I will try, in my own way, to give her a platform, where she can do very well, says Milan. Follow @htcafe for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Last month, a number of Bollywood stars, including Alia Bhatt, Deepika Padukone and Fawad Khan let their hair down at Coldplays concert in Berlin, Germany. But for Alia, who is a big fan of the bands frontrunner Chris Martin, attending the concert was nothing less than a dream come true. No caption needed. #coldplayberlin A video posted by Alia (@aliaabhatt) on Jun 30, 2016 at 1:52am PDT In fact, the actor got emotional and teary-eyed when she saw Martin step out on stage. The 23-year-old also attended a Beyonce concert on the same trip. Read: There is a lot of slut shaming in our society, says Alia Bhatt E-P-I-C #coldplayberlin A photo posted by Alia (@aliaabhatt) on Jun 29, 2016 at 6:21pm PDT I love Coldplay, especially Chris, and I love their songs. I am a big fan. I love Beyonce too. But I am not as clued into her music. Coldplays music is part of my morning routine. I wake up and listen to A Head Full Of Dreams (Coldplays new album) from start to finish, says Alia, adding, When I was there (at the concert), and I saw Coldplay and Chris on stage, I started crying. Imagine! I saw Chris Martin come up on stage and sing Yellow. I couldnt believe it. It was amazing. The energy was crazy in Berlin. It was great. Alia Bhatt says she started crying when she saw Chris Martin step on the stage at the Berlin concert. (REUTERS) Alia calls the experience epic, and adds that she can still relive those memories in her head. The stadium was huge. There were so many people there; around 80,000. I am a fan [of Chris], and I wish I could meet him, says the actor, who attended the concert with Deepika, Fawad and director Shakun Batra. Read: Acting is a lonely job, says Alia Bhatt In June, Bollywood actor Sonam Kapoor, too, had attended a Coldplay concert she had also met the band in London, UK. They (Coldplay) had a small charity function in London, and then this big tour [in Berlin]. I had the option of going for that event too. But I wanted to go for the main concert with real energy and lots of people, says Alia. Queen. A video posted by Alia (@aliaabhatt) on Jul 4, 2016 at 3:41pm PDT In June, Bollywood actor Sonam Kapoor, too, had attended a Coldplay concert she had also met the band in London, UK. They (Coldplay) had a small charity function in London, and then this big tour [in Berlin]. I had the option of going for that event too. But I wanted to go for the main concert with real energy and lots of people, says Alia. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Actor Amrita Rao is proud of her career choices, and says she never had a support system to help her find her footing in the film industry. I have been fortunate that my commercials became famous and the best directors have managed to work on my terms. I didnt have to chase anyone, says Rao. Read: Vivaah actor Amrita Rao ties the knot with RJ Anmol in Mumbai I never had any Godfather nor superstar boyfriends to piggy ride upon in the film industry. Most importantly I am immensely proud of the work I have done so far. However, the actor, who has given hit films such as Ishq Vishq (2003), Main Hoon Na (2004), Vivah (2006) and Welcome to Sajjanpur (2008), does feel that she has seen her share of failures. Actor Amrita Rao. (Rohan Shrestha) In 2010 I had signed three big banner films with actors like Amitabh Bachchan, Tabu, Arjun Rampal. Directors like Ken Ghosh, Bela Bhansali signed me and I had got my signing amounts but those films did not take off at all. I missed out on some important projects during that time and that was a big jolt to my career.I lost out on a lot of time and work, says Rao, who is currently seen in a television show. Read: Acting is a very precarious career, says Amrita Rao SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Nawazuddin Siddiqui is a regular at film festivals. His movies have been screened at Frances Cannes Film Festival, Canadas Toronto International Film Festival, and Germanys Berlin International Film Festival in the past. This time, the actor will be heading to Australia to be part of the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne. Nawaz will attend the screening of his last release, Raman Raghav 2.0, which was based on the life of the notorious serial killer Raman Raghav. Read Raman Raghav 2.0 review: A deadly killer is roaming around us Read: Doing international films is overrated: Nawazuddin Siddiqui A source says, Nawaz was delighted when he was asked to be part of the festival, especially because he would also get to meet Australian film-makers and cinema students there. He is expected to talk about the Anurag Kashyap directorial at the event. Nawaz has decided to push all his commitments to accommodate this special screening, which will be held on August 12. Read: Freaky Ali trailer: Nawazuddin Siddiqui in a never seen before role The Bollywood actor will also have a discussion with the audience post the screening. Anurag will be joining Nawaz during his two-day visit to the festival. We tried reaching Nawaz, but he remained unavailable for a comment. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The income-tax (I-T) department will crack down on shell or jamakharchi (deposit and withdrawal) companies that are used as money laundering tools. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) recently took a decision to focus on such companies as well as individuals and entities engaged in such activities, sources said. These operators have laundered several hundreds of crores of black money and have earned commission income, sources told HT. Kolkata-based tax authority , directorate of investigation, in its findings has said that a chunk of operators work from Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Delhi and Bengaluru. Principal chief commissioners of income tax Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Delhi and Bengaluru have been asked to take a suitable action against persons who had laundered black money with the help of such operators, sources said. According to the tax department investigations, these operators work through shell companies, which do not have any genuine business, and are formed and used for the sole purpose of giving accommodation entries by taking cash and introducing the equivalent amounts through cheques. Such conversions are made typically when people want to use illicit money to purchase land, jewellery and other valuable assets, sources said. In some cases, the taxmen have found that these shell companies are under the control of intermediaries, brokers, agents and even chartered accountants. These companies do not have any postal address and are called post-box companies, or suitcase companies, with no real office or employees. They are incorporated with just a few thousands or few lakh rupees as initial capital, sources said. In many cases, the I-T department has also found that the so-called directors of these companies are semi-literate, even illiterate, and work for those controlling the operations for a small salary or commission. The recent leaking of offshore financial records from Panama-based law firm, Mossack Fonseca, had put the focus on the role of shell companies and the global nexus back. The tax authorities are investigating the network of shell companies operating from tax havens, which are used to illegally shift assets and cash from one country to another and using structured transactions to evade tax. The I-T department has been wanting to take action against such shell companies for quite some time, but since they are formed with a proper legal structure, the government has been unable to nip them in the bud. It was a let-down for many people who had hoped that the RBI governor would give an interesting description about his three years at Indias central bank, on the occasion of his last monetary policy in office. They were banking on Rajans previous quotes about erring promoters, intolerant groups and India being the one-eyed king in the land of the blind; they also hoped (against hope) for a repeat of his famous quote on being Raghuram Rajan. I have enjoyed every minute of itThe most important thing is that at the end, you feel you have made a useful contribution. And some people are better off as a result of that. I think from that perspective this has been a fantastic job, Rajan said in reply to a question about his stint at the RBI. On critics, of which Rajan has had more than his share, the former chief economist of IMF, who now plans to go back to his teaching job, said: I have nothing to say...critics are there all the time. (But) there are also people who send messages from the back, anonymous notes saying thank you for what you are doing. So you get both the sidesthats part of the job. You have to take it as the costs and the benefits. Rajans last monetary policy as governor was also a personal affair as he was accompanied by his family wife, son and daughter. The RBI governor, who will complete his three-year term on September 3, has chosen to not seek a second term amid criticisms, mostly from BJP MP Subramanian Swamy who had levelled charges that Rajan was not fully Indian in the mind. Every day when my fellow colleagues at RBI and I sit together and work, we manage to move the needle forward a little bit and you leave the office saying you did something. There are very few places where you can have that sense of satisfaction. So it has been a fantastic experience and I hope there is some value added. Snap judgments either by critics or supporters arent really what matter. What matters is how this plays out in the longer run for stronger and sustainable growth. In our view, measures taken by us at the RBI were and are justified given the conditions that we have. People can have different judgments, let us see in 5 to 6 years time, how it pans out and then we see whether the judgment was good or bad, said Rajan. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Google has integrated a new feature in Google Search to allow users to book a table in a restaurant or order food from it directly from the search result page through Swiggy and Zomato. Feeling like having some Tandoori chicken from 21 Guns Salute in Gurgaon? Or wanting to book a table at Toit in Bangalore? Now you can do both right from Google search. From today, when people search for a nearby restaurant on their phone, theyll see an option to Place an order in the search results. Just tap that and choose your favourite delivery service like Zomato or Swiggy and youll be taken to their website to complete the order, Suren Ruhela, director, and Roli Agarwal, head, strategic partnerships, India, Google Maps and local search, wrote in a blog post. The Mountain View-headquartered giant also said it wants to make dining out easier, and hence it has some partner restaurants where the user can directly book a table from the search results without going through Zomato, Dineout or other such apps. Initially, users will be able to order food via Zomato and Swiggy, and make restaurant reservations with Dineout and Bytplus using Google Search and the Google app on an Android or iOS phone or tablet. These features are just rolling out and well be adding more partners and evolving the look and feel over time, Ruhela and Agarwal wrote. Googles move is expected to boost the fortunes of food-delivery apps, which have been reeling under losses. Zomato was forced to shut down in four cities earlier this year. Foodpanda and Swiggy both have reported huge losses. Google did not respond to HTs request for comments. Google Search in India has recently seen a lot of feature integrations, including direct flight searches. Users can see various options for flights on Google Search. Booking can be done directly via the airline website or via GoIbibo. There are also Crick scores and Olympic updates. HAPUR/GHAZIABAD: The police took a minor into custody for allegedly raping a four-year-old girl near her residence at a village in Hapur on Monday. The suspect was the victims neighbour and frequently visited her house. The girl identified him from several photographs of suspects shown to her. The police had picked up six suspects in the case. On August 5 night, the girl was found unconscious in a pool of blood behind a tube well, barely 100 metres from her house. He confessed to the incident and helped us recover the girls undergarments from an adjacent field. The victim told us the location of his house. The boy will turn an adult in a month as per his high school certificates, said Alankrita Singh, superintendent of police, Hapur. The police had registered a case under sections of rape, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, and the SC/ST Act against unidentified persons. Police sources said the boy, along with other teenagers, was roaming around on the day. He had drunk alcohol before the incident. Later, they bought Chinese food from a local stall. The others then went home. When his friends went away, he watched a Bollywood film on his mobile. Thereafter, he spotted the girl sleeping outside her house. He picked her up and took her to the tube well, where he raped her. He fled after leaving her unconscious. Later, he helped the villagers find the girl. He reportedly made videos of the jam caused by angry villagers on the highway the next day, a police source said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court on Monday stayed the enforcement of the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Scheme, 2015. Seven months ago, the Delhi government had notified the amended scheme to regulate street vending in Delhi. A bench of chief justice G Rohini and justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal said that the January 7 scheme was notified even before the constitution of the Town Vending Committees, which are mandated under the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014. The 2014 Street Vendors Act was enacted to protect the rights of urban street vendors and to regulate street vending activities. It came into force with effect from May 1, 2014. It says that the state government shall frame a scheme for street vendors for implementing the Act. The Act provides for constitution of a Town Vending Committee (TVC) in each local authority which will conduct a survey of all existing street vendors within the area under its jurisdiction to ensure that all existing street vendors identified in the survey are accommodated in the vending zones. Senior counsel Kirti Uppal, appearing for Hawkers Adhikar Suraksha Samiti, contended that the Delhi governments scheme was liable to be set aside as it has been made without consulting the TVCs as mandated under the 2014 Act. Advocate Indira Unninayar, who represented National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI), told HT, The latest scheme made by the Delhi government has put too many impossible restrictions on the vendors. They had started removing many vendors from different parts of the capital including Connaught Place, Lajpat Nagar, Sarojini Market etc. even before the setting up of the TVCs, she said. TVCs will not get the correct number of vendors operating in their area, as most of the vendors will be cleared by the time the committee executes its survey, Unninayar said. The court was told that TVCs have been constituted so far only for NDMC and Cantonment Area in May and the other committees are yet to be constituted. The court, which was hearing various petitions relating to implementation of the provisions of Street Vendors Act, 2014 and the Rules and the Scheme made by the Delhi government, has put up the matter for further hearing on September 8. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON NEW DELHI: A hundred Faculty of Law aspirants protested at Delhi University and the Delhi High Court on Monday against the delay in admission counselling as well as the Bar Council of Indias recommendation to reduce the colleges seat intake. The colleges three centres should each have only eight sections with 480 students, according to a report by BCI, which controls legal education in the country. This would mean the university can admit only 1,440 students as against the 2,310 seats declared by DU. Gaurav Arora from Faridabad, with a rank in early 800s, is now worried he will not be able to get a seat. The university released a schedule earlier where students up to rank 1,500 were called. Hopeful that I would qualify here I didnt take admission anywhere else, said Arora. Citing legal hurdles, DU twice postponed the admission counselling for the law programme. Aspirant Abhinav Arora wants to file a PIL against the seat reduction. There are many students who have left Banaras Hindu University, Aligarh Muslim University, Symbiosis University that they will get a seat in DU. I was called for BHU counselling but I didnt go. Now with this delay I am worried that my one year will be wasted. University and the court should understand and not mess with the future of thousands of students, said Govind Roy. I met with the students and gave them the BCI report. I have told them the university cannot do anything on the matter, said Faculty of Law dean SC Raina. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON NEW DELHI: German car-maker Mercedes on Monday told the Supreme Court that it is ready to impose a 1% environment cess on its buyers, a move aimed at getting rid of the ban on registration of diesel cars with engines of over 2,000cc in Delhi-NCR. Senior advocate Mohan Parasaran mentioned the companys application before a bench, headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur, which agreed to hear it on August 12. Parasaran insisted for a hearing despite the bench telling him it has reserved its verdict on the issue. Explaining the need for an urgent hearing, Parasaran told HT that in the absence of an order, high courts and state benches of the National Green Tribunal have started banning the sale of such cars. Referring to such an order in Kerala, he told HT, ...the Kerala NGT bench has put a ban on the sale of such cars. Some high courts are also following suit. Either the top court restrains them or gives an order soon because the prohibition (on registration) will shut down the (car) industry here. Mercedes submission is also seen as an attempt to counter the recommendation of the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority, which has proposed a green tax of 20-22% of the ex-showroom price of diesel vehicles. The Supreme Court had in December last year banned the sale of diesel vehicles with an engine capacity of 2,000cc or more in Delhi which is said to have the worst air quality among major capital sin the worldand its adjoining areas. The ban was to remain in place for three months but was extended indefinitely. Major car manufacturers and the Centre had sought relaxation from the Supreme Court, which on July 4 reserved its order, indicating that such vehicles may be allowed to be registered again on payment of 1%of the ex-showroom price as environmental cess. NEW DELHI: The city government on Monday told the Delhi High Court that it will not be able to come out with an order before Independence Day prohibiting use of Chinese manja a nylon thread coated with powdered glass for flying kites. A bench of chief justice G Rohini and justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal asked the Delhi government to come up with suggestions to avert accidents due to use of Chinese manja in the days running up to Independence Day and Raksha Bandhan. The court asked the Delhi governments senior standing counsel Rahul Mehra to give the suggestions on August 10, the next date of hearing, so that it can pass some directions to prevent accidents. Maybe from next year the rule would be in place, the bench said. Mehra told the court that the Delhi government has issued a draft notification for banning Chinese manja and only allowing kite-flying with a cotton thread or natural fibre, free from metallic or glass components. He said the draft notification was in the public domain inviting objections from the stakeholders. To implement it (the notification) in next four days is next to impossible. We need time. May be keeping in view the Independence Day we can issue advertisements and put hoardings to make the public aware about disadvantage of Chinese manjas, he said. BULANDSHAHR/GHAZIABAD: The Uttar Pradesh police on Monday arrested Saleem Bawaria, the prime suspect in the July 29 Dostpur highway robbery and gang rape incident, and two of his accomplices. The police had roped in nearly 180 specialised police officers to track Bawaria. Inspector general (Meerut zone) Sujit Pandey confirmed the arrests and said Saleem was nabbed along with his accomplice Zuber and Sajid. We expect that with Saleems arrest, nearly 20-22 cases would be opened up. Saleem and his men were involved in a recent case in Dostpur, the IG said. Uttar Pradesh director general of police Javeed Ahmad tweeted, Remaining 3 accused in Bulandshahr case arrested after week long chase across east India (sic). Police sources said most of the highway robbers travel on light vehicles to move to distant directions, but Saleems gang would board buses and trains to evade police patrols and checking on highways. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON NEW DELHI: Lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung on Monday directed all Delhi government departments to review decisions taken over the past one-and-a-half years and send all files for which approval has not been taken, to his office. The decision comes three days after the Delhi high court ruled that the lieutenant governor is the administrative head of the Capital. A senior Delhi government official said the AAP government would soon move Supreme Court against the high courts order and that it will bring clarity on the issue. In a memorandum to the Delhi chief secretary on Monday, the secretary to L-G, Vijay Kumar, said that in light of the high court order, all decisions that need his approval suffer from legal infirmities and will have consequential repercussions. The L-G directed the departments that no order will be issued in the future without the approval of the competent authority as per the prevailing constitutional scheme. The high court had on August 4 said the L-G is the administrative head of National Capital Territory of Delhi. It said the AAP governments contention that he is bound to act on the advice of council of ministers was without substance. The decision came after a long turf war over administrative jurisdiction between L-G Najeeb Jung and chief minister Arvind Kejriwals offices. All principal secretaries/ secretaries/HODs and all heads of autonomous bodies/corporations/boards/institutions, etc., concerned should immediately review all such orders issued and identify, by August 2016, those cases where prior approval of the Lieutenant Governor though required was not taken, the order said. All such cases may immediately be placed with appropriate proposal before the lieutenant governor, individually in the concerned file through proper channel and with the opinion/ vetting of law department, wherever required, it said. The L-G office said the departments need to review all orders that need the L-Gs approval, including those related to statutory notifications, conferment of statutory powers, amendments to acts/rules/statutes, constitution/reconstitution of various boards/commissions/ committees and appointment of chairman/members. NEW DELHI: The police have busted a gang of auto thieves who stole just for fun and seized 15 two-wheelers from them. Five people, including two minors, have been nabbed. The police claimed that they were part of two gangs of auto thieves. The gang members told the police that they used to steal bikes and scooters for fun. They said they stole the two-wheelers and used to go on a ride. They kept a vehicle with them till fuel lasted. After that they abandoned the vehicle and left. Police said two auto-lifters were part of the first gang and they targeted vehicles in the Ashok Vihar area. Nine vehicles were seized from them. Three others, two of whom are minors, formed the second gang. They operated in Swaroop Nagar area. Six two-wheelers were recovered from them. The first gang was busted when the two members were stopped for routine checking at a police picket in Wazirpur Industrial Area on Sunday. They were riding a red Pulsar bike. They were detained for questioning after they failed to show the registration certificate and other documents. They said they had stolen the motorcycle from Netaji Subhash Place on July 15. They said they operated as a gang and stole two-wheelers from the adjoining areas for fun. At their instance, five motorcycles and four scooties were recovered from Shamshan Ghat Shakurpur, Bhalswa Jheel and Mukraba Chowk areas, DCP (northwest) Vijay Singh said. Three other auto- lifters were detained when they did not stop at a police picket. They were riding a scooty and cautioned to stop at a police picket at Ganda Nala in Swaroop Nagar area. They tried to speed away but were detained after a chase. The trio confessed to have stolen the scooty and six other vehicles were recovered from their possession. An automatic Glock 9mm pistol that didnt fire on time aided the escape of a gangster from Delhi Police custody in Haryanas Bahadurgarh on July 30. The bullet was stuck in the pistols chamber when a police officer opened fire at armed men who had came to free the gangster. The police have ordered an inquiry into the prisoners escape and why the pistol did not work. Four Delhi Police officers escorting gangster Jitender alias Gogi in an interstate bus from Kashmere Gate to a Haryana court were attacked by Gogis gang members on the outskirts of Bahadurgarh on July 30 morning. Four men posing as passengers had boarded the bus before it reached Bahadurgarh. At 6am, when the bus reached Bahadurgarh, 10 armed men in two cars stopped it. A cop fired at the men but the bullet got stuck. The gangsters threw chilli powder at the policemen, freed Gogi, and fled with another officers MP5 rifle. The police have arrested four men, including an international-level boxer, a national games gold medal winner athlete and two more persons. One man, Sanjay alias Falla, was arrested on Monday, from GT Karnal Road. The third battalion cops, the unit in charge of transporting prisoners, told their seniors that they could not take Gogi in a secure police van as the Tihar Jail authorities had not put his name in high-risk prisoner category. Sources said no one at the Bahadurgarh police station could dislodge the bullet stuck in the chamber. It was later removed at the armoury of the 3rd battalions headquarters in Vikaspuri. A Glock 9mm pistol is automatic. We will review all other weapons because our officers escort high-risk prisoners. This cannot happen again, said a senior officer. The Glock pistol can fire 15 bullets at one go and is one of the most commonly used weapons by field officers and the crime branch. The Glocks replaced the old revolvers and regular 9mm pistols, which could accommodate only six and 10 bullets. Gogi, a resident of Alipur, has over 15 cases of murder, robbery and dacoity. In the past year, at least five men died in gang wars between the Gogi and Tillu groups. Till his arrest in March, he was carrying a reward of R2 lakh. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON New Delhi The income-tax department has allegedly recovered over `130 crore from Aam Aadmi Party MLA Kartar Singh Tanwar. The recoveries were reportedly made after the I-T department conducted raids at about a dozen offices and residences of Tanwar, his brother Chattar Singh and two of his business associates, sources said. Tanwar has been allegedly hiding illicit income parked in various properties, including farm lands and shopping complexes in Chattarpur, Fatehpur Beri and Mehrauli in Delhi, they said. The raids were conducted on July 27 at the residence and offices. Tanwar and his associates were involved in buying and construction of properties without declaring them in the annual returns and mentioning the source of income. A lot of documents have been seized, which are ownership papers of properties on power of attorney and not on the legal registration format, sources said. Some jewellery and cash have been recovered in the raids, the sources said without disclosing the amount. Terming the claims to be false, Kartar Singh said he had provided details of all assets and tax returns to the I-T department. I have no idea how the department has come to that figure. I dont have a single property that is unaccounted for. Besides giving all details to the I-T department, I have declared all my assets in my election affidavit, Singh told HT. Read: Now, I-T dept raids AAP MLAs farmhouse in south Delhi According to his affidavit submitted to the Election Commission before the 2015 assembly elections, Tanwars total assets amounted to `17.65 crore. His liabilities stand at `9.24 crore. Rejecting charges of vendetta behind income tax raids against an Aam Aadmi Party MLA, minister of state for finance Arjun Ram Meghwal on Tuesday said any lawmaker doing illegal things will have to face legal scrutiny. This government does not work with vendetta, he told reporters when asked to comment on the I-T raids against Tanwar. The AAP has termed the raids as witch-hunt by the BJP-led NDA government. With PTI inputs Walking into the Jama Masjid Metro station of the Heritage Line will be akin to a heritage walk. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) is installing panels, showcasing the architecture of the mosque -- arches, minarets, jharokas, domes and marble inlays that form the imposing red sandstone building. The panels will depict the mosque both in its historical and present context, said a DMRC spokesperson. Chandeliers will be used to highlight the beauty of the mosques imposing architecture. The mosque and its surroundings will be explained through an archival map showing its location in the imperial city of Shahjahanabad. A Google map will be used to explain its present setting in the city, the spokesperson said. Some panels will show the religious influences on Shahjahanabad, in the form of a montage of its various places of worship -- the Jain temple, the two Sunehri masjids, Gurduwara Sheesh Ganj Sahib, the Fatehpuri mosque and the lost Akbarabadi Masjid. The station will be the third Metro link to the Walled City. At present, Chawri Bazar and Chandni Chowk stations provide connectivity to the historical city of Shahjahanabad. The advantage that Jama Masjid station will provide is that it will help commuters escape the congestion in Chawri Bazar to reach the markets near the Mughal-era mosque. It will also provide connectivity from the Darya Ganj side. The station will improve connectivity to Matia Mahal, Dariba Kalan and Chawri Bazar. Read: ITO-Kashmere Gate: Delhi metros heritage line begins trial run this week The station is surrounded by landmarks such as the Kasturba Hospital, Meena Bazaar market, Parda Bagh and Mahavir Vatika. The station will be located beneath the Subhash Park once known as the venue of mud wrestling competitions or dangals. To ensure smooth passage to the areas around the station, Metro has planned four entry/exits one each near Red Fort, Netaji Subhash Marg, near Meena Bazaar towards Jama Masjid, and near Kasturba Hospital. Metro officials said tunneling work has been completed on both sides of the station. Tunneling between Delhi Gate and Jama Masjid was extremely challenging and a mid-shaft had to be constructed at Golcha cinema for retrieval of two Tunnel Boring Machine (TBMs). Three TBMs were used for tunneling from Jama Masjid to Delhi Gate as one had got stuck beneath Golcha after hitting a rock, the spokesperson said. The length of both tunnels from Jama Masjid to Delhi Gate and Red Fort is 1,067 metres. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Maxfort School on Tuesday moved the Delhi High Court, seeking contempt action against the Directorate of Education (DoE) for violating a court order on its takeover by the city government. The matter is listed for hearing on Wednesday. Last week, the high court had asked the government not to take any coercive steps in connection with the takeover of the school till further orders, and also appointed a local commissioner to visit the school and take custody of the schools entire record in both physical as well as digital form. The contempt petition filed by advocate Pramod Gupta, on behalf of the school, alleged that the officials of the DoE hindered the functioning of the local commissioner andeven tried to copy the data in separate pen drive and remove it from the school premises. The high court said on Wednesday that officers of the DoE shall not interfere with the functioning of the local commissioner, but shall be present for the purposes of observing the proceedings and for de-sealing and sealing the location where the records are kept. The order came on the plea of Maxfort School challenging the Lieutenant Governors approval given to the Delhi governments decision to take over the institutes two branches at Pitampura and Rohini. This is the first time the Delhi government has taken action against a private, unaided school after a clutch of complaints against it by the parents association. The DoEs counsel told the court that there were allegations of forged and fabricated records having been produced by the school. The department also said it feared the records would have been tampered with. The school, which has four branches in Delhi, is being currently run by the Chadha Educational Society and the S Jagat Singh Chadha Charitable Trust. The Pitampura branch has around 1,200 students in classes 1-8 and the Rohini branch has 1,800 students in classes 9-12. Following complaints that the school was collecting capitation fee and denying admission to poor students under the EWS quota, the government constituted two committees. The first was under the department of education and the other under the district magistrate, northwest district. On the recommendations of the two committees, the directorate of education issued show cause notices to the two branches of the school on April 11. The school was given 15 days to respond. After examining the responses, the government decided to take over the management of the school by the powers vested in it under the Delhi School Education Act. On Wednesday, a team visited both schools and took possession of the school property. Maxfort School then immediately approached the high court against the action. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON After Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs, it s now the turn of municipal councillors to feel threatened. The North Delhi Municipal Corporation has ordered installation of machans or watch towers for surveillance and increase in the number of armed security guards posted at the Civic Centre, the headquarters of the north and south Delhi corporations. The move comes days after eight AAP MLAs approached the Delhi speaker, asking for the installation of CCTV cameras in their assembly offices. Officials have been asked to establish machans in and around the Civic Centre to increase vigilance. The total number of armed guards stationed will be increased from 21 to 100, a senior official said. The Civic Centre is divided into five blocks and also houses offices of the income-tax department. The civic body has 400 armed guards deployed across the office building with an annual expense of R7.45 crore, borne by stakeholders. Senior leaders said the increase in security has been ordered to tackle any potential terrorist threat or a hostage situation. The Civic Centre houses the mayors of the two corporations and their commissioners and other department heads. The building also houses offices of the income-tax department. The building witnesses heavy footfall of residents and citizens, which makes security and safety even more important, said a senior municipal leader. Previously, the corporation had proposed the deployment of Delhi Police and CISF personnel. But this was turned down due to a financial crunch. Sources said officials had been asked to carry out a survey of any spot not covered by the CCTV cameras. Your Ola and Uber fares may be inflated by a fifth because of poor mobile network, preliminary results of a new government-authorised study has found. The app-based cab aggregators use GPS installed on the phone of the driver and not a physical meter like in an auto -- to compute the bill for a particular ride. But due to patchy mobile network, the phone frequently connects to a tower that may be far away from the pick-up and drop-off points, creating a discrepancy in the fares. The survey was conducted in Delhi but such discrepancies might be a pan-India phenomenon as poor mobile connectivity is a problem across the country. A recent survey by the International Center for Automotive Technology (ICAT), authorised by the Bureau of Indian Standards, found that app-based cab fares could vary as much as 56% from the actual bill. Over the course of the study, the discrepancy averaged out at 20%. While this notionally means that cab fares could also be lower than the actual bill, most cases in the study found that a malfunctioning GPS caused a jump in the tariff. The distance measurement accuracy varied from 0% to 56% under different situations, said the report. Both Ola and Uber refused to comment on the matter. Read more: End is near for surge fares as fresh law will cover Ola, Uber The study monitored five routes in Delhi, the longest being 21 kilometres, and used a dozen different devices procured by the aggregators. In some devices, the distance showed up as 28 km and in some as 22. It varied from device to device and network to network. We are planning to conduct an exhaustive research before coming to a conclusion, said an ICAT official. India is one of the worlds fastest-growing taxi markets and the two start-ups The Indian Ola and the United States-based Uber -- have been locked in a no-holds-barred fight over the past year to gain control. Ola is the market leader with services in over 100 cities but Uber is catching up fast. But the breakneck pace of growth set by the cab aggregators has run into regulatory headwinds recently. Delhi took Uber cabs off the roads last year after a professional was raped by a cab driver. In April, state governments in Karnataka and Delhi banned surge pricing a practice of increasing fares with rising demands. Two weeks ago, the Delhi high court told Ola and Uber that they cannot charge customers more than rates prescribed by the government. They were also asked to install meters in their vehicles, in accordance with the law. But the cab aggregators have resisted the move, instead commissioning ICAT to bolster the case for adopting GPS-based fare calculation by all cab companies. Ola and Uber were among the organisations that commissioned ICAT. But the study found problems with the GPS-based fare computation, saying billing would kick in only in places with adequate network and the phone would use a mobile tower far away to calculate distance. Many a time, the network is lost when you are in the middle of the trip, or going through the defence areas, where jammers are installed, the ICAT official said. Resistance to the opening of a mega mall in Alaknanda (near Greater Kailash-II) gained momentum as representatives of 20 RWAs met a Delhi Development Authority (DDA) panel on August 5. The committee was appointed by the Delhi high court last month to reconsider the approval granted by the agency for the construction of a mall on a 7.3 lakh square feet (sqf) plot between Kalka Public School and a petrol pump in Alaknanda. The residents represented Greater Kailash-II, Masjid Moth, Chittaranjan Park and Alaknanda. In 2007, DDA had sold 3.6 acres of land to a private developer for Rs 304 crores on a freehold basis. A plot measuring 15,000 square metre (approx) was allocated for the construction of the mall. However, residents claim that the land was originally earmarked to set up community facilities. They approached DDA officials but it didnt bring any results. Finally, the Citizen Alliance, an organisation from the area, took the matter to court. In 2013, the organisation filed a petition in Delhi high court against the DDAs sanctioning of the plan. On July 13, 2016, the court directed DDA to form a two-member panel comprising the commissioner (planning) and the commissioner for land disposal to take the opinion of all stakeholders and address the pleas of the petitioner within eight weeks. Later, the RWA members from the affected areas came out in large numbers and made a representation before the committee. This is a residential space and construction of a mall will lead to traffic chaos. Visitors will access the mall via colonies like CR Park and GK-II and this would lead to traffic mess, said Ashutosh Dikshit, president of Citizens Alliance. Residents said that a large mall in the middle of an old residential area is an example of flawed planning. To intensify their movement against the construction, the RWAs of Alaknanda, CR Park and GK-II have also placed hoardings outside their colonies saying No to Alaknanda Mega Mall. Ashok Puri, president of GK-II RWA, said the project has been approved without thinking about the repercussions in future. Meena Gangahar, a GK-II resident, said, We are worried that the development will change the character of the colony. It will lead to traffic jams, parking issues, pollution, crime, water and sewage problems and disrupt emergency health services. Ashish Dutta, secretary of East Bengal Displaced Association (EBDP), said the construction of the mall, touted as the second largest in Delhi, has worried residents. As it will be developed in the middle of a residential area, it will lead to major traffic problems. There are 16 schools in the area. During peak hours, the area is chock-a-block and inaccessible. The situation will worsen if the mall opens, he said. Vivek Sharma, general secretary of NRI Complex RWA and Citizen Alliance, claimed the project has been taken up in violation of the Master Plan of Delhi, 2021. He said, The place was originally earmarked for community facilities and not for constructing a mall. As per the Master Plan 2021, a mall needs a minimum space of 40 hectares and can be constructed in district centre, city centre or a metropolitan centre. He said in case of change of land use, ideally the DDA should invite objections and opinions from all stakeholders including the RWAs, but that hasnt happened. He claims to have gathered the facts through RTIs filed with DDA and Delhi Urban Art Commission, the agency that approved the project. On the other hand, a senior DDA official said, We met the RWA members and the points highlighted by them were discussed in detail. But we are yet to receive the opinion from other stakeholders including the Delhi Fire Services. Only after that we will submit a report to the high court. Nothing has been finalised yet. Despite HTs repeated request, Reliance Retail (the developer) didnt offer any response. Security forces deployed at the sensitive Delhi airport is learning from the attack on international airports such as Moscow and Istanbul. The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which is in charge of security at the airport, has proposed to install a vehicle scanners at the approach road, at least 500 metres away from the terminal building. According to the officials, scanners can detect explosives in vehicles. The scanners will be installed at every lane of CISFs checking barrier before the Terminal 3 and Terminal 1, which is 500 metres away from the main building. The force will have a hooter at the checking point to alert security personnel at the terminal building in case they come across a suspicious vehicle. We have a security check point before the terminal building where vehicles are stopped and check on random basis. But there is no mechanism to check if the vehicle has explosives in it, said a CISF official. Once we have the scanners, vehicle can be checked. There are bollards next to the checking point to stop vehicles. If a vehicle skips the bollards, we will press the hooter so that quick reaction teams (QRTs) can take position and minimise the damage, said a CISF official. Sources said the scanners will cost ` 2.5 crore each. Currently, passengers are allowed to enter the terminal without any security check. The security agency could not introduce the concourse checking plan, where passengers will be frisked at the entry gate itself. Checking is done on a random basis and attackers can cause real damage if they reach the terminal with arms and explosives. The CISF has also purchased explosive trace detectors (ETD) that can tell if anyone has touched explosive items in the past 24 hours. Since travellers spend considerable time before the security check at the airport, the CISF stops them randomly just after they enter the terminal. Based on profiling, they are taken to a separate enclosure and the ETD check is carried out. The device scans the baggage and the travellers hands to check if they have packed explosives in their luggage. At the Delhi airport, the CISF has separate enclosures located near the entry gate, where they check suspicious-looking travellers. The CISF is planning to use hand-held ETDs to check passengers with artificial limbs so they do not have to go through the trauma of removing it during security check. The Delhi Police, which conducted a tree census at Red Fort as part of security preparations before Prime Minister Narendra Modis address on August 15, said there are 3,140 trees 2,400 inside and 740 on its periphery - in and around the monument. Police said they had marked the trees so that armed security personnel could be positioned to cover the whole area. Our men will be responsible for covering at least 20-30 trees, said special commissioner SBK Singh. The previous two Independence days, Modi addressed the crowds from the ramparts of Red Fort without a bullet-proof glass protection. In the backdrop of intelligence agencies sending inputs about terror threats ahead of Independence Day, trees have been trimmed and lights placed on the ground. There will be adequate number of security personnel at the venue hours before the celebrations start. I wont reveal security details, Singh said. The Delhi police said this was the first time a tree census was conducted. Over the past month, cops brainstormed on how to cover the whole area. Sources said the threat to Modi was very high this time. Only those vehicles cleared by security personnel and with anti-sabotage (AS) check stickers on their cars will be allowed parking near Red Fort. The stickers indicate the vehicle has been checked. Madhur Verma, DCP (north), said security personnel at the 11 authorised lots will paste stickers on vehicles. Once pasted, the stickers cannot be removed and re-used on any other vehicle. Vehicles without AS Check stickers will not be allowed to park, said Verma. Around 200 commandos from the National Security Guards, SWAT teams and Border Security Force will be posted within 500 metres of the ramparts. The commandos will be equipped with automatic Beretta assault rifles and communication gadgets, which help them stay connected with other commandos and the control room. The commandos are trained snipers who can fire from any position or situation, an officer said. Police will use panoramic photography to capture a panorama of the buildings around Red Fort. Nearly 605 balconies and 104 facing Red Fort will be under watch. Armed police officers will be on guard at each of these balconies and windows. More than 500 CCTV cameras have been installed at the venue and on roads to be taken by VVIPs and the PMs motorcade from his 7 RCR residence to Red Fort. The camera surveillance began on August. The Delhi Polices quick reaction teams, bomb and dog squad and medical teams will be deployed at the venue. A no-fly zone will be in place around the Fort. There will be security at installations such as Parliament complex, airport, railway stations and metro stations. Thank you for reading! To read this article and more, subscribe now for as little as $1.99. As her name suggests, Lucknows Ananya Verma is a unique child. Just short of her fifth birthday, Ananya is all set to get admission in Class 9 in a city school if the state education department gives its consent. And it will be the first time she will ever go to a school. The story of her two elder siblings is no different. Her brother Shailendra became the countrys youngest computer science graduate in 2007 when he was just 14 and sister Sushma holds the Limca Book of Records for becoming the youngest matriculate at seven. She enrolled in a PhD course at the age of 15 last year. Born on December 1, 2011, Ananya can read all kinds of books, including the Ramayana and the Hanuman Chalisa, with ease. Read more: 13-yr-old set to be Indias youngest post-graduate in 2015 My elder daughter, Sushma, went to St Meeras. This school is willing to take the child (Ananya) in Class 9. But there are certain formalities and hence she cannot be enrolled without official permission, Ananyas father Tej Bahadur, who works as a peon in a university, said. We never force her to study. When I return home from the university, she insists that I help her in her studies. Her ability to grasp new topics is commendable, Sushma, who mostly helps her in mathematics, said. The school has allowed Ananya to attend classes as she waits for the education departments permission. She has been going to school regularly for the last 10-15 days and is already quite popular among students. Read more: 15-year-old Lucknow girl is Indias youngest PhD student The management of St Meeras School is also very happy to have Ananya. We spotted abundant talent in Ananya just like Sushma. We groomed Sushma after she came to our school in Class 9 when she was just 5. We will work extra with Ananya also. Her fingers are very small. She needs to be given special attention, particularly in mathematics. Our trained educators will conduct extra sessions with her, school manager Vinod Ratra said. He said in Sushmas case the then district inspector of schools Vikas Srivastava gave her the permission and she could then attend school. We are awaiting approval from the secondary education department. Ananya is coming unofficially to the school and attending classes. But formal admission will be given once we get the approval, Ratra added. Read more: Lucknow girl enters record books as youngest matriculate Tej Bahadur has no words except those of gratitude for the goddess of learning, Saraswati, who he says has blessed his children. I am illiterate and cannot guide my children. Whatever they have achieved is the grace of Ma Saraswati, he said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to interfere in an Uttarkhand police probe into alleged leak of question paper for the national eligibility cum entrance test (NEET) for admission to medical colleges. The plea filed by NEET aspirant Anshul Sharma sought a status report on the leak and wanted it submitted to the top court. Read more: Plea on alleged NEET paper leak to be heard by SC on Tuesday Sharma had said the five persons arrested by the Uttarakhand Police on July 23, a day before the Phase 2 of the entrance test, were part of an inter-state racket. He withdrew the petition after the SC asked him to approach the high court. The CBSE, which had rejected the paper-leak claim, had gone ahead with the exam. NEET-1 was held on May 1. The combined result will be declared on August 17. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON As Independence Day approaches, lets go back in the past to look at Delhi University (DU) and life as it was for students then. Many of them during the British Raj had bigger issues to take on, the most important being garnering support for an independent nation. Octogenarian Dr Aparna Basu, a professor of history at DU and author of the book University of Delhi (1922-1997) Platinum Jubilee is a storehouse of information, a walking talking encyclopaedia on what life was like for students in the pre-Independence days. And this is what she has to say. Watch video: 69 years ago, Delhis college students had a date with freedom DU was established in 1922 as a unitary, teaching and residential university. Students were not encouraged to participate in political activities. College principals were forced to take strict action because the British, on many occasions, threatened to withhold government grants, which were essential for the survival of colleges. The university then received Rs lakh a year as funds from the government of India under the British rule, Basu says. Under the original plan, DU was to be established on Curzon Road or Kasturba Gandhi Marg (HT file) Only four colleges existed before Independence in Delhi. St Stephens College was founded in 1881, Hindu College in 1899 and Lady Hardinge Medical College for Women in 1916. Ramjas College was founded in 1917. All of them were then affiliated to Punjab University. During the Civil Disobedience Movement in the 1930s, students of a DU college put up the national flag on the flags taff on campus. During the Quit India Movement on August 10, 1942 a vociferous gathering of Hindu College students and ladies from Indraprastha College collected outside Stephens and urged Stephanians to join them in a procession to support the Congress leaders who had been jailed the previous day. The crowd marched down Alipur Road, passing enroute IP College whose authorities had shut the gates to prevent the girls from joining in. They resourcefully jumped down the walls assisted by willing Stephanian hands and the procession continued down Chandini Chowk, shouting slogans, says the late veteran journalist Ajit Bhattacharya in Basus book. Only 3,400 students were enrolled in DU before Independence (HT file) In 1946, Sameeruddin Khan, a Stephanian, was successful in disrupting the morning assembly and with 50 to 100 boys boycotted classes to organise a protest march. They pulled down the Union Jack from the flagstaff. According to Meena Bhargava, author of Women, Education and Politics The Womens Movement and Delhis Indraprastha College, several students joined the All India Students Federation (AISF) formed in 1936 to defy the British Raj and participate in the national movement. Later, a girl students committee was also constituted to mobilise young women across the country. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Actor Jimmy Smits has confirmed he will make a cameo appearance in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Starring as Senator Bail Organa, who was also Princess Leias adoptive father, in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones and Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, he will reprise his role in the upcoming stand-alone movie, reported Aceshowbiz. Read: Star Wars Rogue One unveils stunning new footage, epic new poster Fans can expect a glimpse of him when a new trailer for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story premieres during Rio Olympics on NBC on Thursday, August 11. Bail died in A New Hope, but he will appear in Rogue One as it takes place between the events of Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. Read: Star Wars Rogue One unleashed upon the world, new Vader trailer leaked In an interview on The Talk, Smits, 61, said, People got nothing better to do then to look at these little things? Theres stuff going on in the world! He added, Can you say the word cameo? Can you say the words small part? In the upcoming Star Wars stand-alone film, Smits joins Felicity Jones, who portrays Jyn Erso. She is a Rebellion soldier and outlaw who is about to experience her biggest challenge when Mon Mothma gives her a mission to steal the plans for the Death Star. With the aid of the Rebels, a master swordsman and non-allied forces, Jyn will be in for something bigger than she thinks. Read: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is in trouble and Disney is not happy Rogue One: A Star Wars Story also stars Diego Luna, Mads Mikkelsen, Forest Whitaker, Alan Tudyk, Donnie Yen, Ben Mendelsohn, Riz Ahmed and Jonathan Aris. Based on a screenplay written by Chris Weitz and directed by Gareth Edwards, the film hits US theatres on December 17 this year. Follow @htshowbiz for more Around 43% doctors in Haryana civil hospitals are not available for patient care. The data of a recent internal survey of the health department accessed by the Haryana Civil Medical Services (HCMS) Association reveals a worrying condition of the states healthcare. The data reveals that of the 3,228 sanctioned posts of civil surgeons and medical officers, only 1,769 are actually working for patient care. The rest of the doctors are on long leave or have gone on to pursue PG courses, or are on deputation or have resigned. The crunch has also hit specialists at these civil hospitals, where out of 794 posts, only 620 are actually working in the state. To make the matters worse, only 552 of these 620 doctors are on active medical duty, while the remaining hold administrative positions in the department. The HCMS Association, however, claims the number of doctors available for patient care is even less and its blames the government for the shortage. These figures are just on papers. The actual reality will be even worse. The government has not revised the cadre as per the increasing population, due to which the doctors are flooded with patients. We are not able to give quality treatment to anyone, said, Dr Sheel Pajni, the vice-president of the association. The data also reveals that the state is short of primary as well as community health centres (PHCs and CHCs). For 165 CHCs required, the state has only 119, and as against the required 550 PHCs, the state has only 486. The association said the shortage was due to governments unwillingness to give good salaries to specialist doctors. No one wants to join the services in Haryana because they can get more money in private hospitals or in other states, Dr Pajni said. The association has also threatened to launch a stir if their demands, including special packages for doctors and salary at par with Delhi government hospitals, were not met by the end of the current month. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A speeding container truck crushed seven pilgrims to death and injured five others in Ayodhya on Tuesday morning, police said. The deceased included four women and three men, all residents of Kanpur. The pilgrims had come to participate in the month-long saawan mela organised on the banks of Saryu in Ayodhya. The incident took place at around 3 am when the pilgrims were sleeping on the pavement along Ayodhya-Basti bypass road. The police control room received information nearly two hours after the incident when some locals spotted the bodies on the pavement. Efforts are on to trace the driver. The deceased were identified as jeep driver Uma Shanker Dubey, Ram Kishori Mishra, Leela Tiwari, Pannu and his wife Slok Kumari. The identity of a woman could not be ascertained till reports last came in. Two pilgrims, Amit Pandey and Aniruddh, who were critically injured, were rushed to KGMUs trauma centre in Lucknow and three others were admitted to a local hospital. Umesh Bahadur Singh, spokesperson for the inspector general (Lucknow zone), told HT that the truck driver lost control of his vehicle and hit the pavement, where the victims were sleeping, before fleeing toward Lucknow. Police were trying to identify the truck with the help of CCTV footage, he added. A bill that seeks to amend the Maternity Benefit Act and extend the maternity leave benefits to adopting and commissioning mothers is likely to be introduced in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. The bill recognizes that women who adopt or use a surrogate to bear a child also need time to bond with the child in the initial months and should be entitled to a three month maternity leave. As of now there is no provision for any kind of leave for such mothers. It also proposes to increase the maternity leave for working women in both private and government sector to six-and-a-half months. Currently women in private sector are allowed a maternity leave of three months while those in government sector are entitled to a leave of six months. PROPOSED AMENDMENTS Increase in maternity leave to six-and-a-half months in govt and private sector Women, who adopt or use a surrogate to bear a child should be entitled to a three month maternity leave Employers in establishments with 30 women or 50 employees, whichever is less, will have to provide creche facility Creche facilities will be provided either in office or in any place within a 500- metre radius The bill is gender neutral and will allow fathers to take their children to creche, if its far off from the mothers workplace It will be the responsibility of labour inspectors to ensure compliance to the provisions If the maternity leave is increased, India would be among the 40 countries in the world where the maternity benefit is over 18 weeks. The International Labour Organizations (ILO) Maternity Protection Convention mandates a minimum 14 weeks of maternity benefit to women but recommends that countries should increase it to 18 weeks. According to the bill, employers in establishments with 30 women or 50 employees, whichever is less, will have to provide creche facilities either in office or in any place within a 500-metre radius. The bill, which is piloted by the Union labour ministry, is also gender-neutral. This, a senior government official said, will allow even a male employee to take his child to a creche, if it is far away from the mothers workplace. It will be the responsibility of labour inspectors to ensure compliance to the provisions of the Maternity Benefit Act. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON BrahMos, the worlds fastest supersonic cruise missile, might soon become a part of the Indias defence capabilities if its test firing later this month is successful. The crucial test launch will be carried out from a specially-modified Sukhoi-30 fighter jet for the first time at the Chandan firing range in Pokhran, Rajasthan the Indian Air Force (IAF)s biggest air-to-ground range where fighter pilots train on delivering heavy weapons. Five such tests will be conducted before the programme enters its next phase. BrahMos Aerospace CEO, Sudhir Mishra, told Hindustan Times the test-launch is significant as such trials were fraught with risks. Dozens of fighters have been lost globally during similar trials. The missiles separation from the plane has to be clean and precise. We would like to pray on Janmashtami (August 25) and conduct the test on August 26 or 27, he said. Two Su-30 jets have been modified by the Nasik division of the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited to carry the 2.5-tonne missile that flies at nearly three times the speed of sound. The missiles land and naval variants 500kg heavier than the air version are already in service. It has a range of 290 km. A Su-30 flew with an integrated BrahMos missile, an Indo-Russian joint venture, for the first time on June 25, and so far, 10 sorties have been carried out to test the cruise missiles behaviour during complex supersonic manoeuvres. The next round of tests in October will focus on transfer alignment. The fighter has to send alignment information to the missile and vice-versa. Any kind of alignment error will lead to the target being missed, Mishra said. This will be followed by a test in December against a moving target at sea followed by another one against a land target in mid-2017. If all of these tests are successful, the BrahMos will be ready for deployment, and at least two Su-30 squadrons of 40 planes are likely to be equipped with it. Mishra said there had been some delay in the programme as modifying Su-30s took a lot of time, and there was no historical data to prepare for the tests. We are the first ones in the world to carry out such activity so there have been some delays. But the newly-developed capability has the potential to shift military equilibrium in Indias favour, Mishra said. A 15-year-old Dalit girl was allegedly gangraped while her 16-year-old sister was sexually harassed in Baroda Mor village in Sonepats Gohana tehsil by their distant cousin and two other men on Tuesday. Police said the victims were students of Class 9 and 10. Gohana is infamous for castebased violence. The state is witnessing regular protests over increasing atrocities against Dalits. In July, a Dalit girl was gangraped in Rohtak, triggering protests. Baroda police station incharge inspector Rajpal said three persons have been booked but refused to share the details. We have registered a case and are waiting for the medical report, he said. Sonepat superintendent of police HS Doon and Rohtak range inspector general of polcie Sanjay Kumar remained unavailable for comment despite repeated attempts. Talking to Hindustan Times, victims father accused the SHO of delaying the registration of FIR. Ive been at the police station since morning, but the FIR was registered late at night, he said. The FIR copy accessed by HT revealed that the three accused Ajay, Balram and Pradeep have been booked under sections 376 (rape), 354A (sexual harassment) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code and other relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences and SC/ST Act. Victims father said Ajay is their distant relative while Balram and Pradeep were from his village. It was closing in on midnight on June 28 when a passerby noticed a bag lying unattended at a bus stand close to the popular Select Citywalk in the south Delhis Saket. The police control room (PCR) was alerted, bomb disposal squad called in and after a two-hour drill the areas was declared safe. The bag was clean there were no explosives. Shopping malls are looking increasingly vulnerable. Malls are high-impact targets large-scale fatalities and maximum publicity. A German teenager obsessed with mass shootings shot dead nine people in a shopping centre in Munich on July 23. Sixty-seven people were killed when al-Shabab militants struck the upscale Westgate mall in the Kenyan capital Nairobi in 2014. Lone-wolf or an organised strike, malls are at an equal risk of both. A week after suspected ISIS gunmen left 22 diners dead in 12-hour Dhaka cafe siege in Bangladesh on July 1, HT visited Select Citywalk with an expert for an on-spot check. The mall is one of the most popular ones in the city, with a daily footfall of around 40,000 visitors. Former additional commissioner of police (crime) Ashok Chand, who has investigated several terror cases, including the 2001 Parliament strike, shared his assessment with HT. Read all the stories in this series here THE PROTOCOL The PCR van is the first on a spot but the personnel can turn to the local police station if they find the threat too serious. The Saket police station, responsible for the mall, has 250 personnel. In case the local police sense the threat to be beyond their control, they can alert the SWAT (special weapons and tactics) team, which takes 20 to 25 minutes to arrive, said Chand. The Delhi Polices SWAT team has 135 commandos, 45 of them ready for an emergency. Shifts are rotated so that every 15 days a group is out training. Every evening the 45 members are split into groups of five to six commandos and stationed at randomly picked public places, including malls. The National Security Guard, the countrys elite anti-terror force, is the last line of defence. They step in if the SWAT team struggles to contain a situation, Chand said. Police have a contingency plan for all popular spots that is reviewed every six months. Blueprints and positioning of snipers are all there in the plan. Mock drills are also a regular affair. But is that enough? Across the world quick reaction teams the first on a scene of terror or crime -- are an elite bunch, well- trained with anti-terror experts in the ranks and bulletproof vehicles and hi-tech weaponry to back them. In Delhi, the QRT vehicle, which is the PCR van, is usually a Maruti Gypsy or a worn-out Ambassador car, outsourced from a private cab company. The drivers are not police officers but employees of the cab firms. SWAT teams fare no better. Only three SWAT vehicles are blast-proof and there is no way to ensure that an armoured vehicle is the one stationed close to Select Citywalk or for that matter any other mall. Read | Madurais Meenakshi Temple not equipped to handle lone-wolf attacks: Experts THE ASSESSMENT Chand found frisking to be thorough and vehicle checks intensive at the mall. The internal private security of Select Citywalk is vigilant. They are supplementing the police efforts in keeping the area safe and secure, he said. Two constables are deployed at the mall. The purpose of these regular deployments is to strengthen our quick response system in case of an emergency, a special cell police officer said. A network of CCTV cameras watches visitors, with at least six people monitoring the feed in control rooms. A PCR van is parked outside the mall in the evening when the number of visitors multiplies so does the threat. Read | Cyberabad IT Parks guards cant hold off terrorists for even 3 mins: Expert THE RISKS The malls location posed a risk, said Chand. People from south Delhi, the tony part of the Capital, frequent the mall. This place is a potential threat because terrorists want to target those areas which can give them maximum publicity, Chand said. He warned of several scenarios playing out in the mall. A suicide bomber can play havoc. Armed terrorist can enter the building and take hostages. Gunmen can resort to indiscriminate firing or bombs can be placed in a container to cause maximum casualties, Chand said. The mall was not prepared for an attack or a hostage situation. There are no armed commandos anywhere. What will happen if there is an armed intrusion? Yogeshwar Sharma, the malls executive director, said sharing crucial information on armed guards is not in their interest. In the prevailing environment, it is not possible to guarantee 100% safety and security. We are taking all measures to prevent any such activity in coordination with the Delhi Police, Sharma said. Read | Red alert: Why alarm bells should be ringing at Mumbai airport SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON He has been cited by Rush Limbaugh, quoted in the New York Times, featured at Real Clear Politics and Lucianne.com and interviewed on radio, TV and in social media. Inducted into the Philadelphia Public Relations Hall of Fame, for many years he served as a Lecturer in Corporate Communication at Penn State University. A former President of the Philadelphia Public Relations Association (PPRA) he has lectured at Rowan University, Temple University, The College of New Jersey and Arcadia University. He has conducted workshops on public relations for thousands of participants throughout the nation and has taught countless others the art of public speaking. He has also advised numerous lawyers, judges, public officials and political candidates. Cirucci is a prolific writer and his op-ed pieces have appeared in the Philadelphia Daily News, Philadelphia Inquirer, Courier-Post and other publications. A native of Camden NJ, Cirucci is a former President of the Philadelphia chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators. Cirucci served as Associate Executive Director of the Philadelphia Bar Association for nearly 30 years. He served as Chair of Penn State University's Professional Advisory Board for the Corporate Communication major at Penn State Abington and on the Pennsylvania Bar Association's Judicial Selection Commission. He received his MA degree from Rowan University and his BA from Villanova University. He has been named a Distinguished Alumnus of Rowan's public relations program and received the E. A. "Wally" Richter Leadership Award, the highest honor from the National Association of Bar Executives' Communications Section. He has also been honored by numerous other local, state and national groups. Cirucci's passions include politics, the popular culture, books and authors, art, communication, music, theatre, movies, dining and travel. In his hometown of Camden, Cirucci taught fifth grade at the Ulysses Wiggins Elementary School named for the founder of the Camden NAACP. There he was one of the first teachers in the country to teach African-American history to inner city students. He later served as editor of a local weekly newspaper, as Assistant to the Township Manager of Cherry Hill Township and as Associate Director of Communications at the New Jersey State Bar Association. He's Dan Cirucci, the founder and editor-in chief of the Dan Cirucci Blog, Matt Rooney's sidekick on Save Jersey's videocasts and one of the most widely honored public relations professionals in his field. He's also been a public relations consultant to numerous organizations and individuals and hosted The Advocates on RVN-TV. The ruling NDA government, economists and even the opposition is optimistic about the Goods and Services Tax. But Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy is not. A day after the 122nd constitution amendment bill was cleared by Parliament, ending the legislations five year-long hibernation, Swamy raised questions if the future GST act can withstand legal scrutiny. I am confident Smart Cities will be a reality in 2018 but not sure if the future GST Act can survive in SC because of GSTN-- a PC time bomb, Swamy tweeted on Tuesday morning. I am confident Smart Cities will be a reality in 2018 but not sure if the future GST Act can survive in SC because of GSTN-- a PC time bomb Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) August 9, 2016 By PC era, Swamy meant the duration when P Chidambaram was the finance minister of the previous UPA government. Read | Parliament clears GST bill, Modi calls it a great step towards transformation The Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) is the special purpose vehicle that was formed to create the information technology backbone to the roll-out of the new, nationwide tax that will replace myriad local levies. In the GSTN, the government of India holds 24.5 % share. State governments, including NCT of Delhi and Puducherry, and the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers, together hold another 24.5%. Balance 51% equity is with non-government financial institutions. Swamy, a Harvard-returned economist, has not been a vocal supporter for the GST. He is also known to have a bitter equation with Chidambaram who is now in the same Rajya Sabha, where Swamy is a member. During the seven-hour-long debate on the GST bill in the Upper House last week, the BJP did not allow Swamy to participate. The BJP leader also re-tweeted an article that questioned why the tax collection management of GST has been given to an entity where private players have a majority stake. On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the GST bill will liberate people from tax terrorism as the Lok Sabha passed a Constitution amendment bill for GST. Modi also said the consumer will be king in the new system and hailed the new tax regime as pro-poor and pro-consumer. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Young Rameshbhai Chavda is stoic but determined as he raises his right hand to take a vow that will put an end to his traditional occupation: skinning dead bovines. The 36-year-old Gujarati is among thousands of Dalits who are rattled by the July 11 Una incident, and has sworn to discontinue with what has been an age-old means of livelihood for the marginalized community. Chavda lives in Polarpur off the state highway 36 in central Gujarat. The village, with 1,200 families, is in a state of frenzy amid a 350-km march led by a social activist from the state capital to Saurashtra regions Una, where cow protectors thrashed four Dalits last month. The 10-day Dalit Asmita Yatra (originally named Azadi Kooch) under Ahmedabad-based lawyer Jignesh Mevani halted at Polarpur, where abharchhetuntouchability in Gujaratiis prevalent. Having seen videos of the July 11 Una atrocity, Chavdaalong with several of his fellow Dalitshas decided to stop doing what had been his forefathers profession for generations. Chavda was 11 years old when his father took him to a patch of barren land near the stream on the outskirts of their village in Barwala taluk of Ahmedabad district. The boy felt like throwing up on seeing cattle carcasses all around, but he was left with no choice. We have been chosen to serve people, Meghjibhai Chavda told his son. Do the task that none else can do. Meet Rameshbhai Chavda: A cow skinner from Gujarat who left his profession In the subsequent weeks, Ramesh would be summoned every time a cow or buffalo died in the locality. They used to even come to my school to call me. And I would go running to the place, he recalls. In fact, I felt indispensable. That gave me a high. A quarter century thence, Chavda is one of the three cow skinners in his village. The profession has become a source of livelihood for his family. The skin of one bovine will fetch me Rs 300 to 500 in the local market, says the father of a 17-year-old boy. In recent times, he also works as a farm labourer in nearby villages. Cow-skinning became my supplementary source of income, he adds. That was till late last month when he saw a video of the Una incident. The footage of cow-vigilante men flogging four half-naked Dalit men who skinned a cow continues to go viral on social media. It is fine if you consider us inferior and dont care us. But dont torture us, says Chavda. On an average, Chavda would dispose off six to 10 cows a month. (Siddharaj Solanki/HT Photo) What they had kept silent about all these years has become a subject of prime-time TV debates across the nation. The community has found numerous representatives and spokespersons. Multiples videos of Dalit atrocities before and after Una are being circulated on social media. As the ongoing agitation penetrates into villages of the state, Dalits such as Ramesh are in a flux. Now when they have declared the decision to discontinue their traditional occupation, what is in store for Chavda and fellow members of the community? Will the government give them alternate livelihood? Chavda is not sure, but prefers to live in the moment. He has high hopes from the upcoming convergence of Dalits at Una on August 15. I will go there and mark my presence, he avers. It is another matter no one is certain about the form the movement takes in the future or what result it would yield. Related stories Read all the stories on this topic here Word for word: When Dalits use jokes, puns to protest in Gujarat Academic and activist: Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani rises in Gujarat Prime Minister Narendra Modi has in recent days hit out at self-styled gau rakshaks for running shops in the name of cow protection. Cow protectors, however, flourished in his home state Gujarat when he was the chief minister. Between 2011 and 2014, the Gujarat government headed by Modi had disbursed Rs 75 lakhs in cash rewards to 1,394 vigilantes for raiding illegal cattle transporters and filing FIRs against them, the website of the government-run Gauseva and Gauchar Vikas Board (GGVB) states. Almost an equal amount was given to 2,321 shelter providers for the rescued bovines. To provide further motivation to the cow protection volunteers, Rs 3.75 lakh was given to the top performers, which included recipients of the biennial Best Cow Protector award. Read| At town hall event, PM Modi says self-styled cow protectors make him angry In the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Modi also denounced the pink revolution (beef exports). The GGVB was set up under the animal husbandry department in 1999, but remained defunct for almost a decade before Modi revived it in 2010. To make it proactive, his government introduced a slew of schemes, including a cash reward of Rs 500 for every FIR registered against cattle smugglers and transporters. There was even a biennial Best Cow Protector award worth Rs 25,000. According to its website, the main objective of the GGVB is to coordinate with groups involved in preventing slaughter of cow and progeny and effective implementation of cow protection laws. The then Modi government also increased the annual grant to the GGVB from Rs 1.5 crore to Rs 150 crore. In 2011, the state assembly also passed the Gujarat Animal Preservation (Amendment) Act 2011 that made transportation, consumption and sale of cow and progeny illegal. Before the new law was enacted, only slaughter of cows, calves, bulls and bullocks were banned. Earlier, the penalty for violating the cow protection laws included imprisonment up to one year and fine of Rs 1,000. The amended Act provided jail terms up to seven years or fine of Rs 50,000, or both. Of the Rs 150 crore annual grant, Rs 100 crore is spent on developing pastoral lands. The remaining amount is utilised on various cattle welfare and protections schemes, says GGVB chairman Dr Vallabh Kathiria. The boards revival and enactment of the stringent law coincided with the rise in the number of groups involved in cow protection. Currently, 50 such groups are active under the larger Gau Rakshak Dal (GRD) umbrella having roughly 10,000 members. Modis criticism has not been received well by the gau rakshaks. Read| Why RSS will not like PM Modis comment on cow vigilantes The statement of the Prime Minister is like an encouragement to slaughter houses. For the safety of genuine gau rakshaks, the government should start issuing identity cards, says Mayur Thakkar, president of the state GRD. According to Thakkar, a Best Cow Protector awardee of 2012, groups affiliated with the GRD have filed roughly 100 cases annually over the last four years. Neha Patel, probably the only woman Gau Rakshak in Gujarat, feels the PMs statement that 70-80% vigilantes are anti-social elements is an exaggeration. There are fake gau rakshaks too, but their percentage would be around 20 and not 80 as mentioned by the PM. Read| Attack me, shoot me if you want, but dont attack Dalits: PM Modi SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The district administration of Nalanda said on Tuesday it has initiated the process to impose a fine of Rs 5,000 on every household of Kailashpuri village as collective penalty for violating the prohibition law in Bihar. This is probably the first instance of application of the tough prohibition law in the state by imposing the collective fine as incorporated in the amended law. District magistrate Tyagrajan S M said the process has been started to impose collective fine on all the 50 households of the village in Islampur block following recovery of liquor bottles. The administration of Nalanda, the home district of chief minister Nitish Kumar, has repeatedly appealed to the villagers to keep off liquor which is banned since April 5 in the state, but liquor business has continued in the area. As per the various amendments introduced in the Bihar excise and prohibition law that got Bihar Legislatures nod during the monsoon session recently, a collective fine can be imposed on the entire village or town if a group of people repeatedly violate the prohibition law. As per the law, there is a provision to impose a fine of upto Rs one lakh if the law is violated, the DM said. Besides, the district administration has also initiated the process to confiscate assets of three hotels from where liquor bottles were found, the DM said. The DM said 189 persons have been arrested between April 1 and August 7 in Nalanda district while 1,083 litres of country made liquor, 1,527 litres of IMFL, six litres of beer and 109 litres of toddy were seized during this period. He appealed to those engaged in hotel business to abide by the prohibition law as their properties would be confiscated if found indulged in liquor business. Read| Bihar stares at mass stir by police officers over liquor suspensions Amid reports of provocative remarks against India by Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin, the US has said such rhetorics are unhelpful for regional safety and security and emphasised the need for talks between India and Pakistan. What I would say is I have seen reports, and anything that does not lead to a calm and peaceful and moderate resolution of differences is not helpful, the State Department spokesperson Elizabeth Trudeau told reporters during her daily news conference. We believe that for regional safety and security, it is the responsibility of the two countries not only to speak directly to each other but also to have that support within the broader international community, Trudeau said. She was responding to questions on reports that Salahuddin threatened to wage a nuclear war against India over the Kashmir issue. I am not going to respond to every piece of rhetoric that I have seen coming out of that. Of course violence is a concern to us, but what I would say is that issues like this are best resolved through dialogue between those countries, Trudeau said. Asked about Mondays terror attack in Pakistans restive Balochistan province in which at least 70 people were killed, he said the US stands with Pakistan in the fight against terror and reminded Islamabad of its commitment to go after terrorist groups. What I will say is that Pakistan has said that they will go after all terrorists regardless of affiliation. I dont want to politicise this terror attack. This is reprehensible. What I will say is that we stand with Pakistan as they move forward on this fight against terror, Trudeau said. India on Tuesday called in the Pakistani envoy to lodge a strong protest over Islamabads continuing cross-border terrorism amid a sharp downturn in bilateral ties. A strong demarche on Pakistans use of terrorism against India and the recent arrest of Bahadur Ali, a Pakistani cadre of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, was handed over to Pakistani high commissioner Abdul Basit by foreign secretary S Jaishankar. The demarche made specific reference to LeT terrorist and (Pakistani) national Bahadur Ali, said external affairs ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup. Demarche made specific reference to LeT terrorist and Pak national Bahadur Ali who was apprehended recently (2/2) pic.twitter.com/uYwEyCQokM Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) August 9, 2016 In response to a media question regarding summoning of the high commissioner, a Pakistans Foreign Office spokesperson said, We strongly reject Indian claim of any cross-LOC infiltration. Pakistan remains committed to the policy of not allowing its territory for any terrorist activity against anyone. However, it is necessary to establish veracity of the Indian claim. Details in this regard will be gathered, the spokesperson added. Ties between India and Pakistan dipped to a new low in January after the terror attack on Pathankot airbase, which was blamed on Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed. The unrest in Jammu and Kashmir triggered by the death of militant commander Burhan Wani has added to tensions. Pakistan has made renewed efforts to internationalise the Kashmir issue and Indian home minister Rajnath Singhs visit to Islamabad last week to attend a SAARC meet ended in rancour after a tense encounter with his Pakistani counterpart. During his meeting with Basit, the foreign secretary strongly protested against the continued infiltration from Pakistan of trained terrorists with instructions to carry out attacks. This, Jaishankar said, is contrary to the assurances given by Pakistani leaders at the highest level. Raising the issue of Bahadur Ali, Jaishankar said the LeT operative had confessed to our authorities that after training in Lashkar-e-Taiba camps, he was infiltrated into India. Ali was in touch with an operations room of LeT, receiving instructions to attack Indian security personnel and carry out other terrorist attacks in India. The Indian side said Ali, a resident of Jia Bagga village in Pakistani Punjab, was arrested in Jammu and Kashmir on July 25 with weapons, communication equipment and material of Pakistani and international origin. The Indian said Ali, in a letter addressed to the Pakistan high commissioner, had requested legal aid and assistance to meet his family. We are prepared to grant the Pakistan high commission consular access to Bahadur Ali, Swarup said. Pakistan has turned down repeated calls by India for action against LeT and its founder Hafiz Saeed, who lives openly in Lahore despite a $10 million bounty offered for him by the US. The LeT was blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks and its operative Ajmal Kasab was captured during the assault on the financial hub. Activist Irom Sharmila who waged the worlds longest hunger strike ended her 16-year fast on Tuesday with a drop of honey and said she wants to become Manipurs chief minister to repeal an army law blamed for rights abuses by security personnel. With tears flowing down her cheeks, the 44-year-old woman known as the Iron Lady of Manipur licked honey off a finger shortly after she was granted bail by a local court, signaling the end of her protest that started in November 2000. I got nothing out of fasting for 16 years. I want to contest election and become chief minister because I need power for a big change in society and system, Sharmila said at the government hospital where she has spent most of the 16 years in judicial custody. Attempted suicide is still an offence in India. Speaking to reporters without the nasal pipe, through which she was force fed and had become part of her persona, Sharmila said ending her fast did not mean ending the movement against the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (Afspa). I want to try a different method of agitation. Assembly elections in the state are due early next year. #WATCH: Irom Sharmila ends her fast after 16 years. She was on hunger strike, demanding repealing of AFSPA.https://t.co/ndGmoEuZu8 ANI (@ANI_news) August 9, 2016 She also had an appeal for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who spoke on Kashmir during the day in an attempt to reach out to the people of the valley where also the Afspa is blamed for rights violation by security forces. Rule the country with fatherly affection, not with draconian laws. And stop violence in this age of globalisation and credo of development for all, said Sharmila. However, she also faced angry protesters mostly women for allegedly diluting her battle against the Afspa. The protesters heckled her and did not allow her to enter the house of a doctor in Imphal. She was later escorted back to the hospital. With my blood let them wash their doubts and emotions, she said after being released on bail. Authorities said police would maintain an escort for Sharmila because radical groups and rebels had threatened her for ending the strike, seeing it as weakening the fight against the military law. Read | As it happened: Manipurs Iron Lady Irom Sharmila ends 16 year fast The Afspa, which is force in some northeastern states and Kashmir, gives security forces the right to shoot to kill suspected rebels and to arrest suspected militants without warrants. It also gives police wide-ranging powers of search and seizure. The act also prohibits soldiers from being prosecuted for alleged rights violations except with express permission from the government. Such prosecutions are rare. Amnesty International, which had once described her as a prisoner of conscience, said her decision to end the fast was an opportunity for the Indian government to scrap the law. Sharmila said she would decide on Wednesday where to go her mothers place, as tradition demands of an unmarried daughter, an ashram or somewhere else. Read | Irom Sharmila: The Iron Lady who waged a war against Afspa Doctors want Sharmila to stay for a month at the hospital for her body to get used to solid food after phases of liquid and semi-liquid diet. On her long-distance romance with Desmond Coutinho, a British citizen of Indian origin, she said it was right to choose. It is my personal life and it is natural. The legal hassles for Sharmila are not over though. The court has fixed August 23 for her reappearance to examine whether or not she is guilty of attempt to commit suicide under section 309 of Indian Penal Code. Read | 10 things you need to know about Iron Lady Irom Sharmila Read | Irom Sharmilas decision to end hunger strike draws surprise, respect In a bid to draw attention to the violence in Kashmir and the severe damage pellets have been causing, a Pakistani-based group caught attention a fortnight ago with their digitally altered posters of famous people. Read | If they were the victims: Pak group uses Modi, SRK pics for Kashmir campaign But cartoonist Mir Suhails rendition of the concept tries to hit closer to home. Basing his depiction on the poster of the 60s hit Bollywood movie Kashmir ki Kali, Suhail added an eye-patch to Sharmila Tagore, besides pockmarking her face with pellets, while Shammi Kapoor looks on. My attempt to recreate the poster, where Sharmila Tagore is hit in one eye by pellets, and Shammi Kapoor has an expression of disgust, is to highlight the pain inflicted on this kali (girl). There is no romance left about the place or the people, Suhail said to the Hindu. Fatal injuries, loss of life and blindness due to pellet shots have rocked Kashmir Valley for a month now in the aftermath of the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander, Burhan Wani, on July 8. Locals are caught between a state-imposed curfew, a shutdown called by separatists and protesters attempting to defy authority. Read | CRPF fired more than 2000 pellet cartridges in Kashmir after Wanis death Security forces have been using pellet guns, deemed non-lethal, in dealing with protesters and enforcing order in the Valley. However, these small projectiles have caused around 5 deaths and blinded dozens others, most in the age bracket of 15 to 35 years. Overall, close to 60 people have died in the violence. While civilians and activists have decried the violence, and even the opposition questioned the Centres use of the weapon, pellet guns remain in use. The government, though, has called for restraint in its discharge. Read | Despite Rajnaths plea, pellet firing continues in J-K Kashmir ki Kali became an iconic film that explored a serene and beautiful Kashmiri landscape. Suhails choice of the poster, as he pointed out, is to show how violence has marred the Valley. Besides, the movie poster, Suhail also posted a series on Twitter, redoing popular paintings with eye-patches and pellet injuries, including Leonardo da Vincis painting, the Mona Lisa. Other artists have also created similar artworks sketches and illustrations that highlight the issue. Prime Minister Narendra Modis Kashmir outreach got mixed reactions in the violence-torn Valley on Tuesday. Experts believe after 32 days of curfew and 60 deaths, the Prime Minister spoke too little, too late, and failed to appease the Kashmiris. As Modi invoked former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayees famous slogan of Insaniyat, Kashmiriyat and Jamhooriyat, senior journalist Sheikh Mushtaq said, The PMs words have found no resonance in Kashmir. The slogan has been used so many times in the past that it has become a cliche. The people of the Valley have been let down by successive governments and the words failed to touch hearts even when Modi spoke in the Valley last year. He added, People feel Kashmir is remembered only when there is violence. The slogans were used before as well but every time there is a protest, it is dealt with pellets and bullets. It happened in 2008, 2010 and again in 2016. Read | Kashmir has the same freedom that any other Indian state enjoys: Modi While BJPs alliance partner, the Peoples Democratic Party, welcomed the Prime Ministers speech as the first step, the National Conference hoped it will go beyond the rhetoric. State education minister Naeem Akhtar said, We welcome this and it has come at the climax of expression of concern from across the party lines. It means crystallisation of a need for focused dialogue and we hope this will mark the beginning of the process of the same dialogue and beginning of a healing touch. Asked if a more personal touch, like a promise to do away with pellet guns in the Valley, would have been more effective, Akhtar refused to comment on what the PM should have said. National Conference president and former chief minister Omar Abdullah reacted to the speech with a Finally!!!! on Twitter, while his party said Modi had to go beyond the recycled term of Jamhooriyat, Insaniyat and Kashmiriyat. The PM spoke these words before in Kashmir, but later kept quiet for 30 days when 60 youth were killed and thousands of injured were in the hospitals. Unless he follows it up with action, it will be another instance where the slogan has been recycled, party spokesman Junaid Azim Mattoo said. Modis words found no takers in the separatist camp, who said development is not a solution for the Kashmir issue. Reacting sharply to Modis statement that development will solve the Kashmir issue, Hurriyat Conference chairman Syed Ali Geelani said, It is ridiculous and irresponsible on part of Mr. Modi to look into the Kashmir issue through his fake rhetoric of development. He said Kashmir was better off financially than most other Indian states and would be more prosperous had it not been for Indian forces. We are being handled rather manhandled with iron hands for the last seven decades but your lust of blood is still not satisfied and you continue to crush us with heavy boots. Moderate separatist and the Valleys head cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said that what Kashmiris want was clear. As far as what Kashmiris want. the writing on the wall is clear,even literally and can be easily read by those who want to read it. People are clearly stating what they want, India just has to stop its cacophony and listen with a view to understand and not deny, he said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Manipurs Iron Lady Irom Sharmila ended her 16 year fast against Afspa on Tuesday and said that she wants to join politics after getting bail from an Imphal court. The court examined two witnesses. She has now got bail on personal bond of Rs 10,000, Sharmilas lawyer L Rebada Devi told reporters. The court is yet to give her release orders and till then Sharmila has been taken back to judicial custody.The next date of hearing in the case is August 23. Court officials told PTI that the court will issue the order to the jail authority to formalise her release on Tuesday itself. Here is a look at what happened through the day: 5:01 pm: Want to contest polls because I need power for big change in society and system,says Irom Sharmila. 5:00pm: Will decide tomorrow where I will stay: Sharmila Irom Sharmila to PM Modi: Rule country with fatherly affection, not draconian laws #htTweets Rahul Karmakar (@rahconteur) August 9, 2016 4:50 pm: Stop indulging violence in the era of globalisation amid slogans for development for all, Sharmila said in a message to PM Modi. 4:45pm: I know nothing about politics, and about academic line also. My education is very very low: Sharmila I am being the real embodiment of revolution, and I want to be the CM of Manipur to help people: Irom Sharmila after ending fast after 16yrs ANI (@ANI_news) August 9, 2016 4:40 pm: Let them kill me the way people killed Mahatma Gandhi with accusation of anti-Hindu, says Sharmila on being asked about on receiving death threats. 4:10 pm : I dont understand why some radical groups are against me wanting to get into politics?, says Sharmila. From today on wards I have ended my fast: Irom Sharmila in Imphal (Manipur) pic.twitter.com/VGtpoZyNuJ ANI (@ANI_news) August 9, 2016 Imphal (Manipur): Irom Sharmila breaks down while ending her fast pic.twitter.com/L9SABzzLE5 ANI (@ANI_news) August 9, 2016 4:00pm: I want to join politics as Ive been called the Iron lady of Manipur & I want to live up to that name, says Irom Sharmila addressing media at Imphal. 2.10pm: I want to become Manipur CM and remove Afspa, says Irom Sharmila after getting bail. 2.05pm: I have been fasting for 16 years and not got anything from it. I want to try different agitation now one that will see me contest against the Chief Minister of the State, says Irom Sharmila 2pm: Irom Sharmila has been released on a personal bond of Rs.10,000, says Irom Sharmilas lawyer. The next hearing of the case is on August 23 1.30pm: Why cant people see me as a normal person, asks Sharmila 12.15am: Sharmila asks the court to shorten the procedure, says I dont want your legal system to detain me wrongly. 11.55am: The judge wishes Sharmila best of luck on her political aspirations. She intends to contest in Manipur polls as an independent candidate. 11.45am: Court official says Sharmilas proceeding will go on for another hour 11.40am: Sharmila court proceeding crosses 40 minute, much more than the average 10 minutes in past 16 years 11.20am: The court agrees to free Sharmila if she submits a bond. Manipur intel man says Sharmila refused to sign bond for release 11.15am: Court proceedings begin 10.53am: Sharmila reaches court in ambulance and amid tight security. Once she breaks her fast, the court is likely to release her from judicial custody. 10.30am: Irom Sharmila leaves from Imphal hospital where she has been lodged as a prisoner for 16 years. (With inputs from agencies) A blog about life under, and resisting, a dictatorship The Delhi Police is investigating the fake online application submitted to the central reserve police force under Prime Minister Narendra Modis name for a recruitment test this year. A case under IT Act provisions was registered with Cyber Crime unit of economic offences wing on July 26 based on a complaint by the central para military force, an official said. Various wings of Delhi Police, including the Special Cell, were roped in to crack the case, sources said. Police are trying to nab the culprit based on the IP address of the user who filled the form online and then downloaded the admit card which had Modis photo affixed to it as well. The application was detected before the physical standard test, leading to the admit card being cancelled on July 15. Also, the fake candidate did not appear for the standard test, meant for the position of head constable, though the admit card was downloaded before it was cancelled. The application form (Roll No 2430026090) was filled with fake details like candidates name -- Narendra Modi, fathers name -- Rarendra Modi, mothers name -- Raj, a photograph of Modi and indicating Group Centre CRPF Rampur as centre for examination. The generation of admit cards for recruitment in CRPF is done through online (internet-based) mode. The admit card can be downloaded from website only by the applicant with personal details like application number, name and date of birth, among others, a CRPF statement said. Are Prime Minister Narendra Modis statements lashing out at cow vigilantes and perpetrators of Dalit atrocities a tipping point in the cosy relationship between the BJP and its ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh? Over the weekend, Modi broke his silence on the growing incidents of attacks by self-styled cow protectors across India, asking for action against bovine vigilante groups and saying 70-80% of all cow protectors were anti-social elements. Read | At town hall event, PM Modi says self-styled cow protectors make him angry This particular statement riled many Hindu groups, who say the prime minister is choosing political expediency over ideological consistency. They perceive the statements as castigation of their own; alienating the people who pump time and resource to coalesce the Hindu vote. On Monday, RSS spokesperson Manmohan Vaidya told the media that Modi should have avoided the remark. The remarks may also dominate a meeting of RSS members in Delhi on Tuesday. Modis statements came after massive protests against the flogging of four Dalit youth in Gujarat by alleged cow protectors and were seen as reaching out to the sizeable scheduled caste community ahead of a clutch of state polls next year. Read | Narendra Modis message to Gau Rakshaks not for us, say RSS, affiliate VHP But many in the RSS say Modis new avatar will not endear him to Muslims, the Dalits and those who traditionally support the Congress; rather it will alienate hardline Hindutva supporters. They say the move to shed the tag of a Hindu party for a secular credential doesnt bode well for a party trying hard to retain its Hindu vote, especially in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh. They fear a drubbing in places such as eastern UP, where Modis statements may erode the clout of leaders such as Yogi Adiyanath, the torchbearer of the Hindutava brigade who often lashes out at minorities. But apart from politics, many Hindu leaders are also hurt by what they see as a personal volte-face by Modi, who was hailed as a Hindu hriday samrat by the Sangh and others. During a speech in Bihars Nawada in April 2014, Modi, then the BJPs prime ministerial candidate, accused the Congress-led UPA government of promoting a pink revolution (meat export and cow slaughter). For Hindu communities -- particularly the Yadavs ,a core electorate of the Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar and Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh -- Modis statement resonated with their own reverence for the cow. There is no subsidy for farmers or for rearing cattle, but the Congress gives subsidy to those who slaughter cows, he had said. This cemented Modis place as the leader of Hindus and late Vishwa Hindu Parishad chief Ashok Singhal described Modis Lok Sabha victory as the return of Hindu Swabhiman (pride) in Delhi after 800 years. The Hindu right that was pursuing a nationwide ban on cow slaughter saw in Modi an ally who would help shape a pan-India Hindu identity. But his recent statements appeared to have shattered the dream. Hindu leaders reject the BJPs stand of fighting polls solely on a development agenda and say in the rough-and-tumble of Indian elections, caste combinations and religious affinities will dominate. The Sangh also feels that recent incidents of cow-slaughter-related violence the lynching of a Muslim man last year, attacks on Dalits in Gujarat and others were just law and order problems that didnt call for the PMs intervention. They consider the PMs speech an overreach; insisting that these issues should have been dealt with at the administrative level. The Sangh, which campaigns for social harmony and the eradication of casteism, has not applauded the PM speaking out against Dalit atrocities as well. On Sunday, the PM told a gathering in Hyderabad, If you want to attack, attack me, not Dalits. If you want to shoot, shoot me. How is the PMs statement at cross purposes with the Sangh then? The Sangh see his affirmation of atrocities against Dalits as widening and deepening the chasm between dominant and backward castes. They see it as a fracture that threatens to divide the Hindu vote. Are then the PMs statements similar to RSS supremo Mohan Bhagwats comments against caste-based reservation ahead of the Bihar polls that cost the BJP that election? Many in the Sangh Parivaar already think so. Read | Saffron brigade divided over PMs remarks SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Women working in the private sector, especially those in the information technology industry, may get to work from home after child birth once they exhaust their maternity leave, if their employers allow it. The proposed amendment to the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 which Parliament is likely to take up this week encourages employers to permit women employees to work from home for some time after child birth. We are not making it mandatory for employers to allow new mothers to work from home. It will be up to the employers to decide. Also, the duration for which women should be allowed to work from home will have to be decided by the employers and may vary from company to company, said a senior Union labour ministry official. The proposed bill also seeks to increase maternity leave to six-and-a-half months from the current three months in private jobs and six months in government service. Read | Good news for moms-to-be: Govt may clear 26-week maternity leave across sectors Women face harassment or discrimination in the workplace after child birth, a global phenomenon highlighted in many reports. In 2015, the UK-based Equality and Human Rights Commission estimated that in Britain, close to 54,000 new mothers leave their jobs every year because they are dismissed, made compulsorily redundant or treated poorly. No study has been carried out in India to estimate the extent of discrimination faced by working women, especially new mothers. Read | Bill to aid surrogate, adopting moms likely to be tabled in Lok Sabha today In a first, the proposed bill recognises the need for women who adopt or use a surrogate to bond with their child, and provides for three months of maternity leave for them. It also makes it mandatory for establishments with at least 30 women or 50 employees, whichever is less, to provide creche facilities either in office or within a 500-metre radius. If the bill goes through, India would be among 40 countries in the world where maternity leave is over 18 weeks. The International Labour Organisations Maternity Protection Convention mandates a minimum 14 weeks of maternity benefit but recommends 18 weeks. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Visitors at the Allahabad Museum can now take a selfie with freedom fighter Chandra Shekhar Azads pistol that he used to kill himself to avoid being captured alive by the British. They can also shoot video with the prized possession of the museum by paying nominal charges. The decision was taken by the museum authorities following instructions from the ministry of culture to promote cultural and other social activities in light of August Kranti Diwas and Independence Day celebrations. The pistol displayed and preserved in the entrance hall of the museum is a Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless semi-auto.32 bore. Azad used it to shoot himself after a long firefight with British policemen at the Alfred Park, now known as the Chandrashekhar Azad Park, on 27 February 1931. The main purpose of taking the initiative is to make youngsters know about Azads struggle to free India from the clutches of the British government as well as his inspiring principles behind shooting himself with the pistol, Rajesh Purohit, the museums director, said. The charges for taking selfies with the pistol is Rs 50 and Rs 1000 for shooting videos. Purohit said visitors can also take photos and videos of Gandhi Smriti Vahan, the vehicle that was used for carrying the ashes of Mahatma Gandhi to Sangam or the confluence of the Ganga and the Yamuna and the invisible Saraswati in 1948. The 47 model V-8 Ford truck has been maintained in its original form and kept in a shed located beside the museum. A few years ago, a film Road to Sangam starring Paresh Rawal was also produced. The film was centred on the vehicle and its journey up to the Sangam. Islamic televangelist Zakir Naik and his Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) justify terrorism and violence in the name of jihad, says a Mumbai police report, which recommends action against the 50-year-old physician-turned-preacher. The report follows the Centre and Maharashtra governments simultaneous move to bring to book the controversial preacher, who is accused of preaching jihadist ideas through sermons and speeches. Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Tuesday the report has drawn links between Naik and terrorist outfits such as the Indian Mujahideen and Jamaat-ul-Dawa, the Pakistan-based organisation of 26/11 Mumbai attacks lynchpin Hafiz Saeed. Action will be taken in consultation with the ministry of home affairs, he said. Naik, who is reportedly hiding in west Asia, is accused of dodging police after allegations that his sermons influenced a terrorist killed in the July 1 Dhaka siege, in which 22 people were gunned down. His aides said the preacher wont return to India for at least a year because of his engagements abroad. But Fadnavis warned that the government will press for his extradition if he does not return on his own, reports PTI. Naiks IRF has been accused of illegal and anti-national activities. The report highlighted the relationship between Naik and Feroz Deshmukh, arrested by the Maharashtra police anti-terrorist squad for his involvement in serial train blasts (in 2006), the chief minister said. Mumbai police had put Naik under surveillance after the 2003 serial blasts in the city, but no evidence was found against him. Indian security agencies rallied to make a strong case against him after Bangladesh banned his Peace TV, saying it incited the attack on the Dhaka cafe. The Centre has warned cable operators against showing Peace TV. Intelligence agencies have prepared a list of 65 people arrested since 2005 for suspected terrorism-related activities, who were allegedly influenced by Naiks sermons. The Mumbai police report says Naiks opinion about other religions is extreme, and once his audience gets attracted to Naik, he justifies terrorism and he fans religious sentiments of Muslim youths with the help of his oratory skills. His statements are against religious harmony and peaceful coexistence, states the 72-page report. Though Naik states that Islam condemns killing of innocent people, he justifies violence in the name of jihad. The Centre could ban his foundation under the unlawful activities (prevention) act, which will bar the organisation from taking new members, holding meetings, and collecting donations. The government is also looking at IRFs funding. The Union home ministry had asked the foundation to provide details about its foreign contributors. If the IRFs reply is not found satisfactory, we will inspect records of the NGO, said a ministry official. The IRF, founded by Naik in 1991, is a registered non-profit public charitable trust, the foundations website says. But the charity faces questions as Kerala police arrested an IRF functionary, Arshi Qureshi, along with associate Rizwan Khan, on the charge of radicalising a Kerala couple. The radicalised couple went to Afghanistan to join the Islamic State terrorist group. Narendra Modi is set to become the first Prime Minister to visit the birth place of freedom fighter Chandra Shekhar Azad at Bhabhra in Madhya Pradeshs Alirajpur district, where he is scheduled to launch a programme to commemorate the sacrifices of freedom fighters on Quit India day on Tuesday even as a threat of heavy rainfall looms. Bhabhara is now called Chandra Shekhar Azad Nagar in honour of the freedom fighter and Modis visit on International Day of the Worlds Indigenous Peoples is seen as an obvious attempt to consolidate BJP votes in the tribal belt with a dash of patriotism thrown in. He will visit Azads memorial at Bhabhara and subsequently launch Azadi-70, Yaad Karo Kurbani campaign and address a public rally at Jhotrada, situated some 12 km from Bhabhara. According to the official programme, he is to reach Indore airport at 11.55 am and leave for Bhabhara at 12 noon. After the public rally, he will leave for Indore at 2.50 pm before returning to Delhi. Over one lakh tribals, the districts of Alirajpur, Jhabua, Dhar, Barwani and Khargone in Madhya Pradesh and substantial numbers from adjoining tribal area of Gujarat are expected to attend the rally. The BJP, however, claims that it has aimed at mobilizing over five lakh people. Local BJP units in both Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat have thrown in their might and the administration too is helping by commandeering school buses from Indore to ferry people to the venue. But the BJP and state governments plans might become unstuck in case it pours heavily in Bhabhara and Indore, as has been predicted by the weather office. If it rains too heavily, Modi wont be able to take a helicopter to the rally venue from Indore and will have to travel by road to Bhabhara which is 200 km away. With agency inputs SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON To dispel the notion that madrasas are terror nurseries, Sunniyat Jamia Razvia Manzar-e-Islam, a seminary run under Dargah-e-Ala Hazrat, has taken a first of its kind step by introducing a two-year anti-terrorism course. Muslim scholars enrolled at the madrasa will be taught how terrorists are misusing religious texts to suit their nefarious designs. They will also learn about the background of terrorist outfits, the various such organisations active in India and the wrong means adopted by them to mislead innocent people. Terrorists across the globe are misusing religious scriptures to validate their sinful acts and to corrupt the innocent minds of people. This course is aimed at countering this and so we have named it as Anti-Terrorism, said Mufti Salim Noori, head convener and spokesperson of Dargah-e-Ala Hazrat. The course, designed by the head muftis of the dargah, is divided into two parts, Sufism and Wahhabism, and each part has several subjects. The madrasa has selected 15 scholars aged between 22 to 26 year who are training to become mufti (Muslim legal expert empowered to give rulings on religious matters) for the course. Position of a mufti is very revered in Islam and we want to make sure that these scholars who will become muftis in future have a thorough knowledge of the subject, said Noori. The selected scholars attended their first class at the madrasa on Monday where an English teacher explained the meaning of the word terrorism. Terrorists have two weapons, violence and ideology. Violence is lethal but what is far more dangerous is ideology, said Kamal Ahmed, the English teacher. We cannot use violence to counter them but we can use the holy Quran to counter their ideology, he said as the scholars jotted down notes. According to Noori, the madrasa is planning to train 15 muftis every year as its contribution in the fight against terrorism. I believe lack of knowledge and wrong interpretation of Islam are the biggest reasons behind the rise of terrorism and we, in the name of Allah, will try to stop people from joining those (terrorists) who are not on the path of Allah, said Md Saddam, 24, a scholar of the first batch. Banaras Hindu University professor MP Ahirwar recently turned down a foreign assignment after a call of conscience to counter the BJPs Dalit game plan in Uttar Pradesh. Ahirwar is one of the many Dalit intellectuals alarmed by the BJPs attempts to woo the vulernable community to get its caste calculations right ahead of 2017 elections in Uttar Pradesh, where Dalits account for 21% of the states population. Looking to expand its support base, the BJP is reaching out to Dalits who have traditionally kept a distance from the party. The BJP has turned to Buddhist monks who are on a six-month Dhamma Yatra in the state to further its poll ambitions. There are reports that Prime Minister Narendra Modi may address a gathering in Lucknow on October 14 when the yatra concludes. Five-fold jump in crimes against Dalits in Gujarat, UP has worst record Spread across the state, from the literary city of Allahabad to the Dalit capital Agra, teachers, poets and activists are on a mission: to save their community from falling into what they say is the BJPs trap. They say BJP and its divisive ideology pose a threat to Dalit icon BR Ambedkars dream of the schedule castes enjoying equality and prosperity in society. The village push Every Sunday, Ahriwar and a group of BHU students head for villages to expose the dangerous designs behind the recent incidents of Dalit violence in the country. Their last visit was to Madhopur Kot village in Varanasi, Modis Lok Sabha constituency. The flogging of four Dalits in Gujarats Una for allegedly skinning a dead cow and the abusive remarks by now-expelled BJP leader Dayashankar Singh against Mayawati dominated the discussion. We will soon use projectors to show them clips of such incidents, said Ahirwar, a professor of Indian culture. Modis shoot me and not Dalits statement has failed to cut ice. They want concrete action in the Una case. In the past, writers and poets wielded the pen to build support for Mayawati, the approach is more hands-on this time. They are out in the field and talking directly to voters. Villages are where they are most active. The caste maze: One who negotiates it wins Uttar Pradesh Divided over Mayawati While they all agree on taking on the BJP not all are convinced that four-time chief minister and Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati is their best bet. Though its ideological parent the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh has been for years talking about an end to social inequalities, the BJP is still seen as an upper-caste party, whose hotheads encourage discrimination. In some villages Dalit women still have to take off shoes while passing through localities inhabited by the Brahmins or the Rajputs. Their place in a Brahminical society is the biggest challenge facing them but the BJP-RSSs attempts to make inroads a worry too. Brajendra Kumar Gautam, who was recently appointed the general secretary of Allahabadbased Bhartiya Dalit Sahitya Akademi, has set up committees to keep Dalits united. He is in touch with the BSP rebels and is worried that a split in votes will hurt the communitys interests. Mayawati created awareness but weakened the movement by embracing Brahmins. We are trying to explain to the people why she took the support of the upper castes, Gautam said. In UP, BJP to deploy Dalit MPs in 85 constituencies to boost outreach Booklets such as Dalit discourse, Hindutva mein Hinsa (Violence in Hindutva) and Arakshan ka sach (The truth about reservation) have been printed to create awareness. They have used us till now. Its time for us to use them, is Gautams counter to Mayawatis overtures to Brahmins. He also quotes the BSP founder and Mayawatis mentor Kanshi Ram to explain the partys past dalliances with the BJP. We have to use the BJP as a ladder to move forward. There is no harm as long as we are not compromising our ideology, Kanshi Ram had said in 1997 when the BSP joined hands with the BJP to form the government. Intellectuals in west and east Uttar Pradesh, which have a high concentration of Dalits, are targeting the BJP over reservation. Once we have told them the hard realities, I doubt they will even listen to Dalit BJP MPs. Even some youngsters, who joined shakhas, are being boycotted, Ahirwar said. Shakhas are daily meetings organised by the RSS. The Allahabad Dalit Welfare Association president Rambrij Gautam is strengthening the Republican Party of India to offer an alternative to Mayawati. We have to create an alternative system as Mayawati is losing her hold on Dalits, Gautam said. While the ruling Samajwadi Party and the BJP were against Dalit ideology, the BSP, too, had failed them, writer and poet Kawal Bharti said. We may prepare our community to support the Congress if it revives, he said. Nitin Gupta, along with 4,000 youth, runs Jai Bhim, Jai Bharat in Meerut. They will hit the streets on the Independence Day to expose the BJP and its designs. Prof Kali Charan Snehi of Lucknow University says he keeps his students informed. I dont mention Mayawatis name directly but tell them that someone from their own community will understand their issues better. They have to back Mayawati as there is no alternative, says Ahriwar. Way back in 1988 an Indian civil servant gave the country and the world an insiders account, albeit fictionalized, of a city-bred IAS officers initiation into service in one of the countrys small provincial towns. In Agastya Sen and those around him, author and civil servant Upamanyu Chatterjee, had captured not only the sense of disconnect between urban and rural India, but also the ways of those working in the government and administration. Twenty-eight years later, another civil servant lays bare the life of an IAS officer, in answer to a query on Quora, a question-answer site where questions are posed, answered, edited and organised by users. The response of the anonymous civil servant has attracted over 2,28,000 views and also been shared on social media. The writer, who says he has more than a decades experience gives candid details of salary, working hours and even allegations of corruption, but chooses to remain anonymous because dont want to do self boast by name, and cant criticize the system and IAS (for wrong things) openly, myself being a part of govt. The writers projection of a young IASs officers salary and the gap between earning and aspirations is almost enough to convince one that they are only justified in accepting bribes. Salary of young IAS officer SDM is upto Rs. 40k and most DMs get Rs. 50-65k per month. Thats simply not enough in present times. We have our aspirations and do feel like going once in a while to say Dubai or Singapore or to some resort in Kerala. Our wives and kids do feel like going to 5 star hotel or resorts. It is not possible for us for the reason of time and money both, he writes. Excellent eye-opening post. Do read. What is the lifestyle of an IAS officer? https://t.co/u7qRCfVul7 HT @praveengedam Ajit Ranade (@ajit_ranade) August 8, 2016 His own savings, after more than a decade in the service is not more than Rs 10 lakhs, he says. But even with the comparatively low salary, he insists that it would be wrong to assume that civil servants are more corrupt than others. Corruption is there in all fields including private sector. In fact, maximum booty of corruption in govt goes to politicians and private parties and govt officers get lesser share, he writes. He adds, Percentage of corrupt IAS officers vary statewise but I can say around 10% are extremely corrupt looking for money in each and every file and all these facilities/perks really dont matter to them. They make a tens of crores every year. He does not stop there, but goes on to write in detail about the degree of corruption among IAS officers. Other 20-40% are moderately corrupt with rates fixed for certain types of works (like layout approvals). They also make a few crore rupees every year. Next 20-40% are less corrupt as they take money if offered otherwise dont really harass if bribe not paid. Usually builders, industrialists, etc do offer rather than not as a matter of routine. Others dont offer as a matter of routine. Another 10% (i.e. total up to 90%) will accept freebies like free cinema ticket, free dining, free vehicle to go somewhere, free hotel stay, etc. Remaining 10% are extremely honest, he informs. And by the time one completes reading his piece, one begins to feel that honesty and working by the rules is no mean feat. I would request corporate honchos or MBAs or technocrats on Quora to imagine if they are reporting to Lalu or Mulayam or Mayawati and still work without breaking the rule. These kinds of characters are usually in all districts from MLAs upward. Usually all ministers are unreasonable. However, must say that all senior ministers (like in top 2 to 5 in the state including CMs), most of the times are reasonable and wont bother you if they know that you wont do anything illegal, writes our anonymous civil servant. IAS officers corrupt? why? their lifestyle, what motivates them (honest ones) despite all odds -- a brilliant piece https://t.co/dH7hOvQbTP Soumitra Mishra (@soumitmis) August 8, 2016 The popularity of his article has inspired the writer to answer some of the comments in a follow-up edit. On Twitter, economist Ajit Ranade expressed his appreciation with the tweet, Excellent eye-opening post. Do read. Navin Kabra, co-founder of ReliScore.com, a platform for job-seekers to showcase their skills by solving problems, completing programming challenges and where required, submitting the software code, wrote, What is the lifestyle of an IAS officer? Great answer by an anonymous IAS officer on Quora. Many of his followers retweeted his post. Another Twitter user, Vinayak Naik supported the anonymous civil servant and wrote, As compared to people in corporates, some govt officials work harder for lesser pay. And in case you are about to point out that the officer must have taken time off to write the lengthy piece on Quora, hold your horses. This answer was written as I was travelling from state capital to my place. And yes, I have good typing speed. Almost 50 wpm, says the anonymous civil servant in his parting shot. (Quotes from the anonymous civil servants response have not been edited and no changes of even language or grammar have been made to maintain authenticity) What is the lifestyle of an IAS officer? Good insights.. http://t.co/LXmPwNaw1O Jay Galla (@jaygalla) August 2, 2015 SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A 13-year-old school boys letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi forced Khandwa administration to withdraw its decision to keep schools closed on Tuesday. Why should my school remain closed if you are holding a rally? Devansh Jain, a Class VIII student of Vidhyakunj International School, wrote to Modi ahead of his August 9 visit. The Prime Minister will address a public meeting at Bhavra in Alirajpur district, the birthplace of freedom fighter Chandra Shekhar Azad, to mark 70 years of Independence and 74 years of Quit India Movement. Though Khanwa administration revisited its order, schools will remain closed in some districts of western Madhya Pradesh on the orders of the district collectors. In view of heavy rainfall alert for tomorrow (August 9) in Indore district by meteorological department and requirement of school buses for a programme, all aaganwadis, government and private schools shall remain closed, says an order released by the Indore district collector. On Monday afternoon, the Khandwa district administration withdrew its order and also sent mail to the school informing about the change in plan. In accordance with the latest directive issued by the administration, we will keep the school open, Vidhyakunj International School director Jai Nagda said. Devansh had urged Modi to ensure school buses are not deployed for taking party workers and people to the Alirajpur rally. Modi uncle, you are so popular that people come to your rallies in their own vehicles. I have seen huge crowd whether you address a rally in India or abroad. In fact, I used to fight with friends when they used to tease me that people are ferried to your rallies. But now I feel that they were right. You always urged students to focus on education and career. So, please ask the chief minister to ensure that our school is not closed, he wrote. The Class VIII students told HT that he thought about writing the letter, after his class teacher said the school would be closed due to Modis rally. When I came home and talked to my mother, she told me that nothing could be done and the only thing I could do was write to the PM, the boy said. Five doctors, including the CEO and the medical director of Dr LH Hiranandani hospital in Mumbai, were arrested late on Tuesday night in connection with an alleged attempt for an illegal kidney transplant, believed to be part of a bigger racket. Mumbai police investigating the case from last month apprehended CEO Sujeet Chaterjee, medical director Anurag Naik, and doctors Mukesh Shete, Mukesh Shah and Prakash Shetty for medical negligence, taking the total arrests up to 13. Read | Cops make 7th arrest in kidney racket Based on the report of appropriate authority today at 8:30pm, the Powai Police arrested the five doctors under section 12 and 21 of the transplantation of human organs act 1994, said Ashok Dudhe, deputy commissioner of police and spokesperson for Mumbai Police. The accused will be produced before the Andheri magistrates court on Wednesday. According to a Powai police official, the arrest was based on a three-member state health inquiry committee report that stated a nephrologist and two urologists were negligent on multiple counts. Explaining the roles of the doctors, the official said, They did not verify the documents thoroughly due to which their negligence has occurred. They should not have gone ahead with the surgery till they had satisfactory information that the donor and receipent are related. However, they have had a casual attitude and have not performed their duties properly. Powai Police are looking into at least four more cases now. A new case will be registered if evidence on any illegal organ transplant surfaces in the investigations, zone 10 deputy commissioner of police, Vinayak Deshmukh, told Hindustan Times. Read | Kidney racket: Hospital staffer, middleman held A first information report was registered on July 13 under several sections of the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994, based on a tip off by Mahesh Tanna, a social worker who found out about the illegal procedure. Based on Tannas information, the police and the hospital authorities stopped the illegal transplant for Surat-based businessman Brijkishore Jaiswal, and arrested his son Kishan, and agents Bhijendra Bisen, Bharat Sharma, and Iqbal Siddiqui. They were remanded in police custody. Nilesh Kamble, a social worker and transplant coordinator at the private hospital, was also arrested. According to police, Bisen is the kingpin of the operation. His aide Kamble was employed at the hospital for three years, and cleared over 100 kidney transplant papers. The remaining accused helped in the paper work and forgery. Jaiswal allegedly paid Rs 21 lakh to Bisen for the procedure, of which about Rs 8 lakh has been recovered. Police also arrested the donor, Shoba Thakur alias Rekha Devi. Bisen and Jaiswal are currently out on bail, while the remaining accused, except Shobha, are in judicial custody. Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis said on Tuesday that a report by the Mumbai police, submitted to the state government on Monday night, indicts controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik and his organisation, the Islamic Research Foundation (IRF). Fadnavis said the report contains observations about Naiks and IRFs alleged links with terrorist outfits such as Indian Mujahideen and Jamat-Ul-Dawa. He said the state is studying the report and will soon consult the ministry of home affairs to decide whether or not to ban IRF. The polices report states that Naik justifies terrorism and violence in the name of jihad and termed his opinions about other religions extreme. By way of his oratory skills, he creates prejudice in the minds of people by telling them how other religions holy books and beliefs are wrong. His statements are against religious harmony and peaceful coexistence, states the report. Fadnavis said the report implicates IRF in several illegal and anti-national activities. The report highlights the relationship between Naik and Feroz Deshmukh, who was arrested by the state anti-terrorism squad for the serial train blasts on July 11, 2006. He was also found to be involved in terrorist activities in Hyderabad, he said. The report establishes Naiks online links to terrorist organisations and to terror suspects arrested in Hyderabad. Information given by a Kalyan youth who had joined ISIS has also established Naiks links with terrorist activities, Fadnavis added. Fadnavis said the report will be shared with the central government as many findings in the report fall under its domain. The report has a few annexures concerning activities pertaining to terrorism. It also points out that Peace TV and IRF have been banned in several countries. In its conclusions, the report lists the laws under which Naik can be booked. The state government will decide what action will be taken, he said. Naik has been out of the country for the past few months and Fadnavis said the state government will consult the centre on bringing him back to India. We have international treaties with many countries and will soon finalise our strategy, he said. The police report states, Naiks focus is on proving that Islam is the only supreme religion, [that] other religions are have failed [how] the Holy Quran is the supreme holy book, and how teachings of other religious books are contrary [to Islam]. A damning portion of the report reads, Once his audience gets attracted to Naik, he justifies terrorism and fans religious sentiments of Muslim youths with the help of his oratory skills. The police said in the report, Though Naik states that Islam condemns the killing of innocent people, he justifies violence in the name of jihad. It recommended a ban on Naiks speeches in Maharashtra, saying the United Kingdoms decision to ban the preacher should be a precedent for other democratic countries. While the report details Naiks speeches and activities, it does not touch upon IRFs finances, saying the ministry of home affairs is already probing this aspect. A police source said, however, that specific complaints about Naiks and IRFs finances are being investigated by the Mumbai polices economic offences wing (EOW). The Mumbai police said they will consult the department of law and justice before initiating legal action against the preacher. Naik has been the subject of a police probe over allegations that two of six terrorists who attacked Dhaka on July 1 had drawn inspiration from his sermons. At a press conference that he addressed via Skype from Saudi Arabia in July, the preacher denied any wrongdoing, but said he wont be returning to India this year. Five unmarked bullet proof vehicles, each carrying fully armed commandos, have been deployed at as many strategic points across south Mumbai in what is being said to be the Mumbai polices preparedness to deal with lone wolf strikes that have become a global menace. A lone wolf terrorist is the one who gets indoctrinated by an external group (through the Internet or other sources) or self-radicalised, and carries out an act in favour of that group. Such a terrorist easily bypasses intelligence surveillance because he prepares and executes attacks alone. Last months terror strike at a popular eatery in Dhaka, which was followed by the mowing down of revellers by a terrorist, who deliberately drove a truck into the crowd, at a popular beach front in France, has made security agencies across the globe devise ways to pre-empt and minimise the impact of such attacks. The Mumbai police are no different. The unpredictability associated with such strikes renders the city polices counter-terrorism mechanism post 26/11 redundant. The special forces raised in the aftermath of 26/11 terror strike have been trained to deal with these kind of situations engaging groups [big or small] in a gun battle. However, lone wolf attacks require high alacrity response to stop and neutralise the subject before he can maximise casualty, a highly placed source in the city police said, adding, When the threat is not visible, we have to wait in camouflage. While refusing to reveal details of the level of preparedness, joint commissioner of police (Law and Order), Deven Bharati said, We are preparing ourselves for any challenge. Meanwhile, sources said the decision to fortify south Mumbai was taken keeping in mind that the area houses a string of vital installations, crowded business districts, railway terminals, popular tourist spots and sea fronts, some of which have repeatedly been targeted by terrorists in the past. On an average, 3-4 lakh daily commuters converge in the 6 sqkm area between Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST), Crawford Market, Churchgate, Mantralaya and Gateway of India during peak hours every day. Experience shows that lone wolf attackers select crowded places to maximise damage, sources said. To begin with the new operating procedure, small vehicles (Mahindra Boleros) were chosen (over bulky vans carrying Force One or QRT commandos) for their ability to steer into narrow lanes or negotiate in reverse traffic. The vehicles carry no police sticker, signs or dome lights in order to camouflage their identity. Most importantly, the vehicles have been made bullet proof for the purpose of ramming those into the armed attacker in emergency situation. The jeeps have been stationed 1-1.5 km apart from each other so as to minimise response time anywhere in south Mumbai, sources said adding that the commandos in the vehicle are a mixture of QRT personnel and sleuths drawn from the anti-terror cell (ATC) of local police stations, who are equally trained in armed combat, sources said. The line of command for the strike units, which otherwise rests with the regional additional commissioner of police (south region), has been bi-furcated and the zonal deputy commissioners of police (DCPs) have been authorised to receive messages and issue instructions, sources said. Sources claimed that similar deployments are likely to be made at selected places in central Mumbai and the western suburbs that could be the likely terror targets. WHO IS A LONE WOLF TERRORIST? A lone wolf terrorist is the one who gets indoctrinated by an external group (through internet or other sources), or self-radicalised, and carries out an act in favour of that group. Such a terrorist easily bypasses intelligence surveillance because he prepares and executes attacks alone. A series of deadly lone wolf strikes in western Europe and the United States of America (USA) has put the intelligence agencies in those countries in a fix. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Mumbai zonal unit of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) seized smuggled gold worth around Rs3.5 crore in a discreet operation in a long-distance train. Three people were arrested on Friday. Based on specific information received by DRI, two passengers namely Suresh Rajpurohit and Natwar Chawda, who were travelling from Kolkata to Mumbai on Friday, were apprehended with 12 kg of smuggled gold. A DRI team boarded the train at Igatpuri station (around 120km from Mumbai) and kept a discreet watch on the passengers. The said two passengers were apprehended while alighting from the train at Igatpuri railway station, said a high-ranking officer. The two carriers were grilled, after which they admitted carrying six gold bars of 1kg each in their bag packs. Some of the gold was concealed in a sleeveless jacket with six pockets made of canvas cloth. The gold was seized under the provisions of the Customs Act, 1962. Their identities were further confirmed from the train ticket they were carrying with them, said the officer. Investigations revealed both of them were working for one Mithesh Jain owner of M/s.Hidant Creations at Zaveri Bazar, the hub of Indias gold and silver trade in south Mumbai. Jain was summoned to DRI office and statements of all three were recorded under the provisions of the Customs Act, 1962. Both the carriers have admitted to having travelled around 40 times to Kolkata. Each time, they carried seven to eight gold bars of one kg each, which they had been handing over to Jain. When Jain was questioned, he admitted to the statements of his carriers and also admitted to having received around 700kg of foreign marked gold bars brought from Kolkata in the last one-and-a-half years. The trio was placed under arrest under provisions of the Customs Act, 1962, and produced before the metropolitan magistrate on Saturday. They have been remanded to judicial custody until August 19. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A ruckus was reported from the ESIC hospital on Tuesday morning after 27-year-old Kanchan Mishra, a resident of Dadri, died of asphyxiation while undergoing treatment at the hospital. Her kin has accused the hospital of negligence resulting in her death. Mishra was admitted to the ESIC Hospital in Sector 24 around 12.30 am on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday, after she complained of continuous vomiting and abdominal pain. Her husband Prakash Mishra works as a driver in Pepsi godown in Sector 73 and the couple lived in Yususfpur Chak Saberi village in Dadri. Mishras kin allege that her condition deteriorated around 3 am and she developed rashes all over her body which they alleged was due to the side effects of the medicines administered to her. They further alleged that no staff or doctor was available to attend to Mishra at that time. We asked for a doctor or staff to attend to Kanchan but nobody was available. Around 5 am, a doctor examined her and said since Kanchan was getting epileptic fits, she should be referred to the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences,Shahdara. We were willing to take her there but the doctor recommended that we wait for the ESIC ambulance to take her, Prakash said. Mishras family alleged that no ambulance was provided by the hospital till 8.30 am. Then, while they were giving her some water, Mishra died of asphyxiation. We waited for more than three hours for the ambulance but one was not given to us. Ultimately, Kanchan died waiting for the services of the hospital that never arrived, Prakash said. The hospital authorities denied the allegations and said Mishras was not a case serious enough to be given an ambulance on an urgent note. The doctors had already said Mishra was suffering from mental illness and there was no urgency to provide her an ambulance. Despite repeated warnings given by the consulting doctor to not give her water while she was lying on the bed, they (her family) did so, because of which she died due to asphyxiation, said Dr Nilima, director, ESIC Hospital. Mishras family members have lodged a complaint against ESIC hospital for death due to negligence. The case is under investigation and we will lodge an FIR only after the probe. The body has been sent for a post-mortem examination, said Neeraj Singh, station house officer, Sector 24 police station. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Noida Traffic Police created a green corridor on Monday afternoon to successfully transport a kidney between two hospitals 16km apart in just 17 minutes. At 12:07 pm, a kidney of a Ghaziabad based man, declared brain dead on Monday morning at Jaypee Hospital, Sector 128, Noida, was sent to Fortis Hospital in Sector 63 through a green corridor. The organ reached the hospital at 12.24pm, thanks to the coordinated efforts of the Noida Traffic Police and doctors from Fortis and Jaypee hospitals. Pawan Kumar (74), a resident of Kavi Nagar in Ghaziabad was admitted to Jaypee Hospital on Sunday night at 10pm after his condition worsened due to high blood pressure. He was earlier admitted to Yashoda Hospital in Ghaziabad. Doctors said Kumar was declared brain dead due to a haemorrhage at Jaypee Hospital and his family members expressed their desire to donate his organs. Despite the efforts put in by our doctors, the patient was declared brain dead on Monday morning. We contacted National Organ and Tissue Transport Organisation (NOTTO) and the family members of the deceased who wished to donate his organs. It was decided that Jaypee will keep one kidney and liver of the donor and one kidney will be dispatched to Fortis Hospital, said a spokesperson of the Jaypee Hospital, with Dr Amit Devra, a senior consultant with the hospital. Soon, a green corridor was formed with the help of the traffic police and the management team of both hospitals. We began the convoy from Jaypee Hospital, took the Hazipur underpass, then the Sector 71 underpass and from there the Model Town route to reach Fortis Hospital, said Prabal Pratap Singh, superintendent, Noida Traffic Police. A senior traffic police officer said it took approximately 5 minutes for the convoy to reach the intersection of Sector 71. The kidney was transplanted on a 39-year-old woman who is suffering from damaged kidneys for the past two years. She is recovering after the operation, doctors at Fortis Hospital said. The patient was on the list of transplants. When we got a call from the NOTTO with a kidney for transplant, the family was elated and thankful. The surgery has been conducted following the mandatory protocol and we hope the patient recovers quickly, said Dr Dushyant Nadar, additional director and coordinator, Fortis Hospital, Noida. On the other hand, the other two organs (a kidney and liver) kept by Jaypee Hospital were transplanted on two other patients at the hospital. As soon as we received the organs, our doctors started the operation on two separate patients. Both the surgeries were successful, the hospital spokesperson said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The family of the victims of the Bulandshahr highway robbery and gangrape could not go to record their statement before a magistrate on Monday as the cases investigating officer was caught up in getting police remand of two accused in the case. The investigating officer had told us on Sunday to be ready to record statements under Section 164 of the CrPC on Monday. However, he called on Monday morning saying he would not be free and told us to wait further, said an uncle of one of the victims. After facing a lot of questions for not taking the accused persons into remand soon after their arrest on July 31, the police on Monday got a three-day remand for two of the three accused, Shavez and Jabar Singh from a Bulandshahr court. The third accused Raees is yet to be remanded. The accused persons had forced a family of six off the road into the fields, tied the men up and gangraped a 35-year-old woman and her 13-year-old daughter, besides robbing them. Read more: Bulandshahr gangrape case: Main accused, two others arrested The two will be in police remand from August 9 to August 12 for questioning, said Mohammed Sharik, district government counsel (criminal). In another development, the National Commission for Women (NCW) on Monday summoned the Bulandshahr doctor who had conducted the medical examination of the woman and her teenage daughter allegedly raped in the July 29 incident. The doctor was alleged to have misbehaved with the family. The doctor arrived for her statements on Monday at Delhi and the proceedings were recorded. She told us that she was polite to the family, but was angry with the police for not putting up relevant information in the documents forwarded to her before she could start the examination, said Rekha Sharma, member, NCW. The NCW team also asked her questions with regard to several observations in the medical report that could prove favourable to the accused persons. We have recorded her replies to the questions. The observations and recommendations will be put in a report and forwarded to the NCW chairperson. Thereafter, the report will also be forwarded to the UP government, Sharma said. Following the victims medical examination on the morning of July 30, the family had alleged that the concerned doctor misbehaved with them and even termed their claims false. The NCW team that had visited Bulandshahr and met the family took the matter seriously and later summoned the doctor to Delhi over the issue. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON An inspection team of the municipal corporation claimed that over 100 workers from dyeing units attacked them while they were checking an alleged illegal sewer connection on Bahadur Ke Road on Tuesday. Police was informed after the violence went out of hand, in which MC officials sustained injuries. These dyeing units are allegedly using an illegal sewer connection from a residential area nearby. The factories lie outside MC limits. The civic body took action after HT highlighted the problem of overflowing of sewerage in residential colonies of Bahadur Ke Road. An MC vehicle stuck in a traffic jam after factory staff chased the corporation staff away on Bahadur Ke Road in Ludhiana on Tuesday. (JS Grewal/HT Photo) An MC team including junior engineer Rajneesh Kumar, two sewer men Amar and Pappu and JCB operator Vikram went to the area to check the status of sewer line after councillor from ward 1 Randhir Singh Sivia refuted the MCs claims that the illegal connection had been disconnected two days back. Sivia said the MCs action was a mere eyewash. Sivia claimed that when the sewer men opened a manhole on Tuesday, they found that water from the dyeing factories was still being released into the main sewer lane of the MC. I had requested the civic body to disconnect the line in the evening. After that I went to Haibowal for some other work. Later, I learned that a mob had attacked the MC team. A sewer man, Amar, said more than 100 workers from the factories attacked them. When some people started beating us, I ran away fearing for my life. Some of them also beat up the junior engineer and attacked the JCB man, he claimed. An MC employee, on the conditions of anonymity, said, I spotted blue-coloured water in the MCs sewer lane. It is suspected that it is being released by the dyeing units, he claimed. He said a security guard and a bike belonging to one of the attackers were taken to the police station. MC executive engineer Pardeep Saluja claimed that the illegal line was disconnected two days ago. He also refuted Sivias claims that the illegal connection was still there. The team was merely sent to show the disconnected illegal sewer line to the area councillor for his satisfaction, he said. Claims of attack by workers refuted After the alleged attack on the MC team, factory workers staged a protest against the digging of a road by the MC. Tarun Bawa, president of Bahadur Ke Road Textiles and Knitwear Association, denied that factory workers had attacked the MC team, and said he only saw that the team was being attacked by some people when he was passing by. He further claimed that they were residents. He said factory workers were staging a protest against digging of a road. Sources said Bawa was raising slogans against councillor Sivia during the protest. Later, police and a large number of MC employees and officials reached Bahadur K Road. No relief from overflowing sewage Due to alleged illegal sewer connections, the overflowing sewage has led to unsanitary conditions in Bharti Colony, Saryansh Nagar, Golden Vihar, Deep Vihar, Harvinder Nagar and nearby areas. The MC had installed the sewer system in residential areas around one and a half years ago. Due to illegal connections given to factories outside the MC limits, sewage has been overflowing into residential areas, Sivia claimed. Sources said the Vidhan Sabha Committee had also recommended for that illegal sewer lines be disconnected. FIR registered An FIR was registered at Salem Tabri police station, said Jasdev Singh Sekhon, president of municipal ministerial employees union, Ludhiana. He said MC employees will conduct a gate rally on Tuesday to mark their protest against the attack on the team. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON In what appears to be a case of human sacrifice or witchcraft, a seven-year-old boys body was found in the almirah of a neighbour at Malko village near Lambra on the Jalandhar-Nakodar road on Tuesday. The victims hands and legs were tied and mouth stuffed with cloth, besides injury marks on the head. The victim, Gurpreet Chumber, son of Ashok Kumar, a labourer, studied in Class 3 at the local government school. The victim, Gurpreet The body was found from the house of one Mangat Ram, who had taken it on rent from one Rajkumar recently. The scene at the crime spot suggested that some tantrik rituals were performed in the house. Among the things recovered from near the almirah where Gurpreets body was found were two lemons, chicken liver, liquor bottles, green chillis, flowers, bricks and pictures of several children. Mangat and his wife had left for a pilgrimage to Chintpurni on Monday and the house was in the custody of his cousin, whose identity the police were yet to ascertain. As per information, Gurpreet was last seen with Mangats cousin in the house at 8pm on Monday. Victims cousin Naresh Kumar said, When Gurpreet did not return till late at night, we thought he may have fallen asleep. We were surprised when Mangat knocked at our door at 11pm to enquire if the keys of his house were with us. The almirah in which Gopis body had been kept. (HT Photo) Naresh said they tried to trace Gurpreet and Mangats cousin in the village, but to no avail. He said after some time, he (Naresh) and Gurpreets father Ashok scaled the wall of Mangats house and opened the door. During the search, Ashok found Gurpreets body with hands and legs tied in the almirah. Mangat and his wife also managed to escape from the village, he said. Mangat Ram and his wife had no child and the couple had taken the house on rent only two weeks ago. Gurpreets family members said footage of a CCTV camera installed outside a shop in the village showed Mangats cousin offering candies and biscuits to Gurpreet. A team of the Lambra police led by Kartarpur assistant superintendent of police (ASP) Bhagirath Meena visited the spot. A post-mortem was conducted at a hospital and the body was handed over to the family in the evening. A case has been registered against Mangat and his unidentified cousin for murder and criminal conspiracy. Both the accused are absconding. Meena said, Till the time there is some concrete proof or confession of the accused, I cant confirm this as a human sacrifice. He said there were injury marks on the boys head. The post-mortem report will ascertain the cause of death, he said. Sixth murder in two months It is the sixth murder in the jurisdiction of the Jalandhar rural police in the past two months. On July 14, a human torso was found in a travel bag dumped near a brick kiln of Mehmadpur village in Adampur. In another incident, a womans body was found at Chuharwali village a few days ago. On July 3, an old woman was murdered and her granddaughter kidnapped at Sanora village near Bhogpur town of the district. The granddaughter was, later, found injured seriously. On the same day, farmer Sukhdev Singh (46) was found murdered under mysterious circumstances at a dera of Sangh Dhesian village near the districts Goraya town. On June 25, two gunmen killed a dera head, Pritam Singh (62), at Barchuhi village in Bhogpur town. Special investigation teams (SITs) are working on these cases. After five days of the attack on the chambers of lawyer Gian Singh Mungo, who represented Delhi legislator Naresh Yadav of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Malerkotla Quran sacrilege case, a watchman, Ravi, was remanded in judicial custody on Sunday. On Monday, Nabha Bar Association went on a strike, demanding a transparent investigation. Police remain silent on the attack and Ravis motive. Deputy superintendent of police Manpreet Singh said at this stage, he could disclose nothing except that the mobile phone recovered from the chamber belonged to the watchman. What was the urgency to arrest the watchman and present before the court on Sunday when he was in contact with the police since Day One? said lawyer DP Singh. Advocate ML Sharma said the attack didnt seem to be the work of just one man. There were blood stains on the spot, while the watchman is not injured, he said. Bar association president Mungo doubted the police approach. The watchman could be drugged. Why did police take five days to come up with the theory that he was involved? he said. The DSP tried to assure the lawyers that the investigation was fair but the advocates had so many unanswered questions. AAPs Patiala coordinator Dr Balbir Singh found the investigation slow. The government is trying to demoralise our party workers through these tactics. Why is the investigation is so slow when police have so many clues such as the mobile phone and the blood stains in the chamber? he said, threatening protests, if police didnt catch the true culprits. Former additional advocate general Mungo had switched to the AAP from the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal recently and was assisting it in the sacrilege case. The police had caught the watchman on the morning of the attack and found him too drunken to be questioned. The DSP said he would have to look at the forensic report before saying anything further. Privacy Overview This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful. Two doctors from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, visited Hero DMC Heart Institute in Ludhiana on Tuesday and examined RSS leader Jagdish Gagneja, who is battling for life after being shot at by unidentified assailants in Jalandhar on Saturday. Dont miss: Gagneja still critical, Rs 10 lakh reward for info on assailants Dr Subodh Kumar, a surgeon, and Dr Kapil Dev Soni, associate professor, department of anaesthesia and critical care, of AIIMS examined the RSS leader. According to sources, the team was sent by AIIMS on the request of Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal to the Union health ministry. Dr GS Wander, chief cardiologist and head of research at DMC, said, There has been no improvement in the condition of the patient. The AIIMS doctors were shown all the reports and the challenges before the doctors. Dr Wander said the team of doctors at DMC was doing everything to save the patients life. Also read | Jagdish Gagneja: A low-profile, yet powerful RSS leader in Punjab The AIIMS doctors will decide if there was a need for shifting Gagneja to New Delhi. It has been learnt that the next 72 hours were critical and doctors will not perform any surgery on Gagneja during this period. The doctors were now battling to stop the spread of the infection due to the bullets inside the body. The doctors learnt to have also decreased the dose of medicines to control the blood pressure of the patient. The bullets reportedly have damaged Gagnejas small and large intestines. A doctor, requesting anonymity, said the small intestine had been damaged at five places and the large intestine at three points. Leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party held a havan at the Durga Mata Mandir here for the wellbeing of the RSS leader. Punjab local bodies minister Anil Joshi also visited Gagneja at the hospital. BJP leaders performing a hawan for RSS leader Jagdish Gagneja in Ludhiana on Tuesday. (JS Grewal/HT Photo ) Read more: Eyewitness describes Gagneja shooting, seeks security Car jacking incidents in the city are on the rise. And police are on their toes trying to stop miscreants in such cases. However, it seems they have not been very successful so far. Hours before chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and deputy CM Sukhbir Badal visited the Hero DMC Heart Institute, five motorcycle-borne men allegedly robbed a B.Com student of his Hyundai Santro car near Issewal village after throwing chili powder into his eyes in broad daylight and fled. The victim was going towards an eatery near the village to celebrate his birthday with friends, when the accused intercepted him. On being informed, the Mullanpur Dakha police reached the spot and initiated investigation. Police registered a case against five unidentified persons following a complaint by Rahul Khanna, a resident of Shivaji Nagar. In his complaint, the 20-year-old Rahul stated, he was a student of B.Com at GGN Khalsa College in Ghumar Mandi. He had planned to celebrate his birthday along with his friends at an eatery at the periphery of the city. His friends were already waiting for him. He added that as he reached near Issewal Canal Bridge at around 12.30pm, five persons riding two motorcycles crossed him. The accused intercepted him. As he got out of the car, the miscreants threw chili powder into his eyes and fled with the car. He added that the miscreants were clean-shaven and were in their 20s. Inspector Kulwant Singh, SHO, Mullanpur Dakha police station, said a case was registered in this context. The police have launched a manhunt for the arrest of the accused. Days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked the states to act against self-styled cow vigilante groups, Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal on Tuesday warned those violating law on the pretext of cow protection of stern action. He also batted for dairy farmers who are being harassed in the name of gau raksha (cow protection). On the sidelines of a sangat darshan (public meet) programme in Hoshiarpur assembly segment, Badal said dairy farming is an allied agricultural activity that supplements the income of farmers in a big way. This should not be discouraged at any cost, he said, adding that everyone should exercise restraint and permit cattle trade with valid documentation to go on. On August 1, dairy farmers of Punjab had accused cow protection groups of hurting the Rs 2,500-crore cow-breeding business in the state, alleging that their flourishing business of selling high-yielding cows to other states had come to a halt. Watch | Gau rakshaks have been flaunting violent actions on YouTube Led by the Punjab Progressive Dairy Farmers Association, they had also accused the ruling SAD-BJP regime in the state of creating obstacles such as asking for no-objection certificates (NOCs) to sell cows to other states. They had given an ultimatum to the government to roll back the NOC norm by August 10, failing which, they had threatened to take to streets. Replying to a query on Saturdays murderous attack on RSS leader Brigadier (retired) Jagdish Gagneja at Jalandhar, Badal said it was not an ordinary law-and-order problem, adding that the state police was looking into it and the culprits would be brought to book soon. He termed the attack on Gagneja a deep-rooted conspiracy. Replying to another query, Badal said the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) will announce the names of its candidates for the 2017 Assembly polls in Punjab at an appropriate time, adding that too early or too late an announcement was not beneficial. Must read | Modi now using cow for votes of butchers: Booked gau rakshak leader With a Congress worker breaking down in front of Captain Amarinder Singh during Lokan Da Darbar programme, alleging that he has been framed in a false case, Punjab Congress chief stormed into Sangat police station to protest and inquire about the case. During the programme, which is a part of Halke Vich Captain campaign, at Jassi Bagh Wali, several party workers raised the similar complaints that they have been framed by Punjab police in false cases at behest of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) men. However, Baldev Singh a resident of Pathrala village broke down while complaining and said his land has been grabbed. This prompted Captain Amarinder to leave the programme midway and went straight to police station in Sangat accompanied by Baldev and his daughter Harsimrat Kaur. Baldev Singh along with five others were booked under section 336 (act of endangering life or peace), 506 (criminal intimidation), 148 (rioting armed with deadly weapon) and 149 (unlawful assembly) of the Indian Penal Code on complaint of one Malkit Singh, an Akali worker, also a resident of Pathrala after a clash ensued between two parties over issue of thoroughfare to agricultural land on November 20 last year. All six have been granted anticipatory bail by Punjab and Haryana high court January this year. Captain Amarinder warned the police officials against registering false cases saying that they would have to account for every offence of omission and commission they committed against the Congress workers. Let me announce it that all those police officials, who connived with the Akalis and framed the Congress workers in false cases, that their countdown has begun and they will find themselves behind the bars after Congress forms the government in Punjab, he said while talking to reporters outside the police station. He said Baldev Singh was being victimised since his daughter Harsimrat had contested election as a Congress candidate for the Zila Parishad elections. He said the local Akali leaders who were named by the Congress workers for intimidating and persecuting them will meet the same fate as police officials registering false cases. The former chief minister said there were 125 complaints related to false cases having been registered in Sangat Police Station only. He said this was just one of the examples, as everywhere people have been framed just because they were Congress workers and supporters of the party. Bathinda SSP Swapan Sharma said the case was registered on a complaint and they would act only on merit in the case and an inquiry would be conducted within 10 days. In scarp, these tech-savvy thieves saw an opportunity to steal high-end luxury cars in 10 minutes or less. The gang of an engineer and a Class-12 pass-out who used their technical knowledge for vehicle theft first roamed around scrap dealers in the city. Their need: the Electronic Control Module (ECM), considered to be the brain of high-end vehicles. Harpreet Singh alias Smarty (22), a BTech from the Regional Institute of Management and Technology(RIMT), Mandi Gobindgarh, said, The luxury cars after they are dismantled are brought to the scrap dealers. Most break down the car into components and the ECM, in most cases, was found intact. We used to buy these ECMs for Rs 10,000. The ECM and a scanner helped them make a duplicate key of the car. After driving around for a few km, they coded the ECM bought in scrap with the car (provided their ECM was of the same year-make of the car). For instance, a 2009 Innova could only be coded on an ECM made in the same year. Once they procured an ECM, the duo used to lift these cars chugging all other equipment they could require for use in towing a vehicle for instance. The second member of the gang Ramjeet Singh alias Ram (22), a resident of Delhi, claimed that they stole a Cruze from Sector 44 by first towing it to avoid suspicion. Electronic scanner bought for Rs 50,000 The accused have told the police that they procured a scanner used to make a new vehicle key from online website e-bay for Rs 50,000. They claim that based on the same principles, any vehicle that used the same computerised technology, an ECM and the scanner of any vehicle installed with computerised technology could be stolen. Crime branch inspector Gurmukh Singh said, The modus operandi has been revealed. We are working on a plan to make residents aware of how to prevent theft of their cars. Patients and hospital staff at Hero DMC Heart Institute were a harried lot after the hospital premises were taken over by 70 cops stationed there to provide security cover to the chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal, who were scheduled to visit top RSS leader Brigadier Jagdish Gagneja (retd), who is admitted here in a critical condition. Gagneja was shot at by bikeborne assailants in Jalandhar on Saturday night. A constant stream of VIPs have visited the hospital since Sunday. The corridors inside were cordoned off and waiting patients were ordered to move away. The hospital sees a heavy footfall of patients not only from Punjab but other states on a daily basis. The hospital offers advanced treatment facilities and one of the best teams of doctors from Dayandand Medical College and Hospital. Police commissioner Jatinder Singh Aulakh and deputy commissioner of police Dhruman Nimble reached the hospital premises early in the morning to make arrangements at the entry gate for the Badals visit. Nimbale was spotted helping an aged patient get into his vehicle from the wheelchair after junior cops forced the patients relatives to remove their car from the porch. Police repeated the same exercise at around 4.30pm when the CM and deputy CM finally came to the hospital to meet Gagneja. A patient, Gurmeet Singh, said security officials did not allow him to leave the hospital premises before the visit ended. I was done with my check up but was told that I could not leave because a VIP was here to meet a patient. They let me out after 15 minutes, he said. On Sunday, director general of police Suresh Arora and leaders including chief parliamentary secretary Navjot Kaur Sidhu visited Gagneja at the hospital. The city police have arrested gangster Shubham Singh and his two aides wanted for the murder of a tavern owner and his employee. Addressing a press conference here on Monday, additional deputy commissioner of police (ADCP, crime) Lakhbir Singh said the accused were nabbed following a tip-off on Saturday. Shubham, son of an undertrial suspended cop, and his aides Gaurav Singh and Kapil Jaitley were seen roaming on a bike on 88 Feet road, following which they were apprehended at a checkpoint set up at Mustafabad Indira Colony chowk, said the ADCP. A country-made pistol, a 12-bore gun and five cartridges each besides 520-gm drug powder were seized from them. On raiding their hideout, a stolen Innova car and a motorcycle were also recovered. Hardev Singh, owner of a tavern on 88 Feet road, was shot dead by the accused and his aides on July 25. Other aides Amit Kumar, Ravi Kumar and Simran Singh are still absconding. Shubham had gone to Hardev Singhs tavern to settle an old score with his son Simran. On reaching the establishment, Shubham opened fire at Hardev and his worker Raju. Hardev died on the spot, but Raju succumbed to his injuries on August 6. At least 10 criminal cases have already been registered against the accused, said the ADCP. The government-run Beant College of Engineering and Technology, Gurdaspur, which is without a regular principal for over two months, is in the process of regularising nine employees who are facing dismissal due to their wrong selection. The Punjab directorate of technical education has a draft advertisement ready for publishing to appoint a new principal, but not before getting the recommendation from the officiating principal, OP Singh, to regularise the employees who were appointed illegally. Former principal Ravi Kumar, whose tenure ended on an unhappy note in May 19 this year, had blocked the governments move to regularise these employees. In all, 17 contractual employees, including teaching and non-teaching staff members, were found illegal appointees in a departmental inquiry conducted by Kumar in July 2014. The inquiry revealed that some contractual employees did not meet the qualification eligibility and others did not clear the required UGC/NET or did not meet the work experience clause for selection. Kumar had constituted a committee of experts and the findings were submitted to the college board of governors, which decided to dismiss these employees instead of renewing their contracts. The nine employees who have been handpicked for the regular job include assistant professors Mohit Marwaha (IT), Preet Kamal Singh (mechanical engineering), Sandeep Kaur (computer science), Baljinder Singh (IT), Lovejit Kaur (applied chemistry), Rishi Tuli (applied maths), Deepak Kalia (computers), Vishan Mahajan (management) and Pritpal Singh (director physical education). The directions to review their cases came from technical education minister Madan Mohan Mittal, who had acknowledged it when the HT reported the matter in June this year. This move comes in contradiction to the replies filed by the directorate and the college management for the dismissal of these employees in the Punjab and Haryana high court. The employees had got a stay from the high court on their dismissal. In its reply to the high court, the college management had said: The petitioners (contractual employees) are guilty of obtaining appointment by illegal means and thus, were not entitled to any relief of regularisation under any policy. When contacted, additional director, technical education, HP Singh said: The officiating principal has been asked to review their cases for regularisation again. These employees had approached the technical education minister, who had asked to review their case. On Saturday, an off-day in the college, the officiating principal called the clerical staff of the establishment wing to prepare a reply as sought by the additional director. In June, the officiating principal had expressed his reservations while sending his reply for preparing a case to regularise these employees. When contacted, the officiating principal said he had been asked to give his reply again. The three-year term of Ravi Kumar as the principal of Beant College of Engineering and Technology, ended on May 19 this year, with the government rejecting his representation seeking continuation in office for another two years. His contract had a clause that he might be considered to continue for two more years after the three-year term. Kumar is back with the National Institute of Technology in Hamirpur, teaching material science, where he had begun his career as a scientist decades back. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Labelling the Congress as anti-Sikh and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as a party of outsiders, deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal sounded the poll bugle by launching the Youth for Punjab campaign here on Monday, asking the Youth Akali Dal cadres to start work in all 117 constituencies. He asked Punjab ministers Sharanjit Singh Dhillon and Bikram Singh Majithia to jointly lead the campaign. By giving a new slogan Punjab Punjabian da, Sukhbir tried to invoke the native feeling among the youths to take on the AAP. He said it was the Congress government when the Akal Takht was attacked and, now, the AAP was labelling Punjabis as drug addicts. The dope tests being conducted during the police recruitment show the number of addicts in Punjab is negligible, he said. No amount of coffee drinking with Captain (Amarinder Singh) or defaming by outsiders (AAP) will help either the defunct Capt or the liar (Arvind Kejriwal), he said. He said he felt the same as he did in December 2010 when youngsters got together and started a movement that eventually resulted in the victory of the SAD- BJP alliance in 2012. On Sutlej Yamuna Link canal, he said not a drop of water will go out of Punjab. Kejriwal has betrayed the farmers by siding with Haryana in the Supreme Court, said Sukhbir. Dhillon and Majithia, too, addressed the gathering. Raising concern over safety of Sikh families residing in Kashmir, Akal Takht jathedar Gurbachan Singh on Monday appealed to the Centre as well as the Punjab government to help them. In a press release issued here, the jathedar said due to the ongoing unrest in the Valley, movement of Sikh families has been restricted and there is concern over the safety of Sikh women. He said it has become tough for them to even go out to buy household items in the curfew-bound Kashmir. The J&K government has failed to help them (Sikh families)... The Centre and Punjab government should come forward and help those stuck there, he said. The jathedar also asked J&K gurdwara committees and Sikh families to stay united and told the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee and the Delhi body to stand by the community members in the Valley. Sharing his side of the story after cancelling a press conference on Sunday fearing arrest, suspended Youth Akali Dal (YAD) leader Navdeep Singh Goldy posted a video on Facebook on Monday. Goldy was suspended after a brawl with Amritsar senior deputy mayor Avtar Singh Truckanwala during a meeting called by the deputy commissioner on Thursday. After a case was registered against him, Goldy had gone underground. In the video uploaded on Facebook, Goldy rubbished the allegations levelled against him by Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leaders present at the meeting. He said the leaders got an FIR registered against him and got him suspended from the party by misguiding the police and the party high command. Heres the video: Accusing the SAD leaders of hatching the conspiracy to deny him party ticket in the assembly elections, Goldy said Truckanwala was the one to start using vulgar language, and also tried to manhandle him in presence of deputy commissioner Varun Roojam and municipal commissioner Sonali Giri. When both officers left the meeting, Truckanwala and I had a scuffle, during which his turban fell, although I didnt touch it. I left the venue in haste, and my mobile phone was left behind. As all relevant contact numbers were in the phone, I could not present my side of the story to the police, media and party high command, he said. The municipal corporation (MC) her has purchased machinery worth Rs 1.12 crore and handed it over to employees for field use on Monday. The MC has purchased two garbage tippers, two JCB machines, two tractor-trolleys along with a dozen of rickshaws for the lifting of garbage in the city. Chief parliamentary secretary (CPS) and Phagwara MLA Som Parkash distributed keys to the employees during the inauguration ceremony here. He said that the MC has spent Rs 1.12 crore on the purchase of the machinery and they would get the same amount from the state government under the Swachh Bharat Mission to ensure a clean city. MC commissioner Iqbal Singh said that the MC, in collaboration with the Chennai-based Eco Garb International Company, has already installed three global positioning system (GPS)enabled smart bins for disposal of garbage. The peace-vitiating bid to kill Brigadier Jagdish Gagneja (retd), the key person of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in Punjab, also set the alarms bells ringing in the Prime Ministers Office (PMO). Top functionaries in the PMO kept the Punjab governments civil and police authorities on their toes all-through the Saturday night. After reports began pouring in that two unidentified bike-borne assailants in Jalandhar had pumped in bullets into the abdomen of Gajneja, the PMO monitored the developments on an hourly basis, according to high-ranking police sources. Gagneja was shot thrice in the abdomen near the busy Jyoti Chowk in Jalandhar a little after 8 pm on Saturday. He was shifted to Hero DMC Heart Institute in a critical condition on Sunday. Senior Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) leader, Brigadier Jagdish Gagneja (retd) being shifted to Hero DMC Heart Institute, Ludhiana from a private hospital in Jalandhar on Sunday. (HT File Photo) Sources say the Union government has also drawn up a plan to shift the ex-army officer to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) or the Army Referral Hospital in Delhi. The PMO was in touch with Punjab officers till 3am on Sunday. Brig Gagneja is the backbone of the RSS in Punjab. The PMO was trying to collect early leads such as why Gagneja was attacked and who could be behind this murderous attack, a Punjab-based RSS leader told Hindustan Times. Also read | Jagdish Gagneja: A low-profile, yet powerful RSS leader in Punjab PANIC IN POLICE After the initial shock of this yet another targeted shootout started sinking in, the state government alerted deputy commissioners (DCs) and senior superintendents of police (SSPs) across the state to take precautionary steps. The DCs were asked to review security arrangements with the district police chiefs. But the panic in Punjab Police was such that director general of police (DGP) Suresh Arora requested the state government to immediately seek 15 companies (about 1,500 men) of the paramilitary forces from the Centre. DGP Suresh Arora with police officials at the crime spot in Jalandhar on Sunday. (HT File Photo) By 11pm on Saturday, all the DCs received a message from the government in Chandigarh that on the request of the DGP, the government has requested the Centre to give the border state 15 additional companies of the CRPF. After this, 10 companies of the paramilitary forces were deployed on Sunday on the basis of feedback by DCs and the SSPs, said an IAS officer posted in the field. The decision to deploy paramilitary forces as a precautionary measure indicates the self-confidence of Punjab Police and its preparedness to handle tough law and order situations in the wake of two back-to-back terror strikes July 27, 2015, Dinanagar and the January 2 Pathankot air base attacks and recent spate of targeted killings. Read: Badal points to Pakistan, Sukhbir says will nab culprits soon Sources say two companies of the Rapid Action Force (RAF) were deployed in Jalandhar on Sunday, while a RAF company each was sent to Ludhiana and Amritsar. Six BSF companies were deployed in other sensitive parts. TERROR ANGLE Police have gathered a clue that in the shootout, a 9mm weapon was used. The assailants had used a similar weapon in a shootout at a RSS shakha in Ludhiana in January. Also, the assailants used .32-bore bullets while attacking Gagneja who sustained multiple gunshot injuries in the intestine. A CCTV grab of the attackers released by the police in Jakandhar on Monday. (HT File Photo) Police are banking on the CCTV footage in which two bike-borne suspects are seen covering their head with a patka and faces with a white cloth. The assailants, police sources say, were trailing the RSS leader after he left home. Read: Eyewitness describes shooting, seeks security Now, the Jalandhar incident CCTV footage frame is being matched with the CCTV footages of Ludhiana and Khanna shootout cases in which RSS and Shiv Sena activists were targeted. We are exploring if same assailants were involved in Jalandhar and Ludhiana cases, a police officer said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON As Punjab Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh vice-president Jagdish Gagneja, who was severely injured after being shot at by two bike-borne assailants, continued to be critical, the Jalandhar police on Monday announced a reward of Rs 10 lakh on information about his attackers. Gagneja was attacked near the Red Cross market which is yards away from the naka. The police control room received a call about the attack at 8.28 pm and an alert was sounded. Read: Badal points to Pakistan, Sukhbir says will nab culprits soon Police also released CCTV camera grabs of the two assailants and suspended head constable Raghubir Singh, who was present at Skylark Chowk police naka, for failing to respond quickly to the situation. Read: Eyewitness describes shooting, seeks security As per eyewitness Parmod Kannojiya, Gagnej was shot at around 8.15 pm. It was Kannojiya and his friend Ravi who took Gagneja to Satyam Hospital at Kapurthala Chowk which is around 3 km from the crime spot. They reached Satyam within 10 minutes and stayed there for 20 minutes. After doctors declined to operate on Gagneja, they took back him to Patel Hospital which is 150 metres from the crime scene. The eyewitness said the city police never came to Satyam Hospital. Kannojiya said when he reached Patel Hospital at 9 pm, the entire police top brass was there. The first information report (FIR) doesnt mention about Satyam Hospital anywhere. It stated attackers came from the side of Skylark Chowk naka and after opening fire at Gagneja, they fled from the same route. In Ludhiana, GS Wander, director, Hero DMC Heart Institute, said the RSS leader was examined by a team of senior doctors of PGIMER and DMCH on Monday morning. ATTACKERS CAME FROM PHAGWARA SIDE Sources said police have established that attackers came from the Phagwara side. Police teams are scanning all CCTV cameras on the main road. The district unit of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sanghs (RSS) condemned the attack on state vice president of RSS Jagdish Gagneja and gave a memorandum to Bathinda deputy commissioner Basant Garg on Monday. Gagneja was shot by two motorcycle borne assailants on Saturday night when he was returning from market with his wife in Jalandhar. RSS district president Chanchal Malhotra declared the incident as attack on the communal harmony of Punjab and demanded that the attackers should be arrested soon. The workers and office bearers of the organisation said that the attackers have planned the attack under a conspiracy to break the peaceful atmosphere of Punjab, but RSS would not allow these people to spoil the religious and communal harmony of the state. Two head constables of Punjab Police have been arrested after a prisoner escaped from their custody on Saturday. According to police, the case was registered against them on the complaint of Mangal Singh, assistant sub-inspector (ASI) of Punjab Police, Police Lines, Amritsar. The complainant stated to the Chandigarh Police that a prisoner, Malkit Singh of Central Jail, Amritsar, who was under treatment at the PGI, Chandigarh, escaped from the custody of head constables Balraj Singh and Dilbag Singh on Saturday. Police sources said that the accused prisoner was booked in 14 criminal cases and was lodged in the Central Jail of Amritsar. The accused was brought to the PGI for treatment on August 3 after other prisoners in the jail attacked him and hit him on his head. But the prisoner managed to give a slip to the two cops on Saturday and escaped from their custody. The head constables have been arrested under Sections 223 (escape from confinement or custody negligently suffered by public servant) and 224 (resistance or obstruction by a person to his lawful apprehension) of the Indian Penal Code at Police Station, Sector 11, Chandigarh. Both the HCs were later granted bail. Further investigation is in progress, said a police official. Many Tamil film celebrities including Sidharth, Hansika Motwani and Radikaa Sarathkumar have mourned the death of popular writer producer Panchu Arunachalam, who died on Tuesday in Chennai. Its a huge loss to the industry, they said unanimously. Several celebrities took to Twitter to mourn the demise of Arunachalam, popular for writing over 100 Tamil films, including hits like Murattu Kaalai, Sakalakala Vallavan and Apoorva Sagodhargal. Read: Veteran Tamil producer Panchu Arunachalam dies at 76 Heres what they wrote: Actor-comedian Santhanam: Saddened by the demise of Legend Panchu Arunachalam sir. My condolences to the bereaved family. May God bless the departed soul. Saddened by the demise of Legend Panchu Arunachalam sir. My condolences to the bereaved family. May God bless the departed soul. Santhanam (@iamsanthanam) August 9, 2016 Filmmaker AR Murugadoss: RIP Panchu sir, the master storyteller best in dual action subject, always wanted to work with him. But lots of respect for your work sir. # RIP PANCHU sir, The Master story teller best in dual action subject, always wanted to work with him bt, lots of respect for ur work sir A.R.Murugadoss (@ARMurugadoss) August 9, 2016 Actress Aishwaryaa R Dhanush: Rest in peace #PanchuArunachalam uncle... You will always be loved and remembered as fondly as ever. Rest in peace #PanchuArunachalam uncle ...you will always be loved and remembered as fondly as ever. Aishwaryaa.R.Dhanush (@ash_r_dhanush) August 9, 2016 Actor Sidharth: Panchu Arunachalam sir was a passionate creator. His contribution to Tamil cinema will live on forever. RIP sir. Strength to the family. Panchu Arunachalam sir was a passionate creator. His contribution to Tamil cinema will live on forever. RIP sir. Strength to the family. Siddharth (@Actor_Siddharth) August 9, 2016 A tweet from the official page of the South Indian International Movie Awards (SIIMA), who presented him with a lifetime achievement award earlier this year read: A Big Loss to the Industry RIP Legendary Film Personality. Panchu Arunachalam Honored to have presented him Lifetime Achievement Award. Actress Hansika Motwani shared: RIP legendary producer PanchuArunachalam sir. My prayers to the family Subbu Panchu RIP Legendary Producer #PanchuArunachalam sir. My prayers to the family @subbu6panchu Hansika (@ihansika) August 9, 2016 Actress Radikaa Sarathkumar, who has worked in films like Theri and Poojai said that she was shocked to hear of the sudden demise of the veteran. Calling it a big loss for everyone, National Award winning writer Dhananjayan Govind, who made the documentary The Creator With Midas Touch on the veteran, tweeted: Panchu Arunachalam sir was born on 22nd March 1941, 75 years old now. Big loss to everyone and I am still unable to believe as I spoke recently. Director of Tamil films like Podaa Podi, Naanum Rowdy Dhaan and upcoming Kaathuvaakula Renduu Kaadhal, Vignesh ShivN wrote: Cant believe! Just saw him and felt his energy at Siima and now, shocking to realise he is no more! RIP Panchu Arunachalam - a legend has left us. While late filmmaker K Balachander might have launched superstar Rajinikanth, Panchu was responsible for taking the 65-year-old star to the masses. They worked together in 23 films, including Kazhugu, Pokkiri Raja and Paayum Puli among others. Arunachalam also came to be known for his association with Kamal Hassan, and they worked together in 13 films. Some of these were titles like Thoongadhey Thambi Thoongadhey and Uyarndha Ullam. That apart, the writer-producer was also responsible for launching the career of music maestro Illayaraja. He introduced the latter in 1976 Tamil film Annakilli. Panchu is survived by son Subbu Panchu Arunachalam, a popular Tamil actor. ott:10:ht-entertainment_listing-desktop Well-known Tamil filmmaker, scriptwriter and lyricist KN Panchu Arunachalam, aged 76, died on Tuesday following a cardiac arrest. Arunachalam suffered the cardiac arrest at his home and died, sources close to his family said. He is survived by wife, two sons and two daughters. His son Subbu is an actor. Arunachalam, who had produced several box-office hits in his more than three-decade long career, had introduced veteran musician Ilayaraja in the 1976 film Annakkili. An assistant of celebrated lyricist Kannadasan, Arunachalam later floated his own production company PA Art Productions, which produced many films starring Rajinikant and Kamal Haasan. A respected professional, he had penned the story for Rajinikants superhit Murattu Kalai among others. Read: Veteran south Indian actor Jyothi Lakshmi dies Leading Tamil actors, producers and directors including Suriya, Sivakumar, Nasser, Bharathiraja, Venkatprabhu, Khushboo Sundar, AL Alagappan and others have paid tributes to Arunachalam. His body will be kept in a hospital for two days since his son and daughter are yet to arrive from abroad, the sources said adding the final rites will be performed later. Read: Veteran Tamil scriptwriter-director Vietnam Veedu Sundaram dies Meanwhile, yesteryear actress Jyothilakshmi also died today, following a brief illness, industry sources said. The actress, survived by husband and actor-daughter Jyothimeena, was not keeping well for some time and breathed her last today. A trained dancer, she had acted in about 250 south Indian films and starred along top stars of the four regional languages. She was generally cast in negative characters and was a regular face in South Indian films in the 1970s. ott:10:ht-entertainment_listing-desktop A healthy sex life is often considered the secret to a happy relationship. The endorphins, or happy hormones, released during the process are known to be good for the human body in more ways than one. They lift your spirits, reduce headaches and migraines, and help induce sleep. But these arent the only health benefits. On International Day Of The Female Orgasm (August 8), we spoke to a few doctors and experts to enlist some other advantages that a good sex life can have on the well-being of men and women. Maintaining a healthy sex life reduces the risk of breast cancer. (Shutterstock) Dr Gauhar Vatsyayan, chief consultant - department of ayurveda, Deep Hospital, Ludhiana, says, Ayurveda considers sex among the four great desires (eshnas in Sanskrit) of a human being. It betters your mood, brings positivity and even reduces obesity. He adds, According to the Vedas, during the winter (from mid-November to mid-February), a person can indulge in the activity as many times. During the summer, it is advised once in a fortnight. In the rainy season, one to two times a week is the advised number. Read: Oral sex: Heres how women are losing out in the bedroom too Maintaining a healthy sex life has the following health benefits: 1. Significantly increases the levels of Immunoglobulin A (IGA) in your body. IGA is an antibody that helps fight bacteria, viruses and toxins. 2. Leads to the release of oxytocin, and therefore, reduces the risk of breast cancer. Oxytocin reduces free radicals in the body. Free radicals can cause DNA damage, and activate procarcinogens, which can become carcinogens (substances capable of causing cancer). Oxytocin helps eliminate the carcinogenic fluids produced in breasts, says Dr Rohann Bokdawala, MD, consultant psychiatrist. Watch: How The Female Orgasm Works 3. As a form of exercise, it helps the cardiac muscles, reduces the bodys blood pressure in the long run and the risk of heart attacks by 50%. 4. Strengthens the pelvic muscles, and therefore, improves bladder control in women. 5. Reduces the risk of prostate cancer. According to a study published in the journal European Eurology in March, Ejaculation frequency may be inversely related to the risk of prostate cancer. Dr Riddhish Maru, Mumbai-based sexologist (practising in Mulund and Thane), explains, The prostates function is to create seminal fluid. The release of the seminal fluid contracts the prostate. Regular contraction keeps the prostate functional. A functional prostate is a healthy one. Read: Ladies, losing virginity when drunk can put you at risk Moderation is essential Neeta V Shetty, psychotherapist and relationship expert, Blissful Mind Therapy Centre, Mumbai, says because having sex helps boost the reward system in the brain, in some rare cases, it can also become an addiction. Dopamine is released in the body (during an orgasm). It activates the pleasure points of the brain, which can result in an addiction to the substance causing the release of dopamine, says Shetty. Dr Maru says, Having sex multiple times every day can become too much. It may reduce a persons stamina both physically and mentally. Tips for a healthy sex life 1. Communicate with your partner freely. 2. Educate yourself about what your partner likes and dislikes. 3. Try not to be mechanical while having sex. 4. Do not skip the foreplay; it is an equally important part of the process. 5. Dont focus on the orgasm alone as that might lead to anxiety. - With inputs from Dr K E Mukadam, dermatologist and laser surgeon, LaserCure, Mumbai. Start planning your beach getaway now, because were heading to the Whitsunday Islands, a stones throw from the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, where the stunning white sands of Whitehaven Beach make a picture-perfect paradise scene. Where to find it Considered one of the worlds most beautiful beaches, Whitehaven Beach can be found in the Whitsunday Islands, off the north-west coast of Queensland, Australia, and are sheltered by the Great Barrier Reef. There are 74 islands in the Whitsundays archipelago, including Hamilton Island -- a popular destination for well-to-do tourists and Australian bachelor and bachelorette party getaways. Whitehaven Beach is on Whitsunday Island. Read: Worlds cheapest beaches are in Vietnam and India Unusual feature While each of the Whitsunday islands is as beautiful as the next, Whitehaven Beach stands out for its ultra-fine white silica sand. To touch, the sand has an almost flour-like consistency, while its cool temperature contrasts with the hot sun that beats down on this 7km (4.35-mile) stretch of paradise. The cherry on the cake is the crystal clear water, once again thanks to the snowy white sand. Happy Sandcastle Day! When was the last time you enjoyed the magic of making a sandcastle at the beach? #SandcastleDay #WhitehavenBeach #HamiltonIsland A photo posted by @hamiltonisland (@hamiltonisland) on Aug 5, 2016 at 7:10pm PDT How to get there Tourists usually visit the Whitsunday Islands on a cruise, stopping off for a few hours at Whitehaven Beach. The site is protected by the Australian government. However, there are areas where camping is authorized. Those with time to kill often reach the campsites by boat. However, some forward planning is required, as travelers must bring water (at least five liters per person per day), as well as all their camping gear plus oil or gas for cooking (fires are not permitted). Read: The Bahamas, a great place to swim with pigs Hot tip Head to Hill Inlet, at the northern end of the beach, a stunning inlet thats bordered by rainforest. This is a great spot for professional and amateur photographers to capture the pale sand and the blue hues of the sea. The lookout at Tongue Point also offers fantastic views. Best beach activity With such crystal clear water, snorkeling is the most highly recommended activity for visitors to Whitehaven Beach. Just beware of jellyfish season between November and May. In fact, its highly recommended to wear a wetsuit at all times of year. The colours and beauty of Whitehaven Beach can also be enjoyed from the air with a flight over the archipelago. Several firms run trips by helicopter or seaplane, some of which also take in the Great Barrier Reef. US actor Charlie Sheen, who announced last year he is HIV-positive, said other celebrities should come forward if they have contracted the virus to help lift its stigma. In an interview with German Playboy released Tuesday, the Two and a Half Men and Platoon star said famous people infected with the AIDS virus had a responsibility to speak out. There is a lot of prejudice against HIV-positive people and I hope to change that, Sheen said. It would be good if more celebrities announced that they are infected with HIV. That would help things. Charlie Sheen is interviewed on stage by British journalist Piers Morgan as part of An Evening with Charlie Sheen event at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, in London, Sunday June 19, 2016. (Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP) The 50-year-old actor revealed in an interview aired on national television last November that he is HIV-positive. He said he hadnt sought the role of a public advocate but that it had been thrust upon him. Read: Charlie Sheen has HIV - A stars dark spiral of drugs, sex, rehab People approach me on the street and congratulate me on having the courage, he said. Whether I want to or not, It is important to teach about sexually transmitted diseases. Sheen stressed that he had turned his back on his bad-boy ways and aimed to make productive use of his life. Asked about the US presidential election, Sheen warned against Republican hopeful Donald Trump, calling him a catastrophe. (REUTERS) I want to stay healthy and do good. I want to make peace with the past, live in the present and look toward the future, he said. Asked about the US presidential election, Sheen warned against Republican hopeful Donald Trump, calling him a catastrophe. Read: Charlie Sheen says he has given up drinking, drugs and dating Hes a damn clown. This circus had better get out of town before it hits the Oval Office, he said. Youd be better off voting for me. In April Los Angeles police opened a criminal investigation against Sheen, reportedly linked to claims that he had threatened to kill his ex-fiancee Scottine Ross. Follow @htshowbiz for more GREATER NOIDA\GHAZIABAD: A senior Uttar Pradesh police officer faced flak on Tuesday for terming the gang rape of a 35-year-old woman and her minor daughter as a sexual assault and revealing the identity of a family-member of the two survivors. The National Commission for Women (NCW) said inspector general of police (Meerut zone) Sujit Pandeys action was reflective of the administrations alleged attempt to dilute the incident that has sparked outrage across the country. The Noida-based family traveling to Shahjahanpur in a car were waylaid, their cash and other valuables looted before the two women were gang-raped by highway robbers on July 29 near Bulandshahr, a district headquarter town around 70 km from Delhi. On Monday, police arrested three more people including the prime suspect in the incident. Three others were arrested earlier. Pandey revealed the name of the minors girls uncle when the survivors family-member allegedly into a press conference addressed by the police official at Surajpur in Greater Noida on Tuesday. However, the IG later said that it was not intentional and he just named the complainant when someone asked for it. The girls uncle is the complainant in the case. The IG should not have identified the victims relatives name in front of the press. Somewhere, the administration is trying to dilute the incident by referring it as sexual assault. In fact, it is a case of gang rape, said NCW member Rekha Sharma. ...@Uppolice introduced victims relative in the press Highly objectionable (sic), she said in a tweet. Any action that could lead to a rape survivors identity being revealed is illegal under Indian law. On Moday, the NCW team had questioned a Bulandshahr doctor over some of the findings in her medical report of the two survivors which could allegedly favour the accused in court. The statements of the doctor were recorded and will be a part of the report to be submitted soon to chairperson of the NCW. The uncle and aunt of the 13-year-old girl appeared in front of cameras and demanded handing over of the three accused to them. I want to kill them at the same place where they indulged in brutality with my family. Darindo ko hamare hawale kar do, inhe aise saza denge jo nazeer ban jaye. (hand the culprits to us and we will punish them so that it becomes an example). I have just seen a glimpse of the accused..., said the uncle of the girl. In his police complaint on July 30, he had alleged robbery, illegal confinement and rape of the girl and her mother. Following the complaint, police lodged a case of gang rape, dacoity, illegal confinement and provisions of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. Some of the sections were allegedly modified with a pen later. As Donald Trump tried to reset his campaign with a disciplined, on-message speech about his economic plan on Monday, more Republicans came out against him, including another senator. I will not be voting for Donald Trump for president, Susan Collins, Senator from Maine, wrote in The Washington Post, listing his spat with Khizr and Ghazala Khan among her reasons. Collins joined a growing list of Republican lawmakers and leaders not voting or supporting their partys nominee, including former presidents George H W Bush and George W Bush. The same day, 50 Republican national security officials said in a statement that Trump would be a dangerous president and would put at risk our countrys national security and well-being. The Republican nominee had not responded to Collins, but dismissed the national security officials as those who should be blamed for making the world such a dangerous place. Signatories of the joint statement included George W Bushs homeland security secretary Tom Ridge, former director of National Intelligence John Negroponte and former CIA director Michael Hayden. Also on Monday, Evan McMullin, a former CIA spy and policy director to the House Republican Conference, launched his presidential run backed by #NeverTrump members of the party. Trump, who trails his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton by widening margins in polls, was expected to put behind a bad week marked by a spat with the Khans, among other things with his economy speech. Republican party leaders, who are still supporting him, wanted to see if he could stay on message laying down his policy and hammering Clinton without setting off side-fights. Reading from a teleprompter for a change, the Republican nominee laid out his economic plan broadly tax reforms, no trade deals harmful to the US and fewer regulations. Americanism, not globalism, will be our new credo, Trump said in a speech marked by applause and interrupted by protestors 14 times, according to one count. Within an hour or so of the speech came the joint statement by the national security officials, all from Republican-led administrations. And they called the nominee dangerous. Senator Collins followed up with a crushing denunciation of the nominee in an opinion piece on Why I cannot support Trump, posted online by the Post late on Monday evening. My conclusion about Mr Trumps unsuitability for office is based on his disregard for the precept of treating others with respect, an idea that should transcend politics, she wrote. Collins based her conclusion on three incidents. One, he mocked a New York Times reporter with physical disabilities who had disputed Trumps account of Muslims cheering the 9/11 attacks. Two, he accused a federal judge overseeing the cases of fraud against the now-defunct Trump University of bias because he was of Mexican heritage. Three, the attack on the Khans, the parents of a soldier killed in Iraq. Rather than honouring their sacrifice and recognising their pain, Mr Trump disparaged the religion of the family of an American hero. Collins has not said who she will vote for. Other Republican lawmakers not voting for Trump include Lindsey Graham, Mark Kirk, Ben Sasse, Richard Hanna and Adam Kinzinger. Chinas foreign minister Wang Yi will focus on taking forward consensus forged with India during his visit to New Delhi this week as the common interests of the two countries far outweigh differences, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday. The high-level visit comes at a time when India is still smarting at Chinas decision to block its entry into the elite Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) on procedural grounds. But a statement issued by the foreign ministry on the purpose of Wangs visit said China and India have identical strategic goals and their common interests far outweigh differences. Wang, who will travel to Kenya, Uganda and India during August 9-14, will also discuss with the Indian leadership the G20 Summit to be held at Hangzhou in eastern China in September and the BRICS Summit in Goa in October. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will participate in the G20 meet during September 4-5 and President Xi Jinping will be in Goa for the BRICS leaders conference. A brief statement issued by foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said, To become closer partners of development is a direction set by leaders of China and India. During his visit to India, foreign minister Wang Yi will also communicate with the Indian side about how to carry forward consensus between the two leaders and enhance mutually beneficial cooperation in different fields in a bid to make sure that the relationship will keep growing as planned. Referring to the G20 Summit and the BRICS Summit, Hua said discussions about the two important meets will be on the top of the agenda for the purpose of building up consensus and making the summits successful. Some media reports had speculated that Wang was headed to India to seek its support on the South China Sea but the Chinese statement did not mention this issue. Modi and Xi met in India in 2014 and in China a year later during two high-profile bilateral visits. Whether bilateral ties have been able to maintain the momentum generated by the two visits is questionable. The Chinese statement, however, maintained the usual positive tone using oft-repeated diplomatic jargon. China-India relationship has been developing fast and sound in all aspects following President Xi Jinpings visit to India in 2014 and Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to China last year. The two countries enjoy in-depth pragmatic cooperation, and ever thriving people-to-people and cultural exchanges, it said. It added, Mutually beneficial cooperation and common development of the two countries will not only benefit the two peoples but also contribute to stability and growth of the region and beyond. India should avoid unnecessary entanglement in the South China Sea dispute during Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yis visit to New Delhi to prevent it becoming yet another factor to impact bilateral ties, a state-run Chinese daily said on Tuesday. India may want to avoid unnecessary entanglement with China over the South China Sea debate during Wangs visit if the country wishes to create a good atmosphere for economic cooperation, which would include reducing tariffs on made-in-India products exported to China amid the ongoing free trade talk known as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, an article in the state-run Global Times said. India is expected to allow only moderate tariff reduction on made-in-China products under the talks in a bid to preserve its domestic industries. If India wants China to be more generous in terms of tariff reduction, it would be unwise for the country to let its relationship with China deteriorate further at this moment, it said. The daily said it is puzzling that India is focusing on the South China Sea issue at this moment, a move which it said might risk unnecessary side effects to bilateral ties and potentially create obstacles for Indian exporters hoping to increase their presence in China, the worlds second largest importer. Underlining that tensions between China and India have been increasing in recent months owing to a series of political incidents, it said, Considering that India does not face territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea, is it worth letting the South China Sea issue become another factor that will impact Indias cooperation with China? India should consider this. Wang will arrive in India to hold talks with his counterpart Sushma Swaraj on August 13 during which key regional and bilateral issues will be discussed, including Indias bid for membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group. His visit comes ahead of the G20 Summit to be held in the Chinese city of Hangzhou next month in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to take part. Following the ruling by an international tribunal last month which rejected Beijings claims over much of the disputed sea area, China is campaigning against the issue to be raised in G20 Summit, saying it is a matter to be resolved between parties concerned and outsiders have no role. In fairness, after dozens of countries have expressed support for Chinas stance in the South China Sea, Indias attitude toward the issue may not be as important as the nation had imagined, the article said. While many Indian people have been focused on the South China Sea ahead of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yis upcoming trip to the country, less attention has been paid to the recent fall in exports of made-in-India products to China, it said. It said India should move its focus from geopolitical competition to economic issues to stop a further decline in exports to China. Iran has executed a nuclear scientist convicted of handing over confidential and vital information to the United States, a judicial spokesperson said on Sunday. Reacting to this news, Republican US presidential nominee Donald Trump on Monday tweeted Many people are saying that the Iranians killed the scientist who helped the US because of Hillary Clintons hacked emails. There is no evidence that the execution was related in any way to Hillary Clinton or the Democratic National Committee email hacking. Twitterati had a field day and used Trumps vague reference to make witty comments about what #ManyPeopleAreSaying: #manypeoplearesaying that Trump slayed 5 squirrels in a Satanic ritual to create his toupee Hesiod Theogony (@Hesiod2k11) August 8, 2016 #Manypeoplearesaying the moon landing was faked. I haven't been to the moon, so might be true! Gillian Brockell (@gbrockell) August 8, 2016 #ManyPeopleAreSaying Trump's tax returns show he is broke, doesn't pay taxes, has ties to the mob/Russians, and steals charitable donations. Zachary Fedell (@zatchry) August 8, 2016 #manypeoplearesaying that Trump stole the idea of the wall from Pink Floyd. Jesse Barnett (@rightarmjesse) August 8, 2016 #ManyPeopleAreSaying that Donald Trump is an elaborate Illuminati plot Paul Szoldra (@PaulSzoldra) August 8, 2016 #ManyPeopleAreSaying The Iranian scientist would give up the Trump hair secret. Justin (@SputnikAZ) August 8, 2016 #ManyPeopleAreSaying that Donald Trump is dangerously unqualified to be president. No, really! https://t.co/4tXCragpSZ Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) August 9, 2016 #ManyPeopleAreSaying @realDonaldTrump is a secret Muslim. Not me. But many people do say that. pic.twitter.com/Jv4hUG8xlm Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) August 9, 2016 #manypeoplearesaying that Trump and Putin end their nightly phone calls with a battle of "You hang up! No *you* hang up!" TrumpsTaxes (@TrumpsTaxes) August 8, 2016 #ManyPeopleAreSaying... that #trump's small hands will require specially miniaturized nuclear keys... Urbanism Avenger! (@UrbanismAvenger) August 6, 2016 MH370 plunged into the ocean at high speed -- up to 20,000 feet a minute -- reinforcing analysis that the missing Malaysia Airlines jet crashed in the current search zone, a report said Tuesday. The Boeing 777 disappeared on March 8, 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board. An extensive underwater hunt in the southern Indian Ocean has not yet found the crash site, fuelling speculation it may be outside the current search zone, particularly if someone was at the controls at the end of the flight. A manned plane could have been glided down, allowing it to enter the water outside the 120,000 square kilometre (46,000 square mile) area being searched, some experts have suggested. But extensive testing by aircraft manufacturer Boeing and new Australian defence department data analysis both suggest that -- regardless of the possible actions of one or both of the pilots -- the jet dived into the ocean at high speed, The Australian reported. Once MH370 ran out of fuel and the engines flamed, it slowed before plunging down towards water in a series of swoops -- dropping from 35,000 feet at a rate of between 12,000 feet a minute and 20,000 feet a minute, Boeing said, according to the report. The sharp dive was confirmed by a new data analysis by Australias defence department involving signals sent automatically between the plane and a satellite, the head of the agency leading the MH370 hunt said. Australian Transport and Safety Bureau chief Greg Hood said this supported the view MH370 was likely to have crashed in the 120,000 square kilometre (46,000 square mile) area now being searched, the paper said. The area was defined under the ATSBs most likely scenario that no-one was at the controls and the plane ran out of fuel. The Australians leading the search do not doubt that the pilot may well have been responsible for the jets disappearance but they say critics of the search strategy are wrong to assume that means they are looking in the wrong place, the report added. Malaysian officials said last week that one of the pilots used a home-made flight simulator to plot a very similar course to MH370s presumed final route, but warned this did not prove he deliberately crashed the plane. An Opposition lawmaker in Pakistan has called for a ban on all 24-hour cartoon TV channels, and specifically the popular Japanese series Doraemon, claiming that it could have a negative influence on children. Pakistan-Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) leader Malik Taimurs demand has been ridiculed on social media. Sir you concentrate on getting Doraemon banned. https://t.co/gU5RHV5gac Naila Inayat (@nailainayat) August 8, 2016 Why're Pakistan pace bowlers & political clowns better than ours? Imran wants Doraemon out. Offer him Chhota Bheem? https://t.co/6KtQ4rQTfe Shekhar Gupta (@ShekharGupta) August 4, 2016 He submitted a resolution in Punjab provinces assembly wherein he requested the federal government that it make it binding upon PEMRA (state regulator) that it close down cartoon channels, specifically Doraemon, or only run them for limited time periods. Childrens education and physical health is being affected by these 24-hour cartoon channels, Reuters quoted the resolution as saying. Doraemon is a small, blue robot cat from the future sent back in time to help a hapless schoolboy and his family. Many episodes of the animated version feature lessons about moral values, and the series has been translated into over 30 languages. Japan even selected Doraemon as a cartoon cultural ambassador in 2008. Reacting to the demand for the ban of Doraemon, people took to Twitter to advise the PTI and Taimur to focus on more pressing issues such as child abuse, corruption and poverty. President Xi Jinping will visit Nepal this year to strengthen bilateral ties, a top Chinese official said during a meeting with Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda on Tuesday. Prachanda said Nepal is eager to welcome the Chinese president at the earliest, according to a statement issued the prime ministers secretariat. Nepal, he said, wants a reliable and long-term friendship with China based on mutual benefit. Nepal also wants trilateral cooperation with India and China, he added. Ji Zhiye, president of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), said during the meeting with Prachanda that Xis visit will go ahead as planned but did not give any dates. This year, President Xi will visit Nepal which aims to strengthen bilateral ties, he said. There has been confusion in Kathmandu over Xis visit following the change of government in Nepal. Prachanda became the premier after his predecessor KP Sharma Oli resigned when a no-confidence motion was moved against him. The CICIR teams visit has helped dispel the notion that Xis visit will be cancelled or postponed, observers said. The Chinese experts told Nepali leaders that Xis visit will certainly go ahead and they were in Kathmandu to look into the preparations for it. Reports have suggested that the Chinese President could travel to Nepal in October before or after attending the BRICS Summit to be held in India. Xi is also expected to visit Bangladesh at the same time. At a time when pacts and MoUs signed with China by Oli are being reviewed after the change of government, the Chinese side has been continuously reaching out to Nepals political leadership to push ahead with the agreements related to transit, trade, energy, connectivity, a rail link and infrastructure projects. A five-member team from CICIR, an influential think tank under Chinas State Council, arrived in Kathmandu on Monday via India. Apart from Prachanda, the Chinese team also held talks with former premiers Oli and Sher Bahadur Deuba. They also told a gathering in Kathmandu that China wants to see good relations between Nepal and India. Airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition bombed a food factory in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa early on Tuesday, killing 14 civilians working on an overnight shift, according to a factory official and medics. Five women were among those killed in what effectively was the resumption of heavy bombardment by the Saudi-led alliance targeting Yemens Shiite rebels and allied forces loyal to Yemens ousted president. The resumption comes after UN peace talks on Yemen collapsed over the weekend in Kuwait. The airstrikes also signal the end of a fragile truce declared by the United Nations in April to pave the way for peace talks. A worker loks for survivors amid the rubble of a food factory that was hit by Saudi-led airstrikes, in Sanaa, Yemen, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. (AP) The conflict in Yemen pits the internationally-recognized government of Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and his allies, backed by the Saudi-led coalition of Arab states, against Shiite rebels known as Houthis who overran and captured Sanaa in September 2014. Since the Saudi-led coalition launched airstrikes against the Houthis, the war has claimed 9,000 lives, displaced some 2.4 million people and pushed the Arab worlds already impoverished country to the verge of famine. The bombing of the factory located in western Sanaa is one of series of airstrikes that rocked the capital and at least five other provinces, presumably targeting suspected rebel positions such as barracks housing Houthis and their allies, ousted President Ali Abdullah Salehs forces. Smoke rises from a snack food factory after a Saudi-led air strike hit it in Sanaa, Yemen, August 9, 2016. (REUTERS) According to medics and the factory official, a large hangar used by the al-Aqel food company in Sanaa was hit in one of the overnight airstrikes. Photographs posted by activists on social media show torn and charred bodies at the location. The same factory was hit in airstrikes in January, though there are no visible Houthi camps or barracks in the vicinity of the factory. The nearest rebel post is nearly 1.5 kilometers (mile) away. The factory official and the medics spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing retribution by the Houthis. Yemens SABA news agency, which is now under Houthi control, said dozens of airstrikes pounded Sanaa, the Houthis northern stronghold of Saada, the western cities of Taiz and Jouf, and the Red Sea ports of Makha and Houdeida over the past 24 hours. Firefighters extinguish a fire that engulfed a snack food factory after a Saudi-led air strike hit it in Sanaa, Yemen, August 9, 2016. (REUTERS) Employees show the damages at a snack food factory after a Saudi-led air strike hit it in Sanaa, Yemen, August 9, 2016. (REUTERS) According to reports, the Saudi-led coalition has closed the airspace around Sanaa, preventing a Houthi rebel delegation from making its way back to Yemen after the talks ended without progress in Kuwait. Since the start of two-year war, the Saudi-led coalition has controlled of the airspace over neighboring Yemen. Northern hemisphere sky-gazers are in for a special treat on Thursday night with a rare shooting star outburst, which astronomers hope will not be marred by clouds and a bright Moon. For about an hour around 2300 GMT, there will be more than double the usual fireball activity associated with the annual Perseid meteor shower. There will be 200 or maybe as many as 300 (shooting stars) per hour, observed from a very dark site, astronomer Mark Bailey of the Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland told AFP. This outburst, as we call it... doesnt last that long. It might last an hour or a couple of hours, he said. Normally, the Perseids regale Earthlings with a show of about 100-120 shooting stars per hour. The event builds up over about two weeks, peaking in mid-August. Some years are better than others... and then there are exceptional years like this year, Bailey said. The Perseids happen when Earth hits a wide belt of debris left behind by the comet Tuttle-Swift on its elongated, 133-year orbit around the Sun. Each meteor is a piece of broken-off comet, which explodes as it hits Earths atmosphere. Within the broad belt of debris, there are also denser dust ribbons created when the comet passes closest to the Sun in its orbit -- a juncture called perihelion. This year, Earth is on a collision course with three of the most heavily populated of these trails -- created in the years 1862, 1737 and 1479. A meteor streaks over the sky during the Perseid meteor shower at a windmill farm near Bogdanci, south of Skopje. (Reuters File Photo) Kamikaze run The meteors youll see this year are from comet fly-bys that occurred hundreds if not thousands of years ago, Nasa meteoroid expert Bill Cooke said in a statement. And theyve travelled billions of miles before their kamikaze run into Earths atmosphere. However, there is no risk to our planet. In fact, astronomers main concern is the weather, with cloud cover predicted for parts of Europe. There is also the dimming impact of our own satellite -- the Moon -- which will be in a bright phase, making it harder to observe the sharp but short-lived bursts of meteors exploding. It is unfortunate that it is in a waxing phase, said Bailey. So we should really be observing after moonset -- some 30 minutes into the outburst. He advised people to get as far away from clouds and electric light as possible in order to enjoy the show. No telescope or special equipment is needed. Wrap up warm, be prepared to sit comfortably on a deck chair or whatever, a glass of wine in your hand maybe, and then allow time for your eyes to become accustomed to the dark, which can take as long as 20 minutes, Bailey said. The next mega-outburst of the Perseids is predicted to occur on August 12, 2028, and will feature the dust trail produced by the comet during its 1479 perihelion passage. The yearly show got its name because the stars appear to fly out of the constellation Perseus, visible in the Northern Hemisphere. A meteor passes across the sky during the peak in activity of the annual Perseids meteor shower in the village of Rievaulx, near Helmsley. (AFP File Photo) It is also known as tears of St. Lawrence in honour of a Christian saint tortured to death by the Romans in AD 258. According to legend, Laurentius was martyred on an iron grill over a fire, during which ordeal he is said to have quipped to his persecutors: Turn me over. Im done on this side! He is a patron saint of cooks. Recent satellite photographs show Beijing has built concrete aircraft hangars on reefs and features in the South China Sea (SCS), a Washington-based think tank said even as Japan warned China on Tuesday that ties were deteriorating over another maritime dispute. The photographs indicating further militarisation of the already tense region emerged less than a month after an international tribunal ruled that China doesnt have historical rights over the South China Sea, handing petitioner and Beijings much smaller neighbour, the Philippines, a boost in the ongoing tussle. The imagery released by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) showed hangars on Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief reefs in the Spratly Islands, known as Nansha in China, which claims most of the South China Sea. The islands and reefs are also claimed by Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and Taiwan. The CSIS released the report with the headline Build and They Will Come: China Prepares Spratlys for Military Aircraft. Civilian planes landed on Subi and Mischief reefs for the first time on July 12, giving China three operational runways in the disputed Spratly Islands. Except for a brief visit by a military transport plane to Fiery Cross Reef earlier this year, there is no evidence that Beijing has deployed military aircraft to these outposts, the report said. But it added that the rapid construction of reinforced hangars at all three features indicates that this is likely to change. Each of the three islets will soon have hangar space for 24 fighter jets plus 3-4 larger planes. Gregory Poling, director of CSIS's Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, told The New York Times: They are far thicker than you would build for any civilian purpose...They're reinforced to take a strike. CSIS added: Other facilities including unidentified towers and hexagonal structures have also been built on the islets in recent months. Beijing had despatched fighter jets to fly over the South China Sea days after the tribunal in The Hague delivered the verdict on Philippines' petition. Beijing dismissed the verdict as "waste paper". Amid these aggressive maritime actions by China, Japan warned that bilateral relations were deteriorating after dozens of Chinese vessels sailed into the disputed waters of the East China Sea over the weekend. The two countries have a festering dispute over the ownership of Diaoyu Islands, which Japan calls the Senkaku. Increased Chinese activities in the region have angered Tokyo. Japans foreign minister Fumio Kishida called in Chinese envoy Cheng Yonghua for the second time since Friday to protest against the incursion by the Chinese vessels. Kishida told Cheng that China was trying to change the status quo unilaterally, the Japanese foreign ministry said. Kishida also said the environment surrounding bilateral ties was deteriorating markedly, the ministry said. The Chinese ships must leave the area as their presence had escalated tensions, he added. The foreign minister said the repeated infiltration and unilateral attempt to change the status quo were unacceptable but Cheng later told reporters that the islands, which are controlled by Japan, were an integral part of Chinas territory. I told him ... it is natural that Chinese ships conduct activity in the waters, Cheng said. ADDIS ABABA: About 50 people were killed in clashes in Ethiopia between police and anti-government protesters, opposition and diplomatic sources told AFP on Monday. Protests swept the vast Oromia region and even reached the capital Addis Ababa. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON DHAKA: Bangladesh has deported a North Korean diplomat after he was caught smuggling more than one million cigarettes as well as electronics into the country in a shipping container, Dhaka officials said on Monday. Han Son Ik, the first secretary of the North Korean embassy in Dhaka, has been ordered to leave the country. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON KABUL: Gunmen wearing police uniforms kidnapped an American and an Australian in the heart of Kabul, officials said on Monday, the latest in a series of abductions of foreigners in the conflict-torn country. The two professors at the American University of Afghanistan were seized from their vehicle on Sunday evening, as the kidnappers smashed the passenger window and hauled them away at gunpoint. No group has so far claimed responsibility for the abductions, which come three days after a group of foreign tourists were ambushed by the Taliban in western Herat province, underscoring the growing insecurity in Afghanistan. Two foreign professors, one American and the other Australian, were abducted at gunpoint from Dar-ul-Aman road in the centre of Kabul city, interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi told AFP. Indications are that they were kidnapped by a criminal group. The driver and a guard inside the vehicle, both unharmed, have been held for questioning, another security official told AFP. Four gunmen wearing police uniforms were involved in the abduction, according to a Western official in Kabul. The Afghan capital is infested with organised criminal gangs who stage kidnappings for ransom, often targeting foreigners and wealthy Afghans, and sometimes handing them over to insurgent groups. The US State Department said it was aware of reports of the kidnapping of an American but declined to comment further. The Australian government confirmed the apparent kidnapping of one its citizens, citing its embassy in Kabul. KATHMANDU: A helicopter of Nepals private Fishtail Air crashed while flying from Gorkha district to Kathmandu on Monday, killing all seven people on board, the home ministry said. A five-day-old girl, who was being airlifted to Kathmandu for treatment, and her mother were among the dead, home ministry spokesperson Yadav Koirala told Hindustan Times. Reports said all the dead belonged to the same family. The helicopter crashed at Bhatine Danda in Nuwakot district, 100 km north of the national capital. We are ascertaining other details about the incident through the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, Koirala said. A team of Nepal Police had reached the crash site. Fishtail Air confirmed the crash but did not give any more details. Another helicopter of Fishtail Air was deployed for the search operation. Devendra KC, spokesperson of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, said the helicopter last made contact with ground control at 1 pm local time. The crash site is located 5,500 feet above sea level, and the Civil Aviation Authority said rescue efforts were being hampered by bad weather. Bishnu Pokhrel, chief district officer of Nuwakot, said a police team was dispatched after local residents alerted police about smoke billowing from the crash site. DALLAS: The family of a Muslim boy who was arrested after bringing a home-made clock to school has sued Texas school officials, saying they violated the 14-year-old boys civil rights. The lawsuit was filed on Monday on behalf of Ahmed Mohamed. The teen was arrested at his school in September and charged with having a hoax bomb. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON ISLAMABAD: A suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest in a crowd of mourners at a hospital in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta on Monday, killing 70 people and injuring more than 100 in one of the deadliest terror attacks in recent years. The blast, followed by firing, occurred as some 200 people, mostly lawyers and journalists, gathered at Quettas Civil Hospital to accompany the body of Balochistan Bar Association president Bilal Anwar Kasi, who was shot dead by unidentified gunmen while on his way to work. The bomber blew himself up near the emergency services ward and the mourners appeared to be the target, government spokesperson Anwarul Haq Kakar said. It seems it was a pre-planned attack, he added. Abdul Rehman Miankhel, a senior official at the Civil Hospital, told reporters at least 70 people had died and 112 were injured. Two journalists Dawn News cameraman Mahmood Khan and Shahzad Khan, a cameraman associated with Aaj TV were killed. Several lawyers, including a former president of the local bar association, were injured. The attack was claimed by both Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a faction of the Pakistani Taliban, and a branch of the Islamic State. In a phone call to local journalists, a spokesman for Islamic State Khorasan Province warned of similar attacks across Pakistan. The spokesman said the strike in Quetta was the first of many, according to Newsweek Pakistan. In an email statement, Jamaatul-Ahrar spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan said their men killed Kasi and then targeted the mourners at the hospital. He vowed more attacks until the imposition of an Islamic system in Pakistan. The claims could not be independently verified. The Jamaatul-Ahrar is believed to have claimed responsibility for attacks in the past that it was not involved in. If the Islamic States claim is verified, this would be the first attack carried out by the group within Pakistan since its chapter for Khorasan, an area encompassing Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of India, was formed in January last year. The IS earlier claimed an attack on Pakistans consulate in the Afghan city of Jalalabad in January this year that killed seven people. Television footage showed scenes of chaos, with panicked people fleeing through debris as smoke filled the hospital corridors. The footage also showed bodies strewn on the ground, some still smoking, amid pools of blood and shattered glass. Many of the dead were wearing the trademark black suits and ties of lawyers. A large burn mark against white brick appeared to indicate where the bomb went off. Balochistan chief minister Sanaullah Zehri condemned the attack and told the media that Indias Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) was behind terror incidents in Quetta. This was a security lapse, provincial home minister Sarfaraz Bugti said, adding he was personally investigating the attack. He said the hospital had not received any threats in the past. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the blast and expressed his deep grief and anguish over the loss of precious human lives. Army chief Gen Raheel Sharif travelled to Quetta and visited the injured in hospital. The toll made the attack the second deadliest in Pakistan this year, after a bombing in a crowded park in Lahore over Easter killed 75. A Soldiers Legacy SUBMITTED BY REX ROWLAND OF CHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE NAME Calvin Kelley DATES 1834(?) to May 22, 1864 ALLEGIANCE Confederate RANK Private UNIT 8th Arkansas Infantry, Company K SERVICE RECORD Enlisted on October 12, 1861. Wounded in the December 31, 1862-January 2, 1863, Battle of Murfreesboro. Wounded in the September 1863 Battle of Chickamauga. Died from a wound received on May 15, 1864, during the Battle of Resaca, Georgia. Calvin Kelleys three-year stint in Confederate gray was difficult and ultimately tragic. Battle wounds twice laid the private up for months on end. But fortune also smiled on him; after his second stretch in a Southern hospital, he met a special young woman. Kelley signed on with Company K of the 8th Arkansas Infantry on October 12, 1861. After working as a cook at Pitmans Ferry, where he had enlisted, Kelley saw his first combat in the brutal Battle of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, fought from December 31, 1862, through January 2, 1863, along Stones River. There he was badly wounded in the leg. Fit for action again by late summer, he fought in the September 1863 Battle of Chickamauga, Georgia, and was wounded again. He returned to a hospital bed. While recovering in Georgia, Kelley met Cordelia H. McSpadden and fell in love with her. The couple married on January 28, 1864. Three months later, Calvin gave his new bride a two-dollar gold piece and a photograph of himself and bade her farewell. It was the last time Cordelia saw her husband alive. On May 15, 1864, he was wounded in the head during the Battle of Resaca, Georgia. He was sent by rail to Fairgrounds Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, where he died a week later. He was buried in the citys Oakland Cemetery. Cordelia never remarried. In addition to the photograph, it turned out that Calvin had left his wife another legacy. Five months after his death, on October 12, 1864, Cordelia gave birth to his daughter, Martha Frances Kelley. It was three years to the day after Calvins enlistment. WHO SCULPTED LINCOLN BUST? I was rather surprised at the article in your July/August 1997 issue about the nineteenth-century American woman sculptor, Vinnie Ream, sometimes called Vinnie Ream Hoxie. The photograph of the Lincoln bust on page 22 of your article is one that I had not seen before. The article appeared when we were going to press with my 460-page illustrated biography about the artist. At first, I wondered if I had missed something. But after some research, it appears that the bust shown in your magazine closely resembles a bust of Lincoln by Augustus St. Gaudens titled Lincoln The Man, which was unveiled in 1887, 20 years after the Ream commission. Unlike Vinnie Ream, St. Gaudens never modeled Lincoln from life sittings. The bust shown on page 22 does not look much like the known sculptures of Lincoln by Vinnie Ream. There is a distinct difference in the way the hair is modeled. The smiling mouth on the work doesnt fit Miss Reams impressions of Lincoln as a man of sorrow, which are so prevalent in her better-known works. The bust also appears to be made of bronze. Vinnie Ream made several different Lincoln busts and medallions in her early career, but they were made of plaster or Carrara marble. The pure white material symbolized Lincolns purity of character in a neoclassic sense. Vinnie Ream did not work in bronze until later in her career, and to my knowledge, Miss Ream never made a bronze bust of Lincoln. Unfortunately, much of the work of Vinnie Ream is lost, undiscovered, or has not survived. Many of the sculptures she made were apparently rendered only in a form of plaster casts. The Smithsonian Index of American Sculpture lists relatively few works by this sculptor. This has made it difficult to compile a comprehensive book and inventory of her work. Perhaps your readers know more? If there are newly discovered works by Vinnie Ream being found, I would like to know about them for the second edition of my book. I took a personal interest in the project. My grandmothers name was Ream, and I am related to the family through both parents. I researched Vinnie Ream for 10 years. Part of my research was funded by a fellowship from the United States Capitol Historical Society in 1989. I decided to write a comprehensive illustrated book on her because it appeared that nothing like it had ever been done before. Vinnie Reams work certainly never became as celebrated as the work of St. Gaudens. I created the kind of book I wanted to see but could not find. Glenn V. Sherwood Longmont, Colorado ANOTHER EARHART MYTH The short article [History Today] in the March/April 1997 issue announcing Linda Finchs world flight propagates one of many Earhart myths that have sprung up recently. The U.S. Navys search for Earhart and Noonan was not the most extensive sea search in this nations history. It was, in fact, a small effort compared with previous searches and has been far surpassed by hundreds of searches since. Only six ships and about 65 planes ever searched for Amelia. The aircraft of the battleship USS Colorado and the carrier USS Lexington (with two escorting destroyers) were involved in the Earhart search for only six days each. The much smaller U.S. Coast Guard cutter Itasca and the seaplane tender USS Swan were each assigned Earhart search duties for only 14 days. During the operation, USN Rear Admiral Orin G. Murfin told a press conference about the unsuccessful 27-day hunt for flyer Charles T. P. Ulm and two companions off Hawaii two years earlier. He related how in one dawn-to-dusk operation alone, 23 U.S. combat vessels and assigned aircraft scoured 100,000 square miles. The admiral wanted it emphasized that this was not the first time the Navy had devoted itself to looking for lost aviators. You will find these facts documented in the contemporary newspaper accounts written by shore-based reporters and the six correspondents actually aboard the search ships. They are verified in the more than four linear feet of official U.S. Coast Guard and Navy Earhart files available to any researcher. Richard G. Strippel Chatham, New Jersey BABY ON BOARD After reading Dorothy Blacks very interesting and informative article, At Home on the High Seas, in the March/April 1997 issue, one should be reminded that not infrequently these voyages ended in tragedy. Charles Fannin recalled in his history, Richmond (Maine) on the Kennebec, a ship named G.W. Morton had been built by T. J. Southard in 1853. Its master, Captain Horatio Tallman, married Southards daughter, Delia. In 1854, Delia and her baby accompanied Tallman on a voyage from New York to Havre. The ship never arrived at her destination, and no trace of her was found. Fannin went on to recall that sometimes a ship would come back with a brand new baby aboard, born to the captains wife at sea or in some foreign port. It sometimes happened, though, that a baby or child was brought back dead, in a cask of rum. Its folks couldnt bear to have it buried far away. But very few of the sea children seem to have died young. Healthier at sea than ashore in those days! Richard E. Witham Bell, California George Washington launched a two-pronged invasion of Canada in September 1775 with the goal of bringing the 14th colony into the revolutionary fold. Initial hopes were high because British General Guy Carleton had been forced to send two of his four regiments south to deal with the rebels in Boston, leaving only a few hundred men to fend off an assault on Quebec, the capital city strategically located at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. Plans called for General Philip Schuyler to advance with 1,700 troops from New York north along Lake Champlain to take Montreal. Then he would meet up outside Quebec with a force of 1,100 led by Colonel Benedict Arnold, who landed at the mouth of the Kennebec River in Maine on September 19 and set out through unsettled wilderness just as winter set in. Arnold believed the late season would work in his favor, because the St. Lawrence River would soon freeze and prevent the British from sending reinforcements by boat. But redcoats quickly became the least of his worries. Hed badly miscalculated the distance he had to travel, and most of his supplies were ruined in leaking bateaux, the 400-pound, flat-bottomed cargo boats that his men were forced to carry around unnavigable rivers. Hunger, fatigue and bone-chilling cold took a toll on the men as they wandered through a direful, howling wilderness, reported Isaac Senter, a doctor from Rhode Island. We proceeded with as little knowledge of where we were or where we should get to, as if we had been in the unknown interior of Africa, or the deserts of Arabia. By the time Arnold arrived on the outskirts of Quebec in early November, one-third of his men had turned back and the rest were a sorry sight. I thought we much resembled the animalscalled the Ourang-Outang, recalled one survivor. The ragtag army holed up to wait for General Richard Montgomery, who had taken command of the other invading party when Schuyler fell ill. But Montgomery arrived a month later with only 300 men. More than half his soldiers had decamped when their enlistments expired, and 500 were left to garrison Montreal. Carleton, meanwhile, had beefed up Quebecs defenses with troops from Montreal, as well as sailors and loyalist militia, and had stockpiled enough food and supplies to last until the spring. Arnold and Montgomery faced a deadline, since the terms of enlistment for many of their men were due to expire at the end of the year. But they also wanted a snowstorm to provide cover for a nighttime assault, and the weather remained unusually clear until the pre-dawn hours of December 31. Then, in gale-force winds and blinding snow, they circled Quebec from different directions, breached the citys protective palisades and entered the Lower Town, which they needed to capture before ascending the cliffs to the walled city in the Upper Town. In the ensuing chaos, Montgomery and most of his officers were killed. A musket ball shattered Arnolds lower right leg, and he had to be carried out to a nearby hospital. For four hours, the fighting raged, house to house, in the narrow streets. When it was over, the British were still in control and more than 400 Americans had been taken prisoner. Arnold, refusing to quit, laid siege to Quebec with a force of 800, half of whom were French Canadians who opposed British rule. Carleton, safe and comfortable inside the city, decided not to attack, and for the next four months, Arnold played a dangerous game, withholding information from his own troops about their precarious position while bluffing Carleton that the Americans were in better shape than they appeared. By May 1776, Arnold had to concede defeat. With the spring thaw on the St. Lawrence and 10,000 British reinforcements headed their way, Carleton himself led a small force to rout the Americans remaining outside the city. In the most helter skelter manner, said Dr. Senter, we raised the siege, leaving everything. All the camp equipage, ammunition, even our clothing, except what little we happened to have on us. The American army was in full retreat, finally sailing down Lake Champlain in mid-June. It had been a valiant effort, but the 14th colony was lost for good. BY EDWARD G. LONGACRE Union General Judson Kilpatrick was flamboyant, reckless, tempestuous, and even licentious. In some respects he made other beaux sabreurs like fellow-cavalrymen George Custer and J. E. B. Stuart seem dull. Because he was a passionate man, Kilpatrick won many admirers and made many enemies during his Civil War careerand not all of his enemies wore gray. Those who knew him usually held one of two opinions. He was either a heroic and noble soldier, or (as one Federal officer wrote) a frothy braggart without brains. Opinions varied because Kilpatrick was complex. He was a hell-for-leather warrior most of the time, but often stood quite as eager to withdraw from a fight as he had been to enter it. He loved to make speeches to his troopers and worked hard to get public notice, but drove his men and horses so roughly, seemingly without regard for their well-being, that he earned the nickname, Kilcavalry. And in an army rife with gamblers and drinkers, Kilpatrick touched neither playing cards nor bottle; but he lacked integrity and cherished certain other vices. Physically, he looked anything but the romantic concept of the cavalryman. He was bantam-sized, with a lantern jaw, pale eyes, and frizzy red sidewhiskers. But being vain, he dressed with a certain flair. He wore carefully tailored uniforms, great boots, and a black felt hat tilted at a rakish angle. A staff officer once remarked that it was hard to look at him without laughing. But Kilpatrick impressed others with his restless energy, for he seemed always to be in a hurry to accomplish some great deed. He was born Hugh Judson Kilpatrick near Deckertown, New Jersey, on January 14, 1836. His father was a farmer, but in his teens young Kilpatrick decided against agriculture as his own profession. Politics attracted himan interest which remained with him through the yearsand before he reached 20 he was stumping rural New Jersey on behalf of a local Congressman seeking renomination. The Congressman won and rewarded his young supporter by offering him an appointment to the United States Military Academy. At West Point, Kilpatrick (Class of 1861) dropped his first name, won satisfactory grades, acted in Dialectic Society dramas, and developed his talent for public speaking. When the secession crisis swept the Academy he harangued cadets from the South with his Union sentiments. As a consequence he found himself involved in several fist fights, but despite his size he thrashed his way to victory more than once. He was so caught up in the clamor to defend the Union that he got up a petition with classmates signatures and sent it to the War Department. The petition asked special permission for the Class of 61 to graduate some months earlier than usual, so that its members could serve the nation as quickly as possible in this time of crisis. The request was granted. On the April day on which he graduated (he was the class valedictorian), Kilpatrick married Alice Nailer, of New York, in the West Point chapel. He went to war carrying a silken banner which bore her name. Although he became a lieutenant in the 1st U.S. Artillery upon graduation, Kilpatrick had no desire to fight the war either in the Regular Army or as an artilleryman. He turned to the volunteer service in a search for high rank and glory, and soon was commissioned captain in Duryees Zouaves (5th New York Infantry). At once he hurried south to join the regiment at Fort Monroe, Virginia, where he worked hard to mold his company into an effective fighting unit. But he was humane as well as stern, and able to win his soldiers confidence and affection. His first assignments in the fieldminor scouting and foraging expeditions failed to satisfy his craving for battle. He had to wait until June 10 for his first touch of glory. On that day he became the first Regular Army officer to be wounded during the war, being struck in the thigh by a grapeshot while directing his men during the Battle of Big Bethel. Although this first large land fight of the war was a Confederate victory, Kilpatrick won high praise from the Northern press for his coolness and efficiency. As a result, while on leave to recuperate from his wound, he found himself a lieutenant colonelcy in the Harris Light Cavalrysubsequently designated the 2d New York. He accepted his commission on September 25, as did several other officers from Duryees Zouaves. He served with the newly organized unit in the defenses of the nations Capital until late in January 1862. Then, tired of the dull routine of garrison life, he accepted the post of chief of artillery on militia Major General James H. Lanes expedition into Texas. But he had barely started for Kansas, the rendezvous point for the march, when he learned that the expedition had been scrapped. More restless than ever for activity, Kilpatrick returned to his regiment at Arlington, Virginia. When Major General George B. McClellans Army of the Potomac sailed down the coast to the Virginia Peninsula, Kilpatrick remained behind with the 2d New York and conducted some minor raids through northern Virginia. During one of these, a night reconnaissance near Falmouth Heights, he demonstrated a talent for cunning and audacity. He had only one regiment in his command, but when he found himself confronting Confederate pickets he shouted orders to nonexistent reinforcements. Hearing him and believing that at least a brigade of cavalry was surrounding them, hundreds of Rebels scurried down the Heights, crossed the Rappahannock River, and burned the bridge so that Kilpatrick could not follow and capture them. In July and August 1862, Kilpatrick went raiding. He struck at Stonewall Jacksons communication lines in the Shenandoah Valley, burned railroad depots and destroyed tracks, ties, and telegraph lines. Late in August he participated in his first engagement at Brandy Station, Virginia, where he and the rest of Brigadier General George D. Bayards cavalry brigade were repulsed by J.E.B. Stuarts legions. On December 6, 1862 Kilpatrick became the colonel of the 2d New York. His fame continued to. grow, and in February 1863 he was given brigade command, at age 27. He led his brigade on Stonemans Raid during the Chancellorsville Campaign. Although the operation, on the whole, was a failure, some of Stonemans officers, Kilpatrick among them, acquitted themselves well. With a detached force, Kilcavalry captured towns in enemy country, again destroyed railroad apparatus, and by marching sixty miles a day penetrated to within two miles of Richmond. His daring threw the Confederate Capital into a mild panic, but finally he had to retreat down the Peninsula to the Union lines outside Fort Monroe, to avoid being captured. Following Stonemans Raid, Kilpatricks fame crested. He rode the crest when on June 9 he charged up Fleetwood Hill near Brandy Station during the greatest cavalry battle fought in North America. At the top of the hill his troopers engaged in saber-to-saber fighting against Stuarts horsemen, trying to push the Rebels from the summit. Kilpatricks brigade charged in three waves, but the first two melted away under enemy artillery and flank fire. Elsewhere on the field other Federal brigades were faltering disastrously, and Kilpatrick realized the importance of holding the hill. With his third regiment he was able to smash into the Rebels and scatter themand for a short time it appeared that his success would throw the battle in the Federals favor. But Stuart rallied his troopers and ultimately forced Kilpatrick and his comrades from Fleetwood. The battle went into the history books as another Rebel victory. But the Union horsemen had shown dash and determinationand none among them so much as the little gamecock from New Jersey. Four days later Kilpatrick was wearing the star of a brigadier general. During the operations that preceded the battle of Gettysburg, he helped prevent Stuart from marching his cavalrymen through Maryland, by way of Edwards Ferry and Boonsborough, to join the major portion of General Robert E. Lees army. Although he was at first roughly handled by Brigadier General Fitzhugh Lee at Aldie, Viriginia, on June 17, a counterattack enabled him to chase the enemy from the field. Four days later he engaged in a fierce saber battle against Brigadier General Wade Hamptons cavalry, which culminated in a charge that drove the Rebels out of Upperville, Virginia, and finally through Ashbys Gap upon their own infantry columns in the Shenandoah Valley. On June 28, 1863, the Army of the Potomac was reorganized. When Major General George G. Meade assumed over-all command, Kilpatrick was assigned a division in the Cavalry Corps. The unit consisted of two brigades under newly appointed generals, George Custer and Elon J. Farnsworth. Kilpatrick led his new command in its task of covering the armys center, as the Federals followed Robert E. Lee into Pennsylvania. On the last day of June Kilpatrick encountered Stuarts cavalry division in Hanover, Pennsylvania. The Federals were drawn up in the streets of the town, resting, when Stuarts leading brigade battered and nearly routed Farnsworths command. Farnsworth and Kilpatrick rushed up to re-form and steady their line, and they directed a vigorous counterattack that dispersed the Gray horsemen and nearly resulted in the capture of Stuart himself. After the Confederates rode off, Kilpatrick took Farnsworths brigade toward Gettysburg. After a sharp skirmish against Hampton on July 2, the cavalry reached the rear of the Army of the Potomac. On the morning of July 3 Kilpatricks command took position on the left of the Union line, across the Emmitsburg Road. July 3, 1863, marked the beginning of Kilpatricks decline as a soldier. To that date his career had been promising and distinguished; great things had been expected of him. But on July 3 he made an unwise decision that resulted in the shattering part of Farnsworths brigade and the death of its young commander. Following Picketts Charge, Kilpatrick directed Farnsworth to attack the extreme right of Rebel line. This was ordered, ostensibly, to exert such pressure on that vital defense point that the Confederates would be thrown back and their line opened up to a crushing assault by divisions of Union infantry. But it is also clear that Kilpatrick ordered the charge in frustration at having been kept out most of the days fighting. He realized that only an energetic officer who committed his troops to battle would win glory on this field. But he asked the impossible of Farnsworth. The brigade commander was required to attack strongly positioned infantry over rough, boulder-strewn ground, despite being outnumbered. In point of fact, Farnsworth had tried that very thing a short while before and had failed signally. Naturally, he was stunned by the order. General, do you mean it? he asked. Shall I throw my handful of men over rough ground, through timber, against a brigade of infantry? The 1st Vermont has already been fought half to peices; these are too good men to kill! Kilpatrick was enraged that Farnsworth should question his command. Do you refuse to obey my orders? If you are afraid to lead this charge, I will lead it. A witness to the confrontation later recalled the General Farnsworth rose in his stirrupshe looked magnificent in his passion, and cried, Take that back!' Kilpatrick hesistated a moment and backed down, but would not withdraw his order. For some seconds there was silence between them, until Farnsworth said quietly, General, if you order the charge, I will lead it, but you must take the responsibility. His troopers made the charge, were as successful as the Light Brigade at Balaklava, and the responsibility indeed rested on Kilpatricks shoulders. In his official report of the battle, however, he tried to cover up his mistake with bombastic words about the infantrys failure to exploit the confusion into which Farnsworth had thrown the Rebel right. In the same report Kilpatrick praised the young general whose courage he had openly questioned a short time before: he baptized his star in blood, andfor the honor of his young brigade and the glory of his corps, he yielded up his noble life. Kilcavalry truly earned his sobriquet that day, but he tried to make amends by vigorously pursuing Lee into Maryland. In the days immediately following the battle he captured some of Lees wagons, and at such places as Hagerstown, Falling Waters, Williamsport, and Boonsborough, achieved varying degrees of success in combat against Confederate infantry and cavalry. In reporting these engagements, however, Kilpatrick indulged a perennial weakness for exaggerating the number of prisoners taken and hte number of casualties inflicted upon the enemy. As the war moved farther south, Kilpatrick returned to Virginia and spent the rest of the summer and that fall slugging away at J.E.B. Stuarts horsemen. He took a short respite from this grueling work when he used his artillery to bombard two Confederate-manned gunboats in the Rappahannock. Afterward the slugging matches resumed, and he fought fa series of battles at and near Brandy Station. In one of these he achieved a modest feat by escaping from an encirclement set by Stuarts men. However, this was later described in slightly grander terms by one regimental historian: Kilpatrick thus escaped serious injury, defeated his pursuers, and presented to the beholders one of the grandest sights witnessed in the New World. During the winter of 186364 Kilpatrick sat in winter quarters and did some thinking. He reassessed his career, and re-evaluated his goals. At length he decided that his future was to be in terms of elective office: first, he would become governor of his native state, and then the President of the United States. And he determined to prosecute the war in a way that would assure the attainment of these goals. He knew that his cateer, and therefore his future, had been jeopardized at Gettysburg and in subsequent campaigning. Clearly he needed a plan that would give him new prominence and would once again splash his name across the Norths newspapers. After much deliberation he conceived such a plan. He would enter Richmond with his cavalry, free the Union prisoners there, and perhaps even capture Confederate officials. The more he thought about it, the more eager he grew to test teh scheme. he boasted to others of its brilliance, and it was not long before his boasts were circulating through the army, and northward. President Lincoln eventually heard of it, and began to wonder. In this third year of hostilities the President was almost desperately searching for a blueprint for peace. Despite Kilpatricks uneven past performances, Lincoln called the cavalryman to the White House and asked for details. Kilpatrick was more than happy to oblige. When he learned that Lincoln was anxious to distribute through Virginia copies of his amnesty proclamation for secessionists who wished to come back into the Union, he assured the President that his expedition would be the ideal means to that end. Lincoln finally gave his approval for the raid, and a joyous Kilpatrick returned south to put it to the test. On the morning of February 28, 1864 he started his cavalry toward Richmond from Stevensburg, Virginia. His 4,000 troopers rode in two columns. Under his personal command 3,500 of them were to strike the city from the north; 500 in a detachment led by a boyish, onelegged colonel named Ulric Dahlgren, were to attack the Capital from the south. Dahlgren had been taken into Kilpatricks plans because he was eager to smell helland, incidentally, because he had impeccable social credentials (his father was a prominent Federal admiral). The raid began smoothly enough. The columns proceeded south by widely divergent routes, planning to make a concerted attack on Richmondbelieved to be only thinly guarded this winteron March 1. Both Kilpatrick and Dahlgren met with little opposition in their destruction of railroad lines and private property, and distributed hundreds of copies of the Presidents proclamation. But the Yankees coming had been anticipated by the Confederates. Just outside Richmond Kilpatrick was hit by units of Rebel infantry, artillery, and cavalry. He faltered and then retreatedbeaten back fro n the city when success was nearly in his hands. Dahlgren, meanwhile, was stymied by an unfordable river and reached the city too late to coordinate an attack with Kilpatrick. The colonel and his men were sent on a disorderly retreat through a winter storm and were finally surrounded by Rebel home guardsmen. In an ambush fight the detachment was cut to pieces and Dahlgren met a tragic death at 21. His hopes crippled, Kilpatrick retreated to Fort Monroe. There he fretted that instead of enhancing his reputation, the raid had broken it beyond repair. His anxiety deepened when a national controversy developed around papers found on Dahlgrens body, stating that the raiders had planned to burn Richmond and kill President Jefferson Davis and his Cabinet. Before the controversy became clouded and at last faded out, Kilpatrick did in fact see his name prominently displayed in the newspapersespecially Southern newspapers, who called him a barbarian, and worse. Kilpatrick had just cause to feel concern. His failure resulted in his transfer from Virginia to the Western theater, where he was assigned to a cavalry command under Major General William T. Sherman. It was a demotion of sorts, and Kilpatrick could not delude himself into believing otherwise. When he went west, Kilpatrick was no longer the cocky, self-assured firebrand he had been the year before. He had tasted defeat and censure, and they had been bitter pills indeed. Nevertheless, he did his best to fit comfortably into Shermans command. Soon after joining his new division, he used it to spearhead the Federal drive through Tennessee and into Georgia, over Taylors Ridge to Buzzard Roost and through Snake Creek Gap to Resaca, Georgia. In battle outside Resaca, in May, he had his first large dose of action in the West. There he was so badly wounded that he was forced to leave the field and return north for recuperation. But through three years of war, he had not learned how to relax from campaigning. He returned to duty in July, against his doctors orders, when he heard that Sherman had crossed the Chattahoochee River and was moving on Atlanta. By the time he returned to the field, his commander was in the city, after General John Bell Hoods Confederate Army of Tennessee had abandoned it in retreat. Because his wound prevented him from riding horseback, Kilpatrick commandeered a carriage and rode alongside his troopers, shouting orders from the front seat. From the carriage he even conducted a raid against the Confederateheld Atlanta-Macon Railroad. On August 18 Kilpatrick, now able to ride again, led another raid against Rebel communications south of Atlanta. He marched his division and some auxiliary units to the railroad between Jonesborough and Griffin, destroyed some miles of track, and then was challenged by enemy cavalry, who pushed his force to Lovejoys Station. Arriving there on August 20, he found Rebel infantry sitting across his path. Nearly surrounded, Kilpatrick mustered some of the spirit that had won him a strong reputation earlier in the war. He faced his troopers about, charged, and in the words of one historian, simply rode over the Confederate cavalry to safety. Sherman was not pleased, however, with the scanty accomplishments of the raid. While he did not censure Kilpatrick personally, he relied more heavily than ever before on his infantry to catch and overwhelm Hood. At first Sherman planned to defeat Hood by separating him from his lines of communication and supply. Then he decided to turn his back on the Confederate commander and with a part of his army push east across Georgia to Savannah and the coast, burning out the state. He sent Major General George H. Thomas Army of the Cumberland back into Tennessee, where he was to deal with Hoods westward-marching army. Then Sherman made ready to march to the sea. He chose Kilpatrick to lead his cavalry, although Lieutenant General Ulysses Grant had previously appointed Major General James H. Wilson to command all the horsemen in Shermans theater. Sherman explained his decision to Wilson in curious terms: I know Kilpatrick is a hell of a damned fool, but I want just that sort of man to command my cavalry on this expedition. He then directed Wilson to join General Thomas in Tennessee. During the march to the sea, Kilpatrick made quite a name for himself. His name, in fact, became infamous to Georgians, who watched his cavalrymen run wild over their property. They learned that Kilpatrick overlooked incidents of pillaging and thievery by his men because he frankly enjoyed wreaking havoc on secessionists. Some of the generals favorite vices also came to public attention during the campaign. Georgia newspapers reported that he travelled with female companions, including two Negro girls who cooked for him and with whom he engaged in the most familiar and indecent conversation. And a Confederate prisoner later recalled marching in tow beside Kilpatricks carriage and seeing the general stretched out comfortably on the seat with his head in a womans lap. Kilpatricks men merrily laid waste to the state, and when the cavalry occupied the capital, Milledgeville, Kilpatrick joined in their fun. He and his officers broke into the Georgia House of Representatives and staged a mock legislative session. Although a teetotaler, Kilpatrick reportedly took the speakers stand and regaled the assembly with tales of the cavalrys gallant campaigns against enemy wine cellars and whiskey store rooms. After a round of speechmaking the congressmen drew up a series of resolutions, including one declaring the Georgia Ordinance of Secession a damned farce. During the march Kilpatrick carried on a running war against Major General Joseph Wheelers cavalry, who constantly hovered on the fringes of Shermans army. Often Wheeler bested Kilpatrick in skirmishes and engagements, but not even Fightin Joe was able to curtail Shermans inexorable march through the state. On the other hand, Kilpatrick got the better of Wheeler now and again, as in November when under Shermans orders he swung his cavalry north toward Augusta and then south toward Millen. It was a feinting movement and Wheeler, taking the bait, concentrated his cavalry at Millen, thinking that the Federal horsemen were heralding Shermans advance. Actually Sherman was marching unmolested in another directiontoward Savannahwith his four infantry corps. Fuming at his deception, Wheeler tried to get even. On one occasion he routed Kilpatrick from a night bivouac. On another day he pushed him away from some strategic objectives which he had planned to destroy. And when Kilpatricks cavalry reached Aiken, South Carolina, Wheelers men struck them so viciously that the Federals were driven out of the town like chickens. On the whole, however, Kilpatrick did an efficient job of guarding Shermans flanks. When the army reached Savannah, just before Christmas 1864, Sherman wrote him: The fact that to you, in great measure, we owe the march of four strong infantry columns, with heavy trains and wagons, over 300 miles through an enemys country, without the loss of a single wagon, and without the annoyance of cavalry dashes on our flanks, is honor enough for any cavalry commander. When Sherman resumed his march, from Savannah through the Carolinas, Kilpatrick redoubled his efforts to make the Confederacy suffer. At the start of that campaign, according to prevalent rumors, he issued large quantities of matches to his troopers. He left no doubt about his intentions when he told some of his officers: In after years when travelers passing through South Carolina shall see chimney stacks without houses, and the country desolate, and shall ask who did this? some Yankee will answer, Kilpatricks cavalry.' And he spoke even more plainly to a group of foot soldiers: Therell be damned little for you infantrymen to destroy after Ive passed through that hellhole of secession. He tried hard to keep his word. As an example, consider his short but unpleasant stay in Barnwell, South Carolina, where his troopers were careless with their matches. While flames consumed part of the town, Kilpatrick held a gala ball at his headquarters and even forced some of the local ladies to dance with his officers. Thereafter his soldiers renamed the place, fittingly, Burnwell. Through South Carolina Kilpatrick continued his war against both Wheeler and Lieutenant General Wade Hampton, whose cavalry guarded the retreat of the Army of Tennessee, once again under General Joseph E. Johnston. In addition to authorized warfare, Kilpatrick engaged in a bitter personal feud with Hampton, stemming from reports that Hamptons men had lynched captured Federal troopers. Although Hampton denied the charges, Kilpatrick heatedly declared that he would retaliate in kind. It is difficult to determine where the burden of guilt in this should rest, for unauthorized killings undoubtedly took place on both sides, but certainly the issue inflamed the bitter feelings that already existed between Kilpatrick and his opponents. Since Kilpatricks men retaliated by violating private property, the people of South Carolina suffered most for it in the long run. Shortly after Shermans army entered North Carolina, Kilpatrick endured perhaps the most embarrassing hour in his career. It came about because of his old fondness for female companionship. Despite his raccoon-like face and slight build, Kilpatrick had always considered himself a ladies man. When his wife Alice died in 1863, his passionate nature apparently turned into licentiousness. While in Virginia he had been intimate with a pretty camp follower who had also been a good friend of his subordinate, Custer. And in North Carolina he travelled with another companion, a tall, handsome, well-dressed lady. Presumably it was she who, clad only in a nightgown, was routed from Kilpatricks headquarters near Fayetteville, North Carolina, when Hamptons cavalry attacked it one night in March 1865 Kilcavalry himself, wearing nightshirt and boots, was nearly captured when a Confederate swooped down on him and demanded to know General Kilpatricks whereabouts. Realizing that in his sleepwear he had been taken for an ordinary soldier, Kilpatrick pointed to a passing horseman and said, There he goes! The Rebel spurred his mount and was off, and Kilpatrick wasted no time finding a horse of his own and riding to safety. His lady friend, meanwhile, had to hide in a ditch until the fighting was over. When the Confederates learned these facts, they laughed heartily at Kilpatricks expense. But the Rebels merriment could not last. In subsequent weeks Sherman proceeded to back Johnston into his final corner, and Kilpatricks men bagged scores of prisonersConfederates who sensed the futility of waging a doomed campaign. On April 26 Johnston was forced to surrender his army to Sherman near Durham Station, North Carolina, and the war was over. After the Rebel army disbanded, Kilpatrick was promoted major general of volunteers and won a brevet major generalship in the Regular Army. Kilpatricks postwar life was varied and colorful if ultimately tragic. Resigning his commission, he was appointed minister to Chile by President Andrew Johnson. In South America, his libertine days at an end, he married the niece of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Santiago and settled comfortably into domestic life when he was recalled to the United States in 1868. Kilpatrick later became a director of the Union Pacific Railroad, tried his hand at playwriting, and spoke to numerous veterans associations. He switched his politics to vote for Democrat Horace Greeley in 1872, but afterward returned to the Republican fold and was reappointed minister to Chile in 1880. He served there until his death the following year from a kidney ailment. He never achieved his most cherished goals. Though in February 1864 he had envisioned himself a future governor and President, he made only one bid for elective officea rather modest one, as a congressional candidate from New Jersey, in 1880. But he was soundly defeated. Though it may seem a minor defeat, Kilpatrick never quite got over it; he always longed for the adulation of the electorate. For a man who had seen many hopes destroyed during his lifetime, this was perhaps the cruelest disappointment of all. Edward G. Longacres article first appeared in the April 1971 issue of Civil War Times Illustrated. Man on a Black Horse SUBMITTED BY ROBERT D. WALKER, CUMBERLAND, RHODE ISLAND NAME: Nimrod Milton Green DATES: 1827 to February 21, 1882 ALLEGIANCE: Confederate HIGHEST RANK: Private UNIT: 4th Virginia Cavalry, Company Hthe Black Horse Cavalry SERVICE RECORD: Enlisted in the 4th Virginia Cavalry on April 25, 1861. Captured in Warrenton, Virginia, in November 1862 and exchanged for a Union prisoner. Captured at Petersburg on April 2, 1865, and imprisoned at Point Lookout, Maryland. Released on June 13. Born in Paris, Virginia, in 1827, Nimrod Milton Green developed a passion for riding horses early in his life. By the time he reached his twenties, he had become something of a traveling man, riding to Georgia in 1852, to Tennessee and Texas in 1853, and back to Georgia again in 1854. By 1858, Green had settled in Warrenton, Virginia, and become a constable. Tax records show that he owned one slave, three horses, and twenty-nine head of cattle. In 1859, Green became one of the original members of the Black Horse Troop, all of whom rode black horses and wore black plumes in their hats. As part of the Virginia Militia, the troop was called upon to guard the prison in Harpers Ferry that held John Brown after his failed attempt to take over the arsenal there. While in the town, in those days before the birth of the Confederacy, Green had his picture taken in full Black Horse uniform (left). Brown is said to have admired the gentlemanly conduct of these young men from Fauquier County. When the Civil War started in April 1861, the troop became part of the Confederate army and was assigned to the 4th Virginia Cavalry as Company H, commanded by Captain Robert Randolph. Green himself enlisted on April 25 at Warrenton. Less than three months later, Company H was held in reserve during the First Battle of Manassas, almost crazy with fear they would never see action. Their first combat came the next day, when they took part in a cavalry charge at Stone Bridge and pursued the fleeing Federals. Though never wounded, Green was captured twice during the war, first near Warrenton in November 1862. Then, on April 2, 1865, Green and many other Black Horse soldiers were captured at Petersburg and taken to Point Lookout, Maryland. He was released in June after taking the Oath of Allegiance to the United States. Years later, a fellow cavalryman wrote to Greens daughter: They would join me in testimonial that your father Nim Green, as we loved to call him, was one of the best soldiers in the command. When the war ended, Green married Amanda Wheatley and moved to Augusta County, where he became overseer of the roads for Riverhead District. He died of dropsy on February 21, 1882, at the age of 54. [dropcap]D[/dropcap]ecember 16, 1944, was a dangerous day for Allied forces in Europe. The Wehrmacht sprung one of the wars largest strategic surprises when it launched two Panzer armies and an infantry army into the thin American defenses in the Ardennes Forest. The next day the U.S. Third Army commander, Lieutenant General George S. Patton, sat in his headquarters writing a letter to a retired major general living in New Yorks Adirondack Mountains: Yesterday morning the Germans attacked to my north in front of the VIII Corps of the First Army, Patton told Fox Conner. It reminds me much of [the German attack on] March 25, 1918, and I think it will have the same results. Though Patton misremembered the dateit was actually March 21, 1918his prediction proved accurate. Like Operation Michael 26 years earlier, the Ardennes offensive was Germanys desperate attempt to end the war with a single knockout punch. And like its predecessor, the offensive failed to reach its objective. On December 19, 1944, Allied Supreme Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered Patton to turn his Third Army 90 degrees on the battlefield and counterattack north, into the southern shoulder of the German penetration known as The Bulge. Seven days later, Pattons troops pushed into Bastogne to relieve the encircled 101st Airborne Division. Why did Patton spend time writing to an obscure old soldier, given the crisis? The answer is that more than anyone else, Conner was responsible for placing Patton and Eisenhower at that point in history. He was also influential to another important wartime figure: U.S. Army chief of staff General George C. Marshall. Although Conner retired from the army a year before World War II began, his mentorship of these senior American generals when they were young officers left an imprint on the battlefieldand made Major General Fox Conner a significant contributor to the Allied victory. Today, the officer whom Eisenhower called the ablest man I ever knew remains a historical enigma. Conner wrote no memoirs and ordered all his papers and journals burned after his death. Only 28 letters survive. Most of what can be determined about Conner derives from the writings of his three famous World War II proteges and of his old boss, General of the Armies John J. Pershing, under whom Conner served in World War I in the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF). I could have spared any man in the AEF better than you, Pershing told Conner. Born at Slate Springs, Mississippi, in 1874, Conner graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1898. During his final year at West Point, Conners company tactical officer was First Lieutenant Pershing. Conner was commissioned in the artillery and, during the years prior to the First World War, established a reputation as one of the U.S. Armys leading gunnery experts and an early proponent of new fire control technologies. In 1902, he married Virginia Bug Brandreth, whose father made a fortune selling a vegetable digestive aid called Brandreths Pills, and whose family owned a huge spreadBrandreth Parkin the Adirondacks. Conner graduated from the U.S. Army General Service and Staff College (later renamed the Command and General Staff College) in 1906; two years later he graduated from the U.S. Army War College and went on to serve as an instructor at both newly established schools. As a captain at the War College, Conner frequently found himself lecturing to majors and colonels. (One of his students, Colonel Hunter Liggett, would become what many military historians consider the best American general of World War I.) In 1911, Conner went to France as an exchange officer with a French artillery regimentan assignment that paid off a few years later. By October 1913, he was back in the United States and on a train to Fort Riley, Kansas, when he and Bug met a charismatic lieutenant, George S. Patton, and his wife, Beatrice. Sharing mutual passions for horses, hunting, and deep-sea fishing, the two struck up an immediate friendship, as did their wives, both from socially prominent families. During Pershings Punitive Expedition into Mexico in June 1916, Conner was the escort officer for General Tasker H. Bliss, the armys assistant chief of staff, as they traveled 150 miles into Mexican territory to Pershings headquarters. Following the meeting, Pershings aide, Patton, escorted Bliss and Conner back to Columbus, New Mexico. When America entered World War I in April 1917, Connerthen a lieutenant colonel was one of the few officers in the U.S. Army who had experience working with the French. He and Patton continued to cross paths, serving together the following month as members of the advance party that sailed to Europe with Pershing to establish the American Expeditionary Forces to fight in Europe. On September 1, Conner and Patton went to Chaumont, France, to set up the AEFs general headquarters. American units continued to pour into France until early 1918; by then, Conner was a full colonel and chief of the AEFs operations section, making frequent visits to the front lines. One such trip in February 1918 almost ended his career. As Patton wrote to Beatrice, Col. Fox Conner got wounded last week. They were inspecting and came to a part of the trench full of water. They climbed out on the top and ran along to avoid the water when just as they were jumping in again a shell blew up and cut Col. Cs nose and throat. He is alright again, and will get a Wound Badge [a chevron of gold metallic thread worn on the lower right sleeve, replaced in 1932 by the Purple Heart], which is nice. By March 21, 1918, the AEF was still several months from committing to large-scale combat operations when the Germans struck on the Western Frontan offensive Patton would recall 26 years later at the start of the Battle of the Bulge. The U.S. First Division unleashed the first American division-sized attack of the war in late May, when it stormed German positions around the village of Cantigny. As AEFs chief of operationsalso known as G-3Conner closely monitored the First Divisions planning and preparations. He spent one day each week at division headquarters working closely with their G-3, Lieutenant Colonel George C. Marshall, 37, who greatly impressed Conner. After the Cantigny attack succeededproving to enemies and allies alike that the Americans could pull off division-level operationshe had Marshall transferred to the AEF staff as his assistant G-3. Conner recognized in Marshall an officer whose grasp of operational planning and strategy was equal to his own. Together they developed the basic operations plan for the Saint-Mihiel Offensivethe deployment schedule, scheme of maneuver, fire and air support plans, and the logistical support for nine American divisions, totaling 550,000 troops. Conner often accompanied Pershing to meetings with the French, leaving Marshall to run the G-3 shop with Conners complete confidence. In August 1918, the U.S. First Army became operational; that same month Conner was promoted to brigadier general and Marshall to full colonel. Pershing decided he would command the First Army himself, while retaining command of the AEF, but Conner advised his boss against it. When Pershing rejected his advice, Conner helped all he could by transferring Marshall to the First Army as its G-3. Marshall knows more about the techniques of arranging allied commands than any man I know, Conner said later. He is nothing short of a genius. From September 12-15, he and Marshall coordinated the final preparations and planning for Saint-Mihiel, and for the massive Meuse-Argonne Campaign that started on September 26 and lasted until the wars end. On June 28, 1919, Conner attended the signing of the Versailles Treaty with Pershing. The treatys harsh punitive terms and the fact that the German army had been allowed to march back into Germany with its arms and colors flying appalled Conner, who later told Marshall that the treaty virtually guaranteed the Allies would have to fight another war against the same enemy, in the same place. Conner went on to dedicate the remaining years of his army career to identifying talent and grooming young officers for a war he knew was coming. In October 1919, Conner and Marshall sequestered for three weeks at Conners farm at Brandreth Park to help Pershing prepare his testimony before Congress about army reorganization following lessons learned in World War I. Beginning October 31, Pershing testified for three days before a joint session of Senate and House military committees with Conner on one side of him, Marshall on the other. The pair also followed Pershing during his long inspection tour of army posts in the United States. And when Pershing became the armys chief of staff in July 1921, Marshall was his aide. Conner, meanwhile, was preparing to assume command in December 1921 of the 20th Infantry Brigade, based in the Panama Canal Zone. Several months before then, he paid a visit to his old friend Patton at the Infantry Tank School at Fort Meade, Maryland. Conner told Patton he was looking for a bright, young candidate to be his executive officer in Panama. Patton immediately recommended a friend also stationed at Fort Meade: Major Dwight D. Eisenhower. The Pattons hosted a dinner for the Conners and Eisenhowers. The young officer known as Ike impressed Conner, who wanted to offer him the job. But Eisenhower was under a dark cloud. He had recently argued that in future wars, tanks would be an important force in their own right, rather than serve as mere infantry support weapons. At the time, tanks were considered just another weapons system similar to machine guns and mortars, and the idea that they could operate as a combat arm equal to the infantry was heresy. Eisenhowers article invoked the ire of the chief of infantry, Major General Charles S. Farnsworth, landing him at the top of Farnsworths persona non grata list. To get Eisenhowers transfer approved, Conner went to Pershing. He later wrote to Eisenhower letting him know orders were forthcoming, and advised him to stop in to see Pershings aide Marshallat the War Department to make sure everything was on track. It was likely the first time Marshall heard of Eisenhower. Eisenhower reported to Camp Gaillard in the Panama Canal Zone in January 1922. He called the next two years under Conner his most profound period of military education. Conner recognized a great but underdeveloped talent in Eisenhower and set out to cultivate it. He introduced him to the principles of precise and methodical military staff work, and required him to produce a standard five-paragraph operations order for everything the 20th Infantry Brigade did. He then started Eisenhower on an intense military history reading program and instructed him to discuss each book and its lessons for modern warfare in detail. Conner made Eisenhower read Carl von Clausewitzs On War repeatedly and worked to expand Eisenhowers intellectual horizons by introducing him to the works of Plato, Tacitus, Nietzsche, and Shakespearewho frequently portrayed soldiers in his plays. In describing these soldiers, their actions, and giving them speech, Conner told Eisenhower, Shakespeare undoubtedly was describing soldiers he knew at first hand, identifying them, making them part of his own characters. Drawing on his own experiences with coalition warfare during the Great War, Conner impressed upon Eisenhower three important war-fighting lessons: 1. Never fight unless you have to 2. Never fight alone 3. Never fight for long Eisenhower knew his military career depended on completing the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The problem was how to get in. With each branch allocated only a certain number of slots every year, the competition was intenseand, in 1925, Eisenhower was still on Farnsworths blacklist. Conner contacted an old West Point classmate, Major General Robert C. Davis, who had been the adjutant general on Pershings staff in France and was now the adjutant general of the U.S. Army. Davis was responsible for, among other things, all personnel management actions, and so Conner had Davis arrange Eisenhowers transfer to the Adjutant Generals Corps. Davis then gave Eisenhower one of the corps two Leavenworth slots. Since Eisenhower had not attended the Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia, however, he doubted his ability to handle the Leavenworth curriculum. You quit worrying, Conner wrote to him. You are better prepared for Leavenworth than any other man that has graduated from Benning because you have had to do the work required at Leavenworth. I know; Ive been through that school, Ive been an instructor there. Eisenhower went on to graduate first in his class. It certainly did not hurt that his old friend Patton had given him his notes from the previous year. However, the primary factor behind his success was Conners tutelage. After Eisenhowers graduation, Conner and Davis transferred him back to the infantry and his meteoric career took off. He went on to serve as General Douglas MacArthurs aide and accompanied him to the Philippines. In early December 1941, Marshallthen the U.S. Armys chief of staffbrought newly promoted Brigadier General Eisenhower to Washington as deputy chief of the War Plans Division. In a little after a year, Eisenhower was wearing four stars. Conners next major assignment was as deputy chief of staff of the U.S. Armythe equivalent of todays vice chief of staffin 1925 and 1926. In 1927, he commanded the First Infantry Division and, in 1928, he assumed command of the Hawaiian Department and the Hawaiian Division: todays 25th Infantry Division. One of his principle staff officers there was Patton. Conners strategy for mentoring Patton was the inverse of that for Eisenhower. Patton had a piercing intellect and an unparalleled passion for the profession of arms. Rather than lighting a fire under Patton, as Conner did with Eisenhower, he frequently stepped in to prevent Pattons aggressive and abrasive nature from damaging his career. Patton had been stationed in Hawaii, then a U.S. territory, since 1925. Although he had been a temporary colonel at the end of World War I, Patton, like almost all officers holding temporary wartime rank, had been bumped back to his permanent rank of major when the war ended. He had started out in Hawaii as the divisional G-3, but a series of scathing evaluation reports he wrote on the training and readiness of subordinate units ruffled too many feathers. Many of the units he criticized were commanded by colonels who did not appreciate being taken to task by a mere major, regardless of what rank he held at the end of 1918. By the time Conner arrived, Patton had been reassigned to the less prestigious position of divisional intelligence officer, or G-2. Patton did not take the downgrade well. Writing bitterly about the situation to his wife, he said the division commander, Major General William R. Smith, must have thought he made a mistake, as he had both Floyd and Capt. Coffey tell me that it was only dire necessity which made him relieve me as G-3. Of course, he is either a fool or a liar. Probably both. Upon assuming command of the division, Conner managed to get Patton under control. When Patton completed his G-2 assignment, Conner wrote on his evaluation report, I have known him for fifteen years, in both peace and war. I know of no one whom I would prefer to have as a subordinate commander. Without Conners intervention and endorsement, Pattons career may well have been over. When Conner returned to the United States from Hawaii in 1930, General Charles P. Summerall was just finishing his tenure as chief of staff of the army. Two leading candidates were under consideration for his replacement: Conner and MacArthur. Pershingnow retired, but still a major force in U.S. Army circlessupported Conner for the job, but MacArthur got the appointment. According to some sources, Conner took himself out of the running; he hated Washington and did not want to return. Conner went on to a series of high-ranking assignments, culminating in 1936 with command of the U.S. First Army. Two years later, he retired with little fanfare. Marshall, then less than a year away from becoming the 15th chief of staff of the army, wrote to his old mentor: I am deeply sorry, both personally and officially, to see you leave the active list, because you have a great deal yet to give the Army out of that wise head of yours. As Marshall predicted, Conner did have more to give the U.S. Army. Throughout World War II, all three of his star pupils wrote to him regularly, often seeking his advice or opinion on plans in progress. More and more in the last few days my mind has turned back to you and to the days I was privileged to serve intimately under your wise counsel and leadership, Eisenhower wrote to Conner from London on July 4, 1942, just two weeks after being appointed Commanding General of the U.S. European Theater of Operations. I cannot tell you how much I would appreciate at this moment an opportunity for an hours discussion with you on problems that constantly beset me. During the war, classified couriers from Washington brought files of war planssent by Eisenhower or Marshallup the remote gravel drive of Conners New York farm for his review. Conner sent the plans back accompanied by extensive notes. Conner died on October 13, 1951, a little more than a year before his most famous protege was elected president of the United States. Conner never wore more than two stars on his shoulders, but his three understudies accounted for a cumulative total of 14 stars. This story was originally published in the September/October 2016 issue of World War II magazine. Subscribe here. ON AUGUST 16, 1812, Americans saw a spectacle in red, white and blue that they had hoped never to witness. Above the red and blue striped marquee tent that staked a U.S. military camp on the Detroit River, a white flag fluttered in surrender. American General William Hull had just capitulated to British General Isaac Brock, surrendering 2,000 soldiers without firing so much as a shot, much less achieving the armys goal of conquering Canada. That white flag might easily have marked a moment of national despair. Yet President James Madison insisted that this would be far from its final effect. The national spirit rises according to the pressure on it, he said. As he explained a few months later, the loss of an important post and the brave men surrendered with it inspired everywhere new ardor and determination. Determined or not, the nation accomplished few of its stated goals in the conflict that became known as the War of 1812. Among the host of complaints that had sparked the war, the United States charged Great Britain with violating its international shipping rights and with impressing its sailors into the Royal Navy. By wars end in 1815, after the British had burned Washington, D.C., to the ground and the national debt had nearly tripled, from $45 million to $127 million, the only concession the United States won was the return of all territorial boundaries and diplomatic disputes to their prewar status. Yet Madison was right about one thing: The nations spirits did rise. The war created what soon became celebrated across the country as an Era of Good Feelings. In this remarkable triumph of feeling over facts, American patriotism arose in a new and powerful form. The War of 1812 enjoys the uneasy distinction of being the first war that was formally declared in a modern democracy. As the fighting commenced, it had very little direct impact on the lives of ordinary people. The numbers of men mustered into the regular army were few, and most of the major military actions occurred far from U.S. population centers, on the fringes of the frontiers or on the waters of the Atlantic Ocean and Great Lakes. Nonetheless, Americans from President Madison down to ordinary tavern-goers clamored to express their opinions about the conflict. While Federalists in New England critiqued the war at ever y tur n, Republicans in the South and West took ever y opportunity to celebrate it. Whether pro or con, all this war talk opened the work of the nation to public participation on an unprecedented scale. The war might easily have been dismissed as a terrific waste of time and money, if not deplored as a disastrous display of hubris. Instead, it played a key role in shaping peoples commitment to active democratic participation. The chance to make their voices heard led Americans to articulate what love of country meant to them. They might not share common ties of descent or devotion to a divinely blessed monarch, but they could forge patriotic bonds of love with each other. When Madison spoke of raising the countrys ardor he literally meant that love would save the nation. A similar sentiment was immortalized in The Star Spangled Banner, which the young poet Francis Scott Key penned after watching the British naval bombardment of Fort McHenry in Baltimore toward the end of the war. William Hull Goes On Trial The idea that emotion mattered as much as action was taken so literally that when William Hull was court-martialed for the disaster at Detroit, failures of feeling were high on the list of the formal charges against him. Accused of treason against the United States, Hull stood trial for his life on the basis of claims that he had shown cowardice at and in the neighborhood of Detroit, and that as a direct result, the general ardor of the army [had] insensibly abated. Junior officers testified that when Hulls forces landed in Canada, they landed with an ardent zeal, a level of emotional arousal that, they asserted, would have ensured victory had Hull not led them off track. According to Hulls accusers, emotional arousal rightly counted as an essential element of military preparedness. The general countered that emotional ardor was no substitute for armed effectiveness. The men under his command, Hull said, though, they were very ardent and patriotic in their expressions, had had no service and neither men nor officers had ever been tried. It is not extraordinary that I should have felt some want of confidence in these raw troops. James Madison and the Republican Congress took the nation to war with almost no preparation whatsoever in terms of military or financial infrastructure. Hull, a celebrated veteran of the American Revolution who knew firsthand the value of a professional fighting force, had spent the months before his surrender sending increasingly urgent letters asking Washington to remedy the situation. He faced almost insurmountable odds at Detroit, leading a tattered force of under-supplied and underfed men, most of them brand new to battle and many of them openly mutinous. To Hulls mind, preemptive surrender had the virtue of preserving thousands of lives that would otherwise have been doomed against the combined force of professional British regulars and their Indian allies. Yet it proved far easier for politicians in Washington to reprimand Hull for a supposed lack of ardor than to correct the inadequacies of their military planning. Politically, a great deal was at stake in assigning blame for Hulls capitulation. With presidential elections looming in November, Hull faced censure from all sides, from Federalists who denounced the entire enterprise as dubious to Madison loyalists within the Republican Party who preferred to blame Hull personally rather than admit to any policy failure on the part of the administration. Coming just two months after war was declared, Hulls defeat invited immediate public criticism of a military adventure that many objected to on moral grounds and still more opposed on practical ones. Hull was tried in the press long before he ever had an opportunity to appear in court. As the Alexandria Gazette noted, because the indignant voice of the people is lifted up against the cabinet at Washington, the troops of the palace fondly hope, that they shall be able to render Hull a scape goat. If Hull bore all the blame, the rest of the nation need feel no shame. The court case mounted against Hull centered squarely on the effort to prove that he had lacked love for his country and feared only for himself. Witnesses paraded in front of the judge stating their opinions of the military significance of Hulls facial expressions on the morning of the capitulation, seeking to show that cowardice not ardor had guided his decisions. Hull testified that expressions of the human countenance, and the manners of men, are but fallible indications of the workings of the human mind. That defense proved to be of no avail. Hull was found guilty and given a death sentence. Failure of feeling had become a capital crime. Hulls life was eventually spared, after the presidential election was safely over. The court recommended and Madison concurred that the death sentence should be commuted in consideration of Brigadier General Hulls revolutionary services, and his advanced age. No doubt this clemency helped ease what one newspaper dryly described as the sensitive consciences of fortunate office holders. But Hulls reprieve did not signal relief for the nation. The Battle of New Orleans Throughout Hulls trial and many subsequent military defeats, popular enthusiasm for the war never flaggedso long as public representations of events played in an emotionally upbeat key. The great public debates on the War of 1812 allowed Americans to develop the false sense that they were truly participating in the events of the day when, in reality, few had any immediate experience of the conflict. The argument that emotional ardor represented a key contribution to national projects distracted the public from the logistical and ethical questions cast into sharp relief by the debacle at Detroit. As a result, the nation faced repeated military fiascos as the war dragged on. The war hit closest to home when the British burned the White House, a place that was at once a national symbol and a domestic space. Madison reacted within a week of the attack, proclaiming that the British had exhibit[ed] a disregard of the principles of humanity and the rules of civilized warfarewhich must give to the existing war a character ofbarbarism. These charges were so explosive that the presidents proclamation was reprinted nearly 100 times in newspapers across the country in the first two weeks after it appeared in the Daily National Intelligencer on September 3, 1814. The same month in which the capital fell to the British, General Andrew Jackson wrested an enormous land cession from Creek Indians in Georgia and Alabama: 22 million acres relinquished to the United States at the Treaty of Fort Jackson. The treaty garnered barely a mention in the Daily National Intelligencer, the most nationalistic of papers, even though the land cession would prove to be one of the most lasting legacies of the war years. Within weeks Jackson headed to New Orleans, where a confrontation with the British would bring him lasting fame as the best defender of the nations delicate females. The most popular narrative portrayal of Jacksons actions came from the pen of his friend and biographer John Eaton. In his book The Life of Jackson, Eaton set out deliberately to elevate the up-and-coming general in ways that invited direct comparison to the fallen Hull. Whereas Hull had given up more than 2,000 prisoners, Jackson inflicted more than 2,000 casualties. Whereas Hull, a hero of the American Revolution, had preferred to be in command of a disciplined professional army, Jackson proved himself capable of winning with a ragtag militia. Most of all, while Hull faced a capital trial for the way he had allowed the ardor of his men to be insensibly abated, Eaton stressed repeatedly that Jackson had risen to greatness through the natural ardor of his temper and that in every campaign he was everywhere among his troops inspiring them with the ardor that animated his own bosom. After the many disasters, surrenders, desertions and general embarrassments that the United States endured during the War of 1812, the tide of history finally turned on the Mississippi River, a few miles south of New Orleans, on January 8, 1815. On that day, Jackson led a patched-together force of regular soldiers, militiamen from Tennessee and Kentucky, Baratarian pirates, and French, Spanish, Anglo-American and African-American residents of New Orleans to a stunning victory against the British. Hunkered down behind earthworks along the east side of the river, Jacksons men waited patiently for the invading British regulars to leave their boats and scramble up the banks, then picked them off by the dozens. Reporting the results to Washington three days later, he declared: Louisiana is now clear of its enemy. Jackson and Eaton together helped spread a false story about British depravity at New Orleans that did much to galvanize American public opinion. On February 16, 1815, when the United States House of Representatives met to devise an official congressional resolution of thanks to General Jackson, Jared Ingersoll, a Republican from Philadelphia, took to the floor and exclaimed, for the first time during this long, arduous, and trying session, we can all feel alikewe are all of one mindall hearts leap up to the embraces of each other. Jacksons success in New Orleans had been known for more than a week, but Ingersolls excitement related to a new and juicy bit of gossip. He informed his colleagues that word had just arrived that on their invasion of New Orleans, British officers had offered their soldiers beauty and bootyin other words rape and rapine, as the reward of victory. Ingersoll chortled, thus led and thus invited the British army made its storm. Their discomfiture is without example. Never was there such disparity of loss. Though it had no basis in fact, the shocking story electrified the capital. The supposed decision of the British to authorize extreme measures had only produced an extraordinary defeat. Commentators in the capital made the story central to any account of Jacksons victory. The Washington, D.C., Niles Weekly Register announced: BEAUTY AND BOOTYThese words. Or in other terms, RAPE AND ROBBERY, were the British watch-word and countersign on their attack of the defenses of Orleans on the ever-to-be-remembered 8th of January. Beauty and booty rejoice, virgins of Orleans that the ravishersyour intended spoilers have perished. The story of beauty and booty swept across the country and helped to cement the importance of the New Orleans victory in the public mind. In reality, Jacksons feat had no impact whatsoever on the outcome of the war. The celebrated action of January 8 took place some two weeks after negotiators had signed a formal peace treaty with Britain in Ghent on December 24, 1814, that did nothing more than reestablish the prewar status quo. News from Europe traveled slowly cross the Atlantic. So lawmakers in Washington learned about the victory in New Orleans before they were informed about the treaty. In the wars final irony, the United States at last achieved a significant triumph only after it no longer mattered from a negotiating perspective. Yet if timing prevented the Battle of New Orleans from being a true signal victory, the story of beauty and booty still sent a strong signal. And it was exactly the message Ingersoll and his fellow Republicans wanted to convey. It presented the United States as a uniquely virtuous nation bent on preserving the most fundamental form of libertysexual consentfrom British perfidy. Each person who passed on the story of beauty and booty helped validate assertions that American men fought for country because of the romantic ardor they felt for their wives and sweethearts. In doing so, U.S. soldiers enacted a love of liberty entirely different from British tyranny. In the end, what mattered most to the Republicans was that the war succeeded in uniting the country emotionally. Who is not proud to feel himself an American? Ingersoll said. No matter what the terms of the treaty may be, the effects of this war must be permanently prosperous and honorable. The pro-war position triumphed not only because of the mass appeal of patriotism based in romantic love but also because every American had a stake in the growth and westward expansion of the U.S. population. Small wonder then that when Madison came to reflect on the significance of the war in a presidential message delivered at the end of 1815, he exulted that the United States are in the tranquil enjoyment of a[n]honorable peace.The strongest features of its flourishing condition are seen in a population rapidly increasing, on a territory as productive as it is extensive. Presbyterian minister Andrew McLeod of New York confidently predicted in 1815 that the love of country will be revivedby this second war of independence. What he and other romantic patriots did not foresee was that all too real social, political and economic conflicts would tear the country apart section by section and person by person in the decades to come. Meanwhile, a population reared on stories of war as patriotic pleasure had learned to give little weight to the true costs of armed struggle. Perhaps this explains why the first major battle of the Civil War, the Battle of Bull Run, caught contemporaries so completely by surprise. Spectators with picnic hampers who had turned out to cheer the action were shocked to the core by the carnage: 5,000 casualties in a single day, almost as many as in all the years of the War of 1812. The easy emotional victories of the War of 1812 did nothing to prime the nation for the hard suffering of the war we can never forget, the Civil War, which finally, fully, made the nation. Nicole Eustace is an associate professor of history at New York University. Her most recent book is 1812: War and the Passions of Patriotism. Terrified of the Souths new deadly weaponan ironclad gunboat the Union navy races its own armored ship to Virginia. Will the Monitor arrive in time to save the Union fleet? BY WILLIAM STILL At ten minutes before ten oclock on the morning of January 30, 1862, the Monitor slid slowly out of the shiphouse at Greenpoint, Long Island to float on the waters of the East River. On the deck, as she moved down the ways and out into the stream, stood John Ericsson, her creator. As a cold, light rain fell, he acknowledged plaudits from dignitaries on board and the crowd lining the banks, many of whom had predicted that the strange vessel would make a dive to the bottom. Promptly after hearing news that Monitor had been launched successfully, Ericsson was urged to get her to sea as quickly as possible by distant Assistant Secretary of the Navy Gustavus Fox who telegraphed: I congratulate you and trust she . . . will be a success. Hurry her for sea, as the Merrimack is nearly ready at Norfolk and we wish to send her there. Although the Monitor was not built to challenge the ship the Rebels had renamed Virginia, she was clearly the best answer that the Union navy had to that Confederate ironclad, rapidly approaching completion. But before leaving for the South, the Monitor had to have detail work completed, a crew assembled, stores and ammunition loaded, and trial runs carried out. During the days that followed her launching, the remainder of the armor was attached, the two 11-inch Dahlgren guns were mounted in the turret, and work was carried out on the hull, interior, and machinery. On the last day of the month her boilers were fired for the first time. In the following week the ships complement of officers and mensome fifty-seven in allbegan to fill up. Lieutenant John L. Worden was appointed to command the Monitor. His executive officer was Lieutenant Samuel Dana Greene, a twenty-one-year-old Marylander, recently out of the Naval Academy at Annapolis. On February 19, nearly three weeks after launching, the Monitor made her first trial run. Various problems and defects were discovered which, although embarrassing, were readily solved. A New York newspaper called the vessel an ignominious failure because she was difficult to steer, the engines failed to function properly, and she rammed into the riverside New York gas works and had to be towed back to her dock. But Ericsson quickly solved the troubles, and on February 25 she was officially commissioned in the United States Navy. A final trial run was made on March 4, in which everything worked satisfactorily, including the firing of the guns, and she was ready for sea. Worden waited for better weather, but after two days, he ordered the Monitor to get under way for Hampton Roads, so she left in tow in the midst of a snow storm. The first day in the Atlantic was calm, seas smooth, and the Montior towed well. During the night, however, a storm blew in and by morning gale force winds were sending heavy seas rolling over the vessels deck. Despite the precautions that had been taken at the navy yard, she began to take in water under the turret like a waterfall, wrote Lieutenant Greene. The water also streamed down into the engine room ventilator shafts, and when the water-soaked leather belts on the blowers stretched or broke, the engines stopped. Hydrogen and carbonic gases along with the rising water forced the engine room gang to abandon the space. Disaster, with possible loss of the ship, was averted when the weather began to moderate and repairs were successfully made. At noon on March 8, the Monitor entered Chesapeake Bay. Two hours later she passed Cape Henry, on the Virginia side of the bay and less than fifteen miles due west of Fort Monroe and Hampton Roads. As she moved slowly up the Chesapeake, members of her crew observed clouds of smoke on the horizon. As darkness fell, William Keeler, the ships assistant paymaster, later wrote to his wife that he could see the flashes of guns and bursting shells. When a pilot was taken on board to guide the vessel through the narrow channel, the crew discovered that the Union fleet in Hampton Roads anchorage had been attacked by Confederate warships, including the ironclad Virginia. As the Monitor entered the Roads, Lieutenant Worden ordered the ship cleared for action. Although the crew had had little sleep or warm food during the past forty-eight hours, they quickly disassembled the ventilators and smoke stack, the deck stanchions and canvas awning, and keyed the turret up off its brass ring making it ready to rotate. At 9:00 P.M. she anchored near the frigate Roanoke. Worden went on board that vessel for orders, observing as he was rowed to it that a large ship was burning in the background. This was the frigate Congress set afire by the Virginia. On board the Roanoke Worden was ordered to move his ship next to the Minnesota, which had grounded during the days battle. So at one oclock in the morning the Monitor came alongside the stranded frigate and anchored. Shortly afterward the Congress blew up in a grand but mournful sight, wrote Lieutenant Greene. The Monitors disturbed crew then tried to get some rest, although no one slept, Paymaster Keeler told his wife. When a white settler killed a Nez Perce warrior in 1876, the incident set off a chain of events that led to war. By Mark Highberger From across a freezing Montana battlefield on October 5, 1877, Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce rode into the camp of U.S. Army Colonel Nelson Miles and surrendered his rifle. I am tired, he said. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever. With those words he ended the war between 750 Nez Perce500 of them women, children, and elderlyand 2,000 soldiers, a four-month battle that had ranged across 1,200 miles. Our chiefs are dead, Joseph told Miles. The old men are all dead.The little children are freezing to death. Joseph would never again live on the land for which he had fought. The American government sent him and the 430 Nez Perce who surrendered with him to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Those who survived the malaria there were later moved to Indian Territory. Eventually some returned to live on the Nez Perce reservation, close to their former home. In 1885 Joseph was exiled to a reservation in Washington Territory, where he died on September 21, 1904. The origins of the war that caused Joseph and the Nez Perce so much hardship and grief lay in the Wallowa country of northeast Oregon. For generations it had been the Nez Perce homeland, but the arrival of white settlers in the region led to violence. Settlers killed as many as 30 Nez Perce during the 1860s and 70s, yet few of the accused ever stood trial, and those who did were acquitted. One such fatal confrontation occurred on a summer day the year before Josephs surrender. Two settlers from the Wallowa Valley rode into a Nez Perce hunting camp searching for missing horses. When they rode out, a Nez Perce warrior named Wilhautyah (Wind Blowing) lay dead, shot by one of the settlers. The recoil from that shot started a chain of events that led to the Nez Perce War. At the time of Wilhautyahs death, the Nez Perce were embroiled in a struggle to remain on their ancestral homeland. The roots of conflict stretched back to an 1855 treaty that gave the Wallowa country to the Nez Perce and an 1863 treaty that took it away after gold was discovered on Indian land. Old Joseph, Chief Josephs father and the leader of the Wallowa band, refused to sign the second treaty. His Nez Perce considered the valley their home, even as homesteaders began building cabins and planting crops there. Other Nez Perce did sign the treaty and agreed to live on the Lapwai Reservation in Idaho Territory. They were known as the treaty Nez Perce. In 1873 President Ulysses S. Grant issued an Executive Order that divided the valley between homestead sites and an Indian reservation. Two years later, Grant gave into pressure from whites wanting to settle there and revoked the order, reopening the entire valley to settlement and sealing the fate of the Nez Perce. It was only a matter of time before they would be forced from the Wallowa Valley and onto a reservation. Unaware of what lay ahead, Indians and whites lived as reluctant neighbors until the day Alexander B. Findley noticed five of his horses were missing. According to Union County Circuit Court records, Findley, one of the valleys first settlers, spent several days thoroughly searching all the range my horses had run on since I had them. When on June 22, 1876, he came across a Nez Perce camp in the northern foothills, he decided his suspicion that my horses were stolen were confirmed. I immediately returned to get assistance to search for my horses or their trail and try to recover them. He got help from three men, including Wells McNall, a 21-year-old known as an Indian-hater and troublemaker. Though the men saw no horses when they returned to the camp, Findley remained convinced he had found horse thieves. We found tracks comparing or corresponding with my horses, he said. He and McNall went on alone, following the tracks to a hunting camp containing a cache of venison. Findley told Mr. McNall we would return home and get more help. The next morning, however, Findley and McNall rode back to the second camp alone and watched from a distance. After about 90 minutes a Nez Perce approached from the woods, and the two white men rode down to meet him. By the time they reached the camp, three Nez Perce were there. One of them was Wilhautyah, a close friend of Chief Joseph of the Wallowa Nez Perce band. Exactly what happened next is subject to debate. Findley said he dismounted and grabbed a Nez Perce weapon leaning against a tree, one of three hunting rifles in the Indian camp. [I] told the Indians I believed they had stolen and we wanted them to go to the settlement until we had an understanding about the matter. They did not consent to go. According to Findley he then put the Nez Perce rifle beside one that had been lying on the ground, and McNall laid a third rifle that had been near him beside the others. With the Indians unarmed, Findley and McNall again tried to persuade them to go to the settlement. The Nez Perce again refused, an argument erupted, and Wilhautyah and McNall ended up wrestling for McNalls rifle. The next thing I knew, Findley said, McNall called on me to shoot. Then McNalls rifle fired. About the time of the report, Findley said, I cocked my gun and held it ready, waiting to see the result of the scuffle over the gun of McNall. Resolved not to shoot until I saw our lives were in danger. When Findley fired, it seemed to surprise him. I had not decided to shoot when I heard the report of my gun, he said. I was not conscious of pulling the trigger. When recounting the story years later, Findleys son, H.R. Findley, described a different ending, saying that the fight started when Wilhautyah grabbed McNalls rifle, and the struggle lasted until a desperate McNall began cursing Findley, demanding that he shoot. It was then that [my father] took careful aim and killed Wilhautyah, the younger Findley said. Whether the killing was accidental or deliberate, the two white men quickly left the scene. When word of the incident spread settlers feared Nez Perce retaliation. Some barricaded themselves in McNalls blockhouse-like cabin. The next morning, the settlers persuaded McNall to ride to the county seat of Union and report the incident to County Judge E.C. Brainard. Unsure of how to handle the situation, Brainard wrote a letter to Colonel Elmer Otis, the commander of Fort Walla Walla. More trouble in the Willowa, Brainard wrote, one Finley and McNall accuse the Indians of stealing horses, and have managed to kill one of Josephs band. The settlers are sufficiently alarmed to mass in the valley. To make matters worse, three days after the killing Findley found his missing horses grazing near his home. Blowing Wind was an honest man, said Peopeo Tholekt of the Looking Glass band of Nez Perce, and the horses being found proved him innocent. His killers, however, were still unpunished, and as Wallowa settlers prepared to defend themselves, John Monteith, the Indian agent at the Lapwai Reservation, met with Joseph to hear the Nez Perce version of the story. Afterwards, Monteith wrote to General Oliver Otis Howard, commander of the U.S. Armys Department of the Columbia, which had jurisdiction over the Wallowa country. Monteiths letter called the killing willful, deliberate murder. Yet he advised Joseph to let white law determine justice. I told him to keep his people quiet and all would end well. Howard, a veteran officer who had lost his right arm in the Civil War, was a religious man who gained the nickname Old Prayer Book for his distribution of tracts and Bibles to his troops during the war. He sympathized with the Nez Perce cause and sent Major Henry Clay Wood, his assistant adjutant general, to Lapwai. As a lawyer, Wood had studied the Nez Perce case and concluded that The nontreaty Nez Perce cannot in law be regarded as bound by the treaty of 1863. He was also critical of President Grants revocation of the 1873 Executive Order, saying, If not a crime, it was a blunder. At Woods request, 40 Nez Perce rode from Wallowa to Lapwai for a council on July 22-23. During the meetings, Joseph spoke of how among Indians, the chiefs were responsible for controlling their young men and preventing them from doing wicked things, and if the chiefs did not restrain or punish unruly Indians, the chiefs were held accountable. To Joseph, then, white authorities were responsible for the killing of one much respected by the tribe. Joseph also cited the killing as one more claim the Nez Perce had to the land. Since the murder had been done, Wood reported Joseph saying, since his brothers life had been taken in Wallowa valley, his body buried there, and the earth there had drunk up his blood, the valley was more sacred to him than ever before . . . and that all the whites must be removed from the valley. Ollokot, Josephs brother, added that he did not want the whites, Findley and McNall, tried and punished for their crime, but wished them to leave that section of country that he might never see them more. Wood told the Nez Perce that Howard had proposed that the U.S. Government appoint a commission to settle once and for all the ownership of the Wallowa country, and he asked the two Indians to let white law deal with Findley and McNall. Both Joseph and Ollokot agreed to this, and the Nez Perce returned home. Afterward, Howard wrote to Brainard to insist that the two men be tried for murder. But in August, Findley and McNall were still free. tensions grew. Some believed the Nez Perce were preparing for war; warriors spent their days shooting arrows at targets set up near the Findley home. Several war dances were held, H.R. Findley said, and the beating of their drums or tom-toms could often be plainly heard from their [Findley] cabin. Yet some white settlers continued to harass the Indians by stealing livestock, and against Josephs advice a few Nez Perce retaliated in kind. During councils held at Indian Town, the Nez Perce summer encampment at the confluence of the valleys two rivers, Joseph and the older chiefs advised against doing anything that would give whites an excuse to force them onto a reservation. The young men, however, had lost patience with white justice. The time had come for retribution. They agreed to move slowly and avoid force for as long as possible. When the meetings ended, the Nez Perce had decided on a course of action. On September 1, Nez Perce riders traveled through the valley, stopping at every settlers cabin and delivering the message that all whites, including Findley and McNall, were to attend a council the next day at Indian Town. Seventeen settlers showed up, but Findley and McNall stayed home. At the meeting, the Nez Perce insisted that the whites leave the valley and turn over McNall and Findley. When the settlers refused, the meeting ended with an angry agreement to meet the next day at the McNall cabin. The next morning 60 warriors rode to the cabin, where a number of settlers waited with the Findley and McNall families. When the Nez Perce repeated their demands and the settlers again refused, Joseph warned that if they did not turn over the two men and leave the valley in one weeks time the Nez Perce would drive them out and burn their houses. Then the Indians rode away. The clock started ticking toward Sunday, September 10. After dark, a few settlers rode through the valley to warn others, and Ephraim McNall, father of Wells, traveled to Fort Walla Walla to plead with Lieutenant Albert Gallatin Forse to send troops to Wallowa. Forse refused. Denied military assistance, McNall headed back to Wallowa, stopping along the way to recruit armed volunteers. When Forse learned about this new development he changed his mind about sending troops. On September 7 he rode out of Fort Walla Walla with a company of 48 cavalrymen to protect the Nez Perce and prevent a war. After riding all night, 22 volunteers from the Grande Ronde Valley reached McNalls cabin on September 9 and joined with the settlers to form a force of 43 men. Because the Nez Perce had moved their main camp close to Wallowa Lake for the beginning of the salmon run, 15 men rode that way to help settlers there. The next day they moved on to a nearby ranch, where many settlers had agreed to gather. Forses troops had already arrived at the ranch at 1:00 a.m. on Sunday, the day of Josephs deadline. I found about 50 armed men, Forse noted of the gathering, also several families, who there sought protection. Later, even more families and volunteers arrived. After leaving some militia at the cabin for protection, Forse moved his men and most of the volunteers up the valley to Alder and the home of Thomas H. Veasey, who was friendly with the Nez Perce and spoke their language. Forse and Veasey then continued on alone to meet with Joseph at his camp, seven miles away. According to a local newspaper report, Forse and Veasey found Joseph at the head of 100 painted warriors on the summit of a hill near his camp, drawn up in line of battle, his men divested of all their superfluous blankets, well armed and mounted on their best war steeds, all decorated with war paint and presenting a formidable appearance. Forse was looking for a solution, not a fight, and he recognized the Nez Perce advantage. Joseph could have fallen upon the settlers in detail, killing them and destroying their property, he said. An enemy could not approach him without being under his fire for the distance of more than a half-mile. Forse got down to the business of negotiating. He asked to see Joseph, whose appearance and character made an immediate impression on the lieutenant. I thought he was the finest Indian I had ever seen not only physically but intelligently, Forse said. He was about six feet in height, powerfully built, and strength of character written on every feature. With Veasey interpreting, Forse asked him if he would be satisfied if McNall and Findley were tried by the civil authorities, and He said he would. In an attempt to avoid future trouble, Forse requested that the Nez Perce stay away from the settlers and confine themselves to the Wallowa Lake side of Hurricane Creek. Joseph agreed, and to show his good faith he and his men discharged their guns into the air. A truce had been called. The next day Forse sent word to McNall and Findley by two of their friends advising them to go to Union and surrender themselves. They followed his advice. Three days later, on September 14, the court released McNall after ruling he had acted in self-defense, but Judge Brainard issued a warrant for Findleys arrest, charging him with manslaughter. After his arrest Findley was released on $250 bail. Meanwhile, that same day Forse met again with Joseph to persuade him to send the two Nez Perce witnesses to testify at the trial. Forse offered to send along one of his noncommissioned officers as an escort. Joseph consented, but only with great reluctance. He was afraid that whites would harm them, Forse said. Joseph might also have realized that sending witnesses would accomplish nothing. The next day, Forse sent a corporal to escort the Nez Perce witnesses. He also sent a letter to Brainard, requesting him to see that they were taken care of. Less than a week later, however, Brainard dismissed the charges against Findley. The two Nez Perce witnesses had refused to testify. Perhaps they feared reprisal or felt their cause was doomed anyway. Either for personal or diplomatic reasons, Findley requested that his case continue, and he faced a grand jury in October. Once again, the charges were dismissed. Because of the missing testimony, the Nez Perce version of the events remains obscure. Battle, imprisonment, and disease later killed many in the band. Yet one eyewitness who survived, Eskawus, said years later that the Nez Perce hunting party was headed home that day when they stopped to pick up the deer they had hung in the tree. So Wilhautyah was told to climb the tree, Eskawus recalled, because he was a small man, and while up the tree, unloosing the ropes, the Indians on the ground saw two white men coming at full speed. A little way off they stopped and got off their horses and shot Wilhautyah. Whatever occurred that day, Findleys and McNalls pleas of self-defense prevailed in court. Forse and his men headed back to Fort Walla Walla on September 26, 1876. On his ride back through the valley, Forse found everything quiet. The peace was not to last. Earlier that summer Sioux and Cheyenne warriors had wiped out troops under Lieutenant Colonel George Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The disaster put an end to the armys patience and to much of the publics sympathy for Indian rights. To avoid future confrontations, the government had to attend to the issue of removing the Nez Perce from the Wallowa country. Howard used the Wallowa incident to press for a five-member commission to decide how to get the Nez Perce onto a reservation. On October 3, 1876, the secretary of the interior appointed General Howard, Major Wood, and three easterners, David H. Jerome of Michigan, A.C. Barstow of Rhode Island, and William Stickney of Washington, D.C., to the commission. According to Mrs. John Monteith the last three members were excellent men . . . all kings of finance, but with not a speck of Indian sense, experience, or knowledge. Joseph met with the commission at Lapwai in November and rejected its offer to buy what remained of Indian land, arguing eloquently that the Nez Perce should be allowed to stay there. But the commissions recommendation to the Department of the Interior stated, That unless in a reasonable time Joseph consented to be removed [from Wallowa], he should be forcibly taken with his people and given lands on the reservation. Major Wood, however, refused to sign the document. Joseph, unaware of the commissions report, went with his people to their winter encampment in the Imnaha canyon. In April and May 1877 Joseph and his brother Ollokot met three times with General Howard and others trying to convince them that although the Nez Perce did not want to fight, they had the right to stay in the Wallowa Valley. By May 14, an impatient General Howard decided that reasonable time was up, and he gave the Wallowa band 30 days to move to the reservation. If you are not here in that time, he said, I shall consider that you want to fight, and will send my soldiers to drive you on. To avoid war, the Nez Perce were prepared to do as Howard ordered, but violence found them anyway. On their way to the reservation, with 10 days left of freedom, the five nontreaty bands came together in a gathering of about 600 Indians. The young men staged war parades and rode around simulating battle. On June 13, two days before they were due at the reservation, a warrior named Wahlitits and two companions decided to seek revenge on a white man, Larry Ott, who had killed Wahlitits father two years earlier. When they couldnt find Ott they waited a day then went to the cabin of a man known to be cruel to Indians and shot him. Roused by this first act of vengeance, they killed four more settlers and wounded one other. Soon other warriors joined them in a series of raids. For a short time we lived quietly, Joseph later said about the pre-war days. But that could not last. One shot from a settlers rifle helped shatter a fragile peace and set the Nez Perce on the path to war. Mark Highberger is a teacher and freelance writer from Wallowa, Oregon. [ Top ] [ Cover ] A Louisiana youth wages a personal war with the Yankees on his doorstep Aleck Mouton was 10 years old, barefoot and Confederate to the core when he confronted Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Banks, who had just invaded the tiny south Louisiana town of Vermilionville. One of the first properties Banks Union soldiers reached on the morning of Friday, October 9, 1863, was Walnut Grove, Alecks family home. I can recall the Union soldierspulling themselves up the hill toward our residence, he wrote years later. They swarmed all over the place, everything was in their possession. They helped themselves to all our horses, all our conveyances. Then we were out of our home. They had it burned down. The troops had also commandeered nearby Ile Copal (pronounced eel ko-pal, French for sweet gum island). This was the stately home of former Louisiana Governor Alexandre Mouton, Alecks grandfatherwhich ultimately provoked young Aleck to seek an audience with the Union general. The Mouton (moo-tawn) name extended deep into Louisiana society. In 1754, Governor Moutons grandfather, Salvador, led other French-speaking settlers to Louisiana from Acadia (now the maritime provinces of Canada), a year before hundreds more were deported by the British during the French and Indian War. Salvador settled on the Mississippi River above New Orleans. Around 1780 his son, Jean, moved west. He donated land in 1821 for Vermilionville (now known as Lafayette), about 60 miles west of Baton Rouge. Alexandre, Alecks grandfather and the son of Jean Mouton, was Louisianas first Cajun governor and later led the state out of the Union and into the war, first by walking out of the 1860 Democratic National Convention rather than support presidential contender Stephen Douglas and then as president of the states secession convention. Since the war began, Alecks father and uncle had been leading Confederate troops. None of those men happened to be home when the war came to Walnut Grove; only Alecks mother, 29-year-old Henriette Odeide Moutonthe governors daughter and wife of Jean Sosthene Moutonand her six children: Aleck, Bordet (called Bud), Olivier, Fred, Frank and Alida. The campaign that brought the Union troops to their doorstep focused on the Pin Hook Bridge on the Vermilion River, less than a mile upstream from Walnut Grove. Artillery shells toppled trees, blasted craters near the river, rattled windows in Vermilion and scared the inhabitants who knew only a tiny Confederate force was on hand to oppose thousands of invaders. The Confederate defense, such as it was, was led by Alecks uncle, Brig. Gen. Alfred Mouton, a West Point graduate who commanded the 18th Louisiana Infantry. He had been waging a rear- guard fight against Banks superior numbers since mid-September when Federal troops crossed the Mississippi River from New Orleans and began a march across south Louisiana toward Texas. Alecks father, Jean Sosthene, was a major on his staff. The Federal attack on Vermilionville, part of the Texas Overland Expedition designed to wrest Texas from Confederate hands, was the second time Union troops marched through town in 1863. They had passed through in the spring on their way to encircling Port Hudson, the Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi just above Baton Rouge. Governor Moutons son-in-law, Maj. Gen. Franklin Gardner, commanded Confederate troops there during the longest siege of the war. Banks plan this time was to march across the prairies of southwest Louisiana from a supply depot at Brashear City (Morgan City today), a Gulf of Mexico port that was also the westernmost rail depot in southern Louisiana. His route followed the road known as the Old Spanish Trail, which ran across the Pin Hook Bridge and through Vermilionville. As the Federal infantry approached the bridge, Confederate sharpshooters opened fire until two blue-clad divisions formed a double line that stretched nearly a mile up and down the river from the bridge. The 500 Confederate defenders withdrew in a brisk fashion, according to the official report written later by Union officers. In plain English, they turned and ran. It took a while for Union commanders to realize they were unopposed, but when they did, soldiers began to swim the 50 yards across the shallow river while wagons and cannons rolled across the bridge. The home the Mouton family was forced to flee had been a wedding gift to Odeide from her father. Now, she was a mother, a frail woman, in all this turmoil, driven out of her home with her children around her, six in all, two babies, the others very young, Aleck would recall. Bud and Aleck located a dilapidated surrey, stripped of its leather and missing spokes in its wheels, and hitched it to an aged horse. When the invaders left, Odeide loaded her children into the surrey and began to make her way to Ile Copal. Aleck and Bud walked alongside. Several of the governors other children were already at Ile Copal when Odeide and her brood finally arrived, including 27-year-old Marie Cecilia Mouton, who was on her deathbed with tuberculosis, and Marie Celestine Mathilde Gardner, wife of General Gardner, who was languishing in a Federal prison after being forced by starvation and superior numbers to surrender to Banks only months before. The old governor was not at home. When the Federal army marched through six months earlier, he and his brother Emile rolled dozens of hogsheads of sugar and molasses into the Vermilion River rather than let the invaders have them. Then the former governor waited defiantly for the Union troops. When the soldiers arrived, they arrested him and held him for four months in New Orleans. Ile Copal, the two-story home shaded by huge old oak and pecan trees and the sweet gums for which it was named, was spared, and the governor returned just in time for the next Federal incursion into the Louisiana bayou country. This time he did not wait to be arrested. He fled 40 miles north to stay with family in the St. Landry Parish town of Opelousas. Nonetheless, a squad of soldiers banged on the mansion door early on Saturday, October 10, suspecting General Mouton might be hiding in his fathers house. The Union soldiers, without losing any time, proceeded up the stairs and headed for the room where my Aunt Cecilia was about to breathe her last, Aleck wrote. Mother got to the door first, barred it with her person, and said, My dear sister is about to meet her Creator.I defyyou to enter this room. They stood back and did not force their way in [but] expressed themselves that no better place a Rebel would [hide] to keep from being arrested.? The search party left quickly enough, but troubles were just beginning in the governors household. Union Brig. Gen. Cuvier Grover moved his command to the plantation at midmorning, bringing 3,000 officers and men to the camp. They were soon joined by another brigade as well as field commander Maj. Gen. William B. Franklin, who set up headquarters in a big tent near the Mouton mansions rear door. Banks and his staff soon established their headquarters next to his. Federal officers occupied Ile Copals kitchen, living room and library. Most household possessions were seized. A quartermaster established himself in the kitchen. Pork, flour and clothing were distributed from the drawing room. Mathilde, Odeide and the children were confined upstairs, denied access to their own kitchen. There was a lack of food, of milk for the children, Aleck remembered. There were two small children, one a very young baby; milk was an absolute necessity. We hadtwenty or more of the very best Jersey milk cowsin the pasture, but we were not allowed any claim on them. It was then that young Aleck decided to take things into his own hands. I called on General Banks. I walked to his tent and was stopped by a sentry who asked me what I wanted. I told him I wanted to see General Banks. ?But who are you? he asked. ?I am a rebel. We are all rebels, I answered. I heard him repeat this to the General, who said, You say you are a rebel? Again I answered, We are all rebels. ?And what can I do for you, young man? Please let us have one of our cows, so we can have milk for the babies. We grown people are getting along best we know how. The very little ones are sick. Early that afternoon, soldiers brought two cows to the front yard of Ile Copal. The milk cows may have been the salvation of the Mouton children, but not of Cecilia. She died on Sunday, October 11. For days the Mouton sisters had been guarding a large wooden box to use as a makeshift coffin. The box was downstairs in the part of the house held by Federal officers, who understood what it was to be used for and left it alone. But when Odeide went downstairs to make arrangements for her sisters burial, she was horrified to see a burly soldier carrying the box out the door. Odeide pleaded with the soldier, and when he ignored her, she jumped on his back, screaming, kicking and biting. He dropped the box. She promptly sat down on it, daring him to touch it again. A Union officer heard the racket and, sympathizing with Odeide, made the soldier carry the box upstairs. The night before the funeral, Aleck recorded, while Aunt Cecilia was in her coffin, my mother was handed a note coming from Union officers offering their sympathies. They would like to visit the body of my Aunt Cecilia. The note was sent back to where it came from. On the other side of the sheet of paper my mother had written, Your wishes are respectfully refused. The sympathy you proffer for no other reason than to satisfy your morbid curiosity, please keep to yourself.? There was no hearse to carry Cecilia to her grave. Instead, the box that was her coffin was laid on boards stretched between the wheels of the old surrey. Family and friends pushed and pulled it by hand the several miles from Ile Copal to St. John Catholic Church. We followed, walkingand buried my Aunt Cecilia, a young lady, the daughter of a Louisiana Governor who had presided at the Secession Convention, Aleck wrote. Shortly thereafter, the invading Federal force departed, moving north from Vermilionville and fighting a bloody but successful fight October 14 near Bayou Bourbeux, midway between Vermilionville and Opelousas. The victorious Federal troops were gathering up their dead and wounded when a lone hospital ambulance approached from the direction of the Confederate lines, a white flag fluttering from the top. Its only passengers were a harmless looking, white-headed old man and his black driver. The old gentleman was Governor Mouton, who asked to be escorted to General Franklins headquarters. He had learned only that morning that his daughter Cecilia was very sick, and was trying to get home to see her. Franklin received the old governor courteously and sent him on his way with a small escort and a safe conduct pass. Mouton apparently did not know Cecilia was dead. Franklin did not have the heart to tell him. When the governor finally made it to his home, he found his daughter had died, Ile Copal had been ransacked and his family was living in the basement of a school. Several months later he received the news that the Texas Overland Expedition had finally been stopped at the Battle of Mansfield in northern Louisiana on April 8, 1864. And that his son, General Alfred Mouton, had been one of the last men killed in one of the last Confederate victories of the war. Alecks father, Jean Sosthene, survived the war, and he and Odeide established a new plantation, Beau Sejourdirectly across the river from Ile Copal. Among the parish records at Lafayette is a poem Alecks mother wrote for him: To My Son Aleck My Son, Be this thy simple plan; Serve God and love thy brother man; Forget not in temptations hour, That sin lends sorrow double power; Count life a stage upon the way; And follow conscience come what may; Alike with Heaven, and earth sincere; With hand, and brow, and bosom clear; Fear Godand know no other fear. Aleck Mouton, who recorded his familys tragic history in an unpublished memoir, died in 1938 at age 85. Jim Bradshaw, a retired newspaper editor and columnist, has written three books on the history and culture of southern Louisiana. Article originally appeared in Americas Civil War July 2011 Inside Seventh Army headquarters on the southern coast of Sicily, a scowling Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr., greeted Lieutenant General Omar Bradley with bad news. Weve received a directive from Army Group, Brad, Patton said between puffs on a cigar. Montys to get the Vizzini-Caltagirone road in his drive to flank Catania and Mount Etna by going up through Enna. This means youll have to side-slip to the west with your 45th Division. My God, Bradley replied angrily, you cant allow him to do that! But Patton had nothing else to say on the subject. Sorry Brad, he said evenly, but the changeover takes place immediately. Monty wants the road right away. To Patton, Bradley, and just about every other senior United States Army officer, British General Sir Bernard Montgomery got his way entirely too often. This time, just four days into Operation HUSKY (the code name for the Allied Invasion of Sicily), Montgomery had convinced 15th Army Group Commander General Sir Harold Alexander to grant his Eighth Army exclusive use of a highway previously promised to the Americans. Patton and Bradley considered the decision an insult to American military prestige. On July 10, 1943, Allied ships had deposited Pattons Seventh U.S. Army on the beaches along the Gulf of Gela, on Sicilys southwest coast. Montgomerys British Eighth Army went ashore to the east, south of Syracuse. The Allies targeted the city of Messina, at the northeast tip of the triangular island. Capturing Sicily would eliminate persistent Axis attacks on nearby Mediterranean supply routes, and if Messina could be taken quickly, the invaders would snare thousands of Axis prisoners and gain a convenient jump-off spot for the upcoming invasion of Italy. By July 13, Bradleys II Corps had advanced inland to within 1,000 yards of the Vizzini-Caltagirone road (Route 124)a major transport route that cut east to west across the center of the island. Meanwhile, dug-in German troops had blunted Montgomerys advance up the islands east coast, hemming Eighth Army in on the plain of Catania between towering Mount Etna and the sea. In a sudden change of plan, Montgomery decided to send a flanking force west around Etna. To do so he needed Route 124, and Alexander, who had overall command of HUSKYs ground forces, gave it to him. The Americans, one of Pattons frustrated staff officers said, were left tosit comfortably on our prats while Montgomery finishes the goddam war! The British generals thought little of American fighting ability. In February, German Field Marshal Erwin Rommels Afrika Korps had thrust across the hot sands of North Africa and smashed through inexperienced and poorly led U.S. troops at Tunisias Kasserine Pass. The unfortunate performance of the young Americansmany of whom had never before seen battledistressed the British commanders. Alexander declared, they lack the will to fight. Montgomery believed they have no confidence in their Generals. In the wake of the disaster at Kasserine Pass, the Allied Commander in the Mediterranean, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, sent Patton to Tunisia to take over U.S. II Corps. Patton quickly injected discipline and his fighting spirit into the corps and led it to victories at Gafsa and El Guettar. In mid-April as the Tunisian Campaign neared its end, Patton left the corps in Bradleys hands and returned to French Morocco to take part in planning for the Sicily operation. Despite the Americans improvement on the battlefield, Alexander and Montgomery remained unimpressed. For their part, Patton and many of his colleagues resented British impertinence, especially on the part of Montgomery. Arrogant, self-centered, and pushy, the 56-year-old general in the natty black beret irked his colleagues with outlandish statements and demands. In many ways he was not unlike Patton. At the age of 58, Patton was deeply religious, swashbuckling, human dynamo who strutted around in a polished steel helmet with a pair of ivory-handled revolvers strapped to his waist. His vigor was always infectious, his wit barbed, his conversation a mixture of obscenity and good humor, Bradley wrote. He was at once stimulating and overbearing. George was a magnificent soldier. By the time he waded ashore on Sicily, Pattons antipathy toward his British counterparts had also come to affect his relationship with his boss, Eisenhower. Pattons long-time friend had the difficult job of holding together the young Anglo-American alliance. But Patton felt that American interests and honor too often took a back seat to British demands. God damn all British and all so-called Americans who have their legs pulled by them, Patton wrote in his diary in Tunisia. Ike is more British than the British and is putty in their hands . . . . For the first invasion of the Axis home turf, Patton commanded the new Seventh U.S. Army, including Bradleys II Corps. Patton welcomed the chance to assert U.S. military might. Initially scheduled to land on the islands northern coast and capture Sicilys capital Palermo, American troops expected to go on the offensive in Sicily. But Montgomery favored a less dispersed landing to the south and in the end, his plan won out. Patton still expected Seventh Army to make its mark. But to Alexander, it was clear that Eighth Army would have the glory of capturing the more obviously attractive objectives of Syracuse, Catania, and Messina . . . . From the outset Eighth Army strategy left little room for Patton to operate, and Montgomery essentially imposed his will on Alexander. Montgomery reasoned that if the Americans could simply hold firm against any action from the west I could then swing hard with my right with an easier mind. If they draw enemy attacks on them my swing north will cut off enemy completely. Two days later, Alexander transferred use of Highway 124 to Montgomery. They gave us the future plan of operations, Patton wrote bitterly, which cuts us off from any possibility of taking Messina. Patton considered himself, with good reason, the best damn ass-kicker in the U.S. Army, but he accepted this outrageous decision without a protest. This was not the time to raise a fuss. For the moment he saved his invective for his diary. Ike has never been subjected to air attack or any other form of death. However, he is such a straw man that his future is secure. The British will never let him go. Yet Patton did not simply give up Highway 124 with a smile. He slyly secured authorization to expand the American perimeter west. Patton had his eyes set on Palermo, and, ultimately, Messina. The next day Patton and Major General Lucien K. Truscott, who headed up the 3rd Infantry Division, discussed a westward reconnaissance in force toward Agrigento and Porto Empedocle. Truscott felt that Alexander would not object to such a move, and Patton, Truscott wrote, with something of the air of the cat that had swallowed the canary, agreed . . . . Patton had his foot in the door and he meant to swing it open. On July 16 Alexander issued another directive that positively infuriated Patton. The order stipulated that Montgomerys Eighth Army would advance on Messina on three fronts. The Americans were officially left with the distasteful task of protecting Montgomerys left flank. Alexander lamely authorized Seventh Army to capture Agrigento and Porto Empedoclesomething Truscott had done that very day. Patton blamed Montgomery. Monty is trying to steal the show, he wrote to his wife, Beatrice, and with the assistance of Divine Destiny [Eisenhower] may do so . . . . Patton had had enough. Alexander clearly had no intention of assigning Seventh Army anything other than mop-up duty in Western Sicily, while Montgomerys Eighth marched to Messina and glory in the east. Patton felt his superior lacked any conception of the power or mobility of the Seventh Army. On July 17 he climbed aboard a B-25 and flew to 15th Army headquarters in Tunisia to confront Alexander. Patton told the army group commander in no uncertain terms that he wanted his army unleashed. He explained it would be inexpedient politically for the Seventh Army not to have equal glory in the final stage of the campaign. Patton asked for authorization to drive north to split the Axis forces and to clear out remaining resistance in the west. Alexander agreed, providing Seventh Army hold a crucial road network near Caltanissetta in the center of the island. If I do what I am going to do, Patton confided to his diary, there is no need of holding anything, but its a mean man who wont promise, so I did. Patton wasted no time putting his new plan into action. He created a Provisional Corps under the command of Major General Geoffrey Keyes, his deputy commander, and sent it northwest towards Palermo while Bradleys II Corps set out for the north coast, knifing across the islands center through tough German defenders. Facing light resistance from largely dispirited Italian troops, Keyes troops moved so fast that often the German and Italian 88s [88mm anti-tank guns], which they captured en route, had not been pointed around or set up to shoot against them. On July 22 Truscotts Division entered Palermo after covering an astonishing 100 miles in just 72 hours. Wild celebrations and ebullient Sicilians greeted the Americans. Support for Italys Fascist Dictator Benito Mussolini was nowhere to be seen. The next day the 45th Division of Bradleys II Corps reached the coast at Termini, 25 miles to the east. Until he took matters into his own hands, Patton wrote in his diary, Monty was trying to command both armies and getting away with it. Now Seventh Army was making its mark. Meanwhile, Patton pushed his personal competition with Montgomery to comical new heights. On July 25 he flew across the island to Syracuse for a meeting with Alexander and Montgomery. On seeing his erstwhile British rival, Patton noted, I made the error of hurrying to meet him. He hurried a little too, but I started it. At the end of the conference, during which, Patton noted, he didnt receive lunch, Monty gave me a 5 cigar lighter. Some one must have sent him a box of them. When Montgomery visited Palermo a few days later, Patton sent an escort to meet him at the airport and greeted him at his headquarters with a full band. I hope Monty realized that I did this to show him up for doing nothing for me on the 25th, Patton wrote. At Syracuse, Montgomery surprised Patton by suggesting that Seventh Army capture Messina. While Keyes and Bradley had raced across Sicily, Montgomerys Eighth Army had become completely bogged down in the east. Dug-in German troops continued to hold Montgomery at Catania, while his circling movement west around Etna proceeded slowly. With Seventh Army now poised, cat-like, ready to strike east, Montgomery realized that Patton was best positioned to take the city. Besides, by attacking east Patton would relieve the pressure on Eighth Army and allow him to finally punch past Catania. Patton doubted Montgomerys motives, but he needed no further urging. This is a horse race in which the prestige of the US Army is at stake, he wrote to 45th Infantry Division Commander Major General Troy Middleton. We must take Messina before the British. Please use your best efforts to facilitate the success of our race. Montgomery made little of this race, but to Patton it became a personal crusade to win acclaim and respect for his much-maligned troops. British soldiers and officers undoubtedly wanted to beat the Americans into Messina. But Patton definitely hyped the contest. On July 25, 1943, King Victor Emmanuel III, supported by leading Italian political figures, deposed dictator Benito Mussolini, and Italy began to negotiate peace terms with the Allies. (Italy would pull out of the Axis in September.) As German commanders planned to evacuate Sicily, Patton and Montgomery began squeezing Axis defenders into the islands northeast corner. Eighth Army continued to probe German defenses at Catania while Canadian and British troops drove in a left hook around Etnas western slope. To the north, the 1st and newly arrived 9th American Divisions advanced east from the islands rugged center, while the 3rd Division attacked down the north coast road. The mountains are the worst I have ever seen, Patton wrote on August 1. It is a miracle that our men can get through them but we must keep up our steady pressure. The enemy simply cant stand it, besides we must beat the Eighth Army to Messina. On August 3, Patton stopped by an army hospital outside Nicosia and chatted with several injured soldiers; All were brave and cheerful, he noted. Then he encountered a 1st Division infantryman who seemed unhurt. Patton asked him what was wrong. I guess I cant take it, the soldier replied. Patton erupted. Cursing the soldier as a coward, he slapped him with his gloves and pushed him out of the tent. Such men, Patton wrote,should be tried for cowardice and shot. A week later at another hospital Patton came across another alleged nervous patient, a private in the 13th Field Artillery Brigade whose case was diagnosed as severe shell shock. Again Pattons anger overcame him; again he slapped and cursed the soldier. I cant help it, he said, but it makes my blood boil to think of a yellow bastard being babied. Patton didnt realize the seriousness of what he had done, but the incidents would soon change his life and career. Pattons relentless push for Messina also took its toll on his relationship with Bradley, a straight-laced subordinate who deplored Pattons use of profanity and flamboyant style of command. He traveled in an entourage of command cars followed by a string of nattily uniformed staff officers, Bradley wrote. His own vehicle was gaily decked with oversize stars and the insignia of his command. These exhibitions did not awe the troops as perhaps Patton believed. Instead, they offended the men as they trudged through the clouds of dust left in the wake of that procession. Where Patton was eager to outshine Montgomery, Bradley failed to see the point in capturing Palermo. Certainly there was no glory in the capture of hills, docile peasants, and spiritless soldiers, he wrote. To Bradley, racing Montgomery to Messina was equally unnecessary, for However rapidly we pushed into that city, we could not cut the enemys escape route across to Italy. Yet Patton wanted more than a cheap victory over Montgomery. Despite galling BBC reports (soldiers called them Badly Biased Comments) that the Seventh Army has been lucky to be in western Sicily eating grapes, the capture of Palermo had been a publicity coup for Pattons army. The troops morale soared. The Americans non-stop marching and ability to operate tanks and other armored vehicles in rough terrain began to open the eyes of their Eighth Army counterparts. Capturing Messina promised more of the same. As the final phase of the Sicily Campaign heated up, Patton drove his officers to push as hard as they could. Troina fell on August 6. To the south, British forces captured Adrano andfinallyCatania. Fighting a brilliant rearguard action, German army units crept back from their narrowing front toward the beaches of the Straits of Messina. There, German and Italian ships waited to ferry troops and equipment across the two-mile passage to the Italian mainland. In an effort to by-pass enemy positions and speed up his advance, Patton authorized two amphibious landings along the north coast. On the night of August 7-8 Americans swept ashore virtually unopposed behind German lines at St. Agata. At the same time, troops from Truscotts 3rd Division launched an attack on the high ridges inland and took 1,500 prisoners, bringing Seventh Army 12 miles closer to Messina. The second landing nearly proved a disaster. Truscott felt he would not have time to get his infantry up in time to support it, and wanted to postpone the attack for one day. Bradley agreed. But Patton was having none of it. Messina lay around the corner, and this wasnt the time to slow down. Early on August 11 elements of Truscotts 30th Infantry regiment went ashore at Brolo, 12 miles behind a German front. The Americans were quickly pinned down on a hill just above town. Nearly 30 hours passed before the balance of Truscotts troops could relieve them. Progress had again been made, but at a high price. On August 13 American troops captured Randazzo. To the south, British and Canadian troops forced the Germans from the slopes of Mt. Etna. Axis forces flooded toward Messina. On the night of August 15-16 Montgomery tried an amphibious landing of his own, putting elements of his commando and armored units ashore at Scaletta, just eight miles from Messina. Patton ordered a third leap-frog operation for that same night, but by then American troops were moving so fast that they had already passed the scheduled landing site by the time the ship borne force arrived. Around 10:00 p.m. on August 16 elements of Truscotts 3rd Division entered bomb-scarred Messina. Patton immediately notified Eisenhower and Alexander, and called Bradley to tell him we would enter Messina in the morning at 1000 hours. Early the next morning as the last of the Axis troops slipped off the island, Patton met Truscott, Keyes, and a host of reporters on a hill outside town. What in hell are you all standing around for? he bellowed. Bradley remained conspicuously absent. This is a great disappointment to me, Patton later wrote, as I had telephoned him, and he certainly deserved the pleasure of entering the town. But Bradley wanted no part of Pattons pomp and ceremony. Minutes later, a procession of army vehicles led by Pattons command car roared into Messina, chased all the way by exploding shells fired by Axis guns on the Italian mainland. After fighting their way over mined roads and around blown-up bridges in the early-morning hours, Lieutenant Colonel J.M.T.F. Churchills British commandos reached the city only to find the Americans already there. At about 10:30 a.m., Patton pulled into the city square just as a squadron of Brigadier J.C. Curries British 4th Armored tanks rumbled into town. Both Churchill and Currie had brought along a set of bagpipes to celebrate beating the Americans into town. I think the general was quite sore that we had got there first . . . . Patton wrote. Currie climbed out of his Sherman tank to shake hands with a glowing Patton. It was a jolly good race, Currie said with a smile. I congratulate you. Pattons victorious, hell-for-leather drive on Messina restored some luster to an otherwise badly managed campaign. Rather than firmly coordinating the moves of Seventh and Eighth Armies, Alexander had vacillated, first backing down to Montgomery and then allowing, almost forcing, Patton to set his own course. Poor decisions, such as the reassignment of Highway 124 to Montgomery (and poor air cover over the Messina Straits), ultimately cost time, and allowed Axis ships and ferries to evacuate roughly 60,000 Italian soldiers, 40,000 Germans, 10,000 vehicles, and 17,000 tons of equipment from the islandall of which would soon be used against the Allies in Italy. The race had significant, if less tangible, repercussions for Patton and American fighting men. The fast-moving Seventh Army had proved itself the equal of Eighth Army and set a new standard in mobile warfare. The Americans, Montgomery admitted after the war, had proved themselves to be first-class troops. It took time; but they did it more quickly than we did. Patton was entirely satisfied with his own performance. Of course, had I not been interfered with on the 13th of July by a full change of plan, he wrote to his wife, I would have taken Messina in ten days, but then I would have had to turn back to get Palermo, so it all came out O.K. Although Alexander would continue to rate British troops above the Americans, Patton had effectively exorcised the demons of Kasserine Pass. Yet the Sicilian campaign almost ended Pattons 34-year army career. Reports of the two slapping incidents made their way to Eisenhower and, even worse, a small group of reporters. Eisenhower was furious. He ordered Patton to apologize to the soldiers involved and warned him that such behavior will not be tolerated in this theater no matter who the offender may be. Meanwhile he asked the reporters to refrain from publishing the story for the good of the Allied cause. Patton was his best general and would be needed again. They agreed. The story finally broke in November but Eisenhower refused to relieve his old friend. Still, the public furor over the slapping incidents doomed Patton to many months of glum idleness while the war passed him by. Eisenhower dropped him from consideration for command of American ground forces in the inevitable invasion of European honor that eventually went to Bradley. When Patton finally returned to action in France in command of Third Army in August 1944, he was subordinate to both Bradley and Montgomery. Yet to Patton, that was secondary. Destiny had beckoned him and he would soon become, as one German officer said, the most feared general on all fronts. This article was written by Eric Ethier and originally published in the April 2001 issue of American History Magazine. For more great articles, subscribe to American History magazine today! Hotel website design, like any kind of design, is subjective. Nothing is more painful than a website design "discussion" where stakeholders talk for hours about colors, content and photos. For every extra person added to these meetings, more useless things get added and useful things get taken out. By the end of it, you have a website that is not usable for potential guests, which hurts your conversion rate and, more important, your revenue. So in this post, let's worry less about design and more about usability. To that end, here is a list of mistakes that can hurt your hotel website revenue, no matter how much you love your design. 1. Missing Address & Phone Number You need to give website visitors your address and phone number right at the top of your home page. This is more important than your homepage slider, and even that oh so trendy moving video on loop that you recently added. Assuming that your phone number and location only matter on mobile is flawed thinking. Sometimes people want to call you. When they are calling you, there's a good chance they're going to book with you. Before they book, they are very likely to search for information about your location. Travel research is still happening on larger screens. You have to make it easy for them to discover your exact location, and even easier to contact you. Don't bury this information in your footer. Would you wear your name tag on your shoe? Mike drop. Next. 2. Fluffy Homepage Taglines Hotel websites are notorious for fluffy descriptive taglines. I am not sure where this trend started, but it really has to stop. Home page is prime real estate for you to talk about who you are, what you do, and where are you located. Marketing is not stuffing adjectives like "Extraordinaire, Award Winning, Blissful Abode, etc." on your home page. Providing the right information up front will lead your visitors deeper into your website for discovery, and not on an expedition to try to find simple answers about who you are, where you are, and what you offer. You have a few seconds to keep a new visitor on your website. Let's not use that time to bombard them with fluff. 3. Music (Can you not?) This is a public service announcement: Please don't put music on your website. Anything (music, videos) that autoplays on a website is a conversion death trap. The majority of bookings happen Monday through Friday, 9am-5pm. People are at workand nothing is more disastrous than suddenly having your office laptop broadcast the sounds of singing whales, crashing waves, or romantic piano music while you are trying to book your vacation. Especially while your boss is waiting on that TPS report. 4. Cannibalizing Your Own Traffic I have written a massive article on this topic that you can read here. Obviously, not enough people have read it. Social media traffic is useful only when it's pointing people inwards, into your website! I am always surprised to see social media exit signs all over hotel websites. Do you think anyone leaving your website to go to YouTube is ever coming back? I refer to it as the black hole of the Internet universe. All that effort you spent to get people to come to your website is wasted when you then lead them right out. 5. Poorly Embedded Videos Videos can do wonders for your website engagement. I am always thrilled when a hotel website utilizes videos. YouTube is a great place to host videos that you can embed into your website. But beware one small setting that can wreak havoc: Suggested Videos. This totally defeats the purpose of having video embedded on your website, as people are now getting sucked directly from your site back into the Internet black hole of cat videos! What's even worse than that? When your competitors' hotel videos start showing up! Now that is really embarrassing. So, when you are embedding YouTube videos on your website, make sure you follow these easy steps: Copy your video embed code. Select the "show more" option. Uncheck the "show suggested videos when the video finishes" box. Copy and paste the new code into your website. 6. Bad Photography Photos make or break a hotel website. Still, a lot of hotels do not invest in photography at the level they should. I have seen some amazing website design themes ruined by bad photos. The importance of unique, high-quality photos is not limited to your website. They need to be used on every OTA that you work with. Instead of getting photos updated once in 5 or 10 years, organize a seasonal photo shoot to cover the full spectrum of your location and seasonality. Sadly, there are countless hotel websites where I can instantly make out who made it thanks to the ubiquitousness of the marketing agency's stock photos. From San Francisco to San Antonio, the same couple is having a great romantic dinner, day after day, year after year. Another couple is enjoying the generic beach in San Diego, and Miami, and South Carolina. You get the drift. 7. Press Releases Some find it hard to believe, and even find this notion offensive, but I'll say it anyway: a press release is not real content. Let me elaborate. A press release does not fall into any real content category people are using these days. Current news can be found on Twitter or an actual news website. Topical discussions and viewpoints are offered in blogs and podcasts. Having a press release page on your website does not help educate your audience. You need to convert that information into useful content potential visitors can use. A beautiful press kit available for download will run circles around any effort and money spent on press releases. News about renovations, re-branding, new food and beverage outlets, etc., needs to be broadcast live on your hotel blog. 8. The Dreaded Restaurant & Spa Menu PDF Larger resort websites are top offenders when it comes to this. PDFs are awful when it comes to usability. First there is the download time and resolution issues that occur on mobile devices, combined with the need to "select" the right app to open them. PDFs are just a bad idea. I just want to see if I can get a salad! It shouldn't require so much effort, and then become a permanent file on my phone. HTML it instead! Let people view information without fixed borders. They are great for printing, but who is even printing anything these days? You can always offer a "printable" option for laptop users, but it cannot and should not be the only way to access information on your website. 9. One Call to Action With the heavy emphasis on booking direct, it seems like every website has become a big "BOOK NOW AND SAVE" destination. You website needs to be a part of the larger travel booking conversation. If the only thing you are yelling is "BOOK NOW!" you are not distinguishing yourself from the hundreds of other websites that are doing the exact same thing. You have to do better. Diversify your calls to action. Ask visitors to interact with you in other ways. Maybe your guest is still researching their options, trying to understand your location and value proposition. Make it easy for them to contact you by requiring very limited information in your contact form. "Give us your name and email, and we'll get right back to you." Help with the journey first, and the odds of them booking with you go up tremendously. Pro Tip: The number of questions asked in a contact form is inversely proportional to the number of people who will fill out that form and convert. 10. Bad Booking Engines Booking engines deserve their own very special usability article, which I will get to in the near future. For now, know this: For your guest, the booking engine is a part of your website. They do not know or care that you are renting this cart from a provider that has been making booking engines since 1989, or from a guy in his garage in Seattle. When you confuse your visitors with a bad booking experience, you are doing two things: Tanking all the marketing budget you spent to drive this person to your website Training them not to waste time with you, and instead use an Online Travel Agent that lets them book a room more efficiently Your website is your storefront. There is NO point to having all the great photography, content, ambience, and offeringsand then a broken cash register at the end of the experience. Conclusion Yes, make a beautiful website! It should be modern, aesthetically pleasing, inviting, and show off your property. But also remember to avoid the pitfalls I have highlighted above. Start making your website perform better. It's hard to remember that these small things can matter more than the expensive design things, but do not give in to marketing peer pressure. Usability beats trends. Make sure your most profitable revenue channel is more than just a pretty face. Stay Woke. Vikram Singh 415-244-9861 Vikram Singh View source Hospitality Net today Sign up to our free daily newsletter, It looks like you've reached a page that doesnt exist (anymore). Please use the navigation or search above to find content on Hospitality Net. Go back to home Lighthouse Inn, Florence, Oregon sold by Crystal Investment Property, LLC Joseph P. Kennedy, President of CIP, worked closely with the Seller and Buyer as well as lenders and other professionals, to negotiate a mutually acceptable sale. The final sale price was $995,000. Crystal Investment Property, LLC, a member of Hotel Brokers International, announced the successful sale of the Lighthouse Inn in Florence, Oregon. Crystal Investment Property, LLC, a licensed Oregon broker, exclusively represented the Buyer in the sale. Joseph P. Kennedy, President of CIP, worked closely with the Seller and Buyer as well as lenders and other professionals, to negotiate a mutually acceptable sale. The final sale price was $995,000. The 27 key property fronts Highway 101 in the center of the popular tourist destination resort town of Florence. Located at 155 Highway 101, Florence, Oregon, the hotel offers an outstanding mix of rooms for a variety of guests as well as excellent proximity to the Downtown Cultural District, miles of beaches and riverfront, and the renowned Oregon Dunes recreation area. Joseph Kennedy, President of Crystal Investment Property said, We were pleased to work closely with the Buyer, who is a strong repeat client, to identify and work through the purchase of this property. Weve had extensive experience with the Sellers and the property over the past 6 years and were happy to have the opportunity to work together for a successful transaction. The new ownership will bring fresh enthusiasm to this motel and we look forward to the positive impact this will provide in the community. Crystal Investment Property, a premiere hospitality investment advisory and brokerage company located in the Pacific Northwest, maintains the most cutting-edge technological, online and social media presence as well as a full range of traditional and web-based marketing reaching local, regional, national and international clientele. The firms core services of hospitality asset acquisition/disposition are supported by innovative and creative solutions to maintain position as the most active and successful hotel broker in the region. Crystal Investment Property represents the full spectrum of hospitality real estate owners and their experience covers all hospitality assets types, including: full service hotels, boutique hotels, select service hotels, limited service hotels, as well as development projects, and leasehold transactions. Crystal Investment Property may be accessed online at www.crystalip.com. Founded in 1959, Hotel Brokers International members lead the industry in hotel real estate sales. HBI hotel brokerage specialists have successfully negotiated more than 10,000 hotel real estate transactions and consistently account for the largest share of all select-service and economy hotel sales in the United States. The organizations database currently comprises more than 100 property listings and the HBI website attracts more than 55,000 monthly site visitors. Founder and host of the popular Hotel Investors Marketplace Webcast, HBI also developed the Certified Hotel Broker professional designation program. In addition to hospitality real estate advisory services, HBI offers affiliate membership to professionals in allied fields, including franchising, lending, appraisals and investment services. For more information about HBIs hotel listings or to become a broker or affiliate member, visit www.hbihotels.com. For more information contact: Joseph P. Kennedy, President Crystal Investment Property, LLC Portland, Oregon 503.530.1316 joe@crystalip.com Glenda J. Webb, Managing Director Hotel Brokers International Kansas City, Missouri 816.505.4315 gwebb@hbihotels.com E-commerce and Hospitality Marketing Veteran Joins Team to Help Drive Product Growth and Strategy NAVIS, the #1 reservation sales and marketing platform for independent hotels, resorts, and vacation rental management companies today announced a strategic new addition, Amber Mayer, to its executive team. As Vice President of Product Solutions, Amber will lead product strategy, product management, and all product launches as well as oversee the continued expansion of NAVIS Revenue Performance Solutions in response to the emerging demand for the company's innovative solutions. Amber has a proven expertise in product development in the hospitality space including telephony analytics, reservation booking engines, and CRMs. She has an impressive track record of success in online sales strategy and implementation, database marketing, digital marketing, email marketing and 3rd party channel distribution. Before joining NAVIS, Amber held executive leadership positions for such notable brands as Wyndham Vacation Rentals, Instant Software (now HomeAway), and TravelStorm. She also brings valuable hands-on experience, having served as Director of Rental Management for Seascape Resorts where she was directly responsible for the creation and growth of the Resort Vacation Rental Division. "NAVIS is committed to providing powerfully integrated solutions that deliver profitability for our clients, explains NAVIS CEO, Kyle Buehner. Amber is joining as our VP of Product Solutions to help us better understand market/use trends and focus on defining the user experience and product requirements. Our NAVIS Revenue Performance Solutions have generated an incontrovertible ROI for our clients and with Amber on board, we will keep moving the needle to bring high-value solutions to the market. Our team and partners will benefit tremendously from her knowledge, keen market insights, and strategic approach and we are thrilled to have her on board." "NAVIS has a powerful platform that I used successfully for years as a former client and more recently as a consultant helping others to substantially increase revenue, said Amber. Using the latest technology and data-driven insights has become the only way to remain competitive in the hospitality industry. The more devices, channels, services, and applications that travelers are using, the greater the need to manage the complexity using automation, analytics, and engagement to create and convert more profitable direct demand. I'm honored and excited to play a role in helping NAVIS shape the future of hospitality marketing and guest experience." To learn why more lodging companies choose NAVIS to help them increase performance, profit, and ROI, please visit www.thenavisway.com or call 1.866.712.3439. About NAVIS NAVIS is the #1 reservation sales & marketing platform to empower your team's performance and increase your revenue. Our Revenue Performance Platform transforms hospitality teams into revenue makers, enabling them to drive, capture and convert more profitable direct bookings. We deliver actionable guest insights so your teams can seamlessly sell and market together. The result is always a dramatic increase in direct sales and profit. We guarantee it. Because we believe technology should make you money, not cost you money. NAVIS, founded in 1987 is a privately held company with headquarters in Bend, Oregon and satellite offices across the country. To learn more visit www.thenavisway.com. ecretary General Taleb Rifai will join a panel of industry leader to discuss how to pilot tourism industry through a perpetual state of flux The head of the United Nations agency responsible for the promotion of responsible, sustainable tourism will make his first ever appearance at a Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) event when he presents at the State of the Tourism Industry Conference (SOTIC) next month. Secretary General of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Taleb Rifai will be joined by the president of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) David Scowsill and CTO secretary general Hugh Riley on a panel to discuss how to pilot an industry through a perpetual state of flux. "The commitment of the UNWTO and the WTTC to participate in this conference fulfils our mandate to make leaders of the global tourism industry accessible to our members, to share information with us and exchange ideas on how to resolve issues and challenges and how to take advantage of opportunities in tourism globally," Mr. Riley said. During the session entitled, No Place For The Status Quo, the tourism leaders will delve into factors, such as changing demographics and attitudes, which drive the tourism industry into a state of constant transition, and how to continuously align the product to consumers' tastes. "There really is no status quo in the tourism sector. Things are constantly changing; it's a dynamic industry, it's vulnerable to external shocks but it always recovers. When we look at issues that affect public health, security, terrorism, economic shocks, all of these things affect the success and the sustainability of the tourism sector," the CTO secretary general added. The session takes place from 9:45 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on Friday September 16, immediately following the feature address by Craig Landry, the president of Air Canada Leisure Group. The State of the Tourism Industry Conference, which has as its theme, Honouring Our Legacy, Defining Our Future, is the pre-eminent tourism gathering in the region. It brings together tourism decision-makers, including ministers, commissioners and directors of tourism, hotel and airline executives, travel agents, students, the media and persons directly and indirectly involved in tourism. It is preceded by CTO business meetings, including meetings of the board of directors and the Council of Ministers and Commissioners of Tourism. A number of other presenters have been confirmed for SOTIC, which will explore subjects ranging from how to transition the product and multicultural and emerging markets to creating a luxury experience and the sharing economy. This year's conference at the Hilton Barbados Resort is organized in collaboration with Barbados' Ministry of Tourism and International Transport and the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. For more information on SOTIC, including how you can register, participate and benefit, visit www.onecaribbean.org. Daily Hotel Industry News Join your colleagues and stay up to date on the latest hotel news and trends. The Air Jordan XIV has flown under the radar this year thanks to plenty of Air Jordan 12s releases, and a number of other classic Js. But fans of the XIV silhouette will be happy to know that Jordan Brand hasnt forgotten about the beloved kicks and the rare Indiglo XIV, which hasnt been seen since it debuted way back in 1999, will be returning TOMORROW. Official images of the Indiglo XIV showcase the sneakers OG look- constructed on a combination of leather and nubuck, highlighted by indiglo green accents. Again, if youre a lover of the ferrari inspired Air Jordan XIV, youll be happy to know this Indiglo pair will be returning tomorrow for $190. Item #1 Theophilus London got himself arrested and locked up last night in New York City. Usually when this happens, the cops take your phone. This was not the case for Theophilus. Im so sexy they allowed me to tweet, he wrote from behind bars. He used the social platform to explain how he got himself into this predicament, in jail wearing $1500 jeans: he broke the phone of a taxi driver who refused to give him change for a $100 bill. I only had 100s on me and he didnt want to break the change, he explained. So he tried to keep my hundred while screaming in my face, so I gave him 5 mins to make change. After I counted down to 1, I took his phone and smashed it into 900 pieces, then I ran into the IFC Movie cinema and the cops ran up on me. He proceeded to live tweet his jail experience. Some dude in my cell just told me if he was a girl he would fuck me, he wrote. Shit is getting weird. I asked him if he was gay. He in for grand theft I low key feel like Im in a museum. Pee smells. Cig butts, fingerprinted me, and mug shot. I tried not to smile. He was released later that night. See his full battery of tweets below. Theophilus Wonder what the 'Boss' would make of this cover? Playing at Philadelphia's Lincoln Financial Field, it only seemed fitting for the band to perform the legendary tune about the city. Chris Martin remained faithful to the original version, performing the song accoustically. The classic tune became a critical triumph in 1993 when it featured in the controversial film Philadelphia which dealt with HIV/AIDS. It cleaned out big in the awards, scooping an Academy Award for Best Original Song and four Grammy Awards. The Sri Lankan rapper has teamed up with the ex-One Directioner to produce a song for her next album MIA has teamed up with Zayn Malik to produce a track for her forthcoming album. MIAs has stated before that her next album will be her fifth and last, and it will feature a host of collaborations with other artists including DJ Blaqstarr, Skrillex and M.I.A.'s and Diplo. MIA is known for her political outbursts which may give a clue as to what led to her collaboration with Malik. Malik was the target of racial and islamiphobic trolling from musician Azealia Banks . Zayn is no stranger to controversy and speaking his mind and has recently come out to say that an alien encouraged him to quit One Direction. MIA's new album has yet to be named and will be released early September. Marvel's invulnerable crimefighter one step closer to Netflix release A new trailer has arrived for Marvel's Luke Cage, a Netflix series following the titular invulnerable hero. The show stars Mike Colter, reprising his role from last year's acclaimed series, Jessica Jones. The show is the next step towards Marvel's ultimate plan for their properties on Netflix, whereby Cage and Jones, alongside Charlie Cox's Daredevil and the upcoming Iron Fist, band together to create the New York-based superhero team The Defenders. For now, Cage seems to be operating solo - tackling organised crime in Harlem, his home territory. Expectations are high after Marvel's previous Netflix outings, Daredevil and Jessica Jones, were met with praise from audiences and critics alike. Advertisement Lock yourself in with Cage on September 30, when the series arrives to Netflix in full. Following widespread and wide-ranging debate, prompted by the publication of the first instalment of the John Halligan interview in the pages of Hot Press, additional material from the exchange with the Minister for Training, Skills and Innovation, John Halligan TD will be revealed tomorrow, on hotpress.com. The Hot Press interview with the independent Waterford TD, John Halligan, printed in the current issue of the magazine, has caused tremendous controversy, debate and conversation, with the Minister's views on prostitution and assisted suicide as well as his endorsement of Simon Coveney as the next Fine Gael leader prompting a huge level of discussion in the media. The full and frank exchange with Hot Press' Jason O'Toole was a long and wide-ranging one. It was only possible to include some of this hugely fruitful exchange in the current issue and so, tomorrow will see lots more from the revelatory interview published on hotpress.com. At 10am, we will reveal the Ministers views on Donald Trump; US military flights landing in Shannon; the tax regime for US and other multi-nationals in Ireland; his behind the scenes work during the Brexit referendum; the mistreatment of young people in Ireland by the political system; the squabbling that weakens left politics in Ireland; his background in the Workers Party and their relationship with North Korea; the campaign to prevent Sean Garland being extradited to the US; Irish neutrality and lots more besides. Advertisement The interview published in Hot Press is hugely impressive for its honesty and conviction, says the magazine's editor, Niall Stokes. But John Halligan also comes across as being really likeable not least because you can see that he has a sense of humour. He takes the big issues seriously, of course but he doesnt take himself too seriously. I think people will see more of the same in the second part, which is certain to spark further debate." Already hailed as one of the most forthright, honest and controversial interviews with an Irish politician in years, don't miss the second part of John Halligan's incredible Hot Press Interview; it's live on hotpress.com from 10am tomorrow. Subscribing to our services is a three step process. First you have to create an account and then you have to pick if you want to subscribe to digital and or print. Some people only want to be a digital subscriber to get access online and others want to also receive the print edition. If you are already a print subscriber and want online access, it is free, you simply have to create an online account and then attach your print subscription account number to the online account you create. As an existing print subscriber it is easy to get FREE access to all our online content. When you click get started below it will walk you through creating an online account to attach your print subscription number to. After your account is created it will ask you to either add a subscription for online access or click on the print subscriber button. Click the print subscriber button header and it will open a dropdown, now click on get started. The page will reload and you will be prompted to enter an account number and a zip code. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO USE THE NUMBER OFF OF THE MOST RECENT ISSUE OR ANYTHING AFTER JANUARY 28, 2019 TO GAIN ACCESS! OLD ACCOUNT NUMBERS WILL NOT WORK The account number and zip code are easily available on your most recent issue of the High Plains Journal or Midwest Ag Journal in the address fields as is shown here. Sometimes the account number has extra zero's in front of it, just ignore those. The former HR head accused of defrauding $726,000 from the Ministry of Transport is now in custody after she was arrested while attempting to re-enter New Zealand. Yesterday evening, the Serious Fraud Office confirmed that 50-year-old Joanne Harrison had been apprehended at Auckland International Airport on Friday. Harrison had been the general manager of organisational development for the Ministry of Transport until early last month but was fired after investigators uncovered links between her and the six-figure fraud. As a senior manager, Harrison was one of five people reporting directly to the chief executive and was authorised to spend money without sign-off. Her time at the ministry was served largely under former chief executive Martin Matthews, who has since left. British-born Harrison appeared at the Manukau District Court on Friday charged with three counts of dishonestly taking or using a document she did not enter a plea and will next appear in the same court on 16 August, 2016. kland-based Tim OBrien is the HRD of AT&Ts Asia Pacific operations here, he opens up about industry worries and his understanding wife.I would recommend they try to get exposure to a wide variety of HR disciplines early on in their career. A generalist HR role will give them a good grounding as to how HR interacts with the business. Theres plenty of time to specialise further down the line.AT&T is currently undertaking a workforce skills transformation as we reskill our current workforce to align with our long-term strategy. We are evaluating and determining what skills we need now to address the needs of our business, but also what skills will be needed 5 and 10 years from now to ensure we have a wide tech-talent pipeline. This is exciting for us, not only because we are supporting the business as it transforms, but also because we are in the process of transforming as an HR organisation as well.My biggest professional obstacle was (and still is) learning to balance the needs of my job with the needs of my young family. Fortunately, both AT&T and my manager are very supportive of me maintaining work-life balance, and Im lucky to have an understanding wife and family!In general HR professionals need to be savvier with technology, and more specifically, how HR technology and the data we collect can enable a company to make better informed business decisions. We need to be prepared for a more digitally focused workforce of the future.We need to make sure the work we do is closely aligned with the business direction and strategy of our companies. Sometimes in HR, we have a tendency to focus efforts on pet projects or the latest and greatest HR theories that dont necessarily align with the business environment we are supporting.I joined AT&T in 2006 as the HR Manager supporting the Australia and New Zealand business. I didnt think that nearly 10 years down the line that Id be the HR Director for Asia Pacific, let alone be able to be based in Auckland doing it.I have the opportunity each day to interact with HR professionals, not only in the Asia Pacific region, but in the broader International HR team that supports AT&T business operations in over 60 countries worldwide. Working with such a diverse array of people is both interesting and rewarding at the same time.Five years is a long time in the communications industry, so its fair to say a lot will change in that time. One of the main changes I expect to see is a significant shift in the generational makeup of the workforce as baby-boomers start retiring. This shift will challenge the way we engage, motivate and incentivise a different workforce from the one we have today.Im too young to have a legacy! But seriously, as cliche as it sounds, Id like to leave my team in a better place than they were when I joined. ellington-based employer has been severely reprimanded by the Employment Relations Authority after investigators found serious workplace breaches.Sun 2 Moon Limited, which is located on Willis Street in the Wellington CBD, was ordered to pay $53,000 in penalties and arrears by member of the authority James Crichton.The decision, which was handed down July 29 but only released today, came after employer Luv Kumar Khatter was found to have exploited a vulnerable migrant workers.The exploitation of migrant workers in New Zealand is unacceptable, said labour inspectorate regional manager Loua Ward. No employer should require employees to pay premiums or pay wages back.Khatter had required the employee to pay more than $10,000 in premiums by way of a $5,000 upfront payment, $3,240 in regular small cash payments, and $2,167 funding company expenses on the employees personal credit card.The ERA ordered all of the money to be returned to the unnamed employee, citing the premiums as a blatant abuse of power.In total, Crichton ordered the disgraced employer to pay $25,000 as a penalty for breaching the Minimum Wage Act, Employment Relations Act, Wages Protection Act and Holidays Act.He also ordered $28,781.23 to be paid to the employee for minimum wage arrears, reimbursement of premiums and holiday pay arrears.The level of non-compliance identified during this investigation was very disappointing given the significant breaches of minimum employment standards, said Ward.This ruling sends a clear message to employers that failure to comply with minimum employment labour standards will not be tolerated, she added. A pair of Vancouver-area real estate agents are being slammed after they sent a "sympathy note" to a man whose wife died, complete with business cards. The widower's daughter, Lauri Smith Bowie, posted the letter to Facebook on Sunday. "Dear Mr. Smith," it read. "So sorry to hear of your wife's passing. Please let us know if we can help in any way with your Real Estate needs when the time is right. Thanks." Business cards for realtors Linda Shaver and Leanne deSouza, who work in in the suburb of White Rock, were included. Advertisement Bowie was angered by the letter and called the realtors "ambulance-chasing vultures" in her Facebook post. She said her father received the letter "less than three weeks after my mom's untimely passing," and that the realtors "didn't know my mom at all." "It absolutely devastated him," Bowie added. "Ambulance chasing vultures" On Monday, deSouza told CKNW radio that she and Shaver met Bowie's father while door-knocking in his neighbourhood, and learned at that time that his wife had died. Advertisement DeSouza said they only sent the note to remind him that they'd met. The realtor admitted they shouldn't have sent business cards, according to Global News. Dennis Wilson, president of the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board, wasn't impressed with the gesture. "I think it would be very inappropriate to initiate that kind of connection if you knew someone had passed away in that home," Wilson told the network. Follow The Huffington Post B.C. on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Also on HuffPost: Screw a gold medal. Brazilian rugby player Isadora Cerullo is getting married. After Australia nabbed gold in women's rugby sevens on Monday, Cerullo's girlfriend of two years, Marjorie Enya, stepped onto the pitch at Rio's Deodoro Stadium and asked the athlete to marry her, according to BBC Sport. Advertisement Volunteer Marjorie Enya proposes to rugby player Isadora Cerullo of Brazil at the Deodoro Stadium on Aug. 8 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo: David Rogers/Getty Images) Cerullo was overcome with emotion as she walked towards Enya, who volunteers at the venue. Fellow athletes were ecstatic. Advertisement Isadora Cerullo tries to hold back tears after her girlfriend proposes to her at Deodoro Stadium. (Photo: Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images) "I was completely surprised," Isadora, who also goes by Izzy, told Universo Online, saying she thought she might be doing an interview until Enya began to speak and pieced together what was happening. "I accepted without thinking twice." So Isadora Cerullo, who plays for Brazil, said "yes" to Marjorie Enya. Drama. Spoke to Marjorie. "She's the love of my life." #Rio2016 Luke Reddy (@LukeReddy) August 8, 2016 Advertisement The happy couple kiss after Enya ties a ribbon around Cerullo's finger. (Photo: Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images) The two kissed and hugged as volunteers cheered. "As soon as I knew she was in the [rugby] squad I thought I have to make this special," the volunteer told the BBC. Brazil's women's rugby sevens team finished ninth, but the couple likely isn't too hung up about that. "The Olympic Games can look like closure but, for me, it's starting a new life with someone," Enya told the broadcaster. Advertisement "I wanted to show people that love wins." Also on HuffPost Conservatives are demanding to know why Canadian tax dollars were used to sponsor a forum they say is "being used to promote anti-Semitism." Tory foreign affairs critic Peter Kent released a statement Tuesday after the National Post revealed that the World Social Forum, to be held in Montreal this week, was asked to pull the Canadian government's logo from its list of partners. Advertisement "We are deeply concerned by this Liberal Government's decision to waste Canadians' hard-earned tax dollars in a conference that promotes hate speech and intolerance," Kent said. The gathering of activists and members of non-government organizations from around the world is considered to be a counterbalance to the annual World Economic Forum held in Davos, Switzerland. Former environment minister Peter Kent responds to a question during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on June 3, 2013. (Photo: Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press) Advertisement The Post reports that Liberal MPs Anthony Housefather and Michael Levitt sounded the alarm over the forum's "heavy emphasis" on the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, and a "blatantly anti-Semitic cartoon" on the event's website of a Jewish man with a large nose and Star of David on his hat. The BDS movement promotes economic and cultural boycotts of Israel's goods and services over its treatment of Palestinians. Housefather and Levitt released a joint statement Monday saying they are "disgusted" by the cartoon and "deeply concerned" about a number of the forum sessions dealing with BDS. Kent later took to Twitter to offer his "kudos" to the Liberal backbenchers. Kudos to two #LPC MPs catching misguided govt sponsorship of anti-semitic World Social Forumhttps://t.co/jURaqOUSSx Hon. Peter Kent (@KentThornhillMP) August 9, 2016 But the Tory critic still voiced his displeasure about the situation. Conservatives want 'investigation' "While the Government of Canada logo from the conference programming has been removed since this unacceptable sponsorship came to light, we urge the Liberals to launch an investigation to determine who authorized the inappropriate deployment of public funds," Kent said in the release. Advertisement He circled back to a Conservative motion the House of Commons adopted last February condemning the BDS movement for promoting the "demonization and delegitimization of the State of Israel." "We are deeply concerned by this Liberal Government's decision to waste Canadians' hard-earned tax dollars in a conference that promotes hate speech and intolerance." Conservative MP Peter Kent Though the Opposition motion was supported by most Liberal MPs including Prime Minster Justin Trudeau Kent painted a slightly different picture. "Unfortunately, many Liberal MPs either voted against or abstained from voting on our motion," he said. "Conservatives remain committed to condemning any and all attempts by Canadian organizations, groups or individuals to promote anti-Semitism both here at home and abroad." Advertisement The Huffington Post Canada has reached out to representatives from the World Social Forum for their response to Kent's criticism. BDS debate continues The Tories' anti-BDS motion passed easily by a vote of 229-51, with just three Liberal MPs voting against it New Brunswick's Rene Arseneault, Yukon's Larry Bagnell, and Newfoundland and Labrador's Nick Whalen. Forty-three Liberal MPs either abstained or were not in the House to vote. Days before the vote, Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion accused Tories of trying to drive a wedge between MPs on the matter of Israel. Anthony Housefather is seen before the Access to the Justice System committee convenes on April 13, 2016. (Photo: Adrian Wyld/CP) Advertisement Some Grit MPs later said they could not support the motion because they thought it would impede free speech and interfere in the rights of Canadians to peacefully protest. New Democrats said they voted against the motion because of those concerns. "This goes against the freedom of expression we hold so dear in our society," NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair told reporters at the time. Greens blasted for BDS resolution But it seems the debate around BDS is not going away. Last weekend, delegates at the Green Party of Canada's biennial convention passed a resolution in support of the movement, outraging many Jewish groups. The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs said Greens were backing a movement that "seeks to censor and blacklist Israelis, is fundamentally discriminatory and utterly at odds with Canadian values." Housefather also took to Twitter to express disappointment, saying it should be a "non-partisan stand" to reject BDS. Advertisement The Canadian H of C made clear that we reject #BDS. This should be a non-partisan stand. Sorry that @CanadianGreens don't agree. #cdnpoli Anthony Housefather (@AHousefather) August 7, 2016 With a file from The Canadian Press Also on HuffPost A growing gap between Torontos rich and poor can help explain how one of the countrys most progressive cities elected Rob Ford for mayor, says the co-author of a new study on billionaires. Researchers have been saying for years Toronto is seeing an increase in inequality and a segmenting of its population by wealth, but a new study from the University of Torontos Martin Prosperity Institute puts this into some perspective. Advertisement The earnings gap between Greater Toronto's billionaires and the rest of the population is the fourth-largest in North America, behind only Mexico City, Seattle and Dallas. On this measure, it is a more unequal city than major billionaire capitals like London and New York, the study found. Worldwide, Toronto ranked 19th among most unequal cities, on a list topped by Bangalore and Mumbai two Indian cities where billionaires palaces rise out of the slums. The magnitude of [it] is staggering, with the fortunes of the super-rich ranging from 100,000 to more than 600,000 times greater than the economic condition of the average person among the top 20 cities on the list, the report said. Advertisement "We were surprised about how big the gap is between the rich and everyone else in Toronto," Richard Florida, a renowned urban studies expert and co-author of the report, told The Huffington Post Canada. "I think that the super-rich wealth gap in Toronto is compounded by the fact that Canadas estate tax is so lax. Billionaires can essentially hand their wealth down from generation to generation." Canada has no inheritance tax, but treats the estates of deceased people as a sale. Canada Revenue Agency charges tax on half of the "sold" estate. Advertisement In an interview with Metro News, Florida suggested this growing divide within the city helps explain the Rob Ford phenomenon. We like to think of ourselves as a progressive city. We even tried to brush Rob Ford under the rug. But he is the product of these objective conditions of a huge gap between the super rich and everyone else. A segregated city David Hulchanski, an urban studies researcher at the University of Toronto, charted four decades worth of changing incomes in Toronto and concluded in a 2010 study that Canadas largest city is segregating along income lines. Advertisement Hulchanski sees three cities forming within Toronto: City 1, an upside-down T running along the citys transit corridors, which is becoming "a predominantly high-income area; City 2, surrounding the City 1 area, is the shrinking middle-income part of the city. Finally, there is City 3, the transit-deprived northwest and northeast corners of the city, where the citys poor are congregating, and where incomes have fallen substantially since 1970 relative to the rest of the city. This economic reality was reflected in the latest municipal election, when centrist John Tory, a favourite of the downtown crowd, beat conservative Doug Ford, who had replaced his ailing brother Rob in the race and who got the support of many of the city's working-class suburbs. Tory swept the wealthy City 1 area, while the poorer City 3 voted overwhelmingly for Ford. Toronto seems kind of divided pic.twitter.com/5YdWIKSTex -- James Mirtle (@mirtle) October 28, 2014 Also on HuffPost SF photo via Getty Images aerial view of Toronto Ontario, downtown and city Centre Airport area A Toronto airline that offers pricey air taxi services is launching a regular flight service to the Niagara Region. Greater Toronto Airways announced Tuesday morning its launching flights from Torontos Billy Bishop Airport to Niagara District Airport, in St. Catharines, on Sept. 15. Flights will take less than 15 minutes, the airline says. Advertisement One-way flights will run $85 and a return ticket starts at $159. The airline will devote three aircraft to the flight. The airlines website states its also planning to launch regular flights to Collingwood, about 160 km north of Toronto, as well as to Montreal. Greater Toronto Airways launches daily Toronto to Niagara services #fly2niagarahttps://t.co/hQsPKq9FAfpic.twitter.com/27FSCUNC0l Niagara Falls Canada (@NiagaraFalls) August 9, 2016 Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati told CBC News that while the flight may be too pricey to replace the daily commute to Toronto for most, it could help people who are in a hurry to get to the city, such as for an early meeting or to avoid road delays on summer weekends. "This is a great opportunity for those people who don't have the luxury of time and they need to be places," he said. Advertisement The airlines CEO says he also hopes the flight will attract tourists from the city who want to tour the Niagara wine region. First were focusing on the local economy, trying to boost the connection between Toronto and Niagara Falls. We want to bring business people back and forth between Niagara Falls and Toronto, Chris Nowrouzi told BNN. Scheduled Service from Niagara to Toronto starts Sept. 15! Round trip from $159! Book NOW https://t.co/qsnYOXXG45pic.twitter.com/tm0HFppByh Niagara CYSN Airport (@NiagaraAirport) August 9, 2016 Niagara officials had earlier tried to entice Porter Airlines to launch commuter flights to the region, evidently to no avail. Greater Toronto Airways offers air taxi services in twin-engine private planes, charging up to $2000 for a flight to Muskoka cottage country or to Ottawa, and up to $4000 to New York or Washington. Advertisement Also on HuffPost: The Toronto Star has laid off 52 people, including 45 newsroom employees, in response to a decline in print advertising, a spokesperson confirmed Tuesday. Among the laid-off at the Star are 45 people in the newsroom, including 26 contract workers hired to work on the newspapers recently launched tablet edition, Star Touch. Advertisement The Toronto Star laid off 60 people today & I'm one of them. (:tada: journalism :tada:) Any tips on places hiring front-end/UX appreciated! Lee Richardson (@leerichardson) August 9, 2016 But the newspaper said its not backing away from the mobile edition it launched last year and remains fully committed to Star Touch. The number of Star Touch readers are fewer than we had anticipated, said Bob Hepburn, manager of community relations for the Star. But those users who are there are really engaged with the product, he added. The Star had earlier laid off 10 staffers at Star Touch, less than a year after the tablet edition launched. Advertisement The Toronto Star was once Canada's largest-circulation daily newspaper, with a readership of more than half a million daily. But in recent years its circulation has shrunk to around 330,000, and it's now in second place behind the Globe and Mail, with 346,000 readers. The Star layoffs are the latest in a seemingly endless stream of job reductions at Canadian news media, as newspapers and broadcasters struggle amid a shift of ad dollars towards digital and away from traditional media. Many of Canadas largest news sources have announced substantial job cuts over the past year, heightening fears that the ability of news media in Canada to inform the public is being reduced. Paul Godfrey, president and CEO of Postmedia. (Photo: Canadian Press) Postmedia, owner of many of English Canadas big-city dailies, announced 90 layoffs earlier this year, as well as newsroom mergers that had some observers concerned about a growing media monopoly in Canada. Advertisement Bell Media announced 380 job cuts last November, including many in local news at CTV affiliates, a move that had some apprehensive about the future of local news coverage. The CBC struggled in recent years with funding cuts put in place by the previous Conservative government. The broadcaster cut hundreds of jobs in successive waves of layoffs. That has prompted many observers of the media lansdscape to grow worried about the ability of the news media to keep Canadians informed. They note that online media and local TV broadcasters often rely on traditional newspapers for their information. The latest voice to raise this concern was Last Week Tonight host John Oliver, who dedicated 20 minutes of his show Sunday to lamenting the slow death of newspapers. Oliver warned that, without journalists holding politicians to account, political malfeasance will run amok. Advertisement Also on HuffPost Summertime in Toronto means it's practically a requirement to spend as much time outside as possible -- especially when you're eating and drinking. Hogtown is home to more world-class eateries and trendy pubs than can be named, but these five rooftop bars and restaurants take the cake for summertime dining while overlooking the city's sparkling skyline and happening neighborhoods. Harvest Kitchen You may not be able to escape the hustle and bustle of the city as much as you'd like in the summer months, but the upper level deck of Harvest Kitchen can help. Located at 124 Harbord St., Harvest Kitchen features seasonal, consciously-sourced and delicious brunches, lunches and dinners for affordable prices. Find your way to the upper patio, and you'll enjoy your meal in an atmosphere that feels more like a treehouse than a farm-to-table restaurant. The treetop patio is surrounded by large, lusht trees that will transport you to the countryside while you sip Harvest's famously creative cocktails. Advertisement The Porch Photo credit: Mycatkins You've probably heard about the Rock 'n' Horse Saloon, but you may have missed the popular rooftop patio perched above it. The Porch is located on Adelaide St. W., within batting distance of Toronto Blue Jays games at Rogers Centre. Other spectacular features are weekend brunches and upscale pub fare that can be enjoyed while taking in Toronto's skyline and snapping photos of the CN Tower. Sky Yard -- Drake Hotel If you're a sucker for crave-worthy cocktails, you'll love the Drake Hotel's famous Sky Yard. This ultra-trendy rooftop eatery and bar features late-night dinners and an impressive list of seasonal craft cocktails. Even better, the picturesque views can be taken in at the Sky Yard during any time year. This all-season patio hotspot simply alters its menu (think hot cocktails in December) to accommodate the wants of its never-ending flow of customers. You can find the Sky Yard perched atop the Drake Hotel at 1150 Queen St. W. Pauper's Pub The Annex is a melting pot of a community that's loaded with restaurants, bars and nightclubs aimed at pleasing the ever-changing population of students, business people, artists, professors, families and people from all backgrounds and professions. Pauper's Pub offers a laid-back patio atmosphere that appeals to the neighborhood's diverse crowd. The food and drink options are affordable, the terrace is secluded and the setting is unpretentious. Whether you're looking for a place to party on a summer weekend or a relaxing drink outdoors after a long weekday at work, Pauper's Pub is ready to suit your mood. Advertisement Rooftop Lounge -- Thompson Hotel Unless you have a lofty budget, the rooftop of the Thompson Hotel isn't a place you'll frequent throughout the summer, but it's also a place that should be visited at least once a year. The rooftop lounge is described on the Thompson Hotel's website as, "chic and exclusive," and those words describe it well. However, you don't have to be rich and famous to enjoy the 360-degree views of the Toronto skyline or the opportunity to take a dip in the hotel's infinity pool (only during daytime) with a swanky cocktail in hand. The Thompson Hotel's Rooftop Lounge enforces a strict dress code of, "smart evening attire," so don't be afraid to overdress. Follow HuffPost Canada Blogs on Facebook ALSO ON HUFFPOST: Probal Rashid via Getty Images JAMALPUR, MYMENSINGH, BANGLADESH - 2016/08/02: A flood affected woman receives relief while other hundreds havent get due to the local governments mismanagement at Islampur in Jamalpur. According to the Bangladesh Disaster Management Bureau around 1.5 million people have been affected by this year flood. Rivers in the north started to rise in early July and by the 20th of July nearly all of them started to flow over the danger level. It caused floods in 6 districts, namely, Lalmonirhat, Kurigram, Gaibandha, Jamalpur, Sirajganj and Sunamganj initially and inundated crop fields and dwelling areas, washed away standing crops, houses and households assets, livestock and displaced the affected people.Bangladesh is one of the most climate change-vulnerable and disaster-prone countries. The rivers of this country are facing tremendous environmental anomalies. They overflow during the rainy season but shrink in other seasons. Floods in our country are directly or indirectly related to sub-Himalayan countries like India, Bhutan, and Nepal. An understanding should be made to protect the eco-system in the regions to minimize the risks of flash floods, and to share the water resources as per international laws. (Photo by Probal Rashid/LightRocket via Getty Images) By Kevin Dunbar and Bart Witteveen Global humanitarian need is on the rise. The UN estimates that 125 million people need humanitarian relief and more than 60 million people are displaced from their homes. The Government of Canada's international assistance review could not have come at a more critical time. The Minister of International Development and La Francophonie has boldly asked the Government of Canada to apply a "feminist lens" to the international assistance review. But what does that look like, in practice, in a humanitarian context? Advertisement Disasters do not discriminate, but ultimately due to structural gender inequalities kill more women than men, and affect women's livelihoods hardest. Sixty per cent of all maternal deaths take place in humanitarian settings and all forms of gender based violence against women and girls spike during disasters and conflict. While women, girls, men, and boys all suffer in a crisis, due to deep-rooted gender inequalities women and girls face greater obstacles in reaching their potential and leading safe, healthy, and dignified lives. Done right, humanitarian assistance can reinforce civil society and result in more balanced power dynamics. However, women and girls are not vulnerable, passive recipients of assistance. Women play critical roles in emergency situations -- leading relief and recovery efforts, and taking on increasing responsibilities inside and outside of the house. Emergencies spark shifts in gender dynamics within affected communities. They present a critical opportunity to invest and support women's valuable contributions, while building more equitable and self-reliant communities. So how can we as the humanitarian community change our narrative around women and girls in emergencies to one that is empowering and reflective of their strengths and contributions? Advertisement As a first step we need to listen. We need to involve women and girls in designing the services and activities of aid organisations, and systematically ask for feedback. Humanitarian programs that aren't contextually and culturally appropriate and based on a community's understanding of its own needs are at best less effective and at worst can be harmful. Supporting gender equality requires that we don't work exclusively with women and girls, but boys and men to change social norms and address the different barriers that hinder their full participation in society and access to human rights. Second, we need a more localized approach. Humanitarian actors must move beyond direct implementation and work in partnership with local, women-led civil society groups -- which are both closer to, and more trusted by, communities. Done right, humanitarian assistance can reinforce civil society and result in more balanced power dynamics. Third, we need to fund the right programs. Applying a true "feminist lens" requires that the Government of Canada make it a strict requirement that all humanitarian response programs it supports be underpinned by strong gender analysis. All humanitarian funding allocations should be assessed against the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Gender Marker tool to be, at minimum, "gender sensitive." There is an urgent need to evolve and develop new ways of working to respond more effectively to global crises that are stretching the international humanitarian system beyond capacity. A further fundamental challenge in international assistance is the complex nature of crises related to protracted conflicts that in some cases span decades. Under these circumstances the delivery of aid is precarious and dangerous. Political objectives quickly subsume the humanitarian imperative and the military intervention is messaged together with the humanitarian operations. The introduction of counter-terror legislation adds another layer of complexity, further complicating the funding and delivery of humanitarian aid. This all threatens to undermine Canada's efforts to effectively support populations in danger. Advertisement The approach that humanitarian actors use to address these complexities and challenges is to engage in principled humanitarian action based on the humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality and independence -- providing aid in response and proportionate to assessed needs; without discrimination and favour to any party to the conflict; and autonomous of any political, military, or other objective. This is not just a philosophical ambition to do the right thing, but also has a very practical dimension as the key tool to building "community acceptance," which enables negotiating humanitarian space and gaining access to the most vulnerable. The Canadian humanitarian community, including the Government of Canada, must make a genuine commitment to counter the prevailing trend of the politicization of humanitarian aid with a clear voice advocating a commitment to the humanitarian principles and international humanitarian law. The overarching objective is to ensure that humanitarian aid will not be a foreign policy nor conflict management tool and will be protected by legislation to that end. There is an urgent need to evolve and develop new ways of working to respond more effectively to global crises that are stretching the international humanitarian system beyond capacity. The Government of Canada's 2016 International Assistance Review presents a critical opportunity to foster real change in the way humanitarian assistance is delivered, and recommit to the humanitarian principles, international human rights and other frameworks for protecting the most vulnerable, and to create an enabling policy that puts gender equity for the most vulnerable women and girls at the center. This blog was first published on August 8 in The Hill Times. Kevin Dunbar is Director of CARE Canada's humanitarian assistance and emergency team. Bart Witteveen is Director of World Vision Canada's humanitarian and emergency affairs team. The views expressed are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of CCIC or its members. Advertisement Follow HuffPost Canada Blogs on Facebook ALSO ON HUFFPOST: Actress Renee Zellweger attends ELLE's 21st Annual Women in Hollywood Celebration at the Four Seasons Hotel on October 20, 2014. (Photo: Jeff Vespa/Getty Images for ELLE) I am lucky. I chose a creative life and have the opportunity to do satisfying work that is sometimes meaningful, just like Renee Zellweger. You know why else I'm lucky? Because, unlike Renee Zellweger, I'm not famous. Advertisement That's because I don't want to be. OK, it's because, also unlike Renee, I'm not talented enough at anything to be famous. But it's all good. When you're famous, people speculate about you and make you part of the larger conversation and I would hate that. But I think that if you are famous, you asked for it to a degree and you don't get to bitch about it. If people suggest that you're doing something illegal or immoral, and you're not, then you get to smack them down. But if they're just wondering whether you had plastic surgery, I think you should just suck it up. What's with this weird argument people keep making that it's somehow anti-woman or anti-feminist... to do anything other than pretend you don't notice anything? I'm responding to an op-ed Renee wrote for the Huffington Post yesterday titled "We can do better." For context, go read it here, then come back and finish this counterpoint. In it she complains about the speculation regarding whether or not she had something done to her eyes in 2014, cagily skirting the actual question -- "I did not make the decision to alter my face and have surgery on my eyes..." -- then argues that such discourse is harmful and should be beneath us. Advertisement She writes: "The 'eye surgery' tabloid story itself did not matter, but it became the catalyst for my inclusion in subsequent legitimate news stories about self-acceptance and women succumbing to social pressure to look and age a certain way. In my opinion, that tabloid speculations become the subject of mainstream news reporting does matter." She makes a valid but obvious point about the way society judges women by their appearance (we shouldn't), then suggests that this is somehow taking attention away from more important news stories. An argument people like to trot out when aiming for moral high ground -- how dare you pay attention to that when SYRIA. (Photo: Karwai Tang/WireImage) It was, of course, met with breathless, effusive praise. But it annoyed me because I'm sick of being told that if you walk into a room -- or in this case, onto the red carpet in 2014 -- looking like a totally different person from the last time I saw you, I'm morally bereft for wondering what the hell happened to your face. It's not OK to be nasty or cruel, but most people are just trying to make sense of what they're looking at. And you don't get to tell them they don't have that right. What's with this weird argument people keep making that it's somehow anti-woman or anti-feminist, when faced with a dramatically changed appearance that looks very much like it's due to cosmetic surgery, to do anything other than pretend you don't notice anything? Advertisement Isn't the opposite -- pretending people's appearances just magically change for no reason -- actually the anti-woman thing to do? To act like rich people's wrinkles just disappear? Like their lips get plumper and their thighs thinner by magic? While I haven't read any of the think pieces Renee is talking about, the topic of "self-acceptance and women succumbing to social pressure to look and age a certain way," as she calls it, is, I think we can all agree, an important one. And her reality, whether she likes it or not, is that she's now part of that larger conversation. You don't get to tell me that I'm lacking moral fibre because I'm looking at you. It's what you wanted. Dear Renee: If you don't want to be part of the larger conversation, don't be famous. You had a choice, you know. People don't usually become famous by accident. They sometimes do, like Monica Lewinsky or Justine Sacco, but actors usually don't. You have to want that shit. You have to seek it out and work for it. You could have gone into any number of careers where this wouldn't have happened. You know who tabloids don't care about? Almost everyone. Doctors, lawyers, teachers, salespeople, mathematicians, baristas, graphic designers, carpenters, plumbers, marketing managers, IT techs, developers, veterinarians, project managers.... You had a lot of career options. But you chose to be a star. Now you have to live with that. And you don't get to tell me that I'm lacking moral fibre because I'm looking at you. It's what you wanted. Advertisement I've seen a lot of your face. I've seen it in Jerry Maguire, Bridget Jones, Chicago (I LOVED you in that)... um... Bridget Jones 2... and it looks different now (VERY different), and I am curious as to why. You make your living appearing on screen and on camera. To suggest that I'm not allowed to notice and question details of your appearance is, to use one of your own words, disingenuous. You know what, Renee? I sponsored a Syrian refugee family and I volunteer weekly at a refugee shelter, I buy conscious fashion, I champion conscious farming, I donate to many charities, and am an advocate for several causes -- and I still wonder what happened to your face. I can care about all the things. The funny thing is I don't actually care that much. But dammit I will defend my right to care a little bit. Renee Zellweger during the premiere of Bridget Jones' Diary. (Photo: J. Vespa/WireImage) If other people have loftier concerns, or better things to worry about, good for them. The fact that is does pique my interest, however, doesn't make me a misogynist, idiot loser. Not that you asked, but here's how I think you could better serve your own interests and those of all the women out there whose interests so concern you. You could honestly address what is different about your face and why -- you know and we know that it's something. Advertisement You could talk openly about why you made the changes that you did and what lead you there, whether it was medical need or cultural pressure. (I hope, by the way, that it was nothing terrible. Knowing my life, I'll find out that it was EYE CANCER and I'll feel like a total asshole, but I truly hope that's not the case and suspect that it is not). That would have been a useful contribution to the conversation. It also would have stopped all the cruel speculation and nasty commentary in its tracks and all this would have gone away. You don't have to. It's your right to not answer the question as much as it is my right to ask it. But women face enough psychological adversity when it comes to their appearance, as you note in your article, Renee. And the pseudo-secrecy around the magically changing appearances of the rich and famous is part of that problem. Chastising people for natural curiosity while hauling out the same old tired observations about cultural sexism is, in my opinion, not useful. It's harmful. It adds nothing new to the conversation. And this conversation needs something new. You can do better. Follow HuffPost Canada Blogs on Facebook MORE ON HUFFPOST: moodboard via Getty Images University students studying, from above According to the 2016 mba.com Prospective Students Survey Report, consulting (32 per cent) and finance and accounting (31 per cent) remain the top dream jobs. The main driver of this perception is that these professions are the most rewarding post-degree. With the high level of compensation and other perks, other professions remain envious of these "elite" professions. Business schools have been quick to capitalize on the scramble for "golden ticket" careers, as indicated by the 16th annual GMAC Application Trends Survey. GMAC found that "60 percent of full-time two-year MBA programs" reported application increases versus 10 years ago. What drives this continued growth? There are a number of factors including: Advertisement (1) Parental Influence: In many families, there is a strong tendency among parents to push children to pursue fields that provide "safe" career prospects such as accounting to ensure that their children have a better future. More often than not, MBAs are preferred versus supposedly "risky" ones such as liberal arts due to the desire of families to ensure their children enter "professional" career paths. (2) Social Perception: Business leaders have long been bemoaning the competitive decline of the labor market due to the "willful" nature of youth and their lack of "proper" education in fields such as engineering and business. To these business leaders, their inability to find suitable employment candidates is a direct result. While business leaders continue to insist on encouraging more students to pursue professional degrees, a few commentators are starting to question the rush. Commentators such as Kelley Holland of the New York Times in "Is It Time to Retrain B-Schools?" have questioned the worth of a MBA. In today's chaotic business environment, one wonders whether the current business curriculum is sufficient to cater to future leadership requirements. Does today's business curriculum truly provide the tools necessary to deal with increasingly complex business issues, or is it merely providing a "secure" career path? Advertisement Then & Now In the past, business education was designed to fill business knowledge gaps for career advancing specialists. As technical specialists advanced from technical roles to strategic management, businesses realized that they needed to educate technical specialists with basic business fundamentals. Times have changed however. Tectonic shifts have occurred in today's economy including: (1) Technology & Automation: Increasingly, automation is taking the place of human personnel. It is not only the executive assistant that is disappearing but also middle management. In Race Against the Machine, Erik Brynjolfsson, professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and Andrew McAfee developed the theory of the "great decoupling" which stated that automation through boosting productivity has negatively affected job growth - "Productivity is at record levels, innovation has never been faster, and yet at the same time, we have a falling median income and we have fewer jobs. People are falling behind because technology is advancing so fast and our skills aren't keeping up." (2) Corporate Downsizing / Rightsizing: As corporations go global, they are looking to minimize costs. Intel, Microsoft and many more have announced layoffs, citing a shifting business environment and rapidly changing business models. (3) Individual Empowerment: Thanks to the Internet, it is possible for individuals to have the same influence of large corporations. While corporations such as Apple are still held in awe, increasingly we are looking toward individuals for business inspiration. Individuals such as Mark Zuckerberg are influencing larger groups to action thanks to the ubiquity of social media and other individually empowering technologies. (4) Flexibility & Adaptability: Due to evolving technology, business fundamentals are changing. Individuals increasingly are expected to quickly adjust to business changes that render skills obsolete. Interpersonal skills as well as knowledge of significant ethical, social and cultural issues have become as important as basic business fundamentals. Advertisement (5) Holistic Versus Functional Approach: Today's business curriculum emphasizes traditional corporate knowledge. While providing a traditional business knowledge foundation is relevant, what is increasingly required is a holistic approach to business management. As individual empowerment grows, it is necessary to ensure that individuals are given the right tools such as greater individual employee autonomy to seamlessly integrate various corporate functions together. (6) Practical, Concrete Experience: While today's business curriculum is slowly responding to demand for practical experience, that experience falls short of what is required. Success is increasingly about successful execution. Indeed, one could argue that the emphasis on rote learning is degrading the real need to identify individuals who can successfully execute. So where does this leave the MBA? In its current form, the MBA continues to deliver individuals who are not ready for today's business challenges. The current business curriculum is training widgets rather than training innovative leaders. Businesses are realizing that to remain competitive, they need out-of-the-box thinkers, not followers, whose positions are increasingly being automated. If the MBA curriculum is failing students, what can be done to adapt it to global economic realities? The field of liberal arts may provide a solution. While many business leaders may criticize liberal arts for being unable to provide potential employees with "hard" skills, a more interdisciplinary approach to business education can provide better perspectives in problem solving and critical analysis. It could provide relevant examples from the fields of history, psychology, cultural studies and others that might be useful in conducting a successful business. Indeed, by integrating these "soft" disciplines into the MBA curriculum, there is the probability that businesses are more successful as they understand their customers holistically versus narrowly through artificial business constructs. Advertisement A liberal arts degree can provide the tools for individuals to express their ideas in a constructive and thought-provoking manner, the ability to execute artistic visions and ideas to transform them into profitable businesses. By integrating more liberal art constructs into the MBA curriculum, MBA graduates would gain mental flexibility and agility required in the current dynamic business environment. It would enable MBA graduates to be more innovative and take more calculated "smart" risks, behaviors that businesses increasingly need to remain competitive. Follow HuffPost Canada Blogs on Facebook ALSO ON HUFFPOST: JIM WATSON via Getty Images A police officer wears a body camera on during an anti-Donald Trump protest in Cleveland, Ohio, near the Republican National Convention site July 18, 2016.The Republican Party opened its national convention Monday, kicking off a four-day political jamboree that will anoint billionaire Donald Trump as its presidential nominee. / AFP / JIM WATSON (Photo credit should read JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images) The recent death of Paul O'Neal has raised serious questions about the efficacy of police body-worn cameras (BWCs). O'Neal was fatally shot by Chicago police in which the encounter was captured on camera, but not entirely: the camera failed to record the moment O'Neal was shot. This incident illustrates the problematic nature around BWCs capabilities in ensuring police accountability. Advertisement Chicago police released video footage of the incident which was captured by multiple officers' cameras. The footage shows one officer shooting his firearm at O'Neal's stolen car as it sped away after hitting the patrol vehicle. For the next several moments, the same footage shows officers chasing after O'Neal until locating him on the ground with gunshot wounds to the back and being handcuffed by multiple officers. Chicago police leadership is receiving praise for releasing the footage very quickly after the incident. This can be seen as an attempt at improving transparency by the agency following the 2014 death of teenager Laquan McDonald after he was shot 16 times and video evidence was kept secret for more than a year. However, the fact that the camera failed to record the shooting of O'Neal is a significant concern. Advocates for BWCs believe that the technology is going to solve the problems related to policing. The expectations are so high for body cameras that they will potentially create a greater divide between the police and the public when the cameras fail to deliver on those expectations. The incident in Chicago is not the first where a body camera failed to record a fatal encounter between the police and a civilian, and it certainly won't be the last. There are several examples when a body camera mysteriously failed to record a police-civilian death or fell off during the pursuit. Some of these cases include the recent death of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, and the deaths of Lamontez Jones, and Fridoon Zalbeg Rawshannehad in San Diego. Advertisement Body cameras can be an effective tool for policing. They can help mend police-community relations. They will bring about accountability of police (in certain situations). However, those who believe they are a magic-bullet and those calling for every officer to be wearing one must acknowledge the limitations of body cameras, as well as have realistic expectations of their capabilities. The premise of BWCs is that they provide an objective reality of a situation. There are several benefits associated with body camera technology; there are also many concerns. The deployment and operation of BWCs is much more complex than it may appear because there are so many factors to consider when adopting the technology. I recently published an op-ed where I raised the issues and concerns around the storage and costs associated with body camera technology. These are major concerns but are often overlooked because of the primary assumption that the technology will ensure accountability and transparency. In the case of Chicago, they are showing transparency by releasing the footage. In terms of accountability, we will have to wait until the investigation ends before any conclusions can be made. Accountability differs between individuals and body cameras will not always produce the outcome people desire. This problem becomes even more challenging with the interpretation of body camera footage. The premise of BWCs is that they provide an objective reality of a situation. However, they really don't. The fact of the matter is that people will view body camera footage the way they want to: with a subjective interpretation involving bias -- whether bias is implicit or explicit. Research has shown that different viewers reach different conclusions about the same video. We have to expect that this will happen when more body camera footage is released to the public. These videos will complicate matters more if, and when these recordings are used in court and require expert testimony as well as the officer and/or suspect/witnesses involved. Advertisement The Fresno Police Department recently released body camera footage from two officers who fatally shot an unarmed 19-year-old. The footage has produced different interpretations. Some argue that the officers were justified in shooting the suspect, whereas others believe the shooting was unjustified and unnecessary. The release of the footage is a rare move by a law enforcement agency, but it illustrates the reality and problems associated with body camera footage. In Canada, these issues are relatively unknown because only a small number of agencies are using the cameras. The Calgary Police Service is the only large agency in Canada that has adopted the cameras for all officers. However, they have delayed deployment because of "technical glitches" with the cameras. Several police services in Ontario are patiently waiting for the Toronto Police Service to release their results from the 10-month pilot study they conducted. This report is highly anticipated and will have a major influence in whether agencies decide to adopt the cameras. The death of Abdirahman Abdi in Ottawa has resulted in public pressure calling for the Ontario government to mandate body cameras on all officers in the province. Even if all officer's wear cameras, there isn't any certainty that BWCs will achieve what the public wants or expects. People will argue that having cameras are better than not having cameras. But when there are different interpretations of the same video or when cameras fail to record the moment a fatal encounter occurs as seen in Chicago, the problems become larger and more complicated than they originally were. These will be the consequences of having unrealistic expectations for body camera technology. Advertisement Despite widespread use of body cameras in the U.S., we know very little about their effectiveness and efficacy. It is vital that more and better research is conducted around body camera use, particularly in Canada. Until this happens, the public needs to recognize the limitations and problems associated with BWCs. It is important that police are accountable for their actions. Body cameras are a small tool that may be effective in ensuring this. However, they cannot, and will not guarantee the outcome the public always expects. Follow HuffPost Canada Blogs on Facebook ALSO ON HUFFPOST: ASSOCIATED PRESS In this July 8, 2016, photo, a man holds up a sign saying Recently, many Canadians marched for justice in Ottawa and other cities for a Somali Canadian, Abdirahman Abdi, who died following an arrest. In Edmonton, Bashir Mohamed was called the "N" word. He says that people have intimidated him, cursed him, thrown things and spat at him and that a "sheer number are downplaying it." He has poignantly mentioned: "They boil me down into whatever they want to see me as, which by using that word they don't see me in a very positive way, it's very dehumanizing and I don't know where that comes from." Given such incidents, critics find the tactics of some Black Lives Matter (BLM) activists as outrageous. This includes the interruption of Bernie Sanders speech last year and the recent blocking of the Toronto Pride Parade. However, while there can be difference of opinion on tactics and strategies, the roots of the oppression of black people are quite deep. In the early 90s, my late grandma and I would watch Roots, which would play late night on Pakistan television. We learned about the horrors inflicted on the black people, mercilessly enslaved in Africa, and the inhumane challenges they faced in the United States. So when I observe the unconscionable treatment of black youth at the hands of the American police, it reminds me of that zulm (oppression), which continues to linger decades after abolition and civil rights. Memories of Kunta Kinte getting whipped, his daughter Kizzy snatched away from him, of Chicken George holding his baby to the moon are all etched in my mind. As a young man, I tensely watched the whipping scene and was amazed by Kunta Kinte's defiance. I thought that the draconian white master would stop and that Kinte would win. But there was no end to the master's malice and there is only so much a human being can endure. I continued watching Roots - The Next Generations and had memorized the names of all seven generations of Alex Haley. I watched the scene where a free old George was put down as a "boy" and ordered to fetch water. Such instances of micro-aggression continue to affect the lives of black people. Advertisement With every generation I thought it would get better, but one challenge was simply replaced by another. With abolition came discrimination, the ugliness of which has festered into the present times. In retrospect, both Kunte Kinte and Chicken George did win through their defiant spirit. However, the scene where George's son Tom decides not to whip the tied up white master truly reflects the power of the black spirit. I was thinking Tom would unleash all the years of pent up rage against humiliation and degradation, but he retains his free spirit by refusing to stoop to the master's level. Roots also holds special meaning because of Kunta Kinte's Muslim origins. Even in Islam, the Prophet spent time uprooting the deep-rooted racism against black people. He admonished Muslims to be careful for the people of Paradise include black persons including Negus, Bilaal and Luqman. The Prophet's last sermon also reflects that there is no superiority of a white person over a black person and vice versa, except through ethical consciousness and good deeds. However, just as the black Companion Bilaal faced discrimination, black Muslims continue to face discrimination in Muslim spaces. Some point towards black gang violence associated with drugs, and these are problems that must be resolved. However, there are black elders and groups working in their respective communities against the problems faced by youth. In Edmonton, some black community elders sit on the police liaison committee to pre-empt ugly incidents from flaring up in the city. Last year, these elders graciously hosted senior police officers and members of other liaison committees at their church. Offering hospitality through food and music, the black leadership reminded the officers and the attendees of how they work incessantly to affirm their youth. Advertisement There can be difference of opinion on strategies and tactics adopted by certain BLM activists. Harsh tactics are not easy for me, either. Yet, I am reminded of the Qur'anic verse 4:148, which reads, "Allah does not like harsh speech except by one who has been wronged." And in this case, centuries of wrong is at play. There is absolutely no justification for killing unarmed black men and youth, or grown men manhandling black teenage girls. There is no justification for the everyday ignominies faced by citizens like Bashir Mohamed. In the spirit of speaking truth to power, a diverse array of leaders have come together through the following video to let the world know that "Black Lives Matter." This video is neither a substitute for the urgently needed institutional changes nor is it a panacea for structural discrimination. However, change begins from internal testimony against injustice and that's the least anyone can do. *This is the 4th video in the Allah Loves Us All series. Follow HuffPost Canada Blogs on Facebook MORE ON HUFFPOST: Chico Whitaker, World Social Forum's co-founder, speaks at a press conference in Montreal on August 8, 2016 on the eve of the opening of the forum. (Photo: MARC BRAIBANT/AFP/Getty Images) The annual gathering of the World Social Forum (WSF) -- the left's response to the elitist annual Davos World Economic Forum -- is in session in Montreal until Sunday, August 14. Advertisement More than 1,000 self-managed sessions have activists discussing and creating progressive alternatives to traditional political, economic and social policies that they will take back to their own countries. While as many as 100,000 people have attended sessions some years in some developing countries, perhaps 10,000 are taking part in Montreal. Participants from the South found it too expensive to travel to Montreal. In addition, hundreds of activists from some countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Morocco, Iran, Nigeria, Haiti and Nepal, were being refused visas. Montreal was selected this year because it has been the site of strong social and political activism over the last few years. Advertisement The Forum is an exciting event writes John L. Hammond of City University of New York: "The scene bursts with energy as people who work on particular causes at home--feminism, the environment, indigenous rights, economic justice, human rights, AIDS treatment and prevention and many more -- compare notes and strategies." Networking, discussing key issues, and building alliances are the main activities at Forum sessions. The Forum can best be described as a "process", an incubator facilitating new visions and ideas. The activism bred at the WSF has supported change and revolution in several countries. Little impact in English-speaking Canada Thousands of Canadian social activists have taken part in numerous WSF gatherings over the years. While this exposure has helped radicalized students in Quebec, it appears to have accomplished little in Eastern Canada. Even during the brutal years of the Harper administration, only a handful of unions and fringe radical groups advocated strong action. The NDP and leading social movement groups, say the Council of Canadians, should have seen the need to explore alternatives to Canada's corporate-dominated political system. But the NDP doesn't even acknowledge the existence of neo-liberalism, the damaging centrepiece of right-wing politics. Advertisement While the Council of Canadians, the country's largest social action group, has won praise for challenging voting irregularities in court, its "activism" is usually limited to holding protests and sending petitions to government. In Canada, as in much of the rest of the world, the left has lost a tremendous amount of ground since the WSF was created 15 years ago. We now live in a world where the 1 per cent has huge powers, corporations dominate our lives, neo-liberal policies rein in the public, and where progressive governments have fallen in several countries. In view of these challenges, it is time for the WSF to seriously evaluate itself and its place in the world. The movement has lost some of its radical edge over the years. Organizers have given in to some extent to the influences of government and the corporate world -- initially the group's main enemies. WSF not independent enough Eric Toussaint, a Belgian political scientist and one of the ideologists of the WSF, has been concerned for some time that the movement is not independent enough. Advertisement "It worries me to arrive in Porto Alegre and see that the seminar "Ten years later" is sponsored by Petrobras, Caixa, Banco do Brasil, Itaipu Binacional, with several governments in attendance," he said on the 10th anniversary of the WSF. "I would much rather have seen a Forum with less financial means but more militant in nature", he said. The sources of funding for the Montreal event may be an issue for some participants. Organizers claim the gathering will cost $2.4 million. This includes $710,000 from various levels of government and another $287,500 from unidentified "solidarity and sponsorship supporters." Some of the more activist participants complain about the increase in attendance in recent years by non-governmental organizations, which tend to be comfortable operating within the capitalist environment. Meanwhile, participation by indigenous groups, which are usually more radical, has decreased. Where is the WSF going? Perhaps discussions held in Montreal will lead to a reinvigorated and forward-looking WSF. Since its beginning, the WSF has held that it does not intend to be a body representing world civil society, and therefore does not directly take part in political struggles. Advertisement However, after 15 years of facilitating discussions there are concerns that the Forum could flounder if it does not move in new directions. Pierre Beaudet, founder of Quebec NGO Alternatives, says there is "a recognized necessity for [WSF affiliated] movements to seize with both hands some major issues . . . . At this moment, the Forum could open up the self-organized convergences and go further than just producing a mixture of ideas which has characterized it thus far. Adds Beaudet: "The difficulty, of course, is to identify the points of convergences, which is certainly not easy to do, considering the incredible diversity (which also comes with an incredible richness) of the participants from social movements." With its access to tens of thousands of activists, the Forum is the only progressive assembly in the world with the potential to facilitate co-ordinated action on a global scale on crucial issues, such as global warming, neo-liberalism and life inequalities. If the massive body is to begin changing direction in Montreal, it likely will have to overcome two obstacles. Advertisement The WSF's complicated non-hierarchical system -- perhaps reminiscent of the ungovernable mechanisms that laid low Occupy Wall Street -- seems to prevent the Forum from moving forward. The other potential obstacle concerns leadership. Some of the men who have been at the forefront of the WSF movement for all of its 15 years are still there. Much has changed since then. Will new leadership emerge to work with the old guard to allow the WSF to retain the best of its past and also move in a new direction? Read Nick's other posts on his blog: A Different Point of View Follow HuffPost Canada Blogs on Facebook MORE ON HUFFPOST: My first day in Jordan was the most amazing, gut wrenching, humbling, wonderful day that I can remember. Za'atrari refugee camp is 14 kilometres from the Syrian border, close enough for us to see the Syrian hills and hear the bombing. We met people of strength and resilience who have the most incredible attitude regardless of the adversity they are facing. Advertisement We saw aid workers from all over the world who work with UNICEF, along with various other UN agencies and NGOs, who work tirelessly and with so much heart and generosity to treat every child, woman and man with dignity and care. We met a refugee family who welcomed us into their home with warmth, hospitality and happiness. We met children with smiles that will melt your heart and brighten your day. I came to the camp not knowing what to expect and so worried about what I would see and feel. Instead, I left with feelings of hope, pride and sadness, and many lessons and gifts of the heart that I will forever cherish. These people had homes, jobs and lives just like ours. They left everything behind and are working so hard to make sure their children have a good future. What an amazing thing the human spirit is. And what amazing work organizations like UNICEF do every single day. Advertisement We met two incredible families the next day. The first one lives in the Palestinian camp, Baqaa -- a camp that has existed here since 1948. The family has been in Jordan for three years. They escaped their home when their entire village was leveled by bombs. They are not allowed to legally work in Jordan, the mother is sick and the father is injured from the war so neither of them can support their five boys. Instead, their 15-year-old son, Bahram, works illegally at the supermarket with his 13-year-old brother, Mahir, while their 14-year-old brother, Sadiq, works at the bakery. When I asked him what he does there, he said, "Everything." They work from 7 a.m. to around 11 p.m. or midnight. They typically should work from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., but they got permission to take two hours of their day to go to school, so they have to make it up at night. For schooling, the boys attend one of UNICEF's Makani Centres where they learn both academics and life skills -- essential for ensuring their futures are not lost amidst this crisis. These boys stole my heart. The second family we met has 14 people who live together in a tiny house: the oldest brother, Omar, his wife Salma, and their three boys; his brother's wife and her four kids; his other brother's wife and her son; and his third brother and his sister. Advertisement Omar works as a guard at a UNICEF Makani Centre and takes care of his large and extended family all on his guard's salary. One of the women in the home also benefits from UNICEF's cash transfer program which gives them flexibility to buy essentials like food, medicine and pay the rent on their small home. Omar's brothers went back to Syria to take care of their ailing father and, since they left, they are not allowed back into the country. Mahmood and his extended family were so generous in sharing their home, their food and their story with us. While in Jordan, I was able to meet up with some of my old friends from Yemen, where I once lived. These friends are also refugees in Jordan, living in limbo, waiting for the conflict in Yemen to end so they can go back home. It made me grieve for my home country, too. *Names have been changed for protection. To learn more about UNICEF's response to the Syrian crisis, go here. Zahra Al-Harazi is a UNICEF Canada Ambassador. Learn more about her here. Follow HuffPost Canada Blogs on Facebook MORE ON HUFFPOST: 7 Deadly Threats Facing Innocent Syrian Civilians See Gallery It's only in hindsight I can see that Pete, my husband, wasn't going to survive. Whether it was alternative treatments or getting him to the right doctor or hospital, I was 'running on empty' frantically trying to find ways of helping him stay alive. Pete was also in debilitating pain so my other focus had been to try to help alleviate the intensity of it by being in constant contact with doctors who specialized in pain management. What was missing in those last few months was any kind of acceptance that Pete wasn't going to make it. He was stoic in his attitude and refused to discuss any thoughts of anything but a successful outcome. And the doctor's gave him every reason to believe that was going to happen. Advertisement Linden Laserna Yet I was a neurotically bouncing around like a bumper car hitting anything that looked like an 'alternative cure' or a 'breakthrough treatment'. In that few, frenetic months we missed the opportunity to come together, join hands and find peace in the love we had for each other. Instead it was one big stress ball! I understand that any doctor telling his or her patient that no treatment was going to prolong their life must be an extraordinarily difficult thing to do. I'm not sure I could do it. But looking back I think that would have been best for Pete and us as a family. As it was we didn't have an opportunity to say goodbye. We weren't able to work through the sorrow and come to a quiet acceptance. There were many things left and unsaid and so many regrets for not being able to make Pete's last few weeks more gentle. There was no grace in his death. Advertisement Right up until the last 12 hours, the doctors were setting out the next treatment plan. Pete died on the Sunday night and the next treatment plan was due to kick off on the Monday morning. I was truly grateful for the doctors making an all out effort to save him until the very last hour but at the same time it may have been better all round if we'd foreseen that Pete wasn't going to make it. No one can predict a death - that's God's work. But perhaps the NHS could implement a policy change to empower the consultant to inform the family of the chances of survival or when the next round of treatment is not going to help the patient. If that's deemed too harsh, perhaps the family could take a decision as to whether or not they want to know the bottom line (much in the same way that there's a policy to ascertain whether or not the patient wants to be resuscitated.) That would at least single out people who definitely do want to be told whilst also cutting down on precious resource. To continue with an unforgiving treatment plan when the chances of increasing survival time or quality of life are slim could be seen as cruel rather than kind. As NHS trusts have to cut back on budgets, this maybe a good time to act. Of course it's clear how designating a patient as terminally ill is easy in hindsight compared to making a judgment on the prognosis ahead of time. But it also seems that medicine is becoming so refined and medical equipment so endowed that for any doctor predicting death it's becoming increasingly difficult. Advertisement In fact, it could be argued that these advances in medicine are a victim of their own success. With doctor's prescribing ever more radical treatments in the hope of saving someone's life that would have - some years ago - been diagnosed as terminally ill, there has also been a distinct increase in NHS spending which has to include the capacity to deliver these treatments. It transpires, last week, that nine life-changing medical treatments (including children with cystic fibrosis) have been put on hold to fund a controversial HIV treatment. Instead, can't the NHS look at other ways to increase resource by eliminating extra treatments that are, in all honesty, not going to make any difference? Andrei Spirache via Getty Images We all want to do the best for our pets, and as Britain finally welcomes the warm weather, I've been keen to highlight what owners need to remember as the temperature goes up. Pollen and other seasonal allergies affect pets just as much as humans; the hot sun can give our animals sunburn, as well as heating up the pavements and walkways which can in turn damage their paws. However my biggest angst at this time of year is definitely towards owners who leave their dogs locked up in cars while the heats soars, which should be front of mind for everyone. Advertisement With summer here and schools breaking up, plenty of Britons will soon be heading off on their holidays, many with their pets in tow. Recent research from Sainsbury's Bank shows that there was a 77 per cent year-on-year increase in pet passports issued from 2014-2015, more than 125,000 in total. Indeed, the same research showed that three-fifths of Britons (60%) admitted feeling sad when leaving their pet at home when they go on holiday. This is unsurprising, given that MedicAnimal's own research shows that pet owners consider their animals to be part of the family. Almost three-quarters (73%) of people told us that having a dog is good for their mental health, while 86 per cent of people believe owning a cat has made them a happier person. The decision to leave them behind will no doubt be taken reluctantly. If you are a dog-owner, making provision for someone to walk and feed your dog regularly is likely to mean a friend or family member taking over while you're away, or alternatively, a trip to the kennels. However, cats are far more independent and therefore, if you're able to provide appropriate care and cover, it might be possible to keep your cat at home in a familiar environment. Here are some handy suggestions on what you need to consider to make the best decision for your cat: 1.Friends and neighbours: Certainly the best option is to have a pet sitter or a trusted neighbour to or friend visit daily to feed, water and socialise with your cat. Nothing beats the family home from your cat's viewpoint. The frequency (minimum twice daily) should match the usual feeding times and they should monitor your cat's litter for anything irregular. If the carer only pops in and out they may not have enough time to really observe how your cat is doing physically and emotionally; Advertisement 2.Don't underestimate your cat's needs: Too many people view cats as low maintenance and do not hesitate to leave them on their own for sometimes up to four/five days; 3.No one likes an empty house: Cats are social animals and unexpectedly having an empty house can be quite confusing and cause unnecessary anxiety; 4.Considering a cattery? The next best choice is a boarding cattery; there are good ones, great ones and truly terrible ones. Make sure you visit beforehand and imagine it from your cat's viewpoint. How does it smell? Are there loud noises? Do they provide hidey holes and places to climb up and view downwards? Is there enough room in the cage? I.e. enough to have a decent space between the litter tray and the food? What social elements does the cattery they provide? Do they socialise and play with the cats and what type of environmental enrichment do they provide? Importantly, do they have access to an emergency veterinarian? Is it managed at night? What do they do to help anxious or stressed cats? Do the cages face each other (as this can be stressful). More and more of us want to give back to local communities when we travel and thanks to some brilliant training initiatives across South East Asia, it now couldn't be easier to contribute to a great cause whilst enjoying a top notch dining experience at the same time. Known for its beautiful beaches, beguiling destinations and tropical climate; tourism is big business in South East Asia and provides a key source of income for millions of local people. The size and value of the tourism industry means it has huge potential to 'do good' and training restaurants are a great example of just that. Training restaurants and hospitality centres give disadvantaged or marginalised individuals a better future. Students are equipped with the language and hospitality skills required for them to obtain employment in the industry or even set up a business of their own. Advertisement Image curtesy of TREE Alliance You may be a bit apprehensive about going out for a meal that is cooked and served by students, but from our experience, the standards in training restaurants are incredibly high and the students are always supervised by trained staff and teachers. So now you know what a training restaurant is, I thought I would share some of my favourites with you. The TREE Alliance The TREE Alliance, standing for Training Restaurants for Employment and Entrepreneurship, opened their first restaurant in Phnom Penh, Cambodia over 10 years ago. Their highly successful model of social business has been replicated across South East Asia and the organisation now operates 8 restaurants across Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar. Advertisement All profits from TREE restaurants are invested in the students who train there and the social programs which support them on their journey to becoming a skilled, productive and happy young person with a more secure future. Usually serving a delicious mix of local and international cuisine, the TREE Alliance venues regularly rank in the top 10 restaurants of their corresponding city on TripAdvsior. You can find out more about the TREE alliance and their individual restaurants on their website. KOTO KOTO stands for 'know one, teach one' which is a short and sweet way of summing up what the organisation is about. KOTO operate vocational training programmes for disadvantaged youth in Vietnam with training centres in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Every six months KOTO recruits up to 30 youth, aged 16-22, from at-risk or disadvantaged backgrounds. "KOTO takes a young person on a journey from the chaos of poverty to a world of entitlements, eligibilities and possibilities where they can to stand on his/her own two feet, to live a life with skills, dignity and pride and find positive place in the world." - KOTO 2016 The flagship restaurant is located on Van Mieu in Hanoi, just a stone's throw away from the Temple of Literature. The multi-level restaurant is open daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner from 7.30am - 10.30pm. Another KOTO restaurant is located in HCMC on the rooftop of The Link building in District 1 of the city centre. Advertisement As well as dining at KOTO, you can also support the organisation by taking part in their cooking classes. Available in both Hanoi and HCMC the KOTO cooking classes offer a hands on approach to learning how to cook and present Vietnamese cuisine. Le Tonle Le Tonle Tourism Training Center is a not-for-profit training guest house providing vocational training to disadvantaged youth from Cambodia's north-eastern provinces of Kratie, Stung Treng, Ratanakiri, and Mondulkiri. Established in 2007 in Steung Treng, a new training centre opened in Kratie in 2013 equipped with practical facilities including a training kitchen, classroom, a welcoming ground floor restaurant and a four bedroom traditional wooden stilt guesthouse. There are currently 18 students at Le Tonle enrolled in the two year training course. The course is an amazing opportunity for disadvantaged youth in Cambodia and allows them to build a better life for them and their family. Advertisement Image curtesy of Le Tonle The Le Tonle guest house and restaurant provides vital vocational training and a unique opportunity for travellers to support human resource development in Cambodia. Find out more, including how to book on the Le Tonle website. The Free Bird Cafe Although technically not a training restaurant, the Free Bird Cafe makes this list as you'll still be contributing a great cause by dining here. Located in charming Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand, the Free Bird Cafe supports local NGO Thai Freedom House; a language and arts learning centre for indigenous people and Burmese refugees. The Cafe serves delicious organic vegan and vegetarian food as well as some amazing fruit smoothies. It also houses a charity shop selling pre-loved clothes, accessories and books with 100% of the profits going to Thai Freedom House. Fair Warung Bale Situated in beautiful Ubud, Bali, this restaurant employs local staff and serves up some wonderful traditional Balinese dishes. The best part about this place? One delicious meal here will provide two medical treatments to people in need. Advertisement With the hash-tags #togetherwecanmakeadifference and #onemealforfreehealthcare, along with help from the local and international community, the Fair Future Foundation's enterprise has been able to care and treat tens of thousands of people per year, over 27,000 in 2015 alone. Stop off the Warung for some fantastic food in a relaxed atmosphere and don't forget to hash-tag your meal and share the love! Find out more about their work on the Fair Future Foundation website. "We become what we behold. We shape our tools and then our tools shape us." Marshall McLuhan Some Fifty years ago, I was walking across my college campus quad after I receiving my grades for my first semester there. A straight C average. I was feeling morose and hopeless and my inner voice said to me that in actual fact I had never really tried at anything. I realized that I was too afraid to find out that I was just not good enough. My inner mythology told me that I was worthless and stupid. It had always stopped me short. But I had actually never said it out loud. Then my inner voice said "Did I really want to be 65 and ask myself what would have happened had I tried?" I thought about it and my inner voice said, "If I try and fail I could still feel good that I had tried my best." I decided right there to try and succeed or die trying. That was the turning point. Eventually I learned the big lesson, everything takes work and lots of it. I realized there was one thing that I could do, I could work harder than everyone. I stayed up late, I lived at the library, I studied until my eyes fell out. There were things that were surprising too. I fell in love with Jazz, I fell in love with classical music. I went to class and actually knew what they were talking about and it became so much more interesting. After the next semester my grades came up. I also found my place in the school. The Anthropology department was run by this famous guy who came out of the University of Toronto where he and Marshall McLuhen had coined the term "Global Village." McLuhen wrote the groundbreaking book The Media is The Massage. Ted Carpenter assembled a conglomerate of brilliant and renowned Anthropologists who organized the finest department in the country for the study of Urban Anthropology. Then I met Peg. Advertisement She looked like a Modigliani painting and had this jaunty smile that gave the impression of amusement but with a sardonic twist. She knew about literature, art, philosophy and she could write like a pro. She decided that I was a diamond in the rough. Together we fashioned some great work that catapulted me into the stratosphere of intellectual prominence that I had dreamed of. I was invited to submit several of my term papers for publication and for me it was transformational. I was no longer a stupid, talentless and aimless kid. I had arrived. Because of my decision to throw myself completely into academics and give it everything I had I discovered something in myself that I never knew existed. That decision in the quad was the first step in taking my life into my own hands. I was the subject of my own life and I was determined to cast my own fate. I had transformed. I also learned that transformation always included other people. My story was far from over, it was the easiest part of my transformation. There were so many mountains to climb. It is this coming to the light, this slow turning that I have finally passed behind the moon and back into orbit that I find it worthwhile to write about what it means. I feel like I can see all the difficulties as just that, I don't find that I can change everything but some things. Other things remain like lighthouses marking my presence along the coast of my own being, the beginning and the end all meshed together like an amalgam of truths and myth that I have gently torn away from one another yet remain tethered to. Transformation is the willingness to risk our idea about ourselves (usually derived from our families and others) for the sake of something we want. No matter what the outcome we can never return to the same place. Advertisement New technologies have been eliminating human jobs for centuries, but history shows that over time, automation brings more prosperity than hardship. At the start of the 19th century, for example, about 50% of the US workforce worked on farms. Today, the figure is just 2% -- a staggering loss of agricultural jobs to which the US economy, and its workers, have adapted quite well. In part, this is because automation takes effect gradually. Steam engines ultimately powered the Industrial Revolution, but it took generations before people began using them to transformative effect. Even the humble telephone needed more than 50 years to work its way into half the households in America. Admittedly, recent changes have been more sudden, with technologies such as driverless vehicles springing up seemingly overnight. And their economic impact will be dramatic. Drone freight trucks, for example, will eliminate the need for millions of drivers. But by driving close to 24 hours a day, driverless trucks could double the output of the US road transport network, while lowering its operating cost by 75% -- savings that will ultimately benefit consumers. By driving at a constant speed, these trucks will also burn less fuel, lowering carbon emissions. They will cause fewer accidents than human drivers. Are we willing to give up those gains in productivity, efficiency, environmental friendliness, and lives saved? Advertisement It's a serious question, as the effects on those who lose their jobs will be traumatic. But non-routine jobs are far less likely to be taken by robots. In the US, jobs involving knowledge work - managers, technicians, and professionals such as lawyers and accountants - have grown by nearly 2million per year. And as always, while technology eliminates some jobs, it creates others, sometimes in surprising ways. One study, published in The Journal of Economic Perspectives, notes that, contrary to what might be expected, the number of bank clerks and bank branches in the US rose from 1980-2010, at the same time as ATMs were becoming universal. The reason: information technology spawned a host of new financial products, creating a need for new salespeople, administrators, customer relations staff, and of course, tech support. These new jobs more than offset the loss of the old ones. What's more, many of the jobs likely to be eliminated are dangerous or unpleasant. Cleanup after disasters and bomb disposal can be handled by robots, saving humans from injury and death. Many industrial processes, such as manual welding, produce noise, heat, and toxic fumes, exposure to which can cause lung disease and kidney failure. Automating those jobs would improve the health of industrial workers. Automation also has the potential to expand the reach of vital social services where doctors, nurses, teachers, and home care professionals are in short supply. While most people might prefer to be cared for by a human, a robot nurse may be the best solution for those living in poor, rural, or otherwise underserved communities. Automating tasks is not the same thing as eliminating entire occupations. Technology is already doing the former: McKinsey estimates that already-proven technologies could automate as much as 45% of the tasks individuals are currently paid to perform. Yet as the report notes, in many cases, automation will complement humans, rather than replacing them. Advertisement One example of humans and machines working together to solve complex problems is Centaur Chess, a system developed by chess Grandmaster Garry Kasparov after he lost a chess match to IBM's Big Blue computer in 1997. In this new game, a human chess player chooses from a list of moves suggested by a computer. The system has led to a higher level of chess-play than was previously possible by human or machine alone. Chess is not a job, of course. But Centaur Chess shows that humans and machines working together on a challenging problem produced a better result than either the humans or the machines did alone. In the future, this type of collaborative analysis could lead to new forms of "augmented innovation" that solve complex problems and enhance productivity. Even now, automation can serve as a complement to human labor. In the US, Germany, and South Korea, robot use and human employment have risen in tandem. And productivity gains delivered by automation and machine intelligence can benefit workers even more directly: one US company that installed robots to perform repetitive manufacturing tasks saw a 20% increase in productivity, allowing it to hire more employees. In addition, robots must be built, programmed, maintained, repaired, and supervised, creating a whole new class of technicians and managers. The World Economic Forum projects a sharp rise in the need for specialized sales representatives, as technology becomes so embedded in every industry that companies will need a sales force capable of explaining the benefits of their own platforms across different industry sectors. And for each of these new talent categories, recruiters will be needed who are sufficiently well versed in the specialized technology of each niche as to recognize good talent when they see it, and to win over the most desirable candidates. Given the new jobs that will be created, and the new skills that will be required to do them, many employees in today's workforce will need to adapt, if they want to stay employable. AT&T estimates that 280,000 of its own employees must be retrained - or, more accurately, must retrain themselves to learn new skills. CEO Randall Stephenson has advised employees to spend five to 10 hours a week in online learning, and AT&T reimburses employees up to $8,000 a year in tuition costs, defraying the costs of both short courses as well as full-blown graduate degrees. Courses popular with managers eager to hone their technical skills include data analysis, introduction to coding, and smartphone app development. AT&T promotes these courses aggressively via emails and video broadcasts, and has even provided partial funding for an online masters in computer science offered by Udacity, an online learning site, and the Georgia Institute of Technology. Advertisement In addition to private companies, schools will need to adopt a stronger vocational tilt when educating young people. Alec Ross, a former adviser on innovation policy to Hillary Clinton, argues in a new book that the US should scrap the vocational training programs which have prevailed in its community colleges for the last half century, dropping courses like carpentry and welding in favor of cyber security and IT system administration. As robots go from performing work that is manual and repetitive to doing work that is cognitive and non-routine, people will have to be taught to think in ways that set them apart from machines. As the Institute for the Future says in its report, Future Work Skills 2020, we will have to ask ourselves fundamental questions such as, "What are humans uniquely good at? What are our comparative advantages? And what is our place alongside these machines?" The answer to these questions may be found in the different types of intelligence uncovered by scientific research. Analytic intelligence uses logic, math, and algorithms - areas where machines hold an uncontested advantage. Creative intelligence is the ability to cope with new situations using existing knowledge. Contextual intelligence involves understanding the relationships between things in the world. Schools ought therefore to move away from curricula based largely on rote memorization (where computers and search engines excel well) to courses that cultivate contextual and creative intelligence. Industry 4.0, where industrial manufacturing processes are connected to the Internet, represents the next stage of automation, one where smart systems operate under human control. But, along with the Internet of Things, it is unlikely to arrive in a sudden technological explosion. More likely, these new platforms will unfold in stages, giving us time to prepare. Advertisement Yes, tasks will be eliminated and jobs lost. But by augmenting and amplifying human capabilities, automation will make many people far more valuable than they could ever hope to be without robotic help. When human and machine capabilities are combined intelligently, productivity and living standards will rise, economies will grow, new industries and business models will emerge. All of those changes will improve the quality of people's lives. The benefits to consumers and businesses will be substantial. While it's natural to have concerns about change, there is no compelling reason to stuff the technological genie back into the bottle. At the same time, people should cultivate skills and traits that (for now, at least) are uniquely human: creativity, empathy, the ability to draw inferences or connect disparate ideas. If Hillary Clinton is elected president of the United States in November, she would be the second President Clinton, but the first President BOGOF (Buy One Get One Free). Because surely, if elected, she would utilise the expertise, experience and political smarts of husband Bill who served two terms in the White House from 1993 to 2001. Of course, for a whole segment of the American public, that is a huge problem: elect Hillary, get Bill, too. Hill and Bill, Bill and Hill... Even the combination of their names sets some American teeth on edge with its slight resonance of "Hillbilly"... For let us not for a moment forget that America's elite is as capable of snobbery as Britain's elite. Advertisement For all America's talk of meritocracy, their own political class is drawn largely from the top-drawer schools and colleges. Across the Atlantic, the ability to reach the top in politics depends almost as much on who you went to prep-school or college with, as it does here in the UK. And that boy from Arkansas who was so prodigiously clever that he got to the White House despite not being from the wealthy East Coast family, really annoys a lot of key political figures; indeed, many of America's elite can't ever forgive him for that. And they are certainly not keen to embraceHillary who has to contend with both snobbery and misogyny. Because, again, let's not kid ourselves, even in 2016, a lot of men fear or dislike powerful women (and fear or dislike women with opinions, so I'll probably attract some trolls). You only have to look at the vilification directed at Margaret Thatcher long, long before she "dealt" with the miners' strike to know that there are a lot of men who feel threatened by a woman in a position of authority. And it's not only men, either: some women, especially some older women, who grew up in an era when women were expected to be seen and not heard, and that a woman should stay home to bake cookies and be a full-time mother; some of them also disapprove of the very clever and politically savvy Hillary. Advertisement At this time of year, hundreds of middle-class drama students descend upon Edinburgh to showcase their "talent" in poorly crafted one-act plays and under-rehearsed sketch shows. And, if you're visiting the world's biggest arts festival, there's always a danger you'll be bamboozled by fat marketing budgets and slick sales patter into gracing these artistic abortions with your presence. To help you avoid that pain, here's my recommendations for ten character acts you should go and see instead. Advertisement Milo McCabe: The Unflappable Troy Hawke There's a good reason this show's first on my list. It's ace. Go see it. Sheltered aristocrat Troy Hawke is a matinee idol born in the wrong era. Home-schooled by his elderly mother for most of his life, he's recently emerged, blinking, into a dystopian present with the naivete of a newborn fawn. McCabe brings the character to life so skillfully, you'll sincerely feel for the hapless Hawke as you're regaled with the farcical adventures of this modern-day Errol Flynn. "Unflappable" may be the most apt adjective for him too. McCabe deals with every heckle and distraction with a quick wit, in character, and yet remains entirely accessible, in a show that bravely incorporates heaps of audience interaction. (Something character acts usually keep to a minimum, for fear of having their carefully crafted show de-railed by unpredictable or uncooperative audiences.) It's almost immoral that you don't have to pay to get in. Red Redmond: Scarlet SoHandsome and Fiends Manchester-based standup, musician and comedy impresario Redmond debuts his drag creation, Scarlet SoHandsome, at the Fringe this year. The devilishly dark Scarlet punches through any audience ambivalence with shameless bravado, taking aim at many sacred cows of the right-wing and the establishment. You can expect an assured and accomplished performance from Redmond in the title role. And I know I'll be popping along at least once to see what havoc SoHandsome and her guests will wreak. Advertisement Spencer Jones presents The Herbert in Eggy Bagel The Herbert takes silliness to a whole new level. While he's got elements of many different comedy styles within the performance, I'm loathe to point them out for fear of misleading you. The Herbert cannot be described. Only experienced. This is physical comedy like you've never seen before. And see it you should. You might even be able to see it for free if you turn up and it isn't sold out. But as Spencer Jones has been showered with awards and enviable acclaim, there's a good chance this show will be full for every performance. So best buy tickets in advance. Olaf Falafel and The Cheese of Truth Faux-Scandiwegian gentle giant Olaf Falafel is a lovable idiot. His disarming amiability is perfect packaging for the cavalcade of absurdist humour "Olaf" is going to throw at you. If you've not had the pleasure of seeing his award-winning comedy in person, you may well have come across his hugely popular videos online. If you don't follow him on Twitter already then you definitely should. And, no, I have no idea why it's called The Cheese of Truth. Go see the show and find out. LJ Da Funk: Anti-Fascist Counter-Terrorist Comedy Orgy Current holder of the Leicester Square Theatre New Comedian Award, LJ Da Funk is the brash, gravel-throated comedy creation of Londoner Zak Splijt. One critic likened the profane Da Funk to a white Mr. T. Others have questioned whether the character's offensive assertions are ironic or unacceptable. (Luckily, the man behind the mask is middle class enough for the cultural intelligentsia to give him a pass. They'd be baying for blood if he were working class and northern.) Splijt himself describes the show as "unreviewable" and has banned critics from the room. If the lack of reviews dampens public enthusiasm to attend, he may come to regret that. Retrospectively. Advertisement Dave Lemkin: The Village Hall Formerly a barrister, couples counsellor, masseur, Shakespearean actor... Lemkin has had almost as many careers as he has characters in this show. The Village Hall invites the audience to play the role of residents in the fictional village of Lower Swell, while Lemkin takes to the stage in the guise of five different characters. The highlight being a former Tory Cabinet Minister, The Rt. Hon. Dickie Daventry. Lemkin's got a long list of TV and theatre credits to his name, so you should be in safe hands for the hour. Johnny Sorrow: Bob Blackman's Tray Sorrow is a former winner of the increasingly prestigious Malcolm Hardee Award for comic originality. He's considered a showbiz legend on the Midlands alternative comedy scene, and an influential innovator by younger acts in the region. In a previous incarnation, this show was titled The Bob Blackman Appreciation Society. As before, you can expect silly jokes, characters and a whole heap of insanity. Cheekykita: Tittitular Town Cheekykita's award-winning weirdness has been likened to Spike Milligan and The Mighty Boosh. The Fringe has no shortage of absurdist physical clowning, but few have received the plaudits that have been bestowed upon this oddball character. Expect sublime surrealness. As with The Herbert, you might even be able to see it for free if you turn up and it isn't sold out. But, as she's only doing a two-week run, best book ASAP to secure your seat. Colin Hoult: Anna Mann - A Sketch Show for Depressives Colin Hoult returns to the Fringe as the delightful Ms. Anna Mann in a show to put down your black dog, at last or at least chuck him a bone. Star of BBC's Murder in Successville and Being Human, you'll have also caught him in Gervais-directed comedies Derek and Life's Too Short. Advertisement Jay Islaam: Travels with Autism Award-winning character comic Jay Islaam was recently commissioned to create his own comedy sketch show for BBC radio, and is widely regarded as one of the most politically incorrect performers on the circuit, to the point he's been banned from more than 100 British comedy venues. A previous attempt to bring a show full of comedy characters to the Fringe was unceremoniously kicked out of its venue a week before launch. Ironically, this censorship was orchestrated by a Scottish national arts quango that had sponsored the location. It's not yet known whether, this time around, Islaam will be incorporating character pieces into his show, but the likelihood is quite strong given his reputation. Comedy on TV and in the clubs is safe and inoffensive. Comedy at the Edinburgh Fringe is no different, because most of the shows don't exist for your benefit. They're being staged in the hopes of grabbing the attention of industry bigwigs and broadcasters. So, it makes sense to be as bland and agreeable as possible, because that's what the real target audience - i.e. people who can help your showbiz career - seem to be looking for. However, not everyone at the Fringe is pandering. Not everyone is desperate to be liked and accepted. And provocative performers haven't gone extinct just yet. If you want politically incorrect jokes, to be taken out of your comfort zone, or to hear someone challenge social orthodoxies, then here's ten acts I'd recommend you go and see at Edinburgh Fringe 2016. If you're a bit of a pussy, though, then best avoid all of these. Advertisement Will Franken: Little Joe Will Franken's endured many insults, but "coward" certainly isn't one them. It's a bit of an understatement to describe him as an "alternative" act, as there really isn't anyone like him on the circuit. He mixes observational comedy with satirical sketches, impressions, character comedy and throws in some blasphemy for good measure. He spent almost a year living as a transgender woman, and briefly became doyenne of the regressive left... until he started challenging their politically correct paradigms. A vocal critic of white liberals, trans activists, #BlackLivesMatter and those who get rich from the "diversity" industry, he laments the death of genuine and worthwhile satire. Franken also insists on applying the same standards and scrutiny to Islam as other comedians gleefully do for Christianity. And that just isn't acceptable in the current climate, is it? Tommy Tiernan: Out Of The Whirlwind Father Ted alum, radio DJ, and Lenny Bruce fanatic, Tiernan is by far the most successful comedian in this list, but no stranger to controversy. Repeatedly rebuked by the Broadcasting Complaints Commission, and criticised for wisecracks about drug addiction, disabilities, immigrants and gay gypsies. But perhaps his most contentious joke was an off-the-cuff gag about anti-semitism and the Holocaust. The audience lapped it up. Then religious and community leaders lined up to condemn him, like the sanctimonious pricks that they are. I won't post what he said here, but look it up. Google is your friend. And Tommy is hilarious. Go see him. Advertisement Lewis Schaffer: You Are Beautiful Nothing is sacred when Lewis Schaffer takes centre stage, so brace yourself for jokes about race, rape, religion, sexuality, 9/11 and Madeleine McCann. Renowned for his publicity stunts, the neurotic Jew Yorker claims his 2016 EdFringe show is sponsored by a Palestinian freight company. Comedian's comedian, and winner of an increasingly prestigious Malcolm Hardee Award, he's a gifted performer, who seems to revel in building trust with the audience and then deliberately self-sabotaging his hard-won rapport through off-colour interjections, before winning them back again. A trick he pulls off repeatedly at every performance, on a masochistic merry-go-round of his own making. Bob Walsh: Wrong Comedy Now in its fifth year at the Fringe, Bob Walsh's love-letter to sick and twisted humour will feature, as before, a cast of the country's most offensive comedians joining him on stage to push the boundaries of good taste and decency. It's an hour of distasteful comedy that doesn't pretend to be anything but outrageous. Bilal Zafar: Cakes This is Bilal Zafar's first Fringe hour, off the back of success at this year's New Acts of the Year Showcase, where he topped the bill. Cakes accounts Bilal's adventures baiting British nationalist patriots online, by pretending to run a Muslim-only cake shop and taunting the poor, outraged EDL enthusiasts - with obvious learning difficulties! - who took umbrage. There are definite shades of Dave Gorman in this PowerPoint-heavy presentation full of acerbic takedowns of innocent underclass Twitterati, whose only "crime" is devotion to their nation and a desire for religious and racial homogeneity. Bastard! Advertisement Geoff Norcott: Conswervative Possibly the only out politically Conservative (big and small 'c') comedian around. An unlikely attitude for a trade unionist's son who grew up on a South London council estate. Norcott is more than just a class traitor. In a staunchly Corynist comedy circuit, he's considered downright deviant. It's a wonder he hasn't mysteriously choked to death on a Fairtrade vegan quiche in a tragic green room calamity. Conswervative gives Norcott an opportunity to spell out his uncompromising stances on issues ranging from depression, benefit fraud and the maudlin British obsession with the NHS. Glory Pearl: Under Cover With the Naked Stand-Up Schoolteacher-turned-comedian and burlesque performer, Glory Pearl brings her Naked Stand-up show back to Edinburgh a year after it was first at the Fringe. She holds the distinction of being the first female comic to perform entirely naked at the festival. A trained pole-dancer and trapeze artist, she began performing burlesque in 2008, appearing at many international festivals. Following serious injury in 2011 she had to re-evaluate her relationship with her body, and became increasingly frustrated by contemporary discourse on beauty and body image. Expect an intelligent discussion about our relationship with our physical selves. Mickey Sharma: Sharma, Sharma, Sharma, Sharma, Sharma... Comedian Pakistani-born, Birmingham-based and with an Indian passport, Sharma was a late-bloomer sexually. Making up for lost time, he's now a voracious vag-hound, and takes supreme joy in telling you about his disturbing quest for sexual satisfaction. Trawling the (free) internet dating sites, sifting profiles for the most gullible women he can entrap. A self-professed feminist, Sharma bellows tales of facing off with foul-smelling pudenda, violent humping, and cock-teasing the punters at gay bars. You're guaranteed a polished, and energetic, show by a very physical storyteller, with more vulnerability to him than you first expect. Ivor Dembina: I Should Have Listened To Ivor Dembina "See me before I'm dead!" Dembina declares, as he celebrates thirty years at Edinburgh Fringe. Known for his anti-Zionist and socialist views, Dembina was part of the group of Jewish left-wingers who signed an open letter in support of beleaguered Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. His staunch criticism of the Israeli oppression of Palestinians has resulted in smear campaigns, and protests both outside and inside his shows by Zionists, as well as interrogation by the Shin Bet. His decision to ban comedians who endorsed the Jewish National Fund - an organisation he considers "racist" - from performing at his own comedy club has angered many in the tribe. Advertisement Dembina has also raised puritan eyebrows with painfully honest discourse about his personal experiences with sadomasochism and sex workers. Go see him live. It'll be eye opening. Jay Islaam: Travels with Autism People often walk out in disgust when Jay Islaam is on stage, with his "lesbian sex doll and custard" routine a particularly contentious segment that thins out the crowd. Those who stay, however, are treated to sublime profanity-laden tirades against politically correct dogma. Considered something of a heretic in his own community, for a willingness to poke fun at Islamic cultures and their hypocrisies. The first (and only) time he was allowed to perform at a "Muslim comedy" show, his material was so blasphemous (and pornographic!) they cancelled all future bookings within moments of his walking off stage. Islaam is an equal opportunity offender on the whole, and says there are only two groups he won't mock: children and the disabled. Everyone else is fair game. Newsletter sign-up HuffPost UK Daily Brief Sign up and we will email you daily with the best of our political and news coverage while also giving you a taste of our most-popular lifestyle, opinion and personal blogs. Walking through the main bazaar in Istanbul the sleazy stares are incessant. I feel my body freeze up. I'm incredibly uncomfortable. I can't stand to be there and look for a way out. My conversation with a Turkish man the night before rings in my head as he explained to me how Muslim men see women who do not cover their hair as promiscuous and therefore open to be touched, to be harassed. For him the problem is Islam, that it is used to justify the harassment of women. Every single man in the market is staring at me as I desperately try to find an exit. The staring is aggressive and sleazy. I turn to confront one man, to tell him I don't like what he's doing. A small smile spreads across his face. He's enjoying my discomfort. He starts to laugh and taunt me further while a small group of men form around me with similar sleazy smiles on their faces. I push past them and try to hold back tears. The disrespect is astounding. I'm on my most recent trip in the Middle East. Sexual harassment. Disrespect. Intolerance. All words that come to mind when thinking about men's attitudes towards women in this part of the world, or many parts of the world for that matter. The disrespect towards women who don't conform to their ideas of behavior and dress, is incredible. Advertisement On the same trip I visited Lebanon to conduct a research project on violence against Syrian women. The Syrian women we had spoken to had complained about Lebanese men pressuring them for sex when they applied for jobs, when they were walking in the street or even when they wanted to get on a bus. They were being targeted because they were vulnerable. They were victims of war and therefore easy prey for men. When we questioned Lebanese men about this, they all shrugged their shoulders, seemed unconcerned about the harm that could be being caused and casually said, 'so, she can just say no.' When I tried to explain that besides being extremely inappropriate such harassment would create a hostile, unsafe and uncomfortable environment for women, they didn't understand or they didn't care. 'Sexual harassment is our culture,' said one Lebanese man as he laughed. Back in Istanbul, I am at a friend's house when a Palestinian man is invited over. Within moments of asking where I'm from the topic of feminism comes up, 'she looks like a feminist,' he says condescendingly. I'm taken aback for a moment and reply, 'well everyone should be a feminist, this simply means you believe in equality and are against violence and discrimination.' A smile spread across his face that I have seen before. It's a smirk, a righteous entitlement to be disrespectful. The room goes silent and looking directly at me he says, 'do you think women should bear the consequences of not dressing properly.' I fear I know where this is going but say, 'what are the consequences.' He looks at me coldly and says, 'rape.' I go cold and I feel my body starting to shake. This is not the first time that these types of violent attitudes towards women have been so blatantly thrown in my face. I say no, of course not, but he doesn't seem to hear me. He starts to laugh and looks around the room at the other men, seeming to think that the joke will be shared and says, 'you see, I know how to talk to feminists.' While I had experienced this level of disrespect from men before, I was still shocked at his entitlement to be so blatantly rude to me. I got up to leave the room. These types of attitudes are entrenched in perceptions that women fundamentally have less value than men. They are everywhere and are violently offensive. Advertisement Mohammad Abdollahi NCRI - Iran's fundamentalist regime on Tuesday executed political prisoner Mohammad Abdollahi and five other prisoners in a jail in Orumieh (Urmia), north-west Iran. Mohammad Abdollahi, 35, a Kurdish political prisoner from Bukan, was arrested in March 2011 in Mahabad by the regime's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) intelligence unit and was sentenced to death on the charge of Moharebeh (waging war against God). He began a hunger strike on May 29 which lasted 32 days to protest his unjust sentence. The five ordinary prisoners who were hanged alongside Mr. Abdollahi were identified as Jahangir Razavi-Zadeh, Kamran Pourfat, Towhid Pour-Mehdi, Amir Azizi and Gabriel Canani. Mr. Razavi-Zadeh's wife, Parisa Hatami, is at imminent risk of execution. Reacting to the executions on Tuesday, Shahin Gobadi of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said: The mullahs have resorted to a killing spree that has continued for the past few weeks. This clearly indicates further despair and isolation of the regime which has found no solution other than to resorting to further executions and suppression in the face of increasing internal and international crises. This is the very same regime that resorted to the massacre of 30,000 political dissidents, mainly activists of the PMOI (MEK), in 1988. It once again proves that the notion of moderation and reform within this regime is nothing but a total myth. Source: NCRI , August 9, 2016 IRAN: 11 prisoners in Orumiyeh and Karaj at imminent risk of execution Mohammad Abdollahi, Kurdish political prisoner is among prisoners transferred for execution The Iranian Resistance calls on the United Nations, particularly the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and international human rights organizations to take urgent action to prevent the execution of Kurdish political prisoner Mohammad Abdollahi and 10 other prisoners who are on the verge of execution in the prisons of Orumiyeh and Karaj. On the morning of Monday August 8, henchmen forced Mohammad Abdollahi out of the prison yard of Ward 12 of Orumiyeh Central Prison and into solitary confinement. At the same time the Ministry of Intelligence informed his family to come from Mahabad to Orumiyeh Prison for their last visit. Mohammad Abdollahi, 35, a Kurdish political prisoner from Bokan was arrested in March 2011 in Mahabad by the Revolutionary Guards intelligence unit and was sentenced to death on the charge of Moharebeh (waging war against God). He began a hunger strike on May 29 which lasted 32 days to protest his unjust sentence. Meanwhile six ordinary prisoners of Orumiyeh Central Prison including the mother of a three-year-old child have been transferred to solitary confinement for their execution. On the same day, four prisoners in Gohardasht Prison were transferred to solitary confinement and are on the verge of death. In another development in Gohardasht Prison in Karaj, following the criminal execution of 25 Sunni political prisoners on August 2, mercenaries of the prison special guards raided the wards of Sunni political prisoners, beat them, and transferred a number of them to Ward 5 while blindfolded and handcuffed. Dozens of Sunni political prisoners in Hall 21 of Ward 7 have gone on hunger strike since August 2 to protest the execution of the prisoners. Mohammad-Javad Larijani, secretary of the so-called "human rights council" of the regimes Judiciary, whose task is to provide justification for torture and executions carried out by the regime, while acknowledging the "high number of executions" pointed out that "Westerners are secular and liberal, and security is the basis of the formation of Western governments." He added: "We do not have to be imposed human rights based on that Western logic ..... to hell with the fact that they are unhappy with us. Are we supposed to win their hearts? (Fars News Agency, affiliated to the IRGC, August 4, 2016). In his August 7 letter to Mr. Zeid Al Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in justifying the mass execution of at least 25 Sunni political prisoners on August 2, he wrote: "Any individual or group under any cover and on any basis who wants to make the society insecure and create the atmosphere of fear and terror certainly deserves to be tried and punished." (Fars News Agency, August 7). Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of the Foreign Policy and National Security Commission of the regimes parliament, said: "Human rights are not a Western concern ... They are concerned about the lives of terrorists that we were right to execute." Indecisiveness by the international community against these criminal executions emboldens the leaders of the regime to continue their crimes. They must be prosecuted and punished for 38 years of killings and crimes against the Iranian people. Clashes in front of Orumiyeh prison and arrest of families of prisoners Following the transfer of Kurdish political prisoner Mohammad Abdollahi and six ordinary inmates of Orumiyeh prison to solitary confinement for the implementation of their death sentence, a number of families of prisoners who had come to Orumiyeh for a final visit to their children, staged a protest in front of the prison. In response to the concerned families, prison henchmen said: "Do not gather here. We will call you later to come and pick up their bodies." MOIS agents also threatened the protesting families that in case of interviews and sharing information on the execution of their loved ones, they will not be able to get their bodies. This was followed by a brutal raid on the rally by henchmen where a number of families were arrested. The religious fascism ruling Iran has hanged at least 36 prisoners from August 2-6 in various cities. | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; send a submission; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE! "One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." - Oscar Wilde Source: Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, August 8, 2016 GettyImages The Commons Health Select Committee has launched an inquiry into the action needed to reduce the number of people who die by suicide. In doing so, I hope that they will consider the role of Suicide Crisis Centres. I run a Suicide Crisis Centre in Gloucestershire where we have achieved zero suicide. We have been providing services for more than three years and have never had a suicide of a client under our care. Advertisement My reason for setting up the Centre was that I couldn't find the right kind of help when I experienced suicidal crisis in 2012. Neither mental health services nor existing charities were providing what I needed. I had a traumatic experience in that year, developed symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, and attempted suicide twice. I struggled to connect with the large number of people involved in the NHS crisis team, having experienced a profound loss of trust as a result of the traumatic event. I wanted to set up services which would be very different from anything that was currently available. My experiences showed me so clearly what was missing, and what was needed. Initially we set up a Suicide Crisis Centre where people could come every day when in crisis. This is still the place where we support most of our clients. However, one of our first clients showed us that we needed to include additional services. He was referred to us by a psychiatric nurse who told us: "He needs to talk to someone now." I phoned him immediately and it was clear that he was highly distressed. He had experienced an extremely traumatic event five weeks previously and was afraid to leave the home. It was vital that he received help and so I went out to his house. Advertisement We quickly recognised that we would need to offer this service to some of our clients; for example some are alcohol dependent and their level of alcohol consumption means that they cannot leave the home. We also make home visits to clients who are at imminent risk of suicide. As well as providing these face to face services, we have an emergency line for our clients to phone when they are at imminent risk. When they phone, they get through to a team member who they know. This makes a difference. They are not calling a stranger at this point, but a person with whom they have already built a connection. There is a separate emergency night line for clients who are assessed as being at particularly high risk. Clients often tell us that they would not have phoned an anonymous service or the NHS at that point. They called us precisely because of the connection that they had with us. A client told us: "I couldn't have ended my life without talking to you first. You have done so much for me." A high proportion of men access our services. They have cited a number of reasons why they contacted us. Some wouldn't have gone to their GP because they were concerned that it could affect their future job prospects if it was on their medical record. They also tell us they like the level of control that they have within our service. They can decide how often they come to see us and what kind of support will be best for them. They also decide how long the support lasts. We support clients for as long as they need us, including through their recovery. We ensure that only a small team supports each client and indeed some of our male clients have only felt able to be supported by one person. They have told us that they simply couldn't have repeated the information to someone else. It was hard enough to reveal it to one person. Most services would be unable to provide this. We know that there are times when we have to, in order to ensure the survival of a high risk client. The quality of the relationship between staff and clients is extremely important. We get to know our clients well and try very hard to understand their individual situation and needs. Advertisement We care about them and care about their survival. Clients tell us that they know this. We rarely need to tell them. When I was under mental health services, I found that the clinical detachment I encountered just left me equally detached. I recall phoning the crisis team once, and the nurse who answered was concerned that I might make a suicide attempt that night. "I'm not afraid to say that I care," she said. The phrase was interesting because it implied that there was a fear amongst mental health professionals of appearing to care. From my work with clients, I feel that it is vital that clients know this. I do not feel that caring for a client conflicts with a professional approach. We are tenacious in helping clients to survive. Caring about our clients means that we want to do all we can to help them. The prospect of their death is painful to us and so we want to ensure that doesn't happen. I have often been told by clients "You haven't given up on me". They felt that other services had. We know that it is a case of finding the right approach and the right type of support for each individual. If a client is not engaging with a service, it means they are not providing the right kind of help for them, not that there is something in the client which means they cannot be helped. My hope is that the Select Committee will look in detail at the combination of factors which have contributed to the success of this Crisis Centre. There is a very great need for similar Centres in other counties and we are starting to work to make this happen. If we had a Suicide Crisis Centre in every county, it could play a major role in reducing the number of people who die by suicide. Image Credit: ComoPomona Fondue, cheese, chocolate and cuckoo clocks - a typical view of Switzerland (but cuckoo clocks are actually from Germany). In the region that brought us Heidi and her mountainous adventures, one would hardly imagine this region as a verdant field of green vines, shuddering in the light warming breeze common in October. The SwissGerman wine region was silent but for the occasional sound of voices carried from a nearby home. Switzerland has long been on my bucket list of countries to visit just for the sheer pleasure of visiting the region (and because of a crush when I was 13). Most of my life I've been fascinated by the idea of a country that separates itself so completely from the rest of Europe and yet by situation is a central lynchpin within the Western European landscape. Bordered by Lichtenstein, Italy, France, and Germany and thus having five languages (French, German, Italian, SwissGerman and English) it was always a dream of mine to go. At long last I finally found an excuse (speaking at a conference somewhat predictably). Advertisement Image Credit: ComoPomona The SwissGerman region of the country is, somewhat predictably, in the north. I went from Geneva with it's French language which I could at least get by in and understand, to Zurich and sadly left my language comfort zone but this is where the wine I wanted to experience was. From the rare Completer which is grown on only 4 hectares total after being the main wine grape in the middle ages, through to the pervasive pinot noir, the region is as diverse as it is beautiful. This region is not the easiest for the wine tourist but it is well worth taking the time to plan and prepare for. Some of the vineyards, understandably, do not do tours and some only do groups however some will require several weeks' notice so not really a last-minute planning place. In fact when I tried to organise a side trip to a chocolate factory I found there were none available on my dates in the country and they required three weeks advance notice in writing. Quaintly archaic but also annoying. Forewarned is forearmed for the wine tourist. My itinerary was fixed as it had been organised by Branchenverband Deutschschweizer Wein BDW but you can visit almost all of the vineyards I did with just some advance warning. A lot of the vineyards shops were run by the farmers though so be aware during harvest they may have very restricted hours or even not be open for visitors. Advertisement Image Credit: Rosemary George MW We started out trip at Wehrli Weinbau, Kuttigen - www.wehrli-weinbau.ch At the vineyard we were introduced to the wines by the passionate young winemaker Susi Steiger-Wehrli. Starting in a room much as you'd expect which was full of wine and charm, we toured the facility and got a chance to do some tasting. The winery owns about 11 hectares of vineyards. Divided and planted there are three different terroirs with distinctly different characteristics: minerality, fruit-forward and meaty/iron. This different influence of climate and soil and the expert vinification gives the wines their special character. We also tried the Symphonie Wehrli dessert wine, made from Pinot Noir grapes which are frozen like an ice wine. The wine was quite special and I've actually bought some Ontario versions of this new experience. The shop is open but the cellar is not open to the public. Image Credit: Rosemary George MW We then travelled on to Schmid Wetli AG, Berneck www.schmidwetli.ch a family owned winery where we learned that they are so passionate about quality that they manually sort the grapes that then go on to be pressed into wine. The shop is amazing and is host to people and parties as well as tastings. I go the chance to try a number of their wines and they also serve visitors local cheese and for an event a variety of dishes. The vineyards are nearby but not open to the public however the shot is and sells the pervasive pinot noir that everyone seems to grow. Among white varieties produced are Riesling and Sylvaner, the White Sauvignon or Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris and Chardonnay (which everyone seems to grow as well). This is a must-visit place with a lovely restaurant and accommodation nearby making it the perfect final stop for the day. Advertisement Image Credit: ComoPomona We started day two with a visit to Donatsch, Malans www.donatsch-malans.ch vineyard and cellar (with new extension) plus a tasting on site then we went on to get a meal at typical restaurant of the region Winzerstube zum Ochsen, which just happened to be owned by the Donatsch family. It was a gloriously beautiful place with the winery in town and the vineyards close by. It was a small town and on a hill (as frankly most things seem to be in that area given the whole mountains thing) so the area offered breathtaking bviews and breath-stealing hikes. At this winery we tried two whites (both chardonnay) and some reds, most notably a pinot noir that absolutely kjilled anything Ontario is doing. The two sweet wines we tried were a 2011 Late Harvest Pinot Gris, and Pinot Noir Vintage 2011. Both are characterized by the taste of dried peach and dried plum respectively, as well as a great balance between the fruit, acidity and minerality. According to a wine friend I have to say things have minerality more often to look like an amateur pretending to be a pro ;-) My highlight of this visit has to be the active fermentation of the completer grape - a rare variety grown on around 4 hectares it was fermenting aggressively! Just look and listen: The sound of Completer (a rare Swiss grape harvested on only 4 hectares) fermenting! Very excited grapes! A video posted by Judith Lewis (@mostlyaboutchoc) on Nov 3, 2014 at 1:56am PST Advertisement Image Credit: Rosemary George MW Weingut Fromm, Malans - www.weingut-fromm.ch - This is where I really got a feel for the land and the wine. We were treated exceptionally well by Georg Fromm who went from Switzerland to New Zealand and back again, making wine the whole while. He is the most fascinating man, using no chemical pesticides when growing his grapes and really understanding the land and the grape. We walked from his fruit tree'd front of house through the vineyard and learned about the land, how growing is tied to the lunar cycle and the increased biodiversity around there. We got to try a number of different wines and they all had their own profile and each was unique and individual - something I love in a wine. Each year has its own flavour profile and each wine is unique. Absolutely fantastic and the wine was something quite special. It was one wine we all took a bottle home with us without exception. Image Credit: ComoPomona We ended our visit at Weingut Erich Meier, Uetikon www.erichmeier.ch - This is an amazing place where small plots of vines coexist with a residential area! Yep - makes your local even more local! This is where Erich Meier produces their absolutely stunning wines. Erich himself explains to us that his clients want something different. While others offer more chardonnay and pinot noir, he's working on making them something special and quite unique. He has 4.8 hectares on which he grows a staggering eleven different grape varieties. It's a bit of a rebellious approach and he's made some amazing wine as a result that absolutely has to be experienced. Advertisement This month Viva! publishes my report Pig Farming: The Inside Story, a detailed investigation into the UK's pig farming industry. I have been campaigning for animals for more than two decades but I still find the state of British pig farms shock me to the core. Nearly all the 4.9million pigs reared in Britain at any one time are kept on intensive units in distressing conditions. From the gigantic to the ramshackle, these factory farms have one thing in common: they thwart all natural instincts of the pig. If you have been privileged enough to get up close and personal with a happy pig, you will have experienced first-hand what inquisitive and highly intelligent creatures they are. Roaming and rooting around in their natural environment, they exude a joie de vivre that is infectious. Advertisement Embedded in my mind is the day I saw my colleague's rescued pig work out how to open the fridge door. She looked at us as if to say: "Thanks ladies, I'm in heaven!" But, this scenario is unusual because, as our report shows, more than 90 per cent of pigs are industrially farmed, subject to shocking conditions. Because of the kind of work undertaken at Viva! and many other campaigners, images of animals housed in these distressing conditions, and supplying our supermarkets, are becoming more common. In the past year, Viva! investigations into pig farming have seen piglets crammed in battery-style wire cages three tiers deep; mother sows in crates so small they were unable to turn around, and their dead and dying piglets littered on the floor alongside them. Teeth clipping and tail docking (as barbaric as they sound) are all routine mutilations invented to try and control abnormal behaviour directly caused by these intensive farming methods. Advertisement I have been moved to tears more times than I can mention here. Living naturally, a pregnant sow will build a nest from twigs and leaves. She will rear her piglets attentively until weaning between 12 and 15 weeks. A healthy, happy pig can live up to 15 years. On these farms piglets are prematurely weaned at three weeks and, if they survive the process (one in five piglets die before being weaned), they are sent to slaughter as soon as they reach adult weight at five or six months. On farms such as the ones I and other campaigners have visited, every aspect of a sow's reproductive life is managed. Twice a year she will be impregnated either by being put with a boar or via artificial insemination - often trapped in a crude restraining device known as a "rape rack". Towards the end of her pregnancy and following the birth she will be caged in a "farrowing crate" in which she is unable even to turn around. Countries including Norway, Sweden, New Zealand and Switzerland have already banned or limited the use of these crates, while in the UK the farrowing crate is still used for around two thirds of all sows. The industry says the crates protect piglets from being crushed by their mother. Yet this hardly occurs in the wild (and death rates in non-crate systems are similar). This is about protecting intensive farming methods not piglets! Our report also comes at a time when people are becoming more aware of the serious health problems caused by eating red and processed meat. Recently the World Health Organisation warned about the links between the consumption of meat and cancer, and in Viva!'s launch of SWINE we highlighted the scale of the misuse of antibiotics on factory farms, where disease is rife and antibiotics are routinely used to try to avert disease. Advertisement In fact, meningitis, pneumonia and many other diseases run rife on Britain's pig farms because of overcrowded, dirty conditions in poorly ventilated units where gases from the festering excreta eat away at the animals' respiratory systems. Recent figures show around 10 million pigs are killed each year for meat creating a total of 1.3 million tonnes of pork. That's enough meat to fill 520 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Sometimes the truth can be hard to digest. What is the role of government? Is it to support business or cause undue anxiety and difficulty by instigating policies that are neither helpful or workable? This is precisely the position facing the early years sector at the moment; a sector run by 12,443 businesses, that has a revenue of 4 billion as well as employing 188,433 workers to support families who need to work (Child Day-Care Centres Market Research Report, 2016). How then can they justify a policy change in 2014 which has put the whole sector in jeopardy? Why? Because we cannot recruit enough staff to meet the needs of their other policies and the growing needs of parents returning to work. Why? Because of the requirement that all childcare students and apprentices wanting to complete their Level 3 Diploma in Childcare must have a GCSE Level A to C in English and Maths. The sector warned the Government that there were insufficient numbers of students available to complete a childcare qualification with both those grades. How can we fix in a short time what 11 years of schooling have failed to achieve? We suggested a practical solution which was allowing us to use the Functional Skills as an alternative entry requirement. These qualifications are Government approved and the acceptable entry requirement for all other apprenticeships. Advertisement Sadly, this was refused and the consequence is a catastrophic decline in available qualified staff. There has been a 72% drop in students enrolling in Level 3 courses and a 96% drop in apprentices. The sector has now reached crisis point. The pipeline for new staff is dry and those who replace staff leaving through natural attrition are few. We certainly cannot meet our growth targets for the 15 hours or the 2 year old offer (80,000 places short) let alone plans to increase to 30 hours. There is no benefit to having this barrier to entry. In fact, it will lead to a reduction in quality as nurseries are forced to take more unqualified staff as they can be employed without the A to C GCSEs. However, to maintain quality we must have a balance of qualified staff. Right now, our committed staff are tired, worried and at breaking point. Depending on agency staff is unsafe, expensive and not conducive to quality for children. We need to be able train and recruit staff who want to work with children and who can be supported, developed and retained to provide the quality service that every child deserves. The irony is that the solution is simple. Change the wording of the regulations to include the option for Functional Skills as the entry requirements and do it before the 1st September so new students can be enrolled on their courses. But who can intervene on our behalf? We have neither a strategy nor a Minister for Childcare. Today nurseries are part of the infrastructure of a modern society. We merit the support of a government and politicians who, instead of spending time on their ideological battleground, should be supporting those people trying to run businesses which enable ordinary working families to work. Advertisement June O Sullivan CEO I remember going to my first ever yoga retreat over a decade ago. I was filled with anticipation, whilst wondering if I was 'weird' going away solo and engaging in an activity which at the time, I didn't have much knowledge about. The thought of having to share a room with a stranger didn't help with the comfort factor either. However, after participating on my first ever retreat I was hooked! So much, that in the end, I became a yoga teacher and continued going on retreats consecutively for over 7 years. After going on my first few annual retreats, each year I attended thereafter, a voice in my head would tell me 'you should be hosting your own retreat,' yet the other voice of fear kept creeping in and saying I wouldn't be good enough and no one would attend. In the end, after much deliberation and hesitation with weeks worth of sleepless nights, I nervously took the plunge and booked out a gorgeous organic farm in the Tuscan Hills to facilitate my first ever yoga retreat. The rest is history... The aim of a yoga retreat is to create a serene and conducive environment to help deepen your spiritual reflection, personal practice, and renewal. A yoga retreat to some amazing locations gives practitioners the opportunity to explore some mouth-watering scenery, such as the serene countryside, panoramic views of stunning mountains and the opportunity to embrace nature at its finest. Yoga retreats, can be described as a journey into self-discovery. The yoga sessions on retreats are transformational and a suitable option for beginners including all practitioner levels. Advertisement You'll be able to deepen your relaxation Yoga retreat takes you away from the world alongside the stresses accompanied with it. Even if you're a regular meditator, there is something unique about being shut down from the world outside that releases your constant mental worries. Allowing yourself to be freed from all worries and distractions will help you realise that by detaching yourself, that problems will simultaneously work themselves out or even lose their stance and strength in your life. You'll notice a progress in your practice within a short period of time Yoga itself can be considered as a journey and though it focuses less on achievement, this doesn't mean that you are not progressing in your path. Deepening one's practice has different meaning to each individual. In fact, it can even be just as simple as learning how to maintain a still seat for your meditation practise or giving yourself permission to be happy. You can travel alone without any feel of self-consciousness Sometimes we just feel like getting away from it all. Yoga retreats will offer a secure environment to travel solo, thus you will discover that though you arrive alone, you will leave with many friends. Yogis are sensitive to each others feelings and needs, so if you go alone, it's ok to tuck yourself up somewhere quiet with a book if you feel you need some space. You can take a step back and renew your life It is difficult to make new decisions when you are used to some certain routines. Most of us go through our daily activities without diverting a bit from them. Taking a step outside your daily routine activities brings out something new in you. Retreats offer great opportunity to set new goals and reflect on difficult issues. Within time, you'll be equipped to discover how to overcome some inner challenges. You might find the answer to long term questions which have been troubling your mind. The best gift you can give yourself and take away from retreats, is to be present. Advertisement Ladan Soltani- 'A dedicated yogi and author of fabulous fitness at 40' Enjoy my yoga video practice for beginners Dave Thompson/PA Archive Following the decision to leave the EU, there's been a lively debate about our future relations with the rest of the world. The USA and the Commonwealth have figured strongly. Yet, we shouldn't overlook allies nearer to home, in particular, our Nordic neighbours. Our relationship goes back a long way. Admittedly, the initial arrival of the Vikings in AD 793 wasn't a triumph of peaceful diplomacy. But in the 1,300 years since, strong ties have been forged between our peoples, our businesses and our nations. Advertisement This is, in part, because as northern Europeans we share many social and cultural values. We believe in free speech, in diversity and tolerance towards others. Personal modesty and a quiet patriotism are a common characteristic. We have a strong work ethic, and value the merits of both enterprise and hard work. We are pragmatic in how to tackle global issues, eschewing grand visions, instead wanting to stand up for the little guy. Within the EU it's often been our Nordic friends who have worked with us, against the more protectionist 'Club Med' nations. And we all back free trade. So I believe there are sound foundations for strengthening our political and trade ties with the Nordic countries. Already the Nordic & Baltic nations represent our sixth largest export market. However, we can do more. As the PM's Trade & Investment Envoy I have been able to help more of their companies settle here, whilst promoting our exports there. Yet I would contend the UK should now look to strengthen our relationship, strategically. Let me suggest two particular areas where we should forge new relationships: in energy and in our mutual security. Advertisement Take energy. The North Sea has been a common source of energy for us and the Norwegians for at least a generation. Now, together with the Danes and the Swedes, it's a shared home for the next generation of renewable energy. The prospect of an interconnector between us and Norway would help us tap into not just their surplus energy, but link us to the whole of Scandinavia's sources of low carbon power. If Iceland were to be connected, with its large surplus of low carbon energy, we could then free us all from dependence on oil and gas from the Middle East, and from Putin's Russia. Which leads on to the issue of our mutual security. It's clear that Russia's foreign policy is becoming increasingly assertive, constantly testing the will and capability of its near neighbours. This is especially worrying for the three Baltic countries, for whom a significant portion of their population is of Russian origin. After recent events in the Crimea and the Ukraine those concerns have spread to other Nordic neighbours such as Finland and Sweden, who find their air, sea and cyber space constantly facing incursions. Whilst Denmark and Norway are NATO members, Sweden and Finland are not. So relying on NATO's collective defence is not an option. This problem will only grow as the Arctic opens up for trade and navigation from Asia, an issue on which we have yet to properly focus. My point here is that we face a common problem and one which we can best counter together. The sharing of intelligence; securing our energy supplies; closer military planning and working; and protecting shipping lanes are all worthwhile outcomes, which would benefit both us and all of the Nordic nations. So, in the debate about our future international relations, I believe we need to see our Nordic neighbours as a priority. We have much in common and our shared values could prove to be a sound foundation for forging a new relationship. Advertisement ASSOCIATED PRESS The party that did most to bring about Brexit is not expected to survive long past it Despite the runaway success of the UK Independence Party - with four million votes at the 2015 general election and a Brexit vote at the EU referendum - the majority of voters don't believe that the party will spend much longer as a force in British politics. More than half of voters (55%) believe that Ukip will not be important in British politics in ten years' time. This belief extends across the entirety of society, with the only group of people more likely to believe that the party will be important a decade from now being those who voted Ukip in 2015. Advertisement Despite the warnings of some Labour politicians, the majority of the public are optimistic about Labour's survival, with 66% believing that Labour will still be a major force in ten years versus 13% who think the party will have faded. The current turmoil within the Labour party does seem to be affecting public perceptions though. When asked the same question in February 2015, 82% of people said that the Labour party would still be important in ten years, meaning that belief in the continued importance of Labour has dropped 16 points in 16 months. On top of this, Labour voters in 2015 are actually more likely to think that the Conservatives will survive the next ten years (84%) than their own party, Labour (79%). Advertisement By contrast, the number of people who think that the other mainstay of British politics - the Conservative party - will still be a major force in ten years has remained relatively stable at 80%, against a mere 3% who do not. Aside from Labour and the Conservatives, the only other party we asked about that people overall thought would be important in ten years' time were the Greens. Opinion here was split though, with more Northerners, old people, Leave voters and voters for right wing parties in 2015 - groups among which the Greens perform poorly - all noticeably more likely to think the Greens will fade over the next ten years. Despite having been a party of government little more than a year ago, more people believe that the Lib Dems will not be important in ten years (38%) than think they will be important (35%). Having barely survived in Parliament through much of the post-war era (as the Liberals), the Lib Dems may have to prepare themselves for another extended rough patch. Matthew Smith is a data journalist at YouGov I'd like to tell you a story about something pretty special which recently happened. It involves some passionate people, some big dreams, and a LOT of sanitary towels. I'm a student at Durham University, I'm also involved with a group called Just Love. We're part of a series of groups across UK universities affiliated with the national charity Just Love, which is committed to inspiring (Christian) students to stand against injustice. Advertisement Last year a few brilliant students at Just Love Durham came up with a little idea for an initiative called Giving: Strings Attached (pun intended), a university-wide drive to collect sanitary products for vulnerable women in our local community. An inconvenience to most of us who get them, for a huge number of women in this country and globally who lack access to sanitary products, periods are a source of immeasurable discomfort, shame and harrowing stigma. I don't know about you, but the thought of enduring just one period with no pads, no clean running water, no basic hygiene, is more than I can bear to think about. This March, in the midst of the second annual campaign, having already had an overwhelmingly generous response from Durham students, we received a facebook message from two Durham graduates: Jake Cundy and Helen Murphy, now working for the company P&G, saying they had heard about our campaign via facebook and wanted to support us with a donation. When Jake and Helen first got in touch we were (hopefully and tentatively) thinking in the realms of a few vans worth maybe, but lo and behold the delivery which finally made its way to Durham in June came in the shape of three large lorries. Three Lorries, 117,000 pads and panty-liners, and 774,144 individual products. Advertisement Incredulity, joy and thankfulness was mixed with minor bafflement as the team began the task of determining where on earth all these pads would go. It was felt by all that a significant portion of the donations should reach out to refugees. Amazingly, Samara's Aid Appeal who had heard about the mammoth donation via social media, got in touch shortly after and it was arranged that they would take one full lorry to Iraq. The initiative is a self-funded charity set up by a British mother of two dedicated to the provision of humanitarian aid to displaced peoples and refugees in Syria, Iraq and the Middle East. For more information check out the website: http://www.samarasaidappeal.org/ It was later arranged that a second lorry load would be sent to Zambia with Samara's appeal, to assist a women's project there. The third and final lorry was delivered to a food bank in Newcastle, and a small proportion of the products have been distributed to around 10 local organisations, including other food banks in County Durham, Oasis Aquila Housing charity, A Way Out (who support and engage vulnerable young women), and DASH (Durham Action on Single Housing). So you see: three lorries worth of pads can go a very, very long way (quite literally). Such a basic practical necessity can bring comfort, relief and dignity, to not just one woman, but thousands. If that's not a joyful thought, I don't know what is. Advertisement I suppose you could say there are a few 'messages' of this story. The incredible donation demonstrates the even more incredible influence that student activism can have. What started as an idea dreamt up by a couple of students, in a tiny, cold (nonetheless rather beautiful) university town in the far north of England, has generated a phenomenal response that will make a huge difference to the lives of women in some of the most vulnerable parts of our society and world. I hope our story inspires students all over the country to try similar things, to be bold and fearless. No campaign is too ambitious, no idea too bold, or group too small. Secondly, next time you're on your period (and probably feeling rather unhappy about it), or you're thanking your lucky stars that you don't have periods, spare a thought for the pain, discomfort and dread that 'mother nature' brings to millions of women in the world, face the humanity beneath the faceless and clinical statistics of refugees or homelessness, and consider donating a pack of pads to your local food bank. Even better, start your own initiative, if there isn't one near you already, at your university, workplace or church. Finally, this story testifies to the huge influence that graduates going into roles at different companies can have in terms of pursuing justice and being generous. You don't have to go into a career as a charity or NGO worker to change the world or make a difference. Any position of influence is a position of influence. As students in particular, we are privileged - many of us will go into professional and highly influential jobs. Those with privilege have a duty to use that privilege to support those who have not been given the same. What started as a little idea has gone a long way. In the coming months Just Love Durham hope to receive updates on how the pads, which began their journeys (some longer than others) in June, were received and what difference they have made in the places they are being delivered. Watch this space. Advertisement Photos: Harriet Cheema-Grubb Last weekend, I stood in the main shopping street in Edinburgh alongside some of the most passionate people I've ever met for my first Earthlings Experience. If you haven't heard of the Earthlings Experience, then chances are you may have already seen us. We're the people standing in the street, often in a circle, with white masks on. We don't shout or preach about veganism, we just show you footage of animals suffering in slaughterhouses, farms and hatcheries. The footage we use is happening to animals every single day in the UK. I wish I could tell you that these were isolated cases, but the truth is that it's happening to animals right now as you read this article. Advertisement My road to veganism began two and a half year ago. I made the decision to stop eating meat when I was around 12 years old, but I had never really given much thought to the egg and dairy industries. I have never drunk cow's milk or ever understood why people did, and I never really bought or liked eggs either. That's not to say that I didn't buy into these industries through other products like cakes and ice cream though. I just never really made the connection that animals in these industries suffer just as much as ones who are killed for their meat. Once I started to do my research, I couldn't quite believe what was deemed as normal practise in these industries. Did you know that virtually all male dairy calves are stolen from their mothers within hours of being born? Since only female cows can produce milk, most of the male calves are slaughtered for that veal you tuck into in a fancy restaurant. The female calves might get to live, but they're not treated as anything other than a milk producing machine. They're forcefully impregnated which leads to them producing much more milk than they naturally would. This unnatural process leads to lots of dairy cows developing infections and diseases, as well as being kept inside rather than being able to roam around in fields outside. The egg industry isn't much better with millions of newborn male chicks killed every year. While the female chicks aren't, millions are turned into egg producing machines kept in cramp conditions in dark cages. It's a fate that you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy, yet it seems the majority of people in the UK are quite happy to sit back and let it happen. Animal activism is something I've never really been involved in before. I would happily explain why I was vegan if someone asked me, but I didn't go out of my way to shout about it. However there comes a point when you realise than not eating meat or wearing animal products is just not enough, and you have to do what you can to raise awareness about how much animals suffer for food and products that we don't actually need. Advertisement I wasn't really sure what reaction we'd get from people or if they'd even stop, but people came over as soon as we set up. People seemed really curious as to what footage we were showing with some watching for a minute and others for twenty. We saw some parents usher their children away from us, and others let their kids watch for themselves. I saw people with tears in their eyes after watching for only a few seconds and some with their mouths wide open in disbelief at what they were looking at. Of course, there were also a few people who muttered things as they walked past, and one lovely gentleman who stuck his fingers up at some of us. The predictions of naysayers from left and right have finally come true. Trump's double-digit primary leads have translated into deficits against Hillary Clinton among likely voters. A gleeful media peanut gallery, backed by credible sources like Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan claim Trump's ongoing gaffes evidence he is temperamentally unfit for office. But Trump's desperate rhetoric is only a symptom of the root problem, one his campaign never expected to have. Its effect is that the 'presidential pivot' many hoped for simply hasn't materialized. If it had, Trump's 'forgotten man' would now be backseat to a proposition impossible for the GOP to lose with. So what happened? Well, the problem began with the VP pick, ended at the convention and saddled the Trump campaign since with all the downside of an insurgent but none of the equities, a mirror image of his primary proposition. Advertisement Still, the turn of the pivot actually started strongly. As the primary climaxed Trump held the press conferences others refused to and answered quick-fire questions flawlessly. When the last competitors for the nomination were vanquished, he appeared magnanimous. And to cap the bitterness and amateurism of the primary, he fired campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and replaced him with the eminently capable insider Paul Manafort. But then came the first political decision of major consequence. The Veep pick is traditionally an afterthought designed to balance wings of the party and/or electoral geography. Yet for a non-pol like Trump who has previously liberal positions and said he would rely on his selection heavily, such a choice signals his own creed and what to expect in government. He made the wrong decision in choosing Mike Pence, and from this the other campaign travails have surely followed. According to his biographer, Trump's approach is to say as little, and to fudge as much as possible so prospects like primary voters project their own preferences on him, thus avoiding a process of elimination to remain last man standing. This is a classic sales technique and it worked in the primary. Advertisement For the conservative-leaning moderates and independents who put a GOP general election candidate over the top, there was enough in the debates to suggest a revival reminiscent of Ike or Nixon. Strong enough on defence to remain credible around the globe but not get into trouble; accepting of capitalism and the private sector but not the family destroying excesses of globalization; a nod to the religious right without turning the campaign into a referendum on Roe vs. Wade; just enough tough-talk on immigration to get media attention and a Tea Party edge. And true enough, when it came to translating rhetoric into reality by choosing a vice-president and more, the campaign offered the job of 'making America great again' and 'foreign and domestic policy' to John Kasich. Kasich best embodies the moderate conservative character, delivered Ohio, proved his worth in government under Reagan and was the hands-down choice of voters, if not the GOP primary set, singularly leading Clinton in a one-on-one match up from the start. For these reasons Kasich was 'viewed with wistfulness by the Trump team as the perfect choice'. But Kasich, still raw from the final days of the nominating contest, refused. Now the Trump campaign, at sixty people only one tenth the size of Clinton's, is in a bit of a spot with only a few weeks to the convention. Without Kasich at his side or even an endorsement he can't head off the Cruz-leaning party elders looking to unbind his delegates for a convention floor upset. Nor can he expect support from the party's moderates, given his remarks on immigration and in lieu of selecting Chris Christie, who would bring enormous baggage from his time as governor and cozying with Obama. Even the last two Republican presidents said they will stay away. With this backdrop it appears Trump- after uncharacteristic prevarication- employed the cynical power-play of old, to keep your friends close and your enemies closer, by choosing an inoffensive and pliable conservative in Governor Mike Pence of Indiana. The problem is, Pence appeals to the establishment de jour of rural social conservatives and urban free-marketers, but few others. Aside from the fact that picking someone for who they are not rather than are is usually a poor way of selecting a leader, this has created larger campaign problems in both style and substance. Advertisement If Kasich or another well-versed moderate were in the frame Trump could now afford to take a backseat while making familiar noises about trade to the faithful on the trail. The power behind the throne meanwhile, in detail and day to day business, would be reassuringly bipartisan. But because he has picked someone from the right whose supporters would have voted Republican anyway, it is now on Trump himself to grow the appeal of the party. That the last two presidents were unrepresentative and the Iraq War was a mistake are self-evident truths any maverick could gain traction with in a primary. But fleshing out the details would have been best left to someone else. This is why Trump is continuing to make gaffes. His unscripted approach, once so refreshing, has become a negative story in itself as attacks on him become more precise. And it makes sense he will not follow an agenda. Because while politicians can read a speech written entirely by others as their own words, Trump struggles. I mean, 'Have you seen him? He's terrible!' Scores of Youths Likely Face Execution in Iran The mass execution of 20 people in Irans Rajai Shahr prison was not the only grim news from that country this past week. On August 1, Alireza Tajiki, who was sentenced to death at age 15 following a trial that fell short of international standards, was saved from execution thanks to the last-minute efforts of his family and his lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh. Unfortunately, the postponement is only temporary. Alireza, now 19, was convicted of rape and murder and set to be executed August 3. Amin Tajiki, Alirezas brother, told Human Rights Watch that their family had requested a retrial based on new evidence, but the court rejected their attempts. Scores of children are believed to be on death row in Iran, despite denials by the head of Irans judiciary, Ayatollah Sadegh Amoli Larijani. Amnesty International has identified the names and locations of 49 such children, and the UN believes the number could be as high as 160. The majority of children on death row in Iran were convicted of murder in trials that fell far short of international standards. In many cases, they reported torture and mistreatment in detention. On July 18, Amnesty International reported that Iranian authorities hanged Hassan Afshar , who was arrested at 17 and convicted of forced male to male anal intercourse (lavat-e be onf). He had no access to a lawyer. As a party to the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on Rights of the Child, Iran is obliged to end child executions. The country has taken some small, positive steps. Since 2013, judges may use their discretion to not sentence a child offender to death if they do not understand the nature of the crime. Judges may now seek the opinion of the governments Forensic Medical Department to assess the childs mental state. Also, all children sentenced to death under Irans old penal code are eligible to be retried under the new one, passed in 2013, although they have to file for a retrial. But, not only do these narrow reforms fail to meet Irans obligation to end all executions of children, but in practice, they are negated by ongoing abuses. Iranian authorities frequently deny children in pretrial detention access to a lawyer. Many children spend up to a decade on death row based primarily on confessions made under credible allegations of torture. Now the Iranian judiciary should save all child offenders from the cruel fate of execution by granting them retrials in accordance with international human rights law standards. Child offenders like Alireza should never have been on death row in the first place. | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; send a submission; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE! "One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." - Oscar Wilde Source: Human Rights Watch, Tara Sepehri Far, Iran Researcher, August 9, 2016 It is time to step up and be the step country these children need. I am talking about those 95,000 unaccompanied child refugees, 10,000 of which are already hiding in the dark corners, missing in plain sight, without any provisions, any protection, little way of forging a future without a 'legit' identity and all without their Mother. Surely,we have a duty. It may be a little scary to accept a few more trucks of 'immigrants' in a society where the word immigrant is used as a term for 'pollution'. But let me remind you immigrants take varying forms - there are those who bring skilled work (that we need), those that study (and pay out a fortune to do so), those that emigrate here because they love our culture (just as we emigrate to Spain, Australia, Canada and a number of other countries without blinking and certainly without considering ourselves as pollutants), and then there are refugees... Refugees are not immigrants by choice - they are fleeing for their lives. Too many of them are children whose Mothers have chosen to risk their life for a chance that they will be accepted by the EU - that risk is worth losing their child for. They are unlikely to see them again and they know that their beloved child may become homeless, may be raped, may be enslaved, may be abused in these 'better' and war-free countries, they understand that there is a very real possibility that their child will die on the way - but for that Mother in her war-torn world the chance that her child could be ok is enough to sway her, to pay her life's savings and rip open her heart; it is enough for her to wave them good bye... Advertisement And then they arrive, these kids, after long and lonely journeys, into cultures very different from theirs, and to arrive is their dream and they are elated because they are going to be ok. But the doors don't open. And they don't get a hand to hold or an induction to the new world - instead they are treated as feral animals and expected to be grateful. They are not provided with counselling, or adequate shelter, they have limited provisions and are on the edge of a world where people are smiling, with full bellies, without shrapnel flying overhead and they can smell it. They can hear the new language, they can feel the new climate, they are being provided with new cuisine - they can taste it - but they are not yet at all there. Let me remind you - these are children. They are without their Fathers and their Mothers. They need us and we can absolutely help them. They need a step-country, somewhere that will learn to love them and not lose sight of its responsibilities despite the difficulties that may accompany them. We must remember they would never choose this - they did not make the decision and their life is a young one. No life should be more equal than another but I would argue that a life of but a few years that has travelled the seas and lived through war on their own should perhaps be seen as an investment in our future, our world, our humanity. Advertisement The 'Dubs scheme' no longer specifies how many unaccompanied children will be resettled in the UK. That figure will instead be determined by individual local authorities and with that the process will move slowly and many children will end up 'missing' (making it into EU countries but re-homed by the dark world, like those 5,000 women hidden in London's illegal trade alone). We can step up and we need to. These young lives need a step-country and we can be that. Just as with step-parenting the relationship may be forged out of necessity in the first instance but then it develops into something longstanding, respected, adored and valuable. If each constituency offered refuge to 5 unaccompanied minors then 3,000 children would be provided with a safe future. If you want to help - this is how you can: 1. Write to your local councillor you can easily do this here: https://www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/campaigning/protect-refugee-children 2. Write to your local MP and ask them to ensure that the deal offered to councils is genuine and that all 157 children in Calais entitled to family reunification (under Dublin 3) alongside the first 300 children (one tenth of the total proposed by Lord Dubs) are relocated to the UK in time to start school this September Advertisement 3. Write articles/ blogs explaining why you want your local council to accept refugee children. 4. Seek more information on how to help by going to http://www.refugees-welcome.org.uk/ and clicking on the resources - refugee-children-campaign The threats facing the world's wild animals and wild places are massive in scale: human populations growing exponentially, ecosystems being destroyed by agriculture and extractive industries, wild animals being slaughtered en masse for their parts (elephant ivory, rhino horn, tiger bone, lion trophies, bear gallbladders, sea turtle shell...), and individual animals captured or bred to languish for a lifetime of living hell in captivity. For those of us who work on the technical aspects of wildlife conservation, there is often no exciting rescue, no heart-pounding encounters with poachers, no days spent "in the field" tracking animals across the savannah or through the forest. There are only legislative and international policy matters. But, when we can successfully advance the policies that help animals... well, it matters! The U.S. government recently issued significant policies that may not grab headlines, but undoubtedly advance animal welfare and wildlife conservation. Advertisement In April, two rulings gave captive tigers in America--and the people who dangerously interact with them--much-needed protection. One action from the Fish and Wildlife Service requires the sellers of tigers bred from unknown or mixed subspecies to have the same permits as those who breed "pure" tigers, which are protected under the Endangered Species Act. This will help ensure that all captive tigers are protected from the greedy ambition of those who see them as only a lucrative asset in the illegal trade in tiger parts. Separately, the U.S. Department of Agriculture also published a technical note declaring that it is a violation of the Animal Welfare Act for members of the public to handle or feed big cats who are four weeks of age or younger. These cubs should remain with their mothers--not be passed around for sad photo opportunities. We still have a long way to go to protect captive big cats in America--where, shockingly, there are more tigers in captivity than in all of their wild range--but the effects of these technical policy changes are profound. For example, the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo is already ending its tiger encounters as a direct result of the public contact policy. Meanwhile, a very busy U.S. government also published a final rule further constricting the domestic commercialization of elephant ivory. Advertisement As of June 6, sport-hunted elephant trophies are limited to two per year, and most import, export, and interstate commerce of elephant ivory products is prohibited. This is a technical policy matter, yes--and hammering it out was not glamorous work. But, when you step back from the regulatory jargon, the implications for species survival are huge. Remember that the ivory trade wiped out Africa's elephants in the 1970s and 1980s, when the population was cut from 1.3 million to 600,000. And, while there is a considerable and reasonable outcry against the carving factories of China, and the domestic ivory markets in Zimbabwe and Tanzania, the U.S. sadly remains a commercial hub for the ivory trade. Additionally, our international colleagues are methodically crafting policies within other spheres of influence. African lion range states met in Uganda recently to determine the state of lion conservation and to identify a road map for saving the species, both through the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS). Lions represent a species that has declined by almost half in the past 21 years, with fewer than 20,000 remaining (as compared to 78,500 in 1980). Only 400 of them remain in West Africa, and the only places in southern Africa where the species is stable or increasing are in four countries (where the lions are significantly fenced off from their full natural range). The 28 lion range states recognize that trade in lion bones adds a significant threat to the species, but the path forward is not a flashy one. It involves requesting a CITES task force to focus on the deadly lion trade as part of an effort to "uplist" Africa's lions to Appendix I of the Treaty, cutting off trade that is primarily commercial. Born Free USA will be at the next CITES meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa to support this hugely important endeavor. Advertisement Born Free rescues individual animals in need. Born Free advocates for policies that matter to save entire species. Every decision in our favor is a decision in the animals' favor. Let's pass laws, regulations, international resolutions, and global proposals that say NO ivory trade, NO lion trade, NO tiger trade, NO rhino trade, NO bear trade, NO captivity for these species, and NO human interaction with them. The answer does not always need to be showy or easily captured in a single sound bite. Sometimes, advancing inch by inch is the right answer. Policies matter. "Napoleon once said, when asked to explain the lack of great statesmen in the world, that 'To get power, you need to display absolute pettiness; to exercise power, you need to show true greatness.' Such pettiness and greatness are rarely found in one person." -- President Jackson Evans, The Contender Never has a movie quote been more relevant for its time. Given the rare duality it suggests, the presidential nominee of the Republican Party should be seen for his exceptional unexceptionalism. Donald Trump continues to sicken the discourse of the election process, and threaten the life of a party whose president, senators and representatives once collectively saved the nation from its greatest existential threat ever. Pettiness is a disease of character that targets temperament. Its symptoms are pathological insecurity, inflammatory behavior, rash perspectives, malignant speech and an anaphylactic reaction to truth. Trump is in a state of septic shock. Advertisement Like Clostridium botulinum, the bacteria that causes botulism, pettiness is a pathogen to virtue that causes contempt. Contempt is airborne, transmitted by puerile name-calling, denigrating insults and divisive propaganda. If left unchecked, it can rapidly spread before a response can be developed to combat it. I would wager that contempt has infected, afflicted and decimated more people than all other physical diseases combined. Almost immediately after Senator Barack Obama became the nation's first African American president, the Republican Party unleashed a particularly infectious batch of contempt with a declaration of intent to destroy his presidency. Unfortunately, Republicans were not mindful about containing the contagion. No one bothered to monitor the vital signs of the party. Soon afterwards, an indication of mutation occurred, and with it came the realization that a scourge was in the making. The Republican Party initially reasoned the Tea Party useful for debilitating Obama, as the upstart insurgents inflamed tensions by disseminating toxic rhetoric. The party of Reagan was seemingly unaware of the highly contagious ideology it had given rise to, and greatly underestimated its potential for outbreak. The ulcerative dysfunction of our government and the political epilepsy of Republican Party leadership have become obvious consequential ills. Just as a neurotoxin attacks the central nervous system, striking the body with paralysis, contempt has likewise disabled the principles of the GOP. Rather than promote itself as the party of optimistic pragmatism, Republicans have instead become the party of contaminating petulance. It should be no surprise then that Donald Trump has emerged to be its standard bearer. Advertisement Years before, David Duke, a former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and a Holocaust denier, tested the Party's resistance in 1989. Despite risking political capital on an otherwise insignificant election, both Presidents Ronald Regan and George H. Bush interceded to suppress Duke's candidacy for a state congressional seat in Louisiana. When asked why he came out against Duke and even suggested voting for the Democratic candidate instead, President Bush said, "I did what I did because of principle." Principle. The Oxford Dictionary defines the word as a fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system, a belief or a chain of reasoning. I would add that principles also serve as the foundation of character, and that the preservation of character depends tremendously, if not solely on one defining attribute: integrity. Integrity is defined by the reliability of an individual, an institution, an organization or a corporation's adherence to a moral and ethical conviction for conduct. Integrity is also used to describe the condition, fitness and soundness of a structure. Unfortunately, history provides much evidence that the avarice of power weakens the immunity of integrity. For the sake of the nation's aspiration of a more perfect union, the Republican Party needs to cure itself of its cupidity. It needs to revive its integrity by resuscitating its principles. I offer two for consideration, from one of its own. Nine-term Republican congressman, one-time vice presidential candidate and Housing Secretary under President Bush, Jack Kemp once opined that, "The purpose of politics is not to defeat your opponent, as much as it is to provide superior leadership and better ideas than the opposition." He also said, "Democracy without morality is impossible." The principles defined by Kemp seem to be so lofty now, as to be stratospheric in reach for Donald Trump and the GOP. But quite literally, that fate of the nation depends on the Republican desire, will, recognition and conviction to put country before party. Rather than adhering to the petty, disingenuous support of its nominee as an electoral calculation for claiming the White House, the Republican Party, should -- must withdraw support from Trump, and immunize itself with a great act of integrity to preserve its existence. This would be an incredibly difficult thing to do, but the aforementioned film provides one more quote to consider to that end: Advertisement Quick, what do Vietnamese and Filipino Americans have in common? If you said that both communities hail from Southeast Asia, youd be right. But the commonalities dont stop there. Both communities also have sizable numbers of naturalized citizens, many of who are casting wary eyes on Chinas ongoing aggression in the South China Sea. For Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, whose record on security in the region is well documented, that could prove decisive come November. The future of politics will be decided in Asia, not Afghanistan or Iraq, wrote then Secretary of State Clinton in 2011, in a much-touted essay for Foreign Policy magazine supporting President Obamas strategic pivot to Asia. Advertisement While turmoil in the Middle East ultimately derailed Obamas Asia pivot, analysts believe that as president, Clinton would again seek to reinvigorate the policy to secure U.S. primacy in the region and to ensure the United States remains at the center of the action. And there is plenty of action. In the years since Clintons essay appeared, China has continued to build up its presence in open waters around the South China Sea, posing a direct challenge to the territorial sovereignty of several Southeast Asian nations, including Vietnam and the Philippines. Beijing continues to construct military bases including a 3000-meter runway, two helipads and a radar tower on artificial islands that lie in open waters. A report out this week, meanwhile, notes China began flying aerial combat patrols over these same waters despite a ruling by a United Nations tribunal invalidating Beijings claims to territory in the region. While China rejected the ruling, Filipinos and Vietnamese including those in the United States turned out in droves to celebrate. Advertisement Indeed, if there is a core issue linking Vietnamese and Filipino American voters, it is Chinese aggression and the threat it poses to the territorial integrity of their homelands. Its an issue that could drive enough of them to vote in states where their numbers are growing and where recent electoral victories have come at the slimmest of margins. Take Florida for example. The state played a pivotal if not controversial role in ushering in the Bush presidency in 2000 with a slim margin of just 536 votes. Today, the combined Vietnamese and Filipino population there hovers around 200,000. In Nevada, another swing state, Filipinos number around 120,000. And in Georgia, the two groups combined make up around 80,000. (There is, incidentally, also a significant Korean presence in Georgia of around 100,000.) As Florida showed, a few hundred votes in either direction can alter the trajectory of the nation and the world. Given all this, one would assume Democrats and Republicans would be lining up to court Filipino and Vietnamese voters. But according to a survey put out last May by the non-partisan group APIA Vote, "Asian Americans were less likely than other racial groups to be contacted. Indeed, GOP nominee Donald Trump this week went so far as to indict the Philippines, saying the country was part of a Trojan horse of terrorist nations threatening the United States. His comments have already touched off a fire storm both here and in the Philippines, where lawmakers have proposed banning Trump from visiting. Advertisement But even among Democratic strategists, who have long focused on winning over the Latino and black vote, Asian Americans are often a second thought at best, the assumption being most are solidly blue. Which is true, to a point. According to the APIA Vote survey, Clintons favorability ratings among Asian American voters came in at 62 percent, compared to 61 percent unfavorable for Trump. But the survey also found 23 percent of Filipinos and 22 percent of Vietnamese found Trump favorable. Vietnamese Americans, in particular, have a long record of supporting Republicans going back to the days of Reagan and the fight against Communism. Many still regard the GOP as being stronger on national security. And this is where Clintons stance on the South China Seas comes in handy. Clinton needs to remind Vietnamese and Filipino Americans of her record in Asia, of how she helped bring about democratic elections in Burma and shifted that countrys alliance from China toward the United States. The same thing can happen for Vietnam. She needs to convince them that if Trump wins he will be an unsure and inept hand at America's helm. This will surely steer America and its allies toward disunity, and therefore open opportunities for expansionistic neighbors China and Russia. Advertisement All politics is local. But given shifting demographics, local may also means the assurance of strong foreign policy experience. For Clinton, guaranteeing the security of the South China Sea may very well be the key to driving Filipino and Vietnamese American voters to the booths and opening the door to the White House in November. by Dr. Ahmet S. Yayla and Dr. Anne Speckhard ISIS is claiming credit for inspiring the latest terrorist attacks in Nice, France and on a train in southern Germany. We don't know what was in the attackers' minds or whether ISIS' claim is false bravado or true, but a video obtained by our ISIS Defector Interview Project at the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism, ICSVE, may provide credence to ISIS' claim. ISIS produces thousands of videos and memes to reach and radicalize those who are vulnerable, but this particular video is of critical importance, we believe, for its specificity. This video, produced in late 2015 but rereleased during Ramadan in June, and heavily promoted in Telegram channels before the Nice attack and clearly meant to inspire ISIS followers in the West, called for a suicide attack in France with a truck, eerily similar to the Bastille Day event in Nice that killed 84 people and wounded another 200. The video also calls for specific attacks in Germany, Australia, Britain and the U.S. Subsequently, a seventeenyearold stabbed five passengers on a German train. He left a "classic farewell video" of a suicide attacker that indicates he was inspired by ISIS, according to German officials, and in a goodbye letter, he prayed that he could take revenge on all infidels. In our decades of counterterrorism experience, if there is a clear request of supporters to carry out an attack, and if that attack happens in a timely fashion after the message was spread, it is never a coincidence. The AlHayat media center, one of several production facilities run by ISIS, created this extremely polished, threeminute recruiting video with English subtitles and a catchy nasheed (an Islamic chant, in German) playing in the background. Quoting from the video, ISIS' taunts sound almost desperate to engage the West: Advertisement "You, now listen you dogs of hell. This is a message and more are going to follow. This is just the beginning. The words have been written. The ink has dried. The judgment has been made. Until the day of judgment your end approaches." "Bombs are dropping on us. This increases our faith. Men with black masks, a creed, sharp like knives, heads are rolling... the terror is now here." The photoshopped video then gets into specifics: "In France, it has been proven by deeds, German sleeper cells are waiting, the brothers are operating, terrorizing the kuffar [unbeliever], war has just begun, we have smelled blood, black flags have come to Sham [Syria] with the Bay'ah [pledge of allegiance]." France: "Take revenge for our sisters, for our noble brothers and all the martyrs. A truck filled with explosives loving farewell, don't be sad my mother, your son is rushing to Allah. To the enemies of Allah: Where are your troops?" Advertisement It suggests a second vehicular attack in Australia and other attacks in the UK and U.S.: "Australia: Drive an SUV over crowds. Fill your tank with gas and do not hesitate." To the UK they suggest a random sniper attack: "Do your jihad and assault. Finish the job. Do it with sincerity." In the U.S., New York City is the target, showing an ISIS fighter preparing a suicide vest and wearing it among a crowd." This video, rife with gruesome images, also has an important narrative thread meant to justify these terrorist acts. Throughout the video, a person is looking to sacred Islamic scriptures for guidance and ends with a Kalashnikov rifle and hand grenades overlooking a computer, implying that one can find all the instructions needed online. The key message is that Islam instructs what is required of "true believers". Terrorism goes against all rules of Islam which is perhaps why this video goes to great lengths to offer scriptural justification for mass killings to remove any lingering doubt for ISIS wouldbe followers. To effectively go up against ISIS, we must have a counternarrative in play. At ICSVE, we are interviewing and videotaping dozens of ISIS defectors. We will edit and slip short videos (see our first two here) of these disillusioned voices into encrypted ISIS sites to reach those being radicalized by ISIS propaganda. We believe no one provides a more compelling argument against ISIS than defectors who know that the ISIS "Caliphate" is a hypocritical and deadly choice, and risked their lives to escape. But ours is just one effort. The West must do more online, to counter ISIS' masterful efforts online. Ahmet S. Yayla, Ph.D. is coauthor of the just-released book, ISIS Defectors: Inside the Terrorist Caliphate, published by Advances Press. Dr. Ahmet is Deputy Director of the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism (ICSVE) and Adj. Professor at the Department of Criminology, Law and Society at George Mason University and formerly served as Professor and the Chair of the Sociology Department at Harran University in Turkey. He is the former Chief of Counterterrorism and Operations Division for the Turkish National Police with a 20year career interviewing terrorists. Anne Speckhard, Ph.D. is Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown University in the School of Medicine and Director of the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism (ICSVE). She is the author of Talking to Terrorists, Bride of ISIS and coauthor of Undercover Jihadi and Warrior Princess. Her most recent book is the just released book, ISIS Defectors: Inside the Terrorist Caliphate , which she coauthored with Dr. Yayla. Dr. Speckhard has interviewed nearly 500 terrorists, their family members and supporters around the world and is a soughtafter expert by media and governments around the world. Advertisement By Hong Soon-do, Beijing correspondent, AsiaToday - It has been revealed that nearly sixty Chinese Christians have recently applied for political asylum in the Czech Republic due to China's religious persecution. If this is the case, it would be a big blow to China who already faces criticism from Western countries including the United States over its human right issues. [Chinese Christians in a church in Hubei Province near Beijing. Chinese citizens have freedom of religion but their freedom of mission work is not guaranteed./ Source: search engine Baidu] According to Western sources in Beijing on Monday, such asylum applications by Chinese in the United States or Europe is not a world-shaking event. But it's definitely not a common thing if such application is filed by a group of more than 60 people. It is unprecedented in the history of this country. Moreover, things will worsen if those Chinese are real Christians. This could mean that China's religious and human right problems are worse than we could have ever imagined. It could also mean that they are responding more aggressively than ever before. Nevertheless, the Chinese government did not bother to hide the event. The government blazed the news widely through the August 8th report of the Global Times, a sister publication in the People's Daily. This response seems quite unusual. However, the newspaper did not forget to cast doubts on what the case is really about. It considers the 60 Chinese in the Czech Republic as illegal immigrants disguised themselves as Christians. Perhaps, this is why the government has sent officials from the Chinese Embassy in Prague to grasp the situation. Advertisement For now, it's not certain whether the sixty Chinese are Christians or illegal immigrants as what the Chinese government say. But the problem is whether the Czech Republic will accept them or not if they are found to be real Christians. Under international law, the Czech Republic has no choice but to accept them. However, its current relationship with China is pretty good that Czech President Milos Zeman has visited China twice in the last two years. If the Christians are granted asylum, the relationship between the two countries will be rather awkward. Moreover, China will be put on a quite annoying situation. June 15 was a historic day. After 17 years of negotiations, the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was approved. That's cause for celebration. The Declaration brings advances on many fronts. It means States must commit to respecting the rights of indigenous peoples, including their rights to land, territory, and a healthy environment. It means respecting sustainable development. It recognizes that violence against indigenous women "prevents and nullifies the enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms." And it reinforces the rights of indigenous peoples to participation; to prior consultation; and to free, prior, and informed consent - particularly when they're faced with harm to their territories. The need for effective justice As the Organization of American States was approving the Declaration, activists held a Global Day of Action to call for justice for Berta Caceres, the Honduran indigenous rights defender assassinated on March 3. Advertisement These simultaneous events demonstrate the lack of effective justice in the region. Latin America yearns for justice, particularly with regard to human rights violations caused by extractive, energy, tourism, and infrastructure projects. The events also highlight the urgent need to put declarations and international obligations into practice. Berta's death was foreshadowed. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights asked the Honduran government to take precautionary measures to protect her life, which the government did not do. Two days after her death, the Commission also requested protective measures for the organization she led, the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH). Just days later, however, Nelson Garcia, another of the organization's members, was assassinated. The primary demand on the Global Day of Action was to create a commission of independent experts to investigate the murders and to help uncover the truth. The assassinations of Berta and Nelson are not exceptions. More than 100 people dedicated to protecting their lands, forests, and rivers have been murdered in Honduras since 2010. And it's not only there. Brazil, Colombia, Nicaragua, and Peru are four of the five most violent countries in the world for environmental defenders (alongside the Philippines). Advertisement 2015 has been widely recognized as "the worst year on record" for those who defend the Earth. Towards real development Berta dedicated her life to defending rivers. At the time of her death, she was working to save her people's territory from being flooded by the Agua Zarca Dam on the Gualquarque River. Indigenous communities there have taken stands against more than 50 extractive and energy projects affecting their land, the majority of which violate national and international law. Her case has thrust into the spotlight the realities of development in Latin America. Although governments--with the help of international financial institutions, national banks, and foreign investors--promote extractive, energy, tourism, and infrastructure projects as essential to development and poverty alleviation, the reality is quite different. Systematically, these projects are built in violation of laws and without adequate planning or evaluation of impacts on the environment and human rights. Sustainable alternatives are rarely evaluated at all. In fact, many of the projects pushed through in Latin America would not be viable in developed countries, where better technologies and safeguards are the norm. Special Rapporteurs to the United Nations have been calling attention to this issue for years. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights also recognized it in a recent report on extractive industries and their impacts on tribal and indigenous peoples. Unfortunately, the Commission is undergoing an unprecedented financial crisis because States aren't making sufficient contributions. Some have delayed or withdrawn funding because of conflicts over the Commission's rulings on extractive and energy projects in their territories. The clearest example can be found in Brazil, which reacted to the Commission's call to suspend Belo Monte Dam construction by withdrawing its ambassador, initiating a thorough review of the Commission, and freezing financial contributions. Brazil has yet to re-establish a regular contribution to the body. Advertisement Hope and opportunity For all these reasons, approval of the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is encouraging news. It's essential that the rights and obligations it contains be upheld immediately. Starting with Berta's case, States must demonstrate their seriousness. They must show, through action, that they recognize the problems facing the region; that they're reaching for truth and justice; and that they favor real development to uplift their people. Speaking at the recent White House Summit on Global Development, President Barack Obama celebrated a long list of important advances in health, clean energy, and food security made during his two terms in office. Not surprisingly, I paid special attention to a line in the President's speech about the necessity of empowering the world's young people, "whose energy and enthusiasm and optimism," he said, "can lift up countries, no matter how tough the circumstances." But by the time he spoke, at the close of the day, I found myself wishing I had heard more discussion of how, going forward, we can ensure the world's 1.8 billion young people are equipped for economic success. While I join the administration and Summit participants in applauding all that has been accomplished in the last seven and a half years, I believe the event was missing discussions of two key realities: The global youth unemployment crisis The growing role of multi-sector partnerships in promoting job training and entrepreneurship opportunities among the world's young people. The first represents a pressing global issue, and the second offers a way for businesses, schools, governments, and civil society to come together to help solve it. In our 26 years, IYF has been proud to partner with USAID and a host of organizations and businesses to leverage resources and deepen the global understanding of scalable solutions for youth employment, with the ultimate goal of poverty eradication. Youth leadership, of course, also presents a unique opportunity in global development. President Obama mentioned his administration's Young Leaders Initiative, which has brought together nearly half a million young innovators from Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Americas to exchange ideas and expertise. It's a laudable effort not unlike our YouthActionNet initiative, which has built a global network of young social entrepreneurs. Not yet 30 years old, these founders and CEOs of social enterprises are leading efforts to solve our toughest problems. In terms of listing recent accomplishments by this administration, I would have highlighted USAID's first-ever Youth in Development Policy, published in 2012. Creating this policy brought broader attention to the importance of investing in young people, and, in USAID's words, doing it more "systematically." The policy lays out a useful framework for the development community to strengthen youth programming, integrate youth issues, and engage young people in designing and supporting the Agency's efforts in the field. Advertisement Another sign of progress? As discussed at the Summit, the development community is placing far greater emphasis on evidence-based initiatives that use metrics, accountability, and transparency to understand and deepen impact on lives and communities. In a world of limited resources and competing agendas, this emphasis on investing in "what works" has always been at the core of IYF's approach to youth development. While we do not yet know who will occupy the White House next January, I fervently hope that we not only continue to build upon and expand the progress we've made, but that we also redouble efforts to engage and empower the world's younger generation. Believe me, if they are not successful in the workforce, if they can't find ways to support their families and revitalize their communities, if they lose hope in the future, then our best hopes for a more peaceful, stable, and equitable world will not be realized. The Boston Herald, February 8, 1995 "Verizon plans to offer cable television to customers in Rhode Island and Massachusetts - starting with Somerville. "Verizon must upgrade switching systems, lay fiber optic and coaxial cable, making investments that could eventually reach billions of dollars, said spokesman John Johnson. "'We will begin construction almost immediately. A good bit of it is going to be aerial, on poles. There will also be some underground,' Johnson said. "Starting with Somerville, Verizon service is planned for 330,000 households in Boston, Winthrop, Brookline, Cambridge, Watertown, Peabody, Salem and Marblehead, Johnson said." NOTE: The proposed Verizon fiber optic communities in the year 1995 also included Roxbury, Brighton, Beacon Hill, Back Bay and Revere. Current Reality In April 2016, Verizon announced a plan to bring FiOS, the fiber to the home service, to the City of Boston, spending $300 million over the next 6 years. And, as we wrote, there are a bunch of serious holes in this story as it is clear that Verizon has decided it can now do 'faux FiOS' - where the wire is replaced by a fixed wireless broadband service - which, ironically, still requires a fiber optic wire. Advertisement However, I was struck by the fact that the Boston plan is not a plan to wire the surrounding towns - Cambridge, Somerville, Chelsea, Revere, Watertown, Brookline, Quincy, or even Salem, among other communities. In fact, there is a question whether Verizon is going to do fiber to the home anywhere except in a few sections, including Roxbury. And ironically, as the opening quote reveals, many of these communities were supposed to have been wired, starting in 1995. I'll get back to this in a moment. But, for the real sense of history repeating itself - in 1996, Boston was a test site to NOT do fiber optic upgrades but do a wireless replacement; it didn't work because there were tech and 'line-of-sight' issues, meaning there has to be a clear path for the service to work. In 2016, Boston is a test site for faux FiOS, the proposed '5G' fixed wireless, which also has line-of-sight issues. To top it off, there are actually "Dead Zones" - (as described below) areas in the state of Massachusetts that do not even have cable service, much less were upgraded to FiOS; some areas in the state don't have reliable wireless or even 'high-speed' services, such as DSL. Advertisement Let's start with the current deployments and what Verizon claims will be done in Boston. Current Reality On the maps above, on the right is a Verizon-supplied layout of the areas to be covered, starting with section "A" in 2016. On the left is a map of the Greater Boston area and the FiOS coverage as told by "Where's Our FiOS?"; it covers the same areas, and then some. The areas marked in 'white' match the proposed coverage areas of Verizon's FiOS deployment; the areas marked in 'gray' are towns that have not been upgraded - and may never be upgraded. Verizon has NOT filed for a full Cable TV Franchise for Boston. Verizon has told the public that they were going to be doing the entire city of Boston, and at the time of the announcement, as trumpeted by the local media, most understood this to mean 'fiber to the home'. Truth be told, Verizon has only applied for the section "A" part of Boston for a cable franchise and "if successful" may "seek to amend" the license and add other sections. Boston asked: If the proposed service area is not the entire municipality, specify the nature of the area (e.g., neighborhood) and explain why the entire municipality will not be served. Verizon Response: "The initial service area is for the Dudley Square area of Roxbury and the West Roxbury and Dorchester neighborhoods of the City. If Verizon is granted a cable License for the initial service area and is successful in providing cable service to that area, it may seek to amend its License with the City to add other sections of the City consistent with 207 CMR 3:07." The proposed plan map, above, has 'blue' sections which contain the section 'A' neighborhoods of Boston. Dudley Square, etc. is where Verizon will start. Advertisement The Rest of Massachusetts and 'Dead' Zones If the Boston area has not been upgraded and maintained, the mid and western parts of the state are a Verizon barren fiber optic wasteland. This map, created using the State's Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI)-collected information shows areas in the north central and western part of Massachusetts that do not have high speed broadband or even cable TV. It appears that Verizon simply stopped deploying fiber infrastructure and the voice, video and data services it can deliver. In trying to understand what's being deployed by Verizon in the areas that are 'black', we asked a few experts who work in this part of Massachusetts and they gave rather bleak reports. Verizon has some DSL in these areas, with a top speed of 3 Mbps in one direction, but it stopped new deployment a few years back. Worse, there are problems with even getting working phone lines and there is very poor cell coverage. With the failure of the incumbent phone and cable companies to bring service to the underserved, there have been a number of plans to get these areas upgraded, but most have fallen short. The MBI received a major government "BTOP" grant as part of the Obama Stimulus program and built out a network to connect the Community Anchor Institutions (CAIs) in these towns called MassBroadband123, which served these 123 municipalities. And there has been a movement of a cooperative to get towns wired in Western Massachusetts called Wired West, but it has been mired by problems, (and was the subject of a recent report by Harvard Berkman). Advertisement This part of the tale of Massachusetts broadband is way too detailed for this discussion. The real question is: Should Massachusetts have already been wired/upgraded by Verizon, much less Boston? - You bet. NOTE: NYNEX merged with Bell Atlantic in 1997 and became Verizon with the merger of GTE in 2000. For clarity, we'll use the current name. Over two decades ago, now-Verizon made announcements that it would be replacing the existing copper wires with a fiber optic wire. While this happened in virtually every state in America, so Massachusetts is not unique, in almost every state, laws were changed to give the incumbent phone company--Verizon, extra profits that were supposed to be used for increased capital expenditures and tax breaks, to bring a fiber optic digital future. And there are multiple ironies here. First, the list of locations that would first enjoy this new fiber optic future overlaps with the current Boston plan -- except many of the towns are not on the 2016-2020 expected-to-be-upgraded list. To repeat, the proposed Verizon fiber optic 1995 plan included: Somerville, Roxbury, Brighton, Beacon Hill, Back Bay, Winthrop, Brookline, Revere, Cambridge, Watertown, Peabody, Salem and Marblehead. Advertisement The plan, which actually started in 1991, nationwide, had the hype machine in full swing by 1994. The Boston Globe, July 9, 1994 "Offering Massachusetts residents their first break from cable television monopolies, New England's regional telephone company yesterday proposed offering cable television service over its phone network in parts of Boston, Somerville, Cambridge and seven other communities as early as next year. "Depending on FCC actions, Verizon said, construction of the new network would begin in Somerville, Revere and Winthrop late this year or early next year, with service starting as early as mid-1995. Work would then start in Roxbury, Beacon Hill, Brighton, Back Bay, Brookline, Cambridge, Watertown, Peabody, Salem and Marblehead. ... In all, 330,000 Massachusetts customers and 60,000 in Rhode Island would be linked to the network. "While Verizon previously said it wanted to build the network, and set its price at about $500 million, it had never said when or where construction would start." The Patriot Ledger, a few months later, added this on December 13, 1994: "'Telephone customers in Boston and its western and northern suburbs will be the first to be offered cable television services by their local phone company,' a Verizon spokesman said yesterday. "'In Massachusetts, Verizon plans to begin the new service in Somerville, Revere and Winthrop, then move to Brookline, Cambridge and neighborhoods in Boston, including Roxbury, Brighton, Beacon Hill and the Back Bay', spokesman Kenneth Horne said yesterday." In 1995, the FCC approved the companies' petitions to offer cable service and replace the existing copper wires with fiber optics. As the opening quote discussed, The Boston Herald, February 8, 1995, quoted the company claiming they were going to start 'almost immediately'. Advertisement And the plan was to do the entire East Coast. This projection to do 10 million households represents just NYNEX, which controlled from Maine to New York. "It may take 15 years to reach the 10 million households in the northeast, but it's our long-term goal to reach everybody who wants this type of service." I.e.--By 2010, Verizon should have completed this 'long-term' goal to have 10 million households wired with fiber optics. Massive Profits from Customers Accrued from Not Building the Fiber Networks. None of this fiber optic build out was ever deployed, but state laws were changed to essentially raise rates by giving the companies, that were monopolies, more profits on basic services, such as 'call waiting'. Verizon Massachusetts Press Release: April 14, 1994 HEADLINE: VERIZON PROPOSES RESIDENCE RATE FREEZE THROUGH THE TURN OF THE CENTURY; COMPANY WOULD START BUILDING INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY TO REACH 330,000 Verizon (NYSE: NYN) today proposed a plan to cap residential rates for basic telephone service in Massachusetts at current levels through the turn of the century and to begin building the information superhighway in the commonwealth....The 10-year plan, submitted to the state Department of Public Utilities, calls for the DPU to regulate the prices Verizon charges for its services rather than the company's earnings. Price regulation would enable Verizon to make the investments needed to build the communications infrastructure for the 21st century. "The plan also calls for Verizon to begin building the information superhighway in Massachusetts to bring customers a virtually unlimited range of advanced voice, video and data services in the future. In the first phase of construction, the company would invest nearly half a billion dollars to install 330,000 broadband lines over the next several years beginning in late 1994 or early 1995. Fiber-optic based broadband technology -- so called for its ability to transport high volumes of information including TV signals -- is an integral part of the superhighway." NOTE: While "price caps" sound 'consumer friendly', the changes in state regulations just allowed more profits, which was supposed to be used to make infrastructure investments. Instead, the profits (EBITDA) went from 11% to 33.4%--an increase of 204%, (1995-1998) while the dividends paid to Verizon corporate doubled. The State never audited the financial books to examine the benefits accrued to Verizon versus the impacts of the rate increases and lack of upgrades had on the economy of Massachusetts and its businesses and citizens or its towns and cities. Thus, built into current rates--all these years later, are essentially a defacto tax that was supposed to build out the state utility's infrastructure, which is supposed to serve all who live in the Verizon footprint of service. Funnier or Sadder? Verizon decides to offer wireless instead of fiber, April 1995 The ink wasn't even dry on the plans to deliver fiber to the home, and yet Verizon decided it would replace that plan with a 'wireless cable' solution. Advertisement The Boston Globe, April 27, 1995 "In recent weeks, three regional phone companies unwrapped plans to enter the cable-TV market sooner than expected, using simple transmission towers and fishbone-style rooftop receivers... the phone companies say it will enable them to offer customers an alternative to cable programming long before their exotic fiber-optic networks are rolled out later in the decade. "It gives customer choices sooner than what we would otherwise be able to accomplish with fiber," says Jack Hoey, a spokesman in Boston for Verizon." And if you want buckets of deja vu, Verizon's plan was to do a 'test' of this new wireless cable service - in Boston, 1996-1997. According to CED magazine: "Verizon will begin testing digital wireless cable in the Boston area sometime this quarter, made possible by its investment -- with Bell Atlantic (which is also part of Verizon) -- in CAI Wireless, which will provide the delivery networks for Verizon programming in Boston. Set-tops purchased by the Tele-TV consortium from Thomson will deliver the programming to the homes of Verizon "friendlys" in Boston, and sometime during the first quarter of 1997, Verizon will move the service from a trial into a limited deployment. "'We will be evaluating the results in the Boston area to determine where we go next,' says the spokesman, 'and future rollout plans'." Oops. By the end of 1996, Philly.com reported that the company had problems getting the fixed wireless networks to work because it required "line of sight". "Verizon executives have recently voiced concerns that in trials, the microwave systems were only able to reach 50 percent of homes, instead of the 75 percent they sought. A line of sight is needed between the transmitter and a rooftop antenna, and the signals can be interrupted by trees or bad weather." But, just to continue on the parallels, it's 2016 and 5G is coming but, oh, it has the same line-of-sight issue and requires fiber optic wires to be installed as well. Wired magazine writes: "For example, 5G will include parts of the ultrahigh frequency spectrum that until recently most people thought were unsuitable for mobile data connections. The catch is that these frequencies still require a line-of-sight between the user's device and the access point. That's going to require a shift from big cell towers that blanket entire neighborhoods in wireless signals to tiny access points positioned, well, everywhere... 'Instead of thousands of cell towers, there will be millions of points of presence,' says Richard Adler, a fellow at think tank Institute for the Future." So, let's review. The current reality is: Verizon has only signed a cable franchise for a small area, and not the complete City of Boston, nor provided a timeline to get the rest of the city deployed with fiber optics. Instead, Verizon is planning on doing a faux FiOS deployment of fiber-to-the-antenna, a "wireless fiber" deployment. Many other towns in the Greater Boston area are not getting upgraded or are even mentioned. This includes. Cambridge, Somerville, Chelsea or even Salem Massachusetts. In examining the state, Verizon stopped deploying fiber optic services along a Maginot line (defined by the Outer Ring of I-495 highway), leaving most of the mid and western part of the state with a deteriorating copper network or DSL at best--with a speed of two cans and string. This has left some cities to fend for themselves to attempt to bring broadband, much less fiber optic services. Ironically, over 20 years ago, Verizon claimed it was going to deploy 330,000 lines of fiber optics and would start in many of the cities and towns that are not even part of the new deployment list, including Cambridge and Somerville. Advertisement And, after the ink was dry on the new deregulations of 1995, the company decided to try a wireless replacement of the copper, only to find that there were problems, including 'line of-sight' issues--ironically, this is just like 5G, which also has the added problem that--THERE IS NO COMPANY WIRING AMERICA WITH FIBER OPTICS, which is required for 5G. Thus, since the 1990's there has been a defacto "hidden" tax built into all services that use the copper and fiber networks for broadband upgrades. (A version of this post first appeared in The Conversation.) Within every news story and talking point that floods our present awareness, the same question emerges over and over. We hear it in the World Bank's poverty estimates, in the increasingly frequent headlines of gun violence and terrorism in the US and Europe, in the press releases logging Google's latest achievements with artificial intelligence. It's a question so pervasive to our discourse, we barely register its existence. And yet it shapes the frame through which we interpret most of the information we consume daily. Should we be optimistic, or pessimistic, about where the world is headed? Our recent book, Age of Discovery, argues that the present is a second Renaissance. That sounds solidly optimistic -- but only until one digs deeply enough into history. One then recognises that the first Renaissance struggled with the same doubts and uncertainties that we face today as new maps, new media, and a flourishing of genius and risk transformed European society and the world. The early Renaissance artist Brunelleschi, who introduced linear perspective into European art (showing depth on a flat canvas by drawing far-away objects smaller), taught his generation that what they saw depended on how they looked at it. Right now, that seems true in every domain of human endeavour. Advertisement Economic convergence or divergence? Take economic development. Step back and view humanity as a whole, and the absolute story is broadly positive. The emerging global middle class -- the middle third of humanity by income -- have seen real incomes rise some 60% to 70% since 1988. The bottom third have seen theirs rise over 40%. But the relative view is sharply different. Rank humanity by wealth, and in 2015 the top 62 people in the world held more wealth than the bottom 3.6 billion. Move one step closer. Break humanity down into component countries, and the picture changes once again. In aggregate, over the past quarter-century, the average income in poorer, developing countries has been catching up to the average income in richer, advanced economies -- and quickly. Since 2000, the number of countries classified as 'low income' by the World Bank has halved, from more than 65 to 33. But as with people, so with states: the relative fortunes of the global top and bottom diverge widely. Since 1990, the average income in the world's 20 poorest countries has risen some 30% in real terms, from about $270 to $350 -- an increase of $80. Income in the twenty richest countries has also risen about 30%, from $36,000 to $44,000--an increase of $8,000. Finally, take one more step closer to peer within countries, and divergence once again dominates the picture. Within almost all countries, from the least developed to the most, the gap between rich and poor has widened over the past few decades. In the US, the top fifth have seen their real incomes rise over 25% since 1990; the bottom fifth have seen theirs fall 5% . Put another way, America's bottom fifth were earning more money back when the US economy had 40% less income per person to spread around. The above suggests that our current ills are 'merely' a matter of distribution. If we could but better spread the gains being registered we'd realise a world in which we're all much, much better off than just a generation ago. And surely recent political events -- notably Brexit and the rise of populists like Trump and Sanders -- have strengthened the case for that redistribution to happen. The case for optimism may be getting stronger every day. Advertisement Connected or tangled? But wait. Even brushing aside the political and institutional obstacles to making that redistribution a reality, such optimism oversimplifies humanity's present picture. To see our aggregate situation fairly, we must first discount our absolute gains by the additional risk -- environmental, biological, financial and, increasingly, cyber. These are the risks that we are all suffering as an unintended but unavoidable byproduct of global economic opening and connecting up. The growth-plus-entanglement of everything from bank balance sheets to air passengers to data traffic has strained virtually every natural and social system. This has made their malfunction or collapse more likely to occur, harder to see coming and more devastating when it does happen. Consider that in just two years, from 2007 to 2009, the global financial crisis tallied up direct losses of over $4 trillion, across every market in the world, forced 50 million people out of work and forced another quarter-billion into the ranks of the 'working poor'. Consider recent pandemic simulations showing that a contagious airborne pathogen (like H5N1) carried into any major airport, on any continent, would be global within three days at most. Or consider the global migration of data onto the internet, which has enabled another pandemic -- cybercrime. In 2014, roughly one-half of small businesses, two-thirds of medium-sized companies and four-fifths of large enterprises worldwide were specifically targeted by a cyberattack. Beyond corporate losses ranging from $300 billion to $400 billion per year, these attacks harm us all by exposing our personal data. It is no longer a question of whether we will become a victim of cybercrime, but when. Beautiful mind or evil genius? What about the scientific realm? Is there a clear case for either optimism or pessimism within the present pace of scientific and technological advancement? Again, the headlines pose more questions than answers. On the one hand some economists, led by Robert Gordon, argue that innovation is slowing down. If productivity statistics are any guide, the computer and the Internet have done less so far to lift people's incomes than the flush toilet. But that pessimism may say more about the limits of economic forecasting than the present scale or pace of scientific discovery. Advertisement The unimpressive economic data is difficult to square against the profound new powers that science seems poised to put into human hands. Genetic medicine and synthetic biology are flipping medicine's whole paradigm from treating disease to transforming organisms. Quantum computing promises to break through the physical limits that our ever-shrinking transistors will quickly run up against by instead scaling up the weird entanglements that exist at quantum scales. Artificial intelligence is already here and steadily growing stronger. The stronger case for pessimism may be to worry that these fresh technological powers will outstrip our collective wisdom for wielding them. If we automate away half of all jobs in the current economy, as some studies suggest we are on track to do, to whom will the gains of this wrenching retooling flow? To those who own the machines, or to those whose jobs have been destroyed? If biologists experiment more aggressively with the human genome -- to help us live longer, resist chronic disease better or think smarter -- who will have access to such enhancements? Such difficult policy and ethical questions may divide humanity more profoundly than the Atlantic Ocean ever did in the pre-Columbus era. The contest we're in Optimism or pessimism? Either stance can be backed by solid argument, but we argue that neither suits the Renaissance age we live in so much as a third frame: activism. The present is best understood as a contest: between the good and bad consequences of global entanglement and human development; between forces of inclusion and exclusion; between flourishing genius and flourishing risks. In a general way, of course, this is always true, but the truth has never been more urgent. The scale of the risks that threaten global well-being have never approached their present gravity, and the opportunity costs of being excluded from humanity's aggregate flourishing have never been higher. Advertisement We need to champion critical thinking in a time of irresponsible rhetoric. To celebrate diversity and stamp out prejudice. To raise public and private patronage. To dare failure, and strengthen public safety nets in ways that embolden us all. To build new crossroads and welcome migrants. To tear up the (mental) maps that unhelpfully divide people according to national, race, gender, religious or other stereotypes and replace them with new ones that recognise our common humanity and interests. To stoke public trust in democratic institutions, so that we may vest them with the powers to meet new transnational threats. Luminaries of the first Renaissance saw their own time in a similarly urgent light. There is "no greater harm than that of time wasted". "People of accomplishment rarely sit back and let things happen to them. They go out and happen to things." Tradition attributes these words to Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, respectively. In his conclusion to The Prince, Machiavelli urged the rulers of Italy that 'everything has converged for your greatness. The rest you must do yourself.' They recognised that their age offered blinding possibilities, but that any gains would have to be achieved amid relentless shocks. What we all do now to promote the possibilities and dampen the dangers that this moment brings will determine whether we repeat the glories of the first Renaissance, the miseries, or both. If the present climate of instability is any guide, "neither" is not one of the options before us. 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. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) describes itself in glowing terms as "an independent, not-for-profit organization authorized by Congress to protect America's investors by making sure the securities industry operates fairly and honestly." The reality is quite different. A flawed arbitration system FINRA occupies a unique place in the regulatory framework. It's in charge of regulating brokers who must be licensed and registered by it. As part of its responsibilities, it administers an arbitration system to which customers of brokerage firms are required to submit disputes with brokers. It has long been my view that this cozy system -- which deprives investors of their right to a jury trial -- is inherently unfair to investors and is rigged in favor of brokers. One study found the advanced age of arbitrators in the FINRA panel raised "serious concerns about their ability to effectively and fairly participate in arbitration proceedings." The same study also found the arbitrator disclosure process "fails to ensure that it provides updated and accurate background information and information related to potential conflicts of interest and bias to parties." Advertisement The study urged Congress to pass legislation making securities arbitration optional to investors. A flawed "BrokerCheck" system As part of its effort to burnish its image with investors, FINRA touts its "BrokerCheck" system. According to its web page, this system can tell you, among other things, whether a broker or brokerage firm has been subject to regulatory actions, criminal convictions and customer complaints. This is certainly information you should know before deciding to hire a broker. You would think making sure all the relevant information is accurate would be a priority for FINRA. Blogs authored by Craig McCann, Ph.D, Mike Yan, Ph.D and Chuan Quin, Ph.D, who are affiliated with Securities Litigation & Consulting Group, raise troubling questions about the reliability of BrokerCheck. In one blog, the authors provided two examples of brokers who failed to disclose that customer complaints had been resolved against them. Instead, it listed these cases as "pending" up to 15 months after the adverse award was issued. In the second blog, the authors found additional inaccuracies involving three more brokers. This conclusion by the authors of the study is so damning it merits an immediate investigation into BrokerCheck and a determination of whether the process needs to be completely overhauled: "With FINRA's unfettered access and our programming skills we're confident FINRA could find hundreds, maybe thousands, of brokers who have not reported customer complaints, settlements and awards. These brokers all should be swiftly fined and/or suspended." Advertisement An easy fix If FINRA really believed "an essential component to investor protection is investor education," it would give these well-credentialed authors the access they seek to information that is readily available, take them up on their offer to provide the necessary programming, and identify brokers who should be sanctioned or removed from the industry. Its failure to do so lends credence to those who believe the various processes at FINRA, including its mandatory arbitration system, serve to protect the industry it's supposed to regulate, and not the investors they have been charged to serve. Addendum: I don't often make book recommendations, but I really enjoyed Odds On: The Making of an Evidence-Based Investor, by Matt Hall. Readers of this book will never become victims of the securities industry. Dan Solin is a New York Times bestselling author of the Smartest series of books, including The Smartest Investment Book You'll Ever Read, The Smartest Retirement Book You'll Ever Read and his latest, The Smartest Sales Book You'll Ever Read. Republican down-ballot candidates are right now facing the business end of a 60-40 split. What is a 60-40 split in politics? If you were to ask a candidate for office, what percentage of voters they would like to agree with their positions, their first intuition would be to say, all of them. But the problem with issues like that is that their opponents will likely agree as well, making the issue politically moot. The issues that elect politicians tend to be ones where a solid majority supports them, but there remains a significant minority on the opposite side. We are right now seeing an excellent example of this in terms of responding to Trump's candidacy. Roughly 60 percent of Americans are solidifying their views that Donald Trump would not be a successful president, even if a significant chunk of those voters aren't certain that Hillary Clinton would be the best choice either. For many Republican candidates for offices below the presidency, they're now faced with the challenge to either support a presidential candidate who a significant number of the voters in the middle who decide elections strongly dislike, or to abandon their base, without which they have no chance. Sixty forty. This isn't the only such issue that politicians of both parties often face, and generally, they benefit from voters rarely voting according to one issue alone, but rather responding to many. Nonetheless, it's a challenging situation. Advertisement One option is to simply grin and bear it. Most Republican Congresspeople have announced that they would vote for Trump, though many have danced on whether this qualifies as an endorsement, and some have tried to avoid ever using his name. Others are going in the opposite direction. We've seen already one Republican Congressperson announce he would vote for Gary Johnson, and a second even say he would vote for Hillary Clinton, but neither of them are running for re-election this year. A second strategy is to expand the number of issues, and make it not simply a question of who you endorse for the presidency, but how one relates to them. Mike Coffman, a Republican Congressperson from Colorado, who represents a particularly crucial swing-district in a swing-state, released a TV ad in which he said that no matter who the president was, Trump or Clinton, he would oppose them. This is reminiscent of Ted Cruz's convention speech, in which he asked Republicans to vote for any candidate, up and down the ticket, of whom their conscience approved, even, he implicitly suggested, if the presidential candidate didn't so qualify. On the surface, this is a shrewd strategy. Voters very often vote for one party's candidate for the presidency, and another for Congress; this is how both Dakotas elected only Democratic senators for decades, while routinely giving their electoral votes to Republican presidential candidates, and the state of Iowa used to regularly re-elect one of the most liberal and the most conservative members of the US Senate. Incumbent Representatives also benefit from the generally positive view that voters have to their own member of Congress, which makes it a little easier for them to convey a subtler response to the controversial person on the top of their ticket. Advertisement The problem with this strategy is that there is a very real chance that Republican voters will listen to them and treat this election not as a presidential election, but as a mid-term election. Significantly more voters come to vote when a presidential candidate is on the ticket than when just members of Congress and governorships are up for election. If Democratic voters treat this election like it's a presidential election, and Republican voters treat this like it's a mid-term election, then the Democrats will win not just the presidency, but all sorts of down-ballot campaigns. Consider Mike Coffman's last two campaigns. In 2012, a presidential year, he won the election with 48 percent of the vote while his Democratic opponent got only 46 percent of the vote (third party candidates got the rest of the votes). In 2014, a mid-term election, his percentage of the vote spiked up to 54 percent. Despite getting a larger percentage of the vote in the mid-term election, however, Coffman got fewer votes then than his opponent in the general election got. Even if Coffman remains just as popular as he was in 2014, if enough would-be Republican voters decide that a Congressional election isn't a good enough reason to even show up to the polls, he'll lose. It isn't quite clear why so many more voters only show up when a presidential election is on the ballot. One big reason is that voters intuitively understand the importance of the presidency, and are far more likely to simply care more about who is the president. If significant numbers of typically-voting Republicans decide that they don't strongly prefer either candidate, then many might simply not show up. Or, if they do show up, they might not feel it as necessary to insist that all of their friends and family go out to the polls, and might remain silent. Another possible reason for the spikes in turnout is the role of political organizations. Donald Trump won the primaries without any apparent investment in the data operations needed to identify his voters, or the field staff to encourage them to the polls, and there is little evidence that he has made the necessary investments for the general election. Instead, he has delegated this task to the RNC and the various state parties. Those organizations, however, typically work just as hard for mid-term elections as they do for presidential elections. Typically, the party's candidates benefit from a huge influx of resources by their presidential candidate; Hillary will provide that support to Democratic candidates, but Republican candidates won't get that extra backing. Advertisement I thought it would be funny to troll Donald Trump followers. And, at first, it was! I revived and re-posted an old article I wrote, How to Talk to Your Kids about Donald Trump and included Trump supporters in my target audience. Then something crazy happened. I learned things. I learned about Hillary (aka, "Killary") Clinton, libtards and other dangers that are, at this very moment, lurking in our once-great nation, sometimes in our towns and neighborhoods and even in our homes. Sometimes the dangers are still South of the Border, but, don't worry, they'll rape you when they get here. I learned about the things the mainstream media is silent about. I learned about the things they know, but know they don't want you to know. You know? I learned about Donald Trump. I learned about myself. You look skeptical, but that's only because you're an idiot and a loser. Consider this your first indoctrination, err...class, at Trump University, no credit card required. Time to hop aboard the solid gold, ivory-encrusted Trump train (or get run over)! It's huge with plenty of cars to hold all the completely unequivocally why-would-you-even-question-them true facts that they won't teach you in any school other than Trump U. And don't worry, this loco-motive is fast enough to outrun mixed metaphors, rapist Mexicans, terrorist Muslims and the unpaid employees who built it. Believe me. It's true. Believe me. I don't want to be with ISIS. Do YOU want to be with ISIS? Hillary, I mean "Killary," (sorry, force of habit...I'll get it right, eventually) is a lying, murdering c**t who can't be trusted with your gym locker combination. As one Trump fan lamented in response to my naively anti-Trump article, "Smh so let's elect killary. The biggest fucking liar an [sic] scam artist in the history of the free world." If only incessant lying was where it ended, but they don't call her Killary for nuthin'. That would be silly. Fun fact! Over the last 25 years, Hillary and Bill Clinton have had nearly 50 individuals murdered. Straight up murdered, bro! They started with James McDougal and Vince Foster and worked their way through many of their former friends and the bodyguards on their protection details. Because they knew too much! I guess...I'm not really sure. All I know is, someone should finally investigate these two! It was also implied--though never overtly stated--by many commenters that Hillary Clinton kicks three-legged puppies, posts Game of Thrones spoilers on the internet and will outlaw ice cream as soon as she gets in office (which will never happen...TRUMP 2016!!!). She's worse than ISIS (i.e. all Muslims) and Obama (definitely a Muslim) combined. Advertisement The person who posted this meme was not the only one to make this allegation. So, yeah, it's true. Muslims are, it pretty much goes with out saying, the enemy. In answer to my article's (in retrospect, completely ridiculous) question about how to talk to your kids about Donald Trump, one rebuke that summed up what a lot of other people were thinking is, "Well kid's [sic] he is the last hope to save America. Hillary will bring in millions of Muslims that will end up raping and killing you." The obvious truth that "unvetted" Muslims will flow into our country and blow us all up was repeatedly drilled into my soft liberal head. As one right wing poet so eloquently stated, "if c**t gets in !!! [sic] the country is lost and any one pushing for murdering babys [sic] not born and saling [sic] there [sic] body part is murder, its [sic, sic, sic!] sick shit , and if u go see the Muslims in action at there [sic] best genocide works and c**t is for them ! I want to see u pussys [sic] when shit go's [sic] down. And u see ur family murdered raped [sic] by Muslims a genocide cult & u put money behind anyone they have power , but I, m [sic] the idiot no I, m [sic] for a man not a sale [huh] out murdering whore or a sale [uh, ok] out party !! And we will not speak of the vets [ok]!! And how Democrat [sic] shit on them its [sic] sicking [yeah, sic-ning] but we help murdering Muslims to do the shit but I, m [sic and tired] the idiot !!" It's almost too obvious. This is true patriotism, devoid of the proper spelling and grammar that big government wants you to use. Coherent sentence structures are for pussies and the liberal elite (aka, pussies)! Islam is not a religion! It's a terrorist cult answering only to Sharia law, whose devotees are taught to destroy the U.S. from the inside! Advertisement My article, which was not read by a majority of the commenters (facts and actually reading something...also for pussies), expressed concern about what my children might hear from a presidential candidate. I was told, it's "dads like you that are ruining our country...teaching kids that they are entitled to free stuff...teach them to put down the video game and cut the goddam [sic] grass...." What can I say? I didn't mean to ruin the country and I don't have a yard to mow, but those are probably just lamestream media excuses. As one of the few women who commented put it, "Trump is a little Alpha for you. Bet if you got a job, you would feel better about yourself and would not have the need to involve your small children in dialog that is over their head." I bet if I wasn't so Beta, I'd have some god damn grass to cut!! Anyway. Someone, who sounds like they may be British but may have actually read my article (which, though completely unnecessary to thoughtfully comment on it, is nice), had this to say: "Why is this cuck amateur idiot showing up on my feed? Look at his page, he's a complete narcissist. Literally his argument against Trump is, 'OMG HE SAID SOMETHING MEAN, HE HURTS MY CUCK FEELINGS. ARE YOU KIDDING ME ITS 2016.'" Ouch. The truth is painful and my feelings are hurt. I asked him what the "fock a cuck is" but got no reply. I was forced to look inward. I just wish everyone would stop yelling and saying mean things about me! It wasn't my fault! My thinking of thoughts was just a symptom of my illness. Luckily, some people understood. "You guys should know by now there's no reasoning with unamerican socialist/commie scumbags, they're sick in the head and a plague upon humanity, we've be though [sic] this before with these kind [sic] of sick people." He's right! Not demonizing people who practice a different religion or who are trying to escape poverty and make better lives for themselves is as un-American as apple strudel. I was too deranged to realize it before. I was just a "pussy dad trying to teach others how to raise pussy kids SMH" Ouch. That one was kind of mean, but at least he wasn't yelling. The important thing is: I get it now! And by "it," I mean "ANGRY." I'm angry...at Muslims, immigrants, dumb libtard socialist communist pussies, and, mostly, at Hillary. Dammit! I did it again. I meant "Killary." Killary, Killary, Killary...because of the massive body count. Why is that so hard to remember? I'm going to put my faith in dear leader Donald J. Trump, hallowed be his name. No matter what he does or says, he is the MAN for the job. At the end of the day, I just need to stay informed. "In case u haven't been watching the news, America is only gonna get worse if the dumb b**ch is elected! !!!" Damn right. I mean...damn, right? This shit is real. Everyone cited may seem like a racist and/or misogynist, but, well, if the Donald J. Trump glove fits it must be a ladies size small. (Because of his teeny tiny hands!) The quotes and memes are just a small sample of the "discussion" on my Facebook page, names withheld to protect the indignant. There was some actual legitimate discussion, but it was mostly what you read above. I tried to let these Trump supporters speak in their own words but I did censor c**t and b**ch, because my wife told me to and I'm just so Beta. In 2013, The New Yorker dubbed the term "The Lyme Wars" to describe the unusual battle with Lyme disease patients and the doctors who treat them on one side, and the national organization of infectious diseases specialists that decries prolonged antibiotic treatment as harmful on the other. It's three years later, and the conflict wages on despite a great number of developments that have been made in the meantime. Today, the Patient-Centered Care Advocacy Group, a Washington, D.C.-based not-for-profit organization that supports Lyme disease patient care, filed a citizen petition with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) asking it "to end the preferential treatment it extends to the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) guidelines for diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease." The petition was filed in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), which governs the conduct of the federal government. According to the petition, the CDC provides preferential treatment to IDSA by endorsing and promoting IDSA's 2006 guidelines for Lyme disease, while withholding information from healthcare providers and the general public about more comprehensive guidelines for Lyme disease published in 2014 by the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS). Advertisement As I reported in February, the IDSA Lyme disease treatment guidelines were removed from the federal National Guidelines Clearinghouse (NGC). The NGC is an initiative of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which is used as a reference for physicians and healthcare practitioners in treating patients. The NGC removed the IDSA guidelines, which have served as primary practice guidelines for physicians to date, because they were deemed "outdated and not in compliance with current standards," according to Lorraine Johnson of LymeDisease.org. Following the removal of the IDSA guidelines by the NGA, the IDSA posted a statement on its website noting that the guidelines currently are undergoing review, and that at least two personnel, Dr. Charles Ericsson and Dr. Cameron Wolfe, respectively, were removed from the project. The IDSA notes that Ericsson's removal was due to "personal and professional reasons unrelated to the nature of this specific guideline." Patient Centered Care Advocacy Group founder Bruce Fries said that, "despite the fact that the IDSA guidelines are not compliant with current standards and are based on outdated science that has been discredited by a growing body of research, the CDC continues to endorse and promote them while withholding information about competing guidelines from ILADS, which contain information on evidence-based treatments that could improve the health of thousands of chronically ill patients throughout the world." Fries notes what he believes are conflicts of interest, observing that "the CDC officials who provide and defend the preferential treatment are also members of IDSA, the organization receiving the preferential treatment--a glaring and long-standing conflict of interest." Advertisement Fries's claim echoes findings by former Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal's 2008 antitrust investigation of the IDSA Lyme disease treatment guidelines, which uncovered "serious flaws in the Infectious Diseases Society of America's (IDSA) process for writing its 2006 Lyme disease guidelines and the IDSA has agreed to reassess them with the assistance of an outside arbiter." Blumenthal's report, which can be read here, discusses a number of alleged conflicts of interest among IDSA personnel. Among the conflicts of interest, the investigation found that "the IDSA blocked appointment of scientists and physicians with divergent views on chronic Lyme who sought to serve on the 2006 guidelines panel by informing them that the panel was fully staffed, even though it was later expanded." In a 2013 issue of the International Journal of General Medicine, author Keith Berndston reviewed current scientific literature on the persistence of Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease) following standard short-term antibiotic treatment and concluded: Based on well-designed post-treatment animal studies and ongoing delineation of Bb's mechanisms for host immune evasion and persistence, we can reasonably conclude that some, possibly many, chronic LD patients suffer from symptoms related to persistent infection with Bb. As inevitably happens in the evolution of scientific ideas, new research proves that the reality is more complex than we thought, and the time has now come to move beyond the divisiveness of the past into a more reality-based paradigm for research, education, and patient care. The question is no longer whether LD can survive an antibiotic challenge in order to become a persistent infection. High quality studies show not only that it happens, but they also show how it happens, and why we should not feel surprised that it happens. Our task in the new era is to determine which patients suffer from persistent LD, and to keep pressing for evidence-based wisdom to guide the physicians called upon to treat them. ILADS has aggregated a list of over 700 peer-reviewed, published scientific articles that show evidence of persisting Lyme disease bacteria. Ericsson, the former IDSA Lyme disease guidelines reviewer, disagrees with this research, having told Reuters in March that there is a "nail in the coffin in the controversy over chronic Lyme disease, or whatever you want to call it when people who have had Lyme disease have residual symptomatology." "You can treat the inciting agent until the cows come home," Ericsson said, "and nothing will change." In other words, Ericsson and similarly minded IDSA member physicians believe confidently in the face of over 700 research studies to the contrary that the Lyme Wars are settled--that there is no such thing as persisting or chronic Lyme, and that, therefore, patients should not receive ongoing treatment. Advertisement Those who oppose this perspective, including ILADS specialists, Lyme patients, many lawmakers and other advocates, call for increased investment in Lyme and associated tickborne disease research and treatment on a patient-by-patient basis. Ericsson's replacement on the panel according to the IDSA, Dr. Jeffrey Parsonnet, was a coauthor of a 2006 IDSA Lyme Disease Review Panel who findings were published in the medical journal Clinical Infectious Diseases. That panel determined that "the 2006 [IDSA] Lyme disease guidelines were based on the highest-quality medical and scientific evidence available at the time and are supported by evidence that has been published in more recent years," and that "it is expected that the IDSA will review the 2006 Lyme disease guidelines on a regular basis to consider any new evidence that would warrant a substantive change to the current recommendations." Despite the claim, the IDSA guidelines were not reviewed "on a regular basis"--or at all between 2006 and 2016, when they were removed. One of the reasons the NGC removed the IDSA practice guidelines is that they had not been reviewed since the 2006 review--a decade ago--and did not reflect any scientific investigation from within the past decade. The NGC requires that "the guideline must have been developed, reviewed, or revised within the past five years, as evidenced by appropriate documentation (e.g., the systematic review or detailed description of methodology)" in order to be included in its clearinghouse. Fries notes that the IDSA guidelines do not reflect any of the existing evidence that shows persistent infection (chronic Lyme). Further, Fries's group opposes the CDC's ongoing endorsement of the two-tiered ELISA and Western blot blood tests for Lyme disease, despite studies showing that these tests are only between 18 and 67 percent sensitive--meaning that as many cases of Lyme disease may go undiagnosed by these blood tests as those that are identified by them. Advertisement "IDSA claims the test is accurate and most patients are cured with 2-4 weeks of antibiotics," reads a statement by the Patient-Centered Care Advocacy Group. "By contrast, the ILADS guidelines recognize the existence of chronic Lyme and recommend that the duration of therapy be guided by clinical response, rather than by an arbitrary treatment course." The National Academy of Medicine report, Clinical Practice Guidelines We Can Trust, cites the 2006 IDSA Lyme guidelines to illustrate the problems of conflicts of interests, lack of transparency, and scientific bias in guidelines development. Fries says that "because of restrictions imposed by the 2006 IDSA guidelines, thousands of patients are harmed by misdiagnosis and denial of medically necessary treatment. CDC's failure to provide equivalent exposure for competing guidelines from ILADS compounds the harm by omitting information that could help these severely ill patients recover from this devastating disease." The petition points out that CDC's preferential treatment of IDSA violates the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch, which states that "Employees shall act impartially and not give preferential treatment to any private organization or individual." "Because of CDC policy failures, mismanagement and violations of federal law, hundreds of thousands of Lyme patients experience a greatly diminished quality of life," Fries says. He calls it "a tragedy compounded by financial hardships from out-of-pocket costs and lost income. The burden on individuals as well as on our economy is enormous, the suffering is widespread and much of this is preventable." Advertisement The past couple years have been interesting. I've stood by and watched a number of rumors about my personal life circulate and die. You cannot address every conspiracy theory or half-baked reddit post about yourself once you become a public personality. Once you get into that tit for tat, it's game over for your peace of mind... and your free time. There's no need to clear up the record, but I want to. As a public personality, one of my favorite quotes is "if you want to be understood, explain." The public demands that, as they should. And as my health appears to be in decline, I don't want dishonest people writing my life's story. LOS ANGELES I moved to Los Angeles from south Florida after a show idea I had was successfully crowdfunded, raising more than US $6,000 on the Internet to produce a season of a grassroots YouTube show dedicated to many of the political and economic issues raised from my bedroom in Florida, where the original audio podcast was "headquartered." I loved that period of my life in Florida, interviewing local politicos and self-help gurus and bartenders. If I could go back to that, I would. Advertisement Because it was perfect. In Los Angeles, I aligned with a toxic personality who billed himself as an attorney. In reality, his attorney status had been revoked after a couple DUIs in the state of California, but since an acquaintance Joe Rogan had vouched for the guy, I allowed him into my world. What a mistake. He squandered a significant portion of the crowdfund and excitement around the show; we parted ways shortly after realizing he wasn't the real thing, despite his baseless threats of retribution. His personality defects were ultimately my fault, because I was desperate to have a contact "on the ground" in LA before getting there, and on paper he was everything I wanted - not the fraudulent alcoholic he actually was, but the grounded legal mind I knew I needed during that volatile, growth-oriented period of my media life. Aside from that, Los Angeles was transformative. Joe Rogan told me I would be his podcast's "politics contributor" and would be on every couple months to share the latest political scandals with his audience. That turned out to be a bald-faced lie; when Bitcoin, which I had championed, dropped into the $300s, then $200s, Mr. Rogan stopped replying to my emails and text messages. His producer Brian Redban implied on Twitter I was mentally unwell, and I was - abandoned, in debt, attacked personally in ways that made my days reporting on the N.S.A. seem downright splendid by comparison. I left Los Angeles as a result of economic necessity and moved to Colorado. In Colorado, I found a place to recover and rehabilitate my image, but not a lot of free love. Colorado may have legal weed, but it's no Haight-Ashbury love in - even in 2016, it's do or die, do it for yourself, Midwestern frontier ethic. And in retrospect, I like that. I needed that Midwestern sensibility. LA had made me spoiled: beautiful women, incredible former close friends including the screenwriter Ally Maynard and country legend Shooter Jennings and a couple of young billionaires up north in the Bay Area. I loved San Francisco and its energy. Advertisement I needed Colorado, though. It was very humbling in Colorado, for me. Bottoming out and rebuilding from scratch, alone... The crypto markets were decimated at that point in time; I was worth less than a homeless person, but proud. I applied for jobs at Walmart and Target, receiving rejections. When a Walmart opening had me in mind, I gratefully accepted, driving out there as fast as I could. An email from a longtime reader I read in the parking lot caused me to tell my training manager I'd have to respectfully decline the job offer for greeter. Other life plans. CANADA I flew up to Canada to learn more about BitGold, and its parent Goldmoney. An entrepreneur around my age, Roy Sebag, had grown the publicly traded Goldmoney and built its popular subsidiary BitGold into a million-plus community of users transacting in verifiable, insured physical gold. We became friends and I used it as an opportunity to learn as much about the business as possible. Goldmoney had hired former PayPal Canada CEO Darrell MacMullin to helm its BitGold unit, and attracted a number of other thought leaders in the space, including Peter Schiff's SchiffGold, which was recently acquired by Sebag's company. The company is funded by a number of savvy financial elites including precious metals entrepreneur Eric Sprott and the legendary Soros family. The deeper I dug, the more admiration for the self-made Sebag, both personally and as a sound money supporter. Sebag, a former hedge fund manager, set his sights fully on fixing the fractured financial system. And to him, building a payments network on the immutable, ancient first currency - gold - just made more sense, not only ideologically, but mathematically: you can move gold ownership around the world faster and cheaper than fiat currency, which was Sebag's breakthrough realization after years of working within the traditional financial system and profiting from it. It's a realization that could net Sebag and his Colorado born co-founder Josh Crumb a number of devoted users in the years ahead. CALIFORNIA / TORONTO As fascinating as the re-utilization of gold as currency is to a researcher like me, I was also intrigued by the emergence of "Bitcoin 2.0" technology Ethereum, which was headlined at several meetups I had attended in Toronto and back in California. Turing Complete and invented by a trio of crypto geniuses, everyone from Microsoft to Chris Dixon had been saying good things about Ethereum publicly, so I knew I had to dive in. Advertisement I became friends with co-founder Taylor Gerring, interviewing him on my YouTube channel several times and showing him around Toronto when he was in town. Mr. Gerring is a different kind of techno-industrialist. Having built the better mousetrap along with colleagues Vitalik Buterin, Anthony Di Iorio, and Roman Mandeleil, Mr. Gerring always seemed more interested in making sure that anyone who wanted to understand why it's better could be shown that, without alienating anyone who doesn't yet perceive the importance of blockchain-based commerce. I sensed a level of compassion and original vision desperately lacking in most other areas of the crypto economy. PARENTS I'm amending this section out of respect to my parents, but the fact remains, they didn't have my back when I needed it. You don't forget that, family or not. And you do not forget when a long time friend or family member loses confidence in you. Crypto has not been the easiest ride, but it has been the ride I've been waiting for all my life. A chance to create something new in the wake of the broken, senseless old stuff. And it's all good, to be honest, even the bad moments. I wouldn't trade the lessons I've learned for a million dollars. But I know that if a million or two is all that's ahead for me, well, that's not the reward any of us were after. It's still about building a better, more sensible world. As millennials, we do not have to be perfect. We simply have to be moving toward a better, more sensible world - we will build it, and our children will play in it. That's worth fighting for. TELEVISION I was blessed to be a weekly panelist on the now defunct national cable program, Take Part Live. Minutes from my apartment in LA, it seemed a dream come true - I was allowed to talk about Bitcoin, gold, monetary freedom, surveillance and corruption weekly. Their host, Cara Santa Maria, was gracious, intelligent, and a friend to me. Inexplicably, the show was canceled after that season, I was never invited back, Santa Maria and her co-host were fired (he later got a contributor role at MSNBC), and they were replaced with a fat, entitled, intellectually empty Meghan McCain, the daughter of senior United States Senator John McCain from Arizona. So unpopular was the "Meghan season" of Take Part Live, the show and network were shuttered after that season. Advertisement TORONTO, ON - MAY 14 -Photographed at The CNE, Toronto, Uber taxi service is a new way to travel around the city. Request and payment are all made using an app. (Bernard Weil/Toronto Star via Getty Images) Uber, the huge taxi service, is undoubtedly still reeling from its defeat in China. After investing $2 billion to get a foothold in the Chinese market, Uber sold out to its competitor, Didi Chuxing, and agreed to be a junior partner in China. While this is a dramatic story that made headlines across the country, a less covered story could have far more impact on Uber's future. This is the story of Uber's departure from Austin, Texas. Advertisement Uber, along with Lyft, stopped operating in Austin in early May after the city's voters endorsed a requirement that drivers for these services had to be fingerprinted and undergo background checks. The companies complained that the requirement placed an onerous burden on them and instead said that they would just stop operating in the city. As a practical matter, the real issue almost certainly was not the difficulty of fingerprinting. After all, taxi companies across the country have complied with similar requirements for decades and it is unlikely that the management of these old-styled cab companies are much more competent than Uber's management. Rather, the issue was likely that Uber is worried about its drivers being labeled as employees. Uber claims that its drivers are independent contractors, not employees. As independent contractors, Uber is not responsible for paying Social Security taxes, nor is it liable for workers' compensation for drivers who get hurt in traffic accidents. It also doesn't have to withhold income taxes. And, independent contractors don't have the right to unionize. Uber has been involved in several lawsuits over the classification of drivers as independent contractors. It is worried that background checks and fingerprinting will be factors that could tip the balance from independent contractor to employee. Therefore Uber decided it was best just to leave Austin. Advertisement The immediate impact of Uber's departure was to take away jobs from thousands of drivers. It also left Austin without a transportation service that many residents had come to depend upon. However this situation did not last long. Within a month six new services were filling the void, apparently they have the ability to fingerprint drivers. This raises the issue of whether Uber will really be able to monopolize the taxi industry, or at least capture a very large share. The experience in Austin indicates that it may be very difficult to maintain a monopoly or near monopoly in the taxi industry. What Uber seems to be counting on is a mix of regulatory uncertainty and political power to give it an advantage over competitors. (It hired on David Plouffe, President Obama's top political strategist, as an adviser.) The belief that Uber will be able to obtain a near monopoly explains it $66 billion market capitalization. Such a price would not make sense for even a very large actor in the traditional taxi industry. While Uber's political connections probably protect it from any anti-trust actions coming out of the Obama administration, Austin's experience suggests a very simple way to rein in the company. Other cities could impose the same reasonable requirement as Austin; they could require that Uber and other taxi companies do background checks and fingerprint their drivers. If Uber follows the Austin precedent, then it may have to shut down in many other cities in the not too distant future. This would open up these markets to new competition, just as was the case in Austin. This will likely be a very good economic development strategy for cities that go this route. Uber has been willing to lower fares to drive out competition, even if this has meant losing money. However the end goal has been to secure a monopoly or near monopoly in the market, which clearly is the basis of its enormous market value. No one pays a huge price for stock in a company that they expect to keep losing money. Advertisement By driving Uber out of the market, cities can help to keep their taxi industry competitive. They are also likely to be opening up opportunities for locally based taxi services. This will mean that instead of sending profits out to the billionaires of Silicon Valley, they are more likely to be generating income for local entrepreneurs. And, they are more likely to have taxi companies that will seek to work with regulators rather than fighting and/or ignoring them. Tired of the pervasive anger and divisive rhetoric that is consuming American politics in this year's presidential contest, we decided to attend a recent candidate forum near our north shore Oahu home for a more Hawaiian experience -- one grounded in harmony, not hate. The event, hosted by the Kahuku Community Association, was designed as an opportunity for voters to get to know the three men vying to represent House District 47 in the state legislature. This voting district is rural and diverse, spanning surf breaks and coastal communities from the farms of Waialua to the fishponds of Waikane. The rules for participation, sent to each candidate two days in advance, were standard. As for most such events in the islands, they included a prohibition on campaign signs, banners, and t-shirts. It was, after all, a public forum, not a campaign rally. Advertisement Two of the candidates, Democrat Sean Quinlan and Republican primary-challenger Toagaifasa 'Junior' Mata'afa, arrived on time, ready to abide. Republican-incumbent Feki Pouha, on the other hand, decided that the agreed-upon rules didn't apply to him. He pulled up to the venue late with a group of followers decked-out in "Team Feki" attire. When KCA President Kent Fonoimoana reminded Pouha of the prohibition against campaign gear, Pouha responded by putting his finger in Fonoimoana's face and denouncing the restriction as a "violation of my free speech rights," as his team barged into the room. Unfortunately, Fonoimoana ratcheted-up the heat with an aggressive response of his own, and chaos ensued. (Fonoimoana has since apologized. No word yet from Pouha.) Advertisement Over the next thirty minutes, KCA board members struggled to regain control of the proceedings as Team Feki supporters shouted objections at every attempt to move forward. Tensions flared further when KCA Vice-President Melissa Primacio was allegedly observed providing Pouha with an advance copy of board members' questions, allowing them to be revised in his favor. Once the program finally got under way, with no clear explanation of what had actually transpired behind-the-scenes or how the conflicts had been resolved, political newcomers Quinlan and Mata'afa did their best to introduce themselves to the audience and offer their mana'o on the serious concerns facing the district. But by this time, the air had been poisoned and the tone set. It felt as though we had all been "Trumped" -- overtaken by the nastiness that drives today's Republican party, which Pouha had exemplified upon his arrival at the forum. Perhaps he was following the example of his predecessor and political mentor, the one-term Republican representative Richard Fale, whose well-known bluster and belligerence in office were surpassed only by his ineffectiveness. Image credit: John Lamparski | Getty Images Media mogul Arianna Huffington may be living in a world dominated by the 24-hour news cycle, but she wants you to take at least eight hours of that time for sleep. I recently had the chance to talk with Huffington about her mission to change the culture of sleep. It's a topic she is passionate about, and is the focus of her recently released book, The Sleep Revolution. As a society, we don't value sleep enough, Huffington said. Our dismissive attitude about sleep may go back to Thomas Edison, who, as she explained, is "the one person who most embodies our sleep delusion." Advertisement "He was convinced that sleep was unnecessary," Huffington revealed. "He once said, 'Nothing in this world is more dangerous to the efficiency of humanity than too much sleep.'" But he was wrong, and those who buy into his theory pay dearly. The hours we spend slumbering aren't negotiable. And yet millions of people, from students to entrepreneurs, give up those hours in the misguided belief that they have more important things to do, Huffington said. Huffington hopes to change sleep attitudes by starting with children. She advocates for rejiggering students' school schedules to allow to for more sleep, such as having classes start later in the day. She points to a 2011 study by the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, which found that students who started school at 8:30 a.m. got almost an hour more sleep and performed better on tests measuring attention levels than peers who started at 7:30 a.m. Advertisement "For many young people, schools have become burnout zones where, along with history, math and science, we teach our kids the worst habits of our destructive work culture," Huffington said. "But happily, many schools around the world are responding to the latest science on sleep, taking creative steps to restructure the school day in ways that can make a big difference in academic performance and overall well-being." As part of this effort to raise awareness, the Huffington Post started the Sleep Revolution College Tour, visiting 400 campuses across the country. The aim is to highlight the benefits of sleep and its importance as the ultimate performance enhancer. That includes creating spaces on campus where students can relax, meditate and recharge, she said. The cutthroat business world also needs to make changes that allow employees to get more sleep, according to Huffington. It's a change in values that needs to come from the top down, and it should start early in a company's history. "There is a founder myth that if you are starting a company you can't afford to get enough sleep," Huffington said. "But in reality three-quarters of startups fail, and perhaps if these founders were getting the sleep they need they'd have a higher likelihood of succeeding." Advertisement Huffington applauds companies that have taken steps to help chronically sleep-deprived employees catch up on their "ZZZZs." That includes installing nap rooms or even going to a shortened, five-hour work day. "I've read about companies that swear by the five-hour workday, and while it isn't feasible for most industries (including those of us in the media), some companies have found a way to make it work," Huffington said. How much sleep one needs depends on the individual, but Huffington cites experts from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society who say that people between 18 and 60 years usually need seven to nine hours of sleep. There's no problem with getting too much sleep, but not getting enough can have lasting effects on your overall health, Huffington said. In fact, according to a study by the Sorbonne University in Paris, naps can help offset the hormonal impact of a poor night of sleep. The data suggest that a 30-minute nap can reset the biomarkers of neuroendocrine and immune health to normal levels, Huffington said. Advertisement Huffington knows firsthand the debilitating effects that sleep deprivation can have. In 2007, she collapsed in her office and broke her cheekbone due to extreme exhaustion. The incident was a major wake-up call, and inspired her to reevaluate her own notions about the importance of sleep. Since then, she has revamped her daily routine to make more time for rest and reflection, and to include a morning ritual that helps her feel restored and centered as she begins her day. The hallmark of her routine includes getting eight hours of sleep, so she wakes up naturally without an alarm clock on most days. "A big part of my morning ritual is about what I don't do. When I wake up, I don't start the day by looking at my smartphone," Huffington said. "Instead, once I'm awake, I take a minute to breathe deeply, be grateful and set my intention for the day." Most nights she is in bed by 11 p.m., with the goal of "catching the midnight train." If she could go back in time and tell herself one thing, it would be to get more rest. "I wish I could go back and tell myself, 'Arianna, your performance will actually improve if you can commit to not only working hard, but also unplugging, recharging and renewing yourself,'" Huffington said. "That would have saved me a lot of unnecessary stress, burnout and exhaustion." The ruins of Nagasaki after the dropping of the atomic bomb. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) Seventy-one years after the twin atomic attacks on Japan, historians continue to debate whether the first bombing, over Hiroshima, on August 6, 1945, was justified, and whether it was even the most important factor in the country's swift surrender. Many of those who still defend President Truman's decision on that assault, however, consider the bombing of Nagasaki three days later completely avoidable, even a crime of war. By August 7, 1945, President Truman, while still at sea returning from Potsdam, had been fully briefed on the first atomic attack against a large city in Japan the day before. In announcing it, he had labeled Hiroshima simply a "military base," but he knew better, and within hours of the blast he had been fully informed about the likely massive toll on civilians (probably 100,000), mainly women and children, as we had planned. Despite this -- and news that the Soviets, as planned, were about to enter the war against Japan -- Truman did not order a delay in the use of the second atomic bomb to give Japan a chance to assess, reflect, and surrender. Advertisement After all, by this time, Truman (as recorded in his diary and by others) was well aware that the Japanese were hopelessly defeated and seeking terms of surrender -- and he had, just two weeks earlier, written "Fini Japs" in his diary when he learned that the Russians would indeed attack around August 7. Yet Truman, on this day, did nothing, and the second bomb rolled out, and would be used against Nagasaki, killing perhaps 90,000 more, only a couple hundred of them Japanese troops, on August 9. Few journalists bother to visit Nagasaki, even though it is one of only two cities in the world to "meet the atomic bomb," as some of the elderly survivors of that experience, 71 years ago this week, put it. It remains the Second City, and "Fat Man" the forgotten bomb. No one in America ever wrote a bestselling book called Nagasaki, or made a film titled Nagasaki, Mon Amour. "We are an asterisk," Shinji Takahashi, a sociologist in Nagasaki, once told me, with a bitter smile. "The inferior A-Bomb city." Yet in many ways, Nagasaki is the modern A-Bomb city, the city with perhaps the most meaning for us today. For one thing, when the plutonium bomb exploded above Nagasaki it made the uranium-type bomb dropped on Hiroshima obsolete. And then there's this. "The rights and wrongs of Hiroshima are debatable," Telford Taylor, the chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials, once observed, "but I have never heard a plausible justification of Nagasaki" -- which he labeled a war crime. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., who experienced the firebombing of Dresden at close hand, said much the same thing. "The most racist, nastiest act by this country, after human slavery, was the bombing of Nagasaki," he once said. "Not of Hiroshima, which might have had some military significance. But Nagasaki was purely blowing away yellow men, women and children. I'm glad I'm not a scientist because I'd feel so guilty now." Advertisement A beautiful city dotted with palms largely built on terraces surrounding a deep harbor -- the San Francisco of Japan -- Nagasaki has a rich, bloody history, as any reader of Shogun knows. Three centuries before Commodore Perry came to Japan, Nagasaki was the country's gateway to the west. The Portuguese and Dutch settled here in the 1500s. St. Francis Xavier established the first Catholic churches in the region in 1549, and Urakami, a suburb of Nagasaki, became the country's Catholic center. Thomas Glover, one of the first English traders here, supplied the modern rifles that helped defeat the Tokugawa Shogunate in the 19th century. Glover's life served as a model for the story of Madame Butterfly, and Nagasaki is known in many parts of the world more for Butterfly than for the bomb. In Puccini's opera, Madame Butterfly, standing on the veranda of Glover's home overlooking the harbor (see left), sings, "One fine day, we'll see a thread of smoke arising... " If she could have looked north from the Glover mansion, now Nagasaki's top tourist attraction, on August 9, 1945, she would have seen, two miles in the distance, a thread of smoke with a mushroom cap. By 1945, Nagasaki had become a Mitsubishi company town, turning out ships and armaments for Japan's increasingly desperate war effort. Few Japanese soldiers were stationed here, and only about 250 of them would perish in the atomic bombing. It was still the Christian center in the country, with more than 10,000 Catholics among its 250,000 residents. Most of them lived in the outlying Urakami district, the poor part of town, where a magnificent cathedral seating 6000 had been built. At 11:02 a.m. on August 9, 1945, "Fat Man" was detonated more than a mile off target, almost directly over the Urakami Cathedral, which was nearly leveled, killing dozens of worshippers waiting for confession. Concrete roads in the valley literally melted. While Urakami suffered, the rest of the city caught a break. The bomb's blast boomed up the valley destroying everything in its path but didn't quite reach the congested harbor or scale the high ridge to the Nakashima valley. Some 35,000 perished instantly, with another 50,000 or more fated to die afterwards. The plutonium bomb hit with the force of 22 kilotons, almost double the uranium bomb's blast in Hiroshima. Advertisement If the bomb had exploded as planned, directly over the Mitsubishi shipyards, the death toll in Nagasaki would have made Hiroshima, in at least one important sense, the Second City. Nothing would have escaped, perhaps not even the most untroubled conscience half a world away. Hard evidence to support a popular theory that the chance to "experiment" with the plutonium bomb was the major reason for the bombing of Nagasaki remains sketchy but still one wonders about the overwhelming, and seemingly thoughtless, impulse to automatically use a second atomic bomb even more powerful than the first. Criticism of the attack on Nagasaki has centered on the issue of why Truman did not step in and stop the second bomb after the success of the first to allow Japan a few more days to contemplate surrender before targeting another city for extinction. In addition, the U.S. knew that its ally, the Soviet Union, would join the war within hours, as previously agreed, and that the entrance of Japan's most hated enemy, as much as the Hiroshima bomb, would likely speed the surrender ("fini Japs" when the Russians declare war, Truman had predicted in his diary). If that happened, however, it might cost the U.S. in a wider Soviet claim on former Japanese conquests in Asia. So there was much to gain by getting the war over before the Russians advanced. Some historians have gone so far as state that the Nagasaki bomb was not the last shot of World War II but the first blow of the Cold War. Whether this is true or not, there was no presidential directive specifically related to dropping the second bomb. The atomic weapons in the U.S. arsenal, according to the July 2, 1945 order, were to be used "as soon as made ready," and the second bomb was ready within three days of Hiroshima. Nagasaki was thus the first and only victim of automated atomic warfare. Advertisement In one further irony, Nagasaki was not even on the original target list for A-bombs but was added after Secretary of War Henry Stimson objected to Kyoto. He had visited Kyoto himself and felt that destroying Japan's cultural capital would turn the citizens against America in the aftermath. Just like that, tens of thousands in one city were spared and tens of thousands of others elsewhere were marked for death. General Leslie Groves, upon learning of the Japanese surrender offer after the Nagasaki attack, decided that the "one-two" strategy had worked, but he was pleased to learn the second bomb had exploded off the mark, indicating "a smaller number of casualties than we had expected." But as historian Martin Sherwin has observed, "If Washington had maintained closer control over the scheduling of the atomic bomb raids the annihilation of Nagasaki could have been avoided." Truman and others simply did not care, or to be charitable, did not take care. That's one reason the US suppressed all film footage shot in Nagasaki and Hiroshima for decades (which I probe in my book and ebook Atomic Cover-up). Also see my book on Hollywood's outrageous fictions in the same period, Hollywood Bomb. After hearing of Nagasaki, however, Truman quickly ordered that no further bombs be used without his express permission, to give Japan a reasonable chance to surrender -- one bomb, one city, and seventy thousand deaths too late. When they'd learned of the Hiroshima attack, the scientists at Los Alamos generally expressed satisfaction that their work had paid off. But many of them took Nagasaki quite badly. Some would later use the words "sick" or "nausea" to describe their reaction. As months and then years passed, few Americans denounced as a moral wrong the targeting of entire cities for extermination. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, however, declared that we never should have hit Japan "with that awful thing." To those who claim "you weren't there" or "you are military" the fact is a large number of high-ranking Americans expressed doubts about the need to use the Bomb at the time or later, including (besides Eisenhower), Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Gen. Hap Arnold, and Truman's chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Admiral William Leahy. And you can add to that the future hawkish Eisenhower secretary of state, John Foster Dulles, and John J. McCloy--among many others. Advertisement Republican U.S. presidential candidates Marco Rubio (L) and Ben Carson wait for the start of the Presidential Family Forum in Des Moines, U.S. November 20, 2015. REUTERS/Mark Kauzlarich/File Photo Last weekend, Senator Marco Rubio (R) made a public statement that a mother, even if she has the Zika virus, should not be able to get an abortion. He did not deny the evidence that Zika is known to cause birth defects, but rather firmly stated that being pro-life was more important to him than the potential microcephaly that might affect the child. This is just one recent example of how many politicians refuse to sway their stance on abortion, even though abortion, according to the Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade, is supposed to be legal. The court even re-affirmed their stance on abortion by shutting down HB2, a Texas bill that would have put unnecessary regulations on abortion clinics, earlier this summer. Advertisement HB2, however, was not the last of its kind. Pro-life lawmakers are painfully aware that they won't win over the opinions of people voting pro-choice, so instead of debating the issue, they continue to make deceitful bills that allow them to circumvent the democratic process. Laws such as these are known as "TRAP" laws, or Targeted Regulations of Abortion Providers. Like a booby trap these bills conceal themselves with good intentions, such as regulations for the sake of women's health, in order to ploy the public into consent. After all, what pro-choice feminist would have a gripe about a bill meant to enhance the health of women? As the public has begun to take notice of these tricks, however, anti-abortion legislation has become even sneakier, and doesn't always camouflage itself as with wellness. There are a few specific bills that you should watch out for: In Alabama, for example, there is a bill called "An Act Relating to abortions". This bill was introduced in February by Senator Paul Sanford (R), and would make it illegal for clinics providing abortions to renew their medical licenses if they are located within 2000 feet of any public schools; to no surprise, the only two locations that provide abortions in the state of Alabama are both next to schools. Sanford claims that the bill was proposed not to shut down current clinics, but merely in the hope "that no more [abortion providing clinics] would ever open that close to small children". Advertisement What harm could an abortion provider inflict on a child by mere proximity? An abortion clinic does not give off radiation, nor does it display explicit imagery or language that one's child might need to be protected from. In fact, the only way your child would even know that abortions are being provided in the clinic next door is if you, or one of the anti-abortion protesters outside of the clinic, tell them. But that's not even the silliest thing about this bill. In fact, the clinic that inspired this legislation only moved near a local public school because Alabama's TRAP laws forced them out of their old building, which didn't have wide enough doors and hallways to comply with new regulations. This clinic is being hunted down by pro-life legislation that disguises itself as being in the interest of women's health and school children. Therefore, if Senator Sanford's bill passes, which it already has in Alabama's House and Senate, it will be to no one's surprise if the clinic, once again forced to either move (or shut down), would later face obscure regulation after obscure regulation until it finally closed. The bill has been sitting on the Governor's desk since May of this year, waiting to be signed into law. If that makes you upset, then take a seat, because we're just getting started. "An Act Relating to abortions" is not even the most underhanded bill out there. You probably haven't heard of a bill introduced by Senator Roger Wicker (R) called ''An Act to reauthorize and amend the National Sea Grant College Program Act, and for other purposes." Advertisement Any rational person would read that title and think something to the effect of "I bet that the purpose of this bill is to reauthorize and amend the National Sea Grant College Program Act, and maybe also some other, relevant purposes," and that would be a completely reasonable assumption. Unfortunately, if that was your perception, you would be incorrect; the short title of this bill is actually the "Defund Planned Parenthood Act of 2015". This might seem like a silly trick, to simply change the long title of a bill to get it to pass. After all, the men and women in Congress who voted on this bill have certainly read the entirety of its four-page-long text, and thus the short title of the bill, and Section 3, which clearly states that: ...no funds authorized or appropriated by Federal law may be made available for any purpose to Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc., or any affiliate or clinic of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc., unless such entities certify that Planned Parenthood Federation of America affiliates and clinics will not perform, and will not provide any funds to any other entity that performs, an abortion during such period. However this bill initially passed in the Senate by a unanimous vote in 2015! Certainly an issue as divided as the funding of Planned Parenthood should naturally have had at least some votes against it, yet somehow, the simple change of the bill's name allowed this legislation to move onto the House, where they took a closer look at it, made a few vague amendments, and passed the bill. At the end of last month, the President finally signed the bill into law. Advertisement Hiding the true intention of this bill was insulting not only to the intelligence of voters, but also to the democratic process as a whole. How are we supposed to have a legitimate conversation about the significance of abortions if the only way they're being combated legally is in disguise? Whether or not you support a woman's right to choose, don't you want the people on the other side of the argument to actually hear your voiced concerns? Deceitful bills divert this conversation entirely, successfully slapping the constitution in the face, and turning the American legal process into a sham. Senators Sanford and Wicker should be ashamed of themselves for pulling wool over the eyes of voters. We cannot stand for this. The BillCams embedded above in this article allow you to contact these lawmakers, as well as the ones who represent your state, view their bills, and tell them what you think about the way they've been conducting politics. It's coke's world.... We have a proxy war in Ukraine. It doesn't matter what I think. We are living under MAD, as Putin and the Russian media remind us and the Russian people. You're dancing around, going for low-hanging fruit, and missing it. You skipped over the facts of the red line. You failed to acknowledge the weakness of removing any possibility for supplying Ukraine, which has shown it can fight, with lethal military aid. If Hillary wasn't such a liar, the side you've decided to be on wouldn't have anything right It's remarkable. Donald Trump chose Detroit to make his economic speech, where he accused the Clintons of causing Detroit's employment problems with their trade policies. Is he kidding? The Detroit Big Three automakers didn't lose jobs because of trade pacts, but because of the Great Recession. They built the wrong size gas guzzling hogs at a time that consumers wanted smaller cars, so it was a government bailout that saved them. Trade pacts have hurt some workers, but benefited many more by bringing in new export-oriented, high tech jobs. Donald Trump is shooting at the wrong targets. He wants to bring back the old economy via a trade war with China, abolishing the minimum wage, suspending government regulations, and lowering tax rates; even the inheritance tax that only affects those with $5 million plus to pass on. But he says nothing about income inequality or the budget deficit, which can only be cured by concentrating on developing a new economy that brings in new jobs based on new technologies and a new environmental awareness. Advertisement It won't do any good to accuse President Obama of "failed economic policies" because many blue collar workers lost their jobs in the Midwest rust-belt states. Some 10,800,000 million jobs have been created during the Obama recovery years. President Obama is now in third place (purple line in graph) behind President Reagan in second (per yellow line) with 14,735,000 jobs created, and President Clinton (blue line) in first place with 21,000,000 jobs created during his 8 years. Trump also proposed reducing the maximum corporate tax rate to 15 percent that he said would boost jobs and investments. Problem is, corporations have already hoarded some $4.5 trillion in cash and cash equivalent securities from their record profits they aren't spending on anything but higher CEO salaries, and stock buybacks that enrich corporate execs and their stockholders even more. What about the slow economic recovery? It's mostly due to poor economic conditions worldwide, such as caution due to Britain's Brexit withdrawal, China's slowdown, and plunging commodity prices that have hurt developing countries. But it's also due to misplaced austerity policies that have restricted new investment in favor of cutting public spending in Europe and the U.S. because of the fear of ballooning budget deficits, when just the opposite is needed--investments that will increase jobs, and so tax revenues to pay down those deficits. We really have only one model of successful deficit reduction since WWII--Bill Clinton's. That is why Hillary has mentioned Bill's record of record growth that created the most jobs of any presidency since WWII, and 4 years of actual budget surpluses. It was due primarily to defense spending cuts as the Soviet Union collapsed and a higher maximum tax rate (40 percent). The economy grew for 10 years--from 1991 to 2001, before the do-com bust and short recession that ended on November 2001, just 2 months after 9/11. Advertisement So Hillary proposes to equalize income inequality with a higher minimum tax rate of at least $12 per hour, even $15 per hour in higher priced regions, while raising taxes and closing tax loopholes of the wealthiest to pay for tuition-free public colleges, universal health care and paid maternity leave--something that the developed countries and most developing countries already have. Hillary's economic platform should enable US to catch up with what the rest of the world provides for their citizens, in other words. Harlan Green 2016 Hollywood knows something B2B storytellers don't. It's something businesses need to know if they're going to craft coherent, effective brand stories. What is it? The short answer is, everybody likes a hero. We recently interviewed Park Howell, Founder of Business of Story, and he laid out the 10-part story cycle process that Business of Story uses to help their clients tell compelling stories that move the needle. It's based on Joseph Campbell's 17-step hero's journey. Campbell is America's foremost mythologist; he's studied stories that have been around since the beginning of time, across all races and religions, and come up with a universal story structure interwoven in the best of them. Park's company simply overlaid that structure with their work on brand storytelling. They asked how a mythological hero's story could apply to the business world. Advertisement One of their clients experienced over 300 percent growth in the first five years of reframing their brand's story. Another experienced 400 percent over a decade. So yeah, Park's a pretty good person to talk about this stuff. His suggestion? Print out Joseph Campbell's 17 steps, grab your beverage of choice, sit down, and watch the very first Star Wars. You'll see that it plays out in exactly the order that Campbell describes--because George Lucas was a student of Campbell's in film school and wrote his thesis about the hero's journey. He applied the same framework to Star Wars--and we all know what happened from there. However, it was around long before Luke and Darth battled it out. Look at Homer's Odyssey or The Wizard of Oz . . . any great story that grabs your attention will probably have elements of this universal structure. Park's work is all about translating this proven story structure into the modern stories of business brands. Making parallels between the two is shockingly effective--and pervasive. We could show you 30-second TV commercials that use all 10 of these steps. Advertisement If you're looking to hone your B2B storytelling, march through these 10 steps (or "chapters") of the hero's journey. 1) Backstory and Your Position Statement In Chapter 1, you've got to set the stage for every story and put it in context. In B2B storytelling, that means creating your primary brand statement. You can do that through answering four basic questions: What industry am I in? What category within that industry do I operate in? What's my specialty within that category? What's my No. 1 specialty? When you write out your statement and get to No. 4, you're determining what you do better than anyone else. That becomes your backstory and the foundation of your brand. From here, through the next nine steps, you're going to start elevating your brand out of the "functional commodity" mindset into much more enlightened customer engagement. Advertisement 2) Who's Your Hero? Most brands make the mistake of thinking they are the hero. In actuality, your customer is the hero. Don't make the mistake of thinking your brand is the hero; your customer is the hero. When Business of Story puts on a brand workshop, they ask participants to identify their top three audiences. Keep it simplified: who are they? Why do they matter? Most important, what do they want? In Chapter 2, you identify your own top three audiences. Business of Story has an interview guide to help you create a persona out of those customers. This guide also uses the 10-step story cycle process. You can follow the guide and write down a very detailed persona, using the exact same process you're using to create your own brand story. 3) Stakes What's at stake? In every great story, you have to be able to identify with the protagonist or central character. And they've got to want something. Something that's compelling enough to drive them through hell or high water, risking life and limb to get it. The same is true in your B2B storytelling. After you've asked yourself who your audience is in chapter 2, ask yourself, what do they want? What's at stake for them if they buy into your product/service? What do they stand to lose if they don't? Advertisement The better you understand that, the better able you are to talk about your brand on the customer's terms instead of your own. 4) Disruption Here's where conflict comes into play. Now begins what Hollywood calls an "inciting incident." Something has to happen in the story to propel it forward, in order to take the hero from an ordinary to an extraordinary world. In The Wizard of Oz, what happens? A tornado transports Dorothy. In Star Wars, Luke Skywalker comes back to find his aunt and uncle burned to death on Tatooine, and he's thrust into an adventure that takes place in extraordinary new worlds. Again, the same holds true in the world of branding. There has to be disruption, in either the market or your customer's lives, in order for your brand to be urgent, relevant, and needed. Ask yourself: "what's happening in my customer's life where I can come in and fill that void?" It could be a disruption that you've created, like trying to level up your customers. Or it could be a disruption that's already happened in the marketplace. Advertisement Very important in this phase is to ask yourself about disruptions in the marketplace that your brand is reacting to, then to ask how that disruption is affecting customers in their space. How are you filling that void for them? In Chapter 4, you write the unique value proposition of how you respond to that disruption in the market in your own unique way, based on your brand position. 5) Obstacles and the Antagonist The conflict continues. Without conflict, you have no story. Conflict is the marrow of story. Without conflict, you have no story. Conflict is the marrow of story. This is where businesses often get lost in B2B storytelling, because they want to look like everything's peachy. But that's just not the way the world works anymore. Since your customer owns your story over you, given technology and social media, you really have to address the conflicts. On the business side, what are your weaknesses and threats? Be really honest about those; embrace them. On the customer side, what keeps them from buying your product? Is it price? Availability? A friend telling them they could buy a cheaper version elsewhere? Advertisement Customers have to overcome all kinds of obstacles and antagonists to buy into your product. Examine the obstacles in every stage, from awareness (where are they going to find you?), to the initial adoption ("OK, I guess I'm gonna try this"), to the appreciation stage (how are they sharing your story?). It's a simple three-act structure of customer involvement, and at every step you have to be very cognizant of the antagonists. 6) Enter the Mentor... The mentor is Glinda, the good witch of the north, or Obi-Wan Kenobi or Yoda to Luke Skywalker. In the beginning, we talked about creating a brand statement. This is when you start really creating emotion around the brand. Here's how to tap into your brand's emotional side: What is your brand promise? What do people emotionally get by interacting with your brand and its product/service? What is the unique gift that comes from operating in your brand? The gift isn't just a physical item; it's more of a metaphysical relationship that the customers have with your brand because it levels them up in some way. Finally, you want to explore the personality of the brand. Park relies on the 12 basic archetypes created by Swiss psychologist Carl Jung. They are the same archetypes that play through our mind whenever we meet someone we don't know and try to figure out where they fall within the prism. Often brands have a primary archetype and one or two sub-archetypes, everything from "regular guy/gal," to "hero," to "ruler," to "jester." When you do a little archetype study, you'll see how it brings a human element to somewhat of an inhuman object that most brands are. At this point, you're starting to shape the brand: imagery, looks, feels, colors you're going to use to express your brand story through this archetypal personality. 7) The Road of Trials This is every car chase, explosion, or near-death experience you've ever read or seen in a movie. It's typically the longest chapter or scene. Advertisement This is your customer journey. While Park doesn't pretend to be a customer journey specialist, he does work on the customer story journey, which he breaks down to three acts: 1) Awareness 2) Adoption 3) Appreciation Awareness has to do with the question, "How do people hear about your brand?" Online? Word of mouth? Advertising? A combination? Adoption: as we mentioned before, adoption is the stage of "Okay, I'll try it." It doesn't mean the customer is going to keep you around, but it does mean that they're going to bring you into their life. You must figure out where this happens and how you tell your story at that point in the customer journey. Finally, there's appreciation. This is where you're leveling them up, where they appreciate what you do and start to talk about it. Now they're starting to ritualize you into their life. Here in chapter 7, you look at those three stages for your three main audiences, and you start developing a story map that answers, "Which story do I tell to whom? When do I tell it? Where? Why?" Advertisement 8) Victory In stories, when heroes leave the ordinary world and enter the extraordinary, battling external (dragons, demons) and internal (regret/fear) antagonists, they are leveling up. When they finally slay these antagonists, they become better than they were before and return back to their ordinary world, ready to pour themselves out into the communities around them. From a brand standpoint, if you get your audience involved in your story and they experience all this stuff that Campbell talks about, you still have to identify what the victories are. Your hope is that they will have tried your product/service and loved it so much (and be so much better for it) that they'll want more. Take that same story map from chapter 7 and apply it here. How do you celebrate the victories within your stories in each step of your customer's journey (within awareness, adoption, and appreciation)? An awareness victory celebration might be, "Thanks for coming over!" Or it might be an offer to try your 30-day free trial. Maybe you even offer someone to help them through the trial. Advertisement Then let's say 30 days in, your customer loves it, swipes his card, and enters the adoption phase. How do you celebrate the victories in that stage? Does he get some free add-ons? Does he get 50 percent off his first month if he refers a friend? Then when he gets to the appreciation stage, how do you arm him with the stories you want him to share as your evangelist, both online and offline? And how do you celebrate that? Do you level him up and give him more perks or benefits? Fan the flames of brand evangelism. 9) Moral of the Story We can go days without eating or drinking, but we can only go about 35 seconds without creating meaning out of what goes on around us. In every single story you tell about your brand, there is infused meaning. You have to be very careful to make sure you're articulating the meaning you want your audience to connect with. Otherwise, they will make up their own meaning about your brand, and most of the time they'll be incorrect. What does your brand value, and how is it expressed through the stories you're telling? What do your audiences value? (Oh, by the way, those really need to connect if you're going to be around for long.) Advertisement Then, how do you connect those values in the stories you tell? What is the moral of your story? Every story has a universal truth attached to it; you have to be cognizant that yours is crystal clear. 10) Ritual To see the importance of Chapter 10, all you have to do is look at the James Bond franchise. 26 movies, several leading men, yet they have been delivering for half a century a quality product around the James Bond franchise. That's what you're trying to do with your B2B storytelling: create repeated ritual around your stories. This is where you've leveled customers up to appreciation/evangelism. Now they return home with your product/service in their pocket, and all is right with the world. What you want to figure out is how you can design the ritualistic use of your product/service into the lives of your audience, then encourage them to share through word of mouth how you're helping them in their lives. Advertisement It's not a "one and done." You take them from their ordinary world to an extraordinary one, then back home. And then you do it all again. Conclusion As you can see, the greatest stories in history have stores of valuable treasure within their structures, ready for the business world to mine out. You can follow Park's story map to become so good at B2B storytelling that the smallest presentations of your brand will tell the story. It is within your reach to become a master of the art form--and make a lot of money doing it. In a Facebook post last week, State Sen. Laura Woods referred to Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson and his running mate as "gun grabbers." A Republican from Arvada/Westminster, Woods has made no secret of her hard stance against all gun safety laws, including her opposition to Colorado billls requiring mandatory criminal background checks on people purchasing guns. She also opposes a Colorado law limiting the number of bullets a person can load into a gun at one time. Woods wants to allow a shooter to load a gun, for example, with 100 bullet, if the shooter wants to.. Advertisement And on Woods' website, she emphasizes her belief that all people should be allowed to openly carry a gun in public, without concealing it and without obtaining a permit. Woods' website explains that she favors passing bills enacting this extreme pro-gun position, called "constitutional carry" legislation. But the strange part is, Libertarian Johnson, whom Woods called a gun grabber, seems to be just about as far from a "gun grabber" as you could possibly imagine, having once told Slate Magazine, "I don't believe there should be any restrictions when it comes to firearms. None." Johnson recently told USA TODAY he supports gun sales to suspected terrorists who can't fly on airplanes because they're on America's terrorist watch list. And Johnson opposes a ban on automatic weapons. Yet, Woods thinks Johnson is a gun grabber? That's a term used to describe someone who is believed to favor government confiscation of guns from ordinary citizens. Advertisement What could Johnson possibly say that would make him sufficiently opposed to basic gun safety to meet Woods' standards for gun craziness? Woods wants total-freedom-to-own-and-buy-guns, but so does Johnson, as you'd expect from a Libertarian, who sees these safety measures as an intrusion on pracy Informed of Woods' gun-grabber comment, Joe Hunter, a spokesman for Johnson, said Woods may be upset about Johnson's willingness to have a "conversation" about how to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill. "There is no gun grabbing going on here," said Johnson, adding that Woods' attack may be "coming from" her opposition to Johnson's statements about guns and the mentally ill. Hunter: "Johnson has acknowledged that when someone is clearly mentally ill and clearly capable of doing harm to others and him or herself, [Johnson] has said we should have a conversation about how to handle that, about what to do about that." Woods still won't return my call seeking to know if she this is, in fact, why she called Johnson a gun grabber, so we're forced to speculate. Woods, who's running against Democrat Rachel Zenzinger to represent the Arvada/Westminster senate district, stated on Facebook: Woods: "Dana Kirsch (sp?) Said Johnson isn't any different than Obama on 2A. How is that a libertarian idea? I'll never vote for him." A search for what "Dana Kirsch" wrote about Johnson, Obama, and the Second Amendment turned up nothing, but I struck gold with "Dana Loesch," a right-wing gun extremist and talk radio host who tweeted a sentence very similar to Woods' comment on Facebook: Loesch: "I'll post the audio of my past interview with Gary Johnson on 2A. His answers were in line with Obama's positions on the issue." Loesch: "I see a lot of people talking Gary Johnson but after I interviewed him on 2A I found he's not much different from Obama on gun laws." So, it's pretty clear Woods was actually referring to Loesch, who is also upset with Johnson's willingness to have a conversation about guns and the mentally ill. So, by extension, it looks like Woods' beef with Johnson is about guns and the mentally ill. She sides with Loesch in wanting no conversation about that topic. I can't figure out any other reason Woods would be mad at Johnson over his stance on guns, and she won't return my call to settle the matter. Meanwhile, Woods' views on guns will likely not fly so well in her Arvada/Westminster swing district. An overwhelming 80 percent of Coloradans support background checks for all gun purchases, and 60 percent support limits on the number of bullets allowed in a gun's bullet holder, called a magazine, according to a Denver Post poll. Advertisement "I'm really disappointed in you, Senator. Promoting the lie that Gary Johnson is a gun grabber," commented Stacy Petty, a former conservative talk-radio host in response to Woods' Facebook post. "You need to check your facts before you post." "Republicans like Laura Woods see their party falling apart, and they are doing everything they can to trash anyone else who might potentially take away votes from whatever consevative base they might have," said Hans Romer, the Libertarian candidate running against Woods and Zenzinger. "Laura Woods is playing politics." Woods holds to her extreme stance on guns, despite its apparent unpopularity, just as she stands behind her extreme position against abortion, even for a woman who was raped. "If you've looked at my voting record at all, what you will know is I'm an independent thinker," Woods told Denver Post reporter John Frank in January. The outcome of Woods race against Zenzinger will likely determine control of state government, political analysts say, as Republicans hold a slim one-seat majority in the state senate. Democrats already control the governor's office, and it's likely they'll retain control of the state house, after November's election. Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks to the Detroit Economic Club at the Cobo Center in Detroit, Michigan August 8, 2016. REUTERS/Eric Thayer Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump had hoped that Monday would be the day he could reboot his failing campaign. Instead, it would be a day filled with more bad news and further setbacks. The latest blow came in the form of a Washington Post op-ed piece by respected Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine. "I will not be voting for Donald Trump for president," she wrote, adding, "Donald Trump does not reflect historical Republican values nor the inclusive approach to governing that is critical to healing the divisions in this country." Senator Collins is the latest in a growing list of Republican elected officials who have said they will not support Trump. Advertisement Trump received another devastating blow Monday when 50 former national security officials, who all served under Republican presidents, released a harshly critical signed letter stating that, "(Trump) would be the most reckless president in American history." The officials included Michael Chertoff and Tom Ridge, both former secretaries of homeland security, Michael Hayden, a former director of the CIA and the NSA, and John Negroponte, a former director of national intelligence and deputy secretary of state. "He appears to lack basic knowledge about and belief in the U.S. Constitution, U.S. laws and institutions, including religious tolerance, freedom of the press and an independent judiciary," the letter says. The officials continued, "he persistently compliments our adversaries and threatens our allies and friends. Unlike previous Presidents who had limited experience in foreign affairs, Mr. Trump has shown no interest in educating himself. He continues to display an alarming ignorance of basic facts of contemporary international politics." Meanwhile, a Monmouth University national poll released Monday showed that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton had opened a double-digit lead over Trump. Clinton received support from 46% of those registered voters surveyed compared to Trump's 34%. Even more troubling for Trump was that 67% of the registered voters believe he does not have the right temperament to be president. In contrast, 61% of those surveyed believe Clinton does have the right temperament to serve. To make matters worse for Trump, he has fallen behind in polls in several key battle ground states that he must win if he is to be elected. Trump had hoped to get his campaign on track with a major economic address in Detroit Monday. Reading from teleprompter, and holding his emotions in check during more than a dozen interruptions from protestors, Trump proposed major tax cuts and huge investments in infrastructure. "My plan will reduce the current number of brackets from 7 to 3, and dramatically streamline the process," he said. "We will work with House Republicans on this plan, using the same brackets they have proposed: 12, 25 and 33 percent. For many American workers, their tax rate would be zero." However, the rich will benefit the most from this plan, and Trump did not explain how he would pay for it. Further, Trump said he would end estate taxes, but that would only benefit a few thousand families with multimillion-dollar estates. And his proposal to allow parents to deduct the average cost of childcare spending from their taxes would most benefit families making more than $75,000 in reportable income. Advertisement Trump also promised to lower corporate taxes, and to reduce regulations on corporations, saying, "It is time to remove the anchor that is dragging us down." However, he offered no specifics, and many regulations have been enacted to protect health and safety. He also said he would renegotiate America's trade deals. "I want great trade deals for our country that create more jobs and higher wages for American workers," he said. But many Republicans, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, support trade deals. And in calling for major investments in infrastructure, like roads and airports, he never explained where the billions of dollars needed would come from. Trump said, "There will be no change under Hillary Clinton--only four more years of Obama." But Trump's "Make America First plan" sounded like a hodgepodge of recycled supply-side GOP economics. Some change! If enacted, his plan would add trillions of dollars to the debt over the next decade. But his plan would sure be great for the Trump family. It would mean lower taxes, less regulation and more construction projects that they could manage. As entrepreneurs, we can easily feel like the "odd man out"--unsure of what makes us tick and how to make our unique personalities work for us and our companies. That's why all of us need to slow down once in a while and remind ourselves of what it means to pursue entrepreneurial excellence so we can focus our efforts optimally. That's where Alex Charfen comes in. As a child, Charfen was unable to adapt to a traditional classroom structure and teaching methods. He swung between the honor roll and complete failure, alternately considered "gifted and talented" or needing "special education." Then he discovered the business world. A lifetime serial entrepreneur, Charfen initially made his mark as a consultant structuring deals worth billions of dollars. Later he created a training system that allowed real estate professionals to help homeowners avoid foreclosure. The company behind that system landed on Inc. Magazine's list of fastest-growing private companies in America three years in a row. Advertisement Still, he's never forgotten the struggles that he had prior to discovering his calling as an entrepreneur--and today, he helps other business owners develop the skills and resolve to achieve great results. Here are four of Charfen's biggest insights. Think of them as the pep talk that all of us entrepreneurs need every now and again. 1. You are a momentum-based being. We want to be constantly moving forward--"in the flow," as Charfen puts it. The momentum that entrepreneurship brings is what gives us greater energy, intelligence and health. However, much of the rest of the world doesn't understand that we feed on momentum--that it helps sustain us. They tell us to take a break and slow down, thinking they are doing us a favor. But what that usually does is raise the level of pressure and noise we feel. That, in turn, can cause us to doubt our choices about how we run our companies and our lives. That's when we end up in what Charfen calls the state of constraint, when we're held in place by others and our own uncertainties. Always remember that, as business owners, we thrive on momentum and need it to realize our potential--professionally and personally. Advertisement 2. You're often misunderstood--and that's OK. To be great entrepreneurs, Charfen points out that we need to possess four key characteristics: We have to be restless and driven. We have to be myopically focused and able to pursue a single result, often for many years. We need to be able to cut things off, move forward and change things around us. We need to be stubborn and hold our ground. But as you are surely aware, most of the rest of the world doesn't share this "let's change things now" attitude. Instead, they hold tight to the status quo because that's what feels comfortable to them. That's OK--but it means that much of the rest of the world (including people you are close to or see every day) may not really "get" you and what you are all about. We think differently. As Charfen puts it, "10,000 tries to invent the light bulb was not OCD--it was entrepreneurial brilliance." His advice is to own your entrepreneurial personality and run with it, knowing that you're not broken--you just view the world in fundamentally different ways than most everyone else does. 3. You're part of the most important club in history. Many of us feel a bit alone or isolated--a "party of one"--due to our specific entrepreneurial personalities and character traits. But Charfen is quick to point out that many of the most successful entrepreneurs throughout history felt exactly the same way. "We forget that connection to the past. Any name in business that you've studied and that you respect was someone just like you," he says. "That knowledge can go a long way to reducing the pressure and noise in your life and allow you to make great contributions." Advertisement Of course, being part of history is nice, but it doesn't necessarily help that feeling of isolation in the here and now. To feel connected with others like you today and to regain momentum and flow, I (and Charfen) recommend so-called mastermind groups--regular meetings where like-minded successful business owners meet, compare notes and strategies and even look for ways to work together to enhance each other's success. "Peer-based groups can get us connecting with others like us, contributing positively and moving forward with momentum again," says Charfen. 4. You need more help than you might admit. The entrepreneur's challenge is that we need more help than the average person to accomplish our goals, because our goals are so much larger than average. But too often we are scared to ask for help, thinking that we need to do it all perfectly ourselves in order to maintain our entrepreneurial credibility. (Never mind that as hard-charging business owners, we often aren't very good at admitting we need assistance). One of the best ways to overcome the "100% DIY" attitude is to recognize that it's smart business to focus on your biggest strength, and delegate all other tasks that aren't associated with that core strength. Otherwise, you can spend a lifetime working on your weaknesses--and end up not only diverting your energy from what you do best, but also being the proud owner of a bunch of "strong weaknesses" that don't benefit you or your business. Back in the 19th century Naples had the distinction of being compared only with Paris for its grandeur by Goethe, Dumas, Flaubert, and the Marquis de Sade, even if Mark Twain--grumpy to be quarantined for ten days in its harbor--found that grandeur jumbled together with the most dire poverty. Current-day Naples falls somewhere in between those opinions, for its magnificent piazzas and villas keep close company with crumbling structures propped up by nothing more than prayer. The vast city swirls with activity and there is hardly a moment between eight in the morning and two a.m. when the streets are not teeming with people, many of whom seem always to be strolling arm-in-arm toward a caffe or along the waterfront. Not too many years ago Naples was an affront to contemporary civilization, with its most famous street, Spaccanapoli, cutting through the center with sinister intent, dark, bereft of sunlight because of so much hanging laundry, its broken cobblestones washed only by the rain that pours into it like a rivulet. Hustlers, beggars and men giving tourists the mal'occhio leaned against graffiti-scrawled walls. Piles of garbage were as inevitable as death and non-payment of taxes. Advertisement Nevertheless, and despite its chronic underground control by the Camorra crime mob, Naples has in recent years roused itself to something like buoyancy, despite debilitating unemployment and waste disposal that is still a major issue. But the glorious Piazza del Plebescito (above) and Royal Palace have been restored, and the city still has some of the finest art museums in Europe, including the vast Museo di Capodimonte, dating to 1738, with masterpieces by Masaccio, Mantegna, Caravaggio, Raphael and Titian. Even Spaccanapoli (above) has been spruced up: the laundry is largely gone, the street is cleaner, the low-life moved out. One of spots easiest to find the romantic soul of the city is at Caffe Gambrinus (above), a uniquely beautiful coffee and pastry purveyor, set on the piazza in 1860. Its architect worked in the extravagant Beaux Art style, using the city's finest artists and decorators, and it soon acquired the sobriquet of "literary coffeehouse" for the generations of writers, artists and composers who came here for a dazzling array of pastries, aperitifs, and its incomparable coffee, made by master barristi at a battery of ancient machines that hiss and sputter like a steam train. You may also sit outside and have cocktails while watching the passing parade. Just around the corner is Pizzeria Brandi (above), opened in 1760, site where the pizza alla margherita was truly born, the creation of Chef Raffaele Esposito in 1889 for the visit of the Queen Consort Margherita, using the three colors of the new Italian flag--red tomato, white mozzarella and green basil. Today Brandi straddles both sides of a narrow street, and if you go without reservations on just about any night, you will wait an hour or so for a table. Once inside the brightly lighted rooms with their commedia dell'arte murals, you'll find everyone from everywhere. Advertisement You must accept that this, the original pizza, which is the style found throughout Naples and the region, is soft-centered, rather floppy, not crisp in the crust. The best meal I had in Naples was in a popular family-run Trattoria San Ferdinando (above)(near the Royal Palace and opera house. Led by paterfamilias Aldo Bruno, this simple trattoria is mightily committed to traditional Neapolitan fare and you can tell from the first bite that everything on the menu has been refined over many years to show the family's enduring expertise. Naples claims to make the best buffalo milk mozzarella in the South, and it's hard to argue with the luscious, pliable version at San Ferdinando, served with tomatoes and sprigs of basil. You might begin with a saute of seafood or a delicate carpaccio of sea bass with citrus fruits. There's a wonderfully hearty pasta e fagioli here. I loved the linguine with crab and the fresh fettuccine with mussels and pecorino. All the pastas hit their mark: Rigatoni comes with eggplant, green peppers and provola cheese; risotto with meaty morsels of merluzzo (hake) and herbs; bucatini is spiked with a black pepper sauce; the specialty here is pasta and potatoes with provola cheese made into a marvelously chewy crisp (above). Actually these dishes are not common in Naples, but they all taste of the regional cucina di Campania and its rich food culture. After all, this is where the tomato was first imported from the Americas in the 17th century, and it took nearly three hundred years for the rest of Italy to catch on to how delicious it was. Advertisement So, too, are San Ferdinando's stuffed cuttlefish, and the beef meatballs Neapolitan style, which you may compare with all those meatball-and-spaghetti dishes standard in Italian-America restaurants. For la cucina more experimental, I dined at La Terrazza dei Barbanti (above) in the hillside Hotel San Francisco al Monte, a comfortable, serviceable place to stay well above the noise and traffic of the center of the city and several blocks from a funicular that takes you right down to the Piazza del Plebiscito. Chef Enzo Spingone serves up some of the city's most inventive cuisine, in a modern glassed-in room overlooking the bay. Here you may begin simply, with a carpaccio of boiled pig's trotters and snout dressed with salt and lemon juice, served with marinated celery, arugula and pink grapefruit (13). Paccheri with clams and bright zucchini flowers zesty with lemon (16) or linguinette pasta with langoustine, a subtle dose of garlic, and broccoli (18). Bonito is marinated in cider and served with a corn salad (18), while old fashioned eggplant parmigiana is rendered new with chutney and basil (14). Last year, I traveled to the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan, a temporary home for 80,000 Syrian refugees who fled their country's civil war. My trip was prompted by a news article written by two volunteer dermatologists after their travels to a refugee camp one year earlier. To reach the camp, many refugees walk for days in the desert, which can create cracks that cause discomfort and can even lead to infection in the body's first line of defense: the skin. The doctors wrote about how an ordinary household item, Vaseline Petroleum Jelly, was an easy remedy for the various skin concerns they encounter and how they needed more of it. Dermatological issues might not be the most pressing problem for vulnerable refugee populations, but in speaking with the U.N. Refugee Agency, I discovered that skin problems are among the 10 most common conditions refugees face. As a Director at Unilever managing the Vaseline brand, I had the power to help solve this issue. Unilever's Sustainable Living Plan is the guiding vision by which we do business, empowering each employee to find his or her personal purpose and express it through our brands to create a brighter future. For the Vaseline Brand, and for me, that meant healing. Advertisement In partnership with the NGO, Direct Relief, we created the Vaseline Healing Project to bring simple supplies and dermatologist's hand to places in need, both internationally and in the U.S. The project's goal is to help heal some of the debilitating skin conditions that keep many people from work or school or ordinary life through medical supplies, dermatological care and Vaseline Jelly. From this experience, I've gained life lessons that I'll never forget. Learning to spot opportunity, to realize new potential in everyday objects under extraordinary circumstances and to embrace the problems that I have the power to solve instead of being overwhelmed by those I can't. These are all crucial business lessons, but I realized they are also lessons about how to live sustainably. I couldn't solve the refugee crisis, but I could make a difference in the lives of those affected. Young People Inspiring Change At Home Back in the United States, I was thinking of what I learned in Zaatari when I met two remarkable young women who are living all of these lessons in order to create a brighter future in their community -- and all before graduating high school. Californians Katrine Kirsebom and Corinne Hindes grew up as friends with a love of winter sports, often tearing through the snow on downhill ski slopes. But at age 11, they realized that winter wasn't fun for everyone. Seeing a homeless man on the street in their hometown, clad in just a T-shirt and jeans to brace against the cold, inspired them to make a promise to help. Advertisement On their next ski trip, the young girls noticed the mountain of unclaimed winter clothing at the lodge's lost and found. Remembering the homeless man, they realized those abandoned mittens and boots could warm new hands and feet. Katrine and Corinne found value in the discarded objects that most of us ignore. And, crucially, they took the opportunity to help solve a problem. They realized that while homelessness is a significant and complex issue, keeping somebody warm was within their power. Warm Winters, created by Katrine and Corrine, was launched in 2011 with a donation to a homeless shelter of unclaimed items from a ski lodge. The founders have since partnered with 30 lodges across 12 states to distribute thousands of coats, boots, mittens and hats. Unilever is proud to support Warm Winters to also distribute personal care products such as Vaseline Jelly to help Katrine and Corrine touch the lives of thousands of people. While the initiative has made great strides, so far it's been able to serve only a fraction of the millions of people using homeless shelters across the U.S. But Warm Winters has big plans to scale up. Going forward, Katrine and Corinne have a plan to train 5,000 youth over the next five years to help collect and distribute more essentials. I am so inspired by their success in rallying other young people to get involved. Young people like Katrine and Corinne are the next generation of business leaders, starting early with a mindset to find a purpose and seize an opportunity to make a difference. I, for one, am excited to see the bright future they help create. Bob Litterman knows a thing or two about risk. After all, the Black-Litterman model, which was designed to measure and manage financial risk, is named after him. These days, the risk he's most concerned about is climate change. Since his retirement from Wall Street in 2009, following a 23-year career during which he led Goldman Sachs' risk function, Litterman has specifically focused on pricing climate risk. Climate risk is a non-diversifiable risk most investors have not fully grasped and policy makers have not priced. It is crucial, Litterman believes, that risk be priced. Non-diversifiable risks, such as exposure to the equity market, cannot be avoided or insured against in the aggregate, so they require a risk premium. Advertisement Pricing Climate Risk: When, Not If As policy, pricing risk -- such as applying a carbon tax on emissions -- will harness the power of the market. Without a carbon tax society both assumes an unnecessarily large risk of climate change, and pays its costs. Economists call the externality created by emissions the social cost of carbon. Not pricing this risk skews the market, undermining economic forces that would otherwise place a premium on carbon risk. Instead of a carbon tax in the United States, production is often subsidized, further confounding the market. Once companies that produce carbon pay a tax, prices would rise. Consumers would respond to the higher prices, resulting in lower greenhouse gas emissions as consumers shift their buying preferences. That's why economists believe a carbon tax is the most efficient way to reduce greenhouse gas. "Some folks don't trust market-based solutions. They say people are not rational -- and they are correct about that -- but even though we may not be perfectly rational, we still respond to economic incentives," remarks Litterman. "My dog didn't understand incentives, but she responded to them. What many people don't appreciate is the informational efficiency of incentives. Incentives are like hidden forces. Once we have appropriate economic incentives in place, without their even being aware of it we'll have seven billion people acting in concert; consumers, businesses, and investors all over the world trying only to act in their own self-interest, but in doing so appropriately helping to reduce emissions." Litterman feels strongly that a carbon tax is a given, even if the timing is uncertain. He does not claim to know the "correct" tax, but perceives $50/ton as a reasonable starting point. According to Litterman and others' calculations, this amount would have minimal impact on the overall economy. While hurting fossil fuels, it would certainly boost growth in renewable energy, for example. (ExxonMobil, in its 2015 report claiming none of its assets were at risk, implied that the cost of a carbon tax on the economy would eventually be much higher. Litterman claimed this report was deeply flawed, probably deliberately so. If a carbon tax is perceived as too costly, it is less likely to be enacted. More recently, ExxonMobil appears to have accepted the eventual reality of a carbon tax.) Advertisement Investors Will Demand a Premium for Higher Risk Once climate risk has been priced, investors will demand an appropriate return for assuming this risk. This is Litterman's forte. Helping investors identify and manage risk is his job as Chairman of Risk Committee at Kepos Capital, a New York-based hedge fund, and as a board member of several prominent environmental groups. This can be challenging, as climate risk is not currently priced. Despite the political impasse that makes a carbon tax in the US this year unlikely, Litterman believes the market is sending signals that oil prices will remain low and a carbon tax will eventually be enacted. Given this scenario, investors should focus on the risk of stranded assets. "Who really has exposure?" asks Litterman. "It's fossil fuel companies -- their reserves could be stranded." What, Exactly, Are Stranded Assets? All companies, big and small, have assets. Simply put, assets are what a firm owns. Their value is often subjective, based on what a company's management believe they are worth. Seems simple enough. But financial executives and analysts often debate what assets are, in fact, worth. This is especially true for oil and gas companies, whose assets include reserves of oil and gas they own, but have not yet produced. Large oil and gas companies have billions of dollars of such reserves on their balance sheets. According to Carbon Tracker Initiative, major oil companies have at least some assets that are significantly overvalued. For example, the Oil Majors (the six largest private oil companies) have billions of oil assets that will cost more to produce than current market prices. For example, oil in tar sands or in the Arctic likely costs far more to produce than $45-50/barrel. In extreme cases, many of these assets are at risk of being stranded if oil prices remain at current levels. It makes no economic sense to produce oil above selling prices. In such cases, these oil reserves will be stranded. Their value must be written off. Think of a factory filled with pallets of Betamax. Or a utility with an aging coal-fired power plant. Advertisement Is Oil the Next Coal? Companies are often slow to write down these assets, hoping, perhaps, that prices will rise. Financial executives are often lifetime industry insiders, and simply can't imagine a scenario where their product has lost its luster. Markets, however, often move swiftly, often faster than companies -- and investors -- can react. Think of 2008, when stock prices plunged, seemingly overnight. Consider the coal companies that refused to write-down their aging mines, even as coal prices plunged. When natural gas and renewables flooded the market with lower cost alternative fuel, they hoped -- overly optimistically with the benefit of hindsight -- that these price pressures on coal were temporary. The rash of bankruptcies throughout the coal industry proved them wrong. Stranded assets affected the coal industry, as company after company was forced to write down the value of its coal, as demand and prices dropped. Investors in coal companies have been wiped out through multiple bankruptcies. Litterman fears investors in oil and gas companies could face similar risks. "The stranded asset risk makes Exxon an inappropriate investment for anyone, of any age group," notes Litterman. "The valuation of Exxon's shares could collapse tomorrow if perceptions of the timing and strength of incentives to reduce emissions change." Climate Risk Management 101: World Wildlife Fund Example Advertisement When Litterman joined the board of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in 2007, he was tasked with reviewing the organization's endowment investments. The WWF endowment had a small, almost insignificant, exposure to stranded assets. Nonetheless, WWF's leadership believed this investment was both risky and not in alignment with the WWF's mission. However, many of WWF's investments were with hedge funds or private equity funds that would be nearly impossible to unwind. WWF, and its consultant, Cambridge Associates, relied on Wall Street expertise to get creative. They created a synthetic financial instrument that would short (sell) fossil fuel assets that mirrored their actual portfolio holdings. Their short position combined index returns from coal and tar sands. Simultaneously, they bought an index fund that tracked the Standard & Poor's 500. If the fossil fuels declined in value compared to the S&P 500, the WWF would benefit -- and offset losses in their underlying endowment. As the chart below illustrates, WWF has hedged any losses in its underlying portfolio that includes these stranded assets by the gains in this swap. Sense of Urgency is MIA In particular, Litterman is concerned that, like the public at large, investors have no sense of urgency. They are not acting quickly enough, given the monumental risks posed by climate change. "It is time to slam on the brakes with respect to climate risk, and perceptions can change quickly," concludes Litterman. "Pricing emissions is the only effective brake society has which can prevent a future catastrophe." Art is magical. I can honestly say it saved it my life. Right now I'm a second-year student at the Savannah College of Art and Design, pursuing a degree in painting. I'll be 66 years old in September. I worked as an OB/GYN in Dallas, Texas for 25 years, until I hit a point where I had to jump. But I'm still surprised where I landed! My partner Kim is from Georgia, and when she was growing up her family went to the beach on Tybee Island, just east of Savannah. Eventually we bought a little cottage on Tybee. While vacationing there we saw bus after bus with SCAD on the side. A seed was planted. At that time Kim and I were still living and working in Dallas. We were considering retiring. We went to Tybee one Thanksgiving, and as we drove through Savannah we spotted a little Tudor fixer-upper for sale. We jumped and bought it. The house had a sunroom with big windows, and we thought, "Those would look great with panels of stained glass." I decided to design images for the stained glass. I started sketching some shore birds, and Kim said, "I didn't know you could draw!" Advertisement I had dabbled in art my entire life. It seems like people are natural artists when they are young, then get jobs and have families, eventually retire and then become like kids again. For me that meant making art again. When the increasing stress of practicing medicine made it clear that I needed to retire I thought, "Now what am I going to do?" Kim said, "Why don't you go to SCAD?" Great idea, but I needed a portfolio to apply. I found a creative arts place for adults in Dallas and started taking classes. It turned out my art teacher had attended SCAD, and was actually in one of the first graduating classes in the late 1970s. I told him I was creating a portfolio so I could apply, and he said: "You'll love it!" Being a student again, I was a little self-conscious. When I'm in class with 19-year-olds, I see them, not me. Then, walking down the street, I see a reflection in a store window and think, "Who is that older woman?" Oh, it's me! One day in class I said, "Getting older just happens," and everybody cracked up. I didn't grow up with computers. I'm taking a computer arts class now, and I'm struggling. I went to my professor, Oscar Betancur, and said, "I can't do this." He told me: "You don't want to drop this class." Then he spent four hours helping me one-on-one on a Saturday. He was right. I love this class. I'm working hard. I've got an alphabet after my name but I couldn't remember point and click, copy and paste. I'll get there. Advertisement We Baby Boomers are still here. The Greatest Generation was hard on us, and that affected a lot of people my age. The truth is, we can gain a new purpose! Going back to school reawakens the process of learning and applying yourself. It has for me. What will I do with my art degree? I'm not sure yet. A second career is tempting. In any event, attending SCAD is a process of discovery, which is what a university experience should be. In med school, I was set on surgery, but wound up in obstetrics/gynecology. I entered SCAD as a painting major but I'm keeping an open mind. Each time I take a new class I love it. I was never a history buff, but now I love art history. Northern Renaissance art is the greatest! Jan van Eyck and Albrecht Durer are fantastic. SCAD has a location in Lacoste, France. This autumn I'll be going there for eight weeks, taking painting classes and a "Travel Portfolio" drawing class. I wasn't going to go, but when am I ever going to have another opportunity to take art classes in a medieval village? Dictionary definition of terrorism In June, a mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando claimed 49 lives and left 53 wounded. America was left in shock as the deadliest shooting spree in the modern history of the country took place. The perpetrator, Omar Mateen, was himself killed in a shootout with police almost three hours after instigating the rampage at the Pulse nightclub. As soon as details about his identity went public, US media outlets were flooded with accusations that he was an "Islamic terrorist" who carried out the attack on behalf of the self-called Islamic State (Daesh). Advertisement Mateen, a US citizen, was born and raised in New York. However, the media doggedly highlighted his paternal origins and insisted that he was born to Afghan parents, implying that he was not sufficiently American. It was after this tragic incident that the debate on "Islamic terrorism" resurfaced in the US. Despite efforts by some progressive public figures to ward off undue attacks on the American Muslim community, a latent smear campaign against Muslims was revitalized. The assertion that Muslims are homophobic and resent the lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer (LGBTQ) community was ballyhooed to make it seem that the "Muslim terrorist" who shot up a gay nightclub had a personal vendetta to engage in this wild attack: his abhorrence of homosexuals. It's true that Islam outlaws homosexuality, but this does not mean that as a faith it calls on its adherents to direct violence against gays. Islam prohibits its followers from inflicting harm on others or reciprocating harm, based on the principle of: "Do not inflict injury nor repay one injury with another." This Islamic tenet lays the basis for the interaction of Muslims with each other, with people of other faiths and those who have no faith. So, when Muslims are prevented from even imposing harm on others, how could they be permitted to enter a nightclub and murder 49 people with a semi-automatic rifle? Could a criminal who breaches the most fundamental precepts of Islam be considered a genuine Muslim whose criminal action amounts to "Islamic terrorism"? Advertisement In May, I conducted an interview with Professor Jeffrey Haynes, an expert on religion and conflict. Haynes said that terms such as "Islamic terrorism" are misleading as there is no such thing as Islamic, Christian or Buddhist terrorism. Religions do not tout violence and we cannot attribute the behavior of individuals to the standards of a specific religion practiced universally. It is true that some members of a religious group might commit acts of violence, but it does not mean that all the adherents of that faith should be held accountable simply because one of them has committed a crime. Troubling hypocrisy Media coverage of the Orlando shooting and its aftermath was somewhat slanted and impartial. It was unanimously affirmed that Mateen was a terrorist and what he did on June 12 was characterized as some sort of international or domestic terrorism. According to the US Code of Federal Regulations, terrorism is defined as "the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives." With this definition, it is questionable as to why Mateen's crime was classified by politicians, media and pundits as terrorism, while several similar incidents of comparable magnitude in recent years in the US have been downplayed as "mass murder" or "acts of violence," and the perpetrators mildly branded as "loners" suffering from some mental illness. In June 2015, a 22-year-old gunman named Dylann Roof opened fire at a prayer service at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina and killed nine African Americans. Advertisement Roof had reportedly posted photos on the internet posing with a handgun, a Confederate battle flag and the Nazi code numbers 88 and 1488 written in sand. There was even one picture showing him setting fire to a flag of the US. He had also published a 2,444-word manifesto shortly before triggering the attack at the Charleston church, explaining what had motivated him: "I chose Charleston because it is most historic city in my state, and at one time had the highest ratio of blacks to Whites in the country. We have no skinheads, no real KKK [Ku Klux Klan], no one doing anything but talking on the internet. Well someone has to have the bravery to take it to the real world, and I guess that has to be me." In his manifesto, Roof called blacks "the group that is the biggest problem for Americans." "Niggers are stupid and violent. At the same time they have the capacity to be very slick," he wrote. Talking about Jim Crow laws, he claimed that "Segregation was not a bad thing. It was a defensive measure. Segregation did not exist to hold back negroes. It existed to protect us from them." If such a spiteful ideology is not viewed as criminal, and if the assortment of such callous words in a manifesto does not qualify as hate speech, then it's easy to understand why the mass killing explaining such a mentality was not dubbed as "terrorism." And let's not forget that we have not yet consigned to oblivion the horrific Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting of December 2012 in Newtown, Connecticut, by the 20-year-old, white, non-Muslim Adam Lanza, who was never referred to as a terrorist. Lanza brutally killed 20 children aged between 6 and 7 years old in a shooting rampage, as well as six adult members of staff and his mother before committing suicide. Advertisement Similarly, Seung-Hui Cho, a South Korean-born student who massacred 32 people at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia in 2007 was treated no worse than a mass shooter. Profiling Muslims It seems like it's becoming an accepted convention to classify every incident of killing and murder by a non-white criminal (especially with some Muslim or Arabic background) as terrorism. With the Orlando shooting, few people cared if the perpetrator was really a walking encyclopedia of Islam with a deep knowledge of every Islamic tradition and prescription, and if he really practiced the faith at all -- Mateen was reported to have physically abused his ex-wife and he was not a devout Muslim. But the fact that he was born to Afghan parents and had an Arabic name was sufficient for xenophobes and opportunists in the media industry to once again impeach 1.6 billion Muslims. This is precisely the profiling that Donald Trump says is needed to be done against Muslims. What would have happened if the killer of British parliamentarian Jo Cox, who was shot and stabbed to death in June, was a Muslim? Now that the suspect, Thomas Mair, is known to be a Scottish-born, non-Muslim, nobody raises the title of "terrorist" to disparage him. Had a Muslim perpetrated the murder, mainstream media would have teamed up to debate the exigency of countering "Islamic terrorism" forcefully. The media and public reactions to the heartrending murder of Jo Cox, the painful Orlando shooting and the contemporary history of terrorist attacks in the US give the impression that the designation of "terrorist" is exclusively reserved for Muslim or Muslim-born wrongdoers who, regardless of their belief or disbelief in Islam, are treated as the face of the entire Muslim world. Nobody rules out that Omar Mateen had pledged allegiance to Daesh shortly before prompting that carnage, but the question that must be asked again is whether the so-called Islamic State is representative of Muslims globally. Do any real Muslims endorse the atrocities of this death cult? Advertisement In the end, 1.6 billion people often pay the price for the criminality of an individual who might not even have read the Quran once to realize that, according to Islam, the killing of one innocent person is such a grave sin that it is equated with killing all of humanity. U.S. President Barack Obama, left, meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping during their meeting held on the sidelines of the COP21, United Nations Climate Change Conference, in Le Bourget, outside Paris, Monday, Nov. 30, 2015. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) With U.S. elections just three months away, it is open season for China-bashing. Candidates will be talking tough on trade, currency manipulation, cyberattacks and other issues, vowing they will not let China push us around. We certainly have reasons to be concerned about China's policies and its growing influence and ambition. But political bluster is not the right response. We have to acknowledge the importance and centrality of our relationship with China. Managing it effectively will take a mix of cooperation and confrontation. It will require a delicate balancing act. Advertisement In terms of Chinese politics, President Xi Jinping has consolidated his power impressively, ruthlessly and across the board: militarily, politically and economically. Xi is leader of the Communist Party, the center of power in the country. He has also acquired additional titles, leading pundits to label him "chairman of everything." China is not likely to become democratic soon, and Xi wants to further strengthen the one-party dictatorship of the Communist Party. He wants a strong, rich, stable country, restored to its former greatness, the so-called Chinese dream. Xi has overseen a repressive security regime, shrouded in secrecy. He has enhanced his power with anti-corruption drives and a crackdown on dissent. He worries most about unrest in his vast country, where hundreds of protests occur daily. He has tightened the screws on the media and hammered at civil society, with hundreds of human rights lawyers having been detained or prosecuted. Much of his rhetoric sounds positive: He praises the rule of law and insists that no one should be above it. But these ideals seem not to apply to party members. Advertisement The Chinese government has done some good things for its people. It has raised income levels, instituted modest local political reforms and improved access to education and health care. It is hard to gauge public opinion in a country like China, but Xi seems to have a lot of popular support. China has the world's second-largest economy by GDP (four times the size of Japan's, five times the size of Germany's) and arguably the largest by purchasing power. It is a bewildering mix of free markets and state control: socialism with a lot of capitalism built into it. And it has a voracious appetite for resources. China's growth has slowed somewhat but continues at a vigorous pace. China's leaders believe their system is superior to ours, and they argue that it's a model for the world to follow. The country is huge and complicated: One in every five people on Earth lives in China, with tremendous geographic, economic and ethnic diversity. Someone once said that whatever you can say about China will be correct -- somewhere in China -- because it is such a big and diverse country. The United States and China differ in many ways: size, language, history, culture, ethnicities, ideologies and our views of the appropriate role of government. Maintaining a productive relationship will require recognizing and accepting these differences. Advertisement Political posturing has its appeal in an election year. But our national interest will be best served by smart and pragmatic engagement. To a great extent, our efforts toward China will be about managing problems, not solving them. In this most important bilateral relationship in the world, we should deal with China from a position of economic and military strength. Where we have common interests and potential for cooperation, such as climate change, nuclear security and cybersecurity, we should work together. We should accept that China has its sphere of influence in the world and has the right to its own system of government and its own standards of political legitimacy and social justice. While we recognize China's rise to power and prominence, we should exert what influence we can to ensure it is a responsible member of the international community. Every major global challenge we face -- peace, prosperity, environmental protection, population and resources, and terrorism -- will be easier to solve if we work with China and much more difficult if we work at cross purposes. Our economies are tied together through investment, debt, deals and trade; in so many ways we rise and sink together. Our leaders should elevate the relationship with China to the highest levels and priorities of our government. We should energize and sustain high levels of engagement, including military exchanges, and we should support and work closely with our allies and partners in the region, avoid provocative military actions and conflict, and insist China do the same. Congress must play an active role, through hearings on various aspects of the relationship and frequent visits to China. Advertisement We should accept China's appropriate role in international organizations, and we should oppose any Chinese claim contrary to international law and norms. China is not a world superpower, and it is not going to become one anytime soon. It has few allies. But it is a regional power, and its importance and influence are growing. We should welcome a peaceful, stable, prosperous China that chooses to play a responsible role in the world, but we should not expect breakthroughs in the relationship. Co-authored by Leisy Abrego, Ester Hernandez, and Arely Zimmerman We all know about the Republican presidential nominee's stance against immigrants. What we've heard less about in this election cycle is Hillary Clinton's approach to immigration policy. The Democrats and her response to Central American refugees provides some insight into how she might handle immigration policy as commander in chief. Based on faulty logic about what is spurring migration from the region, Clinton and the Democrats have publicly supported the detention and deportation of Central American refugees. To our surprise, emails released by WikiLeaks last month reveal that former staffers of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) have failed to comprehend this evidence. The messages, like Clinton's record, provide a window into the inner workings of the Democratic Party establishment. Advertisement On May 16, 2016, Luis Miranda, former Director of Communications at the Democratic Committee, prepared his team to engage with immigrant rights advocates including members of CASA de Maryland, a pro-immigrant rights organization founded by Central American refugees in the 1980's: They want us to send a message to Central Americans to keep paying smugglers and put those kids at risk of abuse and even death. Frankly the rhetoric on this and calls for TPS are irresponsible, they send a message that ends up in more lives lost. From this dangerously erroneous perspective, Miranda argues that implementing actual refugee policy for Central Americans fleeing violence would simply prompt more people to come. He implies what conservatives have stated explicitly: that we are merely dealing with people who want to abuse the law. Clinton has not veered far from the Party's line on immigration. After playing a central role as Secretary of State in supporting the Honduran military coup in 2009 which has contributed to destabilization and a rise in migration from the region, Clinton's first public response was that Central American children should be sent back. Later, on the campaign trail, both she and her running mate, Tim Kaine, stated that Clinton has reversed her position on sending back Central American children and that she will move to provide immigration reform within the first 100 days in office. Yet, comprehensive immigration reform proposals of the past have failed to address the issues propelling Central American refugees and their specific conditions within the US. Advertisement Hillary Clinton and the DNC staffers replicate reasoning evident in the US government's reprehensible approach toward a previous generation of Central American refugees. Since the 1980s, and despite well-documented fears of state terror and legitimate claims to asylum, Central Americans have qualified for few legalization programs. Without stable legal status, it is difficult to thrive in the United States in both the short and long-term. Most recently, their faulty logic has led to long-term detention for hundreds of Central American women and children seeking asylum. In an attempt to respond to calls for humane treatment of refugees, Obama recently announced the creation and later the extension of the Central American Minors program. But, this program has to be substantially broadened to adequately address the regional refugee crisis we are confronting. The Democratic Party has overtly courted the Latino electorate, but Central Americans' issues are largely ignored despite the community's growing demographics and influence. Reflecting this negligence, the released emails reveal that Luis Miranda reiterated that the DNC was, "not going to fight on the Central Americans." Central American activists, however, are organized, well-informed, and deeply networked from decades of social movement organizing and will continue to call for a humane response to the current crisis. In the spirit of true progress for immigrants and refugees, it is imperative that as president, Clinton extend TPS for people here from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras; provide asylum for those fleeing violence; close all immigrant detention centers; and put an end to deportations. Ester Hernandez is Professor of Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies at California State University, Los Angeles. Advertisement Co-authored with Karishma Shamdasani Why is there only one check-box on official forms for Asian Americans when, as a group, they represent 48 culturally diverse countries and have a population of over 17 million people? Last year, The Pew Research Center reported that by 2055, Asians will be the largest immigrant group in America. Yet the term "Asian American" often evokes an overly specific image. It is one of tiger moms, students with perfect SAT scores, white collar jobs, a proclivity towards math and science, and economic statuses that surpass even some of the wealthiest white Americans. In all, Asian Americans often are presented as the model minority. The model minority myth is an egregious pigeonhole that ultimately diverts attention and resources from overshadowed Asian American subgroups. This is demonstrated by the sharply lower median incomes and higher poverty rates for Southeast and South Asian ethnic groups. To say that all Asian Americans have the same economic or social experiences would be far from the truth. Many Asian American subgroups struggle financially, and the model minority myth only worsens the narrative of the truth. Advertisement Asian Americans Advancing Justice and the National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development (National CAPACD) are both working to address the frustrating depictions that lump all Asian Americans into a single category, especially when it comes to understanding their financial lives. Surveys and reports that treat Asian Americans as a homogeneous group do damage by placing a refugee from Cambodia in the same category as a software engineer from India, or a physician from China. These groupings skew the data for all Asian Americans. Indian Americans, for example, had a national median income of $92,418 in 2011, while for Bangladeshi Americans, it was $45,185. When economic reports show Asian Americans with incomes equal to or surpassing that white Americans, they fail to consider the struggles of people whose families immigrated from places that face immense economic challenges. Let's consider metropolitan Los Angeles County. Tongan (78%), Bangladeshi (57%), and Cambodian Americans (53%) in Los Angeles County have higher rates of poverty than any other racial group, including Latinos (51%) and African Americans (40%). Yet the overall Asian American poverty rate--significantly lower than other groups at 27%--is skewed by high-performing groups, such as Taiwanese (19%), Indian (19%) and Japanese Americans (18%). The recent study, "A Community of Contrasts: Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in Los Angeles County," that 16% of Asian American families in Los Angeles County have three or more workers contributing to income, a significantly higher proportion than white families (10%). This is not uncommon for Asian American families across the country, whose cultural principles lend towards multi-generational households with several working adults. But data collection methods are not ideal for understanding these nuances. In other words, data can actually hide the truth instead of revealing it: failing to consider these cultural differences makes Asian Americans' income seem higher than it is. Advertisement "But Los Angeles is an anomaly," you may be thinking. But, if we look to metropolitan Dallas, which has a lower overall population of Asian Americans, we see that Burmese (31%) and Nepalese Americans (33%) have higher poverty rates than any other racial group, again including Latinos (23%) and African Americans (21%). Yet the Asian American poverty rate in Dallas is 11%, about a third of the poverty rate of the Asian American subgroups most in need. A third of Burmese and Nepalese Americans live in poverty and yet both, are still subject to a constrictive stereotype of academic and financial success. This stereotype tells us that these groups are a privileged minority, and thus they have no reason to protest or seek help. Head east to the nation's capital and the trend continues. In the D.C. area, Nepalese (16%), Indonesian (16%), Pakistani (14%) and Burmese (14%) Americans have the highest rates of poverty. The only other ethnicity that comes close is African Americans, whose poverty rate stands at 14%. With the Asian American poverty rate at 6% (almost the same as the poverty rate for whites, at 5%), the struggles facing Asian American subgroups is easily swept under the rug and out of sight. Anyone who believes Asian Americans are successful in this country is not completely wrong. However, for every Asian American person who manages to excel in this country, there is another who does not. Entire populations of Asian American subgroups are living below the poverty line, practically invisible, because of an overblown stereotype supported by misleading data. Though data that accounts for ethnicity exists, they are few and far between. Ignoring subgroups of Asian Americans can have far-reaching consequences, but we can change that. National CAPACD suggests the best way to address Asian American poverty is to tailor efforts to each community by language and cultural approach and to empower each subgroup to become politically active and build networks with local institutions. We urge you to visit National CAPACD's website to see how you can support their efforts to conduct research to help us better understand Asian Americans' financial struggles. Lawmakers, nonprofits and advocates can only target certain Asian American subgroups if there are data to direct and support their efforts. Without such data, the general population continues to see all Asian Americans as a single entity, meaning vulnerable groups do not receive external further support. Poverty in Asian American communities will continue to be ignored if we allow the damaging narrative of a homogeneous, upper middle-class Asian American population to perpetuate. Now is the time to disaggregate our data to understand the lives and financial struggles of Asian Americans. Advertisement By Ambassador Daniel Speckhard Two years ago, a spike in the number of children crossing the border into the United States from the Central American nations of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras pricked the conscience of our nation. Although the flow dipped last year, U.S. border officials are reporting that the apprehension of accompanied minors is once again on the rise. There is no reason to think this northward movement won't continue or even increase unless we deal with the migration "push factors:" the endemic violence, corruption and impunity, as well as economic underdevelopment that plague the region. Fortunately, we are facing a transformational moment in which Central Americans, with our support, can respond to these challenges Advertisement I recently visited the region and saw auspicious signs of change. Civil society groups and citizen protestors are demanding reforms, and some judges and prosecutors are taking action against corruption. Just the last year has seen the ouster of the Guatemalan president and vice president over allegations of corruption. Honduras has adopted a commission against corruption and impunity similar to the one -- supported by the US -- that has been so effective in Guatemala. These winds of change come as the U.S. is making a major investment in the region, not only to improve security, but also in the form of the $750 million strategy supporting Central American governments and societies writ large to reduce violence and spur economic development. Congress conditioned these monies on the three governments taking steps on migration, rule of law and transparency. If targeted wisely, this infusion of aid can make a big and lasting impact. While much of this assistance is understandably focused on urban areas where violence is most apparent, this US government aid also needs to provide significant support to struggling rural communities, where El Nino has caused prolonged drought and plant diseases like coffee leaf rust have increased the poverty of many small-scale farmers. The result: young people seeking opportunity are leaving rural areas in droves. Targeted investment addressing these push factors can help stem this flow. One example is the Cocoa Alliance in El Salvador, an effort supported by Catholic Relief Services and Lutheran World Relief that combines U.S. tax dollars with private philanthropy helping to link small-scale farmers with regional and overseas markets, which can significantly boost their incomes. If successful, this initiative will generate jobs and economic development in the "migrant- exporting" rural zones that will keep families and communities intact. Advertisement The inclusion and strengthening of civil society groups and rural municipalities will be a key factor in ensuring accountability and transparency. The consultation required by Congress and citizen assemblies working to inform and oversee municipal budgets are means to ensure good intentions and funding translate into sustainable impact for the communities at risk for violence and migration. Local groups must lead with "demand-side governance" and activism that insists on accountability and pragmatic means for involving local communities under threat from gang violence. But others, including U.S. faith-based organizations and NGOs, can support them. While a more inclusive development may take time, the complex knot of problems in the region requires a patient bottom-up approach in both urban settings and rural communities. Obviously we do not want to encourage more to embark on this dangerous journey, but our humanitarian principles should impel the United States to fulfill its moral obligation to protect, not punish, children who are fleeing persecution in their homelands or who are often victims of trafficking. This means ending the practice of family detention for those who make it to the U.S. border, providing access to legal counsel to those facing deportation, and better screening by U.S. border officials to identify and provide protection for asylum seekers and trafficking victims. Finally, we urge the Administration and Congress, this one and the next, to make a continuing commitment to this transformation in the Northern Triangle of Central America. The $750 million that Congress already approved for FY 2016 is only now beginning to flow to the region, as the end of the fiscal year rapidly approaches. But the fact that it's taken time to actually get funding to programs on the ground does not mean that we should cut funding looking forward, even as we continue to monitor the effectiveness of aid and promote innovative solutions. We echo the words of a USAID official who -- with a nod to Colombia -- counseled "strategic patience." We need to continue our commitment to the key priorities that will make a difference over the long haul. Advertisement Let's support the courageous voices who are demanding better leaders and dreaming of safer, more prosperous communities where their children can see a future. Khizr Khan, whose son, Humayun S. M. Khan was one of 14 American Muslims who died serving in the U.S. Army in the 10 years after the 9/11 attacks, offers to loan his copy of the Constitution to Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump, as he speaks during the last night of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. July 28, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Segar In high school, my tenth grade Social Studies teacher screened the movie High Noon as an object lesson. We knew little about it, other than it was a black and white western made before we were born. The class discussed their reactions to the characters and the plot. Our teacher listened, and then informed us that the movie was far more than just another cowboy story. He contextualized the movie, discussing the time frame during which the writing and production of the movie took place. He tied in the war in Korea, the House on Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), and a man named Joseph McCarthy. Advertisement "America lost sight of important truths during this period," he stated. He outlined how Hollywood became a place where people informed on each other, jobs were lost, and lives were ruined. He lectured about the dangers of demagoguery. He invoked the names of Hitler and Mussolini as men who preyed upon people's fears and prejudices. He followed with a primer on homegrown manipulators, false leaders who made claims about having "all the answers." In the past months, I have listened to the growing litany of Trump's hate and bigotry. His flirtation with an American brand of neo-fascism has been frightening. He doesn't bother to add a side order of apple pie. It has made me think of my teacher and the narrative of High Noon. The storyline is simple yet nuanced; bold in its simulation of real time. Gary Cooper plays the lead role of Marshal Will Kane. Advertisement Kane, newly married, plans to leave town with his bride. A telegraph arrives with the news that a man he sent to jail for murder was pardoned. The outlaw is coming back on the 12 o'clock train to settle old scores. His gunslinging posse of three is waiting for him at the railroad station. Kane reaches out to friends and citizens for help. The local judge, former deputy, mayor, minister, and ordinary people refuse to get involved. They want no part of the fight, preferring to keep silent and out of sight. My teacher quoted Edmund Burke's words: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Which brings us to Donald Trump and members of the Republican party. I have waited for Sen. John McCain, who once self-identified as a "maverick," to push back. Trashed by Trump for not being "a war hero," McCain continues to maintain his endorsement of Trump for president. McCain's focus is his own self-interest. He needs to survive a challenge in the Republican August primary in order to defeat a Democratic opponent in November. Who would come on the national scene to speak out loud what so many were thinking? America's Will Kane finally appeared in the person of Muslim-American Khizr Khan. In his emotional speech at the Democratic National Convention, he picked up the threads of this yet unfinished story. He spoke to delegates and the country about his fallen son, Army Capt. Humayun Khan. He condemned Trump's proposed "ban on Muslims." Khan challenged Trump's fundamental understanding of the United States Constitution, and questioned his grasp of the principles of "liberty and justice for all." Advertisement Trump responded with attacks on Khan and his wife. The Khans appeared on media outlets, in response to numerous invitations. Khizr Khan used the opportunity to implore Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell and Speaker of the House Rep. Paul Ryan to take action. He asked of them, "Isn't it time to repudiate Trump?" One of his key and recurrent points was the call for "moral courage." Trump's rhetoric goes beyond words and showmanship. The substance of his agenda points to a multitude of red flags. Throughout Trump's political "ascent," the rise of hate speech has become unfettered. A quick search on the Internet reveals a plethora of white supremacist groups. They have pledged to mobilize around the effort to eradicate people of color, Jews, and homosexuals from the United States. Sound familiar? It's easy to look at history, whether recent or in previous centuries, to question a lack of action on the part of individuals and nations. It's more difficult to want to see things in the present. No longer is it a question about party loyalty or self-serving political maneuvers. It's about taking a stand on doing the right thing. It's about integrity and conscience. Donald Trump, 2016 Republican presidential nominee, speaks on a monitor during an event to discuss his economic plans at the Detroit Economic Club in Detroit, Michigan, U.S., on Monday, Aug. 8, 2016. Trump is promising the biggest overhaul to the personal income-tax code since Ronald Reagan, as well as a deep cut in the corporate tax rate. He's also pledging to end excessive regulation and lift restrictions on the nation's energy producers. Photographer: Sean Proctor/Bloomberg via Getty Images Some of the people planning to cast protest votes in November have a bedtime story they love to tell themselves. In the story, Donald Trump's election wouldn't be such a bad thing because the diffusion of power in the American political system would prevent him from carrying out the worst of his lunatic schemes. Now, there is a germ of an idea there: political and institutional constraints greatly limit the power of a President. But it's worth noting that the political constraints generally act through the perceptions of the President and those around him about what he can, and can't, get away with: that is, precisely the sort of thing that would have kept Trump-the-candidate from, e.g., hurling ethnic insults at a federal judge. A President unfazed by criticism, and willing to ignore advice about the limits of his lawful authority from the Office of Legal Counsel, actually can get quite a lot done. No President in the modern era -- even Nixon -- has dared to say what President Jackson said about a Supreme Court ruling: "Mr. Justice Marshall has made his decision. Now let him enforce it." But what if we had a President who was willing to behave that way, surrounded by advisers egging him on to do so? Trump's power for evil might be substantially greater than (e.g.) Obama's power for good. Advertisement Today a friend challenged me on this point: Make a list of ten really, really bad things that President Trump could actually do. A little bit of emailing around produced the following list. I've divided it into two groups: the "stroke-of-the-pen" things that a President could accomplish just by ordering them, and other things that would require Congressional approval or help from state governments. But let's not forget that Trump's election would almost certainly mean both that he had a Republican Senate and House to work with and that the Republican members of those bodies would mostly be terrified of primary challenges should they oppose the imperial will. The distinction between the two groups is not absolute; in principle, the appropriations power could be used to constrain virtually any Presidential action, in the extreme by zero-budgeting the Executive Office of the President, leaving The Donald to write his own orders. And of course there is always the impeachment power. But again, an election that brings us Trump would be likely to disable those safeguards as well. "With a stroke of the pen" 1. Withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement on global warming. 2. Abrogate the nuclear deal with Iran, setting the stage for either war with Iran or Iranian development of a nuclear weapon. (Or both.) Advertisement 3. Deny hostile, or even objective, journalists and media outlets access to information by refusing them admittance to press conferences, instructing appointed and public-affairs officials to refuse all interviews, and subjecting even routine data requests to FOIA delays. That will have three effects: disabling the effective capacity of the independent media to exercise oversight; giving professional and business advantages to complaisant reporters and their outlets; and creating incentives for reporters and outlets alike to stay in the Administration's good graces. 4. Institute criminal investigation and prosecution of political opponents. The Attorney General, the FBI Director, and the 94 United States Attorneys all serve at the pleasure of the President. (The 10-year term of the FBI Director is a maximum, not a minimum, and Bill Clinton fired Director William Sessions in 1993.) Now imagine FBI Director Chris Christie, reporting to Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Those positions, and the U.S. Attorney slots, are all Senate-confirmable, but even if the Senate were to resist the President could appoint all of them on an acting basis. 5. Use tax enforcement and the award or denial of tax-exempt status to punish enemies and rewards friends. The Director of the IRS is also a Presidential appointee. Civil-service protections would make it harder to replace IRS career staff with political loyalists, but the GWB Administration made substantial progress in filling the Justice Department with Republican apparatchiki, and the same could be done at the IRS. 6. Attack "liberal-leaning" universities and not-for-profit research enterprises by either interfering with the grant process directly or by using financial or compliance audits to disqualify them. 7. End enforcement of the Voting Rights Act. This is entirely at the discretion of USDoJ, and no doubt Assistant Attorney General Kris Kobach will have other priorities. Advertisement 8. Cease Department of Justice investigations into police misconduct. 9. Mount a massive deportation process. Direct the Department of Homeland Security to target and remove persons who registered under DACA and DAPA. 10. Investigate the "loyalty" of Muslims in the civil service and the military. 11. Substantially reduce enforcement of anti-discrimination law, including revoking executive orders that require nondiscrimination by federal contractors. 12. Block all entry of refugees. 13. Wreck the Affordable Care Act in practical terms by reversing the administrative decisions that make it feasible, and destroy it legally by conceding its unconstitutionality the next time it is challenged in court. 14. Loosen regulation and virtually eliminate enforcement of all environmental laws, workplace health and safety laws, and consumer protections. Early targets would be the Obama Administration's aggressive attack on air pollution from coal-fired power plants and the newly-instituted fiduciary-standards rule for pension advisers. 15. Reinstitute torture by replacing the Army Field Manual with Bush-era interrogation "standards." I do not believe that most, or even many, senior officers would abide by such orders. But the President is, indeed, Commander-in-Chief, and only custom keeps him from firing those who disobey unlawful orders. (When President Lincoln was told that Confederate forces had captured forty mules and two major-generals, he replied, "Too bad about the mules. Major-generals I can make." Ranks of O-4 [major or lieutenant commander] and above require Senate confirmation, but junior officers are created by Presidential fiat, and brevet promotions are unlimited.) Advertisement 16. Encourage Russian aggression in Europe by renouncing our NATO obligations. Start by recognizing Russian sovereignty over the Crimea. 17. Withdraw the U.S. from other treaties and international organizations: WTO, NAFTA, the U.N., the Paris Treaty on international climate change. 18. Encourage Japan and South Korea to develop nuclear weapons by raising questions about the validity of our security commitments. 19. Unofficially encourage or sponsor the growth of armed far-right "militia" groups, and discourage enforcement of federal laws against them (e.g., vigilante border enforcement groups, takeovers of federal lands by "sovereign citizen" organizations). By legislative action or with the advice and consent of the Senate, or the help of state governments 1. Appoint at least one and perhaps three Supreme Court justices on the Alito model, locking in a right-wing majority for a generation. Advertisement 2. Reduce tax rates for the rich. 3. Block grant food stamps and/or Medicaid. 4. Appoint anti-worker and anti-union members to the National Labor Relations Board. 5. End federal support for the full range of women's health services, including ending the federal partnership with Planned Parenthood. 6. Increase domestic production of coal and oil while ending public investment in renewable energy. 7. Repeal of Dodd-Frank, Sarbanes-Oxley, consumer financial protection laws. 8. Disenfranchise Democrats with a combination of voter-suppression tactics (shorter voting hours, fewer voting machines leading to longer waits, hard-to-meet "voter ID" rules) and gerrymandering. In the extreme, use electronic vote counting to simply miscount the votes. A story is told of Benjamin Franklin. As he left the Constitutional Convention -- which did its work in secret -- for the last time, a woman stopped him to ask, "Well, Dr. Franklin? What have you given us? A monarchy, or a republic?" Franklin answered, "A republic, madam: if you can keep it." This is not a game. Institutions do not maintain themselves. Not all damage is reversible. I do not believe that Trump will be elected, and I do not believe that, if he were elected, that would be the last relatively free and fair election for President. But it's not impossible. Let's not do the experiment. I consider this list provisional. Please suggest additions, subtractions, and edits in comments. We write to express our deep concern regarding recent developments in Brazil that we believe threaten that country's democratic institutions. We urge you to exercise the utmost caution in your dealings with Brazil's interim authorities and to refrain from statements or actions that might be interpreted as supportive of the impeachment campaign launched against President Dilma Rousseff. Our government should express strong concern regarding the circumstances surrounding the impeachment process and call for the protection of constitutional democracy and the rule of law in Brazil. The fossil fuel industry has been at the center of the climate change debate, for good reason. We urgently need to transition from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy sources in order to stave off catastrophic climate disaster. There's also another urgent reason to make the shift from fossil fuels: the industry's toxic operations pose unacceptable health threats to our children and families. Researcher Frederica Perera at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health recently noted that fossil fuel emissions pose grave dangers to children's health, both from pollution and from the health effects from climate change. Her review concludes that: Advertisement "(B)y sharply reducing our dependence on fossil fuels we would achieve highly significant health and economic benefits for our children and their future. These benefits would occur immediately and also play out over the life-course and potentially across generations." In addition, a review by the California Climate Change Center found that fossil fuels and climate change pose more health problems to low-income people of color, communities that already shoulder an unequal burden of pollution-related health issues. Their report notes that in California "...(F)ive of the smoggiest cities are also the locations with the highest projections of ambient ozone increases as well as the highest densities of people of color and low-income residents." The study concludes that public policies that do not take these pollution disparities into account could reinforce or worsen current health inequities. Now, across the country, communities of color are taking a stand for environmental justice in their neighborhoods. These activists are demanding an end to the fossil fuel pollution that has put their health at risk for too long. For example, in Brandywine, Maryland, residents and environmental groups have filed a federal civil rights complaint to stop two new natural gas plants in a community that is 70% African American. The area is already home to three polluting plants, with the attendant effects on air quality and health. Speaking on behalf of the neighborhood community, resident Kamita Gray called the plant "...(E)nvironmental racism, environmental slavery, environmental terrorism. This isn't just an environmental issue. This is a health issue...we've become (a) sacrifice zone." Advertisement In Los Angeles, the fossil fuel industry's pollution threatens numerous low-income communities of color. Most people don't think of LA as an oil town, but in fact the county is the largest urban oil field in the country, with 70% of its active oil wells located within 1500 feet of a home or school or hospital. The wells are predominantly located in low-income Latino and African American neighborhoods, with residents reporting health issues, lack of information about toxic threats, and a failure of regulatory protections. Affected communities there have formed Stand Together Against Neighborhood Drilling (STAND-LA), an environmental justice coalition of community groups working to end neighborhood drilling and protect the health and safety of those on the front lines of urban oil extraction. In North Carolina, local groups in the predominantly Africa American areas around Duke Energy's coal ash waste pits are fighting the company's drinking water pollution. Local NAACP President Malcolm told the Greensboro News & Record that the community objects to corporations that always seem to target lower-income, minority neighborhoods for their toxic waste-disposal projects. Even worse than turning a blind eye to the health risk posed by Duke's toxic waste, state officials may have illegally covered up the bad news. Just this month, a state toxicologist testified that the state health director knew about high levels of a cancer-causing chemical in drinking water when he falsely told residents that their water was safe to drink. Indeed, it is nothing new for companies to target such communities for their toxic facilities. As Dr. Robert Bullard, one of the country's leading historians of environmental justice told us on the CEH podcast, across the country, research over decades shows that low-income communities of color are more likely to be chosen for polluting operations and toxic waste disposal. "Zip code is the best predictor of health and well-being, " he said, "and some communities have the wrong complexion for protection." A combination of Islamic theocracy with democracy makes Iran's political system one of the most complex and unusual political systems of the world. The clerical regime with a highly complicated government structure is known as an adversary of the U.S. and its allies in the Middle East. The history of hostility between the countries is decades old, but the current distrust is mainly related to Iran's nuclear program. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) has reduced tensions between the countries and Iran has been trying to comply with the deal. However, there are many questions and concerns about the future of Iran's relationship with the U.S. and its role in the region. Photo of P5+1 and the European Union Representatives Following Negotiations About Future of Iran's Nuclear Program The United States and Iran established diplomatic relations in 1883. In 1980 after the revolution and taking hostage of 52 Americans, the U.S. had ended its diplomatic relationship with Iran. Since then, the clerical regime in Iran has been known as a U.S. adversary. However, since late 2015 the tensions between these two countries have decreased, but the U.S. still maintains numerous sanctions against Iran. Advertisement Team USA Men's Volleyball Plays the Iranian Men's National Volleyball Team in the first of four friendly matches in Los Angeles, California, on August 9, 2014. In July 2015, permanent members of the United Nation Security Council, the United States, United Kingdom, Russia, China, France and Russia, plus Germany (P5+1) and Iran reached an agreement to ensure that Iran's nuclear program will be peaceful, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). This agreement restricts Iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. The agreement removed several sanctions and it has given Iran an opportunity to change course and normalize hostile attitudes towards the Western allies. For one year so far, Iran has complied with the agreement and no significant violations have been reported. As a part of a prisoner swap, Iran has released several U.S. prisoners. Iran government negotiates billion-dollar deals with their U.S. and European companies, including with the Airbus and Boeing. The country is a re-emerging as a dominant economic power in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Since 9/11, the U.S. has fought Sunni totalitarian Islamists, including ISIL, Haqqani Network, Al-Qaida, and the Taliban, which has weakened dominating Sunni power in the region. Iran has always seen Sunni totalitarian Islamists as a strategic threat to its Shia expansionism policies. Nearly 14 years of U.S.-led war against Sunni totalitarians has already strengthened Iran's influence in the region. Advertisement The two biggest neighboring threats of Iran, the Taliban and Saddam's regime, have been overthrown by the U.S. and its allies. Some of the Shiite minority in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and other countries loyal to the Iranian Shiite regime have rapidly been empowered and on several occasions, they have been used as proxies of Iran. There is no doubt that normalization of the U.S. relation with Iran will further empower the Islamic Republic. Secretary Kerry sits with State Department Chief of Staff Finer in Austria While Conducting Negotiations on Implementation of JCPOA Iran strives to be a regional power. However, the neighboring and regional countries are concerned about any aggressive, conservative Shiite Islamic domination and interventionist policies of the Islamic Republic. In particular, Israel and Saudi Arabia are worried about Iran's influence and strength in the region. They both have disapproved of any U.S. and Iranian deals, including the JCPOA. Extremely centralized power, the absence of freedom of speech, lack of access to information, corruption, and a mysterious regime led by clerics is a matter of primary concern for the world community. However, President Hassan Rouhani, with a limited power, tries his best to present the best picture of the country. Nonetheless, Shiite Muslim cleric Sayyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei, the second and current Supreme Leader of Iran, controls all the security as well as the political and economic machinery of the country. The military, police and intelligence agencies of the Islamic Republic, have denied and limited access to the country. However, in contrast, the regime has massive access and some influence over neighboring and regional countries through its proxies and puppet politicians. Strategic intentions of Iran include Shiite Islam domination of the region, and the isolation of Israel and Saudi Arabia. Advertisement The U.S. repeatedly warned Iran over its alleged support for rebels, illegal armed groups and sponsoring terrorists. Iran still continues to support Assad's regime and Hezbollah, but denies sponsoring terrorism. Other major concerns are continued modernization of Iran's military. The Islamic Republic has tested modern ballistic missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). The U.S. intelligence reported that the country is building intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), and the regime is developing space and counter-space capabilities. Furthermore, the U.S. government has already accused Iran of several instances of cyber espionage against the U.S. A U.S. unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile launches during an operational test at 11:34 p.m., Feb. 20, 2016, Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. (U.S. Air Force Photo by Michael Peterson) However, a political transition and government reform is the best possible long-term solution for Iran. Nevertheless, attempts to change the regime abruptly and through shortcuts have had its consequences. Many Iranians are keen to see a change, particularly the new generation, who make up the majority of the nation. During the last three decades, millions of Iranians have fled the country and millions are waiting to be free from the sanctions and isolation. Lots of Iranians love to be free of fear, prosecution and internal sanctions posed by the clerical regime. But, few of them strive to have the freedom and the power to advocate for political reform and liberty. Regardless of being against or for JCPOA, the deal is final. The Islamic Republic enjoys the benefit of this agreement and Iran has entered into a better relationship with the world. So, the deal should not remain a one-way street. Considering the balance of power in the region, moreover, promoting democratic values such as human rights and freedom of speech, the U.S. and its allies should use this opportunity to hold the Islamic Republic accountable and support political and economic reforms. Handshake Between Businessmen You can't witness the racially-charged tragedies in St. Paul, Dallas, and Baton Rouge, and countless other places, and not feel something. Outrage, pain, confusion, sadness -- perhaps a combination all of the above and more. The subject of race is so complex and emotionally charged that it's difficult to find ways to talk about it constructively and effectively. It either becomes an argument where opposing sides never even attempt to understand each other -- or, equally problematic, the conversation remains so polite, so worried about offending someone, that it accomplishes nothing. As a business leader, what can you do? You could ignore it until it goes away, but let's be honest -- that's never an effective or lasting strategy, especially when it comes to a cultural flashpoint that has been around since pretty much forever. Advertisement You could try making a statement. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz attempted to do exactly that by launching a #RaceTogether initiative after the killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. Schultz wanted to jumpstart conversations about race in America by encouraging baristas to write "Race Together" on coffee cups. The movement seemed to come from a well-intentioned place, but Starbucks was blindsided by negative backlash. Many saw the move as a shallow solution to a deep problem, and many people were confused whether the initiative was genuinely philanthropic or a carefully crafted PR campaign from a huge corporation. The response was generally cynical, and in many ways, the initiative failed. Check out John Oliver's summation here. The actual execution of the campaign notwithstanding, Schultz's heart was in the right place: we need to do something, and these problems aren't going to get better if we ignore them. That's why corporate leaders like Tim Ryan, PwC's U.S. chairman, are tackling the delicate issue head-on with their staff in the hopes that the conversation will extend far beyond the walls of their business. Here's our full video interview about business leadership. Advertisement Ryan's commitment to diversity and cultural understanding is a long-standing cornerstone of his leadership at PwC. "It's incredibly important [to have a diverse team]," he said. "Our client base and our people touch all cultural and social issues across the U.S. and globally. We're in virtually every community, which means we need to understand the world from many different perspectives." After the violent shootings in St. Paul, Baton Rouge, and Dallas earlier this month, Ryan walked into work, only to be met with a tense silence. Instead of coming up with a hashtag campaign, Ryan decided to take action in a different way: by listening. "When you think about what happened in Dallas and subsequently Baton Rouge, it was heart-breaking, it was confusing, and it was hard to understand," Ryan said. "And as a leader, you want to react, but I don't understand the issue from every perspective. So, I went to our people, and I asked them. I said, 'Please give us advice. We care. We know it's an issue, but please give us advice.' " Ryan talked with hundreds of people, and it became clear that the best step for his organization was to create an environment where people could share their feelings. He organized a firm-wide discussion on race that week. "The biggest piece of advice I have is to listen," Ryan says. "As leaders, we're wired to have answers and solutions.Listen. As I listen to our people about some of the stories, hundreds of e-mails, discussion groups . . . The more I listened, the more I understood." Advertisement For instance, one African-American employee (on PwC's executive team) referred to his suit as his "cape:" when he wears it, society perceives him as one of the "good guys;" when he doesn't, however, it suddenly becomes a different story. He's then instantly at a drasticly higher risk of being perceived as a threat and much more likely to be met with violence or agression in certain situations. His story was particularly impactful given the recent shooting of Charles Kinsey, unarmed Black therapist, who was shot by a police officer while working with one of his autistic patient. Ryan makes a concerted effort to open a company-wide dialogue and help his employees share their stories with as wide an audience as possible. To that end, he discussed what he had heard with Elena Richards, PwC's Minority Initiatives and Talent Management Leader; together, using public social media platforms like Twitter and Snapchat, the two encouraged employees to share their own experiences and engage in an open, honest dialogue. The following is a guest post from my colleague, Mike Vaughn, who came to Education Post after working for 18 years in the communications offices of two urban school districts: Denver and Chicago. He blogs at Education Post and at Great Equalizer. What makes a good school? That seemingly simple question is going through the education-policy wringer right now. And the answer (not surprisingly if you've ever been on the business end of that particular ringer) is anything but simple. The U.S. Department of Education is busy these days putting together the nuts and bolts of the new federal education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), and the current debate centers on the best way to measure a school's academic performance for accountability purposes. Advertisement It's a debate that I know well from the five years I worked at the Denver Public Schools (DPS). DPS has a school-rating system called the School Performance Framework (SPF). It includes measures beyond just academic performance (despite the "kids are only test scores" malarkey that gets thrown at DPS and education reformers a lot). But a big focus is on student learning. (What a concept!) The big debate at DPS, as it is with ESSA now, was what's the more important question to ask when rating a school's academic performance? Is it: Are the school's students learning year to year? ("academic growth") Or: What have students learned? ("academic proficiency" or their "status" at the time they took their state's standardized test.) In the early days of Denver's SPF, the premium was on growth. We wanted to make sure schools were rewarded for kids who were progressing academically, especially the kids who were below grade level and needed to catch up. Denver's schools serve a lot of kids who are behind, and that growth is more valuable, the thinking went, than a school that serves mostly grade-level (proficient) kids and merely keeps them there. Advertisement That's still the main line of thinking in DPS, but it's shifted considerably in the wake of criticism that the SPF was giving schools too much credit for growth and not setting a high enough bar for proficiency. In this Denver Post story, DPS Board Member Happy Haynes explained the shift this way: Schools rightfully have gotten credit for growing kids, but it has inflated how well they're doing overall. Growing them is great but you still have to get a certain number of kids to be proficient. The goal of growing them is to get more kids at proficiency each year. The downside to that shift, however, is the concern that putting the premium on "proficient" encourages schools to put their premium only on students who are within reach of proficiency (this has been termed "educational triage"), because that's the progress that's rewarded most--more so than getting kids from way behind to a little bit behind or from proficient to advanced. A group of education researchers and advocates led by University of Southern California's Morgan Polikoff recently sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Education to argue against requiring states to use proficiency levels in their ESSA accountability plans. It suggests other measures that reward progress across all performance levels. Democrats For Education Reform's (DFER) Charles Barone responded by making a case for proficiency and asking: Advertisement If percent proficient, or something like proficiency that focuses on meeting a particular standard rather than merely making progress anywhere on the continuum between abject failure and absolute superiority, is not the ultimate goal, what was the point of the past decade's mantra of 'college and career readiness?' Tom Boasberg is in his eighth year as Denver's superintendent, and he's been at DPS since the creation of its SPF school scorecard. I can't imagine there's anyone who's been in more growth-versus-proficiency debates than he has. And I know from experience, he brings a big brain and an even bigger heart into every one of them. He favors balance over "versus." "The systems should clearly be both--and, with both growth and status measures because of the importance of each," he told me. "At the same time, growth should receive a heavier weight. The more a system increases the weight on status, the more the system measures not how much a school is helping a student make progress but rather the level at which students enter the school. And that generally serves to artificially inflate the assessment of schools serving largely well-off kids and underestimate the work in high-poverty schools." So that puts the premium on making sure students are learning, particularly high-needs students, but with a close eye on what they've learned and how prepared they are for success at the next level. Advertisement Sounds like a good school to me. After being pushed Vincent Orange finally did the right thing and announced he will resign his Council seat on August 15th the day he begins his new job as the Executive Director of the DC Chamber of Commerce; something he should have done right away. But as the saying goes "better late than never". Now however on his way out the door he is choosing to get involved in another dispute of his own making about who the Democratic State Committee should choose to fill out his remaining term. This must make those who chose him as the new Executive Director of the DC Chamber scratch their heads and wonder what they are getting into. The Washington Post reports Vincent Orange "is objecting to Democratic Party officials filling his vacant seat with the political newcomer who beat him in the June primary." He tweeted "Why not appoint a Latino, Asian, LGBTQ person or upcoming millennial person [to] provide exposure for future?" Orange may want to do his research before tweeting because as it happens Robert White is a millennial. Many think it would be better for all if he just left gracefully instead of getting into this fight. The same Post column reports "D.C. Democratic Party Chairwoman Anita Bonds says party officials will most likely appoint Robert White, the former aide to Attorney General Karl Racine who won the primary. He is already heavily favored to win a full term in the November general election and is pushing for an early appointment to the seat." Advertisement Orange's pandering to the LGBT, Asian and Latino communities on his way out the door is just lousy politics and we will now wait to see if with Orange at the helm of the Chamber they will be supporting members of these communities in future elections. Orange is unnecessarily alienating both the State Democratic Party and the next Councilmember, Robert White, for apparently no reason but personal pique. White will either take his seat on the Council now or in January; I hope it's now. He clearly won't have any good feelings left for Vince Orange which could easily translate to the organization Orange will be heading. Orange's actions make no sense and again give people an indication of some of the reasons he lost his reelection campaign. This entire embarrassing episode should lead the Council to revisit and review their ethics rules and make some decisions on whether or not they need to legislate new ethics standards or simply enforce what is there. My feeling is they may need to introduce new legislation. In her last term on the Council before becoming Mayor, Muriel Bowser worked hard and passed a new ethics bill which began to make inroads into the problems the council continues to face with members disregarding obvious conflicts of interest. This drives people away from politics and as I wrote in a previous Washington Blade column is an embarrassment for the District as our leaders work to get Statehood. Advertisement There are many good strong members on the DC Council. We are electing new people with each cycle who are making a full-time commitment to the Council and not having outside work. It is my belief this should be the goal for all Councilmembers in the future. It is always easier to make decisions when you have only one boss; the people who elected you. We also need to get more of the money out of politics both nationally and locally. It may take time to overturn Citizens United but we can find ways to at least partially publicly finance our local elections. As a start the Council may want to look at the New York City model and see how it could be adapted in the District. I've encountered many people who work in the Fashion Industry who love Zara, but are afraid to admit it. I've walked the halls of two of the top magazine publishing companies in New York City. I'm sure you can imagine the top-secret conversations that go on in between those walls. It usually goes from who's shooting who, and for which magazine, to how angry a person is about their day, to which editor sucks, to what perfume you're wearing, and oh where'd you get those pants. Many times I've admitted to getting items from Zara. Yes it's true, I shop at Zara; however I'm not afraid to admit it. In all honesty, I love Zara. They spit out ideas quicker than most; true enough the ideas are often someone else's rather than theirs, which is another story for another day. That being said I feel as if I'm looking for something, some designer or team member from Zara seems to have been listening to the thoughts in my head, because it magically appears at Zara. It may not happen within the next two months, but somehow or someway the very thing I wanted seemingly appears in the store. It's actually not about the copy for me. I actually stay away from the items I know Zara copied from the runway. Something inside of my head just starts repeating "knockoff, knockoff, knockoff." However what's all the hush about? Is it that people who aren't rich in fashion can't actually afford the items we're shoving down the public's throat? That may be more true than not. Is it the whole notion of "Fast Fashion" and how it's ruining the industry we love? I haven't quite grasped a solid answer on this issue or maybe the answer varies from person to person. President Barack Obama speaks at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. July 27, 2016. REUTERS/Gary Cameron Most presidential campaigns are freighted with drama: colliding ambitions, revelations of character, pivotal moments which arrive without warning. But the drama of 2016 involves much more than a clash of two candidates. For it also turns on the ideals and ambitions of America's first black president, and how the trials of his tenure -- indeed, of his life -- have permeated not only the national consciousness, but his own soul. True, much of the resolve Barack Obama will bring to electing Hillary Clinton is about legacy. But it is also about the kind of man he is, and what he wants this country to be. And that is inexorably intertwined with the entirely different man who is Donald Trump. Advertisement First, legacy. It is not my purpose here to make the historic case for Obama's presidency. But his accomplishments bear at least some resemblance to those of Franklin Roosevelt in the early days of the New Deal, or of Lyndon Johnson before he crashed and burned in Vietnam. He ameliorated the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. He saved the auto industry. He extended health care to millions of Americans. He put two capable and progressive women on the Supreme Court. And he did so in the face of unprecedented partisanship and polarization. In the area of foreign policy and national security, he took out bin Laden and decimated Al Qaeda. He negotiated the Iran deal, and opened a new relationship to Cuba -- controversial acts which, in the end, will likely be vindicated by history. And he helped design and negotiate an international treaty to combat climate change. It is in foreign policy, as well, that the principal criticisms of his tenure lie. It can be argued that he left Iraq too soon, entered Libya too precipitously, and abandoned his redline in Syria for too little. But it is surely true that in the Middle East the consequences of action or inaction are as difficult to forecast as they are severe. Advertisement In the end, there is little doubt that history will view Barack Obama as a very consequential president -- perhaps even, some may argue, a great one. That verdict lies ahead. More salient, for now, is to consider what kind of man he is. I can't claim to know him -- I don't. But four years before he became president I got at least some insight, which the trials of his presidency bore out. The occasion was the morning after his breakthrough convention speech in 2004 -- overnight, it seemed, he had become a prominent and potentially unique national figure. The circumstances of our meeting aren't important. But for roughly 45 minutes, Nancy and I visited with him alone. For a number of reasons, he made a deep impression on us both. Part of this involved the difference between Obama and the numerous other political leaders I've known over time -- not to mention Donald Trump as all of us have come to know him. Our conversation was just that -- a genuine conversation. He listened closely, attentive to nuance. It became obvious that Obama had a deep curiosity, and knew great deal about a great many things. But where another politician might work overtime to show his knowledge of whatever most concerned you, more striking was his questions and how much he took in. Advertisement My concerns were those of a more or less typical white progressive -- no surprise, then, that a smart guy like Barack Obama had mastered those subjects. But then he began probing Nancy's work as an educational consultant in underdeveloped countries -- a subject about which most Americans, including our politicians, know even less then they imagine. Not Obama. Again, he asked great questions. More surprising, it gradually became apparent that he knew quite a bit about the context for Nancy's efforts. This, then, was not a matter of professional necessity, but genuine curiosity. With this came a nice sense of detachment from self. Later on that summer, we went to a fundraiser for his Senate campaign. Based on our prior acquaintance, the three of us were having an amiable and nonpolitical conversation when the representative of a women's group shouldered us aside, claiming the space to assure Obama that her group had been pivotal to his rise. As we watched, Obama responded with polite appreciation. At length the woman departed. With mock gravity, Nancy put a hand on Obama's shoulder and said, "For my part, Senator, I want to assure you that I've had absolutely nothing to do with your success." Many a candidate would squirm at such an irony. Obama grinned, then broke up altogether, eyes alight with real amusement. Here was a politician who got the joke -- including his role in it. Advertisement Needless to say, Donald Trump never would. But the awareness of self and surroundings was surely bred in Barack Obama from early on. To appreciate this, one need not know him -- one need simply pause to imagine his life, and what went into becoming the man who became our 44th president. Imagine being a multi-racial kid whose Kenyan father abandoned him young. A kid whose peripatetic mother moved him to Indonesia to marry her Asian second husband before divorcing him. A kid returned to a distant outpost of America, Hawaii, to be largely raised by his white grandparents. A kid separate from the history and heritage of the Africa-Americans with whom America would group him. A kid who knew that every time he stepped into a room, others would see him as a different version of "the other." Every fiber of Barack Obama must want to banish Donald Trump from public life. And, at last, his opportunity is at hand. Imagine, then, the sense of caution, the gift for observation, the feeling of solitude, the awesome self-reliance the young Barack Obama would need to navigate the world. Imagine the stunning realization that, in ways few could understand, he was a person unto himself. Imagine the sensitivity to difference through which he learned to deal with differences. Then, perhaps, we begin to imagine the man we came to know. The truly extraordinary understanding he brought to speaking of race when that necessity was thrust on him by Reverend Wright. The experience of becoming a human Rorschach test who, simply by aspiring to leadership, symbolized our psychic response to race -- for most of us, of racial progress; for a fearful minority, of displacement within a society which threatens them. Advertisement Imagine, too, the awesome forbearance it took to remain stoic in the face of the racist birtherism stoked by Donald Trump. Or the criticism of African-Americans who believed that he should speak first and foremost as a black man. Or the racist rudeness of a white southern congressman shouting "liar" at a black American president. Or the ceaseless Republican obstruction underwritten by racial animus. Or political enemies trying to convert his own wife to that racist stereotype -- angry black woman -- fueled by their own subliminal guilt and unease. Imagine, further, the burden of knowing that, though you personified the best of America to the world, millions of your fellow Americans hated you because of race. Imagine all that, and wonder at the extraordinary grace Barack Obama brought to the ceaseless task of both leading and representing us. Feel gratitude, as well, for a man who gave us an administration which was high in ethics, and a family so consistently admirable in leading such a uniquely unnatural existence. But we have been lately reminded, yet again, that for any president -- but particularly this one -- race is a minefield, all the worse because of the ongoing trials of black Americans, to whose experience too many whites are oblivious, and who look to Obama to express their frustration and pain. The tragedies in Baton Rouge, St. Paul and Dallas captured his dilemma. Blacks asserted that he been too slow to condemn police shootings of other blacks; irrational and angry whites held him responsible for deaths in Dallas simply because he expressed concern about the deaths in Baton Rouge and St. Paul; the despicable Trump accused him of dividing the country. As a fatalist, he must surely have anticipated this, just as, surely, it must have taken a toll. Advertisement And yet throughout his term, as he did again in Dallas, he has comported himself with admirable balance, speaking for all Americans without retreating from his identity as a black man, whether stating the stark and simple truth that Trayvon Martin could have been his son, to leading the mourners in Charleston by singing "Amazing Grace." Graceful, indeed -- and hard. So imagine how Barack Obama must feel about Donald Trump. Some of those feelings are surely personal -- and wholly justified. Trump is the odious gasbag who tried to humiliate our first black president by feeding the racism, nativism and xenophobia of the bogus birther movement. The moral cipher who, simply to get attention, assaulted Obama with groundless lies. The opportunist who ultimately compelled our president to release his birth certificate to quell the fevered suggestion that he was not, somehow, legitimate. Thus it was pleasing to watch Obama dispatch Trump at the White House Correspondents Dinner, turning the man's bloviations to sport for our national amusement. But his disdain for Trump is far more than personal, for the bilious billionaire is the antithesis of everything that Obama wants America and its president to be. Obama prizes reasoned dialogue; Trump is an ignorant demagogue. Obama strives to make judicious judgments; Trumps' sputterings are mindless to the point of danger. Obama speaks to inclusiveness and generosity; Trump to suspicion and divisiveness. Obama is a man of dignity; Trump a narcissistic buffoon who would degrade our public life. Obama is ever conscious of his responsibilities; Trump feels no responsibility to anyone or anything but his own all-consuming ego. Obama is the president who made the brave and risky decision to go after Osama bin Laden; Trump is the draft dodger who questions his loyalty and spine. Advertisement And here's the core of it. Obama has surmounted the toils and trials of race, and asked us to do the same. Trump is a practicing racist. Trump's offenses against decency are legion. He targets blacks with racist dog whistles; Mexicans with demeaning stereotypes; American Muslims with insinuations that they are, collectively, a fifth column for terrorists. And, in doing so, he tears at the fabric of that which is most precious, and often most fragile, in our society. Every fiber of Barack Obama must want to banish Donald Trump from public life. And, at last, his opportunity is at hand. We have already seen the preview. In the wake of the slaughter in Orlando, Trump shamed himself by spewing self-congratulations combined with demagoguery, lies, and practical and moral idiocy -- scapegoating Syrian refugees and every Muslim abroad; suggesting that American Muslims at large were complicit in terror; labeling Obama's careful effort to distinguish between Terrace and all Muslims as weak; and, perhaps most loathsome, questioning the president's loyalty. With palpable contempt, Obama eviscerated all this. He then reminded us that "we don't have religious tests here" and that "we've seen our government mistreat our fellow citizens, and that has been a shameful part of our history." And, by doing so, he reminded us of the ways in which Donald Trump would not only undermine our security, but our values. Advertisement But that response was the grim duty of a president faced with tragedy. At the Democratic convention, we got a glimpse of how Obama will eviscerate Trump -- for the emptiness of the man, and the stunted prism through which he views America. And after Trump demeaned the Khan family, Obama used the moral authority of his office to challenge Trump's fitness to hold it. Come the fall, Barack Obama will be free to mount an argument in his own time and way, giving everything he has to make sure that the next president embraces, not destroys, the values he has brought to the office. And, by doing this, he will exact his well-earned reprisal on Donald Trump, dispatching him from public life with the back of his hand. Perhaps that is the best part. Barack Obama's ultimate revenge is not simply that he will do that, but how -- with a grace and elegance beyond the power of a man like Trump to summon, or even imagine. Donald Trump addresses the Detroit Economic Club at Cobo Center in Detroit, Michigan, United States on August 8, 2016. (Photo by Emily Molli/NurPhoto via Getty Images) On Monday, Donald Trump talked about the economy on television for an hour. That may have exceeded the graduate-level curriculum at Trump University. But the biggest lesson I learned is that Trump contradicts himself more, and becomes more typically Republican, with every passing day. It's rare to see Trump put much effort into anything, so it was almost likable to watch him work so hard to read his speech from a teleprompter. All that concentration! It was like watching a child learn to draw. Advertisement Trump pretended to be unfazed as protesters from the Michigan People's Campaign, all of them women, interrupted his speech 14 separate times -- or was it 17 times? (Dave Johnson has more on the protesters and their demands here.) He scowled an authoritarian scowl at some of the interruptions but didn't respond directly, even when a protester reportedly shouted, "Tiny hands! All you got is tiny hands!" I don't know if Trump has tiny hands or not. But when it comes to the economy, he definitely has tiny plans. We were promised a bold new vision. What we got instead was, with one or two notable exceptions, a warmed-over version of the House Republicans' standard-issue voodoo economics. Trump embraced the House GOP's three-tiered income tax rate, with deep cuts in the highest bracket. He proposed a steep reduction in the top corporate tax rate and suggested eliminating the estate tax, which is only levied on the wealthiest heirs and heiresses, altogether. Trump repeatedly contradicted or undercut his own statements, often seconds or minutes after he had made them. It was the verbal equivalent of that geometrical construction known as a Mobius strip. If you stand on one side of a Mobius strip and keep walking, eventually you'll wind up on the other side. Advertisement The more Trump spoke on Monday, the more he wound up on the other side of himself. Some examples: Trump boasted that he was going to "cut regulations massively," promising to enact a temporary moratorium on new regulations upon taking office. Then he blasted China for having "no real environmental or labor protections" -- measures that are, of course, regulations. "I am proposing an across-the-board income tax reduction," Trump said, "especially for middle-income Americans." Then he proposed a series of tax cuts that would primarily benefit corporations and wealthy individuals. Trump proposed to double Hillary Clinton's proposed spending to rebuild America's infrastructure -- an initiative that is urgently needed and could create many good jobs. Advertisement Then he proposed a massive round of tax cuts that would deprive the government of the revenues needed to pay for it. Trump promised to "increase choice and reduce cost in childcare, offering much-needed relief to American families." Then he announced a policy that would primarily benefit the wealthy, while doing little or nothing for most families. As Michael Linden noted, a childcare tax break wouldn't help the one-third of families who don't pay federal income tax. Under Trump's plan, a family in the top income bracket would get a $400 break for every $1000 in childcare expenses, while a middle-class family in the 15 percent bracket would only get $150 in relief. You could call it the "nanny deduction." Trump is still taking a maverick position on trade. But it's hard to know how deeply-held his convictions are, or how much he'll fight for them, since both his running mate and his party's congressional leaders hold the opposite view. Advertisement Trump the Populist is a tiny figure now, barely visible in the shadow of Trump the Purveyor of Tired Old Republican Ideas. Most those ideas have already been tried and have already failed. George W. Bush's tax cuts were associated with "the worst growth performance since the Great Depression," in the words of economist Dean Baker. Deregulation led to the financial crisis of 2008, and to the disastrous BP oil spill. These were human tragedies. They were also economic tragedies, robbing us of far more than the imaginary cost of regulation that is routinely cited by Republicans like Trump. Why the transformation, or "tinification," of Trump the Populist? For one thing, he seems to have no core values. And he has a problem: the Republican Party's leaders are revolting. By that I mean, at least in this case, is that they're rebelling against Trump. The Christian Science Monitor is probably close to the mark when it calls this speech a "first step to unifying (the) GOP." As economist Douglas Holtz-Eakin told the Monitor, this was "a peace offering to House Republicans." Trump's choice of Detroit as the site for this speech was meant to convey his belief that this country's industrialized economy can be restored to its mid-twentieth century heights. (He failed to point out that Wall Street interests -- people much like the rich white male financiers on his team of economic advisors -- played a key role in Detroit's current financial difficulties.) Advertisement Trump painted the picture of a revitalized nation built by "American hands" (albeit of an unspecified size). At times his words sounded like the narration to a 1950s newsreel, the kind that featured black-and-white images of bustling midcentury towns and cities: American cars will travel the roads, American planes will connect our cities and American ships will patrol the seas. American steel will send new skyscrapers soaring all over our country. It's an inspiring (if jingoistically expressed) depiction of the nation as it was during the era of post-World War II growth and prosperity. But that growth was made possible by government investment, which in turn was made possible by a tax code that asked far more of the wealthy and of corporations than we do today. "I consider it my patriotic duty to keep Elvis up in the 90 percent tax bracket," said Elvis Presley's manager at the time. Under the proposal offered by Trump and House Republicans, that top rate for millionaires and billionaires -- the "Elvis Index," if you will -- would be only 33 percent, barely more than a third of what the King presumably paid in his prime. This is Trump's biggest contradiction: He exhorts Americans to "think big" and "dream great things." But Donald Trump is all talk and no action. In the end he's just another selfish and small-minded Republican, with tiny dreams and a tiny vision in a nation that is still capable of greatness. Dear Mr. Trump, I never thought I'd say this, but thank you. Since you announced your run for the presidency, you have held up a giant mirror, and shown us just who we are as a nation. Some of what we see reflected back is not so pretty; but by and large, our country's response to your candidacy has shown us that the character of America remains strong. By the latest estimates, the majority of the voting public -- including many within the rank and file of your own party's most respected individuals -- will not accept into the highest office of the United States, a Trump presidency. As we review the past year since you've announced your candidacy, let's take a look at some defining moments from your campaign that was revelatory not only of your character, but that of this nation: 1. When you went after Mexicans (June 2015): It was the kind of ill-conceived, stereotypical and irresponsible statement that would characterize your run for office: "When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best... They're sending people that have lots of problems... They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime. They're rapists." Advertisement What was the nation's response? There was the natural public shock and outrage; and high-ranking GOP officials disavowed your views from those of the Republican Party. This was soon followed by leading brands like NBC; Macy's, ESPN, NASCAR, PGA (among a long list of others) that severed ties, costing you from estimates of $50-80 million in lost business deals. On the very heels of your announcement for candidacy, many of us thought your statement would be the end of the very beginning. But not so; it was simply the beginning of a long, and drawn out affair that would see not only see a long list of business defections, but of political defections as well. 2. When you went after Sen. John McCain (July 2015): If there's a Holy of Holies of American politics, it's a decorated war hero, who happens to be a well-respected leader in your own party. Your political disagreements with him escalated last year when you directly challenged his military reputation: In reference to Sen. McCain's five years as a tortured POW in Vietnam, you had this to say: "He's not a war hero... I like people who weren't captured." If there ever was a moment to collectively face-palm, this was it. Not only did it demonstrate a complete lack of sensitivity for what was undoubtedly a traumatic experience, not just for Sen. Mccain, but for tens of thousands of current and former US Military personnel; it also revealed a complete disregard for the the norms of political discourse or civility. It's okay to disagree with an individual over their views, but to malign them so personally, and so publicly falls well below the temperament required of a leader interviewing for the most powerful office in the world. What was the nation's response? We questioned your judgement as a statesman and leader. We wondered how you could serve as a legitimate representative of the Republican Party when a whole cohort of its leaders repudiated your statements in strongest terms. Among them was this blunt message from South Carolina Sen. Lindsay Graham on Twitter: "If there was ever any doubt that @realDonaldTrump should not be our commander in chief, this stupid statement should end all doubt." Advertisement 3. When you went after Megyn Kelly (August 2015-April 2015) Conservative Fox News Commentator, Megyn Kelly directly challenged various statements you made about women: everything from labeling them "fat pigs", "dogs", "slobs", and "disgusting animals" to making derogatory sexual references to them in professional contexts. Rather than take accountability, you defended your virtue of vulgarity, countering with this deflective statement: I think the big problem this country has is being politically correct. In the following days you made a controversial reference to Megyn Kelly's blood flows; and over the course of nine months continued to disparage and undermine her qualifications as a journalist for calling you out on an important issue. Now, Compare your comments with the sitting president's recently published essay on feminism, and you'll see just how high the bar has been raised on the issue in the Oval Office. What was the nation's response? I think it's fair to say that you've lost the female vote this election. Poll after poll shows widening female voter support for Clinton as the election nears. In fact, NPR projects that the gender gap this year will likely be the largest in 60 years -- which is as far as such poll data goes back. And here's the stinger: While 7/10 young women (35 and younger) are likely to vote for Clinton in November; over half of them are doing so as a vote against you -- not necessarily because they support her. 4. When you went after U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel (May 2016) With allegations of fraud culminating in a civil litigation against your now defunct Trump University, you publicly called for the Federal Judge Gonzalo Curiel's removal from the case on the grounds of unfair treatment. Why? Because he is (a born-and raised American citizen) of Mexican heritage, who must therefore -- according to your logic -- harbor bias against you and your great wall agenda. When CNN Host Jack Tipper pressed you on the issue, clarifying, "If you are saying he cannot do his job because of his race, is that not the definition of racism?" Your response, unsurprisingly, was "No, I don't think so at all." What was the nation's response? Your party's top ranking official, and Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan contradicted you directly when he called your statement, "the textbook definition of a racist comment." The chorus of repudiation once again came from the rank and file of an increasingly frustrated GOP; and the pulse of the nation, just two weeks after your statements, revealed an unfavorability rating of 70 percent. For reference, you had polled at an unfavorability rating of 57 percent one month prior. By comparison, Clinton dropped from a 57 percent to 55 percent unfavorability rating within the same period. Advertisement You may think your politically incorrect ways were an asset, but in reality, it has slowly eroded away at your legitimacy for presidency with every controversial comment you've made. For the Clinton campaign, your gift of gab has been the gift that keeps on giving. 5. When you went after Muslims in general (December 2015), and the Khan family in particular (July 2016) One of the most powerful moments of this year's Democratic National Convention was when the grieving parents of fallen U.S. Army Capt. Humayun Khan held up a copy of the U.S Constitution and questioned whether you had ever read the document. Because, how could you have called for the "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the U.S.", otherwise? In the days following, you responded by questioning Gold-Star mother, Ghazala Khan as she grieved in silence between a portrait of her late son, and a national viewing audience. Rather than view her silence as a reflection of her composed dignity and grief, you insinuated that her faith or culture forbid her from speaking. How wrong you were. What was the nation's response? "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," wrote Ghazala Khan. And it was true -- within days, Capt. Humayun Khan's gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery became the most colorful memorial on the cemetery's 624 acre expanse as it overflowed with flowers, cards, and tokens of gratitude for his heroic service and sacrifice. How ironic it is that a humble tombstone bearing the Islamic symbol of the star and crescent did what you, with your vast resources, and "Make America great again" slogans, could not do in the course of your campaign: unite people of all faiths and backgrounds over common ground. As for your political standing at this point: Media outlets both on the left and right called your feud-week with the Khans your worst week yet. How hard was the hit? In the lead-up to the DNC your poll numbers were slightly behind Clinton (41-45 percent); post convention finds you trailing a staggering 10 points behind. That's a lot of ground lost. Advertisement So, where does the road lead? To your credit, your off-the-cuff, populist style initially played in your favor. You generated controversy and knew how to leverage the media to fuel your ascension. You dominated the 24-hour news cycles, and stirred the headlines as a non-establishment, non-conformist leader of the masses. You activated new voting groups, and successfully tapped into the fearful strains of the American political sub-culture that helped you surge ahead in the rankings and clinch the Republican party nomination. It seemed that your initial momentum just might get you close to the White House. But this would all change very fast. The very tactics that once propelled you forward, are now the very same reasons for your downfall. Today, we find a Republican Party that is divided and struggling to find its once mighty soul. You have forced the party into a painfully awkward dance reminiscent of a Faustian tango: While there is a reluctant embrace of you as the renegade standard bearer of the party; there is a leaning-away when it comes to the words you use, and the ideas you espouse. Many have refused on principle to take part in this disharmonious footwork, and have broken with party-lines to vote their conscience this election. And with just three months left before the election, 50 GOP national security officials released a jointly signed document that expressed their inability to vote for you; adding brutal criticism that you would be "the most reckless President in American History." To secure the nomination of a major national party is no small feat. It takes courage, political savviness, and monumental drive to achieve, no doubt. But to ascend to the most powerful office in the world requires something much more: unifying values that give meaning to the words on the seal of our great nation: E Pluribus Unum (Out of Many, One). And, Mr. Trump, as these five episodes of your campaign have demonstrated, you are no unifier. The very character of your campaign is one that can be represented by the most iconic of your campaign promises: A stark dividing wall separating two peoples; one that you wish to build at cost of the other. If your candidacy served a purpose, it was to demonstrate that the foundations of this country -- despite some cracks you helped reveal along the way -- are still strong. The concrete is being reinforced as we speak in the form the majority electorate's rejection of you as a viable candidate. Soon, your job here will be done. You will be fired. And America will remain great because of it. This commentary was co-authored with Muhammad Ashraf of the Department of Islamic Studies, Jamia Markaz, Kerala, India Bloodshed has returned to Muslim-majority Kashmir, which is partitioned between India and Pakistan. Muslim leaders, and spiritual Sufis in particular, must be constantly wary of the penetration of Islam by trends that seek to increase instability in such difficult situations. In south India, Muslims have established educational institutions and charitable foundations that endorse secularism and an Indian patriotic spirit. They continue to promote interfaith harmony and intercommunal cooperation. The Sunni Markaz, founded in the southwest Indian state of Kerala by the Sufi sheikh Aboobacker Ahmed, works for the rehabilitation of disaffected jihadi youth from the war-torn Kashmir valleys, encouraging them to feel patriotic as Indians. Educational institutions following the ideology of Sufi Islam are integral to preservation of positive interreligious relations and options for dialogue. In general, the discussion of Sufi Islam in India has assumed a new approach. Sufis follow the pluralist precedents in Sunni Islam. India is defined in great part by the legacy of Sufi saints throughout the country. Advertisement The current ruling party - the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of prime minister Narendra Modi - has been criticized as Hindu-centered and antithetical to the Indian "secular space" in which the Sufis are located. A World Sufi Conference was held in New Delhi, India's capital, on 17-21 March 2016, organized by the All India Ulema and Mashaikh Board (AIUMB) and financed by the state. Some Muslims have criticized this event as unjustifiably linking up with the BJP. In rebuttal to such a criticism, a social media post asked, "How many of you are ready to stop receiving government aid for Muslim education?" In addition, a common platform is necessary to defeat the global threat of terror groups like the so-called "Islamic State" (ISIS). We must stand together, above factional and sectarian differences. Representatives of the Sunni majority among Muslims must call on all humanity to condemn atrocities committed in the name of Islam. Traditional Islam and Sufism specifically have, throughout their history, maintained the principle of living with the amazing diversity of India and other countries. This concept of mutual respect between religions has persisted in the development of Sufism. Sufi saints in India were viewed as protectors, even of the oppressed Hindus. Networks established by early Sufi saints in India demonstrated their fidelity to the Islamic concept of peace between differing systems of belief. More than anything, the networks of Sufi saints such as the 12th- and 13th-century CE figure Moinuddin Chishti contributed substantially to the growth of Islam in the country, supporting the Indian Sufi legacy. In the continuity of traditional Islam, the majority of Indian Sunni scholars argued for coexistence with the other faith communities, while recognizing that fundamental disagreements could be dealt with through peace and understanding. Advertisement This attitude found an Islamic context in the example of Muhammad, peace be upon him, who was asked about socially-beneficial endeavors preceding his prophethood, and who answered that if disbelievers were to ask for him to settle such matters, he would do so. The peaceful tradition of Sufi Islam has been present all across India. Indian Sunni scholars have argued against fanatical interpretations. Extremism, however, has unfortunately recruited thousands of people to militancy and carnage in furtherance of radical Islam. Sheikh Zainuddin Makhdoom, a Sufi theologian living in Kerala in the 16th century CE, called for Muslims to join hands with Hindus to defend the nation against colonialism. This meant surpassing the fiqhi jurisprudential tradition, as there was no perspective in Islamic law for alliance with disbelievers against a common enemy. Illustration by: Lightwise/123rf Here's the thing. Donald Trump is inspirational. At least to a sizable group of people. You may not like him. You may not like his message. You can be offended, angered, dumbfounded. But the fact is he's inspired people to action on every side. Millions are quivering with excitement and hope that he will lead them, regardless of missteps and public feuds. Others are working to stop an end-of-the world-as-we-know-it disaster. Why is that? The one thing you're not hearing through all the analysis is this: It's not WHAT Donald Trump says. It's HOW he says it. His now famous moniker to "tell it like it is", is appealing to millions. More than the message, though, it's how he talks to the people ready to hear it. Advertisement Simply put, he talks. Even when he shouts. The simple secret is that Trump holds a conversation. Plainly. Small group or large. He doesn't seem to prepare. Talks off-the-cuff. He isn't scripted, as his troubles since the RNC clearly show. He doesn't "speechify". He just speaks--as if you were in a bar with him. Somehow, that perceived frankness has shot him to the top of the heap as the guy many want in the foxhole with them. The lies and embellishments don't matter, because he lets his hair down with you. You look past the bluster because he's honest enough to open up and not to couch language. In politics, today, that is refreshing. And revolutionary. From a personal communications standpoint that's a powerful, jaw-dropping reality. In Pennsylvania in June, quoting Abraham Lincoln, Trump related to "everyman" when he said, "He understood it better than our current politicians." Then later, "We've turned things completely upside down. How can it happen?" Or from a NYC speech: "When I see the crumbling roads and bridges...I know these problems can all be fixed--not by Hillary Clinton. Only by me." Hillary Clinton, with her decades of public service, measured calm and intelligence might seem, to many, better suited for the position as "leader of the free world". And yet, she can't shake the "untrustworthy liar" tag. Why? She's a speechifier. Hillary speaks like a college professor. She's moving to a better place, but she continues to give lessons and communicates in platitudes and overarching symbolism. She often finds herself like Charlie Brown's teacher in Charles Shultz comic strips. "Waa-wah-wah wah wah." As my 14-year-old son says when he hears her (he was all in for Bernie Sanders), "It's a lot of talking about nothing." You know something's being said, but nothing really inspires you to look up. In Springfield, Illinois in July, Hillary meandered with this: "President Lincoln led America during the most challenging period in our nation's history. He defended our union, our constitution and the ideals of a nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal... I'm here because the words Lincoln spoke all those years ago, still hold resonance here for us now." Pretty words, but in today's world, can she just get to the point quickly and with charisma? Franklin Roosevelt had a tough time winning support for the British in WWII. Roosevelt's communications success finally came when he began talking to the nation on the radio. He just talked. His more common speech patterns made people feel better about their lives and about him. He didn't come across as one of the Eastern Elite, of which he so obviously was. Roosevelt was able to sell a fairly unpopular idea-- a war-- by chatting and relating to his public. We've heard stories of Hillary Clinton's one-on-one warmth. I know of staunch Republicans who've been charmed by her sincerity and work ethic. She needs to tap into that now if she wants to really walk away with this election. She should have it done a long time go. Advertisement Speak, Hillary. Don't speechify. It's not dumbing down the message if she lets her inner teacher step aside to allow her inner enthusiastic neighbor take the lead. You know that neighbor--the one who chats with you over the fence. She's the one who, as you walk away after the encounter, inspires you to say, "Boy, I love spending time with her." Not the neighbor who gives you a well-researched dissertation about the dangers of overwatering your lawn. The battle for Aleppo has the Arab world, Middle East observers and Western policymakers on edge. In what is likely a turning point in the long Syrian civil war, a coalition of opposition fighters is attempting to break Bashar al-Assad regime's siege of the country's commercial capital. Meanwhile, the Syrian government - with Russian support - is bombing rebel strongholds in the city which is still home to 250,000 people, according to the BBC. Thanks to recent U.S. diplomatic overtures to deepen cooperation with Russia against the Islamic State, or IS, and al-Qaida affiliate Al-Nusra Front, the U.S. could be considered a partner in those airstrikes. The U.S. overtures have been criticized as strategically inconsistent and Putin-pleasing. As a student of American policy in the Middle East, I'd argue that American efforts are key to the tumultuous trajectory of Syria's uprising-turned-war. What's less clear to me is how much U.S. President Barack Obama's approach prioritizes either the immediate needs of Syrians suffering from war and terrorism or their aspirations for self-liberation from authoritarian rule. Advertisement IS overshadows Syrians REUTERS/Ammar Abdullah Cynics might consider U.S. policy in Syria apathetic to the plight and aspirations of the Syrian people. Even worse, we may be witnessing a microcosm of a teetering world order in Syria. Longstanding international dynamics have been upended as the freedom- and dignity-seeking popular uprisings of the Arab Spring have gone bloodily awry. What there is now, in the words of democratization specialists Thomas Carothers and Oren Samet-Marram, is a new "global marketplace of political change" that is contested by an array of international actors rather than just influenced by Western democratic powers. In addition to the U.S., Russia, China, Qatar, Iran, IS and Hezbollah are all vying to shape the politics of transitional countries in the Middle East. Sometimes their tools are diplomacy; more often, military force or terrorism. Advertisement So whose political interests are winning out in Syria? More losers than winners It's complicated, because so many interests are at play. Ever since late 2011, months after Assad began violent attacks on his own people, Obama has pledged to work toward his ouster. However, Russian's President Vladimir Putin has long ties to Assad and has remained loyal to him. The U.S. and Russia first overcame this difference and agreed to a "political solution" in Syria after meeting in Geneva in June 2012. In August of that year, Obama declared that any use of chemical weapons by Assad would be a "red line" that the Americans would not tolerate. Then, in August 2013, Assad unleashed a chemical weapons massacre in the suburbs of Damascus, killing as many as 1,400 of his own citizens. Obama threatened airstrikes but reversed himself after Russia mediated a deal that stayed Obama's hand in return for a promise that Assad would turn over Syria's chemical weapons arsenal to be destroyed. Obama's vacillating Syria policy has spurred ongoing debate, especially with regard to fighting IS. The counterterrorism turn, starting with the anti-IS "Inherent Resolve" campaign in September 2014, is one way to explain the dissonance in U.S. policy. The fact is that since fall 2015, Russian military intervention has bolstered Assad positions on the ground. And Assad's strength has strengthened Moscow's position in negotiations with the U.S. Advertisement In parallel, in December of last year, the U.N. moved its focus from the Geneva mandate to seek a "Syrian-led political transition" to one focused on stamping out terrorism in the region through Security Council Resolution 2254. But Syrians living under aerial bombardment in a half-emptied-out country don't have the luxury of the UN and Obama's extended time horizon. The president may be able to exercise "strategic patience" through January 2017, when a new president will occupy the Oval Office, to further test Russian promises. But each passing day means starvation and bloodshed for Syrians. Besieged populations suffer in Aleppo as well as areas such as Damascus suburb Darayya. The banalization of death intensifies as "international norms" of warfare are disregarded. The latest testament of ongoing horror has been Assad regime targeting of six hospitals in Aleppo last week. The U.S. goal to "degrade and ultimately destroy" IS has taken precedence over any other imperative. U.S.-Russian bargaining within the International Syria Support Group, the working group they cosponsor that seeks diplomatic solution to Syria's conflict, centers around the identification of targeted terrorists as a means to end the war. The new proposal from the White House, in which the U.S. and Russia will cooperate in specifically pursuing al-Nusra, is just one more sign of this new focus. Uncertain political transition But a stronger U.S.-Russian partnership is unlikely to achieve the elusive political solution. Russia's unabashed flouting of the February 2016 internationally agreed "cessation of hostilities" demonstrates these long odds. And the path toward a ceasefire is made more difficult by the agreement's exclusion of ambiguously defined terrorist groups and territory. Advertisement Russian bombing, combined with Assad strikes, are responsible for most of more than 5,000 civilian deaths since the cessation of hostilities began, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights. The new Washington-Moscow cooperation is intended, in theory, to clearly mark out Russian and U.S. targets and therefore avoid civilians and U.S.-backed "moderate" opposition fighters. In exchange, Putin is to pressure Assad to abide by U.N. provisions against bombing civilians. In the meantime, Al-Nusra has announced that it is splitting from al-Qaida. The effects of this move are as yet unclear, but the fallout will likely impact both armed opposition dynamics and U.S. policy. Ultimately, in my view, the U.S. has made itself complicit in Russia's support for Assad. Washington is effectively buttressing a regime whose repressive crackdown on peaceful protests in 2011 pushed the country into its downward spiral of proxy and regional warfare. Obama chides Putin in speeches: "It is time for Russia to show it is serious" about "reduc[ing] the violence." A military counterterrorism strategy is the key, he said. But in the same breath, he declared a commitment to working with Russia on those very goals. Such remarks put nobody at ease except perhaps Assad and his Russian and Iranian backers. The apparent skepticism with which Syrians approached peace talks earlier this year is vindicated. The Syrian High Negotiations Committee stuck to its minimalist humanitarian conditions. These included a suspension of barrel bombing, the freeing of political prisoners and an end to siege-and-starvation tactics. These calls echoed those by Syrian civil society activists on the eve of the talks in late January. Advertisement Yet these appeals have been repeatedly trampled upon in a U.S.-blessed process. John Kerry has not, in my view, made a serious effort to meet the U.N.-sanctioned opposition demands, based in the "confidence-building measures" agreed upon in Vienna in the lead-up to Resolution 2254. These attempts to mitigate Assad's so-called "starve or kneel" strategy, in which Putin has become a credentialed associate, are basic requirements unmet thus far in the ISSG process. The dramatic suspension of the opposition's participation in the peace talks in April was thus no surprise. The latest U.S.-Russian agreement will not help U.N. Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura's attempts to resume negotiations later this month. An important question must be clearly enunciated. Where is this U.S.-Russian orchestrated process, claiming to seek an end to Syria's war and a political transition, headed? When the running cost of diplomatic road maps with open-ended timetables is buckets of blood, the acrobatics of international statecraft appear unsuited for an explosive region and a post-colonial order whose unraveling began with cries of "al sha'b yureed," or "the people want." In my opinion, the U.S.-Russian process promises neither to substantively address the dire humanitarian situation nor seriously pursue an end to the war. That a political transition hammered out among Syria's "people" can emerge from this diplomatic deadlock is even less likely. The battle for Aleppo confirms the primacy of violence over politics in Syria today. No solutions, diplomatic or otherwise, are in sight. The war rages on. Advertisement Layla Saleh, Assistant Professor of International Affairs, Qatar University, Qatar University ST. LOUIS, MO - AUGUST 25: The casket of Michael Brown sits inside Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church awaiting the start of his funeral on August 25, 2014 in St. Louis Missouri. Michael Brown,18 year-old unarmed teenager, was shot and killed by a Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson in the nearby town of Ferguson, Missouri on August 9. His death caused several days of violent protests along with rioting and looting in Ferguson. (Photo by Robert Cohen-Pool/Getty Images) Two years ago, on Aug. 9, 2014, Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old African-American teenager, was shot and killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. Two years have passed since the recent high school graduate was denied the opportunity to begin his next stage of life: college. Brown was often described as a "gentle giant." His leisure activities were hardly different from most in his age group - hanging out with friends, listening to music and playing video games. The night before he was shot, he posted to Facebook, "Everything happen for a reason." Certainly, Michael Brown did not foresee what was going to happen the next day. But for too many black and brown youths, run-ins with law enforcement are too familiar and, coincidentally, predictable. Advertisement As a scholar of African-American history specializing in youth, race and crime, I find today's issues of youth criminality inextricably linked to their racial past. In those two years since Michael Brown, we have been regularly reminded that youth is a privilege granted to some and denied to others. Guilty perceptions of black youth According to a new poll conducted by the Black Youth Project at the University of Chicago, two-thirds of young African-Americans, and four in 10 Hispanics, admit to having personally experienced or knowing someone who experienced harassment or violence at the hands of the police. In the two years since Michael Brown was killed, according to Washington Post data on police shootings, the police have shot and killed 27 persons under 18 -- a majority of whom were black or brown. For young adults between the ages of 18 and 29 -- a bracket in which it becomes more difficult to discern age by appearance -- the numbers increase exponentially to 296. Advertisement To be sure, police encounters make up only a part of the fundamental issues youths of color face in today's justice system. The criminalization of black youths, or the process in which various social institutions criminalize black youth, is expansive and denies many the right to be young. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson This not only denies black youths the right to a fair justice system but also, as was the case in Michael Brown, often denies them the right to face a judge and jury. Months before Ferguson, a group of psychologists conducted a study that determined "black boys can be seen as responsible for their actions at an age when white boys still benefit from the assumption that children are essentially innocent." Indeed, for children of color, their denial of youth is inextricably linked to their denial of innocence -- a denial that has deep societal and historical roots. Revisiting the "child-saving" movement The split-second decisions police officers make about the young men they confront are caught up in tacit ideas about adolescence that go back centuries. As modern ideas about race and criminality were taking shape, especially in the late 19th century, a movement to keep youth separate and protected emerged. Historians of the "child-saving" movement identify this period as crucial to understanding contemporary institutions of juvenile control. "Heavily influenced by middle-class women who extended their housewifely roles into public service," writes historian Tony Platt, these reformers devised a separate criminal justice system to protect youth under the age of 18 from adult culpability. The Progressive era reformers who led this "child-saving movement," from the 1890s through the 1920s, believed that with the proper intervention, young people could be disciplined without the scarring force of a prison sentence. Or, perhaps more importantly, without the stigma of being labeled a criminal. Advertisement Reformers used the color-blind language of age, but it quickly became apparent that the system they developed emphatically benefited white youths. Black youths, on the other hand, were refused the right to adolescence, innocence and second chances. Separate but equal prevailed in theory; in practice, the juvenile "justice" system gave in to broader social notions about race and crime. For white youths, especially white immigrant youths in the Progressive era, the separate juvenile system represented a step toward Americanization. Many reformers, such as Jane Addams, hoped a separate system to rehabilitate youths who turned to crime would curb societal concerns posed by the influx of European immigrants. Black youths -- whether guilty or innocent -- were branded "criminal" and almost guaranteed a life tethered to the justice system. In Chicago, for example, in 1903 there were 56 cases of black delinquency presented before a judge; in 1930, there were 657 cases. This kind of overrepresentation became the juvenile court's most troubling problem by the 1930s. States' authority to separate youths from adults was reaffirmed by the federal government with the passing of the Federal Juvenile Delinquency Act of 1938. The law laid out when a transfer from the juvenile system into the adult system was in the interest of justice and took its direction from juvenile designations created at the turn of the century. These labels included, but were not limited to, "the age and social background of the juvenile," "the availability of programs designed to treat the juvenile's behavioral problems" and "the juvenile's present intellectual development and psychological maturity." The open-endedness of these characterizations combined with the complete judicial authority allowed mostly white judges to shield many white youths from adult culpability. Black youths, on the other hand, were hastily demarcated as adults and bore the brunt of the punitive shift to the "Jim Crow juvenile justice system." Advertisement The right to remember The criminalization of black youth is inseparable from its racialized origins. Certainly, a separate justice system must be in place to protect all youths from adult accountability for misdeeds that can be attributed to adolescence. But as it stands, the juvenile justice system mirrors societal prejudices toward black youths and, too often, regards them as mature beyond their years and guilty until proven otherwise. North Carolina and New York, for example, have no legal authority to treat 16- and 17-year-olds as juveniles. These youths are housed in local jails with adult populations while awaiting trial and, if convicted, do their time in the adult criminal justice system. Young men of color, according to New York City's "Raise the Age" campaign, make up roughly 82 percent of youth sentences committed to adult confinement -- nearly all of whom are accused or convicted of nonviolent offenses. I believe President Barack Obama's order to ban solitary confinement of juveniles in federal prisons was a step in the right direction. Be that as it may, it will take the efforts of both the federal and state governments to make amends. It's been two years since Michael Brown. Two years since the "white rage" in Ferguson was made visible after the kindling of the flame had been ignored for so long. Two years since a youth whose unsurpassed potential was denied to the world by a trained professional whose number one responsibility is to protect the general public. And as calls for police reform and training continue to emerge as the first-line response from politicians, I suspect the problem will remain. It runs too deep. History cannot be unlearned with training. But history can be revisited. And it can help you remember. I remember Michael Brown; I remember a youth deferred. Advertisement Carl Suddler, Visiting Assistant Professor of Black American Studies, University of Delaware Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump waves after delivering an economic policy speech to the Detroit Economic Club, Monday, Aug. 8, 2016, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) Donald Trump is branding his foreign policy with the slogan: "America First." He has decided that he wants the U.S. to focus on its own problems. During the fourth Republican GOP debate in November 2015, he said: "We have to get smart. We can't continue to be the policemen of the world. We owe $19 trillion, we have a country that's going to hell, we have an infrastructure that's falling apart -- our roads, our bridges, our schools, our airports. And we have to start investing money into our own country." Advertisement Trump has said that he wants other countries to take more responsibility in world affairs -- and Germany is one of the countries he has mentioned most frequently. Here are some of the -- very expensive -- suggestions he seems to be making: 1. Germany should reimburse the U.S. military."We spend a fortune on defending Germany," Trump said during an MSNBC Town Hall in March 2015. According to a report published by the U.S. Committee on Armed Services in 2013, the U.S. spends more than $10 billion to support military presence overseas -- 70 percent of which is spent in Germany, the Republic of Korea, and Japan. "Why aren't they reimbursing us? Why aren't they paying a good portion of the costs?" Trump asked. Trump seems to be thinking: Shouldn't Germany take over the costs of protecting itself? If Germany isn't prepared to do so, the U.S. military should just move out of Germany, he suggests. "If we have to walk, we have to walk," he said. Advertisement In another interview, this time on CBS earlier this year, he said: "You're gonna have to ask yourself, at what point and at what cost can we continue to protect Japan, and Germany and many other countries? Now, they're not paying for this protection, in anywhere near what it's costing us." He continued: "Now at some point, they may have to protect themselves. Do I like that? Not particularly. But we cannot afford it as a country." 2. Germany should pay for safe zones in Syria.Trump told the New York Times that he would like to build safe zones in Syria. "We can lead it but I don't want to spend the money on it, because we don't have any money. Our country doesn't have money," he said. He suggests that other countries, such as Gulf states or Germany, should be responsible for financing the project. "I mean Germany should put up money," he said, suggesting that the country would greatly benefit from such safe zones. He seems to be implying that the arrival of refugees is only causing trouble for Germany. Advertisement "Look what's happened to Germany. Germany's being destroyed and I have friends, I just left people from Germany and they don't even want to go back. Germany's being destroyed by Merkel's naivete or worse," he told the New York Times. Gulf states should also take part in financing these zones, Trump suggests, "because they have the money and they should finance it. So far, they've put up very little money and they taken nobody in, essentially nobody in." The costs for such protection zones in Syria remain uncertain. New infrastructure would need to be built, and those people would need to be provided for. In addition, such safe zones would need to have military protection. But they're bound to be expensive: In 2015, the United Nations' main refugee agency made an appeal for $4.5 billion to cover the needs of the 4 million Syrian refugees who fled the war to neighboring countries. 3. Germany should pay for the protection of Ukraine.The U.S. has provided millions of dollars worth of military equipment to Ukraine in recent years, and Trump said he is "all for protecting Ukraine," but that "we have countries surrounding Ukraine that are not doing anything." "We have a group of people, and a group of countries, including Germany -- tremendous economic behemoth -- why are we always doing the work?" he asked at the fourth Republican GOP Debate in November 2015. Advertisement 4. Germany should boost spending on its armed forces.According to a report released by North Atlantic Treaty Organization in June 2015, 27 out of 28 of the alliance's members -- Germany among them -- are not meeting the goal of spending 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense. So far, the failure to meet this goal has had no consequences. Trump, however, intends to change that. Trump has said that he might reconsider the U.S. involvement in the NATO because European countries are not spending enough on defense. By 2019, Germany will be spending an annual 35 billion euros on defense. It would need to spend billions more to reach NATO's goal. 5. Germany should give jobs back to the U.S.In a speech about economic policy delivered in Monessen in June 2016, Trump said, "Billions of our dollars and millions of our jobs flowed overseas as a result...I have visited cities and towns across this country where a third, or even half of manufacturing jobs have been wiped out in the past 20 years. Today we import nearly 800 billion dollars more in goods than we export. We can't continue to do that. This is not some natural disaster. It's a political and politician-made disaster. Very simple. And it can be corrected." Advertisement "What came first, the chicken or the egg?" is a well-known causality dilemma in which many argue the order of occurrence between cause and effect. While Aristotle and other great philosophers agonized over this simple question and its relation to human existence, the same discussion rings true today in many forms of business, especially hydrogen fuel technologies for consumers. When it comes to hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (FCVs), it is quite obvious to state the technology has not yet reached mass commercial recognition. The Toyota Mirai, Hyundai Tucson Fuel Cell, Honda Clarity, and other FCVs are either available or soon to be available by major auto manufacturers, the simple truth is that both the supply and demand need to grow to consider these products a success. One of the arguments faced by many working in the hydrogen fuel cell automotive space is how to support these vehicles from an infrastructure standpoint. Consider your gasoline powered car. Would you still drive it if there weren't gas stations on every corner available to fill your vehicle at a moment's notice? Most likely not, because what would you do with a car that can't turn on and take you to your next destination? This is the conundrum experienced in the hydrogen automotive space. Advertisement Let's use California as an example. Currently, there are close to 50 hydrogen fueling stations either open or in development in the Golden State. As there were less than 20 only two years ago, this is an encouraging sign for consumers driving hydrogen FCVs. For purposes of this conversation, "infrastructure" refers to availability for hydrogen FCV drivers to fuel up. Unfortunately, many of these drivers are faced with constant challenges despite the increased availability of these stations. The media took note last year when FCV drivers began to complain about the lack of availability of hydrogen at the stations, indicating many were closed during normal business hours, and were overall unreliable. Further, if you take a closer look at the map, you'll notice that most of these are crowded in certain metropolitan areas, namely the Bay area and Los Angeles. With efforts to now install hydrogen fueling stations in Washington D.C., as well as fueling stations to support a seven-bus fleet in Ohio, one could say it is a pivotal moment for the hydrogen industry to determine an infrastructure that facilitates consumer adoption. To this effect, fueling stations need to be open, staffed, and consistently provide hydrogen fuel to drivers seeking to fuel up and enjoy the benefits of technology that facilitates 300+ mile driving without the need for a fill-up. Advertisement So what comes first, the chicken (hydrogen fuel cell vehicles) or the egg (the infrastructure to support their adoption)? Sure, drivers need to be able to fill up their new car, but at the same time, you cannot expect a hydrogen fueling station every mile or less, much like gasoline stations. The truth, as hypothesized by ancient philosophers, is that they must arrive at the same time. The auto manufacturers have held up their end of the bargain, consistently rolling out new models and reaching commercialization in other countries in addition to California drivers. Now, with hydrogen fueling stations becoming more visible on the highway horizon, we may be on the cusp of something great. The availability of hydrogen fuel is an important aspect as well. Hydrogen can be costly to ship, so more of these stations are seeking a means of producing and storing hydrogen fuel at or near the point of distribution, such as a fueling station. Some of these technologies require natural gas, a fossil fuel, to produce hydrogen, while others utilize a completely renewable means to do so. By Sadiya Ramos I race on stage for my first pose, my head facing down. I rush to the boys who lift me up and look to the audience: 62,000 people swaying. They lift their lighters as Mr. Stevie Wonder sings, shaking his dreadlocks to the sound of his music just a few feet from me: "If my eyes were to see, let them be a witness to a world that is color free." I have not lived in such a world as a black ballerina, but after years of hard work, I arrived at this surreal moment: performing in the Special Olympics on the same stage with Stevie Wonder. I was just three when Mom noticed me mimicking the liturgical dance routines she created for our Baptist church. I had the long legs, the turned out hips--but mostly the passion. Mom saw my happiness when she enrolled me in ballet programs. Yet I was always the different one. I lacked the blonde hair, blue eyes, and fair skin to be Aurora or Cinderella. No matter how hard I pointed my feet or how high I kicked my legs, I was placed in the back. At 11, I refused to be buried in the shadows. I wanted to shine. I started dancing like I was the only one on stage, and taking additional private lessons to strengthen my weaknesses. Advertisement Weekends with Grandma inspired me to be fearless in the face of adversity. She detailed her five-mile walk to school in the burning sun. She struggled to keep her books tight to her chest while wiping sweat from her brow, praying that the Alabama red dirt would not stain her shoes. She could not stop counting the buses of white children speeding down the road. At 17, she zipped up her white, silky dress and walked down the aisle to say "I do" to Granddaddy. After her first two children, my mother and uncle, she made a mother's ultimate sacrifice--giving away her children. Fearing they would be endangered by the violence toward blacks in the South, she sent them to live in Indiana with her sister, hoping to spare them mistreatment that she encountered. Because of my grandmother, I was born in a different place. And because of where I was born, I now have the opportunity to move ahead of the shadows. At 17, I won the opportunity to perform at the 2015 Special Olympics. On the eve of the performance, I was restless, for my excitement robbed a couple of hours of my sleep. I woke up anxious, but also very tired. Between washing my hands next to Eva Longoria and dodging Secret Service, I was simultaneously flustered and excited. The gravity of where I would be performing settled within me. As the announcers called the names of the countries in alphabetical order, I began to pace, back and forth. I walked to a corner to stretch and then sat and meditated. After the performance, we exited stage right and witnessed the First Lady enter from stage left. Backstage, we began to sob with tears of passion, satisfaction, and happiness. I had never felt anything like this. Advertisement Performing at the Special Olympics will never slip from my memory's grip. I earned an opportunity that makes the roles I was denied seem measly. I learned that things will not come right away, even if you put your blood and sweat into them. Sometimes the struggle is generations long, as my grandmother's story shows me. I had to wait for my time to shine. On her strong shoulders, and through my willingness to endure, my time came. When I found myself lifted in the air by my fellow dancers, to Stevie Wonder's soundtrack of equality and harmony, I was suspended in an aspirational hope that we are getting closer to witnessing a world that is color free. A review of Mikhail Gorbachev's new book The New Russia By Karlijn Jans Following his 1996 book Memoires, Mikhail Gorbachev's new book The New Russia is the most recent account of his political heritage and analysis. With Gorbachev as the sole author, this book provides an exclusive insight into the personal analysis and thinking of the elder statesman of the USSR. In this book, Gorbachev advocates a radical reform of politics and a new fostering of pluralism, the return of international dialogues and social democracy in the Russian Federation. The publication is timely considering the strained relations between the West and Vladimir Putin's Russia. Gorbachev shares his thoughts on the recent developments in Putin's leadership and his policies that continue to puzzle experts around the world. His personal way of describing events provides an attractive and fascinating setup, but is not always easy to follow. The book includes collections of speeches, letters, and media contributions from different time periods, and Gorbachev frequently inserts long quotes from those periods rather than provide current analysis of those events. While these referrals are valid, it makes it difficult for the reader to follow the detailed sequence of his arguments. Gorbachev begins the book by going back to the basics of his Perestroika policy in late December 1991, during which the USSR transitioned and fell apart. He played an arbitration role in the 'brief civil war' in October 1993 after being forced from power. Being 'exiled' by the new leadership and running his own foundation, Gorbachev continues to take an outsider perspective, while having unique personal experience as the leader of a crumbling system. Advertisement Gorbachev describes the rise of Vladimir Putin in 1999 after Boris Yeltsin named him his successor. Gorbachev admits that Putin obtained power in a chaotic situation: the economy was facing turbulent times, unrest in the social sphere, and disarray in the layers of state administration and regions of the Russian Federation. He is open about his initial, though not unconditional, support for Putin. He describes Putin's December 1999 declaration in the Russian newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta as a proclamation intended to rid the feeling of dismay in Russian society and promote a stronger state structure in order to catalyze economic growth and social progress. Gorbachev at first welcomed this vision, but reflects upon it as the first documented step towards an authoritarian regime. It is fascinating to read his observations of events and decisions that have resulted in the current Russian political environment: a Russia that has wandered from the path of democracy and his perestroika. Gorbachev criticizes the overly centralized system in Moscow that in his view presents a difficult and dangerous future for the Russian Federation. The most interesting part of the book is Gorbachev's view of current events. He combines his historic experiences built upon in the previous chapters and extrapolates it to current affairs and the future. Gorbachev hypothesizes that Western powers have contributed to the recent revival of Cold War sentiments. Expanding NATO and thereby pushing the Russian Federation into a corner was an antagonizing decision by Western powers, Gorbachev concludes. In his view, this decision isolated and excluded Russia from regional security dealings, damaging relations for years to come. While this is a common understanding from a Russian point of view, the author does not address the intrinsic reason that NATO expanded: a sovereign decision by new member states to request membership. It was not a strategy to aggressively expand eastward. Advertisement For those who have not lived through the Cold War, the book provides a unique insider's perspective of the development of the Russian Federation and the current volatile position Russia finds itself in. Gorbachev's book is a worthwhile read as it offers a thorough chronological analysis and a collection of detailed descriptions of the Russian political developments that followed his tenure at the helm of the Soviet Union. Being a known Putin critic, his insights do not necessarily provide something new. Yet his thorough analysis of the effects of a failed perestroika on the current situation provides a different and unique viewpoint, setting this book apart from other books addressing Russian domestic developments against a more historical and international backdrop. Gorbachev provides intriguing and additional relevant material for Putin-versteher (those who study Putin) and people wishing to understand Russian society and politics. Karlijn Jans specializes in defense and German politics. She received an LL.M in European Law from Maastricht University and MA in European Studies from King's College London. Karlijn is a part-time modular student at the Netherlands Defence Academy and chairs the Netherlands Atlantic Youth Association. She is also a Europe Fellow at Young Professionals in Foreign Policy. I can't remember how many times I've been to Thailand ; I lost track years ago around the 20th time. And we're planning another trip with the idea of introducing 3 of our friends to the "Land of Smiles." Thailand is a monarchy and people there who like democracy may not have been smiling with the referendum results came in Sunday evening.The military junta proposed a constitution and it passed with upwards of 60% approval The drafting of the constitution was as closed and secretive the drafting of the TPP-- and as antithetical to democracy. Peaceful opposition to the military junta's proposed constitution is a punishable criminal offense-- up to 10 years imprisonment-- in the Land of Smiles. The Senate will now be an appointed body which can easily lead to the military retaining power. If the Election Commission is to be believed-- and there's no reason to think it should be--the referendum passed 15.56 million (61.4%) in favor to 9.78 million (38.6%) opposed (with 94% of the votes counted). Remember, a "no" vote would have meant that the military dictatorship definitely stays in place. A "yes" means... well, we'll have to see. The other question on the ballot, to allow the appointed Senate to play a role-- along with the House of Representatives-- in selecting the prime minister passed by a slightly narrower margin-- 58-42%. Only 58% of eligible voters participated in this ruse. AP reported that "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," banning political rallies and even open discussion. 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. 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." Which is, of course, what all dictators and authoritarians say, no? AP listed 4 widespread criticisms of the constitution: 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. No amount of smiling will make that into a democracy. Something went wrong, please try again later. Invalid email Something went wrong, please try again later. The Mail has published its inaugural Real Schools Guide, judging schools across East Yorkshire on 25 different measures. The 2016 Real Schools Guide is the most comprehensive guide ever to state-funded secondaries. Our unique rating system uses 25 different measures, put together from the latest publicly-available data and broken into four categories attainment, teaching, attendance and outcomes. National league tables only look at GCSE results, which means schools that help all pupils make progress, but only get slightly better than average exam scores overall, may be overlooked. Our system aims to move beyond such a crude measurement and give parents a better idea of which schools will help their child prosper, no matter what their background may be. 1) St Mary's College It's one of the best 100 schools nationally, students scoop the best GCSE grades in Hull, and it's been rated 'outstanding' for more than six years. So it's little surprise St Mary's College also comes out top in the Mail's inaugural Real Schools Guide. It's the best school in the region across the 25 measures in the rating system, meaning St Mary's comes out on top for attainment, teaching, attendance, and outcome compared to its peers. And it's easy to see why, with one study calling for more Government money to be invested in the north heralding it as a "beacon of success." Earlier this year St Mary's was the second best school in the "'alternative' league table" featured in a Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) report after 76 per cent of disadvantaged and 79 per cent of non-disadvantaged pupils achieved the national five good GCSEs benchmark. At the time, headteacher Ged Fitzpatrick said: "Students and staff have every right to be very proud of their exceptional efforts and success. The Hull and East Riding region has a great resource in St Mary's College. It provides a hugely significant platform for securing the regions' active participation in and benefit from the Northern Powerhouse. Students here in Hull and the East Riding can clearly match the performance of those in the advantaged Southern Powerhouse of London." 2) South Hunsley School and Sixth Form With 74 per cent of their pupils achieving the top GCSE grades last year, it's not difficult to see why South Hunsley tops the Mail's tables for the East Riding. In 2015 the majority of pupils at the school achieved five or more GCSEs graded at A* to C, well above the national 53.8 per cent average. It's one of the region's best schools according to Ofsted too, with the last inspection in 2013 rating it 'outstanding' across all areas. At the time of the last inspection, executive principal Chris said: "The big thing we have done is we have concentrated on teaching and learning. "We have really put a lot of effort into improving the quality for students, the experience in the classroom and making sure when students need any extra support they are getting it." The past academic year also saw South Hunsley welcome Malet Lambert, Hull, into its Multi-Academy Trust, The Education Alliance. 3) Beverley Grammar School In third place in the East Yorkshire Real Schools Guide is Beverley Grammar School. It scored three out of five stars for pupil attainment, four stars for teaching and was ranked 391 out of 3,109 nationally. 4) Beverley High School Meanwhile girls school Beverley High has come in as fourth in the region after also scooping up five stars. It was handed four stars in each of the four areas, including attainment, teaching, attendance and outcomes. it also placed 426 nationally. 5) Hull Trinity House Academy Topping the Mail's Real Schools Guide in Hull is one of the city's oldest educators, built on the same maritime foundations as its home. Hull Trinity House Academy in Charlotte Street Mews first opened its doors in 1787 for the sons of the merchant navy. With almost a 400-strong student body, it remains the only all-boys school in the city. And perhaps one of the school's biggest achievements this year has been the re-introduction of maritime qualifications. Vice principal Nathan Goodman said: "It means Hull Trinity House Academy is one of the few schools in the country to still teach their pupils about the life of the sea and help to prepare them for a career in the industry, with around 20 per cent of our students opting to take nautical studies in Year 10. The past academic year began for Hull Trinity House Academy on a high note after their GCSE grades rose by 10 per cent on 2014's grades. And last November the school's commitment to their pupils was rewarded when maritime studies teacher David Forth won the Teacher / Lecturer of the Year award in the Mail's Golden Apples awards. 6) Wolfreton School and Sixth Form Coming in at sixth place in East Yorkshire was Wolfreton School and Sixth Form after scooping up a four star rating. it's also placed at 759 nationally out of 3,109 secondary schools. Its highest score was for pupil attendance. 7) Kelvin Hall School Rated 'outstanding' across four areas by Ofsted in 2013, Kelvin Hall is a Hull heavy hitter on the education front. And it's also scored well in the Mail's Real Schools Guide, placing seventh across the region. It scored particualrly well for pupil attainment, promising good things for the upcoming results day on August 25. 8) Woldgate School and Sixth Form At number eight is Woldgate School, scoring four out of five stars overall and placing 840 out of 3,109 nationally. It scored particularly highly in attainment, teaching and attendance, scoring four out of five stars in each. 9) The Snaith School Penultimate in the top 10 of East Yorkshire secondary schools is Snaith, after scoring four out of five stars. It performed particularly wekk in teaching and attendance, and placed 949 nationally. 10) The Market Weighton School Market Weighton is the last school in the top 10, sneaking in after placing 1,180 out of 3,109 nationally. It has been handed four out of five scores, with most merit given to pupil attendance and outcomes. How Hull schools rank: 1. St Mary's College 2. Hull Trinity House Academy 3. Kelvin Hall School 4. Malet Lambert School 5. The Boulevard Academy 6. Andrew Marvell Colelge 7. Sirius Academy North 8. Sirius Academy West 9. Newland School for Girls 10. Kingswood Academy 11. Winifred Holtby Academy 12. Archbishop Sentamu Academy How East Riding Schools rank: Attorney, venture capitalist, leading insurance executive there are many ways to describe Argo Group Chief Executive Mark Watson.Introduced to insurance at a young age, Watson was inspired by his father, founder of Titan Holdings Inc. and a self-described serial entrepreneur, to enter the business.Growing up at the dinner table, I learned about the challenges and the opportunities encountered while building a business, particularly those in our industry, Watson told Insurance Business America.When he graduated from Southern Methodist University with a degree in finance, he went on to study law at the University of Texas. After a stint practicing in New York, Watson returned to Texas and joined his fathers company as general counsel, then as secretary and a member of the Board of Directors. He worked at Titan for six years, and eventual helped his father take his company public.What appealed to me most was the merit of determining and maintaining a detailed strategy for growth, Watson said.Its a lesson hes taken with him throughout his career. After building up Titan through mergers and acquisitions, he went on to a role as principal with Aquila Capital Partners. There, he honed his skills in assessing companies for growth potential and it was there he discovered Argonaut, a financially struggling California workers compensation insurer.It was clear to me the environment in which the company had prospered had changed in ways that made its current business unsustainable, said Watson. The company was at a crossroads, yet I was confident that with a solid strategy which included exiting legacy lines of business and entering new markets there were opportunities to thrive well into the future.Watson invested in the company in 1998 and joined the board in 1999. Seventeen years later, Argonaut thrives as Argo Group International, a $2 billion underwriter of specialty insurance and reinsurance products in the property/casualty market.He says returning the company to profitability was all about finding the right strategy, including moving from a workers comp insurer to a specialty underwriter. Watson was asked to run the organization in 2000, with results quickly showing his planned approach was strategically valid.But we certainly had our share of good fortune, as well as bad, along the way, he said.Today, Watson continues to lead Argo Group into new frontiers, including ensuring the company is prepared to properly harness technology as consumer expectations in insurers change.And his outlook for the next 10 years is bright.Our performance is solid, and our future as a leading, global specialty insurer is looking as positive as any realist could hope for, Watson said. Much of my confidence comes from seeing the terrific team weve put in place around the world. As Argo has matured, we have attracted some of the worlds top talent. When we meet to talk about the future, the conversation is lively with innovative ideas. Workers repairing part of the broken pipeline in Da River water pipeline project. Photo by VnExpress/Ba Do The Vietnamese public has had enough of shoddy Chinese workmanship. Vietnams Vinaconex Water Supply Company (Viwasupco) has decided to do a u-turn on a previously agreed deal with a Chinese supplier for a pipeline project. The move comes following public concern regarding the quality of the iron pipes the Chinese company would have supplied project. In March, Viwasupco announced that Xinxing Corp., a Chinese maker, had won the contract to supply pipes for the second phase of the Da River water pipeline project after bidding 11.8 percent less than Viwasupcos asking price. Since the first phase of the project was completed, pipes supplied by another Chinese contractor have ruptured 18 times, and the decision to select another Chinese supplier has met with outcry from the public in Vietnam. Opposition was so strong that Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc had to step in. On April 6, Phuc agreed with Hanois request to ask Viwasupco to postpone signing a contract with the firm. Viwasupco has hired a law firm to assess the possible consequences of its decision to cancel the deal. The first phase of the Da River water pipeline project, which supplies 300,000 cubic meters of water to Hanoi, was put into operation in 2009. The faulty water pipes have caused severe water shortages in various parts of the capital. Local authorities have investigated the project and concluded the problem was poor quality pipes supplied by the Chinese firm. Nine Vinaconex officials have been prosecuted for violating construction regulations during the first phase of the project. Quarterly results for Primerica Inc. reveal a 14 per cent rise in life insurance policies issued compared with the second-quarter of 2015.Overall revenue was up 8 per cent to $379.2 million with operating revenue up 7 per cent to $375.8 million. Net income was up 21 per cent to $59.3 million and net operating income was up 17 per cent to $57.1 million.The insurer also revealed that it had seen double-digit growth in its sales agent numbers in the year: Recruiting and licensing momentum continued resulting in 11 per cent growth in the size of our life insurance licensed sales force year-over-year to 112,365 representatives, Glenn Williams, Chief Executive Officer said.The body representing insurance brokers in the UK has called on the government to protect key elements of the industry during forthcoming negotiations with the EU over Brexit.The British Insurance Brokers Association (BIBA) has written a letter to ministers setting out 11 points that it says must be considered within the deals agreed between the UK and EU.Top of the list is passporting the agreement that allows businesses to operate across the EU without requiring a registered business unit in each member state. Without this, and being within the European single-market, BIBA warns that the insurance industry will suffer a loss of trade.The association also says that the UKs regulatory regime should be in step with current EU rules; protection should be included for brokerage staff who currently work across European offices; and there should not be additional barriers for UK insurers that wish to acquire EU insurers.There is also concern expressed over potential issues for captive insurance companies, tax and insurance coverage for auto and travel policies.Gretchen Garrigues has been appointed executive vice president and global chief marketing officer at Manulife and John Hancock. She will be responsible for the insurers branding worldwide and will serve on the firms executive committee.We have embarked on a strategy that is far more customer-focused, which requires a senior leader who can build marketing capabilities in the organization and drive the development of a customer-centric culture across all functions, said Paul Rooney, senior executive vice president and COO. An illustration by Verizon showing the height of the tower as seen from River Road heading south toward the former golf course. Clarksburg Planners Want Justifications for Cell Tower Variance CLARKSBURG, Mass. The Planning Board is asking for more justification on several proposed variances to the installation of a Verizon cell tower at the former North Adams Country Club. The proposal was presented at last week's board meeting, as Pittsfield Cellular Telephone Co., doing business as Verizon, is seeking a special permit under the town's new wireless communications bylaw. The board lacked a quorum to make any decisions but Chairman David Sherman and Planner Gary Pierce reviewed the application and information in anticipation of meeting again on Thursday, Aug. 11. They specifically asked for greater justification for requested variances in setback and height, and the need for another tower less than 5 miles from an existing one. The 125-foot monopole would be set on a high elevation west of the clubhouse at 641 River Road, 1.7 miles as the crow flies from the tower on Florida Mountain and only 35 feet from a neighboring property. Attorney Michael A. Fenton of Shatz, Schwarz and Fentin PC, representing Verizon, said the tower complies with all the town's design standards except for two subsections. "With the new setback requirement being 150 percent of the tower height, we're at a 120 feet to meet the necessary adat and coverage needs for the town," he said. "As a result the setback is 180 feet. We can't comply with that and also meet the town's goals minimizing the visual impact of the tower." The other design standard is that the tower shall not exceed 20 feet above the average tree line. It exceeds that, again, said Fenton, because of coverage and visibility. "We designed the tower to be the least visually impactful for what we need for our coverage needs," he said. The town's bylaw does not prohibit towers in close proximity but does encourage use of existing facilities. A special permt can be approved after an "applicant has proven that it cannot provide adequate coverage or capacity by installing its equipment on an existing tower or structure or by using repeaters in conjunction with existing facilities." Sherman asked that at the next meeting, the company provide more information on actual coverage area and reasoning for the tower's location and height. "Where it doesn't meet the design standards, we the board, obviously, will have to make a decision," he said. iciHaiti - Brazil : Construction of the Greatest Training Center of the CARICOM Jean David Geneste, Secretary of State for Vocational Training, announced the construction of a vocational training center offering 28 training options in the city of Les Cayes. The Centre called "Brasilia-Tech", funded entirely by Brazil to the tune of $17 million, will be built on a plot of 15 hectares, it should be the greatest Training Center of the CARICOM. This project has three components: construction, equipment, specialized technical training, will be implemented over a period of 3 to 5 years. TB/ iciHaiti Advertising banners will be put up on overpasses and footbridges. Municipal authorities in Hanoi have agreed in principle with a local advertising companys proposal to set up 1,000 new public toilets. In exchange, the company will be allowed to put up advertising billboards on footbridges and overpasses in the capital. Vinasing Trading and Communication Joint Stock Company will also provide Hanoi with 50 tanker trucks, 50 public water machines and 200 public benches, the government portal reported on Monday. The estimated investment and timeframe for the project have not been made public. The company will be given 10 years to recoup their investment, during which time it will be responsible for carrying out maintenance and repair work on the toilets, overpasses and footbridges. An overpass in Hanoi. Photo by VnExpress/Ba Do Hanoi currently has around 350 public toilets, many of which are built near old compounds and small alleys. The city, which had a population of 7.6 million people at the end of 2015, has constructed around 10 overpasses and several footbridges to ease traffic congestion. Related news: > Hanoi sets growth target of 9 percent by 2020 Vietnam's wood market is dominated by international enterprises. Vietnamese wood enterprises have lost 80 percent of the domestic market to foreign rivals, despite the huge potential in a sector that earns revenue of about $3 billion per year. Vietnamese wood products have reached more than 160 overseas markets, including the United States, Europe and Japan, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment's Economy and Forecast Review. In the first seven months, the value of Vietnams wood exports reached approximately $3.8 billion, an increase of 0.8 percent compared with the same period last year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. On the domestic market, there is rising demand for wood products, but it is easier to find them from Malaysia, China, Taiwan and Thailand rather than local enterprises, according to the Vietnam Timber and Forest Product Association. Vietnamese wood enterprises make up only 20 percent of the domestic market. Photo from baodautu.vn/Le Toan Vietnamese wood enterprises do not want to focus on the domestic market, Vice President and General Secretary of VIFORES Nguyen Ton Quyen told Vietnam Financial Times. For years, policies have primarily supported and facilitated exports while the domestic market has been largely ignored. On top of that, the distribution network for wooden products is fragmented. One reason is that Vietnamese wood enterprises need to spend more on design, marketing, R&D and establishing a distribution network. The burden of work, time and cost has built a barrier that has forced local enterprises to look overseas. Deputy Chairman of the Handicraft and Wood Industry Association Huynh Van Hanh underlined that 93 percent of Vietnamese wood enterprises are small and micro enterprises, while 5.5 percent are medium-sized and the remainder are large. Most small and micro wood firms have weak connections and lack funds and market access, forcing them to sacrifice to domestic market to focus on exports, Huynh said. To solve the issue, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is working on a draft decree that will support Vietnamese by financing 80 percent of the cost of developing the domestic distribution networks along with trade fairs. Domestic enterprises also need to improve their competitiveness, R&D and develop connections with handicraft villages. Related news: > Vietnams border guards suspended following precious wood logging near Laos > Brexit to affect Vietnams wood exports to UK: experts > VinaCapital branches out with German fund in $30 mln wood market deal After decades of living in Cambodia, more than a thousand Vietnamese have returned home paperless. At the end of a muddy road are hundreds of shaky stilt houses by Dau Tieng Lake in the southern province of Tay Ninh, home to Vietnamese people who have moved from the Great Lake of Cambodia. Some have been here for around seven years; some are newcomers, but they all have one thing in common: living without money or papers. The houses are made from wood and canvas, two meters above the ground to prevent flooding. Many people have even used the boats they traveled in for thousands of kilometers from Cambodia to Vietnam as shelters. Huynh Cong Dai, 70, told VnExpress that he and his parents used to live in Cambodia's Great Lake region and went fishing to make ends meet. Later, he got married and had children and grandchildren, and the ten-member family all fished for a living. In the last few years, the Cambodian government has tightened fishing rules, so life for Vietnamese people like Dais family has became harder and harder. Many Vietnamese broke the rules and were sent to jail. I realized this kind of life is not stable and you can't make that much money from fishing, so I told my children to return to Vietnam, Dai said. With no papers, they cannot venture far in search of work so the lake is all they have to rely on. Every day, men fish in Dau Tieng Lake while women and children sell lottery tickets or stay at home, raising chickens and ducks. The average household makes VND70-80 thousand ($3.14 - $3.59) each day. "Only rice is plentiful because it's provided by the government so we just keep on eating it to feel full. On days we get a good catch, we'll allow ourselves some meat, and stir fried bean sprouts. We've got used to it. It was like this in Cambodia too," Nguyen Van Doai, who moved back to Vietnam four months ago, told VnExpress, while rushing to finish his meal to leave space for his father and four of his children. All the kids here have dark, sunburnt skin and hair. Each family has three to eight children, all of whom are forced to stay at home instead of going to school. We really want the children to attend school. However, if they do, we cant find anybody to help at home, a local said. Most children here don't have a birth certificate. Pictured below is Coi, 10, who already knows how to fish and raise ducks like his parents. He may be illiterate, but he's resourceful like a grown up man. During his free time, Coi goes swimming with friends in the lake. Though they've been through a lot of hardships, in moments like this, they are just kids, innocent and carefree, who love ice cream (though it's a luxury) and listening to music on the rusty CD player, the only one in this community. There are more than 1,000 Vietnamese living along Dau Tieng Lake. They do not possess any documents to prove they were born in Vietnam, except the language they speak. After living in Cambodia for so long, these people aren't even familiar with written Vietnamese. Duong Thi Vat, a local state official from Tan Thanh Commune, said that at first, only three or four families moved from Cambodia, but soon after there were hundreds of families gathered around the lake. She estimates that about 352 families are living here. Life in Cambodia is tough so more and more people have sailed back to Vietnam. Local authorities have distributed rice and sent our children to school, but in the end they drop out. Tran Quang Ghi, chairman of Tan Thanhs Peoples Committee, said that they planning to construct 100 new houses for locals and provide them access to clean water and electricity. However, the chairman admitted that he worries the plan will draw more Vietnamese people from Cambodia, putting greater pressure on authorities. We can handle hundreds of families but if the figure skyrockets to thousands, its impossible. At present, the social situation is very complex. Meanwhile, the paperless Vietnamese are setting their hopes on the next generation, their sons and daugthers lucky to be born in Vietnam with a birth certificate. Photos by VnExpress/Duy Tran Related news: > Life sprouts from rocky mountains > The life of a widow with 14 children Project Spotlight: Winter Warmth The Fellowship | August 9, 2016 Project Spotlight: Winter Warmth Though it is currently summer, it is never too early for The Fellowship to identify impoverished elderly in Israel and the former Soviet Union (FSU) who need assistance when the freezing temperatures come. While most people know that winters in the FSU are quite frigid, many are surprised to learn that Israels winters, especially at the higher elevations, can be quite bitter. Particularly affected by the inclement winter weather is the elderly population, especially those who live in poverty and whose housing conditions are inadequate under the best circumstances. Based on these inhumane and often life-threatening conditions, The Fellowship initiated Operation Winter Warmth in 2009, and each year provides needy elderly with heating grants, blankets, and portable space heaters. A Lonely Holocaust Survivor Finds Winter Warmth with The Fellowship Paulina, a 79-year-old Jewish woman, lives alone in Zhitomir, Ukraine. Her house has no indoor plumbing, so she must get her water from a well across the street. She struggles to carry water into her home, so her Fellowship caregiver brings her water during visits. On a recent visit, Paulina politely asked the Fellowship volunteers who came to bring her food not to sit on the bed in her tiny house. It used to belong to her mother, and she doesnt want anyone to hurt the only possession she has left that reminds her of her mother. Paulina lives in the same house she was born in. She and her family fled when the Nazis attacked, running to the train without any belongings. Bombs dropped all along the way as they traveled in a wagon and an open train car. Paulinas mother would cover Paulina with her own body. A woman near me was killed, and I was very upset, Paulina said. My mother tried to comfort me by telling me, Oh no, shes just sleeping. But I knew she was dead. A large part of her family, including a newborn, stayed behind in Zhitomir. Paulina never saw them again. The family fled to Stalingrad, Russia, starving all the way, Paulina said. They stayed in a two-room house in Stalingrad, but it was not safe there. I used to wish I could be asleep when the bombings started. During the war we had to eat things that were not food. One day my father bought me a potato and said, Eat all you want. I was ecstatic. The family returned home after the war to the horrors of what was left. We lost 126 family members. Some were soldiers, but most were killed by the Nazis. Jews were forced to dig graves. Then the Nazis pushed them in alive and buried them. They said these Jews were not worth wasting bullets on. People said the land was alive for three days with people clawing to get out. Other survivors inhabited part of Paulinas home, so her family was forced to live in the remaining rooms. Her mother knitted pillows from bandage wrappings. One day a Nazi collaborator police officer knocked on their window, asking for forgiveness. They were afraid to open the door, but finally her mother went out to talk to him and he said, The Nazis lost. Paulina and her mother survived the war, but lost so many family members to the Holocaust murderers that Paulina says her mother never recovered, and died of a broken heart. Today, Paulina lives in a two-room apartment, and can only use her heater for two hours a day in the winter. She covers herself with a blanket given to her by The Fellowship, which she called a wonderful gift, and added, I know Im okay under my blanket. Paulina showed her Fellowship visitors a 110-year-old Hebrew-Russian prayer book she treasures, something that gives her hope and keeps her faith alive, even while living in poverty. Thankfully, her prayers dont go unanswered. She visits the local Fellowship-supported Jewish center twice a month for companionship and a warm bath. Paulina also receives food and medicine because of the generosity of Christians and Jews around the world who support The Fellowship. Before the volunteers left, Paulina made sure to thank them. Smiling, she said, The Fellowships help is a big thing! Bless you! The content you are trying to view is exclusive to our subscribers. To unlock this article: Imperial Valley News Center Sprinkling of neural dust opens door to electroceuticals Berkeley, California - UC Berkeley engineers have built the first dust-sized, wireless sensors that can be implanted in the body, bringing closer the day when a Fitbit-like device could monitor internal nerves, muscles or organs in real time. Because these batteryless sensors could also be used to stimulate nerves and muscles, the technology also opens the door to electroceuticals to treat disorders such as epilepsy or to stimulate the immune system or tamp down inflammation. The so-called neural dust, which the team implanted in the muscles and peripheral nerves of rats, is unique in that ultrasound is used both to power and read out the measurements. Ultrasound technology is already well-developed for hospital use, and ultrasound vibrations can penetrate nearly anywhere in the body, unlike radio waves, the researchers say. I think the long-term prospects for neural dust are not only within nerves and the brain, but much broader, said Michel Maharbiz, an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences and one of the studys two main authors. Having access to in-body telemetry has never been possible because there has been no way to put something supertiny superdeep. But now I can take a speck of nothing and park it next to a nerve or organ, your GI tract or a muscle, and read out the data. The sensor, 3 millimeters long and 11 millimeters in cross section, attached to a nerve fiber in a rat. Once implanted, the batteryless sensor is powered and the data read out by ultrasound. (Ryan Neely photo) Maharbiz, neuroscientist Jose Carmena, a professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences and a member of the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, and their colleagues will report their findings in the August 3 issue of the journal Neuron. The sensors, which the researchers have already shrunk to a 1 millimeter cube about the size of a large grain of sand contain a piezoelectric crystal that converts ultrasound vibrations from outside the body into electricity to power a tiny, on-board transistor that is in contact with a nerve or muscle fiber. A voltage spike in the fiber alters the circuit and the vibration of the crystal, which changes the echo detected by the ultrasound receiver, typically the same device that generates the vibrations. The slight change, called backscatter, allows them to determine the voltage. Motes sprinkled thoughout the body In their experiment, the UC Berkeley team powered up the passive sensors every 100 microseconds with six 540-nanosecond ultrasound pulses, which gave them a continual, real-time readout. They coated the first-generation motes 3 millimeters long, 1 millimeter high and 4/5 millimeter thick with surgical-grade epoxy, but they are currently building motes from biocompatible thin films which would potentially last in the body without degradation for a decade or more. The sensor mote contains a piezoelectric crystal (silver cube) plus a simple electronic circuit that responds to the voltage across two electrodes to alter the backscatter from ultrasound pulses produced by a transducer outside the body. The voltage across the electrodes can be determined by analyzing the ultrasound backscatter. (Ryan Neely photo) While the experiments so far have involved the peripheral nervous system and muscles, the neural dust motes could work equally well in the central nervous system and brain to control prosthetics, the researchers say. Todays implantable electrodes degrade within 1 to 2 years, and all connect to wires that pass through holes in the skull. Wireless sensors dozens to a hundred could be sealed in, avoiding infection and unwanted movement of the electrodes. The original goal of the neural dust project was to imagine the next generation of brain-machine interfaces, and to make it a viable clinical technology, said neuroscience graduate student Ryan Neely. If a paraplegic wants to control a computer or a robotic arm, you would just implant this electrode in the brain and it would last essentially a lifetime. In a paper published online in 2013, the researchers estimated that they could shrink the sensors down to a cube 50 microns on a side about 2 thousandths of an inch, or half the width of a human hair. At that size, the motes could nestle up to just a few nerve axons and continually record their electrical activity. The beauty is that now, the sensors are small enough to have a good application in the peripheral nervous system, for bladder control or appetite suppression, for example, Carmena said. The technology is not really there yet to get to the 50-micron target size, which we would need for the brain and central nervous system. Once its clinically proven, however, neural dust will just replace wire electrodes. This time, once you close up the brain, youre done. The team is working now to miniaturize the device further, find more biocompatible materials and improve the surface transceiver that sends and receives the ultrasounds, ideally using beam-steering technology to focus the sounds waves on individual motes. They are now building little backpacks for rats to hold the ultrasound transceiver that will record data from implanted motes. Diagram showing the components of the sensor. The entire device is covered in a biocompatible gel. Theyre also working to expand the motes ability to detect non-electrical signals, such as oxygen or hormone levels. The vision is to implant these neural dust motes anywhere in the body, and have a patch over the implanted site send ultrasonic waves to wake up and receive necessary information from the motes for the desired therapy you want, said Dongjin Seo, a graduate student in electrical engineering and computer sciences. Eventually you would use multiple implants and one patch that would ping each implant individually, or all simultaneously. Ultrasound vs radio Maharbiz and Carmena conceived of the idea of neural dust about five years ago, but attempts to power an implantable device and read out the data using radio waves were disappointing. Radio attenuates very quickly with distance in tissue, so communicating with devices deep in the body would be difficult without using potentially damaging high-intensity radiation. A sensor implanted on a peripheral nerve is powered and interrogated by an ultrasound transducer. The backscatter signal carries information about the voltage across the sensors two electrodes. The dust mote was pinged every 100 microseconds with six 540-nanosecond ultrasound pulses. Marharbiz hit on the idea of ultrasound, and in 2013 published a paper with Carmena, Seo and their colleagues describing how such a system might work. Our first study demonstrated that the fundamental physics of ultrasound allowed for very, very small implants that could record and communicate neural data, said Maharbiz. He and his students have now created that system. Ultrasound is much more efficient when you are targeting devices that are on the millimeter scale or smaller and that are embedded deep in the body, Seo said. You can get a lot of power into it and a lot more efficient transfer of energy and communication when using ultrasound as opposed to electromagnetic waves, which has been the go-to method for wirelessly transmitting power to miniature implants Now that you have a reliable, minimally invasive neural pickup in your body, the technology could become the driver for a whole gamut of applications, things that today dont even exist, Carmena said. Other co-authors of the Neuron paper are graduate student Konlin Shen, undergraduate Utkarsh Singhal and UC Berkeley professors Elad Alon and Jan Rabaey. The work was supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency of the Department of Defense. UC Small Farm Program posts wealth of webinar info online Sacramento, California - Are you one of the thousands of California farmers and ranchers who invite the public to your land to shop at your farm stand, pick their own fruit, taste wine, stay the night, learn a skill, enjoy a festival, or tour your operation? Are you a tourism professional noticing increased interest in agritourism from the public? Are you a county planner trying to balance the desire of entrepreneurial farmers to ease agritourism restrictions with their neighbors worries and concerns? You may be interested in the recordings and presentation slides from this series of one-hour Agritourism Conversations Lunchtime Webinars offered May July, 2016: The Strategy: Identifying, reaching & connecting with YOUR agritourism customers webinar recording Presentation slides by Kristen Staggs and Anna Farrell, Farrell Design Group Presentation slides by Al Courchesne, Frog Hollow Farm The Invitation: Social Media, Online Booking & Website Success webinar recording Presentation slides by Kristin York, Sierra Business Council Presentation slides by Lauren Gagliano Saline, Suzies Farm The Rules: Navigating and Negotiating Permits and Regulations Recording of webinar presentation by Karen Giovannini, Sonoma County Agricultural Ombudsman Handout to accompany Karen Giovanninis presentation Presentation slides by Karen Giovannini Recording of webinar presentation by Tom Purciel, El Dorado County Advance Planning Division Presentation slides by Tom Purciel The Community: Powerful Promotions through Partners Tiffany Dozier, Yolo County Visitors Bureau and Evan Oakes, Ag Venture Tours and Consulting webinar recording Tiffany Doziers presentation slides (Working with your DMO) Evan Oakes presentation slides (Organizing tours and working with tourism and hospitality partners) The Delivery: Five-Star Customer Experience Scottie Jones, U.S. Farm Stay Association and Meghan Bishop-Sanderson, Bishops Pumpkin Farm webinar recording Scottie Jones presentation slides: Hospitality on your farm Meghan Bishop-Sandersons presentation slides: Bishops Pumpkin Farm Customer Service Program The University of California Small Farm Program is teaming up with FarmsReach to provide this series of practical webinars and an online forum for conversations about California agritourism, thanks to funding from the USDA Farmers Market Promotion Program. FarmsReach also offers an Agritourism Toolkit and a popular online forum for information-sharing among the agricultural community. Together, they hope to nurture the statewide agritourism conversation. San Diego Zoo Global 2016 Conservation Medal Winners Announced San Diego, California - San Diego Zoo Global is honoring the work of two prominent Australia zoos for their significant efforts in wildlife conservation worldwide. During a ceremony, Monday, with San Diego Zoo Global staff, representatives from Zoos Victoria in Melbourne and the Taronga Conservation Society Australia in Sydney were presented with the San Diego Zoo Global 2016 Conservation Partners Medal, shining a light on their efforts in wildlife conservation research projects, public education and strict animal welfare standards. During the event, organizers shared information on Zoos Victorias immense contribution to wildlife conservation. Zoos Victoriaan organization that includes the Melbourne Zoo, the Healesville Sanctuary and the Werribee Open Range Zoohas made saving species its focus, while encouraging other zoos to do the same. Among Zoos Victorias many international efforts was the organizations most popular and effective program, the Dont Palm Us Off campaignan initiative to help save orangutan populations and their habitats by advocating for protecting rain forests that are being cut down to make way for palm oil plantations. Jenny Gray, Ph.D., CEO of Zoos Victoria, accepted the award with gratitude, but stated Zoos Victoria will continue in its role as a leader in the fight to save species worldwide. At Zoos Victoria, we have witnessed the extinction of native species in the wild and we believe it is unacceptable to allow species to decline without stepping in. Receiving this award is an honor and only encourages us to continue the fight against wildlife extinction. Currently, Zoos Victoria is working with communities, governments and nonprofit organizations to shine a light on the importance of native species conservation in their own backyard of Australia, more specifically Victoria. Theyre breeding 20 threatened native speciesincluding frogs, lizards, parrots, and marsupialsin an attempt to promote population recovery. Taronga Zoo in Sydneywhich, like the San Diego Zoo, is celebrating its centennial this yearis a wildlife sanctuary for over 4,000 animals from more than 350 species, many of which are endangered. As part of its many conservation efforts, Taronga helped initiate a national strategy to save the Tasmanian devil and took the lead on breed-and-release programs for endangered regent honeyeaters and corroboree frogs. Last year, the Zoo had more than 76 joint research and conservation projects underway, including whole-genome sequencing of the platypus and developing a tetanus vaccine for Asian elephants. Recently, Taronga developed a smartphone app to combat wildlife trafficking, and is partnering with San Diego Zoo Global to bring the app to the U.S. Cameron Kerr, director and CEO of the Taronga Conservation Society Australia, accepted the award for Taronga Zoo, highlighting the zoos indigenous education programs and other premier environmental education programs for guests. We are at a significant juncture in the history of the Taronga Conservation Society Australia, said Kerr. We are developing our capacity to deliver vitally important community education programs, as well as continuing our commitment to wildlife conservation. Since 1966, the Conservation Medal awards program has recognized world leaders and organizations who share San Diego Zoo Globals vision to end extinction. The recipients exhibit active and important contributions to the conservation and recovery of endangered species, habitats or ecosystems in the field through applied research, breeding and reintroduction programs, community education or the establishment of protected areas. ABOUT SAN DIEGO ZOO GLOBAL Bringing species back from the brink of extinction is the goal of San Diego Zoo Global. As a leader in conservation, the work of San Diego Zoo Global includes on-site wildlife conservation efforts (representing both plants and animals) at the San Diego Zoo, San Diego Zoo Safari Park, and San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, as well as international field programs on six continents. The work of these entities is inspiring children through the San Diego Zoo Kids network, reaching out through the internet and in childrens hospitals nationwide. The work of San Diego Zoo Global is made possible by the San Diego Zoo Global Wildlife Conservancy and is supported in part by the Foundation of San Diego Zoo Global. ABOUT TARONGA Taronga Conservation Society Australia is a non-profit organization that operates Taronga Zoo in Sydney and Taronga Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo. Taronga is a leader in the fields of conservation, research and environmental education. Taronga is working tirelessly to achieve a shared future for wildlife and people, helping threatened species to breed, protecting their genetic diversity and even re-introducing them to the wild. The Zoos conservation breeding programs for threatened wildlife help a myriad of species, from tiny vibrant Corroboree Frogs to majestic Asian Elephants. Taronga works in partnerships to support more than 35 research and conservation projects across Australia, and a further 35 programs around the globe. For more information visit: taronga.org.au ABOUT ZOOS VICTORIA Zoos Victoria is a zoo-based conservation organization that aims to secure a future rich in wildlife. We do this through innovative, scientifically sound breeding and recovery programs to support endangered Victorian species, partnering with the Victorian community to create the worlds most wildlife-friendly society, providing profound zoo-based animal encounters to connect people with wildlife and through strong commercial approaches to secure financial sustainability. Visit zoo.org.au to learn more. courtesy: San Diego Newscape New President Takes Helm at US Naval War College Newport, Rhode Island - Rear Adm. Jeffrey A. Harley relieved Rear Adm. P. Gardner Howe III to become the 56th president of the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, during a change of command ceremony, July 25. "For more than 130 years, the Naval War College has been the birthplace, the cradle and the home of naval strategy," said guest speaker Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John M. Richardson. "It's clear that this role has been enhanced in the last two years by Howe's leadership. The college is now an absolutely fertile environment for new ideas." During the ceremony, Richardson noted Howe's accomplishments in implementing the educational components of Richardson's own program, "A Design for Maintaining Maritime Superiority," as well as the fleetwide Navy Leader Development Strategy. "Despite keeping the joint professional military education solidly intact and advancing our wargaming to be more responsive, the thing I am most impressed with is the work by Howe and the team to advance the concepts of leader development," Richardson said. "We are at the dawn of the next period in the college's history, in which the Navy will be challenged. More than anyone else, Howe understood this complexity and took the initiative to lead this great institution into our future." Howe departs NWC following his nomination for appointment to the rank of vice admiral and assignment as associate director for Military Affairs, Central Intelligence Agency in McLean, Virginia. "Today's ceremony is bittersweet for me," said Howe. "Newport and the Naval War College have connected with me in ways that were totally unexpected. The importance of graduate-level education in the profession of arms has never been clearer to me in my career. This is a superb command, and I am proud to have been a member of it." Howe took command of NWC as the 55th president and first Navy SEAL to hold the position. As president, Howe strove to instill all Sailors with the mindset of recognizing a military career as a profession requiring ethical leadership in addition to technical competence. "I can think of no other officer in the United States Navy that is more excited or well prepared to take over the reins at the college than Rear Adm. Harley," Howe said. "He has a diverse operational and intellectual background, and experiences that are perfect for guiding an educational institution focused on a complex world." In addition to being a NWC graduate, Harley received a Bachelor of Arts in political science at the University of Minnesota and a Masters of Arts from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He reports from his most recent assignment as assistant deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Operations, Plans and Strategy in Washington, D.C. "I am truly humbled to become the 56th president of the United States Naval War College, and I am honored to join a great team in its critical mission," said Harley. "I am especially grateful to Gardner Howe for his tireless leadership and extraordinary accomplishments during his tenure as president. I am delighted to carry on the extraordinary work and contributions of this institution. Call to Action to Celebrate the Manufacturing of Today and Tomorrow Washington, DC - On the 5th Manufacturing Day (October 7, 2016), the Nation will celebrate the vitality and reality of American manufacturing to youth and workers across the country. With ingenuity and a determined spirit, hardworking Americans are creating products and unlocking new technologies that will shape our Nation and grow our economy On National Manufacturing Day, we celebrate all those who proudly stand behind our goods and services made in America, and we renew our commitment to winning the race for the jobs of tomorrow. ~ President Obama, Manufacturing Day 2014 Proclamation American manufacturing is world-class aircraft engines, next-generation electronics, life-saving biopharmaceuticals, and cutting-edge automobiles. It is inspirational entrepreneurs that run urban factories started in dorm rooms, and revolutionary technologies enabling products we never thought possible, from bendable electronics to synthetic organs. It is a resurgent industry, emerging from the near-collapse of the Great Recession, where more than 800,000 manufacturing jobs have been added since February 2010the first sustained job growth in the sector since the 1990s. And it is an industry that is local, where Made in Americas competitive edge is rooted in the talent and resilience of strong communities and the worlds most productive workers. Manufacturing Day is an annual celebration of the strength of American manufacturing and an opportunity to educate and motivate the next generation of manufacturers. Last year, Manufacturing Day inspired factories, colleges, and cities to hold more than 2,600 manufacturing showcases across all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D.C. More than 400,000 people experienced first-hand what is made in their communities and the skills needed to pursue rewarding manufacturing careers by touring plants, exploring career opportunities, collaborating in hackathons, and celebrating local manufacturing communities. These experiences matterafter participating in Manufacturing Day events, a recent study found that 81 percent of students and 91 percent of educators were more convinced that manufacturing provides careers that are interesting and rewarding, helping to inspire the next generation of manufacturers. This year, we can do even morethat is why, today, the Administration is launching an effort to inspire the next generation of manufacturers and support entrepreneurs manufacturing their first product in the United States. We want to engage companies, universities, mayors and local communities, foundations, philanthropists, and individual makers and entrepreneurs. There are a number of ways to get involved. For example: Improving the image of manufacturing, by sharing the diverse testimonials from todays manufacturers or hosting a virtual factory tour so that anyone can experience modern shop floors. Strengthening the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education pipeline by adding making and manufacturing courses to K-12 Career and Technical Education and undergraduate programs. Encouraging entrepreneurs to scale-up manufacturing in the United States by supporting the development of next-generation hardware and software that increase the variety and value of products that hobbyists and startups can manufacture, and investing in shared manufacturing facilities. Linking manufacturers to the Maker movement by serving as the anchor tenant for a regional makerspace or supporting maker spaces in schools and after-school programs. Let us know what you can do to get involved using this online form by Friday, September 9, 2016. Sentencing of Lawyers and Rights Activists in China Washington, DC - Last week, a Chinese court convicted prominent human rights attorney Zhou Shifeng, director of the Fengrui law firm, and activists Hu Shigen, Zhai Yanmin, and Gou Hongguo of the apparently politically motivated charge of subversion of state power. More than a dozen other attorneys and activists detained on and around July 9, 2015, including Li Heping, remain in pretrial detention without access to their families or to legal counsel of their own choosing. This campaign undermines Chinas development of a judicial system that respects the rule of law. We urge Chinese authorities to release the lawyers and rights defenders who are imprisoned or in detention, including those already sentenced. We call for an immediate end to the cases brought against them and to restrictions on their freedom of movement and professional activities. This Isnt Our Last Love Letter Dear Don Don, Way back in 92 I walked into the room and knew Never felt this way before I shook your hand while gazing into your eyes And the feeling grew As I took a seat I knew A love that would have my heart Forever I knew Way back in 92 They say love at first sight doesnt always last or isnt true We were the exception to that rule Our love had no where to hide A spark set fire As if this is how the universe started I never doubted our love or what we could do Together we grew Forming a bond everlasting That became our glue My euphoria was YOU Im eternally grateful for the love and life we shared For how fortunate we were : to have and to hold through sickness and in health Til death do us part Until we are together again This isnt our last love letter I love you with all my heart and soul Yours forever, Deirdre (Mrs. Hank Snow) Im fortunate to have fallen in love with, marry and make a life with the sharpest, coolest, funniest, most rare, bad ass, tender loving, loyal man on the planet, my husband Don Imus. A True American Hero I dont know why it has been so hard for me to write about my dear friend Don Imus. I certainly know what he meant to me, my family, my charity, my hospital and the millions of fans that listened and loved him for so many years. I keep reading all the beautiful condolences that people are writing about how much a part of their lives were effected by listening to him over the years. But what most people dont talk enough about is what he did for all of us. In every sense of the word, he was an American Hero. His work with children with so many different illnesses and his dedication to their future was unmatched by anyone I have ever known or heard about. Besides raising over $100,000,000 for so many causes, he took care of young people for over 20 years in a state where he could not breathe. Along with his incredible wife Deirdre, he created a world where children were not defined by their disease. That was a miracle! He was a miracle. I will miss him ever day for the rest of my life. I was blessed to be a part of his and Deirdes life. No one will ever do what he did. I love you Don Imus - A TRUE AMERICAN HERO David Jurist IMUS IN THE MORNING FIRST DAY BACK! WATCH: This Restaurant in Pune Are Run by Speech and Hearing Impaired People The location where the ships collided. Photo by VnExpress Rescue efforts are underway but the weather is hampering the mission. Two people are missing after a Vietnamese vessel carrying over 3,000 tons of steel collided with a foreign ship and sank off the southern province of Binh Thuan yesterday. The incident happened when the vessel, named Thanh Dat 01, with 11 members onboard was traveling from Vung Tau to the north-central province of Thanh Hoa. The Thanh Dat 01 crashed into a ship named Gou Shun 21, flying a Micronesia flag, about 11 nautical miles to the southeast of Cape La Gan (Binh Thuan). Nine crew members were rescued and brought aboard the Gou Shun 21, but Captain Dang Van Khuong, 56, and Duong Van Minh, 45, remain missing. Authorities in Binh Thuan have ordered search and rescue teams, border guard forces and related parties to search for the missing men, and nearby vessels have been asked to assist in the search and rescue efforts. The Vietnam Marine Rescue Cooperation Center (MRCC) said four vessels are working on rescue operation, including the MRCC's rescue vessel SAR413. The agency added that there are strong breezes and heavy swells in the search area at the moment. Related news: > 3 remain missing, 43 rescued after cruise ship capsized on river in Da Nang > Passengers flee cruise ship inferno in Ha Long Bay Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey Get our The Life Cinematic email for free Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the The Life Cinematic email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A woman driven mad with guilt - haunted by the spirits of those killed by the firearms she owes her fortune to. Whether literally haunted, or metaphorically, is a matter of personal opinion when it comes to the eerie history of the Winchester Mystery House. A sprawling mansion built in San Jose, California by one Sarah Winchester; who unravelled at the death of her husband and child. attempting to build the house to appease and ward off the spirits of those killed by her husband's invention, the Winchester rifle, or "The Gun That Won the West". Promised by a medium that the ghosts would never harm her as long as she kept building, the house soon became a sprawling enterprise, seven stories tall and consisting of 160 rooms. The house as it stands now is seemingly filled with bizarre traps - stairs that lead to nowhere and doors that open to nothing - a result either of haphazard construction plans, or a deliberate attempt to confuse the evil spirits. Now, CBS Films has acquired the rights to bring this strange story to screen in Winchester, Deadline reports. Directed by Presdestination's Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig, Helen Mirren will take on the role of Sarah Winchester, here pitting her against skeptical psychiatrist Eric Price; dispatched to discern Sarah's state of mind, only to discover that her delusions may not be so fantastical. Production on Winchester will begin next March, shooting on location at the house in San Jose, as well as in Australia. Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey Get our The Life Cinematic email for free Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the The Life Cinematic email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} If youre going to make a thriller about a drug smuggler being recruited by the DEA to fight crime, you better make sure youre nailing that macho male demo by giving it a suitable name. As such, Universal has decided to give Tom Cruises new film Mena, directed by Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity, Edge of Tomorrow) a new one. The picture was named after a small town in Arkansas where cocaine was smuggled using an airport, but has today been rechristened: American Made. Recommended Read more A eulogy to the time Tom Cruise made films about being human American Made. I can already imagine the logo shuddering across the screen in steel. Making this even better, Cruise will be playing a protagonist named Barry Seal. Its actually based on a true story though, following the exploits of Adler Berriman "Barry" Seal, who flew flights for the Medellin cartel before being unexpectedly recruited by the CIA in the 1980s to run one of the biggest covert operations in U.S. history. Universal also set a release date for American Made: 25 August. Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey Get our The Life Cinematic email for free Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the The Life Cinematic email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} When it comes to shark movies, the shadow of a certain Steven Spielberg film looms so ominously over the waters that other filmmakers have shied away from the subject matter. There are plenty of sharks in films but relatively few films that are entirely about sharks. This is what makes Jaume Collet-Serras new feature The Shallows so unusual. Its a story about a young woman (played by Gossip Girls Blake Lively) stranded off shore as a great white prowls around her, waiting to gobble her up. Collet-Serra is best known for his thrillers (Non-Stop and Run All Night) with Liam Neeson; The Shallows is the most pared down film he has made. The fewer resources you have, the more creative you have to get - and that fuels my mojo, Collet-Serra says about the attraction of the project. The Shallows is very different from Jaws and yet has some of its same primal qualities. Theres no Robert Shaw spinning grim yarns about US navy sailors being eaten alive, no grim-faced Roy Scheider trying to keep the beaches safe and no Richard Dreyfuss showing off his expertise about sharks. There is just Blake Lively in a bikini and wet suit, trying to keep out of the mouth of the beast. This is a survival story. Even though in concept, it is a very simple movie, it is highly complex to keep the feeling we are in the ocean, the director says. Anyone who has been on a tour of Universal Studios theme park and seen the Jaws attraction will realise that, actually, the mechanical shark wasnt very lifelike. Its the idea of the shark that frightens the tourists as much as the shark itself. In todays digital era, Collet-Serra was able to make his great white seem much more realistic. Even so, the shark is used relatively sparely. This means that when we finally see it in its full-toothed glory, it has all the more impact. The director was all too aware that the film could have seemed voyeuristic and even sexist. The point about The Shallows, though, is that Blake Livelys character refuses to be the victim. A medical school student still getting over the death of her mother, shes not there to be gawped at in her bikini but is resourceful and courageous. I think audiences are maturing. I dont think that selling sex or sexiness is a huge draw any more. You need something more than that. We had a bit of fun at the beginning when she is getting ready with the closer to the skin type shots but once she has been bitten and is danger, it becomes another movie. We were very conscious not to ever cross that line of bad taste. If she is already in jeopardy, we dont want ever to take advantage visually of that situation ... as a director and a human being, you just want to treat that other human with respect. Jaws has been criticised for demonising sharks. After all, the great white isnt the embodiment of evil that the film suggested. It simply behaves according to its nature. However, Collet-Serra makes it clear that The Shallows is a horror flick, not an eco-documentary. I can differentiate between what happens in a movie and what happens in reality. I can watch a documentary and feel very sorry about what happens to the sharks or any other creature. The Shallows, he explains, is a human story. Blake Livelys antagonist could equally well be a dinosaur or an alien or a storm, or another human being. The drama comes from her fight to survive. Access unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows with Amazon Prime Video Sign up now for a 30-day free trial Sign up Blake Lively stars in The Shallows (The Shallows) On his own scuba diving trips, the director has experienced first-hand what it is like to feel the fear of being under the water and not knowing what is around me and feeling very vulnerable. Whether it is with sharks or any other creature, when I am not in my element, I am very uncomfortable thats also why I am a director who makes movies that are about expressing fear. His own pet terror is flying, but that didnt stop him from making Non-Stop with Liam Neeson as the hero aboard a plane with a bomb on it. When The Shallows was shooting off the coast of Australia, there were a number of real-life stories about shark attacks. I think 2015 was the year for shark attacks. That is probably to do with global warming. You have more people in the water and more sharks getting close to the shore. It just happens. Yes, the movie was as much a feat of endurance for the director and crew as for Blake Livelys long-suffering character. The weather changed constantly. The water changed colour difficult for continuity and there were troubles with the tides. Everything was just a logistical nightmare, the director remembers. Sharks are a very difficult thing to do. They are so powerful and big and scary, Collet-Serra says. Its very cool to have a shark theme, but try to do 100 shots of a shark, that is very hard not to repeat yourself and to create a memorable character, one that people remember. Jaws is a masterpiece and set the bar very high for everybody. A lot of people have tended to do variations on it. For us, we tried to do something that was fresh, simple, realistic and enjoyable for a new generation. The director sounds relieved now to be back on firmer ground, making a more conventional thriller with Liam Neeson. The Irish actor is now in his mid-60s but, like Blake Lively, is still apparently doing his own stunts. Ive just been on set with him for 12 hours and now he is training for the fights, says Collet-Serra. Hes like a little kid. He loves every minute of it. You have to love it. It takes a lot of physical toll and sacrifice to get it right. From the Jaws sequels to Bait 3D, Open Water, The Reef and The Deep Blue Sea, there have been several other shark-themed movies since Spielberg unleashed his great white terror in 1975. Nonetheless, Jaws itself is invariably the first title anybody remembers when shark films are mentioned. The Shallows wont eclipse it, but at least it is bound to add to the conversation. 'The Shallows' is released on Friday For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Over 150,000 people have criticised Google for removing Palestine from Google Maps. The problem is that it never happened. Palestine, like other contested territories, has had a difficult time on the worlds most popular mapping tool. But it hasnt just been removed it never really existed on there in the first place. The recent outrage was sparked by a petition and a hashtag #PalestineIsHere that said that Google was making itself complicit in the Israeli governments ethnic cleansing of Palestine by removing it from the map. But it is just another example of how the site attempts to manage areas that are disputed. The site treats those areas in specific ways, showing dotted lines to indicate problematic borders and displaying different maps to different people. The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Show all 10 1 /10 The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Medics evacuate a wounded man from the scene of an attack in Jerusalem. A Palestinian rammed a vehicle into a bus stop then got out and started stabbing people before he was shot dead AP The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Israeli ZAKA emergency response members carry the body of an Israeli at the scene of a shooting attack in Jerusalem. A pair of Palestinian men boarded a bus in Jerusalem and began shooting and stabbing passengers, while another assailant rammed a car into a bus station before stabbing bystanders, in near-simultaneous attacks that escalated a month long wave of violence AP The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Getty Images The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Palestinians throw molotov cocktail during clashes with Israeli troops near Ramallah, West Bank. Recent days have seen a series of stabbing attacks in Israel and the West Bank that have wounded several Israelis AP The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Women cry during the funeral of Palestinian teenager Ahmad Sharaka, 13, who was shot dead by Israeli forces during clashes at a checkpoint near Ramallah, at the family house in the Palestinian West Bank refugee camp of Jalazoun, Ramallah AP The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies A wounded Palestinian boy and his father hold hands at a hospital after their house was brought down by an Israeli air strike in Gaza Reuters The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Palestinians look on after a protester is shot by Israelis soldiers during clashes at the Howara checkpoint near the West Bank city of Nablus EPA The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies A lawyer wearing his official robes kicks a tear gas canister back toward Israeli soldiers during a demonstration by scores of Palestinian lawyers called for by the Palestinian Bar Association in solidarity with protesters at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City, near Ramallah, West Bank AP The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Undercover Israeli soldiers detain a Palestinian in Ramallah Reuters The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Palestinian youth burn tyres during clashes with Israeli soldiers close to the Jewish settlement of Bet El, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, after Israel barred Palestinians from Jerusalem's Old City as tensions mounted following attacks that killed two Israelis and wounded a child That appears to be what is happening in Palestine, and it has in different ways for a long time. Whats more, it isnt unique to Palestine and Israel. A site called Disputed Territories collects all of the various ways that Google shows places where boundaries are fought over. Abroad, Google Maps has waded into raw, tender issues of national identity, that site says in its introduction. For example, take its depiction of Crimea on maps.google.com, where a dashed line reflects the U.S. view that the area is an occupied territory. But in Russia, on maps.google.ru, the boundary line is solid Russia has officially annexed Crimea. That site hasnt been updated since June 2014, so it doesnt include some of the more recent territorial disputes. But it does include many of the most famous contested territories, like Crimea and more long-disputed places like Kashmir. Recommended Read more Artist captures bizarre distorted images on Google Maps The company also displays contested countries differently from those whose borders are more widely recognised. For about 30 countries, instead of showing the border to anyone who searches for the country, Google just points the user to the centre of that country rather than showing its outline. That list of countries includes Israel and Palestine, and has for a long time. But it also includes far bigger countries that have just one part of their border contested, including Russia, India and China. The new Palestine controversy is far from the first outrage to be provoked by Google Mapss depictions of international territories. And the petition is not even the most dangerous protest against the tools borders in 2010, it was probably wrongly blamed for nearly causing a war between Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Google has in the past been relatively sympathetic to Palestine and its claims of statehood. In 2013, many reported that it had in effect recognised it as a state, changing the text on its Palestinian homepage from Palestinian territories to just Palestine. Palestinian refugee: I feel like a stranger in my own country Google has been more specifically criticised for the routes that it presents to people who look to use Maps to travel around Palestine and Israel. In 2014, the Daily Dot wrote that its directions feature appeared to be taking people down roads that could prove life-threatening, apparently because it was missing far quicker, easier and safer routes. Sign up to our free WhatsApp news alerts and daily briefing updates Sign up to our free daily WhatsApp news alerts Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the WhatsApp news alerts email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A month ago, Tesla came under fire as it emerged that a Florida man had been killed in a collision with a lorry while using the self-drive feature on one of its Model S vehicles. Now, the same function appears to have saved a second drivers life. One afternoon in July, Joshua Neally, a 37-year-old Missouri lawyer, was driving his brand new Tesla Model X home from his office in Springfield to his daughters fourth birthday, when he felt a sharp pain in his abdomen that would later say felt like a steel pole through my chest. Instead of calling an ambulance, Mr Neally put his car into autopilot mode and pointed it towards the nearest hospital. The car drove itself some 20 miles, arriving just shy of the hospitals accident and emergency department, where Mr Neally summoned the strength to steer it the final few feet into a parking space, before checking himself in. It turned out that he was suffering a pulmonary embolism, a potentially fatal blockage of an artery in the lungs, which doctors said he was lucky to survive. Although it is described as autopilot, the Teslas self-drive function does require drivers to pay attention to the road and touch the wheel at intervals. The man killed in Florida in May was allegedly watching a Harry Potter film when his car ploughed into the lorry. Last month, two more Tesla cars on autopilot were involved in non-fatal, single-vehicle accidents in Montana and Pennsylvania. The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating the technology. Last month Tesla CEO Elon Musk countered criticism of the self-drive feature, insisting it was statistically safer than a real persons driving, and claiming it would thus be morally reprehensible to delay release [of the technology] simply for fear of bad press or some mercantile calculation of legal liability. Mr Neally told local news station KY3 that he was thankful the self-drive feature was there when he needed it, describing his vehicle which he nicknamed Ender, after the hero of the sci-fi novel Enders Game as the ultimate gadget. If something like that happens where I become unconscious or incapacitated while I'm driving, I'm not going to cross over the interstate and slam into somebody or slam into one of the big rock walls, he said. Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} If Britain crashes out of the European single market for goods and services in the wake of the Brexit vote the country could be permanently poorer by 4 per cent of GDP, according to estimates from the Institute for Fiscal Studies. In todays money that loss equates to roughly 75bn, or 2,900 for each of the countrys 26 million households. The nature of Britains future trade relations with the rest of the EU remain deeply uncertain. Before the referendum some leading Leave campaign figures suggested Britain could retain membership of the single market while being outside the EU in the manner of Norway. But other senior European politicians and officials have made it clear they will not accept this arrangement unless Britain continues to make a sizeable contribution to the EU budget and also continues to allow the free movement of European workers into Britain (as Norway does). The signals from Theresa Mays government in recent weeks suggest the Norway option is politically impossible and that ministers are preparing to leave the single market and attempt to generate some kind of free trade agreement with the rest of the bloc. If a free trade agreement is not agreed the UK could default to trading goods with the rest of the EU on minimal World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules. The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address Show all 6 1 /6 The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address Brexit The big one. Theresa May has spoken publicly three times since declaring her intent to stand in the Tory Leadership race, and each time she has said, Brexit means Brexit. It sounds resolute, but it is helpful to her that Brexit is a made up word with no real meaning. She has said there will be no second referendum and no re-entry in to the EU via the back door. But she, like the Leave campaign of which she was not a member, has pointedly not said with any precision what she thinks Brexit means Reuters The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address General election This is very much one to keep off the to do list. She said last week there would be no general election at this time of great instability. But there have already been calls for one from opposition parties. The Fixed Term Parliaments Act of 2010 makes it far more difficult to call a snap general election, a difficulty she will be in no rush to overcome. In the event of a victory for Leadsom, who was not popular with her own parliamentary colleagues, an election might have been required, but May has the overwhelming backing of the parliamentary party Getty The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address HS2 Macbeth has been quoted far too much in recent weeks, but it will be up to May to decide whether, with regard to the new high speed train link between London, Birmingham, the East Midlands and the north, returning were as tedious as go oer. Billions have already been spent. But the 55bn it will cost, at a bare minimum, must now be considered against the grim reality of significantly diminished public finances in the short to medium term at least. It is not scheduled to be completed until 2033, by which point it is not completely unreasonable to imagine a massive, driverless car-led transport revolution having rendered it redundant EPA The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address Heathrow expansion Or indeed Gatwick expansion. Or Boris Island, though that option is seems as finished as the man himself. The decision on where to expand aviation capacity in the south east has been delayed to the point of becoming a national embarrassment. A final decision was due in autumn. Whatever is decided, there will be vast opprobrium PA The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address Trident renewal David Cameron indicated two days ago that there will be a Commons vote on renewing Britains nuclear deterrent on July 18th, by which point we now know, Ms May will be Prime Minister. The Labour Party is, to put it mildly, divided on the issue. This will be an early opportunity to maximise their embarrassment, and return to Tory business as usual EPA The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address Scottish Independence Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP are in no doubt that the Brexit vote provides the opportunity for a second independence referendum, in which they can emerge victorious. The Scottish Parliament at Holyrood has the authority to call a second referendum, but Ms May and the British Parliament are by no means automatically compelled to accept the result. She could argue it was settled in 2014 AFP/Getty But the IFS estimates that retaining single market membership could be potentially worth 4 per cent of GDP permanently to the UK economy relative to WTO terms by 2030 - equal to two full years of trend growth. They based this figure on long-term estimates from other forecasting organisations such as the London School of Economic's Centre for Economic Performance and the National Institute for Economic and Social Research (NIESR) of the long-term negative impact of Brexit on UK growth. The research organisation also stresses that the cost of losing membership of the single market would far outweigh the economic benefits of the UK no longer paying in a net 9bn a year into the European Union budget. The macroeconomic impacts of membership and access are much larger than the importance of direct budgetary issues, even relative to the UKs full EU contribution it said. A report from the IFS published before the referendum said lower growth and extra borrowing resulting from the shock of a Leave vote could knock a 20bn to 40bn hole in the Governments finances by 2020, potentially extending government austerity policies into the next decade. Theresa May says she has an 'open mind' over Brexit negotiations This modelling exercise was also based on the post-Brexit vote (short-term) economic forecasts from NIESR. From an economic point of view we still face some very big choices in terms of our future relationship with the EU said Ian Mitchell, a research associate of the IFS in the new report. There is all the difference in the world between access to and membership of the single market he added. The IFS said free trade agreements are designed to tackle trade tariffs, whereas the EU single market also aims to dismantle all non-tariff barriers to trade such as licensing, and was, thus, much more valuable to the UKs exporters. Dismantling non-tariff barriers are especially important to services firms, which make up 80 per cent of the UK's output. In 2015 39 per cent of the UK's services exports - worth 89bn - went to the rest of the EU. Almost all economic forecasters expect the UK leaving the EU to have a long-term negative impact on the economy, with their views of the size of the loss largely varying depending on what trade arrangement substitutes for full single market membership. One economic model from Patrick Minford of Cardiff University forecasts a boost to UK GDP from leaving the single market and instantly abolishing all import tariffs but other economists have strongly criticised his models underlying assumptions and Minford himself admits his recommended policy would wipe out much of the UKs manufacturing industry. Click here to download your free guide on five shares to watch in 2016, with Independent Partner, Hargreaves Lansdown For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Donald Trump last night filled in some of the blank spaces on the economy. In a speech in Detroit the Republican presidential candidate laid out his programme for winning the global competition. But what policies is he pushing? And does it add up? Business tax What? Trumps wants to slash the tax on corporate profits to 15 per cent, down from 35 per cent. Does it add up? In theory such a move could encourage investment as it automatically lowers firms cost of capital. This might also encourage US multinationals to repatriate off-shore profits. Yet the profit margins of US firms are already high by historic standards and there is little evidence that heavy taxation is discouraging investment at the moment. Other factors such as lack of consumer demand and uncertainty over investment returns are likely to be much more significant factors. Income tax What? Trumps wants to reduce the top rate of US income tax to 33 per cent, down from 39.6 per cent at the moment. Does it add up? Since the 1980s Republicans of all stripes have been convinced that cutting top income tax rates always increase high earners' effort and output so much that the cut will ultimately bring in more tax revenue than it loses upfront. The evidence suggests otherwise. Top rate tax cuts have tended to result in higher inequality, lower tax revenues and a bigger state deficit. Estate tax What? This is the equivalent of UKs inheritance tax - a 40 per cent tax applies on estates of the deceased larger than $5.45m for individuals and $10.9m for couples. Trump wants to repeal it. Does it add up? It is only paid by the very wealthy. Around 99.8 per cent of estates are not liable. So the taxs repeal would be a large windfall to very rich American families, increasing wealth inequality further. Also, most of the very wealthy in the US successfully avoid the tax already through various loopholes. Trump says Clinton is 'founder of ISIS' Carried interest What? Trump proposes to scrap the special tax treatment on carried interest, which means the financial rewards of private equity and hedge fund financiers. This money is treated as capital gains and taxed at rates as low as 23.8 per cent. Tump says he will tax it as ordinary income, meaning it will be payable at a higher rate. Does it add up? This would actually be a sensible elimination of a much-abused and distorting loophole. Indeed, its a policy that has been long pushed by progressives, including Bernie Sanders. Trade What? Trump is opposed to the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement with Japan, Australia and some other Pacific rim nations. He also wants the existing North America Free Trade Agreement, covering Mexico and Canada, to be renegotiated. He claims he would appoint trade negotiators who will win for America and apply tariffs on countries that cheat. Does it add up? Evidence that some American jobs in certain locations and industries have been lost due to trade agreements and the greater competition they bring. But, overall, the US has seen jobs and incomes increase thanks to these deals. Protection might benefit some Americans but overall the economy would be smaller. Child care What? Trump proposes to exclude childcare expenses from taxation. Does it add up? Childcare is expensive in US. Research shows for families it is often a bigger individual expense than rent, transport and food making it a disincentive for mothers to return to work. But a more efficient and effective solution than Trumps private tax breaks (which wouldn't benefit workers who don't earn enough to pay income tax) might be an increase in government subsidised provision of childcare. Deregulation What? Trump says regulation is a lead-weight on the economy, an anchor dragging us down. He would remove bureaucrats who only know how to kill jobs [and] replace them with experts who know how to create jobs, targeting 2.7 civilian federal employees. Does it add up? The US is one of the most lightly regulated economies in the world. There is little evidence that deregulation would produce a major boost in American productivity growth. Sign up for a full digest of all the best opinions of the week in our Voices Dispatches email Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Voices Dispatches email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} More pupils from Scotland have been accepted onto their university courses this year than ever before, it has been confirmed, following the release of Scottish Baccalaureate and Highers exam results. Of more than 140,000 students receiving their results today, just fewer than 28,300 university candidates have successfully secured their courses, said UCAS officials, an increase of 4.8 per cent on last year. This came despite a fall in the A-C pass rate for Higher exams, down two per cent from last year. The Scottish government said this years candidates had produced another highly successful set of results, including 152,701 Higher passes, the second highest number on record and 77 per cent of those sat. For the National 5 tests, 234,160 exams sat achieved passes 79 per cent of all those sitting the exams. And of National 4 candidates, 79 of those sitting exams achieved passes 234,160 in total. More than 43,000 National Certificates, Awards and National Progression Awards have been awarded in courses such as early education, childcare and computer games development, up 27 per cent on last years results. There has also been a 23 per cent increase in National Certificate passes at SCQF level 6 related to work skills, the SQA board confirmed. While many will have received their results by traditional post, some 50,000 teenagers are said to have received them by text or email this year. It is the first year that all school and colleges in Scotland have offered the new Higher curriculum to candidates, following the phased introduction of the new Advanced Higher last year. By the day the results were published, Scottish universities had admitted 34,620 students, a rise of 6 per cent year-on-year, with the proportion of Scottish students being admitted to these institutions rising by 4.6 per cent. Some 3,900 EU pupils also secured places at Scottish universities a significant increase of 18.8 per cent year-on-year. Vonnie Sandlan, President for NUS Scotland said: "Its fantastic to see yet another year of record exam passes and, coming with that, the highest level of entry to university in Scotland ever recorded. Thats a great and deserved testament to the hard work of all our pupils and teachers who should be incredibly proud of everything theyve achieved." "We shouldnt just be pleased by these results, but hugely encouraged by the good news it is for our students, universities, and Scotland as a whole." Education Secretary John Swinney said students could be extremely proud of their efforts. Recommended Read more Universities offer students discounts and perks amid Brexit concerns Last year, a record number of Highers were awarded to pupils sitting the newly introduced exams as part of the educational reforms. Some controversy arose, however, after the pass rate for a maths exam deemed too difficult was lowered to 34 per cent to compensate. SQA officials said this years National 5 Mathematics question paper performed as intended with candidates achieving an A-C grade attainment rate of 63.2 per cent. National 5 Lifeskills Mathematics had an attainment rate of 35.8 per cent. Dr Janet Brown, SQAs chief executive and Scotlands chief examining officer said of this years results: The new qualifications are performing well and the results clearly are enabling young people to transition between the levels and develop a wider range of skills. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Christopher Biggins has said he will visit Auschwitz this year after being removed from the Celebrity Big Brother house over his use of unacceptable language. On Saturday night, viewers watched Big Brother tell Biggins he would be leaving the show, citing his continued use of unacceptable language in the house which is capable of causing widespread offence. Producers listed three occasions including one which occurred during a conversation with former X factor contestant Katie Waissel after she said she was not in the house to represent the Jewish community. Your comment was plainly capable of causing offence to Katie and the viewing public, Big Brother told Biggins. Following his exit, Biggins told the Sun he had apologised to Waissel and CBB for the comment which was not aired on the programme. Recommended Read more Christopher Biggins removed from Celebrity Big Brother house Biggins now says he will travel to Krakow in October and visit the Auschwitz concentration camp where over a million people were murdered by the Nazi regime during the Second World War. I am going there. It will be my first time, he told the Sun. I know its going to be horrible. I know its going to be ghastly. I know its going to be emotional. The 67-year old said he and his partner Neil had already discussed making the trip before he entered the Big Brother house. Celebrity Big Brother 2016 contestant line-up Show all 13 1 /13 Celebrity Big Brother 2016 contestant line-up Celebrity Big Brother 2016 contestant line-up Stephen Bear Former Ex On The Beach contestant Celebrity Big Brother 2016 contestant line-up Christopher Biggins British TV personality Getty Images Celebrity Big Brother 2016 contestant line-up Lewis Bloor Star of The Only Way is Essex Getty Images Celebrity Big Brother 2016 contestant line-up Grant Bovey Businessman and ex-husband of Anthea Turner Celebrity Big Brother 2016 contestant line-up Beth Chapman Star of and wife to Dog the Bounty Hunter Getty Images Celebrity Big Brother 2016 contestant line-up Sam Fox Page 3 legend and former pop star Getty Images Celebrity Big Brother 2016 contestant line-up Freddie Grande Broadway actor and half-brother of US singer Ariana Grande Getty Images Celebrity Big Brother 2016 contestant line-up Chloe Khan Former X Factor reject (then Chloe Mafia) and model Celebrity Big Brother 2016 contestant line-up Helen Lederer Comedienne Getty Images Celebrity Big Brother 2016 contestant line-up Aubrey O'Day Former star of US pop band Danity Kane Getty Images for iHeartMedia Celebrity Big Brother 2016 contestant line-up Renee Graziano Star of US series Mob Wives Getty Images Celebrity Big Brother 2016 contestant line-up Marnie Simpson Star of Geordie Shore Getty Images for MTV Celebrity Big Brother 2016 contestant line-up Katie Waissel Former X Factor contestant Getty Images Were going for five days in October. Im really looking forward to it. Especially now after this incident, he said. Its strange that I had already decided to experience it myself. On Sunday, Biggins said it did not occur to him a "joke" he made to Waissel was referring to Nazi concentration camps and reiterated his apology: "I am mortified by what's happened, really mortified. Most of my friends, in fact, are Jewish. I apologised to Big Brother and Katie." The other comments which led to Biggins exit from the house were about bisexuality. In one conversation, he said: I think the worst kind though are bisexuals, what it is are people not wanting to admit they are gay. On the day of his exit, he also discussed an apparent conspiracy theory about the spread of Aids with Mob Wives star Renee Graziano where he called it a "bisexual disease". In the dock: The defendants get their comeuppance for heroin smuggling at an eight-day trial that ended Monday in Lang Son. Photo by VnExpress/Hong Van The 19-member ring smuggled nearly 280 kilograms into China over two years. A court in the northern mountainous province of Lang Son has sentenced 11 people to death for smuggling nearly 280 kilograms (617 pounds) of heroin from Vietnam to China between 2013 and 2014. Two other defendants got life sentences after an 8-day trial that ended on Monday in Lang Son, which borders China. Investigators said the defendants, many of whom are relatives and aged 25 to 40, belonged to a 19-member smuggling ring responsible for trafficking heroin from Son La, Hoa Binh and Hanoi to Lang Son, where the drugs were then sent over the border to China. The ring raked in profits totaling VND10 billion ($448,000) during the two-year span, investigators said. Vietnams annual average income was around $2,100 last year, according to the World Bank. Police busted the ring in December 2014, making mass arrests and seizing large quantities of illegal drugs. Of the 19 members, six remain at large and another died before the trial began. A Chinese ring member has been sent back to China after police suspended their investigation into him, but it is not immediately clear why they did so. In 2014, in what was one of Vietnam's largest narcotics cases, a court in Hanoi sentenced 29 people to death for trafficking more than 12 tons of heroin from Laos into Vietnam and China. Vietnam has some of the world's toughest drug laws. Those convicted of smuggling more than 600 grams of heroin or more than 2.5 kilograms of methamphetamine face the death penalty. The production or sale of 100 grams of heroin or 300 grams of other illegal narcotics is also punishable by death. Vietnam officially switched from the firing squad to lethal injection in November 2011, but it was not until August 2013 that the country executed its first prisoner with the new method due to a shortage of the fatal serum. Related news: > Vietnamese-Australian woman caught with 11 lbs of heroin at Vietnam airport > Australian heroin smuggler sentenced to life in HCM City For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Hugh Grant believes being arrested for paying a sex worker to perform oral sex had little effect on his career for the next two decades because Hollywood only cares if films are making money. In 1995, Grant, then 34, was arrested for lewd conduct in a public place along with Estella Marie Thompson, 25, a sex worker using the name Divine Brown who he had met on Los Angeles Sunset Strip. The Notting Hill actor was ordered to pay a fine of $1,000, attend an Aids awareness class and sentenced to two years' probation. Thompson was sentenced to 180 days in prison and fined $1,350 after pleading no contest to lewd conduct. In an interview with CBS Grant referred to the incident, which was reported on globally and prompted a scrum from tabloids to secure an interview with Thompson, as a hiccup. People news in pictures Show all 18 1 /18 People news in pictures People news in pictures 7 October 2015 Russian President Vladimir Putin takes part in an ice hockey match between former NHL stars and officials at the Shayba Arena in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. Vladimir Putin spent his 63rd birthday on the ice, playing hockey with NHL stars against Russian officials and tycoons EPA People news in pictures 6 October 2015 German designer Karl Lagerfeld (R) and model Cara Delevingne (C) appear at the end of his Spring/Summer 2016 women's ready-to-wear collection for fashion house Chanel at the Grand Palais which is transformed into a Chanel airport during the Fashion Week in Paris, France Reuters People news in pictures 5 October 2015 Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne addresses the Conservative party conference in Manchester. The Chancellor argued that reducing the payments to people in low paid jobs would give them economic security by reducing the Governments spending deficit Getty Images People news in pictures 4 October 2015 Cowboys captain Johnathan Thurston takes a moment in the centre of the field with his daughter Frankie Thurston, holding dark-skinned doll, after winning the 2015 NRL Grand Final match between the Brisbane Broncos and the North Queensland Cowboys at ANZ Stadium in Sydney. The image quickly became the talking point of Australias National Rugby League Final and provoked a strong reaction on social media, with many praising Thurston for giving his child a toy that promotes inclusiveness and diversity Getty Images People news in pictures 3 October 2015 Pope Francis gives a thumbs-up as he greets people at the end of an audience to the participants of a meeting organized by the "Food Bank" at the Paul VI audience hall in Vatican Getty Images People news in pictures 2 October 2015 Britain's Finance Minister George Osborne (L) throws an American football as he meets with former American football players Dan Marino (2nd R) and Curtis Martin (not pictured) at 11 Downing Street in London, ahead of the New York Jets playing against the Miami Dolphins at London's Wembley Stadium on 4 October Getty Images People news in pictures 1 October 2015 An honor guard opens the door as Russian President Vladimir Putin enters a hall to attend a meeting with members of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia People news in pictures 30 September 2015 Former Mrs America Lisa Christie, who alleges misconduct by Bill Cosby, holds up photos of her younger self during a news conference at the law office of attorney Gloria Allred in Los Angeles People news in pictures 29 September 2015 Matt Damon has defended himself against claims that he instructed gay actors to remain in the closet. He had said I think youre a better actor the less people know about you and sexuality is a huge part of that. Whether youre straight or gay, people shouldnt know anything about your sexuality but an appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres show said, I was just trying to say actors are more effective when theyre a mystery. Right? Getty People news in pictures 29 September 2015 Actor Marion Cotillard has said that there is no place for feminism in Hollywood. Speaking to Porter magazine, she saidFilm-making is not about gender/ You cannot ask a president in a festival like Cannes to have, like, five movies directed by women and five by men. For me it doesnt create equality, it creates separation. I mean, I dont qualify myself as a feminist." Getty People news in pictures 29 September 2015 Actor Paul Walkers daughter, Meadow, is suing Porsche over her fathers death in a lawsuit that claims he was trapped in the burning car because of design flaws and the seat belt. The Fast and Furious star was killed when the Porsche Carrera GT he was a passenger in hit a pole in California in 2013. The driver, his friend Roger Rodas, also died when the vehicle burst into flames. AP People news in pictures 28 September 2015 Robert Mugabe waits to address the United Nations General Assembly. The leader of Zimbabwe reportedly exclaimed 'We are not gay!' as he criticised Western nation's "double standards and attempts to prescribe new rights that are contrary to our values, norms, traditions and beliefs. In 2013 he described homosexuals as worse than pigs, goats and birds. Reuters People news in pictures 28 September 2015 South African comedian Trevor Noah hosts the first 'Daily Show' since taking over from Jon Stewart as host. Stewart had presented the US satirical news show since 1999 and was described by Noah during the show as a 'Political father' 2015 Getty Images People news in pictures 25 September 2015 Sir Elton John may have received a phone call from the real Vladimir Putin. Mr Putin's spokesman announced he had made contact weeks after the singer was duped by pranksters pretending to be the Russian President. Getty People news in pictures 25 September 2015 Actor Leonardo DiCaprio was mistakenly declared as the artist who produced the Mona Lisa by Fox News anchor Shepard Smith. It was in fact Leonardo da Vinci. People news in pictures 24 September 2015 A new biography claims Donald Trump expected to be dead by 40 and never marry. The Guardian says the a new book also claims that in 1980, Mr Trump manufactured a fake vice-president of his real estate conglomerate, whom he called John Baron. People news in pictures 24 September 2015 The Dalai Lama has said that Britain's policy towards China is just about 'Money, money, money.' And asked 'Where is morality?' People news in pictures 24 September 2015 Puff Daddy secured the number-one spot on the Forbes Hip Hop Cash Kings list, with the publication calculating he made an estimated $60million (39m) between June 2014 and June 2015. Grant, who was in a relationship with Liz Hurley at the time, appeared on talk shows and gave a number of interviews apologising for his behaviour soon after his arrest. He said the persona built up by his roles in romantic comedies at that point contributed to the media frenzy. It was entirely to be expected, that there would be a huge hullabaloo about that, particularly given this rather absurd persona that I had been given about who I was on the back of Four Weddings and a Funeral," he said. People thought I was this nice character I played in that film. And so I suppose the contrast between that person and this seedy behaviour was juicy stuff. And I quite understand why it was a big story. Recommended Read more Hugh Grant admits his movies more likely to make money than win Oscars Grant's career did not particularly suffer as a result because Hollywood only minds about money and, despite his sheepish mug shot appearing everywhere, his films still went on to be a success. And that film did fine, the film that was coming out at the time. And yeah, that's all that really matters: As long as you make them money, they don't care what you get up to." Thompson had two children at the time and said after she had turned to sex work in order to pay household bills. In 2010, she told the Mail Online she was now helping her partner run his music production company. The interest in their arrest and subsequent interviews and paid appearances reportedly earned her over $1m, money which she used to put her two eldest daughters through college. It was the trick that changed my life," she said. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} As Hillary Clinton addressed voters in Florida and spoke of the Orlando shooting, among those listening intently was the father of the man who killed 49 people. A local television channel captured footage of Ms Clinton this week speaking in Kissimmee, just south of Orlando. She began her speech by paying tribute to those countless number of people affected by Junes attack on the Pulse nightclub that left so many dead and injured. I know how many people, families, loved ones, and friends are still grieving, and we will be with you as you rebuild your lives, she said. Among those paying attention to the address was the father of the killer, Omar Mateen, who was shot and killed by police officers who stormed the club, which was popular with the LGBTQ community. Mateens father, Seddique Mateen, who had made a Clinton sign to carry at the event, told the WPTV channel that he and his family members had been cooperating with federal investigators probing the attack on the club. Hillary Clinton is good for United States versus Donald Trump, who has no solutions, he said, of his decision to listen to the Democratic candidate. Asked about his decision to attend the event, he added: I spoke a lot about that and wish that my son joined the Army and fought Isis. That would be much better. In pictures: The world mourns Orlando shooting victims Show all 30 1 /30 In pictures: The world mourns Orlando shooting victims In pictures: The world mourns Orlando shooting victims People gather at a vigil in solidarity for the victims of the Orlando nightclub mass shooting, at Taylor Square in Sydney EPA In pictures: The world mourns Orlando shooting victims Brett Morian, from Daytona Beach, hugs an attendee during the candlelight vigil at Ember in Orlando AP In pictures: The world mourns Orlando shooting victims People and members of the gay community holding the peace rainbow flag gather for a vigil near the Beaubourg art center in downtown Paris AFP/Getty Images In pictures: The world mourns Orlando shooting victims A man places a hand print on a makeshift memorial in a parking lot near the Pulse nightclub in Orlando AFP/Getty Images In pictures: The world mourns Orlando shooting victims People attend a candlelight vigil for the victims of the Orlando attack against a gay night club, held in San Francisco REUTERS In pictures: The world mourns Orlando shooting victims People place candles by a statue of Abraham Lincoln during a candlelight vigil for the victims of the Orlando attack against a gay night club, held in San Francisco REUTERS In pictures: The world mourns Orlando shooting victims Tel-Aviv city hall lit up with rainbow flag colors in solidarity with Florida's shooting attack victims AP In pictures: The world mourns Orlando shooting victims Juan Mantilla (L) stands with his partner during a vigil in memory of the victims of the Orlando mass shooting, in Miami Beach AP In pictures: The world mourns Orlando shooting victims A couple shares a kiss as they embrace each other under a pride flag while residents of San Francisco and the Bay Area gather to mourn, honor, and remember the victims of a mass shooting at a LGBT nightclub in Orlando EPA In pictures: The world mourns Orlando shooting victims Austin Ellis, a member of Metropolitan Community Church, carries a cross with a sign in memory of the victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting as he marches in the 2016 Gay Pride Parade in Philadelphia Getty Images In pictures: The world mourns Orlando shooting victims A rainbow flag flies at half mast on the Space Needle in Seattle, in honor of the victims of the nightclub shooting in Orlando AFP/Getty Images In pictures: The world mourns Orlando shooting victims People at the LA Pride event in West Hollywood, write signs and light candles showing solidarity with victims of the mass killings in Orlando AP In pictures: The world mourns Orlando shooting victims In reaction to the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida people hug outside the Stonewall Inn near a vigil for the victims in New York AFP/Getty Images In pictures: The world mourns Orlando shooting victims A woman offers free hugs in Washington, in reaction to the mass shootings at a gay club in Orlando AFP/Getty Images In pictures: The world mourns Orlando shooting victims A U.S. flag is flown at half staff at the White House after the Orlando mass shooting Getty Images In pictures: The world mourns Orlando shooting victims A man lays flowers on a rainbow flag in front of the embassy of the United States in Madrid, to pay tribute to the victims of the shooting of Orlando AFP/Getty Images In pictures: The world mourns Orlando shooting victims The Michael Fowler Centre is lit in rainbow colours by the city council during a candle lit vigil across the road at Frank Kits Park in Wellington, in remembrance of victims after a gunman opened fire in a gay nightclub in Orlando AFP/Getty Images In pictures: The world mourns Orlando shooting victims Participants hold candles during a vigil at Frank Kits Park in Wellington, in remembrance of victims after a gunman opened fire in a gay nightclub in Orlando AFP/Getty Images In pictures: The world mourns Orlando shooting victims Vixon Noir (R) consoles Trashina Cann, both of San Francisco, during a vigil at Harvey Milk Plaza in the Castro district of San Francisco AP In pictures: The world mourns Orlando shooting victims People gather in the Castro District for a vigil for the victims of the Orlando shooting at a gay nightclub, in San Francisco REUTERS In pictures: The world mourns Orlando shooting victims A couple joins residents of San Francisco and the Bay Area to mourn, honor, and remember the victims of a mass shooting at a LGBT nightclub in Orlando EPA In pictures: The world mourns Orlando shooting victims Mourners pay tribute to the victims of the Orlando shooting during a memorial service in San Diego AFP/Getty Images In pictures: The world mourns Orlando shooting victims The Orlando Eye observation wheel lights up in rainbow colors, to remember the people killed and injured in the Pulse nightclub shooting AP In pictures: The world mourns Orlando shooting victims People sit by the water with candles during a vigil in a park following a mass shooting at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando REUTERS In pictures: The world mourns Orlando shooting victims Members of The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence carry a sign of remembrance for mass shooting victims in Orlando, at the 46th annual Los Angeles Gay Pride Parade in West Hollywood REUTERS In pictures: The world mourns Orlando shooting victims Former Hartford Mayor Pedro Segarra and Shawn Lang of Hartford embrace after Segarra spoke, during a vigil organized by the state's Muslim and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities, on the steps of the state Capitol building in reaction to the mass shooting in Orlando AP In pictures: The world mourns Orlando shooting victims The City Hall Building is lit in the rainbow colors in New York, in reaction to the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando AFP/Getty Images In pictures: The world mourns Orlando shooting victims One World Trade Center is lit in the rainbow colors in New York, in reaction to the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando AFP/Getty Images In pictures: The world mourns Orlando shooting victims People hold a vigil after the worst mass shooting in U.S. history at a gay nightclub in Orlando, in front of the White House in Washington REUTERS In pictures: The world mourns Orlando shooting victims A man lays down 50 roses to honor each victim of the gay Orlando night club shooting as people gather outside of the Stonewall Inn as a vigil is held following the massacre Getty Images When questioned whether Ms Clintons campaign knew he was going to the event and sitting directly behind the presidential candidate, Mr Mateen said: It's a Democratic party, so everyone can join. He added: Why should they be surprised? I love the United States, and I've been living here a long time. Federal investigators probing the June attack believe Mateen became radicalised before storming the club in the centre of Orlando. Some reports suggested he had visited Pulse, and other gay clubs, on several occasions though police said they could determine whether the shooter was himself gay. Ms Clinton's campaign issued a statement saying it did not know Mr Mateen was in the audience, one of 3,000 people who were present, until after the rally concluded. Sign up for a full digest of all the best opinions of the week in our Voices Dispatches email Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Voices Dispatches email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} More than six million people in the US are drinking water that contains poisonous industrial chemicals linked with cancer and other health problems at levels higher than official safety limits, according to a major new study. Researchers from Harvard University and other institutions used information about 36,000 water samples collected nationwide by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from 2013-2015. They found that chemicals known as PFASs were present in 194 out of 4,864 public water supplies. And 66 water supplies had at least one sample that was above the EPA safety limit. The highest concentration was found in Newark, Delaware, where the level of one kind of PFAS was 25 times higher than the safe limit. The worst problems were found in watersheds near industrial sites, military bases and wastewater treatment plants, the researchers reported in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters. PFASs polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl substances can be used in everything from food containers such as pizza boxes and non-stick cooking utensils to clothing, carpets and furniture. Only last year a group of scientists expressed concern about the increasing number of these kinds of chemicals in the environment, noting a "growing body" of evidence that they can cause cancer, obesity, low birth weight and even delay puberty. Lead author of the paper, Xindi Hu, said: For many years, chemicals with unknown toxicities, such as PFAS, were allowed to be used and released to the environment, and we now have to face the severe consequences. In addition, the actual number of people exposed may be even higher than our study found, because government data for levels of these compounds in drinking water is lacking for almost a third of the US population about 100 million people. Some manufacturers have stopped using them amid rising concern over their health effects, but the chemicals have persisted in people, wildlife and in the natural environment. PFASs are also widely used in fire-fighting foam and some industrial processes. Normal waste-water treatment plants are not able to remove them and sludge from these plants is often used as fertilizer on farms, which could lead to the contamination of groundwater. Three-quarters of the samples of PFAS-polluted water were found in 13 states with the highest levels in California, followed by New Jersey, North Carolina, Alabama, Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, Georgia, Minnesota, Arizona, Massachusetts, and Illinois. Professor Elsie Sunderland, who worked on the study, said the problem could actually be significantly worse as other research had cast doubt on the safety of the current limits. These compounds are potent immunotoxicants in children and recent work suggests drinking water safety levels should be much lower than the provisional guidelines established by EPA, she said. Last year a group of scientists issued the "Madrid Statement on PFASs", in which they said they were "concerned about the production and release into the environment of an increasing number of poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances". "PFASs are found in the indoor and outdoor environments, wildlife, and human tissue and bodily fluids all over the globe. They are emitted via industrial processes and military and firefighting operations, and they migrate out of consumer products into air, household dust, food, soil, ground and surface water, and make their way into drinking water," they wrote. "In animal studies, some long-chain PFASs have been found to cause liver toxicity, disruption of lipid metabolism and the immune and endocrine systems, adverse neurobehavioral effects, neonatal toxicity and death, and tumors in multiple organ systems. "In the growing body of epidemiological evidence, some of these effects are supported by significant or suggestive associations between specific long-chain PFASs and adverse outcomes, including associations with testicular and kidney cancers, liver malfunction, hypothyroidism, high cholesterol, ulcerative colitis, lower birth weight and size, obesity, decreased immune response to vaccines, and reduced hormone levels and delayed puberty." Sign up for a full digest of all the best opinions of the week in our Voices Dispatches email Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Voices Dispatches email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} It was a quest for a scientific holy grail, one that held out the promise of finally answering one of the greatest mysteries of the universe the nature of dark matter. But scientists have now given up on the hunt for the most elusive of the ghost particles, concluding that they either do not exist or are very different to how physicists imagined them to be. There are currently known to be three different types of neutrinos particles so insubstantial that about 65 billion of them pass through an area about the size of a human thumb every second without causing any effect at all. But scientists speculated that a fourth sterile neutrino might exist in order to explain the results of two different experiments. It could also have provided an explanation for what makes up dark matter, the material that scientists believe accounts for more than a quarter of the mass of the universe, but which has never actually been seen. However after analysing a vast amount of neutrinos that were detected at the IceCube Laboratory at the South Pole after they had travelled all the way through planet Earth, researchers reported in the journal Physical Review Letters that there was no evidence of their existence. Professor Jason Koskinen, of the from the Niels Bohr Institute in Denmark, said: We have analysed hundreds of thousands of neutrinos, which after having passed through the Earth from the Northern Hemisphere have hit the ice on the South Pole, where the collisions have been recorded in the IceCube detector. We know of three neutrino types and our international team of researchers has been looking for signals from a fourth neutrino type, the so-called sterile neutrinos. For years, there has been a global mystery about the existence of a sterile neutrino with a mass of one electronvolt. If it existed, it would produce a clear signal at a certain energy interval, but we have not seen a single signal that could come from such a sterile neutrino. Morten Medici, a PhD student who took part in the research, told The Independent that the previous experiments suggested that the sterile neutrinos would have the mass they had been looking for, but there was still a chance they existed but had different properties. He said their work was beneficial to particle physics because it was useful to start constraining what sterile neutrinos might be. However he admitted: Every time you dont discover something, its a bit of a shame. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A young woman died in a car crash Tuesday after her vehicle was followed by police investigating reports of a drone being flown near Wandsworth Prison in London. The incident may be the first fatality linked to the non-military use of drones. Scotland Yard said police were called to a road near the jail just after 3am Tuesday morning, to investigate reports of a drone being flown near the prison grounds. In a statement, Scotland Yard said: Officers arrived and a car was seen to leave the scene. Officers followed the vehicle and at 3.10am it was seen to have been involved in a collision in Ashcombe Street at the junction of Wandsworth Bridge Road." At this stage, it is believed no other vehicle was involved the collision. The London Ambulance Service and London Fire Brigade attended. One occupant of the car, a woman in her 20s, was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said the driver of the car, a man thought to be in his 20s, is now in critical condition in a west London hospital. The accident comes a day after The Independent reported that police are having to investigate a fourfold rise in the number of reports of suspicious activity involving shop-bought drones. Everything you need to know to fly domestic drones legally It also follows incidents of drones being used to smuggle contraband including so-called 'legal high' drugs to prison inmates. It is not yet known, however, why the drone was being flown, and its presence near the prison may have been coincidental. No arrests have been made following the incident, which is now being investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC). Scotland Yard said in its statement: Police are in the process of informing next-of-kin. Formal identification awaits. A post-mortem examination will be scheduled in due course. The Met's Directorate of Professional Standards and the Independent Police Complaints Commission were informed. The IPCC is carrying out an independent investigation. Artists in Pakistan target drones with giant posters of child victims Show all 5 1 /5 Artists in Pakistan target drones with giant posters of child victims Artists in Pakistan target drones with giant posters of child victims Pakistan A poster bearing the image of a Pakistani girl whose parents, lawyers say, were killed in a drone strike, lies in a field at an undisclosed location in the northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. A group of artists in Pakistan are hoping to generate "empathy" among US drone operators by placing giant posters of children in the country's troubled tribal regions Artists in Pakistan target drones with giant posters of child victims Pakistan Crowd gather next to the poster, which targets predator drone operators in Pakistan Artists in Pakistan target drones with giant posters of child victims Pakistan The portrait of the nameless child was released with the hashtag: #hashNotABugSplat Artists in Pakistan target drones with giant posters of child victims Pakistan In military slang predator drone operators refer to victims as 'bug splats' because when you view the bodies from a grainy video they appear to look like crushed insects Artists in Pakistan target drones with giant posters of child victims Pakistan Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is a heavily bombed area home to many drone attacks; the artists hope that the image of the young girl might make operators think twice Although the incident may be the first fatality linked to the non-military use of drones, the unmanned aerial vehicles have previously been involved in accidents leading to serious injury. Last November Oscar Webb, an 18-month-old toddler from Stourport-on-Severn, Worcester, reportedly had his eyeball sliced in half by the propeller of an out-of-control drone. In April a British Airways passenger jet was hit by what was suspected to have been a drone as it flew in to land at Heathrow Airport. Flight BA727 from Geneva landed safely with no injuries to the 132 passengers and five crew, but Chief Superintendent Martin Hendy, of the Metropolitan Polices aviation policing command, said the incident showed "the very real dangers of reckless, and sometimes malicious use of drones". The death toll from the military use of drones now runs into the thousands. In July, the US government said that in 473 military airstrikes between 2009 and 31 December 2015, most of them involving drones, 2,372 to 2,581 terrorist combatants were killed. The US government said between 64 and 116 civilians were killed in the same period a tally that was immediately criticised as an underestimate. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism in London, which tracks attacks by US drones, estimates that a maximum of 633 civilian lives have been lost in Pakistan alone since 2009. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} An RAF helicopter has burst into flames after performing an emergency landing on a peak in Snowdonia. The Ministry of Defence said the Griffin helicopter had a technical issue and caught fire after landing safely. A Griffin training helicopter safely completed a precautionary landing in Snowdonia this afternoon following a technical issue," a spokesperson said. "Everyone on board exited safely, subsequently the aircraft caught fire. A fire on a peak in Snowdonia following a reported helicopter crash on 9 August (Philippa Napper) Four military personnel and a civilian were in the helicopter when it landed and a sixth member of the RAF was on the ground at the time. They were all transported from the landing site. Huw Price, who was climbing Mount Snowdon at the time of the incident, said he saw the aircraft burst into "huge flames". "One guy on his way down from the summit said he saw a helicopter land there," he wrote on Twitter. "Another had binoculars and reckons flames 10ft plus." An spokesperson for the Welsh Ambulance Service said: We were called at about 1.50pm to reports of an incident in the Snowdonia area. The Wales Air Ambulance has been sent to respond. UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures 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 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 The incident was near the Watkin Path in Llanberis, which is a popular spot for hikers and climbers near Wales's highest peak Griffin training helicopters are used at the Search and Rescue Training Unit RAF Valley on Angelsey, where the Duke of Cambridge was based during his time as a pilot. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Ministers have quietly buried a report which concluded that one of the governments flagship policies had no discernible impact on the problems of unemployment, truancy or criminality that it was supposed to address. BBC 2s Newsnight programme has seen the unpublished evaluation of the Troubled Families initiative that was launched in a blaze of publicity after the 2011 riots. David Cameron promise to put rocket boosters under Whitehalls plans to aid troubled families, and forecast that by the time of the 2015 election it would turn around 120,000 households. In December 2011, he added: Some in the press might call them 'neighbours from hell'. Whatever you call them, we've known for years that a relatively small number of families are the source of a large proportion of the problems in society. Local authorities were given targets for the number of families they should sign up for the scheme, and a payment of 3,200 per family. Each family would be assigned a key worker who would be assertive and challenging in helping the family to get to grips with life. Ministers hailed the results as a success. In March 2015, the then Communities Secretary Eric Pickles announced that the programme had had a life changing impact on 105,671 of the hardest to help families, saving taxpayers an estimated 1.2 billion in welfare and other costs The programme was considered so effective that it was extended in June 2013 to take in another 400,000 families, at an additional cost of 900 million. However, the definition of when a family had been turned around was vague enough for councils to report a 100 per cent success rate. When a consortium of analysts led by a consultancy called Ecorys had been commissioned to study the effectiveness of the programme, it appeared that being turned around may have meant very little in reality. The consortium analysed data from 56 local authorities covering the first 18 months of the programme. According to the BBC, their report submitted last autumn but never published - concluded: The lack of obvious effect from the programme across a range of outcomes indicates that the programme did not have a measurable impact on families within the time-frame over which it was possible to observe its effects. Their analysis found no discernible impact on the percentage of adults claiming out-of-work benefits and no obvious impact on the likelihood that adults were employed 12 or 18 months after starting on the programme, and that the programme did not have any discernible impact on adult offending seven to 18 months after the family was booked into the programme. It added: Whilst it was more difficult to match the treatment and comparison groups when looking at child outcomes, the findings suggested that the programme also had no detectable impact on child offending. On truancy, the analysis concluded that any impact that the programme had on the absence rate was not robust. A spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government said: It is wrong to say that any report on Troubled Families has been suppressed. There were several strands to the evaluation work commissioned by the last Government and there is not yet a final report. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Chinas ambassador to the UK has warned the relationship between Beijing and London stands at a crucial historical juncture over the deferral of a decision on Hinkley Point power station. It comes after Theresa Mays new administration delayed the decision on the 18bn nuclear power project without giving an official reason, casting doubt on the future of Britains first nuclear power plant in more than two decades. But in an opinion piece for the Financial Times, Liu Xiaoming stressed the importance of the UKs openness in making it one of the biggest recipients of Chinese foreign investment. An important reason why this has been possible is that both China and the UK have consistently respected and trusted each other, he wrote. Recommended Read more Reasons not to be suspicious of Chinese investment at Hinkley Point Chinese investors have agreed to put up a third of the construction costs, with two thirds coming from the French energy firm EDF. If the project in Somerset gets the go-ahead in September, the Chinese will then be looking to build a second nuclear power station, to their own design, at Bradwell, in Essex. If Britains openness is a condition for bilateral co-operation, then mutual trust is the very foundation on which this is built, Mr Liu added. Right now, the China-UK relationship is at a crucial historical juncture. Mutual trust should be treasured even more. I hope the UK will keep its door open to China and that the British government will continue to support Hinkley Point and come to a decision as soon as possible so that the project can proceed smoothly. Chinese investors would put up a third of the 18bn construction costs of the new station (Getty) He added: It has not been easy for China and the UK to have come this far. As long as both sides cherish what has been achieved and continue to expand and deepen our co-operation across the board, bilateral relations will maintain their strong momentum and work for the wellbeing of both the Chinese and British people. A Government spokesperson told The Independent: "As we've already made clear - this decision is about a huge infrastructure project and it's right that the new Government carefully considers it. We co-operate with China on a broad range of areas from the global economy to international issues and we will continue to seek a strong relationship with China. The message that we continue to take to the world is that Britain remains open for business and we are the same outward-looking, globally minded country we have always been. In a sign of the tensions within Downing Street, it has previously been reported that Treasury minister, Jim ONeill, a former chief economist for Goldman Sachs, has privately said he will resign from the Government if Ms May decides against the power station later this year. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} They were one of Americas most loved wolfpacks, studied by scientists and photographed by tourists visiting Denali National Park in Alaska. But its last male was killed by a hunter earlier this year and now researchers say they cannot find the remaining mother and cubs. Alaskan wildlife officials fear they are the victims of weakened protection from hunters, who eventually killed them off. The remaining members of a well-known wolfpack, beloved amongst Alaskas tourists and locals, are feared dead possibly bringing the a pack that dates back to the early half of the 20th century to an end. Alaskan wildlife officials believe a mother and her two cubs were the last three survivors of the East Fork Pack, that had as many as 14 only two years ago. After the final radio-collared male was killed by a hunter in May, the chances for their survival reduced significantly. A pack of wolves spotted at the Denali National Park (Sandy Brown Jensen/Flickr) The East Fork wolves (or the Toklats) had been studied since the 1939, making them the longest observed family of mammals in history. Biologist Adolph Murie first observed the animals and followed them for two years, documenting their lives, hunting habits, and also monitoring the moose and other wildlife upon which they preyed. He published his book The Wolves of Mount McKinley in 1944, which detailed his observations of the storied pack. Since their discovery, the East Fork wolves became the most photographed pack of wolves, usually spotted at the entrance of the Denali National Park. While the wolves fate has yet to be confirmed, but researchers think their chances are slim. Wildlife Photographer of the Year Show all 26 1 /26 Wildlife Photographer of the Year Wildlife Photographer of the Year A polar bear's struggle - Highly Commended Justins whole body pained as he watched this starving polar bear at an abandoned hunter's camp, in the Canadian Arctic, slowly heave itself up to standing. With little, and thinning, ice to move around on, the bear is unable to search for food. Justin Hofman / Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year Curious Encounter - Shortlisted Cristobal Serrano, Spain. Any close encounter with an animal in the vast wilderness of Antarctica happens by chance, so Cristobal was thrilled by this spontaneous meeting with a crabeater seal off of Cuverville Island, Antarctic Peninsula. These curious creatures are protected and, with few predators, thrive. Cristobal Serrano / Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year Bond of brothers - Winner David Lloyd, New Zealand / UK. These two adult males, probably brothers, greeted and rubbed faces for 30 seconds before settling down. Most people never have the opportunity to witness such animal sentience, and David was honoured to have experienced and captured such a moment.The picture was taken in Ndutu, Serengeti, Tanzania. David Lloyd / Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year Fox meets fox - Highly Commended Matthew Maran, UK. Matthew has been photographing foxes close to his home in north London for over a year and ever since spotting this street art had dreamt of capturing this image. After countless hours and many failed attempts his persistence paid off. Matthew Maran / Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year Three Kings - Highly Commended Wim Van Den Heever, South Africa. Wim came across these king penguins on a beach in the Falkland Islands just as the sun was rising. They were caught up in a fascinating mating behaviour the two males were constantly moving around the female using their flippers to fend the other off. Wim Van Den Heever / Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year One toy, three dogs - Highly Commended Bence Mate, Hungary. While adult African wild dogs are merciless killers, their pups are extremely cute and play all day long. Bence photographed these brothers in Mkuze, South Africa they all wanted to play with the leg of an impala and were trying to drag it in three different directions! Bence Mate / Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year Clam Close-up - Shortlisted David Barrio, Spain. This macro-shot of an iridescent clam was taken in the Southern Red Sea, Marsa Alam, Egypt. These clams spend their lives embedded amongst stony corals, where they nest and grow. It took David some time to approach the clam, fearing it would sense his movements and snap shut! David Barrio / Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year The Orphaned Beaver - Shortlisted Suzi Eszterhas, United States. A one-month-old orphaned North American beaver kit is held by a caretaker at the Sarvey Wildlife Care Center in Arlington, Washington. Luckily it was paired with a female beaver who took on the role of mother and they were later released into the wild. Suzi Eszterhas / Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year Ice and Water - Shortlisted Audun Lie Dahl, Norway. The Brasvellbreen glacier moves southwards from one of the ice caps covering the Svalbard Archipelago, Norway. Where it meets the sea, the glacier wall is so high that only the waterfalls are visible, so Audun used a drone to capture this unique perspective Audun Lie Dahl / Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year Teenager - Shortlisted Franco Banfi, Switzerland. Franco was free diving off Dominica in the Caribbean Sea when he witnessed this young male sperm whale trying to copulate with a female. Unfortunately for him her calf was always in the way and the frisky male had to continually chase off the troublesome calf. Franco Banfi / Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year Resting Mountain Gorilla - Shortlisted David Lloyd. The baby gorilla clung to its mother whilst keeping a curious eye on David. He had been trekking in South Bwindi, Uganda, whenhe came across the whole family. Following them, they then stopped in a small clearing to relax and groom each other. David Lloyd / Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year Painted Waterfall - Shorltisted Eduardo Blanco Mendizabal, Spain. When the sun beams through a hole in the rock at the foot of the La Foradada waterfall, Catalonia, Spain, it creates a beautiful pool of light. The rays appear to paint the spray of the waterfall and create a truly magical picture. Eduardo Blanco Mendizabal / Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year The Extraction - Shortlisted Konstantin Shatenev, Russia. Every winter, hundreds of Steller's sea eagles migrate from Russia, to the relatively ice-free northeastern coast of Hokkaido, Japan. They hunt for fish among the ices floes and also scavenge, following the fishing boats to feed on any discards. Konstantin took his image from a boat as the eagles retrieved a dead fish thrown onto the ice. Konstantin Shatenev / Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year Shy - Shortlisted Pedro Carrillo, Spain. The mesmerizing pattern of a beaded sand anemone beautifully frames a juvenile Clarkii clownfish in Lembehstrait, Sulawesi, Indonesia. Known as a 'nursery' anemone, it is often a temporary home for young clownfish until they find a more suitable host anemone for adulthood. Pedro Carrillo / Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year Red, Silver and Black - Shortlisted TinMan Lee, USA. Tin was fortunate enough to be told about a fox den in Washington State, North America, which was home to a family of red, black and silver foxes. After days of waiting for good weather he was finally rewarded with this touching moment. Tin Man Lee / Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year Isolated - Shortlisted Anna Henly, UK. Snapped from a helicopter, this isolated tree stands in a cultivated field on the edge of a tropical forest on Kauai, Hawaii. The manmade straight lines of the ploughed furrows are interrupted beautifully by natures more unruly wild pattern of tree branches. Anna Henly / Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year Sound Asleep - Shortlisted Tony Wu, USA. This adult humpback whale balanced in mid-water, headon and sound asleep was photographed in Vavau, Kingdom of Tonga. The faint stream of bubbles, visible at the top, is coming from the whales two blowholes and was, in this instance, indicative of an extremely relaxed state. Tony Wu / Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year All That Remains - Shortlisted Phil Jones, UK. A male orca had beached itself about a week before Phils visit to Sea Lion Island, Falkland Islands. Despite its huge size the shifting sands had almost covered the whole carcass and scavengers, such as this striated caracara, had started to move in. Phil Jones / Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year Ambush - Shortlisted Federico Veronesi, Kenya. On a hot morning at the Chitake Springs, in Mana Pools National Park, Zimbabwe, Federico watched as an old lioness descended from the top of the riverbank. Shed been lying in wait to ambush any passing animals visiting a nearby waterhole further along the riverbed. Federico Veronesi / Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year Gliding - Shortlisted Christian Vizl, Mexico. With conditions of perfect visibility and beautiful sunlight, Christian took this portrait of a nurse shark gliding through the ocean off the coast of Bimini in the Bahamas. Typically these sharks are found near sandy bottoms where they rest, so its rare to see them swimming. Christian Vizl / Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year Otherworldly - Shortlisted A school of Munk's devil ray were feeding on plankton at night off the coast of Isla Espiritu Santo in Baja California, Mexico. Franco used the underwater lights from his boat and a long exposure to create this otherworldly image. Franco Banfi / Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year The Bats Wake - Shortlisted Antonio Leiva Sanchez, Spain. After several months of field research into a little colony of greater mouse-eared bats in Sucs, Lleida, Spain, Antonio managed to capture this bat mid-flight. He used a technique of high speed photography with flashes combined with continuous light to create the wake. Antonio Leiva Sanchez / Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year Under the Snow - Shortlisted Audren Morel, France. Unafraid of the snowy blizzard, this squirrel came to visit Audren as he was taking photographs of birds in the small Jura village of Les Fourgs, France. Impressed by the squirrels endurance, he made it the subject of the shoot. Audren Morel / Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year Unique Bill - Shortlisted Rob Blanken, The Netherlands. The pied avocet has a unique and delicate bill, which it sweeps like a scythe, as it sifts for food in shallow brackish water. This stunning portrait was taken from a hide in the northern province of Friesland in The Netherlands. Rob Blanken / Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year Family Portrait - Shortlisted Connor Stefanison, Canada. A great grey owl and her chicks sit in their nest in the broken top of a Douglas fir tree in Kamloops, Canada. They looked towards Connor only twice as he watched them during the nesting season from a tree hide 50 feet (15 metres) up. Connor Stefanison / Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year A dog jumps to catch a disc during a dog frisbee competition in Poznan via REUTERS I think it is likely the pups are already dead and the mother is long gone, but I hope I am wrong, Anchorage biologist and wolf activist Rick Steiner told Alaska Dispatch News in June. The only way to really know is to get to the den on the ground, which I am pressing the state to do. But in their search for the pack, the den was found overgrown with weeds and reclaimed by a family of porcupines. Alaskas controversial policy that allows hunters to kill wolves in state wildlife refuges has contributed to the sharp decline in the wolf population in the park. This spring, 49 wolves were known to live in the park, according to wildlife officials only three more than the record low population of 46 recorded in 1986. Between 2013 and 2014, the East Fork pack flourished from nine to 17 members. In the subsequent two years, while some died from natural causes, 75 per cent of the wolves killed were the result of human trapping and hunting. As a result, the US Fish and Wildlife Service issued a ban on hunting predators in the 16 wildlife refuges in Alaska, unless based on sound science and in response to a conservation concern. The ban comes in response to the Alaska Board of Games removal and loosening of regulation when it comes to predator hunting. Over the years, the board has allowed for hunters to shoot wolves and bears while flying over refuges, as well as the shooting of wolves and their pups inside their dens. The board removed buffer zones surrounding the Denali, which had existed to protect wolves that wandered outside the safe confines of the park. The East Fork wolf killed in May was found in an area that would have fallen under that protection. Over the past several years, the Alaska Board of Game has unleashed a withering attack on bears and wolves that is wholly odds with Americas long tradition of ethical, sportsmanlike, fair-chase hunting, Fish and Wildlife director Dan Ashe wrote in a column published to The Huffington Post this month. [T]here comes a time when the US Fish & Wildlife Service must stand up for the authorities and principles that underpin our work and say no. Although their chances seem dire, all hope is not lost for the missing members of the East Fork Pack. Although it is unfortunate to lose track of this long-tenured and well followed pack, Denali National Park officials wrote, it should be noted that the potential loss of this pack does not mean the loss of the lineage of these wolves. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Police departments across the US will soon be required to report all deadly incidents involving their officers to federal authorities. Proposals outlined by the Department of Justice set out a new system of reporting all "arrest-related deaths", including the number of people killed and the circumstances surrounding their deaths. The rule would apply to almost 20,000 law enforcement agencies as well as medical examiners and coroners around the country. The news could go some way in appeasing critics of police brutality, although the DoJ still has a long road ahead to bridging the gap between communities and law enforcement. The reporting plan comes at the same time as the two-year anniversary of Michael Browns death. The 18-year-old was shot by police in 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri, and the death sparked protests and civil unrest. In the two years that followed, there have been many more deaths, including 12-year-old Tamir Rice, Freddie Gray, Akai Gurley, Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, providing a catalyst for the Black Lives Matter movement. There is currently no official database for the number of police deaths, but data published in the Injury Prevention Journal last month estimated that 55,000 people were killed or injured by US police during stop and searches and arrests so-called legal interventions in 2012. Ted Miller, the author of the report, recently told The Independent that these number were unlikely to have lowered in the last four years. Polices use of undue force this isnt a new problem which is exploding, said Mr Miller. This has been going on forever. Two previous attempts at recording data at a government level were introduced by the FBI: one was voluntary and one was considered mandatory, yet both systems had recorded different deaths, said Mr Miller. The systems were also marred by late, inaccurate and low levels of reporting. He added that it was outrageous that the government was only likely to set up in 2016 what researchers and newspapers have been trying to do independently for years. He called for the new DoJ reporting system to not only focus on arrests. The new system will gather information from open sources as well as police reports. "It is a sad commentary that the Bureau of Justice Statistics has to resort to open source review because the nation's law enforcement agencies failed to report half of the arrest-related deaths that federal law required them to report," he said. Matthew Fogg, a retired chief deputy US Marshal in Washington DC who won the largest ever employee Title VII discrimination lawsuit against the US department of justice in 1998, told The Independent that the planned national database was a step in the right direction to bring about more transparency and potentially more accountability. I think it should not just be for deaths. They should do it for any complaints of excessive force or abuse of police powers that should all have a second or third layer of oversight, he said. We need a national database to weed the bad apples out." You can never have enough information, especially when youre talking about public trust, he added. The new arrest-related death programme will be open to public consultation until October. Police will be required to submit one report for the whole of 2016, and starting next year, will be asked to send in a report every quarter. A spokesperson for the Department of Justice could not be immediately reached. This fall, several states, including Washington and Maine, will vote on ballot initiatives to raise their local minimum wages. Despite evidence showing that higher minimum wages have the perverse effect of lowering employment among low-skilled workers, most of these initiatives will likely succeed. After all, most Americans are kind, and few want to vote against giving their fellow workers a raise. The biggest victims will be the young. While some economic studies find mixed effects on the employment of adults, most agree that higher minimum wages reduce the job opportunities available to young people. One recent analysis by economists Jonathan Meer and Jeremy West of Texas A&M University found that a higher minimum wage lowers youth employment 11 times as much as it lowers the employment of middle-aged adults. The reason is that young jobseekers usually dont have the long resumes, acquired skills, and glowing references that enable them to land well-paying work. Instead, they must accumulate these assets through entry-level jobs, which usually means working temporarily for a low wage. If the minimum wage is set above what employers are willing to pay for unskilled, inexperienced labor, many young people will find themselves out of work. As the minimum wage has risen, this is precisely what has happened. Teenage labor force participation, which was 52 percent in 1996, has fallen to just 35 percent today. For political reasons, its unlikely that minimum wages will be lowered or even frozen. Instead, the best way forward is to allow young people to work for a special youth minimum wage below the standard rate. The United States already has such a program. Since 1997, employers have been allowed to pay workers under 20 a wage of $4.25 per hour for their first 90 days on the job. The trouble is that more restrictive state laws supersede the relaxed federal standard. Unless states include a similar provision in their labor codes, the federal youth minimum wage is useless. Perhaps unsurprisingly, many states have not played along. 35 states plus the District of Columbia either have no youth minimum wage exemption or have a more limited one than what the federal government allows. In an era of slow wage growth, many of these states have opted to raise their minimum wages, and its likely many more will. In order to mitigate the worst effects of these government-imposed wage floors, states should follow the federal governments lead and allow young people to work for a lower wage. Congress should also consider expanding the youth minimum wage program, since its usage has been quite limited. More specifically, the 90-day limit on employment should be repealed. Employers may be reluctant to take advantage of the youth minimum wage if they must give all workers a 71 percent pay bump after just three months on the job. In a new report for the Manhattan Institute, I estimate the employment effects of expanding the youth minimum wage. If all states adopt a youth minimum wage rate of $4.25 per hour and Congress abolishes the 90-day time limit, the economy could generate a maximum of 450,000 new jobs for young people increasing their employment by nearly 9 percent. Like all estimates, this is contingent on various assumptions. But in all likelihood the job-creation numbers would at least be in the hundreds of thousands. The campaigners behind state-level minimum wage increases should consider devoting some of their energies to the inclusion of youth minimum wage provisions in this falls ballot initiatives. The youth minimum wage wont solve the youth employment crisis on its own. But we can start turning the tide of policy towards the interests of young people, who desperately need a lifeline in this slow economic recovery. This column originally appeared at RealClearPolicy. Preston Cooper is a policy analyst at the Manhattan Institute and the author of the new report, Reforming the U.S. Youth Minimum Wage. Interested in real economic insights? Want to stay ahead of the competition? Each weekday morning, E21 delivers a short email that includes E21 exclusive commentaries and the latest market news and updates from Washington. Sign up for the E21 Morning Ebrief. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} An elderly couple who were married for over 60 years died less than half an hour apart in the same room, and held hands with each other through their final minutes. On 31 July Henry and Jeanette De Lange both died at a nursing home in Platte, South Dakota, after sharing 63 years of marriage and raising five children together. Mrs De Lange, 87, died first after suffering from Alzheimers disease for over five years, having moved into the home in 2011. Meanwhile Mr De Lange, 86, a veteran of the Korean war, had developed prostate cancer and requested to be moved into the same home to be near his wife. The couple died 20 minutes apart, with Mr De Lange continuing to hold onto his wifes hand until the end and briefly opening his eyes to look at his partner of over six decades. The couples son Lee De Lange said the family saw the event as a beautiful act of Gods providential love and mercy, according to broadcaster KSFY. You dont pray for it because it seems mean but you couldnt ask for anything more beautiful, he continued. Dad visited mom once a day, twice, or maybe three times a day. It was very sweet. 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 My brother Keith said to my dad, said 'mom's gone to heaven. You don't have to fight anymore, you can go too if you want'. He was laying in bed. He, for the first time, opened his eyes, looked intently over where mom was. Closed his eyes back down. He laid back down, died about 5 or 10 minutes after that. The couples joint funeral will be held on Monday in their hometown of Platte, attended by members of their local community. What's your biggest regret? In July this year, George and Ora Lee Rodriguez from San Antonio died a few hours apart, having been husband and wife for over 58 years. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Thousands of people are still stranded, a day after Delta flights were grounded by a power cut. Another 300 flights had to be cancelled on Tuesday, as the airline tried to catch up with a ripple effect spread through its network by 1000 cancellations and 2800 delays in the preceding 24 hours. FlightStats, a flight tracking services, tallied almost another 600 delayed flights as Delta tried to help out tens of thousands of passengers whose travel plans were disrupted. The airline has apologised to passengers and offered refunds and $200 in travel vouchers to people affected. Airport check-in systems, the airline's website and smartphone apps were all affected by the systems failure, blamed on a power failure nears its Atlanta headquarters, that caused its computer systems to crash. More than 1,000 people spent the night at Narita airport outside Tokyo because of the shutdown and, while flights were resuming Tuesday, Delta spokeswoman Hiroko Okada said more delays were expected. Delta CEO apologises to customers Other passengers said the airline should have kept passengers better informed. By the time I showed up at the gate the employees were already disgruntled, and it was really difficult to get anybody to speak to me or get any information, said Ashley Roache, whose flight from Lexington, Kentucky, to New York's LaGuardia Airport was delayed. The company could have done a better job of explaining ... what was happening. The disruption was so widespread that at one point on Monday, the airline warned travellers that information on its website, its app, and even given by its own employees in airports, may be outdated. Trebor Banstetter, Delta spokesman, told the Associated Press that after the power cut, key systems and network equipment did not switch to backups. The investigation continues, but he added that there was no evidence the problem was caused by hackers or an intentional breach. Delta Air is the third-largest airline in the world by number of passengers carried, with 138.8 million travelers last year, according to industry group IATA, behind American Airlines and Southwest. Airlines. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The grieving parents of two Americans killed in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012 have filed suit against Hillary Clinton suggesting a link between the tragedy and her use of a personal email server. Filed by Patricia Smith, who delivered an emotional denunciation of Ms Clinton at the Republican convention three weeks ago, and another bereaved parent, Charles Woods, the suit uses recent statements by the FBI to pin blame on the former Secretary of State for the attacks. Both the plaintiffs offspring, Sean Smith and Tyrone Woods, were working at the US consular complex in Benghazi in September 2012 when it was overrun. They also claim in the suit that they have been victims of a defamation campaign by Ms Clinton. When the attack happened, the White House and the State Department at first suggested it was a spontaneous riot caused by a YouTube video insulting Islam. It quickly became clear it was a terror attack, however. Also killed was the US Ambassador, Christopher Stevens. Ms Clintons run for the presidency has been buffeted both by the fall-out from Benghazi tragedy and the discovery that she improperly used a private email server when she was Secretary of State in the first term of President Barack Obama. On Monday, Donald Trump made a somewhat similar run at Ms Clintons email mess, saying it may have contributed to the execution by Iran of a nuclear scientist. Ms Clinton has been cleared of criminal wrongdoing in both the Benghazi and email affairs. But last month the director of the FBI, James Comer, while withholding from recommending any charges, did note that Ms Clinton had been guilty of extreme carelessness in the email case. It was that allegation, as well as Mr Comers acknowledgement that the use of a private server could have made any emails to or from Ms Clinton, then Secretary of State, vulnerable to hacking by foreign powers, that forms the basis of the lawsuit against her. The Benghazi attack was directly and proximately caused, at a minimum by defendant Clinton's 'extreme carelessness' in handling confidential and classified information, such as the location of State Department employees in Libya, the lawsuit said. At its most tendentious, the lawsuit calls it highly possible that Ms Clinton sent or received information pertaining to the movements of Ambassador Stevens. While no evidence is offered, the implication is that information hacked from her emails helped the Benghazi attackers. The Clinton campaign has shot back, noting that the plaintiffs are being represented by Larry Klayman of Washington DC, a well-known conservative agitator, who, it said, has been unsuccessfully attacking the Clintons for decades. While no one can imagine the pain of the families of the brave Americans we lost at Benghazi, there have been nine different investigations into this attack and none found any evidence whatsoever of any wrongdoing on the part of Hillary Clinton, a spokesman added. The only back-up that Mr Trump offered for his notion that hacked Clinton emails may have contributed to the Irans execution of its scientist, Shahram Amiri, was that lots of other people had connected the same dots. Many people are saying that the Iranians killed the scientist who helped the US because of Hillary Clinton's hacked emails, Mr Trump said in a Twitter message. The claim by the Benghazi plaintiffs that they had been defamed by Ms Clinton appeared to rest on her campaigns dismissal of some of what was said by Ms Smith on stage at the Republican convention. It notably included the contention that Ms Clinton was directly responsible for her sons death. I blame Hillary Clinton personally for the death of my son, Ms Smith said. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Gretchen Carlson was not the only former Fox News anchor to accuse former CEO and chairman Roger Ailes of sexual harassment, as other women came forward, including Megyn Kelly and Andrea Tantaros. But now Shelley Ross, once one of the most powerful women in television news, has described in a powerful essay for The Daily Beast how Mr Ailes proposed that the pair engaged in a sexual alliance as he was offering her a job at NBC to ensure her loyalty. "When did you first discover you were sexy?" he asked her over lunch in the early 1980s. Recommended Read more Roger Ailes resigns as Fox News chair amid sexual harassment scandal She said she was embarrassed and instructed her lawyer to call off negotiations. Mr Ailes was then forced to apologise for his behaviour as senior lawyers, including the same lawyer representing Frank Sinatra, learned of the incident and called him to say he had a girl-boy problem. She said Mr Ailes, who was forced to resign shortly after the news of Ms Carlsons lawsuit broke, could not be painted with one brushstroke. He was also the man, she said, who sent her and her husband a basket of pasta and sauces when he learnt she was diagnosed with cancer. He reportedly alternately cheered her successes and consoled her losses throughout her 17-year career at ABC News. Mr Ailes has denied any wrongdoing in the case of Gretchen Carlson or the other women who have since come forward. Roger Ailes, former CEO and chairman of Fox News She pointed to former Fox News booker Laurie Luhn, who allegedly had sexual relations with Mr Ailes over two decades and received a good salary in exchange for arranging private meetings with him and other women staffers. "While Roger walked away with a reported $40+ million severance, she says she wound up in a mental hospital after trying to commit suicide," Ms Ross wrote. She added there was not only one "villain", and pointed out other anchors, producers, executives and chat show hosts, including David Letterman, who allegedly gave special treatment to the many staffers he had sex with. Mr Letterman could not be immediately reached for comment. The countries with anti-women laws Show all 5 1 /5 The countries with anti-women laws The countries with anti-women laws The countries with anti-women laws The countries with anti-women laws The countries with anti-women laws The countries with anti-women laws The Primetime Live executive producer suffered more sexism throughout her own career, including being presented with a birthday cake with a penis on top from a circle of mostly male executives, and her colleague reportedly grabbing her buttocks as he greeted her at after-work drinks. "Sexual harassment in network (and cable) television has prevailed for decades. It has many faces, genders, and legions of enablers. No one had yet nailed the pervasiveness, the bigotry, the diminishing and oppression of over half the population in the workplace," she wrote. "No one has nailed the ideas lost, the creativity missing, the damage done." Ms Ross wrote about how her stories brought change. Her television expose of sexual harassment and assault against women at the annual Navy party forced the resignation of George H W Bushs navy secretary. She also fought for men, helping to ban a so-called "hazing" ritual where new Marine Corps members were stripped naked, bound with duct tape and hosed with human and animal waste. She said her idea to solve sexual harassment was to have something in every workplace similar to the post-apartheid South African Truth and Reconciliation Commissions, where victims and perpetrators were invited to give testimony and request amnesty from prosecution. She added she was not comparing racism in South Africa to workplace sexism, but said Nelson Mandelas mechanism could be applied more widely, instead of using non-disclosure agreements and legal settlements which, she said, helped perpetrators to avoid being exposed. "This bold way forward is, admittedly, an ambitious template to fulfill a similar promise in the American workplace," she wrote. "But its clear that executives have failed to police their own staffs, as have human resources departments." Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Amid the controversy stirred up during the election campaign about immigrants and immigration, an investigation was taken to find out which states had the most positive - and least positive - things to say about refugees. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) and the apartment search site ABODO, have now released the findings of their analysis based on sentiments expressed on Twitter. Now that we know officially who our two candidates are for president, it is important that both know where Americans stand when it comes to their views on refugees, said the IRCs Jennifer Sime. America has a proud history of protecting, providing refuge for, and welcoming the worlds most vulnerable, and this new research overwhelmingly reinforces and supports that tradition. The five states exhibiting the most positive sentiments toward refugees were identified as Washington, Maine, Utah, Kansas and New Hampshire. The states with the least positive sentiments were Mississippi, Arkansas, Wyoming, New Mexico and Alaska. The issue of immigration has become heated during the election campaign, with a number of leading Republicans calling for tough restrictions. Donald Trump, who eventually became the Republican candidate, has spoken of rapists and murderers entering the US from Mexico and has vowed to build a wall. Desperate Journeys: 4,027 refugees drown so far this year Mr Trump also called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the US. While the US has committed only to allow 10,000 refugees from Syria, a number of Republican-controlled states refused to provide facilities for them. The analysis measured sentiment towards refugees expressed on Twitter (IRC) Yet the IRC said that it was important to note that no state earned a negative score, suggesting that support for refugees is strong even in those states with lower scores. Sam Radbil of ABODO said: The United States has provided relief for millions who have been forced to leave their homes in war-torn countries. He added: We believe that people throughout America can and will benefit from accepting refugees into their cities and neighborhoods. The research analysed dialogue on Twitter, including hashtags such as #RefugeesWelcome and #OpenBorders, to reveal positive and negative sentiments occurring at the state level. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A woman visiting SeaWorld was taken by surprise when a dolphin lunged out of its watery enclosure to grab her iPad. The visitor had taken out her device to snap a picture of the dolphins, which were swimming close by the barrier of their pool. One dolphin then raised itself out of the water to grab the iPad, and it fell into the water. The woman quickly reached into the enclosure to snatch it back. The dolphins splashed the tourists standing around the pool for good measure. Tori Cullins, founder and president of The Wild Dolphin Foundation in Hawaii, said the dolphin reaching for the iPad is evidence that the animal is exhibiting abnormal behaviour in an enclosure. "It wouldnt do something like that in the wild," she told The Independent. "In enclosures they definitely lack stimulation and being able to swim in the whole ocean, to hunt and have family ties." If a dolphin does interact with human beings in the wild, it is usually because that animal has been cast off from its pod, she said. "Dolphins are very protective of their skin, its their largest sensory organ," she explained. "They can feel the water pressure on them and thats how theyre able to act in tandem with other dolphins. the water pressure means they can all move as one. The fact that this animal would risk hurting or scratching its skin is abnormal." A spokeswoman for SeaWorld said in a statement to The Independent that "nothing is more important" than the safety of guests and employees and the welfare of their animals. "Educators and animal trainers are on-site at SeaWorlds Dolphin Cove, and provide instructions to guests regarding how to interact with our dolphins," it read. "Dolphins are naturally inquisitive, which is why we inform our guests to keep personal items such as iPads, cameras, jewelry and other objects away from the edge of the pool. Neither the guest nor the dolphin were at harm and we continue to communicate clearly with guests during their encounters to ensure everyone has safe and memorable experiences with our animals." SeaWorld and other venues have come under increasing pressure from animal rights campaigners regarding the captivity of animals such as dolphins and orca whales. SeaWorld announced that it would end its controversial orca whale breeding program, and its 24 whales in California, Florida and Texas will be the last generation of orcas. Monday 8th August marked the 46th year that an orca whale called Lolita has spent in captivity at Miami Seaquarium. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} More than six million people in the US are drinking water contaminated with unsafe levels of chemicals linked to cancer, obesity and other conditions, according to a new study by Harvard University researchers. The chemicals polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl, commonly referred to as PFASs, are used in a vast range of consumer products, from leather to food packaging and from non-stick pan coating to fire-fighting foam. Long-term exposure to such substances is thought to lead to a higher risk of kidney cancer, high cholesterol and thyroid problems. Researchers from Harvards public health and engineering and applied sciences schools found levels of PFASs beyond what is considered safe by the US government in multiple sources of public drinking water across 33 states. The researchers analysed concentrations of PFASs from more than 36,000 drinking water samples collected between 2013 and 2015. Of the 4,864 water sources studied, 66 threw up at least one sample containing more than 70 parts per trillion of two types of PFASs the safety limit set by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Those 66 water sources supply some six million consumers in total. Some locations were more affected than others: the water in Warminster, Pennsylvania had levels of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) almost five times higher than the EPA safety limit. In Newark, Delaware, the levels of perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) in the drinking water supply were 25 times higher than the agency deems safe. The study was published on Tuesday in Environmental Science and Technology Letters. Virtually all Americans are exposed to these compounds, its lead author, Xindi Hu, told the Washington Post. They never break down. Once they are released into the environment, they are there. The study found PFASs in 194 water supplies in total, with 75 per cent of those cases occurring in just 13 states: California, New Jersey, North Carolina, Alabama, Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, Georgia, Minnesota, Arizona, Massachusetts and Illinois. Its authors warned, however, that data is only available for approximately two-thirds of the US, meaning drinking water supplies for some 100 million people remained unanalysed. The US government does not regulate PFASs, though they do appear only on an EPA list of unregulated contaminants for which the agency attempts to maintain safe levels. The news comes in the wake of the drinking water scandal in Flint, Michigan, where authorities began using drinking water from the Flint River in 2014 in a bid to save money, exposing up to 12,000 children to potentially life-threatening levels of lead. Elsie Sutherland, one of the senior authors of the Harvard study, said in a statement that the PFAS compounds were potent immunotoxicants in children, meaning they could prevent the immune system from successfully battling infectious diseases or cancer. She added: Recent work suggests drinking water safety levels should be much lower than the provisional guidelines established by EPA." Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} On Monday afternoon, Timea Lashay Batts caught the bus home after her first day of middle school. The 11-year-old with twotone hair and a bright smile left the bus and began to walk through her quiet neighborhood of Hendersonville, Tenn. By the time she reached her own house, however, Timea somehow had been shot, her dad told police. He took his daughter to the hospital but it was too late. Recommended Read more US cities tackle gun crime with cash incentives Timea was dead. The bizarre shooting left police and local media searching for answers. Authorities initially said they had no suspects and few clues aside from the fathers account. Detectives tell us they believe the child may have been shot somewhere between getting off the bus and walking home, which is only a few feet apart, reported News Channel 5. Neighbours were baffled. Im shocked. Im just totally shocked, Sean Stover told the Tennessean. Why would anybody shoot an 11-year-old? Louise Gray told Channel 5. She couldnt be involved in nothing cause shes too young. As the night drew on, however, the mysterious killing of Timea Batts took several more turns. At around 1 am, authorities announced they had made an arrest. Police did not immediately identify the shooting victim but Sumner County Schools announced Monday evening it was grieved to learn of the tragic loss of one of our sixth grade students, Timea Lashay Batts. Timea was a bright and kind girl who was well loved by her classmates and teachers, the school district said in a statement. She will be greatly missed at Knox Doss Middle School at Drakes Creek. Timea lived with her father, his partner and Timeas two younger siblings, according to authorities. Her house sat on the corner of Shady View Drive, a quaint street lined with minivans and closely cut lawns. Monday was Timeas first day at Knox, which serves sixth, seventh and eighth grades. A photo circulating on social media Monday night showed a girl identified as Timea in a striped dress with a backpack and a broad smile, seemingly on her way to school. School officials said the girl was fine when she got off the bus Monday afternoon. The incident did not occur on the bus or at the bus stop, the district said in its statement. When police spoke to Timeas father at the hospital, Timothy Batts told them his daughter was injured before she got home. The father said the child came in after school and said shed been shot, Hendersonville police Det Sgt Jim Vaughn told the Tennessean shortly after the shooting. Operating on that information, authorities scoured Shady View Drive for clues, stringing up crime scene tape between mailboxes as they searched for evidence of a shooting outside the house. They found none, according to Vaughn. How President Obama's reaction has changed to mass shootings in the last four years Neighbours said they didnt hear any gunshots, Fox 17 reported. We dont really have any suspects right now, Mr Vaughn told the Tennessean, adding that there was no sign anyone else was in danger. Right now, were just trying to find out what happened to the little girl. When asked if Timea could have shot herself somehow, Vaughn replied: We have no facts right now. We havent been inside the house. Police were waiting on a judge to sign a search warrant before entering, he explained. When the warrant finally arrived, the case took a sudden twist. At around 9:30 pm, Mr Vaughn told reporters he no longer thought the shooting happened outside Timeas house. The evidence tells me that it happened inside, he said. At first you told us it appeared if she had been shot walking from the school bus to the home, one reporter asked as she filmed the detective on her phone. Were you given false information? We were told that the incident took place from the bus to the house, somewhere along the way, he answered. We dont know if that was mostly false yet or not. Less than four hours later, Timeas father was under arrest. Timothy Batts was charged with reckless homicide, tampering with evidence, false reporting and possessing a firearm as a felon, Fox 17 reported. His bond and court date have not yet been set. Despite the arrest, mystery still shrouds the slaying of Timea Batts. How did an 11-year-old girl home from her first day of school end up dead? And why? She was not ready to leave this earth, Justin Mathes, a 17-year-old who rode the bus with Timea, told the Tennessean. She hasnt experienced high school or gotten her first car. There was so much more for her to experience. Copyright: Washington Post Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} If it was a joke, nobody laughed very loudly. In comments that once again placed him at the centre of fresh controversy, Donald Trump appeared on Tuesday to suggest that if Hillary Clinton was elected president, the only way to stop her choosing liberal Supreme Court justices would be to shoot her. Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish the Second Amendment, he said, referring to the piece of legislation that gun rights activists claim gives them the right to bear weapons. If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the second amendment people, maybe there is. Mr Trump was speaking in North Carolina (AP) Mr Trumps comment came during a rally in Wilmington, Delaware, and was immediately seized on by commentators as the latest example of the New York tycoons offhand language, and willingness to step beyond well beyond what would be considered normal during an election campaign. As Mr Trump and his supporters sought to defuse the incident and insist he was merely talking about gun rights activists voting for him rather than Ms Clinotn, the Secret Service, which is responsible for the security of the president - as well as the two presidentiall candidates - said it was "aware" of the tycoon's comments. Two weeks ago the Republican candidate sparked huge controversy when he called on Russia to hack into Ms Clintons emails. The following day, amid outcry from people across the political spectrum, Mr Trump said he was simply joking. 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 On, Tuesday after, Ms Clinton's responded to Mr Trump's comments, saying it was proof of his unsuitability for the office. "This is simple - what Trump said was dangerous. A person seeking to the president of the US should not be suggesting violence in any way," said a spokesperson. The comments came one day after 50 senior Republican national officials published a public letter in which they said Mr Trump was inappropriate to occcupy the White House. From a foreign policy perspective, Donald Trump is not qualified to be president and commander-in-chief, said the letter. Indeed, we are convinced he would be a dangerous president. Among those who signed the high profile people to sign the letter was Gen Michael Hayden, former director of CIA and National Security Agency. On Tuesday, Mr Hayden said on CNN he was startled by Mr Trump's latest comment. He said it was either a "very bad taste" joke about political assassination, or simply an indication of Mr Trump's insensitivity to the prevalanance of assassination in American politics, "and that is something we never come close to". Mr Trump's campaign later rejected that the tycoon was doing anything more than calling for supporters of the Second Amendment to rally around him. Its called the power of unification 2nd Amendment people have amazing spirit and are tremendously unified, which gives them great political power, Jason Miller, the campaigns senior communications adviser, said in a statement. And this year, they will be voting in record numbers, and it wont be for Hillary Clinton, it will be for Donald Trump. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Further horrific details have emerged of the circumstances surrounding the death of a ten-year-old boy who was killed after riding on the worlds tallest water slide. Witnesses said Caleb Schwab, the son of a Kansas politician, was decapitated when he flew off the slide and hit a safety net on the 168-foot-tall Verruckt ride at Schlitterbahn Waterpark. Esteban Castaneda, who was at the Kansas City attraction on Sunday, said he heard loud booms coming from the side of the ride before noticing a body washing down after a raft. Boy dies on 'world's biggest waterslide' at Kansas park Mr Castaneda told ABC News that he noticed a lifeguard was trying to push the crowd back from the slide, but he continued to try to help because he thought there was someone lying face down in the water. The lifeguard told Mr Castaneda there was nothing he could do to help. It was at that point that he noticed the boy appeared to have been decapitated. Mr Castaneda said two other women were strapped into the raft, and the first position of the raft was empty. Mr Castaneda said he had taken a ride on the slide earlier in the day with his cousin's 14-year-old daughter. She had told him that her safety belts Velcro came undone toward the end of her ride. Mr Castanedas wife, Leslie, told The Kansas City Star she had seen the blood-streaked ride shortly after the incident and the boys family gathered nearby. I saw his brother. He was screaming, she said. Im really having a tough time with it. I really am. She said the boys brother, who had witnessed the incident, told a theme-park worker: I just saw my little brother die because of one of your attractions. Kansas Police said its major case unit was investigating how the youngster died on the Verruckt attraction, which opened in July 2014 and was certified as the worlds tallest water slide by Guinness World Records. A spokesman for the resort in a statement that safety was always a major concern. We are deeply and intensely saddened for the Schwab Family and all who were impacted by the tragic accident on the Verruckt water slide at Schlitterbahn Kansas City on Sunday afternoon, the statement said. The family and each and every one of those affected are foremost on our minds and in our hearts today. We ask the community to please keep all of those impacted in your thoughts and prayers. It added that all rides are inspected daily before the park opens. Safety is our top priority at Schlitterbahn. If you love Airbnb and live in New York, get ready for some major changes that could spread across the rest of the country. Since 2010, it has been illegal to rent out an entire apartment for a period of fewer than 30 days in New York. But to a large extent, home sharers and customers have worked around or ignored this law, and continued enjoying the benefits of short-term rentals. However, a new law awaiting Governor Andrew Cuomos signature would strengthen the existing regulations by making it illegal to advertise such dwellingsending a major share of Airbnbs operations in the city. Hotel unions, led by the AFL-CIO-affiliated New York Hotel and Motel Trade Council, are backing the bill. They argue that Airbnb is a threat to good-paying union hotel jobs in New York City and around the country. Perhaps theyre rightbut this does not justify the government providing preferential treatment to protect an older industry. Despite the unions fearmongering, the data clearly indicate the overall hotel industry is managing just fine. According to STR, a leading company in hotel market research, 2015 was the best year on record for the hotel industrysetting records for both supply and demand. The average daily rate for rooms also grew at a rate 2.5 times higher than its long-run average. It is true that in the second quarter of 2016, New York Citys hotel industry saw its leading performance indicator, revenue per available room (RevPAR), drop by 3.1 percent. But home sharing is not a major reason for this decrease. Between 2010 and 2015, the supply of hotel rooms grew 21 percent in New York City, which has shifted the supply and demand equilibrium of the market. Despite the drop in RevPAR, hotels are still being built in New York City13,583 rooms are under construction in 2016. Lackluster international tourism, led by the weak global economy, has also negatively affected New York hotels. A slight decrease in the hotel industrys revenue is by no means adequate justification to place burdensome regulations on home sharing. Even leaders of major hotel chains seem to have accepted the permanent market shifts caused by Airbnb. Christopher Nassetta, president and CEO of Hilton Worldwide, the third largest international hotel chain, states he does not believe that they (Airbnb) are a major threat to the core value proposition we have. Nassetta views home sharing as a segment unto itself and believes Airbnb cannot compete with the amenities and services medium- and high-end hotels provide. Nassetta is not alone in his feelings toward home sharing. Arne Sorenson, CEO of Marriott International, admits Airbnb can do things we cant do, such as providing a more local and immersive experience for guests. Sorenson also argues that traditional hotels can compete with Airbnb with a greater sense of design, greater emotional connection with our customers, and really get them to go back and say, you know, I love that new hotel. This is how the market should workrather than fighting for preferential treatment, companies compete by trying to provide superior value. Hotel companies are also trying to cash in on the growing vacation rental market that home sharing has dominated. In early 2016, Choice Hotels, the fourth largest U.S hotel company, with brands such as Comfort Inn, Cambria Hotel and Suites, and Sleep Inn, expanded their operations to vacation rentalsmoving the chain into more direct competition with Airbnb. CEO Stephen Joyce explained the decision by saying, We think we can provide something Airbnb doesnt have and that is assurances you will be dealt with professionally by a professional company that does that for a living. With more choices, there is greater chance consumers can find a location that is optimal to their preference. These companies embrace the new economy and changing consumer preferences instead of calling upon their legislators to outlaw competition. The hotel union bases its opposition to Airbnb on the fixed pie fallacy. It believes every guest using a home-sharing platform is one fewer guest for hotels. In reality, Airbnb expands the pie by offering options across a wide spectrum of prices, which allows people to visit cities they previously could not afford. Hotel unions look to the government for protection. On the other hand, hotel presidents are adapting and working to capture this new market to ensure the long-term health of their businesses. While protecting jobs is a valid concern held by unions, legislation against home sharing would adversely affect the income of Airbnbs thousands of New York City hosts. Before the emergence of these online platforms, renting your home was difficult since there was not an efficient way to connect potential guests and those willing to rent out their houses. Now property owners can easily earn extra income simply for hosting guests in unused property. The typical hosts in New York City earn approximately $5,500 per year by sharing their home. Laws against home sharing would deprive these people of this additional income. With 51,000 guests stating they would not have visited the city without Airbnb, according to a study commissioned by Airbnb, hosts are not the only beneficiaries of home sharing. Furthermore, Airbnb states that its New York City guests stay longer and as a result spend, on average, spend $290 more on local businesses when compared to hotel guests. Even without the Airbnb study, we know that since many Airbnb properties are located outside traditional hotel districts, guests boost the economy of historically less-visited neighborhoods. New Yorks anti-Airbnb bill could cause New Yorkers to lose out on $500 million of revenue. Governor Cuomo and New York legislators should realize the negative effects from limiting competition and choose to embrace an open market for home sharing. With the nationwide hotel industry setting record numbers in 2015 and continuing to grow, the unions stubborn opposition should be ignored. Innovation that presents more choices to consumers should be championed, not banned. Shane Otten is an E21 contributor. Interested in real economic insights? Want to stay ahead of the competition? Each weekday morning, E21 delivers a short email that includes E21 exclusive commentaries and the latest market news and updates from Washington. Sign up for the E21 Morning Ebrief. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A baby in Texas has died from complications caused by the Zika virus, according to health officials, making it the first infant known to have died in the US from problems related to the disease. The baby was infected in the womb when her mother travelled to an area of Latin America infected with the virus. Dr Umair Shah, executive director of Harris County Public Health, said the baby died a few weeks ago and had microcephaly linked to the virus. He said the presence of virus was confirmed on Friday and that the mother had visited El Salvador while pregnant. The death will intensify concerns about the spread of the virus, which is thought to have infected mosquitoes in Florida, causing at least 15 human cases. Hillary Clinton is due to visit the affected Miami neighbourhood and will call on Congress to pass emergency funding for the Zika response. Washington's politicians have gone on holiday without approving any of the $1.9 billion that President Barack Obama requested in February to develop a vaccine and control the mosquitoes that carry the virus. So far, however, most American citizens with the virus have been infected while travelling overseas. Texas has reported 99 cases of Zika virus disease, including two infants with microcephaly - born with abnormally small heads - from Harris County. Dr John Hellerstedt, Texas Department of State Health Services commissioner, said: Zikas impact on unborn babies can be tragic, and our hearts are with this family. Our central mission from the beginning has been to do everything we can to protect unborn babies from the devastating effects of Zika. The only other Zika-related death confirmed in the US was an elderly man from Utah who died in June. He also suffered from other health conditions. Health officials say there have been no reported cases of Zika virus disease transmitted by mosquitoes in Texas. Team GB talk Zika The presence of the virus in Brazil has cast a shadow over the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games, with a number of competitors refusing to travel to the country. This week, Marco Rubio, Florida senator, sparked a backlash when he said that pregnant women with Zika should not be allowed abortions. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Japan has warned China on ties are deteriorating over disputed East China Sea islets, and China's envoy in Tokyo reiterated Beijing's stance that the specks of land were its territory and called for talks to resolve the dispute. The diplomatic tussle comes amid simmering tension as China builds on outposts in the contested South China Sea, including what appear to be reinforced aircraft hangars, according to new satellite images. Ties between Asia's two largest economies have been strained in recent days since Japan saw a growing number of Chinese coastguard and other government ships sailing near the East China Sea islets, called the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. The flurry of Chinese incursions into the waters follows a period of sustained pressure on China over its activities in the South China Sea, and China's criticism of what it sees as Japanese interference in that dispute. Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida called in Chinese ambassador Cheng Yonghua for the second time since Friday and told him China was trying to change the status quo unilaterally, the Japanese foreign ministry said. Mr Kishida told Cheng the environment surrounding Sino-Japanese ties was deteriorating markedly, the ministry said. The Chinese diplomat said after the meeting that he had told Mr Kishida the islands, which are controlled by Japan, were an integral part of China's territory and the dispute should be resolved through dialogue. I told him ... it is natural that Chinese ships conduct activity in the waters, Mr Cheng said. Dozens of Chinese vessels sailed near the islands on the weekend raising alarm in Japan. Mr Cheng was called in by Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Shinsuke Sugiyama last Friday over the incursions into what Japan see as its territorial waters. The United States, its Southeast Asian allies and Japan have questioned Chinese land reclamation on contested islands in the South China Sea, particularly since an international court rejected China's historic claims to most of that sea last month. China has refused to recognise the court ruling on a case brought by the Philippines. Japan called on China to adhere to it, saying it was binding, but Beijing responded by warning Japan not to interfere. Satellite images taken in late July over the South China Sea show that hangars constructed on Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief Reefs in the Spratly islands, have room for any fighter jet in the Chinese air force, the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said. The think-tank said in a report there was little evidence that China had deployed military aircraft to the outposts, but the rapid construction of reinforced hangars suggested that was likely to change. They are far thicker than you would build for any civilian purpose, Gregory Poling, director of CSIS's Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, told the New York Times, which first reported on the new images. They're reinforced to take a strike. A US navy commander said it had not been confirmed that the hangers were for military use, but uncertainty about them could add to tension. That increases the angst and the uncertainty, that lack of transparency, and that is generally destabilising as opposed to a stabilising action, US Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Scott Swift told reporters on a visit to the Chinese port city of Qingdao. China claims most of the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims. The United States has urged China and other claimants not to militarize their holdings there, prompting repeated denials from China that it is doing so. Instead, China has blamed US patrols and exercises for ramping up tension. China has indisputable sovereignty over the Spratly islands and nearby waters, China's Defence Ministry said in a response to a request for comment on Tuesday. China has said many times, construction on the Spratly islands and reefs is multipurpose, mixed, and with the exception of necessary military defensive requirements, are more for serving all forms of civil needs, it said. Former Philippines President Fidel Ramos said he was optimistic about what he has described as an ice-breaking trip to Hong Kong during which he hoped to meet experts and officials in an effort to rekindle ties with China soured by the dispute. The idea is to use the South China Sea as a place to save lives, but not to kill people or to destroy lives, he told reporters. Separately, relations between China and another US ally, South Korea, have been strained in recent days by a decision by South Korea and the United States to deploy an advanced anti-missile defence system, to guard against North Korean attacks, that China fears could be used against its military. Reuters For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A suicide attack on a hospital in Quetta, which killed at least 70 people and wounded more than 100, has renewed the debate over how the West mourns certain tragedies. The bomber struck on Monday as a crowd of mourners, mostly lawyers and journalists, gathered to accompany the body of Bilal Anwar Kasi, a prominent lawyer who was shot and killed earlier on Monday. At least 70 people were killed and more than 112 wounded, Abdul Rehman Miankhel, a senior official at the government-run Civil Hospital, where the explosion occurred, told reporters. "There are many wounded, so the death toll could rise," Rehmat Saleh Baloch, the provincial health minister, said. Both Isis and a faction of the Pakistani Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack. After the bombing many people took to social media to lament the amount of attention the attack received. In pictures: Pakistan hospital attack Show all 10 1 /10 In pictures: Pakistan hospital attack In pictures: Pakistan hospital attack A man reacts after his relative was killed in a bomb blast in restive Quetta EPA In pictures: Pakistan hospital attack Residents light candles to honour victims of the blast in Quetta during a candellight vigil in Peshawar Reuters In pictures: Pakistan hospital attack People carry the coffin of a victim of suicide bomb attack at a hospital for burial in Quetta REUTERS In pictures: Pakistan hospital attack Pakistani victims injured in a suicide bombing are treated at a hospital in Quetta AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Pakistan hospital attack A lawyer who was injured in a bomb blast wait to receive medical treatment in restive Quetta EPA In pictures: Pakistan hospital attack A doctor treats an injured lawyer at the scene of a bomb blast in restive Quetta EPA In pictures: Pakistan hospital attack People comfort a man mourning the death of a family member who was killed in suicide bombing, at a funeral in Quetta AP In pictures: Pakistan hospital attack People transfer an injured man from the blast site in Quetta Rex Features In pictures: Pakistan hospital attack Pakistani security officials and lawyers gather around the bodies of victims killed in a bomb explosion at a government hospital premises in Quetta AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Pakistan hospital attack The scene following a bomb blast outside a hospital in Quetta Naseer Ahmed/Reuters Some asked why the world wasn't showing solidarity with Pakistan, as it has with other countries that have recently suffered terror attacks. Others expressed their solidarity by posting on Twitter using the #PrayForPakistan hashtag. The Pakistani bar association has called for lawyers to boycott courts in an unusual strike against the attack. Schools and markets were closed in Quetta, also in protest over the attack In Islamabad, lawyers lined up outside the Supreme Court under tight security to offer funeral prayers for those killed in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province. Pakistani security officials and lawyers gather around the bodies of victims killed in a bomb explosion at a government hospital premises in Quetta on 8 August, 2016. (AFP/Getty Images) Isis' Amaq news agency reported the terror group was behind the atrocity. If true, it would mark an alarming development for Pakistan, which has been long plagued by mostly locally-based Islamist militant violence. "A martyr from the Islamic State detonated his explosive belt at a gathering of justice ministry employees and Pakistani policemen in the city of Quetta," Amaq said in a statement. Jamaat-ur-Ahrar, a faction of the Pakistani Taliban, earlier said it had carried out the attack. The movement at one time swore fealty to Isis' Middle East leadership, but later switched back to the Taliban. "The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Jamaat-ur-Ahrar (TTP-JA) takes responsibility for this attack, and pledges to continue carrying out such attacks," spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said in a statement. Jamaat-ur-Ahrar was added to the US' list of global terrorists last week, triggering sanctions against the group. It remains unclear what ties Jamaat-ur-Ahrar retains to Isis, whose leadership is a rival to both the Taliban and al-Qaeda over claims to represent the true Islamic Caliphate. Isis' claim to have carried out the attack may have been opportunistic. The group has garnered some affiliate support in Pakistan, but so far it has not had any visible presence in the country. Residents light candles to honour victims of the blast in Quetta during a candellight vigil in Peshawar, Pakistan, 8 August, 2016 (Reuters) In September 2014, Jamaat-ur-Ahrar rejected the Pakistani Taliban during a leadership struggle and swore allegiance to Isis. By March 2015, however, the group was again swearing loyalty to the main Pakistani Taliban umbrella leadership. The reason for its return to the fold remains murky, but Jamaat-ur-Ahrar also never specifically disavowed Isis either. Timeline: The emergence of Isis Show all 40 1 /40 Timeline: The emergence of Isis Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2000 Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (pictured here) forms an al-Qaeda splinter group in Iraq, al-Qaeda in Iraq. Its brutality from the beginning alienates Iraqis and many al-Qaeda leaders. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2006 Al-Zarqawi is killed in a U.S. strike. Al-Zarqawis successor, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, announces the creation of the Islamic State in Iraq (ISI). Reuters Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2009 Still al-Qaeda-linked ISI claims responsibility for suicide bombings that killed 155 in Baghdad, as well as attacks in August and October killing 240, as President Obama announces troop withdrawal from Iraq in March. Getty Images Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2010 Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi becomes head of ISI, at lowest ebb of Islamist militancy in Iraq, which sees last U.S. combat brigade depart. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2012 In Syria, protests (pictured here starting in Daree) have morphed into what president Assad labelled a real war with emergence of a coalition of forces opposed to Assads regime. Syria group Jabhat al-Nusra are among rebel groups who refuse to join, denouncing it as a conspiracy. Bombings targeting Shia areas, killing more than 500 people, spark fears of new sectarian conflict. Sunni Muslims stage protests across country against what they see as increasingly marginalisation by Shia-led government. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2013 Al-Baghdadi renames ISI as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or Isis, as the group absorbs Syrian al-Nusra, gaining a foothold in Syria. In response, al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri (Bin Ladens successor) concerned about Isis expansion orders that Isis be dissolved and ISI operations should be confined to Iraq. This order is rejected by al-Baghdadi. AFP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - January Isis fighters capture the Iraqi cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, giving them base to launch slew of attacks further south. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - June Isis declares itself the Caliphate, calling itself Islamic State (IS). The group captures Mosul, Iraqs second largest city; Tal Afar, just 93 miles from Syrian border; and the central Iraqi city of Tikrit. These advances sent shockwaves around the world. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - June Around the same time Isis releases a video calling for western Muslims to join the Caliphate and fight, prompting new evaluations of extremists groups social media understanding. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - June Isis take Baiji oil fields in Iraq - giving them access to huge amounts of possible revenue. EPA Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - August James Foley is executed by the group as concerns grow for second American prisoner, fellow reporter Steven Sotloff. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - August Obama authorises U.S. airstrikes in Iraq, helping to stall Isis along with action by Kurdish forces following the deaths of hundreds of Yazidi people on Mount Sinjar. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - September Isis release video showing Steven Sotloffs murder prompting Western speculation his executioner is same man who killed Mr Foley. EPA Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - September Obama tells us that America will hunt down terrorists who threaten our country EPA Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - September Isis release a video appearing to show David Haines, who was captured by militants in Syria in 2013, wearing an orange jumpsuit and kneeling in the desert while he reads a pre-prepared script. It later shows what appears to be the aid worker's body. Rex Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - September Peshmerga fighters scrabble to hold positions in the Diyala province (a gateway to Baghdad) as Isis fighters continue to advance on Iraqi capital. AFP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - October Aid worker Alan Henning is killed. Self-imposed media blackout refuses to show images of him in final moments, instead focuses upon humanitarian care. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - October Isis raise their flag in Kobani, which had been strongly defended by Kurdish troops. The victory goes against hopeful western analysis Isis had overextended itself, while alienating much of the Muslim population through the murder of Henning. Victory causes fresh waves of Kurdish refugees arriving in Turkey. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - November American hostage, who embarced values of Islam, Peter Kassig and 14 Syrian soldiers are shown meeting the same fate as other captives. But intelligence agencies will be poring over the apparently significant discrepancies between this and previous films. Seramedig.org.uk Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February Isis has released a video revealing the murder by burning to death of a Jordanian pilot held by the group since the end of December 2014. Reuters Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February Isis militants have released videos which appear to show the beheading of Japanese hostages Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February American aid worker, Kayla Mueller was the last American hostage known to be held by Isis. She died, according to her captors, in an airstrike by the Jordanian air force on the city of Raqqa in Syria, though US authorities disputed this. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February Isis militants have posted a gruesome video online in which they force 21 Egyptian Coptic Christian hostages to kneel on a beach in Libya before beheading them. Egypt vowed to avenge the beheading and launched air strikes on Isis positions. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February The British Isis militant suspected of appearing in videos showing the beheading of Western hostages has been named in reports as Mohammed Emwazi from London. Rex Features Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - March Isis triple suicide attack has killed more than 100 worshippers and hundreds of others were injured after the group members targeted two mosques in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - April Iraqi forces have claimed victory over Isis in battle for Tikrit and raised the flag in the city. EPA/STR Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - April Isis has claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack in Afghanistan that killed at least 35 people queuing to collect their wages and injured 100 more. EPA Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - April Isis media arm released a 29-minute video purporting to show militants executing Ethiopian Christians captives. The footage bore the extremist groups al-Furqan media logo and showed the destruction of churches and desecration of religious symbols. A masked fighter made a statement threatening Christians who did not convert to Islam or pay a special tax. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Isis has been "incapacitated" by a spinal injuries sustained in a US air strike in Iraq. He is being treated in a hideout by two doctors from Isis stronghold of Mosul who are said to be "strong ideological supporters of the group". Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Isis has also claimed responsibility for killing 300 of Yazidi captives, including women, children and elderly people in Iraq AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Isis attack on Prophet Mohamed cartoon contest in Texas was its first action on US soil. Two gunmen were shot and killed after launching the attack at the exhibition. Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi have been named as the attackers at the Curtis Culwell Centre arena in Garland. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Isiss deputy leader, Abu Alaa Afri, a former physics teacher who was thought to have taken charge of the deadly terrorist group, has been killed in a US-led coalition airstrike. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May US special forces have killed a senior Isis leader named as Abu Sayyaf in an operation aiming to capture him and his wife in Syria. Getty Images Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Iran-backed militias are sent to Ramadi by the Iraqi government to fight Isis militants who completed their capture of the city. Government soldiers and civilians were reportedly massacred by extremists as they took control and the army fled. Charred bodies were left littering the city streets as troops clung on to trucks speeding away from the city. Ramadi is the latest government stronghold to fall to the so-called Islamic State, despite air strikes by a US-led international coalition aiming to stop its advance in Iraq and Syria. AFP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Isis rounded up civilians trapped in Palmyra and forced them to watch 20 people being executed in the historic citys ancient amphitheatre. The Unesco World Heritage site was overrun by militants, threatening the future of 2,000 year-old monuments and ruins. Thousands of Palmyras residents fled but many are still living within the city walls, while the UN human rights office in Geneva said it had received reports of Syrian government forces preventing people from leaving until they retreated from the city. Getty Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May A group of Isis-affiliated fighters have captured a key airport in central Libya. The militants took control of the al-Qardabiya airbase in Sirte after a local militia tasked with defending the facility withdrew from their positions. Affiliates of Isis, already control large parts of Sirte, the birthplace of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and a former stronghold of his supporters. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - June The US Air Force has destroyed an Isis stronghold after an extremist let slip their location on social media. According the Air Force Times, General Herbert "Hawk" Carlisle, commander of Air Combat Command, said that Airmen at Hulburt Field, Florida, used images shared by jihadists to track the location of their headquarters before destroying it in an airstrike. Reuters Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - June Kurdish forces captured a key military base in a significant victory in Raqqa as well as town of Tell Abyad. YPG fighters, backed by US-led airstrikes and other rebels, consolidated their gains, when they seized the key town on the Syria-Turkey border. They are now just 30 miles to the north of Raqqa and have cut off a major supply route deep inside Isis-held territory. Ahmet Silk/Getty Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - June Isis has released gruesome footage claiming to show the murder of more than a dozen men by drowning, decapitation and using a rocket-propelled grenade as it seeks to boost morale among its fanatical supporters. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - June Isis has begun carrying out its threat to destroy structures in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, blowing up at least two monuments at the Unesco-protected site as Syrian government troops made advances on the Islamists positions. AFP The motive behind the attack was unclear, but several lawyers have been targeted during a recent spate of killings in Quetta, the provincial capital of Baluchistan, which has a history of militant and separatist violence. The latest victim, Bilal Anwar Kasi, was shot and killed while on his way to the city's main court complex, senior police official Nadeem Shah told Reuters. He was the president of Baluchistan Bar Association. The subsequent suicide attack appeared to target his mourners, said Anwar ul Haq Kakar, a spokesman for the Baluchistan government. "It seems it was a pre-planned attack," he said. Ali Zafar, president of the Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan, told reporters in the eastern city of Lahore: "We [lawyers] have been targeted because we always raise our voice for people's rights and for democracy ... Lawyers will not just protest this attack but also prepare a long-term plan of action." Monday's attack was the deadliest in Pakistan since an Easter Day bombing ripped through a Lahore park, killing at least 72 people. Jamaat-ur-Ahrar also claimed responsibility for the bombing. Additional reporting by Reuters and Associated Press Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Norwegian officials have warned they could block any attempt by the UK to rejoin the European Free Trade Association after Brexit. Some Brexit supporters have suggested rejoining the Efta - which is made up of the non-member European countries with close links to the EU - would be a way for the UK to maintain its free trade links with the Europe while honouring its referendum commitment to leave. But joining the Efta requires the agreement of all its current members Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland - giving the Scandinavian nation a veto. Shortly after the vote on 23 June, Norways European affairs minister, Elisabeth Vik Aspaker, told the Aftenposten newspaper: Its not certain that it would be a good idea to let a big country into this organisation. It would shift the balance, which is not necessarily in Norways interests. Norway is currently the largest economy in the group. If the UK were to join it would dwarf the other members as the worlds fifth largest economy. There is also a concern that the trade deals the group has negotiated with 38 other countries including Mexico, Canada, Colombia and Qatar may need to be renegotiated if the UK joins. David Davis, the new Brexit Secretary in charge of negotiations, is due to hold talks with senior Norwegian officials in the coming weeks, the Guardian reported. Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Show all 12 1 /12 Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Brexit protest: Thousands march in London A woman poses with a home-made European Union flag as Remain supporters gather on Park Lane in London to show their support for the EU in the wake of Brexit PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Remain supporters demonstrate in Parliament Square PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Tens of thousands of people gathered to protest the result of the EU referendum PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London A majority of people in the capital voted to remain in the European Union Reuters Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Protesters chanted: What do we want to do? Stay in the EU PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London The march follows a similar rally in Trafalgar Square that was cancelled due to heavy rain but which tens of thousands of people turned up to anyway Reuters Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Britain voted to leave the European Union in a referendum by 52 per cent to 48 per cent Reuters Brexit protest: Thousands march in London But support for the Leave campaign in urban areas and among young people was significantly lower Rex features Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Marchers gathered at Park Lane at 11am and marched towards Parliament Square PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Some protesters held up baguettes in a display of affection for our continental neighbours PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London The disparity between different parts of the country has promoted a four million signature petition calling for a second referendum and even a renewed push for Scotland to cede from the UK PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London The events organiser, Kings College graduate Kieran MacDermott, wrote: We can prevent Brexit by refusing to accept the referendum as the final say and take our finger off the self-destruct button" Reuters Brexit negotiators are trying to negotiate an exit deal which gives it as much accessible to the single market as possible without sacrificing freedom of movement - both of which are core principles of the Union. Norway's reluctance to let the UK into its club could spell the end for the post-Brexit dream of the "Nordic model". During the campaign, many in the Leave camp spoke about an agreement where the UK could retain many of the perks of membership without having sacrifice control of its borders in an arrangment similar to the one enjoyed by Norway. But before 52 per cent of the electorate choose to leave the EU, Norways Prime Minister, Erna Solberg, urged them to vote Remain. She said: Do not leave the EU, you will hate it. The pro-EU class in Norway argue they have paid a price for not being a member as they have to accept all of its decisions - and freedom of movement - in exchange for access to the single market. Theresa May says she has an 'open mind' over Brexit negotiations Britain was a founding member of Efta in 1960 when it was conceived as an appendage to the European Economic Community (EEC), but left when it joined the EU in 1973. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Two influential German legal associations are calling for headscarves to be banned for judges and lawyers to uphold neutrality in court. Fierce discussion has been sparked by the case of a Muslim lawyer who was banned from wearing a hijab in the Bavarian town of Augsburg earlier this year. But Aqilah Sandhu won the right to wear the garment after a court ruled that the prohibition was an attack on religious freedom and had no legal basis. Aqilah Sidhu speaking to Bild News (Bild.de) Now, two of Germanys largest judges unions are calling for a formal ban on headscarves in the courtroom, as well as other religious symbols. The neutral clothing of judges should act as an outward signal to all participants in the legal process that the court will objectively and impartially rule on their dispute according to the law, Sven Rebehn, director of the German Association of Judges, told the Rheinische Post. A law on dress codes must but not only be limited to the headscarf, but include other religious clothing or symbols. Robert Seegmuller, chairman of the Association of German Administrative Judges, said the required uniform of black robes, white shirt and white bow tie, cravat or neckerchief is important to show that the outcome of a case does not depend on the person, but solely on what the law says. He argued that neutral clothing was particularly important in cases where litigants are non-Muslims, The Local reported. Germany reverses headscarf ban for Muslim teachers A possible ban on headscarves for legal representatives in court is also supported by politicians including the ministers of justice for Baden-Wurttemberg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, who are working on new state laws. But there is tension between arguments for neutrality and possible violations of religious freedom. The chairman of the Bundestag's committee on legal affairs, Renate Kunast, said a headscarf ban would be a serious encroachment on the freedom of religion. Clothing guidelines were issued by the Federal Ministry of Justice in 2008 but the German constitution does not ban citizens from wearing religious symbols. Berlin has a neutrality law for public sector workers, including teachers, but when a Muslim trainee lawyer was told her position was being reviewed because of her hijab in 2013, an exception was made. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The number of people detained by Turkish authorities following the failed coup to oust President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has passed 26,000. The justice minister, Bekir Bozdag, told the state-run Anadolu Agency that 16,000 of those had been formally arrested and taken into custody while 6,000 detainees were being processed and almost 8,000 suspects remain free but under investigation. Mr Bozdag did not give details on the status of the remaining 4,000 suspects out of the 26,000 reportedly detained and it was unclear whether any had been released. Thousands of members of the armed forces, police, judiciary, civil service and public sector have been removed from their posts over alleged links to the Gulen or Hizmet movement, which was blamed for the coup. Turkey's President Erdogan defends government action Around 50,000 passports were cancelled, journalists and academics have been arrested and more than 130 media outlets were shut down. Authorities say the attempt on 15 July was staged by a military faction loyal to the exiled Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, but it has denied any involvement. Hundreds of soldiers armed with fighter jets, helicopters and tanks took control of key areas of the capital while Mr Erdogan was on holiday but were defeated after the President flew into Istanbul to make a defiant speech against an act of treason and rebellion. Western governments and human rights groups have condemned the coup attempt, in which at least 246 people were killed and more than 2,000 injured, and also expressed concern over the extent of the crackdown tightening Mr Erdogans grip on power. 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 Turkish authorities say Gulen's followers used messaging apps to communicate with each other in the years ahead of the coup attempt, allowing Turkey's national intelligence agency, to identify at least 56,000 operatives in the network since 2014. Our assessment is that 150,000 unique operatives used ByLock to communicate with others, a senior Turkish official said, adding that the group has also used another app called Eagle, which could be disguised as other popular instant messaging apps such as Whatsapp and Tango. Turkey's Haberturk newspaper reported that the High Council of Judges and Prosecutors has carried out work for another round of purges for 1,500 judges and prosecutors after nearly 3,000 were suspended in the days after the coup attempt. The country has also been restructuring its armed forces after 1,700 military personnel were dishonourably discharged, including a large proportion of senior generals. The Director of US National Intelligence, James Clapper, warned that the purges were hampering the fight against Isis by sweeping away Turkish officers who had worked closely with international partners. People wave Turkey's national flags during the Democracy and Martyrs Rally (Reuters) Talks over Turkeys possible accession to the EU have been strained amid the continuing crackdown, with foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu threatening to back out of the refugee deal if visa-free travel is not granted and the EU responding with accusations of blackmail. The EU demands that Turkey fulfil a list of criteria including amending its anti-terrorism laws so they cannot be used to target academics, journalists and political dissenters. Mr Erdogan has accused countries raising concern over the response to the coup of supporting the plotters and targeted Amnesty International for a report alleging that some people detained in connection with the attempt had been tortured. He insisted that Turkey had a policy of zero tolerance toward torture and accused the human rights organisation of ignoring violence committed by plotters during the attempt. Additional reporting by Reuters For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg, the first face-to-face contact between the pair since ties between the nations were shattered after a Russian fighter jet was downed by Turkey's air force last November. Both men appear keen to put the recent past behind them with Mr Erdogan saying that Turkey could rebuild ties with Russia and even expand them further than before with Turkey entering a very different period in its relations with the nation. Mr Putin said ahead of the meeting on Tuesday that he was glad to see his counterpart. The visit is Mr Erdogans first foreign visit since a failed coup in his country last month, an event that has seen ties strained with Western nations. The Turkish president has complained at the apparent the lack of support he has received from the US and EU nations over the coup attempt particularly since the beginning of a purge of thousands of army officers, judges and other workers in the wake of the rebellion that some Western nations have labelled undemocratic. The fact that Mr Erdogan has also suggested he supports the re-introduction of the death penalty in Turkey for those found guilty of organising the coup has also not gone down well in some European quarters. Mr Erdogan was quick to thank Mr Putin for his call after the coup on 15 July, saying that he was one of the first world leaders to express his support. Mr Erdogan said the move gladdened me, my colleagues and our people. Mr Putin had said that his countrys principled position was to be categorically against any attempts at unconstitutional actions. He added: I want to express the hope that under your leadership the Turkish people will cope with this problem [the coup's aftermath] and that order and constitutional legality will be restored. The Russian president made clear in his remarks just before the meeting on Tuesday afternoon that Mr Erdogan's visit despite the really complex domestic political situation in Turkey shows we all want to restart our dialogue and restore our relations. He said that their talks would cover the whole range of our relations...including restoring economic ties, combating terrorism. A thaw in relations between the two countries would appear to suit both men. While Mr Putin will not seemingly miss an opportunity to flex his political muscle and cause Western nations to fret over his intentions, Mr Erdogan may also hope that turning to Russia may give him some leverage in other complicated matters with Europe and beyond. Erdogan travels to Russia to reset relations Some have called for the end to negotiations with Turkey over accession to the EU a part of the agreement with Turkey aimed at helping to end the flow of migrants and refugees to Europe from places such as Syria over the possible reintroduction of the death penalty. On Tuesday, the foreign policy spokesman for Denmark's Liberal Party, Michael Aastrup Jensen, told Reuters that negotiations should end due to President Erdogan's undemocratic initiatives and his support for reintroducing the death penalty. His remarks come after Austria's foreign minister said he believed talks should cease. The refugee deal is seen as important for a continent that has struggled to deal with an influx of people from conflict-ridden countries such as Syria and Iraq. But it has been placed under further strain by the fact that Mr Erdogan has said he cannot rewrite Turkey's terrorism laws a key demand of the EU after the recent coup attempt. Despite this, a full rapprochement will not come easy given the full breakdown in relations between Russia and Turkey last year. In November, Turkey shot down a Russian Su-24 fighter jet, after what it said were multiple warnings to get out of Turkish airspace. Russia insisted the plane remained inside Syrian airspace, where it was flying missions in support of President Bashar al-Assads regime. One of the pilots died, as well as a member of a rescue mission. 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 At the time, Mr Putin called the incident a stab in the back, carried out by the accomplices of terrorists a reference to the differing sides the two nations are in within the Syrian conflict. This led to Russia imposing economic sanctions on Turkey and charter flights between the two countries stopped. Turkey's tourism industry suffered a massive blow, with Russians, who usually flock to Turkey every year in their millions, staying away. On Tuesday, Mr Putin appeared to strike a more conciliatory tone, referring to the tragic incident involving the death of our servicemen during his opening remarks. Syria may still be a problem, but Mr Putin suggested on Tuesday that even that could be resolved with both Russia and Turkey having a common goal of resolving the crisis. Speaking after the meeting with President Erdogan, Mr Putin said that Russias views on Syria have not always coincided with those of Turkey but the two states agreed to talk further and seek solutions. I think it is possible to align our views and approaches, he said. German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told the Bild daily that he was not worried about Russia and Turkey improving ties. It is good that after the shooting down of the Russian fighter jet by Turkey last year, there is a rapprochement, he said. At the same time I do not believe that relations between the two countries will become so close that Russia can offer Turkey an alternative to the Nato security partnership. But, the fact that Mr Erdogan and his government have also been upping their rhetoric with Nato partner the United States, will not have gone unnoticed by Mr Putin. Mr Erdogan blames the coup attempt in his country on a rival, US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, and his followers. Mr Gulen has denied all involvement but Turkey's government has repeatedly asked the US to send him to Turkey to face trial. American officials have said this cannot happen without proper evidence being presented. Turkey's justice minister, Bekir Bozdag, said on Tuesday that the United States would be sacrificing its alliance with Turkey to a terrorist if it were to refuse to extradite Mr Gulen Mr Bozdag told the state-run Anadolu Agency that anti-American sentiment in Turkey is reaching its peak over the issue of clerics return, and risks turning into hatred. If (the United States) does not return him, it will have sacrificed Turkey to a terrorist, Mr Bozdag said. The United States is a great state and I believe it will do what is expected from a great state. Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Photos have emerged appearing to show British special forces operating in Syria in support of rebels fighting Isis. The images, obtained by the BBC, show around a dozen commandos riding long-range patrol vehicles and armed with sniper rifles, anti-tank missiles and artillery. They were photographed near al-Tanf, where the UK is supporting the New Syrian Army (NSA) as it fights to push Isis back from strategic territory near the borders with Iraq and Jordan. The rebel group has been repeatedly targeted by fighters from the so-called Islamic State using car bombs and ambushes in battles to control a border crossing and al-Hamdan Airbase . British special forces were spotted alongside the NSA in June, shortly after around nine of the moderate rebels were killed in an Isis assault. Unlike regular army troops, they do not need Parliamentary approval to be deployed and the presence of covert operatives in Syria has never been confirmed by the Government. The NSA is understood to have received training, weapons and equipment from the Pentagon as well as intensive air support from the US-led coalition. Russian planes hit its base with cluster munitions in two air strikes in June, prompting a diplomatic row after American fighter jets attempted to prevent the strike and instructions over a special communications channel to avoid mid-air confrontations were ignored. An image showing what appears to be the tail of a RBK-500 cluster munition following Russian air strikes on US-backed rebels in al-Tanf, Syria, on 16 June 2016 (Syrian Observatory for Human Rights) Colonel Christopher Garver, spokesman for the anti-Isis Operation Inherent Resolve, said the NSA was attempting to drive militants out of the border city of al-Bukamal and cut Isis supply lines and the flow of foreign fighters along the Euphrates River. It was among the groups receiving training at coalition-run camps in Jordan and has reportedly been equipped with state-of-the-art American weaponry. The NSA, which opposes President Bashar al-Assad, is drawn from local Syrians and believed to include elite former special forces commandos who defected from the regimes army. The group said coalition air strikes hit Isis positions in al-Bukamal on Tuesday morning, dealing a devastating blow to Daesh by destroying 83 oil tankers. On Sunday, NSA fighters said they successfully intercepted Isis fighters and blew up one of the groups car bombs during an attempted assault on al-Tanf. British jets prepare for air strikes in Syria Show all 10 1 /10 British jets prepare for air strikes in Syria British jets prepare for air strikes in Syria A Tornado jet takes off from RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland, as RAF Tornado jets carried out the first British bombing runs over Syria British jets prepare for air strikes in Syria Pilots and ground crew prepare combat aircraft Panavia Tornados at RAF Marham at RAF Marham, UK Getty British jets prepare for air strikes in Syria A Eurofighter Typhoon jet takes off from RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland, as RAF Tornado jets carried out the first British bombing runs over Syria British jets prepare for air strikes in Syria A RAF Tornado arrives at RAF Akrotiri to begin operations in Akrotiri British jets prepare for air strikes in Syria A Tornado jet ahead of taking off from RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland, as RAF Tornado jets carried out the first British bombing runs over Syria, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed. The air strikes were carried out within hours of a vote by MPs in the Commons to back extending operations against Isis from neighbouring Iraq British jets prepare for air strikes in Syria Personnel work on a British Tornado after it returned from a mission at RAF Akrotiri in southern Cyprus British jets prepare for air strikes in Syria Two RAF Tornado GR4's, both with remaining weapons ordnance, approach RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, as they return to the base after carrying out some of the first British bombing runs over Syria British jets prepare for air strikes in Syria A RAF Tornado takes off from RAF Akrotiri, on the Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus British jets prepare for air strikes in Syria A Tornado jet leaving RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland British jets prepare for air strikes in Syria AKA RAF Tornado arrives at RAF Akrotiri to begin operations in Akrotiri, Cyprus. The RAF has sent two further Tornado aircraft and six Typhoons to bolster aircraft now flying sorties to both Iraq and Syria The RAF is continuing to provide air support in the region, with two Tornados targeting a convoy of Isis oil tankers near al-Bukamal on Sunday. Britain is also supporting the predominantly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces group as it pushes Isis back near Manbij in northern Syria. The Ministry of Defence announced the deployment of 75 military personnel to train Syrian rebels as part of a US-led programme last year. It said thousands of opposition fighters would be equipped to help them defend Syrian communities against Isis brutal attacks before leading offensives themselves in Turkey and other countries in the region. The MoD told The Independent it does not comment on special forces operations and would not confirm the NSA was among the groups it supports. British special forces are also said to be fighting against Isis in Iraq and Libya For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Israel says it has arrested a Palestinian employee of the United Nations in Gaza, accusing him of using his position to support Islamist militant group Hamas. Israeli security agency Shin Bet said Waheed Borsh, 38, was indicted on Tuesday. Mr Borsh has worked for the UN development agency UNDP in the Gaza Strip since 2003. He allegedly confessed to using UNDP resources to build a jetty for Hamas' naval forces, according to Shin Bet. The agency also claimed he persuaded his managers to prioritise the reconstruction of houses damaged in conflicts with Israel in areas where Hamas members lived. The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Show all 10 1 /10 The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Medics evacuate a wounded man from the scene of an attack in Jerusalem. A Palestinian rammed a vehicle into a bus stop then got out and started stabbing people before he was shot dead AP The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Israeli ZAKA emergency response members carry the body of an Israeli at the scene of a shooting attack in Jerusalem. A pair of Palestinian men boarded a bus in Jerusalem and began shooting and stabbing passengers, while another assailant rammed a car into a bus station before stabbing bystanders, in near-simultaneous attacks that escalated a month long wave of violence AP The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Getty Images The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Palestinians throw molotov cocktail during clashes with Israeli troops near Ramallah, West Bank. Recent days have seen a series of stabbing attacks in Israel and the West Bank that have wounded several Israelis AP The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Women cry during the funeral of Palestinian teenager Ahmad Sharaka, 13, who was shot dead by Israeli forces during clashes at a checkpoint near Ramallah, at the family house in the Palestinian West Bank refugee camp of Jalazoun, Ramallah AP The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies A wounded Palestinian boy and his father hold hands at a hospital after their house was brought down by an Israeli air strike in Gaza Reuters The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Palestinians look on after a protester is shot by Israelis soldiers during clashes at the Howara checkpoint near the West Bank city of Nablus EPA The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies A lawyer wearing his official robes kicks a tear gas canister back toward Israeli soldiers during a demonstration by scores of Palestinian lawyers called for by the Palestinian Bar Association in solidarity with protesters at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City, near Ramallah, West Bank AP The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Undercover Israeli soldiers detain a Palestinian in Ramallah Reuters The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Palestinian youth burn tyres during clashes with Israeli soldiers close to the Jewish settlement of Bet El, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, after Israel barred Palestinians from Jerusalem's Old City as tensions mounted following attacks that killed two Israelis and wounded a child Last week, Israel indicted a senior Palestinian manager with the US-based charity World Vision on charges of funnelling millions of dollars to Hamas in Gaza. The suspect, Mohammed el-Halabi, denied the charges, as did Hamas, while World Vision said it had yet to see evidence to back up Israel's allegations. World Vision Germany spokeswoman Silvia Holten said the charity's budget in Gaza in the last decade totaled $22.5 million (17.34 million). She said World Vision has stopped its Gaza operations while investigations continue. "There is a huge gap in these numbers the Israeli government is telling and what we know," Ms Holten said. Germany and Australia suspended donations to World Vision in Gaza amid the allegations. Israel razes West Bank homes of Palestinian attackers It is not immediately clear how Mr Bursh will plead to the charges against him. The UNDP was unavailable for comment. "These (allegations) are par for the course of an Israeli plot to restrict the work of international relief agencies operating in Gaza in order to tighten the Gaza blockade," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters. Israel informed UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's office and the UNDP director in New York of Mr Bursh's arrest and details from his indictment, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman said. The spokesman said Israel expected UN condemnation of Hamas' alleged use of the Gaza aid system and that the relevant agencies "will take concrete measures to ensure that humanitarian activities actually assist those in need in Gaza". Responding on Monday to the Israeli indictment against Mr Halabi, the U.N. Coordinator for Humanitarian Aid and Development Activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Robert Piper, called for a fair and transparent trial. "If proven by a due legal process, these actions deserve unreserved condemnation; Gaza's demoralized and vulnerable citizens deserve so much better," he said in a statement. But World Vision was sceptical at the Shin Bet's allegation that Mr Halabi had siphoned off about $7.2 million a year in charity money for Hamas since 2010. The indictment filed against Halabi speaks more generally of "millions of dollars". "World Vision's cumulative operating budget in Gaza for the past ten years was approximately $22.5 million, which makes the alleged amount of up to $50 million being diverted hard to reconcile," charity president Kevin Jenkins said in a statement. Additional reporting by agencies For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} At least 14 people have been killed in Sanaa as Saudi Arabia resumed its bombardment of the Yemeni capital. The civilians, who were working overnight shifts at a potato chip factory in the Nahda district, were killed following the disintegration of peace talks, according to medics. The three-month, UN-backed negotiations in Kuwait crumbled over the weekend. Saudi-led air strikes on the capital Sanaa began on Sunday and continued on Tuesday. The Saudi government is supporting Yemeni forces trying to rid the city of Iran-allied Houthi rebels. Five women were among those killed at the factory, which had been hit before by airstrikes in Janurary. Yet there are no visible Houthi posts near the factorythe nearest rebel base is nearly 1.5km away. The coalition also turned away flights into the Sanaa International Airport for 72 hours from Monday night, according to sources at the airport and an aid agency. The United Nations has called the scale of suffering in the war-torn country staggering. Since the escalation of the conflict nearly two years ago, more than 6,500 civilians have been killed and 32,000 injured, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council. During that time three million have fled their homes. Eighty percent of the country, or 21 million people, are now in need of humanitarian aid. According to the UN, one of the major challenges now to the peace process is the poor state of the economy. A Saudi trade blockade has crippled the country's already weak finances. Air strikes have also hit a military base, presidential compound and Republican Guard base, Reuters report. Pro-government military are attempting to advance into the city from both the north and east. On Sunday, nine civilians were killed in an air strike just outside Sanaa. Yemen: Government forces launch offensive as peace talks fail The onslaught comes just days after the UN envoy announced a month long pause in the talks for consultations. Rasha Mohamed, from Amnesty International told The Independent: While theres been a lull in hostilities over recent months, there was never a genuine let-up in the Saudi Arabia-led coalitions bombing campaign. Were continuing to document the horrific impact on civilians who remain in the firing line, facing both aerial and ground attacks. Were renewing our call on the UK and other arms-exporting countries to halt the flow of arms that could be used by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition to commit further violations of international humanitarian law in Yemen. 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 Kristine Beckerle, from Human Rights Watch, said: All parties in Yemen have repeatedly violated the laws of war, but international condemnation and calls for accountability have been lacking. "As fighting scales up, protection of civilians should be paramount, and countries helping fuel the war, including the UK and US, supporting the coalition and whose weapons were used in unlawful strikes, should immediately suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia." Earlier this month Samantha Power, the US representative to the UN, warned of the dire consequences for Yemen if the negotiations were to collapse. The stakes in Yemens nearly two-year conflict could not be higher, she said in a statement. If the political process were to fail, the risks would be grave. All parties must exercise maximum restraint and uphold the cessation of hostilities, remove any impediments to the delivery of humanitarian aid, and commit to a durable political solution to this conflict. The Yemeni people have suffered long enough and deserve a lasting peace, one that will deliver the security and economic growth that is so desperately needed in the country. The British government is facing legal action over the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia. Since the 1960s, Saudi Arabia has been a major buyer of UK weapons. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} An evangelical church in Sweden has announced it wants to airdrop thousands of copies of the Bible onto areas of Iraq controlled by Isis militants, in an effort to pass the hope and love of the Christian gospel to local people. The Livets Ord church in Uppsala, north Sweden, is planning to fly remote controlled drones at high-altitude over Isis-occupied regions, which will then drop tiny, electronic copies of the gospels into occupied towns. The church, one of the leading charismatic institutions in the Scandinavian country, confirmed the Bibles are the size of pill boxes and require no electricity but work on their own. Representatives from the organisation dismissed accusations the Bible drop was intended to be provocative in any way, saying they were merely motivated by an unfailing and never-ending love for all people. In a statement, the church said: Our ambition is to pass on the hope and love of the Christian gospel to a population living in closed areas where they are being denied human rights. We start our project in a few weeks and hope to drop thousands of Bibles. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty 'We believe in an unfailing and never-ending love, given to us by God. And together we try to spread that love to as many people as possible.' The church has not yet outlined how precisely it will carry out the ambitious delivery, but remain convinced it will be possible despite having to fly through dangerous airspace. The operation is likely to place "in a few weeks", the church said. Livets Ord, translated as The Word of Life, was founded in the 1980s and has frequently been criticised for being organised like a cult, according to Christian Today. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} At 84 years old, Yona Yosef is full of life. Her eyes sparkle as she talks about her nine children and many grandchildren. But ask her what happened 67 years ago, when she and her family arrived in Israel from Yemen, and her eyes fill with tears. I was only 15. The people came, they told me to take Saade to the clinic, said Yosef, her voice stalling as she recalled the day she took her 4-year-old half-sister for a routine check-up for new arrivals. At the clinic, they told me to go home. They said they would bring her back. What did I know? I was only a child myself. Ms Yosef never saw her sister again. Like many immigrants at the time, Ms Yosef and her family lived in a transit camp after they came to Israel in 1949. Her father's second wife and two children, including Saade, lived with them. Over the past 70 years, Israelis have become familiar with tales of Jewish immigrants from Arab lands who say their children simply vanished, possibly kidnapped, in the late 1940s and early 50s, soon after arriving in Israel. In some cases, the children were taken away, never to be seen again. In others, parents were told their babies had died suddenly. According to some theories, the children were handed to childless couples, possibly Holocaust survivors who could not conceive. Others think the babies may have been shipped to Jewish families in the United States. Those who have studied the mystery point to the aggressive state-building process adopted by the ruling elite at the time white, Ashkenazi Jews from Europe and perhaps paternalistic notions they held toward uneducated Arabic-speaking immigrants who arrived penniless with multiple children. Some even might have thought they were helping the families by giving their children better lives. Many suspect that state employees doctors, nurses, social workers and government officials were somehow involved. But the question of whether orders to remove children came from high levels of government remains unanswered. Three separate government committees, the last in the 1990s, investigated the affair, but all ruled that most of the children had died of illnesses, with perhaps a minority being put up for adoption. Most of the families refuse to accept that finding. But in recent months, the story has garnered renewed attention. In June, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was lifting the immunity on the case and appointed government minister Tzachi Hanegbi to reopen the files and discover the truth. The issue of the Yemenite children is an open wound that continues to bleed in many families who do not know what happened to the babies that disappeared, Mr Netanyahu said. Last month, Mr Hanegbi told a news station that after looking at material from government inquiries into the matter, he is now sure that hundreds of Yemeni children were taken away from their parents, although he could not say why or where they went. Mr Hanegbi's declaration has given hope to many families, whose claims have been continuously dismissed. We believe that the state needs to give us answers, said Avi Yosef, Yona Yosef's son. We know that babies disappeared. Saade was taken from my mother's hands. Avi Yosef, a lawyer, grew up hearing about Saade and two other children born to his aunt, his mother's older sister who also disappeared in the transit camp. It's clear there was a horrible crime here on an unprecedented scale and the state does not want to reveal it, said Yael Tzadok, a former journalist who got involved in the issue more than 30 years ago when she began interviewing Yemeni mothers on her radio show. It was difficult to hear their stories. I could not sleep at night. It was clear to me they were telling the truth, she said. There were many witnesses saying these children were taken. Ms Tzadok now works with Achim Vekayamim (Brothers Still Exist), a non-profit organisation set up to uncover the truth and track down relatives. Today most of the children would be in their 60s and 70s. Zvi Amiri is one such child. When he was in his 30s, he discovered he had been adopted and started to search for his birth parents. I always had a feeling that something was not right, said Mr Amiri, now 64. My parents kept moving from place to place, I kept hearing that I was adopted, but it was only when my father confessed that I started to look into it. With the help of a lawyer, Mr Amiri obtained his adoption file and found that he had been born to immigrants from Tunisia. He found his birth mother, but she had been committed to a psychiatric facility. Possibly the toll of losing a baby had been too much for her, he said. And the documents he found in his adoption file, such as a declaration by his birth mother that she was putting him up for adoption, with no signature but only a thumb print, convinced him that there had been a cover-up. If she did not know how to write her name, then how could she have possibly known what she was signing, Mr Amiri said. Only a few dozen adopted children have managed to track down their birth families. Those who lost children are not legally allowed access to the files. Amram, another nonprofit group that helps in these cases, lists hundreds of families on its website. There are tales of newborns taken to special units where days later mothers were told they had died, and stories of families with multiple children asked to give up their babies for adoption. When they refused, they also were told their babies had died. Nurit Koren, a member of Knesset who heads the parliamentary lobby for families of stolen babies, said she has more than 1,000 case files detailing how children vanished, and information on hundreds of families that have been making such claims for decades. Ms Koren is working to set up a DNA database that will help children find their birth parents but only at the children's request. We don't know what really happened, but the more information we collect, the more chance we have of finding out and finding these people, Ms Koren said. What is important is that if this did happen, and we believe it did in an organised fashion, then the state should finally recognise it and take responsibility. The Washington Post Sign up to Simon Calders free travel email for weekly expert advice and money-saving discounts Get Simon Calders Travel email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Simon Calders Travel email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} When next you fly, assess your cabin baggage. Not to see if it will conform with the airlines ever-more complex range of rules on weight and dimensions, but to estimate the value of its contents. I speculate it will contain what you need for the flight itself laptop or tablet, reports to read, perhaps some better-than-airport-quality snacks plus what you really dont want to lose: mobile phone, camera, washbag... Next, predict how you would feel if it was snatched from you as, regrettably, happens frequently, particularly at transport hubs where travellers are distracted and disorientated. I would be upset and angry, but reassured that these days pretty much everything is replaceable. Even the, err, priceless contents of my laptop are duplicated (or at least they will be as soon as I get home and remember to back up). As you will probably have guessed, I mention this because, for the second time in less than a year, a Boeing 777 has been in flames on a runway and some passengers retrieved their cabin baggage before escaping the burning plane. Like you, I am keen to know what went wrong aboard Emirates flight EK521 for it to crash-land at Dubai. All 300 passengers and crew got out alive, though tragically a firefighter died when the blaze took hold. 'Leave hand baggage behind' means just that

Laurie Price

Some of the images on social media were chillingly similar to British Airways flight 2276, whose left-hand engine burst into flames during the take-off run at Las Vegas. The 170 people on the Gatwick-bound jet also got out alive, and the plane is now back in active service. But when every second counts, as it does in an emergency, the sight of passengers wheeling their cabin baggage away from the stricken aircraft is shocking. Laurie Price, the leading aviation strategist, was also appalled. Leave hand baggage behind means just that, he told me in an email, shortly after the pictures emerged. Something major needs to be done by IATA [the airlines global body] and/or ICAO [the UN body that sets aviation standards worldwide], with draconian fines for people who do not obey crew instructions. How long before we have an accident and selfish people trying to retrieve their baggage delay evacuation and people die? Mr Price also has a plan to use the Dubai emergency to improve safety: If I were Emirates I would identify all those passengers who prejudiced the safe evacuation of the aircraft and ban them from flying with the airline for a period and make an example of them. Certainly, changes are needed to passenger behaviour. The aviation industry has worked miracles improving everything from engineering to relationships on the flight deck, reducing the accident rate to extraordinarily low levels. Now its the passengers turn. You owe it to yourself and your fellow passengers to watch the safety drill, work out where the nearest and second-nearest emergency exits are, and to be alert and sober during take-off and landing. (The ban by Jet2 on boozing before 8am is well-intentioned, but likely to be ineffective; stricter controls at the boarding gate on assessing whos been drinking to excess at the airport is the real answer). You might think that in a carrot-and-stick approach, the possible difference between life and death might be enough of a carrot, but evidently not. An element of punishment, though, may not work either: passengers in an emergency evacuation may be so startled that they behave irrationally doing just what they would do if they were leaving the aircraft normally. So I argue that it is incumbent on those who fly the most, ie business travellers, to take the lead. Always watch the safety briefing, and shush passengers who are talking rather than listening. And, if the (second) worst should happen, yell at anyone who endangers themselves and others by reaching for their cabin baggage. Stuff is replaceable; people are not. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The President of Gabon, one of the founding members of the Giants Club conservation initiative, today demonstrated his commitment to his people and conservation by officially launching the first elephant fence in Gabon. Human elephant conflict is a daily reality across Gabon where people and elephants live side-by-side in many locations, resulting in economic losses to farmers and retaliatory killings towards elephants. Elephants are capable of destroying entire livelihoods in a single night. The construction of the electric fence will protect several hundred farmers and significantly reduce damages caused by elephants in the region, thereby boosting local support for their protection. Announcing the start of work on building the project, President Bongo said: Here in Gabon we are lucky to live amid some of the most beautiful forests on the planet and to share our country with one of the world's most special creatures: the forest elephant. Yet in Gabon we also have some of the hardest working farmers who help produce the food for our tables. This fence is an important step in protecting their livelihoods, while also helping protect our elephants from leaving their natural habitats. I am delighted work has now begun on this fence and I would like to thank the Giants Club, and its implementation charity Space for Giants, for the assistance they are providing our wildlife service in delivering this project for the Gabonese people. The launch of the 50km fence project, which the Giants Club has helped finance to USD 200,000, comes just three months after the inaugural Giants Club Summit hosted in Nanyuki, Kenya, attended by African presidents, philanthropists and conservation experts from around the globe. The goal of the Giants Club is to effectively protect some 200,000 elephants 50 per cent of the continental total by 2020. Supporting the launch of the project are Professor Lee White, Director of the Agence Nationale des Parcs Nationaux, and Dr Max Graham, the CEO of Space for Giants, the Giants Club's implementation charity. Prof White said: Today the President, with support from the ANPN and Space for Giants, has made a clear statement of intent to secure our peoples livelihoods and preserve our natural heritage for future generations. We look forward to scaling up and delivering a comprehensive human elephant conflict mitigation strategy in the months to come. Dr Graham said: Gabon is home to the vast majority of forest elephants remaining on this great continent and it is here where the future of the species will be decided. The implementation of this human elephant conflict mitigation strategy is critical to ensure that people and elephants can live together for generations to come. We are delighted by this show of commitment by one of the founding members of the Giants Club. Short electric fences (3 foot tall), with electrified protruding arms (outriggers) conducting charges in excess of 7000 volts have proven the most effective at keeping elephants at bay in Giants Club-supported projects in Kenya and the fences in Gabon will mirror this sophisticated elephant-proof design. This initial pilot fence will take approximately four months to construct and will use over 10,000 poles and 400km of electrified wire. Along with the construction of elephant-proof fences, President Bongo announced at the Giants Club Summit in April that the ANPN would double its staff capacity from 750 to 1,500 greatly increasing their impact on the ground. Frontline protection and judicial interventions initiatives to boost the ranger network on the ground and support the criminal justice pathway in courts will also be delivered in the coming months. The Giants Club is supported by ESI Media, the UK-based media group that owns the London Evening Standard newspaper and The Independent digital sites. ESI Media's owner, Evgeny Lebedev, is patron of the Club and also of Space for Giants. With Gabon, the Club's other member states are Kenya, Botswana and Uganda. Together these countries are home to almost half remaining savannah elephants and some 70 per cent of the forest elephant. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} So the Sultan travels to see the Tsar at the royal seat of St Petersburg. And the Caliph of Damascus will watch from Syria with the conviction that Baath Party policy has once again proved its worth. The policy? Wait. And wait. And wait. For just as Turkeys power over Syria its Pakistan-like role of conduit for Arab Gulf money and arms to the civil war, its smuggling routes to Isis, al-Qaeda (or Jabhat al-Nusra or Fatah el-Sham or whatever) seemed an overwhelming threat to Damascus, along comes Turkeys mysterious coup, its army neutered, and Sultan Erdogan scurrying off to St Petersburg to move his country from Nato to Mother Russia. And all this when the rebel armies in Syria have resurrounded government troops in Aleppo with the aim of reopening their supply routes to Turkey. For with Russian forces scarcely 30 miles south of the Turkish border, and its pilots daily bombing the very same rebels who are besieging Aleppo, Tsar Putin is not going to tolerate any more missiles smuggled across the Turkish border to shoot down his helicopters. And if Nato and the EU believe they can rely on their faithful ally Sultan Erdogan to pursue the destruction of the Assad regime or curb refugee flows to Europe or tolerate US jets flying out of Incirlik airbase and other former Armenian properties in Anatolia they can think again. Erdogan travels to Russia to reset relations You only have to read the Russian versions of the Sultans grovelling statements prior to his Ottoman visit to grasp how the sick man of Europe is breathing in the fresh air of the Steppes. This visit seems to me a new milestone in bilateral relations, beginning with a clean slate, quoth the Sultan, and I personally, with all my heart and on behalf of the Turkish nation, salute President Putin and all Russians. That was Russian television for you. Then take the Russian news agency Tass, through which the Sultan refers to his friend Vladimir and promises that there is yet much for our countries to do together. Now lets abandon the Tsar-Sultan stuff. This was more like the fraternal greetings a Brezhnev or a Podgorny might have expected from an erring member of the Warsaw Pact, full of bilateral relations and salutes and friendship (though not eternal friendship, as brotherly nations might once have pledged to the Kremlin). The first post-coup visit of Recep Tayyip Erdogan is to Russia and theres a coup of a different kind. Heres another line from the Tass version of Erdogans pre-St Petersburg declarations: A solution to the Syrian crisis cannot be found without Russia. We can resolve the Syrian crisis only in cooperation with Russia. And in cooperation with Bashar al-Assad? Its a thought that must warm the heart of Bashar who was once let us remember this close family friends with Erdogan and his wife. If you can shoot down a Russian plane and then embrace your friend Putin, why could Erdogan not do the same to Bashar all over again? Thats also, of course, a question for Hillary Clinton and The Donald to ponder although Donald Trump, who seems to hold the same views about the Tsar as the Sultan now boasts, could possibly live with that. There is a long list of the potential losers in the theatre of St Petersburg. First, Isis and al-Qaeda/Nusra/Fatah el-Sham, and all the other Islamist outfits now fighting the regime in Syria, who suddenly find that their most reliable arms conduit has teamed up with their most ferocious enemy, the owner of the Russian air force. Then theres the Saudi and Qatari billionaires who have been supplying the cash and guns for the Sunni warriors who are trying to overthrow both Damascus and Baghdad, and humble the Shia of Iran, Syria (the Alawites) and Lebanon. And then, above all others perhaps, those who will fear for their lives in the aftermath of this fraternal jaunt to the Tsars palace: the Turkish army. For what is becoming ever clearer is that and this is called the kicker to the story Russia and, indeed, Iran played an intelligence role in warning Erdogan of the military coup plotted against him. In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Show all 17 1 /17 In pictures: Turkey coup attempt In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish President Erdogan attends the funeral service for victims of the thwarted coup in Istanbul at Fatih mosque on July 17, 2016 in Istanbul, Turkey Burak Kara/Getty Images In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Soldiers involved in the coup attempt surrender on Bosphorus bridge with their hands raised in Istanbul on 16 July, 2016 Gokhan Tan/Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt A civilian beats a soldier after troops involved in the coup surrendered on the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey, 16 July, 2016 REUTERS/Murad Sezer In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Surrendered Turkish soldiers who were involved in the coup are beaten by a civilian Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Soliders involved in the coup attempt surrender on Bosphorus bridge Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Supporters of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wave flags as they capture a Turkish Army vehicle Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt People pose near a tank after troops involved in the coup surrendered on the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey, 16 July, 2016 Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish soldiers block Istanbul's Bosphorus Brigde Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt A Turkish military stands guard near the Taksim Square in Istanbul Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Pierre Crom/Twitter In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish soldiers secure the area as supporters of Recep Tayyip Erdogan protest in Istanbul's Taksim square AP In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Murad Sezer/Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish soldiers detain police officers during a security shutdown of the Bosphorus Bridge Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish Army armoured personnel carriers in the main streets of Istanbul Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Chaos reigned in Istanbul as tanks drove through the streets EPA/TOLGA BOZOGLU In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan speaks to media in the resort town of Marmaris Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Supporters of President Erdogan celebrate in Ankara following the suppression of the attempted coup Reuters The Arabs have already been told by their Russian collocutors that Putin, being the old KGB boss that he was, personally sent a message to Erdogan after learning of the coup from Turkish army communications, which were picked up and listened to by Russian technicians at their air base just outside Latakia in Syria. The Iranians who would be happy to see Turkey turned against their Sunni Islamist enemies in Syria also tipped off Erdogan about the coup, so the Arabs have been told. Not long ago, it seems, it was Hillary who wanted to press the reset button with Putin. Now its Erdogan with, one suspects, a much greater effect. The word terror" is now used with such promiscuity that it seems to have been invented in the United States. Actually, its first common usage after the French Revolution appears to have been in Moscow where it described the bomb-throwing terrorists who were trying to overthrow the Tsar. So watch out for that word terrorists in the communiques that follow the Sultan-Tsar Summit. The Grand St Petersburg Alliance Against Terror. Terror, terror, terror. If you hear that from Mother Russia in the coming hours, youll know that things are going to change in Syria. Mothers who have a home birth are more likely to go on to breastfeed, research has found Women who give birth at home are twice as likely to breastfeed as other new mothers, researchers have found. Academics at Trinity College Dublin said their studies show home birth is significantly associated with immediate breastfeeding and mothers continuing it into the baby's first six months. They also found mothers who give birth at home are more likely to exclusively breastfeed for the first 24 weeks - 22% compared with 9% of other mothers. Lina Zgaga, associate professor of epidemiology at Trinity, said the information may help to improve low breastfeeding rates in Ireland. She said: "The key question that this work raises is: When breastfeeding is so strongly recommended across the board by the medical profession, what causes lower rates of breastfeeding following hospital births? "Hopefully this research can help us learn from the home birth model and identify the changes that could be implemented in standard hospital-based perinatal care to encourage and facilitate breastfeeding." About 60% of mothers start breastfeeding in Ireland compared to a European norm of about 90%. World Health Organisation guidelines recommend exclusive breastfeeding for a baby's first six months. The research identified potential reasons for the higher breastfeeding rates. It noted that home birth has different support and care and is typically midwife-led. It said the same community midwife should be visiting and advising the mother for the first 14 days of a baby's life, compared to a hospital where there are many different medics who, it warned, are " potentially providing unpredictable and inconsistent input". Researchers said support in the days after birth improve outcomes for mother and baby but they warned that the percentage of first visits after a mother is discharged from hospital varies significantly from 57% to 87%. It also pointed to a mother's home being non-clinical, promoting immediate and prolonged skin to skin contact between mother and baby immediately after birth , which is widely considered to have a positive effect on the initiation of breastfeeding and mother-infant bonding. The study also noted the increased use of interventions, assisted delivery and pain relief in hospitals compared to home births. And it said hospital births have been associated with formula supplementation despite all maternity units being part of an initiative which recommends that newborns should not receive any food or drink other than breast milk unless medically indicated The study said this may be due to busy, understaffed clinical settings, where formula may be a more convenient solution to feeding problems than diagnosis and treatment of breastfeeding issues. The study from Trinity's Department of Public Health and Primary Care is the largest of its kind, using more than 10,500 women from Growing Up in Ireland and 17,500 women from the UK Millennium Cohort. It was published in the international journal BMJ Open. The data revealed a self-reported home birth rate of 1.48% in Ireland compared to 2% in the UK. The official figure used by the government is 0.2% which only includes planned home births attended to by an independent midwife. Another study coinciding with World Breastfeeding Week showed women who give birth in a midwife-only unit are 30% more likely to breastfeed than those in traditional wards. In Nigeria, the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, has launched two new partnerships with local agribusinesses Babban Gona and Hello Tractor. These two new projects highlight the U.S. governments commitment to agriculture-led economic growth and private sector engagement, as part of Feed the Future, the U.S. governments global hunger and food security initiative.This $2 million, two-year partnership, will allow 45,000 smallholder farmers across seven states and the Federal Capital Territory, easier access to smart tractors that better meet their needs, improved seeds, and profitable food and agriculture markets. During the ceremony at the U.S. Embassy in Abuja in late July, which was attended by Nigerian Minister of Agriculture Audu Ogbeh, U.S. Deputy Chief of Mission Maria Brewer, described the partnership as a co-investment in public goods. Innovation and entrepreneurship hold the key to unlocking Nigerias agriculture potential, and the U.S. government will continue to provide support in this direction, said Ms. Brewer. Under the Feed the Future initiative, the U.S. government collaborates with a wide range of partners from civil society groups to host-country governments to the private sector -- to support smallholder farmers in Nigeria and other countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. Through these partnerships, Feed the Future addresses development and business challenges by increasing access to improved agricultural inputs and mechanization, better quality technical advisory services, and expanding market opportunities for smallholder farmers. These partnerships capitalize on the untapped potential of youth in agriculture, and help build the capacity of young entrepreneurs to help grow their businesses, create secure jobs, and boost economic growth. Through the partnership with USAID, Babban Gona will help 20,000 smallholder farmers. And Feed the Futures partnership with Hello Tractor will enable 24,500 smallholder farmers to gain access to tractor services, as well as train 100 youth entrepreneurs on owning and maintaining a fleet of Smart Tractors. In its partnership with Nigeria, the United States helps stabilize Nigerian society with improved social services, supports transparent and accountable governance, promotes a more market-oriented economy, and enhances the countrys capacity as a responsible regional and trade partner. China's exports and imports fell more than expected in July in a rocky start to the third quarter, pointing to further weakness in global demand in the aftermath of Britain's decision to leave the European Union. Imports fell 12.5pc from a year earlier, the biggest decline since February, suggesting China's domestic demand may be faltering despite a flurry of measures to stimulate economic growth. "I think (the drop in imports) is mainly from the demand side," said Ma Xiaoping, an economist at HSBC in Beijing. Government efforts to cut overcapacity could produce an even bigger hit to demand in the next few quarters, Ma added. Exports fell 4.4pc on-year, the General Administration of Customs said yesterday, while adding that it expects pressure on shipments will most likely start to ease in October. That resulted in a trade surplus of $52.31bn (47.22 in July, the biggest since January, versus June's $48.11bn. China's imports have now declined for 21 straight months, while exports have fallen for 12 of 13 months, helping to drag economic growth to its slowest in a quarter of a century. "Signs of stronger manufacturing activity among many of China's key trading partners has so far failed to lift export growth," Capital Economics' China economist Julian Evans-Pritchard said. "Its export growth is likely to remain subdued for some time." Economists polled by Reuters had expected trade to remain weak but show some signs of moderating as factories gear up for orders heading into the peak year-end shopping season. July exports had been expected to fall 3pc. (Reuters) Here are the main business stories from today's papers: Irish Independent * More than 120m (141.2m) of gold could be mined annually from the Co Tyrone countryside within just three years, it has been claimed. And the construction of the gold mine at Curraghinalt near Gortin could also create around 500 jobs for the duration of the build, according to the firm behind it, Dalradian Resources. * The impact of Brexit will be felt worst in Ireland, according to a major survey of leading business and economic experts. The study, by an influential German think-tank, found that Irish analysts were the most pessimistic in Europe about the effect of Britain's withdrawal from the European Union. * Ulster Bank's new boss has said it will switch the loans of under-pressure dairy farmers to interest-only and advance extra working capital to customers affected by swings in milk prices. The move has been welcomed by the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) . The bank's chief executive, Gerry Mallon, told the Irish Independent that the lender wants to work with farm customers who have been affected by the slump in the price of milk to help them ride out the effect of short-term volatility. The Irish Times * The world's biggest food company JBS is to perform a major overhaul of its assets that will see it relocate its headquarters to Ireland. The Brazilian firm will move 30bn worth of assets to Dublin's docklands. * The Dublin Airport Authority sought bids for its 320m second runway project yesterday with work likely to begin on it towards the end of next June. A tender document was issued yesterday that invited bids for the new north runway that was announced earlier in the year. * Property investment firm IRES Reit is expecting its rent roll to rise further after the company posted a gross yield of 6.5pc. Average rent at the company increased to 1,399 a month compared to the same period last year. Irish Examiner * Holidaymakers coming to Dublin will be expecting to spend around 120 a day, according to new research from Lonely Planet. The publisher cites Dublin ahead of Madrid, Berlin, and Tokyo in terms of how expensive it is to visit here. * Limerick-based firm Teckro has raised $6m in Series A funding to continue the expansion of its mobile platform for clinical trials. The life sciences company saw the funding round led by Founders Fund, a Silicon Valley investment firm. * The outsourcing firm Abtran, which operates the helpline for the State's Local Property Tax (LPT), has received fees of 11.7m (including VAT) since March of 2013 from the Revenue Commissioners. This follows new figures from Revenue showing that Abtran received 1.14m from Revenue for providing the helpline service for the first six months of this year. First-time buyers are now borrowing an average of 183,000 Stock photo: Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire The mortgage market is bouncing back with a jump in the number of home loans drawn down. In the April to June period the number of mortgages drawn down rose to 6,800, the banks said. This was up 25pc compared with the previous quarter, with the market now at the highest level it was at since 2010. First-time buyers still represent the largest number of buyers, accounting for almost half of all drawdowns, the Banking & Payments Federation Ireland data indicates. The 6,803 mortgages had a value of 1.29bn in the second quarter of this year. Economist with Goodbody Stockbrokers Dermot OLeary said the figures suggest that the market is recovering from the shock of the introduction of Central Bank mortgage lending caps. The latest mortgage data suggests the hangover following the introduction of the macro-prudential rules is wearing off, with good momentum going into the second half of 2016. The banking figures indicate that property prices are holding up. The average amount drawn down by both first-time and mover-purchasers has risen by around 30,000 in the past three years. First-time buyers are now borrowing an average of 183,000. Just over 230,000 is being borrowed by the average mover, the figures show. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry hosted the sixth round of the U.S.-Colombia High-Level Partnership Dialogue August 1. Through these dialogues the United States and Colombia have strengthened their cooperation as Colombia prepares to end the longest running civil conflict in the world. Under President Barack Obamas Peace Colombia plan, the United States has developed a strategy that will support the Colombian governments efforts to provide security, strengthen the rule of law, protect human rights, and generate economic opportunities in areas that have been most negatively affected by the conflict with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. It is going to be crucial that those who have been victimized by the violence have a means of redress, said Secretary Kerry, and an assurance that those most responsible for abuses will be held accountable. At the same time, the United States and its partner Norway have launched the Global Demining Initiative for Colombia to help Colombia rid itself of land mines within five years. Last year in Colombia, 222 people, including 27 children, were killed or injured by land mines a toll that is higher than any country in the world except Afghanistan. Education was also a topic of discussion at the high-level dialogue. Colombia now ranks second in the Western Hemisphere as grant winners for the 100,000 Strong in the Americas Innovation Fund grants. Finally, the dialogue covered the subjects of democracy and good governance. The United States welcomes the steps that Colombia is taking to ensure that women are able to participate fully in economic and political life, and to defend and expand human rights and the role of civil society. We continue to count on Colombias partnership in defending human rights at the Organization of American States and the United Nations, said Secretary Kerry. The United States welcomes the opportunity to work with Colombia to ensure that peace is finally achieved and prosperity and security are shared by all Colombians. Millions of tonnes of food are thrown away in the UK every year, with Britain wasting more than any other European country. Now a group of entrepreneurs have built an app that they hope will cut down on waste by allowing restaurants to sell food that they otherwise would have thrown away at knock-down prices. Too Good To Go, an app that launched in several UK cities this year and is now arriving in London, shows users local restaurants that are willing to sell high-quality dishes for between 2 and 3.80 often less than half the normal price. Users of the iOS and Android app pay with a credit card and collect food from the restaurant during a time slot, which is often as a cafe closes, or after lunch or dinner. The food on display, while perfectly edible, would otherwise have contributed to the estimated 15 million tonnes of produce disposed of in the UK every year. At the same time as saving on waste, Too Good To Go says the app can generate extra revenue for restaurants, although it says that cutting down on waste is often seen as a bigger priority. The apps co-founder Chris Wilson told the Evening Standard that it had signed up 95 restaurants in London, although most of them were smaller, independent ones. Most of the places tend to be independent or just small chains because it is really hard to crack the big companies, he said. 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 app, invented by a group of friends when in Denmark who returned to the UK to launch it, has already been embraced in Brighton, Leeds, London and Manchester. It takes a fee from restaurants for each sale, although it says it is not focused on making big profits and reinvests income into expanding the project. Although households account for the vast majority of thrown away food, restaurants throw away around 600,000 tonnes of food a year, according to a 2010 report. Last week, Italy adopted a new law to cut food waste that simplifies the donation of excess food. Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022] Tyrrells Crisps has been sold again in a deal that values the business at 300m Tyrrells Crisps, the British upmarket snack business, has been sold in a 300m (351m) deal to an American popcorn maker. Amplify Snack Brands, a $1bn New York listed company, is best known for its healthy SkinnyPop brand, while Tyrrells more indulgent Poshcorn, which includes flavours such as summer strawberries and cream and lemon cupcake, is the fastest growing popcorn brand in Britain. Tyrrells was founded in 2002 by William Chase, a farmer turned crisps and vodka entrepreneur, who started the business as an answer to his struggling Herefordshire farms reject potatoes. Mr Chase made 30m when he sold the business in 2008 to private equity firm Langholm Capital and Tyrrells changed hands again in a 100m deal to Gulf-based Investcorp in 2013. After Langholm Capital dropped Mr Chases potato farm as a supplier, the entrepreneur used the money he made from the sale to start a vodka distillery on the same farm and now sells more than 10,000 bottles of Chase Distillery vodka a week and exports to 35 countries, including Russia. Under Investcorps ownership Tyrrells has doubled sales to 85m and made 18.3m in earnings last year, while rapidly grown internationally with overseas accounting for 40pc of group revenues. In May, Tyrrells bought a German organic crisp maker as part of its ambition to become the biggest premium snack brand in the world. Tyrrells, which has Lifes a shindig as its strapline, has also forayed into vegetable and sweet potato crisps. Tyrrells is a great British success story which weve been delighted to play a part in, said Carsten Hagenbucher, managing director in Investcorps European Corporate Investment team. Three years ago we saw the opportunity to export a fantastic domestic brand and that has been our focus, through two transformative acquisitions - both of which were proprietary deals - and by driving growth in the UK and many international markets. Mr Hagenbucher said that the Bahraini private equity firm, which has its European office in London, would continue to look at investments in the UK despite Britain's decision to leave the EU. Investcorp was advised by Houlihan Lokey while Amplify was advised by bankers at Jefferies. Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022] Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson in the film adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey. The next celebrity bromance? Cillian Murphy has admitted that working with Jamie Dornan on new World War II flick Anthropoid became intimate at times. The Irish actors star alongside each other in the film, where it seems they developed a close relationship from working on set together. Peaky Blinders star Cillian Murphy said that himself and Dornan have gone on to stay friends, despite filming ending. Expand Close Actors Anna Geislerova, Cillian Murphy and Jamie Dornan attend the New York premiere of "Anthropoid" at AMC Lincoln Square Theater on August 4, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Mireya Acierto/FilmMagic) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Actors Anna Geislerova, Cillian Murphy and Jamie Dornan attend the New York premiere of "Anthropoid" at AMC Lincoln Square Theater on August 4, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Mireya Acierto/FilmMagic) Irish people dont like talking fondly about other Irish people, joked Murphy in an interview with Mashable. Id say it like this, you know you make a lot of films and you spend time with people and it gets quite intimate, its quite intense...but there are only some times when you stay friends, and this was one of those, he said of his friendship with the 50 Shades of Grey actor. It seems that the two lads had plenty of fun while filming in Prague, with Murphy saying: We did a lot of messing on set. "If you were in that space all the time you would just lose your mind, so we did keep it lightthere was good fun." Expand Close Cillian Murphy as Thomas Shelby in Peaky Blinders / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Cillian Murphy as Thomas Shelby in Peaky Blinders The pair also spoke about their favourite comfort foods, with Dornans being American candy Milk Duds and Murphys being popcorn. "I like popcorn, but I like to put some tabasco sauce on the popcorn, like a lot," said the 40-year-old actor, to which Dornan replied, You can take the boy out of Cork Anthropoid is a World War II film based on the true story of two Czech soldiers sent to carry out the assassination of SS officer Reinhard Heydrich, Hitlers third in command, which became known as Operation Anthropoid. Noel Duggan, Ciaran Brennan, Moya Brennan, Padraig Duggan and Paul Brennan of Irish group Clannad pose on November 24, 1982. (Photo by H. McCarthy/Express/Getty Images) Padraig Duggan, musician and founding member of Clannad has died at 67. The musician, songwriter and founding member of Irish Celtic music pioneers, Clannad, died early today in Blanchardstown Hospital, following a recurring illness. Padraig, who played guitar and mandolin, was one of the founding members of Clannad, having formed the group in the early 1970s with his twin brother Noel. Their breakthrough, and the beginning of worldwide acclaim, came in 1982 when their theme song for the TV mini-series, Harrys Game became a UK hit. The band released 25 albums and won many awards, including an Ivor Novello (1982), BAFTA (1984) and a Grammy (1999), as well as an Irish Meteor and BBC Folk Lifetime Achievement Award. Clannad also contributed a track to the Oscar-winning drama The Last of the Mohicans, painstakingly researching the Mohican tribe to write the lyrics in their near-extinct language. My dear uncle and Clannad member Padraig Duggan passed away peacefully this morning. Rest in Peace Padraig @ClannadMusic Moya Brennan (@moyaclannad) August 9, 2016 They were also the first ever band to perform in Irish on Top of the Pops. His niece, musician Moya Brennan, took to Twitter to share the sad news of her uncle's death. "My dear uncle and Clannad member Padraig Duggan passed away peacefully this morning. Rest in Peace Padraig." The musician is survived by his wife Jan. Donegal News report that his wake will take place at his home in Palmerstown in Dublin from 6pm today. The removal will take place in Gweedore, Donegal, arriving at St Marys Church Derrybeg at 7pm Wednesday with a funeral mass at 1pm Thursday. Celebrity chef Dylan McGrath's restaurant is back in business after a one-day closure Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins Celebrity chef Dylan McGrath has said it's "business as usual" after the temporary closure of his Fade Street Social venue last month. The TV chef has said that the one-day closure was the result of a plumbing issue that arose within the popular Dublin 2 eatery. "It was a drainage issue. They were closed for a day but now it's back to business as usual," he said. "It's all back to normal now. Business is really good." The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) issued the order last month, resulting in the temporary closure of the venue on July 15. Read more: Dylan McGrath shuts Dublin restaurant over drains problem As is standard procedure, the FSAI did not outline the exact reason for the closure in a statement released yesterday. However, the three-storey venue was open again the following day after the problem was swiftly rectified and they issued an apology to customers for the inconvenience. A spokesperson said they had "no alternative but to close on the Friday night" and thanked everyone for their patience. The closure order imposed on Fade Street Social was one of five such orders served in July under the FSAI Act 1988. The other venues hit by Closure Orders were in Cork; Cavan; Donegal and Dublin 8. Closure orders can refer to the immediate closure of all or part of the food premises, or all or some of its activities. Fade Street Social, which opened in December 2012, is one of south Dublin's busiest venues and is comprised of a Tapas bar, a more formal restaurant area, a cocktail bar and an outdoor balcony area. Read more: Plumbing issue forces Dylan McGrath restaurant Fade Street Social to close its doors It built up quite the celebrity following and among those who have passed through its doors are superstar Beyonce, who dined there after her 2014 gig. Chart-toppers U2 also hosted the band's wrap party for their world tour there last December. Meanwhile, Mr McGrath has confirmed that he won't be involved in the new instalment of Celebrity Masterchef. However, he wished the programme makers the best of luck with the new version. A previous hit for RTE, the culinary competition programme will now be made for TV3 after they bought the rights to the show. Celebrities including Holly Carpenter, Simon Delaney and Olympia medallist Sonia O'Sullivan have all been mooted to take part. The show, which was axed by RTE in 2014, has currently gone into pre-production. A South African man, jailed for possession and sale of drugs, has lost a legal challenge in the High Court against a deportation order that will send him home while his two Irish-born children remain in Ireland. Mr Justice Richard Humphreys said the applicant and his wife, who is also South African, married in their home country and came to Ireland in the late 1990s. They had two children in the State. The man had applied for and was refused refugee status and lost an appeal against the decision but had been granted leave to remain on the basis of being the father of an Irish citizen child. He had made two applications for a certificate of naturalisation which had both been refused. The judge said the man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was then convicted of the drug related offences following a trial by jury and had been imprisoned. The man had later been granted enhanced remission of sentence by the Minister who had already issued a proposal to deport him. The deportation order was formally made against him later. Judge Humphreys said the man had legally challenged his deportation claiming the Justice Ministers decision to deport him was in contradiction with the fact that she, through the Irish Prison Services, had granted him enhanced remission in recognition of a reduced risk of re-offending and in recognition of his efforts at rehabilitation. The judge said the Minister had based her deportation order on a series of reasons including the seriousness of the mans offence and his failure to acknowledge responsibility for it as he had maintained his innocence, contending there had been a miscarriage of justice. The decision to deport him had also been based on the possibility that the economic difficulties caused by his conviction and imprisonment would create a potential for future criminality and obtaining a job, making him a burden to the State. Judge Humphreys said it was legitimate for the State to take a hard line in respect of deportation of offenders convicted on indictment but it was not too much to ask that before a prisoner was afforded a rehabilitative benefit some step would be taken to ascertain formally if he or she accepted responsibility for the offence. Nor is it too much to ask that before a non-national prisoner is released, some inquiry is made within the same Department as to what his fate is in terms of deportation, the judge said. The man, a father of two Irish citizens, had also claimed that his children should not be punished for his sins. The judge said that such a proposed rule of law would be a jurisprudential Indian rope trick where a rope was suspended in the air without any visible means of support. Sentiments of sympathy for affected children are all well and good but such sentiments do not warrant a transfer to the judiciary of the function of making executive decisions, he said. No error in the process of assessment of proportionality had been demonstrated and serious offending required serious consequences. Deportation had been a civil consequence of the applicants offending behaviour. It is a shame that the applicant will now be separated from his family but he should have thought about their rights and interests prior to his offending behaviour, the judge said, dismissing the mans application. The material submitted to the Minister does not clearly set out why the family could not move to South Africa as a unit, he said. Nearly 6 years ago, in November 2010, President Barack Obama visited India, meeting with Indias then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and numerous high-level officials. During the three-day visit, a number of agreements were signed by the governments of both countries, among them an agriculture partnership to address global food security. Out of this effort grew the Triangular Cooperation training program, which aims to address food security in Africa, and now also Asia, by adapting technological advances and innovative solutions. The first stage of the program focused on Kenya, Liberia and Malawi, with potential to expand throughout the African Continent in future. The pilot training program was enormously successful. Seven training seminars were offered to 219 executives from the target countries, who then began to implement many of the innovative ideas and practices that improve food security and nutrition, in their home countries. The results generated a considerable interest among a number of African and Asian countries. In late July, the United States, with USAID in the lead, and Indias Ministry of Agriculture, initiated the programs second phase. Named Feed the Future India Triangular Training Program, the program aims to offer similar training to 1500 agricultural practitioners from 17 countries in Africa and Asia Afghanistan, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Mongolia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania,and Uganda. The programs second phase, which consists of 32 courses offered in India and another twelve that will be taught in the target countries, will help increase agricultural productivity by teaching best practices and harnessing the expertise and innovation of experts in the United States and India. The program, said U.S. Ambassador to India, Richard Verma, enables us to share these innovations worldwide, helping other countries revolutionize their agriculture practices and bringing solutions to aid farmers in their production, harvesting and marketing of goods. Ultimately, he said, by sharing best practices and enhancing farming techniques, we are benefitting the wider world by improving nutrition levels. A TEENAGER found guilty of an assault at a children's home where a care worker had a wok full of scalding food thrown over him has had sentencing adjourned until September. The attack happened after the troubled boy (17) got angry that care workers would not take him out for a drive because of his aggressive behaviour, the Dublin Children's Court heard. Judge John O'Connor was told the incident took place at a residential care home for teens in Dublin on a date last August. The care worker said the teenager got up at 11am that day and was aggressive and constantly making demands for lifts in the facility's car. However, because of his behaviour they refused and he began threatening the staff. He began cooking some food on a wok. Another staff member who had gone out for a little while returned and asked how he had behaved and the teen replied that he was okay. However, the victim told his colleague that the youth had not been okay and had been aggressive and threatening. Previously the teen had been involved in a lot of "unauthorised absences" from the unit. He said the boy was 15 to 20 feet away from him holding the wok "with a full fry, and he just lobbed it at me, I blocked it with my left arm. He said "it happened so quickly I just had time to put my hand up, I was covered in boiling meat". After losing the case, during which the victim faced cross-examination, the youth instructed his solicitor to apologise on his behalf however the judge had said I'm not buying it. He said the victim was put under pressure as if his behaviour had contributed to the incident when there was no evidence of that. The court heard the youth had seven prior criminal convictions for criminal damage and public order offences and he had been given a suspended sentence earlier this year. He is also awaiting trial for another alleged assault. He was accompanied to the hearing by his guardian ad litem and his parents. At the end of the hearing he issued a direct apology to the victim. His voice was shaking as he spoke: I'd like to say I'm sorry, you shouldn't have been in that situation regardless how I was feeling at that time. I should not have thrown the pan at you and acted aggressively. I was going through a lot of stuff at the time, I was not thinking what I was doing, I wasn't thinking I would end up in a situation like this. I'm honestly sorry, you took care of me when I was there and I did get on with you well. The care worker said he accepted the apology and thanked the teen. He was granted bail and sentencing was adjourned allow a probation report on him to be furnished to the court. The court heard he has been in care since early childhood and displacement issues. He has also been referred to a drug abuse counselling service. Defence counsel Damian McKeone said the teen accepted he had anger management issues. The cyber attack forced IT staff to shut down a number of systems, causing disruption across the Garda network (stock photo) Garda computer systems were restored last night after a malicious cyber attack was discovered on their internal network. A malware threat that occurred last Thursday forced garda IT staff to shut down a number of systems across the organisation. The threat caused significant disruption across the garda network, including some gardai being unable to access their official email accounts. Although detectives from the computer crime unit are conducting an investigation to find the source of the attack, garda bosses last night confirmed the issue has been resolved. "An Garda Siochana can confirm that normal service to Garda systems was restored," a spokesman said. "As a precaution, heightened security measures have been put in place. "Working with security experts the threat was identified and an appropriate solution was implemented across all Garda Information and Communications Technology (ICT) system." The spokesman added that access to certain systems was temporarily removed for all users across the organisation. "Any security risks to the Garda ICT systems are treated with the highest importance and standard security protocols are implemented," said the spokesman. Intelligence reports, as well as the personal information of victims of crime - who are referred to as an 'injured party' - are stored on the Garda Pulse system, while forensic and DNA evidence are also stored electronically. The force also moved to reassure any fears that sensitive documents were hacked as part of the malware threat. The gardai said that "no data was compromised" and that neither the Pulse system or garda website was affected. The ICT office was established in July 2008 in an effort to bring all ICT functions within the organisation into a single integrated unit. Providing a service desk to more than 16,500 users, the ICT section deals with the management of emergency 999 calls, case management and character vetting. The force's IT systems have been criticised by the Garda Inspectorate, with the independent body describing the systems as decades out of date. In its 2015 report, the Inspectorate emphasised the need for "major upgrades" in the Garda IT system. St James's Hospital in Dublin is facing a "mass exodus" of nursing staff over the removal of 300 car parking spaces, a union has warned. The spaces have been removed to allow for the construction of the long-awaited children's hospital on the site. Expand Close Nurse Dominica Orawrska Photo: Gerry Mooney / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Nurse Dominica Orawrska Photo: Gerry Mooney The change was flagged with staff in 2015 but only came into effect this week. A spokeswoman for the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) said nursing staff may now choose to move to other hospitals that are more convenient. Additional parking for staff has been secured at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham and a shuttle service is in operation to bring staff to and from the site. Nurses are considering taking industrial action over the issue, stating that the safety of staff walking to and from the hospital was at risk. A spokeswoman for the INMO said nurses travelling from afar have no option other than to drive to work, as public transport operating hours mean it is impossible to get to the hospital in time for the start of their shifts. She said nurses enjoy working at the hospital, but may be forced to leave. Cliona O'Byrne, from Skerries, has been working at the hospital for more than 16 years. She said she is considering moving to another hospital such as Our Lady of Lourdes, Drogheda. "There's no train and Luas that will get me into work on time for a shift at 7.30am - it's just not possible for me to take public transport," Cliona said. Nurse Dominica Orawska (21), from Tallaght, said it's unfair to expect staff to go to the Royal Hospital Kilmainham to get their car after a 13-hour shift. "In the winter, when it's dark, it's not the safest area to be walking around," she said. Health Minister Simon Harris has announced a new five-point action plan to reduce hospital waiting lists by the end of the year. Last month, the number of public patients in the queue for an outpatient appointment, surgery or procedure hit a record 530,000. Speaking to RTE Radio Ones Morning Ireland, the Fine Gael TD said he will be implementing five initiatives to tackle overcrowding. Theres absolutely a need to make sustained investment in waiting list initiatives. Im going to put my hands up and say that I genuinely believe it was a significant mistake to deactivate the NTPF (National Treatment Purchase Fund), he said, referring to the independent body which had its funding slashed in 2014. "Whatever people think of the ideology, if youre sitting at home today and youre in need of an operation, what you dont want is a big ideological debate, what you want is action. We now have a situation in relation to waiting lists where we clearly need targeted, funded actions. The Wicklow and East Carlow TD said that in this years Budget, set to be released in October, there will be at least 50m devoted to waiting list initiatives, and that 15m of that sum will go to the NTPF. Mr Harris added that he had ring-fenced 1m for the NTPF to carry out 3,000 endoscopies over the coming months, and advised the body to prepare proposals for him for next year. But thats not enough. What are we going to do this year, in 2016? Were in August, weve a number of months left in the year and waiting lists are unacceptably high, he said. He explained that he has developed a five-point action plan listing initiatives that can be taken between now and the end of the year. The first point pledges to reduce the number of patients waiting more than 18 months for inpatient procedures by 50pc. Thats about 7,500 people. Weve got to start with the people waiting the longest, thats the fairest and equitable way, he said. The second initiative targets waiting list accuracy, and clinical validation of all inpatient waiting lists will be carried out by the end of the month. Mr Harris explained that clinical validation means that doctors will review each patients files and decide when a patient needs a procedure, to eliminate mistakes and ensure the list is arranged in chronological order. The third step will see a special delivery unit visiting hospitals to oversee the implementation of a waiting list improvement plan. The fourth action requires the appointment of an improvement lead, which he described as a person specifically responsible for tackling waiting lists. That person will be tasked with making sure hospitals are carrying out the maximum amount of procedures possible. For the final point in the plan, Mr Harris said he has requested waiting list proposals from the HSE that could be carried out for this year, which will be delivered by the end of the month. He noted that as well as the 50m in the Budget for waiting list initiatives, there will be an additional 40m allocated for home help, to assist patients who can continue their treatments at home rather than in the hospital. Mr Harris declined to offer a minimum figure for the improvements hed like to see in a years time, instead offering his plan as a vision for the future. This is no longer about asking hospitals to do more with less, its about asking hospitals to do more with more, he said. Im not going to give you an arbitrary figure today, Im going to give you a plan and a vision. We now have an action plan for a waiting list for this year and a funded plan for next year. Garda Jordan Perez with Shannon Airport Police Fire Services Eamonn Power as the Shannon Airport Police Fire Service give an amazing display for the visitors. Garda Ceejay McArdle as the Shannon Airport Police Fire Service give an amazing display for the visitors. Garda Ceejay McArdle with Shannon Airport Police Fire Services Eamonn Power as the Shannon Airport Police Fire Service give an amazing display for the visitors. The countrys youngest gardai were treated to a special surprise during an inspection of Shannon Airports VIP room. On Tuesday, Ceejay McArdle (4), from Castleblaney, Co Monaghan, and Jordan Perez (8), from Sixmilebridge, were delighted to meet Munster and Ireland rugby player CJ Stander at the airport. Expand Close Garda Ceejay McArdle as the Shannon Airport Police Fire Service give an amazing display for the visitors. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Garda Ceejay McArdle as the Shannon Airport Police Fire Service give an amazing display for the visitors. Ceejay, who is undergoing treatment for leukaemia, became the youngest ever member of An Garda Siochana last year. He was joined by Jordan, who has muscular dystrophy and uses a wheelchair, as they carried out security checks for the day with Chief Superintendent John Kerin and Superintendent Brendan McDonagh. The event was organised as part of the ongoing community initiative by the Garda Relations Bureau (GRB). Speaking about his visit, CJ Stander said: Ive been through Shannon many times. But this is one of the days I have enjoyed the most as these are two fantastic and brave young boys. Expand Close Garda Ceejay McArdle meets hero rugby player CJ Stander at Shannon Airport. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Garda Ceejay McArdle meets hero rugby player CJ Stander at Shannon Airport. They put a smile on my face certainly and I was delighted to meet them. You could meet just about anyone out here but Im not sure I could have met any better than Ceejay and Jordan. As well as getting the chance to chat with their hero, the boys flew into Shannon on the Department of Marines search and rescue helicopter, and received a special water cannon salute from the Airport Police Fire Service. After a tour of the fire station, the boys had lunch with their families and took out a tour of Shannon Garda Station. While they were put to work handing out high visibility safety goods to motorists at a checkpoint, Ceejay and Jordan enjoyed tours of the Atlantic AirVenture Aviation Museum and Centre, as well as complimentary VIP passes to Bunratty Castle and Folk Park. Expand Close Garda Jordan Perez with Shannon Airport Police Fire Services Eamonn Power as the Shannon Airport Police Fire Service give an amazing display for the visitors. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Garda Jordan Perez with Shannon Airport Police Fire Services Eamonn Power as the Shannon Airport Police Fire Service give an amazing display for the visitors. Weve a lot of great members of the force but its fair to say that Ceejay and Jordan are right up there with the best, said Garda Sergeant Ann-Marie Starr, who organised their itinerary for the day. ARRESTED: Ibrahim Halawa travelled to Egypt in 2013 where he took part in protests Lawyers for an Irishman detained for three years without trial in Egypt are to submit a new formal application for his release within days. Solicitors for Ibrahim Halawa insisted the request for a presidential release decree would proceed despite a recent statement in the Egyptian parliament strongly defending the 20-year-old's detention. Mr Halawa was 17 when he was arrested along with his three sisters in a mosque near Cairo's Ramses Square as the Muslim Brotherhood held a "day of rage" over the removal of their elected president Mohamed Morsi. The family insisted they were taking refugee from the protests. His sisters were later released but Mr Halawa, from Firhouse in south Dublin, has been in custody ever since facing a mass trial along with almost 500 other alleged dissenters. Now 20, he is facing the death penalty if found guilty. The case has been adjourned 14 times. Mr Halawa staged a hunger strike protest last year and is again currently refusing food. Earlier in the summer both houses of the Irish parliament passed motions denouncing his "unacceptable" detention. However, at the weekend, Egypt's House of Representatives objected to the calls for Mr Halawa's release. His solicitor Darragh Mackin said the stance of the parliament had no basis in law and would not impact the application to President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, whom he said held ultimate authority over the issue. A previous bid for presidential intervention failed in early 2015. Reacting to the stance of the Egyptian parliament, Mr Mackin said: "There is no hiding from the fact that such a politically charged statement is concerning, and unconstructive, in working towards Ibrahim's release. "It is however a political statement, and has no basis in law, nor is it a direct response to the application for Ibrahim's release. "Ibrahim Halawa is entitled to the presumption of innocence. No evidence has been produced by the state of Egypt to support these allegations, and no finding has been made against Ibrahim by the Egyptian courts." He added: "There is no prospect that Ibrahim will receive a fair trial. A request for Ibrahim's immediate release under the Egyptian presidential decree law 140 is now imminent. It is expected that this request will be lodged before the end of the week." The United States places high value on the principles of transparency and accountability in government. That was Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Michael Kozak's message to the Organization of American States in late July. This is a critical time across the Western Hemisphere as unprecedented prosecutions, brave media reporting, and peaceful citizen protests against corruption are taking place. Citizens in Latin America are fully aware that corruption siphons off billions of dollars that could feed children, build schools, and improve infrastructure. Corruption stifles economic growth and promotes inequality. It aids and abets human rights abuses, fuels organized crime and instability. That's why people across the Western Hemisphere are organizing to demand better governance. And they are finding that they can effect change democratically and peacefully. Through the Open Government Partnership, governments are able to demonstrate to their citizens a commitment to accountability and transparency. With this in mind, the U.S. supports the fact that civil society is increasingly engaged in anti-corruption efforts as they amplify the voice of the governed. The U.S. welcomes the establishment of the OAS Mission Against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras. The U.S. has supported this program through 5.2 million dollars in contributions, and this assistance will serve an important role in tackling long-term corruption networks and improving rule of law in Honduras. There are also laudable efforts underway in Guatemala. The U.N. Commission Against impunity in Guatemala continues to combat corruption and impunity as well as build up Guatemalan rule of law capacity. This commission has been a vital ally to victims of impunity and public prosecutors as it has acted as an anchor for rule of law issues and a catalyst for judicial reform. In the tradition of these successes, the United States looks forward to advancing the principles of accountability, transparency and democracy elsewhere in the hemisphere. AN Irish politician who helped mastermind the marriage equality referendum has called for a debate within the Catholic Church on celibacy as well as female and gay priests. The call came as former Fine Gael TD Jerry Buttimer, who spent five years in Maynooth seminary, warned that the Church, just like Ireland, cannot continue to avoid such issues and need to face them in an open, honest and inclusive fashion. Senator Buttimer spent five years in Maynooth before opting not to pursue the priesthood. However, the Cork-based politician remains a committed Catholic and said the Church urgently needs to have an informed debate over celibacy and how to better include women and members of the LGBT community in its congregation. "As a former seminarian and someone who has great faith, who is not anti-Church but pro-Church, I believe the events of the last week have highlighted the need for the hierarchy to embrace a new model of Church," he said. "This should address celibacy, the role of women in the Church, the role of LGBT people, married priests, female priests and gay people who want to be priests." Ironically, senior Church figures including the late Bishop Edward Daly also took the view that priestly celibacy needed to be reviewed in light of how successfully married priests have operated in other Christian churches. Sen Buttimer said he was "very saddened" by the tone of the debate over recent weeks about the so-called gay culture at Maynooth. "I don't think this should be viewed simply through the narrow prism of a gay dating app in Maynooth," he said. "Obviously, the current model of Church has failed. We have seen a decline in vocations and we have seen parishes having to amalgamate. I am interested in seeing a model of Church that is inclusive and this is the ideal opportunity for us to move forward." Sen Buttimer said the Church simply had to respond to modern challenges. "The Church is nothing without its people - all of its people. Many of us are praying for an open and inclusive Church that welcomes all of its people." "Unfortunately it just hasn't happened yet." Sen Buttimer said no-one should be surprised that there are gay priests - he said he studied in Maynooth and remains friends with priests who are gay. "The time I spent in Maynooth was a different time. The formation was one of developing all of us into men of faith and pastoral leaders." "But I know there are gay priests - there were priests in my class who were gay. There were friends of mine who left who were gay." "That is their business. There are also friends of mine (from Maynooth) who are heterosexual." "I don't think this should be simply focusing on the issue of celibacy of sexuality. It is how we can deliver a model of Church that is different and which reaches out to young people, old people and offers a vibrant, modern Church." Sen Buttimer said that while his faith is very strong he never regretted leaving Maynooth. "I never regretted entering or leaving Maynooth," he said, stressing he has less faith in the Church hierarchy which he described as "a protective, secretive organisation for far too long." "But I don't think we should forget the fact that there are many fundamentally decent and honorable men and women in pastoral roles across the Church who are doing incredible work across our villages, towns and cities." "That, to me, is the witness to the Gospel that you treat people with dignity and respect. Unfortunately, I have little faith in the institutional Church and the hierarchy. The leadership has left a lot to be desired." Tesco has lost millions on two expensive property deals Supermarket giant Tesco has decided to pull the plug on two expensive property investments. The company spent around 5m buying land for new outlets in Ballybofey and Letterkenny. The UK retailer has just one store in Co Donegal - in Letterkenny - but wanted to add a petrol retail outlet close by. The proposal was opposed by local businessman Eddie Tobin who runs an exiting outlet a few hundred metres away. The company went through several planning appeals in an effort to open the forecourt on a 0.32 hectare site, and was eventually granted planning permission. Tesco faced similar planning constraints on a more ambitious project in Ballybofey. Opposition Donegal County Council granted planning permission in 2011 for a 4,300 sq metre outlet in the town. It is believed Tesco paid more than 3m for the site. However, An Bord Pleanala overturned the council decision to give the go-ahead for the store. Tesco has confirmed it has now sold the six-acre site as well as the site of its proposed Letterkenny fuel forecourt. "I can confirm the two sites have been sold and as such no longer form part of our development portfolio," said a company spokeswoman. The company is in the process of selling 25 sites across the Republic as part of a cost-cutting drive after abandoning major expansion plans. Tesco maintains 149 outlets in the country, employing 15,000 people. The retailer has had a number of difficult years and faced an investigation in Britain into the misreporting of company profits. But it reported an 8.7pc sales growth here for the first quarter, driven by its focus on in-store price cuts and promotions. Bishop Edward Daly will be forever be remembered as the priest waving a bloodied white handkerchief on Bloody Sunday in January 1972. This iconic image of a priest leading a group of people through the streets of Derry in search of medical assistance for Jackie Duddy became a symbol of the struggle for peace in the North. Harried by British soldiers, by the day's end the troops had gunned down 13 civil rights protesters, leaving an indelible scar on the city. Although born in Beleek, Co Fermanagh, on December 5, 1933, the people and city of Derry held a special place in Bishop Daly's heart. He was educated at St Columb's College, Derry, and studied for the priesthood in the Irish College in Rome. He was ordained a priest on March 16, 1957. He then spent 17 years of parish ministry as a curate in Castlederg and Derry and almost 20 years as bishop of Derry before ill health forced him into retirement. Popular within his diocese and well beyond, there was much regret at the time that a reforming voice should be lost to the hierarchy so early in his episcopacy. In retirement, he ministered for over 20 years as a chaplain at Foyle Hospice, which provides palliative care for patients with life-limiting illnesses. Up to last year, he had ministered to over 800 people who died at the hospice. In an interview with the Catholic Times newspaper last year, Bishop Daly admitted that while he loved his priesthood, he was "a somewhat reluctant bishop". He wrote about his years in parish ministry in his book, 'Mister, Are You a Priest?' He worked for a short period with RTE in late 1973 and early 1974 before he was ordained to the See of Derry on March 31, 1974, in St Eugene's Cathedral. He had just turned 40 and he became the youngest bishop in Ireland and one of the youngest bishops in Europe at the time. The Provisional IRA and the British Army observed an unofficial truce for the day in Derry. At his first Mass as Bishop of Derry, he said in his homily that he deplored the use of violence of any kind. "Surely it must be clear to everyone by now that violence creates far more problems than it can ever hope to solve." Last year, Bishop Daly and his Church of Ireland counterpart, Bishop James Mahaffey, were made Freemen of the City of Derry, joining such notables as British statesman Winston Churchill, Nobel Peace Laureate John Hume and Dr Tom McGinley, a local GP who founded Foyle Hospice. The honour was made in recognition of the ecumenism, courage and Christian values that the two church leaders had shown in helping to build bridges across divided communities and to pave the way for dialogue and peace in Northern Ireland. In a tribute, the current Bishop of Derry, Dr Donal McKeown, described them as "two courageous figures who took huge risks for peace in the most difficult years of the Troubles". One of his "great heroes" was Derry native John Hume, without whom he was convinced peace wouldn't have come to Northern Ireland, as it was Hume's ideas that were adopted. The bishop believed John Hume's "fingerprints were all over the Good Friday Agreement, just as they were all over the Sunningdale Agreement". Dr Daly was at the heart of efforts to tackle the dereliction of Derry city centre through a charitable trust which bought properties and involved local young people in redeveloping them. By the time he retired from the Inner City Trust in early 2000, it had a portfolio of property worth 25m and all its debts had been cleared. A product of Vatican II, in his 2011 memoir, 'A Troubled See', Bishop Daly discussed ending the compulsory celibacy for priests. A resident for over 60 years, Dr. Hugh Collett brought devoted patient care to Elkoans and contributed to the founding of Great Basin College, dedicating his life to improving the quality of medical facilities and higher education in Elko. Hugh S. Collett was born in 1921 in Chicago, Illinois to Dr. George and Ruth Collett. He earned his medical degree from Northwestern Medical School and completed post-graduate studies at the University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, Caylor-Nickel Clinic and St. Josephs Hospital in San Francisco. During World War II, Hugh served in the Navy and was commissioned as a captain in the Air Force. He was stationed in Bermuda for two years beginning in 1951 and was named Chief of Surgery and Radiology. In 1954, Dr. Collett moved to Elko and joined Elko Clinic. His father had been a founding partner of the Clinic in 1948 and died a few months before Hughs arrival. With his wife, Louise, they raised their four children in Elko: Karen, Diane, Virginia and George Richard. Dr. Collett teamed with Dr. Thomas Hood in surgery and pathology at Elko General Hospital, assisting each other for most major cases. Hugh also worked with other physicians to develop the Elko Clinic into a medical center, his fathers dream. The Clinic received accreditation from the American Group Practice Association and was called the finest of its size in the United States. Additionally, Dr. Collett promoted higher education for rural Nevada, becoming one of the founders of Elko Community College, now Great Basin College, and serving on the advisory board since 1967. He also served 12 years on the Elko County School Board. Dr. Collett has participated in several civic groups and organizations including the Chamber of Commerce, Rotary International, Silver Stage Players and the Northeastern Nevada Museum. He was a founding member of the Elko Navy League and has served as an elder of the First Presbyterian Church. Hugh also has memberships in many surgical and medical societies including the American Board of Surgery. Retiring in 1984, Dr. Collett has been honored for his work in education and medicine. He was named Emeritus Clinical Professor of Surgery at UNR and received the Distinguished Nevadan award from the University of Nevada Board of Regents in 2015. He was awarded an honorary bachelors degree from GBC the same year. Today, Dr. Collett and his wife Louise spend time with their children and grandchildren in Elko and vacation at their cabin in Idaho. The study requires people who are six to ten weeks post treatment Cancer survivors are being asked to take part in a new study on how to reduce fatigue which can affect patients with the disease. The study by Waterford Institute of Technology requires people who are six weeks to 10 years post-treatment for cancers such as breast, colon or prostate. This treatment will have included surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy. PhD scholarship candidate at WIT, Patricia Sheehan has coordinated the study and is searching for participants to assist her in researching the connection between exercise and cancer-related tiredness. The purpose of the study is to develop and evaluate a sustainable semi-supervised exercise training programme to reduce cancer-related fatigue in survivors with documented fatigue and compare changes to those of a health education control group. The study aims to unearth the physiological and psychological aspects of exercise that may help alleviate fatigue among cancer survivors with cancer-related fatigue. "Cancer-related fatigue is the most debilitating and persistent side effect of cancer and its treatment, often lasting years following treatment. There is some evidence to suggest that fatigue can be alleviated by exercise so I felt it important to explore this area further," Sheehan said. For more information on the cancer fatigue-related study, contact Patricia Sheehan on (087) 9670735. James' parents were told he'd never write but he is set to begin his first teaching job in August A young man who was born with a physical disability and told hed never hold a pen has opened up about why he chose to pursue a career in teaching. James Cawley (23), who was born with Arthrogryposis multiplex congenita (AMC), is preparing to begin a new job in Maynooth Community College in August and spoke about his pursuit of a career in education on The Ryan Tubridy Show. Day 23 "He will never write!".. Focus on your abilities 1st class honours in masters of education! #WearBlueForAMC pic.twitter.com/N995gD81Qq AMC Ireland (@AmcirelandIrel) June 23, 2016 AMC is a disorder which affects the bodys joints and causes them to fuse together. In James case, the condition means that his use of his upper and lower limbs is limited and he is a wheelchair user. He also lives with scoliosis and osteoporosis. Speaking to RTE Radio One, James said his wish to become a teacher was borne from a desire to give back. I have been helped all my life and I really wanted to give something back and I think teaching is a great profession to do that. Youre faced with loads of things in the classroom and you watch them develop all the time and its a great process, one I love to be involved in. I graduate in September and Ive actually accepted my first job in Maynooth Community College so Im looking forward to that, he said. Expand Close James spoke to Ryan Tubridy on RTE Radio One. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp James spoke to Ryan Tubridy on RTE Radio One. The young teacher, from Longford, revealed that there were moments throughout his childhood where he did get down about his condition but said he relies on humour as a coping mechanism. As my mother says, if you dont laugh youd cry. Obviously when I was younger I would think Why me but you come up with these coping mechanisms. My coping mechanism is humour and everyone who knows me knows I like to laugh. Its my medicine. If you dont laugh youd cry, he said. James will graduate from Maynooth University in September and said it was important for him to live the student life independently. "When I got offered a place in Maynooth people were asking me was I going to commute and I said absolutely not. Im going to go and live the student life. I did and I took it with both hands and went out into independent living with the service of a personal assistant during the day and night and accessible accommodation on campus. The education graduate also opened up about awkward encounters he has had to approach throughout his time in university, particularly on nights out with his friends. When were out I have a lot of able bodied friends and Id be the only person in a wheelchair and often people would come over when theyre intoxicated and theyll say Youre a great fella for coming out, or I get a pat on the head quite a lot. I am now a Teacher, my PA support has been suspended I got to inform the minister for disability of the challenges pic.twitter.com/xAN5QrIm53 AMC Ireland (@AmcirelandIrel) June 21, 2016 I often get drinks bought for me, and told how I have great courage for going out. Its water off a ducks back now but I always take that opportunity to educate people. Its a bit patronising, he said. As he prepares to graduate next month, James said his success would not have been possible without his Special Needs Assistant Briege McGee, who worked with him throughout primary and secondary school. I first met Briege when I was 5. We were together for thirteen years and she saw me through primary and secondary school. I often tell people that we got divorced after 13 years, James joked. The impact of Briege and having an SNA that works is important because that relationship has to gel so well. Wed often think about the times when I couldnt squeeze the paint out of the paint bottles when it came time to art, and shed put them into the soap bottles so I could do it myself. That was definitely invaluable to learn how to adapt things myself, said James, who is the secretary of Arthrogyposis Association of Ireland. The teacher admitted that it is so important for people with disabilities in Ireland to have the chance to be an advocate for themselves. Its important for people with disabilities in Ireland to be an advocate for themselves. Theres every day challenges and you have to be so strategic and organised and political and its difficult. I can understand why some people with disabilities mightnt go through the education system or have the chance or the opportunity, he said. Monarch is refunding flights to Sharm el Sheikh after extending its cancellation of services to the Egyptian beach resort until February 2017. The airline was hoping to resume flights on October 30 but said that with no update or indications as to when the Foreign Office advice may change it has decided to postpone any chance of resumption to February 9. It is taking bookings on flights from February 10 through to the end of April, but said it will review this in the coming weeks, subject to government advice. The move comes a week after British Prime Minister Theresa May praised Egypts ongoing efforts to improve security at Sharm el-Sheikh airport in a phone conversation with Egyptian President Sisi. Both the UK and Irish foreign affairs advise against non-essential travel to Egypt, although Sharm el-Sheikh is listed as an exception. However, the Irish Aviation Authority has directed Irish airline operators not to operate to/from its airport or in Egyptian Sinai peninsula airspace until further notice. Expand Close The wreckage of the A321 Russian airliner in Wadi al-Zolomat, a mountainous area of Egypts Sinai Peninsula / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The wreckage of the A321 Russian airliner in Wadi al-Zolomat, a mountainous area of Egypts Sinai Peninsula The direction was issued following the crash of a tourist flight en route from Sharm El Sheikh to St. Petersburg shortly after take-off on October 31 of last year, killing 224 Russian passengers and crew. All UK airlines have currently suspended their flights to Sharm el Sheikh, with British Airways announcing earlier this year it has cancelled flights "indefinitely". According to Downing Street, the Prime Minister had recognised the economic effects of the suspension of flights, but there remains no date on the lifting of the travel restrictions. Andrew Swaffield, chief executive of Monarch, said he was disappointed in having to cancel bookings again. Much hard work has been done by the UK and Egyptian governments, along with the travel industry, to improve safety measures at Sharm el-Sheikh Airport and we hope to be able to re-open this important holiday market by February, he said. Monarch, which is offering customers booked on flights either a refund or the chance to move to other dates or routes at no extra cost, is just one airline or tour operator forced to extend repeatedly its cancellation period as the Foreign Office travel restriction remains in place. Some 700,000 Britons visited the popular season-round destination before the ban on flights. Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022] Premium Colette Browne Opinion Every effort must be made to retrieve oral histories of mother and baby home survivors With three days to go until the Mother and Baby Homes Commission ceases to exist as a legal entity, we are being told that audio recordings of hundreds of witnesses which were deleted may not actually be gone forever. It is another usual twist in a most emotional saga. For decades, survivors of mother and baby homes have been denied a voice and denied autonomy. When they fell pregnant, many through rape and abuse, they were marched to the doors of religious institutions. The image of a cowering Fr. Daly waving a bloodstained handkerchief as he led a group of men carrying a mortally wounded teenager through the gunfire of the Parachute Regiment in 1972 is now an icon of modern Irish history. Bloody Sunday and Edward Daly are intrinsically linked and his fearlessness in speaking truth to power in the following hours and days etched him forever into the hearts of the people of Derry and Ireland. I was fortunate to know Edward Daly in several capacities. During the mid-70s, he accepted me as a seminarian for the Derry Diocese and when my father's illness necessitated my returning home to help my mother, he told me that he would always be glad to welcome me back, should that be my choice. I knew him too as a great thespian, who supported and encouraged musical and theatrical talent throughout the northwest. We were both members of the '71 Players and found ourselves working side by side in two plays performed at Derry's Little Theatre. The names of many of Derry's and Donegal's illustrious sons and daughters - Phil Coulter, Seamus Deane, Dana, Roma Downey and the late Joseph Locke, Kevin McCallion, Seamus Heaney and Brian Friel, to name but a few - knew Edward Daly with deep affection and respect. His first memoir was 'Mister, Are You a Priest?'. Daly's memoirs will, I am certain, rank in Irish literature alongside An t-Athar Peadar O'Laoghaire's 'Mo Sceal Fein'. In many respects, Edward Daly's story begins where An t-Athar Peadar's ends. O Laoghaire's life, like Daly's, straddled two centuries but ended just prior to partition. Edward Daly's began a decade later on the Border of two very different and evolving realities. Edward Daly enunciated with great passion on the injustices that the majority Catholic community of Derry encountered under a minority unionist-controlled local government. Poor housing, unemployment and the need for better educational opportunities for young Catholics were amongst the social needs that consumed his pastoral energy. He was supportive of the non-violent aims of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association and grieved the corrupting influence of murder and mayhem that climaxed with Bloody Sunday. He testified before both the Widgery and Saville Bloody Sunday inquiries. In 2001, Bishop Daly entered the witness stand in Derry's Guildhall to testify before the second inquiry. It was a day the bereaved and wounded had waited almost three decades to see. Despite ill health in recent years, his voice was strong and his mind agile and resourceful in unravelling, with great clarity, the mind puzzles which are the lot of lawyers. When asked to comment on an actual theory being proposed by a British legal team that IRA gunmen had been shot dead on Bloody Sunday and secretly buried, he described it with laconic brilliance as "offensive nonsense". With that, the theory itself was buried. When he had concluded his testimony in the mid-afternoon, the gallery erupted. Lord Saville and his co-panellists appeared uncomfortable as they glanced in the direction of the applause. The Derry public were unperturbed. This once-traumatised priest stood as a colossus, filling us with immense admiration and pride. In November 2000, in response to an invitation for him to launch my second investigative book 'The Dublin and Monaghan Bombings', he wrote to me: "I would be happy to officiate at the launch." As with his "offensive nonsense" comment, Bishop Daly had an uncanny skill of speaking historic truths in a few words. I recall on the 25th anniversary of the publication of the Widgery Tribunal report in 1997, he described the culpability of Lord Widgery as having "found the innocent guilty and the guilty innocent". Similarly, despite failing health, at the launch of my book, Bishop Daly stung both the Irish and British governments. Describing the experience of the victims of the greatest unsolved mass-murder case in the history of the Irish Republic, he protested their political abandonment as having been granted "not even a Widgery!". Edward Daly is a huge loss to the Irish hierarchy. Even in retirement, he remained a bishop who commanded respect by a media that is considered generally hostile to the Church. In correspondence with me, he once wrote: "I can truthfully say that I did my best. Most times, I got things right; on a few occasions, I got it wrong." A wounded Church, especially a hierarchy that appears to be at war with itself in recent weeks, has much to learn from Edward Daly's courage and humility. Ar dheis De go raibh a anam dilis. In recent times, I have been writing about climate change and how Ireland is not living up to its obligations. The situation is very serious. Scientists are telling us that 2015 was the hottest year on record and that 2016 is expected to be even warmer. The issue will lead to the death and displacement of millions of people, but unfortunately our media and politicians have been slow to grapple with it in an effective and competent way. It is only very recently that the leadership of the Catholic Church has begun to take the environmental degradation of the planet seriously. In June 2015, Pope Francis published an extraordinary encyclical on the care of creation, entitled 'Laudato Si: On Care For Our Common Home'. So could it be that Ireland and the Catholic Church might finally be discussing this document in August 2016? Alas, no. But in the social and economic sphere, we also face other serious challenges today. Research by Oxfam Ireland has pointed out that the share of income going to workers has fallen as the size of the global economy more than doubled over the past three decades. Furthermore, it confirms that this is the most unequal country in the EU in terms of income distribution. These are very difficult times, especially for young people. Maybe the Irish public and the Catholic Church in Ireland are busy discussing zero-hour contracts, in which people are obliged to be available for work, even if they are not called into work today. Sadly, once again, the answer would seem to be no. Rather than discussing some of the important themes I have mentioned above, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin decided to inform the public that he had made up his mind not to send his three seminarians to Maynooth because he was disturbed by rumours about a poisonous atmosphere. One wonders did Dr Martin realise that August is traditionally the silly season for the media and that his announcement would inevitably lead to a deluge of coverage about the suitability of Maynooth as a training centre for seminarians. The tsunami of invective and gleeful nods and winks that has resulted from his announcement was an embarrassment for the Catholic Church in Ireland. The president of Maynooth, Monsignor Hugh Connelly, was pursued by RTE's Keelin Shanley in an interview on August 5. He made it perfectly clear that allegations are not facts and that he and the college's formation staff had difficult decisions to make when assessing whether (or not) someone has a vocation to the priesthood. Allegations need to be investigated. However, in our legal system, those against whom allegations are made are innocent until proved guilty. Making these assessments as to whether or not a person is suitable or unsuitable for taking up ministry in the priesthood is a very difficult task. People who have very rigid moral or theological views, or who are committed to a pre-Vatican II vision of the church, are often not suitable for parish ministry in the contemporary church. This does not mean that they cannot have very productive, creative and fulfilling lives within the Catholic Church. Fr Brendan Hoban of the Association of Catholic Priests warned that Archbishop Diarmuid Martin's decision would have far-reaching consequences, not just for Maynooth but also for the Catholic Church in Ireland. He also stated that Archbishop Martin's arguments about moving students to Rome "are not convincing". Fr Hoban went on to make it clear that many of participants in the media scrum that was triggered by Archbishop Martin's comments have a particular vision of the kind of church that they want to see promoted in Ireland today. Michael Kelly, editor of 'The Irish Catholic', referred to the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) as "left-wing". This is not meant as a compliment, but labelling people is hardly a way to conduct a serious discussion. I am proud of the fact that during the 1970s and 1980s I was involved with the justice and peace ministry of the Mindanao-Sulu pastoral council in the Philippines. I witnessed the extraordinary courage of lay people who took decisions, often at huge risk to their own lives, to protect the well-being of people on the margins of society. During the past 35 years, I have been involved in developing the Care of Creation ministry in the Catholic Church. For me, these initiatives are consistent with the Sermon on the Mount in St Matthew's Gospel. On the issue of ministry, the ACP has been pointing out for the past five years that priestly ministry is collapsing in Ireland. There are 1.2 million Catholics in the Archdiocese of Dublin, yet Archbishop Martin is talking about transferring a mere three seminarians to Rome. We need a completely new structure of ministry in the Catholic Church in Ireland if we wish to have the Eucharist available to us in the future and have competent pastoral care for everyone. Finally, I was amazed that during all the of the controversy which ensued during the week, nobody mentioned three of the most significant documents of the modern church - 'The Joy of the Gospel', 'Laudato Si': On Care For Our Common Home', and 'The Joy of Love'. These are pivotal documents in the modern church and yet they were missing from the debate. I look forward to the day when the media - if they are genuinely interested in the future of the Irish church - will afford the same time, interest and energy to discussing the latter as they have to the Maynooth story. Fr Sean McDonagh is an eco-theologian and is on the administrative team of the Association of Catholic Priests Jonathan Dimbleby has spoken of the embarrassment he felt over his father Richard's fame when he was a child. The radio and TV broadcaster told Radio Times of a time he felt mortified when his famous parent was spotted during an outing to the theatre. He said: "Once, when I was about 10 years old, we went to see Arthur Askey in pantomime. Suddenly, a searchlight shone on us. Askey said something like: 'It's Richard Dimbleby. Let's give him a big welcome!' My father was required to stand up and wave." He confessed that he "shrank down" in his seat as his father became the centre of attention during the production. Jonathan, 72, added: "People would come up to my father in the street, take hold of his sleeve, and say, 'Just touching you for luck, Richard'. Or we'd go into a restaurant and the restaurateur would refuse to let us pay." He went on to praise his father, saying: "I don't know of any public figure in the serious end of radio or television today who is anything like as well known as he was." The younger brother of Question Time host David Dimbleby is to tell the life story of their father on BBC Radio 4's Archive On 4 this week, in a programme entitled Dimbleby On Dimbleby. It will coincide with the 50th anniversary of Richard's memorial service at Westminster Abbey, a landmark moment that saw him become the first journalist to ever be honoured at the cathedral. Richard was the BBC's first ever war correspondent and a household name during his reign as the corporation's leading news commentator. Jonathan, who presents BBC Radio 4's Any Questions?, added that his father, who died in 1965 at age 52, was "surprised" at how successful he was and the "esteem" in which he was held by the British public. Video of the Day :: Read the full interview in this week's issue of Radio Times Dakota Johnson and Rebel Wilson in How To Be Single Being single allows people to live their best, most authentic and most meaningful life and the idea of wedded bliss is largely a myth, a psychologist has claimed. Professor Bella DePaulo told the American Psychological Associations annual convention in Denver that she wanted to challenge the conventional wisdom that getting married helped people live longer, happier and healthier lives. She said she had looked at more than 800 different academic studies carried out over the last 30 years that mentioned single people. The available findings are telling. For example, research comparing people who have stayed single with those who have stayed married shows that single people have a heightened sense of self-determination and they are more likely to experience a sense of continued growth and development' as a person, said Professor DePaulo, of the University of California, Santa Barbara. Other research shows that single people value meaningful work more than married people do another study of lifelong single people showed that self-sufficiency serves them well: the more self-sufficient they were, the less likely they were to experience negative emotions. For married people, just the opposite was true. There are 16.2 million single people in the UK, compared to 23.7 million married ones, according to Office for National Statistics figures for last year. In 2002, there were about 12.5 million single people and just over 23 million married ones. Expand Close Dakota Johnson and Rebel Wilson in How To Be Single / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Dakota Johnson and Rebel Wilson in How To Be Single Professor DePaulo, who described herself as single, always have been, always will be, said the reasons behind the relative popularity of unmarried life were rarely acknowledged. Read More Increasing numbers of people are single because they want to be. Living single allows them to live their best, most authentic, and most meaningful life, she said. Single people are more connected to parents, siblings, friends, neighbours, and coworkers than married people are, and when people marry, they become more insular. The preoccupation with the perils of loneliness can obscure the profound benefits of solitude. Video of the Day It is time for a more accurate portrayal of single people and single life one that recognizes the real strengths and resilience of people who are single, and what makes their lives so meaningful. Professor DePaulo said married people were bolstered by the relentless celebration of marriage and coupling and weddings that I call matrimania. Single people, in contrast, are targets of singlism the stereotyping, stigmatizing, marginalizing and discrimination against people who are single, she said. Read More But academic studies did not support the prevailing idea of get married, get happier and healthier. People end up about where they were when they were single. In other ways, results are exactly the opposite of what we have been led to believe, Professor DePaulo said. Scholars are learning more about the risks of putting too much relationship capital into The One, and the psychological benefits of investing in The Ones. They are also beginning to realize that genuine attachment relationships are not limited to romantic relationships or the bond between parents and young children." The Japanese Emperor Akihito (82), in a rare video address, has admitted to worries that age may make it difficult for him to fully carry out his duties. The remarks are regarded as the clearest indication yet that he intends to abdicate. It was reported last month that Akihito, who has had heart surgery and been treated for prostate cancer, wanted to step down in a few years. An abdication would be unprecedented in modern Japan. The Japanese used to consider their emperors to be divine. Now, the emperor is defined in the constitution as a symbol of the state and the unity of the people but has no political power. Akihito stopped short of saying outright that he wanted to abdicate, which could be interpreted as interfering in politics. Regent Nevertheless, he did say: "When I consider that my fitness level is gradually declining, I am worried that it may become difficult for me to carry out my duties as the symbol of the state with my whole being, as I have done until now." Akihito took the throne after the death in 1989 of his father, Hirohito, in whose name Japan fought World War II. He has sought to soothe the wounds of the war in Asia during trips overseas and tried to bring the monarchy closer to the people. Opinion polls show that the vast majority of ordinary Japanese sympathise with the emperor's desire to retire, but this would need changes to the law. Akihito has been cutting back on official duties, with his heir, 56-year-old Crown Prince Naruhito, taking his place. However, there are limits to how far that could go, he said yesterday. The emperor also seemed to cast doubt on whether it was appropriate to use an existing system that would allow Naruhito to take over as regent if his father was to be incapacitated. "Even in such cases (of a regency), it does not change the fact that the emperor continues to be emperor until the end of his life, even though he is unable to fully carry out his duties as the emperor," Akihito said. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters that in view of the emperor's age and the burden of his official duties, it was necessary to consider what steps could be taken. The idea of abdication has sparked opposition from Abe's conservative base, which worries that debate of the imperial family's future could widen to the topic of letting women inherit and pass on the throne, which is anathema to traditionalists. Naruhito's only child is a daughter. Only males can inherit the Chrysanthemum Throne, which after Naruhito would pass to his brother, Prince Akishino and then to nine-year-old nephew Hisahito. A Delta passenger attempts to reschedule her travel plans after being caught up in the chaos (AP) Travellers on Delta Air Lines are enduring hundreds more cancelled and delayed flights as the carrier battles through day two of its recovery from a global computer outage. By early afternoon in Atlanta on Tuesday, Delta said it had cancelled about 530 flights as it moved planes and crews to "reset" its operation, while more than 1,000 are believed to have been subject to delay. The latest disruptions follow about 1,000 cancellations and 2,800 delayed flights on Monday after a power outage at Delta's Atlanta headquarters tripped a meltdown of its booking, communications and other systems. The airline was back online after a few hours on Monday, but the ripple effect could still be strongly felt a day later. Dave Holtz, the airline's senior vice-president of operations, said: " We are still operating in recovery mode." The airline has posted a video apology by CEO Ed Bastian, and has offered refunds and 150 in travel vouchers to people whose flights were cancelled or delayed by at least three hours. Delta's challenge now will be to find enough seats on planes during the busy summer holiday season to accommodate the tens of thousands of passengers whose flights were scrubbed. Airlines have been putting more people in each plane, so when a system of a major carrier crashes, as has happened with others before Delta, finding a new seat for those affected becomes more difficult. Last month, the average Delta flight was 87% full. Confusion among passengers on Monday was compounded as Delta's flight-status updates crashed as well. Instead of staying at home or poolside at a hotel until the airline could fix the mess, many passengers learned about the gridlock only after they reached the airport. By then, t hey were stuck. Delta spokesman Trebor Banstetter said that after the power outage, key systems and network equipment did not switch over to back-ups. The investigation of the outage is ongoing, but he said there is no indication that the problems were caused by a hack or intentional breach of the system. A spokesman for the local electric company, Georgia Power, said the problem started with a piece of Delta equipment called a switchgear, which direct flows within a power system. No other customers lost power, he said. Airlines depend on huge, overlapping and complicated systems to operate flights, ticketing, boarding, airport kiosks, websites and mobile phone apps. Even brief outages can now snarl traffic and, as the Delta incident shows, those problems can go global in seconds. Last month, Southwest Airlines cancelled more than 2,000 flights over four days after an outage that it blamed on a faulty network router. United Airlines and American Airlines both suffered outages last year - United has struggled with several meltdowns since combining technology systems with merger partner Continental Airlines. AP ELKO -- The Elko Police Department will bring two grant requests and equipment purchases before the Elko City Council Tuesday. The two grants the department seeks are from the Office of Criminal Justice Assistance. The first grant totals approximately $20,000 and will assist with costs associated with six armor plates and four shields for the Elko Response Team, according to documents provided by the City. "These items are necessary officer safety equipment for team members," said Police Chief Ben Reed in a prepared document. The second grant is in the amount of $34,000 and will help with the operations of the Elko Combined Narcotics Unit. The police department was notified on July 12 of the OCJA's intention to award both grants. Approval is also being sought to utilize the State of Nevada Purchasing Division for equipment and fleet acquisition of three equipped police vehicles, one Chevrolet Tahoe SUV for use with the K-9 Unit, and two unmarked police sedans. The these items were included in the budget for 2016-17 fiscal year. The SUV is slated to cost approximately $60,000 and the two sedans will replace older vehicles used by the detectives and the administration. The estimated total cost is $130,000. Approval will also be sought from the City for the department to enter into an annual contract with the Washoe County Sheriffs Office for forensic support facilities and services. The current agreement ends June 30, 2017. The cost for the upcoming fiscal year is $63,787. Additionally, the police department is working on upgrading its radio system. The City is being asked to approve buying and installation of a new radio repeater antenna system from two companies, Motorola Solutions Inc. and Sierra Electronics. The former company will charge about $57,988.11 and the later will cost approximately $104,496.42. This upgrade was set to occur in two phases over the 2015/16 and 2016/17 budget cycles, with completion occurring in the latter, stated the City. The council meets at 4 p.m. at City Hall at 1751 College Ave. Also on Tuesday, the Council may review, consider or accept: -- Change order No. 2 and final acceptance of the Exit 298 Waterline Project. This change order concerns additional excavation or cut, which could not be projected with accuracy until the completion of the work and quantities were determined. Seeding was removed from the cost and will be done by the City in September or October. There were two change orders accounting for approximately $53,756.06 net increase of the project cost, according to the City. -- Contract change order No. 6 for the Cedar Street Reconstruction Project Phase I, for modifications to the storm drain system. -- The contract for the Flagview Sidewalk Project. Great Basin Engineering Contractors was the low bidder with the base amount of approximately $678,706, which includes sidewalk, lighting, curb and gutter along the north side of Ruby Vista Drive and the north side of Flagview Drive. -- Conditional approval for the Copper Trails Phase 1 Unit 2 subdivision, filed by Copper Trails LLC, for the proposed division of approximately 2.05 acres into 21 lots for residential development within Single Family and Multiple Family Residential zoning district, located on the north of Copper Street about 850 feet east of North Fifth Street. -- The acquisition of .9 acres of federal surplus property located at 1701 North Fifth St., to the City from the National Park Service. The National Park Service, acting on the authority from the Secretary of the Interior, has approved the application from the City to obtain the property known as the Elko H Facility. The property is located adjacent to Fifth Street Park. According to City documents, the land is to be developed into a parking lot for park users. -- A petition to allow Elko Regional Airport to apply for three Explore Elko marketing grant opportunities to target large out-of-state markets in the 2016/17 fiscal year: a Nevada Commission on Tourism Rural Marketing Grant of $15,000, an Elko Recreation Board Grant of $20,000, and an Elko Convention and Visitors Authority Marketing Grant of $5,000. The estimated audience is over 250,000 and approximately $13,000 has been budgeted for grant matching. -- A request from the Downtown Business Association for the closure of the downtown corridor from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. between Sixth and Seventh streets for a Family Country Night Event to be held on Aug. 27. -- A concessionaire agreement filed by James Arnold, doing business as Any Time Ice Cream, to operate a mobile ice cream truck in the Main City Park from 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. every day from June through September. -- A request from the local Veteran's of Foreign Wars Post to acquire a parcel formerly known as the Elko City Police Department building, located at 1401 College Ave., and the street segment located between the land parcels, known as VFW Drive. Public hearings will also be held on the following topics: -- Determine if proposed increases in landfill fees and water connection fees will impose a direct and significant burden upon a business, or directly restrict the formation, operation, or expansion of a business, and possible action to continue with the proposed fee increases or modify the proposed fee increases. A Muslim taxi driver who murdered a shopkeeper for claiming he was a prophet has been jailed for at least 27 years. Tanveer Ahmed, 32, travelled from Yorkshire to Glasgow to confront Asad Shah at his store before pulling out a knife and stabbing the 40-year-old. Ahmed, who did not know Mr Shah, claimed to have been offended by clips the shopkeeper had posted online which he said ''disrespected the Prophet Muhammad''. The Bradford father-of-three was given a life sentence at the High Court in Glasgow after admitting the murder in Glasgow's Shawlands area on March 24. Judge Lady Rae told Ahmed he must serve a minimum of 27 years before being considered for release. Ahmed watched a clip featuring Mr Shah on his mobile phone as he travelled to Glasgow on the day of the murder and was heard in a phone message to say "listen to this guy, something needs to be done, it needs nipped in the bud". Expand Close Tanveer Ahmed Credit: Police Scotland/PA Wire / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Tanveer Ahmed Credit: Police Scotland/PA Wire When he arrived at the shop, Ahmed said he warned the shopkeeper he was there to kill him and asked him to stop claiming to be a prophet. Mr Shah's brother and a shop assistant tried to fend him off as he launched his attack on the popular businessman, described by locals as a ''pillar of the community''. The Shah family, who moved to Scotland from Pakistan in the 1990s to escape persecution, belong to the Ahmadi sect of Islam whose beliefs differ from the majority of Muslims. The court heard their belief that Prophet Muhammad was not the final prophet was a view many consider blasphemous. In a statement released through his lawyer after the killing, Ahmed said: "If I had not done this others would have and there would be more killings and violence in the world." Judge Lady Rae said Ahmed had carried out a "brutal, barbaric, horrific crime" for which he had shown no remorse and even appeared proud of what he had done. She described the calculated nature of the murder as "chilling", saying he had carried out what was in effect an "execution". As he was led from the dock, Ahmed raised his hand and made a pronouncement praising the Prophet Muhammad to members of his community gathered in the court. Ahmed will serve a minimum of 27 years before he can be considered for parole. The judge said she had discounted the sentence by three years in view of his early admission of guilt. Lady Rae told him: "It is clear this was a barbaric, pre-meditated and wholly unjustified killing of a much-loved man who was a pillar of the local community." She described Mr Shah as a family, peace-loving man who went out of his way to respect people of all faiths and had been attacked in an "appalling display of merciless violence". She said: "Your determination to kill Mr Shah was obvious. What is so chilling is that what you did was calculated and deliberate. "You did not know the deceased but you decided that you had a duty to kill him." Following the confrontation during which the shopkeeper was unwilling to change his views, the judge said Ahmed had carried out "what was in effect an execution". She said she accepted that the crime was not the result of prejudice against the Ahmadi community but that it was religiously motivated. Lady Rae said: "It's clear you are proud of what you did. You seem oblivious to the fact that you have devastated a family." Police are investigating the possible homicide of a 27-year-old Google employee from New York City who disappeared Sunday afternoon after she went jogging in Massachusetts. Vanessa Marcotte was found dead late Sunday night about half a mile from her mother's house in Princeton, Mass., where she was visiting for the weekend. Marcotte was last seen about 1 p.m. Sunday when she left for a jog in the central Massachusetts town. Massachusetts State Police K-9 teams discovered Marcotte's body in a wooded area about 8:10 p.m., the Boston Globe reported. The Boston Globe is reporting that a law enforcement official briefed on the case said there are indications that Marcottes body had been burned and that investigators are working to determine whether she was sexually assaulted. Expand Close Vanessa Marcote. Picture: Instagram / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Vanessa Marcote. Picture: Instagram The official, who was not authorised to discuss the case, spoke on condition of anonymity. Authorities have opened a homicide investigation and do not know whether the killing was a random act, Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. said at a news conference Monday. "We are asking residents of Princeton and the surrounding areas to use an abundance of caution," Early Jr. said. "We are asking the public to be careful, to be vigilant." Marcotte's Instagram feed depicted someone who loved the New England Patriots, Boston and the beach. According to her LinkedIn profile, Marcotte graduated from Boston University in 2011, stayed in the Boston area for several years and worked at WordStream, an online advertising company, and Vistaprint. In January 2015, she started a new job as a health-care account manager at Google in New York City. A Google spokesman confirmed Marcotte's employment in an emailed statement. "Vanessa Marcotte was a much loved member of the Google team, working in our New York office for the last year and a half, and known for her ubiquitous smile, passion for volunteer work, and love of Boston sports," the statement said. "We are deeply shocked and saddened and our thoughts are with her family and friends. Donald Trump promised to jumpstart the US economy with the "biggest tax revolution since Ronald Reagan" in the 1980s, saying he would "make America grow again". Setting out an "America first" economic vision during a speech in Detroit last night, the billionaire promised a slew of tax cuts for companies and working families, a "massive" reduction in red tape, and a fundamental overhaul of international trade deals. In a direct appeal to female voters, and an attempt to outflank his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, Mr Trump also pledged to allow families to deduct the entire average cost of childcare from their taxes, saying it would not be an "economic disadvantage to have children". However, Mr Trump was interrupted by protesters, mostly women, around a dozen separate times during his speech. The Republican presidential nominee said that he would make the US a "magnet for investment" by cutting corporation tax from 35pc to 15pc - in a move that could have implications for US multinational investment in Ireland - and "remove bureaucrats who only know how to kill jobs". Under his plan, income taxes would be simplified. Mr Trump's previously stated highest rate had been 25pc, but he said "the rich will have to pay their fair share" and that many workers would have a zero rate. The Republican presidential nominee also said he would abolish death taxes and bolster domestic energy production, which could bring in an extra $6 trillion (5.4 trillion) in revenue over four decades. US companies with operations abroad would be encouraged to bring back profits at a reduced tax rate, which would help "unleash the economy". Mr Trump would also revive the Keystone pipeline project from Canada to the US, which the Obama administration rejected last year. His speech was delivered at the Detroit Economic Club in a city that became the symbol for America's manufacturing decline. It came after latest figures showed that the US economy grew only 1.2pc in the second quarter of 2016, far less than had been anticipated. Mr Trump was seeking to reset his campaign after a disastrous week when he fell up to 15 points behind Mrs Clinton in polls. He accused Mrs Clinton of "stale, big-government policy prescriptions that have choked economic growth in America and led to over 40 years of wage stagnation". Mrs Clinton will speak about the economy, also in Detroit, on Thursday. Her campaign said 'Trumponomics' would result in nearly 3.5 million fewer jobs and push the economy into a "prolonged recession". Mr Trump's plan was an updated version of one he put forward late last year. At the time, independent experts claimed his proposed tax cuts would increase the national debt by as much as $10 trillion over the next decade. Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022] Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif talks to a survivor of the suicide bomb attack at a hospital in Quetta (AP) Lawyers in Pakistan are mourning colleagues killed in a suicide bombing which claimed 70 lives. Most of the victims of the attack at a hospital in the south-western city of Quetta on Monday were lawyers. The bombing, which stunned the judicial community, also underscored concerns that militants in Pakistan are still capable of striking in the heart of the country's cities and towns - despite government claims of dismantling various terror networks. The Pakistani bar association called for lawyers to boycott courts in an unusual strike against the attack. Schools and markets were closed in Quetta, also in protest over the attack, which was claimed by a breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban, the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar militant group. Pakistan deployed extra police units outside court buildings. In Islamabad, lawyers lined up outside the Supreme Court under tight security to offer funeral prayers for those killed in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province. In Quetta, senior attorney Mohammad Ashraf stood with colleagues in an open area outside a court building where they had often gathered for breaks with many of the lawyers who were killed on Monday. "Those who even did not spare the hospital and carried out the suicide attack cannot be called humans," Mr Ashraf said. "We request that the government tracks down and punishes all those who killed innocent lawyers and other people." Another lawyer, Rehmatullah Khan, said he was missing his friends and colleagues. "We used to sit with them here ... now they are gone." At a Quetta market, Mohammad Saleem, a resident of the city, said everyone was still in a state of shock. "People are scared and they ask for how long the violence will continue," he said. Monday's attack came as lawyers converged at a Quetta hospital when the body of a prominent colleague - Bilal Kasi, the president of the Baluchistan Bar Association - was taken there after he was shot and killed by gunmen on his way to court just hours earlier. A suicide bomber detonated his explosives vest amid the gathering, and survivors later described scenes of panic as the blast ripped through the emergency room. In a statement, Ahsanullah Ahsan, spokesman for the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar militant group, said its fighters killed Mr Kasi and also dozens of lawyers gathered at the government-run Civil Hospital to mourn for their colleague. The group has been behind several attacks in Pakistan in recent years, including a deadly bombing on Easter Sunday in a park in the eastern city of Lahore that killed at least 70 people. But in what was likely to have been an opportunistic statement, the Islamic State (IS) group also claimed responsibility for the Quetta attack later on Monday, though there have been instances of competing claims in previous attacks in Pakistan. IS's media arm, the Aamaq News Agency, posted on its Twitter account that a "martyrdom-seeking soldier from the Islamic State" detonated his explosives amid a lawyers' gathering in Quetta. The IS statement did not mention the killing of Mr Kasi. The Sunni militant group, which is fighting in Iraq and Syria, has also garnered some support and would-be affiliates surface in Pakistan. Some members of the Pakistani Taliban last year announced they were joining the Islamic State, but so far the group has not had any visible presence anywhere in the country. AP CARSON CITY The Nevada Youth Training Center will celebrate its centennial Aug. 17. Nevada Division of Child and Family Services Administrator Kelly Wooldridge will join legislators, judges, commissioners and other dignitaries at the official 100-year anniversary celebration at the facility east of Elko. NYTC first opened its doors on June 15, 1915, as the Nevada School of Industry, for the reception of recalcitrant boys, said Karla Navarro, social services chief, in a release. Over the past 100 years, thousands of young men have been provided with opportunities and tools to change their behavior, gain a viable and meaningful education and become successful and productive citizens. Today, NYTC serves males between the ages of 12 to 18 with a capacity to serve 60 youth. Wooldridge would like to extend the invitation to former employees of NYTC, Elko community members and others interested to join us in the celebration from 12:15 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. for the welcoming ceremony and guided tours of the facility, said Navarro. DCFS asks those wishing to attend to RSVP their attendance by contacting the agency at 684-4413 or emailing systems.advocate@dcfs.nv.gov. All attendees will be required to check in upon arrival. Islamic State terrorists have called for attacks at the Miss World competition due to be held in the Philippines in January 2017, according to online threats. A branch of the terror network called on everyone who can to launch attacks at the event, according to reports of posts on a social media channel used by jihadis in the Philippines. One of the posts included an online tutorial that explained how to make a suicide bomb. Addressing brothers who love martyrdom, the author said everyone who can should launch attacks at the event. It was not possible to verify the reports. The location for Miss World 2017 has yet to be announced, but current champion, Filipino-German model Pia Wurtzbach, is likely to attend. Miss Wurtzbach was crowned after extraordinary scenes at the contest in December 2015. The host, Steve Harvey, announced Ariadna Gutierrez Arevalo, Miss Colombia, as the winner - and then realised he had read the card incorrectly. The crown was taken off Miss Arevalo's head and placed on Miss Wurtzbach's. The beauty pageant was last held in the Philippines in 1994. The threat from Isil has been growing in the country. Abu Sayyaf, an insurgent group fighting for a hardline Islamist state in the southern Philippines, has pledged allegiance to Isil. Two Canadians were murdered by the group earlier this year. Abu Sayyaf has its roots in the long-standing Islamist insurgency in the southern islands of the predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines, and has focused its operations on lucrative banditry. The faction a loose alliance of splinter groups has survived the deployment of US special forces advisors as part of George W Bushs war on terror and a series of offensives by the poorly-equipped Philippine army. Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022] Doodle Trail which runs between Easley and Pickens, as seen here from Elljean Road near the intersection of Rice Road, will not be finished by Memorial Day but will open anyway for public use on May 25. SHARE By Ron Barnett, rbarnett@greenvillenews.com The Easley City Council gave thumbs up to a plan to extend the Doodle Trail into downtown via Wilbur Street on Monday. The council also voted to demolish 12 houses to expand a greenway along the trail extension. Before the plan gets final approval, however, a public hearing must be held to get input on the idea of converting a section of Wilbur Street into a one-way road. The estimated $400,000 cost of linking downtown with the current trailhead on Fleetwood Drive one mile away will be covered by a $1.5 million bond issue, which will be paid back out of money generated by hospitality taxes. "We are really excited for what the future holds," said Councilman Chris Mann, who heads a committee of city officials and business and community leaders that has been studying ways to bring bicyclists and walkers downtown from the recreational trail. Blake Sanders of Alta Planning + Design gave a presentation showing how parts of Wilbur Street could be divided by pylons, with cars traveling in one lane and bicycles and pedestrians in the other lane. The trail would lead to the city's law enforcement center, where the sidewalk would be widened to city hall, inviting bicyclists to explore downtown. "The way we looked at it, we really wanted the trailhead to be all of downtown," City Administrator Stephen Steese said. Merchants have been clamoring for the 7.5-mile trail to be extended ever since the plans emerged to run it from Fleetwood Drive to the city of Pickens. Pickens plans to build a trailhead at the site of the former depot, right at the edge of its downtown business district. Easley plans to move ahead with building Doodle Park at Fleetwood Drive but to cross Fleetwood and convert another section of the abandoned railroad similar to the rest of the trail for 1,600 feet. At that point, it would reach the proposed divided one-way street, which would run another 2,500 feet to the entrance of the cemetery at the LEC. Automobile traffic would run in the direction toward Pickens, with bike and foot traffic going both ways in a separate lane. "Easley would be the first in South Carolina to do this, but it's not uncommon elsewhere," Sanders said. The housing demolitions are the third phase of a project that will have cleared 45 houses in the low-income section between the trailhead at Fleetwood Drive and downtown. The demolition opens up areas for possible "pocket parks," and for other development, Sanders said. The occupants of those rental homes all have found suitable housing elsewhere, according to city officials and an organization called the Dream Center that works to help people out of poverty. The conversion of Wilbur Street to one-way should reduce and slow down traffic, which city officials hope will convince the remaining residents, all in owner-occupied homes, that it's a good idea. The council told Sanders to proceed with the plan as presented and will vote on final approval once it gets community support, although Steese noted that the city itself has become the largest property owner in the neighborhood. Sanders estimates it will take three months to build the extension, once the demolition is complete. These 5 players could be the Anderson-area football player of the year High School (Photo: WSPA) Overhead view of a location in Anderson County where a man barricaded himself inside his home on Tuesday. SHARE MIKE ELLIS/Independent Mail Anderson County sheriff's deputies near the scene of a standoff on Tuesday that turned bloody when a deputy shot a man who had barricaded himself inside his home. By Scottie Kay Auton, Coverage partner WSPA A man was fatally shot Tuesday when deputies from the Anderson County Sheriff's Office attempted to serve a probation-violation warrant near Piedmont, Sheriff John Skipper said. The man, 44-year-old Jeffrey Allen Morris, died at Greenville Memorial Hospital a few hours after he was shot, Deputy Coroner Don McCown said. Morris had a rifle or similar long gun and was in a standoff with deputies for more than an hour until negotiations fell apart and he raised his gun at a deputy who shot him, Skipper said. The deputy's name had not been made public as of late Tuesday night. The shooting is under investigation by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. The agency is always called in to investigate officer-involved shootings in the state. The shooting happened Tuesday afternoon inside a home on Mountain Springs Road, where the man's family owns two homes there that are beside each other. Skipper said he believes only one deputy fired but cannot say how many shots were fired. Morris is not believed to have fired at deputies but threatened them by raising his gun, Skipper said. Deputies were prepared for a possible altercation because Morris had been in a standoff with deputies in March 2015. At the time, Morris was accused of stopping his girlfriend from leaving a home on Mountain Springs Road. Morris surrendered after negotiators, including Skipper, arranged for him to have time with his son, the sheriff said. At the time, he was charged with kidnapping and a third offense of criminal domestic violence. It's not clear which probation violation Morris had committed at the time of his death. Skipper said he did not know. Skipper said deputies arrived Tuesday and saw Morris grab a long gun on the porch. They followed him inside the home, where he barricaded himself in an area the sheriff compared to a closet in a hallway. A stun grenade called a flashbang was used to try to force Morris out but he dodged the effects of it, Skipper said. The man raised his gun at some point after the grenade was used, the sheriff said. Follow Mike Ellis and Nikie Mayo on Twitter @MikeEllis_AIM and @NikieMayo ELKO A 17-year-old escapee from Nevada Youth Training Center was reported to be back in custody Tuesday, more than six weeks after he walked away from the facility. The Elko resident was located in another state, according to the Nevada Department of Child and Family Services. The youth will not be returning to NYTC, stated Karla Navarro, social services chief. The teen was committed to NYTC in January because of a parole violation. He left the facility around midnight June 27. He was the sixth youth to escape since the beginning of the year. A seventh escape at the end of July involved a 16-year-old from Washoe County who was recaptured two hours later. A task force conducted a review of security at the staff-secured facility east of Elko and at a similar center in Caliente after a rash of escapes. Among the recommendations was one calling for high escape risk youths not to be placed at NYTC because of its proximity to a populated area. Nihar Info Global applies for trademark registration for 'ONVO' Nihar Info Global Limited informed to the exchanges that it has successfully applied for Trademark registration of its private label "ONVO" under the 'Trademark Classes 18 and 21. ... October 28, 2022 | 28-10-2022 2:37 pm Rupee rises 4 paisa to 82.29/$ Early on Friday, the rupee strengthened against the US dollar by 4 paise to 82.29, helped by a weak US dollar in the international market and strong local equities. The influx of new fore... October 28, 2022 | 28-10-2022 2:30 pm PNB Housing Finance's net profit increases by 12% PNB Housing Finance announced on Thursday that its September 20222023 quarter net profit increased by 11.7% to Rs 262.63 crore, thanks to a little increase in core income. In the same period... October 28, 2022 | 28-10-2022 2:25 pm Dhanuka Agritech soars ~8% as board to consider buyback Dhanuka Agritechs stock surged as much as 8% in Fridays intraday session and touched a high of Rs742. The company stated in its filing with the exchanges that at its ensuing ge... October 28, 2022 | 28-10-2022 2:18 pm Markets trade flat amid volatility; Nifty below 17,800 dragged by metals Domestic benchmark indices in a volatile session and trading flat after a gap-up opening on Friday. Both the Sensex and Nifty benchmarks are in the green during the afternoon market session ami... October 28, 2022 | 28-10-2022 2:00 pm The Mohegan Tribe owns and operates the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut. Photo from Facebook A second employee of the casino owned by the Mohegan Tribe of Connecticut pleaded not guilty for his role in a roulette scam. Joseph Marotta is a floor supervisor at Mohegan Sun . Authorities say he and another casino employee covered up losses sustained by a patron and shared the proceeds. The other employee, Christian Elwood, is a dealer at the casino. He pleaded not guilty last month. The patron allegedly involved in the scam has been identified as Jeremy Paul Howard. All three are charged with first-degree larceny and conspiracy to commit first-degree larceny. The casino lost nearly $30,000, The Norwich Bulletin reported last month. Read More on the Story: Mohegan Sun casino supervisor pleads not guilty to larceny charges (The Norwich Bulletin 8/8) Related Stories Join the Conversation The United Tribes Technical College is located in Bismarck, North Dakota. Photo from Facebook The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs is heading to North Dakota next week. The committee will be focusing on trauma and mental health in Indian Country at a field hearing in Bismarck. A panel of tribal, federal and health experts is slated to testify. The Honorable Lillian Sparks Robinson Commissioner, Administration for Native Americans, Administration for Children & Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C. Mr. Darren Cruzan Deputy Bureau Director, Office of Justice Services, Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C. The Honorable Myrna Warrington Chairwoman, Health and Family Committee, Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin, Keshena, WI Ms. Kathryn R. Eagle-Williams, M.D. Chief Executive Officer/Quality Care Director, Elbowoods Memorial Health Center, Mandan, Hidatsa & Arikara Nation, New Town, ND Ms. Tami Decoteau, Ph.D. Clinical Psychologist, DeCoteau Trauma-Informed Care & Practice, PLLC, Bismarck, ND The hearing, which will not be webcast, takes place August 17 on the campus of United Tribes Technical College . The witness list follows: Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Notice: Oversight FIELD Hearing on "Addressing Trauma and Mental Health Challenges in Indian Country." (August 17, 2016) Join the Conversation Related Stories ELKO A fire in the south Ruby Mountains is burning three miles north of the Bald Mountain Mine, while another fire in Great Basin National Park has resulted in the closure of portions of the park, including Wheeler Peak Campground. The Overland Fire was reported at 1:18 p.m. Monday. It was listed Tuesday at 8,900 acres. Miners at Bald Mountain, which is owned by Kinross Gold Mining, are not in any danger from the fire, said Randy Burggraff, vice president and general manager of the mine. It started south of the Overland Pass Road and still has not crossed the road, Chris Hanefeld, the Bureau of Land Managements fire information officer for the Ely district, said Tuesday. Winds were blowing the flames north Monday afternoon but shifted to the south by evening. Hanefeld said the fire was moving back and forth Tuesday and winds could shift again. The fire was about 10 miles south of Shantytown and three-quarters of a mile south of the Pony Express Trail. It is zero-percent contained, and could continue to burn into the weekend. Hanefeld said the fire was likely sparked by lightning from and earlier storm. It was consuming mule deer, elk and pronghorn antelope habitat, and there is a potential threat to Greater Sage Grouse habitat. Hanefeld said the Ruby Marshes were not threatened, nor were any structures. Two heavy air tankers, four single-engine air tankers, five engines, three type II hand crews, one dozer and one water tender were on the scene Tuesday. The Strawberry Fire in eastern Nevada also started Monday and was only 15 acres when reported. Strong winds quickly caused rapid re growth and as of Tuesday morning it was estimated at 3,000 to 5,000 acres, according to the National Park Service. Bureau of Land Managements Ely District has responded with two pumpers with crews and a helicopter. Currently there are four engines, two crews and a helicopter are working the re as conditions allow. Heavy smoke and unfavorable winds were a concern Tuesday, according to the Park Service. The Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive is closed above Upper Lehman Creek Campground. The trail from Upper Lehman Creek Campground to Wheeler Peak Campground is closed. Visitors are asked to respect all closures and to not fly drones in the region. Most of Elko County and all of White Pine County are under a red flag warning through 11 p.m. Wednesday. Wind gusts up to 30 mph and relative humidity as low as 7 percent increase the risk of wildland fires spreading out of control. On top of that, isolated dry thunderstorms are expected Wednesday afternoon and evening. High temperatures will be in the mid-80s. Life as a flight attendant is tough, from crazy flight schedules to jet lag to high-altitude pressures. And Olivia Sievers would often travel from her home in Germany to Buenos Aires in Argentina for work. On these trips, it was not uncommon for her to befriend animals she met. Facebook/Olivia Sievers In February, while taking a stroll around the hotel she was staying at, she met a friendly street dog. An animal lover, Sievers indulged the dog with some treats and played with him. The dog, in turn stayed by her side and refused to leave her even when she started to return to her hotel. Facebook/Olivia Sievers "I tried to change my way because I didn't want that he follow me back to the hotel," she told Noticiero Trece. "But it was not possible. He always came back and followed me. I tried one hour, but he always watched me and followed me. He was really happy that somebody gave him attention." Facebook/Olivia Sievers Enchanted by his love, Sievers named the dog, Rubio, and gave him one of her airline blankets so he could stay warm at night. Rubio, stayed at the gate of the hotel and refused to leave during her stay. Soon, she left for her next destination. Facebook/Olivia Sievers On her next visit to Buenos Aires, in April, she was staying at the same hotel and was surprised to find Rubio waiting at the hotel gate for her. Almost as if he knew her schedule and when she would arrive at the hotel! Facebook/Olivia Sievers The same thing happened over the next few months as Sievers travelled extensively and popped into Buenos Aires between flights. Rubio was always able to guess her visit time and would be present at the hotel gate for a cuddle and to play. Facebook/Olivia Sievers It was becoming harder and harder for Sievers to leave Rubio behind and she worried about him. Thankfully, she was able to find a loving family to take him in but Rubio escaped from their house and returned to the hotel gate on her next visit. Facebook/Olivia Sievers It was soon clear to Sievers that Rubio had fallen completely in love with her and would not leave her side. "What a great dog! Unfortunately, it breaks my heart again and again, to let him back. Only in July, I can be here again, in order to look for him...." she declared on Facebook. Facebook/Olivia Sievers At last, she finally decided to take Rubio to her home in Germany. And after much hassle, she was able to do so. Rubio now lives along with one cat, two other dogs and a horse - all fostered by Sievers. He spends his time playing with his new friends and cuddling with Sievers when she returns home from her travels. Facebook/Olivia Sievers The rest as they say is history! Facebook/Olivia Sievers On one of her visits closer home, to Bengaluru this year, she befriended two strays! Facebook/Olivia Sievers Their stories bring tears to our eyes, but our interaction with the braves who man the borders of our nation remains limited to sharing, watching and commenting. But are these borders mere names on paper to us? Or are they something more? Have we ever thanked the soldiers whose stories we share on our Facebook and discuss over our beers? Reuters This Independence Day, Indiatimes travels to 5 military borders of India to do just that. Join us as we get a taste of the hardships our troops face. Join us as we try and understand their emotions. Join us as we capture a slice of their life up close and personal, rather than as passive words on a screen. Reuters The borders we intend to cover are Attari in Punjab, Longewala in Rajasthan, Koteshwar in Gujarat, Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh and Kargil in Jammu and Kashmir. Join Indiatimes as we travel to these military borders and meet the soldiers who give their heart and soul to protect the country we call home. Jai Hind. We leave Delhi on the morning of August 10 and head north towards Amritsar, a distance of 465km. On 11 August were at Attari, where we meet the soldiers of the Border Security Force. This is where the lowering of the flag takes place with elaborate movements of the hands and feet. The next day we leave Amritsar for Bikaner some 560km away in the middle of the desert. A further 340 km away is Jaisalmer, also called the Golden City of India because of the yellow sand used in the architecture. u4voice On Aug 14 we head to the Longewala border, the site of the epic tank battle where a single Indian Army battalion held off the Pakistani tanks. The next day we head to Bhuj in Gujarat, where we drive nearly 620 km. On Aug 16 we head to the eastern most end of the country to Koteshwar. Reuters The following day, we head to the western border. We spend a day in Guwahati before heading to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, home of the Tawang monastry. 37 km from the town is the Bumla Pass, where a fierce battle took place between India and China. On August 20 we drive back to Guwahati before heading back to Delhi. Reuters It will be a mad dash towards Kargil as we head back on the same route we took a few days ago. We halt at Jalandar on Aug 21 hoping to hit Srinagar on Aug 22. At a distance of 200 km lies Kargil, where we pay homage at the Kargil war memorial. Reuters Itinerary Day 1 Aug 10 Delhi Amritsar 465 km Day 2 Aug 11 Attari border Day 3 Aug 12 Amritsar Bikaner 560 km Day 4 Aug 13 Bikaner Jaisalmer 340 km Day 5 Aug 14 Jaisalmer Longewala 125 km Day 6 Aug 15 Jaisalmer Bhuj 623 km Day 7 Aug 16 Bhuj Koteshwar 300 km Day 8 Aug 17 Guwahati Day 9 Aug 18 Guwahati - Tawang 350 km Day 10 Aug 19 Tawang - Bum La 75 km Day 11 Aug 20 Tawang - Guwahati 350 km Day 12 Aug 21 Delhi - Jalandhar 372 km Day 13 Aug 22 Jalandhar - Srinagar 550 km Day 14 Aug 23 Srinagar Day 15 Aug 24 Srinagar - Kargil 200 km Day 16 Aug 25 Kargil - Srinagar 200 km Day 17 Aug 26 Srinagar - Jammu 320 km Day 18 Aug 27 Jammu - Delhi 575 km A huge round of applause is in order for Devansh Jain, who exacted change on an administrative level in Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh. Unhappy with the decision of having his school bus being re-routed for a PM's event, Jain wrote a letter to Modi, asking: "Is your meeting more important than school?" NDTV Instantly going viral on social media, the 13-year-old's letter forced Khandwa administration to withdraw their order that asked schools to send buses for the PM's rally. Modi will visit Chandrashekhar Azad's birthplace to honour the great leader, before kicking off a campaign to mark Independence Day. To this end, the schools had previously announced closure on Tuesday and Wednesday, following the allocation of buses for the PM's rally in Alirajpur. PTI However, Jain's letter turned things around, wherein the class 8 student asked: "I have listened to your addresses in America attended by a lot of people - but they didn't come to the venue in school buses?" HT Jain also asked Modi to direct "Shivraj Mama" to not allow the usage of school buses as "you are not like Congress leaders and you are concerned about our studies and future." The boy, who is a huge fan of Modi's Mann Ki Baat also added: "If you grant my wish, then I will be able to boast that for meetings addressed by my Modi uncle, crowds come on their own and are not managed." Washed away from its herd in India during the floods in June, a single female elephant has been trying to find her way back. Keeping her company and working with her to return to her family, is a team of Indian and Bangladeshi officials. representational image for elephants in water. source: BCCLBCCL The image was taken on August 1 in which Bangladesh wildlife officials can be seen observing the elephant in a watercourse at Sarishabari in Jamalpur District, some 150 kms north of Dhaka. One of the biggest issues in trying to get the elephant back t its herd in India is a huge crowd of villagers following the animal. representational image. source: AFP The elephant is a four-tonne female washed away by the flood waters of the Brahmaputra from Assam into Northern Bangladesh. Last week Indian officials travelled to the country to join in the efforts to rescue the pachyderm which is too weak to even stand after being washed away more than 100 km. "It's now standing inwater up to 1.5m in the Jamalpur district. It is extremely weak. There are more than 10 000 people watching her from a close distance," Bangladeshi vet Sayed Hossain said. AFP Forest official Tapan Kumar Dey said a team had brought a dart gun, crane and truck to carry the animal once it reaches dry ground and can be tranquilised - but the operation cannot be carried out while the elephant is in water. "Her condition is very bad. Last night it travelled 12km, but it mostly avoided dry ground because of the presence of so many people," Dey said. representational images for elephants stuck in water. source: BCCL A trained elephant was being brought to the scene in a desperate attempt to lure the wild animal away from the water. "It is so weak that it can't even lift its trunk. You can see her ribs from a distance," Ritesh Bhattacharjee, a visiting Indian forest official, said. The rescue bid comes days after Indian wildlife officers appealed for help in caring for eight rhino calves pulled from the floodwaters in Assam. A 20-year-old was arrested by Bangur Nagar police station in a hit-and-run case, after the BMW he was allegedly driving mowed over a pedestrian. mumbaimirror The accused, identified as Siddharth Raj Kumar, was on his way home in Malad (west) around 5 pm on Monday when his luxe car rammed into a pedestrian killing him on the spot. The police have taken the accused into custody and will present him before the court on Tuesday. According to the police, Siddharth was headed home from a friend's party Sunday night. He was accompanied by three women at the time of the accident. Kumar allegedly tried to flee the spot when onlookers gathered around his car and forced him to step out. He was thrashed by them, before the police were called in and he was handed over. The police have booked Kumar for rash and negligent driving, and murder not amounting to culpable homicide. "My client was not drunk and it was not his fault at all. The deceased jumped the divider and landed in front of the car. My client was scared of the mob and so was trying to get away from them," advocate Mukesh Pandey told Mirror, in Kumar's defence. In his statement to the police too, Kumar has maintained that the deceased came out from behind a tree. "We are waiting for the accused's blood report for drunken driving, if any. He has been arrested and investigations are on," said Santosh Bhandary, senior inspector of Bangur Nagar police station. The identity of the pedestrian is still not known. The police are now verifying his documents to check if he had a valid driving licence. The city of Vijaywada is banned from eating meat for 16 days this month, and they arent happy. In the name of Krishna Pushkarams, a religious festival honouring the Krishna river, the entire city has been banned from eating meat thebittenword flickr Such a far reaching unilateral decision cannot be passed on religious grounds, they have argued. "How can the government decide what people should or should not eat? The government is spending crores of rupees on the river festival apart from promoting it on a large scale. This is against the secular interests of the country. Now, the ban on meat only shows that it is trying to impose the belief system of the majority people on everybody," said J Harish, a post-graduate student from a private college in the city told the Times of India. It will also put thousands of families who make the make a living from meat thehindubusinessline "What will we do for 17 days? Should we remain hungry just because the government thinks selling meat will dent the spirit of pushkarams? I don't know what I should do to feed my family in those days," said I Kantamma, who sells fish near Prakasam barrage. The ban on sale of meat was passed by the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) from August 9 to 25, but it also extends to slaughterhouses,, as well as restaurants and outlets which violate the instruction. There is no reason to ban meat its never been done before "There was no ban on the meat during the 1992 and 2004 Krishna Pushkarams. When the government says that it wants to ban mean to maintain piousness, does it mean those who consume it are not pious? What sort of message is it trying to send to the public?" K Prabhakar Rao, a senior citizen from Labbipet. And, as we already know from states which have tried to ban liquor, prohibition does not work, instead triggering off an underground economy. "Closing the slaughter-house will open the doors for black-marketing. The purpose of the slaughter-house is to sell meat in hygienic environment. So, the sales in black market will negate the claim of the officials that the decision is taken in the interest of public health," said Ravi Sudhakar, a businessman. Five star hotels have shot back, telling the municipal authorities that they dont have to follow this repressive law. "A few star hotel managements and restaurants have informed us that there are provisions which allow them to serve non-vegetarian dishes on all days. So we will hold a meeting with the stakeholders and take a final decision in a day or two," said a senior official from VMC. Three BSF men were killed and as many injured in an attack reportedly carried out by terror outfit Hizbul Mujahideen in north Kashmir's Kupwara district on Monday to avenge the death of its commander Burhan Wani. BCCL The young militant's killing in an encounter last month has sparked massive protests in Kashmir with 55 people killed and thousands wounded in clashes between protesters and security forces. Also Read: Fresh Clashes Between Protesters And Security Forces Leave 3 Dead In Kashmir, Toll Now 53 Hizbul Mujahideen claimed responsibility for Monday's attack, in which a militant was also killed. In a statement, Hizbul Mujahideen spokesperson Burhan-ud-din said, "The attack on Indian troopers was carried out to pay tributes to martyr Hizb commander Burhan Wani." BCCL A fierce gunfight started in Machil sector close to the Line of Control when militants attacked a BSF post on Monday morning. The terror attack comes on a day when Jammu & Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to initiate talks to resolve the Kashmir problem and heal people's wounds. BCCL Normal life in the valley remains paralysed amid curfew restrictions and shutdown calls by separatists. There were incidents of stone pelting on policemen in Anantnag, Sopore and Bandipora districts, a police spokesperson said. Separatists have extended their protest shutdown till August 12. A Chinese tourist in Germany, whose wallet was stolen, unknowingly signed an asylum application and was taken to the German refugee center for 12 days because of miscommunication. Reuters The 31-year-old man, known as Mr L, spoke only Mandarin. When his wallet was stolen in the tourist town of Heidelberg, he went to the city hall which he thought was the police station. There he signed an asylum application and was taken 220 miles to a refugee shelter in Duelmen and given food and spending like other refugees. German authorities only discovered their mistake after turning in desperation to a local Chinese restaurant to interpret for them, a Red Cross official said on Monday. Christoph Schluetermann, head of a Red Cross refugee centre in Duelman told Reuters, "He didn't speak any German or English - only Mandarin." "He spent 12 days trapped in our bureaucratic jungle because he couldn't communicate," he said, adding, "Unfortunately this is a very bureaucratic country. Especially during the refugee crisis I've seen how much red tape we have." Reuters The man from Beijing began to draw attention from the staff because he was well dressed and acted differently from refugees. Maybe also because only a tiny number of Chinese asylum-seekers have arrived in Germany over the years. "But he (also) acted so differently to other refugees," said Schluetermann. "He kept trying to talk to people to tell his story but no one could understand him. He kept asking to get his passport back, which is the opposite of what most refugees do." Red Cross staff tried to get translation help from online apps but only learned the truth when they finally turned to a local Chinese restaurant. "It was an extraordinary moment for us all. He said Europe was not what he had expected," said Schluetermann, adding that the man was happy to leave but not upset. "What would you expect if you had come to Europe as a tourist and spent 12 days sleeping on a camping bed in a refugee centre?" White House Releases Its Playbook For Killing Terror Suspects By Cora Currier August 09, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " The Intercept " - The Obama administration has released its internal guidelines for how it decides to kill or capture alleged terrorists around the globe, three years after they came into effect. They provide a look at the drone war bureaucracy behind hundreds of strikes in Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia and elsewhere, a system President Obama will hand off to his successor. The guidelines show the process is concentrated at the White House, specifically in the National Security Council. They also describe the process for approving so-called signature strikes, where the target of the strike is not a known high value terrorist, but rather some other terrorist target, which could be a group of people exhibiting suspect behavior, or a vehicle, building or other infrastructure. Amid all these procedural details, however, the presidential policy guidance, or playbook, as it has been called, does not provide new insight into when, where, and under what authorities someone can be killed, or what kind of intelligence is necessary to make that decision. Much of the document, which is dated May 22, 2013, echoes public statements by administration officials over the past several years and previously-released material. The general standards for killing terrorist targets away from active battlefields were made public that May, when the president gave a speech and issued an abbreviated version of the guidance, promising that the United States would only undertake lethal action against a terrorist if they posed a continuing, imminent threat to U.S. persons, and if capture was not feasible. It took a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union to get the full 18-page version of the guidance declassified, with some redactions. This document doesnt tell us anything new about the substantive standards that they use to determine if someone can be targeted, said Jameel Jaffer, deputy legal director of the ACLU. Wed hope that theyd fill out what they mean by continuing and imminent, or feasible or unfeasible. In a statement, the ACLU also questioned how the documents relatively stringent standards can be reconciled with the accounts of eye witnesses, journalists, and human rights researches who have documented large numbers of bystander casualties from drone strikes. The People Who Approve Direct Actions According to the guidance, each operating agency the CIA or the Defense Department prepares operational plans for taking direct actions, whether strikes or captures, in different situations. Those plans undergo a legal review by the agencies general counsels and a legal adviser to the National Security Council, and then are considered by a circle of advisers at the White House known as the Principals and Principals Deputies Committees, made up of the heads or deputy heads of the Departments of State, Defense, Justice, and Homeland Security, as well as the CIA, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the National Counterterrorism Center. The plans must include legal, tactical and policy rationale for undertaking the strike, what kind of strike and surveillance assets would be used, and how long the authority to take action would remain in place. Once the committee arrives at its decision on the plan, it is communicated to the president for his final approval. The guidance indicates that the president does not have to sign off on individual names of high-value targets to be killed, unless there is disagreement within the National Security Council. If the individual is a U.S. person, the Justice Department needs to weigh in. If an agency wants to nominate an individual to be killed, they make a profile of them based on intelligence reporting, which is reviewed by an interagency panel led by the White House counterterrorism adviser, currently Lisa Monaco. Again, the profile passes through lawyers at the agency and at the National Security Council before going to the Deputies Committee and ultimately the Principals Committee for a final decision. Although the process indicates a high degree of control in the White House, generally speaking, the actual operation is still carried out under the command of the military or CIA. A similar process is followed for approving plans for strikes against terrorist targets other than high-value terrorists. The section seems to address signature strikes, in which the United States has attacked people without knowing their identity. The examples given in the policy guidance include vehicles carrying improvised explosive devices, or infrastructure, including explosives storage facilities. For an actual strike, it appears from the guidance that the Principals Committee and the president get involved only when there is disagreement about the operation. If the suspect is to be captured, a rare occurrence under Obama, the president also approves the plan. Among the various considerations going into a decision to capture someone, such as how and where they would be detained and interrogated, and if they could be tried in civilian court or military commission, one thing is spelled out clearly: In no event will detainees be brought to the detention facilities at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. The process laid out in the guidance is more detailed but does not differ substantially from the one described in a 2013 Defense Department Power Point presentation published by The Intercept last fall, although that document included additional information on how the military carried out its strikes in Yemen and Somalia at the time. For instance, the presentation included the detail that once a target was approved by the White House, the military had a 60-day window to pursue the operation. Associated Forces and Other Limits The newly-issued guidance does not specify how long authorities for given operations last, although it mentions that the case against individuals on the list for lethal strikes must be reviewed each year. It also notes that if a capture option becomes possible at any point, there should be an expedited reevaluation of the authority to kill them. The Defense Department also released two heavily redacted documents describing its implementation of the policy guidance, along with a letter to the Senate from 2014, stating that the Pentagon considers the Taliban, the Haqqani Network, and other groups fighting alongside them against U.S. forces in Afghanistan to be associated forces of Al Qaeda, along with Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which operates in Yemen. Some portions of the list of associated forces and all the groups considered affiliates of Al Qaeda are blacked out. Associated forces would fall under the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force, which became law just a week after 9/11, and which the administration has used to justify 15 years of lethal operations in many countries. Yet the White House process, the Pentagon document notes, involves a target-by-target analysis of legal authorities, and groups not currently identified as associated forces could still be targeted if a new situation arose. The guidance also includes a large waiver for the president to disregard it in cases of national self-defense, fleeting opportunities, or even to authorize a strike against someone who posed a threat to another countrys persons. The guidance does not apply to operations in areas of active hostilities, which the administration currently defines as Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan. A White House spokesman, Ned Price, pushed back on reports that strikes in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan, along the border, are not covered by the guidance, but would not clarify whether in some instances strikes in the border region might fall into the administrations definition of active hostilities. The guidance is one more exhibit in the Obama administrations institutionalization of counterterrorism strikes, by drones and other means, far from conventional battlefields. Last month, the White House released casualty figures for such strikes during Obamas presidency, stating that as many as 2,600 people had been killed in 473 strikes in 7 years. The administration believed that between 64 and 116 of them were civilians a number disputed by outside observers, who put the total number of civilians harmed between 200 and 1000. The Shot Heard All Over the Country By Uri Avnery August 09, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - ON JUNE 28, 1914, the Austrian heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, visited Sarajevo, the main town of Bosnia, then an Austrian province. Three young Serbian inhabitants of Bosnia had decided to assassinate him, in order to achieve the attachment of Bosnia to Serbia. They threw bombs at the car of the archduke. All three failed to harm him. Later on, one of the assailants, Gavrilo Princip, chanced upon his intended victim again. The archduke's car had made a wrong turn, the driver tried to reverse, the car stalled, and Princip shot the duke dead. That was "the shot heard around the world". This small incident led to World War I, which led to World War II, with altogether some 100 million dead, to Bolshevism, Fascism, Nazism and the Holocaust. Yet, while the names of Lenin, Stalin and Hitler will be remembered for centuries, the name of Gavrilo Princip, the most important person of the 20th century, is already forgotten. (Because he was only 19 years old, Austrian law did not allow him to be sentenced to death. He was sent to prison, where his death from tuberculosis went unnoticed in the middle of World War I.) For some reason, this insignificant person who made history reminds me of an insignificant young Israeli named Elor Azaria, whose act may well change the history of the State of Israel. THE FACTS of the case are quite clear. Two young Palestinians attacked an Israeli soldier with a knife in Tel Rumaida, a settlement of extremist Jews in the center of Hebron. The soldier was slightly wounded. The attackers were shot, one died on the spot, the other was severely wounded and lay bleeding on the ground. What happened next was photographed by a local Palestinian with one of the many cameras distributed by the Israeli human rights association "B'Tselem" to the local population. The crew of an Israeli ambulance was treating the wounded soldier, ignoring the seriously wounded Arab who was lying on the ground. Several Israeli soldiers were standing around, also ignoring the Palestinian. About 10 minutes later Sergeant Elor Azaria, a medic, appeared on the scene, approached the wounded Palestinian and shot him point-blank in the head, killing him. According to eye-witnesses, Azaria declared that "the terrorist must die". Later, on the advice of his phalanx of lawyers, Azaria claimed that he was afraid that the wounded Palestinian had an explosive charge on his body and was about to kill the soldiers around him - an assertion clearly disproved by the pictures which showed the soldiers standing nearby obviously unconcerned. Then there was a mysterious knife which was not there at the beginning of the clip and could be seen lying near the body at the end. The film was widely distributed on social media and could not be ignored. Azaria was brought before a military court and became the center of a political storm that has been going on for weeks. It is splitting the army, the public, the political scene and the entire state. LET ME interject a personal note. I am not naive. In the 1948 war I was a combat soldier for ten consecutive months, before being severely wounded. I saw all kinds of atrocities. When the war was over, I wrote a book about these atrocities, called "The Other Side of the Coin"(in Hebrew). It was widely condemned. War brings out the best and the worst in human nature. I have seen war crimes committed by people who, after the war, became nice, normal, law-abiding citizens. So what is so special about Elor Azaria, apart from the fact that he was photographed during the act? We all saw him on TV, sitting in the military courtroom during his trial, which is still going on. A childish-looking soldier, seeming quite lost. His mother sits directly behind him, cradling his head in her arms and stroking him all the time. His father sits nearby and in the intermissions shouts abuse at the military prosecutor. So what is so special about this case? Similar acts happen all the time, though not on camera. It's routine. Especially in Hebron, where a few hundred fanatical settlers live among 160,000 Palestinians. Hebron is one of the oldest cities in the world. It existed long before Biblical times. In the center of Hebron there is a building which, according to Jewish belief, houses the graves of the Israelite patriarchs. Archaeologists dispute this claim. Arabs believe that the tombs belong to venerable Muslim sheiks. For them, the building is a mosque. Since the beginning of the occupation, this has been a place of continued violent strife. The main street is reserved for Jews and closed to Arab traffic. For soldiers sent there to guard the settlers, it is hell. In the clip, Azaria is seen shaking hands with somebody immediately after the killing. This person is no other than Baruch Marzel, the king of the Tel Rumaida settlers. Marzel is the successor of "Rabbi" Meir Kahane, who was branded as a fascist by the Supreme Court of Israel. (Marzel once openly called for my assassination.) During the trial it was revealed that Marzel plays host every Saturday to the entire company of Israeli soldiers guarding the settlement, including the officers. This means that Azaria was exposed to his fascist ideas before the shooting event. WHAT MAKES the case of the "shooting soldier" (as he is called in the Hebrew press) a turning point in the history of the Zionist enterprise? As I mentioned in a recent piece, Israel is now rent into diverse "sectors", with the rifts between them growing ever wider. Jews and Arabs; Orientals (Mizrahim) and Europeans (Ashkenazim); secular and religious; exclusive orthodox and inclusive "national religious"; male and female; heterosexual and homosexual; old-timers and new immigrants, especially from Russia; rich and poor; Tel Aviv and the "periphery"; Left and Right; inhabitants of Israel proper and the settlers in the occupied territories. The one institution which unites almost all these diverse - and mutually antagonistic - elements is the army. It is far more than a mere fighting force. It is where all Israeli youngsters (except the orthodox and the Arabs) meet on equal terms. It is the 'melting pot". It is the holiest of the holy. Not any more. This is where Sergeant Azaria comes in. He did not just kill a wounded Palestinian - named, by the way, Abd al-Fatah al-Sharif. He mortally wounded the army. FOR SOME years now, a secret endeavor of the "national-religious" has been going on to conquer the army from below. This sector was once a small and disdained group, since religious Jews by and large rejected Zionism altogether. According to their belief, God exiled the Jews because of their sins, and only God has the right to allow them back. By appropriating God's task for themselves, Zionists were committing a grievous sin. The mass of religious Jews lived in Eastern Europe and were destroyed in the Holocaust. A number of them came to Palestine and are now a secluded, self-sufficient community in Israel, taking huge sums of money from the Zionist state and not saluting the Zionist flag. The "national-religious", on the other hand, grew in Israel from a small, timid community into a large and powerful force. Their tremendous birthrate - 7-8 children is the norm - gives them a large advantage. When the Israeli army conquered East Jerusalem and the West Bank, studded with holy places, they also became assertive and self-assured. Their present leader, Naftali Bennett, a successful high-tech entrepreneur, is now a dominant member of the government, in constant competition and conflict with Binyamin Netanyahu. The party has its own education system. For decades now this party has been engaged in a determined effort to conquer the army from below. It has pre-army preparatory schools which produce highly-motivated future officers, and is slowly infiltrating the lower officer corps. Kippah-wearing captains and majors, once a rarity, are now very common. ALL THIS is exploding now. The Azaria affair is blowing the army apart. The high command, still mainly composed of old-timers, Ashkenazim and (comparative) moderates, put Azaria on trial. Killing a wounded enemy is against army orders. Soldiers are allowed to shoot and kill only if they are in immediately danger to their lives. A large part of the population, especially the religious and rightist sectors, protested loudly against the trial. Since the Azaria family is oriental, the protesters include the bulk of the oriental sector. Netanyahu's acute political nose immediately scented the trend. He decided to visit the Azaria family, and was only held back at the last moment by his advisors. Instead, he called Elor's father, and conveyed his personal sympathies on the phone. Avigdor Lieberman, before his appointment as Minister of Defense, personally visited the courtroom in order to demonstrate his support for the soldier. It was an open slap in the face of the army command. Now the army, the last bulwark of national unity, is being torn apart. The high command is openly attacked as leftist, a term not far removed from traitorous in current Israeli discourse. The myth of military infallibility lies shattered, the authority of the high command profoundly damaged, criticism of the Chief of Staff is rampant. In the contest between Sergeant Elor Azaria and the Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Gadi Eizenkot, the sergeant may well win. If convicted at all for blatantly disobeying orders, he will get off with a light sentence. Killing a defenseless human being has turned him into a national hero. His was the shot that was heard all over the country. Perhaps all over the world. Uri Avnery is an Israeli writer and founder of the Gush Shalom peace movement. A member of the Irgun as a teenager, Avnery sat in the Knesset from 1965 to 1974 and from 1979 to 1981. Anti-Trump Republican Evan McMullin Announces Presidential Bid By Julian Routh August 09, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " WSJ " - Evan McMullin, an anti-Trump Republican who has served as the chief policy director of the House Republican Conference, announced an independent bid for president Monday, hoping to garner the support of GOP voters who are wary of the New York businessman. Mr. McMullin, whose resume includes an M.B.A. degree from Wharton and stints at Goldman Sachs and the Central Intelligence Agency, has already missed more than half of the states ballot-filing deadlines, but his longshot bid could potentially have an impact in key battleground states such as Ohio, Virginia and New Hampshire assuming he can raise money and build an organization. He still has time to get on the ballot in 24 states and in Washington, D.C., but the deadline to file in seven of those states is Wednesday. He will have to get thousands of signatures in each state by their respective deadlines to get on the ballots, which will require him to have an organized strategy on the ground. He would have to collect 5,000 signatures in Ohio, 5,000 in Virginia and 3,000 in New Hampshire, according to state election rules. Before Californias filing deadline this Friday, he would need to gather upwards of 150,000 signatures. In a statement posted on his website, Mr. McMullin said: Like millions of Americans, I had hoped this year would bring us better nominees who, despite party differences, could offer compelling visions of a better future. Instead, we have been left with two candidates who are fundamentally unfit for the profound responsibilities they seek. With the stakes so high for our nation and at this late stage in the process, I can no longer stand on the sidelines. Mr. McMullin launched a campaign website soon after the first reports of his candidacy surfaced Monday morning. Nate Hodson, a spokesman for the House Republican Conference, said the group has zero knowledge of Mr. McMullins intentions. An aide for the organization said Mr. McMullin is no longer an employee there. Mr. McMullin couldnt be immediately reached for comment. The House Republican Conference, made up of all GOP House members, aims to give legislators the opportunity to organize jointly and discuss the partys message. Mr. McMullin has been a vocal critic of the Republican presidential nominee on Twitter, labeling him as an authoritarian and criticizing the real estate billionaire for refusing to release his tax returns. In one tweet in May, he wrote, Opposing @realDonaldTrump is about putting principle over power, a virtue some in Washington are too quick to abandon. #NeverTrump. Mr. McMullin held a campaign meeting Sunday that included members of Better for America, BuzzFeed reported Monday. The conservative group pledged in June to bankroll an independent candidate. Copyright 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. See also Independent Candidate Evan McMullin Says Trump Is 'Inhuman,' Calls Clinton 'Woefully Unfit' to Be President Behind Bars The Big Business of Keeping People in Cages By RT - On Contact, On this week's episode of On Contact, Chris Hedges discusses mass incarceration with prison reform advocates Walter Fortson and Boris Franklin. From the school-to-prison pipeline, to solitary confinement, to preventing recidivism, they reflect on their own experiences to address how to fix one of the major civil rights issues of today. Posted August 09, 2016 See also Washington Slapdown: Turkey Turns to Moscow for Help By Mike Whitney Turkey is slowly leaving the Atlantic system. That is the reason behind this coup. That is the reason why NATO is panicking. This is much broader and much bigger than Erdogan. This is a tectonic movement. This will affect Turkish-Syrian relations, Turkish-Chinese relations, Turkish-Russian relations and Turkish-Iranian relations. This will change the world. Yunus Soner, Deputy Chairman Turkish Patriotic Party It is becoming clear that the attempted putsch was not just the work of a small clique of dissatisfied officers inside the armed forces; it was rather the product of a vast conspiracy to take over the Turkish state that was decades in the making and might well have succeeded. Patrick Cockburn, CounterPunch August 09, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " Counterpunch " - On August 9, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Saint Petersburg The two leaders will discuss political developments following the recent coup-attempt in Turkey, tourism, and the launching of Turkstream, the natural gas pipeline that will transform Turkey into southern Europes biggest energy hub.. They are also expected to explore options for ending the fighting in Syria. Putin will insist that Erdogan make a concerted effort to stop Islamic militants from crossing back-and-forth into Syria, while Erdogan will demand that Putin do everything in his power to prevent the emergence of an independent Kurdish state on Turkeys southern border. The meeting will end with the typical smiles and handshakes accompanied by a joint statement pledging to work together peacefully to resolve regional issues and to put an end to the proxy war that has left Syria in tatters. All in all, the confab will seem like another public relations charade devoid of any larger meaning, but thats certainly not the case. The fact is, the normalizing of relations between Russia and Turkey will foreshadow a bigger geopolitical shift that will link Ankara to Tehran, Damascus and other Russian allies across Eurasia. The alliance will alter the global chessboard in a way that eviscerates the imperial plan to control the flow of energy from Qatar to Europe, redraw the map of the Middle East and pivot to Asia. That strategy will either be decimated or suffer a severe setback. The reasons for this should be fairly obvious to anyone who can read a map. Turkeys location makes it the indispensable state, the landbridge that connects the wealth and modernity of the EU with the vast resources and growing population of Asia. That vital connecting piece of the geopolitical puzzle is gradually slipping out of Washingtons orbit and into enemy territory. The July 15 coup is likely the final nail in the NWO coffin for reasons we will discuss later. Heres a clip from Eric Draitsers insightful piece titled Erdogans Checkmate: CIA-Backed Coup in Turkey Fails, Upsets Global Chessboard that summarizes whats going on: Ultimately, the failed 2016 coup in Turkey will have lasting ramifications that will impact the years and decades ahead. With Turkey now clearly breaking with the US-NATO-EU axis, it is rather predictable that it will seek to not only mend fences with both Russia and China, but to place itself into the non-western camp typified by BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Chinas One Belt One Road strategy, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, etc. (Erdogans Checkmate: CIA-Backed Coup in Turkey Fails, Upsets Global Chessboard, Global Research) In an earlier part of the article, Draitser correctly identifies the followers of Fethullah Gulen as the perpetrators of the coup. As he and others have pointed out, Gulens agents have penetrated all levels of the Turkish state and military acting as a shadow government (aka- parallel state) that poses a direct threat to Turkeys national security.. Heres journalist Patrick Cockburn making the same point in a recent article in CounterPunch: There is little question left that the followers of Fethullah Gulen were behind the coup attempt, despite his repeated denials. I dont have any doubt that the brain and backbone of the coup were the Gulenists, says Kadri Gursel, usually a critic of the government. He adds that he is astonished by the degree to which the Gulenists were able to infiltrate and subvert the armed forces, judiciary and civil service. . it is difficult to find anybody on the left or right who does not suspect that at some level the US was complicit in the coup attempt. Erdogan is probably convinced of this himself, despite US denials, and this will shape his foreign policy in future. if the coup had more successful, Turkey would have faced a full-blown military dictatorship or a civil war, or both. Erdogan said in an interview that foreign leaders who now counsel moderation would have danced for joy if he had been killed by the conspirators. (After the Coup, Turkey is Being Torn Apart, Patrick Cockburn, CounterPunch) If the coup had succeeded, then it is quite likely that Erdogan would have been savagely murdered like Gadhafi while the state was plunged into a long-term civil war. This is why Erdogan has removed tens of thousands of Gulen sympathizers or operatives from their positions in the state, the media, the military and the universities. These prisoners will now be charged with supporting the coup (treason?) and could face the death penalty. Critics in the Obama administration and western media have lambasted Erdogan for violating civil liberties in his effort to rid the country of fifth columnists and traitors, but the Turkish President will have none of it. He has angrily responded saying that Washington was taking the side of the coup leaders. Now I ask, said Erdogan, does the West give support to terror or not? Is the West on the side of democracy or on the side of coups and terror? Unfortunately, the West gives support to terror and stands on the side of coups.We have not received the support we were expecting from our friends, neither during nor after the coup attempt. Erdogan lamented that no Western leader had come to Turkey to express condolences and show solidarity with the Turkish people. (Hurriyet, Turkish Daily) He has a point, doesnt he? While I am no fan of the autocratic and narcissistic Erdogan, its very suspicious that Washington is so eager to criticize and so reluctant to help. After all, the two countries are allies, right? And what does Erdogan want? He wants the US to extradite Gulen (who currently lives in exile in Pennsylvania) so he can face charges of treason in Turkey.. According to Erdogan, Documents have been sent to the U.S. establishing Gulens guilt. But the Obama administration remains unmoved, even though Turkey has handed over terrorists to the US in the past without evidence. Apparently, sauce for the goose is not sauce for the gander. Its worth repeating what Cockburn said in the excerpt above. He said: it is difficult to find anybody on the left or right who does not suspect that at some level the US was complicit in the coup attempt. Why is that? Why does everyone in Turkey regardless of their politics or ethnicitythink the US had a hand in the coup? Take a look at this clip from an article at the World Socialist Web Site which helps to explain: US claims that Washington had no advance warning of the coup are simply not credible. Turkeys Incirlik Air Base, which hosts more than 5,000 American soldiers and is the main base for the US-led bombing campaign against Syria and Iraq, was the organizing center of the putsch. Pro-coup fighter jets flew in and out of Incirlik as the coup unfolded. Shortly after the coup failed, the base commander, General Bekir Ercan Van, was arrested along with other pro-coup soldiers at the base. Given that Incirlik is the site of dozens of US nuclear weapons, no credibility can be given to claims that US intelligence was unaware that a coup against Erdogan was being organized from there. Were that truly the case, it would represent a CIA intelligence breakdown of stunning proportions. A pro-coup officer captured by the Turkish government, Lieutenant Colonel Murat Bolat, told the conservative Yeni Savak newspaper that his unit was designated to detain and possibly murder Erdogan after receiving precise information on Erdogans location from US sources. A person in the meeting, whom I guess was an officer from the Special Forces, said, Nobody will be allowed to rescue the president from our hands, he said, indicating that this meant Erdogan was to be shot after he was captured if the forces who had arrested him faced any counterattack. (Erdogan accuses US of supporting failed coup in Turkey, World Socialist Web Site) While the information is not conclusive, it is suspicious. At the very least, Washington knew a coup was being planned and looked the other way. This except from a post by Harvard professor, Dani Rodrik seems like a very plausible explanation of US involvement to me. Heres a brief clip: The U.S. government may not have had a direct hand in Gulens activities, but it is more difficult to dismiss the argument that it provided tacit support or that some parts of the U.S. administration prevailed on other parts who were less keen on Gulen. As the Wikileaks cables I referred to above make clear, the State Department, at least, has been well aware of Gulenist infiltration of the Turkish military for quite some time. The Gulenistss role in Sledgehammer, which led to the discharge of many of the most Kemalist/secularist officers in the military is equally clear. Beyond Sledgehammer, the Gulenists wide range of clandestine operations against opponents in Turkey must be well known to American intelligence.. the head of the Turkish military, who was held hostage by the putschists during the coup attempt, has said that one of his captors offered to put him in touch with Gulen directly. This, on its own, is prima facie evidence of Gulens involvement, and likely passes the probable cause test that is required for extradition. Incredibly, administration officials are still quoted as saying there is no credible evidence of Mr. Gulens personal involvement. In other words, these officials must think that the army chief of their NATO ally is lying. (Is the U.S. behind Fethullah Gulen?, Dani Rodriks Blog) The Obama administrations support for the Kurds in Syria as well as its behavior following the coup of July 15, has led to a dramatic deterioration in US-Turkey relations. This will undoubtedly effect Erdogans willingness to allow the US to use its airbases for conducting bombing raids in Syria in the future. Its also bound to accelerate the pace at which Turkey strengthens relations with Russia, Iran and others as it will need the protection of new allies to better defend itself against threats from the west. The Obama administration is still uncertain of how to proceed mainly because no one had expected that Erdogan would break with Washington, purge his enemies, pursue rapprochement with Moscow, Tehran and Damascus, and throw a wrench in Uncle Sams plan for redrawing the map of the Middle East. At present, the administration is trying to ease tensions by dispatching one high-ranking official after the other to persuade Erdogan that the US was not involved in the coup. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford visited Ankara just this week while Secretary of State John Kerry and Vice President Joe Biden are scheduled for later in the month. Eventually, even Obama will be asked to make the trek. No effort will be spared to bring Erdogan back into the fold. If, however, the charm offensive fails, as I expect it will, Erdogan will be crucified in the western media (Hitler Erdogan) while covert operatives and NGOs try to foment political instability. At least, thats the way things normally play out. Mike Whitney lives in Washington state. He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion (AK Press). Hopeless is also available in a Kindle edition. He can be reached at fergiewhitney@msn.com. See also - Erdogan says talks with Putin to open new page in relations: TASS : "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. Donald Trump Unveils His Economic Policy Plan Full Video Trump's economic plan: no 'death tax', less business tax, and fewer regulations Republican presidential nominee also proposed allowing parents to fully deduct the average cost of childcare from their taxable income in a Detroit speech Posted August 09, 2016 August 08, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " The Guardian " - In an attempt to reset a campaign recently flogged by a series of controversies, Donald Trump outlined an economic vision for the US, including dramatically slashing taxes, and took sharp aim at Hillary Clinton. In a nearly hour-long speech, unusually reading from a teleprompter, the Republican presidential nominee suggested Detroit itself was an example of the living, breathing example of my opponents failed economic agenda. The unemployment rate [in Detroit] is more than twice the national average, Trump said. Half of all Detroit residents do not work. Detroit tops the list of the most dangerous cities in terms of violent crime. These are the silenced victims whose stories are never told by Hillary Clinton. Trump said his economic plan would reverse a lagging recovery in jobs from the 2008 recession, in part by reducing income tax brackets from seven levels to three of 12%, 25%, and 33% and entirely eliminating income taxes for individuals who earn less than $25,000 annually, or $50,000 for a married couple. Thats a change from September 2015, when he initially proposed four brackets that would pay zero, 10%, 20% and 25%. He said it would mark the biggest tax revolution since the Reagan tax reform. We will make America grow again, Trump said to applause. In addition, Trump said he would lower corporate tax rates from 40% to 15% a rate he said punished companies for making products in America. This, ladies and gentleman, is backwards its backwards, he said. All of our policies should be geared towards keeping jobs and wealth inside the United States. No American company will pay more than 15% of their business income in taxes, he continued. Clintons economic vision entailed onerous regulations, which would put small companies totally out of business, and you wont be able to start you could never, ever start a small business under the tremendous regulatory burden that you have today in our country. Trump also said he would eliminate the estate tax, which currently applies to estates larger than $5.45m for individuals, or $10.9m for married couples. No family will have to pay the death tax, he said. Trumps speech began with a few hiccups. Throughout his remarks, several protesters interrupted the candidate before being whisked away by security. The economic clubs attendees booed, jeered and cheered, and at one point delivered a standing ovation for Trump following the interruptions. Go home! one attendee shouted; We love you, Donald, said another. The remarks were delivered inside a ballroom of Cobo Hall in downtown Detroit, before 1,500 members and guests of the prestigious Detroit Economic Club, a business and professional organization that routinely serves as a stop for presidential candidates. About 100 anti-Trump protesters marched around Washington Boulevard outside the hall while chanting Dump Trump. The specifications of the economic plan appeared to mimic proposals offered last fall by his campaign and later highlighted on his campaigns website. In March, the group Citizens for Tax Justice said his plan would cost more than $12tn. Trump also reiterated his opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership and his plan to ask TransCanada to renew the permit for the Keystone pipeline. The newest proposals included a temporary moratorium on regulations from federal agencies. He pitched a plan to allow families to fully deduct all childcare expenses from their taxes, which he said would reduce cost in childcare, offering much needed relief to American families. The speech was viewed as a chance to reboot Trumps flailing campaign, following a week that saw the candidate vehemently push back against criticism from the family of a Muslim soldier who died in Iraq, and as the leader of the American Nazi party proclaimed him presidency as a real opportunity. His standing in polls across the US fell in tandem, including in Michigan, where Clinton opened up a near double-digit lead this week. And on Monday, a little-known CIA operative and Republican, Evan McMullin, announced his third-party run for president, presenting himself as a conservative choice for millions of disaffected Americans. Trumps running mate, Indiana governor Mike Pence, made a surprise appearance to introduce Trump on Monday, saying the candidate was in Detroit to deliver what so many American leaders have done at this very podium. You will hear your keynote speaker outline a vision, a new economic vision to make America great again, Pence said to applause. Both Clinton and Trump view Michigan as vital to their campaign, and the Democratic nominee is set to follow her opponent with an economic speech, also in Detroit, on Thursday. Clinton, on a two-day campaign swing through the battleground state of Florida, spurned Trumps economic agenda as a repackaging of Republicans old policies. Trickle-down economics does not help our economy grow, Clinton said during a rally in St Petersburg, Florida, on Monday. It does not help the vast majority of Americans, but it does really well for people already at the top. She said his tax plans will give super big tax breaks to large corporations and the really wealthy, while casting herself as a champion for small businesses. Were going to make the wealthy pay their fair share, she said, drawing cheers from the crowd. I am not going to raise taxes on the middle class, but with your help we are going to raise it on the wealthy. She also took a swing at Trumps new team of economic advisers, dismissing them as hedge fund guys, billionaire guys, six guys named Steve, apparently. Before Trumps speech, the congresswoman Debbie Dingell said she was looking forward to the speech, because its really important to hear all the candidates. Ive always done that. Thats what democracy is its hearing from those candidates, said Dingell, a board member of the economic club and Democrat who represents Michigan in the US House. Its understanding those candidates. So I want to see what he has to say. Others werent as interested. Really? said Valerie Kindle, a retired worker for the state of Michigan who lives in the city of Eastpointe, about 20 minutes north-east of Detroit. This person has been unstable since the very beginning. Ive never seen a campaign ran as he ran his. Were Americans we dont tear each other down like that. Now why, why should we support [him]? Kindle continued. Has the United States come to that level? Where we really want the scum of the earth to represent us? Lauren Gambino contributed reporting from New York. Why Neocons Cant Stomach Trump Neocons are jumping off the Republican ship for Hillary Clinton even though Donald Trump has shifted their way on Israel and military spending. The big reason is his resistance to a new Cold War with Russia, says JP Sottile. By JP Sottile August 09, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - Bill Kristol is downright despondent after his failed search for an alternative to Donald Trump. Max Boot is indignant about his stupid partys willingness to ride a bragging bull into a delicate China policy shop. And the leading light of the first family of military interventionism Robert Kagan is actually lining up neoconservatives behind the Democratic nominee for president of the United States. At the same time, the Democrats have become the party of bare-knuckled, full-throated American Exceptionalism. That transformation was announced with a vein-popping zeal by retired general and wannabe motivation screamer John Allen at the Democratic convention in the City of Brotherly Love. During his speech, a few plaintive protests of no more war were actually drowned-out by Democrats chanting USA-USA-USA! This is the same Democratic Party often criticized by Kagan & Co. as the purveyors of timidity, flaccidity and moral perfidy. Its not that Democrats havent dropped bombs, dealt arms and overturned regimes. They have. And theyve even got the Peace Prize-winning Obama-dropper to prove it. But unlike enthusiastically belligerent Republicans, the Dems are supposed to be the party that does it, but doesnt really like to do it. But now, theyve got Hillary Clinton. And shes weaponized the State Department. She really likes regime change. And her nominating convention not only embraced the military, but it sanctified the very Gold Star families that neocon-style interventionism creates. It certainly created the pain of the Khan family who lost their son in the illegal war in Iraq. But the Dems didnt mention that sad fact as they grabbed the flag away from the Republicans. Truly Neo-confusing. It kinda feels like reality has slipped off its axis and weve landed on a Bizarro World version of America. Democrats are acting like Republicans. Pat Buchanan is championing the GOPs Peace Candidate . And the neocons are fleeing from the party theyve used like a geopolitical cudgel for the better part of three decades. At first glance, it all makes sense. Trump captured the GOP nomination in no small part by trashing two of the neocons favorite things ever the Bush family and the Iraq War. He also suggested early on that hed approach the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza as (gasp!) an honest broker. Trump said he really wanted to make that deal . Without irony, one-time neocon wonderboy Marco Rubio remarked that it isnt a real estate deal when, in fact, thats exactly what it is. But the ever-pliable Trump quickly got religion on Israel. He did an about-face , marched into AIPACs annual confab, and staked out a claim on the reflexively pro-Israel side of the issue. But it wasnt enough to assuage the angst of the GOPs forever-circling hawks. Frankly, nothing seems enough to sway the neocons in Donalds direction. But its not for lack of trying on Trumps part. Really, hes checked off many of the boxes that make neocons smile. Trump wants a yuuge military the biggest and baddest ever! So big, that no one in a million years will ever challenge it. That sure sounds a lot like Reagans peace through strength. Neocons do love Reagan. And, as if on cue, the Kristol/Kagan-led Foreign Policy Initiative just posted a clarion call to spend more bucks to buy bigger bangs for an already gargantuan military. Doesnt that fit with Donalds plan to spend defense dollars like a drunken sailor? Maybe neocons dont want the military to be so big that no one will ever try anything. Maybe they want a few challenges here and there, just for a little creative destruction to keep the world on its toes. But Trumps right there with them. He wants to bomb the shit out of ISIS. And he even said America has no choice but to bomb Libya and take out the Islamic State. Cmon, Neocons Whats Not to Like? And how about Trumps Islamophobia? It sure seems simpatico with the last two decades of neoconservative drum-beating. Trump repeatedly uses the magic words Radical Islamic Terrorism. Cant you just hear the longing sighs coming out of the American Enterprise Institute ? He also wants to ban Muslims. Or just ban people coming from countries where Muslims have committed terrorism. Who knows? Either way, the message is Muslims bad. It even gave neocon bushwacker Frank Gaffney a serious man-crush on The Donald. To be fair, other less fringy neocons like Kristol have repudiated the Muslim ban idea. But, as filmmaker Robbie Martin showed in his just-completed series on the neocons and their very heavy agenda , even the most intellectually renowned among them has engaged in the dangerous stereotyping of all Muslims as terrorists. In fact, Martin featured a frightening clip of two Kagans (Roberts dad Donald and his brother Fred) making the case that the U.S. military should clean out the Occupied Territories in the aftermath of 9/11 because radical Muslims and the Arabs are all basically the same. Oh, by the way, they only respect brute force. So why not take advantage of the New Pearl Harbor and show them all whos boss? Its kinda like the dancing Muslims Trump and only Trump saw celebrating the 9/11 attacks in New Jersey. Even if he didnt see them, or just conflated them with an isolated incident in East Jerusalem, whats the difference? Its all the same to him. Just like aggrieved and aggressive Muslims were all the same to the Kagans on 9/11. Doesnt that make Trumps persistent suspicion of Muslims a perfect match for the neoconservative wrecking crew? And then theres the Iran nuclear deal, which Trump has relentlessly criticized as being so bad that its downright suspicious . He said he wants to renegotiate immediately after taking office. And he wrongly claims the deal is a fast-track to a nuclear-armed Iran (an error that puts him squarely in the neocon camp). As a rule of thumb, hes livid about all things related to Iran. So, whats the problem? Why cant the neocons wrap their arms around Donald Trump? In a Word: Russia. Its framed as a troublesome bromance between Vladimir Putin and Trump. Critics dont like Trumps comfort with a dictator who, as Kagans wife Victoria Nuland recently told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, engages in aggression. Shes currently the assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs. She basically managed the 2014 coup in Ukraine. And shes outraged by Russian aggression in Ukraine. But shes not bothered by her husbands role in pushing for the most blatant and wanton act of aggression thus far this century the unwarranted destruction of Iraq. Go figure. On the other hand, Putin has the unmitigated gall to move military forces around inside the borders of his own country. Hes blamed for hacking the Democratic Party despite a lack of actual evidence and the NSAs own hacking hijinks . And hes accused of meddling in U.S. elections a pretty rich accusation given Americas long history of surreptitious electioneering around the world. There is no doubt that Bad Vlad likes Donald. And Donald likes Vlad. But the real problem isnt their bromance. This is about the neoconservative desire to make sure the United States is the lone guarantor of the geopolitical order. This is about Pax Americana. This is about resurrecting the faded dream of a new American century. And what stands in the way of the type of the neocon dream of global full-spectrum dominance? Russias nuclear arsenal. Russia is the only nation with an arsenal big enough to withstand the subtle nuclear blackmail of Americas trillion-dollar nuclear upgrade . Thats why Russia is concerned about the missile defense systems arrayed on their border. Those systems can knock down retaliatory strikes, thus making a first strike with new nuclear cruise missiles at least theoretically possible. The United States is also using NATO expansion to increasingly encircle a nation that once was Americas geopolitical equal. Thats why Trumps criticism of Americas outsized support for NATO mustve been the tipping point from disdain to panic among neocon and neoliberal interventionists alike. The oddity is that there does seem to be more than a passing affinity between Trump and Putin. Trumps statements on Ukraine would be easily dismissed if his campaign manager Paul Manafort hadnt worked as a political consultant to the pre-Nuland leadership of Ukraine. And Trumps statements on Crimea might be written off if hed release his taxes and end speculation of financial ties to Putins regime. But the visceral reaction against his repeated calls for cooperation By the way, wouldnt it be great if we got along with Russia? exposes the extent to which the entire foreign policy and political establishments are squarely on the same page. They are angling for Cold War 2.0, and Trump is the only major figure willing to challenge that orthodoxy. Unlike Hillary Clinton, of course, which brings the whole thing back to the miasma of confusion hanging over this strange election. Hillary is on the neocon team if not in name, certainly in deed. She will stand up to Bad Vlad. Shes targeted by Russian hackers because Putin prefers his unwitting agent Donald Trump. And Donald is, according to an emerging narrative , a latter-day Neville Chamberlain just inviting the Ruskies to take over the Baltic States, Ukraine, and God knows what else. The greatest irony of all is that Trump catapulted over the neocons preferred presidential options by slamming their pet project the War on Iraq. Trumps criticism of that war and the chaos it unleashed resonated with the very voters the Neocons took for granted as pliable, fear-responsive bumpkins. That left the neocons out in the cold just as they were angling to trump the disorderly, hard-to-prosecute mess they call The Global War on Terror. What they really want, and have always wanted, is to revive the greatest war of all the Cold War. Thats the grand chessboard they yearn to play on once again. The War on Terror was really just a stop-gap, like methadone for imperialists. But now theyve scored because it looks like the supposed party of imperial intransigence is, under the guidance of Hillary Clinton, poised to take the reins from a Trump-addled GOP. And if a recent article in Der Spiegel is right, Kagans wife Victoria has emerged as a candidate for the prized position of secretary of state should Hillary win. If that comes to pass, the neocons may not have succeeded in their initial plan for a new American century, but they will have hastily completed their last-minute project for a new Democratic Party. And that means this election isnt that Neo-confusing after all. Green Party Nominee Jill Stein: "We Are Saying No to the 'Lesser Evil' and Yes to the Greater Good" By Democracy Now! According to CNNs Poll of Polls, Stein is now polling at 5 percent. The same poll finds Clinton at 45 percent, Republican Donald Trump at 35 percent and Libertarian Gary Johnson at 9 percent. Neither Stein nor Johnson will be invited to take part in this falls presidential debates, however, unless they top 15 percent in national polls. For more, we hear excerpts of Dr. Jill Stein speaking at the Green Party convention. August 09, 2016 " Information Clearing House " -AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. We are "Breaking with Convention: War, Peace and the Presidency." Im Amy Goodman. Dr. Jill Stein has accepted the Green Partys presidential nomination at the partys convention in Houston. Stein is running alongside longtime human rights activist Ajamu Baraka. Interest in the Green Party has jumped in recent weeks since Hillary Clinton won the Democratic nomination, defeating Bernie Sanders. In 2012, Dr. Stein ran on the Green ticket and won less than 1 percent of the national vote. But according to CNNs Poll of Polls, Stein is now polling at 5 percent. The same poll finds Clinton at 45 percent, Republican Donald Trump at 35 percent and Libertarian Gary Johnson at 9 percent. Despite Stein and Johnsons rise in the polls, neither will be invited to take part in this falls presidential debates unless they top 15 percent in national polls. Last week, a federal judge threw out a lawsuit by Johnson and Stein against the Commission on Presidential Debates over the debate rules. Well, well spend the rest of the hour airing excerpts from the Green Party convention in Houston. We begin with Dr. Jill Stein speaking Saturday as she accepted the Green Party nomination. DR. JILL STEIN: You know, hold onto your hat, folks, because we are in a whirlwind right now, a whirlwind that is way bigger than any of us. We have a job to do. We have a role to play that will not be played by anybody but us. We are the ones weve been waiting for. When they tell us to, you know, get out of the way, because were standing in the way of the lesser evil, you know, the answer to that is that this politics of fear, which weve been told to bow down to, has only delivered everything we were afraid of. All those reasons we were told to vote for the lesser evilbecause we didnt want the offshoring of our jobs, the meltdown of the climate, the massive bailouts for Wall Street, the expanding prison state, the attack on our civil liberties and on immigrant rightsall those things we didnt want is exactly what we got by allowing ourselves to be silenced and letting a lesser evil speak for us. Remember, when they try to tell you you are powerless, remember what Alice Walker says: The biggest way people give up power is by not knowing we have it to start with. We have it. We are going to use it in this election. We are saying no to the lesser evil and yes to the greater good, because we are not only deciding what kind of a world we will have; in this election, we are deciding whether we will have a world or not, going forward into the future. The day of reckoning is coming closer and closer. On climate change, we are told that there will be a civilization-ending development in the form of massive sea level rise as soon as 2050. Anybody plan to be here in 2050? I think a few of us do, myself included. So, we cannot wait, because we have to act now if we want to stop that sea level rise from happening in 2050. We need to declare a state of emergency right now and undertake a wartime-scale mobilization to create those 20 million jobs and create that 100 percent clean energy now. We have a crisis in nuclear weapons, and again thanks very much to the Democrats. Bill Clinton, who removed us from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty framework for nuclear disarmament, and then Barack Obama, who created a trillion-dollar budget for us to spend on a new generation of nuclear weapons and modes of delivery. So, on the count of climate, on the count of nuclear weapons and this insane nuclear arms race that we are once again headlong plunging into, and on account of these endless and expanding wars, that are blowing back at us all around the world, we cannot afford to sit this one out. The lesser evil is a losing strategy, because people stop coming out to vote for lesser evil politicians throwing them under the bus. So the Republicans will win anyhow. And to look at Donald Trump, Donald Trump does not stand alone. Donald Trump is about the rise of right-wing extremism, not only in this country, but in Europe. And as Bernie Sanders himself so often said, the only solution to the likes of Donald Trump is a truly radical, progressive agenda that restores our needs and ends the economic misery that promotes the kinds of demagogues we are seeing in Donald Trump. We are the ones weve been waiting for. Hillary Clinton is the problem; she is not the solution to Donald Trump. We are the solution. We are the ones weve been waiting for. This is our moment. Together, we do have the power to create an America and a world that works for all of us. The power to create that world is not just in our hopes. Its not just in our dreams. Right here and now, its in our hands. We will make this happen together. We are unstoppable. Thank you so much. On we go. Thank you. AMY GOODMAN: That was Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein speaking Saturday at her partys convention in Houston. Pentagon, CIA Form Praetorian Guard for Clinton as Warmonger President By Finian Cunningham August 09, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - Former director of the Central Intelligence Agency Michael J Morell is the latest in a phalanx of senior US military-intelligence figures who are shedding any pretense of political neutrality and giving their full-throated endorsement to Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. In a New York Times opinion piece, Morell starkly backed Clinton as the most highly qualified to be commander-in-chief keeping our nation safe. The ex-CIA chiefs op-ed piece also served as a blunt hatchet job on Republican presidential rival Donald J Trump. Morell said the New York billionaire-turned politician is not only unqualified for the job, but he may well pose a threat to our national security. The hoary, old scare-theme of national security is being rehabilitated as the criterion for electing Clinton. It also has the disturbing connotation of an increasingly militarized totalitarian regime that the United States is becoming. While showering Clinton with glowing praise, the former CIA spymaster trounced Trump with a litany of flaws, including 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. Morells coup de grace for Trump was that he was a national security danger owing to his alleged indifference towards the US-led NATO military alliance and European security, and unwillingness to confront Russia. After accusing Trump of being careless with facts, Morell makes this reckless, sensationalist claim: In the intelligence business, we would say that Mr Putin had recruited Mr Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation. This is a breath-taking interference in the nominally civilian sphere of US politics by unelected military-paramilitary elements, whereby a candidate for presidency is accused of being a foreign puppet. It is a throwback to the Cold War witch-hunting days of McCarthy and Un-American activities. This very public intervention by a top CIA figure in the US presidential election is an extraordinarily brazen affront to constitutional norms. Traditionally, the American military and intelligence apparatus has always been careful to assume a neutral relation with regard to Washington politics at least in public. In the 2016 election, however, the boundaries between civilian politics and the military powers are being flagrantly jettisoned. The military and the Deep State cabal are, in effect, moving to preordain the White House occupant. This situation has barely perceptible difference from a military coup appointing a civilian junta to administer. At the Democrat National Convention in Philadelphia last week, the endorsement of Hillary Clinton by military top brass was conspicuous. One of the main Pentagon cheerleaders was Four-Star Marine General John Allen, who gave a bloodcurdling and ranting speech declaring how our enemies will fear an America led by Clinton. This rush to partisan politics by the US military has even led to unease among certain Pentagon quarters. Only days after the DNCs militaristic rally, General Martin Dempsey, who was formerly Chairman of the Joint Staffs, took the unprecedented step of publishing a cautionary article warning: Keep Your Politics Private, My Fellow Generals and Admirals. Dempsey did not mention General Allen or others by name, but it was clear to whom he was referring and the jingoistic display in support of Clinton. And it was also clear that Dempsey saw the open embrace of partisan politics by the Pentagon as a worrying development undermining democracy in the US. He feared the erosion of civil-military relations. What is that qualifies Hillary Clinton for such support? Former CIA boss Morell listed these attributes as her belief that America is an exceptional nation that must lead in the world for the country to remain secure and prosperous; her understanding that diplomacy can be effective only if the country is perceived as willing and able to use force if necessary; and, most important, her capacity to make the most difficult decision of all whether to put young American women and men in harms way. In other words, what is most appreciated is how Clinton is prepared and willing to take America into ever more wars. Despite the horrific legacy that she is already responsible as Secretary of State in the Obama administration (2009-2013) when she prosecuted wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and, covertly, in Syria and Ukraine. And yet, ex-CIA chief Morell, who served alongside Clinton in these disastrous wars, has the gall to censure Trump for his lack of respect for the rule of law. By contrast, Trump, for all his flaws and awry views on immigration and race relations, has not espoused warmongering zeal to any comparable extent. Indeed, the Republican candidate has called for normalization of relations with Russia in particular and has notified that he would order a withdrawal of US forces from Asia, Europe and other regions in order to rebuild America first. His views on not rushing into a hypothetical war to defend NATO Baltic nations from a far-fetched Russian invasion are seen by many ordinary Americans as a common sense position. For the Pentagon-CIA nexus, however, Trumps views are anathema. This is what it gets down to. Clinton is the candidate of choice for the US military-industrial complex because she will enhance corporate profits and a $600-billion annual budget that feeds the Pentagon-CIA leviathan. Crucial to this role is reinforcing a belligerent foreign policy towards the world in general and towards Russia in particular. Or, as Morell puts it, Clintons belief that America is an exceptional nation that must lead in the world for the country to remain secure and prosperous. It is this exceptional, supremacist Washington ideology that has brought the world to such a dangerous precipice. Hillary Clinton, ironically, far more than the maverick Donald Trump, is proving to be an exemplar of what can only be called the Neo-fascist ideology that is becoming increasingly extant in Washington. The Pentagon-CIA Praetorian Guard that is being formed around Clinton is not only a harbinger of the militarized totalitarian state administered from Washington; it is also a signal that the United States is moving openly to a policy of unabashed, unrestrained permanent war against any foreign country it so deems. Finian Cunningham, former editor and writer for major news media organizations. He has written extensively on international affairs, with articles published in several languages A Google account manager, 27 year old Vanessa Marcottes dead body was found naked and burnt in a wooded area of Massachusetts, US, on Sunday night August 7th near her mums house in Princeton after she went jogging. Police believe she was sexually assaulted before she was set on fire at the crime scene. Detectives believe the incident was a homicide and are now searching for suspects in the mystery case. A state police source told News Center 5 that Vanessa had burns on her hands, feet and part of her head. Internet search giant Google has paid tribute to Vanessa, in a statement the company said; Vanessa Marcotte was a much loved member of the Google team, working in our New York office for the last year and a half, and known for her ubiquitous smile, passion for volunteer work and love of Boston sports. We are deeply shocked and saddened, and our thoughts are with her family and friends. More photos of Vanessa The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Ekiti State have arrested a seventy-eight year-old man, Lawrence Ayeni and four others for allegedly defrauding a Nigerian based in the United States, Okechukwu Omeniho, of N300,000. The suspect Ayeni, a ritualist and his cohorts Ifashola Babatunde, 44, Akin Ono, 25, Yusuf Akorede, 30 and Adetifa Ishola, 45 were arrested on Monday inside a bush at Iwaro, Oke Ila Quarters of Ado-Ekiti, where they were performing rituals on Omeniho. Their victim was believed to have been charmed, under the pretext of appeasing gods of fortunes and prosperity for him. Omeniho, a 49-year-old businessman who hails from Owerri was said to be unaware of how fell into the hands of the fraudsters and ritualists and committed such a huge amount of money to people he had never met before after being tricked from his base. According to the Commandant of NSCDC, Donatus Ikemefuna, Omeniho is a businessman who hails from Owerri, Imo State but resides in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. The victim wept uncontrollably when the suspects were paraded shortly after their arrest. We are encouraging any defrauded victim to come out and identify the suspects paraded or give details of their experiences so that the activities of these occultists and fraudsters can be eliminated completely, he said. The Abuja division of the Appeal Court has reserved judgment in the appeal by Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State, challenging his removal by a Federal High Court. Justice Okon Abang on June 27 ordered Ikpeazu to vacate office for including false tax certificate information in his Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) form for the December 2014 governorship primary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Justice Abang had ordered INEC to issue fresh certificate of return to the plaintiff, Uchechukwu Ogah, who came second in the primary. At the resumed sitting of the court, a five-member panel of justices led by Justice Morenikeji Ogunwumiju, reserved the appeal for judgment after Ikpeazus counsel, Wole Olanipekun (SAN) asked the appellate court to upturn the verdict of the high court, which sacked his client from office. According to Olanipekun, as a public servant, Ikpeazus tax papers ought not to be queried because it is the business of the revenue authorities to authenticate the documents he submitted. He further argued that the high court erred in law by deciding the allegation that the governor made false information in his INEC Form against the PDP Guidelines without the document being presented as an exhibit before the court. In a counter-argument, counsel to Ogah, Alex Izinyon (SAN), prayed the court to dismiss the appeal, arguing that the matter for the court is to determine whether there is compliance with Section 31 (5) and (6) of Electoral Act as it relates to information supplied to INEC. The Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) on Tuesday said it would leave no stone unturned to resolve the impasse between Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) drivers and their employer. The drivers on Tuesday downed tools to protest alleged delayed salary payment and unfavourable conditions of service. The scheme, which provides bus services on a dedicated corridor or lane, is being operated by Primero Transport Services Limited. Mr Iyiola Adegboye, LAMATAs Acting Managing Director, who addressed the protesting drivers, said the agency was concerned about the possible impact of the strike on commuters. What we have done is to speak to the busmen and we have assured them that the state government is ready to listen to their demands, he told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) after addressing workers. We have invited their representatives for a meeting at which we would discuss the issues, look into their grievances and then see how we will address them. But we have asked them to go back to the road and we believe that they will comply with that, he said. Adegboye appealed to stranded commuters, especially residents of Ikorodu, asking them to bear with the government. What has happened is not something that was not expected. We appreciate the fact that they are going through a lot of pressure now but we want to ask that they should please bear with us. We are working assiduously to resolve the issues, he said. Source: Vanguard In an altogether amusing mixup, Chinese officials told a man with the same name as a notorious criminal who has been dead for 10 years. The situation to have arisen as a result of attempts by the government to put an end to the common phenomenon of repeat identities. The 45-year-old, identified as Mr. Chen, had applied for a certificate to show he had no criminal convictions for his new job in Guangzhou. However, the police refused his application as they said records showed he was convicted and executed in 2006 for kidnapping. Reporters from the Guangdong Radio and Television Network later found that the conviction belonged to another man with the same name and identity card number. Despite such a record, Mr. Chen says hes been living a normal life since his execution a decade ago and hasnt experienced any difficulties before. He said, I was even allowed to apply for a travel permit to Hong Kong and Macau from the government. Also adding, All these things are just puzzling. Guangzhou police said there had been a mistake and issued him with the certificate. The mix-up over the two Chens is one of the more extreme cases of repeat identity in China, caused when an administrative error gives citizens an identity card number thats already been issued. A contractor who allegedly diverted 60 truck-load of grains meant for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Borno State has been apprehended by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. The suspect (names withheld) delivered only fifty-three trucks out of 113 allocated to the state and diverted the rests to an unknown location. In an interview with journalists in Maiduguri, Senate Leader, Senator Mohammed Ndume, who made the disclosure said the distribution had to stop because of alleged diversions by unscrupulous elements. It is an unfortunate incident; the contractor only delivered 53 trucks out of the 113 allocated to Borno State. We cannot proceed with the distribution. I have to go back and inform the President of this ugly development. Ndume, who hails from Gwoza Local Government Area of the state, said his visit was prompted by President Buhari, who asked him to commence distribution of grains alongside officials of the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA. He, however, disclosed that the contractor had since been arrested and was being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. Meanwhile, the Senate leader also said plans were underway to shut down all IDP camps housing some Borno indigenes across the country, while they would be taken to transit camp in their respective local government areas from where they can easily go back to their homes. I have told them (IDPs) in clear terms that time is ripe for them to go back home; there is no point remaining in the camp after three years. Gwoza Local Government Area, where I hail from, in particular, is now safe and secured. Over 10,000 residents are now living safely in Gwoza and there is no cause for alarm. It is very regretful that less than 3,000 Gwoza IDPs now in Maiduguri have refused to go back and resettle, despite all pleas to them, Senator Ndume said. In a move that is altogether shocking and a tad embarrassing, Delta state governor, Ifeanyi Okowa has sent congratulatory messages to the former Governor of Delta state on the occasion of his birthday. SEE ALSO: Gov. Okowa Hails Ibori For His Contributions On His 58th Birthday Chief James Ohanefe Ibori who served as governor of Delta state between 1999-2007 is serving a 13-year sentence after pleading guilty to ten counts of money laundering and conspiracy to defraud in London. James Ibori is thought to have stolen as much as US$250 million while he was Delta state governor! The Lokoja Chief Magistrates Court on Monday arraigned a 49-year-old farmer, Gabriel Ajor, for allegedly abducting and selling seven children, including his two sons and an eight-year-old baby, for N400,000. Ajor was alleged to have abducted and sold the children under the guise of sending them to schools in Owerri and United States of America, USA, the accused was said to have tricked the parents of five of the children, Kenneth Omale and John Attah, into releasing their children. In his statement, the prosecuting police officer, ASP Cornet Ayabatu, said the accused, who is from Nwajala in Ibaji Local Government Area of Kogi State, between March and June, criminally conspired with others now at large to commit the offence. ASP Ayabatu said that the matter was reported on July 8 by Kenneth Omale of Nwajala at the police area command office, Idah and Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Lokoja. He added that the children, Goodway Kenneth, 5; Kindness Kenneth, 3; Shedrack John, 6; Goodday John, 6; Confidence Ojonuba, eight months old; Gift Gabriel, 6 and Destiny Gabriel, 3, all male, were allegedly taken to an undisclosed destination. Ayabatu said police investigation led to the arrest of Ajor, who confessed that he was paid N400,000 for the seven children by one Malik in Owerri, Imo State. He was charged with criminal conspiracy and kidnapping contrary to sections 97(1) of the Penal Code and Section 4(1), punishable under section 4(3)(a) of Kogi State Kidnapping and other Related Offences (Prohibition) Law 2015. The prosecutor however, told the court that investigation into the matter was in progress and asked for adjournment to enable the police address some grey areas. In his ruling, the Chief Magistrate, Alhassan Husaini, said that he was inclined to put on hold all ancillary applications connected to the case till the next sitting in view of the weighty and serious nature of the allegations. Husaini, therefore, ordered that the accused be remanded at the state CID detention facility in Lokoja and adjourned the case to August 24 for further mention. As part of ongoing efforts to improve the standard of basic education in Nigeria, the Federal Government has launched a National Education Quality Assurance Handbook. The handbook is necessary for teaching standards to be harmonised at all levels of education below the tertiary level, the Minister of Education, Mr Adamu Adamu, said today at the official launch. He reiterated the governments commitment to ensuring an improved quality in the standard of basic and secondary education. Meanwhile, the Chief Education Officer of UNICEF, Mr Terry Durnnian, who was also present at the occasion pledged the support of the global education fund towards improving the quality of education in Nigeria. The Osun State Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, has called for a ban on the export of primary farm produce as part of strategies to ensure food sufficiency in the country. The governor made the call in Osogbo, the state capital in a statement he issued by his media aide, Semiu Okanlawon. He opined that the ban would enhance the value chains of the nations agricultural investments. 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 kilogram of exported cocoa beans increases 5,000% 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 Americas must be reversed. Agriculture is needed primarily for food production; only well fed people can drive economic development. Good nutrition is the primary basis of good health which drives productivity and energy, he said. A tanker driver on Monday crushed a pregnant woman to death along the Minna Suleja road in Niger State. The tanker driver who was on top speed, sped off after the incident but was apprehended by the police in Chachanga, some kilometers from the gate of the College of Education, Minna, the state capital, where the incident occurred. The Nation gathered that the victim was a student of the department of Languages in the institution. Following the incident, students of the institution blocked the major road in protest of the death of their colleague. Some students who spoke as eyewitnesses were quoted to have said that the victim was on a commercial motorcycle and was about to take a U-turn when the tanker which was on a top speed came upon them. The commercial cyclist escaped but the pregnant woman could not move and upon her arrival at the hospital, she was confirmed dead. An official of the Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, who did not want his name mentioned in print, confirmed that the driver who was earlier apprehended by the FRSC was later handed over to the Police. He said after two hours of protest, the Police were able to calm the students and brought the situation under control and they also tried to clear the road of traffic. Source: Dailypost An Igbosere Magistrates Court sitting in Lagos State on Monday arraigned one Gabriel Happiness, a housemaid who allegedly stole her employers N1.5m. The 18-year-old housemaid committed the crime in less than 3 hours of being employed. A police prosecutor, Sergeant Cyriacus Osuji, said Happiness was arrested alongside her accomplices; her step father, Gabriel Igbang, 30, and her mum, Gabriel Joy. The maid was said to have stolen the cash from her employer, Mrs. Bolanle Ibukunoluwas residence in Lagos, then proceeded to a bush in Ogun to bury her loot, before escaping to Benin, the Edo State capital. The prosecutor said Happiness was employed by Mrs. Ibukunoluwa sometime in May 2016, through one Alhaja popularly known as Iya Dolapo, as a housemaid and the monthly salary agreed upon was N7, 000, meant to be paid in bulk at the end of the year. Osuji said, On June 26, 2016, at about 5:30 pm, the maid (Happiness) moved into her employers house. On that fateful day, the woman (Mrs. Ibukunoluwa) went out and came back at about 8:00pm only to discover that her new house-help was nowhere to be found. She forced the gate opened and then discovered that her Lenovo phone valued at N20, 000 and the N1.5m she kept in her room was nowhere to be found. She rushed immediately to her neighbours place to ask about the whereabouts of her housemaid and they told her she left before 8:00 p.m. Mrs. Ibukunoluwa however reported the incident at Central Police Station and the maid was later apprehended in Benin, where she ran to, after giving her step-father the money. The prosecutor further noted that her stepfather, Igbang and her mother, Joy, denied receiving any money from her but after interrogation, they confessed to the crime. Happiness, thereafter, took the police to the bush in Ogun where the sum of N300, 000 was recovered and another N252, 500 was also recovered at another location in the bush. The presiding magistrate, Mrs. A.T. Omoyele, in her ruling, found the first defendant guilty of conspiracy and stealing. Omoleye sentenced Happiness to 2-and-half years imprisonment without an option of fine. Igbang, on his part, bagged one year jail term without an option of fine, after being found guilty of receiving stolen property. Source: Dailypost The Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, has described the killing of soldiers and airmen on lawful duty in Bosso, Niger State, by suspected gun runners as unacceptable. Speaking with journalists on Tuesday shortly after addressing personnel at the 332 Artilery Regiment in Shendam, Mr. Buratai, however, said the incident would not deter the military from carrying out its lawful duties. What happened in Bosso is highly unfortunate, he said, noting that the troops were on a mission to recover arms hid in communities in the area when they were ambushed and killed. But instead of them gun runners to be law abiding, they took the law into their hands and attacked the troops. We have the mandate to bring the situation under control, we are working with the police to make sure that we keep our society free of criminalities, the chief of army staff said. On his visit to the regiment and other military formations in the state, Mr. Buratai said it was routine and to find out challenges of the troops in order to address them. If you are not on ground to see them and know what their challenges are, you will not be able to appreciate and address them, he said. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the chief of army staff announced the promotion of a gunner in the regiment, Dantani Ibrahim, to Lance Corporal, for his bravery, dedication and hard work. Mr. Buratai, who later addressed wives of soldiers at the regiment, promised to give their welfare a top priority, adding that children of soldiers who died in line of duty would be sponsored up to the university level. He also said any of those children, who desire to get enlisted into any of the military services, would be given priority. (NAN) As a retired officer from both the North Las Vegas Police Department and the United States Air Force, I have a unique perspective on Nevadas current debate for the Question One gun control ballot initiative. Supporters of the measure, which is largely bankrolled by former New York billionaire Michael Bloomberg, claim it is a reasonable, commonsense law that would keep guns out of the hands of criminals. Those claims are false. The Question One gun control ballot initiative is nothing but a feel good law for politicians, who after a tragic shooting, are desperate not to let a good crisis go to waste. The reason Question One would do nothing to make Nevadans safer is because we know that criminals do not obey the laws. A new study done by the University of Pittsburgh backs up what Nevada sheriffs are saying about new gun control law. The study finds that nearly 8 in 10 gun crimes are committed with illegally-possessed guns. The Washington Post, which is usually in favor of more gun control laws, was forced to admit the findings reinforce a common refrain among gun rights advocacy groups. They argue that since criminals dont follow laws, new regulations on gun ownership would only serve to burden lawful owners while doing little to combat crime. Question One would criminalize the commonplace activities of many law-abiding Nevadans. For example, if your neighbor or co-worker wanted to go shooting on federal BLM land and borrow a firearm, the two of you would first have to go to a federally licensed firearms dealer, pay a fee, and undergo a federal background check. When finished, you would both have to go back to that dealer and go through the whole process again. This would be on top of the background check you already went through when you first bought the firearm. If you were in the military and got sent overseas, you would not be able to have a friend store your personal firearms for you, unless, the two of you went through the same process I already described. Question one would cost Nevadans time, money, and freedom. Enforcing this measure would tax already scarce law enforcement resources in Nevada. For example, the North Las Vegas police department was particularly hard hit by the Great Recession and barely avoided a state takeover. The department, like many around the state, is still strapped for cash. Furthermore, to effectively enforce private firearms transfer laws, the state would need to create a massive gun registry. In a white paper dated January 4, 2013, the deputy director of the National Institute for Justice the Department of Justices research and evaluation agency makes clear that the effectiveness of universal background checks depends on requiring gun registration. Clark County got rid of its gun registry scheme last year. I am sure Nevadans do not want a return to that failed approach. That gets to my final point. The so-called common sense gun laws are never enough for the anti-gun crowd. If they get Question One passed, they will be back for more gun control laws in the future. A better way to keeping Nevadans safe is to enforce the state and federal gun laws already on the books. We need mandatory sentencing laws for criminals who use a firearms in the commission of a crime. Time and again we see that states and cities with the most gun control laws persistently have the highest crimes rates. We should not look to cities such as Chicago, Baltimore, and Washington, DC for ideas on how to make Nevadans safer. The Question One gun control ballot initiative will not make Nevadans any safer. Instead, it will tax scarce law enforcement resources in the state and cost law-abiding citizens time, money and freedom. According to a Scotland Yard statement, a 22-year-old man has been arrested after climbing over a security fence at Buckingham Palace, England. Police say it was not terror-related as the climber had been drinking. The Metropolitan police said the man, from Croydon, was arrested at 4.15am on Tuesday on suspicion of trespassing on a protected site, contrary to section 128 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005. He was seen by officers who were monitoring CCTV and arrested within a security perimeter, police said. The man, who had been drinking, did not gain access to the palace. He was not armed. No Taser was deployed by officers. The man is currently in custody at a central London police station. The breach is not believed to be terrorism related. President Muhammadu Buhari has been commended for appointing a new board for the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC. The president was commended by three groups in the Niger Delta, which also condemned a publication credited to a youth movement in the region, condemning the appointment of a former deputy governor of Akwa Ibom state, Chief Nsima Ekere, as the intervention agencys Managing Director. The groups alleged that the faceless petitioners aim was to discredit the nomination of Ekere as NDDCs boss without having knowledge of the political topography and history of appointments in the area. A joint statement by Abiye Tamuno Sokari-George (Rivers Pathfinders), Erasmus Obele Nwankpa (Alliance for Transparency and Good Governance) and BaJerome Alali Green (Vanguard for Justice, Equity and Strategy) said the appointment was in order and satisfied the yearnings of the area. The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Uguru Usani, on Monday said the ministry had successfully completed only one project since its creation eight years ago. He stated this in Abuja while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria. The ministry was created in 2008 by the late President Umaru YarAdua. It has two ministers previously Ufot Ekaette and Godsday Orubebe both of who are from the oil-rich region as the incumbent. Mr. Usani said it was regrettable that no project had been commissioned or completed since the establishment of the ministry in 2008, except a cassava processing plant in Ondo State by the present administration. He decried the destruction of oil facilities by Niger Delta Avengers, arguing that no matter the provocation, it was wrong for the group to destroy the environment that bore the people`s heritage. He said the region was everybodys business and that no personal or collective interest was worth the destruction of oil pipelines in the region. Lets come together as one to protect our communities; lets preach love, peace, tolerance, patience and dialogue with one another, Mr. Usani said. Lets convince ourselves that it is our region and that we have nowhere to go to, if we destroy it. The minister urged the people of the region to support the President Muhammadu Buhari, saying that they had benefitted more from him than any other Nigerian president. He said measures were being put in place to ensure due process and accountability in the ministry, with regards to project implementation, especially in the Niger region. Mr. Usani, therefore, urged people of the region to task themselves and take responsibility of their collective heritage. He said, Henceforth, we must refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of our history. Lets embrace our heritage which defines our identities and values. (NAN) Punch A factional Chairman of the All Progressive Congress in Kano, Useni Mairiga on Tuesday described President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration as a total failure. Vanguard EBONYI State Police command have arrested the Coordinator of Ohaozara Development Centre, Mr Ogbonnaya Ene Odi for his alleged role in the dehumanizing treatment meted out to an innocent teenager, Ukamaka in Ohaozara local government area of the state. Thisday The leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has accepted responsibility for failing to nip in the bud the embarrassing face-off between the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara and a member of the party and former Chairman of the Appropriation Committee, Hon. Jubrin Abdumumini, over the 2016 budget. The Sun The 4 Brigade of the Nigerian Army with headquarters in Benin city, has urged journalists to uphold professionalism and objectivity in their reportage of activities in and around the state. Guardian The representative of Benue North East Senatorial District during the Third Republic, Prof. David Iornem, says the way President Muhammadu Buhari presents corruption amounts to bad-advertising Nigeria to the whole world. Daily Trust Traditional rulers in Edo North Senatorial District of Edo State have endorsed the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Godwin Obaseki, as their choice for the September 10 election in the state. Leadership The crisis rocking the Imo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is far from being over as the party, yesterday held two separate congresses in Owerri, the Imo State capital. The Nation Three soldiers were yesterday killed in an ambush by militants at Nembe, Bayelsa State. New Telegraph The Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Yusuf Tukur Buratai yesterday declared that Boko Haram insurgents have been defeated by the Nigerian Army. This was as he stressed that they had also been deprived from re-grouping in any part of the county. Former Senate President, David Mark, has warned leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party, against impunity or imposition of candidates ahead of the August 17 national convention of the party in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. He reminded the party leaders that the defeat suffered in the last general election was self-inflicted as a result of non-adherence to democratic ideals. A statement by Senator Marks media assistant, Paul Mumeh, quoted him as saying this when members of the Benue State chapter of the PDP paid him a visit at his country home in Otukpo. It said the former Senate president noted that it is incumbent on our leaders and members to allow the popular will of the people prevail at the congresses and convention. It also quoted him as calling on PDP members to remain steadfast, just as he frowned against defections at will because of the present challenges facing the party. Mark stressed that such inconsistencies neither enhances the democratic culture nor the integrity or credibility of politicians who defect. He said: If we must uphold the sanctity of democratic culture, we must follow the path of honour like the Democrats and Republicans in the United States of America or the Labour Party or the Conservatives in the United Kingdom, who hold on to their political ideologies, no matter the odds. Mark restated that no matter the challenges, he will not leave the PDP, a platform he said afforded him the opportunity to contest and win elections since 1999. He reminded party faithful to work hard in the days ahead as credible opposition and overcome the challenges. The statement noted that the Benue PDP Chairman, John Ngbede, who briefed Mark about affairs of the party, said the party now works as one family. It said Ngbede listed one of their challenges as cash and appealed to the former Senate president to help address the issue. Ahead of the August 17 national convention of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, the Board of Trustees (BoT) led by Senator Walid Jibrin, has inaugurated an 18-man reconciliation committee to unite party stalwarts, leaders and members. The PDP is currently engulfed in a leadership crisis as two chieftains, Senator Ahmed Makarfi and Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, battle over who should occupy the national chairmans seat. While the Makarfi-led faction, which has the support of major organs of the party was pushing for the August 17 convention to take place in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, the Sheriff-led faction opposed the convention. The faction described the Makarfi-led caretaker committee as an illegal contraption, with Sheriff claiming that he was the only chairman of the party recognized under the law, with the powers to convoke a national convention to produce new leaders. At present, there are about 15 court cases instituted by contending groups within the party. While inaugurating the Prof. Jerry Gana-led reconciliation committee yesterday in Abuja, Jibrin expressed optimism that the committee would put an end to the lingering leadership crisis bedeviling the party since May 2015. Jibrin said that the BoT, as the conscience of the party, cannot fold its arms and watch the PDP destroyed. He said that the party needed to re-position itself and embrace the vision and mission of its founding fathers. He appealed to party leaders, who still had cases in court to withdraw them for the committee to resolve all the contentious issues politically. He said: We had sleepless nights, trying our best to see that the partys integrity is maintained with reference to the dreams of our founding fathers. We should not allow the PDP to die. Based on the dream and foundation of this party, our founding fathers, some of them are alive and we are grateful to them. Some attempts were made in the past by individuals to resolve this issue and the exercise is still on-going. We want to agree that this our party will rely on its constitution, and if we do, we must also agree that this party is supreme, this party is above every one of us. It is above individuals and therefore, we must all ensure that we resolve this matter politically. It is on this issue of political consideration that we decide to form this committee. Even those that have problems should cool down so that their names will be written in the history of not only the PDP but Nigeria. Speaking shortly after the inauguration, Prof. Gana, a former minister of information, promised that the committee would be responsible and fair in the discharge of its responsibilities. He specifically pleaded with the Sheriff camp to allow the committee resolve the crisis by making himself available for discussions, stressing that the party should go into the convention united. Other members of the committee included Alhaji Shuaibu Oyedokun, Senator Ibrahim Ida, Hajia Inna Ciroma, Senator Biodun Olujimi, Air Commodore Dan Suleiman (rtd) among others. A Nigerian man has been detained at Muscat International Airport, Oman after he allegedly tried to smuggle 217 bank cards. Royal Oman Police arrested the Nigerian national today, August 9, while attempting to smuggle the cards at the airport. Oman is an Arab country in the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula Source: LIB The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola on Monday, inspected the ongoing Maiduguri 1X150, 330/132 KV Substation in Molai, Borno State. The minister made a detour to inspect the ongoing work on the substation on his way to the 8th Monthly Meeting with Sectoral Participants in the Power Sector hosted by the Yola Electricity Distribution Company at the TCN Maiduguri Works Centre, Baga Road, Maiduguri. Mr Fashola also paid a courtesy visit to the Shehu of Borno, HRH Abubakar Umar Garabai before heading to the meeting. Mr. Oluwaseyi Afolabi Tinubu, son of All Progressives Congress (APC) National Leader Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, got married to his heartthrob, Layal Jade Holm yesterday at a low-key ceremony at the Iga Idunganran Palace of Oba Rilwan Akiolu, the Oba of Lagos. The ceremony was witnessed by top government functionaries, The ceremony was witnessed by top government functionaries, eminent academics and royalty. Although, President Muhammadu Buhari didnt attend the wedding, he sent his well wishes to the couple via a letter. The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) yesterday said it was least concerned by the rhetoric contained in a video recently released by acclaimed leader of the Boko Haram sect, Abubakar Shekau. After a long absence from appearing in videos, a man purporting to be Shekau was seen in a new clip yesterday threatening to attack the nations capital Abuja, President Muhammadu Buhari, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen Tukur Buratai and indeed, the entire world. In the 24-minute video, which first featured a masked man surrounded by armed men, the extremist group told ISIS leader, Abubakar Al-baghdadi, that it would not follow the new leader he named for it because he doesnt follow what they call the authentic creed. The masked man, after speaking for about 18 minutes, later gave way for Shekau, who in his usual braggadocio, threatened fresh but more attacks on the Nigerian state and its West and Central African neighbours (Cameroon, Chad and Niger). When contacted yesterday to comment on the video, the Acting Director of Defence Information, Brigadier-General Rabe Abubakar, said: Which Shekau did you see? Remember anybody can replicate him. We know they are dying elements of the group and they will all cease to exist soon. We are not ready for a media war which they like us to engage in. Mr. Abubakar argued that since they had failed in combat, now they want to go engage the media space, adding: We will remain focused and his threats are just a figment of his imagination. The Defence spokesman urged Nigerians not to be deceived by a non-existent person called Shekau, while advising other defiant members of the group to surrender. RENO Lincoln Hall, 120 years old and one of the oldest buildings on the University of Nevada, Reno campus, has undergone structural upgrades that address seismic and safety standards and interior remodeling to transform the space into much needed faculty offices. The showcase project to protect the historic three-story brick building began in December and is on target for completion, with furniture to be moved in soon and professors moving into the iconic location by the beginning of the semester. As the University continues to grow we are knocking at the door of 22,000 students, with a goal of hiring 400 new faculty members in the next six years we must continually plan for our future while retaining our roots as the states oldest institution of higher learning, University President Marc Johnson said. Running in parallel with this growth, the campus will be growing with new buildings to make room for more students and more classrooms. An equally important component in our plan is the preservation of our historic buildings. We take sincerely the commitment to preserve the historical nature of our campus. With the Quad, Manzanita Lake and13 buildings on the National Register of Historical Places, its a big responsibility for our institution, one that we take quite seriously. This commitment includes about $26 million invested for renovation of several historic campus buildings, of which $8.5 million was allocated for Lincoln Hall. With Lincoln Hall we are preserving the historical features of the building, while gaining office space for faculty, Johnson said. We made a commitment for Lincolns preservation two years ago and put a plan into place. Its gratifying to see the plan coming to fruition. The Lincoln Hall restoration has been remarkable theyve done such a wonderful job you may not even notice the exterior upgrades. Its dormers and parapets that line the rooftop, arched entryway and ornamental rock corners are all part of the Eclectic style of architecture popular at the time, 1895, which combined several styles of earlier architecture to form a new look. It reflected the principles of Thomas Jeffersons plan for the University of Virginia that resulted in the Reno campuss first quadrangle flanked by academic and administrative buildings and student residences starting when the campus moved in 1885. While many influential architects of the time impacted the beautiful design of Lincoln Hall, the structural elements of the time included the masonry walls that bear the weight of the building, with little or no structural steel or reinforcement. This unreinforced masonry construction of that era is now considered to be structurally unsound in large earthquakes. Lincoln Hall was in critical need of a life safety retrofit to ensure the safety of its occupants and those who walk near this historic building, Graham Kent, director of the Nevada Seismological Laboratory, said. During the process of retrofit, it became clear that Lincoln Hall had no basic ability to sustain lateral shear or motion from a significant earthquake. That scenario is no longer the case as significant effort has been done to give it lateral strength, the reduction of peeling bricks and other life saving measures. In addition to Lincoln Hall, two other buildings on the register have undergone seismic retrofit, and three more of the unreinforced masonry buildings are slated to receive seismic upgrades. They include Thompson Hall, Palmer Engineering and Manzanita Hall. The Thompson Hall project is already underway and Palmer Engineering has been vacated in preparation for the upgrade work in the near future. Manzanita Hall, a student residence hall built in 1896, was closed in 2015. In its present condition, Manzanita Hall is likely to partially collapse during a large earthquake. Even if unoccupied, this presents a serious hazard on campus. The University is awaiting approvals for a seismic upgrade and restoration for Manzanita Hall. Also closed as a residence hall in May 2015, Lincoln Hall named for President Abraham Lincoln restoration was undertaken in cooperation with the State Historical Preservation Office and a historic structures design agent who specializes in seismic, fire and safety, mechanical, plumbing, phone and data, and Americans with Disabilities Act access upgrades. Our local architects worked with experts in historical preservation structural engineering and architects who specialize in protecting the historically significant components of the building, John Walsh, director of Capital Improvement Projects and project manager, said. Weve retained the legacy of the building through this process repairing and reinforcing the brick structure, replacing some of the original components lost over time. Were matching original colors and other design features, but not only that, were making the building ADA compliant and upgrading fire systems to make the building safer for occupants. Lincoln Hall and the other historic buildings are listed in the National Register of Historic Places as part of the University of Nevada, Reno Historic District, which was designated in 1987 and includes the 13 contributing historic buildings in the 40-acre area that reaches west from the Quad to North Virginia Street and south to East 9th Street. The original construction on Lincoln Hall began in 1895 and opened as a mens dorm in 1896. When the building was closed in 2015, it was the longest continuously operating residence hall on a college campus in the United States, housing nearly 20,000 residents over the past 120 years Over the years, the interior of the building underwent a number of changes, most notably in the 1950s when renovations were undertaken to update the plumbing and electrical systems, and in the process, many unique historical features of the hall were lost. The grand staircase was replaced with two flights of stairs on the west and east wings and the fireplace in the west lounge was boarded up, all of which contributed to the loss of the historical significance of the interior design. In preparation for the historical preservation aspects of the project, designers analyzed as many as 18 layers of paint to find the original colors, analyzed photographs and documents to track the modifications over the years, studied the type of mortar used in the original construction and subsequent repairs and scoured the structure to analyze areas that needed fortification. Contractors placed more than 3,000 structural bolts, installed metal strapping and added reinforced concrete as part of the structural fortification. As an unreinforced masonry building, or URM, Lincoln Hall was one of more than 23,000 such buildings in Nevada and 7,000 in northern Nevada faced with requiring fortification. This is a showcase project for URMs around the state, Kent said. With Lincoln, other buildings on campus help make the University a more Resilient Campus, and as the states economy becomes more intertwined with higher education and its research engine, it is important to have campuses that can sustain a major earthquake without closing for an unacceptable period of time. In Nevada, such an earthquake happens somewhere every decade or two on average. Kent said that while Nevada has a high amount of URMs, neighboring state Utah, and Salt Lake City in particular, has 150,000 or more unreinforced masonry buildings. He said that Nevada is like many other states where retrofits are few and far between, but the preservation and retrofit initiative underway at the University mirrors other major projects at campuses in the West, most notably at the University of California, Berkeley. The Resilient Campus movement the ability to better withstand a major earthquake or other disasters underfoot at the University can be a guiding light for Nevada as we grapple with these serious issues, Kent said. This project and other campus retrofits should be applauded by faculty, students and residents alike. The Kogi State Command of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) yesterday said it performed mass burial for a total of 16 persons killed over the weekend in a fatal road accident along Lokoja-Gegu-Abuja highway. The FRSC Sector Commander Mr Ogochukwu Ugboma, said the victims were buried in a mass grave at Alewu village on the highway because their identities could not be ascertained as they were burnt beyond recognition. Mr. Ugboma said the police and environmental officials from the Kogi Local Government Area, participated in the burial. The FRSC sector commander disclosed that 17 persons were involved in the accident, which occurred on the night of August 5 at Alewu village, pointing out that all the occupants of the two vehicles involved, except one man who sustained a minor injury, died in the accident. Ugboma said that the injured victim was later treated at Ideal Hospital, Koton-Karfe and had since been discharged. He said that the two vehicles involved included a Lagos-Kano bound Toyota Hiace passenger bus with registration number Yobe 11A-10 YB and a private Nissan Xtera Jeep with registration number Lagos CV 516 LSD heading to Benin from Abuja. The FRSC boss blamed the drivers of the two vehicles for the accident, stating that both of them left their lanes, which resulted in a head-on collision. Grain Spreads: Corn Strangle Walsh Trading - 16 minutes ago Wedge Formation Intact Shootin' the Bull Swift Trading Company - 56 minutes ago In my opinion, interest in the live cattle market has gotten quite interesting. It takes one new long and one new short to make one increase of open interest. I find this more than interesting due... Nat-Gas Prices Fall Again as Warm U.S. Weather Persists Barchart - 1 hour ago Dec Nymex natural gas (NGZ22 ) on Friday closed -0.191 (-3.25%). Dec nat-gas prices Friday fell for the third session on expectations for prolonged warm U.S. temperatures that would reduce heating demand... NGZ22 : 5.790 (-1.45%) Crude Oil Falls on China Lockdowns and Dollar Barchart - 1 hour ago Dec WTI crude oil (CLZ22 ) Friday closed down -1.18 (-1.32%), and Dec RBOB gasoline (RBZ22 ) closed down -7.86 (-2.98%). Crude oil and gasoline prices Friday fell sharply on a higher dollar and on news... 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Secretary General Kofi Annan once said, For generations, women have served as peace educators, both in their families and in their societies. They have proved instrumental in building bridges rather than walls. All very true. But, as it turns out, the world of peacebuilding and conflict resolution is a male-dominated one. Just how deep does this dominance run? According to Kathleen Kuehnast of the United States Institute of Peace, Out of some 585 peace treaties drafted over the last two decades, only 16 percent contain specific references to women. Meanwhile, the U.N. Womens 2012 report, Womens Participation in Peace Negotiations: Connections between Presence and Influence, found that of 31 major peace processes between 1992 and 2011, "only 4 percent of signatories, 2.4 percent of chief mediators, 3.7 per cent of witnesses and 9 percent of negotiators" were women. The disconnect between Kofi Annan's elementary insight and the actual practice of peace building worldwide is deeply troubling. It's troubling enough that some global security funders have made it their business to address this issue. We look at four below. Swanee Hunt Family Foundation With a combined asset base of between $40 and $43 million, the Swanee Hunt Family Foundation and Hunt Alternatives arent exactly small in the world of philanthropy, but they arent exactly huge either. Its Inclusive Security program awards grants to global security outfits laser-focused on expanding the presence and influence of women in peacebuilding efforts around the world. Main areas of interest include influencing policy, equipping women with global security skills and knowledge, and increasing womens access to peace building decision makers. Related: Swanee Hunt Family Foundation: Grants for Global Security How the funds operate is a bit confusing, Hunts CFO Kate Sears explained it to us like this: We operate our two foundations on a consolidated basis. Hunt Alternatives, an operating foundation, is an outgrowth of the original Swanee Hunt Family Foundation. Its important to note here that the vast majority of the foundations $16.4 million budget88 percent in 2015is dedicated to programs operated by the foundation. That 12 percent of the budget spent on grants in 2015 is marked decline from the 21 percent it dedicated to grantmaking the previous year. So while Hunt does make a few grants annually, this is isnt your traditional grantmaker. Swanee Hunt is a former U.S. ambassador to Austria and a lecturer in public policy at the John F. Kennedy School at Harvard University. Compton Foundation This is a progressive funder we've written about now and again best known for its unusual focus on leadership and storytelling as a means for achieving social change. Compton has long been a player in the peace and security field, among other areas, and earlier this year it took this work in a new direction with a Women, Peace, and Security Initiative that aims "to integrate a holistic, gendered perspective into mainstream US national security and foreign policy decision making over the next two to three years." The premise of this work tracks with the basic idea that women are effective peace builders and more efforts are needed to include them in security deliberations and amplify their voicesstarting in the most critical venue of all, the U.S. national security establishment. Compton points out that despite a growing recognition of the importance of gender in peace and security, such thinking has been slow to penetrate into the Washington, D.C. policy community that works on these issues. The foundation wants to change that, looking at this year's presidential election and the coming transition of administrations as an opportunity to build new bridges between the mainstream policy world and the women, peace, and security community. Grants are already going out the door. You can read more about Compton's strategy and plans here. Channel Foundation The Channel Foundation has a vision in which all women and girls not only have equal protection and human rights, but also an equal voice in participating in political decision making. Channel is relatively small, with around $7 million to $8 million in assets. One group the foundation has supported over the years to achieve those ends is the Global Fund for Women (GFW). Since 2000, Channel has awarded nearly $350,000 grants to back GFW's womens rights efforts in various regions of the world, mainly in the Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA). Funds have gone toward the support of GFW's Women Dismantling Militarism Initiative, which focuses both global attention and resources on womens groups fighting the effects of militarism across the globe. Related:Channel Foundation: Grants for Human Rights The International Civil Society Action Network or ICAN is a regular Channel Foundation grantee, having received $75,000 in awards over the past few years. Grants went toward the support of ICANs mission to support civil society activism in promoting womens rights, peace and human security in countries affected by conflict, transition and closed political space. Recent grants have supported ICANs Global Network of Womens Peacebuilders Project. Maypole Fund Maypole is a U.K.-based funder that has worked tirelessly to proactively challenge patriarchy and increase womens participation in the global security landscape since the mid-1980s. Maypoles grants in this space are considerably smaller750, or just a little over $1,000USDthan those of the Hunt and Channel Foundation, but this funder is pretty dynamic one, homing in on anti-militarism, taking action against the arms trade, nuclear weapons, and nuclear weapons systems, peace building, conflict prevention, and womens participation in disarmament policies. Maypole is also paying attention to young women's groups and lesbian groups, which are often overlooked in the global security landscape. *** There are other funders we could mention, and it's encouraging to see more attention on women and security issues. That said, we're still talking about a very small niche, with this work is flying under the radar for many, if not most, of the funders in the global security space and beyond. Philanthropy has some catching up to do, here. While funders now grasp the importance of women's empowerment in tackling global economic and health challenges, they're behind the curve on the equally important role of gender in ensuring peace and security. In turn, that kind of stability is critical to achieving all other societal gains. This content is from: Opinion Cryptos descent into hell, rather than sending institutional investors straight for the exits, has triggered a hunt for the next big bet.(Part of the crypto column series.) Lloyds insurer ArgoGlobal has recruited a Zurich executive for a leadership role in a growing insurance market outside the UK.The firm has appointed Abdul-Latif Bousaleh as head of accident and health underwriting for ArgoGlobal Underwriting Dubai.Bousaleh will take up his role immediately and will report to Lina Hantas, ArgoGlobal Dubais chief underwriting officer.Lantas said Bousaleh will help drive business growth in the Middle East and North Africa region, where there is a clear and growing demand for personal accident cover.Abdul has a proven ability to build leading books of business, an in-depth knowledge of insureds requirements and a network of broker contacts, which he has developed based on his expertise and commitment to the highest levels of service, Lantas said.Maintaining the growth trajectory of our Middle East business requires expert underwriters who understand the market and can offer products that set us apart, she added.Bousaleh brings nearly a decade of underwriting experience to ArgoGlobal. He joins from Zurich Insurance, Dubai, where he served as head of underwriting for accident and health.In that role, Bousaleh was instrumental in the development and significant growth of the insurers accident and health portfolio.He also previously served as an underwriter at Chartis Insurance and as an analyst at SHUAA Capital. "We see these climate perils as no different to an explosion" More and more insurance brokers are using social media to communicate and promote their businesses.Claude Yoder, global head of analytics for Marsh Inc, said there is no doubt that the brokers use of social media will accelerate, reported Business Insurance.I really do believe that the next three years will make even the rollout of the internet look like a glacial case, said Yoder, who cited the huge divergence in the growth of computer sales and tablet sales as proof.According to global market intelligence firm International Data Corp, tablet shipments are expected to increase 58.7% this year over 2012, and to exceed shipments of portable computers.Regina Spratt, Marsh US sales leader, said clients and prospects want more information they can gather in different ways on their own and in their own way before they can make decisions. She said Marsh had responded to this demand through the use of social media.I think that takes being nimble, and I think people who don't recognise that dynamic that people want to be able to consume that information on their own, they will likely be less effective, said Spratt.As you watch and listen to the experts, this dynamic is becoming more and more real, that people want different ways to gather information and they want to be able to do that on their own and in their own way.Nancy Gospo, VP marketing for Hub International Ltd, said they use social media to monitor the online activity of producers.We're constantly tracking to see how often and how frequently our producers are posting content and how many of them have optimised their profile through the use of social media.Gospo said the brokerage would like to achieve more active content sharing.There's a lot of value to more people within our organisation sharing that within our networks. It's being done today, but I think there's a great opportunity to expand on that, said Gospo.John Thorbahn, president of NFP Thorbahn, said: Social media will allow us to expand our brand into some areas we're not currently known for at this time.Mike Gelin, Miami-based vice president at CBIZ Benefits & Insurance Services of Florida, said more companies are expected to use social media to communicate their brand.In the future, I see more and more companies marketing and communicating via different social media networks, as they try to promote their business and their brand using the various platforms, said Gelin.Not everyones keen on social media, however, reported Business Insurance.Tom Kavanagh, director, insurance practice, at PricewaterhouseCoopers L.L.P., said there tended to be a disparity between how brokers use social media.While some are doing a fantastic job using social media for branding and disseminating information, there are also folks that don't engage with any of those tools for various reasons, said Kavanagh.Kavanagh explained that it could be because these brokers think they are well established and have a robust book of business and don't feel the need to engage using those media or because " the insurance space is slow moving, particularly when it comes to new technologies.Advised Kavanagh to brokers who have not yet engaged in social media: Unless they're getting ready to sell their book, I think they're missing out on a great opportunity to really differentiate themselves. QBE Insurance Group announced last month that it will be reviewing its UK-based operations in light of the UK leaving the European Union. The referendum outcome may require a revised approach in relation to approximately 500 million [$665.4 million] of insurance and reinsurance premium that QBE currently sources from EU member countries that is written via branches of UK-regulated entities under current EU passporting rules, said Sydney-based QBE in a statement. QBE is just one of many re/insurers and other businesses that must determine their options for their UK-based operations after the UK exits the European Union. A report published by Marsh & McLennan Cos. provides an overview of some of the challenges and the possibilities ahead. Brexit is presenting a particular challenge to Londons position as a global hub, since it is unclear what will happen to passporting rights the ability of financial services firms based in one EU country to operate in another without setting up a new legal entity, according to the report titled The UK Chooses Brexit Considerations for Companies. [G]lobal non-EU multinational companies and EU-headquartered firms with sizeable UK operations will need to rethink and possibly restructure their UK operations, given the likely additional cost and complexity associated with accessing EU markets, the report said. Insurers and brokers that want to continue doing business in the EU may be required to obtain licenses or form a new legal entity based in one of the EU member states, the MMC report added. That possibility was suggested by QBE in its statement. Should EU passporting rules not be preserved, QBE will be required to renew this business into newly established licensed EU entities, QBE said. Of course, its not just re/insurers with UK-based operations that will be affected. EU-based insurers may need an additional license to carry on insurance business in the UK, or to form a new UK entity. Writing business through local branches would require local authorization and capital being deposited to support the branch in certain cases, the report continued. In advance of full regulatory clarity, some major insurers with UK operations may establish a greater presence in continental Europe in order to operate more easily under a single license. On a positive note, the report said that UK-headquartered firms with global operations and domestic firms will all face tactical challenges, but will be less affected in the medium term. Ample Time for Transition In its statement, QBE also sought to reassure its customers about whats ahead. The exit negotiations are expected to take a minimum of two years, QBE said, noting that this period will provide ample time for any needed administrative transition and to ensure our service commitments to QBEs European customers are uninterrupted. Meanwhile, QBE emphasized, its ability to source business from EU member countries is unchanged and the company does not expect any material impact on its day to day insurance operations as a result of the UKs decision to leave the EU. Reviewing Risk Profile The MMC report said the prospect of market volatility and protracted policy and regulatory uncertainty will hold little appeal for many companies at a time of continued economic fragility. Now that we have a decision [on Brexit], companies would be wise to review their risk profile and consider the resilience of their planning assumptions to both likely and unexpected scenarios, the report went on to say. Companies need to monitor the Brexit negotiations closely, factoring the impact of different regulatory and market scenarios into their investment plans. During the two-year negotiations to exit the EU expected to begin when a new Conservative leader is elected Marsh recommended strong communication with employees, which will be critical to maintain morale, loyalty and productivity. The list of potential actions is long. They will need to be prioritized and sequenced appropriately, as well as reconsidered and adjusted over time, MMC said, noting that agility in planning is essential. Looking at the silver lining, the MMC report said: No one ever claimed the EU is perfect, and UK-based businesses may well find advantages in legislation and regulation that is better attuned to UK needs and possibly faster-moving to address urgent issues. Topics Legislation Europe Five people were injured after a motorist caused a series of accidents in Holyoke, Mass., that ignited his own vehicle and sent another hurtling into a home. Police said the incident began when a man driving at a high rate of speed struck another car on Northampton Street. The driver fled the scene and struck a motorcyclist and another vehicle about a mile away. Police say the driver then hit another vehicle, which sent it into the front of a home near Northampton Streets intersection with Woods Avenue. The mayhem concluded when the motorist struck a telephone pole. His engine had caught fire at some point during the series of collisions. The extent of the victims injuries is unknown. The case remains under investigation. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Auto Massachusetts Malaysia acknowledged for the first time that one of the pilots of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 had plotted a course on his home flight simulator to the southern Indian Ocean, where the missing jet is believed to have crashed. Australian officials overseeing the search for the plane last month said data recovered from Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shahs simulator included a flight path to the southern Indian Ocean. Malaysian officials at the time refused to confirm the findings. On Thursday, Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai told local journalists that the flight path was found on the simulator. He also cautioned there were thousands of destinations on the simulator and no evidence that Zaharie flew the plane in that area or deliberately crashed it. A recording of the news conference was made available to The Associated Press on Friday. New York Magazine reported last month that an FBI analysis of the device showed Zaharie had conducted a simulated flight to the southern Indian Ocean less than a month before the plane vanished along a similar route. The magazine cited the discovery as strong evidence that the disappearance was a premeditated act of mass murder-suicide at the hands of the captain. Until today, this theory is still under investigation. There is no evidence to prove that Captain Zaharie flew the plane into the southern Indian Ocean, Liow said. Yes, there is the simulator but the (route) was one of thousands to many parts of the world. We cannot just base on that to confirm (he did it). Liow didnt say when the Indian Ocean path was flown on the simulator. He stressed that international experts and Australian officials have agreed that the most likely scenario was uncontrolled ditching of the plane. The latest development in the saga of the worlds biggest aviation mystery unnerved families of the victims, who blame Malaysia for a cover-up and incompetence. It is sheer nonsense! I dont believe it at all. We were told in the past that both the plane and the pilots had no problem and now we are told there was something wrong with the pilot, said Li Xinmao, whose daughter Li Yan and son-in-law Luo Wei were among the many Chinese passengers on the flight. It is another irresponsible thing the Malaysian government has done to try to fool the relatives and cover up the truth and the conspiracy. We relatives strongly protest it and strongly demand the discovery of our loved ones, he said. In Malaysia, Jacquita Gonzales, whose husband Patrick Gomes was a crew member, said there were many unanswered questions about the Indian Ocean flight path in the captains simulator. She said it was unclear when he last flew the route on the simulator. She also noted reports citing a private investigator that a flaperon a small section of the wing that washed ashore on Reunion island off East Africa last year was broken off, indicating controlled ditching of the plane. I am not blaming the pilot, but the government should be more forthcoming with information. Why is France still not releasing details on the flaperon after so long? she said. Its very frustrating. We are like yoyo going up and down all the time. She also said police questioned all crew families in the early days of the tragedy and had told them that all crew members were cleared. Liow said Thursday that French authorities were still waiting for documents from several parties including Boeing, and insisted on holding on to the wing part as court evidence. Australias Joint Agency Coordination Center which is overseeing the search for the plane off Australias west coast has also said that evidence of the route did not prove that Zaharie had planned to steer the plane off course and showed only the possibility of planning for such an event. Malaysias national police chief, Khalid Abu Bakar, has said investigations will not be conclusive until the black boxes the cockpit voice recorder and a data recorder are recovered. He did not rule out a pilot suicide. Malaysia has been criticized for being slow in providing information about the disappearance of the plane belonging to its national flag carrier. There is no clear reason why the Malaysian government is doing this, but it does seem to be connected with wanting the disaster to have as little impact as possible on the standing of the airline, which is already in deep financial trouble, said Damien Kingsbury, professor of international politics at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia. Having one of its pilots intentionally ditch the plane in the ocean, as this might seem to indicate, means that a question mark is placed over all of its pilots. This in turn means people will be less confident in flying with Malaysia Airlines, meaning a further downturn in its already struggling business, Kingsbury said in an email. Officials have been stymied in their efforts to explain why the Boeing 777 carrying 239 people veered so far off course during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014. Theories have ranged from a deliberate murder-suicide plot by one of the pilots, to a hijacking, to a mechanical catastrophe. Similarly, search crews have been unable to find the main wreckage of the plane despite a sweeping underwater hunt of a remote stretch of ocean off Australias west coast. Last month, officials from Malaysia, Australia and China announced that the underwater search will be suspended once the current search area has been completely scoured. Crews have fewer than 10,000 square kilometers (3,861 square miles) left to scan of the 120,000-square kilometer (46,332-square mile) search area, and should finish their sweep of the region by the end of the year. (Associated Press writer Kristen Gelineau in Sydney and researcher Yu Bing in Beijing contributed to this report.) Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Aviation Australia A Kansas waterslide billed as the worlds tallest remains off-limits as authorities try to figure out how a state lawmakers 10-year-old son died of a neck injury while riding it on Sunday. Kansas City, Kan., police issued a statement late Monday afternoon saying that Caleb suffered a fatal neck injury around 2:30 p.m. while he was riding the Verruckt with two women, neither of whom was related to him. They suffered minor facial injuries and were treated at an area hospital, police said. The Verruckt, a 168-foot-tall waterslide, is one of the main attractions at the Schlitterbahn Waterpark in Kansas City. The park was closed Monday. Schlitterbahn said in a statement on its website that the park is scheduled to reopen on Aug. 10 but the Verruckt will remain closed. Verruckt, which means insane in German, was certified as the worlds tallest waterslide by Guinness World Records. Riders go down the slide in multi-person rafts and have to be at last 54 inches tall, according to the parks website. The ride will be closed pending the investigation, park spokeswoman Winter Prosapio said. We honestly dont know whats happened, she said at a news conference Sunday. Thats why a full investigation is necessary. We have to understand whats happened. Authorities have not identified the child, but state Rep. Scott Schwab and his wife released a statement saying it was their son, Caleb Thomas Schwab. Since the day he was born, he brought abundant joy to our family and all those he came in contact with, said the statement, which asked for privacy as the family grieves. Authorities initially said the victim was 12 years old, but Clint Sprague, a pastor who is acting as a spokesman for the family, said Caleb was 10. Scott Schwab is a Republican from Olathe. He and his wife, Michele, have four sons, Sprague said. House Speaker Ray Merrick told the Kansas City Star Schwabs family was the center of his world. Prosapio said the boys family had been at the park with him on Sunday. The 2014 opening of Verruckt was delayed multiple times, though the operators didnt explain why. Two media sneak preview days in 2014 were canceled because of problems with a conveyor system that hauls 100-pound rafts to the top of the slide. Prosapio said in 2014 that park officials would not hesitate to delay operation again for however long it takes to make sure the slide is safe. In a news article linked to the news release announcing a 2014 delay, Schlitterbahn co-owner Jeff Henry told USA Today that he and senior designer John Schooley had based their calculations when designing the slide on roller coasters, but that didnt translate well to a waterslide like Verruckt. In early tests, rafts carrying sandbags flew off the slide, prompting engineers to tear down half of the ride and reconfigure some angles at a cost of $1 million, Henry said. A promotional video for a show about building the slide includes footage of two men riding a raft down a half-size test model and going slightly airborne as it crests the top of the first big hill. Prosapio said during the news conference that the parks rides are inspected daily and inspected by an outside party before the start of each season. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Kansas Chris Urmson, chief technical officer of Googles self-driving car efforts, said hes leaving as the Internet company moves the project from research into the creation of products. I am ready for a fresh challenge, the former Carnegie Mellon University researcher said in an online post Friday. Urmson has been integral to Googles automated-driving project since its early days in 2009. Under his watch, Google vehicles racked up 1.8 million miles of driving. Hes leaving as car manufacturers place more emphasis on the technology and race to be the first to field vehicles that dont need human drivers. Google hired auto industry executive John Krafcik to take over the car project in 2015. The move signaled a new phase in which the company is trying to turn what was a research project into a business. Krafcik called Urmson an incredible colleague & leader on Twitter Friday. The mission is in capable hands, Urmson wrote. There are many other problems or products this talented group of people could work on, but theyve chosen self-driving cars because they understand the impact their work can have on making our roads safer and bringing everyday destinations within reach for millions of people. The New York Times reported Urmsons departure earlier. The newspaper said Urmson was unhappy with the recent direction of the project and had argued about it with Google co-founder Larry Page. When asked about the reports of him being unhappy, he said yeah Ive seen them. Its been a long time and its time to see what else is out there, he added in a phone interview. Its been fantastic. It was a great opportunity to build the team. Copyright 2022 Bloomberg. Topics Auto Personal Auto Google No longer able to compete primarily on price, insurers are now focusing their efforts on pleasing customers, with the payoff being a significant increase in satisfaction among their small business commercial customers, according to the recently released J.D. Power 2016 U.S. Small Commercial Insurance Study. With insurance rates steadily declining for the past three years carriers are looking at other ways to differentiate themselves in a competitive market. Turning their attention to customer interactions and policy offerings has led to a 30-point improvement in overall satisfaction in 2016, to 823 on a 1,000-point scale, up from 793 in 2015. With few exceptions, insurers are dropping prices, so the best way for them to compete in a soft market is on customer satisfaction, said Greg Hoeg, vice president of U.S. insurance operations at J.D. Power. Small business owners are the beneficiaries of being in an attractive market segment of insurance where satisfaction is the key differentiator. The study, now in its fourth year, examines overall customer satisfaction and insurance shopping and purchasing behavior among 3,396 insurance decision-makers in businesses with 50 or fewer employees that purchase general liability and/or property insurance. The study was fielded from March through May 2016. Overall satisfaction is comprised of five factors (in order of importance): interaction; policy offerings; price; billing and payment; and claims. This marks the third consecutive year satisfaction has improved, with a 46-point increase since the study launched in 2013. Satisfaction increases across all factors in 2016, with interaction and policy offerings contributing most to the year-over-year gain. Customer Interaction Critical Insurer interaction with their customers is vital when price competition is neutralized due to the shift to a soft market. The study finds that interaction improves the most among all study factors, increasing 32 index points from 2015. Satisfaction in all three interaction subfactors improves significantly in 2016, with website performance showing the largest jump year over year (+36 points), followed by agent/broker (+34) and call center (+28). While interaction is driving the overall increase in satisfaction, it is having the greatest impact on satisfaction of Gen Y customers. J.D. Power defines the generational groups as Pre-Boomers (born before 1946); Boomers (1946-1964); Gen X (1965-1976); Gen Y (1977-1994); and Gen Z (1995-2004). Satisfaction among Gen Y customers improves 51 pointsthe largest rise among the generational groupsto 851. Overall satisfaction among Boomers is 820, followed by Gen X at 812 and Pre-Boomers at 809. This is the only J.D. Power insurance study in which Gen Y is the most satisfied generation. For young entrepreneurs, their business defines who they are, and they want to protect it, said Hoeg. Gen Ys satisfaction with their insurance provider also reflects their social consciousnessthey care about their business and their employees. Agents Drive Gen Y Business Owners Satisfaction The key reasons for higher satisfaction among Gen Y customers are largely driven by interactions with their agent/broker. Not only do more Gen Y customers indicate having at least two interactions on an annual basis, compared with Gen X and Boomer customers, but they also have more in-person interactions with their agent/broker. In addition, these in-person interactions are typically more meaningful, as the study finds agents/brokers are nearly twice as likely to provide advice or recommend changes to Gen Y customers when compared with older cohorts. Gen Y wants the traditional values from their business insurer: good service, financial protection and good price, said Hoeg. The insurers especially commercial-focused insurersare providing that. Hoeg noted that as competition continues to increase in the small commercial space, it is important for insurers to understand the types of business customers they are dealing with and what those customers value most. Younger business customers have different needs than their older counterparts. As expected, Gen Y businesses have been operating for a much shorter time, but they typically have higher revenues than the businesses of their Boomer counterparts (51 percent of Gen Y business customers report annual revenue of more than $500,000, compared with 42 percent of Boomers). Small Commercial Insurer Customer Satisfaction Rankings American Family ranks highest among small commercial insurers, with a score of 839, a 73-point improvement from 2015. American Family performs particularly well in the policy offerings and billing and payment factors. Allied and Nationwide rank second in a tie with a score of 835. (Overall Customer Satisfaction Index Scores Based on a 1,000-point scale) J.D. Power.com Power Circle Ratings For Consumers American Family 839 5 Allied 835 5 Nationwide 835 5 State Farm 831 4 Erie Insurance 829 4 Allstate 827 3 Auto-Owners Insurance 826 3 Industry Average 823 3 Liberty Mutual 821 3 Zurich 821 3 Farmers 818 3 AIG 816 3 The Hartford 814 3 Chubb 810 2 CNA Insurance 806 2 Travelers 793 2 Power Circle Ratings Legend 5 Among the best 4 Better than most 3 About average 2 The rest Source: J.D. Power Topics Carriers Agencies Commercial Lines Business Insurance With nearly 400,000 employees expected to retire from the insurance industry workforce within the next few years, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, its incumbent on carriers to consider the ways in which they communicate with and recruit job applicants. According to PwCs top issues annual report 2016, Commercial insurers like many other kinds of insurers have an aging workforce and are facing an impending talent crunch. Automation cannot replace the qualitative judgment that is necessary for effective underwriting. Therefore, it is vital for insurers to develop a performance-driven culture that enables the recruitment, development, and retention of younger underwriting talent. This impending talent shortage, coupled with recent studies suggesting that the insurance industry isnt widely appealing to millennials, is forcing insurers to rethink their recruiting strategy, according to Dave Coons, senior vice president of Jacobson Group. Were facing a potential talent shortage unlike anything weve ever seen in the past, Coons said. The insurance industry isnt alone in this workforce revolution. The authors of the PwC report wrote, Most US employers are woefully unprepared for the business realities of an aging workforce and face a potentially massive loss of skilled, knowledgeable workers. Companies that effectively recruit, train and develop dedicated future staff and leaders will differentiate themselves and set themselves up for success into the future. As a result of this massive transformation, insurers must reexamine how potential employees are screened and interviewed, Coons explained. In the past, we were always more inclined to screen candidates out, Coons said. However, this is quickly being replaced with a screening in mentality meaning that we have to more actively or proactively engage candidates to consider longterm careers in the insurance industry. In their 2016 property casualty insurance outlook report, Ernst and Young noted that Insurers must be proactive in recruiting and retaining next-generation innovators and leaders. The role of one department in particular is highlighted in the PwC report: Human resources recruiters are the scouting departments of the insurance industry. Insurance recruiters have two options to hire experienced candidates or recruit and develop raw talent through effective training programs. According to Chad Record, assistant vice president of The Jacobson Group, candidates may not know about the wide array of opportunities that exist within an insurance company. Thats because in the past, the focus on a potential employee might be just on the skills needed for a particular job. Now, carriers are widening their focus on all of an applicants abilities to zero in on where their skillset might best fit into the company. Its incumbent on the company to look at where their skills and competencies might transcend certain boundaries and actually help candidates explore options and alternatives within the organization, Record said. Record said if a candidate is placed in a role that maximizes his or her strengths, it will lead to greater job satisfaction and engagement. The emphasis for insurers looking to increase staff size and replace employees is to cater to millennials, said Coons. With 66 percent of insurers looking to add staff, according to a Jacobson and The Ward Group study, and millennials expected to make up 50 percent of the workforce population, its a no-brainer. Catering to millennials means offering job stability, providing meaningful work and rewards for the type of work they do, Record explained. In addition, advanced technology and providing millennials a voice in how they perform their jobs are important workplace qualities. Leveraging energy, enthusiasm and creativity might advance a companys growth and development, Record said. Changes in employee recruitment calls for changes in the interview process as well, explained Record. There has been an increase in the use of video conferencing for interviews as well as video career fairs. In addition, the interview process may now include peer to peer interviews. Theres a greater emphasis on peer to peer interviews which allows candidates to get a better sense of who they will be working with, rather than just who they will be working for, said Record. Team work is very appealing to millennials so this process is something were seeing a lot more of these days. Coons provided examples of what some insurers are doing to revise their recruitment process. This includes an increased use of social media for a broader reach proactively and interactively with prospective employees. Carrier career websites have also been upgraded to offer options such as click to chat with a recruiter, employee videos and links to social media. The idea is to be able to interact 24/7, Coons said. Coons expressed his enthusiasm for all of the changes happening in the hiring process. Its an exciting time to be employed in the insurance industry, said Coons. Topics Carriers Talent Market Training Development The oil industry has left a big footprint along the Gulf Coast, where a Delaware-sized stretch of Louisiana has disappeared. But few politicians would blame Big Oil for ecosystem abuse in a state where the industry employs up to 300,000 people and injects $73 billion into the economy. Until now. Following the lead of Gov. John Bel Edwards, Louisiana political orthodoxy is being turned upside-down as prominent leaders of both parties join lawsuits seeking billions of dollars for environmental improvement projects. Down in the pancake-flat bayou, its not easy to see what made so much of the coast sink into the Gulf of Mexico. Even when you climb onto the levee, buzzing with dragonflies, that keeps the old delta farming community of Alliance from being swallowed, all thats visible is marshland, stretching toward a green horizon. But lands end is much closer now, and what remains has been disrupted. Access canals carved by the oil industry run straight as arrows, rusting signs warn of underwater pipelines and abandoned drilling platforms sink into the muck. As the Alliance refinery billows with fumes, the surrounding pastures are slowly sinking. Louisiana remains the nations second-largest crude oil producer and oil refiner after Texas, but the industry has been on the defensive since Edwards, a 49-year-old lawyer and Democrat, ended eight years of Republican leadership last November. Publicly, he joined a campaign by local governments suing to hold the industry at least partly responsible for Louisianas loss of 1,900 square miles of coast since the 1930s. Privately, he pushed for a pre-trial settlement to resolve all their claims. Our coast is in crisis, Edwards wrote in a letter to oil executives after their initial meeting in May, calling for an amicable solution to avoid years of litigation. He was soon seconded by New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, whose family of Louisiana Democrats long supported Big Oil. Landrieu accused former state leaders of allowing the industry to cripple in a generation or two what Mother Nature built in 7,000 years, and said the damage has spread through the marsh like an infection. In July, Vermilion Parish, deep in Louisianas Oil Patch, became the fourth local government to file claims against Exxon, Shell, Chevron and dozens of other corporations. The agency overseeing flood protection for New Orleans also is suing. Republicans have joined in, from GOP-led parishes to Attorney General Jeff Landry. Its absolutely new, pollster Bernie Pinsonat said. The oil companies are taking it seriously because youre talking about billions and billions of dollars. This political shift can be traced to Hurricane Katrina, which shocked the nation and exposed the dire state of ecology in the Mississippi Rivers delta. Katrina alone tore up about 60 square miles of marsh around New Orleans in 2005. At issue are oilfields like the one in Alliance, in Plaquemines Parish, where oil companies are accused of routinely abandoning open waste pits, carelessly dumping toxic brine and oilfield waste onto the marsh and interrupting the deltas ebbs and flows by dredging thousands of miles of canals that werent filled back in. The oil industry blames the Army Corps of Engineers, whose levees deny the delta its natural deposits of silt and sand while channeling the Mississippi River out to sea. It also blames the clear-cutting of coastal forests more than a century ago, shipping channels that have sliced up the delta and even the invasive nutria, an oversized marsh grass-eating rodent. Its just such a vague attempt by the plaintiffs to throw a blanket over an entire industry and hold it singularly responsible for a problem thats got multiple causes, said Robert Meadows, a Chevron lawyer. The legal case requires analyzing thousands of coastal drilling permits and oil leases, putting prices on the unmitigated damage caused by each company, and then dueling over demands for compensation. Scientists generally agree that between 30 percent and 40 percent of wetlands loss is attributable to drilling and its associated activities, said John Day, a Louisiana State University scientist and expert on the deltas problems. The factual basis is terribly strong: If I were a plaintiffs counsel, Id put on a five-day slide show narrated by geologists and hydrologists and wetlands scientists, and it would be devastating, said Oliver Houck, an environmental law professor at Tulane University in New Orleans. Geologist Sherwood Gagliano, who has studied the coastal crisis since the 1960s, contends that extracting millions of barrels of oil and gas from below the surface has caused vast swaths of the coast to sink. Its like an Atlantis oilfield, Gagliano said. There are well-heads sticking out of the water. Abandoned production platforms now completely submerged. Oilfields developed on land are now under 5 or 10 feet of water. And that is happening all the way across the coast. But F. Rivers LeLong Jr. calls the lawsuits a hypocritical shakedown cruise by the same governments that have long profited from drilling. They arent the good guys any more than the oil companies were, said LeLong, whose father started the Kenmore Oil Co., which is named as a defendant because it worked the Alliance field before going out of business in 1973. To act as though they were victims in the process is a fairly laughable characterization. Whats gone is gone, but the politicians hope to keep hundreds of other square miles from disappearing. Theyre envisioning huge projects to divert sediment flows from the Mississippi River and build up marsh flats, barrier islands, ridges and swamp forests. It would cost between $50 billion and $100 billion, and Louisiana doesnt expect to have more than $25 billion to spend. Suing oil companies is probably the only new potential source of revenue, said Mark Davis, who directs Tulane Universitys Institute on Water Resources Law and Policy. Before you tax anybody, youre going to be required, I think, to show that youve tried every other alternative. Is there anybody who owes dollars that have not been collected for this purpose? Related: Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Lawsuits Louisiana Energy Oil Gas Mississippi The family of a Muslim boy who was arrested after bringing a homemade clock to school has filed a federal lawsuit against Texas school officials and others, saying they violated the 14-year-old boys civil rights. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Ahmed Mohamed, who was arrested at his suburban Dallas high school in September and charged with having a hoax bomb. He says he brought the homemade digital clock to school to show his teacher. Irving police later dropped the charge, but he was still suspended. The lawsuit names Irving Independent School District, the city of Irving and the schools principal. District spokeswoman Lesley Weaver said in a statement Monday that attorneys for the district will review the suit and determine a course of action. Irving ISD continues to deny violating the students rights and will respond to claims in accordance with court rules, she said, adding that school officials for now will have no further comment. The Mohamed family questioned whether the boy was mistreated due to his religion but the district has denied the claim. The family has since moved to Qatar, citing threats and a scholarship offered to Ahmed in the Persian Gulf country. Ahmed moved back to the U.S. last month for the summer to visit family and friends, and will do some traveling around the country. Among the claims made in the suit, which was brought by the teens father, Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed, is that the boys right to equal protection under the law was violated and that officers arrested him without probable cause. Ahmed was a victim of systemic discrimination by the school district and state Board of Education that has marginalized Muslims and other minority groups, the suit claims. History tells us that when we have stood tall and proud for equality and freedom, we have grown as a nation, the suit says. When we have given in to fear and hate, we flounder. The suit adds, In the case of Ahmed Mohamed, we have the opportunity to take a stand for equality and for justice, two things that should prevail above all else. Ahmeds story brought an outpouring of support from President Barack Obama, other political leaders, corporate executives and NASA scientists. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Lawsuits Texas North Carolina has made several changes encompassing fraud, captives and flood insurance regulations to its state insurance laws. New legislation, House Bill 287, was approved June 30 by state lawmakers and signed into law July 6 by Gov. Pat McCrory. It was proposed by Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin and incorporates various changes and amendments to the states current insurance laws that Goodwin had been pushing for, particularly strengthening North Carolinas auto insurance rate evasion reform. Goodwin has said that some are taking advantage of the states auto insurance rates as North Carolinas are currently some of the lowest in the country. A report from North Carolina TV station WRAL earlier this year found that out-of-state trucking companies are claiming to be in-state residents to obtain lower insurance rates, but actually have no operations in North Carolina. We want to protect and help the legitimate companies that are doing business here from being taken advantage of by businesses that are basically lying, that are misleading the state and misleading insurance companies as to their presence in this state, Goodwin told WRAL. Section 3.2, titled Rate evasion fraud; prevention programs stipulates the requirements to be considered an eligible insured for an insurance policy in the state. The new section also adds a stipulation that a principal place of business means the single location from which the majority of an applicants company operations are directed and controlled. The new law makes it a Class 3 misdemeanor to deceive an insurer through presenting or helping to prepare false or misleading information to obtain auto insurance or vehicle registration for an ineligible risk. It is also now a Class H felony if any applicant violates the new section as rewritten to obtain auto insurance covering one or more vehicles operated using a commercial drivers license. Starting Dec. 1, 2016, proof of North Carolina residency or eligible risk status will be required to obtain nonfleet private passenger motor vehicle insurance. North Carolina auto insurance rates are so low that individuals and companies from other states are actually attempting to obtain our low rates illegally, said Goodwin. I have added protections to these rates in this bill because low rates are a problem I am always happy to have. Of the 44 changes made to the states insurance laws, five focused on reforming North Carolinas Captive Insurance Act and apply to currently licensed captive insurance companies and pending applications. Goodwin said the changes were designed to make the state more competitive to North Carolina business owners establishing their own captive insurance companies (CIC), as well as encourage non-resident CICs to re-domicile to North Carolina. According to the North Carolina Captive Insurance Association, the most significant captive changes include: A CIC is exempt from the annual board meeting requirement if the CIC utilizes the services of at least two North Carolina service providers in the designated categories; North Carolina will now allow the licensing of a business entity in North Carolina as a CIC that is incorporated, formed or organized under the laws of another jurisdiction; Provisional approval is now available for an applicant business entity seeking a license for up to a 90-day period; The Commissioner now has the authority to grant an extension to a CIC to file its annual report; The Commissioner is also vested with the discretion to deviate from North Carolina captive law requirements when setting the minimum capital and surplus for a protected cell CIC. North Carolina, with passage of these amendments, has become one of the most competitive jurisdictions in the nation in terms of captive insurance company growth. With over 300 licensed CICs, generating more than $700 million dollars in annual premium dollars, its only a matter of time before this is a billion-dollar industry for North Carolina. Captives are creating jobs and having a positive impact on the States economy, chairman of NCCIA, Jesse Coyle, said in a statement after the bill was signed by the governor. Other provisions passed in HB287 include enabling the establishment of a state-based private flood insurance market; enabling insurers to receive restitution from convicted defendants; and exempting certain Accountable Care Organizations from department regulation; as well as increasing the criminal penalty for large-scale fraud committed by an insurance fiduciary. House Bill 287 will allow us to continue serving and protecting North Carolina families, property owners and business owners at the high level they have come to expect from the Department of Insurance, Goodwin said. Topics Legislation Auto Fraud North Carolina Federal regulators are proposing fines of more than $320,000 for safety violations for a Louisville, Ky., company whose employee died in a fatal fall in Illinois. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has proposed the fine for Material Handling Systems. The Courier-Journal reports a 42-year-old man was dismantling equipment in February when he fell 22 feet at a United Parcel Service facility in Addison, Illinois. Material Handling Systems and MHS Technical Services were working under contract with UPS to replace conveyor systems. Assistant Labor Secretary David Michael says in a statement that OSHA cited Material Handling Systems twice previously for exposing workers to fall hazards including at the same site four months earlier. Regulators cited the company for three willful violations late last month, along with repeat and serious violations. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Kentucky A $16.5 million settlement has been reached in a lawsuit that claims three men were imprisoned for decades because they were forced to confess to a crime they did not commit, lawyers said. The Hattiesburg American reports that a settlement by verbal agreement was reached August 1. The settlement involves Hattiesburg and Forrest County, a half dozen insurance companies and the families of Larry Ruffin, Phillip Bivens and Bobby Ray Dixon. The three men were exonerated in a rape and capital murder case in Forrest County. Attorney Bill Beck, who represented the Bivens family, said an additional $4 million would be set aside for appeals. The newspaper reports that it will be up to the plaintiffs to decide how the money is split between them. In a statement, David Hogan, the president of the Forrest County board of supervisors, said the countys insurers agreed to cover nearly two-thirds of the total $16.5 million settlement. He called the countys $5.4 million portion of the settlement substantial, but he said it was much less than what is paid for settlements and jury verdicts obtained in similar cases around the country. He said the board of supervisors was confident that this settlement represents the best possible outcome for the Forrest County taxpayers. Bivens and Dixon pleaded guilty to their fabricated roles in the 1979 rape and murder of Eva Gail Patterson at her Eatonville home. A jury found Ruffin guilty. Bivens and Dixon were beaten repeatedly and threatened with death before confessing to crimes they did not commit. And when their testimony didnt add up, they were beaten again. The two men confessed and agreed to testify against Ruffin, who also confessed, in exchange for life sentences. A jury found Ruffin guilty, and he too received a life sentence. Over the years, the men proclaimed their innocence, until The Innocence Project took up their case and helped prove the men were not guilty of the crimes for which they spent 30 years in prison. DNA evidence collected at the scene of the crime did not match any of the men. Bivens and Dixon were exonerated in 2010, when a grand jury failed to indict the two men and Circuit Court Judge Bob Helfrich set aside their convictions. Dixon died in 2010, soon after his release from prison. Bivens died in 2014. Ruffin, who died in prison in 2002, was exonerated in 2011. Last year, the three men were awarded $50,000 each by the state for their wrongful imprisonment. The money was distributed to their estates. The federal lawsuit is to settle claims of wrongdoing by Hattiesburg, the Hattiesburg Police Department, Forrest County and officers with both Hattiesburg Police Department and Forrest County Sheriffs Department. In the death of Patterson, DNA matched Andrew Harris, who is serving a life sentence for a 1981 rape in the Hattiesburg area. Harris pleaded not guilty in 2011, but was indicted by a grand jury and was to go on trial in 2012. But the case was passed to the inactive files and Harris will not stand trial unless his release from prison becomes imminent. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Carriers Mississippi Westlake Village, Calif.-based Aptus Risk Solutions Inc. has named Gary Evans vice president of sales and business development. Evans has 20 years of experience in sales and client service with various risk consulting and related technology firms. He previously was with Riskonnect Inc. as region sales director. He was senior vice president with CS STARS (now Marsh ClearSight) before that. He began his career in risk services in 1997 with Corporate Systems Inc. as Relationship Group manager. Aptus is a national workers compensation consulting firm focusing on medical cost containment and litigation management. Topics California A former paralegal has filed a discrimination lawsuit against Crook County in central Oregon alleging that she was fired because of her age and disability. The Bulletin reported that 65-year-old Debra Foltz filed the federal lawsuit last week. According to the lawsuit, Foltz was fired in 2015 after she requested an extension for unpaid medical leave. County officials said at the time that Foltz request would have placed an undue hardship on the county. Foltz was replaced by a younger part-time assistant. Foltzs suit claims that a colleague told her that the part-time assistant had been hired to prepare for Foltzs retirement. Crook County District Attorney Daina Vitolin declined to comment. Foltzs complaint was previously dismissed by the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries. State investigators in May said Foltz did not present substantial evidence of discrimination. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Lawsuits Oregon Pacific Colombian creole breed, on the border of extinction UNAL Christopher Columbuss first arrival in the Americas in 1492 was just a drill. Things didnt get serious until his second trip, which set sail from Cadiz in September 1493. That time, it wasnt three caravels with a few disoriented sailors, but 17 ships carrying 1,500 colonizers who would change the New World forever. They were coming to stay. And with them, they brought animals that the natives had never seen before: horses, cows, sheep, and pigs. Columbuss fleet was the closest thing history has seen to Noahs Ark. Beasts, we saw none, nor any creatures on land save parrots and lizards, but a boy told me he saw a large snake. No sheep nor goats were seen, and although our stay here has been short, it being now noon, yet were there any, I could hardly have failed of seeing them, wrote Columbus in his diary on October 16, 1492. Through his eyes, he had arrived on barren land. To invade it, he would first have to transform it into farmland to feed the colonies. And so he did. I brought with me horses, mares, mules, and all of the other beasts, as well as seeds of wheat and barley and all the trees and all the choice fruits, everything in great abundance, wrote Colombus in a letter to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella during his second voyage. In 1493, Columbus introduced animals to the Americas that natives had never encountered before: horses, cows, goats, sheep, and pigs. The father of Bartolome de Las Cases was on one of those 17 ships that crossed the Atlantic in 1493. The expedition made a two-day stop on the Canary Island of La Gomera. He quickly acquired some heads of cattle, which he and the others there bought, as well as bull calves and goats and sheep. Among other things, some of them bought eight hogs, at 70 maravedis a head. These eight hogs have multiplied to create all the hogs that exist today on the West Indies, now an infinite number, wrote De las Casas, who died in 1566. The friar was exaggerating, but he wasnt entirely wrong. A team of scientists is analyzing the genetic fingerprints of Columbuss eight hogs, or what was really an army of horses, cows, sheep, goats, and pigs that arrives from the Spain and the Canary Islands after 1493. The Creole breeds still have strong genetic markers from the Iberian Peninsula, explains Oscar Cortes, a geneticist from the Veterinary School of Madrids Complutense University. Cortes belongs to the Red Conbiand, an association that arose at the University of Cordoba, dedicated to the conservation of the biodiversity of Latin American animals. Its members, from a multitude of investigative centers on both sides of the Atlantic, have created a gigantic genetic database of Spanish, Portuguese, and Creole breeds, including animals like Mexicos cerdo pelon, offshoot of a Spanish pig breed brought to the Americas 500 years ago. This breed has been a main feature of local cuisine for centuries, as a central ingredient of cochinita pibil (a slow-roasted pork dish with Mayan roots) as well as popular fiestas, such as the Cabeza de Cochino where a roasted pig head is decorated with flags and then two people incorporate it into a traditional dance. Geneticist Oscar Cortes, surrounded by blood samples M. A. But the cerdo pelon on Mexico, like so many of mixed animals breeds, has been pushed to the edge of extinction by the arrival of industrial breeders that can produce more meat in less time. The pelon, a cultural symbol in the Yucatan peninsula, is disappearing despite its natural resistance to disease and its adaptation to the regions tropical climate; and with it, its powerful genes are disappearing as well. The Red Conbiand, organized into consortiums according to species (BioPig for pig, BioBovis for cows, etc) is uncovering the genetic links between the different breeds, which is key to protecting them. A team led by Cortes just published a scientific study that establishes the priorities for the conservation of the Latin American pigs. We see that, from a genetic point of view, there are breeds that must be conserved, in the hypothetical case where we have to prioritize some over others, says Cortes. The animals flagged for special protection differ depending on the methodology used, as the study shows, published in the scientific magazine Heredity. If breed with foreign roots are preserved in order to maintain greater genetic diversity, you would have to conserve the United States mulefoot, for example, so called for the animals hooves which resemble those of mules; or, the Manchado de Jabugo variety, officially in danger of extinction in Spain. "The Creole breeds have been here for 500 years, adapting to the environment. We could lose centuries of adaptation," warns Cortes If the goal is to safeguard the most possible genetic diversity within a breed, you have to conserve pigs like the caracolero from Argentinas humid region, and the Colombian Pacific criollo cerdo, also close to extinction. There is more and more awareness now about the importance of these breeds when it comes to their abilities to adapt to specific environments, frequently with extreme conditions, as well as their roles as genetic reservoirs, or their historic and cultural value, add the authors of the study, among whom are Amparo Martinez and Juan Vicente Delgado, from the University of Cordoba. Its necessary to implement policies centered on the conservation of genetic diversity, above all in those cases when the viability of a race is being threatened by inbreeding, they insist. It seems like an impossible challenge. The white pig industrial breeds like la Duroc from the US and the Large White from Britain are displacing native species across the world, or diluting them with cross-breeding. The Creole breeds have been here for 500 years, adapting to the environment. If they keep being cross-bred, they could end up disappearing. We could lose centuries of adaptation, Cortes warns. Right now there are very manufactured breeds, very isolated from the environment. But everything could change for example, with consequences of climate change, what kind of breed will they produce? Sign up for our newsletter EL PAIS English Edition has launched a weekly newsletter. Sign up today to receive a selection of our best stories in your inbox every Saturday morning. For full details about how to subscribe, click here. English version by Allison Light. Un ottobre da sogno per Antonio Conte: lex ct della Nazionale italiana, attualmente alla guida del Chelsea, nelle ultime quattro gare di Premier League ha collezionato solo successi, conditi da 11 reti segnate e addirittura nessuna incassata. Numeri da record che non sono certo passati inosservati alla Federazione inglese, la quale ha conferito al tecnico leccese lambito premio di Manager del mese. Unavventura oltremanica iniziata in sordina, quella di Conte, pur a fronte di tre vittorie nelle prime tre gare di campionato. A far vacillare, anche se solo per un momento, le certezze del patron del club londinese, Roman Abramovich, i risultati conseguiti tra la 4a e la 6a giornata, coincisi con un pareggio sul campo dello Swansea City e, soprattutto, con le due pesanti sconfitte subite dal Liverpool, sul terreno casalingo di Stamford Bridge, e dallArsenal. In particolare, la debacle interna coi Reds, aveva irritato non poco il numero uno russo, poiche occorsa proprio nel giorno della sua 250esima partita da presidente della societa. Come detto, solo un momento. Dopo lincontro dellEmirates, il tecnico salentino cambia modulo, adottando un piu equilibrato 3-4-3 e inserendo elementi di corsa come lo spagnolo Pedro. Una svolta totale perche, di li in poi, il Chelsea inanellera solo e soltanto vittorie: 2 gol allHull City e al Southampton in trasferta, 3 ai campioni dInghilterra del Leicester e 4 allo United in casa, con un meraviglioso numero zero nella casella delle reti subite. Un fantastico poker, ottenuto tra l1 e il 29 ottobre. Un cambio di marcia sbalorditivo, confermato dal 5 a 0 rifilato ai toffees dellEverton nel primo match di novembre, e una scalata che, man mano, ha portato i blues al secondo posto in classifica, a soli 2 punti dal Liverpool capolista. E allora, non poteva mancare il riconoscimento di migliore allenatore del mese, ottenuto surclassando tecnici del calibro di Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool), Arsene Wenger (Arsenal) e Mark Hughes (Southampton). Tanta, ovviamente, la soddisfazione: E un grande onore e voglio condividerlo con i giocatori e con la societa ha dichiarato Conte sul sito ufficiale della Premier League -. E la prima volta che lavoro in un altro Paese, con una cultura diversa, e portare la propria filosofia non e facile, ma ora sono contento di questa scelta. A completare la festa, la premiazione del fantasista belga, Eden Hazard, come miglior giocatore di ottobre. Due risultati importanti per il club, ottimo incentivo per la rincorsa al trono dei campioni, occupato dal Leicester di Ranieri. Il prossimo appuntamento per l11 di Conte sara al Riverside Stadium, tana del Middlesborough neopromosso. Il tempo di festeggiare e gia finito. Con un telegramma ufficiale firmato dal segretario di Stato, cardinale Pietro Parolin, Papa Francesco ha espresso il suo profondo cordoglio per quanto accaduto ieri in Pakistan, dove un attacco kamikaze allinterno dellospedale di Quetta ha provocato piu di 70 vittime e decine di feriti. Il massacro e stato immediatemente rivendicato dallIsis. Nel messaggio il Pontefice si dice profondamente addolorato nellapprendere della perdita di vite umane in seguito allattacco a un ospedale a Quetta e invia sentite condoglianze ai parenti dei defunti, alle autorita e allintera nazione. Si tratta, purtroppo, del peggiore attacco terroristico avvenuto in Pakistan. Bergoglio ha assicurato le sue preghiere per le tante vittime ferite di questo insensato e brutale atto di violenza e, esprimendo la sua profonda tristezza per quanti sono morti, invoca i doni divini della forza e della consolazione su tutti coloro che piangono e su quanti sono stati colpiti da questa tragedia. Nelle stesse ore nelle quali si consumava lattacco allospedale di Quetta, unaltro Paese stava affrontando una terribile prova: una tempesta tropicale, infatti, si e abbatuta ieri sul Messico, provocando decine di vittime e centinaia di sfollati in alcuni Stati. Secondo quanto riporatato da Radio Vaticano, Papa Francesco ha espresso vicinanza anche per lamato popolo messicano, per il quale Bergoglio ha inviato preghiere di suffragio per le vittime e profonda solidarieta rivolta alle autorita del Paese. When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. You can find out more about our use, change your default settings, and withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by visiting Cookies Settings, which can also be found in the footer of the site. Every week, dozens of economic surveys and government numbers are released and reported on in the business news. Some are "lagging indicators" that confirm or refute what we thought we knew. Others are "leading indicators" that can be read as signals of trends to come. In any case, they move the markets, some more than others. The following are the four big categories of economic indicators, and what they can tell you. Employment Employment is perhaps the most important indicator of the health of the economy. On the first Friday of each month, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics releases two closely watched reports. These are tracked from month to month, and it's important to know whether the numbers are going up, down, or sideways. The unemployment rate tracks the number of workers who are currently out of jobs. The nonfarm payrolls report tracks the number of jobs that have been added or eliminated in the economy overall. These monthly reports can cause some of the biggest one-day movements in both the bond market and the stock market.. 1:37 4 Key Indicators That Move The Markets Inflation The mandate of the Federal Reserve is to promote economic growth and price stability in the economy. Price stability is measured as the rate of change in inflation, so market participants eagerly monitor monthly inflation reports to determine the future course of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy. There are many indicators of inflation, but perhaps the most closely watched is the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The CPI measures the change in the prices of ordinary goods that most people spend money on, such as clothing and medical services. There are important variations such as Core CPI, which excludes energy and food spending because their costs are so volatile they can skew the whole index. Producer Prices Another important measure is the Producer Price Index (PPI). This focuses on the costs related to manufacturing goods, as increases in those costs inevitably will be passed along to the consumer. Like the CPI, the PPI is often presented as a "core" number that omits those volatile energy costs. Market participants also keep track of the price of important commodities such as oil. Since oil is such a vital component of economic activity around the globe, its price is worth paying special attention to. Oil Prices Higher oil prices can lead to higher prices for a wide variety of products because oil is an ingredient in many materials and products. It also increases the cost of transporting goods waiting to be sold, and the cost at which they will sell. Deflation is seen as a negative factor just as much as inflation is. Prices drop because demand falls off. Corporate profits fall as prices fall. Production is cut and workers are laid off. And so on. Consumer Activity Consumers make up nearly 70% of all U.S. economic activity. Thus, their spending patterns and even their levels of optimism about their economic well-being are important to track. When people are insecure about their jobs, consumer confidence drops. Fewer people make large purchases. Corporate profits drop. And that's one more related number to watch: The Consumer Confidence Index is released on the last Tuesday of each month. It indicates how optimistic people are about their own economic prospects and, therefore, how willing they are to spend money The Consumer Confidence Index is considered one of those "leading" indicators. The degree of confidence in their own economic wellbeing that consumers have makes them willing or unwilling to consider buying a new car or going on a vacation. Retail Spending Changes in the actual spending activity of consumers, on the other hand, are lagging indicators, but they still have a direct impact on corporate profits and the level of stock prices. One of the most important indicators here is the retail sales report published monthly by the U.S. Census Bureau based on a survey of 4,900 businesses. The Housing Market The housing market is also a vital economic indicator. Housing is a highly localized business and is difficult to measure on a national basis. Nonetheless, market participants pay attention to monthly releases on housing starts, building permits, and new home sales in order to get a reading on the level of activity in the housing market. Market watchers also monitor housing price changes through a variety of indicators such as the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index, which monitors home price changes in 20 American cities. By synthesizing a variety of housing reports, market participants can deduce whether or not people are willing to commit to buying a new home or, for that matter, any large purchases. Investor Activity The best time to invest in stocks is not when everyone is bullish, but when almost everyone is bearish. Buy when stocks are cheap. Hold until they go up. Therefore, readings of investor sentiment are important. A variety of indicators are published by large investment firms and research firms, which periodically poll their clients to determine market consensus. As overseas investors have become increasingly important participants in the U.S. financial markets, measures of their activity have garnered more attention. One of the most closely watched reports focuses on the purchase of U.S. Treasuries by foreign central banks. When central banks are buying more Treasuries, interest rates often head lower, and when rates are lower, stock prices tend to move higher. Other important market indicators include the ratio of advances to declines and the number of new price highs and lows in the market. These readings indicate how healthy the overall stock market is and can provide confirmation as to the quality of a stock market advance or decline. Default risk and spread risk are the two components of credit risk, which is a type of counterparty risk. Think of default risk as more closely associated with the general conception of counterparty risk: noncompliance with the specifications and terms of a contract. Spread risk can be related to investment risk, such as when a price or yield changes as a result of a change in credit rating. Credit spread risk is not the same thing as the risks associated with a credit spread option, although there are credit spread risks in a credit spread option. Credit spread options are a type of derivative where one party transfers credit risk to another party, usually in exchange for a promise to make cash payments if the credit spread changes. This type of contract is most common among debt securities that have low credit ratings. Default Risk Nearly every single loan or credit extension comes with a form of default risk. Default risk is measured by the likelihood an individual or company will not make contractual payments on a debt obligation. Default risk does not exist with financial transactions, for example, stock purchases, that have no guarantee of payment. For a simple example of default risk, consider a borrower who takes out a $300,000 home loan. The bank that made the loan does not know with certainty whether the borrower will repay the loan on time, so it assumes default risk in the transaction. To compensate for default risk, an interest rate is applied to the loan and the bank may also require a sizable down payment. Subject to a dispute in utmost good faith by the issuer, payment default represents a failure to pay any amount due of the reference asset or any other future indebtedness of the issuer for funds borrowed, raised or guaranteed. Bonds, loans, credit lines and even cash-on-delivery (COD) purchases all assume a kind of default risk. Spread Risk Spread risks are not associated with contractual guarantees but rather originate from the intersection of interest rates, credit ratings and opportunity cost. There are really two types of spread risk, although they are not mutually exclusive. The first kind, true spread risk, represents the likelihood the market value of a contract or a specific instrument is reduced based on the actions of the counterparty. If the issuer of a bond does not default on its bond obligations, but makes other financial mistakes that lower the issuer's credit rating, the value of the bonds likely drops. This risk is assumed by the investor. The second type of spread risk comes from credit spreads. Credit spreads are the difference between yields of various debt instruments. The lower the default risk, the lower the required interest rate; higher default risks come with higher interest rates. The opportunity cost of accepting lower default risk, therefore, is higher interest income. Credit spread risk is an important but often ignored component of income investing. Top News - Investor Idea REE Stock News - Defense Metals (TSX-V: DEFN.V) (OTCQB: DFMTF) Drills 113 metres of 2.50% Total Rare Earth Oxide at Wicheeda Vancouver, British Columbia - October 26, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Mining / Metals / Green Energy Stock News - Defense Metals Corp. (TSX-V: DEFN / OTCQB: DFMTF/ FSE:35D) is pleased to announce high-grade Rare Earth Element ("REE") assay results from one additional core hole, totalling 383 metres (m), collared within the northern area of Defense Metals' 100% owned Wicheeda REE Deposit. Top Cleantech News - Investor Idea Breaking EV Stock News: Pre-orders for Mullen (NASDAQ: MULN) FIVE Electric-SUV Crossover Exceed Expectations as the FIVE 'Strikingly Different' Tour Begins BREA, Calif. - October 28, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Mullen Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ: MULN), an emerging electric vehicle ("EV") manufacturer, announces today that the Mullen FIVE "Strikingly Different" EV Crossover Tour which began yesterday, in Pasadena, California, is off to a great start with first day reservations exceeding expectations and overwhelmingly positive customer feedback. Top Health and Wellness News - Investor Idea Health and Wellness Stock News - Endexx (OTCBB: EDXC) Secures Third Order for Non-Nicotine Vape Product HYLA Worth Approximately $1.5M in Revenue for First two Fiscal Quarters of 2023 CAVE CREEK, Ariz. - October 27, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Endexx Corporation (OTCBB:EDXC), a provider of innovative, plant-derived, and sustainable health and skincare products, today announces it has secured three key significant orders for its newly acquired, non-nicotine plant-based vape product, HYLA. Top AI Stock News - Investor Idea Breaking AI Stock News: FatBrain (OTCQB: LZGI) Acquires Confidential Computing Platform ZeroTrust to Protect Data Privacy and Accelerate Innovation for Millions of Growth Businesses NEW YORK, NY - October 19, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) FatBrain AI (LZG International, Inc.) (OTCQB: LZGI), the leader in powerful and easy-to-use artificial intelligence (AI) solutions for star enterprises of tomorrow, has acquired the confidential computing and privacy intellectual property (IP) plus software assets of Zero2A PTE LTD ("ZeroTrust Platform"), a software company based in Singapore. Check out our Podcasts for great investor ideas: Get new posts by email: Subscribe Powered by Investorideas.com Newswire: Subscribe to Investor Ideas Newswire Leading internet of things event concludes informative programming, powerful keynotes and hours of networking with industry leaders. Norwalk, Conn August 9, 2016 TMC and Crossfire Media today announced IoT Evolution Conference and Expo, held July 11-14, 2016 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada, concluded its 16th iteration of the show with a robust four days of educational programming, case studies, awards, live demos, keynotes, exhibits and networking events.Thousands from the IoT ecosystem met with thousands of worldwide business leaders to learn how to leverage the power of the IoT to transform and move business forward. IoT Evolution has once again proven to be the leading forum for the IoT ecosystem and for any company looking to understand how to develop and implement IoT solutions that improve efficiencies, drive revenue opportunities and solve business problems across multiple industries and in nearly all business functional areas. Focusing on successful case studies and deployment strategies we have seen enterprises adopt solutions that utilize IoT. Often they never ask for IoT but use IoT to reach their goals. Our goal is to solve the value of IoT for all businesses, said Carl Ford, CEO, Crossfire Media, executive director of content, IoT Evolution. Whether its a smart city or a remote field (either agriculture or oil) IoT Evolution solves the benefits available now. 2,600 Attendees 40 Exhibitors Largest IoT Community 12,000+ twitter followers, more than any competitor Another 93,000+ visitors subscribers and attendees 95 sessions with 160 Speakers spread across: Connected Home & Building Conference Connected Transportation Conference IoT Evolution Developers Conference Fog Computing, Data and Analytics Conference Enterprise IoT Track IoT Smart, Connected & Secure Industrial IoT Focused Sessions Case Study Theatre 8 Keynotes: Chris Penrose, Senior VP, IoT Solutions at AT&T Mike Finnerty, SVP/General Manager, Platform Products and Partnerships at The Weather Company Gary Davis, Chief Consumer Security Evangelist at Intel James Euchner, VP, Global Innovation at Goodyear Shekar Ayyar, Corporate SVP of Strategy & Corp Development at VMware John Horn, CEO, Ingenu Alex Brisbourne, CEO of KORE Sudha Jamthe, Professor, Stanford University 5 Different Portfolio Building Certification Opportunities IoT Certification Course Connected Home and Building Certification Course IoT Channel Strategy Certification Fog Computing, Analytics & Data Certification Course IoT Smart, Connected & Secure Certification Course 5 Unique Networking Opportunities Networking at Omnia featuring Afrojack Exhibit Hall Opening Reception Evening networking at Vista Conference Party at Margaretville Evening networking Searsucker 3 of the Hottest IoT Competitions & Awards Battle of the Platforms Business Impact Awards Best of Show Awards IoT Evolution Expo is supported by Super sponsor, AT&T, Diamond, sponsor KORE, Platinum sponsor, Eurotech, gold sponsor Ingenu and corporate sponsors Artezio, Senet, SAS. Exhibitors include Aeris, Allis Communications Co., LTD, Altaworx, Anritsu Company, Axis Communications, BEC Technologies, Inc., Centercode, CENTRI, Dronesmith, Encore Networks, eXtremeDB, Globecomm Systems Inc., H2O Overgroup, Innovation & Tech Today, James Brehm & Associates, Litmus Automation, Luxerel Corp, Net Irrigate, LLC, NimbeLink, OneSimCard, Opto 22, RAVEON Technologies Corp, Saritasa, LLC, SpinalCom, Supply & Demand Chain Executive Magazine, Synapse Wireless, Systech Corporation, Trusted Computing Group, VAOPTO, Volansys LLC and WebNMS. The next IoT Evolution Expo event will be held February 7-10, 2017, at Greater Ft. Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The call for speakers and registration are now open. For more information, contact Frank Coppola at 203-852-6800 x131. For media registration, contact Jessica Seabrook. Companies interested in exhibiting, sponsorship or advertising packages should contact Matthew Gleeson at 203.852.6800 ext. 145. For the latest IoT Evolution Expo news, updates and information follow the event on Twitter at @IoTEvolution. About TMC Global buyers rely on TMCs content-driven marketplaces to make purchase decisions and navigate markets. This presents branding, thought leadership and lead generation opportunities for vendors/sellers. TMCs Marketplaces: Unique, turnkey Online Communities boost search results, establish market validation, elevate brands and thought leadership, while minimizing ad-blocking. Custom Lead Programs uncover sales opportunities and build databases. In-Person and Online Events boost brands, enhance thought leadership and generate leads. Publications, Display Advertising and Newsletters bolster brand reputations. 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Media and Analyst Contact: Jessica Seabrook Marketing Director 203.852.6800 ext.170 [email protected] Edited by Ken Briodagh Ignacio and Maria, the parents who fought to name their son "Lobo" through a Change.com campaign. Last week, a Madrid couple was finally given official permission to name their son Lobo, Spanish for Wolf, after a widely-covered battle with their local registry office. Ignacio and Maria Javierre welcomed the child on July 12 but were informed over the phone that they could not name him Lobo as they had planned. The name was rejected initially for being an animals name, with potential to do harm to the child; it was also rejected for being more commonly found as a last name. The parents responded by arguing that wolves stand for strength, protection and intelligence, gathering over 20,000 signatures on Change.com from people supporting their choice. Even Pablo Iglesias, the leader of the leftist Podemos Party, weighed in, pointing out on Twitter that some very popular Spanish names come from animals as well: I think Lobo is a lovely and dignified name. If you can call a child Paloma (Dove) or Leon (Lion), why not Lobo? Spains current laws regarding baby names can be found in Article 54 of the Civil Registrys 20/2011 Law, which forbids any name that could offend a persons dignity or lead to identity confusion (a rule frequently invoked to prohibit parents from giving names that do not clearly connote gender, or using a last name as a first name) or a name that a sibling already has. The Article also states that no parents in Spain may give a child more than two simple names or one compound name, which means King Felipe VIs name (officially Felipe Juan Pablo Alfonso de Todos los Santos de Borbon y Grecia) is not only a mouthful, but also technically illegal. While these three are the only official nation-wide rules, each individual province's Civil Registry offices can outline its own guidelines. It often boils down to the criteria of the particular public officer who is registering the name, which could be why as of 2015 there's no one in Spain named Judas, Lucifer or Cain, but there are 30 men named Stalin, according to the National Statistics Institute. Javier Gomez Galligo, the Managing Director of the Registry and Notarys Office of Fuenlabrada, made the announcement that the initial rejection had been overruled, explaining that social uses are converting [Lobo] into a name. The case has reopened a national debate about what right governments have to regulate the names parents wish to give their children. Spanish laws used to be even more restrictive, requiring that every first name come from The Bible, but in recent decades parents have been given more liberty to bestow something unique or exotic on their child. That said, there are plenty of governments that strictly control what people can call their children. Iceland has a Naming Committee formed in 1991 that must approve any new name before it can be officially written on the birth certificate. Chinas problems are partially technological, where baby names must be composed of characters that the state computer scanners can read and print on ID cards. Even Spains western neighbor, Portugal, regulates baby names, providing an 80 page list of green-lighted names (and 2,600 rejected ones). Spain's naming laws prohibit names like Judas, Lucifer, and Cain, but 30 Stalins currently live in the country. English-speaking countries are among the most generous when it comes to parents freedom to choose, and other countries, including Spain, seem to be gradually widening their parameters, with citizens insisting that in a true modern democracy the state should have no say in what you name your child. However, numerous studies have shown that parents trying to be original and avoid the status quo are often doing more harm than good, and that names can have a serious impact on a persons development and treatment. For example, in 2007 David Figlio from Northwestern University in the US published a study called Boys Named Sue: Disruptive Children and their Peers that found that boys with more feminine-sounding names had more disciplinary problems than their male classmates, possibly as a reactionary effect to bullying, and another study showed a positive correlation between unpopular names and juvenile delinquency. Amy Perfors, with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, carried out an experiment in 2004 in which she posted 24 pictures on the website www.hotornot.com, where people are rated based on physical appearance. She posted the same picture twice under two different names, finding that the attractiveness ratings differed notably depending on something as subtle as the kind of vowel sound within the name. Sign up for our newsletter EL PAIS English Edition has launched a weekly newsletter. Sign up today to receive a selection of our best stories in your inbox every Saturday morning. For full details about how to subscribe, click here Researchers at Marquette University found that people with unusual names were less likely to be hired; New York University identified links between people with easier-to-pronounce names and higher-status position in the office; and theres even a study called Why Susie Sells Seashells at the Seashore about the phenomenon of implicit egotism that leads to an over-representation of people named Dennis or Denise among dentists. What do these studies have in common? They show that a rose by any other name might not smell as sweet, after all, and that names could determine more about a person's life than widely acknowledged. Lobo may grow up to appreciate his unique moniker. But as parents in Spain and around the world continue to demand more freedom when it comes to naming their children, they might discover that just because you can call your son Superman (which you can) it doesnt mean you should. Allison Light is a student at Princeton University. Guinness and chocolate are quite simply the best combination! What's even better? Giving it an Irish twist, with this Guinness s'more pie recipe. IrishCentral, being Irish and American, decided to add an extra adult twist to this favorite summer holiday treat in the shape of Guinness. And what a flavor combo this is! The first published recipe for smores (some mores) was in a 1927 publication, Tramping and Trailing for Girl Scouts, but our recipe, taken from the 52 Kitchen Adventures blog, is more than a little different. This recipe has everything. Young or old, I dont think you can argue that this one looks very tempting. Read more: Avocas mouthwatering Irish apple pie with blackberries recipe Guinness s'more pie recipe The graham cracker crust: Ingredients: 2 oz walnut pieces 1/2 cup packed, light brown sugar 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs (about 7 crackers) 1/2 tsp salt 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted Method: Preheat oven to 300F. Spread walnut pieces on a baking sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until lightly browned and aromatic. Place toasted walnut pieces in a food processor with three teaspoons of brown sugar. Blend until finely chopped. In a large bowl, whisk nuts with graham cracker crumbs, remaining brown sugar, and salt. Pour melted butter over this mixture, and mix with your fingers until everything is well combined. Press evenly into a greased 10-inch glass pie plate. Bake crust 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. The chocolate stout filling: Ingredients: 1 cup Guinness beer 1/2 cup heavy cream 4 oz good quality semi-sweet chocolate, chopped 4 oz good quality bittersweet chocolate, chopped 1 whole egg, plus 2 egg yolks Dash of salt Method: Preheat oven to 350F. In separate small saucepans, heat cream and beer over medium-low heat, stirring somewhat frequently. Place all the chocolate pieces in a large bowl. Once the cream and beer are both very hot (dont let them reach boiling), pour over the chocolate. Let sit for a few moments, then whisk together until all the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth and creamy. Add eggs and dash of salt, whisking to combine. Pour over pie crust until pan is 1/2 to 3/4 full. Cover the exposed crust with aluminum foil and bake the pie for 20-25 minutes, or until center is set and doesnt jiggle much when shaken. Let cool completely (about 1 hour) before making the marshmallow topping. The marshmallow topping: Ingredients: (You can also just cheat and use store-bought marshmallows.) 1/2 cup cold water, divided in half 1/4 cup light corn syrup Pinch of salt 3/4 cup sugar 1 tsp unflavored gelatin 1/2 tsp vanilla Method: In a small saucepan, combine 1/4 cup cold water, corn syrup, sugar and pinch of salt. Whisk together over medium heat. Once sugar is dissolved, let sit unstirred until the mixture reaches the softball stage (around 235-240F). While sugar mixture is boiling, sprinkle gelatin over remaining 1/4 cup cold water in a large, deep heatproof bowl (a stand mixer bowl is perfect for this). Let stand for about one minute, until it softens. Beat this at medium speed. Once the sugar mixture reaches the soft ball stage, remove from heat and carefully pour into gelatin, avoiding the beaters and sides of the bowl. Immediately begin mixing on high speed, for 5-8 minutes, until mixture increases in volume and turns white and thick. Add vanilla and beat for a minute more. Pour marshmallow topping onto the center of the pie, scraping the bowl with a spatula. The filling will spread over pie, but use a spatula if you need to cover some areas. To serve: Chill uncovered for 1 hour. Then loosely cover the pie with aluminum foil and chill for three more hours. When youre ready to serve, brown the top either using a creme brulee torch or by putting the pie under the broiler for 2-3 minutes. Bon Appetit! Read more: Orange and honey layered cake recipe Source: 52 Kitchen Adventures. * Originally published in 2014. Edward Daly, the Catholic priest photographed waving a bloodstained handkerchief as he attempted to bring one of those injured during Bloody Sunday to safety, died early Monday aged 82. The Irish priest went on to become bishop of Derry and a prominent peace campaigner after he was sprung into the limelight in one of the most iconic images of the Northern Ireland Troubles. Often referred to as the Bogside Massacre, Bloody Sunday took place on January 30, 1972, when British paratroopers opened fire on a peaceful protest organized by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, which was protesting the poor treatment of Catholics in Northern Ireland, killing 14 people. The then Fr. Daly had attended many several civil rights marches in the build-up to Bloody Sunday and was present when British soldiers began to fire on the unarmed citizens. Images of the 39-year-old Daly trying to bring the mortally wounded Jackie Duddy to safety were broadcast all over the world. The priests later testimony that the British soldiers fired on the crowd with no provocation were rejected by the British government in 1972, but Daly continued to tell his story, eventually being proven accurate in 2010 following a $265 million, 12-year investigation. The Saville Inquiry found that there was no justification for firing at the protesters. British Prime Minister David Cameron formally apologized to the families of those killed or injured. It has since been confirmed that the families will also receive compensation. "Bishop Edward will be remembered as a fearless peace-builder," said Archbishop of Ireland Eamon Martin. "His untiring advocacy ... earned him respect from some, suspicion from others. Bishop Daly served, without any concern for himself, throughout the traumatic years of the Troubles, finding his ministry shaped by the experience of witnessing the violence and its effects. Bloody Sunday changed my life in every way said Dr Daly, whose stroke liberated him https://t.co/B37OG7IVnE The Irish Times (@IrishTimes) August 8, 2016 Born in Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal in 1933, Bishop Daly was raised in Belleek, Co. Fermanagh, one of the six counties of Northern Ireland. Daly attended the famed St Columb's School in Derry, the second largest city in Northern Ireland. He studied for the priesthood at the Irish College in Rome and was ordained in 1957. His first assignment was as a curate in Castlederg and from there he was moved to the parish of St. Eugenes Cathedral in Derry. Dalys parish included the Bogside, the large Catholic neighborhood in Derry that became a center of events during 'the Troubles.' Daly experienced these first hand and became a well-known peace campaigner in the area. He was made a bishop in 1976. Bishop Daly also campaigned for others affected by the Troubles outside of his own parish, including the Birmingham Six six Irish men wrongfully convicted for the bombing of two pubs in Birmingham, England, who spent 16 years in jail before finally being acquitted of the crime in 1991. He was critical of all violence during the Troubles regardless of whether the perpetrators were Republican, Loyalist or forces of the state, as was noted yesterday by Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, who has admitted to being a member of the IRA around the time of Bloody Sunday. Hard being a Bishop at time of war, pleased he lived to see peace, added McGuinness. Deeply saddened at death of much loved former Bishop of Derry Edward Daly.Hard being Bishop at a time of war, pleased he lived to see Peace. Martin McGuinness (@M_McGuinness_SF) August 8, 2016 Im sorry 2 hear of death of Bishop Edward Daly. A decent man. Gerry Adams (@GerryAdamsSF) August 8, 2016 Aside from his influence as a peace campaigner, Bishop Daly also questioned the Catholic Churchs stance on clerical celibacy, claiming that there was room for married priests in the Church. He was the author of two memoirs, Mister, Are You a Priest? (2000) and A Troubled See: Memoirs of a Derry Bishop (2011), the second of which voiced his opinions that priests should be free to marry if they so wished. Bishop Daly died in a Derry hospital in the early hours of Monday morning. He suffered a stroke in 1994 which forced him into retirement, but he continued in the role of chaplain to Derry's Foyle Hospice until February of this year. CIA veteran and chief policy director of the House Republican conference Evan McMullin announced Monday he is launching a US Presidential bid as an independent and running as a conservative alternative to Republican candidate Donald Trump. Like millions of Americans, I had hoped this year would bring us better nominees who, despite party differences, could offer compelling visions of a better future, McMullin wrote in a statement on his new campaign website yesterday. Instead, we have been left with two candidates who are fundamentally unfit for the profound responsibilities they seek. Hoping to appeal to disaffected voters in both parties, McMullin is running on a conservative platform with his first statement as a candidate outlining his concerns for the strength of the military and his dreams for a limited, Constitutional government. He is also firmly in the pro-Life camp, a policy that may attract socially-conservative Republican voters unhappy with the varying opinions Trump has expressed on abortion. Those who embrace the dignity and value of every human life from conception until death are all looking for something better than the two major party candidates are offering, McMullin wrote. Although he never served in elected office before, McMullin has received support from key players in the GOP Never Trump movement, including veteran Republican strategist Rick Wilson. Buzzfeed News also reports that the independent is being aided by people who have recently resigned from the the 501 (c)(4) group Better for America, which is working to get McMullin on the ballot. The 40-year old, unmarried CIA veteran faces significant challenges just to get on the ballot. The deadline for 26 states (& 294 electoral votes) has already passed. In order to be elected President candidates must secure 270 electoral votes. Minus those 26 states McMullin's maximimum would be 244 electoral votes. McMullin has an extremely low profile nationally compared with Clinton, Trump or even National Review writer David French, who flirted with the idea of a third-party candidacy before deciding in June that he was not the right person for such an undertaking. An unknown, McMullin seldom makes TV appearances and had just 135 followers on Twitter when his candidacy was announced yesterday. This has quickly jumped to over 23,000 at the time of writing and is steadily growing. The policy director has been a consistent critic of Trump, however, and hopes do well in states, such as Utah, with a high concentration of Mormons. McMullin is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and an alumnus of Brigham Young University. McMullin hopes to recruit these voters, who polls show to be deeply averse to the Trump candidacy. On the night of Trumps acceptance of the GOP nomination at the Republican National Convention last month, McMullin stated that Donald Trumps America would be a police state, branding him as an authoritarian. He has also criticized the GOP candidate's attacks on Muslims, stating: As Donald Trump continues attacking Muslims and as a former CIA officer, Id like all Americans to know the truth: American and other Muslims have played a central role in virtually every counter-terrorism win weve had since 9/11. They are an indispensable asset in this fight. Attacking them as a group makes America weaker, not stronger. He continued, saying Trump "appeals to the worst fears of Americans at a time we need unity." He also said Hillary Clinton was a crooked career politician. Republican strategist @Ron_Christie: Evan McMullin may have left it too late to mount real challenge to Donald Trump https://t.co/Q6BDnaBqrE Sky News Tonight (@SkyNewsTonight) August 8, 2016 McMullin was born in Utah in 1976. He served as a Mormon missionary in Brazil and as a volunteer Refugee Resettlement Officer in Amman, Jordan on behalf of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. He was an operations officer for the Central Intelligence Agency from 1999 to 2010, before working in Goldman Sachs as an investment banking associate for three years. He moved to Capitol Hill in 2013, becoming a senior adviser on national security for the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. He left his latest position as Chief Policy Director of the House Republican Conference in order to make this bid for the White House. Evan McMullin appears willing call out faults on both sides and analyze our situation with wisdom. I like this guy. https://t.co/QDIQVRru7H Cody Ray Milner (@okierepublican) August 8, 2016 MOVE OVER, JILL STEIN: Evan McMullin is the newest third party candidate https://t.co/YkvehDIptt pic.twitter.com/cOXiJ7S31a New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) August 8, 2016 H/T: Buzzfeed News A new Government plan to invest 10m in rural Irish towns needs to be at least 20 times bigger to make any real difference for recession-hit smaller communities, an opposition TD has warned, writes Fiachra O Cionnaith. Independent TD for Roscommon-Galway East, Michael Fitzmaurice, made the claim after the badly needed ring-fenced funding was announced by Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Minister Heather Humphreys. Under a long-awaited initiative to help rural Ireland recover from a near decade of an economic crash, Ms Humphreys has published plans to invest at least 10m in small towns and villages this year. The money, which will be provided through the relevant local authorities, will be focussed on 200 specific communities where less than 10,000 people live - with the majority of funding going to villages with populations of less than 5,000 people. Announcing the plans in Clones, Co Monaghan, yesterday, Ms Humphreys said the renewal scheme is needed "to begin breathing life back into our rural towns and villages". While accepting one funding initiative is not "the silver bullet" for tackling longer term economic problems in rural Ireland, the Fine Gael TD said the money available has been "more than doubled" from 4m last year and that up to 200 locations are set to benefit from the Government action. However, despite the positive comments, Independent TD Mr Fitzmaurice heavily criticised the level of funding, saying it needs to be at least 20 times bigger in order to make any real difference to hard-hit communities. The Roscommon-Galway East TD said the 10m fund in reality works out at just 380,000 per county, and that the money being made available is "not significant". "It's ticking a box, basically saying, that look it, we have done this trying to get the rural regeneration off. To be quite frank about it you would want 20 times that if you were to make an effort in regenerating parts of rural Ireland," he said. While the economic crisis caused havoc to all parts of Ireland, rural communities were among the worst affected due to the linked issues of joblessness and emigration. Addressing the issue was among the key points raised during the post-election Government negotiations earlier this year. Lawyers for Ibrahim Halawa detained for three years without trial in Egypt are to submit a new formal application for his release within days. Solicitors for Halawa insisted the request for a presidential release decree would proceed despite a recent statement in the Egyptian parliament strongly defending the 20-year-old's detention. Mr Halawa was 17 when he was arrested along with his three sisters in a mosque near Cairo's Ramses Square as the Muslim Brotherhood held a "day of rage" over the removal of their elected president Mohamed Morsi. The family insisted they were taking refugee from the protests. His sisters were later released but Mr Halawa, from Firhouse in south Dublin, has been in custody ever since facing a mass trial along with almost 500 other alleged dissenters. Now 20, he is facing the death penalty if found guilty. The case has been adjourned 14 times. Mr Halawa staged a hunger strike protest last year and is again currently refusing food. Earlier in the summer both the Dail and the Seanad passed motions denouncing his "unacceptable" detention. However, at the weekend, Egypt's House of Representatives objected to the calls for Mr Halawa's release. His solicitor Darragh Mackin said the stance of the parliament had no basis in law and would not impact the application to President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, whom he said held ultimate authority over the issue. A previous bid for presidential intervention failed in early 2015. Reacting to the stance of the Egyptian parliament, Mr Mackin said: "There is no hiding from the fact that such a politically charged statement is concerning, and unconstructive, in working towards Ibrahim's release. "It is however a political statement, and has no basis in law, nor is it a direct response to the application for Ibrahim's release. "Ibrahim Halawa is entitled to the presumption of innocence. No evidence has been produced by the state of Egypt to support these allegations, and no finding has been made against Ibrahim by the Egyptian courts." He added: "There is no prospect that Ibrahim will receive a fair trial. A request for Ibrahim's immediate release under the Egyptian presidential decree law 140 is now imminent. It is expected that this request will be lodged before the end of the week." With the threat of school closures looming, Sinn Fein is calling on the Minister for Education to sit down with ASTI representatives immediately. The association, which represents secondary school teachers, will ballot for industrial action if pay scales are not equalised by the end of this month. The leadership of the National Bus and Rail Union meets today to consider what form of industrial action they will take at Dublin Bus. NBRU bus drivers have voted 96% in favour of strike action. A Saudi-led airstrike has killed 14 civilians working on an overnight shift in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, officials say. A Yemeni factory official said the airstrikes, which continued into Tuesday, targeted Yemen's Shiite rebels - but one of them hit a food factory, in the al-Aqil compound. Two men have been arrested in England on suspicion of Syria-related terrorism offences. The men, aged 26 and 32, were detained on Tuesday at addresses in Coventry in the West Midlands on suspicion of financing terrorism. A sandwich shop employee in the US has been arrested amid allegations that he drugged the drink of a uniformed police officer. Authorities said a Layton, Utah, police sergeant immediately felt impaired after getting the drink at a Subway restaurant on Monday. He struggled to find the brake pedal of his patrol car at a red light and was unable to answer questions at the police station. Revenue at Allergan, which ended its $160bn (144.25bn) planned merger with Pfizer in April, which was driven by Irish tax considerations, rose 1.5% to $3.68bn last quarter. That was shy of the $3.72bn average of estimates from analysts. While sales of the blockbuster wrinkle treatment Botox soared, revenue from Allergans Alzheimer drug Namenda IR slumped 98% after the loss of patent exclusivity. Allergan doesnt need to do any big M&A, Mr Sanders said yesterday on a conference call about quarterly results. We have a strong pipeline, many of which are late-stage and game-changing potential programmes, he said. Allergans shares dropped almost 3% yesterday and have fallen 21% this year. The shares of Biogen, which the Wall Street Journal reported last week was among potential takeover targets for Allergan, dropped 1%. Mr Sanders remarks confirmed a change of approach to M&A following the collapse of the Pfizer deal in April in the face of regulatory hurdles. Mr Sanders, who has been one of the most active dealmakers in the industry, signalled in June he was hunting for smaller tuck-in deals that fit its existing lines of business to boost growth. Allergan, incorporated in Dublin but has executive offices in New Jersey, completed the $40.5bn sale of its generic drugs business to Teva last week. Second-quarter earnings excluding some items were $3.35 a share, the company said. Analysts surveyed had predicted $3.31 a share. Company spokesman Mark Marmur said the sales miss was largely because many analysts, in their estimates, had not taken into account that Allergan is now reporting its Anda generics distribution business as a discontinued operation. Pfizer dropped plans to buy Allergan after the US government cracked down on so-called inversion deals, in which companies move their domiciles to countries that have a lower tax rate. The combination would have been the biggest deal ever in the pharmaceutical industry. Allergan, which is itself the product of a merger with Actavis, agreed in July to sell its generic-drug business to Israeli drugmaker Teva. That deal excluded Allergans anti-wrinkle treatment Botox plant in Westport, Co Mayo, and another manufacturing plant and a European shared-services centre in Dublin. Across those three operations, Allergan employs about 1,000 people here. Bloomberg, Reuters, Irish Examiner Founders Fund is a leading Silicon Valley investment fund with a long track record of backing high potential companies that have gone on to record significant growth, including aerospace company, SpaceX. It has now given its backing to Limerick-headquartered Teckro which has developed a software platform that streamlines clinical trials in the pharmaceutical industry. Enterprise Ireland and a number of private investors also took part in the round. The company has now raised a total of $7.8m of funding. Teckro chief executive Gary Hughes said the investment is a validation of the companys unique approach to clinical testing. We set out to make a difference, to make it easier for drug developers, research staff and patients to connect, and to simplify every interaction in the conduct of a clinical trial. "The funding will be used to expand our product development team as we continue to digitise clinical research services. Fundamentally, the clinical trial landscape has changed and physicians struggle with the current method of conducting clinical trials. The funding we are announcing today validates our unique approach, and the growth potential of the company, Mr Hughes said. Teckro uses information retrieval and machine learning technologies to improve the speed and accuracy of trial conduct. The technology has already been adopted by a number of pharma companies. Founders Fund partner Scott Nolan said the mobile-first nature of Teckros technology caught the eye of the San Francisco-based fund. Were really impressed by the Teckro team and their vision for clinical research. Theres a clear opportunity in modernising how clinical trials are run and Teckros mobile-first solution is informed by a firsthand understanding of the challenges involved in conducting global clinical trials, Mr Nolan said. The company was co-founded in June 2015 by Mr Hughes along with his brother and VP of business development, Nigel and chief technology officer Jacek Skryzpiec. They were previously co-founders of Firecrest Clinical which was acquired by ICON Plc in 2011. Teckro is chaired by Peter Gray, former ICON chief executive. The companys headquarters is based in the landmark Bank Bar building on OConnell Street in Limerick city. It also has offices in New York and Warsaw. We saw a build-up of oversupply of office space long before Brexit which cant be stopped, Thomas Wels, global head of real estate at the Zurich-based banks asset-management unit, said. The additional space will hit the market in 2017 and 2018 and isnt priced into rents, he said. Developers tried to capitalise on rising rents by starting work on a record number of central London office projects in the six months through March. Values may decline as much as 20% there as companies consider moving some operations to continental Europe or delay expansion plans following the vote, according to Green Street Advisors. International businesses could shift as many as 100,000 jobs away from London within two years of the UK officially starting a process to leave the EU because they risk losing their passporting rights, Jefferies Group analyst Mike Prew said in June. Mr Wels, who oversees $77bn (69.4bn) of real estate assets in 29 countries, estimates the number of jobs that move will be closer to 25,000. UK commercial-property values probably had their steepest decline since December 2008 in July following the vote for Brexit, Osmaan Malik, a London-based analyst at UBS, wrote last week. Office prices fell 6.1% in the City of London financial district in July on heightened economic uncertainty, especially for financial-services firms, broker CBRE has said. Construction began on 51 office buildings in central London in the six months through March and the amount of space being developed almost doubled in 18 months. UBS will invest about $3bn in property in European nations other than the UK over the next two to three years as the economy continues to recover, Mr Wels said. Economic growth in the eurozone will reach 1.6% this year, compared with 0.3% in Japan, the IMF forecasts. Asian pension funds will target continental European property as they increase allocations to real estate, according to Mr Wels. Japans top-ten pension funds alone may acquire $200bn of European property over the next decade, he said. In Japan, returns are too small and the market isnt big enough to invest domestically, Mr Wels said. In Europe returns are high, legislation is sound and investors can achieve diversification. Mr Wels favours investing in multifamily properties, stores and offices in Spain, Italy and Germany, he said. Outside of Germany and the Netherlands, which already have mature rental markets, residential will be the thing of the future, he said. New accounts for the company show the drop in profit in spite of revenues rising 17% from 55.2m to 64.7m. Revenues have recovered to their highest point since 2011, having fallen 76% from a peak of 205m in 2007 to a low of 49.2m in 2013. Since 2013 revenues have risen 31%. Were pleased to have delivered another year of strong performance for our members and are firmly focused on generating greater revenues and profitability in 2016, said Associated Hardware chairman Padraic Glynn. We expect market conditions to improve further throughout this year as a result of increased construction activity and improved consumer sentiment, and we are ideally positioned, through our nationwide network of members, to leverage momentum in the marketplace and deliver on our ambitious expectations, he said. The group recorded the fall in pre-tax profits from 1.5m to 562,697 as a result of exceptional items which boosted profits in 2014, but impacted profitability in 2015. Established in 1972 to enhance the purchasing power of independent retailers to enable them to better compete with larger multiples, Associated Hardware has over 50 members in Ireland trading under the Homevalue brand that employ 750 staff. Associated Hardware supports local Irish hardware retailers, which have annual retail sales of about 200m, through a business model that prioritises member profits and rebates. While our trading environment remains highly competitive, we have a clear plan in place to grow and support our members and we are exploring every opportunity to grow sales throughout the business, said Mr Glynn. On the Governments proposed housing plan, he said: Irelands current housing supply is a major challenge and we would welcome any government intervention that would create positive and sustainable momentum across the construction sector. Previous initiatives like the Home Renovation Incentive Scheme have been effective in supporting Irelands existing housing supply. However, we now must look to high-quality and well-planned housebuilding as the next step in dealing with Irelands housing shortage, he said. Britains new prime minister has denounced as irrational and unhealthy the yawning gap between the amounts paid to bosses and those paid to the average worker, vowing to better align incentives with the interests of companies. A survey by the High Pay Centre said the average Ftse 100 chief executives pay package hit 5.48m in 2015, up from 4.96m in 2014, meaning CEOs now earn 140 times more than their employees on average. The survey said Ftse CEO pay had now risen by 33% since 2010. There is apparently no end yet in sight to the rise and rise of Ftse 100 CEO pay packages, director Stefan Stern said. The High Pay Centre was delighted by Theresa Mays recent intervention on this issue. There now seems to be political will and momentum behind attempts to reform top pay, Mr Stern said. The country has seen a resurgence in investor activism in the last year, with several Ftse 100 bosses criticised at annual general meetings for taking ever larger pay deals at a time of weak economic growth. Ms May, who became prime minister in July, used a speech before she took office to set out her plans for the economy, arguing that it did not work for everyone in society and needed to be reformed. Her proposals included making shareholder votes on corporate pay binding. According to the survey, the three highest paid bosses in the blue-chip index were WPPs Martin Sorrell, Tony Pidgeley at housebuilder Berkeley and Rakesh Kapoor at Reckitt Benckiser. The 70m pay package awarded to Mr Sorrell was one of the biggest in British history. In its pre-budget submission, the Irish Tourist Industry Confederation said the drop in the value of sterling against the euro since the June 23 vote makes the UK a better value destination for overseas tourists at the cost of Ireland. It wants the Government to keep in mind the importance of the industry and the almost 227,850 people the industry employs ahead of Octobers budget. Eoghan OMara Walsh, chief executive at the ITIC, said the Government ought to make good its promise to fully restore its international promotional budget to pre-crisis levels and that the reduced Vat tax of 9% should be a pillar in the same way that the 12.5% corporation tax is widely accepted as a permanent fixture of Irelands tax code. In papers released by the Department of Finance last month, the Governments Tax Strategy Group reported that reverting back to the 13.5% tourism Vat rate would bring in 626m in additional revenue for the exchequer each year. Since its introduction in 2011, the tax cut has cost the exchequer 1.2bn, the Tax Strategy Group said. The Tax Strategy Group said that Irelands 9% rate is the fourth lowest levied on restaurants in the EU, along with Romania, Cyprus and Slovenia. And its is the eighth lowest rate levied on hotel accommodation, along with Romania, Lithuania, Cyprus, Estonia and Bulgaria. Citing research by PwC, the tax group said that Dublin hotels had the second highest rate for room occupancy in Europe after London, and prices in Cork and Killarney and far beyond Dublin were rising strongly too. Maintaining the reduced Vat rate must be viewed in this context, said the Tax Strategy Group. However, Mr OMara Walsh said that the cost of the reduced rate was in fact zero when the increase in numbers visiting the county was taken into account. He said that hotel room prices in Dublin had risen because so few hotels had been built in recent years. After creating 35,000 jobs across all parts of the country in the last four years, the tourism industry believed that the reduced tax rate should be a permanent pillar, he said. Sterling had fallen by over 10% since the Brexit vote which was bound to impact the tourism numbers, while any UK recession would automatically affect the number of British visitors, Mr OMara Walsh said. ITIC again said it believed the Governments long-term targets for the industry were not ambitious enough. It said the industry attracts 8 million overseas tourists, employs 227,840 people and contributes 1.8bn in revenues to the exchequer. Tourism is performing strongly at the moment and s Irelands leading indigenous sectoral employer but ensuring sustainable growth and regional balance cannot be taken for granted, the industry group said. Brexit poses a two-pronged immediate-term challenge for the tourism sector in Ireland. The UK has become a better value location for international holiday-makers due to the fall sterling and UK visitors will find Ireland more expensive as a result, it said. The inquiry the UKs Serious Fraud Office said it opened in July and could run for years. While Airbus may not feel the short-term impact, given it has dropped the questionable middlemen and expects suspended financing guarantees to be restored, an unfavourable outcome could result in fines and damage the companys reputation. Scrutiny of the use of third parties comes as Airbus and its rivals seek greater influence in emerging markets taken over from the US and Europe as drivers of growth in the commercial aircraft business. Airbus said in April top management identified questionable use of third parties and alerted the UK and other regulators, but the formal investigation brings the issue to a new, more serious level. The news came as a shock, since the issue had been downplayed, Kepler Cheuvreux analyst Christophe Menard said. One focus of the SFO inquiry is Airbuss failure to disclose its use of third parties to UK Export Finance, an agency that arranges credit guarantees for overseas sales. Airbus lost export credit in April after the plane maker informed authorities of inaccuracies in a number of applications. Government guarantees are expected to resume by year-end, Airbus chief executive Tom Enders has said. Airbus shares fell less than 1% in Paris trade. The investigation adds to a growing list of challenges facing the company, including delays on its A400M military transport, production teething problems with the wide-body A350 commercial jet, slow sales of the A380 super-jumbo and the grounding of the Super Puma helicopter after a fatal accident. Managing sales in the Middle East, Asia and other fast-growing regions, where governments often hold key stakes in airlines and other businesses, has tripped up other manufacturers. Because setting up a local office can take several years, the faster route is often to rely on local, established companies with connections to people making purchase decisions. Using intermediaries for overseas sales is not illegal, but can complicate oversight. In 2012, aircraft engine maker Rolls-Royce Holdings handed over details on what it called matters of concern uncovered in China and Indonesia. The following year, the SFO opened an investigation into whether Rolls-Royce engaged local agents in return for orders. The Corkman is to simulate crash-landings at 12 noon tomorrow on water at the National Maritime College of Ireland at Ringaskiddy, Co Cork. He is to begin his his 3,000km, four-week journey next Sunday. The Department of Foreign Affairs made the decision because Goal is under investigation by another funder, USAID (US agency for international development). Last April, Goal and other charities were ordered to halt procurement using some US funds because USAID had started an investigation into alleged bribery and bid-rigging. The allegations, broadly speaking, relate to collusion between suppliers in relation to prices that are set. They relate to alleg-ations concerning kickbacks received by staff, said Mr Andrews. There are a range of issues arising here, some of which affect Goal but all of these I would hope we would get to the bottom of in the next couple of weeks. Mr Andrews admitted that the Department of Foreign Affairs was first made aware of the USAID investigation via a newspaper article. The complaints from the Department of Foreign Affairs was that a story appeared in the media and we didnt give them notification about that in advance, for which we acknowledge we should have done that and we apologise for it,he said. The imperative to inform Irish Aid at that time was perhaps less acute on the basis that Irish Aid funding was not affected by either the investigation or the suspension. It was exclusively US government funded projects that were affected. So it was an oversight. He told RTE News that Goal had been carrying out its own investigation into the allegations in Turkey. We havent completed our own investigations but initial findings would have brought us to term-inate [the employment of] individuals locally in Turkey. I dont want to predict the outcome of that, said Mr Andrews. The Goal chief executive then explained that the aid agency is still in receipt of USAID funding for their projects in other countries and it still receives funding from other funders for their work in Syria. We operate in 19 countries. This matter has arisen only in respect of USAID funding in Turkey, said Mr Andrews. We have many other funders in Syria, those programmes continue. We have programmes throughout the world that continue that are unaffected and indeed we have received further funding from USAID in other countries since April so this is a localised issue but it is one we are taking extremely seriously as we have a zero tolerance to fraud and always have done. Mr Andrews explained that Goal has a strict whistle-blowing system in place. He added that the agency works in challenging areas of the world and often on borders. Goal has a system of anti-fraud reporting, we have a whistleblowing mechanism that ensures that every single issue that we have goes through our audit and risk committee and is dealt with fully, said Mr Andrews. Goal has the strongest possible systems but we dont work in highly regulated systems, he said. Goal began working in Syria in 2013. The USAID investigation sees about 6.2m being withheld from Goal. Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) president Ed Byrne said the union is obliged by a motion at its annual conference in March to call a vote of its 17,000 members on industrial action if the pay of new entrants since 2011 is not put back on par with longer-serving members by the end of the month. Although the Lansdowne Road Agreement (LRA), to which other teacher unions have signed up, commits the Government to gradual increases in those recent entrants to teaching, and talks which are ongoing on their allowances, Mr Byrne said that does not satisfy his members demands. The union met Department of Education officials last month and more talks are expected before schools reopen later this month. However, there is little hope of a breakthrough and the ballot being called off, as the Government insists the issue can only be dealt with via mechanisms in place for unions inside the LRA. One of the problems we have is the lack of good faith, particularly from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, said Mr Byrne. If they were to turn around and say, Yes we will reverse the cuts to new entrants that would allow us reconsider. The threat of potential closure of ASTI-staffed schools early in the new term is doubled due to a separate ballot by the union which is also looming. It is expected to take place shortly after teachers return to class at the end of August because of the recent Government decision to press ahead with penalties on ASTI members for being outside the LRA. The application of the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Fempi) laws to ASTI members was notified last month after the Government extended the clauses put in place at the height of the recession for unions outside collective pay deals. It means the ASTI will not receive the improvements for recent entrants available to Irish National Teachers Organisation and Teachers Union of Ireland members, or under further discussion with their representatives. In addition, the restoration of salary increments and staggered pay increases to compensate for the loss of a previous payment for supervision and substitution work will also be foregone. The application of Fempi measures was prompted by the ASTI telling members in June to no longer work an extra 33 hours a year as previously done under the Croke Park Agreement. As such, the Government says they repudiated the LRA. The Department of Education said it told the ASTI a month ago that it would suspend implementing those measures if the union suspended the Croke Park hours directive, which could lead to schools taking half days to facilitate meetings otherwise held using those extra hours. The ASTI standing committee decided not to accept this suggestion and the union is proceeding with their withdrawal from the Croke Park hours, which will lead to disruption in schools in the new school year, a spokesperson said. He bore witness to the horror and deaths of the innocent, most famously waving a blood-stained white handkerchief on Bloody Sunday in Derry. He remained a humane man who was equally vehement in his opposition to the bombings and shootings of the IRA or state injustices. The clergyman attempted to lead a fatally injured protester to safety under fire from soldiers on Bloody Sunday in January 1972. He had always proclaimed that the dead were unarmed and were murdered. He was a trenchant critic of armed republicanism and once condemned the IRA gunmen from the pulpit as followers of the gospel of Satan. Bishop Daly walked the streets of his adopted Derry bringing comfort to the ill and marginalised and urged people to recognise the tapestry of cultures in the place where the conflict began. And he opposed miscarriages of justice including the Birmingham Six who were wrongly imprisoned for pub bombings. Primate of the Catholic Church in Ireland Archbishop Eamon Martin said: Bishop Edward will be remembered as a fearless peace-builder as exemplified by his courage on Bloody Sunday in Derry and as a holy and humble faith leader. Bishop Daly was born in the Co Fermanagh town of Belleek in 1933 and attended St Columbs College in Derry as a boarder in the 1940s. He was appointed curate in Saint Eugenes Cathedral, Derry, in 1962 and saw new depths of poverty. He said: It was a culture shock. I had never before experienced poverty of that nature, housing was such abominable standard, overcrowding and all the attendant things that went with that, it was quite shocking frankly. The clergyman said there was violence every day except Christmas Day for 18 months. It was extraordinary, the shootings, the murders, bombs, intimidation, imprisonment, internment, he said. Perhaps the most infamous of low points was Bloody Sunday. The mass shooting of civil rights demonstrators seeking one man, one vote by paratroopers has been described as one of the catalysts of the Troubles. Bishop Daly was near John Jackie Duddy, 17, when he was shot by soldiers. He anointed the boy and gave him the last rites. The then Fr Daly and other marchers attempted to bring him to safety. The priest led the way with a handkerchief in his hand. He said: I felt a responsibility to tell the story of what I saw and what I saw was a young fella who was posing no threat to anybody being shot dead unjustifiably. I always felt a responsibility when they lumped all the victims together and said they were all posing threats to the army, that they were either shooting or throwing pipe bombs or had something else in their hand. I felt I had a responsibility to state the reality of the situation to all those who would listen and to all who wanted to know, he said. Bishop Daly said the day changed his view of war. I simply saw the obscenity that conflict is and the glorification of it and the celebration of battle that we grew up with in the 40s and 50s. When you see a persons brains out on the street scattered like scrambled eggs and peoples bodies smashed up and the damage a high- velocity bullet does to a person, it knocks any kind of illusions of that nature of your mind and I think you see the reality of it: that war is obscene, its a very crude nasty dirty business and I think that day highlighted for me the reality of conflict, he said. Kate Nash, whose 19-year-old brother William was killed on Bloody Sunday, said Bishop Daly was dedicated to non-violence. He has spoken out loudly and bravely on non-violence. He knew what happened on Bloody Sunday and said often that it was murder and he understood the struggle for justice, she said. She said he and those carrying Jackie Duddys body could have been shot. He was a very brave individual doing that because soldiers were firing at everybody really, he was definitely in danger of getting shot that day, she said. Bishop Daly was a prominent witness at the Widgery Inquiry soon after the event, which exonerated troops from the Parachute Regiment, concluding that they had come under attack from gunmen and bombers. He told the inquiry the shooting of civil rights protesters was unjustified. He also told the judge he saw a man shooting at the troops undermining those who may have tried to accuse him of bias. Following the Saville public inquiry into Bloody Sunday, former prime minister David Cameron said the killings were unjustified and unjustifiable. In 1974, Edward Daly was ordained bishop of Derry, where he served until serious illness forced him to retire in 1994. He played a part in helping secure an IRA ceasefire in 1975 and opposed Americans sending money to republican paramilitaries. He condemned the 1981 hunger strikes by the IRA in which Bobby Sands and nine others died and claimed young people were being used. However, he pressed for improvements in the treatment of all prisoners. He banned paramilitary trappings from IRA funerals and urged Catholics to turn in killers to the police. In retirement and despite poor health, Bishop Daly continued until earlier this year to serve as a dedicated chaplain to the Foyle Hospice, Derry, a ministry in which he touched the lives of many people. Bishop Dalys 2011 memoir A Troubled See drew attention after questioning clerical celibacy. He wrote: I believe that there should also be a place in the modern Catholic Church for married priesthood and for men who do not wish to commit themselves to celibacy. Bishop Daly died in hospital after a long illness. President Michael D Higgins led the tributes, saying Bishop Dalys courage during the appalling events of Bloody Sunday was but one part of the great contribution that was his life of service to the citizens of Derry. His sense of compassion was delivered into the lives of the people he served with a practical and courageous commitment, he said. Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan said his work to expose the truth of Bloody Sunday was reflected in the Saville Inquiry verdict 38 years later. As well as being a man of God, Bishop Daly was first and foremost a man of peace. He was a key advocate for peace in Northern Ireland over a period of decades. As a pastor in Derry, he strove to heal a divided city, he said. Politicians in Northern Ireland also praised the Bishops lifelong work for the community he served for more than half a century. Northern Ireland secretary James Brokenshire said he was a constant champion of the people. He was an iconic figure in civic life, and he will long be remembered as a cleric who worked tirelessly to promote peace for all, he said. Nobel peace prize winner and former SDLP leader John Hume and his wife Pat described Bishop Daly as always a beacon of light with a warm and reassuring presence. Tributes also came from those from traditions Bishop Daly criticised. Sinn Fein MLA and the Norths Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness said the bishop, in banning republican funerals from his church during the Troubles, had deeply hurt many in the republican tradition. However, he added: But I always held him in great respect and very high esteem... he and I had the ability to sit down and talk and to find ways forward. Democratic Unionist leader and First Minister Arlene Foster said: Dr Daly made a significant contribution by arguing that violence should be rejected and by articulating a vision based on respect and violence. Gerry Duddy, whose brother Jackie was the wounded teenager Bishop Daly tried to save on Bloody Sunday, said the priests actions had meant the world to the family. It just meant the world to us to know that he wasnt on his own, that people tried to help him in his last moments of life, said Mr Duddy who, as a 14-year-old, saw his brother lying fatally wounded on the street. He said the fact that Bishop Daly had remained by the families sides for the 40 years that followed would never be forgotten. To have somebody like Fr Daly standing up and telling the world that he was there and that these people were murdered, gave us hope that something would be done about it. The lifelong peace and justice campaigner, recognised internationally as the priest waving the bloodied white handkerchief while trying to help an injured teenager on Bloody Sunday, passed away in hospital yesterday morning at the age of 82. Dr Daly was among the civil rights campaigners who gathered for the march through Derrys Bogside on January 30, 1972, and he risked his life to crawl over the bullet-strewn streets to tend to 17-year-old Jackie Duddy, who lay dying after being shot in the back. Last month, the Drinks Industry Group of Ireland (DIGI) used its pre-budget submission to demand the reduction. It said a cut in alcohol excise was a vital response to the new and immediate effect of the uncertainty caused by Brexit. Yesterday, DIGIs Support Your Local campaign again raised the 15% reduction and said that a report it had commissioned DCU economist Tony Foley to complete highlighted the massive and far-reaching role of the drinks and hospitality sector in supporting Irelands tourism. The report states that the UK vote to leave the EU will impact on the Governments ambitious targets for the tourism industry, outlined in its 2015 tourism policy, DIGI said. Therefore, the drinks and hospitality industry should be supported appropriately as it can contribute to the realisation of these ambitious tourism growth targets. The industry said Mr Foleys report highlighted how the pub was mentioned by almost a third of visitors as positive distinguishing feature of Ireland. The report also states that the network of pubs, hotel bars and licenced restaurants across Ireland supports the regional spread of tourism, the industry said. Michael Storan, campaign manager for Support Your Local, said the excise reduction will foster growth in the drinks and hospitality sector and allow it to contribute to the Governments tourism targets. This is particularly significant in the wake of the Brexit vote, he said. However, Alcohol Action Ireland accused the industry of once again placing tourism at the centre of its drive for cheaper alcohol despite the fact that an excise duty cut would come directly at the expense of the health, wellbeing and safety of Irish citizens. Tourism does not depend on the availability of cheap alcohol and those who say otherwise have no evidence to substantiate this claim, said a spokesman. However, we do know that the availability of cheap alcohol does play a key role in three alcohol-related deaths every day and the huge burden of alcohol harm on individuals, families and communities throughout Ireland. The charity said tourism is not impacted negatively by increases in excise duty. It said this was reflected by the two most recent years when excise duty was increased 2013 and 2014 which showed continuing growth in tourism expenditure and overseas tourists. Alcohol Action Ireland said that while the drinks industry is keen to emphasise the pub and its role in tourism, it does not acknowledge that a cut in excise duty would also make the very cheapest alcohol on sale in supermarkets even cheaper too, thereby increasing the risks for those vulnerable groups, including young people, who favour the strongest, cheapest alcohol. Ultimately, the campaign for a cut in excise duty is not about tourism, which is thriving, it is about selling even more cheap alcohol, with supermarkets now accounting for the majority of alcohol sold in Ireland, said the spokesman. This is according to research professor Scott Stanley of the University of Denver, who has studied and written extensively on the topics of relationships and marriage over the years. If you are considering whether or not you should move in with someone to test the relationships, its likely not the wisest thing you could do, said Prof Stanley. He was commenting on research carried out in the US in April of this year that showed that 65% of Americans approve of cohabitation before marriage. A total of 1,097 adults were surveyed for the study by the Barna Group and 84% of respondents said they support cohabitation prior to marrying as it acts as a test of compatibility. However, Prof Stanley argues that living together before marriage does not necessarily provide the best test. What he considers a big deal is that couples who live together find it harder to break up the relationship if it is not working than those who are just dating. Weve argued elsewhere and often with a lot of empirical evidence in many published studies that the number one thing people miss about the risk of cohabiting is that it makes it harder to break up, he said. Cohabiting relationships break up all the time, and increasingly so, but the relative difference is the point. All other things being the same, a couple who is cohabiting will have a harder time breaking up than a couple who is only dating. We think thats a big deal. He stated that is easy to slide into cohabitation without a frank discussion about the relationship and added that there are many other ways to test a relationship aside from living together. Take a relationship education course [i.e. some kind of premarital preparation before you even get engaged], talk about what a future together would look like, and see if you are compatible by dating, said Prof Stanley. Take the time to see your partner in a lot of different social settings. Closer to home, a relationship and psychosexual therapist with Relationships Ireland, Nuala Deering, says there are pros and cons to cohabitation but a decision to marry needs to be made consciously. There are pluses to living together as they can work through the early stage struggles that a relationship brings, including roles and responsibilities, managing separateness and togetherness and how to manage differences and resolve conflicts and also share a healthy sexual relationship, she told the Irish Examiner. However, Ms Deering said it was crucial to marry in a conscious way. Couples should approach co-habiting and marriage in a responsible way, she said. I highly recommend that couples educate themselves about healthy relationships through relationship health checks, reading relationships books, and visiting a relationship therapist or an individual therapist to deal with what each might bring into the relationship from their past. Enhancing the public transport network in Cork City and county has led to Bus Eireann creating more than 70 jobs in the the last two years, with numbers likely to grow until year end. The extra jobs include 60 full-time bus drivers and seven part-time clerical staff. The company says that, as a result of increasing passenger numbers, a further eight full-time drivers will be recruited. The extra jobs are due to streamlining and enhancements of a number of city and suburban routes in particular. Bus Eireann, a finalist in the Cork Business Association Business of the Year Award earlier this year, contributes 46m to the Cork economy annually, and employs 532 people in the city and county. The companys manager for the southern region, Martin Walsh, said that there had been some significant developments in the Cork network over recent years as part of a continuing network review in conjunction with the National Transport Authority. There have been significant upgrades made to the Bus Eireann fleet, with the introduction of 15 new double-decker buses in 2015, and the introduction of a further four-double deckers and 16 Mercedes single decker buses in 2016, said Mr Walsh. Cork City and suburban services have seen expansion and improvements as well. They include the Cork University Hospital-Mount Oval route via Glasheen Road, South Mall, and Douglas Village (216); the 226/226A route serving Kent Station, Cork Airport, and Kinsale; Cork-Rylane-Stuake (235); and the 245 Mitchelstown to Cork route via Fermoy, Rathcormac, and Glanmire. Improvements to those services were made last year. Services enhanced this year are the Apple Campus-Hollyhill-city centre-Mahon route (202), and the Lotabeg-city centre-Bishopstown/Curraheen route (208). Frequencies have been increased on the 215 route serving Cloghroe-Blarney-the city centre-Ballinlough- Mahon Point, and the 215A route from the city centre to Mahon Point via the Boreenmanna Rd. The 220X route serving Ovens, Ballincolllig, the city centre, the South Link, Carrigaline, Crosshaven, and Fountainstown also saw increased frequencies and more direct services. With the return of the academic year, it is envisaged passenger numbers will continue to grow on our enhanced network, but increasing traffic congestion may impact on service delivery too, Mr Walsh said. Figures show Cork City had the fastest-growing bus service in the country over the past four years. It is estimated that passengers spent 20m in fares during that period. Figures from the National Transport Authority (NTA) showed the number of bus journeys in Cork increased by 20% since 2012, a bigger rise than in any other region, including Dublin. Last year, the public took 11.7m bus journeys in Cork, a 7.3% increase on the 10.9m journeys recorded in 2014. Cork City services, combined with Dublin commuter services, now account for 60% of all bus journeys. Mr Justice Bernard Barton was told that the girls father and Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, were very concerned about her safety, given how frequently she has gone missing. Judge Barton was told the girl had a history of drug and alcohol use and had been in the company of older men and had gotten into cars with men. Both her father and carers had said the teenager had sometimes been in possession of large amounts of cash, the source of which she would not reveal. Tusla had previously secured a temporary High Court order allowing it to place the girl, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, in a secure unit for troubled girls under 18, at Ballydowd, in West Dublin. The order was secured on an ex parte basis. At Ballydowd, she will be given access to the care and counselling services she requires, the court was told in a sworn statement. Judge Barton said it was absolutely in the interests of the teenager that the order being sought be granted. Barrister Sarah McKechnie, counsel for Tusla, said that the girl had been in the care of the agency and had been in several placements, since social workers first engaged with her some years ago. Ms McKechnie said that the girl had a history of absconding, initially from her family home, and then from where she had been placed by the agency. Earlier this year, the teenager had gone missing for 17 nights in a month. She had refused to fully engage with social workers or avail of counselling services. Due to lack of engagement, it had been difficult to evaluate the girls mental or emotional condition. Her health and physical well-being has suffered, Ms McKechnie said. She has been taking drugs and alcohol and has needed medical treatment at a hospital. She has expressed suicidal intentions and there have been incidents of self-harm. Ms McKechnie told the court the girl was at risk of being assaulted and there were serious concerns about being vulnerable to sexual exploitation. Counsel said that the teenage girl had refused to avail of counselling services offered to her concerning sexual health matters. She added that the girls father supported the agencys application. Judge Barton adjourned the case until September. Erica Fleming has been living in a hotel with daughter Emily for the last 14 months. Their story was told on the My Homeless Family programme on RTE TV last year. However, after getting the news in May that she had been accepted onto the Trinity Access Programme at Trinity College Dublin, Ms Fleming is now devastated to learn she will not get the welfare payment that would have supported her while she studied. I work from eight to two, thats college time, so I cant go to college and live on air. I have to be able to feed my child, she said. Fleming told the Ryan Tubridy Show on RTE Radio One about her upset at not being able to pave a way out of dependency on social welfare assistance. My plan was to break the mould with Emily and get her into college. I never thought that it was going to happen to me, she said. However, she received a letter from the Department of Social Protection last week explaining that the Family Income Supplement (FIS) to which she was switched last year is not a qualifying payment for the Back to Education Allowance (BTEA) that she had applied for. The move to a different payment was a result of changes from 2013 that moved many lone parents off the One-Parent Family Payment, which is one of more than a dozen that an applicant must be receiving to qualify for the BTEA. As a lone parent, I want to be able to make more money so I dont have to rely on anybody, said Ms Fleming. I want to be able to stand on may own two feet. So by them investing in me now, or another lone parent in the same situation, they are going to reap the benefits because when I do eventually get a degree, were going to get better jobs which well therefore pay more tax so they will get it back off us. Appealing directly to Mr Varadkar, she asked him to look at the policy, saying it prevents lone parents from going to third level. Im asking him to change it for everybody, not just for me; to look at it and see the logic of sending us back to third-level education to give us that opportunity to prove that we can get out of poverty, said Ms Fleming. Thats what Im asking him and Im asking him to do it today. The Department of Social Protection said it does not comment on individual cases. However, a spokeswoman said State support for third-level education continues to be available for lone parents who transition to FIS when their youngest child turns seven and this has not changed as a result of the reforms to the One-Parent Family Payment. The mechanism for providing this support for lone parents who move to FIS is the SUSI grant, said the spokeswoman. This option potentially provides a higher level of support than would be provided on BTEA and at minimum provides the same support so on that basis there has been no effective change for lone parents in this regard. However, it is understood that students on the programme to which Ms Fleming has been accepted are not eligible for college grants from SUSI which are available to those on other third-level programmes. Facing the prospect of a murder trial in France, Mr Bailey has now said he will write to the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Attorney General and the chief State solicitor in a bid to clear his name. He wants Irish authorities to charge him in this jurisdiction with the murder of the French film-maker in West Cork two decades ago. The journalist, 59, yesterday said he believes that he will have no chance of a fair trial in France. We know that from our own knowledge, said Mr Bailey. For instance, they came over in, I think it was 2011, and interviewed 30-odd witnesses, one of them was Jules my partner Jules Thomas. The interview went on and was recorded and transmitted back to France in live time where it was watched by the judge and they [the prosecutors] indicated that they were unaware of a very significant fact which was in our favour. For this reason, Mr Bailey said he would be taking the unusual step of writing to the DPP, Claire Loftus, to plead with her to reconsider her position not to charge him so he may have a fair chance of a fair trial. However, he added: I am expecting and anticipating that, relatively shortly, within the next few days or maybe weeks, I am likely to be rearrested under a European arrest warrant and have to go through the procedure which I have already gone through once where I was on bail for two years. I am living now with the prospect of and knowing that a second warrant is being drawn up for my arrest, which hasnt yet apparently arrived in Ireland. I am living with the very real likelihood of now being arrested for a second time on a European arrest warrant which is based upon a pile of falsities. Mr Bailey denied he killed Ms du Plantier and added: I never actually considered myself to be suspect in any true meaning of the word because I had nothing to do with it, there was no foundation to the allegation. I am no longer considered here to be either a suspect or the prime suspect. He said he assumes that the French authorities have new evidence but has not been informed of this. They seem to be indicating that they have, under their system of criminal justice procedure, enough evidence to charge me, he said. I can only assume that there is something in that file that gives credibility to that allegation. Speaking on RTEs Drivetime programme, Mr Bailey said he had only heard details of the new arrest warrant from the media. There has been no formal contact at all either with myself or my legal team, he said. We have been subject to a 20-year nightmare and at the moment Jules is finding it very difficult. She takes it much harder than I do in a way, because I have some legal training and I am able to rationalise things. But it really is a torture. That is according to one of the countrys leading security experts, who says he is not surprised that the RAF would intervene in a terrorist hijacking of a plane in our airspace because we do not have the capability to deal with such an incident. He described Ireland as Europes weakest link when it comes to intelligence-gathering and defence. Tom Clonan, a former army officer, said that, in an extreme emergency, such as a mid-air hijack, it was essential we have recourse to our neighbours assets. He made the comment after the Irish Examine revealed that a deal had been struck between the British and Irish governments whereby the RAF would shoot down a hijacked commercial airliner in our airspace if it appeared that terrorists were preparing to use it in a 9/11-style attack. The Air Corps does not have jet fighters and would not be capable of intercepting a commercial jet airliner. Mr Clonan said a greater debate was needed on the whole neutrality issue because Ireland had shifted towards an alliance with Britain, Europe, and the US the latter moving thousands of troops through Shannon on route to Afghanistan. We have been the lucky generation, but political stability is coming to an end, with tensions increasing between Russia and the Baltic States, and maybe because of the possibility of having somebody like [Donald] Trump in the White House, said Mr Clonan. He said years of government underspending had left the Defence Forces without proper IT and it was now not fit for purpose because of a huge brain drain. Irish Neutrality Alliance chairman Roger Cole said no agreement with the British, or any other government, on air defence should have been made without first getting agreement from the Dail. There shouldnt be deals done in secret, he said. Independent TD Mick Wallace said the public was being kept in the dark on many things and he was not in favour of the RAF shooting down hijacked planes in our airspace. He said he would be concerned about intelligence services making a decision to shoot down a hijacked jet on the hunch that it might be deliberately flown into a target on the ground. Intelligence services on this planet have got it wrong many times before. If theyd got it right then 9/11 would never have happened, said Mr Wallace. Editorial: 10 The most arduous part of returning to work for many is trawling through a full inbox. Pat Moriarty, however, had quite a bit more to contend with. I was on family holidays in France and I left for South Sudan. It was fine until the fighting started, he summed up simply. As a veteran of visits to foreign lands and developing nations, first with the naval service and subsequently with the consultancy business he founded in 1998, the Corkman is no stranger to situations others would wince at the mere thought of. I arrived and I started the particular task Id gone to do, says Pat. That task involves providing training, expertise, and mentoring to the UN Mission in South Sudan (Unmiss) through CDGA Engineering Consultants, the business he runs from Little Island on the edge of Cork city. So I was meeting Unmiss officials working in the supply chain area. So we were reviewing various problems and discussing solutions and what have you over the space of two or three days. On the second day there was talk that there had been an incident early in the day involving some South Sudan military personnel; some fighting in the city but there was no concrete news. Patrick OConnell, Natalya Summar, and Pat Moriarty of CDGA Engineering Consultants Ltd. The next day there was more chat about it but nothing serious but that evening, very suddenly about 4pm or 5pm in the afternoon, major fighting erupted in Juba, he says. The gunfire that echoed through the city walls was a return to hostilities that has plagued the country since December 2013 when tensions erupted into all-out civil war which cost an estimated 50,000 people their lives in the worlds youngest and one of its most impoverished countries. The bitter, brutal civil war began when South Sudans two most senior politicians from two different ethnic groups split, pitting tens of thousands of heavily armed young men against each other and tearing at the seams of a nation founded in 2011. Riek Machar, leader of the opposition, agreed in April 2016 to return to his old position as Salva Kiirs vice president after a peace agreement was reached. A matter of months later however, South Sudan was hurtling back towards the civil war it had just emerged from. At first, Pat was a few kilometres from the heat of the battle in July, but quickly found himself engulfed by the vicious fighting that raged across Juba. On Friday, it was maybe two miles away. I was on the other side of town; the other side of the River Nile. But on Saturday, my hotel was next to the airport in Juba and also next to the main UN compound, so by Saturday the fighting between the government troops and the opposition troops had moved across town to the vicinity of the airport where they were fighting to take control of the airport. On Saturday and Sunday there was major fighting all around the hotel so our hotel was barricaded. We had a couple of army troops stationed inside the hotel and some private security guys were armed. We were inside the hotel from then on; doors locked, metal barriers pulled over, mattresses in front of windows on the inside so that gunfire wouldnt penetrate. We spent Saturday morning until the morning of Thursday incarcerated in the hotel. We couldnt budge outside. There was nobody on the streets. The soldiers of the opposition were kind of running riot. There was looting and all sorts of atrocities going on, he says. For a guy just looking to do a little consultancy work and fresh off a French sun lounger, it was quite the jolt. Having avoided trouble on his previous six or so visits to the country, the fighting took him by surprise. And while he says he never felt in immediate danger given the hotels high walls and proximity to the main UN compound should some serious situation arose, there was no escaping that just a few hundred metres away violent clashes raged for days and threatened to plunge the country into civil war once again. Pat and his 10 or so comrades holed up in the hotel might not have been too worried but back home in Cork his wife and three children were understandably a little more concerned. I was periodically [in touch with home]. Id say they were more worried than I was because there was quite a lot of coverage in the news. I suppose Id been in places like Afghanistan over the years so Ive a certain amount of experience of being in those sort of places from my days in the navy in Lebanon and various other places. Pats biggest concern was time and the fact the conflict was dragging on without progress. Such a wait depletes resources too. As the days went on our food supplies ran low. There was no electricity; theres no electricity at the best of times in Juba its all privately generated and they ran out of oil ... so food and drink and electricity. Wed no internet so we were just waiting. It was a slow five days, he says. Two evacuation offers came and went before he finally managed to hitch a ride out of South Sudan. For now, the war-torn African country remains too dangerous to return to with most of the 14,000 or so Unmiss troops having been evacuated too. As soon as things return to some semblance of normality, however, Pat will be back. Theyre waiting for the situation to stabilise somewhat so Id anticipate that after two or three months that our support work would have to restart. Islanders and tourists on Inis Meain and Inis Oirr have been coping without power since early on Friday morning. Two generators imported from the UK are being installed to restore the power until repairs can be carried out to a deep-sea cable which has been damaged. The power has been off on the two islands since 4.30am on Friday, causing great inconvenience to the 400 people who live on the islands, as well as the large number of visitors at this time of year. Communications minister Denis Naughten said the cut to the supply needed to be investigated and assurances needed to be given to islanders it wouldnt happen again. We need to see why it happened first of all, what are the chances of something like this happening again and how it can be dealt with, said Mr Naughten. The problem with the cable is in deep water about 2km from Inis Mor. The ESB said that solving it is a major undertaking. A specialist diving pod, developed by ESB International, is being transported to the islands and will facilitate underwater repair works which will take about a fortnight. The contents of deep freezes have had to be consumed or dumped over the past few days, while businesses have suffered at the height of the tourism season. Tarlach de Blacam, who runs the knitwear firm Cniotail Inis Meain, said emergency power is needed at this time of year to cater for disruptions. It is a very serious problem for businesses operating in Inis Meain and Inis Oirr, he said. Small businesses, guesthouses, hotels, pubs and restaurants have had no power since early on Friday morning. Mirko Jukic, the only GP on both islands, said he was depending on hotels and pubs to store medication and vaccines in their fridges. Because the fridge is not functioning I am obliged to take the drugs to places like hotels or pubs that have a generator to store them there, Dr Jukic told RTE Radio 1. He said it is impossible for him to treat patients in an emergency situation at night due to the power cut, and that he has no access to patient files on his computer. Meanwhile, Irish Water is urging residents of the islands to continue to conserve water during the electricity disruption. The outage caused a temporary shutdown of the water treatment plant, with crews manually filling the reservoir until full power supply is restored. Mr Justice Richard Humphreys made the comments in a major reserved judgment about a 45-year-old Algerian man who had challenged a deportation order. I appreciate that love is, of course, blind but it is nonetheless disturbing to note how frequently applicants become regarded as a good catch shortly after being served with deportation orders, the judge said. The man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, had initially sought asylum after claims he had encountered difficulties with Islamists in his home country. He had left Algeria 15 years ago and came to Ireland but had been refused asylum by the refugee applications commissioner, a decision he had not appealed. Five months after a deportation order had been made against him in March 2004, the judge said we have the wearyingly predictable feature of his marriage to a young Hungarian woman who had left Ireland four years later and with whom he had no contact since. There had been no children from the marriage. The applicant had made a claim for residence in Ireland based on his marriage and it had been refused. His marriage had been ephemeral at best, ruling out any basis for a claim of family life under the Irish Constitution. In the interests of the human rights of those involved there is a clear duty on the State to make huge efforts to prevent such bogus marriages in future, the judge said. The man had claimed that during military service in Algeria he had been involved in anti-terrorist work against one of two main Islamist insurgents. On leaving the army, he claimed to have encountered difficulty with Islamists. The judge said the man had been refused a revocation of his deportation order and had asked the court to judicially review that. Mr Justice Richard Humphreys dismissed the mans application and lifted a prior injunction restraining his deportation. He said the mere passage of time had not meant the minister had expressed a lack of continuing intention to deport. In a separate case, the judge dismissed an asylum appeal in which a Nigerian woman who had been given a right of residence in Ireland had married a Nigerian man against whom there was a deportation order. While continuing to evade the Garda National Immigration Bureau for seven years from 2008 until 2015 the man had, last year, had a civil marriage ceremony with the woman, who had residential rights and had afterwards become pregnant. The man had, however, been deported in September 2015, three months before the birth of their child. Judge Humphreys said the parties should have known the risks involved in a marriage built on such shaky foundations. It would be destructive of any ordered immigration control system if a person could convert his or her illegal status into a legal one merely by the expedient of either getting married or entering into a relationship with a person who has an entitlement to be in the state, the judge said. The judge said it was up to the woman, who had lived here for the past 16 years, to decide if she wished to join her deported husband in Nigeria. Editorial: 10 A persons unlawful presence in the State cannot be converted into lawful status merely by a ceremony of marriage, said Mr Justice Richard Humphreys. He wants the Government and other authorities to prevent, root out, and revoke bogus marriages. His comments came as he deported a 45-year-old Algerian man involved in a marriage of convenience to a Hungarian national. The man had been refused asylum by the Refugee Applications Commissioner after his arrival in Ireland 15 years ago. The judge said that, five months after a deportation order had been made against the Algerian man in 2004, we have the wearyingly predictable feature of his marriage to a young Hungarian woman, who left Ireland four years later and with whom he had had no contact since. There had been no children from the marriage. In a separate case, Judge Humphreys dismissed an asylum appeal in which a Nigerian woman given a right of residence in Ireland had married a Nigerian man against whom there was a deportation order. The judge said it was up to the woman, who had lived in Ireland for the past 16 years, to decide if she wished to join her now-deported husband in Nigeria. She was now an Irish citizen and had a job, he said, and it was up to her to decide whether she valued the congeniality of living in Ireland more than that of living with her husband. Judge Humphreys said the State had an entitlement to give effect to the immigration control system and the courts should only intervene if the decision of the Minister for Justice was clearly unlawful. Who is running Irelands immigration system? Is it the minister or the courts? asked Judge Humphreys. To quash an immigration decision on the grounds that insufficient compelling reasons have been furnished to override rights of a person married to an Irish citizen is not very far short of telling the minister to grant the applicant concerned permission to be in the State. Judge Humphreys said he did not accept that the minister required compelling justification to separate a party to a marriage of convenience from the other party. No rational system could tolerate such a requirement, he said. Meanwhile, a continuing garda operation has led to a significant fall in the number of bogus marriages by people resisting deportation. Bogus marriages have become a multi-million-euro fraud operation. The Operation Vantage investigation is targeting a number of criminal networks in Ireland and the UK engaged in the facilitation of marriages of convenience by providing false information and documentation to marriage registrars. Gardai say a large number of men from the Indian subcontinent, in particular, are trying to get married in Ireland to women from eastern Europe with EU citizen status. The operation, which commenced a year ago has, to date, brought about 58 arrests on offences relating to illegal immigration and marriages of convenience. Since the inception of the operation, under the Civil Registration (Amendment) Act 2004, gardai said a notable decrease of notifications of intention to marry have been received between EU and non-EU persons compared with previous years. The multi-agency investigation also involves the Revenue Commissioners, the Immigration Service, the Department of Social Welfare, the Director of Corporate Enforcement, and the Workplace Relations Commission. News: 8 Editorial: 10 The authors sci-fi superhero anthology is made up of 22 volumes with thousands of characters. In a post on his Not A Blog site, (grrm.livejournal.com) the author wrote that: Universal Cable Productions (UCP) has acquired the rights to adapt our long-running Wild Cards series of anthologies and mosaic novels for television. Development will begin immediately on what we hope will be the first of several interlocking series. Mr Martins post went on to state that Star Trek writer Melinda M Snodgrass who has been assistant editor on the Wild Cards world since its inception is attached to the project as an executive producer, together with Syfy Films Gregory Noveck. While fans of the author will of course be well aware of the books already, Mr Martin gave a summary of Wild Cardss fictional universe. The shared world of the Wild Cards diverged from our own on September 15 1946 when an alien virus was released in the skies over Manhattan, and spread across an unsuspecting Earth. Of those infected, 90% died horribly, drawing the black queen, 9% were twisted and deformed into jokers, while a lucky 1% became blessed with extraordinary and unpredictable powers and became aces. The world was never the same. He said the series universe is as large and diverse and exciting as the comic book universes of Marvel and DC (though somewhat grittier, and considerably more realistic and more consistent). Martin, 67, saidhe hopes the first of several interlocking series will be coming to screens within the next two years. The figures form 2014, the latest period available, also show people living in Dublin are more likely to face a jury trial for a serious criminal offence than residents in any other part of the country. Published by the Director of Public Prosecutions, statistics also show the highest rate of decisions by the DPP to prosecute alleged offenders are against those living in Dublin. Dubliners are more than twice as likely to face a criminal trial, before a jury, than residents of many counties including Galway, Kilkenny, Kildare, or Meath. On average, one in every 1,000 people living in Dublin has faced a criminal trial each year since 2013. The figures relate to directions by the DPP to prosecute, on indictment, by the county in which the offence was committed. They include cases directed to be heard in the Circuit Criminal, Central Criminal and Special Criminal Courts. Limerick is the second-highest level likely to face serious criminal charges, with 0.83 citizens per 1,000 population the subject of a decision by the DPP to prosecute. Cork has the third highest level at 0.74 per 1,000 population, just ahead of Waterford at 0.72. Louth, Westmeath, and Tipperary also have relatively high levels of people being charged with serious crimes compared to the rest of the country. At the other end of the scale, people in Donegal would appear to be the most law-abiding, with just 0.32 per 1,000 a third the rate of Dubliners facing a jury trial per annum. Other counties with low rates of people due before the courts for serious criminal offences are Roscommon, Wexford, Meath, Kilkenny, and Kildare. The total number of directions by the DPP to prosecute individuals for a serious criminal offence last year was 3,250 an annual increase of 2.4%. Since 2009 when they peaked at almost 3,900, the number of such cases fell continuously until 2013 when they had reduced to 3,108. However, they have now increased in the last two years. While levels of criminal prosecutions have been falling in most counties in recent years, they have been increasing in Cork, Cavan, Leitrim, and Meath but particularly in Limerick, where the three-year rolling average has increased from 0.71 per 1,000 in 2014 to 0.83 last year. Significant reductions in such rates were recorded in Louth, Longford, Laois, and Offaly over the same period. Figures issued by the DPP show that sexual offences had the lowest conviction rate with 89% of such cases coming before the countrys Circuit Criminal Courts in 2014 resulting in a conviction. A total of 2,159 cases were finalised before the Circuit Courts nationwide in 2014 with a 100% conviction rate recorded in trials held in Monaghan, Donegal, Galway, and Leitrim. The national average was 95%. The lowest conviction rate was found in Sligo at 81% where almost 2 in 10 people being prosecuted did not receive a criminal conviction. Other relatively low conviction levels were found in Waterford, Wicklow, Kildare, and Meath where such rates were below 90%. Fade Street Social in central Dublin was shut for 24 hours under a closure order issued by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland. It was due to a plumbing and drainage issue. We got it solved straight away and were back open the next day, said Billy Creaney, sales and marketing manager at Prime Steak Limited. The company runs Fade Street Social and another Dylan McGrath establishment nearby Rustic Stone, on South Georges St. Mr Creaney said they thought a third party company had taken care of the problem. It had nothing to do with food preparation or the kitchen, he stressed. He said the establishment was closed because the situation was considered to be unsafe by inspectors who made an unannounced visit on July 15. The closure order served under the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) Act was lifted the following day. The FSAI did not publish the reason for the temporary closure it is prohibited from doing so. Under the FSAI Act 1998, a closure order is only served if there is likely to be a grave and immediate danger to public health at or in the premises or where an improvement order has not been acted on. The restaurant published an apology on its website that read: We had a plumbing issue that had to be fixed, and we had no alternative but to close on Friday night. Sorry. Hope this didnt cause too much inconvenience. Fade Street Social was one of five food businesses given food closure orders under the act last month. The Jolly Roger public house on Sherkin Island, Co Cork, was one of seven businesses served with closure under the control of foodstuffs regulations last month. The restaurant posted a message on its Facebook page explaining that they had closed their kitchen temporarily as building work behind the kitchen was interfering with the safe delivery of food to customers. We should be operating again in the near future. The pub will continue to serve beer and craic as normal in the meantime, the message read. An Employment Appeals Tribunal heard Robert Miller had previously worked with MM, owner of Eco-Hygiene Ltd, in another company. When the new firm was established, MM asked him to work for him as a van driver as long as Mr Miller obtained a full drivers licence. The company claimed issues began to arise in 2007 when it found the claimant at work apparently under the influence of alcohol. It also claimed he would invariably be on sick leave, particularly following a weekend or bank holiday. According to the tribunal report, the company said a verbal warning was issued to the claimant in 2014 after items went missing after delivery runs. By that time, the claimant was driving the delivery van. The firm said Mr Miller was asked to help out with administration work, specifically answering the telephone. On September 3, 2014, customers, including a valued and revenue-generating client, were getting no replies or answers to their telephone calls, prompting speculation the firm was perhaps no longer trading. MM phoned the warehouse but got no reply. When he arrived at the warehouse, the claimant told him he was too busy to answer the calls. The company said, in subsequent discussions, there was personal abuse of the owners wife, requests for a pay off of 20,000 to leave the company, a verbal warning, and a written warning. It said the last contact appeared to have been two days later when a letter of termination was handed to the claimant. It said Mr Millers response was see you in court . In his evidence, Mr Miller said on September 3 while he was helping to load the vans with employee A, the phone rang. As A was nearest it, he answered. Mr Miller said A told him the caller had hung up. He said within a minute his mobile rang. MM told him he was being paid to answer phones. He said MM then arrived on the premises. The claimant said the phone only rang once and he had been loading the vans. He said MM said he had a telephone call from an irate customer. Mr Miller said he checked the telephone and there were no missed calls. He said a tirade of abuse then ensued. Mr Miller said at no stage did he engage in a character assassination of MMs wife or family. He said he never asked MM for 20,000 to move on, nor at any time did he seek to be made redundant. He said a letter to him from MM on September 4, 2014, referred to MM, his wife, and family being subjected to an unprovoked verbal attack on their characters. MM considered the claimants actions the previous day to be of gross misconduct and he was prepared to give the claimant another chance provided he offered a full apology to himself and his wife and that the phone be given priority above all other duties. MM wrote that another instance of this would result in dismissal. MM required a response the following day but Mr Miller was not in a position to respond until the following Monday. He said MM phoned him and said if you havent anything in the following day you are gone. MM arrived into work the following day and as he had not furnished any apologies, MM took out a letter and told him he was fired. He was not offered an opportunity to appeal his dismissal. The tribunal found the company failed to follow fair procedures as it did not grant Mr Millers requested time to reply to the letter and the dismissal letter gave no right of appeal. Speaking at the Parnell Summer School, he compared current-day politics to the leaders of 1916 who he said were dreamers and poets in uniform. He praised all those involved in the Rising commemorations this year. One of the great things about this country is how surprised we are sometimes when we get something right. Irelands 2016 commemorations fell outside that habit of cynical resignation. They went beautifully. Turning to the leaders of the Rising, he said they were rainbow chasers who sometimes were filled with irrational generous hope. But he added that this was in contrast to today where politicians are competing like sideshow performers for tomorrows headline, to create tomorrows controversy, to be tomorrows trending celeb. Mr Harris added: Im not sure politicians should be celebs, gaining their public credibility by personal attacks on others. He TD said politicians should aim to seek the best and disregard the worst in their political career. Its the only way to survive modern politics, in my view. Its the only way to deliver the dreams and hopes owned by each and every citizen in this great country. The development of communications technology has been brilliant and convenient and liberating, in many ways. But it cannot take the place of thoughtful, rational debate. We need to have a more respectful, informed political and public discourse. Also speaking at the event Fianna Fails James Lawless said the Government of today has a responsibility to follow the lead of those who led the Easter Rising The North Kildare TD said those involved in the 1916 Rising and those that followed planned meticulously and acted decisively. Pointing out the inclusive vision of the signatories of the Proclamation, he said: Governments today have a responsibility to follow that lead. Real plans are required to confront the actual challenges, rather than obfuscating behind smokescreens of past imagined glories. Scapegoating minorities or creating divisions for the sake of mass market electoral support are no substitute for pragmatic, principled political planning. The leaders of 1916 and the revolutionary era which followed it were a broad church with a radical and egalitarian agenda into which all were invited. Activists from Save Moore Street 2016 said repeated calls for an independent inspection of preservation and construction works on the terrace have been refused by Government officials. A number of people from the group entered the site and recorded some of the work being carried out on the site where the 1916 Rising leaders held their last Council of War. The group claimed a banner to commemorate the centenary of the rebellion had damaged external brick work. However, the Department of Arts, Heritage, and the Gaeltacht said it had reported the campaigners to the gardai and accused them of breaking the law. The people concerned, who have not been identified, vacated the site after the intervention of gardai, a spokesman said. Heritage Minister Heather Humphreys said no reputable conservation professional qualified or able to offer any judgment on the works would have gone on to the site in the manner the protesters did. The future of the National Monument on Moore St has been at the heart of increasingly bitter legal battles. A large parcel of land next to it from the old Carlton cinema site fronting OConnell St to part of the old 1916 battlefield site behind the GPO was given the green light for a commercial development in 2007. Only numbers 14 to 17 on the terrace were to be preserved under the original order but a High Court ruling in April stalled those plans and the initial construction work on the Governments proposals for a 1916 Commemorative Centre at No 16. Current work must be restricted to protecting the structure. A spokesperson for the Save Moore Street campaigners said: This action took place as part of the continuing and escalating campaign for the creation of a revolutionary quarter in the Moore St area to ensure recognition for those men and women and the values they stood up for in 1916 Easter Rising against the British Empire. No harm on the part of the campaigners came to this declared National Monument. Ms Humphreys department said the necessary preservation works by the High Court were disrupted by activists. Works being undertaken to the National Monument are mandated by the High Court and are being undertaken by Lissadell Construction a specialist contractor of note and award in the conservation of historic buildings, it said. The works are being done under the supervision of the chief archaeologist of the National Monuments Service and her colleagues, who include conservation architects. Illegal entry onto the site, such as happened this morning, and the continuous harassment of the employees of Lissadell as they go about this necessary conservation work is, in fact, endangering the monument. When you think of teenage girls, you might imagine common stereotypes, from the mean girl to the sullen high schooler locked in her bedroom. The reality is that teenage girls are not only some of the worlds most marginalised people; they also have virtually unmatched potential to help build a better future for all. As it stands, adolescent girls are routinely denied control over their destinies. More than 32m of the poorest are currently out of school. Every day, 39,000 girls under the age of 18 become someones wife. For huge numbers of girls worldwide, reproductive rights seem like an impossible dream. This situation is morally reprehensible, socially self-defeating, and economically foolish. By addressing it, we could not only protect millions of children; we could also tackle some of the greatest challenges facing the world today. Consider the challenge posed by rapid population growth. Though population size seems to be levelling off in most parts of the world, it continues to rise fast in some regions, particularly those where girls face the highest barriers to success. In Africa, the population is expected to double by 2050 and quadruple by 2100. If teenage girls were given the knowledge, skills, and tools by which avoid unwanted pregnancy and take control of their own futures, fertility rates would drop substantially. These newly empowered and educated girls could then become agents for broader positive change within their communities. Protecting the worlds young girls is a tall order. But countries worldwide have pledged, through the ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to fulfill it by 2030, including by ending child marriage and ensuring that all girls are in school. But if countries are to succeed in protecting and empowering girls, they must also embrace the promise of a key initiative: To expand access to the vaccine for human papillomavirus (HPV), which causes the vast majority of cervical cancer cases. A relatively new development, the HPV vaccine is most effective on nine- to 13-year-old girls who have not yet been exposed to the virus, meaning that they have never been sexually active. This age requirement differentiates the HPV vaccine from most other childhood vaccines, which are mainly administered to infants. At first glance, this might seem like a serious disadvantage, because the HPV vaccine cannot simply be incorporated into other vaccine initiatives. In fact, the age requirement provides an important opportunity to reach adolescent girls with other vital health services, such as reproductive education, menstrual hygiene, deworming, nutrition checks, vitamin shots, and general check-ups. Encouragingly, developing-country governments have increasingly been demanding the HPV vaccine. This makes sense: Of the 266,000 women who die from cervical cancer every year an average of one every two minutes 85% are in developing countries. If left unchecked, that figure is expected to rise to 416,000 by 2035, overtaking maternal deaths. For many of these countries, the HPV vaccine is not just an effective solution, one that prevents 1,500 deaths per 100,000 vaccinated; it is often the only solution, because the poorest countries lack the capacity to offer screening or treatment for cervical cancer. This is one reason why cancer experts, government officials, private-sector leaders, and civil society representatives met a few weeks ago in Addis Ababa for the tenth Stop Cervical, Breast and Prostate Cancer in Africa conference. There is more good news: The foundations of an HPV-vaccine initiative have already been laid. In 2013, well before the SDGs were agreed, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, for which I serve as board chair, took steps to make the HPV vaccine available and affordable in poor countries. Since then, we have seen 23 countries introduce the vaccine through demonstration pilot projects, with five more set to follow. But there are significant challenges ahead. While the focus on holding vaccination sessions in schools has proved successful, it is inadequate for reaching girls in countries with low school-attendance rates, especially in urban areas. Unless we find a way to reach the most vulnerable groups, no amount of political will or financing will be enough to achieve the SDGs to protect women and girls. Given that only two Gavi-supported countries, both of which have relatively high enrollment rates, have so far introduced the vaccine nationally, it is not entirely clear how difficult it will be to overcome this challenge. As we move away from demonstration projects toward a more efficient and cost-effective system of phased national scale-ups, we should gain a better sense of what to expect. We do have some ideas for reaching girls who are not in school beginning with community health centres. As it stands, women are most likely to go to a community health centre when they are pregnant, or to have their infants vaccinated. But by engaging with community leaders and parents to raise awareness of cervical-cancer prevention and address other local health concerns, we are finding that it is possible to generate demand and achieve good turnout at these centres. Ensuring that all girls have access to the HPV vaccine would improve countless lives, not only by reducing rates of cervical cancer, but also by enabling the provision of numerous other critical services. It is an opportunity that should be on the minds of cancer experts, government officials, and representatives from the private sector and civil society. And it is an imperative for all of the 193 governments that have signed up to the SDGs. We must not let our girls down. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a former minister of finance of Nigeria and managing director of the World Bank, is board chair of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. IF theres anything weve learned from horrors like the nightclub shootings in Orlando, the truck attack in Nice, and the beheading of a priest in St-Etienne-du-Rouvray, its that our security services are far from perfect. We have learned, for example, that Adel Kermiche, one of the killers of Father Jacques Hamel, wore an electronic tag because he had been recognised as potentially dangerous, but a judge had allowed it to be turned off for four hours, time Kermiche used to murder the priest. Clearly, there is no obvious path to ensure security for European or North American states, currently the targets of choice for jihadists. But what were seeing now is a shift in attitudes toward intelligence-gathering services. Public opinion in Belgium, France and other European countries threatened by jihadist attacks has swung dramatically toward security, write two US security experts, Michele Flournoy, a former undersecretary of defense, and Adam Klein, of the Center for a New American Security in Foreign Affairs. The attitude we in free societies take toward the security agencies is a critical part of our security. In the past year, while researching Journalism in a Time of Terror, an upcoming book for the Reuters Institute, I interviewed past heads of the Wests three main external intelligence services: John McLaughlin, head of the CIA (briefly); Pierre Brochand of the French DGSE, and Sir John Scarlett of the UKs MI6. All stressed their agencies adhesion to democratic norms necessary, in their views, for their existence. McLaughlin agrees that the secret services fit awkwardly into democracies, but says it is clear that they are necessary to protect democratic practices. Yet, observing that leaks and revelations have caused large expense and disruption, he ended by asking the news media, a little despairingly, How hard do you want my job to be? Scarlett also asked a rhetorical question. When pressed on the potential the services had for suborning democratic life, he asked, Who would do it? Where do we get our staff? The same, generally liberal society as anyone else. Brochand, in the French tradition of the intellectual as state official, said that the DGSE he commanded from 2002-2009 suffered from a lack of trust, and if you think about it, the sole real asset of an intelligence service is its credibility, which stems from trust. Society has become individualistic and has called for transparency everywhere, even in services that could not grant it. We tried to show [journalists] we were not the monsters they expected us to be, but devoted professionals, doing our best in a difficult world. There are differing ways to react to terrorist violence. They range from Donald Trumps demand based on his belief that one in four Muslims are violent jihadists that Muslim entry into the US be temporarily suspended, to German chancellor Angela Merkels flat refusal to close the door on refugees. From Catholics and Muslims coming together in Rouen Cathedral to mourn the murder of Father Hamel, to a crowd in Nice booing French prime minister Manuel Valls after a minutes silence for the 87-year-old killed by an Islamic State supporter who drove a truck through the citys crowded oceanfront promenade. Separation and inclusion; forgiveness and anger. The attitudes presently co-exist, but theres little doubt that the separation-anger response will win out if the spate of violence that marked July in France and Germany continues, and grows worse. The French National Assemblys commission of inquiry into the November 13 attacks in Paris after six months of hearings, debate, and drafting harshly criticised the superabundance of acronyms that characterise the countrys many security services. It called for a streamlined, centralised and more powerful security organisation. The head of the external security service, Bernard Bajolet, conceded that the November 13 Paris attacks, in which some 130 were killed, showed failures of both his own and the internal service for failing to pick up either the foreign or the domestic signs of the planning for the massacre. The German governments attitude of continued openness has had strong public support but is dependent on an abatement of terrorist incidents. Even now, the right-wing, anti-immigrant groups Pegida and Alternativ fur Deuschland are organising rallies, though substantial rather than huge. Meanwhile, allies within Merkels own governing party such as Joachim Herrmann, the Bavarian interior minister argue that there can no longer be uncontrolled entry into the country. Merkels is a gamble on patience, decency and, above all, luck. The suspicion and anger shown, especially in Germany, after the publication of Edward Snowden leaks on US spying is now much diminished. European states, including Germany, have quietly admitted that they have sought to bug US officials and institutions as assiduously as Washington had bugged theirs; and that, in hunting down those whom they believe pose risks, they ask for information gathered by the National Security Agency. We can now assume the seriousness of the militants ambitions; their possible acquisition of weapons of mass destruction; the attraction they have for some, especially young Muslim men, and their deliberate efforts to worsen relations between the settled and recent immigrant populations. As Philip Bobbitt has written, terrorism itself might become a threat to the legitimacy of those states that depend upon the consent of the governed. We need to enfold the secret services, in the front line against that threat, fully and explicitly within the institutions of the democratic state. The relationship between them and civil society will, and should, be at times scratchy. But they are as important as a free press. Reuters To those members of the house who are not seeking re-election I wish every success and happiness in the future. I wish all other members well in their endeavours to return to the House, he said. Quoting a line in Irish from poet Antoine O Raifteiri, Mr Kenny said Brigids day has passed. Now the coming of Spring, I must raise my sail. As quickly as he bounded in, he bounded out without allowing Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin to respond, as would be the norm on such occasions. Rather than looking decisive, it looked arrogant and cack-handed. Later that day, at a chaotic press conference, Kenny put his foot in it, by suggesting the people dont understand economic jargon. Im not going to get into economic jargon here because the vast majority of people dont understand, the Taoiseach said when asked about Fine Gaels spending plans. It was an ignominious beginning to a campaign most Fine Gael TDs felt should have taken place the previous November, when the Taoiseach flew a kite that he would go early, only to be stymied by then Tanaiste Joan Burton. The partys main slogan keep the recovery going would on the surface seem inoffensive and anodyne but it quickly became toxic and by midway through the campaign it seemed that Kenny and his coterie of geniuses were conspiring to throw away their re-election. Fine Gael dismiss John Halligan comments backing Simon Coveney as the next leader https://t.co/gqkWx7si6u pic.twitter.com/pSZsWy62FF Irish Examiner (@irishexaminer) August 5, 2016 When three Red C polls in less than 10 days confirmed a five-point slide for the party, the wheels seemed to be coming off the Fine Gael train and a resurgent Fianna Fail merely rubbed salt into the wound. Ultimately, between them Fine Gael and Labour would lose 56 seats, a turnaround equal to Fianna Fails collapse in 2011. Many good Fine Gael TDs lost their seats, but so too did a few bad ones and not all of those can be put down to the crisis at party level. The party reached out to Marion Coy, formerly of GMIT, to conduct the review. Well known to many in Fine Gael, she was an interesting choice given her own time as the head of GMIT was the source of some controversy. The investigators hired by GMIT to probe a cheating incident at the college, and whether it was covered-up, were not happy with the level of co-operation of senior staff members, who were deemed key witnesses. The investigators claimed that there wasnt full disclosure of the incident to the GMIT Governing Body. The investigators also said emails of Ms Coy, who was GMIT president when the incident occurred and story broke, were deleted. Enda Kenny gets Fine Gael report into poor election performance, reports @Ocionnaith https://t.co/UtwerFhk5o (RMC) pic.twitter.com/mSINHh5d2U Irish Examiner (@irishexaminer) July 27, 2016 But aided by a team of six elected members of the party, Coy began her inquiries. More than 400 people from across the country were interviewed but following tensions between Coy and the team, one report was to become two her report and an internal report. That internal report does not name anyone and does not vilify any individual. However, it is understood Kennys poor media performances, his mis-timing in calling the election, Fine Gaels ill-judged election message on the economy, and an over-reliance on spin are among the factors that contributed to the party losing the General Election, are among the main findings. Within the party the majority of the blame has been directed at five key individuals Enda Kenny, who made a series of gaffes during the campaign; general secretary Tom Curran over his handling of candidates; director of elections Brian Hayes over the stuttering campaign; and Mark Mortell and Andrew McDowell over the partys economic message and slogan. The internal report, carried out by five party TDs Alan Farrell, Maria Bailey, Kate OConnell, Peter Burke, Patrick ODonovan and Senator Maura Hopkins was produced and given to Mr Kenny in late July. This report is said to reflect widespread criticism of the partys election messaging and slogan of keep the recovery going. Sources close to the process have said the internal report is positive and constructive and does not place the blame on any one individual. Ms Coys report is said to be nearing completion and with the Dail out of session, it is now thought the party will discuss the findings of the two reports at its think-in in Newbridge, Co Kildare on September 12 and 13. Reading between the lines, the internal report may have been ordered to offset much of the harshest criticisms in the Coy document but given the scale of the loss in February and in the local elections in 2014, for those running the party, much has still to be learned. In the frame: Inner team under fire Tom Curran (general secretary): Has been blamed for the mess of the campaign, most notably the John Perry court case, which is said to have cost the party 500,000. Brian Hayes (MEP and director of elections): Hayes appeared to be an inspired choice. However, he has been blamed for the election campaign which saw Fine Gael lose 26 seats. Andrew McDowell (economic adviser): Economic guru who is now heading off to Europe to a 270,000-a-year job at the European Investment Bank. Mark Mortell (strategic adviser): The hero of 2011s five-point plan strategy is the villain of 2016 with the botched keep the recovery going slogan. Daniel McConnell There was huge coverage, and a lot of public discussion. At one level it was very gratifying, at another deeply frustrating. Weve been publishing these surveys for 10 years now, and in the process generating huge public awareness of an important issue. Everyone listens, and a lot of people get involved. Weve been publishing these surveys for 10 years now, and in the process generating huge public awareness of an important issue. Everyone listens, and a lot of people get involved. Everyone listens, that is, but one. Year after year, the Department of Education turns a deaf ear to something that ought to be blindingly obvious. The facts are simple enough. It costs around 350 to start a child in junior school, nearly 400 for a child going into 4th class, and not far short of 800 if your son or daughter is starting secondary school. I met a man last week whose three children all of them still in primary had so far cost 1,037 to get ready for this years education. Like every parent I know, he was feeling the pressure. I met a man last week whose three children all of them still in primary had so far cost 1,037 to get ready for this years education. Like every parent I know, he was feeling the pressure. But also like every parent I know, he was determined to do the right thing by his kids. No parent wants their child singled out because they havent got the right books, or because theyre not wearing the uniform prescribed by the school. No parent wants their child sent home with a note in their schoolbag from the school principal reminding mum or dad that the voluntary contribution is overdue. No parent wants their child sent home with a note in their schoolbag from the school principal reminding mum or dad that the voluntary contribution is overdue. So parents go to enormous lengths. Our survey found that one in 10 parents go into debt to pay for their childrens school costs, and many more forego paying other bills. The trouble with that, of course, is that an unpaid electricity bill doesnt go away. Its a complete mystery to me that our state, year after year, allows parents to be put under pressure in this way to provide for the most basic requirements of education. In these two small islands, us and our next door neighbour, there are five separate jurisdictions. We are the only one with a written constitution. Our written constitution says that, while the State acknowledges that the natural and primary educator of any child is that childs family, the State also requires that every child must receive a certain minimum education, moral, intellectual and social. The State requires that, the constitution says, because the common good demands it. And so the Constitution goes on to say that the State shall provide for free primary education and, when the public good requires it, provide other educational facilities. All of that is to be done with due regard to the rights of parents. None of the other jurisdictions on these islands England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have a written constitution. Unlike here, no child in any of the other jurisdictions has a constitutional right to a free education. But in those jurisdictions, education is of course covered by law. In the case of England, for example, their basic education act is a huge tome. The Education Act of 1996 has 583 articles and 40 schedules, covering every aspect of education. In Section 454 of the act, it makes clear that neither a parent nor a pupil shall be required to pay for or supply any materials, books, instruments or other equipment used in the school. In Section 454 of the act, it makes clear that neither a parent nor a pupil shall be required to pay for or supply any materials, books, instruments or other equipment used in the school. Later on in the same section it says that no charge shall be made in respect of transport to school. These same articles are replicated in almost identical terms in the legislation covering Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. There is a slight difference in tone between the legislation in the other jurisdictions and the constitutional provision here. There, education is seen as compulsory, and parents are seen as having a duty to ensure their children go to school. Here, there is much more emphasis on the rights of parents. But in all cases, the education of children, at least to a basic minimum standard, is seen as fundamental to the common good. That is the primary reason, according to our constitution, why our children have an absolute right (up to the age of eighteen) to a free education. The great irony the unacceptable irony is that in the jurisdictions where there is no constitutional right, vested in each child, the children are guaranteed a free primary education. In the only jurisdiction where every child has a constitutional guarantee, it doesnt happen. And its not because of cost. The Department of Education has accepted that research we did last year is accurate. In that The Department of Education has accepted that research we did last year is accurate. In that research we found that it would cost just about 100 million to ensure that books and transport were free at primary level, and that voluntary contributions would be no longer necessary as a form of school income. 100 million is about one euro in every hundred euro the Department of Education spends. Even in straightened times, its entirely affordable. 100 million is about one euro in every hundred euro the Department of Education spends. Even in straightened times, its entirely affordable. Why does the public good here and everywhere else demand that children be given a good decent basic education? We all know the answer to that. A child who gets a good start is a child who has a decent chance. There is a wealth of scientific data that proves these two things. The first thing it proves is that a child who starts off in school behind is more likely to stay behind, and more likely to finish behind and to finish earlier than they should. Thats why its possible to predict life-long outcomes for children at five or six years of age who are already struggling to keep up with their classmates. Among the things its possible to predict are that the child who starts school behind runs a much higher risk of being dependent on social welfare, or of not being able to hold down a job, or of not being able to sustain good relationships. So the second thing the science proves is that investment in young education because it helps to avoid all those risks is repaid many times over by the state that makes it. But we dont seem prepared to make that tiny, necessary, additional investment. And the reason? Its in the language of the Constitution, apparently. Despite appearances, the Constitution doesnt oblige the Sate to provide free primary education it obliges the State to provide for free primary education. That little word is the reason the State has always argued that its job is to make the basic infrastructure available, and the rest is up to parents. We cant interfere with the rights of parents, nor the autonomy of schools, they say. They have argued that point again and again in a variety of court cases, and have sometimes won. But when Ireland wins those court cases, who loses? Actually, Ireland does. The stuck in the mud attitude that denies children the basic tools they need to start life on an equal footing is an attitude that, among other things, prevents the talents of thousands of young Irish citizens from bubbling to the surface. Its an outdated policy and approach that aims to save pennies at the cost of a better future for all of us, and especially for our next generation. A child who gets a good start is a child who has a decent chance. As revealed exclusively yesterday in the Irish Examiner, a bilateral agreement with the British means that RAF combat aircraft will shoot down any airliner hijacked by terrorists in Irish air space. It is, of course, in Britains interest to engage with its western neighbour in this manner, as the biggest terrorist threat is posed by Islamic State (IS) which has targeted London for a bombing campaign and we are, literally, in the firing line. Critics will argue that such an agreement makes a mockery of our much vaunted policy of miltary neutrality, but the reality is that the Air Corps is not a fighting force. Structurally, it is part of the Army and has limited capacity, as evidenced by its inability to chase or harrass Russian bombers that came close to Irish sovereign airspace on a number of occasions last year. It is time for the Government and, specifically, the Department of Defence to come clean on this issue. It is time, also, for a comprehensive and dispassionate look at our policy of neutrality, which has been in place since the Second World War but which has been compromised by the Lisbon Treaty, this agreement with the British, and by the reality that it is impossible to remain truly neutral when it comes to terrorism. Two questions need to be asked: What are we neutral for and what are we neutral against? During the last world war, we were neutral for our own survival and neutral against any combatant involved in the slaughter, hoping that the major nations in conflict would burn themselves out before looking in our direction. Our neutrality was never ideological, but practical and pragmatic. Indeed, prior to our accession to the EEC in 1973, Taoiseach Sean Lemass indicated that Ireland would be prepared to join Nato as a price for membership. His successor, Jack Lynch, held a similar view. Charles Haughey, though an avowed neutralist, used the policy as as a diplomatic weapon. On returning as Taoiseach in February, 1982, he enraged British prime minister Margaret Thatcher by using Irish neutrality as a means of opposing the Falklands War. Instead of blind obedience to a form of neutrality that no longer exists if it ever did perhaps we should form a closer association with Nato. We are already part of its Partnership for Peace programme and contribute to Nato-led missions in the Balkans and Afghanistan. The important thing is that any military engagement with others should be used as a shield rather than a sword. Nobody wants Irish troops engaged in assertive military action abroad, whether as part of a US/UK coalition or not, in conflicts that have nothing to do with our safety. But we cannot ignore the threat that IS and other terrorist groups pose. Neutrality, as we know it, is a spent force. Atlanta-based Delta, the second-largest US carrier by passenger traffic, said it had cancelled about 300 flights after a power outage that began around 2.30am in Atlanta. The power interruption caused a system-wide outage, Delta said. At about 10.30am, it said about 800 of its nearly 6,000 scheduled flights had taken off. Georgia Power said a piece of Delta equipment failed and caused the airlines computer systems to lose power. The problem at Delta did not affect other Georgia Power customers, and there was no area-wide outage, utility spokesman John Kraft said. Kraft said he did not know the type of equipment that failed or why it did. Like many large airlines, Delta uses its proprietary computer system for its bookings and operations, and the fact that other airlines appeared unaffected by the outage also pointed to the companys equipment, said independent industry analyst Robert Mann. Critical computer systems have backups and are tested to ensure high reliability, he said. It was not clear why those systems had not worked to prevent Deltas problems, he said. A Delta spokeswoman declined to comment when asked about backup systems. Deltas flight information was not showing correctly on Deltas website or on airport information boards, and this could also take time to resolve, the carrier said in the latest update. Witnesses described horrifying scenes of bodies being scattered about and the wounded screaming for help. A breakaway faction of the Taliban in Pakistan claimed responsibility. In a statement, Ahsanullah Ahsan, spokesman for Jamaat-ul-Ahrar militant group, also said their men killed Bilal Kasi, the president of Baluchistan Bar Association. The government said it will trace and arrest those who orchestrated the attack. Nearly 100 lawyers had come to the hospital in the heart of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, after the body of their colleague, prominent attorney Bilal Kasi was brought there. Kasi, the chief of the provinces bar association, was shot and killed by gunmen earlier yesterday as he was on his way to his office. The lawyers gathered at the Quetta Civil Hospital to express their grief as is common with public figures. Kasi was among the most outspoken lawyers in the province and was popular for campaigning for improvements in the lawyers community. It was a suicide attack, said Zahoor Ahmed Afridi, a senior police officer. Afridi said the attacker hit shortly after Kasis body was brought in and it seemed the two events were connected. Abdul Rehman, the director at the Civil Hospital, said the bombing killed 64 people, mostly lawyers. He said they were also treating 92 wounded in the explosion. Two journalists working for Pakistani news channels were also killed in the attack, according to Shahzada Zulfiqar, the president of the Quetta Press Club. One of the survivors described a horrifying scene, saying there were bodies everywhere. Waliur Rehman said he was taking his ailing father to the emergency ward when the explosion shook the building. The blast was so powerful that they both fell down, he said. When he looked up, Rehman said he saw bodies of the dead and the wounded crying out for help. He was about 200m away from where the bombing struck, he added. Another witness, lawyer Abdul Latif, said he arrived at the hospital to express his grief over Kasis killing. However, he said he didnt know he would see the bodies of dozens of other lawyers killed and wounded shortly after arriving. Sanaullah Zehri, chief minister in Baluchistan province, said the bombing and Kasis slaying seemed to be part of a plot to disrupt peace in the provincial capital. Sarfraz Bugti, the provincial interior minister, denounced the attack as an act of terrorism. Local TV stations broadcast footage showing people running in panic around the hospital grounds. Afridi said most of the dead were lawyers who had gathered after Kasis body was brought to the hospital. Prime minister Nawaz Sharif strongly condemned the blast and expressed his deep grief and anguish over the loss of precious human lives in the attack, in which several senior lawyers were also killed. No one will be allowed to disturb the peace in the province that has been restored thanks to the countless sacrifices by the security forces, police and the people of Baluchistan, he said in a statement. Sharif asked the local authorities to maintain utmost vigilance and beef up security in Quetta. He also instructed health officials to provide the best treatment possible to those wounded in the attack. Later yesterday, the prime minister travelled to Quetta to meet the wounded and take a first look at the situation. General Raheel Sharif, the powerful army chief of Pakistan, also visited the Quetta Civil Hospital, and met the wounded. According to a military statement, he ordered intelligence agencies to apprehend all those linked to yesterdays attack. Ali Zafar, the head of the countrys main lawyers association, condemned the blast as an attack on justice. He said lawyers will observe three days of mourning and will not appear in court in solidarity with their colleagues and others killed. Quetta and the rest of Baluchistan province have long been hit by insurgency. There are several ethnic Baluch separatist groups operating in the resource-rich province, but al-Qaeda and other militant groups also have a presence here. Renzi has said he will resign if voters do not approve the constitutional changes he hopes will end Italys notoriously shaky political system that has prevented any government completing a full term since World War Two. It is a huge political gamble for the centre leader, with polls showing many of the 50m voters undecided, with the No camp gaining momentum in what will be a very close campaign. Now that the Court of Cassation has validated the more than 500,000 signatures needed for the referendum to be held, the government has 60 days to set a referendum date, likely to be between October and December. On Friday, credit ratings agency DBRS placed Italy under review because of the political uncertainty as well as pressure on banks, a fragile economic recovery and a less stable external environment. Any protracted political uncertainty could further sour investor sentiment toward the eurozones third largest, and highly indebted, economy and towards its banks, which are themselves saddled with 360bn of problematic loans. It could also complicate a recently announced private-sector bailout for Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the countrys third biggest bank, which has to raise 5bn on the market by year-end. The reform, which both houses of parliament approved in April, would shrink the upper house, cutting the number of senators to 100 from 315, and stripping it of powers over the budget and its ability to bring down a government. Instead, it would have oversight of local, rather than national, issues. It would increase the powers of the central government, diluting those of Italys 20 regions on issues such as the environment, transport and energy. Twinned with a new, two-round voting system for the lower house, the changes should finally make Italy a governable country, Renzi says. Opposition parties, such as the anti-immigrant Northern League, say that will strip away democratic checks put in place after the war to prevent the rise of another political strongman like Benito Mussolini. Public broadcaster NHK reported last month that 82-year-old Akihito, who has had heart surgery and been treated for prostate cancer, wanted to step down in a few years which would be unprecedented in modern Japan. Once considered divine, the emperor is defined in the constitution as a symbol of the state and the unity of the people. He has no political power. Akihito stopped short of saying outright that he wanted to abdicate, which could be interpreted as interfering in politics. When I consider that my fitness level is gradually declining, I am worried that it may become difficult for me to carry out my duties as the symbol of the state with my whole being, as I have done until now, he said. Akihito took the throne after the death in 1989 of his father, Hirohito, in whose name Japan fought World War Two. He has sought to soothe the wounds of the war in Asia during trips overseas and tried to bring the monarchy closer to the people. Akihito feels strongly that an emperors full performance of his duties is integral to his constitutional role, experts say. Opinion polls show the vast majority of ordinary Japanese sympathise with the emperors desire to retire, but such a step would need changes to the law. Akihito has been cutting back on official duties, with his heir, 56-year-old crown prince Naruhito, taking his place. There were limits to how far that could go, he said yesterday. The emperor also seemed to cast doubt on whether it was appropriate to use an existing system that would allow Naruhito to take over as regent if his father were incapacitated. Even in such cases [of a regency], however, it does not change the fact that the emperor continues to be emperor until the end of his life, even though he is unable to fully carry out his duties as the emperor, Akihito said. Prime minister Shinzo Abe said, in view of the emperors age and the burden of his official duties, it was necessary to consider what steps could be taken. The Gatwick Express passenger from East Grinstead was pronounced dead at the scene at Wandsworth Common station, south London, on Sunday. Investigators believe the man, who has not been named, may have been leaning out of a train door window when he suffered a blow to the head at around 5.30pm. Dismissing reports he may have been decapitated, the British Transport Police (BTP) said they have reported the incident to the Rail Accident Investigation Branch. The death is being treated as non-suspicious and the circumstances, including what caused the head injuries, are still being investigated, a BTP spokesman said. The family of the man have been informed of his death and a file is being prepared for the coroner. A Gatwick Express spokesman said the train had been travelling to London Victoria from Gatwick Airport. He continued: The emergency services attended the scene at Wandsworth Common station and despite their best efforts, they were unable to save him. We send our condolences to his family. We are co-operating fully with British Transport Police and the Rail Accident Investigation Branch, who are investigating this incident. A spokeswoman for London Ambulance Service said they were called at 5.34pm and sent an ambulance crew, single responder and a car, and an incident response officer to the scene alongside an air ambulance. They said they treated a person at the scene for a head injury, but they were pronounced dead by the doctor from the air ambulance. More than 400 suspected drug dealers have been killed by police across the Philippines since Duterte took over, officials say. Broadcaster ABS-CNN put the number at over 800, though this includes executions by anonymous vigilantes. Yesterday, 27 mayors and 31 police officers, including a colonel, went to the national police office in the capital, Manila, to clear their names, fearing the presidents order to hunt them down if they failed to surrender within 24 hours. Several local officials reported to regional police offices to beat the deadline set by Duterte, who won the elections in May on a single platform of fighting crime and drugs. On Sunday, he identified about 160 officials in a name-and-shame campaign. I want to change, a Cebu-based businessman named as a top-level drug trafficker told reporters after he met national police chief Ronald dela Rosa. Nicknamed the punisher and Duterte Harry for his brutal fight on crime, Duterte has hit back at activists incensed by the surge in the killings of suspected drug traffickers. Alarmed human rights groups have urged the UN to condemn the rise in extrajudicial killings. The Philippine Senate is to hold a legislative inquiry. Dela Rosa reprimanded the police officers on Dutertes list, threatening to kill them if they continued to protect drug traders and resell seized drugs. At one point, he challenged them to a fistfight. I am mad with what is happening, Dela Rosa said in a speech to local officials and police. I am ashamed. We should be the ones arresting these people, but we are protecting them. I will kill you if you will not change. All police officers linked to the drug trade were disarmed, investigated and could face criminal and administrative cases if there was strong evidence, said national police spokesman Dionardo Carlos. They will be accorded due process, he said. Besides local officials and police officers, Dutertes list included two retired police generals, soldiers, paramilitary members, judges and a former politician. In a letter, supreme court chief justice Maria Lourdes Sereno told the president yesterday the court alone had the right to discipline judges. One judge named by Duterte died eight years ago and two others have already been removed. In his maiden speech to the Senate, boxer Manny Pacquiao supported Dutertes drug war and proposal to restore the death penalty for drug crimes, and advocated execution by hanging or by firing squad. One at a time, women seated throughout the audience stood up and yelled Mr Trump, but their continued shouts were quickly drowned out by boos as security led them from the room. An organisation called the Michigan Peoples Campaign said it was behind the protest. It was hard to hear the women, but the group said they were yelling at Mr Trump about jobs and his comments on women. Its all very well planned out, Trump said after security had led several protesters out of the venue in Detroit. In an apparently separate incident, one man also stood up towards the end of the event and yelled that Trump has tiny hands. That was believed to be in reference to a sexually-tinged comment by primary rival Marco Rubio. Protesters have occasionally disrupted Trumps larger rallies, but this was the first time he faced such sustained resistance at a policy speech delivered to a private group. He was speaking to the Detroit Economic Club and most people in attendance were club members or their guests. Trump largely stayed on message as security removed the protesters. He paused to let the disruption subside several times and occasionally continued speaking through protesters as the audience offered him applause and standing ovations. The Bernie Sanders people have far more energy and spirit, Trump said after one woman was taken from the room. Several audience members shouted we love you, Trump and other messages of support. In his speech, Trump outlined an overhaul of the income tax proposal he unveiled during the Republican primary campaign, increasing the amount that would be paid by the highest-income earners. He said he wants to simplify the tax code to three brackets 12%, 25%, and 33% of income. That is a change from September 2015, when he proposed four brackets that would pay zero, 10%, 20%, and 25%. He said the tax simplification will be a major feature of his plan, and called it the biggest tax revolution since the Reagan tax reform. He insisted: We will make America grow again. Trump is expected to roll out a series of new policy proposals in the coming weeks as he tries to steady his floundering campaign. Trump said he will unveil a proposal to reduce the cost of childcare and increase choices for parents. He said he has been working on the plan with his daughter Ivanka, who is one of his top advisers. Trump also said he plans to lay out an education proposal that focuses on school choice, as well as one that would propose new funding and support for law enforcement officers. The development was first reported by MSNBC and BuzzFeed. McMullin will be pitched as an option for conservatives who have never warmed to Trump and who remain adamantly opposed to Democrat Hillary Clinton, although his chances of success in the November 8 election are near zero. He is running, first and foremost, out of a deep love for this country, and because he understands the true brand of American leadership that is required to be Commander-in-Chief, an email sent by his campaign to supporters said. Trump was formally anointed his partys nominee last month after beating 16 rivals in the primary contests. But many Republicans have been concerned about Trump policies such as his proposal to put a temporary ban on Muslims entering the country and about his free-wheeling, often insulting rhetoric. McMullin has never held public office and is unknown to American voters. In addition to also lacking a quick source of campaign cash, he will face immediate hurdles to try to get his name on enough ballot papers to make himself a serious candidate. The best McMullin could likely hope for would be to simply play spoiler to Trump in a handful of states, eating away at the New York real estate developers ability to win states that are generally reliably Republican. McMullin would join two other third-party hopefuls Gary Johnson, who was nominated by the Libertarian Party, and Jill Stein, who will represent the Green Party. In recent polls that included Trump, Clinton, Stein and Trump, the third-party candidates have both struggled to get above 10 percentage points each. McMullin has been a frequent critic of Trump on social media, calling him an authoritarian and criticising his stance on civil rights as well as his refusal to release his tax returns. McMullin most recently served as the House Republican Conferences chief policy director and has worked in Congress since 2013, according to a profile on LinkedIn. He previously spent 11 years as an operations officer for the Central Intelligence Agency. Burma Autopsies Conducted on Civilians Allegedly Killed by Burma Army Authorities exhume the bodies of seven locals who were killed in Lashio Townships Mong Yaw Village in order to perform autopsies. Authorities exhumed the bodies of seven locals who were killed in Lashio Townships Mong Yaw Village on June 28 in order to perform autopsies. A forensic pathologist, judge and the Lashio Township police department carried out the autopsies. It was part of our police work. We exhumed the bodies and reburied them. We have opened a murder case, said the head of the Lashio Township police force. He said the victims were innocent civilians and that police would look into the case in accordance with the law and hold the perpetrators accountable. Lt-Gen Mya Tun Oo of the Burma Army confirmed the armys killing of five of the victims at a press conference in Rangoon on July 20, and promised to take action against the accused troops. He added that he could not place responsibility on the army for two of the murders. The deputy commander of the Burma Army Northeast Command on July 3 compensated 300,000 kyats (US$250) to the families of the five victims killed by army troops in northern Shan State. Aye Lwang, a local of Mong Yaw Village, told The Irrawaddy, Police came and exhumed the bodies on Saturday. We were not allowed at the scene. We want justice to be served for our seven villagers. Burmese military columns no longer stay in the village when they are nearby and locals do not go to distant farms out of concern for their safety following the incident, according to Mong Yaw villagers. Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko. Burma Ethnic Armed Group Leaders Discuss Security Sector Reform At a workshop in Chiang Mai, ethnic armed groups signal concern at efforts to fast track certain processes simultaneously with political negotiations. CHIANG MAI, Thailand Ethnic armed group leaders are holding a three-day workshop on Security Sector Reform (SSR) in Burma, which started on Monday in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai. Participants include members of the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC) ethnic armed alliance, alongside the Karen National Union (KNU) and the All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF)two groups that, unlike UNFC members, signed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) with the previous government last year. Discussions have focused on disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR)one of the key demands of the Burma Army in the peace process with respect to ethnic armed groups. The latter have responded with demands for reforms in Burmas security sector, including the formation of a federal army incorporating ethnic armed groups. Participants expressed concern at apparent efforts to fast track DDR and SSR processes simultaneously with political negotiations, and the Burma Armys insistence that ethnic armed groups accept the terms of both the NCA and the 2008 military-drafted Constitution as a pre-condition for full participation in peace talks. We are discussing our strategy on security related affairs, and exchanging thoughts. We have invited others from Burma to hear their views and advice, said Nai Hong Sar, a spokesperson for the workshop. Representatives of ethnic political parties in Burma, who are members either of the United Nationalities Alliance (UNA) or the Nationalities Brotherhood Federation (NBF), also took part. The participants shared their disagreements with the positions of the government and the Burma Army on the NCA, which was signed by only a minority of ethnic armed groups. Signing the NCA is currently a precondition for full participation in the Union Peace Conference scheduled to begin in Naypyidaw on August 31. Ethnic armed group leaders said they were worried by the plan of the government and Burma Army to implement DDR and SSR simultaneously with peace negotiations. Participants also expressed disagreement with the Burma Armys demand that ethnic armed groups accept the 2008 Constitution and follow democratic processes outlined in the charter, and with recent political proposals from the government that offer only limited autonomy for border regions where ethnic armed groups are currently based. They also signaled frustration with the Burma Armys insistence of there being only one armed force in Burma, with regards to future SSRan apparent rejection of the demand of ethnic armed groups for a federal army. International security and conflict specialists also took part in the workshop, sharing their knowledge and experience, alongside womens rights activists and civil society leaders. The SSR/DDR and Security Policy Workshop was organized by the Ethnic Nationalities Affairs Center, an organization that supports political dialogue in Burmas peace process. Meanwhile, representatives of ethnic armed organizations that signed the NCA are holding a separate meeting in Chiang Mai with leaders of the UNFC. Burma Police Injuries and Burma Army Casualties Reported After Clashes With KIA Clashes break out in Kachin State between members of the Kachin Independence Army and the Burma Army along the highway connecting Mogaung and Hpakant townships. Clashes have broken out in several areas in Kachin State between members of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the Burma Army along the highway connecting Mogaung and Hpakant townships. According to local sources, government forces suffered casualties and police officers were wounded in the fighting. Locals said that KIA soldiers from Battalion 6 reportedly ambushed a convoy of Burma Army trucks using the road on Monday, destroying two vehiclesone near the village of Nam Sheng, and one near Gauri. Lt-Col Naw Bu, a spokesperson for the KIA, told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday, We heard that fighting broke out on the highway from Mogaung to Hpakant. We heard that two [Burma] army trucks were destroyed in Kamaing. Kamaing is a town in Hpakant Township. According to a Facebook post by a Burma Army soldier who goes by Sgt Pho Si, eight policemenincluding one officerwere wounded after the KIA attack in the Kamaing area. He said that those injured received treatment at a hospital in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State. Regarding the two army trucks which were destroyed, Lt-Col Naw Bu said that he did not have detailed information of the circumstances surrounding the clashes, but had heard that the Burma Army troops had gotten close to the KIA-controlled area, and members of the KIA had gone on the offensive. The military-owned Myawady Daily also reported on Tuesday that members of the KIA had attacked the Burma Army on the evening of August 7 in a village in the Dawphoneyan sub-townshipwhich is near the KIA base of Laizaand added that some officers had sacrificed their lives for the country. Fighting has broken out in many locations throughout Kachin State following an initial clash in Hpakant where the Burma Army cracked down on illegal mining and detained 12 men in the area. On August 3, in the midst of the crackdown, there was a clash with the KIA. Tension remains high in Hpakant and Tanai townships, as well as in northern Shan State, where the KIAs Brigade 6 is based, according to Lt-Col Naw Bu. Burma is set to begin its Union Peace Conference on August 31, but government forces have continued military offensives against the KIA and in northern Shan State against groups like the Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA). This is the time to build trust, but the Burmese Army keeps attacking our KIA. We need to utilize defensive attacks in order to protect our area. They should stop fighting, said Lt-Col Naw Bu. Burma World Bank Loan Will Not Be Used for Govt Salary Increases, Says Presidents Office Spokesperson A World Bank Loan worth US$100 million aims to cover a state deficit by separating salaries from the budget. RANGOON Government employees salaries will not increase despite plans to take out a loan worth US$100 million from the World Bank, aimed at covering a state deficit by separating salaries from the budget, according to government officials. Burmas President Htin Kyaw sent a message on August 5 to the Union Parliament speaker about pursuing the World Bank loan in order to implement projects under the Myanmar Monetary Sector Development Plan. After the letter was shared, reports came out suggesting that the President planned to increase staff salaries by taking loans from the World Bank. Zaw Htay, spokesperson from the Presidents Office told The Irrawaddy that this was the result of a misunderstanding. We have a big budget deficit. After taking loans from the World Bank, we will pay for the government staff salaries from this amount, so the state deficit will be lower. It doesnt mean civil servant salaries will increase, he said. After spending the amount required for salaries, we will use the rest of the money for development projects, Zaw Htay added. In Tuesdays Union Parliament session, Maung Maung Win, deputy minister of National Planning and Finance, said the World Banks International Development Association will provide a US$100 million loan interest-free for 38 years starting from 2017. Its a no-interest loan, but the service fees per year will be 0.75 percent of the total loan amount, he explained. Of this, $75 million is earmarked for the Ministry of Planning and Finance and $25 million for the Central Bank. According to the Myanmar Financial Sector development project plan, $60 million will be used to provide monthly pay and allowances for civil servants, $7 million will be allocated to technical assistance in reforming state-owned banks, $5 million will go toward the development of the microfinance, insurance and monetary sectors and establishment of a better information technology system, and $3 million is for capacity building for the staff of the Ministry of National Planning and Finance. If the financial sector develops, the countrys economy will also develop, Maung Maung Win said. $60 million can cover the state budget deficit for government servants. Maung Maung Win said that the $60 million will be received within four years. Estimates suggest it will come in increments: $20 million in 2017, $15 million in 2018, $10 million in 2019 and $5 million in 2020. Khin Saw Oo, deputy governor of the Central Bank of Myanmar said in the Parliament that the bank will use the $25 million loan for four projects: $15 million will go toward upgrading the transactions system, $6 million will be used for capacity building and establishment of a monetary training school, $2 million will be designated for a capacity development plan, an IT system and improvement of financial management systems, and $2 million will be for capacity building for the staff of the Central Bank. Khin Maung Nyo, an economist and columnist, said it is better to spend the World Banks loans on government salaries to reduce the heavy state budget deficit in Burma. State budget is always facing a deficit, so its better if some expenses are separated out of the loan amount, he said. Arts Ten Things to Do in Rangoon This Week (August 9) The Irrawaddy picks 10 interesting events happening in Rangoon this week. No Lights No Lycra No Lights No Lycra is a dance community that was started in Melbourne in 2009. According to the group: There is no light, no lycra, no teacher, no steps to learn, no technique, just free movement. NLNL is a space where you can completely let go, shake out the stresses of the week, and lose yourself in the music and the physicality of your body. Open to all with a suggested donation of 5,000 kyats. Where: Myanm/art Gallery, 98 Bogalay Zay Street, Third Floor When: Tuesday August 9, 7:15 pm to 8:15 pm Myanmar International Furniture Expo An international collection of modern furniture will be displayed at Tatmadaw Hall. Where: Tatmadaw Hall, U Wisara Road When: Thursday, August 11 to Sunday, August 14, 9am to 5pm American Center Youth Forum The American Center will hold its August Youth Forum titled Its Our Future: Youth Engagement in Urban Development, focusing on what makes a sustainable city. Where: Count Basie Hall, The American Center, 14 Taw Win Road When: Wednesday, August 10, 4:30pm to 6pm DULSA Youth Connect Organized by the Dagon University Law Student Association (DULSA), this seminar will introduce youth to business practices through discussions, presentations and networking. Various youth-led and legal organizations, along with business personnel, will participate. Where: UMFCCI Building, Min Ye Kyaw Swar Street When: Sunday, August 14, 8 am to 12 pm Sai Sai Frenzo Tour Burmas celebrated hip-hop musician Sai Sai Kham Leng will perform, along with others, at the VeVe monsoon show at the Myanmar Convention Center. Where: Myanmar Convention Center, Min Dhamma Street When: Sunday August 14, 1pm to 5pm Jazz Night at Rendez-Vous Musicians play popular jazz and Latin tunes while guests enjoy French cuisine. Where: Rendez-Vous, Institut Francais de Birmanie, No. 340 Pyay Road. Tel: 09 250 436 951 When: Every Wednesday, 8 pm to 11 pm Think Art Gallery Exhibition Artist Soe Naing showcases 48 of his works at Think Art Gallery. Prices range from US$300 to $2,500. Where: Think Art Gallery, No. 23, Nawaday Street, Dagon Tsp. Tel: 095143266, When: Saturday, August 6 to Saturday, August 13 Peace Cartoon Exhibition As a gesture to the upcoming Union Peace Conferencealso known as the 21st Century Panglong Conferencethe Burmese government and cartoonists have organized the Peace Cartoon Exhibition. About 200 works from some 100 cartoonists will be featured. Where: Maha Bandoola Park, in front of Rangoon City Hall When: Friday, August 12 to Sunday, August 14 Watercolor Exhibition The 11th Myanmar Watercolor Artists Association exhibition featuring about 100 paintings will be held at Ayerwon Art Gallery. Where: Ayerwon Art Gallery, No. 903-904, U Ba Kyi Street, 58th Ward, Dagon Seikkan Tsp. Tel: 09-450057167 When: Saturday, August 13 to Wednesday, August 24 Lokanat Gallery Exhibition A group exhibition showcasing the works of 24 different artists will be held at Lokanat Gallery. More than 70 paintings will be on display with prices ranging from $50 to $2,000. Where: Lokanat Gallery, No. 62 Pansodan Street, First Floor, Kyauktada Tsp. Tel: 01382269 When: Tuesday, August 9 to Saturday, August 13 Google has announced its acquisition of Orbitera, a startup company that focuses on solutions for vendors of cloud-based products. Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced recently that the company's Cloud Platform already runs four million applications. He added that with the passage of time, Google's cloud business is gaining significant traction. In this context, the internet search giant has published details about its latest acquisition in a blog post. According to Google's announcement, Orbitera provides a suite of tools for billing businesses that use cloud applications as well as for deploying and managing various cloud apps. Up to date, Orbitera has supported deploying cloud applications on Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services, rather than on Google's Cloud Platform. Google explained that it will continue to support deployments on different software platforms. The internet search giant applied a similar approach with a cloud monitoring tool called Stackdriver. According to Computerworld, one of Orbitera's key features is a service that allows companies to try the cloud as an enterprise software. Various app vendors can set up proof-of-concept environment profiles. When a user requests a trial, these environments are automatically deployed on their chosen cloud platform. In a somewhat different approach from Microsoft and Amazon, Google aims to build credibility with enterprises by supporting businesses with multi-cloud deployments. While both Microsoft and Amazon support multi-cloud deployments, they focus their marketing approach on convincing customers to standardize their own services. Android Headlines reports that Google has decided not to interfere in Orbitera's independent operations in the foreseeable future. The giant internet search company is committed to maintaining Orbitera's neutrality as a platform supporting multi-cloud commerce. Regardless of the acquisition, customers of Orbitera apps will continue to have the flexibility to run their chosen cloud environments and the cloud platform ecosystem will remain as competitive as before. Google may provide Orbitera with just an extra funding boost since the startup is already known as an important player in the cloud market. Dual lens cameras is a trend that has been showcased by the newest Android devices. As such, there is no question as to why Apple is expected to adopt the same feature in the upcoming iPhone 7. According to C|Net, the dual lens camera is coming just in time for the iPhone 7 because Apple's camera features are due for an upgrade. At the very least, the publication argues that a dual lens system will result in better exposure latitude than the current one in place. Furthermore, the new system is expected to come with faster autofocus, which will then help create an unfocused background. Another particular benefit that will come with the dual lens may not exactly be photograph-based. Quite the contrary, a second rear camera could heighten the augmented and mixed reality capabilities of the iPhone 7. After all, Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, has already stated that the company will put a lot of effort in developing this side of their technology. However, Business Insider claims that the dual camera system might only be adopted by the larger iPhone 7 - either the iPhone 7 Plus or the iPhone 7 Pro. Either way, it will work by taking two photos that are then merged together to create a singular photo of higher quality. In particular, the photos that will be taken in low-light environments with the dual lens system will appear much sharper. The home button is expected to receive an upgrade as well. The redesign will feature a home button that is not exactly tangible anymore. Instead, there will be a pressure-sensitive button that relies on haptic feedback, according to Bloomberg. Moreover, the iPhone 7 is expected to come without the standard 3.5mm audio jack, and will instead make use of either Bluetooth or Lightning accessories. The iPhone 7 is expected to arrive by this fall, a few months after the release of what is likely its biggest competitor, the Samsung Galaxy Note 7. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has granted international payment solutions and infrastructure Currencycloud an Australian Financial Services license, granting them the ability to offer Seven Australian senators have said they will not provide their names when they fill up their census forms tonight. Greens Senators Scott Ludlam, Sarah Hanson-Young, Lee Rhiannon, Janet Young and Larissa Waters, South Australia's Nick Xenophon, who heads his own party, and Tasmanian Jacqui Lambie have all decided to withhold this information, saying they are not convinced the census does not present a security risk. Their decision comes in the wake of a former deputy privacy commissioner of NSW, Anna Johnston, saying she would be boycotting the census, due to privacy issues. Johnston explained the reasoning behind her decision in an op-ed written for Fairfax Media; in short, her reason was: "Yes, to a national snapshot. No to detailed data-linking on individuals. That's not what a census is for." In the run-up to the census, there has been a lot of confusion with many people unsure of what they should do, and the Australian Bureau of Statistics threatening draconian fines and insisting that people had to compulsorily provide their names and addresses. While the country was under the impression that the 2016 census would be the first time that names and addresses were retained, the ABS head David Kalisch confessed some weeks back that the bureau had been lying all this time and names and addresses had been retained for 18 months since the 2006 census and linked to people's personal data. The Greens had earlier asked that fines be waived for people who do not wish to provide their names and addresses for the census. Ludlam said on August 4: "The ABS response to privacy concerns has been wholly inadequate, and if they refuse to push census day back, they need to guarantee they will not fine people who choose to protect their own privacy." In the face of numerous leaks of data from companies and organisations all over the globe, the latest being the leaks from the US Democrat National Committee, the ABS has been stoic in its claim that it can provide security that will prevent any leaks. If the data that is collected in the Australian census in any way lacks integrity, then one man will have to bear the blame: the head of the Australian Bureau of Statistics, David Kalisch. Remember, just a 5% non-response will screw up the whole works. For the uninitiated, or those who have been living under a rock for the last two months, there has been an uncharacteristic amount of jaw about the census this time. And all because an unelected bureaucrat suddenly decided to act like a mini-dictator and make changes in what was once a source of excellent detail about the population at large. First, the ABS announced, in the quiet news period in December, that the names and addresses of Australians would be retained indefinitely in this year's census. And while the ABS had claimed all along that it was not retaining names and addresses and tying them to personal data, Kalisch revealed that this had been a big lie and since 2006, these personal details had indeed been retained for 18 months. That's the way to build public confidence. Take a bow, Kalisch. As some kind of sop to the public, Kalisch then said that this time the names and addresses would be retained for just four years. Cheers again. When former ABS head Bill McLennan, the man responsible for rewriting most of the Census and Statistics Act in the 1980s, pointed out that names could not be compulsorily collected by the ABS as it had no authority to do so, Kalisch denied this but did not provide his reasoning or the alleged legal advice he said he had received. The ABS was not forthcoming on this aspect either, preferring to stay silent. When it was asked about what would happen to those who boycotted the census or provided bogus data, the organisation was quick to act in a manner more fitting the police force of some African dictatorship, and threaten penalties aplenty. If anyone could screw up what is essentially a public relations exercise in a worse manner all these years Australians have made no fuss about submitting to this five-yearly exercise then Kalisch needs to be told, because I'm sure he would like to emulate that individual. The ABS' bungling also reflects on the government because this whole project is being pushed by the Liberals in pursuit of a project on data management that began back in April 2015. But if this is the way that the government wants to get people on-side, then it might as well put Attorney-General George Brandis in charge. Or better still, Tony Abbott could be brought back and put in change of the whole data management project. Even though Kalisch has shown the ability to get everything wrong, Abbott and Brandis are ahead of him when it comes to mismanagement. When, as seems likely, Kalisch is asked to pack his bags, the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull might like to replace him with Abbott and kill many birds with a single stone. This Week in Review A weekly review of the best and most popular stories published in the Imperial Valley Press. Also, featured upcoming events, new movies at local theaters, the week in photos and much more. THOUSANDS of motorists hoping to appeal against their driving convictions, after a recent case collapsed due to problems with evidence, are 'on a wild goose chase', according to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) this week. The warning came after the bench at Watford Magistrates Court was forced to dismiss a case on Tuesday against a 61-year-old driver from London, charged with failing to stop at a red light. Defence solicitor Mr Nicholas Freeman said Hertfordshire Constabulary had sent the defendent, Martin Breslaw, its standard Notice of Intended Prosecution form - a process carried out for several years for all drivers who have committed an alleged offence. Mr Freeman said all those convicted of motoring offences in the county during that time would have the right to appeal, after the case against his client was dismissed by Watford Magistrates when he pointed out the form used was legally inaccurate. Instead of being sent on behalf of the Chief Inspector of Police, the document, which asks who was driving the car, is wrongly sent out on behalf of the officer dealing with the case. Mr Charles Ingham, chief crown prosecutor for the CPS, was adamant this was not carte blanche for every convicted motorist to lodge an appeal. He said: 'The case was not continued due to other evidential difficulties. These had nothing to do with the form issued, and drivers will be on a wild goose chase if they try to use it as grounds to appeal'. A spokeswoman for Hertfordshire Constabulary said they could not comment until their lawyers looked at the details of the particular case. Mr Freeman said: 'This means thousands of motorists will have been wrongly convicted of a whole host of road traffic matters, from speeding to dangerous driving, to failing to comply with an automatic traffic signal. 'All of these motorists would obviously have a right to appeal.' As a result, Breslaw's not guilty plea was accepted and he was awarded costs from central funding by magistrates. Email Links to our top local news stories of the day, Monday through Saturday. The father of a Wilkes County deputy died Monday in a shootout with other Wilkes deputies, authorities said Tuesday. The incident started about 9:10 p.m. after the Wilkes County Sheriffs Office received a shots fired call at 5047 Congo Road, Chief Deputy David Carson of the sheriffs office said in a statement. When deputies arrived, they found James Eugene Burgess in front of his home on Congo Road. The deputies ordered Burgess to show them his hands, Carson said. Burgess then fired at three deputies, and two deputies returned fire at Burgess, Carson said. The deputies and Burgess retreated. The sheriffs office SWAT team later arrived at the scene with its armored vehicle, Carson said. Deputies found Burgess lying on the ground and he was pronounced dead at the scene, Carson said. The deputies werent injured. Burgess, 64, is the father of a Wilkes County deputy who wasnt involved in the incident, Carson said. Burgess sons name wasnt immediately released. The State Bureau of Investigation is investigating the shooting, which is normal procedure in officer-involved shootings, Carson said. The two deputies who fired at Burgess have been assigned to administrative duties until the SBI completes its investigation. Its unclear which deputy fired the shot that killed Burgess, Carson said. Two sheriffs patrol cars were damaged by the gunfire. Reddit Email 0 Shares By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | The only thing worse than the new hero status of now-covert al-Qaeda operative Abu Muhammad al-Julani and his Army of Syrian Conquest (ASC) is the news that he plans to subject all of Aleppo. Aleppo is Syrias largest city, or at least it used to be, with some 2.5 million people. Some reporters who have been there think that although a lot of people have left, others have come flooding in from the countryside, so that its current population may be similar but rearranged. Many more people, perhaps 1.2 million, live in relatively well-off West Aleppo, still controlled by the Syrian regime, which by all accounts is still very popular among them. Some 250,000 live in slummy East Aleppo, ruled by a congeries of fundamentalist militias who are supported from the outside by the al-Qaeda-linked al-Julani. For the regime to besiege and take over East Aleppo would result in an enormous human tragedy. That siege had begun last month, but al-Julani and his allies have broken it, apparently with the help of GRAD batteries supplied by Turkey and the Gulf and maybe the US CIA. Since a siege would have starved out children and non-combatants it would have been horrible. And if the regime took back over the east, it would round up thousands of rebels and put them in mass graves after it tortured them. This fate is what al-Assad, Iran and the Russian Federation wanted for East Aleppo and its hapless residents, whose crime was to be poor and to have been disadvantaged by the regime and to hate it, and to have been conventionally religious as Sunni Muslims. On the other hand, if the seedy al-Qaeda types al-Julani has gathered around himself took over the more than a million people in and around West Aleppo, that would also be an enormous human tragedy. They include members of minorities whom al-Julani has promised to ethnically cleanse. Their crime is to have been somewhat well-off and to have made their peace with a totalitarian regime that they feel provides them order. Saudi Arabia, Turkey and apparently John Brennan of the CIA want the rebels to take East Aleppo, and in backing this effort they are prolonging a civil war that has killed off nearly half a million people and left half of the 22 million Syrian homeless or refugees abroad. They are also unembarrassed to ally with the right-hand man of 9/11 mastermind Ayman al-Zawahiri. The great tragedy is that the ceasefire negotiated by John Kerry and Sergei Lavrov last February could have forestalled this further round of vicious battles. That ceasefire (or cessation of hostilities because the regime refused to acknowledge the rebels) had succeeded better than anyone had expected. But the ceasefire broke down in Aleppo, with two sides at fault. On the one side, al-Julani refused to abide by any cessation of hostilities, and launched repeated attacks on regime positions and against minority villages, as well as shelling West Aleppo. Some groups vetted by the CIA joined in with al-Qaeda in breaking the ceasefire, with weapons and money supplied by the US and Saudi Arabia. On the other side, Bashar al-Assad began thinking that the rebels willingness to abide by the cessation of hostilities was a sign of weakness and that it would be possible for his regime to reconquer all of Syria. This is hubris on the scale of insanity. What the last 5 years have proven is that the regime is stretched too thin, its remaining army of 80,000 (down from 300,000 before the civil war) too small, for Damascus to rule the whole country. It has lost Idlib, al-Raqqa, al-Jazira, Deir al-Zor, Golan, etc. even parts of the capital, Damascus, and its hinterland. The regime could well have been overthrown by now if not for the fighters from Lebanons Shiite Hizbullah, and the Afghan cannon-fodder Shanghaied by Iran, and Russian air support. But apparently one reason the al-Qaeda-led forces were able to break the siege of the East is that the Afghans ran away and the vulnerable regime forces also faded back. Hizbullah was left to fight on its own and it wasnt enough. If the ceasefire had held, someday there might have been new elections. East Aleppo could have elected fundamentalist members of parliament and West Aleppo could have elected Baathists or whatever. They could have argued out their differences in the national legislature instead of turning their beautiful old city into more rubble and ruining the lives of their families and children. Last October, it was West Aleppo that was besieged, with all supply routes cut off and a danger of mass starvation. Russian air intervention saved the West Aleppans from al-Qaeda and the other rebels then. Now it seems the Syrians are doomed, like actors in that Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day or Tom Cruises Edge of Tomorrow, to living the same scenes over and over again. Al-Julanis hope is to turn the tables and put West Aleppo under siege again, or perhaps even conquer it for covert al-Qaeda. The Gulf and Turkey and probably some American agencies also want him to succeed in this, in part because they imagine it will harm Iran (talk about science fiction). So here we go again. ====== Related video: France24: Syria: intense air attacks in Aleppo after rebels break siege Reddit Email 126 Shares TeleSur | Googles decision to wipe Palestine from its map app and portray the occupied territories as Israel sparks online protest campaign. Journalists and activists have excoriated Google for wiping Palestine completely off its map app, depicting the entire occupied Palestinian territories as part of the state of Israel. The Palestinian Journalists Forum initiated an online campaign to pressure the internet giant to reconsider its stance. The organization accused Google of being part of the Israeli scheme to establish its name as a legitimate state for generations to come and abolish Palestine once and for all. The move is also designed to falsify history, and geography as well as the Palestinian peoples right to their homeland, and a failed attempt to tamper with the memory of Palestinians and Arabs as well as the world, the statement continued. In response, critics on Twitter have used the hashtag #BoycottGoogle to condemn the company. A petition on Change.org urging Google to put Palestine back on the map has garnered 147,402 signatures as of Monday, just shy of its 150,000 goal. The omission of Palestine is a grievous insult to the people of Palestine and undermines the efforts of the millions of people who are involved in the campaign to secure Palestinian independence and freedom from Israeli occupation and oppression, reads the petition. Whether intentionally or otherwise, Google is making itself complicit in the Israeli governments ethnic cleansing of Palestine, it continues. In 2013, hackers replaced the homepage on Googles local domain in Palestine with a message calling for the company to remove the name Israel from its map app and replace it with Palestine, arguing that the state of Israel is illegal. Since the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, which forcibly displaced more than 750,000 Palestinians, Israel has further shrunk Palestinian territories by seizing vast swaths of land. Israel has expanded illegal settlements on tens of thousands of hectares since occupying the West Bank and Gaza in 1967. The United Nations recognizes the state of Palestine with the status of a non-member observer state. Via TeleSur VANCOUVER, Aug. 9, 2016 /CNW/ - Camino Minerals Corporation ("Camino" or the "Company") (COR: TSX-V), is pleased to announce that it has received regulatory approval to drill at the Lost Cabin project, in south-central Oregon. The Company has received notice from the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) that it has accepted the plan of operation, described in the Notice for Exploration Drilling, submitted September, 2015. On February 4, 2015, Camino announced it had optioned the Lost Cabin Project from La Cuesta International Inc., and has since completed a field evaluation of the project. Anomalous gold values were returned from grab samples, including 38.0 gpt and 2.8 gpt gold at the western end of the zone, as well as 5.5 gpt and 1.9 gpt gold in the east. The property lies within the Basin and Range Province in southern Oregon, and covers a layered dome complex. Moderate to intense argillic alteration is exposed for over 3 kilometers in a northwest trending valley. Within the exposed alteration are epithermal quartz veins, stock work, and breccia's, which have potential to host a low-sulphidation, epithermal gold system. Kenneth C. McNaughton , M.A.Sc., P.Eng., is the Qualified Person (QP) responsible for the Lost Cabin project. About Camino Minerals Corporation Camino is a discovery-oriented mineral exploration company. The Company is focused on the acquisition and development of high grade copper and precious metal projects. For more information, please refer to Camino's website at www.caminominerals.com Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements and Information This News Release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation. Statements contained herein that are not based on historical or current fact, including without limitation statements containing the words "anticipates," "believes," "may," "continues," "estimates," "expects," and "will" and words of similar import, constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking information may include, but is not limited to, information with respect to our planned exploration activities, the adequacy of our financial resources, the estimation of mineral reserves and resources, the results of future exploration and drilling. Wherever possible, words such as "plans", "expects", "projects", "assumes", "budget", "strategy", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "targets" and similar expressions or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved, or the negative forms of any of these terms and similar expressions, have been used to identify forward-looking statements and information. Forward-looking information is subject to a variety of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking information, including, without limitation, those risks identified in the Company's annual disclosure materials, filed with the securities regulatory authorities in Canada and available at www.sedar.com. Readers are encouraged to read these materials. Prospective investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE Camino Minerals Corporation TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Aug. 9, 2016) - Pasinex Resources Limited (CSE:PSE)(FRANKFURT:PNX) (the "Company" or "Pasinex") announces results from 23 underground drill holes which completes its 2015 drilling campaign at the Pinargozu zinc mine in Turkey. Pasinex has a 50% equity interest in Pinargozu. The 23 (PPU15-031 - PPU15-053) underground drill holes averaged 92 metres in length for a total of 2,123 metres. Drill hole PPU15-042 cut 3.5 metres with recovered core averaging 36.1% zinc. These drilling results follow on and confirm the zone of high-grade non-sulphide zinc mineralization which is deeper and to the east of the main zone as reported in the July 6th News Release. Table 1: Summary Highlights of Drill Assay Results Drill Hole # Core Length Interval Metres* Zn Grade %** Core Recovery %*** From (metres) PPU15-045 3.5 36.1 27 51.5 PPU15-048 2.4 34.5 14 47.1 PPU15-053 1.4 48.0 58 41.9 PPU15-039 1 46.0 73 50.4 PPU15-042 1.6 26.25 99 49.0 * True widths have yet to be determined. ** Zinc mineral is predominantly non-sulphide and specifically Smithsonite (which is zinc carbonate) *** Poor core recoveries may not be representative of the mineralized interval Steve Williams, CEO of Pasinex commented "These results continue to show us finding high grade zinc mineralization at Pinargozu. We are encouraged with the prospects of finding a sulphide-rich mineralized zone below our current mine workings. Since the zinc fluids came from the earth's mantle, we are systematically searching for a larger sulphide body. Although the current political scene in Turkey is volatile, our operations and staff are unscathed. We continue with business as usual, including ongoing drilling. Recently, we have been working on a third adit which is now open and from where we are now extracting a greater volume of Direct Shipping Ore (DSO) while we look for additional zones deeper in the zinc-rich materialized system." A full table of assays from this batch of drilling is available by following this link: http://bit.ly/2b18aFK. Map (Figure 5) of all drill holes covered in this release is available by following this link: http://bit.ly/2b8blKz (Figure 5). This drilling confirms an extension to the east of the main non-sulphide mineralized zone - see these links: http://bit.ly/29oHmPe (Figure 3) & http://bit.ly/29eMsKD (Figure 4). A total of 11 of the 23 drill holes intersected a mineralized horizon averaging 1.1 metres in apparent thickness within a range between 10 centimetres and 3.5 metres and averaging 31.7% zinc in a grade range between 7.9% and 48% Zinc. Average core recovery through the friable non-sulphide mineralized horizon was 57%. Four drill holes intersected a second lower mineralized zone within five metres of the upper horizon. A total of 12 drill holes did not intersect any significant mineralization. There is a sharp cut-off between high grade mineralization and barren host carbonate rock. Narrow zones of lower grade mineralization can abruptly transition to thicker higher grade parts of the system. The mineralizing system delineated to date is almost exclusively high-grade zinc with local pockets of high grade silver. Lead concentrations in the mineralized zones encountered is generally well below one percent. Drilling was undertaken from drill pads shown in Figure 3. Fan drilling from the underground stations was both lateral and vertical to provide coverage. Pinargozu Zinc Mine Current mining at 60 to 100 tonnes per day is predominantly exploiting non-sulphide high grade zinc carbonate mineralization. The grade of the mined material consistently exceeds the 25% zinc threshold for direct shipping to zinc processing plants. Pinargozu is one of several exploration targets along the Horzum Zinc Trend (HZT). The HZT controls a series of Carbonate-Replacement-Deposit (CRD) type mineral occurrences. The HZT extends north for at least 8 kilometres from the old Horzum mine, currently operated by Pasinex's joint venture partner, Akmetal Madencilik San ve Tic. AS (Akmetal AS - see link to Figure 2: http://bit.ly/28WVEVN. The HZT has been prospected and mapped but has not been systematically-explored. Pasinex is the first to apply advanced exploration technology and CRD exploration concepts and models to the HZT district. Quality Control and Data Verification Samples were assayed in the SGS laboratory in Ankara. Zinc, lead and silver, assays were obtained by multi-acid (4-acid) digestion/ICP-AES Package (33 Elements) - Zn (lower detection limit: 1 ppm/upper detection limit: 10,000 ppm) code ICP40B. For high grade zinc multi-acid (4-acid) digestion/AAS Package code AAS43B. Analytical accuracy and precision are monitored by the submission of blanks duplicate samples inserted at regular intervals into the sample train by Pasinex personnel. Duplicate pulp samples are sent to the ALS laboratory in Izmir as an umpire ISO-compliant check to confirm analytical accuracy. Drill-core samples were prepared at a standard non-certified facility at the Horzum Mine. External quality control on sample preparation is assured by reference to regular selection of duplicate coarse reject samples which are now sent to SGS. SGS-Ankara's quality system complies with the requirements for the International Standards ISO 9001: 2000 and ISO 17025: 1999. Qualified Person EurGeol, P.Geo. John Barry, a qualified person as defined by NI 43-101, has supervised the preparation of the scientific and technical information that forms the basis for this news release. Mr. Barry is responsible for all aspects of the work, including the quality control and data verification and has confirmed all procedures, protocols and methodologies used. Mr. Barry is a director and shareholder of the Company. About Pasinex Pasinex Resources Limited (CSE:PSE)(FRANKFURT:PNX) is a metals company which is a 50% owner of the high grade Pinargozu zinc mine which is in production and, under its DSO Program, is shipping directly to zinc smelter / refiners from its mine site in Turkey. The Company has a strong technical management team with many years of experience in mineral exploration and mining project development. The mission of Pasinex is to build a mid-tier zinc company based on building a large land within a productive CRD district in Turkey. The Pinargozu Mine is included in the 50-50 company, Horzum Arama Isletme AS (Horzum AS), which is a corporate joint venture between Pasinex and Turkish mining house, Akmetal Madencilik San ve Tic. AS (Akmetal AS). Akmetal AS is one of Turkey's largest family-owned conglomerates with the nearby past-producing Horzum zinc mine. Visit our web site at: www.pasinex.com On Behalf of the Board of Directors PASINEX RESOURCES LTD. "Steve Williams" The CSE does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. This news release includes forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause the actual results of the Company to be materially different from the historical results or from any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. All statements within, other than statements of historical fact, are to be considered forward looking. Although Pasinex Resources Ltd. believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, continued availability of capital and financing, exploration results, and general economic, market or business conditions. There can be no assurances that such statements will prove accurate and, therefore, readers are advised to rely on their own evaluation of such uncertainties. We do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements. VANCOUVER, Aug. 9, 2016 /CNW/ - Eureka Resources Inc. ("Eureka" or the "Company") (TSXV: EUK) is pleased to announce results of work programs completed on the Company's FG property in June and July, 2016. The FG property is located in south-central British Columbia, 100 km east of Williams Lake. An airborne geophysical survey was completed in 2007 covering a large portion of the Eureka Syncline. New claims were acquired in June, 2016 to cover the area of the airborne survey over the southern limb of the syncline (see announcement dated June, 27, 2016). A detailed geophysical interpretation was completed on these new claims by SJ Geophysics Ltd. of Surrey, B.C. in July, 2016. The results of this interpretation have revealed the three conductive/resistive horizons of the sedimentary package that makes up the favourable lithologies of gold mineralization in the Main Zone. These three horizons have been identified within the South Limb. The favourable horizon was found at a much higher elevation than anticipated which required acquiring 2 additional claims (30 cell units, 692 hectares) bringing the total claim package at FG to 30 claims (10,084 hectares). In the Main Zone, the favourable horizon is interpreted at the contact of the upper resistive zone (Knotted phyllite) and the middle conductive zone (black banded phyllite). This same sequence appears at elevations ranging 1700 2000 meters (asl) at the South Limb. Only limited prospecting by geochemistry has been completed in this area of the property. It is intended to sample and prospect this target area in the fall, 2016. Soil sampling completed in July, 2016 consisted of filling in areas of the northwest extension grid not sampled in 2015. It was completed by a two-man crew who collected 114 soil samples in what is referred to as the northwest "offset" zone. An additional crew completed mapping, sampling and prospecting the "offset" zone to note similar lithologies to the Main Zone. Results indicate a strong correlation of gold anomalies in soil to the favourable, electromagnetic horizon. Values ranged <5 ppb (detection limit) to 1100 ppb gold, the high value coinciding with the interpreted offset zone. Coincidental soil and electromagnetic anomalies have provided significant drill targets along the northwest projection of the Main Zone. A diamond drill program designed to test the recently delineated targets in the northwest extension "offset" area would include a minimum of five diamond drill holes, each 200 300 meters in length, and totalling 1,250 meters. "We are very pleased with the results of the geochemical program and geophysical interpretation," stated Mike Sweatman, CEO of Eureka. "Results of drilling the northwest extension and "offset" zone may add significant ounces of gold to the established resource in the Main Zone," he added. FG Project Eureka has held the FG property (formerly called Frasergold) since 1982. To date over $15.0 million of exploratory work has been completed by the Company, ASARCO, AMOCO and Hawthorne Gold Corp. The historical exploration has established a Measured and Indicated (376,000 ounces) gold resource at an average grade of 0.776 g/t gold, using a cut-off grade of 0.5 g/t, and an Inferred gold resource (634,900 ounces) at an average grade of 0.718 g/t gold, using a cut-off grade of 0.5 g/t. Mineralization has been outlined over a strike length of 3 kilometres, and has the potential for additional mineralization that could extend along an interpreted strike length of over 10 kilometres. Details of the gold resource can be found in "NI 43-101 Technical Report, Frasergold Exploration Project, Cariboo Mining Division, dated July 27, 2015" available on SEDAR or at the Company's website. Gemini Lithium Project Eureka owns a 50% participating interest in the Gemini lithium brine project located in the western Lida Valley, Nevada, USA. Gemini is located in Esmeralda County in south central Nevada, approximately 40 kilometres (26 miles) from North America's only producing lithium mine at Silver Peak. The Lida Valley is a flat, desert basin hosting two interpreted sub-basins and with a similar geological setting to the Clayton Valley. North America's only producing lithium mine is from brines located in the Clayton Valley. Gemini currently consists of 247 placer claims totaling 4,940 acres (2,000 hectares). John R. Kerr, P.Eng., is the Company's designated Qualified Person for this news release within the meaning of NI 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the technical information described in this news release. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its regulation services provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information This news release includes certain "forward-looking statements" under applicable Canadian securities legislation that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results, performance, prospects, and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the Company's proposed financings, objectives, goals or future exploration plans at the Frasergold Project and the Gemini Project, and the business and operations of the Company. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based on a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to: general business, economic and social uncertainties; litigation, legislative, environmental and other judicial, regulatory, political and competitive developments; delay or failure to receive board, shareholder or regulatory approvals; those additional risks set out in the Company's public documents filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com; and other matters discussed in this news release. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on these statements, which only apply as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames or at all. Except where required by law, the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. SOURCE Eureka Resources, Inc. VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Aug. 9, 2016) - Gold Standard Ventures Corp. (TSX VENTURE:GSV) (NYSE MKT:GSV) ("Gold Standard" or the "Company") today announced assay results from the first three step out core holes at the recently discovered North Dark Star oxide gold deposit on its 100%-owned/controlled Railroad-Pinion Project in Nevada's Carlin Trend. The results significantly increase the size of the North Dark Star deposit while also enhancing its prospective grade and establishing the orientation of a favorable trend supporting the potential for further expansion of the higher grade zone. The primary objective of this year's drill program at North Dark Star was to find a continuation of the high grade zone discovered in core hole DS15-13 (15.4m of 1.85 g Au/t and 97.0m of 1.61 g Au/t) at the end of last year's drill program (see January 21, 2016 news release). DS16-08, located 100m south of DS15-13, returned multiple, significant, oxidized intercepts containing gold values above the cut-off grade established in the Dark Star NI43-101 resource estimate announced on March 3, 2015 (see news release). DS16-08 returned a 126.2 meter section grading 3.95 g Au/t including higher grade intervals of 44.0m of 4.70 g Au/t, 17.9m of 5.6 g Au/t and 7.9m of 10.7 g Au/t (Please click the following link to see section maps and drill plan: http://goldstandardv.com/lp/north-dark-star-drill-results/). Jonathan Awde, CEO and Director of Gold Standard commented: "North Dark Star is continuing to exceed our expectations and is becoming a major Nevada (Carlin) gold discovery. With these first few holes, we have successfully found the orientation of the thick, high grade mineralized zone discovered last year. We will now be focusing more of our current drill program on the North Dark Star area while also enhancing access so we can extend the drill season as late as possible. Near surface, oxide deposits with these grades clearly have outstanding economic potential." A conference call will be held by the company tomorrow (Wednesday August 10, 2016) at 11:00 a.m. PDT to discuss today's release and the continuing exploration program at Railroad Pinion. Dial-in numbers are provided at the end of this press release. Key North Dark Star Highlights DS16-08 intersected a thick, vertically-extensive, oxidized intercept of 126.2m of 3.95 g Au/t approximately 100m south of discovery hole DS15-13. Mineralization occurs in decalcified, variably silicified, pervasively oxidized and collapse brecciated debris flow conglomerate, bioclastic limestone, calcarenite, calcareous sandstone and silty limestone (click the following link for pictures of core :http://goldstandardv.com/lp/north-dark-star-drill-results/). Oriented core measurements from this hole confirm that the favorable Pennsylvanian-Permian carbonate stratigraphy hosting this mineralization has a northerly strike and is moderately to steeply dipping to the west. Mineralization in DS16-08 comes to within 90m of surface and is open in multiple directions. True widths are estimated at 70-90% of drilled thicknesses. DS16-05, located approximately 50m north of DS15-13, intersected multiple zones of oxidized mineralization including 24.1m of 1.28 g Au/t. DS16-02, located approximately 70m to the east and up-dip from DS15-13, intersected multiple near-surface zones of oxidized mineralization including 23.2m of 0.72 g Au/t. All of the DS16-02 gold intercepts are less than 50m below the topographic surface. True widths are estimated at 70-90% of drilled thicknesses North Dark Star drill results are as follows: Drill Hole Method Azimuth Incl. TD (m) Intercept (m) Thickness (m) Grade (g Au/t) DS16-02 Core 090 -45 285.1 11.0 - 13.4 1.5 0.15 33.5 - 37.5 4.0 0.45 42.8 - 52.1 9.3 0.50 100.0 - 102.0 2.0 0.18 107.9 - 131.1 23.2 0.72 Including 123.4 - 128.0 4.6 1.80 DS16-05 Core 090 -55 384.8 3.6 - 4.8 1.2 0.17 7.3 - 10.6 3.3 0.19 32.3 - 34.0 1.7 0.17 38.6 - 44.5 5.9 0.18 49.1 - 50.6 1.5 0.16 53.0 - 55.7 2.7 0.17 67.4 - 71.9 4.5 0.25 78.5 - 81.4 2.9 0.16 86.0 - 97.4 11.4 0.21 177.4 - 182.6 5.2 0.20 187.4 - 189.1 1.7 0.15 197.2 - 200.3 3.1 0.17 216.5 - 218.9 2.4 0.44 225.6 - 249.7 24.1 1.28 255.5 - 258.2 2.7 0.38 DS16-08 Core 090 -45 408.8 76.3 - 76.8 0.5 0.30 89.0 - 93.0 4.0 0.23 100.9 - 107.3 6.4 0.46 110.1 - 112.5 2.4 0.47 114.0 - 135.3 21.3 0.67 147.8 - 154.4 6.6 0.16 157.2 - 159.6 2.4 0.22 165.2 - 291.4 126.2 3.95 Including 179.6 - 223.6 44.0 4.70 Including 247.0 - 264.9 17.9 5.60 Including 275.0 - 282.9 7.9 10.7 334.4 - 338.7 4.3 0.45 349.7 - 355.8 6.1 0.43 359.1 - 362.5 3.4 0.20 (i) Gold intervals reported in this table were calculated using a 0.14 g Au/t cutoff. Weighted averaging has been used to calculate all reported intervals. True widths are estimated at 70-90% of drilled thicknesses. Mac Jackson, Gold Standard's Vice president of Exploration stated: "The outstanding oxide intercept in DS16-08 is nearly triple the grade times thickness of last year's discovery hole. It clearly demonstrates the strength and potential of the Carlin-style gold system at North Dark Star. In the bigger, regional picture, North Dark Star is strategically located where the Carlin Trend intersects a north trending belt of permeable Penn-Perm carbonate rocks, an excellent host for gold deposits. With these results in our initial offset holes, we are confident there is more gold to be found at North Dark Star and throughout our large, 115 square km. Railroad-Pinion property on the Carlin Trend." Gold Standard Venture President and CEO, Jonathan Awde, and vice-president of exploration, Mac Jackson, will host a conference call and webcast with analysts and investors to review the drill results on Wednesday, August 10, 2016 at 11:00 AM Pacific time. A live slide presentation will be available for viewing during the call from the link provided below. Conference call To participate in this conference call, please dial the following number approximately 10 minutes prior to the starting time: Local / International: 416-640-5946 North American Toll- Free: 1-866-233-4585 Webcast A webcast presentation will also be available for viewing in conjunction with the conference call. To access the webcast, please visit: http://momentumstreaming.com/index.php?id=120769 Callers can alternatively refer to the newly posted slides on Gold Standard's website that will be referenced during the meeting. For those unable to listen live, the webcast will remain available at the above link for one year following the call. Sampling Methodology, Chain of Custody, Quality Control and Quality Assurance: All sampling was conducted under the supervision of the Company's project geologists and the chain of custody from the project to the sample preparation facility was continuously monitored. A blank or certified reference material was inserted approximately every tenth sample. The North Dark Star core samples were delivered to Bureau Veritas Mineral Laboratories preparation facility in Elko, NV. The samples are crushed, pulverized and sample pulps are shipped to Bureau Veritas certified laboratory in Sparks, NV or Vancouver, BC. Pulps are digested and analyzed for gold using fire assay fusion and an atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) finish on a 30 gram split. Over limit gold assays were determined using a fire assay fusion with a gravimetric finish on a 30 gram split. All other elements are determined by ICP analysis. Data verification of the analytical results includes a statistical analysis of the standards and blanks that must pass certain parameters for acceptance to ensure accurate and verifiable results. Drill hole deviation is measured by a gyroscopic down hole survey that has been completed on all holes by International Directional Services of Elko, NV. Final collar locations are surveyed by differential GPS by Apex Surveying, LLC of Spring Creek, Nevada. The scientific and technical content and interpretations contained in this news release have been reviewed, verified and approved by Steven R. Koehler, Gold Standard's Manager of Projects, BSc. Geology and CPG-10216, a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. ABOUT GOLD STANDARD VENTURES - Gold Standard is an advanced stage gold exploration company focused on district scale discoveries on its Railroad-Pinion Gold Project, located within the prolific Carlin Trend. The 2014 Pinion and Dark Star gold deposit acquisitions offer Gold Standard a potential near-term development option and further consolidates the Company's premier land package on the Carlin Trend. The Pinion deposit now has an NI43-101 resource estimate consisting of an Indicated Mineral Resource of 31.61 million tonnes grading 0.62 grams per tonne (g/t) gold (Au), totaling 630,300 ounces of gold and an Inferred Resource of 61.08 million tonnes grading 0.55 g/t Au, totaling 1,081,300 ounces of gold, using a cut-off grade of 0.14 g/t Au. The Dark Star deposit, 2.1 km to the east of Pinion, has a NI43-101 resource estimate consisting of an Inferred Resource of 23.11 million tonnes grading 0.51 g/t Au, totaling 375,000 ounces of gold, using a cut-off grade of 0.14 g/t Au (announced March 3, 2015). The 2014 and 2015 definition and expansion of these two shallow, oxide deposits demonstrates their growth potential. Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) nor the NYSE MKT accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This news release contains forward-looking statements, which relate to future events or future performance and reflect management's current expectations and assumptions. Such forward-looking statements reflect management's current beliefs and are based on assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation, statements about our proposed exploration programs and future potential results are forward looking statements. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Risk factors affecting the Company include, among others: the results from our exploration programs, global financial conditions and volatility of capital markets, uncertainty regarding the availability of additional capital, fluctuations in commodity prices; title matters; and the additional risks identified in our filings with Canadian securities regulators on SEDAR in Canada (available at www.sedar.com) and with the SEC on EDGAR (available at www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml). These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and, except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances. CAUTIONARY NOTE FOR U.S. INVESTORS REGARDING RESERVE AND RESOURCE ESTIMATES All resource estimates reported by the Company were calculated in accordance with the Canadian National Instrument 43-101 and the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy Classification system. These standards differ significantly from the requirements of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for descriptions of mineral properties in SEC Industry Guide 7 under Regulation S-K of the U. S. Securities Act of 1933. In particular, under U. S. standards, mineral resources may not be classified as a "reserve" unless the determination has been made that mineralization could be economically and legally produced or extracted at the time the reserve determination is made. Accordingly, information in this press release containing descriptions of the Company's mineral properties may not be comparable to similar information made public by US public reporting companies. On behalf of the Board of Directors of Gold Standard, Jonathan Awde, President and Director WEST KELOWNA, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Aug. 8, 2016) - COLORADO RESOURCES LTD. (TSX VENTURE:CXO) ("Colorado" or the "Company") announces an update on drilling at the Inel and Khyber Zones on the KSP Property under option from Seabridge Gold Inc. whereby Colorado has the right to earn an 80% interest. Adam Travis President and CEO of Colorado states: "Although we started drilling only 7 short weeks ago, we already have our second set of assay results from Inel drillholes 9-30. They have clearly demonstrated some very significant high grade gold results up to 5.3 ounces/tonne gold over 1.0 m highlighted in the following table2. We are also seeing broader intervals (20 to 99 m) returning > 1 g/t Au attesting to the robust nature of the mineralized system. We have met this year's work commitment and given our continued success we have elected to expand our drill program and should be at the 51% earn in level expenditures by the end of this field season more than a year ahead of schedule. The expanded and accelerated program will focus on follow up of the current drill results at Inel and also commence drilling on the Khyber target located 2 km to the south of Inel. There's plenty of room at Inel for more mineralization as our first pass drilling has tested only about 13% of this impressive soil anomaly on a very broad pattern. This will also be our first drilling in the Khyber area this year and our approach to testing this zone is based on the knowledge gained from our drilling at Inel. The Inel and Khyber Target Zones represent an area of approximately 10 km 2 of the > 300 km 2 KSP property, which has been recognized by government geologists as highly prospective with a geological setting similar to the KSM** and Pretium** camps located 30 kilometres to the east. Field crews have also been busy expanding soil coverage and examining/sampling out-crops to the north of Inel and other prospective areas of this large district under Colorado's control. Inel Drilling - Holes 9-30 of 40 drillholes completed to date, Values to 5.3 opt Gold Since drilling commenced at Inel on June 19, 2016 a total of 40 drillholes (5,481.9 m) have been completed. Complete assay results have been received for the first 30 drillholes at Inel and significant results from Drillholes 9-30 are noted in the following table and shown on the attached figure (see News Release dated July 19, 2016 for Holes 1-8). 2016 Work Commitments Met, Program Expanded Drilling Continues Although Colorado has met its 2016 work commitments, based on the election to continue drilling the Company will work towards the 51% earn in level. Upon declaring that it has satisfied the 51% earn in requirements Colorado at its election would then have the right to earn up to 80% in the KSP Property by incurring a further $4M in work commitments within one year. Khyber Drilling Commenced and Inel Drilling to Continue Drilling has commenced on the Khyber Zone located approximately 2 kilometres to the south of Inel. Initial drill testing at Khyber will focus on a 500 m x 1500 m gold in soil anomaly averaging > 500 ppb gold. This anomaly coincides with the favourable well mineralized volcanic - sediment contact that also was noted at Inel. Work will also continue at Inel, targeting extension drilling in areas that are returning high grade results. KSP- Inel 2016 Drillholes09-030: Significant Intercepts Hole ID1 Hole Length (m) From (m) To (m) Interval (m)2 Au (g/t) Au oz/t3 Ag (g/t)4 Zn (%)5 INDDH16-009 111.0 19.9 65.1 45.2 1.34 including 51.0 54.7 3.7 8.58 1.3 including 52.0 53.0 1.0 27.20 0.87 1.3 and 82.0 111.0 29.0 1.42 including 95.1 101.0 5.9 3.20 INDDH16-010 126.0 47.9 91.0 43.1 1.17 including 74.0 75.0 1.0 13.4 0.43 INDDH16-015 30.0 52.0 22.0 1.06 INDDH16-016 159.0 46.0 47.0 1.0 5.11 34.4 and 114.0 123.0 9.0 1.72 including 114.0 115.0 1.0 5.09 101.0 INDDH16-017 130.5 9.0 12.9 3.9 5.30 and 34.0 35.0 1.0 5.87 1.9 and 108.0 119.0 11.0 3.59 including 113.0 115.0 2.0 14.27 0.46 70.3 3.4 including 114.0 115.0 1.0 22.10 0.71 97.5 5.8 INDDH16-018 150.0 50.0 55.5 5.5 8.94 30.9 7.2 including 53.0 54.0 1.0 23.50 0.76 76.8 5.4 INDDH16-019 156.0 48.9 50.0 1.1 5.16 43.0 2.1 and 102.0 108.0 6.0 1.42 INDDH16-022 96.0 70.0 74.0 4.0 6.74 1.0 including 72.0 73.0 1.0 17.30 0.56 2.7 INDDH16-023 111.0 26.0 72.3 46.3 1.03 including 62.0 71.0 9.0 2.21 including 70.0 71.0 1.0 11.80 0.38 INDDH16-025 141.0 42.0 141.0 99.0 2.11 including 42.0 45.0 3.0 0.80 and 45.0 46.0 1.0 138.50 4.45 1.3 and 46.0 141.0 95.0 0.72 and 106.0 107.0 1.0 5.77 INDDH16-026 126.0 84.0 94.0 10.0 3.15 1.8 including 88.0 89.0 1.0 12.20 0.39 1.1 INDDH16-028 126.0 28.0 62.0 34.0 1.59 1.2 including 32.0 33.0 1.0 6.40 50.5 12.1 and 51.0 52.0 1.0 10.20 0.33 1.3 INDDH16-029 144.0 44.0 93.0 49.0 5.22 2.4 including 47.0 86.0 39.0 6.35 3.0 including 48.0 73.7 25.7 9.24 36.6 3.3 including 48.0 54.0 6.0 32.02 1.03 30.2 2.6 including 51.0 52.0 1.0 165.50 5.32 37.1 2.5 1 Using a 5 g/t Au cut-off, Holes 011, 012-014, 020, 021, 024, 027, 030 were not reported. 2The intervals reported in this release represent drill intercepts and insufficient data is available at this time to state the true thickness of the mineralized intervals. 3 Gold Values over 10.00g/t Au converted to troy ounces per metric ton (Au g/t / 31.10348). 4 Silver >30.00g/t Ag Reported. 5 Zinc >1% Zn Reported. To view the map accompanying this press release please click the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/CXOMap88.pdf Qualified Person Greg Dawson P.Geo, the Company's Vice President of Exploration is the Qualified Person ("QP") as defined by National Instrument 43-101 that has reviewed and approved the technical content of this news release. QA/QC Statement The 2016 samples were analyzed by ALS Minerals of Vancouver, British Columbia. Samples were prepared by the Prep-31b method, which involves crushing the entire sample to 70% passing -2mm, splitting off 1kg and pulverizing the split to better than 85% passing 75 microns. Base metal assays were first determined using the ME-ICP61 method, which reports results as parts per million (ppm). Any samples containing greater than 10,000 ppm zinc were analyzed by the Zn-OG62 method, which reports results as percent. Any samples containing greater than 100 ppm silver were analyzed by the Ag-OG62 method, which reports results as ppm. The gold assays were determined using the Au-AA25 fire assay method which reports results in ppm and are equivalent to grams per tonne (g/t). Any samples returning greater than 100 ppm gold were analyzed by the Au-GRA21 fire assay method with a gravimetric finish. The analytical results were verified with the application of industry standard Quality Control and Quality Assurance (QA-QC) procedures. For more information on the KSP Project the reader is directed to the Company's website at www.coloradoresources.com. About Colorado Colorado Resources Ltd. is currently engaged in the business of mineral exploration for the purpose of acquiring and advancing mineral properties located in British Columbia and is also seeking opportunities in Southwest USA and Latin America. Colorado's current exploration focus is to continue to advance: the KSP property currently under option with Seabridge Gold Inc., located 15 km's along strike to the southeast of the past producing Snip Mine*; its 100% owned Kingpin property; its 100% owned North ROK property, located 15 km's northwest of the Red Chris* mine development, both located in northern central British Columbia. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF COLORADO RESOURCES LTD. Adam Travis President and Chief Executive Officer Cautionary Note *This news release contains information about adjacent properties on which Colorado has no right to explore or mine. Readers are cautioned that mineral deposits on adjacent properties are not indicative of mineral deposits on the Company's properties and that the mineralization hosted on the KSP Property Is not necessarily consistent with that hosted on the KSM or Pretium Property Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this news release, constitute "forward-looking information" as such term is used in applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking information is based on plans, expectations and estimates of management at the date the information is provided and is subject to certain factors and assumptions, including: that the Company's financial condition and development plans do not change as a result of unforeseen events, that the Company obtains required regulatory approvals, that the Company continues to maintain a good relationship with the local project communities. Forward-looking information is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause plans, estimates and actual results to vary materially from those projected in such forward-looking information. Factors that could cause the forward-looking information in this news release to change or to be inaccurate include, but are not limited to, the risk that any of the assumptions referred to prove not to be valid or reliable, which could result in delays, or cessation in planned work, that the Company's financial condition and development plans change, delays in regulatory approval, risks associated with the interpretation of data, the geology, grade and continuity of mineral deposits, the possibility that results will not be consistent with the Company's expectations, as well as the other risks and uncertainties applicable to mineral exploration and development activities and to the Company as set forth in the Company's Management's Discussion and Analysis reports filed under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com. There can be no assurance that any forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, the reader should not place any undue reliance on forward-looking information or statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information or statements, other than as required by applicable law. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit [official website] on Monday affirmed [opinion, PDF] a lower court ruling that barred Ecuadoran plaintiffs from collecting a USD $8.646 billion Ecuadoran judgment against Chevron Corp. The lower court had concluded in 2014 that the Ecuadoran judgment was obtained through corruption and fraud and barred the plaintiffs attorney, Steven Donziger, from attempting to enforce the judgment or profit from the award anywhere in the world. The appeals court affirmed the lower courts judgment that concluded that Donziger and his team had secretly authored the judgment and offered the Ecuadoran judge $500,000 to sign it. The appeals court also said that [the lower courts decision does not invalidate the judgment and does not prevent the enforcement of the judgment outside the US. The dispute arises from allegations by Ecuadoran plaintiffs that Chevron played a role in environmental damage in the Amazon rain forest. Chevron disputes these claims [backgrounder], and Donziger maintains [backgrounder] his innocence and that he is the victim of a coordinated campaign against him by Chevron. In June the US Supreme Court declined [JURIST report] to hear a challenge by Ecuador over an arbitration award to Chevron. Last September the Supreme Court of Canada ruled [JURIST report] in favor of Ecuadoran villagers seeking to enforce a multi-million dollar judgment against Chevron. In March 2014 Chevron filed [JURIST report] for reimbursement of attorneys fees against Donziger and others in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. The court also ruled [JURIST report] that month that the Ecuadoran judgment against Chevron was obtained through corrupt means. In November 2013 an Ecuadoran court ordered [JURIST report] Chevron to pay $9.51 billion USD in fines and legal fees. The District Court in Braunschweig, Germany, ruled [press release, in German] Monday that a collective complaint against Volkswagen AG (VW) may move forward. Like US-style class-action lawsuits, the collective complaint was launched [WSJ report] on behalf of multiple investors who lost money following the diesel emissions cheating scandal. Unlike US-style class-action lawsuits, a German court must choose one case to decide and then apply to the ruling to other cases. The district court has received 170 investor lawsuits alleging that VW failed to inform investors [AP report] of the impending scandal. The lawsuits add up to approximately 4 billion (USD $4.4 billion), and the district court will choose a pilot case by the end of the year. Last month, a judge for the US District Court for the Northern District of California gave preliminary approval [JURIST report] to a $15 billion settlement between VW and the US Environmental Protection Agency, California officials and consumers. In June VW agreed [JURIST report] to spend up to $14.7 billion to settle allegations of cheating emissions tests and deceiving customers in a settlement with US regulators. In March the Federal Trade Commission filed suit [JURIST report] against VW for false advertising. [JURIST] Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] on Friday denounced [press release] the detention and abuse of peaceful protesters in Armenia. Amidst growing dissatisfaction with the Armenian government, protesters have recently held frequent demonstration in the capital city of Yerevan. HRW reports that, despite the occurrence of occasional violence, such protests have been peaceful yet have been met with a disproportionately aggressive response from Yerevans police force. While Armenian law does criminalize organized mass disorder, HRW states that such protests have not met such a classification since there has been no violence or destruction of property. Nevertheless, peaceful demonstrators have reportedly been beaten, forcibly detained, and given excessive criminal charges. Detainees were also allegedly denied human rights such as prompt access to medical care or legal representation. Furthermore, the number of detained and charged protestors has not been properly documented or publicized. Armenias Special Investigative Service [official website] has begun investigations into the reports of police brutality. HRW has urged Armenia to hold authorities accountable for violating the human rights of peaceful protestors and their leaders. HRWs recent report follows a two-week standoff [Al Jazeera report] between Armenian authorities and armed men barricaded in a police station. On July 17, a group of 31 radicals infiltrated the station demanding the release of their group leader. The radicals reportedly killed one policeman and took a total of eight hostages. The hostage situation attracted supportive protestors who made nightly demonstrations until the radicals finally surrendered to authorities last Sunday. [JURIST] An Iranian judiciary spokesman announced on Sunday that a nuclear scientist was executed for providing the US with state secrets. Shahram Amir previously went missing [CNN report] in 2009 while embarking on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia. Amir reemerged in the US in 2010 and returned to Tehran, claiming that he had been abducted by the CIA to release secrets about Irans nuclear program. US officials argued that Amir had willingly defected, and Amir was soon after detained and charged with treason and espionage. After lower courts sentenced Amir to death, the Iranian High Court reviewed Amirs case and affirmed the conviction. Over the past several years Iran has been subject to numerous sanctions for its contentious nuclear program. Iranian leaders have repeatedly claimed [JURIST report] that the developing nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, but the international community, Israel in particular, worries that Irans enrichment program was designed for military purposes. In January Iran condemned [JURIST report] the US for imposing new sanctions in connection with the countrys missile defense program.The US and France agreed [JURIST report] in March 2015 to strengthen nuclear talks with Iran to persuade the nation to restrain its nuclear program in exchange for relief from sanctions and the following April Iran agreed [JURIST report] to a framework deal to restrict its nuclear plan. Developments in this regard were largely positive and resulted in subtle improvement in ties between the US and Iran. In July 2015, the UN International Atomic Energy Agency reported [JURIST report] that Iran has been keeping its commitment as part of a preliminary nuclear deal from 2013 barring Iran from expanding nuclear programs during negotiations. The Iranian Parliament accepted [JURIST report] the nuclear agreement the following October and moved the process on to the Guardian Council [BBC backgrounder], which determined [FRE/RL report] the legislation was consistent with the constitution and Islamic law. NEWSLETTER Sign up Tick the boxes of the newsletters you would like to receive. Just Drinks Daily News The top stories of the day delivered to you every weekday. Just Drinks Weekly News A weekly roundup of the latest news and analysis, sent every Monday. Just Drinks Magazine The industry's most comprehensive news and information delivered every quarter Dallas, TX, USA, 08/09/2016 /SubmitPressRelease123/ I am often asked by people who are unfamiliar with the criminal justice system if they can just go talk to the judge, hoping that the judge will dismiss their case or help them with it in some way, says Dallas criminal attorney John Helms. Whether your case is in state or federal court, the answer is, No. Even lawyers cannot talk to the judge about anything substantive about a case without the prosecutor present. Judges have to be fair and impartial, so they are not allowed to have private discussions about the merits of a case with only one side. This is called an ex parte communication. Ex parte is a Latin phrase that means from, by, or for a party. The rule against these private discussions also means that the prosecutor cannot talk to the judge privately about the merits of a case without the criminal defense lawyer present. There are some situations in which a judge may communicate with only one side, but they have to do with purely administrative issues. These include, for example, scheduling things on the courts docket. If a judge has a private discussion about the merits of the case with only one side present, this can be the basis to ask that the judge be removed from the case. This is very, very rare, though, and the fact that you may see a prosecutor walking out of a judges chambers does not mean that they have been discussing the merits of the case. Unless you are sure (way more than a suspicion or guess) that the judge was discussing the merits of the case, it can be very risky to seek to remove a judge based on an improper communication. You are likely to be wrong, the judge is likely to stay on the case, and you are now stuck with a judge whose integrity you have publicly challenged. I have represented a party on appeal whose criminal defense lawyer tried to get a judge removed for this, and it backfired in a big way. If you cant just go talk to the judge, can your lawyer talk to the judge and ask that your case be dismissed? Again, the answer is No. In order for your case to be dismissed by a judge before trial, your criminal defense attorney must first file a written motion asking the judge to dismiss the case. The motion must set out why the law says the case must be dismissed. The fact that you disagree with the accusations against you is not a reason to dismiss the case. That is why we have juries. A jury decides what the facts are and whether you are guilty or not guilty. There are some situations in which a judge can dismiss a case before trial, but they are generally legal reasons, like the fact that the statute of limitations has run out, or that the evidence against you was obtained by an illegal search, or that the indictment is not sufficient to charge you with a crime. These are issues that a lawyer should raise by a written motion. The Government then gets a chance to respond, and the court may allow oral argument in open court on the issues. Can I just go talk to the prosecutor and ask him or her to dismiss my case? The answer is that there is no legal rule that prevents this, but as a practical matter, you are much better off if a criminal defense attorney does this for youespecially a lawyer the prosecutor respects. Prosecutors tend to be very skeptical of criminal defendants, because it is so common for criminal defendants to say they are not guilty even though they are. Prosecutors are not required to believe anything you say, and they generally wont, unless you have documents or photographs to back up everything you say. An experienced criminal defense lawyer, on the other hand, especially one who has been a prosecutor, understands the kinds of arguments and evidence that are persuasive to a skeptical prosecutor. I have had a lot of success bringing prosecutors information and evidence that they recognize as convincing. There is a down side, though, to laying out your defense. If the prosecutor is not convinced, and they are often hard to convince, then you have just lost a valuable edge at trialthe element of surprise. By laying out facts or evidence that a prosecutor does not know, you may just be telling the prosecutor what they need to do to counter your defense at trial. The bottom line is that it takes experience and good judgment to know when it is best to lay your cards on the table and when it is better to keep them close to the vest for trial. If you have been charged with any crime, including drug possession, fraud, assault, theft or a federal drug crimes, call Dallas criminal attorney John Helms at 214-666-8010 or visit his website. https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/102874298661508534943/+JohnHelmsLawFirmDallas Press Contact: John Helms 214-666-8010 source: http://johnhelms.attorney/dallas-criminal-attorney-answers-can-just-go-tell-judge-im-innocent/ Newsroom powered by Online Press Release Distribution SubmitMyPressRelease.com Like Us on Facebook It's only fair to share... Pinterest Linkedin email Print Members of the Greeneville Fire Department help people off the ferris wheel at the Greene County Fair in Greeneville, Tenn., Monday, Aug. 8, 2016. A few people who fell 30 to 45 feet from a Ferris wheel in Tennessee were responsive and answering questions Monday night, police said. (O.J. Early/The Greeneville Sun via AP) Firefighters work to extinguish fire at a food factory hit by Saudi-led airstrikes in Sanaa, Yemen, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. A Yemeni factory official and two medics say a Saudi-led airstrike has killed 14 civilians working on an overnight shift in the capital, Sanaa. They say the airstrikes were targeting Yemen's Shiite rebels in Sanaa but instead one of them hit a food factory. The heavy bombardment comes on the heels of the failed U.N. peace talks in Kuwait between Yemen's internationally-recognized government and the Shiite rebels known as Houthis. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed) 376 Shares Share A guest column by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, exclusive to KevinMD.com. In the past several years, there has been a dramatic increase in media attention concerning bills patients receive from health care professionals who are not in the network of providers their insurance company contracted with to provide health services. The out-of-network bills these patients receive have been termed surprise bills by the insurance industry, but are also often termed balance or out-of-network billing. Balance billing occurs when a patient receives a bill for the amount remaining between the out-of-network providers charge and the payment made by the insurer after copay and deductibles. However, a more accurate label for this undesirable circumstance is surprise insurance gaps. The focus of concern with out-of-network billing has often been with facility-based providers that patients assumed would be covered like their in-network surgeon and hospital. Facility-based providers include radiologists, pathologists, physician anesthesiologists, and emergency room physicians. Patients of scheduled and unscheduled procedures can find it difficult to ensure these physicians are within their insurers network. Instead of researching why insurance companies are contracting with fewer and fewer providers, lawmakers are being called on to fix this issue. Examples of legislation they are asked to promote include bans on out-of-network payments, requirements for cost estimates delivered to patients prior to procedures, and detailing dispute resolution measures. On the surface, each legislative approach looks reasonable. However, like most legislation, there is much more than meets the eye. Are there truly fewer in-network providers and if so, what are the circumstances behind this? In recent years we have seen the rise of a myriad of different types of insurance networks and products that have made it confusing and difficult for consumers, providers, and legislators to understand. These include tiered networks, narrow networks, and high deductible plans that insurance companies have developed that seem to focus on increasing profit margins at the expense of network adequacy. Insurance companies are failing to create adequately supported networks, or are deliberately narrowing networks to force a conversation with legislators to regulate and set prices. Furthermore, surprise bills would disappear if insurance companies were forced to adhere to a fair payment in an out-of-network payment setting. Maintaining an adequate network for all providers and all services is the key to solving the problem. Put simply, if insurers were required to have adequate networks and regulators held them responsible for maintaining an adequate network, there wouldnt be situations where patients are surprised to learn they had or could be treated by an out-of-network provider. In instances where a provider or service is out-of-network, a mechanism must be created to determine fair payment. What would an appropriate out-of-network payment approach look like? To begin with, Medicare is not an appropriate benchmark for many medical specialties. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has already established that Medicare significantly underpays physician anesthesiologists. Additionally, pegging to in-network rates in certain settings can essentially turn into rate setting by the carriers. One must understand that these in-network rates are negotiated, discounted rates that are established primarily based on an established market value. Turning that process upside down eliminates any incentive for insurance carriers to negotiate a fair in-network contracted rate. Benchmarking to an independent database of billed charges within a specific geographic region for a specific service (not payment rates, not pegging to in-network rates in a certain setting, nor a percentage of Medicare) is the preferred approach. Fair Health has not only been cited as an example of a database that could be appropriately used; it was established as a result of a lawsuit against the insurance carriers that were found to be deliberately manipulating data to their advantage. In spite of this, insurance carriers still deliberately skirt the intent of Fair Health to be used for establishing benchmarked usual and customary charges. According to the New York Times, Though the settlement required the companies to underwrite the new database with $95 million, it did not obligate them to use it. By the time the database was finally up and running last year, the same companies, across the country, were rapidly shifting to another calculation method, based on Medicare rates, that usually reduces reimbursement substantially. The deception continues today as the statute of limitations on the settlement had a two-year window, and magically at the end of that window, a new database is being heavily promoted by the insurance companies. The database includes non-contracted and contracted rates which skews the data in a negative fashion. In the confusing myriad of this environment, insurers attempt to convince legislators that the actual database created for the specific purpose of a fair, impartial entity should not be used, but the entity that they created which is a rebranded company of what was disbanded is the more legitimate one. While insurance companies are trying to promote a narrative based on numbers by their own research tools, pushing benchmarking approaches that dont relate to real numbers, and continuing to try to convince the public that this is a provider-driven problem, the health care community is pushing back to protect patients. Patients work hard to pay for their insurance policies, some of which are not transparent as to what the premium charged actually provides. Nonprofit medical and specialty organizations across the country are working together to promote the rights of patients to have minimal standards that are clear to understand for the policies they purchase. Insurance companies are being closely scrutinized by lawmakers that were asked to prohibit out-of-network payments in settings created by these inadequate and narrow networks. In many cases, these bills are being sent to study committees for a real objective analysis of the problem and for real consideration of real solutions for these surprise coverage issues. Legislation that would solve these issues should hold insurers accountable for providing an adequate network for all providers and services, and in instances where they fail to do so, hold them accountable to making payments based on real market values, therefore preventing patients from having to deal with grossly inadequate and surprise coverage. Sherif Zaafran is an anesthesiologist. Image credit: Shutterstock.com An agency that helps thousands of children in Laredo now needs some help of it's own. Volunteers say not only is the satisfaction of helping children rewarding, but you can also gain work experience, credit hours, or even a full time job. "I wanted to get some experience before I graduating so I can have something on my resume", said Adriana Pedraza. Adriana Pedraza who recently graduated from Texas A&M International University with her bachelors in finance. First heard about volunteering opportunity July 2015 when she was looking to gain new job skills. "We take training to keep everything confidential make sure we don't provide all personal info to other parities, and more training on all the cases that we handle", said Pedraza. August of 2015, one month later, the then college junior was employed with the agency. "I work on the cases for the child support make sure that the kids get the money from their parents so they can grow and continue with their life, and make sure they have the resources to have a better future", said Pedraza. "Our mission is to improve the lives of kids, and we do that by collecting child support, it's pretty fundamental and basic but it's difficult", said Bryan Banks. They handle 21,000 cases in the area and currently have a total of 27 employees, and as the managing attorney, Bryan Banks says there's a lot of work to be done, but help from the community will propel them closer to meet their goals and objectives. "The more people I have the more confident I'am well be able to communicate with everybody. To get filing done, data entries all that will get done the more people I have. It's gonna increase the number of people showing up to court or show up to the office, and give me the ability to resolve which issue is outstanding", said Banks. The TAMIU graduate says that after spending many hours with the agency, she wanted to keep helping the kids in the local community and for the past six months shes' been a full time employee with the office. "We need more people to get involved so we can help more people get the benefits they need", said Pedraza. With the 21,000 cases they have, the Laredo Child Support Office has collected around 49-point-22-million dollars so far this year. If your interested or want more information about becoming a volunteer you contact them at 992-7531. Congressman Henry Cuellar is encouraging public participation in the Texas-Oklahoma Passenger Rail Study Meeting on Tuesday night. This public meeting is to be held at the TxDOT Offices, from 6:00 -8:00 pm. The purpose of the meeting is for TxDOT to present the DELS for the Texas-Oklahoma Passenger Rail Study, and to receive public comment. This is an opportunity for members of the public to provide input to help TxDOT officials make informed decisions when finalizing the rail study. This meeting is open to residents of Laredo, Webb County and the surrounding areas. In an effort to educate woman who may become victims of sexual assault, the Texas A&M International University has partnered with another Texas university to stop these assaults. TAMIU, along with the Texas Woman's University, are partnering up for the next three years to raise awareness on the issue. The money will be used to make presentations about sexual assault prevention flyers and pamphlets. We caught up with Dean of Arts and Sciences Dr. Claudia San Miguel on the dangerous growing trend: "There's been an increase of sexual reports on campus, not necessarily on this campus. I think we have seen more incidents like sexual assault on campus because University Communities is becoming more aware that there's a means for that to report it." San Miguel said the grant would begin its efforts this fall. On Monday, the Laredo ISD Board of Trustees held a meeting regarding student services for the upcoming school year. Several items were discussed - including the Memorandum of Understanding between the district and the Webb County Juvenile Department - of which educational programs will be provided to LISD students who reside in the Youth Village. "It's challenging for the teachers," says LISD Student Services Executive Director Maggie Martinez. "It depends on how much the kid is arrested. If the kid is there for two weeks, how much can the child learn in two weeks. Teachers do a good job, and the system always communicates with the school districts." Within the past year, over 30 students from LISD resided at the Webb County Youth Village. Aug 8 (Reuters) - HSBC Holdings Plc HSBA.L has settled a U.S. probe accusing the British bank of illegally repossessing cars owned by members of the U.S. military while they were serving their country, the Department of Justice said on Monday. The bank's HSBC Finance Corp unit will pay $434,500 to settle charges it violated the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act by repossessing 75 cars without getting needed court orders. Some repossessions occurred even when HSBC's own records suggested that the borrowers might be protected servicemembers, the Justice Department said. Monday's accord covers repossessions from 2008 to 2010, when HSBC sold its car lending and servicing business to a unit of Spain's Banco Santander SA SAN.MC . That unit settled similar charges for more than $10.5 million in February 2015. Most servicemembers covered by the HSBC settlement received partial compensation through the Santander accord. HSBC will pay them $5,500 each, and will pay $11,000 each to those who did not receive payments, the Justice Department said. The company has not made or serviced auto loans since 2010, and cooperated once alerted to the issue, the department added. HSBC is pleased to settle, and "has the utmost respect for those serving in the U.S. armed forces," spokesman Rob Sherman said in a statement. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Bernard Orr) Aug 8 (Reuters) - Fifty prominent Republican national security officials, including a former CIA director, on Monday called party nominee Donald Trump unqualified to lead the country and said he would be "the most reckless president in American history ". The statement was the latest repudiation of Trump's candidacy by veteran Republican national security specialists, and was remarkable for the harshness of its language. "Mr. Trump lacks the character, values, and experience to be president. He weakens U.S. moral authority as the leader of the free world. He appears to lack basic knowledge about and belief in the U.S. Constitution, U.S. laws and U.S. institutions, including religious tolerance, freedom of the press, and an independent judiciary," the statement said. "None of us will vote for Donald Trump," said the statement, which noted that some signatories also have doubts about Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. "From a foreign policy perspective, Donald Trump is not qualified to be president and commander in chief," said the statement, which was first reported in the New York Times. "Indeed, we are convinced that he would be a dangerous president and would put at risk our country's national security and well-being." The signatories, some of whom worked for more than one Republican president, included former Central Intelligence Agency Director Michael Hayden, who also headed the National Security Agency; former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff; former Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte; and two former U.S. trade representatives, Carla Hills and Robert Zoelick. Other signatories included former senior State Department, Pentagon and National Security Council officials who helped plan and oversee the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. Trump has harshly criticized the Iraq operation, although when radio host Howard Stern asked him in 2002 if he favored invading Iraq, Trump said he guessed he did. The statement was organized by Philip Zelikow, who served as a top adviser to former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Trump responded with a statement deriding the signatories as members of "the failed Washington elite" who "deserve the blame for making the world such a dangerous place." "These insiders - along with Hillary Clinton - are the owners of the disastrous decisions to invade Iraq, allow Americans to die in Benghazi, and they are the ones who allowed the rise of ISIS," he continued, using an acronym for the Islamic State militant group. RESPONSE TO TRUMP'S REMARKS The statement did not cite specific comments by Trump, but it clearly was a response to a series of remarks he has made questioning the need for NATO, expressing admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling for a temporary ban on immigration by Muslims, and inviting Russia to hack Clinton's private email server - which he later said was a joke. Many of the signatories had declined to sign an open letter disputing Trump's national security qualifications that was published in March. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N16B053 The statement said many Americans are frustrated with the federal government's failure to solve domestic and international problems. "But Donald Trump is not the answer to America's daunting challenges and to this crucial election," the statement said. "We are convinced that in the Oval Office, he would be the most reckless President in American history. Some Democratic foreign policy experts called the statement a reminder of the divisions the New York real estate developer's nomination has sown within the Republican Party. "This letter is signed by those who remain in the internationalist wing of the party - many were former advisors to candidates who lost the primary fight to Trump," said Brian Katulis, a fellow at the Center for American Progress and a Clinton campaign adviser. "Calling Trump unqualified to be commander in chief is tough, but also asserting that he's lacking in character and understanding of our basic values is really pretty amazing," said Tommy Vietor, a former National Security Council spokesman in Democratic President Barack Obama's administration. "That said, I think it's unlikely to influence many voters, but it could give cover to Republican members of Congress and donors who want to cut the cord and move on from Trump." (Complete Statement by former national security officials Pdf format) (Reporting by Jonathan Landay; Additional reporting by Jim Oliphant; Editing by John Walcott and Jonathan Oatis) Aug 8 (Reuters) - Republican Donald Trump sought to regain momentum for his White House campaign on Monday by proposing sweeping tax breaks, cuts to federal regulations and a revival of the stalled Keystone XL oil pipeline project. The New York businessman used a speech on the economy in Detroit to try to turn the page after a week of missteps in which he came under heavy criticism, including from some in his own party, and rival Democrat Hillary Clinton surged ahead in opinion polls three months ahead of the Nov. 8 election. "I want to jump-start America," Trump said, "and it won't even be that hard." Trump stuck to prepared remarks rather than the freewheeling style that often produces controversial comments at rallies. He kept his cool as some 14 protesters jumped to their feet and shouted at coordinated intervals as he spoke at the Detroit Economic Club. Trump's remarks, which were repeatedly cheered by the crowd, appeared targeted at both an affluent business community and working people, in particular those who have suffered from a decline in U.S. manufacturing in cities such as Detroit. He dismissed Clinton as representing "the tired voices of the past." "We now begin a great national conversation about economic renewal for America," Trump said. "It's a conversation about how to make America great again for everyone ... especially for those who have the very least." Much of the speech reflected Republican talking points, and critics said his proposals lacked detail. But Republican operatives and others who saw the speech praised Trump for turning his focus to policy and contrasting his ideas with Clinton's. The question for Trump now is whether he will be able to keep his campaign on message as Republicans want him to do. Trump pitched a tax plan that mirrored traditional Republican thinking that lowering taxes and slashing regulation generates economic growth and jobs. He proposed lowering individual and corporate rates and a discounted 10 percent levy for businesses that bring back profits held overseas. Trump's plan to create new tax deductions for childcare costs raised questions from economists about whether lower-income families would benefit. Many Republicans remain frustrated with his trade vision, which bucks party orthodoxy by calling for a rewrite of major agreements. "My response is good, bad and ugly," said Lanhee Chen, who was policy director for the 2012 presidential campaign of Republican Mitt Romney. "I think the trade position remains pretty ugly," he said. "But I understand why they did it. I think it's a strong effort, at least, to meld elements of conservative economic policy with Trump's more populist thinking." Trump's effort to shift focus came after what was widely seen as the worst week of his campaign, in which he sparred with party leaders and got entangled in a dispute with the parents of a Muslim U.S. soldier who was killed in the Iraq war. Some frustrated Republicans plan to back a conservative alternative, former CIA officer Evan McMullin. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N1AP0P2 On Monday, Trump waited for the frequent disruptions by protesters to end, smiling and refraining from his practice at campaign rallies of asking security to "get them out of here." A group called the Michigan People's Campaign took credit for the protests, which they said were aimed at Trump's recent comments about sexual harassment. Clinton will outline her economic vision in Michigan on Thursday. In a statement issued before Trump's speech, her campaign said his plan would give tax breaks to the wealthy and big companies and would hurt working families. At a rally Monday in St. Petersburg, Florida, she derided a list of economic advisers Trump released last week as "six guys named Steve." "Now, they tried to make his old, tired ideas sound new," Clinton said. "He wants to basically just repackage trickle-down economics." MORE DETAILS PLEASE Trump's rough week took its toll in opinion polls. A Washington Post-ABC News poll released on Sunday gave Clinton an eight-point lead, 50 percent to 42 percent. Trump, a real estate developer who has never held elected public office, touts his practical experience and potential to create jobs, blaming President Barack Obama for what he calls a weak recovery from the economic recession. On Monday, he said Clinton would rely on policies that have not worked. "She is the candidate of the past," Trump said. "Ours is the campaign of the future." Reaction from the crowd in Detroit was mixed. "I think he laid out a good bullet point on how he's going to solve the economic problems with his trade policies," said insurance executive Sal Giammursta. Others wanted more details. "People were looking for more substance," said lawyer Al Rogalski. Trump called for a temporary moratorium on new regulations and repeated his pledges to rewrite the landmark North American trade deal that President Bill Clinton, Clinton's husband, signed in 1994, and to withdraw from the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership deal backed by Obama. But much of the reaction was to Trump's tax plan. He again proposed lowering the corporate tax rate to 15 percent from the current 35 percent. And he proposed lowering income-based individual tax brackets to 12 percent, 25 percent and 33 percent. In 2015, Trump proposed a lower top rate of 25 percent. After criticism from budget experts who said such low rates would balloon deficits, he tweaked his proposal to be more in line with policies supported by Republicans in Congress. "It's encouraging that Donald Trump appears to be modifying his tax plan," said Maya MacGuineas, president of the anti-debt Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. The research group Tax Policy Center estimated in December that Trump's original plan would reduce federal tax revenues by $9.5 trillion in the first decade. Steve Moore, an adviser to Trump, said the campaign believes it has made changes to bring the plan's cost down to $2 trillion to $3 trillion. A campaign aide said Trump would give more detail in a later speech. (Editing by Jonathan Oatis) (Kitco News) - U.S. equities are on a tear with the S&P 500 trading at record highs. However, one economist, known for his gloomy outlook on the global economy, said he expects prices to fall back by 50%. Speaking with CNBC Tuesday, Marc Faber, publisher & editor of "The Gloom Boom & Doom Report," said he attributes the rise in equities to central bank easing - or money printing - which is unsustainable. "I think we can easily give back five years of capital gains, which would take the market down to around 1,100," he said. "The fact is, the market hasn't really been driven by genuine buying, but by stock buybacks, takeovers and acquisitions, and market leadership has been narrowing. It's not that many stocks that have been making new highs. It's quite a narrow growth of stocks that have been very strong," he added. After taking a dive early in the year, the S&P 500 managed to pick up steam and is trading near all-time highs, up 6.68% YTD. On Tuesday afternoon, the index was near record territory. Faber said that not only have equities benefitted from easy monetary policy, but so have gold, silver and mining shares. Gold futures are up 27% year to date while silver is up nearly 44%. At the same time, mining shares have managed to rally over 100% this year as the underlying bullion price surged. "The market has gone up and we have continued seeing money printing in the world...This liquidity is flowing around the world and driving up asset prices," he said. "When you print money, something goes up. The real economy in the world isn't doing well." By Sarah Benali of Kitco News; sbenali@kitco.com Follow @SdBenali Natalie (played by Oona Laurence) and Pete (Oakes Fegley) meet Elliot the dragon. (Disney via AP) SHARE Karl Urban plays Gavin, a gun-totting lumberjack who invades the forest where Elliot lives. (Matt Klitscher/Disney via AP) By Jake Coyle, Associated Press NEW YORK After an exhausting summer buffet of set pieces, superheroes and whatever s-word you might use for "Suicide Squad," the gentle "Pete's Dragon" is a welcome palate cleanser. Where other summer movies are chest-thumping, it's quiet; where others are brashly cynical, it's sweetly sincere; where others are lacking in giant cuddly dragons, "Pete's Dragon" has one. Few may remember the 1977 Disney original, in which a young boy's best friend was a bubbly dragon invisible to others. As part of Disney's continuing effort to remake its animated classics in live-action, "Pete's Dragon" has been confidently reborn as an earnest tale of green-winged wonder. David Lowery, a veteran of the independent film world and the director of the lyrical crime drama "Ain't Them Bodies Saints," inherits a far bigger film. But his "Pete's Dragon" still maintains the homespun feel of an American fable. Spielberg-light, you might call it. The film begins, in the "Bambi" tradition, in parental tragedy. Pete's family is driving through a remote Pacific Northwest forest with Pete nestled in the back seat of the station wagon, reading a children's book about a dog named Elliott. A deer sprints out and, in poetic slow-motion, the gravity of the car's interior is upended. The car flips off the road and Pete staggers from the crash. Flashing forward six years, Pete (Oakes Fegley) is a wild 10-year-old orphan living in the woods alone except for his magical companion, the dragon Elliott. As far as CGI creatures go, Elliott is an irresistible one. Furry as a fairway, he's like an enormous emerald-green puppy. Far from the "Game of Thrones" dragon variety, he's more adept at chasing his own tail than breathing fire. He's also the subject of local folklore, mostly as told by Robert Redford's woodcarving storyteller. But it's his forest ranger daughter Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard) who first encounters Elliott and ultimately leads to the dragon's discovery. Grace coaxes Elliott back into society and into the fold of her family. She has a daughter, Natalie (Oona Laurence) and lumber mill-running husband Jack (Wes Bentley). It's the push by a logging company where Jack's brother, Gavin (Karl Urban) is a gun-totting lumberjack into the forest that simultaneously begins flushing out Pete and Elliott from their home in the trees. The lush forest (New Zealand, again, subbing for North America) reigns over "Pete's Dragon," a tale scored with soft bluegrass and exuding an environment-friendly love for the beautiful and exotic splendors of nature. When competing interests come for Elliott, they are really fighting for the soul of the forest. There are Spielbergian gestures here of magic and family and faith, perhaps better orchestrated than Spielberg's own recent try at a Disney film, "The BFG." But it's missing a spark, a sense of danger and maybe a little humor. The lean simplicity of "Pete's Dragon" is its greatest attribute and its weakness. It doesn't quite achieve liftoff until the film's final moments. But it does at last catch flight, finally soaring beyond its humble folksiness. Pete's Dragon Review: 3 stars out of 4 Rating: PG (action, peril, brief language) Running time: 103 minutes Director: David Lowery Cast: Bryce Dallas Howard, Oakes Fegley, Wes Bentley, Karl Urban, Oona Laurence, and Robert Redford The Kitsap Rifle & Revolver Club sign next to the Seabeck Highway. SHARE By Christopher Dunagan, Special to the Kitsap Sun Shooters at Kitsap Rifle and Revolver Club's gun range on Seabeck Highway are once again allowed to fire large-caliber pistols but not large-caliber rifles until another appeal can be heard in the long-running legal battle between the club and Kitsap County. Washington State Court of Appeals has placed a stay on a court injunction that limited the size of weapons allowed at the range and eliminated "practical shooting" and associated business activities. The injunction was issued after Judge Susan Serko of Pierce County Superior Court found that the club had violated its non-conforming-use ("grandfathered") status. A separate injunction related to a public nuisance over noise and public safety remains in effect in this case full of twists and turns. That injunction prohibits rifles greater than nominal .30 caliber, along with automatic firearms, exploding targets and cannons. Nonconforming uses are defined as activities that do not comply with existing zoning rules. They are allowed to continue because they predate such rules. Under the law, nonconforming uses may be "intensified" but not "expanded" into entirely new uses. In 2014, the appeals court agreed with Serko that the shooting range had become a nuisance by expanding its uses beyond what was allowed and by creating excessive noise. But the court disagreed with Serko's remedy, which was to shut down the range until permits were obtained to bring the range into compliance with existing zoning rules. The appeals court judges ordered Serko to craft a remedy that allowed the range to stay open under its nonconforming status. In February Serko imposed the injunction that prohibited weaponry greater than .30 caliber, all practical shooting, any organized competitions as well as military and commercial uses. She said she was acting to comply with the Court of Appeals order without going beyond what was necessary. Court Commissioner Eric Schmidt, representing the Court of Appeals, issued a stay of the injunction on Thursday, saying it is debatable whether the uses in question are "permissible intensifications of use or impermissible expansions of use." "This court concludes that the injury the club will suffer by the denial of a stay is greater than the injury Kitsap County would suffer by the granting of a stay," Schmidt wrote. "The restriction on caliber size is unsupported by evidence of a relationship between caliber size and noise level and thus is unduly burdensome," he continued. "The term 'practical shooting' is undefined and ambiguous and is therefore unduly burdensome. And the prohibition on commercial or for-profit uses burdens the financial viability of the club pending appeal." Marcus Carter, executive officer of the gun club, said the stay would have been unnecessary if Judge Serko would have allowed new testimony when the case came back to her for a second review. The club's attorney, Brooks Foster, tried to tell the judge that the caliber of weapons does not necessarily relate to noise and that "practical shooting" can be just about anything without a proper definition, he said. "To my knowledge, everyone who has used the club has done so for some practical shooting purpose," Carter said in a written declaration to the court. "I am not aware of a single individual who has used the club's range without some type of real-world application in mind." While the term "practical shooting" can be used to mean shooting in different directions, one may also refer to that as "action shooting," Carter said in a telephone interview. "The reality is that the judge was not even interested in trying to understand these issues," Carter added. If the club expanded rather than intensified its uses, then the judge should determine where the line was crossed, as opposed to prohibiting activities that have always taken place to one degree or another, he said. In his written declaration, Carter says the prohibition on for-profit businesses might discourage the employment of maintenance companies by the club, as well as firearms registration and educational services, which have long been part of the club's operations. The broad ruling might even prevent the club from hiring firearms instructors to provide classes. Carter said the injunction has confused club members about what firearms are allowed to the point that many people have stopped coming to the range. "Club attendance has declined precipitously to less than 10 percent of what it has been in the past because of the prohibitions on all 'weaponry greater than .30 caliber' and all 'practical shooting,'" Carter said in his written statement. "Many people who would ordinarily visit the club have concluded that it is too risky to use any firearm or participate in any practice at the club while these activity prohibitions are in effect." Christy Palmer, deputy prosecutor for Kitsap County, said the stay issued by the Court of Appeals is under review by county officials. A full hearing on the appeal of Judge Serko's ruling is expected later this year. Her order also requires the club to apply for land-use permits for clearing, grading and other changes to the property that were done without permits. In a separate appeal, the club is challenging Kitsap County's ordinance that requires shooting ranges to have a county operating permit. Judge Pro Tem Jay Roof of Kitsap County Superior Court allowed the range to reopen after the club applied for the permit under protest. Approval or denial by the county is still pending. LARRY STEAGALL | KITSAP SUN James Wolfrey of the Kitsap Maritime Heritage Foundation and a Brownsville Yacht Club member, right, secures the mooring lines to the Hawaiian Chieftain at the Brownsville Marina on Monday. The Lady Washington arrives on Tuesday morning, and both will open for tours. SHARE LARRY STEAGALL | KITSAP SUN Hawaiian Chieftain tall ship deck hand Luke Carlson, from Whidbey Island, shines up the brass on the ships bell as it is moored at the Brownsville Marina on Monday. LARRY STEAGALL | KITSAP SUN The Hawaiian Chieftain nears the Brownsville Marina on Monday, Aug. 8, 2016. The ship open for public tours Tuesday from noon to 5 p.m., and have an evening sail from 6-8 p.m. The Hawaiian Chieftain and the Lady Washington will be in Brownsville until Thursday and then move to the Port Orchard Marina. It's the first time since 2013 the tall ships have been to Brownsville. LARRY STEAGALL | KITSAP SUN Spencer Meeks of Aberdeen, engineer on the Hawaiian Chieftain, shines the brass railings to the bellow deck hatch at the Brownsville Marina on Monday, Aug. 8, 2016. The ship will be open for public tours from noon to 5 p.m. through Thursday, and have an evening sail from 6-8 p.m. The Hawaiian Chieftain and the Lady Washington will be in Brownsville through Thursday, and then move to the Port Orchard Marina. LARRY STEAGALL | KITSAP SUN Deck hand Dave Lebson cleans the deck on the Hawaiian Chieftain at the Brownsville Marina on Monday Aug. 8, 2016. The ship will be open for public tours from noon to 5 p.m. through Thursday, and have an evening sail from 6-8 p.m. By Kitsap Sun Staff BROWNSVILLE Tall ships Lady Washington and Hawaiian Chieftan are visiting Brownsville Marina for a few days this week. The topsail ketch Hawaiian Chieftan arrived Monday morning. The brig Lady Washington will follow Tuesday. They'll remain through Thursday, and then move to Port Orchard Marina Aug. 13-17. It's the first visit by the large sailing vessels to the area since 2013. The ships will offer tours and excursions all three days. They are Coast Guard-inspected passenger vessels that specialize in educational programs for K-12 students. They're on a summer-long sailing tour of Puget Sound ports. Walk-on tours are an opportunity for visitors to learn more about the ships and speak to their crews. A ticket is not required, though a $5 per person donation is appreciated. Two-hour, family-oriented evening sails feature opportunities to help raise a sail, learn a sea shanty and hear maritime stories. To purchase sailing tickets, for $35, visit www.historicalseaport.org or call (800) 200-5239. Tours will be noon to 5 p.m. each day. Evening sails are 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. SHARE Frank and Paul Minteer, Olalla Garrido listened, acted on our concerns Charlotte Garrido has demonstrated concern for property owners by getting involved with local issues like the Banner Road project. She came to our home here in Olalla with the project engineer to observe the impacts some of the dozen road options would have on our 1914 vintage home. One option put a road between our house and our gazebo, one cut through the middle of our pasture, and one too part of our barn. Another wild plan lowered Culver Road 30 feet below its current location and our mail box. (Air mail by drone, maybe?) We believe she guided the process to a more sensible option, relieving us and our neighbors on Banner Road, who were threatened by the options. Thanks, Charlotte, for being there for us. SHARE It's a long drive, and I wouldn't recommend it as a sole reason for a road trip. But if you're ever headed east on I-90, make certain you stop in Wallace, Idaho, to hike the Pulaski Tunnel Trail. There are a number of reasons to take an outdoor weekend or longer around that historic mining community. Bike the Route of the Hiawatha through 10 tunnels and over 7 trestles, or pedal the 70-plus-mile Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes. Just don't miss the 4-mile round-trip climb up to the Pulaski Tunnel. It's the best example I've seen where the U.S. Forest Service melds history with a sylvan pathway. You couldn't huff and puff up this trail more than a couple hundred feet before you are introduced to Edward C. Pulaski, the man for whom the trail and mountain it climbs is named. A timber bridge crossing Placer Creek is decorated with a pair of firefighting and trail-building tools Pulaski is credited with creating. A heavy metal mattock is combined with an axe, and the Pulaski tool is widely used in the Forest Service. But the main reason Edward Pulaski is remembered today, more than eight decades after his death, is his heroic part in saving the lives of 40 men. You'll discover the whole story on this hike, told on a series of plaques placed about every half-mile on the trail. It's a piece of northwest history you might encounter in Timothy Egan's "The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America" or Ruby El Hult's "Northwest Disaster." But the best way to understand what Pulaski did is to retrace the path he took on Aug. 20, 1910, to lead 45 firefighters to the shaft of the Nicholson Mine. There they took refuge from the worst wildfire in American history. Blazes raged across northeast Washington, the Idaho panhandle and Montana, and combined to raze nearly 3 million acres in 10 national forests. Eighty-seven people were killed in a firestorm that lasted two days and destroyed most of Wallace and several towns in Idaho and Montana. Pulaski's crew was fighting the fire near Wallace on Aug. 20 when hurricane-force winds turned the forest into a hellfire that could not be controlled. Knowing the firefighters faced certain death; the ranger rounded them up and guided them through the flames and blinding smoke to the Nicholson prospect mine. Pulaski told his men to lie face down on the ground in the mine, and hung wet blankets across the entrance. One firefighter wanted to run, but the ranger threatened to shoot anyone who tried. All the firefighters eventually passed out, coming to the next morning and emerging from their haven. Five had died during the night. The hike to the mineshaft climbs about 700 vertical feet in two miles, becoming steeper in the last eighth of a mile. I'd call it moderately difficult, but the first hundred yards are paved and alone worth the visit. Once at the end of the trail, you'll find benches and a memorial. There's a view down to Placer Creek and the restored entrance to the mine. The Whakatane Beacon reports: Mr Ball, a tertiary tutor who has been at Waiariki for three months, said he thought the compulsory drug testing was a positive for many reasons for potential employers and the students themselves. He said potential employers were more open to offering work experience and for the students it was a sense of pride that they could accomplish something and work toward a higher goal. The institute began compulsory drug testing of all trades programme applicants earlier this year. Waiariki regional development manager Greg Brimmer said at Whakatane those trade programmes were in the automotive, construction, agriculture and horticulture fields. Of 17 students enrolled in the horticulture course for semester one, only two were clean, Mr Brimmer said. NewstalkZB reports: Wellington Mayoral candidate Nick Leggett appears to be public enemy number one for the Labour Party as its MPs are forbidden from associating with him. Labour Leader Andrew Little has pulled rank, preventing MP Stuart Nash from speaking at an event where Mr Leggett was also speaking. Mr Little said the event was for right-wingers who have routinely sought to undermine the Labour Party and its not right for a Labour MP to share a platform with people who do that. So what was this event? Phil Quin explains on FB: A mate of Nick Leggett and mine, Shane Philiips, is launching a beaut new restaurant in Auckland called White Rabbit on the Park. Shane and I have been Labour comrades and good mates for three decades, and he loves politics and elections every bit as much as NIck and me. Shane kindly asked me along to address his inaugural Kai & Korero at the White Rabbit last Wednesday, where interested patrons can come along and chin-wag about politics; the US election on this occasion. It was en route from Saigon to Wellington, so it worked in beautifully. So it was two old mates supporting the restaurant opening of another mate. And this is so terrible that Andrew Little bans Stuart Nash from attending. How incredibly petty. As it happens David Shearer was there also. Will Shearer be disciplined for attending a restaurant opening and a talk on US politics? And hes making it clear he considers Nick Leggett, a former Labour Party member, a right-winger. Just being more centrist that the current Labour leadership doesnt make you a right winger. But no once more Labour seems to treat a difference of opinion as akin to heresy. Share this: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Reddit WhatsApp More Pinterest Print Tumblr From Backbenches: THIS WEEK ON PRIME TVs BACK BENCHES: Watch Wallace Chapman, Hayley Holt, the Back Benches Panel and special guests discuss the weeks hottest topics! TREASON!TREACHEROUS IN THE EXTREME!: The Maori Party has declined to endorse Helen Clarks bid for UN Secretary General. Punters, Pollies and Kiwis cried Treason! Winston Peters calling the move Treacherous in the extreme! But is the call fair? Is Helen Clarks record on indigenous rights enough to preclude her from heading the United Nations? Is speaking out against Helen Clarks bid treasonous? Is it okay to speak out against Kiwis on the world stage or is it our duty to hold ourselves to account? And what is our current record with indigenous rights like? TITANIUM GLASS CEILING?: The head of Saatchi & Saatchi Kevin Roberts has resigned after his comments about women in the workforce. Roberts summed up womens lack of ambition as women are happier than men, Their ambition is not a vertical ambition; its this intrinsic, circular ambition to be happy. Kevin Roberts wasnt concerned by the lack of women in leadership roles, are you? How do we ensure gender equality in the workforce? And in paycheck? AN APPLE A DAY: They say an apple a day keeps the doctor away which is good because visits to the GP are rising. A national health survey in 2015 showed some 500,000 Kiwis adults are skipping out on GP visits due to cost. Should there be an overhaul of the current system so those who need assistance paying fees or need to be enrolled in VLCA (very low cost access) practices get the help they need? There are two ways to get in on the political pub action: First, you can join the live audience in Wellingtons iconic Backbencher Pub on Wednesday, 10th of August at 6pm. Filming begins around 6:20pm. Or watch us that night on PRIME TV at 10:30pm! Plus, Follow us on Facebook (BackBenchesTV) or on Twitter @BackBenchesTV. Our Panel: Labour MP David Cunliffe, Maori Party Co-Leader Marama Fox, and National MP Jono Naylor. Share this: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Reddit WhatsApp More Pinterest Print Tumblr President Tran Dai Quang greets Indonesian Minister of Defence Ryamizard Ryacudu (Photo: VNA) During a meeting with Indonesian Minister of Defence Ryamizard Ryacudu in Hanoi on August 8th, President Tran Dai Quang expressed his pleasure at the fruitful cooperation between the two nations, especially in politics, economy, culture, education-training, and defence. The President said Vietnam highly valued Indonesias significant role and position in as well as its active contributions to promoting multilateral collaboration, especially within the framework of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Vietnam always attaches much importance to developing ties with Indonesia, regarding the country as a top priority in its diplomatic policy, he said, adding that the reinforcement of bilateral relations is for both their benefits and for peace, stability, cooperation and joint development in the region and beyond. He praised Indonesia for its clear and consistent standpoints over the East Sea issue, saying he hopes Indonesia will promote its role and together with Vietnam and other ASEAN member states enhance the implementation of the ASEAN Communitys targets. He also welcomed the outcomes of the talks between the two countries defence ministers and proposed the two sides actively realise the bilateral affiliation agreements. Regarding the settlement of emerging issues at sea, the President suggested the two sides maritime forces take measures to raise awareness among fishermen and prevent them from violating the waters of their respective countries. He called for humanitarian treatment towards fishermen as the two sides have yet to conclude negotiations on the delimitation of exclusive economic zones. The Indonesian defence minister informed the host about the outcomes of the talks with his Vietnamese counterpart Ngo Xuan Lich, during which the two sides agreed to fully and effectively implement the Memorandum of Understanding on enhancing cooperation among defence officials signed in October 2010. Special attention will be paid to all-level delegation exchanges while setting up a defence policy dialogue mechanism, sharing experience in humanitarian assistance, joining the UN peace keeping forces, and increasing cooperation in navy and defence industry, he said. He added that he hopes Vietnam will play a more crucial role in ASEAN. He also shared Indonesias viewpoints on East Sea security and anti-terrorism, stressing the need to strengthen multinational coordination to maintain maritime security. He agreed on the Presidents proposal in the matter concerning fishermen and promised to inform the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries. The Indonesian official is making his first visit to Vietnam as Defence Minister from August 7th - 9th./. SHARE Kevin Waggoner Michael Woodby By Jamie Satterfield of the Knoxville News Sentinel MAYNARDVILLE Two angry neighbors, each having threatened violence against the other, met on a dark stretch of Union County road nearly three years ago one armed with a thick wooden stick, the other a gun. One walked away. One didn't. Now, for the second time in a year, a Union County jury is being asked to decide this question posed by prosecutor Tyler Hurst: "Ladies and gentlemen, ask yourselves, which one of the two followed through with their threat?" A jury in Union County Criminal Court will resume deliberations Wednesday morning in the second-degree murder trial of former Knox County Schools security officer Kevin Lee Waggoner. The 45-year-old Waggoner was working as a security officer at Shannondale Elementary School when, in September 2013, a nearly three-year feud with neighbor Michael Woodby, 45, ended with Woodby fatally shot four times, his body lying in a ditch several yards off state Highway 370. The trial, Waggoner's second, has spanned a week. Last year, a jury deadlocked. Eighth Judicial District Judge Shayne Sexton declared a mistrial as a result. Jurors began considering the case Tuesday afternoon. After about two hours, they asked to go home. The key question hasn't changed: Did Waggoner ambush Woodby as his neighbor went for a nightly walk alongside the road that separated the two men's homes, or did Waggoner shoot him after Woodby attacked Waggoner's adult son with the stick he was using for a cane? Both sides in the case relied upon hundreds of hours of audio and video that Waggoner and his family captured of the Woodby family and even their personal conversations about the Woodbys. Waggoner conceded on the witness stand earlier Tuesday his habit of engaging in conflicts with neighbors and then filming them could be considered an "obsession" of his. Waggoner sent some of that video of Woodby behaving badly cursing, throwing rocks to various media outlets, including the News Sentinel three days before the killing. It's never been clear why the feud started. In the course of it, Woodby phoned authorities at least 300 times with complaints about the Waggoners. Waggoner, in turn, attacked every aspect of Woodby's life, from trying to get his Social Security disability benefits revoked to reporting child abuse claims to the state Department of Children's Services. Waggoner even phoned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to complain Woodby set a fire in his yard that sickened the Waggoner family. Defense attorney Scott Lanzon showed jurors snippets of comments by Woodby in the weeks leading up to the shooting to try to show Waggoner feared for his son's safety and sent the video as a last-ditch effort for help. "I'm going to get that boy," Woodby said in one video. "You want to see your boy dead? You going to miss your son?" Woodby was particularly angry at the son because he had been filming Woodby's grandson getting on and off the school bus and shot at his dog. "Mr. Woodby was getting more and more violent, more and more aggressive," Lanzon said. Prosecutor Graham Wilson countered with video showing Waggoner and his son, both armed, trying to provoke Woodby into advancing toward them. "They're not scared of Mr. Woodby," Wilson said. "The goal was to aggravate, to scare, to provoke a response from him." Lanzon admitted jurors might not like Waggoner much, calling him "petty." But he argued the burden rests on the state to disprove Waggoner's claim he shot Woodby in defense of his son. "They have to show you beyond a reasonable doubt he didn't defend his son," Lanzon said. "There's no way they can do that." Prosecutors Wilson and Hurst countered the physical evidence at the shooting scene belied the self-defense claim. For instance, Waggoner said the attack on his son occurred in the roadway, and that's where he shot Woodby. But the shell casings were found yards away in a grassy area, as were Woodby's body, the stick and his flashlight. Waggoner said Woodby ran toward the ditch when he opened fire, but there was no blood trail to support that, prosecutors noted. Hurst hammered on the son's lack of injuries consistent with being struck by a bigger man with a sizable chunk of wood. Photos showed no bruising or cuts on the son's head, where he said he was struck. Sexton sent jurors to deliberate just before 3:30 p.m. More details as they develop online and in Wednesday's News Sentinel. A voter is pictured at the Deane Hill Recreation Center during election day Thursday, Aug. 4, 2016. (AMY SMOTHERMAN BURGESS/NEWS SENTINEL) SHARE Voter apathy A local higher-up in the GOP made a friendly wager with us here at PolitiKnox that turnout would be close to 20 percent for the Knox County election, state and federal primary. We took that wager, and even guessed it would be under 15 percent. Sadly, our prediction was correct. And it was even worse than expected. Here are a few figures on the level of apathy voters showed this past week: Knox County has 226,752 registered voters. Just 21,473 voted in Thursday's election. That's a turnout of 9.4 percent. By comparison, just 7 percent of the city 's active voters a total of 5,439 showed up in the most recent city council election. It's not a strong showing, and some of the margins that decided races reflected the light turnout. In Knox County Commission's 2nd District race a total of 75 votes separated winning Republican Michele Carringer from the losing Democrat Laura Kildare. That was a hard loss for Democrats locally, as it was one of two Democratic seats on Commission. There are probably enough people who walk through Three Rivers Market, in the 2nd District, on a given evening to make up that difference in votes. Outgoing Democrat Amy Broyles, who did not seek re-election in the 2nd District, said some people have already approached her about staying in politics. But with one more meeting left in her term, she's working more for her children to go back to school. "I'm not ready to think that far ahead right now," Broyles said. "There are people who are already talking to me about running for city council next year." Other races were decided by slim margins as well, such as in the 18th District GOP primary for the Tennessee State House sought by Rep. Martin Daniel and others. If the shove he is accusing of giving challenger Steve Hall hurt his popularity with voters in the West Knox district, Daniel's alleged action didn't push enough people into voting for one of his opponents. Hall, along with James Corcoran and Bryan Dodson competed in the primary against Daniel. Daniel won with 1,314 votes, besting Hall with 964, Corcoran with 856 and Dodson with 252. Daniel's opposition had enough to overcome him in the primary, but turnout wasn't enough for any of them to make a serious dent on election day results. His opponents blamed it on mild turnout. If people want to sign up to vote for the next election in Knox County, which will decide the country's president and other state and federal offices, visit knoxcounty.org/election or call 865-215-2480 to learn how to register, where to vote and get candidate information. Get updates on candidates, elections and voting in print and online at knoxnews.com as Nov. 8 Election Day approaches. Staff writer Gerald Witt contributed to this report. By News Sentinel Staff Democrats across the state expressed disappointment Monday following Rep. Joe Armstrong's felony conviction, while Republicans skewered the longtime lawmaker for his guilty verdict on a charge of filing a false income tax return. "I think it's very unfortunate.," said Tennessee Black Caucus of State Legislators leader Brenda Gilmore, D-Nashville. "I think he served his constituents and the state of Tennessee very well. "We wish him the best as he goes through the sentencing process (and ) appreciate the value he brought to the Tennessee Black Caucus and the Tennessee General Assembly." Armstrong had served as president of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators from 2012 to 2014, and was twice named the organization's Legislator of the Year. Gilmore was ambivalent on whether she thinks Armstrong should go to prison. "I never wish bad luck on anyone," she said. "The jury has spoken, and I will just have to wait to see what the judge has to say." She did say Armstrong should resign from the Legislature. "Yeah, I would support those efforts. The fact that the jury did find him guilty, and it's clear what the law says," she said. "Yes, I think it would be appropriate if he resigned. He can just rest on the confidence that he has done a good job in the past." The head of the state GOP took the verdict as an opportunity to tie Democrats across the state to the Armstrong, specifically calling out House District 13 candidate Gloria Johnson. "Today's conviction of Representative Armstrong continues the unfortunate legacy of Tennessee Democrats serving in the jailhouse rather than the State House," said Brent Leatherwood, director of the state Republican Party. "Armstrong now joins the other infamous members of the Tennessee Democrat hall of shame like (former Gov.) Ray Blanton and (former state Sen.) John Ford. Voters want to have confidence in their elected officials and the actions of Armstrongand liberals like Knox County Democratic nominee Gloria Johnson who give their unflinching support to himhave shaken that sacred trust." Johnson dismissed the dig from Republicans, saying she respects the jury's decision and is focused solely on winning her race in House District 13. "That's silly to try to tie me into something like that," she said. "I have built up a lot of trust in that district and I think the primary shows that." Other local Democrats whose districts overlap with Armstrong expressed sympathy for the lawmaker in the wake of his conviction. City Councilman Dan Brown said he was sorry to hear the verdict Monday. "He's done a great job as a representative all these years, and he's been a good public servant," Brown said. "He's done, for many years, an excellent job representing the district as a county commissioner and a state legislator. "We'll surely keep him in our prayers, and it may work out for him in the long run." Knox County Commissioner Sam McKenzie said his heart goes out to Armstrong. "I'm sure this comes as a surprise to (Armstrong)," McKenzie said. "He talked to me a few weeks ago, and he thought it would work out." Mayor Madeline Rogero, through a city spokesman, declined to comment on the verdict. Knox County Democratic Chairman Cameron Brooks, who is now tasked with organizing the vote for Armstrong's replacement, lauded the lawmaker's contributions to his district. "The only thing I'll say, with it all coming back pretty fast, is I just feel for Joe and his family," Brooks said. "He is in my thoughts and prayers. He'd been a good advocate for our community and everyone makes mistakes. "I'll let the verdict speak for itself." Contributing to this story were News Sentinel staff writers Megan Boehnke and Gerald Witt and USA TODAY NETWORK-Tennessee reporter Dave Boucher. Members of the Greeneville Fire Department help people off the Ferris wheel at the Greene County Fair in Greeneville, Tenn., on Monday, Aug. 8, 2016. (O.J. Early/The Greeneville Sun via AP) SHARE Emergency crews unload the Ferris wheel at the Greene County Fair in Greeneville, Tenn., on Monday, Aug. 8, 2016. (Dale Long/The Greeneville Sun via AP) Law enforcement cordon off the area surrounding the Ferris wheel Monday after three people fell from the ride during a county fair in Greenville, Tenn. Baileyton police Officer Kenneth Bitner is visible at right. Police say one of three people who fell from the Ferris wheel suffered a head injury and remains hospitalized in serious condition. (O.J. Early/The Greeneville Sun via AP) By Staff And Wire Reports A "mechanical failure" apparently caused three girls to fall from a Ferris wheel at the Greene County Fair on Monday night, police said Tuesday. A 6-year-old girl suffered a traumatic brain injury and remained in critical condition after she, her 10-year-old sister and a 16-year-old girl fell from the Ferris wheel, said Dr. Bracken Burns, director of trauma services for Johnson City Medical Center. Burns said the other two girls were in stable condition Tuesday, according to the Associated Press; he said the 10-year-old suffered injuries to her forearms. He said he couldn't release information on the 16-year-old's injuries. None of the girls' names have been released. Greeneville police Capt. Tim Davis said at a Tuesday news conference that reports so far indicate a "mechanical failure" caused one of the Ferris wheel's baskets to overturn and dump the girls out about 6:15 p.m. They fell about 35-45 feet, he said. Davis said police have not confirmed reports the basket was rocking before it flipped. All mechanical rides at the fair remain closed pending state approval to reopen, which Davis said may come as soon as Wednesday. Frank Guenthner, owner of Pennsylvania-based FX Inspection, who acted as a third-party inspector, said Tuesday night he spent "a long, hot day" inspecting the rest of the rides at the fair and found only "minor items nothing serious." He mentioned "minor cracks" in some fiberglass pieces that were "corrected on the spot." According to a 2014 Greeneville Sun article, Guenthner has been contracted for previous ride inspections by the company that owns and operates the rides, Family Attractions of Valdosta, Ga. Guenthner, who has inspected rides for more than 20 years, said gondola rides such as the one from which the three girls fell don't have seatbelts, "by design." Safety regulations deemed they are "not necessary" for that type of ride, he said. The government required Family Attractions to file a report with state regulators and undergo the third-party inspection within 24 hours. Davis said three inspectors were on the fairgrounds Tuesday, with a federal inspector expected to arrive Wednesday morning. After the inspectors' complete reports are submitted to the state and the state grants approval, the rides will reopen, he said. The fair opened Monday and is scheduled to run through Saturday. Food vendors and smaller games will be allowed to stay open. With summer come county fairs across the U.S. and accidents on amusement rides. Among the most recent: July 25: A woman was injured at the Frederick County Fair in Clear Brook, Va., after the cables on a Super Shot ride snapped and the single seat in which she was secured detached from the ride and dropped about 40 feet. July 24: Five people were injured on an Octopus ride at the Cass County Fair in Atlantic, Iowa, the Omaha World-Herald reported. They were about 20 feet in the air when the arms holding up their cars slammed to the ground. May 7: Elizabeth Gilreath, 11, suffered critical injuries when her scalp was torn away after she fell out of her seat on the King's Crown ride at Omaha's Cinco de Mayo festival, the Omaha World-Herald reported. State authorities said the ride appeared to have been functioning normally, but investigators are looking at what restraints were used on the ride. Also injured recently was a carnival worker at the Stephenson County Fair in Freeport, Ill. The employee was servicing a ride called Speed that spins people through the air when a piece of the ride fell on him July 9, the Freeport Journal Standard reported. Family Attractions was fined in North Carolina in 2013 after jumper wires bypassing safety features on a "Vortex" ride caused several riders to be injured, including one man who suffered brain, neck and spinal cord injuries, the Sun reported. The Vortex was not offered at the Greene County Fair, which contracted Family Attractions for the annual fair 2012-2017. Family Attractions provides the midway for several smaller county fairs in the region, but the larger Tennessee Valley Fair in Knox County uses Michigan-based Wade Shows Inc. More details as they develop online and in Wednesday's News Sentinel. USA Today contributed to this report. Motorcycles are seen driving on a section of U.S. Highway 129 known at "The Dragon." (Shawn Millsaps/Special to the News Sentinel) There is a stretch of road called The Dragon, a section of U.S. Highway 129 that runs between Deal's Gap, North Carolina, and Tabcat Bridge in Blount County. In July, it claimed what is probably its oldest victim, Ira S. Hobdy of Indianapolis, a 90-year-old man, in the crash of a three-wheeled motorcycle called a "trike," operated by Tonya Jean Hobdy, 55, who survived the accident. The same week, 64-year-old Gary Odenbach of Lincoln, Nebraska, was killed while also riding a three-wheeler on The Dragon, and his wife, a passenger, was injured but survived. It isn't a rule, but the three-wheeled trikes are usually preferred by disabled or older riders. Some people say The Dragon starts in Robbinsville, North Carolina, but they are wrong. Those who travel from all parts of the United States and beyond our borders to take on the mythical beast know it starts at Deal's Gap, which is approximately 6 miles as the crow files from Tabcat Bridge, near Chilhowee Lake. On the asphalt, however, it is 11 miles, with 318 undulating, serpent-like curves, some of which seem to turn back on themselves, including a drop from 1,962 feet above sea level to less than 400 feet, on what many say is the most dangerous stretch of highway in this country. This section of U.S. Highway 129 probably began as a foot trail in this part of the Appalachian chain and grew to a rough road as time passed. Geologists say the chain, relatively old by the standards of mountains, was formed out of sediment from a long-ago seabed, pushed up and folded like so much wet plaster to form the mountains perhaps billions of years ago. It was not until 1934 when that section of the highway was built for human beings driving motor vehicles on inflated tires that The Dragon became deadly. The number of motorcyclists killed on that stretch of highway may never be accurately reported, perhaps because neither state boasts about it. According to biker lore on one of several internet sites devoted to The Dragon more than 40 riders have been killed since 1995. That number, however, is not officially listed anywhere that I can find. When Hobdy was killed, the Blount County Sheriff's Department put the number of deaths in 10 years at 27. In addition to just the thrill of riding The Dragon, some bikers do it in hopes of beating some unofficial time. But it is not a subject I choose to write about. The motorcycle riders drawn to check out the myth of The Dragon need no encouragement. I've never ridden The Dragon because I haven't been on a motorcycle since the 1970s. It was my brother, Larry, a retired captain from the Knox County Sheriff's Office, who first told me about it. I was intrigued, but not enough to mount a motorcycle and check it out. Instead, I did what writers do. I talked to people who have ridden it and did my research. The research became a short story called "Kill the Dragon, Drink Its Blood" in my book of short fiction, "Things to Do in Knoxville When You're Dead," published in 2007 by Tellico Books, and released in an electronic edition by Oconee Spirit Press last year. One thing leads to another. FILE - Dr. Jill Stein, Green Party presidential nominee, speaks at a rally in Philadelphia, Wednesday, July 27, 2016. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) From Kremlin connections and vulnerabilities, to public gaffes, both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have given voters plenty of reasons to look elsewhere. Which raises the question: Could this be a golden moment for third party candidates? And the answer is: Maybe. One new poll by McClatchy has Trump in fourth place among millennials, behind Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein. What this bodes for election results this year is unclear, as young voters are less likely to turn out, and the polls margin of error is significant. Plus, people are historically more likely to tell a pollster that theyll vote third party than they are to actually do so. But these are strange times, so who knows? The Democratic Party has angered many of its voters with its treatment of Bernie Sanders treatment bad enough that, when Wikileaks released internal Democratic National Committee emails, DNC Chair Deborah Wasserman Schultz, and several of her deputies, had to leave. The GOP, meanwhile, is riven by the Donald Trump candidacy. Plenty of GOP voters cant bring themselves to vote for Trump, but dont want to vote for Hillary either, as they see her as corrupt and incompetent. That makes a third-party vote look more appealing. Sure, theres little to no chance that either Stein or Johnson will win (or even carry a single state) but a double-digit showing by either would be a big wake-up call. The last time a third party became a major party was when Abraham Lincolns election extinguished the Whigs, but powerful third-party candidacies, like Eugene Debs Socialist runs, Teddy Roosevelts Bullmoose Party, or Ross Perots abortive 1992 challenge have often presaged major shifts in politics, as the two established parties move to co-opt third-party voters. Already Bernie Sanders run has moved the Democrats to the left, and Sanders could be seen as a third-party candidate within the Democratic Party, since he called himself a socialist and an independent both before and immediately after his attempt at the Democratic nomination. Were Jill Stein to get 10% of the vote, it would pull the Democrats further left. Gary Johnson probably has a better chance of breaking double digits than Stein at least, hes polling better than she is now but his candidacy may have less of an impact if he does. Thats because Johnson has chosen to soft-pedal his libertarianism, in an effort to attract dissatisfied GOP voters. His running mate, former Massachusetts governor William Weld, never ran as a libertarian at all prior to his nomination; he was a moderate, northeastern Republican. Breaking the 10% threshold would still be a very big deal for the Libertarian Party, but with its message muddled by moderation, it might have less of an impact on other parties than it would were the nominee running a more ideological campaign. Meanwhile, the question of the moment is whether Johnson and Stein should be allowed to share a debate stage with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. A lawsuit filed by Johnson and Stein was dismissed, but The Chicago Tribune has editorialized in favor of letting Johnson on the stage, and if hes there, it seems only fair to allow Jill Stein, too. Both major parties have done a pretty lousy job of delivering top-quality nominees to the American people. That being the case, it seems only fair to allow the minor parties who at least havent served up candidates with records of evidence destruction and shady Kremlin ties to have their moment in the sun. They could hardly do worse. Glenn Harlan Reynolds, a University of Tennessee law professor and the author of The New School: How the Information Age Will Save American Education from Itself, is a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors. Follow him on Twitter @instapundit. Almost 50 years ago, I made my first speech on the floor of the state Legislature. When I won the seat in November 1966, it was the first time a black from Knox County had been sent to the state House even though Dr. J.B. Young had been a candidate in the election of Aug. 2, 1869, and Charles Warner Cansler had run Nov. 6, 1894, with the endorsement of the Knoxville Journal. So I was elected 97 years after the first black made the initial effort. The speech I made was in defense of the Highlander Research Center, then located on Riverside Drive in my district. It was in opposition to a resolution by state Rep. Odell Cas Lane, the nephew of Knoxville City Councilman Cas Walker, who wanted the center investigated. Lane said he did not have the evidence "to send people to jail, for if I had that, they would already be there." "The center's association with communists, those connected with communist-front organizations and left wingers justified a full investigation by a professional investigator. What are they teaching there? Let's find out, if there is nothing wrong let's remove the cloud. If there is something wrong, let's expose it," he said. I then went to the well of the House and said it was not the function of the Legislature to do "the dirty work" of local government. I said I lived less than five blocks from Highlander and many of the people directly associated with it were my personal friends. The charge that it was a haven for communists, extreme leftists, fellow travelers and advocates of violence was untrue. Many times I had talked with its director, Myles Horton. I noted that a year earlier when Highlander was on Clinch Avenue and firemen fought a blaze there, a fire official referred to the communist literature they had found. When I asked if he had confiscated any of it, he said no and that it was a job for the FBI. I then asked if he could tell me what the literature was about. He said no but that part of it was a book by Karl Marx. When I explained that it was the mark of an educated man to be exposed to Marx and that the book could be found at Lawson McGhee Library with similar books, he informed me that he had "barely finished high school and had neither the time or the interest to read such stuff." This man was an assistant fire chief. As I continued my statement, I mentioned the negative portrayal of Highlander in a grocery store giveaway that said a police raid there at 3 a.m. found people partially clad and some "naked as jay birds." I said I would be found in that same condition if my house were raided at 3 a.m. I ended by saying, "Now Knox County is back again tossing the controversy of the Highlander Center into the lap of the Legislature to satisfy the petty prejudices and political chicanery of local demagogues." I moved the resolution to the table and got 17 votes in my favor, while 57 legislators opposed my motion and 25 did not vote. Later Conrad Brown, Highlander executive vice president, said such an investigation "tends to raise exciting issues and never gets around to denying charges when they are proven untenable." Except for giving 18-year-olds the right to vote and repeal of the "monkey law" that would allow the teaching of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution in the schools, I was often on the losing end of passing legislation. SHARE People who rent out their homes, apartments or rooms through online services such as Airbnb and VRBO are operating as hotels and should be regulated as such. The city of Knoxville is looking into how to regulate these businesses, which have proliferated in recent years. That makes sense. If homeowners want to compete with hotels, they need to play by the same rules. The combined number of private home units available for rent in Knoxville would make a decent-sized hotel. Airbnb lists about 250 properties for rent in the Knoxville area on its website, and VRBO, short for Vacation Rental By Owner, has about 75 on its site. The accommodations range from single rooms in houses to downtown lofts to unoccupied homes. All operate without any permits, inspections or taxation. Late last year Tennessee Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III issued an opinion that private homes or condominiums that are rented out to overnight guests meet the definition of "hotels" under state law for both sales and occupancy tax purposes. Websites such as Airbnb and VRBO basically act as booking and payment centers. The sites also have rating systems so guests can grade the quality of their stays and renters can grade the quality of their guests. The opinion places the onus for paying occupancy and sales taxes on the property owner, though in some jurisdictions Airbnb will help hosts calculate their tax payments. The city of Knoxville bans short-term rentals in residential areas, but enforcement occurs only in response to complaints against the owners. City officials are taking a "neighborhoods first" approach to possible ordinances, according to Bill Lyons, deputy to Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero and the administration's chief policy officer. That would put the short-term rental sector in line with other home-operated businesses. A city task force is considering ordinances to regulate the short-term rentals something nearby cities like Asheville, North Carolina, and Nashville have already explored. Nashville requires short-term rental businesses to obtain a city-issued permit and a $1 million insurance policy and to pay hotel occupancy taxes. The city also has a 3 percent cap on non-owner-occupied rentals in any single neighborhood. Some cities are focusing as much on the online booking services as much as they are on hosts in their neighborhoods. In San Francisco, where Airbnb is headquartered, the online booking companies would be fined $1,000 for every unregistered host who rents property through their sites. Airbnb is challenging the ordinance in federal court, according to the Los Angeles Times. Chicago's city council recently passed a complex set of regulations that includes a 4 percent tax on each rental to fund services for the homeless and charges online booking companies $10,000 for a permit to operate, the Chicago Tribune reported. The city of Knoxville has plenty of options, and the Rogero administration's neighborhood first approach is the best way to protect the rights of all property owners while restoring fairness to the overnight rental market. Canton Junction to get their praise on in Gatlinburg August 19 Dove Award-winning Difference Media recording artist Canton Junction. Dove Award-winning Difference Media recording artist Canton Junction is set to bring their Get Your Praise On tour to the Gatlinburg Convention Center (234 Historic Nature Trail) on Friday, August 19 at 6:30 PM as a part of the weekend long Gatlinburg Gathering event. The evening will also feature Canton Junction founding member Pastor Matt Hagee as a featured speaker. Join us for family fun, great music and praising God in song and through His word, said Pastor Matt Hagee. Come be encouraged in your faith and uplifted in spirit as we get our praise on! Tickets for the event can be purchased by calling (888) 238-6858 or by visiting www.abrahamproductions.net. Canton Junctions latest recording, Every Hallelujah, debuted at #1 on Nielsen SoundScans Southern Gospel Overall Chart and in the Top 20 on Billboards Top Current Contemporary Christian chart, following its release last year. Produced by award-winning musician Garry Jones, Every Hallelujah marks the first recording to feature new members Casey Rivers (lead) and Ryan Seaton (baritone), as they join founding members Matthew Hagee and Tim Duncan on 13 powerful selections. Led by the soaring first single, Weep No More, the project features contributions from many of Gospel musics finest songwriters, including Kenna West, Sue C. Smith, Lee Black, Ben Storie and Ronny Hinson, among others. Since their debut in 2012, Canton Junction has quickly become one of southern gospel musics most sought-after quartets. The self-titled Canton Junction featured the #1 singles Hold On, "The Son Shines Down On Me," Sweeter As The Days Go By and Dig A Little Deeper, garnering a GMA Dove Award for Southern Gospel Album of the Year. In 2014 the group received the Singing News Fan Award for Favorite Southern Gospel New Traditional quartet. Published August 9, 2016 It is not a bad thing for us, that the route known as the Goldene Strae or the Golden Road as we will get to know it- has escaped the attention of so many. It has been spared being overrun by hordes of tourists and as you will discover the By Lee Hyo-sik Securities firms are raising the outlook for airline stocks as carriers generate more profits on surging numbers of air travelers amid low fuel costs. The recovering cargo sector has also made airlines more attractive in the eye of equity investors. Mirae Asset Daewoo upgraded its outlook for airline stocks from "neutral" to "buy" Tuesday, citing the booming passenger and cargo businesses of local carriers. It said airline shares will likely move upward for the remainder of the year as more Koreans head abroad, while more Chinese and other foreign visitors fly on domestic carriers. Global oil prices will likely continue to remain weak, bolstering carriers' bottom lines, the brokerage house said. "The number of international travelers at Incheon International Airport jumped 44.7 percent in July from a year earlier. In addition, the Incheon airport's cargo business rose 7.7 percent as exporters are shipping more goods to the United States and Europe," Mirae Asset Daewoo analyst Ryu Jae-hyun said. "The growing passenger and cargo businesses are certainly encouraging signs for carriers. The continued low oil prices are making the second-half outlook more bullish." Ryu said Asiana Airlines is more attractive than its larger rival Korean Air. Among low-cost carriers, he recommended a "buy" for Jeju Air. Asiana Airlines earned 1.37 trillion won in sales in the second quarter, up 4.1 percent from the previous year, while its operating profit reached 28.8 billion won. In the second quarter of 2015, the carrier posted an operating loss. Asiana has benefited from the increasing number of air travelers, both Koreans and internationals, as well as from low fuel prices. The carrier expects to post a record performance in the third quarter during which many people travel during the summer holidays. But Ryu remains cautious about Korean Air, despite the carrier's better-than-expected performance, citing risks associated with its affiliate Hanjin Shipping, which has been struggling to stay afloat under mounting debt. Among low-cost carriers, Mirae Asset Daewoo placed Jeju Air ahead of five other budget airlines. "Low-cost carriers handled about 37.7 percent of air travelers on both domestic and international routes. On domestic routes, the ratio reached 55.4 percent, while that of international flights rose to 30.8 percent," the analyst said. "Jeju Air is in a better position than other budget carriers to capitalize on the rapidly expanding LCC market." Shares of Asiana Airlines inched up 0.55 percent, or 30 won, to close at 5,500 won per share Tuesday, while that of Korean Air rose 0.89 percent, or 250 won, to 28,400 won. Shares of Jeju Air jumped 2.03 percent, or 700 won, to close at 35,100 won per share. Strategy and Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho, second from left, urges the National Assembly to pass the supplementary budget plan at the government complex in Seoul, Tuesday. Accompanying him are Employment and Labor Minister Lee Ki-kweon, first from left, Trade, Industry and Energy Minister Joo Hyung-hwan, third from left, and Financial Services Commission Chairman Yim Jong-yong, fourth from left. / Yonhap By Yoon Ja-young If the supplementary budget doesn't get approval at the National Assembly on time, as many as 68,000 jobs could disappear, according to the finance minister. "Timing matters for everything. Now is the time to pass the supplementary budget for the resuscitation of the economy," Strategy and Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho said in a statement, Tuesday, which aimed at pressuring the National Assembly to pass the supplementary budget plan. The government submitted an 11 trillion won supplementary budget bill to the National Assembly to prop up the economy. However, opposition lawmakers have been demanding that the government must set a budget for free childcare first to pass the supplementary budget. They also demanded a parliamentary hearing regarding the suspicion that Cheong Wa Dae pressured policy banks to fund the troubled Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering. The minister said that the economy is in dismal condition. "Due to low oil prices and protectionism, exports aren't picking up. The entrepreneurs aren't increasing investment and the consumers are refraining from spending. The poor condition of the job market is even more worrisome, with youth unemployment rate surpassing 10 percent and shipbuilding regions shedding 24,000 jobs in June," Yoo said. According to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, production is continuing to be sluggish despite improvement in private consumption based on government policies. "With both external and internal risks continuing such as Brexit and corporate restructuring, the recovery in domestic consumption is likely to be hampered as effects of policies such as the consumption tax cut on automobiles fade out," the ministry notes in its "Green Book," a monthly economic assessment released Tuesday. Massive layoffs are becoming a reality following the corporate restructuring of troubled businesses including shipbuilders. South Gyeongsang Province, where the country's biggest shipyards are located, had its unemployment rate soar to 3.6 percent in June, up 1 percentage point from a year ago. Some analysts estimate that up to 63,000 may lose their jobs in shipbuilding by next year. Yoo stressed that the supplementary budget is focusing on sustaining the job market. "The extra budget plan this year includes measures to support successful corporate restructuring and lessen the troubles of workers who fear losing their jobs. It also includes support for creating jobs for young people," he said, adding that the young will lose job opportunities and as many as 68,000 jobs could disappear if the extra budget plan isn't implemented on time. He said that the supplementary budget plan should be executed in September as it is scheduled. "When considering the preparation procedure, it should get approval at the National Assembly as soon as possible," the minister added. The government expects that the 11 trillion won supplementary budget, which is part of the 28 trillion won economic stimulus package, will pull up the economic growth rate by 0.2 or 0.3 percentage point. The finance ministry expects the economy to grow 2.8 percent this year, while most private think tanks suggest the percentage of growth will be between 2.4 and 2.6 percent. The Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra will be performing on the outdoor stage of Seoul Plaza in front of City Hall on Aug. 15. / Courtesy of SPO By Yun Suh-young In the scorching heat, there's nothing like a cool refreshing breeze. Much like we need a breeze on a hot day, there are musical genres that offer respite, such as the classics. There are several classical concerts coming up in August to look out for. Summer Classic by Youth Orchestra at Sejong Center Poster of Summer Classic to be performed at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts on Aug. 13 Classical music performances will start off this weekend at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts on Aug. 13 with two performances at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. The Seoul Metropolitan Youth Orchestra will offer an "easy classical performance" for both parents and children to enjoy during the summer vacation. The 100-member orchestra, conducted by Kim Ji-hwan, will perform pieces representative of the 20th century such as G. Holst's The Planet Jupiter, A. Marquez's Danzon No. 2, Stravinsky's The Firebird Suite "Lullaby" and "Finale." Spivakovsky's Concerto for Harmonica and Orchestra is also on the playlist. The classic performance will be accompanied by narration by Chung Kyung-young, professor of the Department of Composition at Hanyang University, to facilitate the understanding of the audience. Ticket prices range from 10,000 to 30,000 won. Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra at Seoul Plaza Poster for Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra's performance at the Seoul Plaza on Aug. 1 The Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra will be performing on the outdoor stage of Seoul Plaza in front of City Hall on Aug. 15 at 7 p.m. to celebrate the 71st anniversary of national liberation that falls on the same day. The orchestra has performed every August since 2005 to celebrate the national holiday and provide opportunities for the public to enjoy classical music. At this year's concert, conductor Choi Soo-Yeoul will take the helm. Violinist Kim Soo-yeon will play the Violin Concerto by Bruch, and baritone Jeong Rok-gi will perform a Korean song "Because of your presence" by Kim Soon-ae, "Der Vogelfanger bin ich ja" Aria of Papageno from "Die Zauberflote" by Mozart, and "Sailor's song" by Cho Doo-nam. Admission is free and seating is first come, first served. Young Korean, Chinese artists at Kumho Art Hall Pianist Kim Kyu-yeon Baritone Li Ao A classical concert to celebrate the 24th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Korea and China will be held at Kumho Art Hall on Aug. 19 at 8 p.m. Kumho Art Hall has been inviting Korean and Chinese artists since 1999 in an effort to introduce to audiences the young musicians of both countries. In the past, violinist Ning Feng and cellist Li Wei Qin were among the Chinese artists introduced to Korean audiences, while renowned musicians from Korea such as cellist Chung Myung-hwa and violinist Choi Ye-eun performed. Two young rising musicians from both countries will take the main stage. Chinese baritone Li Ao and Korean pianist Kim Kyu-yeon will be collaborating on stage. Li Ao is a world-class baritone who won the Operalia, a world opera competition. He was trained as the San Francisco Opera's Adler Fellow and won the audition of New York's Metropolitan Opera. Pianist Kim Kyu-yeon, currently attending Manhattan School of Music, was runner-up at the Dublin International Piano Competition and won a prize at the Queen Elisabeth Piano Competition. Tickets are 30,000 won for all seats. Teenagers get a discounted price of 9,000 won. The elderly and college students get a 50 percent discount upon showing their ID. Concerts lined up at newly opened Lotte Concert Hall Lotte Concert Hall which opens Aug. 19 has a series of classical concerts lined up for the rest of the month and throughout the year. At the opening concert scheduled for Aug. 19, conductor Chung Myung-whun and the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra will perform new pieces by composer Chin Un-suk. On Aug. 25 and 27, Mahler specialist and composer Lim Hun-jeong, the Korean Symphony Orchestra and a chorus of 1,000 will reenact Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 8 also known as "Symphony of a Thousand" because 1,000 people performed in the very first performance in 1910. This will be a rare opportunity to see such a large-scale performance. On Aug. 29 and 31, maestro Chung Myung-whun will lead the prestigious 238-year-old Italian orchestra, La Scala Theater Orchestra, who will be visiting Seoul for a performance. They will be performing Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 and Verdi's opera "Simon Boccanegra" concertante (performed like a symphony concert). The 2,036-seat Lotte Concert Hall is the first vineyard-style classical music hall where the seats surround the center stage so the audience can enjoy an intimate auditory experience. Ticket prices range from 40,000 won to 300,000 won. Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra at SAC The Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra will be playing at the Seoul Arts Center from Aug. 24 through 25 at 8 p.m. collaborating with foreign musicians. On both days, the orchestra will perform with maestro conductor Eliahu Inbal from Israel who has led renowned orchestras in Frankfurt, Berlin and Czech Republic, and pianist Olga Kern from Russia who is a Rachmaninoff specialist. Conductor Eliahu Inbal The 80-year-old Inbal has performed with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra several times as a guest conductor and received rave reviews. Kern won the Rachmaninoff piano competition at the age of 17 and was the first female winner of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2001. In 2004, her variation on Rachmaninoff's Corelli was nominated as a Grammy candidate. Pianist Olga Kern The concerts' playlist includes Brahms' Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op.73, Brahms' Hungarian Dances No.17-21, and Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43. The rhapsody is the last concerto written by Rachmaninoff. Ticket prices range from 10,000 won to 70,000 won. Playlist and performers for both concerts are the same. F-15K loaded with a Taurus missile By Jun Ji-hye The Taurus long-range cruise missiles for the Air Force's F-15K fleet will enter service within two or three months, the South Korean military said, Tuesday, amid expectations that the weapon will enhance the capability of striking North Korea's nuclear and missile bases. Some 60 Taurus air-to-ground missiles, manufactured by the German-Swedish joint venture Taurus Systems, are expected to arrive in South Korea from Germany in the following months. An official from the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) told reporters on condition of anonymity that Seoul would be able to meet its goal to operationally deploy the GPS-guided cruise missiles by the end of this year as the U.S. government has recently approved the export of critical military GPS receivers to be fitted on the missiles. The system integration of the GPS receivers is required to equip and operate the German-made missiles on the American-made fighter jets. The F-15K jets were manufactured by U.S. defense firm Boeing. The GPS receiver is part of the core equipment that makes it possible for a missile to hit a target even if the enemy conducts electronic jamming. The Taurus KEPD 350K has a range of 500 kilometers and can perform deep penetration missions with pinpoint accuracy, making it ideal for taking out hard targets such as underground installations and bridges, according to the missile maker. The Air Force said if the missiles are launched above the central city of Daejeon, where the military headquarters are located, they can hit an underground bunker in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang. "Once operationally deployed, South Korean pilots will be able to hit strategic targets such as nuclear and missile bases with great precision without entering North Korean airspace," an Air Force official told reporters. Officials noted that the Taurus missile is one of the core assets in forming the country's pre-emptive missile destruction system, the so-called Kill Chain. The Kill Chain is a system to carry out a preemptive strike on the repressive state's nuclear and missile facilities upon imminent threat and is scheduled to be completed by the 2020s. By Jun Ji-hye Kim Jang-soo Wu Dawei South Korean Ambassador to China Kim Jang-soo met with Beijing's special representative for the Korean Peninsula, Wu Dawei, Monday, to reiterate Seoul's firm position on the necessity to deploy a U.S. anti-missile system on Korean soil, officials said, Tuesday. It marked the first time that the government delivered its position to China through an official diplomatic channel. The meeting came after Beijing escalated its criticism of the deployment by mobilizing the country's state-run media from last week. "Kim delivered the government's clear position on the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system to Wu," a diplomatic source said on condition of anonymity. "The two also exchanged views on other issues surrounding the peninsula, including North Korea's recent missile provocations." Since South Korea and the United States announced on July 8 that the THAAD unit will be deployed in South Korea by the end of next year, Beijing has been expressing strong opposition, apparently out of concern that the battery's AN/TPY-2 radar could spy on China's military activities and missile capabilities. Beijing's protest appears to have intensified from Aug. 3 when the People's Daily, the official mouthpiece of China's Communist Party, said in an editorial that President Park Geun-hye should resolve the issue prudently to avoid driving her country to ruin. Then on Aug. 6, the Global Times under the auspices of the People's Daily claimed that South Korean lawmakers, who have been opposed to the deployment of THAAD, encountered attacks from the government, the ruling Saenuri Party and the media ahead of their visit to China. Six first-term lawmakers from the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea (MPK) left for China on Monday for talks with Chinese officials and scholars over the deployment of the THAAD system. Ambassador Kim was originally scheduled to meet the lawmakers upon their arrival in China, but the plan was canceled amid strong opposition by Seoul's presidential office to their visit to Beijing. Kim met with Wu instead of meeting the opposition lawmakers. Observers say that Kim probably told Wu that the THAAD deployment is an inevitable self-defense measure to safeguard the South Korean people and better deter evolving nuclear and missile threats from North, reiterating the government's existing position. "The government clearly delivered its position to China, but it remains to be seen how the Chinese government will react," a government official said on condition of anonymity. For their part, the MPK lawmakers met with Chinese scholars as well as South Korean residents and press correspondents in China, Tuesday. They pushed ahead with the visit despite a warning from Cheong Wa Dae that the visit will only bolster Beijing's stance over THAAD and exacerbate the growing division among South Koreans. Soon after they left for China, President Park criticized them, saying they were sympathizing with the opinions of China as well as North Korea. She also said some politicians have openly made "ridiculous" claims that South Korea has nothing to say on the THAAD plan even if the North engages in another provocation. Regarding belligerent statements from Chinese media, Cheong Wa Dae said Beijing should raise questions over Pyongyang's nuclear and missile threats, instead of criticizing the planned installation of the anti-missile system. THAAD is an integral part of the U.S.-led missile defense system (MD), designed to shoot down short- and medium-range ballistic missiles at the end-stage of their flights. Beijing believes that the system is a strategic weapon for the U.S. and regards the deployment as an attempt by Washington to get its Asian ally to join the MD system to contain its influence in the Asia-Pacific region. The Ministry of National Defense has rejected such a perception, saying that THAAD is a weapons system only to defend the Korean Peninsula and that the nation has held its position not to join the U.S. MD. Funding projects carried out too hastily By Kim Bo-eun The education ministry's university funding projects have come under public fire, following the recent conflict at Ewha Womans University over a government-funded night school. The ministry has invested a total of 1.5 trillion won into about 10 such projects since 2010 with the aim of heightening competitiveness of universities here. Among them, the projects implemented this year were devised for universities to restructure and find other sources of revenue in the face of a decreasing number of freshmen due to the low birthrate. However, these have generated much controversy, as they involved disputed measures such as restructuring and adding new colleges yet did not sufficiently collect and reflect the opinions of students and faculty. This resulted in the recent backlash from students at Ewha, who protested the school's decision to set up the night school, resulting in the plan's nullification. The students are continuing their protest, demanding the school president step down over her role in the matter. Critics say the ministry's projects have caused conflicts as they lure schools to receive funding without taking sufficient time or proper procedures to review their actual needs and collect opinions from students and faculty. For the night school project, Ewha and nine other universities were to receive 3 billion won each from the ministry. But for some projects, the funding reaches as high as 15 billion won. Such large amounts of funds have blinded many schools, which have scrambled to be selected without sufficient preparation, according to the critics. The limited timeframes drawn by the ministry also contributed to the rush. "The ministry is responsible for the protests at Ewha because it hurried the night school project for a 2017 launch," said Kim Sung-su, policy director at civic group World Without Worries about Shadow Education (WWWSE). "Initially, only six universities had been selected for the project, but in two months it hastily recruited additional schools, which made it impossible for the universities to seek agreement from students." Ewha officials said they had followed due process by including a student representative in the decision-making process. Another project to merge majors and restructure colleges, known as the PRIME project, previously met with backlash at Ewha and other schools, which resulted in canceling the project. The ministry selects schools for the projects based on an evaluation of various factors, but the factor of "agreement from members" of the institution takes up merely 3 to 10 points out of 100. The ministry, however, said this was enough. "We don't see any problem with the current percentage. It is actually up to the individual schools to collect students' opinions according to their own rules," a ministry official said. Meanwhile, critics say that the ministry's funds for universities bear fundamental problems. "Korea has a notably large percentage of private universities. This makes it difficult for the government to keep an eye on all of these institutions. This is one of the reasons the ministry is coming up with funding projects, to monitor them," Kim said. "Receiving large amounts of funding from the government can prevent the institutions from criticizing the ministry's policies as well as exercising full autonomy." Dongmyo Shrine in Seoul was built in honor of third century Chinese military commander, Guan Yu. /Courtesy of Wikimedia By Park Jae-hyuk A man has been fined 1 million won ($904) for damaging a shrine in Seoul designated as a national treasure. According to the Seoul Central District Court, the man, 57, surnamed Park, broke several roof tiles of the shrine in Jongno, central Seoul, in April. He caused minor damage, which was repaired shortly afterward. According to police, Park was angry and drunk and had fought with a pedestrian. "Park paid for all the repairs and was feeling remorse for his act," Judge Nam Seong-min wrote in the ruling. The shrine, built in 1601, was designated as a national heritage in January 1963. Guan Yu, a hero of Chinese classic "History of Three States", is enshrined there. By Kim Hyo-jin Opposition leaders struck back at President Park Geun-hye, Tuesday, for her criticism of six opposition lawmakers of the Minjoo Party of Korea (MPK) who are visiting China amid tensions between the two countries over South Korea's decision to deploy a U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery here. They said that Park incited internal division and exacerbated political wrangling over the THAAD issue by labeling the lawmakers of the main opposition party as North Korea and China sympathizers. However, later in the day, despite the denunciation from the opposition, Park continued to lash out at THAAD protests for the second straight day, saying differences on views regarding a security issue will only exacerbate national division and put people's lives at risk. In her meeting with senior secretaries, Monday, the head of state berated the opposition lawmakers, who flew to Beijing earlier that day for talks with Chinese scholars and officials on the planned THAAD deployment, saying they were sympathizing with the opinions of China as well as North Korea. MPK floor leader Rep. Woo Sang-ho demanded an apology, saying it showed her belligerent stance against the opposition. "It's impossible to understand why the President painted the opposition lawmakers who have different views to hers as North Korea followers or traitors," he said during a party meeting. "Opposition lawmakers do not have to play a role of being an envoy of the President. We ask the President for an apology." Rep. Park Jie-won, the floor leader of the minor opposition People's Party, agreed with Woo's argument, saying the president was seeking to redirect public discontent over the planned installation of the anti-missile system by making it an ideological, nationalistic issue. "Park stepped up criticizing China without persuading people in Seongju or the South Korean public while making the issue sound like a matter of either being a nationalist or traitor, someone seeking national security or North Korea follower," he said. They plan to return home today after meeting Chinese scholars, South Korean press correspondents and South Korean residents there to exchange views on the THAAD issue. Cheong Wa Dae has expressed concerns about their trip saying it could bolster China's opposition to the THAAD unit and widen internal division inside the country. While attending a national convention of the ruling Saenuri Party, Park continued to lash out at THAAD opponents. "The deployment of a THAAD battery is a minimum defensive measure that will protect us from threats posed by North Korea's nuclear program and missiles," she said during her congratulatory address. "If you raise criticism and encourage conflict over the planned deployment without presenting any alternative measure, it means that you are driving the nation and the people into a crisis." Rep. Lee Jung-hyun of the ruling Saenuri Party waves a party flag after his election as the new chairman at the party's national convention at Jamsil Indoor Gymnasium in southern Seoul, Tuesday. / Yonhap By Kim Hyo-jin Rep. Lee Jung-hyun, a three-term lawmaker, was elected as new chairman of the ruling Saenuri Party, Tuesday. This is the first time in the history of the conservative party that a lawmaker from the Jeolla provinces a traditional stronghold for liberals won the chairmanship. Lee is from Gokseong, South Jeolla Province. Lee, a close aide to President Park Geun-hye, garnered 44,421 votes, beating Joo Ho-young, an anti-Park lawmaker who earned 31,946 votes at the party's national convention in Seoul, which also picked five Supreme Council members. Two other candidates Reps. Lee Ju-young and Han Sun-kyo had 21,614 and 10,757, respectively. The combined ballots by party members and delegates account for 70 percent of the election result, while public opinion polls comprised 30 percent. "I declare that from this moment no pro-Park or non-Park factions shall exist," Lee said during an acceptance speech. "I will reform the party structure and bring back public confidence and pave the way to victory in the upcoming presidential election." Reps. Cho Won-jin, Lee Jang-woo, Kang Seok-ho, Choi Yeon-hye were picked to form the Supreme Council, with Yoo Chang-soo taking an additional slot allotted to a youth party member. Cho, Lee and Choi are regarded as loyal to President Park. With pro-Park members holding a grip on the party leadership, the national convention is expected to smooth out the party's relations with the presidential office that has often been subject to friction in the past, and prevent President Park from entering a lame-duck session prematurely, according to analysts. Lee's victory came as a surprise because Park loyalists have been losing ground in the party after the stinging defeat in the April 13 general election. Some pro-Park lawmakers involved in the run-up to the election had to step back from the party affairs, taking responsibility for the result of the elections after candidate nominations, lopsided in favor of pro-Park members, and the following factional conflict were noted as a major reason for the defeat. Party officials said that members of the mainstream pro-Park faction still exerted organizational power on the ballot day. They also added that the significance of having the first chairman from a liberal region in the conservative party appeared to have influenced the sentiment of voters. The 58-year-old lawmaker emerged as a bigwig in the party after he won a rare victory in a 2014 by-election for a constituency in Suncheon, South Jeolla Province. He retained his parliamentary seat there in April's general election. Lee served as Park's chief secretary for political affairs between March and June 2013, and for public affairs between June 2013 and June 2014. He will have to carry out the daunting task of seeking unity in the bewildered party suffering from factional division and nurture a candidate in the run-up to the presidential election in 2017. The pundits said Ban Ki-moon, the U.N. Secretary-General and a possible presidential candidate who is believed to be backed by the President, will gain steam under Lee's leadership. The new chairman will be given bigger influence in leading the party than his predecessors. Lee will have a full authority in appointing party officials and orchestrating general party affairs. The result came after the outgoing leadership changed party regulations after its crushing defeat in the April 13 general election. The party used to make decisions based on the agreement between a chairman and eight Supreme Council members. But this rule faced strong criticism as the leadership remained fragmented while the party was embroiled in factional conflicts in the run-up to the general election. S. Korea keeping distance with US missile defense system holds key By Yi Whan-woo To resolve a growing diplomatic row with Beijing over the planned deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery here, South Korea should convince China that it will not join the U.S. missile defense system, analysts said Tuesday. They said Beijing is most concerned about Washington using THAAD, which will be stationed in the southeastern county of Seongju by next year, as a stepping stone to strengthen its missile defense system in the region to contain a rising China. Since South Korea and the United States decided July 8 to bring in the THAAD system, an advanced U.S. missile shield, there has been growing tension between Seoul and Beijing. Chinese state-run media outlets have slammed South Korea's deployment plan for threatening regional security, with Cheong Wa Dae striking back, putting at risk the bilateral ties that Chinese President Xi Jinping once described as "the best-ever in history." "It matters most to China whether South Korea will be incorporated into the U.S. missile defense system or stick with its plan to develop KAMD after placing a THAAD battery in Korea," said Kim Han-kwon, a professor at the Korea National Diplomatic AcademyDepartment of National Security and Unification Studies. "The Korean government should continue to persuade China that the deployment of a THAAD battery does not necessarily mean South Korea is joining the broader U.S. missile defense system." KAMD is an acronym for the Korean Air and Missile Defense System, an indigenous missile shield that Seoul is developing to detect and destroy incoming North Korean missiles. The U.S.-made PAC-3 interceptor missiles and Green Pine radar purchased from Israel make up the mainstay of KAMD although it also involves homegrown technology. KAMD is separate from the U.S. missile defense system in Northeast Asia, which currently involves Japan, according to the Ministry of Defense. It also has persistently said that Seoul has no intention of joining the Washington-led missile defense system. "Seoul should come up with logical answer concerning KAMD and U.S. missile defense system to diminish China's opposition toward THAAD," Kim added. Given that THAAD aims to deter North Korea's military attacks, some suggested pulling out the THAAD battery from South Korea if Pyongyang no longer poses threats. "It should be a precondition for Seoul and Washington that the THAAD battery will be pulled out if Pyongyang gives up its nuclear and missile development," said Park Won-gon, an international relations professor at Handong University. "By doing so, we can make it clear THAAD is not targeting China." They also said operating THAAD should require parliamentary approval to ensure it will be used in a convincing manner for China and also Russia, both of whom have protested that THAAD's radar can be used to monitor their military activities. Kim Heung-kyu, a professor at Ajou University's Department of Political Science and Diplomacy, suggested endorsement from the National Assembly before upgrading THAAD and deploying an additional battery. China politicizing THAAD: US analysts Some American analysts generally agreed with the idea that China's protest against THAAD stems from its concerns over the possible presence of the U.S. missile defense system on the Korean Peninsula. They, however, speculated that finding ideal solutions will not be easy, claiming China is also addressing issues on THAAD for political purposes. "Since China has been offered and has rejected a technical briefing, it means that China;s objection to THAAD deployment is political, so I am doubtful that the PRC will be convinced of the necessity of THAAD through logic," Scott Snyder, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, expressed in an e-mail. PRC is an acronym for the People's Republic of China. He speculated that China's goal against THAAD is to contain the alliance between South Korea and the U.S. as "an instrument applicable solely to deterrence of North Korea so that it would not have other regional uses." "But China's intent contradicts the U.S.-Republic of Korea (ROK) Joint Vision Statement adopted in June of 2009," he added. Richard Bush, director at the Center for East Asia Policy Studies in Washington D.C., wrote in an e-mail that "China does not seem to accept that the ROK should make its own decisions about the threats it faces and what steps it should take to respond." Concerning the National Assembly's approval concerning THAAD, Leon Sigal, director of the Northeast Asia Cooperative Security Project at the Social Science Research Council, said, "I doubt that would be useful with Beijing or Moscow." Tytti Rantanen By John Redmond Hundreds of English teachers and scholars from around the world will meet for the two-day Korea TESOL (KOTESOL) International Conference at Sookmyung Women's University in Seoul from Oct. 15 to 16. The theme of KOTESOL'S 24th International Conference is "Shaping the Future with 21st Century Skills." "The theme of the conference highlights the challenges that both teachers and learners face in the 21st century," the organizer said in a press release, "especially in regard to advances in communication technology, and the growth of global media." The international conference offers more than 200 sessions over the two days, bringing together educators from around the world. The sessions, featuring 15 speakers, are a mix of academic lectures, practical workshops and discussions focused on teachers of young learners to adults and university students, also offering 101 workshops for new teachers. There will be a plenary session from a leading researcher in the area of reflective practice, Thomas S.C. Ferrell of Brock University in Canada, who will open the conference with a presentation on reflective practices for 21st century language teachers. "Farrell argues that professional development in the 21st century is about encouraging teachers to engage in reflective practice," said the organizer. "Reflective practice helps teachers maintain their curiosity and passion for teaching and leads to collaboration. Farrell will discuss five stages of teacher reflection that teachers can immediately start using." Plenary speaker Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa, of Harvard University, will continue the theme with a session on the five major changes to hit education in the 21st century. Also speaking is Dr. Lee Bo-young, a well-known associate dean of the English language graduate school at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, who will discuss how communicative language teaching can be effectively implemented in Korea. The Korea TESOL International conference offers attendees the opportunity to discuss new ideas, gain practical knowledge and network with other educators from all over the world. Those interested in attending can save money by preregistering online. Online preregistration for the conference began Aug. 1 and ends Oct. 1. For more information about KOTESOL, visit koreatesol.org and navigate to koreatesol.org/IC2016 for more about the International Conference. By John Redmond The Teach North Korean Refugees (TNKR) invites guests and volunteers to an open house session at its new office in Mapo-gu, western Seoul, Saturday. Starting at 2 p.m., TNKR will be holding an orientation session to introduce the group's major activities and upcoming events. Items on the agenda include an English speech contest to be held Aug. 20, track 2 orientation for Aug. 21 and matching on Aug. 27. Also to be addressed are the ongoing "How to Help North Koreans" project, planning teams (fundraising, communications, events, curriculum and translation) and Homework Helpers orientation and matching, scheduled for September. The group requested attendees to arrive at least 10 minutes early for quick registration so the event can start at 2 p.m. The event is scheduled to end at 3:30 but it may continue on longer for those interested. "This is not an orientation to become an English teacher in TNKR," states the group. "This is to give an overview of TNKR activities and to help volunteers figure out how they can help." TNKR is a nonprofit organization based in Seoul that has connected more than 200 North Korean refugees with 300 volunteers. The group was established in 2013 under the leadership of Casey Lartigue Jr. and vice director Lee Eun-koo. The TNKR office is near exit 4 of Gwangheungchang Station on Line 6, two stops from Hapjeong Station. For more information, visit facebook.com/groups/teachnkrefugees or email CJL@post.harvard.edu to have your registration confirmed. Also visit teachnorthkoreanrefugees.org. Bangladesh expelled a North Korean diplomat who was caught smuggling goods worth nearly $500,000. / Courtesy of Twitter By Lee Jin-a Bangladesh has expelled a North Korean diplomat for smuggling goods worth $500,000. According to the Radio Free Asia (RFA) on Monday, Han Son-ik, first secretary of the North Korean embassy in Dhaka, was sent back to the North after he was caught smuggling in nearly 1.6 million cigarettes and electronic devices. "The diplomat declared that his cargo contained food and soft drinks. But when we opened it up, there were 1.6 million expensive cigarettes and electronics," said Bangladesh customs official Moinul Khan. In March last year, another North Korean diplomat apologized after he was caught at Dhaka airport trying to smuggle in nearly 27 kg of gold, worth $1.7 million. North Korean diplomats are suspected of having abused their diplomatic immunity to smuggle in or out pricy goods as part of efforts to develop revenue sources amid falling cash reserves because of international sanctions over the North's nuclear weapon and missile programs. Kim Ji-yeon, the women's individual sabre gold medalist at the 2012 London Olympics, lost to Loreta Gulotta of Italy 15-13 in the round of 16 at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics on Monday. / Yonhap Defending Olympic fencing champion Kim Ji-yeon suffered a shocking third-round loss at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics on Monday. Kim, the women's individual sabre gold medalist at the 2012 London Olympics, lost to Loreta Gulotta of Italy 15-13 in the round of 16 at Carioca Arena 3. Kim went down 2-0 early in the bout before going ahead 9-5. Gulotta, though, ate into the deficit and made it an 11-11 tie. Then Gulotta scored three unanswered points to take a 14-11 lead. With her back against the wall, Kim managed to pick up two points, before the Italian closed out the bout with the 15th and the clinching point. Two other South Koreans, Seo Ji-yeon and Hwang Seon-a, also suffered early defeats. Namibia's flag bearer Jonas Junias has been arrested for sexual assault at the Rio Olympics Athletes Village. / Courtesy of Twitter By Lee Jin-a Namibian boxer Jonas Junias has been arrested for sexual assault at the Rio Olympics Athletes Village. Junias, 22, allegedly kissed a housemaid at the village and offered to pay her for sex, Brazilian police said on Monday (local time). Under Brazilian laws, anyone who attempts a sexual act, including kissing, without permission can be charged with sexual assault. Junias was Namibia's flag bearer at the opening ceremony and was set to compete in the men's light welterweight division on Aug 12. Mario Andrada, Rio 2016 communications executive director, said the committee knew of the incident. Junias is the second athlete arrested for sexual charges at the Olympics _ the other is Moroccan boxer Hassan Saada. Both are in custody. Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt told a press conference Monday that he will break 19 seconds for 200m at 2016 Rio, which will be his last Olympics. / Yonhap By Hong Dam-young Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt confirmed that the Rio Olympics will be his last. "Yes, this is the last Olympics for sure," he told a press conference Monday. "I have done everything, and have proven myself." He said he would "really, really" like to set a world record by breaking 18 seconds for the 200 meters. He holds the record at 19.19 seconds. "I've always wanted to run a sub-19, so I'm really focused on that," he said. Bolt also holds the world record of 9.58 seconds for the 100 and set a 36.84-second record in the 4x100 relay. After winning gold medals in the 100 meters, 200 meters and 4x100-meter relay at the 2008 Beijing Games and 2012 London Games, he now aims to complete a "triple triple" of gold medals at his last Olympics. He said his sprints in Rio would be drug-free, in light of the recent Russian doping scandal. His sprint rivals, Americans Justin Gatlin and LaShawn Merritt, have both served drug bans. "I think we're going in the right direction, I must say," Bolt said. "I think we're weeding out the bad ones. We have to go through a rough time before we get to the good times." Time to settle disputes proactively The rising trend of global trade protectionism is finally taking concrete shape, raising fears that Korea, which relies heavily on trade, might be hardest hit. The U.S. Commerce Department last week decided to impose punitive tariffs on hot-rolled flat steel from seven countries, including Korea and Japan. The ruling, which could still be overturned by the U.S. International Trade Commission, was particularly painful to Korean steelmakers as POSCO, Korea's top steelmaker, was slapped with 3.9 percent anti-dumping duties and 57 percent anti-subsidy duties. Hyundai Steel was charged with 9.5 percent anti-dumping duties and 3.9 percent anti-subsidy tariffs. The tariffs are almost certain to push Korean steelmakers, especially POSCO, out of the American market because a large chunk of its hot-rolled steel is exported to the U.S. In July, the U.S. department also imposed 65 percent punitive tariffs on POSCO's cold-rolled steel, which is used for cars and home appliances. Earlier, the department accused Samsung and LG of dumping Chinese-made washing machines in the U.S. in a preliminary ruling. Trade protectionism is certainly a global phenomenon as major countries increasingly erect barriers amid a global supply glut. According to the World Trade Organization, the world's 20 major economies, or G20, initiated 21 trade-restricting steps a month on average from last October to May, the largest number since the WTO began compiling related data. The U.S. took the largest number of trade-restricting steps last year with 90, according to a Global Trade Alert report released by the Center for Economic Policy Research. It's no wonder that small, open economies like Korea are hit hardest by trade protectionism. Of the 4,000 measures governments have taken to restrict trade since the 2008 global financial crisis, nearly 1,000 have involved Korea. The problem is that nowhere can export-reliant Korea find alternative markets. Exports to China, Korea's largest trading partner, have remained sluggish owing to its economic slowdown, but the simmering conflict over Seoul's deployment of an advanced U.S. missile defense system makes the export outlook all the more gloomy. Trade circumstances in the European Union hardly look good in the aftermath of Britain's vote to leave the EU. Most worrisome is that Washington will retreat significantly from the Obama administration's overall free trade stance whoever becomes the U.S. president in November. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, in particular, would be a serious headache if he is elected, given his accusation Monday of the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement as a perfect example of "broken promises." Korea will of course have limitations in steering the world clear of protectionism. But our trade negotiators should not sit on their hands, just looking at America's trade offensives merely as brawls between companies. It will be necessary for them to settle trade disputes proactively by expanding dialogue channels with their foreign counterparts before it's too late. Korean companies, for their part, need to consider taking legal action, including filing a petition with the WTO. The more fundamental solution would be to reorganize our industrial structure in such a direction as to lower our dependency on trade, no matter how long it takes. Tytti Rantanen By Kwon Mee-yoo Tytti Rantanen, program coordinator of AV-ARKKI, visited Korea to attend the Seoul International New Media Festival (NeMaf) 2016 to introduce Finnish media art to Korea and promote exchanges between artists of the two countries. Media art is a genre of art which includes anything with moving images in a broad sense, its root coming from experimental films. "It could be a single channel video or multi-channel installations. More artists are doing online projects through the Internet. It is something different from film but has something to do with moving images," Rantanen said during an interview with The Korea Times, Monday. "Media art is for open-minded people who are not afraid of experimental and abstract art. It is also for those who are interested in what is going on in the world now as media art sometimes deals with complicated, contemporary issues such as refugees and gender equality." The AV-ARKKI is a distribution center for Finnish media art with over 200 member artists and Rantanen's role is to liaise between artists and institutions. "When artists submit their new work, we send it to biennales, museums and galleries. We also work with film festivals such as NeMaf. However, we don't sell rights, but just connect the artist and organizations and help them get the right price," Rantanen said. For NeMaf 2016, Rantanen curated a special section dedicated to Finland and gave a lecture on the history of Finnish media art and where it is today. The characteristics of Finnish media art can be largely summarized in a critical approach to the Scandinavian ideals including nature, equality and education. "Some artists deal with more transnational, political themes. For instance, racism is a big issue in Finland now and artists want to produce films about how to fight racism and achieve harmony," Rantanen said. "Some of the works are more personal and the artists reveal how they live in this world." She added that most Finnish media artists work alone with small budgets. "It's like a one-man orchestra _ an artist shoots the film, edits the film and sometimes even acts in the film. However, the media art pieces are not low in quality," Rantanen said. Since it is difficult to encounter Korean media art in Finland, Rantanen said attending NeMaf provided her with a great opportunity to watch Korean short films. "One thing I noticed is that they portray a great sense of humor. I also sensed what kind of issues you are dealing with in Korea now. After Breaking the Silence was about workers on strike and it was good to see those sides of society, something under the surface and not in a guidebook." "On the Finnish art scene now, collaborating with Korean and Japanese artists is quite popular. We traditionally worked with artists from Europe, from Austria, Germany and France, and from the United States, but now we are coming to this corner of the world," Rantanen said. "We are looking for new places and new audiences and our interest in Asia is increasing. Korean artist Choi Jeong-hwa is holding an exhibit at the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, and it is quite popular." Rantanen's AV-ARKKI is planning for residencies and exchanges between Finland and Korea along with the Helsinki International Artist Programme and the Frame Contemporary Art Finland. "Visiting NeMaf was the first step of the collaboration. We want to reinforce the relationship, but it's still in its early stages so we will see how it will go," Rantanen said. NeMaf 2016 runs through Friday. By Lee Min-hyung Seoul Viosys, a Seoul Semiconductor affiliate manufacturing ultraviolet light-emitting-diodes (UV LED), has filed a patent-infringement lawsuit against U.S.-based electronics firm, P3 International, claiming the latter violated Viosys' LED chip-making technology to produce mosquito traps. The lawsuit, filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, claims that mosquito traps of P3 International copied manufacturing processes of Viosys' UV LED mosquito trap "Mosclean," Seoul Viosys said in a statement. "We requested the U.S. court to block sales of P3 International's mosquito trap, as the firm clearly breached our patented LED chip packaging and manufacturing processes _ including production of a mosquito trap engine," a Seoul Viosys official said. "We decided to file the lawsuit to protect our LED patents and will continue to maintain a hard-line stance on any acts of breaching patents," said the company spokesman. Seoul Viosys said the company developed Mosclean with its "Violeds" technology and years-long collaboration with the nation's most renowned mosquito expert Lee Dong-gyu. The company previously developed the Violeds technology with U.S.-based UV LED maker Sensor Electronics Technology (SETi) for more than 10 years. The technology is used to remove bacteria and viruses by using UV LED. Seoul Viosys President Kang Tae-yoong said: "We are seeking to expand distribution of the Violeds-converged products all across the world." "We will continue to put more effort into protecting the technology and other patented products to become the most renowned UV LED chipmaker in the world," he said. The company chief said this will allow the firm to achieve an economy of scale in the UV LED industry, mass-producing its products at a cheaper price." By Lee Min-hyung A controversy over whether to allow Google to host the nation's map data abroad is escalating into a broader phase, with the search engine giant facing growing opposition from the local IT industry and some state-run bodies. A heated debate took place on Monday when a Google representative and a group of industry insiders exchanged their ideas over whether the government should approve of Google's plan to access the nation's geographical information. "Google needs government approval over hosting local map data abroad to operate our map service in Korea, as we have to store the data in our cloud platform across the world for more stable and efficient operation of the service," Kwon Beom-joon, a software engineer at Google Korea, said in the discussion session at the National Assembly. He stressed that a number of foreign tourists have had a tough time accessing its map data service here, due to the issue. "We hope to supply our map service in Korea, as we have done in other countries," he said. The Korea Association of Surveying and Mapping a non-profit organization dealing with map-related surveys here held the discussion four days before a planned meeting on Friday by a special state-run coalition organized to deal with the issue. SK Telecom's smart home business division Senior Vice President Cho Young-hoon, right, poses with Hanyang's construction business division Executive Director Lee Bong-kyu after signing an agreement to supply smart home systems and services for the Hanyang Sujain apartment complex in Cheongna International City in northern Incheon, Tuesday. / Courtesy of SK Telecom By Yoon Sung-won SK Telecom is expediting the smart home business by providing systems to newly built apartments under partnerships with construction firms. The nation's top telecom company said Tuesday it has signed a contract with construction company Hanyang to provide its smart home systems for 1,500 new units in the Sujain Apartment complex in the Cheongna International City in northern Incheon. The complex is scheduled to open this month. "Construction companies are increasingly pushing to provide differentiated living services based on Internet of Things (IoT) technology by working with smart home experts to design new apartments," said Cho Young-hoon, senior vice president of SK Telecom's smart home business division, in a statement. "We will expedite the realization of a future living environment through smart home technologies." SK Telecom said favorable reviews from users of its smart home systems and services have led to more requests for collaboration with the Korea Land and Housing Corp. (LH) and diverse private construction firms here. The telecom company and Hanyang also agreed upon an additional supply of smart home system for 3,600 apartments in Wangsimni, and Uiwang and Uijeongbu in Gyeonggi Province, all scheduled to open this year. "Tapping into the collaboration for Cheongna International City, we will establish a convenient and futuristic living environment at the Sujain complex," a Hanyang executive said. According to SK Telecom, the smart home system installed in the Sujain complex supports voice control of electronic devices and management of public facilities such as elevators. With the voice control function, residents can turn the lights on and off and close and open windows. The integrated facility control system supports remote operation through mobile devices, the company said. The system will also support an intelligent temperature and humidity control function through a mobile smart home application. SK Telecom said this function will be useful especially in Cheongna International City which experiences variable weather. The SLFP does not condone the continuation of the Emergency Regulations (The Public Security Ordinance) more than a day necessary Read more PRESS RELEASE U.S. Air Force Secretary Voices Anti-Russia Hysteria Aug. 8, 2016 (EIRNS)U.S. Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James is the latest Obama Administration figure to determine that Russia represents an existential threat to the United states. Speaking Aug. 6 with Fox Newss Americas News HQ program, James said, "I think the number one threat is Russia. Russia is one of the handful of countries that could actually present an existential threat to the U.S." James had just returned from a tour of the Baltic states, and from Ukraine. The latter, she said, is "suffering from the illegal annexation of Crimea," and from Russias "numerous ceasefire violations" in the East. This is a "resurgent Russia," she said. "They have nuclear weapons; they have been acting in very aggressive manners in recent years, and they are also investing and are testing military capabilities...this is very worrisome for the United States and to our allies." Jamess remarks are restrained, however, compared to those of Washington Post hack Jackson Diehl, who uses his column today to spew uncontrolled hysteria and rage against Putin, depicting him as a ruthless, cynical, unprincipled opportunist, guilty of murdering his political opponents, and having had the audacity to charge that the Ukrainian coup was carried out by U.S. intelligence operatives instead of the "Ukrainian people." Mouthpiece for the war party that he is, Diehl argues that "there is the world the West knows, and there is Putins alternative reality." In fact, he asserts, "the world is awash in state-sponsored conspiracy theories, most of them anti-American," a prime example of which, he adds, is that of Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi, who argues that the U.S. has a plan to divide Egypt into pieces. No one could possibly believe anything so absurd, he implies. Diehls hysteria is so great that he lumps Donald Trump together with Putin, warning that, were both to govern their respective countries at the same time, it would mean not only the "triumph of amoral statesmanship, but the rise of Russian influence at Americas expense." PRESS RELEASE European Stock Index Delists Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse Aug. 8, 2016 (EIRNS)Effective today, the European stock market index, Stoxx Europe 50, simply removed Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse from its listings, so that its index level wouldnt be dragged down by the banks plunging share values. This is the latest expression of the reality that, not only is the trans-Atlantic financial system over the edge, but the danger comes from the continued lying and non-action. Over the last 48 hours, many major media in Germany and elsewhere are reporting on the history of the devolution of Deutsche Bank, and cases of insolvency, but they completely evade the question: what to do? They have no answer. Lyndon LaRouche observed that they, "look to the past." But, for the solution, we must, "look to the future." He stressed that the collapse of the financial system is the key issue today. In July, he proposed that there must be a public-good rescue of Deutsche Bank, on the basis of a new mandate of bank functioning and credit for funding productive activity, as was the case under former Deutsche Bank Chairman Alfred Herrhausen. Helga Zepp-LaRouche issued a July 12 statement on this, "Deutsche Bank Must Be Saved, for the Sake of World Peace!" Short of that, the pretense that the trans-Atlantic banking sector is still intact, and can be tinkered into functionality, is over. Karma Automotive said Monday it will start selling its luxury plug-in hybrid car this year at eight U.S. and two Canadian auto dealerships, including one in Pasadena. Called the Revero, the four-door sedan runs on gasoline and electricity and is expected to cost $100,000 or more. Its a would-be rival to the premium electric cars produced by Tesla Motors Inc. The Revero was created from the remains of the Fisker Karma after Fisker Automotive fell into bankruptcy three years ago. The new Revero is being built at a factory in Moreno Valley in Riverside County. Advertisement Karma said it signed agreements with independent dealers in Pasadena, Atlanta, Chicago, Fort Worth, Miami, Philadelphia, Detroit and West Palm Beach, Fla., along with dealers in Montreal and Toronto. Karma, based in Costa Mesa, also plans to open a direct-sales center in an Orange County location yet to be announced. We spent the last year going through a long and complex process to ensure that our distribution strategy would live up to the exacting standards for luxury and service our customers will expect, Joost de Vries, Karmas vice president of sales and service, said in a statement. Karma hopes to eventually build as many as 3,000 of the sleek, low-slung Reveros annually. The company is backed by the Chinese auto-parts giant Wanxiang Group, which bought the Fisker Automotive assets in 2014. The original Fisker Karma was built in Finland, and parts of that production line were broken down and shipped to the Moreno Valley facility. james.peltz@latimes.com Twitter: @PeltzLATimes Its easily forgotten that Congress and the Obama administration did the health insurance industry an enormous favor in enacting the Affordable Care Act in 2010. Several favors, in fact. They placed commercial insurers at the center of Obamacare, giving them most of the responsibility for covering enrolleesand therefore access to an army of new customers. They left in place private insurers access to the immense Medicaid pool via Medicaid managed care. They killed the public option, which would have provided a nonprofit counterweight to private insurers, hopefully goading the latter into maintaining competitive pricing and customer service. We are confident that Aetna is well positioned to take advantage of the strong growth dynamics of the Medicaid business. Mark Bertolini, Aetna chairman and CEO Advertisement One would expect the insurance industry to show some gratitude for these handouts. One would be wrong. The nations big insurers havent ceased badmouthing Obamacare and grousing about losses, which in many respects are their own fault. Over the last year or so, several have announced theyre withdrawing from the programs individual exchange market, or threatened to do so. These threats generally are treated as evidence of flaws in Obamacare that can be rectified only if the government capitulates to the insurers demandsfor looser benefit mandates and tighter restrictions on special enrollment rights, among other things. Yet the authorities arent entirely powerless. Its time for the government to push back and deliver the following message to insurers: If you want to reap the profits from participating in public health programs, youll have to participate in the Affordable Care Act too. To put it in terms the insurance companies understand: no more cherry-picking. Its true that the ACA individual market has flaws that warrant addressing. The Department of Health and Human Services has taken action on some of these, typically at the behest of insurers; it has reduced some of the options for signing up for coverage outside of the annual open-enrollment periods, for example. Some other issues, as weve reported, stem either from ill-advised or cynical congressional action (step forward, Marco Rubio), or congressional gridlock. It may be too early to make too much of this, but its possible that the next Congress will be more amenable to making the necessary adjustments for the ACA to work better. Yet other insurer complaints are suspect. Aetnas abrupt reversal of sentiment on the potential profitability of its Obamacare exchange business is an example: Three months ago, its CEO, Mark Bertolini, was praising the exchange market as a good investment, albeit one in which profits were still a year or more awaywhich is a pretty good definition of an investment in the future. Aetna was preparing to expand the states in which it offers individual exchange plans. Then the U.S. Department of Justice sued to block its proposed $37-billion merger with Humana. Suddenly, Bertolini was saying that the poor performance of the exchange market warrants a complete evaluation of our current exchange footprint and cancellation of its 2017 expansion plans. This is a very selective reading of Aetnas experience with the Affordable Care Act. The truth is, its well in the black. The company has projected losses of $300 million on its exchange business for 2016, but in the same conference call in which he dissed the ACA exchange business, Bertolini also announced a record $6.5 billion in government program premiums for the first quarter of 2016 alone, an increase of 13% over the same quarter a year ago. This steady growth has been driven by a combination of new contract wins, county expansions in existing states, and ACA-related expansion membership, he said. Looking to the future, we are confident that Aetna is well positioned to take advantage of the strong growth dynamics of the Medicaid business. Aetnas not alone. UnitedHealth, which has distinguished itself with the volume of its whining about Obamacare exchange losses and the speed of its withdrawal from that business, disclosed last month at its second-quarter earnings conference call that its Medicaid business is doing fabulously. Its revenue in that line rose 14.7% to $8.3 billion year-to-year and it added 225,000 enrollees, including new members in Iowa, New York and Pennsylvania, which have expanded Medicaid under the ACA. And Anthem, which has been complaining (albeit quietly) about the difficulty of scoring profits in the exchange market, has been buying up Medicaid insurers including Simply Healthcare, which had nearly 200,000 Medicaid and Medicare members in Florida, for $1 billion last year. Not only are the big insurers reaping the benefits of Obamacare via the Medicaid expansion. Centene, a smaller company that targets low-income customers, is happily serving 1 million Medicaid expansion members in nine states, not including 60,000 it has picked up in Louisiana, which just launched its own expansion. These profits parallel those that insurers reap via Medicare Advantage, a managed care program in which the government pays a flat rate that generally exceeds the standard Medicare reimbursement rate in return for their taking on all responsibility for a members health needs. Medicare Advantage has been popular among enrollees and such a reliable profit-maker for insurers that they keep piling into the poolthe average Medicare Advantage member can choose from among 19 plans; in some states and counties, the choice of Obamacare exchange plans is down to one or two. It seems that insurers are perfectly happy and prosperous competing in the markets where the government is the payer, commentator Andrew Sprung observed in February. This all hints at the leverage the government might have against the insurers threatening to leave the ACA exchange market. What if it conditioned participation in Medicaid and Medicare managed care on a certain minimum participation in the private exchanges? Alternatively, it could reinvent and restore the public option, whether by offering Medicare to all Americans under 65 or sponsoring its own public plans. These mechanisms might work because, given their lower premium rates, they might attract more low-use enrolleesthe elusive young and healthy cadres needed to help subsidize costlier and older members. It isnt clear what legislation or administrative changes would be required to make any of these changes happen. The insurance industry surely would mobilize politically to kill the public option again, but might be more amenable to expanding the public managed care pool to accommodate more customers. On the other hand, as Sprung observed, doctors and hospitals would be losers, as they would be receiving lower government reimbursements for a larger patient population. But even the expanded Obamacare population is small in relation to the overall patient marketperhaps 30 million customers in ACA and government programs, compared to nearly 150 million receiving their coverage through their employers. The point is that its a mistake to view insurers withdrawals from ACA exchanges as a sign that its impossible to provide affordable health coverage to more Americans. Its more a sign that the fundamental error in the ACAs design was giving too much away to the insurance industry. If the government started threatening to take some of that back, the betting here is that the insurers would be sounding a lot more cooperative, and complaining a lot less. Keep up to date with Michael Hiltzik. Follow @hiltzikm on Twitter, see his Facebook page, or email michael.hiltzik@latimes.com. Return to Michael Hiltziks blog. MORE FROM MICHAEL HILTZIK: Its time for the government to play hardball with those whining Obamacare insurers Donald Trump just proposed repealing the death tax. Heres why thats a scam. What ails the Obamacare insurance exchanges? (Its not what you think.) It seems a simple enough proposition: Would you agree to receive marketing pitches in return for a discount on your high-speed Internet service? Telecom heavyweight Comcast made just such a case last week in a filing with the Federal Communications Commission. The company defended what it called a bargained-for exchange of information for service, which it said is a perfectly acceptable and widely used model throughout the U.S. economy. And thats true. You can spend less on a Kindle e-reader from Amazon if you agree to see special offers when you turn on the device. Your free use of online search engines, email and other services is subsidized in part by an acceptance of marketers peeking at your browsing habits. Advertisement But privacy advocates are starting to worry about a society of privacy haves and have-nots. That is, keeping ones personal info under wraps or avoiding incessant intrusions from advertisers would be a privilege enjoyed only by those who can afford it. They cite the example of AT&Ts super-fast GigaPower broadband service, which is being gradually rolled out nationwide. GigaPower costs $70 a month if you agree to let AT&T and its marketing pals look over your shoulder as you traverse the Web. If not, the monthly cost is $100. There should be a baseline level of privacy protection for everyone in this country, said Dallas Harris, a policy fellow at the digital-rights group Public Knowledge. No one should have to give up privacy just because they cant afford it. The FCC is considering sweeping rules governing Internet privacy. Service providers would be blocked from sharing customers personal information without prior consent, and would be required to disclose in plain English what information they collect and how it may be used. The FCCs proposed rules stop short of preventing two-tier pricing such as for AT&Ts Gigapower, also known as pay for privacy. But FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler suggested to reporters last week that the door still may be open for tightening the regulatory screws. I would hope that privacy doesnt become a luxury item, he said. In its filing, Comcast argued that doing away with pay-for-privacy discounts would harm consumers by, among other things, depriving them of lower-priced offerings. Sena Fitzmaurice, a Comcast spokeswoman, told me the FCCs proposed requirement that customers give advance permission for their data to be shared an opt-in as opposed to the current opt-out would put Comcast at a disadvantage. A pay-for-privacy arrangement, apparently, would remedy that by creating an opportunity for increased revenue. The FCCs extreme and unprecedented opt-in proposal requires us to consider how to create additional choices that would allow us to compete in this ecosystem and benefit customers, Fitzmaurice said. A spokesman for Charter Communications, owner of Time Warner Cable, declined to comment. No one at AT&T and Verizon got back to me. Privacy advocates say that pay-for-privacy doesnt create additional choices for consumers. It denies some people a basic right. This is especially the case when it comes to lower-income consumers, said Harris at Public Knowledge. Many cant afford to pay an extra $20 or $30 per month to protect their privacy. Lee Tien, senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said another problem with pay-for-privacy is that it relies heavily on the honor system. Even if you pay extra for privacy, you cant know what theyre actually doing, he said. You cant know if theyre still using your information for some kind of marketing purpose. Its very difficult to know if youre getting what you paid for. Im conflicted. I agree with those who say all consumers are entitled to privacy. On the other hand, I was happy to pay less for a Kindle with special offers. I accept that increasingly intrusive ads are the price I pay to splash in the digital wading pools that are Facebook and Twitter. Chris Hoofnagle, an Internet law professor at UC Berkeley, said Comcasts filing last week should serve as a reminder that the broadband Internet industry is different. These companies arent selling a luxury. Theyre selling a necessity. What Comcast is saying is somewhat akin to the water authority offering a discount for less purified water, Hoofnagle said. It is time to conceive of broadband as a utility, one that needs to satisfy basic standards for quality, which include freedom from unwarranted surveillance. This seems like the right approach. Treated as utilities, broadband service providers would be entitled to a fair and reasonable profit, accommodating industry growth and innovation. But they wouldnt be able to gouge or exploit consumers. If, as Comcast says, this is all about providing additional choices, this would do it. All customers would be guaranteed a basic level of privacy protection. But those open to having their data shared would be able to receive a meaningful discount. In other words, privacy wouldnt come at a premium. Marketers would be paying you for the privilege of accessing your personal info. There shouldnt be different rules for different people depending on who you are, said Kim Keenan, president of the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council, an advocacy group. Privacy is privacy. David Lazarus column runs Tuesdays and Fridays. He also can be seen daily on KTLA-TV Channel 5 and followed on Twitter @Davidlaz. Send your tips or feedback to david.lazarus@latimes.com. On-demand shipping service Shyp is expanding to more parts of the Los Angeles area Tuesday, and planning a new feature to accommodate businesses with bulk shipping needs. The company, which dispatches workers to pick up, package and mail items, will broaden its coverage zones from the downtown and Santa Monica areas to also include Highland Park, South Pasadena and Alhambra. Shyp Chief Executive Kevin Gibbon said the company is working to make its service more business friendly. Advertisement Starting Tuesday, Shyp will lift its 20-item limit and offer business-specific discounts. It also plans to develop ways for businesses to input hundreds of addresses at a time, instead of going through the consumer app, which allows users to input only one address at a time. Business deliveries account for 50% of the companys revenue. We always knew we were going to address business pain points, but we decided to go after consumers first because its the most underserved part of the market, said Gibbon, who added that the company would not abandon the consumer-facing services. But the bigger opportunity, he said, lies in businesses, because they are more likely to ship larger volumes at higher frequencies. The company partnered with EBay in March, allowing sellers on the e-commerce platform to choose Shyp as an option when they send items to buyers. Since then, other L.A. companies have used Shyp for corporate package fulfillment, including signage firm Enplug, dog-walking service Wag and branded content company Social Native. tracey.lien@latimes.com Twitter: @traceylien ALSO Delta flight cancellations continue for a second day after system outage Virtual reality start-up hopes to turn customers into one-person movie studios Trade group trying to kill a bill making state-run 401(k) a benefit for all workers A disheveled cement wall in the courtyard of the Hollywood gallery Various Small Fires conceals a sculptural tableau. Mateo Tannatt has etched the word Cafe into the wall, and behind it a segment of construction scaffolding holds a dozen empty drinking glasses. A life-size figure in white plaster crawls along the floor, like a drunken cross between a German Expressionist symbol of existential loneliness by Wilhelm Lehmbruck and a sentimental Pop memorial to American banality by George Segal. As an introduction to the group show Grind, it strikes a resonant, appropriately off-key chord. Grind is among the more discerning of the group exhibitions that proliferate in galleries during the summer. It brings together paintings, sculptures and mixed media works by 11 L.A., New York and Berlin artists to create what might be called a group portrait of current city life. Advertisement Guest curator Joshua Nathanson, a painter of wistful Pop graffiti, is after what an exhibition statement describes as a discordant milieu of cozy chaos and comfortable dysfunction. He achieves it. B. Thom Stevenson shows a hand-knotted throw rug sporting a fashionably black-and-white rendition of a Picasso weeping woman, her tears inseparable from the experience of being walked on. Photographs of trash a broken LED light bulb, a crushed aluminum can of grapefruit sparkling water (seltzer with pretensions) is transformed by Asha Schechter into big, slick, vinyl decals suitable for throwaway wall decor at a tech start-up. Natalie Labriolas grungy gym lockers and foam floor mats impregnated with seeds seem to let the rarefied air out of over-produced sculptures by Matthew Barney. Nathan Zeidmans grimy paintings of dirty store windows a flower shop, a thrift store offering statues of the Virgin Mary let you press your nose up against a smudged screen shielding emblems of loveliness and hope. A blunt confrontation between blaring cartoon characters in a big, garish mural by Ellen Berkenblit oscillates between raucous play and the deadly law of the jungle. Fun and ferocity fuse. Predecessors from the 1980s and 90s like Mike Kelley and Cady Noland are two obvious formal influences on these and other works in the show. But, unlike theirs, this art yields scant sense of rumination on failed promise no hint of either grand aspirations or smashed dreams. Grind instead casts a taciturn eye. It riffs on Grindr, the smartphone app for casual urban hookups good, bad or indifferent. The city it sees is where art is made, and it is what it is. Deal with it. ------------ Various Small Fires, 812 N. Highland Ave., Hollywood. Through Aug. 27; closed Sundays and Mondays. (310) 426-8040, www.vsf.la SIGN UP for the free Essential Arts & Culture newsletter christopher.knight@latimes.com Twitter: @KnightLAT ALSO London Calling at the Getty and the tension between abstract and figurative painting The Maverick Modernist you dont know but should: Peter Krasnow at the Laguna Art Museum Current: LA art biennial: Water may be the theme, but gas is what youll need to see it all LaToya Ruby Fraziers black-and-white photograph of her grandmother shows the gray-haired matriarch in profile, lighting up a Pall Mall in a cluttered room stuffed with nearly two-dozen dolls. It takes just a moment to register that the tousled older woman is black and that almost all the dolls, many elaborately dressed and coifed, are white. Between the implication of younger and older generations, where does the artist stand? Muffled and haunting perceptions of self and family, social and individual identity, crowd the minds eye. Fraziers eight portraits, still lifes and landscapes are standouts in Me, Myself, I, a group show of seven artists at China Art Objects. (The show marks the California debut of the 2015 MacArthur fellow.) Selfhood is not an uncommon subject for artistic exploration, but several selections are provocative. Advertisement In the best works, making order out of chaos goes unrequited. SIGN UP for the free Essential Arts & Culture newsletter A printed text by Francis Stark ruminates on self-deprecation as a manipulative social tool. She juxtaposes the printed paragraph with all of its individual words alphabetized by first letter lead/like/laugh/least; your/you/you/yelled, etc. a nonsense task that results in strange poetry. Similarly, thrift-shop browsers thumb through bins of vinyl records in a dozen photographic fliers by Moyra Davey. Bereft products of mass culture get personalized and privileged by a mix of desire and loss which might even describe the people. Photographs appropriated from 80s pornography are digitally enlarged by Richard Hawkins. Fudged and fragmented by the process, theyve gotten to the point where the idealized young mans once-soft skin seems damaged by age or perhaps tattooed by the artists memory. A forest of wintry birches painted by Sean Landers is scarred by graffiti. Words for personal physical and character traits beautiful, intelligent, dishonest, rubes are carved into the trees paper-like bark. Landers painting overlays urban and rural, public and private, discomfiting both the forest and its trees. A few weak notes are struck. Emily Mae Smiths small geometric paintings suggest open mouths that reveal interior fantasies, but the Pop Surrealism of those inner dreams are lackluster. And Heinz Peter Knes seemingly random display of six photographs the artists feet, the rear end of a donkey sculpture, an unfocused wall and other mundane sites are cryptic to the point of bland illegibility. ------------ China Art Objects, 6086 Comey Ave., Culver City. Through Aug. 20; closed Sundays and Mondays. (323) 965-2264, www.chinaartobjects.com christopher.knight@latimes.com Twitter: @KnightLAT ALSO London Calling at the Getty and the tension between abstract and figurative painting The Maverick Modernist you dont know but should: Peter Krasnow at the Laguna Art Museum Current: LA art biennial: Water may be the theme, but gas is what youll need to see it all Ousted Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes and 21st Century Fox are in talks with Gretchen Carlsons lawyers to settle the sexual harassment suit filed by the former anchor, according to people familiar with the discussions. The talks, first reported by Vanity Fair, are an effort by the attorneys for Ailes and the parent company of the news operation he ran for 20 years to avoid a trial in which other alleged victims of sexual harassment might come forward publicly with their accounts. After Carlsons complaint became public, other women contacted her lawyers to describe similar experiences with Ailes. The company does not want to subject any woman who came forward to a public trial, said a person briefed on the matter who was not authorized to publicly comment. Advertisement While 21st Century Fox has agreed to pick up any legal costs or judgments incurred by Ailes, he would help fund any settlement. Ailes left the company with a severance of around $40 million. A representative for 21st Century Fox declined to comment. A representative for Carlsons attorneys had no information on the settlement talks. Ailes, 76, resigned July 21, less than two weeks after 21st Century Fox launched an investigation of sexual harassment claims against him. The inquiry, which followed a suit filed July 6 by Carlson, alleged that Ailes sabotaged her career because she rebuffed his sexual advances and complained about a hostile work environment. Carlsons contract was not renewed in June after 11 years at Fox News Channel. She was earning more than $1 million annually in her last deal. The investigation into harassment charges against Ailes, conducted by the law firm Paul, Weiss, is still ongoing. More than 25 women who have worked at Fox News have reportedly come forward to detail incidents of harassment. According to one person briefed on the matter, the probe has not widened to include other executives at the company. A number of women have told stories about Ailes alleged behavior toward them. A former Washington bureau staffer named Laurie Luhn said Ailes authorized a $3.15-million settlement for her to leave the company after she filed a sexual harassment complaint against him. The large amount is evidence of the autonomy Ailes had as he built Fox News into a major profit center at 21st Century Fox. Ailes has denied all the allegations made by Carlson and the other women. stephen.battaglio@latimes.com Twitter: @SteveBattaglio Robertson Boulevard is still an attraction in some tourist guides although those really should be updated. The two-block stretch between 3rd Street and Beverly Boulevard has been bruised by vacancies in the shadow of Los Angeles glitzier thoroughfares such as Rodeo Drive or cooler hot spots Melrose Place and Abbot Kinney Boulevard. But recent deal activity could signal a new chapter for the street. Among the more recent departures are Zimmermann and Anya Hindmarch both of which left for Melrose Place and Tory Burch to Rodeo Drive. Hale Bob left in December, with founder Daniel Bohbot telling WWD earlier this year the street lacked the foot traffic and eateries necessary to attract shoppers. Some brands looking for real estate are hesitant to make a move. Robertson feels a little weird to me right now so I want to go and see how Melrose is evolving, Kit and Ace cofounder JJ Wilson said on a recent trip to the West Coast. The grapevine has it that Melrose [Avenue] is the new Robertson and its making a comeback. Advertisement Thats been said before, when Alexander McQueen opened on Melrose Avenue in 2008 followed by Vivienne Westwood, Kelly Wearstler and APC in 2011, 2012 and 2014, respectively. So it depends on whom you ask, although recent deals would seem to indicate Wilson may be right. Dean & Deluca, Zadig & Voltaire Paris and Catch NYC are among some of the streets incoming tenants. The downward spiral of a street such as Robertson, through which tour buses used to drive, didnt just happen overnight. The street became prominent with the rise of Kitson and the celebrities and paparazzi it attracted, all of which helped usher in a wave of contemporary and premium denim brands, such as Curve, Hindmarch, BCBG and Paul & Joe. Some of thats still there with French contemporary labels like The Kooples. But brands that may have historically flocked to Robertson are now going to streets such as Melrose Place, following the paths of Vince, Diesel, Frame and Los Angeles label Cotton Citizen, which is set to open a store just off of the street on Friday. Landlords dug their heels in the sand during the recession, refusing to come down on rents and opting for short-term leases. That, coupled with leases coming due in 2008, 2009 and 2010, made it easy for tenants to leave the street. Newmark Grubb Knight Frank executive vice president Jay Luchs recalled doing leases with tenants for $25 a square foot per month in September 2008. Today rents are around $10 to $12 a square foot per month, Luchs said. When the food [tenants] actually sign [leases], probably about a year out from now, youre going to see a lot of traffic, predicted Luchs, who is in the midst of trying to bring more eateries to the street after the departure of anchor Newsroom Cafe. I think the long-term plan is looking good for Robertson. The short term, its still in pain. Its a tale of two streets, said CBRE senior vice president Andrew Turf of Robertson. He pointed out the northern portion of the street, part of West Hollywoods Design District, is doing OK, while south Robertson is ailing. I dont see that portion of the street coming back any time soon, Turf said. I think thats going to be a three- or four-year downward spiral. The second outpost of hot downtown eatery Bottega Louie didnt materialize on Robertson and may have also stalled the streets comeback, with RKF vice chairman Robert Cohen calling it a setback. Some of the real estate brokerages clients were eyeing that area of the street on the basis of the Bottega Louie deal happening, Cohen said. The restaurant was at one time rumored to go into the former Newsroom Cafe space, once frequented by Hollywood A-listers and instead opted to move to Santa Monica Boulevard near Robertson in West Hollywood. I dont think its quite bottomed yet, Cohen said of the street. I think the streets going to suffer a bit more pain and closings as leases come up. This street is in dire need of something to kickstart and re-energize it. Still, for every concern about Robertson, theres the opposite viewpoint, with some holding firmly to the belief the street should hardly be ruled out. Aliza Neidich and Alissa Jacob, cofounders and cochief executive officers of specialty multibrand concept Reservoir, took over the former BCBG store on south Robertson after original plans to open on Sunset Boulevard in Silver Lake fell through. Theyre currently on a month-to-month lease and are on the street indefinitely, Neidich said. Although the west side customer isnt necessarily the same as the east side customer they typically buy for, Reservoirs seen steady traffic, Neidich reported. Overall the street has treated us really well, she said. Its been interesting to see whats been going on around Robertson because there has been a lot of turnover, a lot of movement with the real estate and the stores going in and out. But I think its just leaving an opportunity for different concepts to come in. A New York gallery in August is temporarily taking up the former Ralph Lauren space through September to bring the works of artist Bosco Sodi. Other newcomers to the street include womens clothing store Therapy, which opened in July, along with The Parlor and evening dress brand Jovani, whose owners looked on Rodeo Drive and Melrose Avenue before selecting Robertson for the companys more than 3,500-square-foot flagship. The owners and co-chief executive officers Saul and Abraham Maslavi said they wanted a central location that appealed to both locals and tourists. Peri Arenas, who owns the European boutique Veri Peri at the Parker Palm Springs hotel, recently inked a deal for 2,400 square feet at the former Kitson Men store on north Robertson. I moved from New York three years ago, she said. I remember years ago Robertson being the place to be and then obviously there were so many stores for rent and I thought, you know what? Im going to bring Robertson back hopefully. Shes not the only one with that idea. Kitson founder Fraser Ross, often credited with helping bring the celebrities and paparazzi to the street with his multibrand store, recently opened a new concept called Kitross and is projecting $7 million in sales for the 12-month period through August. Its already attracted at least one celebrity in Reese Witherspoon, who was photographed last month on the street carrying a Kitross bag. The store, which sells apparel for men, women and kids, along with accessories and giftable items happens to be in the same spot as the original Kitson. Its a coming home of sorts and hes already talking to people about licensing in Asia. The space is stocked with old favorites, such as Von Dutch hats, amid new brands. Items from Blonde Salad blogger Chiara Ferragni are there, sprinkled in with denim shorts from One Teaspoon, $245 vintage camouflage jackets from A Fine Line that Ross says he cant keep in stock fast enough, Diesel jeans and Eight & Bob fragrance. Ross has big ideas and, along with Luchs, held a meeting earlier in the year with William Chun, director of the business team for Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, to talk about how to bring the street back. Ross didnt leave much off his wish list, which ranged from two-hour free parking in the structure next to his store to filling the windows of vacant city-owned shops with something anything and removing strands of Christmas lights from trees. Calls to the mayors press office and Chun were not returned. This streets still in major recovery mode but that could change in a snap with just a couple new deals, Luchs said. Artisan roasters Blue Bottle Coffee is in leases at Robertson Plaza, according to Luchs. There are also multiple offers for the former Newsroom Cafe space, where its likely a few restaurants could go into the building. Plans are in the works to bring a fitness tenant to the street in the way of a spinning or yoga studio, Luchs added. Ross remains optimistic, a firm believer in history possibly repeating itself. Lackluster was very much what the street was when he opened Kitson there in 2000, he pointed out. Its the cycle of any main street, Ross said. I think the rebirth has just started. When I went there 16 years ago, it was all furniture and antique stores. Its just in a transition. WWD West Coast Bureau Chief Marcy Medina contributed to this report. MORE FASHION NEWS Moon Juice moves onto Melrose Place and into beauty departments Nostalgic for the 90s? Check out these items inspired by Nickelodeon cartoons Tommy Jeans limited-edition collection hits Urban Outfitters 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 Relocation of Highway 99 in Fresno, a key part of the bullet train project, is over budget, behind schedule and will cost millions of dollars more to complete, officials said Monday. The highway project would move a 2.5-mile stretch of the roadway, the principal commercial artery of the Central Valley, to make room for high-speed rail tracks through Fresno. The project currently is running 15% over budget and has fallen about six months behind schedule. Work has been held up by litigation over obtaining rights to private property, the same issue that has contributed to a more than a two-year delay in building the first 29 miles of rail in the Central Valley. Advertisement The California High-Speed Rail Authority is planning Tuesday to seek a $35-million increase in state funding from the original $226 million, which was granted to Caltrans in 2013. State Department of Transportation documents indicate that the full amount needed is $50 million, but the agency would seek to find $15 million in cost reductions by narrowing the scope of the project. The scope reductions are items that we look at to save money on a project, such as using asphalt versus concrete, taking a look at aesthetics, etc., said Caltrans spokesman Matt Rocco. The rail authority board will consider the cost increase at its board meeting Tuesday, along with a separate request for an additional $200 million for improvements to a Bay Area commuter rail system that were part of a 2013 agreement to make early investments in the so-called bookends of the rail system. The $64-billion bullet train project would carry passengers from Los Angeles to San Francisco. The original agreement called for the rail authority to invest $600 million to help Caltrain, the Northern California commuter rail line, electrify its tracks, but the cost is now $713 million with an additional $84 million for other work. The rail authority also has increased similar funding for Southern California projects by several hundred million dollars. The cost increases could put additional burdens on the states plan to build an initial operating system from San Jose to Shafter by 2025, which will take virtually all of the potential funding the Legislature, federal agencies and taxpayers have pledged over the last eight years. Critics say the project is at risk of shifting into a series of local rail investments that might never connect into a statewide system. In June, the rail authority board approved a $63-million increase in the contract for Tutor Perini, the Sylmar-based firm that is building the first 29 miles of rail structures. The company asserted the state had failed to deliver land parcels on schedule, costing it additional overhead and idle machinery charges. The Tutor change orders added 17 months to the companys work schedule, which may give Caltrans some breathing room. The Highway 99 project has used up 61% of its allowable time, but only spent 36% of its funding, suggesting it has to speed construction to avoid further delays. Rail authority spokeswoman Lisa Marie Alley said Caltrans was originally supposed to complete work by June 2018, but now the deadline is December 2018. This does not impact the overall construction schedule or budget for the first construction segment in the Central Valley, she said. The land acquisitions have proved to be far more contentious than the rail authority ever considered. The Central Valley was touted as the easiest place to start construction, but wealthy farmers were more prepared, more passionate and tougher in resisting state demands. Caltrans has obtained 31 of the 42 parcels, but has encountered delays in getting court-ordered possession in many cases. It has had to invoke eminent domain against Union Pacific for four parcels, according to an authority audit report. ralph.vartabedian@latimes.com Good morning. It is Tuesday, Aug. 9. Heres what is happening in the Golden State: TOP STORIES Bear break-in A bear repeatedly broke into a womans cabin in the San Bernardino County mountain community of Forest Falls. Fearful for her children, she got a permit and had the bear killed the next time the animal came to her home. Authorities say her actions were justified, but they have sparked a backlash and threats in her community. Los Angeles Times Advertisement Supermarket math Clerks, meat cutters and stockers who staff some of Southern Californias largest grocery chains are voting on a contract that includes modest pay increases and cements current health and pension benefits. Californias march toward a $15 minimum wage in 2022 loomed large over the negotiations, as union officials worried that the stores would cut benefits to make up for the money theyd have to pour into pay. Los Angeles Times Translation, please The mass migration from Central America has created a shortage of Mayan language experts. And this is creating problems particularly in L.A.s court system. Los Angeles Times Readers, we always love hearing from you. You can keep up with Alice and Shelby during the day on Twitter. Follow @TheCityMaven and @ShelbyGrad. L.A. AT LARGE They want Beck out: Activists affiliated with Black Lives Matter dropped a petition off at City Hall on Monday, demanding that Mayor Eric Garcetti fire Police Chief Charlie Beck. Los Angeles Times Housing revolt: Upscale Cheviot Hills has become a battleground over the growing practice of adding second units in neighborhoods traditionally zoned for single-family homes. The city sees this as a way to add needed housing, but some residents have revolted. Washington Post POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT Grid gets grilled: Gov. Jerry Brown and state regulators hoped more interstate cooperation with the electricity grid would eventually help spread clean energy through the region, increasing the market for renewable sources such as solar and wind. But concerns have put those plans on hold. Los Angeles Times Its back: Nearly two decades after the epic battle over bilingual education in California, voters will again decide on this issue in the fall. And the landscape has changed a lot since 1998. Sacramento Bee Pension plums: A new study by California Transparent found that the former police chief of Bell got the biggest government pension in the L.A. area: $288,378 a year. Daily News Trump slump? A Central Valley congressmans stance on Donald Trump, or lack thereof, is generating debate. Los Angeles Times CRIME AND COURTS YouTube tales: Average Joes are getting famous on YouTube. But there is a dark and sometimes dangerous side to all the online exposure. Mashable No charges: The Los Angeles County district attorneys declined to file charges against actor Tom Sizemore in connection with assaulting his girlfriend because prosecutors said her injuries were minor. Los Angeles Times Long memories: The massacre at the McDonalds in San Ysidro in 1984 was one of the worst mass shootings in American history. Three decades later, some are still asking whether police tactics were proper. San Diego Union-Tribune DROUGHT AND CLIMATE Water barons: An in-depth examination of the Resnicks and their agriculture and water empire in the Central Valley. Mother Jones Beach bear: Is the drought sending more bears to the beaches of Lake Tahoe? (Check out the very cute video.) KCRA CALIFORNIA CULTURE So L.A.: Are you acting, producing, directing, teaching yoga, creating art, cooking at a pop-up restaurant and building your social media brand at the same time? Then this video mocking the L.A. conversation might be for you. Funny or Die Religious revival: Inside Silicon Valleys hippest church which combines techy buzzwords with a lot of music. BuzzFeed Parading around: Who says San Francisco has lost its weird charm? Welcome to the Nude Summer of Love parade. SFGate Skyline dreams: Orange County doesnt exactly have a dramatic skyline. But by other measures, its office towers are doing quite well. Orange County Register CALIFORNIA ALMANAC Los Angeles will have morning clouds, with a high of 79 degrees in downtown. San Diego will be partly cloudy and hit 74. Sacramento continues its hot streak with 94 degrees. Santa Barbara will be partly cloudy and a cool 66. AND FINALLY Todays California Memory comes from Ardyth Shaw: During the late 40s when I was a little girl, I have vivid and favorite memories of driving with my loving grandmother from San Diego to Los Angles on Highway 101, about once a month, to visit her sister in law, Corona. The landscape would remind me how far we were from our destination; the miles of orange groves, then the oil derricks and eventually the railroad cars, before wed reach the actual city. If you have a memory or story about the Golden State, share it with us. Send us an email to let us know what you love or fondly remember about our state. (Please keep your story to 100 words.) Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints and ideas to Alice Walton or Shelby Grad. The Los Angeles Unified School District announced Tuesday an estimated 75% graduation rate for the Class of 2016, up from 72.2% last year. Supt. Michelle King announced the school systems highest ever graduation figure in her first state of the district speech, an annual address from the superintendent that typically takes place a week before the start of school. This is exceeding expectations of those who said our students couldnt do it, King said during the speech at Garfield High School. Advertisement King, a former L.A. Unified principal and deputy superintendent, took over the district in January. The graduation rate King announced comes in the same year that more difficult academic requirements took effect. One result was that in December, about half of seniors were in danger of failing to earn a diploma. Then came a remarkable and almost immediate turnaround through a variety of new credit-recovery efforts, which include both online classes and teacher-led programs during and after school. Critics have speculated about whether the record rate could be a result of lowered standards in those remediation programs. Although officials have defended district academic integrity, they appear to have limited data on credit-recovery efforts. They say they are still trying to determine which students took advantage of which credit-recovery options. We know our kids and we know what they are capable of, school board President Steve Zimmer said during remarks that preceded Kings. The new graduation standard is for all students to earn a D or better in courses required to apply to a four-year state college. Even that standard is not sufficient for these colleges, which mandate a grade of C or better in those classes. The set of courses is called the A to G requirements. We know our kids and we know what they are capable of. School board President Steve Zimmer The classes include Algebra 2 or its equivalent, as well as two years of foreign language and a year of a college-preparatory elective, such as geography or statistics. We know 100% of all kids can graduate fully passing the A to G, Zimmer said. The formulas for tabulating graduation and dropout rates have evolved over time, so it is difficult to go back more than several years to make a reliable comparison and confirm whether the graduation rate announced Tuesday is in fact the districts highest historically. Except for the graduation-rate announcement, Kings speech was a substantially familiar recounting of district accomplishments. And among an audience of administrators, this approach was exceptionally well-received. We have done so much more than survive, said the career L.A. Unified employee, who rose through the ranks. We have thrived in difficult times, overcome obstacles and continued to produce steady gains year after year after year. Her points of progress included increasing the number of students in the modern, higher-tech equivalent of vocational education and also boosting the number of students gaining fluency in multiple languages. Multilingualism will no longer be simply a good skill to have, but instead, it will become a prerequisite for the globally flattened world, King said. She also talked about plans to let more high school students complete community college credits while still in high school, and a project, being developed with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, to provide one year of free community college to all district graduates. This was the cheerleader-in-chief, which is a very important role, said former school board member David Tokofsky, who attended the gathering. It reminded me of a shopping list. It was short on substance and metrics and timelines. But it worked for Patricia Lyons, a retired administrator who has come back to serve as an on-call interim principal. I loved every bit of it, Lyons said. Kings list of examples and goals answered so many of the problems we were facing. Sandra Odom, a senior administrative analyst in the facilities division, said Kings approach recognized that, There is not a one-size-fits-all for all students. Without saying so, King, in her speech, repeatedly alluded to elements that are part of her three-year strategic plan, which is currently being circulated as a confidential draft. That draft, obtained by The Times, commits to increasing student enrollment by expanding programs that are popular with parents and by better publicizing district successes. King repeatedly checked that latter box on Tuesday, calling out schools and principals by name, and reminding them to tout their successes as well. The rate of academic improvement proposed in the draft, which is dated July 25, is relatively modest. It projects the percentage of students who meet or surpass academic targets on state tests to rise in English from 35% to 36% to 37% over the three years. In math, the rise is from 27% to 28% to 29%. These numbers suggest that L.A. Unified has failed to reverse last years relatively low scores on new state standardized tests in math and English. The state has not yet released these scores to the public, although school districts have them. Even on test scores, King found a positive, saying that in some grades the scores increased by as much as seven percentage points. She barely alluded to looming budget problems mainly noting that the district would receive needed additional funding if it could improve student attendance and enrollment. Much of the enrollment loss is to independently operated charter schools, which have proved popular with many parents. Charter operators have battled the district over such issues as recruiting students and getting access to district classrooms. But they havent turned against King personally so far. She has done such a really terrific job of building bridges, said Mark Kleger-Heine, executive director of the charter group Citizens of the World Los Angeles, which has three campuses. Teacher union President Alex Caputo-Pearl praised King and even her willingness to work instructionally with charters schools, most of which are nonunion. But he added but that the growth of charters is going to undermine all of our ability to collaborate to help students because the district is going to go down the tubes financially. In tune with the days theme, King refused to pick a fight or a side. Each school needs to be the best school it can be, she said. And then parents make the choice. Reach Howard Blume at howard.blume@latimes.com or on Twitter @howardblume. Reach Sonali Kohli at Sonali.Kohli@latimes.com or on Twitter @Sonali_Kohli. ALSO Scott Folsom, an official and unofficial watchdog over L.A. schools, dies at 69 Catching up the old-fashioned way: summer school Op-Ed: How LAUSD successfully tackled the racial divide in 1969 UPDATES: 3:15 p.m.: This article was updated with additional comments and details from the speech. 1:45 p.m.: This article was updated with information about the districts highest graduation rate and additional details, including partnerships with community colleges. 11:50 a.m.: This article was updated with additional details about graduation requirements. This article was originally published at 10 a.m. In her first state of the district address, L.A. schools Supt. Michelle King is expected to unveil the best graduation rate yet for the nations second-largest school system. Although officials refused to release the figure in advance of her Tuesday morning speech at Garfield High School, they confirmed it would surpass last years 72.2%. The carefully guarded number is expected to be a highlight of an annual event that, as in past years, takes place a week before the start of school. King, a former deputy superintendent who took over on Jan. 11, also is expected to allude to her three-year strategic plan, which is still in development. Advertisement A confidential draft, obtained by The Times, commits to increasing student enrollment by expanding programs that are popular with parents and better publicizing district successes. The rate of improvement outlined in the draft dated July 25 is relatively modest and the plan is notably thin on specifics about how these goals would be achieved. The goal would be to raise the graduation rate by 1 percentage point a year, from 74% in 2017 to 75% in 2018 to 76% in 2019. The draft projects the percentage of students who meet or surpass academic targets on state tests to rise in English from 35% to 36% to 37% over the three years. In math, the rise is from 27% to 28% to 29%. The graduation rate King announces is expected to draw particular attention because more difficult academic requirements took effect this year. One result was that in December about half of seniors were in danger of failing to earn a diploma. Then came a remarkable and almost immediate turnaround through a variety of new credit-recovery efforts. Critics have speculated about whether the anticipated record graduation rate could be a result of lowered standards in those remediation programs. Although officials have defended district academic integrity, they appear to have limited data on credit-recovery efforts. They say they are still trying to determine which students took advantage of which credit-recovery options. Another goal stated in Kings draft plan is to have robust arts programs on every campus by the end of next year. The definition of robust is unstated, but the list of potential offerings includes music, dance, theater, ceramics, drawing, painting, sculpture, photography and filmmaking. King is not likely to announce the specific performance targets that appear in the draft plan. Setting the right goals, as her predecessors found, is a balancing act between the doable and aspirational. The same draft that gives King three years to get 29% of students proficient in math also speaks of proficiency for all and 100% of students graduating. The draft also talks about improving attendance, both for students and teachers. For students, the goal is reducing 30% of chronically absent students (missing 16 days of school) by the 2017-18 school year. The target for teachers is a 96% attendance rate. King hopes about three in four teachers will do that well this year, according to the draft. A soon-to-be-touted initiative and one that King is likely to highlight in her speech is a new program called PASSport. The draft plan talks of ensuring that 80% of L.A. Unified parents will be registered by the end of the 2016-17 school year. Parents can log on to PASSport to see end-of-course grades and to find out if their children are on track for graduation. Theyll also be able to contact teachers and check if their children showed up for classes. It is a one-stop online system that securely connects parents and guardians with their childs essential data, said district spokeswoman Barbara Jones. The system cannot yet provide homework assignments or standardized test scores, she said. Nor will PASSport serve as a one-stop enrollment system for parents confused by the plethora of class and school choices, application forms and application deadlines. In her first year as district leader, King so far has enjoyed something of a honeymoon, with disparate forces that often do battle with one another vying for strategic alliances with her. One example is the teachers union and supporters of independently managed charter schools, most of which are non-union. There is ongoing enmity between them, but both sides have good things to say about King. Michelle King has shown that she is an experienced educator, taking seriously both the need to invest in neighborhood schools and the need to prevent the district from being undermined financially by unregulated charter growth, said teachers union President Alex Caputo-Pearl. We look forward to joint action steps on these crucial items. A spokesman for the California Charter School Assn. also praised King while raising concerns about the union. So far, King has emphasized unity, said Jason Mandell. But with Caputo-Pearl clamoring for her support in his escalating attack on charter schools, will she join him or will she stay above the fray and be a leader? We believe shes a leader. Weve seen her bring folks together and were hopeful shell keep doing that. The annual address typically attracts media attention and some civic leaders attend, but most in the crowd will be school system administrators, who will attend workshops after the speech. howard.blume@latimes.com Twitter: @howardblume Christopher Evans Hubbart holed up inside his small home in the desert outside Palmdale and almost never left. He knew his neighbors hated him. When the notorious serial rapist moved in two years ago, shock and fear settled into the community. It wasnt enough, some neighbors said, that hed had years of intense treatment or that he was under the constant watch of cameras and live-in guards. They wanted him back behind bars. On Tuesday, they got their wish. Santa Clara County court spokesman Joseph Macaluso said officials with Liberty Healthcare, a state contractor overseeing Hubbarts conditional release, contacted the court Tuesday to tell them that he had failed to meet the terms of his release. Hubbarts attorney didnt return calls for comment. Advertisement Under the conditions of his release detailed in a 16-page document Hubbart agreed to several restrictions, including wearing a GPS bracelet, not associating with other convicts and avoiding television shows, movies or digital media that act as stimulus to arouse. Macaluso did not say how Hubbart had violated the conditions but said he had been returned to Coalinga State Hospital. Christopher Hubbart was convicted of two separate series of sexual assaults. He spent nearly 20 years in a state mental hospital under Californias Sexually Violent Predator law. Hubbart offered a window into his crimes back in 1994, when he was int Hubbart dubbed the Pillowcase Rapist for his pattern of covering victims heads was released in July 2014 from the mental hospital in Coalinga, near Fresno, to a home along a dirt road lined by rusting cars and abandoned mattresses in Lake Los Angeles. He was required to attend group and individual therapy sessions twice a week while being supervised full time by the Liberty Conditional Release Program. The programs vice president, Kenneth Carabello, referred all questions about Hubbart to the Department of State Hospitals, and the departments spokesman declined to comment, citing patient privacy rights. At the time of Hubbarts release, residents criticized the relocation, saying they feared the sexual predator would strike again. John Bays, Hubbarts retired former parole officer who said he long had the same fear, praised Hubbarts return to custody. Christopher Hubbart is a waste of a human heart, he said. He never should have gotten out. Hubbart has admitted assaulting dozens of women in the 1970s and 80s. In 1972, he was confined to a state hospital for a series of sexual assaults in the Pomona and San Gabriel valleys, then released. Years later, he was arrested again for attacks in the Bay Area and sent to prison for eight years, according to court records. Two months after his release, he sneaked up behind a jogger, pressed his hand over her mouth and grabbed her breasts. While he was behind bars again, politicians portrayed Hubbart as the poster child for why the state needed to lock up its most dangerous sex offenders even after theyd finished serving their prison terms. In 1996, before Hubbart could be released from prison, prosecutors in Santa Clara County asked a court to send him to a state mental hospital under Californias new Sexually Violent Predator law, which allowed the state to confine violent sex offenders in hospitals if they have a mental disorder that makes them likely to reoffend. Hubbart became the first person held under the new law. Before his return to custody Tuesday, state-funded security guards kept constant watch over Hubbart, partly to protect the public from Hubbart and partly to protect him from protesters who regularly gathered outside. Demonstrators successfully pressured a water company to stop delivering to the home, and local law enforcement investigated anonymous death threats against Hubbart. In court documents, officials with the state contractor overseeing Hubbarts treatment expressed concern that the ongoing demonstrations were wearing the client down. Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey requested a hearing last year, pleading for the repeal of Hubbarts release. Prosecutors argued that Hubbart was a threat and had violated his release by allowing the power on his required ankle monitor to run low. We believe this violent predator continues to pose a serious danger to our community, Lacey said at the time. In May 2015, Santa Clara County Judge Richard Loftus denied Laceys request. In a statement Tuesday, Assemblyman Tom Lackey (R-Palmdale) called Hubbarts return to custody no surprise, adding that he hopes he never returns. We should never put our public at risk again, he said. Cheryl Holbrook, who lives a few miles from Hubbarts home in Lake Los Angeles, says she has lived in fear since his release, adding that it prompted her to install cameras around her home. She says she always keeps her gun nearby just in case. Holbrook, who protested outside Hubbarts home the day he moved in and attended some of his court hearings, celebrated the news of his return to custody Tuesday. Yes! Oh, my God! Im ecstatic, she said. This is beyond, beyond the best news Ive ever had. This is like winning the lottery. veronica.rocha@latimes.com marisa.gerber@latimes.com For breaking news in California, follow VeronicaRochaLA and @marisagerberon Twitter. ALSO Not-so-holy candle found stuffed with crystal meth Pilot fire grows to nearly 7,000 acres, shuts down local schools Man shot to death by L.A. County deputy was not a carjacking suspect, officials say UPDATES: 7:50 p.m.: This article was rewritten. 4:10 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from Santa Clara County court spokesman Joseph Macaluso about Hubbarts release. 2:20 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from Assemblyman Tom Lackey (R-Palmdale). 2 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from John Bays. This article was originally published at 1:20 p.m. Robert Alexander had a lengthy criminal record and no fixed address. Donnell Thompson was a fan of Michael Jackson and the Los Angeles Lakers and attended classes for the mentally disabled at El Camino College. For the record: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said that a shooting by a sheriffs deputy on Sunday occurred in Inglewood. It took place in Lennox. Early on a July morning, the two strangers lives intersected in tragic fashion. Advertisement Alexander stole a Honda Civic at gunpoint and opened fire on sheriffs deputies in Compton before disappearing into the neighborhood, authorities said. As Los Angeles County sheriffs deputies searched for Alexander, they found Thompson and mistook him for the carjacking suspect, shooting him dead. The Sheriffs Department initially characterized Thompson, 27, as a second suspect in the carjacking. But on Tuesday, sheriffs officials corrected themselves, saying he had nothing to do with the crime and the assault on the deputies. Homicide detectives described a chaotic chain of events on July 28, when Alexander was taken into custody just before a Compton resident reported that a man, who turned out to be Thompson, was lying motionless in his frontyard. Knowing what we know now, do we wish it hadnt happened? It speaks for itself, said Capt. Steven Katz, head of the sheriffs homicide bureau. The announcement came a day after high-ranking sheriffs officials met to review the shooting. Sheriffs officials said Thompson was unarmed but did not follow deputies orders when they found him and may have reached for his waistband as he ran toward an armored vehicle. Deputies used less-lethal weapons as they tried to subdue him, but Thompson was shot when he charged toward them, officials said. Relatives of shooting victim Donnell Thompson speak during a news conference before addressing the L.A. County Board of Supervisors at the Hall of Administration. (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times) Thompsons relatives described him as a harmless man who had never been in legal trouble. They protested his death at a Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday, invoking the two-year anniversary of Michael Browns death at the hands of a police officer in Ferguson, Mo., which set off a national debate about police use of force against African Americans. Thompson was black. Brian Dunn, an attorney with the Cochran Firm, who is representing Thompsons family, accused deputies of acting aggressively and failing to de-escalate the encounter. The result is that we have an unarmed individual, who had committed no crime, who once again has been the victim of a law enforcement homicide, Dunn said. The incident is one of three in which deputies have shot unarmed men in the last two weeks. William Bowers, a homeless man, was riding his bicycle in Castaic on Aug. 2 when sheriffs deputies tried to stop him. He fled on foot, and a deputy opened fire, fatally striking him in the torso. Some witnesses said Bowers was reaching for his waistband, according to a sheriffs official. On Sunday, a man fled into a house in Lennox after he was caught painting graffiti. He survived after a sheriffs deputy shot him in the torso as he was hiding in the shower. Sheriffs officials said the shootings were still under investigation. The events that led to Thompsons death began in the early morning of July 28, when Alexander used a gun to commandeer a 2012 gray Honda Civic as the owner was about to get into the car at 48th Street and Crenshaw Boulevard in Los Angeles, Katz said. In Compton, a sheriffs deputy noticed the Civic traveling erratically and pulled the car over. A license plate check showed that the car was stolen. As another patrol car was arriving, the Civic took off, plowing through the fence of an elementary school and continuing west on Stockwell Street, turning onto Slater Avenue and then Compton Avenue before crashing into a parked car and then the curb. At some point during the pursuit, Alexander fired at the deputies, Katz said. He fired again through the drivers side window, and deputies fired back, according to Katz. Then, he got out of the car and ran. At a house in the 2200 block of Slater Street, Alexander pointed his gun at two residents on the front porch, saying he would kill anyone who approached, authorities said. He threw the gun under the couch, took off his clothes and got into a bed in a room where an elderly, bedridden woman was sleeping, Katz said, apparently in an attempt to pretend that he lived at the house. Deputies found him there and took him into custody at 4:59 a.m. Less than a minute later, a resident a few blocks away on West Stockwell Street called 911. He reported that he was taking out his trash when he noticed a man lying in his frontyard. Deputies at the first scene were still working to identify Alexander and connect him to the carjacking, because they had briefly lost sight of him before the Slater Street resident flagged them down, Katz said. Meanwhile, the deputy who arrived at West Stockwell Street noticed that the man in the frontyard matched the description of the carjacking suspect: a black man 20 to 30 years old, wearing dark pants or shorts and a basketball jersey. He called over the radio that he believed he had found the carjacking suspect who had exchanged gunfire with deputies and that the man, lying motionless on the ground, may have been shot. I could see why they were thinking, Yeah, that was our guy, homicide Lt. John Corina said. See the most-read stories in Local News this hour Thompson did not respond to commands to show his hands, to stand up or to put his hands behind his head, sheriffs officials said. SWAT deputies arrived and repeated the commands, but Thompson remained motionless, lying on his side with his left hand underneath his head and his right hand under his midsection, Katz and Corina said. Even when the SWAT deputies set off flash-bang explosives, Thompson was unresponsive. Only when he was hit with foam bullets did he rouse himself, pushing himself onto his feet and bolting toward an armored vehicle, Corina said. Deputies at the scene reported that Thompson had his right hand at his waistband as he was running, Katz said. A SWAT deputy in the turret of the vehicle fired at Thompson with an M4 rifle, striking him twice in the upper torso, and he was pronounced dead at the scene. The SWAT team was well protected from gunfire by the armored vehicles, but the deputy shot Thompson out of concern that he would run into the neighborhood and harm residents, Corina said. Sheriffs officials would not identify the deputy. He has been placed on desk duty during the investigation. The fact that Thompson was not the carjacker would have no bearing on whether the shooting was legally justified, experts said. Ed Obayashi, a Plumas County sheriffs deputy and attorney who serves as a legal advisor to several law enforcement agencies in California, said more important is the perception of the deputy who opened fire. Law enforcement officers can legally use deadly force if they believe they are reacting to an imminent threat to their lives or the lives of others. The commands being ignored, they used less-lethal force that was ineffective, the guy was running away those factors are very relevant in leading them to believe, This guy has done something wrong. This is our guy, Obayashi said. Investigators described Alexander, 24, as having an extensive criminal past. Court records show that since 2009, he has pleaded no contest to three separate counts of burglary, as well as charges of conspiracy and misdemeanor vandalism. In connection with the July 28 incident, he has been charged with four counts of attempted murder, four counts of assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer, evading law enforcement, and carjacking, as well as a weapons count. Thompson, who lived in Compton, had no criminal record, investigators said. Toxicology tests that would show whether he had alcohol or drugs in his system are pending, and investigators do not know why he ended up in a stupor in a strangers frontyard. That sort of is part of the mystery here, Katz said. Its a terrible situation, and one of the questions wed like answered is what brought him there. Family members described Thompson, who went by the nickname Little Bo Peep, as gentle and shy. He liked to play Uno at El Camino Colleges Compton Center, where he also attended the classes for the mentally disabled, rarely losing unless his friends cheated, said Danielle Moore, 21, a former classmate. His oldest sister, Matrice Stanley, said that his age was 27, but mentally he was probably 16. The youngest of four siblings, Thompson lived with his father, relatives said. You had to be this close to hear him speak, said his cousin Larmar Avila, holding a finger to his ear. Hes soft-spoken. He was gentle. What was the threat? Los Angeles Times staff writers Abby Sewell and Ruben Vives contributed to this article. james.queally@latimes.com cindy.chang@latimes.com For more news, follow us on Twitter: @JamesQueallyLAT and @cindychangLA MORE LOCAL NEWS Man shot to death by L.A. County deputy was not a carjacking suspect, officials say Tyga must pay $480K for trashing Malibu home, could face arrest Pilot fire grows to nearly 7,000 acres, shuts down local schools UPDATES: 8:15 p.m.: This article was rewritten. 1:45 p.m.: This article was updated with some minor editing. 1:30 p.m.: This article was updated with additional comments from Sheriffs department investigators and an attorney for the Thompson family. 11:45 a.m.: This article was updated with details from a press conference held by Thompsons family and comments made at a Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors meeting. 10:30 a.m.: This article was updated with details about the neighborhood where the shooting occurred. This article was originally published at 9:05 p.m. A Los Angeles County judge issued a warrant Tuesday morning for the arrest of rapper Tyga after he failed to show up at a Santa Monica courtroom for a hearing in a lawsuit brought by his former landlord. Tyga was scheduled to be questioned under oath about his financial affairs and assets because he has yet to pay a more than $480,000 judgment to his former landlord at a Malibu home, according to lawyer Danny Abir. The attorneys firm, Abir, Cohen, Treyzon & Salo LLP, represents the landlord, Gholamreza Rezai. The interrogation would have likely pried open the private business affairs of the 26-year-old Rack City rapper, who has been romantically linked to the youngest of the Kardashian-Jenner clan, Kylie Jenner. Advertisement When Tyga did not show up in court, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Nancy L. Newman signed off on the arrest warrant, with bail set at $10,000, according to Abir. The case traces to 2011, when Tyga rented a Malibu mansion overlooking the Pacific Ocean for $16,000 a month, according to court papers. He missed a monthly rental payment before breaking his lease early, court papers allege. Tyga, whose legal name is Michael Ray Stevenson, left behind a home in need of repairs, according to Boris Treyzon, the landlords attorney. The master bedroom had been outfitted with a strippers pole and the homes intercom system was disconnected. The hardwood floors, gate opener and glass-tiled shower were damaged, according to court papers. He leased a house that he wanted to use as his primary residence, then he completely trashed it, Treyzon said. The original lawsuit filed in 2012 that led to the judgment also named Tyga Music. In March, the judge approved a default judgment totaling $480,285, which covers compensation for the alleged vandalism, rent owed and legal fees. The judgment has a 10% yearly interest, Treyzon said. After Tyga did not pay, the landlords attorneys sought a debtors examination a hearing in which a person has to answer under oath about his property, assets and financial affairs. To notify the rapper about Tuesdays debtors hearing, attorneys sent a contractor to his July 20 concert in San Diego, which coincided with Comic-Con. While Tyga was on stage at Fluxx Night Club, the agent served him with the notice to appear in court, Treyzon said. The strategy allowed the agent to sidestep any security workers or friends who might have tried to block access to the rapper. We got the judgment entered, and now its collection time, Treyzon said. A publicist for Tyga did not respond to an after-hours request for comment. Its unclear what attorney or law firm was representing him. For more news in California, follow @MattHjourno. ALSO The high and lows of the new Runyon Canyon hike Woman who had bear killed says she was trying to protect her kids Marijuana-laced gummy rings sickened 19 at a quinceanera party in San Francisco UPDATES: 11:10 a.m.: This article was updated with news of the judge issuing a warrant for Tygas arrest. This article was originally published at 4:30 a.m. Two starkly different portrayals of Linda Katehi emerged Tuesday after she resigned her post just moments ahead of the release of a report on an independent investigation into her tenure as UC Davis chancellor. One propagated by her attorney, Melinda Guzman was of a strong and accomplished public servant who was cleared of all charges in a bruising and unfair witch hunt. Linda Katehi and her family have been exonerated from baseless accusations of nepotism, conflicts of interest, financial management and personal gain, just as we predicted and as the UC Davis Academic Senate found within days of this leave, Guzman said. Advertisement The other put forward by UC President Janet Napolitano was of a deeply flawed administrator who, investigators found, had shown poor judgment, violated multiple university policies and misled, even lied to, her superiors, the public and the media. In these circumstances, Chancellor Katehi has now offered to resign, and I have accepted that resignation, Napolitano wrote Tuesday in a letter to the UC Davis community. These past three months and the events leading up to them have been an unhappy chapter in the life of UC Davis. I believe it is in the best interest of the campus, the Davis community, and the University of California that we move forward. Napolitano ordered an investigation in April in response to allegations that Katehi had violated conflict-of-interest rules in the hiring and promotion of her son and daughter-in-law at UC Davis. Investigators also looked into whether she had made material misstatements to Napolitano in asserting that she had not been involved in hiring social media firms to scrub the Internet of references to campus police pepper-spraying of student protesters in 2011. The three-month probe also examined charges that she misused student fees and used poor judgment regarding outside board memberships. The 102-page report by independent investigators led by Melinda Haag, a former U.S. attorney, came to mixed conclusions about Katehis conduct. Investigators did not find evidence that Katehi was involved in employment or compensation decisions about her family members or that she misused student fees. But they concluded that her assertions that she played no role in the social media contracts were misleading at best and untruthful at worst. The report painted a picture of a chancellor so obsessed with her public image that she insisted on hiring public relations firms to improve it even after a 2012 UC study found the pepper-spray incident was not harming the campus reputation. Katehi, the report said, also misinformed Napolitano about her $70,000-a-year board seat with the DeVry Education Group, falsely stating that she had not yet started service when she actually had attended two meetings at which she had learned that DeVry was being sued by the federal government for allegedly defrauding students. She also failed to show diligence and judgment by joining the board of King Abdulaziz University in Saudi Arabia, the report said, even though she knew of allegations that it improperly inflated its research statistics. Chancellor Katehi has engaged in a pattern of misrepresentations, has repeatedly exercised poor judgment when confronted with challenges, has consistently disregarded the impact of her actions on the campus and the university as a whole and has failed to mitigate troubling management practices, said UC spokeswoman Dianne KIein. This behavior is not fit for a UC chancellor or anyone in a leadership position. Under the settlement, Katehi will remain on administrative leave for a year as chancellor emeritus, receiving her $424,360 annual pay with the promise that she will return as a faculty member. If she should choose not to return for at least a year, she would forfeit the chancellors salary payment, Klein said. Her faculty pay would be decided by UC Davis campus officials. UC agreed not to pursue charges of misconduct with the UC Davis Academic Senate, which could threaten her tenure. In return, Katehi agreed not to file legal actions against UC. Napolitano said that a search for Katehis successor would begin immediately and that Ralph Hexter would continue to serve as the acting chancellor. Katehis resignation marks the denouement of a high-profile and highly unusual public battle between a UC president and top administrator in the 10-campus system of 250,000 students. Although conflicts are not unusual, they usually are handled quietly. In 2005, when UC President Robert Dynes opened a conflict-of-interest investigation into Provost M.R.C. Greenwood, for instance, she quickly resigned. There are plenty of cases where the system head and the campus leader come to blows, but the norm is that someone offers a settlement with a nondisparagement clause and everyone smiles and agrees to move on, said Scott Jaschik, editor of Inside Higher Ed, a national online news and career site. Not so with the Katehi case. For the last three months, proxies for Katehi and Napolitano traded charges over such matters as whether Katehi was failing to cooperate with UC, lying about her campus dealings or speaking out when she had promised to stay mum. The chancellors decision to hire an attorney and media consultant to make her case in public startled longtime UC watchers. To hire PR people and legal guns to publicly criticize your boss its unbelievable, said one UC administrator, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the case. Bridges are being burned everywhere. Guzman said such steps were necessary to combat what she called inaccuracies and incomplete information disseminated by Napolitanos office. Guzman said, for instance, that Katehi properly filed notifications to UC that her son, Erik Tseregounis, had been hired in 2014 to do graduate research and had become engaged to a UC Davis administrator, Emily Prieto, in 2015. (The report noted, however, that Katehi filed the notification about her son six months late and failed to file one when his research center was moved under Prietos oversight.) The resignation ends the UC ascent of a woman known as a brilliant electrical and computer engineering scholar and credited with raising $1 billion for student scholarships and other campus needs, boosting diversity and energizing faculty with big research ideas. The Greek immigrant, who holds several patents in electronic circuit design, pushed Davis to admit the largest number of California students on any UC campus. This year, Forbes magazine named Davis the best campus for women in STEM fields science, technology, engineering and mathematics. But critics said Katehi, 62, stumbled too many times. An independent report blamed her for failing to prevent campus police from pepper-spraying students. News of the Internet scrubbing and her additional moonlighting jobs led several legislators and the UC Student Assn. to call for her resignation. Others, including Assemblyman Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento) and Assemblywoman Catharine Baker (R-San Ramon), said Tuesday that the resignation would give UC Davis a fresh start. The road to Katehis downfall began in March, when the Sacramento Bee reported that the chancellor had taken paid board seats with DeVry and also had received $420,000 over three years for service with textbook publisher John Wiley & Sons. Katehi had failed to obtain Napolitanos permission for the DeVry seat, but the UC president initially stood by her. Katehi was hardly the only senior manager to moonlight. In 2014, 49 of UCs 180 senior managers reported income from outside activities, totaling a combined $1.77 million. But Katehis problems grew when the Bee reported on the efforts to bury Internet stories on the pepper-spraying. Then Napolitanos office found documents indicating that the chancellor had misled the president in asserting she had no role in the social media contracts, UC spokeswoman Klein said. Napolitano summoned Katehi to an April 25 meeting and asked for her resignation. Guzman said she gave Katehi two choices: resign completely from Davis or, if she exercised her rights to stay on as a faculty member, shed face an investigation of her family members. Klein called that account absolutely false. Napolitano offered to help Katehi transition to a faculty position, and Katehi agreed to keep matters confidential so that a graceful exit could be arranged, Klein said. But Katehi refused to step down. On April 27, she sent an email to the UC Davis Council of Deans and Vice Chancellors saying she was 100% committed to continuing as chancellor. The email was quickly forwarded to all faculty members. That infuriated Napolitano, who later that day informed Katehi that she was placing her on paid administrative leave and appointing an independent investigator. Andre Knoesen, chair of the UC Davis Academic Senate, on Tuesday hailed Katehis energetic advocacy for public education and UC Davis. But he said the tensions with Napolitano have had a negative effect on the Davis campus and make it impossible for Linda Katehi to be effective as a chancellor. Others in academia hailed Napolitano for acting decisively against a chancellor who repeatedly brought negative attention to UC especially at a time of delicate negotiations for more funding with Gov. Jerry Brown and the state Legislature. Janet Napolitano is a serious administrator who sees Katehis actions as character flaws that harm the university and they have to stop, said William G. Tierney, an education professor and co-director of the Pullias Center for Higher Education at USC. She is very clear about how she sees the world. The appearance of impropriety is almost as big of a problem as an actual impropriety. You dont want to wake up and find out that one of your campus leaders is in the news for alleged wrongdoings, Tierney added. At a time when UC is really having major financial issues and the Legislature and governor are asking for reforms, this gets in the way. teresa.watanabe@latimes.com Twitter: @teresawatanabe Times intern Sophia Bollag contributed to this report. ALSO L.A. Unified projects 75% graduation rate for Class of 2016 How did LAUSD spend $450 million? Not on the high-needs students the money was for, state officials say Scott Folsom, an official and unofficial watchdog over L.A. schools, dies at 69 UPDATES: 10:54 p.m.: This article has been updated with more information about the 102-page report and other details about Linda Katehis tenure. 8:45 p.m.: This article has been updated with additional details. 5:30 p.m.: This article has been updated with a statement from UC President Janet Napolitano and terms of the settlement. 1:25 p.m.: This article has been updated to remove outdated information. This article was originally published at 12:55 p.m. Baltimore police routinely violated the constitutional rights of residents by conducting unlawful stops and using excessive force, according to a long-anticipated Justice Department report being released Wednesday. The practices were overwhelmingly directed at the citys black residents in poor neighborhoods, the Justice Department concluded in a 163-page report, which was obtained by the Los Angeles Times. Begun after the April 2015 death of Freddie Gray from injuries sustained while in police custody, the wide-ranging investigation uncovered deep-seated problems with how Baltimore officers do their jobs and how they are policed themselves. Advertisement The unlawful practices were driven by systemic deficiencies in [the police departments] policies, training, supervision and accountability structures that fail to equip officers with the tools they need to police effectively, the report said. Grays death, which triggered rioting, was one of several recent killings nationwide of unarmed black men by police officers. The deaths have provoked a nationwide conversation about race, discrimination and police practices. It also has exposed deep rifts between police and the communities they serve. The Justice Department examined data from 2010 through 2015 and conducted extensive interviews with officers, prosecutors, community leaders and residents. Among the findings: Baltimore police too often stopped, frisked and arrested residents without legal justification, and such activities fell disproportionately on black residents and drivers. Officers also too frequently used excessive force in situations that did not call for aggressive measures, the report said, and routinely retaliated against residents for exercising their right to free speech and free assembly. The investigation concluded that deeply entrenched problems were allowed to fester because the department did not properly oversee, train or hold accountable officers. For example, the department lacks systems to deter and detect improper conduct, and it fails to collect and analyze data that might root out abuses or abusers. Federal investigators determined that 1990s-era policies that encouraged more aggressive policing, known as zero tolerance, contributed to the discriminatory practices, and that such measures were partially responsible for badly fraying the relationship between residents and police. Vanita Gupta, who leads the Justice Departments civil rights division, said such zero tolerance strategies and other aggressive tactics helps explain why residents lost faith in the department. The long-standing nature of these problems and the degree to which they infected so much of the relationship and interactions between law enforcement and Baltimore communities was pretty staggering, Gupta said in an interview. The Justice Department announced Wednesday it had reached an agreement in principal with city officials to negotiate a court-enforced consent decree to fully address the problems. Reforming the department will take years, require close oversight and cost millions of dollars, Justice Department officials said. The agreement in principle identifies categories of reforms the parties agree must be taken to remedy the violations of the Constitution and federal law described in this report. Such an agreement would be the first step in negotiations to reach a court-enforced consent decree. In recent years, the Justice Department has completed numerous such pattern or practice investigations into local police departments around the country, including one after the 2014 shooting of an unarmed black man by Ferguson, Mo., police. Baltimore officials invited the federal investigation after Grays death. Gray died on April 19, 2015, after sustaining severe spinal cord injuries while being transported in the back of a police van. Hours after the 25-year-olds funeral, protests and rioting erupted in Baltimore. City officials imposed nearly a week of curfew, along with the deployment of the states National Guard. More than 200 people were arrested over the days of unrest, and nearly 100 police officers were injured. In welcoming the federal investigation, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said she was willing to do what it takes to reform my department. The Justice Department has worked closely with the Baltimore police, which set up a team of officers and officials to deal directly with federal investigators. The report praised police and city leaders for their cooperation. Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said Tuesday that he looked forward to reviewing the federal findings. He said they would help him improve the force. We have begun this journey to reform long-standing issues in many real, tangible ways, Davis said. DOJs findings will serve to solidify our road map. Anticipating what the Justice Department would discover, city officials already have pushed forward on several fronts, revising the use-of-force policy and instituting new training. The department, for example, has redesigned and placed cameras in its police transport vans and introduced a software platform for the streamlined and tracked dissemination of new training materials and policies for officers; both are issues that arose in the Gray case. Criminal prosecutions against the six officers involved in Grays arrest and transport have not gone as smoothly. Three were acquitted at a bench trial, and States Atty. Marilyn J. Mosby recently dropped the charges against the three remaining officers. The Justice Department is separately reviewing whether federal civil rights violations occurred. But the legal hurdles for bringing a federal case are higher than those faced by state prosecutors. We will continue our independent review of this matter, assess all available materials and determine what actions are appropriate, given the strict burdens and requirements imposed by applicable federal civil rights laws, Justice Department spokesman David Jacobs said in a statement. @delwilber MORE FROM NATION From Ferguson to Baton Rouge: Deaths of black men and women at the hands of police District mapping is diluting minority votes in this Georgia county, civil rights groups allege in lawsuit Muslim boy who was arrested for building a clock says his family was forced to leave the U.S. for safety UPDATES: 7:45 p.m. Aug 10: This article was updated with information from a Justice Department news conference. 4:10 p.m.: This article was updated with details from the report. The article was originally published at 12:25 p.m., Aug. 9. A Kansas thrill ride billed as the worlds tallest waterslide remained off-limits Monday as authorities pressed to figure out how a state lawmakers 10-year-old son died from a neck injury while riding it. Details remained murky about how Caleb Thomas Schwab died Sunday on the 168-foot-tall Verruckt ride German for insane that since its debut two years ago has been the top draw at Schlitterbahn Waterpark in Kansas City, Kan. Police issued a statement late Monday saying that Caleb suffered a fatal neck injury about 2:30 p.m. while he was riding the slide with two women, neither of whom was related to him. The women suffered minor facial injuries and were treated at a hospital, police said. Advertisement Emergency responders arrived to find the boy dead in a pool at the end of the ride, according to the statement, which offered no further details. In a statement Monday, Schlitterbahn said it was deeply and intensely saddened for the Schwab family and all who were impacted by the tragic accident. The park was tentatively scheduled to reopen Wednesday, but Verruckt is closed, according to the statement. Officer Cameron Morgan, a Kansas City, Kan., police spokesman, said investigators were treating Calebs death as a civil matter rather than a criminal one and referred questions to the park. Schlitterbahn spokeswoman Winter Prosapio declined interview requests Monday but told reporters a day earlier that Caleb had been at the park with family members, adding that we honestly dont know whats happened. Leslie Castaneda, who was at Schlitterbahn on Sunday, told the Kansas City Star that she saw Calebs crumpled shorts or bathing suit at the bottom of the ride, along with blood on the slides white descending flume. Im really having a tough time with it. I really am, Castaneda said. I saw his brother. He was screaming. On the waterslide certified by Guinness World Records as the worlds tallest, riders sit in multi-person rafts during the ultimate in water slide thrills, subjecting adventure seekers to a jaw-dropping 17-story drop, the parks website says. Passengers then are blasted back up a second massive hill and then sent down yet another gut-wrenching 50-foot drop, the website adds. Each rider must be at least 54 inches tall, and the groups weight is limited to a total of 400 to 550 pounds. Authorities didnt release information about Calebs height or the combined weight of his group of riders. Calebs parents Republican state Rep. Scott Schwab and his wife, Michele have requested privacy as the family grieves, saying in a statement Sunday that since the day he was born, [Caleb] brought abundant joy to our family and all those he came in contact with. Authorities initially said the victim was 12 years old, but Clint Sprague, a pastor acting as the familys spokesman, said Caleb was 10. According to rules sent to the media in 2014, riders had to be at least 14 years old, but that requirement is no longer listed on the parks website. Verruckts 2014 opening was repeatedly delayed, though the operators didnt explain why. In a news article linked to the news release announcing a 2014 delay, Schlitterbahn co-owner Jeff Henry told USA Today that he and senior designer John Schooley had based their calculations when designing the slide on roller coasters, but that didnt translate well to a waterslide like Verruckt. In early tests, rafts carrying sandbags flew off the slide, prompting engineers to tear down half of the ride and reconfigure some angles at a cost of $1 million, Henry said. A promotional video about building the slide includes footage of two men riding a raft down a half-size test model and going slightly airborne as it crests the top of the first big hill. ALSO Young son of Kansas lawmaker dies on worlds largest water slide From shrines to head-to-toe attire: How Miami is coping with the arrival of Zika Alabama chief justice may lose his job in ethics case over same-sex marriage ruling UPDATES: 5:50 p.m.: The story was updated with the cause of death. The story was originally published at 5:15 p.m. An infant whose mother traveled to a Zika-infected area in Latin America died shortly after birth in a suburban Houston hospital, marking the first Zika-related death in Texas, according to officials. The infant died a few weeks ago and had microcephaly linked to the Zika virus, Dr. Umair Shah, executive director of Harris County Public Health, said Tuesday. We are devastated to report our first case of Zika-associated death, and our hearts go out to the family, Shah said. Advertisement Test results linking the death to Zika were confirmed Friday. The mother had traveled to El Salvador while she was pregnant. The only other confirmed Zika-related death in the U.S. was an elderly Utah man who died in June. He also suffered from other health conditions. Florida is the only U.S. state that has reported homegrown Zika transmission by mosquitoes, in Miami-Dade County. Texas has reported 97 Zika cases, all contracted during travel abroad. Harris County has reported 31 Zika cases, including 14 in Houston. Last week, Texas officials announced that the states Medicaid program would provide mosquito repellent to all expectant mothers and women between 10 and 45. Harris County Judge Ed Emmett doubted the efficiency of that program and said he would work with local and state officials as well as corporate partners to get the spray directly to residents. How many people are going to go get a prescription for bug spray? I think the more realistic way is to find corporate partners and make it happen, he said. ALSO From shrines to head-to-toe attire: How Miami is coping with the arrival of Zika Two babies in California born with microcephaly from Zika, officials say Three vaccines prevent Zika infection in monkeys; vaccine trial in humans gets underway UPDATES: 12:15 p.m.: This article has been updated with comment from the Harris County Public Health executive director and a county judge. This article was originally published at 11:25 a.m. Paul Ryan campaigns by not campaigning Paul Ryan greets voters in Pleasant Prairie. "Packers right?" pic.twitter.com/QzKmrniL6J Seema (@LATSeema) August 8, 2016 House Speaker Paul D. Ryans primary challenge is drawing national attention. But that wasnt obvious Monday, less than 24 hours before voters head to the polls here, as Ryan met with manufacturing workers on the eastern edge of his district. Ryan never mentioned the election, rival Paul Nehlen or last weeks kerfuffle when GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump hedged on backing Ryan before eventually delivering a tepid endorsement. Instead, the nine-term congressman talked about his job as the nations highest elected Republican. Its not enough for those of us you elect to go criticize and complain and throw bombs at each other, Ryan told the employees of a tool manufacturer, touting his six-pronged Better Way policy platform. We have to throw solutions on the table. Ryan ignoring Tuesdays primary election is perhaps unsurprising, given that he trounces Nehlen in polls by large double-digit figures. Nehlen continued to attack Ryan as a tool of the establishment and donor-class who supports open borders and trade policies that harm American workers. Paul Ryan is the head of the snake, Nehlen said at a Saturday rally in Janesville, Ryans hometown, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Unlike many Republicans running for office, Nehlen is unique in that he has unequivocally embraced Trump and his controversies. That has led Trump to speak approvingly of Nehlen. Nehlen has also attracted support from the far right former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has endorsed him, and conservative author Ann Coulter campaigned with him this weekend. His supporters are hopeful Nehlen can pull off the same upset that David Brat did when he ousted House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in 2014. That scenario appears unlikely given Ryans strong approval ratings in Wisconsin and his connection with his district. He returns to Janesville most weekends to spend time with his wife and three children, and is a familiar sight at the areas fish fries and festivals. For sure, he comes to parades and shakes hands, said Mark Stillman, 62, of Burlington. Hes just like a regular guy, way different than some of those people who you dont even want to listen to And he knows a lot about the Packers. Ryan frequently mentions his love of the football team, in addition to the tax burdens facing Harley-Davidson when the company sells Wisconsin-made motorcycles overseas, or new trade hurdles for the states gouda and parmesan cheese makers. Asked about the teams prospects this year, Ryan ran through the line-ups, new recruits, the players physiques and injuries, and noted that he recently attended a team practice. He called the experience one of the coolest things Ive ever done in my life. Several voters said they supported Ryan because they believed he was a genuine politician who did not put on airs. I really think hes a good man. Some politicians out there, maybe not so much, but Paul Ryan, I really like, said Jim Ayotte of Racine. Its how you come across and what youre willing to do for people, and I think Paul Ryan looks to me like hes going to do good things for us, and he has. Ayotte, a registered Republican, said the enthusiasm does not spill over to Trump. He hasnt decided whether he will vote for the partys nominee in November, but he also opposes Hillary Clinton . To be honest with you, I dont like either one, said the 58-year-old. Oscar Bautista, 62, asked Ryan at a town hall in Pleasant Prairie later in the day if there were some way the Republican Party could get rid of Trump and make Ryan its nominee. Ryan, the GOPs 2012 vice presidential nominee, didnt address his potential White House aspirations, but said that Trump won the partys nomination definitively. He won the votes fair and square. He won more votes than anybody else, Ryan said. He is the nominee and thats how it works in our party. Wisconsin voters deciding House Speaker Paul Ryans fate Voting day in Wisc., where insurgent Paul Nehlen hopes to take down House Speaker Paul Ryan. pic.twitter.com/VjnTBvOS4p Seema (@LATSeema) August 9, 2016 House Speaker Paul Ryan is widely expected to beat insurgent Paul Nehlen in Tuesdays GOP primary in Wisconsin. Part of the reason is voters like Howie Jones, 39. Ive known him for 20 years. Its a personal thing, said the auto mechanic, before casting a ballot for Ryan at a middle school in the speakers hometown. I think hes doing a good job. I know some [about Nehlen], but Pauls still my guy. Howie Jones cast his ballot for Ryan. "I've known him for 20 years. It's a personal thing." pic.twitter.com/n02hagi7H7 Seema (@LATSeema) August 9, 2016 The race has attracted national attention because of support by some conservatives and Donald Trump backers for Nehlen, who says Ryan is a tool of the establishment, donors and corporations. The House speaker supports immigration and trade policies that harm American workers, Nehlen charges. His backers are hopeful that Nehlen can pull off an upset similar to a Virginia election two years ago when insurgent David Brat beat House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. Polls show Ryan crushing Nehlen. In interviews, voters who are supporting Ryan consistently bring up his enduring ties to his district as among the reasons for their support. Hes a hometown guy, said Vickie Berg, 50, who said she has met Ryan and his family several times at her church. Hes sincere. Very down to earth, very personable. Nehlens supporters are confident that the polling is wrong. Nehlen's volunteers are out in full force and say the polls will be proven wrong if their people turn out. pic.twitter.com/N0B2UctOrA Seema (@LATSeema) August 9, 2016 Weve been at the doors for three months. We know all about what the people are saying. Its a matter of whether our people come out or not, said Andy Stempki, a volunteer holding a Nehlen sign outside a Janesville polling place. The 35-year-old sailboat captain said he once supported Ryan, but accuses him of failing to lead. Americas at a crossroads, and either we can go down the path of globalist special interest, or we can go down the path of America first and empower the people that are actually doing the work in this country, he said. Thats why Im for Mr. Nehlen, and thats why I think Mr. Ryans time for retirement is coming soon. Still, even some Nehlen voters acknowledged the uphill battle their candidate faces. Asked if he was optimistic about his candidates chances, Bruce Yungerman replied: No, not at all. The 58-year-old janitor and his wife, Jo, said their votes were a statement. Ryan hasnt done anything, said Jo Yungerman, 60, adding that she wished Ryan had more actively fought Obamacare and same-sex marriage. We need change, she said. We need fresh blood. It was no victory for Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey on Friday when two men entered no-contest pleas arising from alleged rip-offs at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Prosecutors in what had once been considered an elite anti-corruption unit of the D.A.s office mishandled evidence and in so doing may have undermined their own case against events manager Todd DeStefano and had to settle for restitution and six months in jail. He had been facing up to 10 years in prison. Promoter Reza Gerami will now pay a fine. As reported in the Times on Saturday, the settlement followed incidents in which one member of Laceys Public Integrity Division improperly viewed communications between a defendant and his lawyer and had to be removed from the case, and another member of the team then was improperly in contact with the first one. Advertisement The judge questioned whether the D.A.s office is capable of handling complex prosecutions and the public must now be wondering the same thing. The point of the Public Integrity Division when then-Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley created it 15 years ago was to ensure that county prosecutors could and would go after corrupt officials who lied to or stole from the public and, in the process, undermined the peoples confidence in democratic government. County district attorneys like Cooley and Lacey are elected and have built-in political pressures that naturally raise questions about their motivation to investigate and prosecute corruption by their colleagues in other offices. The corruption unit was in part an answer to that concern because it operates with a measure of independence, even though it ultimately reports to the D.A. The Coliseum is a historic, publicly owned stadium, governed by elected officials or their appointees. But the immediate worry is not that the D.A. was letting public officials off easy but that the case was beyond the offices ability. Lacey strongly denies the notion and notes that her office won a felony conviction, with jail time, against DeStefano. And it is true that not many other district attorneys offices have public integrity units or handle these kinds of cases. Thats to the credit of Cooley and now to Lacey. But Los Angeles is a big jurisdiction requiring top-quality legal work, and Lacey has an office of 1,000 prosecutors. It successfully prosecuted corruption in the city of Bell after a series of Times stories spotlighted problems there in 2010, and it ought to be able to handle other complex cases. If Lacey were an appointed county department head, she would have to sit before the Board of Supervisors and report on the failures in training, supervision or procedure that led to the mishandling of this case. But she is elected and reports to voters. It is to them whom Lacey owes her explanation. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook From its founding in 1912, the African National Congress led the struggle against white-minority rule in South Africa. After eight decades of sacrifice and perseverance during which its charismatic leader, Nelson Mandela served 27 years in prison it finally toppled the racist apartheid regime that governed the country. In 1994, Mandela became the first president of the new South Africa. For its work, the ANC earned the loyal support of South Africas black voters. Since 1994, theres never been a president elected from any other political party, and voters in repeated landslide elections have handed the ANC solid control of the national Parliament. President Jacob Zuma ANC, of course has said that the party will rule South Africa until Jesus comes back. But he might want to revise that prediction after last weeks municipal elections, in which the ANC suffered its worst losses ever. The party lost control of the capital, Pretoria, and of the Nelson Mandela Bay area (where 10 years ago it received 66% of the vote). The party held Johannesburg, one of the nations largest cities, but only narrowly, with less than a majority. Advertisement These are ominous results for the party, which faces national elections in 2019. They are a boost for the Democratic Alliance, the centrist party that already governs Cape Town, and for the left-wing Economic Freedom Fighters party. The outcome should surprise no one, however. The ANC has not performed well in recent years. Under Mandela, the country held free elections, conducted a riveting truth-and-reconciliation process, built a respected multiracial judicial system and permitted a free press. But since then there have been corruption scandals and internal party squabbles. The country suffers from economic stagnation, high unemployment and enormous inequality, reminding voters of the ANCs failure to follow through on promises to redistribute income and deliver opportunity to millions of black South Africans who were denied it for so long. Corruption charges have been brought against Zuma for racketeering, fraud and money laundering. The millions of taxpayer dollars spent to renovate his private residence didnt help. Nor did the rape charges against him. (He was eventually acquitted.) Over 22 years, the ANC has squandered its enormous political advantages and can no longer take voters support for granted. For South Africans, though, this could be a positive development, if all goes well. Multiparty politics are healthy in a democracy. Electoral competition holds political players accountable. Viable opposition parties offer checks on power. True electoral choice could either force the ANC to put its house in order or be tossed aside. Standing as a cautionary tale is neighboring Zimbabwe, where the brutal Robert Mugabe clings to the presidency nearly 30 years after the end of white-minority rule. With a more vibrant democracy, South Africa could be spared the same fate. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook Donald Trump has the GOP trapped in not one Catch-22, but two. Call it a Catch-44. The first Catch-22 has been the subject of widespread conversation over the last few weeks. As GOP pollster Glen Bolger summed it up for the New York Times. Do we run the risk of depressing our base by repudiating the guy? Or do we run the risk of being tarred and feathered by independents for not repudiating him? Were damned if we do and damned if we dont, he added. Lots of Republicans adore Donald Trump just consider the enthusiasm at his massive rallies and will turn on the establishment Republicans who betray him. Advertisement But roughly one out of five Republicans do not support the nominee. College educated married white women a major part of the GOP demographic coalition are abandoning him. Trump is behind by huge margins in key swing states. His standing in the national polls is flirting with the catastrophic. Its only early August and already Republican strategists are speculating that down-ballot candidates will have to cut and run from the nominee. If I were advising a candidate, and I used to do that for a living, the first thing Id tell them is, Dont put yourself in the middle of other peoples races. Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole said on MSNBC. That brings us to the second Catch-22. Republican candidates at this stage have no excuses to offer if they decide to repudiate Trump other than naked self-interest. Lets assume Trump cannot mount a comeback and becomes an albatross for countless Republican candidates across the country. And lets say they jump ship. Then every Democrat in the country not to mention almost every pundit will say, You guys were fine with Trump as the nominee when he was a racist, but now that hes hurting the whole GOPs chances hes suddenly unacceptable? The message was clear: Only [Trumps] willingness to endanger top Republicans re-election was truly unacceptable behavior. And there will be some truth to the accusation. Its instructive to look at what prompted the flop-sweat panic of recent days. After leaving the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Trump climbed the rhetorical jackass tree and then hurled himself earthward, hitting every branch on the way down. Theres not enough space here to recount in any serious detail all of the self-destructive statements and bizarre rabbit holes he spelunked into from attacking the parents of Capt. Humayun Kahn, a soldier who died serving our country, to jokingly inviting the Russians to muck about in our elections, to reviving past controversies about Sen. Ted Cruzs fathers alleged complicity in the Kennedy assassination. And yet GOP establishment leaders stuck with their man just as theyd stuck with their man when he threw NATO under the bus, and ridiculed our treaty obligations with Japan, and attacked American-born Judge Gonzalo Curiels alleged conflict of interest between his professional duties and his Mexican heritage. (Sure, House Speaker Paul Ryan and others criticized Trumps comments, but did not officially distance themselves from him.) GOP leaders contemplated pulling the emergency break on the Trump Train only when the nominee said he wouldnt endorse Ryan or Sens. John McCain and Kelly Ayotte. The message was clear: Only his willingness to endanger top Republicans re-election was truly unacceptable behavior. Nothing else Trump said or did until then was beyond the pale. In fact, the message was so clear that even Trump heard it. After an intervention his campaign denies took place, Trump grudgingly fell in line, reading a statement endorsing Ryan, McCain and Ayotte with all the enthusiasm of an adolescent boy forced to apologize for shoplifting. There are no good options left for the GOP. However its leaders pivot to boost the partys chances in November, they risk revealing that winning is their only sacred principle that is to say, admitting they have no sacred principles at all. jgoldberg@latimescolumnists.com Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or Facebook We are products of the Los Angeles public schools, longtime residents of the city, and most importantly friends. We became friends even though the odds were stacked against us. It happened in 1969 when the two of us one black, one white ended up at school together as the Los Angeles Unified School District finally began to confront its history of segregation. Race relations in L.A. were tense then. The scars were still fresh from the six-day-long 1965 Watts riots, and at L.A. high schools the races were, for the most part, separated. A desegregation lawsuit had already been filed on behalf of minority students; busing plans and protests would come later. In 1969, when we started at Alexander Hamilton High School, we were part of a pilot program of voluntary integration at LAUSD: Project APEX which stood for Area Program for Enrichment Exchange. The exchange allowed students of any race to apply to attend a few classes a week at a high school where they would be in the minority. White kids could go to black schools; black kids could go to white schools. Our class the class of 1972 was first up. Joel was already on track to start at Hamilton, on the Westside. Pauls mom wanted her son to go to Hamilton as well. She camped out overnight in front of the school to make sure Paul got in. Advertisement Hamilton, built in 1931, was mostly a white and Jewish school until Project APEX. When the school year started, some white families pulled their children from the school. You could feel the tension even fear in the air. The races stayed segregated. It seemed that Hamilton would continue to reflect the divisions that plagued all of L.A. But the faculty and administration of Hamilton High moved boldly and proactively. Starting in December, they suspended regular academic and extracurricular activities for one day every so often. Instead of going to classes and hanging out with our usual friends, the entire student body met in a convocation. We were broken up into multiracial groups of about 30 each; our parents, outside counselors, community leaders and social workers were brought in as facilitators. The idea was to mix us up, force us to get to know each other, and then to knit us together as a whole rather than as separate white and black parts. It was mostly a chance to start talking about our perceptions and misperceptions, about school, about almost anything. It seems so simple, but it worked. During those sessions, friendships formed, prejudice waned and our lives were forever changed, most definitely for the better. If we really want to bring people together, then we must do exactly that bring them together. The two of us sat across from each other at the first convocation. We each had wrong-headed ideas and fears about each other that began to dissipate that day. Our friendship got its start at the first convocation. The tensions at Hamilton werent erased overnight, but everyone knew the group therapy helped. The student body wanted the media to tell our story. But no one showed up, so we demonstrated outside the local CBS affiliate. That got attention: black and white students picketing together. A year and a half after the first convocation, the two of us ran for class leadership positions, more or less as a unit. Joel was elected senior class president and Paul was elected student body president, a sign to us of how much had changed. Make no mistake: We graduated into a world where racism was and still is real. We both give lectures in our respective specialties, usually addressing conferences of our fellow doctors. One of us, even now, can have difficulty getting in to the conference venues to get his credentials; the other walks in without any credentials at all. One of us is frequently addressed as a member of the serving staff at conference receptions. This sort of litany could go on and on. Now we see the videotapes and follow the investigation of police shootings. We know protesters gather at Los Angeles Police Department news conferences. We hear the chants of Black Lives Matter at campaign rallies. Is racial strife worse now than it was when we were growing up? There is no easy answer to this question, but one thing that was true then is still true today: Direct, personal interaction is the prescription for calming the strife. Our leaders keep talking about the need for a national conversation on race. Lets start it here, with our children. Wed like to see LAUSD close down all its high schools for a few days this year (and every year), and use the time to hold convocations like the ones we experienced at Hamilton. If we really want to bring people together, then we must do exactly that bring them together. It worked for the two of us and the hundreds of others who attended Hamilton High with us. It can work again today. Dr. Paul Wallace is a dermatologist and Dr. Joel Strom is a dentist. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook To the editor: Richard Hasen describes Trumps withdrawal from the race as very unlikely. I believe Hasen is in for a surprise. ( What happens if Trump drops out? Opinion, Aug. 5) Trumps formal withdrawal announcement will come as soon as he is convinced his sinking poll numbers signal the demise of his election. Trump has articulated he despises losers. Its easily predictable he will not allow himself to become one. Advertisement As Trump said in Ohio this month: Im afraid the elections going to be rigged. Walking away from a rigged election perfectly fits the Trump profile of defending himself from being treated unfairly. Trumps exit will be a win-win. He can brag of his victory over a rigged system and many Americans will win by getting a better nights sleep. William Goldman, Palos Verdes Estates .. To the editor: This Democrat would be ecstatically, deliriously happy, and deeply grateful, if Clinton would drop out of the race. .. Myriam Soler, Los Angeles To the editor: Hasen argues Hillary Clinton would have an enormous advantage if Trumps name lingered on the ballot after he, hypothetically, drops out of the race. The nomination process is long and arduous. Once the candidates are selected, the voting public is weary of both major candidates. It seems patently unfair that a candidate from one party could quit and be replaced by another who has not gone through that same process. The natural inclination of many would be to gravitate to the fresh face, leaving the remaining candidate at a disadvantage. The only fair result, perhaps, is to allow the candidate who came in second during the nomination process to replace the exiting one. In the hypothetical situation, this would be Ted Cruz. Catherine Green, Santa Ana Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook Susan Collins doesnt want Donald Trump to be president. Theres nothing remarkable about that statement or her piece in the Washington Post explaining her non-endorsement unless you mention the fact that Collins is in fact Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine. Try reading her article as if your Republican Uncle Joe had written it and took the position that Trump deserves to lose because: He mocked a disabled reporter in front of an adoring audience. He spewed sexist insults at a female reporter. He deemed a federal judge unfit to preside over the Trump University fraud case because his name is Gonzalo Curiel. He attacked the parents of a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq. He doesnt know anything. By the way. Such a recitation of grievances this late in the campaign after the country has been tormented for more than a year by the very real possibility that a hateful authoritarian will succeed Barack Obama as president would earn your Uncle Joe no points for morality or bravery. Youd stop listening to the political ramblings of someone who couldnt long ago identify the existential threat to our democracy (and probably the world order) that a Trump administration posed. Advertisement But Collins is a powerful senator from Maine, and her moral and political pronouncements matter more than yours and mine. Months ago, before the Trump candidacy was confined to the Republican Party, people and institutions with far less influence but operational moral compasses sounded the alarm on Trump. Their warnings were drowned out by the silence of people like Collins and House Speaker Paul Ryan. Eventually, Ryan fell in line and tepidly endorsed Trump, setting the stage for Republicans like Collins to walk across it as heroes for publicly withholding their endorsements from their nominee mere months before election day. Such is the state of the Republican Party today. In 1964, most Americans decided that Republican Barry Goldwater posed a great risk to gains made in civil rights and the non-use of nuclear weapons. He earned fewer than 100 electoral votes and 40% of the popular vote against incumbent Lyndon Johnson. Like Goldwater, it isnt enough for Trump merely to lose; his candidacy deserves total rejection at the polls in November. And for that to happen, Republicans like Collins should go one step further than refusing to support Trump. If their goal is to truly repudiate Trump and prevent him from becoming president, they should endorse Hillary Clinton. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook When Hillary Clinton reaches the point in her campaign rallies where she rattles off the things she promises to do in Washington, the list grows very long, very quickly. If she reaches the White House, that list will need to get much shorter in a hurry. For the record: This story originally reported that President Obama took office on Jan. 20, 2008. Obama took office in 2009. That prospect makes this an anxious time for policy advocates who back Clinton and those seeking to influence her. Advertisement For Clinton, as with every president, the window for transformational policies will almost certainly be small. Political capital from an election gets spent fast, and even the Clinton campaign concedes Democrats are unlikely to win full control of Congress, meaning some compromises with Republicans likely would constrain the agenda of a Clinton White House. Clinton will need to choose among the priorities she has talked about at rallies like the ones she conducted last week in Denver and Las Vegas: The biggest investment in infrastructure since World War II, immigration reform, debt-free college, equal pay for women, expanded rights for labor unions, an overhaul of the nations multibillion- dollar electricity grid, new gun safety laws. The dilemma faced by advocates for those causes differs from the one faced by groups backing Donald Trump, who has offered far fewer policy proposals. On the Democratic partys left, in particular, progressives find themselves jockeying for position in these final months of the presidential race. Research has shown that the promises given the most attention at this point of the campaign are the ones candidates are most likely to pursue after the election. The groups are cajoling, confronting and corralling the Clinton campaign and potential sympathizers in Congress to move their crusades to the top of her 100-day agenda. There is finite time, and there are only so many things a brand new administration can accomplish, said Lisa Gilbert, who helps lead the campaign finance reform effort at Public Citizen. We have seen candidates talk about this before and not really follow through, she added. The question is the urgency and priority when a candidate first gets into office, and their willingness to use that capital. Activists are using every tool at their disposal, and for those in Gilberts coalition, that included the recent Netroots Nation conference of progressives, where Clinton promised to push a constitutional amendment restricting money in politics within a month of taking office. The candidate was well aware that keeping the issue high on her agenda is crucial to persuading erstwhile Bernie Sanders supporters to align with her even if proposing such an amendment may have more symbolic than substantive value. But the folks fighting to get money out of politics are competing with backers of some other heady plans on Clintons plate. Most of the issues, like campaign finance reform, have been policy quagmires for years. An examination of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trumps convention acceptance speeches and how they line up on several key issues. Full coverage at latimes.com/conventions. Thats one reason why candidates who win a partys third term in the White House often have a rough time the easy victories have mostly been used up in the preceding eight years. Clinton is vowing to secure a path to citizenship for millions of immigrants in this country illegally, to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, to expand Obamacare, to sweeten benefits under Social Security, and to take more steps to slow climate change. Most of those ideas have been on President Obamas agenda, too, but have fallen victim to the same opposition forces Clinton would face. Asked recently what the Democratic nominee would pursue immediately, the first thing her campaign chairman, John Podesta, mentioned was the path to citizenship among the heaviest of policy lifts. A sophisticated, multimillion dollar campaign has been working behind the scenes for months to keep the immigration issue at the top of Clintons agenda and to prepare lawmakers to move fast should Clinton assume the presidency. We are making sure people know there are also Republicans across the country working toward this, said Todd Schulte, president of FWD.us, a group created by technology and other companies to push for a path to citizenship. The group has busily recruited organizations typically aligned with the GOP to pressure Republican lawmakers to cut a deal if Clinton wins. The Partnership for a New American Economy, whose co-chairs include former New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch, has just unleashed its own lobbying and marketing push aimed at nudging Congress and keeping immigration reform Clintons top priority. For all the positioning, the biggest impact activists may have is to influence who shows up to vote. Advocates are lobbying their supporters to turn out in the hope they can credibly claim a significant hand in an eventual victory. We have made our case to members that turning out in record numbers sends a message about what our priorities are and what our expectations are, said Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union. The pressure SEIUs members put on Clinton to embrace a $15 minimum wage helped bring the issue to the top of her list of priorities. Henry said members will be out on the streets continuing the push in a day of demonstration in early September. Environmental groups are similarly doing everything they can to nudge so-called climate voters to the polls. We want to show a movement that is not just useful to winning elections, but can provide momentum for getting bold proposals passed across the board, said Jamie Henn, spokesman for 350.org. The group was instrumental in pressuring Clinton to oppose the Keystone XL pipeline, a project to ship oil from Canadian tar sands that was ultimately rejected by the Obama administration. Neera Tanden, who was Clintons policy advisor in 2008, says that if the Democratic nominee wins, her agenda could be shaped in large part by how Republican lawmakers perceive her victory. Tanden expects those lawmakers would take a hard look at which voting groups abandoned the GOP and seek compromises with Clinton that could help lure those voters back. Have they lost because of the Latino vote? she said at an Atlantic magazine panel during the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Have they lost because of the womens vote? Have they lost because they went on the far-right crazy on foreign policy? Or for some other reason? That is what they will, for some very short period of time, think of fixing. Sometimes, happenstance, rather than organized action, forces a candidates hand. A gaffe by Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe , a longtime Clinton ally, forced her campaign to declare in unequivocal language last month that the massive Pacific trade deal Obama is pursuing would be quickly abandoned in a Clinton administration. McAuliffe had told a reporter that Clintons opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, was just lip service. Progressives were enraged, and the campaign disavowed McAuliffe in language that eliminated any wiggle room Clinton had left herself. Activists are hoping for more such uncomfortable moments. Even as Clinton embraces the language and grievances expressed by the Black Lives Matter movement, for example, many of those who are part of it are skeptical she is going to pursue its agenda, which includes radical shifts in the criminal justice system. Our job is to push her, our job is to push the party, our job is to push our demands to be met, said Los Angeles advocate Mark Anthony Johnson, who helped draft the recently published Movement for Black Lives platform. We want radical transformation, not reactive changes. As Clinton keeps making promises, the one promise her campaign acknowledges she cant make is that she will fulfill all of them. At the Philadelphia panel, Podesta reflected on how quickly Republican opposition hardened against Obamas agenda of hope and change after he took office on Jan. 20, 2009. The honeymoon for Barack Obama, Podesta said it didnt get through January 20. evan.halper@latimes.com Follow me: @evanhalper ALSO: Trump loses ground among key voter groups, tracking poll finds Are all those Trump controversies raising doubts in Trump Nation? Not really In complicated Ohio, Trump and Clinton swap voters as they vie for a key state House Speaker Paul D. Ryan easily beat back an insurgent challenger in Tuesdays Republican primary in Wisconsin, a win that sets him up for a 10th term in Congress and an uneasy relationship with the next president. The nine-term congressman was so confident he would beat businessman Paul Nehlen that he barely campaigned even after Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump expressed kind words for Nehlen before he belatedly endorsed Ryan last week. The race was framed as a clash between Trumps insurgent wing of the GOP and the partys conservative establishment, but polls predicted that Ryan would win in a blowout. Advertisement Nehlens supporters hoped he would pull an upset, citing college professor David Brats stunning 2014 win over then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in Virginia. But unlike Cantor, Ryan retains deep ties to the district where he was born. He returns to his wife and three children in Janesville nearly every weekend. Right here in Wisconsin people know me very well, he told reporters after his victory. He pledged to work to advance a conservative agenda that unites the nation, and reiterated his support of Trump as more receptive than Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton to the Republican agenda in Congress. Ryan, 46, was his partys vice presidential nominee in 2012, giving him a national profile even before he became speaker last fall. As speaker, he is the highest elected Republican in the country and behind only the vice president in the line of White House succession. Back home, Ryan is a common sight at parades, fish fries and ethnic festivals. Hes a hometown guy, said Vickie Berg, 50, who said she had met Ryan and his family several times at church. Hes sincere. Very down to earth, very personable. Ive known him for 20 years. Its a personal thing, said Howie Jones, a 39-year-old auto mechanic, before casting a ballot for Ryan. I think hes doing a good job. Nehlen took a populist tack in the campaign, railing against Ryan as a tool of corporate interests and donors whose immigration and trade policies harm American workers. An unknown until recently, Nehlen was one of the few GOP candidates in a competitive race to embrace Trump and his controversial statements. He also received some notable support former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin endorsed him, and conservative author Ann Coulter campaigned with him last weekend. Americas at a crossroads, and either we can go down the path of globalist special interests, or we can go down the path of America first and empower the people that are actually doing the work in this country, said Andy Stempki, as he held a Nehlen sign outside a Janesville polling station. Thats why Im for Mr. Nehlen, and thats why I think Mr. Ryans time for retirement is coming soon. The 35-year-old sailboat captain from Kenosha dismissed the pre-election polls, saying they failed to capture voters deep frustration with the political establishment in Washington. Weve been [knocking] at doors for three months. We know all about what the people are saying, he said. Its a matter of whether our people come out or not. During recent appearances in the district, Ryan did not mention Nehlen, focusing instead on a six-pronged policy platform and his beloved Green Bay Packers. But his campaign spent hundreds of thousands of dollars airing television ads that highlighted Ryans support for controlling the border with Mexico and stopping Islamic terrorists from entering the United States, an acknowledgment that they saw Nehlens message resonating with voters. Nehlens supporters conceded he faced an uphill battle against a popular incumbent. Some said they wanted to send a message. Ryan hasnt done anything, said Jo Yungerman, 60, adding that she wished Ryan had more actively fought against the Affordable Care Act and against legalizing same-sex marriage. We need change. We need fresh blood. Times staff writer Kurtis Lee contributed to this report. seema.mehta@latimes.com For the latest on national and California politics, follow @LATSeema on Twitter. ALSO Clinton makes a lot of promises which can she keep? Which Republicans are supporting Trump, and whos jumping ship? Trump sparks uproar by saying maybe there is a way for 2nd Amendment people to keep Clinton from naming justices UPDATES: 8:35 p.m.: The story was updated with a comment from Ryan. 6:35 p.m.: The story was updated with results of the election. The story was originally published at 3:15 p.m. Some of the very political benefactors whose names are involved in an ethics complaint against Rep. Mike Honda are helping him defend against it. Three donors who recently contributed to the Silicon Valley congressmans legal defense were Dr. Ngai Nguyen of San Jose, who gave $5,000; attorney Sukhan Kim, who also gave $5,000; and Dr. Gloria Wu of San Jose, who gave $1,000. Their names also appear on a donor list that is part of an ongoing ethics investigation of Honda. Hondas general election opponent, Democrat Ro Khanna, has made the ethics investigation a central issue of his campaign. The two will appear on the ballot for the second time this November in what has been a closely watched race Khanna bested Honda in the primary by just more than 2,000 votes and had a more than 2-1 fundraising advantage. Advertisement Khannas supporters filed the original ethics complaint against Honda after a September 2014 report on the politics website San Jose Inside revealed emails between Hondas chief of staff and his campaign manager discussing the guest list for an official State Department meeting in 2013 that the congressman was hosting. In the emails, they discussed who should be invited to the event based on whether they had or might contribute to Hondas campaign, a list they called the list of 1,000 Cranes, which San Jose Inside first reported and published. (1,000 Cranes was Hondas term for the donors who gave more than $1,000 to his campaign, and apparently a play on a Japanese legend that promised a gift from the gods to whoever folded 1,000 origami cranes.) There is substantial reason to believe Honda and his congressional staff used taxpayer resources to benefit his campaign, the House Office of Congressional Ethics said last year, in part by providing opportunities to certain supporters. The separate House Ethics Committee is conducting its own investigation based on those findings. It has not decided whether Honda violated House rules and hasnt set a deadline to do so. Hondas campaign manager Michael Beckendorf said it shouldnt be surprising to see longtime supporters backing the congressmans legal defense. Lets be clear, the 1,000 Cranes list was a nickname Congressman Honda gave to his donors, he said. Many, many, many members of Congress have such lists. Khannas campaign spokesman said the fact that the same donors are contributing to Hondas legal defense shows how deeply beholden Honda really is to donors. Mike Hondas high-end donors are funding his legal defense against charges that he illegally provided special favors to his high-end donors? spokesman Hari Sevugan said. This is just another sign that Congressman Honda is more beholden to the PACs, lobbyists and special interests that fund him than fighting for the people that elected him. The investigation into Honda has been ongoing for a year, and hes spent nearly $200,000 on legal fees. His separate legal defense fund has existed only since January, when he got permission for its creation from the House Ethics Committee. Since April, 24 people, nonprofits or businesses donated $36,950 to Hondas legal defense fund and $32,000 was paid to two Washington law firms, according to his funds quarterly financial report. Two organizations also gave $5,000 each, the maximum contribution allowed: Stevens Creek Chrysler Jeep Dodge in San Jose and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers PAC Voluntary Fund in Washington. Several contributions come from California businesses including Acellent Technologies of Sunnyvale, which gave $2,000; Loris Diner International in San Francisco, which gave $1,000; and Zette Postpartum in Los Angeles, which gave $500. The legal defense funds initial report, which came out in late April, showed the congressman raised just $1,750 from three donors and had not spent any of the money. Fewer than a dozen House members have such funds, which they can use to pay for legal services for themselves or any staff member. The donations are considered gifts under federal law. Unlike campaign contributions, which are capped at $2,700 per individual each election, donors can contribute up to $5,000 to the defense fund. sarah.wire@latimes.com Follow @sarahdwire on Twitter Read more about the 55 members of Californias delegation at latimes.com/politics ALSO: November intraparty showdown could unseat longtime Silicon Valley congressman Mike Honda Silicon Valley congressman raised less than $2,000 for legal defense amid ethics probe, spends $0 Updates on California politics A San Francisco judges recent ruling has led to new discussions about religions place in medical treatment. Earlier this month Superior Court Judge Ernest Goldsmith said Mercy Medical Center a Catholic hospital in Redding was not sexually discriminating against Rebecca Chamorro, who had requested a tubal ligation procedure. The judge said Chamorro could get the procedure at another hospital and that Mercy Medical Centers policy against sterilization also applies to men. NEWSLETTER: Stay up to date with whats going on in the 818 >> After the hospital denied the procedure on religious grounds, the would-be patient filed a lawsuit. Dignity Health, which operates Mercy Medical, says the womans tubal ligation is not medically necessary and would violate the hospitals right to freedom of religion. The ACLU is suing on behalf of Chamorro, saying the hospitals refusal violates Californias sexual discrimination laws. In an Op-Ed piece for the Los Angeles Times, Charles C. Camosy put it like this: If you take a professional view of medicine, the following question must be asked: Is intentionally interfering with someones reproductive system (in ways which do not address some injury or disease) an act of healthcare? Q. How should healthcare be defined and how should religion factor in to how medical professionals respond to patients? -- Healthcare is medical treatment practiced with compassion and integrity. Humanism dictates that we put others needs before our own. Unfortunately, there is a recent trend (at least a more recent visible trend) in religion, to place compassion on a lower rung than religious prejudice. This is evidenced by the treatment of groups designated as other including immigrants, people of color, homosexuals, women, atheists and more. In this case, Catholic institutions are putting their desires before the needs of the patient. They are denying often necessary and preventive care by being self serving. I understand there is religious freedom in this country, but when dealing with issues of health, life and death, you must draw the line. The procedure may be elective, but it also provides significant health and other benefits. Doing one surgery rather than two greatly reduces danger and risk of complications. Imposing more expense and forcing the patient to use their time to find another provider and travel to them is also causing the patient undue harm. Catholic hospitals are well aware the likelihood of the patient getting the procedure anyway is incredibly high. So, they are usually preventing nothing and are complicit in putting the patient in a more dangerous and burdensome situation. If it relieves their conscience, that is all it does and, in my opinion, that does not fit the definition of healthcare. Does disallowing all abortion get rid of abortion? Absolutely not. It just makes getting one harder and more dangerous. Does prohibition of certain reproductive care engender healing in society? Absolutely not, it perpetuates cycles of poverty among other adverse consequences. Religious intransigence, as in this instance, may relieve a mental burden (often imposed by religious dictum itself) that weighs heavily on some people, but it blinds them to the often problematic results of their actions (or non-actions) and blinds them to real solutions. Additionally, prohibitive policies of Catholic hospitals in general can cause obstetric complications and could create the potential for grave harm to a women from a future pregnancy. These policies do not serve their intended purpose of preventing abortion, and they run the risk of harming patients. How does this fit into any definition of healthcare or, for that matter, align with the values of empathy and compassion that are supposedly the pride of the Catholic church? Further, by denying this procedure for religious reasons, we set a precedent for denial of other, possibly even more vital treatments. Joshua Lewis Berg Humanist Celebrant Glendale -- I can respect a completely consistent belief in the right-to-life, meaning one which includes opposition to all war, to capital punishment and to economic injustice, and which actively supports caring for the earth and all its creatures. Even so, I reserve for a woman the right to make decisions over her own body. Sterilization for a woman is not the equivalent of a vasectomy for a man, for obvious physical reasons. I believe that the ACLU was grasping at a straw to base their suit on sex discrimination. My definition of healthcare for women is broader than Professor Camosys. Good healthcare is not merely treating injury or disease, as he says, but should support thriving and living life on ones own terms, certainly in as fundamental a decision as how many children to have. Unfortunately, hospitals in our system have been allowed the right to make these very personal decisions based on the beliefs of the religious organization owning the hospital, even when the belief or desires of the patient are otherwise. I do not believe that freedom of religion should allow a person or an organization the right to impose their beliefs on another. Roberta Medford Atheist Montrose -- Rebecca Chamorros health was not in danger. Sexual discrimination is not a factor in this case because of the hospitals policy against sterilization for men as well. In addition, the procedure was readily available for Chamorro at other area hospitals. These facts clearly illuminate the spurious nature of her claims against Mercy Medical Center, whether or not the grounds for denying the procedure were based on religious convictions. Would she sue if they didnt offer the elective procedures of Botox, liposuction or plastic surgery? Would we even be discussing her case if one of these had been the cause of her grievance? Looking at the details of this case, it appears that an opportunistic person is trying to make a quick buck off of a healthcare organizations insurance. And thats nothing but immoral. Service organizations, businesses, nonprofit groups and even hospitals and medical professionals have the right to determine which services they do or dont offer. Every person and organization operates on the basis of a set of values whether or not they are based on religion, and they have the right to do so. Up to this point in our country such freedom, including that of religious exercise, has been one of our nations proper foundational values. Virtually no faith-based healthcare organization in our country denies services in a haphazard manner. The issues are clearly defined and usually concern the procedures of abortion or sterilization. Sometimes the issue is blood transfusion, but usually thats about the conviction of the patient, not the hospital. These are rarely life-or-death situations. In the case of a womans pregnancy threatening her life, we can argue that an abortion would be the guaranteed putting to death of the child in her womb. The childs life is worthy of protection. Matthew 9:35 says that Jesus Christ was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. Of Jesus Isaiah 53:5 predicted: He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon him, and by his scourging we are healed. God told Moses: I, the Lord, am your healer (Exodus 15:26). When Gods word and Gods ways are honored people will be healed both physically and spiritually. And thats the real goal, isnt it? Religious freedom guarantees and protects peoples healing. Pastor Jon Barta Burbank -- Every doctor swears some sort of oath when they graduate school to take the reins of their educated profession. In the past, and for much of history, the Hippocratic Oath has been the statement of medicine, and in there is the declaration, I will willingly refrain from doing any injury" By the way, it also states, I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy. In purity and holiness I will guard my life and my art. Now this all had to be amended because the oath was made in the name of mythical deities of ancient Greece, but it has been so amended that the modern version actually affirms the reverse; If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life" The doctor giveth, and the doctor taketh away! So there isnt much medical concern for oaths anymore, really, and today it seems that considerations of health, life and death, holy responsibility, are all up for grabs and convenient reinterpretation. In the case at hand, it seems that the hospital is taking the medical high road and saying that, in effect, sterilization is not healthcare. It is actually destructive, as the point of having ones tubes tied is to cause the malfunction of perfectly healthy body parts. Now, while I am not of the mind that sterilization is any sin against God (especially since the God-given capacity for reproduction had already been exercised) it is the hospitals religious persuasion that forbids the procedure, and so they should not do it. Youd think that all this should have been gone over long before the plaintiff settled on the facility for childbirth, but hey, with the ACLU involved, she might make some bank now. Nice, lady. There are myriad hospitals that exist to meet every known procedure, so taking the scrupulous ones to task, is in my mind, just mean-spirited. We need more like Mercy, not less. Healthcare should care for health. It shouldnt destroy health or life, and if it does optional and unnecessary procedures, it really goes beyond the parameters. I do think that religion should surely factor into how medical professionals address their patients, and if the establishment cannot countenance religion, then swap the term out for morality, as that is what religion is, a moral system. Do I think, then, that morals should play a part in all this? Of course. The Bible says, If you do anything you believe is not right, you are sinning (Rom 14:23 NLT). Mercy Medical didnt think it right, so it did the morally right thing and denied the procedure. Rev. Bryan A. Griem Tujunga -- If Mercy Medical were the only hospital available to the patient, I would be more sympathetic to the lawsuit, but that doesnt appear to be the case. While the courts decision doesnt not allow Chamorro the convenience of having the procedure at the time of her delivery, she still can have it. The alternative would be to completely disregard the 1st Amendment rights of Mercy Medical to practice according to the precepts of the Catholic Church. This case is the latest and certainly wont be the last challenge to the place of religion in society. Unfortunately, there is no single solution that will satisfy everyone. There may be circumstances, when there is no alternative, in which church-affiliated hospitals would need to perform a procedure that violates religious principle. But when there are clear alternatives, the critics of religion should have the wisdom to stand down. Jeffrey R. Holland, a member of the LDS churchs Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, addressed the need for mutual respect and accommodation in remarks earlier this year. We must find ways to show respect for others whose beliefs, values and behaviors differ from ours while never being forced to deny or abandon our own beliefs, values and behaviors in the process, he said. Every citizens rights are best guarded when each person and group guards for others those rights they wish guarded for themselves. To approach these issues from a winner-take-all perspective, as the ACLU and other critics of religion seems to be doing, is a mistake. In suing the hospital, the ACLU is saying that church-affiliated hospitals and by extension religious doctors, nurses and other medical professionals, must perform any procedure that a patient requests. As Camosy points out, accepting this argument would abolish freedom of religion, and conscience, to all medical organizations and individual physicians. I dont believe the consequences of this would be good. Michael White The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints La Crescenta Though the new building on campus is certainly modern, students and teachers at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa can still experience touches of the old structures that helped inspire it. The 91,037-square-foot, three-story Interdisciplinary Building, which opened in the fall to house math and business programs, features designs influenced by those of Richard Neutra, an architect who designed most of Orange Coasts buildings in the mid-1950s. College officials say the older buildings are no longer able to accommodate the schools rising student population, and they intend to remove several Neutra-designed buildings as part of an expansion and modernization plan called Vision 2020. Most of [Neutras] original buildings of Orange Coast College were made under a philosophy of design called bio-realism, which is the idea that nature is a source of human well-being and we can connect architecture to nature, said Franco Brown, design director of higher education at LPA Inc., a design firm that drew up the concepts for the Interdisciplinary Building. The buildings use of natural light and open views of landscaping fit the Neutra approach, Brown said. The structures sides are paneled with orange glass windows. Bold and striking colors were used strategically to stimulate and brand the learning environment while enhancing collegiate pride, LPA interior designer Winston Bao said in a statement. All classrooms and faculty offices have physical and visual access to outdoor spaces, including views and natural daylight. The building consists of two long side-by-side sections referred to as bars. One is dedicated to programs in business, while the other is for math. The facility includes 10 computer labs, three lecture halls and 30 faculty offices. Orange Coast first brought the idea to LPA Inc. in 2006, according to Brown. They came to us with what they called a mega building that would have multiple disciplines under one roof, Brown said. Then we discussed the concept of bars and addressed the idea of a bridge going in between them. Between the buildings two bars are courtyard areas with furniture and Internet access. By doing this we want to create a social setting for students to wait between classes or to even meet their instructors, Brown said. If a building just has classrooms and nothing else, the students would leave the campus. Should the college choose, LPA will add more bars to the building for subjects such as social studies and literature, Brown said. Representatives of Orange Coast could not be reached for comment Thursday. Irvine police this week debuted a new tactic for dealing with coyotes in local neighborhoods: paintball guns. For about four hours Thursday evening, a pair of animal services officers carrying bright yellow sidearms patrolled Irvines Portola Springs neighborhood, where they squeezed off rounds of paint-filled pellets at coyotes who ventured too close to civilization. The paintballs are part of a plan to scare away the wild animals that residents say have hunted small pets and even aggressively approached children. In May, a 3-year-old girl was attacked by a coyote in a neighborhood in east Irvine while she and her mother and twin sister were walking the family dog. In July, Portola Springs residents started a Neighborhood Watch-style program to try to keep coyotes off their streets. Were looking for those coyotes that are causing a potential problem to humans, said Irvine police Lt. John Condon, who went along Thursday to help introduce residents to what was happening. Coyotes are common across Orange County, but recent confrontations in and around Portola Springs have police worried. This year, there have been several reported incidents of coyotes in Irvine approaching and engaging children, according to a post on the Police Departments Facebook page. Recently, we received a report of a coyote biting the lower leg of an adult. For years, police have advised residents to haze coyotes when they run across them. That essentially means yelling, screaming, clapping hands anything to scare the animals, Condon said. But it hasnt always worked. Theyre becoming more and more comfortable around humans, so the idea here is to raise the level of intensity of what were doing so it does put that fear back into them, Condon said. The paintball guns appeared to do the trick, he said. During Thursdays patrol, two coyotes ran away when officers fired on them. One was in front of a home when the paint started flying; the other was sitting in a park. He wasnt moving, Condon said of the coyote in the park. He wasnt really concerned about people until we got up on him. The coyotes that seem too comfortable around humans are the ones officers intend to target, Condon said. Its not like were hunting up in the brush or things like that, he said. According to Condon, Irvine turned to paintball guns because officials believe they are a more humane alternative to trapping the animals. Those that are captured must be killed because state law prohibits relocating them, he said. Irvines new tactic is common in some other areas with coyote problems and is recognized as an option by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, according to police. Paint-toting officers will be making more rounds in Irvine, but the department is still deciding when and where. In order for hazing to really be effective, you cant just do it once and walk away, Condon said. In the meantime, police cautioned residents not to take paintballs into their own hands that would be illegal, according to the department. Civilians, Condon said, should limit their hazing to making noise and throwing sticks and rocks. Mid-summer is typically a time when my head hurts if I try to think too hard. And boy, did my head feel like exploding when I started to examine the states proposed new color-coded system for grading public schools. The idea is meant to replace the old, unpopular method ushered in under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which was abandoned by California a few years ago. Under that system, schools were assigned a numeric value based on standardized test scores. It was called the Academic Performance Index, or API. Critics of the API argued, among other complaints, that a single score for each school based solely on testing was unfair and overly simplistic. Evaluating a schools effectiveness and levels of improvement over time requires a more holistic, balanced, and comprehensive system, critics maintained. Now with the Every Student Succeeds Act, states are still required to evaluate schools annually, but they are urged to do so in a more in-depth fashion. California is seeking to establish a system that goes beyond relying almost exclusively on test scores and instead present a more detailed and meaningful assessment of a schools accomplishments and challenges. The new proposal, called The California Model, was designed by the nonprofit consulting firm WestEd. It features a grid of 17 colored boxes for every school. Each box is assigned a specific category, such as math or English proficiency, graduation rate, absenteeism, college and career readiness, and parental engagement. While many of the categories seem straightforward enough, a few have arguably tenuous links to educational outcomes (suspensions), while others appear a bit vague (school climate). Various colors represent different levels of achievement, with separate boxes indicating the current status of each category and yet more showing whether schools are improving in those areas or getting worse. Green is good, red is bad, and lots of other colors indicate different mixtures of goodness and badness. Are you following along so far? Indeed, the proposed new system gives us a more detailed look, but in doing so it moves us from being too simplistic to so complicated that it requires consulting a separate key, with yet another grid of 25 boxes, in order to figure out the specific meaning of each box on a schools chart. This might be progress, but in going from a mind-numbingly shallow and misleading index to a tortuous labyrinth, it wont be an easy change to embrace. It also points to the problems inherent in the concept of grading schools in the first place. First, as we can see with this new attempt, its really hard to find a means to accurately depict how our schools are actually doing. Yes, this proposed California Model is more complex and thoughtful, but it could also produce as unsatisfying and incomplete a picture of school health as any other system. No matter how many objective measures are included, its simply not possible to capture the myriad challenges and unique features of individual schools in one neat, easy-to-understand package. Another issue thats impossible to ignore is that any grading system, no matter how carefully crafted, will be vulnerable to manipulation. Just as the API induced schools to take measures to improve their test scores without making any substantive academic progress and in some cases even resorting to unethical steps to boost numbers the proposed grading method will undoubtedly include some carefully massaged results. Its just the nature of the beast. For all the good intentions and sincere attempts to give communities a clearer picture of how their schools are doing, I doubt anyone not intimately familiar with the nuts and bolts of education will easily sort through the most relevant information. Will parents looking at this new system be able to answer with confidence the most fundamental question as to whether a school is doing a good job educating students? Its doubtful. Many observers have called for the California Board of Education to reject this new proposal and develop a system that lies somewhere between the one-dimensional API and the elaborate California Model, one that features more measures of progress than test scores but doesnt require code-cracking skills to decipher. That would probably be the best outcome we could hope for at this point. But whatever system is settled upon, keep in mind that no method of grading schools will be wholly fair or satisfying. So many factors go into making education work or not that well never be able to capture them all in a single assessment system. More to the point, the challenges faced by schools are incredibly varied and deep-rooted. We know that entrenched societal issues such as poverty and hunger are the greatest enemies of educational effectiveness. But it simply isnt possible to show all the ways that schools and individual teachers fight to improve the prospects of their students from impoverished backgrounds. Thats not to say we shouldnt try, or that schools should not be held accountable. But any assessment system much be considered in context and with the intent not to rebuke educators for shortcomings or boast over high rankings. Instead, we must use the information gathered to diagnose and then target resources at schools and educational trouble spots that need help to do a better job. -- PATRICE APODACA is a former Newport-Mesa public school parent and former Los Angeles Times staff writer. She lives in Newport Beach. A proposal to tear down a Glendale gym to make way for a 134-room hotel cleared its first hurdle toward approval as a city official granted an exception to build a four-story structure. The property owner is looking to level the World Gym at 1011 E. Colorado Blvd. to make way for a Holiday Inn Suites, despite vocal opposition from people whove worked out at the gym for years. NEWSLETTER: Stay up to date with whats going on in the 818 >> Zoning rules state that nothing in the area can be taller than three stories. However, even with an additional floor, the hotel would not exceed the 50-foot cap on height, said project architect Aram Alajajian. If we go with the permitted three-story level, you would reduce [the hotel] down to 87 units and create a hardship in securing a flagship suites hotel, he said during a planning hearing on Jan. 26. Late last month, Planning Hearing Officer Bradley Collin issued a ruling approving the variance, stating he agreed with Alajajian. The building has been designed to sensitively relate to its surrounding context and neighboring developments, Collin wrote in his ruling. The hotel proposal now heads to the Design Review Board for consideration. A group of longtime World Gym members spoke at the January planning hearing asking that the business open since 1999 and with about 6,000 members stay where it is. Even though the World Gym is a small gym in the community compared with other big corporations we have in Glendale, we are a lot like a family, said Francisco Resito, a trainer and member since 2003. Its not only my job, its like another family for me. However, if the time comes to bulldoze the gym, it likely wont spell the end for the business, said co-owner Barry Curow in a phone interview. A new location would be sought out, and the goal would be to keep a World Gym in Glendale, he said. Join the conversation on Facebook >> Anytime you move a client base, you need to be within reasonable mileage from them, so that they stay with you, Curow said. Part of the building was constructed in 1942 and served as the original headquarters for Bobs Big Boy, but because of a number of modifications to the property, it isnt eligible for any kind of historic designation, according to a city staff report. The Holiday Inn Suites would have amenities such as a fitness center, business center, meeting room and lounge area, the staff report states. The project would also have to provide 134 parking spaces. The hotel isnt expected to generate more than 50 vehicular trips during the peak morning and evening rush hours an impact thats not significant, according to the report. The Holiday Inn Suites project is the latest push by the city to bring more hotels to Glendale. A Hampton Inn & Suites is currently under construction down the street on Colorado near Central Avenue. In the past few months, the City Council has directed plans be drawn up for two boutique hotels in downtown Glendale a 130-room Hotel Indigo and a 117-room AC Hotel. Glendale, with a population of 200,000, is very underserved by quality motels and hotels, said city spokesman Tom Lorenz. We find many of our motels are at or near capacity Monday through Friday. -- Arin Mikailian, arin.mikailian@latimes.com Twitter: @ArinMikailian -- ALSO: Fewer passengers take off from Bob Hope Airport in January Glendale man arrested after allegedly climbing into neighbors home and touching her while she slept Pasadena man dies in solo-car crash on Ventura (134) Freeway in Glendale Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers at a Monday meeting approved a draft resolution facilitating the registration of imported medicines in Ukraine and narrowing it to 10 days. "The adoption of the draft resolution would help to improve the registration of medicines in Ukraine: it will help to relax the registration of medicines that had been registered by authorized agencies of the United States, Switzerland, Japan, Australia, Canada and the European Union and cut the term for decision making to 10 day," acting Health Minister of Ukraine Ulana Suprun said. The government backed the proposal of Deputy Prime Minister and Economic Development and Trade Minister Stepan Kubiv to revise the clause of the document that requires having the conclusions of the expert department of the Health Ministry for the registration of medicines. The conclusions are internal documents of the ministry. He added that according to bill No. 4484 passed by Ukraine's Verkhova Rada facilitating the registration of medicines produced and used in countries with strong regulatory practices, four documents are required from the applicants: materials on methods for controlling the quality of medicines, materials of the registration dossier, examples of packages and its labeling and the document confirming the payment of the registration fee. Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said that the facilitation of the registration of imported medicines in Ukraine would reduce prices of medicines. "The bill has been passed, and our task is to approve all the required government decisions so that high-quality medicines can enter Ukraine. I ask profile ministries to take the issue under personal control, as I know that there would be attempts to sabotage it. It is important for us that Ukrainians receive a wide range of high-quality medicines and the price is cut. I am sure that in coming months this would happen," Groysman said. The Verkhovna Rada on May 31, 2016 approved a bill facilitating the registration of medicines produced and used in countries with strong regulatory practices. The simplified registration applies to the medicines made and used in the countries with strong regulatory authorities: the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, Switzerland and the European Union. The term for registering these medicines is reduced to 10 working days. The airlines have suffered so many computer outages in the last few years including Deltas on Monday they are hardly news anymore. But if youre caught in the mess thats created, they are news bad news. Whether theyre caused by electrical failures outside the airlines control or by computer systems with inadequate recovery or backup capabilities, youll need coping strategies to survive. Advertisement Here are some: You can cancel your trip without penalty. Passengers can ask for a refund, even on a non-refundable airfare, if a flight is canceled or severely delayed. Severe varies from airline to airline but generally a two-hour delay qualifies. If you bought travel insurance, you may be covered for inconveniences. Not every policy will cover electrical outages or computer system shutdowns, but some do. Most common: coverage for trip delays if you need meals or a hotel room or other reasonable expenses, and costs associated with getting to your destination. Less likely to be covered under these circumstances: cancellation penalties for hotel rooms, tours, cruises at your destination. Insurers AXA Assistance USA and Tin Leg said they would cover the latest Delta snafu because an airline computer outage falls under the policy definition of mechanical breakdown of the common carrier, travel insurance aggregator Squaremouth said. If you have credit card coverage, you may have delay protection. Some credit cards, notably those issued by Chase for United and Sapphire and some upper-tier Citibank American Airlines cards, offer trip delay protection (typically up to $500 for meals, hotels, etc.) for equipment failure, but whether this means aircraft or computer equipment is open to interpretation. You must have charged your trip with the credit card, of course. If youre flying to or from Europe, you may be covered by European Union rules. Depending on whether the outage was deemed to be within the airlines control (electrical outages probably not, computer system meltdowns probably yes), European Union law provides cash compensation for delays and interrupted trips and also mandates that airlines provide meals and hotels to stranded passengers. If youre flying from the European Union on any airline, youre covered; if youre flying to the EU on any EU-based airline, youre also covered. Even if you bought a fare on, say, Delta to Italy but Alitalia operated the flight in a code-share arrangement, youre still covered, no matter that the selling airline was an American carrier, according to Cecilia Minges, spokesperson for Airhelp, which for a fee will help you collect your compensation. If youre stuck on the runway or tarmac, Department of Transportation rules may kick in. Its regulations state that you can request to be deplaned if the delay stretches past three hours on a domestic flight or four hours on an international trip. Airlines can be fined for refusing to do so unless the crew cites a safety reason. You can ask to be put on another airline if a flight on your original airline isnt looking hopeful. Years ago, airlines were required to do this for free, even paying for first class if economy class was full. No longer, but you can still ask to be endorsed over to a competing airline. The greater your status in the frequent-flier program, the more likely the airline will take care of you. Some veteran agents still understand Can you Rule 240 me? but that doesnt always fly. Get thee to the airlines lounge. Even if youre not a member, this is the perfect time to cool your jets in the Delta Skyclub, the American Admirals Club, or the United Club room. Day passes typically cost $50. If youre going to be stuck for hours, its worth it. Also, the lines for rebooking or information will be shorter in these lounges than in the terminals.There are other ways to gain access to lounges, including such programs as Priority Pass and others that may charge an annual fee and then a per-visit fee. travel@latimes.com ALSO: Delta CEO apologizes after computer outage; airline to give refunds, waive change fees through Friday Touring South Africa in the lap of luxury aboard Rovos Rails restored train Try your hand at sand sculpting at Kauais Hawaii Sand Festival The swamp, with its swaying reeds, pale purple water lilies and turbid waters, is full of bones. Here is the spot where one family, fleeing an outbreak of fighting on the Upper Nile, ferried their children in a makeshift plastic canoe, only to find that it had leaked and the babies had silently drowned. Further along the waterway, people can point to the spots where lie the bones of others who did not make it. South Sudan, which five years ago became the worlds newest nation, is on the brink of a new civil war. Violence erupted last month across much of the country, forcing tens of thousands to flee their homes as the year-old peace deal that was supposed to end the last war appeared all but dead. Advertisement President Salva Kiir last week shook the nations shaky national unity government, dismissing his deputy and longtime rival, Riek Machar. Six ministers loyal to Machar were also sacked. It started as a political squabble, but fighting broke out in the capital of Juba and quickly took on ethnic undertones. Both men have support across ethnic lines, but Kiir is from the countrys largest ethnic group, the Dinka, while Machar belongs to the second largest community, the Nuer. The stakes in any new fighting are substantial: A new war could be more intense and more difficult to halt than the last one, which killed 50,000 people and displaced 2.3 million before it ended with an internationally brokered peace agreement in 2015. On Friday, Kiirs government agreed to the deployment of a new African Union force to help keep the peace, but such a force would likely take months to arrive. In the meantime, rival forces appear to be preparing for a long-running war that would likely be very intense in the northern Upper Nile region and could easily spread to new areas, Casie Copeland, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, warned recently. Its time for real talk because while the diplomats are playing games, it will be the South Sudanese who are dying, Copeland said on Twitter. No one can describe the cost of a new war better than victims of the previous fighting. In the Upper Nile, many are still traumatized from the ethnic killings and mass rapes that occurred as recently as last year. The region, an opposition stronghold populated mainly by members of the Nuer tribe, is vulnerable to new ethnic killing should war erupt. Survivors of last years attacks describe widespread instances of targeted ethnic killings, many of them committed by government troops loyal to Kiir. They said soldiers raped women and girls, shot civilians, burned children alive and hunted down Nuer people hiding in the swamp. The vast Sudd wetlands were their refuge, but many died of starvation and disease as they fled. In recent interviews on a reporting trip through South Sudan, witnesses told of castrations of boys and incidents of cannibalism. Their stories could not be independently verified but are consistent with reports from human rights groups, who have found that while all sides committed atrocities, the majority were carried out by government forces. Nyakun Abraham, 23, described how, a year ago, she hid and watched as five government soldiers raped an old woman outside the village of Leer and drove a stick up into her body. Falling silent as she recounted that part of the story, Abraham instead picked up a thick stick and pounded it with a heavy block of wood. They did this. And the old woman died, said Abraham, who said soldiers went on to attack the rest of the town. They said, You are stupid Nuer. Were going to kill all the Nuer and nobody will say, I am Nuer. Witnesses said villagers hid in the swamp in and around Leer with government soldiers in pursuit. Thousands hid on tiny islands with no food except the bitter roots of water lilies. Moving at night, families waded through the swamp for weeks to find safety in Nyal village, farther south. Margaret Nyamuka, 18, fled the town of Mayendit when soldiers attacked last year, going from house to house, shooting civilians. (Robyn Dixon / Los Angeles Times ) Abraham spent 29 days in the swamp, wading and swimming to escape, along with dozens of other people. They put their children and elderly into makeshift canoes made of plastic sheeting tied to sticks. But one sheet leaked and five children drowned. Their mother cried a lot. There was nowhere to bury them. We just left them there, said Abraham, with a sad shrug. Margaret Nyamuka, 18, fled the town of Mayendit when soldiers attacked last year, going from house to house, shooting civilians. She climbed a coconut palm to hide as up to 25 soldiers raped her 26-year-old neighbor and another woman. Those soldiers were lining up to rape her and she was bleeding a lot. She was crying. They said, If you refuse, well kill you. They were laughing. They forced the children aged about 10 to watch, especially the girls, and the children were crying too. There were eight boys castrated. I saw the bodies afterwards on the main road. They were tied together. None of them survived. Their mothers came to bury them. Nyamuka said she saw soldiers drag 11 people into a house and set it alight, a tactic reported by numerous survivors in different areas. They were old people and babies. Those people were crying until the roof fell in, Nyamuka said. After the roof fell in, there was no more sound. Chuol Kujien, 56, fled Leer in South Sudan in September and spent three months combing the islands in the swamp for her children. (Robyn Dixon / Los Angeles Times ) Chuol Kujien, 56, fled Leer in September, passing many villagers who had been fatally shot as she ran. Soldiers were hunting people down, she said, shooting into the water as villagers fled into the swamp. Kujien spent three months combing the islands in the swamp before she traced her seven children, who had been scattered in the attack. For five months, she and the others lived on nothing but tree leaves and water lily roots. Many people died, especially children, she said. When you got something little, you would give it to the children, so adults died too, because they were not eating. Michael Matchok, 48, was in a cattle camp outside Leer with one of his three wives, Nyagany, 20, when soldiers unleashed an artillery barrage one morning in October. His wife and many others were killed. Matchok hid in a well with two of his sons. When I was in the well I saw something terrible. They killed a man and then cooked the body and they forced people to eat it, he said. All the people who were captured had to eat that person. The women were crying and the soldiers were using big sticks to beat them. Michael Matchok, 48, saw one of his three wives killed when government soldiers attacked his cattle camp near Leer in South Sudan last year. (Robyn Dixon / Los Angeles Times ) People hid for days at a time in the swamp, with just their mouths or noses above the surface. Many of the babies drowned. In the water, its difficult to hide a baby, said Matchok. He escaped with his two sons, but has no idea whether his other two wives and 14 children are safe. As soon as he got to safety in Nyal, he built a wooden canoe and returned to Leer, a four-day journey. He proceeded to rescue as many women and children as he could, making the trip seven times over two months. In the town of Mirmir, John Koang, 39, saw six soldiers rape a young woman, about 25, who had a baby. When they finished raping her, they tied a rope around her neck and hanged her from a tree. She was crying a lot. The more the woman suffered, the more they laughed. With the renewed fighting, similar scenes already are beginning to replay. Recent clashes in Juba have produced a wave of reports of sexual violence committed by soldiers. Ten humanitarian agencies warned last week that new conflict was preventing them from reaching many of the estimated 4.8 million people in South Sudan who are said to be in need of emergency assistance. If security conditions deteriorate further, providing aid will become logistically impossible, Zlatko Gegic, South Sudan director for the charity group Oxfam, warned in a statement. If aid agencies cannot operate fully, the consequences could be catastrophic. ALSO Citing health concerns and countrys stability, Japans emperor indicates desire to abdicate China racks up 8 medals, and a list of perceived slights, at Rio Olympics Brazil is struggling to keep the Olympics free of politics Dozens of government officials in the Philippines have surrendered to police after the countrys newly inaugurated president publicly linked them to illegal drugs. In a televised speech on Sunday, President Rodrigo Duterte, speaking in the southern city of Davao, named 150 officials that he said were involved in the countrys drug trade, including members of congress, police officials, five retired and current generals and at least seven judges, and gave them a 24-hour deadline to surrender to police. Several have turned themselves in, including 18 mayors and 31 police officials, according to police statistics. There is no due process in my mouth. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte Advertisement 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. For the accused, the stakes are high. Duterte, who took office on June 30, has pledged to rid the country of crime within six months by assassinating thousands of suspected criminals or at least authorizing the police, military, and others to kill them on his behalf. Since then, at least 564 people have been killed, according to the Philippine Inquirers Kill List, a comprehensive resource on the drug wars death toll. Some were killed by vigilantes, others by military and police. Many were found next to signs reading pusher or I am a drug addict, their heads wrapped in tape. Despite its brutality, the crackdown has been enormously popular in the Philippines, which has struggled with endemic drug use for decades. Yet human rights groups, foreign governments, other Filipino politicians and church leaders have cautioned that it could undermine the countrys democratic systems. See the most-read stories in World News this hour Extrajudicial killings are not uncommon in the Philippines they happen in Manila and other places across the country, said one Filipino human rights worker who requested anonymity, citing concerns about his personal safety. This is unprecedented because of the [coordinated] policy, and because the sheer number of people being killed is just enormous we now have a total breakdown in regard for due process, its a massive violation of civil liberties. [Duterte] is probably the most popular president weve ever had, he said, adding that the leader may be more widely revered than Corazon Aquino, who restored democracy to the country in 1986 after 20 years of President Ferdinand Marcos authoritarian rule. Ive been watching this issue [for years] and Ive never seen this kind of support for something so horrible from a human rights perspective. On Monday, Elizabeth Trudeau, a U.S. State Department spokeswoman, said that Washington is concerned about the extrajudicial killings. We believe in rule of law. We believe in due process. We believe in respect for universal human rights, she told reporters. Dutertes blacklist offered no evidence, according to local media. Several names were incomplete, and at least one of the accused a judge was later discovered to be long dead. Several blacklisted officials have responded to Dutertes accusations by defending themselves, while also voicing support for his initiatives. Ive never seen this kind of support for something so horrible from a human rights perspective. Filipino human rights worker One of them, former Cebu City Mayor Mike Rama, posted his defense to Facebook. Even how untrue this accusation is, should this be the way and the necessary step to win the war against drugs, I will fully cooperate with the authorities to immediately clear my name and we trust that we will be given the opportunity to present our side and prove our innocence, he wrote. My unwavering support for President Dutertes campaign will continue. Duterte defended his blacklist to reporters Tuesday. My words [are] not accusatorial, it is not a criminal information, he said. Its just my word against the others, because I have the duty to tell the public. The police have expressed uncertainty about how to manage the wave of surrenders. It is true [that there is not enough evidence against them], said Philippine National Police Chief Ronald dela Rosa, according to CNN. But what can I do? The president named them and they came to me and surrendered. I cant just turn them away. So now that theyre here, well process them. "[The list] is not based on rumors or gossip. It didnt come from people whispering to the presidents ear, Sir, this person is a political opponent, this one didnt support you in the election, so include him.... The president isnt that shallow. One Manila politician, Senate President Aquilino Pimentel Jr., offered a glib comment on the lists inclusion of dead officials: If the person is dead, then theres no need for him to report to his superior, he told the Philippine Inquirer. But those who are living, you should report to your superiors because thats the presidents suggestion and thats the proper thing to do. jonathan.kaiman@latimes.com MORE WORLD NEWS The worlds newest nation is on the brink of a new civil war Spy saga comes to a close as Iran executes a nuclear scientist accused of giving info to the U.S. China racks up 8 medals, and a list of perceived slights, at Rio Olympics All material is subject to strictly enforced copyright terms & conditions and cannot be repurposed or reproduced. 19882022 Latin American Financial Publications Inc. "Mozart in the Jungle's" Twitter handle announced (earlier today) the air date of the much anticipated Season 3 of the Golden Globes Award-winning Amazon Original series. The new season will premiere on Amazon Prime on December 9th in 2016 and based on the information included in the Tweet the show will include "a whole new tune". Watch and listen by playing the video below: A whole new tune. December 9. #MozartInTheJungle pic.twitter.com/5Rg3ly4iSy Mozart in the Jungle (@MITJAmazon) August 7, 2016 It is indeed a whole new tune and one can notice a shot of a younger Mozart in the short promo clip. The new tune feels fresh, different and is exciting. Compare it to the opening tune of Season 2. Take that back, the music in the short promo clip is not a new tune. It was music already used in Episode 208 (1:57 on the video) of Season 2. "A whole new tune" was being referred to the new season most likely. Before the announcement today, the cast of one the most popular shows on the internet today participated in several events including a painel session during the 2016 Television Critics Association Summer Tour at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on August 7, 2016 as well as the FYC screening and Q&A panel session on April 21, 2016 at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood which the Latin Post reported on. The event was preceded by red carpet entrances, photo shoots and interviews and succeeded by an after-party appropriately accompanied by an ensemble playing classical music. Latin Post provides some photos of the evening down below. Cast Talks Season 3: 'New Romance To Brew', Season 3 Shooting 'Soon' While not much of Season 3 has been revealed as of yet, in red carpet interviews provided by Red Carpet Report earlier this year, host Jada Montemarano interviewed Gael Garcia Bernal (Maestro Rodrigo), Lola Kirke (Hailey), Bernadette Peters (Gloria), Saffron Burrows (Cynthia), Malcom McDowell (Maestro Thomas), and Roman Coppola - the series' executive producer. The cast shared details on the activities that are to during show's third season. While not many details on the third season were shared, we do learn from Bernadette Peters that a "new romance is to brew" in the orchestra's trip to Europe and Saffron Burrows mentions that season three shooting will take place "pretty soon". Here is an interview with one of the series' star, Gael Garcia Bernal who's originally from Guadalajara, Mexico: 2016 TCA Summer Tour FYC Emmy Event, Q&A Panel and After Party Photos Growth of Amazon's Original Series and a Victory for Latinos and Diversity in Film As announced in February earlier this year, the series is slated to return for yet another series. The renewal of "Mozart in the Jungle" is all the more prominent because the series' main topic relates the adventures of a New York Symphony Orchestra and its attempts to remain relevant. The first season established the difficult transition from one conductor to another as well as the journey of a young oboist trying to prove her worth in a highly competitive world. The second season of "Mozart in the Jungle" took up the internal complications of a labor dispute while also opening the world of the story and having the orchestra travel to Latin America and Mexico. The third season, which picks up after the ramifications of the labor dispute, is set to take the orchestra all the way to Europe. It is impossible to overlook the fact that the series is headlined by an Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal, a victory for those battling for diversity in film and television. Bernal won the Golden Globe for best actor in a comedy series this past year. The wins at the Golden Globes undoubtedly raised the profile of the show and renewal for another season will probably also increase the budget of the series. One of the Republican Party's up-and-coming Latino spokespersons is quitting as Florida's communications director to avoid campaigning for Donald Trump. Wadi Gaitan has bridged the gap between conservative lawmakers and Spanish media for the better part of four years, working as a staffer during Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential bid before serving as Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio's mouthpiece. In a statement given to BuzzFeed News on Monday, the Honduran-American said the GOP's current nominee prompted him to leave state politics behind. "I'm thankful for my almost two years with the Florida GOP, however, moving on gives me a great, new opportunity to continue promoting free market solutions while avoiding efforts that support Donald Trump," Gaitan said. Gaitan is joining Washington D.C.-based The LIBRE Initiative, a grassroots Latino organization that receives support from influential industrial billionaires Charles and David Koch. The group does not specifically endorse a candidate, but they do encourage Hispanic voters towards conservative ideals. A statement released later in the day omitted his feelings about Trump, instead thanking the Florida GOP and Chairman Blaise Ingoglia for having given Gaitan an opportunity. Latinos Uncomfortable with Trump Gaitan joins a growing list of Hispanic lawmakers wary of a Trump presidency. The real estate magnate launched his campaign with a blanket statement calling all Mexicans "rapists" and "criminals," along with a promise to enhance the U.S.-Mexico border wall. He later clarified that Mexico would pay for all upgrades. His rhetoric continued on the campaign trail. Trump tweeted that Bush likes "the Mexican illegals" because of his Mexico-born wife. He said New Mexico Gov. Susan Martinez was doing a poor job after she skipped his May 24 rally, only to backtrack days later in reaching for her endorsement. More recently, Trump has criticized Muslim Gold Star father Khizr Khan and Mexican-American Judge Gonzalo Curiel, among others, because of their heritage. Ongoing opprobrium of minorities led Ruth Guerra to step down as the Republican National Committee's head of Hispanic media relations two months ago. Guerra, who has Mexican roots, reportedly felt uncomfortable working to elect Trump. The RNC replaced Guerra with former Univision political analyst Helen Aguirre Ferre, whose anti-Trump beliefs were expressed in now-deleted tweets. Aguirre Ferre deleted at least 12 tweets denouncing the Trump campaign, one suggesting that Trump's anti-immigration platform will backfire. Another says Hispanic Republicans are "caught in the 2016 meat grinder." Losing Latinos to Clinton Every national poll released over the last week has Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton beating Trump in a general election, some by double-digits. The gap among Latino is vast. A Washington Post-ABC News poll released Sunday shows Hispanic voters favor Clinton by a 75 percent to 18 percent margin. An online poll administered by Florida International University and Hispanic mobile advertising company Adsmovil last month found just 13 percent Latino support for Trump, compared to 80 percent for Clinton. The latter poll found Trump's biggest Latino supporters were age 65 or older. Branding her White House run against Donald Trump "a referendum on immigration," Hillary Clinton assured a gathering of Hispanic and black journalist she plans to create a new office of Immigrant Affairs if she is elected. Speaking before a recent conference, Clinton insisted the new creation would be a step toward reaching her goal of comprehensive immigration reform aimed at benefiting millions and ultimately a move toward assuring them a pathway toward citizenship. Preserving DACA, DAPA "I will defend DACA and DAPA while I work vigorously for immigration reform," said Clinton, already on record in asserting she plans to propose comprehensive legislation within the first 100 days of her administration. "I have proposed an Office of Immigrant Affairs for the White House so that we are able to answer questions and provide information and help people." The new face of the Democratic Party also vowed to take a long, hard look at deportation, insisting that her standard in taking such drastic actions will be targeting violent criminals and those suspected of having terrorist connections, not the working moms and dads who contribute up to $12 billion per year in Social Security taxes. "We will close private detention centers, just like I want to end private prisons," she added. "We're going to close private detention centers. So, I have a very active agenda and we're going to be moving on it and I believe -- and you know, obviously it depends upon the outcome of this election - which is why it's so important to register more voters." Trump's Deportation Promise Clinton also called out Republicans for their hard-line stance on immigration, which includes a vow from GOP nominee Donald Trump to deport up to 12 million immigrants and build a wall along the Mexican border to further keep them out. "If you remember, after the 2012 election, the Republican National Committee did what they called an autopsy of their loss and concluded that they could not continue to deny the importance of immigration reform, and they urged Republicans running for office to get on board," she said. "Now, that hasn't turned out the way that they seemed to have hoped. We have, instead, a Republican nominee who has been virulently anti-immigrant." Clinton also let it be known she is hoping Democrats can regain control of congress, which would make it easier for her to execute her plan of comprehensive immigration reform. "My campaign is trying to register 3 million more voters, convince people to turn out, because we're going to start early and we're going to be tenacious and absolutely committed to getting a positive result," she added. "I think the chances, once we win, will improve dramatically." The representatives of separate territories in Donetsk and Luhansk regions keep 107 Ukrainian citizens in captivity, Ukraine's representative in the humanitarian subgroup of the trilateral contact group, the president's envoy for Donbas settlement Iryna Gerashchenko has said. "Now 107 people remain hostages on separate territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, including 64 military men along with other civilians. At the latest Minsk meeting I managed to confirm the presence of 45 people from this list on the uncontrolled by Ukraine territory, but not 20, as the militants claimed before, Gerashchenko wrote on her Facebook page on Monday. She also noted that there are 10 political prisoners in Russian jails and the Ukrainian side keeps working on their release. "We are working to bring good news for all relatives of the hostages and relatives of missing persons. Currently there are 498 people gone missing, of whom 345 people are civilians. This is a very complicated process. We are constantly informing relatives, including at our personal meetings, about the details of the talks," Gerashchenko said. According to the Ukrainian parliament vice-speaker, the parliament must pass a law "on payments to the families of hostages " to help the families of hostages. Media: Court arrests house of former first deputy prosecutor general Kuzmin in Puscha Vodytsia Pechersk District Court of Kyiv has seized the house of the former First Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine Renat Kuzmin, an online edition Nashi Groshi (Our Money) has reported with the reference to the court decision dated June 17. According to the information, the court arrested the apartment building with a total area of 1,068 square meters with basements, sheds and a garage (142 square meters), which is located in Puscha Vodytsia. According to the court decision, Kuzmin is forbidden to dispose of this property. As reported, on May 2014 the criminal proceedings were opened in respect of Kuzmin due to the illegal detention of former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko in 2010 (under Article 371 Part 1 of the Criminal Code - deliberate unlawful detention or illegal attachment). He has been wanted since June, 2014. The announcement of a hunger strike by several mothers and wives of Ukrainian citizens who are being held hostages by militants in Donbas will not help to secure their prompt release, Ukraine's representative in the humanitarian subgroup of the trilateral contact group, the president's envoy for Donbas settlement Iryna Gerashchenko has said. "It is unlikely that the guys, who are in captivity now, will be happy if they learn that their mothers and wives have decided to stop eating .... I know from the prisoners that they suffer knowing that their relatives can not hug them, that they are fighting and waiting for so long ... and today, as a result of certain action by the presidential administration, a few poor women have decided to starve ... If this somehow helped in the liberation of their children for whom we are fighting now ... If it somehow melted the hearts of those who have the keys to the prisons where our hostages are kept.... it is obviously wont help," Gerashchenko wrote on her Facebook page on Monday night. Geraschenko also expressed the view that it is irresponsible and cruel to engage families of hostages in such ventures, to use their despair in such a way." As reported, on August 8, the rally, entitled "Do not leave your people behind," demanding the prompt release of Ukrainian citizens held captive, took place on Bankova Street in the center of Kyiv near the Ukraines presidential administration building. The rally organizer is Ukrainian parliamentarian of the Batkivschyna faction Nadiia Savchenko. About 100 people took part. Addressing the gathering, Savchenko said that the process of prisoners release should be accelerated, because it takes a few months now. "The president had to work out the real mechanism of people exchange long ago ... It needs to be simplified, and it is possible to simplify. Self-promotion is inappropriate here, and there is no need to say that its difficult. It is not!" MP said at the rally. Subsequently, the protesters asked the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko to take specific steps for the release of people. "We are waiting for specific steps for the release of prisoners," the letter states, signed by the rally participants. Savchenko said she will bring the letter to the presidential administration herself. She confirmed that she went on hunger strike for the purposes of drawing the government's attention to the issue of the release of captives. I continue my hunger strike, she said. Savchenko confirmed that she went on hunger strike for the purposes of drawing the government's attention to the issue of the release of captives. However, this did not happen, she said. "I believe, both the people's deputies, including the Parliament's First Deputy Speaker Iryna Gerashchenko, and the Ukrainian president should have participated in the rally," she said. Several relatives of Ukrainian captives held by militants in Donbas joined Savchenkos hunger strike. The Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) of Moldova has sent a request to Ukraine for the extradition of Veaceslav Platon (Kobalev), who was earlier put on the Interpol's wanted list by Ukraine. A PGO representative at the Kyiv City Appeals Court reviewing Platon's arrest appeal said Moldova's PGO had sent an extradition request and is now preparing court materials for Platon's extradition. As earlier reported, on July 28, 2016, Kyiv's Pechersk District Court ruled on the arrest of Platon, who was detailed in Kyiv in line with Moldova's request via Interpol. Platon was put on the international wanted list and, after several hours, was detained in Kyiv by agents of Ukraine's State Security Service. Ukraine's PGO confirmed this information, saying also that Platon was found with a fake Ukrainian passport made out to Viacheslav Kobalev. Platon is a citizen of Moldova and Russia. In Moldova, Platon is accused of participating in a coordinated theft from Banca de economii SA (Moldova's state savings bank). He is accused, in particular, of receiving and not returning a LEU 800 million credit (the equivalent of $20 million). Media reported that Platon was one of the main coordinators of the withdrawal of tens of millions of dollars from Russia to offshore companies via Moldovan banks. Former head of the national anticorruption center Michael Hoffman said more than $23 billion of Russian origin was laundered. Russia's Ministry of Internal Affairs earlier said about $10.9 billion was laundered via "the Moldovan scheme" last year. Other sources said the amount was from $18 billion to $19 billion. Platon's defense attorney Denis Shkyptan said that Platon is a citizen of Ukraine and therefore cannot be extradited to Moldova. Plans to move about 80 Lafayette College employees into Downtown Easton will help both the college and the city to grow, according to local officials. Easton's mayor and Lafayette's president touted the decision to move the employees into the Alpha Building at a news conference Tuesday. The decision is part of a multi-million-dollar series of initiatives designed to increase Lafayette's enrollment from 2,500 to about 2,900 and in turn increase funds available for financial aid. The $1 million renovation to the Alpha Building will bring the employees off College Hill and into the Downtown by Jan. 1. "We're really excited about the college moving Downtown," said Easton Mayor Sal Panto Jr., who touted the college for its grants to help the Greater Easton Development Partnership and to cover the cost of a new firetruck. The employees will take up space in "the grand dame for the whole Downtown, the largest building in town" on Centre Square. It housed city hall until last year. "But the best thing about it is it will be filled with people, people who shop and dine in Downtown Easton," Panto said. Lafayette College President Alison Byerly said the college and city have learned to work together for their mutual benefit. She called the move to the Alpha building an "unbelievable opportunity." "This truly is a college town now," agreed developer Mark Mulligan, whose VP Development Co. owns the Alpha Building. Moving employees off campus will free up more resources for students. Other initiatives expected to launch over the next year are plans for an outdoor elevator called the to help employees get up from the Downtown to College Hill without having to drive or surmount a forbidding 170-foot-high stairwell. The college wants to tear down off-campus housing for about 150 students and replace them with new accommodations for about 550 students as well as a bookstore, diner and doctor's office. The college also plans a new integrated science center and a new home for campus security along the Bushkill Creek. The college will move its community engagement department and some admissions workers to the Alpha Building's third floor. The communications department will move to the fourth floor and the information technology department will move to the sixth floor. Work will start in the Alpha Building by Sept. 1. Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook. Whether a prime downtown Easton location will become a new restaurant, a retailer, offices or something unheard of should be settled over the next few months. The new owner of 403 Northampton St. told the Easton historic district commission on Monday he wants to gut the property before courting potential tenants. "I want to clean it, paint it white inside and let the light in," said owner Mark Calafatello of Easton. The previous owner, Randy Bentley, wanted to put in a farm-to-table restaurant last year at the building next to New York Tailors. Calafatello said a restaurant makes sense for a location midway between the State Theatre and Easton Public Market. But if he can find a tenant willing to take on not just the first floor, but also the five floors above, he's all ears. He's talked to retailers around town and the Easton Main Street Initiative about whether a store or offices make sense there. "There are so many changes happening," he told the commission Monday. "Let's see who comes into the environment who wants to be in that space before I make a decision." Historic district commission Chairman William Dohe is the architect for the project. He recused himself when the commission recommended approving a plan to put in new windows. Calafatello said interior demolition should wrap up this week and construction should take about four months. He wants to make the building a Downtown showpiece. A local paint supplier agrees the building will look beautiful when it's complete. Gleco Paint of Wilson Borough will pay for Benjamin Moore paint for the facade and pay Gordon Bennett Painting of Easton to do the work. "They'll pay for a paint job in front of the building in exchange for the recognition," he said after the meeting. The store owner couldn't immediately be reached for comment. Calafatello said after the meeting he might opt to tear out the second floor to make a "grand entrance" for a restaurant. He's also might add a second entrance in the rear if he has to subdivide the building. Easton 456 LLC bought the building from 403 Northampton LLC on June 22 for $190,000. Window sashes remain only on the second-floor windows, according to historic consultant Christine Ussler. Plywood sheets painted to look like the reflection of another building were hung in place of windows on the upper four floors about 15 years ago, Calafatello said. Ussler said the first four stories were put up in the mid to late 1800s. The top two stories were added some time between 1892 and 1897. Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook. TRENTON -- Fifty leading former Republican national security officials -- including a former U.S. attorney for New Jersey -- have signed an open letter saying Donald Trump would put the nation's "national security and well-being" at risk if he's elected president, according to a report by the New York Times. In the letter, the officials write that the Republican presidential nominee "would be the most reckless president in American history," according to the report. The signees include Michael Chertoff, an Elizabeth native who served as New Jersey's U.S. attorney -- the state's top federal prosecutor -- in the 1990s and later was the country's homeland security secretary in President George W. Bush's second term. Most recently, Chertoff represented former Port Authority Chairman David Samson, a top ally of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, in the George Washington Bridge scandal case. Chertoff also represents Samson in the recent case in which Samson pleaded guilty to coercing United Airlines to run a regularly scheduled, non-stop flight to his South Carolina summer home. Christie is one of Trump's top advisers. Chertoff is one of many signees that were either top aides or officials in George W. Bush's former administration. Another is Robert Zoellick, a former deputy secretary of state, U.S. trade representative, and president of the World Bank who helped Christie study foreign policy in 2014, shortly before the governor launched his own campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. The officials write that Trump, the celebrity businessman and former Atlantic City casino tycoon, is "unable or unwilling to separate truth from falsehood." "He does not encourage conflicting views," they continue. "He lacks self-control and acts impetuously. He cannot tolerate personal criticism. He has alarmed our closest allies with his erratic behavior. All of these are dangerous qualities in an individual who aspires to be president and commander in chief, with command of the U.S. nuclear arsenal." The letter adds that none of the signees will vote for Trump, thought it notes that many Americans "have doubts about Hillary Clinton, as do many of us," according to the report. Trump sent out a statement Monday afternoon saying "the names on this letter are the ones the American people should look to for answers on why the world is a mess." He specifically blamed them for the 2003 invasion of Iraq; the 2011 attack on the American embassy in Benghazi, Libya; and the rise of terrorist group ISIS. "They are nothing more than the failed Washington elite looking to hold onto their power, and it's time they are held accountable for their actions," Trump added. Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook. Hunterdon County Prosecutor Anthony P. Kearns, III has released new statistics showing that the heroin epidemic in Hunterdon County is getting worse. According to Kearns, there were three fatal overdoses in Hunterdon County between July 26 and Wednesday. Two men, ages 42 and 49, and a 26-year-old woman died of apparent heroin overdoses. The deaths occurred in Pittstown, High Bridge and Clinton Township. "The sickness of addiction is everyone's problem and it can no longer be ignored here in Hunterdon or elsewhere," Kearns said. "It's happening here. Our efforts include enforcing the law, preventing addiction, preventing death and preserving the quality of life for all families, regardless of their struggles." So far in 2016 in Hunterdon County, 28 overdoses have been reported to police to date this year, compared to 40 for all of 2015. Of those, nine were fatal compared to 12 overdose fatalities in all of 2015 and eight in 2014. One of those overdose deaths resulted in the arrest of Christopher T. Brown, 38, of Irvington, who was charged Friday with first-degree strict liability for drug induced death after he allegedly sold heroin to a Raritan Township man, Kearns said. "It is obvious that the recent statistics are showing that this epidemic is getting worse," Kearns said. "Parents, family, friends, law enforcement, faith-based communities and medical personnel are all part of the solution when someone is ensnared in the grips of an addiction. "Recognition, treatment, and support from family and friends can help save a life. Preventing an overdose is just as important as responding to and treating one. It's not just a law enforcement or health care issue. It's a family issue. Education and awareness is crucial." Of the 28 total overdoses this year, 23 were caused by heroin. There were 23 male and five female victims. Of the nine fatal overdoses this year, six were caused by heroin. Six men and three women died. The average age of the involved person is 39. The oldest was 58 and the youngest was 21, according to Kearns. Gloucester County officials reported on Friday that "potentially lethal" doses of heroin were being distributed and that three people were revived with a heroin overdose antidote overnight. The packaging for the heroin was stamped with the names "Red Snowman" and "Superstar." According to the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office, heroin containing these stamps can be turned over to local police departments "with no repercussions." "So far this year, police deployed Narcan and saved 18 people, compared to 16 saves in all of 2015," Kearns said. "Without police administering Narcan, that could have been 18 more deaths this year." Narcan, also know as Naloxone, is an aerosol that is administered just like a nasal spray. It blocks the effects of an opioid for a period of time and permits emergency responders to get the victim to the hospital for treatment. The effects of an opiate can last up to four hours so overdose victims who are administered Narcan will still require medical attention. Police officers in Hunterdon County were trained and issued Narcan kits in 2014. Hunterdon Medical Center in Raritan Township has consistently provided funding for police officers to carry Narcan in the county since the program started. "The impact of the heroin epidemic is not only tragic to families, but also causes a strain on healthcare and government services," Kearns said. "The overall impact on a community is affected as addicts often resort to crime to feed their addictions." Kearns also pointed out additional programs meant to help this epidemic. The Overdose Protection Act was enacted by the Legislature and signed into law by Governor Chris Christie in 2013 with the purpose of encouraging witnesses and victims of drug overdoses to seek medical assistance and save lives. In instances where evidence is obtained as a result of seeking medical assistance, those involved are protected from arrest, charge, prosecution, conviction, and revocation of parole or probation for possession or use of illegal drugs. The Overdose Prevention Act enables people to make the right decision in dialing 9-1-1. The START program (Steps To Action Recovery and Treatment) was launched in 2014 by Kearns, the Safe Coalition of Hunterdon/Somerset Counties, Hunterdon Healthcare and the Hunterdon County Chiefs of Police Association. It is designed to provide direct referral information, contained in a prepared packet, to individuals who are believed to be suffering in the grips of addiction or other crisis. The START Packet is given to individuals and family members when they are released from jail or police custody; or after having contact with law enforcement or a hospital emergency room. The packet is also available at various locations throughout Hunterdon County, including the county libraries. The New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police has also endorsed the program statewide. There were three people in the car the night an Upper Macungie Township woman was brutally stabbed in the throat in her driveway and killed. Prosecutors say Caleb Barnes, then a 20-year-old soldier stationed at Fort Meade, Maryland, killed Cheryl Silvonek after the woman tried to break up her 14-year-old daughter and Barnes. But on Tuesday, Barnes' defense attorney said it was Jamie Silvonek, Cheryl's daughter, who wielded the murder weapon and killed her mother in the 2007 Ford Freestyle. "Jamie Silvonek wanted her mother, Cheryl Silvonek, dead," Richard Webster said. "By her own words, she's a liar. Jamie Silvonek is also a manipulator." Barnes' trial began Tuesday morning in Lehigh County Court on charges of homicide, conspiracy to commit homicide, abuse of corpse and tampering with evidence. The 22-year-old remains in county jail without bail. A crowd of people, including Cheryl's husband and Jamie's father David, were in the courtroom for the start of the trial. Jamie Silvonek pleaded guilty in February to all of the charges against her, for her role in her mother's killing. As part of her plea deal, Jamie Silvonek agreed to testify against Barnes and is expected to take the witness stand this week. Prosecutors have said the pair planned to kill both of Silvonek's parents, and have previously presented text messages that show the pair planning to kill Cheryl Silvonek hours before she was killed. Senior Deputy District Attorney Jeff Dimmig started his opening statement at Cheryl Silvonek's snow-covered "hasty" grave in the early morning of March 15, 2015. Dimmig spoke of Silvonek's blood-spattered car being seen in the 5700 block of Haasadahl Road in South Whitehall Township, but gone by the time officers arrived. Officers found the woman's shallow grave, and then discovered her car submerged in a nearby pond. Investigators traced the car to the Silvonek home, where they found David Silvonek just waking up and telling them he couldn't find his wife, Dimmig said. Officers found Barnes and Jamie Silvonek, both naked, in the girl's bedroom, which was a shock to the girl's father, Dimmig said. "Who is this man?" David Silvonek reportedly yelling to his daughter. Dimmig detailed a list of digital evidence that jurors will view: text messages, phone call and GPS records, surveillance video before and after the killing, and EZ Pass records. The text messages show Barnes and Jamie Silvonek plotting the murder at least a week before the crime, prosecutors said. And while they discussed details, "Caleb Barnes was picking out knives," Dimmig said, displaying a text that said, "I have the knives picked out." A person in the courtoom audience whispered "Jesus" when Dimmig showed the text. "Who wielded the knife and inflicted the injuries on Cheryl Silvonek? That's what you have to decide, what this trial is all about," Webster said. TIMELINE AND MAP: Lehigh County fatal stabbing, burning and burial Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. First Niagara Bank robbery suspects Thiese surveillance photos shows one of the two men involved in a bank robbery Aug. 8, 2016 at the First Niagara Bank, 861 N. Route 100, Upper Macungie Township. (Courtesy photos) Police have recovered the getaway vehicle but are still looking for the masked men who fled in it following a Monday morning robbery at a Lehigh County bank. Upper Macungie Township police on Tuesday released surveillance photos of the two men who at 9:51 a.m. Monday entered the First Niagara Bank branch at 861 N. Route 100. The men, one carrying what appeared to be a sawed-off shotgun, approached two tellers and demanded cash, police said. It marked the second time this summer the bank branch has been robbed. The previous robbery involved one man and occurred on June 15. The men in the latest case drove off with cash in a black 2000 Jeep Cherokee, with a Pennsylvania license plate JLH-5375, a hubcap missing from the front passenger side tire, and a Puerto Rican flag sticker in the right rear window. Police on Tuesday said the vehicle, reported stolen earlier Monday morning by its owner in Allentown, turned up abandoned at an undisclosed location in Upper Macungie. Descriptions of the two men are as follows: One was between 5 feet, 8 inches and 6 feet tall. He was wearing a dark ski mask, blue gloves, and a dark T-shirt over a light-colored long-sleeved shirt, police said. The other was between 5 feet, 6 inches and 5 feet. 8 inches tall. He was wearing a dark ski mask, dark gloves and a grey hooded sweatshirt, police said. Anyone with information is asked to call township police at 484-661-5911. Nick Falsone may be reached at nfalsone@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @nickfalsone. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. When Jamie Silvonek first spoke to detectives investigating her mother's killing, the Upper Macungie Township teen claimed her mother left to buy spinach and never came home. Silvonek, who was 14 at the time, was being interviewed after the body of her mother, Cheryl Silvonek, was discovered the morning of March 15, 2015, in a shallow grave in South Whitehall Township. Initially, Jamie Silvonek told police she went to a concert with her mother in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area, they drove back to the Lehigh Valley, went for breakfast and then came home. The girl claimed she was getting out of the car when her mother said she needed to buy spinach, and left. Silvonek then told investigators that she was awakened by her then-boyfriend Caleb Barnes, and forced her to help him dispose of her mother's body, and then he raped the teen, investigators previously testified. "Ultimately that turned out to be a lie as well?" defense attorney Richard Webster asked Detective Richard Heffelfinger on Tuesday, and Heffelfinger agreed. Silvonek later recanted the rape claim, and said the sex was consensual. Prosecutors alleged the 22-year-old Barnes brutally stabbed Cheryl Silvonek as the woman tried to break up her daughter and Barnes. Barnes' attorneys claim it was Jamie Silvonek who killed her mother, not Barnes. Tuesday marked the beginning of testimony for Barnes' trial on homicide and related charges. The trial is expected to last the week. Heffelfinger, with the Lehigh County District Attorney's Office, testified he interviewed Jamie Silvonek the morning her mother's body was found. Police found David Silvonek, Cheryl's husband and Jamie's dad, at home, and the girl and Barnes in bed together. All three were taken to South Whitehall Township police headquarters to be interviewed. "Was she truthful with you?" Senior Deputy District Attorney Jeff Dimmig asked. "No," Heffelfinger said. Two days before her guilty plea in February, Silvonek met with investigators for three hours, Heffelfinger testified Tuesday. "She admitted then that she was lying to you during her interviews ... lied all the way up until her guilty plea?" Webster asked. Heffelfinger confirmed what Webster said, and later added, "I believe what she told me in her final interview (before her guilty plea) matches the evidence found in this crime." At the hearing Feb. 11, Jamie Silvonek pleaded guilty to all of the charges against her, and was sentenced to 35 years to life in state prison. As part of her plea deal, Jamie Silvonek agreed to testify against Barnes and is expected to take the witness stand this week. Investigators listened to Jamie Silvonek's jail phone calls, and monitored her mail as she awaited trial. Webster asked whether the girl discussed a "suicide pact," but Judge Maria Dantos upheld the prosecution's objection to any testimony about it. Webster also asked about Jamie Silvonek writing to Barnes from jail, in a letter asking him to "take the fall," but that was also objected to by prosecutors and sustained by the judge. A 'knife aficionado' Jurors on Tuesday also heard about Barnes' affinity for knives. After growing up in Argentina, Barnes collected knives and was known to carry at least three of them on him at all times, his defense attorney said, calling Barnes a "knife aficionado." Prosecutors said a bloody knife was found the morning of Cheryl Silvonek's killing on a picnic table in the backyard of the family's residence. Detectives found packaging for that exact knife in Barnes' Camaro, and on Tuesday a detective showed the knife perfectly fit the blister pack found in the car. Heffelfinger said investigators found two knives in Jamie Silvonek's bedroom, including a knife with Barnes' initials, and knives in a duffel bag in his Camaro. They also found "numerous" knives -- about 32 of them -- throughout Barnes' room in his barracks at Fort Meade in Maryland. The military confiscated the knives found in the barracks, Heffelfinger said. No fingerprint testing was done on the knives, but DNA tests were done on the bloody weapon found at the family's home. In Barnes' room detectives also found a ticket for the concert where he met Jamie Silvonek, the Self Help Festival on Oct. 4, 2014, in Philadelphia. Five months later, the two would kill Cheryl Silvonek, prosecutors said. On Tuesday afternoon, jurors saw more color photos of the blood-soaked car interior where Cheryl Silvonek was killed, including blood spray on the windshield, and heavy blood spatter on the car ceiling. David Silvonek was in the courtroom as the photos were displayed. Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. A jury of six men and six women has been seated to hear the perjury and obstruction trial of Pennsylvania's attorney general. Lawyers for Kathleen Kane huddled with Montgomery County prosecutors throughout the day Monday to question potential jurors behind closed doors. Kane, 50, is accused of leaking grand jury material to a newspaper to embarrass rivals and then lying about it under oath. She insists she never broke the law. Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane arrives for a pretrial hearing in her grand jury leak case April 20, 2016, at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown. (AP file photo | For lehighvalleylive.com) The first-term Democrat lost her law license after her arrest and decided not to run for re-election. She calls the charges payback for her crusade to root out judges, lawyers and others who traded offensive and pornographic emails on state servers. Her crusade cost two Supreme Court justices and many others their jobs. But the trial judge says the defense can't bring that up at trial. The trial is expected to last about a week. The potential witness list in the perjury trial of Pennsylvania's attorney general includes prosecutors, judges, journalists and former top aides to the embattled office holder. About 150 potential jurors were set to arrive for jury selection at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown. Kane remains on the job even though she lost her law license over the felony arrest. Kane was the first woman and first Democrat to be elected attorney general in Pennsylvania. She didn't seek re-election this year. Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli was among Democrats seeking the nomination but lost in the primary, setting up a battle in November between Democratic Montgomery County Commissioner Josh Shapiro and state Sen. John Rafferty, also from Montgomery County, the winner of the Republican primary. Wine fans are winners on day one of Pa.'s new booze rules The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board reported Monday, Aug. 8, 2016, as new rules on alcohol sale took effect, 53 licensees applied for permits to sell wine to go in grocery, convenience and other stores and 33 wineries applied to ship directly to consumers. (European Pressphoto Agency file photo | For lehighvalleylive.com) Wine fans are the winners in early returns on Pennsylvania's relaxation of rules on alcohol sales. The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board reports mixed reactions from liquor license holders Monday, as the application period opened for newly created permits. On the whole, however, the board said it was ready for the expanded sales made possible by legislation signed into law June 8 by Gov. Tom Wolf. "Since Act 39 was signed into law two months ago, the PLCB has been hard at work developing these new licensing authorities and related business processes," board Chairman Tim Holden said in a statement. "We are proud to hit the ground running on the day the law takes effect to begin accepting requests." As of 5 p.m., no applications were filed or 'round-the-clock booze sales in casinos. Nor did any six-pack shops apply for converting their eating place licenses to restaurant licenses, opening up the door to sales of wine and liquor, too. Wine sales, on the other hand, could begin as early as this month in grocery and convenience stores, under the legislation passed in June. These stores are among businesses that hold hotel and restaurant licensees, making them eligible for new wine expanded permits. Through the close of business Monday, 53 applications for wine expanded permits had been submitted by hotel and restaurant licensees, Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board spokeswoman Elizabeth Brassell said. The permits allow sales of up to 3 liters, or four 750-milliliter bottles, of wine per transaction 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Saturday and during limited hours on Sunday, provided a Sunday sales permit is in place. Each permit costs $2,000 in an application fee, plus an annual renewal fee equal to 2 percent of the cost of wine purchased from the PLCB for off-site consumption. Stores looking to sell large volumes of wine, defined as more than 20 cases per order from the PLCB, are projected to see shipments as early as October. Stores looking to sell smaller quantities may begin selling wine this month, provided the brands ordered are in stock at the state's Fine Wine & Good Spirits stores. PLCB officials did not, as of Monday evening, have a list of stores looking to sell wine to go. In addition to wine-to-go permits, the PLCB reported 33 applications for direct wine shipments, including one from Lehigh Valley Wine Trail member Galen Glen Winery LLC in West Penn Township, Schuylkill County. Act 39 creates a new license for wine shipments allowing producers to ship up to 36 cases per year to a Pennsylvania resident for personal use. The license carries a $250 application fee and annual renewal fee in the same amount, and the wine shipped is subject to state and local sales tax plus a new $2.50 per gallon excise tax. Casinos statewide balked at the $1 million application fee for 24/7 alcohol service, plus $1 million annual renewal fee for the each of the first four years, followed by a $250,000 fee each subsequent year. Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem officials said the market isn't there for the fee to make sense, nor do they want to become the place for after-hours drinking. Also shunned on day one, the conversion of eating place licenses to restaurant licenses to permit the sale of wine and liquor in addition to beer carries a one-time fee of $30,000. Eating places licenses in Philadelphia are ineligible for conversion. Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. UPDATE: Not 'the Jay we knew': Friend stumped by killing of father Northampton Borough police have charged a man in the killing of his father early Tuesday morning in a Main Street home. Jason John Myirski, 36, the son of homeowners Joseph (Jr.) and Monica Myirski at 2350 Main St., was arraigned about 9 a.m. before District Judge Robert Hawke on a single count of homicide, authorities said. He is being held without bail. Jason Myirski lived in the home, records show. Jason Myirski shot and killed Joseph Myirski, 64, borough police said. Jason Myirski was found upstairs and surrendered after firing one more shot, police said. Officers attempted to revive Joseph Myirski but were not successful, police said. Officers secured a handgun that was in the room with Jason Myirski, according to police. The shooting happened about 3:15 a.m. and a neighbor reported hearing 10 shots. Myirski's mother and a brother who live in the house were not hurt, borough police Chief Ronald Morey said. Borough police and Pennsylvania State Police -- who processed the scene -- are investigating. A shirtless Jason Myirski left district court in handcuffs following his arraignment. His right arm was emblazoned with an Operation Iraqi Freedom tattoo and one on his left arm said POW/MIA. Records indicate he was in the U.S. Army Reserve. Myirski said in court he served 11 years in the military. Morey said he thought Myirski served in Afghanistan or Iraq, but wasn't certain which one. Prior to and during court, Myirski spoke about having post-traumatic stress disorder, Morey said. Myriski also said he was taking the opiate blocker suboxone, Morey said. A motive for the shooting was not given by authorities or detailed in court records. A preliminary hearing is tentatively scheduled 9 a.m. Aug. 16 in Hawke's Lehigh Township court. KJ Frantz contributed to this report. Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. Mack Horton of Australia (Center), Sun Yang of China (Left) and Gabriele Detti of Italy pose with their medals during the Men's 400m Freestyle Victory Ceremony in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on August 6, 2016. [Photo/Agencies] The International Olympic Committee (IOC) supports freedom of speech but there should be a line drawn between freedom to speak and "trash talk". When asked about how to distinguish between freedom of speech and trash talk, IOC spokesman Mark Adams said on Monday: "We support freedom of speech but on the other hand, at the Olympics it's also about respecting your rivals. There is a line somewhere between people should be free to speak and have respect for others." The IOC comments followed the on-going row between Chinese and Australian swimming over Australian swimmer Mack Horton's unfriendly remarks, labeling Chinese swimmer Sun Yang as "drug cheat". The Chinese swimming authorities wrote to its Australian counterpart demanding an apology from Horton for "his inappropriate comments" while the Australian side backed Horton saying: "Mack is entitled to express a point of view. 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." Sun, who won gold in the 400m freestyle and 1500m freestyle at the London 2012 Olympics, served a three-month ban in 2014 after using a banned substance which was added to the World Anti-Doping Agency drug list in 2014. The 24-year-old said he unwittingly took the drug as part of treatment for a chronic heart problem. After winning the 400m freestyle gold medal race here 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." Previously in practice, Horton said he ignored Sun who tried to greet him and said "I don't have time or respect for drug cheats." The Australian's comments prompted a heated response on social media, where many Chinese fans described the remarks as unjustified. Graham Packaging Co. in Belvedere Graham Packaging Co. will close its Belvedere location at Fifth and Knowlton streets on Sept. 26, 2016, according to local and state officials. (Steve Novak | For lehighvalleylive.com) UPDATE: Plant closing over declining sales, company says A global maker of plastic containers is leaving Warren County. Graham Packaging Co.'s 71 employees in Belvidere will lose their jobs when the facility at Fifth and Knowlton streets closes Sept. 26, according to a notice from the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development. "It's a major hit for Belvidere. It's another business leaving town," lamented Mayor Joseph Kennedy. Graham Packaging is based near Lancaster, Pa. The company has gone through other changes recently, including the planned closing of a Baltimore plant in June where 79 employees worked, according to PennLive.com. A Graham spokesman did not immediately return a call for comment Tuesday. Kennedy said the company recently alerted the town about the closing and indicated that the office is relocating to the South. Workers may be offered jobs in Pennsylvania, he said. Local officials have reached out to other area manufacturers to see if they may be interested in hiring those who are losing their jobs, Kennedy said. Belvidere also lost chemical producer BASF when the company shut down its local facility in 2010. Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @type2supernovak and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. A Pohatcong Township man is charged after allegedly making up a story he was attacked by a large bear and wasting police, emergency and wildlife resources for hours. Jeffrey Wilson, 57, of the 300 block of Route 627, faces one count of providing false information to law enforcement, a disorderly person's offense. Wilson at about 9:30 a.m. Aug. 3 reported to 911 a black bear, estimated to be 500 pounds, ran over and began swatting at him. The man told police he was feeding cats outside during the time of the attack. When officers arrived, they found Wilson bleeding from the left arm. Wilson told officers the bear then fled into a corn field behind his property, police said. Both police detectives and conservation officers from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection's Division of Fish and Game conducted an investigation into the alleged attack. Police said it was determined by both departments that Wilson's injuries did not come from a bear encounter. They instead were determined to be pre-existing from a non-related accident that happened the evening of Aug. 2, according to police. "These conclusions were determined by law enforcement and medical personnel who specialize in animal encounters, along with blood stain analysis," police said Tuesday. A number listed for Wilson was disconnected and he couldn't be reached for comment. It remains unclear the motive behind Wilson allegedly making up the story. "At this point, we are still looking into the reason," said Police Detective Sgt. Scott Robb. Mayor James Kern III Tuesday afternoon praised the work of police in the investigation. "I commend our law enforcement professionals for their quick investigation on this matter," Kern said. "It is unfortunate that residents had to take unnecessary precautions while this matter was being looked into. Residents should always be diligent and use good judgement in protecting themselves and their homes from wildlife in this rural part of the state." Wilson's case is scheduled for 1 p.m. Sept. 8 in Pohatcong Township Municipal Court. Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @pamholzmann. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. A couple of years ago a joke went around Facebook which based on the famous Maslows Hierarchy of needs. Under things like Self Actualisation, Social and Safety Needs, somebody had scribbled on Wifi. It was a joke at the time, an acknowledgement that our lives have become so bound up with the internet and social media that we feel we cant survive without it. Its not a joke any more. Sociologists and economists now talk seriously about digital poverty and use it to measure the lives of citizens of various countries around the world. Our lives are now so integrated into the digital world that it is now accepted that broadband is now in the same vital infrastructure category as electricity and sewage. Kate OReilly, manager of the Buy Design boutique in Crookstown owned by her mother Marcella, is a perfect example. The boutique is, by her own admission, in the middle of nowhere. It has been in business for the past 16 years and when the recession hit, she became keenly aware that there werent enough customers in the hinterland of Crookstown to keep it going. So she developed buydesign.ie which broadened out its customer base to a much wider audience. Customers can now buy directly from the website. She says now that it now accounts for 30% of the boutiques direct sales, and probably a lot more in indirect sales because customers who come into the shop often reference an item they saw on the website. Its really changed our business, she adds. Kate is in no doubt that without its digital presence Buy Design would have gone bust. In more recent times, the boutique has started to use social media, in particular Facebook, to promote its website. The broadband service was fine for the website. It doesnt really require a very fast service, she explained. Social media is extremely important to us. We have 23,000 followers on our Facebook page, and in recent times weve started to do live streaming (broadcasting video) on our Facebook page. Its the best way now to interact with customers and it generates the best feedback. Like, we could get 10,000 views for a live stream video. And she says that the reaction to a video, in terms of increased traffic to the website and sales, is immediate. However, the broadband service is not sufficient for the live streaming. The quantity of the videos is not good, The broadband is not strong enough. It we move away from the wireless box, it can drop. Kate sums it up like this the internet is evolving but broadband is not. Another bone of contention for Kate is the lack of competition in the market place. At the moment she must choose between two providers, Eir or Vodafone. Neither are the most reliable, and she feels shes forced into paying for the more expensive one, which is Eir, at 60 a month, because its the better of the two. A third operator, Imagine, is not operating in her area, at least not yet. Eadestown man Conor Flynn spoke of his frustration with getting a decent broadband service. In Eadestown we had very poor Eircom-based DSL service, he said. He explained that Eir had upgraded the exchange in Rathmore to fibre optic cable, but that anybody on the Blessington side of that exchange didnt get the benefit of it. The cabinets downstream of the exchange were not upgraded. He felt that Eirs position was that they had upgraded the exchange so they had ticked a box. Ive looked at other services, and despite Imagine littering our area with signs saying that their service is available here, nobody can get it. Imagine installed a mast in Kilteel, which does provide a service to the people of that area, including nearby Castlewarden and parts of Ardclough, but theres a hill between the mast and Eadestown. Mr Flynn works as an IT security specialist, and needs to work from home in the evenings as part of providing a service to his customers. This has caused extreme frustration in the area. My job would allow me work one or two days at home, And my wife, who works in the IFSC, would be able to work from home as well, but we just dont have that choice. Mr Flynn says that a major component of a more agreeable work/life balance is being prevented. Hes also conscious of his children who are held back from participation in school projects. And he knows its also a source of frustration for teachers. He said that there is virtually no mobile coverage in the area and therefore a dongle is not an option. I cant even get text messages. If he was ever to consider a move in the future, he says that the availability of good broadband would be a major consideration for him. At the moment, he is testing the possibility of using an antenna from Wicklow Broadband. The antenna is pointing back at Saggart and it seems to be offering a much more reliable service, but its much more expensive, Mr Flynn said, adding that hes paying 150 a month for 9mbps. Because of his business requirements, he feels he has no option. The profile of broadband coverage in Kildare is patchy. In general terms, the biggest towns tend to be well served, such as Naas, Newbridge and the towns of the north east such as Leixlip, Maynooth and Celbridge. But outside the biggest urban areas, its a mixed bunch. A quick survey of people in this reporters phonebook revealed a patchwork variety and the frustratons attached to the lack of consistancy and reliabilty. One man near Eadestown said Its not good. 85 per month Digital Web. A woman in an estate it in Prosperous says No problems. Im on 3. A woman living in Naas reports Its not too bad. Im with Virgin and its fibre broadband. Its fast enough although slower at peak time. My folks live in Two Mile House and its pretty brutal out there. A woman in a detached house (not in an estate) in Kildare town reported: Dont get me started on a rant. Its absolutely totally crap. Im with Eir... I spend most of my day watching my computer think!My download speed is 6.76mbps and my upload is .39mbps. Id nearly send a letter faster than an email. However, a resident in an estate in Kildare town reports that its good, never any problem. Im with Sky. A man in a house on the outskirts of Prosperous reports: Sh*te with Sky, Eir were sh*te. 2.8 mbps tops. Sure how are we meant to illegally download stuff that that rate eh??? A woman in an estate in Kilmeague reports: Vodafone and coverage okay, not fantastic. A man in one of Maynooths newer estates said: We use Virgin for broadband and phone. Coverage is quite excellent. A man in Staplestown reported Sky and it is good. Very quick. A woman living in Monread said: Coverage is good. We are with Eir. A Clane resident, in Alexandra Manor, replied: Excellant, Vodafone. A woman who lives in Newbridge but works in Naas replied: Naas is very good, with Eircom, Newbridge is good in the house, not the in the extension out the back, with Virgin. Although another Newbridge resident replied: Sh*te. 1 mbps. Sky router on Eircom hardline. A resident of Coill Dubh said that the broadband there was very good in the village. Its e-fibre, so I am going at 68mbps. Whereas a man living in Smithstown (a rural area between Rathcoffey and Maynooth) replied: Youre opening a can of worms with me on that topic. How long do you have? In general, reports Lorraine Killick, CEO of the South Kildare Chamber of Commerce, said that the area between the Curragh and Athy is very bad for broadband services. Ms Killick said that some chambers members in the area, particularly the from the Curragh to Athy, have very poor intermittent coverage and sometimes are lucky to be able to open an email. She said she is aware that in Monasterevin one road does not have access to broadband at all. This is unacceptable in these modern times and in order for businesses to grow and continue to be sustainable, they need to be able to compete locally online, not to mention globally, at the highest level, she noted. Ireland and in particular rural Ireland is at risk of being left behind if the Government does not upgrade and fast track the National Broadband Plan as a matter of urgency. Politicians working in the area back up this point. Its a constant complaint from that part of the world, they say. And they make the point, as others have, that broadband is absolutely vital for the lives of citizens and businesses in Kildare. It is, they say, an absolutely vital piece of infrastructure a necessity rather than a luxury, as Kate OReilly puts it. On that basis, they believe, the government should intervene. To date the provision of broad band services is has been left to private companies. Eircom, or Eir as its known now, is responsible for the network of cables, and they are also a service provider. But then there are other service providers including Virgin, Sky, Vodafone and 3. Some offer it along phone lines, some piggyback it along cable television lines. And then there are those, in particular Imagine, which offer the service wirelessly. The inherent problem with leaving it to private companies is that in order to maximise their profits they will chase the areas of most population. Maximising profit is at odds with public service obligation. Now that it is generally accepted the broadband is a vital piece of infrastructure rather than a luxury service the government, in the form of independent Minister Denis Naughten is working on getting it to every home the country. He has already introduced a number of measures which are set to fastrack the work of broadband and fibre optic cable providers. According to the newly elected TD James Lawless, broadband comes under the same planning category as motorways and railways as strategic infrastructure and should be treated as such. He has been working to bring broadband services to the area, and has been in contact with a number of private companies, in particular Imagine, who installed a mast near Kilteel. And he hoped that a second mast might soon go up to service the rural areas of Donadea, Staplestown, Newtown, Broadford, Clogherinkoe and Kilshanroe. Theyre looking for expressions of interest and pretty soon, by the end of the summer, Id hope to see another mast going up. He told the Leader that he found Minister Naughten to be somebody I can work with. Ive found him to be a good partner in this. So maybe theres hope! A Japanese restaurant in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei Province, removed two Japanese maps from its dining area after local media pointed out that they marked China's Diaoyu Islands as Japanese territory, prompting the local foreign affairs office to condemn the maps as "illegal." An official from the Foreign Affairs Office of the Wuhan Municipal Government told the Global Times that displaying the maps in China is an "illegal action" and the Japanese restaurant has removed the maps per the office's request. A resident surnamed Wang told Wuhan-based Changjiang Daily on Sunday that a Japanese restaurant was displaying a Japanese map that marked China's Diaoyu Islands as the Senkaku Islands. The map also showed the so-called Senkaku Islands and Ishigaki as being under the administration of southern Japan's Okinawa Prefecture. An official from the Foreign Affairs Office of the Wuhan Municipal Government told the Changjiang Daily that it is wrong to display a map that marks China's Diaoyu Islands as the Senkaku Islands and urged citizens to call the local public security bureau to handle any cases regarding such illegal maps. The Map Management Regulations, enacted by China's State Council in January 2016, stipulate that no organization or individual may display geographic maps that do not comply with the nation's standards and regulations. An employee of the restaurant told the Changjiang Daily that the owner, who could not be reached for comment, is a Japanese national who brought the map from Japan. The Diaoyu Islands have long been disputed by China and Japan, and China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has repeatedly called upon Japan to recognize the islands' history and respect the facts. A NEW scheme is inviting people who order a take-away meal to add several euro to the cost to help a homeless person have a meal. The online takeaway ordering business Marvin.ie has launched a partnership with Limerick-based charity, Novas. The scheme invites customers to add 1, 2 or 5 to their order, which in turn will go towards providing a takeaway meal for a person experiencing homelessness. At the time of ordering, customers can set the donation amount and then tick a box to choose whether their money goes towards the cost of a burger, pizza, Chinese meal or other takeaway type. The Give Away fund will cover the cost of the food, whilst the Novas and other charities in major cities in Ireland will help distribute the food. Since the fund originally went live back in February 2016, thousands of euro have been raised and there are enough funds in place for several more food drops over the coming months. This ongoing campaign is designed to offer our customers a chance to give hot food directly to those in need, said managing director of Marvin.ie, James Galvin. Takeaway food is often purchased as a treat item for many people, and hopefully with the support of local homeless charities, this new scheme will continue to facilitate the ability to share that treat experience with those less fortunate. A spokesperson for Novas said: The food donated through marvin.ie not only reduces the cost of running the Soup Run but it also provides a welcome change from the food normally available through the service. The scheme is already in place in Denmark. Referrals to Novas in Limerick increased by a staggering 184 per cent in the first quarter of this year, in comparison to the same period in 2015. Una Burns, the homeless agencys business manager, said in the first three months of 2016 their family service was operating at 25 per cent above capacity, supporting 50 families a month, with more and more people presenting in crisis. The out-of-hours service has seen an increase in referrals of almost 250 per cent in the same period, while McGarry House on Alphonsus Street in the city saw referrals increase by a staggering 400 per cent. Novas maintains a soup run in the city, co-ordinated on a voluntary basis by staff member Sinead Carey, and run entirely by local volunteers seven nights a week. The food is distributed outside the former Fergusons Chemist premises on OConnell Street. Because of the exposure the soup run received following the airing of The Secret Millionaire in September 2012 and the generous donation of philanthropist Richard Mulcahy, Novas was thereafter in a position to roll-out the service to provide sustenance every night of the week. Last year some 4,000 meals were distributed to the needy in Limerick city. More volunteers are sought. Former Philippine President, Fidel Ramos, has arrived in Hong Kong for talks aimed at rekindling ties with China. Relations between the two countries had become strained due to territorial disputes in the South China Sea. Speaking to media outside Hong Kong International Airport, Ramos said he had come to renew the friendship between China and Philippines. "We are here as a special envoy of our new president, Rodrigo Duterte, a very good man. We want only to renew our friendship, or as he said in his statement, to rekindle the goodwill, the harmony and the crossed ties of the Philippines and China." Ramos has been appointed as a special envoy by Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte to repair its soured ties with China. The appointment came in the wake of Manila's unilateral move to bring the South China Sea dispute to an arbitral tribunal in The Hague. China dismissed the ruling issued on July 12 as "null and void with no binding force", and refused to take part in or recognize the arbitration case. It also stressed that it stands ready to continue to resolve disputes peacefully through negotiation and consultation on the basis of respecting historical facts and in accordance with international law. This is the 88-year-old former Philippine President's first trip to Beijing in his role as envoy. Speaking at a news conference before his departure, Ramos said he would play the role as an icebreaker to rekindle, to warm up again his country's good friendly, neighborly relation to China. He said it'll also be beneficial to ease the ongoing regional tension brought by the territorial disputes. "My initial thought on the preliminary phase, eventually - I am sure you will hear this from high officials in Manila and other departments - eventually, there will be formal, bilateral talks. And the objective is the same objective as me, which is to bring about a condition of peace, sustainable development, and harmony in our Asia-Pacific region." Ramos also noted that his visit was more private in nature, and unofficial. He's due to meet some old friends and also hold initial talks with Chinese officials, which could be the first step towards restarting bilateral relations. Ramos served as the Philippine president from 1992 to 1998 and has maintained good ties with China even after stepping down from office. He was also instrumental in the creation of the Boao Forum for Asia in 1998, a non-government and non-profit international organization, for which he also served as a chairman. The forum, inaugurated in south China's Boao city in Hainan, meets annually to discuss the most pressing issues in the region and the world at large. (Global Times) 08:12, August 09, 2016 The Transit Elevated Bus shows up in Qinhuangdao, North China's Hebei Province on August 3. Photo: CFP The Qinhuangdao Development and Reform Commission has not received any application to approve the Transit Elevated Bus - dubbed Batie - project, an official from the commission who declined to be identified told the Global Times on Monday. But he also said that the TEB Technology Development Co, the vehicle builder, might have submitted the Batie project to some district-level development and reform bureaus in the city for approval. According to a report by the National Business Daily on Monday, TEB Technology has registered a subsidiary in Beidaihe district, Qinhuangdao, North China's Hebei Province, with capital of 50 million yuan ($7.51 million). The Global Times reached an official from the Beidaihe district development and reform bureau, who didn't disclose her name. She told the Global Times on Monday she didn't know any details about the Batie project. According to the National Business Daily report, TEB Technology signed a "strategic cooperation" agreement with the Qinhuangdao local government in April. The Qinhuangdao local government agreed to provide all possible convenient conditions to allow the project to launch quickly, said the report. It has planned 120 kilometers of operational lines for the Batie, the report noted. Batie was scheduled to start trial operations on Monday in Qinhuangdao, domestic media reported over the weekend, citing Song Youzhou, the chief engineer of TEB Technology. But the official from the Qinhuangdao Municipal Development and Reform Commission said he didn't know anything about the trial operations. TEB Technology couldn't be reached for comment as of press time. Batie already underwent a 300-meter test drive on Tuesday in Qinhuangdao, according to domestic media reports. The Batie project has triggered controversy as to the feasibility of the vehicle design as well as the investment behind the project. According to a report by the Xinhua News Agency on Sunday, a research and manufacturing base of the Batie project in Zhoukou, Central China's Henan Province, showed "no signs of construction at all." We and our partners use cookies to Store and/or access information on a device. We and our partners use data for Personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. Some of our partners may process your data as a part of their legitimate business interest without asking for consent. To view the purposes they believe they have legitimate interest for, or to object to this data processing use the vendor list link below. The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. If you would like to change your settings or withdraw consent at any time, the link to do so is in our privacy policy accessible from our home page. BEIJING, Aug. 8 -- A total of 40 suspects, 35 from the Chinese mainland and five from Taiwan, were brought back to China from Kenya in police custody on Monday, the Ministry of Public Security said. Allegedly involved in 60-plus fraud cases worth 4 million yuan (600,000 U.S. dollars), they belonged to one of two groups arrested by Kenyan police on Nov. 29, 2014, the ministry said in a statement released Monday. Another 36 suspects in the other group were repatriated in April and have been formally arrested. They allegedly swindled more than 26 million yuan out of mainland residents by pretending to be members of Beijing and Shanghai police. The two groups were believed to have colluded in fraud activities and mainland police hope to find out all the facts now that they have all suspects in custody. The mainland police have kept their Taiwan counterparts informed of all developments. Buyers line up outside a duty free shop which opened in downtown Shanghai, Aug 8, 2016. YIN LIQIN/FOR CHINA DAILY Consumers flocked to a duty free shop which opened in downtown Shanghai on Monday, although its prices were higher than airport duty free shops. The shop, operated by China National Service Corporation, is an example of the efforts that Chinese enterprises make to unlock the potential of domestic consumers at a time of record low economic growth. Products from more than 100 brands are being sold in the 3,300-square-meter, two-floor store that sits in a commercial complex in Jing'an district, one of Shanghai's busiest commercial hubs. Consumers started lining up waiting for the opening around 9 am, even though it did not open until after 10 am. Because more than 500 consumers were already in the store around 10:15 am, the store had to limit entry to ensure safety and the consumer experience. Customers choose bags in a duty free shop which opened in downtown Shanghai, Aug 8, 2016. YIN LIQIN/FOR CHINA DAILY Chinese consumers older than 16 years who can present documents showing they have arrived from overseas within the past 180 days are eligible to shop in the duty free shop, according to the regulations and policy of the duty free retail sector. According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, the total size of Chinese residents' consumption abroad last year was about 1.2 trillion yuan ($180.16 billion). Analysts said that many opportunities can emerge from consumption upgrading, if some of the consumption abroad is directed back to the domestic market. Customers choose bags in a duty free shop which opened in downtown Shanghai, Aug 8, 2016. YIN LIQIN/FOR CHINA DAILY "It is no exaggeration to say that consumption is one of the pillars of economic growth in China nowadays. As Chinese residents are better traveled than ever, they are exposed to a wide range of products and they wish to buy immediately once they run out. Retailers that can offer them products such as food and other goods at competitive prices are more likely to gain from this emerging opportunity," said Zhang Yuanfan, an analyst with Shanghai-based Yu Song Commerce Consultancy Ltd. Total retail sales of consumer goods in 2015 exceeded 30 trillion yuan, 14.3 percent year-on-year growth, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce. According to a research note from Founder Securities Co Ltd, consumption-related companies including food and beverage firms were among the best-performing ones in the first half of 2016, and the growth is expected to be long-term, instead of a one-off. Customers in a duty free shop which opened in downtown Shanghai, Aug 8, 2016. YIN LIQIN/FOR CHINA DAILY Ma Nan, a 32-year-old mother of two children, said the prices of goods sold in the CNSC duty free shop were lower than those in regular retail channels and the shop saved her the trouble of asking friends the favor of shopping for her goods when they are overseas. "The 69 yuan Belgian chocolate is about 30 percent cheaper than that in the company's own brand name chain store. The Japanese skincare lotion is 380 yuan, 20 percent lower than that on Tmall.com, an e-commerce platform of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. The best thing is that when I want to have them, I buy them immediately," said Ma. Yan Jianxin, deputy manager with the CNSC duty free products segment, said that the store in downtown Shanghai has been trying to differentiate itself from other duty free shops by offering a wide range of products that help meet consumers' day-to-day demands. Customers in a duty free shop which opened in downtown Shanghai, Aug 8, 2016. YIN LIQIN/FOR CHINA DAILY The CNSC store is more like a supermarket of imported goods with 10,000 products from 100 categories, said Yan. Besides the traditional items that consumers may find at airport duty free shops such as perfume, cosmetics, leather goods, luxury accessories and liquor, the store also offers baby food, electronic home appliances and toys, which are rarely seen in duty free shops at airports. "If a consumer wants to buy an imported electronic home appliance but hates to bring the heavy package from another country, shopping for it here can be an option," said Yan. Customers in a duty free shop which opened in downtown Shanghai, Aug 8, 2016. YIN LIQIN/FOR CHINA DAILY Video game players likely to perform better at school: study MELBOURNE, Aug. 9 -- Teenagers who play video games are more likely to get better grades at school, a study has found. The study, released by the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), found that students who play online games daily perform especially well in maths, science and reading. "Students who play online games almost every day score 15 points above the average in maths and 17 points above the average in science," study co-author Albert Posso from RMIT told News Limited on Tuesday. "When you play online games you're solving puzzles to move to the next level and that involves using some of the general knowledge and skills in maths, reading and science that you've been taught during the day," he said. "Teachers should consider incorporating popular video games into teaching so long as they are not violent ones," said Posso. Posso used data from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) to analyze the online habits of Australian 15-year-olds which he then compared to academic results. Posso said the data revealed that online gaming could help young people develop problem-solving skills. "Sometimes (players) have to understand some of the principles of chemistry even so they really have to understand science," Posso told the ABC. "Some psychologists have argued that massive online player games can be beneficial to cognitive development." The research also found that students who used social media every day were receiving grades 20 points below the average in maths than those who did not. Posso said the link between excessive social media use and poor academic results could be attributed to "opportunity cost" in terms of study time. "You're not really going to solve problems using (social media)," Posso said. The research was published in the International Journal of Communication on Tuesday. KUNMING, Aug. 9 - A Chinese woman received 1.72 million yuan (about 258,300 U.S dollars) on Tuesday for a wrongful murder conviction that put her behind bars for 13 years, the Higher People's Court of Yunnan Province said. The court ruled that Qian Renfeng's confession was made under duress and that she was not guilt of the murder charge she was convicted for in February 2002. Qian was working at a nursery where a toddler died of food poisoning and two other children were hospitalized. Qian, who had prepared the children's meals that day, was forced into confessing that she had mixed raticide in the food. It was on the basis of this forced confession that she found guilty of murder. In July 2013, the Yunnan provincial procuratorate reopened her case. The investigation took nearly two years. In May 2015, the procuratorate ruled that there was a lack of evidence to support the conviction, and advised the provincial higher court to rehear the case. The higher court in December last year quashed the sentence, ruling that it lacked sufficient evidence to determine guilt beyond reasonable doubt. She was exonerated and released. Qian had filed for up to 9.55 million yuan (about 1.45 million U.S. dollars) in damages. Latte art has become a hallmark of many quality coffee shops around the world. If you order a drink made with espresso and steamed milk, such as a cappuccino or a latte, you may find yourself marveling over the elegant, marbled patterns of earthen browns and shimmering white that top your beverage. But how do baristas create such works of art? The designs take shape when a barista pours the drink into a cup; steamed milk over a couple shots of espresso. The impressive creations are a blend of the skill of the barista and the physical properties of the mixture of air and liquid: a foam. "Foams are very complex and interesting fluids," Emilie Dressaire, an engineer who leads the Particles, Interface and Fluids Lab at New York University, told Live Science in an email. This makes it difficult to know exactly what's going with latte art without studying it specifically. [10 Things You Need to Know About Coffee] One thing is for certain: Milk doesn't turn into foam by itself. "Simply put, we steam the milk for two reasons," Lorenzo Perkins, owner of Fleet Coffee in Austin, Texas, and a former chairman of the Barista Guild of America, told Live Science. Properly steamed milk tastes sweeter, and the texture is thick and luxurious. "Making it sweet and creamy is really the goal," Perkins said. (Image credit: Christy Duggan / Counter Culture Coffee) There are two main steps to steaming a pitcher of milk, said Jesse Gordon, an instructor with Counter Culture Coffee in North Carolina. First, the milk is aerated with the hiss of a steam wand, and then swirled in a "whirlpool" to break up large bubbles into "microfoam." When done the right way, "you get that really nice velvety, wet paint texture," Gordon told Live Science. The steamed milk's hydrophobic molecules (the ones that don't interact with water), such as the proteins and fats in milk, create a latte foam, said Matthew Hartings, who teaches a course about the chemistry of cooking at American University in Washington, D.C. "Proteins have both hydrophobic and hydrophilic [water-loving] parts, so proteins are really good at stabilizing foams," he said. Manufacturers can make milk alternatives, like almond milk, shelf stable by adding emulsifiers such as xanthan gum, which helps keep fats suspended in the water. "Things that help to stabilize oil and water mixtures also tend to be good at stabilizing water-based foams," Hartings said. So, additives originally intended to keep some products from separating also improve the texture of a coconut milk latte. Whether it starts with milk or an alternative, the finished foamy product will be a "porous viscoelastic material," said Howard Stone, head of the Complex Fluids Group at Princeton University in New Jersey. [Liquid Beauty: Dreamy Images Reveal Fascinating Physics] Because it's porous, the milk foam will hold other fluids, like steam-injected air, but also espresso in between the bubbles. "The coffee is like the ink," Stone said. "[Liquid areas] are letting you print black and white." Viscoelasticity means the foam will bounce back to its original shape when deformed slightly, but will also flow like a liquid if enough force is applied, Dressaire said. And the nature of that flow could be key to the marbling effect that the best latte art is able to achieve. Rather than combining turbulently with milk already in the cup, newly added milk mixes in sheets, a motion called laminar flow. The stark borders that form between colors in the cup hold up, at least for a little while, because of the foam's elasticity. "The slow, honey-like flow of the foam that's the reason why the white and brown foams have a hard time mixing, and makes this pattern last," Dressaire said. (Image credit: Christy Duggan / Counter Culture Coffee) Baristas can control the churning by adjusting the way they pour the milk. "Pace, position and proximity," Perkins said. "How fast is the milk moving into the coffee? Where is the milk entering the coffee? And how close is the steaming pitcher to the coffee?" Perkins designed a course called "Milk essentials and latte art practices" for the Specialty Coffee Association of America. "Varying those three things is what's going to allow you to create various shades of white and brown; various sizes and shapes of the design; and how you can draw on top of it," he said. All three of the main types of latte designs begin with pouring steamed milk into one spot in the middle of a cup, Gordon said. From there, the barista can draw a trail of milk through the dot to create a heart; stop and start again to create something that looks like a tulip; or gently rock the pour back and forth, before pulling the milk through waggling lines to make a fern-like pattern. The drinks can be beautiful, but coffee experts caution against drinking with your eyes. "Latte art doesn't taste like anything," Gordon said. "If you have good latte art, it means you've properly textured your milk, which is one part of the equation. Hopefully, you couple that with coffee that is dialed-in and tasting great." Original article on Live Science. DENVER Humans aren't the only species whose members speak to their babies in the womb. Dolphin mamas appear to sing their own name to their unborn calves. New research suggests that dolphin mothers teach their babies a "signature whistle" right before birth and in the two weeks after. Signature whistles are sounds that are made by individual dolphins, which the animals use to identify one another. Calves eventually develop their own signature whistle, but in the first few weeks of life, mothers seem focused on teaching their offspring their signature sound, the scientists said. "It's been hypothesized that this is part of an imprinting process," Audra Ames, a doctoral student at the University of Southern Mississippi, said here on Friday (Aug. 5) at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association. [Deep Divers: A Dolphin Gallery] Dolphin chatter Earlier studies had shown that mother dolphins start whistling their signature whistle much more in the days before birth, and then in the calf's first two weeks of life, Ames told Live Science. There are multiple theories about why, including that perhaps moms are trying to get babies to develop their own signature sound. But no one had studied signature-whistle rates not only before and after birth, but also in the same dolphin mother, Ames said. She and her colleagues had the opportunity to do that in late 2012 and early 2014, when a baby dolphin named Mira was born to a 9-year-old mother at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo, California. The researchers captured a total of 80 hours of recordings from the two months before and the two months after the dolphin's birth. They recorded the mom and the calf as well as the five dolphins housed with them. It was important to capture the noises of the mother's peers to understand whether the communication was exclusive to the mother-baby pair, Ames said. Learning mom's name The recordings showed that the increased signature-whistle production was, in fact, the purview of the mother dolphin. She began increasing her signature whistle two weeks before the birth, possibly starting the learning process while her calf was still in utero. A seemingly related phenomenon has been observed during human pregnancies, according to Ames. "We actually do see that human babies develop a preference for their mother's voice in the last trimester," she said. "We don't know if that's something that's going on here, but it could be something similar." [Photos: World's Cutest Baby Wild Animals] The mother dolphin also produced her signature whistle at high rates until two weeks after the calf's birth, after which she tapered off. Interestingly, Ames said, the other dolphins in the group didn't produce their own signature whistle at very high rates during the first two weeks of the calf's life. But after mama stopped the repetitions of her own whistle, the other members of the group started producing their own whistle at higher rates. "What the other dolphins might be doing here is remaining quiet so the calf does not imprint on the wrong signature whistle," Ames said. Baby dolphins don't usually develop their own signature whistle until they're around the age of 2 months, with much variation in timing, Ames said. The baby's whistle tends not to be similar to the mother's or to the other dolphins in the group. "You don't want to have a signature sound that is going to be similar to someone else you're around quite often," Ames said. Ames and her colleagues are now studying other sounds in the mother-calf repertoire of communication, and they're studying other marine mammals such as beluga whales as well as dolphins. Original article on Live Science. The book giveaway is now closed, but you can check out the video interview with Ed Yong on our Facebook page. Live Science is hosting a book giveaway! "I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life" is a new book by science writer Ed Yong staff writer for The Atlantic, creator of the long-running blog "Not Exactly Rocket Science" hosted by National Geographic, and contributor to the New York Times, Wired, Nature, Science and Scientific American, among others. On Thursday (Aug. 10) at 3:00 p.m. ET, Ed Yong joins us at Live Science to talk about his new book in a Facebook Live event, during which we'll be giving away a signed copy of "I Contain Multitudes" to one lucky viewer. [Tune in on Live Science's Facebook page] "I Contain Multitudes" explores the fascinating and frequently bizarre world of microbes, and the complex partnerships they share with every animal species on Earth. Our own relationship with microbes has undergone close scrutiny over the last decade. Scientists are just beginning to uncover how important these unseen partners are to our everyday health, and how individual species and vast communities of microbes affect our vulnerability to disease and can even impact our behavior. Details about the giveaway are below. And don't forget to follow Live Science on Facebook and Twitter for updates on this contest and other live video events! LIVE SCIENCE BOOK GIVEAWAY: "I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life" by Ed Yong Official Rules NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Open to legal residents of 50 U.S & DC, 18 or older. Employees, agents, officers & directors of Purch Group, Inc. 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Chinas rapidly-developing railway system has yet to meet the military's demand for transportation, a newspaper affiliated with the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) admitted, after photos of PLA soldiers traveling in boxcars triggered online discontent. The photos, which began to proliferate online in mid-July, show soldiers sitting on the floor of what appears to be a boxcar. Some were also sitting on hard seats, while other photos reveal soldiers crammed uncomfortably into sleeping cars. The soldiers were allegedly on their way back from a military drill in northwestern China, according to a China National Radio Weibo post, which could no longer be found as of press time. The photos immediately triggered outrage among Chinese netizens, who criticized the poor conditions as outdated and hard on the soldiers, even though some self-identified veterans commented that traveling in boxcars was in fact more comfortable. In response, China National Defense, a newspaper affiliated with PLA Daily, said the troops were forced to travel in boxcars during their ad hoc mission due to inadequate railway capacity. It is undeniable that military transportation infrastructure and capacity has developed rapidly thanks to support from railway authorities. Many breakthroughs have been made to increase the speed and comfort of military transportation, the newspaper noted, adding that Chinese troops travel through more than 20 regions in China and Russia every year via rail. However, the railway construction still falls short of military transportation requirements, especially in western China, where railway transportation is inadequate, the article noted, suggesting increased government investment and integration between civilian and military transport companies to improve the current conditions. The news last week that Hillary Clintons running mate, Tim Kaine has roots in Killashee was met with great excitement in south Longford. This week, Tims fourth cousin Marie Farrell speaks to the Leader about her links to the family and her hopes that the potential future Vice President of the United States of America will come home to visit her, and the homestead after he is elected. Marie has already contacted the American politician via email and sent a personal letter to him as recently as last week. Im really looking forward to him responding to my letter, she smiled. It would be so nice to receive a letter from him in his own handwriting. As highlighted in last weeks Leader, Tim Kaine is a descendant of the Farrells of the Crevice, a family who lived at Derryadd in Killashee. The Farrells of the Crevice and Maries fathers family were connected - their great grandfathers were brothers. One stayed at home and reared his family, the other went to America, she said. The man who left appears to be PJ Farrell who went to America at the age of four with a number of his siblings, and who later became Tim Kaines great grandfather. Maries father was the late John Tom Farrell and her grandfather was Thomas Farrell. I think that I am the nearest relative on the Farrell side to Tim Kaine, said Marie before pointing out that she is beginning an investigation into her family tree this week, such is her interest since her distant relative, Tim Kaine emerged in news headlines across the world. Im a direct descendant and the only one left with the family name in the area now. In the 1990s Tim Kaines parents - Mary Kathleen (nee Burns) and Albert Alexander Kaine - made a visit to Killashee and the old homestead at Derryadd. Marie met them and was impressed by their kind nature. I met Tims parents when they were here in the 1990s, she added. They called to my house here in Ballinamore, Killashee and they visited an aunt of mine Brigid Meleady (nee Farrell) in Ballymahon as well. That same aunt later moved to the Manor Nursing Home in Edgeworthstown and when Tim Kaine visited with his wife and family in 2006, he paid Brigid a visit there. Brigid lived to be 102 years old and died at the nursing home in 2014. Meanwhile, and with regards to the inauguration celebrations if Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine make it to the White House, Marie is certain that she will be on the VIP list! Well I would certainly be hoping for an invite to that, she laughed, before adding that it was unbelievable to think that a man with local connections could potentially become the Vice President of the United States of America. I have written to him and I hope that he will visit Killashee when he becomes the Vice President. He told me in an email that he will visit, but it is the letter from him that I am looking forward to now! Crime, Press Releases By Long Island News & PR Published: August 09 2016 The First Squad reports the details of a Robbery that occurred on Monday, August 8, 2016 at 6:33 p.m. in North Bellmore. Pictured is Jamik Q. Cannon, 23, of Hempstead, the driver and one of the three robbers from this incident. Detectives request anyone with information regarding the above crime to contact Nassau County Crime Stoppers at 1-800-244-TIPS. All callers will remain anonymous. North Bellmore, NY - August 9, 2016 - The First Squad reports the details of a Robbery that occurred on Monday, August 8, 2016 at 6:33 p.m. in North Bellmore. According to detectives, three male black subjects entered Newbridge Wine and Liquors, located at 1377 Newbridge Road and began to conceal assorted liquor bottles on their person. They then exited the store and placed the bottles in a 2015 Toyota Corolla parked out front. The store owner, a 69 year old male, approached the defendants outside the store and told them to stop. One subject, heavy set, fled on foot, while the remaining two subjects entered the vehicle. The victim attempted to prevent them from fleeing by reaching in thru the passenger side of the car to remove the keys from the ignition. The driver, identified as Jamik Q. Cannon, 23 of Hempstead, placed the car in reverse causing the victim to lose his balance and be dragged approximately twenty feet. While being dragged the victim removed his legally licensed hand gun from his holster and fired the weapon, striking Cannon in the right shoulder. Cannon and the passenger fled on foot northbound on Newbridge Road. Detectives located Cannon at a local hospital where he was placed under arrest. The investigation is continuing. Detectives request anyone with information regarding the above crime to contact Nassau County Crime Stoppers at 1-800-244-TIPS. All callers will remain anonymous. Cannon is charged with Robbery 3rd degree, Robbery 2nd degree, Reckless Endangerment 2nd degree, and Petit Larceny. He will be arraigned when medically practical. Looking to stay up to date about all of the news stories and local headlines that are important to Long Islanders? We've rounded up the top coverage for all of the important topics from multiple sources around Long Island, so you can be sure you've got the most recent update on the top stories for Long Island. Have an idea for a news story? Email us at news@longisland.com Columnists Press Releases A Chinese tourist reportedly found himself registered as refugee in Germany after having his wallet stolen. The 31-year-old man from northern China traveled to Europe by himself and couldn't speak a word in English nor German, German media report. He tried to seek help from the police after being robbed in Heidelberg, southwest Germany. But the man ended up at a refugee registration office and unwittingly signed an asylum application. There, his fingerprints taken and his passport was taken away. He was then taken to a refugee shelter in the northern Dulmen and given food and spending money like other refugees. "He simply did what he was told," An official from the German Red Cross said. His plight was only noticed when he came to the attention of Red Cross staff 12 days later, with the help of a translation app and an interpreter from a local Chinese restaurant. After the mistake was realized, he was allowed to continue his travels, heading to France and Italy as planned, says media. The Chinese Embassy in Germany says they are confirming the authenticity of the reports as the embassy has not received any information about the man. A Chinese tourist who lost his wallet while traveling unwittingly applied for asylum in Germany. The 31-year-old backpacker, who speaks neither German nor English, reported that he "needed help" after arriving at the Stuttgart airport on July 4. The man, who had planned to travel around Europe during his vacation, was taken to a reception center in the nearby town of Heidelberg. There, instead of filling out a stolen item form for his wallet, the man unknowingly filled out an asylum request form. The mistake triggered a series of events. First, authorities took away the man's passport and presented him with refugee documents. He was then transported nearly 200 miles to Dusseldorf, in the west of the country, and then a further 50 miles north to Dulmen. He was given a medical check, had his fingerprints taken and accepted the pocket money given to him by camp officials. A German Red Cross worker, Christoph Schlutermann, was the first to realize that a mistake had been made. He went to a local Chinese restaurant for help, and was advised to use a mobile phone translation app to communicate with the tourist. Schlutermann explained, "He acted so differently from other refugees. He kept trying to talk to people to tell his story but no one could understand him. He kept asking to get his passport back, which is the opposite of what most refugees do. I spoke into the app in German, and the phone translated it into Mandarin. But when I received his reply, I got the curious response, I want to go walking in Italy," Schlutermann told the German newspaper Dulmener Zeitung. After 12 days in Germany, the man was finally able to set off for France and Italy. Prior to his departure, he said he was not mad about his stay in Germany, but that, "It isn't how I imagined Europe." The Chinese embassy in Germany offered a statement on Aug. 8 saying that they had not received any inquiries about the case from German authorities. They are still discussing the case with local authorities. Chinese citizens who traveled to Brazil this past August spent 72,145 Chinese yuan ($10,830) on average for trips lasting 10 days, according to a recent report by Chinese travel site Ctrip. The report showed that this amount was roughly 35 percent higher than the average expense of travelers who visited between January and July. Although demand resulting from the Rio Olympic Games has fueled price hikes for flights and hotels, many Chinese tourists are nevertheless unable to resist the idea of visiting Latin America during the sexiest Olympics in history. The number of Chinese people booking tours to South America between January and August 2016 saw a year-on-year increase of 150 percent, with Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Chile and Bolivia as the top destinations, according to the report. As a result, Ctrip has added to its site more than 600 tourism products relating to Brazil, tripling the number from last year. A tour guide from Ctrip explained that tour groups to South America consist mostly of investors, entrepreneurs and high-level business managers, generally between 40 and 65 years old. This demographic does a great deal of consuming. Chinese travelers visiting Brazil in August came mostly from Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou and Shenyang, with visitors from northern China seemingly more interested in the Olympic Games. A senior Afghan military officer has claimed his forces killed Hafiz Saeed Khan, the emir for the Islamic States Khorasan province, during an ongoing military operation in the eastern province of Nangarhar. However, Khans death has not been confirmed by the Islamic State. Major General Mohammad Zaman Waziri, the commander of the 201st Selab Military Corps told Pajhwok Afghan News on Aug. 7 that Khan and 29 other Islamic State fighters were killed during fighting in Nangarhars Achin district, one of the Islamic States primary strongholds in Afghanistan. According to Pajhwok, a source in the Islamic State confirmed Khans death. Khans death has not been independently confirmed by The Long War Journal. The Islamic State has not released an official statement announcing Khans death, and the Afghan Ministry of Defense said it was investigating the reports. The US military has not commented on reports of Khans death. Afghan officials have erroneously reported that they have killed Khan in the past. In July 2015, the National Directorate of Security, Afghanistans intelligence service, announced that the United States killed Khan in an airstrike in Achin. Strangely, exactly 29 Islamic State fighters were also said to have been killed alongside Khan the same number as this current report. Abdul Rahim Muslim Dost, a former Guantanamo Bay detainee who served as an unofficial spokesman for the Islamic State, refuted reports that Khan was killed in July 2015. Dost has since defected from the Islamic State; he accused the group of conducting acts of wanton violence against civilians. Before defecting to the Islamic State in 2014, Khan served as a mid-level commander in the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan for the Arakzai tribal agency. He and a number of disaffected Pakistani and Afghan Taliban commanders formed Khorasan province and swore allegiance to Islamic State emir Abu Bakr al Baghdadi. [See LWJ report, Discord dissolves Pakistani Taliban coalition.] Islamic States sanctuary in Nangarhar is under siege Afghan security forces, backed by US special operations forces, have launched an offensive to oust the Islamic State from its stronghold in Nangarhar. Over the past two weeks, Afghan forces were said to have ejected the Islamic State from areas in the districts of Kot and Haska Mina (Dih Bala), where Khan is reported to have lived. In Kot, the Afghan military claimed it destroyed Islamic State training camps. The Afghan military said it killed 78 jihadists during the operation, however reports indicate the Islamic State put up minimal resistance and melted away into the nearby mountains. Five US soldiers were wounded during the fighting in the district, which has served as a base of operations for the global jihadist group. The Islamic States base in Kot has been the focus of Afghan military operations in the past. In February 2016, the Afghan military claimed it seized Kot, however it was unable to maintain control of the district. The Islamic State has been largely confined to Nangarhar after it was defeated by the Taliban in Helmand, Zabul, and Farah provinces in 2015. In Nangarhar, the Islamic State has battled both the Afghan government and the Taliban. US officials have estimated that Khorasan province has 1,500 to 3,000 fighters in its ranks. Targeting Khorasan provinces leadership The US began targeting the Khorasan provinces top leaders after the group was officially formed in January 2015. In March 2015, the US killed Mullah Abdul Rauf Khadim, who was appointed the deputy governor of Khorasan province. Khadim was previously a senior leader in the Taliban and was a former detainee at Guantanamo Bay. The US military confirmed that it killed Khadim in an airstrike in the Kajaki district in Helmand. The US also killed Jalaluddin, Khorasan provinces mufti or senior religious and legal scholar in an airstrike in Nangarhar in October 2015, as well as group spokesman Shahidullah Shahid in July 2015. The US policy of killing senior jihadist leaders in counterterrorism operations while abandoning counterinsurgency efforts to combat jihadist groups military and political strength has had questionable results at best. While the killing of top terrorist leaders has forced terrorist organizations to replace their leaders and adjust their security plans, the deaths have done little to stem the spread of jihadist groups and their control of territory in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Mali, and elsewhere. For instance, the US removed the top leaders of the Islamic State of Iraq in 2010. The Islamic State of Iraq was al Qaedas branch in Iraq until it was ejected in 2014 and declared itself the Islamic State. The deaths of Abu Omar al Baghdadi, the Islamic State of Iraqs emir, and Abu Ayyub al Masri, its military commander, may have set the group back, but only temporarily. With a deep bench of leaders, the Islamic State of Iraq retained a significant military capability and seized on the weakness of the Iraqi government and the Syrian civil war to take over large swaths of both countries by June 2014. Given the Islamic States limited footprint in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and its multitude of enemies, killing senior leaders may have a small impact on the group, but airstrikes alone cannot dislodge the Islamic State from territory it holds. Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal. Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here. A recent article from The New York Times on the deteriorating security situation in Helmand province highlights the limits and failure of US military policy in Afghanistan. In a nutshell, the Obama administration has decided to draw down US forces to 8,400 troops by the end of 2016, rely more on air power and special operations forces to support Afghan troops and provide military advisors to Afghan units. The Afghan Army and police is then to bear the brunt of the fighting though they are by all accounts largely unprepared to do so. In certain instances, this has worked. For instance, US special operations forces and airpower were critical in the retaking of Kunduz from the Taliban, which fell to the group for two weeks in September 2015. However, that ignores the fact that Kunduz fell to the Taliban only after unprepared and overwhelmed Afghan forces were defeated in the surrounding districts in the first place. Afghan forces backed by US airpower and special forces have also had an impact against the Islamic State in Nangarhar province. Again, this ignores the fact that the Islamic State was able to organize and seize ground in Nangarhar, and hold it for well over a year. Despite the US militarys increased use of airstrikes and special operations forces, another provincial capital, Lashkar Gah in Helmand, is practically besieged. From the Times: Even as Afghan and American officials insist that they will not allow another urban center to fall, concerned about the political ramifications for the struggling government in Kabul as well as the presidential campaign in the United States, residents and local officials describe Lashkar Gah as practically besieged. The main road connecting the city and the highway to the southern commercial and military hub of Kandahar has been repeatedly blocked in recent days by the Taliban, who blew up several bridges. Civilian passengers can travel on an alternate dirt road, but have to pass through insurgent checkpoints. Many businesses and nongovernmental organizations based in Lashkar Gah are trying to evacuate, and the road blockages have added to their alarm. The Afghan forces continuous failure to hold ground in a province that has seen the deployment of a large number of troops and resources, as well as hundreds of NATO military advisers, is taking a toll on the residents of Lashkar Gah. The city has long been a haven for people displaced from other areas of Helmand by the constant back and forth between the Taliban and the coalition and government forces. Questions are also being raised about the sustainability of a military response that relies desperately on airstrikes against a guerrilla force. In Afghanistan, a limited US military engagement coupled with local Afghan military and police forces that are unprepared to operate independently is going to struggle against a committed enemy such as the Taliban, which receives state support and sanctuary from Pakistan. The Times report also verifies The Long War Journals reporting on the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan and Helmand in particular. This is from an Aug. 2 report on the governments claim that it killed the Talibans shadow governor for Helmand (the Taliban has denied this, and released an audio claiming he is alive): In the audio, the Taliban claimed that the districts of Nad Ali and Nawa-i-Sarraj in Helmand are under Mujahideen control after heavy fighting with Taliban forces. The Talibans claims cannot be independently confirmed, but it has accurately reported on the control of districts in the past while the Afghan government has downplayed or ignored districts lost to the Taliban. The Taliban currently control or contest more than 80 of Afghanistans 400 plus districts, according to a study by The Long War Journal. That number may be higher as reports from some districts known to be Taliban strongholds are unavailable. [See LWJ report, Taliban seizes district in northern Afghanistan.] Security in Helmand has deteriorated as the Taliban has pressed its offensive to regain the ground lost there between 2009-2011. Of Helmands 14 districts, five are known to be controlled by the Taliban (Now Zad, Musa Qala, Baghran, Dishu, and Khanashin), and another seven are heavily contested (Nahr-i-Sarraj, Kajaki, Nad Ali, Nawa-i-Barak, Marjah, Garmsir, and Sangin). Of the remaining two districts, The Long War Journal believes one (Washir) is contested, but the situation is unclear. Only Lashkar Gah, the district that hosts the provincial capital, has not seen significant Taliban activity, however the Taliban has reported activity there. But Taliban forces based in Nahr-i-Sarraj and Nad Ali are just miles from the city. Afghan officials continue to tout the killing of senior Taliban leaders (wrongly in some cases) and senior US military officers laud the performance of Afghan security forces, while the Taliban controls more ground today than any time since the US invasion in 2001. The Obama administrations response has been to slow the withdrawal of US forces from the country, leaving 8,400 troops in Afghanistan instead of the 5,400 originally planned. But still, 1,400 US troops will be withdrawn by the end of the year despite the fact that President Barack Obama described the security environment in Afghanistan as precarious. We have yet to hear an explanation as to how fewer troops will help the worsening security situation. Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal. Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here. The jihadist-led Jaish al Fatah broke the siege of the rebel-held eastern Aleppo on Saturday following a week-long battle. The Iranian media outlet Fars News Agency, affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), reported yesterday on the deployments of IRGC-backed Lebanese Hezbollah and Iraqi Harakat al Nujaba to the southern area of Aleppo. State media have also acknowledged the fatalities of two Iranians since Saturday, including a special forces officer. Lebanese Hezbollahs elite Radwan Battalion entered the Hamdaniyeh area in western Aleppo to retake the Ramouseh area in the southwest, according to Fars. Ramouseh is the oppositions access point to Aleppo. The Iranian outlet followed up with a report shortly afterwards quoting a Nujaba official that 2,000 of the militias highly trained forces have arrived in Aleppo. These forces have participated in many operations liberating areas of Aleppo province, according to Fars. Nujabas spokesman has said that it and Hezbollah are the twins of resistance that can never be loosened or separated. Both groups have acknowledged fatalities, including field commanders, during the latest battle for Aleppo. Iranian state outlets on Monday announced the death of an IRGC special forces officer, Major Ali Nazari, deputy commander of the Hamzeh Battalion (Saberin unit) of the 33rd al-Mahdi Airborne Brigade stationed in Jahrom County, Shiraz province. He is the countys sixth confirmed fatality in Syria. Seyyed Qolamhossein Mousavis death was announced on Sunday, and Iran has announced the deaths of eight operatives in Aleppo since the rebels launched their offensive last week. The latest deployment and fatality announcements follow a purported audio tape of a Hezbollah fighter recorded over the weekend in southwest Aleppo that was leaked online on Sunday, in which the fighter complained that they (pro-regime fighters) all left us, the Iranians, Afghans, and Syrians all of them left us, according to Lebanon NOW. We are like dummies, we dont know anything, we are fighting alone, he said, slamming the performance of pro-regime fighters during the battle. The fighter added that even when regime forces counterattacked against Jaish al Fatah insurgents to retake positions, they would lose it in the night or the following morning. He warned that rebel forces persisted despite taking a lot of casualties, adding that they are in good shape, [while] the [Syrian] army disintegrated. The leaked tape is consistent with the accounts of a pro-opposition Syrian journalist, who told Business Insider that pro-regime lines in southwest Aleppo collapsed much faster than anyone expected after the initial defense lines fell to advancing forces following fierce combat. Raging since 2012, Aleppo is strategically important for all the players involved in the Syrian war. The IRGC and its proxies have stepped up the deployment of assets in the province since the Russian military intervention in Syria in October. [Update: IRGC confirms Ali Nazaris rank as Major]. Amir Toumaj is a independent analyst and contributor to 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. Both the Islamic State and Jamaat-ul-Ahrar claimed credit for todays suicide attack at a hospital in the Pakistani city of Quetta that killed scores of people. While the competing claims cannot be verified, both groups are capable of executing the mass-casualty suicide assault. A suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest that was packed with ball bearings and shrapnel at the entrance to the emergency room at Quettas Civil Hospital Monday, the head of the citys bomb disposal unit told Dawn. The victims were primarily lawyers who had gathered to mourn the head of the Baluchistan Bar Association, who was assassinated earlier today. At least 72 people were killed and more than 90 were wounded in the offensive. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a powerful faction of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan that has executed similar attacks across the country, claimed credit for the assault in an email received by Ishanullah Ihsan, the groups spokesman. Ihsan also said the group would provide evidence that it carried out the suicide bombing. The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan Jamaat-ur-Ahrar takes responsibility for this attack, and pledges to continue carrying out such attacks. We will release a video report on this soon, Ihsan said. The Islamic State also claimed the Quetta bombing in a statement released by Amaq News Agency, which is part of its media network. A martyrdom bomber of the Islamic State detonates his explosive belt on a group of personnel belonging to the Ministry of Justice and the Pakistani Police in the city of Quetta, Amaq stated. Both Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and the Islamic State, via its Khorasan province, have the wherewithal to execute todays suicide bombing. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, which is a major faction of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, has its tentacles spread throughout Pakistan. It has executed attacks in all of Pakistans provinces, and has not shied away from attacking civilian targets. The US listed Jamaat-ul-Ahrar as a global terrorist group last week. For instance, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar conducted the Easter Day 2016 suicide assault at the entrance of the Gulshan-i-Iqbal park in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore. Ihsan, Jamaats spokesman, proudly took credit for the Easter bombings and said that The target was Christians. Jamaat has also carried out a campaign of assassinations against political leaders, including Punjab provinces home minister, and even executed the lawyer for Dr. Shakil Afridi, who helped the CIA locate Osama bin Laden in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad. The Islamic States Khorasan province has yet to claim a large scale attack in Pakistan such as the one at the hospital in Quetta. But one of the groups that joined Khorasan province, which is comprised of Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, has successfully executed sophisticated suicide attacks in Quetta in the past. In August 2014, the IMU, along with Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and another Paksitnai Taliban faction, launched a complex assault on a Pakistani military airbase in Quetta. And in May 2013, the IMU targeted a security officials convoy with a suicide strike in a high security area of the city. It is not uncommon for jihadist groups in Pakistan to issue competing claims of responsibility for invasions. For instance, both Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and Jundallah, another Pakistan-based jihadist group, claimed credit for the November 2014 suicide attack at the Wagah border crossing between Pakistan and India. Jamaat later released a martyrdom tape of the suicide bomber, while security forces killed a Taliban commander in Lahore who they claimed was the alleged mastermind of the offensive. Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal. Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here. A naturally conceived giant panda cub has been born in Vienna, the citys main zoo announced on Aug. 8. Natural conception is a very rare event in most panda breeding centers, which is why the majority resort to artificial insemination. The cub's sex is not yet known. Born to mother Yang Yang and father Long Hui, the cub is just 10 centimeters long and weighs 100 grams, according to a statement on the official website of Tiergarten Schoenbrunn Zoo. Pictures and video footage released by the zoo show the tiny pink newborn clinging to its mother, who has previously given birth to three other naturally conceived cubs. Yang Yang's other cubs, Fu Long, Fu Hu and Fu Bao, are now in China, where an estimated 1,864 giant pandas are left in the wild. A spokeswoman for the zoo said that the panda will be named after 100 days. Now, after its latest addition, the zoo's panda area is being kept closed so that Yang Yang can care for her cub in peace. Long Hui is being kept away for the cub's safety. Hisba [Islamic Police]: Commission of the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice Radio Andalus, a Shabaab media outlet, has released photos proclaiming to show a newly established Islamic police force in the town of Jilib, which is under the control of Shabaab in Somalias Middle Jubba region. The propaganda outlet makes clear the this force is not an armed force but only to encourage people and to prohibit wrongdoing. It also says that the role of the Hisba (Islamic police) to protect the quality of food and medicine and clothing in the market and all products in the markets. Shabaab also shows the ID cards of the new members, highlighting that the oldest is 48 and the youngest 24 and all from the same region of Somalia. While most international attention is on the Islamic States attempted governance in Iraq and Syria, al Qaeda branches, like Shabaab, are largely doing the same in areas they control in other locations. Shabaab conducts its own Sharia courts, instructs Islamic police, education and taxation systems, proclaims states and even installs shadow governors for these states in Somalia. Where the federal government and African Union forces fail to provide governance, Shabaab has stepped in to fill the void in many places. In a video released for Eid last month, the jihadist group outlined several Islamic Wilayaat [provinces] in Somalia. These include Jubba, Gedo, Lower Shabelle, Middle Shabelle, Bay and Bokool, Hiraan, and Galgudud. While Shabaab claimed new territory in central and northern Somalia, most of its control is situated in the southern half of the country. Shabaabs emir, Abu Ubeydah Ahmed Omar, also released a video last month in which he sent a message to his governors, reminding them of their duties. The message is also filled with Quranic verses meant to disparage the Islamic State and its enactment of Sharia. Photos released by Shabaab showing its Islamic police in Jilib: Caleb Weiss is a research analyst at FDD's Long War Journal and a senior analyst at the Bridgeway Foundation, where he focuses on the spread of the Islamic State in Central Africa. Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here. Culture / Art Republik Deep in the heart of a medieval monastery in Nepals remote Upper Mustang region, the battle to restore sacred murals and preserve traditional Tibetan Buddhist culture is in full swing. Aug 09, 2016 | By AFPRelaxnews Deep in the heart of a medieval monastery in Nepals remote Upper Mustang region, the battle to restore sacred murals and preserve traditional Tibetan Buddhist culture is in full swing. Tsewang Jigme is among the artists toiling to safeguard the unique cultural heritage of this former Buddhist kingdom high on the Tibetan plateau, which escaped the ravages of the Cultural Revolution in neighbouring China. These murals are irreplaceable I feel nervous every time I touch them, I know I need to work very carefully so as not to do any harm to them, the 32-year-old painter told AFP. Upper Mustang only opened to outsiders in 1992 and its murals, scriptures and cave paintings provide a rare window into early Buddhism. The regions Lo Gekar monastery was established by the founder of Tibetan Buddhism and predates the oldest temple complex built in Tibet, which was severely damaged in the 1960s during the Cultural Revolution. But wind and rain eroded the mud walls of monuments and rotted wooden ceiling beams, while smoke from ceremonial butter lamps turned luminous frescos black. Irreplaceable A decade ago, two chortens Buddhist shrines believed to protect communities from misfortune in the village of Ghemi were close to collapse. One was in such a poor state that children were using it as a playground and had broken interior painted slate panels. The shrine was already in such bad shape, the children had no idea that it was special and deserved respect, said Raju Bista, treasurer of the local non-profit Lo Gyalpo Jigme Foundation. In 2008, the foundation, which is headed by the former king of Upper Mustang, received nearly $23,000 in US government funding to restore monuments, including Ghemis chortens. The rich cultural heritage here is irreplaceable and the monuments are made of mud, of paint, of wood and can easily fade away and frankly be gone forever, said US ambassador to Nepal, Alaina B. Teplitz. I think that would be a loss for the people of Nepal but (also) for the world at large, she told AFP. The two-year-long restoration involved more than 100 workers and craftsmen, who cleaned the monuments, rebuilt the walls, replaced rotting timber beams and repaired the carvings. When a massive earthquake struck Nepal in April 2015, killing nearly 9,000 nationwide and destroying around half a million homes, Ghemi was unscathed, prompting devout villagers to say that the restored shrines had protected them. Other monuments fared less well. Jampa Lhakhang, a 15th-century monastery famous for having the worlds largest collection of mandalas (Buddhist cosmic designs) painted on its walls, was severely damaged. The earthquake weakened many medieval structures in Upper Mustangs walled capital of Lo Manthang, including the monastery and the former kings five-story palace. It also ruptured the main drainage system, allowing water to penetrate monastery walls and raising the risk of mold. Damaged by Quake The quake caused layers of plaster to separate and crack into pieces at the Jampa Lhakhang, where shards of 500-year-old frescos still litter the floors. The proposed restoration work will shore up the structure by injecting plaster and glue into the walls and will be overseen by the American Himalayan Foundation, which has worked in the region since 1998. The murals will then be cleaned and retouched, a practice frowned on by some western conservationists. The local Loba community, however, believe it is better to pray to undamaged images of the Buddha, and see it as their duty to keep them in good repair. That means artists like Jigme, who has spent years working to preserve Upper Mustangs murals, play a critical role. It is a painstaking process that involves grinding gemstones like lapis lazuli and malachite into a fine powder that is mixed with water and animal glue to create pigments. Compared to Tibet, where so much was destroyed, we have been very lucky, Jigme said, recalling his visits to a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Chinas Sichuan province a decade ago. Jigme was part of a team working to restore murals covered by thick layers of mud, put there by villagers to keep the paintings safe during a failed 1959 uprising in the Tibetan capital Lhasa. It took a long time to remove the mud but slowly the face of god revealed itself and all the old villagers watching us began to cry, he said. They did whatever they could to save those paintings now we have to do whatever we can to protect our heritage. On Aug. 8, Chinese champion Sun Yang won the 200-meter freestyle event at the Rio Olympic Games with a time of 1 minute and 44.65 seconds. Four years ago, at the London Olympics, Sun won second place in the same event. However, immediately after emerging from this hard-won battle, Sun was faced with another sort of war: media interviews. When asked about calling himself the "king of 1,500-meter freestyle" in a previous interview, and when pressed for a statement on his tiff with Mack Horton, Sun did not appear pleased. "In competitions we focus only on ourselves and the Chinese swimming team," Sun replied. However, Sun did express sympathy for Kosuke Hagino, a Japanese swimmer and key competitor who had just failed in the 200-meter freestyle. During the upcoming 1,500-meter freestyle competition, Sun will once again go head-to-head with Horton. Asked whether Sun is confident that he will win, he offered a polite evasion: "My playing and training conditions are both strong, and what I have to do is just worry about myself. Please focus less on petty details of the competitions, such as rivalries between the teams. Instead, focus on Chinese and Asian swimming, and try to encourage the swimmers." Sun, who won gold in the 400m freestyle and 1500m freestyle at the London 2012 Olympics, served a three-month ban in 2014 after using a banned substance which was added to the World Anti-Doping Agency drug list in 2014. The 24-year-old said he unwittingly took the drug as part of treatment for a chronic heart problem. After winning the 400m freestyle gold medal race here 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." Previously in practice, Horton said he ignored Sun who tried to greet him and said "I don't have time or respect for drug cheats." The Australian's comments prompted a heated response on social media, where many Chinese fans described the remarks as unjustified. This years big Worldwide Developers Conference reveal was no surpriseiOS 10but after the announcement and feature preview, I was left feeling discouraged with the lack of iPad-specific features in Apples next mobile OS. The iPad barely getting any stage time during the eventoutside of a lengthy demo of the Swift Playground app, it felt as if the iPad was all but forgotten in iOS 10. However, after using the iOS 10 beta for a few weeks, there are some features that Ive found to increase my productivity when working on my iPad Pro. Not all hope is lost. Desktop and Document sync Ive been working with the macOS Sierra beta as well as the iOS 10 beta, and after installing macOS Sierra, youre asked if you want to sync your Desktop and Documents folder with iCloud Drive. I enabled the feature, viewing it as yet another backup point for my documents and didnt give it much thought. Then, a few days later, I found myself saving documents to my iMacs desktop from my iPad when I was away from my desk. This process eliminated the need for me to remember exactly where I saved the file in my iCloud Drive or Dropbox account, with the file front and center on my desktop after unlocking my iMac. Conversely, Ive taken to saving files on my iMac to the desktop with the intention of easily finding it through the iCloud Drive app on my iPad. And instead of having to use a third-party app like Workflow to upload files to iCloud Drive, the latest beta added a share sheet option to save files in iCloud Drive. Meaning, you can now use Safari on your iPad to download a file (though, its lack of a proper download manager is a hassle), and save it to the desktop on your Mac with just a few taps. If youre not ready to put your iPad and Mac on a beta, I totally understandbut this feature is something you should look forward to using to get more work done once the public version launches this fall. Widgets Widgets on the iPad have always been, well, kind of worthless. Dont get me wrong, there was some value in viewing your daily agenda and weather conditions, but that was about all they offered. But with iOS 10, Ive found myself spending more time interacting with widgets on my iPad, since widgets are gaining new abilities. For starters, you can now organize your widgets into two separate columns. Doing so makes it easier to quickly gather more information without scrolling through what can easily become a long line of widgets. With each widget having the option to Show More information, iOS 10 makes it a lot easier to catch up on news, peak at unread emails and your agenda, and maybe catch highlights from last nights game with little effort. Notifications Rich notifications are something Im looking forward to seeing developers take advantage of when iOS 10 launches in full this fall. Apple demonstrated viewing part of a Messages conversation thread or the status of your Uber driver from the lock screen at WWDC. The Uber example was especially promising, as the drivers car was plotted on a map and updated in real time without forcing the user into the Uber app. Until we see what developers do with the new feature, I have found myself replying to and interacting with notifications without leaving the current app Im in, or from the lock screen, far more often than I had in the past. For example, I hardly ever spend time in the Messages app now. Theres simply no need, outside of starting a new message thread. Adding context to an incoming message by allowing me to see the last few messages means even if I forget what I was talking about with the person, I can quickly catch up and reply. Doing so saves time by allowing to stay within my normal workflow of using split view for conducting research in Safari and entering notes in iA Writer. Forgoing the need to switch between apps minimizes distraction, and I need all the help in this area I can get. Split-view in Safari I cant tell you how many times I was asked to open two Safari tabs at the same time after telling an Android user I do the majority of my work on an iPad Pro. They laughed, of course, as they asked. As Macworlds Caitlin McGarry already covered, split-view tabs in Safari is a real thing, and its awesome. As someone who grew accustomed to the single tab approach of previous iOS releases, I didnt think Id want to view two tabs at once on my iPad. Boy was I wrong, especially when it comes to shopping and comparing reviews of products Im contemplating purchasing. My only gripe around this feature is that you cant have two tabs open, plus another app in split-view. As soon as you slide an app out from the right side of the screen, Safari goes back to a single tab and I cry a little each time. Physical Keyboard settings Apple added a settings section for hardware keyboards on iOS 10. Meaning, you can now enable or disable autocorrect when using a physical keyboard with your iPad. You can also change the language, turn auto-capitalization on or off, and indicate whether or not you want iOS to automatically place a period after pressing the space bar twice. If youre someone whos struggled with transitioning from the onscreen keyboard to a physical keyboard, you now have more control over how iOS functions. This isnt something Ive found myself using, nor do I see myself using it, but I can understand why it could prove to be a valuable setting for some. Im still holding out hope Apple will surprise us at the last minute with new iOS 10 features for the iPad, but until then these new features have helped me be more productive. Also on the blog in the past week were: The Olympics and IP Sponsored post: Mandatory post-approval biosimilar notice implicates millions Weve also posted the following articles in the past week (log in via subscription or free trial): Courts get tough on intermediaries in fight against counterfeits How genuine use is treated across the EU Sterne Kessler first law firm to 500 PTAB proceedings US patent litigation update: July filing down 11% The PTAB, pharmaceutical patents and reverse payments July CBM petition filing slumps to lowest level since February 2013 Brexit and IP: The UK IPOs views PTABs third PGR decision invalidates container delivery patent Limelight and Akamai convert $51m damages award into licence Judge vacates VirnetXs $626m damages award in Apple case Blackberry: patent troll? Blackberry has entered into the patent litigation game with its first suit filed versus Avaya in the Northern District of Texas, reports Seeking Alpha. The complaint reveals Blackberry sent a letter to Ayaya in December 2015 asking it to take a licence to Blackberrys portfolio. The parties likely entered into a six-month standstill agreement to negotiate an agreement (or Avaya ignored the letter), said IP Hawk on Seeking Alpha. Obviously, nothing was agreed too and BlackBerry was forced to file a suit. BlackBerry in the suit alleges that Avaya infringed eight patents, which have filing dates ranging from 1998 to 2011. As Ars Technica notes, Blackberry CEO John Chen said on a conference call in May that it was in patent licensing mode and eager to monetize its 38,000 patents. Last June, Cisco agreed to pay Blackberry a licence fee for some of its patents. The case of their lives A dispute between TD Ameritrade and the makers of the 1987 hit movie Dirty Dancing has been reignited, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Lionsgate objected to TD Ameritrade using the tagline Nobody puts your old 401(k) in the corner in an advert because it claims to own trade mark rights to Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner, a much-quoted line from Dirty Dancing. In March, California federal judge Dean Pregerson threw out trademark infringement claims as being dressed-up ones preempted by copyright law, explained The Hollywood Reporters Eriq Gardner. On a subsequent motion for reconsideration, Lionsgate focused on the way that the court had dismissed a claim for trade mark dilution, meaning that TD Ameritrade had allegedly used a famous and distinctive mark in commerce and blurred or tarnished it. But last week Judge Pregerson of the Central District of California decided that such a rule was based on a statute that was rendered obsolete by the Trademark Dilution Revisions Act of 2006. The court said the subsequent Ninth Circuit case law had eliminated the identical or nearly identical required laid out in Jada Toys. Pregerson wrote: "Given that the parties do not dispute a slogan can be used as a trade mark and given Lions Gates allegations that Defendants intended to use this phrase as part of branding campaign, the cause of action survives the Motion to Dismiss." OpenTV, closed case Swiss company Kudelski, the owner of OpenTV, has settled a patent dispute with Apple that had threatened Apples video streaming features in devices sold in Germany, reports Reuters. The two companies have agreed a patent licence agreement and dropped all pending patent litigation between them. Open TV sued Apple in 2014 in the Northern District of California. Apple took the fight to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, which was due to issue rulings in September and October. Dell pays $6m settlement Network-1 also announced a settlement last week, with Dell paying $6 million to licence a remote power patent. The patent relates to delivering power over Ethernet cables to remotely power network connected devices, and expires in March 2020. Network-1 had sued in the Eastern District of Texas in 2011, with Dell one of 16 original defendants. Ten of these have settled, with the remaining five companies being Avaya, Axis Communications, Hewlett-Packard, Juniper Networks and Polycom. DOJ ends two-year ASCAP/BMI investigation The Department of Justice has announced it will not change the antitrust consent decrees that govern music performing rights organisations ASCAP and BMI. The DOJ also concluded the existing language of the decrees requires full-work licensing and prohibits fractional licensing. This means that for songs with multiple songwriters (which are increasingly prevalent in popular recorded music) any individual songwriter or rightsholder can license the song, as long as they distribute royalties to the other rightsholders, explained DISCOs Ali Sternburg. In a fractional licensing system, PROs would purport to issue blanket licences only to fractions of songs, thus requiring licensees to licence the remaining fractions from other rightsholders. DOJs conclusion will maintain important protections in the ASCAP and BMI consent decrees. The DOJs investigation lasted two years. A federal appellate court had earlier found troubling coordination in music publishing. DISCOs Sternburg concluded the DOJ announcement was good news for a competitive music marketplace, because the consent decrees are an important mechanism for protecting competition in the music industry. Preserving the consent decrees and explicitly prohibiting fractional licensing will also help alleviate the weaponized uncertainty problem, because it will prevent rightsholders from saying no as frequently, and will facilitate more transactions that make more music available on more lawful services, she said. ASCAP and BMI process about $2 billion in royalty payments each year, according to The New York Times. BMI said it will challenge the decision in federal court, while ASCAP said it would explore legislative solutions. In brief The USPTO has denied Whole Foods Markets application for Worlds Healthiest Grocery Store because it makes a laudatory claim or is based on exaggerated praise, reports The Washington Post. Qualcomm has signed a 3G/4G China patent licence agreement with Vivo. Led Zeppelin has been denied $800,000 in legal fees in the Stairway to Heaven case, reports The LA Times. New Delhi: Slamming Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his comments against gau rakshaks, the Akhila Bharatha Hindu Mahasabha on Monday said that they will conduct a 'Buddi Suddhi Yaga' across India to give better sense to Modi. The ABHM national president Chandraprakash Kaushik also said that Narendra Modi is not worthy of being Prime Minister. He will just return like Vajpayee in 2004. Condemning Modi's statements against those who devoted their life for cow, he added that they will send a legal notice to PM Modi over his remarks. Meanwhile, a gau rakshak dal in Mysuru wrote to the PM demanding a central anti-cow slaughter act and also demanded stronger laws against those flouting the norms. Islamabad: A Pakistani Taliban faction and the Islamic State both claimed the responsibility for the suicide attack at hospital in Pakistan's Quetta city that left at least 70 people dead. As per the report, the attack targeted a group of mourning lawyers, who had gathered at the hospital to accompany the body of a murdered colleague. Meanwhile, a Pak Taliban claimed the responsibility for the attack and pledged to carry out more attacks. However, the Islamic State also claimed the responsible of the Quetta attack. 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... Thirty-three journalists and information officers from 13 English-speaking African countries arrived Beijing last week on a two-week seminar sponsored by the government of China. The seminar began on August 2, 2016 and participants are drawn from Liberia, Ghana, Nigeria, Sudan, South Sudan, Malawi, Botswana, Kenya, South Africa, Seychelles, Zambia, Uganda and Rwanda. The Human Resource Development Cooperation, in the Framework of Chinas Foreign Aid, is organizing the program with support by Chinas Ministry of Commerce. It is part of PRCs continued efforts in the people-to-people contacts under the China-Africa relations. Speaking at the start of the seminar, the Vice President of China International Publishing Group (CIPG) Mr. Wang Gangyi asserted that China-Africa relationship remains the most fruitful relationship globally, because it is built on mutual respect and cooperation. Wang said the relationship has over the years gained momentum and made great impact in the development of Africa. Wang, who has been a journalist since 1981, pointed out that through togetherness, China and Africa would have influence to make positive changes in global governance. China and Africa entered into the spotlight at the same time in worlds economy and politics, and so we share lots of things in common, said the media expert. According to him, China and Africa, at most times, are portrayed by western media as the environments that only represent diseases, natural disaster, conflicts and other negative characteristics, and as such, it is now time that the two stand together to change the negative perceptions. Only very few western media can mention the positives of African countries.We need to exchange facts of what is going on. We need to come to our own conclusion based on our findings. Like China, Africa is very diverse culturally, politically, economically and that is contrary to what is being said about us, Wang stressed. Wang said Chinese and Africans need confidence in building their own countries, and the media needs to play a very significant role like the Chinese media did in Chinas development process. As media people, we should bear in mind that we need to help in the development process of our countries, he said. One of the facilitators is Professor Wang Yiwei, the Director of Institute of International Affairs at Renmin University of China (RUC). In his remarks, Prof. Wang said Chinas Belt and Road initiative is a typical ideology of the countrys reform strategy for inclusive development. Under this strategy, Prof. Wang said China believes that industrialization should not only be meant for certain countries or regions, but must be extended across to other parts of the globe with Africa being no exception. China believes in open-reform. Our model is economic development first, and that is contrary to the western model, which speaks about political development and governance issue first, Prof. Wang noted. The Belt and Road Policy is about telecommunications, internet, road and railway constructions among others for everybody, he said. This, Prof. Wang said, is Chinas dream. Like China, he said other developing countries can also make a break in the worlds economy through the proper management of resources. As part of the Chinese cultural exchange and experience, participants have visited the China International Publishing Group (CIPG), the Great Wall and are expected to visit Wuhan City in Hubei Province, on Tuesday, August 9, 2016. They are also expected to visit other Chinese media houses and industries including Peoples Daily. Three Liberian journalists, participating in the seminar have commended China for affording them the opportunity to acquiring such a knowledge that will make positive impacts on their media institutions and Liberia as a whole. They include: Emmanuel Weedee-Conway of the Heritage Newspaper, Varney Diggs of the Renaissance Communications Incorporated (RCI) and Alfred Sirleaf of the Daily Talk. The seminar is latest in series of Chinas activities for media training and exchange programs under the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). Organizers say similar programs have been held for Francophone African countries and will continue to ensure the realization of Chinese and African dreams. Currently, 28 journalists from 27 African countries (Anglophone and Francophone) are on media training and cultural exchange program hosted by the China Africa Press Center (CAPC) in Beijing. Sponsored by the China Public Diplomacy Association (CPDA), the program is conducted annually, with the 2016 Edition being the third and biggest group. The Chinas media approach is seen as the road-map for media empowerment and contribution to growth and development in Africa. In the past few years China has rapidly become an important player in the media sector in many African countries. First, its economic success and the impressive growth of media outlets and users within China have quietly promoted an example of how the media can be deployed within the larger political and economic strategies of developing states, moving beyond the democratization paradigm promoted in the West. It has shown that heavy investments in media and information and communication technologies can go hand-in-hand. Marie Claire newsletter Celebrity news, beauty, fashion advice, and fascinating features, delivered straight to your inbox! Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Thank you for signing up to . You will receive a verification email shortly. There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again. By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions (opens in new tab) and Privacy Policy (opens in new tab) and are aged 16 or over. Calling all brides to be So, youve just got engaged. Congratulations -were sending you all of the party popping and mini bride emojis on this happy day! Now, let's talk wedding dresses. As one of lifes most indulgent rites of passage, anyone whos already undergone the search for said-wedding dress will understand the complexities of this endeavour. The magic of this moment can be swiftly stripped away when you actually enter the wilderness of wedding dresses. A total anomaly, they come with their own shops, timeline and language. But fear not for weve gathered together some of the bridal industry's best experts to help guide you through this confusing time and to make sure its as easy and enjoyable as it should be. Choosing your wedding dress is unlike choosing any other dress, agrees Caroline Burstein, Creative Director of the iconic Browns Bridal boutique in London. It represents so many things; you will be centre of attention, and therefore its important that you feel your most happy, beautiful and confident self in your dress. Having guided many brides through the trepidities of dress shopping, Caroline and her team are aware of the many boxes this one garment must tick. You may want to please your husband, your parents, future in laws, but above all you must please yourself. Try to remember that this is a most special and happy time in your life, so enjoy and have fun whilst hunting. With that in mind, lets get started. When should you actually buy a wedding dress? In order to make life easy for yourself, plan ahead. Why not simply copy and paste this handy timeline to keep you on track and allow for any last minute alterations. 9 months before the wedding: Yep, it may sound soon but once you set that date, you may need a full year to actually search for and buy your dress. So put Start Dress Hunt in your diary ASAP. Youll want to have found your beloved dress with 9 months to go until the big day (well get to why). If youve gone for a gown at the more lavish end of the price range, youll pay a deposit of 50 to 60% at this point. If youve gone for a custom design, the dress will be made to your measurements, and different parts may need to be crafted in different factories around the world depending on how bespoke were talking here. 3 months before: Six months later and ta-da! You dress should be finished and ready for your first fitting. 6 - 8 weeks before: During the first fitting you can decide on any minor tweaks - take in the waist, alter the neckline slightly, etc. 4 weeks before: Second fitting - now, youll choose the headpiece, veil, and any accessories. 2 weeks before: Third fitting. The gown should fit you like a glove and you can try it on as a full-look with shoes, veil and the right underwear. 2 days before: Your dress is ready, and you pay the balance, plus any alteration fees. Custom wedding dresses vz off the rail If this sounds tedious or youre up against time, or youd simply prefer to to go pret-a-porter, while its generally a speedier and more affordable option there are some considerations to bear in mind here too. We get a lot of brides coming in from recommendations, says Angela Vickers, proprietor of her prestigious eponymous bridal boutique. So speak to family and friends to find out the bridal boutiques they loved. Speaking to friends who wed quite recently is will help you narrow your search. Angela also recommends doing a recce on any boutiques before you officially begin your search so that youre not wasting your time (and in some instances, money as most do require a fee) on appointments at boutiques you find you dont like. If you buy from a boutique make sure that, as well as loving your dress, you also like the people you are dealing with, advises professional wedding planner Bruce Russell. Can you trust them throughout the buying and fitting process? Do they have your best interests at heart or are they simply after the sale? The majority of boutiques are brilliant, but there are always a few bad apples out there so do your homework. Its easy to get swept away in the romance of the dress but make sure you take a moment to think about where it is made, which seamstress will be making those all-important alterations and vitally, what is and isnt included in the final price of the dress. Which style wedding dress is for you? You may have had one of these from the night you got home from your first date with your partner-to-be. If not, start a Pinterest board as they can be a great place to start figuring out what styles you actually like. Start pinning your favourite looks and see if theres a recurring theme, says Angela. Do you like short and flirty, or lacey and long? Stocking up on Bridal magazines and compiling some tear sheets of styles you like will also help you narrow down the one for you, plus theyll act as a visual aid when youre explaining your dream dress to boutique owners or bridal designers. When you are trying wedding dresses be open minded and let your instincts guide you, suggests Caroline. So many times a bride comes into our shop with a fixed idea of what she wants only to be blown away by something completely opposite to that which she had in her mind. The 5 golden rules to remember now that youre ready to wedding dress shop: 1.Bruce: 'Comfort is key. When trying on a dress, make sure you can move around try the stairs, take a seat, can you make it to the loo? On the day, youll be spending up to 12 hours in your dress so you certainly want to feel comfortable. 2. Caroline: 'Sometimes a bride will want to wear her mother's or grandmother's veil, or some other heirloom. If this is the case, always bring it with you so that you don't fall in love with a dress and then realise that it doesnt work with the veil. ' 3. Caroline: 'Whilst it is tempting to do so most bridal stores wont allow you to take pictures when you are trying on dresses. This is not only for the most obvious reasons but also, and mainly, because its extremely difficult to get an accurate and photogenic image of yourself when you are trying a sample. Take notes instead.' 4. Angela: 'We understand its one of the most exciting times and you want everyone to be involved, but we always advise not to bring Mum, Nana, the bridesmaids and the postman. Too many voices can cloud your thoughts and feelings about the dress. Opt for a couple of people who you trust to give you an honest opinion instead. But not your boyfriend, naturally.' 5. Caroline: 'Last but not least youll need to consider shoes, veil (yes or no to heirloom?) and any hair accessories that will compliment the dress. Take all of the accessories youll wear on the day along when youre dress shopping.' The different wedding dress styles to know If youre indecisive, or looking to really push the boat out and go for two or three different dresses on the day, its worth remembering that most designers can now adapt styles to your exact requirements: beautiful long trains can be detachable for the evenings celebrations, arms can be detached post-ceremony, etc. The traditional silhouettes to know are: Ballgown wedding dresses Column/Sheath wedding dresses Fishtail wedding dresses Long-Sleeved wedding dresses Short wedding dresses The wedding dress designers to know There are the obvious names and the dream designers, from Vera Wang, Jenny Packham and Oscar de la Renta, to Monique Lhuillier and Marchesa. However, there are many designers out there who may not be household names, but are the top names in the bridal industry. We advise you to familiarise yourself with: - Kaviar Gauche - our pick for directional designs at reasonable price points - Delpozo - a fashion girl favourite - Heidi Elnora - whimsical and romantic gowns - Mia Mia - a new label from bridal designer Alan Hannah - Elizabeth Dye - stunning vintage silhouettes - Katharine Polk - for a wedding dress you can actually wear again - Delphine Manivet - fashion forward designs The high street brands with dedicated bridal collections Yes, the high street has answered the prayers of brides on a budget and a range of our favourite stores now offer affordable bridal collections. Here's where we've found to stock the best selection of high street wedding dresses: - ASOS - Needle and Thread - Bicester Village - you made need to trawl through discounted white designer dresses, but the right combination of - determination, optimism and the right seamstress will see you through. Look out for shoes too - Self-Portrait - The Outnet - not exactly high-street but worth keeping an eye on - Self-Portrait - Ghost - Monsoon - Coast - Phase 8 - Reforation - Free People - Ted Baker Tie the Knot How much should you really spend on your wedding dress? At most high end bridal boutiques,prices start from 4,000 and go up to 25,000 with an average price of 8-9,000. Keep a close eye on the purse strings, advises Bruce. If you have set a budget, then stick to it. If its lower than youd like then sample sales are a great way of snapping up last seasons collections for a fraction of the price. These usually take place in spring and autumn, just before the new collections appear. Its worth remembering that bridal boutiques often also sell their own samples, which are great value but do factor in the cost of alterations. The Details The back detail on your dress is where you can get a little more creative if you're having it custom-made. If you're going pret-a-porter but would love something special on the reverse, take along a photo of your dream details and ask the sales assistant about alterations. Where to buy vintage and second hand wedding dresses We highly reccommend La Double J (opens in new tab) and 1st Dibs (opens in new tab) if its a vintage wedding dress youre after. These vintage experts curate the most stunning designer gowns, spanning centuries. There are also some amazing dedicated websites where brides sell on their beloved dresses as reasonable prices; check out Still White (opens in new tab) and Sell My Wedding Dress (opens in new tab). Oxfam (opens in new tab) has a dedicated bridal site, and Vestiaire Collective (opens in new tab) has truly some amazing pre-loved dresses too. Necklines to know Strapless Sweetheart Halter Neckline Off-the-shoulder V-Neck/Plunge Emebllished High-Neck The Port of Kiel is on course for growth after upping handling in both the cargo and passenger sectors by nearly 2 percent in the first half of 2016. The ports various quay and terminal facilities handled 3.1 million tons of incoming and outgoing cargo an increase of 1.8 percent over the same period of last year - while in the passenger sector 886,000 people disembarked or boarded a ferry or a cruise ship in the port a rise of 1.9 percent. Dr Dirk Claus, Managing Director of the Port of Kiel (SEEHAFEN KIEL GmbH & Co KG) said, This is a very good result, especially considering that the Port of Kiel recorded an above-average increase in its core business ferry services to Scandinavia and into the Baltic. The strongest handling in the port in the first six months has been recorded in the Ostuferhafen, which additional will profit in the second half year from newly established liner shipping services from Sundsvall in Sweden. Since the start of July RoRo cargo ships of new port customer SCA and Iggesund Paperboard have been calling at Kiel once a week to land complete loads of paper and high-value cardboard packaging products. From October this liner service is being increased to twice a week. The biggest volume increases in the first half year were recorded on the Kiel - Klaipeda ferry service as a result of the introduction of a seventh weekly departure by operators DFDS. Daily arrival time in Kiel is 1600 and departure from the Ostuferhafen is every evening at 2000. This optimized timetable has been made possible by two big fast RoPax ferries which need only 20 hours for the crossing. The time-table with ever-regular departure and arrival times is very well received by customers, said Dirk Claus. Kiel - Klaipeda is the most important German ferry service into and out of the Baltic region and the only one offering daily departures, he added. As a way of fully utilizing capacity on additional Sunday departure services, the Port of Kiel welcomes the fact that trucks involved in hinterland sea port services can be exempted from Germanys Sunday truck driving ban. Customers of ferries to and from Scandinavia also benefit. By contrast, trade restrictions continue to burden ferry services between Kiel and Russian ports. In the intermodal cargo sector, 14,600 consignments, mainly trailers and containers, were loaded onto rail in the first half of the year. Thats an increase of 5.7 percent. In addition, rail waggon combinations and block trains carrying new vehicles, forestry products and coal were also recorded. Dirk Claus said: We are registering a constantly increasing demand for rail cargo transport services. By the end of the year we want to transfer a record 30,000 consignments onto rail waggons, he added. In the bulk cargo handling sector the import of Norwegian gravel increased significantly. The firm of Mibau unloaded some 180,000 tons in the first six months of the year about a third more than in the same period of last year. Kiel is playing a regional supply role within the state of Schleswig-Holstein. Building materials are being delivered in large quantities, and therefore at reasonable cost, via the port. However the import of coal for the local power station declined again in the first half of 2016: the plant is being replaced inside a few years by a gas-fired facility. In recent years, Japan has never stopped pointing fingers at reasonable activities when they are carried out by China. Recently, however, even more fuel has been added to the fire through the launch of unnecessary protests. Though most of these protests are related to the same old issues, such as China's patrolling the Diaoyu Islands or the country's resource exploitation in the East China Sea, the high frequency of such protests reveals Japan's underlying intention. First of all, the Japanese government has clearly escalated its reactions toward China's mere existence in the waters adjacent to the Diaoyu Islands. However, China has done nothing to incite this escalation. Ever since 2012, when then-Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda launched the "nationalization" campaign of the Diaoyu Islands, China has simply strengthened its control over the waters surrounding these islands to safeguard its sovereignty. However, Japan seems particularly sensitive in recent days, and has always exaggerated the sinister quality of China's every move in the region. In addition, Japan is now doing more to disrupt China's oil and gas resource exploitation in the East China Sea. In 2008, China allowed Japan into the Chunxiao gas field for the sake the regional stability, but Japan has since tried to demarcate the border under the pretext of resource exploitation. Japan is obviously the party to blame for the failure of this cooperation. Nevertheless, Japan has repeatedly opposed China's activities in the region and even criticized China for not implementing the 2008 consensus. Recently, Japan staged a new complaint against China's development in the East China Sea. Of course, these frequent protests only expose the fact that Japan's real intention is to benefit itself. Firstly, Japan wants to weaken the ties between China and ASEAN countries. The newly-elected president of the Philippines will not follow the foreign policy of the Aquino administration, but has instead expressed willingness to improve ties with China. The South China Sea issue has also cooled off recently. Given such a context, the Japanese government is resorting to sneaky means to hurt China's public image and strengthen its own ties with the Philippines. Japan's foreign minister will soon kick off an official visit to the Southeast Asian nation. Japan is even asking the Philippines to resort to arbitration once again. Secondly, Japan is trying to contain China's development by seeking new allies. By playing up its anti-China stance, it is now poised to play a more important role than ever in the Asia-Pacific Rebalance strategy proposed by the U.S. Thirdly, Japan wishes to become a bigger political and military power. Using the excuse of coping with Chinese threats, Japan can increase its interference in regional affairs. This excuse, coupled with increased military spending and the lifting of the ban on Japan's collective right of self-defense, poses a new security threat to the region. China will neither be blinded by illusion nor compromise on its core interests. There is truly no reason for Japan to overreact to or protest against China's reasonable and legal activities in the East China Sea. The author is the Deputy Director of the Department for International and Strategic Studies, China Institute of International Studies. This article is edited and translated from Source: People's Daily Overseas Edition American/British owned German cruise line AIDA Cruises has launched its first marketing campaign on the Chinese market. From April 2017, with AIDAbella, AIDA Cruises will, for the first time, deploy a ship in China all year round and, in close cooperation with Costa Asia, be offering cruise vacation Made in Germany from Shanghai as a new product for the booming Chinese market Michael Thamm, CEO of the Costa Group, said, The ongoing growth of AIDA has made Germany the second biggest cruise market in the world. With our Costa Asia brand, we have pioneered the way in China since 2006 and were the first international shipping company to develop the cruise market there. The expansion of our product portfolio to include an AIDA Cruises ship on the fastest-growing market in the world is a strategic step for the further successful development of Costa and AIDA. AIDA would not be as successful today if we had not constantly entered uncharted territory in the 20 years since the commissioning of our first new vessel, said Felix Eichhorn, President AIDA Cruises. We are now venturing a further important step and, with AIDAbella, exporting our successful concept to China, the fastest-growing cruise market in the world, Eichhorn continued. With our lifestyle-oriented and innovative product, we will provide further important momentum for the emerging Chinese market and thrill entirely new groups of guests. I would like to thank our colleagues at Costa Asia for supporting us with their know-how. AIDAbella will be prepared for service in Asia during a dockyard refit in spring 2017. Without changing the essence of the successful AIDA brand, the ship and services will be oriented to the wishes and demands of Chinese guests. Under the motto cruise vacation Made in Germany i.a. the Brauhaus featuring a blend of Bavarian conviviality meets with modern far eastern cuisine in the in the spacious buffet restaurant "World of Asia" where the hot pot restaurant "Hot & Spicy" will be integrated. New on board are as well successful German brands as Rimowa or Hugo Boss. Christened in Rostock on April 23, 2008 by supermodel Eva Padberg, AIDAbella was the fifth ship in the AIDA fleet. Since then, the ship has welcomed more than 750,000 guests on board to explore the most beautiful holiday regions in the world including the Baltic Sea, the Canaries, the Mediterranean, the Orient, Southeast Asia, U.S. and the Caribbean. Since going into service, AIDAbella has covered over 600,000 nautical miles. AIDAbella will bid farewell to German cruise goers with cruises to exotic destinations along the most splendid coastlines of Southeast Asia. From mid-December 2016 to the beginning of March 2017, the ship will depart from Bangkok on eight 14-day cruises through Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and Cambodia. Next Geosolutions, an independent geoscience and engineering service provider, has secured a 1.25million (1million) mapping and survey contract with Naples Port Authority for the Archaeological Sites Mapping Project, based in the Port of Naples. The project, which commenced in July and is due for completion by December 2016, will see Next Geosolutions carry out marine survey techniques including high-resolution bathymetry, morphology, shallow geology and magnetometric surveys of the Ports internal waters. The interpretation of the sea bed will provide a foundation for accurate mapping on a large scale. Carlo Pinto, Next Geosolutions sales and marketing director said: Securing this contract with Naples Port Authority is of strategic importance to Next Geosolutions and enables us to further develop our capabilities within the marine survey market. It reinforces our key objective; to fully appreciate our clients requirements and provide them with high quality solutions. Application of geophysical survey techniques is best practice for detailed mapping of archaeological features on known archaeological sites, and within the Port of Naples, previous underwater and aerial surveys have shown numerous submerged archaeological remains. Marine archaeologists and professional divers will use their knowledge and expertise to evaluate Next Geosolutions findings after excavation and exploration of the underwater sites. There is the possibility that findings may range from the Roman Imperial Period to WWII. Mr Pinto continued: This is an exciting workscope for Next Geosolutions; were delighted to have the opportunity to contribute to this project and have combined methodologies and innovation to ensure invaluable results for our client. 1842 - The Webster-Ashburton Treaty is signed. In the treaty, the United States and Great Britain agree to cooperate in suppressing the slave trade. 1867 - One officer and 46 Marines and Seamen from the steamer, USS Wachusett, land at Shanghai, China, to assist in fighting a fire. 1942 - A Japanese force runs through the Allied forces guarding Savo Sound, sinking three American heavy cruisers, USS Quincy (CA 39), USS Vincennes (CA 44), and USS Astoria (CA 34), along with other damaged Allied vessels. As a result of the loss, the sound gains the nickname, Iron Bottom Sound. 1943 - TBF aircraft from Composite Squadron One (VC 1) based onboard USS Card (CVE 11) sink German submarine U 664, 570 miles west of Fayal, Azores. 1986 - USNS John Lenthall (T-AO 189) is christened and launched at New Orleans, La., the third ship of the Henry J. Kaiser-class of fleet replenishment oilers and is homeported at Naval Station Norfolk. 2008 - USS Sterett (DDG 104) is commissioned at Baltimore, Md., the birthplace of the ships namesake: Master Commandant Andrew Sterett, who fought in the Quasi-War and Barbary Wars for the Navy. (Source: Naval History and Heritage Command, Communication and Outreach Division) Tropical Storm Javier lost a little strength on Monday evening as it traveled towards the southern part of Mexico's Baja California peninsula, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. The storm was moving northwest at 5 mph (8 kph) and had maximum sustained winds of 60 mph (97 kph), the NHC said. "A weakening trend is forecast to begin by Tuesday afternoon," it said, adding that Javier was about 30 miles (48 km) south-southeast of Cabo San Lucas, a popular getaway for U.S. visitors on the peninsula. The NHC had earlier reported that the Mexican government discontinued a hurricane warning for Baja California, after the storm failed to pick up strength on its path northward. In eastern Mexico, mudslides triggered by intense rainfall in the wake of Tropical Storm Earl killed 40 people over the weekend as saturated hillsides collapsed onto homes. Reporting by Christine Murray and David Alire Garcia ECDIS ACAT (Annual Competency Assurance Training): the Inspectors training in ECDIS has without doubt increased safety at sea as it highlights that not all is well, regardless of certificates held. Few are aware that the world is halfway through an international project to train around 1,000 inspectors and PSC officers in ECDIS. Without doubt, it has already dramatically increased the safety of navigation at sea by providing inspecting officers with all the relevant questions that need to be asked for all the 38 manufacturers, regardless of what certificates the officers hold. The feedback so far is proving that in some cases officers cannot practically show inspectors the basic navigation and safety features designed to reduce the risk of groundings. The Inspector training that they are receiving has to be good for the industry, albeit not for some shipping companies that felt comfortable in the past of their Officers competencies, purely because they held certificates. Captain Robert Pearcey, Marine Consultancy DP Annual Audits CMID, OVID Inspections Surveys & Accident Incident Investigation, shares one of his ECDIS audit inspections, said, As an OVID and CMID inspector I can confirm that many operators can show no knowledge of basic safety features in ECDIS systems, or how to recover past data from ECDIS sometimes this is useful. I have also noted that ECDIS is not used on jack-up rigs under tow, expensive paper route charts are produced with people who have little knowledge of marine matters, other than follow the tug. On one occasion when acting for BP as Marine observer I stopped a tug going into shallow water with undersell clearance of 1m. It would seem that ECDIS should be compulsory on tugs towing deep drafted MODUs and Barges, Pearcey continued. The really concerning issue I found on a U.S. operated rig a U.S. office with a Belize Certificate, was issues a Marshall Island Certificate on producing a certificate in which there are no exams, people are finding ways round certification and this is concerning as masters and operators seem to be turning a blind eye. In this case the officer was navigating in the Malacca St. on a sixth generation drill ship, it was apparent he did not have much of a clue about ECDIS. It is only a matter of time before we have a bad incident, Pearcey said. One of the catalysts for the requirement for an Inspectors course in ECDIS was from a recommendation after the high profile MV OVIT grounding in the English Channel, where the investigation noted in Section 2.8.1 of the MAIB report: Although the SIRE inspection occurred only 10 days before the grounding, the two navigation-related observations reported indicate that the inspection went into some detail. Nevertheless, the inspection did not identify the crews lack of competence in using ECDIS, or the significant defect with its audible alarm. It is recognized that audits and inspections are a sampling process; it would be impossible to check every facet of a ships navigation within a reasonable timescale. However, as ECDIS is replacing paper charts as the primary means of navigation on many vessels, it is imperative that auditors and inspectors are able to identify problems in the way ECDIS are managed, maintained and used. The degree of understanding required of an auditor to check that ENC data in an ECDIS is up to date is clearly more complex than that required to check a written passage plan, and the correction status of paper charts and nautical publications. 48 Many auditors and inspectors do not have a background in navigation, and those that do might not have been trained in ECDIS. Consequently, few will have even a basic understanding of the system, leaving them ill-equipped to assess a core safety-critical function, that of safe navigation. Therefore, there is a strong case for the development and provision of tools that will enable auditors and inspectors to properly check the use and performance of this equipment The following was part of the recommendations in the document after the MAIB investigation: SECTION 5 Recommendation The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) and the Oil Companies International Marine Forum (OCIMF) are recommended to: 142/2014 In conjunction with ECDIS experts develop and promulgate a set of focused questions for use by surveyors and auditors when conducting audits and inspections on ECDIS fitted ships. (Above MAIB material provided from Report NO 24/2014 MAIB. Crown Copyright) I was pleased to be part of the team engaged as the ECDIS experts to write and deliver courses all over the world over the last few years, and write the top 20 navigation and safety questions, used globally and now 50 reasonable ECDIS questions that all officers should be expected to answer. Over the years my colleagues and I have only trained several thousand seafarers in the eight-hour Type Specific (TS) courses, which is a fraction of a percent of the global seafarers currently conducting TS training. The recent whitepaper on ECDIS TS (available for download on the eMG Hub app on Android or Apple), highlights the international confusion in both requirements and standards. What is also becoming clear, is regardless of how well trained you are, we are all subject to skill fade if not using the equipment for some time, and, the 38 manufacturers are always (quite rightly) updating their software to the changing performance standards. Master mariner Paul Hebden said, My main reasons for retiring, was the enforced implementation of ECDIS on our ships as our Primary Means of Navigation (PMN), with minimal paper charts as back up. Its not a case of if we will have a serious navigational incident, but when, and after 25 incident free years as master, it was time to go. There are many recent initiatives to try and bridge this gap, but a brand new service which is gripping interest in the Maritime Industry is ECDIS ACAT www.eMaritimeTraining.com which currently charges 200 per year, per hull, regardless of Officer numbers or changes, to keep all crew up-to-date on the top navigation elements of the 38 ECDIS manufacturers. Matt Riley, Compliance Officer, CSO and DPA, said, I can attest from my own experience of both working at sea and completing ECDIS training that services and products, such as this new service (ECDIS ACAT) are indeed in demand. George Ward, Project Support for ECDIS ACAT, stated, ECDIS ACAT is an effective assurance method of assisting the maritime industry as a whole to increase their underpinning knowledge in the make and model of their ECDIS fitted onboard and to keep up-to-date with the constantly evolving software from all the manufacturers worldwide. This product also allows the ship manager or operator to have positive control over their officers annual competency assurance with regards to ECDIS, which in turn would reduce their training safety matrix for navigating with ECDIS. The feedback I have received is that there are thousands of seafarers with all of the required certificates, however disappointingly many have not been able to answer the basic navigation and safety questions now asked by inspectors worldwide. I must clarify at this point, these are basic navigation questions that officers would have been able to answer on paper charts, such as, Show me on the chart the relevant chart notes. What is the reliability of the chart? How do you show safe/unsafe water? And can you show me how you can put a manual correction on the chart? None of the questions or recent observations raised by inspectors has been based on how to calculate a horizontal sextant angle on the ECDIS. Two years in and the feedback from the industry shows that prior to training, some inspectors found it very difficult to ensure the bridge team actually understood the practical use of their ECDIS. After training, inspectors are generating multiple observations where ships officers dont understand the fundamental principles to keep their ship safe when using ECDIS. The aim of training inspectors in ECDIS around the world was to increase standards and reduce the risk of groundings. It is not to give to give officers at sea a hard time, I know from experience the challenges of being an officer at sea are hard enough without additional pressures. In summary, as an industry, all is not well, however all is not lost. Japan summons China envoy twice in five days; rising number of Chinese ships sailing near disputed islands. Japan warned China on Tuesday that ties were deteriorating over disputed East China Sea islets, and China's envoy in Tokyo reiterated Beijing's stance that the specks of land were its territory and called for talks to resolve the dispute. The diplomatic tussle comes amid simmering tension as China builds on outposts in the contested South China Sea, including what appear to be reinforced aircraft hangars, according to new satellite images. Ties between Asia's two largest economies have been strained in recent days since Japan saw a growing number of Chinese coastguard and other government ships sailing near the East China Sea islets, called the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. The flurry of Chinese incursions into the waters follows a period of sustained pressure on China over its activities in the South China Sea, and China's criticism of what it sees as Japanese interference in that dispute. Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida called in Chinese ambassador Cheng Yonghua for the second time since Friday and told him China was trying to change the status quo unilaterally, the Japanese foreign ministry said. Kishida told Cheng the environment surrounding Sino-Japanese ties was "deteriorating markedly", the ministry said. The Chinese diplomat said after the meeting that he had told Kishida the islands, which are controlled by Japan, were an integral part of China's territory and the dispute should be resolved through dialogue. "I told him ... it is natural that Chinese ships conduct activity in the waters," Cheng told reporters. Dozens of Chinese vessels sailed near the islands on the weekend raising alarm in Japan. Cheng was called in by Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Shinsuke Sugiyama last Friday over the incursions into what Japan see as its territorial waters. The United States, its Southeast Asian allies and Japan have questioned Chinese land reclamation on contested islands in the South China Sea, particularly since an international court rejected China's historic claims to most of that sea last month. China has refused to recognise the court ruling on a case brought by the Philippines. Japan called on China to adhere to it, saying it was binding, but Beijing responded by warning Japan not to interfere. RAPID CONSTRUCTION Satellite images taken in late July over the South China Sea show that hangars constructed on Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief Reefs in the Spratly islands, have room for any fighter jet in the Chinese air force, the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said. The think-tank said in a report there was little evidence that China had deployed military aircraft to the outposts, but the "rapid construction" of reinforced hangars suggested that was likely to change. "They are far thicker than you would build for any civilian purpose," Gregory Poling, director of CSIS's Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, told the New York Times, which first reported on the new images. "They're reinforced to take a strike." A U.S. navy commander said it had not been confirmed that the hangers were for military use, but uncertainty about them could add to tension. "That increases the angst and the uncertainty, that lack of transparency, and that is generally destabilising as opposed to a stabilising action," U.S. Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Scott Swift told reporters on a visit to the Chinese port city of Qingdao. China claims most of the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims. The United States has urged China and other claimants not to militarize their holdings there, prompting repeated denials from China that it is doing so. Instead, China has blamed U.S. patrols and exercises for ramping up tension. "China has indisputable sovereignty over the Spratly islands and nearby waters," China's Defence Ministry said in a response to a request for comment on Tuesday. "China has said many times, construction on the Spratly islands and reefs is multipurpose, mixed, and with the exception of necessary military defensive requirements, are more for serving all forms of civil needs," it said. Former Philippines President Fidel Ramos said he was optimistic about what he has described as an ice-breaking trip to Hong Kong during which he hoped to meet experts and officials in an effort to rekindle ties with China soured by the dispute. "The idea is to use the South China Sea as a place to save lives, but not to kill people or to destroy lives," he told reporters. Separately, relations between China and another U.S. ally, South Korea, have been strained in recent days by a decision by South Korea and the United States to deploy an advanced anti-missile defence system, to guard against North Korean attacks, that China fears could be used against its military. Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka and Nobuhiro Kubo Braemar Adjusting has agreed a strategic partnership with Beckett Liquidadores de Seguros S.A of Chile, to act as its local resource partner in a number of countries in South America. Braemar Adjusting provides Loss Adjusting, Risk Assessment, Legal/Expert Witness and Dispute Resolution services to the Energy, Marine, Mining and Construction insurance industries, through its strategically-located global network of offices. As a result of the arrangement, Beckett Liquidadores de Seguros S.A. will become an integral part of this network by representing Braemar Adjusting in Chile, Argentina, Peru and Bolivia. This Strategic Alliance will allow Braemar Adjusting to enhance the quality of its broad spectrum of services provided in the Latin American region by strengthening its presence locally and assisting in the continuing delivery of the best possible product for its clients, taking advantage of the synergies created by the quality and depth of experience of both companies. The voyage data recorder (VDR) from El Faro, a U.S. flagged cargo ship that sank during Hurricane Joaquin in October 2015, has been recovered from the ocean floor late Monday evening, the U.S. National Transportation Board (NTSB) said. The recovery of the capsule caps a 10-month-long effort to retrieve the recorder, which was designed to record navigational data and communications between crewmembers on the ships bridge. Investigators hope the recorder will reveal information about the final hours of El Faros voyage and the circumstances leading up to the sinking. The recovery of the recorder has the potential to give our investigators greater insight into the incredible challenges that the El Faro crew faced, said NTSB Chairman Christopher A. Hart, but its just one component of a very complex investigation. There is still a great deal of work to be done in order to understand how the many factors converged that led to the sinking and the tragic loss of 33 lives. I want to thank the dedicated professionals in the many organizations especially the U.S. Navy, the Coast Guard, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, the National Science Foundation and the University of Rhode Island who worked with NTSB investigators and support staff over three missions in 10 months to make this successful recovery possible. Military Sealift Commands fleet ocean tug USNS Apache departed Virginia Beach, Virginia, Friday with personnel from the NTSB, the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Navy and Phoenix International aboard. After arriving at the accident location on Monday morning, technicians maneuvered CURV-21, a deep ocean remotely operated underwater vehicle, down about 15,000 feet to the sea floor where the wreckage of El Faro rests. Specialized tools were used to extricate the VDR capsule from the mast structure to which it was attached. The capsule was recovered to the deck of the ocean tug at about 10:30 p.m. Monday evening. The VDR will be examined while at sea by NTSB investigators aboard the USNS Apache, to assess the condition of the device and to ensure proper preservation for readout and further examination ashore. The VDR will be transported to the NTSB's laboratory here after the Apache returns from sea on or about Aug. 12, 2016. Once at the NTSB's lab a team of specialists will audition the recording. It is not yet known how long it may take to review the data and audio information that may be captured on El Faro's VDR. While the minimum design requirement for VDRs of this type is for 12 hours of recording, it may contain additional information the review of which is a thorough and time consuming undertaking. NTSB will provide updates as investigators learn more about the condition and contents of the El Faro's VDR. While investigators examine the VDR, additional photo and video documentation of the El Faro wreckage and debris field will be completed today concluding NTSBs activities at the site. No further missions to the accident site are planned unless warranted as the investigation continues. The bunkering of the Ternsund was initiated today in Rotterdam, marking the first seagoing vessel to bunker liquefied natural gas (LNG) at the port. As a result the brand new product tanker of the Swedish shipping company Terntank also receives the first Rotterdam 'LNG bunkering incentive; a premium amounting to a discount of 10 percent on the seaport dues. On Sunday, the Ternsund arrived for the first time in Rotterdam to unload naphtha and gas oil at Vopak in the Botlek. Monday afternoon, the ship was shifted to the former home terminal of the ECT terminal at the Willem Alexanderhaven, where the bunkering takes place. First, the temperature of the fuel tank was 'cooled down'; from ambient temperature to operating temperature. With the aid of nitrogen, the temperature was reduced from +20 C to -162 C in eighteen hours. Then the actual bunkering of Shell LNG started. To this end, trucks drive between the Eemhaven and the Gate terminal (property of Vopak and Gasunie) on the Maasvlakte. The bunkering of the cleaner fuel will be completed on Wednesday morning. The vessel will then continue to Gothenburg. The LNG powered product tanker Ternsund is environmentally friendly and energy efficient with solutions to minimize air emissions of the whole supply chain and is a result of the EU co-funded project Into the Future Baltic SO2lution. The project is a part of the cooperation between ship-owner Terntank, marine solutions provider Wartsila, fuel and bio-products supplier North European Oil Trade (NEOT) and energy and environmental consultant Wega under the Zero Vision Tool. Next year, the Port Authority will welcome a new bunker vessel which Shell will use to supply seagoing vessels with LNG from the water. The Port of Rotterdam Authority said it strives to turn the port into a major European LNG hub and promotes the transition from fuel oil to the much cleaner LNG as fuel for shipping. By using LNG, inland vessels, coasters, ferries and heavy transport reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions up to 20 percent and nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions up to 85 percent. Sulphur and particulate matter emissions are reduced to practically zero. This is an important reason for the Port of Rotterdam Authority to encourage the use of LNG. In the meantime, the Port Authority expects possible other seagoing vessels in Rotterdam to bunker LNG. The cost for the cleaner fuel is some 20 percent lower than elsewhere, and moreover, Rotterdam offers various incentives. The Environmental Ship Index and the LNG Bunkering Incentive each offer a premium worth 10 percent of the seaport dues. Seqwater has selected Wood Group as its partner in a new collaborative contract to maintain the South East Queensland (SEQ) Water Grid in Australia and water supply assets that serve 3.1 million South East Queenslanders. The innovative partnership will see the formation of a single maintenance team, which leverages expertise and capabilities across the two companies. Approximately 70 new jobs will be created within Wood Group under the five-year contract, which takes effect on October 1, 2016. Seqwater CEO Peter Dennis said the water authority went to market looking for a true partner. The people in our maintenance team are experts in their fields. We wanted to extend that team by joining forces with an organisation we could work together with to build on our strengths and capabilities and help us to further improve our systems and processes. Under this new arrangement Wood Group is our partner, not just a service provider. Our people will work as one team to keep the water flowing and maintain South East Queenslands extensive network of bulk water assets. Seqwater looks forward to working with Wood Group to deliver the best value maintenance services for our essential water supply infrastructure, and support our promise to the community Water for life. Robin Watson, Wood Groups chief executive said: Wood Group has 19 years experience delivering maintenance services to the water industry in Australia. This new collaborative contract is testament to our strong knowledge and broad capabilities, which will enable us to work with Seqwater to enhance value, efficiency and productivity. We will leverage our expertise in electrical, instrumentation, mechanical, pipeline and civil maintenance to support Seqwaters diverse portfolio of assets, including dams, water treatment plants, pumping stations, bore fields and bulk water pipelines. Our commitment to developing local content where we operate will be reflected, with a focus on providing employment opportunities across South East Queensland. The five-year collaborative contract is valued at around US $30 million. HONG KONG, Aug. 9 -- Former Philippine President Fidel Ramos said in Hong Kong Tuesday that the purpose of his visit to China is not for negotiations but to "rekindle" the Sino-Philippine friendship. Designated by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte as a special envoy, Ramos arrived in Hong Kong on Monday evening to start his visit to China after the South China Sea arbitration case has frozen the two countries' ties. "My job is to look for some old friends who have links to high officials in Beijing. My job is not to negotiate, but to help pave the way, break the ice and rekindle the friendship that we had during my time with China," Ramos told a press conference here. "We are here on a mission of goodwill and are not involved in any negotiations or official transactions," he said. Ramos revealed that the people he want to first meet with during his trip is is Wu Shicun, president of the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, a major think tank based China's southern island of Hainan Province. The former Phillipine president said he believed his old friends in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region as well as Guangdong, Hainan and Fujian Provinces all have links to Chinese leadership in Beijing since some of them have been elevated to China's top legislature after retirement. Ramos emphasized the long history of exchanges and close relationship between China and the Philippines in culture and people-to-people communication, adding the fact that Chinese people discovered the Philippines more than 100 years before the Europeans did. "I have always been optimistic and looking for the best results. But of course that also depends on the attitude of the Chinese officials," he said, adding that his Chinese friends include very successful businessmen. Ramos said he will not discuss the particular issue of the South China Sea arbitration with his Chinese friends but seek to improve economic and tourism cooperation between the two countries. Ramos, 88, served as the Philippine President from 1992 to 1998. After his retirement, Ramos became a key figure who proposed the Boao Forum for Asia, an international think tank which was also based in Hainan. The special envoy said the reason why he choose Hong Kong as his first stop is that it is very close to Shenzhen, Haikou, Guangzhou and other southern cities where he often went in and out after retirement. Ramos said he will wait in Hong Kong for coordination between the Philippine Embassy and China's Foreign Ministry on when he will go to Beijing. On the other hand, he wished those Chinese friends could come directly to meet him in Hong Kong. Final preparations are being made to put a small team of salvors on board the grounded semi-submersible oil rig Transocean Winner off the Isle of Lewis this afternoon. The rig broke free from a tow line in severe weather Monday and Salvors are conducting an initial assessment of the rig as part of the ongoing operation to remove it. The rig broke free from a tow line in severe weather Monday and ran aground off the western isles of Scotland.Salvors are conducting an initial assessment of the rig as part of the ongoing operation to remove it. Hugh Shaw, who as Secretary of State's Representative for Maritime Salvage and Intervention is overseeing the operation, said, "This initial recce will be checking a number of things including fuel tanks." "Weather permitting, its then intended to put a second larger group of salvors on tomorrow to carry out a more detailed inspection." Shaw said. Three vessels including the ETV Herakles remain on scene. A temporary exclusion zone of 300 meters has been implemented around the rig. Damen Shipyards Antalya has secured ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 certification, an achievement that coincides with a period of rapid expansion that has seen the addition of three new production halls within the space of two years. These certifications confirm the quality of our production processes, commented Damen Shipyards Antalya Managing Director Auke van der Zee. They also show our commitment to safe and clean working practices. It is this dedication to quality that our customers expect from Damen. Damen Shipyards Antalya opened in 2013 after the purchase of the Cyrus yard by Damen Shipyards Group. Since then the yard has continued to develop and build vessels up to 35 meters in length. Best known for specializing in composite vessel construction , Damen Shipyards Antalya added steel and aluminum vessel fabrication last year with the addition of two new production halls. Production subsequently increased: the three sites delivered 54 ships in 2015, an increase of more than 20 compared to the previous year. This rise in production was accompanied by an increasing number of vessel types under production. The diversity of vessels that we build here is shown best by the fact that there are currently seven different types of ships in the water here, Van der Zee said. These vessels include Damens Stan Pilot 1505, Stan Pilot 1605, Stan Patrol 1605, Interceptor 1503, Interceptor 1102, Fast Crew Supplier 5009 and the Search and Rescue Vessel 1906. Furthermore, the yard is also equipped to build various examples from Damens Public Transport range. The yards expansion continued this year too with the inauguration of a fourth production hall. "With this new building location, we have further expanded our capacity for steel and aluminum vessel construction, Van der Zee said. We can now build an even wider range of vessels, including larger ferries and Fast Yacht Support vessels. If you look at how much we have achieved in such a short time, I'm very curious to see what we will accomplish over the next three and a half years. In a development first reported by Forbes on Thursday, scheduled delivery of the first Offshore Patrol Cutter, Argus, from Eastern Shipbuilding in Panama City, Fla., may be affected by the discovery of Meanwhile in Greece.. Everyone gets 15 minutes of fame. Greece had its spot in the limelight last year. It is now no longer famous. We have all moved on to bigger dramas, or so we think. The French feel they are the victims because of terrorist attacks, the British because of Brexit, Americans because of Trump. Warhols 15 minutes of fame line is as much about the average human beings attention span as it is about anything else, like the proliferation of media. The data in the picture at the top of this article are from 2014. They are what moved Greeks to elect Syriza in early 2015. But the Greeks found out within 6 months that this made no difference; the Troika called the shots, not the Greek people, not its government. Every single one of the numbers in that pic has gotten worse over the past two years since it was released, often by a lot. There are hundreds of thousands of Greeks who make anywhere from 100 to 500 a month working the only part time jobs they can find. 1.2 million workers must wait anywhere from 3-15 months for their salaries to be paid. But theyre the lucky ones; at least they have jobs. There are millions who dont make any money at all. 3 million Greeks have no health care coverage because of this. Thats 30% of the population. A related quote I first put up last year is: ..if you are sick in Greece now, you have an expiration date. The IMF report I wrote about recently in Why Should The IMF Care About Its Credibility? states unambiguously that the IMF itself, in cahoots with the EU, is to blame for all this misery. But we havent seen one single word that would indicate there are plans to rectify this gross injustice. The austerity measures forced upon Greece by the EU and IMF squeeze the country itself, and the people who inhabit it, into ever growing desolation, with no way out at all on the horizon. A country and its economy cannot heal or recover when it has a 25% unemployment rate, and 50-60% for its young people. And has seen hundreds of thousands of its best educated people leave the country. Moreover, with pensions, on which a large part of the overall population depends just to survive, having been cut for the umpteenth time (supplementary pensions were cut between 21% and 46% on August 1), while a wide range of taxes keep rising across the board, consumption is being strangulated, which leads to more companies and stores closing, more unemployment, rinse and repeat. You can find it in the dictionary under vicious circle. Or in the Greek one under Schauble or Dijsselbloem. And then Angela Merkel had the gall not long ago to claim the EU had found the right mixture of policies with regards to Greece. These people are so -willingly- blind, and they care so little about what their policies do to people, they couldnt find a right mixture if it drove over them in a truck. Greece is being ritually slaughtered, and the Brexit referendum has not taught Brussels one single lesson. Theyre not going to understand until its too late and the EU blows up, but that may still take some years, while for the Greeks its already too late now. The Troika should really -certainly after the IMF report- be forced to repeal their policies versus Greece, but whos going to force them? Theyre not accountable to anyone. Well, except for the IMF executive board, but they are just a bunch of . And the other Troika side, the EU, is a lost case. On top of the countrys internal problems, there are now 57,000 refugees stuck in Greece. 21,000 of them have requested asylum. Plans to relocate them through the EU have been miserable failures. Most of the refugees live in one of dozens of improvised camps in below-par conditions. Those who dont have papers are often de facto prisoners. More misery is on the way. The Troika has forced through a law that will make it much easier to foreclose on homeowners who can no longer pay their mortgages. Its not hard to see that there are many of them. The country must therefore prepare for another epidemic of homelessness, a scary prospect for a society thats already been hit so hard. As you will know if youre a regular reader of the Automatic Earth, I started the Automatic Earth for Athens Fund last spring when I first went to Greece to see what the Syriza revolution would bring (we now all know what it brought). The donations from Automatic Earth readers into the fund went far beyond what I could have dreamed of. After donating some of it to two volunteer clinics and am institute for streetchildren (see links to articles below), I decided to focus on donating the funds to O Allos Anthropos (which means The Other Human), a group of impoverished Greeks who feed other poor Greeks, and do so by cooking in the street. The movement is led by someone who has become a dear friend, Konstantinos (Kostas) Polychronopoulos. Konstantinos (Kostas) Polychronopoulos I have been back in Athens for a few months now, talked to Kostas quite a bit, and donated more of your money. So much so that there is nothing left. I paid the rent for the nerve center in May (2,054 per 3 months) and a total of 2,500 in May and June to repair Kostas car, without which the entire organization would grind to a halt. And then paid the rent again this Thursday, another 2,054. My administration indicates that you have donated $24,370 to date, and I have given away $26,694. The numbers cant be exact, because donations come in in USD, EUR and CAD, and exchange rates vary. Also, Paypal takes its share, which also varies. But ones things sure: the moneys been spent, and well spent. Actually, two things are sure, the second being that more money is needed. Kostas was so happy to have his car running again, and you made that possible. Its taken him twice around the whole country in the past year. 13 different cities. It costs 500 to get a return ticket on the ferry to Lesbos with the car I am hesitant to ask the same people repeatedly to donate, but I will, because at this moment I have no choice. After I paid the rent two days ago Kostas told our friend and translator Tassos that he had two euros left in his pocket. And thats not good. Of course Ive known all along that the money could run out, but also that it wont be for my lack of trying. And yes, this has become personal over the past year. And now, not only will there be another wave of homelessness, other things deteriorate as well. A few weeks ago Kostas told me that donations of food, his by far most important kind of donations, are down by over 40%. People in Greece simply dont have the money anymore to afford donations. While he has 13 social kitchens running all over Greece which together prepare 3-5000 meals every day, and would like to do more, but cant because he doesnt have the means. Another issue too has raised its head. Volunteer clinics like the ones I donated to a year ago are now coming to Kostas to see if he can get them medicine and various medical accessories. So hes looking into that, with doctors to guide the process. There are people who donate unused medication, its starting up and the need there is great too. Meanwhile, increasingly people come to O Allos Anthropos to be fed, who used to donate food themselves. Society is changing for the worse rapidly. The nerve center I paid the rent for a few times allows some 100 homeless people every day to get a shower, have breakfast, do laundry, and have their children get help with schoolwork, often with pens and paper and books and schoolbags that are also donated. According to Kostas, there are 155 NGOs operating in Greece. And while some undoubtedly do some good, its hard not to wonder what most of them do. Some of the issues with NGOs coming to Greece are obvious: for the big ones its their corporate structure, and for many its that they come from abroad and dont know the culture. Though I dont want to say anything negative about this, fact is there must be millions of euros flowing through this industry, and its hard to see where its going. Its precisely because of such issues that I have chosen to support Kostas and O Allos Anthropos. They are Greek, they dont make money from their involvement, so every penny goes towards those who need it most, and they are themselves as poor as those they help. And Kostas is the little engine that could who holds it all together, and holds everyone together. Here is a video featuring Kostas from 2 years ago. What struck me when seeing it again is that hes proud of going from handing out 20 to 200 meals per day. Since then, hes gone to 5000 per day. And yes, I also do get the irony in the role that your donations to the Automatic Earth for Athens fund have played in making that development possible. I would deeply regret having to bow out now, and leave Kostas to himself. Not that he wouldnt make it, but we, you and me, have made a big difference. But I cant do it alone, it has to be as much of a community effort as O Allos Anthropos itself is. So please help. Ill get back to you about this soon. Ive been breaking my head trying to figure out how to collect more funds to continue supporting O Allos Anthropos, lying awake at night over it. Yeah, we could turn to crowdfunding perhaps, but I think its important that it would have to be done right, and this is not my expertise. Kostas is a bit of a difficult customer to work with, but for good reasons in my eyes. He doesnt want the group to become an official organization, he doesnt want to become an NGO, and he doesnt want to apply for government support. Because all these things would lead away from what he thinks is essential: people helping people. He refused an award from the EU last year saying you guys are responsible for this mess and this misery, I want nothing from you. Official support comes with conditions, with people wanting to tell you what to do and how to do it. But yes, it makes it harder to keep things afloat, and to help where help is needed. Kostas has many ideas for how he would like to change and expand his operations, but for now just holding on to the basics is a battle. He was talking the other day about villages in the mountains where mostly older people live, isolated and in dire need of food and medication, of how he would like to set up a way to reach out to them. Ill leave this here for now. If anyone has ideas about for instance a crowdfunding campaign, please contact me at contact at TheAutomaticEarth dot com. For anyone in the medical profession, if you have ideas about how to get medication here from abroad, please let me know. There is a great need for insulin, various cancer drugs are not available in the country at all anymore, and then there are things like blood pressure tests, blood sugar tests, hearing aids and wheelchairs. Ill get a full list from one of the hospitals soon. Everything medical will run through them too. For donations to Kostas and O Allos Anthropos, the Automatic Earth has a Paypal widget on our front page, top left hand corner. On our Sales and Donations page, there is an address to send money orders and checks if you dont like Paypal. Our Bitcoin address is 1HYLLUR2JFs24X1zTS4XbNJidGo2XNHiTT. To tell donations for Kostas apart from those for the Automatic Earth (which badly needs them too!), any amounts that come in ending in either $0.99 or $0.37 (dont ask), will go to The Other Human. Please give generously. I made a list of the articles I wrote so far about Konstantinos and Athens. Not sure if its complete. June 16 2015 June 19 2015 June 25 2015 July 8 2015 July 11 2015 July 22 2015 Nov 24 2015 Dec 25 2015 Feb 1 2016 Mar 2 2016 By Raul Ilargi Meijer Website: http://theautomaticearth.com (provides unique analysis of economics, finance, politics and social dynamics in the context of Complexity Theory) 2016 Copyright Raul I Meijer - All Rights Reserved Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors. Raul Ilargi Meijer Archive 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. African journalists have come down heavily on the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Theresa May over UKs announced visa waiver for citizens of the Commonwealth countries. The journalists said that while the waiver was worthless, it was also belated, of no effect, ill-timed and another antics towards re-colonization. The journalists who spoke in Beijing, China in reaction to the announcement said it was a palliative for Britain to shore up her fading and sagging importance after the heavy toll the Brexit has taken on the country. They reminded PM May of her comments against President Barack Obama in May when he visited the UK and canvassed support for Britain to remain in the EU. May had attacked Obama with racist and derogatory comments that Obama hates UK because of his ancestry in Africa as the continent still bears grudges against Britain for a brutish colonization and plundering for hundreds of years. The journalists said: It is not a surprise that after the Commonwealth had existed for years it is today Britain came up with this suspicious policy that actually makes no sense. We call on the 18 African countries in this union with no relevance to copy the example of The Gambia that pulled out of the Commonwealth some years ago. The body was formed and sustained to confer undue importance on Britain as still the imperialist over the member states when it should rather be paying compensation to the over 50 countries it heartlessly plundered. The lack of importance of that body is reason that the US is not a member even when it also got Independence from Britain. The unions importance is overtaken and should be discarded. We question the rationale for the visa waiver when Britain had left the EU, a body its funding controls majority shareholding in the African Development Bank (AfDB) that assists in African economic development. Leaving EU means planning the end of the EU and that will adversely affect Africa. So if Britain loves Africa, why did it leave the EU and the AfDB? We are convinced that Britain hates Africa and the call for visa waiver is a ploy to open the doors for Africans to populate UK and be used as slave labourers. It is about seeking importance when the world had deserted the UK, and should be understood that way and ignored. The journalists said the announcement by PM May is a reminder that African countries should beware of UK and Britain now she is in power. We know better now and scorn this worthless offer and rather call on PM May to commence actions to compensate African countries plundered by Britain in colonization, the statement signed by Ikenna Emewu, Nigerian journalist in Beijing stated. MARTINSVILLE One of North Carolinas largest community colleges is interested in having Patrick Henry Community College (PHCC) President Angeline Godwin take over. Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC) in Charlotte announced Monday that Godwin is one of five finalists to be its next president. She would replace Tony Zeiss, who retired in July after 23 years there. Godwin was traveling on Monday and could not be reached for comment. PHCC Public Relations and Marketing Manager Jim Bove said Godwin told him she did not seek the CPCC job but was "nominated" for it. "She wasnt looking to leave" PHCC, Bove said. Apparently, she does not know who nominated her; CPCC does not release the names of nominators, he said. Godwin will talk with CPCC faculty and staff members during a "meet the candidate forum" on Aug. 23, the college announced. Similar forums with the other four candidates also will be held. "I know this is probably a shock to many, as it was for me," Bove, who has worked for PHCC since April, wrote in an email to college employees and board members to inform them of CPCCs announcement. "Shes been so good for this area and the college," PHCC board Chairwoman Becky Lovell said of Godwin. "Id hate to see her go. But I understand there are (career) opportunities you have to take advantage of." In terms of enrollment, CPCC is North Carolinas second-largest community college with 57,100 students as of 2015, a report on its website shows. Wake Technical Community College in Raleigh has about 70,000 students. CPCC has eight campuses and also operates WTVI, Charlottes public television station. The college offers 258 degree, diploma and certificate programs, online information shows. In comparison, statistics show PHCC had about 2,600 students in 2015. The college offers about 30 associate degree programs and 60 certificate programs and operates workforce development centers in Martinsville and Stuart, a motorsports training center and the IDEA Center in uptown Martinsville. Godwin has been PHCCs president since 2012. She succeeded Max Wingett, who retired after 33 years in the post. Before she came to Martinsville, Godwin was a managing member of a family-owned business in Hattiesburg, Miss., but she had previous experience in both college administration and economic development. Her resume includes serving as president of the Ashland Community and Technical College District in Kentucky, vice president for research and development at The University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, president and chief executive officer of the Mississippi Technology Alliance and the Institute for Technology Development and dean of arts and sciences at Jackson State Community College in Tennessee. Godwin has a law degree, a doctorate in English, a masters degree in English education and various other degrees. Lovell said Godwin has "done a fantastic job" in overseeing all aspects of PHCCs operations. She especially praised Godwin for developing a stronger relationship between the college and the community. Godwin is not gone yet, and she might not leave, Bove emphasized. For now, "its business as usual" at the college, he said. Other candidates in the running for the presidents job at CPCC are Michael Ash, president of Southeastern Community College in Burlington, Iowa; Kandi Deitemeyer, president of College of the Albemarle, a community college based in Elizabeth City, N.C.; Kirk Nooks, president of Metropolitan Community College-Longview near Kansas City, Missouri; and Walter Tobin, president of Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College in South Carolina. COLLINSVILLE A Martinsville man will spend the better part of the next two decades in prison, after being convicted Monday on drug charges. As part of an agreement with the prosecution, 31-year-old Quinton C. Hairston pleaded guilty to distributing cocaine and methamphetamine in Henry County Circuit Court. This marks the third time Hairston's been found guilty of cocaine distribution and the second time for distributing meth. In exchange for the guilty plea, the prosecution agreed to count this as just the second cocaine distribution charge. That means less jail time. Hairston was charged with distributing an estimated 5.7 grams of a substance containing cocaine on June 16, 2015. On June 30 of that same year, he was arrested again, charged with distriburing 15.7 grams of a substance containing cocaine and 26.8 grams of a substance containing methamphetamine. After his conviction, Judge David V. Williams sentenced Hairston to the following: Distribution of cocaine (third offense): 20 years in prison. Of that, Hairston will only serve 10, with the balance suspended on conditions of three years of supervised probation, 20 years of good behavior, operators license suspended for six months, and payment of $350 of restitution to the Henry County Sheriffs Office; Distribution of methamphetamine (second offense): 14 years in prison, of which he'll serve four years, with the balance suspended on conditions of three years of supervised probation, 20 years of good behavior, operators license suspended for six months, and payment of $1,300 in restitution to the Henry County Sheriffs Office; Distribution of cocaine (second offense): 14 years in prison. Out of that, he'll serve four years, with the balance suspended on conditions of three years of probation, 20 years of good behavior, operators license suspended for six months and payment of $630 in restitution to the Henry County Sheriffs Office. Photos taken on August 5, 2016, show farmers in rowboats surrounded by water lilies in Dhaka, Bangladesh. During the blooming season of water lilies, local farmers gather the fragrant flowers and sell them in nearby market. Water lilies are the national flower of Bangladesh. The livelihood of some wetland farmers is based on water lily farming, which they do for about six to seven months a year. HOLYOKE -- After a dozen years in Western Massachusetts, the time has come for Bill Messner to move on. "I'm 71 years old. I've been doing this job for 12 years and it became clear that maybe it's time to be doing something different," he said, adding, "I get bored staying at the same job for long." Messner is the third serving president of Holyoke Community College and formally ended his time with the college last week. He worked in higher education for more than 30 years, spending more than a decade at both Orange County Community College in New York and University of Wisconsin Colleges prior to moving to Western Massachusetts. While a lofty title, serving as president has taught Messner "a bit of humility," he said. "If you're going to be effective, it's not a command and control situation," he explained. "You learn about working in a complex organization with a lot of different people both in and outside the college." Since he began serving as president, HCC - like Holyoke as a whole - has undergone many changes. The number of students and population demographics have diversified. The college was founded 70 years ago with a mission of providing a suitable associate's degree education that could easily transfer to a four-year college or university. While this mission is one the college still does well - "damn well," if you ask Messner - the community needed more. "We've broadened the definition of who we serve," Messner said. The institution educates both those aspiring to a career in medicine and those working towards a better grasp of conversational English. HCC has expanded both its credit and non-credit program offerings. They offer college classes to high school dropouts working towards both a GED and associate's degree, students seeking a certificate or interested in a one-year hospitality program as well as students gathering college credits before transferring to a four-year program. The student body was once overwhelmingly white but now more than one in every three students is a person of color, the majority of whom are Latino. The college sought to better accommodate students with physical or learning disabilities and now serves more than a thousand students with a spectrum of special needs. Welcoming a more diverse group of students on campus will better prepare the institution for the future, Messner said, as the state and the nation as a whole becomes more diverse. Like the student body, where educational services are provided has changed. Holyoke residents are offered an adult basic education through a collaborative effort at the Picknelly Adult and Family Education Center downtown. HCC has opened education and workforce training centers outside of the city, most recently in downtown Ware. Next year, the Center for Hospitality and Culinary Arts will open on the lower floors of The Cubit building in downtown Holyoke, doubling the number of students able to enroll in culinary programs. The expansion of the college's culinary program correlates with the opening of MGM Springfield, an opportunity Messner did not wish to miss. "Irrespective of whether you agree or disagree, gaming became a factor," he said. "It provided us with an opportunity to show the state we play a role here, that community colleges can provide opportunities for jobs." Looking back, Messner said recently he's proud of the college's expanding hospitality program and connections made to MGM, especially because it drew eyes towards Holyoke. "Massachusetts is a state where all roads lead to Boston and we ain't in Boston but we need Boston's attention," Messner said. "We needed to let people know we're here and providing a model for how community colleges can provide a more comprehensive education." While the number and type of student attending higher education has changed in Massachusetts, there's also a need for change on an institution-level, Messner said. Massachusetts does not have oil, it does not have coal or other natural resources. What the state does have is some of the best academic institutions in the nation. The cost of an education varies greatly. A student at HCC will pay $6,000 to enroll full-time at the college during the 2016-2017 school year. Seven miles away, Mount Holyoke students will pay 10 times that price for tuition, room and board. Charging $6,000, Messner said community colleges are "hard-pressed to provide the resources students deserve." He hopes the annual cost will soon drop down to zero, through a federal or state program making community college free. "On one hand, that's a radical notion. On the other hand, there's no cost to go to high school. Why isn't there? Because we all agree that it's critical to have a population that has a high school education," Messner said. "Some states are waking up to the fact that it's critical to have a college education, at a minimum, the first two years of college under their belts." Several states - including Minnesota, Oregon and Tennessee - have created free community college programs. An estimated one in every three job openings will require at least a bachelor's degree by 2020, according to a 2014 survey by the Georgetown Public Policy Institute Center on Education and the Workforce. An additional 30 percent will require an associate's degree or post-high school college training. A bill introduced in the Massachusetts House of Representatives last year seeks to make community college free for residents. It was viewed favorably by the committee on higher education in March and sent along to the House Ways and Means. The passage of such legislation, Messner believes, will ensure Massachusetts remains a leader in higher education. But now, that battle is no longer Messner's to fight. Following his last day at the college Friday, he and his wife are moving to the eastern shore of Maryland to be closer to family. A search for the next president of HCC is underway, with a new head expected to be announced at the start of 2017. In the interim, HCC's vice president for administration and finance Bill Fogarty, will lead the college into the start of another school year. A Massachusetts police officer new to the force is left missing a piece of her ear after responding to a call for service this weekend. Salem police were called early Sunday morning following a disturbance outside of a restaurant. Patrolwoman Jessica Rondinelli was attempting to place Emma Wiley in a police cruiser when she allegedly bit the officer's ear so hard she tore a large piece off. The 19-year-old Marblehead resident was arrested on the charges of mayhem, assault and battery causing serious bodily injury, resisting arrest, assault and battery on a police officer, threatening to commit a crime, disorderly conduct and having a false identification. She pleaded not guilty to the charges in Salem District Court on Monday. Essex Assistant District Attorney Megan MacKenzie told the court Monday that the piece of her ear was found on the floor of her cruiser but doctors were unable to re-attach the officer's ear, leaving her permanently disfigured. Rondinelli is new to the Salem Police Department, working her first shift in July. Judge Allan Swam ordered Wiley held without bail pending a dangerousness hearing. msp-cruiserjpg-3767a605f8537e15.jpg (Don Treeger) A state police vehicle was stolen Monday and recovered within hours of the theft. A cruiser that was being serviced at a Massachusetts Department of Transportation maintenance facility was taken Monday morning. Around 12:45 p.m. Monday it was recovered at the Twin City Plaza in Somerville, State police spokesman David Procopio told the Associated Press. The cruiser was found undamaged and nothing was believed to be taken during the theft, Procopio said. An investigation into the theft is ongoing. ga.jpg Amherst Superintendent Maria Geryk has faced myriad controversies during her tenure. She is likely to leave the district of school committees can agree to a settlement. (Republican file) AMHERST -- When Maria Geryk was first appointed as the Amherst-Pelham Regional School District's permanent superintendent in 2011, she felt she had the right temperament for the very visible position. But during her tenure -- especially in the last three years -- several controversies have roiled the school community. Geryk now said to be seeking an exit from her position well before her current contract expires in June 2018. She currently earns $158,000 a year. This afternoon, the Amherst Regional and Union 26 school committees will be conducting final negotiations with Geryk and taking a vote on a separation agreement ending her contract. Geryk, who served as interim superintendent for about a year before winning the permanent position, has not spoken about why she wants to leave. The average tenure of a superintendent is five years, said Thomas Scott, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents. "A lot of it has do with the culture of the (community) and school committee. A lot of it has to do with the process of how they hire, how they support the superintendent," he said. Some administrators leave for greener pastures, but Scott said whether they stay has a lot to do with "how closely the committee works with them. ... the culture of the environment." Geryk has worked with several school boards over the years -- some more critical of her performance than others. So while the committees prepare to vote, here is a look back at some of the controversies Geryk has dealt with during her years at the helm of the Amherst and Pelham schools. Amherst Regional High School teacher Carolyn Gardner speaks at community vigil on the Amherst Town Common in April 2014. Graffiti targets teacher Carolyn Gardner From 2013 to 2014, former high school teacher Carolyn Gardner, who is black, was the victim of four incidents in which graffiti carrying racial slurs was found at Amherst Regional High School. The community rallied around her, a website was created to support her and she ultimately filed a complaint against the school district with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. The complaint was settled in July 2015 with the district agreeing to pay out $180,000, including $60,000 to Gardner's attorneys. Some in the community criticized the district for releasing the details of the settlement, which included personnel information. Members of Justice for Carolyn, an advocacy group formed to support Gardner, condemned the district's decision, saying officials showed a "reckless disregard" for Gardner's privacy. The members wrote that the release of the information was "... consistent with [the district's] retaliatory stance toward Carolyn, a position identified as one of the triggers for her Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination complaint." A sign outside Amherst Regional High School on Jan. 27, 2014. Threat closes school On Jan. 27, 2014, Amherst Regional High School was closed when a student posted a threatening message to a Facebook page. The message, posted to a page called "Amherst Regional High School Confessions," implied the student was carrying a gun at school. It read: "tbh [to be honest] im packin modtly (sic) everyday at school. but since im calm and am able to keep my composure noone dies. i have it for protection yet ppl still think they can bully me." Officials identified the student, and high school principal Mark Jackson later explained to parents that the student -- who is white -- "... was involved in a conflict with a group of ARHS students who are black." That conflict, Jackson said, centered on the white student's use of a racial slur. The student filed a bullying complaint with the district while school officials looked at whether his use of the slur was a civil rights violation. The student was suspended for 10 days and did not return to school because he had enough credits to graduate; his mother believed he was discriminated against because he was white. Many again were critical of the district's handling of the situation. Apology follows school assembly In October 2014, Geryk issued a letter of apology about an assembly featuring a presentation by guest speaker Calvin Terrell that upset some students and parents. Terrell, the founder and lead facilitator of an organization called Social Centric, presented programs to middle school students and to ninth-grade students at the high school. The assembly focused on the roots of bullying and cruelty and a school community's obligation to stand against them. But the presentation included some graphic images of violence. While the program was toned down for younger children, a notification and opt-out form was not sent to parents in advance of the presentation -- "which was also an error," Geryk wrote in her apology. Ban follows parent's bullying complaint In March 2016, a controversy regarding bullying and race arose when Aisha Hiza, the parent of a first-grader at Pelham Elementary School, was banned from all public schools. The ban came months after Hiza began reporting racially motivated bullying incidents she said her daughter suffered at the school. Dozens rallied to support Hiza and repeatedly asked that the ban be lifted. It ultimately was on June 1. In June, Carol Ross -- hired in 2014 as the school's "media and climate communications specialist" during the outcry over Gardner's treatment -- sent a message to the community asking for compassion in response to the months of turmoil regarding Hiza. "We need to shift our focus from ridicule and belligerence to encouragement and benevolence," Ross wrote. The message continued: "If not, our schools suffer, our town suffers, our property values suffer, our businesses suffer, our university and colleges feel the impact, and Amherst will not remain a community where people want to live, work, stay or come back to raise their children." Hiza did not appreciate the letter, saying it was "too late for that" and explaining that she felt schools officials were only trying to protect themselves. PALMER -- A prosecutor on Tuesday said a prominent Western Massachusetts attorney habitually beat his wife before his arrest on domestic assault charges last month, while the defendant said the charges against him were based on false statements by a drunk woman. John "Jack" St. Clair had been held in Hampden County Correctional Center since his arraignment in Palmer District Court last Wednesday, when he was charged with assault and battery on a family member, witness intimidation and strangulation -- a felony. At a dangerousness hearing on Tuesday, Judge Michael Mulcahy released St. Clair on personal recognizance, but stipulated he must stay away from his wife, undergo evaluations for substance abuse and mental health and remain alcohol free, among other conditions. Charges stem from a July 29 incident during which police were called to St. Clair's home in East Longmeadow at about 9:15 p.m. Police arrived to find blood spattered around the house and St. Clair's wife with bruising on her face and arms, court records show. The alleged victim said St. Clair, whom she said was drunk, grabbed her face, slapped her and choked her. St. Clair's wife told police that he brandished a knife and followed her around while trying to stab himself, police reports say. Speaking at length during Tuesday's hearing, St. Clair denied his wife's version of events, telling the court that she is a heavy drinker who was heavily intoxicated since 3 p.m. on the day he was arrested. "The last two years the ingestion of alcohol has caused a lot of problems," St. Clair said. On the night of the alleged assault, St. Clair said in court, he had accidentally cut his finger on a steak knife, which caused severe bleeding because of a prescription blood-thinning medication he takes. As he bled, St. Clair said, his wife made a "ridiculing" remark about the defendant not being able to see his grandson from a previous marriage. The comment about his grandson, whom he described as special needs, struck an emotional chord. "When she said that about my grandson, I put my hand on her face," St. Clair said. "I said, 'Tonight's the night I'll probably die ... my blood will be on your hands when I die,' and I put my hand on her face and her hair and I said, 'This blood is on you.'" St. Clair said he drank just two glasses of wine the night of his arrest, but had taken sleeping medication and anti-anxiety medication after the incident, which is why he appeared disoriented when police arrived, as detailed in a police report filed in court. But St. Clair's version of events failed to explain bruises on his wife's face and arms, Assistant District Attorney Michael Wallace said in court. When he spoke with the alleged victim, Wallace said, she said St. Clair regularly struck her strategically on parts of her body so that no visible bruises resulted. Wallace also said that St. Clair has acted in a cavalier manner, including asking police to drive him home after he received bail the day after his arrest and failing to appear in court until two days after his scheduled arraignment. "The arrogance throughout the process is what bothers the commonwealth," Wallace said. At one point, St. Clair cited his experience in the courtroom after Wallace suggested that his wife's drinking is not a crime, while domestic assault is. "I understand the courtroom, counsel," St. Clair said. "I've been in it a lot longer than you have." St. Clair is scheduled to appear in court again Sept. 21 for a pretrial conference. 181 Northampton St. woods A section of woods behind 181 Northampton Street was cleared of vegetation in recent weeks, a possible violation of state wetlands law. (Mary Serreze photo) EASTHAMPTON -- Businessman David Boyle has admitted to the Conservation Commission that a small section of wooded wetland he owns off Northampton Street (Route 10) was improperly cleared in recent weeks. "There's no controversy; it's a wetland," Boyle told the commission Monday. "My brother got out of hand." Boyle, proprietor of Autumn Properties, promised the commission that it was "not going to happen again." Neighbors last month reported to the commission seeing a man on a small Bobcat clearing a road-width swath of vegetation in the woods behind Boyle's developed commercial properties at 161-165 Northampton St. The land contains a stream that empties into the nearby Manhan River. The cleared pathway extends several hundred feet into the woods. The commission has yet to issue a ruling or decide if it will require any remediation work. The Conservation Commission agreed to continue the hearing on the potential violation until its next meeting so that Chair Melissa Coady, who was not present Monday, could weigh in on the matter. The downstairs meeting room at the city's municipal building was packed with residents of Highland Avenue, a dead-end street that separates the land owned by Boyle from open space owned by developer Bernie Gawle. The same group last August accused Gawle of illegally draining and filling a pond on his property. Coady at the time argued that there was no violation because the water body is not a "pond" under state wetlands law. Weeks later, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection agreed. Former City Councilor Daniel Hagan told The Republican that residents of Highland Avenue are sensitive to wetlands issues because they have seen increased basement flooding and surface water in their yards in recent years. He said the problem began when the U.S. Post Office facility at 191 Northampton St. was built in 1997, and has gotten worse with additional commercial development. Hagan, a Highland Avenue resident, queried the commission Monday about their enforcement powers, saying that various "potential violations" have been on their meeting agendas for months or even years with no apparent progress. City Planner Jessica Allan, present at the meeting, went to bat for the commission and advised those present to advocate for the hiring of a part-time conservation agent. "This is a volunteer board and they are doing the best they can," she said. Allan noted that the commission does not have the power to levy fines to violators because there is no municipal ordinance that would allow such a process. She said a previous ordinance regarding wetlands enforcement was taken off the books by the City Council in the early 1990s. She said she did not know the history of why the ordinance was nullified. "So people can keep running around you guys," said Highland Avenue resident Kenneth Bushey. Commission member Jay Ryan said that in some towns, a conservation agent is authorized to issue tickets. He said the commission has been meaning for some time to draft a proposed enforcement ordinance, but has been pressed for time with its ongoing compliance work around the city. Boyle noted that the state's Department of Environmental Protection has enforcement teeth, but that the agency's budget "has been gutted" since 2008. The commission meets again Aug. 22 at 6 p.m. at the city's 50 Payson Ave. municipal building. Correction: Due to incorrect information provided by the Conservation Commission, this story previously identified the property as 181 Northampton St. instead of 161-165 Northampton St. Also, the piece of equipment used was not a small excavator, but a "Bobcat skid-steer," Boyle said Tuesday. Mary Serreze can be reached at mserreze@gmail.com Former Boston police officer Eddie Odney has pleaded guilty to colluding with a shoplifting ring following a federal corruption investigation. The Associated Press reports that Odney entered his plea in federal court on Monday. The plea follows a deal struck between Odney and federal prosecutors in June, when Odney agreed to admit making making more than $1,600 in purchases using stolen gift cards. And while the charge carries up to a ten year prison sentence, he may face far less than that, and could escape jail time altogether. As part of the June plea deal, prosecutors recommended one year of probation, an additional fine and a $1,600 forfeiture for Odney's sentence. Odney, a nine-year veteran of the force stationed in Mattapan, was placed on paid administrative leave in February amid the corruption probe, the Boston Globe reported at the time. "Since at least 2014, Odney maintained a relationship with a member of a shoplifting ring," the U.S. Attorney's Office said in the filing. "The ring operated by shoplifting expensive merchandise from various department stores and then returning these items in exchange for gift cards, which members of the ring would then sell at approximately half their dollar value." Odney bought about $5,000 worth of gift cards he knew had been generated by the return of stolen merchandise, according to the filing. On April 25, the U.S. Attorney's Office sent Odney's attorney Charles Tamuleviz a letter saying that the officer had agreed to plead guilty to a count of access device fraud. As part of the plea bargain, Odney agreed to resign his position as a Boston Police officer, accept responsibility for colluding with the shoplifters and forfeit $1,600. In exchange, the U.S. Attorney's Office recommended a lowered offense level for Odney's charge. The Boston Globe reported in February that Odney had previously been the subject of an internal investigation after he reported working 92.5 hours in a single week. The outcome of that was not disclosed at the time. While beachgoers enjoyed the sun on Cape Cod Monday, a white shark was spotted having breakfast. Scratchy, a 13-foot male previously tagged by wildlife officials, was seen eating a seal off South Beach in Orleans near the Chatham line around 11 a.m. Monday morning. The shark was captured in several photos by Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries scientists working with the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy. Scratchy was tagged by scientists last year. So far, officials have tagged close to a dozen sharks in 2016. h.jpg A lawyer representing Aisha Hiza wants to talk to school Amherst officials about bullying and stay away order issued last school year. (Diane Lederman/The Republican) AMHERST -- A lawyer for Aisha Hiza, the parent who was banned from school grounds earlier this year, has filed a request to meet with school officials to talk about what happened and plan for the future. Boston lawyer Matthew Cregor, of the Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice, emailed the request Monday to Superintendent Maria Geryk. He said it's not a lawsuit, but he's concerned about "the schools' treatment of this family" and he wants to make sure "there's a plan next year ... so next year is different." Hiza had been trying to get Pelham Elementary School to address the bullying her first-grade daughter had been experiencing since kindergarten. On March 15 she was issued a stay-away order from all district schools. That meant she couldn't take her daughter to school or pick her up. That was eventually allowed, but the stay-away order remained until June 1. Cregor's letter is copied to Amherst Regional and Pelham school committee members. Tonight, meanwhile, the committees are expected to vote on a separation package with Geryk. Cregor is asking for a meeting with Geryk and Pelham Elementary School Principal Lisa Desjarlais. According to Cregor's letter, Hiza reported that her biracial daughter "was experience racially motivated bullying in her kindergarten class including white students calling her 'dirty' and saying she should wash her skin." The bullying continued and, in Hiza's estimation, "school officials have done to little to effectively address the situation." He also said there was no explanation for the ban that was subsequently put in place. "Our civil rights laws protect children from attending racially hostile school environments," Cregor wrote. "Likewise they protect parents from retaliation when advocating for these rights. " The stay-away order "suggests such retaliation," he wrote. Besides the meeting, Cregor is asking for Hiza's daughter's records as well as information on the use of stay-away orders. He is asking for the meeting before the school year begins. water faucet Residents of Housatonic have been told to flush their taps before consuming water. (Republican File Photo) Elevated levels of copper and lead have been detected in drinking water in Housatonic, a village in the Berkshire County town of Great Barrington. The area is served by the privately owned Housatonic Water Works. The company notified its 1,400 customers in an Aug. 1 letter after random testing of 20 customers by the Department of Environmental Protection revealed the problem. Despite the letter, Water Works treasurer James Mercer told The Berkshire Eagle that fears are overblown. "People think this is like Flint, Michigan," he said. "But this is nothing like that." The water is drawn from the Long Pond Reservoir, described as having a "modern filtration and purification system, clearwell basin and million-gallon storage tank." Great Barrington Board of Health Chair Claudia Ryan told the newspaper there is nothing to fear as long as people run their taps for 30 seconds before consuming the water. She said the lead is probably coming from peoples' homes, and not the water company. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has set the maximum level of lead in drinking water at zero because the toxic metal can be harmful even at low exposure levels. Lead can accumulate in the body over time and is particularly harmful to children. "Copper and lead can enter drinking water when pipes that contain lead and copper corrode, especially where the water has high acidity or low mineral content that corrodes pipes and fixtures," the Aug. 1 letter from the water company reads. The most common source is "internal plumbing materials containing lead, brass, or chrome-plated faucets and fixtures with lead solder" especially with hot tap water, the company stated. Homeowners were advised to flush their pipes by running the water until it becomes as cold as it can get before using it for cooking or drinking. Housatonic Water Works said it is investigating possible reasons for the elevated readings, and that the water does not have high acidity or low mineral content. "Other reasons may be new plumbing, sampling error, or improper grounding of electrical services," the letter reads. According to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, lead can leach into tap water if the service line that connects a home to the water main in the street is made of lead. Luke Gatti mug 2015 Luke Gatti Luke Gatti, the former University of Connecticut and University of Massachusetts Amherst student whose drunken demands for macaroni and cheese and scuffle with UConn dining staff went viral in October 2015, has had his special probation revoked. Gatti, who had been placed in a rehabilitation program for first-time offenders, lost his probation due to his arrest in May for allegedly fighting with a police officer after leaving a rehab facility. The Journal Inquirer reports that Vernon Superior Court Judge John Farley revoked the probation on Monday, and Gatti subsequently admitted that there were sufficient facts to convict him of breaching the peace in the UConn incident. He will pay a $100 fine but did not admit that he was guilty under the plea agreement. Gatti, a 20-year-old Bayville, New York resident who was also arrested twice while a student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2014, was caught on video demanding jalapeno-bacon mac and cheese at a UConn food court and being denied service for bringing an open beer into the facility. Following a long argument, a declaration of his rights as an American citizen, some uncomfortable close-talking and repeated shoving of the manager, Gatti was taken to the floor by food court employees and held until he was arrested by a police officer. "Can I have beer here? Why not? Why not? Is this America?" Gatti said, hands cupped over his mouth and a lanyard trailing out of the pocket of his sweatpants. Video of Gatti's confrontation with the university's stalwart food service staff quickly went viral. Gatti was placed in an accelerated rehabilitation program that would have cleared the charges from his record if he had competed community service, abstained from drugs and alcohol and avoided future run-ins with the law, the Journal Inquirer reported. But in May, he allegedly fled a Florida rehab program and fought with police who attempted to prevent him from leaving the facility, according to a Boca Raton police report. He had recently arrived from a detox program and was going through withdrawal, the report said. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant in Oswego County, New York is one of three reactors to benefit from the state's newly-approved ratepayer subsidies. (Submitted photo) While nuclear power is left to sink or swim in New England's competitive power market, New York last week approved a clean energy standard that calls for 50 percent renewables by 2030 and financial subsidies to keep three Upstate nuclear power plants in business. The standard would guarantee the nuclear plants hundreds of millions in additional revenue over 12 years in an effort to keep the lights on while meeting the state's climate goals. Facing sustained low natural gas prices and flat electricity demand, the plants have been struggling financially. But New York's Public Service Commission determined their operation is necessary to meet Gov. Andrew Cuomo's goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent from 1990 levels by 2030, and 80 percent by 2050. It's not feasible to meet such an aggressive climate goal in the short term through energy efficiency and renewables, commissioners wrote. "It is not realistic to assume that sufficient additional renewable resources at a reasonable price or perhaps any price could be identified and implemented in sufficient time," the order stated. In the meantime, the commission will continue to solicit bids from renewable power suppliers, awarding 20-year contracts to the winners, with a goal of 29.2 million megawatt-hours per year by 2030. The James A. FitzPatrick, R.E. Ginna and Nine Mile Point nuclear plants are expected to produce 27.6 million megawatt hours of carbon-free electricity per year. Replacing the three nukes with renewables would require 9,000 megawatts of onshore wind or 22,000 megawatts of solar, a magnitude described as "virtually impossible" in the short-term. Power marketers and fossil fuel generators have argued that subsidizing nuclear power would harm New York's wholesale electricity markets by artificially suppressing capacity prices. Regulators hope the financial support mechanism, based upon Zero Emission Credits, will survive the anticipated legal challenges. A number of environmental, public health and climate groups were opposed to any support for the plants, arguing that nuclear power is not safe, clean, or carbon-free. Exelon operates the three plants, and said it would invest about $200 million in the Ginna and Nine Mile Point facilities. Entergy has been in talks with Exelon to buy the FitzPatrick generator, which had been scheduled to shut down this year. The Clean Energy Standard will cost less than $2 a month to the average residential customer's bill, said Cuomo in a statement. The Democratic governor said the standard would "more than double renewable resources, slash carbon emissions, protect the environment and grow the clean energy economy." In New England, the 620-megawatt Vermont Yankee closed at the end of 2014 and the 680-megawatt Pilgrim Nuclear Station is due to close on May 31, 2019. That leaves the 1,244-megawatt Seabrook Station in New Hampshire and the 2,020-megawatt Millstone Station in Connecticut. Pilgrim last year was designated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as one of the nation's least-safe reactors. America gets 20 percent of its electricity from its 61 nuclear power plants, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The U.S. Department of Energy is currently trying to solve the nation's nuclear waste problem, hoping that a consent-based model will lead to the siting of one or more long-term storage facilities. Mary Serreze can be reached at mserreze@gmail.com NORTHAMPTON -- While investigators work to determine the cause of a massive Friday night blaze that tore through a historic Round Hill Road building, those behind a plan to build luxury apartments there are working to move the project forward in the wake of the destruction. "We are evaluating the structural condition of the building with the hope that we can follow through to restore it as soon as possible," said Michael Siddall, one of the three principals of Historic Round Hill Summit LLC, which owns the property. The blaze broke out at Rogers Hall, 49 Round Hill Road, shortly before 11 p.m. Siddall said he was on the scene within about 30 minutes, watching in horror as a nearly $4 million construction project that's been years in the making went up in flames. "It was just terrible to see all the hard work destroyed," said Siddall, of Springfield-based Sidall & Sidall PC. "It's just hard to understand because so much work has gone into the project. So many people have brought so much to bring it along." The project is insured, he said. Rogers Hall was formerly owned by Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech, which sold the former dormitory to Historic Round Hill Summit in 2013 as part of a deal involving 11.2 acres and 11 buildings. Since the sale, Clarke has remained on Round Hill Road, continuing to operate its programs teaching children who are deaf or hard of hearing to listen and talk. Clarke Northampton preschool, early intervention and mainstream programs operate from two facilities on Round Hill Road, and one of its K-8 programs is co-located at Leeds Elementary School, said Doug DeLeo, interim chief operating officer. "Neither of Clarke's current buildings were touched at all by the fire and all of our programs are operating without interruption," DeLeo said in a statement Monday. The cause of the blaze remains under investigation by the Northampton Fire Department and the state Fire Marshal's office. "With the ongoing construction work there are many interviews to conduct," Jennifer Mieth, spokeswoman for the state Fire Marshal's office, said Monday. Water damage from the firefighting effort displaced a number of residents from neighboring Hubbard Hall, where units have already been completed. Siddall said Historic Round Hill Summit has offered relocation assistance to all those displaced. Northampton firefighters battle the blaze at Round Hill Road Friday, Aug. 5, 2016. "Most of the people have taken advantage of the furnished apartments that we have offered them," he said, adding that residents of 11 of the units in Hubbard Hall were displaced and that residents of eight of those units are moving into the furnished apartments. At the time of the blaze, Siddall said, work was well underway to build 15 residential units within Rogers Hall. "We were within days, if not weeks, of sheet-rocking," Siddall said. The units were scheduled to be done by November or December. "Some of the floors were further along than others but I would say (the construction work) was well over 60 percent," Siddall said. Siddall stressed, however, that he and co-owners James Hebert, the president of Checkwriters Inc., and Peter Picknelly, of Peter Pan Bus Lines, want to thank the firefighters from Northampton and surrounding communities, as well as the personnel from a number of city departments for the effort to save the building. "It was unbelievable to see how they managed a pretty significant fire," Siddall said. "It was just really positive to see how they mobilized and coordinated their attack on the fire." All of the project's many subcontractors, meanwhile, have stepped up to offer help and support. Many of those subcontractors lost tools in the fire, Siddall said. A contractor, meanwhile, was working Monday to try to contain the water damage in Hubbard Hall, according to Siddall. Water ran from Rogers Hall to Hubbard Hall through a connector building, he said. Siddall said that to his untrained eye the fire appears to have been contained to the upper floor or attic of Rogers Hall. The lower floors sustained smoke and water damage, he said. "The structure is still there," he said. "It's not all destroyed on the first and second floors." Uncertainties for the road ahead include the status of historic tax credits the project has received. "There is a lot to try to understand in a short period of time," Siddall said. "There is a lot that needs to be done." Sarah LaValley, Northampton's conservation, preservation and land use planner, said the property is subject to a historic preservation restriction -- required by the Planning Board and held by the city's Historical Commission -- that governs some work at the site. "Beyond any emergency shoring up of the building, anything additional will require review by the city," LaValley said. "We could potentially require a report done by a restoration architect or engineer to estimate the extent of the damage and the feasibility of restoration. Then we would reevaluate how the preservation restriction would apply." The property also falls under an extension to the Elm Street Historic District, LaValley said. DeLeo described Rogers Hall as being "extremely close to the heart" of the school. "During a time when Clarke was a residential program, it was considered a second home to scores of children, many of whom would arrive as youngsters and leave as teens," DeLeo said. Over the years the building, which was renovated in the early 1980s, served as a dormitory -- and also was home to classrooms and science labs, a professional and children's library, business offices, and staff apartments. DeLeo said the school community was "extremely saddened" to hear the news of the fire, and relieved there were no injuries. "We join with our neighbors and community in sending the families who were displaced our best wishes, and have reached out to the Historic Round Hill to offer assistance in any way we can," he said. AP Poll Young Americans Terrorism In this June 23, 2016, file photo, police and Belgian Army soldiers patrol during a court hearing for suspect Mohamed Abrini, a suspect in the Paris and Brussels attacks, that were claimed by the Islamic State organization, at the Court of Appeals in Brussels. But for young people of color, particularly African Americans, fear of violence by people inspired by foreign extremists is matched or surpassed by worries about violence from white extremists. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo, File) BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- The threat of violence by people inspired by foreign extremists invokes fear in a majority of young Americans across racial groups. But for young people of color, particularly African-Americans, that fear is matched or surpassed by worries about violence from white extremists. A new of Americans age 18-30 shows widespread anxiety among young people about attacks from both inside and outside the United States. Sixty-two percent of young African-Americans and 55 percent of Hispanics surveyed said they were very concerned about the threat of violence committed by white extremists, compared to one-third of whites and 41 percent of Asian-Americans. GenForward is a survey by the at the University of Chicago with the . The poll is designed to pay special attention to the voices of young adults of color, highlighting how race and ethnicity shape the opinions of a new generation. Gregg Higgins, 27, was one of the whites who said he was very worried about violence by extremists in his own race. In fact, he said he was more concerned about "the homegrown white extremists" than the threat of violence from people outside the United States or people inspired by foreign extremists. A social worker in Pittsburgh, Higgins said the growing political tension during the current election cycle has "shown a really ugly part of our past coming through and being more heard." He described it as "white males who are angry and who aren't now afraid to show that anger." "That fear of loss of control and loss of privilege is what's inspiring this vitriol and this hate," Higgins said. Worry about attacks from people currently living in the U.S. who are motivated by foreign extremists spreads more evenly across racial groups, with at least half of whites, blacks, Asians and Hispanics describing themselves as very concerned about that threat. Violence committed by people from outside the country also caused unease, especially among Hispanic young adults. Fifty-six percent of Hispanics polled said they were very concerned, compared to 49 percent of African-Americans, 40 percent of Asian-Americans and 41 percent of whites. The angst comes after a spate of mass shootings. Nine black people were shot and killed last year at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, by a white man who officials say talked of starting a race war. In June, a gunman born in the U.S. to Afghan immigrants opened fire in a crowded gay dance club in Orlando, Florida, killing 49 people in the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. An autopsy report identified him as a white male. Last month, five police officers in Dallas were killed by a black gunman during a protest against police shootings of black men, and three law enforcement officers in Baton Rouge were shot and killed by a black man who authorities said appeared to be targeting people wearing a badge. Darsi Vazquez, a 25-year-old Hispanic college student from Huntsville, Alabama, described herself as very concerned about the threat of violence from foreign and domestic extremists alike, but she thinks the fear is exacerbated by news coverage of mass shootings around the country and the types of overt racism that appear in social media. "A few years back technology wasn't where it's at it now, so you couldn't see things like this happening like you see it now," Vazquez said. "I don't know if it's necessarily getting worse, but we're seeing it more now. We don't just see what's happening outside our window, we also see what's going on outside other people's window." Most young adults in the poll labeled as hate crimes both the shooting deaths at the Charleston church and the Orlando night club, against African-Americans and against LGBT people, respectively. But the poll shows people view the Orlando shooting differently, depending on their race. Among young whites, most also described the Orlando shooting as a terrorist attack. Fifty-eight percent of whites considered it that, compared to only 32 percent of African-Americans, 40 percent of Hispanics and 44 percent of Asian-Americans. Gunman Omar Mateen pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group during a call with police dispatchers during a standoff before he was shot and killed. A third or less of young people of each racial and ethnic group called the Charleston attack terrorism. Terrorism concerns have young Americans across racial groups largely in agreement that some rights and freedoms should be sacrificed in efforts to prevent an attack. Eleven percent of all young adults polled said they believe such sacrifices are always necessary, while 54 percent said they're at least sometimes necessary. But most young people said Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's calls to temporarily ban Muslims from coming to the U.S. goes too far. More than two-thirds of those surveyed said they oppose a temporary prohibition on any Muslim who isn't a U.S. citizen from entering the country: 64 percent of whites, 66 percent of Hispanics and 79 percent of African-Americans and Asian-Americans. ___ The poll of 1,940 adults age 18-30 was conducted July 9-20 using a sample drawn from the probability-based GenForward panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. young adult population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points. The survey was paid for by the Black Youth Project at the University of Chicago using grants from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Ford Foundation. Respondents were first selected randomly using address-based sampling methods, and later interviewed online or by phone. Baku, Azerbaijan August 10 By Farhad Daneshvar -Trend: Central banks of Iran and Azerbaijan will open settlement accounts, Iran's Central Bank Chief Valiollah Seif said in Baku. In an interview with Trend on the sidelines of bilateral meetings between the Presidents of Iran and Azerbaijan, Hassan Rouhani and Ilham Aliyev in Baku, Seif said that according to a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between the central banks of the two countries the banks will open settlement accounts. Meeting with my colleague Elman Rustamov, head of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan, was the main purpose of my visit to Azerbaijan. We discussed expansion of bilateral ties during the meetings today. Economic capacities in both countries require us to seriously increase the volume of trade turnover, Seif said. The best and the most secure way for defraying the cost of transactions is through the banking system, he added. A settlement account in fact is the main factor which is capable of defraying the cost of transactions, he added. Under the MoU, the central banks of Iran and Azerbaijan will encourage commercial banks from both countries to establish banking ties, he said. The chief of Central Bank of Iran added that the way for establishing the branches of Iranian and Azerbaijani banks in both countries has been paved. He further said that under the terms of the MoU the banking card systems of Iran and Azerbaijan will be switched therefore the citizens from the two countries can use their banking cards in Iran and Azerbaijan. A ceremony of signing several documents was held after the expanded meeting with Aliyev and Rouhani on August 7. 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. SALEM - A woman accused of biting off part of a rookie police officer's ear has been ordered held without bail. Emma Wiley, 19, of Marblehead, was being arrested in connection to a fight outside Tavern in the Square early Sunday morning when police say she attacked the officer. The injured officer, identified by The Salem News as Patrolwoman Jessica Rondinelli, was just out of the academy and still in field training. The missing piece of her ear was found on the floor of a cruiser, but it could not be reattached. Wiley also threatened to kill the arresting officers, according to The Salem News. She faces numerous charges including mayhem and assault and battery on a police officer, along with using a fake Rhode Island ID to buy alcohol on the night of her arrest. ring.photo.JPG The city of Springfield is seeking bids for demolition of the long-vacant blighted Ring Nursing Home on Ridgewood Place, seen here. (Peter Goonan / The Republican) SPRINGFIELD - The city is seeking bids to demolish the former Ring Nursing Home on Ridgewood Place, saying the project will remove a long-vacant blighted building from the midst of a historic district. The cost of demolition is estimated at $600,000, due to the size of the building and multiple hazardous materials, officials said. The cost will be covered by a mix of federal and city funds. Melvin Edwards, president of the Maple High/Six Corners Neighborhood Council and the Ward 3 city councilor, said he welcomes the demolition and believes the majority of the neighborhood feels the same way. Ridgewood Place is off Mulberry Street The nursing home is "a blight to an area that is one of the more historic portions of the city," Edwards said. A second former Ring Nursing Home property is on Mill Street that is planned for redevelopment as the new site for the Western Massachusetts Correctional Addiction Center. Tina Quagliato, deputy director of disaster recovery and neighborhood stabilization, said the city took ownership of the Ring property on Ridgewood Place nearly a decade ago for nonpayment of taxes. It is located in the Ridgewood Historic District and it was already "Vacant, dilapidated and blighted" for years at that time, she said. The demolition was approved by the Springfield Historic Commission under a certificate of hardship. The Massachusetts Historical Commission said the loss of that building would not have an adverse impact on the historic district, Quagliato said. The building had been considered for multiple uses over the years including for public school use, charter school use, and administrative office space. The city's requests for proposals for the site were not successful, Quagliato said. The barriers to redevelopment included "the deteriorated condition of the building, lack of parking and residential zoning within a primarily residential neighborhood," Quagliato said. The hazardous materials in the building include lead, asbestos, PCB containing materials and an old elevator piston, Quagliato said. Demolition bids are due by Aug. 17, at 2 p.m., at the Office of Procurement at City Hall. The city will fund the demolition with a mix of federal Community Development Block Grant funds and city bond funds, she said. Edwards said it is a very nice area with beautiful homes, with the Ring property posing a blight for at least 20 years. Once demolished, the city will seek proposal for redevelopment of the vacant property, Quagliato said. State police are asking for the public's help in finding the killer of Vanessa Marcotte, the 27-year-old Google employee who was found dead Sunday night after she did not return from a jog in Princeton. Marcotte, a Leominster native who had been living in New York City, was visiting her mother in Princeton and was found burned. Authorities are investigating whether she was sexually assaulted. Worcester County District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. has called the circumstances surrounding Marcotte's death "horrific." No arrests have been made in the case, and police have not named any suspects. State police have set up an anonymous tip line at 508-453-7589, and are asking for the public's assistance. "Anyone with any information, or who may have seen anything suspicious on Sunday afternoon, or who may have seen someone or something that just seemed to not look right for the surroundings, should please call the State Police tip line for this case," state police wrote on Facebook. "No tip is inconsequential or irrelevant; no matter what it is, please call the tip line, because it may be valuable to investigators seeking justice for Ms. Marcotte." Marcotte was reported missing Sunday afternoon after she left her mother's house for a jog and did not return. Police launched a search, and a state police K-9 unit found her body that evening. As of Monday afternoon, police were still searching the woods near the side of Brooks Station Road, where Marcotte was found. Marcotte's LinkedIn page shows she graduated from Boston University in 2011 and the Bancroft School in Worcester in 2007. SOUTH HADLEY -- Brian Willette has been crisscrossing Western Massachusetts to find photos of men who died in the Vietnam War to ensure they are not forgotten. "I do it because these guys need to be honored to the fullest degree," Willette, a U.S. Army veteran from South Hadley, said in an interview at his home Monday. Photos of only 14 men, 13 from Hampden County and one from Franklin County, remain to be located, he said. The "Wall of Faces" is an effort nationwide to find photos to match all of the more than 58,300 names inscribed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall in Washington, D.C. The effort is related to the "Wall That Heals," which is a traveling exhibition of a 250-foot-long replica of The Wall that will be displayed Aug. 18 to 21 in West Springfield at the Eastern States Exposition at 1305 Memorial Ave. for free public viewing. The photos and whatever biographical information can be found will be part of an education center to be built near The Wall in Washington, Willette said. Leading the photo-finding in Western Massachusetts has been Willette, commander of the Military Order of the Purple Heart of the Purple Heart Western Massachusetts Chapter 875 and state judge advocate of the Department of Massachusetts Veterans of Foreign Wars. In 2010, Willette, a U.S. Army staff sergeant, was traveling in a convoy hit by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan, suffering head and back injuries. The plan is that once the education center opens, photos of the casualties whose names are on The Wall would flash throughout the day on their birthdays. Having a face illuminates the name, Willette said. "It really brings the sacrifice home to everyone. Everyone deserves to be honored in this way," he said. He considers it a long-shot, but it would be a form of satisfaction to find photos for the 14 remaining Western Massachusetts Vietnam War casualties by the time the "Wall That Heals" exhibit opens at The Big E Aug. 18, he said. Willette would welcome help in trying to secure photos and anyone who recognizes a name from the 14 (listed below) has several ways to assist the effort, he said. They can email Willette at ssgbrian.willette@gmail.com They can send an email to contact@thewallthathealswestspringfield.com They can contact Christopher Lizotte , West Springfield director of Veteran Services, at 413-263-3019 or by email at clizotte@townofwestspringfield.org Or they can visit this website -- vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces/ -- and themselves add a photo they are certain is of the serviceman who died in the Vietnam War, Willette said. Of the 1,350 men and one woman from Massachusetts who died in the Vietnam War, photos have been located for all but 187, including the 14 from Western Massachusetts, he said. Willette has been sleuthing for photos of the Western Massachusetts Vietnam War dead for six years. He has visited libraries, high schools, VFW and Legion clubs and private homes. He has driven to Pittsfield, Orange, Athol, Conway, Shelburne Falls and many places in between. He has poured through paper and online newspaper obituaries and used his iPhone camera to copy photos from yearbooks. Some of the photos that have been obtained for the fallen servicemen in the "Wall of Faces" effort are copies of copies, grainy images that fail to capture the individual's face. Anyone who spots and recognizes such an image and has a better one also is urged to contact Willette or Lizotte, Willette said. Tapping the U.S. Army and other service branches for photos might seem like an obvious step, but it's not necessarily. Such branches' records often aren't online and discovering in what city, in what building and in what file drawer a paper copy of a photo exists can be a challenge, he said. He expects his trips to local Legion halls will continue, he said. "The thing in these small towns is, everybody knows somebody," Willette said. "I am the right guy for this stuff because I won't stop until I've found all these guys." Photos are needed for these men, from Hampden County, whose names are on the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C., Willette said : Peter A. Arkoette, of Springfield, 1948-1969 Thomas E. Champagne, of Springfield, 1949-1969 Robert P. Green, of Springfield, 1932-1968 Kenneth R. Brown, of Holyoke, 1931-1967 Robert E. Green, of Springfield, 1949-1969 Theodore S. Griffin, of Springfield, 1949-1968 Daniel L. Grover, of West Springfield, 1950-1970 Henry H. Herrin Jr., of West Springfield, 1933-1968 Edward Lopez, of Springfield, 1948-1969 Timothy F. Murphy Jr., of Springfield, 1947-1970 Neil O. Richey, of Holyoke, 1936-1965 John S. Manferdini, of East Longmeadow, 1948-1969 John F. Overlook, of Springfield, 1936-1968 From Franklin County: WFD 004.JPG Westfield Technical Academy Aviation Advisory Committee chairman Kenneth Dromgold, left, and Aviation Technology instructor Galen Wilson arrive at Barnes Regional Airport Tuesday in restored 1943 Army Aircorp Aeronca L3B. (TED LABORDE PHOTO) WESTFIELD - An Aviation Technology program launched at Westfield Technical Academy last school year has gained the necessary certification from the Federal Aviation Administration, school officials announced Tuesday. The official certification, in the form of a Op SPECS (Operational Specification) is expected to be presented to the school by FAA representatives prior to the Sept. 1 start of the 2016-2917 school year, Superintendent of Schools Stefan Czaporowski said. Certification was assured during an inspection of the course curriculum and hands on instructor use of related equipment during visits to the Smith Avenue school over the past two weeks, Instructor Galen Wilson said. The program has 14 students returning from last school year and expects to enroll another 16 after they complete this year's orientation program, Czapororski said. Instruction will occupy regular classroom space at WTA and Hangar #2 at Barnes Regional Airport. The program has 10 aircraft to be used by students for training purposes. The hangar recently underwent about $1.2 million in exterior renovations and city and school officials are currently examining classroom space that will be needed at Barnes to compliment the program. Czaporowski said he is currently considering lease or purchase of portable classrooms that can be erected adjacent to the hangar. "With 10 aircraft stored in the hangar there is little room for classrooms," the superintendent said. Westfield is only the third high school across the country to offer a FAA certified aviation technology program. The others are located in Florida and New York. WTA General Advisory Committee chairman Edward Watson, who first brought the aviation proposal to the City Council for endorsement, said, referring to certification Tuesday "This is absolutely fantastic. It is a dream come to." Mayor Brian P. Sullivan said "This is another piece in new educational options offered to Westfield kids. It is the result of the efforts of the people involved in this certified program." "Awesome," said City Advancement Officer Joseph Mitchell. "The people involved in this program are so productive," he added. Wilson wrote the curriculum and created the syllabus for the program and said FAA evaluation included inspection and review of the curriculum and the demonstrated use of all teaching tools and equipment by the instructor. Czaporowski took the opportunity Tuesday to also introduce the newest aviation technology staffer in Krysten Renihan of Auburn who will serve as aviation shop assistant. She is a 2014 graduate of Westfield State University and holds a commercial pilot's license. The father of slain 27-year-old Vanessa Marcotte says his daughter was a great kid who no one would want to harm. And from the driveway of his Leominster home he said "all we want is justice." John P. Marcotte told the Telegram & Gazette that he had dinner with his daughter at 111 Chop House in Worcester Saturday night and that the next day she was dead. Marcotte was reported missing after going for a jog on Brooks Station Road in Princeton while visiting her mother Sunday. Her family called 911 when she did not return. Her body was found by a police K-9 unit in the woods off Brooks Station Road later that day. Authorities have not confirmed the condition of the body, but sources report Marcotte was found burned and that police are investigating whether she was sexually assaulted. "She was just a great kid," John Marcotte said of his daughter. The small town of roughly 3,400 has been rocked by the brutal killing of Marcotte. "Throughout the day the reality started to dawn on people that there is somebody out there," said Katherine Huck, owner of the Mountainside Market in the center of Princeton. Vanessa Marcotte was a Leominster native and worked as an accounts manager at Google in New York City. She graduated from Boston University in 2011 and was a graduate of the Bancroft School in Worcester. She was back in Massachusetts this weekend visiting family. Authorities are asking anyone who was in the area or saw anything suspicious on Sunday to call the Massachusetts State Police tip line at 508-453-7589, the state police detectives assigned to the Worcester County District Attorney's office at 508-832-9124, or the Princeton police at 978-464-2928. MassLive reporter Lindsay Corcoran contributed to this story. As authorities continue to investigate the death of 27-year-old Vanessa Marcotte, found slain in the woods of Princeton Sunday, those who knew her have begun to voice their sadness. Marcotte, a Leominster native, had been visiting her mother in Princeton for a couple of days before she went out for a jog on one of the town's back country roads Sunday. When she didn't return, her family became concerned and called police. Marcotte's body was found by a Massachusetts State Police K-9 unit later Sunday evening. Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. at a press conference Monday said he could not give out details of how Marcotte was found, but called the circumstances of her death "horrific." Marcotte was living in New York City and working as an account manager for Google. The internet company released a statement Monday saying: "Vanessa Marcotte was a much loved member of the Google team, working in our New York office for the last year and a half, and known for her ubiquitous smile, passion for volunteer work and love of Boston sports. We are deeply shocked and saddened, and our thoughts are with her family and friends'." Marcotte's LinkedIn page shows she graduated from Boston University in 2011 and the Bancroft School in Worcester in 2007. Fox25 reports that investigators are looking into the possibility that Marcotte was sexually assaulted then set of fire. MassLive has also learned that her body was burned. PRINCETON - Residents of the small, rural town of Princeton, Massachusetts are on edge after being warned that the killer or killers of a young jogger are still on the loose. Authorities urged local residents to be vigilant and use an abundance of caution after the body of a 27-year-old jogger, Vanessa Marcotte, was found Sunday. Marcotte, a Google employee living in New York City, left her mother's house on Brooks Station Road Sunday around 1 p.m. and never returned. At 8:30 p.m., a State Police K-9 dog found her body, reportedly burned and at least partially naked, less than a half mile from the family home. The small town of roughly 3,400 has been rocked by the brutal killing of Marcotte. "Throughout the day the reality started to dawn on people that there is somebody out there," said Katherine Huck, owner of the Mountainside Market in the center of Princeton. The killing was the talk of Huck's busy market and cafe throughout the day Monday and into Tuesday morning. Employees at the cafe Tuesday said the people of Princeton seem to be "in a funk" after what happened. "This is a quiet, very rural town and people live here because of that," Huck said. "We're all outdoorsy, we all go running, hiking up the mountain and let our kids go out for walks and things. It's unimaginable. It really is. Now we have to think twice." Worcester County District Attorney Joseph D. Early, Jr. said investigators do not yet know if this was a random act. His office had no suspect information to release on Monday and as of Tuesday morning had no update on the investigation. On Monday afternoon, State Police investigators were combing the woods alongside Brooks Station Road. On Tuesday, the scene where Marcotte's body was found was quiet and investigators were gathered at the town Hall. Patsy Mollica, a resident of Princeton for 30 years, said she can't even believe what happened. When she saw the helicopter circling overhead Sunday, Mollica said she assumed there might be kids missing at Mount Wachusett in town. "At this point, I'm more concerned for her family," Mollica said. A vigil for Marcotte's family has also been planned for Tuesday night. "We want to counter some of the fear that seems to be in the air," said Rev. Linda Michel when planning the vigil. The vigil is set for 7 p.m. at the First Congregational Church in the center of Princeton. Authorities are asking anyone who was in the area or saw anything suspicious on Sunday to call the Massachusetts State Police tip line at 508-453-7589, the state police detectives assigned to the Worcester County District Attorney's office at 508-832-9124, or the Princeton police at 978-464-2928. Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 9 Trend: Armenian armed forces have 20 times violated the ceasefire on the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops over the past 24 hours, said Azerbaijans Defense Ministry Aug. 9. Armenian army was using large-caliber machine guns. Armenian armed forces stationed on nameless heights of Armenias Ijevan district and in the Dovekh village of the Noyemberyan district opened fire at Azerbaijani positions located in the Kemerli village and on nameless heights of the Gazakh district. Azerbaijani positions located on nameless heights of the Gadabay district underwent fire from the positions located on nameless heights of Armenias Krasnoselsk district. Moreover, Azerbaijani positions also took fire from the positions located near the Ashagi Seyidahmadli village of the Fizuli district, Kuropatkino village of the Khojavand district and from nameless heights of the Fizuli district. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts. Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 9 By Elena Kosolapova Trend: The meeting of the presidents of Azerbaijan, Russia and Iran Ilham Aliyev, Vladimir Putin and Hassan Rouhani will be a step towards a redistribution of power fields in world policy and world history, says Maxim Shevchenko, a Russian TV presenter and former member of the country's Civic Chamber. Baku summit of the Azerbaijani, Iranian and Russian presidents was held Aug. 8 in Baku. In particular, the International North-South Transportation Corridor (INSTC) will contribute to this, if it is implemented, said Shevchenko. If a modern railway, modern transportation route is built, it will change a lot, he told Trend. He recalled that the Caucasus is located at the crossroads of global strategic communications from North to South and from East to West, and the route along the western shore of the Caspian Sea is one of the oldest trade routes from North to South. Meanwhile, this route is more convenient than the route along the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea, where there are deserts, added the expert. Shevchenko noted that the North-South projects implementation will give an opportunity to restore the ancient communications, which were interrupted for various reasons starting from the Cold War, the Iron Curtain, the collapse of the Soviet Union to the various conflicts. There are forces that will actively hinder the projects implementation in order not to lose control over the worlds transportation communications, he added. The expert believes that the participation of Azerbaijan, Russia and Iran in the project is enough for its success, since the transportation corridor will be provided from St. Petersburg and the Arctic Ocean to the Persian Gulf. Other countries can also be partners on the project, but their participation is secondary, he added. Moreover, he thinks that if the consortium has fewer participants, it will be easier to negotiate. I believe that the meeting of the heads of the three states, representatives of the three worlds Persian, Turkish and Russian is an extremely important communication, said Shevchenko. He also noted that currently, a Russia-Iran-Turkey triangle is gradually formed that greatly changes not only the regions map, but also the world map. The West is no longer the center of the world, believes the expert. One of the strategic tasks of the 21st century of the rest of humanity is to make the West to cease being the center of history and the world, he added. The expert said that the consolidation in the region will help to ensure security. He thinks that currently, the main threat for the region is the West, which considers itself the center of the world, which only has the right to decide the fates of all other nations. There is a field for cooperation between Azerbaijan, Russia and Iran in the cultural sphere, said Shevchenko. In Russia, there is poor knowledge about Nizami Ganjavi, the culture of Azerbaijani people, the Iranian culture, he noted adding that the culture of great people of the East, Asia Minor, the oldest cultural centers of civilization should come to Russia and vice versa. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @E_Kosolapova Sunil Bholah a participe a la ceremonie de remise de certificat le 21 septembre 2021 pour les participants a une formations faite par SME Mauritius et Inbound Tourism Promoters Association. It is my pleasure to join you at this Certificate Award Ceremony. I want to first commend the entrepreneurs here today, who have shown great tenacity amidst adversity. I would also like to acknowledge the important contribution of SME Mauritius in collaboration with the Inbound Tourism Promoters Association for the upskilling of our entrepreneurs to pick up again. Tourism continues to be one of the sectors hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), tourist arrivals are estimated to have fallen 74% in 2020 compared to 2019. This decrease represents around 1 billion trips. According to an UNCTAD report published on 30 June this year, international tourism and its closely linked sectors suffered an estimated loss of $2.4 trillion in 2020 due to direct and indirect impacts of a steep drop in international tourist arrivals. A similar loss may occur this year, the report warns, noting that the tourism sectors recovery will largely depend on the uptake of COVID-19 vaccines globally. Ladies and gentlemen, Tourism is one of the main economic pillars of Mauritius, providing livelihoods to some 100,000 workers. Buzzing airport fully booked hotels, resorts and guesthouses day round activities at attraction parks and sites round-the-clock calls made to travel agents and tour operators proud guided tours of our island shopping spree by foreigners at our local markets and boutiques pleasure crafts happily riding our tourists in our coastal waters This state of affairs was the lifeblood of all operators and individuals in the sector. A majority of tourism enterprises are micro, small and medium sized enterprises (MSME) of less than 50 employees. According to the International Labour Organization, in the global tourism sector, about 30% of the total workforce, is employed in firms with 29 employees. Moreover, for every directly created tourism job, nearly one and a half additional jobs are created on an indirect or induced basis. COVID-19 has affected the whole world at its core, causing the major disruption to the tourism industry. We feel your pain. We are in it together. We reckon that the blow is harder to SMEs. The Government has been quick to acknowledge the specific circumstances of SMEs, and has put in place policies to support them. Whether to address liquidity by deferring payments, more financing plans to strengthen SME resilience, measures to avoid the consequences of unorganised lay-offs, and other structural policies. These general SME measures have also been accessible to SMEs in the tourism sector. Ladies and gentlemen, After almost two years of struggling, the global roll-out of vaccines has now boosted hopes for recovery even though challenges remain. International travel will not likely return to pre-COVID levels any time soon. Mauritius has taken a practical and progressive approach towards reopening of its borders. The health and safety of our travellers remains our top priority. Compared to where we were a year ago, we now have clearer knowledge of the virus and its transmission mechanism, a wider variety of stronger testing options, and more robust tracing capabilities. There is greater confidence. There is hope. It is with this spirit that we look forward to the reopening of our borders on the 1st October 2021. We all agree that being back to business will no longer be the same as it would be before the pandemic. New normal New world new skills! Sanitation and social distancing measures will continue to play a role in our lives, as the virus is brought under control. The trend towards digital and contactless technologies will keep on accelerating. Businesses that have struggled through the pandemic will be looking for fresh ideas and skills to guide them into recovery, when the economy picks up again. The tourism sector will always require professionals who excel in skills that form the backbone of the industry such as customer service, culinary, food and beverage or management skills. As we struggle to revive our tourism industry in the wake of the coronavirus crisis, skills are emerging as the deciding factor for recovery. The pandemic has accelerated the shift in how people and businesses connect with one another, by pushing the boundaries of remote working, remote learning, and remote experiences. In a world where visitors are not constrained by physical boundaries, travel is no longer just about meetings or sightseeing but the unique suite of experiences that it offers to visitors, from pre-arrival to post-departure. The next bound of growth for the tourism sector will come from creating quality end-to-end experiences, to meet the needs and expectations of travellers. To deliver on these expectations, it is crucial that professionals in the tourism sector be well equipped with the required knowledge and skills. Hence, I fully welcome the idea of training for the upskilling of our entrepreneurs in the industry. It is gratifying to note that 75 participants comprising of tour operators, travel agents and taxi drivers, have been part of this training organised by SME Mauritius, in collaboration with the Inbound Tourism Promoters Association. I am informed that the training was carried out simultaneously in the 3 outstations of SME Mauritius namely at Rose-Belle, Bel-Air and Goodlands from 17th to 20th August 2021. Hospitality trends; health, hygiene and sanitary protocols, communication and customer care were among the modules proposed for the training. I think that the training session is proof that when different organizations and entrepreneurs come together for the purpose of rebuilding and consolidating, the resilience of our SMEs can be improved. I am totally for such partnerships which uplift each other in these testing and tough times. Looking ahead, the measures put in place today will shape tourism of tomorrow. Ladies and gentlemen, In the near-term, there will still be headwinds. But we remain committed to supporting our tourism sector, to help our businesses and workers build new capabilities, and break new ground. Ladies and Gentlemen, We know that Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) has always been considered the main pillar in providing the labour market with skilled workers, in different sectors and particularly in the tourism sector. It must also be acknowledged that TVET and skills development programmes are well-placed to play a major role during and post COVID-19 pandemic. As you may be aware, since August 2018, the SME Employment Scheme is in place. While the initial objective was the placement of 1000 graduates, SME Mauritius has since inception, placed 1,500 graduates and some 400 Diploma holders in SMEs. A monthly stipend of Rs 14,000 to Graduates and Rs 10,200 to Diploma holders, respectively is paid by SME Mauritius. SMEs can benefit from one graduate and one diploma holder. The SME Employment Scheme has just been extended to June 2022. Moreover, to bridge the skills gap and further reduce unemployment among Youth, we will also enlist MQA approved holders of TVET Level 3 qualifications in: plumbing, electrical, culinary skills, beauty therapy, hairdressing, automotive mechanics and electronics amongst others to be placed in SMEs. Just as diploma holders, TVET trainees will be paid a monthly stipend of Rs 10,200. I would strongly appeal to both SMEs, especially those involved in the tourism sector, and qualified vocational qualification holders to enrol for this program, which is expected to be in place as from 15th October. Ladies and gentlemen, As we push forward in 2021, the challenge that lies ahead is not recovery within this year, or even next year, but how Mauritius will prepare for long-term success, and reinvent global travel. We look forward to working closely with you to not only overcome the current challenges of reopening our borders safely for travellers, but to reimagine and reinvent the tourism industry post-pandemic. The present era will open up more avenues for sustainability and digital revolution. While there will be challenges, there are also many opportunities that we can seize. If we come together as a nation, we can achieve anything. Unity is key if we want to heal faster. On this note, let me convey my appreciation to all entrepreneurs who believe in our support mechanism and are willing to walk together hand in hand to overcome underlying challenges. Congratulations to all the participants. Thank you for your attention! Merck Foundation (Merck-Foundation.com), the philanthropic arm of Merck KGaA Germany announced the Winners of Merck Foundation Film Awards More Than a Mother 2021 in partnership with African First Ladies who are also the Ambassadors of Merck Foundation More Than a Mother. The theme of the awards was: to create a film or docudrama to deliver strong and influential messages about breaking Infertility stigma, Empowering Girls and Women through Education at all levels. Senator, Dr. Rasha Kelej, CEO of Merck Foundation, President of More than a Mother campaign emphasized, I am extremely happy to announce today the winners of Merck Foundation Film Awards More Than a Mother 2021 in partnership with African First Ladies. Big congratulations to all the winners. I appreciate the efforts put in by the young talents across Africa in their films through which they have beautifully conveyed important messages in line with the theme of the awards. I strongly believe that all forms of art including filmmaking can play a significant role in bringing about a culture shift in society, in the world. Our aim was to utilize this medium to encourage promising filmmakers and new talents across the continent to create short or long films either drama documentary or docudrama conveying messages to break the stigma of infertility or empower Girl Education at all levels. This year, Merck Foundation had two categories: English and French. Here is the list of Award Winners: FIRST POSITION (English): Sharon Kavhu and Hatite Hoabeb, NAMIBIA Film Name: Matumaini Link: https://bit.ly/3McVCtM Emulo Kgomotso, BOTSWANA Film Name: 3 in 5 Link: https://bit.ly/3Mkc7o0 SECOND POSITION (English): Nanmet Anthony, NIGERIA Film Name: Future Present Link: https://bit.ly/3sE69Xc FIRST POSITION (French): Doux-mignon MALOBA, DRC Film Name: Le defi de Mariana Link: https://bit.ly/34eZ0Du Merck Foundation More Than a Mother Film Awards were launched in 2017. Winner of 2017 edition: Ms. Molatelo Mainetje, SOUTH AFRICA Film Name: Womb Man Link: https://bit.ly/3ttAMhl Winners of 2019 Edition: Ms. Cecilia Oppong-Badu, GHANA Film Name: Her She Woman Link: https://bit.ly/3sB14yX Mr. Godfred Dela Duvi, GHANA Film Name: Exhale Link: https://bit.ly/3HE3eC0 Ms. Jane Labous, SENEGAL Film Name: Angels Link: https://bit.ly/3HAkdFn Ms. Fatou Fadiga, GUINEA Film Name: Infertile Link: https://bit.ly/3hGtpNP Senator, Dr. Rasha Kelej further added, I would also like to announce the Call for Applications for the new edition of the Merck Foundation Film Awards More Than a Mother 2022. I am looking forward to the entries from our African Filmmakers and students of film making institutions this year too. However this year, Id like to emphasize that the theme in 2022 aims to address wider range of topics such as: Breaking Infertility Stigma, Support Girls Education, End Child Marriage, End FGM, Stopping GBV and Women Empowerment at all levels. Filmmakers and Young talents of Africa, its time to showcase your talent and contribute towards making a difference in society with your unique films with strong and relevant messages about app critical ca and sensitive issues we face in our continent. Be the voice of the voiceless, break the silence and lets all join hands to create a cultural shift. Who can apply? All African Filmmakers, Students of Film Making Training Institutions or Young Talents of Africa are invited to create and share a long or short FILMS, either drama, documentary or docudrama to deliver strong and influential messages to address any of the following social issues such as: Breaking Infertility Stigma, Support Girls Education, End Child Marriage, End FGM, Stopping GBV and Women Empowerment at all levels. Last Date of Submission 30th July 2022 Partager et informez vous aussi...... 0 shares Share Tweet LinkedIn Articles similaires The Special Technical Committee last met on 11 December 2019 and recommended that 10% of the total estimated population be controlled Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 9 Trend: Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev extended condolences to the President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan Mamnoon Hussain on Aug. 9 over the casualties as a result of a terror attack on a hospital. We were deeply saddened by the news of heavy casualties and injuries as a result of a horrible terror attack committed at a hospital in the city of Quetta, said President Aliyev in a letter of condolences. We are outraged by this horrifying terror attack and consider it important to carry out a joint and resolute fight against terrorism, noted the president. On behalf of the people of Azerbaijan and on my own behalf, I extend my deepest condolences to you, families and loved ones of those who were killed and the whole people of Pakistan and wish those injured the soonest recovery, added the president. May Allah rest the souls of those who died in peace! Another sub-branch has been added to the service network of Azer Turk Bank OJSC. On August 4th sub-branch 2 was opened in Baku, Khatai district, Fazil Bayramov str. New sub-branch, which is established in accordance with Azer Turk Banks development concept, is given to customers disposal every weekday from 09.30 to 17.00. Here, individual and corporate clients can open current accounts, individual clients may open deposit accounts, hold foreign currency exchange operations, implement cashless money transfers, countrywide money transfers, cash withdrawals from current accounts, make sale and purchase operations and operations through governmental payment portal. Besides, customers approaching sub-branch 2 can order various payment cards of Azer Turk Bank. Note that on August 1st of the current year new Shirvan branch of Azer Turk Bank was opened at 33, M.A.Rasulzade str., Shirvan city. Azer Turk Bank OJSC, which has identified financial support to the real sector of the economy as its main mission, by 75% is owned by the Government of Azerbaijan. More information about the Bank, its service network, products and services is available at www.azerturkbank.az, the Banks corporate pages at social networks or at (012) 945 Call Center. Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 9 Trend: A delegation of the Azerbaijani parliament, led by the chairman of the parliaments Foreign and Inter-Parliamentary Relations Committee Samad Seyidov and head of the Australia-Azerbaijan Friendship Group Khanlar Fatiyev, held meetings at the Australian parliament and government. Azerbaijans Ambassador to Australia Rovshan Jamshidov, Honorary Consul of Azerbaijan in Australia Aydan Rzayeva, Special Advisors of the Honorary Consul of Azerbaijan in Australia Luke Simpkins and Nizami Jafarov took part in the meetings. During a meeting with Australias Minister of Industry, Innovation and Science Greg Hunt, Samad Seyidov spoke about the political and economic achievements of Azerbaijan under the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev, the current state of the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Azerbaijans leading role in the region and the prospects of development. Seyidov emphasized that a new format of cooperation between Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia was created and a summit of the three countries leaders was held Aug. 8 in Baku. He noted that Azerbaijan is the initiator of this format. In particular, this cooperation envisages the development of the International North-South Transportation Corridor (INSTC), which will be created by the three countries and will ensure their security and economic interests. Thus, Azerbaijan is becoming a transportation hub, through which the ways from the West to the East and from the North to the South are passing, added Seyidov. Greg Hunt said he is aware of Azerbaijans important role in the region, in particular, as the initiator of major infrastructure projects, including the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway. He noted that Australia is interested in the use of transportation routes passing through Azerbaijan to deliver its cargos. The Australian side expressed particular interest in connection to the Great Silk Road project, in which the leading role belongs to Azerbaijan. Thereby, the new Great Silk Road project can start not from China, but from Australia, and passing through Azerbaijan, it can link Australia to Europe. These routes will allow accelerating the delivery of cargos from Australia to Europe and backwards, significantly increasing the financial viability. The officials also discussed the opportunities in the course of establishment of bilateral industrial relations between the two countries. The economic development and innovation in Australasia and Oceania are of special interest to Azerbaijan, especially in the times of the economic diversification. Azerbaijani officials highlighted the unique geographical location of Azerbaijan that can create substantial benefits to Australia and even help Australia access the benefits of trade on the Great Silk Road, in which Azerbaijan is already a focal point. The government officials and parliamentarians agreed to continue close cooperation and defined the course of actions toward realization of this initiative. Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 9 By Anvar Mammadov Trend: The State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) sold $50 million to 29 banks through an auction held by the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA), SOFAZ said Aug. 9. SOFAZ will continue selling foreign currency through auctions in 2016. The foreign currency is sold as part of SOFAZs transfers to the Azerbaijani state budget, which are envisaged to stand at 7.615 billion Azerbaijani manats in 2016. SOFAZ was established in 1999 with assets of $271 million. As of July 1, 2016, SOFAZs assets increased by 4.6 percent and amounted to $35.1 billion as compared to $33.57 billion in early 2016. Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 9 By Anakhanum Idayatova Trend: The North-South transport corridor project has a tremendous potential for Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia, says Ariel Cohen, PhD, a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and director of the Center for Energy, Natural Resources and Geopolitics at the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security. It is also very attractive for India, which is lacking direct land access to Europe, Cohen told Trend Aug. 9. The expert noted that there are two major limitations to the project: financial and geopolitical. Between the three countries, there are simply not enough funds to build modern railroads and highways, he said. The project would go faster if foreign, especially Middle Eastern and Western finances are attracted. Finally, as long as Russia is under sanctions, it makes commerce through that country less attractive, noted Cohen. The expert believes that one of the major areas of corporation between Russia, Iran and Azerbaijan would be the agreement on the national sectors of the Caspian Sea. Such agreement should allow full continental shelf development, including the pipelines across the Caspian, he said. For example, the natural gas pipeline between Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan makes sense. However, it is not in the interest of Russia and Iran, and it is stalled. Beyond that, the natural gas sectors of Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran are competitors, said Cohen, adding that all projects can be developed without one country blocking another. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Anahanum Chicken will be the best-positioned protein due to its low price position in times of pressure on consumer spending power but rises in production costs and the long-term impact of COVID-19 threaten to disrupt the sector, according to Rabobank. by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, August 8, 2016 Theres capturing data and then theres putting that data to use. Internet-connected devices are providing plenty of data, which many companies at least are capturing. Trouble is, most of those companies are not using that data to provide any insights relating to customers. The majority (51%) of companies with an IoT device are collecting data from connected products, according to a new study conducted by Forrester for Xively by LogMeIn. The study comprised a survey of 230 companies in six countries that focus on developing or making Internet-connected products. While most companies capture data from connected devices, theres no dominant customer value being derived by a majority of businesses. Heres how companies currently utilize the data, according to Forrester: 34% -- Profile and segment customers 33% -- Protect and secure sensitive data 33% -- Provide data-driven insight to stakeholders and partners 32% -- Personalize interactions with individual customers 29% -- Leverage captured data to make decisions in real time This trend is consistent with other research Ive seen, some showing even a larger number of companies not leveraging IoT data. Many companies instinctively know they should capture data from connected devices, even if they havent yet thought out what they might do with it later. The problem is that companies often focus more heavily on the technology rather than the desired outcome. Companies spend way too much time on the technology part of IoT, Ryan Lester, Director of IoT Strategy, Xively, told me. They spend all this time creating an IoT technology solution. Companies should spend more time on figuring what they want to do with the data. Of course, getting devices connected and then managing them is a process by itself, well before any data can be captured. If this was easy, everybody would be doing it, Lester said. IoT-enabled connected products are more complex than traditional products and are a challenge for 43% of companies, according to the Forrester study, which also found that 41% of businesses are challenged by managing connected devices. Companies can use connected product data to better understand customer preferences so they can enhance and personalize customer experiences, according to Forrester. Now if only the companies would star tapping into that data. Toxic chemicals associated with cancer and other health issues have been discovered at unsafe levels in the drinking water that supplies 6 million Americans, new research finds. Share on Pinterest Researchers found that public water supplies serving 6 million people had PFASs levels above the EPA safety limit. Researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) found levels of an industrial class of chemicals polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) exceeded federally recommended safety levels. For many years, chemicals with unknown toxicities, such as PFASs, were allowed to be used and released to the environment, and we now have to face the severe consequences, says lead author Xindi Hu, a doctoral student in the Department of Environmental Health at Harvard Chan School and Environmental Science and Engineering at SEAS. In addition, the actual number of people exposed may be even higher than our study found, because government data for levels of these compounds in drinking water is lacking for almost a third of the U.S. population about 100 million people, she adds. PFASs remain in the body for long periods of time PFASs are a class of man-made chemicals that are widely used to make commercial products more stain-resistant, waterproof, and nonstick ranging from food wrappers to clothing and pots and pans. Both chemicals are very persistent in the environment and the human body that is, they do not break down when exposed to air, water, or sunlight which means people can become exposed to PFASs manufactured months or years in the past or emitted from production facilities thousands of miles away. The accumulative nature of PFASs remaining in the body for long periods can lead to adverse health effects. Studies indicate that PFASs are linked to reproductive and developmental, liver and kidney, and immunological effects such as tumors, changes in cholesterol levels, low birth weight, liver tissue damage, obesity, and development of testicular, pancreatic and liver cancers. Blood sampling data over recent years have shown that exposures to PFASs are decreasing in the U.S. population due to the decline and discontinued use by several major manufacturers. However, the chemicals continue to persist in people and wildlife, with drinking water a primary route for exposure. Using data from more than 36,000 water samples collected by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from 2013-2015 in drinking water supplies nationwide, the team observed concentrations of six types of PFASs. The researchers also looked at industrial sites, such as military fire training sites and civilian airports where fire-fighting foam containing PFASs is used, and wastewater treatment plants. The plants are unable to remove PFASs from wastewater and discharges by standard treatment methods, which allows for contamination of not only groundwater, but also any sludge that the plants generate, which is often used as fertilizer. Advertisement Researchers at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) led by principal investigator of the Comparative Effectiveness and Provider Induced Demand Collaboration (EPIC) Dr. Tracey PArez Koehlmoos, PhD, MHA associate professor of Preventive Medicine and Biostatistics at the F. Edward HAbert School of Medicine, in collaboration with Brigham and Women's Hospital, looked at claims information for more than 502,000 patients from the California State Inpatient Database (2007-2011), and more than 129,000 patients from the Department of Defense's (DoD) health insurance (TRICARE) system (2006-2010).TRICARE is one of the nation's largest health insurers, providing care to more than 8 million American military service members, retirees and their dependents. TRICARE is available to beneficiaries regardless of social class, occupational status or capacity to work. This may better represent a universal healthcare initiative, as compared to looking at data from patients insured through Medicare or other private plans.Patients reviewed in the study were over the age of 18 and received one of 12 surgical procedures inclusive of cardiothoracic surgery (coronary artery bypass grafting), general surgery (appendectomy, colectomy, esophagectomy inguinal hernia repair), orthopaedics (total knee replacement, total hip replacement, hip fracture repair), urology (nephrectomy, transurethral resect ion of the prostate, radical cystectomy), and neurosurgery (lumbar spine surgery). These procedures are representative of the types of major surgical interventions performed across these disciplines. Patients were also included in the study if they were African American (non-Hispanic black) or White (non-Hispanic White).According to the study, African Americans with private insurance had approximately 20 percent higher odds of experiencing complications, compared to privately insured White patients. They also experienced approximately 30 percent higher odds of being readmitted and could expect longer hospital stays - more than 12 hours longer than privately insured White patients. Their odds of experiencing complications and readmission were almost twice as high compared to privately insured White patients. The risk for dying among uninsured African Americans and those on Medicaid, was about fourfold.These disparities, however, were absent among African Americans treated directly within DoD hospitals, also known as the TRICARE direct care setting. "What we've found is that, in a more equitable health system, like the Military Health System, paired with universal insurance, racial disparities could potentially be eliminated. The MHS is an example for the nation," Dr. Koehlmoos said.Source: Newswise Advertisement Dr Richard Lea, Reader in Reproductive Biology in the University's School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, who led the research said, "This is the first time that such a decline in male fertility has been reported in the dog, and we believe this is due to environmental contaminants, some of which we have detected in dog food and in the sperm and testes of the animals themselves.""While further research is needed to conclusively demonstrate a link, the dog may indeed be a sentinel for humans - it shares the same environment, exhibits the same range of diseases, many with the same frequency and responds in a similar way to therapies."The samples were collected from stud dogs at assistance dogs breeding center over the course of 26 years. Professor Gary England, Foundation Dean of the School of Veterinary Medicine and Science and Professor of Comparative Veterinary Reproduction, who oversaw the collection of semen said, "The strength of the study is that all samples were processed and analyzed by the same laboratory using the same protocols during that time and consequently the data generated is robust."Five specific breeds of dogs were studied - Labrador retriever, golden retriever, curly coat retriever, border collie and German shepherd. About 42 to 97 dogs were studied every year.Semen was collected from the dogs to assess the percentage of sperm that showed a normal forward progressive pattern of motility and that appeared normal under a microscope.The researchers found a drastic decrease in the percentage of normal motile sperm over the past 26 years. The sperm motility declined by 2.5% every year between 1988 and 1998. The stud dogs of reduced fertility were removed from the study, sperm motility from 2002 to 2014 continued to decline at a rate of 1.2% per year.The research team discovered that the male pups generated from the stud dogs with declining semen quality had an increased incidence of cryptorchidism, a condition in which the testes of pups fail to descend correctly into the scrotum.Environmental contaminants were found in the sperm collected from the same breeding populations of dogs and also in the testes recovered from dogs undergoing routine castration. The environmental contaminants were found in higher concentrations that can disrupt sperm motility and viability when tested.The chemicals that disrupted sperm quality were also discovered in a range of commercially available dog foods.Dr Lea added, "We looked at other factors which may also play a part, for example, some genetic conditions do have an impact on fertility. However, we discounted that because 26 years is simply too rapid a decline to be associated with a genetic problem.""The Nottingham study presents a unique set of reliable data from a controlled population which is free from these factors. This raises the tantalizing prospect that the decline in canine semen quality has an environmental cause and begs the question whether a similar effect could also be observed in human male fertility," said Dr Lea.The study is published in the academic journalSource: Medindia Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 9 By Rufiz Hafizoglu Trend: Turkey will implement the Turkish Stream project, President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Aug. 9 in St. Petersburg during a joint press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin, TRT Haber news channel reported. The Turkish Stream project will also be implemented, said the president of Turkey. We will take the necessary steps together with our ministries and agencies in order to ensure the supply of Russian gas to Europe through this pipeline. Erdogan also noted that Turkey currently buys Russian gas in the volume of 28 billion cubic meters, and a part of the Russian gas is purchased by the private sector of Turkey. The Turkish Stream will have two pipeline strings, through one, gas will be supplied for Turkey's domestic consumption, and through the other gas will be supplied to Europe, said Erdogan. Erdogan added that Turkey and Russia intend to strengthen bilateral relations and have the necessary capacity for that. Erdogan also said that the Akkuyu nuclear power plant, which is being built in Turkey under the Russian project, will be a strategic one. Russia abandoned the South Stream project in favor of Turkish Stream in December 2014, which involves the construction of the gas pipeline from Russia to Turkey through the Black Sea, however, an intergovernmental agreement was not signed. However, the project was frozen after the relations between Moscow and Ankara deteriorated in November 2015. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu Please complete this form and we'll send you a personalised information that is requested You may use this for your own reference or forward it to your friends. Please use the information prudently. If you are not a medical doctor please remember to consult your healthcare provider as this information is not a substitute for professional advice. Advertisement "The general thought has been that these cells are supposed to be beneficial in the nervous system under normal conditions" said Long-Jun Wu, a professor of cell biology and neuroscience at Rutgers University. "But, in fact, in those with this neuropathic pain these cells known as microglia, have proliferated and instead become toxic."In new research, published in bothand, Wu and his team discovered that chronic neuropathic pain could be greatly reduced in animals if the injury was treated targeting microglia within a few days."If we can catch that window within one to five days to inhibit microglia after nerve injury, we can partially reverse the development of chronic pain," said Wu. "If we were able to deplete the microglia cells causing the condition before nerve injury occurs, we can permanently prevent it."In laboratory studies on mice, Wu and his colleagues used chemotherapy drugs to prohibit the microglia brain immune cells from proliferating, similar to the treatment used by oncologists to prevent cancer cells from multiplying. The results from Wu's laboratory showed that this chemotherapy drug reduced the amount of pain the mice experienced after the injury occurred."What needs to be done is prevent the microglia cells from multiplying in the first place," said Wu. "It had been thought that these cells were beneficial in a normal brain, but our research discovered how these cells function under neuropathic pain condition and initiate the problem."Although scientists have studied microglia cells in relationship to neuropathic pain for the past two decades, Rutgers is the first to pinpoint the exact role the cells have in the initiation and maintenance of the condition. Wu and his colleagues found that the proliferation of these types of cells is one of the major contributors of microglial pain.This discovery could lead to the development of more effective painkillers with fewer side effects, he said."Our research raises the intriguing possibility that minimizing microglial proliferation may be a novel approach for pain control," Wu said. "We hope this will eventually lead to more effective pain killers that will battle this devastating disease."Source: Eurekalert On August 9, 2016, Turkish President Recep Tayip Erdogan is set to meet with Russian president Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg. At the talks, Putin and Erdogan are expected to discuss the lifting of Russia's embargo on Turkish goods, the resumption of chartered flights, construction of the TurkStream gas pipeline, the Syrian peace settlement, the struggle with terrorism, and other issues. Ahead of the meeting, Erdogan said that the talks with Putin "will open up a new page in relations between the two countries." He then added: "It will be a historical visit, a new start. I believe talks with my friend Vladimir will open up a new page in bilateral relations. Our countries have a lot to do together."[1] The two leaders are going to meet for the first time, since the Turkish air force shot down a Russian plane last November 2015. On June 27, after seven months on tensions between the two countries, Erdogan sent a formal letter of apology to Putin for the death of the downed Russian plane's pilot. In his letter, Erdogan said that Russia is Turkey's friend and strategic partner, and that the Turkish authorities do not want to ruin relations between the two countries. Erdogan wrote: "We never had the desire or deliberate intention of shooting down the Russian Federation plane." The letter continued: "[Turkey] undertook much effort at great risk to retrieve the Russian pilot's body from the Syrian opposition and bring it back to Turkey, where pre-burial procedures were carried out in accordance with religious and military procedures. We performed this work at a level worthy of our two countries' relations. I once again express my sympathy and profound condolences to the family of the Russian pilot who was killed and I apologize to them. I share their grief with all my heart. We look on this Russian pilot's family as we would a Turkish family and we are ready to undertake any initiative that could lessen the pain and severity of the damage caused."Erdogan expressed his deep regret for what happened and said that he is ready to do everything possible to restore the traditionally friendly ties between Turkey and Russia and also to work together to respond to crisis situations in the region and fight terrorism.[2] On June 29, at Russia's initiative, Putin held a telephone conversation with Turkish President Erdogan, after the latter apologized for downing a Russian military aircraft in November, 2015. The Kremlin's website reported: "Putin said that the letter [of apology] he received from the Turkish President opens the road for overcoming the crisis in bilateral relations and beginning the process of renewing joint efforts on international and regional issues and developing the two countries' relations in different areas...Putin said that he would instruct the Russian Government to begin negotiations with the relevant Turkish agencies to restore mutually advantageous bilateral cooperation in trade, the economy and other sectors."[3] Commenting on Erdogan's letter to Putin, Russian Vice-Premier Alexander Khloponin said: "This process is complex...I believe that the Turkish side must find very serious and weighty arguments for Russia so that we can review our long-term relations for the better."[4] Federation Council speaker Valentina Matviyenko said although the apologies "are seven months late," it is "the most important event in the normalization of Turkish-Russian relations."[5] In preparation for the Putin-Erdogan talks, on July 1, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, at the meeting of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Council of Foreign Ministers in Sochi. The two ministers discussed renewing tourism and stressed the need to restore cooperation in the settlement of regional conflicts, above all in the Syrian crisis. The officials agreed to reactivate bilateral mechanisms of anti-terrorist cooperation with the participation of their countries' foreign services and intelligence agencies.[6] An editorial in Vedomosti, a leading financial paper, commented that the current Russia-Turkey rapprochement is situational since both countries use it to signal the West. Relations with the West are far more important for Russia and Turkey than their mutual relations with each other.[7] In another article Vedomosti quotes Russian Foreign Affairs Council expert Andrey Kortunov, who says that Russia-Turkey contradictions stem from the Syrian issue, Southern Caucasus regional issues and the Crimean Tatar ethical issue. Kortunov said: "I think the sides will discuss all those questions but I assume that the Russian side will want to keep some aces in hand for a further trade-off."[8] It is worth noting that the meeting between Putin and Erdogan is occurring the day after Putin met with Iran's President Hassan Rouhani and Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev, in Azerbaijan's capital of Baku. The following is a review of comments in the Russian media, ahead of the Putin-Erdogan meeting: The Syrian Crisis; FM Lavrov: 'Turkish Territory Is Actively Used To Deliver Supplies To Terrorists And To Transport Fighters To Syria' One of the talks' main topics between Erdogan and Putin is going to be the settlement of the Syrian crisis. On July 22, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov answered to a question on the normalization of Russian-Turkish relation, at Russia's "Terra Scientia" Youth Educational Forum. Lavrov said: "Here's what I'll say on that. You know how Russia-Turkey relations were faring before November 24, 2015, when a Russian bomber was downed, and you know what happened after that. We believe, and we have said so publicly, that this incident was an example of unacceptable behavior by the Turkish side, no matter who stood behind that illegal act because the bomber was returning to base and had no bombs left after striking terrorists, and it was not downed in Turkish airspace but over Syria. We took a very firm stand on this, because it was actually an unjustified attack. "We are satisfied that our Turkish partners have heard us, even though it took them seven months, and that the letter President Erdogan sent to Vladimir Putin included the right words, as you know. This allowed us to arrange a phone conversation between the two presidents, during which they agreed to instruct their governments to start normalizing bilateral relations. This work is underway. Regular flights have been resumed today, including those that were suspended because of the attempted coup... "As for the restoration of trust, this is an abstract category. Everything will depend on how we feel the cooperation and contacts are going. I'm referring not only to bilateral contacts or bilateral trade, not what we will buy from each other, what we will build or what investment projects we will implement jointly. Much will depend on our cooperation in settling the Syrian crisis. "It so happened that after our bomber was downed and we put a freeze on relations with Turkey, we provided numerous pieces of evidence during discussions on Syria that showed that Turkish territory is actively used to deliver supplies to terrorists and to transport fighters to Syria. This evidence is still on the table. Now that we have resumed our relations, it will be difficult for Turkey to disregard the evidence. We hope that our Turkish partners will answer our questions and also take measures to prevent the use of their territory for keeping up this fratricidal war and for supporting terrorists who are fighting for their own interests and don't care about the future of Syria. "I recently met with my Turkish colleague, Mevlut Cavusoglu, during a meeting of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) organization in Sochi. I think that our Turkish neighbors understand that we should cooperate more openly and with a greater degree of trust now, also considering that the situation in Syria has significantly changed over the past seven months. Conditions are being created there for defeating terrorists and launching a real intra-Syrian dialogue so that the Syrians themselves decide the future of their country."[9] Gazeta.ru's Editorialist: Erdogan Wants Guarantees That Russia Will Refuse To Support Syrian Kurds According to Gazeta.ru editorialist, Vladimir Frolov, Vladimir Frolov, Moscow's hopes for the success of its plans for Aleppo and military victory in Syria depend heavily on the position of Turkey and on Ankara's readiness to block the channels of weapons, fuel and food supply to the Syrian rebels via the Turkish border. Frolov wrote: "Without some boosting from Turkey, rebellion in North-Western Syria is doomed, and supplies in Eastern Aleppo will only be enough for a few months. Apparently, this will be one of the central subjects during the talks of Vladimir Putin and Recep Erdogan in Saint-Petersburg on August 9. Moscow has made its wishes known to the Turkish side by informing it about the 'humanitarian operation'[10] in Aleppo and expressing hope that Turkey's position will change. But Ankara, too, has something to show Moscow - Erdogan wants guarantees that Russia will refuse to give diplomatic and military support to Syrian Kurds from the Kurdish Democratic Union, whom Turkey considers terrorists to be connected to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (KWP)[11] . So far, no great changes have been noticed in Turkey's actions on the Syrian axis - the support for the militants continues (one must understand that it may be because of the commitments to the opposition's sponsors - Qatar and Saudi Arabia). Erdogan's goals in Syria have not changed either: the establishment of a moderate Islamist regime headed by Sunnis, close to Erdogan's own Justice and Development Party (AKP). But the timetable and modalities of this transition are something that Ankara is ready to discuss. Before the start of the Russian operation in Syria in September 2015, Erdogan stated that Assad could stay at the helm of Syria for a transitional period of no more than six months. Maybe today there is more flexibility. One must also be aware of the fact that the failure of the military coup in Turkey and the purges of the top military officials that followed have weakened the restraint on the adventurous character of Erdogan's policy in Syria. It was the military who restrained him several times from direct armed invasion of northern Syria in order to create 'humanitarian areas' for refugees, but in fact - buffer zones for Syrian Kurds. Today Erdogan is probably not in the mood for any invasions, but nobody knows what may happen tomorrow."[12] Endnotes: To mark the first anniversary of Adoption Day of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the office of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei released, on July 20 and 25, two collections, in English, of excerpts from his speeches in recent years about the U.S., its values, its attitude towards Iran, Islam, and humanity, and how to act with it. The collections, accompanied by graphics, included links to the full text of some of the speeches. Then, on August 1, Khamenei gave a virulent anti-U.S. speech, underlining that dealing with the Americans " is a deadly poison for us," that the Americans are "malicious," that the U.S. is an enemy that "has no scruples about breaking his promises," and that "it is not possible to negotiate with this enemy." He added, "The reason why I have been repeating for many years that we will not negotiate with America is this"; that "America is the Great Satan. This description is really an excellent description"; that the Americans "have acknowledged that they have helped create DAESH [i.e. ISIS] in order to create discord inside the Islamic Ummah"; and that "there is a serious accusation that the coup d'etat that was launched in Turkey was masterminded by the Americans." It will be recalled that in the past year Khamenei has reiterated several times his ban on relations with the U.S. except for on the nuclear issue, and that members of the Iranian negotiating team have repeatedly said that they had met the conditions set out by Khamenei.[1] In the July 20 and 25 excerpts from speeches, Khamenei stressed that the U.S. says that it is acting in the name of the "American values" of democracy and progress, that is, for peace and stability in the world, but that in fact, he says, it is creating "civil wars, blind religious fanaticism, political instability, the spread of barbaric terrorism, the emergence of extremist groups and movements that cut at chests and chew the hearts of humans." It "backs [the] most vicious, most barbaric terrorists in Syria," he said, along with the most tyrannical and barbaric regimes, as well as oppression, wars, rule over others, and terrorism. The slogan of "Death to America" is no longer unique to Iran but is chanted by many peoples, he added, noting that the U.S. and Israel are behind the worst crimes against the civilian population in Syria, including the beheading of children. This paper will present the two collections of excerpts from July 20 and 25, 2016, as well as excerpts focusing on the U.S. from his August 1, 2016 speech, as released in English by Khamenei's office. "U.S. Backs Most Vicious, Most Barbaric Terrorists In Syria: Ayatollah Khamenei," July 20, 2016 Five days previously, on July 20, 2016, Khamenei's office released a collection of excerpts, headlined "U.S. Backs Most Vicious, Most Barbaric Terrorists In Syria." The following are the excerpts, in the original English. [2] "They are defending the most vicious and most barbaric terrorists. They are helping them, whether in Syria or in Iraq. And this help is given to them directly or indirectly. (Ayatollah Khamenei, November 25, 2015)." "A glance at the situation in Southwest Asian countries, from Pakistan to Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq, to Palestine and the Persian Gulf countries, as well as countries in North Africa including; Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Sudan and a few more countries, will shed light on many realities. Civil wars, blind religious fanaticism, political instability, the spread of barbaric terrorism, the emergence of extremist groups and movements that cut at chests and chew the hearts of humans - the way barbarian tribes in history would do - armed individuals who kill children and women, behead men and rape women, in some cases they even commit all these despicable, shameful crimes in the name and under the flag of religion; these are all the products of the satanic and arrogant plots, committed by foreign security service and agents of their allied governments in the region. Additionally, they happen on the domestic prone fields of each of these countries, bringing about days of tragedy to these nations. Undoubtedly, under such conditions, it cannot be expected that Muslim countries compensate for their financial and spiritual shortcomings; achieving security, welfare, scientific growth and international dignity, which are gained as a result of awakening and self-identification. The grieving situation can abort the Islamic awakening and halt the spiritual preparations, created in the Muslim world; once again, pushing Muslim nations into recessions, isolation and decline for years; hence, making them forget about their main issues, like that of saving Palestine, and saving Muslim nations from U.S and Zionist encroachment. (Ayatollah Khamenei, October 14, 2013)."' "The corrupt hands of U.S., NATO and Zionism, with the help of their agents in the region, created the Syrian crisis; they created it, in order to make the nations forget about the main issues of their own countries, and the dangers that await them; therefore, they divert their attention to the bloody event they have, deliberately, created. The civil war in Syria and the murder of Muslim youth by their peers are transgressions created by the U.S. and Zionist, including the states that obey them and fuel the conflict. (Ayatollah Khamenei, October 25, 2012)." "Do 'American Values' Still Exist Out There? Ayatollah Khamenei Asks," July 25, 2016 The collection of excerpts released July 25, 2016 on Khamenei's website was titled 'Do 'American Values' still exist out there? Ayatollah Khamenei asks' and headed with a graphic of the Statue of Liberty, a man with a bloody knife bearing aloft a severed head, and the heading: 'U.S. Backs Most Vicious, Most Barbaric Terrorists In Syria - Ayatollah Khamenei.' The following is the image and the text, in the original English:[3] English.khamenei.ir, July 25, 2016. "As for America's intellectual and rational state - after all, a government or a nation relies on the intellectual principles that it presents. Money alone does not bring about credibility for nations: there is a need for ideas. The Americans used to say that they had a set of 'principles,' that they had a set of 'values,' 'American values.' They used to create uproar in the world for the sake of these principles and values. Notice what has happened to American values today. (Ayatollah Khamenei's Speech to Students, October 31, 2012)." "America is condemned in the world. The American government does not enjoy widespread credibility among the people of any country. 'Death to America' is not just a slogan that is particular to the Iranian nation. This slogan is chanted in many other countries as well. A government that supports oppression, war, accumulation of weapons, domination of nations, bullying and interference in the affairs of all countries has acquired such a bad reputation and this is another sign. Therefore, change in the world is inescapable. There are other signs as well, but I will not discuss them in this meeting. This is one point. (Ayatollah Khamenei's Speech to Professors, August 12, 2012)." "The enemy's weak points - his ideological and practical weak points - should be identified and presented to those individuals who require such presentation. The enemies of the Islamic Revolution are the same people who entered the region 10, 15 years ago with the slogan of providing security. Take a look today and see where in the region security exists! Insecurity has engulfed the entire region. West Asia and North Africa are filled with insecurity. "When they attacked Afghanistan, their slogan was fighting against terrorism, but today, terrorism has engulfed the entire region - and what terrorism it is! It is a kind of savage and violent terrorism, one in which individuals burn people - their enemies - alive and in front of everyone. And then they use different technical means to display this directly to the people throughout the world. It is this kind of terrorism. Today, takfiri elements are like this. They kill a child in front of its mother and they kill parents in front of their children. They had come to eliminate terrorism from the region with this slogan and claim. I am not saying that this was their real goal, rather this was their slogan- but where in the region does terrorism not exist in the present time? "They had come - as they claimed - to establish democracy. Today, the most reactionary, dictatorial and tyrannical regimes are standing upright and continuing their crimes with the help of America and its allies. This is really one of the major problems of America. Today, this problem has entangled American politicians as well. They have really gotten stuck in it. They are supporting such regimes. Over the course of many years, their anti-dictatorship slogans and claims to support human rights have been repudiated because of the existence of such regimes. In the present time, this issue has posed serious questions among American intellectuals, political personalities and thinkers and they have no answers for them. "This enemy is such a creature! This is how the issue of human rights, democracy, terrorism, security and peace has worked out for the enemy who is in front of us. They used to say that they were fighting for peace, but which peace? They have polluted the whole region with war. Where in the region does war not exist? This is the enemy. He whom the Revolution is confronting and he whom you are standing up against is this! It is this creature with all these contradictions, all these weak points and all these ideological and practical shortcomings. One of the characteristics of guarding the Revolution is to open our eyes and to see these things. (Ayatollah Khamenei, September 16, 2015)." "Our Problems With America Are Not Solved By Negotiations" - August 1, 2016 English.khamenei.ir, August 1, 2016. In a particularly virulent anti-U.S. speech on August 1, 2016, published, in English, under the headline "Our Problems With America Are Not Solved By Negotiations," Khamenei spoke at "a meeting with people from various social backgrounds" whom he addressed as "different groups of our dear people [who] have come from the four corners of the country and from various provinces... from the southeast to the northwest of the country and from various tribes - Fars, Turk, Kurd, Baluch." He said:[4] "...Sometimes, the enemies create some obstacles. It is a wise course of action for us to go and eliminate these obstacles with acumen. But the enemy cannot be trusted. One example of this is the nuclear negotiations and the Bar-Jaam [JCPOA]. Today, the officials in charge of our own diplomacy and those who were present in the nuclear negotiations from the first day to the last are saying that America has broken its promises. With its calm appearance and with the soft and glib tongue of its officials, America is damaging us from behind the scene. It is preventing our country from establishing economic relations with other countries. This is being said by the officials in charge of the Bar-Jaam. Of course, this is something that I have been repeatedly saying since a year, a year and a half ago. I have been saying that the Americans cannot be trusted. It was difficult for some individuals to accept this, but today, our officials themselves are saying this. "Just last week, our honorable negotiators had a meeting with the other sides in Europe. Our officials said the same things to them and they had nothing to say in response. Our negotiators said to them that they have broken such and such promises, that they have committed such and such wrongdoings, that they have failed to do what they were supposed to do and that they have stabbed us in the back in such and such ways, but they had nothing to say in response. Six months have passed since the Bar-Jaam was signed, but no tangible and palpable effect has been witnessed in the living conditions of the people. This is while the goal of the Bar-Jaam was to lift the sanctions. Its goal was to lift the oppressive sanctions. Was its goal something other than this? Well, those sanctions have not been lifted. "Now, they are saying that things are becoming better gradually and little by little. Was the issue about little by little? On that day, officials said both to us and to the people that in the negotiations, the goal is to lift the sanctions at once when Iran fulfils its commitments. In other words, the goal was to eliminate the obstacle that America had created on the path of the people of Iran in an oppressive and vicious manner. Now, six months have passed from that day, but that obstacle has not been eliminated yet. Is six months a short time for an eighty-million country? During these six months, if it had not been for this American viciousness, would the honorable administration have done little work? "The Bar-Jaam became an example and an experience for us. Last year - it was last year or a year and a half ago: I do not remember the exact date - I said in a public speech that the Bar-Jaam and the nuclear negotiations will serve as an example for us to see what the Americans do [Supreme Leader's speech delivered on April 9, 2015, in a meeting with the panegyrists of Ahlul Bayt]. I said that we should see what these people - who use soft and glib words, who sometimes write a letter to show their respect and their cooperation and who speak to officials with a glib tongue in consultative meetings and in negotiations - do in practice. "Now, it has become clear what they do in practice! On the face of it, they give promises and they speak with a soft and glib tongue, but in practice, they hatch plots, damage us and prevent the progress of our affairs. This is America and this is an experience. In the present time, the Americans are asking us to go and speak to them about regional matters. Well, this experience tells us that this is a deadly poison for us. "This experience showed us that we cannot speak to them, on any matter, like a trustworthy party. Sometimes, you speak to your enemy, but you do it with an enemy who is committed to his statements so much so that you can be sure that he will not violate his promises and his commitments with any excuse. You can speak to this enemy. However, when it is proved that the enemy is malicious, one that has no scruples about breaking his promises, that smiles and speaks with a soft and glib tongue, and that justifies his actions when you ask him why he has broken his promises, then you should know that it is not possible to negotiate with this enemy. The reason why I have been repeating for many years that we will not negotiate with America is this. This shows that our problems with America and the likes of America on this matter, on regional matters and on various other matters are not solved through negotiations. We ourselves should choose a path and then take it. You should make the enemy to run after you. You should make him to run after you. "The officials of our political and diplomatic affairs are explicitly saying that the Americans want to take everything, but give nothing in return! If you take one step backward, they take one step forward. When we constantly say that we will not negotiate, some people say, 'What is wrong with negotiations?' Well, this is the problem with negotiations. Such negotiations will make you deviate from your correct path and they will take concessions away from you. When you negotiate, this means that you should give a concession and get another in return. This is the meaning of negotiations. Negotiation does not mean gathering somewhere to engage in a friendly chat and to tell jokes. Negotiation means giving something and taking something else in return. However, he takes from you what you should give, but refuses to give what he should give to you. He acts in a bullying manner. "'Arrogant' means this. 'Global arrogance' means this. It means bullying, considering oneself as superior, refusing to be committed to one's promises and regarding oneself as free of any commitment. This is the meaning of arrogance. Arrogant individuals go back on their promises. Well, our magnanimous Imam (r.a.) said that America is the Great Satan. This description is really an excellent description. Allah the Exalted quotes Satan saying to those who followed him, 'And Satan will say when the matter is decided, "It was Allah Who gave you a promise of truth. I too promised, but I failed in my promise to you."' (The Holy Quran, 14:22). On Judgment Day, Satan says to his followers, 'God gave you a true and genuine promise, but you did not follow His promise and you did not stick to it. I gave you a false promise and you followed me! I broke my promise to you. I gave you a promise and I violated it.' "Satan blames his followers on Judgment Day like this. Then, Allah the Exalted quotes Satan saying to his followers, 'Then reproach not me, but reproach your own souls' (The Holy Quran, 14:22). He says to them that they should blame themselves, not him. In the present time, this is completely true in the case of America. Satan says this on Judgment Day, and the Americans say it today in this world. They give promises, but they do not act on them. They take a concession that is in cash, but they do not give the one that is on credit. This is America's condition. Therefore, others should not be trusted... "As for regional matters, the region has become a turbulent region today. When we take a look at it, we see America's footprint again. The Saudi government has publicly established relations with the Zionist regime and it has made its comings and goings official. This is stabbing the Islamic Ummah in the back. There is no doubt that what the Saudis have done - overt relations with the Zionist regime - is really a dagger that has been pushed into the body of the Islamic Ummah from behind. They have committed high treason. They have committed a sin. However, on this matter too, America's hand is involved. Because the Saudi government follows America, because it is possessed by it, and because it obeys its orders, it has made this grave mistake. America is involved on this matter too. "Or when you witness that it is almost a year and a half now that Yemen has been under bombardment, is this a minor event? They are constantly bombarding a country. And they are not bombarding its military centers, rather they are bombarding its markets, hospitals, public squares and schools and the people's houses and gatherings. This is not a minor event, rather it is a very grave crime. They do not understand what the month of Ramadan and a month of haraam are and they do not differentiate between children and adults. They have murdered so many children! Well, this is a grave crime as well which has unfortunately been committed by the Saudi government. However, they have done so with the support of America, with its approval and with its weapons - the weapons and ammunitions that are from America. "It is they who are providing them will all the resources. Even when the United Nations wants to say something in this regard - now, after a lifetime of silence, it has decided to say something true and to condemn this course of action - they shut its mouth with money, with threats and with pressure. This poor and infamous Secretary General of the United Nations acknowledged that they have exerted pressure on him. Well, if they pressured you and if you cannot fulfill your duty, why do you not resign? Why do you stay there and betray humanity? This is betraying humanity! America is involved on this matter as well. "On the issue of Bahrain, when a foreign army comes to Bahrain from another country in order to pressure the people of Bahrain, here too, America has given its green light. The Saudi government is a government that is being managed by children: by silly children in the real sense of the word. The Saudi government is in their hands. However, what one understands after analyzing and witnessing all the issues is that this is really being done by the Americans and with their support. "The same is true of these takfiri groups. In the present time, they claim that they have formed a coalition against takfiri groups. Of course, even right now, they are not doing anything against them. According to the reports that we have received, they even help them in some places. However, the creation of these groups goes back to America. Some American officials have acknowledged this. They have acknowledged that they have helped create DAESH [i.e. ISIS] in order to create discord inside the Islamic Ummah and in order to promote Umayyad and Marwani Islam. This Wahhabi and takfiri Islam is the same as Umayyad and Marwani Islam! It is a kind of Islam that is miles away from real Islam. They have made Islam disreputable. Of course, they themselves are suffering from the consequences of their actions as well. It is well-known in Farsi that 'Anyone who plants a wind will reap a storm.' Now, they are gradually reaping a storm. But this is their fault anyway. It was they who did so. "The same is true of other matters. The Americans claim that they want to solve regional problems, but in reality, it is the opposite of this. They themselves have created or intensified these problems. They are a barrier to solving the problems. If things are in the hands of regional peoples, they will resolve the problems on their own. Once more, we would like to invite the Islamic and Arab governments which are around us to avoid trusting America. They should know that America is not trustworthy. America looks at them as a tool: a tool for preserving the Zionist regime and their own arrogant outlook and interests in the region. In reality, America is not interested in them in any way. It uses their money and their resources for its own interests. It uses them in order to create a rampart for itself, to preserve the Zionist regime and uphold its own arrogant goals in the region. This is what they are doing. "On the issue of regional events, in my opinion, the solution is that Muslim nations and Muslim governments become united and show resistance in the face of the goals of arrogance, America and some European governments. Some European governments made themselves disreputable by following America. This way, they made themselves fall out of favor with regional nations. Well, some European governments were even respected by our people - the people of Iran - but they made themselves disreputable by following America. Their goals should be identified and then our movement should be launched against their goals. Nations can do so. And of course, our nation has stood firm. "I should add that despite all these statements and analyses, America is becoming weaker in the region on a daily basis. Its plans have been revealed and it is clear what it is after: It is after interfering in the affairs of different countries. And it is not the case that it only shows enmity towards us and that it is friends with others. This is not the case. You witnessed what happened in Turkey. Of course, in our opinion, it has not been proved yet that America was involved there, but there is a serious accusation that the coup d'etat that was launched in Turkey was masterminded by the Americans. If this is proved, this will be a big scandal for America. "Turkey was a country that had good relations with America. It used to say that it is America' ally in the region, but they are not even prepared to get along with Turkey. This is because there is an Islamic orientation there. They are opposed to Islam and to an Islamic orientation. This is why they launch a coup d'etat even in that country. Of course, it was put down. They were defeated and they fell out of favor with the people of Turkey as well. The same is true of other places. Thankfully, they are becoming weaker on a daily basis in Iraq, in Syria and in different other countries as well. "If we people of Iran are optimistic about the promise that Allah the Exalted has given and if we prepare the ground for that promise, then problems will be solved. God has said, 'If you help the cause of Allah, He will help you' (The Holy Quran, 47:7). If you help God's religion and if you strengthen and aid divine motives, Allah the Exalted will undoubtedly help you. No creature in the world can weaken a person who is helped by Allah the Exalted. Such a person will become stronger and more victorious on a daily basis. I hope that Allah the Exalted will help the people of Iran to succeed in all arenas - security, economic, military, political, cultural and scientific arenas - God willing. I hope that He will make you dear people happier and more victorious on a daily basis. "Greetings be upon you, and Allah's mercy and blessings." Endnotes: Love trumps everything! We used to see it in the sappy rom-coms and sagas and now, we have all the more reason to believe it in real life, too. Faizan Patel and Sana Fatima Khan, a happily married couple, had been thoroughly excited about their long-awaited trip to Italytheir passports were here and their Visas had come through, too. One week into the countdown to their Italian escapade, Sana lost her passport. And while friends and family hoped that she would find it, she didnt. Faizan and Sana had already booked the tickets and planned out the trip. And since that could not be undone, Faizan decided to embark on his honeymoon, sans his honey. What ensued was a flurry of posts on his Instagram, Twitter and Facebook timelines, showcasing his adventures around Italy, without his wife. Each post was hash-tagged #SanaWasHere as an ode to his wife. One of the cleverer things that Faizan did was tag Sushma Swaraj, Minister of External Affairs, India, in his tweets. And in an unprecedented turn of events, the minister did respond to Faizan! She assured Faizan that Sana would get her passport within no time. And she was right, indeed. Sana Fatima Khan just collected her passport from the office. But the story has only just begun. Ask your wife to contact me. I will ensure that she is with you on the next seat. pic.twitter.com/sktnOMkg0a @faizanpatel Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) August 8, 2016 What now ensues is the quest for Sanas Visa approval from the Italian Embassy; something even Sushma Swaraj could not help her with. Once the Visa procedure is complete, Sana hopes to join Faizan before its too late and he has to return home on 20th August 2016. So, while Sushma Swaraj played the Fairy Godmother card perfectly in their love story, the couple is still waiting on Sanas Visa acceptance at the Italian Embassy. Were keeping our fingers crossed with this one because, no matter how strong, or tough we may like to sound, deep down, were all romantics at heart; yes, even the Minister for External Affairs, India. Yes, maam, you rock! Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 9 By Elena Kosolapova Trend: A new ferry complex in Kazakhstans Kuryk port will start cargo transshipment by the 25th anniversary of Kazakhstans Independence, the countrys Prime Minister Karim Massimov wrote on Twitter on Aug. 9 Kazakhstan will celebrate 25th anniversary of Independence on Dec. 16. As of today, ferry transportation from Kazakhstan to other Caspian littoral states is possible only through the port of Aktau. However, the ferry terminal at this port has been working at the limit of its capacity over the recent years. It is expected that construction of the ferry complex in Kuryk will make it possible to triple the existing ferry capacities of Kazakhstan and strengthen the Kazakh section of the China-Europe transport corridor. Kazakhstan plans to increase transit transportation from the current 18 million tons of cargo to 33 million tons in 2020 and to 50 million tons in 2030. An asbestos-containing industrial building in Coventry set fire last week, causing firefighters to be exposed to the harmful substance. Coventry has a longstanding history of asbestos due to its industrialization in the 19th century. Because of this exposure to asbestos in the workplace in Coventry, mesothelioma cancer has been problematic. Lamb commented, We could actually see fire in the sky, the building was completely involved when we arrived. Our firefighters stayed out of the building. Obviously there was nobody in the building at the time. Its a commercial building, said Central Coventry Fire Chief, Peter Lamb. The fire was contained within 30 minutes, but the building was made of a car storage company, landscaping business, and an asbestos removal company. We had some material that contains asbestos, part of the asbestos removal company, so obviously thats concern to firefighters. said Lamb. The material was placed in bags by the removal company. The huge dumpster by the building was full of these bags and caught fire as well. As soon as the firefighters realized the dumpsters contained asbestos, they stopped spraying water so contaminated runoff wouldnt occur, and instead let it burn. Asbestos is generally not airborne. The only thing that would make it airborne is the fire, per say, so its contained to the dumpster. Were relatively confident thats okay, said Lamb. Coincidentally, the material was widely used for its immense heat-resistant properties, but it can be even more dangerous with fire, and pose an even greater risk to human health. Insulation, roof materials, drywall, ceiling tiles, flooring, and asphalt are all materials commonly known to contain asbestos. When theyre ignited with fire, the smoke made of carbon dioxide, water vapor, carbon monoxide, fine particulate matter, hydrocarbons, and other organic and non-organic substances can include the minute asbestos fibers. Debris should always be taken away from a fire site, but it must first be thoroughly tested for the presence of asbestos before the removal can begin. Although Rhode Island is not widely known for its participation in the asbestos industry, exposure was likely the result of the asbestos-containing materials (ACMs) and used in many building supplies and incorporated into the construction of the states many older and historic buildings. There is a deposit of serpentine (the source of common white asbestos) located near Diamond Hill. Plus, Rhode Island was the birthplace of the Industrial Age in North America and there are still five power generation plants and a number of major port facilities, which run a great risk to employees of developing work-related asbestos disease. Officials say the surrounding air and water near the half-burned down Coventry building is safe. Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 9 By Fatih Karimov Trend: Iran has resumed exporting diesel to the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in Northern Iraq, Mohammad Sadeghi, an official with the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company (NIOPDC), said. The diesel export resumed recently after a 3-month halt, Sadeghi said, Mehr news agency reported Aug. 9. Iran currently exports one million liters of diesel per day to Northern Iraq via Tamarchin border checkpoint, he added. Diesel loading capacity for export to the KRG has increased by 30 percent, he said. First consignment of 290,000 liters of diesel was dispatched to Northern Iraq on May 25. Iran sells diesel to the Iraqi Kurdish region at the price of 26 cents per liter. Reportedly, about eight million liters of diesel was smuggled from Iran to neighboring countries on a daily basis during the last fiscal year (ended March 20). It is estimated that $1 billion worth of diesel was smuggled abroad during the 12-month period, Ghasem Khorshidi, senior official with the Headquarters for Combating Smuggling of Goods and Foreign Exchange, said in May. He said that retail diesel markets are established in border regions with Afghanistan and Pakistan, to reduce fuel smuggling from Iran, adding the Iranian administration also plans to launch gasoline and diesel retail sale centers in Kurdistan Province bordering with Iraq. Tehran, Iran, August 9 By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend: Iranian airlines are required to dismiss their outdated airplanes in the course of three months, Iran Civil Aviation Organization spokesman Rahmatollah Mahabadi said. He said according to the requirement, 27 grounded, non-operational airplanes will be collected from airports across the country, IRNA news agency reported August 9. Each day they delay in doing so they would have to pay a heavy sum, the official stated. Iran intends to purchase 20 regional jets from a unit of Japans Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, according to Asghar Fakhrieh Kashan, deputy minister for international affairs at the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development. Fakhrieh Kashan said last week that the deal was likely to be finalized when a Japanese delegation visits Tehran in December. 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 with Boeing and Airbus 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, which is majority owned by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Tehran, Iran, Aug. 9 By Mehdi Sepahvand Trend: Tehran Prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi has ruled out legal action against rude remarks by an Iranian newspaper as the paper has not been sued by any individual. If insult to common individuals comprises an act of crime its pursuit is bound to some private plaintiff, he told a press conference, Iran newspaper reported Aug. 9. The remarks came after the public expressed expectation from the judiciary system to take action against the far-right Ya-Lasarat, which last week objected to a motion picture festival that, according to the Islamic Republic norms, could be described as pococurante. The newspapers criticism of the event had come in the form of a rude headline calling the men in that meeting cuckolds for bringing their wives with viewed Islamically careless clothing. This was met with a feverish flurry of objection on social as well as state media, calling for action against the newspaper. Initially it was announced by the Ministry of Culture that the newspaper had been banned, but the next morning its new edition appeared at newsstands, followed by remarks from the editor-in-chief refuting the ban. The Tehran prosecutor, however, in his remarks went on to criticize the festival for having turned into a fashion show, adding, We will take legal action against any event that violates Islamic values and propagates the Western lifestyle. Tehran, Iran, Aug. 9 By Mehdi Sepahvand Trend: Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has urged the countrys Ministry of Intelligence to preserve the orientation of the revolution meticulously. The Ministry of Intelligence is like a tough crust to the state and should never be damaged, Khamenei told a number of officials of the ministry at a meeting, Fars news agency reported Aug. 9. Creating a dividing line with the head of the arrogance current, that is the US, is one of the most salient and definite principles of [Imam Khomeini], which is something that tolerates no negligence or carelessness, Khamenei said. The ministry is a very vital and sensitive stronghold a watchful eye for the Islamic system, he stressed. Stressing that the ministrys achievements have been made possible through the faith of its personnel, he urged the officials to raise the ministrys new generation as revolutionary and devout as the current generation. The Foreign Ministry has scheduled five business missions for the coming time. Notification regarding the events in question has already been sent, in a timely manner, to all of our countrys business agencies and chambers. For more information and to express interest in participating, we ask that you contact the Foreign Ministrys B8 Directorate for Business Development (tel. 210 3682766-0, email: ). Below is a brief reiteration of the relevant announcements: 1. Business mission to Kazakhstan (Astana, 26-27 September 2016) On the occasion of the meeting of the Greece-Kazakhstan Joint Interministerial Committee, a business mission will take place, under Deputy Foreign Minister Dimitris Mardas, to Astana on 26 and 27 September 2016, in the sectors of agrifood products, energy, construction, pharmaceutical and parapharmaceutical products, cosmetics, personal hygiene products and tourism. 2. Business mission to Sweden (Stockholm, 3 October 2016) Within the framework of the development of our countrys bilateral economic relations with Sweden, Deputy Foreign Minister Mardas will head a business mission to Stockholm on 3 October 2016, in the sectors of food and beverages, cosmetics, tourism, real estate, cutting-edge technology & innovation. 3. Business mission to Tunisia (Tunis, 2-3 November 2016) Within the framework of the development of our countrys bilateral economic relations with Tunisia, Deputy Foreign Minister Mardas will head a business mission to Tunis on 2 and 3 November 2016, in the sectors of agricultural equipment (irrigation), tourism, medical machinery, construction materials, construction, renewable energy sources, and photovoltaics. 4. Business mission to Poland (Warsaw, 8-10 November 2016) Within the framework of the development of our countrys bilateral economic relations with Poland, Deputy Foreign Minister Mardas will head a business mission to Warsaw from 8 to 10 November 2016, in the sectors of food and beverages, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, construction, construction materials, renewable energy sources, environmental technologies and software (gaming). 5. Business mission to Indonesia, headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Mardas (Jakarta, 14-17 November 2016) Within the framework of the development of our countrys bilateral economic relations with Indonesia, Deputy Foreign Minister Mardas will head a business mission to Jakarta from 14 to 17 November 2016, in the sectors of food and beverages, tourism, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, shipping, construction, construction materials, renewable energy sources, and defence materials. This Email address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it JOURNALIST: You are organizing a meeting in Athens of your colleagues from the European Socialist Party (ESP). What is the subject of the meeting? N. XYDAKIS: The European affairs ministers affiliated with or coming from the ESP meet regularly on the margins of the General Affairs Council and draw up European policy positions. The Greek side participates as an observer, active since the 15 July meeting in Rome, which Minister of State Nikos Pappas and I attended. It was decided there that the next meeting would take place in Athens. The subject is the European Union, naturally: how it will respond to the current challenges of the multiple crises the economic and refugee crises and to the risk of disorientation following the Brexit. Mainly, how our political responses will strengthen democracy, the progressive orientation and social justice in Europe; precisely what is missing and is in jeopardy. The social face of the EU, the impasses of obsessive austerity, protection of labor and of the welfare state, the rule of law and social and political rights are on the agenda for the meeting. And of course the social functioning of the Union, based on its founding values of solidarity, convergence and cohesion. Our number-one priority is democracy and the prosperity of societies. JOURNALIST: Where will you raise the issues you conclude on? N. XYDAKIS: Our conclusions are forwarded to the European Council, in the hope of further politicizing its agenda. But also to render more substantial and effective the functioning of the General Affairs Council, which prepares the EU Summits. JOURNALIST: Why are invitations extended only to socialists, and not to all of your colleagues with a European affairs portfolio? N. XYDAKIS: The initiative belongs to my colleagues from the ESP. The framework is political, rather than geographical, kinship. The participants include ministers as well as figures from the European Parliament and the national parliaments of France, Italy, Portugal, Germany, Sweden, Malta, Greece. JOURNALIST: The Foreign Ministry is also preparing the Rhodes Conference on the Eastern Mediterranean, with countries of the Balkans, the Middle East. What is being pursued here? N. XYDAKIS: The Rhodes conference hopes to bring together, around the same table, all of the actors in the Mediterranean, not just Europeans and not just socialists, for a discussion of geopolitical challenges, security issues and potential approaches. JOURNALIST: Together with the Summit Meeting of the South, which Alexis Tsipras is holding in Athens, we see a great deal of activity, aimed at what? I mean practically, beyond the dimension of extroversion that you want to give to your policy. N. XYDAKIS: The economic crisis and the refugee crisis have shown that Europe can move ahead only united and in solidarity. Otherwise, the risk of fragmentation looms. The Brexit and the instability in Turkey show clearly that these developments are of geostrategic and historical significance. Together with everyone, our country needs to seek and articulate a multifaceted diplomacy with a mid- and long-term perspective. Geography and the state of affairs that has plagued us in the recent past can be turned to advantage. Of course, prudence, persistence and patience are required. Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 9 By Fatih Karimov Trend: The UK Prime Minister Theresa May discussed boosting mutual ties in a phone talk with Irans President Hassan Rouhani. The two parties discussed boosting mutual economic, insurance and banking relations, Hamid Aboutalebi, deputy chief of Staff of Irans Presidential Office for Political Affairs, posted on his Twitter page Aug. 9. The two senior officials also negotiated developing cooperation in regional issues, Aboutalebi wrote. Deepening cooperation and fighting against terrorism, as well as the efforts of the two countries foreign ministers to enhance mutual ties were discussed in the phone talk, the Iranian official added. The UK prime minister stressed the P5+1 (the US, the UK, Germany, France, Russia and China) commitment to the strict implementation of the nuclear deal, according to Aboutalebi. Trade and economic relations with Turkey will be discussed in the autumn, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a joint press conference following the meeting with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in St. Petersburg. A session of the intergovernmental commission on trade and economic relations with Turkey will take place in the autumn 2016, Putin said. We have to work hard to reanimate trade and economic relations. This process has already started, but it will take some time. Putin noted that the visit of a delegation of the Turkish governments economic bloc to Moscow at the end of July, their negotiations with Russian colleagues, became an important step. We intend to pay particular attention to increasing investments, trade flows, implementation of promising projects, Putin said. It is very important that business circles support us in that. He added that Russia and Turkey intend to hold a meeting of a strategic planning group in the first half of 2017, and noted that the countries have all opportunities to restore and strengthen full-length relations. I would like to thank President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan for a sincere conversation, which took place today, Putin said following the talks with Erdogan Aug. 9. The talks have confirmed that our countries have every opportunity to restore normal, full-length relations that would contribute to strengthening of stability not only in our region but also around the world. Russia is ready for such work. Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia has decided to resume charter flights to Turkey, Sputnik International reported. The Russian president made the announcement at a joint press conference with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan following a lengthy meeting between the two leaders, which took place in St. Petersburg. We have looked at the option of resuming our charter flights between Russia and Turkey, I think this is a matter of time, Putin said at a press conference. Late last month we lifted the ban on selling travel tours to Turkey to Russian customers, he stressed. The most important objective here is for Turkey to ensure security for Russian tourists, and we have received such guarantees. Russia's president also noted that visa regime issues between the two countries must be resolved in order to further Russian-Turkish economic ties. Visa issues should be addressed, because one way or another they relate to economic cooperation, Putin said. The Russian president said that the Turkish side had stressed that economic issues arose due to visa restrictions in the transport sector. "We must bear this all in mind to unblock the issues of economic interaction," Putin said. The Detroit Free Press reports that the Michigan WWII Legacy Memorial will host the event, called "Kissing the War Goodbye," on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. It'll be held in front of a 25-foot statue in Memorial Park that commemorates the photo of a sailor and a woman in a white dress locked in an embrace. At the event, kissers and onlookers dressed in clothes of a sailor, nurse or other period-appropriate garb will gather around the statue by artist Seward Johnson called "Embracing Peace." World War II veterans and re-enactors from that period are expected to attend. Enter Donald Trump, and the question that could make or break this year's divisive presidential election in key states. By inflaming the anti-immigrant sentiments of white, working-class men, has the Republican nominee jolted awake another group the now 27.3 million eligible Hispanic voters long labeled the sleeping giant of U.S. elections? "A lot of times you hear this rap about how politics doesn't affect their life," says Yvanna Cancela, political director of Las Vegas' largely immigrant Culinary Union. "But that changes when it's personal, and there's nothing more personal than Donald Trump talking about deporting 11 million immigrants." Hispanics now represent the nation's largest ethnic community with some 55 million people. More than half are U.S.-born, an additional 6.5 million are naturalized citizens, and the others are legal residents or here illegally. Most trace their familial roots to Mexico, one of Trump's favorite targets. "When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best," Trump said last summer, minutes into the speech that announced his candidacy. "They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists." A cornerstone of Trump's platform is building a wall along the entire Southwest border and forcing Mexico to pay for it. How? By threatening to cut off remittances those living in the U.S. send to relatives down south. He publicly attacked and questioned the impartiality of an Indiana-born federal judge hearing a lawsuit against him because of the judge's Mexican ancestry. He's called protesters in New Mexico "thugs who were flying the Mexican flag" and accused the state's governor a Republican who also happens to be the nation's first female Hispanic governor of "not doing the job." Half of that state's population is Hispanic, as are 40 percent of the state's eligible voters. This is hardly what the Republican National Committee had in mind three years ago when, after Mitt Romney's loss to Barack Obama, it commissioned a study about how best to bring more Hispanics, blacks, women and young voters into the fold. An entire section called "America Looks Different" urged Republicans to engage with minority voters, "show our sincerity" and "embrace and champion comprehensive immigration reform." Skip ahead to 2016, and surveys that show most Hispanics plan to vote against the Republican nominee. A Fox News Latino poll conducted in May found 67 percent back Hillary Clinton and only 23 percent support Trump. John Herrera, 38, is typical. He registered to vote in Las Vegas in June. "I've never really voted until now, only because of Trump being against Hispanic people," he said. "I didn't think my vote would count before, but now I want to make a difference." Lionel Sosa, a prominent Mexican-American advertising and marketing executive in San Antonio, was once dubbed one of the top 25 most influential Hispanics in America by Time magazine. He helped devise strategies to attract Latino voters for the likes of Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and John McCain. That was before Trump. In a June column in the San Antonio Express-News, Sosa announced he'd be leaving the party upon Trump's formal nomination. "A thousand points of light has been replaced by a thousand points of anger. In place of compassionate conservatism, our nominee promotes callousness, extremism and racism. And instead of a unifier, the party now cheers the ultimate 'us against them' proponent. Divisiveness incarnate," he wrote. ___ Republican fears of Hispanic backlash are rooted in what happened after their party targeted illegal immigration in California in 1994. Gov. Pete Wilson tied his re-election campaign to a ballot measure, Proposition 187, to deny government benefits and access to public schools to people in the country illegally. The measure passed, and though it was later struck down as unconstitutional, a growing Hispanic population was infuriated. In the years since, more Latinos have been elected to office in the state and the GOP has dwindled to a mere footnote; no Republican has won a statewide election in California since 2006. Proposition 187 wasn't the only factor in the change other groups in California, like coastal whites, were shifting Democratic in the mid-'90s, and Hispanics already leaned against the GOP. But the loss of California has become the example of the risk Republicans run alienating a fast-growing ethnic group. "With Trump saying the things he's saying, we might see this same thing again," says Jody Agius Vallejo, a University of Southern California sociologist and author of "Barrios to Burbs: The Making of the Mexican American Middle Class." ''Only this time, it would be nationally." There is reason, though, to be skeptical. Overall, the Hispanic voting record is not good. One obstacle is some 7.2 million Hispanic adults are here illegally and are ineligible to vote, according to estimates from the Pew Research Center. Another 5 million, while living here legally as temporary or permanent residents, are not citizens. Finally, nearly one-third of all Hispanics in the U.S., some 17.9 million, are under age 18 young people like Edysmar Diaz-Cruz, a high school student from Miami, whose 18th birthday comes one month after the presidential contest. "It's so disappointing because I've been closely following this year's campaign," she says. Relatively few of the Hispanics who are eligible to vote actually register and then cast ballots. In the 2012 election, only 48 percent of eligible Hispanic voters turned out, according to the Pew Research Center . That's compared to a 66.6 percent turnout rate among blacks and a 64.1 percent rate among whites. In Arizona, a decade of tough-on-immigration policies from Republican officials has triggered no popular uprising by the state's growing Hispanic population; the GOP still controls all state offices, and activists acknowledge that increasingly conservative white votes there tend to mitigate gains among Hispanics, who now represent about one-fifth of the state's voters. In Texas, where 39 percent of the population is Hispanic, Democrats have been shut out of statewide elections for decades. During 2014's midterm elections, fewer than 2.3 million Texas Hispanics reported being registered to vote, or about 46 percent of the nearly 4.9 million who were eligible, according to U.S. Census Bureau surveys. Turnout was even worse: That year, 22 percent of eligible Texas Hispanics reported voting compared to nearly 42 percent of eligible whites and 35 percent of eligible blacks. "We've been spending our money wrong," concedes Crystal Zermeno, director of special projects for the Democratic field organization Texas Organizing Project. "For the past 15 to 20 years, we've been focusing on moving swing white voters. If you talk to Hispanic voters, they say, 'No one has asked me to vote,'" Zermeno says. "There has not been a focus and real expenditures historically on unlikely voters, and you can't just expect non-voters to go out in great numbers ... without anyone encouraging them." Unions, nonprofits and political campaigns have struggled to grow the Hispanic electorate, with mixed success. In Colorado, Democratic groups have invested for years to reach out, and Hispanic registration and turnout have edged higher. In 2013, a state assembly that had been tough on illegal immigration allowed people in the country illegally to pay in-state tuition at public colleges and universities. Nevada is another battleground state, where some 17 percent of eligible voters, or 328,000 people, are Hispanics. Here, Latinos have clearly demonstrated the power they wield when they either turn out or stay home. In 2008 and 2012 they helped President Barack Obama; they were critical in re-electing Sen. Harry Reid in 2010. In the 2014 midterms, though, Hispanic turnout plummeted, and Republicans swept every statewide office and won control of both houses of the Legislature for the first time since 1929. "When you have the resources put in, you see turnout that favors the Democrats," says David Damore, a political science professor at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. "But you need to put resources in the community. It's not just going to happen." This year with Trump priming the pump, and with former state Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto running to replace the retiring Reid and become the first Latina senator resources are flowing. Groups like Mi Familia Vota are sending in staff from around the country and hiring local volunteers to step up registration and turnout efforts. In June, two days after graduating from high school, Fabiola Vejar stood outside a Latin grocery store on a sweltering afternoon quizzing a parade of customers in Spanish: "Are you registered to vote?" Most shook their heads no. Vejar followed up: "Are you eligible?" Again, most responded in the negative. One man laughed and bellowed: "Soy Mexicano!" I'm Mexican! Vejar cannot vote. Now 18, she entered the country illegally from Mexico with her mother when she was 2 years old, after her father died of leukemia. Her future, and that of her family, largely depends on this election. She is shielded from deportation under an Obama administration program that protects those brought to the country illegally as children. Hillary Clinton has promised to keep that program, and Trump to end it. Trump also has pledged to deport every person in the country illegally, and that would include not just Fabiola, but her mother and stepfather. Her two brothers are both U.S. citizens, but not yet 18. So Vejar volunteers with Mi Familia Vota, encouraging others to be heard at the ballot box. "I don't have that voice," she says, "but there's other people ... who feel the way I do. They should vote." Some, like Jose Martinez, are unconvinced. The 40-year-old security guard voted twice for Obama but told one of Vejar's colleagues he is sitting this election out because he's disappointed the president did not pass a broad immigration overhaul. "He promised a lot, a lot to Latinos," Martinez says. "He did maybe 1 percent. ... We don't believe in anything now." ___ Joe Enriquez Henry remembers the moment he set out to disprove the conventional wisdom that Hispanics just don't vote. It was 2002, and then-Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, a Democrat, signed a bill making English the state's official language. Vilsack now says he regrets the decision, but the governor then explained to Henry that Latinos just were too small a voting constituency to convince him to put down the pen. Henry, whose mother's family came to the U.S. from Mexico more than 100 years ago, vowed he'd help Iowa's small but significant Hispanic population now more than 170,000, or nearly 6 percent of the state's population make their voices heard. Years of work paid off on Feb. 1, when as many as 13,000 Hispanics turned out for the state's caucuses. Only about 1,000 had attended in 2012. "The Democratic and Republican parties think we don't vote, so we wanted to prove that we do," says Henry, a vice president of the League of United Latin American Citizens. There was no magic formula. Henry scraped together $200,000 that paid for a few staffers who made phone calls, distributed fliers and knocked on doors to talk about the importance of voting with people like Mayra de Catalan, an immigrant from El Salvador who works as a bank analyst. The Des Moines resident has been in the U.S. for two decades and became a citizen only five years ago; she says she had not even considered voting. "It was the first time anyone had talked to me about the importance of voting," she says, "how my one vote could make a difference." That's the same message that Victor Juarez is spreading in Nevada. He has been a member of Culinary Union Local 226 since 1989, when he started work as a cook at the Circus, Circus casino. The union represents 55,000 casino and hotel workers, half of them Hispanic and many of them immigrants; it has harnessed Las Vegas' housekeepers, cooks and janitors and turned them into an electoral powerhouse. Juarez has been taking paid leaves of absence to work as an organizer for Culinary, traveling around town and knocking on doors of other union members to get them to the polls. He himself only became a citizen, able to vote, after the 2004 election; he was working two jobs to put his children through school and says he didn't have time. Often he finds families headed by people with little education who don't speak English and are wary of participating in the system. "We had to open their eyes," he says. "There's a lack of education, language barriers." With Trump, he says, he has noticed a change. "People who've been living here a long time are getting scared about what he's saying." Xiomara Duenas is one of them. She immigrated legally to the United States from Cuba in 1996 to join her father. She worked at a seafood processing plant in New Jersey before moving to Nevada in 2012 after medical issues forced an early retirement. She had always believed that her shaky English prevented her from becoming a citizen. She was resigned to the idea that immigrants didn't have the same rights as native-born Americans until Trump's candidacy. Duenas found a Culinary Union citizenship workshop where Spanish speakers guided her through the process. Last November, she became a citizen. This November, she plans to act. "I didn't want him to become president, but I couldn't do anything," says Duenas. "But now, I can vote." Despite Flipping in Surf 4 Times in a Year, Marines Say New ACV Is the Future of Amphibious Warfare Some Marine veterans familiar with the vehicle and its operations have worried about the reliability of the ACV. The Orlando nightclub shooter's father, who has voiced support for the Taliban in the past, showed up at a Hillary Clinton rally in Florida on Monday night in a prime seat directly behind the Democratic presidential nominee. Seddique Mateen later told local WPTV News Channel 5 reporter Tory Dunnan that he came to the rally as a member of the Democratic Party and supporter of Clinton. He said he wished his son, Omar Mateen, had joined the U.S. Army to fight ISIS rather than going to the Pulse nightclub on a killing spree that left 49 dead in the early morning hours of June 12. Among those killed were Army Reserve Capt. Antonio Davon Brown and Spc. Angel Candelario-Padro, who served in the Puerto Rico National Guard and the U.S. Army Reserve. It has not yet been decided whether they will be eligible for the Purple Heart. A Clinton campaign official said the candidate was unaware of Mateen's presence at the rally, which drew about 3,000 people in Kissimmee, Florida, about 20 miles from Orlando. "This individual wasn't invited as a guest, and the campaign was unaware of his attendance until after the event," a Clinton campaign official told National Public Radio. At the rally, Clinton condemned the shootings at the nightclub frequented by the gay community. "I know how many people, family members, loved ones and friends are still grieving," Clinton said. "I want you to know that we will be with you. We can't ever let that kind of hatred and violence break the spirit, break the soul, of anyplace in America." In the background from his seat near the front row, a smiling Seddique Mateen, wearing a red ballcap, could clearly be seen joining the crowd in applauding and cheering Clinton's remarks. In a series of interviews after the shootings in June, Seddique Mateen, who emigrated from Afghanistan, said that he regularly attended Friday prayers with his son at a Florida mosque. He said his son was respectful and he was "not aware what motivated him to go into a gay club and kill" those at the scene. In a statement, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has claimed responsibility for the Orlando attack and praised "brother Omar Mateen, one of the soldiers of the Caliphate in America," although no solid evidence has yet emerged of a connection between Omar Mateen and ISIS. On a satellite TV broadcast and in numerous Facebook postings, Seddique Mateen has at times appeared in a military uniform to voice support for the Afghan Taliban and express opposition to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. As he left the Clinton rally, Seddique Mateen told WPTV of the ongoing investigation into the Orlando shootings that, "We've been cooperating with the federal government, and that's about it." He then broke off the interview before stopping later to show off a sign he made to support Clinton. "Hillary Clinton is good for United States versus Donald Trump, who has no solutions," he said. When asked about the shootings, Mateen said, "I spoke a lot about that and wish that my son joined the Army and fought ISIS. That would be much better." Mateen said he saw nothing unusual about his showing up at the rally. "It's a Democratic party, so everyone can join. Why should they be surprised? I love the United States, and I've been living here a long time," Mateen said. -- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com. Two village guards were martyred late Monday in separate PKK attacks in southeastern provinces, the Anadolu Agency has learned. A roadside bomb was detonated in the Uludere district of Sirnak province, as a vehicle drove past, according to a source who spoke to Andolu Agency on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to the media. Yahya Akan was wounded in the attack and rushed to Uludere State Hospital where he succumbed to his wounds, the source added. And in the province of Adiyaman, guard Yusuf Sonmez was martyred when PKK terrorists attacked the Camlica village with long barreled weapons, according to Gov. Abdullah Erin. Sonmez died of his injuries at the Adiyaman Hospital, Erin said. The PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the EU -- resumed its 30-year armed campaign against the Turkish state in July 2015. Nearly 600 security personnel, including troops, police officers and village guards have since been martyred and more than 5,000 PKK terrorists killed in operations across Turkey and northern Iraq. During a recent field exercise, a Marine headquarters group set up an expeditionary operations center and facilities, then hung camouflage netting over every building and structure -- a time-honored Marine Corps practice that has fallen out of popularity during recent wars, in which the enemy did not possess aircraft. Unit leaders tested the effectiveness of the disguise by pulling up Google Maps for an overhead view of their location, only to discover that concertina wire strung around more sensitive sites reflected sunlight and effectively circled key targets for a notional enemy. "You've got to look at yourself, and you've got to change the way you're thinking," Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies on Tuesday. To prepare for a potential future high-end conflict, Neller wants Marines to excel at low-end defense measures -- tools as simple as camouflage -- in anticipation of interference from a high-tech enemy. "We've been operating out of fixed positions," Neller said of the two land wars the Marines fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. "We have not moved across the ground, we have not maneuvered, we have not lived off the land. We've been eating at chow halls and drinking Green Beans coffee." Neller said Marines were relearning simple skills such as effective camouflage measures to mask the shape of a helmet and disguise the contours of a face. At the same time, he said, troops were being told in field training to practice digital camouflage measures: to leave behind GPS-enabled devices that could reveal their location, including smartphones, and focus on time-honored warfighting basics. "You're going to live out of your pack. You're going to dig a hole, you're going to camouflage, you're going to turn off all your stuff, and you're going to sit there and try to sleep," Neller said. "And you're going to try not to make any noise, and you're going to have absolutely no signature. Because if you can be seen, you can be attacked." Neller noted that Navy leaders in recent years have launched similar efforts to prepare the service for a future fight in which communications might be jammed or unreliable, and networks, GPS and other technology might come under attack. At the initiative of former Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert, he said, the Naval Academy had resumed teaching celestial navigation after it was dropped from the curriculum, in recognition of a future in which high-tech navigational tools are compromised. The Navy has also looked at other measures, such as turning off radar, to reduce or eliminate electromagnetic signature. There is a balance. When working with inherently high-tech platforms such as the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter, which will replace three aging Marine Corps fighter aircraft over the next dozen years, Neller said it was important to recruit and retain Marines who could find ways to continue operating despite things not going according to plan. "We have to find people who have the initiative and the aggressiveness and the intelligence to understand what they have to do in the absence of certainty," Neller said. "There is never certainty in war." -- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at@HopeSeck. The University of Michigan Health System and the Student Veterans of America have developed a peer-to-peer program to assist veterans with campus support. The Peer Advisors for Veteran Education (PAVE) program was developed in Michigan and has been fully implemented at 12 schools across the country. This fall 30 more schools nationwide will be joining the program. PAVE has also partnered with the VA to expand VA's campus outreach and assistance programs. What is the PAVE Program? The PAVE program connects incoming student veterans with student veterans already on campus in order to help them navigate college life, identify challenges they are facing, refer them to the appropriate resource on or off campus, and provide ongoing support to their academic and personal ventures. PAVE links trained student veterans at participating schools with incoming student veterans to create a campus community where support and resources can be easily accessed. PAVE also works with participating universities to share best practices to engage student veterans and assist them in their academic pursuits. Why is the PAVE Program Important? Since the Post-9/11 GI Bill began, large numbers of veterans have been enrolling in colleges. According to the VA, over 850,000 people are using the GI Bill this year alone. This large influx of veterans has put a strain on existing campus assistance services and brought to light the different challenges veterans face as college students. Many studies suggest that student veterans face additional challenges while transitioning to the academic and civilian world. One reason for this is the gap in school attendance caused by serving in the military, most incoming college students are straight out of high school. Also, veterans have a different set of life experiences including combat, deployment, a family to support, and self-disciple they gained from the military service. While some of these experiences can benefit veterans, often veterans do not seek assistance with other challenges they are facing because of the stigma associated with asking for help, and the self-relience they are taught in the military. Numerous studies on the effectiveness of peer-to-peer approaches have demonstrated that peers "who have been there" can be a credible source of support, and can help others overcome stigma issues, opening the door to improved well-being. How the PAVE Program Works The PAVE Program works by recruiting college campuses to create a peer support program specifically for the student veterans on their campus. PAVE collaborates with Veteran Service Coordinators at participating schools to recruit and train student veterans who have successfully transitioned from military to college to be "Peer Advisors". Peer Advisors work one-on-one with incoming student veterans to help them transition to campus life. They provide a source of support for other student veterans as well as help identify concerns and provide resource suggestions that fit their particular situation. The PAVE staff provides training and implementation support to Veteran Service Coordinators and Peer Advisors. PAVE tailors its program model for each campus according to the specific needs and culture of that campus. At some schools, the position of Team Leader was created to provide a platform for student veterans to work directly on managing the PAVE program on their campus by promoting the program, recruiting and managing Peer Advisors, and create awareness of veterans' issues. For More Information For more information about the PAVE program, including a list of participating schools, visit their website. Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 9 By Rufiz Hafizoglu Trend: Since the first day of the crisis in relations between Turkey and Russia, it was clear that this crisis can only be resolved through a direct meeting between the two countrys leaders. Undoubtedly, the crisis in Turkey-Russia relations, which lasted for almost eight months, seriously damaged the economies of both countries. Considering this, it can be noted that Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin made an important and wise decision on normalization of bilateral relations. There were many opinions on the causes of the crisis in Turkey-Russia relations. According to one of them, the rapprochement of the two countries is not in the interests of the West, what was clearly proven by history. It is enough to remember that in 1959, when the then Turkish Prime Minister Adnan Menderes was rejected by the US in allocation of a $300 million loan for Ankaras agrarian reforms, he was going to make this request to the Soviet Union. If the military coup hadnt happened in Turkey on May 27, 1960, Menderes would have gone to Moscow to discuss the loan allocation. A year after in 1961 Menderes was executed. Then, it was not ruled out in Turkey that the West, in particular NATO, is involved in the military coup and the execution of Menderes. Therefore, currently, there is no doubt that a third party is involved in the crisis between Russia and Turkey. A rapprochement between Turkey and Russia is against the interests of the West. It is obvious that the Turkish authorities are also well aware of this. Despite that the West, including the US, is an official ally of Ankara, it didnt support Turkey during the military coup attempt, when the country was waiting for it. Moreover, the EU threatened to break relations with Ankara after the military coup attempt and the US doesnt want to extradite Fethullah Gulen, who is accused of organizing the attempted military coup. Turkish president and authorities assess such position of the EU and the US as the indirect support for the military coup attempt. Why is the rapprochement of Turkey and Russia so important? Certainly, first of all, this rapprochement will be beneficial for the whole region. Such a rapprochement with Irans participation may give a serious momentum to the settlement of the Syrian crisis. It will also positively affect the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. It should also be noted that Erdogans visit to Russia, first of all, is Ankaras message to its old friends that Turkey is not alone in the battlefield. And if Ankara is not supported by the West, there is such a power as Russia, which, despite a number of disagreements, is yet aware of Turkeys importance. Secondly, Turkey and Russia intend to jointly implement a number of energy projects, such as the Turkish Stream and the construction of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant. Of course, this issue will be on the agenda of the meetings between the two countries presidents and energy ministers. This is Erdogans first visit to Russia after the crisis in the two countries relations and also after the attempted military coup in Turkey. It should demonstrate to the West that, perhaps, it is time for them to reconsider their relations with Turkey. Therefore, it can be noted that the rapprochement is necessary for Turkey and Russia, and not only the future of the region, but also energy supply to Europe will depend on it. --- Rufiz Hafizoglu is the head of Trend Agency's Arabic news service, follow him on Twitter: @rhafizoglu By Jacob Wheeler | Bridge Magazine Sometime early next year, Billie Livingston will close the doors for the last time to her eclectic clothing store, Billies Women's Fashions in downtown Cheboygan. The 125-year-old building at the corner of Main and Division has hosted businesses longer than any other venue in this once booming logging and industrial town near the top of Michigan's mitten. The shop, which is 28 years old, will be one of nearly 20 vacant storefronts on a three-block stretch of downtown. "I'm very pro-Cheboygan, and I don't want any more empty storefronts," said Livingston, who plans to retire. "But things are not getting better. "The average income in Cheboygan is $22,000. The locals can't afford to shop here, even though my prices are fair. They go shop at the Salvation Army." For nearly three decades Billie Livingston has watched Cheboygan empty, sometimes slowly and sometimes in bursts. When the Procter & Gamble plant downtown closed in 1990, it eliminated hundreds of jobs. WalMart's arrival two years later lent hope to some, but when it doubled in size and added a superstore in 2002, retailers downtown couldn't compete and went out of business. Cheboygan Memorial Hospital, which once employed 400 people, went bankrupt in 2012 and sat idle for six weeks before McLaren acquired it and re-opened it as a wing of its Petoskey hospital. The Cheboygan medical center is now a skeleton of its former self and employs only 150. Billie Livingston is closing her Cheboygan clothing shop after 28 years. Debating the next chapter The 2008 economic recession hit Cheboygan when she was already down. Since the mid-20th Century, this city has suffered a steady decrease in population; that figure dropped by another 7 percent between 2006 and today. Cheboygan has also lost a whopping 22 percent of its businesses and 16 percent of its jobs in the past decade. "We used to be classified as a retirement community, but retirees can't live here if they have health issues because we don't have a (full-service) hospital," said Livingston. "The nearest hospital is an hour away in Petoskey. What happens if you have a heart attack?" Following the recession, Livingston has also witnessed fewer downstate auto workers come to spend their money. Back in the 1950s and '60s many General Motors workers would buy retirement homes at nearby Mullett Lake. Across the street from Billies, Zany Kitchen, a cooking accessories store, will close after Labor Day. Owner Susan Ball plans to retire after eight years in business. "People ask me 'You can't close the store, where am I gonna shop?'" Ball said. "But I'm 65. I could go another five years, but I don't think anything's going to be different here." Ball said she hopes to spend her winters soaking up the rays in Mexico and visiting her son in Napa Valley, Calif. Billie Livingston, meanwhile, will spend more time with her son who lives near Ann Arbor. "My son said he'll never come back," said Livingston. "Cheboygan needs jobs to bring back young people." As the workers have left, so have the town's young families. Cheboygan once had five grade schools; now it has one. According to City Manager Tom Eustice, the number of students at the high school dropped from 720 to 559 over the past 10 years. The average age in Cheboygan County is 55, said Eustice. Susan Ball is closing her kitchen shop, Zany Kitchen, after Labor Day. "I could go another five years," she said, "but I don't think anything's going to be different here." Ball said she believes that Cheboygan needs to shed its identity as a manufacturing town and more fully embrace tourism. The city sits on Lake Huron, at the mouth of the Cheboygan River, just 20 minutes southeast of the Mackinac Bridge. "Cheboygan has always thought of itself as a manufacturing town because we had Procter & Gamble, but it never recovered after they left," said Ball. "We've been left out because we have not gone after tourism. And the young people who grow up here move away to get a job." A port of hope Meanwhile, the city is working with the Cheboygan Downtown Development Authority and the Chamber of Commerce on a Port of Cheboygan project to develop a domestic and international deep water port. Eustice frames the initiative, underway since 2010 as a way to attract business investment and manufacturing back to Cheboygan. Some business owners think this is the wrong approach. "They're putting the cart before the horse," Livingston said. "We have no industry here. They need to go out and search for industry, first. The city needs to hire a publicist or marketing firm to promote Cheboygan." Ball thinks opening and promoting new businesses related to tourism is the path forward. Tourism is a large part of the economies of nearby Mackinaw City and Petoskey. "Because we have not gone after tourism, we're being left out." Some in Cheboygan are excited about Meijer breaking ground on a retail location outside of town in 2017, but others worry the big-box store will continue to bleed jobs downtown. Another cherished local business, Alcock's Market, shuttered its doors this year after it failed to compete with the Speedway gas station one block away, which had expanded to add beer, wine and pizza by the slice. Cheboygan does have a precious few examples of young people staying in town and running a business. But it's not easy, said Alicia Stanford, 33, who together with her mother runs The Brick Oven outside of town near a Kmart. The pizza restaurant has reduced its service to 4 days a week in the summer and just 1 day a week in the winter. "We're not raking in the dough," said Stanford. "We barely make it." US 23 crash.png (Michigan Department of Transportation) UPDATE 9:30 a.m.: Southbound U.S. 23 is clear. NORTHFIELD TOWNSHIP, MI - One lane of southbound U.S. 23 is blocked because of a three-vehicle crash at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 9. The Michigan Department of Transportation reports the left lane of the expressway after North Territorial Road. Huron Valley Ambulance took two people in stable condition to the University of Michigan hospital, said spokeswoman Joyce Williams. At 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, HVA took two people in stable condition and one person in unstable condition to the U-M hospital after a crash at U.S. 23 and Geddes. ANN ARBOR TOWNSHIP, MI - Two years ago, work began to return 82 acres of land that was once heavily farmed back to its natural pre-settlement state. Now in the second growing season, the prairie grasslands along the south side of Joy Road -- on both sides of U.S. 23 in Ann Arbor Township -- are getting taller, and soon work will begin on restoring 14-plus acres of wetlands there. "The prairies are in. We hope to get those wetlands done in the fall of this year, so more to come," said Jason Hill, manager of conservation programs for Ducks Unlimited, a nonprofit dedicated to conservation of wetlands and wildlife habitat. U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Dearborn, and local conservation leaders toured the site on Tuesday, Aug. 9, following a press conference at the Washtenaw Food Hub where they called on Congress to reauthorize the Great Lakes Fish and Wildlife Restoration Act in order to fund more conservation work. The act has provided funding for the conservation project in Ann Arbor Township, which is a joint effort by several partners, including Ducks Unlimited, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and property owner Kim Bayer of the Washtenaw Food Hub. "Having the opportunity to restore native prairie and wetlands is something that we are just super thrilled about," Bayer said. In July, Dingell and Reps. Candice Miller and Darin LaHood introduced the bipartisan Great Lakes Fish and Wildlife Restoration Act of 2016. The bill authorizes the Fish and Wildlife Service to provide assistance to local groups for cooperative conservation, restoration and management of fish and wildlife and their habitats. Dingell said the reauthorization bill would make it easier for local groups to come up with matching funds for federal grant funding by counting the value of land, which would mean more conservation and restoration projects that improve water quality, protect species habitat and improve access for outdoor recreation. "I hope we're going to get this bill passed," Dingell said. "We've got to get it out of committee and we've got to get it through the Congress, and it should be non-controversial. This one's basic 101. It's good for the economy, it's good for the environment, it's good for conservation and we've got to get it done." Since 1998, the GLFWRA has provided more than $24.4 million in federal funding to 157 research and restoration projects. Since the projects require a 25 percent local match, that equals more than $36 million worth of benefits to Great Lakes fish, wildlife and the habitats they depend on, Dingell said. The program was last reauthorized in 2006. Ducks Unlimited worked with various partners to submit a GLFWRA regional proposal in 2013, securing $560,000 in federal funds for projects to restore 285 acres of wetlands and 125 acres of native prairie, which Hill noted helps reduce nutrient and sediment input ultimately into Lake Erie. The project in Ann Arbor Township is one part of that larger grant award. "I am super thrilled to be able to thank Rep. Dingell in person, and the great folks at Ducks Unlimited, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the DNR and also Ann Arbor Township for helping make it possible for us to move forward on our vision of relocalizing the food system, and making it possible to prioritize health for individuals, for our local economy and for the environment," Bayer said at Tuesday's press conference at the Washtenaw Food Hub, 4175 Whitmore Lake Road. "More and more, I think we're understanding science is telling us how everything is connected, and the health of our soil, the health of our water, as we've seen in Flint, has a direct impact on our health and our communities. And so when people love something, they work to protect it, and that is what we're doing with the 187 acres that my husband and I own that's just up the street from here." Gildo Tori, director of public policy for Ducks Unlimited, said he's been doing conservation work for more than 30 years. Back when he started as a biologist, he said, the focus was on habitat restoration for animal species that people could hunt, fish or trap. "Well, today conservation is a lot different and much more improved. And I think overall in those 30 years, we've all gotten a lot smarter about conservation and the understanding between the environment and the economy," he said. "So, when fish and wildlife habitat conservation are combined with agriculture, such as a project like this, you have a great sustainable approach that we should continue to support and implement." Lori said the Great Lakes Fish and Wildlife Restoration Act has done a lot from a wildlife standpoint. "We've done a lot of wetland restoration on local parcels, and private and state land, and on federal properties, coastal areas," he said. "We've protected and done projects for the copperbelly water snake, lots of frogs and toads, pollinators, which are a big need, and our imperiled monarchs, and of course, ducks, geese and swans, too." The Great Lakes Fish and Wildlife Restoration Act has been around for a long time, but to be successful the program needs champions in Congress and Washington, D.C., Tori said, noting it historically has had bipartisan support. "Because it's not a partisan issue," he said. "It's a quality of life issue. It's important to all of us, whether you hunt, fish, birdwatch, kayak or whatever." When she announced her legislation in early July, Dingell said it was based on a recommendation from a panel of conservation and business leaders, and it would dedicate $1.3 billion annually in existing revenue from oil and gas royalties to the Wildlife Conservation Restoration Program. "The funding would provide states with new critically needed financial resources to effectively implement State Wildlife Action Plans to conserve 12,000 species in greatest need of conservation while providing the public with more access to open spaces," Dingell's office stated in a news release. At Tuesday's press conference, Dingell recalled that her husband, John, who served in Congress for six decades, championed landmark legislation such as the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act. She's not taking for granted that her legislation will pass through the current Congress. "All of a sudden I get to Washington and they're trying to repeal everything that was passed in the '60s, and I find myself being one of the leaders of trying to make sure that we are still protecting these great resources for the next generation," she said. "I've ended up spending a lot of time on this, not thinking that I ever would have to -- especially when you've had the Flint water situation." Dingell said there are too many success stories to mention them all when it comes to the GLFWRA, but she noted the Michigan DNR received more than $260,000 last year to restore habitat for the endangered Kirtland's warbler, and $177,000 to detect the successful reproduction of lake trout in southern Lake Michigan. "And we've been able to do both," she said. "It's clear that we need to keep this program going." DNR wildlife biologist Mike Parker noted the 82 acres of prairie conservation lands in Ann Arbor Township include a mix of Canada wild rye and big bluestem, as well as wildflowers. He said the vegetation that's growing is a great food source for wildlife, including birds, and will help pollinators. Ryan Stanton covers the city beat for The Ann Arbor News. Reach him at ryanstanton@mlive.com. YPSILANTI, MI - As students at two Ypsilanti elementary schools put away their backpacks and found their desks for the first day of the school year on Monday, Aug. 8, about 168 of their peers were missing. "We're in the process of contacting families and letting them know that school did start," said Micki Berg, principal of Ford Early Learning Center. "It's the balanced calendar. Typically parents have that mindset that school starts after Labor Day." Michigan law requires schools to start after Labor Day, but Holmes Elementary School and Ford Early Learning have a waiver allowing them to start earlier to accommodate their balanced calendar. This is Holmes' third year and Ford's second year on a balanced calendar, which aims to combat summer learning loss by giving students less time away from school over the summer. Schools on a balanced calendar offer the same number of instructional days as those on a traditional calendar, but they have a shorter summer break and longer breaks spread out over the rest of the school year. Ypsilanti Community Schools administrators worry some Holmes and Ford families missed the memo that school started Monday. Schools don't get a good grasp of enrollment numbers until the fall count day in October, when the state asks schools to submit official enrollment numbers. But principals at Holmes and Ford said they expect their enrollment to be similar to last year, which means roughly one-third of students between the two schools missed the first day. Berg said staff made calls to parents, sent three messages about the first day through the school's PowerSchool communication system, mentioned it in a newsletter and had the start date posted on the school's sign. Seth Petty, principal at Holmes, said his staff also made calls to families and sent messages through Facebook and PowerSchool to remind parents about the first day of school. The school sign listed the start date, too. Families will be asked to update their contact information in the first week of school, Petty added. School calendars also are posted on the Ypsilanti Community Schools website. The attendance issue came up at the board of education meeting Monday evening, when Bob Oliver reported on how transportation went for the first day of school. Oliver is the district's energy manager, and he's shifting his attention to make sure transportation is running smoothly for the start of the new school year. Oliver said 162 students attended Holmes on Monday, compared to the school's 2015-16 enrollment of 256, according to the Michigan Department of Education. Ford saw 176 students on Monday, compared to the school's kindergarten and first-grade enrollment of 250 last school year. Preschoolers start at Ford on Sept. 12. Between the two schools, 168 students were absent on Monday, based on their anticipated enrollment. Still, Petty wasn't discouraged by the attendance on Monday, saying the numbers were up compared to previous years. "I'm excited about our kids adjusting to the new schedule (with earlier bell times). Our parents have been really encouraging about getting our kids on the bus and dropping them off," he said. "I think the parents have really adjusted well this year. We are excited about the number that have come." On Aug. 6, YCS board treasurer Meredith Schindler posted on her Facebook page an email Superintendent Ben Edmondson sent requesting families update their contact information. Edmondson said Durham School Services, the company that provides the district's transportation services, did not have working phone numbers for many Holmes and Ford families, and he asked families to email their updated contact information to Durham employees. Board members asked Monday whether Durham had mailed cards with bus route and school start day information to students' homes, and Edmondson said that hadn't happened yet. Aside from the breakdown in communication about the first day of school, Petty and Berg said the new school year is off to a good start. Petty is looking forward to seeing the benefits to students of continuing partnerships with Eastern Michigan University, the University of Michigan's Edward Ginsberg Center for Community Service and Learning, University Musical Society and the district's "Man Up or Kid Down" mentoring program. Berg is equally optimistic about the school year ahead. She would like to see her students improve in their reading skills and recall of math facts this year, and she emphasized parents' roles in helping their young children develop their vocabulary and language skills through everyday conversations. "It was a great first day back to school," Berg said. "The transportation flowed much smoother this year than last year, and overall it was a fabulous start." Washtenaw International Middle Academy and Washtenaw International High School students start school Aug. 15, and the other Ypsilanti schools on a traditional calendar will start Sept. 6. YPSILANTI, MI - Ypsilanti graduate Djeneba "DJ" Cherif will return to the district this school year as assistant principal at Ypsilanti Community Middle School. Djeneba "DJ" Cherif Cherif previously was dean of students at Jalen Rose Leadership Academy in Detroit, and the YCS board of education approved a one-year contract for her as YCMS assistant principal at a meeting on Monday, Aug. 8. Jonathan Royce previously held the position, and he will act as principal of Ypsilanti's Achieving Career and College Education (ACCE) alternative high school program going into the 2016-17 school year. Cherif and an internal candidate were finalists for the middle school position. "Both did extremely well and will greatly serve our students and staff," said Superintendent Ben Edmondson. "We're headed in the right direction." After graduating from Ypsilanti High School in 2007, Cherif went on to earn a bachelor's degree from Hampton University and then completed a master's degree in educational studies and urban pedagogy at the University of Michigan, according to her Teach for America profile. She joined Teach for America in 2011 and taught middle school math and sixth grade. The board of education was initially planning to hire a new assistant director for the Beatty Early Learning Center on Monday too, but Edmondson said the candidate requested more time to consider the offer. Previous Beatty Early Learning Center assistant director Cassandra Sheriff will become principal of Ypsilanti International Elementary School for the 2016-17 school year. Also at Monday's meeting, the board wrapped up a decision on transportation that Durham School Services proposed at the July 25 meeting. At the last meeting, the board approved bell times and bus routes for all schools in the district besides Washtenaw International Middle Academy and ACCE. Originally, Durham proposed having students from those schools as well as Washtenaw International High School ride the same buses. WIMA and WIHI are housed in the same school, although WIHI is overseen by the Washtenaw Educational Options Consortium, rather than YCS. Board members had concerns about those students riding the same buses, so Durham adapted the proposal to offer separate routes for WIMA and WIHI students. Edmondson said staff are considering using the Ann Arbor Area Transit Authority to provide transportation for ACCE students. At Monday's meeting, the board set new bell times for ACCE, which will start at 8:15 a.m. and dismiss at 3:15 p.m. That matches Ypsilanti Community High School's start and end times. Board president Sharon Irvine said she didn't want the board to develop a precedent of approving every bus route change, so the trustees didn't take any official action on the WIMA and ACCE bus route updates. Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 9 By Rufiz Hafizoglu Trend: In Turkey, 16,000 people have been arrested as a part of the fight against the movement of Fethullah Gulen, who is accused of organizing the military coup attempt in the country, said Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag in his interview with Anadolu Agency. Bozdag said that the number of detainees reaches 6,000. The fight against the Gulen movement will continue in Turkey, noted the minister. Istanbul court adopted a decision on Aug. 4 to arrest Fethullah Gulen. On July 15 evening, Turkish authorities said a military coup attempt took place in the country. Meanwhile, a group of servicemen announced about transition of power to them. However, the rebelling servicemen started to surrender July 16 and Turkish authorities said the coup attempt failed. Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the death toll as a result of the military coup attempt stood at 246 people excluding the coup plotters and over 2,000 people were wounded. Erdogan declared a three-month state of emergency in Turkey on July 20. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 9 Trend: Relations between Russia and Turkey deteriorated after the Su-24 incident and Turkish presidents visit to Russia indicates to resumption of the dialogue, said Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin made the remarks Aug. 9 during a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in St. Petersburg, RIA Novosti reported. The first meeting between the two countries presidents is being held at the Constantine Palace in St. Petersburg and started with a handshake. Putin noted that he intends to discuss the whole range of relations with Erdogan, including the fight against terrorism, and economic ties. Russian president expressed support to Turkey in overcoming the crisis after the July 15 coup attempt and added that he was one of those first to call Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkish companies may soon return to Russian markets of services, transport and tourism on a parity basis, Russian Minister of Economic Development Alexei Ulyukayev said Tuesday, Sputnik International reported. "We are hoping that in the near future we will restore positions in the trade of goods and participation of Turkish companies in the work on Russian markets of services in the tourist and transport sectors on the principle of step-by-step approach, parity and mutual benefit," Ulyukayev said following a meeting between Russian and Turkish leaders in St. Petersburg. Russia and Turkey agreed on Tuesday to speed up work on creation of a joint investment fund, Ulyukayev said. "The sides agreed to expedite work on setting up a joint Russia-Turkey investment fund. Russia will be represented by the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), while the Turkish side will adopt all necessary normative decisions and determine its representative by the end of this month," the minister said. Mandalay residents eager to visit Bangkok will have a bevy of new flight options next month. Myanmar National Airways (MNA) will begin offering thrice-weekly flights from August 31, just a day before Myanmar Airways International (MAI) is scheduled to begin its own Mandalay-Bangkok route. Competition is intense in Myanmars airline industry, which comprises the two international carriers MNA and MAI and nine firms that offer only international flights. Those nine internal airlines mostly fight over the same routes with similar schedules and fare structures. The two international carriers, meanwhile, compete against each other, along with budget and national carriers in other regional countries. Foreign airlines are all allowed access to Yangon, Mandalay and Nay Pyi Taw routes, with some restrictions on frequency. National carrier MNA already flies from Yangon to Bangkok and back again daily. The firm is now hoping to tap into demand from passengers in the countrys second largest city for the same trip, CEO Captain Than Tun told The Myanmar Times. From August 31, flights on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from Yangon to Bangkok will also stop at Mandalay, he said. The morning route will be Yangon-Mandalay-Bangkok, and the evening route Bangkok-Mandalay-Yangon, he said. The Yangon-Bangkok return route on Tuesdays and Thursdays will continue unchanged. Meanwhile, MAI will start its own three-times-a-week Mandalay-Bangkok route a day later. Those return flights will run on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. Daw Aye Mra Tha, MAIs head of marketing and public relations, said the airline had applied several months ago for the new route, and before MNA. Its a competitive business, she said, adding there were no restrictions on airlines adopting similar routes. Capt Than Tun said MNA was only in competition with itself, not other airlines, and was focused on providing better safety and services for its customers. Myanmars two international airlines are also eyeing other international routes to add to their menus. Capt Than Tun told The Myanmar Times in March that MNA had booked slots for direct flights to Shanghai and Chengdu in China, which he expected to start this year. But discussions on these routes are still taking place, and it was not confirmed when they would start, he said yesterday. MAI, meanwhile, has already applied to offer a direct flight to Kolkata in India, which is hoping to start in October, Daw Aye Mra Tha said. Organization led by Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen has made efforts to undermine Turkey-Russia relations, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday, Sputnik International reported. "Today we understand even more clear that terrorist organization of Fethullah [Gulen] and those powers that stand behind him, have been undermining our relations with you," Erdogan said at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and representatives of two countries' business. On July 15 evening, Turkish authorities said a military coup attempt took place in the country. Meanwhile, a group of servicemen announced about transition of power to them. However, the rebelling servicemen started to surrender July 16 and Turkish authorities said the coup attempt failed. Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the death toll as a result of the military coup attempt stood at 246 people excluding the coup plotters and over 2,000 people were wounded. Erdogan declared a three-month state of emergency in Turkey on July 20. The Directorate of Investment and Company Administration published a report last week, written with help from the Asian Development Bank, which suggests the government should create a special council and a task force with the interests of businesspeople clearly represented in both dedicated to building a stronger Myanmar private sector. The Private Sector Development Framework and Action Plan, published on the DICA website, highlights the need for high-level and cross-government support in order to boost private enterprise, held back by years of state-centric policies and economic isolation. On the government side, the action plan recommends a private sector development (PSD) council responsible for setting a reform agenda and monitoring the cross-government approach. The council would have to be able to consult with the private sector, and must include representatives of women in business as well as men. Private sector representatives, again including businesswomen, would also have to be credibly represented on a task force that would help coordinate PSD policies, and measure targets, outcomes and data. A government National Strategic Plan for the Advancement of Women, approved in 2013, had several objectives relevant to the PSD action plan, the report said. These objectives included creating mechanisms to ensure equal access to employment opportunities, such as quota systems for women in management and improved hiring process, according to the action plan. The PSD action plan is also a product of the previous government, which asked the Asian Development Bank for help in mid-2015. The Mekong Business Initiative (MBI) an ADB regional technical assistance project prepared the plan with guidance from the Ministry of Commerce, the Myanmar Investment Commission, and the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry. The MBI works on private sector development across Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar, with a specific focus on improving opportunities for female entrepreneurs. Consultation took place from June 2015 to March of this year, and although the plan was commissioned under a Union Solidarity and Development Party-led government, it was presented to the incoming National League for Democracy administration. Since then the ADB has been working with DICA and the Ministry of Commerce to raise awareness of the report and its recommendations, Peter Brimble, the ADBs principal country specialist for Myanmar, told The Myanmar Times. Mechanisms allowing government officials and private sector businesspeople to coordinate on the PSD are crucial regular consultations between representatives of those two groups and development partners are a fundamental part of the action plan. The plan points to Malaysia, where collaboration between the prime ministers office, private sector chief executives and the heads of business associations, has been key in boosting private sector development. Malaysia also adopted monthly high-level working group meetings, a separate public-private task force, and dedicated government delivery units charged with implementing reforms. Meanwhile, many of the actual reforms the framework highlights as necessary to allow Myanmars private sector to thrive are those already identified by development agencies including the ADB and the government. The frameworks first reform pillar is improving the legal and regulatory environment. This involves passing and updating legislation such as the new investment and companies laws already being prepared that help promote private sector activity. But actual implementation and enforcement of new and existing laws is crucial in consultations private sector representatives identified this as one of the main obstacles to progress. Access to finance is the second pillar, where the recommendations include broadening the criteria on eligible collateral, a specific focus on womens access to finance and control and ownership over assets, and the development of a modern credit bureau that can help businesses and consumers create a credit history. There has been welcome progress on financial reform in recent years the Central Bank has introduced mobile money regulations, and is in the process of setting up a credit bureau with help from commercial bank officials. Promoting trade and investment is a third key focus of the report. Customs and trade operations are weak and slow, and importing many types of goods requires a licence. Setting up a business is time-consuming and difficult, and company registration is valid for only five years. The government is hoping to have an automated customs service running across Yangon later this year, and is in the process of removing licence requirements on a variety of goods. While Myanmars continued transition away from a state-owned economy will also help the private sector, the framework highlights the need for careful planning as state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are reformed. Phasing out selected SOE monopolies will help create competitive markets for services, and well-organised and regulated public-private partnerships will be a key part of SOE reform, according to the action plan. Ministry of Planning and Finance officials told The Myanmar Times earlier this year that the government had started an SOE review to determine which enterprises could be privitised or corporatised. The PSD framework also notes that the private sector will need human capital to grow, which in turn will require more spending on education and carefully constructed education sector laws and regulations. Myanmar loves its tea, as evidenced by the tea shops scattered across the countrys street corners. But does it brew it correctly? Stephen B Twining, the 10th generation of the famous Twining tea family, visited Myanmar over the weekend to promote the family brand. Not that the brand needed it, after Aye Ne Win son of the junta-era dictator Ne Win complained about the lack of Twinings Earl Grey at a recent state function hosted by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. She [the state councillor] made probably a very wise decision to set a good example, Twining said, acknowledging the small controversy at a press conference on August 5. She was setting an example of not spending too much money. He added that the company makes no apologies for its higher price (K17,200 for 50 bags at City Mart), pointing to its carefully cultivated product as one of the highest-quality brews on the market. But to fully appreciate the nuance of his brand, Twinings offered a demonstration on how to brew the perfect cup of tea. His advice resembled that of George Orwell, who penned a decisive missive on proper tea-brewing technique in 1946 for Londons Evening Standard. Orwells version focuses on hardware, the age-old question of tea-or-milk-first and whether tea leaves can be swallowed (they can, to no ill effect). Twinings version, however, delivered some scientific information gleaned after a lifetime in the business. Behold, how to brew the perfect cup of tea according to Stephen B Twining himself: 1. Always use fresh water in your kettle. Fresh water contains more dissolved oxygen and this helps bring out the teas full flavour. 2. Preheat the pot, especially for black teas. 3. For optimal taste, use 200-250ml of water per tea bag. (Water filled to the top of the handle of a typical mug will be around 200-250ml.) 4. To maximize one teabag, use a teapot to make two cups. (If using loose tea, use one teaspoon as an equivalent to one teabag.) 5. Teabags should only be used once, since all the flavour and natural benefits are released by first use. 6. Give 3-4 minutes for the tea to infuse. During the first minute, you should see the colour release into the water. The second and third minute allow the aroma and flavour to be released, and the final minute or so activates the anti-oxidants and natural benefits. Several forest rangers and police were manning a sleepy checkpoint on a dirt road near Myo Kaung Village, in the foothills of the Bago Mountain Range, on a recent July afternoon. Though Sein Kant Lant checkpoint is not much more than a metal bar blocking the road and a small office building surrounded by piles of logs, this is a front-line position in the governments battle against rampant illegal logging. Some officials were armed and the atmosphere was tense as they recalled recent operations against loggers. The post, located some 15 kilometres (9.3 miles) west of the Yangon-Nay Pyi Taw highway in Kyauktaga township, sits at a junction of dirt roads that lead into the Bago Range and past forest reserves, making it an important timber-smuggling route. Forest ranger San Yu said that in June a team of 22 unarmed Forest Department officials from Bago Regions Kyauktaga and Nyaung Lay Pin townships went on a night-time patrol and spotted four men loading a truck with timber some 10km from the checkpoint. As officials approached to apprehend them, the loggers sped off, then jumped from the truck a few kilometres down the road and set the wood on fire. The loggers used slingshots and knives to attack the rangers who were in pursuit, and managed to escape into the night. Two of the rangers sustained minor injuries in the attack. We did not carry any weapons, San Yu said. I was transferred here eight months ago and this is the very first time I saw forest officers violently attacked by loggers. It was shocking. Since then, Bago Region authorities have sent 10 armed officers from the Forest Police, a unit under the Ministry of Home Affairs, to Sein Kant Lant checkpoint to help the rangers and strengthen operations against loggers. San Yu said, however, that brazen acts by loggers had not stopped. Even after we enforced security, an illegal logging truck tried to escape from our officers by crashing through the metal bar at our checkpoint. But they were arrested after a [Forest Police] officer shot one of their tyres, he said. A government push to protect forests Myanmars forests were heavily logged in recent decades by timber and agribusiness companies operating with government approval, and by gangs of illegal loggers. Huge forest areas in Kachin State, Sagaing Region, Tanintharyi Region, and the Arakan and Bago ranges disappeared, and billions of dollars worth of timber flowed out unregulated to neighbouring countries, environmental activists have estimated. Both military units and ethnic rebels reportedly taxed the timber smuggling in ethnic areas, while government corruption at various levels facilitates the plunder of the forests. Despite initial efforts of the previous government to reign in deforestation, forests continue to rapidly disappear. The UK-based Environmental Investigation Agency said in a 2015 report that an estimated 1.7 million hectares (4.2 million acres) of forest was lost from 2001 to 2013. Myanmar still retains one of the highest forest covers in Southeast Asia at about 50 percent, but also has one of its highest annual deforestation rates at around 2pc, the group said. The National League for Democracy government has stated it will prioritise better management of forests, rivers and natural resources. It proposed a one-year moratorium on logging in major forest areas and recently the Ministry of Resources and Environmental Conservation issued a 10-year logging ban for the Bago Range, in recognition of the dire situation of its forests. The 475km stretch of mountains in central Myanmar was once densely forested and populated with wildlife, but now faces some of the worst logging and poaching in the country. Minister of Resources and Environmental Conservation U Ohn Win told parliament on July 29 that government operations against loggers had increased in the past six months and netted 15,000 tonnes of illegal timber, including 1274 tonnes in Bago Region. U Myo Min, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Resources and Environmental Conservation, said around 600 Forest Department officials were tasked with protecting the Bago Range forests, including 20 armed Forest Police officers. He acknowledged it would be difficult to stem Bagos high forest losses and end poaching of animals such as elephants. He added that 20 pachyderms were killed last year and 12 so far this year across Myanmar, while conflict between elephants and villagers was increasing due to the disappearance of forest, in particular in Bago. U Kyaw Min San, Bago Regions minister for natural resources and environmental conservation, said authorities were, nonetheless, making progress and the amount of confiscated timber in the range has increased by about 8pc compared to last year. We are arresting illegal loggers on waterways and roads, while we search any unlicensed cars, he said, adding that local poverty should also be addressed as it causes communities to participate in logging. Villager log, smugglers trade San Yu, the forest ranger, said impoverished villagers living near the Bago Range saw logging as an important source of income and targeted hardwood trees, such as teak and iron wood, which they smuggle out on ox carts using forest trails. Timber-smuggling gangs pick up the logs along dirt roads at night. Due to the ranges central location, most timber is then taken to markets in Yangon, Bago and Mandalay, where wood-processing and furniture workshops use them to make products for the domestic market. San Yu said the more accessible forest areas are now devoid of valuable hardwood species, and teak and iron wood can only be found deep in the mountains. He said the Bago Region includes 103 forest reserves covering over 3 million acres, but these areas have also been plundered by loggers. Rangers and Forest Police struggle to capture the increasingly violent timber smugglers and can usually only arrest poor locals, San Yu said, adding that smugglers should face criminal prosecution, but locals require alternative job opportunities based on forest products. The government, he said, should support the creation of small industries that add value to raw forest products and villagers should be taught they can earn income through sustainable use of forest products. Bamboo is a major product of this region. Industries to make bamboo products should be set up in this area, instead of selling out the raw bamboo,he said. The locals need to understand there can be other effective use of the forest, instead of only logging. Republished with permission of Myanmar Now Migrant rights activists who accused the government of operating a legal human trafficking pipeline must face punishment for speaking out of line, Thai and Myanmar labour officials have said. The two rights groups, the Myanmar Association in Thailand (MAT) and the Aid Alliance Committee for Myanmar workers (AAC), last week compared the formal, sanctioned channels for sending Myanmar labourers overseas via memoranda of understanding to exploitative human smuggling rings. The analogy has been made before, including by European non-profits Finnwatch and Swedwatch who last year found that the MoU route abroad is often just as corrupt, fee-inducing and negligent of the workers rights as the illicit networks. But this time, the comparison hit a nerve. Labour officials in both Thailand and Myanmar rebuked the agencies, and promised penalties would be forthcoming, though the nature of the recourse remains unclear. We have long been sympathetic to these groups because they helped workers with a constructive intention. But now, their activities have gone too far. Their remarks have violated the spirit of our MoU contract between our two countries, U Myo Aung, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Labour, Immigration and Population said yesterday. We have to take action against these two groups, he added. The rights organisations yesterday resigned from a migrant workers protection committee that had been formed by the Myanmar embassy in Thailand. We have just resigned [yesterday] because we found that embassy didnt protect us while we were working to better migrant affairs, said Ko Ye Min, a leader of the AAC. Yesterday, local media outlet 7Day reported that the Thai Labour Ministry planned to arrest the leaders of both activist groups for defamation. Both Ko Ye Min and U Kyaw Thaung, director of the Myanmar Association in Thailand, denied the report. That news isnt true. I just contacted the DSI [Thai Department of Special Investigation] on Saturday [August 6]. They told me they have no plan to arrest us. But they have ordered an investigation into to our allegations about migrant brokers and the Myanmar government colluding, to determine if it is true or not, said U Kyaw Thaung. U Kyaw Thaung added that both groups will suspend their projects for the moment. The group leaders have been facing threats on their life from a gang of human traffickers because they helped rescue many Myanmar victims from that network, U Kyaw Thaung told The Myanmar Times on August 8. He added that both the Myanmar overseas employment agencies and Thailand are angry that MAT and AAC revealed the unfair and dishonest treatment many workers confront when going abroad via the legally touted agencies. The Myanmar embassy in Thailand said no one was available to comment on the issue yesterday. The government repatriated more than 130 Myanmar migrants yesterday, flying them home from Malaysia where they had been detained for months. In July, the government made plans to repatriate 2000 detained workers after establishing the Migrant Protection Committee on June 5. The repatriation process started yesterday with help from private donors like the KBZ Brighter Future Myanmar Foundation and MAI airline. We have plans go through this repatriation process more than 10 times, chartering flights with more than 130 on board each time, said labour and immigration ministry permanent secretary U Myo Aung. Migrant workers have been detained in Malaysia for numerous reasons, including expired visas. Migrant rights groups have complained that the Myanmar embassy in Malaysia is taking too long to approve visa extensions. Once detained, activists have said, the embassy takes a long time to confirm their Myanmar citizenship, leading to prolonged detention. Once citizenship is confirmed, many detainees cannot afford to return home. The ministry did not have precise details on the total number of migrant workers who had been repatriated, U Myo Aung said, but the process could be finished within a month. We are planning not just to repatriate these citizens but also find them job opportunities when possible, he said. The recently enacted plans were led by the parliament-formed Supervision Committee of Overseas Employment within the Ministry of Labour and Immigration, said U Thein Win, a senior officer within the ministry. In July, plans to repatriate more than 700 Myanmar workers in Malaysia were cancelled due to lack of funding. Myanmars embassy in Malaysia said one pledged donor withdrew their contribution. However, an embassy official said they are still moving forward with the process. The embassy is confirming citizenship through a verification process and plan to repatriate all confirmed citizens depending on funds, said the embassy official. Embassy workers visited camps around Malaysia in order to confirm citizenship whenever possible, the official said. We are repatriating all confirmed citizens who are facing financial trouble with return flights assistance through donated funds, the embassy said in a statement yesterday. Daw Aye Mar Tha, public relation manager for Myanmar Airline International (MAI) said the MAI partner associated with the KBZ foundation assisted in the repatriation and the company is still standing by for future repatriation plans, though they are not sure of the timeline. We donated to this repatriation effort and we do not know exactly how the process is going to work because it is being implemented by the embassy, she said. However, we are standing by with charter flights and we are ready any time the government approves a group of people for repatriation. Tens of thousands of students are not able to attend classes as flooding has caused 2171 schools to shut across six regions and states, according to a report from the Basic Education Department. The flooding has impacted 281 schools in Sagaing Region, 286 schools in Mandalay Region, 392 schools in Magwe Region, 387 schools in Bago Region, 759 schools in Ayeyarwady Region and 75 schools in Yangon Region. There is flooding throughout Mon State but it has yet to result in school closures. Bilin township from Mon State is slightly impacted, a spokesperson the Basic Education Department said. The condition is such that there is no need to close the school there but I am not sure if it will be open [August 9]. More than 350,000 people from Sagaing Region, Mandalay Region, Magwe Region, Bago Region, Ayeyarwady Region, Yangon Region, Kachin State, and Mon State have been impacted by the flooding, according to a report from the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement on August 7. The education officials said the teachers intend to make up lessons after the water recedes, but cannot predict when that will happen yet. Heavy rain and widespread flooding last year closed about 3000 schools. The Union Solidarity and Development Party will support turning the country into the federal Union that ethnic minorities are constantly demanding, former president U Thein Sein said yesterday. Our party will establish a Union based on federalism, he said during a USDP central executive meeting held at the partys headquarters in Nay Pyi Taw. The party will have to be careful because federalism may produce both positive and negative consequences depending on the way it is enacted, he added. The 2008 constitution was drafted based on the principles of federalism, he said. However, he added that the constitution will have to be amended so that it is in sync with the current time and circumstances. There is no constitution in the world that is carved like a stone inscription, he said. During his term in office, U Thein Sein called for the safeguarding of the charter, but also noted mature constitutions must be changed from time to time. The USDP will present its opinions at the 21st-century Panglong Conference, which is scheduled to be held in the last week of August, he said. The current USDP workshop, which will run through August 11, aims to roll out the peace policies that the party plans to present at the Union governments peace conference later this month. The USDP hopes the workshop will get party members up to speed on the peace plan, U Thein Sein said. The outcome of the workshop will be presented later this month at the partys August 20 convention, where the focus will be on revamping the USDP for a 2020 comeback bid. Translation by Zar Zar Soe Health officials are urgently deploying vaccinations in western Sagaing Region in an attempt to stymie a deadly measles outbreak that has claimed two more childrens lives. The infection, which was first reported in June, has spread rapidly and killed a total of 41 people in the Naga self-administered zone, a remote area of Sagaing Region with extremely limited access to healthcare. Medical teams from the Ministry of Health have been sent to bolster local administrators attempts to control the outbreak, and provide treatment. For nearly two months the outbreak went undiagnosed. But while health officials struggle to catch up, patients, mostly young children, are dying by the day. Dr Than Tun Aung, deputy director general of the Department of Public Health, yesterday said that blood tests have confirmed the outbreak is attributable to measles, a viral,vaccine-preventable disease. Five patients blood work has been tested in the laboratory and the results showed that three were positive for measles in Lahe township, he said. Measles, a highly contagious respiratory infection, can cause a high fever, rash and flu-like symptoms, and remains a leading killer of young children, especially when they have other health ailments such as malnutrition. In the Naga-controlled area, about 200 people have reported suffering such symptoms, along with difficulty breathing, and coughing up blood. Measles vaccination is included in the routine national program, but last year a health official told The Myanmar Times that a shortage of medicines has resulted in many children missing out on immunisation in the past. As a result, 34 measles outbreaks were reported in 2011. Dr Than Tun Aung acknowledged that Lahe and Nanyun townships have low vaccine coverage. He added that as health officials attempt to rectify the vaccination gap, they are faced with transportation difficulties and a shortage of area health staff who can administer the inoculations. Regional medical teams from Nay Pyi Taw reached the area of the outbreak and are starting to administer the vaccinations and medical treatment, he said. Medical teams began the vaccination drive on August 6, according to U Thein Zaw, deputy director of the General Administration Office for the Naga-administered region. So far, 70 children aged from nine months to five years old have been vaccinated and 183 people in villages in Nanyun township have received medical care, he said. We have not gotten a report from Lahe township yet as communication is difficult, said U Thein Zaw. He added that Lahe and Nanyun townships lack rural health centres to provide even basic medical services. Dr Than Tun Aung said that the ministry is planning a full-scale vaccination campaign in the Naga area in order to bring all children up to date on their immunisations. About 5000 bushels of reserve seeds have been purchased by the government to help with replanting efforts of farmers whose crops have become submerged by floodwaters in several parts of the country, according to the head of the Department of Agriculture and Irrigation for Mandalay Region. The reserve seeds were bought with an allocation from the Union budget to provide to states and regions in need of the assistance, including Mandalay Region, department chief U Kyin Maung said yesterday. Some 4995 acres of cropland in Mandalay Region have been inundated as rising waters on some of Myanmars major rivers has brought flooding beginning last month, but total losses are not yet unknown, with assessments ongoing. U Kyin Maung said there was reason for some optimism. All croplands hit by flooding wont be damaged completely, depending on the depth of the water and duration of flooding, he said. And some varieties of paddy resist floodwater. We have already bought seeds for this year because we encountered similar natural disasters before ... But we havent received any request for seeds so far. Croplands in 11 townships across Mandalay Region have been affected by floodwaters, with Yamethin and Pyawbwe particularly hard-hit. More than 2500 acres of crops are underwater in the two townships, according to the regional department of agriculture. Region-wide, more than 1000 acres each of rice paddy, mung beans and sesame are underwater. We worry about fields of sesame because floodwater causes damage to sesame, U Kyin Maung said. State-owned Myanma Agricultural Development Bank in Mandalay Region announced that farmers can apply for a deferment if they are unable to repay loans due to flood-induced lower than expected crop yields this year. Deferment would not jeopardise eligibility for an additional loan come next growing season. U Nyi Nyi Lwin from Pyawbwe township said government assistance to farmers may be needed, but that crops would likely prove resilient unless the situation deteriorates. It may require help if it happens, but weather conditions are still good and we havent heard of any severe damage from floodwaters so far, he said. According to the Mandalay Region agriculture department, more than 3.4 million acres were expected to yield harvests of one form or another across the region this year. Last years severe flooding had a major impact on agricultural output. Floodwaters covered 1.4 million acres of croplands, completing destroying 972,000 acres of crops. Translation by Zar Zar Soe Mandalay commemorated the 28th anniversary of the so-called 8888 Uprising yesterday, with activists gathering at the Dhammasala Hall to remember Myanmars fallen democracy champions and look ahead to the countrys political future. Participants in the event took advantage of an atmosphere of greater openness under the National League for Democracy government to talk politics and read out papers on the upcoming 21st-century Panglong Conference, which will convene on August 31 as the administration seeks to jumpstart the nations peace process. The 28th anniversary of the quadruple-eight event included a discussion unlike past years. To be a help to the Panglong Conference, which is to be held soon, political groups of Mandalay held a discussion concerned with that, said U Nyein Chan, a member of the events organising committee. Holding such events is intended to raise the awareness of youth about Myanmar political activities. The gathering, in the hall at the corner of 84th and 31st streets in Myanmars second-largest city, was opened with a morning donation of meals to Buddhist monks. The program later included tributes to martyrs of the popular uprising, singing of political songs and discussion of the late-August peace summit. In Mandalay and elsewhere in the country, people gathered yesterday to mark the anniversary of August 8, 1988, when pro-democracy activists organised a general strike and tens of thousands took to the streets to protest the then-ruling junta. Security forces brutally cracked down on the sustained demonstrations the following month, killings thousands and imprisoning many more. We need to keep remembering the pains of the past. We must use those pains as forces to develop the nation, said a political activist participating in yesterdays discussion. Political forces also need to pay more attention by working for peace and to be able to amend the constitution. Now is a critical time for development of the country. The trauma of 1988 gave birth to the NLD, which harnessed the power of its popular leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to earn widespread public support, though she was later put under house arrest for the better part of two decades. Translation by Kyawt Darly Lin After restoring bilateral ties, Moscow and Ankara should go even further, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday, Sputnik International reported. "We should not only regain the earlier level, but go even further, your [Russian business] active participation will be needed for sure to make it possible," Putin said at the meeting with business community of Russia and Turkey. "Now we should gradually regain the pre-crisis level. As the Russian saying goes, breaking is not making, that means that to break something is an easy thing, it is always harder to build something, but both the Russian and the Turkish sides are ready to engage in building," Putin added. Earlier in the day, Putin met with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who arrived in St. Petersburg for first talks to reset bilateral relations after the November 2015 downing of a Russian aircraft by Turkey. A bridge linking downtown Yangon with Thanlyin township across the Bago River is being tested beyond its limits and could break at any time according to an official at the Ministry of Construction, who said the government is planning to build a stronger second bridge as a matter of urgency. Yangon-Thanlyin 1 Bridge was designed for small vehicles, but is being crossed each day by large trucks, U Kyaw Lin, permanent secretary for the construction ministry, told The Myanmar Times. A train line runs across the centre of the bridge. Only small vehicles should drive along the two-lane road, which passes along the extreme edges of the steel crossing. But large vehicles are crossing it too. It has the potential to break at any time, he said. Around 15,000 vehicles cross the bridge each day from downtown Yangon to the University of East Yangon, Thilawa special economic zone and factories in Thanlyin. Traffic jams are common as the approach roads are narrow and a single breakdown can block the bridge. We will build a parallel four-lane bridge as quickly as possible after the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw approves the project, U Kyaw Lin said. The Union government has agreed to the Yangon-Thanlyin 3 bridge, connecting Thanlyin with Thaketa across the river, and plans have been drafted in collaboration with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which has offered finance and technology. We will need to buy land to build the approach roads to the bridge JICA has written up the detailed plans, he said. The construction ministry built the original bridge with Chinese technical assistance between 1988 and 1993. The railway was the centrepiece and the roads were built to fit around it. The 23-year-old bridge was transferred to Myanma Railways once complete. Myanma Railways tenders the bridge to private companies, including current operator Aung Naing Thu Company, who pay for maintenance and collect toll fees in return. Translation by San Layy and Khine Thazin Han Students, civil servants and ordinary members of the public were among those joining events in Yangon yesterday to mark the 28th anniversary of the nationwide pro-democracy revolt known as the 8888 Uprising. This year, as in years past, the commemoration evoked sombre reflection for many. I joined the ceremony in remembrance of fallen friends. I am really sad to recall all those scenes, said U Nyunt Thaung, a 76-year-old National League for Democracy member from Thingangyun township, who was among 500 people packed into a monastery in the commercial capital for a commemoration ceremony. Yesterdays event at the Dhamma Piya Monastery was held to mark August 8, 1988, when student-led protests and a general strike spread that would, in the weeks that followed, bring hundreds of thousands of people out into the streets, posing arguably the greatest threat to decades of iron-fisted military rule in Myanmar. September of that year saw a brutal junta crackdown on protesters, however, with estimates putting the death toll at more than 3000. Many more were imprisoned in the months and years that followed. A statement from organisers of yesterdays commemoration laid out three points, including calls to amend or scrap Myanmars military-drafted constitution and hold a conference to address peace and national reconciliation. On the latter point, the government intends to do just that, with the Presidents Office announcing yesterday that the so-called 21st-century Panglong Conference would convene on August 31. U Ko Ni, a leading lawyer for the NLD, told The Myanmar Times that commemoration ceremonies like yesterdays will last as long as Myanmar exists, and I will attend this ceremony every year for the rest of my life. The 88 Generation Peace and Open Society, which helped organise yesterdays commemoration, called for August 8 to be known as Democracy Day in Myanmar. The author Maung Lwin Maung (Katha), who joined the protests in 1988, recalled how such open 8888 commemorations were not always the norm. The sad thing is the 88 demonstrations were hidden [by the former junta] for around 20 years, so that many young generations have no idea about it. But the good thing is now we can legally hold the ceremony and people are interested to attend it, he told The Myanmar Times. U Tin Oo, patron of the NLD, and Shan Nationalities League for Democracy leader U Khun Tun Oo were among those to deliver speeches yesterday. The 88 demonstrations showed the world that people from Myanmar didnt want the junta government and those demonstrations were also proof that people can take down a government they dont desire, U Khun Tun Oo said in his speech, referring to Ne Wins ouster as head of the military regime in 1988. The Canadian and British ambassadors to Myanmar were also spotted at yesterdays event at the monastery. The 88 demonstration is a very important event in Burmas struggle for democracy and it is important that we remember the sacrifices that were made that day. Thats why I came to show my support, said Andrew Patrick, the British ambassador. With the passage of time, new generations have come into political consciousness not having experienced the events of 1988, but well aware of the uprisings significance. Although I was not alive at that moment, that is the history of Myanmar and I want to observe it, said Ma Ngu Wah Shwe Yee Oo, a student at the University of Nursing, Yangon. Meanwhile, about 30 students from the Basic Education Students Union, mostly in their teens, marched yesterday from Theingyi Market to the front of City Hall. Ko Phyo Maung Maung, a grade 11 student in Hmawbi township who joined the march, said despite the dramatic political changes of recent years, he remained unsatisfied. I think our country should have its constitution amended. Without amending this military-drafted 2008 constitution, we cannot have a real democracy, he said. Justice deferred Although it has been nearly 30 years since students and other pro-democracy activists sacrificed their lives for change, justice for the fallen has remained elusive. Not a single case has been brought before a court, and no soldier or military officer has been held accountable for the brutal crackdown. The NLD which for years in persecuted opposition had called for justice over 8888 and its aftermath has, as the ruling government, been silent. Party leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi made clear last year that she would not seek revenge for past junta wrongdoing, and has been criticised by some human rights advocates for adopting an approach to the military establishment viewed as overly appeasing. Saw Naing, a 60-year-old man who joined the 1988 protests and attended a separate commemoration in morning rain yesterday, said he thinks that could change. Since the government was elected by the citizens votes, I think there has been a birth of hope for justice for what happened 28 years ago today, he said. Ko Moe Aung, a former political prisoner who described the front of City Hall as being stained with innocent blood after a night-time crackdown on protesters in 1988, said there were only two ways to deal with grievances from that year: through revenge or forgiveness. Ko Moe Aung said he and some colleagues are opting for the latter, but are working on collecting data and a list of names of the military officials who ordered the brutal use of force against peaceful protesters 28 years ago. It is not to get revenge on them. After completing the task, we will announce the names of the military officials who commanded the shooting in 1988, he said. We will make all of them hear that their crimes are forgiven. On May 17, a 23-year-old woman was stabbed to death by a 34-year-old man at a unisex toilet near the Gangnam subway station in Seoul. What shocked the public most was that the victim was a total stranger to the assailant. His sole motivation for the crime seemed to be his professed hatred of women. He told the police that he had been humiliated by female customers at a bar where he worked as a server, and that prompted him to commit the crime. The murderer was reported to have been diagnosed with schizophrenia years before. The police and some commentators attributed the murder to his unstable mental condition. No matter what the actual causes were, the public response has focused on the misogynistic anger expressed by the murderer, which has laid bare deeper issues embedded in gender relations in contemporary South Korea. Immediately after news of the attack went public, people, particularly women, started to write messages on Post-it notes and put them on the wall near one of the exits at Gangnam Station. Soon this ad hoc memorial was covered with more than 1000 Post-its. Those memos reveal a range of emotions anger, fear, sadness. One woman wrote of the victim, You are me. I am scared because I am a potential victim, wrote another. Women have been subjected to discrimination. Now we have become subjected to murder. Another said the incident should be understood not just as an individual tragedy but as the symptom of a sick society. How many women in our country are free from physical humiliation, rape or the threat of death? The public outcry and mourning in response to this horrendous act of violence against a woman made it clear how strongly women identified with the victim. The individual reports of discrimination and sexual or verbal abuse whether domestic, at school or in the workplace contained in these notes reflects how pervasive the experience is for South Korean women. This in turn creates a sense of solidarity. Those brief messages conveyed not only distress and emotional pain but also a strong sense of responsibility for creating social change toward justice. One womans tragedy brought to light the unspoken injustice that all women have to bear and magnified both the old and new challenges they have to face. South Korea has recently witnessed a rapid rise of misogyny on social media and in the real world. Competition for jobs is getting tougher and tougher. Womens growing participation in the labour market has caused men to be antagonistic toward them, although in reality the majority of women workers are at the bottom level of the market economy hierarchy. Even though women are much more likely to be relegated to irregular positions in the job market, they are still blamed for the lack of job opportunities for men. In the domain of South Korean popular culture, terms like soybean paste girl a young woman with a Starbucks coffee cup in her hand who obsesses about Western brand-name luxury items are circulated as a way to ridicule and discipline Westernised women. In the midst of massive global flows of information, images and tastes, women are expected to exemplify South Korean traditions that idealise frugality and industriousness in women. Conservative religious leaders and media-savvy propagandists have been ruthlessly mobilising the public through distorted representations of women and their lifestyle. This increasingly visible gender bashing occurs despite the progress that has been made in the domain of gender over the past few decades. Under the progressive presidencies of Kim Dae-jung (1998-2002) and Roh Moo-hyun (2003-07), a series of landmark laws were proposed and implemented. Perhaps the most significant of all was the abolition in 2005 of the male-centred keystone of family law known as the family head system (Hojuje). Under Hojuje, only men could be designated the household head, a position whose authority was required for a range of everyday administrative tasks. That law enshrined male-centred gender relations that reproduced and reinforced unequal economic and sociocultural practices. Its abolition was a watershed event, shifting gender dynamics toward more equal and democratic relationships between women and men in the family and society. Womens labour participation has gradually improved, reaching 50 percent in 2013. After the most recent national election, women representatives formed 17pc of the National Assembly, the highest level in South Korean history, though still considerably lower than the OECD average. The popular (or notorious) image of alpha girls in the media, referring to women who are successful, accomplished and ambitious, is indicative of the rise of women in the public sphere. And an active LGBT movement and the rise of multicultural families have begun to destabilise heteronormativity and the notion of normal family and human relationships in South Korea. But while this impressive progress is cause for celebration, there is a real danger of ignoring continuing, underlying issues. For example, electing one woman as head of state can give people the impression that, when it comes to gender equality, the mission has been accomplished. But does that election of one woman really open the door? How many countries have had two, three or more female heads of state? Many more opportunities available to women in various sectors of society have led people, especially young South Koreans, to question the relevance of feminism for their lives. But the murder of one young woman in Seoul and the stories that fellow women shared in response to that violence are a powerful reminder that progress in gender equality is tangled up with the persistent gender norms and practices of old, as well as new challenges in the present. Asian Currents Hyaeweol Choi is professor of Korean studies and director of the Korea Institute at Australian National University. [August 08, 2016] Rivada Networks Appoints Joseph Sanzo as Chief Network Officer Rivada Networks today announced the appointment of Joseph Sanzo as Chief Network Officer. Mr. Sanzo joins the company from SAC Wireless, where he has spent the past 10 years serving as that company's chief technology officer. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160808006274/en/ Joe Sanzo, Chief Network Officer, Rivada Networks (Photo: Business Wire) Mr. Sanzo has almost 30 years' experience in the wireless sector, having begun his career with NASA in 1989, and gone on to serve with Lucent Technologies as managing vice president from 1995 to 2001. He has led the deployment and operation of networks in multiple countries around the world, including Saudi Arabia, China, Australia, and the United States. In his new role, he will oversee network deployment and operations for Rivada Networks. Joe will also serve as Chief Network Officer of Rivada Mercury, the company formed by Rivada and its partners to bid for the contract to build, operate, maintain and sustain the nationwide public-safety broadband network for FirstNet. Rivada'sOpen Access Wireless Marketplace allows bandwidth to be bought, sold, and traded at the wholesale level, lowering barriers to entry into wireless and ensuring that no mobile network capacity is wasted. Rivada's efficient, transparent approach is made possible by the company's patented Dynamic Spectrum (News - Alert) Arbitrage (DSA) technology, which allows buyers to acquire wireless bandwidth for a specific period of time in a specific location. Commenting on the appointment, Rivada Networks Executive Chairman and Co-CEO Declan Ganley said: "We are very pleased that Joe has joined us. Joe is somebody of immense stature in the wireless industry, whose long career and record of achievement speaks for itself. As we prepare ourselves for the historic task of building America's first dedicated, purpose-built, and secure public safety wireless network, we are very happy to have Joe on our team. He has shown throughout his career, in multiple environments around the world, that he is a person of considerable talent and determination. I look forward to working with him in the years ahead." Joseph Sanzo said: "Rivada's vision for a wholesale network that turns mobile spectrum bandwidth into a tradable commodity will, I believe, transform the telecommunications industry as we know it today. The situation today, which sees demand increasing exponentially, requires new solutions, and what Rivada has pioneered is visionary. I am excited to be part of what I believe will be a defining chapter in the evolution of the wireless space. I am particularly pleased to be joining such a great team, under Declan's and Joe Euteneuer's proven leadership, and I look forward to working closely with my colleagues in the months and years to come. "As for being part of Rivada's FirstNet team, I am truly inspired by the talented and dedicated group of individuals Rivada has brought together to deploy and operate our nation's first nationwide first responders' network. Our first responders deserve the very best solution for critical communications. With Rivada they will receive a purpose-built network, dedicated to their needs." About Rivada Networks Rivada Networks is a leading designer, integrator and operator of wireless, interoperable communications networks. Rivada's technology, Dynamic Spectrum Arbitrage-Tiered Priority Access (DSATPA), allows wireless broadband capacity to be dynamically bought and sold in a fully competitive on demand process to competing commercial entities. DSATPA is a game changer for the way in which spectrum is consumed, maximizing the efficiency of radio spectrum bandwidth and unlocking the potential for more extensive, higher capacity broadband networks. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160808006274/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 9 Trend: Turkey and Russia intend to take joint steps in the field of defense industry, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday at a meeting with business circles of Russia and Turkey, Milliyet newspaper reported. "There are some joint steps that we will take in defense industry", - Erdogan said at a meeting with the business community, which is attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin. There is a kid on Ghana's dancehall block, and his name is Chameleon. He has become a sensation and his songs have become 'street anthems'. Chameleon commands the streets and even as an underground artiste, he has a following bigger than some main stream acts. Over the weekend, he was at the Gamashi Bukom Homowo Bash and when he took over the stage, the crowd went crazy. Organisers of the show gave Chameleon the stage a few minutes before 4:00am when the crowd was tired and had started moving away. But, the moment he started his performance, the crowd regrouped and even became bigger. It was amazing almost everyone there knew his songs and his performance was simply amazing. He told NEWS-ONE is real name is Michael Kwame Alowonuga and has been underground since 1998. I started in 1998 but professionally from 2010. All these years, I have had challenges with the right management that can push me to the skies. I have had proposals from people who want to manage me but I have been careful because I want to work with people who are very professional and capable of actually managing my talent. I did Graphic and Website Designing at IPMC, but I do music full time. I record my own songs, I write my own lyrics, I do everything on my own. I have no one to help me. I have had a couple of people showing interest in my but I want to be very careful in the decisions I make because as someone who has been on the streets for years, I have seen many people rush into signing management contracts and later flop. So I am very careful not to make a bad decision. That is what has held me back. But if I get someone who is serious, I would move faster and hit limelight faster. I am a very patient person and I believe in God a lot so I am not in a hurry at all. Stardom is not arrived in a rush, Chameleon explained. There are several reports the upcoming super star has a problem with dancehall king, Shatta Wale, but he denied when NEWS-ONE asked him about it. I do not have any problem with Shatta Wale. I have known Shatta Wale for a long while, we became friends three months before he released 'Bandana' and we have been struggling and working underground for years in and around Korle Gonno. I have followed him because of the love I have for him as a brother from Korle Gonno. When he was beefing Samini, I released a lot of tracks to 'diss' Samini for him. He got to the top and a few things changed. But I am cool. I am waiting for God's time. He explained further that many people do not know who Chameleon is. Many people know my songs but they do not know I am the one. I have worked underground for several years to promote my music. And I am not surprised that when I came on stage, the people regrouped. It is a natural gift. Rapper Enoch Allotey as he is known in real life but in music circles as Apaatse has burst out to defend himself from the school of thought who thinks he leached on dancehall Artiste Shatta Wale for hype with his comment over Shatta Michy. Apaatse made the claim during a TV interview last week that he dated Shatta Michy before Shatta Wale married her. The statement was not well received by fans of Shatta Wale and he came under heavy fans attack. The rapper came out to explain on Hot93.9fm that his reason for saying that was not to tap into the hype of Shatta Wale or any body else for that matter because he has better songs. Apaatse who is known for one of the biggest songs the country has ever seen, Wedding Day mentioned that he did the latter song when he was in high school and till date people still enjoy it so why will he come tapping into someone elses hype. I am very young, at my age, I have released so many hit songs, worked with some international stars and reached the biggest market in the music business Nigeria, so why will I make a statement to tap into someones hype, Apaatse Opined. He lamented by saying: I have better songs, most of my songs are timeless hence fans of shatta Wale should know that I (Apaatse) just answered a question that I was asked during an interview, period. Apaatse claims his newest single is currently the street anthem, so why will he leave that and come look for hype from some other artistes. Apaatse ended by saying he is focused like never before, he is young and has a bright future of which he is not desperate to reach to the top. He entreats fans to check out his music before they come attacking him over some hype. Some of Ghanas biggest comedy act are set to make an appearance at the 2016 edition of the Classics and Comedy event on August 13. Big names billed to make an appearance at the event include KSM, DKB, Foster Romanus and Ajeezay. The event, which is a comedy show with a blend of classical music, guitar performance and poetry which will come off at the Accra International Conference Center (AICC). Apart from the comedy greats, the event will also witness performances from Addaquay the Master Keyboardist with support from the Glorious Philharmonic Choir and Grace Chorale Int., Prince Oneday (MTN Hitmaker Season 5 finalist), Shakes and Six Strings as well as Nana Asaase will provide poetry. Other comedians on the bill also include I.D James Brown, Khemikals, Lekzy, T Kay, and Longsam from Nigeria. According to the organisers, Classics and Comedy is a special event that targets the upper class and middle class of society who appreciate great classical and acoustic music fused with great comedy. Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com Some officials of Nestle Ghana Limited were on Joy FMs late afternoon program, Drive Time, Tuesday to throw more light on their upcoming promotion that shows how to use the Ideal Milk to prepare dessert. A delicious mango juice was prepared in the studio which was tasted by the host of the program Lexis Bill, other presenters and staff members. Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | David Andoh The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) has begun looking into allegations contained in petitions presented to it over the controversial $100,000 Ford vehicle gifted President John Mahama. The preliminary investigation follows President Mahamas response to allegations of conflict of interest in accepting the car. The President says his acceptance of the gift does not breach the law regulating public office holders. The President maintains he turned in the vehicle to be added to the pool of state vehicles at the Flagstaff House. Head of Public Relations and Communications at CHRAJ, Comfort Akosua Edu, has explained the outcome of the preliminary investigation would determine the Commissions next line of action. We did an initial assessment of the petition to find out whether it fall under CHRAJs investigative mandate [then] the commissioners appointed some investigators to do the preliminary investigations into the matter and that is where at the moment, she told Accra-based Citi FM. President Mahama came under intense public criticism for accepting the Ford gift from a Burkinabe contractor, allegedly to influence him. The gift, according to reports, was prior to an attempt by the contractor, to win a bid to execute the Dodo Pepeso-Nkwanta road construction project. The same contractor had also been contracted to build a wall, at a cost of over half a million dollars, for the Ghana Embassy in Ouagadougou. The Youth League of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP), the Progressive Peoples Party (PPP) and a private citizen petitioned CHRAJ with claims of conflict of interest against the President and called for an investigation into receipt of the gift. Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com Tunis (AFP) - Tunisia will not be able to hold local elections in March 2017, electoral commission chief Chafik Sarsar said late Monday. "Let's forget (that date), we aren't talking about it any more," Sarsar told private radio station Express FM. No official date had yet been set, but officials had said they were likely to be held either on March 12, 19 or 26. Sarsar explained that in order for a new date to be agreed, a new electoral law must be passed. "When will (the law) be passed? We don't know," said the official, adding that the path towards local elections was "blocked" -- particularly now that parliament is in summer recess. "A great majority of politicians don't think the local elections are important, they don't consider them to be a priority, and they would like them to be postponed," Sarsar said. "Some parties would like them to be held as late as possible because they aren't ready for them." Despite a popular revolt that removed longtime strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011, Tunisians have not yet had a chance to vote for local representatives. After the revolt, local governments were disbanded and replaced with special delegations that were meant to be temporary. "It is necessary" to hold local elections, Sarsar said, "because Tunisian citizens need to have efficient, legitimate local governments." The revolution that began in Tunisia spread to many parts of the Arab world, with mass protests in Egypt, Libya, Syria and Yemen. In every country except Tunisia the revolution was followed by violent turmoil or, as in Syria's case, a devastating civil war. While Tunisia is regarded as a beacon of the Arab Spring, it still faces many challenges, with the transition to democracy struggling at times through chaotic moments. The economy is at pains to recover and there are fears that widespread joblessness will cause social unrest. A jihadist threat has also emerged, with militant groups carrying out several attacks. Prime Minister-designate Youssef Chahed began talks last week aimed at creating a unity government to tackle the challenges. If his cabinet wins the backing of parliament, the 40-year-old Chahed will become the North African country's youngest premier since it won independence from France in 1956. He will also be Tunisia's seventh prime minister in less than six years. The President of the Catholic Bishops Conference, Most Rev. Joseph Osei, has criticized those calling on President John Mahama to grant a presidential pardon to the Montie trio jailed four months for contempt of court. Rev. Osei Bonsu held that any attempt to alter the judgement of the bench will undermine the Judiciary and the principle of separation of powers. Two petitions, from lawyers of the three and a group calling itself the Research Advocacy platform, have already been presented to the Presidency in a bid to persuade President Mahama to activate his prerogative of mercy powers under Article 72 of the 1992 Constitution. The three; Alistair Nelson, Godwin Ako Gunn and Salifu Maase, alias Mugabe, were sentenced to serve four months in jail after they were found guilty of contempt charges after following threats on the lives of judges who were presiding over a case on the credibility of the voters' register. 'Why put pressure on the President?' Rev. Joseph Osei Bonsu spoke to Citi News about the petitions noting that, If a case has come before them and they think that those who perpetrated that act need to be jailed for four months, who am I to tell them that the sentence is too short or too long. Why put pressure on the President to grant a pardon? If you do that, then it means that from now long, anytime the Supreme Court jails a person, the president will have to come in and grant a pardon. In any case, it is not the first time that Supreme Court has jailed people. Education Minister, Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang signing a petition to free the Montie 3 Petitions for the pardon of the three have garnered signatures from notable NDC officials and government appointees including a Deputy Education Minister in charge of tertiary, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Minister of Education, Professor Jane Naana Opoku Agyeman and the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare. But Most Rev. Osei Bonsu's message to such individuals clamoring for a presidential pardon for the three was that they should just leave the Supreme Court to do its work and that they shouldn't put any pressure on the President. -citifmonline Kurdish militants killed two soldiers and wounded two others in a firefight on Tuesday in Turkey's strife-ridden southeast, security sources said, Milliyet newspaper reported. Members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) opened fire on the soldiers in the countryside outside the town of Kulp in Diyarbakir province, they said. Reinforcements had been deployed to the area to pursue a group of guerrillas. The Diyarbakir governorate earlier in the day declared round-the-clock curfews in 13 villages near Kulp and two other towns in the mainly Kurdish province. London (AFP) - Led by Angela Merkel, Hillary Clinton and Theresa May, there have never been so many experienced and ambitious women in positions of influence, even if they remain heavily outnumbered. Clinton has already made history by becoming the first female presidential nominee of a major US political party in her bid for the White House in November. "This is historic, just as Barack Obama was historic. There is no question about that," said Ester R. Fuchs, professor of public affairs and political science at Columbia University, referring to the first black US president. Across the Atlantic, "Iron Lady" Margaret Thatcher broke the glass ceiling decades ago when she became British prime minister in 1979, and last month May did it again. Chancellor Angela Merkel has led Germany since 2005, while South Korea, Chile, Brazil, Bangladesh and Liberia are also led by women -- as is the International Monetary Fund (IMF). But these leaders remain in a minority and their numbers are only gradually increasing. A study by the Pew Research Center last year found women led only about 10 percent of UN member states. "Even while the number of female leaders has more than doubled since 2005, a woman in power is hardly the norm around the world," it said. - 'Sheet of steel' - There are regional variations, with Finland, Norway and Iceland well used to female leadership, and South and Southeast Asia and South America performing better than elsewhere, according to UN Women, the United Nations body championing gender equality. Past leaders include Indira Gandhi in India, Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan, and Argentina's Cristina Kirchner, while Aung San Suu Kyi is currently de facto leader of Myanmar. But it took until 2005 for Africa to have its first female elected leader, in Liberia's Ellen Johnson Sirleaf -- although the continent has a better record on ministers. At the start of 2015, only 17.7 percent of all government ministers in the world were female, but it was more than 30 percent in Cape Verde, Rwanda and South Africa. In Japan, Yuriko Koike last month became the first female governor of Tokyo, a rare breakthrough in a male-dominated society. One of the 64-year-old's key tasks will be smoothing the capital's troubled road to the 2020 Olympics, hit by a series of embarrassing scandals and soaring costs. She has acknowledged it was a struggle to get where she is, once noting that Japan did not so much have a glass ceiling as a "sheet of steel" that women had to break through. In Italy, another country where men still hold sway, Virginia Raggi and Chiara Appendino were elected this year as mayors of Rome and Turin respectively. But Sofia Ventura, professor of political and social sciences at the University of Bologna, said their elections cannot yet be called a turning point. "We are in a complex phase, with steps forward but strong cultural habits," she said. - Different style - In Spain, which has been in political deadlock for months, the advent of more women could help bring a different style of politics, said Juan Jose Garcia Escribano, professor of political sociology at Spain's University of Murcia. "I believe that Spaniards will find it more and more normal that the country could be run by women who could find solutions to problems, such as economic ones, that men largely created and seem unable to solve," he said. Arantxa Elizondo, a professor at the University of the Basque Country, said women on the left of politics or in reformist movements are forging a new path. Citing Madrid mayor Manuela Carmena and Barcelona's Ada Colau, she noted they have raised issues that were previously excluded from politics, "issues related to the daily lives of people". The problem is that "there is a different standard for a woman than there is for a man", noted Fuchs. "When you look at Hillary Clinton's history you can see it so clearly. They want a man to be tough but when a woman is tough that means she is difficult as opposed to strong." So when will a woman lead the United States? "In 1937, when Gallup did its first poll on it, only 33 percent of the country said they would vote for a woman," Fuchs said. Since 2012 this figure has been 95 percent. Whether this translates into actual votes remains to be seen. Members of the Civil and Local Government Staff Association (CLOGSAG) risk losing their August salary if they do not call off their strike. This is according to the Employment and Labour Relations Minister, Haruna Iddrisu. Members of CLOGSAG have been on strike for the past two weeks, over the non-payment of their market premiums. The National Labour Commission had asked CLOGSAG to call off its strike with immediate effect, because it was illegal, but the Association remained adamant. At a press briefing in Accra on Monday, Mr. Iddrisu advised leadership of CLOGSAG to resume work and begin negotiations with government or forfeit their salaries. While we recognize the right to make public manifestation and pronouncement of their unhappiness, we are unable to accommodate further strike and in particular to compensate for an illegal strike and to compensate for they not working for the period of August. Accordingly I have directed the head of civil service and the head of local government service to begin a head count and an audit from tomorrow and to submit same on Friday to my office for advice to the Controller and Ministry of Finance that we will not compensate for that unproductive behavior. They should return to work or forfeit August salaries,the Minister insisted. You can take our salaries CLOGSAG But the leadership of CLOGSAG has indicated that its members are ready to forfeit their salaries until their demands are met. Speaking to Citi News, the Public Relations Officer for CLOGSAG, Eddie Acquaye asked members of the Association to continually press home their demands for an increment. Members should not entertain any fear, they should embrace themselves. The strike still continues tomorrow and certainly if they have to take our salaries for August, they can, but we will still press our demands for the increment to be added. Members are prepared to forfeit their salaries and if the Minister says they are not going to pay , members are prepared to stay at home to press home their demands. By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana Follow @EfeAnsah Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) results recorded during the second quarter of this year increased by over 400% in the amount of initial transfers compared with the value recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2015. According to the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), 12 more projects were recorded in the second quarter compared with the number of projects recorded in the first quarter of 2016. In addition, a total of 51 new projects were registered with total initial capital transfer amounting to US$59.12 million. Meanwhile of the total estimated value of the projects which was US$1.45 billion, FDI component amounted to $1.41 billion. Also total of over 4000 jobs are expected to be created by the projects recorded. CEO of the GIPC, Mawuena Trebarh explained, As part of our growing efforts in creating awareness of GIPC services to the local business community, the GIPC continues to engage with local investors through the annual outreach program. Meanwhile a total of eighteen (18) wholly Ghanaian projects were registered by the Centre in the quarter under review. The estimated value of these projects amounted to US$392.19 million. Ownership Structure of registered projects Of the 51 projects registered during the second (2nd) quarter, 40 (78.43%), were wholly-foreign owned enterprises valued at US$391.17 million which is 26.97% of the total estimated value of projects registered. The remaining 11 (21.57%) were joint ventures between Ghanaians and foreign partners valued at US$1.06 billion which is 73.03% of the total estimated value of projects registered. Sectoral breakdown of the 2016 Q2 FDI A breakdown of how the various sectors benefited from the 2016 Q2 FDIs Geographical distribution of projects Seven out of the ten regions directly benefited from the registered projects during the quarter. The regions are Ashanti, Central, Eastern, Greater Accra, Northern, Volta and Western region. 74% of all the projects registered are located in Greater Accra region. Sources of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) China, with 13 projects, ranked the number 1 source of investments by number of projects. Also, with an FDI value of US$1.06 billion, Singapore topped the list of countries with the largest value of investments registered during the quarter. Details of countries and their respective number of projects for second quarter of 2016 By: Pius Amihere Eduku/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana A nurses cap or nursing cap is an integral part of a female nurses uniform introduced in the early days of the profession. The caps are worn to keep the hair neatly in place and present a modest appearance. The nursing cap traces its roots back to the days of Florence Nightingale alias lady with the lamp. Florence conceived that Nurses deservedly should be appreciated in an appropriate professional sense, thus, with her lamp, she lit the path of nursing apprenticeship into an educational curriculum. For uniqueness and easy identification, uniforms were made to be worn by nurses who were predominantly females at the time. nursing caps were donned with nursing uniforms with a colored band to represent the school one had attended and the level of nursing they had reached. Around the year 1910, it was believed that the bands that were sown on the nursing caps signified the death of Florence Nightingale. Some of the styles sown on the caps derived its source from nuns which symbolized femininity and obedience. These caps were worn in the course of their training and upon graduation, they would attend a ceremony in which they were presented with graduate nursing caps with different color band also indicating they have become trained nurses to practice. The nursing caps authenticated their participation in a course of training in their field of work. Though, this was not the singular purpose of the caps, they also showed this group worked in the service of caring for the sick. In order to continue displaying the nursing alma mater, the educational institutions would begin awarding their graduates with a nursing pin. With this pin, nursing professionals would no longer have the need to bother with the care and cleaning of the caps, and would still be able to proudly display their education and school with ease. Even though caps are not required, some medical facilities still allow them to be a part of the uniforms as an optional piece (Sally Ryan, September, 2010). The nursing cap over the years in Ghana has been worn with no definitive purpose except for complementary role to the female uniform. It covers just some parts of the hair of the female wearer held in place with a tailors pin or a hair clip. Its assumed by some nurses that it limits the transfer of microorganisms from the hair to the patient. Essentially, its effectiveness in this role is compromised since it covers just some parts of the hair of the wearer. Per the history of the nursing cap, it was never intended to be used as an infection barrier but as a measure of identifying the wearer as someone in the service of care for the sick, which school they attended and sign of having completed a course in nursing education. Nursing has globally evolved over the years giving rise to more identifiable features in the nursing fraternity. The increasing participation of the male gender in the nursing profession has defied for all intents and purposes the very need for one to wear a nursing cap. This is for the reason that they are exempted from wearing one yet they also have hair. This is more evident in the male nursing practice in the western world where some males equally possess hair that are as long as the females. In Ghana, the wearing of a nursing cap by the female nurse has been persistently insisted on by Principals of nursing schools, hospital matrons, ward or facility in charges and senior staffs with no justifiable reason for its use. In as much as it might have an appealing and professional identifiability appearance, it still serves no medical purpose except for the long held claim of it preventing infections in clinical nursing procedures. These nursing managers have not as far as I can remember reviewed the reasons this cap should still be worn by the female nurses. If for professional identity and infection prevention, then how will the male nurses be identified or protected in their hair since other male nurses grow long hair? I believe the following reasons are genuine enough for female nurses to stop wearing the nursing cap but with institution careful perusal of the issues and acceptance of this proposal to stop the wearing of the cap. In the process of trying to authenticate the reasons for the usage of the nursing cap to be stopped, twenty (20) nursing professionals were orally interviewed. These 20 comprised staff nurses, midwives, community health nurses and in-charges. The following were the findings based on the questions asked. Question: Do you wear the nursing cap? Answer: 15 of the nurses said they dont wear it and 5 said they wear it once in while Questions: Were you wearing it on clinical schedules as students? Answer :15 said they only wear it on their first day of reporting to the hospital and on some occasions and 5 said they didnt wear it but the 20 all said they wear it when they have practical exams. Question: How often do you wash it when you are using it? Out of the 20, 5 said they washed it every day, 10 said they wash it only when its dirty, and 5 said they hardly wash it since they seldom wear it. Question: Do you think female nurses should still wear the nursing cap? Answer: Out of the 20 respondents, 15 said it shouldnt be worn since it serves no purpose and 5 said it should still be worn but had no reason for that stand. Question: Do you think the cap controls infection transfer from your hair to the patient? Answer: Out of the 20 respondents, 5 said yes and 10 said no and the other 5 said maybe Question: Has your cap ever fallen off your hair whiles attending to a client? Answer: Out of the 20, 5 said yes and 15 said no. By inferring from the responses of these professionals, one can objectively conclude that, the nursing cap serves but insignificant purpose. Every one of them alluded to the fact that it sometimes becomes uncomfortable in the process of some adrenaline-hyped procedures carried on patients who are agitating. It does so by either falling of the hair or one side of the cap unclipping and interferes the free movement of the head. In this era where research has uncovered modern infection preventive methods, it inadvertently challenges the continual use of this cap. Oral professional debates consider the nursing cap as an infection carrier than a protective attire. The responses from the professionals have supported this very argument. Furthermore, nurses and midwives now have unique uniforms, name tags, professional identification numbers and even belong to associations that offer to them membership cards. With all these innovative ways of identification, the nursing cap serves no purpose in this regard as well. The conventional nursing cap has outlived its usefulness and other more practical and effective attire should be looked at. The scrubs donned by some units of the health facilities for instance, theatres, accident unit, emergency unit are attire that best suit the working environment of health professionals. These scrubs are complemented with a well suited cap that covers the hair entirely there by effectively preventing infection from the hair to the patient. In advanced countries in nursing like the Philippines and the USA, nurses are no longer required to wear the nursing cap and are suited in scrubs which are even more comfortable and hospital appropriate than uniforms with caps. In an era where nursing has seen a lot of transformation and progress with varied professional specializations such pediatrics, psychiatry, accident and emergency, surgical, critical care, midwifery and so on, one would wonder what purpose the nursing cap would serve in these capacities. It would be appropriate for one to conclude again that the nursing cap only serve as a fashionable tradition that has live beyond its age and needs to be excluded from a nurses uniform. I employ every stakeholder in the management of nurses and their training to reconsider the wearing of a nursing cap. However insignificant the issue of wearing the nursing cap maybe, it is still imperative that nursing in Ghana catches up with the changing times. The anecdotes about the nursing cap points to nothing less than an age long tradition that serves no medical purpose in this day and age. I conclude with this quote nursing care comes in many forms. Sometimes it is the ability to make someone feel physically comfortable by various means. Other times it is the ability to improve the bodys ability to achieve or maintain health. But often it is an uncanny yet well-honed knack to see beyond the obvious and address, in some way, the deeper needs of the human soul (Donna Wilk Cardillo, A Daybook for beginning Nurses). Bukari Adams (staff Nurse, psychiatry, Kumbungu, N/R), Executive member, Health Advocates Ghana (HAG) Facebook: health advocates Ghana. Email: [email protected] WhatsApp: 0248557746 Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin Central Constituency in the Central Region, Kennedy Agyapong, has presented four pickup vehicles to the Ashanti Regional branch of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for its campaign ahead of the December elections. The move is aimed at assisting the NPP to embark on a vigorous campaign and win more votes to make Nana Akufo-Addo, the party's standard bearer, to win this year's presidential election. Bernard Antwi Boasiako aka Wontumi, the regional Chairman of the NPP, made the disclosure during the campaign launch of the Ahafo Ano North Constituency branch of the party at Tepa on Sunday. The event, dubbed 'People's Forum,' was organized by Kumasi-based radio station Ashh FM and it was attended by NPP kingpins across the country. Kennedy Agyapong, who is actively pepping up the NPP campaign across the country, came all the way from Assin Central to Tepa to be part of the historic event. Wontumi commended him for his kind gesture, noting that the vehicles had come at the right time. He said that they (vehicles) would be used to campaign at every nook and cranny of the region. The Ashanti Regional Chairman said the NPP is determined to snatch the Ahafo Ano North seat from the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) this year, urging party faithful to make unity their watchword. He entreated every Ghanaian who is experiencing economic hardships to vote massively for the NPP because the party has antidotes to Ghana's socio-economic problems. FROM I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi By Dag Heward-Mills The universe is ruled by a creative God. This world is ruled by creative people. To be able to think of something new and greater and to achieve it, is creativity. An ordinary person wants to do what everyone else is doing. A leader is someone who is prepared to be creative and to chart new territories. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Genesis 1:1 There are two groups of people in this world. One group has created new things. The other group has created nothing. Creative people dominate non-creative people. You don't have to look far to see this truth. Seven Steps to Becoming a Creative Leader Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you what to do. Realize that you may be in a non-creative environment. You may have to fight a spirit of non-creativity all your life. Admire nature. Be interested in animals, nature and the human body. As you become interested in things God has created, the spirit of creativity will be stirred up in you. Non-creative people are usually uninterested in nature. Overcome the natural resistance to change. Most people do not like change. Be honest, and deal with every streak of non-creativity and the anti-change spirit in your life. Be interested in the amazing creations of ordinary men. Be interested in medicine, surgery, cars, planes, computers, etc. Non-creative people are usually not interested in such things. Be open to new and unusual ways of doing things. Do not have a blackout attitude towards every new suggestion. I have often been laughed at when I have made new suggestions. In the end, it is these same suggestions that have been a blessing to many people. Creative people are often laughed at because of their ideas. Be ready to embark on adventure that takes you forward and not fruitless exercises that take you backward. Adventure is the sister of creativity. Adventure leads you to go on exploits that can propel you forward. A good leader must be careful not to embark on adventures that take him and his people backward. Mongolia reduced its nation to poverty and backwardness (primitivization) by wiping out creative increasing return activities. Primitivization is the return to backwardness, poverty and the dark ages by wiping out creative industries and creative manufacturing activities. Under a policy of primitivization, the majority of the people are forced back into non-creative diminishing returns activities. Manufacturing industries die out and poverty-causing non-creative activities take over and dominate the nation. Half a century of creative industry-building in Mongolia was virtually annihilated over a period of only four years, from 1991 to 1995. By March 2000, the country's previously considerable industrial sector had been virtually eradicated. Statistics showed that, one by one, all of the country's various industries had disappeared, beginning with the most advanced. Statistics showed that the production of bread was down by 71 per cent and the production of books and newspapers by 79 per cent, Mongolians, in other words, probably ate and read less than before. The only sectors that, according to the national industrial statistics, were expanding were the production of alcohol which showed minimal growth and the collection and preparation of 'combed down' from birds (to the extent this can be defined as an industry). Closing down the country's steel mills and newspapers and sending its population out to collect bird down cannot be considered anything but a primitivisation of the economy. The combination of deindustrialization and deconstruction of the state had created large scale unemployment in Mongolia. Many people had been forced to return to their ancestral way of living: nomadic pastoralism and herding. In 1990, before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Mongolians shared their lands with 21 million herding animals sheep, cows, goats and camels. As a consequence, the number of grazing animals had risen from 21 million to 33 million in ten years. The Mongolian economy was driven back from the age of industry to that of pastoralism. The nomadic economy, however, was unable to sustain the population and the industrial system, and the result was an economic catastrophe. Try introducing variations to already existing models. Variation is the brother of creativity. A creative leader is someone who is able to come up with new ideas. New ideas often contain the solutions we need. Are you someone with new ideas? The ministry I oversee is made up of mainly lay people. I myself, started out in ministry as a layperson. When I did, many felt I was not concentrating on my studies. They had not seen the lay ministry in operation. Today, this creative lay ministry has led to much growth. Dear leader, remember that the creative rule the non-creative! Be creative in your business! Be creative in your work! The fact that something has not been done before does not mean that it's wrong. Creativity will make you dominate in your sphere of life! Decide to be a creative leader! [email protected] The quality of persons who represent the President across the country, be they District Chief Executives (DCEs) or their municipal counterparts, is critical in the maintenance of the reverence of the presidency and indeed the authority of the state at those levels. When such persons behave like clowns and exhibit crude impunity, then questions begin to be posed as to whether these were the most qualified the President could appoint to represent him in those areas. The story of the Tweea DCE is still fresh in our memories as our plates are being filled by the theatricals of another batch of the president's representatives misbehaving in some districts and municipalities in a manner unbecoming of persons holding those exalted positions. President John Mahama appears not to be bothered by such shortcomings perhaps because these persons fit into the ilk of the Akua Donkors: their relevance best known to him. Such mockery of governance is perhaps the reason why things have fallen apart in the country. We must take governance and the presidency from the abyss to which it appears to have been sent by such characters who understand next to nothing about the role they are expected to play in their various duty points. The past few weeks have exposed more and more of such drawbacks about which all Ghanaians must work hard to reverse. The Obuasi Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) was reported to have taken a swipe at the traditional rulers in his municipality. His reaction to the report, as carried by a private newspaper, was as queer as it was inappropriate. Cursing the reporter and saying he would die before reaching a certain age is not commensurate with his status as a representative of the President. Richard Akwasi Ofori, as he is called, took to singing to make his point on a local radio station and had a lot of people laughing their hearts out. Gone, it would seem, are the days when the president's representatives were men of appreciable level of timbre and caliber. These are persons who chair district and municipal security councils and vested with the authority to order certain security actions. The rest can only be imagined. A DCE who asked who said tweaa and boasted about his prowess and another, who cursed a reporter and said he would be killed by a car cannot be good enough to be entrusted with the authority of the President. And for the President to settle on such caliber of persons to represent him suggests the poor quality of advice his aides give him regarding such critical appointments. When the case of the tweaa DCE gained public opprobrium and ridicule and the appointment withdrawn, the latter was eventually reversed as a the result of pressure. From the Brong Ahafo Region comes the story of Kwesi Opong Ababio MCE for Sunyani, who has branded his official car in his campaign colours. He says he is following the footsteps of the President in an apparent reaction to critics. See why we are questioning the quality of some of the representatives of the president? Mr. Eli Hini 09.08.2016 LISTEN General Manager for Mobile Financial Services at MTN, Mr. Eli Hini has expressed the need to hold business transactions without carrying too much money. Speaking at the launch of this years MTN Mobile Money Month celebration at the Rawlings Park (Makola), Accra on Wednesday, August 03, 2016 Mr. Eli said, As a growing economy, we must develop a structured programme to achieve the benefits of a cashless or cashlite economy because the benefits are huge. He, however enumerated some of the benefits as; reduction in the cost of currency printing, lower the risks for individuals and banks associated with transporting currency notes, increased service options for customers, including efficiencies created when goods and services are purchased and bills paid digitally. Mr. Eli also expressed the need to drive the digital agenda within the confines of the law. We need regulatory bodies to provide the necessary policies that will promote the use of Mobile Money and thereby make the cashless economy agenda a reality, he noted. Under the theme - Lets go cashless with MTN Mobile Money, this years celebration will witness activities such as; stakeholder conference, inter-tertiary institutions debate in partnership with the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS), consumer promotions and merchant for a, amongst others. Launched in July 2009 as the maiden mobile financial service in Ghana, MTN Mobile Money which also the first to attain an ISO/IEC certification has reached an enviable subscriber base of six million and about 46,000 merchants nationwide. Follow Amisty on twitter @ElAmistyNobo Email: [email protected] MTN, Ghanas leading service provider in voice, data and mobile financial services, has launched its annual Mobile Money Month celebration. The month-long campaign is expected to deepen awareness of the benefits of the MTN Mobile Money service. This years Mobile Money Month celebration is under the theme Lets go cashless with MTN Mobile Money. Addressing the public at a brief ceremony held at the Rawlings Park, Makola in Accra, the General Manager for Mobile Financial Services at MTN, Mr. Eli Hini, recounted the successes achieved since the introduction of MTN Mobile Money in Ghana. He indicated that as a result of continuous education, customer behavior has changed positively, contributing to the increase in the usage of the service for transactions including payment of goods and services, money transfers and many others. He however indicated that there is the need to do more to harness the benefits of a cashless society. Mr. Hini, said, As a growing economy, we must develop a structured programme to achieve the benefits of a cashless or cash lite economy because the benefits are huge. Some of the benefits are: a reduction in the cost of currency printing, lower risks for individuals and banks associated with transporting currency notes, increased service options for consumers, including efficiencies created when goods and services are purchased and bills are paid digitally. He also noted that there is the need to drive the digital agenda within the framework of the law. He said, We need regulatory bodies to provide the necessary policies that will promote the use of Mobile Money and thereby make the cashless economy agenda a reality. Activities lined up for the celebration include: a stakeholder conference, inter- tertiary institutions debate in partnership with National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS), consumer promotions and merchant fora. In addition to these, MTNs partner banks will launch their own initiatives to excite customers who transact business with Mobile Money. Additionally, customers who buy airtime will receive 100% bonus airtime, and there will be rewards for peer to peer transactions as well as random airtime for customers who pay for services using the NFC (Near Field Communications) payment system at selected shops. Mobile money merchants also stand the chance of winning items such as motor bikes, generators and many more prizes when they meet targets set for them. MTN Mobile Money was launched in July 2009 as the first mobile financial service in Ghana, and is the only Mobile Money service in Ghana to have attained an ISO/IEC 27001:2013certification. MTN Mobile Money has more than six million active subscribers and about 46,000 merchants nationwide. The launch event was attended by the CEO of MTN Ghana, Mr. Ebenezer Asante, the Executive Committee of MTN, Mobile Money partner banks and members of the general public. The Gender and Social protection minister, Nana Oye Lithur has revealed that she is now a member of the ruling party, NDC. President John Mahama came under heavy attacks by members of the NDC following his appointment of the then human rights lawyer as a minister of state. The party grassroots contended that Oye Lithur, whose husband is lawyer to the president, was not a known sympathizer of the party. The President is however on record to have insisted that her appointment was purely based on merit. The Gender ministry was created to coordinate and better implement social intervention programs aimed as safety nets for the poor and vulnerable in society and to compile a database for the sector. It was also to track the effect of government's social intervention programs on its targets. Oye Lithur in her work as a lawyer with the Commonwealth Human Rights Institute (CHRI) is deemed to have vast expertise in working with the vulnerable in society. Speaking to Kasapa FMs Maame Broni in an exclusive interview, Nana Oye disclosed that she is now an active member of the ruling party and ready to campaign for the second term bid of the President. "I am part of NDC now. I was not part of the NDC when I was appointed as a minister. Everything is making me part of the NDC now. The social democratic principles, the leadership in president Mahama, the social development agenda, and the people oriented agenda and the team, that is what has made me become a part of the NDC," She told Maame Broni. She added that she will continue to be a human rights activist in spite of her political affiliation. Jack Ma was in NYC during the listing of Alibaba on the New York Stock Exchange. (Photo : Getty Images) The two companies are currently preparing for the audit and aim to respond to concerns on China's accounting standards and auditing practices. Both Alibaba and Baidu are Chinese companies traded in the U.S. Alibaba is being audited by Hong Kong-based PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Baidu hired the services of Beijing-based Ernst and Young (EY). Advertisement "On one side, public companies' audit firms should be subject to regulatory inspection; on the other side, China cannot allow a foreign regulator to inspect Chinese companies' data due to sovereignty concerns," Dong Dengxin, director of the Finance and Securities Institute at Wuhan University of Science and Technology. Chinese companies who trade in the U.S. are required by the Securities and Exchange Commission to submit their financial reports. However, local companies are prohibited from doing so without permission from the Chinese government. In 2014, the Big Four accounting firms in the U.S. received a ban for six months from the SEC after failing to comply with auditing rules. These forms are PwC, Deloitte, EY, and KPMG. The PCAOB said that they will "work toward obtaining access to the information we need in order to conduct the necessary inspections of registered firms in China and Hong Kong." Paul Gillis, an accounting professor at Peking University's Guanghua School of Management, said that allowing the audit is a good initiative from China but is doubtful if there will be any substantial result after the inspection. He added, "The Chinese "are trying to do whatever is necessary to prevent a disaster, which is their companies being delisted. U.S. regulators are trying to make this problem go away." On the other hand, Dong believed that the inspection will be good for Chinese companies to improve their accounting practices. He said, "While the bilateral cooperation on audit oversight puts pressure on Chinese regulators, I think it's a good thing as our regulatory standards are forced to improve under the pressure, as is the quality of our public companies." 09.08.2016 LISTEN Today, Monday 8 August 2016, it was announced by Kumasi Hello FM radio station that Kumawu has only one paramount chief. Yes, we, the subjects of Kumawuman, are very much aware of the fact that Kumawuman has only one legitimate paramount chief (Omanhene). However, the radio station erroneously mentioned Barima Sarfo Tweneboa Kodua as the said Kumawuhene. Whoever contracted them to put out such wrong information has not done them any favour. Whoever their source of information is, has done them a great disservice. For it is the required duty of any journalist to crosscheck any information passed on to them for authenticity before placing them in the public domain for public consumption. As far as over 95% of Kumawuman population is aware, we have only one legitimate Kumawu Omanhene in the person of BARIMA TWENEBOA KODUA V who hails from the Kumawu-Ananangya royal family, the true matrilineal descendants of Barima Tweneboa Kodua I, the originator of the Kumawu Kodua Stool. He is the one who has been enstooled and accepted by the subjects of Kumawuman in line with our prevailing Kumawuman tradition and custom as regards enstoolment of new paramount chiefs. Many an Asanteman subject coming from outside Kumawuman, believe that the alleged Kumawuhene Barima Sarfo Tweneboa Kodua, who in private life is Dr Yaw Sarfo, a complete puppet without comparison, was enstooled by Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II hence he is a legitimate Kumawuhene. This same group of people believe that Dr Yaw Sarfo has been accepted by Asanteman Council and been gazetted, the seal of his legitimacy as Kumawuhene. It really hurts me to see such a vast number of people still being ignorant about our chieftaincy histories, especially those involving enstoolments and destoolments of chiefs. It will do such group of people a great favour, save them from public embarrassment and subsequently enhance their chances of engaging in intellectual public or private debates on chieftaincy disputes if any such opportunity arose, by reading all my published articles on Kumawu chieftaincy affairs, or they had better search for proper history books to read. Let it be known to Hello FM and her affiliate sister stations that: 1) A Kumawuhene-elect is not selected at Manhyia Palace in Kumasi under coercion by Asantehene and his supporting Kumasiman chiefs and other Asante Amanhene. 2) No bribery of the Kumawu kingmakers should ever be seen to take place when selecting/electing a prospective candidate for enstoolment as Kumawuhene-elect. 3) The inventory of Kumawu palace properties must be carried out before a new Kumawuhene is enstooled after the deceased of the occupying chief. 4) No Asantehene has the power to choose a candidate to be elected as Kumawuhene let alone, impose one on Kumawuman. All the above enumerated points were seen to have contrarily occurred in the alleged selection and enstoolment of Dr Yaw Sarfo as the alleged Kumawuhene. This is clearly at variance with time-tested and prevailing Kumawu traditions and customs. As I wouldnt like to be a liar who will say my witness is far away or is nowhere close by, I shall refer the reading public to YouTube posting titled, Asantehene involves in corruption under the web link below to see how Kumawu traditions and custom on selection and enstoolment of a prospective candidate for Kumawuhene were disregarded or completely flouted by all those disgraceful chiefs gathered around at Manhyia Palace on 24 February 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ac8wZIPlVu8 Again, Dr Yaw Sarfos purported enstoolment breaches conventions in place to regulate chieftaincy disputes. I shall advise readers to refer to Warrington Notes - Section 13 on Ashanti stool disputes; ACTS OF GHANA: Criminal Code, 1960 (Act 29) THE CRIMINAL CODE (AMENDMENT) ACT, 2003 (ACT 646) Sections 239 to 247; "THE POSITION OF CHIEF IN THE MODERN POLITICAL SYSTEM OF ASHANTI" - pages 210 to 212 (written by Dr Kofi Abrefa Busia); ASHANTI LAW AND CONSTITUTION written by J. S. Rattray and published in Oxford in 1929 - in page 233: Kumawu - Selection of the new Chief. Simply refer to the following web link for comprehensive explanations on the conventions broken by Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II and his corrupt Asanteman Council. https://www.modernghana.com/news/584823/re-asantehene-is-the-overlord-of-asanteman.html Finally, Dr Yaw Sarfo going by the stool name Barima Sarfo Tweneboa Kodua, although claims to have been gazetted, he is running away from making it public the true certified copy of his Chieftaincy Declaration Forms 1 & 2. These forms are public records that must be made available to the public at all times but for likely committal of fraud of some sort, he is colluding with the registrars of Kumawu Traditional Council, Regional House of Chiefs, Kumasi and National House of Chiefs, Kumasi, to withhold the document from Kumawuman subjects requesting to have true certified copies. In attempts to strengthen their efforts to hide the document which clearly constitutes a public record, they have petitioned the Chief Justice, Mrs Theodora Georgina Wood to assist them in preventing the release of the document to interested persons. I shall be publishing a counter open petition to the Chief Justice with attached true form copies of certain documents in my possession that will shock the public. I pray the Chief Justice keeps her clean slate of personal record, her admired public integrity without seeking to get embroiled in the ongoing legal wrangling and tussle over the Kumawu chieftaincy dispute as the subjects of Kumawuman have vowed to leave no stone unturned in their pursuit to bring about justice and peace and development to Kumawuman. They will not take it kindly to any acts of plots by whomever to scupper their good intentions for the entire subjects and citizens of Kumawuma both home and abroad. From all that is stated above, Dr Yaw Sarfo, alias Barima Sarfo Tweneboa Kodua, cannot in a million years to come be a legitimate Kumawuhene. Lest I forget, have we forgotten the Obo3 fa dadee fa assertion against him by his own uncle Mr Osei Kwabena? That alone disqualifies him from ascending to the Kumawu Kodua Stool? Asantehene Osei Tutu II can condone and connive with Kumawuhemaa, Dr Yaw Sarfo and other Asanteman chiefs, but he will not succeed in his evil enterprise to rob Kumawuman in such a broad daylight. He is only the Asante Overlord to those who are not abreast with history and are also as corrupt as him. How dare I sit on the fence twirling my fingers while a fellow old burger, Mr Kwaku Duah, now Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, come to cheat the people of my ancestral place of birth because he is Kumasimanhene and a purported Asante Overlord? I hope the radio stations will go back to do a proper research before putting out erroneous information on their airwaves to deceive the public. Will it not serve Kumasi-based Hello FM radio station better to go back to retract their statement made in bad faith? I dedicate this publication to all people, especially history students studying Ashanti history on chieftaincy. Rockson Adofo The Da Vinci College of Holistic Medicine in Cyprus, a world renowned college of training and researching into holistic medicine, has appointed Dr. Raphael Nyarkotey Obu, a prostate cancer researcher and policy maker as research professor in Prostate Cancer and Alternative Medicine. Dr. Nyarkotey Obu well-known for his works in prostate cancer and alternative medicine in the country completed his PhD (A.M) at the IBAM Academy, Kolkata, India. His PhD focuses on the impact of alternative medicine on Ghanaian men diagnosed with prostate cancer and the use of local plant Croton Membranaceus. His works revealed the rightful use of croton membranaceus in the management of prostate diseases in Ghana by the herbal practitioners. His research also revealed the rightful use of alternative medicine in the management of prostate cancer. Dr. Raphael Nyarkotey Obu has published extensively on prostate cancer and alternative medicine in Ghana. He was appointed the national president of the Alternative Medical Association of Ghana (AMAG) to steer its affairs. A copy of the appointment letter issued by Dr George J Georgiou the Academic Director accepted by Dr. Raphael Nyarkotey Obu and reads: Further to our conversations, and after reviewing your resume, it is my pleasure to offer you a position at the Da Vinci College of Holistic Medicine as a Research Professor in Prostate Cancer and Alternative Medicine. Your appointment is based on your extensive research in the field of prostate cancer and alternative medicine in Ghana and your innovative policy to declare fathers day in Ghana as a national Prostate Cancer Awareness day in the black community. This recommendation has been forwarded with your credentials to the College Board of Directors. The Da Vinci College of Holistic Medicine position is a Non-tenure track position, authorized by the Bylaws of the Board of the College. The provisions of Bylaws (including those with respect to termination and grant funded positions) are incorporated into this letter of appointment based on the Colleges acceptance of your proposal. The term of your non-tenure track appointment is for 5 years, commencing on 1st September 2016 and ending on September 2021 or upon termination of the research. Renewal of your appointment depends both upon quality of performance and availability of funds for your research in Ghana. This appointment is subject to all provisions of the Bylaws of the Board of the college and any amendments that may from time-to-time be duly adopted. Part of your responsibilities will be to teach our students at a distance that may benefit from your specialties, introduce and create new courses that are part of your specializations, share research papers and articles with our students, as well as sharing your research findings intermittently as you progress. In addition, co-authoring papers published in peer reviewed journals with our academic staff would be a further requirement. You are also eligible to introduce students and Colleges of alternative medicine in Ghana and West Africa to the Da Vinci College for affiliation and other transactions for the betterment of alternative medicine globally, including workshops, seminars etc. I am delighted that you will be joining the faculty, and I look forward to working with you, the statement ended. Dr. Nyarkotey current research focuses on the hibiscus tea and its impact on PSA level of Ghanaian men diagnosed with prostate cancer. Others include the impact of Chiropractic and Homeopathic remedies on Ghanaian men diagnosed with prostate cancer. Dr. Nyarkotey Obu is the youngest to be appointed in the faculty at the age of 31 and the only Ghanaian to conduct research into prostate cancer and alternative medicine at the international level with world class professors and scientists in the faculty. Dr. Raphael Nyarkotey Obu is a Dangme from Doryumu in the greater Accra region. He is the director of Mens Health Foundation Ghana; De Mens Clinic & Prostate Research Lab and Dangme media limited publishers of Dangme newspaper. Dr. Nyarkotey Obu studied the first ever masters program in Prostate Cancer organized by Sheffield Hallam University UK and Prostate Cancer UK and was also recognized as one of the most successful students in prostate cancer by the alumni connects office of the school. He was also recognized as one of the top 5 doctor columnist on LinkedIn. He is a columnist, Author and feature writer in most of the newspapers in the country on prostate cancer, alternative medicine and the Dangme land. He pushed for the declaration of the fathers day in Ghana as national prostate cancer awareness day and launched the Do it 4 Dad prostate cancer awareness campaign this year on fathers day. He is the director of Dangme Media limited publishers of Dangme newspaper Its four months to the general elections in Ghana, and the political parties have still not released their manifestoes. The manifestoes are supposed to be part of the key technical criteria by which informed citizens make their judgement on who should govern the country for the next four years. Through the manifestoes, the electorate can identify specific policy proposals, weigh their comparative competitiveness and decide which political party presents better prospects for national development. The more they delay, the shorter time we have to properly analyse and make informed decisions on voting day. When there is not enough time for voters to scrutinize the governance proposals presented by political parties, more people vote based on the usually biased campaign messages. This is not healthy for us as a country. We urge political parties, hoping to have our votes, to as soon as possible present their manifestoes so we the electorate can have good enough time to critically assess and make informed decisions on who to vote for. But perhaps what is more important apart from the timeliness in the release of manifestoes is the quality of the content. Past manifestoes, especially from the main political parties, have focused on the what rather than the how. It is understandable that a detailed development programming linking proposed actions to desired outcomes will not find enough space in a manifesto document. Yet, the consistent failure of governments to effectively deliver on their manifesto proposals should be instructive to any well-meaning political party and any responsible electorate. When a political party wins power, state machinery is put at their disposal for the delivery of their manifesto promises. Since 1992, we have had six elections. To what extent have these elections improved our leadership, governance and development? How many manifesto promises or proposals were actually achieved? If we leave it to the political parties, they will play an endless blame game with each of them pretending to surrogate for the people of Ghana. In the last elections we were promised an average Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of at least 8% per annum. Before that we had a populist civil service salary structure which did not have a logical practical link to productivity. Today our GDP growth rate is around 4.9% and civil servants continue strikes over their working conditions in spite of the implementation of single spine salary structure and low productivity in the public sector. Is it the case that both what we promise in manifestoes and what we actually implement while in government are respectively unrealistic and detrimental to actual development? We have to interrogate the quality of manifestoes presented by the political parties. We have to check how doable the proposals are. Lets take a few cases of critical importance: Education Will the manifestoes give us a clear and correct diagnosis of the challenges in our educational system? Why is our school system incapable of products that provide real solutions to the problems in our local communities? We need a comprehensive analysis of why many of our children are not staying and performing well in school and why our public schools are failing. The manifestoes must provide some good indicative explanations of why our technical and vocational training systems are producing poor outcomes in spite of the nice paper policies. They should provide us with cogent net strategies of how to address the primary, secondary and tertiary problems in our teaching and learning infrastructure, content planning and delivery methods. They should tell us what the problem is with our education monitoring and evaluation mechanism and show us how they will fix it up in the midst of budgetary constraints. We are tied of recycled ideas that duplicate efforts, waste resources and dampen the morale of our education professionals. Health Regarding health, the manifestoes should tell us why so many of our citizens are dying from preventable diseases like cholera, malaria, typhoid fever and diarrhea. They should give us an indicative net problem analysis. We know about the traditional problems of poor hygiene and bad attitudes in local communities. Our inquiry is about why these situations have continued for so many years and transcended many election cycles. Why has the NDC not been able to deal with this challenge and why was the NPP unable to address it when in power? Why are there not enough beds in our hospitals, why are our doctor-patient ratio lagging? Why are our mothers dying in child birth and our girls losing the battle against right reproductive health choices? A critical challenge in the health sector is inadequate research. Over the past few years there has been a worrying trend where diseases like cancer, kidney failure and strokes are becoming routine causes of death in our country. Why is this so? It is not enough to attribute it to lifestyle changes and live it there. What do the power-seeking political parties have to effectively address these issues? Our health workers are disgruntled over their working conditions, not in reference to their remuneration only, but more serious the availability of equipment for proper delivery of health services. These are basic issues we have been struggling with since independence. The political parties should give us something better than the usual menu of transcribed rhetoric and politicking. Youth Skills Development and Employment Many of our young people who complete basic school are on the streets of major cities and towns idling away their energetic youth. They are venders, hawking into poverty. They are fighting hard to prevent themselves from delinquent behavior and to survive. But life is very tough on them. For many, the options are diminishing by the day. When the Junior Secondary School system was introduced, we were told that every school will have a workshop for vocational and technical training so that JSS graduates can have skills for self-employment even if they are unable to further their education. This has not happened. Yet our politicians are still bold enough to ask for our votes without shame. Where are the skills for our young people? Various governments come with big-mouth promises, big policy launches, media-heavy initiatives; and thats all after the noise. What will the manifestoes say about this? Perhaps the manifestoes dont really matter. They are just window dressing tools to throw dust into our eyes. At best they may be available only to meet a traditional requirement for political expediency. After all the masses dont seem to be interested in documented manifestoes; they are moved by campaign rhetoric and cosmetic development. But we must insist on quality manifestoes, and the wide broadcasting of their content to stimulate an election discourse dictated by documented and weighted development policy proposals. This is where the role of media is critical. Manifestoes must matter and good manifestoes must be a critical component of the voters decision making process. So this is what we can do: put pressure on the political parties to produce and publish their manifestoes before the end of August; task all radio stations to produce weekly prime-time programmes for independent analysis of the manifestoes by non-partisan experts, including local language editions. Similar programmes may be done by Television stations. Also, our churches should provide platforms for non-partisan analysis of the manifestoes. They should see this as a spiritual responsibility because civil duties are part of Christian expectations. Our Mosques could do something similar. As a country, 59 years after independence is not too short for us to have a good grasp of our developmental aspirations and strategies to achieve them. We must take advantage of the opportunities globalisation offers for international knowledge sharing and competiveness. We dont have to spend more than 200 years like the United States to fashion out a democratic system that is progressive for our context. We do not have to go through all the experiences Germany had before we can develop a political system that is measured by its productive impact on industry and we should not sit by for countries we have inspired to overtake us because they put development above mere politics. Lets get our political parties to be more responsible. Lets make them feel the hard work they must do to earn our votes; so that when they get the power they can rally and inspire us to work harder together to achieve concrete developmental goals. So lets start with real good manifestoes this election season. The Association of Rural Banks has expressed fears that the increment in the corporate tax of rural and community banks is a threat to their survival. The corporate tax on these banks was raised from eight percent to 25 percent which came into effect this year through the New Income Tax Act 2015 (Act 896). Alhaji Abdul-Sharif Adams, President of the Upper East Regional Chapter of the Association, said this at the 20th Anniversary and 16th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Builsa Community Bank Limited (BUKO-Bank) held at Sandema in the Builsa District of the Upper East Region. He stressed the need for the downward review of the tax to enable the banks to stay in business. The Council of Association of Rural Banks has requested the management of rural and community banks to submit the tax profile of their staff to enable the council to intervene on their behalf, he said. He said another major threat that was likely to affect the operations of the banks was the Bank of Ghana's mandatory minimum requirement of GH1,000,000.00 for rural banks for the 2017 fiscal year. Alhaji Adams said most of the banks could not pay the GH500,000.00 mandatory minimum requirement of the Bank of Ghana for 2015, and that apart from the BUKO-Bank, the rest of the rural banks in the region, as well as the Northern and Upper West regions, could not meet the requirement. He commended the BUKO-Bank for its remarkable achievement and urged other rural and community banks in the three Northern regions, who are confronted with operational and administrative challenges to consult the BUCO-Bank to learn from its good initiatives. Zinzendorf Pascal Nkulenu, Upper East Regional Manager of the Apex Bank, who read a speech on behalf of Kwadwo Aye Kusi, Managing Director of the bank, called on the management and staff to ensure that they place premium on their clients so as to attract more customers. Board Chairman of the Bank, Naab Akanab Apoom-Weem, said in spite of the general economic challenges in 2015, the bank recorded a profit before tax of GH708,621.00, which represented a decrease of 86,432.00 (10.9 percent) over the previous year's performance. GNA The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has given universal commercial banks operating in the country up to December 31, 2016 to fully implement the Ghana Instant Pay (GIP) system or face sanctions. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Interbank Payments & Settlements Systems, Archie Hesse, speaking at a stakeholder meeting in Accra with banks, telcos and allied players in the financial sector towards full implementation, disclosed that only nine banks have so far signed onto the system. They include Zenith Bank, Capital Bank, UBA, Royal Bank, Standard Chartered Bank Cal Bank, Energy Bank, UMB and Agricultural Development Bank (adb). Giving assurance to customers on the adequate security provided by the Instant Pay Service, Mr Hesse said the platform allowes bank account holders to transfer money from their accounts to other accounts instantly, regardless of whether the bank has met international best practices or not. The security features we have are consistent with best practice depending on the channel we use, you realize that in order to access it you must go through your banks internet portal, Mr Hesse said. He also called on banks to constantly improve their services. The CEO stated that banks' clients would be provided some security features before they are introduced to the service, adding that most of the fraud emanate from the cheque environment. In terms of transmission, it is between the sending banks, GhIPSS and the receiving banks. That section, which is applicable to us, is fairly hardened and secure, he said. By Samuel Boadi [email protected] The Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) has predicted that government will borrow more funds this year owing to the revenue short fall in the country's oil sector. ACEP's forecast is based on a recent report by the Public Interest & Accountability Committee (PIAC) which revealed that some nine oil companies had failed to pay surface rental costs totaling $721,000 to government in 2015. Currently, there are about 30 oil companies who are on record to have registered but 14 of these are absent from site. Also, the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) stated that it could not trace the whereabouts of owners of the defaulting companies which suggested that their invoice amounts were likely to be written off. The non-payment of the surface rental costs translated into a 61 percent drop in revenue expected from the sector. Surface rentals and corporate tax form part of revenue expected by government for its operations every year. Dr Ackah stated that in such a situation, government would be put under pressure to go and borrow which wouldn't have been the case if it were dealing with credible companies. Assessment Licensed upstream companies paid $465,920 in 2015 compared to about $907,501 in 2014, representing 49 percent drop, according to the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and Bank of Ghana 2016 report. Dr. Ishmael Ackah, Head of Policy at ACEP, indicated that the development would grossly affect government's revenue. According to him, the oil companies had been granted provisional licences even though they were yet to find money to start oil exploration. GRA, meanwhile, has been urged to, as a matter of urgency, begin the recovery of all outstanding surface rentals owed by the upstream companies to the government with applicable penalties. Advice Dr. Ackah called for a competitive bidding process to attract competent companies. He disclosed that if government continued to negotiate with companies under the current structure, similar situations would arise in the years ahead. Meanwhile, the Centre for Economic and Business Research (CEBRE), has suggested that licences of defaulting companies should be revoked. This is because Oranto/Stone Energy, for instance, has not honoured its surface rentals of $67,438.36 since February 21, 2013. Debt stock Ghana's total public debt stock reached GH105.1 billion at the end of May 2016, representing 66.4 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as against GH104.5 billion at the end of April 2016, representing 66.3 percent of GDP. Out of the total debt stock, debt incurred internally was GH43.2 billion, representing 27.3 percent of GDP, while the external debt stock stood at GH61.9 billion, representing 39.1 percent of GDP. In January, the debt was GH101.1 billion and increased to GH102.3 billion in February. In March, the debt rose to GH103.1 billion. Ghana last week planned to raise $1 billion Eurobond but abandoned the plans because of high interest demanded by international investors. The Finance Ministry said in a statement on Thursday after concluding investor meetings in the U.K. and U.S. that government will monitor markets and revive the sale at the optimal time and the right conditions. It also capped a buyback tender for $500 million of 2017 notes at $100 million. By Samuel Boadi [email protected] The flagbearer of the Convention People's Party (CPP) Ivor Kobina Greenstreet has stated that Ghanaians will continue to live in hell if they ignore the CPP in the 2016 general elections. Mr. Greenstreet, who addressed supporters in the Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam in the Central region, asked Ghanaians to reject the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the December polls since they have failed to deliver. I speak to your heart and I speak to your souls and I speak to your spirits. For those who choose not to listen, continue with the hell of your daily lives, for those who choose to listen, we shall take you to a place that you never ever dreamt existed because Ghana is a wealthy nation, the CPP flagbearer said while introducing Monica Dappong, the party's 2016 parliamentary candidate for Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam Constituency, to the gathering. Mr Greenstreet called on the supporters to vote massively for Ms Dappong, who he said has the spirit to serve unlike the candidates of the NDC and NPP. All of those who have big names and big money do nothing for you, so bring somebody who has a clean heart, somebody who means and represents truth, justice, hope and true progress to come and serve you in your daily lives. Wake up as a people and stop following those who pretend to serve you but only come and serve themselves; choose somebody from your own soil who really will come and serve you as a people. 09.08.2016 LISTEN The word, human excreta (feces and urine), sounds disgusting in our part of the world. Yet, it is one single product which can create sustenance, livelihood, employment, and restore all the messes in our environment created by our dependency on gold, oil and other non-renewable resources. Just recently, the world richest man, Bill Gates, drank a glass of water extracted and treated from human excreta. I can imagine the look on your face but it doesnt change the fact that todays waste is the needed resource for tomorrows challenges. The way human excreta are handled in this country undoubtedly reveal our lack of knowledge toward its benefits. Many households are constructed without toilet facilities and those with toilet facilities are turning into rooms for rents. Most of our public toilets are not properly handled and the septic tanks are leaked into drainages and river bodies. Classrooms, uncompleted buildings, beaches, river banks, roadsides, bushy areas, have all been turned to shitting grounds. Open defecation has gained ground in almost all the regions in this country. It is so sad that in most institutions, both private and public, the toilet facilities are always listed as the most unhygienic part of the apartments while in some countries, such places have been designed to be the most hygienic and comfortable rooms. Upon all these, we are paying huge subsidies on chemical fertilizers to fertilizer our agricultural soils which effective management of human excreta would have done better and save the country a lot of money. Moreover, we are importing most of our vegetables and food crops from countries who use their own human excreta to fertilize their soil. There is no doubt that agriculture has been a major backbone to this countrys economic and sustenance. Its importance affects all other sectors of the economic as it performs the following roles such as provision of food security, supply of raw materials for industries, creation of employment and generation of foreign exchange earnings. It is a fact that agriculture have a greater impact on poverty reduction as well as social stabilization, buffer during economic shocks and support to environmental sustainability. It is a field which employs more than half the population on a formal and informal basis and contribute enormously to the countrys Gross Domestic Product and export earnings. It becomes perilous if a country such as ours faces challenges with agriculture. Yields in Agriculture in this country are relatively becoming low in almost all sectors. There have been several factors but the dominated among them is insufficient plant nutrients in the soil which has been mainly caused by our over reliance on chemical fertilizers. Though chemical or synthetic or inorganic fertilizers have been known to cause tremendous increase in yield, its negative effect outweighs its benefit. Several reports indicate that increase in chemical fertilizers usage in agriculture have caused widespread ecological damage and negative human health effects. Chemical fertilizers have been known to have poor affinity with the soil. Residues of nutrients in the soil after plant uptake are easily washed into nearby waterbodies enhancing eutrophication which has higher probability of killing fishes, loss of biodiversity and rendering water unfit for drinking and other industrial uses. Chemical fertilizers with ammonium based emit gases which contribute greatly to global climate change when applied on crop fields. Moreover, chemical fertilizers have loaded soils with heavy metals which are easily absorbed by plant nutrients and subsequently accumulate in plant food for human consumption. The cost of production of chemical fertilizer is high and largely depend on natural gas and therefore an increase in price of natural gases definitely lead to an increase in cost of chemical fertilizer. Research works have indicated that a farmer needs to keep on increasing the rate of application of chemical fertilizer in order to produce the same yield as produced in previous years. This therefore called for higher cost in the use of chemical fertilizer and therefore call for government subsidy. In Malawis agriculture budget for example, fertilizer subsidies now consume 60 per cent of Malawis agriculture budget, which is a huge amount and leave out provisions for other essential factors such as, extension services, irrigation, research, which are not being done as a result. Just this year, the Ghanaian government announced a total of GHS 200million on fertilizer subsidies. This has made cost of production in agriculture very expensive, and not lucrative to practice. This country is grouped among countries where majority of farmers are poor as a result of spending almost their profit yields on acquisition of fertilizer. This in turn, affects the economic negatively. Human excreta provide a good alternative to the problem of insufficient nutrients required by plants. Countries such as China, India, Melanesia, Sri Lanka, Central America, Vietnam, part of Europe, Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, South-east Asia, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand have been on record of using human excreta as fertilizer in agriculture sectors. In Africa, countries such as Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, Uganda, and others use human excreta for the production of banana, pineapple, maize, cassava, sorghum, jackfruits and passion fruits, mango trees, etc. In Ghana, the story is not new. Research works have indicated that Ghanaian farmers who use human excreta compost have also attested to the agronomic benefits of excreta, and users of excreta make three times the net income of non-users. Human excreta have been known to possess greater fertilizing potential than animal wastes and its production rates are reliable than animal wastes. Human excreta serves four major purposes. First, it is rich source of major plant nutrients such as phosphorus, potassium and nitrogen. Second, it encourages the formation of humus which is essential for optimum soil structure and water retention. Improving the soil structure makes soil easy to cultivate and resistant to erosion. It also has high affinity with the soil particles and therefore has the potential of retaining nutrients in the soil. Third, it contains trace elements which are not available in chemical fertilizers. These trace elements protect the plant from parasites and diseases. Lastly, it contains small organisms thus microorganisms which convert minerals to forms that plants can easily use. These microorganisms are mostly destroyed through excessive use of chemical fertilizer. Yields from human excreta have been known to be the same as that of chemical fertilizer. The cost of producing refined and treated human excreta for agriculture is cheaper as compared to chemical fertilizer. Human excreta are able to meet the nutrient needs required to support agriculture both locally and outside the country. Moreover, most materials used in manufacturing chemical fertilizers are not renewable but human excreta, as a raw material would cease to exist when the last human dies. It is an unfailing raw material in this current world. Seeing treated human excreta, ready to be applied to agricultural soil, would make one bet with his last dollar to challenge whether its source is from human excreta. It produces no smell, blackish in color, lighter than normal soil and full of readily available nutrients for plant usage. Human Excreta is no more waste but like every other substance, when they are in a wrong system, they turn to cause problems. For instance, a tomato plant would be classified as a weed in cotton plantation. Human Excreta need to be treated, composted and returned to the soil. Passage of human excreta into water bodies, food and human digestive system would obviously cause sicknesses because they are not their habitation and therefore all measures should be made to prevent their contact with these systems. Ghana sewage system is more like a blessing in disguise. All sewages including human excreta, industrial wastewater are not channeled into one sewage system. This has a higher tendency of reducing the levels of heavy metals and other contaminants which make human excreta unwholesome for soil usage. This has been a great challenge for its usage in countries with one sewage system especially in some part of Europe. As a country we need to; Change perception about human excreta not as a waste but a valuable resource to empower our agriculture sector. Design sustainable acts and guidelines on proper management of human excreta to block its passage into water bodies and human contact. Engage private sectors in building plants that will treat human excreta at least at every district. If human excreta, as a single component, can do much good to agriculture, then it can really cause a total transformation in this country than all the available non-renewable resources, which have failed to deliver. Jeffery Amo-Asare [email protected] Bishop Dr. Kofi Adonteng Boateng of Divine Word International Ministries (DWIM) will in early October 2016 embark on a tour of the Holy city of Jerusalem and other biblical historical parts of Israel. Bishop Adonteng who confirmed the DWIM trip to TheAfricanDream.net in an interview at his US base in Springfield, Virginia, said he will be accompanied by some 130 Christian faithfuls. He said the tour which has been dubbed The Holy Land Experience is scheduled to leave the US via New York for Israel October 4, 2016. Jerusalem pilgrimage The one week experience in the Holy Land according to Bishop Adonteng will be an important spiritual and physical experience for him personally, which is why he wants to share it with others as he says: I feel very blessed and humbled to arrive at this juncture of my life where I will be able to be in the land where Christianity originated and feel the spirit and love of Christ. When the travelers arrive in Israel they will be hosted by one of the largest African Churches in Tel Aviv under the leadership of Rev. Daniel Jones Boakye of the Amazing Grace Teaching Ministry from October 5-7. Then on Friday October 9, Bishop Adonteng will preach a sermon in a replica boat on the Sea of Galilee where Jesus did the same 2000 years ago. Historic Jerusalem sermon The Bishop's historical sermon is expected to be witnessed by the team of 130 travellers accompanying him. Other travelers of respective African origins who will be headed to Israel from countries like Germany, Canada, the UK and Denmark are going to be present during Bishop Adonteng's sermon in what is expected to be one of the largest gathering of African Christians in Israel. From a religious perspective Israel encompasses an integral part of the Holy Land and holds great significance to religions like Christianity which is the largest religion in the world today, the Druze and Baha'i Faiths, Judaism, and Islam. Yes God through Jesus Christ is everywhere at every time so lets not forget that fact. It will however be a great experience to be at and see some of the things we read about in the Bible like the Old City of Jerusalem, The Temple Mount, The Sea of Galilee, Jacobs Well Church, Jericho and The Church of The Nativity (Jesus' birthplace) to mention a few of these amazing places Bishop Adonteng. Information obtained from DWIM indicates that The Holy Land Experience tour will begin in the Holy Land with a visit to the Herodion; the fortified palace and final resting place of King Herod the Great. It will then move to Bethlehem and a visit to the Church of the Nativity, where the cave revered as Jesus' birthplace resides in the world's oldest functioning church and continue to check out other exciting landmarks and places. DWIM began as a small prayer group called Divine Prayer Line on a free conference phone line in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA in 2009. Today it has transformed into a full-fledged ministry with over 3,000 Church members and some 10,000 worshippers on their prayer line network in the USA and worldwide. The church is located at 6715 Electronic Drive in Springfield, Virginia, USA. More information can be obtained about it and The Holy Land Experience by emailing [email protected] The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hanna Tetteh has defended the ratification of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between Ghana and the European Union (EU), saying it will protect jobs and improve the local economy. According to her, since Ghana is among other things expected to possess about 85 percent of exports to the EU to enjoy tariffs, there is the need to protect such jobs. We would see that the penetration into the Ghanaian economy is good because if you look at all the businesses that export to the EU and because of the eighty-five percent local content requirement; you need to consider the linkages between our own local private sector which has not been studied and always overlooked in these arguments, she explained. Madam Hanna Tetteh added, If EU manufacturers divert their attention from Ghana, it is not just those businesses which will be affected but it is all of these other businesses that offer services to them so the economic impact will be significant. The Foreign Affairs Minister also argues that Ghana's failure to agree to the EPA may have compelled businesses to relocate to neighbouring Ivory Coast. If the businesses do not have access to duty or quota free access under the IEPA, and their businesses either relocate to Cote D'Ivoire because they have signed the Interim Economic Partnership Agreement (IEPA) and possess similar economic conditions like Ghana's, she further intimated. Parliament last Tuesday, August 2, 2016 ratified the interim EPA after nine years of signing unto an interim agreement. Ghana's failure to ratify the agreement would have meant that major exporters to the EU market would be required to pay tariffs on their exports, effective October 1st, 2016. Third World Network disagrees with EPA The ratification of the EPA has received backlash from agencies like the Third World Network who believe that local manufacturing companies will be affected. Commenting on the matter, a programmes officer with the Third World Network Africa, Sylvester Bagoroo Citi Business News argued that there was lack of critical examination considering the speed with which Parliament passed the Bill. We at TWN 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, he told Citi Business News. EU advises restraint over renegotiation Meanwhile the EU has urged Ghana to exercise restraint in renegotiating a deal with the EU over the EPA following the exit of the UK from the EU. EU's Ambassador to Ghana, William Hanna believes it will be speculative for any such arguments to be pushed forward as it will take approximately two years to complete processes of UK's exit from the EU. We are not there yet at all; this government has not yet decided or informed any group of what it intends to do in terms of a renegotiation so to speculate about that, is something I wouldn't like to say, he observed. By: Pius Amihere Eduku/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana A Russian warship sails near the Heixiazi Island on the border between Russia and China's Heilongjiang Province. (Photo : Getty Images) The setting up of land crossings that will connect Heixiazi Island to both China and Russia is expected to boost tourism and local economy in the area, China Daily reported. Advertisement Russia also suggested having cross-border checkpoints which would enable smaller vehicles or eight-seater cars to travel between Khabarovsk, one of Russia's largest cities in the Far East, and Fuyuan in Heilongjiang Province, the most easterly town in China. Zhou Hong, director of the Heixiazi Island Development and Management Committee, said border checkpoints, once established, could be the largest on the Sino-Russian border, with more than 2 million people expected to pass through it annually. The island, with an area of 335 square kilometers, is located at the junction of the Heilongjiang and Wusuli rivers (known as the Amur and Ussuri rivers in Russia). It is expected that the island will boost the local economy, both as a road link and as a tourist destination, with the setting up of the land crossings. China and Russia have agreed to have each of them taking half of the island, which is one-third the size of Hong Kong. "The experience of China and Russia in resolving border disputes left by historical factors proves that peaceful dialogue and fair and reasonable consultation on an equal basis are effective," according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, after the unveiling of the border markers on the island in 2008. In May, President Xi Jinping visited the island and urged to protect the island's environment to encourage more tourists to visit the area. On July 26, the National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic planning agency, presented a three-pronged policy for the island's "protective development." This includes turning the island into a "model zone for China-Russia cooperation," at the same time stressing environmental protection and moderate tourism growth. Since Xi's visit, local authorities have building infrastructure, such as roads, with more focus on protecting the environment. Tourists and visitors are encouraged to take electric carts to get around. Among the island's attractions include the recently built pagoda, Russian Orthodox church, abandoned Russian barracks, wetland areas, patrol boats and the wetland on the Russian side. A 6-square kilometer multi-purpose complex is under construction in Fuyuan, the river town on the Chinese side. The ten-year project is worth more than 4 billion yuan ($601 million). The complex will provide a conference center, service facilities for tourists, and a campus jointly run by Chinese and Russian universities. Zhou, who is also the Party chief of Fuyuan, said with the establishment of the land crossings, more tourists will come to the place and give local residents the "biggest opportunity". Around 520,000 tourists visited Fuyuan and Heixiazi Island last year, which is expected to rise to 600,000 this year, local tourism officials said. "My vision is for Fuyuan to become an international tourist resort," Zhou said. Leadership of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Western Region has accused the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) of starving the region of the needed development and growth. At a press conference at Shama in the Western Region, the Member of Parliament for Takoradi Dr. Kobby Otchere Darko Mensah noted that the NPP before leaving office had initiated policies and programs which was creating jobs as well as positioning the region strategically for the country's growth, but the 8 years administration of the NDC has stifled the growth of the region. Decline in cocoa production Dr. Darko Mensah noted that the NPP under the erstwhile Kuffour administration increased cocoa production from 350,000 tonnes in the year 2000 to approximately 1,000,000 in 2010 but currently, cocoa production has plummeted to approximately 700,000 metric tonnes the reasons for the dwindling fortunes of cocoa production in the Western Region and some areas include the current government's failure to sustain the provision of fertilizers. The [NDC] budgeted for 180,000mt of fertilizers in 2014 but no fertilizer was supplied to the farmers in this year. In 2015 and 2016, out of the 360,000mt, only 180,000 was supplied yet the John Mahama administration continue to say that they are running a budget deficit, Dr. Kobby Darko explained. Sekondi Railway redevelopment is a waste of investment The NPP also chastised the Mahama led administration for wasting monies on the redevelopment the Sekondi Takoradi railway via kojokrom. A member of the campaign team for the NPP Kwesi Biney at the conference accused the NDC for collapsing the railway in its previous administration before the NPP took over power in 2000. He said it is the NDC who should be blamed for the troubles of the railway sector, not the NPP. He said the NDC is in its 27th year in governmentat the time they took office in 1993 if the railway was collapsing, it had 8 years to revamp it. It has also been in power for another 8 years from 2008 till now, but what have they done? Yet they are blaming the NPP for not doing anything about railway in 8 years. The redevelopment of the Sekondi-Takoradi Suburban Railway Line for me is the most useless investment any government will embark on. What the redevelopment will do is to get a train to shuttle between Sekondi Via Kojokrom and back to Takoradi. But who will want to go to Takoradi from Sekondi but will start from boarding a taxi to the train station, buy the ticket, board the train to Kojokrom before the train heads for Takoradi and when you get to Takoradi Habour, board another Taxi to the central business district when a single Trotro from Sekondi might have arrived at a cheaper cost by just the monies for the first taxi to the railway station in the first place? It's a useless investment, he said. NPP will streamline illegal mining operations The NPP's Tarkwa Nsueam Constituency aspirant George Mireku Duka hinted that the NPP when giving the nod in the December elections will streamline the operations of galamsey operators. He said the NPP is not anti galamsey. During the Kuffuor administration, I was part of the team from Tarkwa who escorted some selected illegal mining operators at the Kotoka international airport for China to learn how to streamline the operations of their activities. That did not continue in the NDC. We will ensure that an enclave is giving to them with inspectors to check their activities to be environmentally friendly and discourage the use of harmful toxic chemicals. Hon Mireku Duka who is also a former MCE or the Tarkwa Nsueam Municipal assembly concluded that the current licensing regime has not been decentralized enough. The NPP will open it up such that all operators in that sector will be motivated to regularize their operations. One district one factory Dr. Kobby Darko Mensah concluded that the following resources available in some districts in the region best set the foundation for the one district one factory vision of our flagbearer. Juabeso district is endowed with plantain and cocoa, Jomoro and Ellembelle has coconut and cocoa, Evalue Ajomoro Dwira has bamboo, cocoa and fishing, Tarkwa is known for mining and rubber, Ahanta West district has pal fruit and rubber, Mpoho has cocoa and palm fruit, Shama has sugarcane, fishing, Rice, and an industrial enclave and the Wassa East district also has cocoa and palm fruit. .It is evident that the impact of the one district one factory would solve most of the youth unemployment challenges which has become an albatross to the nation and the Western Region. The conference was attended by both past and present Ministers and Members of parliament as well as aspiring MPs for the NPP in the Western Region. By: Obrempong Yaw Ampofo/citifmonline.com/Ghana Afi oh, afi. The battle cry for the beginning of another year resonated through the Ga State as the new year started in Ga Mashie and the people of Accra celebrated the hooting of hunger and prayed the Gods that the poverty and hunger that drove them from the hill to the now present location will never be repeated ever in the history of Ga. This year Kpakpo was not at the family gathering and I particularly missed the interpretation of the festival and the meaning of cultural symbols and the deep translation of Ga words that his specialty brings to the table. The celebration seemed somewhat mute this year, low Club beer intake, missing Guinness bottles, replaced by Club Shandy and even the young lads didn't seem impressed with the raised skirts of the young ladies, still strutting around, waiting patiently till the night curtains unfolded that they might add to the already teeming population of little pikinns running all over the place with precious spoons in hand, poaching the remains of the kpoikpoi and rich palm soup. I wonder whether the subdued celebration had anything to do with the NDC government not trying yet again to interfere with the elected chief of Ga. You know every year there is some noise regarding the appointment of the Ga King, an attempt by political groupies to influence the traditional leadership in order to find a cushion of votes in the impending election when it gets here. This year we have a difference. Ga State has finally resolved most disputes and we didn't hear the threats to destool any chief or sub-chief. I think this annual drama, kind of affected the awareness that we are in the Homowo festival and many probably did not attend. But it could also be because we are all more sick from diabetes and hypertension and the normal beer excesses and high-cholesterol foods are no longer an option for the older generation. Or could it be that we have finally caught up with the fact that, when the chief comes around and offers the traditional kpoikpoi with his fingers, transferring one dose of saliva from one community to the other, we now see the danger of a simultaneous transfer of some communicable disease to each other? As a kid, I used to resist this finger-fed disease propagation, but maybe it was intended to fuse us together as Ga people. I could be responsible for most of the turmoil in the Ga hierarchy. Am I that important? There may be many more of me half-Gas. But we do the usual and place a community bowl on the floor of the compound and together gather around the bowl of soup and sour dough, men only, as this is the time when the women of the house who have toiled all year looking after the children on behalf of run-away fathers, still reassure their husbands and household heads that they are still king of the folds of fat that they carry, out of some distorted sense of physical beauty brought about through child birth and lots of domedo. My role in this annual ritual has now found a rhythm as I attend the party every year, to drink my ration of alcoholic froth and reassure cousins and aunties that I will endeavour to see more of them in the coming months. And such is the festival reduced, no special program to commemorate the growth of the Ga State, which again did not happen this year, so Shatta Wale becomes the star attraction at Bukom Square and the tourism minister, too busy signing a petition to free a confessed criminal, does not see the eroding of our cultural values as her responsibility. Instead, she, together with other ministers busy themselves, undermining their boss, going behind his back and pursuing citizen power to instruct him to sign the petition to free the Montie 3. This point was made by Nana Ofori, Director of Operations and parliamentary candidate for the Effutu constituency, on The Big Issue, Citifm's Saturday morning discussion program. And it makes a lot of sense. He advised JDM to look carefully through the list of signatures on the bankrupt idea of a petition to pardon self-confessed criminals, and sack every one of them who is his appointed staff. Logic? Do you go behind your boss and issue a statement for him to do something which you have not before brought to his attention? And do you do this on his blind side in the media to embarrass him? My call was for the resignation of all these ministers. On hindsight I agree with Nana Ofori. They deserve to be sacked for betraying their boss. But enough said about this mess. So far JDM has not reacted either way and that tells you he is sitting on his usual hedgerow fence, no intention of doing, no desire not to do. Better he allows it to pass so he can later come and lie about the event and what he did not say. And the last man standing in all this is the Blessed Oti John. After sitting on the same panel as the Montie 3 and spewing just as much vitriol as they did, he somehow was overlooked by the Supreme Justices and wriggled away to go and solicit an even loftier place in Parliament, to be elevated into ministership. And this is what is wrong with the system. The complete dearth of ethical standards has catapulted our civil liberties into a state where anyone with a piece of paper thinks they have a right to enter Parliament and do as they please, say as they want, under the guise of Parliamentary privilege and be called honorable. We need to examine why anybody, knowing what was said by these three and The Blessed One would go ahead and still recommend him/her for deputy minister. The only logical reason I can think of is that they know with a certain measure of certainty that they will be passed by the vetting committee and will show their gratitude along the line to the cabal. This cabal of Parliamentarians who have concluded that it is better for their future if they support each other, because one day they also will be on the other side of the opposition fence and any sensible attempt to correct the wrongs they did will be swiped aside, hopefully because their new office doors will be marked untouchable, authenticated by the symbol either of an elephant or an umbrella. So John Oti Bless has been tucked aside for now, confidently assured that he will be made a minister. He has been advised by the sages of Parliament on what to say and do in order that he survives the turbulent waters; and the visit by his Christ, who he forgot when he was slandering important persons in our courts, now came to him in the form of a Bagbin and other wise elders, who no doubt told him that as for Ghanaians, just mention the Lord Jesus Christ in your statement and ask for forgiveness and all shall be as ordained. He is lucky to be out in public, a symbol of our failed system, allowed to say what he thinks and now wishes to say it from the comfort of a ministerial seat. God Bless the Blessed Oti Bless. Ghana, Aha a y din papa. Alius atrox week advenio. Another terrible week to come! Sydney Casely-Hayford, [email protected] From left: Prof Yao Kwawukume, Prof Ernest Aryeetey (3rd left), Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Prof Jane Opoku Agyeman and officials of Airtel shortly after the launch of the service Family Health Medical School, the leading private medical school in the country, has introduced telemedicine to its range of services to save patients who have to travel outside Ghana to seek for medical care at huge costs. With the introduction of the service, patients can now call Family Health Hospital and book an appointment for live medical consultation with world class doctors in India and the USA. Family Health Group comprises Family Health Hospital and Family Health Nursing School, in partnership with Apollo Hospital, India. The telemedicine innovation would, among other things, enhance knowledge for medical students, cut patients cost and hours of waiting and additionally open avenues to train staff of its maintenance unit. Minister for Education, Prof Jane Naana Opoku Agyeman, has commended the President of Family Health Medical School, Prof Yao Kwawukume, and the entire management team for introducing the service. Prof Kwawukume, in a welcome address, disclosed that the telemedicine would enable Family Health Group to communicate effectively with their counterparts in Asia, particularly India, the University of Michigan and Johns Hopkins University in the USA and other counterparts in Britain and South Africa. We would in due course link with the University of Ghana, School of Medicine and Dentistry, Korle-Bu,'' he disclosed. In education, Prof Kwawukume said their students, post-graduate students and the nursing students would have complete access to the facility all day round and would enhance the number of lecturers the school will have. In addition, they would use the telemedicine facility to have continuous medical education with their counterparts in other areas of the world so that their students would not feel disadvantaged. It would also help to seek second opinion in the health sector so that in cases of doubtful diagnosis, discussions would be held with the rest of the world, especially doctors in the Diaspora who have already shown a lot of interest in joining Family Health Medical Hospital. Chairing the occasion was Prof Ernest Aryeetey, Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana. A health desk report DAILY GUIDE has gathered that, a man by name Ofosu, 30, a farmer has allegedly butchered his brother-in-law, Kwaku Dada at Akyem-Pankese near Nkawkaw in the Kwahu West Municipality of the Eastern Region, at the dawn of Monday by mistakenly thinking he was his rival. An eye witness who is also the landlady of Akosua, the farmer's girlfriend speaking on Agoo Fm, an Nkawkaw based radio station, narrated that Ofosu was Akosua's boyfriend but due to some misunderstanding between them, Ofosu sacked her from his house forcing the girl to rent an abode to stay in. According to the landlady, sometime after the separation, Ofosu suspected Akosua of seeing another man so on that fateful morning, he sneaked into Akosua's room and upon entering the room he spotted a gentleman and butchered him brutally and fled. The victim, unfortunately, was his brother in-law that he mistook for a rival. Kwaku Dada who had machete wounds on his arms and head with blood oozing all over his body was rushed to the Nkawkaw Holy Family Hospital for treatment but was quickly referred to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital due to the severity of the wounds. The Adontenhene of Pankese had reported the matter to the police who were currently on Ofosu's heels to bring him before the law. FROM Daniel Bampoe, Akyem Pankese I have known for quite some time now that some New Patriotic Party (NPP) stalwarts have been scheming for the partys indefinitely suspended General-Secretary, Mr. Kwabena Agyei Agyepong, to be returned to his post. Such move may be based on some positive discoveries that most of us non-insiders may not be privy to. Whatever the case may be, even as Mr. Ben Ephson, the self-styled pollster and newspaper editor-publisher, warned the other day, the ethnic dynamics and how these have been allowed to unsavorily temper power relations in the party make it such that any attempt to return Mr. Agyepong to his post, without also returning Mr. Paul A. Afoko to his post, would definitely not be taken kindly to by keen observers of NPP affairs. More so, when Messrs. Afoko and Agyepong have been widely perceived to be operatives who have been treading in lockstep since the very first day that they were voted into office. Now, we learn that Mr. Agyepong is willing to resume the post from which he has been suspended for about a year, but on condition that his elder twin political sibling was also returned to office. Needless to say, this is apt to be quite a tough sell, in view of the fact that Chairman Afoko is obliquely, albeit deeply, mired in a legal battle whose prime suspect is Mr. Afokos younger brother, Mr. Gregory Afoko. It, of course, has to do with the acid-dousing assassination of Mr. Adams Mahama, then-incumbent Upper-Easts Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party. He is obliquely and deeply mired in the legal aspect of this most heinous of crimes because although he had not been physically present at the crime scene on that fateful night of Mr. Adams fatal assault, Chairman Afoko had capriciously copped an abortive alibi for his brother. And so until the proceedings of the ongoing trial in which his brother, Gregory, is the prime suspect has been brought to a definitive closure, a sinister cloud of suspicion would continue to hang over his pate. And, needless to say, to have a Chairman with such rank suspicion of thick human blood on his hands would not bode well for the fortunes of the NPP in the lead-up to Election 2016. What may very likely be the motive behind the thoughts of those NPP movers-and-shakers who want Monsieur Agyepong to be promptly returned to his post, may have little or absolutely nothing to do with whether Mr. John Boadu, the partys National Organizer, is having quite an extremely difficult time combining his substantive position as NPPs National Organizer with his second hat as the partys Acting General-Secretary. It may simply be the fact that aside from some routine political infighting at the partys Kokomlemle headquarters, Mr. Agyepong has not been found to have been involved in any grievous matter in the way that his former immediate boss cannot be said not to have been. But that Chairman Afoko continues to battle it out against party stalwarts in court, is another reason why Mr. Agyepong may not have his purported fond wish promptly acted upon. But even if the ligating parties decided to end their legal tussle and amicably resolve matters out of court, the Adams Mahama case would still be another hurdle that Mr. Afoko will need to have satisfactorily resolved in order for him to be credibly certified as one with a clean bill of political health. And clearly, it is highly unlikely that the Adams Mahama case will be resolved in time enough for Chairman Afoko to resume his post at party headquarters. On the other hand, I have decided not to discuss Mr. Sammy Crabbe, the suspended Second-Vice Chairman of the NPP, because I find his situation to be judicially over and done with. And, to be certain, if I had my way, Mr. Crabbe would have since long be expelled from the party. I must also add that Nana Akufo-Addo and his henchmen and women would be better off focusing their energies on winning Election 2016, before deciding what to do with Messrs. Afoko and Agyepong. Retrospective experience from the 2008 Akufo-Addo/Kyerematen impasse tells me that this is a most inauspicious time for anybody to be thinking and talking about resolving individual differences. Sink all differences, pronto, and grab for the democratic power of governance. And then there will be a Minister for Conflict Resolution to deal with all this other stuff. I am incurably a Ghanaian of both Akyem and Asante descent. In both Akan sub-ethnic polities, I belong to the families of founders and nation builders. And I can tell you, my dear reader, without any fear of contradiction, whatsoever, that there is neither an Akyem-Mafia (Kyebi-Mafia) or Asante-Mafia (you may choose to call it the Kumasi-Mafia). There is only one Mafia, known as the Ghana-Mafia, which is divided into several centers of political interests. *Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs Dedication - To a diehard fan of Sarkodie, Samuel Bolfrey. Some folks think I am a hypocritical fan of Sarkodie, mainly because I sometimes chastise him in my writings and more orally. Hey, I am a fair-minded follower of Sarkodie, and I believe he needs such followers like me to be a bit impartial while we rally our unflinching support for his formidable career. In fact, Sarkodie is my number one role model in the world today. Come on, you read it right. Mark Zuckerberg, Aliko Dangote, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Donald Trump, Lionel Messi, Tom Cruise, and a few others are all my topmost role models. Yet Sarkodie, the acclaimed African rap god, remains Sir Article's number one role model on earth. I once declared in an article a year ago that Sarkodie is the human being who inspires me most on earth today. And the following 5 great reasons will prove why I have kept slobbering over Sarkodie. (1) Sarkodie is one of Ghana's foremost brands on the international stage: Ghana may be regarded as a tiny country in the West African sub-region of sub-Saharan Africa, but it has huge recognition in the global music industry because of Sarkodie's overwhelming exploits. He is no doubt the leading face of Ghana music the world over, and that has made him one of Ghana's foremost brands on the international stage. His powerful music career has actually projected the name of Ghana into global recognition, particularly in the music fraternity worldwide. (2) Sarkodie is one true hustler: Who is a hustler? A hustler is not just an extremely wretched person who seems to be accursed. No, a hustler in the world of talent is a person who really experiences sickening challenges in his pursuit of success. And Sarkodie was simply a hustler in that sense. He started off as a promising rapper who was perceived as the underdog in Ghana's rap game. He suffered numerous rejections, discouragements, disappointments etc. for years, but he pressed ahead with his burning ambition to become a very successful musician. Indeed, his hustling attitude is worthy of emulation by Ghanaian youths. (3) Sarkodie has really defied the odds: This is my most favourite reason since it actually motivates me as a writing entrepreneur in Ghana. When Sarkodie began rapping in Twi and aimed at going global with his indigenous rap music, most people were sceptical of his seemingly unrealistic aspirations. This is because they thought that Ghanaian rap, especially in Twi, was not marketable on the international music arena. But Sarkodie proved all the sceptics wrong by becoming Ghana's most financially successful rapper with massive international reputation. I will definitely do same as a very promising Ghanaian writer. (4) Sarkodie is an incredibly passionate talent: There is no truly successful person with international prominence today who lacks extreme passion for his/her potential. Successful folks became successful by dint of rare passion to a large extent. And any talented individual who has low or moderate passion for his talent is certainly bound to stagnate or even fail. Yes, Sarkodie, who is a talented Ghanaian rapper, has always been incredibly passionate about rap music. No wonder he describes himself as a studio rat -- only extremely passionate musicians can say that. And he is more passionate about rap than anything else. That is how I live daily as a young writer. (5) Sarkodie's achievements are mind-blowing and unparalleled: Sarkodie is undoubtedly the African rapper with the highest number of awards. He has won more than 50 awards in just five years. That is absolutely fascinating and simply unprecedented. Sarkodie has done unthinkable things as an African rapper which most of his competitors only wish for. His mind-boggling achievements are a great proof of his peerless abilities as an African rapper. So I call him the greatest Ghanaian musician of all time and the biggest African rapper at the moment. His achievements actually back them up. Source: sirarticle.blogspot.com 09.08.2016 LISTEN The word in Twi that comes closest to defining hubris for me is tirimud. For the benefit of readers who do not speak Twi, the word literally means to entertain sweetness inside one's own head! The meaning becomes clearer when the word, a compound noun, is broken up into its three component words tri (head)mu(inside) and d. I don't think that the Greeks, who invented the concept of hubris, (as the progenitor of nemesis) would quarrel with that definition! Why am I thinking about hubris? It's because news has come from South Africa that the African National Congress (ANC), the political party that fought tooth and nail for nearly one hundred years to wrest the country from the hands of the white racists who oppressed their black compatriots, and whose oppression reached ts apogee In the inhuman system called apartheid, has been rejected, at the polls, by a large segment of the country's black voters. What? Yes! The ANC which in April 1994 (only 22 years ago ) won the first majority-rule election with a sweeping victory, taking 62 percent of the vote, and extending that figure to 70 percent in the 2004 election, has had its share of the vote reduced to 54% this year. That means that the ANC has lost 16% of voter support in 14 years. The main architect of the ANC's loss of support is the President, Mr Jacob Zuma. This was a man who was rewarded with the top job in the ANC in 2007, not because he was particularly bright, but because he had served as the ANC's chief of intelligence at the time the party was engaged in a guerrilla campaign from exile in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Angola. Also when the ANC returned home around 1989, it was Zuma who helped it to defeat the evil plan mounted by an axis of the Zulu-dominated Inkatha Freedom Party and the apartheid regime, to carry out a ruthless campaign of so-called black-on-black massacres, aimed at dividing South Africa ethnically and getting the world to accept that blacks were not ready to rule the country without tearing it apart. Out of gratitude Zuma became President n place of Thabo Mbeki. But now he has repaid the party in a particularly galling manner: with the ANC losing Tshwane [Pretoria] to the Democratic Alliance (DA ) and managing to hang on to Johannesburg (Gauteng) and environs (Ekurhuleni) only by a thin margin, which means the ANC needs to form a coalition in those` areas before it can continue to rule, some ANC leaders are reported to have renewed their call for Mr Zuma to step down. These ANC leaders believe he is the elephant in the room that cost them the votes because of the corruption allegations and many scandals associated with his administration. They also accuse him of messing up their election campaign because of his racially divisive statements on the DA. The Sunday Independent newspaper reported that there might be calls from within the ANC national executive committee for an early or special conference, where an elegant exit for Zuma could be arranged. One Gauteng leader was quoted as accusing Zuma of being a dictator. He stated: Dictators survive by weakening [their on] organisation. They attack the organisation where it is strong, and Gauteng is weaker because we are [now] divided....The Gauteng ANC campaign was based on taking mayoral candidates to the people, in terms of their performance. We had a provincial launch and cities launch to give exposure to the mayor candidates. But when they came with [Zuma] his campaign was negative, saying the DA is a white party and [that its leader] Mmusi Maimane [was] working with the whites. [So, Zuma] actually messed up our campaign because he made statements that were racially divisive. The ANC leaders further acknowledged that the formation of coalitions would by no means be an easy task. Its going to be a tough, tough decision to make, said one. Although some sections of the ANC have been pleading that President Zuma should not be scape-goated for the party's poor performance, others think he has become too arrogant for the party to continue to support him. When he incurred national opprobrium for financing his private residence at Nkandla with taxpayers' money to the tune of about $20 million, he dismissed the criticism as emanating from the over-clever intellectuals who inhabit the urban centres! Commenting on this statement by Zuma, one South African political commentator, Justice Malala, wrote that the president was well known for his antipathy towards urban black intellectuals....In 2014, [for instance] when he was asked about public concerns that he had used state funds to build himself a 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. Malala added: Last week, the clever blacks had their revenge on Zuma, delivering the heaviest electoral loss to Nelson Mandelas 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 Africas most famous son, voters rejected the ANC and gave their votes to the opposition Democratic Alliance. Just 10 years ago, the ANC got 66% of the vote in the city[formerly known as Port Elizabeth, that is] famous for its struggle against apartheid. The ANC] polled a disappointing 40% last week. According to Malala the election result marks 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 60% this year it would mark a psychological and political turning point.That moment has now arrived. The ANC is not the only once-dynamic party in Africa that has been ruined by party leaders who get infected with a sense of entitlement after they have led their parties through successful struggles against white rulers. Imbued with hubris, the victors in such struggles tend to leave their followers living in poverty, while the leadership grabs as much of the nation's resources for themselves as possible. Some even enact repressive laws that prevent their own followers from criticising their performance. This often leads to a feeling of alienation in their countries, which leads some to conclude that only force can change things for the better. However, regimes that come to power by force usually use public dissatisfaction merely as a ruse through which they can grab power. Once they get into power and consolidate their rule, they follow their own agendas. Which just happens to be eerily similar to the agenda of the party they had thrown out! That is what has left so many African countries in a state of chasing their own tails for years and years and years. To choose only the worst examples: look at the hubristhat enabled Mobutu Seseseko to steal half of the Congo's national treasury before he was eventually cast adrift by the decaying political machine he had built; think of Sani Abacha coolly stashing away nearly 800 million of Nigerian money in Switzerland alone (that's what the Swiss have so far returned; there's another $300m waiting to be returned to Nigeria say the Swiss. They allege that the British, whose banks were the conduit pipe for Abacha's loot, have returned nothing, so far); look at the unmentionable wealth said to have been accumulated by Isabel Dos Santos, daughter of Angola's President, Jose Eduardo dos Santos: she has been described by Forbes magazine as Africa's first woman billionaire. And look also at the obscene exhibition of wealth with which Teodorin, son of President Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea, insulted his fellow-residents in a posh quarter of Paris. His father rewarded him for giving his country such bad publicity, by making him Vice-President! If that's not hubris, what is? At least, in South Africa, Zuma's disregard for the restrictions to be placed on the expenditure of public funds by elected officials has fortunately been nipped in the bud. But there is no doubt whatsoever that he has repaid the trust of the ANC with behaviour that could put his once-gallant party in the doghouse of South African politics for quite some time to come. But will his successors learn from his public disgrace when he leaves the scene? Don't count on it! We the members of Modern Women of Wisdom Organization an all female humanitarian NGO would like to offer our hearty congratulations to the recently nominated Vice Presidential candidate of the Progressive People Party Madam Brigitte Dzorgbenuku on her nomination. Thumbs up to Madam Brigitte Dzorgbenuku, exceptionally one woman whose philanthropic gestures have touched the heart of many Ghanaian girls. She is a model example of a mother who look closely at people by doing just what the communities need. The fact that she was crowned the Vice Presidential candidate by the PPP is indicative of the good work she has been doing to improve the lives of those around her. Gone are the days, when girls were taught to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller. Girls were told to have ambition, but not too much. Girls were also told to aim to be successful, but not too successful. Otherwise, they will threaten the man. We are proud of the Progressive People Party when it comes to gender equality and the performance of the female gender which is looked down on in so many societies around the world. When we say this, We do not mean to be construed that the Progressive People Party has completely eliminated gender discrimination in its entirety though. There is still a lot to do and miles to go. But the signs are all positive and encouraging. Signed Nana Ama Asantewaa Kwarkoh. C.E.O of Modern Women of Wisdom. 09.08.2016 LISTEN The founder and Principal Partner of African Achievers Awards Barr Rex Idaminabo joined both Mayor of Cambridge Councilor Jeremy Benstead and Cambridge MP Hon Daniel Zeichner to Inspire Young leaders from Cambridge Universitys Leadership Academy. The event which was hosted for students to dress as they would like to be addressed in 20 years saw all speakers sharing their personal experiences dated 20 years ago. As the Special Guest Speaker, Rex Idaminabo who is also a celebrated international lawyer encouraged the students to discover the truth about themselves and delete the garbage the society has portrayed about them and their potentials. Talking more on Leadership strategies, he encouraged them to; discover themselves, capture their vision, commit to principles and values, discipline themselves to protect their purpose, coordinate resources, avoid distraction and also mentor successors as leadership is a relay and must be passed on. He was also awarded for his immense support towards the Academys pursuit in raising great future leaders for the world. Other speakers who addressed the students included; Nathan Ardaiz (2016 Year Hear Fellow) and Sophie Bennett (Founder, Millionaire Author Academy) as the program was hosted by Chika Akinwale, Director of Programme at the Cambridge Leadership Academy at the Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge. Rex Idaminabo was announced last week among the 2016 100 Most Influential Young Africans and has also been rated by Forbes among the Most Promising Young Entrepreneurs in Africa. He is also the first ever West African member of the Advisory Council of the World Leaders Forum in Dubai and co-founded of the globally hosted Young CEOs Business Summit. Rex Idaminabo has formerly received the coveted British Awards for African Development from the British Parliament and has hosted 6 Editions of the most prestigious awards for Africans in 4 African countries and Europe. Img-20160807-wa0000 Img-20160807-wa0001 Img-20160807-wa0002 Img-20160807-wa0003 Img-20160807-wa0004 Img-20160807-wa0005 09.08.2016 LISTEN Since 1966 when the military in Nigeria invaded the political arena and pulled their stunts, characterised by coups and countercoups that were spiced with a few years of civilian intervention here and there, Nigeria as a nation has not really had the experience of true democratic evolution. It is over fifty years, and for the majority of Nigerians it is like waking up one sunny morning to embark on a long journey and discovering that despite the flood of sunlight, you still continue to hit your foot against a huge stone every ten steps you walk. Apart from the pain, or perhaps because of the pain, it will decidedly take a longer time to arrive at your destination, tired or even completely worn out. Bishop Matthew Kukah has ironically suggested in his book Witness to Justice that we [humanity] may never know the real reason for the military intervention of 1966 and beyond. But I think we do know. Even Bishop Kukah himself captured the reasons for this dastardly act of the military in Nigeria in the same book. The first was the lust for power on the part of the top military officers. The issue of falling in love with absolute power has been dealt with by many writers. In summary, when one wants power, there are demands. First, the one becomes emotionally bereft. The quest for power first deprives one of emotion, and later it denies one a conscience. At that point, one can do just about anything to remain strong and relevant. The second was the need to settle scores within military circles. The third, and perhaps the most compelling, was greed for material wealth. And again, before the very first coup that Majors Emmanuel Ifeajuna and Chukwuma Nzeogwu hatched, there had also been serious trouble in the Western Nigerian House of Assembly.That was another reason or rather another flimsy excuse for the military boys to strike at the fragile root of democratic evolution in the country. The hard fact that counts though is that the military cannot be entirely singled out for blame in the situation Nigerians found themselves from then on. Even the names of the dominant parties in each of the three major regions before the first military invasion of democracy in the country suggested what the parties were up to. At the federal level, the Northern Peoples Congress, NPC which was the dominant party in the country left no one in doubt of its ethnically-motivated vision and mission. The East was dominated by the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons. The name of this party also underlined its import and focus. The use of the word council to depict the base and quality of its composition seemed to suggest that it was a party whose leadership precariously leaned on the shoulders of the communitys elders. The West was dominated by the Action Group. The name also pointed to the partys focus and commitment. The two words, action and group looked simple. But in actual fact, they were pregnant with meaning. As far back as 1945, their leader Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who was then in London, had formed the Egbe Omo Oduduwa, an ethnically-motivated cultural organisation of Yoruba elite comprising of Yoruba chiefs, professionals, academicians and business moguls. Awolowos ambition was to bring all those relevant Yoruba indigenes under one umbrella and to sensitize the organisation on the threat of Igbo domination of the country which could happen in the near future. Any form of Igbo domination in the country must be resisted. By 1948, he had set up branches in Nigeria which were to highlight the need for Yoruba education, to screen scholarships for indigent citizens whose parents could not afford to train at school and to maintain the dignity and strength of Yoruba monarchical and similar institutions. This was the organisation which basically formed the Action Group, AG, the dominant political party in Western Nigeria at the time. By 1962, the AG had strongly entrenched its foot-hold in the politics of Western Nigeria. But as destiny would have it, the party leaders fell apart and the party became fragmented. As the seriousness of the crisis escalated in the Western House of Assembly, the NPC-led federal government declared a state of emergency in Western Nigeria. It took over the administration of the region and appointed the personal physician of the Prime Minister, Dr. Majekodunmi as the sole administrator of the region. The disagreement within the Western Nigeria House of Assembly, alsoknown as the Action Group Crisis of 1962, was so serious that legislators physically fought themselves and the Mace was broken on one legislators head. It was an act of hooliganism that the country was experiencing for the first time since the amalgamation of the Southern and Northern Protectorates in 1914. It was also one of the major loopholes the politicians of the First Republic made easily and readily available to the military. And they took advantage of the situation. As has been appropriately noted by many pundits, the taste of power is never relinquished without a fight. So, the moment the military tasted power in the political dispensation, they felt the need to remain relevant in the scheme of things in the country. They institutionalised their form of rule from what they knew of British colonial administrative style, capitalising on the vulnerability and inherent fears of indigenous communities. As Bishop Kukah has also noted, the failure of the military to effectively get the country on a proper footing in the democratic process and the arduous journey towards nation building was not necessarily because the military had no such intentions. Not that the policies they adopted were skewed. Not that there were no competent men and women in the country to implement those policies. The fact, and that is the truth that even the military should accept if their intention in Nigeria is genuine, is that by its very nature, the military and its institutions were never designed to manage a pluralistic society such as Nigeria is, with over 250 ethnic groups and 250 languages. The military establishment as an institution deals with order and unquestioning obedience. It deals with strict hierarchy and command control. These are diametrically opposed to the demands of democracy. Democracy in a pluralistic society such as Nigeria demands dialogue, collaboration, consensus and shared values. These are the ingredients that create the favourable conditions for integration and a common vision and mission, which in this case, is nation building. This is also why many Nigerians came down heavily on the head of state, General Buhari, when as a retired military officer he dared suggest that the unity and oneness of Nigeria was not negotiable. In a democratic setting, it should be negotiable. So, now that we know that the military institutions in Nigeria, due to the nature of their set-up, are more likely to compound rather than effectively deal with the challenges of cohesion and nation building that Nigeria has continued to face, what is there more to do, to ensure that the country smoothly continues to move forward in its journey towards democracy and nation building? Bearing in mind that the general conception in African politics is usually that of the winner-take-all, what do we do? Knowing that this concept of winner-take-all often makes it necessary for the ruling organisation to mobilise every available state apparatus to invest so much power in itself that it can effectively deal with any form of opposition, where do we go from here? In his book: There was a Country, Professor Chinua Achebe rightly notes that once a people have been dispossessed and subjected to dictatorships for such a long time as in Nigerias case, the oppressive process also effectively strips away from the minds of the people the knowledge that they have rights. I highlighted this dilemma in one of my articles. Over the years many people have tended to suggest that there is trouble in especially the Northern parts of the country because the North has remained underdeveloped and I asked, by who? Among all the 15 Heads of State who have administered Nigeria since its independence in 1960, two came from the West. One was a military officer, the other a business mogul who was only allowed in office for less than three months. Three came from the East. One was a military officer who was cut short just six months into his leadership. The other two were civilians. Eight came from the North. Six of these were military officers. Two were civilians. From the West, General Olusegun Obasanjo was Head of State for 3 years and 258 days from 16 January 1976 to 1st October 1979 when he voluntarily relinquished office and again for 8 years from 29 May 1999 to 29 May 2007. Chief Ernest Shonekan was Head of State for only 83 days from 26 August to 17 November 1993. From the East, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe was ceremonial Head of State for 2 years and 107 days from 1st October 1963 to 16 January 1966. Azikiwe was deposed in a military coup. General Aguiyi Ironsi became Head of State for 177 days, from 16 January 1966 to 12 July 1966. He was assassinated in a military counter-coup. Dr Goodluck Jonathan was Head of State for 5 years and 25 days from 5 May 2010 to 29 May 2015. He conceded defeat to the incumbent President at the 2015 elections. From the North, General Yakubu Gowon was Head of State for 8 years and 362 days from 1st August 1966 to 29July 1975. Gowon was ousted in a military coup. General Murtala Muhammed was Head of State for 199 days, from 29 July to 13 February 1976. Muhammed was assassinated in a military coup. Alhaji Shehu Shagari was Head of State for 4 years and 91 days from 1st October 1979 to 31st December 1983. He was ousted in a military coup. General Muhammadu Buhari who is the current President was the Head of State for one year and 239 days from 31December 1983 to 27 August 1985. He too was ousted in another military coup. General Ibrahim Babangida was Head of State for 7 years and 364 days from 27 August 1985 to 26 August 1993. Babangida was also ousted in a military coup. General Sani Abacha was Head of State for 4 years and 203 days from 17 November 1993 to 8 June 1998. Abacha died in office. General Abdulsalami Abubakar was Head of State for 355 days from 8 June 1998 to 29 May 1999. He voluntarily relinquished office. Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar Adua was Head of State for 2 years and 341 days from 29 May 2007 to 5 May 2010. Yar Adua died in office. This means that for the over 55 years Nigeria has had independence, the Easterners have ruled for about 8 years, the Westerners for about 12 years and the Northerners for about 35 years. But instead of concentrating on issues that would bind the various ethnic groups in the country more closely together, instead of focussing on bridging the gap between the extremely rich families and the extremely poor ones across the country, these military leaders most of who hailed from the North kept only accumulating so much money for their families. The masses of the people began to wonder if those whom they trusted with their votes were actually showing love for their country and its development or were they voted into public office purely for the benefit of their own families and friends? That, unfortunately, remained the general impression on which hinged one of the most important changes that Nigerians have continued to look up to. Nigerians will continue to need that reassurance that government is there to serve the interest of those who voted it into public office. Politics of fear and distrust in nation building leadership only give way to the politics of greed and nation destroying. We now know that military adventurism was never meant to be a panacea for Nigerias match towards democracy. So, let the military and those who have military education stay off politics in Nigeria. If Nigeria must get there, the academicians in the country are the ones who must rally to the rescue. To effectively build a Nigerian nation of everyones dream, Nigerian politicians must dispense with the politics of fear. No more going to shrines. No more cults. No more dark forces. No more nocturnal visits to native doctors and babalowos. No more seeking of spiritual forces to fight political enemies. This was one more symbolic legacies of one of the founding fathers of true democracy in the country: it was one lesson Dr Goodluck Jonathan taught Nigerians and their political class. It meant so much to Nigerians that former President Goodluck Jonathan was the first man to congratulate General Buhari as the results of the Presidential election filtered in and Jonathan realised his party was losing out to the opposition. Jonathans legacy was that of the academic class. And that is what Nigeria needs. Not money sharing cults. Yes. Nigerians need to say never again to the politics of fear. Mr Asinugo is a London-based journalist and publisher of Imo State Business Link Magazine. 1 Embedded Image : Slide show | Download all | Show as attachments Russia Suspects Project Sauron Malware might have been Launched from the West Targets of Project Sauron. (Photo : Symantec) Russia suspects a clever piece of malware that erases its tracks to avoid detection and can spy on computers not connected to the internet might have originated in the West but has refused to name a specific country. The malware named "Project Sauron" is said to have been created by a group that calls itself "Strider."Both these names are characters from JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy. Advertisement Project Sauron went undetected for five years and in that time span infected over 30 organizations in Russia, Iran and Rwanda. Many of these were government, scientific, military, telecoms and financial firms, said security research firm Kaspersky, a Russian company based in Moscow. Kaspersky Lab and American tech company Symantec Corporation both brought the malware to the attention of the public. For its part, Symantec detected the malware in other countries, including an airline in China and an embassy in Belgium. Kaspersky first discovered Project Sauron on an unspecified "government organization" network. "We think an operation of such complexity aimed at stealing confidential and secret information can only be executed with support from a nation state," said Kaspersky Lab. "Kaspersky Lab has no exact data on this, but estimates that the development and operation of Project Sauron is likely to have required several specialist teams and a budget probably running into millions of dollars." Russian media also suggests the malware might have been designed by a state-sponsored group in the West since many of the targets were in Russia and Iran. Russia's spy agency, the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) reported in late July that the computer networks of some 20 Russian state, defense, scientific and other high-profile organizations were infected with malware used for cyberespionage. FSB described the operation as professionally coordinated. It said all the cases are linked and appear to be part of a well-coordinated attack requiring considerable expertise. The coding of the malware and vectors of attack are similar to those used in previous cyber-offensive operations against targets in Russia and other nations. "The IT assets of government offices, scientific and military organizations, defense companies and other parts of the nation's crucial infrastructure were infected," said the FSB. FSB noted this advanced malware was tailored for each target individually based on unique characteristic of the computer under attack. The malware monitored internet traffic, took screenshots, secretly took recordings with an infected computer's camera or microphone, logged keyboard strokes and conducted other forms of surveillance. FSB, however, didn't reveal who it suspects is behind the cyber espionage or whether it was sponsored by a foreign government. Communications minister Dr. Edward Omane Boamah has descended heavily on Professor Stephen Adei over his claim that President John Mahama is stashing the public service with Northerners. The former GIMPA Rector at a lecture in Accra accused the President of appointing too many of his regional folks in the public service. One of the things going on which is totally unacceptable is why one out of every four public sector appointment comes from the Presidents area of origin. That is totally unacceptable because we are a unified country, we are a country whereby if you take any major group, whether Gas, Ashantis or Ewes you can form a cabinet from it, Prof. Adei told the gathering. Commenting on the matter, the acting Presidential spokesman told GHonetv.com that the claim by the academician lacks basis. My name is Omane Boamah and I am Minister for Communications, the Presidents Chief of Staff is called Julius Debrah, Minister for Education is Jane Nana Opoku Agyemang. Prof Adei should just learn to speak like a responsible adult thats all. Hannah Tetteh, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ghana 09.08.2016 LISTEN Foreign Affairs minister Hanna Tetteh has signed the petition asking President John Mahama to pardon the Montie three who have been jailed for contempt. Her signing Tuesday comes after media reports suggested that she had shied away from the petition, which has already seen the signatures of several of her colleague ministers. Notable among the ministers who have signed the petition are Education minister Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang and Gender minister Nana oye lithur. The three, including a radio host at Montie FM Salifu Maase, popularly known as Mugabe, were last month slapped with a four-month jail term for scandalizing the court. Meanwhile, the president, through the Chief of Staff Julius Debrah, has presented the petition presented by lawyers of the contemnors to the Council of State for their advice on the way forward. Presenting the petition to the chairperson of the Council, Madam Cecilia Johnson, Mr. Debrah said the President is looking forward to the advice of the Council. The chairperson said that the petitions will be submitted to the Legal Committee of the Council for initial review before the Council as a whole meets to consider the issues. 09.08.2016 LISTEN As He Broods Over Chronicle Expose From Richard Owusu-Akyaw, Kumasi The Municipal Chief Officer for Obuasi, Richard Akwasi Ofori Boadi is uneasy after he was exposed by The Chronicle for opening his mouth too wide, describing chiefs as noise makers. He has now turned to God for relief. In an interview on Obuasi-based Shaft FM, Ofori Boadi, known as King Zuba, sang gospel tunes half way through the interview, saying that, The Chronicle want his downfall, but God is on his side.I am not afraid of the consequence because I know the God that I worship, he said. Among some of the songs he quoted was Mama Esther's Asemfofrona aba. Denying his own words, which is on tape, the embattled MCE told the listeners: I am not mad, I don't smoke wee. What do I want in the world that would lead me to say these words. In what could be described as a self consolation, King Zuba told the interviewee: Do you recognise Daddy Lumba's 'bisanyame' track. He sung it briefly, saying if you hate or envy me and, therefore, want my downfall because God has honoured me and lifted me up as a young MCE, that is your problem. Not satisfied with the aforementioned tunes, King Zuba also told the interviewer, Awuley, that there is a tune which lyrics go like; my faith is built on nothing, but Jesus Christ is my sweetest friend and solid rock. Last Wednesday, Zuba went haywire and tagged Adansi Traditional leaders as noise makers in their quest to ensure sanity and uprightness among government officials for national development. 09.08.2016 LISTEN The Daffiama/Bussie/ Issa District Students' Union was formed and launched in 28th December 2015 after it had separated from the Nadowli District Students' Union following the creation of the DBI District in 2012. As an intellectual group which seeks to contribute significantly in the development of the district especially in the area of education, the union summoned all stakeholders ranging from students across the country from the district, political parties, security Agencies, NCCE, GES among others to its maiden general annual congress held at the Issa Youth Leadership Training Institute yesterday( 06/08/16). It was a well attended program as hundreds of students despite a torrential rain in the early hours of the day, filled the conference Hall to capacity. The president of the Union Mr. Zumankyere Aloysius speaking on his keynote address, admonished all politicians to be very circumspect and responsible in the already heated political temperature in the young district. He described politics as a vehicle of development but not when it is characterized with insults, lies and division. Buttressing the point, he added that the Union is non- partisan and hence shall not entertain any uncharitable form of politicking by the various political parties. He also used the opportunity to make a clarion call on traditional authorities, political parties and all stakeholders to come together and work with the Union in its quest to championing development and progress of the DBI district and particularly called on the District Assembly to work with the Union as it is ever ready to support with policy alternatives that can inure to the benefit of all constituents. He admonished that shift measures must be taken to curtail the increasing rate of teenage pregnancy, school drop outs and poor academic performance among the students in the district. He said, the Union is working out a program of activities that can add a weight to reduce these bad situations if not eradicate them overly. Enumerating numerous educational challenges in the District, he appealed to government to build one of its community senior high schools in the district to increase accessibility since the Daffiama Senior High School and Issa Youth Leadership Training School alone are inadequate in addressing the educational gab in the area. The Union according to the president, is very surprised and still cannot fathom why the few educational institutions in the district were left out in the recent distribution of vehicles to various educational institutions across the country. He passionately called on the government to kindly do something about the situation since the district equally deserves to benefit from that laudable effort by the government. The Union will therefore be disappointed if government does not pay heeds to its call. By and large, the program was very rich as it provided the opportunity for the NCCE to educate the youth on how to contribute to a violent free elections. It was just an exciting moment. Let me use this opportunity to thank all those who participated and supported such a mammoth and rich program. I wish all students of DBI the best of luck. May God guide those who are preparing to go back to their schools. Let me be quick to add that a new plant has just germinated. Let's all water it to grow to give us edible delicious fruits. Shall return with other great speeches from invited guest. Denis Andaban. [email protected] 0549734023. The writer is the Public Relation Officer for DBI District Students' Union and a youth activist in the district. Estate owner of Magna Terris Estate, Pastor Joseph Kwesi Bonful, has rejected claims he has used some houses in the estate as collateral for a GHc4 million loan contracted from Stanbic Bank some five years ago. The estate owner reportedly defaulted on the loan repayment, leading to a court order that would ensure that about 34 houses plus over 12, 000 acres of land belonging to Magna Terris, are taken over to defray the debt. Residents have since initiated a court action to appeal the court's decision. But speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show, Pastor Bonful assured residents that he had not used any of their houses as collateral for a loan. I want to assure all our clients that we have not used their house for any loan as is being reported. We want to say no one's house is being used as collateral. He said the bad loan was rather used to finance a different project which the Bank of Ghana was expected to subsequently pay for but defaulted in the payment. Before we went for the facility, we had a client from Bank of Ghana who said they wanted a house so we took the facility purposely for them. In the facility letter, Bank of Ghana is supposed to pay for the houses so we took the loan and we did the Houses and since Bank of Ghana has not paid, that's how come Stanbic Bank is demanding the money from us. By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana INTRODUCTION I am informed that the theme for this workshop is Reporters of Borders: Towards a Network of African Journalists, Professionals and Citizens Specialised on Migration Issues. I thank Panos Institute and the Africa Centre for International Law and Accountability (ACILA), the organisers of this Workshop as well as the European Union, the sponsors for inviting me to share a few thoughts with you. Since the coming into force of the 1992 Constitution on the 7th day of January, 1993, the media landscape of Ghana has gone through so many challenges. Often, journalists have perceived the law, whether rightfully or wrongfully as being used to attack their profession. In gracefully accepting the licence given me by the Organisers of this Workshop to choose a topic of my own; albeit situated within the theme, I elect to speak to you on the topic GHANAS MEDIA TODAY & THE TRYST OF DEFAMATION, CONTEMPT OF COURT & INVASION OF PRIVACY. For me, the three concepts of defamation, contempt of court and invasion of privacy are the biggest challenges facing the media in Ghana today and I must say our media practitioners love to go head-on in collision with them everyday. DEFAMATION Ghana does not have a law on defamation (there is no Act of Parliament called the Defamation Act). What we have done over the years is to rely on the Common Law application of defamation. The Common Law is an importation from England and is subject to all kinds of applications. Many a Ghanaian journalist has at one point in time or the other been sued for defamation or threatened with a defamation suit. It is said that everyman has a reputation. So how do we who make a living in the media by publishing stories about people, events, businesses and other phenomena avoid the dangers of being sued for defamation? That warrants my plunging straight into the defences available to a journalist who has been sued for defamation. The defences available are: Justification/truth Qualified privilege- statements made by a person under a legal duty to another (e.g. information given to the Police about a persons character, information given to one employer by another in respect of the character of an employee etc) Absolute privilege things said in court, Parliament Fair comment- an honest opinion that the statement published was a statement of ones genuine opinion on a matter of public interest Public interest discussion of government and political matters. It is important that before you publish a story/article, you go through these defences to defamation for purposes of checking whether in the event of a defamation suit being brought against you for publishing a story. I always tell my friends in the media that in any event, when you are not sure about a story and whether it can get you sued for defamation, get a lawyer to check it for you before it is published, if at all. Defamation destroys credibility of journalists and we all know that a journalist without credibility is no journalist. CONTEMPT OF COURT Contempt of Court in law is a term of art that has been used to punish persons who have acted in any manner considered by a court to be disrespectful of its authority. Contempt of court is a very powerful tool the courts employ to vindicate their power, authority and dignity. Contempt is a quasi criminal offence and may result in the contemnor being sentenced to a jail term, fine, bond to be of good behaviour etc. Article 19(11) of the 1992 Constitution provides No person shall be punished for a criminal offence unless the offence is defined and the penalty for it is prescribed in a written law. In most contempt cases, the offence and penalty are not defined and prescribed in a written law so why is it that Article 19(11) does not apply? The answer is at Article 19 (12) of the 1992 Constitution which provides: Clause (11) of this article shall not prevent a Superior Court from punishing a person for contempt of itself notwithstanding that the act or omission constituting the contempt is not defined in a written law and the penalty is not so prescribed. In Ghana, as elsewhere, contempt of court is of two kinds contempt in facie curiae (contempt that occurs in the presence/face of the court e.g. when a person sitting in courts telephone rings, when one makes noise to disturb court proceedings etc) and contempt ex facie curiae (contempt that occurs outside a court but has an impact on court proceedings e.g. the Montie 3 broadcasts, disobeying court orders served, commenting on a matter pending in a court in a manner suggesting for example who should win or lose case etc) As journalists, the biggest danger you face with contempt is in the area of what you publish about court proceedings. It has been said that there is no law preventing anyone from commenting on a case in court but there is a law of contempt available to punish any person who comments inappropriately on a matter pending in court Certainly, we must and can publish reports on court hearings. However, because of its specialist nature, my advice is for journalists to source correctly when reporting from the courts. You can even become friends with a judge whose trial of a case you are reporting and by reason of that check your story with him or her before publication. In the event that you are cited for contempt of court, you certainly need to consult a lawyer to represent you in court. Never go to court as a contemnor without a lawyer. Always make an offer to a court that you are facing for contempt of court that you want to purge yourself of the contempt. Purging ones contempt may entail publishing an apology and retraction of an offensive article though other methods may be used depending on the peculiar facts of a case. INVASION OF PRIVACY As journalists, you owe an obligation to society to publish but that duty to publish is certainly subject to certain rights that others have. Often, in the quest to publish, journalists have overstepped boundaries by invading privacy of individuals. From reporting with pictures of children who are victims of rape, defilement etc to just publishing pictures of erring children, journalists have fallen foul of various laws, particularly the Childrens Act. In the area of health, the status of persons with certain medical conditions have been published regardless of protocols in existence by even health professionals for dealing with such cases. At another level, Article 18(2) of the 1992 Constitution provides for another type of privacy in the following words: No person shall be subjected to interference with the privacy of his home, property, correspondence or communication, except in accordance with law and as may be necessary in a free and democratic society for public safety or the economic well being of the country, for the protection of health or morals, for the prevention of disorder or crime or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others. There are thus constitutional safeguards with respect to privacy of individuals and their communications, properties etc and journalists are bound by that. CONCLUSION In conclusion, I urge you to take advantage of training programmes such as this to enrich your knowledge and appreciation of the law. Read a lot and consult with a wide array of professionals so that you can steer clear of minefields of the law in particular. Thank you. The MP for Assin North has advised President John Mahama to pardon the three persons jailed by the Supreme Court for contempt after they have served half of their jail terms. According to Kennedy Agyapong, the three might have learnt their lessons by then and there would be no need to keep them in prison for four months. Two radio panelists, Alistair Nelson and Godwin Ako Gunn and show host, Salifu Maase of an Accra-based radio station, Montie FM were sentenced to four months imprisonment by the Supreme Court on July 27, 2016, for threatening to kill judges of the Court. The three were also fined 10,000 cedis each while the owners of the frequency of the radio station, and the directors were fined 30,000 cedis respectively. A petition signed by a section of the public who are predominantly members of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) has been presented to President John Dramani Mahama to pardon the three by invoking his powers under article 72 of the Constitution. The petition has been referred to the Council of State by the President for advice. Kennedy Agyapong who recently made derogatory comments about the Electoral Commission (EC) Chairperson and received a lot of flak for them, believes the call for the immediate release of the three is hypocritical, with specific mention of the Gender, Children, and Social Protection Minister, Nana Oye Lithur who signed the petition. Is the Chief Justice not a woman, lets call a spade a spade,,,if my comments were condemned, then those of the three should be condemned as well, Mr. Agyapong stated. He said on Adom FM's morning Show 'Dwaso Nsem' on Tuesday that the Supreme Court has clearly made a point by sentencing the three. 'They have made a clear point that you cannot threaten them and go scot-freeeven if they handed them a days prison sentence, they have taught the Montie three that they are not above the law,' he indicated. On this note, he advised that President John Mahama to pardon the trio after serving two months of the sentence. Mr. Agyapong added that his comments that the EC Chairperson got her job by sleeping with power brokers, were taken out of context. 'If anything bad will ever happen in this country, the media should be blamed, not politiciansOn that day, I jokingly made that statement after my submission and the media picked that portion and played it all over the airwaves as if that was the only thing I said but these things do not help this country,' he clarified. Kennedy Agyapong indicated that he has nothing against the EC Chair, provided she does the right thing in the organisation of the upcoming elections. -myjoyonline From Scotland Yard in the UK to Louis Edet House in Nigeria and from the Police Bureau of Investigation in Bangladesh to the Prefectural Police Department Security Bureau in Tokyo, the primary responsibilities of the Police, the world over, are virtually the same. Constitutionally, the primary function of the Police is the maintenance of public order through crime detection and prevention so as to safeguard the lives of citizens and their property. It was for this reason that the phrase the Police is your friend is universally acceptable. Even in the advanced countries that are over-Policed, crime resulting from any act of commission or omission occurs, sometimes very frequently. In Britain and America, there are a plethora of cases of gangsterism where the hobos just kill for economic gains, pride or for racial reasons. Serial killings, robbery, rape and similar crimes are almost daily occurrences. Across the Atlantic, some blame the frequency of crime on gun control laws and deep-seated racial, primordial sentiments. Some people find a convenient label such as poverty, poor environmental factors, frustration, anomie and sometimes deviant behaviour occasioned by the use of banned substances as the casual factors. Thus, the Police, especially the professionally trained Police has an additional responsibility of investigating crimes with a view to finding out the causalities and apprehend the culprits and to prevent crime prevention. In Nigeria, the potency of the Police in investigation crime is diminishing as public confidence on the Police as being eroded. The public perception is that the Police are biased in favour of the rich against the poor. When a matter involves the rich and the poor, investigation is usually titrated in favour of the rich, so we have a situation where the average Nigerian does not find solace in the Police any longer, the ability of the Police to fight crime and capacity to investigate has been attenuated by poor motivation; their lives are not insured, so if a Policeman dies in active service, the deceased is given a befitting burial often without compensation to the bereaved family. There is low self-esteem of the Police and members are willing to put in their best. Poorly motivated Police that is left out of all welfare schemes cannot be affective. The disillusionment of the Police affects their effectiveness and productivity on the job. Again, the capacity of the Police to prevent crime through investigation depends on how well the force is trained. Police training is often politicized. Motivation theories emphasize psychological needs as a morale booster for performance. Training in weapon handling, investigation, logistics and security are key to the performance of members of the Police. Thus we have a Police, whose skills are not sharpened; working in a hostile environment with low self-esteem, poor dressing and other unedifying conditions of service. The result is that the Nigerian State has created a Police that is shabby, with officers looking frustrated, poorly kitted, using outdated weapons, dilapidated vehicles because of poor maintenance culture, ill-trained, ill-motivated, lacking in espirit d corps and unable to investigate and tackle trans-border crimes. The perception of the public is that the Nigerian Police even abates crime for pecuniary reasons, ill-trained and ill-equipped to fight crime, a Police that is unable to hold its head high because of lack of comradeship, ill-prepared to prevent crime and thereby making society very unsafe. The ordinary Nigerians see the Police not as a friend but as a companion that can only be tolerated. In the event of any crime, most people resort to self-help instead of involving the Police because of the belief that the Police is incapable of conducting thorough investigations to prevent crime. We have a Nigerian public that has no trust and confidence in the Police. This has been worsened by separatist agitations, in the North by Boko Haram; in the East by the Biafrans, in the West by Odua People Republic and in the South by the Niger Delta Republic. The agitations have also increased gun-running and the proliferation of light weapons. All these developments feed into the terrorist infrastructure in Africa and the Mideast. With the perception that we have an unsafe Police, the attitude of the citizen has been that of insecurity, self-help, apathy hiring of private security and a feeling that the Nigerian State has no regard for the lives, limbs and property of her citizens. The implication is that the ordinary citizen finds it difficult to co-operate with the Police at check-points, in the office and even at crime scenes. Police investigation Reports are often disregarded because of allegation that such reports are compromised. More often than not, people who are innocent are arrested to crowd the prisons while the culprits are freed. The Nigerian Police has a huge image of bribery and corruption handing over her logo. There is an unedifying image of crisis of confidence and lack of comradeship in the in the Police. Nigerians (not all) are of the opinion that we have an institution that has been rendered ineffective by lacking of training, a politicized leadership, a Police that is not citizen-centered; lacking the capacity to reform, to protect public assets and private citizens. The knotty question is, with the poor public perception of the citizens about the Nigerian Police? What strategies should we adopt to change the negative perception to re-position the Police? Some criminologists believe that the veritable starting point is to reform the mindset of Police officers especially its rank and file. While it has been underscored that more Policemen/women be recruited, it is also necessary to emphasize that the use of the Police should be maximized. Too many Policemen are deployed to provide security for politicians and other privileged people. It the society is safe and well-Policed, emphasis on individual policing would be minimized. Police training and welfare should not be politicized while promotion should be done as at when due. To enhance the operational efficiency of the Police, government should procure state-of-the-art gadget for effective communication crime detection, prevention and the conduct of forensic audits. At a time when the centrifugal forces are pulling the nation and threatening her corporate existence, it will not be out of place to entrench state and community policing and integrate Policemen as indispensable members of the civil community a situation whereby the people will know the Police and vice versa. Ostensibly, it will be proper to abolish the quota system in recruiting and promoting Police officers, more importantly, recognizing the role of the Police in the criminal Justice system, a dozen forensic laboratories should be established and scattered around the Police commands in Nigeria. To remove the negative public perception of the Police, the indiscriminate use of Siren and escorts should be moderated. This will reduce thuggery and corruption in the rank and file of Police. The slogan of the Police may also be changed. With a change in the mindset of the Police, improved welfare and motivation and procurement of better equipment especially communication gadgets, not only will the public image of the Police improve; it will also re-position the Police in crime prevention, protection of lives and property and above all play its constitutional role in the criminal justice system. Ultimately it is when government and the Police work in synergy that the much-desired perception change of the Police can happen. For our collective security and crime prevention, the Nigerian Police cry for restructuring. Idumange John Is a student of Criminology and Penology, Nigeria First Lady Mrs. Lordina Mahama has entreated those in the beauty and fashion industry to upgrade themselves on daily basis considering the rampant change in trends. This she indicated can be done through training programs, distance learning platforms and online tutorials as well as engaging in more casual courses available for free via YouTube. The First lady believes this will not only enable them to update your skills but also to acquire new ones. The First lady made the call when she on behalf of the Lordina Foundation presented assorted working tools to Beauticians, Taylors and Barbers associations in the Northern Region to enable them establish their own businesses and contribute meaningfully to the socio economic development of the country. The aim was to assist them expand their businesses and improve upon their income-earning capacity as providing skills and vocational training, to create opportunities for girls and women was one of the important modules of the Lordina Foundation. The First lady asserted that Fashion had become a part of daily lives as everybody want to look beautiful, most especially, the women besides the beauty and fashion industry was growing each passing day with new trends coming up. Mrs. Lordina Mahama said the new trend for small and medium enterprises was to offer one-stop services, as businesses offering a wide range of services, under one roof, usually had a huge advantage, over those who offer only one or two types of services. While you can specialise on one main area; giving your clients the convenience of a one-stop beauty shop, can set your business apart from your competitors, she said. Presenting the items at a colourful ceremony in Tamale, the First Lady, Mrs. Lordina Mahama said in todays global world and with the nations desire to develop, the importance of skilled labour such as theirs could not be over emphasized. She said it was for this reason that the government continues to transform and diversify the economy, to provide enormous opportunities, for young people with technical and vocational training. The items presented included sewing machines, embroidery machines, over lock machines, hand dryers, hairdryers as well as sterilisers are aimed at assisting the artisans to expand their businesses and improve their income -earning capacity. She said under her Foundation, similar distribution of items had taken her team to a number of regions and districts all over the country to assist the recipients as a means of complementing the efforts of governments Today, we are here in Tamale, to touch the lives of the artisans, and proprietors of the Tailors, Beauticians and Barbers associations and to support our brothers and sisters, to realise their full potentials, she said. She described the Northern Region as her home since she spent most of her childhood, adolescent and early womanhood years there though she comes from the Brong- Ahafo Region, saying: It is therefore important that I also give back to you some of the blessings my husband and I have received from this region. Mrs. Mahama said government also considers the development of key infrastructure, critical to the social and economic advancement of our people and that was why only recently, the President was in the north to inspect important projects on his accounting to the people tour. The heavy investment in infrastructure, as evidenced in the roads, education, health, water, and electricity sectors, are meant to open up the region for investments, which not only boost the local economy, but also fast-track over-all development in the region, she said. She, however, said since government alone could not realize that vision without the support of charitable institutions and other stakeholders, the Lordina Foundation has adopted as one of its important module the provision of skills and vocational training, to create opportunities for girls and women. At programmes such as this, we present trainees with tools of their trade, including sewing machines, hair dryers, over-lock machines, designing machines, and many other equipment, with which they can begin life as small entrepreneurs the First Lady said. The First Lady advised the artisans to learn to come together, as joint businesses, so they could offer a full range of services, which would make them impact bigger and be able to exploit all the opportunities available to them. Mrs. Mahama also expressed appreciation to the Embassy of China, the First Lady of Turkey, and numerous other sponsors for assisting the Lordina Foundation to make the donation of valuable items to citizens possible. Alhaji Yusef Dauda, Regional Chairman of the Ghana National Traders and Dressmakers Association, Ms. Hajara Bawa, President of Northern Regional Ghana Hairdressers and Beauticians Association, Mr. Suleiman Ahmed, Regional President of Barbers Association and Ms. Eunice Agbeka, Regional President of the Ghana Progressive Hairdressers Association received the items from the First Lady on behalf of their members. They expressed their appreciation to the First Lady for the gesture and assured that the item would be put to good use to benefit the town and its environs. 2016-08-09 142534 09.08.2016 LISTEN By Samuel Akapule, GNA The Association of Rural Banks has expressed fears that the increment in the Corporate Tax of rural and community banks is a threat to their survival. The Corporate Tax on these banks was raised from eight per cent to 25 per cent which came into effect this year by the New Income Tax Act 2015 (Act 896). Alhaji Abdul-Sharif Adams, the President of the Upper East Regional Chapter of the Association, said this at the 20th Anniversary and 16th Annual General Meeting of the Builsa Community Bank Limited (BUKO-Bank), held at Sandema in the Builsa District of the Upper East Region. He stressed the need for the downward review of the tax to enable the banks to stay in business. The Council of Association of Rural Banks has requested the management of rural and community banks to submit the tax profile of their staff to enable the Council to intervene on their behalf, he said. He said another major threat that was likely to affect the operations of the banks was the Bank of Ghana's mandatory minimum requirement of GH1,000,000 for rural banks for the 2017 fiscal year. Alhaji Adams said most of the banks could not pay the GH500,000.00 mandatory minimum requirement of the Bank of Ghana for 2015, and that apart from the BUKO-Bank the rest of the rural banks in the region as well as the Northern and Upper West regions could not meet the requirement. He commended the BUKO-Bank for its remarkable achievement and urged other rural and community banks in the three northern regions who are confronted with operational and administrative challenges to consult the BUCO-Bank to learn from its good initiatives. Mr Zinzendorf Pascal Nkulenu, the Upper East Regional Manager of the Apex Bank, who read a speech on behalf of Mr Kwadwo Aye Kusi, the Managing Director of the bank, called on the management and staff to ensure that they placed premium on their clients so as to attract more customers. The Board Chairman of the Bank, Naab Akanab Apoom-Weem, said in spite of the general economic challenges in 2015, the bank recorded a profit before tax of GH708,621 which represented a decrease of 86,432.00 (10.9 per cent) of the previous year's performance. GNA Top 4 safe Kickass Torrents and Torrentz alternatives that will not land you in jail (Photo : Torrentz.eu) Torrentz.eu quietly bid farewell to its users after 13 years online. The website, regarded as one of the largest repository of torrent material, has decided to shut down, surprising its loyal followers. The operating team behind Torrentz.eu left a simple message on their website: "Torrentz was a free, fast and powerful meta-search engine combining results from dozens of search engines. Torrentz will always love you. Farewell." Advertisement According to Engadget, the said website, which is regarded as one of the world's biggest torrent site, was first founded in 2003 by a person identified only as Flippy, and has since become one of the most reliable sources of torrent links. The ceasing of operations of Torrentz.eu follows KickAss Torrents' official shut down. KickAss Torrents, also one of the most reputable torrent websites, ended its services after its Ukranian proprietor Artem Vauli was arrested and charged with criminal copyright infringement and money laundering. In the information, Vaulin is accused of illegally reproducing and distributing copyrighted material worth more than $1 billion. Vaulin's arrest is part of the serious crackdown on torrent sites in order to curtail piracy and massive copyright infringement. Unlike the case of KickAss Torrents, where the founder was arrested and operations were raided by authorities, the reason behind Torrentz's end remains unclear and its founder has remained elusive as to comments. It is presumed, however, that it shut down voluntary due to legal pressure on torrent-hosting websites. Similarly, Solarmovie also decided to terminate its operations voluntarily. Solarmovie is one of the top streaming portals of pirated movies and television series. Torrentz is one of the longest-existing torrent website, having predated The Pirate Bay and managed to maintain its operations until recently. The main reason for this was that Torrentz.eu does not host torrent links directly. Instead, it presents itself as a meta-search engine and links to other sites such as The Pirate Bay. But even with this strategy, many rightsholders strongly opposed the website. According to Torrent Freak, the website was reported by the RIAA and MPAA to the U.S. Government. Prior to its shut down, Torrentz.eu had ranked 186 on Alexa in terms of most visited websites globally. To the best of my knowledge, it was Mr. Paul Collins Appiah-Ofori (aka PC) who single-handedly forked up the fines for both Messrs. Kwadwo Owusu-Afriyie (aka Sir John) and Hopeson Adorye, when in 2013, during the Akufo-Addo-initiated presidential-election petition, the duo was brought up on charges of judicial contempt of the Atuguba-presided Supreme Court panel that adjudicated the case. And so it is rather curious that Ms. Anita DSouza should be mendaciously attempting to claim credit for the operatives of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) (See NDC Helped Sir John Pay His GH 5,000 Fine Desoso Kasapafmonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 8/3/16). I also know for a fact that prior to him being found to be in contempt of the Supreme Court, it was rather Mr. Owusu-Afriyie who had been known to have done some quite substantial legal work for some heavyweight NDC underwriters, including Mr. Alfred Agbesi Woyome. I wouldnt, of course, rule out the possibility of some NDC operatives having done some work or favors for Sir John, as Mr. Owusu-Afriyie is popularly known. But in this particular instance, NDC operatives had absolutely nothing, whatsoever, to do with the footing of fines for either Monsieur Owusu-Afriyie or Monsieur Hopeson Adorye. The Vice-Chairwoman of the NDC is, however, quite on point to observe that there were some factional operatives among the rank-and-file membership of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) who would fain have had Sir John serve some time behind bars, even just as quite a humongous number of NDC operatives had wished the same ill-fate for the then-General-Secretary of the NPP. It is not clear why Ms. DSouza has chosen to raise this matter at this time. If, as it clearly appears to be the reason, the Deputy Coordinator of the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) aims to garner a groundswell of sympathy for the jailed Montie Three contemnors, then I am sorry to say that Ms. DSouza has picked the wrong occasion and two grossly divergent incidents. Needless to say, under absolutely no circumstances can the death threats issued by Messrs. Alistair Tairo Nelson, Godwin Ako Gunn and Salifu Maase (aka Mugabe) be compared to the relatively benign failure of Messrs. Adorye and Owusu-Afriyie to abide by the Supreme Courts order not to comment on any aspect of the 2012 presidential-election petition while proceedings were still ongoing. Then also must be promptly observed the fact that whereas Messrs. Adorye and Owusu-Afriyie had promptly admitted their guilt of being in contempt of the Supreme Court, the Montie Three, on the other hand, had further complicated matters with the host of the Montie-Fm sponsored Pampaso program, Mr. Maase, virulently accusing the Supreme Court of the ungodly practice of selective justice and tribalism. I dont remember Sir John or Hopeson Adorye accusing any of the nine members of the Atuguba-presided Supreme Court panel of adjudicators of either anti-Akanism or discrimination by a northern-descended jurist against southern-descended Ghanaians. What was even more disturbing vis-a-vis the Montie Three scandal was the flat refusal of Attorney-General Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong to effect the prompt arrest of the three would-be judicial executioners; as well as the apparently staged theatrical swiftness of the operatives of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), who were able to conclude in less than 48 hours that the Montie Three would-be judicial assassins lacked both the capability and capacity to carry out their death threats. How about the possibility of their hateful speechs having ignited the murderous animosity of criminally minded listeners and NDC fanatics with both the capacity and capability of carrying out such threats? The BNI operatives have yet to inform the Ghanaian public. All of which has prompted some conspiracy theorists to speculate as to whether the Montie Three were not put to such criminal mischief by a desperate National Democratic Congress leadership hell-bent on hanging on to power. *Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs From Kester Kenn Klomegah, Moscow Bureau Chief Moscow, Aug. 8, GNA - Acknowledging the huge untapped economic potentials in the relations between Russia and Africa, Ekaterina Dyachenko, the Founder of the B2B Export Group of Companies said in an interview Thursday that her company would collaborate with the authorities of the Republic of Ghana in organizing the next Russian-African Forum (RAF) in February 2017 in Accra, Ghana. This year, the RAF was held in May in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and in July as part of the INNOPROM-2016 international industrial trade fair in Yekaterinburg (Urals), and both gatherings have outlined diversified ways and reviewed prospects for strengthening economic cooperation between Russia and Africa. According to the organizing committee, the Yekaterinburg forum attracted African delegates from different countries including Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Burundi, South Africa, Namibia, Rwanda, Senegal, Cameroon, Mozambique, Chad, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Algeria and Egypt. In Moscow, Ghana's Ambassador to the Russian Federation, His Excellency, Dr. Kodzo Alabo, while discussing various efforts and ways of strengthening relations between Russia and Ghana, also expressed the desire of his country to host the Russian-African Forum (RAF) that would focus on promoting Russia's economic partnerships and cooperation with countries of the ECOWAS region. Besides, it would offer the country a unique opportunity to raise its profile as an investment destination and a gateway to the West African market, Dr Alabo said, adding "I am highly confident that the forthcoming business event, that's the Russian-African Forum, will undoubtedly promote the development and enhance business partnership between the countries in the region and the Russian Federation," Ghana has developed a stable political environment during the last three decades, leading to economic growth. The reasons why foreign investors are attracted to Ghana can be attributed to the favourable investment climate and incentives, rapidly developing infrastructure and a skilled labour force. It has often been said that Russia and African countries have had a long history of business relations, including infrastructure development, human resource training and healthcare projects, as well as a wide range of other areas. Kenya-based Dyachenko has 10 years of tremendous experience working and facilitating Russian business issues in Africa. After the previous RAF that was successfully organized in South Africa and East Africa, the B2B Group of Companies has received positive responses from the African business community that indicated enormous interest in goods and services Russian companies can offer and export to Africa. 'As a new host for our next event in West Africa we are looking for a country which is most open to efficient cooperation with the Russian Federation. At the moment we are looking first of all at Ghana, Nigeria and Guinea. RAF already started negotiations with the governments of the above mentioned countries and we are awaiting positive responses,' Dyachenko said. The economies of West Africa are one of the fastest growing in the world. The key focus of the region is to meet the ever growing demand for housing, power, infrastructure, skills development and pharmaceuticals. Russian companies have developed a vast expertise in those areas and ready to participate in infrastructure, energy, mining, agriculture and other projects in Africa. It is worth mentioning that there are only four Russian trade missions on the African continent which are located in Morocco, Egypt, Algeria and South Africa at the moment. That is obviously not enough for efficient business consulting in the region. Therefore, the Russian-African Forum (RAF) is, in fact, one of the effective platforms for building an efficient business-to-business dialogue between Russia and Sub-Saharan Africa. 'As an addition, in order to tighten Russian-African business ties we organize business visits to Russia for African companies. The delegates can see a real manufacturing process, hold negotiations with Russian companies, financial institutions and government authorities, and get a better understanding of the way we do business in Russia,' Antonina Bondareva, RAF Director, said. The B2B Export Group of Companies are the Russian-African Forum, Export Club project (business community of Russian exporters), some educational programs for Russian exporters and online trading platform - the easy and efficient way to source from Russia. It represents the next logical stage in the development of the electronic platform, in its activities as an international agency matching foreign buyers with sellers in Russia. During the first 18 months of the initial phase of the company's operations, it has facilitated more than 50 transactions. Currently, the turnover of trade between Russia and Africa is estimated at $2.5 billion, while imports of non-primary goods to the African continent already aggregate to $430 billion and are growing at 10-15 % a year. Nearly, in all economic sectors in Africa, Russia's major competitors are from foreign countries especially Asia, Western Europe and European Union. GNA 09.08.2016 LISTEN Accra, Aug. 9, GNA - The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), in partnership with the National Peace Council, the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), officially launched the 'Regional Election Early Warning and Response Group' (REEWARG) on Monday, August 8, 2016 at the Golden Tulip Hotel in Kumasi. A press release from USAID in Accra, copied to the Ghana News Agency, said the primary objective of the Group is to discuss, develop and recommend strategies to mitigate threats to the peaceful conduct of the 2016 elections at the regional level. At the launch, the Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr John Alexander Ackon, the Chair of the National Peace Council, The Most Reverend Professor Emmanuel Asante, and the USAID representative, Ms. Nana Serwah Amoako, expressed commitment to support the Group's efforts to strengthen early response to threats around the elections and reduce the potential for conflict. In a speech, Nana Serwah Amoako, the USAID representative, lauded Ghana's strong democratic credentials. 'Ghana has been applauded for holding successful elections for many years; however, we must not be complacent, but remain vigilant of the risks of instability in the upcoming elections.' According to the release, the Group will convene stakeholders from around the region, including representatives from the Ashanti Regional Peace Council and prominent persons from relevant state and non-state institutions, to complement government efforts in the prevention and mitigation of election-related violence. 'Through WANEP'S extensive network of civil society organizations and appointed community monitors across the country, the group will be better placed to identify potential risks of election violence. If monitoring in a given area reveals a heightened risk of violence at any point in the election cycle, WANEP will develop recommendations on how it can be prevented, and will channel these recommendations to members of the REEWARG for immediate deliberation and action', it stated. The eminent members of the Group will use their years of experience and influence to facilitate early response to conflict and early warning issues before they escalate into violence. Members of the Group will also ensure that electoral conflict threats at the grassroots level receive immediate attention and response at the regional level. They will also provide direct input into the National Peace Council's activities. GNA 09.08.2016 LISTEN Kumasi, Aug 09, GNA - As part of efforts to prevent political violence in the Ashanti Region, a regional 'election early warning and response group' has been inaugurated. It would discuss, develop and recommend strategies to deal with threats to the peaceful conduct of the coming presidential and parliamentary polls. The membership of group include representatives from the Peace Council, academia, women and faith organizations, the security agencies, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) and Attorney-General's Department. Mr. John Alexander Ackon, the Regional Minister, said it would focus on identifying potential risks of polls violence and help to swiftly tackle these. This was necessary considering the 'Afro barometer 2014 report' that indicated that the confidence of some of Ghanaians in key state institutions was waning due to selfish and personal interest. He said the trend could not be allowed to continue and that it was important to do everything to aid people to trust and have faith in these institutions. Mr. Ackon indicated that the conduct of a peaceful election required the concerted effort of all stakeholders and said he had no doubt that people in the region would provide strong backing to the group to keep the area calm. The Most Reverend Professor Emmanuel Asante, Board Chairman of the National Peace Council, said conflicts would come about when people failed to manage them. He said everybody should accept responsibility and make contribution towards ensuring that this year's election was violent-free, so that 'we all will continue to sit as one people and enjoy life'. Mr. Serebour Quaicoe, the Reginal Director of the Electoral Commission (EC), said the commission would go to every length to make the polls free, fair and credible. Ms. Nana Serwah Amoako, a representative of the United States (US) Government said the US would give strong backing to the group. GNA By Stephen Asante, GNA Kumasi, Aug 09, GNA - The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), has asked the media to show good judgement and be guided by the national interest in its reportage. Mr. Kwame Nkrumah, the Kumasi Metropolitan Director of the Commission, said it was important for journalists to be mindful of anything they put out there - the implication for the unity and cohesion of the society. He added that they upheld professional ethics by avoiding factually inaccurate and one-sided stories. He made the call at a meeting of the metropolitan inter-party advisory committee (IPAC) in Kumasi. It provided the forum to deliberate on ways to remove political tension and safeguard the peace as the election campaign gathered momentum. Mr. Nkrumah spoke of the need for fair coverage of the activities of all the political parties as they struggled to woo voters ahead of the presidential and parliamentary elections. The print and electronic media should give equal access to every candidate contesting the polls without hindrance to tell the people what they would be doing differently to make things better for everybody. The NCCE Metropolitan Director said that was the way to go to aid voters to make the right decisions on the day of the election. He reminded hosts of political radio programmes to be more professional and to be bold to stop anybody from using those programmes to make inflammatory statements. It must not be lost on the media that it had critical role to play to make this year's election peaceful and successful, he added. GNA 09.08.2016 LISTEN By Yussif Ibrahim, GNA Kumasi, Aug 09, GNA - Dr. Esther Ofei-Aboagye, Vice Chairperson of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), has rallied Ghanaian women to have stronger voice and become more visible in the world of work. This, she said, required building the capacity for negotiation on issues that concern them - within the unions, at work places and with other potential national and international partners and parties. 'Working women must understand, interpret and articulate their concerns in ways that will get them the results they needed', she added. Dr. Ofei-Aboagye, who was addressing the second women's quadrennial congress of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in Kumasi, said it was also important that they became informed about international best practice and what had worked for working women elsewhere. 'Building workers power for decent work and national development: the role of women' was the theme chosen for the two-day meeting. It was attended by delegates from across the country and was a prelude to the 10th quadrennial congress of the mother union, which would come off on Wednesday, August 10. Dr. Ofei-Aboagye said although decent work was an urgent concern for both male and female workers, the latter should have greater interest in promoting the agenda - adequate social protection, income security and access to income earning opportunities. She encouraged them to sufficiently educate themselves on the labour laws and social security provisions and to monitor their implementation and responsiveness to women's circumstances. Mr. Kofi Asamoah, Secretary General of the TUC, hailed the contribution of women to the growth of the union over the years and urged them to persevere in their quest to champion the cause of women. He indicated that despite the appreciable increase in their participation in the activities of organized labour, there was still room for improvement. Mrs. Nadia Theresa Abuga, the Head of Gender and Social Protection of the TUC, asked her colleague women to take up leadership positions in their respective unions. GNA By Hafsa Obeng, GNA Accra, Aug. 9, GNA - Standard Chartered Bank has held the first mini draw of its 'rewards unlimited promo' to award loyal customers in Accra. The draw which is the first of two mini draws for the promo saw 78 customers being rewarded. Ms Asiedua Addae, Head, Corporate Affairs, Brand and Marketing, said the promo was launched in June this year and is expected to end in September where the final draw would be held to reward customers. She said the draw which is in collaboration with the National Lotteries Authority (NLA) is expected to reward 78 customers across all 26 branches of the bank with three clients from each bank. She said the first from each branch takes home a LED Television set, the second takes homes a rice cooker while the third person wins a wax print. Ms Addae noted that some of the prizes to be won throughout the promotion include, a three bedroom apartment, LED Television sets, wax prints, trip for two couples to Mauritius, among others. She said customers who want to benefit from the promo to just deposit an amount of GH 400.00 into their savings or current account in order to stand the chance of winning these prizes and more before the end of September. Mr Ekow Nkoom, NLA, noted that the NLA was lucked to be associated with this promotion which is meant to reward loyal customers for their commitment towards the bank. He assured that the draw was specifically meant for customers, and no staff the NLA and Standard Chartered would be allowed to win any of the prizes. GNA 09.08.2016 LISTEN DETROIT, ACCRA, Aug. 9 - (UPI/GNA) - In a major economic speech in Detroit on Monday, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump proposed the biggest tax reform since Ronald Reagan's administration, with cuts at all income levels. Trump proposed three income-tax brackets of 12 percent, 25 percent and 33 percent instead of the current seven tiers ranging from 10 percent to 39.6 percent. His three brackets are the same as ones proposed by House Republicans under Speaker Paul Ryan in June. "No one will pay so much that it destroys jobs, or undermines our ability as a nation to compete," he said at the Detroit Economic Club, in a speech that was repeatedly interrupted by protesters. He said his campaign is "about how to make America great again for everyone and, especially, and I say especially, for those who have the very least." Trump's proposal would allow parents "to fully deduct the average cost of child care spending from their taxes." Currently, parents can deduct up to 35 percent of qualifying expenses for a maximum $3,000 deduction for one child and $6,000 for two or more children. His opponent, Hillary Clinton has proposed a cap on child care costs at 10 percent of a family's income. The billionaire proposes to end the estate tax -- nicknamed the "death tax." The 40 percent tax applies to estates larger than $5.45 million for individuals and $10.9 million for couples. Trump also proposed a 15 percent tax rate for businesses. He is seeking the elimination of special tax treatment for carried-interest income at private-equity firms and other investment firms. Carried interest is a portion of investment gains paid to certain investment managers and is now taxed like capital gains at rates as low as 23.8 percent. Trump proposes to tax them as ordinary income. The nominee proposed temporarily halting new agency regulations Trump still opposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement backed by the Obama administration and many prominent Republicans in Congress. Trump repeated his positions on the following: asking TransCanada to renew its Keystone pipeline permit application, rescinding the Climate Action Plan and "waters of the U.S." rule; opening offshore drilling; and killing the Paris climate agreement. As a lead-up to his big speech Monday, Trump named an economic advisory council last week. Trump pointed to Detroit as a "living, breathing example of my opponent's failed economic agenda." "She's the candidate of the past and ours is the campaign of the future," Trump said. "Every policy that has failed Detroit has been fully supported by Hillary Clinton. The one common feature of every Hillary Clinton idea is that it punishes you from working and doing business in the United States." On Thursday, Clinton also plans to also give an economic speech in Detroit. Clinton, who was in Florida on Monday to campaign, released a statement before Trump's speech, saying he is pushing an agenda "that experts across the political spectrum say would lead to a recession and cost millions of American jobs." Clinton's campaign says Trump's policies amount to big tax breaks for corporations and businesses. They noted Trump doesn't support debt-free college, paid family leave or a federal minimum wage. GNA KABUL, Afghanistan, ACCRA, Aug. 9 - (UPI/GNA), The American University of Afghanistan has been temporarily closed after an American and an Australian professor were kidnapped at gunpoint in Kabul. The professors were driving through the western part of Kabul on the Darulaman Road when they were kidnapped by two armed gunmen, one of whom smashed his gun barrel through the passenger-side window and pulled the two men out of their vehicle. The body guard and the driver for the two abductees were left uninjured, police said. "We are devastated by the news and will remain vigilant to ensure the safety and security of all university personnel and students" university president Dr. Mark English said in a statement. The university said operations are expected to resume on Wednesday. The identities of those kidnapped are being withheld out of respect for the families and for reasons of privacy, pending notification of next of kin, the university said in a statement. "The university is in close contact with the Afghan security agencies as well as the relevant embassies," the university added. "Everything possible is being done to ensure their immediate and safe return." There has been no claim of responsibility for the kidnapping, which comes after a group of six tourists were injured in a rocket attack in western Afghanistan on Thursday. The Taliban claimed responsibility for that attack. GNA MOSCOW, ACCRA, Aug. 9 - (UPI/GNA), Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet in St. Petersburg, Russia on Tuesday in Erdogan's first trip abroad since the failed coup in July. The leaders are expected to discuss Syria and other subjects in a highly symbolic meeting that will likely make western governments nervous, because it's a U-turn for two governments who were insulting each other just two months ago. Turkish relations with the U.S. and European Union countries have suffered in that time as well. Turkey has demanded the U.S. extradite Islamic leader Fethullah Gulen, now living in Pennsylvania, whom the Turks say is responsible for the failed coup. Erdogan has contended Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would have to resign in order for peace talks to take place, but things have improved and Russian military efforts have strengthened al-Assad's grip. Turkey downing a Russian jet that had allegedly strayed into Turkish territory last November only added to tensions. Kurds inside and outside Turkish borders have also squeezed Erdogan into repackaging his government as one that still has friends. The meeting might produce some results in regards to Syria, but is expected to be mostly for show. GNA Advocates for state funding of political parties have not given up on the proposal that as engine of democracy, the parties need the state to buy the fuel needed to keep them running. President John Kufuor s unsuccessful push for a bi-partisan agreement on a law on funding parties, has not ended the debate on the subject. In 2001, relieved to be in government for the first time under the 4th republic, President Kufour threw his support for state-sponsored political party system. We know the deprivations, the trials and tribulations and the frustrations of being in opposition in a poor country. We have been at the receiving end of the evil practice of the winner-takes-all tendency where anybody not carrying the winning partys membership card is denied the right to pursue his or her legitimate concerns. We know what it is like and we did not like it, President Kufuor said nine months into his tenure. At least 15 years after the proposal, political scientist Dr. Ransford Gyampo agrees that parties need the support of the state. His view does not strike a unanimous cord with all MPs. Assin Central MP Kennedy Agyapong believes that the test of a political party serious on winning elections should be seen in its fundraising ability. If you think you are prepared as a presidential candidate or form a party then you should be prepared to take care of yourself, he said. Kennedy Agyapong Kennedy Agyapong who has been a hard-hitting critic of governments lackadaisical fight against corruption suspects if such an arrangement exists, it could be open to abuse. [In] this side of the world people take advantage of every situation he raised fears. He also finds it unimaginable that smaller parties often written off as posing a viable electoral threat should receive funds from the state. I honestly disagree with them that government should fund political parties Kennedy Agyapong turned his back on former President Kufuors proposal. The MP for Ablekuma Central in the Greater Accra region who is with the governing party, the NDC, is however open to the idea. Yes, some funds can be allocated for each political party to fund its activity. But the question how much will be needed looking at the numerous political parties we have Theophilus Tetteh-Chaie explained. Theophilus Tetteh Chaie The formation of All People's Congress (APC) recently by Hassan Ayariga adds to 23 political parties on the books of the Electoral Commission , with only seven having elected flagbearers for the 2016 elections, and only four having representation in Parliament and only two stand a realistic chance of winning the general elections. Voters say funding democracy cannot be more important than solving the countrys bread and better issues. Proponents respond that if big business men have to fund political parties, then winning power is a huge opportunity to get paid back in kickbacks and mouth-watering contracts.This is often described as the Winner-takes-all system. Eventually, big money could strangle the politicians ability to focus on bread and butter issues. For moderates however, the idea may not be bad. The timing is. Ghanas economy has not reached the level where it can be concerned with helping out a political party with funds. For now, let us help real human beings, the moderates would argue. Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com|[email protected] The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Dispute Resolution Service (DRS) will be delivering its globally recognised Analytical Commercial Restorative Expert (ACRE) Accredited Mediator Training Programme for the first time in the country. The course will be held on 21-23 and 25-26 August 2016 and is specially designed for professionals working in the built environment sector. Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) is becoming increasingly relevant to the built environment sector in Africa. Throughout the full real estate life cycle, whether in planning, construction, real estate development, or asset management, more and more professionals are getting involved in ADR. Professionals need the skills and competencies to help their businesses or their clients avoid disputes or get them resolved as quickly and inexpensively as possible, says RICS, which promotes and enforces the highest professional qualifications and standards in the development and management of land, real estate, construction and infrastructure at the global level. RICS ACRE Accredited Mediator Training prepares delegates to mediate the most complex of disputes to the highest of standards and teaches negotiation skills in a practical setting and is aimed at senior members of the construction, land and real estate industries, members of government departments, local authorities involved in the administration of land property matters and legal practitioners who specialise in these areas. The training is robust, practical and demanding, and delegates who successfully complete Module One and Module Two of the course will become an RICS Accredited Mediator. RICS has built upon its traditional, facilitative mediation service to develop a new, robust and evaluative training programme ACRE Mediation. The approach is analytical - it helps parties to analyse the circumstances, law and evidence, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of their case to empower them to make pragmatic and viable settlement decisions. It is also commercial as it encompasses wide commercial as well as narrow legal realities to provide a flexible settlement, which courts or arbitration cannot. It is also restorative and focusses on restoring the business relationship between parties, proceedings are completely confidential to limit any further damage. Finally, it is expert - with many years' experience and expertise in the field of dispute, our mediators help parties to reach a common-sense settlement, or to narrow the issues in dispute, reducing court or arbitration costs. The extensive "been there, done that" experience of our mediators equips them to advise and guide the parties through the mediation process. Benjamin Yaw Manu, RICS Regional Manager for West Africa states: Our aim is to support efforts at improving the efficacy of ADR mechanisms in Ghana since the promulgation of the ADR Act (Act 798, 2010), which seeks to promote the settlement of disputes through arbitration, mediation and other voluntary procedures. RICS are delighted to host this first ever international accredited mediation training programme for the built environment in Ghana. The training will be led by Dr John Fletcher, Global Director of Dispute Resolution Services at RICS, who said: We are delighted to be hosting this training in Ghana. The growing interest in alternative dispute resolution is allowing RICS to establish ourselves across Africa as a leading authority in the sector. We have delivered our training in the UK and internationally for several years, and I look forward to meeting and working with delegates in Ghana. RICS is working globally to raise awareness of mediation and to promote the use of mediation in built environment disputes, and the ACRE Accredited Mediator training programme is delivered across the world. Delegates in the UK, Poland, Singapore and South Africa have been impressed with the quality and delivery of the course, and have found the expert knowledge of the trainers to be hugely valuable. David Levis, Project Services Manager at Hiap Seng Engineering Ltd, Singapore says Our trainers teaching was of the highest standard, but it was his wide knowledge and sheer enthusiasm for the subject that made it possible for him to hold the students attention throughout an intensive week. RICS DRS is the oldest and largest built environment-specific dispute resolution service provider in the world. DRS has provided alternative dispute resolution (ADR) services for 40 years and has made more than 200,000 dispute resolution appointments across the world during this time. The services include: high quality training, qualifications and accreditation in dispute avoidance, resolution, representation and management, accredited panels of the best dispute resolution practitioners in the built environment, providing a professional and quality assured appointment system to stakeholders across the built environment as well as advice and assistance to governments, judiciaries, property professionals and consumers on the development and provision of ADR services in the land, property, construction and related sectors. The Electoral Commission has confirmed that the vice presidential candidate of the opposition New Patriotic Party, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, verified his name during the just-ended voters register exhibition exercise, outside a designated exhibition centre. The Commission however did not say Dr. Bawumia was verified at his home as alleged. The Commission did not also confirm the claim that its two officers were offered a bribe to carry out the illegality. The Commission in a statement said a three member committee set up to investigate the issue found out that on the said date, Mr. Ambrose Yobe [Exhibition Officer] and Ms. Mumuni Latifa [Verification Officer] closed and vacated their exhibition centre before the stipulated closing time of 6pm. That Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia was facilitated by both officers to check his name in the voters register and got verified outside the exhibition centre. The Commission also condemned the conduct of the officers saying it was a violation of the guidelines issued for the exercise. Background: Dr. Bawumia has been accused especially by the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), of verifying his name in the voters register at his residence in Walewale in the Upper West Region during the exhibition exercise in July. They further alleged that, the electoral officers were given GHc10,000 by Dr. Bawumia; a claim the NPP has vehemently rejected describing it as a desperate attempt by the NDC to tarnish the image of their running mate. The NDC further lodged an official complaint with the Walewale District Police calling for investigations into the matter. The Electoral Commission in the statement said allowing a registered voter to go through the exhibition process outside the designated centre was an irregularity and a breach of the rules. Accordingly, the two officers were replaced by the Acting District Electoral Officer as soon as the issue was brought to the attention of the Commission. Speaking to Citi News, the Northern regional Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Ebenezer Tetteh, said they CID has taken over investigations into the matter. The exhibition of the voters register took place from July 18 August 7, 2016. Below is the EC's full statement VERIFICATION OF DR. M. BAWUMIA OUTSIDE DESIGNATED EXHIBITION CENTRE The Electoral Commission's attention was drawn to an incident of involving the verification of a voter outside the designated Exhibition Centre number H230401 at the Kperiga Presby JHS 'A' in Walewale in the West Mamprusi District on 24th July, 2016. A 3-member committee was set up by the Nothern Regional Directorate of the Commission to investigate the incident and provide appropriate recommendations. The Committee has completed its work and found as follows: 1. That on the said date, Mr. Ambrose Yobe (Exhibition Officer) and Ms. Mumuni Latifa (Verification Officer) closed and vacated their exhibition centre before the stipulated closing time of 6pm. 2. That Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia was facilitated by both officers to check his name in the voters' register and got verified outside the exhibition centre. The Committee was of the considered opinion that the conduct of the Officers was a violation of the guidelines issued for the exercise and contrary to the Commission's policies. According to the rules and the guidelines: 1. Only the Commission has the mandate to designate specific areas as Exhibition Centres. Electoral Commission P. O. Box M.214 Accra. 2. Exhibition Officials have no authority to set-up or relocate Exhibition Centres to a place different from the one designated by the Commission without the prior express authorization of the EC. 3. Exhibition Officials are not permitted under any circumstances to vacate their duty posts or close their centres before the specified closing hours without prior authorization from the Commission. The Committee concluded that allowing a registered voter to go through the exhibition process outside the designated centre was an irregularity and a breach of the rules. Accordingly, the two Officers were replaced by the Ag. District Electoral Officer as soon as the issue was brought to the attention of the Commission. The Commission wishes to advice political leaders to familiarize themselves with the electoral laws and regulations to enable them to insist on the right things being done at all times. The Commission would like to further encourage members of the public to continue to support the electoral process by promptly bringing any irregularities to its attention for speedy resolution. Thank you. Signed: AMADU SULLEY Deputy Chairperson (Operations) By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana Follow @AlloteyGodwin Accra, GHANA The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection signed a collaboration agreement on August 9 at the Ministry. U.S. Ambassador to Ghana Robert P. Jackson, Minster of Gender, Children and Social Protection Nana Oye Lithur, and USAID/Ghana Mission Director Andrew Karas were present at the signing, which marks the next phase in their partnership to protect Ghanas most vulnerable children. Through the USAID Displaced Children and Orphans Fund, USAID will be providing $3 million to support the Ministry and the Government of Ghanas Child Care Reform Initiatives. Since 2006, the Care Reform Initiative has been central to protecting the countrys most deprived. The funding will support the Ministry to improve the quality of social work in Ghana. Formal gatekeeping structures will be developed to prevent the unnecessary admission and re-admission of children into orphanages and will strengthen the quality of child protection services at the community level, linking directly with the District Social Welfare Offices. A national child care reform monitoring and evaluation system will be developed so standards for orphanages are enforced. USAIDs Displaced Children and Orphans Fund provides financial and technical assistance for the care and protection of vulnerable children, particularly those who are outside of family care or are at risk of losing family care and protection. USAID has given particular attention to children in institutional care, on the street, or with disabilities. We will work alongside the Ministry so they can better protect Ghanas most vulnerable, said Ambassador Jackson at the signing ceremony. The partnership we are celebrating today will ensure that Ghanas future movers and shakers have the chance to thrive. The signing of this agreement furthers the goals of USAIDs integrated Health, Population, and Nutrition Program, which works to improve the health and well-being of Ghanaians, particularly its most vulnerable populations. USAID partners with the Government of Ghana to achieve these goals, build leadership, improve governance, and build capacity in the health sector. Sao Tome (AFP) - The prime minister of Sao Tome and Principe on Tuesday said his country had entered an era of stronger governance after his ally Evaristo Carvalho was elected president. "This is a new moment ... the end of cohabitation," Patrice Trovoada said on national television, referring to the often-fractious tradition of power-sharing. "The conditions are now ripe for greater cohesion in government and for better institutional relations," said Trovoada, who predicted parliament and the judiciary would also benefit from the change. Africa's second smallest state, Sao Tome and Principe is a tiny archipelago off the coast of Gabon. Although considered a beacon for democracy in West Africa, the former Portuguese colony has also been riven by turf wars between the prime minister and head of state. The state has had "cohabitation" between political forces since a multiparty system was introduced in 1991. Trovoada had squabbled repeatedly with defeated president Pinto da Costa, with whom there was a family history of animosity. The win by Carvalho, his ally, in Sunday's election for the presidency should end friction between the two offices, Trovoada said. Carvalho is expected to play a mediator's role, while Trovoado will wield the real power with the support of the centre-right Independent Democratic Action (ADI) party, which has a majority in parliament. "Sao Tome and Principe needs a new era of work, a new era of mutual help, with political consistency and stability in government. We must all work to take the country forward," Carvalho said in his own televised address. The ADI faces a "great responsibility", he said. Carvalho, the 74-year-old vice-president of the ADI party, won Sunday's second round of the presidential poll with a little more than 42,000 votes from an electorate of about 111,000, according to provisional results. As in Portugal, the president does not govern but serves as a mediator in disputes in the nation of about 200,000 inhabitants, which became independent in 1975 and today relies on international aid to sustain 90 percent of its economy. After Pinto da Costa found himself in second place during the first round of the election on July 17, with 24.83 percent of votes against 49.8 percent for his main rival, the 79-year-old leader backed out of the race. He cried fraud and called for the annulment of the whole electoral process, but the constitutional tribunal rejected his plea between the two rounds of voting. The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service, has commenced investigations into reports that the running mate of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia, broke electoral laws in the just-ended voters' register exhibition exercise. The governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), which made the claims against Dr. Bawumia, alleged that he induced two electoral officers in Walewale in the Upper West Region, with a sum of GHc 10, 000, to bring verification materials to his residence to verify him. The two EC officials identified as Jobe Ambrose and Mumuni Latifa were subsequently relieved off their dutie s by the EC, even before a full investigation was carried out into the claims. The NDC proceeded to lodge a complaint with the Walewale District Police to investigate the matter.Speaking to Citi News, the Northern Regional Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Ebenezer Tetteh, disclosed that the CID has taken over investigations into the matter. A complaint was lodged with the Walewale police, and the CID in the Northern Region has taken statements from the verification officer of the EC and one other officer. As we speak, they are even in the jurisdiction doing further investigations. As and when we need to put anything out there, we will do so, he indicated. NPP debunks claims When the allegations first surfaced, the NPP condemned as desperate the National Democratic Congress' schemes and claims in attempt to soil the image of its running mate. The NPP in a statement signed by its Secretary in Walewale, Simon Ali, debunked the claims as totally false and bordering on hallucinations. The statement also described as one of the weirdest claims ever the allegations claiming that Dr. Bawumia gave the two Electoral Officers GHc 10,000 to enable him get verified. According to the NPP, This is hallucination of the highest order. Why would anyone pay to get verified when verification is free and takes absolutely no time? Bawumia verified outside exhibition center EC Meanwhile the Electoral Commission in a statement issued today [Tuesday], and signed by it's Deputy Chairperson in charge of Operations, Amadu Sulley, has confirmed that Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia was verified outside an exhibition centre. The Commission however did not say Dr. Bawumia was verified at his home as alleged. The Commission did not also confirm the claim that the its two officers were offered a bribe. The electoral management body arrived at that conclusion when it released its investigative report regarding the sacking of two of its officials in July for reportedly verifying Dr. Bawumia at his Walewale residence during the just ended verification exercise. A three-member committee was set up by the Northern Regional Directorate of the Commission to investigate the incident. According to the statement headlined: Verification of Dr. M. Bawumia outside Designated Exhibition Centre the investigative committee concluded the conduct of the two breaches the electoral rules. The Commission therefore wishes to advice political leaders to familiarize themselves with the electoral laws and regulations to enable them to insist on the right things being done at all times. It further urged members of the public to continue to support the electoral process by promptly bringing any irregularities to its attention for speedy resolution. citifmonline A child protection organization in the cocoa sector, International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) has presented a cheque of GH10,000 to support the 2016 Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) awards. The awards ceremony, which has become GJAs flagship event, comes off on August 27, 2016, at the Banquet Hall, State House. It seeks to reward hard-working journalists in the year under review. Presenting the cheque at a short ceremony at the International Press Centre in Accra on Monday, Programme Coordinator at ICI Ghana, Mr Prince Gyamfi, explained that the donation is to support the Best Rural Reporting with Focus on Ending Worst Forms of Child Labour category of the awards. In his speech he emphasised that the theme chosen is in acknowledgement of the need for stronger collaboration between the media and civil society, to promote a rational and credible coverage of the election. Mr Gyamfi, added that as gatekeepers, the media must remain consistently neutral to help sanitize and stimulate dialogue on ending child labour. He encouraged them to ensure coverage reflects the practicalities, successes chalked, challenges of cocoa growing communities and the plight of children. He further urged GJA to continue to hold its members to higher professional and ethical standards, balanced and fair in their news reportage. Mr. Gyamfi took the opportunity to share with the GJA and media, ICIs 2015 Annual Report which highlights their activities and achievements. Receiving the cheque and annual report on behalf of GJA, President of GJA, Dr. Affail Monney, appreciated the contributions of ICI and praised its quest to support the recognition of higher professional and ethical standards. He thanked ICI for coming on board and helping to celebrate responsible journalism in the country. In the attendance of the President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama, the 21st GJA Awards will honour over 30 outstanding journalists in Ghana. Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com Following the ECs report on the verification of Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the running mate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP)s flagbearer Nana Akufo Addo, the partys executives in the Walewale constituency say they have been vindicated, and that the governing partys lies have been exposed. The National Democratic Congress (NDC) alleged that the former deputy governor of the Bank of Ghana had paid some EC officials to verify him at his home in the just-ended exhibition exercise. But the report from the ECs 3-member committee set up to investigate the matter stated that, Dr. Bawumia had been verified outside the authorized center but did not authenticate the NDCs claim that he had paid the officials 10, 000 cedis to verify him at his home. The two EC officials, Jobe Ambrose and Mumuni Latifa, were subsequently relieved off their dutie s by the EC, before a full investigation was carried out. The Walewale Constituency Secretary of the NPP, Simon Ali, had described the allegations as mere propaganda to tarnish the image of Dr. Bawumia. In a statement following the release of the ECs investigative report, the party said: The Walewale Constituency NPP feels vindicated by the conclusions of a three-member committeethe key false accusations put out by the NDC included; that Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, NPP Running Mate, was verified at his residence and that he also gave two EC officers a sum of GHC 10,000. Our vindication in this case stems from the fact that the truth contained in our initial response to the spurious allegations put out by the NDC, have been endorsed by the EC's three member committee and subsequent statement. CID to investigate the NDCs claims The NDC had earlier lodged an official complaint with the Walewale District Police calling for investigations into the matter. Speaking to Citi News, the Northern Regional Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Ebenezer Tetteh, disclosed that the CID has initiated an investigation. A complaint was lodged with the Walewale police, and the CID in the Northern Region has taken statements from the verification officer of the EC and one other officer. As we speak, they are even in the jurisdiction doing further investigations. As and when we need to put anything out there, we will do so, he indicated. Heres the full statement from the Walewale NPP NDC LIES ON DR. BAWUMIA CRUMBLE RE: VERIFICATION OF DR. M. BAWUMIA OUTSIDE DESIGNATED EXHIBITION CENTRE The Walewale Constituency NPP feels vindicated by the conclusions of a three-member committee (as contained in a statement issued by the Deputy Chairperson of the EC, AmaduSulley) and which was set up by the Northern Regional Directorate of the Electoral Commission to investigate allegations put out by the National Democratic Congress (NDC). The key false accusations put out by the NDC included; that Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, NPP Running Mate, was verified at his residence and that he also gave two EC officers a sum of GHC 10,000. Our vindication in this case stems from the fact that the truth contained in our initial response to the spurious allegations put out by the NDC on 30th July, have been endorsed by the EC's three member committee and subsequent statement. The facts as stated in our response and the only truths in the matter remain, that; Mahamudu Bawumia was never verified in his home or family residence as was put out falsely by the NDC Mahamudu Bawumia never gave any official of the EC any amount for whatever purpose and that the NDC put out that allegation, like all others, purely to tarnish the image of Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, who has become a nightmare for the NDC and who they continue to plot against and seek to destroy. Mahamudu Bawumia never invited an EC officer to verify him at his residence That Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, was verified at a spot adjacent to the verification centre because the officers on the day, were in the process of moving their equipment and documents in attempt to seek shelter, due to the prevailing weather situation at the time. We are confident that the conclusions and recommendations of the three-member EC panel will bring finality to this matter and call on the NDC, especially their officers who schemed and spewed these lies against Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, to do the honourable and bow their heads in shame. Long live Ghana Long live NPP Say No to Lies Signed Simon Ali (Walewale Constituency) By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana The performance of the candidates in the four core subjects is as below: English Language: 125,065 (53.19%) obtained Al-C6; 59,725 (25.40%) obtained D7-E8 whilst 46,595 (19.82%) had F9; Mathematics: 77,108 (32.83%) obtained Al-C6; 65,007 (27.68%) obtained D7-E8 whilst 89,477 (38.10%) had F9; Integrated Science: 113,933 (48.48%) obtained Al-C6; 75,938 (32.32%) obtained D7-E8 whilst 42,519 (18.09%) had F9; Social Studies: 129,058 (54.93%) obtained Al-C6; 53,824 (22.91 %) obtained D7-E8 whilst 49,198 (20.94%) had F9. The general performance for 2016 is a significant improvement over that of 2015. Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Austin Brakopowers | Email: [email protected] The Minister for Employment and Labour Relations, Haruna Iddrisu, has stated that government cannot pay the interim premium being demanded by the Civil and Local Government Staff Association, (CLOGSAG). According to him, provision was not made for such payments in the 2016 budget. Members of CLOGSAG have been on strike for the past two weeks, over the non-payment of their market premiums. At a press briefing in Accra today [Tuesday], Mr. Iddrisu demanded that members of CLOGSAG must be at post as negotiations with government continues. It is not a fair labour practice to be on strike whiles you are negotiating; neither is it fair to be threatened with whether there will be salaries paid or not. Therefore to allow for credibility and respect for the process, we all must come back to the table with clean hands. You must withdraw your strike as you negotiate with government. He added that government may disappoint you because the 2016 budget did not contemplate the payment of those related compensation allowances, therefore we should be working into the future and there is room for us to engage further. In January 2017, government will launch a new market premium policy. Forfeit your August salary if The Employment and Labour Relations Ministry had earlier threatened to withhold the August salaries of CLOGSAG members if the strike continued. The sector Minister, Haruna Iddrisu, said, while we recognize the right to make public manifestation and pronouncements of their unhappiness, we are unable to accommodate further the strike. And in particular they must compensate for an illegal strike for not working for the period of August. By: Philip Nii Lartey/citifmonline.com/Ghana The Ghana Mine Workers Union (GMWU) has revealed there has been a 75 percent drop in the year-to-date rate of layoffs in the mining sector. According to the Union, just about 156 mining workers lost their jobs in the first half of this year compared to 648 in the same period last year. The General Secretary of the GMWU, Prince William Ankrah made the revelation in his address at the Unions National Executive Council meeting in Kumasi. According to him, the drastic decline in the rate of redundancy between and January and June this year is largely attributed to the year-to-date positive trend in the price of gold on the international market. The global mining industry has witnessed three continuous years of slump arising mainly from plummeting commodity prices particularly gold, thus, slowing the influx of FDI and generally rendering the sector unattractive to investors," Mr William Ankrah said. "Data from kitco.com, for instance, indicates that gold began 2013 with an average selling price of $1,670.95/oz in January but by December same year, the price of the precious metal had dipped to $1,225.40/oz indicating a 26.66 percent loss in price, he added. He noted that, "unfortunately, this price trend has continued through 2014 and 2015 to the first quarter of this year. Interestingly, the average price of gold which was $1,097.37/oz in January this year started showing signs of the upward surge; moving to $1,259.40/oz in May and to $1,340.95/oz in July 2016. This represents a 22.19 percent increase in the price of gold since January this year. Mr Ankrah further described the development as a confirmation of the linkage among job sustainability, industry sustainability, and commodity prices. Even more, refreshing is the latest bullish prediction that gold price may likely hit $1500 by the close of this year. It is therefore my hope and prayer that these emerging trends in the commodity price outlook will continue and get even better going forward, so that a lot more jobs can be created for our teeming young men and women, boost the prospects of the Union and also contribute to strengthening the ailing economy of our dear nation Ghana, he observed. The impact of the Energy Crises on the Mining Industry The decline in the rate of layoffs in the sector sharply contrasts with developments in the past three years primarily due to the high cost and lack of reliable power for especially mining companies. According to the Ghana Chamber of Mines report of 2015, the companies spent a colossal $314 million on energy alone and this had a toll on their operations, Mr William Ankrah said. "Indeed, over 10000 direct jobs have been lost to redundancies in the past three years because of reasons including the high cost and lack of reliable power for businesses, particularly in the mining industry. Our quest for job creation as a nation has often been fraught with very weak inter-sectorial linkages, the General Secretary said. Much as we welcome the initiative by individual companies building their own sources of power, government must in the long term fashion out pragmatic solutions to the perennial energy situation in the country," he said. "More particularly for the industry if the sector is to continue attracting the much needed foreign direct investment the country badly requires at this time. Already, investor confidence in the industry appears to be waning whereas neighbouring countries like Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali and Guinea look more of a preferred destination for mining FDI Unitary negotiations by the Ghana Chamber of Mines The GMWU wants the Ghana Chamber of Mines to do a thorough introspection before implementing plans to review the approach adopted in salary negotiations for its members. It described the call for a return to unitary or centralized bargaining as a surprise saying more advanced economies like France, UK, Germany, among others, where these concepts emanated from, have abandoned it for decentralized bargaining for over decades. The Union, therefore, wants the chamber to do a thorough introspection of what really went wrong in the local dispensation, why it was short-lived, what the shortcomings were and how to appropriately overcome these shortcomings if there were any. Change is a process and not an event. It requires honest stakeholder engagements underpinned by trust and certainly not pseudonym which in fact fiercely characterized the industry prior to decentralized bargaining. Whiles, we know and are convinced that the merits of decentralized bargaining far outweigh the demerits and would have preferred that the status quo remained, we are also not averse to a progressive conversation around the matter. It is, however, important to caution that our over 10,000 members across the industry are expectant of their annual salary adjustments for 2016 and any attempt to delay or frustrate our right to collective bargaining through this agenda shall not be tolerated, Mr. Ankrah noted. Illegal Small Scale Mining The union lauded government for amending the Minerals and Mining Act to deal with the menace but want more to be done in the area of enforcement for the desired results. We reluctantly, however, wish to commend the government for taking the bold decision to amend the law with the view to dealing substantially with this menace. Unfortunately, we believe that enforcement of the law still remains a major challenge and needs to be looked at closely, and this should be done devoid of politicization and cronyism. Considering the dangers posed by this menace and the threat to the safety and security of our members, we as a union may be compelled at any stage to withdraw labour services to the industry if this situation persists, he said. Infrastructural Deficit in Mining Communities The Union also expressed concern about the infrastructural deficit and worsening conditions in the communities in which mining companies operate and want government to learn from the American, Australian and the South African examples in which mining revenues have been used to develop and turn around the economy. The Union believes the issue could be significantly addressed if government implements the Mineral Development Fund Bill before the close of this year. We are happy to note that Parliament, has passed the Mineral Development Fund Bill into law under which the Mining Development Fund will be set up with funds from royalty payments targeted at the socio-economic development of the mining communities," the General Secretary said. "It is our sincerest hope that, the rules and regulations, as well as the functioning structures of the Fund, will immediately be set up with representation from all the critical stakeholders including the Union, to enable as a nation deliver the much-anticipated solutions and outcomes to the quagmire of deprivation that has characterized our mining communities for decades Mr William Ankrah concluded. Story by Ghana| Myjoyonline.com | Emmanuel Agyei |Joy Business President John Mahama's referral of the Free Montie Petition to the Council of State is a needless and unnecessary sham, the Progressive People's Party (PPP). The whole thing has been choreographed to appear that somehow, the President wanted to do something and he wants to formalize it and make it appear that some due process was activated, the PPP's Policy Analyst, Kofi Siaw Asamoah asserted. The petitions imploring the president to actuate his prerogative of mercy under Article 72 of the 1992 Constitution were from lawyers of the jailed trio and a Civil Society Group, Research & Advocacy Platform were forwarded to the Council of State , through Chief of Staff Julius Debrah for advice. But Mr. Asamoah rubbished the latest developments as much ado about nothing adding that the President of the Republic doesn't need the advice of the Council of State. When somebody advises you and the council does so in this particular instance, the President can reject the advice. The President knows what is good for this country is not to pursue the line of the presidential pardon to the Montie 3. We think the whole thing is needless, it is unnecessary but if the council needs to act on it, they should advise the President against the presidential pardon, Mr. Asamoah stated. The PPP's petition to keep Montie 3 in jail The PPP started a petition to keep the Montie three in jail as counter point to the free Montie three movement demanding a presidential pardon for the three pro-government communicators. The PPP believe it will be wrong for the President to respond positively to the free Montie three petitions and essentially want their petition to reinforce the Supreme Court's decision to jail them. The founder and flagbearer of the Progressive Peoples Party (PPP), Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, himself endorsed the petition urging President John Mahama to respect the judgement of the Supreme Court against the Montie Three. The three, Godwin Ako Gunn, Alistair Nelson and Maase Salifu were jailed four-months for criminal contempt of the Supreme Court after threatening the lives of Justices. By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana A GNA Reporter Accra, Aug. 9 GNA - The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) has inaugurated a Hepatitis Project at the 37 Military Hospital, which seeks to create awareness, and provide medical attention for military personnel. The project is built upon the National Hepatitis Policy, established by the Ministry of Health in 2015 to provide responses to hepatitis challenges in the country. A statement signed by Major A. G Pabi, Hospital Public Relations Officer and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra, on Monday said that the Hepatitis Project is a major step towards providing 'education on viral hepatitis transmission, presentation, and treatment'. The project covers vaccination, which is a prevention strategy to protect people against Hepatitis B. The project includes screening of personnel in uniform and non-uniform and dependants to determine the viral hepatitis burden within the GAF as well as initiate treatment for persons diagnosed as positive. It also includes vaccination activities for persons who are Hepatitis B negative and non-immune and counselling on viral hepatitis transmission prevention for persons who are Hepatitis C virus negative. The statement said approximately four million of Ghana's 28 million people have the disease, a national rate greater than 8 per cent, which is more than four times the national prevalence of HIV. Viral hepatitis (Hepatitis B and C) is a potentially life threatening liver infection and chronic disease, which leads to the development of liver cancer and liver cirrhosis, which results in early death. The project would lead to the initiation of disease awareness programmes, screening, training healthcare providers on diagnostic protocols, improving access to laboratory diagnostics in the military, access to innovative treatments and development of military prevalence data. GNA 09.08.2016 LISTEN By Florence Afriyie Mensah/Josephine Nyarkoh, GNA Kumasi, Aug 09, GNA - Mr. John Alexander Ackon, the Ashanti Regional Minister, has called for teachers to find innovative ways of making the teaching of mathematics more interesting to students. They should simplify things to ensure that the subject became easily understandable to the school children. Mr. Ackon, who was addressing the 40th national conference of the Mathematical Association of Ghana, said the continued poor performance of students in the subject, gave cause for concern. He made reference to the 2015 West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) where 37 per cent of the candidates presented failed in mathematics, scoring grade 'F'. The trend, the Minister said, was not healthy adding that, it must be reserved. 'Eliminating the phobia and improving performance in mathematics in mathematics in schools: the role of stakeholders' was the theme chosen for the meeting. Mr. Ackon, said he had no doubt that every child was capable of learning mathematics, given the right environment, encouragement and good teaching methods. He urged the Association to develop new methods and approaches that would help to demystify the study of the subject to make it attractive to students. He saluted the teachers for their efforts towards helping the nation to develop its human resource through mathematical research. Professor Samuel Kwasi Asiedu Addo, the President of the Association, advised his colleagues to have strong command of the subject they were teaching. He appealed to the government to support them to undertake regular training programmes to upgrade the professional competence of the members for efficient classroom performance. GNA 09.08.2016 LISTEN By Edna A. Quansah, GNA Accra, Aug. 9, GNA - Apostle J.F.K Mensah, former Chairman of the Ghana Executive Council for the Great Commission Church International has urged Ghanaians to develop a positive character and be responsible citizens to move the nation forward. Mr Mensah said 'we are searching for character in all aspects of our nation building. We all have a role to play in this country and we need men of character to lead the country''. The Apostle made the statement at the Mfantsipim Old Boys Association (MOBA) thanksgiving ceremony held at the Calvary Methodist Church in Accra to mark the school's 140th anniversary celebration. The event was to offer thanksgiving to God for the success stories of the school in chalking 140 years in Secondary Education in the country. Apostle Mensah, who is a member of MOBA 72, tasked members to build the cause of the association and also set standards for others to emulate to benefit the country. Over 400 Old Boys, including the Vice President of Ghana Paa Kwesi Amissah Arthur, former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, lawyer Phillip Addison of the New Patriotic Party and aspiring Parliamentary candidate for Klottey Korley and other notable personalities. Also in attendance were past students of Addisadel College, Wesley Girls Senior High, Holy Child, Aggrey Memorial and Ghana National College. Vice President Amissah Arthur said 'he was proud to be a part of Mfantsipim and proud of the many people who made a difference in his life. 'I hope the successful stories here will be an example for the younger generation to emulate'' Amissah Arthur thanked the members for their commitment and encouraged the youth to aspire for greater heights in life and make the oldest school in the country proud. The Ebusuapayin of MOBA, Capt. Paul Forjoe employed all past students of their alma mater to invest in the development of the school since government alone cannot do it. 'For us to make a difference in education in Ghana, all old boys and girls, which ever school you attended, should help your schools because government has a limit. Government does not pick and choose which school it wants to make better. He gives the same to everybody. 'So if you want your school to be a better school, you the old students should give back to your schools. We want to set the example so that other schools will follow because at the end of the day, if we make the schools better it is good for Ghana and our education''. He stated. The MOBA will organise activities to mark the 140th anniversary. GNA 09.08.2016 LISTEN Accra, Aug. 9, GNA - Platinum Montessori School located at Anyaa in the Ga Central Municipality in Accra, has held its Fifth Graduation, Speech and Prize Giving Day with a call on parents to be extra responsible for their children. Mr Stephen Karson, an educationist speaking at the event, advised parents to frequently check on the activities their children engage in, as well as guide them on decision-making to enable them become responsible citizens of Ghana. 'The best way to raise and build leadership skills in our children is to give them quality and effective education. We must also try and provide them with the materials that will help them to learn faster to be able to face future challenges,' he said. He said it is important that parents make the education of their children a priority; since they are the future leaders of the nation. He advised them to correct their children when they go wrong, encourage them to build on their talents and also praise them when they become successful in an activity. Mr Tony Goodman, the Public Relations Officer of the Ministry of Health, who was the guest speaker, mentioned that 'the area of Anyaa has always been recorded to be one of the places disposed to cholera in the Greater Accra Region.' 'I will, therefore, plead with parents to be very careful with this by making sure you and your children wash your hands very well with soap under running water before eating, and also eat warm food,' he added. Mr Goodman also educated mothers on the need to seek early medical attention during pregnancy. 'This is because most maternal mortality cases recorded in Ghana are as a result of many mothers not attending their antenatal checkup,' he said. Madam Beatrice Adoh, Headmistress and Proprietress of Platinum Montessori School, in her welcome address expressed pleasure in supporting the community through education for development. She revealed that the school participated in the 2015 Western Union MoneyGram Back to School Essay Writing competition and became successful. 'Out of the 293 students who participated in the national competition, I am glad to inform you that we won the third position and this tells us we are already prepared for the first position in the next completion and other national and even international competitions in future,' she said. She said the school, since its establishment in 2010 had trained more than 350 children who continue to excel in their activities where ever they found themselves. The occasion was witnessed eminent personalities such as the Chief of Ablekuma Nii Larbi Mensah IV and other traditional rulers in the area. The pupils put up various performances at the ceremony such as poetry recitals, fashion shows, cultural display, choreography and a cadet parade. More than 50 students from pre-school to the junior high school received prizes for excellent performances in their academics. GNA 09.08.2016 LISTEN Accra, Aug. 9, GNA - President John Dramani Mahama on Tuesday admonished ministers of state to eschew arrogance and other negative tendencies that could undermine the progress of the country. "You must always remember that your duty is to render service to the people diligently irrespective of their political affiliation, ethnicity and geographical location...for arrogance won't take you anywhere." President Mahama gave the admonishment when he swore-in Mr Emmanuel Habuka Bombande and Joseph Tetteh Angmor as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration and Deputy Eastern Regional Minister respectively. The two deputy ministers, who were nominated by President Mahama, vetted by Parliament and approved on July 11 this year, took the Oaths of Office, Secrecy and Allegiance. President Mahama advised them to exhibit a high level of circumspection by listening to the plight of the people with tolerance and objectivity to enable them to contribute their quota to nation-building. President Mahama urged them to lead modest lives by taking counsel from more experienced politicians and the people they were serving. Addressing the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, President Mahama appealed to him to use his experience and expertise in peace-building to help the ministry in its engagements with other neighbouring countries that were experiencing some crisis. He advised Mr Angmor, the Deputy Eastern Regional Minister, to leverage his experience as District Chief Executive to the benefit of people in the region and beyond by carrying out activities that would deepen grassroot democracy. He cautioned the duo that pressure would be placed on them as their substantive ministers are parliamentary candidates who would be campaigning for their seats in the December polls. "The two of you will be compelled to carry more responsibilities because your two ministers will be campaigning for parliamentary seats in the forthcoming general election in December this year," he said. Mr Bombande, on behalf of his colleague, commended President Mahama for giving them the opportunity to serve Ghana in their capacity as deputy ministers of state. "We promise to serve the people with dedication, integrity and commitment in appreciation of the honour done us." Mr Bombande said humility and integrity would also be their guiding principles to serve Ghanaians diligently. GNA Accra, Aug. 9, GNA - Political parties and Ghanaians in general have been urged to avoid provocative utterances during the electioneering in order to ensure that peace prevailed before, during and after the 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections. Apostle Dr Stephen Kwame Amoani, the Chairman of the Christ Apostolic Church International (CACI), said the success or failure of the elections depended on all Ghanaians. 'The clergy, judiciary, professional bodies, religious bodies, civil society, the various interest groups and the electorate in general all have their respective roles to play to make the nation a winner,' he said. Apostle Amoani was addressing the closing ceremony of the 2016 International Prophetic Conference (Tarry Camp) of the CACI on the theme: 'The Overcoming Power of the Last Days'. The conference is one of the major prayer festivals on the church's calendar aimed at thanking God for His faithfulness, providence and protection over the church and the nation as a whole. More than fifteen thousand worshipers from the Southern sector of the country attended the conference which was also an occasion to seek the face of God for His favour for the individual members, the church, and the nation in the ensuing years. "I appeal to all and sundry to avoid baseless suspicion and prejudice and do away with electoral trivialities and pettiness," Apostle Amoani said, adding that people of integrity and proven abilities and capabilities should be voted for. Dr Baffour Agyei Bawuah, a former Ambassador to Japan, urged all stakeholders in the political process to refrain from such unfortunate acts that would mar the success of the elections. Delivering a message on behalf of the political parties which were invited by the church to deliver peace messages, he urged them to pray for peace and success for Ghana's upcoming general election. Dr Bawuah appealed to Ghanaians to continue to work towards sustaining the prevailing peace as anything contrary to that would plunge the nation into chaos which would affect the current and future generations. GNA Accra, Aug. 9, GNA - Indigenous construction firm, Berock Ventures has been commended for efficient and timely execution of its projects. The company, which has been in existence for close to 25 years, has won both national and international competitive biddings to undertake major building, water and civil engineering projects in Ghana. Key among its projects is the seven-storey Ghana Civil Aviation Authority Training Academy, which was recently inaugurated by President John Mahama. Cutting the tape to inaugurate training academy, President Mahama who had previously inaugurated projects constructed by Berock, commended the firm for its professionalism. It is one of the best in the country and urged management to continue to excel. Berock Ventures is currently constructing the Bolgatanga Regional Hospital. The company also constructed the 12-storey Shippers Council building, the first ever ICT Park, the National Blood Bank and several projects on public university campuses. It has won a number of awards, locally and internationally as a result of its project delivery including the Construction Company of the Year 2015 and a Life Time Achievement award in the Construction Industry for its Executive Chairman Rockon Dogbegah. Mr Dogbegah who has been promoting professionalism and excellence not only within Berock but at the national and international stage, in an interview urged government to prioritise the need to have a Construction Industry Development Authority, to develop the local capacity and the industry in general. The Berock Executive Chairman who has been crusading on this, believes it is also a panacea to solving the country's security and unemployment issues. On his part, the Chief Executive of Berock, Courage Dogbegah expressed gratitude for the commendation and endorsement by President Mahama, and said such recognitions motivate the company to aspire to do more. He encouraged the government and private sector organisations to be confident in the capabilities of indigenous firms and give them the opportunity to undertake major projects. GNA By George-Ramsey Benamba, GNA Accra, Aug. 9, GNA - The Wenzhou University in China has agreed to establish a campus in the Central Region of Ghana, Professor Li Xiaokun, President of the University, has said. A press statement copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra said the decision was the outcome of the previous meeting that the President of the University had with Mr Horace Nii Ayi Ankrah, Ghana's Deputy Ambassador to China, a couple of weeks ago. Prof. Li, who was on a reciprocal visit to Mr Ankrah in Beijing, said his request for the establishment of Chinese university campuses in Ghana had been granted in line with their expansion programmes to other countries. A couple of weeks ago, Mr Ankrah visited the Wenzhou University and the Study in China Admission Systems (SICAS) where negotiations were made for top Chinese universities to open campuses in Ghana. They also negotiated for the admission of 1,000 Ghanaians annually in top Chinese universities out of which 200 of the students would receive full scholarships to undertake courses in Pharmacy, Medicine and Civil Enginering. The follow-up visit by the President of Wenzhou University, would therefore, pave way for preparatory works to be carried out before the establishment. Prof. Li said the university had lined up investors to undertake those projects and would soon be talking to Ghana's Ministry of Education through the Ghanaian Embassy in Beijing. He said in line with that, authorities of Wenzhou University would be visiting Ghana in November this year. Mr Ankrah, on his part, commended Prof. Li and the university authorities for their prompt response to their request and gave the assurance that the embassy would do everything possible to enhance its development. "It is our mandate here at the embassy to pursue such laudable investments that will fall within the policies of the current political administration," he said. He said the partnership being forged by the two countries were in line with government's resolve to liaise with both local and foreign universities to establish new campuses across the country. GNA 09.08.2016 LISTEN Accra, Aug. 9, GNA - The Convention People's Party has stated its readiness to resolve the impasse in the party and forge ahead in unity to vigorously campaign to win the December 7 polls. Professor Edmund Nminyem Delle, CPP National Chairman and Leader, has called for a truce within the party to allow the Disciplinary Committee to work to settle the case involving the interdicted General Secretary and the National Youth Organiser. It would be recalled that the party's Central Committee on Thursday June 30, interdicted Mr Nii Amarh Akomfrah, General Secretary and Ernest Kofi Yeboah, National Youth Organiser, following conducts the party described as gross indiscipline, which brought the name of the party in disrepute. The Chairman in an interview said he has nothing against the two interdicted officers, and assured the party faithful and Ghanaians of the readiness and commitment of the leadership to resolve the impasse in time. He therefore called for cool heads to prevail and 'allow peace to prevail in the party', even as the Disciplinary Committee works to resolve the matter. Describing the CPP as a party that believes in democratic centralism, the Chairman noted that it was the reason why the Central Committee's (the highest administration body of the party) majority decision was supported by the party. The CPP Chairman said 'the CPP believes in comradeship and forbearance', urging aggrieved members of the party to follow appropriate channels to resolve problems indoors and stop commenting on the matter in the media. Prof Delle said the party is ready to campaign on issues and ideas, calling on all to ensure that the electioneering is devoid of insults, rancour and character assassination. He noted the party's commitment to fight corruption at all levels, and stated that the action of the Central Committee should not be misconstrued as the party being against those fighting the menace. 'It should not be understood that we are against anybody who talks against corruption, we are only saying that it was a procedure we wanted to be followed,' he observed, adding that those who do not know the party's position on corruption should stop deceiving the public. Prof Delle called on any member of the party who is not satisfied or aggrieved in the party to approach him and register their complains with him so that they would find appropriate channels to address them. Although the party believes in an issue based campaign, Prof Delle intimated that 'we do not want anybody to provoke mayhem in the party or in the country'. GNA Accra, Aug. 9, GNA - Three persons were on Tuesday remanded by an Accra Circuit Court on the charges of conspiracy to commit crime and robbery. James Tetteh, unemployed, Emmanuel Kelly, Electrician, and Joseph Kpakpo Allotey, Auto Mechanic were said to have conspired and robbed one Emelia Addae Genfi and Paa Gyimah Genfi of $ 19,950; GHa 8,000.00; a5,000; 900; three mobile phones, one Ipad and a box containing jewelries together with other items. They pleaded not guilty to the charges but were remanded by the court presided over by Mr Aboagye Tandoh to reappear on August 28, for trial. Prosecuting Police Chief Inspector Kwabena Adu told the court that the complainant Emelia and Paa Gyimah are a couple and reside at East Legon, while James, Emmanuel, Joseph and others now at large all reside at Madina. He said on March 30, at about 01:50 hours, while the complainants were asleep, the accused persons climbed the fence wall of their house and entered their yard. The prosecution said the accused persons used an implement to force open the burglar proof of one of the window and entered the building. They climbed upstairs and used a big stone to hit the complainants' bedroom door. He told the court that at gun point, they ordered the complainants to lie down, and they succeeded in robbing them of the above listed items. Police Chief Inspector Adu said at about 03:00 hours, a witness in the case through a tracking device which was installed on Emelia's phone assisted the police to track the accused persons. James and Emmanuel were arrested, while Joseph and the other accomplices managed to escape. He said a search conducted in the room of Joseph revealed an amount of $ 19,950; GHa 410.00; 900; a5,000, three mobile phones, one Ipad and a box containing jewelries. He said on June 25, Joseph who went into hiding was arrested by the Madina police. GNA The flagbearer of the Progressive People's Party has said a wasted vote is the one for president John Mahama, not the one for him. Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom said the electorate must reasonably expect an improvement in their standards of living after every election but when their situation gets worse, like they have going through now, then they have wasted their vote. He told supporters of the PPP in Bortianor Ngleshi Amanfrom in the Ga South Constituency in the Greater Accra Region where he has been campaigning that a vote for Mahama in the 2016 election will be another wasted vote. "You queue to vote and after you vote you can't afford to take your children to school. That is a wasted vote. "You vote for someone so that they can help prevent diseases. But after you vote for the person and you continue to have malaria, you continue to have cholera, meningitis that is a wasted vote," Dr Nduom stated. The PPP flagbearer has been described by some political pundits as the best president Ghana will never have because of the duopoly of Ghana's political system. Dr Nduom led the CPP in the 2008 elections, broke away and formed the PPP and contested the 2012 elections. In all cases he lost to the late John Mills and President John Mahama respectively both of whom were candidates for the National Democratic Congress. The largest opposition flagbearer Nana Akufo-Addo came close in both elections, with Nduom placing a distant third position. There is the perception by some voters that a vote for any other candidate, other the ones for the NDC or NPP is a wasted vote because no third party is strong enough to win an election and form a government. But Dr Nduom has described that as a fallacy. If there is any vote to be wasted, it is the one that will go to John Mahama, he pointed out. "When you vote for somebody with the hope to have continuous power and you vote only to have dumsor dumsor that is a wasted vote. "Go and tell them especially all those who voted for John Dramani Mahama that they have wasted their vote and the vote they have wasted that is the votes that have now sent us to IMF because John Mahama said he cannot manage the economy," Dr Nduom stated. Story by Ghana|Myjoyonline.com|Nathan Gadugah 09.08.2016 LISTEN The Deputy Interior Minister has appealed to Ghanaians to have confidence in the judgment of President John Mahama in the case involving the convicted radio host and two analysts of an Accra-based Montie FM. James Agalga says the President will only decide to grant pardon to the three men, famously known as Montie three after he has considered all the circumstances surrounding their sentencing. If the President thinks that it is in the best interest of Ghanaians that he should exercise that power again he will exercise it, but I can assure you before the President take a step, he is going to do so within the confines of the law, he told some state officials in the Upper West Regional capital of Wa during the Government for the People forum. President Mahama has come under intense pressure by supporters of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) after three of its communication team members were incarcerated for contempt charges. Salifu Maase popularly known as Mugabe, host of Montie FMs Pampaso programme and two panelists Alistair Tairo Nelson and Godwin Ako Gunn were convicted for scandalizing the court on the eve the nation was marking the 34th Anniversary of the day three High Court judges were murdered. The two panelists encouraged by Mr Maase threatened to murder justices of the Supreme Court (SC) if their ruling in an electoral roll case does not favour the Electoral Commission (EC). They were summoned for contempt charges and later handed a four month jail term with a penalty of GHS10,000 each. They are currently in Nsawam Prisons serving their custodial sentences. This led to a drive by a pro-NDC group called Research Advocacy Platform (RAP) to elicit more signatures for a petition seeking to compel the President to activate his Prerogative of Mercy powers captured in Article 72 of the 1992 Constitution. The Article says in section (a) that the President can grant to a person convicted of an offence a pardon either free or subject to lawful conditions. Section (b) of the same Article says the President can grant to a person a respite, either indefinite or for a specified period, from the execution of punishment imposed on him for an offence. Several government appointees including Ministers appended their signatures to the petition which has been handed over to the President and subsequently forwarded to the Council of State. Sections of Ghanaians have however lambasted the Ministers for signing the petition, accusing them of putting their individual interest ahead of the nation. They cautioned the President to desist from bowing to the pressure to grant reprieve to the three men who are serving their custodial sentence for defiling the court. But Mr Agalga has called on Ghanaians not to descend on individuals who signed the Montie three petition because they only exercised their right to free expression as guaranteed by the Constitution. He cautioned Ghanaians to be measured in the kind of commentary they make against those who signed the petition. He believes the signing of the petition does not represent finality on the matter, saying the fact that a petition has been signed and directed at the President does not mean he is going to do so. Let us allow the President the space to exercise what he thinks is right in the circumstances. Let us all trust in the judgment of the President. He exercised the same power in relation to Adamu Sakande, he said. According to him, the President will exercise his powers as captured in Article 72 of the Constitution If [he] thinks that it is in the best interest of Ghanaians. This, he says would be done within the confines of the law because he has never gone out of the way to exercise that power and this is not the time to do so. Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Austin Brakopowers | Email: [email protected] business Startup Village to be India's first tech-incubator to be listed Startup Village in Kochi is now 3 years old. In the last 3 years, it has hand-held nearly 70 physical startups, and 500 virtual startups. Now, it's time for phase-2 of its growth plan. That has meant breaking physical barriers. Startup village has done this by floating sv.co, a digital incubator for college students. you are here: < Thirteen San Martin residentsincluding six childrenare looking for a place to live after a fire ravaged several mobile homes, vehicles and greenhouses Sunday afternoon, according to authorities. < The local chapter of the American Red Cross is already working with the displaced residents to provide for their basic living necessities in the aftermath of the blaze, and direct them to resources to help them find new homes. < CalFire communications received a call reporting a vegetation fire on the 1400 block of Murphy Avenue about 4:30 p.m. Aug. 7. By the time crews arrived, the fire had already spread to numerous structures and vehicles on the property, according to CalFire Fire Prevention Specialist Pam Temmermand. < When we got there, it was changed to a structure fire, and about four acres of grass (was on fire), Temmermand said. < At least three mobile homes were destroyed by the blaze, as were several greenhouses that surrounded the homes, Temmermand said. Numerous cars were destroyed or damaged. < Motorists and residents throughout South County reported seeing the plume of black smoke rising from the scene of the fire throughout the early evening Sunday. < While crews were fighting the fire, they learned a gasoline tank was venting on the property and directed PG&E to shut it down before causing even more damage. < Crews from CalFire, South Santa Clara County Fire District, Morgan Hill Fire, San Jose Fire and Gilroy Fire responded. Hand crews and a helicopter helped control and extinguish the flames, Temmermand said. < Firefighters and equipment were able to extinguish the fire before dark Sunday, but remained on the scene until past midnight for mopping up, Temmermand added. < Crews were still out there this morning, going through the area and keeping an eye on things, she said Monday. < No injuries or deaths were reported. The cause of the fire is under investigation. < Shortly after the initial firefighters arrived on the scene at Murphy Avenue, a Disaster Action Team from the Silicon Valley chapter of the American Red Cross showed up to help those suddenly left homeless. The disaster assistance agency received a call from fire agencies alerting them to the multi-family fire, said Sharon Jones of the Northern California Coastal Region of the American Red Cross said. < A total of five familiesconsisting of seven adults and six childrenwho occupied two of the residential units destroyed by the Aug. 7 fire were able to gain assistance, which included funds for short-term housing, food and clothing needs, Jones explained. The families also received comfort kits containing basic hygiene products as well as blankets. < They are invited to sit down with client caseworkers, and go over what resources we have to help them find a place (to live or stay), Jones said. She added that Red Cross can also direct the clients to other organizations it partners with, as well as the 211 telephone resource center operated by United Way. Locals want to help < While the Red Cross can only accept monetary donations (as opposed to in-kind contributions such as clothing or food), some locals have already started an effort to gather items the five displaced families might need. < Cecelia Ponzini, director of nonprofit Cecelias Closet and Food Pantry said if she can identify and get in touch with the families, she will open her donation and distribution center at 35 Peebles Ave. for them, any time they are available. At Cecelias Closet, those affected by the fire can pick up donated clothing and food at no cost. < The families or anybody who has their contact information can contact Ponzini at (408) 670-0266. < I have what they need; I just need to let them know, Ponzini said. < Of particular need for the children are clothing and school supplies, according to Dan Keith of Roccas Market in San Martin. Keith and his neighbors have been trying to get in touch with the families affected by the fire to let them know that they can pick up donated items at Roccas store, located at 13335 Monterey Road. Anyone who wants to donate items can drop them off at the store. < They can also come by and get a donation of food here, Keith added. < Monetary donations to the Red Cross can be made online at redcross.org/donate/, or by calling 1-800-RED CROSS or texting REDCROSS to 90999. We always let them know, (the assistance) is a gift from people who make donations, Jones said. To share with friends and brethren The Gospel of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (the Everlasting Gospel), and to prepare a people to stand when He returns to redeem His remnant. Also, to share relevant information of current events, and to show how they relate to prophecy; By means of articles, editorials, opinions, scripture readings, and poetry. Disclaimer Endrtimes does not necessarily endorse or agree with every opinion expressed in every article/video posted on this site. The information provided here is done so for personal edification; It's up to the reader to separate truth from error, and to examine everything (like the Bereans) from a Biblical perspective. Let the Holy Scriptures be you guide! - - - FAIR USE NOTICE: These pages/videos may contain copyrighted () material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available to advance understanding of ecological, POLITICAL, HUMAN RIGHTS, economic, DEMOCRACY, scientific, MORAL, ETHICAL, and SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUES, etc. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior general interest in receiving similar information for research and educational purposes. The mans death came less than an hour after reports of a roadside bomb that targeted a security vehicle injuring six Unidentified gunmen shot a civilian dead in North Sinai late on Monday, Egypt's official news agency MENA reported, where the military is battling an Islamist insurgency. The 45-year-old man was killed in the town of Sheikh Zuweid, the scene of many ambushes and shooting s of security forces over the past few years. MENA had reported less than an hour earlier that a civilian and five security personnel were wounded when a roadside bomb targeting a passing security vehicle in the provincial capital of Al-Arish went off. It said the bomb was planted by unknown assailants. Extremists have been waging an insurgency in North Sinai that has mainly targeted policeman and soldiers in bombings and shootings. The military have spearheaded an extensive campaign to crush militants in the region that borders Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip, killing hundreds of extremists. Earlier this week, four civilians were killed also in Al-Arish after an improvised bomb planted in a garbage bag detonated near a police station. The army said it had killed 88 extremists in the third phase of its 'Right of the Martyr' campaign in May, and that another 22 were killed in a multi-day operation early in June. In early August, the army said that it had killed the leader of Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, Abu Doaa Al-Ansari, and a number of his associates in air strikes against the group's strongholds south and south-west of Al-Arish in North Sinai. Search Keywords: Short link: Intended to curb the undue influence of the mega-rich on Vancouver housing prices, the B.C. governments new 15 per cent foreign buyers tax has already claimed its first unexpected casualties just a week after taking effect.Among these unfortunate individuals is Hamed Ahmadi, who moved to from Iran to Canada around 4 years ago and subsequently worked with BC Hydro upon acquiring a PhD from UBC.Earlier this year, Ahmadi entered into a contract to procure a $360,000 condo in Coquitlam with a 10 per cent down payment, half of which needed to be paid for ASAP.I paid $18,000 in trust and the closing date for the deal was set to be August 5 because the owner had a tenant in there, Ahmadi told CBC News.I signed the contract at the time with the assumption of the laws at that time, he added.With the imposition of the new tax, however, Ahmadi will now have to pay an additional $54,000 to push through with the purchase.[Its not an amount of] money that people would just carry with them, he lamented, as even though the tax does not apply to permanent residents, he is still awaiting the processing of his PR status.It will probably take a few more months before it's approved and I actually receive my permanent residence card.The Iranian expatriate said that while he understands the need for a tax on foreign buyers who are simply using the inflamed growth in Canadas top housing markets as an opportunity to get even richer, imposing the levy in his case would be unfair as the Coquitlam home is meant to be his primary residence.Backing out of the deal isnt an option, Ahmadi added, as he would lose his deposit and face a lawsuit should he cancel.That $18.000, I believe, is not even comparable to what I'd be sued for, he stated. Any way I go, I lose. I don't know what to do at this point.What can I do? Who is out there for me to talk to, to explain that this should not be applied to me? Its the hottest and most hotly debated topic concerning Canadian real estate, and now its time for brokers to have their sayMany have been critical of the new tax, which took effect August 2, and requires all foreign buyers in Vancouver to front an additional 15% sales tax.Others, however, have argued in favour of the tax, believing its an effective method to cool that red hot market.And now we want to know what the broker industry at large feels about it.Real estate agents recently took part in a similar poll on our sister publication, Real Estate Professional.All told, more than 300 industry players took part.The slight majority 47% -- said its a good thing. The prevailing sentiment among those is that foreigners are inflating Vancouvers real estate market, and that this barrier will likely help cool the market, and make it easier for citizens many of whom have been priced out -- to get into the housing market.However, 44% of respondents said its a bad thing.But dont let those results sway your opinion. Have your say today Arguments against the tax range from the view that it unfairly targets those without a Canadian address or citizenship who want to call Canada home.Others argue the tax unfairly penalizes foreign buyers who purchased prior and close after -- the implementation date; even if those homes were pre-bought years ago. Related Suicide bomber kills at least 70 at Pakistan hospital Egypt condemns "in the strongest terms" a hospital attack that killed 70 people in Pakistan on Monday, the foreign ministry said in a statement. Egypt stressed it stands by the Pakistani government and people in the face of "vicious terrorism," the statement added. A suicide bomber struck a crowd of 200 people gathered at a civilian hospital in the Balochistan provincial capital Quetta after the fatal shooting of a senior local lawyer earlier in the day, killing 70 and wounding more than 100. The attack was claimed by the Pakistani Taliban-linked Jamaat-UL-Ahrar. Search Keywords: Short link: Young buyers push sentiment index to record high The sentiment of US homebuyers continues to edge higher with the improving economy but there is a cautious note. The latest Fannie Mae Home Purchase Sentiment Index has increased to a new high of 86.5 in July, up 3.3. points from June. However, chief economist Doug Duncan commented: enthusiasm should be tempered because the increase only returns the index to a very gradual upward trend, said Doug Duncan, senior vice president and chief economist at Fannie Mae. One interesting potential bright note for housing in the July survey is that younger households may finally be shifting toward buying rather than renting in greater numbers. Duncan noted that it is too soon to say whether that shift among younger buyers is a trend but said that there is some further evidence coming through which is encouraging in this respect. The main components of the index increased including: now is a good time to buy (up 1 point to 33 per cent); now is a good time to sell (up 2 points to 20 per cent); mortgage rates will be lower over the next 12 months (up 5 points to negative 36 per cent); and home prices will be higher after decline in June (up 8 points to 41 per cent). Millennials are buying and their credit is good Young Americans are increasingly able to become homeowners and secure a mortgage thanks to better credit scores. Ellie Maes Millennial Tracker shows that the average FICO scores of millennial buyers who closed a mortgage loan in June was 723, edging 1 point higher than in May, which was 1 point higher than April. Economic uncertainty may be contributing to a general tightening of credit, which could explain why we are seeing a slight uptick in the average FICO scores for closed loans to millennials, said Joe Tyrrell, executive vice president of corporate strategy at Ellie Mae. We also continue to see FHA loans play a significant role in helping millennials make their homeownership dreams a reality. These types of loans make up 37 per cent of all closed loans to this generation, compared to just 23 per cent of closed loans across all generations of homebuyers. Once again, women made up 32 per cent of primary borrowers who closed a loan in June, 61 per cent were listed as single. New York property investor activity slower so far in 2016 Following particularly strong activity among real estate investors in New York in the first half of 2015, the same period this year has been slower. Data from the Real Estate Board of New York shows that, across the 5 boroughs, total sales were down 20 per cent in commercial, manufacturing and multifamily rental property to a combined $29.5 billion. Volume was down 19 per cent citywide to 2,581 transactions. The moderation of the New York City investment sales market follows an outstanding first half of 2015, which was driven by sky high transactions like the $1.95 billion sale of the Waldorf Astoria, said John H. Banks, III, REBNY President. Demand remains robust for core assets throughout the city and top office building sales recorded in the first half of 2016 demonstrate the continued strength of the market. Office buildings made up 41 per cent of transactions in the first half of 2016 in dollar terms, totaling $12.1 billion. HOUSTON (AP) Officials say an infant whose mother traveled to a Zika-infected area in Latin America died shortly after birth in a suburban Houston hospital, marking the first Zika-related death in Texas. Dr. Umair Shah is the executive director of Harris County Public Health. Shah said Tuesday that the infant died a few weeks ago and had microcephaly linked to the Zika virus. AUSTIN, Texas (AP) Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton says university professors could face disciplinary action if they don't allow handguns to be brought into their classrooms. Paxton's court filing this week was part of a motion to dismiss a federal lawsuit brought last month by three professors at the University of Texas at Austin seeking to block the so-called campus carry law, which took effect Aug. 1. Researchers from Michigan Technological University have received significant grants to tackle Eurasian Watermilfoil and Phragmites. They are developing novel strategies and community-based methods to combat the aquatic invaders. Aquatic invasive species in the Michigan's waterways and lakes remain in the spotlight. Laura Bourgeau-Chavez and Colin Brooksresearch scientists at the Michigan Tech Research Institute (MTRI)and Casey Huckins, a professor of biology at Michigan Tech, are leading projects to develop better management strategies to protect the state's shorelines along the Great Lakes. Phragmites in Saginaw Bay Bourgeau-Chavez is the lead investigator on a US Environmental Protection Agency Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (EPA-GLRI) project looking at managing Phragmites, a very tall, invasive perennial grass known as the common reed, south of Saginaw Bay. Bourgeau-Chavez leads another Phragmites project in the bay, supported by the Michigan Invasive Species Grant Program Laura Bourgeau-Chavez is the lead investigator on a US Environmental Protection Agency Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (EPA-GLRI) project looking at managing Phragmites, a very tall, invasive perennial grass known as the common reed, in Saginaw Bay. "Some Phragmites stands are so dense that you can't see someone only ten feet from you," Bourgeau-Chavez says. "We use remote sensing to get a bird's eye view." Bourgeau-Chavez and her team follow a process starting with the big picture from satellite datanext, they examine site-specific conditions. Data from previous projects suggests high nitrogen levels help Phragmites outcompete native species. A complementary project through the The Nature Conservancy is working on building buffer zones in agricultural areas. Additionally, water levelparticularly in areas controlled by dikes or lockscan also affect the species' ability to take over. Some parameters can be monitored by remote sensing, but the research team goes the extra mile, backing up the data with samples and field mapping gathered on smaller scales. For this project, they will be managing 310 acres of Saginaw bay to study treatments and field-test their models. The main goal is to create tools and a reference guide for land managers that integrates local and regional knowledge, high resolution maps and predictive modeling, and outlines the best practices for different treatments. "Depending on the site, comprehensive aerial spraying isn't always the best solution; there are birds, fish, amphibians, native vegetation and the broader ecosystem to consider," Bourgeau-Chavez says, adding that managing Phragmites in the field with herbicide, cutting and burning can be time-consuming. "We want to make sure those treatments are being used most effectively in an adaptive management strategy." The grant totals $648,000 and includes collaborators from the Michigan Natural Features Inventory, Saginaw Bay Cooperative Invasive Species Management Area (CISMA), University of Northern Iowa, University of Michigan and US Fish and Wildlife Service in Saginaw. Milfoil in the Les Cheneaux Islands Farther north, in the Mackinaw Straits where Lake Superior and Lake Michigan meet, Eurasian Watermilfoil has spread. In the Les Cheneaux Islands, the ongoing spread of the invader chokes local waterways and has stymied the tourism that drives the area's economy. Brooks has a solution up in the air. Brooks flies a modified hexacopter to do Eurasian Watermilfoil surveys. "I want to bring tech out of the lab," he explains, adding that the goal in his EPA-GLRI project is to use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones) and refined analysis of satellite data to track milfoil invasions in the islands. "Satellite data can cover a lot of ground," he says. "But when you need high-resolution, scalable imagery, a drone is the best solution." Brooks flies a modified hexacopter to do surveys, which he and his team will be verifying as an efficient and reliable method for field mapping an 800-acre area. The camera on the drone gathers images like the one below. The nuance of drone footage feeds back into the satellite data, and Brooks is developing methods to see milfoil from space. Specifically, he is using spectrometer data to discern different signatures of plants from reflected light that returns from earth to the atmosphere. Milfoil, Brooks says, has a distinctand very greenfingerprint in reflectance data. Seen from a drone's perspective, Eurasian Watermilfoil fills the water next to a dock in the Les Cheneaux Islands. His team will also be doing a 10-acre control test of a native fungus that could help keep the invasive plant in check. He will be working with Amy Marcarelli and Casey Huckins, with whom he collaborates on other invasive species research, to monitor the treatment. Additionally, Brooks is working with other MTRI researchers and local representatives from the Les Cheneaux Watershed Council. The grant covers two years and totals $470,000. Great Lakes Invasion Huckins, a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and Great Lakes Research Center at Michigan Tech, is the lead researcher for several milfoil projects funded by the EPA and Michigan Department of Natural Resources that focus more generally on the northern Great Lakes, including the Les Cheneaux Islands. As a biologist with research experience on the ecology of aquatic invasive species, he thinks of Eurasian Watermilfoil as a potential disturbance to the native ecosystemknowing that controlling it like a weed is a common management technique. Some people say, throw at it whatever you have, as much as you have, so we can just get rid of it, Huckins says, explaining that milfoil treatments can include mower-like harvesters, beetles, fungi and herbicide applications. But then there are other communities that arent comfortable with putting herbicides and other treatments in their waterso were trying to figure out the ecological effects of Eurasian Watermilfoil, whats the level of the threat and at what point does that threat require treatment. Eurasian Watermilfoil (left) takes over native ecosystems rich with aquatic plants like coontail (right). Connecting the threat and treatment is not straightforward. Huckins says that the milfoil group is particularly difficult because there are native species, an exotic species and many varieties in betweenand each hybrid may be genetically different. Were working on linking the genetics of the plants and their sensitivity to herbicides, he says. We also then want to understand alternative treatment methodsthere are several of them that have been applied with varying degrees of success. Additionally, understanding the physical and ecological needs of milfoil is important. For one, it doesnt do well in deep water, proliferating in shallow bays instead. Understanding these preferencesand potential adaptationswill help determine the best treatments and predict where invasive milfoil might spread next. Grants and Funding Environmental Protection Agency Great Lakes Restoration Initiative GL-00E01929-0, GL-00E01291, GL-00E01928-0 Michigan Invasive Species Grant Program MISG IS14-2005 About the Researcher Laura Bourgeau-Chavez lchavez@mtu.edu 734-913-6873 Research Interests landscape ecology remote sensing invasive species Michigan Technological University is a public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, Michigan, and is home to more than 7,000 students from 55 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, Michigans flagship technological university offers more than 120 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business and economics, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure. The UK Home Office's recent decision to grant politically active Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood members the right to seek asylum in the United Kingdom under certain conditions has drawn sharp criticism in Egypt's political circles. In parliament, a number of MPs have said that the decision which states that Brotherhood members in Egypt are eligible for asylum if they can prove a threat of persecution clearly provides renewed evidence of the UK's long-time tolerant attitude towards Islamist extremists. The MPs also question the logic behind the decision given that a UK government review concluded last December that membership or links to the Muslim Brotherhood should be considered a possible indicator of extremism. Abdel-Rehim Ali, an independent MP and a high-profile researcher on the Muslim Brotherhood, told reporters Tuesday that the decision reveals a double-standard in UK policy. "They said last December that links to the Muslim Brotherhood should be considered a possible indicator of extremism, and now after eight months they say members of the group, including supporters and journalists, can seek political asylum in the UK," said Ali. "The biggest mistake in England and Western circles is that they label the Muslim Brotherhood as a political group, but the fact is that this group exploits politics to advance an extremist Islamist agenda," Ali said. "They do not join politics to improve people's lives or to promote moderate Islam or because they believe in liberal democracy," said Ali. "The Muslim Brotherhood primarily joins politics to advance their strict code of Islam and finally establish a Sunni religious state." Ali argued that the UK's tolerant attitude towards the Muslim Brotherhood since the 1960s has turned London into Europe's biggest hub for Islamist radicals. "London, or Londonistan, has become Europe's hotbed of Islamist extremists and a major base for spreading the jihadist ideology in the West and recruiting possible jihadists," said Ali. Britain's former prime minister David Cameron said after the UK's December review on the Muslim Brotherhood 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 of Muslim Brotherhood members, associates and affiliates. "We see now that the UK Home Office's new decision by no means reflects intensifying scrutiny of the Muslim Brotherhood's activities, and by contrast it allows this radical group to gain more ground in Britain," said Ali. Ali blames "radical liberal and leftist circles in England and the West" for giving cover for radical Islamist forces to spread and gain a foothold in Europe and America. "Under the false slogans of respect for human rights and protection from Arab persecution and dictatorships, these circles have helped market the world's most dangerous Islamist extremist groups and grant them a safe haven to proliferate and recruit dozens of young men that now go to Syria to join Daesh [the Islamic State militant group]," said Ali. Mostafa Bakri, an independent MP and journalist, also said in an "urgent statement" that the UK's new decision gives a large boost to "terrorism and terrorists." "The new decision clearly contradicts with David Cameron's review which concluded last December that ties to the Brotherhood should be considered a possible indicator of extremism, Bakri said. "It is also an interference in Egypt's internal affairs, not to mention that the British state's decision opens doors for extremists and radicals to proliferate on British soil," said Bakri. Bakri said that Egypt's parliament and foreign ministry must move quickly to stand up to this pro-Brotherhood campaign in England. "We must take all legal and diplomatic measures against the UK governments pro-radical Islam policies that incite violence against Egypt and the Arab region," said Bakri. Bakri argued that the decision clearly allows leading Muslim Brotherhood officials who participated in violent protests following the removal of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi or delivered violent threats against the Egyptian state to now seek political asylum in Britain. Osama Sharshar, another independent MP, told Ahram Online that he is completely surprised that the UK's new decision comes just one week after a number of British MPs visited Egypt and promised to advise the UK's new prime minister Teresa May to scrutinise Muslim Brotherhood activities in Britain and to restore British flights to Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh. "According to an official statement," said Sharshar, "parliament speaker Ali Abdel-Al urged the British parliamentary delegation last week to conduct more research on the radical nature of the Muslim Brotherhood or to use England as a base for inciting violence against Egypt, but what we see now is that the UK is moving in the opposite direction, giving this radical group a golden opportunity to gain greater a foothold in the West." Sharshar also questioned the timing of the decision after "an Egyptian-British parliamentary friendship association" was formed last week. "I wonder if this association can take any move to show British MPs the dangers of the UK government's new decision," said Sharshar. Search Keywords: Short link: Egypt considers the recently-issued UK Home Office guidance allowing members of the Muslim Brotherhood to apply for asylum in Britain as "not positive" for the mutual relations between both countries, foreign minister Sameh Shoukry said at a press conference in Cairo. In statements reported by the state-owned MENA agency on Tuesday, Shoukry said that although the British document was a framework clarifying some asylum-related procedures that should be taken in a context of non-exaggeration, it may have negative impact on Egyptian-British relations. He said that the guidance makes the unfounded assertions that Egyptian authorities target a specific group or that the Egyptian judiciary is not fulfilling its role in ensuring fair trials, describing it as a fallacious aspersion. The Egyptian foreign minister said that Egypt always briefs international partners about crimes committed by the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood, including terrorist acts that target security forces and citizens. The Brotherhood was designated a terrorist organisation by Egypt's interim authorities in December 2013, with the freezing of the assets of many of its members and all affiliated NGOs. Assets of hundreds of Brotherhood members have since been confiscated by a state-led committee and alleged members have been prosecuted in mass trials over violence and terrorism-related charges. The UKs Home Office guidance, issued in August, states that Brotherhood members in Egypt are eligible for political asylum in the UK if they can prove they are under threat of persecution in Egypt. 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. However, the Home Office said that low-key, inactive members who are not generally targeted and would be unable to show a real risk of persecution may not be granted asylum, concluding that each case will be reviewed on an individual basis. Search Keywords: Short link: We were not bribed to drop ... Egypt's foreign minister Sameh Shoukry and his Cypriot counterpart Ioannis Kasoulides discussed in a meeting on Tuesday the launching of the Egypt-Greece-Cyprus Trilateral Summit to boost cooperation, which will take place in Cairo next October, Al-Ahram Arabic news website reported. During a press conference in Cairo following the meeting, Shoukry said that the upcoming summit would see discussion of forms of cooperation and carrying out projects in different fields. This will be the fourth meeting held between the three heads of state since the election of Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi as president in 2014. The meeting between Shoukry and Kasoulides tackled updates in trilateral cooperation in the field of energy and maritime border demarcation agreements, the Egyptian FM highlighted. Earlier Tuesday, the Cypriot FM met with El-Sisi, who hailed the trilateral cooperation, saying that it sets a successful model of cooperation for countries in the Mediterranean. El-Sisi stressed Egypt's keenness to further its relations with Cyprus in all fields, praising the progress in cooperation between the two countries. On the bilateral level, the two foreign ministers stressed the importance of current security cooperation between the two countries, adding that it is essential to combat terrorism. The Egyptian FM also said that the two counterparts discussed challenges in the region including the situations in Libya, Syria and the Palestinian Israeli conflict. Also on Tuesday, the Cypriot FM met with Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail, where the PM reiterated the importance of further cooperation in various field, especially energy, state-news agency MENA reported. Egyptian cabinet spokesman Hossam El-Qawish said that the meeting tackled a number of joint projects including joint touristic programmes and building fish farms on the coasts. The Cypriot FM denied any claims that the delay in the extradition of the Egyptian man who hijacked a domestic EgyptAir flight earlier this year is politically motivated. The hijacker had requested political asylum in Cyprus, which was rejected. During his two-day visit, which concluded today, Kasoulides met with other top Egyptian officials including Minister of Military Production Mohamed El-Assar and Arab league Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit. In March, Egypt's defence minister Sedki Sobhi and his Cypriot counterpart Christophoros Fokaides signed a joint military cooperation agreement on fighting terrorism and addressing the immigration crisis. Last December, in three-way summit meetings held in Athens, Cairo and Nicosia, the three countries held talks to establish maritime boundaries in the eastern Mediterranean, as well as cooperating in the fields of energy, tourism and agriculture. Search Keywords: Short link: Court approves government's designation of the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation The Court for Urgent Matters has upheld the designation of the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group. The interim government declared the Brotherhood a terrorist group in December but the decision had not been approved of by a court until now. The Brotherhood has been blamed for militant attacks since the ouster of Mohamed Morsi a longtime member of the group in July 2013. The attacks have mainly targeted the security forces, with the exception of a bomb in South Sinai in February that killed four civilians, including three South Korean tourists. The Brotherhood has repeatedly condemned the attacks and denied responsibility for them. Search Keywords: Short link: World Vision questioned Tuesday Israeli accusations that tens of millions of dollars in aid were funnelled off to the Islamist movement Hamas, calling the alleged sum "hard to reconcile" with reality. An Israeli court on Thursday charged the NGO's Gaza head Mohammed al-Halabi with funding "terror". According to the Shin Bet internal security agency, he diverted $7.2 million (6.5 million euros) each year since 2010 to Hamas and its military wing, though the charge sheet does not specify an amount. Part of it was allegedly used to build attack tunnels from blockaded Gaza into Israel. World Vision International president Kevin Jenkins said in a statement the organisation was conducting an investigation into the allegations and "condemns any diversion of funds from any humanitarian organisation". "If any of these allegations are proven to be true, we will take swift and decisive action." But he said the organisation "have not seen any of the evidence," and suggested the numbers were exaggerated. "World Vision's cumulative operating budget in Gaza for the past ten years was approximately $22.5 million, which makes the alleged amount of up to $50 million being diverted hard to reconcile," the statement read. The NGO has suspended its operations in Gaza. The statement said Halabi became the NGO's Gaza head in 2014 and would have only had the personal authority to sign off a budget up to $15,000. The NGO said it carried out extensive background checks on its staff. Halabi's lawyer has also rejected the accusations as baseless, saying his client was held without charge or access to legal support for several weeks after his June 15 arrest. The NGO has 150 staff across Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, providing aid to around 560,000 people. The group said its work helped more than 92,000 children last year. Search Keywords: Short link: Thousands of passengers worldwide were left stranded in the wake of Deltas massive computer outage on Monday. Computer glitch impacted thousands of passengers' travel plans A local family was forced to drive from Atlanta after their flight was delayed But rain or shine, the Fraifer family was getting home. Even if it meant renting a van and driving to Tampa from the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The family of six was stranded overnight in Atlanta, left sleeping on the terminal floor after their last connection home from Lebanon was cancelled. My kids used the carpets to sleep, mother Lina Fraider said. My daughter said I dont want anything, I just want to go home and sleep in my bed. After the extra day of travel, the Fraifers opted to make the drive home, rather than wait for other possible flights from Delta. Lina said she will definitely consider other airlines in the future, before booking with Delta again. Before I reserve my tickets I will think, she said. I will think a lot before that. BRYAN - To celebrate 100 years of the Farm Credit System, Capital Farm Credit awarded $133,500 in scholarships to Texas students as part of its "100 scholarships in 100 days" effort. In addition to various scholarships given through colleges and universities, as well as other methods, most of Capital Farm Credits branch offices across the state awarded at least one $1,000 scholarship. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Show More Show Less 3 of 3 The Plainview High School A Cappella Choir hit the ground running the first day after school was out last spring, earning numerous summer accolades and awards. The day after spring semester ended, A Cappella students attended UIL State Solo-Ensemble Competition and cleaned house, walking away from the University of Texas in Austin with 24 1st and 2nd Division medals including six gold solos, 10 gold ensemble members, eight silver solo medals, and 10 ensemble members receiving Division 2 silver level recognition. MERIDEN A separation agreement between the Waterbury Housing Authority and former Executive Director Robert Cappelletti stipulates that Cappelletti return a Chevy Silverado pickup truck to the agency, and that he collect a lump sum payment of $31,141. The payment represents 13 weeks of salary and unused vacation time. The agreement, dated and signed by members of the Waterbury Housing Authority Board of Commissioners on July 22 and signed earlier by Cappelletti, offers no admission of wrongdoing by either party. The agreement also releases both parties from any future claims. Cappelletti, who is executive director of the Meriden Housing Authority, was the subject of a personnel report requested by Board of Commissioners Chairman James Lawlor and conducted by New Haven labor attorney William Ryan. The report raised several issues about Cappellettis performance, including a trip to Florida, the purchase of the Silverado, preferred treatment for a contractor, and the hiring and employment of a housing authority worker. Cappelletti rebutted the concerns in the report, issues his lawyer described as minor. He could not be reached for comment Monday. The Waterbury Housing Authority Board of Commissioners was asked to vote on whether they had just cause to terminate Cappelletti or he could leave its employment under the terms of his contract. The agreement did not establish just cause for termination and contains a confidentiality clause prohibiting both sides from discussing the agreement publicly, except as required by federal, state or local laws. Lawlor recused himself from voting on the agreement because he requested the report. The two housing authorities have monetary claims against each other that are being worked out with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The Meriden Housing Authority claims Waterbury owes $150,000 in bookkeeping and financial services. The Waterbury Housing Authority claims MHA owes it $23,000 for an employee Cappelletti hired but did no work for the WHA. Lawlor said there was no budget provision for the employee, no interview and that Cappelletti hired him to work 20 hours a week for $50,000 annually. Cappelletti conceded the issue but said the employee, Drew Pallotto, had been paid by Meriden. Lawlor disputes that and said the agency has requested that the $23,000 be subtracted off the total amount owed to Meriden. Theres been some movement on it, Lawlor said. The agreement stipulates that Cappelletti, as executive director, can negotiate to recoup the MHAs claim. The Waterbury Housing Authority has formed a committee to screen and hire candidates for Cappellettis replacement. Cappelletti and the MHA recently signed a shared services agreement with the city of Groton. mgodin@record-journal.com 203-317-2255 Twitter: @Cconnbiz August means back-to-school shopping, and, once again, many items of clothing and footwear can be purchased without paying Connecticut sales tax during Tax-Free Week. The event, now in its 16th year, is scheduled for Sunday, Aug. 21 through Saturday, Aug. 27. During the Sales Tax Holiday Week, most individual items of clothing and footwear priced under $100 are exempt from Connecticut Sales and Use Tax. For items costing $100 or more, sales tax is calculated on the full purchase price. Department of Revenue Services Commissioner Kevin B. Sullivan said, The tax holiday has become a staple of Connecticuts back-to-school shopping season. Many retailers schedule sales to coincide with sales tax-free week, which helps shoppers save even more money because sales tax is applied after the use of any coupons or discounts. So while the price of an item may start above the $100 taxable threshold, after discounts are applied, it becomes less than $100 and is not subject to sales tax that week. This year, the state expects about $4.5 million in Sales and Use Tax exemptions during the August tax holiday week. For more information regarding tax-free week, visit www.ct.gov/drs. The publication outlines what is and is not exempt during the week, as well as rules about the use of coupons, exchanges, and layaway. Press Release Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan jets into Russia Tuesday for his first meeting with counterpart Vladimir Putin since the two strongmen leaders began healing a bitter feud over Ankara's downing of a Russian warplane. Erdogan's visit to Putin's hometown of Saint Petersburg is also his first foreign trip since the failed coup against him last month that sparked a purge of opponents and cast a shadow over Turkey's relations with the West. "This visit seems to me a new milestone in bilateral relations, beginning with a clean slate, and I personally, with all my heart and on behalf of the Turkish nation salute Mr Putin and all Russians," Erdogan said in an interview with Russian state media. The shooting down of a Russian fighter jet by a Turkish F-16 over the Syrian border last November saw a furious Putin slap economic sanctions on Turkey and launch a blistering war of words with Erdogan that seemed to irrevocably damage burgeoning ties. But in a shock reversal in late June, Putin accepted a personal expression of regret over the incident from Erdogan as an apology and quickly rolled back a ban on the sale of package holidays to Turkey and signalled Moscow would end measures against Turkish food imports and construction firms. Now in the wake of the failed July 15 coup attempt, there are fears in Western capitals that NATO-member Turkey could draw even closer to Moscow -- with Erdogan bluntly making it clear he feels let down by the United States and the European Union. Putin was one of the first foreign leaders to phone Erdogan offering support after the coup attempt and shares none of the scruples of EU leaders about the ensuing crackdown. In the latest sign of rocky ties, Turkey's justice minister on Tuesday warned that the United States will "sacrifice relations" unless it extradites Pennsylvania-based preacher Fethullah Gulen, blamed by Ankara for the failed coup. Relations between Turkey and Russia -- two powers vying for influence in the strategic Black Sea region and Middle East -- have never been straightforward and their predecessor Ottoman and Russian empires fought three centuries of war. Yet before the plane downing crisis, Moscow and Ankara managed to prevent disputes on Syria and Ukraine harming strategic cooperation on issues like the TurkStream gas pipeline to Europe and a Russian-built nuclear power station in Turkey. Those projects were all put on ice with trade between the two countries falling 43 percent to $6.1 billion in January-May this year and Turkey's tourism industry seeing visitor numbers from Russia fall by 93 percent. Now with Russia mired in economic crisis due to Western sanctions over Ukraine and low oil prices along with Turkey's outlook flagging, both men want to get business started again. Erdogan told Russian media that he wants to "immediately take steps" towards getting the TurkStream project -- that was to have pumped 31.5 billion cubic metres of gas a year -- going again and to finish the Akkuyu power plant. The earlier uptick in relations was built on a macho friendship between Putin and Erdogan, two combative leaders in their early 60s credited with restoring confidence to their nations in the wake of financial crises but also criticised for clamping down on human rights. But after such a bitter dispute -- which saw Putin accuse Erdogan of stabbing Russia in the back and profiting from an illegal oil trade with the Islamic State group -- it will take a lot for the pair to reheat relations. "What we are going to see is a longer-lasting but more pragmatic type of relationship built not on a personal friendship or ideology but on common material interests," said Alexander Baunov, a senior associate at the Carnegie Moscow Center. Russia, which is conducting a bombing campaign in support of Erdogan's foe President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, transformed the balance of the Syrian civil war last September when it intervened militarily, to Turkey's consternation. Erdogan insisted to Russian media that Assad must still go -- a position opposed by Putin -- but did say that the conflict at the heart of the falling out with Moscow could now also become the focus for renewed cooperation between the two sides. "Russian is a main, key and very important player in establishing peace in Syria," Erdogan said in comments translated into Russian. "The problem needs to be solved with help of joint steps between Russia and Turkey." Search Keywords: Short link: Israel said Tuesday that it had arrested a United Nations employee for providing "material assistance" to the Islamist movement Hamas. Engineer Waheed Borsh, who has worked for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) since 2003, was arrested on July 16 and indicted in a civilian court in Israel on Tuesday, a government statement said. He is the second humanitarian worker charged by Israel in the past week for aiding Hamas. Search Keywords: Short link: Santiago Mejia / Special to the Chronicle The American Red Cross urges blood donors to give in the final weeks of summer to help overcome a critical summer blood shortage. The summer months are among the most challenging times of years to collect enough blood and platelet donations to meet patient needs. Many regular donors delay giving while they take vacation and participate in summer activities. The need for blood doesnt take a summer break though. BRIDGEPORT City public schools have laid off their five high school resource officers ahead of students return to classes on Sept. 1. The school resource officers will be off the beat Friday. Schools Superintendent Fran Rabinowitz will be meeting with Police Chief Armando Perez to discuss a Plan B. Is it a concern for me and the police chief? Absolutely, Rabinowitz said. But its the boards prerogative to eliminate what they wish to eliminate. The Board of Education cut the positions on June 27 to save $492,000. Initially the officers were supposed to be out of their jobs on July 13. But their union the National Association of Government Employees struck a concessions deal with Mayor Joe Ganims administration in exchange for job security. There was a question about whether Ganims no-layoffs pledge impacting NAGEs 700 members both city and school staff bound the school board with respect to school resource officers. The school board, angry the mayor flat-funded their budget, stuck by the staffing cuts. City and school officials met to try and find a compromise. Rabinowitz said neither side has the money. Weve presented various ways to try to work things out with the Board of Education, said John Gomes, Ganims chief administrative officer. It has not worked itself out. Dwayne Harrison, one of the school security guards and also president of the NAGE, said the union will file a complaint about the layoffs with state labor officials. Harrison argued that the city hurt its case that the school board should foot the security bill when the resource officers, assigned to the police department, were used for non-school work. For example one of the guards has been working at the downtown government center. If you were running an event and you paid for an officer to be at your event, but hes outside doing traffic for something else, youre going to wonder, Why am I paying this guy? Harrison said. Jeff Babey is the school resource security officer who lately has been greeting visitors at the government center. Babey, who has over 18 years on the job, said he was proud of the anti-gang work he had done in schools. We graduated maybe thousands of kids in that program, Babey said. No thank you or nothing. A Saudi-led military coalition conducted air strikes on the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Tuesday for the first time in five months, residents said, after U.N.-backed peace talks to end the conflict broke down over the weekend. Medics said nine civilians were killed in a strike on a potato chip factory in the Nahda district of the capital. The Saudi-led coalition is backing Yemeni forces loyal to the exiled government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi who are trying to oust Iran-allied Houthi forces from Sanaa. The coalition also forced the suspension of flights into Sanaa International Airport for 72 hours from late on Monday, an airport official and aid agency sources said. A spokesman for the coalition did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the air strikes or the closure of the airport. The air strikes hit a presidential compound and military base in Sanaa as well as a Republican Guard base in the Arhab area near the airport, residents said. Pro-government forces are trying to advance into the city from the north and east. On Sunday night the Saudi-led coalition killed nine civilians in an air strike outside Sanaa. In a separate development, residents in Azzan in Yemen's southern Shabwa province said Al Qaeda militants had dismantled their checkpoints and had withdrawn from the city on Tuesday following air strikes - apparently by the Saudi-led coalition forces - targeting their positions there. The militants took advantage of the country's wartime chaos to seize control of much of southern Yemen, but have suffered military setbacks inflicted by coalition-backed local forces. Saudi Arabia and its mostly Gulf Arab allies intervened in Yemen's civil war in March 2015 after the armed Houthi movement had pushed the Hadi administration into exile in Saudi Arabia. The coalition has launched thousands of air attacks on the Houthis and their allies in Yemen's army, but paused the strikes on Sanaa in March after reaching an informal agreement with the Houthis to tamp down combat on the Yemeni-Saudi border. Imposing a near-blockade aimed at weapons shipments to the Houthis, the coalition had mostly allowed Sanaa airport to operate civilian and humanitarian aid flights since March. Search Keywords: Short link: BRIDGEPORT Two pools of mosquitoes trapped at Connecticuts Beardsley Zoo have tested positive for West Nile virus, making Bridgeport only one of two Connecticut cities where the illness has popped up this season. Last month, the state Mosquito Management Program announced that mosquitoes trapped in Stamford tested positive for West Nile. This is not unusual, said Theodore Andreadis, director of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, which oversees mosquito trapping and testing in the state. This is pretty much what we expected for this time of year. There have been no human cases yet this season, and no mosquitoes have tested positive for the much-feared Zika virus. About 122,000 mosquitoes have been trapped and tested in Connecticut this season. Though Andreadis said theres been a significant amount of West Nile detected in Stamford a total of 11 pools of mosquitoes have tested positive its been a relative mild season. The number of mosquitoes has actually dropped a bit, probably because of the drought, he said. Connecticut has been relatively immune to the mosquito fears pervading the nation. Though most of the 1,825 United States residents who have contracted Zika got it while traveling, there have been six cases of locally transmission in Florida. Thats the only state where theres been local transmission, though mosquito species capable of spreading Zika have been found in Bridgeport and Stratford. To date, 49 Connecticut residents have tested positive for Zika, but all those cases are linked to travel. Zika virus commonly causes fever, rash or other mild symptoms and, rarely, a paralyzing neurological illness called Guillain-Barre syndrome. In pregnant women, it has been linked to the birth defect microcephaly, in which the babys head is smaller than average. Three of the Connecticut Zika cases are in pregnant women. Though Zika has just made its way into the United States, West Nile has been here since 1999. The illness often has no symptoms, or causes mild illness, but for the elderly, those with compromised immune systems and other vulnerable groups, it can cause serious illness. Meanwhile, one Beardsley Zoo official said it isnt disconcerting that West Nile-positive mosquitoes have been found there. The tourist attraction has been a mosquito trapping site for the state since the virus arrived in Connecticut, and these arent the first West Nile mosquitoes to crop up in the area, said zoo director Gregg Dancho. He said the zoo tries to be vigilant about controlling its mosquito population by, among other things, eliminating pools of standing water where mosquitoes can breed. We trying to do the best animal care we can for our charges, Dancho said. Lawyers should be prohibited from engaging in sexual harassment in court, in the office or at their firms social gatherings, representatives of the nations largest legal organization decided Monday in an action that will affect disciplinary rules around the nation. At the annual meeting of the American Bar Association, held this year in San Francisco, the House of Delegates revised the associations Model Rules to classify sex discrimination or harassment as unprofessional conduct. The change was approved by voice vote, with only a few scattered opposition votes heard among the 589 delegates. The Model Rules are not binding but are followed by bar associations in most states, which can suspend or disbar lawyers for violating their standards. Californias State Bar goes its own way and now has rules that can punish lawyers who discriminate against other attorneys or clients based on race, sex, sexual orientation and other categories. The State Bar is scheduled to consider revisions by March that would add gender identity to the categories and would also forbid sexual harassment. States have been a laboratory of change, and its time now for the ABA to catch up, Myles Lynk, an Arizona State University law professor and chairman of the nationwide associations Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility, said during floor debate at Moscone Center. He noted that nearly half the states have rules prohibiting sex discrimination, some of them also covering sexual harassment. Until Monday, the national associations Model Rules had addressed the issue with a nonbinding comment against discrimination. New York attorney Wendi Lazar, a member of the bar associations Commission on Women, said she had received complaints from female lawyers who were asked to leave firms because they had complained about sexual harassment ... because they wouldnt have sex with a senior partner of their firm. Despite increased diversity in the legal profession in recent years, women and minorities still make up a small percentage of revenue-sharing partners at law firms, and their numbers are limited by the hostile climate at some firms, Lazar said. We are losing the war on retention, she said. The bar association has nearly 400,000 members, who join voluntarily. Its roles including advocating for the legal profession and reviewing and rating presidential nominations to the federal courts. By contrast, state bar associations like Californias require all lawyers to join and pay dues. The new Model Rules subject lawyers to discipline for discrimination or harassment based on sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and various other categories including race and religion. They apply to all conduct related to the practice of law, including law firm operations and participation in bar associations and business or social activities, and cover interactions with clients, witnesses, co-workers, court personnel and other attorneys. Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday hosted Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in their first encounter since Ankara downed one of Moscow's warplanes last November, sparking a deep diplomatic crisis. "Your visit today, despite a very difficult situation regarding domestic politics, indicates that we all want to restart dialogue and restore relations between Russia and Turkey," Putin said as the two met in Saint Petersburg. The visit to Russia is Erdogan's first foreign trip since the failed coup against him in July, which sparked a purge of political opponents and cast a shadow over Turkey's relations with the West. "I know that I was one of the first who called you to express support regarding the crisis," Putin said of the coup attempt. "I want to say once again that this is our principled position, we are against any unconstitutional actions." Erdogan said the Turkish people were "happy" Putin had expressed his support following the attempted coup, expecting the two countries to "enter into a very different phase with the steps we will take and have taken." The shooting down of a Russian fighter jet by a Turkish F-16 over the Syrian border last November saw a furious Putin slap economic sanctions on Turkey and launch a blistering war of words with Erdogan that seemed to irrevocably damage burgeoning ties. But Putin in June said Erdogan had sent a letter expressing his regret over the incident and announced a rollback of some of the sanctions. Search Keywords: Short link: 1 Tahoe environment: The White House said Monday that President Obama will travel to Lake Tahoe on Aug. 31 to speak about his commitment to protecting the environment and addressing climate change. Spokesman Eric Schultz said Obama will talk about how the United States can ensure that national treasures like Lake Tahoe can be protected for future generations. Federal, state and local leaders meet annually to review policies designed to restore and sustain Lake Tahoe, known for its clear waters. The event began after President Bill Clinton ordered federal agencies to coordinate to protect the lake and surrounding region. 2 Wildfire: Smoke from flaming ridges of the San Bernardino Mountains blew all the way across the Mojave Desert to Las Vegas as Californias latest wildfire chewed through timber and brush Monday. Hundreds of firefighters, aided by 16 aircraft, battled flames that spread across 7 square miles of the rugged mountain range about 60 miles east of Los Angeles. About 25 homes were ordered evacuated. Helicopters sucked loads of water from nearby Silverwood Lake to douse flames. The fire, which erupted for unknown reasons Sunday, was just 5 percent contained. Washington Desperate conservatives have circulated a petition calling for the Republican National Committee to host a special meeting where Donald Trump could be replaced as the party's presidential nominee. Organizers some of the same Republicans who tried to prevent Trump from winning the GOP nomination acknowledge the effort is a long shot at best. But fearing an Election Day disaster, they have appealed to RNC members across the nation in recent days to intervene. "Desperate times call for desperate measures," Regina Thomson, executive director of a political action committee known as the GOP Accountability Project, wrote in an e-mail distributed to RNC members over the weekend and obtained by The Associated Press. "Donald J. Trump is a disaster," Thomson wrote, attaching a copy of the petition in the message. "His post-convention behavior has been deplorable." Trump has worried many leading Republicans in recent weeks with a string of controversies and fights, notably with the Muslim American parents of an Army captain killed in Iraq and prominent Republicans up for re-election. Trump reversed course and ended up endorsing House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire. Still, Thomson and other anti-Trump Republicans are concerned. Party rules allow RNC members to replace a presidential nominee in the event of "death, declination, or otherwise" language Trump critics say allows for his replacement soon after he formally captured his party's presidential nomination at the national convention. To force a meeting to discuss Trump's ouster, however, organizers must submit signatures by at least 16 RNC members from 16 states. Should they do so, GOP chairman Reince Priebus has 10 to 20 days to convene the full, 168-member Republican National Committee. "This is the same story over and over again," said RNC spokesman Sean Spicer, dismissing the latest effort. He suggested that the Trump rebels have "a credibility problem" after repeated failed attempts to block Trump's nomination at the convention. Even after Trump ended his feud by endorsing Ryan last Friday night, a fresh wave of Republican operatives and even a handful of elected officials vowed to vote for someone else or even leave the GOP altogether. "We're concerned he's on a path to destruction and we're trying to avert that," Thomson said in a Monday interview. The Colorado Republican, the former state chairwoman for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's presidential campaign, said she has received verbal commitments from party officials willing to sign the petition, but declined to say how many or who they are. Several RNC members, reached by the AP on Monday, acknowledged deep frustration with Trump's candidacy, but said they would not sign the petition. None were willing to give their names for fear they would be associated with the move. "It is a difficult path but we are supportive of their efforts," said Republican operative Dane Waters, who led an anti-Trump effort at the convention. "It is important that all options be considered and tried. Priebus should never have allowed this to happen." Thomas Mulholland, of Midland, and his brother, James Mulholland, of St. Petersburg, Fla., have been found guilty by a jury on eight felonies each for a more than $18 million Ponzi scheme they ran through their Lansing-based business Mulholland Financial. These men got themselves in a financial bind and instead of owning up to their mistakes they chose to defraud Michigan residents of their hard earned savings, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette said today. I hope that this verdict will provide some closure and relief to the victims of these men. Each brother was convicted of the following charges in Ingham County District Court: One count of criminal enterprises-conducting, a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison and/or a $100,000 fine; One count of conspiracy to commit criminal enterprise-conducting, a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison and/or $10,000 fine; One count of false pretenses-$20,000 or more but less than $50,000, a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison and/or a fine of $15,000 or three times the value of the property that was involved, whichever is greater; False pretenses-$1,000 or more but less than $20,000, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and/or a fine of $10,000 or three times the value of the property that was involved, whichever is greater; One count of Blue Sky Laws-fraudulent schemes/statements, a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and/or $25,000 fine; One count of securities fraud, a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and or a $500,000 fine; One count of Blue Sky Laws offer/sell unregistered securities, a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and/or $25,000 fine; and, One count for violation of the securities act, a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and or a $500,000 fine. The Mulholland brothers, both 59, are currently being held in the Ingham County Jail and will return for sentencing in Ingham County Circuit Court before Judge William Collette on Aug. 31. Thomas and James Mulholland started their business, Mulholland Financial, in 1987. They bought real estate to be used as rental properties mostly in college towns. At the height of their business, Mulholland Financial managed $22 million worth of highly leveraged real estate; however they were not prepared for the recession in 2008, Schuettes office stated. Starting in 2009, until they filed for bankruptcy in 2010, the brothers raised almost $2 million from investors. They made no mention that their business was in trouble and promised a 7 percent rate of return from the real estate profits and that the principal and interest were guaranteed and could be liquid within 30 days of making a written request, Schuettes office stated. In reality almost every month from January 2009 to February 2010, Mulholland Financial lost money and new investor money began being used to pay off earlier investors. Schuettes office said the Mulholland brothers knew the business was losing money and consciously decided to purchase more property in an attempt to get themselves through the crash. The brothers also increased their attempts to procure investors. At the end of 2009, they reached out to previous investors and urged them to reinvest. They again said there would be a guaranteed 7 percent return and they also indicated that 2009 had been their best year ever, not revealing any of the financial problems they were facing. Mulholland Financial was forced to file for bankruptcy in February 2010 due to overwhelming debt. By this time, there were multiple investigations being conducted into the business practices. The case sat dormant with another agency until the spring of 2016 when Schuettes office picked up the case. More than 250 investors lost $18.3 million. Most of us recognize that economic development is a contact sport. There is tough competition at every turn, with incentives and temptations luring businesses in every direction, across borders, oceans, and continents. Connecticut is well positioned to win its share, and the pipeline of possibilities is promising. The Connecticut Economic Resource Center (CERC) is a pioneer in the development of programs, technologies and capabilities for clients and partners from state agencies, regions, municipalities and nonprofits in pursuit of economic development. We are on the front lines, with a well-earned reputation for getting results. We work earnestly to stay in step with critical trends and on top of emerging opportunities, and diligently share our expertise and ingenuity across the state, to help spur economic growth and expansion. Currently, for example, in partnership with the state Department of Economic and Community Development, we manage two representatives located in Tel Aviv and Sao Paulo, and we have well over 100 qualified leads companies that have expressed interest in coming to Connecticut. As never before, economic development is also increasingly a team sport. Whether it is with regional workforce boards, local municipal officials, representatives of state agencies, or all of the above, it is hard to imagine successful economic development initiatives done in a vacuum, by one community or even one state, without a range of officials pulling in the same direction. Collaboration is critical, and some players stand out in significant ways. A recent workshop hosted by Connecticuts Capital Region Council of Governments, Anchor Institutions, Neighborhood Involvement and the Innovation Economy, drove the point home. The anchor institution concept is simple but far-reaching. These major institutions in terms of resources and jobs have a demonstrable commitment to the success of the communities in which they reside, and from which they draw many or most of their employees. These pivotal players tend to be research universities or major health systems or major nonprofit organizations. They can be pivotal at multiple stages of the process from attracting new businesses to encouraging business growth to sustaining a companys success. When the negotiations begin, dont leave the office without them. The impact of anchor institutions goes well beyond incubators and internships, in todays innovation economy. We have seen a strong glimpses of that in New Haven, perhaps the forerunner for Connecticut, which is fortunate to have a variety of potential anchor institutions in strategic locations in Fairfield County and across the state. As a resident of New Haven that practiced the craft of economic development there for eight years, I was always aware of the unique characteristics of our regional economy. Some anchor institutions even purchase retail spaces on Main Street and provide professional management, almost like a business improvement district. Many universities have the capacity to do housing and commercial development, but most will have to partner with the local economic development community. According to CommunityWealth.org, anchor institutions tend not to move location. Emerging trends related to globalization such as the decline of manufacturing, the rise of the service sector, and a mounting government fiscal crisissuggest the growing importance of anchor institutions to local economies. Eugenie Birch, co-director of the University of Pennsylvania Institute for Urban Research, starkly defined the new reality by stating, universities are the factories of our era. Mike Morand, Deputy Chief Communications Officer at Yale, highlighted that universitys contribution to the economic health of Greater New Haven, citing the recent construction of two new residential colleges at Yale after a successful $500 million fundraising campaign; the total investment will be much greater. Describing what characterizes successful communities today, Morand succinctly stated, density is destiny. CERC is no stranger to collaboration. In fact, weve been preaching that gospel for some time, and we practice what we preach. We provide training to municipal officials more than 1,000 to date along with access to economic and demographic data that is useful, and often essential, to both the municipalities and businesses seeking to benefit from a productive partnership. Working closely with institutions and governments, anchors and otherwise, we proudly aim to strengthen economic development throughout Connecticut, community by community and company by company. Robert W. Santy is president and CEO of the Connecticut Economic Resource Center, Inc. Detroit Reeling from a cascade of blunders that drove his poll ratings down, Donald Trump sought to regain his standing Monday by laying out an economic agenda of tax cuts, vast spending on public construction and a tougher posture on trade. "I want to jump-start America, and it won't even be that hard," the Republican presidential nominee said in a speech to the Detroit Economic Club. Trump's formal presentation, read from a teleprompter, was a central part of his attempt to recover from campaign turmoil that left many Americans doubting his capacity to be commander in chief. It came as 50 senior Republican national security officials, including several members of President George W. Bush's Cabinet, signed a letter warning that Trump "would be the most reckless president in American history." Trump, they wrote, "lacks the character, values and experience" to be president and "would put at risk our country's national security and well-being." Trump's economic proposals were split between traditional GOP policies, like rolling back taxes and easing federal regulations, and ideas unpopular with the GOP majority in Congress, like scrapping trade pacts and pouring new money into railways, highways and other infrastructure. Trump's claim that his plans would spark explosive job growth left many economists skeptical, as did the absence of detail on how he would pay for his proposals. "At some point, you can't live in a world completely divorced from economic reality," said Edward Kleinbard, a business and law professor at University of Southern California. He called Trump's simultaneous tax cuts and new spending "fundamentally unrealistic." Trump proposed tax cuts last year that would benefit primarily the wealthy and cost as much as $10 trillion over the next decade, economists say. Trump has also promised a major buildup of the military at an unspecified price, and he has vowed to resist pressure by fellow Republicans to curb Social Security and Medicare, a pledge he did not mention Monday. "It can't add up is the bottom line," said Roberton Williams, a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank. Still, the New York businessman appeared to cut the overall cost of his previous plan by making several revisions Monday. He initially had proposed simplifying individual income tax rates with four brackets 25 percent, 20 percent, 10 percent and 0 percent. He raised those Monday to align with a House Republican plan that calls for rates of 33 percent, 25 percent, 12 percent and 0 percent. Prior to those changes, a Moody's Analytics report concluded that Trump's economic agenda would thrust Americans into a lengthy recession, create "very large deficits" and burden the country with "a much higher debt load." In Detroit, Trump also proposed letting parents deduct the average cost of child-care spending. The plan risks favoring the higher-income taxpayers who most rely on itemized deductions, but the absence of specifics left the impact unclear. Trump, who was interrupted by hecklers more than a dozen times, cast his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton as a champion of old economic ideas that have left millions of Americans unemployed or impoverished as jobs shift to foreign countries. "Every policy she has tilts the playing field toward other countries at our expense," Trump said. He described the nation's economic status as far worse than official statistics would suggest, calling the 4.9 percent unemployment rate "one of the biggest hoaxes in American modern politics." Trump's effort to focus on the economy comes after several weeks of lurching from one controversy to another, including his feud with the Muslim parents of an Army captain killed in Iraq in 2004, and his stoking of tensions with Republican leaders like House Speaker Paul D. Ryan. For several days, Trump has avoided the kind of off-the-cuff remarks that have undermined his campaign. But similar periods of self-restraint proved short-lived in the past as the outspoken celebrity businessman reverted to blunt comments and personal attacks. On Monday, Trump stuck closely to his prepared remarks. He vowed to cut government regulations "massively," saying President Barack Obama has imposed rules that hamstring business. Trump assailed the administration for "anti-energy regulations," such as those curbing the emissions of coal-fired power plants. Left unmentioned was Trump's rejection of the science of climate change, which Obama cites as the rationale for rules curbing emission of greenhouse gases that cause global warming. Trump hammered Clinton for backing the North American Free Trade Agreement, which links Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, and a trade pact with South Korea. He predicted Clinton's campaign donors would succeed in pressuring her to renege on opposition to the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, which Obama supports. "Just imagine how many more automobile jobs will be lost if the TPP is actually approved," he told the audience in Detroit. "It will be catastrophic." Trump also vowed to "bring trillions of dollars in new wealth and wages back" to the United States by cracking down on China's theft of American intellectual property, currency cheating and other trade violations. "So simple," he said. "So simple." On Twitter, Clinton said Trump's agenda was "a repackaging of trickle-down economics and it doesn't help our economy or the vast majority of Americans." Sudanese authorities are warning residents living near the banks of the Nile to take extreme precautions in anticipation of possible flooding caused by heavy rainfall. Authorities say the water levels of the Blue Nile have exceeded those in 1988 when, after heavy rain, flooding inundated most of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, killing scores of people and damaging property. Tuesday's warning was made by Ballah Abdul-Rahman, a senior official at the Ministry of Water Resources, Irrigation and Electricity. Abdul-Rahman said water levels of the Blue Nile, which originates in the Ethiopian highlands, were rapidly rising on the Sudanese-Ethiopian border. The Blue Nile flows downstream to Khartoum, where it meets the less voluminous White Nile before they continue together into Egypt and later the Mediterranean coast. Search Keywords: Short link: Turkey suspended over 2,500 more staff from the powerful religious affairs state agency on Tuesday in the latest purge after last month's failed coup blamed on US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen. The religious affairs directorate, Diyanet, said in a statement that 2,560 people have been suspended in the latest wave, bringing the total dismissed to 3,672 since July 15. Diyanet, which is directly linked to the prime minister's office, was established in 1924 to control religion in officially secular modern Turkey. The agency has a budget larger than many ministries including health and takes care of close to 80,000 mosques in the predominantly Muslim country. It has 100,000 personnel including imams but Diyanet did not give details of those dismissed. Diyanet said "the commission created for this purpose (to find Gulen sympathisers) continued its rigorous work". The reclusive cleric is accused by Ankara of ordering the coup in which a rogue military faction tried to oust President Recep Tayyip Erdogan from power without success. Gulen, who is the leader of the Hizmet "service" movement, strongly denies the accusations and his lawyer said on Friday Turkey had failed to provide "a scintilla" of proof to support its claims. Since July 15, tens of thousands of people from the military, judiciary, civil service and education suspected of links with the movement have been dismissed from their jobs or detained. Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said on Tuesday around 16,000 had already been remanded in custody ahead of trial while another 6,000 people were in detention awaiting initial court hearings. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said 25,000 new teachers and police officers would be employed after the purge to fill gaps created in state institutions. Search Keywords: Short link: The Republican nominee for president of the United States of America, arguably the most powerful position on the planet, said at a campaign rally in North Carolina Tuesday that "Second Amendment people" are the only way to stop his opponent from appointing federal judges if she wins. Take that as you will. Donald Trump, the reality television star turned presidential candidate, spoke about what would happen should his opponent Hillary Clinton, the first woman to be nominated as a major political party's candidate for president, win. Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish, the Second Amendment, Trump said. By the way, if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I dont know. But Ill tell you what, that will be a horrible day. RELATED: Iceland man says Donald Trump's son left 'white powder' at rental, paid 15 women to hang out Shortly after Trump made the comment, which immediately caught fire on social media and prompted the Guardian to send a news alert with the headline "Trump hints at assassination of Hillary Clinton by gun rights supporters," his campaign responded with a statement. Its called the power of unification Second Amendment people have amazing spirit and are tremendously unified, which gives them great political power , Jason Miller, senior communications adviser for the Trump campaign said in a campaign email. And this year, they will be voting in record numbers, and it wont be for Hillary Clinton, it will be for Donald Trump. This is not the first time someone has maybe, or quite directly suggested, someone kill Clinton. RELATED: Watch: Actress Elizabeth Banks hilariously troll Donald Trump on second night of the DNC Al Baldasaro, a Republican congressman from New Hampshire, has expressed similar opinion. Baldasaro, who has joined Trump on the campaign trail before, said in a radio interview that Hillary Clinton should be put in the firing line and shot for treason, the Washington Post reported in an editorial column July 20. Clintons campaign manager Robby Mook responded to Trumps comments shortly after he made them Tuesday afternoon. This is simple what Trump is saying is dangerous. A person seeking to be the President of the United States should not suggest violence in any way, he said. But who knows?! Maybe Trump was kidding. He has yet to walk back on banning Muslims from the United States, a policy he said he would instate should he be elected last December. RELATED: Donald Trump says 'titties' instead of 'cities' during economic policy speech Politico reported that Trumps comment could be interpreted as a joke about using violence to stop Clinton or her judicial picks" and that the candidate suggested the Second Amendment "may be the only way to stop Hillary Clinton from getting to appoint federal judges if she wins the presidential election in November. Gawker went with the assassination angle, reporting Trump is far from the first person to joke about someone assassinating Hillary Clinton, but it is considered unusual for a major party nominee for the presidency to go there, as they say. kbradshaw@express-news.net Twitter: @kbrad5 SAN ANTONIO A male pedestrian was killed in a Monday night crash on the North Side, according to police. Danny Ray Chapman, 57, died at 12:25 a.m. Tuesday at University Hospital following a car accident. Jewish and Arab protesters traded punches Tuesday outside an Israeli hospital where a Palestinian prisoner is on hunger strike, and police said they made arrests on both sides. Bilal Kayed has been refusing food for 56 days in protest at his detention without trial by Israeli occupation authorities and was moved from prison to Barzelai hospital, in the southern city of Ashkelon, when his health deteriorated markedly. The Physicians for Human Rights says his vision is failing, he has difficulties standing and that doctors have warned he could be at risk of a stroke. Palestinian officials say he has kidney problems. On Tuesday Arab and some Jewish supporters of Kayed picketed the hospital, some carrying banners reading "Administrative detention is not legal," a reference to an Israeli practice allowing detainees to be held without trial for renewable six-month periods. Arab Israeli MPs were among the protesters. Right-wing Israelis, some shouting "death to terrorists", staged a counter-demonstration and the two sides exchanged punches, an AFP journalist at the scene reported. When police intervened, the right-wingers threw rocks at officers. Police said they arrested seven Jews and three Arabs suspected of public disorder, assaulting police and interfering with police in the performance of their duty. They did not say if the Arabs arrested were Israeli citizens or Palestinians from annexed east Jerusalem, who have free access to Israel. Kayed was to have been released in June after serving a 14-and-a-half-year sentence for activities in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, labelled a terrorist organisation by Israeli occupation authorities, the European Union and the United States. Instead, Israeli occupation authorities ordered he remain in custody until further notice. Israel says administrative detention allows authorities to hold suspects while continuing to gather evidence, while Palestinians, human rights groups and members of the international community have criticised the system. Of more than 7,500 Palestinians currently in Israeli jails, about 700 are being held under administrative detention, Palestinian rights groups say. Palestinians have regularly gone on hunger strike in protest at their detention. The current wave of protests by Palestinians and repression by Israeli occupation forces started in late July when toddler Ali Dawabsha was burned to death and three other Palestinians were severely injured after their house in the occupied West Bank was set on fire by Israeli settlers. Settlement-building, racial discrimination, confiscation of identity cards, long queues at checkpoints, as well as daily clashes and the desecration of Al-Aqsa mosque, describe Palestinians' daily suffering. The anger of Palestinian residents of Jerusalem has increased in the last three years after the Israeli authorities allowed increasing numbers of Jewish settlers to storm the Al-Aqsa mosque. The surge in violence has been fuelled by Palestinians' frustration over Israel's 48-year occupation of land they seek for an independent state, and the expansion of settlements in those territories which were captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war. Palestinian leaders say a younger generation sees no hope for the future living under Israeli security restrictions and with a stifled economy. The latest round of U.S.-brokered peace talks collapsed in April 2014. *The story has been edited by Ahram Online. Search Keywords: Short link: Russia wants to fully restore ties with Turkey, to which end it is drafting a 2016-19 mid-term program of cooperation in areas including the economy and science, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday. As for restoring our relations to their full extent: do we want that? Yes we do, and we will be doing just that. After certain restrictions had been imposed in our relations, certain transformations have taken place since, and we will need to keep them in mind as we restore our trade and economic cooperation, Putin told reporters. In this regard, he said the sides decided to draft a mid-term program economic, technical and scientific cooperation for the next three years. We hope to be able to come up with it within a week, Putin stressed after the first talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in wake of a rapprochement marking the end of seven months of tensions. Search Keywords: Short link: As a Syrian migrant arriving in Berlin, Munzer Khattab could barely say a word in German, let alone fill out a pile of forms in the language. So over the past year Khattab has not only learned German but also worked with five other Syrian refugees or asylum seekers to design a smartphone app to make forms less daunting. The app, called 'Bureaucrazy', to be launched in January, will translate various forms into Arabic and English for newcomers facing a pile of paperwork ranging from registering with authorities to opening a bank account. It will also provide them with a map with Berlin offices that all newcomers need to navigate and deal with other questions about red tape that can leave asylum seekers in knots. Khattab, 23, who fled his coastal hometown of Latakia last year to avoid military service in Syria, said the inspiration came as he ploughed through more than a dozen registration forms in German after arriving in Berlin. "Even when we asked Germans they had problems understanding the forms," Khattab told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a telephone interview. "If the Germans found them unreadable, how could we read them?" The app's name stemmed from Khattab, whose first language is Arabic, being caught out mispronouncing the word 'bureaucracy'. "Someone heard it and said 'Bureaucrazy? What did you say? That's a cool name'," said Khattab. Khattab and his partners developed the app as part of a program in computer-coding they are taking at ReDI, a Berlin non-profit school with a mission to integrate refugees. It won a local software development contest and later drew praise at the Startup Europe tech conference earlier this year. The developers believe it will help migrants fleeing violence and poverty, more than a million of which have entered Germany in the past year. "Everyone has the same problem: they come to Berlin as newcomers from Spain to Italy, and they have the same problems that we had," Khattab said. Search Keywords: Short link: BEND, Ore. When NACS visited Kent Couch, owner of the Stop and Go Mini Mart in Bend, Oregon, for the 2013 installment of Ideas 2 Go, we were treated to a store that delivers exceptional service beginning at the pump, where crisply dressed attendants fill up cars, check the oil and give a dog a bone (literally). Inside the store, the beer cave sells as much beer as the big-box competition in townand that doesnt even include the Growler Guys program, with 36 different beers on tap, as well as kombucha and sodas. And some may recall a certain convenience store owner who took off from his stores parking lot in a lawn chair rigged with helium-filled balloons, and traveled more than 200 miles across Oregon to Idaho. Although Couch has owned the convenience store for nearly two decades, he hasnt backed off from innovating. The Atlantic recently interviewed Couch to find out how he got into the convenience and fuel retailing industry and what his aspirations are for the store. Couch told the news source that he began in retail at a grocery store, working his way from the bottom up to a store manager. And by accident, Couch found the convenience store world, which he says is a lot more entertaining and challenging than the grocery world in that it moves a lot faster, and you can make changes [to the service and store offerings] and adjust a lot quicker than in the grocery business. It's a much faster-paced business, which suits my personality. Coming from grocery to convenience stores, Couch realized the two are different animals, and he needed to get up to speed quickly. He attended his first NACS Show in the late 1990s and came home with new ideas for running his store. Ive never forgotten what I learned at that first conference. The speaker said that we have to set ourselves apart from our competitors. From then on, that's what I decided to do: Make myself look different than my competitors, and give people a reason to come to me. Make myself a destination, instead of just simply a convenience store on a corner, he told The Atlantic. Over the years, through new offers, customer service and ideas for growth, Couch recognizes that as a whole the industry has been faced with challenges, including perception. I believe the average consumer looks down on a convenience store. Even the media: Nothing good happens at convenience stores. People get shot; people get robbed. That's not the way it has to be; convenience stores today are serving people on the [go]. Convenience stores have become a meal replacement for some people, and we have to meet them in a hurry. The good news is that collectively this misperception is changing, through NACS and industry entrepreneurs such as Couch who strive to become a destination for customers on-the-go. Stores are getting bigger, more sophisticated, and offering a lot more services, he said. Its not just somebody standing behind a counter, smacking their gums and saying, What can I get you? Now, we've raised the level up. Our workers greet people by name. They have respect for people. I think that's the key. Read the full interview at TheAtlantic.com. Bill would ban drivers from drinking coffee, among other things, while behind the wheel. MCLEAN, Va. New Jersey wants to expand the law against drinking and driving to include coffee,USA Today reports. The news source writes that a bill under consideration in the state legislature seeks to prohibit "any activity unrelated to the actual operation of a motor vehicle in a manner that interferes with the safe operation of the vehicle on a public road or highway." So that means no coffee, and also no eating. Assemblyman John Wisniewski, author of the bill, says that the proposal targets distracted driving, which plays a role in thousands of fatal crashes in New Jersey each year. "The issue is that we need to try, in every way, to discourage distracted driving; it's dangerous," he told The Star-Ledger. "Education and enforcement can change the attitudes of people." Wisniewski said the legislation is similar to a 2009 Maine law that bans distracted driving altogether. So, the penalty for sneaking a bite of your ham sandwich? Between $200 and $400 for the first offense, $400 to $600 for the second and $600 to $800 for the third, as well as a 90-day license suspension and points on the license, writes USA Today. Wisniewski noted that the bill is meant to educate and not punish motorists, as in those trying to multitask while driving instead of watching the road. Big Yum at Little Coles is the supermarket chains latest entry to the Australian c-store market. MELBOURNE Australian retailer Coles is testing a new convenience store brand, called Big Yum at Little Coles, as the supermarket chain looks to expand into the convenience sector, writes SmartCompany.com. The news source notes that three of the stores are up and running in Melbourne, and are selling coffee at 80 cents a cup and a range of healthy snacks. The stores are intended to compete with 7-Eleven with offers such as the Guzzle Bomb, noted as a Slurpee alternative. While Coles will strive to offer merchandise at its Big Yum stores at supermarket-level pricing, Gary Mortimer, an associate professor at the Queensland University of Technology, told the news source that this will be difficult to achieve. Running a supermarket and running a convenience store are very different, its hard to hold supermarket-style prices due to the higher wages for convenience store workers, he told the news source. The profit margins are quite small, so I believe they will have convenience-like pricing. Big Yum stores will put a spotlight on healthier choices, with products including fresh produce, fruit, wraps, sushi and sandwiches. Simon McDowell, director of Coles Express, told The Australian that the company will be closely watching the performance of these proof-of-concept sites and will look to incorporate successful elements of the format elsewhere in the store network. Yves here. No matter how bad you think Thomas Friedman is, he always manages to outdo himself on the downside. And Black has not stooped to comment on Friedmans offensive new coinage of Web People as All Correct Thinking Members of the Elite. Apparently Friedman got wind of Thomas Franks blistering criticism of how Team Dem has found new ways to stroke the egos of members of the professional classes by calling them the inevitable and deserving representatives of where America was destined to go and then coming up with more self-important roles like The Creative Innovator. So Friedeman is now apparently trying for faux egalitarianism. But Web People sounds an awful lot like another phenomenon that Lambert has observed of late among Acela corridor denizensthat they are all acting like Pod People. Is Friedman unconsciously telling one on himself and his allied? By Bill Black, the author of The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One and an associate professor of economics and law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Jointly published with New Economic Perspectives Thomas Friedman has written two columns advising Hillary Clinton to renounce her campaign promises and the Democratic Partys platform and move to the right of the Republican Party on economic issues. My first column in this series critiqued the centerpiece of his plea to her deregulate banking. This column discusses Friedmans economic assumption, which he probably does not understand he was making, that is (a) false and (b) dangerous. Friedman doesnt cite it as an economic assumption. Instead, he makes a systems theory assertion without even trying to explain why it would be applicable to his proposed sharp move to the right on economic policies. Open Systems In his column entitled Web People vs. Wall People, Friedman unleashes this stream of slogans. Web People instinctively understand that Democrats and Republicans both built their platforms largely in response to the Industrial Revolution, the New Deal and the Cold War, but that today, a 21st-century party needs to build its platform in response to the accelerations in technology, globalization and climate change, which are the forces transforming the workplace, geopolitics and the very planet. As such, the instinct of Web People is to embrace the change in the pace of change and focus on empowering more people to be able to compete and collaborate in a world without walls. In particular, Web People understand that in times of rapid change, open systems are always more flexible, resilient and propulsive; they offer the chance to feel and respond first to change. So Web People favor more trade expansion, along the lines of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and more managed immigration that attracts the most energetic and smartest minds, and more vehicles for lifelong learning. In both sentences, Friedman describes web people as supposedly understand[ing] the world based on instinct. Web people are instinctively great people because they share Friedmans instincts. The quoted sentences are almost entirely meaningless jargon in the service of Friedmans self-flattery and sucking up to the Silicon Valley CEOs that buy him lunch. The phrase that was lifted from systems theory is this: [I]n times of rapid change, open systems are always more flexible, resilient and propulsive; they offer the chance to feel and respond first to change Friedman has become a self-caricature because of his hagiographic praise for slogans hes lifted from Silicon Valley CEOs. He presents the slogans as if they are brilliant insights that if followed would transform the (supposedly flat) world in great ways. True Open Systems Cannot Exist in the Social Spheres There are numerous problems with this ode to open systems. First, in the real world of social relationships there is no reason to believe that an open system has ever existed or could exist. Open systems are defined as producing self-organization. They are characterized not by rigid rules and outcomes, but by feedback mechanisms and evolution. It is primarily a concept used in information systems. It is doubtful that even information systems actually meet the definition of open systems, for proponents tend to ignore the institutions supplied by others, such as the FBI, courts, prosecutors, and the rule of law, that are essential to the purported self-organization. The reader can see that the word self is the cheat. Information systems are in fact subject to catastrophic failure and endemic fraud and abuse absent effective enforcement of the rule of law and other governmental institutions. Flexible, Resilient and Propulsive Can Be A Euphemism for Genocidal Second, in the social sphere, self-organization leading to flexible, resilient and propulsive actions is often a prescription for disaster. In the social sphere, what happens when the Shiites in Lebanon become enraged by the outdated demographics underlying the Lebanese accord that divvies up power among the Shia, Sunni, Christians, and Druze? What happens when the rapid change is the defeat of the Shah of Iran and the rise of Hezbollah? What happens when Israel invades, the IDF funds Christian militias, and Mossad does targeted assassinations? What happens when Syria, which believes in Greater Syria takes over the Beqaa Valley? What happens when a six-party combination of civil and international war breaks out with shifting alliances, plus Washington and Moscow, plus terrorism for ransom and arms? No one would describe Lebanon or the Occupied Territories and Gaza as an open system. Social and economic systems without a rule of law will virtually never be open systems. Friedman has also forgotten that each of the actors that I have described are not simply reacting to rapid change they are deliberately and strategically inducing and shaping rapid change. Open systems are exceptionally unlikely to exist when the actors can cause deliberate, strategic, and nasty rapid change. The best way to do this in Lebanon was to kill leaders and a whole lot of civilians from the rival group. Once you and your family are targeted for murder because of your group identity, the only survival strategies are to emigrate (which is not generally available) or embrace your group identity and become a partisan. Friedman knows this fact as well as anyone given his time in Lebanon during its civil war and in the Occupied Territories and Gaza. Friedmans description of this perverse dynamic of forcing people who once thought of themselves as Lebanese to adopt an identification with ones religious or ethnic group was the centerpiece of his book From Beirut to Jerusalem. Flexible, resilient and propulsive is a list of amoral descriptors that can include torture, terror, mass rape, slavery, and genocide. The system is resilient because the winner is resilient. The losers may be dead or slaves. The flexibility can mean moral flexibility. The ethnic or religious group with the most flexible approach to ethics may be the first to use poison gas and win the war. Propulsive is a revealing term. The side with the best artillery can propel the most 155mm shells on the rival city, and (to switch countries to Syria) annihilate its rivals by applying Hama Rules. Hafez al-Assads destruction of Hama illustrates other reasons why social systems are not open systems and even if they were, would not inherently produce civilized results. Notice that power is the key. The entity that wins a conflict will often combine power, ruthlessness, deception, and treachery. Hafez al-Assad was an Alawite, a branch of the Shia faith that is a minority group in Syria. A minority group can maintain control in a nation for many decades if it controls the military and is prepared to use it ruthlessly against its fellow-citizens. Colonization and the seizure of continents from the native peoples was a flexible, resilient and propulsive process. Stealing extremely valuable assets is an excellent way to produce growth among the people that steal. Friedmans book described how even the most cosmopolitan financial and scientific elites (Web People even before there was a web) in Lebanon had to adopt a murderous group identification to survive. But he seems to have forgotten his own book. [T]he instinct of Web People is to embrace the change in the pace of change and focus on empowering more people to be able to compete and collaborate in a world without walls. Really? What selfless saints. They instinct[ively] spend their lives empowering more people to be able to compete with their own companies? Ill grant you that Silicon Valley CEOs collaborate. Under Bill Gates, Microsoft illegally collaborated (extorted) software developers to extend their operating system monopoly to other fields. Silicon Valley CEOs, led by Apples Steven Jobs, collaborated illegally for years via a no poaching pact (notice how they phrased competition as immoral with that term) to suppress workers wages. Jobs also collaborated with other officers to backdate his stock options to receive even larger compensation. Scores of CEOs collaborated to engage in accounting fraud through round trip scam broadband swaps and channel stuffing. Other Silicon Valley CEOs collaborated with other officers to get away for years with sexual harassment. Each of these crimes and abuses is an example of why economics is not an open system. Each of these crimes and abuses demonstrates the essential role of government enforcing an effective rule of law in producing desirable economic outcomes. Friedmans proposed economic policies both boil down to deregulation in finance and health and safety. As I quoted in my first column in this series, he explicitly calls for banking deregulation as his paramount policy. But he also calls for Hillary to support the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The paramount purpose of the TPP, though you would not learn this from Friedman, is destroying effective financial and health and safety regulation. The investment protection clauses allow powerful corporations to extort government to deter or penalize them if they dare to adopt vital regulations. Friedman is Peddling Long-Falsified Austrian Economic Dogmas Austrian economists are famous for asserting that, absent the evil government, economics is self-organizing and optimal. Their term for this is spontaneous order and they were great believers in Social Darwinism. They also predict that stimulus must fail and that austerity must succeed. Each of these claims has been falsified for decades by economists, regulators, courts, and criminologists. It turns out that fraud is a profit-opportunity that is subject to spontaneous criminal order. Fraud can create a Greshams dynamic in which bad ethics drives good ethics from the markets. The Austrians ideological heirs supplemented this self-correcting myth through three primary claims each of them discredited. Efficient markets and contracts Markets were asserted to be self-correcting. Any pricing error creates a profit opportunity and all public information is promptly taken into account by market participants. The optimal trading strategy when there is a pricing error is to buy the undervalued asset and sell the overvalued asset. This strategy automatically causes both pricing errors to disappear. The profit opportunity disappears when the pricing error is fixed. This means that prices will self-correct and tend to move toward their true value. The problem is that the worlds largest asset bubbles in history have occurred in the heart of this era in which markets are supposedly ever more efficient. Fraud does fool markets. Asset prices move systematically for many years further away from real values. Rather than self-correcting, financial markets collapsed and were saved only through massive governmental interventions. Frank Easterbrook and Daniel Fischel: Financial Markets Automatically Exclude Fraud Easterbrook and Fischel claimed that financial, professional, and employment markets automatically excluded frauds. This exclusion occurred because honest corporations had the financial incentive and unique ability that could not be mimicked by frauds to signal that they were honest. To be kind, no aspect of their claims was true and when they attempted to apply their theory in the real world they ended up praising three financial firms each of which proved to be massive frauds. Naturally, when they wrote their book promoting their theories there was insufficient space to disclose this embarrassment. General Equilibrium Theory and Pareto Optimality The Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto argued that voluntary exchange would inherently lead to both parties being made better off. These voluntary exchanges would take place until all such mutually beneficial exchanges were made. When that point was reached the economy would have reached optimality. Microeconomists created a general equilibrium theory that relied on Pareto optimality as a means to claim that an economy with minimal governmental interference would produce a grand equilibrium. Macroeconomists decided to torture the concept even more aggressively and make it their basis for claiming that if the government could be reduced to economic insignificance even the overall economy would be self-correcting and would move naturally toward optimality. There are so many things wrong with these claims that it would take volumes to develop simply the fatal errors. Ill mention only three of those fatal errors. First, fraud. Both parties are not made better off and the markets massively magnify the pricing errors. One party, the bank CEO is made massively better off. More junior officers and employees and the independent professionals who aid and abet the frauds prosper enormously. The borrowers, shareholders, and the general public losses vastly exceed these gains. Second, externalities. Pareto optimal transactions could be a global suicide pact due to pollution, ozone holes, and global climate change. Calling something optimal that is actually suicidal exemplifies the insanity of this economic ideology. Third, the economists who promoted those dogmas have argued for decades that their claims should be judged on their productive ability. I agree. They failed catastrophically and repeatedly. But they did not stop spreading dogmas they knew had repeatedly been proved false. Austrian Economics as Center-Left Friedmans claim that banking deregulation and health and safety deregulation, through the extortion provided by the investment protection obscenity in the TPP, are the keys to super-charging growth and creating a self-correcting economy is based on a slogan rather than real economics, real systems theory, or any historical reality. The economic dogmas that Friedman is peddling have all been falsified. The dishonest aspect of all this is that Friedman advises Hillary to adopt these hard-right dogmas, which have repeatedly led to the epidemics of elite fraud that drove our last three financial crises, as a means to achieve rapid economic growth and financial stability. The hilarious aspect of this is that Friedman claims that Hillarys embrace of ultra-right wing tropes would produce a compassionate, center-left Web party for the 21st century. Center-left? By Lynn Parramore, Senior Research Analyst at the Institute for New Economic Thinking. Originally published at the Institute for New Economic Thinking website Outrage over how big money influences American politics has been boiling over this political season, energizing the campaigns of GOP nominee Donald Trump and former Democratic candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders alike. Citizens have long suspected that We the People increasingly means We the Rich at election time. Yet surprisingly, two generations of social scientists have insisted that wallets dont matter that much in American politics. Elections are really about giving the people what they want. Money, they claim, has negligible impact on elections. That was a good line for Cold War propaganda, and good for tenure, too. Corporate titans seized upon it to argue that their money should be freer to flow into political campaigns. Not only billionaires, but academics, too, argued that more money in elections meant more democracy. Even today, many academics and pundits still insist that money matters less to political outcomes than ordinary citizens think, even as business executives throw down mind-boggling sums to dine with politicians and Super Pacs spring up like mushrooms. The few dissenters from this consensus, like Noam Chomsky, are ignored in the U.S. as unpersons, though they are enormously respected abroad. This is a scandal. It has stymied efforts at campaign finance reform and weakened American democracy. Political scientist Thomas Ferguson, Director of Research at the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET), has spent a career setting the record straight with clear empirical evidence in a field where such research has been shockingly rare. Ever since his 1995 book Golden Rule: The Investment Theory of Party Competition blasted through received academic wisdom by showing how wealthy individuals and businesses strategically invest in political parties for the biggest pay off, Ferguson has been the man to seek when you really wanted to know how elections work and who controls them. White collar criminologist William K. Black and others still recall Fergusons famous warning, issued long before the nominating convention in 2008, that the contributions from big finance piling up in Barack Obamas campaign war chest meant that his promises of sweeping reforms of finance were not to be believed. In 2014, he foresaw the unraveling of Americas two major political parties and predicted that voters feeling betrayed would increasingly abandon both. Want a happy ending? he quips. See a Disney movie. In recent years, Ferguson has often worked with two other talented researchers, Paul Jorgensen and Jie Chen. The three have tracked the generous funding of Obama by high tech businesses engaged in spying on the American public and the waves of money from polluters into the Republican Party. Spend Money, Win Votes Now the researchers have turned their attention on political money in Congressional elections in a new paper for (INET). They begin with a simple question: What are the facts about total campaign spending and election outcomes? As they write: We can pool all spending by and on behalf of candidates and then examine whether relative, not absolute, differences in total outlays are related to the differences in votes received by the major political parties. Their answer is stunning: there is strong, direct link between what the major political parties spend and the percentage of votes they win far stronger than all the airy dismissals of the role of money in elections would ever lead you to think, and certainly stronger than anything you read in your poli sci class. They show the strength of this relationship through a simple graph. The line going out to the right in the graph shows the Democratic percentage of the total money flowing into the race for the major parties and runs from 0 to 100 percent. The vertical line shows the percentage of the major party vote that the Democrats won. Dots represent individual House races in 2012. As Ferguson, Jorgensen, and Chen sum up: At the bottom left Democrats spend almost no money and get virtually no votes; at the top right, they spend nearly all the money and garner virtually all the ballots, calculated as proportions of totals for the major parties. If money and voting outcomes were unrelated, then the dots representing individual House races in 2012 would be scattered all over the square. If they were perfectly related, the dots would all cluster tightly on a line. Not only in 2012, but in every election for which the data exists (from 1980 to 2012), Ferguson, Jorgensen, and Chen found that the graphs came out with neat, straight lines, with minimal scattering of dots. The link is clear: when the Democrats spend more than Republicans, their candidates win. When Republicans spend more than Democrats, they win. There was but one exception, the Senate races of 1982, when Senator William Proxmire, whose disdain for fundraising was legendary but who still won elections, brought down the average. Otherwise, with alarming regularity, Democrats and Republicans candidates share of the vote was correlated, to an astonishing degree, with the amount money spent in the campaign. Nothing like this graph has ever made its way into a political science textbook. That it now exists sure should change what Ferguson, Jorgensen, and Chen call the optics of the campaign finance discussion. But will it? Does Money Just Follow Popular Candidates? Political scientists have long had way out of admitting the implications for democracy of such a direct a relationship between politics and money: the idea that the wealthy tend to spend on the most popular Congressional candidates. Their influence, the thinking goes, is thus nothing more than a reflection the will of the people. They dont force any outcome other than the one that voters would choose. Political scientists call this idea reciprocal causality. Ferguson, Jorgensen, and Chen tackle this issue head on. They use a cutting-edge method invented by Dutch statistician Peter Ebbes and recently studied by Irene Hueter in another new INET paper. The researchers find that while reciprocal causation happens, its extent is not large: moneys effect is direct and powerful. They confirm their conclusion by using another method now widely employed in finance and economics: they look at published gambling odds on the chances of a Republican takeover of the House in 1994. These are relevant because a huge wave of money swept the Republicans to victory in that election, but the odds never moved very much. The relative lack of change rules out the idea that soaring expectations of victory drove the wave. But the wave, when it came, nevertheless produced a big change in the electoral outcome, just as a money-driven investment theory of political parties would predict. Eccentric Gazillionaires or Big Corporations Driving Elections? Their paper closes by examining the notion that right wing politics in America has been driven by donations piling up from eccentric entrepreneurs like investor and conservative mega-donor Foster Friess the sort of people who are widely imagined to populate the Forbes 400 list of wealthiest Americans rather than mainline big business corporations, such as those on the Fortune 500 list. On the contrary, the researchers find that a simple count of firms and investors on Forbes show that the largest American corporations support Tea Party Congressional candidates and organizations supporting the movement, such as Freedom Works, at much higher rates than Forbes 400 members. Even making due allowances for Dark Money, the difference is substantial. Evidently American big business firms are not centrist, as many pundits would have it. As Ferguson and his colleagues put it: Stories that the steady rightward drift of the American political universe is somehow the work of exceptionally ideological individual entrepreneurs are huge over-simplifications. If the center is not holding in American society and it rather plainly is not Americas largest companies are as implicated as anyone else; indeed, perhaps more so. This state of affairs explains why economic inequality has grown into a crisis, with social unrest amplified by economic distress. Because of this money-driven system which has been getting worse since 1970s up to the current dysfunctional mess when the rich dont feel like paying taxes, we all suffer. Infrastructure collapses, schoolchildren and sick people suffer, and hard-working citizens are robbed of their fair share of the countrys prosperity and end their lives struggling keep body and soul together. Ferguson, Jorgensen, and Chen conclude: It goes without saying that this news is not reassuring; particularly in elections below the federal level in states and local elections, we suspect, money has come to dominate outcomes to a frightening degree, not least because it is unlikely that the Republican advantage is offset there to the degree that it has been in recent federal elections. If it turns out that the U.S. has entered a Post-Democratic age, the situation will not be improved by social scientists behaving like ostriches. It is time economics, political science, and history recognize the reality of industrial and financial blocs within parties and acknowledge moneys powerful effects on elections. If mainstream social scientists are not pursuing the truth, what exactly are they pursuing? Whatever it is, it does not appear to be good for democracy. Engineering a chemical switch into a light-driven proton pump (Nanowerk News) Synthetic biology is an emerging and rapidly evolving engineering discipline. Within the NCCR Molecular Systems Engineering, Bernese scientists have engineered a chemically switchable version of the light-driven proton pump proteorhodopsin an essential tool for efficiently powering molecular factories and synthetic cells. Synthetic biology is a highly interdisciplinary field, which combines biology, chemistry and physics with engineering. Its goal is to design molecular factories and synthetic cells with novel properties or functions for applications in healthcare, industry, or biological and medical research. Such artificial systems are in the nanometer scale and are built by combining and assembling existing, synthetic or engineered building blocks (e.g., proteins). Molecular systems have wide application ranges, e.g., for chemical compound synthesis, waste disposal, energy supply and medical diagnosis or treatment. In this context, the NCCR Molecular Systems Engineering brings Swiss scientists from different disciplines together to stimulate innovation, and address existing and future challenges. The University of Bern is represented by the Fotiadis laboratory in the NCCR MSE. Nanocontainer consisting of lipid (in orange) and the engineered version of proteorhodopsin (in red). Light irradiation of the molecular system fails in establishing a proton gradient across the membrane because of the symmetrical integration of proteorhodopsins, which results in a short-circuit (left). After chemically switching off wrongly oriented proteorhodopsins (right), correctly oriented ones can establish a proton gradient across the membrane (indicated in gray). (Image: Dimitrios Fotiadis, University of Bern) Nanomachines for energy conversion Energy-providing building blocks are essential to power molecular systems. Light-driven proton pumps such as the membrane protein proteorhodopsin represent excellent nanomachines for efficient energy conversion. Light energy, e.g., solar energy, is easily accessible and efficiently used by proteorhodopsin to establish proton gradients across membranes, which separate two different compartments. Such gradients can then be used to drive proton-driven building blocks of molecular systems, for example proton-driven transporters. Living cells commonly use proton gradients to power processes such as import and export of solutes and ions through transporters, and the synthesis of metabolites. Eliminating the short-circuit Using common methods for the assembly of proteorhodopsin, and membrane proteins in general, into containers such as liposomes or polymerosomes (i.e., spherical structures consisting of lipid or polymer membranes), symmetric integration in membranes is observed leading to short-circuit and failure in establishing a proton gradient. Therefore, members from the Fotiadis group, in particular Dr. Daniel Harder and Stephan Hirschi, together with colleagues from the NCCR MSE have implemented a chemical on-off switch into proteorhodopsin, thus extending its versatility and allowing the establishment of an asymmetric distribution of functional proteorhodopsin proteins in membranes by selectively deactivating one of the two possible orientations. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday pledged to reinvigorate ties after their first meeting since Ankara shot down a Russian warplane last November. Erdogan's visit to Putin's hometown of Saint Petersburg is also his first foreign trip since the failed coup against him last month that sparked a purge of opponents and cast a shadow over Turkey's relations with the West. "We lived through a very complicated moment in the relations between our states and we very much want, and I feel our Turkish friends want, to overcome the difficulties," Putin told journalists at a joint press conference. He insisted it would take "painstaking work" and "some time" to return to previous trade levels as Russia rolls back punishing economic sanctions against Ankara, but both sides said they wanted to restart major energy projects hit by the crisis. Erdogan said he hoped relations would become "more robust" and stressed how important it was that Putin offered his support after the coup. "We will bring our relations back to the old level and even beyond," he said. The shooting down of a Russian fighter jet by a Turkish F-16 on the Syrian border last November saw Putin slap sanctions on Turkey and launch a blistering war of words that dealt serious damage to burgeoning ties. But in a shock reversal late June, Putin accepted a letter from Erdogan expressing regret over the incident as an apology. He quickly rolled back a ban on the sale of package holidays to Turkey and signalled Moscow would end measures against Turkish food imports and construction firms. Now in the wake of the failed July 15 coup attempt, there are fears in Western capitals that NATO-member Turkey could draw even closer to Moscow -- with Erdogan bluntly making it clear he feels let down by the United States and the European Union. Putin was one of the first foreign leaders to phone Erdogan offering support after the coup attempt and shares none of the concerns of EU leaders about the ensuing crackdown. Relations between Turkey and Russia -- two powers vying for influence in the strategic Black Sea region and Middle East -- have long been complicated. Yet before the plane crisis, Moscow and Ankara managed to prevent disputes on Syria and Ukraine from harming cooperation on issues like the TurkStream gas pipeline to Europe and a Russian-built nuclear power station in Turkey. Those projects were put on ice with trade between the two countries plunging 43 percent in January-May this year to $6.1 billion, and Turkey's tourism industry seeing visitor numbers from Russia fall by 93 percent. With Turkey's outlook flagging and Russia mired in economic crisis due to low oil prices and Western sanctions over Ukraine, both men want to get business started again. Erdogan said he wanted to see the TurkStream project "done as fast as possible", while Putin said construction could start "in the nearest future" and that the restoration of business ties would be done "in phases". The Turkish leader also insisted the two sides were once again targeting an ambitious trade turnover of $100 billion by 2024. But Russian Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev told media it could take up to two years to fully restore pre-crisis trade levels. A previous uptick in relations between Turkey and Russia was built on a macho friendship between Putin and Erdogan, two combative leaders in their early 60s credited with restoring confidence to their nations in the wake of financial crises but also criticised for clampdowns on human rights. But after such a bitter dispute -- which saw Putin accuse Erdogan of stabbing profiting from an illegal oil trade with the Islamic State group -- it will take a lot for the pair to reheat relations. The two strongmen conspicuously skirted one major issue that divides them -- the war in Syria. Putin and Erdogan said they would start discussing the conflict after the press conference, but the Russian leader insisted both sides were committed to finding a peaceful solution. Russia is carrying out a bombing campaign in support of President Bashar al-Assad while Turkey is fiercely opposed to the Syrian leader. Erdogan insisted in an interview with Russian media ahead of the talks that Assad must still go -- a position opposed by Putin -- but said that the conflict could now become the focus for renewed cooperation between the two sides. Search Keywords: Short link: PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP failed to spot for seven years a multibillion fraud that led to the demise of Taylor Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp., a lawyer for the lender's bankruptcy trustee told a Miami jury on Tuesday. At issue is PwC's work for Colonial Bank, which bought mortgages that Taylor Bean originated. Had PwC adequately vetted documents that Taylor Bean gave to the bank, it would have spotted a multiyear fraud by executives at both firms far earlier and put an end to it, the trustee claims. Instead, federal regulators uncovered it in 2009 and Taylor Bean and Colonial went bankrupt. The bankruptcy trustee sued in 2013 seeking $5.6 billion in damages. "Year after year, Pricewaterhouse didn't do their job, they didn't follow the rules and they failed to detect the fraud," Steven Thomas, an attorney for the trustee, said in opening statements. There have been several suits stemming from the financial crisis in which bankruptcy trustees sorting through the remains of firms that collapsed due to fraud have gone after auditors, saying they failed in their roles as watchdogs. Taylor Bean's accountant, Deloitte & Touche, settled similar allegations by the trustee three years ago for an undisclosed amount. This isn't the first time PwC has been accused of negligence. Last year, the firm agreed to pay $65 million to settle similar claims tied to the collapse of MF Global Holdings Ltd. PwC maintains it complied with auditing standards in the Taylor Bean case and accused the mortgage issuer of being responsible for its own losses. "Remember, Taylor Bean's owner and half of its board of directors were criminals," Beth Tanis, an attorney for the accounting firm, told jurors. "They didn't rely on Pricewaterhouse's audit report because they knew about the fraud they were committing." Taylor Bean, once the 12th-largest mortgage lender, collapsed after federal regulators uncovered a $3 billion scheme involving fake mortgage assets. Six Taylor Bean executives were convicted and jailed for their roles in the fraud, including former chairman Lee Farkas, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Beginning in 2002, Farkas sent mortgage data to Colonial Bank for loans that didn't exist or that Taylor Bean had already committed or sold to other investors. By the end of 2007, the scheme, which involved executives at Colonial Bank, consisted of about $1.5 billion in fake or severely impaired residential mortgage loans. PwC allegedly failed to spot the fraud when it audited the books of Colonial's parent, Colonial BancGroup Inc., even though Taylor Bean was the bank's largest client and a "stakeholder" in PwC's audits, according to court documents. PwC allegedly certified the fake mortgage assets as "true sales" to Colonial and tried to cover up its negligence when federal regulators questioned the accounting, according to the papers. Colonial Bank, which became the sixth-largest bank failure in U.S. history, cost the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s insurance fund about $4.2 billion. The judge overseeing the case ruled last year that a jury should determine whether or not punitive damages are warranted to punish PwC based on allegations of gross negligence and intentional misconduct. The case is Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Plan Trust v. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, 13-033964, Eleventh Judicial Circuit for Miami-Dade County, Florida (Miami). The number of tourists coming to Egypt dropped by 50 percent in the first half of 2016 compared to the same period last year, the head of Egypt's Tourism Authority Samy Mahmoud said. Only three million tourists visited Egypt in the first six months of 2016, Mahmoud told Ahram Online. Mahmoud added that tourism revenues during the period witnessed a drop of 60 percent compared to 2015, adding that all tourism markets in Egypt have seen a fall, except for tourists coming from Ukraine and China, whose numbers saw a 30 percent increase year-on-year. Egypt saw $6.1 billion in tourism revenue in 2015, as the total number of tourists and nights spent dropped by 6 percent and 14 percent respectively from 2014. Tourism revenue totaled $500 million in the first quarter of 2016, around 66 percent down compared to the same quarter a year earlier, a tourism ministry adviser told Reuters in April. The ministry official attributed the decline to Russia's suspension of passenger flights to Egypt following the October crash of a Russian airliner in Sinai that killed all 224 people on board. The UK has also suspended flights to Egypt's Sharm El-Sheikh following the crash, citing security concerns. According to Mahmoud, Russian and British tourists amounted to 45 percent of the number of tourists coming to Egypt. Officials have said that Egypt has been losing EGP 2 billion monthly due to the continuous blows to tourism. Tourism is an important source of foreign currency for Egypt, which has been seeking billions in foreign financing facilities to address a severe hard currency shortage with FX reserves down to $15.5 billion in July. Search Keywords: Short link: Merrill Lynch will be taking more of its mortgage originations business in house and away from PHH Corp. PHH disclosed this in its second quarter results, when it announced a $12 million net loss in the second quarter, which is an improvement over the $62 million loss for the same period last year. However, the company's financials could face a bigger hit going forward as Merrill Lynch, a Bank of America subsidiary which previously announced it was taking back some of its originations as well as the servicing function from PHH. "When combined with Merrill Lynch's previously disclosed insourcing decisions, we may now be faced with a total volume reduction of approximately 60% of Merrill Lynch's dollar closing volumes based on 2015 originations. "During the second quarter Merrill Lynch application units were down by approximately 30% compared to the same quarter last year. Merrill Lynch has forecasted cumulative volume reductions, is expected to have a negative impact to pretax earnings of approximately $13 million for the second half of 2016, and $44 million annualized before any mitigating actions such as cost reductions or volume enhancement initiatives," said PHH President and CEO Glenn Messina during a conference call. PHH made $13 million on the origination business in the second quarter, up from $3 million one year ago. It originated $10.4 billion, a decrease of 14% from the second quarter of 2015, which led to a $12 million decrease in net origination revenue. However total expenses in the segment declined by $19 million. The servicing business lost $33 million, which was an improvement over the $46 million loss recorded in the second quarter of 2015. As for the strategic alternatives review, PHH has made "significant progress," but the company would not provide any other comments, Messina said during the call. The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force has been nominated by USA Today for the 10Best Readers Choice 2016 Favorite Free Museum travel award. Join the Air Force Museum Foundation in voting for the museum at www.10best.com . Voting will continue now through Monday, August 29. According to the website: Dayton's National Museum of the U.S. Air Force presents a broad history of the Air Force, with more than 360 aerospace vehicles and missiles on display. The collection also includes thousands more historical items, all divided among topical galleries, like the Cold War Gallery, Presidential Gallery and Space Gallery. Since 1960, the Air Force Museum Foundation has worked with the United States Air Force to ensure that the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force is the premier museum of military aviation history. The Foundation has raised more than $87 million for museum expansion, including the new fourth building housing the Presidential, Research and Development, Space and Global Reach Galleries. Each year, about one million visitors walk among the past, present and future of the Air Force for free from the early years of military aviation to todays stealth aircraft. Vote now and help this American treasure to be recognized as the worlds best free museum! Readers can vote once per day HERE. Other nominees include: Smithsonians National Air and Space Museum and National Museum of Natural History Washington; National Infantry Museum & Soldier Center Columbus, Ga.; and the USS Constitution Museum Boston. About the Air Force Museum Foundation The Air Force Museum Store is operated by the Air Force Museum Foundation, Inc., a Section 501(c)(3) private, non-profit organization that assists the Air Force in the development and expansion of the facilities of the National Museum of the United States Air Force. For more information on the Air Force Museum Foundation, visit www.airforcemuseum.com. The Air Force Museum Foundation is not part of the Department of Defense or any of its components and it has no governmental status. About the National Museum of the United States Air Force The National Museum of the United States Air Force, located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, is the worlds largest military aviation museum. With free admission and parking, the museum features more than 360 aerospace vehicles and missiles and thousands of artifacts amid more than 19 acres of indoor exhibit space. Each year about one million visitors from around the world come to the museum. For more information, visit www.nationalmuseum.af.mil. Mohamed Ismail left his gynecology practice to launch the Art of Seeing, a Heliopolis-based centre that teaches the art of photography "Taking photographs is like describing a feeling, telling a story, or discovering a person," the 45-year-old Mohamed Ismail says of his passion. The moment he begins talking about photography, his eyes sparkle. "Photography is my greatest passion, he makes clear. As he walks us through his studio that resembles a museum, he swiftly adds that a beautiful photo speaks for itself. Silence reigns inside the centre Art of Seeing, a space located in one of the calmest streets of Heliopolis. The space opened last February and welcomes enthusiasts of photography who wish to gain some training. A sign above the door reads Khatwa Aziza, which is an Egyptian expression welcoming the visitors. Working at his computer, Mohamed Ismail selects a series of photos he will use during his class on shooting techniques. This photographer is doing everything to bring out the hidden talents of his trainees to the light. "I arrive to the centre early enough to check on everything and prepare myself for the lessons," Ismail says enthusiastically. The building, whose walls are painted in three colors (green, purple and blue) and where he installed his studio and a laboratory to develop and print the photos, is in fact Ismails family house. Interestingly, Ismails education has nothing to do with the photography field. He began his medical studies in 1989, and throughout all the years spent at the medical school he kept taking the photography courses at the Camera Club in Alexandria, his hometown. It is there that he learned about photography and the different stages of development and printing on paper. Even when he already began practicing gynecology as a profession, Ismail then enrolled in a photography course at the regional training centre at the University of Ain Shams to become a qualified instructor. In 2011, he left his job as a gynecologist and began working in photography related to marketing and advertising, before finally founding his own artistic practice. He underlines that with all the experiences, nothing compares to his love of photography. "Medicine is also art. During the seven years of my studies, I had a chance to observe some details of the human body and function of the organs. This may sound weird, but I benefited from those observations in the photography field," he says with a playful smile. "The photographer is able to define the desired effect of a photo before even taking it. When taking photos, you go beyond what is seen and touch on many domains in this activity," he adds. Ismail reveals that to deepen his passion and acquire better skills, he also attended courses at the American University of Cairo and in Indonesia. Equally, he expanded his knowledge by reading the works Merry Fisher and Freeman Patterson who delve deep into the art of vision. He asserts that throughout the years, he felt torn between the gynecology profession and his passion for photography. However, the awards he garnered on the way (from the Camera Club, the Youth Salon and the Television of Alexandria) only encouraged him to make his choice and he has no regrets. "It can be very difficult to invest in ones medical practice, while with photography it seems to me more simple and easy, he explains, justifying his final choice. He adds that on a commercial level, it is him, after all, who decides on the pricing of his photos. As the lessons begin at the studio, the students have their eye fixed on the trainer. This is a meditation segment in the centre, which serves as one of the ways to develop the participants creativity. Prior to starting his course, Ismail awaits in total silence. A young person distributes green and blue bandana-like blindfolds to the trainees to boost their focus. "Hold your breath and recall your childhood. You are still children. You open the door and meet one of your classmates. You feel the nature and fresh air, you breathe in while taking in every colour, every detail," Ismail says as he observes the trainees. The exercise, he believes, encourages the participants to give free reign to their imagination. The atmosphere relaxes. In certain moment of this meditation, Ismail asks the trainees to keep their eyes covered as they reproduce a painting they have seen or sketch, using a pen on a sheet of paper. Though half an hour passes, hardly anyone took notice of time. Following this meditation session, everyone seems to have come from another world, the trainees seem more at ease and motivated. Ismail begins analysing each photo or picture, explaining the effect that each of them creates. This procedure is the art of vision. In his studio and photography practice, not only does Ismail teach the techniques of this art, but he also tries to open the creative horizons of the participants. By the end of the day, it all feeds back to photography -- this passion that changed the course of his own life. ---- Art of Seeing centre is located at 17 Ameen Zaki street, Heliopolis, Cairo This article was originally published in Al Ahram Hebdo 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 Search Keywords: Short link: Directed by Laila Soliman, Zig Zig, a play that retells the story of 12 Egyptian women who were raped by British soldiers in 1919, premiered in April this year. The play returned to the stages of Cairo and Alexandria this month Set nearly 100 years ago, Laila Solimans play Zig Zig retells the history of 12 women who were raped by British soldiers in Nazlat El-Shobak, an Egyptian village near Giza that was violently raided during the British occupation in 1919. When called upon to give evidence in a British military court, the women's reports on their rape presented a rare record of testimonies of this kind. Since Egyptian sources held no complete transcript of the events, the play takes the 1919 archives from the British Foreign Office as the material voicing the womens stories. The stories of these women are little known to the public, yet this revisiting of history is not new to Soliman, whose works are recurrently drawing from archival material framed on stage into poignant theatrical pieces. An established Egyptian director, on the rise since her first play in 2004 (The Retreating World), Soliman extensively studied theatre, and went on to produce a number of important plays across the years, including Ghorba, Images of Alienation in 2006, Lessons in Revolting in 2011, and in the same year a documentary theatre series titled No Time for Art on military and police violence. Soliman speaks to Ahram Online about Zig Zig, which debuted in April at DCAF festival and was recently on show at Cairo's Jesuit Nahda Centre, and is set for two upcoming performances in Alexandrias Jesuit Centre on 10 and 11 August. AO: With over a decade of experience, how would you say your subject matter has changed over time? LS: My first play was about the siege of Iraq, so from the beginning my plays have been socially and politically aware. The shift was in form, from fiction to documentary. I had already taken that direction since 2009, then [Egypt's 2011] revolution sort of pushed it forward. AO: Your previous play Whims of Freedom (2014) was also drawn from archives of the 1919 revolution. How did Zig Zig emerge from that? LS: We were already working on Whims of Freedom, which was already a documentary performance, [when] we found the documents on the Nazlet El-Shobak investigations. It was quite late to fully ingenerate them in the performance we were working on, and I felt they deserved to be better framed and be the subject of a separate play. AO: What draws you to the past to create contemporary performances? LS: Im interested in this idea of alternative history writing; history should not be only one narrative, a nationalist narrative decided on by the government. Looking for ways to rewrite history was also triggered further by the revolution. Of course nobody has the whole truth, but at least there should be multiple narratives, and that of the individual citizen shouldnt be undermined or left out. Another point was that women are often not equally represented. And so its not just about an alternative to the nationalist narrative, but to the patriarchal narrative as well. AO: While it is based on facts, a large part of the womens stories is left to the imagination, and sometimes you even share your own questions in the play. What were some considerations you had in mind while presenting the script? LS: I think thats a subjective interpretation, I dont think it was left to the imagination. I think we were pointing to the gaps and trying to work with these gaps. There were many more versions or directions that would have gone into interpretations. Like if I had translated the text for example, or used certain costumes, or by trying to re-enact certain scenes it would have went into interpretation, but I tried to leave it as open as possible, to leave it to the audience. AO: Though based on historical archives, Zig Zig does not unfold objectively as a list of facts. As it attempts to humanise the incident, it becomes inevitably subjective. Were there times that you held back from taking too much liberty with the story, in an effort to leave it open? LS: Of course with every material the selection of what to share makes it subjective. I am not a historian; at the end this is a work of theatre. I think that I did everything I wanted. AO: The play is described in the booklet as drawing links on stage between the historical material, the womens personal experiences and todays rape culture. Perhaps the play not only tries to bridge times, but also social classes (between the village women of 1919, and contemporary women in 2016). LS: I dont know if I was trying to bridge classes, but rather I was trying to break the stereotypes, and suggest that what we know about the past is not always real, and maybe peasant women from that time were more outspoken than we imagine them to be. Bridging the times serves to show that things are not black and white. Even the British soldiers, as bad as they were, did attempt to be more subjective and conduct open investigations. AO: As the actresses read out the archived interrogations of the women by the British court, several times they place the womens credibility in doubt, if one is to follow the script alone. Yet the whole performance leads us to be on the womens side and believe them. How did you frame this when working on the play? LS: The mechanism of the conducting interrogations uses well- known patterns. There are people who are trained in how to break the people being questioned. Sometimes of course you can see contradictions and inconsistency in the story. I see the clear mechanism they are using, and how the woman might be confused, or inclined to lie about one thing or another. AO: The interrogation also uses certain words, like violated when referring to rape. LS: The choice of words matter, and how the question is phrased, again it is all part of that mechanism. This was the only recorded case we found where the women speak out, plus all over the world its very common that rape happens as a part of negligence in how the soldiers conduct themselves, or as politically organised. And of course its not something usually documented. You will never have the absolute answer to whether it was organised or not. AO: The play begins with an actress talking about a nightmare. Was that the only part that was scripted? LS: That was actually a dream the actress herself had, which she wrote and shared in the play. AO: Zig Zig infuses music, with a violinist sharing the stage with the actresses, songs from the era of the incident, both in Arabic and English, as well as contemporary dance segments. Was the decision to include these means of expression a way to make it more artistically accessible? LS:I wanted to [present a contrast between the voice of the text] with another [voice of] emotions. It is also about emotional interpretation. These songs are all related to the period. There are always both content choices and emotional choices, so I chose them based on the significance of the song historically, as well as the emotional aspect they could convey. AO: Youve previously described yourself as being 'most interested in an independent, socially and politically aware theatre.' How would you position your work in this context? LS: Independent is a state of living. Maybe if I were somewhere else, I wouldnt mind working in state theatre. I dont know if its so much a choice, or maybe its a character trait. AO: What do you hope to find or hope to present to the audience by retelling these scenes from history? LS: Im a theatre maker, so I work on the material that interests me in hopes that it will interest the audience as well. I believe that theatre has a different power of communicating with audience members in a direct and hopefully deeper way. I hope reflecting on the past gives us opportunity to reflect on the present. Programme: 10, 11 August at 8pm El-Garage, Jesuits Cultural Centre, 298 Port Said Street, Cleopatra, Alexandria 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 Search Keywords: Short link: 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. 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 Search Keywords: Short link: Harm being greatly underestimated Gaming the system (NaturalNews) A recent investigation led by the Center for Biological Diversity discovered that more than two-thirds of the pesticide products approved by the EPA for four major firms contained mixtures of pesticides that make the pesticides more poisonous than they are on their own.In light of this finding, the center has petitioned the EPA to force pesticide companies to disclose data on the chemical mixtures they contain and their synergistic effects when trying to get the products approved. This synergy information is typically available in public patents, but the corporate giants do not appear to be sharing it with the EPA.Interestingly, EPA regulations stated that pesticide synergy testing and data could be requested from pesticide companies back in 1984, but this provision was actually deleted in 2007 on the grounds that it was "unnecessary". Since then, the EPA has essentially looked the other way when it comes to the risks of various synergistic combinations in approving pesticides.In the Center for Biological Diversity's investigation, 96 of 140 products recently approved by the EPA from four Big Ag firms Monsanto , Dow, Syngenta and Bayer that contained two or more active ingredients that had at least one patent on file that claimed synergy.The petition, which is addressed to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy and Office of Pesticide Programs Director Jack Housenger, emphasizes that the EPA is very likely to be underestimating the harm the pesticides it assesses are causing to the environment The petition points to the case of Enlist Duo, an herbicide that the EPA had once approved for use. The EPA said at the time that it was safe for everyone, including infants, developing fetuses, agricultural workers, the elderly, the environment, and endangered species. However, the herbicide contained a highly toxic mix of glyphosate and 2,4-D.The Environmental Working Group petitioned the EPA to get the product's approval pulled. Glyphosate has been declared "probably carcinogenic to humans" by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, and it's been linked to birth defects, nervous system damage, and infertility . The other ingredient in Enlist Duo, 2,4-D, was actually the main ingredient of Agent Orange, which killed nearly 400,000 people in Vietnam and was responsible for more than half a million people being born with birth defects.The EPA ultimately revoked its approval, stating that the product is more harmful than they initially believed after receiving new information on the synergistic effects between the two main ingredients.The letter calls EnlistDuo "just the tip of the iceberg of a much larger problem regarding the pesticide registration process."It's also interesting to note that pesticides typically are required to have a synergistic effect in order to be eligible for a patent in the first place, which means that pesticide companies are claiming there is a synergistic effect in patent office filings while failing to mention such an effect when applying for EPA approval.The Center's Environmental Health Director, Lori Ann Burd, expressed dismay at the pesticide industry's ability to game the system for such a long period of time by giving one set of data to the Patent Office and another one to the EPA.Pesticide companies might be able to get away with dishonesty when dealing with the EPA, but the facts don't lie. This practice highlights the importance of independent research that is free from industry collusion , which is increasingly hard to find. BiologicalDiversity.org [PDF] Zika scare an excuse to blast populations with more toxic chemicals (NaturalNews) Government leaders in Brazil, the epicenter of the Zika virus outbreak that's being blamed on infected mosquitoes, are having second thoughts about its cause, new reports indicate. After noticing anomalous trends with regards to symptoms of the disease and where they're breaking out and spreading, epidemiologists and vector specialists now believe that environmental pollution is a more likely cause of the outbreaknecessarily mosquitoes.Either that, or some combination of mosquitoes and chemical toxicity is to blame for the wave of birth defects, miscarriages and other pregnancy-related problems being seen in pockets throughout the country, but not everywhere. Some areas are seeing high numbers of these horrific health outcomes while many others aren't, even though mosquitoes are present in all of them and nowhere in Brazil are health experts seeing the " explosion " of Zika cases that was expected based on the mosquito narrative.Brazil's Ministry of Health has already launched an investigation to look into the cluster of babies born with brain defects associated with the Zika virus. Though it's expected to take several months to reach a conclusion, the inquiry aims to solve the puzzle of what, exactly, is causing pregnant mothers to suffer perinatal abnormalities, and their babies to suffer birth defects: Zika, environmental pollution or some combination of both?"We can see there is a kind of cluster in [part of] the northeast region with high prevalence and high severity, of miscarriage and congenital malformation that is really severe; but we didn't find this in other states even the [adjacent] states didn't see the same situation as in the epicenter," Fatima Marinho, coordinator of epidemiological analysis and information at Brazil's Ministry of Health, told the press."We were preparing for an explosion and it didn't come."The Brazilian ministry speculates that co-infection with other viruses like dengue or chikungunya might be another possibility, or perhaps some combination of chemical poisoning and viral infection. In either case, more investigation is needed before governments start doling out experimental Zika vaccines that might just exacerbate the problem by spreading more disease.There's also thechemical poisoning theory the idea that the entire thing is staged to make an excuse for more aerial spraying endeavors. It's already apparent that anything involving mosquitoes or insects is typically given the chemical carpet bomb treatment.Zika has been around forever, of course, and nobody's batted an eye about it until just recently. This is because Zika , as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) openly admits, is typically mild and rarely even shows symptoms. If it does show symptoms, sufferers typically get over them quickly and are awarded with lifelong immunity as a result and naturally, all without a vaccine But these inconvenient truths don't sell vaccines, and they certainly don't provide excuses for governments to send planes around to spray anti-mosquito chemicals in fulfillment of lucrative contracts they've signed with chemical corporations. It's about money, power and control, after all all of which come through selling fear. And Zika, it seems, is the latest Ebola. Or bird flu. Or swine flu. Or whatever happens to come down the pipeline as an alleged threat to the perpetuity of humanity.Brazil seems to have the right idea: Rather than panicking and trying to jab everyone with untested and potentially deadly vaccines, why don't we instead take a closer look at the multiple factors that are likely contributing to the problem? Then, a more sound, common sense solution can be determined rather than a panicked, reactionary one that could make things worse. Study showing benefits of Celexa in children was written by the drug's maker Fabricated study continues to be cited by the pharmaceutical industry New research finds antidepressants totally ineffective and dangerous for children Supermodel says antidepressants made her a 'sociopath' (NaturalNews) A large group of medical doctors, psychiatrists and researchers are demanding that the American Psychiatric Association retract a shady study that relied upon industry influence to determine the effectiveness of an antidepressant that's widely prescribed among children and teens.The study, published more than a decade ago in the, touted the benefits of Celexa in younger populations suffering from depression.However, a recent analysis of the research found "gross misrepresentations" about the safety and effectiveness of the drug, including the fact that Celexa worked no better than the placebo.The researchers say that the study reflected the "pervasive influence" of the marketing objectives of Forest Laboratories, the Celexa manufacturer, adding that the "scientific" manuscript was "written primarily for marketing purposes and only secondarily as a peer-reviewed journal."In other words, the study was totally fabricated to extend the consumer base for Celexa to children and teens, the fastest growing demographic for which antidepressants are prescribed.The analysis revealed that the study was written by none other than ghost writers employed by Forest Laboratories who "seriously misrepresented" the data about the drug's safety and efficacy."Forest's own internal documents disclosed in litigation show that company staff were aware that there were serious problems with the conduct of this trial but concealed the problems in advancing their commercial objectives," said the researchers.As reported by, "Procedural deviations in the study were not reported; negative outcomes were not reported; [and] side effects were misleadingly analyzed."The researchers' letter demanding a retraction is dated August 1, 2016, and addressed to Dr. Maria Oquendo, president of the American Psychiatric Association. It asks Oquendo to urge the current editor of theto issue a retraction."Our main concern is that children and adolescents are continuing to be at risk of harm unnecessarily because well-intentioned physicians have been misled," they wrote."We believe that the unretracted ... article represents a stain on the high standard of the American Journal of Psychiatry (AJP) and the American Psychiatric Association (APA). Neither the AJP nor the APA can claim to be a leader in scientific research."The revelations come roughly two months after a groundbreaking report revealed that most antidepressants marketed for children and teens are not only ineffective, but downright dangerous.The research, published in, reports that out of 14 antidepressants, only one (Prozac) provided depression relief for children and teens. Other antidepressants such as Effexor increased the risk of suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts in younger populations.The study is the most comprehensive analysis ever conducted regarding antidepressant use among children and teens.The adverse effects of antidepressants continue to be disclosed by both physicians and patients alike. English fashion model Cara Delevingne recently told Britain'smagazine that antidepressants turned her into a "sociopath."Delevingne, who took the drugs for two years as a teenager, said she lost all feelings, and was "just numb" until she stopped taking them."I didn't feel s**t. It was horrible. I was like a sociopath. When something was funny I would go, 'Ha ha!' just because other people laughed, but then I'd stop immediately because I wasn't really very good at faking it." Get independent news alerts on natural cures, food lab tests, cannabis medicine, science, robotics, drones, privacy and more. Receive Our Free Email Newsletter Take Action: Support Natural News by linking to this article from your website Permalink to this article: https://www.naturalnews.com/054928_scientific_fraud_federal_agencies_special_interests.html Embed article link: (copy HTML code below): Natural News investigates astonishing pattern of blatant scientific fraud across federal agencies Reprinting this article: Non-commercial use OK, cite NaturalNews.com with clickable link. Follow Natural News on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, and Pinterest Following five consecutive months of increases, international prices for major food commodities finally saw a modest decline in July largely due to drops in international quotations of grains and vegetable oils that more than offset firmer dairy, meat and sugar prices, according to the latest data released by the United Nations Food Agriculture Organization (FAO). The Food Price Index averaged 161.9 points in July 2016, slipping 0.8 percent below its level in June and 1.4 percent below June 2015. The Cereal Price Index averaged 148.1 points in July, down 5.6 percent from June and 11 percent below the July 2015 level. Among the major cereals, maize values dropped sharply as weather conditions in the key growing regions of the United States proved more favorable than was predicted. Wheat prices also fell in July mainly on very large world supplies and, in particular, prospects for abundant export availabilities from the Black Sea region. Rice prices strengthened somewhat, as dwindling availabilities underpinned Basmati and long-grain quotations. The Vegetable Oil Price Index averaged 157.4 points in July, down 2.8 percent from June and falling for the third consecutive month. The slide was mainly on account of palm oil, whose price dropped to a 5-month low as regular rainfall underpinned a seasonal recovery in production in Southeast Asia while global import demand remained subdued. International prices for soy, sunflower and rapeseed oil also eased on better than earlier anticipated supply prospects, further contributing to the fall in the index. The Dairy Price Index averaged 142.3 points in July, up 3.2 percent from June. Prices rose for all the dairy commodities, in particular for butter. Yet, they remain at very low levels compared to recent years. In the face of lackluster international demand, especially for milk powders, the EU is considering measures to foster a reduction of milk output, which rose by 4.4 percent in the year to May. In Oceania, generally favorable rainfall at the start of the 2016/17 milk year has improved yield prospects. The Sugar Price Index averaged 278.7 points in July, up 1 percent from June. International sugar prices were largely influenced by movements in the Brazilian currency (Real), which strengthened against the U.S. dollar (up by around 4 percent in July compared with June). A stronger Real is supportive for international sugar prices because it limits Brazilian sugar exports to the world market as producers prefer to process sugarcane into ethanol for local sale. The Meat Price Index averaged 159.9 points in July, 1.3 percent higher than its revised June value. All meat products prices firm, in particular pig meat, underpinned by limited availabilities. Notable developments include a shortage of pigs for slaughter and lighter slaughter weights in the EU and reduced output of sheep and bovine meat in Oceania, caused by herd rebuilding. At the same time, international demand for meat remains firm, supported by a recovery in purchases by China, and sustained imports by several countries elsewhere in Asia. A 105-year-old orca whale that's older than the Titanic is still alive and kicking. Nicknamed Granny, the killer whale was spotted at San Juan Islands False Bay, swimming with other whales. Who is Granny? According to the Orca Network, on July 27, Granny (whose scientific name is J2) was seen heading south along with a pair of humpback whales. The report says that Granny, who is the oldest known living orca, is usually seen hanging around a group of about 25 killer whales. "They sure seemed to be in high spirits ... And then there was that humpback that popped up surprisingly in the distance breaching over and over and over," Heather MacIntyre, a photographer, recalled. Determining an Orcas Age Granny has been studied by scientists since her first sighting in 1971 when she was 60 years old. Through the years, Granny has continually survived, even breaking records of its species' life expectancy, which usually is between 60 and 80 years old, SF Gate reports. Michael Harris, executive director of Pacific Whale Watch Association, explained in a previous Seattle PI report that measuring the age of an orca is different from normal calendar years. Wild orca researchers use an extrapolation scheme to estimate ages of orcas. Its a well-accepted technique used by both U.S. and Canadian scientists, based on the fact that offspring stay close to their mothers all their lives," he said. Resilience Through the Years Harris also highlighted that theres a big difference between the lifespan of wild and captive orcas, saying that the latter lives 50 years shorter. He also talked how orca species like Granny have survived throughout the years despite the changing environment and external threats. These Pacific Northwest orcas certainly have great genes. Im sure the pressures we put on them have made them resilient. Theyre problem solvers, survivors. Weve taken away their food and trashed their homes. Weve done all sorts of awful things to them, and yet here they are and heres Granny, still out front, still running the family," said Harris, adding that Granny is a perfect example that there's still hope in saving this endangered species. Environmentalists warn that unchecked development means that some areas in Sri Lanka's palm-fringed beaches are now so polluted that swimming there is a health hazard. Untreated Sewage in the Water Tourists have flocked back to Sri Lanka's palm-fringed beaches since a bloody civil war ended in 2009, according to Mail Online. Thriving hotels and guesthouses pours their sewage, often untreated, into the water, polluting the sea and shore. Even the country's own tourism minister John Amaratunga has stopped swimming in the seas close to the capital Colombo because of dirty water, Mail Online reports. Every year, there are more than two million visitors heading to the tiny Indian Ocean island, which is more than four times compared in 2009. Even though this is good news, Amaratunga still conceded that unchecked growth could be having a negative impact on the environment. Mount Lavinia, Worse Than a Cess Pool The problem is most acute just south of Colombo at Mount Lavinia, an upscale neighborhood and resort known for its "Golden Mile" of beach, Yahoo News reports. Environmental engineering expert Mahesh Jayaweera said the bays in Mount Lavinia are so polluted that people should not bathe in them, adding that faecal contamination is at 60 times higher than the maximum level. "When you look at the water you won't notice it. But at certain times of the year, the water in Mount Lavinia is so filthy it is worse than taking a dip in a cess pool," he said. Promoted as a pristine beach that is perfect for snorkeling and is famous for its coral reefs, Unawatuna is found south of the historic port city of Galle and is unfortunately, among the most polluted, according to researchers. Accumulating Pollution in the North Yahoo News reports that beaches in the former war zone in the island's north remain cleaner because tourism there is still relatively new but Jayaweera says that the situation there is starting to deteriorate too. Phys.org reported that Sri Lanka needs to make urgent changes to ensure the tourism industry survives long-term, said Srilal Miththapala, an industry expert and environmental specialist "A few years ago, we tried to shift the focus from beaches to eco-tourism, but the vast majority still visit us for our beaches," he told AFP. "The beaches predominate the tourism industry and that is why it is absolutely important for us to clean up and protect the beaches." Phys Org reports. (Wuan and Xingtai, Hebei Province) - On the day Ma Zengping saw his father, his eldest son and his daughter swept away and drown in the disastrous flooding in Hebei and Henan provinces, tragedy started with a loud bang outside the door. At around 5 p.m. on July 19, the family heard the crash of a large metal drum as it hit something in the yard. Ma's father opened the door to see what had happened. "Lao Er" he said, using the expression for second son. They were the last words Ma heard from his 74-year-old father, who was sucked out the door and swept away by the surging waters. The torrent quickly burst in the door and through the house, carrying Ma, his wife, two sons and one daughter out into the yard, where they tried to keep together by holding each other's hands. They were soon swept away to a nearby coal processing factory where they tried to cling to a power pole, Ma said. For the next 30 minutes, they struggled to hold on to the pole as they watched dead pigs, goats, cows and other objects wash past. "Dad, I can't do it anymore," Ma's exhausted 16-year-old daughter cried. She lost her grip and was swept away. So, too, was his oldest son, who tried to grab his sister, but was also taken by the surging waters. Ma told Caixin his daughter's body was found six days later near a coke factory 10 kilometers away. His father and eldest son are still missing, presumed dead. Ma, a farmer in the rural town of Majiazhuang in Wuan in Hebei province, is one of hundreds of families who lost relatives in last month's flood. Incessant rains that started in northern China on July 18 affected over 9 million people or about 12 percent of the population in Hebei as of July 23, data from the provincial government showed. Nearly 309,000 people were displaced, while 53,000 homes were damaged, official figures showed. The worst flood to hit Hebei and Henan Province in decades has killed 130 in Hebei alone and 110 more were unaccounted for as of July 26, according to provincial authorities. Authorities have not provided any update ever since. The central authorities said the high toll of dead and missing was in part caused by a lapse in official vigilance against flooding in a region that has not seen a major flood in two decades. According to some experts, a lack of enforcement by local authorities led to rampant development and illicit farming along the flood plain close to the river, which made the area prone to disaster. In addition, many residents of the area said they did not receive a flood alert or that a warning came too late for them to save themselves. Yang Xiaodong, a vice director of the China National Commission for Disaster Reduction, during a news conference in Beijing late last month criticized some local officials for being ill-prepared. He also blamed illicit excavation and the construction of homes and farmland on dried-up riverbeds for the high death toll. Under the 1998 Anti-flooding Law, construction projects and farming activity are prohibited in restricted areas next to lakes, rivers and reservoirs and in the riverbed. However, the law is rarely enforced, particularly along many smaller rivers in northern China, including in Hebei, where waterways had dried up during years of drought, according to Wu Xianbing, a scholar specializing in hydro engineering at the Agricultural University of Hebei. Moreover, tens of thousands of smaller rivers across the country are left in the care of township governments and even village authorities, which do not have the manpower and resources to enforce the law, according to Cheng Xiaotao, who serves on a national committee under China National Commission for Disaster Reduction. Daxian village, home to 2,000 residents, located in the Economic Development Zone in the city of Xingtai, was among the areas with the highest number of casualties. Nine residents, including five children, were killed or went missing when the village was inundated due to a breach on a bank along the Qixing River in the early hours of July 20. Part of the riverbank was dug up to make way for construction workers to lay pipelines for the city's winter heating system. That digging caused the breach, according to several local villagers. The segment of the river that passes through the village was less than 20 meters wide and earth excavated during the digging and pipelines left in the area had obstructed the waterway, contributing to the sudden overflow, according to locals. The river was designed to handle a flow of 580 cubic meters per second, but only 40 cubic meters per second could pass through the narrow section of the river that snaked through the village, Zhang Yinglin, a water conservation expert in Xingtai, told local media. Some villagers also complained that they had not received a flood alert at all or the warning came too late. "I was woken up by a roaring sound at about 2 a.m. Then I saw water gushing into my house and within a minute, the water level rose to nearly two meters," one villager told Caixin. "I rushed to find a ladder to climb onto the rooftop, and then I saw my car being washed away," said the man who asked not to be named. Authorities have given conflicting accounts about whether they sent out alerts for local people to move out of low-lying areas. Jiao Lijun, head of the Xingtai Water Bureau, and who oversaw anti-flooding operations said that his office indeed issued such a notice on July 19, though he said he could not remember the exact time. However Zheng Jianping, head of water authorities in the city's the Economic Development Zone told local media that they never received an order. "We dare not to issue such an order on our own because we worried about public panic," Zheng was quoted as saying. One official overseeing flood control work in the town of Dongwang told Caixin that they did not hear of any instructions from city government. An official from the development zone who was touring the area finally took the liberty to issue an evacuation order as water in the river rose quickly at around 2 a.m. on July 20, he said. "It was too late to go door-to-door to inform people and instead, we had to use the loud speakers to get the message across," said the official who asked not to be named. "But it's too late and too little to help the locals," he said. Ma, the farmer in Majiazhuang who lost three members of his family, said that about 1 p.m. fellow villagers noticed a small stream of water flowing through the usually dry riverbed that passes through the town. By about 4 p.m., the water level rose above several meters, but the villagers had not received an order to evacuate. Barely an hour later, the family heard a loud bang outside, and the elder Ma opened the door to investigate. (Rewritten by Li Rongde) In line with Zika, more details on transmission and campaign have surfaced. Also, the development of modified mosquitoes is being eyed as management of the disease. In his interview with Fox News senior managing health editor Dr. Manny Alvarez, March of Dimes medical director Dr. Edward McCabe spoke his thoughts on the organization's latest campaign, which they called #ZapZika, to raise public awareness about the the disease. In a statement, McCabe said that #ZapZika was a social messaging campaign and it aimed to let people know some simple things they could do to protect themselves and their family from the Zika virus. A case in point is the usage of spray to fend off the mosquitoes, ensuring that the spray was Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) registered. For McCabe, education was the key for people to be able to protect themselves from the Zika virus. While it is known that the Zika virus can be transmitted through mosquito bite and sexual intercourse, McCabe believes that the disease has other modes of transmission. In the same interview, he said that they were concerned about blood transfusion and solid organ tissues, such as liver and kidney transplants, if the person had been infected. Thus, Zika can also be passed through blood. In other news, a biotechnology company is gearing on the development of genetically modified mosquitoes as answer to Zika. On Aug. 5, Germantown British subsidiary Oxitec got a go signal from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to release the genetically modified mosquitoes under the investigational field trial conducted in Key Haven, Florida Keys, CNBC has learned. As per the publication, Key Haven's residents are set to vote on the trial in a referendum in November and the Florida Keys Mosquito Control Board set to release the final approval. Though Oxitec got its green light, risks to the human population is still a concern. Know more about Zika here. An alien megastructure is causing confusion amongst astronomers and scientists. The mystery surrounding a distant star, known as KIC 8462852 or Tabby's Star, continues to thicken. Is there really alien technology to be harvested in the said star that has been portraying weird behavior? In an unpublished study posted on arXiv, results of studies done on the star using the Kepler Telescope were released. This was reportedly done over the course of four years. Surprisingly, the star's luminosity varied. Over the study period, it dipped to 20%. Over time, the luminosity even diminished by around 4%. "The part that really surprised me was just how rapid and non-linear [the dimming] was. We spent a long time trying to convince ourselves this wasn't real. We just weren't able to," stated Ben Montet of Caltech, author of the study. KIC 8462852 was first observed in the 19th century. Thus, scientists had multiple data as reference for research answers. Bradley Schaefer, another researcher from the Louisiana State University claims that the star's light output decreased by 19% in the past 100 years. However, his study was greatly disputed. Yet, what exactly was causing the star's luminosity to decrease? According to reports, the flickering and dimming of the Tabby's Start could be due to an alien superstructure. Extraterrestrial beings have allegedly made its way around the star to collect energy. Though there is still no proof, this hypothesis cannot be ruled out. "It seems that every time someone looks at the star, it gets weirder and weirder," added Montet. In spite of the confusion and mystery surrounding Tabby's Star, astronomers continue to study it. In fact, a crowdfunding campaign has started early this year, which has already raised more than $100,000. This is to secure the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network, in hopes of observing the star for a year. A brain-eating amoeba that has killed an 11-year-old girl on Friday was detected in the Grand Teton National Park. According to reports, the parasitic amoeba is called the Naegleria fowleri. Grand Teton officials had no idea how the amoeba reached the area. A report by Associated Press said officials have already warned the public to avoid dipping in the Kelly Warm Spring, a popular soaking pool in the Grand Teton Park. Grand Teton spokeswoman Denise Germann says if possible people should avoid getting the water from the pool up the nose. Aside from Grand Teton, the report added the amoeba was also found in two hot springs in the nearby John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Memorial Parkway. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states the Naegleria fowleri can cause rare and devastating infection of the brain called primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM) when it enters the body through the nose. Ninety-seven percent of people who contract the disease don't survive. Since 1962, 133 people in the U.S. have been infected with the disease and only three have survived. The amoeba, which thrives in warm, fresh water, is typically detected in the Southern U.S, the place where Hannah Collins contracted it. Yahoo News reports Hannah went swimming in Edisto River in Charleston County on July 24. Hannah jumped in the river using a rope, which most likely provided a mechanism for the amoeba to enter her nose. In an interview with WCSC, Hannah's father who was temporarily released from the bars by the family court judge to help with her daughter's funeral said he was devastated to hear the news. After more than a week, health authorities confirmed she has Naegleria fowleri infection. She died three days after the diagnosis. In August 2015, a 14-year-old athlete died from contracting the same disease. Michael John Riley Jr. was preparing for a competition when he came across the amoeba in at Sam Houston State Park. Experts say, consider this as a warning. The world is almost close to breaking the 1.5C limit for global warming and it does not look good. The target was set eight months ago to initiate and consistently instigate efforts to fight climate changes. But in an unnerving rate, the limit is almost reached in a very short span of time. Last December, the Paris convention resulted in the decision to set a limit to 1.5C in terms of temperature. This was after different nations mostly agreed to help fight global warming. During the Paris convention, it was considered a feat, but that changed when experts found out that the limit set will be reached too soon; it looks like the effort to lessen global warming haven't been felt just yet. The target was set to prevent further increase in global warming and its devastating effects on the environment. Based on the data gathered by meteorologist Ed Hawkins from the Reading Univerisity, the average global temperature when the limit was set is already 1C, there were even instances where the temperature reached +1.38C. This means that the limit set is extremely difficult to follow. "From the perspective of my research, I would say the 1.5C goal now looks impossible or at the very least, a very, very difficult task. We should be under no illusions about the task we face," professor Chris Field, from Stanford University said in a statement. This alarming new information will be tackled in the upcoming climate change talks set to happen in Geneva, which includes the halt in the use of sources of pollution such as coal-burning power stations and combustion engines worldwide. Some may also expect for new goals and new immediate measures to prevent global warming to be set. The Geneva meeting by the members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will decide how the limit shall be implemented, according to Daily Mail. Sky gazers must have already set their schedule to get ready for the most awaited meteor show of the year, the Perseid Meteor Shower. The grandest and most spectacular show will light the sky whole night of Thursday until early morning of Friday. According to experts, Jupiter's effect will make it more memorable for every meteor shower addicts out there. There are presumptions concerning the visibility of the Perseid Meteor Shower regarding how difficult it would be to perceive the magnificence of the celestial show. But despite that, the Space posted some of the reasons why this years' celestial show is still the best. One of the reasons is because of Jupiter's gravitation force that will intercede the Perseids shine the brightest as these meteors enter the Earth's atmospheric cover this year. Meteors are actually space objects that has "evolved from comets." These frozen ball of gas and particles are still not on fire until they reach the earth's atmosphere with an average speed of 37 miles per second or about 60 kilometers per second. But before it passes the Earth's surface and became the meteor shower that celestial addicts are into now, it is believed that it has already passed other planets and objects in the universe. As the Perseids pass through the other planets in the universe, the planets' gravitational force affects its direction. Experts say, of all the planets that these meteors have passed through, Jupiter, being the largest planet, is what affects its trail the most. The more the Jupiter's gravitational force affects the Perseids' trail, the brighter the Perseids are. Aside from that, the force also helps increase the numbers of meteors that could wrap up the show. Bill Cooke, the head of NASA's Meteoriod Environments Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama said, there's no need to make an effort just to enjoy the Perseid, as posted by Live Science. "All you've got to do is go outside, find a nice dark spot, lie flat on your back and look up." You don't need a lot of gadgets, "you can even use your eyes alone," he added. A new method could help astronomers detect exomoons. Scientists suggested that polarization of the planet's light could help detect exomoons, which are the satellites around exoplanets. Polarized light waves are light waves in which the vibrations occur in a single plane. "When you use polarized sunglasses, you block one direction of the light waves and not the other," Mark Marley, a research scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in California and co-author of the study, told Space.com. "In our case, as the moon passes over the planet, it sort of acts like polarized sunglasses and blocks part of the polarization from the planet." According to the study, which was published in The Astrophysical Journal, newborn planets typically heat up as a result of the gas and dust. The heat causes the young planet to glow, which may last for millions of years. Marley and co-researcher Sujan Sengupta, associate professor at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, used this planetary glow to find their exomoons. The researchers said that if the planet is cloudy, the clouds can polarize the light from the planet, and this could be the case for most gassy planets. Astronomers who will look at a typical gas exoplanet through a polarized filter will find nothing. But when a moon covers up a part of the planet, it will block some of the light and the polarization changes. According to Marley, scientists could use the method back on Earth and detect the change in polarization. "In the right circumstances, it could be easier to detect this change in polarization than the small change in brightness as the moon crosses the planet," Marley said. Other moon-hunting techniques have also been developed. One technique is the transit method, which was designed by David Kipping of Columbia University in New York. The technique suggests that exomoons could be detected just before or after their planet transits their star, as the moons - just like their planets - are expected to block the star's light as they pass. An active volcano in Nicaragua is going online. The Nicaraguan government partnered with General Electric (GE) and explorer and filmmaker Sam Crossman to install about 80 Wi-Fi sensors inside the Masaya Volcano in an effort to monitor the volcano's activity and predict when it will erupt. "The goal is essentially to install all these sensors and create the most effective early warning system in the world that would ultimately serve as a proof of concept for implementing something similar to communities around the world who are exposed to similar risks," Crossman said in a report by The Verge. Masaya Volcano, also known as the "Mouth of Hell," is one of the most active volcanoes in Nicaragua and is located about 13 miles outside the capital Managua. According to volcanologist Guillermo Caravantes, Masaya poses "a real danger." "[If there's an eruption] we could potentially have millions of lives at risk," Caravantes said in a report by Hufftington Post. "It could happen at any time and the problem is, we are not able to predict when this could happen or what sorts of signs from the volcano [we should look for]." Connecting the volcano to the Internet could be the solution, Caravantes said. In the next few days, Crossman, together with Caravantes and his team, will descend up to 1,200 feet inside the volcano to test the Wi-Fi, and in about two to three weeks, the sensors will be installed. The sensors will collect real-time data about the volcano's temperature, atmospheric pressure, gravity, and various gasses like carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulphide, The Verge reports. The data will be collected on GE's open-sourced database called Predix. This will allow volcanologists, local residents or interest groups to access the data and understand Masaya's activities. Crossman will be wearing a special aluminized suit to withstand the temperature of the lake in Masaya's crater. "I look like a baked potato in a fire," he commented. The Masaya expedition will be documented by GE and Qwake, Crossman's media company, as well as in various social media platforms. It's been an eventful summer for China's online, car-hailing industry. First, the government decided to legalize the sector. Then, a pair of rival companies announced a major merger. The market buzzed after full legal status was granted July 28. China thus became the first country in the world with a nationwide, legal framework for car-hailing companies, which had for years operated in a gray zone. Four days later, competitors Didi Chuxing Technology Co. and the Chinese arm of Uber Technologies Inc. decided to join hands. The merged company is expected to be a major force, as the companies separately handled more than 90 percent of all car-hailing orders in China in the first quarter 2016. A heated debate ensued over whether the Didi-Uber China tie-up would create a monopoly. Neither company has addressed this issue so far, nor have the government's anti-trust regulators taken an explicit position. According to China's Anti-Trust Law, deal-making companies must apply for a merger approval from the government's anti-trust gatekeeper, the Ministry of Commerce, if their combined global revenues exceeded 10 billion yuan or domestic earnings were more than 2 billion yuan in the previous fiscal year, and at least two entities involved in the deal made 400 million yuan combined in China. The law is designed to uphold "fair competition" and prevent price manipulation. Didi said after the announcement that both Didi and Uber China have not turned a profit in the country, so they don't need to apply for merger permission. But the ministry said August 2 that a Didi-Uber China merger "cannot proceed unless they (the companies) apply for permission." What happens next is unclear. China's anti-trust regulators have yet to express a clear view on consolidations in the cyberspace realm. In the past, they didn't demand reviews when Internet companies cut eye-catching deals, such as the merger of top online travel agencies Ctrip.com International and Qunar.com Information Technology Co. Some analysts have argued that the anti-trust law which took effect in 2008 was actually designed to address the needs of manufacturers and heavy industry, and does not match the business landscape of today's Internet age. For instance, defining a business' "relevant market" is a critical factor when regulators decide whether an antitrust violation has been committed. But Internet-based businesses are increasingly interrelated, and some of their products are free. Moreover, Internet companies cross-subsidize their various businesses. Internet players such as China's online car-hailing businesses are part of a new, innovative corner of the economy that deserves encouragement and support. Clearly, regulators should not presume that innovative companies are guilty and intentionally block a deal such as the Didi-Uber China merger before they've even started an anti-trust review. A proper degree of supervision will protect fair competition by ensuring companies, including Internet companies, obey market rules. So it's time for China's anti-trust regulators to decide where they stand in the area of Internet sector consolidation. Regulators must not neglect their responsibility. A clear line should be drawn between two types of monopolization. One creates market barriers through administrative measures, while the other lets giant companies suppress competitors by means of operational scale. Like many online businesses, car-hailing is a cut-throat market where the winner takes all. After a merger, it would be possible for Didi to control an overwhelming share of the market and form a de facto monopoly. Of course, a company with a large market share doesn't necessarily deserve an anti-trust review. Some experts suggest anti-trust investigations should kick in only if a deal has network effects, restricts market entry options for other players, or forces customer to pay dearly for changing services. Because online technology is quickly evolving, it seems no single company can monopolize a market niche permanently. This is especially true if the market is kept open. Local governments can also rein in the growing dominance of online car-hailing services by pushing forward market-oriented reforms for managing the traditional taxi sector. Such steps would boost competition. Didi executives would do well to keep an open mind in the face of anti-trust accusations. It may be that regulators are being more tolerant toward Internet businesses than other kinds of companies as a way to encourage growth and innovation. Internet giants are increasingly involved in the everyday lives of consumers, sometimes deeply involved. Yet some businesses in this sector, which attract huge capital inputs, take advantage of regulatory loopholes a model that is not necessarily sustainable. Thus, Internet companies must take a more proactive approach to complying with laws and regulations. Taking the initiative to discuss potential anti-trust issues with regulators would show goodwill on the part of companies involved in merger deals. Indeed, there are many technical details that need to be clarified before a Didi-Uber deal is finalized. For instance, there have been debates over whether Didi's revenues should be calculated based on its base turnover, or whether it should also take into account its subsidies. Didi has argued that so far neither it nor Uber China has turned profit. And Uber China hasn't reported enough revenue to trigger a regulatory review. Didi's statement is reasonable, but it hasn't alleviated concerns about possible monopolization. China is now waiting for the government to decide whether the Didi-Uber China deal merits regulatory scrutiny in the context of the anti-trust law. Both the regulators and the companies should accept their responsibilities and comply with the law, presenting convincing facts that clear market concerns. Hu Shuli is the editor-in-chief of Caixin Media Our servers are temporarily down. We're doing our best to fix the problem, and expect to be up and running again soon. Please check back shortly, and sorry for the inconvenience. A federal judge on Tuesday declined to lower former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's prison sentence, maintaining his original 14 years, despite an appeals court tossing five of the 18 counts the jailed ex-governor was convicted on. "I am sympathetic to [his family], but as I said four years ago, the fault lies with the governor," U.S. District Judge James Zagel said before making his ruling. In his first public appearance since entering prison, Blagojevich was shown on a courtroom camera as he learned his fate during his last attempt at early release. He shook his head and stared stoically into the camera as Zagel, the same judge who sent Blagojevich to prison in the first place more than four years ago, ordered he remain in prison for his original 168-month sentence. His daughters could be heard crying in the courtroom, knowing their father won't be released until 2024. Appearing via a video conference from his Colorado prison, an emotional, fidgety and gray-haired Blagojevich addressed the court before the ruling, saying he's "trying to be the best man I can." "I recognize that my words and actions have led me here," he said. "I've made mistakes. I wish I had a way to return the clock back." Speaking for nearly 18 minutes, Blagojevich thanked Zagel for giving him the chance to apologize and noted that time away from his family has taken a toll on him. "I experience very real sadness when I think of my family and I blame myself for that...Trying to make amends for that," he said. The resentencing hearing followed a decision from the United States Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which tossed five of the 18 counts on which Blagojevich had been convicted and ordered the former governor be resentenced. Attorneys for Blagojevich asked for a reduction in his 14-year sentence for extortion and bribery, but the government urged Judge Zagel to keep his full sentence intact. In his final words to the judge Tuesday, Blagojevich's attorney asked for a 5-year sentence saying, "We believe he's ready to come home." Prosecutors argued, however, that Blagojevich "is the same man who appeared before [Zagel] in 2011." Both of Blagojevich's daughters spoke in court Tuesday, detailing the difficulties they've faced without their father present. "We speak every night, he helps me with my homework, he knows everything," Annie Blagojevich said. "I almost don't want to grow up because I want to wait for him," she added. Blagojevich pursed his lips, weeping as his daughters spoke in court. "He has never given up on us and we will never give up on him," Amy Blagojevich said. Blagojevichs wife, Patti, who wrote a two-page letter pleading with Zagel for leniency ahead of the hearing, called the ruling a "profound disappointment." "From our point of view, and from the point of view of thousands of people that have reached out to me in the past four years, we find his sentence unusually cruel and heartless and unfair," she said outside the courtroom Tuesday. "I would like to express our thanks to everyone who has reached out to us with well wishes and prayers and thoughts hoping that today was going to go differently than what it did. Somehow we will get through this. We love Rod and we will be here for him as we continue to fight through this legal system that has unfortunately disappointed us over and over again... I dont really have anything else to say. Im dumbfounded and flabbergasted at the inability for the judge to see that things are different than how they were 4.5 years ago and his unwillingness to bestow even the smallest amount of leniency, or mercy, or kindness. His brother, Robert Blagojevich, was seen walking into the courtroom Tuesday. Hes my brother, I love him. Hes my only remaining blood relative. I want to be here and see how he is, he said outside the Dirksen Federal Courthouse. My brother has a lot of potential. Hes got a lot to give back to his community and Im hopeful that Judge Zagel will determine that hes got a lot of potential left to give back. So Im hoping for the best for my brother. The resentencing was ordered by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals last summer. The counts that were thrown out dealt directly with his alleged efforts to swap the appointment of Valerie Jarrett to the Barack Obama senate seat, in exchange for position in the new Presidents cabinet. Prosecutorssaid at the time they would not seek to re-try the former governor on the overturned counts. In tossing those counts, however, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals also noted that it is not possible to call 168 months unlawfully high for Blagojevichs crimes. The former governor, who once appeared on Donald Trumps Celebrity Apprentice, has already served more than four years in prison. In his strongest statement of remorse to date, Blagojevich conceded last month that he was not blameless in his fundraising efforts, that he regrets his conduct, which was distasteful or worse and showed extremely poor judgment." In a sentencing memorandum filed in July, Blagojevichs attorney Leonard Goodman declared that his clients pursuit of a challenge to his conviction does not in any way lessen the remorse that he feels for his behavior. But the former governor noted that he never collected any fraudulent monies, and that he had spent his time behind bars improving himself as a person, through hard work, while also being of service to other inmates. Attached to the memorandum were more than 100 letters from prisoners, who called Blagojevich "The Gov," and wrote about the positive impacts he has made during his time behind bars. He never snubs anyone and is very humble," one inmate wrote. "I believe he would be an upstanding citizen and doing much more for our society out there than in this prison." In arguing against a reduction in Blagojevichs sentence, prosecutors noted that the defendant remains convicted of the same three charged shakedowns of which he stood convicted at the original sentencing: the Senate seat shakedown, the racetrack shakedown, and the hospital shakedown. That sentiment was echoed by Zagel in his ruling. "I don't dispute [the governor] may be a model prisoner," Zagel said. "[Inmates] think of him as a good man, but they don't know him, don't know him in the context of a powerful politician." As court ended, a visibly upset Blagojevich was seen on camera grabbing his court file and walking out of view. NBC5 Investigates has learned that officers in the 11th and 15th police districts have been warned of a sniper plot against police, in the aftermath of the shooting of an unarmed teenager earlier this month. Officers in the 11th and 15th districts received a safety bulletin, stating that members of three west side street gangs held a meeting last week to discuss a plot to shoot officers, employing a sniper and possibly automatic weapons. Officers have been advised to limit their exposure on the street. An ominous new development amid already heightened tensions? One CPD official said it is not being discounted, but he noted that officer safety warnings go out frequently. The newest warning comes amid continuing questions over the recorded actions of officers involved in the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Paul ONeal ten days ago. The ongoing investigation is believed to center on two central issues: did officers violate established departmental procedures, and did the officer who fired the fatal shot intentionally keep his body camera switched off? Michael Oppenheimer, the attorney hired by 18 year old Paul ONeals family says he smells a rat. But even police insiders who are openly critical of the way officers conducted themselves, say they are convinced the camera issue may have involved bungling on the part of an officer who had received his camera only eight days before. The Axon cameras involve a two-step process, where a large round button must be double-pressed to initiate recording. Shutting the cameras off involves a single press of the same button. A source close to the investigation told NBC5 that investigators believe it is possible the officer simply confused the two procedures. That same officer was involved in a horrific head-on crash with the stolen Jaguar being driven by the fleeing ONeal. Investigators say it is possible the camera was actually rolling, but was switched off during the impact. Indeed, if that was the officer who fired the fatal shot, he hardly seemed to be concealing his actions. After the camera was switched on, the obviously agitated patrolman talked with numerous colleagues about the shooting. Man, I think I shot that (expletive) man! he said, shortly after the recording began, telling another colleague, pray to God that nothing happens to him! Do you know how many times you fired? a supervisor asks. Maybe five, the officer replies. At another point, he laments the investigation to come. I dont know whats going to happen to that (expletive) guy, but the way things are going, Im going to be (expletive) crucified! Investigators have cautioned that they are still early in their investigation, with video comprising only a portion of the overall evidence. And that video is substantial, with an estimated 60-plus dashboard and body cameras recording various aspects of the incident and its aftermath. On the videos, officers are seen cautioning the alleged shooter to be careful about what he is saying, motioning to their own cameras. At one point, a supervisor warns two other officers, Talk about that stuff after---OK? At an unrelated event Monday, Mayor Rahm Emanuel cautioned reporters that he was reserving judgment until the investigation was completed. Theres a loss of life, he said. Its a loss for Chicago, and its a tragedy. AT&T will pay a $7.75 million fine for allowing suspected drug traffickers to add millions of dollars in bogus directory assistance charges to its customers' land-line bills. The extra charges of about $9 a month were discovered during an investigation of two Cleveland-area companies for drug-related crimes and money laundering, the Federal Communications Commission said Monday. "A phone bill should not be a tool for drug traffickers, money launderers, and other unscrupulous third parties to fleece American consumers," FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Travis LeBlanc said in a statement. The settlement will allow AT&T customers "charged for this sham service" to get their money back, he said. The Drug Enforcement Administration seized nearly $3.4 million worth of drugs, cars, jewelry, gold and computers during its investigation of Discount Directories and Enhanced Telecommunications Services, the FCC said. During the seizures, agents found financial documents related to the directory assistance scheme, which targeted thousands of telephone customers, most of them small businesses. The companies billed for the directory services but never provided them, and neither company could show that AT&T customers had agreed to be billed, the FCC said. AT&T received a portion of each charge, the agency said. AT&T has implemented "strict requirements" to crack down on third-party charges on telephone bills, a spokeswoman said by email. "Nonetheless, unbeknownst to us, two companies that engaged in a sophisticated fraud scheme were apparently able to circumvent those protections and submit unauthorized third-party charges that were billed by AT&T," she added. AT&T stopped billing on behalf of the two companies in June 2015 and will also stop most other third-party billing on customer telephone bills, she added. AT&T will issue refunds to current and former customers charged for the bogus services since January 2012. The refunds are expected to be about $6.8 million. The telecom carrier will also pay a $950,000 fine to the U.S. treasury. Customers should get refund checks within 90 days, AT&T said. Placing unauthorized charges and fees on telephone bills, often called cramming, is an "unjust and unreasonable" practice prohibited by the Communictions Act, the FCC said. The Chosun Ilbo went on the cultural asset tour with a guide from Jongno district, Yoo Gang-ryul (56). It starts from the Bukchon Culture Center behind the Hyundai group headquarters right by Anguk subway station on the orange Line 3. The center's exhibition hall offers a look at Bukchon's history and transformation, and the evolution of hanoks. Poor scholars, we learn, brewed liquor in the Namsangol Namchon area to the south in the old days, but the wealthy palace workers of Bukchon to the north enjoyed their rice cakes. After Chosun fell, the antiques that had belonged to the rich of Bukchon trickled into what is now Insadong, says Yoo. The rooftops of the traditional Korean houses or hanok resemble a rolling wave, but beyond them lie the skyscrapers and the N Seoul Tower of Mt. Namsan. Here is a place where the Chosun Dynasty coexists with modern Korea. The Bukchon Hanok Village, nestled between the Gyeongbok and Changdeok palaces is popular with both Koreans and foreigners, inviting for a leisurely stroll as well as a structured tour of the cultural assets and an experience program. It is these details the guides offer and which are rarely found in tour books that make the tour special. Behind the walls and across the grandiose Changdeok palace buildings lies the newly renovated Eun Deok Culture Center of Won-Buddhism. In the Chosun era, it was part of the capital's defenses. The nearby Ott-Painting Research Institute Chilwon, also renovated, has an impressive front courtyard and spacious verandah. Passing the quarters of Korea's last empress Myeongseong (Queen Min) and turning into an alley, we find Gahoedong 31st street, a must-see alley with the biggest cluster of hanoks. Each roof conforms to the similar style but is uniquely different, and the walls of the homes are within arm's reach of each other. A street of humble homes between Jeongdok Public Library and Samcheongdonggil is under major construction. New homes are being built and old ones renovated. In front of the library are several pretty tea houses and restaurants. Walking past the home of Ex-president Yun Po-sun from the library's front gate, we return to Anguk station and the tour ends. For inquiries, call the Jongno-Gu Office Tourism Division (02)731-0851. Abundance of Museums, Galleries, Workshops The Seoul Metropolitan Government also offers a tour program for groups of two or more people by appointment. All tours are free of charge. For more information, call the Seoul Metropolitan Government Tourism Marketing Division at (02) 2171-2459. If not pressed for time, just go for a walk around Bukchon. A map of tours and major landmarks, picking out historical houses, museums, galleries, workshops and sites that offer a true hanok experience, is available at the center. What if one blood test could screen for more than 50 types of cancer? Japanese Emperor Akihito made a rare televised address to the nation Monday to argue that he is becoming too old and too frail to carry out his duties. "When I consider that my fitness level is gradually declining, I am worried that it may become difficult for me to carry out my duties as the symbol of the state with my whole being, as I have done until now," Akihito said in his address. The 82-year-old emperor is reportedly in declining health. In recent years he has had heart surgery, bronchitis and has been treated for prostate cancer. The emperor cannot simply abdicate his throne because the 1947 Imperial House Law states that imperial succession can occur only upon an emperors death. The emperor stopped short of advocating that parliament change the law because he did not want to be seen as interfering in national politics. "He was asking for the understanding of the Japanese people in his situation. His message did not have any political impact nor diplomatic impact," said Japan analyst Hosaka Yuji with Sejong University in Seoul. Japanese opinion polls show 80 to 90 percent public support changing the law so that the emperor can abdicate. But some traditionalists in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's conservative ruling coalition are reluctant to open the abdication issue up for debate, because the process could introduce other changes they strongly oppose, like allowing women to inherit the throne. Prime Minister Abe was non-committal in his response to the emperor's subtle plea to change the imperial succession law. "Considering the emperor's age and burden on his duties, I think about his mental fatigue. I think we should carefully think what is possible according to his message," Abe said. 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). Reporter/Columnist Julie Wurth is a reporter covering the University of Illinois at The News-Gazette. Her email is jwurth@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@jawurth). Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Reporter Tim Mitchell is a reporter at The News-Gazette. His email is tmitchel@news-gazette.com, and you can follow him on Twitter (@mitchell6). One of Editor & Publishers 10 That Do It Right 2021 Pediatric nursing is a specialization of the nursing profession that focuses on pediatrics and the medical care of children, from infancy to the teenage years. This is an important field because the health of children is distinct from that of adults due to the growth and development that occurs throughout childhood. Image Copyright: sfam_photo / Shutterstock It is worth noting that a certification as a pediatric nurse is not required to work as a nurse for children. However, obtaining specialized knowledge and training helps to improve job prospects and is recommended for nurses who have a passion for caring for children. Role Pediatric nurses usually work in a multidisciplinary team with other health professionals to provide the best medical care possible for children. They play an important role to monitor the health of young patients and provide care and support throughout their treatment. Neuroscience eBook Compilation of the top interviews, articles, and news in the last year. Download a copy today They may administer childhood vaccinations or immunizations and make sure that children keep up to date with their vaccination schedule. Additionally, a pediatric nurse communicates with the children and their families to explain their health and the phases of treatment. A pediatric nurse may be involved in teaching and administration of childrens health, either to the community or other heath professionals. They can also help to conduct clinical research about health conditions that commonly affect children and the appropriate treatment methods. Some pediatric nurses also choose to specialize further in a particular field of childrens health, such as anesthetics, oncology, or neurology. Education and Training As pediatric nursing is a specialization of nursing, it is necessary for a nurse to first undergo the appropriate training with an undergraduate degree in nursing, before beginning the specialization. After graduating with a Bachelors degree in nursing and passing the examination to become a Registered Nurse, an individual wishing to become a pediatric nurse then needs to complete a Masters degree in Nursing Practice and Doctorate degree. The Pediatric Nursing Certification Board (PNCB) offers certification as a pediatric nurse. This certification requires the pediatric nurse to complete the appropriate education requirement and a minimum amount of time of work experience, currently 1,800 hours of clinical experience with pediatric patients in the last two years. Pediatric Nurse Career Individuals well suited to a career as a pediatric nurse is likely to have the following traits: Cheerful and friendly Good communication skills with people of all ages Organized and able to follow complex treatment plans Works well under pressure Patience and willingness to adapt Interest and love for children Pediatric nurses may work in a range of environments, including hospitals, private pediatrician clinics, nursing homes, schools, government agencies, and social services. Similar to other types of nurses, pediatric nurses who work in a hospital environment provide round-the-clock care and, as a result, work in shifts including time at night, on weekends and public holidays. The demand for all Registered Nurses is expected to grow in coming years and nurses with a specialization such as pediatric nurses are likely to have more positive job prospects. References Further Reading Iran said on Monday that $1.7 billion that the United States sent it in January was cash owned since before the 1979 revolution, confirming the White House's assertion that it was not related to nuclear talks or a prisoner release. The Obama administration said last week that the cash paid soon after the implementation of the deal under which Iran agreed to limit its nuclear program, and following the release of five detained Americans, was not "ransom" as some U.S. Republicans had alleged. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that the transfer settled a long-standing Iranian legal claim and was negotiated on a separate track from the nuclear agreement which was opposed by hawks in both Washington and Tehran. The money $400 million in funds frozen since 1981 plus $1.3 billion interest was part of a trust fund Iran used to buy U.S. military equipment before the 1979 revolution after which the two countries cut diplomatic ties. "The transfer of $400 million from America to the Islamic Republic of Iran was related to sale of military equipment to Iran prior to the revolution and had nothing to do with the nuclear deal," the head of Iran's National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA. As the U.S. presidential campaign heats up, Republicans, including candidate Donald Trump, have attacked Obama over the payment, questioning the timing of the transfer. "We prefer not to get involved in details of the case and let the U.S. presidential candidates reveal their real nature in this chaotic electoral atmosphere," Shamkhani said. The images are heartbreaking: thousands of infants born with small, misshapen heads, the result of a rare neurological disorder, called microcephaly, which can cause a myriad of intellectual and developmental disabilities. The culprit? Zika, a mosquito-borne virus that has swept through many parts of South America and more recently surfaced in Florida. Newborns are not Zika's only victims, though. Adult men and women who contract Zika may also be at risk of developing debilitating -- even life-threatening -- disorders. Zika is challenging modern medicine and raising important concerns about the spread of the virus, including at this year's Summer Olympics. This is not the first time the Zika-bearing mosquito (A. aegypti) has threatened the public health. As a transmitter -- or vector -- of a number of viruses, the mosquito species has led to outbreaks of dengue fever, chikungunya and yellow fever. At the turn of the 20th century, a Nobel Prize-winning British doctor, Sir Ronald Ross, began using equations to determine the transmission dynamics of malaria. Since then, researchers, including those funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), have used mathematical models to track and combat vector-borne diseases. One such researcher is Mac Hyman, a mathematician who has conducted more than 15 years of research related to vector-borne diseases. Hyman is currently working with other scientists to develop a model that would track how to fight A. aegypti with bacteria, at least until researchers develop a Zika vaccine. "We are modeling a new control mechanism based on infecting mosquitoes with the bacteria Wolbachia," said Hyman, an NSF-funded researcher at Tulane University who also received funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). "The idea is to create a Wolbachia epidemic in A. aegypti mosquitoes so they are less capable of transmitting the virus. Wolbachia already occurs naturally in 25-75 percent of the insect population, but not in A. aegypti. Infecting the mosquitoes with this bacteria can reduce their ability to lay viable eggs and shorten their lifespan by a day or two." That might not sound like much, but mosquitoes only live for about two weeks. Because it takes a week for a disease-carrying mosquito to become infectious, most Zika-bearing mosquitoes are infectious for only the last few days of their lives. Shortening their lifespan, even by a few days, can have a big impact on their ability to spread Zika. Mathematicians working to mitigate epidemics such as Zika often team up with epidemiologists, public health experts, entomologists and other researchers to develop appropriate models that simulate how best to address a public health crisis. Hyman's models aim to show the consequences, both intended and unintended, of releasing bacteria-infused mosquitoes into a Zika-afflicted region. One of the challenges in this approach has been to design a protocol that can sustain a new bacteria-infected mosquito population capable of displacing the virus-carrying population in the wild. Hyman explained that if you introduce only a few bacteria-infected mosquitoes into a wild population, the infection is quickly wiped out. "When we first did this, our analysis predicted we would need at least 40 percent of the wild mosquitoes to be infected before we could establish a 'threshold condition' where the bacteria could take hold in the wider population," he said. That's when Hyman turned to the virtual world. Mosquitoes in a virtual world Hyman and his postdoc, Ling Xue, created a virtual world on a computer where he first reduced the wild population by spraying and killing most of the wild mosquitoes. He then released the mosquitoes infected with the Wolbachia bacteria to see if they would establish an endemic population. It didn't work. The newly hatched mosquitoes were not infected, and the infection died out as soon as the bacteria-infected population dropped below the 40 percent threshold needed to sustain it. Hyman determined that to sustain his bacteria-infected mosquito population, they would need to kill the eggs and larvae, as well as the adults, of the wild Zika-bearing population before releasing their mosquitoes. "In hindsight, this solution is obvious, but we hadn't realized how important it was to consider the full lifecycle of the mosquito when we simulated our first virtual world experiment," Hyman said. "This is one of the advantages of running experiments on the computer. We can find out what works, and what does not work, in the model to help guide the mitigation efforts in the field." Hyman has been quick to acknowledge that this is not a permanent solution. Instead, it buys time by reducing the ability of the A. aegypti mosquitoes to spread Zika, as well as other diseases such as chikungunya and dengue fever, until a vaccine can be developed. (He also noted that no Wolbachia-carrying mosquitoes have yet been released into the wild in an effort to oust the Zika-carrying mosquitoes.) The best mitigation efforts we have right now are based on controlling the mosquitoes (insecticides) and reducing the probability that people will get bitten by mosquitoes (repellents)," Hyman said. "The vaccines being tested for these diseases will be available in a few years. Until then, this approach has the potential of slowing the ability of mosquitoes to transmit infection." Reservoir of research Even as scientists scramble to quickly address unexpected crises such as the Zika outbreak, they draw from a rich, longstanding reservoir of basic research -- in anatomy, in biology, in epidemiology, in mathematical modeling -- to find solutions. The ability to draw from this reservoir, which takes decades and sometimes centuries to fill, enables them to respond more quickly and with more confidence to the challenges of our time. That is one reason why NSF continues to support basic research across a broad spectrum of scientific fields, something Hyman acknowledged is necessary for success: "NSF has funded the development and analysis of mathematical epidemic models for years, before there was a Zika, Ebola or chikungunya epidemic. This research has created an underlying foundation for mathematical models needed to respond to new emerging diseases he said. If we wait to fire up our mathematical engines when a threat, such as Zika, first appears, then we would need to wait years before we would have a reliable model for understanding where this virus was going. But because NSF had been funding this type of basic research for so many decades, the community was ready to respond quickly." Mary Ann Horn, NSF program director in the Division of Mathematical Sciences, agreed and said that collaboration is critical. "By using mathematical modeling and analysis, we can learn about transmission and control of disease that may not be immediately clear through data collection involving those infected," Horn said. "Collaborations between mathematicians and biologists allow our understanding to be advanced more quickly. This project was funded jointly with the National Institute of General Medical Sciences and is likely to not only impact the understanding of the Zika virus but other diseases as well." Currently, we are experiencing a new phenomenon with youth consumption of e-cigarettes all around the United States. For the second consecutive year, e-cigarettes were the most popular product among youth. FDA's newest statistics indicate that more than 3 million middle and high school students were users of e-cigarettes in 2015, representing 540,000 more consumers than in 2014. New flavors appear to be one of the main reasons why teens are getting hooked on this product. In 2013-2014, 81% of the current e-cigarette youth users, pointed to the appealing flavors of e-cigarettes as one of the main reasons of why they started using them, stating that they used e-cigarettes "because they come in flavors I like." This is even more concerning when we see how quickly this market is growing. In a report released in January 2014, researchers found that every month, an average of 240 new flavors are added to the e-cigarette market. Although tobacco companies claim that new flavors are simply a response to adult users' demand for variety, flavored tobacco products primarily serve to attract new users, particularly kids, and to get them addicted. As shown by the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, an industry publication stated, "While different cigars target a variety of markets, all flavored tobacco products tend to appeal primarily to younger consumers." Even the industry leader Lorillard, which sells flavored e-cigarettes such as kool-aid and gummy bears, has admitted that "kids may be particularly vulnerable to trying e-cigarettes due to an abundance of fun flavors such as cherry, vanilla, pina-colada, and berry." Previous bans on flavored tobacco Cigarettes with specific characterizing flavors were prohibited by the FDA in 2009, with the goal of halting the tobacco industry's strategy and reducing the number of children who start to smoke and become addicted to different tobacco products. It was no secret that before this ban, tobacco companies marketed cigarettes with flavors, images and names in order to appeal to a younger audience. The flavored cigarette ban not only occured in the US but has been a trend in various parts of the world. For instance, in 2012, Brazil became the first place to ban all tobacco flavors. Likewise, in 2014, the European Union passed theTobacco Products Directive, which took effect on May 20, 2016, prohibiting flavored cigarettes, except for menthol, where the ban is delayed till 2020. Almost seven years have passed since the FDA's prohibition, and the results have been favorable. In 2006, the National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) indicated that 30.2% of male high school students and 21.3% of female smoked cigarettes, while the NYTS in 2013 showed that the smoking prevalence in male students had dropped to 14.1% and to 11.2% in females. The statistics appear to show that the ban on flavored cigarettes has been helpful in reducing prevalence. However, it is important to take into consideration that the ban was not the only change in tobacco regulation. In the last couple of years, there were other policies which could have also been helpful, such as taxation and the restrictions on tobacco sales, labeling, advertising and promotion. E-cigarette consumption increases overall consumption The FDA's ban on flavored cigarettes did not apply to e-cigarettes, which still can come in different flavors such as cotton candy, fruit punch, and chocolate. This is considered to be one of the main reasons why e-cigarette consumption has had such a huge increase. Indeed, studies regarding youth expectations about other flavored tobacco products such as bidis and hookahs, have found that young consumers prefer flavored tobacco over the regular tobacco because they consider flavored tobacco to taste better and be safer. So even though the ban on flavored cigarettes seemed to help in the reduction of youth use, the tobacco industry quickly found another product to replace it and keep targeting kids. This growing use of e-cigarettes can add to the problem by keeping overall youth tobacco use on the rise. A new study from the American Academy of Pediatrics shows that there are more young tobacco consumers than before, if we include e-cigarettes. The study published in July 2016 states that among 12th grade students in Southern California, the combined current cigarette and e-cigarette use in 2014 was 13.7%, which was greater than 2004, were cigarette use was 9% (before e-cigarettes were available). New FDA Measures This year, the FDA issued a final rule that includes e-cigarettes regulation, and which takes effect today (August 8). It regulates the manufacture, import, packaging, labeling, advertising, promotion, sale, and distribution of e-cigarettes. Among the restrictions to e-cigarettes are the prohibition to sell them to all of those under 18 years of age and to give away samples of e-cigarettes including their components and parts. However, the FDA did not ban the different flavors of e-cigarettes, and its spokespeople said that they would consider future regulation related to flavors based on a further study about the health risks and benefits of vaping. Beyond the health risks and benefits of e-cigarettes, it would be important to consider the ban of all flavors given that the statistics show that a high percentage of young people who use e-cigarettes started because of their attraction to these. Even though the FDA wants further studies, the ban of flavored e-cigarettes has already been proposed by various international health authorities, such as the World Health Organization, which suggested the prohibition in its recommendations for regulating e-cigarettes. What to consider in flavored e-cigarette banning? In order to regulate flavored e-cigarettes, it is important to take into account that even when they are seen as a new way to introduce young people to tobacco use, e-cigarettes can also be considered less harmful than cigarettes and thus, as a new way to help older smokers quit cigarette smoking. Several authors have marked this duality and have proposed different ways to regulate them. For example, O'Neill Institute Senior Scholar Eric N. Lindblom in his article "Effectively Regulating E-Cigarettes and Their Advertisingand the First Amendment", states that one way to stop young people's use of e-cigarettes is by banning the flavors which attract youth, which can help discourage them from trying "e-cigs" and not affect its use as an alternative to smoking by current cigarette users. Lindblom, like others, propose the ban of flavors that appeal to youth in order to protect children's health. Others argue against this stating that a ban on flavors limits adult choice and eliminates products that adults may prefer. Additionally, they argue that flavor options exist for different age restricted consumer products and therefore they shall be allowed in e-cigarettes as well. While it is true that adults should be allowed to decide what they want to consume, the government needs to take appropriate measures to ensure the well-being of children when their health is at stake. Similar arguments were made by the tobacco industry and other groups when the government was looking to ban cigarette flavors and yet the government went through with the prohibition of flavors in cigarettes. What is to come? This year has been important for e-cigarette regulation with the FDA finally publishing a series of rules which can be applied to these products. It will be interesting to see the impact of the new policies on the e-cigarettes market, particularly in youth consumption. The ban of e-cigarettes for those under 18 years of age could be enough to curb the growth in consumption but that still remains to be seen. If in the years to come there is no substantial decrease, it may be necessary to start thinking on banning flavored e-cigarettes, just like it was done with cigarettes. Female athletes who have suffered at least one concussion showed structural differences in the corpus callosum, the structure that connects the two hemispheres of the brain, compared to unconcussed female athletes and other women. The brain images captured 6 months post-concussion suggest long-term changes in the corpus callosum, mainly in the region where it projects to the prefrontal and premotor areas of the brain, as described in an article in Journal of Neurotrauma, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers (http://www.liebertpub.com/). The article is available free on the Journal of Neurotrauma (http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/neu.2015.3948) website until September 9, 2016. In the article "Long-Term Abnormalities in the Corpus Callosum of Female Concussed Athletes," coauthors Emilie Chamard, Genevieve Lefebvre, Maryse Lassonde, and Hugo Theoret, University of Montreal and CHU-Sainte-Justine, Montreal, Canada, used diffusion tensor imaging to examine of the corticopsinal tract and corpus callosum of the study participants. They found no significant differences between the groups of women in the corticospinal tract, but reported evidence of microstructural changes and a lower volume of white matter fibers in the corpus callosum. "This study is of importance from several perspectives. It reinforces the need to analyze gender-specific responses following TBI, while emphasizing that concussive injury in female athletes elicits regionally specific changes in the corpus callosum, which include prefrontal connections, a finding not routinely discussed in the literature," says John T. Povlishock, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Neurotrauma and Professor, Medical College of Virginia Campus of Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond. Australian genomics researchers have announced the development of Sequins -- synthetic 'mirror' DNA sequences that reflect the human genome. This intuitive new technology, which can be used to better map and analyse complexity within the genome, is freely available to the academic research community. The human genome is a vastly complicated sequence that contains more than 6 billion DNA 'letters' (the bases A, C, G and T). Although we can now sequence a person's genome relatively cheaply and quickly, the subsequent analysis of the human genome is a much deeper and more difficult problem. In a bid to improve the quality of genomic analysis, scientists at Australia's Garvan Institute of Medical Research have developed a new technology based on synthetic human genome sequences called 'Sequins'. The Sequins technology is described in two linked studies published today in the prestigious scientific journal Nature Methods. "Human genome sequencing is transforming biomedical research and healthcare," says Dr Tim Mercer, of Garvan's Genomics and Epigenetics Division, who led the development of Sequins. "And as genome sequencing is being increasingly used to diagnose disease, it is more important than ever that researchers and clinicians understand the accuracy of the genomic data they are looking at." Dr Mercer and his team came up with the idea of adding Sequins, small stretches of synthetic DNA, to a patient's DNA sample during sequencing. These Sequins (or sequencing spike-ins) then act as internal standards, helping researchers analyse the large data files that are generated during genome sequencing. Dr Mercer says the Sequins technology is based on an intuitively simple concept -- the notion of mirror-image DNA. "Sequins are, essentially, mirror images of natural DNA sequences. Like us, the genome has a 'handedness', and just as our right hand differs from our left hand, sequins differ from natural genome sequences. So sequins behave just like natural genome sequences, but they can be easily recognised as synthetic." When added to a sequencing reaction, sequins provide internal controls with which to assess the sensitivity and accuracy of genome sequencing. Genetics & Genomics eBook Compilation of the top interviews, articles, and news in the last year. Download a copy today Dr Mercer says, "A whole series of steps, first in the lab and then on the computer, are required to sequence a person's genome or the genes that are expressed in different cells. Sequins are with the person's DNA every step of the way: responding just as real DNA does at each step, yet unmistakably different from that real DNA. This allows a scientist to assess, and optimise, these different steps." Because sequins are added to each individual sample, they can provide a sample-by-sample assessment - something that has not previously been possible. "Sequins are the first technology to allow diagnostic statistics to be applied to each individual genome sequencing test," Dr Mercer says, "and we anticipate that their use will improve the reliability and sensitivity of genetic disease diagnosis." Cancer diagnosis is one area in which using Sequins should lead to improvements. "Incorporating Sequins into clinical tests for cancer diagnosis will increase the reliability of an individual diagnostic readout, reducing incorrect diagnoses and giving clinicians greater confidence in deciding the best course of treatment for their patient." Using Sequins will also make it possible to directly compare genomic data from research institutes and sequencing centres worldwide. "Sequins bring DNA sequencing to clinical standard, and will be an essential platform for genomic research and medicine," said Garvan's Executive Director and co-author of the studies, Professor John Mattick. The potential applications of Sequins are many. Because all genomes, from bacteria to human, have handedness, sequins can be similarly designed for any organism, or for almost any next-generation sequencing application. Dr Mercer says that Sequins technology is freely available to other researchers. "We invite academics to get in touch and we can send them some Sequins for their genome research. We're keen to get this technology out into other labs, in Australia and worldwide." "This is another important step in advancing Garvan's mission to bring genomics to the clinic," said Professor Mattick. A study that sent twice-weekly text messages to a million people in India advising them to exercise, eat less fat, and eat more fruits and vegetables increased these health behaviors known to prevent diabetes, reports new research from Northwestern Medicine and Arogya World, a global health non-profit organization. This effort is the first to use the power and reach of mobile phones to change diabetes risk behaviors in a large number of people from different parts of a vast country like India. It has implications for diabetes prevention in low and middle-income countries. In India, the diabetes burden is very high. An estimated 66 million people live with the disease, and 1 million die from it each year. Indian Americans also are hard hit with diabetes. The diabetes prevalence in this population is four times higher than among Caucasians in the United States. Researchers compared composite scores of the experimental group's fruit, vegetable and fat intake and exercise with the control group. While people in both the experimental and control group improved their health behaviors over six months, the experimental group improved significantly more. Almost 40 percent more people improved their health behaviors as a result of the texting (299 showing improvement in the experimental group versus 185 in the control group), based on data in the paper. The study will be published August 8 in the Journal of Medical and Internet Research. "Noncommunicable diseases, one of the leading health and development challenges of the century, demand simple, proven, cost-effective prevention solutions that can be easily deployed at the population level," said Nalini Saligram, founder and CEO of Arogya World. "Our mDiabetes study suggests mobile health technology is a smart solution and has broad implications for diabetes prevention at the population level in low and middle-income countries." "This shows the potential for even the most basic of mobile phones to be used as a viable tool to deliver public health messages on a large scale across a diverse population," said lead study author Angela Fidler Pfammatter, research assistant professor in preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "And you just need a basic mobile phone. This can make an impact." Bonnie Spring, director of the Center for Behavior and Health at Feinberg, collaborated on the research. Sandhya Ramlingam of Arogya World implemented the behavior change study. The study gathered responses from nearly 1,000 people who received text messages as part of Arogya World's mDiabetes initiative and compared them to responses from a similar number of people who didn't receive the text messages. The randomly chosen 1,000 individuals, who were surveyed by phone in the language of their choice, were considered a representative sample of the one million participants. The study scored for fruit, vegetable and fat consumption as well as exercise in participants at baseline and six months. There were 943 people in the control group, 982 in the experimental one. Arogya World partnered with Nokia during 2012-2013 on mDiabetes to send text messages on diabetes and its prevention in 12 languages, twice a week for six months, to 1 million of its subscribers from all over India who opted in. The 56 text messages were developed with Emory University and culturally adapted for India with extensive consumer feedback. Northwestern University researchers contributed to the study design and data analysis. Using rigorous statistical analysis to correct for baseline differences, and by scoring each study participant on positive and negative behaviors, the authors showed clear health behavior differences between those who received the text messages and those who did not. Noncommunicable diseases include heart disease, diabetes, cancer and chronic lung diseases. According to the World Health Organization, 80 percent of heart disease, 80 percent of type 2 diabetes and 40 percent of cancers are preventable with three lifestyle changes -- avoiding tobacco, eating healthy foods and increasing physical activity. Indians get diabetes in their 30s and 40s, 10 years earlier than most Americans. Two-thirds of the population of India is under age 35. Mobile phone use is widespread throughout India, making this an ideal way to deliver health messages. In addition to the text message program, Arogya World has developed a mobile app, myArogya, to help working Indians prevent chronic disease Arogya World hopes to bring its India approaches to South Asian communities in the United States to help them lead healthier lives. One Medicine: how human and veterinary medicine can benefit each other Professor Roberto La Ragione News-Medical speaks to Professor Roberto La Ragione, Chair of Trustees at Humanimal Trust, about the concept of One Medicine and how human and veterinary medicine can collaborate, share knowledge, and initiate research for the benefit of both humans and animals. Ask your wife to contact me. I will ensure that she is with you on the next seat. pic.twitter.com/sktnOMkg0a @faizanpatel Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) August 8, 2016 My office has reached you already. You will get a duplicate Passport tomorrow. @faizanpatel https://t.co/FV6BisvqgP Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) August 8, 2016 @SushmaSwaraj you are a superstar . Proud on you ma'am . @faizanpatel Niraj Singh (@N1rajKumar) August 8, 2016 @SushmaSwaraj @faizanpatel Sushma ji proud of you, country's reputation outside is in such able hands of yours Praveen. Koti (@Praveen_Koti) August 8, 2016 @SushmaSwaraj @faizanpatel Really mam ur work is too good . DEEPAK PAASI (@PaasiDeepak) August 8, 2016 This might sound like something out of a Bollywood film, but it is every bit real.The Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj, who is known for her prompt reply on social media and for helping distressed Indians from across the world, helped a newly-wed man unite with his wife who had lost her passport just before the couple were leaving for their honeymoon.A resident of Delhi, Faizan Patel, instead of panicking and cancelling the honeymoon trip when his wife Sana misplaced her passport, went ahead with the plan to travel solo to Europe. On the flight, he took an emotional picture of himself holding the photo of his wife on the adjacent vacant seat, and tweeted it tagging Swaraj.The picture seemed to have done the trick for Patel.The minister who is known for promptly checking her timeline, saw the emotional and distressed husband and offered help.To Faizan's surprise the minister replied to his tweet. She asked him to tell his wife to contact her so that she can in turn ensure that both can be together on their honeymoon trip.Now, that's simply awesome.Within approximately twelve hours, EAM Sushma Swaraj again tweeted to Patel, informing him that her office had reached out to him and that a duplicate passport will be provided by the following day.That's efficiency.But this isn't the first time the minister has helped someone facing a problem. From bringing kidnapped Indian woman Judith D'Souza home from Afghanistan to resolving issues by replying to posts on social media, she has always been up and about in helping people in distress. In fact, someone even complained to her over Twitter about a problem with his refrigerator. That's expecting too much!But the minister's offer of help to this honeymoon couple surely won many hearts. From Patel's wife Sana, to other social media users, everyone was lauding the minister for her efforts. New Delhi: Urging employees to do away with "petty courtesies", Air India chief Ashwani Lohani has asked them to stop presenting him with bouquets and also ensure that minimal number of officials are present to see him off at airports. Lohani, who will be completing one year at the helm this month, has emphasised that work should be the focus rather than petty courtesies. The latest message comes less than two weeks after the airline barred its officials from using luxury cabs while travelling within the country. Air India has been working on ways to revive the fortunes of the national carrier, reduce expenses and expand services. In a communication to employees, Lohani said he has noticed that bouquets are invariably presented to him in his capacity as Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) in various functions as also whenever he visits a station or an office. "I have also noticed a large number of staff waiting at the airports to receive me or see me off. "This culture has to end. Emphasis in the organisation has to be on work and work alone and not on petty courtesies. While bouquets shall be a big no from now on, only minimal officials should receive or see me at the airports," he said in the communication dated August 8. Recently, Lohani had warned officials of serious action in case of any violation of his instructions on austerity measures. "I have been repeatedly emphasising on economy, curbing of wasteful expenditure and maintaining immaculate conduct and behaviour," he had said in a strongly-worded circular. As per that circular, taxis hired for domestic travel should not be luxury vehicles while "crew hotels being fairly reasonable, officials shall invariably stay in the hotels only during official travel both within India and overseas." Air India is estimated to have posted an operating profit of Rs 8 crore in 2015-16, mainly helped by steep fall in jet fuel price, which accounts for over 40 per cent of an airline's operating costs. The carrier had incurred losses to the tune of Rs 5,859.91 crore in 2014-15. Government in 2012 had provided a Rs 30,231 crore lifeline to the airline under a turnaround plan spread over a period of nine years. New Delhi: BJP's Jammu & Kashmir incharge Ram Madhav has demanded that Mehbooba Mufti take tough action against separatist forces, a day after the chief minister advocated a "Vajpayee-like" approach to problems in the Valley. The situation is tense in the Kashmir valley. The state must act tough against these separatist forces. The Union government is extending all support to the state. The state is taking all possible steps to normalise the situation. But more needs to be done, Madhav told CNN-News18 on Tuesday. Reacting to Mehboobas "Vajpayee-model" comment, the RSS leader said the policies of the Narendra Modi government were the same as that followed by the Vajpayee government. "Our policies have not changed. There is only one policy. That Kashmir is an integral part of India, and this has been our stand, and all other aspects depend on the situation on the ground. Blaming Pakistan for the terror attacks in Kashmir, Madhav said the state government has the twin tasks of curbing violence and making the life of common man in the valley comfortable. He said, unfortunately political parties need to be in the same page on Kashmir, but they are not Jodhpur: The Rajasthan High Court on Tuesday, rejected the bail application of self-styled godman Asaram Bapu, who is facing rape charge. This was the ninth regular bail application of Asaram to be rejected. An interim bail plea was rejected by the high court last month. While rejecting the application, Justice Nirmal Jeet Kaur said since the trial of the case has reached its fag end, it was not appropriate to grant the bail. Prosecution counsel P C Solanki said the court also rejected the argument of defence that the trial of the case was taking long. A teenage girl had accused Asaram of sexual assault at his ashram in Manai village near Jodhpur. The girl belonging to Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh, was a student at the ashram. Following her complaint, Asaram was arrested by Jodhpur Police on August 31, 2013 and has been in jail since then. Imphal: The 'Iron Lady' of Manipur and social activist Irom Chanu Sharmila is set to end her fast on Tuesday, nearly 16 years after she started her protest against the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) in Manipur. Around 10.39 am, she came out of the Imphal hospital and headed for a local court to official declare that she is going to end her fast. There are speculations that she might contest the next year Assembly Elections in Manipur to press her demand politically. Irom, who was forcibly fed through a nasal tube since 2000 to keep her alive at a prison-turned-hospital, is set to end her fast at a local court in Imphal. On July 26, Irom told mediapersons outside the Imphal Court that she wanted to contest elections after breaking her fast. Activists associated with her said her decision would mark a new beginning in the fight against AFSPA in the state. Her decision to contest state elections is likely to have a huge impact on Manipur's political scene. On November 2, 2000, Irom began a hunger strike (unto death) to protest against the gunning down by the Assam Rifles of 10 civilians waiting at a bus stop at Malom near Imphal airport. On November 5, 2000 she was arrested three days after the fast and on November 21, 2000, she was force-fed through nasogastric intubation in order to keep her alive while under arrest, as her health had deteriorated severely. Under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, in the 7 North-Eastern states and J&K, the armed forces can arrest, search without a warrant and use force on the basis of "reasonable suspicion" that a person is engaging in anti-national activities. Lucknow: Three more persons, including the main accused Saleem Bawaria were on Monday arrested in connection with the gangrape of a mother and daughter on NH91 near Bulandshahr. All six accused are now behind the bars for involvement in the incident. Director General of UP Police Javeed Ahmed had earlier said, "The names of other accused are almost clear and efforts are on to arrest them." A group of dacoits had brutally raped the woman and her 13-year-old daughter at gunpoint after dragging them out of a car in Bulandshahr on NH-91 when they were travelling with their family from Noida to Shahjahanpur on July 29. A political slugfest had followed the incident which was also 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 IP 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. Sydney: MH370 plunged into the ocean at high speed -- up to 20,000 feet a minute -- reinforcing analysis that the missing Malaysia Airlines jet crashed in the current search zone, a report said on Tuesday. The Boeing 777 disappeared on March 8, 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people onboard. An extensive underwater hunt in the southern Indian Ocean has not yet found the crash site, fuelling speculation it may be outside the current search zone, particularly if someone was at the controls at the end of the flight. A manned plane could have been glided down, allowing it to enter the water outside the 120,000 square kilometre area being searched, some experts have suggested. But extensive testing by aircraft manufacturer Boeing and new Australian defence department data analysis both suggest that -- regardless of the possible actions of one or both of the pilots -- the jet dived into the ocean at high speed, The Australian reported. Once MH370 ran out of fuel and the engines flamed, it slowed before plunging down towards the water in a series of swoops -- dropping from 35,000 feet at a rate of between 12,000 feet a minute and 20,000 feet a minute, Boeing said, according to the report. The sharp dive was confirmed by a new data analysis by Australia's defence department involving signals sent automatically between the plane and a satellite, the head of the agency leading the MH370 hunt said. Australian Transport and Safety Bureau (ATSB) chief Greg Hood said this supported the view MH370 "was likely to have crashed in the 120,000 square kilometre area now being searched," the paper said. The area was defined under the ATSB's "most likely" scenario that no-one was at the controls and the plane ran out of fuel. "The Australians leading the search do not doubt that the pilot may well have been responsible for the jet's disappearance but they say critics of the search strategy are wrong to assume that means they are looking in the wrong place," the report added. Malaysian officials said last week that one of the pilots used a home-made flight simulator to plot a very similar course to MH370's presumed final route, but warned this did not prove he deliberately crashed the plane. Here are some headlines from the daily newspapers: 1.L-G asks for files on all decisions taken by govt. without his consent Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung on Monday issued an order addressed to all Secretaries and heads of departments of the Delhi government asking for the files of all the decisions taken by the AAP government without his approval, reports The Hindu. The secretaries, principal secretaries and heads of all the departments, autonomous bodies, boards, corporations and institutions concerned should immediately review all such orders and identify by August 17 those cases where prior approval of the L-G was required but not taken, Vijay Kumar, Secretary to the L-G, said in an order. 2. WASTE LAND - Swachh flops, roads turn bins in Dwarka South Delhi Municipal Corporation seems to have failed in carrying forward the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan promoted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Dwarka Sector 23. Even after two years of the garbage-free city promise, residents are going through a harrowing time over waste disposal reports Times Of India. Every society in Dwarka Sector 23 was given two dustbins for collection of garbage as there are no dhalaos, but a few weeks ago officials from Najafgarh zone removed them and instructed residents to dump waste in open plots. 3. Spectrum auction to kick off on Sept 29 The government will kick off the biggest ever spectrum auction on September 29 and plans to assign spectrum won in the auction within 30 calendar days from the date of making the payment, which takes 10 days, reports The Business Standard. JS Deepak, secretary of the Department of Telecommunications, said the focus was on facilitating the ease of doing business. In earlier auctions, spectrum assignment took as much as four-five months. 4. EPIDEMIC THREAT - 52 dengue cases in just a week The capital may be staring at another dengue epidemic after 2015. The count has already reached 171, with 52 cases reported during the first week of August. This is the highest number of cases reported in one week this year. Last year, 119 cases were reported till the first week of August, reports The Times Of India. Public health officials fear the situation may get worse than 2015. This year excessive breeding of dengue mosquitoes has been reported and if not contained, it may lead to another epidemic, said a senior official from North Corporation. 5. NGT orders inspection of 200 industries in Ghaziabad The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has ordered inspection of over 200 industries in Ghaziabad to check if borewells are installed on their premises reports The Hindu. The direction came on a plea seeking closure of all industrial units in Ghaziabad and Hapur that extract groundwater illegally. Justice U. D. Salvi ordered the Ghaziabad District Magistrate to appoint a team of officers to conduct inspections, and submit a report to it. 6. JNU blows off Kanhaiyas private security cover Jawaharlal Nehru University has withdrawn the private security cover provided to its Students Union president Kanhaiya Kumar. The security cover has cost the university Rs.5 lakh so far and it said that it cannot bear such an expense to provide security to a single student, reports The Hindu. Mr. Kumar, since his release on bail after the sedition case was filed against him following the February 9 incident on campus, was being protected by the personnel of Group 4 while on campus. This was done after the Delhi High Court offered him police security, but Mr. Kumar wrote to the V-C saying he did not want the Delhi Police to accompany him on campus. 7. HRD Ministry Ready With Quality Schooling Plan With every other report on education pointing to a major quality deficit and dipping lear ning levels, the Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry is readying a slew of measures towards course correction right at school and the PMO is tracking closely, reports The Economic Times. From holding annual learning assessment surveys across states to developing a `sound' question paper for higher secondary classes and `social auditing' of how much a child manages to learn from classroom teaching, the ministry is set to roll out a full-fledged school reform programme. 8. Police fall back on beat staff to check auto thefts With over 100 vehicle thefts being reported daily in Delhi, the police in some parts of the city are countering the menace by falling back on their beat staff and primitive methods of policing,reports The Hindu. For years, the anti-auto theft squads (AATS) and special staff have been cracking down on vehicle thieves, but their success rate is less than 10 per cent in a city that has already seen over 22,000 vehicle thefts this year. The first seven months this year have witnessed a 30 per cent jump in vehicle thefts. So, the south-west Delhi district police are focusing on the prevention of vehicle thefts through stronger presence of beat policemen in areas notorious for such crimes. 9. Court gives relief to cop, cites health issues A session court has set aside an order to lodge an FIR against a policeman for allegedly forging the statement of a witness in a case. It observed that the harsh view was taken against the man without considering his medical condition, reports Times of India. The metropolitan magistrate has taken a harsh view without considering the medical condition of the revisionist (cop) who has undergone two heart surgeries.He has also suffered a severe paralytic attack which was visible to the magistrate as he was unable to even sign the statement given by him, additional sessions judge Sudesh Kumar said. 10. Patidars, Dalits See Merit in Each Other's Agitations Patidar and Dalit agitations in Gujarat have claimed their first casualty in Anandiben Patel. To raise the pitch of their protest movement, Dalits are holding AhmedabadUna `march for freedom'. They want their voices to be heard in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh and Punjab too reports The Economic Times. Also, Patidars are planning to rejuvenate their stir later this month. Patel activists are claiming on social media platforms that Nitin Patel lost out to Vijay Rupani in race for Gujarat CMship because of upper caste politics. Not to be left behind, Alpesh Thakore is citing the numerical strength of OBCs to demand chief ministerial position for his community. Bhopal: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch 'Azadi-70, Yaad Karo Kurbani' campaign on Tuesday in Bhabhra, birth place of revolutionary leader Chandrashekhar Azad, in Madhya Pradesh's Alirajpur district on the anniversary of the Quit India Movement. "August 9 is a historic day in India's freedom struggle as it reminds us of the seriousness of the country's hardship and also about the long series of sacrifices made by the revolutionary leaders," BJP's state general secretary Arvind Bhadoria said. "It is a matter of happiness that the Prime Minister is launching the campaign 'Azadi-70, Yaad Karo Kurbani' from the birth place of Azad, Bhabhra, in Alirajpur district on the occasion," he said. Under the campaign from August 9 to 14, Union ministers will visit places associated with Indian freedom struggle, especially the birth places of martyred leaders. "Nearly two lakh people, mostly tribals are expected to take part in the meeting to be addressed by the Prime Minister for which elaborate arrangements are being made," Bhadoria said. Besides, from August 16-22 various programmes in the memory of freedom struggle, like Tiranga Yatra, candle march and Rakshabandhan festival, would be organised. The party workers are knocking on the doors of people in every division to make the event a grand success, he said. Meanwhile, Congress MP from Ratlam-Jhabua seat, Kantilal Bhuria alleged in a statement that in the name organising Prime Minister's programme, BJP has given it a saffron colour by overlooking Congress' contribution in the freedom struggle. He said tribals were forced to migrate from the area due to closure of schemes like MNREGA, which resulted in a rise in unemployment in the area, but the government was not doing anything. Bhuria also reminded Modi that before he became Prime Minister, he had promised to start railway line work in Jhabua but it proved to be a hollow promise. The condition of roads, especially National Highway 59, is worse and despite repeated assurances, nothing is happening, he said. Amid reports of provocative remarks against India by Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin, the US has said such rhetorics are "unhelpful" for regional safety and security and emphasised the need for talks between India and Pakistan. "What I would say is I have seen reports, and anything that does not lead to a calm and peaceful and moderate resolution of differences is not helpful," the State Department Spokesperson, Elizabeth Trudeau told reporters during her daily news conference. "We believe that for regional safety and security, it is the responsibility of the two countries not only to speak directly to each other but also to have that support within the broader international community," Trudeau said. She was responding to questions on reports that Salahuddin threatened to wage a nuclear war against India over the Kashmir issue. "I am not going to respond to every piece of rhetoric that I have seen coming out of that. Of course violence is a concern to us, but what I would say is that issues like this are best resolved through dialogue between those countries," Trudeau said. Asked about the yesterday's terror attack in Pakistan's restive Balochistan province in which 75 people were killed, he said the US stands with Pakistan in the fight against terror andreminded Islamabad of its commitment to go after all terrorist groups. "What I will say is that Pakistan has said that they will go after all terrorists regardless of affiliation. I don't want to politicise this terror attack. This is reprehensible. What I will say is that we stand with Pakistan as they move forward on this fight against terror," Trudeau said. The outstanding Formula Car manufactured by the 22-member student team, led by captain Arpit Upadhyay, in the United Kingdom turned heads at the event.The formula racing car built by Aligarh Muslim Universitys (AMU) engineering students has been judged as being at the 31st best in the world in the cost and manufacturing category at the Formula Student 2016 competition in London.The team scored 58.75 marks in the Cost, Manufacturing and Sustainability category. The total cost of the cars development is estimated at Rs 25 lakhs. Talking to News18, team leader Arpit Upadhyay said, We are trying to get in touch with Indian car makers for further research and development on our project and make it more sophisticated.The students delegation returned from London event on Sunday. Elaborating on the project, Arpit said the competition in this category for Indian students was very tough in comparison to European ones as they were solidly backed by top car makers like Audi.The team members started building the car in May 2015 and it was finalized a year later in May 2015. All the team members-Arpit included, Ayush Mittal, Anchal Varshney, Mehul Varshney, Irfan Khan, Haani Farooqi, Mridul Sharma, Mohd Faraz, Sharif Kidwai, Shubham Varshney, Asim Noor, Faizan Anwar, Hamzah Khan, Asnal Rizvi, Hammad Murtaza, Kashif Zafar, Syed Faraz, Faraz Ahmad, Sagar Varshney, Areeb Mahmood, Wamiq Hashmi and Aman Agarwal-participated in the event.The team consisted of students from all four years batches of Mechanical, Electrical, Electronics and Computer Engineering departments. Talking about the competition, another team member Areeb Mehmood said, The competitions first day was dedicated to the technical inspection of the cars where all the parameters were checked for the racing application. It was an interactive session in which the students were involved in a discussion with the car design experts. It was a remarkable experience in terms of exposure, which helped us to learn new concepts and quality of management. The team members also said that that they will pass this experience to their juniors to make a better car next year which will yield much more appreciation for the University and the country.Arpit said that team worked tirelessly for three days to re-assemble the car in a very cold and chilly London weather. With the participation in the London event, the AMU team has also qualified to participate in Formula Bharat 2017 in January 2017. The AMU team was representing India at the event with teams from IIT Bombay, Delhi Technological University (DTU) and Chitkara University in all the static events showcasing the brilliant cost analysis skills.The AMU team has earlier won Formula Student India, the most popular formula car award in the country.The Formula Student (FS) is Europe's most established educational motorsport competition operated by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IME).The Universities from across the world participate in the challenge to design and build a single-seat racing car in order to compete in static and dynamic events which demonstrate their understanding and test the performance of the vehicle. In an attempt at food policing, the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation has banned the sale of meat in the city for the next 16 days owing to the occasion of the Krishna river festival. The corporation's decision has drawn flak from traders and residents who are livid at the attempt to curb the freedom to eat. "There are people from various religions living here and the government must not tell us what to eat," a resident said. The corporation said the notice has been rolled out in "interest of public health" and has also threatened strict action against offenders. "Many traders will suffer because of this decision. Sitting idle for 15 days is very difficult," a meat trader said. In 2015, Mumbai saw a similar ban on meat sale for a Jain festival. Looking for something different this summer? Why not head to one of the world's weird and wonderful beaches? Relaxnews looks at some of the most unusual, magnificent and unique beaches, all of which make intriguing destinations in their own surprising way. Today we're heading to the Bahamas, more precisely to the Exumas archipelago, where visitors can take a dip alongside the local population of wild pigs. Where to find it Pig Beach is located in the Bahamas, on the island of Big Major Cay in the Exumas archipelago. The site is popular with divers who head there to explore the blue holes and caves, and get up close with sharks and coral reefs. Unusual feature While travelers often think of the Bahamas as a place to enjoy clear turquoise waters, they'll no doubt be surprised to learn that it's also a great place to go swimming with pigs. A colony of around 20 feral pink and black pigs live on the otherwise uninhabited island of Big Major Cay. Tourists can easily approach the pigs, who are used to human contact, and even swim alongside them in the sea. In fact, the island's porcine population happens to have excellent swimming skills. These local celebrities are so used to human visitors that they're perfectly tame and aren't considered dangerous. There are several theories about how the pigs ended up on the island. One widely held belief is that they were "stored" on the island by sailors who intended to come back and cook them but who never returned. The island's piggy population has since grown. How to get there Pig Beach (not to be confused with Pig Island in the Crozet Archipelago in the Indian Ocean) can be reached by boat. Trips run from Great Exuma, the archipelago's main island, or from Staniel Cay. Best beach activity The swimming pigs are the main attraction on this Bahamas island. In fact, Big Major Cay is otherwise uninhabited and has no particular features of interest for travelers, other than its natural beauty and stunning waters. Visitors can spend several hours watching the pigs from a boat and feeding them. Tour operators recommend taking bread and vegetables to feed the pigs. Visitors can lounge next to the animals on the white sands, pet them and take dips with them in the Caribbean Sea, where they swim right up to tourists. Just watching the island's pigs is a fascinating activity but swimming alongside them is an even more unique experience for curious travelers. Avtar Singh is the first Indian judoka since 2004 to qualify for the Olympics and the only one in India's 118-member contingent currently in Rio for the 2016 Games. But when he got to know the news that his parents are flying over to see him compete at the biggest stage, he was left speechless. In a touching gesture, India's leading dairy-products company Mother Dairy pleasantly surprised Avtar's parents - father Shingar Singh and mother Sukhwinder Kaur - by breaking the news of their travel from Gurdaspur, Punjab, to Brazil. The proud and emotional parents then took their first ever flight to land in the Carnival City of Rio de Janeiro, and their journey and ongoing stay has been brilliantly captured in this touching video: Avtar is India's first judoka since Akram Shah (60 kg), who featured at Athens 2004. Overall, he is the eighth to represent India in the sport at the Olympics and will be seen in action in the 90kg division at Rio. Rio de Janeiro: Indian rower Dattu Baban Bhokanal finished fourth in the quarter-finals of the men's single sculls to be out of medal reckoning in the Rio Olympic Games on Tuesday. Bhokanal clocked 6:59.89 to cover a distance of 2000m, little more than six seconds behind the third and last qualifier from the quarterfinal 4, Natan Wegrzycki-Szymczyk (6:53.52) from Poland. Croatia's Damir Martin, the London Olympics silver medallist, won the quarterfinal with a far superior timing of 6:44.44, ahead of second-placed Alan Campbell (6:49.41). Armyman Bhokanal, whose ailing mother is an Intensive Care Unit of a hospital in India, had clocked 7:21.67s in the Heats. He commenced strongly and was second going past the 500 metre mark but then gradually slowed down to lose his chance of advancing. Bhokanal, the lone rower in fray from India, will now have to fight for the minor placings. The law ministry has rejected the Aam Aadmi Party government's demand to amend section 176 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.The Delhi government engaged in a power tussle with the Delhi Police and wanted that it should also have some kind of enquiry power related to certain cases - basically to refer the matter to Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM).At present, an SDM comes into picture only when the police wants it. The Delhi government as per the law cannot refer a case to SDM.The Delhi government through this bill wanted to amend section 176 and insert a clause that will give them the power to ask SDMs to conduct enquiries in cases of deaths and rapes.AAP legislator from Narela Sharad Chauhan was arrested by the police in connection with the suicide of a woman worker of the ruling party.The home ministry had written to the law ministry seeking their advice on whether the legislative assembly of Delhi has the legislative competence to enact the code of criminal procedure (delhi amendment) bill, 2015.The secret note of the law ministry accessed by CNN-News18 shows that the law ministry has rejected this view saying that the 'Parliament is the legislative body competent to make laws for the national capital region of Delhi.'It further says that - 'Delhi legislative assembly has no legislative competence to legislate on the same subject. That article 239AA of the constitution does not empower the Delhi legislative assembly to enact any law on the same subject or effect any amendment thereto'.Top government sources said that AAP is worried after a spate of complaints made against many of their MLAs. New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday described Bharatiya Janata Party's proposed 'Tiranga Yatra' between August 15-22 as a symbol of social harmony and unity and asked party leaders to put in efforts to make it a success. He promoted the yatra as a measure to spread harmony at the BJP's Parliamentary Party meeting. The theme song for the BJP's 15-day exercise '70 Saal Azadi-Zara Yaad Karo Kurbani' to mark Independence Day was also released in the meeting, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said. Kesiraju Srinivas, popularly known as Ghazal Srinivas, who holds a record for singing in most languages, has composed the song, he said. Modi also asked the party leaders to publicise recent initiatives of the government like the passage of GST Bill in Parliament, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said. "The Tirana Yatra will be a symbol of development, social harmony and unity. It will spread harmony," Modi said. Schools should discuss the lives of freedom fighters as it will inspire students, he said, adding, pupils should visit memorials associated with the martyrs. He asked party MPs to carry out the Tiranga Yatra on two-wheelers and visit all corners of the country, Kumar said. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Kumar also spoke at the meeting. The Monsoon session of the Parliament has been productive with 11 bills passed in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha each. New Delhi: After the passage of historic Constitutional Amendment Bill for the introduction of GST by Lok Sabha, Prime Minister Narendra Modi walked up to the Opposition and shook hands with Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge and former prime minister HD Deve Gowda. Apparently conveying his thanks for their support, he had a brief interaction with them. However, Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi had left by then. Modi also had a brief encounter with BJP veteran LK Advani with whom he exchanged pleasantaries, followed by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. The PM was surrounded by fellow Lok Sabha members of his party, the allies and the opposition. With the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley assuring that concerns of Muncipal Corporations would be addressed, Shiv Sena, which has been at odds with the BJP in Maharashtra, congratulated the PM as also by other allies -- the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). Members of TMC, BJD and AIUDF also walked up to him. New Delhi: The AAP on Tuesday branded Lt Governor Najeeb Jung as a threat to democracy after he reportedly suggested he could consider doing away with the Delhi assembly. The Aam Aadmi Party also said that it smelt a larger "conspiracy" behind the continuing attacks on the Delhi government and said Jung would not have spoken this way without Prime Minister Narendra Modi's backing. "This is definitely the voice of Modi," AAP leader Kumar Vishwas told the media. Jung reportedly told an interviewer that he was willing to consider a proposal to do away with the Delhi assembly following a Delhi High Court ruling to give the Lt Governor the final say in matters of administration in the national capital. "On the one hand, Modiji talks about cooperative federalism while on the other (LG) talks about dismissing the assembly. Such people are a threat to democracy," Kumar Vishwas said. Kumar Vishwas, who rarely addresses the media despite being a confidant of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, said the LG had no power to scrap any legislature. This lay with parliament. "We challenge the Modi government to get the proposal scrapping the Delhi assembly passed in parliament," he said. "Jung's threat to dissolve the Delhi assembly is tantamount to overriding the constitution." The AAP leader said Modi was rattled by the party's expanding base in Punjab, Goa and Gujarat. "It is a litmus test being done in Delhi by the Modi government to impose Emergency in the country," Kumar Vishwas said. But he expressed confidence that just as the Supreme Court did in the case of Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, it would favour the elected government in Delhi too. The AAP government is set to challenge the high court verdict in the apex court. Kumar Vishwas also took objection to Jung's reported suggestion to Kejriwal to apologize to Modi for repeatedly attacking the Prime Minister. Both Modi and Kejriwal, he said, were political personalities and one could always debate if the verbal attacks they have launched against each other was right or not. But the Lt. Governor held a constitutional post and it was demeaning for him to make such a suggestion to Kejriwal, he said. Asking Jung to shed his hatred for Kejriwal, the AAP leader said the Lt Governor must meditate to calm himself. "Or if he wants to take on the AAP, he must resign as the LG and fight elections from any seat in Punjab," Kumar Vishwas said. "Or he can contest from any safe seat in Goa or Gujarat." Earlier, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain accused Jung of "speaking the language of the Viceroy and Churchill" by suggesting that the Delhi assembly can be scrapped. Jain also opposed Jung's reported order to senior officials in the Delhi government to send to him files that needed his signature. Jung "has never fought any election, yet he has reached the top. It is but natural he will say this. "The (British) Viceroy also used to say that India cannot be given complete independence," Jain said. "Winston Churchill used to say Indians cannot govern themselves. "The Lt Governor is speaking the language of the Viceroy and Churchill." Referring to Jung's order to senior officials in Delhi asking them to send files directly to him, Jain said this was "unconstitutional". "In no way can the LG communicate directly with any officer. We will certainly abide by the (Delhi High) Court order. And the LG has the right to seek any file. "But the files have to go through proper channels. He cannot order for any file directly and take any decision on his own," Jain said. The love-hate relationship between Google and Apple is world-known. The competition among the two companies goes beyond just technology and extends to other facets of their existence, including ads.In a recent ad by Google for its Photos app, the search engine slyly mocks the limited storage capacity Apple iPhones come with.The ad shows some extremely crucial moments worthy of being captured when the annoying error message pops - Storage Full. While the ad nowhere mentions the iPhone, the error message resembles the one shown on an Apple device.The Google Photos app comes with a 'Free Up Space' feature that removes backed up photos to make more room for fresh captures, irrespective of whether you own an iPhone or an Android device. San Francisco: Yahoo launched a website for watching Hulu television shows in the United States. The alliance appeared to be part of a move by Hulu to shut its free streaming television service supported by advertising and focus on subscriptions. Yahoo View was described as an extension of the struggling internet pioneer's partnership with Hulu and promised recent episodes of ABC, NBC, and Fox television shows along with films, anime, and Korean drama. The website will also feature a social component for viewers. "Yahoo View is our first step towards creating a powerful community TV-watching experience, but its really only the beginning," said Yahoo vice president of lifestyles product Jess Lee. Time Warner recently bought a stake Hulu, which launched a decade ago with backing by NBC Universal; 21st Century Fox and The Walt Disney Company. "Video is an important part of Yahoo's strategy," said Yahoo vice president and head of media partnerships Phil Lynch. Versions of Yahoo View tailored for smartphones and tablets would be released soon, according to the company. Yahoo last month sealed a deal to sell its core business to telecom giant Verizon for $4.8 billion, ending a two-decade run as an independent company for the internet pioneer. The agreement announced by the two companies after months of negotiations comes following a years-long decline for the iconic firm that introduced many people around the world to the internet. Verizon chief executive Lowell McAdam said Yahoo would be integrated into its recently acquired AOL unit to create "a top global mobile media company, and help accelerate our revenue stream in digital advertising." The acquisition, expected to close in early 2017, pending shareholder and regulatory approval, will exclude Yahoo's cash, certain patent holdings, and its big share in China's Alibaba Group and stake in Yahoo Japan. Kathmandu: Nepal's Prime Minister Prachanda today said he is committed to amend the Constitution to address the demands of all indigenous communities of the country including the Madhesis. Addressing a programme organised by the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities here to mark the 22nd International Day of the World's Indigenous People, the Prime Minister said, "the government would try to implement the Constitution in a way that all the oppressed ethnic communities and indigenous people would feel their ownership in it." He said he is committed to make the Constitution acceptable to all people through amendment to it. The government is working towards forging a national consensus towards that direction, he added. The Madhesis and various indigenous nationalities have been demanding the identity based federalism to be incorporated in the statute, that was promulgated in September last year. The Madhesi parties had led the six months-long agitation, mainly to protest against the seven-province federal model enshrined in the Constitution. The protests by Madhesis, mostly of Indian-origin, had also disrupted the supplies of petroleum products and cooking gas among other essentials to Nepal. The 61-year-old Prachanda was elected Prime Minister on Wednesday for the second time after his brief stint with premiership came to an end in 2009. Last week, Prachanda-led government has decided that the families of those killed during the Madhesis' protests over the new Constitution will be given Rs 1 million each in compensation. The decision was part of the deal ruling alliance Nepali Congress and CPN-Maoist Centre had signed with the Madhesis after previous K P Sharma-led government had resigned. Saint Petersburg (US): Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan jets into Russia today for his first meeting with counterpart Vladimir Putin since the two strongmen leaders began healing a bitter feud over Ankara's downing of a Russian warplane. Erdogan's visit to Putin's hometown of Saint Petersburg is also his first foreign trip since the failed coup against him last month that sparked a purge of opponents and cast a shadow over Turkey's relations with the West. "This visit seems to me a new milestone in bilateral relations, beginning with a clean slate, and I personally, with all my heart and on behalf of the Turkish nation salute Mr Putin and all Russians," Erdogan said in an interview with Russian state media. The shooting down of a Russian fighter jet by a Turkish F-16 over the Syrian border last November saw a furious Putin slap economic sanctions on Turkey and launch a blistering war of words with Erdogan that seemed to irrevocably damage burgeoning ties. But in a shock reversal in late June, Putin accepted a personal expression of regret over the incident from Erdogan as an apology and immediately rolled back a ban on the sale of package holidays to Turkey and signalled Moscow would end measures against food imports and construction firms from the country. Now in the wake of the failed July 15 coup attempt in NATO-member Turkey, ties between the two sides could be bolstered even further -- with Erdogan bluntly making it clear he feels let down by the United States and the European Union. Putin was one of the first foreign leaders to phone Erdogan offering support and, unsurprisingly, sharing none of the scruples of EU leaders about the ensuing crackdown. "While Turkish-Russian ties are subject to their own uncertainties, this deterioration of relations with Western powers could accelerate a Turkish-Russian rapprochement," said analysts from the European Council on Foreign Relations. Relations between Turkey and Russia -- two powers vying for influence in the strategic Black Sea region and Middle East -- have never been straightforward and their predecessor Ottoman and Russian empires fought three centuries of war. Yet before the plane crisis, Moscow and Ankara managed to prevent disputes on Syria and Ukraine harming strategic cooperation on issues like the TurkStream gas pipeline to Europe and a Russian-built nuclear power station in Turkey. Those projects were all put on ice with trade between the two countries falling 43 per cent to USD 6.1 billion in January-May this year and Turkey's tourism industry seeing numbers from Russia fall by 93 per cent. Simon must be a crafter at heart. When my little green quaker parakeet loses his feathers during his routine molts, he uses the brilliant colors to create art. Some birds might consider the molted feathers much in the same way I consider my hair when it sheds -- an annoying mess that clogs the shower drain but otherwise trash to be disregarded. Simon feels differently. He collects these vibrant green and navy blue feathers and gently weaves them into his cage bars. The weave is strong and tight, and he aligns the greens and blues, typically in diagonals. The weave almost always is done right alongside his favorite perch and near his food dish. I've never actually witnessed Simon weave the feathers but tend to find them the following day. Far be it for me to touch his intricate weave. If I go near it, he gets angry, and when I scrub down his cage and throw his art away, you'd think he'd never forgive me. At least for a day, and then he gets over it. Wondering if that was a quirk specific to Simon, I turned to some of my favorite online resources for quaker parakeets and found he isn't the only artist out there. The birdchannel.com published an article by Ellen Feinstein Krueger about how quaker parrots are making themselves at home in neighborhoods across the U.S. "In suburban Boston, Massachusetts, Fonzie, my quaker parrot, weaves molted tail feathers into the bars of her cage. Each is carefully twisted and tucked, just so. Visitors to Fonzies house marvel at the intricate patterns the parrot fashions with the feathers and strips of leather. She creates a classic basket weave, circles and arcs on the front, back and walls, even the ceiling. Its a wonder to behold," she wrote. Simon's patterns haven't gotten that advanced, but he's only ever had feathers with which to work. Wild quakers use weaving techniques to build their intricate nests. "The bird jabs the end of a stick that is twice as long as his body into a snarl of twigs. Painstakingly, the quaker bends, pokes, weaves and trims the stick around the opening in the nest until its just right. Visitors stand beneath the nest, necks craned, cameras snapping, marveling at the complex work of this feathered engineer," Krueger wrote. A visit to the quaker forums reveals many caretakers of these remarkable birds have noted the same behavior. "Quakers are master weavers!! Mine makes an 'x' across his cage and food port doors. I always ask him if he has his 'Keep Out' signs up," EchosMom wrote on The Ultimate Cockatoo Message Board. Mona responded, "My Quaker weaves her molted feathers through her bars also. EchosMom and I have discussed this, and if I remove one, she replaces it with another. I stopped removing them, apparently she is decorating her home and doesn't appreciate my removing her decorations." I've never thought to give Simon various materials to help him create his artwork. Perhaps I should invest in some colorful paper and allow Simon's creative side to run wild. GamesRadar+ is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Heres why you can trust us. Stuck in elevator for 2 hours Pregnant woman to sue SWRHA Natalie Drayton, of Mahappy Drive, Darson Trace, Siparia, say she is concerned for the safety of her feotus after she was stuck in the elevator with insufficient oxygen for two hours. According to Draytons attorneys Cheryl Ann Peters and Anand Ramlogan, SC, the incident occurred on July 5. Drayton had gone to the hospital to visit her mother who suffered a stroke. She said after entering the elevator, it came to a sudden stop between the first and ground floor and although she kept pressing the open button nothing happened. The letter sent to the SWRHA chief executive Neil Gosine said Drayton became frantic and called her fianc? to let him know what had happened. She was advised to press the emergency button so that the alarm would sound off and the door would open. She said she did so but nothing happened. The letter said she was extremely scared and started screaming and banging on the elevator door. After some time, a security guard heard her and told her not to worry. My client was crying hysterically because she was terrified and did not know what to do. She was also extremely afraid for the safety of her baby... She told the security guard they needed it get help soon because she was pregnant and it was difficult to breathe, the letter said. The letter added that Draytons uncle who was at the hospital tried to use a stick to open the door but was prevented from doing so by the police officers who were called in, as he was destroying property. The letter said the police left without rendering assistance. Eventually, an engi neer at the San Fernando Teaching Hospital came to assist but he could not as he did nott have the key to the elevator. Attempts were also made to contact the supervisor, but he was not answering his phone. Eventually they were able to reach another engineer who advised them what to do to get the door open. It was eventually opened some two hours after she became stuck. When she came out, Drayton was hyperventilating and was shaking out of fright. This incident is highly unacceptable; there are hundreds of visitors to the hospital on a daily basis. However, of greater importance is the fact that this is a hospital and patients as well as much needed medical equipment are transported within these elevators. The fact is that an individual could have been stuck in there for close to two hours is preposterous, the letter noted. The lawyers letter also stressed that an elevator in a hospital that not properly maintained has the potential to be extremely dangerous. Proper maintenance should be carried out to ensure that there are no malfunctions of this mature and that the elevator systems are in a safe condition, especially in such a facility where there are daily emergency situations, the letter said. My client is currently pregnant and is deeply concerned about the effects of this occurrence in her unborn baby especially in light of the fact that she was not receiving adequate oxygen for a period of close to two hours and was under extreme stress, Peters wrote. Drayton is seeking damages for pain and suffering as well as future medical care and has given the SWRHA 28 days in which to respond to her pre-action letter. WHERE IS MUMMY? Hinds, 41, a labourer with the Community-based Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programme (CEPEP) left home last week Tuesday and has not been seen since. All three made an impassioned plea yesterday for her to come back home. We want to know where our mummy is, we want someone to help us find our mother, Kylon told Newsday. The siblings were brought to this newspapers head-office yesterday by their uncle-in-law Ian Hunte who also appealed for the publics help to locate Hinds. Hunte is married to Hinds sister. She isnt the kind of person who would go out and lime for so long. So we are all very concerned right now for her safety, Hunte said. When Hinds did not return home on Tuesday evening, last week, relatives checked with neighbours in the quiet Caura community where they live, but no one had seen or heard from the woman. Hunte said that the disappearance of Hinds has affected all in the family especially the womans three children, who instead of playing or liming during the August vacation, spend everyday at home waiting for Hinds to come home. Weve just been coping with her disappearance right now. The children have been going through sleepless nights, crying, they cant eat... we dont know if she is alive or dead, Hunte said. Confirming that a Missing person report was filed at the Tunapuna police station last week Wednesday, Hunte said, I am really close to this family and she (Rhonda) is sort of like a second sister to me, wherever I am you would see her. Hunte, who is an electrician by profession, said that he and his wife are doing all they can to support Hinds three children. It has been really very trying but were all doing the best we can to keep their spirits up. Hunte said that daily checks with the Tunapuna police have yielded no leads on Hinds whereabouts. Rhondelle who attends Tunapuna RC Primary School said he was very sad by his mothers disappearance and is praying for her safe return. When Newsday checked with Tunapuna police, the officer confirmed that a report had been made on Hinds disappearance and suggested we check with the Anti-Kidnapping Unit (AKU) but no one from the Unit was willing to discuss the issue. $1.2M bail for Corporation 4 on fraud charges The four - Dyal; Barry Samaroo, a Chief Engineer; Maniram Mohess, a county superintendent and Ian Gokool, a Road Officer I along with contractor Mahase Sookai of Suk-I Contractors Limited were charged on Saturday after officers of the Fraud Squad consulted with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) on the issue. Yesterday, they appeared before Charles who transferred the matter to the Couva Magistrates Court where the five will reappear on Thursday. Although the prosecution asked that a reporting condition be added to the bail conditions, Charles said nothing was presented to her to warrant such a request, as she pointed out that the $300,000 bail each were granted at the police station, was sufficient to cover the charges and none of the five had any pending or prior charges against them. Insp Dipchan of the Fraud Squad, charged the five for the offence which allegedly occurred on September 30. It is alleged that the five conspired together to defraud the CTTRC of $1,149,500 by pretending the Suk-I Contractors completed two contractual agreements to install outdoor exercise equipment at the San Pablo Recreation Ground and the Todds Road Activity Centre. Last week Friday, police went to the CTTRC office along Railway Road, Couva and held the employees. The contract was awarded during the 2014/15 fiscal year, but cheques and other documents related to this were seized by Fraud Squad officers at the CTTRC last November. On November 25, Fraud Squad officers questioned senior employees in the accounting department, when they searched the compound and seized financial records, including cheques and files of contractors contracted by the corporation, as well as other documentary evidence associated with alleged corrupt payments to certain contractors. Makandal Daaga dies Saying he would have celebrated his 81st birthday on Saturday, Liseli said Daaga was not well for a few years as he suffered from heart disease and was an epileptic. Liseli said the one thing she wanted the country to remember of Daaga, was his immense love for the people. His entire life was dedicated to the struggle. He always said, my people come first, she said. Liseli said Daaga worked tirelessly for the people of this country and the wider Caribbean throughout his life. She said that love was also manifested in simple ways, such as providing help for a child in need. Saying Daaga was my leader, before my husband, Liseli said he also had a great love for his community of Laventille and this countrys culture. She said while many persons encouraged him to leave Laventille, Daaga insisted on staying. NJAC political leader Kwesi Mutema said the party was deeply saddened at Daagas passing. Mutema described Daaga as an exceptional leader, who was very insightful and had a deep sense of humanity. He said one of the things which impressed him the most about Daaga was his ability to show care for the smallest person. KAMLA MOURNS In a brief comment on Daagas passing, Acting Prime Minister Colm Imbert said, May he rest in peace and deepest condolences to his family. Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar said, His long contribution dates back to the pre-Independence era, and in 1962 when he formed the Pegasus party, before later forming the NJAC. His journey stands as a monument to service, determination and fortitude, she declared. Persad-Bissessar said Daaga was, was one of those elders whose advice I always treasured, as one who was already a seasoned veteran by the time I entered politics many years ago. Persad-Bissessar said it was Daagas vision in part, that saw the rise of the Peoples Partnership (PP) and the Fyzabad Accord which saw the first coalition government in our history standing strong for its full term. She said one of Daagas most timeless philosophies was, the people is the Government and this was the talk he walked in his long march to political power. Daaga was appointed as Caricom Cultural Ambassador Extraordinaire, under the PP. Persad-Bissessar said as a pioneering politician, a social activist, a political elder and a statesman, Daaga will be missed for his, forthright wisdom and boundless energy. Former Congress of the People (COP) political leader Prakash Ramadhar said he was saddened to learn about Daagas death. Ramadhar said, Makandal Daaga was a true instrument of change. Ramadhar, who is St Augustine MP, recalled that he sought out Daaga when he undertook a fast in 2009 as part of the COPs Axe the Tax campaign against the then Peoples National Movement (PNM) government. HE PUT COUNTRY FIRST Ramadhar said Daagas passing meant that TT has, lost one of its historic persons. He said Daaga put country before self and many persons in the political arena today could learn from his example. According to NJACs website, Daaga was born in Laventille. His mother was a housewife while his father, Phillip Granger (a former World War I soldier) was a barber, who had a shop on Charlotte Street in Port-of-Spain. Phillip Granger was said to be the mentor of many of the Spiritual Baptist and Orisha leaders of the mid-20th Century. Daaga got his early education at Belmont Intermediate (now Belmont Secondary) and later at St Marys College. In 1962, he formed an organisation called Pegasus which was reported to have comprised some of the most brilliant, influential and prestigious personalities in TT at the time. Pegasus was the first body to give National Awards. In 1969, as President of the Guild of Undergraduates, he formed NJAC. On November 26, 1972, at a mass rally at Palms Club, San Fernando, Daaga declared that the ideology of NJAC is nothing more than the demands of the people. He continued, NJACs motivation is nothing more than our love for the people. And our strength is nothing more than the interaction between our love for the people and the peoples love for their vanguard. The party mobilized the country for one whole year before the 56 days of demonstrations from February 26, to April 21, 1970. Daaga was imprisoned on four different occasions, between 1970 and 1973. NJAC said there were more than seven attempts on Daagas life. In 1974, he was made leader of the Caribbean Steering Committee for the 6th Pan African Conference that was held in Tanzania. In 1987 the African Methodist Episcopal Church honoured him during the Churchs 200th Anniversary celebrations.In the same year, the African Methodists Episcopal Churchs University, Morris Brown College, Atlanta offered him an honorary doctorate for his outstanding contribution to the development of consciousness of his people. At one time, NJAC said Daaga was banned from every Caribbean territory except, Guyana. The party said Daaga is still effectively banned from entering the United States. Under Daagas leadership, NJAC successfully campaigned for August 1 to be recognised as Emancipation Day. This came into being in 1985, under the the PNM administration of Prime Minister George Chambers (now deceased). Girl, dads bodies wash ashore They had gotten into difficulties while in the waters in vicinity of Mitan River while on a family excursion at Manzanilla beach. Reports are Basdeo experienced difficulty while swimming and Harridath rushed in to assist. But security officer Harridath also got into difficulties and both daughter and father disappeared under the water. A massive search was subsequently mounted for Basdeo, a pupil of the Tableland Secondary School and her father. Autopsies are expected to be performed today on both bodies at the Forensic Sciences Centre. PC Ramsaran of the Mayaro Police Station is continuing investigations. This was one of two families plunged into mourning following similar tragedies. Claxton Bay grandfather Morris Selwyn Sammy, 75, and granddaughter Anastacia Misha Ali, nine, drowned in the waters off Coconut Avenue, Grand Lagoon, Mayaro, on Sunday. Anastacia, a pupil of the St Gabriels Girls RC School, in San Fernando, lived with parents, Stacy Sammy- Ali and Andy Ali and five year- old brother, Zayne Ali at Gopaul Circular Drive, Marabella. Sammy also called Shac Shac and Bouji was a bass guitarist with the now defunct Ansel Wyatt Combo, a popular band of the 1960s and 1970s. Sammy was a father of five and grandfather of 18. Reports are a group of persons were in the waters at Mayaro, where three children (among them Anastacia) got into some difficulties. Sammy, who was metres away in the waters, rushed to save them. The report added that Sammy and his granddaughter disappeared under the waters as the two other girls were taken to safety by other beach goers. Within minutes the Sammy, whom relatives described as a good swimmer, and Anastacia were fished out of the sea. Funeral arrangements are being made by families members and WPC Mc Kain of the Mayaro Police Station is continuing investigations. Family: No lifeguards to help Andy Ali, the childs father, told Newsday there were no lifeguards and no warning flags placed at the beach, when Ali and her grandfather Morris Selwyn Sammy drowned. I think the authorities need to look at this situation, Ali said. Three things come to mind. One, there were no lifeguards. Two, there were no flags and three, the response time after we called for help, was nil When the girl and her grandfather were pulled out of the water, relatives attempted to resuscitate Ali, while others telephoned the emergency services. After trying for 20 minutes to get help, family members placed the child and her grandfather in a panel van took them to the Mayaro Health Centre where they were both pronounced dead on arrival. Ali described his daughter as an artistic child who aspired to be an actress and performer. She was the first born...the apple of our eye, Andy said. When I told her that being an actress was a very tough job she said she didnt care. So we started supporting her in her dream, because I didnt want her to make the same mistakes I did in school. Augustus Sylvester, President of the Lifeguard branch of the National Union of Government and Federated Workers (NUGFW) confirmed to Newsday that there were no lifeguards present at the beach on Sunday. He cited a severe shortage of staff and equipment as reasons for no lifeguards being present. We are so short-staffed that if there was a lifeguard on duty at the time, he would have had to patrol an area about the size of Maracas Bay all by himself, Sylvester said. Fire on Cipero Street Reports are that at about 3 pm, smoke and fire were seen emanating from the Golden Terrace Chinese Restaurant. A male and a female of Chinese origin, sustained minor injuries as they attempted to get out of the burning building. Up to last evening, they were at the San Fernando General Hospital. A child was rescued from the building. Within minutes, flames quickly spread to an adjoining three-storey building which housed Mega Traders Limited as well as a two-storey house. For over an hour, officers of the Mon Repos Fire Station (South Division Fire Headquarters) and Princes Town Fire Station battled the raging flames as scores of persons looked on including San Fernando Mayor Kazim Hosein and San Fernando East MP Randall Mitchell . Assistant Chief Fire Officer (South ) Cecil Davis explained that there were no external staircases nor internal stairways in the premises which posed a danger for fire officers to work. Right now we have four appliances on the scene , at the rear and at the front. We surrounded the building to prevent it from spreading. We are on a defensive mode of fire fighting at this point...I cannot estimate losses until we do a thorough investigation. Among the officers were Divisional Fire Office John, Fire Substation Officer Defrance and ADFO Arjoon of Fire Prevention Unit (South). Mayor Hosein praised the prompt response of fire officers whom he said went out of their way to contain the flames. Additionally, the San Fernando City Corporation and WASA provided water to the firemen. The mayor described the incident as a great loss to San Fernando adding that the country is in a recession and business is down. The restaurant, as you know, is one of the oldest in the city. I understand two people were cooking when the fire took place. It is sad. It is a great loss. But I am totally satisfied with the response of the emergency services, Mayor Hosein said. MP Mitchell also described the incident as a loss. A quick glance shows that millions of dollars in properties would have been lost by the fire. We take solace in the coordinated effort by all of the services, T&TEC and the fire and police services. On my way here I saw lots of fire trucks going back and forth probably getting water to get the fire under control, MP Mitchell said. Mega Traders Limited housed a drapery company on the top floor and a plumbing and hardware store at the bottom Further surgery for boy hurt in Robocop hit A source yesterday said the child was discharged a week ago and readmitted for a procedure that would be done today. The source said it was a planned procedure. He was sent home under planned discharge for a follow up procedure, and would be operated on this morning, the source said. Kirchard Scott had been shot in the stomach after his father tried to save his live during the shooting . Attempts made to contact the childs family were unsuccessful . However, the bullet perforated Kirchards intestines and he underwent a surgical procedure to repair the holes, but not without losing several centimetres of his small intestines . Kirchard was an unfortunate victim when the alleged gunman, Sharpe, who was said to be wearing a wig, entered Alexiss car wash business place in Enterprise, Chaguanas, at around 4.30 pm on July 17 and opened fire. It was reported that purported gang leader Alexis had been targeted by a rival gang because of actions within the community . It was first thought Alexis had returned fire, but ballistic reports now have investigating officers questioning who was the second shooter as there was no evidence of gunshot residue on either Alexiss or Escaygs hands . Living legend laid to rest Extempo exponent and Colemans avid follower, Willard Harris (Lord Relator), who paid his respects as Coleman was given his final rights at Belgroves Funeral Chapel, Tacarigua, yesterday, questioned why the organisations, which claim they were supporting artistes, forget about them. I remember Fitzroy as a very humble person and down to earth, caring and always willing to help to teach the younger ones to follow in his footsteps, Harris said. His talent was not widely known and that is a mystery, but he made a great contribution and was rated fourth in the world. Trinidad and Tobago does not want to honour their heroes for whatever reason, I dont know. This is an icon, a first class player that is lying down there. Where is TUCO? Where is COTT, on this day? That is the question that I am putting to you. These people are taken for granted in this country. There are people on the outside that recognise him more than here because he was rated number four in the world in the DownBeat Magazine, Harris said. There were very few people who showed up to wish a final farewell to Coleman. There may have been about 25 persons. Coleman was a widower with no children. Carlson Kerr, welfare officer of TUCO, said they were unaware of when Colemans funeral was scheduled for. We would have had more representation on our side if we knew the date of the funeral. We would do much more in the future to remind people of his contribution. We never fail to give people recognition. We have been doing our best as much as we can, he said. Kerr claimed that they had been trying to keep in touch with persons handling the funeral arrangements. We in TT do not honour our artistes and give them the respect that we ought to do, he saidNyan Gadsby-Dolly, Minister of Community Development, Culture and the Arts, said neither she nor her ministry was aware of Colemans death. When asked whether the Government will consider ways in which Coleman will be honoured, Gadsby-Dolly said, That is something we can examine and look at his contribution and see what can be done. Parliament Channel celebrates anniversary To commemorate this anniversary, the Parliament announced that it will be holding a series of activities from August 15 to19. The launch of these activities takes place at the Arnold Thomasos Room (East), Level 6, of Tower D of the Port-of-Spain International Waterfront Centre on August 11 from 10 to 11 am. Attendees are advised to use the waterfront entrance of Tower D. The Parliament is currently on its regular fixed recess and will resume its sittings next month. US: We See No Signs Putin Will Use Dirty Bomb (Newser) A sad story out of England, where aspiring author Helen Gradwell died without ever learning that her first novel was going to be published. The 39-year-old was dead for nearly five months before a concerned neighbor asked authorities to check in on her in late April, the Telegraph reports. When they responded, they found her dead on her living room floorand amongst the mail that had piled up behind her front door was a letter from a London publisher accepting The Nature's Spirits for publication. Gradwell suffered from debilitating migraine headaches, and likely overdosed on the painkiller tramadol, which she took to manage them, an inquest heard recently. Gradwell had last used her phone on Dec. 30, when she texted a friend to cancel their planned get-together; she was found in her pajamas, with a quilt and pillow on the couch, where she may have been sleeping. Her two dogs also died and were found in the same room, which was still decorated for Christmas, the Independent reports. As for the book, her family can't locate it, but they are trying to find it so it can be published and the proceeds donated to animal charities. (Read more England stories.) (Newser) A 27-year-old jogger from New York City was found dead in Princeton, Mass., on Sunday, her naked body partially burned, police say. Vanessa Marcottean account manager for Googlehad set out from her mother's house, which she was visiting for the weekend, around 1pm, authorities say. Her family reported her missing hours later and her body was found a half-mile away in a wooded area around 8pm. The case follows last week's murder of jogger Karina Vetrano in Queens. Police tell Fox 25 they are investigating whether Marcotte was sexually assaulted, then set on fire as her hands, feet, and head appear to have been burned. "We do not know if this is a random act," a Worcester County DA tells WCVB, calling the circumstances of her death "horrific," per Mass Live. Police, seen scouring the wooded area near a two-lane road on Monday afternoon, are asking the public's help in finding out what happened after Marcotte departed, reports Fox 59. However, a neighbor tells the Boston Globe that the wooded lots nearby provide good cover for someone to "grab her and bring her right into the woods." A former boss describes Marcotte, a Boston University graduate, as "bright," "ambitious," "caring," and "just a delightful person." She was "known for her ubiquitous smile, passion for volunteer work, and love of Boston sports," a Google rep adds. "We are deeply shocked and saddened." Massachusetts police say there's no sign Vetrano and Marcotte's murders are linked. (Vetrano's mother had strong words for her daughter's killer.) (Newser) A well-dressed tourist visiting Germany from China was robbed in Heidelberg, but he filled out the wrong set of paperwork in an attempt to report the crime. Known only as Mr. L and fluent only in Mandarin, he went to the town hall instead of the police station, signed an asylum application instead of a missing item report, handed over his passport, had his fingerprints taken, and was bused 220 miles away to a refugee shelter in Duelmen. All the while he did his best at charades to communicate that he just wanted his passport so he could visit Italy and France, reports the Local. But the 31-year-old had become entangled in the German asylum system, which has processed 1 million refugees in the last year alone, reports the Guardian. Most have fled Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan; very few have sought asylum from China. "He spent 12 days trapped in our bureaucratic jungle because we couldn't communicate," the head of a Red Cross refugee center tells Reuters. The well-dressed man from Beijing stood out as it was, and he also clearly had a story to tell. But it wasn't until someone went to a local Chinese restaurant for help that it was suggested Red Cross workers use a smartphone app to translate, which did the trick. After more paperwork, which was further delayed by paperwork mishandled when Mr. L first entered the country, the tourist was sent on his way south. The entire ordeal took 12 days, and yet he walked away politely and without anger. "He said Europe was not what he had expected," the Red Cross official says. (Read about another tourist mishap.) (Newser) A special unit of the San Francisco Police Department is investigating how 19 people including a 6-year-old child could have eaten gummy candies at a birthday party that most likely were marijuana edibles, the AP reports. The 19 were hospitalized Sunday, but all of them were released by Monday. Officer Grace Gatpandan said at a Monday news conference that the unit is interviewing people to see if the candies were intentionally placed at the party to target children, which would be a serious crime. But she says investigators don't want to rush to the assumption that it was intentional. She says police only know that the patients had THC in their systems, and they could not yet say whether the gummies had medical-grade levels of marijuana. The patients' symptoms were consistent with the effects of edible cannabis, including rapid heart rate, high blood pressure, dilated pupils, dizziness, light-headedness, nausea, lethargy, and confusion. Police did not name the Oakland catering company that provided the food for the party or say how the gummies were presented. The incident took place during a quinceanera celebration. Thirteen of the patients were 18 or younger. (Read more marijuana stories.) (Newser) When Erin and Marianne Krupa decided they wanted to start a family five years ago, they moved from North Carolina to New Jersey in search of a less conservative environment. Little did they know they were about to hit upon a state insurance mandate from 2001 that they say specifically discriminates against same-sex couples trying to conceive: In New Jersey, most women under 35 must prove infertility by having had "two years of unprotected sexual intercourse" before their insurance providers are required to cover fertility treatments, reports the New York Times. Soon after they visited fertility doctors, Erin learned in 2013 that she is infertile due to endometriosis and benign cysts on her uterus. But their insurance provider has denied coverage of most treatments the couple has gone through, which means they've spent nearly $50,000 so far in their quest to have a child. Now they're suing the state. "It's completely discriminatory," reproductive endocrinologist Dr. Jane Miller tells WABC-TV. And while only two other women are joining the Krupas in the lawsuit, Shannon Minter of the National Center for Lesbian Rights tells the New Jersey Law Journal that "these denials are extremely common" and "we expect to see many more [legal challenges]." One of the plaintiffs' attorneys says that the law in New Jersey is especially discriminatory in its language about exposure to sperm through intercourse. New York and Connecticut, for instance, require exposure but don't specify how, while legislation in California and Maryland requires infertility treatment be covered regardless of sexual orientation. As for the Krupas, Marianne has since gone through her own fertility treatments, but has miscarried twice. Both women are still trying. (These two common surgeries may make women more fertile.) (Newser) NBC announcer Al Trautwig said Monday he regrets tweeting that the adoptive mother and father of American gymnastics star Simone Biles were not her parents, a declaration that angered advocates for adoption. Trautwig had been scolded by a woman on Twitter for not referring to Ron and Nellie Biles as the 19-year-old Olympic gymnast's parents. Simone Biles went to live with Ron Biles, her maternal grandfather, and his wife Nellie in Texas while their mother struggled with drugs and alcohol in Ohio; she and sister Adria were adopted in 2000 when the birth mother's parental rights were terminated, reports the AP. Simone remains in contact with Shanon Biles but is quick to correct anyone who calls Shanon her mother. Shanon Biles is her biological mother, she says. Nellie Biles is mom. "Mother" and "father" were also the phrases used by NBC in a profile of Biles that aired Sunday night. Shortly thereafter, Trautwig said on the air that Simone "was raised by her grandfather and his wife and she calls them mom and dad." A woman on Twitter then urged Trautwig to stop calling Ron and Nellie her grandfather and his wife. "They are her parents," she wrote. But Trautwig replied in his since-deleted tweet: "They may be mom and dad but they are NOT her parents." NBC ordered Trautwig to delete his tweet as #FireTrautwig began to appear on Twitter, reports USA Today. "To set the record straight, Ron and Nellie are Simone's parents," Trautwig said Monday. (Read more 2016 Olympics stories.) (Newser) Another Republican senator has shifted from "undecided" to "definitely not voting for Donald Trump." In a Washington Post op-ed, Maine Sen. Susan Collins writes that she has concluded that Trump does not "reflect historical Republican values nor the inclusive approach to governing that is critical to healing the divisions in our country." She says three incidents convinced her that Trump "lacks the temperament, self-discipline, and judgment" to be president: His mocking of a disabled reporter, his insistence that federal judge Gonzalo Curiel's Mexican heritage made him biased, and his "inconceivable" criticism of the Khans, after which Trump once again "proved incapable of apologizing, of saying he was wrong." Collins writes that she had hoped Trump would tone it down after the convention, but she has realized that "regrettably, his essential character appears to be fixed, and he seems incapable of change or growth." Earlier Monday, 50 senior Republican national security officials from several administrations, including former CIA director Michael Hayden, signed an open letter declaring that they will not be voting for Trump, the New York Times reports. Trump "lacks the character, values, and experience" to be president, they wrote, warning that he would be "the most reckless president in American history." "The names on this letter are the ones the American people should look to for answers on why the world is a mess," Trump fired back in a statement condemning the letter. (Read more Donald Trump stories.) (Newser) The parents of two Americans killed in Benghazi are taking Hillary Clinton to court, saying her "extreme carelessness" in handling classified information is to blame for the deaths of their sons. In a wrongful death lawsuit filed in federal court Monday, Patricia Smith, mother of Sean Smith, and Charles Woods, father of Tyrone Woods, argue that Clinton's use of a private email server while working at the State Department contributed to the 2012 deaths, NBC reports. "It is highly probable, given Defendant Clintons history of reckless handling of classified information," that she sent information about State Department activities and covert operations in Libya that was compromised as soon as it left her server, the lawsuit states. The parents, represented by Larry Klayman, founder of the conservative group "Freedom Watch," also accuse Clinton of inflicting emotional distress by blaming the attack on an anti-Muslim video, Mediaite reports. In a speech to the GOP convention last month, Smith said she blamed Clinton personally for her son's death. A Clinton spokesman says: "While no one can imagine the pain of the families of the brave Americans we lost at Benghazi, there have been nine different investigations into this attack and none found any evidence whatsoever of any wrongdoing on the part of Hillary Clinton." (The mother of another American killed in Benghazi has asked the GOP to stop using her son's name.) (Newser) One of the world's most famous wolf packs may have howled its last after years of being targeted by hunters. The East Fork wolf pack in Alaska's Denali National Park was down to a female and her two pups a few months ago, but there has been no sign of them recently and their den appears empty, biologists say. The female's mate was seen dead at a hunting camp in May and Park Service wildlife biologist Bridget Borg tells Alaska Public Media that three out of four radio-collared wolves in the much-studied pack have been killed by hunters in the last year. The advocacy group Alaskans for Wildlife says wolf numbers in the area are falling because of hunting and trapping by a "handful of people." "This wolf pack has been probably the most viewed wolf pack in world history. Its been studied continuously for 70 years," group spokesman Frank McGuire says. "This was the pack that Adolph Murie originally wrote the classic Wolves of Mt. McKinley about, he says. The Guardian reports that Alaskan state authorities have long supported "predator control" in the belief that it will increase moose and caribou numbers for hunters, but the federal Fish and Wildlife Service brought in strict controls last week, banning practices including the killing of mother bears and their cubs. Borg says that while it is sad to lose the East Fork pack, its lineage will live on through other packs founded by its members. (One thing not helping the wolves: aerial hunting.) (Newser) The wedding meal in a Virginia park Saturday went off without a hitch, but afterward it turned deadly: Police say 35-year-old caterer Tyonne Johns was loading folding chairs into a company vehicle when 19-year-old park employee Kempton Bonds began arguing that the chairs were the property of the Fairfax County Park Authority, reports the Washington Post. During the dispute, Bonds stabbed Johns in the upper body with a three-inch pocket knife, police tell NBC Washington. She was pronounced dead at a hospital, while Bonds, of Clifton, Md., was arrested and charged with second-degree murder. Earlier, around 9:20pm, Bonds had called police to report disorderly conduct and a noise violation, officers say. A friend of Johns says Bonds had cut power to the wedding reception before the bride and groom shared their first dance, possibly because the event extended beyond the park's usual operating hours. It isn't clear how Johns was involved in the dispute, but police say it was resolved when they arrived. Johns was stabbed around 10:50pm. She "was a dedicated friend with a genuine zest for life," a friend writes on a GoFundMe page. A friend of Bonds says the alleged crime is "extremely out of character for him." (In North Carolina, a woman was killed just weeks before her wedding day.) (Newser) This one will surely be seen as a victory for clean athletes over the dopers. No doubt that was Lilly King's take, reports the AP. The feisty American swimmer stared down Yulia Efimova, a rival at the center of Russia's doping scandal, and then beat her in the pool Monday night. King could hardly contain her satisfaction at capturing gold in the 100-meter breaststrokeespecially given who was in the next lane. "It just proves you can compete clean and still come out on top with all the hard work you put in behind the scenes, behind the meet, at practice and weight sessions," said the 19-year-old Indiana University student. "There is a way to become the best and do it the right way." Efimova arrived in Rio as one of the symbols of the massive Russian doping operation, an athlete who had already served a 16-month suspension and tested positive again this year for the now-banned substance meldonium. "I made mistakes and I was banned," she said afterward, per NPR. "The second time was not my mistake." King set an Olympic record of 1:04.93 with her victory, the first American gold in the event in 16 years. Efimova finished second and USA's Katie Meili took the bronze. King's victory came just after Ryan Murphy won gold for Team USA in the men's backstroke. (Read more Lilly King stories.) (Newser) In 1989, 16-year-old Johnny Small was sentenced to life in prison; now age 42, he's still there. That might change, after a state witness whose testimony helped seal Small's conviction recanted his testimony on Monday. "I was forced to do something I didnt want to and I cant take it back," David Bollinger told North Carolina's New Hanover County Superior Court. The AP reports that when the police came to arrest Small for the shooting death of Pamela Dreher, 32, who was found face-down in the pet store she owned, he thought they had come for him over a curfew violation. On the contrary: A teenager's call to a tipline led police to Small and Bollinger, then 19, reported the Star News in July; he had lived with Small for a time. Bollinger now says a Wilmington Police Department detective told him he'd get the death penalty unless he said Small was the killer. He says police also told him Small would be released by age 21. So he pointed the finger at his friend, saying he drove Small to the shop to use a payphone, and that Small admitted to killing Dreher. He testified Monday he wasn't with Small that day, and that an unexpected 2012 meeting with a man who had been exonerated of rape compelled him to step forward. The Star News reports Bollinger's grandfather, a former cop, had instructed Bollinger to keep quiet about the lie, but that the 2012 experience made him feel the truth would be believed. A motion filed in 2015 lays out problems in the case, among them: Bollinger's boss said the two were at a car auction in South Carolina on the day in question. (This man was cleared of murder after serving 10 years.) (Newser) Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug, and sometimes you're the guy trying to burn a building down who sets fire to a little more than you intended. Such was the plight of a would-be arsonist intending to burn down a Kentucky barbershop when he accidentally set himself on fire Sunday, police say. How do they know this? Well, a surveillance camera just happened to record the whole thing. The video, released by the Madisonville police, shows a woman emerge from a white van and bust a window of the barbershop, reports ABC News. A man then throws a Molotov cocktail into the building before grabbing another. This throw doesn't go quite as smoothly. As he lets go of the bottle, flames suddenly spread to the man's shorts and shoes, per NBC News. He runs and dives onto a nearby lawn before kicking off his left shoe, still in flames. He eventually returns to the van, throws a third Molotov cocktail and drives away, leaving his burning shoe behind. No arrests have been made, but officers hope someone will recognize the suspects and contact police. (Read more arson stories.) (Newser) Fifteen crew members stuck aboard a cargo ship anchored off the coast of Savannah, Ga., for four months will soon be going home, the AP reports. According to NPR, the Newlead Castellanoowned by NewLead Holdings in Greecewas seized by US marshals in April over unpaid loans. Attorney Todd Baiad says it's "similar in concept" to a foreclosed home, except, "you know, you've got crew members." The mostly Filipino crew, which had been delivering sugar to the US, lacked the proper paperwork to enter the US and so were stuck aboard the ship, Splash 24/7 reports. It calls the situation a "shameful story of crew neglect." But things apparently weren't all that bad. The crew, who hadn't been paid in two months, started getting wages again when the ship was seized. They also received regular shipments of food and water. Baiad tells WABE they seemed to be in "good spirits." Would I want to be stuck on that ship since April? No. But I think it's something theyre probably a little bit more accustomed to," says Baiad, who even brought a priest to the ship to perform Mass. The Newlead Castellano was auctioned off Monday to a Connecticut-based company. The crew is expected to be able to fly home in the next week or two. "At this point, they haven't been on land in quite a while," the president of National Maritime Services tells NPR. "I think they'll be happy to go home." (Read more cargo ships stories.) (Newser) Two years ago, just after the fall of Mosul, the US-led coalition launched the first airstrikes on ISIS, ushering in a deeper phase of intervention that dramatically changed the fight against the militant group in Iraq. Since then, more than 9,400 airstrikes have allowed Iraqi forces to claw back cities, towns, supply lines, and infrastructure. But the fightwhich continues to be largely waged from the airhas also leveled entire neighborhoods, displaced millions, and redrawn the Iraqi map, reports AP. The US-led coalition estimates that since the airstrikes began on Aug 8, 2014, ISIS has lost more than 40% of the territory it once held in Iraq. But while coalition airstrikes paved the way for Kurdish and Iraqi ground forces to retake territory, in many cases the result is a ruined prize. As the push to retake Mosul ramps up, the scars from two years of costly victories remain vivid. For example, Sinjar, the small mostly Yazidi town north of Mosul, was retaken by Kurdish forces nine months ago, but it still lies in ruins. While Sinjar is technically "liberated," the vast majority of its residents still live in tented camps for the displaced scattered throughout Iraq's north. Across Iraq, an estimated 3.2 million Iraqis remain displaced from their homes. Kindi Hameed Majid, 30, fled Mosul with his wife in the summer of 2014. More than two years later, they remain in Irbil, and Majid says he doubts they will ever return. Even if Mosul is retaken by Iraqi forces, he worries the city will never be secure enough to be inhabitable again. "We see the future as dark and unknown." (Read more Iraq stories.) (Newser) James Roeder has been in jail, charged with burglary and under orders from a judge not to see his wife, Ashleywho is charged in the same burglary. That means that when Roeder appeared in court for a hearing Friday, he had not yet met his baby son, born just 30 days prior. Ashley was in the same Kentucky courtroom for her own hearing, and as James came out for his case to be called, "I saw her try to hold the baby up," Judge Amber Wolf tells WDRB. "It occurred to me after we finished this case that he had not met his baby." She says Roeder had expressed concern before his son's birth about whether he'd be able to meet the boy right away. That's when Wolf made a decision that caused happy tears in her courtroom, in a scene that was captured on video. Wolf asked Ashley Roeder if she wanted James to meet his son, and Ashley said yes. Wolf called James back, called Ashley up to the bench, and explained that a no-contact order still applied, but that she was making a temporary exception "so that you can meet this baby. This is your son." Ashley handed James the baby, and he held and kissed him. "If you all aren't teared up, then you're just heartless," the judge said to those in the courtroom. The Roeders were arrested on May 20, accused of stealing six flat-screen TVs from a warehouse on Feb. 9. As KMBC reports, Wolf is the same judge who recently made headlines for her anger over an inmate who showed up in court sans pants. (Read more uplifting news stories.) (Newser) A Kansas couple whose farmhouse became the nexus of seemingly the entire country's internet misdeeds is suing the company they say is responsible, Courthouse News Service reports. James and Theresa Arnold rented a farmhouse in Potwin in 2011. That's when the problems started. According to the Wichita Eagle, the Arnolds have been accused of computer fraud, stealing Facebook identities, tax fraud, attempted suicide, "holding girls at the residence for the purpose of making pornographic films," and more. Law enforcement and various angry individuals would turn up day and night, and the Arnolds had no idea whyuntil a tech reporter cracked the mystery last spring. The Arnolds filed a lawsuit against MaxMind on Monday, seeking more than $75,000 in damages, KMBC reports. The lawsuit claims the tech company made the Arnolds' farmhouse the default physical address of any website for which it couldn't locate an IP address. (The home's front yard happens to be the center of the US, per the Eagle.) Over 14 years, the farmhouse became the default location for 600 million IP addresses. This has led to "emotional distress, fear for their safety, and humiliation," according to the lawsuit. MaxMind was informed of the issue and changed its system so the default address is in "the middle of a lake somewhere." But those 600 million IP addresses still point to the Arnolds' rental home. (Read more IP address stories.) (Newser) A newborn girl born with microcephaly has died in Texas, marking the first Zika-related death in the state and only the second nationwide, reports the Houston Chronicle. Harris County health officials say the girl's mother likely contracted Zika while traveling in Latin America, before she returned to the US in her second trimester. A total of 97 Zika cases have been reported in Texas, all travel-related. Officials say there's no evidence yet to suggest the virus is being spread locally. "We are devastated to report our first case of Zika-associated death, and our hearts go out to the family," said Harris County's public health director. "While this is a travel-associated case, we know that prevention is key to reducing the risk of Zika virus infection." (Read more Zika virus stories.) (Newser) Eight elderly men and women could be charged with working at a Nazi concentration camp in Poland during WWII, the AP reports. German investigators say the four men were guards at Stutthof concentration camp and the four women were telephone operators and secretaries. According to Reuters, the eight individuals were identified by Jens Rommel, Germany's head Nazi hunter, and the Central Office for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes. Rommel has forwarded the cases to local prosecutors, who could charge the individuals with "accessory to murder in several thousand cases," NBC News reports. The individuals are in their late 80s or 90s. Approximately 65,000 people were killed at the Stutthof concentration camp. German prosecutors have recently started going after people for allegedly working at Nazi concentration camps even when their specific crimes aren't known. "Given the vast system of concentration and extermination camps put in place by the Nazis, and the number of personnel needed to run and guard these sites, it comes as no surprise that a few of these perpetrators are still alive, even today," Reuters quotes a statement from the World Jewish Congress as saying. The German government has given Rommel and his office nine more years to investigate Nazi crimes from WWII. (Read more Nazis stories.) (Newser) Florida's governor has announced four new cases of Zika virus infection that health officials believe were spread by mosquitoes in a Miami neighborhood, the AP reports. Florida now has 21 people who contracted the virus locally. According to a statement Tuesday from Gov. Rick Scott's office, the Florida Department of Health still believes active transmissions are only happening within a 1-square-mile area in Miami's Wynwood arts district. Hillary Clinton, who visited Miami on Tuesday, is calling on Congress to immediately return to Washington to pass legislation to provide emergency funding for Zika testing, treatment, and research. Business owners in the Wynwood arts district say they've been losing money since local Zika infections were announced, and they're asking government officials for help. The Miami Herald reports the Wynwood Business Improvement District held an emergency meeting Monday to urge local, state, and federal authorities to speed up mosquito eradication efforts. They also want recovery funds for retailers, gallery owners, and restaurateurs who say visitors have stopped coming. Pregnant women have been advised not to travel to Wynwood. Pregnant residents were urged to take extra steps to avoid mosquito bites. (Meanwhile, Texas has now seen its first death linked to Zika: a newborn.) Recently, BIGBANG attended a press conference for their special 10th anniversary exhibition. BIGBANG answered questions at the conference stating their plans on the mandatory milititary enlistment. G-Dragon had previously stated that he wished to leave his so-called "top spot," and now he said jokingly, "I don't want to leave anymore. I want to stay here for a long time." G-Dragon added, "Whenever our country calls us, we'll go. We don't know when or who it will be, so I want to show people the five-member BIGBANG for as long as we're allowed. We'll go and do our duty well. It's the aftermath that's the problem. However, when that time arrives, we might be older and have changed our minds. Although we will always be BIGBANG, we don't know what will happen when we come back [from enlistment]. But no matter how long it takes, when I find my confidence again, I'll definitely reappear in front of the public eye again, right?" The exhibition will be holding until October 30. BIGBANG is also set to hold an anniversary concert this coming August 20. Bhopal: Narendra Modi has become the first Prime Minister visiting birth place of revolutionary leader Chandrashekhar Azad at Bhabhra in Madhya Pradeshs Alirajpur district. He will be launch a programme to commemorate the sacrifices of freedom fighters on the Quit India day on Tuesday. PM Modi's speech from Bhabhra: 03:06pm: # Our flag inspires the people to change the future of India. It inspires desh-bhakti in us: PM Modi 03:03pm: # Whether it is the J&K Govt under Mehbooba Mufti's or the Central Govt, we are finding a solution to all problems through development: PM 03:01pm: # Boys who should be holding laptops, bats, balls in their hands & dreams in their hearts are ones carrying stones: PM Modi on Kashmir 03:00pm: # The freedom that every Indian has also belongs to every Kashmiri. We want the same bright future for every youth in Kashmir: PM Modi 02:58pm: # We are the people who walk the path that Atal Bihari Vajpayee took when it comes to Kashmir: PM Modi 02:56pm: # Kashmir, which we give so much love to, some people there are causing it a lot of harm: PM Modi 02:51pm: # Many of us were born in a free India. But the freedom fighters got the honour to sacrifice their lives for the nation: PM 02:45pm: # It is my good fortune to be here, and bow my head at the birthplace of Chandrashekhar Azad: PM Modi 02:40pm: # On 8th Aug, 75 years back, Mahatma Gandhi asked the Britishers to "QUIT INDIA": PM Modi 02:30pm: # PM Modi to kick off 'Azadi 70 Saal-Yaad Karo Qurbani', programme from Bhabhra,Alirajpur 02:00pm: # PM Narendra Modi visits memorial in Alirajpur after paying tribute to Chandrashekhar Azad 01:50pm: # PM Narendra Modi pays floral tribute to Chandrashekhar Azad in Alirajpur 01:40pm: # Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives in Alirajpur district, Madhya Pradesh The BJP government in Madhya Pradesh has changed the name of Bhabhra as Chandrashekhar Azad Nagar in memory of the revolutionary leader. The house where he was born on July 23, 1906 was developed into a memorial and named as Azaad Smriti Mandir. A small museum is also exists at the place which showcases his life. Azad, who plunged into freedom struggle at a very young age by joining the non-cooperation movement, later chose the revolutionary path to fight the British rule. August 9 is a historic day in Indias freedom struggle as it reminds us of the sacrifices made by the revolutionary leaders, BJP state general secretary Arvind Bhadoria told PTI. It is a matter of happiness that the Prime Minister is launching the campaign Azadi-70, Yaad Karo Kurbani from the birth place of Azad, Bhabhra, in Alirajpur district on the occasion, he said. Under the campaign from August 9 to 14, Union ministers will visit places associated with freedom struggle, especially the birth places of martyred leaders. Nearly two lakh people, mostly tribals are expected to take part in the meeting to be addressed by the Prime Minister, Bhadoria said. Besides, from August 16-22 various programmes in the memory of freedom struggle, like Tiranga Yatra, candle march and Rakshabandhan festival, would be organised. Meanwhile, Congress MP from Ratlam-Jhabua, Kantilal Bhuria alleged that the BJP has given it a saffron colour to the programme by overlooking Congress contribution to the freedom struggle. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Washington: Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton on Monday condemned the despicable terror attack at a hospital in Pakistans restive balochistan province, saying there was a need to stand up against terror and prevent such assaults. Todays bombing of a hospital in Pakistan is despicable. We have to stand up against terror and come together to prevent these attacks, Clinton said in a tweet. As the former Secretary of State, Clinton had played a key role in shaping the Pakistans policy of the Obama Administration in his first term. Condemning the suicide bombing, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called on the authorities to carry out a thorough investigation and urged media outlets to anticipate the risks involved in news coverage in the entire region. Aaj TV reporter and cameraman Shehzad Ahmed died on the spot while Dawn News cameraman Mehmood Khan died as doctors tried to save his life. A third journalist working for Dunya News, identified only as Faridullah is being treated for injuries sustained in the blast. The bomber struck at a time when over 200 mourners had gathered at the government-run Civil Hospital in Quetta where the body of prominent lawyer Bilal Anwar Kasi, who was shot dead earlier in the day, was brought. At least 75 people were killed and 115 others injured today when a Taliban suicide bomber struck them in Pakistans restive Balochistan province in one of the deadliest terror attacks in the country this year. Many lawyers had rushed to the hospital in response to the news of the shooting, while media outlets sent reporters to cover the scene there. We offer our heartfelt condolences to the families and colleagues of the victims of this barbaric crime and we call on Balochistans government to do everything possible to catch those who were behind it, said Benjamin Ismal, the head of RSFs Asia-Pacific desk. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi : Congress rebel Kalikho Pul, who briefly served as Arunachal Pradesh chief minister, allegedly committed suicide at his residence in Itanagar. His dead body is now taken to Tomo Riba Hospital in Naharlagun for post mortem. Pul, 47, allegedly hanged himself from the ceiling fan in his bedroom, a top police officer said. He was found dead at the chief minister's official residence which he was yet to vacate. One of his three wives found him hanging this morning. He is survived by three wives and four children. As Pul's death news spread all the MLAs from ruling and opposition parties, ministers, friends and members of public rushed to the bungalow. The circumstances behind the death were still not clear. Also Read: Who was Kalikho Pul Pul, who took over the reigns of the state on February 19 this year, served as Chief Minister for a brief time with the Supreme Court in July reinstating Nabam Tuki, who then made way for Pema Khandu as the 10th Chief Minister. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Kalikho Pul, who has been found dead under mysterious circumstances, was the 8th Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh. Born on 20 July 1969, he was State Finance Minister in the ministry of Chief Minister Gegong Apang from 2003 until 2007. He was appointed as the acting Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh on February 19, 2016. His Government received support from Bharatiya Janata Party, until it was dismissed by Court on July 2016. His body has been found hanging at his residence in Itanagar on August 9, 2016. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi : Ex- Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Kalikho Pul, 47, was on Tuesday found dead at the chief minister's official residence which he was yet to vacate. One of his three wives found him hanging this morning. He is survived by three wives and four children. The circumstances behind the death were still not clear. Pul, who took over the reigns of the state on February 19 this year, served as Chief Minister for a brief time with the Supreme Court in July reinstating Nabam Tuki, who then made way for Pema Khandu as the 10th Chief Minister. Here are the reactions on his death: I am really shocked, I dont know what extreme reasons lead to this: Ninong Ering (Cong) #KalikhoPul pic.twitter.com/MbReNREer3 ANI (@ANI_news) August 9, 2016 Shocked and deeply saddened at the untimely demise of Kalikho Pulji. My heart goes out to his family & loved ones Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) August 9, 2016 Sad to know about the demise of Kalikho Pul, former Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh. Shahnawaz Hussain (@ShahnawazBJP) August 9, 2016 Very Shocking news of untimely death of a Young Politician of Arunachal Pradesh, it's former CM Sh Kalikho Pul ..I offer my Condolences #RIP Sambit Patra (@sambitswaraj) August 9, 2016 Shocked to hear of untimely demise of promising young leader Kalikho Pul whose contributions shall always be remembered #PresidentMukherjee President of India (@RashtrapatiBhvn) August 9, 2016 Shocked and deeply saddened by the sudden and untimely death of Sh Kalikho Pul, fmr CM,Arunachal Pradesh.My heart goes out to his family Suresh Prabhu (@sureshpprabhu) August 9, 2016 For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Tokyo: The Japanese city of Nagasaki on Tuesday marked 71 years since its destruction by a US atomic bomb, with its mayor lauding a visit by US President Barack Obama to Hiroshima earlier this year. A bell tolled as thousands of people, including ageing survivors and relatives of victims, observed a minute's silence at 11:02 am (0732 IST), the exact moment the of the blast. The attack came three days after the US dropped the first ever atomic bomb on Hiroshima, which ultimately killed 140,000 people. Some 74,000 people died in the initial explosion, while thousands of others perished months or years later from radiation sickness. Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue lauded Obama's landmark May visit to Hiroshima -- the first ever by a sitting US president. "Knowing the facts becomes the starting point for thinking about a future free of nuclear weapons," Taue said, calling on other world leaders to visit his city. Local officials and those who survived the bombing called for strict adherence to Japan's post-war tradition of pacifism and were critical of the Japanese government. "The government of Japan, while advocating nuclear weapons abolition, still relies on nuclear deterrence," the mayor said, calling it a "contradictory state of affairs". Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in his address in Nagasaki, called on world leaders to honor the global Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. "We must not allow a repeat of the horrible experiences of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that happened 71 years ago," Abe said. Abe has moved to extend the scope of Japan's military and deepen the nation's alliance with Washington in the face of threats from China's expanding military strength and unpredictable North Korea. North Korea last week test fired a ballistic missile that landed in waters off Japan's coast for the first time. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Tense situation prevailed in Arunachal Pradesh after sudden death of former Chief Minister Kalikho Pul. His body was found hanging with a fan at his residence in Itanagar on Tuesday morning. Here is what is happening in Itanagar- #Arunachal Pradesh cabinet decides to extend full status of a state funeral and state mourning for 3 days #At this moment of grief me and my colleagues in Govt & ppl of Arunachal Pradesh convey our deep condolences: CM Pema Khandu on KalikhoPul # Supporters of KalikhoPul gherao CM's bungalow in Itanagar # Rajnath Singh has spoken to Arunachal Pradesh CM Pema Khandu on KalikhoPul death. # Situation tensed in Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh) after supporters of Kalikho Pul symbolically burned a coffin. # There was no suicide note in Pul's room. Reason of his suicide could be depression. Read More: Reaction from leaders of different parties "No suicide note has been recovered with Kalikhos dead body, depression is being suspected as the prime reason behind alleged suicide," a MHA source said. One of his three wives found him hanging this morning. He is survived by three wives and four children. (Also read: Kalikho Pul allegedly commits suicide) As Pul's death news spread all the MLAs from ruling and opposition parties, ministers, friends and members of public rushed to the bungalow. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Tokyo: Japan summoned Chinas ambassador today after the countrys ships were spotted near disputed East China Sea islands for a fifth straight day. Foreign minister Fumio Kishida called in Cheng Yonghua, Beijings envoy to Tokyo, the foreign ministry saidthe second such summons since Friday. The situation surrounding the Japan-China relationship is markedly deteriorating, he told Cheng, according to the ministrys statement on its website. We cannot accept that (China) is taking actions that unilaterally raise tensions. The two countries are locked in a long-running dispute over the uninhabited islets known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China. The move comes after repeated protests by Japanese foreign ministry officials since Friday over what Tokyo calls intrusions by Chinese ships in the territorial and contiguous waters of the rocky islands. Cheng was also summoned on Friday by vice minister Shinsuke Sugiyama after two Chinese coast guard and fishing vessels entered Japans territorial waters. On Tuesday morning, the Japan Coast Guard said it spotted Chinese ships in the countrys territorial waters surrounding the islands and about a dozen others nearby. The Japanese coastguard a day before caught sight of 15 Chinese coast guard ships near the islandsthe highest number ever spotted. Some 230 Chinese fishing vessels and seven coast guard ships, including four apparently carrying weapons, sailed into waters close to the disputed island on Sunday. It is rare for so many Chinese fishing vessels to be seen in the disputed waters. Tensions over the islands have been a frequent irritant and have strained bilateral relations, though tensions had markedly relaxed over the past two years as two sides took steps to ease the pressure through dialogue. But the fundamental divide over the islands remains unresolved. Japans Kyodo News reported Monday that Japan wants high-level talks with China over the incursions as they have not stopped despite Tokyos protests. Citing a government source, it said that Japan wants to bring up the issue in talks between the countrys leaders and foreign ministers. Japan protested in June after it said a Chinese navy frigate sailed close to territorial waters near the islands for the first time. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: University of Arizona has joined hands with NASA scientists for a major project - OSTRIS-REX space journey for the first asteriod mission. The OSTRIS-REX spacecraft will bring the samples back once it visits the asteroid Bennu. Its journey to asteriod Bennu will begin on it is attached with a single solid-fuel booster to its side. The $800 million mission is scheduled to take off after a month from the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket which has 411 configurations. Scientists are leaving no stone unturned to see that every detail is covered without any ignorance. The Centaur Upper Stage and Boattail of the spacecraft will be lifted on Wednesday. The initial power of OSIRIS-REx will be checked by scientists on Thursday.The Combined Systems Test which is said to be one of the most important as well as crictical test of the vehicle is scheduled on . Scientsts have only a month of time span to reiew the spacecraft. Once NASA OSIRIS-REx reaches the asteriod Benn it will start collecting every bits and piece of information and return back after it completes its 7-year roundtrip voyage.Apart from bringing the details it will also help the scientists to understand the origin of the solar system. For all the Latest Science News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: On the 74th anniversary of Quit India Movement, Parliament today paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi and other freedom fighters with a reminder to re-affirm commitment to uphold sovereignty, integrity, unity and diversity of the country. In the Rajya Sabha, Chairman Hamid Ansari termed it as a historic day and a reminder to cherish the gift of freedom. The day exhorts us to draw inspiration from the words and deeds of our freedom fighters to unitedly face the challenges of the changing times and do our bit to ensure inclusive economic development and growth for all strata of society and realise the long cherished dream of a fully developed India, he said. The day is a reminder to re-affirm our commitment to uphold the sovereignty, integrity, unity and diversity of our country, added Ansari, who is the Vice President of the country. The clarion call of do or die by Mahatma Gandhi led to an upsurge of nationalistic sentiments and heralded the attainment of Independence, he said. In the Lok Sabha, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said Quit India Movement had helped bring the whole nation together against the British rule and was a major contribution towards the country achieving freedom. As a mark of respect to the freedom fighters, members in both Houses also stood in silence for a brief while. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Islamabad: Needling India yet again, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday said he was "obliged" to become the voice of the "oppressed" people of Kashmir and would "leave no stone unturned" to make the world understand the "plight" of the people in the Valley. Sharif also shot off letters to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, urging efforts to end the "persistent and egregious violation of the basic human rights" of the Kashmiri people and also to implement UN Security Council resolutions, a Foreign Office statement said. Sharif chaired a preparatory meeting for the upcoming UN General Assembly (UNGA) attended by his foreign affairs advisor Sartaj Aziz, special assistant on foreign affairs Tariq Fatemi, foreign secretary Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry, Pakistan's permanent representative in the UN Maleeha Lodhi and Pakistan's Ambassador to the US Jalil Abbas Jilani and other senior officials. The meeting reviewed the agendas to be included in the next session of UN General Assembly in which the premier is expected to participate, a statement issued by the Premier's office said. "It is an obligation for me as Prime Minister of Pakistan to become the voice of Kashmiris who have been oppressed in Kashmir. I will leave no stone unturned to make the world understand the plight and the legitimate struggle of the people of Kashmir," Sharif said. The meeting observed that "Kashmir remains an unfinished agenda of the UN and accordingly India must realise that Kashmir is not its internal matter, rather it is a matter of regional and international concern". Sharif said the denial of right of self-determination for Kashmiris is one of the persistent failures of the UN. "The right of self-determination is the basic right of Kashmiris and we will make every effort to make Kashmiris captain of their own ship," the statement quoted Sharif as saying in the meeting. The Foreign Office statement, giving details of the letters sent by Sharif to Ban and Zeid said, "Highlighting human rights abuses by Indian forces, Prime Minister stated that more than 50 deaths and 3,500 injuries had taken place, out of which 400 were critical." "The use of illegitimate and excessive force against innocent civilians protesting peacefully over extra-judicial killings was a blatant violation of a range of fundamental rights," the statement said. In the letters, Sharif alleged that force was being used to prevent access to hospitals, to harass doctors and prevent access to medical facilities. "The situation is a clear manifestation of Indian state terrorism to suppress the Kashmiris' struggle for their inalienable right to self-determination," the statement quoted the letters as saying. Prime Minister Sharif called for investigation into the "brutalities and atrocities" committed by Indian forces, protection of Kashmiris' fundamental rights, a fair inquiry into the killing of Hizbul commander Burhan Wani and implementation of UN resolutions. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Air India on Tuesday said that they will not impose any charges on cancellation or re-scheduling of tickets booked for flight to and from Srinagar till August 16, amid the volatile situation in Kashmir. Last month also, the carrier had extended the relaxation for Kashmir flights. "Applicable penalties of re-issuance, date change, no-show, cancellation and refund charges for travel from/to Srinagar for both domestic and international flights, stand waived," Air India said in a release. Violent protests erupted in Kashmir the day after Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani was killed in an encounter with security forces on July 8. As many as 55 persons including two cops were killed and several thousand others injured in clashes between protesters and security forces. Normal life in the Valley remained affected for the 32nd consecutive day today due to curbs imposed by the authorities and separatists-sponsored strike against the killing of civilians in the security forces action. Mumbai: Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan may be playing a lawyer in his upcoming film Pink but the actor says he hopes he never has to face a real court in life. I havent been inside a court room here (in India). I hope I never have to go to court. During the allegations of Bofors case, I did enter a court room in London to defend myself. And thats the only time I saw a court, Bachchan told reporters here at the trailer launch of Pink. The 73-year-old megastar, who is sporting grey hair and beard, says he relied completely on the research done by the makers of Pink. I went by the research done by my writer and director. We had a recognised lawyer on sets to guide us, the way we spoke and all. We have tried to recreate court room scenes in the most natural way and it adds to the temperament of the film. I follow instructions of Shoojit (Sircar) when it comes to my look. My character is sad and disheartened in life. He stays opposite these three girls who face problem and I see what they are going through. I decide to do something. The Piku star mouths some hard-hitting lines in the trailer, which was launched today but Bachchan says he had no qualms in doing those scenes as they were important for the movie. If the lines are going to be supportive of the legal argument or track in the film, I felt it is important to say. It was justified to say it. Its harsh, confrontational and embarrassing as those standing in witness box are not going to accept anything readily. Its the language that the lawyer takes to justify the event that has taken place in the film. It is harsh but true. According to Bachchan, the colour pink signifies women empowerment. The film is about women and their strength so we have kept the title Pink. Women should stand up for their rights. The film is about women, he says. For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Itanagar: Former Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Kalikho Pul allegedly committed suicide at his official residence today, weeks after he was ordered by the Supreme Court to step down after a brief stint, sparking violent protests by his supporters. The body of 41-year-old Pul, which was hanging from the ceiling fan of his bedroom, was first spotted by one of his three wives this morning. Pul, a Congress rebel, was yet to vacate the official residence. Pul, who is survived by three wives and four children, had not met any outsider for the past seven days, his family claimed. The untimely demise of Pul, who had served as the chief minister from Feburary 19 till July 13 this year, shocked many and the state government announced a magisterial inquiry into the death. Chief Minister Pema Khandu told reporters that the inquiry was ordered to investigate whether there was any "foulplay". Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled the death of Pul, saying his services to the state will be remembered. The state government after a cabinet meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Pema Khandu, declared a three-day state mourning and decided to accord a state funeral to the deceased. As news of the death of Pul, a Congress rebel, spread,scores of his supporters and well-wishers gheraoed Chief Minister Pema Khandu's bungalow in the Niti Bihar area and demanded a probe into the 'unnatural' death. They told the media that they would not allow Pul's body to be taken out from his bungalow at E S S sector and insisted that he be cremated inside the premises. The coffin, which was brought from outside, was damaged and set on fire by the crowd before the assembled media. A section of the mob headed towards the official residence of Deputy CM Chowna Mein, less than 100 metres away, damaged the outer wall and at least 10 vehicles parked in the premises. Kalikho Pul, who rebelled against chief minister Nabam Tuki in late 2015 along with a large section of party legislators, was sworn in as Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh with the support of 18 dissident Congress MLAs, two independents and 11 BJP legislators. The BJP legislators gave him outside support in the 60-member Assembly. Pul's appointment was preceded by days of turmoil which saw Nabam Tuki dismissed after 21 of the 47 Congress MLAs including Pul-rebelled against him. This was followed by President's Rule imposed on January 26. The Supreme Court last month had ruled the appointmentas illegal and reinstated the Congress government. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Obamas $400 million ransom to Iran and how the most lawless president in history has completely exploited our political system (Freedom.news) Outrage is the best way to explain what tens of millions of Americans felt last week after learning that President Obama and his regime its not an administration, it is a despotic, authoritarian regime paid Iran $400 million in ransom money to secure the release of Americans Iran was holding hostage. As he always does when he flouts the Constitution, U.S. statutory law, national security and prior executive policy while appeasing the worlds biggest state sponsor of terrorism, Obama tried to convince everyone that he didnt really do what we all know he did. It wasnt ransom, you see, because gosh, the U.S. doesnt pay ransoms. And besides, providing material support to a state sponsor of terrorism is hugely against the law (see a good explanation of how many statutes Obama violated here). No, it was a settlement for an arms deal with Iran that went bust after the Ayatollahs minions sacked the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took dozens of American diplomatic personnel hostage for more than a year. Obama had to settle this now, because it was a legal matter that couldnt wait any longer. Right. Its hard to know what angers most about Obama is penchant for lying to our faces or his arrogant assumption that we are to believe him simply because he says it. If this truly were a settlement the tending to of a legal issue the regime says we had to do in order to avoid losing a lawsuit in international court one can only ask why it had to be settled now, instead many years ago. Or ever, considering that the deal was made with an Iranian administration that ceased to exist months after the ink dried. Anyone who isnt an Obama sycophant knows exactly what took place last week: The president, who has decided that he wants to anoint Iran as the preeminent power in the Middle East despite the Mullahs hatred of, and vow to destroy, Israel will go to any lengths to provide any aid and comfort he can before he leaves office, U.S. law and longstanding policy regarding terrorist nations be damned. What he also knows is this: He is above the law because there is no constitutional way he can be held accountable. The House could vote to impeach him tomorrow and frankly, it should but he knows the Senate doesnt have the votes to convict because the Democratic Party has become the party of power at any price. In fact, Obama has shown future presidents exactly how to navigate our republican form of government: As long as the party in the White House retains at least 34 members, there is no way he or she can be removed from office. We have, in effect, the same form of imperial system our founders rebelled against. When the majority of the Legislative Branch, regardless of political party, refuses to hold the head of the Executive Branch to account, we dont have a functioning system of government anymore. When the Judicial Branch has become a political tool that functions solely to grow and maintain the power of the Executive Branch, we dont have a functioning system of government anymore. We have tyranny. Obamas most recent lawlessness will not be the last time he pushes presidential boundaries, of that you can be sure. Because he knows he can get away with it. But there is a constitutional solution. It must come from the states. More: Freedom.news is part of USA Features Media. Submit a correction >> U.S. sending B-1B bombers to Guam as part of overall Asian buildup and signal to China, North Korea (NationalSecurity.news) The Chinese government may wish to ignore a recent international tribunal ruling that its outsized claims on the South China Sea are illegal, but the U.S. military isnt. In fact, the Obama administration appears to be doubling down on ensuring that China and other belligerents in the region get the message that freedom of navigation in one of the worlds busiest, most lucrative waterways will remain intact. To that end, the Pentagon is sending B-1B Lancer bombers with thousands of hours of combat flight experience to Guam, to bolster the U.S. military presence, CNN reports. The U.S. Navy has already deployed additional assets. The Lancers are part of the 34th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron, whose planes have dropped more than 2,000 smart bombs during 630 missions over Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, from January to July 2015, said officials at Andersen Air Force Base on Guam. The B-1 units bring a unique perspective and years of repeated combat and operational experience from the Central Command theater to the Pacific, said a statement from Pacific Air Forces headquarters in Hawaii. Guam is a U.S. possession in the western Pacific. It is located about 1,550 miles east of the Philippines. With a large weapon capacity and exceptional standoff strike capability, the B-1 will provide U.S. Pacific Command and its regional allies and partners with a credible, strategic power projection platform, the statement said. B-1Bs, which can achieve a top speed of 900 mph, have the largest bomb payload of any U.S. bomber. And they are being deployed at a time when tensions are running high in the South China Sea, thanks to Beijings militarization of manmade islands thousands of miles outside its 200-mile exclusive economic zone. China claims all of the South China Sea as its territory. But there are additional threats to stability in the region as well. North Korea has been conducting a series of missile tests, the most recent of which saw one medium-range missile splash down in Japanese territorial waters. In response to a North Korean nuclear test, the Obama administration ordered a pair of B-52 bombers to make flights over South Korea as a message that Washington fully supports Seoul as an ally. This was a demonstration of the ironclad U.S. commitment to our allies in South Korea, in Japan, and to the defense of the American homeland, the head of U.S. Pacific Command, Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., said at the time. The bombers will be stationed on Guam indefinitely, Anderson AFB officials said. More: NationalSecurity.news is part of USA Features Media. Submit a correction >> This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate CANDLEWOOD LAKE Dark spots covered a depth monitor, indicating the abundance of Eurasian watermilfoil under Greg Bugbees boat as he steered toward Echo Bay Marina Tuesday morning. Within seconds, the invasive plant became so dense that the boat struggled to pass through, and the top of the plant touched the surface. It will be one of the worst years, but Im not sure yet if it will be the worst, said Bugbee who oversees the Invasive Aquatic Plant Program for the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. Bugbee will spend the rest of the month electronically mapping invasive plants around Candlewood Lakes 62 miles of shoreline, and at 10 specific sites around the lake. Bugbee will also do some water quality tests. The mappings and testings are paid for by FirstLight Power Resources, which owns the lake. The station has mapped Candlewood since 2005. Bugbee said this, along with the information the Candlewood Lake Authority collected, creates a strong data set, which will help the lake receive federal money. New Fairfield First Selectman Susan Chapman recently announced she will try to get federal assistance to combat the invasive species in the lake and help improve the lakes water quality. This year is also a little different because Bugbee will examine if the sterile grass carp introduced last summer has any effect on controlling the milfoil. The data will be used to help the state and Candlewood Lake Authority determine how many carp to add. Bugbee said it may be difficult to determine the carps impact immediately because this summer season is following a shallow drawdown last winter, which doesnt control the milfoil as effectively as a deep drawdown. Candlewood usually has about 550 acres of milfoil after a shallow drawdown, which means the water levels in the lake are lowered about three feet in the winter, and has about 200 acres in a summer following a deep drawdown, which is usually a 10-foot decrease in water levels. He said the deep drawdowns are effective because the plant freezes when exposed to the cold air. He plans to determine their effect on controlling the milfoil by comparing the deep drawdown data and shallow drawdown data separately. Candlewood Lake has the distinction of having the most milfoil in the state of Connecticut, he said. The station surveys 270 lakes, including Lillinonah, Zoar, and Squantz Pond. Patches of milfoil are mapped and categorized based on the density, ranging from one for a single milfoil plant to five for dense patches that reach the surface and prevent boats from passing through. Bugbee said there were about 1,100 spots that were classified as five, compared with the dozen or so last year. He said hes already plotted about 100 fives in the two days hes been working on the lake. Milfoil grows along about 90 percent of the shoreline, Bugbee said. Its a huge, huge problem thats being addressed, he said. The carp was a good step in the right direction." He hopes the carp will reduce the amount of spots classified as five around the lake, because they generally eat the milfoil from the top down. Studies have shown it takes a few years for the carp to get big enough to eat large quantities of the milfoil. You dont really expect much in the first year, and I think thats what were seeing, Bugbee said. Bugbee said the milfoil is problematic because it destroys all other plants in its path. It can also be dangerous if a swimmer falls in and gets tangled, and can interfere with boats motors. There are also theories that the toxic blue green algae blooms, which result in beach closures, could be connected to the milfoil. One theory is the plant pulls nutrients from the water, reducing the amount of blooms. While another theory says the plant takes the nutrients from the soil and adds them to the water, feeding the blooms, he said. The jury is out on that one, Bugbee said. Bugbee said people can help by ensuring they dont carry invasive species into the waters on their boats and dont dump invasive species into the lake when emptying aquariums, which is how a lot of the plants arrived in the state. kkoerting@newstimes.com; 203-731-3345; @kkoerting OTTAWA, Aug. 8, 2016 /CNW/ - In advance of United Nations International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples August 9, Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Perry Bellegarde today called on the Government of Canada to show leadership and honour its commitment to work with First Nations to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. "There is no better time for Canada to reaffirm its commitment to work with First Nations on implementing the UN Declaration than the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples," said AFN National Chief Bellegarde. "The UN Declaration is a direct path to reconciliation, to closing the socioeconomic gap and rebuilding the relationship between First Nations and Canada. We must work together to give life to the Declaration, and First Nations maintain that legislation must be an option in that work. This will ensure respect for the Declaration by this government and all future governments." The theme for this year's International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples is the right to education. Article 14 of the UN Declaration states that "Indigenous peoples have the right to establish and control their educational systems and institutions providing education in their own languages, in a manner appropriate to their cultural methods of teaching and learning." First Nations' right to control their children's education is also an inherent and Treaty right and an aspect of the right of Indigenous peoples to self-determination. "The AFN is committed to realizing our goal of First Nations control of First Nations education," said National Chief Bellegarde. "Honouring the UN Declaration will help make this goal a reality and build a stronger country for all of us. On August 9, we join with Indigenous peoples around the world in standing up for our rights and our peoples." The UN Declaration sets out minimum standards for ensuring Indigenous peoples enjoy fundamental human rights, including the collective right to self-determination and rights in their traditional territories. The Government of Canada expressed unqualified support for the Declaration on May 10 of this year at the 15th Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and committed to work with Indigenous peoples on its full implementation. The United Nations General Assembly passed resolution 49/214 in 1994, which established August 9 as the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples. The date marks the day of the first meeting, in 1982, of the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights. The Assembly of First Nations is the national organization representing First Nation citizens in Canada. Follow AFN on Twitter @AFN_Comms, @AFN_Updates. SOURCE Assembly of First Nations For further information: please contact: Jenn Jefferys, AFN Communications Officer, 613-241-6789 ext. 110, cell: 613-222-9656, [email protected] - CPGroup Latam adds four new partners and opens new office in Buenos Aires - TORONTO, Aug. 9, 2016 /CNW/ - Retained executive search firm The Caldwell Partners International Inc. (TSX: CWL) today announced a significant expansion of the firm's Latin American team through the addition of four new partners and a new office in Buenos Aires. Adilson Parrella and Pedro Folque de Almeida have joined the Sao Paulo office, Eleonora Cajiao has joined the Bogota office and Estanislao Pena has opened the firm's new office in Buenos Aires. "With the addition of an office in Buenos Aires and four new partners in Argentina, Brazil and Colombia, we now have full coverage of the entire Latin American market," said Eduardo Antunovic, one of the founding partners of CPGroup Latam. "With President Mauricio Macri's recent economic reforms and pro-market agenda, now is the perfect time to start up operations in Argentina the third largest economy in Latin America." Antunovic added: "We have the pre-eminent search team in Latin America, comprising an impressive group of partners with experience in all industries and functions. We have the breadth and depth to serve our clients on a global basis across the major industries, yet we are nimble enough to move more freely through the market and provide more direct accountability to our clients." Adilson Parrella has extensive experience executing C-level and senior executive assignments in all disciplines including marketing, finance, sales, human resources, manufacturing and supply chain across several major industries, including consumer and industrial. Prior to joining Caldwell Partners, he led the Consumer and FMCG practices in Brazil and South America for one the largest global executive search firms, and also held full P&L responsibility for the start-up operations in Brazil of a European executive search firm. Outside of the executive search industry, Mr. Parrella had a 13-year career managing commercial and manufacturing operations for subsidiaries of multinational companies, demonstrating particular expertise in conducting business turnarounds and managing startups and multifunctional teams. He holds a BA and an MBA from Brigham Young University. Pedro Folque de Almeida specializes in executive recruitment in the Industrial sector. With more than 20 years of experience in executive search, he has held significant leadership positions at some of the world's largest executive search firms, in many cases holding full responsibility for the Industrial and Technology practices in the Iberian region, as well as driving business development and cross-border search execution. Mr. de Almeida holds a post-graduate degree in business management from Universidade Catolica Portuguesa and an academic degree in International Affairs/Political Science from Universidade Lusiada de Lisboa. Eleonora Cajiao draws on more than 20 years of experience in executive search, leadership consulting and senior executive positions, to recruit C-suite and functional leaders for clients across the FMCG, retail and industrial sectors. She joins Caldwell Partners from Korn/Ferry International, where she was a senior client partner. Prior to joining the executive search industry, she managed the international expansion of Eduparques S.A (a subsidiary of the Pedro Gomez group of companies) into several Latin American countries. Earlier she worked for Unilever Andina, where she held several executive level positions of increasing responsibility. Eleonora received her law degree from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogota. Later she pursued studies in international business at University of California at Berkeley and in marketing at the Unilever Marketing Academy. Drawing on a 26-year career in the telecommunications industry, Estanislao Pena specializes in recruiting senior executives and building high performance teams. Prior to joining Caldwell Partners, he held roles of increasing responsibility with Nextel, starting as a sales representative and eventually holding the role of CEO of Nextel Chile. In 2014, he led the sale of Nextel Chile to Novator Partners LLP, remaining an integral part of the organization as chairman of the board for the new WOM Chile (formerly Nextel), and was actively involved in the recruiting of the senior leadership team. Concurrently, he became the CEO of Paperless LatAm, leading the company's regional operations. Mr. Pena studied business administration at Buenos Aires University, and has a Bachelor of Science in business administration from the University of Phoenix. He furthered his education at Georgetown's McDonough School of Business, where he graduated from the senior leadership program. "We are extremely pleased by this expansion of our capabilities in Latin America," said John Wallace, chief executive officer. "We continue to solidify our ability to conduct international and cross-border searches, which drives the continuous improvement of our service to our clients and the creation of sustainable value for our shareholders." About Caldwell Partners Caldwell Partners is a leading international provider of executive search and has been for more than 45 years. As one of the world's most trusted advisors in executive search, the firm has a sterling reputation built on successful searches for boards, chief and senior executives, and selected functional experts. With offices and partners across North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia Pacific, the firm takes pride in delivering an unmatched level of service and expertise to its clients. The Caldwell Partners' Common shares are listed on The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: CWL). Please visit our website at www.caldwellpartners.com for further information. SOURCE The Caldwell Partners International Inc. For further information: Caroline Lomot, Caldwell Partners, [email protected], +1 416 934 2239 /NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA/ CALGARY, Aug. 9, 2016 /CNW/ - Cathedral Energy Services Ltd. (TSX:CET) ("Cathedral" or the "Corporation") announces it has entered into a Settlement Agreement and Release (the "Settlement Agreement") in respect of two wage and hour lawsuits (the "Collective Actions") that were filed against Cathedral's wholly owned U.S. subsidiary Cathedral Energy Services Inc. ("Cathedral Inc."). The first collective action lawsuit, Wallace vs. Cathedral Energy Services Inc. ("Wallace"), was filed on November 6, 2014, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division (the "Houston Court") alleging that Cathedral Inc. employed or contracted Measurement While Drilling ("MWD") and Directional Drilling ("DD") operators were entitled to recover unpaid overtime wages under the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA"). The second collective action lawsuit, Price vs. Cathedral Energy Services Inc., was filed on April 9, 2015, in the United States District Court District of Colorado, Denver Division (and subsequently transferred to Houston Court) alleging that the Company incorrectly calculated the overtime pay for certain hourly paid operators in violation of the FLSA. Legal actions involving similar alleged FLSA violations have been filed in the United States against a number of other oilfield service companies. Cathedral has denied the allegations, and vigorously defended the litigation leading up to entering into the Settlement Agreement. The Settlement Agreement provides a mechanism for finally resolving and releasing the claims for all Cathedral Inc. employed and contracted MWD and DD operators. Under the terms of the Settlement Agreement, the parties will establish a settlement fund of up to US$3.4 million. The final determination of the settlement fund amount will be based on the number of claimants that participate in the settlement and Cathedral estimates the final settlement amount will be in the US $2.9 million range. The Settlement Agreement contemplates structured quarterly payments which are subject to Cathedral's financial condition and Cathedral not being in violation of its credit facility covenants. All claims in both Collective actions have been settled and the Houston Court, approved the settlement of the Wallace claim on August 8, 2016. Any settlement fund payments made by Cathedral are subject to the approval of Cathedral's banking syndicate. FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION This press release contains certain statements or disclosures relating to Cathedral that are based on the expectations of Cathedral as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to Cathedral which may constitute forward-looking information under applicable securities laws. In particular, the statements related to the final determination of the settlement fund amount will be based on the number of claimants that participate in the settlement and Cathedral estimates the final settlement amount will be in the US $2.9 million range and the settlement fund contemplates structured quarterly payments by the Corporation may contain forward-looking information. Many factors could cause the performance or achievement by Cathedral to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements that may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Cathedral's Annual Information Form and other documents filed with securities regulatory authorities (accessible through the SEDAR website (www.sedar.com) describe the risks, material assumptions and other factors that could influence actual results and which are incorporated herein by reference. Cathedral disclaims any intention or obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be expressly required by applicable securities laws. Cathedral Energy Services Ltd. (the "Company" or "Cathedral"), based in Calgary, Alberta is incorporated under the Business Corporations Act (Alberta) and operates in the U.S. under Cathedral Energy Services Inc. The Company is publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "CET". Cathedral, is a trusted partner to North American energy companies requiring high performance directional drilling services and dependable flowback and production testing solutions. We work in partnership with our customers to tailor our equipment and expertise to meet their specific geographical and technical needs. Our experience, technologies and responsive personnel enable our customers to achieve higher efficiencies and lower project costs. For more information, visit www.cathedralenergyservices.com. SOURCE Cathedral Energy Services Ltd. For further information: Requests for further information should be directed to: P. Scott MacFarlane, President and Chief Executive Officer or Michael F. Hill, Chief Financial Officer: Cathedral Energy Services Ltd., 6030 3 Street S.E., Calgary, Alberta T2H 1K2, Telephone: 403.265.2560, Fax: 403.262.4682, www.cathedralenergyservices.com Minister McKenna announces funding under the Atlantic Ecosystems Initiatives and the Gulf of Maine Initiative HALIFAX, Aug. 8, 2016 /CNW/ - The environment and the economy go hand-in-hand. We can create clean jobs, grow our economy, and protect our environment by working together. Today, Environment and Climate Change Canada Minister Catherine McKenna announced over $2 million in grants and contributions funding for environmental projects in Atlantic Canada. These projects will give us a better picture of the health of Atlantic ecosystems and will support clean and sustainable communities and long-term economic growth. Through the Atlantic Ecosystems Initiatives (AEI) Funding Program, a total of $1.3 million was awarded to eight projects that focus on water quality, habitat and biodiversity, and the impact of climate change. The AEI aims to improve the health, productivity and long-term sustainability of ecosystems by supporting projects based on partnerships and collaboration among organizations throughout Atlantic Canada. The Gulf of Maine Initiative (GMI) focuses on projects that maintain a healthy ecosystem that supports long-term sustainability and economic growth. Four projects in the Gulf of Maine region were awarded over $700,000 through this initiative. The goal of the GMI is to maintain a healthy ecosystem that supports long-term sustainability and economic growth. Projects funded through the GMI support decision making and/or actions that encourage responsible development by increasing the understanding and monitoring of ecosystem health, identifying and reducing key stressors to ecosystem health, and implementing activities that contribute to a healthy ecosystem. Quote "Funding programs like the Atlantic Ecosystems Initiatives and the Gulf of Maine Initiative show how the Government of Canada works with Canadians to come up with viable solutions to make Canada stronger, cleaner, and more prosperous. We know we can't do it alone. We're committed to working closely with groups like these, to protect our valuable ecosystems and fight climate change." Catherine McKenna, Minister of Environment and Climate Change Quick facts Projects funded through the AEI must be focused on ecosystems in Atlantic Canada , including the provinces of Nova Scotia , New Brunswick , Prince Edward Island , and Newfoundland and Labrador . , including the provinces of , , , and and . AEI projects must address one or more of Environment and Climate Change Canada's priorities including water quality, habitat and biodiversity, and the impact of climate change across Atlantic Canada . . The Gulf of Maine is a large watershed spanning much of the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and the states of Maine , New Hampshire and Massachusetts , which border its coast. It is a highly productive ecosystem that is environmentally significant and economically important to Canada . Over 3,000 marine species and birds are found in the Gulf of Maine , as well as more than 30 species at risk. is a large watershed spanning much of the provinces of and and the states of , and , which border its coast. It is a highly productive ecosystem that is environmentally significant and economically important to . Over 3,000 marine species and birds are found in the Gulf of , as well as more than 30 species at risk. The GMI funds projects in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia that address the impact of human activities on water quality by increased understanding and reduction of stressors, and on habitat and biodiversity by enhanced habitat conservation. Related products Atlantic Ecosystems Initiatives backgrounder Gulf of Maine Initiative backgrounder Associated links Atlantic Ecosystems Initiatives Gulf of Maine Initiative Environment and Climate Change Canada's Twitter page Environment and Natural Resources in Canada's Facebook page SOURCE Environment and Climate Change Canada For further information: Caitlin Workman, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, 819-938-9436; Media Relations, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 819-938-3338 or 1-844-836-7799 (toll free) TORONTO, Aug. 9, 2016 /CNW/ - CIBC (TSX: CM) (NYSE: CM) will be announcing its 2016 third quarter results on Thursday, August 25, 2016. The results are expected to be released at approximately 6:00 a.m. (ET), followed by a live audio webcast and teleconference call with analysts, investors and media at 8:00 a.m. (ET). Earnings Conference Call/Webcast The conference call will be available in English (416-340-2217, or toll-free 1-866-696-5910, passcode 6808864#) and French (514-861-2255, or toll-free 1-877-405-9213, passcode 8696193#). Participants are asked to dial in 10 minutes before the call. Immediately following the formal presentations, CIBC executives will be available to answer questions. A live audio webcast of the conference call will also be available in English and French at https://www.cibc.com/ca/investor-relations/quarterly-results.html. Financial Results and Investor Presentation Details of CIBC's 2016 third quarter results, as well as a presentation to investors, will be available in English and French at www.cibc.com, Investor Relations section, prior to the conference call/webcast. Earnings Conference Call Replay and Archived Webcast A telephone replay will be available in English (905-694-9451 or 1-800-408-3053, passcode 3554469#) and French (514-861-2272 or 1-800-408-3053, passcode 1143874#) until 11:59 p.m. (ET) September 1, 2016. The audio webcast will be archived at https://www.cibc.com/ca/investor-relations/quarterly-results.html. About CIBC CIBC is a leading Canadian-based global financial institution with 11 million personal banking and business clients. Through our three major business units - Retail and Business Banking, Wealth Management and Capital Markets - CIBC offers a full range of products and services through its comprehensive electronic banking network, branches and offices across Canada with offices in the United States and around the world. Ongoing news releases and more information about CIBC can be found at www.cibc.com/ca/media-centre/ or by following on Twitter @CIBC, Facebook (www.facebook.com/CIBC) and Instagram @CIBCNow. SOURCE CIBC - Investor Relations For further information: Jason Patchett, Investor Relations, 416-980-8691, [email protected]; Alice Dunning, Investor Relations, 416-861-8870, [email protected]; Erica Belling, Investor and Financial Communications, 416-594-7251, [email protected] Government of Canada committed to doing more for Veterans BRANDON, MB, Aug. 9, 2016 /CNW/ - The Honourable Kent Hehr, Minister of Veterans Affairs and Associate Minister of National Defence, joined Veterans and their families in Brandon, Manitoba, today to announce that the previously closed Veterans Affairs Canada office will reopen in October 2016. The new Brandon office will be located at 1st floor, 1039 Princess Avenue, Brandon (MB), and once opened, will employ approximately nine staff who will serve approximately 2400 Veterans. Staff at the Brandon office will answer questions about VAC services and benefits; arrange pension medical examinations; and, assist Veterans to complete and submit applications and receipts. Case-managed Veterans will also be able to meet with their case manager. The Department is continuing to hire up to 400 new employees to help ensure that Veterans, Canadian Armed Forces members, RCMP personnel, and their families are provided with the best possible services when and where they need them. Hiring new employees will permit the Department to reduce case managers' caseloads to a maximum of 25 Veterans. As part of today's announcement, Minister Hehr reaffirmed the Government of Canada's commitment to do more for Veterans. Budget 2016 committed $5.6 billion to improve Veterans' benefits and services, including increased payments under the Disability Award and the Earnings Loss Benefit, and expanded access to the Permanent Impairment Allowance. Veterans Affairs Canada has also expanded its Commemorative Partnership Program to allow funding for the building of new war memorials, and increased the survivor estate cash exemption under the Funeral and Burial Program. Quote "I am extremely proud to be reopening doors that were previously closed to Veterans and their families here in Brandon. They have selflessly answered the call to serve our country, and now we are answering their call by enhancing financial benefits, restoring and expanding access to critical services, expanding service in British Columbia and the territories, and hiring more frontline staff. This was part of our commitment to Canadians, and we stand by this promise." The Honourable Kent Hehr, Minister of Veterans Affairs and Associate Minister of National Defence Quick facts Reopening the nine Veterans Affairs offices that closed is a top priority in the Minister of Veterans Affairs' mandate letter. The office in Brandon will reopen October 2016 , at 1 st floor, 1039 Princess Avenue, Brandon, MB . will reopen , at 1 floor, 1039 Princess Avenue, . Until the Brandon office is opened, Veterans and other clients can receive in-person services at the Service Canada location at 1039 Princess Avenue, Brandon, MB . office is opened, Veterans and other clients can receive in-person services at the Service Canada location at 1039 Princess Avenue, . The Veterans Affairs Office in Corner Brook reopened to Veterans on July 5, 2016 . reopened to Veterans on . By May 2017 , offices will reopen in Charlottetown, PE ; Sydney, NS ; Windsor and Thunder Bay, ON ; Saskatoon, SK ; Brandon, MB ; and, Prince George and Kelowna, BC . A tenth office will open in Surrey, BC , and outreach will be expanded to Veterans in the territories. , offices will reopen in ; ; and ; ; ; and, and . A tenth office will open in , and outreach will be expanded to Veterans in the territories. As of May 2016 , more than 250 new frontline employees have been hired. Associated links SOURCE Veterans Affairs Canada For further information: Media Relations, Veterans Affairs Canada, 613-992-7468; Sarah McMaster, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Veterans Affairs, 613-996-4649 The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), says about 21 Local Government Areas will be affected by flood in the North West zone. ... The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), says about 21 Local Government Areas will be affected by flood in the North West zone.The North-West Zonal Coordinator, Musa Ilallah, made this known while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kaduna on Tuesday.The coordinator said that the agency has taken all a proactive measures to curtail the flood menace .in the zone.According to him, NEMA has reached out to relevant agencies in the affected states and within the zone to be on alert.He mentioned the Local Govenments to be affected in Kaduna as Kaduna North and South, Igabi, kubau, Soba Kajuru and Kachia While in Kano, Wudil, Warawa, Tudun Wada, Bebeji, Gwarzo, Dawakin Tofa, Kiru and Bagwai.Others are Katsina; Malumfashi, Funtua, Daura and Baure also Jigawa; Hadejia, Auyo,Kafin Hausa, Ringim, Taura and Jahun.He also disclosed that, the river basin cut-across Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara and Katsina states, while river Hadejia cut across Jigawa, Kano and part of Bauchi.He urged the State governments to urgently embark on a massive sensitisation programme on the affected Communities to see the need of moving away from the prone areas.On our part, NEMA and Executive Secretary of Hydrological Services Agency already carried out a Hausa programmes on radio in cognizance of targeting this communities that are likely to be affected.The alert shows that if the rain continues as experienced in the last one week for the next four days, it is a signal that part of river Niger will be flooded.And by implication a number of places will be affected with flood and going by the warning the experience of flood in 2012 will be a Childs play this year while several states will be affected.My concern is the north west, particularly Kaduna, Jigawa , Kano and Katsina states following the warnings by the Director General of the agency.Though we are able to reach out to States Emergency Management Agencies to enable them alert the communities living along the river banks linked with river Niger.It was just two days ago Nigerian government received an alert from the Niger issuing a warning that all people living along the river banks should be evacuated. he said.Illalah warned residents against indiscriminate dumping of refuse and building along water ways.He enjoined relevant authorities in the states to be up and doing to check flooding. Executive Secretary, Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), Dr. Abdullahi Bichi Baffa, has said President Muhammadu Buhari is deeply c... Executive Secretary, Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), Dr. Abdullahi Bichi Baffa, has said President Muhammadu Buhari is deeply concerned over the low ranking of Nigerian universities globally.No single Nigerian university was among the 100 world ranking released recently.Dr. Baffa spoke in Abuja when he resumed at the headquarters of TETFUND.He noted that Buharis clear directive was for him to work with relevant stakeholders towards ensuring that Nigerian universities ranked among the best 100 universities in the world.He stated that Buhari has directed him to close the ranks in ensuring that Nigerian universities become globally competitive.This, he said, cannot be achieved if the culture of impunity that pervaded most of the agencies in the education sector in the past was allowed to continue.He therefore assured Nigerians that the lost glory of the nations universities would be restored under his watch.He warned the Vice Chancellors and heads of beneficiary tertiary institutions that the era of everything goes was over.He urged all the heads of beneficiary institutions to ensure judicious utilisation of the intervention funds allocated to them.Meanwhile, the newly appointed Executive Secretary of National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof Prof. Abubakar Rasheed, has described as vain the assumption and air with which many Vice Chancellors of universities carried themselves as though they are Chief Executive Officers.Speaking when he assumed duty as NUC boss, Rasheed said it was wrong that many Vice Chancellors thought that they were CEOs.They are not Chief Executive Officers, he said.According to him, university administration requires team work, stressing that everyone in the system has a role to play from the driver to the VC.Rasheed, a former Vice Chancellor, Bayero University Kano, said he was appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari, with specific mandate to ensure that Nigerian universities were restored to their lost glory by working with relevant stakeholders.He pledged to give priority attention to the welfare of staff of the commission by ensuring that the workers get their salaries, promotion and due allowances as at when due. Everton have agreed a 12m fee for Ashley Williams with the Swansea captain set for a medical on Tuesday, according to Sky sports.He is expected to travel to Merseyside later on Tuesday afternoon to complete the move and sign a two-year deal.The Toffees wasted little time in strengthening their central defence following the departure of John Stones, who completed his move to Manchester City in a 47.5m deal on Tuesday morning.Everton - under new ownership and new management from Ronald Koeman had a bid of around 10m recently rejected by the Swans.A Swansea spokesman insisted their long-term club captain was not for sale.But on Tuesday lunchtime it was understood Koeman had finally got his man.The 31-year old defender, who skippered Wales during their successful Euro 2016 campaign in France, said his goodbyes at the club's training ground on Tuesday morning.The Wolverhampton-born Welsh international signed for Swansea for 400,000 in 2008 having spent five years at Stockport. Nursing mothers who adopt exclusive breastfeeding of their children, at least for the first six months of life stand a chance to be prot... Nursing mothers who adopt exclusive breastfeeding of their children, at least for the first six months of life stand a chance to be protected against Breast Cancer and Cancer of the uterus.This was disclosed by the UNICEF, Kaduna Field Office in Kaduna Tuesday.Speaking at a press conference to commemorate 2016 World Breastfeeding Day, Chief of Kaduna UNICEF Field Office, Utpal Moitra said, breastfeedingwithin 30 minutes of childbirth equally saves mothers from maternal death.He said, the 2016 World Breastfeeding Week was targeted at creating awareness on the relationship between breastfeeding and infant and young child feeding as a key component to sustainable development goals.According to him, Initiation of breastfeeding within 30 minutes after birth saves mothers from the risk of postpartum heamorrage and maternal death and exclusive breastfeeding on demand in the first six months of life without water or any other food starts every baby on healthy path in life, providing all the nutrients the baby requires for optimum growth and development.The feeding of the colostrum serves as the first immunisation against a host of diseases the mother must have been exposed to while continuing breastfeeding up to two years and beyond with appropriate complementary feeding supports optimal health, psychosocial and cognitive development with higher Intelligence Quotient and mental development. He explained.Similarly, Kaduna State Nutrition Officer, Mrs. June Gwani said, against the general belief of mothers that, baby needs water, she said all water a baby needs in the first six months of life is in breast milk.According to her, breast milk contains 85% of water, so there is no fear of absence of water in the breast milk.She stated categorically that, constant breastfeeding of the baby protects nursing mothers against cancer of the uterus and breast cancer, such as it equally helps the mothers uterus to go back to position quickly after delivery.In her presentation, titled; Breastfeeding: A key to Sustainable Development and Addressing the Current Situation and Challenges of Malnutrition in UNICEF Kaduna Field Office States. UNICEF Nutrition Specialist, Dr. Florence Oni said, northern Nigeria was lagging behind in proper breastfeeding, which had resulted to high rate of malnutrition in the region. The Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr Maikanti Baru, has dismissed reports that the corporat... The Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr Maikanti Baru, has dismissed reports that the corporation will soon announce an increase in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS).The online media had reported that because of the high cost of foreign currencies, NNPC had concluded plans to increase the pump price of PMS from N145 per litre to between N170 and N200. Baru, however, denied any knowledge of the price increase, saying that there was no directive to that effect. He said that importers of the commodity had no justification to increase the price as their foreign exchange demands had been met and supply of the fuel was robust.I have not been directed to increase pump price, even the other price was based on recommendation from the regulatory body. Im not aware that they are planning to do any increase, you know there are several factors that necessitated that ,especially the issue of exchange rate that has moved and we dont expect any serious changes. So far the request for forex for importation of gasoline, popularly called petrol, has been met and our own supply situation is robust, we are meeting demands.The managing director, however, revealed that Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) could review the prices of petroleum products when necessary. He said that NNPC currently had in stock over 1.4 billion litres of PMS for sale to the public at government controlled price of N145 per litre. We have over 1.4 billion litres on ground.So, I dont see any basis for increase; however, the review could be done by the right body, you should contact PPPRA, that is the regulatory body as far as petrol pricing is concerned, he said. NNPC on May 11 increased the pump price of PMS from N86.5 to N145. Immediate past President, Goodluck Jonathan has admonished selfish leaders against seeking political positions. Immediate past President, Goodluck Jonathan has admonished selfish leaders against seeking political positions.Speaking yesterday at a press Conference in Lusaka, Zambia, the former President urged politicians contesting various positions in the countrys August 11 general elections to accept results of the poll and avoid violence.Jonathan is in Zambia as the Head of the African Union Election Observers.His comment was contained in a statement by his media aide, Mr. Ikechukwu Eze.According to Jonathan, Politicians going in for elective positions should be open-minded about the outcome because they can either win or lose. Politicians who want to play meaningful roles in governance should realise that it is not about them. Those who care only about themselves should quit politics and begin to manage personal businesses.Our states are not private enterprises. You cannot be interested in governance without sufficient interest in the affairs of the people. So the interest of the country should come first as politicians tick their priority boxes.This also requires politicians to accept the outcome of genuine elections because of the interest of the people. You cannot instigate violence and mayhem on the one hand and pretend that you are fighting for the people on the other. It does not make any sense to get involved in bloodshed, destroy properties, frustrate businesses and collapse the economy in order to win elections. Our advice is to put public interest above other expectations by accepting the results of elections. General Overseer of Latter Rain Assembly Pastor Tunde Bakare has said despite evidence of a high level of corruption in public and priva... General Overseer of Latter Rain Assembly Pastor Tunde Bakare has said despite evidence of a high level of corruption in public and private life, President Muhammadu Buhari can win the war on corruption.He spoke in Lagos weekend at the the launch of the Onyekachi Ubani Foundation (MOU) by Second Vice-Chairman of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) Monday Ubani.Dignitaries at the event included President Buhari, who was represented by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora, among others.Bakare, who was represented by Segun Oloketuyi, managing director of Wema Bank Plc, delivered the keynote speech on the theme: The system that allows massive corruption in Nigeria must be a bad system.Under military rule, he said Nigeria became synonymous with corruption, and this was carried on through 17 years of civil governance. He blamed this on an expectation and demand culture leading to an attitude of impunity.Despite the emergence of a new government on the heels of a strong anti-corruption campaign, despite the credence lent to this anti-corruption promise by the antecedent of President Buhari, and despite global acknowledgement that Nigeria has taken shovel loads off the peak of this mountain of filth, the stench of corruption remains fantastically horrible with the rest of the world turning their noses away in disgust and derision, Bakare added.Nevertheless, he noted that Nigerians are essentially not corrupt and gave instances of the airport cleaner, who found and returned N12 million and Buharis declaration to be incorruptible, which has gone unchallenged.Bakare added: Therefore, I am confident that there is hope. What is urgently required is the redefinition of our value system along the lines of probity and integrity by highlighting our anti-corruption narrative. Then, upon that foundation, we must build a corruption-tight system that reinforces this narrative and eliminates the contrary. This task of refabricating society is a collective responsibility that must involve all, the government as well as the governed.Earlier, in his welcome address President Buhari commended the vision of the foundation.He said: It is significant that the foundation is dedicated to helping the poor and needy in the society and also to celebrate those who made our country proud with virtuous acts.Barrister Ubani, you have decided to improve other peoples lives in your own little way, Very inspiring. If this is the heartbeat of more privileged Nigerians, then the burden of government will be a lot lightened.Responding, Ubani said the society will continue to breed miscreants if the wealthy do not assist the poor.The consequences of not being our Brothers Keeper is what bred Boko Haram; it is currently breeding other societal miscreants all over the place. God knows what else, what next, where else, when next the next terror will hit us. The danger is growing within; it is drawing nearer and nearer to our door step, just as the storm gathers, he said.Ubani noted that he decided to set up the foundation because there was a limit to how many people he could personally help.There is a limit to how many Nigerians a Good Samaritan with limited resources can help, but I am convinced that if I get your support in your capacity as an empowered Nigerian, together we can create a system that will lift a majority of Nigerians, young and old, out of poverty and hunger. It takes just a little more creative thinking and brainstorming to build that enabling structure outside of the box. Fifty senior Republican national security officials have issued a stinging rejection of their partys White House nominee Donald Trump, wa... Fifty senior Republican national security officials have issued a stinging rejection of their partys White House nominee Donald Trump, warning he would be the most reckless president in American history if elected.The group, some of whom already announced they would not vote for Trump, included former homeland security chiefs, intelligence directors, senior presidential advisors and a former US trade representative. They served under Republican presidents from Richard Nixon to George W. Bush.We are convinced that he would be a dangerous president and would put at risk our countrys national security and well-being, they wrote in a statement published in The New York Times on Monday.Their disavowal of the Republican presidential candidate was followed by another setback for Trump, when influential US Senator Susan Collins said Tuesday he was unworthy of Americas highest elective office, and will not receive her support.I will not be voting for Donald Trump for president. This is not a decision I make lightly, for I am a lifelong Republican. But Donald Trump does not reflect historical Republican values nor the inclusive approach to governing that is critical to healing the divisions in our country, Collins wrote in an op-ed article appearing in Tuesdays Washington Post. Unfit for office While the US security experts did not say they would vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton indeed they expressed doubts about her they were clear in stating that none of us will vote for Donald Trump.They essentially declared the brash billionaire unfit for office, echoing Clintons criticism by saying that Trump lacks the character, values, and experience to be president and displays alarming ignorance of basic facts of international politics.The New York real estate mogul also has shown no willingness to learn about foreign affairs or national security threats, acts impetuously and lacks self control, the statement said.He is unable or unwilling to separate truth from falsehood, the group wrote, saying Trump possesses a set of dangerous qualities that should disqualify him from the presidency.We are convinced that in the Oval Office, he would be the most reckless president in American history.They warned that the political neophytes erratic behavior has alarmed Americas closest allies, adding that he fails to recognize the indispensable nature of such diplomatic relationships.The signatories include Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff, the first and second homeland security secretaries under president George W. Bush, former director of National Intelligence John Negroponte and Bush-era CIA director Michael Hayden.Also in the group are former US Trade Representative and World Bank president Robert Zoellick and Eric Edelman, former national security advisor to vice president Dick Cheney. Trump responds Trump issued a sharply worded reprimand of the group, painting them as nothing more than the failed Washington elite looking to hold onto their power and saying they should be held accountable for making the world less safe.These insiders along with Hillary Clinton are the owners of the disastrous decisions to invade Iraq, allow Americans to die in Benghazi, and they are the ones who allowed the rise of ISIS, Trump said.I offer a better vision for our country and our foreign policy one that is not run by a ruling family dynasty.The anti-Trump Republicans join members of the security establishment who have already come out against the nominee, including former CIA director Michael Morell, who last Friday accused Trump of being an unwitting agent of Russian President Vladimir Putin.Collins, who represents the state of Maine in the US Senate, was no less scathing about Trump in her opinion piece particularly with regard to his bullying of those less powerful and less prominent.I have become increasingly dismayed by his constant stream of cruel comments and his inability to admit error or apologize, the US senator wrote.But it was his attacks directed at people who could not respond on an equal footing - either because they do not share his power or stature or because professional responsibility precluded them from engaging at such a level - that revealed Mr. Trump as unworthy of being our president. ATLANTIC CITY - The $3.9 million verdict awarded to former Atlantic City police chief John Mooney three years ago in his whistleblower lawsuit has been overturned by an appellate court. John Mooney in a 2006 file photo. The court ordered a new trial, citing "predjudicial errors" in the instructions the jury received in 2013, according to a decision released Tuesday. That jury had awarded Mooney $3,885,173.01 under the Contentious Employee Protection Act, but didn't consider whether the veteran cop "suffered an adverse employment action," the appellate court wrote. Mooney, now 61, claimed he was demoted because he alleged then-Mayor Lorenzo Langford and then-public safety Director Christine Peterson interfered in day-to-day police matters and internal investigations. The jury came to the conclusion that Mooney's demotion to deputy chief was not part of budget cuts made in 2010. Mooney resigned on May 27, 2010. Hired as a patrolman in 1975, Mooney was making $210,023,80 when he left the department, according to public records. His annual pension is $147,016.20 or $12,251.35 per month. Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook. HACKENSACK -- Lawyers for Roger Ailes and longtime news personality Gretchen Carlson have agreed to keep the lawsuit accusing the former Fox News executive of sexual harassment in New Jersey, according to a Monday court filing. Attorneys for Ailes had previously tried to to move the lawsuit from New Jersey federal court to New York. In response to the motion, Carlson's attorney Nancy Smith accused Ailes' lawyers of "judge shopping." The New Jersey federal court will now decide whether the lawsuit will go to trial or arbitration. Ailes' attorneys have pushed for private arbitration, citing a clause in Carlson's employment agreement. Carlson's attorney has said the clause does not mention Ailes, and her suit does not name Fox News. Carlson filed the lawsuit last month in Bergen County Superior Court against the ex-CEO and Chairman of the news station, claiming the Cresskill resident made "sexual advances" and "sexual comments." The suit is seeking damages of at least $75,000. The suit was later moved to federal court. Ailes responded to the suit, calling it "defamatory" and "offensive." In the weeks that followed, Fox tried to get the case moved and dismissed, before Ailes eventually resigned his post. Rupert Murdoch assumed Ailes' role in the company on July 21. Since the suit, at least 20 women have reportedly accused Ailes of sexual harassment, including Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly. Ailes owns a home in Cresskill, and has also said he lives in Garrison, N.Y. Craig McCarthy may be reached at CMcCarthy@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @createcraig. Find NJ.com on Facebook. UPDATE: Money woes loomed, family friend says BURLINGTON TWP. -- The 10-year-old killed in Monday night's murder-suicide could often be seen riding his bicycle around the quiet cul-de-sac where his parents lived. On Tuesday afternoon, a brightly-colored boy's bicycle propped up on its kickstand in the driveway of the Sunflower Circle home was wheeled into the house without comment. It's there that police say Ruben Johnson, Jr., 50, shot and killed his wife Mashanda, 48, and their son before turning the gun on himself Monday. Christian Wagner, 18, who lives nearby and whose sister attended classes at B. Bernice Young Elementary School with the boy, said he often saw him "ride his bike around with other kids." A request for a wellness check by local police from a family member late Monday night led police to the home. Johnson Jr. was identified by the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office as the shooter. The motive remains under investigation, but authorities said no additional suspects were involved. The property's front yard was well-kept as seen Tuesday. A neglected in-ground pool, children's tree house swallowed by forest growth and creeping weeds along the rear of the house could be seen out back. Neighbors in the quiet cul-de-sac described the family as having lived there for a little less than a decade. Tax records show Johnson bought the home for $500,000 in 2005. The Courier-Post reported that the home was listed for sheriff's sale. "I guess you never expect something like that to happen," Kelly, a long-time neighbor who did not wish to provide her last name, said of the "great family." She wasn't aware of any other time police responded to the property and there were no events she knew about in the recent past that would have lead to Monday's shooting. She too often saw the 10-year-old, neighbors in other news reports identified as Trey, riding his bike around the neighborhood. Wagner, who tried to return home Monday night around 1 a.m. but was stopped by police, said the late couple also had a college-aged daughter who lives in Florida. Their daughter posted a statement on her Facebook page that reads in part, "I lost my two best friends. I lost the biggest part of my heart. I not only lost my brother and mother but my father as well. I know my family is with me right now but my heart is broken." Greg Adomaitis may be reached at gadomaitis@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @GregAdomaitis. Find NJ.com on Facebook. ELIZABETH -- A man caught walking the streets of Linden with a handgun during a curfew imposed in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy has been sentenced to 18 years in prison, authorities said Monday. Malik Welch, 33, of Linden, who has a prior felony conviction, must serve at least 10 years of the sentence before he is eligible for parole, acting Union County Prosecutor Grace Park said today. Authorities say that at about 9:30 p.m. on Oct. 30, 2012, Linden police, who were enforcing a citywide curfew in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, saw Welch walking on Bower Street with an open can of beer. Union County Assistant Prosecutor Armando Suarez, who prosecuted the case, said that as police approached Welch, he immediately dropped the can of beer and ran up a driveway and into the backyard of a nearby house, ignoring the officers' orders to stop. Officers caught Welch in the backyard and a struggle ensued before he was subdued and arrested, Suarez said. He said officers then found a fully loaded 9mm Ruger handgun in a pocket of Welch's jacket, and found a loaded handgun magazine on the ground. Following a three-day trial, a jury deliberated for less than hour before convicting Welch of second-degree unlawful possession of a handgun and fourth-degree resisting arrest. The same jury also convicted Welch of a second-degree charge of certain persons prohibited from having weapons. Park said Superior Court Judge Scott J. Moynihan imposed an 10-year sentence for the charge of illegal possession of a handgun and an eight-year sentence for a separate charge of persons prohibited from having a firearm because of Welch's prior criminal record. Moynihan ordered that the two sentences run consecutively, Park said. She said the judge also imposed an 18-month prison term for a charge of resisting arrest, but ordered that term run concurrent with the 10-year sentence. Tom Haydon may be reached at thaydon@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @Tom_HaydonSL. Find NJ.com on Facebook. The federal government plans to pour $125 million into the fight against a mysterious disease that has ravaged corals in Florida and much of the Caribbean, and now poses a dire threat to the treasured reefs off the Louisiana and Texas coasts. WASHINGTON (AP) The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has issued a subpoena to Donald Trump. The nine-member panel sent a letter to the former president's lawyers on Friday, demanding his testimony under oath by mid-November and outlining a series of corresponding documents. The decision by lawmakers to exercise their subpoena power comes a week after the committee made its final case against the former president, who they say is the "central cause" of the multi-part effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election. It remains unclear how Trump and his legal team will respond to the subpoena, if at all. The state carrier and its employees had been at loggerheads with each other over a slew of issues, including the perpetual delay in disseminating salaries. CHICAGO - Womens decreased ability to produce healthy eggs as they become older may be due to excessive scarring and inflammation in their ovaries, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study in mice. This is the first study to show the ovarian environment ages and that aging affects the quality of eggs it produces. These findings could result in new treatments that preserve fertility by delaying ovarian aging. Most reproductive research focuses on womens eggs and trying to understand why their number and quality deteriorate as a woman enters her forties. Deteriorating eggs contribute to infertility, miscarriages and birth defects. But in this study scientists examined the reproductive age-related changes that occur in the environment in which the eggs develop, known as the ovarian stroma. The environment in which cells grow and develop can greatly influence their quality and function, but surprisingly little is known about how the ovarian stroma changes with age. Under the microscope, eggs from reproductively young and old animals may look identical, but the environment in which they are growing is completely different, said lead study author Francesca Duncan, executive director of the Center for Reproductive Science at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Ovaries from reproductively old mice are fibrotic and inflamed. There is no way this environment wont impact the eggs growing in it, and it very likely contributes to their decrease in quality. The study was published August 5 in the journal Reproduction. Duncan led the study when she was at the University of Kansas Medical Center. In this study, researchers analyzed ovarian tissue from populations of reproductively young (equivalent to women in their early twenties) and old mice (equivalent to women ages 38-45). They consistently identified fibrosis in the reproductively old mice. This age period is associated with a decline in reproductive function and egg quality in both humans and mice. In some reproductively old mice, up to 35 percent of the ovarian tissue was fibrotic. Researchers also found a type of immune cell (multinucleated macrophage giant cells) in the ovaries of reproductively old mice only. When found in other tissues, these cells are associated with chronic inflammation. They also found ovaries from mice of advanced reproductive age expressed genes and produced proteins that are highly inflammatory. Our work establishes fibrosis and inflammation as hallmarks of the aging ovary and lays the foundation for considering the use of anti-fibrotic or anti-inflammatory treatments to delay or counteract the impact of reproductive aging, said Duncan, also an associate research professor in obstetrics and gynecology at Feinberg. People tend to overlook that the egg is growing in a complex environment, and no one has taken a deep look at what is happening to that environment with age, Duncan added. Its an underappreciated area. The findings have broader implications for womens health because ovarian fibrosis is a key feature of polycystic ovary syndrome, a common endocrine system disorder among women of reproductive age, and is also a consequence of chemotherapy and radiation, Duncan said. Duncans research team is currently investigating how to therapeutically target the ovarian environment to improve reproductive function. This work was supported by the Center for Reproductive Health After Disease (P50 HD076188), the National Centers for Translational Research in Reproduction and Infertility, the Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (P20 GM104936), the National Center for Research Resources (P20 RR021940), the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (P20 GM103549) and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Training Program in Environmental Toxicology (T32 ES007079) of the National Institutes of Health. CHICAGO - A study that sent twice-weekly text messages to a million people in India advising them to exercise, eat less fat, and eat more fruits and vegetables increased these health behaviors known to prevent diabetes, reports new research from Northwestern Medicine and Arogya World, a global health non-profit organization. This effort is the first to use the power and reach of mobile phones to change diabetes risk behaviors in a large number of people from different parts of a vast country like India. It has implications for diabetes prevention in low and middle-income countries. In India, the diabetes burden is very high. An estimated 66 million people live with the disease, and 1 million die from it each year. Indian Americans also are hard hit with diabetes. The diabetes prevalence in this population is four times higher than among Caucasians in the United States. Researchers compared composite scores of the experimental groups fruit, vegetable and fat intake and exercise with the control group. While people in both the experimental and control group improved their health behaviors over six months, the experimental group improved significantly more. Almost 40 percent more people improved their health behaviors as a result of the texting (299 showing improvement in the experimental group versus 185 in the control group), based on data in the paper. The study was published August 8 in the Journal of Medical and Internet Research. Noncommunicable diseases, one of the leading health and development challenges of the century, demand simple, proven, cost-effective prevention solutions that can be easily deployed at the population level, said Nalini Saligram, founder and CEO of Arogya World. Our mDiabetes study suggests mobile health technology is a smart solution and has broad implications for diabetes prevention at the population level in low and middle-income countries. This shows the potential for even the most basic of mobile phones to be used as a viable tool to deliver public health messages on a large scale across a diverse population, said lead study author Angela Fidler Pfammatter, research assistant professor in preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. And you just need a basic mobile phone. This can make an impact. Bonnie Spring, director of the Center for Behavior and Health at Feinberg, collaborated on the research. Sandhya Ramlingam of Arogya World implemented the behavior change study. The study gathered responses from nearly 1,000 people who received text messages as part of Arogya World's mDiabetes initiative and compared them to responses from a similar number of people who didnt receive the text messages. The randomly chosen 1,000 individuals, who were surveyed by phone in the language of their choice, were considered a representative sample of the one million participants. The study scored for fruit, vegetable and fat consumption as well as exercise in participants at baseline and six months. There were 943 people in the control group, 982 in the experimental one. Arogya World partnered with Nokia during 2012-2013 on mDiabetes to send text messages on diabetes and its prevention in 12 languages, twice a week for six months, to 1 million of its subscribers from all over India who opted in. The 56 text messages were developed with Emory University and culturally adapted for India with extensive consumer feedback. Northwestern University researchers contributed to the study design and data analysis. Using rigorous statistical analysis to correct for baseline differences, and by scoring each study participant on positive and negative behaviors, the authors showed clear health behavior differences between those who received the text messages and those who did not. Noncommunicable diseases include heart disease, diabetes, cancer and chronic lung diseases. According to the World Health Organization, 80 percent of heart disease, 80 percent of type 2 diabetes and 40 percent of cancers are preventable with three lifestyle changes -- avoiding tobacco, eating healthy foods and increasing physical activity. Indians get diabetes in their 30s and 40s, 10 years earlier than most Americans. Two-thirds of the population of India is under age 35. Mobile phone use is widespread throughout India, making this an ideal way to deliver health messages. In addition to the text message program, Arogya World has developed a mobile app, myArogya, to help working Indians prevent chronic disease. Arogya World hopes to bring its India approaches to South Asian communities in the United States to help them lead healthier lives. For more information, visit arogyaworld.org. Page Content 2 The National Transportation Safety Board is an independent federal agency charged by Congress with investigating every civil aviation accident in the United States and significant accidents in other modes of transportation highway, marine, pipeline, and railroad. We determine the probable cause of the accidents we investigate and issue safety recommendations aimed at preventing future accidents. In addition, we conduct transportation safety research and coordinate the resources of the federal government and other organizations to assist victims and their family members who have been impacted by major transportation disasters. Northwest Indianas casinos collectively had their third down month in a row in July, seeing their gambling take drop 4.3 percent to $81.9 million as compared to the same month a year ago. That comes on top of year-over-year declines of 10.1 percent and 6.9 percent in May and June, respectively, according to the Indiana Gaming Commissions monthly report. But the casinos loss is often the customers win the amount of money gambled at table games was 10.8 percent higher this July than last, but the casinos win was 15.8 percent lower. Last year, the house played particularly lucky, Horseshoe General Manager Dan Nita said. In July 2016, the customers played particularly lucky. Horseshoes table-game win decline was 31 percent to $8.6 million; slot machine win, at $25.2 million, was up slightly. Overall, revenues at Horseshoe, the Regions largest casino, declined 10.2 percent to $33.8 million. Ameristar, in East Chicago, won $19.8 million, down 3.4 percent. The Regions two smallest casinos showed year-over-year growth: Blue Chip in Michigan City grew gambling revenue 1.8 percent to $14.8 million; Majestic Stars two Gary boats showed an increase of 4.8 percent to $13.5 million. Indianas 13 gambling sites grew their revenue, though only by 0.9 percent, to $197.4 million, according to the Indiana Gaming Commission. Illinois casinos in the Chicago area saw a 1.2 percent decline, Nita said. In the Region, admissions were down 5.4 percent, to 854,380. Nita said the Regions slot machine performance was quite stable with a decline of just 0.7 percent. He said he considers that figure more important as an indicator of the industrys status because the return on slots is more consistent than that on table games, and it is a larger part of the business. Nita said its a reassuring sign despite the summers overall numbers. Its much more stable than 24 to 36 months ago, he said of the casino business. CHESTERTON Talent has always been the key to economic success for the nation, station, region and local community, author Jamie Merisotis told a group Monday. But, what was talent back in the 20th century, and how that talent was groomed and cultivated then wont work in the 21st century, he said. Merisotis, author of the recently published America Needs Talent and president and CEO of Lumina Foundation, addressed about 100 community and business leaders during a special event at Sand Creek Country Club sponsored by the Northwest Indiana Forum and Center of Workforce Innovations. Developing talent for the jobs available now and in the future is the number one concern of businesses and communities, Merisotis said. Talent, he defined, is not innate, but is what happens when knowledge, skills and abilities are honed by experience in education. Merisotis told the group that ideas on developing talent must change to meet future needs. That includes reinvigorating the private sector by giving it the tools needed to focus on talent development. It also means redefining the federal governments role in the process, including realigning the work done by the Department of Education and training strategies within other departments. Merisotis said immigration must be re-imagined and the nation must not buy into the present divisive rhetoric being chanted by some groups. The idea, he said is to make education more attainable by more people. That will take redesigning the higher education system to better serve students and to make postsecondary education more affordable. We have to achieve real equity and excellence in education to clear pathways to success, he said, adding that the vast majority of jobs created since the end of the recent recession call for some sort of education past high school. That could include college, but also certification in skills and trades. Locally, he said people need to be more aware of the urgency of talent development. The message is not getting to the consumer, to the people, he said, encouraging those present to not depend on government representatives, but to organize and advocate for Northwest Indiana at the state level for improvements that will produce more and better talent for the future. PORTAGE A man who stuck a bottle of liquor in his pants and walked out of a store was arrested Saturday night, according to police. Police were called about 11 p.m. to CVS, 3240 Willowcreek Road, by employees who told them the man had fled north on Willowcreek Road in a pickup truck. Police stopped the truck and found Jeffry Chase, 60, of Portage in the passenger seat. Chase allegedly told police he had taken the bottle from the retailer. However, when he was caught by employees, he returned the vodka to the store. Police said he appeared to have been drinking and Chase allegedly told police he had consumed at least 10 beers and was an alcoholic. Chase was arrested and charged with theft and public intoxication. He was transported to Porter County Jail. CROWN POINT The September jury trial for a man accused of killing his parents in 2013 was vacated Tuesday in Lake County Criminal Court and reset to begin May 8, 2017. Thomas Jeffrie Snow, 37, is charged with the bludgeoning and strangulation deaths of his parents, Clifford and Joyce Snow, in their Lowell home sometime between Sept. 11 and Oct. 18, 2013. Officers responded to a well-being check and found the decomposing bodies of the popular 68-year-old retired shop teacher from Hammond Morton High School and his 66-year-old wife on Oct. 18, 2013, in their home in the 14500 block of West 197th Avenue. Detectives traced Snow to Minnesota after tracking his parents credit card and cellphone records, according to court records. Lake Criminal Court Judge Samuel Cappas granted the motion to reset the trial date made by Snows defense attorneys John Maksimovich and Arlington Foley Sr. Foley said the overwhelming amount of evidence necessitated the resetting of the Sept. 19 trial. Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Mark Watson agreed that the September trial date wouldnt provide enough time to take depositions from expert witnesses. When asked by Cappas if he understood why his trial was being scheduled for May 2017, Snow responded, Yeah. Snow shook hands with his attorneys before being taken back to the Lake County Jail. This is the third time Snows trial has been vacated. He had been set to stand trial on Nov. 16, 2015 and March 14, 2016. MERRILLVILLE A stormwater management fee increase in Merrillville has cleared an initial step and now heads to the Town Council for a final decision. The towns Stormwater Management Board recently approved a resolution supporting the fee adjustment. Monthly stormwater rates in Merrillville vary depending on the use of the land. Single-family and duplex residential properties are currently charged a $5 monthly fee. The new rates for those properties would increase to $9 each month. The fee change, which would go into effect next year, could generate an additional $900,000 annually for the Stormwater Utility. Matt Lake, executive director of the utility, said new funding collected from the rate increase would go into a separate account designated for projects identified in the towns stormwater master plan, which was updated in 2014. The combined projects in the 20-year plan are estimated to cost between $25 million and $35 million. The master plan has the town separated into nine sub-watersheds. It also prioritizes work that needs to be completed. Lake said the Meadowdale Lateral sub-watershed, which is in the north end of town, is a high-priority area. Projects proposed in that area include culvert improvements and adding water storage areas. The total cost of all the proposed work there is estimated to be around $3.9 million. Lake said the Stormwater Utility is pursuing grants to help fund projects and partnerships with other entities to potentially reduce the cost of some future work. He said the utility has asked the Merrillville Community School Corp. to grant an easement on property the school district owns near 57th Avenue. A project to create a storage basin is planned for that area. If the request is granted, it would help expedite that work and reduce the price of the project because the utility would avoid land acquisition, Lake said. Prior to the board taking action on the rate adjustment resolution, there was a public hearing about the proposed increase. There was no opposition to the fee change during the hearing. Those who spoke supported the utilitys efforts to address drainage issues in the community. The earliest the council could consider approving new stormwater rates would be during the panels meeting today. About 430 Carrie Gosch Elementary School students are being moved across East Chicago after high levels of lead and arsenic were found in the neighboring West Calumet Housing Complex, which residents are being relocated out of. An elevated level of lead was only found in a far corner of the Carrie Gosch school grounds but School City of East Chicago officials decided to move the students and 40 teachers a week before school starts across town to the West Side Middle School building to be safe and alleviate parents fears, Superintendent Paige McNulty said. We want to make sure everyone starts school safely on the very first day, so were erring on the side of caution, and were moving them to West Side, McNulty said. The decision was prompted partly by low enrollment, which was likely the result of parents who are hesitant to send kids to school at a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site or who are uncertain about where theyll be living as they wait on vouchers to move. Only 92 students have enrolled so far at Carrie Gosch compared to about 150 at the same time last year. We want students to feel safe, she said. We want parents to feel safe where their students are attending. We also just want to err on the side of caution and do whats best for our staff and students. Also, many are waiting to see where theyre going to move, but that move isnt going to happen for months, and their kids still need to start school. East Chicago resident Aiyesa Walker, whose children Kaelyan, Kash, and Kajun attend Carrie Gosch, was relieved that theyll be going to a different school this year. She was concerned that students who walk to Carrie Gosch might track lead and arsenic into the school even if its now free of contamination. They need to be on the safe side, especially for the kids sake, she said. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on-scene coordinator Brad Benning said it was not technically necessary to close the school down from a public safety standpoint. Schools tend to be cleaned regularly, including with a top-to-bottom cleaning every summer, and that took care of any lead and contamination issues, he said. Carrie Gosch Elementary was constructed eight years ago, and McNulty said she wasnt aware of any remediation that took place before construction but said the school has since been deep-cleaned. The EPA has extensively tested the school grounds and only found one far corner with an elevated level of lead that will need to be remediated, McNulty said. The lead levels are otherwise low and the school district will provide a copy of the EPA report to any parents who visit its administrative office. EPA officials gave the school verbal guidelines that it should put extra mats outside the doors so people can wipe their shoes and students should be required to wash their hands if they were out rolling around in the dirt during recess. Carrie Gosch is being mothballed for the foreseeable future, McNulty said. It will at least be inactive for the 2016-17 school year because it would be too disruptive to move the children back during the middle of an academic year. Teachers at Carrie Gosch just spent the last week getting their classrooms ready, since school starts Aug. 15. Now theyll have to take everything back down, pack it up and haul it across town, office worker Sharroun Barney said. Its kids first, she said. Thats what our main concern is, making sure theyre healthy and going to school every day. Its safer over there. The School City of East Chicago is encouraging parents to get tested for lead and arsenic, and offered space to the East Chicago Health Department to conduct blood tests at both Carrie Gosch and the West Side Middle School. School officials broke the news to parents at a hastily called meeting Monday at the Carrie Gosch auditorium. Mary Hill, a community member and former teacher at Carrie Gosch, came to the meeting to get answers. Its scary until we know how this is going to affect the people. They let people live here and reside here. No one knows the impact. I mean, this is poison. This is really huge, she said. In the West Calumet Complex the EPA will offer top-to-bottom cleaning of apartments, as well as stipends for hotels and food while residents are displaced. GARY In a surprise move Friday, the Food Bank of Northwest Indiana board of directors accepted the resignation of its executive director and created a new management team with Harry J. Vande Velde III as interim executive director. Vande Velde replaces Arleen Peterson, who was hired as the Food Banks executive director in March 2013 and who resigned on Friday, said Kris Parker, chairman of the board for the Food Bank of Northwest Indiana. I am not at liberty to disclose details (about Petersons resignation), Parker said during a phone interview Monday with The Times. What I can say is that the thousands of people who are helped each month by the Food Bank of Northwest Indiana and the board of directors remain grateful to Arleen for her hard work over the past three years, said Parker, regional community development educator with Purdue Extension in Porter County. According to Petersons LinkedIn profile, she has been founder and president of ENZI & Associates from August 2004 to the present. ENZI is derived from the Swahili language and means to EMPOWER. ENZI works with visionary nonprofit organizations to strategically and successfully manage changes and challenges in the areas of accountability, growth, sustainability, Petersons LinkedIn entry states. Vande Velde is familiar with the Food Bank and Northwest Indiana, and brings a wealth of knowledge to the interim position, Parker said. He was president/CEO of the Merrillville-based Legacy Foundation for more than three years from June 2010 to September 2013. That month he was named president of Andrean High School in Merrillville under the Gary Dioceses new president-principal leadership model. Vande Velde served as president at Andrean High from 2013 until his resignation in July 2015, a little more than a week after the principals resignation. Fairly soon, the (Food Bank) board will establish a transition team committee to search for a permanent executive director, working with Feeding America, Parker said. The Food Bank of Northwest Indiana is a nonprofit organization that distributes food to more than 15,000 individuals each month through its more than 100 partner agencies and programs in Lake and Porter counties. It is an affiliate of Feeding America, the nations leading domestic hunger-relief charity. According to a news release Friday, Vande Velde will work closely with Stephan Beekman, deputy director and head of development at the pantry, as well as with the board of directors to analyze and plan for its future. The board of directors is energized by the possibilities that this new management team and the subsequent reorganization of roles and responsibilities creates for the Food Bank of Northwest Indiana, the release stated. MICHIGAN CITY A 14-year-old boy drowned Monday near the Lighthouse Pier in Michigan City while his 14-year-old friend, who tried to rescue him, was able to save himself. Travis Mensha was pronounced dead about 7 p.m. at Franciscan St. Anthony Health-Michigan City, according to Sgt. Shawn Brown with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. Witnesses reported seeing two people struggling in the water at 6:11 p.m. about 175 feet from shore near the lighthouse pier at Washington Park. Brown said Mensha and his friend had gone to the beach together to swim when Mensha apparently started struggling in water about 7 to 8 feet deep. He said his friend tried swimming out to Mensha, but Mensha went under the water. The friend was able to swim to the pier in waves that were 1 1/2 to 2 feet high. Brown said Michigan City police, fire department, divers and the Coast Guard assisted the DNR divers who searched for Mensha. He said the incident occurred along the west corner of the beach in a turbulent area with northeast wind and choppy water. Brown said conditions on the lake were not bad, but swimmers in that area need to be aware of their surroundings. With the amount of issues were having at Michigan City, its a beautiful site out there, but it needs to be respected, Brown said. Theres current and wave action that could contribute to someone getting in trouble in the water, he said. Brown cited several other rescues in the same area this summer that have officials concerned. On July 10 a boy was pulled from the lake and revived, but remains hospitalized on life support. He said three people were pulled from the lake Saturday night. One of the three remains on life support and two others are going to be OK, Brown said. VALPARAISO The City Council chambers were abuzz Monday night when several local residents stated their case for allowing beehives in Valpo backyards. Local resident and businessman Walt Breitinger gave a presentation on honeybees, complete with an actual hive, stating that "all of our modern scientists are advocating that we change our environment to be more bee friendly." The city's current ordinance states that bees are only allowed on 5 or more acres of land and it has to be owned by an educational institution. Breitinger brought along beekeeper Annette Hanson, a local 4-H leader and teacher at Discovery Charter School in Chesterton. Hanson's 4-H'ers were interested in beekeeping, so to learn more about them, she attended the Northwest Indiana Beekeepers Association's free adult classes. Hanson brought along to the council meeting an observation hive filled with honeybees and explained how they are "more than just bees in a box." "Kids learn about the environment and grownups love it, too," she said. "It's very therapeutic, it calms people down. Backyard beekeeping is an answer to urban environments where these bees aren't active anymore." Hanson said most bee stings actually come from yellow jackets, wasps or hornets, while honeybees are "very docile." Hanson said there is about a $400 startup cost to have a beehive. "The numbers decrease as it goes along because year to year, if bees are successful you can maintain the hives that you have," she said. Councilman John Bowker said he is not against the concept of bees but just wants to make sure an ordinance would make sense. He stated allergy concerns among possible issues. Hanson suggested "neighborly communication" between residents when one wants to own a beehive. The ordinance might include the registration of the bees and requiring them to have a fresh water source, she said. Barb Kehe, who owns Ironwood Brewing in Valparaiso, was also at the meeting to express her support for the bees. She has hives at her Morgan Township residence and would like to keep a hive behind her brewery. Mayor Jon Costas said the council would work on exploring what a honeybee ordinance might look like. "We'll continue this process along," he said. Indiana and Illinois regional law enforcement are on a good-government roll lately that should have the attention of Northwest Indiana and its many municipal and county leaders. The most recent example comes courtesy of federal prosecutors in both Chicago and Hammond. Late last month, the U.S. attorneys for both the Northern District of Illinois and the Northern District of Indiana announced sweeping indictments of dozens of alleged Latin King street gang members. Nine Northwest Indiana residents were among the list of those charged with using violence to further the gangs operations. Building this case and winning these grand jury indictments took a cross-jurisdictional approach. In other words, government officials had to put aside the imaginary boundaries that divide states and communities and work in concert. Anyone who follows the federal court system knows the success rate U.S. attorneys have when they unite federal and local law enforcement to put away bad people. The process of obtaining federal grand jury indictments to charge alleged criminals requires thorough investigations. And once convicted of crimes, criminals do the lions share of their prescribed sentences without possibility for early release. The U.S. attorneys of both Region districts set aside boundaries, which street gangs refuse to respect, in the fight to get alleged violent criminals off our streets. Its the second shining example of law enforcement reaching across geographic lines for the good of our greater communities in recent weeks. Earlier in July, the Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart and Lake County Sheriff John Buncich publicly announced a continued growth in their bi-state efforts to target gun violence and gang activity. Weve said this in countless editorials: The only real growth of individual communities comes with shared responsibility and resources. Thanks to Illinois and Indiana federal prosecutors, we have yet another example to herald. T20 World Cup 2022 Points Table Update: The Latest Standings in Group 1 After Friday's Washout T20 World Cup 2022: All to Play For After Australia-England Washout in Melbourne Watch: Suryakumar Yadav Reacts After Ravi Shastri Calls Him a 'Three Format Player', Claims he Can Surprise in Test Cricket T20 World Cup, IND vs SA: Lance Klusener Reckons Outcome Will Depend on How Well Indian Batters Can Handle South African Pacers Advocates are calling on Mayor de Blasio to pave the way for a park in Brooklyn by using eminent domain. Elected officials and community leaders took to the steps of City Hall demanding the mayor force the owners of a CitiStorage site in Bushwick Inlet Park to leave. The city offered a $100 million deal in June to convert the warehouse site into the last piece of land that would complete the waterfront park in Williamsburg. But the private property's owner refused the offer and instead fielded other bids. "For 11 years the residents of Williamsburg and Greenpoint have been fighting for a park that they were promised," said Public Advocate Letitia James. "They were promised this park in exchange for a re-zoning that has given way to new developments and high rises in their neighborhoods." "The city gets a huge feather in their cap," said activist Steve Chesler. "They get affordable housing. They're dealing with infrastructure and transportation and now to put a jewel of the waterfront park in a neighborhood that's starving for open space." The city has been trying to finish the incomplete Bushwick Inlet Park since it struck a rezoning deal in 2005. We've reached out to the owner of CitiStorage for comment. Howard Beach residents met with police and community leaders Monday night, nearly a week after Karina Vetrano's murder. Hundreds packed Saint Helen's church Monday to get an update on the investigation into the 30-year-old's death. Police say they have assembled a task force to track down leads. They're also looking at surveillance cameras in the area and reviewing forensic evidence from the scene. Neighbors we spoke with say they're still stunned by the murder. "What I would hope to hear is that they got this horrible person who did this to this beautiful young woman, you know, and we live in the neighborhood and we're all coming together," said one resident. "It's just so sad it's for something like this someone's child." "This is just like devastating 'cause nothing ever like this really happened over here," said another. "You could see just by everyone showing up here today, what's going on. We're very concerned about it." The meeting took place at the same church where Vetrano's funeral was held over the weekend. She disappeared last Tuesday after she left her house to go for a run. Her father later found her body in a nearby marshland. Police say she was sexually assaulted and strangled. A $10,000 reward is being offered for information leading to an arrest. The NYPD is investigating a police involved shooting early Tuesday morning where investigators say the suspect got a hold of an officer's gun and killed someone before another cop shot the suspect. Michael Herzenberg has the story. Residents off the Grand Concourse say they heard gunfire and knew it wasn't July 4th fireworks so it had to be bad. "I just took cover in my apartment," said one neighbor. Many didn't realize what exactly happened until morning. "Oh my god that's very sad," said another. Police say it started in this bodega at East 198th Street after 1 a.m. Tuesday. That 30-year-old Efraim Guzman argued with employees and he stormed out to go to the bodega across Valentine Avenue. Sources tell NY1 that 49-year-old Wali Camara, a clerk from the first shop then went to warn those in the other store that Guzman was trouble, but workers there got into a brawl with Guzman and someone waved down this patrol vehicle. "As the officers were escorting Mr. Guzman out of the store, Mr. Guzman was able to grab a gun from out of one of the officers' holsters," said Assistant Chief Larry Nikunen. "The officers struggled with Mr. Guzman to regain control of his gun when the second officer fired three shots at Mr. Guzman striking him twice" But police say Guzman was able to almost empty the officer's service weapon, firing 15 rounds. And the cop who returned fire tried to shield employees, but one bullet struck and killed Camara someone customers knew well. "He was a hell of a nice guy," said one. "He didn't bother nobody. He just come home from work went to work minded his own business." Neighbors say the victim worked at the bodega and lived around the corner. "He was just trying to look out," said another. "I don't think he meant any harm or nothing." This woman says he was the father of two adult children and rented a room from her for more than a decade while working at the bodega. He's someone those on the block will miss. "He'll help anybody that's the kind of a guy he is." Guzman is hospitalized and said to be stable. He has a criminal record that includes robbery and assault. In one instance, he allegedly seriously injured someone with a bat. The reward for information leading to an arrest in connection with the death of a Queens jogger has doubled to $20,000. 30-year-old Karina Vetrano disappeared last Tuesday after going out for a run in Spring Creek Park near the Belt Parkway. Authorities say her father later discovered her body in a marshy area in Howard Beach. The NYPD says it has created a special task force to investigate leads and is reviewing surveillance video from businesses in the area. Forensic evidence from the crime scene is also being analyzed. Investigators say Vetrano was sexually assaulted, beaten and strangled. Anyone with information on the case should contact the Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS, or text CRIMES and then enter TIP577, or visit www.nypdcrimestoppers.com. The spark of rebellion, the kind that makes a man stand up and fight, has almost been extinguished in Walter Lee Younger. As portrayed by Denzel Washington in Kenny Leons disarmingly relaxed revival of Lorraine Hansberrys A Raisin in the Sun which opened on Thursday night at the Ethel Barrymore Theater Walter appears worn down, worn out and about ready to crawl into bed for good. Frankly, he looks a whole lot older than you probably remember him. Thats partly because, at 59, Mr. Washington, the much laureled movie star, is about a quarter of a century older than the character he is playing, at least as written. (This production bumps Walters age up to 40 from 35.) But its also because, as this production of Raisin makes clearer than any Ive seen before, Walter inhabits a world that ages men like him fast. Listen to how his mama, Lena (LaTanya Richardson Jackson), describes her late husbands existence: I seen him, night after night, come in, and look at that rug, and then look at me, the red showing in his eyes, the veins moving in his head. I seen him grow thin and old before he was 40, working and working like somebodys horse. In an effort to halt the advance of the oil industry in Colorado, environmental activists said they submitted enough signatures on Monday to place on Novembers ballot two initiatives aimed at severely limiting hydraulic fracturing. If either measure passes, it would represent the most serious political effort yet in the United States to stop hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, the technique used to blast through shale and other hard rocks with water, sand and chemicals to release oil and natural gas. One of the Colorado ballot initiatives would establish local control over oil and gas operations, including fracking, while the other would prohibit drilling and fracking in a buffer zone 2,500 feet around occupied buildings, waterways and open public spaces like parks. That could effectively prohibit new exploration and production in as much as 95 percent of the surface area of the states five top petroleum- and gas-producing counties, according to Colorado regulators. The Colorado secretary of states office has 30 days to authenticate the signatures, and challenges are considered probable. If the signatures hold up, oil industry officials say the contest should be a close, hard-fought battle. None of the people infected in Wynwood was related or had sexually transmitted the virus to each other. Some were part of a group of friends that hang out together, Dr. Petersen said, and two were housemates. Officials declined to say if either of the women was pregnant. The earliest infection in the group probably occurred in late June, meaning that Zika had been in Wynwood for at least a week longer than officials had previously known. This had been going on for practically a month, Dr. Petersen said, so you have to basically assume that theres ongoing transmission. Moreover, officials responsible for mosquito control reported in the last weekend of July that despite daily use of spraying, they were still seeing new larval mosquitoes and moderately high Aedes aegypti counts, said Dr. Thomas R. Frieden the director of the C.D.C., adding that the mosquitoes might be resistant to the insecticides being used, or simply hiding in pockets unreachable by backpack- and truck-spraying. Aggressive mosquito control measures dont seem to be working as well as we would like. On Friday, after aerial spraying with a different insecticide began in Wynwood, the mosquito numbers were coming down, Dr. Frieden said. The C.D.C. will likely keep its Wynwood warning in place for weeks, lifting it only when about 45 days have passed without a new case being diagnosed, or when mosquito counts decrease substantially, Dr. Petersen said. As of yesterday, the health department said it had tested 437 people in the square-mile active zone and identified only one additional case someone among the 26 close contacts of the two Wynwood workers. Wynwood is still the only area authorities consider an active local transmission zone. So far, a 10-block area in the northwest section of the square mile has been cleared, since no one there was found to be infected, Gov. Rick Scott of Florida said. But authorities expect more cases to be identified, some in Wynwood, some elsewhere. On Monday, they announced a 17th case: a person in Palm Beach County who had traveled to Miami-Dade. The de Blasio administration has good reason to want to protect mandatory inclusionary housing in New York, since it is expected to produce at least 12,000 below-market units of the 80,000 that the administration hopes to achieve over the next decade. Indeed, in less than six months, nearly 1,800 units of affordable housing have been proposed through the program, including vast city-sponsored developments in the Bronx, a 1,500-unit redevelopment of the St. Johns terminal building in Manhattan (25 percent of which would be affordable), and even a hotel in the Rockaways, Queens, where housing could be built if the property were flipped. So far, 38-42 West 18th Street, as the Adorama development is known, is not among them. Because the site is within the Ladies Mile Historic District, Acuity must build around the tenement and loft buildings, rather than demolish them. As an incentive for historic preservation, developers may seek permission to shift the air rights from older buildings to new ones. Acuity wants to build a pair of towers reaching 170 and 185 feet; under the current zoning, the shorter tower, which is also narrower, would be capped at 60 feet. Without the zoning permission, the developer could build only around 40 units. If Acuity were allowed to build its desired 62 apartments, some say it would qualify as a significant increase in residential floor area, which, as the new housing rules specify, is when they should take effect. I dont care if its two units or 10 units; we want every affordable unit we can get in Manhattan, said Gale A. Brewer, the Manhattan borough president. She said she was led to believe projects like this one would apply, and now it feels like a bait and switch. Ms. Brewer, a Democrat, argues that without special permits like this one prompting affordable housing requirements, there will continue to be a lack of new apartments for working- and middle-class New Yorkers in much of Manhattan. The gathering, in June 1984, was like many others involving recent graduates of Fordham Preparatory School, a Jesuit all-boys secondary school in the Bronx. It took place at a home in Westchester County, where many of Fordhams students lived. Most of those at the party drank and several ended up spending the night, according to a former Fordham Prep student, Michael Meenan. That night, Mr. Meenan said, a Fordham Prep teacher who had driven him to the party performed oral sex on him while he slept in a room along with others. When he woke up and pulled away, sliding beneath a coffee table, Mr. Meenan said, the teacher grabbed his leg and tried to drag him back. Mr. Meenan said that he had told the schools headmaster about the episode not long after it happened, but that it appeared no action was taken. The teacher remained on the faculty. Now, 32 years after the episode, Fordham Prep has acknowledged Mr. Meenans account of abuse as credible and said the teacher he accused would not return to the school. United States prosecutors asked a federal judge in New York on Monday to deny a motion by a Turkish gold trader to dismiss charges that he conspired to violate the United States sanctions on Iran. The trader, Reza Zarrab, 32, was arrested in March after he arrived in Florida with his family on a trip to Disney World and was sent to Manhattan to face charges. Mr. Zarrab, who was born in Iran and moved to Turkey as an infant, has been accused of facilitating millions of dollars in transactions on behalf of Iran and other sanctioned entities through the use of front companies and false documents. He is also charged with conspiracies to commit money laundering and bank fraud. Image Reza Zarrab in 2013. Credit... Ozan Kose/Agence France-Presse Getty Images Mr. Zarrabs lawyers, in court papers filed last month, called the governments case unprecedented, problematic and a prosecutorial overreach of the first order. They also argued that their client had entered the United States firmly believing that his Turkish-based business did not run afoul of U.S. law. TOWSON, Md. Two days into a long-dreamed-of family vacation to Italy in August 2013, my wife, Ronna, became nauseated, unusually tired and short of breath. One of the great non-complainers in American history, she insisted that it was no big deal and valiantly tried to join in on various outings in the Italian countryside. But, after a few increasingly difficult days, even Ronna knew that it was time to go to the emergency room. In a small hospital in Tuscany, doctors identified the apparent source of the problem: a pericardial effusion, or a buildup of fluid around the heart. Ronna was transferred to a larger medical center in Arezzo, where a pericardial tap was performed. Immediately afterward, in a scene that still plays on a loop in my minds eye, the hospitals chief of cardiology informed me that, while the fluid was gone, he was quite sure that Ronna had lung cancer. A few weeks later, when we were back home in Maryland, doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital confirmed his suspicion: My healthy, active, 48-year-old, never-smoker wife had Stage 4 non-small cell lung cancer. Over the next two years, Ronna underwent several rounds of grueling chemotherapy and, when the cancer spread to her brain, several rounds of radiation treatment. She also took part in a clinical trial at Johns Hopkins for Opdivo, an immunotherapy drug made by the pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb. Briefly stated, immunotherapy is a recently developed, highly promising treatment that helps a persons immune system identify and attack cancer cells. But it did not work for Ronna, and last Sept. 25 she died as her parents and I held her hands and whispered in her ear. On screen text: Norilsk, Russia. Pop. 177,000. 200 Miles above the Arctic Circle in Siberia. Interview with IRA There are no roads to Norilsk. We are in the far beyond. Its deadly beautiful. Interview with ARTIEM: 01.04 - 03.00 This is one of my favorite places. It opens up to a very beautiful view. I love that on one hand, if you look far enough, there are the untouched snowy steppes, and if you turn around there is a powerful contrast. The large industrial complex, a city in a snowy desert. Its awe-inspiring that all of this was created by the hands of men. Somehow, it touches me. Interview with IRA: 03.15 - 04.00 Despite the brutality, factories, pipes, smoke, when there is no sun in winter, this is all so beautiful. For us, this is a very native landscape. I dont know how to explain it but I want to photograph everything straight away. Interview with SASHA: 02.52 I dont like gas because it stinks, and its harmful. I start to cough, my head spins, and my stomach hurts. I with I could live somewhere else. Mine announcement - 04.01 On this positive note, we bid you farewell. May your life be filled with much good news. Take care and hope to see you again! Interview with KONSTANTIN, HEAD DOCTOR: 04.55 - 04.18 When clouds carry sulphur , acid rain is created. Its effect on plants is damaging and the dead trees clearly show the consequences of these emissions. However, these emissions have a significantly lesser effect on the health of humans because sulphur dioxide does not have an effect on the human body. Breathing in the gases may provoke a cough. Card 2 [Act Clever] Interview with KOSTYA: 05.24 I like plants because they make lots of oxygen. I wish I could have lots of plants. The trees used to be beautiful, but they became old. And there is less oxygen. Interview with VITALII: 06.25 In this city, plants are essential to me. I feel much better with them living here in Norilsk. And the worms turn the bad earth into good earth. Its impossible to live long here. Considering the effects of the gas and factory waste, how could it be otherwise. Interview with VITALII: 07.11 Norilsk Nickel feels like it owns the whole territory here so [people] are afraid to speak out against it. Card 03 07.25 [Norilsk Nickel] Card 04 - 07.34 [Norilsk Nickel] Vitalii cont - 07.40 We all know about it here, but nothing changes, no one protests. Interview with ARTIEM: 08.11 On the way to work, you look out of the bus window... What a darkness. It reminds me of cosmic moments. Its beautiful and its... Eternal. This is where I like to be. Interview with OLEG: 09.48 Im proud of having taken part in building this city, [although] people, roughly speaking, are sacrificing their health. This environment, this climate Minus 45 degrees Celsius, minus 50 degrees, we swim here. I love this city. Since the founding of the nation of South Sudan five years ago, its citizens have gone from a brief moment of exhilaration and promise to the cruel reality of tribal violence, depredation and despair. Their leaders have failed them, and so has the United Nations Security Council, which is once again scrambling for a solution to end rampant killing and other abuses. One move the Council could make immediately is to impose a long-overdue embargo on arms shipments, especially to the government forces that have been largely responsible for the bloodshed. The present crisis, in which at least 73 civilians have died, began last month when fighting broke out in Juba, the capital, ending the latest in a series of brief cease-fires in a civil war between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and those backing Riek Machar, the former vice president. The war first erupted in December 2013. Last week, an investigation by the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Zeid Raad al-Hussein, placed most of the blame for the violence, which it said included mass rapes, on Mr. Kiirs forces. Mr. Hussein said that while some civilians were killed in the crossfire, others were summarily executed by government forces who appear to have singled out members of the Nuer, an ethnic group loyal to Mr. Machar. The investigation also found that these same forces committed most of the 217 cases of sexual violence, many involving minors. The 13,000 United Nations peacekeeping troops and police officers in South Sudan have been ineffectual, unable even to protect civilians in United Nations-run refugee areas, called protection-of-civilian sites. During an attack in February on one of those sites in the northern city of Malakal, peacekeepers made major tactical errors that contributed to a massacre that claimed an estimated 30 lives and was planned or at least supported by government forces. Some of the peacekeepers at Malakal were found to have retreated from their posts or waited for written instructions from headquarters before acting to protect the civilians. LA CROSSE, Wis. When my daughter, Carri Leigh Goodwin, joined the Marine Corps in July 2007, she was a shy, quiet 18-year-old who loved reading and writing poetry. She joined the Marines to make me proud Im a former Marine and to her surprise, she turned out to be good with a gun. She came home in February 2009 and was a ticking time bomb. The bomb went off after five days, when she died of acute alcohol poisoning on a freezing Ohio night. Afterward I looked at Carris diaries, trying to make sense of what happened. I learned from her writing and from talking to others that she had been raped twice in her short time in the Marines first by a recruiter and later by a senior Marine who beat, raped and sodomized her after ordering her to report to him after work. After she told the authorities about the second rape, her peers and her supervisor isolated and abused her, adding to her trauma. Her rapist sent her text messages telling her he had given her AIDS. To cope with her assault and its aftermath, she started to drink heavily. She received treatment for alcoholism, post-traumatic stress disorder and an attempted suicide. But eventually Carri was kicked out of the service with an under other-than-honorable conditions discharge for misconduct, including absence without leave, failure to obey orders and reporting for duty under the influence of alcohol. Helen Delich Bentley, a former Maryland congresswoman who was an expert on the maritime industry and a staunch advocate for port improvements so much so that the Port of Baltimore was named in her honor in 2006 died on Saturday at her home in Timonium, Md. She was 92. Key Kidder, a family spokesman, said the cause was brain cancer. Gov. Larry Hogan ordered state flags flown at half-staff in her honor. Mrs. Bentley, a Republican, served in the House of Representatives from 1985 to 1995. She was known for a tenacious and gruff political style that produced results, especially when it came to her beloved Port of Baltimore. By the end of her first term, she had helped pass a bill allowing a 50-foot channel to be dredged into the Baltimore port, making it the only East Coast port with that distinction. The port was named in her honor in 2006 on its 300th anniversary. BUENOS AIRES A federal judge in Argentina has ordered the reopening of a criminal complaint against former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner in which she had been accused of conspiring to derail an investigation into the bombing of a Jewish center here in 1994 in which 85 people were killed. The judge, Claudio Bonadio, is reviving a complaint brought by Alberto Nisman, a federal prosecutor who died last year in mysterious circumstances, as he proceeds with a related inquiry into one of Mrs. Kirchners political allies. Judge Bonadio made the decision on Friday, but it was not made public until Monday. According to a copy of his filing, he told a colleague, Judge Daniel Rafecas, to send him Mr. Nismans 289-page complaint so he could investigate accusations against Hector Timerman, a former foreign minister under Mrs. Kirchner. Judge Rafecas originally oversaw Mr. Nismans complaint, and has emphatically dismissed it three times, most recently last week. XALTEPEC, Mexico When the rain came harder than anyone in this mountain village could remember, Teofila Perez Francisco and her relatives gathered on the second floor of her fathers house, thinking they would be safe there. It was late Saturday night and the dirt roads outside had turned into streams. But those streams quickly became rivers that then suddenly became a mudslide, and Ms. Perez, 38, and her relatives had to fight for their lives. Ms. Perez managed to escape to higher ground with much of her family, but two of her young daughters died, along with at least five other relatives. We didnt think the river would grow, she said on Monday, looking exhausted as she stood in the rubble of her fathers house, in the place where she had last seen her children alive. The water didnt give us time. At least 44 people died over the weekend in landslides in the Mexican states of Puebla and Veracruz amid torrential rainstorms from Tropical Storm Earl, officials said. Some places were drenched with the equivalent of a months worth of rain in five hours, officials said. At least 32 deaths occurred in Puebla, Gov. Rafael Moreno Valle Rosas reported. When President Xi Jinping of China visited President Obama at the White House last September, he startled many with reassuring words about his intentions for the Spratly Islands, a contested area where the Chinese government has been piling dredged sand and concrete atop reefs for the past few years and building housing and runways on them. China does not intend to pursue militarization, Mr. Xi said, referring to the area as the Nansha Islands, a Chinese name for what most of the rest of the world calls the Spratlys in the South China Sea. The most recent satellite photographs suggest a different plan. The photos, collected and scrutinized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based research organization, show the construction of what appear to be reinforced aircraft hangars at Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief Reefs, all part of the disputed territories. There were no military aircraft seen at the time the photos were taken. But a summary of the centers analysis suggests that the hangars on all three islets have room for any fighter-jet in the Peoples Liberation Army Air Force. VAIL, Colo. In quantity and quality, the lineup of world-class dancers who perform at the Vail International Dance Festival is as awe-inspiring as this towns alpine scenery. But choreographers on the same level are a rarer species. During much of the Now: Premieres program on Monday, an evening of mostly new works, living choreographers were overshadowed by the dead. One premiere was actually a revival: an excerpt from Jerome Robbinss 1973 An Evenings Waltzes, reconstructed from a silent film. Set to Prokofievs Mephisto Waltz, the excerpt is a duet that alternates between kick-up-your-heels brio and slower, deeper romance. Danced beautifully by the New York City Ballet principals Robert Fairchild and Tiler Peck, it came across less as a lost masterpiece than as a fragment recognizably made by a master, a series of motions that seemed no more and no less than the music calls for. Liquid Velvet, a premiere by Jodie Gates, aimed for a similar ballet romance. But lacking Robbinss naturalness, it remained standard, fluent yet forgettable, even as performed with elegance and warmth by Carla Korbes and Jared Angle. Another contrast arose between VIDF MinEvent in which the former Merce Cunningham dancers Rashaun Mitchell, Silas Riener and Melissa Toogood presented a novel rearrangement of Cunningham choreography and Mr. Mitchell and Mr. Rieners new Romance Study #4. When performing Cunninghams nonlinear yet lucid complexities, the dancers appeared alert, intelligent; in their own piece, in which entangling couples kept breaking off from a group, those qualities were clouded by preciousness. It was the Lucy that nobody loved. A statue of Lucille Ball in her western New York hometown, which was widely mocked last year after it was called Scary Lucy by unhappy fans who said it bore little resemblance to the comedy icon, was replaced over the weekend. The replacement statue, referred to as New Lucy by its creator, Carolyn Palmer, was unveiled at a ceremony in Celoron, N.Y., on Saturday, on what would have been the comedians 105th birthday. It is a more lifelike representation of the I Love Lucy star than its predecessor, a grimacing, glaring hulk that would be unrecognizable were it not for a bottle of Vitameatavegamin in her hand. The response to the new statue has been enthusiastic. Lucy fans are all hugging me and saying, Thank you, Ms. Palmer said. Theyre all very passionate about Lucy. They feel somehow that she was desecrated before. They see her as a Hollywood icon, a god. I was glad they felt she had been honored. ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. When the news broke a few weeks ago that the family of Luciano Pavarotti had asked Donald J. Trump to stop playing that tenors recording of the aria Nessun dorma, from Giacomo Puccinis opera Turandot, at campaign rallies, Ill admit, I was befuddled: Wait ... Donald Trump listens to opera? Putting aside for the moment the obvious possibility that the lyrics attracted Mr. Trumps campaign to the piece the final word of which is vincero (I will win) there might be a more subtle explanation. Perhaps what the campaign was embracing was not opera, per se, but Puccini, and Puccini alone. After all, for many people, the two are synonymous. This years Bard Music Festival, two weekends of performances and discussion at Bard College here, is devoted to Puccini and His World. The first programs, last weekend, focused on the contrasts between Puccini and contemporaries like Pietro Mascagni and Alfredo Catalani. Composers abounded during the verismo era of Italian opera, from around 1890 to 1920, but none achieved the enormous international success of Puccini, who remains arguably the worlds most popular opera composer. How did Puccini become identified, for so many, with opera itself? He was a superb melodist and had a knack for emotionally compelling stories. But his seemingly universal appeal may be his gift for making the music seem to spring to life unmediated. Its like Steve Jobss dream of a perfect operating system: always running in the background, but never impinging on the user experience. HARBIN, China In winter, tourists flock to Harbin, in northeastern China, for its world-renowned ice sculpture festival. But with summer in full bloom, this city is working overtime on behalf of a less publicized part of its heritage: classical music. The arts and especially classical music flourished here throughout the early 20th century. Nicknamed the St. Petersburg of the East, Harbin was home to a thriving Jewish community that helped build a rich cultural scene, including Chinas first symphony orchestra, made up of mostly Russian musicians. Harbin is a modern city that has a deep tradition of music, Liu Shifa, the citys deputy mayor, said recently in an interview. We want to rejuvenate this tradition so we can bring it to the next level. On Saturday, the annual Harbin Summer Music Festival began its 33rd edition, which will continue until Aug. 20. This summer the city has also hosted the third Alice & Eleonore Schoenfeld International String Competition and two concerts conducted by Zubin Mehta, featuring the Harbin Symphony Orchestra and 15 members of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. The festival lineup includes the a cappella group Ball in the House from Boston, the Kodaly Quartet from Hungary and the Yinhe Siqin Mongolia Original Music Band. Jay McInerney has now written three novels about Corrine and Russell Calloway, a couple who met in their teens at Brown University and arrived in the 1980s on the Upper East Side of New York, thrumming with ambition yet also pre-bored. (From the first book: Corrine was getting so tired of parties: dinner parties, birthday parties, pre-publication parties, housewarming parties; holiday and theme and opening-night parties, closing-night parties.) He followed them through the crisis of 9/11. And now he is back to watch them reach 50 and hit amplified fiscal, marital and existential crises. The three books are called Brightness Falls, The Good Life and Bright, Precious Days. Its interesting to realize how easily interchangeable those titles are. This trilogy (so far) has no real trajectory other than lifes own. And Corrine and Russell have not so much grown as just grown older. So they have dealt with limited success and (mostly his) boundless schadenfreude. They have tested their marriage vows to and beyond the breaking point. They have experienced brightness in all its many forms: as a thrill, a prompt for nostalgia, a forerunner of loss and a cause for dread. Corrine and Russell always divided the world into teams: Art and Love vs. Power and Money. And they always saw themselves as playing for the angels in this matchup. By now, at 61, Mr. McInerney has certainly earned his place on the Artists starting team, and yet its never quite clear how detached he is when he starts inhabiting Russells memory or recapitulating a pretentious young mans hero-worshiping fatuousness. Its not only Russell, but also the young Mr. McInerney, who rhapsodizes at the beginning of the new book, Bright, Precious Days, about a time when young men and women came to New York, because it was the place from which the books and magazines emanated, home of all the publishers, the address of The New Yorker and The Paris Review, where Hemingway had punched OHara and Ginsberg seduced Kerouac, Hellman sued McCarthy and Mailer had punched everybody, where... and so on. It is official. The American Bar Association says it is professional misconduct to discriminate against or harass opposing counsel, or anyone else for that matter, in the course of practicing law. The ethics rule now forbids comments or actions that single out someone on the basis of race, religion, sex, disability and other factors. Nearly two dozen state bars and the District of Columbia bar have similar rules. But there has been no national prohibition of such behavior, which, many female lawyers complain, results in too many honeys, darlings and other sexist remarks and gestures toward them while they are trying to practice their profession. Without a flat prohibition, advocates of the rule said, using demeaning and misogynistic terms and actions to undermine opposing counsel and others too often does not have consequences. The second is the 35-year-old Julius Malema, a former enfant terrible of the A.N.C. who now leads the Economic Freedom Fighters, a radical populist party appealing to the very poor with policies of public ownership and land redistribution. Only three years old, Mr. Malemas party gained 8.2 percent of the vote nationally; today it can play the role of kingmaker in the three Gauteng cities including Johannesburg, where no party won a majority. Both leaders, having campaigned hard against corruption, have vowed not to enter into a coalition with a Zuma-led A.N.C. Over the next feverish days, these two opposing forces will therefore have to find common ground in order to claim control of Gautengs cities. Although the idea of the Democratic Alliance and the Economic Freedom Fighters governing South Africas cities together still seems implausible, the possibility that one of them may one day govern the entire country is no longer inconceivable. Things are all up in the air as they havent been since the end of apartheid. Meanwhile, the A.N.C. will try to keep control of the cities by wooing one of these two opposition parties, or some smaller groups, into a coalition. But even if it succeeds, it will remain seriously wounded, and by its own hand. Mr. Zuma has frequently scorned the clever blacks his phrase who criticize him. He has slyly shifted the party base away from its combative urban roots to rural fiefs that are easier to control. That strategy might consolidate the rule of a patriarchal traditionalist like him, but it blindly ignores South Africas demographic trends: The country is already 65 percent urban, one of the highest ratios in Africa. Incubated in South Africas cities, the A.N.C. has long been the continents progressive flagship, and some have lamented the way it has, in less than a generation, become a backwoods party similar to Robert Mugabes Zanu-P.F. across the border in Zimbabwe. Mr. Zumas A.N.C. simply no longer speaks to enough urban South Africans to ensure that it remains in power. Many women, in particular, loathe the president for his unsavory personal life. Besides blithely accumulating wives and sexual partners, he had, by his own admission, unprotected sex with a young ward; she subsequently accused him of rape (he was acquitted of charges). While some black voters defected to the two opposition parties, the greater number of those who abandoned the A.N.C. in urban areas did so simply by not coming out to vote. The elections outcome was largely determined by protest voters who have yet to find another political home. They may return to the party, particularly if it dumps Mr. Zuma and reinvigorates itself. But if he remains in office until the end of his term in 2019, as he seems set to do, the A.N.C. will continue to hemorrhage support. If current trends prevail, the A.N.C. could be out of power in the next decade. Just one generation after Nelson Mandelas 1994 election, South Africas democracy has entered an exhilarating but nerve-racking political adolescence. The A.N.C.s electoral humiliation heralds an important new era in South African politics, one in which the messy realities of competitive multiparty democracy may well replace the ossification that sets in when a liberation movement becomes a de facto postcolonial one-party state. It says a lot about Japans constitutional monarchy that Emperor Akihito, 82 and in failing health, would be stepping out of bounds if he were to say he wanted to retire. Under the Constitution laid down by the victorious United States after World War II, the emperors role is strictly restricted to being the symbol of the state and of the unity of the people, and since the law says the monarch rules until he dies, to utter words like abdicate or even retire would be seen as a forbidden sortie into politics. Yet in a televised address on Monday remarkable for its circumlocution, the emperor was clear about what he couldnt say. And if it wasnt clear, well say it for him: Hed really, really like to retire. Why this is so difficult for him to say or do is rooted in Japanese history and identity. More curious is why such news would seem so intriguing. At least part of the explanation lies in the endurance of monarchies around the world, even when most of the worlds 27 or so crowned heads hold largely ceremonial roles. The rulers of Saudi Arabia, Oman and Swaziland are about the only ones left with absolute power. Perhaps that very absence of political power contributes to the allure of royalty. This disconnection allows them to personify a nations history and identity without the divisive taint of politics, which is something republican heads of state, even largely ceremonial ones, cannot do. Even in this rarefied strata of humanity, Japanese emperors stand apart. Their monarchy is by far the oldest on the planet, stretching 2,600 years back into the foggy realm of legend. Emperor Akihito is officially the 125th in an unbroken line of monarchs; when he was born in 1933, his father, Emperor Hirohito, was still regarded as a Shinto deity a role Hirohito renounced after defeat in World War II. The imperial family also ranks as the most guarded and controlled of royal clans. Whatever one thinks of the activities of groups like the I.R.A. or the P.L.O., those activities were governed by certain norms and contained a rational kernel. It is the arbitrariness of jihadist violence and its disregard for moral bounds that make it terrifying. What defines jihadist violence today is not righteous anger or political fury but a sense of inchoate, often personal, rage. Such rage is not uniquely Islamist. When a gunman of Iranian origin went berserk in a Munich shopping mall last month, it was immediately assumed that he was an Islamist terrorist. The man, Ali David Sonboly, might have been a terrorist, but he was no Islamist. He was apparently a mentally disturbed young man proud of sharing his birthday with Hitler and obsessed with mass shootings and in particular with Anders Breivik, the Norwegian neo-Nazi who killed 77 people in 2011. Mr. Sonboly is not unique in being a non-Islamist killer driven by rage. In June, a British member of Parliament, Jo Cox, was shot and stabbed to death in the Yorkshire town of Birstall while campaigning ahead of the referendum on Britains membership in the European Union. When asked his name in court, the man accused of killing her, Thomas Mair, responded, My name is death to traitors, freedom for Britain. A year earlier, Dylann Roof, a 21-year-old American obsessed with white supremacist ideas, shot dead nine African-American worshipers in a church in Charleston, S.C. Last month, Micah Xavier Johnson, an African-American Army veteran, fatally shot five police officers in Dallas, apparently in revenge for police shootings of black people. Neither the attack in London nor the one near Stuttgart was politically driven; both seem rather the actions of mentally disturbed individuals. Some people, however, refused to believe that they were not jihadist attacks, warning darkly of a conspiracy to hide the truth. This may be irrational, but it also reflects the shifting character of public violence. We may be in the clear when it comes to heat domes, but its still really hot. More than half of the country has had temperatures in the 90s in the last week, prompting many people to find relief in the cool, crisp breeze of an air-conditioner. But in the next few years, the way air-conditioners work could change. Last month, representatives from nearly 200 countries worked on a new environment agreement to regulate the use of HFCs, or hydrofluorocarbons. These chemical compounds are responsible for keeping you cool on hot summer days, in air-conditioners and refrigerators. And even though you might not have heard of them, environmentalists, government officials and scientists say an agreement to limit HFCs represents a significant step in the fight to stave off the worst effects of global warming. Thats because like other greenhouse gases, HFCs contribute to global warming. But mostly, theyre not coming from your air-conditioner, though air-conditioning poses other environmental problems. So were here to answer some questions you might have about HFCs, air-conditioning and this new treaty. Is my air-conditioner causing global warming? Its complicated. HFCs represent a small portion of total greenhouse gas emissions, but they trap thousands of times as much heat in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. If they had gone ahead and done the surgery right away, said Ms. Jones, 49, who is black, then I may have been able to go back to work. Ms. Lewis, the former dollar store employee, said the best balm for her pain had been 10 weeks of group cognitive behavioral therapy, which aims to help people change how they think about pain. The therapy was part of a study of low-income patients led by Beverly E. Thorn, a University of Alabama psychology professor, to see how the therapy relieved pain compared with only medical treatment. The participants were patients at Whatley, a partner in the study, and about 70 percent were black. According to Dr. Thorns preliminary findings, the group that received cognitive behavioral therapy had significantly less pain and fewer depressive symptoms afterward than a control group that got medical treatment. Its about triggering your brain to go to something else, other than the pain, Ms. Lewis said. But the study ended last year, and Ms. Lewiss pain remains so bad that she often relies on a cane borrowed from her aunt, dragging her right leg behind her. She recently learned that she qualified for Medicaid because she had no steady income and was caring for a teenage son. With insurance, she was finally able to start physical therapy last month. I feel proud of myself that I finally got something to go for, she said, instead of complaining and complaining about the pain, not being able to do something about it. CHICAGO Rod R. Blagojevich, a former governor of Illinois, sat in a federal prison in Colorado on Tuesday as his image streamed into a courtroom in Chicago. His famous mane of Elvis-like dark hair has gone white. He squirmed, studied his cuticles and wiped away tears. And he pleaded with a federal judge via the live video feed to reduce his sentence for corruption charges and let him go home to his family. The judge had a swift response: No. In his first public appearance in more than four years, Mr. Blagojevich, 59, told Judge James B. Zagel of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, and a courtroom of onlookers that he was sorry for his actions in a vast racketeering scheme that included trying to sell or trade the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama in 2009. In July 2015, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals ruled that five of Mr. Blagojevichs 18 convictions were invalid on technical grounds, and his family and allies had hoped that Judge Zagel would shave years off his prison sentence, which was handed out in 2011 What came to me is something I brought on myself, Mr. Blagojevich said. I recognize that my words and actions have led me here. The Justice Department has found that the Baltimore Police Department for years has hounded black residents who make up most of the citys population, systematically stopping, searching and arresting them, often with little provocation or rationale. In a blistering report, coming more than a year after Baltimore erupted into riots over the police-involved death of a 25-year-old black man, Freddie Gray, the Justice Department is sharply critical of policies that encouraged police officers to charge black residents with minor crimes. A copy of the report was obtained by The New York Times. The critique is the latest example of the Obama administrations aggressive push for police reforms in cities where young African-American men have died at the hands of law enforcement. The findings, to be released Wednesday, are the first formal step toward the Justice Departments reaching a settlement with Baltimore known as a consent decree in which police practices would be overhauled under the oversight of a federal judge. The department started the inquiry at the invitation of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. After Congress failed to approve more visas in the House and Senate defense bills, a bipartisan group of senators tried again last month with a compromise that would have added 2,500 visas only to be blocked by Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, who said his quarrel was not with the visa program but rather with the fact that it was getting a vote while one of his own, unrelated measures was not. Mr. McCain responded by accusing Mr. Lee of signing the death warrants of people who had put their lives on the line to help the United States. How Times reporters cover politics. We rely on our journalists to be independent observers. So while Times staff members may vote, they are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. This includes participating in marches or rallies in support of a movement or giving money to, or raising money for, any political candidate or election cause. Learn more about our process. Mr. Stanikzai would agree. Now 24, he first applied in 2013 for one of the visas, writing to American officials later that year that an imam had warned his father that his son must stop working for the Americans or be killed. He then described how he came under fire as he drove home from his mosque, his car hit by three rounds from an AK-47, he said. If the Taliban find him or any of the Afghans hoping the United States will grant them visas they will kill us, he said in an interview. Yet with neither the House nor the Senate approving more visas in their competing defense policy bills, lawmakers hashing out a compromise this fall may be unlikely to step in. Much of the resistance seems to stem from a growing discomfort with immigrants, said Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat of New Hampshire and one of the visa programs most active supporters. One Republican counterproposal this year would have offset each special visa by deducting one green-card visa from the 50,000 allocated every year to ordinary immigrants. What that said to me is that the issue here is not really the special immigrant visas for our interpreters, she said. It was, How do we keep from allowing more people into the United States? WASHINGTON The Obama administration is moving forward with a plan to better track killings by police officers, as heightened national scrutiny of such deaths has reinforced criticism of its reliance on self-reporting by state and local law enforcement agencies. In a notice published in the Federal Register this week, the Justice Department said it would ask law enforcement agencies and medical examiners offices to fill out forms when there is a news report or another indication that a person died while in police custody. Under the proposed system, which would cover 19,450 state and local law enforcement agencies and about 685 medical examiners or coroners offices, they would also be asked to fill out forms about the total number of such cases every three months. The departments Bureau of Justice Statistics would then compile that information. The proposal comes as police killings of African-Americans have fueled protests in recent years in places like Ferguson, Mo., and Baltimore, and led to the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. The resulting scrutiny of the issue has focused attention on the lack of reliable and comprehensive data about how many people are killed by the police each year. SALT LAKE CITY Donald J. Trump has vowed to turn blue states red in November, but as he continues to rattle Republicans with his combative style and provocative proposals, voters in some of the countrys most conservative strongholds are considering a radical idea: supporting Hillary Clinton. The dilemma posed by this years choice of candidates is perhaps most apparent here in Utah, a mountain state that has not backed a Democrat for president since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. More than 50 years later, a large Mormon population with a strong distaste for Mr. Trump has left the state up for grabs, and with a substantial Mormon presence spilling into places such as Arizona, Idaho and Nevada, what would normally be a Republican safe zone could be surprisingly competitive. With the Clinton campaign looking to put Republican-leaning states in play, the decision for many Mormon voters in Utah has become agonizing as they digest Mr. Trumps stances toward Muslims in light of their own history as an oft-maligned religion, and as his America First message repels well-educated Mormons who travel the world on missions and who welcome refugees. People who normally vote Republican are in a terrible state of ambivalence right now, said Tim Chambless, a political scientist at the University of Utah. They are so undecided. They want to vote, but they arent sure how to vote. Hillary Clinton may be surging in national polls, but in the key swing states of Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, Donald J. Trump remains in striking distance. According to a group of surveys of likely voters released on Tuesday by Quinnipiac University, Mrs. Clinton holds a one percentage point lead in Florida, a four-point lead in Ohio and a 10-point lead in Pennsylvania over Mr. Trump. The polls, which had a margin of error of plus-or-minus three percentage points, are slightly closer when Gary Johnson and Jill Stein, the Libertarian and Green Party nominees, are included. Since 1960, no presidential candidate has won the White House without winning two of the three states. The poll results offer Mr. Trump, the Republican nominee, a ray of hope after more than a week of turmoil in his campaign. Although Mrs. Clinton still holds an advantage in the states, it is not her popularity with voters that is keeping her afloat. It is even deeper concern about Mr. Trump, the polls suggest. Memo to those wondering if Speaker Paul D. Ryan could be the next politician on the precipice of an embarrassing primary defeat to a no-name challenger: Dont bet on it. Mr. Ryan is favored to win on Tuesday when Wisconsin votes in its congressional primaries, and veteran political analysts do not expect it will even be close. Still, the race has been anything but pleasant for Mr. Ryan, who had hoped to spend August defending the Republican majority in the House. Instead, he has had to spend money on television advertisements in his race and has faced a barrage of questions since Donald J. Trump said last week that he was not ready to endorse Mr. Ryan and praised his opponent, Paul Nehlen. Mr. Trump took steps to mend that relationship on Friday, belatedly endorsing Mr. Ryan and calling him a good man, but not before his initial hesitancy drew national news media attention to Mr. Nehlen. BEIJING To Germans, he was the mysterious refugee who wasnt, a 30-year-old man from Jilin Province in China who somehow got mistaken for a refugee and was swept up into Germanys vast processing system for two weeks. That fate befell him even after German officials discovered with the aid of a local Chinese restaurant worker and a translation app that the man was not applying for asylum, but instead hoped to roam Europe as a tourist. On social media on Tuesday, Chinese commenters highlighted what they viewed as either the courage or the naivete of their fellow citizen, who apparently traveled alone to Europe speaking only Mandarin. Others felt that the man, still unidentified, secretly intended to emigrate. The mans odyssey apparently began at the Stuttgart airport on July 4. There, said Christoph Schlutermann, the German Red Cross official who eventually unraveled the mystery, he had been robbed of his wallet. He turned to airport police officers for help, but with the language barrier they evidently mistook him for someone seeking asylum, Mr. Schlutermann said. NEW DELHI By licking a dab of honey from her palm, one of Indias most prominent activists ended a nearly 16-year hunger strike on Tuesday as she pledged to run for political office in her restive home state of Manipur. The activist, Irom Chanu Sharmila, was held for years in judicial custody, refusing to eat in protest of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act of 1958, a law that shields members of the military from prosecution in conflict-ridden parts of India. A judge granted her bail on Tuesday after she said she intended to end her strike, releasing her from the hospital where she had been force-fed through a tube in her nose to keep her alive. Politics is so dirty and everybody knows it, she told reporters at a news conference in Imphal, the state capital. I dont think its a question at all that our relationship with Turkey would be weakened at all by this, Ms. Trudeau added. She said she had no update on Turkeys request for the United States to extradite Mr. Gulen, a legal, technical process about which American officials have been in direct contact with the Turkish authorities. The administration, Ms. Trudeau said, feels anti-American rhetoric is unhelpful to the United States relationship with Turkey. We believe our relations and our partnership and our friendship with Turkey is strong, she said. As for Russia and Turkey, Syria remains a major potential fault line, despite the pledges to work together. Mr. Putin noted that the views of the two sides do not always coincide when it comes to Turkeys southern neighbor. Mr. Erdogan is a bitter enemy of Syrias president, Bashar al-Assad, and has insisted that he step down before peace negotiations can begin. Russia, though, is a longtime ally of Mr. Assads, and it intervened with Iran in the Syrian conflict to bolster his fortunes. Yet the Kremlin also signaled on Tuesday that it was in Syria to stay. Mr. Putin called on Russias Parliament to approve an extended deployment of the Russian Air Force at Khmeimim Air Base outside Latakia, Syria, where its planes have flown sorties for almost a year to bolster Mr. Assad. Parliamentary approval is virtually guaranteed. This is a demonstration that Russia has come to Syria for a very long time, said Aleksandr M. Golts, a Russian military analyst. This is a demonstration that it will support Assad and that it is ready to tie itself to a regime that is involved in a bloody civil war. Russia would like Turkey to seal its borders and stem the flow of fighters and weapons to the insurgents, and to reverse its demand that Mr. Assad must go. Ankara wants Moscow to stop bombing its insurgent allies; to lessen support for the Kurds; and to halt the bombing of civilian populations, which drives refugees into Turkey. As a possible sign of good will, a major Kurdish representative office closed in Moscow on Sunday, although the local representative said it was because of rent costs rather than politics. The great Tuscan reformer, Leopold II, did unite many towns; its essential to finally do more, said Enrico Rossi, president of the Tuscany region, referring to the grand duke of Tuscany in the mid-19th century. Its a process that we are encouraging from the bottom, from municipalities, but also needs to come more powerfully from above, from Parliament. People in our countryside deserve better services. While 2,489 towns now share services in Italy, only 202 have decided to merge formally into new municipalities. Some regions, like the island of Sardinia, have created large administrative areas, gathering various villages together. Others, like Piedmont in the north, which has many small villages scattered around its hills and mountains, have maintained traditional boundaries. The issue is significant in a country where more than 10 million Italians live in small towns, and more than half of the territory is controlled by local administrators, according to a recent study by the National Association of Italian Municipalities. The problem is not the number of municipalities, said Daniele Formiconi, who runs the associations small cities department. The challenge is how to organize the governance of a modern, functional local administration, to share resources in order to save taxpayers money and go beyond the small-town mentality. The residents of Montalcino and San Giovanni dAsso will have to decide soon whether it is better to keep going it alone or to join forces. I hear some older people who do not like the idea of merging with Montalcino, of losing some powers, but I see this change as a good thing, said Paola Cerretani, 60, a San Giovanni dAsso resident who used to drive about 30 miles a day to go to work because she did not want to leave her hometown. Montalcino will give us more visibility, she said. I fear more the alternative that we will eventually disappear. JERUSALEM Israeli prosecutors on Tuesday charged a Palestinian employee of the United Nations in the Gaza Strip with providing material assistance to Hamas, the Islamist group that controls the territory, including helping to build a jetty for its military wing. The accusations against the employee, Waheed Al Bursh, came after Israel leveled charges Thursday against a Palestinian employee of World Vision in Gaza, saying he had funneled millions of dollars to Hamas. Mr. Bursh, an engineer with the United Nations Development Program since 2003, was detained on July 3 by Israels internal security agency, the Shin Bet. Israeli news organizations reported that he had confessed to being instructed by Hamas officials to use his position to benefit the group. But Mr. Burshs relatives in Gaza insisted he was not involved with Hamas. The United Nations agency, which is helping rebuild thousands of homes and other buildings destroyed by airstrikes in Israels 2014 summer-long conflict with Gazas militant groups, said in a statement that it was greatly concerned about the allegations, had zero tolerance for wrongdoing and would cooperate fully with the Israeli authorities. SANA, Yemen The military coalition led by Saudi Arabia significantly stepped up its bombing campaign in Yemen on Tuesday, striking the capital, Sana, and killing 21 people across the country, most of them civilians, according to medical and security officials in three provinces. Health ministry officials in Sana said the dead included 10 civilians, all employees of a potato chip factory, with 13 others wounded at the factory in the al-Nahda neighborhood. The international airport in Sana was shut by the airstrikes after Saudi coalition officials notified airlines that incoming flights would be barred for 72 hours, said Khalid al-Shayef, the airport director. It was the first time in five months that Sana was bombed by warplanes from the coalition, which also includes the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt, Sudan and other Middle East countries. It came after peace talks collapsed on Saturday between the Houthi militias that dominate the capital and the largely exiled government of President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, which is backed by the coalition and Western powers. Saudi Arabia intervened after the Houthis seized power, prompting Mr. Hadi to flee the capital. The Saudis accuse the Houthis of working on behalf of their archrival, Iran. An aircraft carrier can be a very handy tool, especially when trouble flares up far from a friendly military base. Just ask the Pentagon, which has 10 big Nimitz-class supercarriers that it uses around the world to protect air and sea lanes and to mount airstrikes. Theres generally at least one of them stationed near the Middle East at all times. So, as other countries join in military action against extremists in the worlds hot spots, cant they send their own carriers into action? Well, they could if they had any. But, aside from the 10 American giants, theres currently only one big carrier in the whole world that can handle such a job and it doesnt belong to Britain, Russia or even China. Its the Charles de Gaulle, the flagship and pride of the French Navy, and its been sent several times to join the fight against the Islamic State in Syria and in Libya. The carriers strike group performed so well in pounding the militants in the region that the United States Navy awarded it a Meritorious Unit Commendation in June. And President Francois Hollande of France announced on July 13 that the Charles de Gaulle would be redeployed to the Middle East this fall. The complaints allege that the universities, as the plan sponsors, failed to monitor excessive fees paid to administer the plans and did not replace more expensive, poor-performing investments with cheaper ones. Had the plans eliminated their long lists of investment options and used their bargaining power to cut costs, the complaints argue, participants could have collectively saved tens of millions of dollars. It is important for retirees and employees of universities to have the same rights and ability to build their retirement assets as employees of for-profit companies, said Mr. Schlichter, a founding partner of Schlichter Bogard & Denton in St. Louis. They shouldnt be penalized. In a statement, New York University said that it took the welfare of its faculty and employees seriously, including a dignified retirement. The retirement plans offered to them are chosen and administered carefully and prudently. We will litigate this case vigorously and expect to prevail, said John Beckman, a university spokesman. A spokeswoman for M.I.T. said it did not comment on pending litigation, while Yale said it was cautious and careful in administering its plans and would defend itself vigorously. More attention is being paid to investment costs shouldered by American workers, who are less likely today to have pension plans. With the strong support of the Obama administration, the Labor Department introduced new rules in April to strengthen investor protections, requiring a broader group of financial professionals to act in customers best interest when handling their retirement money. The aim is to reduce conflicts of interest and the fees consumers pay. LONDON The ball gown, cinched at the waist with capped sleeves and a heart-shaped neckline, practically glows thanks to the multitude of pearls, crystals and sequins embroidered using gold and silver silk threads onto the ivory duchesse satin over eight painstaking months. A step closer, and it becomes apparent that the embellishments trace a gleaming outline of English roses, Scottish thistles, Welsh leeks and Irish shamrocks on the fold on the stiff skirt where they mingle with Canadian maple leaves, New Zealand silver ferns, Australian wattles and South African protea. Forget a trouser suit or sky-high stiletto. Female leaders in search of a sartorial model need look no further than this gown: power dressing at its most literal. It was wearing this dress, with her nations history stitched atop her hemline, that Queen Elizabeth II took to the British throne in 1953, sending a message from the monarchy via her appearance that was broadcast to millions all over the world watching the moment on TV. Two songs from the first album just came up that had never come up before, Ms. Bayer said. I think when Warner got the catalog, I think people started making claims, people were kind of coming out of the woodwork going, Oh, well now its a major label involved, and we can possibly get more from them than we might have gotten from an independent label like Tommy Boy. But others, including Paul Huston, the producer known as Prince Paul, who worked closely with the group on its first three albums, say they did their due diligence. Sampling was obviously new, but we were told, Hey, heres some sample-clearance forms you have to fill these out, Mr. Huston said, adding that Tommy Boy became much more careful after the success of 3 Feet High and Rising. It got to the point where it was like, What is that scratch!? Image Stakes Is High (1996) Tom Silverman, the founder of Tommy Boy Records which also put out albums by Digital Underground and Queen Latifah said that making the groups catalog available digitally would not be difficult, considering that Warner Music should know the copyright holders who have been receiving royalties for the physical sales of the records. Mr. Silverman said: Cutting a deal, you would think, to give them more money, shouldnt be that hard, especially if youre fair and logical and say, Let me pay you the same percentage that weve always paid you on physical on digital, too, so you can make that much money. So it doesnt really make a lot of sense that theyve havent even tried. For De La Soul, Warner Music and the owners of the copyrighted samples, the catalogs absence from digital media can be felt in an absence of income. That money would have come from downloads (the iTunes Music Store opened in 2003); streaming; ringtones (Mr. Silverman points out the groups 1991 single Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey) as a potential ringtone windfall); and deals with television, movies and advertisers. Cole, revisiting the terrain of Leukerbad, pairs himself with Baldwin (also echoing, in his parenthesis, the poet Elizabeth Bishops One Art): I am black like him; and I am slender; and have a gap in my front teeth and am not especially tall (no, write it: short) . . . and feel myself in all places, from New York City to rural Switzerland, the custodian of a black body, and have to find the language for all of what that means to me and to the people who look at me. The ancestor had briefly taken possession of the descendant. But Cole soon distances himself from Baldwins feeling of alienation. He states that Baldwins self-abnegation prevents him from embracing Bach or Rembrandt, who Cole insists do not belong to one race. He might even care more about these artists than some white people do, Cole writes. The first section of the collection, Reading Things, has Cole claiming filiation with a number of authors (all male) who prove important to him. In the case of many of them, influence begets influence. Along with Baldwin comes V.S. Naipaul (The benevolent rheumy-eyed old soul: so fond of the word nigger, so aggressive in his lack of sympathy toward Africa, so brutal in his treatment of woman); Tomas Transtromer (Its a good thing Im unembarrassable about influence, because I realize now how many of Transtromers concepts I have hidden away in my own work); W.G. Sebald (This expert mixing of forms owed a great deal to his reading of the 17th-century melancholics Robert Burton and Thomas Browne); Derek Walcott (He names painters as his exemplars more often than he names poets: Pissarro, Veronese, Cezanne, Manet, Gauguin and Millet roll through the pages); and Andre Aciman (Acimans debt to Proust is deep and freely acknowledged). This opening section concludes with A Conversation With Aleksandar Hemon, in which Hemon a writer and critic and self-identified diasporic person questions Cole on what Nigerian history means to him. Coles answer catapults him into a global context: My identity maps onto other things: being a Lagosian (Lagos is like a city-state), being a West African, being African, being a part of the Black Atlantic. I identify strongly with the historical network that connects New York, New Orleans, Rio de Janeiro and Lagos. Hemon is also interested in what happens when influences are constantly shaping and reshaping the imagination. For Cole, visual artists, especially painters, are least affected by that anxiety of influence and know that everything is a combination of whats observed, whats imagined, whats overheard and whats been done before. He argues that to acknowledge influence is to let go of notions of literal records of reality and cultural or racial ownership of content. All Cole wants is to be dragged down into a space of narrative that I havent been in before. The stunning second section, Seeing Things, is especially captivating and reveals Coles voracious appetite for and love of the visual. Taken together, the essays in this section provide a comprehensive look at contemporary photography, placed within a historical framework. This approach brings forward evidence of things unseen, things, as Susan Sontag put it, least likely to be known. The artists who have Coles attention impose their individual and subjective sense on the material of the world, rejecting the notion, as most photographers do by nature, that it is possible to capture objective records of reality. He is drawn toward filmmakers and the visual artists who see with this photographers orientation. The collage work of Wangechi Mutu, described as both easy and difficult to look at, seductive in their patterning, grotesque in their themes, relies on actual photographic images; Coles favorite films by Michael Haneke and Krzysztof Kieslowski bring into view images of life so ordinary they could escape our attention. Cole believes that all of this work allows us to think with the eyes, and though the Australian composer Peter Sculthrope is also included here, his music becomes a passageway into the landscape and history of Australia. Involving children has benefits beyond travel-planning experience. What this highlights is the importance of getting buy-in, said Rainer Jenss, the president and founder of the Family Travel Association. A lot of parents dont consider getting their kids involved in the planning process, dictate it to them and sometimes make assumptions about what would make the kids happy. That can lead to risk-free choices like Disney World or child-friendly cruises. But if kids are involved in the decision, he said, they have ownership. I reached Leo on his cellphone as his parents drove him and Grady to a Massachusetts summer camp. Everyone wanted to go to the Dominican Republic, he said, but its pretty expensive, so I tried to find a place that was warm and not too expensive. That ended up being New Orleans. He checked a weather app to make sure it wouldnt be too cold. The hotel was trickier. He knew his parents wanted to be close to the center but not so close that it would be so loud I couldnt sleep, Leo said. He had a priority as well: a pool. A web search led to Groupon.com, where he spotted a photo of Le Pavillons rooftop pool. He went to lepavillon.com, and noted that the hotel was a short stroll to the French Quarter. And he didnt forget the older generation. It had kind of a French name so it sounded like Grammy might like it. Curious if he was on target, I emailed my father, Peter Kugel, who confirmed that his wife might be swayed by a French moniker. He signed the email Pierre, and cced her. Chief Justice Roy Moores fate on the bench will be decided at an Alabama Court of the Judiciary trial set for Sept. 28. Lawyers for Moore and the Alabama Judiciary Inquiry Commission argued before the eight judges of the Court of the Judiciary Monday afternoon in Montgomery. The hearing was on dueling motions for summary judgments by both parties to end the case. The Judiciary Inquiry Commission wants Moore removed from office and Moores attorneys argued the case should be thrown out. The complaint against Moore stems from an administrative order to Alabama probate judges in January stating Alabamas same-sex marriage ban was still in effect. The U.S. Supreme Court declared, in a 5-4 ruling, all same-sex marriage bans unconstitutional in the June 2015 case Obergefell v. Hodges. Before that ruling, Moore issued a similar order in February 2015 after a U.S. District Judge declared Alabamas same-sex marriage law unconstitutional. A complaint was lodged against Moore for violating judicial ethics with the Judicial Inquiry Commission, which decided to prosecute the case in May. The commissions decision triggered an automatic suspension from office for Moore. The Monday hearing was held in the Alabama Supreme Court. It was the second time Moore sat in the courtroom as a defendant before the Alabama Court of the Judiciary. Moore was removed from office in 2003 for ignoring a court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument he had commissioned for the Alabama Judicial Building. Attorneys for both sides gave arguments lasting an hour. John Carroll presented the Judicial Inquiry Commissions case against Moore. This case is not about whether or not the Supreme Courts decision in Obergefell was a wise decision, Carroll said. There are certainly four profound dissents that suggest otherwise. We are here to talk about Chief Justice Roy Moore and his repeated refusal to follow the rule of law. Carroll brought up a letter Moore wrote to Gov. Robert Bentley after the U.S. District Court ruling. He says, Federal courts are destroying the institution of marriage using pretext of due process, equal protection and full faith and credit, Carroll said quoting Moore. And he tells the governor, We must oppose the tyranny of the federal courts. Moore recused himself from a case before the Alabama Supreme Court brought by the Alabama Policy Institute suing to stop probate judges from issuing same-sex marriage licenses despite the U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Carroll said despite Moores recusal, he began writing memos to his fellow justices on the case. In the memo, Moore paraphrased a quote about Nazi Germany in World War II written by Martin Niemoller. It is a great quote about standing up to tyranny, Carroll said. The problem is he paraphrases it to the same-sex marriage decision, and in all candor, essentially accuses federal judges who are enforcing same-sex marriage laws are being like the Nazis in Germany. Mathew Staver, Moores attorney, called Carrolls description of Moore calling federal judges Nazis offensive. I absolutely reject, and (Moore) absolutely rejects that, and it has no place, Staver said. At that point, Court of the Judiciary Chief Judge J. Michael Joiner had to remind Moore supporters to remain quiet in the courtroom. Staver said Moores order was just letting probate judges know an Alabama Supreme Court injunction on issuing same-sex marriage was still in effect while the Alabama Policy Institutes case was pending. If he were to jump in and tell them, ignore the other eight justices with their opinions in March of 2015, he wouldve been usurping the Alabama Supreme Court himself, Staver said. And he would be right back here because he usurped their authority. Staver said a complete reading of Moores order to probate judges undermines the Judicial Inquiry Commissions case. It completely guts and undermines their case, Staver said. The Court of the Judiciary is usually made up of nine judges, but one seat was left empty Monday as Court of Judiciary Judge John V. Denson, an Opelika attorney and former Auburn University board of trustee, had recused himself from Moores case. Denson was the only member of the court who served on the 2003 case that removed Moore from office. Another Opelika attorney and Court of the Judiciary Judge Lucinda Samford Cannon was in the courtroom for the hearing. Before and during the hearing, Moores supporters sang Christian music on the front steps of the Alabama Judicial Building. Supporters greeted Moore with a standing ovation as he entered the courtroom and again on the front steps of the courthouse after the hearing. Moore said the Southern Poverty Law Center, who filed the complaint, was working with the Judicial Inquiry Commission to remove him from office. They dont want anybody opposing any agenda of the homosexual movement, Moore said. After the hearing, Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, said Moore ordered probate judges to defy a federal court order and was playing word games in his defense. Ive said it many times, (Moore) acts as if hes the Ayatollah of Alabama, Cohen said. Instead, he is an elected state judge required to follow oath of his office, which makes federal law supreme whether he likes it or not. The trial for Moore will begin at 9 a.m., Sept. 28, in the Alabama Supreme Court in Montgomery. The trial is expected to last one day. Robert August looks at a surfboard with artwork depicting his younger self and talks about what was going through his head at the moment being captured. He was sitting on a Hawaii beach in 1963, and filmmaker Bruce Brown was explaining how this new water housing he created for his 16 mm film camera worked. All August had to do was take the clunky camera out on his board, paddle it out into heavy surf and give it a crank every 45 seconds. This was no easy hand-held GoPro, thats for sure. What came from that invention was footage for the cult surf classic The Endless Summer, for which August, then 18 and a recent graduate of Huntington Beach High School, traveled the world with fellow surfer Mike Hynson and inspired many both in and outside of surf culture to seek exotic adventures. That behind-the-scenes moment when Brown and August discussed the mechanics of the waterproof camera was photographed and now is re-created in oil on a 10-foot surfboard that was unveiled Tuesday at Dukes Restaurant in Huntington Beach. The artwork is one of 21 boards that are part of the Surfboards on Parade fundraiser, expected to raise more than $100,000 at auction for Orange Coast Memorials skin cancer research, prevention and education programs, as well as other charities, during the Night of a Million Waves gala Oct. 7 at the Pasea Hotel & Spa. The boards are on parade at locations throughout the city. Surf artist and Newport Beach resident Phil Roberts captured every detail of the moment shared by August and Brown, down to the perplexed look on Augusts face as he tries to grasp the mechanics of the camera. (August) is looking at him going, Youre nuts, Roberts said. Roberts started doing surf art as a kid in Florida, painting surfboards as an after-school job. He did all the logos on surfboards for the East Coast surfers including a then- unknown 12-year-old named Kelly Slater. We didnt know who he was at the time, Roberts said of the 11-time world surf champion. He was just a little kid, one of the groms. Fast-forward a few decades, and Roberts is one of the most respected and accomplished surf artists around. He creates the prestigious Pipeline Masters trophy each year, a surfboard with artwork valued upward of $20,000 two of which Slater has earned in his career. Roberts worked on the surfboard piece for about a week, first free-handing with a pencil sketch and then working with oils before adding a top coat to protect the board. In addition to surf art, Roberts has worked 35 years making movie posters in Hollywood. He said this latest artwork brings his life full circle. I made a career out of my love for surfing, he said. Every part of my life has come together in this painting. For his part, August designed the board the scene was painted on, a replica of the board he rode in The Endless Summer. Heavy as hell with a big, fat fin, August said of the 45-pound board. That was normal. I would hate to try and ride one today. I watch the old movies and think, I rode the thing pretty good. Through his own surfboard company, Robert August Surf Co., hes making a few hundred limited-edition, plain white boards like the one he traveled the world with in the movie but without the artwork. He jokes with people who display them as decoration. Wax it up and see what we had to deal with, he tells them. Its likely the illustrated board will be a top auction item. A Robert August board with artwork by John Van Hamersveld, who created the iconic poster promoting The Endless Summer, went for $11,400 at the last Surfboards on Parade gala in 2014. Chris Byrne took home six boards that year, all used as decoration in his Huntington Beach home. I couldnt keep my hand down, he said of the auction. He knows hes going to be faced with a decision at the next auction. This is going to be expensive, he said, admiring the Endless Summer board. Im already thinking, I know where I can put it. I have a spot for it. Contact the writer: lconnelly@ocregister.com CHICAGO Undeterred when the Angels ended one phase of his comeback attempt, Tim Lincecum is going to continue trying to find himself at Triple-A. Lincecum, who by virtue of his service time had the option of accepting a minor league assignment or becoming a free agent, agreed on Tuesday to go to Salt Lake City. He is expected to report to Triple-A Salt Lake City on Friday and join the rotation there. Lincecum, 32, was designated for assignment Saturday, a day after he allowed six runs to the Seattle Mariners. Lincecum had a 9.16 ERA in 38 1/3 innings with the Angels. Opponents hit .395 with an 1.136 OPS against him. Manager Mike Scioscia said Lincecum understood when the Angels made the move that he needed to be in Triple-A to solve the issues with his delivery. I think he understands the challenge in front of him, what he needs to do, Scioscia said. The best way to do it is to really go out and practice. Its impossible to practice these things in a major league envinroment. This is not trial and error theater here. Lincecum signed an incentive-laden, $2.5 million deal with the Angels in May, after holding a showcase attended by most major league teams. Since 2012, Lincecum has failed to pitch anywhere close to the level that won him two Cy Young awards in the first half of his career, 2007-11, with the San Francisco Giants. He had a hip problem that caused him to alter his mechanics, eventually resulting in surgery last year. Lincecum said hes still trying to refine his mechanics, which is why his command and control were lacking for much of his time with the Angels. He also has lost some velocity, his fastball consistently around 87-89 mph. He has enough velocity, Scioscia said. Hes not going from 96 to 83. He is still touching 90, which is plenty. But hes more command-sensitive now than he was five years ago. Thats something he has to wrap his arms around and tame. A new study released Tuesday refutes claims that Californias 46-year-old environmental protection law bolsters frivolous litigation and crimps homebuilding. The study, sponsored by Oakland-based Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment, found theres no evicence that the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, has a retarding effect on the states economic prospertity. Bay Area-based BAE Urban Economics, which conducted the study, found also that less than 1 percent of projects under CEQA review face lawsuits. Direct costs caused by CEQA, the report concluded, typically range from 0.25 percent to 0.5 percent of a developments total budget. The report used quantitative analysis to clarify that anti-CEQA rhetoric really has no basis in fact, said Janet Smith-Heimer, BAE president. After extensive analysis, we found that CEQA does not have an actual dampening effect on Californias economy. The study comes amid a growing controversy over CEQA, with critics arguing that the law constributes to a severe housing shortage in the state, especially for affordable homes. Gov. Jerry Brown is backing a plan pending in the state Legislature to allow urban multi-family housing projects to bypass local environmental reviews if they meet current zoning requirements and set aside a portion of the units for low-income families. Opponents of the plan have been staging protests in Los Angeles and elsewhere, arguing that Browns proposal undermines CEQA. In addition, the study follows two reports by international law firm Holland & Knight claiming that CEQA is responsible for frivolous litigation thats harming rather than protecting the environment. The Holland & Knight study, based on a review of CEQA lawsuits filed from 2010 through 2012, concluded that nearly half of all such litigation target taxpayer-funded projects and that transit is the most frequently challenged type of infrastructure project. Last month, the law firm reported that CEQA lawsuits targeted nearly 14,000 Southern California housing units, including a 200-bed homeless shelter in Santa Ana. Seventy-one percent of the challenged Southern California housing units were in multi-family projects, the law firms study said. The environmentlist-back study refutes that argument. Despite rapid population growth and evelopment, the number of CEQA lawsuits statewide has remained constant over the past 14 years, a news release said. The study cited construction of the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center, or ARTIC, as an example of CEQAs success. Despite an environmental impact report citing unavoidable traffic impacts from the new, space-age looking transit center, the city concluded the benefits outweight the impacts. The $190 million ARTIC was finished in 2014. The CEQA review cost about $1 million. The ARTIC CEQA process demonstrates the role of CEQA in prompting a critical review of the benefits and liabilities of projects, the study said. You can read the full study HERE! You can read the Holland & Knight study HERE! Contact the writer: 714-796-7734 or jcollins@ocregister.com An Orange County sheriffs deputy was charged Monday on suspicion of using a law enforcement database to look up two peoples criminal backgrounds for personal reasons, authorities said. Angel Lora Guerrero, 57, of Santa Ana is charged with two misdemeanor counts of receiving unauthorized privileged information, the Orange County District Attorneys Office said. The veteran deputy was accused of, for a year ending in November, of accessing a law enforcement criminal history database to view the privileged records and criminal histories of two individuals for purposes unrelated to his duties, prosecutors said in a statement. He has been a deputy for 16 years. Deputy District Attorney Gautam Sood, who is prosecuting the case, declined to give further details but said the two individuals were known to Guerrero and that he was looking up their information for non-law enforcement purposes. Lt. Mark Stichter, an Orange County Sheriffs Department spokesman, said Guerrero remained employed with the agency as it conducts an internal administrative investigation. If convicted, Guerrero faces a maximum sentence of one year in county jail. Contact the writer: kpuente@ocregister.com, 714-834-3773 The plot of a botched heist or criminal caper where a traitor is suspected isnt new, figuring prominently in movies such as Reservoir Dogs, The Usual Suspects and many others. At Fullertons Stages Theatre, playwright Hero P. Carlisle has reimagined Quentin Tarantinos 1992 crime thriller as if written by Shakespeare, or perhaps Christopher Marlowe. The result, Dogs of War, is really a lot closer to any typical Elizabethan play than to the slam-bang tension and excitement of any Tarantino exercise in style, its title derived from a line in Julius Caesar. As directed by Carlisle himself, about the only panache on hand is the way the noose gradually tightens around the necks of the six men who have come together to pull off a daring, daylight heist of precious gems from a dukes villa in Venice, Italy. Carlisle has crafted a script that might easily be thought to have been written 400 years ago. Via script and staging, Dogs of War takes a long time to build to its bloody, visceral climactic scene, easily the plays most exciting. Ironically, though, while the build-up to the finale focuses on plot machinations and dialogue, our interest is heightened by a subtle yet key change Carlisle has made to Reservoir Dogs: The Tim Roth/Mr. Orange character has been turned into Arancio (Amanda Rivera), a young lady who boasts of past criminal exploits. Making the play engaging is what develops between Arancio, a police operative who successfully infiltrates the crime ring, and the melancholy Signor Bianco (Phil Brickey), a low-level thief convinced hes cursed. Before our eyes, the two criminals fall in love. Through the development of their relationship and the interplay of the roguish criminals, Dogs of War, perhaps even more so than Reservoir Dogs, examines questions regarding loyalty and betrayal. And as with many a crime story, were asked whether a mans (or womans) vicious, violent or deceitful nature precludes other, more noble traits like honor, loyalty and love. Carlisle turns Michael Madsens vicious Vic Vega/Mr. Blonde into Vittorio, who did four years of prison time to protect Cabotti (Tom Royer), the boss. Liam Holtons Signor Biondo has more charm, nonchalance and cool than his cohorts, traits that mask his sadistic delight in drawing blood. Dimithri Pereras Signor Rosa is more calmly logical and less paranoid than Steve Buscemis Mr. Pink but also less colorful and less distinct. And just as Tarantino cast himself as Mr. Brown, Carlisle takes on the fairly small role of soft-spoken goon Signor Azzurro (Mr. Blue). Royers mob boss Cabotti is commanding, valuing dignity and loyalty over all else but like most of his castmates, his performance has little flair. Less vivid still are Graham Beightol as the chief cop on the gangs trail and Tim Brennan as his hapless right-hand man. In fact, the Elizabethan recasting of Tarantinos story and characters has drained away much of the color, if you will, and excitement from Reservoir Dogs. Riveras Signor Arancio (Mr. Rose) is charming but hardly captivating, and Brickeys Bianco doesnt get fired up till the riveting final scene. Anthony Nuno Jr.s Gentile Edward Cabotti comes closest to the kind of elan wed expect. Absent any truly compelling performances, that climactic bloodbath, energized by Shanti Ryles fight choreography and Cari Noels lighting, is the most memorable and most potent facet of Dogs of War. Contact the writer: emarchesewriter@gmail.com Donald Trump, who can easily get distracted by picking Twitter fights with Rosie ODonnell, got back on course Monday and gave a speech on his economic plan before the Detroit Economic Club. After all that current economics has done to Detroit, he might want to continue his irony theme by giving his next speech on protecting the environment at the Flint Water Company. The Detroit Economic Club gave its highest award for economics last year to the member who sold his house in Detroit in 1998. The economy is so bad in Detroit that the Indian casinos there are converting back to reservations. In short, Trumps speech can be summed up this way: more for America, less for China and Mexico. He says, We are going to be great again, the wall is going to be great, the best, the best, a beautiful wall and its going to be fantastic. And did I mention great? Its the type of detail economists can really sink their teeth into. He drew contrasts between his economic vision and Hillarys. He wants to make America great. She wants to make America Greece. Trumps instincts on the economy are mostly right. He wants to reduce regulations and cut taxes that drive companies overseas. Obama is the only president to fail to preside over even one year of 3 percent economic growth. In short, when you concentrate money and power in the inefficient D.C. bureaucracy, wages and businesses cannot grow thus our slow-growth recovery. There is plenty to be cut in government. Just in the fatty folds of the hundreds of agencies in Washington, there is probably 20 percent worth of cost reductions to be made. Remember when the government shut down? Did anyone miss anything it did? Obama petulantly ordered Park Rangers to turn veterans away from open-air parks to make his point. Hes afraid voters will find out what little the federal government actually does for us. Hillary has the historic chance to ascend to the highest position of power for a person in a dress in Washington since J. Edgar Hoover, but Im not sure what her plan for the economy is. Maybe we can follow her lead and become a government official married to an ex-president. We can then go on the lecture circuit, visiting companies we regulate and countries the U.S. government gives money to, and shake them down for $500,000 speeches. Democrats run an envy-based economy. They rail against business owners who are billionaires and millionaires who pay taxes and hire workers. They want us to be more like Cuba, North Korea and Venezuela, countries which have no such billionaires who are not in government. In fact, everyone in those countries checks the Democrat utopian economic goal of everyone making the same amount of money: $20 a week. Thats fairness. In truth, Democrats are terrible with the economy. Instead of soldiers, Obama needs to send his economic advisors to destroy ISIS with pestering regulations and taxes. Democrat policies decimated Detroit; maybe we should try them on our enemies. He does best for himself when he divides us into various aggrieved classes. The Democrats plan for Americas economy would work great if only they could make resentment, envy and being offended pay better. Obama and the Democrats economic plan, which Hillary has to espouse, doubled the nations debt to $20 trillion in eight years. What Hillary promised in her DNC speech, including free stuff for folks if they will vote for her, will add another $1 trillion to our deficit. Dems talk about their concern for our kids while strapping them with trillions in debt. Under the Democrat plan, this country has as much chance getting back in the black as Spokanes NAACP ex-leader, Rachel Dolezal. Hillary says when she is president she will turn the economy over to Bill Clinton. Nothing says you are an iconic feminist leader like turning the checkbook over to your husband the first chance you get. And the self-sacrificing, great American Bill Clinton will fight for us on the economy as hard as he fought the draft board for himself during Vietnam. Trump is smart to get back to talking about the economy and moving past the media-hyped gaffes of the last couple of weeks. Clearly, his explanation that he was just being sarcastically funny when he asked Putin to turn over Hillarys 30,000 deleted emails fell flat. If we know anything about Russia, its that their government officials really appreciate humor. Ron Hart is a libertarian op-ed humorist and award-winning author, Ron is a frequent guest on CNN. He can be contacted at Ron@RonaldHart.com or @RonaldHart on Twitter. For 15 years, Judy Johnson planned to get a reverse mortgage when she retired, supplementing her Social Security with proceeds from her San Clemente condo. But after she shut down her public relations business last year, Johnson discovered the government had pulled the rug out from under her retirement plans. Her three-bedroom condo in Talega Gallery no longer qualified for Federal Housing Administration-insured loans. As a result, she cant get a reverse mortgage. Even more aggravating is that Talega Gallery actually does not violate the FHA rules, which ban FHA financing for condos with private transfer fees paid to an activities fund when a home is sold. Neighboring associations in Talega pay those fees, but Talega Gallery does not. I protested. I said this isnt fair, said Johnson, a former White House press aide who helped President Richard Nixon write his memoir. They said, We dont care. Now shes living off savings and Social Security, with spending limited to the necessities. Fun and travel are outside her budget. Community enhancement fees 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. And FHA backs the lions share of reverse mortgages. For more than a decade, borrowers in the Talega and Ladera Ranch master-planned developments have been able to get FHA-backed loans, be it for a home purchase, to refinance an existing mortgage or for a reverse mortgage, local Realtors said. But the agency reversed itself following a reinterpretation of its regulations in recent years, said Natalie Stewart, president of FHA Review, a Huntington Beach firm that helps condo boards get FHA certification, or eligibility. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which oversees FHA, found that communities like Talega and Ladera that tack a fee onto every home sale to pay for community activities violate long-standing FHA rules against private transfer fees. Its a reinterpretation of a current law, Stewart said. You cannot now freely transfer the property with a fee to another party and still qualify for FHA funding. Ladera Ranch and Talega charge a quarter of 1 percent of a homes sale price or $1,250 on a $500,000 deal to raise money for community parties, concerts, childrens activities and newsletters. The FHA began turning down loan applications for those areas in the spring of 2015, Stewart said. A new law Another president may have come to the rescue of former Nixon aide Judy Johnson. President Barack Obama signed a new bill into law July 29 that could ease FHA financing for thousands of home shoppers relying on the more affordable condo market. Called HR3700, the measure revises FHA rules for condos, making it easier for more condo associations to get FHA certification. The new provisions also would eliminate private transfer fees like Talegas and Laderas as an obstacle to FHA funding. And because FHA-insured loans represent the lions share of reverse mortgages, it could provide relief to senior condo owners like Johnson, putting a comfortable retirement back in reach. But HR3700 is subject to final rules FHA is drafting within the next three months. So Johnson and others in Ladera and Talega wont know until late October if their communities will again become eligible for FHA-backed loans. Will she get her reverse mortgage? Under a reverse mortgage, the loan is paid out monthly, so the borrower gets a monthly check rather than sending in a monthly payment to the bank. Johnson purchased a condo in 2001 in Talega Gallery, a senior housing development within the Talega master association. The 55-plus community of about 40 condos and around 240 houses is the only homeowners association in Talega thats exempt from paying the community enhancement fee. Johnson verified her plan before she bought her condo: Getting a reverse mortgage would not be a problem. I was 10 to 15 years from retirement, and I needed to figure how I would take care of myself when I got old and crotchety, Johnson said. I decided to plow all my money into my home. But members of the local Realtor association learned in early 2015 that FHA stopped backing loans in Ladera and Talega. A HUD spokesman couldnt explain why apart from saying that the transfer fees violated longstanding FHA rules. In January 2015, Johnson retired and began shopping for a reverse mortgage. At first, brokers were excited to see her. I talked to tons of people, and every person said, You are exactly the type of person reverse mortgages were meant to help, Johnson said. However, when I said I could not get an FHA loan, it was a buzzkill on the conversation. She appealed FHAs ruling to HUD. The lifestyle fee did not apply to her unit. But HUD ruled that as long as its part of the Talega master association, her home would not qualify for an FHA mortgage. She could tap the equity in her condo by other means. She could sell the home she loves and buy elsewhere. Or she could take out a conventional mortgage. All the other options come with steeper up-front costs. With just her Social Security check as income, she lives very frugally, she said. I have the greatest house with a lot of equity in it. I mean, hundreds of thousands of dollars. And I live on Social Security, Johnson said. So Im a poor church mouse. Contact the writer: 714-796-7734 or jcollins@ocregister.com I dont know if I could be away from the ocean. I need my feet in the sand. Its energizing for me, says Merideth Fleener, owner of MerMade Designs in Newport Beach. Ive actually considered putting a sandbox behind the register, she added with a laugh that was only half-joking. Fleeners obsession OK, well call it passion for the sea is reflected in her boutique, which carries beachy home decor items. Seashells, mermaid shapes, coral and the like fill the store. MerMade Designs, which opened in 2010, saw humbler beginnings when Fleener used an extra bedroom in her house as a showroom and often sold items in her driveway. Even before operating her friendly, neighborhood boutique, though, Fleener seemed destined for this kind of work. As a child, Fleener was constantly creating and crafting so much that her grandmother thought her projects deserved custom tags that read, Handmade by Mer and eventually, Mer Made. I always had a big imagination, said Fleener. I would design my Barbie dolls houses more than play and now I have this, my happy place, where I can be creative for work I shouldnt even really call it work. Visitors to MerMade Designs are encouraged to dally through the store as they begin a treasure hunt. The adventure is accompanied by a nostalgic soundtrack of 80s Culture Club hits mixed with some reggae and Hawaiian music. This fun, beachy vibe reminds you so much of being on vacation that you can almost smell the surf and sand or perhaps that is the Pirette perfume with coconut, sunscreen and a little surf wax to create a familiar scent. No matter a customers mood when they walk in the door, Fleener hopes that shopping at MerMade Design is like a momentary getaway, and she tries to make shoppers feel as if they are getting a one-of-a-kind experience by offering unique items. She purposely stocks limited quantities of most pieces so patrons know their finds are really distinctive. The nature of this finite supply makes for ever-changing stock, so it is best to check back often. Many items, such as a mermaid wall hanging made of rope braids, hand-painted driftwood art and jewelry, are fashioned by local artists who Fleener always makes a place for at MerMade Designs. By including these selections, Fleener is abiding by her personal desire to surround herself with creative energy. This influence carries over in the way Fleener displays store offerings. In several places throughout the store, for instance, green-tinted glass orbs accompany coral bouquets, succulent collections and other centerpiece arrangements. These hollow glass spheres were long ago used by fishermen in many parts of the world to keep their nets afloat. Selling these glass floats from the early 1900s isnt in and of itself a creative endeavor, but the way Fleener carefully curates her display elevates a simple fishermans tool to an artistic conversation piece. Fleener often features objects that tell a story. The glass floats have wear patterns from long stretches of exposure to sun, sand and abrasive netting and details like these are a perfect reflection of the miles theyve traveled. Another standard item at MerMade Designs is Fleeners selection of driftwood crosses. Theyre made from two pieces of driftwood and an assortment of sea shells. They come in various sizes and can be hung on a wall or set on a table. The crosses, now just a small portion of what you can find at MerMade Designs, were actually the genesis for Fleeners shop. I still have the first driftwood cross I ever made, said Fleener, who recounted the time she brought driftwood she found on a beach in Hawaii to California. I remember getting ready to go on the plane, and sand was falling out of the box, she laughed. But its a special memory knowing that debris I found on the beach can be turned into something beautiful and meaningful. Of all the items in Fleeners store, her collection of coral gets the most attention. Shipped in from New Caledonia off the coast of Australia, its displayed on shelving units and throughout the store like gallery sculptures. These natural art pieces bring a sophistication to beach decor and exude the peaceful feeling of the ocean, while also dressing up a living room or dining table with an artistic flair. Fleener handpicks all the coral at MerMade Designs just as she does most of the items in the store because she believes this level of quality control is what encourages shoppers to return. Even when Fleener moved from her highly visible storefront on Pacific Coast Highway to the slightly more secluded grotto on Old Newport Boulevard, she saw no decline in clientele. Customers come for the wide selection and stay for Fleeners commitment to serving them as if shes known them her whole life. Obviously theyre customers. But when people leave, I feel like theyre friends. At a recent Santa Ana Planning Commission hearing on a proposed revision to the citys Housing Opportunity Ordinance, a resident told my Planning Commission colleagues and I that the need for affordable housing units outweighed the need for new market-rate housing units. What that resident may not be aware of is that it is new market-rate housing developments that are largely responsible for the construction of affordable housing units. In adopting the Housing Opportunity Ordinance in 2011, the city required that housing units for very low-income and low-income households be included in new market-rate housing developments. The HOO also allows an in-lieu fee to be paid instead of actually providing affordable units. In 2015, my Planning Commission colleagues and I supported revisions to the HOO, which the City Council later adopted, limiting the ability of developers to pay the in-lieu fee instead of actually building affordable homes within market-rate residential developments. These revisions will produce more new, and quality residential units that our very low-income and low-income households can afford, but that will not happen if more market-rate residential units are not built in our city. As our city does more to encourage new and quality market-rate housing, our city will also be able to provide more affordable housing. Phil Bacerra Santa Ana Planning Commissioner What is at stake Donald Trump can make me cringe, but we have come to the point where the parameters of civility and political correctness have become so narrow that any disagreement with the popular sentiment is characterized as an attack. The Lefts list of the oppressed is so encompassing as to stifle discussion of any significant contrary ideas without being labeled insensitive or a bully. We forget that, with all his bombast, Trump as president cannot rule as czar. I find it difficult to believe that someone identifying as a conservative would vote for Hillary Clinton just because they are aghast at the Donald, and sanction four more years of Obamanomics, declining world status and, most importantly, the opportunity to re-establish a conservative flavor to our country with the appointment of several Supreme Court Justices. But thats just me. I certainly hope I didnt offend anyone. Ken Girard Dana Point Peter Navarro, a professor of economics and public policy at UC Irvines business school, is emerging as one of the most visible advocates of Donald Trumps economic platform. My role is to make sure the analysis is rock solid, the facts are rock solid, said Navarro, 67, who is the only economist from academia on the 13-member advisory team announced by the Trump campaign last week. The Republican presidential nominees group includes real estate executives, private equity and hedge-fund managers, a Texas banking tycoon, a billionaire oil company magnate, and a former Reagan administration deputy assistant treasury secretary. Whatever they need, I analyze the economic data, Navarro added in an interview Monday. A Laguna Beach resident who has a doctorate in economics from Harvard University, Navarro has written 10 books on topics ranging from personal investing to business management. His recent work has focused on China, including two books and a documentary, Death by China, narrated by Martin Sheen. Navarro endorses Trumps skepticism on trade deals. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico and Canada is broken, he said. It allows GM and Ford to build their auto assembly plants in Mexico rather than Michigan. The American people have been kicked in the teeth by unfair trade for decades. Navarro said he first connected with Trump in 2011, after the real estate magnate mentioned in a newspaper interview Navarros first book on China, The Coming China Wars. I reached out and thanked him, Navarro said, and he was kind enough to offer a testimonial on a subsequent book. Navarro attended the Republican convention in Cleveland and, he said, rose every morning at 4 a.m. to do media interviews, winding down at midnight. Since China entered the World Trade Organization, Navarro said, Our growth rate is half of the historical average of previous decades, and over 20 million people cant find a decent job. If few mainstream economists endorse Trumps protectionist views, it is because, my fellow economists and academics fail to understand the economics of trade in the real world, Navarro said. Traditional models of academia respect free trade without considering whether it is fair trade. Contact the writer: mroosevelt@ocregister.com; Twitter @MargotRoosevelt Back in 2005, just 1,841 retirees pulled down more than $100,000 a year in pension checks from the California Public Employees Retirement System. A decade later, membership in the so-called $100K Club had swelled by nearly 20,000 souls. CalPERS data provided to the conservative-leaning group Transparent California, and analyzed by the Register, found that 21,652 public retirees received annual benefits of more than $100,000 in 2015. Thats a jump of 28 percent in just two years which might seem jarring at first blush, but actually represents a slowdown in the clubs explosive growth of late. Between 2005 and 2009, membership in CalPERS $100K Club tripled. Then, between 2009 and 2013, it nearly tripled again, largely a function of higher working salaries and more generous retirement formulas. Orange County landed just one retired worker on the Top 25 statewide: Dave Ream, longtime Santa Ana city manager, at $263,202. Los Angeles-area cities, special districts and universities dominated the Top 25. ZEALOTS Tracking this number is a controversial endeavor. What makes the $100,000 Club some magic number denoting abuse other than the claims of anti-pension zealots? said Dave Low, chairman of Californians for Retirement Security, a coalition of 1.6 million public workers and retirees. The classifications in the club are doctors, lawyers, hospital administrators, city managers, superintendents, college chancellors and presidents, etc., who are often earning far less than their counterparts in the private sector, Low said. The average CalPERS pension is less than one-third of that, said Amy Morgan, spokeswoman for CalPERS. But advocates for major public pension reform cite the $100K Club boom as evidence that the system which guarantees payouts for life, regardless of whether CalPERS has enough money is unsustainable over the long haul and must be revamped to protect taxpayers, who are ultimately on the hook. What this information does is remove the shroud that defines public pensions and lets people see what things cost, said Robert Fellner, research director for Transparent California. Contrary to the incredibly misleading averages they cite which include people who worked for just a couple of years but still get a pension, which pulls down the average you see the benefits are rich when you look at the folks who worked a full career. There arent people who work a full career and get the average pension. Our spin through the data shows that the average pension for retirees with 25 or more years of service roughly one-third of the people in the system was $55,189. SMALL SLICE CalPERS has pointed out that the $100K Club has remained relatively stable at 2 percent to 3 percent of the total pool of retirees through the years. In 2013, we calculated the club at 2.9 percent of all retirees; for 2015, we calculated it at 3.5 percent. Measuring the percentage increase is an absurd measure, as the number was low and continues to be so as part of the overall workforce, said Steven Maviglio, spokesman for Californians for Retirement Security. Of the top earners, these employees tend to be upper management or public safety workers who have put substantial hours of OT on the job and have no Social Security. Unlike in the private sector, about 29 percent of CalPERS retirees dont get Social Security benefits, said Morgan, CalPERS spokeswoman, so their CalPERS pension may be their sole source of retirement income. Though pension reforms for new hires enacted in 2013 will eventually make it much harder to crack the $100K Club even for upper management it will take decades before those new hires retire, and the effects are seen. That means membership in the club will keep growing, if for no other reason (than) because salaries will go up over time, Low said. IN O.C. Transparent California found that, in all, 1,495 Orange County retirees collected benefits worth at least $100,000, an 11 percent increase from last year. The list is dominated at the top by city managers, but public safety officers largely round it out. In California, public pension promises are considered etched in stone and cannot be altered, at least not outside of federal bankruptcy court. Most cities and special districts in Orange County and statewide contract with CalPERS to run their retirement systems. It covers all state workers as well. CalPERS is the largest public retirement system in the world and largely viewed as a bellwether and a trendsetter. Climbing unfunded liabilities, weak investment earnings and expectations for less-robust earnings over the next 30 years are fueling cries for reform. The next governor will have a big job on his/her hands, said state Sen. John Moorlach, R-Costa Mesa, long a pension-reform warrior. And if the nation enters its next recession, the situation will get even bleaker. TOP 25 PUBLIC RETIREES IN CALIFORNIA* Name, Employer, Pension Michael D. Johnson Solano County $388,408 Stephen R. Maguin Los Angeles County Sanitation District No. 2 340,811 Joaquin M. Fuster UCLA 338,412 Donald R. Gerth Cal State Sacramento 317,324 William Garrett El Cajon 311,365 James F. Stahl Los Angeles County Sanitation District No. 2 301,802 Gilbert F. Ivey Metropolitan Water District of Southern California 298,233 Glenn D. Southard Indio 291,780 John D. Schlag UCLA 291,690 Randy G. Adams Bell 288,378 John W. Distasio Sacramento Municipal Utility District 284,673 Julius Schachter UC San Francisco 278,237 Kevin C. Duggan Mountain View 274,602 Roderick J. Wood Beverly Hills 269,687 Philip H. Kamlarz Berkeley 264,986 Robert W. Toone Jr. Palmdale 264,558 Dianne C. Oki State Compensation Insurance Fund 263,659 David N. Ream Santa Ana 263,202 David A. Breninger Placer County Water Agency 260,133 Warren J. Baker Cal Poly San Luis Obispo 259,104 Quang T. Ho Solano County 258,918 Carl Boronkay Metropolitan Water District of Southern California 256,548 David L. Parrish Riverside County 254,824 Kenneth C. Bollier State Compensation Insurance Fund 254,289 Dale T. Geldert Beverly Hills 253,112 * Annualized figures omit one-time settlement payouts, which skewed true annual benefits going forward. TOP RETIREES IN O.C. Name, Employer, Pension David N. Ream Santa Ana $263,202 James D. Ruth Anaheim 249,851 Timothy D. Riley Newport Beach 244,904 Kenneth C. Frank Laguna Beach 241,902 David L. Rudat Orange 229,863 Gary E. Johnson Anaheim 224,182 John L. Nelson Orange County Schools 222,544 Tim F. ODonnell Brea 215,654 Homer L. Bludau Newport Beach 215,135 Marc E. Martin Santa Ana 213,078 Elisa M. Stipkovich Anaheim 212,829 Harry D. Hill Anaheim 212,027 Keith M. Jones Costa Mesa 211,451 John J. Klein Newport Beach 210,122 Roger E. Smith Anaheim 208,239 Jack L. White Anaheim 207,725 Steven R. Lewis Newport Beach 207,535 Duane S. Olson Huntington Beach 207,138 Gregg A. Steward Costa Mesa 207,089 Steven N. Murray California State Univeristy at Fullerton 202,903 Thomas C. Monson Buena Park 201,083 Donald D. Lamm Westminster 200,121 David M. Morgan Anaheim 199,812 Thomas E. Gazsi Costa Mesa 198,353 William G. Sweeney Anaheim 197,813 Arthur C. Simonian Yorba Linda 197,493 SOURCE: California Public Employees Retirement System; Transparent California Contact the writer: tsforza@scng.com Chart updated at 11:55 a.m with two annualized numbers MOSCOW President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, are expected to reconsider their dispute over Syria when they meet on Tuesday in St. Petersburg, with both leaders interested in a public display of affection to show the West that strained ties have not left them isolated. While Erdogan has long insisted that Syrias president, Bashar Assad, will need to relinquish power before any peace deal can be discussed, Russias success on the battlefield backed by Iran may have altered the calculus. Erdogans visit to Russia, his first venture outside his country after a failed coup last month, is draped in symbolism because it comes at a time when Turkeys relationships with the United States and the European Union have eroded significantly. There is a deepening sense in Turkey that its Western allies have failed the solidarity test, given the threat to its existence posed by the July 15 coup attempt. Turkish officials are frustrated that Western capitals have focused on Erdogans purge of tens of thousands of military officers, civil servants and journalists as a worrying sign of his drift toward authoritarianism. An anti-American campaign erupted in Turkey after Washington rebuffed demands to extradite Fethullah Gulen, the reclusive Turkish cleric whom Erdogan has accused of plotting the coup from his retreat in the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania. Stunning development The meeting in St. Petersburg is in some respects a stunning development, given that through the end of May, Moscow and Ankara were hurling unbridled insults at each other. Russias state-run television network attacked Erdogan as deceitful and unrestrained, while the Turkish leader accused Russia of engaging in cheap slander. But the Kremlin never misses a chance to try to exploit cracks in the NATO alliance, and it has repeatedly expressed support for Erdogan since the coup attempt. Russias own ties with the West soured with its annexation of Crimea in 2014 and subsequent intervention in eastern Ukraine, and they have not improved. So both presidents want to take pains to demonstrate that they have other friends. Both want to show to other partners that they are not isolated, they have options and they have non-Western partners to engage, said Vladimir Frolov, the foreign affairs columnist for the Russian web magazine Slon.ru. We will see a lot of symbolism, a lot of dances and gestures, but the specific deliverables will be relatively few, and more to do with Syria. Putin and Erdogan are often seen as similar authoritarian, combative, unbending and nationalistic, with little time for niceties like freedom of expression. Both are quick to anger, but can shelve it just as quickly when strategic interests are at stake. Downed fighter jet strained relations Turkish-Russian strains developed abruptly in November, after Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet that had briefly violated its airspace from Syria and one pilot was killed by ground fire. Putin demanded an apology, and Erdogan refused. Both sides set about severing robust economic relations worth about $30 billion annually in trade, a number that the two presidents had previously pledged to increase to $100 billion by 2020. Russia slapped on economic sanctions, cutting Turkey off from lucrative construction contracts and apparently discovering health problems with fruits and vegetables that months earlier the Russian government had praised as wholesome. Charter flights were halted, with millions of Russians who had vacationed annually in Turkey ordered to stay home. At the same time, two crucial energy projects sought by Russia a nuclear power plant that it planned to build and a major gas pipeline seen as an alternative route to those blocked by Europe were frozen. Even before the failed coup, Erdogan had begun to feel isolated and had made approaches to Israel another longtime trading and diplomatic partner with whom he had fallen out and to Russia. He sent Putin a letter to apologize for shooting down the fighter jet and promised to bring those responsible to justice. Economic links were being restored, although local Russian producers do not want to compete with the same volume of imports of cucumbers and tomatoes, for example. The countries agreed to resume military contacts and counterterrorism cooperation. The coup attempt sped up the process, as Putin immediately expressed solidarity with Erdogan. We have received unconditional support from Russia, unlike other countries, Turkeys foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, said in a recent interview on Haberturk TV, a private broadcaster. Mutual benefits Aside from the symbolism, both men have a concrete interest in relaxing tensions over Syria, where Erdogan has called for the removal of Assad and Russia has devoted considerable military muscle to propping him up. The most substantive talks they could engage in would be about Syria, Frolov said, to engineer a political solution that accommodates each others interests. There are steps both could take to help stabilize the situation there. Erdogan would like less Russian support of the Kurds and less bombing along the border, which has driven refugees into Turkey. Russia has already stopped insisting on separate Kurdish representation at any peace talks. Moscow, in turn, would like Turkey to assert greater control over its border to stem the flow of volunteers and arms to groups Russia considers threatening. Russia is especially concerned about rebel organizations able to pressure Damascus or attack the region around Latakia, where Russia has its main air base. We would like to look at the future with more hope, Ibrahim Kalin, Erdogans spokesman, said in a recent interview with the Russian state-owned news agency TASS. In cooperation with Russia, we would like to facilitate a political transition in Syria as soon as possible. WILMINGTON, N.C. Donald Trump ignited a fresh political firestorm Tuesday by declaring gun rights supporters might still find a way to stop Hillary Clinton, even if she should defeat him and then name anti-gun Supreme Court justices. Democrats pounced, accusing him of openly encouraging violence against his opponent. The Republican presidential nominee has been working this week to move past distracting campaign disputes, but once again he put himself at the center of a blazing controversy. First, he falsely claimed that Clinton, his Democratic opponent, wants to essentially abolish the Second Amendment. She has said repeatedly that she supports the Second Amendment right to own guns, though she does back some stricter gun control measures. Trump then noted the power Clinton would have to nominate justices to the high court. By the way, if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people maybe there is, I dont know, Trump told supporters at a rally in Wilmington, N.C. But Ill tell you what. That will be a horrible day. His reaction later as the uproar grew: Give me a break. Interviewed by Fox News Sean Hannity, he said everyone in his audience knew he was referring to the power of voters and there can be no other interpretation. Trumps campaign sought to quell the controversy with a statement that blamed the dishonest media for misinterpretation. And Trumps running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, said he was talking about the election choice for pro-gun voters, not encouraging violence. Yet Trumps foes were unconvinced and unforgiving. Tim Kaine, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, said of course the Republicans were trying to explain away Trumps comments, but I think it was just revealing and I dont find the attempt to roll it back persuasive at all. Priorities USA, a super PAC supporting Clinton, said Trump had suggested that someone shoot Hillary Clinton. Across the country, Democratic House and Senate candidates piled on, working to tie Trumps comments to their GOP opponents. And the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, which has endorsed Clinton, said Trump was encouraging gun violence based on conspiracy theory about Hillary Clinton. Tweeted Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat: @realDonaldTrump makes death threats because hes a pathetic coward who cant handle the fact that hes losing to a girl. The National Rifle Association, the gun lobby that has endorsed Trump, came to his defense. The group wrote on Twitter that theres nothing we can do if Clinton is elected while urging voters to defeat her in November. The controversy immediately overwhelmed Trumps intended campaign-trail focus: the economic plan he unveiled just a day earlier and was promoting during a series of rallies in the most competitive general election states. It also reinforced the concern, voiced by many worried Republicans, that he cannot stay disciplined and avoid inflammatory remarks that imperil not only his White House prospects but the re-election chances of many GOP lawmakers. At another rally later Tuesday in Fayetteville, Trump was careful with his words. He repeated his argument that Clinton poses a threat to gun rights but avoided any talk about advocates taking matters into their own hands. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, introducing him, blamed the controversy on disgusting journalists. Clintons supporters are hoping the latest Trump trip-up will lead yet more of his fellow Republicans to defect. A day earlier, Maine Sen. Susan Collins became the latest to declare she wont vote for her partys nominee, explicitly pointing to his constant stream of cruel comments. The U.S. Secret Service, responsible for both Clintons and Trumps protections, said it was aware of what Trump had said but declined to say whether it planned to investigate. Contrary to Trumps remarks, Clinton has made her support for gun rights a key piece of her stump speech in a bid to pre-empt attacks from Trump and groups like the NRA. Still, she supports reinstating a federal assault weapons ban, expanding background checks and barring purchases by domestic abusers, among other steps. Im not here to repeal the Second Amendment, she said in her Democratic National Convention speech. Im not here to take away your guns. I just dont want you to be shot by someone who shouldnt have a gun in the first place. Clinton spent Tuesday in Florida calling for emergency public health action on the Zika virus while visiting the Miami area dealing with the first U.S. outbreak. At a local health clinic, she urged Congress to cut short its summer recess and immediately pass funding for a Zika response. She blamed congressional Republicans for inaction. Everybody has a stake in this. And thats really why Im here, Clinton said. We dont want to wake up in a year and read more stories about babies like the little girl who just died in Houston. Its an issue that could affect votes in this crucial swing state where she has held a small advantage in recent polls. So far, Trump has not addressed the issue in depth, though he told a Florida television station last week that Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, really seems to have it under control in Florida. Working Wardrobes recently moved its headquarters to a larger building in Irvine, in hopes of helping more people find jobs and teaching them about the power of a paycheck. Over the past 26 years, the Orange County-based nonprofit organization has helped more than 70,000 men and women, and many veterans, overcome such challenges as alcohol and drug abuse, domestic violence, incarceration and homelessness. In Orange County, its very hard to acknowledge that you dont fit what is the traditional Orange County mold, said Irvine Councilwoman Beth Krom. The assumption is that everybody else has their life together, has a job, families are stable. And we all know thats not the case. Krom was among the local dignitaries who attended Working Wardrobes July 28 ribbon cutting at its new office, which is 40 percent larger than its former building in Costa Mesa. The new 22,000-square-foot building features a wardrobe area with the feel of a Mens Wearhouse with rows of jackets, pants, shirts and blouses, as well as ties, shoes and jewelry to make clients look professional. There are also a computer lab where clients can research and apply for jobs online and a training room that offers lectures on various topics from customer service and computers to truck driving and being a security guard. Working Wardrobes is known for dressing up clients with professional attire, but the staff emphasizes thats only a small part of what they do. Thats the icing on the cake, said Jerri Rosen, an Irvine resident and the founder and CEO of Working Wardrobes. We are doing 90 percent of our work on the inside of our clients. We are helping them with their soft skills and their hard skills and we are helping them get jobs. So yes, we are going to put them in a good-looking suit but thats like the end of a journey. Staff members say the larger office will help Working Wardrobes expand its program called VetNet, which attempts to build a social safety net for veterans. Veterans from Army and Marine infantry units have shared the majority of risk in combat missions, but have the least amount of skills seemingly translatable to civilian jobs, Working Wardrobes officials say. Juan Valles, who manages the donation center for Working Wardrobes, is a veteran himself. Stationed at Camp Pendleton as a motor transport operations chief, he began looking for a job last year as he prepared to retire from the Marine Corps to spend more time with his daughter. He had never written a resume during his 20 years in the military and had no idea how to sell himself to potential employers, Valles said. In the Marine Corps, you have rules and regulations and you know that you are going to wear a uniform, Valles, 42, of Lake Forest, said. Once you get out of the Marine Corps, theres no structure. You are on your own basically, and thats a struggle. Cory Vigil is another veteran who says Working Wardrobes saved his life. Vigil had returned to civilian life after serving eight years in the Navy as a gunners mate. Suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, he was always angry, Vigil said, and his gung-ho military style of communication didnt quite work in the outside world. He divorced his wife, spent months in jail after a fight, was fired from his parks and recreation job, and slept on the street and in a car. Thats when he knocked on the door of Working Wardrobes. At this point, I had no choice, Vigil said. I had just got out of jail and I pretty much had one chance. So I had to give it 100 percent. Id never asked for help until that time. I had to get it together because I was headed down a path of destruction. He rode buses for more than 1 1/2 hours from his friends house in Stanton to the Working Wardrobes office, then in Costa Mesa. He was one of the first students in the customer service training program. There, he listened to himself speak and realized why others didnt want to talk to him, Vigil said. Impressed by his progress, Working Wardrobes hired him as a staff member. Now he is the only person in the county with the veterans resource specialist title, he says, helping veterans like himself and even giving talks about his experience. He has a second job and his own home in Rancho Santa Margarita. Earning a paycheck and being self-sufficient have given him confidence to move forward, Vigil said. This program pretty much saved my life, he said. I probably would have been either incarcerated or, I dont know, addiction or even death, who knows. Contact the writer: 949-445-6397 or tshimura@ocregister.com LAGUNA WOODS A maintenance worker in a cherry picker was killed after the crane tipped over Monday morning in Laguna Woods Village, authorities said. Rodolfo Velazco, 32, of Lake Elsinore, was killed at about 11:10 a.m. while working at Gate 8 of Laguna Woods Village on Santa Maria Avenue, said Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Larry Kurtz and Orange County Sheriffs Department Lt. Mark Stichter. When paramedics arrived, CPR was already being administered, Kurtz said. Velazco was transported to a Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, according to the coroners office. Sheriffs deputies took a death report, but the California Division of Occupational Health and Safety will be the lead agency investigating, Stichter said. It is unclear the nature of the work Velazco was performing when he died. The complexs Chief Executive Brad Hudson called the incident a tragic accident in an email sent to Laguna Woods Village residents. I ask for your thoughts and prayers for our (Village Management Services) employee and his family, Hudson wrote. Contact the writer: lawilliams@scng.com Ever since his owner was taken to the Ruth Cardoso Hospital in Santa Catarina, Brazil, a young black dog named Negao has been patiently waiting outside the building for him to walk out. Even though the man died of sepsis soon after his admission, the story of Negaos loyalty has touched the heart of millions around the world. It all started late last year when the dogs owner, a homeless man, was taken to the hospital after developing an infection that would later prove fatal. Medical staff reported that Negao ran alongside the ambulance all the way to the hospital, watched his favorite human be carried inside and waited outside for his return. He has been waiting outside the building ever since, not knowing that the eagerly awaited reunion with his owner will never happen. Every time an ambulance arrives, the dogs ears perk up and he follows it to see if it is carrying his master, as it did many months ago. Photo: Luiz Souza/RBS TV It wasnt long before hospital staff noticed Negaos constant presence outside the hospital, and after hearing his tragic story, they started caring for him, bringing him food and water, as well as making sure he had shelter from the elements. On two occasions, families impressed by his loyalty attempted to adopt him, but both times he managed to escape from their homes and returned to the hospital to resume his vigil. Since then, the hospital stopped trying to find him new owners and instead started working with an animal charity to make sure that he was well taken care of until he was ready to move on. Photo: Luiz Souza/RBS TV He will stay here with us until he decides if he wants to leave or not, hospital official Giselle Bianchi said. As long as he remains here, we will give all the care, warmth and love he needs. She adds that many employees have accepted Negao as part of their family and have dedicated all their spare time to him. They regularly go out to feed and pet him, and he has also been neutered and vaccinated. Photo: Luiz Souza/RBS TV Despite suffering a heavy loss, Negaos future seems bright. Source: G1 Globo via The Dodo AARP, which reps 37 million seniors, quit the American Legislative Exchange Council under pressure from Center for Media & Democracy, American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees, and other groups. The Los Angeles Times carried a report by CMD Aug. 1 that AARP was listed as a sponsor of ALECs 2016 summer meeting in July. This was followed later in the week by a statement from the Alliance for Retired Americans that they were deeply disappointed to learn of ALECs sponsorship of the AARP meeting. AARP then announced on its Facebook page Friday Aug. 5 that, After hearing from many of you, weve decided not to renew our membership to ALEC. Said AARP, which had revenues of $146 million in 2014: We would never work against the interests of older Americans and our engagement with ALEC was not an endorsement of the organizations policies but an opportunity to engage with state legislators and advance our members priorities. CMD, which operates www.prwatch.org, says ALECs activities include drafting and promoting bills that would undermine and privatize Social Security and Medicare. ALECs membership includes nearly 2,000 state legislators, most of them Republicans, as well as 300 reps of major corporations, according to The New York Times. CMD Merged with The Progressive Lisa Graves (L) and Ruth Conniff of the Center for Media and Democracy CMD merged in 2014 with The Progressive, 105-year-old liberal monthly also based in Madison, Wis., and moved into the magazines offices. Circulation of the magazine is 47,000. Lisa Graves heads CMD and Ruth Conniff heads The Progressive. CMD staffers have been barred from ALEC meetings for years. Its reporters are evicted from Marriott and other hotels used by ALEC. NYT columnist Paul Krugman, in a June 30, 2014 column titled Charlatans, Cranks and Kansas, said ALEC is a secretive group financed by major corporations that drafts model legislation for conservative, state-level politicians. He said its supply-side theories that say lower taxes on the rich will create benefits for all crashed and burned two decades ago. CMD, which said its lightning campaign resulted in AARP making a rapid retreat, dropping its dues-paying membership in AARP which takes in Americans who have reached the age of 50. CMDs website lists numerous companies and organizations that have quit ALEC in recent years including Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Kraft, McDonalds, Wendys, Mars, Reed Elsevier, Procter & Gamble, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Amazon.com and Wal-Mart. Loading... OilVoice will be with you shortly... TREYNOR, Iowa Annika Vohs has spent two-thirds of her summer in the hospital, aggressively battling a disease instead of spending her time on a softball diamond or with friends. Vohs, 16, is a junior-to-be at Treynor High School. Since early June, shes been battling acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Its been a pretty boring summer, Vohs said Saturday during a benefit at the Treynor Community Building. The oldest child of Jeff and Shantelle Vohs is always on the move. Annika Vohs (pronounced awn-ika voss) is a member of the track and cross country teams, along with the softball team. But this spring she was moving slower than usual. A state track qualifier as a freshman, Vohs times were down during his sophomore season. She chalked it up to a sore hip, which she iced frequently and worked to nurse back to health. But it never got better, and turned out to be a blood clot. As the softball season got underway, Vohs fainted during a practice. The family took Annika to Childrens Hospital & Medical Center for tests on June 3. Three days later came a diagnosis: acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia is a type of cancer in which the bone marrow makes too many immature lymphocytes a type of white blood cell according to the National Cancer Institute. It is the most common childhood cancer. Because of Vohs young age, a family history of blood clots and a chromosome that makes battling the cancer tougher, Annika with input from the family and doctors chose an aggressive chemotherapy schedule. Its a pretty aggressive route shes taking, It was her choice," Jeff Vohs said. "She wanted to hit it head on. Shantelle Vohs said most youth affected by acute lymphoblastic leukemia are in remission within 29 days. But in large part because of that chromosome called the Philadelphia chromosome Annika hasnt been so lucky. She has at least 10 more months of chemotherapy, her parents said. After that a few years of maintenance, according to Shantelle Vohs. Jeff Vohs noted his daughter has been in the hospital 42 of the 63 days since the diagnosis in June. Shell be there on her 17th birthday on Friday. Annika has spent her summer reading, talking on the phone with friends and watching Greys Anatomy on Netflix. She said shes thankful to participate in some physical therapy as she tries to regain some strength. Jeff Vohs talked about his daughters endurance, noting she runs the 1500 and 3000 races for track. Now sometimes she needs a walker at the hospital, he said. Its a nightmare, living a nightmare. We couldnt believe it the first couple of days, we were hoping wed wake up from a dream. A bad dream at that. Doctors want Annikas blood cell in the 3,000 to 6,000 range they wouldnt let her leave the hospital until it was at 250 and shes currently right around 6,000. Childrens Hospital pushed her next round of chemo back to this upcoming Tuesday so shed be strong for Saturdays benefit. At the event Annika was all smiles, chatting with friends, family and well-wishers as they filed into the community building. Jeff Vohs is a Glenwood native and the family lives near Mineola. Shantelle Vohs teaches first grade in the Treynor district and the couples three children Annika, along with 15-year-old Jessica and 11-year-old Trey open enroll to attend the school where Mom works. The fundraiser was organized by people from both communities Frank Bachman and Clint Holmes of Glenwood and second-grade teacher Staci Robinson of Treynor spearheaded the effort. The Vohs, Robinson and Bachman were thankful both communities came together to help Annika. It only took me three phone calls to get this thing off and running, Bachman said as he looked out on the event, which featured more than 100 silent auction items, along with raffle items, food, Fight Like a Girl cancer awareness T-shirts and more. And the support goes beyond Treynor and Glenwood. Annika Vohs only made it to a handful of Cardinal softball games this year, but teams and schools throughout the Western Iowa Conference showed their support through care baskets and other donations. Its very humbling. Its amazing support, Jeff Vohs said. Not just from those communities, but (southwest Iowa) and beyond. Word has really got out. If you are ever on a business trip and your wife text-messages you that a skunk has nearly killed your 10 children, you probably will question 1. whether you are living inside a seriously twisted Aesop's fable or 2. if it was a really good idea to have 10 of them in the first place. After all, you survived just fine with none. I am of course referring to my avian children, specifically backyard chickens. My real, human, flesh-and-blood, scream-and-prance-around-like-lunatics children total three in number. They, too, are learning some parenting skills since we became avian parents. Perhaps you have never raised birds from infancy. Nothing should stop you from proceeding to do so. Then you, too, will fully appreciate the subtle joys of skunk survival. It's possible, and even rewarding, to rear a happy flock of hens. You simply must be willing to sacrifice your composure and your unrealistic worldview that every living thing deserves to be left alone, especially peeping beaked babies. Kids simply don't know how to leave well enough alone. Tip #1: Start your first backyard chicken flock with a lack of restraint The first step to adopting chickens is to go to the farm store and fall helplessly in love with a sea of puffy yellow fuzz balls. In rural Missouri, where I live, there are plenty of these kinds of stores. As in a grocery store where all of the candy and sugar-laden, FDA-unapproved goods are shelved purposefully at children's eye level, chicks are placed in boxes topped with metal screens that makes it easy for young people to poke, prod and lock eyes with the sweet little things. As a parent, your eyes will immediately turn to the generous bottles of hand sanitizer atop the overhead cleaning station and the signs that shout at you about salmonella and other unutterable diseases that probably involve worms boring into your intestines. You will order the chicks online from an approved supplier who vaccinates the youngsters to give them the best fighting chance. Then you will cancel the order because the six-week waiting period is akin to sitting in the doctor's office flipping through the pages of People magazine. Your family will return to the store and buy three chicks, then the next day go buy seven more. That's what we did. Now, you have everything you need for your first starter flock. Tip #2: Create a vacation resort for chickens in your basement Chicks are essentially cotton balls glued together and placed atop toothpick legs, so there's no way my family and I were going to leave them outside. No sir. Instead, we had to fabricate a home from the cage that used to hold the guinea pig (R.I.P. Ernie), place them inside of it, station the cage on what used to be my desk in the basement and fire up the heat lamp. If you enjoy things such as house fires, be sure to leave a cardboard box-intended to hold the chicks while you clean their cage-nearby. I say that because one morning as I prepared to go to work, a white haze began to emanate from the dishwasher. As a dad whose mind rarely puts two and two together, particularly when more coffee is needed, I thought, "Oh, the dishwasher is really creating a lot of steam this morning." My wife meanwhile, shouted that it was smoke and that something was burning. A frantic run downstairs later, we discovered our oldest son had gotten a little curious and stood on something to get a closer look at the chicks, pushing the cardboard box against the light and burning a nice black-rimmed hole into it. (If you avoid telling anyone about that little incident, I'd be grateful.) Tip #3: Concede the fight dramatically You are really all set at this point to watch the chicks grow up. The only other thing you should know before heading outdoors and placing them in the coop your father-in-law made from an old hog house and barn wood (yes, my father-in-law is awesome) is that you will be charged with cleaning the cage at night. With a cardboard box. And three boys under age 5 who think it is fun to fawn over the chickens, release them from the box when you aren't looking and let them flit around the basement. My best advice here is to give up any notion that you, as a parent, have control. You do not. (Is this ringing any bells?) The coop has officially been flown at this point. The biggest fear you will probably have is that the chicks will die a horrible death beneath the shoe of a toddler against a choral backdrop of peeping and shrieking. Tip #4: Sleep easier once the nightmares fade Seven or eight weeks into the backyard chicken routine, you'll safely be able to say it was all worth it, like I did. The chickens are in their teenage years, as my wife refers to it, and our boys know how to open their cage to let the chickens run free. It reminds me of those chick days, so long ago, when they ran around our basement like Sam Neill in "Jurassic Park." Your chicks will have names, first Fuzzy, now Peep, then Cockroach (the fast one-my oldest provided the name and the logic). This is the fake farmer equivalent of you-break-it-you-bought-it. It all happens so quickly you're left holding a receipt for several hundred dollars, several sacks of feed and a basement from which the smells of Eau de Chicken Litter have faded. Tip #5: Use it as an educational opportunity for your real children Scars aside, raising chickens can teach young people several important lessons. They understand better than ever the value of looking after living things goodness knows they have a hard time understanding the need to care for their own brothers on many occasions so it's nice to nurture a sense of parental care. My sons can't wait to get out of the house every morning to make sure their hens (and two roosters-an unexpected and soon-to-be-literal wakeup call from the farm store) are fed and watered. When one of the hens took a walk in the adjoining woods and couldn't be found, our oldest son learned the value of persistence and optimism. He kept searching until he found her, happy and healthy, even as his parents feared finding a cluster of bloodied feathers. Above all, the chickens have become a talking point that brings our family together, gives us a common project to work on and makes us laugh as the birds cluck and flutter to their little hearts' desire after their daily release from the cage. Supposedly, we'll also get free eggs out of the deal. Unless the skunk wins next time. *** Nate Birt is a Missouri-based journalist with seven years of full-time writing and editing experience. He and his wife have three boys. Follow him @natebirt. Behind the four big players in the U.S. airline industry American, United, Delta and Southwest there is a tangled computer system pieced together after decades of mergers that married mix-matched networks. Just what went wrong with Deltas system on Monday that caused scores of cancellations and delays is still being sorted out. Was it a power outage, as Delta says? Or was it an internal computer glitch, as Georgia Pacific, the utility at Deltas Atlanta hub, says? In either case, airline and computer experts say, it shouldnt have happened. Computer systems and their electric power sources should have foolproof backups, they say. Tens of thousands of passengers were delayed as Delta canceled hundreds of its nearly 6,000 daily flights. The airline warned that more cancellations or delays were likely to follow as they struggled to revive their computer network. But there may be more of the same airline problems in the months to come as long-term reverberations follow a tumultuous decade of mergers that swiftly consolidated the industry. These (remaining) airlines have long histories: 20 years of cobbled-together systems, said Rick Seaney, who created FareCompare.com, a consumer search engine for ticket prices. Its difficult to integrate older technology. They have hundreds and hundreds of cobbled-together things that they have to track down to make sure everything is working correctly. Before Monday, the most recent evidence of airline computer system problems came last month, when Southwest Airlines needed several days to fully recover from a collapse in its systems that resulted in more than 2,300 cancellations and 8,000 late flights. Southwest absorbed a new and different computer system when it acquired AirTran six years ago. The airline is investing millions of dollars in creating a new computer system intended to replace its aging network. American Airlines, which completed its merger with US Airways last year, is working hard to marry the two systems. Americans about to, in the next month and a half or two, start to integrate USAirways systems, Seaney said. Typically when youre trying to do a cutover like that you pick a weekend when you have slow traffic, just in case you have glitches. Since the turn of the century, American has absorbed TWA. USAirways merged with America West, and then with American. Delta merged with Northwest. United merged with Continental. Bijan Vasigh, a professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida, said it may be time for airlines to invest in totally new computer systems to replace the patchwork networks now in place. The cost (of Mondays shutdown) should be huge for Delta Airlines, he said. Im sure that they will try to revisit this issue. Airlines rely on their computer systems to manage dozens of operations, from reservations and ticketing to behind-the-scenes management of plane movement, gate assignments, air crew scheduling and even the displays on arrival-departure screens at many airports. Deltas computer system failure came at the height of the summer travel system and on a Monday, when many business travelers head to airports to begin their workweek. Vasigh pointed out that it could have been worse. Imagine if this event had happened during Thanksgiving or Christmas; this would be catastrophic for the airline, he said. Recapturing those passengers and accommodating them would be a nightmare. But the failure of computer software or the loss of electrical power should not cripple an airline, experts agreed. Any time you have a systemwide outage it either has to be one of the core systems or some sort of networking glitch, Seaney said. All computer systems have redundancy. Typically, almost all companies especially if you have credit card data are required to be spread out, sometimes across different countries, to make sure that basically (their network) never goes down. Delta said its computers stopped working at 2:30 a.m. Monday. Shortly before 9 a.m. the airline lifted a self-imposed ground stop and began resuming limited operations, but told passengers: If your flight is canceled or significantly delayed, you are entitled to a refund. Even if your flight is not canceled, you may make a one-time change to your ticket without fee. A man whom police accused of robbing an Omaha bank last week was ordered held on $200,000 bail Monday by a Douglas County Court judge. Charles R. McSpadden, 42, is accused of giving a teller a note demanding money at the U.S. Bank near 42nd and Valley Streets about 9:15 a.m. Friday, police said. He must pay 10 percent of the bail amount, or $20,000, to be released. Shortly after the robber left the bank with the money, police arrested McSpadden near 46th Street and Poppleton Avenue. An assistant prosecutor with the Douglas County Attorneys Office said that McSpadden has four felony convictions among 192 contacts with law enforcement agencies in the county. When he was 36 McSpadden was found not guilty in a 2009 shooting and evaluated at a state mental health facility. Prosecutors accused him of shooting Jamar Adams, 28, three times in the chest outside Southside Barbers, 6902 S. 36th St. Adams was released from a hospital after about a week. McSpadden was found guilty of misdemeanor false reporting in connection with the 1995 shooting death of Omaha Police Officer Jimmy Wilson Jr. and spent time in a Minnesota federal prison for conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine. Contact the writer: 402-444-1272, kevin.cole@owh.com So far, Erica Hairston Figures likes what she sees at Howard Kennedy Elementary, where her younger daughter will start second grade this week. Its a great improvement for a community that really needs it, she said. She likes the energetic vibe shes getting from the teachers, many of whom are new. She appreciates the thought thats gone into a curriculum she believes will challenge kids and ignite their love of learning. Theyre putting work into our children, she said. When a lot of schools have given up, when a lot of teachers have gotten tired, theyve never given up here at Howard Kennedy. The prekindergarten-through-fifth-grade school, at 30th and Binney Streets, opened its doors Monday night for a back-to-school cookout. The event drew more than 150 students and their families, who were eager to meet new teachers, scoop up school supplies and hear about the host of changes coming to Kennedy this school year. The school is in the midst of a big transition. Its been folded into a neighborhood revitalization project, 75 North, that aims to breathe new life into the north Omaha Highlander neighborhood that includes Kennedy. The partnership between Omaha Public Schools and the Seventy Five North Revitalization Corp. the nonprofit behind the redevelopment project is meant to spur improvements at Kennedy, one of the districts highest-poverty and lowest-performing schools. Theres a new principal, Tony Gunter. New faces dominate the teaching staff, three-quarters of whom are new to Kennedy. The school year starts Wednesday a week earlier than most OPS elementary schools. Students will spend an extra 45 minutes in class each day with a new curriculum that stresses project-based learning, literacy and science, technology, engineering, art and math. Much of the schools transformation is modeled after the Charles R. Drew Charter School in Atlanta. The school, started in a poor, crime-ridden part of the city, flourished as the neighborhoods lot improved, and now boasts high test scores and a long waiting list. On Monday, staff greeted kids with applause as they walked under an archway of black and gold balloons representing the schools new colors. Students high-fived and hugged the teachers and staff they recognized as a machine sent bubbles floating through the air. Cmon, Tigers! Cmon in, a staff member welcomed. Families grabbed plates of burgers, chips, watermelon and baby carrots before embarking on a scavenger hunt that invited them to take selfies with teachers and explore classrooms. Everything is exactly like I imagined it, Gunter said. People are excited. In the music room, a teacher set up Disney karaoke. In the lab, teacher Dustin Driever helped kids fold paper airplanes they sent sailing down a hallway. Because were trying to make them fly as far as possible, were trying to make them as aerodynamic as possible, he explained to a group of kids. See? Hes already using words like aerodynamic with them, Gunter said. Travis Wehmeyer has attended Kennedy since kindergarten and is now entering fifth grade. He made sure to meet his new teacher. Im looking forward to getting more As and Bs and having a good year, he said. His mom said the staff went way overboard in making families feel welcome and planning a fun event. Still, it was strange not to see some of the teachers she had gotten to know over the years. Im kind of missing some of the people who were here, she said. Debra Danzie tagged along with her daughter and two grandkids, Omari, whos entering fifth grade, and Odessi, a third-grader. Shes been ready to go back to school for a month, she said, pointing to Odessi. Danzie is encouraged by the changes aimed at improving the school, and said she already knows Gunter, who goes to her church. Other parents said theyre waiting to see how the new staff and curriculum shake out, and how kids adjust to a longer school day and year. Its all right, said Angel Johnson, who has a fifth-grader at Kennedy and another child who recently graduated from Kennedy and moved on to middle school. The teachers, I dont really know a lot of them. Im watching to see how it unfolds. Change is good, according to Hairston Figures. They welcome you into the classroom with open arms, she said. Theyre making an investment into (kids) lives. We appreciate what Howard Kennedy is doing this year. Contact the writer: A group of stylists is aiming to give back to the community in a special way. With the start of school quickly approaching, stylist Kim Britain is hoping to donate back-to-school haircuts to those who may not be able to afford them. Britain first started using her work as a way to volunteer a few years ago, visiting a hospice house to give haircuts, brush patients hair and more. The opportunity left her eager to do more, this time a bit more easily. It was kind of hard without the chair, she said. I thought why not keep it in the community, so I put this out there and Ive gotten a pretty good response. Britain reached out to La Vista and Papillion area community members to offer free haircuts to those who may be struggling to find the money for extra expenses, specifically for children as they head back to school. I still struggle financially, Britain said. I make ends meet, but being a mom, I cant imagine not being able to get a haircut for my kids. This I can do. I dont have money to give but I can give haircuts. She said back to school is the perfect time to donate haircuts for a number of reasons, from donning a nice, fresh look for first day of school photos to getting chlorine and other summer toxins out of hair. Especially with teenage girls, its about image, Britain said. I remember being a teenager. Everyone wants to feel pretty. Britain said she has also had community members reach out to recommend other friends in need, for example, a woman on maternity leave leaving money tight, or a husband out of work. With back to school, I figured it was a good time, she said. Everyone donates around Christmas but people need help year round. She and Salon Ink co-owner Ingrid Hagberg have partnered with Maggie Swartz of NewEra Salon in Papillion to work on the back-to-school haircuts. Britain also hopes to get more stylists involved, even aiming to do similar service work on a monthly basis. Even though were all at different salons, we all have the same passion, she said. Were all a team in the industry. A 32-year-old Canadian man suffered serious injuries Monday night when the semitrailer truck he was in rolled on Interstate 80 near Underwood, Iowa, in Pottawattamie County. The Iowa State Patrol said Daniel Therrier of Montreal was taken to Mercy Hospital in Council Bluffs after the 8:20 p.m. crash. The patrol said he was a passenger in a 2015 Volvo semi driven by Mohammed Zoucha, 37, of St. Laurent, Quebec. Zoucha was not injured. The patrol said the semi was westbound on I-80 northeast of Council Bluffs when it drifted to the right and veered off the roadway. Zoucha attempted to return to the roadway, but the semi rolled into its passenger side, injuring Therrier, the patrol said. LINCOLN Lacking a recommendation from the Omaha City Council, the state liquor commission on Tuesday decided to allow the renewal of a liquor license for Taza Hookah Lounge, an establishment once featured on the reality show Bar Rescue. Earlier this year, the city had asked the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission to require the bar, at 1507 Farnam St., to reapply for its license, citing a rowdy clientele and a large fight in October that spilled out of the bar into the street. In March, the liquor commission held a hearing at which the bars owner blamed his troubles on the reality show, which had persuaded him to change the format of his establishment to a dance-oriented nightclub. At that meeting, Taza owner Jesse Hill said he planned to convert the bar back to its original format, which was a laid-back place that focused on tobacco and coffee. But in July, when it came time for the Omaha City Council to recommend whether to give the hookah lounge a license, members failed to pass both a motion to deny the license and a motion to approve it. Bob Batt, chairman of the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission, said that it was the first time he could recall that a community had failed to give a pro or con recommendation on such a matter, particularly after asking a bar to reapply, which is often a precursor for revoking a license. It was a recommendation of no recommendation, Batt said. He said that he saw nothing in the bars management that warranted the bar losing its license. All three members of the liquor commission agreed that the matter should be dismissed and the lounge be allowed to keep its liquor license. Contact the writer: 402-473-9584, paul.hammel@owh.com LINCOLN The state should hire a full-time law enforcement officer in Whiteclay, Nebraska, and open an alcohol detox center to clean up the notorious border town, an ad hoc committee formed by Gov. Pete Ricketts has recommended. The recommendations, revealed publicly on Tuesday, prompted a group of advocates to renew its call to close down the beer stores in Whiteclay and inspired a state senator to voice optimism that improvements might actually happen. I think theres a lot of hope about what we can do in this area, said State Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks of Lincoln, who is leading an interim study of the alcohol-related problems associated with Whiteclay. The unincorporated community has four beer-only liquor stores that sell the equivalent of nearly 4 million cans of beer a year. Almost all the sales are to residents of the officially dry Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, where alcoholism is rampant and fetal alcohol syndrome is estimated to affect one in four children. Whiteclay is becoming the Flint, Michigan, of Nebraska, said Lincoln businessman Alan Jacobsen, a former candidate for governor. He was among a group of Lincoln advocates calling for action from the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission. He told the three-member panel on Tuesday that the ad hoc committees recommendations provide legal justification for the state to shut down the liquor stores in Whiteclay. One requirement is that a community have adequate law enforcement. In addition to increased law enforcement and a detox center, the ad hoc committee, comprised of Whiteclay business owners and others from the area, called for changes in laws that would allow the unincorporated area to prohibit public urination, loitering and panhandling on the streets and to tear down dilapidated buildings. Establishing an economic development plan also was suggested, as was improving the towns relations with the Oglala Sioux Tribe. The recommendations, plus the interim study by the State Legislature, promise to put Whiteclay back in the spotlight when state lawmakers reconvene in January. Taylor Gage, a spokesman for Ricketts, said the governor plans to sit down with the committee and decide what he can support once local leaders devise tactical plans on how to finance and implement the recommendations. Many have worked over the years to address chronic issues in Whiteclay, and it is clear there are no easy or quick solutions for the communitys challenges, Gage said. Lance Moss, a Whiteclay grocery store owner who headed up the ad hoc committee, said he is eagerly awaiting a response from the Governors Office, which was first informed of the recommendations in mid-June. I was kind of hoping wed hear something back, Moss said. Maybe we will or wont. But thats what we were hoping. Gage said a Ricketts representative will attend the Whiteclay committees next meeting, on Aug. 17. The committee, which has been meeting for several months, did not meet in July. For nearly two decades, Native American activists and others have been calling for action to end the exportation of misery to the South Dakota reservation due to the liquor sales at Whiteclay. Ten months ago, Ricketts formed the ad hoc committee to obtain local recommendations on what to do. Moss, whose wife had been accosted by one of the street people of Whiteclay, said the people who live on the streets have become younger and more violent, and state help is needed. As an unincorporated community of about a dozen people, Whiteclay has no local police, and the closest law enforcement office is 22 miles away in Rushville, Nebraska. Moss, whose grandfather served as a state deputy in Whiteclay in the 1970s, said hed like to see the state pay for a deputy sheriff to patrol the community once again. The Whiteclay committee, whose meetings were not open to the public, does not support shutting down the liquor stores. Are there problems with alcohol around here? Heck, yes. Ray Charles could see that. But its not the liquor stores fault, Moss said. Pansing Brooks, who visited Whiteclay this summer, said she was encouraged because the committees recommendations mirror many that shes made, except for creating a job training program. Pansing Brooks said she is exploring several ways to finance the steps in Whiteclay, including using some of the tax revenue generated by the liquor stores. Hobert Rupe, executive director of the liquor commission, said the panel has not received the recommendations from the ad hoc group. But he said the commission needs solid evidence of violations of state law before a liquor license can be revoked. One of the advocates of change from Lincoln, Dennis Carlson, said the ball is now in Ricketts hands. The governor created the task force, Carlson said. He was elected to lead. Its time for him to take action. Contact the writer: 402-473-9584, paul.hammel@owh.com * * * The recommendations from the governors group were: Provide state funding for a full-time police officer. Establish a detox/treatment center. Eliminate abandoned buildings and other public health hazards. Establish an economic development plan or Whiteclay. Get legislative authority to enact county ordinances to address panhandling, vagrancy, loitering, urinating and defecating in public. Seek ways to improve relationships between the tribe and the State of Nebraska. LINCOLN Jim Potter loved Nebraska history, motorcycles and shooting black-powder rifles, but he never liked big parties. So when he died, he told his wife, he didnt want a big fuss. But he did have one request: to be cremated and shot out of a cannon. Even as a kid he liked to make things explode, said his wife, Gail DeBuse Potter. Potter, the senior research historian for the Nebraska State Historical Society and an author of several books and articles on the states history, died Saturday in Lincoln from a heart attack. He was 70. During 49 years with the Historical Society, he served as the state archivist and editor of the societys magazine, Nebraska History. But colleagues said his title might as well have been state historian. He was knowledgeable about every aspect of the states history, and, thanks to his years as state archivist, knew where to dig out the interesting details, said David Bristow, the current editor of the magazine. I dont have all the answers, he once told me, but I at least have a pretty good idea of where to look, Bristow said. Potter was also a stickler for the truth, even if it exploded a popular myth. That was the case with John Browns Cave, a tourist site in Nebraska City said to be a stop on the underground railroad used by slaves escaping northward. Potters 2002 article on the fact and folklore of the cave uncovered little factual basis for that claim, or for the idea that John Brown, the famous abolitionist, had ever visited the cabin. The cave was ultimately renamed the Mayhew Cabin, and the focus of the attraction become the story of its owner, Allen Mayhew, and his wife, Barbara Kagi Mayhew, the sister of a close associate of Browns. Potter, according to Bristow, loved the detective work involved in historical research, and was proud to correct the record when it needed to be corrected. Thats the mark of a good historian, he said, to have both the skills and the integrity to do that. Added his wife, He was an editor. Editors are picky people. They want all the punctuation right, and all the details. The couple, who met at the Historical Society, were married for 41 years. Their honeymoon was a motorcycle ride to the Black Hills and Fort Robinson. They lived in Chadron, Nebraska, for a dozen years while Gail served as director of the Museum of the Fur Trade. After she retired at the end of 2014, they moved back to Lincoln. She said that the couple rarely left Nebraska for vacations, save for a few trips to Civil War battlefields to research the role of Nebraskans. One of Potters favorite trips was tracing the boundaries of the state while riding a motorcycle, a trip he completed at least three times. He would follow the highways and gravel roads closest to the state borders, according to his wife. The trip took three to four days. Thats the only time he had a bad accident, Gail Potter said. He topped a hill and a gravel road turned into sand. He dumped his bike and broke his ankle. Because it was in the days before cellphones and the accident was in a remote area of southwest Nebraska, Potter had to get himself back on the motorcycle and drive 20 miles to the nearest town to find help. Potter caught the history bug from a high school teacher in his hometown of Wilcox, Nebraska. The teacher loved Civil War history, and two of Potters four books and several articles were about the Civil War. Jim Potter earned both bachelors and masters degrees from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in history. Shortly after getting his undergraduate degree in 1967, he walked by the State Historical Society and wondered if they had any job openings, Gail Potter said. Potter walked in, got an interview and was hired soon after. One of his first tasks with the society was firing off a cannon on the grounds of the State Capitol to commemorate the states centennial in 1967. He owns a couple of cannons, his wife said, including one that will be used to fulfill his dying wish at a shooting range owned by a black-powder club of which he was a member. Besides his wife, Potter is survived by his mother, Ruth (Dunn) Potter of Wilcox; two sisters, Lisa Parish of North Platte and Lori Potter of Kearney; and a sister-in-law, Lois Potter of Wilcox. He was preceded in death by his father, Dean, and a younger brother, Glen. A celebration of life is scheduled Friday in Lincoln from 4 to 6:30 p.m. at Windsor Stables, 1024 L St. Memorials are suggested to the Nebraska State Historical Society Foundation or the Museum of the Fur Trade. Contact the writer: 402-473-9584, paul.hammel@owh.com Work is set to begin Friday on Nebraska Highway 105 south of Humboldt in southeast Nebraska near the Kansas border. The Nebraska Department of Roads said the project starts at the junction with Nebraska Highway 8. Crews will work north to Humboldt. In another project near the Kansas line, work is to begin Aug. 17 on Nebraska Highway 8 west of Salem. Roads officials said the project starts on Highway 8 at the junction with Nebraska Highway 50 north of Dubois, with crews working east to Salem. Knife River Midwest of Sioux City, Iowa, was awarded the $568,502 contract for the Highway 105 work and the $1,349,615 contract for the work on Highway 8. Both projects include milling and resurfacing the existing roadways with asphalt-concrete. Traffic on Highways 105 and 8 will be controlled by one-lane work zones, using a pilot car and flaggers, roads officials said. Both projects are expected to be completed in late summer. COUNCIL BLUFFS Mike Pence says this years presidential election could impact America for decades to come far beyond the next four years. The Indiana governor who was tabbed last month to be Donald Trumps running mate said Monday at a Council Bluffs rally that the next president will set the course for the U.S. Supreme Court. Its possible that the next president whether it is Trump, a Republican, or Hillary Clinton, a Democrat could appoint three or more justices to the nine-member court, which already has one vacancy. We ought to think very carefully about what that means for our Constitution and our principles of government, Pence told an energetic crowd at the Mid-America Center. For the sake of the rule of law, for the sake of the sanctity of life, for the sake of our 2nd Amendment to the Constitution ... we must ensure the next president making appointments to the Supreme Court of the United States of America is Donald Trump, he said. Pence drew about 500 people to his Council Bluffs stop, during which he gave a punchy 30-minute speech that was briefly interrupted by about a half-dozen protesters chanting Stop the racism, stop the hate. It was Pences second Iowa rally of the day. He spoke earlier Monday in Sioux City. The GOP vice presidential nominee gave a solid meat-and-potatoes speech, lambasting Clinton and President Barack Obama as being weak on the economy and weak on foreign affairs, and praising Trump as a job creator who will never back down. You have nominated a man for president who never quits, who never backs down. A fighter, a winner and, until now, it seems like he was out there all on his own. But now were united, Pence said. He has connected with the aspirations and the frustrations of the American people like no other national leader in my lifetime, since Ronald Reagan. When Donald Trump does his talking, he doesnt go tiptoeing around those thousands of rules of political correctness. Pence appeared to dismiss recent national polls that suggest that Trump has fallen behind Clinton. The Democrats and the media keep thinking theyve done him in, Now weve got him, Pence said. Then they turn on television the next morning, and Donald Trump is still standing strong. Pence followed in his running mates shoes by meeting with the family of Sarah Root, the Council Bluffs woman whom authorities say was killed by an illegal immigrant from Honduras who was driving drunk in Omaha. Local law enforcement had asked federal immigration authorities to detain the driver and were turned down. The driver later posted $5,000 bail and disappeared. Roots case has sparked national attention since Trump mentioned her in his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention last month in Cleveland and appeared to blame Obama for her death. One more child to sacrifice on the altar of open borders, said Trump, who had met with Roots family during a rally in May. Pence said he met with the Root family before his rally not as a governor, not as a candidate, just as a dad. He also used the case to argue that Trump was the law-and-order candidate. After Roots death, Nebraska and Iowa lawmakers joined together and introduced a bill known as Sarahs Law, which would force federal immigration officials to detain illegal immigrants who have been charged with a crime that results in death or serious injury. Thanks to the strong leadership of Sen. Joni Ernst, Sarahs life and their (family) loss will change lives. Because when Donald Trump becomes the president of the United States of America, working with Sen. Ernst, we will pass Sarahs Law, Pence said. Contact the writer: 402-444-1309, robynn.tysver@owh.com Kintner lacks judgment, humility So here we are again. Another holier-than-thou, family values Republican is caught not living up to the standards he holds the rest of us up to (Kintner, fined for cybersex, wont heed calls to resign, Aug. 6 World-Herald). Papillion State Sen. Bill Kintner is an embarrassment to himself, his family, the Legislature and the decent citizens of Nebraska. He has proven that he doesnt have the judgment to represent his district, the humility to be a public servant or the honor to resign. Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts has it right: Kintner should resign now. Period. Bruce Allen, Papillion He has a surplus of gall Apparently the notion of shame is in short supply in the Legislature. I cannot fathom how State Sen. Bill Kintner can admit to engaging in cybersex on a state computer with a woman he met online and then not resign. Senator, have you no shame? I also would like to thank the senator for his four tips for staying out of this type of situation. However, because Im not morally bankrupt, I dont think Ill need them. Mike Miller, Omaha Kintners hotline to heaven? So State Sen. Bill Kintner thinks it is Gods decision that he stay in office? Give me a break. As Donald Trump would say, Get him out of here! Jim Kubik, Omaha Invest in vets, not buildings Spending millions of dollars on a new outpatient clinic next to the VA Medical Center is a total waste of money (New clinic may be model for others, VA secretary says, Aug. 5 World-Herald). That money should be used on medical expenses for veterans instead of for buildings. A new clinic will require administrators to run it, accountants, maintenance staff, nurses, custodians, ground crew, utilities, etc. Millions will be spent annually to keep it going instead of giving medical care to veterans. Instead of building and maintaining a new clinic, veterans should be allowed to go to local doctors and hospitals. They would get better care if the majority of the VA money would be directed toward medical treatment. Kenneth A. Becker, Omaha You dont get a Purple Heart as a gift I was appalled when Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump recently accepted the Purple Heart from a veteran, saying he had always wanted one. Anyone who was half a man would have said, I appreciate the offer, but I cannot accept it because I did not earn it. This is the same man who compared his sacrifices to those of a family that lost a son who was defending his country. How could anyone think that this man is fit to be president of the United States? Dennis Bruns, Omaha OK, we get the point Donald Trump has made two very offensive comments about Fox News Megyn Kelly and also made fun of a disabled journalist. The media showed both of these incidents many times every day. We now have ads by the Hillary Clinton campaign showing Trump making these comments, saying how terrible it was that our children were exposed to them. But while Trump made these comments only once, its the media and the Clinton campaign that are showing them to our children over and over. Neither one is fit to govern this country. Virginia Voelte, Omaha Disrespecting a lifetime of service Hillary Clinton served our nation as secretary of state for four years and as first lady for eight. The people who were behind the parade float in Arcadia, Iowa, that featured a Clinton lookalike in prison garb behind bars, and the children who threw water balloons at it, should be ashamed of themselves. A.F. Jewell, Papillion Columbos of the bookshelves Matthew Hansens fun July 20 column on librarians at the Omaha Public Library who research book questions (Story sleuths) reminded me of the story about the college student running into his local bookstore to pick up a book assigned by his professor. He couldnt remember the title, but he knew it was about some guy and his red boat. Its very old and very famous, he tells the bookseller. Could Stephen Crane be the author? The crafty bookseller thinks the student may have conflated The Red Badge of Courage with The Open Boat. Was it about the Civil War? No, no, much older. Takes place in the Middle East. Guys name is Omar. Omar? About a red boat? The book was The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Jim Ross, Omaha A Gold Medal message I watched the opening ceremony for the Olympics. I saw, felt and experienced the energy. I was reminded by the faces, the eyes and the spirits of the athletes that, although each of us may look different on the outside, we have much more in common on the inside. We are better together. The Rev. Royal Carleton, Omaha TN Min targets DMK over ST status for fishermen Chennai oi-PTI Chennai, Aug 8: Tamil Nadu Assembly today witnessed a war of words between ruling AIADMK and main opposition DMK on several issues, including law and order, Tsunami relief and a plea to include fishermen under marine tribes category in the Scheduled Tribe quota, which saw brief stalling of proceedings. Trouble started after AIADMK member K Manickam (Sholavandan) said Madurai had witnessed several crimes like murder during the DMK regime, but has now become a 'haven of peace' after Chief Minister Jayalalithaa assumed office. DMK members, led by party whip R Chakrapani, immediately demanded that Speaker P Dhanapal expunge the remark. Chakrapani said the remark should either be kept off the record or the DMK legislator's view over it be registered. Dhanapal said nothing new had been said by the member and urged DMK members to resume their seats. However they continued to voice their demand for some more time. Later, DMK member KPP Samy said his party chief M Karunanidhi had taken steps 'even at midnight' to bring back fishermen from Sri Lankan custody when he was in power. He also referred to his party chief's demand that fishermen be named marine tribes under the ST category. Intervening, Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar said DMK had no locus standi to speak on it as they had "slept" over the issue despite sharing power for 17 years with many Central regimes. He said Karunanidhi had even once said fishermen are greedy. Leader of the Opposition M K Stalin said the Minister may air views, but avoid using words like DMK had no locus standi to speak, to which Jayakumar wondered what the alternative was. He said 2,489 arrested fishermen and 357 impounded boats had been brought back from Sri Lanka and all efforts were on to get back 102 remaining boats. Samy dwelt on rehabilitation work done by DMK after the tsunami in 2014 and said they had allocated Rs 1,000 crore for it, to which Jayakumar said that in 2008-09 and 2009-10 (DMK regime) only 26.85 per cent and 6.78 per cent of funds were spent for the work, which was a "betrayal" of fishermen. The Minister said the CM had allocated Rs 1,495 crore for relief work, including housing and insurance components. Such allocation was not spent properly by subsequent DMK regime. He claimed that during AIADMK regime 99 per cent of funds was spent in 2014-15 and in 2012-13 and 2013-14, 86 per cent and 84 per cent. He and Revenue Minister R B Udhaya Kumar said Tsunami relief and rehabilitation work undertaken by the Chief Minister had come in for praise from all quarters. She had even sent Tamil Nadu officials to Sri Lanka to guide them on such work based on their request, they said. Kumar said people knew where the Opposition 'hid' when the Tsunami struck even as Jayalalithaa had led from the front in rescue and relief work.A total of 74,128 houses were built for beneficiaries under Tsunami relief work. PTI For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, August 9, 2016, 10:15 [IST] An enduring journey of 'Iron Lady of Manipur', Irom Sharmila India oi-Oneindia By Oneindia Staff Writer Imphal, Aug 9: Born in one of the seven sister states, Manipur, Irom Chanu Sharmila, launched hunger-strike in display of protest against Arm Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958. Born on March 14, 1972, she had been actively involved in local peace movements in the insurgency-hit Manipur. Sharmila was up against human right abuses both by the military forces and rebels. On November 2, 2000, Assam Rifles, a unit of the Indian Paramilitary Forces allegedly shot civilians dead while they were waiting for buses at a bus stand in Malon, a town in Imphal valley. The victims included Leisangbam Ibetombi, a 62-year-old woman, and 18-year-old Sinam Chandramani, a 1988 National Bravery Award winner. This tragic and inhumane incident enraged Irom. To protest against the alleged Malon Massacre, Sharmila began hunger fast. She kicked off her hunger protest on November 5, 2000. The key demand of Sharmila was to repeal Arm Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, which provide immunity for the military personnel from being tried under the court of law for killings, they carry out in the insurgency-hit areas in the country. Three days after she began her strike, she was arrested by the police and charged with an "attempt to commit suicide", which was unlawful under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at that time, and was later transferred to judicial custody. Her health deteriorated rapidly, and nasogastric intubation was forced on her from 21 November in order to keep her alive while under arrest. Sharmila has been regularly released and re-arrested every year since her hunger strike began. By 2004, Sharmila had become an "icon of public resistance." Following her procedural release on 2 October 2006, Irom Sharmila Chanu went to Raj Ghat, New Delhi, which she said was to pay floral tribute to my ideal, Mahatma Gandhi. Later that evening, Sharmila headed for Jantar Mantar for a protest demonstration where she was joined by students, human rights activists, and other concerned citizens. 30 women protested naked in support of Sharmila in front of the Assam Rifles headquarters. They held a banner saying Indian Army rape us and all of them were imprisoned for three months. On August 9, 2016, Sharmila ended her hunger strike that lasted for 16 years, expressing desire to join politics in a bid to repeal AFSPA. OneIndia News TRS, BJP are two sides of same coin: Rahul Gandhi in Telangana BJP to hold a popularity survey for sitting Goa MLAs India oi-PTI Panaji, Aug 9: BJP will conduct a popularity survey of their sitting MLAs in Goa before re-allotting them tickets for the upcoming State Legislative Assembly election, a senior party functionary said today. "We will conduct a popularity survey in the respective constituencies before re-allotting tickets to the sitting MLAs. The opinion of the party workers will also be sought in each constituency," BJP Goa Unit President Vinay Tendulkar said today. BJP has representation in 21 out of 40 constituencies of Goa, which will go to polls before March 2017. Tendulkar said the party will announce its candidates for Goa polls one and half months in advance after the names are cleared by the Parliamentary Board. The party which swung into power in 2012 Goa elections will kick off its campaign for upcoming polls through public meeting on August 20 that would be addressed by its National President Amit Shah. "Shahji will launch the poll campaign for Goa.After that we will be holding various interactions with sections like businessmen, farmers, tribals and others," Tendulkar said. Responding to a question, he said Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has already ruled out returning to Goa politics. "Parrikar has already told the people during birthday celebration of Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar that the upcoming polls would be fought under leadership of Parsekar," Tendulkar added. The BJP Goa chief said the party will not announce the chief ministerial face for the state, but would wait for the elected legislators to take a call on it. PTI Delhi shocker: Elderly couple attacked in park; wife dead, husband critical India oi-PTI New Delhi, Aug 9: An elderly couple was brutally attacked at a park in outer Delhi's Prashant Vihar resulting in the death of the 56-year-old woman and grievous injuries to her 60-year-old husband, police said on Monday. Kulbhushan Chawla and his wife Kanchan Chawla were sitting on a bench in the park after a stroll at around 9 pm on Sunday when unidentified attackers slashed their necks and other body parts with knives and fled before other present could react, a senior police officer said. The couple's cry for help attracted the attention of those present but the attackers managed to flee. They were rushed to a nearby hospital where the doctors declared Kanchan dead and her husband was critical, he said. The couple lived with their married son at the Laxmi Kunj apartment, police said. Their daughter, also married, and Kulbhushan's brother also live in an apartment in the same society apartment. Police reached the spot after a PCR call and questioned those present at the park at the time of the incident. Robbery as motive of the attack was doubted as valuables of the couple were not touched. PTI For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, August 9, 2016, 13:39 [IST] Divided family, factional fights; will troubles end for Irom Sharmila? India oi-Vicky Imphal, Aug 9: Irom Sharmila will break her 16 year old fast on Tuesday. There is a lot of confusion regarding the kind of reception Sharmila, considered to be a living icon of mass struggle against the Armed Forces Special Protection Act (AFSPA), will get. A few days back threats of assassination were handed out to her. Now it is very unclear how her family would react as they have been saying that she never consulted them on this decision. Irom Sharmila to end her fast: What it means to Manipur and struggle against AFSPA Sharmila had indicated that she wanted to get married and also join politics. She has also said that she would contest as an independent candidate and will continue her fight against AFSPA. As per the reports in the local media, there is nothing special that is being planned by the family members. Her mother, the 84-year-old Irom Sakhi says that she had prayed for Sharmila everyday. "I had said I would feed her the first morsel of food the day AFSPA was repealed," she said. Everyone is guessing Going by the statement made by Sharmila's mother, it is clear that there is some amount of discomfort in the ties. The problem however, is not her decision to withdraw the fast without consulting them. The bone of contention has been her relationship with her Goan born British fiancee, Desmond Countinho. There were reports of family members threatening Countinho. Further, the family also felt that she should not have been involved with a non-Manipuri. This has created a wide divide in the family. To state that she was breaking off her fast to get married has only made matters worse. Adding to her woes are threats from radical factions as well. While some human rights groups have openly criticised her decision, the radical faction has warned that she will be eliminated. Human Rights groups feel that her decision to end the fast is as bad as her decision to join politics. On the other hand, is a lesser known group called the Alliance for Socialist Unity, Kangleipak which has issued a threat to her. The group reminds her that some others were eliminated after they had deviated from the cause and then facing the elections. The group urges her to continue her fast. N Oken the chairman of this group says that all those who joined politics did so knowing well that it was a dead end. Further the group also said that she should not marry a non-local person. OneIndia News Delhi: DTC introduces 'Aam Aadmi Bypass Express' service India oi-PTI New Delhi, Aug 9: Delhi Transport Corporation on Monday introduced its new Aam Aadmi Bypass Express bus service that will ply from Uttam Nagar bus terminal to Sarai Kale Khan ISBT, connecting three National Highways -- NH-1, NH-10 and NH-24. Transport Minister Satyendar Jain said twenty buses, of which 10 will be air-conditioned, will run on a signal-free elevated corridor from Vikaspuri to Wazirabad on a trial basis. The minister also said the government intended to run feeder buses on narrow roads and normal buses on large ones to ensure there is no traffic congestion due to the plying of these vehicles in the national capital. Asked about BJP questioning the government over the name given to the service, Jain said there should be no politics on this issue as it has been launched to cater to the aam aadmi (common man). A DTC official said the new bus service will start at Uttam Nagar Bus Terminal at 5.18 AM and at Sarai Kale Khan ISBT at 5.24 AM every day. PTI For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, August 9, 2016, 12:36 [IST] Govt plans to hike compensation for victims of violence India oi-PTI New Delhi, Aug 9: Government is considering raising the compensation amount for families of security personnel and civilians killed in extremist violence, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said today. During Question Hour in the Lok Sabha, Singh said he was of the view that the compensation should be increased and a proposal in this regard would be taken up through the Union Cabinet. He said the government is considering to increase the compensation for security personnel and civilians killed in extremist violence. There is already a scheme for providing assistance to civilian victims of terrorist/communal/naxal violence under which Rs three lakh financial assistance is given for death or permanent incapacitation to the family of civilian victims. This is subject to the condition that no employment has been provided to any of the family members of the victim. State governments have their own compensation policy for the families of civilians and state police killed in Left Wing Extremism (LWE) violence, Singh said. Around Rs 4.26 crore was reimbursed to 10 states in 2014-15 under Security Related Expenditure (SRE) scheme to LWE affected states for ex-gratia compensation to security personnel and civilians. Under the SRE scheme, the Centre reimburses ex-gratia payment of Rs 1 lakh to the family of civilian and Rs 3 lakh to family of security personnel killed in LWE violence. "An ex-gratia compensation of Rs 15 lakh is paid to the next of kin of personnel of Central Armed Paramilitary Forces (CAPF) killed in maoist violence," Singh said. PTI Gujarat lions become subject of debate in LS India oi-PTI New Delhi, Aug 9 Lions of Gujarat became a subject of debate in Lok Sabha today with SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav seeking a probe into the death of two big cats gifted to Uttar Pradesh. Raising the issue, Yadav said the two lions were gifted by Gujarat to the Etawah Wildlife Lion Safari Park, a dream project of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and the senior Lok Sabha MP himself. "My lions have died. (Narendra) Modi (as Gujarat Chief Minister) had gifted us. I want an inquiry into it. How did they die? What were the reasons? If there were shortcomings on our side, we will rectify. But I want a probe," Yadav said during Question Hour. Responding to Yadav's request, Environment Minister Anil Madhav Dave said he would try to find out the reasons. "I will try to find out the reasons and revert to you. We will conduct a probe," he said. Altogether 4 lions were gifted to Uttar Pradesh by Gujarat three years ago. After Mulayam Singh spoke, Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia wanted to know whether some lions -- at least 40 -- could be relocated from Gir National Park of Gujarat to Panna Reserve Forest in Madhya Pradesh. However, Dave did not reply to his supplementary, saying it was far away from the main question which was on bio diversity parks. Scindia's question prompted several MPs from Gujarat to say that lions of their state were not for Madhya Pradesh. This resulted in a verbal duel with the Congress leader. The dispute between Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh over translocation of lions from Gir had already reached the Supreme Court which in 2013 allowed the translocation, saying the species was facing the threat of extinction and needed a second home. However, Gujarat has filed a review petition against this order. The state contends that lions would not be safe in Madhya Pradesh, considering that tiger population in the Panna Reserve Forest in the state was dwindling. Responding to another question, Dave said the Environment Ministry has not formulated any plan for the development of bio-diversity parks anywhere in India. However, the Delhi Development Authority has created Delhi bio-diversity foundation under the chairmanship of Delhi Lieutenant Governor. "The foundation has taken initiative to develop 6 bio-diversity parks on the land under DDA's jurisdiction. Compensation paid to the land oustees or whose land had been acquired for the development of bio-diversity parks, falls within the preview of concerned land departments of state governments," he said. PTI Irom Sharmila to end her fast: What it means to Manipur and struggle against AFSPA India oi-Oneindia By Maitreyee Boruah Imphal, Aug 9: In the Indian context, fasting holds a different meaning to different people and communities at large. If abstaining from food and drink is a popular belief in almost all the religions, leaders of protest movements in independent India, after being popularised by Mahatma Gandhi during our freedom struggle against the British rule, have hugely relied on hunger strikes to convey their messages to the authorities. Be it anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare or activist-turned-politician Arvind Kejriwal, several non-violent struggles in modern India have seen their leaders going on hunger strikes. However, none comes close to Manipur's Irom Sharmila's 16-year-long fast to demand the repeal of the draconian (as human rights activists say) Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), 1958. As the Iron Lady of Manipur (as Sharmila is popularly known) is all set to end her hunger strike on Tuesday in a courthouse in Imphal, a large number of media contingent and members of human rights organisations have already reached the capital city of the northeastern state. Earlier on July 26, when the 44-year-old made the announcement in the court of the chief judicial magistrate, Imphal (West), to end her fast, her decision took everyone by surprise. She also said that she wanted to get married and contest the upcoming Manipur assembly elections next year as an independent candidate. Right from her brother to her supporters, many took her decision with a pinch of salt and were reluctant to rally behind her. In fact, several groups have threatened her not to break her fast and marry an "outsider" (Goa-born British national Desmond Coutinho). According to media reports, Alliance for Socialist Unity, formed by the Kangleipak Yawol Kunna Lup and the Kangleipak Communist Party, has asked her to continue her fast, reminding the 44-year-old of "some former revolutionary leaders who were assassinated" for joining politics and forgetting the cause they spent years fighting for. Even the members of Meira Paibis (the grassroots women's rights group), who stood behind Sharmila since the beginning of her struggle, are critical of her desire to end her fast and start leading a normal life. Amidst all the opposition, few voices of solidarity could be also heard just hours before Sharmila is all set to break her long and excruciating fast. Imphal-based human rights activist, Babloo Loitongbam of Human Rights Alert, says that everyone has the freedom to express his or her opinion including the fasting woman as well as the groups and people who are opposing her latest decision. "Irom Sharmila is not a person who will cow down to diktats," Loitongbam, told reporters. Sharmila, who over the years since her fast first began in 2000, continued with her almost "lonely" battle against AFSPA, confined to her bed in a prison-turned-hospital in Imphal. It is her lone and long struggle that gave her the status of a goddess. While many of her followers believe that she is a divine incarnation, observers say that giving cult status to an individual could prove detrimental to the struggle itself. Close observers of Manipur's conflict-ridden history say the cause is more important than the individual. They say the focus should be on to repeal AFSPA, not on Sharmila's life. However, in some fights, like the one started by Sharmila, it's the commitment of the leader for a cause that drives the movement forward. Thus, as Sharmila is starting a new chapter in her struggle against AFSPA, both the cause and leader should go in tandem to bring the desired result. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, August 9, 2016, 10:17 [IST] Gopuja at all Karnataka Temples today: Govt explains how it should be done Karnataka's first known terror group Deendar Anjuman has found a safe home in Pak India oi-Vicky Driving a wedge in the society and creating communal clashes in a bid to de-stablise the economy of a country has been a major activity of every terror group. On Tuesday, Sheikh Amir Ali, an alleged operative of the Deendar Anjuman, the group behind the serial Church blasts in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh in the year 2000, was arrested by the Bengaluru Police. The Deendar Anjuman which was founded in 1924 and banned in 2000 is a forgotten outfit today. The group which was first to carry out a terror strike in Karnataka operates under the names of Anjuman Hizbullah and Jamaat-e-Hizbul Mujahideen in Mardan and Peshawar respectively. Karnataka Church blasts: Deendar Anjuman operative arrested after 16 years An Indian Islamic State The Deendar Anjuman was founded by Hazrat Moulana Deendar Channabasaveshwara Siddiqui in 1924 at Bellampet Kalaburgi, Karnataka. While this outfit remained low key for several years, it came into prominence following 13 blasts at places of worship in Andhra Pradesh, Goa and Karnataka between May and July 2000. The investigations that were conducted revealed that it was one Syed Zia-ul Hassan who had masterminded the attacks. He then migrated to Peshawar in Pakistan. Intelligence Bureau reports would suggest that Hassan had floated a terrorist group called the Jamaat-e-Hizbul Mujahideen in Pakistan. The group's ideology states that Islam is the only true global religion. It states that all religions either begin with Islam or later merge into it. Over the years it was found that the Deendar Anjuman had felt that it must convert the whole of India into an Islamic State, an ideology that was later adopted by the Indian Mujahideen. Ties with Pakistan After Hassan left for Pakistan he floated the Jamaat-e-Hizbul Mujahideen. While this was the violent wing of the outfit, the ideological wing was known as the Anjuman Hizbullah. This group is close to several terror and radical groups in Pakistan. Indian officials say that this group is being stage-managed by the ISI. It also has several branches in Saudi Arabia and one statistic indicates that there are around 150 branches. The links with the ISI date back to the late 1990s. Investigations into the church blasts had revealed that several of its operatives including Khalid Zaman had travelled to Pakistan to receive training from the ISI. While the blasts were planned to drive a wedge between the people in India, it was also found that the outfit had bigger plans for the future. The aim was not to kill people but to cause extensive damage, police say. They had on their radar telecommunication towers, electricity grids and also oil refineries. Investigations also showed that the outfit would undertake peace conferences annually. However, it was learnt that this was just a smokescreen and the real motive was to spread terror and violence. Further it was also found that this group had vandalised statues of Dr BR Ambedkar in a bid to create tension. Officials say that investigations had revealed that the group had grown so close to the ISI that it had openly told its members to work for the welfare of Pakistan. The proximity to Pakistan was also seen when 40 people of this outfit had been arrested following the blasts in 2000. Out of the 40 arrested, 7 were Pakistan nationals. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, August 9, 2016, 15:26 [IST] Love lessons: How Sushma Swarajs kind gesture turned a critic into an admirer India oi-Oneindia By Maitreyee Boruah Bengaluru, Aug 9: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is fast turning into a messiah for people in distress. In recent times, we have seen how on several occassions the senior BJP leader has been proactive in resolving problems of people, who have sent their SOSs to the minister on Twitter. The latest instance of Swaraj helping a Mangaluru-based couple on their honeymoon trip to Italy has a strong message for all those who are abusive on social media platforms. The case in point is that of Faizan Patel, a photographer, and his wife Sana Fatima Khan. Days before his journey on August 4, Faizan posted a tweet, "Just two days before our trip, my wife's passport goes missing!!!" On August 6, he again tweeted, "Seems like I am travelling alone tonight via @TurkishAirlines. My wife has her passport misplaced. Fingers crossed that we find it soon." Since the couple could not find the lost passport, a dejected Faizan on August 7 tweeted, "Travelling to Italy without wifey. #Yay #PartyTime #HoneyMoonwithoutHoney #milan," However, it was his tweet on August 8 marked to the External Affairs Minister, which helped the couple and they were reunited on their honeymoon trip. The tweet was accompanied by a picture of Faizan seated on the plane holding his wife's photograph, as she could not join him for the journey. "This is how I am travelling with my wife as of now. @SushmaSwaraj @MEAIndia @MEAQuery," tweeted the photographer. Immediately Swaraj responded, tweeting, "Ask your wife to contact me. I will ensure that she is with you on the next seat. pic.twitter.com/sktnOMkg0a @faizanpatel." Swaraj further tweeted, "My office has reached you already. You will get a duplicate Passport tomorrow. @faizanpatel https://twitter.com/SFK1986/status/762702881459933184 ..." Ask your wife to contact me. I will ensure that she is with you on the next seat. pic.twitter.com/sktnOMkg0a @faizanpatel Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) August 8, 2016 My office has reached you already. You will get a duplicate Passport tomorrow. @faizanpatel https://t.co/FV6BisvqgP Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) August 8, 2016 A "speechless" Sana thanked Swaraj in her tweet. "@SushmaSwaraj @faizanpatel I'm speechless. Can't thank you enough already." Faizan too has been posting "thank you" notes to Swaraj on his twitter handle. "Minister par excellence @SushmaSwarajBJP I am glad we have you. You're a beacon of hope. Regards,- Sana & Faizan," tweeted Faizan on August 9. "Thanks to @SushmaSwaraj, the passport is almost issued. Now the problem is the next available date at the VFS is on Thursday," Faizan added. However, Faizan in the past was not so gracious towards the External Affairs Minister. An old tweet of Faizan, as retweeted by journalist Shiv Aroor--after Swaraj helped the couple--shows Faizan posting a picture of the minister and the American President Barack Obama shaking hands. The picture was accompanied by an abusive tweet by Faizan. "Where is Sushma's hand?" Along with the old abusive tweet of Faizan, Aroor tweeted on August 9, "Shouldn't matter to a minister, but here's @FaizanPatel, who @SushmaSwaraj just helped with a 'honeymoon' passport." It is not the first time Swaraj has helped people in need. Earlier in February 2015, the External Affairs Minister rescued 168 Indians trapped in Iraq by acting on a video that was tweeted to her. She also helped Dev Tamboli by rescuing his sister from trafficking from UAE last year. There are several such instances when the minister and her team helped helpless Indians in their hour of crisis after they contacted Swaraj on Twitter. Faizan and his wife episode should be a big lesson for all the haters who love to abuse people on social media platforms. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, August 9, 2016, 14:13 [IST] 'They want Congress-mukt Bharat': Kharge in his first address as Cong chief Nothing will change in Congress: For Gandhis, power stays but the onus shifts Maharashtra govt diluting importance of Quit India event: Cong India oi-PTI Mumbai, Aug 9: Maharashtra government's decision to to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the historic 1942-freedom movement as 'Quit India-2' has invited criticism from Opposition Congress which has termed the decision as "disrespect" to freedom fighters. To mark the day, the BJP-Shiv Sena government has given a few advertisements in local dailies with the slogan 'Quit India-2', calling for eradication of illiteracy, farmer suicides, wastage of water, corruption, alcoholism etc. The initiative will be launched on Tuesday. Terming this slogan as "disrespectful" to the heroic efforts of freedom fighters, Mumbai Congress President Sanjay Nirupam said, "I have strong objection over the way this Government, party (BJP) and RSS people are trying to celebrate this historic occasion." "By launching another slogan, the government and RSS are trying to dilute the historic importance of that movement. BJP and RSS are doing this as their leaders do not find their names in the archives of freedom movement," he said. Mumbai BJP President Ashish Shelar, however, trashed Nirupam's allegations, saying it was his "old habit" to level "baseless" allegations against the saffron outfit. The former MP said the programme has been launched by the state government not by his party or RSS. "He (Nirupam) should at least must know who is the organiser. Its a programme launched by the government, not by any BJP MLA. As far as the slogan is concerned, Nirupam must realise Quit India movement was relevant during the days of fight for Swaraj. Now a days, relevance of that movement lies in wiping out corruption, illiteracy, farmer suicides etc." Shelar said when in power, Congress could never conceptualise such a celebration and it was now finding it hard to digest the BJP-led government's initiative. Nirupam alleged discrimination by civic authorities in granting permission for erecting pandals at Azad Maidan here. Congress sought permission from civic authorities 20 days ago to erect a pandal (a temporary structure) at the sprawling ground in South Mumbai, he said. "But we were denied permission by municipal officials, but a BJP MLA has started erecting a big pandal at the same site without getting permission," Nirupam said. PTI For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, August 9, 2016, 13:20 [IST] 12-year-old boy dies of Nipah virus infection in Kozhikode, Central team rushed to Kerala Forest department called after snake in train causes panic Accident victim dies in ambulance as vehicle's door fails to open Narendra Modi to attend BJP national council, executive at Kozhikode in September India oi-PTI Kochi, Aug 8 Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the BJP's national council and national executive meetings in Kozhikode next month to mark the centenary year of late Jan Sangh president Deendayal Upadhyayay. Talking to reporters after BJP's Kerala state leadership meet, state president Kummanam Rajasekharan said union ministers, Chief Ministers of party-ruled states, MPs, party's national leaders and top leaders of the party's various state units will attend the three-day meeting from September 23. Modi will attend the meeting on September 24 and 25. The Prime Minister will address a public meeting being organised as part of the national council at Kozhikode Beach Maidan on September 24. Modi will also inaugurate the birth centenary celebrations of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay, former Jan Sangh president, at a special function on September 25, Rajasekharan said. BJP leaders said Kozhikode was chosen for the national council meeting as Deendayal Upadhayay was elected Jan Sangh president at the party's conclave in that city in December 1967. Rajasekharan said elaborate arrangements are being made to make the conclave a success. PTI PM to flag off South India's first 'Vande Bharat Express' on Nov 11 India's steel industry now 2nd biggest, target is to double crude steel output in 10 years: PM Modi Narendra Modi urges BJP leaders to make Tiranga Yatra a success India oi-PTI New Delhi, Aug 9 Prime Minister Narendra Modi today described BJP's proposed 'Tiranga Yatra' between August 15-22 as a symbol of social harmony and unity and asked party leaders to put in efforts to make it a success. He promoted the yatra as a measure to spread harmony at the BJP's Parliamentary Party meeting. The theme song for the BJP's 15-day exercise '70 Saal Azadi-Zara Yaad Karo Kurbani' to mark Independence Day was also released in the meeting, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar told reporters after the meeting. Kesiraju Srinivas, popularly known as Ghazal Srinivas, who holds a record for singing in most languages, has composed the song, he said. Modi also asked the party leaders to publicise recent initiatives of the government like the passage of GST Bill in Parliament, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar told reporters after the meeting. "The Tirana Yatra will be a symbol of development, social harmony and unity. It will spread harmony," Modi said. Schools should discuss the lives of freedom fighters as it will inspire students, he said, adding, pupils should visit memorials associated with the martyrs. He asked party MPs to carry out the Tiranga Yatra on two-wheelers and visit all corners of the country, Kumar said. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Kumar also spoke at the meeting. The Monsoon session of the Parliament has been productive with 11 bills passed in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha each. PTI No need for anybody to feel threatened in India: Piyush Goyal India oi-PTI New Delhi, Aug 8 Muslims are very much part of India and there is no need for anybody to feel threatened, Union minister Piyush Goyal said here today. Speaking at the launch of a book titled 'Modi and his challenges', the Minister of Coal and Power said he has spent "years and years" in association with RSS. Terming RSS as an organisation that focuses on reaching out to different segments of the society, particularly those in distress, he said RSS has never "told any of us that we have to either like or dislike" any other community or any other person who practises any other religion. "What they are trying to say is that Muslims should be as much a part of India and there is no question of either feeling unwanted or unsafe. They are Indians. They are as much part of India as Rajiv Kumar (author of the book) is, as I am, or anybody else is. There is no question, there is no need for anybody to get into ghetto psychology. There is no need for anybody to feel threatened at all within this country as long as we are working for the development of the country," he said. On the passage of GST Bill in the Lok Sabha, Goyal said, this has once again demonstrated to the world that Prime Minister Narendra Modi believes in taking every body together. "This is the only government which has been able to pass four important Bills with unanimity...It demonstrates that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his team believe in taking all schools of thought, working together with all political parties and it's a government that different political parities and states also can trust," he said. This is the change which has come, he said, adding, India is emerging from disruptive politics to move towards a new age of coalition working for development of all. PTI 'Rape toh chalte hi rehte hain', says Congress leader Renuka Chowdhury on Bulandhshahr gangrape case India oi-Oneindia By Oneindia Staff Writer New Delhi, Aug 9: Congress leader Renuka Chowdhury on Tuesday, Aug 9 came in the eye of storm when she made shocking remarks saying that "rapes keep on happening". Chowdhury was being questioned on the recent gangrape case of a mother and her teenaged daughter in Bulandshahr. On being asked, she was quoted saying as, 'Rape to chalte hi rehte hain' while adding, "if they arrest someone after 10-20 days and think that we will pat their back then this won't happen." [Renuka Chowdhury dines with family, ignores maid; gets slammed on social media] "Be it the police investigation or something else, this has taken place after a long time. Now, we will have to see the future course of action because we are fed up of the situation where we hear someone or the other talking on rape everyday when we wake up", she further said. Notably, Renuka, who is not news to controversies, has served as the Union minister of State (Independent Charge) for Ministry of Women and Child Development in the UPA government. [Prime accused in Bulandshahr gangrape arrested] Uttar Pradesh police on Tuesday arrested the prime accused along with two other accomplices in last month's Bulandshahr gang rape of a woman and her teenage daughter. The gangrape took place at the NH-91 in Bulandshahr on July 29 after the miscreants robbed the family. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, August 9, 2016, 16:07 [IST] Sonowal calls on Assam Governor to discuss security India oi-PTI Guwahati, Aug 9: Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal called on Governor P B Acharya at Raj Bhawan to discuss prevailing security scenario in the state in the aftermath of the Kokrajhar incident where arms-wielding militants gunned down 15 people and injured 19 others. Sonowal at the meeting apprised the Governor of the series of steps that the government has initiated to prevent recurrence of such incidents. The Governor asked Sonowal to put in place full proof security measure especially in view of the upcoming Independence Day celebrations, a Raj Bhavan statement said. He also said that the miscreants were hell bent to make their presence felt and as such they may try to carry out subversive activities and terrorise the people. The Governor, therefore, advised that the security machinery must be on its toes to foil any ulterior motive of any militant organisation and adopt "zero tolerance" towards any element trying to disturb peace and tranquility in the state. Centre asks Assam govt to nab culprits of Kokrajhar attack Acharya also said the government machinery must work to inculcate a sense of security among the people and the security forces must develop a rapport with the people in general to work in coordination with them. The Governor also discussed flood issues with the Chief Minister and said the state government with all its manpower and materials should expedite the relief and rehabilitation works for the flood-affected people. They further discussed proper implementation of various government schemes and directed its agencies to work on the ground to meet the expectation of the people. They discussed to extend several other programmes of the Centre such as Prime Minister's 'Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao' scheme, 'Jan Dhan Yojana' among others and materialise government's motto of 'Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas'. It was also discussed that all the Ministers and MLAs can sponsor education of some girl children in the state. Sonowal and Acharya also decided to meet after every 15 days to discuss various issues. PTI Lack of development in J&K for decades was one of the reasons behind rise of terrorism: Rajnath Singh Stones vs Pellets: Why terror apologists must look at these statistics India oi-Vicky The so-called liberals have spared no effort to question the use of pellet guns to counter the stone pelters in Jammu and Kashmir. There is a debate almost everyday about the number of people who have been injured due to pellet guns. The pellet gun which was first approved in 2010 by the Omar Abdullah government has become the last resort for security forces who have always been told to exercise restraint. To suggest the gravity of the situation let us look at this figure. 280 stone pelters injured due to pellet guns, 2,600 security personnel injured due to stone pelting. The country may debate this issue day in and day out, but the fact is that the government has been soft on the stone pelters who relentlessly go about their business. There have been suggestions across various quarters to deal with these people in a firm manner. The solution in Israel and Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) is shoot at sight or impose imprisonment of 20 years. However, many in the government feel that this is no way to deal with your own people. A relentless lot Security personnel in Jammu and Kashmir say that the stone pelters are relentless in their approach. They keep appearing in batches and pelt stones at us. With a directive to be resistant, the first attempt is to disperse the mob. However, they take complete advantage of the resistance and continue to pelt stones which then forces us to use the pellet gun as a last resort, the security personnel points out. He further points out that behind the mob is a group of hardcore terrorists who hurl grenades. Recently a plot to open fire from behind the batch of stone pelters was also busted by the Indian army. Amar Bhushan, former officer with the Research and Analysis Wing tells OneIndia that in Israel the police use numb bullets. "This should be done in India as well. I have seen in Kashmir this time, the police personnel pelting stones back at the mob. This cannot happen. These stone pelters use children as cover and the same had been found in Israel as well. Hence the numb bullet and a harsher law would be the best way to go about the problem," Bhushan also points out. How do Israel and Pakistan deal with a similar problem According to the Israel Knesset, the country hands down 1,000 indictments annually for stone pelting. Recently the Parliament approved handing out of a 20 year sentence for stone pelters, a move that was termed as racist and excessive by Palestine. In Israel, the Parliament had approved tough penalties for stone pelters. Among the 86 law makers, 69 favoured the law. Israel's justice minister stated, "Tolerances towards the terrorists ends today. A stone thrower is a terrorist and only a fitting punishment can serve as a deterrent and just Punishment," the minister also said. Israel which has been facing the problem of stone pelters since the early 1990s also had to deal with human rights activists and terror apologists who supported Palestine. As per the new law in Israel, a sentence of 20 years in jail would be imposed for throwing a stone at a vehicle with the intent of causing bodily harm and ten years imprisonment would be imposed if the intent was not proven. In Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) the police have been extremely harsh on those raising their voices. Horror stories of such persons going missing or being killed are reported. To add to the irony it is the same Pakistan which gives India a lecture on human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, August 9, 2016, 11:34 [IST] Sometimes silence is louder than words, says Shekhawat on Vasundhara Raje If Yogi can why not Gehlot: Vasundhara Raje on establishing peace Vasundhara Raje gives nod to compulsory retirement of 83 policemen India oi-PTI Jaipur, Aug 9: Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje has given her nod for compulsory retirement of 83 policemen, including eight Inspectors, on recommendation of a review committee following a departmental enquiry against them. The 83 policemen, who were given the compulsory retirement under Rajasthan civil services (pension) rules, 1996, include 8 inspectors, 1 sub inspector, 5 assistant sub inspectors, 5 head constables and 64 constables, a release said. The Home department has forwarded a proposal to the chief minister after the review committee of police headquarters recommended to give compulsory retirement to the 83 policemen on the basis of department inquiry against them, conviction in cases, annual work assessment reports, failure in impartial investigation and not being fit for the police services and for being wanted. PTI For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, August 9, 2016, 17:23 [IST] Erdogan in Russia on Aug 9 to meet Putin; West will be watching closely International oi-PTI St Petersburg, Aug 9: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is set to jet into Russia on Tuesday (Aug 9) for his first meeting with counterpart Vladimir Putin since the two strongmen leaders began healing a bitter feud over Ankara's downing of a Russian warplane. Erdogan's visit to Putin's hometown of Saint Petersburg is also his first foreign trip since the failed coup against him in July that sparked a purge of opponents and cast a shadow over Turkey's relations with the West. [Post coup, is Turkey getting close to Russia at West's expense?] "This visit seems to me a new milestone in bilateral relations, beginning with a clean slate, and I personally, with all my heart and on behalf of the Turkish nation salute Mr Putin and all Russians," Erdogan said in an interview with Russian state media. The shooting down of a Russian fighter jet by a Turkish F-16 over the Syrian border in November 2015 saw a furious Putin slap economic sanctions on Turkey and launch a blistering war of words with Erdogan that seemed to irrevocably damage burgeoning ties. But in a shock reversal in June 2015, Putin accepted a personal expression of regret over the incident from Erdogan as an apology and immediately rolled back a ban on the sale of package holidays to Turkey and signalled Moscow would end measures against food imports and construction firms from the country. Now in the wake of the failed July 15 coup attempt in NATO-member Turkey, ties between the two sides could be bolstered even further -- with Erdogan bluntly making it clear he feels let down by the United States and the European Union. Putin was one of the first foreign leaders to phone Erdogan offering support and, unsurprisingly, sharing none of the scruples of EU leaders about the ensuing crackdown. "While Turkish-Russian ties are subject to their own uncertainties, this deterioration of relations with Western powers could accelerate a Turkish-Russian rapprochement," said analysts from the European Council on Foreign Relations. Relations between Turkey and Russia -- two powers vying for influence in the strategic Black Sea region and Middle East -- have never been straightforward and their predecessor Ottoman and Russian empires fought three centuries of war. Yet before the plane crisis, Moscow and Ankara managed to prevent disputes on Syria and Ukraine harming strategic cooperation on issues like the TurkStream gas pipeline to Europe and a Russian-built nuclear power station in Turkey. Those projects were all put on ice with trade between the two countries falling 43 per cent to $6.1 billion in January-May in 2015 and Turkey's tourism industry seeing numbers from Russia fall by 93 per cent. PTI At UNSC, US calls on world to tell Russia to stop its nuclear threats Fresh twist in US presidential race as former CIA officer launches bid International oi-Oneindia By Oneindia Staff Writer Washington, Aug 9: The dramatic race for the White House took a new twist on Monday (Aug 8) when former CIA counterterrorism officer Evan McMullin decided to join the race as a third-party conservative alternative to Republican candidate Donald Trump. [Trump would be dangerous president, say 50 Republican national security experts] US presidential election 2016 primary results In a statement, McMullin, 40, said the stakes for the US were so high that he could no longer afford to stand on the sidelines at this moment. He said the US needs leaders who stand for the right reasons and have a good understanding of what makes that country the greatest. He said his country needed leaders who would unite and guide it towards a better future "beyond the dysfunction of a broken political system". [Is Hillary's health a concern?] McMullin's words were clearly directed at both the presidential candidates---Trump and his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. He called the former secretary of state a "corrupt career politician" and said Trump has divided the Republican Party and is a "real threat" to the republic. I don't think Donald Trump is good for this country, nor is Hillary Clinton. Evan McMullin (@Evan_McMullin) August 9, 2016 I don't think Donald Trump is good for this country, nor is Hillary Clinton. Evan McMullin (@Evan_McMullin) August 9, 2016 Why Im running for President of the United States: https://t.co/FcISqRxRth Evan McMullin (@Evan_McMullin) August 8, 2016 Those who are working on McMullin's presidential bid quit Better for America, an organisation which may not officially endorse a candidate, to back the former CIA man McMullin's independent bid at the late stage of the presidential procedure will not be easy but his supporters expect him to disrupt Trump's march by getting the backing of Republicans who have not endorsed the New York tycoon. Oneindia News Even if not contesting 2020 polls, Hillary Clinton will not be entirely out of scene Hillary Clinton says Julian Assange must 'answer for what he has done' Assistance to climb stairs, bizarre head shaking, coughing fits---Is Hillary in right health? International oi-Oneindia By Oneindia Staff Writer Washington, Aug 9: While all eyes are now focussed on Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his endless number of controversies, a section of the US media has also expressed concern over the health of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, more so after photographs of the latter struggling to climb some stairs emerged on Sunday (Aug 7). US presidential election 2016 primary results The photos, revealed by Reuters and Getty news agencies, showed the former US secretary of state taking assistance from a number of people in overcoming the stairs of a house. It was learnt that the images were taken in February when the 68-year-old Hillary was campaigning in South Carolina. Hillary, who decided to have a go after the failed attempt of 2008 when she lost to current President Barack Obama, was nominated as the Democratic presidential candidate at the party's national convention held in Philadelphia last month. [Former CIA officer launches independent presidential bid] Hillary's health issue is something which hasn't caught the headlines for the first time. In 2013, when she was the US secretary of state, Hillary fainted and fell and was treated for blood clot in her head. Even earlier in 2009, Hillary had a fall while going to White House an broke her elbow. Last month, a video posted on YouTube had shown Hillary's head suddenly started shaking vigorously for many seconds, leaving the interviewing journalists surprised. She was also seen having coughing fits while addressing a number of audiences in the US, raising questions about her health. Oneindia News Pak committing atrocities against people in PoK, will have to bear consequences: Rajnath Singh Why is 'Mr. Bean controversy trending on Twitter after Zimbabwe beat Pakistan? Islamic State claimed responsibility for Pak hospital attack International oi-Oneindia By Oneindia Staff Writer Quetta, Aug 9: The Islamic State (IS) terror outfit claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing in a hospital here in Pakistan on Monday (Aug 8), killing at least 70 and leaving over 100 injured. The outfit's Amaq news agency reported this, according to Reuters. [Pak attack "particularly appalling", said UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon] "A martyr from the Islamic State detonated his explosive belt at a gathering of justice ministry employees and Pakistani policemen in the city of Quetta," Reuters quoted Amaq as saying. Pakistani Taliban faction Jamaat-ur-Ahrar also claimed responsibility for the attack, Reuters added. The tragedy struck when a crowd comprising mainly lawyers and journalists gathered at the emergency department to accompany the body of a prominent lawyer who had been gunned down in the city earlier in the day. Sources at the state-run Civil Hospital where the explosion took place said at least 70 people were killed and over 112 injured, the Reuters report added. Oneindia News Search for missing MH370 to end in two weeks Authorities with better understanding of where MH370 is, says Australia Depressed pilot of Flight MH370 may have 'crashed plane' in murder-suicide MH370 fell very fast before crashing into Indian Ocean: Oz defence scientists International oi-IANS By Ians English Canberra, Aug 9: Australian defence scientists who analysed signals from missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 have revealed the Boeing 777 fell very fast before crashing into the Indian Ocean off the coast of Western Australia. [Read more stories on MH 370] Australian media reported on Tuesday that data analysis and manufacturer simulations showed it was likely the aircraft lost engine power before falling out of the sky at a rate of up to 20,000 feet per minute on March 8, 2014, Xinhua news agency reported. [Rogue pilot may have crashed MH370: Expert] An aircraft attempting a regular landing - or a crash landing in water - would descend at a rate of around 2,000 feet per minute, raising doubts over previous predictions that the plane "landed" intact in the water before breaking up, the analysts said. Australian scientists believed that prior to its final moments, the jet made a number of automated "handshake" signals with satellites on the ground near Perth in Western Australia. After six of those handshakes, a seventh, out-of-sequence signal came from the jet, indicating engine failure likely from lack of fuel. The data gives life to the theory that MH370 fell out of the sky, and did not glide to a final crash-landing spot in the Indian Ocean. Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) chief commissioner Greg Hood said the scientists' analysis of the signals closely matched a flight scenario in which there was no pilot at the controls at the point of impact - in contrast to previous theories about how MH370 went down. Hood said the signal data meant MH370 likely crashed in the 120,000-square-km search area now being combed by Australian authorities. If the aircraft had glided to a final resting place - as previous theories had hinted - the plane may have gone down outside of the current search area. MH370 was a scheduled passenger flight from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing. It had 239 passengers and crew on board when it disappeared on March 8, 2014. IANS Pak committing atrocities against people in PoK, will have to bear consequences: Rajnath Singh Imran Khan's party rejects ISI chief's allegations; says he never made unconstitutional demands Why is 'Mr. Bean controversy trending on Twitter after Zimbabwe beat Pakistan? Pakistan hospital attack 'particularly appalling', says Ban Ki-moon International oi-IANS By Ians English United Nations, Aug 9: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday condemned the terrorist attack at a hospital in Pakistan's southwestern Quetta city, calling the attack "particularly appalling", the attack killed 70 people, mostly lawyers. Over 100 others were injured when a suicide bomber detonated himself inside the emergency ward of the Civil Hospital. The blast took place when a large number of lawyers were gathered to collect the body of a murdered colleague, the president of Balochistan Bar Association Bilal Anwar Kasi, who was killed in a separate attack. "The targeting of mourners at a civilian hospital makes the attack particularly appalling," UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq told a daily briefing. "The Secretary-General urges the Government to do its utmost to ensure safety of the population and bring to justice the perpetrators of today's attack," Haq added. The Pakistani Taliban faction Jamat-ul-Arhar has claimed responsibility for the attack. IANS Top Republican Senator Susan Collins refuses to back Trump International oi-PTI Washington, Aug 9: In a blow to Donald Trump, top Republican Senator Susan Collins has announced that she would not vote for him as he lacks the "temperament" and "judgement" required for the post, the latest party senator to renounce the presidential nominee. "I will not be voting for Donald Trump for President," Collins, who represents the State of Maine in the US Senate, said in an op-ed in The Washington Post on Monday (Aug 8). Trump, she argued, does not reflect historical Republican values nor the inclusive approach to governing that is critical to healing the divisions in the country. Collins, the most senior senator to split publicly with the presidential nominee, said her conclusion about Trump's unsuitability for office is based on his "disregard" for the precept of treating others with respect, an idea that should transcend politics. "Instead, he opts to mock the vulnerable and inflame prejudices by attacking ethnic and religious minorities. Three incidents in particular have led me to the inescapable conclusion that Trump lacks the temperament, self-discipline and judgement required to be President," she wrote. Collins wrote, she is deeply concerned that Trump's lack of self-restraint and his barrage of ill-informed comments would make an already perilous world even more so. "It is reckless for a presidential candidate to publicly raise doubts about honouring treaty commitments with our allies. Trump's tendency to lash out when challenged further escalates the possibility of disputes spinning dangerously out of control," she wrote. Defending her decision not to support Trump, Senator Collins said some will say that as a Republican she has an obligation to support her party's nominee. "I have thought long and hard about that, for being a Republican is part of what defines me as a person. I revere the history of my party, most particularly the value it has always placed on the worth and dignity of the individual, and I will continue to work across the country for Republican candidates," she said. "It is because of Trump's inability and unwillingness to honour that legacy that I am unable to support his candidacy," Collins wrote. She joined the few other Republican senators to repudiate the party's nominee for president. Senators Lindsey Graham, Mark Kirk, Ben Sasse, Dean Heller and Jeff Flake have all said they would either not vote for Trump or adamantly voiced their resistance to the notion. Senator Ted Cruz, who was defeated by Trump in the primary race, had urged conservatives to "vote your conscience" at the Republican national convention. PTI For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, August 9, 2016, 15:37 [IST] US should cut aide to Pakistan if it backs terror: Trump International oi-PTI Washington, Aug 9: A top national security advisor to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has said the US needs to treat Pakistan "harshly" and "cut off" assistance if it continues to be the "safe haven" for terror groups like Taliban, Haqqani and al-Qaeda. "We need to have some tough love conversations with the leaders of countries who pretend to be our friends, but who also collaborate with our enemies," Lt General (rtd) Michael T Flynn, has said in his latest book "How We Can Win the Global War Against Radical Islam and Its Allies" that hit the book stands last week. [Former CIA officer launches independent presidential bid] "Countries like Pakistan need to be told that we will not tolerate the existence of training camps and safe havens for Taliban, Haqqani, and al-Qaeda forces on their territory, nor will we permit their banks and other financial institutions to move illicit funds for the terror network," said Flynn. Trump emphasises on strengthening relation with India In the war against terrorism, he listed India as one of the countries with which the US needs to strengthen its relationship. "Diplomacy alone will not be sufficient; at the moment, nobody takes us seriously. We will have to demonstrate the ability and the resolve to crush our enemies. We should start with strengthening our relationships with Israel, Jordan, and Egypt," he said. "We will also need to revive our working relations with countries such as Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, India, and Argentina," Flynn wrote. Flynn who served as the director of the Defence Intelligence Agency, commander of the Joint Functional Component Command for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance and chair of the Military Intelligence Board is one of the few top Pentagon leadership to have supported Trump. Among those shortlisted for Trump's vice presidential pick, Flynn is considered close to Trump and his top national security advisor. "They are going to have to choose and if they continue to help the jihadis, we are going to treat them harshly, cutting them off from American assistance, and operating against enemy safe havens," Flynn said, adding that the same tough approach applies to the financing of the jihadi network. "Over the years, the terrorists have raised a lot of money from individual donors (sometimes contacted in person, other times online), but criminal activities are a much more important source of money. Some of the best intelligence work carried out by the American government has been done in this area," he said. PTI For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, August 9, 2016, 11:09 [IST] Has ISIS infiltrated the schools in Kerala and Maharashtra? Thiruvananthapuram oi-Vicky Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 9: A teacher in Maharashtra and a school in Kerala are under the scanner of the police for allegedly driving youth into the ISIS. The arrest of Raeesuddin Siddiqui and Yasmeen Mohammad show how educational institutions and teachers have become part of this dreaded network that indulges in large scale radicalisation. Siddiqui (38) was a teacher at a Hingoli (Maharashtra) school run by the Zilla Parishad. Yasmin, on the other hand, was teaching at a school in Kerala where a huge process of radicalisation had taken place. Kuwait, not Saudi, ISIS' terror bank? Yasmin was recently arrested at the Delhi airport while attempting to fly into Kabul. Schools-a new ISIS front The ISIS runs its own schools in Iraq and Syria. In these schools the students are taught about the ISIS interpreted Jihad. Children in the age group of 5 and 7 are taught about automatic guns, grenades and pistols. The radicalisation process here begins at a very young age. Now the Indian module of the ISIS too is attempting something very similar. In Kerala, there are a host of unrecognised schools which survive on foreign funds. One such school was the one Yasim was teaching at. This school is under the radar of the Kerala police after investigations revealed that nearly 40 people had been indoctrinated. ISIS module in Kabul attracts many from Kerala It was one Rashid who would frequently visit the school and preach about the ISIS ideology. This has in fact sent panic signals since many suspect that even children at the school may have been imparted with similar knowledge. In the Maharashtra case, the police are questioning Siddiqui. He is alleged to have had close ties with two other operatives. Siddiqui an English literature graduate was working at the Urdu Primary school in Hingoli. While his association with the rest of the operatives is under the scanner, the police are also trying to find out if he had tried to impose his ideology on the children at the school OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, August 9, 2016, 10:33 [IST] Community Its now easier than ever to connect and chat with others in your local area. You can connect with your community by asking general questions, give area updates and recommendations and even let your community know about local events that are taking place. 2008-2022 One News Page Ltd. All rights reserved. One News is a registered trademark of One News Page Ltd. NowThis 20 Oct 2022 No, I don't think it's okay for you to make decisions for women and girls' Democratic Senate candidate Val Demings and FL.. Rumble 08 Oct 2022 This is the first of a series of videos in which I will explain how Americans viewed the issues related to the 2nd Amendment AT THE.. FanReviews 20 Aug 2021 Check out the official trailer 2 for the FX drama series Impeachment: American Crime Story, created by Ryan Murphy. It stars Sarah.. Rumble 14 Sep 2022 The 21st anniversary of 9/11 was this past Sunday and I went to the college campus in UT Austin to check in on how younger.. Ajara's Deputy Minister of Finance and Economy to Speak at Next Week's Batumi Casino Forum Published August 9, 2016 by Florin P Batumi Casino will host a gambling conference in Ajara this month, which will feature a talk by Mr. Besik Bolkvadze, Deputy Minister of Finance and Economy of Ajara. Batumi Casino has big plans for the second half of August. On the 18th, it will host a specialized conference in Ajara that will bring together the brightest minds in the gambling industry. Investors, businesspeople, managers and casino owners are expected to attend and discuss the gambling development in the Georgian province. Smile Expo is the event organizer and the conference also has the support of the Ministry of Finance and Economy of Ajara. This makes it an important milestone for those who are interested in the gambling climate in Georgia. Government members are also expected to participate, including the Deputy Minister of Finance and Economy of Ajara. All Eyes and Ears on Mr. Besik Bolkvadze The Deputy Minister of Finance and Economy of Ajara is a key speaker at the conference. Hes expected to give valuable input on the role of the casino industry in the regional economy. Mr. Bolkvadze will open the conference and will talk about the positive impact of gambling in the Batumi region. Sensitive issues, such as the expansion of legal gambling in Georgia and the specific hurdles will also be debated. Existing and prospective investors can learn more about the situation in the Georgian province as well as the gambling climate nationwide. The Casino Forum Batumi conference will also present unique networking opportunities after the main event concludes. With so many casino representatives under the same roof, it will be easier to establish contacts and pool resources together for joint ventures. A business dinner is scheduled at the Hilton Batumi hotel and participants can interact directly with the speaker. They can obtain additional answers and ask pertinent questions about the gambling environment and the Georgian economy. Those interested in attending the conference can learn more about it on the official website, where they can also register and buy a ticket. Reprinted from Reader Supported News It's about time the US had a powerful, viable Opposition Party leader. It would be a lot easier if Congress allowed for formal opposition representation, but it is not impossible within the current structure. It would also fit the description of politically revolutionary, from an American congressional perspective. Formal opposition parties are a routine and practical function of almost every democracy in the world except the politically draconian United States. Formal political opposition is a useful thing in in a democratic society. It lends credence to dissent and makes checks and balances real. It is a presence that is long overdue in the US. Don't believe for a moment either of the two major political parties will agree to recognize opposition in either house of Congress. The way to get the process off the ground is to begin with a caucus. Step number two would be a homework assignment for rank and file Progressives/Democrats. Elected officials would have to hear from constituents in their districts in no uncertain terms that formal opposition is required and that their chosen opposition leader is Senator Bernie Sanders. Organize local groups and meet directly with representatives and senators. Tie participation in and support of the caucus and its policy initiatives to donations. When they put the interests of wealthy corporate donors ahead of the people get busy organizing against them. The same groups that met to support Bernie for president are a perfect vehicle to organize formal opposition on Capitol Hill. This is quite an achievable objective. The infrastructure is already in place. If the anger is focused and directed it can be a powerful force for good. Make the message clear to the elected officials in your state and in your district: "We need a formal opposition in Washington and Bernie Sanders is the man to lead it." Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News. (Image by United Nations) Details DMCA The UN celebrates International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, and calls for making sure that the indigenous peoples of the world have the right to access to education, specifying, "to reflect their experiences and culture in places of learning." This is good. The history of the treatment of indigenous peoples by industrialized nations has been shameful, usually aiming at destroying indigenous cultures and their wisdom. The fact is, the western world has much to learn from Indigenous peoples, particularly about connecting more deeply with and living sustainably with nature. Indigenous peoples have levels of connection consciousness-- awareness of how they are connected to each other and to nature-- that far surpass westerners. Westerners are relatively blind and ignorant compared to Indigenous Peoples when it comes to knowing how to sustainably connect with and live with and in nature. They know so much more that their wisdom should be codified and taught in western schools, preferably by indigenous people. Protecting the dwindling numbers of indigenous peoples should be considered a priority. Who do they need to be protected from? Missionaries, loggers and other exploiters of the forests and natural resources are the biggest threats. Personally, I've long believed that the Indigenous peoples and the lands they live in should be protected by armed guards, instructed to use their weapons to protect the innocents. I believe that the wisdom and cultural traditions-- their myths, rites of passage, natural healing approach-- of indigenous peoples are so precious that people and organizations-- churches, companies, industries-- should be seen as evil and malignant. This would be a reframe from them being rescuers, saving indigenous peoples from lives without Jesus or whatever god missionaries are selling. This would be a reframe from saving indigenous people from the vacuum in their lives from not having shiny technological objects. We now know that indigenous peoples do not live desperate, dog-eat-dog lives. They work three or four hours a day and have good lives, with profoundly better sense of community and stronger morals than most westerners. Yes, the UN is correct to call for protecting Indigenous people's rights to education that reflects their culture and values. But we westerners should be embracing indigenous wisdom far more than we currently do. We need to get rid of old Christian stories that aboriginals are ignorant and uncivilized and replace them with stories that these peoples offer so much to us that we are missing. Follow #WeAreIndigenous #INDIGENOUS on twitter Here's the UN Press release on International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples UNITED NATIONS, 8 August 2016 -- This year, the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples (9 August) is devoted to indigenous peoples' right to education, given the persistent gaps between indigenous and non-indigenous students in terms of access to education, school retention and graduation rates in all regions of the world. "On this International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, I call on Governments everywhere ... to improve access to education for indigenous peoples and to reflect their experiences and culture in places of learning," said United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, adding, "Let us commit to ensuring indigenous peoples are not left behind as we pursue the vision of the Sustainable Development Goals." A special event at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on Tuesday, 9 August, will include three indigenous experts on indigenous education: Karla Jessen Williamson, an Inuit from Greenland, currently teaching at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada; Octaviana Trujillo, a member of Arizona's Pascua Yaqui Tribe, teaching at Northern Arizona University in the United States; and Juan de Dios Simon Sotz, a Maya Kaqchikel, Director General of School Education at the Ministry of Education in Guatemala. The discussion, to be moderated by Alvaro Pop, the Chair of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, will focus on the major challenges indigenous peoples face in accessing education, in particular education that is culturally and linguistically appropriate and which is not viewed as a means of assimilation. According to the upcoming report on t he State of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Volume III, on Education, in Nunavut, the northernmost territory in Canada, Inuit high-school graduation rates are well below average, and only 40 per cent of all school-age indigenous children are attending school full time. In Australia, participation of indigenous 15-19 year-olds in higher education was 60 per cent in 2013, well below the 80 per cent participation for all Australians in the same age group. In Latin America and the Caribbean, on average, 85 per cent of indigenous children attend secondary education, but only 40 per cent complete that level of education. The right of indigenous peoples to education is protected by Article 14 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which, among other things, states that "Indigenous peoples have the right to establish and control their educational systems and institutions providing education in their own languages, in a manner appropriate to their cultural methods of teaching and learning." Further, the UN Declaration provides the right for indigenous peoples to all levels of education within the State without discrimination The right of indigenous peoples to education is also recognized by a number of other international human rights instruments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Goal 4 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development calls for ensuring equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for vulnerable groups, including indigenous peoples. However, the 2030 Agenda does not include indicators on mother-tongue language education, an area that indigenous peoples have been lobbying for. There are an estimated 370 million indigenous people in some 90 countries around the world. Practicing unique traditions, they retain social, cultural, economic and political characteristics that are distinct from those of the dominant societies in which they live. Experts recommend efforts to ensure that indigenous peoples have access to education that is culturally and linguistically appropriate, with special priority given to indigenous women and girls as well as second-chance, vocational training and adult literacy programmes. Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). Reprinted from Reader Supported News Protesters against inequality (Image by gr33ndata) Details DMCA What Donald Trump is really saying is that he wants to make America great for WASPS again. When Donald Trump says he wants to make America great again, he is not talking to me, he is warning me. I am Latino. Trump wants a return to the day when WASPS control the country again. The Donald has been setting up this campaign for years. Donald Trump knows that President Obama was born in the United States, but he knew that racist bigots would support his efforts to cast any doubt on Obama. When Donald Trump said Mexicans were rapists, he was speaking to his base. Trump is speaking to angry white men who think that all the good jobs should be theirs and brown and black people can have the scraps. That is the America that Donald Trump wants to bring back. He has telegraphed it from the beginning of his campaign. It's that white working class male who is tired of political correctness he's speaking to. It's not just the outspoken clearly racist bigot. It's the guy who bites his tongue and acts like everything is fine but his views have not changed. But it's not all men -- it is also women who are anti-gay, anti-immigrant, who are blaming political correctness for anything that is wrong in their eyes. Some are vocal like Ann Coulter. Others bite their tongues and act like they have evolved, but in reality they are still racist, sexist, and anti-gay. Then there is the guy who wants his wife at home barefoot and pregnant. Trump knew when he battled with Megyn Kelly that his sexist male base would reward him. Again, women who think they should be at home taking care of the children also respond to Trump. When Trump says we have to bomb 'em, he's talking to that segment of the population that thinks we should nuke all those Arabs. So often we hear about Trump's gaffes. They are not gaffes -- he knows exactly what he is doing and who his audience is. Click Here to Read Whole Article Reprinted from Strategic Culture Former director of the Central Intelligence Agency Michael J Morell is the latest in a phalanx of senior US military-intelligence figures who are shedding any pretense of political neutrality and giving their full-throated endorsement to Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. In a New York Times opinion piece, Morell starkly backed Clinton as the most highly qualified to be commander-in-chief" keeping our nation safe. The ex-CIA chief's op-ed piece also served as a blunt hatchet job on Republican presidential rival Donald J Trump. Morell said the New York billionaire-turned politician is not only unqualified for the job, but he may well pose a threat to our national security. The hoary, old scare-theme of national security is being rehabilitated as the criterion for electing Clinton. It also has the disturbing connotation of an increasingly militarized totalitarian regime that the United States is becoming. While showering Clinton with glowing praise, the former CIA spymaster trounced Trump with a litany of flaws, including 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. Morell's coup de grace for Trump was that he was a national security danger owing to his alleged indifference towards the US-led NATO military alliance and European security, and unwillingness to confront Russia. After accusing Trump of being careless with facts , Morell makes this reckless, sensationalist claim: "In the intelligence business, we would say that Mr Putin had recruited Mr Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation." This is a breath-taking interference in the nominally civilian sphere of US politics by unelected military-paramilitary elements, whereby a candidate for presidency is accused of being a foreign puppet. It is a throwback to the Cold War witch-hunting days of McCarthy and Un-American activities. This very public intervention by a top CIA figure in the US presidential election is an extraordinarily brazen affront to constitutional norms. Traditionally, the American military and intelligence apparatus has always been careful to assume a neutral relation with regard to Washington politics -- at least in public. In the 2016 election, however, the boundaries between civilian politics and the military powers are being flagrantly jettisoned. The military and the Deep State cabal are, in effect, moving to preordain the White House occupant. This situation has barely perceptible difference from a military coup appointing a civilian junta to administer. At the Democrat National Convention in Philadelphia last week, the endorsement of Hillary Clinton by military top brass was conspicuous. One of the main Pentagon cheerleaders was Four-Star Marine General John Allen, who gave a bloodcurdling and ranting speech declaring how our enemies will fear an America led by Clinton. This rush to partisan politics by the US military has even led to unease among certain Pentagon quarters. Only days after the DNC's militaristic rally, General Martin Dempsey, who was formerly Chairman of the Joint Staffs, took the unprecedented step of publishing a cautionary article warning: Keep Your Politics Private, My Fellow Generals and Admirals. Dempsey did not mention General Allen or others by name, but it was clear to whom he was referring and the jingoistic display in support of Clinton. And it was also clear that Dempsey saw the open embrace of partisan politics by the Pentagon as a worrying development undermining democracy in the US. He feared the erosion of civil-military relations. What is that qualifies Hillary Clinton for such support? Former CIA boss Morell listed these attributes as "her belief that America is an exceptional nation that must lead in the world for the country to remain secure and prosperous; her understanding that diplomacy can be effective only if the country is perceived as willing and able to use force if necessary; and, most important, her capacity to make the most difficult decision of all -- whether to put young American women and men in harm's way." Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). Exclusive to OpEd News: OpEdNews Op Eds 8/9/2016 at 4:04 AM EDT H2'ed 8/9/16 Donald J. Trump may rail against Wall Street and business elites at his campaign rallies, but that has not stopped him from turning to many of them for economic advice. On Friday, Mr. Trump announced his economic team, just days before he is expected to give a speech in Detroit on Monday about what he would do to improve American growth. Scott Baker is a Managing Editor & The Economics Editor at Opednews, and a former blogger for Huffington Post, Daily Kos, and Global Economic Intersection. His anthology of updated Opednews articles "America is Not Broke" was published by Tayen Lane Publishing (March, 2015) and may be found here: http://www.americaisnotbroke.net/ Scott is a former and current President of Common Ground-NY (http://commongroundnyc.org/), a Geoist/Georgist activist group. He has written dozens of (more...) Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan (Image by DonkeyHotey) Details DMCA On Tuesday, August 9, 2016, the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in St. Petersburg to hold talks with the Russian President Vladimir Putin. This was Erdogan's first foreign visit since the July 15 abortive coup against his elected government. St. Petersburg is Putin's hometown. Addressing a joint press conference after the talk, Putin said: "I believe that we have all the necessary prerequisites and opportunities for restoring our relations between our two countries to the full extent and Russia is ready and willing to do that." On his part, Erdogan said: "As a result of the negotiation we had today, political, cultural and economic relations between Russia and Turkey can finally be restored to the appropriate level we used to enjoy before the crisis." Ties between the two countries have been acrimonious since November last year when Turkey, citing a brief violation of its airspace along Turkey's border with Syria, shot down a Russian military aircraft. Russia's President Vladimir Putting ordered punishing economic sanctions, imposed a travel ban on Russian tourists visiting Turkey and suspended all government-to-government relations. Unable to ignore the damage, Erdogan conveyed regrets to Putin; the regrets were accepted which paved the way for August 9 meeting. Interestingly, the two Turkish Air Force pilots linked to the downing of the Russian Su-24 bomber have been detained in connection with the recent failed coup attempt in Turkey, according to Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag. Areas of Cooperations Turkey wants to bring ties with Russia to pre-crisis levels with cooperation in the defense industry sector and energy projects including the Turkish Stream gas pipeline and the Akkuyu nuclear plant, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at the press conference. Erdogan also outlined a list of areas of cooperation where Ankara is eager to engage in cooperation. "I would like to emphasize that we are willing to provide strategic investment status to the Akkuyu project, and we have just reached an understanding on this issue with President Putin. We also intend to promote cooperation in the area of defense industry and defense production," he stressed. The Turkish head of state additionally pledged to implement the Turkish Stream natural gas pipeline project, vowing to ensure a route for Russian gas exports heading toward Europe. Russia will gradually lift the restrictions it had imposed against Turkish companies, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during the press conference. "After the press conference, we shall have an opportunity to speak to the heads of large companies from both Russia and Turkey. I mean the gradual lifting of the special economic measures, restrictions introduced earlier against Turkish companies," Putin told a press conference after the meeting. Did not discuss the Syrian issue Ironically, Erdagon and Putin did not discuss the thorny Syrian issue. "During today negotiations we didn't discuss situation in Syria," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said answering the question from journalists. Vladimir Putin has also confirmed, that the Syrian crisis will be discussed later. "We believe that the Syrian crisis can be resolved only through diplomatic decision," he noted. "We have experienced many challenges in our relations recently, but we should restore our relations on pre-crisis level for citizens' sake," President Putin said in conclusion. Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). Progressive Content Not Found Sometimes, authors delete their progressive content after publishing. To see if the progressive content was renamed or re-published, please click here. Protein Labeling Market Will Witness Growth On Account Of Rising In The R&D Expenditure By Companies Globally Till 2024: Grand View Research, Inc. http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/protein-labeling-market)is http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/protein-labeling-market Global protein labeling market (anticipated to reach USD 2,602.0 million by 2024, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc.Growing adoption of bioengineering technologies and rise in spending on R&D leading to a reduction in process complexity for protein labeling is expected to drive market growth.Anticipatedlaunch & commercialization of novel products and ongoing improvement in techniques used for proteomic research is expected to further reinforce growth in demand. Improvements in accuracy, resolution and procedures used in techniques such as fluorescence&biorthogonaltagging are estimated to grow over the forecast period.Ongoing development of genetic sequencing methodologies and consequent reduction in the cost of genome profiling is likely to drive demand for the next step of genetic analysis, i.e., protein expression analysis. Growth in a number of such protein profiling studies is expected to directly fuel demand for genomic and proteomic labeling techniques through to 2024.Browse full research report on Global Protein Labeling Market:Further key findings from the report suggest: The reagents used for protein labeling accounted for the largest share of revenue in 2015. The larger share can be accounted for by the presence of high demand for labeling of peptides, antibodies and proteins at reaction locations of functional amino acids, and development of novel reagents that have chemo selective capabilities & amino acid cross linking abilities. Application of protein labeling in immunological techniques was observed to be responsible for generation of the largest share of revenue in 2015. Addition of nanoparticle-based tagging owing to ongoing R&D in emerged with the advent of nanoparticles and nanotechnology. Furthermore, aptamers-mediated nanoparticle-based peptide labeling method is gaining rapid acceptance for use in intracellular imaging and dynamic process tracking. Dye-based or fluorescence-based protein labeling have been observed to demonstrate high market adoption owing to associated usage in assays like ELISA, western blotting. Ongoing increase in the number of genetics-based R&D projects are also expected to boost market demand. On the basis of the experimental design, the market can be broadly categorized as in-vitro and in-vivo methodologies. A more minute analysis reveals that a further segment wise classification is also possible. Key segments from the sub-categorization are enzymatic &photo reactive tagging for the segments respectively. As enzymatic marking provides more flexibility of and has application in identification for a number of peptide profiling requirements, the segment is expected to witness lucrative growth over the forecast period. North America accounted for over 45%of total revenue generated for 2015 owing to the presence of a very large installed base of genetic and proteomic profiling platforms across the U.S. High market usage of peptide identification techniques to be used in sequencing and expression analysis projects in a number of academic and clinical research institutes is another key factor responsible for the regions large share. Key players operating in this industry include Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., General Electric Healthcare Life Science, PerkinElmer Inc, Merck Millipore, Promega Corporation, LI-COR Inc., F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, New England Biolabs, Eurogentec S.A., Kirkegaard & Perry Laboratories (KPL).Grand View Research has segmented the global protein labeling market on the basis of product, application, method and region:Global Protein Labeling Outlook, by Product (Revenue, USD Million, 2013 - 2024) Reagentso Proteino Enzymeso Probes/ tagso Monoclonal antibodieso Other reagents Kits ServicesGlobal Protein Labeling Outlook, by Application (Revenue, USD Million, 2013 - 2024) Cell based-assay Fluorescence microscopy Immunological techniques Mass spectrometry Protein micro assayGlobal Protein Labeling Outlook, by Labeling Method (Revenue, USD Million, 2013 - 2024) In vitroo Enzymatic labelingo Dye based labelingo Co translational labelingo Site specific labelingo Nano particle labeling In vivoo Photo reactive labelingo Radioactive labelingProtein Labeling Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2013 - 2024) North Americao U.S.o Canada Europeo Germanyo UK Asia Pacifico Chinao Japan Latin Americao Brazil MEAo South AfricaAbout Grand View ResearchGrand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare.Press ContactSherry James - Corporate Relations Specialist28 2nd Street, Suite 3036San Francisco, CA 94105United StatesPhone: 1-415-349-0058Email: sales@grandviewresearch.com Transplant Diagnostic Market To Exhibit Growth Based On Rising Demand For Organ Transplantation Till 2024: Grand View Research, Inc. http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/transplant-diagnostic-market)is http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/transplant-diagnostic-market/request The global Transplant Diagnostic Market(expected to reach USD 895.2 million by 2024, according to a new report by Grand View Research Inc. The rising demand for organ transplantation is primarily fueling the demand for transplant diagnostics.Constant healthcare research and development efforts are resulting in the introduction of technically advanced treatments, such as stem cell therapy and organ transplants. As a result, the adoption of these highly-advanced organ transplantation techniques is creating the demand for transplant diagnostics as they reduce the risk of infections and minimize the chances of an immune response through pre-operative assessments including histocompatibility tests, such as Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) typing, which determines donor-receiver organ or tissue compatibility prior to organ transplants.In addition, pertinent organizations are supporting research and development initiatives in the field of organ transplant through grants and funding. As a result, innovative and advanced diagnostic tools are frequently entering into the market. On the other hand, high cost of the diagnostic tests is one of the major factors hindering the growth of the market.Geographically, the market has been segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East and Africa (MEA). North America and Europe together accounted for the largest market share in 2015. Developed economies and well-established healthcare infrastructure coupled with the presence of a highly developed research infrastructure are accelerating the adoption of organ and tissue transplant therapies in Europe and North America. As a consequence, the demand for transplant diagnostics is high in North America and Europe.Wide adoption of HLA typing owing to its ability to determine organ compatibility between the donor and the receiver preceding organ transplants and to predict potential perioperative immunological complications is driving the growth of the molecular assay market in North America and Europe.Asia Pacific is expected to show the fastest growth rate during the forecast period owing to the booming medical tourism in countries, such as India. Availability of advanced healthcare infrastructure and skilled professionals at alower costare anticipated to attract patients worldwide to this region for transplant procedures.In addition, the presence of highly advanced healthcare infrastructure and the ongoing government initiatives to improve healthcare facilities in the country are collectively anticipated to boost the market growth in Japan during the forecast period. As a result, the Asia Pacific market is anticipated to reach USD 216.6 million in 2024.Further key findings from the study suggest: The PCR-based molecular assay captured the largest share of the overall market in 2015. The large market share was mainly attributed to the extensive adoption of the PCR technique in HLA typing. The sequencing-based typing segment is anticipated to witness significant growth rate from 2016 to 2024. The escalation in the adoption of next generation sequencing (NGS) is the major factor expected to drive the growth of this segment during the forecast period. The integration of sequencing with serological typing enhances diagnostic outcomes and, hence is expected to augment the growth of the sequencing segment during the forecast period The reagents and consumables segment accounted for the largest market share in 2015. This large share is mainly attributed to the repeat purchase of these products. North America captured the largest market share of around 38% in 2015 and is expected to maintain its dominance throughout the forecast period. Well-established research infrastructure, the increasing healthcare expenditure, high adoption rate ofthe advanced diagnostic techniques, and the growing R&D activities are some of the factors supporting the growth of the market in the region. Asia Pacific is expected to witness significant growth during the forecast period owing to the expanding research opportunities, the increasing health care expenditure, and the rising awareness of organ donation in the region. The booming medical tourism industry offers further growth opportunities for the market in Asia Pacific Some major players in this market include Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., Illumina, Inc., F.Hoffmann La-Roche AG. Abbott Laboratories, Inc.,Qiagen N.V., Immucor Transplant Diagnostics, Inc., Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., Affymetrix, Inc., and Omixon Ltd.Read detailed report or request for sample of this research report:Grand View Research has segmented the Transplant Diagnostic Market on the basis of technology, product, and geography.Transplant Diagnostic Market by Technology, 2013 2024 (USD Million) Molecular Assayso PCR-Based Molecular Assayso Sequencing-Based Molecular Assays Non-Molecular Assayso Serological Assayso Mixed Lymphocyte Culture (MLC) AssaysTransplant Diagnostic Market by Product, 2013 2024 (USD Million) Reagents and Consumables Instruments Software and ServicesTransplant Diagnostics Market, by Region, 2013 2024 (USD Million) North Americao U.S. Transplant Diagnostics Market by Product Typeo Canada Transplant Diagnostics Market by Product Typeo U.S.Transplant Diagnostics Market by Technology Typeo Canada Transplant Diagnostics Market by Technology Europeo Germany Transplant Diagnostics Market by Product Typeo France Transplant Diagnostics Market by Product Typeo Germany Transplant Diagnostics Market by Technologyo France Transplant Diagnostics Market by Technology Asia Pacifico China Transplant Diagnostics Market by Product Typeo India Transplant Diagnostics Market by Product Typeo China Transplant Diagnostics Market by Technologyo India Transplant Diagnostics Market by Technology Latin Americao Brazil Transplant Diagnostics Market by Product Typeo Mexico Transplant Diagnostics Market by Product Typeo Brazil Transplant Diagnostics Market by Technologyo Mexico Transplant Diagnostics Marketby Technology MEAo South Africa Transplant Diagnostics Market by Product Typeo South Africa Transplant Diagnostics Market by TechnologyAbout Grand View ResearchGrand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare.Press ContactSherry James - Corporate Relations Specialist28 2nd Street, Suite 3036San Francisco, CA 94105United StatesPhone: 1-415-349-0058Email: sales@grandviewresearch.com United States Vitamin B-complex Ingredients Industry Report 2016 Global QY Research http://globalqyresearch.com/united-states-vitamin-b-complex-ingredients-sales-market-report-2021 http://globalqyresearch.com/download-sample/85618 http://globalqyresearch.com/checkout-form/0/85618 https://www.linkedin.com/company/global-qy-research The recently published report titled United States Vitamin B-complex Ingredients Industry 2016 Market Research Report is an in depth study providing complete analysis of the industry for the period 2016 2021. It provides complete overview of United States Vitamin B-complex Ingredients market considering all the major industry trends, market dynamics and competitive scenario.The United States Vitamin B-complex Ingredients Industry Report 2016 is an in depth study analyzing the current state of the United States Vitamin B-complex Ingredients market. It provides brief overview of the market focusing on definitions, market segmentation, end-use applications and industry chain analysis. The study on United States Vitamin B-complex Ingredients market provides analysis of market covering the industry trends, recent developments in the market and competitive landscape. Competitive analysis includes competitive information of leading players in market, their company profiles, product portfolio, capacity, production, and company financials. In addition, report also provides upstream raw material analysis and downstream demand analysis along with the key development trends and sales channel analysis. Research study on United States Vitamin B-complex Ingredients market also discusses the opportunity areas for investors.View Full Report With Complete TOC, List Of Figure and Table:With 153 tables and figures, the report provides key statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.Download Sample this Report:5 USA Vitamin B-complex Ingredients Manufacturers Analysis5.1 Adisseo France5.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors5.1.2 Vitamin B-complex Ingredients Product Type and Technology5.1.2.1 Vitamin B15.1.2.2 Vitamin B25.1.3 Vitamin B-complex Ingredients Sales, Revenue, Price of Adisseo France (2015 and 2016)5.2 ADM5.2.1 Company Basic Information,Manufacturing Base and Competitors5.2.2 Food & Beverages Product Type and Technology5.2.2.1 Vitamin B15.2.2.2 Vitamin B25.2.3 Food & Beverages Sales, Revenue, Price of ADM (2015 and 2016)5.3 Amway5.3.1 Company Basic Information,Manufacturing Base and Competitors5.3.2 Amway Product Type and Technology5.3.2.1 Vitamin B15.3.2.2 Vitamin B25.3.3 Amway Sales, Revenue, Price of Amway (2015 and 2016)5.4 BASF5.4.1 Company Basic Information,Manufacturing Base and Competitors5.4.2 Aland (Jiangsu) Nutraceutical Product Type and Technology5.4.2.1 Vitamin B15.4.2.2 Vitamin B25.4.3 BASF Sales, Revenue, Price of BASF (2015 and 2016)5.5 DSM5.5.1 Company Basic Information,Manufacturing Base and Competitors5.5.2 DSM Product Type and Technology5.5.2.1 Vitamin B15.5.2.2 Vitamin B25.5.3 DSM Sales, Revenue, Price of DSM (2015 and 2016)5.6 DuPont Danisco5.6.1 Company Basic Information,Manufacturing Base and Competitors5.6.2 DuPont Danisco Product Type and Technology5.6.2.1 Vitamin B15.6.2.2 Vitamin B25.6.3 DuPont Danisco Sales, Revenue, Price of DuPont Danisco (2015 and 2016)5.7 Lonza Group5.7.1 Company Basic Information,Manufacturing Base and Competitors5.7.2 Lonza Group Product Type and Technology5.7.2.1 Vitamin B15.7.2.2 Vitamin B25.7.3 Lonza Group Sales, Revenue, Price of Lonza Group (2015 and 2016)5.8 AIE Pharmaceuticals5.8.1 Company Basic Information,Manufacturing Base and Competitors5.8.2 AIE Pharmaceuticals Product Type and Technology5.8.2.1 Vitamin B15.8.2.2 Vitamin B25.8.3 AIE Pharmaceuticals Sales, Revenue, Price of AIE Pharmaceuticals (2015 and 2016)5.9 Aland (Jiangsu) Nutraceutical5.9.1 Company Basic Information,Manufacturing Base and Competitors5.9.2 Aland (Jiangsu) Nutraceutical Product Type and Technology5.9.2.1 Vitamin B15.9.2.2 Vitamin B25.9.3 Aland (Jiangsu) Nutraceutical Sales, Revenue, Price of Aland (Jiangsu) Nutraceutical (2015 and 2016)5.10 Atlantic Essential Products5.10.1 Company Basic Information,Manufacturing Base and Competitors5.10.2 Atlantic Essential Products Product Type and Technology5.10.2.1 Vitamin B15.10.2.2 Vitamin B25.10.3 Atlantic Essential Products Sales, Revenue, Price of Atlantic Essential Products (2015 and 2016)5.11 Bactolac Pharmaceutical5.12 Bluebonnet Nutrition5.13 Glanbia Nutritionals Deutschland5.14 Kirkman Group5.15 Lonza Group5.16 Nattopharma5.17 NBTY5.18 Nulab5.19 Nutrilo5.20 ParkAcre Enterprises5.21 Pfizer5.22 Private Label Nutraceuticals5.23 Sanofi5.24 Thorne Research5.25 Vertellus SpecialtiesTo Purchase this Premium Report:About Us:Global QY Research is the one spot destination for all your research needs. Global QY Research holds the repository of quality research reports from numerous publishers across the globe. Our inventory of research reports caters to various industry verticals including Healthcare, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Technology and Media, Chemicals, Materials, Energy, Heavy Industry, etc. With the complete information about the publishers and the industries they cater to for developing market research reports, we help our clients in making purchase decision by understanding their requirements and suggesting best possible collection matching their needs.Contact Us:Unit1, 26 Cleveland Road, South Woodford, London, E182AN, United KingdomEmail: sales@globalqyresearch.comFollow us: Market Size of Macadamia, Forecast Report 2016-2026 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-1304 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-1304 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/macadamia-market www.futuremarketinsights.com Macadamia nut was introduced in the early 1960s to the Kenyan highlands from Australia. Macadamia is a member of the family Proteaceae, native to Australia. Australia and Hawaii are the major producing areas of macadamia with others including eastern and southern Africa, and Central and Latin America. Several species of macadamia exist in Australia but only two species such as M. tetraphylla and Macadamia integrifolia and their hybrids are grown commercially. Production of macadamia nuts in Australia is mainly in eastern shore of Australia (northern New South Wales and south-eastern Queensland). Currently, Hawaii is the largest producer of global macadamia, accounting for around 70 percent of total macadamia production worldwide followed by Australia, around 22 percent, rest is produced by other countries including Malawi, South Africa, Kenya, Guatemala, Mexico, California, Costa Rica, Brazil, New Zealand and China.Tree nuts include almond, cashew, hazelnut, pistachio, walnut, macadamia, and pecan. Currently, macadamia accounts for around only one percent among all the tree nuts available across the globe. Almond nut dominates the nut segment, accounting for around 34 percent. Increasing health claims for macadamia have witnessed a surge in recent years, which if succeeded is expected to increase the consumption of macadamia nuts among consumers.Request Free Report Sample@Global Macadamia Market Segmentation:On the basis of application the global macadamia market is broadly segmented into food industry, and cosmetics industry. In food industry macadamia is widely used in confectionaries including chocolate bar, chocolate covered candy, ice cream and other baking products. In cosmetics industry it is used in shampoos, sunscreens, soaps and others.Geographically, global macadamia market is segmented into North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific excluding Japan, Japan and Middle East & Africa. Currently, North America and Western Europe account for major market share for macadamia however, Asia Pacific excluding Japan is expected to grow significantly in the forecasted years.Global Macadamia Market Dynamics:Owing to increasing variety of applications of macadamia, various workshop are taking places in order to increase the international trade for macadamia and since capitalise the growing demand for macadamia. Adoption of macadamia in chocolate and ice cream among consumers is expected to drive the demand for global macadamia in the near future. The biggest restraint for macadamia market is increasing crop losses due to immature nuts and moldy / rotten nuts. The crop losses due to these type of nuts accounts for around 50 percent of the total macadamia wastage globally. Thereby, reducing inclination of crop growers for macadamia and thus, hampering the market growth.Request For TOC@There is a high opportunity to increase the market share of macadamia in terms of revenue across countries such as Mexico, China, South Africa and others. Companies are investing in these countries through promotional activities in order to increase the footprint of macadamia worldwide.Global Macadamia Market Key Players:Some of the key players operating in the global macadamia market are Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Corp., Hamakua Macadamia Nut Company, MacFarms, Wondaree Macadamias, NAMBUCCA MACNUTS Pty Ltd, Golden Macadamias, Royal Macadamia (Pty) Ltd., Kenya Nut Company Ltd. and MWT Foods Australia.Browse Full Report@ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: Wind Energy Rescue System Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Trends, Analysis, Growth and Forecast 2015 - 2023 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=4005 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Wind energy is considered to be one of the cleanest sources of energy for power generation. With the shift in focus of world leaders today toward conservation of environment and attempts towards maintaining descent level of climatic change it has become crucial that the energy extraction from clean sources is given more importance and wind energy is one such source. Stringent emission norms and changing regulatory scenario is compelling use of renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, tidal or geothermal. As the wind energy market grows the requirement of workers and hence rescue system demand is expected to grow. The wind energy has seen a rapid growth in the last decade. For power production wind farms are set up. Manufacturing turbines, their installation and maintenance is a complex process that involves many risks.View exclusive Global strategic Business report :One such risk is associated with crew members working on the project site installation of turbines at the soaring heights. It is required that safety protocols are in place for the wind energy rescue systems which is a part of safety arrangement that are required for the workers and personnel of the project site. Companies lose millions of dollars in lost work, insurance premiums, litigation and liability claims as a result of accidents every year. The rescue system market can be segmented on the basis of different types which includes automated descent control system, Manual descent control system and Training for safety. It can be further segmented based on factors determining the appropriate rescue system. These factors include Anchor location, Nature of work, Working load and limit, Ease of use and others. A single rescue system cannot be termed as a complete solution for the rescue operation. It varies as per the requirement and a combinations of systems need to be used. The consumer needs to analyze the best practice for the turbine they possess.Second family is the manual descent control device which is the more versatile, more technical rescues can be advantageous of being best equipped possesses benefit of price as its low priced but requires high level of training. Rescue system training should be easy as it is useless if it is difficult to operate by the trainees.As wind energy industry is thriving leading to more number of employees hence the security of the workers has become prime consideration to match global standard, workforce preference and to blind with industry need. The rescue system market can be segmented on the basis of regions as North America, Asia Pacific, Europe and Rest of the world. China, India and Brazil are countries expected to lead the world in new wind energy installations. The rate of installations in these countries is very high, for example in China wind turbines are installed at a rate of one new turbine every hour.Miller protection is the leading player in the market with range of products, services and training modules for rescue systems. Gravitec Systematic Inc is a U.S based company specialized in working at height with quality fall protection training, engineering, testing, consulting and equipment sales. Arch Safety RCH is a U.K based approved training provider and Global Wind Organisation (GWO) approved training provider for the delivery of safety training for the wind energy industry.This research report analyzes this market on the basis of its market segments, major geographies, and current market trends. Geographies analyzed under this research report includeNorth AmericaAsia PacificEuropeRest of the WorldThis report provides comprehensive analysis ofMarket growth driversFactors limiting market growthCurrent market trendsMarket structureMarket projections for upcoming yearsThis report is a complete study of current trends in the market, industry growth drivers, and restraints. It provides market projections for the coming years. It includes analysis of recent developments in technology, Porters five force model analysis and detailed profiles of top industry players. The report also includes a review of micro and macro factors essential for the existing market players and new entrants along with detailed value chain analysis.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Regenerative Medicine Industry in Asia Pacific to Show Highest Growth Rate http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=419 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/regenerative-medicines-market.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com The global regenerative medicine market is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 12.8% during the period between 2013 and 2019. The overall market stood at a valuation of US$2.6 bn in 2012 and is projected to be worth US$6.5 bn by 2019.The review is based on the findings published by Transparency Market Research in a report, titled Regenerative Medicine Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2013 - 2019.Download Free Brochure:In terms of application, the global regenerative medicine market is broadly categorized into osteoarticular diseases, bone graft substitutes, autogeneic bones, allogeneic bones, and others. Bone graft substitutes had witnessed the highest demand in 2012 owing to the rise in orthopedic surgeries. A number of key market players have developed innovative bone graft substitutes. However, the demand for bone graft substitutes is expected to decline in future. The post-implantation rejection associated with bone graft substitutes is the key factor restricting their demand, a TMR analyst points out.Demand for Tissue Engineering to Rise amid High Cost of BiomaterialsRegenerative medicine is an emerging branch of medical science and is being extensively used to treat cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal disease, and orthopedic disorders. The growing prevalence of bone and joint disorders and the rise in orthopedic surgeries have fuelled the demand for regenerative medicines. Furthermore, technological innovations in stem cell therapy, biomaterials, and tissue engineering have supported the growth of the global regenerative medicines market. However, regulatory constraints pose a threat to the development of regenerative medicines. Ethical issues related to allogeneic bone grafts and stem cell therapy, and post implantation infections are impeding the growth of the overall market, the analyst states.Technology has played a pivotal part in the success of regenerative medicines. Favorable reimbursement policies had augmented the demand for biomaterials in 2012. However, tissue engineering is being increasingly preferred over biomaterials. In fact, during the period between 2013 and 2019, tissue engineering is anticipated to expand at the fastest pace. The high cost of biomaterials has led to their decreased adoption among patients, the analyst mentions.Research Report:The competitive landscape of the global regenerative medicine market includes players such as CONMED Corporation, Anika Therapeutics Inc., Arthrex, Inc., Baxter International Inc., Smith & Nephew PLC, DePuy Synthes Inc., Stryker Corporation, Medtronic Inc., and Zimmer Holdings Inc. Though North America and Europe were the largest markets for regenerative medicines, the market players are increasingly shifting their focus on the emerging economies across Asia Pacific such as India, South Korea, Japan, and China. These countries are registering an increased demand for various bone and joint reconstructive products such as Osteocel Plus (NuVasive Inc.), Trinity Evolution (Orthofix Inc.), and INFUSE Bone Graft (Medtronic Inc.) owing to the rapid growth of the healthcare sector and the rising pool of patients. The market players are investing in rigorous research and development initiatives for innovative products.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Air Source Heat Pumps Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2015 - 2023 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=4008 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com An air source heat pump is a system which transfers heat from outside to within a building envelope or vice versa. With an increasing focus on utilizing renewable energy systems for both heating and cooling ones home, the demand for air source heat pumps is likely to increase significantly within the forecast period. These air source heat pumps utilize refrigerants and compressors to transfer heat both to and from the building envelope. Currently air source heat pumps are being aggressively utilized as they not only reduce emissions but also result in significant savings for adopters. Owing to the technology, air source heat pumps consume far lesser electricity than conventional heating and cooling systems. Both space heating and cooling comprise a significant portion of the overall energy consumption for any household. With rising energy and electricity prices, homeowners are increasingly looking towards sustainable heating and cooling systems which would minimize energy expenditure and generate attractive cash flows in the long term.Download Free exclusive Sample of this report:Air source heat pumps are an attractive alternative to conventional domestic heating systems such as LPG boilers. Although these air source heat pumps provide numerous advantages over conventional systems, care must be taken while selecting such a system for ones home. Significant care must be taken to ensure that the building is well insulated before installing an air source heat pump system. Any heat losses taking place through air leaks might result in significant reduction in efficiency of the air source heat pump. This in turn might result in higher energy bills and a delayed payback period for the overall system. The air source heat pump systems score over other heat pumps such as geothermal heat pumps in a multitude of factors. Air source heat pumps require lesser space as compared to ground source heat pumps. Apart from this, air source heat pumps also do not require any expensive ground loop installations rendering it one of the most cost effective heat pump systems that can be installed at ones home. On the contrary, air source heat pumps are essentially required to be exposed to the air.This in turn might result in vandalism of the equipment or other mechanical failures since the equipment is continuously exposed. As a result, air source heat pumps might require slightly higher maintenance expenditures as compared to other heat pump counterparts which are housed inside the building envelope. The presence of supportive regulatory incentive frameworks is instrumental for the brisk adoption of such heat pump technologies. Both Europe and North America are currently mature markets for air source heat pumps. The federal tax credit scheme in the U.S. and the recently implemented renewable heat incentive (RHI) scheme in the Europe are likely to result in brisk adoption of air source heat pumps within the forecast period. The Asia-Pacific is also likely to emerge as an attractive market for this technology. Owing to a rapidly increasing disposable income and numerous initiatives to curb emissions, the Asia Pacific market is likely to briskly adopt the air source heat pump technology within the forecast period. With the retraction of the federal tax credit scheme in 2016, the exact market trends for air source heat pumps in North America cannot be predicted with certainty. However the RHI scheme is likely to remain for a long period of time bolstering adoption of air source heat pump in the European domestic sector.Some of the market players in the air source heat pump business include Finn Geotherm Ltd., Bosch, and Aiwasun Green Technologies among others.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Hydropower in India, Market Outlook to 2030, Update 2016 - Capacity, Investment Trends, Regulations and Company Profiles http://www.researchmoz.us/hydropower-in-india-market-outlook-to-2030-update-2016-capacity-generation-levelized-cost-of-energy-lcoe-investment-trends-regulations-and-company-profiles-report.html http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=774288 http://www.researchmoz.us/ Hydropower in India, Market Outlook to 2030, Update 2016 - Capacity, Generation, Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE), Investment Trends, Regulations and Company Profiles Size and Share Published in 2016-07-04 Available for US$ 0 at Researchmoz.usDescriptionGet The Full Report #@#"Hydropower in India, Market Outlook to 2030, Update 2016 - Capacity, Generation, Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE), Investment Trends, Regulations and Company Profiles is the latest report from GlobalData, the industry analysis specialists that offer comprehensive information and understanding of the hydropower market in India.The report provides in depth analysis on global renewable power market and global hydropower market with forecasts up to 2030. The report analyzes the power market scenario in India (includes conventional thermal, nuclear, large hydro and renewable energy sources) and provides future outlook with forecasts up to 2030. The research details renewable power market outlook in the country (includes hydro, small hydro, biopower and solar PV) and provides forecasts up to 2030. The report highlights installed capacity and power generation trends from 2006 to 2030 in India hydropower market. A detailed coverage of renewable energy policy framework governing the market with specific policies pertaining to hydropower is provided in the report. The research also provides company snapshots of some of the major market participants.The report is built using data and information sourced from proprietary databases, secondary research and in-house analysis by GlobalDatas team of industry experts.Get a Free Sample Copy of the Report:ScopeThe report analyses global renewable power market, global hydropower market, India power market, India renewable power market and India hydropower market. The scope of the research includes -- A brief introduction on global carbon emissions and global primary energy consumption.- An overview on global renewable power market, highlighting installed capacity trends, generation trends and installed capacity split by various renewable power sources. The information is covered for the historical period 2006-2015 (unless specified) and forecast period 2015-2030.- Renewable power sources include wind (both onshore and offshore), solar photovoltaic (PV), concentrated solar power (CSP), small hydropower (SHP), biomass, biogas and geothermal.- Detailed overview of the global hydropower market with installed capacity and generation trends, installed capacity split by major hydropower countries in 2015 and key owners information of various regions.- Power market scenario in India and provides detailed market overview, installed capacity and power generation trends by various fuel types (includes thermal conventional, nuclear, large hydro and renewable energy sources) with forecasts up to 2030.- An overview on India renewable power market, highlighting installed capacity trends (2006-2030), generation trends(2006-2030) and installed capacity split by various renewable power sources in 2015.- Detailed overview of India hydropower market with installed capacity and generation trends and major active and upcoming hydro projects.- Deal analysis of India hydropower market. Deals are analyzed on the basis of mergers, acquisitions, partnership, asset finance, debt offering, equity offering, private equity (PE) and venture capitalists (VC).- Key policies and regulatory framework supporting the development of renewable power sources in general and hydropower in particular.- Company snapshots of some of the major market participants in the country.Reasons to buy- The report will enhance your decision making capability in a more rapid and time sensitive manner.- Identify key growth and investment opportunities in India hydropower market.- Facilitate decision-making based on strong historic and forecast data for hydropower market.- Position yourself to gain the maximum advantage of the industrys growth potential.- Develop strategies based on the latest regulatory events.- Identify key partners and business development avenues.- Understand and respond to your competitors business structure, strategy and prospects.Table of Content1 Table of Contents 21.1 List of Tables 61.2 List of Figures 82 Executive Summary 92.1 Government Support in Conjunction with Technology Development Driving Global Renewable Power Installations 92.2 Thermal Power is the Dominant Source in the Power Mix 92.3 India to Rely on Renewable Sources for a Secure Energy Supply 102.4 Emphasis on Small Hydro Plants to Achieve Renewable Energy Targets 113 Introduction 123.1 Carbon Emissions, Global, 2001-2015 123.2 Primary Energy Consumption, Global, 2001-2025 143.3 Hydropower, Global, Technology Definition and Classification 163.4 Report Guidance 17About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives.Contact Us:ResearchMozMr. Nachiket Ghumare, +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948sales@researchmoz.us Comprehensive Analysis on Q1 Global Ethylene Capacity and Capital Expenditure Outlook - US and China to Lead Ethylene Industry Expansion http://www.researchmoz.us/q1-global-ethylene-capacity-and-capital-expenditure-outlook-us-and-china-to-lead-ethylene-industry-expansion-report.html http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=774292 http://www.researchmoz.us/ Q1 Global Ethylene Capacity and Capital Expenditure Outlook - US and China to Lead Ethylene Industry Expansion Size and Share Published in 2016-06-02 Available for US$ 0 at Researchmoz.usDescriptionGet the Full Report#@#Global ethylene capacity will experience considerable growth in the next five years with increase from 172.68 MMTPA in 2015 to 227.46 MMTPA by 2020. Large capacity additions with more than 80 planned projects are expected to come online primarily in the US, China and Iran in the next five years. China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, Rosneft Oil Company and Formosa Plastics Group are the top three companies by capacity additions expected to come onstream over the next five years.Global ethylene industry is expected to spend around US$46.54 billion by 2020 for the upcoming projects. Russia, US and China are the top three countries by capital expenditure for projects by 2020.Get a Free Sample Copy of the Report:ScopeReport provides information and insight on -- Historic and forecast global ethylene capacity by region- Ethylene planned plants details- Global ethylene capacity by feedstock- Capacity share of the major ethylene producers in the world- Global ethylene capital expenditure forecast by regionReasons to buyThe report will clarify -- Understand the key trends in the global ethylene industry- Understand the regional ethylene supply scenario- Identify opportunities in the global ethylene industry with the help of upcoming projects and capital expenditure forecast- Understand the current and likely future competitive scenarioTable of Content1 Table of Contents 21.1 List of Tables 31.2 List of Figures 42 Global Ethylene Industry 52.1 Key Highlights 52.2 New Projects Announcements 62.2.1 Singpu Chemical Industries Co., Ltd Taixing Ethylene Project 62.2.2 Shanxi Coking Co., Ltd Hongtong Ethylene Project 62.3 New Projects Cancellations 72.3.1 KPI-LG Chem Joint Venture Atyrau Ethylene Project 73 Appendix 263.1 Definitions 263.1.1 Installed Capacity 263.1.2 Key Feedstock 263.2 Abbreviations 263.3 GlobalDatas Research Methodology 263.3.1 Coverage 263.3.2 Secondary Research 273.3.3 Primary Research 283.3.4 Expert Panel Validation 283.4 Disclaimer 29About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives.Contact Us:ResearchMozMr. Nachiket Ghumare, +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948sales@researchmoz.us Cell Counting Market - Application Analysis, Regional Outlook, Key Players http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=12122 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com The growing number of cancer patients across the globe is propelling the demand for cell counting products. Cell counting products such as cell counters, flow cytometers, hematology analyzers, and spectrophotometers are used extensively by research institutions, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies. Cell counting proves to be an important step in various experimental workflows by researchers to help them maintain cell cultures and prepare cells for transfection and downstream experiments.Download Free Brochure:The global cell counting market is segmented on the basis of product, end user, and geography. By end user, the market is segmented into research institutions, hospitals, diagnostic laboratories, biotechnology companies, and pharmaceutical companies. On the basis of product, the global cell counting market is segmented into instruments and consumables and accessories. The consumables and accessories segment is further categorized into reagents, assay kits, accessories, microplates, and others. Further, the instruments segment is categorized into spectrometers, flow cytometers, hematology analyzers, and cell counters.The report on the global cell counting market comprises value chain and stakeholder analysis, supply and demand analysis, and the competitive landscape. The report gives the current, historical, and future size of the market in terms of volume and value. The market shares of key vendors and strategies implemented by them to grow in the market have been evaluated in detail. The assessment of the trajectory of the market and emerging opportunities and trends are also included in the report.Overview of the Cell Counting Market by ProductThe high prevalence of cancer and AIDS across the globe has led to a surge in the global demand for cell counting products. The introduction of enhanced data visualization and analysis software is encouraging the markets growth. The increasing expenditure on stem cell research has given a rise to the demand for cell counting products. Moreover, government support and participation through funding is also driving the adoption of cell counting products worldwide. On the other hand, the lack of proper research and healthcare infrastructure, especially in emerging economies, is limiting the growth of the market. The lack of skilled professionals and the high cost of cell counting products are other restraining factors impacting the growth of the market.On the basis of geography, the global cell counting market is segmented into Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, and the Rest of the World. Of these, North America and Europe are currently leading in the market by revenue. The prominence of cell counting product manufacturers in these regions is the major reason behind the growth of the market in North America and Europe. Other factors contributing to the growth of the market include an increasing number of cell-based and stem cell research programs initiated by the government and the presence of highly developed healthcare systems.Asia Pacific is projected to be the fastest growing region in the coming years owing to a rise in research collaboration, growing geriatric population, and the expanding healthcare sector. The rising focus of leading companies on Asia Pacific countries and the growing demand for cutting-edge technology are also behind the regions significant growth. Other factors driving the demand for cell counting products in Asia Pacific include the rapid expansion of private sector hospitals in rural areas and the increasing expenditure on R&D.Companies Mentioned in the ReportKey companies operating in the global cell counting market have been profiled in the report. They are: Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., GE Healthcare, Tecan Group Ltd., PerkinElmer Inc., Biotek Instruments Inc., Becton, Dickinson, and Company, Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc., Danaher Corporation, Merck Millipore, and Agilent Technologies Inc.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Research Focused On the Congo Republic Nene Marine Project Panorama - Oil and Gas Upstream Analysis Report http://www.researchmoz.us/congo-republic-nene-marine-project-panorama-oil-and-gas-upstream-analysis-report-report.html http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=774300 http://www.researchmoz.us/ Congo Republic Nene Marine Project Panorama - Oil and Gas Upstream Analysis Report Size and Share Published in 2016-06-30 Available for US$ 0 at Researchmoz.usDescriptionGet the Full Report ##Congo Republic Nene Marine Project Panorama, GlobalDatas latest release, presents a comprehensive overview of the asset. This upstream report includes detailed qualitative and quantitative information on the asset, provides a full economic assessment and reflects several parameters including (but not limited to) geological profile, asset development and specific challenges. Based on this analysis, future outlook for the asset is presented with possible trends and related scenarios identifying upside/downside potential.Scope- Overview of the asset based on an analysis of the economic indicators- Key financial indicators including Net Present Value and Internal Rate of Return- Review of factors affecting the economic outcome of the field including development overview, geology, challenges, reserves and production with qualitative perspective on of the overall assets life with GlobalDatas analysis on the assets future outlookGet a Free Sample Copy of the Report:- Detailed production profile for the asset, giving annual output rates for each commodity produced- Cash flow statements from our economic analysis of the asset including capital expenditures, operating expenditures and tax liability- Individual valuations for equity holders- Sensitivity analysis for asset value considering a range of factorsReasons to buy- Understand the economic and non-economic factors that affect production of an asset- Benefit from an asset valuation derived from detailed research and modeling by our analysts- Basic view of various scenarios and its effect on the asset for risk or strategy planning- Utilize the quantitative and qualitative evaluation to ascertain trends within the region to inform decision making- Identify economic trends of an asset to determine investment requirementsTable of Content1 Table of Contents 11.1 List of Tables 21.2 List of Figures 22 Project Panorama 33 Project Update 44 Outlook 55 Asset Summary 66 Development Overview 117 Geology 138 Challenges 149 Reserves and Production 1510 Economic Analysis 1811 Appendix 2211.1 Contact Us 2211.2 Disclaimer 22About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives.Contact Us:ResearchMozMr. Nachiket Ghumare, +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948sales@researchmoz.us Coal Preparation Plant Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Trends, Growth and Forecast 2015 - 2023 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=4040 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Operational efficiency of a coal preparation plant plays a vital role in the profitability of mining operations. Coal preparation is a series of operations that are interconnected through a material handling system. The material handling system is a part of the slurry transport system. Actual cleaning processes lies in the heart of the coal preparation processes .Interpret a Competitive outlook Analysis Report with free PDF Brochure:Coal preparation begins with procurement of raw coal and producing a final product that can be sold into the market by removing the impurities. Most commonly coal preparation, is carried out in water based processes and makes high use of slurry transport procedures and principles. It is considered as processing of raw coal to produce products that are marketable and do not hamper the physical and chemical properties of the coal. It is a heterogeneous material which is made up of different types of coal and varies with quantity of mineral matter. After mining, it generally contains all the layers of coal and impurities that are found in the seam. In a preparation plant, crushing and removing of all the impurities takes place in order to transport coal as a marketable product.Four basic types of operations are used in cleaning of coal such as comminution, concentration, dewatering and sizing. Comminution is carried out to reduce the coal into smaller size. Depending on the various sizes involved, the coal is crushed and broken. Breaking is generally carried out on the largest coal size, crushing is used for mid ranges sizes and grinding is carried out for finest sizes. Grinding is done prior to utilization process. Coal preparation facilities have different size ranges for similar types of coals. Sizing is carried to separate the coal into various products characterized according to the size. Concentration is used for separating the coal into numerous products that are characterized by some type of physical differences. It is the heart of coal preparation process, where actual cleaning takes place and impurities are then separated from coal. They are generally accomplished in dense medium vessels, jigs and water only cyclones. It can also be accomplished for other type of unit operations such as sulfur removal by crushing process to liberate the sulfur particles. Further, screening or classifying is carried out to achieve separation.Dewatering takes place to remove the moisture that clings to the coal. A finer type of coal has large surface area and high moisture content. Dewatering is generally carried out by mechanical methods, and is conducted for generating a damp type cake. If further dewatering is required then dryers are used for evaporation. Thermal dryers generate large amount of dust that is easily scrubbed off from air and is then generally disposed. A common type of byproduct for dewatering is removal of super fine type coal, in which high content of ash is found along with traces of sulfur and surface moisture. This process is also known as desliming.Coal preparation processes takes place in to types: firstly, those takes place in water medium and secondly, those takes place in a mixture of water and high gravity material such as magnetite.Stringent government rules and regulation and environmental norms are some of the key drivers of the coal preparation plant market. However, high storage and transportation costs can hamper the growth of the market. Advancements in technology bring new opportunities for the coal preparation plant market.Some of the key companies in the business of coal preparation plant market are Mongolian Mining Corporation, Zenith Mining and Construction Machinery Co. Ltd., SGS Group management S.A., Green Fields Coal Company and Roberts & Schaefer Company among others.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Energy Efficient Warehouses Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2015 - 2023 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=4042 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Energy efficient warehouses represent a major prospect for enhanced operations, reduced climate impact, low operational costs, and a further sustainable building stock through energy management. Energy efficient warehouses offer highly advanced inventory tracking and value added services such as repackaging and quality control testing. Growth in the energy consumption and efficiency in the energy measures can be a boon to the energy efficient warehouses market. Heating and lighting are expected to be the two major end uses for energy efficient warehouses accounted for the majority of total warehouse energy consumption. Regularity in the maintenance is expected to play one of the important roles for maintaining lighting levels and maximizing energy savings. By implementing recent technologies for lighting, heating, cooling and refrigeration systems, warehouse owners can accomplish goals in energy efficiency. Development of energy efficient lighting scheme is expected to assist productivity and provide convenient environment. With more energy efficient warehouses, business can formulate greater profits and employees can work in more comfortable infrastructure. Lighting energy can be condensed by up to 50 percent, owing to the adoption of energy saving steps such as efficient fixtures, lamps, and controls.Download Free exclusive Sample of this report:Energy efficient warehouses market can be segmented based on the technology for improving energy efficiency in warehouses. Radiant heating, reducing air infiltration, fluorescent lighting, metal halide lighting and occupancy sensors are few technologies in energy efficient warehouses market. In radiant heating, reduction in air temperature can diminish heat loss and energy consumption in warehouses. Advancement in metal halide technology can be efficiently utilized in new unconditioned warehouse facility. Customary maintenance of heating, cooling, ventilation and refrigeration systems including filter replacement regularly are some important factors for good operation and avoidance of energy waste. Even though, seals being one of the greatest sources of energy losses for warehouse facility, regularly repairing and checking gaps in seals are considered to be the energy saver.Energy efficient warehouses market is expected to be one of the largest consumers of energy in the United States. Energy efficient warehouse market is expected to accelerate significantly in Asia Pacific. Developing countries such as China and India had shaped an integrated concept that facilitates environment friendly and sustainable operation of warehouses. Economic growth in developing countries such as China, South Korea and others is one of the major factors driving the demand for energy efficient warehouses market.Sustainable source of private capital, availability of product, leverage public funds, efficient use of public subsidy and flexible options for sponsors are some benefits that are expected to drive energy efficient warehouses market. Efficient use of public subsidy is done to reduce the cost of capital, thereby increasing economies of scale as more and more loans are sold into the warehouse. Old fluorescent light fixtures have a further energy requirement for their magnetic control ballasts that is expected to consume 5 to 20 % of energy. Replacement of conventional florescent lighting system with modern warehouse lighting system can be a key solution to increase the energy efficiency in warehouses. Improved light distribution can provide improved safety standards & productivity in energy efficient warehouses.Some of the major players in energy efficient warehouses market are Dialight plc, Ligman Lighting India Pvt. Ltd, Philips Lighting, BJ Electric Supply, Inc., BBC Lighting, Mid state Supply, Rapco Inc., Warehouse Lighting and Zhengzhou Inledco Lighting Co. Ltd among others.out UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Global Autoimmune Disease Diagnostics Market to Benefit from Rising Health Care Expenditure http://bit.ly/1SVvP7t http://bit.ly/1TcHnXY http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com As autoimmune diseases grip millions around the world, the research and development of novel therapeutics and diagnostics is gaining momentum. With the incidence of autoimmune diseases rapidly increasing around the world, efficient autoimmune disease diagnostics is now considered indispensable.Avail Free Sample Research Report:Compelled by these factors, governments around the world have considerably increased their healthcare spending. The research and development of novel diagnostics has also paced up in the last few years to prevent the spread autoimmune diseases. TMR forecasts that the global autoimmune diseases diagnostics market will expand at a steady CAGR of 3.8% between 2015 and 2023. During the course of the forecast period, price competitiveness among key players will however have an adverse impact on the markets trajectory.Nevertheless, with multinational companies capitalizing on opportunities across emerging economies, TMR projects the global autoimmune disease diagnostics market to reach US$17.06 bn by 2023. The market was valued at US$12.3 bn in 2014.High Awareness about Medical Procedures Puts North America in Dominant PositionRegionally, North America emerged dominant in the global autoimmune disease diagnostics market in 2014, with a share of 39%. In North America, the U.S. and Canada have presently emerged as the most lucrative markets for autoimmune disease diagnostics. Both these countries boast sophisticated healthcare infrastructure with advanced laboratory techniques, and significantly high awareness about various medical procedures. The overall high healthcare expenditure across the region, also puts North America at the fore in the global autoimmune disease diagnostics market.According to TMR, the North America autoimmune disease diagnostics market at US$4.8 bn in 2014. Rising at a CAGR of 3.7%, the market is expected to reach US$6.6 bn by the end of 2023.However, Asia Pacific is forecast to emerge as the fastest growing regional market for autoimmune disease diagnostics. The rising demand from countries such as India, Australia, Japan, China, Malaysia, and other emerging nations will bolster opportunities for the market in Asia Pacific. Furthermore, the advances of diagnostic techniques witnessed in Asia Pacific, adoption of sophisticated technologies, and favorable government support will boost the autoimmune disease diagnostics market in the region. As per TMR, the Asia Pacific market will exhibit a CAGR of 4.3% during the course of the forecast period.High Prevalence of Rheumatoid Arthritis Fuels Demand for Efficient Autoimmune Disease DiagnosticsThe most common autoimmune diseases include Graves disease, multiple sclerosis, Hashimotos thyroiditis, rheumatoid arthritis, type1 diabetes, and systemic lupus erythematosus. Of these, the prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis is the highest since it can occur at any age. Rheumatoid arthritis has therefore emerged as the largest segment in the autoimmune disease diagnostics market, based on disease type. The segment stood at US$3.2 bn in 2014. Rising at a CAGR of 4.2%, it is expected to reach US$4.6 bn by the end of 2022.Browse Full Research Report:The incidence of rheumatoid arthritis is expected to rise in the forthcoming years due to the increasing geriatric population. The segment will also gain from the improved laboratory arrangements for the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis. Besides this, the prevalence of type 1 diabetes has been rising globally, which also augments the demand for efficient autoimmune disease diagnostics. TMR expects the type 1 diabetes segment to surge at a CAGR of 3.7% between 2015 and 2023.Some of the leading companies operating in the global autoimmune disease diagnostics market are Siemens Healthcare, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., Beckman Coulter, Inc., and Abbott Laboratories.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.TMRs data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact UsTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: SAP Business One SDK at be one solutions by ProAxia Consultants SAP Business One SDK (development kit) is a function of the industry specialized in the partner and customer, interface, and the like of the lack of features and third-party products, to enable the extension and modification of the functions of the SAP Business One.SAP Business One Software Development Kit (SDK) provides a comprehensive set of tools for professional software developers. The SDK maximizes your IT investment by allowing you to tailor SAP Business One to your particular needs, streamline and automate many processes, and integrate external applications. Built upon a standards-based platform that is compatible with Microsoft .NET, Microsoft Component Object Model (COM), and Java technologies, the SDK lets you leverage your development teams existing skills and quickly build solutions that bring tangible value to your organization.Key BenefitsSDK enables software developers to add new functionality to SAP Business One, interface with external applications, make minor functional modifications, or simply change the look and feel of SAP Business One. It includes application programming interfaces (APIs), sample code, documentation, and development tools for SAP Business One.In keeping with the simple yet powerful theme of SAP Business One, the SDK is designed to be easy to learn and use, while providing a level of flexibility unmatched by any other business management application in its class.proaxia consulting provides open platform consulting services including development service on cutting edge technology and environment, and system design and development using .NET, JAVA, and other languages. Working with our SAP consultants, we also approach systems that have functions to support core system and support our customers at higher dimentions.Umeda East Bldg. 5F, Taiyuji-cho, Kita-ku, Osaka 530-0051 Pharmacy Automation Systems Market to Log 7.3% CAGR by 2018 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=815 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/pharmacy-automation-systems.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/pressrelease/global-pharmacy-automation-systems.htm http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com The vendor landscape of the global pharmacy automation systems market is highly fragmented with the presence of a large number of players across various segments. Some of the major players in this market are McKesson Corporation, AmerisourceBergen Corporation, Health Robotics SRL, CareFusion Corporation, Cerner Corporation, Omnicell Inc, Kirby Lester, Baxter International Inc., ScriptPro LLC, Yuyama Co., Ltd, Swisslog Holding Ltd, and Talyst Inc.You can purchase and download the full report:The demand for pharmacy automation systems has been particularly high across Europe and North America. The growing trend of e-prescribing has further aided the growth of the market across these regions. However, the market players are focusing on the developing regions across the Middle East and Asia Pacific where the expansion of the healthcare sector has led to the healthy demand for pharmacy automation systems.High Cost of Implementation of Pharmacy Automation Systems is a Major Hiccup in Growth of the MarketIn recent years, the role of IT applications in pharmacy automation has extended to e-prescribing, clinical decision support system (CDSS), electronic health record (EHR), computerized physician order entry (CPOE), and interactive voice response (IVR). The rise in deaths associated with medical prescription errors is one of the primary reasons driving the growth of the global pharmacy automation systems market. Increase in drug prices, coupled with reduced reimbursement has propelled the demand for drug dispensing systems to control the pharmacy cost. The rise in per capita healthcare expenditure and growing awareness about the various advantages offered by pharmacy automation systems will also support the growth of the market during the forecast period."Dispensing the right dosage of medicine and reviewing the inventory at a specified location help to increase the efficiency of a pharmacy while keeping the costs low," notes a TMR analyst, pointing out the benefits of pharmacy automation systems. However, the high cost of implementation of pharmacy automation systems is expected to play spoilsport in the market's growth.Browse Research Report with ToC & Free Analysis:Growing Need to Prevent Medical Prescription Errors Drives Demand for Automated Medication Dispensing SystemsPharmacy automation systems are majorly used for applications such as automated packaging and labeling, automated medication dispensing, automated compounding devices, automated storage and retrieval systems, and table-top tablet counter. In 2011, the automated medication dispensing systems segment accounted for 48% of the overall market and generated revenue worth US$2.3 bn. "The pressing need to prevent medical prescription errors has stoked the demand for automated medication dispensing systems," states the TMR analyst. During the period between 2012 and 2018, this segment is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 6.7% and reach a valuation of US$3.6 bn by 2020.In 2011, the global pharmacy automation systems market stood at a valuation of US$4.7 bn. expanding at a CAGR of 7.3% during the period between 2012 and 2018, this market is anticipated to be worth US$7.8 bn by 2018.Browse Press Release:The review is based on the findings put forward by a TMR report, titled "Pharmacy Automation Systems Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2012 - 2018."About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Global Head Mounted Display Market to Exhibit 45.20% CAGR from 2014 to 2022 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=1228 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/head-mounted-displays.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com TMR recently announced the publication of a new market research study made available on the companys website. The research report, titled Head Mounted Display Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2014 - 2022, offers a clear picture of the market studying the overview, product segmentation, key driving factors, barriers, major geographical segments, and vendor analysis.As per the research study, in 2012, the global head mounted display (HMD) market for stood at US$430.4 mn and is projected to be US$20.45 bn by the end of 2022. This market is predicted to register an impressive 45.20% CAGR between 2014 and 2022.Head mounted displays consist of a small display, which is placed in front of the wearers eye to offer virtual information concerning the environment. These devices can be for a single display or for each eye depending on the requirement of the application. These devices generate a predictable environment by displaying all the information in a verbal and graphical format. In the last few years, the rising popularity of light-weight wearable devices has fuelled the growth of the head mounted display market.Get Sample Report Copy OR For further inquiries, click here:The declining prices of microdisplays and growing demand from the defense sector are the major factors projected to drive the global head mounted display market in the forecast period. In addition, the concept of cloud computing and automotive prototyping are the key opportunities for the major players operating in the global market. However, the lack of awareness and design issues are estimated to curb the growth of the market in the next few years.The global head mounted display market has been categorized on the basis of end use into the consumer market, defense, and others. In 2013, the defense segment was worth US$483.2 mn and dominated the overall market. On the other hand, the consumer market segment is anticipated to grow at a fast pace, exhibiting a whopping 53.20% CAGR between 2014 and 2022.On the basis of product, the global HMD market has been categorized into wearable computing glasses and helmet mounted display. In 2013, the helmet mounted display led the market, holding a 66% share in the global head mounted display market. Nevertheless, the wearable glasses segment is anticipated to grow rapidly, surpassing the helmet mounted display segment in the next few years. The rapid growth of this segment can be attributed to consumers inclination towards light-weight and head-worn display devices.Browse the full Market Research report atThe global market for head mounted display has been divided on the basis of geography into Europe, Latin America, Asia Pacific, North America, and the Middle East and Africa. As per the study, the North America HMD market is projected to dominate the overall market throughout the forecast period. The Asia Pacific HMD market, on the other hand, is anticipated to grow rapidly, exhibiting an enormous 48.20% CAGR between 2014 and 2022. The fast-paced growth of this region can be attributed to the growing demand from consumer and medical market segments.The global HMD market is highly fragmented owing to the presence of several mid-sized and large-sized players operating in the market. The leading players mentioned in the research study are Rockwell Collins, BAE Systems Plc, eMagin Corporation, Vuzix Corporation, Elbit Systems Ltd., Sony Corporation, Seiko Epson Corporation, and Kopin Corporation. The increasing participation of new players is expected to strengthen the competition in the market in the next few years.Key Segments of the Global Head Mounted Display Market:Head Mounted Display Market, by End-use:DefenseAir ForceMilitaryNavyConsumer marketVideo gamingAugmented realityVirtual realityOthersAutomationMedical practicesSafety practicesSportsOthers (police force and design)Head Mounted Display Market, by ProductHelmet Mounted DisplayWearable Computing GlassesHead Mounted Display Market, by ComponentsGogglesRelay OpticsControl UnitAccessoriesHead TrackerBatteryComputingPico Projectors TechnologyOthersHead Mounted Display Market, by Application:SecurityTraining and simulationTrackingImagingHead Mounted Display Market, by Geography:North AmericaEuropeAsia PacificMiddle East and AfricaLatin AmericaTMRs data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Global IT Robotic Automation Market: Increased Efficiency and Cost Benefits Lead to Wide Usage of Robotic Automation, Market to Develop at 60.5% CAGR during 2014-2020 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/it-robotic-automation-market.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=4045 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com According to a recent market research report published by Transparency Market Research, the global IT robotic automation market is expected to take a significant leap at a CAGR of 60.5% during the period between 2014 and 2020. The report, titled IT Robotic Automation Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2014 - 2020, estimates the global IT robotic automation market to be worth US$4.98 billion by 2020. The overall market was valued at US$0.183 billion in 2013.Browse the full IT Robotic Automation Market report atRobotic automation refers to the implementation of a machine or a computer software that mimics human actions to complete rule-based tasks. In the IT industry, robotic automation is achieved through automation software. Processes such as request management, access management, monitoring, incident management, problem management, and availability management can be managed through robotic process automation. The report points out that robotic automation in the IT sector is acting as a strong alternative to offshore outsourcing. Cost benefits and increased efficiency offered by robotic automation over manual process outsourcing in the IT industry will augment the growth of the global IT robotic automation market. The ability of the robotic automation software to leverage other application software without integration has led to its increased adoption across finance and accounting sectors to reduce exenditure. This will propel the growth of the global IT robotic automation market.Get Sample Report at-However, the report states that the overall IT robotic automation market will be negatively affected by security concerns of the technology over increased access to an individual. Also, existing BPO contracts will restrict the usage of robotic automation software in the BPO segment. The market has a huge opportunity to grow with the implementation of robotic process automation in application and infrastructure management. On the basis of type, the report segments the global IT robotic automation market into tools and services. Tools have been further sub-segmented into process-based application tools and model-based application tools. The demand for process-based application tools is rising due to growing requirement for application management, infrastructure management, request management, access management, and others across the IT sector. Services have been sub-segmented into training and professional services.The report studies the global IT robotic automation market across five key regional segments: Asia Pacific, Latin America, Middle East and Africa, Europe, and North America. In 2013, North America and Europe accounted for the largest share of the market. In North America, early adoption of technology, coupled with initiatives taken by robotic process automation tool providers to create awareness has aided the growth of the market. Europe has emerged as another key market for robotic automation. However, during the forecast horizon, Asia Pacific is expected to witness the highest growth in the market.The report profiles some of the major players in the global IT robotic automation market such as Blue Prism, Appian Corporation, Be Informed B.V., Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., Infosys Ltd., Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp., Atos SE, IPSoft Inc., Genfour, Capgemini, Genpact Ltd., Sutherland Global Services Inc., and Automation Anywhere Inc. The report provides insightful information about the key players such as their business strategy, financial overview, and recent developments.The research study has been segmented as below:IT Robotic Automation Market, by Type:ToolsServicesIT Robotic Automation Market, by Tools:Model-based Application ToolsProcess-based Application ToolsIT Robotic Automation Market, by Services:ProfessionalConsultingIntegration and DevelopmentApplication ManagementInfrastructure ManagementBPOApplication ManagementInfrastructure ManagementTrainingIT Robotic Automation Market, by Geography:North AmericaEuropeAsia-PacificMiddle East and Africa (MEA)Latin AmericaTMRs data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Worldwide WiFi Enabled LTE Small Cell Gateway Market: Latest innovations and key events 2015 - 2021 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/4765 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/4765 WiFi enabled LTE small cell gateway is a type of a base station. Base station uses cellular wireless network for communicating with mobile phones or terminals. Base station connects mobile phones to a wireless carrier network and offers local coverage for a wireless network. The area of coverage varies from several miles to few city blocks. Each base station is typically owned by one carrier or wireless company and gives coverage only for that company's network. It may also offer roaming coverage for other networks in case carriers have agreement for roaming and technology is compatible. Base station comprises of an electronic cabinet which connected by means of cables to a group of antennas. The antennas may be mounted on an existing structure or on dedicated tower structure including top of a building, church steeple or smoke-stack and water tower.In radio communications, base station refers to wireless communications station implemented at a fixed location and used to communicate as wireless telephone system including cellular GSM or CDMA cell site, part push-to-talk two-way radio system, terrestrial trunked radio and two-way radio. A single location often operates several base stations owned by a different carrier. Smaller types of base stations or small cells include picocells, femtocells and microcells. WiFi enabled LTE small cell gateway is promising network element. A wide variety of base station deployments are in a small cell configuration. It has WiFi interface at end-use device and LTE interface at the carrier network.Request TOC (desk of content material), Figures and Tables of the report:Small cell is low-powered radio access nodes (operator-controlled) that operate in carrier-grade Wi-Fi (unlicensed) and licensed spectrum. Small cells normally have a range from 10 to numerous hundred meters. Small cell base stations are expected to play vital role in expanding the capacity of wireless networks due to increasing mobile data traffic. Mobile operators are increasingly looking forward to this technology in order to meet the rising demands for data, video and application access generated due to smart phones and other devices. Small cells aid mobile service that detect presence, interact wand connect with existing networks. Small cells offer increased quality of service and flexibility at an affordable cost. Small cell infrastructure implantation is an environmentally friendly approach as it reduces the number of cell towers and offers a cleaner signal using less power.Rising numbers of wireless carriers or companies are taking dedicated interest in this industry owing to the proliferation of embedded WiFi features in fixed and mobile devices. Growing demand for more advanced handheld devices such as smart-phones and tablets is expected to create demand for technologies with high internet speed. This in turn, is expected to drive the growth of WiFi enabled LTE small cell gateways.Thinking about report: Please observe the beneath the hyperlinks to satisfy your necessities; Request for the Report sample :Some of the major participants in WiFi enabled LTE small cell gateway industry include wireless network infrastructure vendors, technology providers, WiFi network providers, chipset, software and component vendors, small cell backhaul solution providers among others. Some of the small cell backhaul solution providers are Athena Wireless Communications, BLiNQ Networks, DragonWave, BluWan, Ceragon, FastBack Networks, Intracom Telecom, Cambium Networks, LightPoint Communications, Siklu, BridgeWave Communications, Tarana Wireless and others. WiFi Network Providers are Quadriga Worldwide, Devicescape Software, Boingo Wireless, AlwaysOn, BSkyB (The Cloud), Fon Wireless and Towerstream Corporation among others.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.com Rising Demand for Home-Based Treatment Expected to Boost the Current and Future Telepathology Service Market http://bit.ly/2aIgmsw http://bit.ly/2aHYxOp http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Telepathology refers to the electronic transmission of high quality pathological data by the means of telecommunications technology to practice pathology from a distance. It opens the door for transfer of high quality image-rich pathological data between different locations for the purposes of diagnosis, education, and research. This technology is being utilized for purposes such as expert opinion on referral cases, emergency services, diagnosis at remote location, quality assurance, conferences and meetings, and for educational training. Telepathology is an emerging technology that offers advancement of telecommunication to reach out patient in remote location and provides best diagnostic inference to distant healthcare provider.Downlaod Free Sample Research Report:This market research provides in-depth analysis of global telepathology service markets. It includes trends and sales in the telepathology service market. Key market players, service segments, supporting technologies, market dynamics, and competitive impact analysis are discussed in depth. The intended audience for this report includes Pathological Labs, Clinicians and Medical Practitioners, Medical Equipment Vendors, Outsourced Clinical Service Providers, Researchers and Academics, Healthcare Consultants, telecoms and tech start-ups among several other readers.In the current economy, cost cutting is a cardinal driver for the advancement of any technology which offers cost effectiveness and global reach to the entire market. Accurate pathological assessment, quick diagnoses, timely treatment and delivery of high-quality healthcare are some of the prime factors that would emphasize the global market demand for telepathology.In addition to that, the widespread presence of cancer, the increasing workload of healthcare providers, and advances in laboratory diagnostic tests drives the growth of telepathology market globally. However, the high initial setup cost and error in sampling pathological data would be catastrophic for global telepathology service market. Other factors which may restrain the telepathology services markets are rigorous regulatory requirements for telepathology systems as different issues arise in quality assurance and assessment of competence.It is of paramount importance to have equivalence between telepathology system and pathologist`s usual method of practice in order to recognize and acknowledge differences. The telepathology systems attributes and advantage differ from one company to the other. Every companys system differs in their telecommunication technology, scanning software and backup. The key to establishing a presence in the telepathology service market is to have a setup with a system design for pathologists that are service provider-centric, that is based on requirements of provider and designed to meet end-user requirements.Telepathology is primarily segmented in three domains, namely, static image-based systems, virtual slide systems, and real-time systems. The global market for telepathology is segmented based on scanning technology, application type (hospital based, home based), software and hardware configuration, clinical application and geography. An aging population in North America and Asia Pacific and rising demand for home-based treatment are expected to boost the current and future telepathology market.23 million individuals aged 80 years or over were living in China in 2013. The USA contributed to about 12 million, followed by India and Japan, which had 10 million and 9 million, respectively. Apart from this increase expenditure in healthcare is also responsible for the shifting paradigm for future technology. It reflects the net result of the aging of the population on demand of technology that would be utilized for home based pathological diagnoses.Major market players profiled in this report includes include Canada Health Infoway, University Health Network, Meyer Instruments, Inc., Telemedicine Clinic (TMC), AMD Global Telemedicine, Inc., Emerge MD, Focal Point , Nationwide Medical Licensing, Polycom, Inc, Remote Medical Technologies, USAC - Universal Service Administrative Company, Visual Share, Inc., Wolf Vision Inc.Browse Full Research Report:The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth insights, understanding market evolution by tracking historical developments, and analyzing the present scenario and future projections based on optimistic and likely scenarios. Each research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology developments, types, applications, and the competitive landscape.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.TMRs data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact UsTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Worldwide School and Campus Security Market Segments By 2015 - 2021 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/4793 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/4793 The global school and campus security market is expected to show a remarkable growth rate by coming years. One of the major factors contributing the growth of the global school and campus security market are the increasing criminal cases and the increasing security concerns. Monitoring activities to detect intrusion, theft or vandalism and traffic surveillance and the government regulations demanding increased security levels are also driving the demand for the global school and campus security market.The report contains the global scenario of school and campus security market discussing detailed overview and market figures. The research report analyses the industry growth rate, industry capacity, and industry structure. The report analyses the historical data and forecasts the school and campus security market size, production forecasts along with key factors driving and restraining the market.Request TOC (desk of content material), Figures and Tables of the report:The global school and campus security market is segmented by type, components and geography. On the basis of type the global school and campus security market is segmented into analog video surveillance and IP based video surveillance. Based on components the market is segmented into hardware (cameras, monitors, encoders, recorders and storage), software (video analytics, video management systems (VMS), services (hosted managed and hybrid). Further the global school and campus security market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and RoW. The market is dominated by the North America and Europe. Among the regions, Asia-Pacific registered the fastest growth rate from 2013 to 2019. Asia-Pacific is expected to be the fastest growing segment due to the increasing criminal activities and security concerns in this region. The Middle-East and some countries from Latin America are also expected to drive the growth of the global school and campus security market.The global school and campus security market is driven by factors such as the increasing security concerns and the continued investments in infrastructure. Other factors fuelling the growth of the global school and campus security market are the growing monitoring activities to detect theft or vandalism, intrusion, and traffic surveillance and the advancements in high definition (HD) and megapixels.Some of the factors inhibiting the growth of the global school and campus security market are the privacy concerns for public surveillance. The high cost of IP video surveillance systems is also restraining the growth of the global school and campus security market. The increasing Hospitality and casinos and rising demand for mobile video surveillance are serving the opportunities fuelling the growth of the global school and campus security market.Thinking about report: Please observe the beneath the hyperlinks to satisfy your necessities; Request for the Report sample :Some of the key players dominating the global school and campus security market are HikVision Digital Technology Co., Ltd, Agent Video Intelligence, Bosch Security Systems Inc., Honeywell Security Group, Pelco Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., Genetec Inc., and Axis Communications AB, among others. Earlier the global school and campus security market was dominated by few players with relatively low brand products. However, after the rapidly increase in the number of crimes and the rising demand for security, the demand for school and campus security has increased among the schools and campuses.Persistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.com Elevator Automation Market Analysis (2015-2025) The Insight Partners http://theinsightpartners.com/reports/elevator-automation-market http://theinsightpartners.com/inquiry/TIPTE100000125 http://theinsightpartners.com/discount/TIPTE100000125 Automated elevators make use of advance technology for enhancing efficiency, achieving proper vertical movement of elevators and enhancing traffic management. Smart elevator help to achieve increased energy efficiency and advanced destination dispatch solution. These systems further provide latest digital security measure (such as access control systems), and touch screens. Embedded with automated features, automated elevators have more benefits over the traditional lifts.Browse market data tables and in-depth TOC of the Elevator Automation Market to 2025 @These elevators come with pre-fitted automated features that significantly contribute in reduction of waiting time, hence fueling the global elevator automation market. The growing need for energy efficient elevators for conservation of energy wasted during operations has led to implementation of automated elevators. Furthermore, increasing concern for development and security of the constructed (residential, commercial & institutional) premises has fueled the demand for the elevator automation market globally. Additionally, rapid urbanization and increased expenditure on constructional projects has triggered the need of automated elevators and associated control systems.The major factor hindering the global elevator automation market is high manufacturing cost of automated elevators. Additionally, the huge installation cost of automated elevators into buildings restraint the growth of global elevator automation market. Due to above mentioned reasons, the adoption rate of automated elevators is very low and it is expected the impact of this factor will subside during the forecast period.Request for Free Sample @Furthermore, owing to the rapid advancement in computer and automation technology, the concept of smart elevators is expected to be soon casted into products (smart automated elevators), thereby anticipated to boost the global elevator automation market. Security being the main concern to propel the demand for more advanced and sophisticated elevators, thus, smart elevators are deployed at entry point systems to prevent unauthorized access and tailgating. They also provide adequate safeguards through various identification and validation techniques. Moreover, energy efficiency and centralized controls are expected to be key factors for the adoption of smart elevators. The regulations and standards made regarding increased efficiency and energy conservation are expected to add to the growth of the global elevator automation market.The global elevator automation market has been segmented based on services into installation services, repair & maintenance services, and modernization services. Additionally, the global elevator automation market is fragmented on the basis of products such as elevator access controls & security, automation and controls, biometrics, touchscreens and keypads, card reader, security controls, sensors, and elevator modernization. In addition, the global elevator automation market is segmented based on applications which includes residential sector, commercial sector, industrial sector, institutional sector, and infrastructure sector.Avail discount on full report @Geographically, the global elevator automation market has been segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), Middle East & Africa (MEA) and South America (SAM). Currently, developed regions such as North America and Europe aiming for better infrastructure and launch of technologically advanced products are leading the global elevator automation market. Owing to large number of potential users, the elevator automation market in APAC is expected to grow significantly during the forecast period. The key players of global elevator automation market includes KONE Corporation, Hitachi, Ltd., Bosch Security Systems, Fujitec, Thyssenkrupp AG, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Hyundai Elevator Co., Ltd., Otis Elevator Company, Schindler, Honeywell International Inc., and Tyco among others.About The Insight Partners:The Insight Partners is a one stop industry research provider of actionable intelligence. We help our clients in getting solutions to their research requirements through our syndicated and consulting research services. We are a specialist in Technology, Media, and Telecommunication industries.Contact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@theinsightpartners.comThe Insight Partners is a one stop industry research provider of actionable intelligence. We help our clients in getting solutions to their research requirements through our syndicated and consulting research services. We are a specialist in Technology, Media, and Telecommunication industries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028 Worldwide Breakfast Cereals Market expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.1% from 2013 to 2019, According to PMR Report http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/breakfast-cereals-market/toc http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/3030 According to a new market report published by Persistence Market Research Worldwide Breakfast Cereals Market expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.1% from 2013 to 2019, According to PMR Report, the global breakfast cereals market was valued at USD 32.5 billion in 2012 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.1% from 2013 to 2019, to reach an estimated value of USD 43.2 billion in 2019.The need for convenience and busy schedules of people has been propelling the processed food industry, which includes breakfast cereals. Developed nations already have breakfast cereals as part of their regular course of meals. Increasing per capita income in developing countries is further giving the breakfast cereal industry a new dimension to look for.Download TOC (desk of content material), Figures and Tables of the report:The market in the US is declining which is compelling the companies in this industry to increase their markets in the emerging economies. These companies have been increasing their advertising spends in the emerging markets in Asia Pacific region to make consumers aware about the breakfast cereals and the health benefits associated with them. Companies have also developed some brands according to the regional preferences, such as inclusion of saffron and raisin flavored cereals in India.Special emphasis on healthy living has prompted market players to introduce new products, which suit all age groups and lifestyles. International players are also focusing on reformulating their products by replacing harmful hydrogenated fat and oils with healthier ingredients such as fiber and fruits. Demand for gluten-free cereals has increased in the market, especially in North America and Europe. There also has been an increase in demand for whole-grain cereals worldwide.Breakfast cereals are broadly marketed under two segments: RTE cereals and Hot cereals. The market for RTE cereals is much bigger as compared to that of Hot breakfast cereals. The Ready-to-eat (RTE) cereal had the larger share in the breakfast cereal market and was valued at USD 27.8 billion in 2012. However, the Hot cereals is growing at more than double the CAGR of RTE cereals due to its increasing consumption in the Asian markets.Thinking about report: Please observe the beneath the hyperlinks to satisfy your necessities; View for the Report sample :Geographically, North America, led by sales from the US, accounted for the largest share in the breakfast cereals market and was valued at USD 13.9 billion in 2012. Though China does not have a large market, but the market in the country is growing at a brisk pace, therefore showing opportunities for the companies to increase investments in this region. Major companies operating in the market are Kelloggs, Cereal Partners Worldwide and PepsiCo.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.com Worldwide Food Enzymes Market : Latest innovations and key events by 2020 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/3033 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/3033 Food enzymes are biocatalysts, sourced from plants, animals or micro-organisms used to alter the speed of biochemical reactions in foods and beverages. Food enzymes are generally used as food additives to enhance digestibility, texture and shelf life of food and beverages. It has wide application in meat processing, dairy industries, alcoholic beverages, and manufacturing of pre-digested foods. Food enzymes are also used as natural fermentation agent (breaking of large sized molecule of carbohydrates fats and proteins) in various amino-acids and specialty foods.On the basis of chemical properties, the food enzymes are broadly categorized under four categories namely, carbohydrase (such as amylase, cellulose, pectinase, and lactase), protease, lipase and others. On the basis of end user application, food enzymes market can be broadly classified as, meat, beverages, dairy, bakery and others. Furthermore, on the basis of sources, the market can be categorized under micro-organisms, plants and animals.Download TOC (desk of content material), Figures and Tables of the report:North America is the largest market for food enzymes closely followed by Europe and Asia Pacific. Food enzymes market in Asia Pacific has been witnessing healthy growth rate from past few years and is expected to grow even at higher rate in upcoming years. Westernization and globalization in developing countries of Asia Pacific are leading to change in food habit among consumers, such as preference towards bakery, confectionaries, specialty food and process food which in turn is helping the food enzymes market in this region. Increasing demand of processed food products and consumers preference regarding exotic and novel flavors in the developed countries of North America and Europe is keeping a steady growth in the food enzymes market in these regions. The increased demand of process food, confectionary and bakery in developing countries such as South Africa and Brazil is showing promising growth for food enzymes market in rest of the world (RoW) region.Ever-increasing population and demand for processed foods coupled with growing awareness about healthy food and beverages products is propelling growth in food industry, which in-turns driving the growth of the global food enzymes market. Moreover, technical innovations in enzymatic food processing and rising application of food enzymes in variety of new food products are also driving the overall market.The health related side effect associated with certain enzymes is acting as a major challenge for the overall growth of the food enzymes market. The European Union recently imposed a regulation regarding health risks associated enzymes in food industry and considered a need of defined set of guidelines to regulate the market.Thinking about report: Please observe the beneath the hyperlinks to satisfy your necessities; View for the Report sample :The major companies operating in global food enzymes market include AB Enzymes GMBH, Advanced Enzymes Technologies Limited, AUM Enzymes, Dyadic International Inc., E.I. DUPONT DE Nemours & Company, Jiangsu Boli Bioproducts Co. Ltd, Novozymes A/S, Sunson Industry Group Company Limited, Nagase Chemtex Corporation, and Puratos Group NV.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.com Market Size of Edible Films and Coating, Forecast Report 2015-2025 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-907 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-907 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/edible-films-and-coating-market www.futuremarketinsights.com Edible films and coating are thin layer of material which provides a barrier to moisture for the various food application. Generally edible films and coating thickness is approximately 0.3 mm. It also helps in extending the shelf life of the final product. Edible films and coating are prepared from proteins, polysaccharides and/or lipids to alter the surface characteristics of a food. It possess a wide application in various food industry which is expected to drive edible film market during the forecast period.Edible Films and Coating Market SegmentationEdible films and coating is segmented on the basis of ingredient types which includes protein base, polysaccharides base and lipids base. Among all these segments protein base edible films is expected to be the major segment in terms of revenue generation as compared to others. Protein base edible films comprises high advantages such as it can be used for the individual packaging of small portions of food, can be applied inside heterogeneous foods at the interfaces between different layers of components, can function as carriers for antimicrobial and antioxidant agents and many others is predicted to support its growth during the forecast period. Moreover, polysaccharides base is expected to show a substantial growth in the near future. On the basis of type protein base edible films is sub segmented as collagen films, gelatin films, wheat gluten films, soy protein films and others (corn zein films and casein films). Among all these sub segment soy protein is expected to contribute major share in edible protein edible films market. Polysaccharides edible films is also sub segmented as pectin chitosan, alginate, starch, cellulose and dextrin. In addition lipids for use in films include fatty acids, acylglycerol and waxes.Request Free Report Sample@Edible films and coating is further segmented on the basis of application which includes meat and poultry products, bakery products, confectionery products, fruits and vegetables, flavor encapsulation and nutraceutical products. Among all these segment bakery product is expected to contribute major share in edible films market followed by confectionery products. Moreover, nutraceutical industry is predicted to show a healthy growth during the forecast period. Edible films are ultra-portable and convenient, especially for children and the elderly who may have difficulty swallowing pills, which is expected to support the growth of edible films market in nutraceutical products.Geographically North America edible film and coating market is well established. The region is expected to contribute highest in terms of revenue. In North America Us is expected to account for major market share followed by Canada. Europe is expected to be emerging market for edible films and coating during the forecast period. Growing nutraceutical industry in the European countries is expected to be the driving factor for edible films and coating market in the future. In developing region such as Asia Pacific is predicted to show a healthy growth during the forecast period. China is expected to be the major contributor in terms of revenue in edible films and coating market followed by Japan.Request For TOC@Edible Films and Coating Market DriversHigh advantages of edible films and coating material such as it act as masking agent, it is ultra-portable convenient and others is expected to fuel the growth of edible films and coating material market during the forecast period. Moreover, increased demand for those edible products with long shelf life is also predicted to fuel the growth of edible films and coating market during the forecast period.Edible Films and Coating Market Key PlayersSome of the major players operating in edible film and coating material market includes Tate and Lyle Plc, WATSON-INC, Tsukioka Film Pharma Co., Ltd, JRF Technology, LLC, MonoSol, LLC among others.Browse Full Report@ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: Why Your Consulting Firm Does Need A Time Tracker http://crocotime.com/en/ There are few methods in which the automatic time tracker may help consulting firms to become more profitable.Companies now live in a technological world and tedious tasks now may be performed with agility and ease. Computers with software are able to do most of our tasks for us, whether it is filing taxes or ordering groceries. The advantages we get specifically, more time and less possibility of error make IT appealing to companies as well. In fact, there are several ways in which an automatic time tracker can help consulting firms become more profitable.Maximizing IncomesBillable time is the main source of incomes for consulting firms. By tracking time, costs, and other parameters accurately, consulting firms will be able maximize their income. The automatic time tracker gives managers the ability to create unique interfaces to facilitate employee acceptance and compliance, eliminate double entry errors through online approval routing and integration, and even assign multiple billing rates for each specific task to every single worker.Cut Your Cash Flow CycleTime trackers are also able to help consultancies in reporting on projects development and providing expenses updates. All project cost-related information can be entered, updated and accessed through a single interface. The right time tracker for the job can also create and send invoices at any time in the projects work cycle as well as speed up billing cycle to perfect cash flow. Not only that, but a web-based time tracker allows time to be entered from anywhere where are an Internet connection is available. It means that invoicing need not be held up until an employee gets in the office.Any Information On First DemandAutomatic invoice reports help consulting firms to recognize problems and opportunities fast, and CEOs will have access to data they need wherever they are. Thanks to real-time billing data, they can keep an eye on a given budget as well as improve client relationships by providing customers with access to information. They may also automate calculations by running reports based on customized billing rules.Not only does the automatic time tracker make work easier, but the work has been proven to become more effective as well. According to a study by the University of California, automating the time tracking process reduces human errors by 70%. Let's think about what this could be worth to your business. Automation also cuts down on employees time, so that staff can spend more time more productively, working.Today CrocoTime is approved by more than 500 of customers ranging from small companies to enterprises of different spheres of business: production companies, project companies, trading, and service companies have been using CrocoTime to become more productive and efficient.3, Severo-Vostochnoy Ave., Saransk, Mordovia, Russia, 430000 Releases New Report on the Global Adaptive Cruise Control System Market http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-954 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-954 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/adaptive-cruise-control-system-market www.futuremarketinsights.com Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) is a special form of the conventional cruise control systems which is used to maintain and control the speeds of cars and other intelligent vehicles. Adaptive cruise control is an intelligent form of cruise control systems that slows down and speeds up automatically to keep pace with the car in front of you. It dosent make use of any satellite, any roadside infrastructures or any cooperative support from other vehicles, rather it uses sensors and lasers to control the speed of vehicles. The main impact of adaptive cruise control system is on drivers safety as by adjusting the distance between according to the traffic conditions. The overall process is achieved through a radar headway sensor, longitudinal controller and digital signal processor. Adaptive cruise control systems are being enhanced to guide through collision warning capabilities to warn drivers through audio or visual signals that a collision is imminent and that evasive steering is required. Now-a-days, Adaptive cruise control system is often paired with a pre-crash system which alerts the driver and often starts braking. Adaptive cruise control is also known as autonomous cruise control, active cruise control, intelligent cruise control or radar cruise control.Global Adaptive Cruise Control System Market: SegmentationThe Global Adaptive Cruise Control System Market can be segmented on the basis of Geography, Vehicle Type and Technology. On the basis of Geography, the Global Adaptive Cruise Control System Market can be segmented into Asia Pacific, Europe, North America and Latin America. On account of type, the Global Adaptive Cruise Control System Market can be segmented into passenger vehicles and commercial vehicles. Passenger vehicles include luxury cars, mid-range cars and premium cars. Further, considering technology, the Global Adaptive Cruise Control System Market can be segmented into infrared sensors, laser sensors, image sensors, radar sensors and ultrasonic sensors.Request Free Report Sample@Global Adaptive Cruise Control System Market: Region-Wise OutlookThe key regions in the field of adaptive cruise control systems are Asia Pacific, Europe, Americas. The Asia Pacific region includes the emerging markets like Thailand, India and China. The factors such as rising demands of premium and luxury cars in such regions are effective to the overall growth of the global adaptive cruise control system market. Europe is the region which is a major market to the product and is home for the major suppliers of adaptive cruise control systems. The key regions in Europe comprises of Germany, France and Italy. The American region comprises of Brazil, Mexico, Canada and others; Brazil and Mexico being the emerging markets of this region.Global Adaptive Cruise Control System Market: DriversThe growth of the global adaptive cruise control system market highly depends on the rising number of accidents due to increase in traffic. Moreover, with the advancement of technology, people tend to be on a safer side and thus are willing to pay to install adaptive cruise control systems and thus are willing to pay. The increasing disposable incomes and greater sales of premium and luxury cars is also a major factor driving the growth of the global adaptive cruise control system market. The increasing use of sensors with the advancement in the technology is another fuelling factor. Moreover, government initiatives to improve fuel efficiencies and safety attributes of vehicles are motivating the manufacturers to apply such integrated systems to ensure safety as well as to comply with the government regulations.Request For TOC@Global Adaptive Cruise Control System Market: ChallengesThe regions with higher intensity of fog, rainfalls and snowfalls are repelling to the adaptive cruise control systems. Regions with such weather conditions make such safety systems inefficient in making and monitoring the speeds of the surrounding objects and vehicles making the owners of the vehicles reluctant to implement such systems. Since each and every manufacturer competes with each other, each manufacturer implements high end safety sensors thus making the car owners difficult to understand the exact operating procedures of the product.Global Adaptive Cruise Control System Market: Key PlayersVarious companies are into manufacturing the adaptive cruise control system market. Some of the key players involved in the global adaptive cruise control system market are Denso Corporation, Magna International Inc., Mando Corporation, Valeo SA, TRW Automotive, Autoliv Inc., Hyundai Mobis Co. Ltd., Robert Bosch GmBH, Delphi Automotive PLC and others.Browse Full Report@ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: Global Aerospace Additive Manufacturing Market 2016 Price by Regions, Growth Rate, Production, Specifications, Research, Review, Demand & Forecast http://goo.gl/PWRk1B http://goo.gl/gW0aM7 A market study based on the "Aerospace Additive Manufacturing Market" across the globe, recently added to the repository of QY Market research, is titled Global Aerospace Additive Manufacturing Market 2016. The research report analyzes the historical as well as present performance of the global Aerospace Additive Manufacturing market, and makes predictions on the future status of Aerospace Additive Manufacturing market on the basis of this analysis.The report studies the market for Aerospace Additive Manufacturing across the globe taking the existing industry chain, the import and export statistics in Aerospace Additive Manufacturing market & dynamics of demand and supply of Aerospace Additive Manufacturing into consideration.Get Free Sample Copy of Report Here :The 'Aerospace Additive Manufacturing'research study covers each and every aspect of the Aerospace Additive Manufacturing market globally, which starts from the definition of the Aerospace Additive Manufacturing market and develops towards Aerospace Additive Manufacturing market segmentations. Further, every segment of the Aerospace Additive Manufacturing market is classified and analyzed on the basis of product types, application, and the end-use industries of the Aerospace Additive Manufacturing market. The geographical segmentation of the Aerospace Additive Manufacturing market has also been covered at length in this report.The competitive landscape of the global market for Aerospace Additive Manufacturing is determined by evaluating the various market participants, production capacity, Aerospace Additive Manufacturing market's production chain, and the revenue generated by each manufacturer in the Aerospace Additive Manufacturing market worldwide.Read More Research with TOC :The global Aerospace Additive Manufacturing market 2016 is also analyzed on the basis of product pricing, Aerospace Additive Manufacturing production volume, data regarding demand and Aerospace Additive Manufacturing supply, and the revenue garnered by the product. Various methodical tools such as investment returns, feasibility, and market attractiveness analysis has been used in the research to present a comprehensive study of the market for Aerospace Additive Manufacturing across the globe.About Us:QY Market Research is a single destination for all the industry, company and country reports. We feature large repository of latest industry reports, leading and niche company profiles, and market statistics released by reputed private publishers and public organizations.Contact Us:Joel JohnDeerfield Beach, Florida 33442United StatesToll Free: +1-855-465-4651 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-386-310-3803Web: QY Market ResearchEmail: sales@qymarketresearch.com High acceptance of wearable devices across various application to accelerate the Wearable Devices Market By 2025 http://theinsightpartners.com/reports/wearable-technology-market http://www.theinsightpartners.com/sample/TIPTE100000104 http://www.theinsightpartners.com/discount/TIPTE100000104 Usage of wearable technology upholds enormous potential for process improvement and improving work effectiveness and efficiency. Wearable technology has wide application varied areas and can be used in various industries such as manufacturing, retail, healthcare & fitness, service industry and others. In retail industry wearable devices fosters sale processes, improve costumer purchasing speed and services. In manufacturing industry wearable technology helps in providing hands-free guidance tools, which ultimately helps in expediting production process, while streamlining processes, improving accuracy of information it can significantly decrease the healthcare costs in medical centersBrowse market data tables and in-depth TOC of the Wearable Technology Market to 2025 @High prices of different kinds of wearable products are one of the factors that can hamper the growth of this market. Finding the right balance of price and value add is one of the major challenges that wearable companies are facing, but with the increasing number of new entrants in the market and further innovation in technology , the prices of new wearable is expected to lower down which will further increase its adoption in near future and end users affordability. High power consumption and limited battery life are also some of the factors that may slow down the growth and adoption of wearable devices among end users. As wearable devices comes in compact sizes, its batteries are quit small and lightweight, which requires frequent charges in case of continuous usage. Companies are working to improve battery technology and developing various convenient ways for charging batteries. Energy harvesting is one of the most promising technique and possess high potential which can be used for charging wearable batteries in coming yearsAvail Free Sample:Rising data privacy concern is one of the prime challenges that companies are facing currently. In the coming years it is more likely to happen that there will increase in the usage of wearable in workplace for improving productivity and efficiency. Using wearable devices at work place will higher the risk of, unauthorized individuals recording critical and confidential business information. Making business vulnerable to risk.Currently, wearable technology devices have witnessed a significant adoption in the APAC countries. Furthermore, with growth in disposable incomes and technology adoption trends, several growing economies in regions are expected to experience high adoption of wearable technology solutions and devices. APAC currently holds the significant market share in the global wearable technology market, and is expected dominate the market during the forecast periodAvail Discounts on report purchase -About The Insight Partners:The Insight Partners is a one stop industry research provider of actionable intelligence. We help our clients in getting solutions to their research requirements through our syndicated and consulting research services. We are a specialist in Technology, Media, and Telecommunication industries. Our syndicated research content is focused towards providing global and regional market forecasts and analysis. All our syndicated reports provide analysis of key trends, market size and shares, and competitive landscape analysis. We provide detailed segmentation of market by geography, technology, product or service which helps our clients get a deeper market analysis.Contact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@theinsightpartners.comThe Insight Partners is a one stop industry research provider of actionable intelligence. We help our clients in getting solutions to their research requirements through our syndicated and consulting research services. We are a specialist in Technology, Media, and Telecommunication industries. Our syndicated research content is focused towards providing global and regional market forecasts and analysis. All our syndicated reports provide analysis of key trends, market size and shares, and competitive landscape analysis. We provide detailed segmentation of market by geography, technology, product or service which helps our clients get a deeper market analysis.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028 Chlorine Market TO Be Driven By Growing Demand For Chlorine Derivatives From Various End-Use Industries As Food Processing Till 2024: Grand View Research, Inc. http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/chlorine-market)is The global chlorine market (expected to reach USD 39.31 billion by 2024, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Chlorine serves as an important raw material in various chemical industries. It is also an essential ingredient for PVC production, which has observed increasing demand in construction, automotive, and packaging industries. These factors are anticipated to drive the global chlorine market.Increasing demand for chlorine across various industries for manufacturing intermediate products such as hydrochloric acid, chlorides, etc. is expected to be a key factor influencing the market growth.Price fluctuations due to uneven demand and supply particularly in Asia Pacific are expected to pose challenges to key industry participants in the region. Chlorine is highly reactive when it comes in contact with other materials which increase handling risk. Toxicological nature of chlorine also adds up to the market challenges.EDC/PVC was the largest application segment and accounted for 34.5% of global demand in 2015. Escalating PVC demand in construction industry is expected to drive this segment over the forecast period. It is also expected to witness the highest growth of 4.8% over the forecast period.Further key findings from the report suggest: Global chlorine market demand was 71.26 million tons in 2015 and is expected to reach 104.70 million tons by 2024, growing at a CAGR of 43% from 2016 to 2024 Asia Pacific was the leading regional market and accounted for 56.6% of total market volume in 2015. Increasing construction spending in China, India, Indonesia and Thailand is expected to drive the regional market over the forecast period. The region is also expected to witness the fastest growth of 4.7% over the forecast period due to incessant demand for chlorine in construction as well as chemical industry. North America is expected to witness moderate growth mainly on account of recovery of construction in industry in the U.S. The region is expected to grow at an estimated CAGR of 4.2% from 2016 to 2024. Key market players include Hanwha Chemical Corporation, Ineos Group Ltd., The Dow Chemical Company, Tosoh Corporation, PPG Industries, Tata Chemicals Ltd., BASF SE, FMC Corporation, Olin Corporation, Formosa Plastics Corporation, Occidental Petroleum Corporation, Xinjiang Zhongtai Chemicals Co. Ltd., and Nirma Ltd.Grand View Research has segmented the global chlorine market on the basis of application and region:Global Chlorine Application Outlook (Volume, Kilo Tons; Revenue, USD Million; 2014 - 2024) EDC/PVC Organic Chemicals Inorganic Chemicals Isocyanates Chlorinated Intermediates Propylene Oxide Pulp & Paper C1/C2, Aromatics Water Treatment OthersGlobal Chlorine Regional Outlook (Volume, Kilo Tons; Revenue, USD Million; 2014 - 2024) North Americao U.S. Europeo Germanyo Franceo UK Asia Pacifico Chinao Indiao Japano South Korea Middle East & Africa Central & South AmericaAbout Grand View ResearchGrand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare.Press ContactSherry James - Corporate Relations Specialist28 2nd Street, Suite 3036San Francisco, CA 94105United StatesPhone: 1-415-349-0058Email: sales@grandviewresearch.com Take Benefits of the Talent and Skills by Doing Offline Data Entry Work from Home with Josoftech http://www.josoftech.com Josoft Technologies (Josoftech), India:We are living in India, a developing country, which is growing its business at a very high rate. These businesses cant get success without maintain its record of their data; data entry work is the basic need of any organization. To fulfill this requirement, large organizations take help of data entry operators whether in offices or by assigning Home based data entry work. 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Offering varied services, such as form filling data entry, captcha typing, data conversion and inbound, outbound process projects.1-B Nanak Arcade 85-A Hind NagarL.D.A Colony, Opposite Shivalik School,Lucknow - 226012 Television Documentary Weaves Scotland and China Together Sam Goates feels like she's in "the sweetie shop" at the Nanjing Brocade Institute https://youtu.be/3G1NBqOvnBg A TV entitled The Scottish Brocade documentary was released today, ten months after the start of the project that aims to help preserve the ancient intangible cultural heritage that is Nanjing brocade.Nanjing Brocade, like much of the worlds ancient crafts, faces the challenge of raising interest among future generations in the skills required to maintain it. With the aim of safeguarding brocade for the long term, the Nanjing municipal government and the Nanjing Brocade Research Institute joined forces in 2015 with Nanjing based Scottish company SinoConnexion Ltd., to create a bespoke garment that could capture the imagination of people around the world, along with an accompanying documentary style video.Viewers of the documentary will join the participants on their voyage of discovery, that starts in the remote villages of the Highlands of Scotland and brings them to Nanjing where they face the challenge of bringing two very different weaving cultures together into one piece of fabric.In the first phase of the project, Scottish weaver Sam Goates spent a week in Nanjing working with the Brocade Institute on the design for the material. Only after coming to a better understanding of the highly complex methods that comprise brocade production was Goates able to finalise her Scottish influenced design that resembles shoals of herring reflected in colours reminiscent of the seas around Scotland.In the second stage, the Brocade Institute prepped one of its traditional brocade looms for production of the fabric, a process that took 6 weeks in all. Another 3 months were required to weave the fabric, at the painstaking rate of 5cm per day.Finally, in April of this year, the finished fabric was taken to Inverness in the highlands of Scotland, and placed into the hands of couturier Sandra Murray M.B.E. In her unique method of working that involves only designing the garment after she has felt the material to be used in her own two hands, Murray spent the better part of a month to complete the final dress.Frank Hossack, the documentarys director who has lived in China for 23 years, said of his inspiration to the project, I started thinking about connections between Nanjing and my home in the Highlands of Scotland. Remembering that brocade was initially reserved only for royalty, I was reminded that my friend Sandra Murray had previously designed a dress worn by the Queen. What a marvellous link between Nanjing and the Highlands of Scotland, I thought!Vice Director of the Research Institute, Wu, said We are excited by the project, not just because it will help people all over the world know about Nanjing brocade, but also in it being a great way to create a new modern material that has cross-cultural appeal, to people of all ages.Through this innovative two pronged approach that produced the garment and documentary concurrently, organisers hope to bring understanding of the craft to a world wide audience and inspire future generations to take up the mantle that is the preservation of Nanjing Brocade.The documentary can be viewed online at:-As the citys leading English language media provider, SinoConnexion specialises in video production with a cross-cultural focus, while also operating The Nanjinger magazine in addition to numerous other media platforms that serve Nanjings foreign community.SinoConnexion1417, building 1, World Times Square, 8 Dongbao Road, NanjingPress Contract: Frank Hossack Automotive Suspension Systems Market Global Industry Analysis, size, share and Forecast 2015-2025 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-713 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-713 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/automotive-suspension-systems-market www.futuremarketinsights.com Emphasis on better ride control performance, smooth and safe ride with no vibrations for the driver are key reasons which have changed the overall scenario for automotive suspension systems market. Automotive suspension systems is very much essential for comfort driving and safety as the suspension carries the vehicle body and transmits all the forces between the body and the road. The automotive suspension system consists of wishbones, spring and the shock absorber to transmit and filter all the forces between the body and the road. It provides good ride and handling performance and also ensures that the vehicle responds favourably to control forces produced by the tyres during braking and acceleration forces. Introduction of suspension systems that have enable almost zero vibration in vehicles along with the most optimal quality ride and control are fuelling the overall demand for automotive suspensions systems market. Automotive suspension systems also helps in preventing excess wear and tear of vehicle and its components.Automotive Suspension Systems Market: Drivers & RestraintsIncreasing number of technological advancements and demand for good suspension systems globally are fuelling the demand for cheap, light in weight and economical automotive suspension systems. Manufacturers are required to invest largely in creation of advanced exhaust systems to meet strict government norms. Strict emission norms and fuel efficiency standards imposed by government in different regions have forced manufacturers to look for different solutions to achieve the same. Although the overall automotive suspension market is growing significantly, challenges such as lack of standardization and high prices of independent suspension systems is hindering the growth for automotive suspensions systems market. However during the forecast period, the companies are expected to drop the prices of automotive suspension systems.Request Free Report Sample@Automotive Suspension Systems Market: SegmentationOn the basis of vehicle type, the global automotive suspension systems market is segmented into,Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV)Heavy Commercial Vehicle (HCV)Passenger VehicleOn the basis of system type, the global automotive suspension systems market is segmented intoActiveSemi-ActivePassiveAdaptiveOn the basis of damping type, the global automotive suspension systems market is segmented intoHydraulicElectromagneticVisit For TOC@On the basis of channel type, the global automotive exhaust systems market is segmented intoOEMAftermarketGlobal Automotive Suspension Systems Market: Region-wise OutlookIn terms of geography, the global automotive suspension systems market has been divided in to seven key regions including North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan, Middle East & Africa and Japan.Global suspension systems market is expected to witness high growth in APAC followed by Europe and North America. With introduction of advanced suspension systems market in emerging economies such as India and China, APAC is expected to drive the demand for advanced automotive suspension systems. European countries such as Germany, France and UK dominated sales in Europe. Moreover, increasing demand for automotive sales globally supported by high disposable income is fuelling the overall demand for automotive suspension market and register steady CAGR during the forecast period.Automotive Suspension Systems Market: Key PlayersSome of the market participants in the global automotive suspension systems market are Magneti Marelli S.p.A, Mando Corp, Tenneco Inc, TRW Automotive Holdings Inc, BWI Group, Continental AG, Kayaba Industry Company ltd.Full Report Analysis@About Us:Future Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centres in the U.S. and India.Contact Us:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way,Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage,New York 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Fax: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: Energy Intelligence Solution Market Global Industry Analysis, Trends and Forecast, 2015-2025 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-757 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-757 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/energy-intelligence-solution-market www.futuremarketinsights.com Energy intelligence solutions provide an intelligent way to deal with energy crisis. Energy intelligence solutions includes tools and services which collect and analyse the energy data. Energy intelligence solutions can be considered as advanced form of energy management solutions. As compared to energy management software, it provide two fold benefits; first it is not only a visualization tool for meter data but also provides intelligence to reduce energy waste. Second, it offers advanced domain knowledge to utilize collected energy data for energy management. Energy intelligence solutions provides support for open standards, measure and verify results, insights and analysis of recorded data, accessibility and portability, control and automation, an integrated platform. Energy intelligence solutions finds applications in food & beverages industry, automotive industry, metal manufacturing industry, oil & gas industry, petrochemicals, electronics & telecommunication industry and utilities etc.Global Energy Intelligence Solution Market SegmentationGlobal energy intelligence solution market is segmented on the basis of service type, deployment model and end-user. On the basis of service type, global energy intelligence solution market is segmented into system integration service, consulting services, support & maintenance service. Energy intelligence solutions are segmented into two ways by which it can be deployed on-premise deployment and cloud based deployment. Energy intelligence solution provide assistance for energy saving along different industry verticals. Various end-users of energy intelligence solutions are residential buildings, offices & commercial areas, manufacturing units and others.Request Free Report Sample@Global Energy Intelligence Solution Market: Region-wise OutlookThe global energy intelligence solution market is divided into seven geographical regions North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ), Japan, Eastern Europe, Western Europe and Middle East & Africa. The global energy intelligence solution market is expected to reflect a double-digit CAGR over the forecast period. At present, North America is dominating the market followed by Western Europe. Among all the regions, APEJ is expected to create huge market opportunity for major players operating in the energy intelligence solution market during the forecast period. Latin America and Middle East & Africa regions are reflecting comparatively slow growth during forecast period.Global Energy Intelligence Solution Market: DriversIncreasing energy consumption and rising need for advanced energy management solutions for residential, commercial and industrial areas are the prominent factors responsible for evolution of energy intelligence solutions. Organizations around the world are focusing on significantly reducing their energy consumption bills through efficient utilization of energy. Energy intensive applications such as power & energy, industrial manufacturing and telecommunication need to control their CO2 emissions in order to comply with existing legislations and standards. Energy intelligence solutions not only provide competitive advantage to business but also extends its responsibility towards sustainable economic development. Aforementioned are some of the factors that are expected to drive the global energy intelligence solution market growth in near future.Visit For TOC@On other hand, long period on return of investment, lack of knowledge and difficulties in handling technical issues related to energy intelligence solutions limits its full-fledged market growth.Tremendous opportunities lies in developing standardized foundation for deploying and leveraging energy intelligence solutions.Global Energy Intelligence Solution Market: Key PlayersThe energy intelligence solution market is highly competitive and diversified market, characterised by active presence of many big players. EnerNOC, Inc., Rockwell Automation, Schneider Electric, and GridPoint, Inc are some of the major players in global energy intelligence solution market.Full Report Analysis@About Us:Future Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centres in the U.S. and India.Contact Us:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way,Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage,New York 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Fax: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: Research report explores the Refractive Surgery Devices Market for the forecast period, 2015-2025 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-780 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-780 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/refractive-surgery-devices-market www.futuremarketinsights.com Refractive Surgery is the process of correcting or improving your vision affected by refractive error such as Myopia, Hyperopia, and Astigmatism. The most common procedure for correcting the refractive error is LASIK.Myopia is the most common refractive error in the global population. This indication varies across populations of different regions and ethnicities. It is estimated that 1.45 billion people had myopia in 2010 and it is predicted this number will continue to increase as the worlds population grows. The prevalence of myopia is most common among young adults in South- East Asian countries which is around 80-90% of the population completing high school.Refractive Surgery Devices Market: Drivers and RestraintsAdvancement in Refractive Surgery treatment have provided patient with a number of option to reduce and eliminate their dependency on glasses and contact lenses and take corrective measures for refractive errors. With the rapid increase in procedure volumes since last few years, there is an increase adaptation of laser devices for refractive surgery in healthcare facilities. The technological improvements in LASIK surgery in last few years is acting as a key driver for ophthalmic laser market.Request Free Report Sample@Low patient awareness of procedures safety, a limited pool of qualified refractive surgeons, unpredictable regulations are acting as a barrier for this market.Refractive Surgery Devices Market: SegmentationGlobal vascular market is further segmented into following types:Ophthalmic LasersEximer LasersFemtosecond LasersYAG LasersMicrokeratomeRefractive Surgery Devices Market: OverviewWith the increase in patient population suffering from refractive errors and an increased awareness in the treatment options, the global market for refractive surgery devices is expected to witness and healthy growth in the forecast years (2015-2025)Visit For TOC@Refractive Surgery Devices Market: Region- wise OutlookDepending on geographic regions, global vascular stents market is segmented into seven key regions: North America, South America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific excluding Japan, Japan and Middle East & Africa.North America represent the largest market in ophthalmic lasers followed by Europe. In Asia Pacific, China dominates the refractive surgery devices market.Refractive Surgery Devices Market: Key PlayersSome of the key market players in global refractive surgery devices market are Abbott Medical Optics, Inc., Carl Zeiss AG, Alcon, Inc., Bausch & Lomb Incorporated, Nidek Co., Ltd., Ziemer Ophthalmic Systems AG, SCHWIND eye-tech-solutions GmbH & Co. KG, Lumenis Ltd. and Ellex Medical Lasers Limited.Full Report Analysis@About Us:Future Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centres in the U.S. and India.Contact Us:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way,Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage,New York 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Fax: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: Protection Films for Medical Devices Market: Drivers, Challenges, Historical and current Sizes 2015 to 2021 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/4120 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/4120 A medical device refers to an instrument, equipment, implant, or apparatus used to diagnose, prevent, or treat diseases through a physical process. A protection film helps prevent external influences from entering medical devices and adversely affecting them. Protection films, such as thermoplastic polyurethane, offer strong resistance towards water, fungus, and abrasion. Traditionally, the healthcare industry used metal and glass packaging components to protect medical devices from the outside environment. Currently, the industry relies on high-barrier plastic films, which are composed of single polymers, laminations, metalized films, and various specialized coatings for better product protection. Over the last decade, paper was the most commonly used material for medical device packaging. Currently, the use of plastic films has increased significantly.Use For to: Download TOC (desk of content material), Figures and Tables of the report:Protection films for medical devices can be segmented by type into: single films, laminations, and coextrusions films. On the basis of material of construction, protection films are classified as PVC, low-density polyethylene, polyethylene-cellophane, thermoplastic polyurethane, and others. On the basis of application, protection films for medical devices are classified as:surgical and medical instruments, ophthalmic devices, dental devices, and others.North America is the largest market for protection films for medical devices, followed by Europe and Asia-Pacific. In terms of volume, Asia-Pacific is expected to be the fastest growing market. China and India hold the key for future market trends in protection films for the medical devices market owing to large population base and growing health care industry in these countries.Some of the major drivers of protection films for the medical device market include stellar growth of healthcare industry, adherence to regulatory standards, and increased technology adoption in protection films. Globally, governments are spending more money to provide better healthcare services. For instance, the U.S. has the highest per capita healthcare spending in the world. In 2011, the U.S. per capita healthcare spending was 17.9% of its GDP or USD 8,362. Overall, healthcare spending in the U.S is growing at a rapid rate. Overall healthcare spending stood at USD 3 trillion in 2012, which rose to USD3.8 trillion in 2014. Similarly, other developed countries such as France, Germany, and Japan are also increasing spending on healthcare. Healthcare spending is also rising among developing countries such as India and China, which are focusing on providing better healthcare services to their large population bases. This may led to an increase in the medical devices market, which, in turn, is expected to drive the market for protection films for medical devices.Use For sample: Thinking about report: Please observe the beneath the hyperlinks to satisfy your necessities; View for the Report sample:Some of the major companies operating in this market include DUNMORE Corporation, UFP Technologies, Inc., Argotec LLC, Specialty Coating Systems, Inc., The 3M Company, Berry Plastics Corporation, E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation, Chesapeake Limited, Klockner Pentaplast Group, Clondalkin Group Holdings B.V., Sigma Medical Supplies Corp., SteriPack Group, Oliver Products Company, and Amcor Limited.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.ContactPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.com Green Polyol & Bio Polyol Market: Latest Innovations, Drivers and Industry Key Events 2015 to 2021 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/4124 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/4124 Green polyol & bio polyol are important raw materials used in the production of polyurethane, thermoplastic elastomers, coatings, adhesives, sealants, and artificial leather. Some of the factors driving the global green polyol & bio polyol market are implementation of strict environmental norms by various governments, and favorable regulations which encourage manufacturers to increase the green polyol & bio polyol content in their products.Use For to: Download TOC (desk of content material), Figures and Tables of the report:On the basis of type, this market is segmented into polyether polyol and polyester polyol. The demand for green polyol & bio polyol is driven by growth in the respective end-user industries. On the basis of end-user, the global green polyol & bio polyol market is segmented into construction, transportation, furniture or bedding, packaging, carpet backing, and others. Development of a number of innovative green polyol & bio polyol products further helps in the growth of the market.Based on application, the marketed is segment into polyurethane rigid foam, polyurethane flexible foam, coating, adhesive, sealant, and others. Polyurethane flexible foams are extensively used in the automotive industry to manufacture auto seat backrests, armrests, headrests, and other car interior parts. It is also used in household applications such as cushions in furniture. Among the application segments, polyurethane flexible foams is the fastest growing segment. Growing investment in R&D of green polyol & bio polyol and their applications further helps in the growth of this market.North America is a prominent market for green polyol & bio polyol and is expected to grow exponentially during the forecast period. In North America, the U.S. holds the largest market share in the market. Asia Pacific is the fastest growing market for green polyol & bio polyol. China, Japan, Malaysia, and India are the major markets in the region. Growing demand for green polyol & bio polyol in end-user industries, including construction, transportations, and consumer durables industries, is propelling the green polyol & bio polyol market in this region. Growing economy, rising disposable income level, rapid industrialization, and growth of end-user industries further helps in the growth of the market in Europe region. In the European region, Italy and Germany are the major markets for green polyol & bio polyol and are expected to have good growth rate during forecast period. The global green polyol & bio polyol market is expected to grow in double digit growth rate during forecast period.Use For sample: Thinking about report: Please observe the beneath the hyperlinks to satisfy your necessities; View for the Report sample:Some of the major players in the global green polyol & bio polyol market are Cargill Inc., BASF SE, The Dow Chemical Company, and Emery Oleochemicals (M) Sdn Bhd, Arkema S.A, Bayer MaterialScience, BioBased Technologies LLC, E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Global Bio-Chem Technology Group, INVISTA S.A.R.L, Jayant Agro-Organics Limited, Johnson Controls Inc., Mitsui Chemicals, Inc., Stepan Company, and Cargill Inc.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.ContactPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.com #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 ... Tuesday 9 August 2016 3:07pm The University of Otago continues to make a major contribution to Dunedin and the nations economy, according to a report released today. The Universitys annual Economic Impact Report for 2015 was presented at a meeting of the University Council. The report was prepared by the Office of the Vice-Chancellor and calculated the economic impact of the University. These figures included not only the Universitys expenditure but also that of students and staff at campuses located in Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington and Invercargill, as well as the Auckland Centre and Wellington City Office. The University is one of the 50 largest employers in the country and one of the largest in the South Island, the report said. The Dunedin campus, which has around 93 per cent of students and 88 per cent of all staff, injected an estimated $881.1 million directly into the economy through spending by the University, its staff and its students. The University's campuses in Christchurch and Wellington each contributed $51.9 million and $50.5 million to their respective economies. Invercargill contributed $2.4 million, while the Auckland Centre and Wellington City Office combined injected $800,000 into their respective economies. An economic model which estimates the trickle-down or down-stream effects of direct spending shows the total impact of hosting a campus in Dunedin added $1.55 billion to the citys economy (supporting directly and indirectly 13,902 jobs), $109.7 million to Christchurch (supporting 779 jobs), $96.4 million to Wellington (supporting 765 jobs) and $3.8 million to Invercargill (supporting 43 jobs), while the Auckland Centre and Wellington City Office combined added $1.7 million (supporting 14 jobs). In Dunedin, about 85 per cent of the students came from outside the city, 75 per cent from beyond Otago and Southland, including more than a third from the North Island (41 per cent) and a further 15 per cent from overseas. University Planning and Funding Director David Thomson says there are many other economic, social and cultural benefits created by the presence of the University of Otago at each of the campuses, but they are difficult to quantify and fall outside the scope of this report. For more information, please contact: Planning and Funding, Office of the Vice-Chancellor Director David Thomson Tel: 03 479 7716 Three B-2 Spirits deployed from Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, to Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, in the U.S. Pacific Command area of operations Aug. 9. U.S. Strategic Command bombers regularly rotate through the Indo-Asia-Pacific to conduct USPACOM-led air operations, providing leaders with deterrent options to maintain regional stability. During this short-term deployment, the B-2s will conduct local and regional training sorties, and will integrate capabilities with key regional partners, ensuring bomber crews maintain a high state of readiness and crew proficiency. Our strategic bomber force routinely operates around the globe and with our regional allies and partners, and this deployment is one such demonstration of the U.S. commitment to supporting global and regional security, said U.S. Navy Adm. Cecil D. Haney, U.S. Strategic Command commander. Bomber training missions ensure crews maintain a high state of readiness and proficiency and demonstrate our ability to provide an always-ready global strike capability, whenever and wherever we are called to do so. Bomber aircraft provide the USPACOM area of responsibility with an effective deterrent capability, ensuring the regional security and stability of the U.S. and our allies and partners, said U.S. Air Force Gen. Terrence OShaughnessy, Pacific Air Forces commander. These bomber deployments visibly demonstrate our readiness and commitment to the Indo-Asia-Pacific region. U.S. Strategic Command routinely demonstrates its capability to command, control and conduct global bomber missions, most recently by deploying B-52sto Royal Air Force Fairford, United Kingdom, in May and June, where the bombers participated in U.S. European Command Exercises BALTOPS and SABER STRIKE. Additionally, earlier this month, B-52s and B-2s from all three of the U.S.s strategic bomber bases completed an operation coined POLAR ROAR, where the bombers flew simultaneous flights to the Arctic, the Baltic Sea and Alaska. B-2s last deployed to the Indo-Asia-Pacific region in March. One of nine DoD unified combatant commands, USSTRATCOM is charged with strategic deterrence; space operations; cyberspace operations; joint electronic warfare; global strike; missile defense; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; combating weapons of mass destruction; and analysis and targeting. Eastern Army Helicopter recently invited members of the 459th Airlift Squadron (AS) to attend the 2nd Tachikawa Helicopter Conference July 26, 2016 at Camp Tachikawa, Japan. The conference gathered approximately 50 representatives from a variety of U.S. and Japanese military aviation professionals, including the U.S. Army Aviation Battalion and members of Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF), the Japan Marine Self-Defense Forces (JMSDF) and the Japan Air Self-Defense Forces (JASDF). There were also Japanese civilian police and fire departments and helicopter manufacturers. We worked on aligning our tactics, techniques and procedures for large-area natural disasters, said Lt. Col. Trenton Alexander, 459 AS director of operations. It enhanced our connection with our civil and military host partners. That is building a bridge towards better interoperability. The conference began a dialogue to establish new disaster-response procedures for helicopters. U.S. forces have supported Japan in disaster-relief efforts for more than 70 years, including operations Tomodachi and Damayan. Eastern Army Helicopter invited the 459 AS to attend as friends and allies. Disaster response often relies heavily on helicopter support for the ability to perform search and rescue and to land in places less accessible to fixed-wing aircraft. During response to the most recent Nankai-trough Earthquake, many aircraft from different organizations acted independently and without coordination. Conference attendees hope to vastly improve coordination and communication between all airborne disaster-relief personnel involved. At the heart of the coordination measures discussed is the JASDF Central Direction Center (CDC). Presenters discussed how, in the event of a disaster, the CDC is basically a hub for gathering weather and flight information from affected areas and disseminating it appropriately. For example, aircraft performing search and rescue outside their normal flight paths would relay their location to the CDC, which would direct the aircraft to the proper air traffic control tower. During the conference, participants had the opportunity to view and learn about a JASDF P-20, a rapidly deployable weather and aircraft control system. The P-20 assists with coordinating aircraft during a disaster. The P-20 functions as a portable air traffic control tower and consists of three air-deployable boxes that can be transported via truck. One box is mounted with a dish and performs radar detection, one contains a radar display and control station and one is a hub for communicating with aircraft. The P-20 takes two hours and six personnel to set up, making it efficient where rapid response is critical. After the conference, the 36 AS presented and explained the forest penetrator, which is used during rescue operations to penetrate forest canopy and for retrieving rescuers and victims. The 36 AS also conducted a rescue operations familiarization with a UH-1N Iroquois helicopter. It was an opportune and beneficial learning environment for both Japanese and U.S. civil and military forces, Alexander said. BLOOMINGTON Commercial real estate broker Jeff Giebelhausen wanted to dispel to the Bloomington City Council what he said were misconceptions about the type of hotel he is pitching for the Front 'N' Center building in downtown Bloomington. "We have no intention whatsoever of putting in a flea-bag, rent-by-the-hour type hotel," said Giebelhausen, while speaking during the public comment portion of the council's Monday night meeting. Giebelhausen, of East Peoria, also stressed that he has made no request to the city for public assistance in the proposed private development of the vacant, dilapidated building at 102 N. Center St. into what he calls a "limited service hotel." "In fact, we're 100 percent committed to moving forward without any type of financial participation on the part of the city," he said. "Absolutely, we would like to make some upgrades if the money was there," he added. "But we're economically viable to do a project in the Front 'N' Center building without any type of public-private partnership." On July 14, the city announced it was shelving a $52 million hotel, conference center and parking deck deal that Giebelhausen was brokering for the Front 'N' Center, Commerce Bank and former Elks Lodge all buildings owned by Merle and Carol Huff of Peoria. Stephen Friedman, the Chicago-based consultant hired to vet the city's risk in that project, will his reasons for advising the city not to proceed at a council meeting next week, said City Manager David Hales. In a meeting with city staff members last week, Giebelhausen talked about developing a $7 million, limited-service hotel without city money, or a $14 million boutique-style hotel offering more amenities if the city contributed $7 million, said Bloomington Community Development Director Tom Dabareiner. "So to be clear, no proposal has been made; no proposal is anticipated to be made," said Giebelhausen about the latest, more modest hotel project he is now floating. "We plan to use the Front 'N' Center building for between 68 and 100 guest rooms," he said. "I would certainly say, having visited many of the hotels in town, the rooms would be of the quality that is in the upper half of what is in the community now." Giebelhausen said there would be space available in the hotel to lease, possibly to a restaurant/food-and-beverage operator. "That's really up to finding that operator and making the economics work," he added. "A limited service hotel doesn't typically provide those things on its own, but we certainly have some space available." Parking would be at the former Elks Lodge lot nearby; possibly at the Commerce Bank drive-through banking area if the bank decides to relocate; and at another lot "that we expect to be available to us in the near-term, as well," said Giebelhausen. "We're not going to have a parking deck, obviously," said Giebelhausen. "Parking decks are not financially feasible without governmental participation. We do believe that parking in an urban setting is a core function of government, but fortunately we have enough surface parking where we can make that work." As a counter-proposal to induce Giebelhausen to upgrade to a boutique hotel, Mayor Tari Renner suggested last week the city build a public parking garage with 150 to 200 spaces near the city-owned U.S. Cellular Coliseum that the hotel's patrons also could use. While a conference center is not part of the latest development plan, "we do have space for conference rooms," Giebelhausen said. The conference rooms would be feasible only if there is enough parking to accommodate those guests, he added. "We are excited about downtown Bloomington, said Giebelhausen. "We do believe we can make a great project." Giebelhausen did not disclose to city staff or to The Pantagraph when asked about who the "we" involved in the latest concept includes. The $52 million hotel/conference center proposal was from Riverside Lodging Bloomington LLC, a partnership made up of Commonwealth Hotels LLC, Greystone Realty Group Inc. of Peoria and the Giebelhausen-led Bloomington Downtown Redevelopment Partners LLC. NORMAL A lack of sun clouded the goals of the Illinois State University solar car team, which finished 11th out of 12 cars that qualified for the American Solar Challenge race. We're happy we were able to complete the race, said team president Nick Reichman. We are disappointed that we didn't have the sun we needed. Other cars in the race, which attracted teams from colleges in the United States and Canada, faced the same challenges caused by rain and general cloudiness throughout much of the race. In fact, the race winner, the University of Michigan, was the only team that did not have to resort to transporting its car by trailer for at least part of the 1,975-mile race from Brecksville, Ohio, to Hot Springs, S.D. ISU finished fifth in the Formula Sun track race that preceded the American Solar Challenge and served as a qualifying race for the road race. It would have been a great race if we had some sun, Reichman, a graduate student in project management from Crystal Lake, said of the Solar Challenge. The car was very reliable. ISU model maker Jim Dunham, a staff member who assists the team, said, We easily could have driven the whole route if we'd had sun. Dunham said the team did really well and they still learned a lot. Among those lessons is the need for a more efficient, lighter-weight, more-aerodynamic car that can travel farther using less power, said Reichman. Most schools have the benefit of having engineering students, he said. But what the ISU team lacks in engineering students it makes up for with a hands-on approach that enables them to fix problems on the fly, team members say. Race days were just ridiculous, Dunham said. Although there are limits on how long the cars can be driven, there is plenty of other work, such as charging batteries, that keeps team members busy. For three days, Dunham said, the team left the hotel about 6:30 a.m. and the day didn't end until about 11 p.m. Among the highlights of the trip was a surprise visit from former team member Jeff Peters, who gave the team gift cards from Sonic, Reichman said. Another highlight, he said, was a race stop at Scotts Bluff National Monument in Nebraska, one of nine national parks, monuments, historic sites and National Park Service partner properties along the route. BLOOMINGTON Four juveniles have been charged in connection with the July 23 vandalism that nearly delayed the start of the school year at St. Mary's Catholic School. Meanwhile, cleanup at the school should be done by Friday, meaning teachers can report back to work full time on Aug. 15 and students can start school, as scheduled, on Aug. 18, Principal Jamie Hartrich said Monday. The four juveniles boys ages 9, 10 and 11 and a 14-year-old girl each were charged Monday with burglary to a school, criminal defacement of school property and criminal damage to school property, said Mary Lawson, a McLean County assistant state's attorney who handles juvenile delinquency cases. In addition, two of the juveniles were charged Monday with theft from a school, Lawson said. The juveniles were released to their parents or guardians. Their first court appearance will be Sept. 7, Lawson said. The Pantagraph does not use names of juveniles in criminal matters. On July 23, the school was broken into and several classrooms, the gymnasium, teachers' lunch room/work area, basement and boys' locker room were damaged. During the Bloomington police investigation, three missing computer tablets were recovered. Hartrich's biggest concern has been damaged carpeting because it had been glued to tile that contains asbestos. There's no concern if the tile remains in place. But if the tile is removed, it would necessitate temporarily shutting off part of building. As of Monday, nearly all the carpeting had been removed without disturbing the tile, Hartrich said. "It should be OK," she said. PAXTON A Paxton man has been charged with one count of reckless homicide and two counts of aggravated driving under the influence in connection with a fatal crash last week. Thomas Hoekstra, 25, remains in the Ford County Jail and must post $10,000 to be released. He is also ordered to refrain from drugs or alcohol, and will be subject to random drug and alcohol tests. Prosecutors say at 12:03 a.m. Aug. 1, Hoekstra was driving southbound on U.S. 45 near Ford County Road 200 North when he crossed the center line and struck a vehicle head-on. A female passenger in the vehicle, Kourtni Eastman, 19, of Paxton, was pronounced dead at 1:40 a.m. at Carle Hospital in Urbana. Court documents indicate the Illinois State Police Department investigated the crash and Hoekstra told officers he had consumed alcohol prior to the crash. A sample of his blood at the hospital indicated a BAC of .152, according to court documents, nearly twice the legal limit. "Cases like this are always a lose-lose situation, Ford County States Attorney Randy Yedinak said. Regardless of the outcome, at the end of the day, people are still mourning the loss of a loved one. The criminal justice system cannot bring that person back. The best we can do is ensure that those responsible are held accountable for their actions. Hoekstra is due in court Aug. 16 for a preliminary hearing. If convicted, he could face punishment ranging from probation to 19 years in prison. The group that filed the lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Independent Map Amendment petition goes by the name, The Peoples Map. There is nothing people-y about it. The attorney who filed the suit, Michael Kasper, is the general counsel for the Illinois Democratic Party (read: Mike Madigan). The Peoples Map group would keep in place the current system whereby the incumbent legislators draw the legislative boundaries for future elections. These legislators, collectively, have not balanced a budget since 2001, in violation of the Constitution; have earned the state the same credit rating as Botswana; amassed a growing pile of unpaid bills; failed to reform the pension system which is gobbling up and ever-increasing portion of the states revenue and budget; and increased the cost of paying their salaries, benefits, expenses and pensions to $167,500 each. Their current map rigs the system so we cant throw them out. Four out of five Illinois voters want to change the redistricting system. Public health experts and advocates are already getting frustrated as several U.S. politicians still refuse to allocate any funding for Zika virus response. As a matter of fact, the partisan politics are reportedly making the Zika situation worse in the United States by rejecting the funding request on Zika prevention and research. As of Aug. 3, there have been more than 1,800 Zika virus cases identified in the continental United States while 15 babies have been born with Zika-related birth defects. But as the whole nation awaits the decision of the government for the Zika response funding, the virus that has been declared as a global public health threat by the World Health Organization has already invaded America, with four locally transmitted Zika cases recorded in Florida last week. Due to the lack of support from the government, experts believed the United States is at a greater risk to face a "full-blown epidemic." According to Quartz, the failure to reach an agreement for Zika funding as well as the "divisive political" environment has sidelined the nation's response to epidemics. The political resistance for public health funding on Zika reportedly started when the Congress rejected President Barack Obama's $1.9 billion request for Zika virus response in February, Parent Herald previously reported. Even though the Senate agreed to allot $1.1 billion for Zika, the House delayed the funding by authorizing only 50 percent of the said amount. As the U.S. government continues to waste more time in figuring out how to deal with the Zika virus, America's less fortunate and economically challenged families "stand to suffer the most." In spite of the Zika threat, legislators insist no federal funding as it would only give an opportunity for politicians to advance their political interests. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Thomas Frieden, however, criticized the Congress for its lack of support to fight the Zika virus. In fact, Frieden said America will deal with Zika with only one hand while the Congress allows people to drown even if it has the power to stop it, The New Yorker noted. In other Zika virus-related news, Florida's $82 billion tourism industry is reportedly in danger due to the presence of Zika virus-carrying mosquitoes in the state. As a matter of fact, tourists are worried to travel to Florida while officials are nervous on the effect of the epidemic on its tourism, Fox News learned. What are your thoughts on the lack of support of the U.S. government on Zika response funding? Sound off below and follow Parent Herald for more news and updates. Sony is reportedly going to unveil the details to the PS4 Neo this September. Furthermore, a special event will be mounted in New York in line with its reveal. It will be a lot like when the company announced the PS4 in 2013. The higher-end console PS4 Neo, also called the PS4.5, PS4.5 Neo and the PS4K, was tipped off early this year in the reports. In the last few months, suppliers, game developers and retailers have also hinted that PS4 Neo does exist at Sony, despite the company's silence. News of the PS4 Neo official announcement, which specifically happens Sept. 7, was confirmed by French site Gameblog. The outlet also stated that Sony is choosing to do its own event in New York as Nintendo could be unveiling the NX at the Tokyo Game Show, which is also happening in September. According to Vice, the September unveiling of the PS4 Neo has been described as a "technical showcase," and preparations are still underway at Sony. Developers should also be getting hold of the last of its development kit around the time of the official PS4 Neo announcement. PS4.5 Neo unveiling slated for September, according to new report https://t.co/sO8GlmsJam pic.twitter.com/FKBLSYCXq6 TechRadar (@techradar) August 8, 2016 At the E3 event in June, where the PS4 Neo was a no-show, Sony defended that it had wanted to ensure that its big reveal of the upgraded console didn't shortchange eager gamers. It's why the company chose to hold back PS4 Neo announcements until they have a fully functional and capable unit to show off. However, Sony did finally acknowledge at the E3 that the higher end console is indeed in the works at the company. The PS4 Neo, while deemed more powerful in performance than the current generation console, is meant to work side by side with the PS4. PS4 Neo is supposed to complement the existing unit and not overshadow or replace it. Games that can run in the PS4 are also expected to work on the PS4 Neo. Price points and other details should also be announced during the September unveiling. Stay tuned! PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (August 8, 2016) - Palm Springs Art Museum is pleased to announce the appointment of Michael Miner as the Dorothy and Harold J. Meyerman Director of Development, effective immediately. Miner served as Palm Springs Art Museum's Associate Director of Development for the past five years, and has been the Acting Director of Development since December 2015. In this new capacity Miner will provide leadership and management supporting the museum's strategic plan and advancing the fundraising efforts. In his former role as Associate Director of Development for the museum, Miner's primary responsibility was managing Major and Planned Gifts, Trustee Gifts, and the Annual Fund. He was instrumental in growing the institution's base of major gift support, overseeing Legacy Circle and President's Circle, the museum's premier annual funding groups. Prior to joining Palm Springs Art Museum, Miner was the Major Gifts and Planned Giving Officer at Desert AIDS Project. He has been the Director of Development at the New Center for Arts and Culture in Boston, and the Executive Director at the Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown, Massachusetts. He has been an adjunct faculty member at Macalester College, the University of Saint Thomas, the College of St. Catherine, and the University of Wisconsin. He served as a theater program evaluator for the NEA; has worked as an actor and director; and has been involved with numerous fundraising and philanthropic associations. Miner received his undergraduate degree from Lycoming College, his MFA from Wayne State University, and he completed additional coursework in organizational development at the Union Institute in Cincinnati. He and his realtor husband, Chip Marler, are art lovers, ardent museum supporters, and part of the founders group of Palm Springs Art Museum Architecture and Design Center, Edwards Harris Pavilion. "Mr. Miner's three decades of experience in fundraising, non-profit management, and business consulting make him an ideal candidate to fulfill this vital role at the museum," said Elizabeth Armstrong, TheJoAnn McGrath Executive Director for Palm Springs Art Museum. "His substantial experience and proven track record in implementing fundraising plans and cultivating relationships with donors, along with his proven leadership and management capabilities, are invaluable assets for this position." For more information about Palm Springs Art Museum visit psmuseum.org or call (760) 322-4800. The museum is located at 101 Museum Drive in Palm Springs. Photo: (Photo : David Degner / Stringer) It's a big developmental step when a child begins to realize that they can control their thoughts and feelings. They begin to understand how and what we think affects how we feel and what we do. This is a skill I've consistently aimed to nurture through my decades of work as an elementary school counselor, through games and activities, as well as plain conversation with students. One activity I developed to encourage children into thoughtful reflection and self-awareness is Mindful Moments - a set of cards I created with short contemplations such as Remember a time when a friend listened to you. Who was that friend? How did that make you feel? or Remember a time when you felt very strong in your body. What were you doing? Who was there? Recently, a teacher I know had her class make their own mindful moment cards as a writing assignment. At the end of the year, each student got a set of cards to take with them in a lovely little bag. Here's a card one fifth grade student wrote: Think about the people in your community that support you. Take the time to talk to them or give them a compliment to show them you care. Here's another: Imagine yourself having a small sunflower at your feet. Soon, that sunflower has spread into a bright bubble around you. First, the bubble spreads to your classmates, then to all of their families and soon, to your whole community. Then city, state, country. Soon the whole world is circled in this protective orange bubble. Everybody is cheerful and grounded. The Needs of a Stressed Generation: Creating such peaceful, positive thoughts and reminders of the goodness in their lives can be a powerful antidote to the increasing amount of stress kids are carrying these days. And they are carrying a lot. According to the American Psychological Association, 31% of teens say they feel overwhelmed by stress, and 42% say they aren't doing enough about it (or aren't sure they are). In fact, more teens than adults report being chronically stressed these days - even as research suggests one reason for their increasing stress levels is the stress of adults around them. Other reasons recently cited include over-scheduling and social media. And if teens are feeling pressured and having trouble coping, how are our younger kids faring? The short answer: Not well. According to data from the Child Mind Institute, almost half of American youth will have a diagnosable mental illness at some point before they turn 18, with anxiety disorders being the most common. The median age of onset? Six. Developing Mindfulness Helps Kids Thrive Mindfulness does much more than give kids a set of skills and strategies to counterbalance the stress and maintain emotional control. Research conducted over the past few years have shown that it supports academic achievement, as well - as one component of what's known in education circles as social emotional learning, or SEL. For instance, one analysis of previous research found that approximately 50 percent of kids enrolled in SEL programs had better achievement scores and almost 40 percent showed improved grade-point-averages. These programs were also linked to lowered suspension rates, increased school attendance, and reduced disciplinary problems. Another study noted an "11-percentile-point gain in achievement" among kids who participated in SEL. They also showed better social skills, emotional skills, attitudes, and behavior. This is why more schools around the country are incorporating mindfulness programs. Here in Oregon, several high schools have already begun to offer a semester-long, for-credit mindfulness course that's proved popular with students, parents, and educators alike! More than ever, teachers are coming to really value the power of mindfulness in their student's lives - as well as their own. Not offered at your child's school? Or perhaps you home school? There are both in-person and online mindfulness courses you can take to learn approaches to nurturing mindfulness in your child. You may even find some ideas for managing stress in your own life, as well! "The Walking Dead" Season 7 will bring viewers back not just into the clutches of Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and The Saviours but also into the pages of "Richonne." As interesting as Negan and his villainy are, fans yet to settle comfortably into the romance that developed between Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira) in "The Walking Dead" Season 7. Perhaps what made "Richonne" a shocker for "The Walking Dead" fans is the effective portrayal by Michonne of a woman in a shell who needs no one, least of all self-appointed hero Rick Grimes. However for Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira, "Richonne" was a natural progression for Rick Grimes and Michonne as People reports. #WeAreTheWalkingDead, #MorgansReturn... Tweet us your favorite Season 5 #TWDMemories and your tweet might be shown on-air. #TWDMarathon The Walking Dead AMC (@WalkingDead_AMC) August 7, 2016 In an art imitates life moment, Andrew Lincoln admitted to making the realization of "Richonne" at the same time as Rick Grimes did. As "The Walking Dead" star shared, upon learning that Rick Grimes and Michonne will organically move into a twosome, Andrew Lincoln realized that "Richonne" had been staring him in the face the whole time. Watch the World Premiere Trailer for #TWD Season 7, premiering Sunday, October 23 at 9|8c. https://t.co/GAHg8vpSh5 The Walking Dead AMC (@WalkingDead_AMC) July 22, 2016 Danai Gurira proposed that Michonne may have been in love with Rick Grimes a long time before "Richonne" happened. However, "The Walking Dead" badass had been too busy convincing herself she felt nothing until Alexandria began to thaw away at her in Season 5. For Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira "Richonne" became official when Rick Grimes gave Michonne the mints in "The Walking Dead" Season 6. "That's kind of that, 'Oh my god that's so sweet' moment - but apocalypse-style," Danai Gurira said. "The Walking Dead" Season 7 will reveal if "Richonne" and the friendship that bonded Rick Grimes and Michonne will stand the test of time. Parent Herald cites reports that Rick Grimes will be a heavily changed person in "The Walking Dead" Season 7 and may be in danger of alienating Michonne. CinemaBlend reports that Negan, who may responsible for breaking up "Richonne," will have the spotlight on his origin story in "The Walking Dead" Season 7. As "The Walking Dead" villains go, Negan is the one believably able to turn Rick Grimes inside out. AMC will air "The Walking Dead" Season 7 premiere on Oct 23. Are you on Team "Richonne" and do you think Rick Grimes and Michonne will survive "The Walking Dead" Season 7 together? New details have surfaced about the deaths of a family of five in an apparent murder-suicide. The family's bodies were found around 2PM on Saturday afternoon, August 6, in their home in a subdivision in Sinking Spring, a borough in Berks County, Pennsylvania. Berks County District Attorney John Adams identified the victims as Mark Short, 40, his wife, Megan, 33, and their three children -- 8-year-old Liana, 5-year-old Mark, and 2-year-old Willow, CBS Local listed. The family was previously covered by the media when Willow had to undergo a dangerous heart transplant in 2014. Willow was in need of a heart donor when after she was diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a congenital heart defect. Adams said all five family members died due to a gunshot wound. The family's dog was killed as well. As of late, it's still unknown which parent did the shooting or what triggered the violence, but police found a handgun near one of the adults. Berks County District Attorney's detectives said Mark's remains will undergo an autopsy, but none are planned for the other four deceased individuals, People reported. Police also said they found a handwritten note from the scene of the crime, but they didn't disclose its contents. An investigation, however, revealed that the Short couple had domestic issues, according to NBC10. Mark's relatives said Megan was preparing to leave her husband. Megan's plans to get a divorce possibly destroyed Mark, who, according to his cousin, was a "family guy" and a man who "worked himself to death to try and keep his family together," a separate report from NBC10 revealed. Mark's relatives said he took his family to Disney World in February in an attempt to mend his broken relationship with Megan and convince her to stay in the marriage. That plan, however, seemed to be unsuccessful. A report from the Reading Eagle claimed that Megan's plan to leave Mark wasn't a secret. A friend said Megan shared her marital problems on Facebook. Megan commented on an online article about spousal abuse titled "He didn't hit me. It was still abuse" and wrote, "It really does a number on your mental health for sure." She said it the emotional abuse was the reason why she wants to leave Mark, her husband of 16 years. Robert McLaughlin, Mark's brother-in-law, said there's a "zero percent chance" that money troubles incited the shootings. A neighbor of the Short family, meanwhile, told People that she saw no signs of trouble during her short interactions with the couple, who she described as "sweet" and "mostly kept to themselves." An 11-year-old girl from South Carolina died after contracting a brain-eating amoeba while swimming. Hannah Katherine Collins acquired the dangerous and highly fatal Naegleria fowleri organism on July 24 in the Edisto River. Collins died on 10:20 PM on Friday, August 5, 12 days after her exposure to the deadly brain-eating amoeba. She was wrapped in the arms of her mother during her time of death, with her brother and grandmother also with her, according to a family statement obtained by the Beaufort Gazette. On Wednesday night, the family wrote on Facebook from the Medical University of South Carolina that the pressure in Collins' brain "has not subsided and is increasing." The following morning, the family revealed that "the brain pressure is the highest and is threatening" the young girl's life. Thursday night came and the family's update on Collins' condition took a graver turn. They said there was "irreparable brain damage" even though the hospital did all they could to save her life. In that update, the family revealed that they are just waiting for Collins to succumb to her condition. The brain-eating amoeba causes primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), an inflammation of the brain and the cerebral tissue that surrounds it. Though extremely rare in humans (only fewer than 40 cases reported in the last 10 years), the infection is fatal in around 95 percent of the cases, according to the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC), as reported by CBS News. Dr. Linda Bell, an epidemiologist at the SCDHEC, said the brain-eating amoeba is naturally found worldwide but mostly exists in freshwater bodies such as lakes, streams, and rivers. Naegleria fowleri is very difficult to contract and usually dies before it causes infection to the body. To contract the organism, Bell said a person must be swimming in water contaminated with it. A person must also "jump into the amoeba-containing water feet-first, allowing the water to go up your nose with enough force that the amoeba can make its way to the brain," WCSC reported. Swallowing the organism won't give you an infection. In Collins' case, the child likely contracted the brain-eating amoeba after using a rope to throw herself into the Edisto River's warm waters, The Washington Post reported. Collins adored being in the water so much, with her father Jeff Collins (who's currently incarcerated for unpaid child support) calling the girl a "river rat." Collins' doctors tried their best to save her, even using a potentially lifesaving drug called miltefosine that once saved a girl who also contracted the brain-eating amoeba. However, there wasn't enough time for the drug to work on Collins. "Google Nexus 2016," the latest in Google's "Nexus" smartphone line will soon be releasing two new products to compete against other leading smartphone brands. With Samsung releasing the "S7 Edge" earlier in March and the "Note 7" on August 19, and Apple rumored to be releasing the new "iPhone 7" in early September, "Google Nexus 2016" is looking to catch up with two new smartphones, the "Sailfish" and the "Marlin". Google has been releasing its own smartphone line since they came out with the"Nexus One" in 2010, and after several years later, it has become a real player in smartphone game. With the highly anticipated release of the "Google Nexus 2016", here's what we know so far. Google has partnered up with Taiwanese technological hardware brand HTC, for the two "Google Nexus 2016" phones, namely, the "Sailfish" and it's pricier, high-end version, the "Marlin". The two "Nexus" phones will offer the same features, though the larger "Marlin" will have a longer battery life with better resolution says BGR. The Android Police has revealed the specs for only one of the "Google Nexus 2016" phones, namely the "Marlin". The "Marlin" will feature a 5.5 QHD AMOLED display, a USB-C port, a 12 MP back camera, an 8 MP front camera, a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner, 4 GB worth of RAM, bottom speakers, and Bluetooth 4.2. The "Sailfish" will undoubtedly have the same specs, albeit a few minor differences. The "Google Nexus 2016" phones will be running on Android's latest software, the "Nougat 7.0", and will have quite the processor with the powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon, according to PC Advisor. This promises that both "Nexus" phones will give their soon-to-be owners an ever better and faster smartphone. The release date for the "Google Nexus 2016" phones is rumored to be early October, though many are speculating an earlier release, to match the launch of Android's new "Nougat 7.0" software. The price range for the "Sailfish" is set around $300, while the higher end "Marlin" is somewhere around the $450 dollar mark. A bag designed by a teenager with autism has sold out after the wife of Singapore's prime minister used it in a state visit to the United States last week. The blue pouch bag is printed with white dinosaurs, which the teenager with autism has a passion for. Ho Ching was seen carrying the bag with her in the White House when she and Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong were welcomed there by United States President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. The dinosaur print was the creation of 19-year-old See Toh Sheng Jie. See Why Everyone Is Clamoring for This $11 Dinosaur-Themed Clutch - Yahoo Food https://t.co/5Mleqlqmtd Paleontology new (@Paleontologynew) August 6, 2016 According to a report from ABC.net, Ho Ching is an advisor to Autism Resource Center in Singapore, and she bought the bag in the center's fundraising event. Sheng Jie is a student in the Pathlight school for students with autism, which the Autism Resource Center runs. The school has a merchandise arm called The Art Faculty, which sells creations of students. "When the school first told us that Ms Ho Ching brought Sheng Jie's pouch to the White House, we thought it was a joke," said Sheng Jie's father, as per the report. Sheng Jie was shown the picture of Ho Ching carrying the bag he designed and he was said to be happy about it. After Ho Ching was seen carrying Shieng Jie's creation, it took less than a day for all 200 pieces of the bag, sold at $ 14.80 in Singaporean dollars, to be sold out when it usually takes about four months, reported Free Malaysia Today. Sheng Jie's art is also said to have reached popularity only in Singapore, but is being displayed in the United States as well. Today reported that while Sheng Jie has been drawing dinosaurs for the last 16 years and that despite his autism, he is able to completely focus on dinosaurs. Sheng Jie's father said that his son has been interested in dinosaurs since he was three, after watching a Disney movie about them. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio does not believe that a pregnant woman infected with the Zika virus should be allowed to undergo an abortion. The Zika virus causes children of infected mothers to have microcephaly, a birth defect wherein the baby's heads are smaller than normal and their brain are not developed properly. "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, it's a difficult question and a hard one," said Rubio in an interview with Politico. Rubio said in the interview that he wants to "err on the side of life." With 422 cases, Rubio's home state of Florida reportedly has the most cases of people infected with the Zika virus, according to Politico. The former presidential hopeful has made an effort to combat Zika by previously co-sponsoring a $1.9 billion Zika bill that will back the fight against Zika but this failed to have any fruit. The failure was said to be partly due to a conflict with Planned Parenthood. A report from the Independent quoted Rubio as acknowledging that microcephaly from the Zika virus is a "terrible prenatal condition." While Rubio said the question of aborting of a baby of a Zika-infected pregnant woman was difficult but he is of a pro-life stance, saying that human lives must be protected in whatever circumstances those lives might be in. The report said that there is now a square mile in Miami that is off-limits to pregnant women to protect their unborn babies from the Zika virus after 16 cases local transmission were recorded. The Daily Mail said the Zika outbreak in Florida is the latest blow to the state's tourism industry after the shooting in an Orlando nightclub and the death of a two-year-old boy at the jaws of an alligator in Walt Disney World. The European Union has been asked by Jordan to observe its upcoming parliamentary elections in September 2016. It will be the second time that the EU will deploy an Election Observation Mission (EOM) in this Middle Eastern country following the previous mission that took place in 2013. Federica Mogherini, chief of EUs diplomacy, appointed Mr Jo Leinen, a MEP, as Chief Observer of the EOM, reflecting the EUs continuous commitment to supporting transparent and inclusive elections in the country. Mrs Mogherini commented that Jordans determination to pursue political and electoral reform, despite the many challenges the country faces sets a very positive example for the rest of the region. The decision to deploy the EOM is more proof of our full support to the countrys reform efforts and to a transparent, credible and peaceful process. These elections will further strengthen democratic governance in Jordan. I am confident that the EOM, under the leadership of Mr. Leinen, will make an important contribution to the electoral process. The EUs EOM Core Team will consist of nine election experts that will arrive in Amman on 13 August and stay until the elections are completed. The team will be expanded by 26 long-term observers and 40 short-term observers who will be deployed across the country approximately one week before the poll. On the Election Day, the mission will be reinforced by a delegation of the European Parliament and EU diplomats. The main aim of the EUs EOMs is generally to contribute to the transparency of electoral processes and respect for fundamental human rights and freedoms. Since 2000, Brussels has deployed approximately 150 EOMs or Election Observation Missions around the world. This service applies to you if your subscription has not yet expired on our old site. You will have continued access until your subscription expires; then you will need to purchase an ongoing subscription through our new system. Please contact the Parsons Sun office at (620) 421-2000 if you have any questions Videos Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos. According to this story, Bishops want clarification from Joe Biden after Biden Catholic officiated at a gay wedding. They act as shocked as Charley Owens at something that should be as predictable as bad reality TV. Why I dont know. Hes a liberal Catholic who, like most religious liberals, follows the Left. Wherever the Left goes, the liberal believer will follow. Thats why nobody cares about the Religious Left. Not that Trump and the GOP havent exposed a glaring problem in the Religious Right and its ability to throw doctrine and morals under the bus to fit the latest political movement. Its just that traditionally, Conservative believers held the line and demanded at least some fealty to their most cherished beliefs. The religious left has no such feather in its cap. If the modern Left demanded sex with animals, youd have religious liberals scouring the history books or religious texts to find something that would validate it or, in lieu of a worthwhile discovery, simply toss the history and the Scriptures in the file, declare them irrelevant, and move on. So what does the Left in general care about religious liberals? Whatever the Left demands, it gets. So Biden officiating at a gay wedding shouldnt be shocking. He is liberal. The Church is wrong and its high damn time the Church change and get with the times. Oh, maybe there was a time it was right, or it couldnt help being wrong because of backward thinking. Some progressives are willing to invoke a sense of moral superiority over those wrong thinking types of yore. But whatever the reason, the teachings are declared wrong, and it shouldnt be shocking that a liberal Catholic would, as usual, move forward and cleave unto the latest, hippest on this topic. Podcast About 75% of military recruits arrive at a training base with no bank account and have to be bussed to a local bank to open one, says Jill Castilla, CEO of Citizens Bank of Edmond. The bank's team is building a platform that will help service members save and build credit. The European Union has condemned the recent convictions of Zhai Yanmin, Hu Shigen, Zhou Shifeng and Gou Hongguo, who have been detained since mid-2015 as part of a wave of detentions in China of more than 300 lawyers and human rights defenders. The EU said that the recent sentences have been in stark contrast to Chinas stated commitment to the strengthening of the rule of the law. Last week, the lawyer Zhou Shifeng was sentenced to seven years in prison after being found guilty of subverting state power. Mr Shifengs trial lasted less than a day at Tianjin No.2 Peoples Court in northeast China. Democracy activist Hu Shigen was sentenced to seven-and-a half-years on the same grounds and activist Zhai Yanmin was given a three-year prison sentence, suspended for four years, after being convicted of the same crime. This wave of trials against lawyers and activists are a political charade. Their fate was sealed before they stepped into the courtroom and there was no chance that they would ever receive a fair trial, said Roseann Rife, East Asia Research Director at Amnesty International. The Chinese authorities appear intent on silencing anyone who raises legitimate questions about human rights and uses the legal system to seek redress, she added. The EU urged the Chinese authorities to abide by their international obligations, including respect for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They should respect the rights of all citizens, as recognized by the Chinese Constitution, and release all those detained for seeking to protect these rights. Brussels said that the lack of adherence in the trials to Chinas own Criminal Procedure Law and the many infringements of the defendants rights to a proper defense are contrary to Chinese and international law. The infringements often include the lack of access to lawyers of their own choice, as well as preventing detainees family members from attending the trials. The EU urged Beijing for the immediate release of the detainees and the reinstatement of their right to practice their profession. Moreover, all charges against other 2015 detainees should be dropped. Iranian President meets Russian and Azeri counterparts, urges dialog for all regional disputes 08/09/16 Report by Press TV; photos by Islamic Republic News Agency Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has called for efforts to resolve all regional disputes through dialog and diplomacy. Rouhani made the remarks during a trilateral meeting with his Russian and Azeri counterparts, Vladimir Putin and Ilham Aliyev, respectively, in Azerbaijan's capital of Baku on Monday. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (L), Azeri President Ilham Aliyev (C) and Russian President Vladimir Putin pose for a photo during their meeting in Baku, Azerbaijan, August 8, 2016. During the summit, Rouhani said Iran pays particular attention to the expansion of ties with the regional countries. "The development of all-out relations with neighboring countries is [one of] the priorities of Iran's foreign policy," he said, adding that the Islamic Republic welcomes any "idea and initiative to increase interaction and cooperation with its neighbors." The foreign policy of the Islamic Republic is based on cooperation, synergy and finding ways to fulfill common interests, he said, adding that Tehran follows "a win-win policy." The Iranian president said interaction among Tehran, Moscow and Baku can help develop and promote the latent capacities and capabilities of the three sides and create new opportunities to counter the existing challenges in the region. "It goes without saying that such arrangements are not against any country or third party and are merely a framework for dialog focused on the development of regional cooperation among the three countries," Rouhani said. He pointed to the close bilateral relations and consultation between Iran and Russia, saying that in recent years, relations between the two countries have spanned different areas such as the resolution of the standoff over Iran's nuclear program, reaching a nuclear agreement with the P5+1 group of countries followed by the implementation of the deal, and constructive cooperation to manage the foreign-backed crisis in Syria. The Iranian chief executive added that the Tehran-Moscow cooperation on the nuclear issue and the Syria crisis can serve as an example and model for collaboration in other areas of common interest and can even be applied to trilateral ties. He highlighted the importance of interaction and cooperation among Iran, Russia and Azerbaijan, adding that all countries must work together to achieve common objectives. Rouhani noted that terrorism, extremism, meddling by trans-regional countries in the internal affairs of the regional states and using sanctions as a tool to advance their political agendas are major plights, whose elimination requires the cooperation of the three countries. The Iranian president said Iran and Azerbaijan have taken constructive steps to boost bilateral ties, adding that the ties between Tehran and Moscow are also on the right track. He further proposed that Iran host the next ministerial and summit meetings among the three countries. Putin, for his turn, said the summit has opened a new chapter in the relations between the three states, stressing the need for finding joint solutions to the threat of terrorism facing the region. The Russian president also called for the formulation of the Caspian Sea's legal regime, saying that finalization of the legal regime of the sea will benefit all littoral countries. Aliyev, for his part, said Azerbaijan follows an independent policy and while referring to the dispute between Baku and Yerevan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, said one million Azeris have been expelled by Armenia from their land. He said the Caspian Sea has rich oil and gas resources, adding that the sea's littoral states should work to protect its resources. The Azeri president said the North-South Transport Corridor (NSTC) - an ambitious intercontinental multi-modal route that would link St. Petersburg to Mumbai - is a huge project in the region, expressing hope that it would be launched as soon as possible. The NSTC primarily involves moving freight from India, Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia via ship, rail and road. The three presidents signed a final statement at the end of the Baku summit. Rouhani arrived in Baku on Sunday for a two-day official visit at the head of a high-ranking delegation. He held talks with the Azeri president on the same day about ways to bolster relations in different fields. Senior Iranian and Azeri officials also signed six documents and memoranda of understanding to strengthen cooperation in various sectors. The agreements were inked in the presence of Rouhani and Aliyev. Earlier on Monday, the Iranian and Russian presidents discussed issues of common interest and avenues for strengthening bilateral cooperation. Related Article: Iran, Russia, Azerbaijan vow to create NSTC - Iran, Russia and Azerbaijan have vowed to work together to prepare the grounds for the construction of a North-South Transit Corridor (NSTC) which is expected to provide a faster and more efficient trade connectivity between Europe and South East Asia. (Press TV) The best 2-in-1 laptop 2022: our picks of the best convertible laptops These are the best 2-in-1 laptops you can buy right now Lenovo is developing an SSD storage board with a monstrous 48TB capacity, and the company plans to release it by the middle of next year. The board is basically a collection of high-capacity SSDs. It provides an efficient way of cramming more SSD storage into computer slots, instead of using individual drives. The 48TB storage capacity will fit in a space for two standard 2.5-inch storage drives. Thats significantly more storage than available in two Samsung PM1633A SSDs, which are now the largest capacity SSDs at 15.36TB and will fit in the same slots. Lenovo, known more as a PC and mobile device maker than a storage company, is developing the board in its research labs. Companies like Seagate, Toshiba, NxGn Data, and Amphenol are helping Lenovo develop the technology, part of a program called Project Spark. Theres a race among storage SSD companies to raise the capacity. Before Samsung released its 15.36TB drive in March, Akitio shipped a 13TB SSD in January. An early prototype of a Project Spark SSDthe size of a DRAM module with 6TB of storage capacityis being shown at the Flash Memory Summit in Santa Clara, California, this week. The board is not targeted at desktops but at servers that run applications like databases and analytics, said Jonathan Hinkle, senior researcher at Lenovo. Lenovo and its partners are researching ways to tune performance and power consumption of multiple SSDs on the card for server applications. A database application may require faster performance, which could drive up SSD thermal requirements. SSDs are power efficient, but an excessive number of drives could overwhelm the cooling resources of a server. The goal is to slow down the performance and power consumption of a drive so more storage could be put on the SSD boards and servers. It may be possible to add more storage capacity beyond 48TB on these boards, depending on their design and types of flash chips, Hinkle said. Theres a growing demand for more storage in servers and flash arrays. SSDs are used for long-term storage or for cold storage, temporary storage where data is held until it is sent for processing. The Project Spark SSD performance has measured at higher than 1 million IOPS (input output per second) for read and write capabilities, but that number could drop depending on the power consumption. The power requirements fluctuate depending on the performance, and its important that the storage controller be designed to meet application requirements, Hinkle said. Lenovo is achieving 12GBps (gigabytes per second) for data transfers in all the drives via PCI-Express 3.0 slots, Hinkle said. Lenovo couldnt provide a price for the 48TB SSD card. The White House has released its Federal Source Code policy that promotes reuse of new source code developed by government agencies across the federal government. The new policy also sets up a pilot program that requires agencies, when commissioning new custom software, to release at least 20 percent of new custom-developed code as Open Source Software (OSS) for three years, Tony Scott, U.S. CIO and Anne E. Rung, chief acquisition officer, wrote in a memorandum to heads of departments and agencies on Monday. The federal government spends every year over US$6 billion on software through more than 42,000 transactions, but agencies that procure custom-developed source code do not necessarily make their new code broadly available for reuse by the federal government. Even when agencies are in a position to make their source code available on a Government-wide basis, they do not make such code available to other agencies in a consistent manner, resulting in unnecessary duplication and waste of taxpayers dollars, the memorandum added. The administration of President Barack Obama announced in 2014 its Second Open Government National Action Plan that aimed at creating a policy for open source software among other objectives. A draft of the Federal Source Code policy was released by Scott in March for public comment. Source code developed by National Security Systems will, however, be exempt from the new policy, and continue to follow existing rules and internal agency policies. Other agencies covered under the policy have to make their custom-developed code available for Government-wide reuse and make their code inventories discoverable at https://www.code.gov, a site being set up by the administration within 90 days of the publication of new policy. Some exemptions are allowed to the sharing of the code by agencies such as a law or regulation or security and confidentiality considerations, according to the memorandum. Making source code available as OSS could also help federal software projects as then private users would implement the code and publish improvements, allowing for collaborative benefits such as software peer review and security testing, sharing of technical know-how and reuse of code, according to the memorandum. By opening more of our code to the brightest minds inside and outside of government, we can enable them to work together to ensure that the code is reliable and effective in furthering our national objectives, Scott wrote in a post Monday introducing the final policy. The source code for the White Houses We The People website tool for petitioning the government has been released as OSS and agencies like the Department of Defense and 18F office have pointed to the software reliability and security benefits of OSS. Data.gov, a website for government released data run by the U.S. General Services Administration, also runs on open source applications. The open source component of the new policy has its critics, who fear that the code could fall in the wrong hands and be misused. In a post on Monday that tries to dispel myths around the use of open source, 18F wrote that there are several agencies that do classified work and release code that isnt sensitive. The National Security Agency has, for example, released code and documentation for its System Integrity Management Platform under an open source Apache license. Wildomar City Councilman Bob Cashman, a leader in the communitys drive toward cityhood and the citys first mayor, announced this week he will not seek a third term in office. Cashman, 73, is among three remaining members of the citys first council elected in 2008 when Wildomar voters approved incorporation. The other original panelists still seated are Marsha Swanson and Bridgette Moore. Moore has qualified to run for a third term on the Nov. 8 ballot. Under the citys newly installed election system of voting by districts, Cashman lives in District 2, which consists of the eastern and central sections of Wildomar. Since an incumbent is not running in that district, the deadline for filing for candidacy will be extended from Aug. 12 to Aug. 17, as prescribed by the state election code. Political newcomer Dustin Nigg, a resident of The Farm, has qualified for the District 2 ballot. Moore is the only candidate to qualify so far in District 4 on the citys west side. Elections are not scheduled in Districts 1, 3 and 5 until November 2018. I think Ill just take a break from the City Council, Cashman said in an interview Tuesday, Aug. 19. I may come back in four years, but I want to do some other Wildomar things. Though Cashman had recently retired from a career in aerospace engineering, he has returned to work as a consultant, he said. The author of a book about the citys history Wildomar: Images of America Cashman said he wants to spend more time on historical research and to complete a book chronicling incorporation. I cant wait too much longer to do that because its already been eight years, he said. He was among a dozen citizens on Wildomar Incorporation Now. The group led the effort to bring cityhood to the town founded in 1885 by Midwesterners William Collier, Donald Graham and Margaret Collier Graham. Margaret Graham, Colliers sister, coined Wildomar by amalgamating the first syllables of each of their first names. He has done a lot for the community, Moore said of Cashman. Bob was the chairman of Wildomar Incorporation now. He led the effort to create Wildomar (as) a city. He was the first mayor. It was a huge distinction. Cashman said he intends to stay active in politics with a focus on keeping the city from becoming overcrowded with housing. Its OK to have areas that dont have high density housing, and in fact its a good thing, he said. Contact the writer: 951-368-9690 or michaelwilliams@pressenterprise.com On school field trips, Gerald Clarke Jr. couldnt relate to the Native American artifacts at museums. The tomahawks, tom-toms, tepees, headdresses and statues of warriors on horseback didnt connect to his life on the Cahuilla Reservation in Anza. All those things seemed exotic, Clarke said of the items behind glass. They had nothing to do with my culture. Clarke, 49, has been teaching and making mixed-media and conceptual art for decades that bears little connection to stereotypes. Instead, he creates metaphors about his tribes past and present customs and experiences with sculptures, acrylic paintings, drawings and performance art. His preferred medium, he quipped, is the kitchen sink. I have no chosen or recognizable visual style, he wrote on his website. Im a California Indian: part traditionalist, part Disneyland. However its described, his craftsmanship is much in demand recently. All that hard work is paying off, he said during an interview at the Cahuilla Casino, which his late father helped build down the road from the reservation. Last fall he served as the artist in residence at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, N.M. Currently, hes showing pieces at the Gene Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles, the Museum of Art and History in Lancaster and at San Francisco State University. Palm Desert is negotiating to buy Clarkes eye-popping, 6-foot, fiberglass and steel basket sculpture thats been on El Paseo Drive for nearly two years. It would be installed at the citys visitors center. His work speaks to Native American history, the origin of the area where we live, said Deborah Schwartz Glickman, a management analyst for Palm Desert who works with the citys Art in Public Places Commission. The Riverside Metropolitan Museum has tapped Clarke as its inaugural artist in residence. On Saturday, hell add the finishing touches and patina to four small bronze sculptures that he cast in wax outside the building July 30. Hes very creative, said Brenda Focht, senior curator. She referred to a piece on display made of conduit pipes to simulate a basket with a red mold of a human heart in the center. Gerald is somebody whose contemporary art we need to have. To her delight, hes giving the museum two of his sculptures. Clarke grew up poor on the 19,000-acre Cahuilla Reservation, founded in 1875, in the house built by his grandfather in 1930 with add-ons over the decades. It had no running water until 1986. Clarke bathed in the warm mineral springs, played hide-and-seek on the rock formations and chewed the pickled seed pods from the yucca plants. I was good with my hands, Clarke said. From his dad, full-blooded Native American Gerald Clarke Sr., he learned early how to herd, brand, butcher and skin cattle, restring a barbed wire fence, plant orchards and split wood to heat their home. He was my hero, he said of his father. He told me to never be afraid to fail. His parents divorced when he was young. Clarke was living with his mother in Conway, north of Little Rock, Ark., when he graduated from high school. Teachers told me I was too dumb for college, so I went to welding school to learn a trade, he said. He earned good money, bought a car and moved out at 18. But he eventually tired of burned hands and a sooty, runny nose all the time. Clarke followed his girlfriend and enrolled at the University of Central Arkansas. I started as a painter and left as a sculptor, he said. After graduating in 1991 with a degree in studio art, Clarke spent the next three years at Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas, earning masters degrees in painting and sculpture. At the end of every semester I threw what Id made away, he said. That wasnt my work. That was my student work. For the past quarter-century, hes taught art at community colleges and universities. Im very proud to be an educator, he said. Those who have knowledge are revered by my people. After his father died 13 years ago, Clarke, his wife, Stacy, and their two daughters, Emily and Lily, moved back into the family home on the Cahuilla Reservation, where he raises cattle and has built a mini-storage business. Theirs is one of 40 homes, many filled with Clarkes family members among the reservations 270 adults. Since 2004, hes taught at the Idyllwild Arts Academy, a private high school from which he recently resigned as visual arts chairman. This fall hell teach native arts and culture several days a week in UC Riversides ethnic studies department. Clarke has tried showing in galleries without much success. Galleries want a predictable commodity, he said. They want no part of me. Contact the writer: 951-368-9559 or llucas@pressenterprise.com The deaths of three young adults following the HARD Summer Music Festival at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana on July 30 and 31 have renewed calls for a ban on such events. Electronic music festivals, sometimes referred to as raves, can draw hundreds of thousands of mostly young people for one, two or even three days of festivities. For attendees, these can be enjoyable, safe events no more risky than a typical concert or music festival. For residents in the vicinity of these events, they can be a money-making opportunity, particularly for local business owners, or a headache, especially late at night. For local governments, they can provide an economic boost, but they can also be a cause of concern. Such events have been held throughout Southern California for many years. As they have grown in popularity and frequency, however, they have also been subjected to increasing regulation and scrutiny from state and local governments. Drug use, overheating and dehydration at such events occasionally lead to hospitalizations and even deaths of attendees. At least a dozen attendees are known to have lost their lives at electronic music festivals in Southern California since 2006. The deaths last weekend have prompted San Bernardino County Supervisor Janice Rutherford to call for a ban on such events at county-owned facilities. 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. We cannot wait for more young lives to be lost before we decide enough is enough, Supervisor Rutherford said in a statement. At least one electronic music festival, Nocturnal Wonderlands, is currently scheduled at the San Manuel Amphitheater for Labor Day weekend. In June, a proposal from Rutherford to ban such events failed to get enough votes. Earlier this year, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors considered banning such events following deaths at county-owned facilities, but instead opted for the creation of threat assessments, through which promoters of events expected to draw more than 10,000 people must work with the county to minimize the potential risk of harm. It must be acknowledged, regrettably, that even the best-prepared event cant prevent all tragic outcomes. With this in mind, effective cooperation between local governments and event promoters, with an aim toward reaching an appropriate, functional level of safety and harm reduction, is preferable to knee-jerk bans. CORRECTION: The office of Sen. Richard Roth, D-Riverside, was recognized at American Legion Post 79s Law and Order Dinner at Fairmount Park in Riverside. Because of a reporting error, the senators name was incorrect in a story on Page 7 of the Local section in the Aug. 10 edition of The Press-Enterprise. Additionally, Ruben Rasso organizes patriotic events at Riverside National Cemetery. The nature of the events he organizes was incorrect in the same story. Ruben Rasso served Riverside County as a deputy sheriff for nearly 30 years. Now, hes being honored for recognizing law enforcement efforts. Rasso, the law and order chairman for the American Legion District 21, was feted June 24 at the California American Legion Convention in Fresno with the Walter Knott Law and Order Perpetual Trophy. On April 23, American Legion Post 79 hosted a Law and Order Dinner at Fairmount Park in Riverside, honoring 16 law enforcement personnel. They included the California Highway Patrol-Riverside Area, the Corona Police Department, the Palm Springs Police Department, the Riverside County Sheriffs Department and the Riverside Police Department. The event the first that Rasso organized also handed out certificates of recognition to representatives from the offices of state Sen. Richard Roth, D-Riverside, Assemblyman Jose Medina, D-Riverside, and Assemblyman Eric Linder, R-Corona. For these efforts, Rasso was chosen for the trophy named after Walter Knott, the founder of Knotts Berry Farm and a supporter of law enforcement. Rasso will keep the trophy for one year until the next voting process begins. Rasso said that he felt honored by man and blessed by God. He also referred to the recent police shootings in San Diego, Dallas and Baton Rouge and claimed the importance of reminding the American public of how law enforcement constantly risk their lives to protect our liberty. The award will bring to mind to all citizens, that law enforcement does matter, it is important and that without it criminals will run rampant. Rasso also organizes patriotic events at Riverside National Cemetery. The military are guardians of freedom at the national level, he said. And law enforcement are guardians of freedom in the home front. Rasso wanted the wider community to be aware of the hard work and sacrifices law enforcement makes. People can help by respecting law enforcement and the laws and being thankful for our freedom, he said. We have to realize that we have freedoms that other countries dream of. Contact the writer: community@scng.com CORRECTION: Veronica Pomee won a nationwide social media contest, launching a modeling career. Because of a reporters error, her name was incorrect in a previous version of this story. A nationwide social media contest and the personal journey towards self love launched 26-year-old Veronica Pomee into the world of modeling. The way all of this happened was very organic, but I wouldnt have had it any other way, said the Perris resident. So many doors and opportunities have opened up and it has made me realize, this could definitely serve as something bigger than I thought. Pomee is the winner of a 2015 model search contest by fashion brand Ashley Stewart, in partnership with TRUE Model Management. The contest was to post a photo on Instagram empowering women to love their curves, using the hashtag #ASTrueModel. Over 39,000 entries were submitted, making the model search the brands most popular contest to date. A lot of brands and agencies look to social media as an incredible tool to find fresh new faces and search for talent, shared Alexandra Boos, of TRUE Model Management. Its important for us to see who you are and what you represent when I scroll through your social media. After selecting 10 top finalists, the contest ended with two grand prize winners, Pomee and Tennae LaChey from Chicago. Both women won a modeling contract with TRUE and a campaign shoot with Ashley Stewart, representing the new faces of the plus size fashion brand. I fell in love with Veronica because of her tone on Instagram, Boos added. She stood head and shoulders above the others, as a beautiful curvy woman both inside and out. Pomee takes deep pride in her Pacific Islander roots, as one of the first Tongan models to break into the industry. Its really new for Tongan people to be in the spotlight, she said. You see a lot of Tongan male athletes in the mainstream. Us Tongan women are out here grinding too! Her personal journey growing up in Riverside County, as well as college and life experiences, inspired Pomee at age 21 to start a social media campaign and movement called Change in Love USA. The non-profit, based in Perris, aims to empower young people to learn to love themselves, by helping others in need. Every young person goes through phases in life, trying to figure themselves out, Pomee shared. I can identify with a lot of young people dealing with these struggles, who come from urban communities. Theres this mindset that you can help yourself by helping others. Change in Love has helped put on charity fashion shows and service projects around the Inland Empire, attended international trips to help victims of national disasters, and has partnered with non-profits such as Restoring Hope and United Way. Veronicas voice and platform is so empowering, and she is the kind of people we need more in this industry, Boos noted. There is a crossover happening, and the lines are beginning to blurwe need more people (like Veronica) at the forefront: strong, beautiful women who are starting a movement. Pomee was recently featured on Plus Model Magazine as July 2016s cover girl. As a model, I feel like this is my art and how I can express myself confidently, said the young model, who has signed a three-year contract. I hope to use modeling as a platform to promote not only brands, but the Change In Love movementcreating a space for young people to change the world, by loving and changing themselves. As the new face of Ashley Stewart, Pomee is moving to New York City. Sometimes all of this feels surreal, like I dont know what Im doing, she admitted. My family and ties to home, especially my mom, are really what centers me. Im just a regular chick from the Inland Empire. Contact the writer: community@pressenterprise.com New federal regulations kicked in Monday for electronic cigarettes and some tobacco-related products, giving the Food and Drug Administration greater control over what can be sold and limiting the way retailers interact with customers. All products that use a device in which a flavored liquid is heated into vapor so it can be inhaled must now earn government approval. Also, merchants can no longer give free samples to customers, must ask customers for age-verifying identification and cannot claim that their products help smokers quit tobacco, store owners say. Some say the free samples ban may have the greatest impact. http://launch.newsinc.com/js/embed.js var _ndnq = _ndnq || []; _ndnq.push([embed]); It will definitely affect brick-and-mortar shops, said Carlos Montolfo, co-owner of Loyalty Vape in Riverside. Montolfo said until now the primary advantage shops maintained over online sellers of generally cheaper vaping products has been the ability to tell buyers they could drop by and try out an exotic flavor before committing to a purchase. Customer Brandon Jankel, 33, of Menifee said he is one who appreciates that aspect of the vaping business. The free samples are what actually draws you to the new juices, Jankel said. His comments came after purchasing a 30-millileter bottle of strawberry champagne-flavored vape juice Monday at Loyalty Vape for $20. As a customer, you want to be able to try different flavors. There is so much variety out there and you dont want to waste money on what you dont like, he said. A lot of the convenience that has been around is going away. Regulations issued by the Food and Drug Administration also bar sales of vaping products to people younger than 18, but that will have no impact in California. Since June, vape shops in this state have been doing business under a much-tougher law that raised the smoking age to 21 and made vaping and vaping products subject to the same age restriction. Garrett Blankenship, owner of Darth Vapor in Chatsworth, said that he took a huge hit when the smoking age went up and expects another blow to the business from the tougher federal regulations. Its the beginning of a new generation, he said of customers between 18 and 21. Well see where this heads. Montolfo said raising the age limit to 21 knocked out close to one-fourth of his shops business overnight, given his proximity to the campus of UC Riverside, although sales have rebounded a little since then. The new regulations also cover hand-rolled cigars, hookahs and pipe tobacco. U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials now must assess all e-cigarette products available since 2007. To stay on store shelves, nearly every vaping product must secure FDA approval, though manufacturers will be able to keep selling their wares for up to two years during the application process and for a year during FDA review. The American Lung Association embraces the new rules and wanted the government to go even further. Youth are using e-cigarettes at an increasing and alarming rate. E-cigarettes are now the most commonly used tobacco product by youth, said Harold P. Wimmer, National President and CEO of the association, in a statement. The FDA fears that e-smokers, who are often attracted by the wide variety of vapor colors and flavors, will simply become tobacco consumers. Wimmer agrees. The most common reasons for trying e-cigarettes included curiosity about e-cigarettes, good flavors and friends use. Demand exists While smoking is generally declining for teenagers, e-cigarette use is on the upswing. Among high school students, it rose from 1.5 percent in 2011 to 15 percent in 2015, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 3 million middle- and high school students use e-cigarettes, the CDC says. Blankenship, a former Apple technician, said he invested about $120,000 to start the store two years ago. Hes lost about $15,000 in sales since the smoking age increased. Were having a hard time meeting our bills, he said, I cant restock product. Greg Honbo, co-owner of Vape Guys in Rancho Palos Verdes, took issue with the limits on what he can say to customers. He said he quit a 15-year cigarette habit when he started vaping. I was a victim of cigarettes and I had to find a way to quit, he said, adding that he tried nicotine patches and other methods. Ive been cigarette-free for five years now. Vaping was created for people who couldnt find anything else to help them quit cigarettes. Now theyre treating it like its really bad. But I wish they had vaping when I was younger. While he doesnt agree with the law, he said it likely wont impact business much. It moved out some of the riff-raff, the younger kids just hanging out, Honbo said. We dont mind the younger crowd but the majority of them dont purchase too much. They just look for freebies and hang out. Minors still have easy access to vapes and accessories online and through friends anyway, he said. James Lua opened the Hidden Vape on Ventura Boulevard in Woodland Hills three years ago. He said raising the smoking age cut into his sales and expected the new federal regulations to have a similar impact. Its hard getting product out the door, he said. And we cant assemble or advise people on how to use the devices. Jason Sy, manager of Pure Vapor Torrance, said he personally doesnt understand the negative attitude about vaping because he believes its preferable to cigarettes. But the store no longer allows anyone under 21 to even walk inside and that has cost the store about a fifth of its clientele, he said. Ive been smoking 12 to 15 years but I feel a lot better since Ive been vaping. I can play basketball longer. I smell better. Food tastes better, Sy said. The FDA thinks were creating a gateway (with e-cigarettes). I could see why they think were attracting minors. And I do see the FDAs concern that there havent been any long-term studies of the health impacts of e-cigarettes. Trade groups takes stand The American Vaping Association warned that new rules on vapor products will harm public health and close thousands of businesses. It is a misnomer to refer to what the FDA is doing as regulation, said Gregory Conley, President of the AVA. This isnt regulation; its prohibition for all but Big Tobacco and perhaps a couple of companies with big Wall Street investments. Lacey Miller, the owner of The Vapour Lounge in Rancho Cucamonga, said she thinks the new regulations will give potential vaping consumers pause, because theyre not quite sure whats going on with it. I think in the long run it will be OK, said Miller. I mean most big shops are like us, we never advertise it as a quit-smoking device, however we would all give our stories about how we all quit smoking on it and it has helped us. Montolfo said the flavors help make vaping more tolerable to bystanders than smoking. Flipping through a menu of flavors at his Riverside shop is like reading the choices on an ice cream shop sign: watermelon bubble gum, lemon blueberry pound cake, deep-fried ice cream with cinnamon apples, and more. He said that point was underscored a few years back when he used to smoke and his wife, Evalinda, used to complain about the smell in his car. To make her happy, he agreed to vape in the car and restrict his smoking habit to other times. It also improved the romance side of their relationship. Shell definitely give you a smooch, smelling like apple pie, said Montolfo, who went on to quit smoking and vape full time. He added the changes will force operators to focus more on service and building a base of repeat customers. Ive always considered a vape shop to be like a barber shop, Montolfo said. Youll drive a little further if you like your barber. Staff writers Neil Nisperos and Sandy Mazza contributed to this report. Contact the writer: 951-368-9699 or ddowney@scng.com High-earning state and local government retirees are scattered around the state, with no one city or agency dominating the list of the biggest pension payouts in 2015, data from an open records advocacy group show. Few Inland government retirees ranked among the top 50 largest beneficiaries. Only two Riverside County cities had a former employee in the top 100 on a list provided by Transparent California, a public employee pay website run by a Nevada-based think tank. On Monday, Aug. 8, the group released 2015 figures for pension payments from the California Public Employees Retirement System, or CalPERS. State pension data is a public record, but Transparent California spokesman Robert Fellner said the group compiled the most recent annual numbers for about 625,000 retirees and made them widely accessible in a searchable database. Including health care and other benefits, the highest payout statewide in 2015 was more than $500,000, but it went to Linda R. Ladd, whom the database lists as the beneficiary of a retiree from Santa Ana. Beneficiaries may be a spouse or relative of a deceased worker, but Fellner said CalPERS does not give such details, and CalPERS spokeswoman Amy Morgan could not immediately clarify Ladds relationship to the retiree. Another 13 payouts topped $300,000, though in more than half of them, the group said the amount might include a one-time settlement, such as earned vacation pay. Fellners group also ranked cities with at least 20 full-career retirees that paid the highest average pensions. A full-career worker is one with 30 or more years of service. Moreno Valley, San Marcos and Santa Fe Springs made the top three for non-safety workers, with Irvine and Yorba Linda within the 20 highest average pensions. Vacaville, El Segundo and El Monte topped the list for public safety employees, with Pasadena in sixth place and Redlands at No. 12. For individuals, James D. Tierney, a retiree from Ontario, ranked third. Others in the top five included retirees from the state prison in Calipatria, the California School Boards Association and Solano County. Tieneys 2015 payment was $458,524. Fellner couldnt explain the discrepancy between that total and a reported monthly payout that came to less than $30,000 for the year. The group reported that Tierney retired in 1992 after 6.7 years in the CalPERS system, so its unclear why he would receive such a large payout. CalPERS pensions are typically based on a percentage of the employees highest pay times their years of service. Morgan, the CalPERS spokeswoman, was checking into Tierneys case Monday afternoon. Transparent Californias goal is to give taxpayers, elected officials and everyone else complete, accurate information about what pensions cost, Fellner said. Retiree costs are sometimes given as averages, which can be misleading because CalPERS beneficiaries include people with only a few years of service, he said. Others level the same criticism at Transparent California and its data. Six-figure pension payouts are the exception, not the rule, said Steve Maviglio, spokesman for Californians for Retirement Security, which represents current and former public employees. Focusing on the large pensions of a few is like looking at the CEO of McDonalds salary and extrapolating that to all McDonalds employees, he said. Maviglios group, also citing CalPERS data, puts the average public worker pension at $2,940 a month, or $35,340 annually, and notes that some pensioned retirees cant collect social security. Public worker retirement benefits have been shrinking, both because of a recent state pension reform law and local concessions, Maviglio said. But pensions are essential to attract and retain quality public employees, he added. The biggest 2015 payouts in the Inland area which encompasses Riverside and San Bernardino counties, except for San Bernardino County government, which is not part of CalPERS included $291,780 to an Indio employee who retired in 2010 with more than 38 years of service, and the $254,824 paid to David L. Larry Parrish, who retired as Riverside Countys executive officer in 2008 after more than 30 years of service. Riverside County spokesman Ivan Chand declined to comment on Parrishs pension. Retired workers from Murrieta and Moreno Valley, both with more than 30-years service, made the top 100. Former Murrieta police chief Mark A. Wright retired in 2011 and received a pension of $228,664 last year, which reflected more than 31 years of service. Moreno Valleys former city manager, Robert G. Gutierrez, was paid $224,735 in 2015, after retiring in 2009 with nearly 36 years in the state pension system. Moreno Valley Assistant City Manager Tom DeSantis wrote in an email that none of the current City Council members was in office when Gutierrez was hired, and because most of his years of service were with other agencies, Moreno Valley is paying only a small portion of the pension benefits that Mr. Gutierrez earned over his entire career. A call to a Murrieta human resources official was not immediately returned Monday. Transparent Californias database includes the retirees name, employer, years of service, year of retirement and 2015 pension amount, but not always the job title before retirement. One problem with generous pensions, Fellner said, is they push costs years into the future. Elected officials find it easy to increase pensions because the public may not raise the same concerns as they would with salary hikes, he said. Once the public is empowered with this information (in the database) theyll be in a better position to hold their elected officials accountable. Contact the writer: 951-368-9461 or arobinson@scng.com Ghanas mining sector has lost more than 10,000 direct jobs to redundancies in the past three years due to high cost of operations and lack of reliable power. Mr Prince William Ankrah General Secretary of the Ghana Mine Workers Union, who announced this in Kumasi at the weekend, referred to the Ghana Chamber of Mines 2015 report. It said the mining companies spent a colossal $ 314 million on energy alone that had a toll on their operations. He was speaking at the just ended National Executive Councils meeting of the Union in Kumasi. The General Secretary said Ghanas quest for job creation as a nation had often been fraught with very weak inter-sectorial linkages. For example he said the energy sector was so weakly linked to the manufacturing and productive sectors such that any downstream effect including job creation were quickly eroded by the failure of the energy sector. As a Union, we are extremely worried about this trend and the earlier tangible solutions are sought to this hydra-headed problem, the better for us all and our ailing economy. Already, investor confidence in the industry appear to be waning whereas neighbouring countries like Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali and Guinea look more of a preferred destination for mining FDI (foreign direct investments), he said. On election, Mr Ankrah called on the political parties and their commentators to approach this year's election with peace at the centre of the discourse. Intemperate language or any actions or inactions which are detrimental to the peace and security of our dear nation must be eschewed at every stage of the way, he advised. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video These two very important state institutions have one thing in common, and it is simple, the employees are ungovernable. Whilst, other state institutions declare dividends every year, these two cash cows or if you will, sleeping giants, have decided that, no Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Board of Directors, will be given space to run them efficiently and effectively. The government, have over the years appointed CEOs from outside to head those institutions, and this many thought was the reason for the agitations. For some time now, the appointments have been made from within, yet still the employees fail to see reason with those appointed, they find fault with everybody sent to steer the affairs of the institutions. Never a month passes, with agitations from one of these institutions, which have failed to transform with time, even with changing trends in the world. Ghana Television (GTV) shows the same soap operas and telenovelas, other private Television stations show, instead of projecting our heritage. Employees are so used to doing things the same way that, any attempt to introduce any new ideas is seen as a threat to their survival. Why is it that, the only people who are the problem anytime, the employees are up in arms, are either the Board of Directors or the CEOs, it is about time for introspection and admission that, the head alone cannot be the problem and that for as long as they dont see themselves as part of the problem, they would never be a solution. Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), is the biggest media house in Ghana, with the widest coverage, both in television and radio, with so many affiliates across the country, it should have been making money for the country, instead of the other way round. What is even the rational for the collection of TV License, when adverts alone are enough for the state broadcaster to rake in millions of Ghana cedis? GBC, is in a position to pay its workers and must not be drawing salaries from the consolidated fund. How many companies and institution owe them by way of advertising, how many have been declared bad debt, but yet has ended up in the pockets of the same workers, who are agitating for better working conditions. The root cause of many of these problems in this country is that, workers stay at one place for so long and thus become the institutions themselves. Transfer is only the preserve of those, who do not know any big man. They create so many loopholes to exploit and so any attempt at reform, which will block those leaking holes, they will resist with so many excuses. Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, is also one institution, which is always in the news for all the wrong reasons, it employees, have never given a breathing space to anybody appointed to head the place. Employees of these state agencies have become like Konongo Kaya, they wont carry, and neither would they allow anybody else to. If they dont change and accept the reality before them that, the world is not waiting for them and that they cant continue doing the same and expect different results, nobody will be able to run the institutions. The lawlessness is becoming too much. Source: The Herald 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 Tafo Sub-Metro Security Council has ordered all drinking bars in its jurisdiction to close down by 10:00 p.m., everyday. The order, according to the Tafo Sub-Metro, is aimed at curbing the rampant chaos and reprisal attacks that have been occurring in the area recently. Even though the directive was supposed to be to all drinking bars, two of them where notoriety has gained deep rootAbys Spot and Abrante3 Spothave been warned sternly to stick to the time, according to the Tafo District Police Commander, Superintendent Kwaku Amoako. Speaking in an interview with journalists, the district commander stated that two people have been arrested due to similar notorious acts and their dockets have been forwarded to the Central Police station to be prepared for court. The Tafo area has been noted for notoriety which the police commander admitted, but refuted allegations that the police were not up to their prime responsibility of law enforcement. Supt. Amoako noted that even though Kwadwo Antwi, the latest victim of some hooligans from the Tafo Zongo could not identify his assailants, the police had launched an investigation to bring the perpetrators to book. It would be recalled that one Kwadwo Anwti, an indigene of Tafo Ahenbronum, was attacked by over twenty (20) Moslem youth hitting him with blocks, stones and beer bottles on Sunday without any provocation. Following this, many concerned residents of the area expressed fear of reprisals as the indigenes were allegedly preparing themselves to avenge their brother. At a press conference in Tafo on Wednesday, August 03, 2016 a group of irate youth led by one Kwame Appiah asked the chief of Tafo to allow them to avenge the attack on their brother, Kwadwo Antwi. He said the Moslems had taken advantage of the fact that the indigenes were mostly calm whenever such issues occur so have taken them for granted. Even though he refused stating how they were going to avenge the attack and also protect themselves and their relatives, Mr. Appiah said the attitude of their Zongo folks must stop, but since Ghanaian leaders have failed to stop them, we want to do it ourselves. Recounting the first incidence that occurred in February this year, Mr. Appiah said the Zongo youth were perpetrating such violent acts because they had the support of some of their leaders, mentioning the MP for Asawase, Hon. Muntaka Muhammed. When they attacked our chief in February, Hon. Muntaka was on TV3 evening news promising that he would do everything possible for them to be left, and indeed nothing was done to those assailants, he recounted. He also pointed out that if any of those attackers of their chief had been made to face the full rigours of the law, some people would not have the guts to be committing more of such criminal acts against the indigenes of Tafo. Source: Today 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 One of the panelist of Pampaso show on Accra-based Montie FM who has been jailed by the Supreme Court is reportedly sick. The Minister of Trade and Industry, Ekow Spio-Garbrah told NEAT FMs morning show 'Ghana Montie' that Alistair Nelson was down with illness and couldnt interact with him when he visited the trio convicts. Mugabe and Ako-Gunn are doing quite well but depressed. Alistair is not feeling well when I visited last Thursday. He was stuck in bed so I couldnt see him for a conversation, he said. Alistair Nelson, Godwin Ako-Gunn and Salifu Maase, alias Mugabe, were sentenced to serve four months after being found guilty of contempt by the Supreme Court, for threatening the lives of the judges who were presiding over a case on the credibility of the voters register. However, according to Mr Spio-Garbrah, the three are unhappy about their stay in prison and want to be pardoned Of course they were not happy to be in prison. I dont think anybody serves prison sentence happily. We were able to laugh just to keep their spirits. He noted that the trio have shown remorse and hoping they will be pardoned by the President they have offended the law and had confessed that they were sorry for their actions, most people felt that as much as they deserved some punishment, the punishment might be on the lighter side. Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/ Twitter: @Washman5/ Instagram: Washman007 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 Accra Psychiatric Hospital will not admit new patients until the GHC 1.6m promised by government hits the hospitals account, Authorities of the Mental Health service facility has said. Government last week announced it has released an amount of GHC 1.6m which is expected to hit the account of the Accra Psychiatric Hospital by Monday (yesterday) to settle the debt owed by the mental health service facility. The hospital last week suspended admission of patients into the facility due to the crippling debt. It warned that the hospital was likely to experience food shortage in the coming days due to the unavailability of funds to restock. The decision was taken following several failed attempts by management of the facility to get government to meet its budgetary obligation for more than three years. The hospital is Ghanas premier facility for persons with psychiatric and mental disorders among other related health complications. Ministry of Health, Public Relations Officer of the Ministry of Health, Tony Goodman believes the said amount will clear the GHC 1.2m debt the hospital owes its suppliers and will also help in its effective running. The Medical Director of the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, Dr Pinamang Apau in an interview with Joy News stated that in as much as the facility has assurance from government to settle its debt, it will not run ahead of itself to admit new patients. We are still in the same situation that weve been talking about for the past month. Now if I admit a patient to the hospital it becomes my responsibility and I have to feed them. As at now, it is becoming more and more difficult; over the weekend it was that bad and so if I go ahead and admit it is going to become a burden. Source: kasapafmonline 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 Minister of Trade and Industry, Ekow Spio Garbrah says it is sad the Christian fraternity has neglected jailed Montie trio who threatened the lives of some Supreme Court judges. He said, despondent Montie 3 convicts complained to him bitterly when he visited them last Thursday at the Nsawam Maximum Prisons. They are really sad that no Ghanaian pastor has visited them for prayers. Not even a single one, so I stood together with my colleagues and prayed for them. I know their pains will never last. Hopefully the president and council of state will consider the petition and pardon them, he said. I did not ask them about Muslim (clerics) but men of God in general irrespective of their religion have not visited them and that is their worry, he added on NEAT FMs morning show dubbed Ghana Montie. The Supreme Court handed a four-month prison sentence to the Host of Pampaso political show on Accra-based Montie FM, Salifu Maase, alias Mugabe, and the two panelists, Alistair Nelson, and Godwin Ako Gunn, for threatening to kill judges of the Supreme Court during a radio discussion. The three were also fined Ghc30, 000, with each of them paying Ghc10, 000. Failure to pay the amount according to the Court, would have attracted another one-month prison term. Their lawyers, some bigwigs in the NDC and party supporters have signed a petition book for the president to pardon them. However, the President of the Catholic Bishops Conference, Most Rev. Joseph Osei Bonsu, has criticized those calling on President John Mahama to grant a presidential pardon to the Montie trio. Rev. Osei Bonsu held that any attempt to change the judgement of the bench will undermine the Judiciary and the principle of separation of powers. Why put pressure on the President to grant a pardon? If you do that, then it means that from now on, anytime the Supreme Court jails a person, the president will have to come in and grant a pardon. In any case, it is not the first time that Supreme Court has jailed people he said. Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/ Twitter: @Washman5/ Instagram: Washman007 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 Two Nigerian siblings, 11 and 10 are pictured crying after their mother died in the Mediterranean on their way to Europe. The two children were among 150 migrants rescued from their overcrowded rubber boat off the coast of Libya while trying to cross the Mediterranean ocean into Italy by a Spanish NGOs boat. 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 governing National Democratic Congress says it will be launching its elections 2016 campaign next week without a manifesto. Addressing a news conference in Accra, the partys Campaign team spokesperson, Joyce Bawah Mogtari said although the campaign will be launched on August 14, 2016 in the central region, the manifesto will be released at a later date. The manifesto launch is still in the offing and when we are ready it will be communicated in due course, but Sunday be specifically to outdoor our candidate and to officially launch our 2016 campaign for the elections, she said. She indicated that the theme for this years campaign will be Changing lives, transforming Ghana. The party is certain that President John Mahama will be re-elected in December. Mrs Mogtari said President Mahama is the best candidate for this years election. National campaign coordinator of the party, Kofi Adams explained to Ackah-Blay that it is a usual practice of the party to launch campaign before the manifesto. He had earlier in an interview indicated that the partys manifesto will be focusing on investing in our people that will change their lives and transform Ghana. Giving hints of the content of the yet-to-be released document, Kofi Adams said the manifesto would continue to place premium on human development and welfare, as well as infrastructure development. The NDC 2016 manifesto, Mr Adams further disclosed, would also capture the socio-economic and political realities after 2012 and then showcase governments programmes and activities that would bring out the realities beyond 2016. With about four months to the general elections, none of the registered political parties have launched its manifesto. Source: Joy News 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 2016 presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has assured the Andani Royal Family of Dagbon that, contrary to the propaganda waged against him by his political opponents, there is nothing to fear of him, when, God-willing, Ghanaians repose their confidence in him in this years elections. According to the NPP flagbearer, it is time for all the people of Dagbon and the NPP to close the gap existing between them in the interest of Ghana, explaining that all the things that have been said about him and the NPP, in relation to the people of Dagbon, is only meant to bring division between us. Nana Akufo-Addo made this known when, in the company of national and regional party stalwarts, he called on the Regent of Dagbon, The Kampakuya Na, Andani Yakubu Abdulai, who is also head of the Andani Royal Family, on Monday, August 8, to formally introduce himself to him as the NPP flagbearer for the 2016 elections, and to elicit the unalloyed support of Dagbon for his candidature. Describing Dagbon as one of the most famous states in Ghanaian history, Nana Akufo-Addo noted that it is about time that the problems of the past are buried, so we can look forward into the future. Whatever I can do to assist that process in burying the past, you can count on me. He stated that I am not a Dagomba, and have no interest in fomenting any kind of trouble amongst the people of Dagbon. I am not Andani, I am not Abudu, I am not a Dagomba. I have no interest in the chieftaincy issues here. My only interest is that Dagbon is at peace, is united and plays its role in the affairs of the Northern Region and in the affairs of Ghana. That is my only interest. To this end, the NPP flagbearer assured that the Regent, the Andani people and all the people of Dagbon have nothing to fear of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. They have nothing to fear. If God-willing, in December, I am successful, the Andani people and the Regent should know that, in me, they have somebody who is going to be a father for everybody, not looking left or right, but being fair and making sure that there is peace and unity in Dagbon and in Ghana. Ridiculing the propaganda making the rounds that when he wins he will de-stool 31 Andani chiefs in Dagbon, Nana Akufo-Addo described these claims as lies and fabrications, stressing that I am not involved in the traditional matters of Dagbon. Chieftaincy is not my business. My business is Ghana, and ruling Ghana and making sure that Ghana moves forward. Even the affairs of my own palace, the Akyem Palace, I am not involved. How do I come here to Dagbon and get myself involved in the affairs of the Dagbon people? That is not my interest. Recounting the friendship that existed between himself and the late Ya Na, Yakubu Andani II, the NPP flagbearer revealed that he was my friend, with whom I had a relationship of trust and friendship. To the Kampakuya Na, who is the son of the late Ya Na, Nana Akufo-Addo indicated that I want to establish the same relationship with him as I had with his father. That is why I came to the Gbewa Palace today with a strong delegation including my running mate, and God-willing the next Vice President of Ghana, Alhaji Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia; the regional chairman of the party; and leading members of the NPP, like Alan Kyerematen, to come and assure him that I am interested in friendship with all the people of Dagbon, without discrimination and without exception. Pieces of advice When I was here the last time, the Regent gave me two pieces of advice, and they are advices I have kept very close to my heart up till today. The first was that I should not make any promises I cannot keep. I kept to that promise. All the promises I made, my opponents, at the beginning, said it could not be done, only for them to turn round and try to do them. So I do not make promises I cannot keep, he said. Bearing in mind the admonition by the Chief, Nana Akufo-Addo stated that I am making a new promise to the people of Ghana, another promise I am going to keep. Every district in this country is going to get at least one factory. This is one promise I am going to keep. The second piece of advice from the Regent, the NPP flagbearer recollected, was for him to be a father for all Ghanaians should he win the elections. If, God-willing, I climb the big stool of Ghana, I am going to be a leader for Ghana, and one who is a father to everybody in this country without discrimination, he added Vote for me With the 2016 election being his third attempt at the Presidency, Nana Akufo-Addo appealed to the people of Dagbon to give me a chance, and to try me and see, because I have something good and positive for Ghana. I want the opportunity to serve my nation and serve my people to the best of my ability. We have big plans for the development of Ghana and Dagbon. He continued, I know as Chiefs, you dont wear political jerseys, but I want you, this time, to vote for me, because what I am hoping and fighting for is that when the history of Ghana is being written, in the time of our grandchildren, they will say that it was when Akufo-Addo became president that Ghana became prosperous, and when the people saw the benefits of progress and prosperity in our time. Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The flag bearer of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has never indicated anywhere that if he wins the December polls to become the next president of Ghana, he will remove all taxes, as is being peddled by communicators of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and some persons in government, Emmanuel Boakye Agyarko, Member of Parliament for Ayawaso West Wuogon, has stated. According to the NPP lawmaker, some spokespersons of the government were misconstruing plans espoused by the opposition leader to abolish some taxes, especially on raw materials. Speaking on GH Ones State of Affairs Monday August 8, Mr Boakye Agyarko said: I want to state clearly, with all the force I command, that our flag bearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, has never said anywhere that when he comes he will abolish all taxes He said that he would realign some of the taxes on raw materials for manufacturing. He added: You need somebody who is bold to say for the whole spectrum of manufacturing I will remove the taxes. We [NPP] are saying if we come, beyond pharmaceuticals, there are many other industries that if we give them that kind of leverage, they will grow and become not just employment-generating activities but even lead in exports. He (Akufo-Addo) says also that he will generally reduce corporate taxes. Today, some of it hovers around 35 per cent and he says he will probably bring it down to 25 per cent, but he hasnt said anywhere that he will remove all taxes. Source: classfmonline 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 Seven out of 10 Ghanaians have said government is steering the country in the wrong direction, according to a survey conducted by the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana). A pre-election survey conducted by the think tank identified that Ghanaians wanted political campaigns ahead of the December general elections to focus on how to resolve issues of unemployment. A senior research fellow at the CDD-Ghana, Daniel Armah Attoh, addressing journalists in Accra, said: Ghanaians place unemployment, electricity, and education on the top policy priority list they want the 2016 polls to address, and yet a clear majority assess governments performance in addressing their policy priorities negatively. Indeed, a narrow majority seems to believe that another political party can do a better job. A solid majority of Ghanaians claim the following factors will have a great deal or some influence on the choices of candidates and parties in the 2016 polls bad roads, government corruption, power outages, high prices of foodstuffs, access to medical care, use of abusive language, and posturing of politicians. However, Ghanaians say the following factors will have no influence on their vote choices, that is, whether a candidate offers them a gift or not, whether the candidate shares in their religious faith, or the candidate comes from their home region. The mood of the electorate going into the 2016 polls is broadly negative. Seven in 10 Ghanaians believe that the country is going in the wrong direction and nearly half blame this completely on mostly the government. Nonetheless, Ghanaians are split in their evaluations of the job performance of the president and Members of Parliament. Nearly half approve the overall job performance of the president and their respective MPs but the rest disapprove. Crime Prevention: Regarding the issue of crime prevention, the study found that Ghanaians are happy with governments fight against crime. Government performance, Mr Attoh said, is somewhat positive with respect to crime and violence prevention where a minority four in 10 offers a negative assessment. Government handling priority national issues: Ghanaians did not mince words when they suggested governments handling of issues such as unemployment, electricity, and education is not encouraging. They believe that another political party can do a better job. On the Presidency: In evaluating the performance of the President, there was a split with nearly half of the respondents approving the overall job performance of President Mahama while the other half think otherwise. The survey was conducted from a sample size of 2,400 adult Ghanaians cutting across 163 districts and 291 towns and villages. Source: Classfmonline.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 Publisher of Ovation International magazine, Chief Dele Momodu has thrown jabs at the opposition who he claimed has been insulting President Mahama; saying no amount of insults can stop him from accomplishing his legacy projects which has put Ghana on a high pedestal. He said despite insults from camps of politicians who are desperate to unseat him, it has not stopped him from building hospitals, good roads; it has not stop him from upgrading Kotoka International airport to a world class level, it has not stopped his water and housing project. It has not stopped him from doing rural electrification, rural healthcare delivery among others, he said. The Nigerian media mogul speaking to GhanaWeb.com confessed his love for President Mahama's personality and visionary leadership. He also likened President Mahama administrations humongous project to that of late Kwame Nkrumah whom he said was not appreciated until he was overthrown we must not allow the same to repeat itself in Ghana he added. He however urge politicians to avoid maligning the image of great leaders like President Mahama, adding that If you see a man who is doing great, let us encourage him to do more. We cannot ruin all our leaders with politics; it is wrong. Source: Ajayi Tobi / GhanaWeb.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 The Regent of Dagbon, The Kampakuya Na, Andani Yakubu Abdulai, who is also head of the Andani Royal Family, is optimistic that Ghana, under the right leadership, will in no time fulfill its true destiny dreamt of by her forefathers who led the struggle for independence. Describing Ghana as a perfect nation, with an abundance of human and natural resources, the Regent of Dagbon noted that with the right leadership, certainly, Ghana will get to where it is destined to be. Andani Yakubu Abdulai made this known on Monday, August 8, 2016, when he received a delegation of the New Patriotic Party, led by its 2016 presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, at the Gbewaa Palace. With a few months to the December elections, Regent of Dagbon urged all politicians to me be mindful of the promises they will make to the electorate, explaining that one needs to look at the resources Ghana can put together (before making promises), because you do so with the mindset that we will put both the human and natural resources of the country together in order to achieve whatever is promised. He was, however, hopeful that the various campaign messages being churned out by the various political parties will lead to a peaceful and prosperous Ghana. The Regent of Dagbon also admonished all political party to be mindful of what they say on the airwaves, as their language can inflame passions and take Ghana to where it ought not to be. In his advice to the youth of Dagbon, Andani Yakubu Abdulai cautioned them to assess carefully what they will be asked to do (by politicians) in this election year, adding that Ghana is for the youth, and if we are talking about tomorrow, it is the youth who are Ghanas tomorrow. Nana Akufo-Addo was accompanied on his visit to the Bolinlanas Palace by his running mate, Alhaji Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia; NPP Northern Regional Chairman, Daniel Bugri Naabu, and his regional executives; former Northern Regional Minister, Prince Imoro Andani; NPP Campaign Sector Committee Chairperson on Trade and Industry, Alan Kyerematen; MP for Yendi, Hon. Habib Tijani; MP for Ablekuma West, Hon. Ursula Owusu Ekuful; NPP National Womens Organiser, Otiko Afisa Djaba; Deputy National Womens Organiser, Diana Karikari; Spokesperson to Nana Akufo-Addo, Mustapha Hamid; and NPP parliamentary candidates for Sagnarigu, Tamale Central, Mion and Kumbungu, Habib Iddrisu, Dr. Ibrahim Ayass, Mohammed Hashem Abdallah, and Iddrisu Mukhtar, respectively, amongst others. Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Koku Anyidoho has conceded that Ghanas economy is indeed facing challenges. According to him, Ghanaians are gnashing their teeth because there are serious challenges and President Mahama has not run away from it. Mr. Anyidoho was reacting to a survey conducted by the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) conducted from a sample size of 2,400 adult Ghanaians cutting across 163 districts and 291 towns and villages. The report which covered the period of July 2 to 18 said, at least 70 percent of Ghanaians believe the economy of the country is heading in the wrong direction. It also revealed that, Ghanaians did not mince words when they suggested governments handling of issues such as unemployment, electricity, and education is not encouraging.In response, Koku Anyidoho on Asempa FM Tuesday said, the survey will not have any impact on government because President Mahama has been honest and candid with the mandate.He indicated that, though they have severed ties with the CDD, government will work assiduously to bring respite to Ghanaians.Ghanaians are looking for at leadership and President Mahama is up to the task, Anyidoho added. Source: adomonline.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 JFC. A Victorian woman called Belle Nolan has bravely spoken out about a horrifying incident that occurred at a live gig in Melbourne a stranger urinating on her. In February this year, the 33-year-old went to go see iconic Aussie band Spiderbait at 170 Russell in Melbournes CBD. At around 10:40pm, she said she felt liquid on her leg, and thought someone behind her had spilled a drink: At first I thought someone had spilt their drink on me, then I realised it was warm. I looked up and saw this guy looking at me, doing up his fly and I realised he had urinated on me. I was in shock. The urine also hit the woman standing next to her, and Nolan said a few people around yelled at the man in question. However, the dickhead didnt seem to think it was anything to make a big deal over: He just smirked and shrugged his shoulders like it was no big deal. It was weird, it was as though it was kind of like a bit of a minor inconvenience, as though it was normalised or something. People thought it was bad, but they kept watching the gig. Belles friend grabbed security, who ejected the man from the premises. CCTV managed to capture his face in detail: Nolan explained that despite it not being her fault, she still feels mortified: I felt really humiliated, I cant really describe it. I know I havent done anything wrong, but I felt really embarrassed about it. She said shes spoken out about the incident because its part of a larger societal issue of disrespect for women: I take it very seriously when someone whips out their penis in a public place and urinates on me. Its not seen to be a crime, but it actually is. I do think it happens more than is reported, even just talking about my story, other people have said, oh that happened to me as well. We should be able to go out and enjoy a night with our friends without being groped, or harassed, or in this case, urinated on. Nolan has asked others who experience this kind of behaviour to report it to police. Police have released the mans image and description in order to find him: Caucasian in appearance, 25 30 years of age, approx. 187 centimetres tall, medium build, dark eyes and short dark hair. He was clean shaven and wearing a purple shirt and dark coloured pants at the time. If you recognise this scumbag, police request that you contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or visit crimestoppers.com.au. Source: The Age. Photo: Channel 10. Captain Noah W. Carter Merbreier, who was known as "Captain Noah," died today, Aug. 9. He is pictured here in this Facebook photograph with his late wife, Patricia. (Photo from Facebook) W. Carter Merbreier, who was known as"Captain Noah," died today, Aug. 9, according to Philly.com. He was 90. He and his late wife, Patricia, had hosted "Captain Noah and His Magical Ark" which was taped at what is now Channel 6 in Philadelphia. On the show, the couple referred to each other as Captain and Mrs. Noah. They frequently invited newsmakers and celebrities including Elvis Presley, Charles Barkley, Jim Henson, Jon Stewart, the Phillie Phanatic, Frank Perdue, and Martina Navratilova onto the program. It aired from 1967 until 1994. Puppets such Maurice the Mouse and Wally the Walrus were part of the show, with every program ending with Andy Williams' recording of "Sing a Rainbow." Philly.com reported Merbreier's former television station in Philadelphia had released a statement, saying he "helped shape the foundation of what Channel 6 is today." "What we remember about Carter was he loved to make children smile, and he maintained a deep faith in the human spirit," said Bernie Prazenica, WPVI president and general manager. "Our condolences go out to the Merbreirer family, his Channel 6 family, and all fans of Captain Noah." The show was syndicated to 22 other stations across the nation. Logan's Roadhouse restaurant chain filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Aug. 8 with plans to restructure and close a handful of restaurants. According to Nation's Restaurant News, Logan's will close 18 underperforming restaurants as part of the restructuring. Logan's, which is based in Nashville, operates 256 units. It has not announced which restaurants will close. Locally, Logan's restaurants operate in Hamburg, Berks County and York. Nation's said the company stated it will file under a "consensual plan" between its owners, debt holders and bondholders. It will restructure its balance sheet and provide enough capital to fund a turnaround. In the statement, Logan's said its owners, directors, management and lenders will fund up to $25 million to support the chain through the bankruptcy. In addition, Logan's said its CEO Sam Borgese will leave the company but it didn't name a replacement. Reports indicated in July Logan's was preparing to file for bankruptcy. Ed's Chicken and Crabs in Dewey Beach, Delaware, burned to the ground early Tuesday morning after a car ran into it. The owner says he's not likely to rebuild. According to DelawareOnline: The Rehoboth Beach Volunteer Fire Company called the building a "landmark" in Dewey, and described the fire the first units found as a "raging inferno." Owner Ed Riggin, walking through the flooded parking lot of his restaurant Tuesday, pointed out where the car had lodged itself in the restaurant's kitchen area. In the fire, the car had been completely engulfed; its charred engine, frame and metal seatbacks were visible. "I don't think I'll ever rebuild. That's it, I think," the 83-year-old Riggin said. "It's time to get out anyway. I didn't like doing it like this, though." From the Cape Gazette: Dewey resident Rob Jones, co-owner of Delaware Jet Ski Fishing, lives next door to Ed's. He said was awakened when he heard the crash. "My alarm for the yard started going off nonstop. I look at my cameras and it was like daylight. I looked outside and saw the flames 40 feet in the air, 20 feet from my house," he said. "I was worried for my jet skis, house, cat, everything I have worked for is in my house." Editorial Board Meeting with Charles Zogby Former Budget Secretary Charles Zogby talks with the PennLive Editorial Board on June 19, 2014. Zogby was charged with assault on Aug. 6. (PennLive file) (PennLive/The Patriot-News) NEW CUMBERLAND, Pa. (AP) -- A former top adviser to three Pennsylvania governors faces a charge he assaulted his wife at their home outside Harrisburg over the weekend. The York Dispatch reported Monday that former budget secretary Charles Zogby was charged with misdemeanor simple assault and summary harassment after police found his wife with blood on her face and hands on Saturday night. The 54-year-old Zogby declined comment in a brief phone interview on Monday. Police say Zogby's wife alleges he punched her in the face and choked her. Zogby served as education secretary and policy director under Gov. Tom Ridge, education secretary under Gov. Mark Schweiker and budget secretary under Gov. Tom Corbett, all Republicans. Donald Trump Campaigns at Cumberland Valley High School Donald Trump making his remarks. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump campaigns at Cumberland Valley High School on Monday August 1, 2016. Daniel Zampogna, PennLive (Daniel Zampogna, Pennlive) Donald Trump will make a campaign stop in central Pennsylvania this week. The Republican presidential nominee will hold a rally at 6 p.m. Friday at the Blair County Convention Center in Altoona. Doors open at 3 p.m. For ticket information, go here. Trump's running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, is visiting Lancaster this evening. Trump visited the area last week when he campaigned in Mechanicsburg. HARRISBURG - Shouts of "No Justice, No Peace" rang throughout Harrisburg Monday night as more than a 100 people marched through the streets in protest of the recent police-involved shooting. Earl "Shaleek" Pinckney, 20, was shot and killed Sunday night by a Harrisburg police officer. Police claim that Pinckney had been holding a knife to his mother's throat at the time of the shooting. The family vehemently disagrees with law enforcement's claim. Frustration and anger around the situation led to more than 100 people protesting along the sidewalks outside the Governor's Mansion in Harrisburg. Then, suddenly, they marched down North 2nd Street, blocking traffic and halting vehicles during rush hour. Tameka Baxter led the protest through Harrisburg, recruiting passersby to join the march. Kids, adults and seniors left their houses and joined the large group marching. They chanted "Don't Just Watch" and "Hands Up, Don't Shoot." "I actually lost faith in the Harrisburg community," Baxter said. "I didn't think this many people would show up. This shows me that I need to keep the faith. I need to keep it instead of losing it." Baxter, of Harrisburg, said she wanted to organize the event to bring people together and spread messages. One message was to Harrisburg's black community. Organizers said they needed to support one another, treat each other with respect and stay active. "People might think there's no real solution to this," Baxter said. "But this is the beginning of unity. We brought people together. We got people on the same accord. We got people on the same page. What are we going to do? We're going to keep going until we feel like our message is heard." Protesters also had another message for police: Stop shooting black men, women and children. "Our lives matter," Baxter said. "A kill shot should be the last resort." The protesters marched for more than an hour before finally reaching the Green Street home where Pinckney was killed. The number of people involved with the demonstration peaked where the shooting had occurred less than 24 hours prior. Jon Williams, of Harrisburg, marched at the front of the protest. With his fist up in solidarity, Williams spoke about people coming together in the face of tragedy. While the protest was a good first step, Williams said it's all about moving forward. "We need to have a follow up to everything we're doing," Williams. "When things like this happen, what we want, down to the nit grit, is accountability, that all we're really asking for. Follow ups are very important. If they don't happen, it crushes everything." The protest stopped at the home where Pinckney was shot for about 15 minutes. People hugged, cried, prayed and comforted one another. Several, including Baxter, explained their motivations for protesting Monday evening. "It became real to me when I saw that two-week-old baby in that girl's hand," Baxter told protestors, referring to Pinckney's child and his girlfriend. Then, the protest continued back to the Governor's Mansion. Organizers and attendees talked about strategies going forward to preventing crises from within. Williams and Baxter advocated for more self-reliance in the community, specifically from black people. Solutions included supporting black owned businesses, creating a non-violent black men's militia, and rallying whenever anyone is killed, not just by police. Most of the protestors dispersed at dusk, allowing the children in attendance to get home safely. Several protestors remained at the Governor's Mansion after dark, talking with four Capitol police officers about their concerns, ranging from use of force and community policing. Protest organizers have planned a meeting at the Goodwin Memorial Baptist Church in Harrisburg at 6 p.m. on Tuesday. The church is located at 2447 Green St. Staff reporter Wesley Robinson contributed to this story. SCRANTON - Two Bradford County men have been accused of stealing 48 firearms from a gun store in Wysox and with heroin trafficking. Jared Miller, 28, of Sayre, and Aaron Vanderpool, 34, of Wysox, were charged Tuesday in U.S. Middle District Court by criminal informations. Signed guilty pleas agreements also were filed. The case is unrelated to June's indictment that charged two New York men with stealing nearly 100 handguns and rifles from three businesses, also in northern Pennsylvania, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's office said. Vanderpool is accused of stealing 48 firearms from Fulmer's Sporting Goods in Wysox Twp. outside Towanda on May 24, 2015. Miller is accused of transporting 47 of the stolen firearms into New York between May 26 and June 15, 2015, the day of their arrest. Both have remained in custody since then. Vanderpool also is charged with distribution of heroin and Miller with conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute more than 100 grams of heroin between June 1, 2012, and June 15, 2015, in Bradford and Lackawanna counties. The plea agreements state if convicted, each man is facing up to 50 years in prison and fines in excess of $1 million. In June, Ben McCormack of Jamestown, N.Y., and Jason William Thorne, whose address is listed as a jail in New York, were indicted on charges that allege they stole nearly 100 weapons from three stores including Fulmer's on June 20. Those charges allege McCormack and Thorne drove from Jamestown and, besides the Fulmer's burglary, broke into GNR Sporting Goods outside Mansfield on June 17 and Arrowhead Outdoors in Tionesta, Forest County, on May 29. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg on Tuesday was in the news amid a report regarding child sex abuse within its ranks. A report by The York Daily Record indicated that the diocese named 15 priests who have been accused of sexually abusing children and who had worked in the 15-county diocese. The YDR report specifically names the Rev. Raymond Prybis, who once served at St. Joseph's in Dallastown. Prybis was accused of abuse during his time at a Boston-area parish before he was transferred to York County. The report cites a personnel file released by the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis in January 2015. Prybis did not have a credible allegation of abuse against him while at St. Joseph's, the YDR reported. Many of the clergy members' names cited in the YDR report have appeared in reports by PennLive and The Patriot-News, both of which have over the years published reports regarding allegations of sexual abuse against priests from the diocese - as well as the respective response from the diocese to those allegations. Those reports include accounts involving: Guy Marsico The 2004 report from the diocese confirming it had received credible reports of sexual abuse of 64 minors by 22 priests since 1950 and had spent $1.9 million in settlements, legal fees and counseling. None of the 22 priests were in active ministry at the time. In addition, amid the wake of the grand jury reports out of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, PennLive in 2011 published a comprehensive report on then-Bishop Joseph McFadden, who told PennLive that he had no knowledge of the abuse in Philadelphia. McFadden was in 2004 appointed auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese. Although McFadden was not named in any of the grand jury reports into widespread and systemic clergy sex abuse in the archdiocese, he spent 11 years as secretary to Cardinal John Krol, who along with Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua, featured prominently in the reports' findings. The late Bishop Joseph McFadden in 2011 told PennLive that he had not known about the widespread clergy sex abuse and cover-up in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. McFadden spent years serving in the archdiocese as a top administrative official. McFadden said his duties in the cardinal's office had been strictly administrative. The YDR noted that the March grand jury report into widespread clergy sex abuse in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown had spurred its own report on the Harrisburg Diocese. Among the priests mentioned in the YDR'S report are: HARRISBURG - Harrisburg Police Chief Thomas Carter asked protesters to reserve judgement on a recent police-involved shooting that left a 20-year-old dead until all the facts come in. More than 100 people marched through the streets of Harrisburg Monday night in protest of the shooting death of Earl "Shaleek" Pinckney. Pinckney was shot at a Green Street home Sunday night. District Attorney Ed Marsico has said that Pinckney was shot by police after he held a knife to his mother's throat. However, the family has a different account of the shooting. Carter was in a police SUV while protesters were marching along the streets. He was asked to speak to the large group by one of the protest organizers. Carter spoke for less than two minutes about what had happened and what was going to happen going forward. The above clip features the entirety of Carter's address to the protesters. UPDATE: NORRISTOWN -- Bruce Beemer, a former top Kathleen Kane aide, was shocked when he read the same grand jury material he had discussed only months earlier in a Philadelphia Daily News article. "It had to have come out of our office," Beemer testified Tuesday. "There could be no explanation. That's what I found so shocking." Beemer, who was chief of the office's criminal prosecution section at the time, had been called into a meeting between two other Attorney General's Office staffers--Michael Miletto and David Peifer--to discuss the investigation of J. Whyatt Mondesire. At that meeting, he was given a 2009 memo from what had been a grand jury investigation that did not result in criminal charges against the now-deceased former Philadelphia NAACP President. Beemer advised the agents that a prosecution at that late date, in 2014, was unlikely. "I said, 'I just don't see where we're going to go with this'," Beemer testified. "'It's clear we have a statute of limitations'." Beemer, who now serves as inspector general, said the original allegations, which involved misused grant funds, dated from 2004 and 2005 and the grand jury investigation took place in 2008 and 2009. Regardless of whether people were at fault for the conduct, he said, the statute of limitations would have been long expired. Several months after that meeting--on June 6, 2014--the longtime prosecutor said he was shocked to discover the contents of that 2009 memo and the transcript of an interview between Miletto and Peifer were extensively cited in a newspaper article about the defunct Mondesire investigation. "There would have only been a limited number of people who should have had access to a document like that," he said. "I viewed it as quite problematic." First Deputy Attorney General Bruce Beemer. At first, Beemer said, he was more concerned that investigatory materials had been leaked but it soon dawned on him that the materials also emerged from a grand jury. Their deliberations are legally required to remain secret, he said, in order to protect the reputations of subjects who have not yet been charged, let alone had due process. Montgomery County prosecutors allege that Kane herself orchestrated the leak in order to embarrass political and professional rivals and then lied about it. Judge Wendy Demchick-Alloy adjourned the proceedings in the midst of the prosecution's questioning of Beemer. His testimony will continue when the jury returns at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday. KaneCast: Podcast summary of Day One coverage: NORRISTOWN -- "Revenge. Revenge is best served cold. Her words," prosecuting attorney Michelle Henry said about the Pennsylvania's attorney general. "That's what this case is about -- revenge." Opening statements began Tuesday morning in the case of Kathleen Kane, who is facing charges that include false swearing, perjury and obstruction after she was accused of leaking secret grand jury materials to embarrass her political and professional rivals. Henry told the Montgomery County jury that in releasing that secret grand jury information to a newspaper reporter and covering it up, the state's top prosecutor broke the laws she was charged with upholding and enforcing. "She violated our laws for her own personal and political gains," Henry said. "Revenge." READ MORE: Read the defense's opening arguments. But Kane's lead defense attorney, Gerald Shargel, told the jury his client never leaked any grand jury information and she never lied or covered it up. As he went on to detail Kane's rise to legal and political prominence, prosecutors objected several times before the judge called the parties back into chambers. 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) Lancaster Democrats will host a press conference ahead of today's planned town hall forum with Republican nominee for vice president Mike Pence. The Democrats, led by congressional candidate Christina Hartman, will protest what they're calling the GOP ticket's "terrible economic agenda," one they say would cost "nearly 3.5 million jobs (135,000 in Pennsylvania) and run up $30 trillion in debt." "He [Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump] has also threatened to get rid of the reforms that hold Wall Street accountable, protect our environment, and keep American workers safe," a press release reads. Meanwhile, the Democrats say they'll tout the economic plan of Trump's Democratic rival for president, Hillary Clinton. "Hillary Clinton's proposed economic plan would grow jobs in Pennsylvania by making investments in infrastructure, investing in manufacturing, and cutting taxes for small businesses," a release states. Lancaster-area Democrats set to participate in the counter-Pence event include Hartman, candidate for the 16th Congressional District, Sally Lyall, Chair of the Lancaster County Democratic Party and Diane Topakian, Chair of the Lancaster City Democratic Committee. The Democrats' press conference is set to take place at 1:30 p.m. today, at the Lancaster Host Resort and Conference Center at 2300 Lincoln Highway East. It is the same location as Pence's town hall event which is scheduled to begin there at 3 p.m. Tribunal to handle 'zombie companies' Updated: 2016-08-09 06:57 By ZHENG CAIXIONG in Guagnzhou/CAO YIN in Beijing(China Daily) Guangdong sets up bankruptcy court to hear high number of expected cases A provincial tribunal for bankruptcy cases was unveiled in the Guangdong High People's Court in Guangzhou on Monday, in a move to handle disputes brought on by "zombie companies" and to accelerate local economic development. It is the first tribunal established within a provincial high people's court, as Chinese courts give bankruptcy cases greater attention, according to Tan Ling, vice-president of the Guangdong court. The tribunal will contribute to effectively and legally cleaning up the province's 3,385 zombie companies, which continue to operate even though they have become bankrupt and have been an economic burden for many years, Tan said. "Judicial work should play its role in pushing economic development and providing a fair and effective environment for the market-oriented economy," she said. "The tribunal will give legal protection as the zombie companies quit the market." Under provincial policies for mergers or restructuring, some State-owned enterprises have effectively been operating in bankruptcy and will need to be handled through the courts, she said. "It means the number of bankruptcy disputes filed and heard at the tribunal will face a sharp rise in the near future," she said. The tribunal will also oversee the liquidations of ailing enterprises and related disputes, she added. Li Cheng, head of the Guangdong State-owned Assets Supervision and Administrative Commission, applauded the tribunal, saying that his commission plans to help the zombie companies be merged or reshuffled in two to three years. "Of them, 2,333 will be shut down by the end of this year, and 300 that are operating in a deficit will be bailed out before December," Li said. Wang Weiguo, a professor specializing in bankruptcy law at China University of Political Science and Law, said that the number of judges hearing such cases must be increased, as the combination of legal and business knowledge will contribute to alleviating bankruptcy-related problems. "Solving a bankruptcy dispute used to cost a court a lot of time, but after the tribunal is in operation, I think, related cases will be solved efficiently," Wang said. Since Aug 1, litigants have been able to make an appointment to file a bankruptcy case and search bankruptcy-related legal documents via the Supreme People's Court website. We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form China sets R&D targets for 2020 Updated: 2016-08-09 07:12 (Xinhua) BEIJING - China expects knowledge-intensive services to contribute 20 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) by 2020, up from 15.6 percent in 2015, according to the country's five-year plan for science and technology progress by 2020. The State Council plan, published on Monday, lists targets for science and technology from 2016 to 2020 as well as government action to help realize the targets. Total factor productivity, of which technology is a sub-set, aims to account for 60 percent of growth in 2020, up from 55.3 percent last year. The number of patent applications in 2020 is expected to be double that of 2015, according to the plan. By 2020, out of every 10,000 workers, 60 will be engaged in research and development, up from 48.5 in 2015, the plan said. Priorities for the government over the next five years include directing resources to strategic areas, fostering creativity, creating a favorable policy environment and removing barriers to innovation. The country will spend more resources in research areas key to its national strength and security, including computer chip, integrated circuit equipment, broadband mobile telecommunication, digital machinery, nuclear power, genetic modification, water pollution control, new medicines, manned space programs and lunar exploration. China also hopes to make breakthroughs in areas such as deep-sea exploration, quantum computing and brain science. Agriculture, computing, green energy, biology and environmental protection will also receive more attention. The government promises greater support for basic research, science labs and international research. China will take an active part in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project and the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) telescope project, according to the plan. The plan lists measures to improve legislation on research and development, streamline fund raising and raise the efficiency of governance. The government will encourage enterprises to invest more in R&D and offer preferential policies to knowledge-intensive startups while pushing universities and research institutes to improve efficiency. China will also expand cooperation in science and technological development with other countries, especially those along the Belt and Road. The government will encourage joint research projects between Chinese and foreign institutes and enterprises to attract more high-level foreign experts to work in China. French tourism slumps Updated: 2016-08-09 07:38 (China Daily) People visit the Eiffel Tower on August 6, 2016 in Paris. [Photo/Agencies] Terrorist attacks are taking their toll on France's tourism industry, with Paris bearing the brunt of a drop in visits by holidaymakers from outside Europe. Overnight stays fell about 10 percent on average this year through July, with high-spending travelers from the United States, Asia and the Persian Gulf states reacting strongly to the attacks, French Secretary of State for Tourism Matthias Fekl said in an interview with the Journal du Dimanche on Sunday. Luxury accommodation was the worst hit, but travelers from Europe haven't canceled their plans, the minister was cited as saying. Tourism is big business for France, which has been hit hardest among European countries by Islamic State-inspired killings since the start of last year. The murder in July of an elderly priest in Normandy and the Bastille Day massacre in Nice followed assaults last year in Parisone of the most-visited cities in the worldon concertgoers and a satiric newspaper. International flight bookings to Nice dropped 57 percent compared with the previous year from the date of the attack to July 23, while planned arrivals this month and in September were down by about one-fifth for France as a whole, according to travel-data specialist ForwardKeys, citing reservation numbers through July 23. In response to the attacks, President Francois Hollande has extended a state of emergency, sending soldiers to patrol airports and Paris's major tourist attractions. The Eiffel Tower was unnecessarily evacuated on Friday after a security drill went awry, Le Parisien newspaper reported on Sunday, citing the monument's operator. Public transport in the city is suffering regular disruptions as suspicious bags are investigated. Bloomberg Director of U.S. Office of Indian Education visits East Jordan schools Julian Guerrero Jr. visited the district to discuss their Title VI policies and see their Native American education opportunities. NEW YORK Petroleumworld.com 08 09 2016 Chevron Corp persuaded a federal appeals court on Monday to block enforcement in the United States of an $8.65 billion Ecuadorean pollution judgment that it said, and which the court agreed, was obtained through bribery and fraud. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan upheld a lower court ruling against the American lawyer Steven Donziger, who has spent more than two decades battling Chevron to hold it responsible for pollution in the Ecuadorean rain forest. "Even innocent clients may not benefit from the fraud of their attorney," Circuit Judge Amalya Kearse wrote for a three-judge panel in a 127-page decision. Monday's decision is unlikely to end the legal war against San Ramon, California-based Chevron, which has been waged in several countries and was documented in "Crude," a 2009 film. "The decision hands well-heeled corporations a template for avoiding legal accountability anywhere in the world," Deepak Gupta, a lawyer for Donziger, said in a statement. "We will be exploring all available options for further review." R. Hewitt Pate, Chevron's general counsel, said in a statement the decision "leaves no doubt that the Ecuadorean judgment against Chevron is the illegitimate and unenforceable product of misconduct." Donziger and representatives of residents of Ecuador's Lago Agrio region have sought to force Chevron to pay for water and soil contamination caused from 1964 to 1992 by Texaco, which Chevron acquired in 2001. While not disputing that pollution occurred, Chevron has said Donziger and his associates went too far, including by arranging the ghostwriting of a key environmental report and bribing the presiding judge in Ecuador. The oil company has also said a 1998 agreement between Texaco and Ecuador absolved it of further liability. In March 2014, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan barred enforcement of the 2011 judgment, citing the corruption used to obtain it. Kearse, in Monday's decision, said the record reveals "a parade of corrupt actions" by Donziger and his associates, including coercion and fraud, culminating in the bribe offer. "Chevron's $8.646 billion judgment debt ... is clearly traceable to the Lago Agrio plaintiffs' legal team's corrupt conduct," Kearse wrote. Donziger has also tried to enforce the judgment in Canada, Brazil and other countries where Chevron operates. Karen Hinton, a spokeswoman for the Ecuadorean residents, in a statement said their lawyers may also appeal, and will continue litigation in Canada and other countries to seize Chevron assets. The case is Chevron Corp v. Donziger et al, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 14-0826. Qualcomm signs up big China licensees Updated: 2016-08-09 07:57 (China Daily) Mobile phones installed with Qualcomm chips on display at an industry expo in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province. ZHEN HUAI/FOR CHINA DAILY Qualcomm Inc, which has struggled to get paid licensing revenue in China, said it signed up phonemaker vivo Communication Technology Co, helping cement its position in the world's largest phone market. Vivo, the third-biggest smartphone maker in China, agreed to pay Qualcomm for technology used in 3G and 4G phones, the US chipmaker said. The deal with vivo comes a week after Qualcomm secured a similar agreement with Guangdong Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp. The two companies account for about 30 percent of phones shipped by the top 10 Chinese phone makers. Success in China is crucial to CEO Steve Mollenkopf's push to reignite growth at Qualcomm, which gets the majority of its profit from selling the rights to use technology that underpins modern phone systems. Reluctance by Chinese phone makers to pay it during and after an antitrust investigation there contributed to four consecutive quarters of revenue declines at the San Diego-based company. In its most recent earnings report, Qualcomm reported a return to sales growth and higher profit than analysts had projected. Increasing payments from Chinese licensing hold-outs contributed to that boost, as did more chip orders from handset makers there who are gaining market share from overseas competitors such as Apple Inc. Qualcomm is pitching its technology to Chinese companies to help its position in that country and, it says, help them when they try to expand overseas. Bloomberg 1) "Deliver America's fastest Internet according to 60 million consumer tests run at Speedtest.net," through an app from Oopla that promises to "crowdsource" user data. But "instead of relying on an aggregation of crowdsourced data on download and upload speeds, Ookla based its award on the top 10 percent of each [internet service provider's] Speedtest download results" -- which the division found "wasn't a good fit" for Comcast's claims of delivering "superior speed" for all customers." The division said Comcast "disagrees with NAD's decision and is appealing" to the National Advertising Review Board. In 2012 the division also recommended Comcast "discontinue unqualified claims that Xfinity Internet service is the 'fastest in the nation.'" At that time Comcast said it would "take NAD's recommendations into account" in its ads. After Comcast complained, the division in 2014 told Verizon to "modify certain advertising claims for the company's FiOS internet and television service." After another Comcast complaint and follow-on appeal, the review board agreed and urged Verizon to qualify its high-speed Internet claims. A new law to help prevent suicide by students at New Jersey colleges brings needed attention to an important campus issue, school administrators said, while also giving them support to expand services. Gov. Christie last week signed into law the Madison Holleran Suicide Prevention Act, named after a 19-year-old University of Pennsylvania student from Bergen County who killed herself in 2014 in Philadelphia. "An institution of higher education shall have individuals with training and experience in mental-health issues who focus on reducing student suicides and attempted suicides available on campus or remotely by telephone or other means for students 24 hours a day, seven days a week," the law reads. The law also requires schools to train faculty and staff to recognize suicide warning signs and to email students each semester with contact information for the trained staffers. The law's immediate impact is likely to be small, as four-year colleges generally offer some mental-health resources and have emergency services on-call, and community colleges say they can meet requirements through partnerships with local services and availability of third-party hotlines. More important, college administrators said, will be the greater attention paid to the issue of mental health on campus. "I love that the state has recognized this as a public-health issue," said Angela Lauer Chong, the dean of students at the College of New Jersey, "and I love that there is commitment and leadership behind it to put it at the forefront." At TCNJ, as at other schools, counselors have long been available in person during the day. During off hours, those likely to encounter students in crisis including campus police and housing staff have been trained to respond to attempted suicide. They then determine next steps, including contacting the on-call head of counseling, calling for a local hospital's mobile crisis unit, or transporting the student to a mental-health facility. Two years ago, the college increased and standardized its training to ensure everyone uses the same procedures, said Chong, who testified before the Legislature about the bill. "This gives us a better ability to assess what students truly need and be able to respond proportionately to that," she said. TCNJ, which has had four student suicides in the last five years, hired two additional full-time counselors two years ago, and last year created a 30-student peer-to-peer outreach group. Like Madison Holleran, one TCNJ student died by jumping off a campus parking garage. Last fall, the college put signs up in parking decks listing numbers for a New Jersey crisis hotline; the school this year plans to build physical barriers to prevent jumping from garages. Rowan University has 11 full-time counselors who rotate availability so a trained campus psychologist is always on call 24 hours a day, said David Rubenstein, head of counseling and psychological services. Having one of the school's counselors available has several advantages over outsourcing to third-party hotlines or to campus police, Rubenstein said. "If someone calls at 3 a.m., we're able to access their mental-health information from our counseling center, and that's very helpful." Rutgers University is evaluating its campuses' services for compliance with the law. At Rutgers-Camden, campus police usually are the first to respond to a student in crisis, said Mary Beth Daisey, the campus' vice chancellor for student affairs. Depending on the situation, officers' options including calling for the student dean on duty or for medical assistance. Daisey is considering other ways to further reach out to students, while also recognizing the realities of working with a largely commuter student population. One idea is to directly promote a third-party hotline to students; another is to change its orientation programming. Victor Schwartz, the medical director of the New York City-based nonprofit college suicide prevention group The Jed Foundation, said his organization provided some advice during the legislative process. He considered the law a balanced approach to prevention. "There had to be something that was broad enough that it was manageable and sensible for every level of school," he said. "So the idea that the school has to do something to make sure that students have some kind of access to crisis care was a good way of threading that needle, of finding that balance." One concern of community colleges, among others, was that the original wording would have required every college have a staffer available in person. That wouldn't have worked for community colleges, they said. In response, sponsor Kevin O'Toole, a Republican state senator who represents Bergen County, changed the language to include that someone be available "on campus, or remotely by telephone or other means." "We obviously have to rely on professionals within the community, and the resources that are set up locally and statewide to assist a student when they're truly in crisis," said Cathy Briggs, head of student success for Rowan College at Burlington County. The only change that the community college in Burlington County may need to make, she said, is relatively minor: create a universal, targeted email blast to students with information on available counseling and support services. "The students' safety is paramount to us," she said. "Because a student can't learn if they're not in an environment where they feel like they're safe." jlai@phillynews.com 856-779-3220 @elaijuh www.philly.com/campusinq Chinese law firms 'lag behind' in IT Updated: 2016-08-09 08:03 By ED ZHANG in Hong Kong(China Daily) Supreme People's Court leads in the provision of comprehensive legal information systems Chinese lawyers are bracing for an IT revolution now that more and more of their clients are expanding ties and interests around the world. Since the 1990s, legal services have helped Chinese companies and their foreign partners by helping them access the government system and guiding them through the labyrinth of the country's half-baked market laws. Ni Wei, managing partner of the Shanghai-based Zhenghan Law Firm, said "Chinese law services' IT systems generally lag behind their counterparts in developed countries. They still have to make quite a lot of change in adopting new technologies and adjusting their management accordingly." Many law houses still handle documents without proper filing, collaboration and storage of key information. Mickey Liao, a director from a Shanghai-based solution developer, recalled hearing an American partner saying there are Chinese law firms whose IT level is still equivalent only to US law firms in the mid-1990s. "He may have exaggerated," Liao said. "But the change that most, if not all, Chinese law firms will have to go through is huge." A few solution providers are trying to develop the potentially vast market. Steven Wang, founding partner of Smart Team Global, said his company is a solution provider specializing in high-end service companies in China's coastal cities. His company is promoting a series of information governance solutions, including localized iManage Work and its own Matteroom products. It is commonplace that law firms in the Chinese mainland are not as rigorous and orderly in their management of technicalities and details, said Barry Chin of the Hong Kong-based Chin & Associates. In March, China's Supreme People's Court-backed Faxin.cn officially started its operation, after more than three years of preparation and development. Faxin (literally legal information) was inspired by Westlaw, an online legal research service for lawyers and legal professionals in the United States, according to Zhang Chengbing, director of electronic audio-visual products of the People's Court Publishing House. The implementation of Faxin is planned in three stages, officials said. Stage one, the present stage, covers seven basic fields and 130,000 entries, and its service is restricted to all judges and all courts in China. Stage two is to feature a service for all legal professionals. And stage three is to be a unified legal information service, with access for "everybody" in China, according to Liu Jiyang, Faxin's technology officer. There is the danger, IT professionals said, that Chinese law firms fragmented efforts to modernize may lag behind the court. There are 11,000-plus law firms and 118,000 lawyers in the Chinese mainland, according to data on Baidu.com. Now that so much is being done under the Supreme People's Court, how can all of them manage to follow the change? If they keep using different, if not conflicting, concepts and standards, how can they work with foreign partners? How can they serve their Chinese clients once they start operating abroad? And how can they meet with the rules of the Supreme People's Court? Firms in Shanghai tend to act more quickly than other cities to embrace new technologies, Wang noted. In fact, the city may serve as a national center of its service industries' coming IT revolution, he said. Luis Liu in Hong Kong and Cao Yin in Beijing contributed to this story. Health-minded Chinese upgrade to affordable premium foods Updated: 2016-08-09 08:06 (China Daily) Pedestrians walk past Yum Brands Inc's Pizza Hut and KFC restaurants in Shanghai.[Photo/VCG] The Chinese middle class is upgrading to products in the "affordable premium" segment, accounting for the popularity of chains like Starbucks, which is opening up about 500 stores a year in the country. "The volume that Chinese are consuming is not growing rapidly, but they are trading up in terms of what they are buying, and we are seeing this not just in the first and second-tier cities but across lower-tier cities as well," said OC&C Strategy Consultant's Greater China partner Jack Chuang. This trend is benefiting foreign consumer brands that have been positioned as premium from the beginning, like Danone's Evian mineral water brand, he said. "Chains like Starbucks are walking into the right moment now in China," said Hao Yongqiang, vice-director of the China Chain Store and Franchise Association. "Just like ... how, long ago, everyone wanted to eat hamburgers." Still, it is foreign brands that hold sway. For, the historical dominance of McDonald's and Yum's KFC and Pizza Hut in the Chinese fast-food industry has meant that there are almost no home-grown fast-food chains with enough experience and scale to run massive operations like them. The popularity of KFC and McDonald's in China has stemmed from their novelty as Americana, not their low prices, said management professor Li Weihua of the China University of Political Science and Law. "Once the novelty factor wears off, there's nothing keeping consumers going there as local chains are cheaper and often more dynamic in meeting local tastes and preferences," he said. James Roy, a senior analyst at China Market Research Group, said, "The problem with franchising in a developing country is how to control for quality. Not many players have the scale or depth that can take on the entire country's franchise rights. Dicos or Real Kungfu might also be waiting for the price to come down." Yum China is providing high-quality food and continually "adapting menus to cater to the evolving preferences of Chinese consumers," said the company in an e-mail statement. Yum's KFC chain in China performed better than the company expected in the second quarter, after a two-year slump sparked by a food-safety scare, bird flu outbreak and competition from local restaurants. In an e-mail statement, McDonald's China said it is committed to providing healthier choices such as whole-wheat McMuffins and chicken cereal congee (porridge) to customers in China. Bloomberg contributed to the story. Chinese company wins $3b railway contract Updated: 2016-08-09 19:28 By Jing Shuiyu(chinadaily.com.cn) China Railway Group Limited won the bid for the Bangladesh Padma Bridge Rail Link Project with a total contract value of 20.81 billion yuan ($3.13 billion), according to an announcement released by the group on Tuesday. The construction contract signed with Bangladesh Railway accounts for 3.33 percent of CREC's latest revenue. The project's newly built line, starting from the existing Dhaka station to Jessore, will reach a total length of 168.6 km. With broad track gauge, the single line targets a speed of 120km per hour. The line is projected to reshape the Southwest Bangladesh railway network by passing through the Padma MultiPurpose Bridge, Mawa, and Bhanga, and linking its middle section with the Rajbari-Kashiani Railway and Faridpur-Bhanga Railway that are already in use. The Beijing-based company released that they will construct the line as a single project and the total construction period will last for 54 months. Russian tour guide connects with China on the border Updated: 2016-08-08 08:46 (China Daily) [Photo provided to China Daily] Andrei Baluas Vladimirovich, 50, has been working for the past 15 years as a tourist guide on the Sino-Russian border, often between the cities of Khabarovsk and Fuyuan, which face each other across the Heilongjiang River. Recently, Vladimirovich, a resident of Khabarovski, spoke to China Daily about his life and changes in cross-border tourism. How often do you cross the Heilongjiang River? Every day there are six boats traveling between Khabarovsk and Fuyuan. Each boat can carry 45 passengers, and every week I bring 150 to 200 tourists to China. During the busy season, I come here once a day. But now, because of much lower exchange rates of rubles against the yuan and rising prices, the number of tourists has dropped. Who are the Russian tourists you bring to China? What kind of Chinese commodities do they like? After so many years, what has happened to the spending habits of Russian tourists? Most are young people but some are retirees. In the past, after returning to Russia, they sold the goods they bought in China, including clothes, shoes, hats, underwear, swimsuits and mink coats. Now, because of higher costs, they can't make a profit from buying and selling. So most of the goods they buy are for personal consumption, like jeans, T-shirts and daily necessities. Some Russians order furniture made in Guangzhou, and ship their purchases through Suifenhe. What kind of Chinese food do they like? For me, I like all kinds of Chinese food. Russian tourists like Chinese tea, fruit, Snow and Harbin brand beers, and Ant wine. Besides shopping, what do Russian tourists like to do? Which scenic spots do they like in Fuyuan? They like Chinese traditional massage, and they like to see Chinese dentists because of their low prices and efficiency. They like to visit Dongming Temple and enjoy the lotus flowers in Fuyuan. What do you do when the Heilongjiang River freezes in winter? In winter, my main task is to rest. Sometimes I can help others repair electrical appliances. What about your family? My wife helps me with the tour business, like taking bookings and organizing trips. My son is a computer engineer. What about your income? I earn 15 yuan ($2.25) from each tourist, or 2,000 to 3,000 yuan per week. Not much. Why is there a Taobao.com logo on your business card? I help Russians buy Chinese goods from Taobao and ask the sellers to deliver them to a fixed address in Fuyuan. Then I carry them back to Khabarovsk. Many Russian people like buying goods on Taobao. Tian Xuefei First responders and volunteers transport the injured and dead away from the scene of a bomb blast outside a hospital in Quetta, Pakistan August 8, 2016. [Photo/Agencies] QUETTA, Pakistan - A suicide bomber in Pakistan killed at least 70 people and wounded more than 100 on Monday in an attack on mourners gathered at a hospital in the southwestern city of Quetta, and Islamic State claimed responsibility. The bomber struck as a crowd of mostly lawyers and journalists crammed into the emergency department to accompany the body of a prominent lawyer who had been shot and killed in the city earlier in the day, Faridullah, a reporter who was among the wounded, told Reuters. Abdul Rehman Miankhel, a senior official at the government-run Civil Hospital, where the explosion occurred, told reporters that at least 70 people had been killed, with more than 112 wounded. "There are many wounded, so the death toll could rise," said Rehmat Saleh Baloch, the provincial health minister. Islamic State's Amaq news agency reported the Middle East-based movement was behind the atrocity. If true, it would mark an alarming development for Pakistan, long plagued by Islamist militant violence but most of it locally-based. "A martyr from the Islamic State detonated his explosive belt at a gathering of justice ministry employees and Pakistani policemen in the city of Quetta," Amaq said. Jamaat-ur-Ahrar, a faction of the Islamist militant Pakistani Taliban group, earlier said it carried out the attack, although the group is believed to have claimed responsibility for bombings in the past that it was not involved in. "The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Jamaat-ur-Ahrar (TTP-JA) takes responsibility for this attack, and pledges to continue carrying out such attacks," said spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan in a statement. Only last week, Jamaat was added to the United States' list of global terrorists, triggering sanctions. The military affairs blog War is Boring got a major scoop last week with an insiders account of an incident that stands out as a shining example of the gross waste and mismanagement in the United States 15-year, $115 billion (and growing) Afghanistan reconstruction effort. A former employee of the Pentagons controversial Task Force for Business and Stability Operations provided War is Boring reporter Matthew Gault with stories and photographs of the $150 million luxury villas the task force used for accommodations in Afghanistan from 2009 to 2014. As we reported last year, the task force blew 20 percent of its budget to rent these posh digs and stock them with a jaw-dropping array of creature comforts. The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) estimated the task force could have saved taxpayers tens of millions of dollars by staying at existing U.S. military or diplomatic facilities. The anonymous ex-employee compared the villas to a five-star hotel. His photos depict immaculately tended grounds and opulent interiors and furnishings. Gaults source said the fancy digs were meant to impress international business representatives invited to Afghanistan to scout out investment opportunities. What kind of entrepreneur did the Pentagon send over to help revive Afghanistans economy? According to the source, they were mostly recent college graduates in their 20s who acted like they were still in college. Alcohol was rampant, the source said. The visitors had no military background and no idea of the danger. Taxpayers paid for private guards to escort task force staff and their guests for nights on the town. Gault reports that the source told him stories about young employees binge-drinking until they vomited in front of crowds of people. When the Pentagon tried to move personnel into cheaper accommodations at a nearby Italian military base, the source said his colleagues pushed back and remained in the villas. The luxury villas, as well as several other task force projects, have been garnering national attention over the past year. The task force, which shut down in early 2015, is the subject of ongoing investigations by SIGAR and Congress. Germany's Van Hiep Tran Ships the WPTN Rozvadov Main Event at King's Casino for 68,081 August 09, 2016 Jason Glatzer Editor Yesterday, Germany's Van Hiep Tran outlasted a field of 339 entrants to win the partypoker World Poker Tour National (WPTN) Rozvadov Main Event at King's Casino Czech Republic for 68,081. The event easily eclipsed its guarantee of 200,000 with 339 entrants (296 entries + 43 reentries) ponying up the 1,100 buy-in to generate a huge 330,101 prize pool. The tournament kicked off on August 5 with the first of its two opening days. Players began the day with 30,000 opening chips and were able to rebuy once on each day. Additionally, players that survived Day 1a were allowed to reenter on Day 1b on August 6 and bring their best stack forward when the surviving players returned for action on Day 2 on August 7. The action whittled down to 19 players to start the final day of action on August 8 with the eventual winner, Tran, holding a commanding chip lead. Soon after play began, one of Czech Republic's biggest names in poker along with a regular at King's Casino in Martin Kabrhel was the first player eliminated to bank the 19th place prize of 3,268. Including Kabrhel, five players from five different countries were eliminated during the first blind level on Day 3, including Germany's Bernd Alexander Rygol ((18th - 3,730), Spain's Adrian Quevedo (17th - 3,730), Hungary's Istvan Nagy (16th - 3,730), and Netherland's Luuk Krabbe (15th - 4,357). The international affair continued on as the final table bubble began to approach with players from two more different countries being the next to exit including Poland's Lukasz Jankowski (14th - 4,357) and Sweden's Velican Sahin (13th - 4,357) before a trio of Germans were the next to exit including Thassilo Achim Krause (12th - 5,315), Dennis Kraus (11th - 5,315), and Patrick Alexander Marquardt (10th - 5,315). While Marquardt was the official final table bubble boy, he received some additional consolation of his buy-in back as well from the tour's sponsor thanks to winning the partypoker Last Longer Bet. The final table proved to be a long and tough battle between players from six different countries. Czech Republic's Vitezslav Pesta was the first to bow out in ninth place for 7,295 before Israel's Shay Vodka (8th - 9,573), Germany's Patrick Beuter (7th - 12,148), Austria's Markus Hofer (6th - 14,623), and Israel's Itay Bernstein (5th - 17,294) all hit the showers in succession. A pair of Germans were the next to be eliminated from the tournament with Daniel Oliver Schumacher banking 23,767 for fourth place and Jan Christoph Streicher taking home 31,954 for third place. Tran entered heads-up play against Netherland's Harmjan Poel with a 3:2 chip advantage. Before play began, the two players agreed to a deal guaranteeing both players to win at least 58,081. Play then resumed with blind levels cut in half to 30 minutes per level for the remaining money, the coveted trophy, and of course the chance to be entered into the WPTN history books as the latest champion. After an hour of battling it out, play came to an end with Tran winning the top prize of 68,081 and Poel walking away with a great payday of 58,021. On the final hand, Tran bested his opponent holding , against Poel's on a board that read giving Tran the victory when all was said and done. Final Table Payouts of the partypoker WPTN Rozvadov Main Event Place Name Country Prize 1 Van Hiep Tran Germany 68,081* 2 Harmjan Poel Netherlands 58,081* 3 Jan Christoph Streicher Germany 31,954 4 Daniel Oliver Schumacher Germany 23,767 5 Itay Bernstein Israel 17,294 6 Markus Hofer Austria 14,623 7 Patrick Beuter Germany 12,148 8 Shay Vodka Israel 9,573 9 Vitezslav Pesta Czech Republic 7,295 *Reflects heads-up deal PokerNews Cup Up Next at King's Casino! The 10th anniversary edition of the PokerNews Cup returns to King's Casino for a full schedule of exciting low limit events that can't be missed. The festival starts in just a couple of days on August 10 with the fun 80 PokerNews Cup Opening NLH featuring a healthy 6,000 guarantee. Of course, the highlight of the poker festival is the 250 PokerNews Cup Main Event running from August 11-15 where players can strike it rich thanks to a lofty 200,000 guaranteed prize pool. Players still have the opportunity to get in on this event for a fraction of the cost thanks to three 40 qualifiers taking place August 11-13 at King's Casino. The PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be on hand providing updates throughout the festival. Lead image courtesy of the World Poker Tour and King's Casino. Want to stay atop all the latest in the poker world? If so, make sure to get PokerNews updates on your social media outlets. Follow us on Twitter and find us on both Facebook and Google+! Officer Justin Scherlen Officer Justin Scherlen, 39, died Thursday while on a family vacation in New Mexico, Amarillo police said. He died of complications from injuries sustained in a head-on crash in 2015. Friends of Scherlen said that "How can I better serve you?" was his mantra. He is survived by his wife and four children. He had worked for the Amarillo (TX) Police Department since 2004, reports the Amarillo Globe-News. Scherlen was severely injured in a traffic accident in September 2015. He was traveling west on Southwest 34th Avenue near the intersection of South Georgia Street when a Jeep crossed the center lane and collided head-on with Scherlen's vehicle, the Amarillo Globe-News reported at the time. Amarillo firefighters used the Jaws of Life to free Scherlen from the car, and he was taken to Northwest Texas Hospital with numerous broken bones and traumatic injuries from the crash. He was awarded the law enforcement Purple Heart award the following November for injuries sustained while in performance of his official duties. Scherlen went through multiple surgeries and physical rehabilitation after the accident. More than 75 people gathered Sunday evening on the Potter County Courthouse lawn in honor of Officer Scherlen. A funeral service is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Wednesday at Hillside Christian Church in Amarillo, reports the Amarillo Globe-News. Zachary Toothman faces murder charges in the killing of his father and brother. (Photo: Chesapeake PD/WNCN) A Chesapeake, VA, police detective and his son were killed in a triple shooting Sunday that left a woman injured. Another of the detectives sons is accused of the murders. Zackary Toothman, 20, is charged with the first-degree murder of Michael and Matthew Toothman, and the attempted murder of Susan Toothman. He was arraigned Monday morning in Chesapeake Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court Chesapeake police spokesman Leo Kosinski told WNCN officers responded to a home on Helen Avenue just after noon for reports of an injured person. When officers arrived, they discovered three people had been shot. Two people were dead on the scene and one was injured. The injured person was transported to Norfolk General Hospital with life-threatening injuries. Monday afternoon, Chesapeake Police released this statement about Mike Toothmans passing: It is with a heavy heart that I must announce the passing of one of our own. Yesterday afternoon Detective Mike Toothman (Master Police Officer) passed away at his residence. He served his community as a police officer with distinction and honor for over 30 years. While serving on the Chesapeake Police Department he held several positions and duty assignments to include Detective, Patrolman, Honor Guard, Youth Service Officer and the S.W.A.T. Team. The passing of Detective Mike Toothman and his son is a tragic loss to his family, community and the department; his presence will truly be missed. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print Fox News is described as being in a state of crisis as the potential release of audio tapes of former boss Roger Ailes sexually harassing women is threatening to consume the network. Vanity Fair reported: One staffer expressed to me an even greater fear: that, without Ailes, Fox Newss future is in an existential crisis. Under Ailes, the network had operated rather independently from its parent company, 21st Century Fox. Now, many staffers worry that they will be monitored more closely by the Boys, as James Murdoch, the C.E.O. of 21st Century Fox, and his brother, Lachlan, its executive chairman, are still known within the company. Indeed, many have feared for years that James Murdoch has little interest in his fathers core media assetstelevision, print, and moviesand remains more focused on a technological future. . Meanwhile, 21st Century Fox has begun discussing a settlement in the Gretchen Carlson lawsuit against Ailes, according to two people familiar with the negotiations. The company is requesting that Ailes, who has denied all Carlsons allegations, fund at least a portion of the settlement, which is expected to reach eight figures, these people said. At issue in the settlement talks is the existence of audio tapes recorded by multiple women in conversation with Ailes, two people familiar with the tapes said. Ailes lawyers have argued that any negotiation with Carlson should take place in private arbitration, but the specter of a public trial looms. If they litigate the case, all the tapes will become public, directly and through others, this person said. Then you will have a parade of women come in. Nobody wants that. (Ailes, through his lawyer, denied all allegations.) Fox News will continue in the short-term to lead the cable news ratings race because they have cornered the market on conservative cable news consumers. CNN can hire every Trump campaign employee and surrogate on the planet, but the reality is that they arent going to make a dent in the loyalty that many viewers feel towards Fox News. The internal problems that the Ailes sexual harassment case exposes could lead to the downfall of Fox News. There is a crisis at Fox News. Outside of Megyn Kelly and Bret Baier, there are no youngish talents on the horizon at the network (Kelly and Baier arent exactly young. They are in their mid-40s). Bill OReilly is a senior citizen. Sean Hannity is decade younger. Greta Van Susteren is 62. Three-quarters of the Fox News primetime lineup is old enough to join the AARP. Fox News continues to have the oldest audience on television. The network is facing the same demographic challenges that are hurting the Republican Party. Fox News was facing a real demographic crisis on the horizon. The Ailes scandal moved up the timetable to today. Things are bad at Fox News, and the direction they choose going forward will determine if the man who built the networks success will also be responsible for its demise. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print Republican Sen. Susan Collins didnt just refuse to support Donald Trump. The wildly popular Maine Senator likely cost Trump an electoral vote that he desperately coveted in the state. Sen. Collins made all of the arguments that Paul Ryan should have made for not supporting Trump. The Senator penned a piece in The Washington Post that was loaded with integrity: Mr. Trump did not stop with shedding the stilted campaign dialogue that often frustrates voters. Instead, he opted for a constant stream of denigrating comments, including demeaning Sen. John McCains (R-Ariz.) heroic military service and repeatedly insulting Fox News host Megyn Kelly. With the passage of time, I have become increasingly dismayed by his constant stream of cruel comments and his inability to admit error or apologize. But it was his attacks directed at people who could not respond on an equal footing either because they do not share his power or stature or because professional responsibility precluded them from engaging at such a level that revealed Mr. Trump as unworthy of being our president. My conclusion about Mr. Trumps unsuitability for office is based on his disregard for the precept of treating others with respect, an idea that should transcend politics. Instead, he opts to mock the vulnerable and inflame prejudices by attacking ethnic and religious minorities. Three incidents in particular have led me to the inescapable conclusion that Mr. Trump lacks the temperament, self-discipline and judgment required to be president. The problem for Trump is much larger than a Republican rejection of his candidacy. According to a Morning Consult poll, Sen. Collins is the second most popular senator in the United States. Sen. Collins has a 79% approval rating in Maine, and she hails from the states second congressional district. This is an important fact because Maine splits its Electoral College votes by congressional district. Donald Trump has been eyeing one of Maines Electoral College votes, but Collins move effectively destroyed any chance that Trump has of winning the second districts Electoral College vote. Responsible Republicans like Susan Collins still exist, and she helped the nation take a big step towards denying Trump the White House by speaking out and refusing to support the unfit GOP nominee. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print Donald Trump is accusing Hillary Clinton of murdering an Iranian scientist with her private email server. Trump tweeted: Many people are saying that the Iranians killed the scientist who helped the U.S. because of Hillary Clinton's hacked emails. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 8, 2016 Trumps statement is both false and completely insane. There is no proof that Hillary Clinton email was hacked. The FBI found no proof that her account was compromised. The Iranian government said that they executed nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri because he gave the United States information about Irans nuclear program. Clintons emails had nothing to with Amiris execution, but Donald Trump has never meshed well with facts or reality. The Washington Post pointed out that the scientist outed himself, Despite what you might read on Donald Trumps twitter feed, the Iranian execution of a nuclear scientist who defected to the United States and then changed his mind was not caused by Hillary Clintons use of a private email server. The scientist outed himself; it wasnt Clintons fault. Donald Trump refuses to be a good boy and read off his teleprompter in an attempt to fool voters into believing that he is sane. Trump cant help himself. He has to say crazy things like Hillary Clinton murdered an Iranian nuclear scientist with her emails. It is what he does. Republicans can keep trying to shoehorn Trump into the presidential nominee mold, but at the end of the day, Trump remains a 70-year-old white man who gets his information from Fox News and conservative conspiracy websites. Trump is Trump, which means that speeches on the economy will be followed up with tweets about Hillary Clinton being a murderer. There are a lot of reasons why Republicans may lose this presidential election, but the fact that Donald Trump perfectly represents their base is the biggest one of all. Donald Trump embodies the collective insanity that has gripped most of the Republican Party. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print The FBI has already been contacted after Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump called for violence against Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. The super PAC Democratic Coalition Against Trump has already contacted the FBI: The Democratic Coalition Against Trump today reached out to high-level contacts in the Washington, D.C. field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to voice concerns about Donald Trumps call for violence against Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, and to argue that Trump should be arrested for attempting to incite political violence. . The Democratic Coalition Against Trump immediately reached out to senior officials from the FBI to raise alarms about this call to violence, and to demand that Trump face felony charges under 18 U.S.C. 879 for making these threats. There is no place in American politics for this kind of disgusting rhetoric, said the organizations senior advisor, Scott Dworkin. Donald Trump should immediately drop out of the race, and he should be arrested for committing a federal crime. Hes proven himself to be nothing more than a thug, and anyone supporting him after this grotesque display should be publicly shamed. Its truly abhorrent and we must all stand united regardless of party affiliation to say loudly that Americans reject this kind of hateful and dangerous rhetoric. Trump may have committed a felony by trying to incite violence against Hillary Clinton. Make no mistake about it; Donald Trump wasnt joking, and he was not talking about anything other than someone shooting Hillary Clinton to stop her from appointing justices to the Supreme Court. The odds are that Donald Trump wont face any criminal charges because he did not directly say that someone should shoot Hillary Clinton. He made a reference to the Second Amendment as a way to stop Hillary Clinton if she is elected. Trumps thinly veiled threat might not meet the threshold for criminal charges, but the Republican nominee has crossed a line and needs to be held accountable for the actions that his words may inspire. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print *The following is an opinion column by R Muse* One of the aspects of a civilized society is a dependable and fair criminal justice system. Without a system of laws, enforcement, and a robust judiciary, society would break down into what many conservatives believe would be real America. Oftentimes, the system appears to fail and instead of even a semblance of justice, there is a veritable license to break the law; usually reserved for the rich, the religious, and sadly law enforcement. When the system breaks down, some individuals conclude the only means of dispensing justice is by taking matters into their own hands: what is regarded as vigilantism. Late last week one individual took it upon himself to dispense a little justice to admitted racist Dylann Roof. Roof is the Confederate soldier who confessed that his intent in slaughtering nine South Carolina African Americans in their house of worship was to initiate a race war. Even though he admitted gunning down the nine parishioners, Roof has pleaded not guilty. His lawyers say that if the government takes the death penalty off the table, Roof will revert back to confessing his crimes; otherwise he is not guilty. Likely concerned that Roof would not face justice, or at least not street-style justice, an inmate in the Charleston County Detention Center ran out of his cell and administered a proper beat-down of Roof when he went into the shower. The alleged assailant, Dwayne Stafford, was at the Detention Center awaiting trial on first-degree assault, lying to police, and strong armed robbery charges. Stafford is no longer being held at the Center because he is out on a $100,000 bond thanks to the largesse of anonymous donors. The donations were possible because a page was set up on TASAD (Taking a Stand Against Discrimination) so people could put money into Mr. Staffords discretionary spending account to use in the Centers commissary. No matter how one looks at it, Mr. Stafford earned a nice reward for beating Dylann Roof in garnering enough cash to pay his bond and walk out of jail. Obviously there are enough disaffected Americans who are worried that Roof, like many white police officers guilty of murdering innocent and unarmed African Americans, will ultimately walk away a free racist and escape justice (see George Zimmerman, Mike Browns killer, Freddie Greys killers, etc.). As Major Eric Watson noted on the news of Mr. Staffords release on bond, the Charleston County Sheriffs Office has no control over who posts bail for inmates; if enough money comes in, the inmate gets out. Officials with the Charleston County Sheriffs Office cited obvious violations by the detention officers tasked with keeping watch over Roof at the time of the beat-down. Incidentally, Dylann Roof declined to press charges. Now, it may seem that Mr. Roof got what was coming to him and no doubt that mindset contributed to the donations that allowed Stafford out on bond. However just it may seem on its face, that kind of thinking does not contribute to civilized society or any sense of justice. First, although Mr. Stafford was in jail for alleged violent crimes, due to anonymous donors he is back on the streets instead of under guard for alleged violent crimes. Second, since when is it civilized to reward one suspected violent criminal for beating another suspected criminal while in custody? One cant help wonder exactly how rewarding violence equates to justice for the nine slain members of Emanuel AME Church, or how contributing to the release of a suspected violent offender will make the community any safer or help prosecutors get real justice for Dylann Roofs victims.. It is most likely that the people who donated to Mr. Staffords discretionary spending fund and eventually funded his release are of the same mind as, not only Mr. Stafford, but the two men guilty of ambush killings of police in Dallas and Baton Rouge. It is difficult to deny there is raging frustration among many Americans, not just Blacks, at a justice system apparently set up to protect white people and stacked against any and every person of color. Still, rewarding apparent vigilantism is not a solution to a justice system founded on white privilege any more than it will garner mainstream support for a comprehensive reformation to that criminal justice system. Sadly, it is the condition of being human to naturally celebrate an individuals dispensation of justice when it appears there is no other alternative, but it doesnt make it right in a civilized society. Yes, the justice system has failed no small number of African American victims of white supremacy and racism, a fact that is hardly contestable. But the solution is not more injustice at the hands of an understandably disgruntled and frustrated individual. The solution is electing politicians who have the power and authority to reform the system to serve all Americans fairly; that is what a civilized people would do. Unfortunately, America is drifting away from being a civilized society or Donald Trump would not be running for the presidency and white police officers would not be murdering innocent African Americans with veritable impunity. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print Former senior policy adviser to the McCain-Palin campaign Kori Schake told Yahoo News Katie Couric that she would have trusted Sarah Palin with the countrys national security more than Donald Trump and thats illustrative. Trump is much more reckless than Sarah Palin and thats quite a standard. Couric: Do you think Sarah Palin had better foreign policy instincts than Donald Trump? This question caused Schake to burst out laughing. Schake: That is a fantastic question and I think its illustrative that I would have trusted Sarah Palin in that position, but not Donald Trump. Couric: Illustrative of what? Schake: Illustrative of just how dangerous Donald Trump is. That is much more reckless than Sarah Palin and thats quite a standard. Shake is one of 50 Republican national security experts who published a letter on Monday warning that Donald Trump was dangerous and they would not be voting for him. They wrote, From a foreign policy perspective, Donald Trump is not qualified to be President and Commander in Chief. Indeed, we are convinced that he would be a dangerous President and would put at risk our countrys national security and well-being. So Sarah Palins 2008 gotcha journalist Katie Couric is now the person who brings out that Donald Trump is more dangerous and reckless than Sarah Palin. Full circle. This is a fair assessment. As frightening as Palins lack of knowledge and vindictive streak were, they pale in comparison to the person for whom she paved the way. Donald Trump knows less than Sarah Palin. Donald Trump is more erratic and vindictive than Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin at least managed to keep Alaska afloat during her cut short two year stint as its governor. She made a lot of mistakes and had a stack of scandals, but she wasnt asking why she couldnt use the nuclear codes. So theres that. Sarah Palin endorsed Donald Trump but she did not speak at the RNC. This is quite devastating critique, because while many might not have heard of Trumps various gaffes and lack of knowledge or the many Republicans taking a stand against him, most of the country is familiar with Sarah Palin and they dont like her. To think that the senior adviser to the McCain Palin ticket thinks Donald Trump is more reckless than Sarah Palin is a kill shot. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print For context to Donald Trumps call for violence against Hillary Clinton today, heres a reminder of his adviser Roger Stone promising a bloodbath if Trump loses, and widespread resistance. "It will be a bloodbath" if Trump loses, says adviser Roger Stone, vowing "widespread" resistance. https://t.co/RglrMEKcwc Matt Pearce (@mattdpearce) August 2, 2016 In an aside, Roger Stone says not violence but the entire strategy is about using political terrorism to threaten and intimidate people into letting Trump win. It also lays out that the claims of voter fraud and rigged elections are deliberate ploys with which to foster this kind of not violent bloodbath. Trump-whisperer Roger Stone on the election will be rigged strategy to Milo Yiannopoulos: https://t.co/0Sl89lg1jQ pic.twitter.com/LKNhUd0GBa Philip Gourevitch (@PGourevitch) August 1, 2016 The thing is, Trump is not leading in the polls. Which makes the rest of this commentary look deliberately disingenuous. Its a dog whistle road map to stirring up Trump supporters with falsehoods and letting them know they should be very angry and rise up against the Clinton inauguration. Red State explained that Roger Stone, does a lot of the behind-the-scenes dirty work for Trump. For instance, Stone revealed today that hes been in touch with Julian Assange regarding an October Surprise for Clinton, per Media Matters. I actually have communicated with Assange, Stone said. I believe the next tranche of his documents pertain to the Clinton Foundation but theres no telling what the October surprise may be. The guy talking to Julian Assange at Wikileaks about an October Surprise also laid out a thinly coded road map to violence for Trump supporters. So its not just Donald Trump saying today, By the way, if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do folks. Although, the Second Amendment people maybe there is. I dont know. Its not just another Trump adviser calling for Hillary Clinton to executed. Donald Trump is busy blaming the dishonest media for reporting on the words that come out of his mouth. But his words and the tone of his campaign have been telling the same story for several weeks now. That story is that everyone in this country will pay if Trump doesnt win, because his supporters should take up their guns to resist a democratic election. But of course, thats why Trump keeps trying to sell his cult members a rigged election, to further justify violent, armed resistance. It should also be noted how Donald Trump is conducing himself and who he hangs around with. Hes using Wikileaks to fight dirty against Hillary Clinton. That alone is reason enough that he should be kept out of the White House. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print The Secret Service must launch an immediate investigation into Donald Trumps call for one of his supporters to shoot Hillary Clinton if she wins the White House. Video: Here is the transcript of Trump calling for someone to shoot Hillary Clinton: Here's what @realDonaldTrump just said (joked?) about what you can do if Clinton gets to pick her SCOTUS judges. pic.twitter.com/RMCHRsiD6m Ali Vitali (@alivitali) August 9, 2016 Journalists are already questioning whether the Secret Service has ever had to investigate a person that they are protecting. It doesnt matter whether Donald Trump was joking or not. The Republican nominee just made a threat against the life of Hillary Clinton. This can not be allowed to stand. Republicans must not be allowed to brush this behavior under the rug as another one of Donald Trumps jokes. The Secret Service must immediately investigate Donald Trump and his comments. A private citizen can face criminal charges for threatening the life of a government official. Donald Trump shouldnt get a free pass because he lucked into the Republican presidential nomination. Trump must be held accountable for his dangerous statements, and you demand accountability by signing the petition calling for an immediate Secret Service investigation into Trumps threat. The Trump campaign has made death threats against Hillary Clinton twice in the last three weeks. We urge you to join us in calling for an immediate investigation and action. Here's a hot one regarding the $110 million Alatus luxury apartment project on Second Street Southwest by Saint Marys Hospital, so I won't make you wait for Tuesday morning: The Minneapolis-based developer planned to turn in a new, modestly trimmed-down proposal for the 13-story project late today, and is hoping to get Planning and Zoning Commission review on Aug. 24. Contrary to some chatter in the Folwell neighborhood, where opposition has emerged, the tower remains 13 stories. The number of units (apartments and townhomes) has been reduced ever so slightly, from 359 to 347, due to townhome shrinkage. The whole shebang has been shifted slightly to the east on the site, to move it back from the 15th Avenue side. There's more of a stepdown of townhomes into the neighboorhood on the south side. But the most important shrinkage, for many in the Folwell area, is in the giant parking garage, which originally was planned for 883 spaces, presumably for contract parking to serve Saint Marys across the street. That's now down to 560, which will accommodate the residents and commercial space, with leftovers for other public users. Also, there'll be an entrance and exit on both the 14th and 15th Avenue sides of the project. Initially it was exit only onto 15th, which caused some to worry about a torrent of new traffic in that residential area. ADVERTISEMENT According to Chris Osmondson of Alatus, who shared these details with one of my Answer Man I-Team associates late today, the reduced parking means the project will "only contribute a 5 percent increase in congestion" in that area, based on their updated traffic study. "Hopefully this will help to alleviate some of the concerns from the neighbors," he said. There's plenty more to report and I'll do the rest in the morning. The big deal for tonight: It's still 13 stories, but the parking garage is about 37 percent smaller. More good news: They have some slightly modified architectural renderings as well, so we don't have to keep running the same old drawings. I'll add one of those in the morning. STEWARTVILLE A Rochester man is behind bars today after officials say he was found asleep in his parked car, which contained several grams of methamphetamine. Olmsted County Sheriff's deputies responded at 4:41 a.m. Monday to the report of two suspicious vehicles parked in the alley in the 600 block of Reichels Circle Northeast in Stewartville. One vehicle was empty; the other was occupied by Chad Alan Solberg, 32, said Capt. Scott Behrns. After waking Solberg up, the deputy saw him put something between his legs, the report says, and ordered him out of the car. The object was a meth pipe, Behrns said; a further search of the vehicle recovered drug paraphernalia in the glove compartment and a set of brass knuckles in the center console. The search turned up 23.1 grams of meth, several small plastic bags, the brass knuckles and $270 in cash, the report says. ADVERTISEMENT Solberg could face charges of third-degree sales/possession; possession of the brass knuckles is a misdemeanor. A year to the day after she was first reported, a Rochester woman accused of stealing more than $4,000 from a Boy Scout Troop has entered a plea in the case. Melissa Lynn Neumann, 40, pleaded guilty Monday in Olmsted County District Court to three felony counts of financial transaction card fraud. In exchange, two counts of felony theft and one count of gross misdemeanor theft were dismissed. Neumann has been allowed to enter a diversion program, avoiding conviction on the case, and placed on probation for 358 days. People accepted to the program generally have little or no criminal history, the ability to pay restitution, the ability to complete community work service and follow general rules of probation. One of the other criteria of the diversion program is that defendants don't ask to have the case expunged. It won't completely disappear from the records; it will show as dismissed. Still, Olmsted County Mark Ostrem has explained, if the defendant were to "mess up sometime in the next year or so, we could revoke (it), but we don't have to go back and try this case. We go back and talk to the judge. The judge would accept that guilty plea, and we'd move right to sentencing." ADVERTISEMENT The investigation began Aug. 8, 2015, when three adults affiliated with the troop went to police. They said an accountant had reviewed the troop's account to help determine legitimate charges, leading them to believe Neumann made 36 unauthorized charges from April 2013 until March 2015, the complaint says. Neumann allegedly made the purchases at Rochester businesses while giving positive account reports at meetings. The reports were not reflective of the actual amount in the account, court documents say; the statements were mailed directly to Neumann's home. She told investigators she began to use the troop debit card to purchase groceries for her family when her husband lost his job, the complaint says, then used it "numerous times over the next two years for personal use." Neumann reportedly failed to deposit about $200 in cash in 2014, money from the troop selling wreaths and honey. The total loss was $4,025.04. Dear Answer Man, what is the large burial mound in the Sienna Square area, along West Circle Drive? They've planted grass on it now, so it must be done or on hold for an extended period. Bill W. I closely examined that archaeological site just north of Otoori Sushion Monday and it appears to be the final resting place of ancient placemakers who made this a destination for ideation centuries ago. Long ago, these early adopters did some level-setting and changed paradigms in what we now know as the Queen City. It could be the tomb of ancient queens of the Queen City. More likely , however, as I've reported a few times, it's the site of a two-story office building that one of these days will begin construction. But Bill's correct that it's a very nicely groomed and grassy mound for now. Dear Answer Man, does it say anywhere in the Rochester city charter that the at-large council member is the council president, or is that just a matter of tradition? Who's in charge if he or she's not around? The city's home rule charter says the at-large member "shall be the president of the common council." The at-large member also serves as mayor when the mayor's away or otherwise indisposed, and he or she has all the modest authority of the mayor's office except for veto power. ADVERTISEMENT If the council president is away, "the council member designated in the annual order of succession shall act in his or her place and shall be styled 'president pro tem of the common council.' While so acting, he or she shall have the same authority as the council member-at-large were he or she present and acting as the president, and his or her acts shall have the same force and validity." So who's the current "president pro tem"? That would be Sandra Means, who was tabbed during the January organization meeting this year. And if both Randy Staver,the current president, and Sandra are out of town? Then the remaining council members choose their temporary leader. Night owls know that I posted this online last night it's a hot one regarding the $110 million Alatus luxury apartment project on Second Street Southwest by Saint Marys Hospital: The Minneapolis-based developer turned in a new, modestly trimmed-down proposal for the 13-story project late Monday. The developer is hoping to get Planning and Zoning Commission review of the project on Aug. 24. They'll ask for a continuance this week. I'll post a link to the documents online . Contrary to some chatter in the Folwell neighborhood, where opposition has emerged, the building remains 13 stories. The number of units (apartments and townhomes) has been reduced ever so slightly, from 359 to 347, due to townhome shrinkage. The whole shebang has been shifted very slightly to the east on the site, to move it back from the 15th Avenue side. There's more of a stepdown of townhomes into the neighborhood on the south side. The grandiose spire is gone. But the most important shrinkage is in the giant parking garage, which originally was planned for 883 vehicles, presumably for contract parking to serve Saint Marys across the street. That's now down to 560, which will accommodate the residents and commercial space, with leftovers for other public users. ADVERTISEMENT FYI, that's still a few hundred more than neighborhood activists have demanded. Also, there'll be an entrance and exit on both the 14th and 15th avenue sides of the ramp. Initially it was exit-only onto 15th, which caused some to worry about a torrent of new traffic in that residential area. There'll also be a "vehicular choker," as it's called, so no traffic can go southbound on 15th Avenue exiting from the ramp. According to Chris Osmondsonof Alatus, who shared these details with one of my Answer Man I-Team associates late Monday, the parking reductions means the project will "only contribute a 5 percent increase in congestion" in that area, based on their updated traffic study. "Hopefully this will help to alleviate some of the concerns from the neighbors," he said. "I don't know if it does everything I don't know if it's possible to have all the neighbors come on board." We'll find out. Speaking of big projects A well-informed little birdie tells me that notifications are going out to business owners in Miracle Mile Shopping Centerregarding the long-awaited plan for redevelopment there. No one will speak on the record, but there's enough chatter to persuade me that it's true, that tenants at the south end of the center are being informed that change is coming. The center was sold last year, for $10.4 million, to investors apparently linked to Oronoco health care executive and developer Javon Bea, and there was talk of a Whole Foods grocery at the south end. That didn't come to fruition, but there's been talk of a similar type of grocery store, possibly topped by apartments. ADVERTISEMENT Everyone's mum, but perhaps not for long. Description Peconic Bay Medical Centers Ask the Medical Expert Speaker Series will continue on Tuesday, August 9 from 6-7 p.m. when Dr. Peter Sultan, a board-certified orthopaedic surgeon, will share the latest information about Advances in the Treatment of Hip & Knee Pain. This is a FREE Community Information Program presented by Peconic Bay Medical Center and will be held at the Winslow Specialty Care Center located at the Gertrude and Louis Feil Campus for Ambulatory Care, 496 Route 111, Building D in Manorville, NY. Dr. Peter Sultan specializes in hip and knee replacement surgery and general orthopaedic conditions. Following graduation from Harvard University with highest honors in the biological sciences, Dr. Sultan attended Cornell Medical School in Manhattan where he was selected for membership in the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society. Dr. Sultan completed his residency in Orthopaedic Surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and then returned to Harvard for his fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School. At Peconic Bay Medical Center, Dr. Sultan has performed nearly one thousand surgical procedures. Dr. Sultan is also a self-taught amateur Concert Pianist performing for several Hospital and Community Events each year. His performances have been viewed nearly 1 million times on the internet. The program is free to the community, however seating is limited and reservations are required. For information and reservations, call 631.367.4371. Wisconsin man charged in hotel standoff ST. PAUL A Wisconsin man has been charged in a St. Paul hotel standoff with police. Thirty-six-year-old Joshua Hacken, of Dresser, Wis., is accused of pulling a gun on an employee at Days Inn on Sunday when confronted in a hotel room. A complaint says Hacken fled from the pool area into another room when police arrived and held them at bay for more than three hours. Police negotiators were able to convince Hacken to surrender. He's charged with second-degree assault and illegally possessing a firearm. It's not immediately clear if Hacken has an attorney. Associated Press Officials investigate dissolved foundation ADVERTISEMENT ST. PAUL A philanthropist who donated $50 million to help build the University of Minnesota's children's hospital has dissolved her charitable foundation and given the remaining $1.77 million to her father's new medical device company. Caroline Amplatz's decision last month began an investigation by Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson's office, which has asked her to retrieve the foundation's assets before it reviews the legality of giving money intended for charitable purposes to a private company. Amplatz said in an email Thursday that she returned the funds to the Caroline Kid's Foundation's bank account to comply with a mandatory waiting period. Amplatz, who is an attorney, said the transfer isn't illegal and that the issue entails determining how to pay future taxes, which she said she intends to do. She has given generously to a variety of Twin Cities organizations over the past decade. She has donated to environmental, education and arts causes, including $3 million to the Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts in Minneapolis. The foundation, to which she said she is the sole donor, has given away about $1.76 million since 2008, according to annual reports filed with the Attorney General's Office. Other donations, such as the large gift to the children's hospital, were made as an individual unrelated to the foundation. Her wealth comes from the medical inventions of her father, Kurt Amplatz, who founded AGA Medical with his daughter's then husband, Franck Gougeon. After her divorce, Amplatz gave money as an individual donor and through her foundation, which she established in 2008. She said she is dissolving the foundation now because it "interferes" with her goals. Associated Press ADVERTISEMENT Deputy injured when helicopter is struck by gunfire FOSSTON Authorities have arrested a man suspected of shooting a U.S. Customs and Border Protection helicopter in northern Minnesota. Clearwater County sheriff's officials say a Polk County deputy was injured, either by a gunshot or by flying glass when one of the helicopter's windows shattered Monday. The deputy was taken to a hospital in Fosston for treatment. Authorities say the pilot was flying over an area of suspected drug activity when the chopper was hit twice by gunfire from a high-powered rifle. The pilot wasn't injured. Sheriff's deputies searched the area where the shots were fired and arrested a 71-year-old man they found hiding in some woods near a cabin. Associated Press Group files appeal over flood diversion permit FARGO, N.D. A water resource district representing people whose land would be flooded by a Red River diversion channel says the North Dakota state engineer should not have approved a construction permit for part of the project. An appeal filed in state court last week by the Richland County Water Resource District contends that the engineer's office failed to give the group notice of the application for the project, as required by law. The document says notice was provided to the neighboring Cass County Joint Water Resource District. ADVERTISEMENT The $2.1 billion channel is designed to move water around the flood-prone Fargo and Moorhead metropolitan area, but would need a staging area in Cass and Richland counties to store water in times of serious flooding. "I'd say that getting 10,000 acres of our land flooded makes us a part of the project," said Don Moffet, district chairman for the Richland water group. Garland Erbele, the state engineer, and Liz Brocker, spokeswoman for the North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem, declined to comment on the appeal. Erbele on July 8 granted the Fargo-Moorhead Diversion Authority's application for a permit to build an inlet structure. The Richland County group says that approval is premature because the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has not completed its permitting process. "If Minnesota doesn't permit this project, all this construction will be a massive waste of taxpayer money," Moffet said. Moffet said his group is not opposed to flood protection for the Fargo-Moorhead area, "but not to the detriment of Richland County." Associated Press DALLAS Delta's travails, and those of its customers, move into day two with the airline canceling nearly 250 flights. The cancellations Tuesday follow about 1,000 cancelled flights Monday and almost 3,000 delayed flights including eight at Rochester International Airport after an outage at its Atlanta headquarters initiated a global meltdown of its booking and communications systems. The Rochester delays affected about 400 passengers, according to airport spokeswoman Tiana Rossow. "All of the Delta flights in Rochester operated, but there were some delays," Rossow said. "When the traffic at major hubs is delayed, that affects traffic here." No further delays or cancellations were expected today. The airline was back online after a number of hours Monday, but the outages were so widespread that Delta is still dealing with the ripple effects a day later. ADVERTISEMENT The airline posted a video apology by CEO Ed Bastian. And it offered refunds and $200 in travel vouchers to people whose flights were canceled or delayed at least three hours. Delta's challenge on Tuesday will be to find enough seats on planes during the busy summer vacation season to accommodate the tens of thousands of passengers whose flights were scrubbed. Last month, the average Delta flight was 87 percent full. For passengers, hardship from the early Monday morning meltdown was compounded by the fact that Delta's flight-status updates weren't working either. Instead of being able to stay home, many passengers only learned about the flight problems when they arrived at the airport. "By the time I showed up at the gate the employees were already disgruntled, and it was really difficult to get anybody to speak to me or get any information," said Ashley Roache, whose flight from Lexington, Ky., to New York's LaGuardia Airport was delayed. "The company could have done a better job of explaining ... what was happening." Delta spokesman Trebor Banstetter said that after a power outage at the company's Atlanta headquarters, some key systems and network equipment did not switch over to backup systems. He said the airline's investigation into the cause of the outage was continuing but said there were no indications of hacking. A spokesman for Georgia Power said that the company believes a failure of Delta equipment caused the airline's power outage. He said no other customers lost power. Delta declined to comment on the power company's report. Flights that were already in the air when the outage occurred continued to their destinations, but flights on the ground remained there. Delta Air Lines Inc. ranks as the third-largest in the world by number of passengers carried, with 138.8 million travelers last year, according to industry group IATA. It was narrowly beaten only by American Airlines and Southwest Airlines, with all of them flying mostly within the United States. ADVERTISEMENT Airlines depend on huge, overlapping and complicated systems to operate flights, schedule crews and run ticketing, boarding, airport kiosks, websites and mobile phone apps. Even brief outages can snarl traffic and cause long delays. That has afflicted airlines in the U.S. and abroad. Last month, Southwest Airlines canceled more than 2,000 flights over four days after an outage that it blamed on a faulty network router. United Airlines suffered a series of massive IT meltdowns after combining its technology systems with those of merger partner Continental Airlines. Lines for British Airways at some airports have grown longer as the carrier updates its systems. On Monday in Richmond, Va., Delta gate agents were writing out boarding passes by hand. In Tokyo, a dot-matrix printer was resurrected to keep track of passengers on a flight to Shanghai. Some passengers said they were shocked that computer glitches could cause such turmoil. Others took it in stride. Ryan Shannon, another passenger on the Lexington-to-New York flight, said passengers boarded, were asked to exit, waited about 90 minutes and then got back on the plane. ADVERTISEMENT Once Delta cleared flights to take off, "we boarded and didn't have any problems. There is always a delay, or weather, or something. I travel weekly, so I'm used to it," Shannon said with a laugh. ----- Flying Delta? Delta Air Lines offered information about cancellations and delays this morning at its web site, delta.com: Customers traveling Tuesday should check the status of their flight at delta.com or the Fly Delta App. Customers can rebook their flight via the website. Delta's travel waiver has been extended to customers traveling on Tuesday. Also, unaccompanied minors that have not yet begun travel will not be accepted until Wednesday. Those customers will be able to book without fee at a later date. Delta is also offering compensation to customers significantly affected by delays or cancellations. In addition, where available, customers are being provided with hotel rooms and other accommodations if a cancellation requires an overnight stay. Source: Delta.com MINNEAPOLIS People looking for Election Day excitement in Minnesota will find it but it takes some hunting. It's in southeastern Minnesota's 2nd District, where four Republicans have been slugging it out for a shot at the seat of retiring GOP Rep. John Kline. And in Minneapolis, where a pair of Somali-Americans were hoping to unseat one of the state's longest-serving legislators. And in central Minnesota, where the House speaker faced a primary opponent. Still, with few contested races, turnout was expected to be very low which could lead to some surprising results. A few things to know about today's ballot: 2nd District The race to replace Kline, who is retiring after seven terms, was always going to be interesting. ADVERTISEMENT Longtime conservative radio host Jason Lewis, businesswoman Darlene Miller, former state legislator John Howe and business consultant (and sometimes Donald Trump spokesman) Matt Erickson crowded into the GOP field. The race turned bitter in the homestretch as Lewis and Miller focused on each other. Miller's campaign sent out mailers accusing Lewis of supporting heroin legalization; Lewis contends she wrongly twisted his remarks from his radio show. The winner will take on Democrat Angie Craig, a former St. Jude's Medical executive, in what's regarded as a toss-up for a swing district. Kahn swan song? There's some drama in a few contested Statehouse primaries. In a three-way Democratic race for a Minneapolis seat, longtime state Rep. Phyllis Kahn is looking to extend her 44-year career in the Legislature. But history awaits if Kahn loses, too. A win for either of her challengers in the reliably liberal district would likely lead to the election of the nation's first Somali-American lawmaker. Activist Ilhan Omar and Mohamud Noor, who lost to Kahn in a 2014 primary, have both argued that the area needs new representation that better reflects its large population of immigrants from Somalia and other East African nations. Daudt in doubt? ADVERTISEMENT Could Republican state House Speaker Kurt Daudt's political rise come to an end? That's the question at hand as he faces GOP challenger Alan Duff, a former Isanti County commissioner who argues that Daudt hasn't done enough to curb wasteful spending. Daudt was confident heading into the primary, and an outside political group came to his aid with advertisements when an opposing group started publicly criticizing his personal finances and political leadership. But a loss could halt the Zimmerman Republican's rapid political rise, which has him pegged as a gubernatorial contender in 2018. It also would throw the House GOP into turmoil as they seek to maintain their hold on the chamber. Supreme Court The only statewide race on the ballot is a three-way race for Minnesota Supreme Court. Associate Justice Natalie Hudson, whom Gov. Mark Dayton appointed last year to replace retiring Justice Alan Page, is the incumbent. She's being challenged by family law attorney Michelle MacDonald, who got the Republican endorsement to run in the officially nonpartisan race against Associate Justice David Lillehaug in 2014 but fell out with GOP leaders after it emerged that she faced criminal charges over a traffic stop. Hudson's other challenger is laid-off legal aid attorney Craig Foss, who has said he's running because he's having trouble finding work because he's legally blind. The top two vote-getters advance to the November ballot. ADVERTISEMENT Low turnout With no statewide races and few contested, turnout across Minnesota is expected to be low. Minnesota's secretary of state doesn't make turnout estimates, but Joe Mansky, Ramsey County's elections manager and a former state elections official, said he's expecting 5 percent turnout on his home turf. He said higher numbers in more competitive pockets like the 2nd District that could bump up numbers statewide. Compare that with the 16 percent turnout in 2010, when a three-way contest for the DFL gubernatorial slot energized voters. The low turnout could be a major factor in today's elections. Candidates in every corner of Minnesota concede that anything can happen when few voters turn out. On Monday, new owners took over a Rochester school with plans for a major makeover. Jessica Amos and Dan Linkbought the Rochester School of Hair Design, at 4229 U.S. 52 N, from Lisa Peterson. The new owners plan to change the name to Salon Professional Academy, which is a franchise business. "This is going to be a huge conversion over the next few months. We're going to do a total remodel of the building. And the whole curriculum will be remodeled, too," said Amos. Amos also owns Hair Studio 52 & Day Spaon Rochester's Superior Drive Northwest. Link, her partner in the academy, is also experienced in the field. He owns the MarcDaniel Salonin Maple Grove. ADVERTISEMENT Cosmetology, nail technician studies and other classes will continue as scheduled during the remodel of the building. The school has seven employees on staff. The pair purchased the building under the corporate name of Fendi Property Managementfor $1.3 million on Monday. The school moved into that 9,700-square-foot building at the start of 2007, when Peterson acquired the Rochester School of Cosmetologyand moved it there under a new name. The building previously housed State Farm Insuranceoffices. Every single summer for 17 years, our family has made at least one stop in the Wisconsin Dells. This is not by design. This is because, every single summer, we drive from Minnesota to Michigan to visit family, and this drive takes us on Interstate 90 right past the Dells. Even during those years when we have no intention of doing anything but driving straight through, I cannot when faced with a barrage of billboards advertising tourist traps and kitschy attractions keep myself from stopping. It's an addiction, probably hardwired in my brain. For heroin addicts, the brain's pleasure center experiences a surge of ecstasy a warm flushing of the skin, euphoric but clouded mental functions at the first sign of heroin. ADVERTISEMENT For me, it's the first sign advertising Mr. Marvel's Wondertorium or Alligator Alley. By billboard three The Lost Voyage Haunted Boat Tour I'm yelling, "Oh lord, Lindy, I'm experiencing a warm flushing of my skin and my mental functions are euphoric but clouded!" So we stop in the Dells. If we have a full day or more, each kid gets to pick one adventure. Son Henry easily swayed by the lure of "A man who can swallow his own face" usually picks Ripley's Believe It Or Not or the Tommy Bartlett Exploratory. Daughter Emma picks the Wisconsin Dells Deer Park, which is basically like a Night of the Living Dead scene in which a horde of zombies surround and attack some 20-year-old co-ed as she screams her head off. Just replace "zombies" with "deer" and "20-year-old co-ed" with "40-some-year-old magazine editor." Daughter Hadley, our resident Harry Potter geek, chooses Wizard Quest. Wizard Quest and here's the simple explanation is a labyrinthine, themed quadrasphere containing four imprisoned wizards that only can be freed by collecting glimmers magical currency amassed by solving mystical puzzles and answering riddles hidden in the Fire, Water, Earth and Air realms. ADVERTISEMENT It's two floors and 13,000 square feet of a McDonald's Playland as designed by the architectural firm of Voldemort, Gandalf, Frodo, Eragon and Hadley. Your team gets a list of riddles, the answers to which can be found in the sprawling rooms of tunnels and slides and mirror mazes and secret passageways. Solve a riddle? Enter the answer into a computer and collect points. Get enough points and find all four wizards in 90 minutes and you win. We first visited Wizard Quest five years ago. Our family has never collectively worked harder at anything. Outside each realm, we huddled up as I read the corresponding riddles. "This potion flows from your fears, you'll find its reflection in the gnome's tiny tears. Emma, you need to crawl through every tunnel and look for a crying gnome." Lindy: Well, maybe Emma should just stick with me, she's only 4 and Me: We still need 300 glimmers. And apparently none of you can find the Golden Dragon Tooth, so One clue made us ask the "Sprite of the Forest" to "reveal the king of the faeires," or whatever. The Sprite of the Forest was a teen boy wearing a hat and shirt made out of leaves and twigs. I waited behind a group of tween girls, who had to perform some trick they sang a song before the forest sprite would whisper the answer. Then came my turn. Me: Yeah. Hey. I really need to know the name of the King of the Faeries. Teen boy in hat made of leaves: Oh, let's see what your payment shall be for such a magical message. Why, this sprite will need you to perform a faerie jig to loosen the clue from my lips. ADVERTISEMENT Me: (Staring and shaking my head slightly.) Teen boy: It's the Lord of Elphen. After 86 minutes, we just needed to find the Fire Wizard, and we would win. The Fire Realm was made up of three hallways, and all of us were running up and down the halls, banging on walls, pushing buttons, trying to find a secret doorway. Then Henry leaned against a bookcase or something that spun around, straight out of a Scooby Doo cartoon. And there he was The Fire Wizard. We celebrated like we'd just won the grand prize on "Family Feud," especially if there was a version of "Family Feud" set inside the Shadow Forests of the Middle Earthen realm of Mordor. We made our way to the gift shop to collect our treasure. Hadley entered our winning code into the computer and it printed out our prize a coupon for 20 percent off anything in the gift shop. A coupon we framed and hung on the wall in our family room. Only two districts in Southeast Minnesota will see money from the Legislature's voluntary pre-kindergarten funding this year. The Legislature set aside $25 million this year to establish voluntary pre-kindergarten programs for low-income students around the state. Rochester Public Schools was one of 10 districts in Southeast Minnesota to put in bids for the money, but is coming away with nothing. State leaders and local districts say the high number of applicants more than 180 districts making their case for about 10,000 students strengthen the case for expanding pre-kindergarten funding in the future because of benefits including closing the state's opportunity gap. The $25 million will provide 3,300 students in 74 districts across the state with free pre-kindergarten programming this year, according to a Monday press release from Gov. Mark Dayton's office detailing the state's distribution of the money. But 60 percent of districts that applied didn't receive funding, "demonstrating significant demand for additional funding," according to the release. Austin Public Schools was the recipient of $283,756, which will send 50 of the district's students to the district's early childhood programs, and Lyle Public School District received $163,770 to fund 35 students in that district. ADVERTISEMENT "It will help many of our families in the district," said Amy Baskin, Austin Public Schools' director of community education. "It's a great start for the sate of Minnesota they're recognizing the importance of early childhood and are trying to put resources towards that." But, Baskin said, it's important to note that this is a "small step," but "certainly a step in the right direction." The press release from Dayton's office pointed to research on long-term benefits of investment in early childhood education, including cost savings in education, human services, and justice system savings, as well as increased tax revenues. "The investment we made this session brings Minnesota closer to optional preschool for all 4-year-olds, regardless of their families' ability to pay," Lt. Gov. Tina Smith said in a press release. "Access to preschool is a proven strategy for closing our state's opportunity gap. We need to build on this investment to ensure every child gets a great start in Minnesota." The funding distribution About 450 Rochester early childhood students won't be able to attend pre-K this year because their families can't afford it. Amy Eich, director of community education for Rochester Public Schools, said the state money would have provided about 100 of those students with access to pre-K programming. The funding was divided into four regions: Minneapolis/St. Paul schools, charter schools, metro suburban school districts, non-metro school districts, which includes Rochester and the other Southeast Minnesota districts. Each of the districts that applied in Southeast Minnesota was competing for 43 percent of the state funding because they're considered non-metro school districts. ADVERTISEMENT The money was awarded taking into account the percentage of students in the district that qualify for free or reduced price lunch, as well as the number of three- and four-star preschools in the district, a rating which is based on the "Parent Aware" rating scale, which gauges the program's use of best practices that prepare children for kindergarten. Triton Superintendent Brett Joyce said he was disappointed, "but obviously we were told that there wouldn't be enough to go around. We tried, and that's what you do." Others, like Kenyon-Wanamingo Superintendent Jeff Pesta, said a lot of Southeast Minnesota's districts have "fairly comprehensive" programs already in place, so he called their chance at securing funding "kind of a long shot, but we wanted to get in line anyways." Pesta's just glad "an emphasis is being placed on early childhood education," and hopes that grows. Rochester's request Rochester requested funding for four sites, including Gage, Hawthorne, Hoover and Pinewood. Partner sites that requested state funding include Bethany Nursery School and Listos Preschool and Childcare. While she was disappointed, Eich said she knew funding was limited, and the Rochester district does have "high quality programs" in the district, at Head Start and among private providers. "However, we have many children not served by our early learning system who begin kindergarten far behind their peers," Eich said. "We have the knowledge necessary to reduce this gap, but without the funds to run the programs, we cant reach all the children who need it." ADVERTISEMENT The funding formula, based on the number of free or reduced price lunch students at a site, made it more difficult, Eich said, for the district to secure extra money. Some of the district's sites don't have kindergarten classes, like Hawthorne, so RPS is required to report the district's overall free and reduced price numbers instead. At Hawthorne, 100 percent of students qualify, Eich said, but because kindergarten is not offered there, RPS had to report the district's overall 41 percent free and reduced price lunch for kindergarten students. She said she's shared the concern with the Minnesota Department of Education, but a solution to how the funding is awarded is really up to state legislators to figure out. Though Eich said she was disappointed the district didn't receive any money, she said she was "thrilled Minnesota is moving in the direction of talking about this, even if we don't get the money." District | Funds awarded | Students served Austin Public Schools, yes, 50 Kenyon-Wanamingo Public School District, no, 60 Kingsland Public School, no, 59 Lyle Public Schools, yes, 35 LeRoy-Ostrander Public Schools, no,13 Owatonna Public Schools, no, 52 Red Wing Public Schools, no, 110 Rochester Public Schools, no,103 Triton Public Schools, no, 12 Wabasha-Kellogg Public School District, no, 30 Waseca Public Schools, no, 10 Winona Area Public Schools, no, 10 Funding Distribution Minneapolis/St. Paul: 10 percent Metro Suburban: 40 percent Non-metro School Districts: 43 percent Charter Schools: 7 percent The Rochester Police Department is updating its policy for officers' use of mobile video recorders while the department and city of Rochester administrative staff mull another policy addition to govern employees' social media use. Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton in June signed into law legislation crafted in the state Legislature that set new standards for video captured by police body cameras. The law classified the majority of data as nonpublic, private material. The Rochester Police Department would have to update its policy to align with state law, Rochester Police Chief Roger Peterson said in June. At a Monday evening meeting of the Police Policy Oversight Commission, Peterson said two changes are clear: The department's retention of video data would increase from 60 days to 90 days, and video collected would be classified as private. The two changes are departures from the policy the department drafted with the review of the oversight commission last year. The updated policy would come to the commission for its review next month, Peterson said. The change in data privacy is a benefit for officers, Peterson said. The Rochester policy that previously had been in place put a burden on officers to decide whether or not to turn on their body cameras in sensitive situations. The new policy will allow officers to record virtually all interactions with citizens and allow the legal system to sort out the public availability of the video data. ADVERTISEMENT The oversight commission also had initiated work on a social media policy that would set standards for police department employees' use of social media. The initiative for a new policy followed an investigation and discipline of a Rochester police officer who was found to have made inappropriate and offensive Facebook posts. In a Monday update to the commission, Peterson said a social media policy had been drafted by the city's Human Resources Department director. It was reviewed by the city's administration and department heads, who recommended revisions to the draft. The city's administrative staff also had recommended drafting a policy that would apply to all city employees, not specifically police department employees, Peterson said. Commission member Don Barlow, who led a subcommittee in drafting recommendations to form the policy, said he was surprised at how long it had taken to draft the policy and asked that the process be expedited. The policy likely would need Rochester City Council review, Peterson said. The commission will receive another update on the status of the social media policy at its next meeting, scheduled for Sept. 12. Legislation helps clarify body camera policies Body cameras fully issued to Rochester police (video) Ten members of Mayo Clinic's food service department delivered petitions signed by more than 1,200 people to the office of Mayo's director of labor relations Monday. The move is the latest escalation in the ongoing fight between SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Mayo about the clinic's tentative agreement to switch the vendor from Sodexo to Morrison Healthcare , while transitioning about 700 employees across southern Minnesota off Mayo's payroll and benefits program via subcontracting. The plan hasn't been finalized, but Mayo has said it expects to complete the transition over the next 12-18 months. The petition, which was delivered to Mayo's Labor Relations Director David Gonyea, reads in part, "We believe this decision is wrong for workers, wrong for patients, and wrong for our communities. We have invested our lives into this company and our families depend on the benefits that Mayo provides. "Morrison is an out-of-state employer that pays poverty wages and does not provide benefits that allow us to care for our families. How is this good for anyone? We care deeply for the patients that we serve every day, so why don't you care about us? Do the right thing and don't subcontract our jobs!" ADVERTISEMENT Supporters of the petition include members of the clinic's food service workers, janitors, housekeepers, maintenance workers, linen transporters, patient care aides, warehouse workers, surgical techs, nursing assistants, RNs and doctors, according to SEIU. Food service employee Jennifer Norgren expressed concern that other Mayo departments may be next, which has prompted others to rally around the food service employees. Union members are concerned that subcontracting will result in lower wages, increased insurance costs and reduced benefits. "We don't want to be the beginning of the end," Norgren said. SEIU says it's scheduled to meet with Mayo officials Aug. 22 for the first of four collective bargaining sessions. An "informational picket and rally" has been scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Aug. 24 in front of Saint Marys Hospital. Mayo Clinic, which was ranked as the nation's top hospital by U.S. News & World Report last week, acknowledged receipt of the petition and released a statement Monday that said in part, "This change is about creating efficiency and consistency, and ensuring the highest quality possible for the food and nutrition services throughout Mayo Clinic. Our focus is on supporting our Food Service teams throughout this transition." Union members have previously said they felt "betrayed" by Mayo's June 30 announcement of its tentative agreement to change food service vendors, and SEIU has since filed a complaint with Mayo alleging that its food service administrator had a "conflict of interest" in the Morrison decision. SEIU filed charges Friday with the National Labor Relations Board, claiming Mayo has not provided "basic information about when, where and why this plan was brought forward by Mayo executives." Those charges are related to Mayo's lack of response to SEIU's questions that were filed July 5. Additional charges with the NLRB could be filed in the coming weeks about the Mayo administrator accused of having a conflict of interest. Mayo says it has rotated the employee in question out of the food service department, per standard protocol. It called the timing "coincidental," further noting it "had nothing to do with the subsequent allegations." ADVERTISEMENT Jamie Gulley, president of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, says Mayo's "dubious ethics" on this decision further reinforces the need for Monday's petition. "This decision, to move thousands of years of experience to a multi-national corporation with no local ties, was bad at the start, and the news from the last week have not helped make this plan seem any better," Gulley said in a statement. "Between the harm to families and the dubious ethics hanging over this decision, it is time for Mayo to revisit this plan." The Service Employees International Union is based in Washington, D.C., and has 2 million members. The national SEIU Healthcare unit, founded in 2007, says it's the largest health care union in North America, with more than 1.1 million members. Of the four races for Rochester City Council this year, just one will require a primary. In the city's Ward 6, where current council member Sandra Means will not seek re-election, three candidates have come forward. The primary will see the field of Annalissa Johnson, Patrick "PJ" Day and Nick Carter narrowed to two contestants. Destination Medical Center, Rochester's projected growth and transit infrastructure have been talking points for all three candidates. Johnson has been forward about her support for improved and extended bicycle lanes on roads to provide more transit options for Rochester travelers. Day, in a League of Women Voters candidate forum with Johnson, said he would prefer to see the city invest in trails for cyclists, rather than encourage riding on streets. Carter, who was not able to attend the candidate forum, focused his transit comments on the area outside of the DMC district, where he said the city has failed to implement effective public transit. ADVERTISEMENT The candidates each would be new to elected office Carter is a volunteer with the Disabled Veterans of America, Day ran for the Ward 6 seat once before and Johnson is a newcomer to local government. To view city ward maps and polling places, see rochestermn.gov . WASHINGTON Donald Trump changed some of his facts to fit his agenda Monday, pitching shades of truth and misconceptions in what was billed as a major economic policy speech. He wrongly accused Hillary Clinton of proposing to increase middle-class taxes and blamed crumbling roads and bridges on money spent on refugees, a minuscule expense in comparison with infrastructure. He overstated the corporate tax burden and declared the jobless rate the prime statistic for holding leaders accountable for the state of the economy a hoax. A look at some of his claims and how they compare with the facts: TRUMP:"She said she wanted to raise taxes on the middle class." THE FACTS: If Clinton said that and it's debatable it's clear she didn't mean to. Her economic agenda calls for middle-class tax cuts (which are not specified) and she has repeatedly said she would not raise taxes on middle incomes. In a speech in Omaha, Nebraska, last week, she talked about "fairer rules for the middle class" and delivered a line that was difficult to understand, either "we are going to raise taxes on the middle class" or "we aren't." ADVERTISEMENT If she said the former, it was obviously a flub. Her policy on middle-class taxes has been consistent no increases. ___ TRUMP:"You cannot ever start a small business under the tremendous regulatory burden that you have today in our country." THE FACTS:Trump is exaggerating. There are clear signs that new business formation has slowed, but it hasn't ground to the halt that he suggests. Between 2011 and 2013, the most recent years available, the Census Bureau found that the number of companies that employ fewer than four people has increased by 43,232 to 3.58 million. Nor should anyone assume that regulation alone explains the decline in small business starts. Most entrepreneurs relied on personal savings, home equity and credit cards to finance new companies before the housing bust hurt their ability to access credit, according to a speech by Dennis Lockhart, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Other studies say student loans are inhibiting entrepreneurship among younger Americans. ___ TRUMP:"Our roads and bridges fell into disrepair, yet we found the money to resettle millions of refugees at taxpayer expense." ADVERTISEMENT THE FACT:You have to go a long way back to get to "millions" of refugees. Over the last eight years, the period Trump addresses when pointing to failures of President Barack Obama, the U.S. resettled 530,830 refugees. That includes many from the final year of the Bush administration. So far in the budget year that ends Sept. 30, the U.S. has resettled 59,099 refugees. Last year, 69,933. Over the last 15 years: about 850,000. The State Department puts the cost of the resettlement program to taxpayers at less than $1.2 billion a year. That's roughly 0.03 percent of the federal budget, a rounding error according to most experts. That sum would hardly make up for the infrastructure shortfall. The American Society of Civil Engineers said in a report that the government needs to spend $1.4 trillion through 2025 to close the infrastructure funding gap. ___ TRUMP:"According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, before NAFTA went into effect, there were 285,000 auto workers in Michigan. Today, that number is only 160,000." THE FACTS:Trump is playing fast and loose with the stats. The numbers cited in his speech don't even line up with the footnotes provided by his campaign. Michigan actually added jobs after the North American Free Trade Agreement began in 1994, when auto plants employed roughly 200,000 workers. Over the next six years, their ranks increased to 231,000. The decline only occurred after the tech bubble burst and U.S. automakers lost market share among U.S. consumers, a decline that prompted a government bailout that caused Michigan auto jobs to start rising again in late 2009. Many U.S. auto jobs also relocated to other states. Foreign automakers such as Toyota, Honda and Nissan built plants in other states, including Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama. ADVERTISEMENT ___ TRUMP on the unemployment rate:"This 5 percent figure is one of the biggest hoaxes in modern American politics." THE FACTS:The unemployment rate has its shortcomings but it is not a hoax. The unemployment rate has become controversial since the recession ended because many people have stopped looking for work, and the government doesn't count those out of work unless they are actively searching for jobs. If an unemployed person gives up on a job hunt, that reduces the unemployment rate without anyone being hired, so it has overstated the improvement in the job market. Still, a broader measure of unemployment that includes people who have recently stopped looking for jobs has also fallen from a peak of 17.4 percent in 2010 to 9.7 percent now. The proportion of Americans working or looking for work is now 62.8 percent, near the lowest level since the 1970s. That's down from 66 percent before the recession. At least half that decline in the workforce stems from greater retirements, as baby boomers age. Many of the figures Trump cited in his speech are compiled by the same monthly survey that produces the unemployment figure he considers a hoax. ___ TRUMP:"The United States also has the highest business tax rate among the major industrialized nations of the world, at 35 percent. It's almost 40 percent when you add in taxes at the state level." THE FACTS:The stated corporate tax rate looks high, but most U.S. businesses don't pay it. The tax code is full of deductions, credits and loopholes that limit the tax burden for many companies. The effective corporate income tax rate is around 27 percent, roughly in line with global averages, according to government estimates. Another way to look at it is examining federal corporate taxes as a share of the U.S. economy. Corporate taxes made up just 1.9 percent last year, according to the government. That is well below the historic average of 2.7 percent, but slightly above the Reagan-era levels during the 1980s. In some years, the majority of all large U.S.-controlled corporations reported no federal tax liability, according to the Government Accountability Office. ___ TRUMP, on what would happen if he became president:"The auto industry will come roaring back." THE FACTS:The industry has already roared back from the financial crisis. Total U.S. auto sales reached a record level of 17.5 million last year, and are on track to top that figure this year. Overseas automakers are benefiting from those sales, but many foreign car makers such as Toyota, Honda and Volkswagen have factories in the United States. Ford Motor Co., meanwhile, says its sales are at the highest level in a decade. ___ TRUMP:Repealing and replacing Obama's health care law would mean "saving another 2 million American jobs." THE FACTS:Since Obama's health care law came into effect, the economy has added more than 14.6 million jobs and the jobless rate has fallen to 4.9 percent from 9.9. percent. So how can it be that repealing the law would mean 2 million more jobs? Trump's charge has its origins in an estimate by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that the labor force would be smaller by about 2 million workers in 2025 under the health care law than without it. But that's not because the law is a job-killer. The agency explained that the main impact of subsidized coverage under the law is on the supply of labor. Translation: It gives many people the opportunity to retire, stay at home with family or switch to part-time work, because they can get health insurance more easily outside of their jobs. That voluntary retreat from the workforce, made possible by the law's benefits, is not the same as employers slashing jobs because of the law's costs. Overall, the health care law seems to have had limited impact on jobs. ___ TRUMP:"Nearly 12 million people have been added to the food stamp rolls and ... it's growing so rapidly since President Obama took office." THE FACTS:He's right that the number of food stamp recipients has grown substantially since Obama took office. More than 28 million people received food stamps in 2008, before Obama was inaugurated. As of May, the most recent data available, 43.5 million people were receiving them. If anything, Trump understated the rise of food-stamp recipients when he put the increase at nearly 12 million. His figure appears to be from 2009, when Obama already was in office. The number grew rapidly in the aftermath of the recession, peaking at 47.8 million in 2012. It's fallen 9 percent since. That's because of an improving economy and the return of a three-month time limit on benefits for unemployed, childless adults that was suspended in many states when unemployment rates spiked. Even so, it remains far higher than before Obama became president. ___ We have reached many milestones and witnessed plenty of success stories at the Guam Department of Labor during my current tenure, but I will b Read moreGDOL wants to be a part of your employment solutions Nebraska attorney Dave Begley has filed another of his reports from Council Bluffs, this one on the appearance of GOP vice presidential candidate Mike Pence. Close readers may observe that Pences positive case for Trump is a little thin. Dave reports: Governor Mike Pence appeared in Council Bluffs, Iowa on Monday night. He has the personality of a likable guy. He should be effective in raising money and getting votes in key Midwestern swing states. He made news in two respects. Governor Pence met with the parents of Iowa native Sarah Root. The full heartbreaking story is reported by the Des Moines Register here. The short version is that Sarah had just graduated from college, with honors, when a drunk illegal alien hit her car in Omaha and killed her. The illegal alien was able to get out of jail on bond for some reason that is still not clear to me; he has not been seen since. Donald Trump referred to this case during his acceptance speech and Pence did so himself on Monday. Nebraskas and Iowas Senators have introduced a bill to stop further tragedies like this. Considering that Sarah Root was just one year older than my youngest daughter I have been especially moved by this horrible case. If we had a real border, Sarah Root would be alive today. This loss was not an acceptable loss as the Democrats open borders policy would have you believe. The second item was that protesters interrupted the Governors speech. I think the chant was: Stop the hate. Typical Democrat non sequitur. I was surprised the Dems would pick on a vice presidential candidate. Perhaps they are nervous; perhaps theyre following the Democratic tradition. The speech itself was workmanlike in a good way. It was divided into three parts. The first part was devoted to advocating for Donald Trump. He hit the main points. Trump is a fighter. Trump is a doer and not a talker. Trump has been attacked by the Dems and media and is still standing. Trump understands average people. Pence cited Trumps speech on economics in Detroit on Monday and asserted its main points: a 15 percent corporate tax rate and a moratorium on all regulations. New or rewritten trade deals are also part of the package. The second part constituted an attack on both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Here Pence held out Hillary Clinton as representing the failed status quo while Trump-Pence represents change. One of his lines was to the effect that the American people have been told by the Democrats that this is as good as it gets while that would not be the case with the Republicans in the White House. American greatness; not mediocrity with 1 percent growth. Hillarys agenda is stale and old. The Indiana governor said Hillarys acceptance speech was so boring that he had a hard time staying awake during it just like Bill Clinton did. Again, Madam Hillary represents the status quo. Hillary will tax and spend in the the failed fashion of Obama: Lets decide here and now that Hillary will never be elected. Pence whacked Obama hard and I was glad to see that. President Obama is of the opinion that Donald Trump is both unfit to serve as President and woefully unprepared. Pences line, Obama should know about being woefully unprepared. He condemned the cash for hostages ransom deal with Iran and the disastrous $150 billion payday for Iran; Mrs. Clinton had a hand in the latter. For the Iran deal alone, according to Pence, Madam Hillary is disqualified from office. The third part of his speech was the Pence family legal immigration and American dream story. He urged the crowd to talk to their friends and neighbors and ignore the TV ads and cable news shows. Get out the vote. A final note. When the candidate was working the rope line I told him his speech would be written up by me for Power Line. He gave me his heartfelt thanks and I felt good about that. Judicial Watch today released 296 pages of State Department records. They include 44 email exchanges that were not previously turned over to the State Department, notwithstanding Hillary Clintons claim that as far as she knew, all of her government emails were turned over. The emails, in the words of Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton, show the Clinton Foundation, Clinton donors, and operatives worked with Hillary Clinton [while she was Secretary of State] in potential violation of the law. No wonder Clinton and Huma Abedin hid emails from the American people, the courts, and Congress. In one exchange, from April 2009, Clinton Foundation official Doug Band pushed for a job for an associate. He told Cheryl Mills and Abedin that it is important to take care of [Redacted]. The emails caption is favor. In response, Abedin assured Band that Personnel has been sending him options. Satisfied that the favor was being granted, Band responded great. We wrote about Doug Band in connection with Hillary Clintons corruption here. Band was listed as a passenger on a Lolita Express flight with Bill Clinton, two women (Janice and Jessica), and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Later in April 2009, according to Chuck Ross, Band again emailed Abedin asking for another favor. Can someone pls call [redacted]? He calls me every day and we owe him some attention, Band wrote. I cant tell whether Abedin or some other high level Clinton aide complied with Bands request and provided the attention that Team Clinton owed. In another email, also from 2009, Band told Mills and Abedin to put Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire and Clinton Foundation donor Gilbert Chagoury in touch with the State Departments substance person on Lebanon. Band explained that Chagoury is key guy there [Lebanon] and to us. He insisted that Abedin call Amb. Jeffrey Feltman to connect him to Chagoury. Chagoury, who was convicted in 2000 in Switzerland for laundering money from Nigeria, is a close friend of former President Bill Clinton and a top donor to the Clinton Foundation. According to Judicial Watch, which cites Foundation documents, he has appeared near the top of the Foundations donor list as a $1 million to $5 million contributor, according to foundation documents. Chagoury also pledged $1 billion to the Clinton Global Initiative. No wonder Band regarded Chagoury a key guy. . .to us, i.e. to Team Clinton. I cant tell whether Abedin did as Band told her on behalf of Chagoury in this instance. However, these emails strongly suggest that Clinton failed to comply with the ethics agreement she made in order to be confirmed as Secretary of State. On January 5, 2009, she agreed: For the duration of my appointment as Secretary if I am confirmed, I will not participate personally and substantially in any particular matter involving specific parties in which The William J. Clinton Foundation (or the Clinton Global Initiative) is a party or represents a party. Doing favors for Band, a Clinton Foundation official, and Chagoury, a Clinton Foundation donor and key guy, strikes me as inconsistent with that pledge. And lets not forget the appointment of Rajiv Fernando to a place on the International Security Advisory Board. Fernando was manifestly unqualified for this post, as Clintons own team acknowledged. However, he was a significant donor to the Clinton Foundation. There have been reports that the FBI is investigating the Clinton Foundation for public corruption. Even assuming the truth of such reports, I think its fanciful to think that anything will come of this. The FBI has shot its wad. However, the new emails are further evidence of public corruption, whether or not the FBI elects to do something about it. The other day I wrote: Black Lives Matter is not about black lives; its about the fact that Occupy Wall Street fizzled, requiring the radical left to find another hobbyhorse, this time one with a racial hook. Now I learn, via Jack Fowler at NRO, that this the finding of a detailed report by Anne Sorock of The Frontier Lab. Based on lengthy interviews with activists and organizers, Sorock writes: Black Lives Matter as a movement represents the hopes and dreams of leftist organizers who shared with us that, until now, they had never felt such a sense of hope and excitement that their goal as one operative put it, total social upheaval, and systemic change could be realized in their lifetime. From veteran agitators like the Weather Undergrounds Bill Ayers to a new crop of social-media-wielding female and LGBTQ leaders, Black Lives Matter is encapsulating the hopes and dreams of multiple generations of progressives in a way, they say, no movement has before. The three female founders of the movement have made it clear, and the message has seeded itself as far down the chain as the operatives we spoke with, that Black Lives Matter is the vessel through which all progressive causes can flow. LGBTQ, illegal immigration, abortion, and countless other causes are simmering just beneath the public face of the focus on police violence. Even police violence flows neatly, according to Black Lives Matter, into economic violence wage issues, workers rights . . . The panoply of leftist groups come together under this banner. The validity of Sorocks conclusion is evident from the demands recently presented by the BLM movement, which I discussed here and here. It would seem like a long-shot to convert protests over a few highly publicized police shootings, some of which have already been found justified, into a mass movement in favor of total social upheaval. We in the radical antiwar movement of the late 1960s tried to use the Vietnam War, an enormously traumatic and prolonged historical watershed, this way. We failed. But we didnt have years of leftist indoctrination by high schools and colleges to build upon. Black Lives Matter does. Indeed, Black History months begin the race-based indoctrination as early as kindergarten. Sorock explains the problem this way: Young Americans across the country are. . .caught up in the Black Lives Matter fervor, if for different reasons than the organizers and operatives who are keen to bring them in. A representative survey conducted in June 2016 with 1,965 young adults ages 19-30 revealed that 51 percent of young adults support the Black Lives Matter movement, compared to 32 percent who said they oppose it. This freshman class is more likely to participate in mass movement protest action than any of the classes of the past fifty years. . .while also susceptible to the threat of exclusion from the lefts cultural community. Many of the Black Lives Matter agenda items are popular with students independently of any relation to racial issues. LBGTQ, amnesty for illegal immigrants, and (sadly) perhaps screwing Israel come to mind. Socialism is far from a dirty word for todays students, as Bernie Sanders demonstrated. What could go wrong for the revolutionaries behind BLM? Plenty. Rising crime rates for one thing. In this context, to be mugged is the quintessential example of being mugged by reality. We hear stories of white crime victims refusing to report crimes committed by blacks on the theory that this would be an exercise in white privilege (or something). But this type of lunacy seems unlikely to survive a sustained crime wave. Nor will ordinary blacks be pleased by a spike in crime in their neighborhoods. If ordinary blacks call for more aggressive law enforcement, as they did in the early 1980s, the BLM narrative will be undercut and its utility as a vehicle for total social upheaval undermined. And what about reparations? As todays students assume financial responsibilities, will they support the transfer of their income to blacks for wrongs they had no role in perpetrating? Maybe, I dont want to underestimate the extent to which they have been brainwashed. But maybe not. And what if the LGBTQs get everything they want, student loans are forgiven, fossil fuels are made economically unviable, and so forth, but there are no reparations? Then, the joke will be on the black activists, and they wont be amused by this ultimate manifestation of white privilege. Ill end my speculation here, but with this warning: Fasten your seat belts. In a post below, Scott directs attention to Richard Samuelsons Mosaic column Whos afraid of religious liberty? I agree with Scott that Samuelsons piece, which discusses the danger to freedom inherent in anti-discrimination law, should be required reading. In conjunction with that column, I recommend David Bernsteins response in Mosiac, How Anti-Discrimination Became a Religion, and What It Means for Judaism. Both parts of the column the how (which contains a strong indictment of the ACLU) and the what are well worth reading. Ill focus on the second part what the anti-discrimination fetish means for Judaism in America. Currently, Bernstein says, Jews are quite popular here, the disproportionate number of hate crimes directed at Jews notwithstanding: Indeed, the general fondness for Jews ranges across the political spectrum, from left-wing atheists who admire the Jewish contribution to social-justice movements to evangelical Christians who believe that the Bible commands them to protect the state of Israel and the Jewish people. But is this popularity sustainable? Bernstein thinks not: If present demographic trends continue, in the relatively near future most Americans of Jewish ancestry will no longer have any formal ties to the organized Jewish community. True, in common with Irish, Italian, and other ethnic groups, many will no doubt continue to display a vague nostalgic affection for their ethnic origins, but their specifically Jewish heritage will not otherwise significantly affect their lives. As for those who remain active members of the Jewish community, they will be divided among a large but shrinking cohort of mostly Reform and other religiously liberal Jews; a smaller but vigorous group of modern and centrist Orthodox Jews joined by remnants of the rapidly declining Conservative movement; and a large and rapidly growing group of haredi or ultra-Orthodox Jews. What happens when this last-named group, whose current rate of per-year population growth stands at 5.5-percent, forms a significant element of the public face of American Jewry? Alt right anti-Semites will have a new target, for sure. More threateningly, the left will become hostile to this segment Judaism as its population stretches from six to seven figures and its adherents increasingly assert electoral and political power. Anti-discrimination will be the pretext. As Samuelson says, Orthodox Judaism cant exist without discrimination. Orthodox institutions (with a few exceptions) do not recognize women as rabbis, do not recognize Jewish-Gentile intermarriages as legitimate, and do not recognize same-sex marriages or, in most cases, the legitimacy of same-sex romantic/sexual relationships. This much political incorrectness will be deemed beyond the pale. Then theres Israel. A Jewish state, whatever its policy towards Palestinians, is inherently discriminatory so the left will always have a pretext for hating it. Bernstein writes: If hostility to Israel becomes a truly defining attribute of the American political left, as current trends suggest it will, this will constitute another ground for anti-Jewish ire. We have already seen previews in attacks on pro-Israel neocons in the Bush administration during the Iraq war and more recently in anti-Semitic manifestations of the BDS movement on campus. Bernstein concludes: Get your wings PR-Inside.com: 2016-08-09 16:00:24 Press Information Crewlink Baldoyle, Dublin Peter O Neill Digital Marketing Manager email http://www.crewlink.ie Published by Peter O Neill 0861699500 e-mail http://www.crewlink.ie # 322 Words Baldoyle, DublinDigital Marketing ManagerPeter O Neill0861699500 Dublin, Ireland 8th August 2016. With unprecedented growth, Crewlink, an official recruitment and training partner of Ryanair are delighted to announce a major recruitment drive across Europe to fill unlimited cabin crew positions. Recruitment days will be taking place in major cities in Italy, Spain, Greece, Romania, the Netherlands, Poland, Hungary, Malta, the UK and Ireland over the coming months (please click here for a full list of recruitment days http://www.crewlink.ie/en/recruitment-days) Crewlinks Head of Recruitment, Niall Gleeson said:Ryanair carried a world record number of passengers in July 2016 and have substantial growth projections. Crewlink are currently recruiting for unlimited cabin crew positions throughout Europe with an amazing experience and benefits on offerSuccessful candidates will receive a competitive remuneration package including staff travel rates and have the opportunity to meet new friends from diverse cultures.Follow your dream and register to attend one of our recruitment days taking place across Europe www.crewlink.ie For Cabin Crew positions:- Unlimited positions available for the right candidates- No previous experience is required.- Full training will be given to successful candidates.- Spoken and written English skills required.- Guaranteed 3 year contract offered when training is completed.About CrewlinkCrewlink recruits, trains and employs Cabin Crew for the aviation industry, with over 5,000 crew members currently operating on Ryanair aircraft. Crewlink brings together a team of highly qualified and dedicated professionals with unrivalled knowledge and experience of the airline industry.About Ryanair:Ryanair is Europes favourite airline, carrying 117m p.a. on more than 1,800 daily flights from 84 bases, connecting over 200 destinations in 33 countries on a fleet of over 350 Boeing 737 aircraft, with a further 315 Boeing 737s on order, which will enable Ryanair to lower fares and grow traffic to 180m p.a. by FY24. Ryanair has a team of more than 11,500 highly skilled aviation professionals delivering Europes No.1 on-time performance, and an industry leading 31 year safety record. The first physical step for a turnaround is accepting the reality of what has happened, and accepting the fact that this isnt something you can go back and change. This is a difficult thing to do with honesty. Responding effectively to adversity is challenging but many people have done it effectively. So you too can! Many people have been able to climb out of the hole of adversity. It is likely for some people to reject the God factor, but in their book, Supersuvivours: The Surprising Link Between Suffering and Success, David Feldman and Daniel Feldman show that super survivours find strength in something larger than themselves. Faith becomes a determining factor in helping to overcome trauma. Some feel God has literally called out to them, while others find a set of beliefs helps ease suffering. Whatever their belief system, these people are able to tap into the power of a connection with something larger than themselves. We said all that last week. I have used the God factor to address adversity, so I can relate to it, and even recommend it. The following are some of the things I did without indeed knowing. But now described lucidly by experts below, I know. Trusting God: Believing God and reflecting on His ways to remember that He has been faithful in the past is helpful. Perseverance: Even when we dont understand and the suffering seems too great to bear, we should never quit. We continue seeking the Lord through His Word and prayer. Cling to hope in God, and praise Him in the midst of the pain. Remembering that God is in control: Hes allowing this adversity for a reason and will demonstrate His sustaining power through it. Even though the pain might feel intolerable, the Lord will always prosper His children. Scripture compares our growth to gold, which is refined through fire. We will encounter difficultiessometimes intense and painful trials that seem too much for us. Yet we can rely on our heavenly Father to deliver and grow us in ways we could never imagine. He doesnt demand that we endure on our own, but He does want us to respond and trust Him. Other steps Acceptance: The first physical step for a turnaround is accepting the reality of what has happened, and the fact that this isnt something you can go back and change. An expert, who calls himself simply Joel cautions that reliving past events and allowing yourself to become consumed with disappointment, anger, guilt or regret is not a healthy process. You should never deny the reality of what has happened or the emotions this has stirred, but rather than worrying about what you could have done differently, you should start thinking about what changes you want to make moving forward. At the same time, you should accept that there are things beyond your control, and allow yourself to let go of any fear of the difficulties you might face in the future. Otherwise, you will end up living in a state of paralysis. Taking responsibility: When adversity strikes, people often feel like victims. People like to be able to find someone to blame when things go wrong in their lives, and find some sort of transient comfort in the notion of their own innocence or misfortune. Ultimately, however, this is not a constructive way to approach the situation. In some cases, such as the death of a loved one from natural causes, there really is no-one to blame. In others, such as losing a job, you may be able to identify someone who could have treated you differently, but focusing on that person wont get you anywhere. Recognising what you have learnt: If you have managed to accept the unpleasant experiences you have endured, and you have taken responsibility for the way you react, Joel says its important to stop and reflect on the ways in which that journey has affected you. Has it made you a stronger person, better prepared to take on challenges in future? Are you wiser now, more comfortable with your place in the world? Perhaps you will even be able to pass on the insights you have gained to others facing adversity of their own. Identifying new goals: He says that there is no better time to take stock of the direction in which your life is heading. If you lost your job, this is the time to be honest with yourself were you 100 per cent happy with your career path so far, or does your passion lie elsewhere? If you lost a parent to a preventable disease, you could use this to motivate yourself to live a healthier life. Or you might just be more grateful for the time youve got, and think of new things you want to achieve, places you want to see, or experiences you want to have. Once youve set some new goals for yourself follow your dreams! How Some CEOs Handled Adversity The following, excerpted from Comebacks: Powerful Lessons from Leaders Who Endured Setbacks and Recaptured Success on Their Terms by Andrea Redmond and Patricia Crisafulli, is an interesting narrative of how some top-shots in business handled adversity. Christopher Galvin: Being asked to step down as CEO of Motorola , the company founded by his grandfather, just as a turnaround he had put in place was coming to fruition, was deeply painful. To endure the setback he relied upon inner resources of resilience that allowed him to gut it out. As he observes, Nobody can talk you out of what you are feeling. People say all kinds of nice things, but that doesnt take away the pain. Patricia Dunn: Her strategy for facing felony charges related to the corporate spying scandal at Hewlett-Packard while she battled cancer was to make a cosmic distinction between those I knew and didnt know To endure difficult days of being vilified in the press, she relied on the support of family, friends, current and former colleagues, and others who reached out to her. If the world had gone silent, she says, I would have been devastated. Patricia was suffering from cancer, so unlike Christopher, she needed people around her. Jamie Dimon: Following a setback, most of the leaders we interviewed advocated taking a break, physically and mentally. Jamie, CEO of JPMorgan Chase , explains that after being fired as president of Citigroup in November 1998 he engaged in a thought process to figure out his next step. What did I want to do? I didnt want to fill up my calendar before I decided. David Neeleman: He responded to the upset of leaving JetBlue Airways, which he had founded, by focusing on what he could do next. Even as he processed the emotional upheaval of leaving behind his baby, Neeleman launched his next venture. He found it was better to find something else to focus on Think about people other than yourself. Jac Nasser: In the midst of a career disappointment, a common experience is to return to ones roots. After stepping down as CEO of Ford Motor Company , Jac took several months off to return to Australia where he had been raised and where his 98-year-old father still lives. Nasser credits his father for having an unwavering level of confidence and a belief that things will work out in the long term if you work at them. Harry Kraemer: After resigning from Baxter International, Harry relied upon his lifelong practice of self-reflection, which he adopted in high school. Through self-reflection, Kraemer was able to look at his life honestly and with new perspective as he weighed his choices of what to do next. You have to take some time to really stop and think through what you are all about, Kraemer explains. David Pottruck: David, who left as CEO of Charles Schwab & Company, where he had worked for 20 years, has also engaged in an honest and candid self-assessment of his strengths and accomplishmentsas well as his shortcomings and failures. As he observes, There are always setbacks. Success in life demands the ability to bounce back. The federal government has denied reports of an imminent increase in pump price of fuel. There had been speculations of a fresh raise, two months after the government increased the price of petrol from N86.50 to N145 a litre. Reports said the government was considering new rates as Nigerias foreign exchange crisis continues to hamper importation of products. But speaking to journalists on Tuesday after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Maikanti Baru, said the government had no such plans. I have not been directed to increase pump price, even the other price was based on recommendation from the regulated body, he said. Im not aware that they are planning to do any increase; you know there are several factors that necessitated that especially the issue of exchange rate that has moved and we dont expect any serious changes. So far the request for forex for importation of gasoline popularly called petrol has been met, and our own supply situation is robust, we are meeting demands. We have over 1.4 billion liters on ground. So I dont see any basis for increase. However, the review could be done by the right body, you should contact PPPRA; that is the regulatory body as far as petrol pricing is concern. The Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, said on Tuesday in Abuja that Nigeria would end malaria mortality by 2020. The minister stated this at a town hall meeting and policy dialogue for good governance jointly organised by the Alumni Association of the National Institute (AANI) and Federal Ministry of Information and Culture. We have set some timeframe for ourselves. We are committed to reducing maternal mortality before the life span of this administration. We want to end malaria mortality by the end of 2020, he said. Mr. Adewole said the government was at the verge of putting a new health policy for the country. He recalled that attempts had been made twice, in 1988 and 2004, respectively, to develop health policy for the nation. This year, government is designing a new health policy deliberately captured to promote the health of Nigerians to accelerate socio-economic development. We want to make a statement that when we improve the health of the people, we can engender socio-economic development. The minister said the 2016 budget features three prominent areas in the health sector immunisation, management of disease outbreak, maternal and child mortality. He said the government was committed to ensuring accountability, transparency and reducing inefficiency in the health sector. Mr. Adewole said that the government was also looking beyond the budget and had secured a $500 million loan from the World Bank to address maternal and child mortality. In utilising the fund, the minister said the federal government would partner with the states. The loan will be accessible to states but with close assessment and monitoring to ensure its proper usage for maternal health, child birth, malarial, nutrition, immunisation and contraception. States that perform well on the indicators will be given more money, he said. Besides, the minister said the government launched a new programme called Better Health for All Nigerians; an initiative for taking care of the poor people. He said through the programme, government will offer free surgery to the poor; screen 500,000 for diabetes and hypertension; 40,000 for hepatitis; 40,000 for cervical cancer, and 20,000 for breast cancer. He said the programme would also be used to handle the nutritional emergency in Borno. Mr. Adewole said that seven tertiary health institutions had been selected for upgrade to handle cancer, renal and cardiac problems, which takes many patients abroad. He said the step would help to reverse medical tourism which is costing the country over one billion dollars annually on capital flight. The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Kayode Fayemi, in a contribution at the town hall meeting said Nigeria is a mineral rich nation, but not a mining nation. He said the ugly trend was because the country abandoned mining in the better parts of the last 40 year. The minister assured that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is committed to changing the trend with its economic diversification programme. Mr. Fayemi said the government would support investors in the mining sector to ensure it takes vantage position in economic diversification programme. He also disclosed that the government is working on a full data of available mineral resources that investors can access on-line. The minister said that government had regained the abandoned Ajaokuta Steel Company from legal wrangling and ready to put it to profitable use. (NAN) The World Bank has again asked for more time to release details of how the Nigerian government spent recovered Sani Abacha loot. This followed the banks decision to refer portion of appeal by Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) to the Bank Archives Unit for processing for public access. In a letter dated 8 August 2016 and sent to SERAP, the World Bank said, In response to your request under AI4288, we would like to inform you that we are working on your request as referred to the Archives by the Access to Information Committee in its decision on the appeal and need additional time to provide a more comprehensive response. We regret any inconvenience for this delay. This development was disclosed Tuesday in a statement by SERAP executive director, Adetokunbo Mumuni. The World Banks request for more time followed the appeal SERAP lodged with the Bank on February 5, on the ground that the Banks decision on its initial request did not reveal important portions of the information requested on how Abacha loot was spent. This is the second time the World Bank is asking for additional time to provide SERAP with details of spending of Abacha loot. The bank, in a letter dated October 15 and signed by Ann May of the Access to Information Team, said that In response to your request under AI3982, we would like to inform you that we are still considering your request and need additional time to provide you with a more comprehensive response. SERAP said: The portion of the appeal which the Bank has now referred to its Archives Unit for public access include information on: evidence and list of the 23 projects allegedly completed with recovered Abacha loot, and whether the 23 projects where actually completed; and what became of the 2 abandoned projects; evidence and location of the 8 health centers built with recovered Abacha loot reviewed by the World Bank; and evidence and location of the 18 power projects confirmed by the World Bank. Other aspects of the spending of Abacha loot the Bank referred to its Archives Unit for processing for public access are: information on: how the $50mn Abacha loot received before 2005 kept in the special account was spent; evidence and location of schools which benefited from the Universal Basic Education (UBE) program in the amount of NGN24.25bn; and evidence and location of the 13 road projects completed with the recovered Abacha loot, including the names of the 3 of the largest road and bridge projects in each geo-political zone. Ahead of the Peoples Democratic Partys national convention slated for August 17 in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, former president of the Senate, David Mark, has cautioned party leaders and faithful against impunity or imposition of candidates. Mr. Mark, in a statement by his spokesperson, Paul Mumeh, on Monday, recalled that the defeat of the PDP in the last general election was akin to self-inflicted injuries on account of imposition of candidates and the impunity of some leaders. Mr. Mark said this at a meeting with the executive members of the Benue State chapter of the PDP in his Otukpo country home on Monday. He said that it was incumbent on PDP leaders and members to allow the popular will of the people prevail at the congresses and convention. The former senate president urged members of the party to remain steadfast with the PDP as a party of choice just as he frowned against cross carpeting at will because of the current challenges. Mr. Mark said that such inconsistencies neither enhance the sustenance of democratic culture nor the integrity or credibility of politicians who decamp. Mr. Mark stated that, If we must uphold the sanctity of democratic culture, we must follow the path of honour like the Democrats and Republicans in the United States of America or the Labour Party or the Conservatives in the United Kingdom who hold on tenaciously to their political ideologies no matter the odds. He restated that no matter the challenges, he will not leave the PDP, a platform he said afforded him the opportunity to contest and win elections since 1999. Mr. Mark reminded party faithful to work hard in the days ahead as credible opposition and overcome the challenges. Briefing Mr. Mark earlier on the affairs of the PDP in Benue State, chairman of the party, John Ngbede, said the party is now united and working as one family for good. Mr. Ngbede however listed the challenges facing the party to include cash crunch situation hindering the activities of the party which he requested. The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) on Tuesday said that no fewer than 400 bidders were competing to participate in its capital projects for 2016. The bidders are bidding for alternative revenue streams like canteens, clubs and car parks, communication centres and others; the disposal of scrap metals and other capital projects. Ben Iloanusi, the Deputy Director in charge of the corporations procurement disclosed this at the official unveiling of documents screening for the bidders at its headquarters in Lagos. Mr. Iloanusi, who said that the exercise was an official opening of documents submitted by bidders, added that the corporation had not commenced evaluation. The management of the Nigerian Railway Corporation is officially conducting a tenders bid opening, an hour after the closing of submission of tender-bid documents. Mr. Iloanusi said that NRC invited newsmen and non-governmental organizations to witness the event to ensure transparency and in compliance with the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act. We are not evaluating yet or authenticating documents; we are only opening documents and confirming what the bidders have. The reason for this is for transparency, he said. NAN reports that in July, the NRC management published in some national dailies and federal tenders journal an invitation for technical and financial tenders bids as required by law. Mr. Iloanusi said the date for evaluation and authentication of documents would be made public after this exercise. Mr. Iloanusi said that bidders who failed to include relevant documents in their tenders bids would not be shortlisted for evaluation. He said that the exercise had become necessary to enhance fairness, openness, transparency and professionalism. (NAN) Former President of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, has emphasized the need for free and fair elections in Africa. Mr. Jonathan, who is leading the African Union Elections Observation Mission to Zambia, said, Monday, on Twitter, If Africa cant yet send men to the moon, we should at least organize elections that are free and fair of which the whole world will be proud. The southern African country holds its presidential and parliamentary elections this Thursday. Mr. Jonathan, in a preceding tweet, posted a group photograph he took with other AU observers. As they (are) ready to deploy to the field I charged my observers to uphold the hopes and aspirations of Zambians, Mr Jonathan wrote in a caption to the photograph. The former president has so far met with representatives of Zambias electoral commission as well as candidates for the elections. He also met with the former president of Zambia, Kenneth Kaunda, whom he described as one of Africas inspiring leaders. The forthcoming presidential election in Zambia is mainly between two candidates the incumbent, Edgar Lungu of the ruling Patriotic Front, and the Hakainde Hichilema of the United Party for National Development. Both Mr. Lungu and Mr. Hichilema had contested in an early election in January 2015, following the death of the then President Michael Sata. Mr. Lungu won by a narrow margin. The Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, has described the killing of soldiers and airmen on lawful duty in Bosso, Niger State, by suspected gun runners as unacceptable. Speaking with journalists on Tuesday shortly after addressing personnel at the 332 Artilery Regiment in Shendam, Mr. Buratai, however, said the incident would not deter the military from carrying out its lawful duties. What happened in Bosso is highly unfortunate, he said, noting that the troops were on a mission to recover arms hid in communities in the area when they were ambushed and killed. But instead of them gun runners to be law abiding, they took the law into their hands and attacked the troops. We have the mandate to bring the situation under control, we are working with the police to make sure that we keep our society free of criminalities, the chief of army staff said. The army in a statement on Saturday said that eight soldiers and two airmen were ambushed and killed in Bosso during raid on hideout of suspected gun runners. Spokesman of the army, Sani Usman, said the military killed eight of the suspected bandits and arrest 57 others. On his visit to the regiment and other military formations in the state, Mr. Buratai said it was routine and to find out challenges of the troops in order to address them. If you are not on ground to see them and know what their challenges are, you will not be able to appreciate and address them, he said. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the chief of army staff announced the promotion of a gunner in the regiment, Dantani Ibrahim, to Lance Corporal, for his bravery, dedication and hard work. Mr. Buratai, who later addressed wives of soldiers at the regiment, promised to give their welfare a top priority, adding that children of soldiers who died in line of duty would be sponsored up to the university level. He also said any of those children, who desire to get enlisted into any of the military services, would be given priority. (NAN) Abubakar Usman, a Nigerian blogger detained since Monday by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, is having difficulties meeting the stringent bail conditions demanded by the agency, his lawyer said. The lawyer, Michael Bello, told PREMIUM TIMES on Tuesday that he and other legal representatives of Mr. Usman may be left with no other choice than to pursue a fundamental rights enforcement in the court of law. Mr. Usman, a blogger known for his strong pro-APC views, was whisked away from his Abuja home early Monday by anti-graft operatives. He has remained in custody since. Family sources said Mr. Usman was arrested for a report he published on his blog on August 2, which accused the EFCC chairman, Ibrahim Magu, of going after some EFCC staff. The EFCC claimed Mr. Usman was apprehended because he allegedly contravened the Cyber Crime Act, 2015. The agency was, however, silent on the specific sections of the law that Mr. Usman contradicted. The suspect has already been offered administrative bail and would be released to his elected sureties, a statement by the EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, said. But Mr. Bello said his client was not a criminal and, as such, did not deserve to be subjected to draconian bail conditions. They said we should provide two directors in the federal civil service who have landed properties in Abuja municipal area, Mr. Bello said. We have no means of meeting this conditions right now and we would continue to plead with them to soften them. Mr. Bello said Mr. Usman was unwell at the time of his arrest, as he was battling typhoid. As a result, Mr. Bello said he may not be able to tolerate EFCCs foot-dragging for too long because of the trauma his family had been subjected to and the need to save his clients health from deteriorating. We would approach the court for enforcement of his fundamental rights if they dont soften their strict requirement for his bail, Mr. Bello said. He needs to attend to his health and his nursing wife should be considered. Mr. Bello said he was allowed access to his client around 6:00 p.m. Monday and on Tuesday at noon. Mr. Usmans arrest has earned the Nigerian government widespread condemnation, and some of his acquaintances said they were making efforts to secure his release. Chidi Odinkalu, president of Unity Schools Old Students Association, decried the development and said members of the organisation had launched an appeal for Mr. Usmans release. He expressed his free speech on his blog and we dont think he should be punished for that, Mr. Odinkalu told PREMIUM TIMES Tuesday. In any case, he graduated from Federal Government College, Ugbolawo, and, therefore, a member of the Unity Schools Old Students Association. Were making serious efforts towards his release. Mr. Uwujaren did not respond to PREMIUM TIMES calls and text messages trying to confirm if his agency had received formal appeal for leniency from Mr. Usmans lawyers. The Enugu State chapter of the All Progressives Congress has assured that President Muhammadu Buhari will not disappoint Nigerians in the task of fixing the country. It stated this in a statement by its spokesperson, Kate Offor. The party was reacting to recent remarks about the president by a clergyman, Ejike Mbaka. Mr. Mbaka, the Head of the Adoration Ministry, Catholic Church Enugu State, who predicted Mr. Buharis victory in the March 2015 presidential election, had said life was no longer easy for Nigerians as there was hunger everywhere. It is not easy everywhere. Hunger is everywhere. Hunger is in the atmosphere. There is sword moving about in the country. People are dying like flies. The sword of hunger is eating the land, the clergyman said. But the APC said though it agreed with Mr. Mbaka, the president was committed to fixing the country. We wish to reassure Fr. Mbaka that President Buhari will not in the fullness of time disappoint Nigerians or fail to fix our dilapidated social and physical infrastructure. Never! Buhari is devotedly committed to pull Nigerians out of poverty, hunger and squalor, it said. The party however agreed with Mr. Mbaka that the past Peoples Democratic Party administrations should be blamed for Nigerias woes and that if they had done what was expected of them, the nation would not have been in its current situation. It said, For us yesterday and for true reality is the architecture of today, and nobody can wash yesterday away. Therefore, Fr Mbaka is correct in stating that the past regimes sowed the whirlwind we are regrettably reaping today. If the $16 billion expended on power supply was prudently expended, if the 3 Greenfield Refineries awarded on 13 May, 2010 was not dead and fund decayed in the sand, if the $8.3 billion spent on the old gauge Lagos-Kano Railway were for standard gauge, if the Enugu-Onitsha, Enugu-Port Harcourt, 2nd Niger Bridge the and other federal roads monies budgeted were not eaten by locust, if the monies meant for Enugu Coal were nor embezzled and if the billions budgeted for our schools and hospitals did not grow wings; hunger couldnt have been in the land, unemployment could have been drastically reduced and our prosperity could have been guaranteed. The APC said for the avoidance of doubt, its members and by extension Nigeria, feel the pains, pangs of hunger, gruesome hardship and abject poverty ravaging the land. It said its members were not immune to hunger nor the gross unemployment dislocating of the countrys teeming youth. The party said Mr. Buhari had repeatedly disclosed that he was not unaware or unconcerned about the sordid economic situation and that was the reason he was waging strident war against corruption. His solution is to effectively and prudently implement 2016 and subsequent budgets, so as to fix the decayed infrastructure, it said. On the issue of being slow, Mr President pointed out that the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Procurement Act and other extant laws make it impossible for any official to expend monies not appropriated by the National Assembly. Otherwise, he could have dipped his hand into the trillions budgeted and hit the ground running. It is pertinent to inform as well that Mr President is embarking on economic diplomacy, travelling the length and breadth of the globe, utilizing his huge goodwill to attract foreign investors to fulfil the solemn pledge he made to the good people of Nigeria. It is common knowledge that destruction is very easy and reconstruction very difficult. This is the ordeal that Mr President is facing in fixing Nigeria. The APC assured Mr. Mbaka and other Nigerians that in the fullness of time, nobody would ever regret voting for Mr. Buhari, adding All he needs is prayers patience and support. The police say the two Chinese abducted by gunmen at Ajage Village in Nasarawa Local Government on Aug. 5 have regained freedom. The spokesman for the police in Nasarawa State, Ismaila Numan, made this known to journalists in Lafia on Tuesday. Mr. Numan added that the victims were released by their abductors following sustained pressure from the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and the Police Mobile Force. Mr. Numan named the freed men as Jien Yung and Wen So Ping attached to West African Polaris Investment. He said the command adopted aggressive intelligence-led policing by deploying conventional police, PMF personal, SARS and local vigilante to comb the suspected hideout of the kidnappers. As a result of the extensive and sustained pressure from the search party, the victims were released by their kidnappers at about 6.30 p.m. on Aug. 6, he said. Mr. Numan said the victims were taken to hospital for medical checkup. He said investigation was still on to arrest the kidnappers, adding that the command would continue to strategise on its crime prevention and control methods. Mr. Numan said that the command would strive to reduce crime rate in the state to the barest minimum. The command will continue to look forward to the support of members of the public in the onerous task as security is everybodys business, he said. (NAN) Blogger Abubakar Usman has been released by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, after spending more than 36 hours in custody for alleged cyberstalking, his lawyer said Tuesday. Michael Bello said his client was released on an administrative bail with conditions that he must make himself available to the EFCC whenever he received an invitation to such effect. I can confirm to you that my client has just been released on bail, Mr. Bello said in a brief telephone conversation with PREMIUM TIMES. He is very grateful to Nigerians for voicing out against his detention. Mr. Usman, a pro-government blogger, was whisked away from his residence by operatives on Monday morning, on allegations that he breached the Cyber Crime Act, 2015. His family said his arrest was in connection to a story he published on his website which the EFCC deemed critical of its chairman, Ibrahim Magu. The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, has denied authorising a 300 per cent increase in school fees in the federal government colleges across the country. He spoke with journalists on Tuesday at the inauguration and dissemination of the National Quality Assurance Handbook for Secondary Education in Nigeria. The National Parents and Teachers Association of Federal Government Colleges recently alerted the public to over 300 per cent increase in school fees. The National President of NAPTAFEGC, Gabriel Nnaji, had told journalists that the increase was from N20, 000 to N75, 000. He said the increment was unacceptable to the parents as an average parent with more than a child in unity school would not be able to afford it. But Mr. Adamu said he never authorised any increment. I am not aware that the school fees of unity schools have been increased. I am the Minister of Education and I am not aware, he said. However, the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Folashade Yemi-Esan, acknowledged there was an increment. Mrs. Yemi-Esan, while speaking to journalists, said that the increment was however not 300 per cent as claimed. Yes the school fees of federal government colleges have been increased but not 300 per cent as claimed, she said. You are aware of the realities in the country; it is important for the colleges to be able to maintain the students that are there and you must also be aware that these schools are tuition free. So, what has been increased is the boarding fees; I do not have the figures but it is not N75, 000. It is a list and when you check the breakdown, it is not up to 30 per cent. Meanwhile, the Federal Government College, Rubochi, FCT document obtained by NAN, indicates that the boarding fee was increased from N8, 000 to N15, 000. The total of the 16 items listed in the document amounted to N55, 000. Another parent, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the document given to her child from Federal Government Girls College, Keana, Nasarawa State had a total fees of N45, 000. Earlier in his address at the inauguration, Mr. Adamu said that the handbook was an indispensable tool in the effort to achieve quality service in the education sector. He said that the fact that Quality Education ranked fourth on the list of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the present governments focus of quality education, attested to the need for the handbook. Mr. Adamu commended the contribution and technical support given to the project by the Education Sector Support Programme in Nigeria. (NAN) Some students of Ebonyi State origin studying abroad under the state governments scholarship scheme have raised alarm over their imminent ejection from their school following the inability of the state government to pay their fees and other expenses. They accused the Governor David Umahi administration of abandoning them to their fate since 2015. The students say they may be deported from the different countries where they are based. In a statement issued by Udochukwu B. Akuru, a third year doctoral student in Electrical Machines (Renewable Energy Option), Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Stellenbosch University, South Africa, the students appealed to the governor to come to their aide. The present administration in Ebonyi State appeared to have hitherto abandoned its students studying in different parts of the world, neither our tuition fees, bench fees nor living expenses have been paid since September 2015. As a result of this, most of us are already stranded, whereas some are at the verge of being ejected from their schools and accommodations, the statement said. According to the students, the deadline given to them to pay up or have their confirmation of admission (CAS) withdrawn elapsed in May 2016. This means that our admission would be terminated and our schools would be left with no option but to contact the immigration office that we are no longer students and eventually put us at the risk of being deported. This also implies that we will lose two to three years of rigorous research work without any certificate, and understandably all the previous fees paid by the State Government would amount to nothing. If in the slightest instance of hope for the future, we wish to restart our studies in the event that we are deregistered, it then means we would need to come back to Nigeria to apply for new visas under stringent conditions, the statement said. The students said they had made unsuccessful efforts to reach Mr. Umahi. However, all our representative visits, letters, text messages and calls, have not been responded to and this has made our life as foreign students so difficult. The students said efforts to get the government to understand and commit to paying the fees on installmental bases were equally rebuffed. We have also made them to understand that after this year (2016) a good number of us would have graduated, which would give them a sustainable approach for the future of those who will be left for the remaining part of their studies. This also has not appealed to their awareness, they added. While noting the economic downturn in the country which have affected the revenue of the state, the students however said that it would amount to wastage of millions of naira which have so far been expended on the students with most of the them already in their final year of study. When contacted, the state Commissioner of Education, John Ekeh, confirmed the non-payment of the students fees but blamed it on the dwindling revenue of the state government. The situation is also causing the government sleepless night; the governor is also worried about their plight but we are seriously challenged financially and hence cannot do anything about it for the moment. He also revealed that the Federal Government had waded into the matter as students from other states were also facing similar challenges. Police in Ebonyi have arrested four persons over the treatment meted out to 14-year-old girl, Uzoamaka Chukwu. The Ebonyi State Governor, David Umahi, on Tuesday condemned the stripping and battering of the girl, Uzoamaka Chukwu, in Ohaozara Local Government Area of the state. Chukwu, a JSS 2 student, was allegedly stripped naked, dragged around on the ground and flogged under the orders of the coordinator of Ohaozara Development Centre, Ogbonnaya Odi. The governor, in a statement by his spokesperson, Emma Anya, said he had directed the police to ensure that all the perpetrators, be they political appointees or not, were properly investigated with a view to bringing those guilty to justice. Ebonyi State Government condemns in totality, the inhuman treatment meted out to a minor, Miss Uzoamaka, Chukwu, by some people in Ohoazara LGA, the statement said. Government encourages the state police command to ensure a thorough investigation of the incident and bring to book, the suspects, some of whom are already in detention. Governor David Umahi will not in any way condone the violation of the rights of any Ebonyian, especially minors, by anyone be he in government or private sector. The politicisation of this pitiful situation cannot benefit the little girl concerned nor the politicians parading her on national media. The naked images of the child splashed on newspaper pages are utterly condemnable. Government has already taken action to locate the minor in order to ensure that she is properly rehabilitated and made to overcome the trauma she has passed through. Meanwhile, the police have arrested Mr. Odi and his brother, Enekwachi Odi, for the alleged crime. Also arrested were two policemen who allegedly took part in the dehumanizing treatment meted out to the teenager. Although, the police spokesman in the state, George Okafor, a deputy superintendent of police, refused to speak on the matter at press time, reliable sources in the force said Mr. Odi was picked up after he was fingered for committing the alleged crime. It was gathered that the arrest followed an order given to the Commissioner of Police, Peace Abdallah by Mr. Umahi upon hearing of the incident, that all those involved in the incident should be arrested. The member representing Onicha, Ohaozara and Ivo Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Linus Okorie, has condemned the incident. The lawmaker told PREMIUM TIMES in an interview that the action wasbarbaric, unfortunate and undeserving in the civilized age. Mr. Okorie called for psychiatric check up for those suspected to have committed the crime while also urging the police not to sweep the crime under the carpet. He said following a media report on the incident a sympathizer had awarded a scholarship to the girl up to the university level. 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. TORONTO, August 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- AlphaDesk, the cloud-based software provider to hedge funds and other investment managers, has invested in a New York office to support its rapidly expanding client-base. Anthony Dunphy and Rodney Laveau will spearhead sales and business development respectively, with extensive experience of the hedge fund and asset management industry. Anthony previously worked for Eze Software and GS REDI, Rodney at Nirvana Solutions. Says Kevin Galliers, who recently joined as Chief Operating Officer, "I am very excited to add Anthony and Rodney to the team. Having a US presence is essential, and the NY/tri-state market represents the highest concentration of funds world-wide; our adoption rate has been accelerating since the start of 2016, and now is the time to invest. This market demands an integrated OMS and PMS, delivered and supported at an un-beatable SaaS price point via the Cloud, as the alternative investment industry increases its focus on providing transparency and value." About SGGG AlphaDesk AlphaDesk delivers real-time order, portfolio, and operations management tools to fund managers. The managed cloud service supports multiple portfolios, strategies, asset types, currencies and custodians in a single, integrated solution. Through the use of cutting edge cloud technologies the system achieves unparalleled performance, functionality, and value for money. alphadesk.com Press Contacts press@alphadesk.com Dan Rissin SGGG AlphaDesk Tel: +1 (416) 644-1861 45 St. Clair Ave. West, Suite 1003 Toronto, ON, M4V 1K9 Canada Anthony Dunphy AlphaDesk Inc. Tel: +1 (646) 274-8150 1441 Broadway Suite 6018 New York, NY 10018 SOURCE AlphaDesk Innovation and superior service help company reach the uppermost echelon of Microsoft Dynamics partners worldwide GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colorado, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Ciber, Inc. (NYSE: CBR), a leading global information technology consulting, services and outsourcing company, and a long-time Microsoft business solutions partner, was honored to be named a member of the 2016 President's Club for Microsoft Dynamics at the Microsoft Dynamics Partner Recognition Event on July 11th in Toronto, Canada. Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150708/234002LOGO The Microsoft Dynamics President's Club honors high-performing Microsoft Dynamics partners with commitments to customers that are reflected in their business success and growth. This prestigious group represents the top 5% of Microsoft Dynamics partners worldwide. With more than twenty years as a Microsoft partner, this accolade confirms Ciber's commitment as a leader in delivering flexible, scalable and extendable solutions for managing key relationships alongside associated information and financial platforms. Ciber earned the 2016 President's Club distinction for transformative solutions delivered in the Financial Services, Public Sector and Education, Not for Profit, and Manufacturing sectors that incorporated the Microsoft platform including; Microsoft Dynamics CRM, ERP and Office 365. Ciber's deep domain expertise in these sectors enables its teams to concentrate on understanding the business drivers affecting each marketplace, and working in partnership with clients, develop practical solutions to help them gain competitive advantage. "Ciber is delighted to have our success and dedication to our clients recognized by Microsoft," said Andy Cowdrill, Client Partner, Ciber Microsoft Practice. "This induction into Microsoft Dynamics President's Club enables us to accelerate our ability to drive marketplace improvements and to help more clients succeed in reaching their goals." Ciber leverages the robust, scalable functionality of Microsoft Dynamics products to build frameworks and technologies that address an array of business challenges including supplier and customer management, document control and compliance, operational efficiency, cost reduction, information retrieval, centralized customer information and management information. Ciber's solutions also empower employees across all verticals by providing a single-source, 360-degree view of the customer. About Ciber, Inc. Ciber is a global IT consulting company with approximately 5,500 employees in North America, Europe and Asia/Pacific. Ciber partners with organizations to develop technology strategies and solutions that deliver tangible business value. Founded in 1974, the company trades on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: CBR). For more information, visit www.ciber.com and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google Plus and our blog. Contact: Scott Kozak Global Communications, Investor and Industry Relations 303-967-1379 skozak@ciber.com Related Links http://www.ciber.com SOURCE Ciber, Inc. HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, August 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- In less than 60 seconds, Copyrobo Service provides you legal proof of your copyright, which is admissible to any court among the 28 EU members. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160805/395954LOGO ) (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160805/395952 ) (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160805/395953 ) Copyrobo, an internationally recognized mobile and web application, enables individuals to legally protect their copyrights across the world in just a few seconds. Copyrobo supports an environment that allows creators to share their work as they wish with full legal protection. Copyrobo Service complies with new EU Regulation eiDAS, which introduced the concepts of qualified trust service provider and qualified electronic time stamp. (No 910/2014, valid from 1st July 2016.) The regulation notes that "A qualified electronic time stamp issued in one Member State shall be recognized as a qualified electronic time stamp in all Member States." (Article 41/3) Copyrobo partners with Qualified Trust Service Providers and Trusted Timestamp Authority, which enables individuals to protect their work in European Union countries, Turkey and the United States. Users of Copyright Service can obtain ''Qualified electronic time stamp' proof (10 - 60 second) from European "Qualified trust service providers", which means proof will be legally admissible in the courts of 28 EU Members. "Copyright In A Click" WEB IOS ANDROID CHROME https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkFDojVAs34 ABOUT US. Copyrobo is a Vietnam based start-up that has created a new generation copyright protection that stops copyright infringement before it happens, fosters the free flow of creative products, and ensures legal compliance throughout Europe, United States and Turkey. "We have come a long way since inception with our globally recognized copyright protection app. We are currently expanding the coverage areas and aim to offer protection in every country in the world," says co-founder Hasan Kurtulus. SOURCE Copyrobo MANILA, Philippines and DUBLIN, August 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The country's first mobile cash withdrawal solution will improve accessibility for over 75million cardholders FEXCO - one of the world's leading independent financial technology providers has today announced a partnership with Electronic Network Cash Tellers, Inc. (ENCASH) to launch the first-ever mobile cash withdrawal solution in the Philippines. Through ENCASH's substantial customer network, the FEXCO EasyDebit solution will soon serve over 75million BancNet cardholders, allowing them easier access to cash across the Philippines, a country significantly underserviced by an ATM network. (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160809/396786 ) The Philippines is a cash-centric culture where more than 95% of all transactions are completed with the Peso in hand. Conversely, the national ATM penetration rate of 23% is significantly lower than the global average (over 70%). There are less than 19,000 ATM's for over 100million people in the country and the local ATM can often be a bus or ferry journey away. FEXCO EasyDebit is a unique service that uses a mobile Point of Sale (or mPOS Pin Entry Device) and a mobile phone allowing customers to withdraw cash using their ATM card at any number of local accredited merchants including; payment and remittance centres, retailers, rural banks and cooperatives instead of having to travel to an ATM. Speaking about the launch, Denis McCarthy CEO, FEXCO commented, "EasyDebit is testament to the innovative culture we have in FEXCO. Not only are we focused on developing the next breakthrough fintech idea but also on building practical solutions that bring real value to our partners the world over. In the area of Negros Occidental, for example, in Central Philippines, it takes over 4 hours to travel to the nearest ATM making access to cash extremely difficult for people there. EasyDebit will reduce reliance on ATM's and encourage financial inclusion, a core value of FEXCO." ENCASH CEO Eric Severino remarked, "The ENCASH ATM and RTM network promotes financial inclusion to underserved and unbanked Filipinos. With EasyDebit, ENCASH will be able to provide an additional, far-reaching alternative service to this existing network." The 'plug & play' solution provides an additional revenue opportunity and requires little installation on the side of the merchant who needs only to download the EasyDebit mobile app. There is no Average Daily Balance or Minimum Transaction required to deploy the service which will be affordable to merchants through a rent-to-own scheme. FEXCO EasyDebit is also safe and secure because the PIN is never stored to the mobile phone and the mPOS is accredited to the highest security standards - PCI DSS and EMV Level 1 & 2 compliant. Denis McCarthy concluded, "We are extremely proud to launch this truly innovative but also hugely beneficial service today and look forward to extending EasyDebit to Vietnam, Indonesia and Cambodia over the coming years." SOURCE FEXCO Keynote speakers will provide essential insights and emerging best practices at 11th Annual New Product Innovation & Development: A Frost & Sullivan Executive MindXchange MOUNTAIN VIEW, California, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Frost & Sullivan is pleased to announce that Lowinn Kibbey,Global Head, Johnson & Johnson Human Performance Institute, and Brian David Johnson, Futurist in Residence, Center for Science and the Imagination, Arizona State University, will be keynote speakers at the 11th Annual New Product Innovation & Development: A Frost & Sullivan Executive MindXchange. The event will take place January 9-11, 2017 at the San Diego Marriott, La Jolla, CA. To register and download the event agenda for the 11th Annual New Product Innovation & Development: A Frost & Sullivan Executive MindXchange please visit: www.frost.com/pds Kibbey's opening keynote, Energizing Leadership and Leveraging Technology and Disruption for Transformational Growth, will offer important takeaways from his leadership role at Johnson & Johnson's Health & Wellness Solutions, Inc. He will draw upon his experiences in providing vision and direction to core businesses at Johnson & Johnson, as well as his expertise in implementing new strategies, business models and partnerships. Kibbey recently spearheaded the launch of the Health and Wellness Technology Accelerator and will share key observations from that undertaking. Johnson's session, Adapting Your Product Strategy & Execution to Win the Business of the Consumer of the Future, will leverage his expertise as a futurist who works with organizations to develop actionable 10-15 year visions of what it will be like to live in the future. Futurecasting utilizes ethnographic studies, technology research, cultural history, trend data, global interviews and even science to provide a pragmatic roadmap of the future. Johnson will share strategies and insights that will help participants win the business of their consumer of the future. The event theme, Visionary Strategy and Leadership in Transformational Times, will address the dynamic market changes, disruptive technologies and shifting customer expectations that are driving business transformation and the necessity this creates for businesses to adjust their product and innovation strategies to remain competitive. Product development and innovation teams will leave with novel ideas and insights to help them address these formidable challenges, as well as introduce and execute new product and service initiatives intelligently and quickly. For additional information, please email: events.us@frost.com or call Matthew McSweegan at 516-255-3812. About Frost & Sullivan Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today's market participants. Our "Growth Partnership" supports clients by addressing these opportunities and incorporating two key elements driving visionary innovation: The Integrated Value Proposition and The Partnership Infrastructure. The Integrated Value Proposition provides support to our clients throughout all phases of their journey to visionary innovation including: research, analysis, strategy, vision, innovation and implementation. The Partnership Infrastructure is entirely unique as it constructs the foundation upon which visionary innovation becomes possible. This includes our 360 degree research, comprehensive industry coverage, career best practices as well as our global footprint of more than 40 offices. For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector and the investment community. Is your organization prepared for the next profound wave of industry convergence, disruptive technologies, increasing competitive intensity, Mega Trends, breakthrough best practices, changing customer dynamics and emerging economies? Contact: Chiara Carella Corporate Communications Global Director P: +44 (0) 207-343-8314 E: chiara.carella@frost.com http://www.frost.com Related Links http://www.frost.com SOURCE Frost & Sullivan WASHINGTON, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the Institute for Liberty (IFL) launched its latest project, Iceland Watch, with the goal of examining Iceland as it stands at a political and economic crossroads as the country considers lifting capital controls. Regarding the launch of Iceland Watch, the Institute for Liberty President Andrew Langer released the following: "The Institute for Liberty has followed Iceland's path to recovery since the 2008 collapse and has developed an increased concern over recent protectionist economic policies like the discriminatory practices against offshore krona investors. "In creating Iceland Watch, we aim to keep the public apprised of any anti-democratic and anti-free trade policies put into place by the Althingi, Iceland's parliament, which could threaten the property rights of offshore investors in Iceland's krona. "Holders of Iceland's offshore krona include several American investors, which serve a variety of retail investors like retirees with 401k plans and institutional investors such as corporate and public retirement plans, foundations, and endowments. "Despite investors' willingness to support Iceland during its time of transition and several distinct offers to negotiate good faith solutions, the Icelandic government refuses to offer anything other than a clear take-it-or-leave-it scenario. The discrimination against foreign investors is disturbing and could affect millions of American holders of 401k and retirement accounts. "When Iceland's parliament, the Althingi, convenes its Summer Special Session on August 15, its actions will indicate whether the island nation will reintegrate itself into international free markets or further its isolation by instating new costly, misguided policies that chill investment and economic growth." For more information about Iceland Watch, visit www.icelandwatch.org. Iceland Watch is a project of the Institute for Liberty that aims to examine Iceland as the country stands at a political and economic crossroads. media@icelandwatch.org (877) 563-1633 Related Links http://www.icelandwatch.org SOURCE Iceland Watch ALBANY, New York, August 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Expanding at a 4.3% CAGR over the course of the forecast period, the global medical education market is poised to rise from a value of US$25.9 bn in 2015 to US$38.4 bn by 2024. By mode of education, the medical education market is led by on-campus training. Changing student preferences will restrict the demand for distance training by 2024, TMR predicts. However, online training is fast emerging as a lucrative mode of medical education and this segment is likely to register the highest CAGR of 7.29% from 2016 to 2024. Download Free Sample Brochure: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=517 The global market for medical education has a handful of players such as Apollo Hospitals, TACT Academy for Clinical Training, Zimmer Biomet Holdings, Inc. (Zimmer Institute), Olympus Corporation, Gundersen Health System, GE Healthcare, and Medical Training College. Transparency Market Research identifies Apollo Hospitals as the leading contributor to the growth of the overall market owing to its extensive course portfolio, strong market penetration in countries in Asia Pacific, and vast scope for practical hospital experience. "Geographical expansion in several developing countries has been Apollo Hospitals' leading growth strategy, in addition to the acquisition of smaller local players," finds the lead author of the TMR study. In July 2016, Apollo Hospitals Group signed MoUs with Kenyatta National Hospital and Airtel Kenya to not just focus on capacity building in the Kenyan healthcare sector but to also conduct educational lectures and training programs in the country. In the same month, the company signed an agreement with Hainan Ecological Smart City Group in China to develop a highly integrated modern healthcare service facility in the Hainan province, which is likely to lend nursing, medical, and paramedical colleges in the island city tremendous support. Browse Research Report with ToC & Free Analysis: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/medical-education-market.html Advantages of Online Training over Traditional Modes of Education a Driving Factor The demand for medical education is primarily driven by the growing preference for online education. "Online education is a highly lucrative investment avenue," a TMR analyst observes. "The exposure to modern technologies around the world and the increasing penetration of the internet has greatly fueled the preference of students for online education." Moreover, online training presents several advantages over traditional modes of education, including variation in training and educational programs, lower cost, comfortable and flexible learning programs, and opportunities for improved technical skills. In line with this growing trend, TMR predicts that the emergence of e-learning markets in several developing countries will be a major opportunity for players in the medical education market. High Tuition Fee a Major Roadblock The cost of higher education, especially in developed countries, continues to pose a key challenge for low-income students. "Medical education is one of the most expensive fields and the tuition fee for classroom courses as well as on-campus training is extremely high. This acts as a major barrier for the medical education market," the author of the study says. In addition to this, the declining preference for distance education in medicine and paramedical training is likely to restrict the growth of the medical education market to an extent. Browse Regional PR: http://www.europlat.org/medical-education-market.htm By type of training, the demand for cardiothoracic training has surpassed the rest, while training in radiology presents the highest scope for growth. By geography, North America led the overall medical education market with Asia Pacific as the most rapidly expanding regional segment through the forecast period. This review is based on the findings of a TMR report titled "Medical Education Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2016 - 2024." Global Medical Education Market, by Type of Training Cardiothoracic Neurology Orthopedic Oral and Maxillofacial Pediatric Radiology Laboratory Global Medical Education Market, by Mode of Education On-campus Distance Online Global Medical Education Market, by Geography North America Europe Asia Pacific Rest of the World Browse Other Latest Research Reports: Testosterone Replacement Therapy Market: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/testosterone-replacement-therapy.html Packaging and Labeling (Healthcare) Services Market: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/packaging-labeling-services-market.html Cord Blood Banking Services Market: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/latam-cord-blood-banking-services-market.html About Us: Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a U.S. based provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMR's global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations. US Office Contact Transparency Market Research 90 State Street, Suite 700 Albany, NY 12207 Tel: +1-518-618-1030 USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453 Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.com Website: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Blog: http://www.tmrblog.com/ SOURCE Transparency Market Research NUSSLOCH, Germany, August 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Adding to its full line of tissue processors, Leica Biosystems introduces the HistoCore PEARL, a fully enclosed, simple-to-use system that enhances user safety Leica Biosystems today announced the addition of the HistoCore PEARL to their full line of tissue processors. PEARL is a fully enclosed system providing high-quality processing, simple operation, and enhanced user safety in a small footprint. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160802/394877LOGO ) (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160802/394876 ) "We are very excited to expand our tissue processor line up with the addition of HistoCore PEARL," stated Matthias Weber, President of Leica Biosystems. "PEARL consistently provides users the quality, safety and operational efficiency required in today's labs. Ultimately, this results in delivering the high quality output needed for accurate diagnosis." PEARL offers enhanced user safety through a fully enclosed system. This includes triple fume protection, an external exhaust adapter, and an activated carbon filter - providing added protection for lab staff from sustained reagent exposure, and operational confidence for the user. The ultra-compact design provides a robust 200 cassette capacity, 3.5L reagent bottles, and three paraffin baths to help maximize run efficiency and maintain an effective workflow. With a small footprint of 600 x 710 x 1320 mm (23.62" x 27.95" x 51.96"), PEARL maximizes laboratory space and allows for added work space productivity. The simple operation includes easy-to-remember operating procedures on a xylene-resistant, multi-lingual touch-screen interface. This ease of use helps provide reliable output day-to-day, and decreases the potential of operator error. In addition, PEARL features three pre-validated protocols and a Reagent Management System (RMS) for added flexibility. A convenient USB connection allows the user to download log files and help maintain accurate records. About Leica Biosystems Leica Biosystems is a global leader in workflow solutions and automation. As the only company to own the workflow from biopsy to diagnosis, we are uniquely positioned to break down the barriers between each of these steps. Our mission of "Advancing Cancer Diagnostics, Improving Lives" is at the heart of our corporate culture. Our easy-to-use and consistently reliable offerings help improve workflow efficiency and diagnostic confidence. The company is represented in over 100 countries. It has manufacturing facilities in 9 countries, sales and service organizations in 19 countries, and an international network of dealers. The company is headquartered in Nussloch, Germany. Visit LeicaBiosystems.com for more information. Media Contact(s): Kristin O'Neill, Global Brand Marketing Manager Phone: +1-847-821-3537 LBS-GlobalMarketing@leicabiosystems.com SOURCE Leica Biosystems PUNE, India, August 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a new market research report "Personal Identity Management Market by Application (Access Control and Content Management), Service (Professional Services and Managed Services), Deployment Type (On-Premises and Cloud), Vertical, and Region - Global Forecast to 2021", published by MarketsandMarkets, the market size is estimated to grow from USD 7.37 Billion in 2016 to USD 12.76 Billion by 2021, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 11.61%. (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 ) Browse 50 market data Tables and 44 Figures spread through 127 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Personal Identity Management Market" http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/personal-identity-management-market-244499986.html Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report. The increasing technology trend of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and Choose-Your-Own Device (CYOD) within organizations has introduced many security threats associated with identity thefts. As the frequency of sophisticated attacks on critical infrastructure are growing, the Personal Identity Management Market is expected to gain traction in the next five years. Access control application to play a key role in the Personal Identity Management Market Access control is expected to play a key role in changing the Personal Identity Management landscape during the forecast period and it also expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. This application provides identity managers with real-time management of all the activities with user devices such as smartphones, tablets, and laptops along with high security against malicious threats within the enterprises. Cloud-based deployment is expected to be the fastest-growing deployment model Cloud deployment is expected to be the fastest-growing deployment model in the Personal Identity Management Market as it benefits organizations with increased scalability, speed, 24/7 services, and enhanced management capabilities. Cloud Personal Identity Management solutions are available according to customer demand, wherein customers can start or stop any service, at will. Request For Sample Pages - http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestsample.asp?id=244499986 North America is expected to contribute the largest market share; Asia-Pacific (APAC) to grow at the highest CAGR North America is expected to hold the largest market share and dominate the Personal Identity Management Market from 2016 to 2021. The changing adoption needs of cloud applications, BYOD, and mobile practices along with meeting the strict compliance regulations are driving the organizations in North America to adopt Personal Identity Management applications. Various companies such as IBM, VMware, CA Technologies, Microsoft, Oracle, and Okta among others are operating in the market space. APAC offers potential growth opportunities for the Personal Identity Management Market to grow, as countries in the region are investing heavily to enhance access control and content management solutions. The major vendors in the Personal Identity Management Market include IBM Corporation (U.S.), VMware (U.S.), CA Technologies (U.S.), Microsoft (U.S.), Oracle (U.S.), and others. Browse Related Report Identity and Access Management Market by Component (Provisioning, Directory Services, Password Management, SSO, & Audit, Compliance, and Governance), by Organization Size, by Deployment, by Vertical, and by Region - Global Forecast to 2020 http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/identity-access-management-iam-market-1168.html About MarketsandMarkets MarketsandMarkets is the largest market research firm worldwide in terms of annually published premium market research reports. Serving 1700 global fortune enterprises with more than 1200 premium studies in a year, M&M is catering to a multitude of clients across 8 different industrial verticals. We specialize in consulting assignments and business research across high growth markets, cutting edge technologies and newer applications. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. M&M's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "RT" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. The new included chapters on Methodology and Benchmarking presented with high quality analytical infographics in our reports gives complete visibility of how the numbers have been arrived and defend the accuracy of the numbers. We at MarketsandMarkets are inspired to help our clients grow by providing apt business insight with our huge market intelligence repository. Contact: Mr. Rohan Markets and Markets UNIT no 802, Tower no. 7, SEZ Magarpatta city, Hadapsar Pune, Maharashtra 411013, India 1-888-600-6441 Email: sales@marketsandmarkets.com Visit MarketsandMarkets Blog @ http://www.marketsandmarketsblog.com/market-reports/telecom-it LinkedIn @ http://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsandmarkets SOURCE MarketsandMarkets LIVERPOOL, England, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- More than 600 graduates from the University of Liverpool's online programmes celebrated their graduation during ceremonies and events in Liverpool between 18 and 22 July 2016. They are part of a graduating class of over 1,300 students, representing 126 countries, who have recently completed University of Liverpool masters and doctoral degrees, and postgraduate certificate programmes online. Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140325/CL90134LOGO "We are honoured that our newest alumni who chose to study online with the University of Liverpool also made the trip from around the world to join us in the celebration on campus. This is testimony to the importance of the occasion in their lives," said the University's Vice-Chancellor, Professor Janet Beer. "We are so proud that many of our online graduates are already applying their new knowledge, skills and research in their workplaces and communities globally." In addition to attending the campus ceremonies, the graduates, their family and friends, and faculty members, were welcomed at the Online Graduates' Recognition Ceremony & Reception, at the Lutyens Crypt (next to the university campus) on 20 July. The event honoured graduates from several online programmes receiving the Student of the Year and Dissertation of the Year awards, and provided an opportunity for all online graduates to meet and network with their peers from around the world. The Student of the Year Awards for outstanding performance throughout an online degree programme were awarded to: The Dissertation of the Year Awards for an outstanding dissertation were awarded to: Ignas Galvelis , an MSc in Software Engineering graduate in the UK , an MSc in Software Engineering graduate in the UK Angela Naa Saku Okai , an LLM in International Finance Banking Law graduate in Ghana , an LLM in International Finance Banking Law graduate in Hayley Jean Rahman , an MSc in Clinical Research graduate in the UAE , an MSc in Clinical Research graduate in the UAE Fayyaz Samji , a Master of Public Health (MPH) graduate in Canada , a Master of Public Health (MPH) graduate in Sabrina Spangsdorf, an MSc in Applied Psychology graduate in Denmark "What I enjoyed most about studying online with the University of Liverpool was gaining an international perspective on a variety of current public health topics and issues through weekly module discussions with my fellow classmates. These invaluable experiences can only come from studying with professionals from around the globe who are actively working locally in their respective fields," said MPH graduate Fayyaz Samji, Youth Employment Consultant and Job Developer for 360kids, a non-governmental organisation in Toronto, Canada. Graduates from online programmes have the option to receive their degree certificate in person (alongside campus graduates) at graduation ceremonies held twice a year at the University of Liverpool. Designed for working professionals, the University of Liverpool's fully online learning model enables students to earn an advanced academic degree without interrupting their career from wherever they are based in the world. Students enjoy an engaging, global and highly collaborative learning experience that provides them with the knowledge and skills to achieve immediate professional impact. For more information about the University of Liverpool's online programmes, visit www.online.liverpool.ac.uk. About the University of Liverpool Online Programmes The University of Liverpool ranks in the top 1% of universities worldwide as listed in the International Handbook of Universities, published by the International Association of Universities (2014), and is a member of the UK's Russell Group of research-led universities. More than 10,000 students from more than 160 countries are studying for postgraduate certificates, masters and doctoral degrees online with the University of Liverpool. These programmes are provided in partnership with online learning expert, Laureate Online Education. For more information about Laureate, visit www.laureate.net. Related Links https://www.online.liverpool.ac.uk SOURCE University of Liverpool Online Programmes LONDON, August 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Initial figures from Integer's independently verified Top 100 Global Wire & Cable Producers Database 2016 rankings, due to be released September 2016, have revealed a significant 15% decrease in total US$ revenues across just the Top 10 insulated wire producers combined. It has been a tough environment globally in 2015, with leading emerging economies showing slower growth rates. Whilst the European and North American markets have benefitted from lower oil prices in some respects, this has not fed through to greater fixed investment and cable demand. In contrast to the total drop, leading cable makers, Prysmian and Nexans, appear to have consolidated their positions in the last 12 months. Though the final figures are still being checked as to which of them will make it to the top spot in 2016, in terms of their sales and operations, Prysmian and Nexans have become truly global companies, with operations in North and South America, Europe, Africa and across all parts of Asia. Both companies have seen numerous challenges in some of their key markets, but initial results from Integer's 2016 rankings do indicate signs of growth in their global operations and reach. New Chinese producers bow out of the Top 100 as fortunes turn In previous years, Integer's rankings witnessed the impressive flexing of Chinese industrial might as over 30 cable makers pushed their way into the Top 100. Early analysis of the results in so far has seen many of these new Chinese entrants crash out of the Top 100, while several mostly European companies managed to have slowed their decline and are appearing to hold their own against other regions by focusing on niche markets. Middle East producers are also keeping a steady pace as Coficab grew it's Automotive cable revenues outside of the Middle East and Elsewedey doing increasingly well in the construction sector. Elsewhere, Indian producers have yet to take off despite their growing potential and maturing markets. The Top 100 makes up 50% of the market The latest Top 100 Wire & Cable Producers Database 2016 is published in excel format and contains a wealth of data over a six year period (2010-2015). It is an ideal tool for understanding the highly competitive wire and cable market, allowing you to compare company performance over time, including divisional revenues, sales by product type and country splits. More information on The Integer Top 100 Wire & Cable Producers Database 2016, including a free preview, extract charts and an alphabetical list of featured companies is available here >> WANT TO KNOW MORE? CONTACT US To arrange an interview to explore the rankings in greater detail with Philip Radbourne, Editor of Integer Research's Top 100, call us +44-20-7503-1265 or email philip.radbourne@integer-research.com. Notes: Revenues are reported in US$ and include insulated power cable and enamelled/magnet wire and strip figures. We specifically exclude revenues from copper and aluminium rod, bare overhead cables (ACSR/AAC) and wiring harness revenues. SOURCE Integer Research In fact, Vision's 2016 "What's Next in Digital Communications" survey of local government leaders revealed that virtually all respondents believe social media will have a significant impact on their organizations by 2020; yet, less than half (42%) feel their current social media presence is "highly effective." To help municipal agencies bridge that gap, Vision, the company dedicated to creating solutions that promote resident access and participation, today released "10 Steps to Developing a Social Media Strategy," now available for free download at www.visioninternet.com/10-steps. "More than ever, it's vitally important for local government agencies to know their citizens," said Ashley Fruechting, Vision's senior director of strategic initiatives. "Learning what information they care about, how they want to receive it and how they want to communicate are critical to effective governing." Vision's 10-step plan, developed with input from hundreds of local government leaders across North America who shared tips, tricks and best practices, includes: Define strategy and goals Target one or two social media platforms Identify key owner and accounts Start posting on a regular basis Add links everywhere Build campaigns with multiple touchpoints Work with local celebrities and influencers Promote posts strategically Review analytics and make adjustments Try something new "Creating an engaging social media presence requires experimentation," Fruechting said. "There's no one size fits all approach in terms of platform or message style. The most successful local leaders take a step back and think about what they're trying to accomplish with social media. Who are they trying to reach, what do they want them to know or do, and why is it important? Then they measure their results from counting "likes" and "shares" to tracking drops in phone calls, complaints or town hall foot traffic and adjust as needed." Local government leaders like Anthony Wilson, public information officer for San Angelo, Texas, make social media management a priority. "The City had 10 Facebook pages when I first started working there," Wilson said. "Every city department wanted to have their own. We realized we were doing ourselves a disservice by creating niches of special interest so we consolidated them into one main Facebook page. San Angelo now has one of the largest followings of any municipality in the state of Texas." Wilson recently joined social media masters from Queen Creek, Ariz. and West Hollywood, Calif. on a Vision webinar panel to share his experience with hundreds of local government communications professionals. In Queen Creek, where the town's share of state revenues hinged on "door-to-door" population reporting in a 2015 Special Census, Digital Media Specialist Jen Snyder reported her team's success with a social media campaign to promote citizen participation, a critically important exercise for a town that had grown 20 percent since the U.S. Census of 2010. Working with local influencers turned what could have been a low-interest text communication into a fun video that attracted thousands of views. "We used a cheerleading team from a local high school to create a "census cheer" and star in a video, which we housed on YouTube, posted to our Facebook page and promoted through Twitter and other portals," Snyder said. "We had fun with it and promoted the links and #QCCENSUS everywhere. The organic reach was huge." If "Optimization" were a wheel in Vision's social media plan, "analytics" would be the hub. Social media moves at light speed, which means reviewing analytics and making adjustments becomes routine for those who manage their city's social media presence. The City of West Hollywood, California, which, according to the City's Digital Media Coordinator Brett White, is "super shameless" in plugging its social media handles on everything from the front doors of City Hall to trash cans around town, is equally zealous about measuring its social media effectiveness. "We use Google Analytics, Twitter Analytics, Facebook Insights and more to gather statistics we need to assess and adjust our social media strategy," said White. "We need to know that we're getting results. And we can show the reach of our posts and use the metrics to demonstrate the value of social media to our residents." To maintain engagement, West Hollywood also embraces the final step in Vision's 10-Step plan: "Try Something New." When the Pokemon Go craze hit, West Hollywood immediately posted a message alerting local businesses adjacent to City Hall that they were "in the vicinity of a #PokemonGO gym" and told residents: "Hey #WeHo, if you're out there battling Team Mystic for the City Hall Gym, take a break at one of our local businesses!" To simplify social media management, Vision recently released visionSocial, which gives municipal staff the ability to streamline social media posts and activities directly from their content management system, visionCMS. To download Vision's "10 Steps to Developing a Social Media Strategy", visit www.visioninternet.com/10-steps. For more insights, visit the Vision Blog at http://blog.visioninternet.com/using-video-and-social-media-to-engage-residents or call 888-263-8847. About Vision Headquartered in El Segundo, Calif., Vision is a national leader in government website development with more than 700 government, non-profit and education clients in U.S. and Canadian communities with populations that range from less than 1,000 residents to more than 5 million. For more than 20 years, Vision has created cost-effective solutions that increase government efficiency, transparency and interactive communications with citizens. The company's powerful, easy-to-use visionLive content management system continues to evolve with feedback from hundreds of municipal clients. In 2016, Vision was named to Government Technology magazine's GovTech 100, a listing of leading companies developing innovative or disruptive offerings to improve or transform government. CONTACT: Ashley Fruechting 310-656-3100 [email protected] Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160808/396619 SOURCE Vision After being briefly out of the spotlight, the nuclear deal the U.S. signed with Iran is once again in the election-year glare. A new rift between the White House and Israel has been ignited, and Tehran hanged a nuclear scientist and alleged spy once, which once again brings scrutiny to Hillary Clintons use of email when she was Secretary of State. Related: The Story of the Iran Deal Is Coming Back to Bite the Democrats In the space of about a week, an Israeli Cabinet member has likened President Obama to an appeaser of Hitler, the administration has been awkwardly trying to explain the secret delivery of $400 million to Tehran just before it released four Americans from captivity, Donald Trump has had to walk back claims that he saw video of the plane delivering the controversial cash, and Senator Tom Cotton is blaming Hillary Clinton and her cavalier use of email for the execution of an Iranian nuclear scientist who may have worked for the CIA. On Aug. 3, The Wall Street Journal broke the story of the U.S. shipping pallets of euros, Swiss francs and other currencies to Iran on the same day in January when the Americans were freed. The right is calling it a ransom. The White House says the money represents the resolution of a financial dispute between the two countries that has festered since the Iranian hostage crisis. Related: Kerry Just Confirmed the GOP's Worst Fears About the Iran Deal The legal wrangle was before an international tribunal, and the U.S. maintains that if it hadnt cut a deal to deliver this first tranche of a $1.7 billion settlement stemming from an arms sale that was suspended after Irans Islamic revolution in 1979, Uncle Sam might have wound up shelling out billions more. But the secrecy surrounding delivery of the money and the so-called coincidence of it being delivered on the same day the Americans were set free have made for some dubious optics. Still, that didnt stop Obama from taking an ill-timed victory lap. At a press conference last Thursday, the president said, The country that was most opposed to the deal acknowledges this has been a game-changer. Story continues Related: Trump Calls Iran Deal Incompetent as Khamenei Calls for Israels Demise The reaction from Israel was beyond harsh. In a diplomatic bombshell, its Defense Ministry issued a statement likening the deal with Iran to the 1938 Munich Pact with the Nazis that Britains prime minister, Neville Chamberlain, signed. The Munich agreement did not prevent the Second World War and the Holocaust, precisely because their basic assumption, that Nazi Germany could be a partner to any kind of agreement, was wrong, the statement said in part. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried to smooth waters, but the fury of the White House led outspoken Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman to retract his statement and apologize. Then on Sunday, Iran announced that it had executed nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri for spying for our number one enemy the Great Satan, i.e. America. Amiri was mentioned in the batch of Clinton emails the State Department released last year after a Freedom of Information request. Yesterday, Trump tweeted, Many people are saying that the Iranians killed the scientist who helped the U.S. because of Hillary Clinton's hacked emails." As the Clinton campaign tries to appear responsible and presidential, the last thing it needs is new controversies about Iran. Top Reads from The Fiscal Times: DALLAS, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- 1804 Operating, a leader in long-term water disposal solutions, announced today that it will now do business as Goodnight Midstream. A new logo, corporate identity and website accompany the name change. Headquartered in Dallas, Goodnight Midstream built its first water infrastructure in 2011 and has grown to become the leading independent water gathering and disposal service provider for producers in the Bakken. Goodnight Midstream now owns more than 150 miles of saltwater gathering pipelines connected to a network of 16 saltwater disposal facilities in North Dakota. Explaining the rationale behind the change, Patrick Walker, Chief Executive Officer, said, "We are excited to announce our new name. Goodnight Midstream better represents our expanding footprint and the Company's commitment to provide superior fluid services for our customers. Over the past five years, we have professionalized the water disposal business and built the first true midstream water company. Goodnight's midstream approach, led by midstream experts, minimizes environmental impact and improves health and safety while lowering lease operating expense and improving reliability for our customers." "Fundamental to our success has been building lasting relationships around trust and quality of service," said Walker. "Our customers will find the same attention to high quality, reliable water handling as we expand to new basins." Concurrent with today's name change, Tailwater Capital LLC, an energy-focused private equity firm announced an initial equity commitment of $80 million to Goodnight Midstream. This capital commitment from Tailwater gives Goodnight Midstream the financial flexibility to continue to grow with its producers and pursue larger development projects and acquisitions as well as expand services into Texas, and other regions of interest. About Goodnight Midstream Goodnight Midstream provides trusted professional fluids management services to oil and gas producers. The Company owns and operates an extensive network of water gathering pipelines and salt water disposal wells focused on gathering and disposing of produced saltwater. Goodnight's midstream approach minimizes environmental impact and improves health and safety while lowering lease operating expense and improving reliability for our customers. Goodnight is supported by a team of highly experienced engineers and operating professionals. In addition to Goodnight's leading position in North Dakota, Goodnight Midstream has an emerging presence in Wyoming's Powder River Basin and the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico. For more information, please visit www.goodnightmidstream.com. Contact: Patrick Walker [email protected] Goodnight Midstream SOURCE Goodnight Midstream Related Links http://www.goodnightmidstream.com CARNEGIE, Pa., Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- PNC Bank cares about giving back to its communities in a direct hands-on way, and was happy to help when approached by The Salvation Army to support this year's back-to-school backpack program. Through the support provided by PNC Bank, 800 needy kids will return to school well prepared and ready to learn. New backpacks containing a variety of necessary school supplies will be distributed by The Salvation Army for disadvantaged students in kindergarten through 8th grade. This is the first year that PNC Bank is sponsoring the program. Early on the morning of Thursday, August 11th, PNC Bank employees will prepare to hand out backpacks to children at The Salvation Army's Homewood Worship and Service Center at 8020 Frankstown Road, where over 100 children from Allegheny County will be served. The remaining 679 backpacks will be distributed throughout the 28-county Western Pennsylvania Division at various Salvation Army Worship and Service Center locations. "Offering children their own set of school supplies gets them excited about the school year and provides a stake in their own success. PNC welcomes the opportunity to work with The Salvation Army to make these backpacks available to so many deserving children across Western Pennsylvania," said Stephanie Cipriani, Market Manager, PNC Community Development Banking for Pittsburgh. "Working together, we can help hundreds of children get the right start to school this fall." Both a church and a social service organization, The Salvation Army was founded in London, England in 1865. Today, it provides critical services in 127 countries worldwide. The 28-county Western Pennsylvania Division serves thousands of needy families through a wide variety of support services. To learn more about The Salvation Army in Western Pennsylvania, log onto www.wpa.salvationarmy.org. The Salvation Army Doing the most good. for the most people . . . in the most need. PHOTO OPS: Thursday, August 11 - 10:45 AM - 11:15 AM The Salvation Army Homewood Worship and Service Center @ 8020 Frankstown Road Pittsburgh, PA 15212 Phone: 412-242-1434 121 children will be served at this location: Homewood Brushton 30 children McKeesport 10 children Steel Valley 10 children Westside 20 children Northside 25 children Braddock 10 children Pittsburgh Temple 16 children Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110412/MM81995LOGO SOURCE The Salvation Army Related Links http://www.salvationarmy-wpa.org LOWELL, Mass., Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Alcyone Lifesciences, Inc., a leader in neural intervention systems for neurological conditions and an innovator in the treatment of hydrocephalus, announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has now allowed the first of several patent applications relating to its innovative ReFlow System. The U.S. patent, titled Systems and Methods for Shunting Fluid, is expected to issue later this summer. Hydrocephalus is a disorder in which an excess of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) accumulates in the ventricles and can increase the pressure in the brain creating a life threatening condition. CSF shunts are implantable devices inserted by neurosurgeons to treat hydrocephalus. The youngest patients seem at highest risk of shunt failure, many requiring numerous revision surgeries by adolescence. Alcyone's ReFlow System is a CSF shunt currently being used to treat patients in an institutional review board (IRB)-approved study at Boston Children's Hospital with Regulatory Application pending review by the FDA. Alcyone's pending U.S. patent, like its ReFlow System, addresses one of the more frustrating problems with CSF shunts resulting in emergency intervention and revision surgery, namely obstructions of the ventricular catheter. The patent describes a subcutaneous flushing system comprising a unique flow path and "flush dome" that enables the safe removal of obstructions, under at least some circumstances, without surgical intervention. PJ Anand, Alcyone's Founder and chief executive officer stated, "It is so exciting to have the Patent Office agree that these aspects of our ReFlow System are unique and patentable. Alcyone designed and engineered the ReFlow System with the most vulnerable patients in mind. We along with our clinical collaborator set out to innovate an elegant and straightforward solution to a very real problem that these patients and their physicians face. We are grateful for this result from the Patent Office as intellectual property is a core piece of our long term plan to deliver this technology to as many patients in need as possible. It is another milestone in Alcyone's quest to treat and improve neurological interventions and importantly, improve patients' lives." About Alcyone Lifesciences, Inc. Alcyone Lifesciences, based in Lowell, Massachusetts, is a privately-held medical device company focused on development of novel treatment modalities for chronic neurological conditions including brain tumors, neurogenetic disorders and hydrocephalus. The Company's technology platform is based on a uniquely engineered amalgamation of microfabrication technologies along with advanced biomedical engineering with core product focus on targeted drug therapy and hydrocephalus. Alcyone's team of scientists, physicians and advisers includes recognized leaders in the field of neurology and neurosurgery. For more information, please visit www.alcyonels.com Contacts Alcyone Life Sciences, Inc. PJ Anand Chief Executive Officer 978-709-1946 [email protected] SOURCE Alcyone Lifesciences, Inc. Related Links http://www.alcyonels.com NEW YORK, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- ARCIS is pleased to announce that Kevin Lay, Director of Operations for ARCIS, will be speaking at this year's Art Business Conference, held Thursday 1 September 2016 in London. The September event marks the third year for this one-day conference, which is dedicated to bringing together art market leaders, business professionals and technology experts from all over the world to share their knowledge and insight. More information about the event can be found at: http://www.theartbusinessconference.com/ Speakers and participants will delve into the key issues affecting today's international art market through a day-long program of presentations, panel discussions and workshops and breakout sessions. Among the topics to be covered this year are Artist Estates and the Art Market, Dubai and the Middle East, and the impact on the UK Art Market of changes under the Union Custom Code insight into the likely effect of changes to VAT under Brexit. Please visit the Art Business Conference website for more information about the September event and a list of speakers. ARCIS is pleased to be the lead sponsor of the Art Business Conference. Heralding a new standard in art storage and collection care, ARCIS will open in Manhattan in Spring 2017. For more information about ARCIS please visit: http://www.arcisartstorage.com ABOUT ARCIS Located in Manhattan, ARCIS is constructing the world's first sustainably designed facility for art storage and collection care. Advanced engineering allows ARCIS to extend integrated technologies that achieve a sustainable microclimate combined with a constant air filtration process that exceeds industry standards. ARCIS provides an unparalleled level of security, utilizing one of the highest UL ratings available, with 21st century security systems, video surveillance, retinal scanning and access control. With customized, full-service solutions led by seasoned industry experts, ARCIS offers the highest caliber of care and protection to the world's finest private and institutional collections. Contact: Milena Sales [email protected] +212 804 6600 SOURCE ARCIS Related Links http://www.arcisartstorage.com OAKLAND, Calif., Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, shareholders filed a proposal with Yum! Brands (KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell), requesting that it quickly phase out harmful antibiotic use in its meat supply chain. The proposal was filed by As You Sow and co-filed by the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia. Shareholders have been increasingly concerned with the meat and restaurant industries' role in creating antibiotic-resistant Superbugs. In the U.S., approximately 70% of medically important antibiotics are given to livestock; many are used to make animals grow faster or to prevent sickness due to extreme and unhealthy living conditions. Experts agree that overuse of these life-saving drugs is contributing to the rise of antibiotic-resistant Superbugs, which cause infections in humans that are not treatable by certain (or any) antibiotics. "Yum! Brands' silence in the face of this looming antibiotic resistance crisis is bad for business," said Austin Wilson, Environmental Health Program Manager. "The future is in healthy and sustainable food. Only 2 in 5 millennials have ever tried KFC. They are the consumers that care most about sustainable food." Antibiotic use in livestock can be reduced without significant costs to producers by creating better living conditions, increasing cleanliness, and using vaccinations. Denmark, one of the world's leading pork exporters, banned non-therapeutic antibiotic use in pigs over 15 years ago. In January, 86 advocacy organizations sent a public letter to Yum! Brands, requesting "a strong, definitive public commitment on antibiotic stewardship." A recent scorecard on antibiotics policies gave all three of Yum's brands failing grades, and the company has received unfavorable press. Many of Yum's competitors have taken action. McDonald's recently phased out medically important antibiotic use in its U.S. chicken supply chain. Wendy's announced that it would follow suit by 2017. Panera Bread and Chipotle Mexican Grill already prohibit unnecessary antibiotic use. Shareholder advocacy leverages the power of stock ownership in publicly-traded companies to promote environmental, social, and governance changes that drive long-term profitability. CONTACT: Taraneh Arhamsadr, (510) 735-8157, [email protected] Austin Wilson, (510) 735-8149, [email protected] As You Sow is a nonprofit organization that promotes environmental and social corporate responsibility through shareholder advocacy, coalition building, and innovative legal strategies. For more information visit www.asyousow.org. SOURCE As You Sow Related Links http://www.asyousow.org As Chair of the Task Group on Ketone Ethylene Ester (KEE) based sheet roofing, Jerry contributed to the development of a test method for determination of KEE content in sheet membrane using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR). "A great deal of research and development has gone into finding a test method to determine KEE content," said Beall. "Turning that test method into a standard recognized by the ASTM remains a challenge." The standard specification defines that the KEE polymer shall be a minimum of 50% by weight of the polymer content of the sheet. To date, FiberTite is the only roofing membrane that meets this standard. Beall's career in the roofing industry spans more than 40 years. He uses his field experience, studies and interest in leadership, product development, marketing and strategic visioning to support a nationwide team of sales, technical and manufacturing representatives. In addition to being Chair of the ASTM KEE Task Group, Beall is President of the Chemical Fabrics and Film Association (CFFA), and an active member of RCI. He holds three patents for his work in color extruded rib profile, an apparatus for welding a synthetic strip to a roofing membrane (rib), and WrapidFlash Molded Pipe Flashing. Seaman Corporation, manufacturer of FiberTite Roofing Systems, has been a worldwide market leader of innovative, high performance coated fabrics since 1949. Using a unique, four layer technology providing puncture, UV, chemical, and ponding water resistance, FiberTite is the original Elvaloy KEE membrane with a 35+ year history of performance. Seaman Corporation has manufacturing locations in Wooster, Ohio and Bristol, Tennessee. In addition to FiberTite, Seaman Corporation also makes fabrics for more specialized markets, including military, dock seals, marine applications, pool covers, truck tarps, mower covers and others. For more information, contact Seaman Corporation at 330-262-1111 or toll-free 800-927-8578, or visit www.FiberTite.com. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160808/396356 SOURCE Seaman Corporation Related Links http://www.seamancorp.com DENVER, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Kriser's Natural Pet, a multi-unit retailer specializing in natural pet food, supplies and grooming, bounds its way into Lower Downtown Denver with a Grand Opening celebration on August 27-28, 2016, at its newest location at 1910 Chestnut Place. This opening marks Kriser's most urban location in the Colorado market, following several successful suburban locations. Kriser's brings its trademark remarkably educated staff and warm, welcoming shopping experience to LoDo. The Kriser's Pack invites neighborhood pet parents to join its mission of helping pets live happier, healthier lives naturally, with a carefully curated selection of natural food, treats, toys, supplements, supplies and grooming services. "The entire Kriser's Pack is thrilled to open our doors in LoDo and looks forward to helping even more pets live happier, healthier lives, naturally," said Brad Kriser, founder & CEO. "This location in the burgeoning LoDo community presents an amazing opportunity to engage with pets and pet parents and become their trusted resource for education, natural products and grooming." This opening marks the 35th store for Kriser's Natural Pet, the first of only a few natural-focused retailers operating across multiple states. Kriser's has been recognized with multiple national honors for its excellence in the pet industry, most recently with the Best Overall Pet Retailer at the 2015 Global Pet Expo, as well as Denver A-List honors more locally. Kriser's will offer a number of activities and promotions throughout the Grand Opening weekend: Free pet nail trimming (Saturday 10am-4pm ) ) Free pet ID tags (Sunday) Free poop bag holders (while supplies last) Free freezer bags (while supplies last) In-store raffles for store and grooming gift certificates and merchandise Shopping sprees both Saturday and Sunday, whereby one of the first people in line each day at 10 a.m. will win an on-the-spot shopping spree A few weeks after the Grand Opening, Kriser's will host another event on October 9th with free photography, goodie bags for the first 50 pets and more raffles and prizes. For store events, hours and details, visit http://www.krisers.com. ABOUT KRISER'S NATURAL PET Kriser's, often referred to by its customers as the "Whole Foods for pets," is a multi-unit pet retailer specializing in natural pet food, supplies and grooming. Founded by lifelong pet owner and healthy pet advocate Brad Kriser, the company has opened 35 locations in four states Illinois (Chicagoland), Colorado (Denver), Southern California (LA and Orange Counties) and Texas (Houston & San Antonio) based on a model of educating consumers and providing an unparalleled shopping experience in a clean and inviting store area. All products sold in Kriser's stores are carefully selected by Brad and his team, and endorsed as "Kriser's Approved" only after extensive review. In addition to carrying a large variety of natural food and treats brands, which have no corn, soy or by-products, Kriser's also offers grooming services and a wide selection of toys and supplies. At the forefront of the natural segment of the flourishing pet industry, Kriser's has grown steadily with an unwavering commitment to pets. In addition to its 2014-2015 Retailer of the Year Award from Pet Product News International and finalist spot in Pet Age's Business of the Year Awards in the Natural Products category, Kriser's also received the Best Overall Multi-Unit Pet Retailer at the 2013 and 2015 Global Pet Expos. For more information, please visit www.krisers.com. SOURCE Kriser's Natural Pet Related Links http://www.krisers.com During DEFCON's hallmark Capture the Flag (CTF) contest, Baidu President Dr. Zhang Yaqin had dinner with Blue-Lotus team members and was on hand to cheer for them. So far, Blue-Lotus is Mainland China's only team to have entered the finals of DEFCON's CTF contest, the world's top-level hacking competition, and placed among the Top 5 in the rankings. The group stands for the highest level of performance, carrying the spirit of freedom and sharing that defines the Chinese hacker circle. B1o0ps, the team consisting of Blue-Lotus and 0OPS, defeated Korea-based DefKor, the defending champion, in the finals of DEFCON's CTF contest, and ultimately ranked 2nd with a slight score gap behind US-based PPP, traditionally a strong team. This is the highest ever placing of a Chinese hacker team at the finals of DEFCON's CTF contest. As part of this grand event for global hackers, Chinese company Baidu Security brought a cool drone formation performance in the evening of August 3rd. Forty-five drones showed respect for the BlackHat and DEFCON conferences, combining to form the messages"HACKFUN" and "BAIDU". Flying in the night skies of Las Vegas, these drones received applause from hackers present at the site. This was the first ever drone performance at the BlackHat event. The fact it was presented by Baidu Security, a security company from China, underscored how much BlackHat recognized and valued China's hacking skills and security teams. Fast-growing Teams of Chinese Hackers Enjoy Respect at the World's Major Hacking Events The BlackHat conference is widely viewed in the information security industry as the top-level, highly technologically intensive conference on information security. DEFCON is known as the secret carnival of global hackers and as the best representative of the spirit and culture of hacking. Both hacking events attract researchers from companies and governments, expert hackers from global security companies and research organizations and even officials from U.S. government departments/agencies such as the Department of Defense, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National Security Agency (NSA). Chinese hackers have been frequent speakers at the BlackHat conference over the past couple of years. In 2014, two subjects from Chinese hackers were presented at the BlackHat conference; in 2015, that number jumped to nine subjects. This year, 15 top-level hacking technologists from eight Chinese teams of hackers spoke at the conference and enjoyed respect from their global counterparts. At the BlackHat conference, Microsoft has rented a large space to show the MSRC Top100 on a background wall. Huang Zheng and Li Kemeng from the X-lab of Baidu Security's Business Department are on the TOP100 hacker list, and Baidu remains an industry leader in terms of identifying Microsoft OS vulnerabilities, being acknowledged 16 times and holding the 3rd place globally. Huang Zheng and Li Kemeng hold the 8th and 82nd global places respectively, while Huang holds the 1st place in China. In addition, Zhang Yulong and Wei Tao from the X-lab have joined the Pebble Hall of Fame. They identified a security vulnerability allowing the intruder to fully control all Pebble smartwatches(a number in the millions) before stealing and controlling the victims' privacy data in life and at work. They have submitted a protection solution as well. Apart from Pebble smartwatches, all ARM Cortex-M-based smart and Internet-of-things (IoT) devices will be affected. Having identified this security vulnerability is significant. Zhang and Wei will report this problem at the Virus Bulletin conference to be held in Denver this October. Let China's Voice Be Heard: Chinese Security Technology Gains Global Recognition China's voice was hardly heard in the first two decades after the Internet was born. Nonetheless, the Internet has brought radical changes in the lifestyles of the Chinese people, their way of thinking and even their values over the past 20 years. The rest of the world has felt the internet's effects on China and seen China's rapidly growing strength in cyberspace. With the world's largest group of internet users, China is facing increasingly complex challenges. From the perspectives of top-down design and strategy, in particular, China's internet industry is at a crossroads. It is within this context that China-based Internet companies, led by Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent (collectively referred to as the "BAT"), have become increasingly aware of the importance of network security. Accordingly, they have been working hard in the area of network security at a rate reminiscent of China's rise. Numerous members of China-based security teams were present as speakers at the BlackHat conference. Wei Tao from the Baidu X-lab, in particular, made a speech on the security issue of the globally popular Android platform. He described this issue as "a security vulnerability of the ecosystem" and "the blood cancer of the Android OS". Starting from the vulnerabilities of the Android kernel, Wei systematically explained how security issues in the Android ecosystem have caused chronic "security diseases". The Android security mechanism relies heavily on kernel integrity. This underlying security mechanism would collapse in the event of any kernel vulnerability. Once securing control over the kernel, the intruder would be able to easily bypass an app's isolation mechanism and most Android OS security mechanisms. Offering a solution to this problem, Wei presented Baidu Security's latest adaptive kernel hot fixing technology, for which it has applied for five patents. This technology is able to automatically match vulnerabilities of the targeted Android OS for online hot fixing with no need for the source codes and configurations used to compile the kernel. This technology has not only greatly enhanced vendors' ability to respond to the highly fragmented Android platform, but also significantly accelerated the process of vendors' pushing kernel security patches to end users. It is able to fix 99.4% of Android kernel vulnerabilities known in the market, according to statistics. Cyberspace Security Requires Greater Attention to Security HR Development Nowadays, there are fewer than 10,000 university graduates per year with the major of information security in China, as opposed to at least 100,000 vacancies to be filled in the information security industry. In addition, Chinese universities pay more attention to theories than practices. This situation contrasts with what is needed by relevant companies. By holding the XCTF contest in China, Blue-Lotus aims to enhance the ability of Chinese university students majoring in information security to address real-world security problems, thereby promoting the development of relevant talent. Originating at DEFCON 1996, the CTF contest is the best platform for testing the technical skills of hacker teams when it comes to solving real-world problems in network security. In fact, it is Blue-Lotus that took the lead in introducing DEFCON's CTF contest into China before developing it into China's top-level XCTF contest. Building a Comprehensive Security Ecosystem in an Open Manner and with Public Resources Consumers' online security has gradually become the basis for products in the era of "Intelligence+". Security has evolved into an ecosystem throughout the process of consumption from the basic protection of user-side equipment, becoming an indispensable cornerstone of user experience. Security will continue to become a gene of all service offerings and users alike, and every network participant and provider benefit from security. Today, things connect with one another more and more, and traditional industries' access to the internet forms a general trend, but the primary challenge has become how to be fully ready with respect to security. By making full use of advanced technologies such as cloud computing, big data and artificial intelligence (AI), Baidu Security has solved a great deal of security problems across various sectors. To meet the security industry's need to evolve from products toward capacity and from functions toward services, Baidu Security provides customized, comprehensive, multidimensional security solutions based on AI, cloud computing, big data and other security technologies for different companies, different industries and even different application scenarios, satisfying new Internet-relevant needs and requirements in the era of "Intelligence+". With years of technological heritage and a growing user base in varied areas, Baidu Security is dedicated to building a comprehensive security ecosystem that is intelligent, global and open. On the basis of this system, Baidu Security will be able to provide a broad user base with customized security solutions with high levels of protection. Given a growing device base and increasingly stringent security requirements, it is impossible for any single security vendor or the security industry itself to achieve a high level of information security alone. Being open-minded, Baidu Security is working with China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), the Ministry of Public Security (MPS), device vendors, carriers and others to further improve the comprehensive security ecosystem. These partnerships aid in improving industry standards, working harder against crimes, communicating directly with users about their needs/requirements and sharing even more data to build a safe, reliable protection system for the public. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160809/396657 SOURCE Baidu NEW YORK, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Benenson Strategy Group (BSG), the nation's leading strategic research consultancy, today announced the promotion of Danny Franklin to Managing Partner, effective immediately. Franklin, who has been a partner at BSG since 2013, will work with CEO Joel Benenson to set strategy and manage the firm's client development efforts as well as new product initiatives. "Danny has been a great asset since he joined BSG 10 years ago," said Joel Benenson, CEO and Founder of BSG. "He has played a leading role in some of our most important work, across all three of our practice areas: Political, public interest advocacy and corporate. He has been a key player in BSG's growth and will be instrumental in helping the firm get to the next level. Benenson, who has served as lead pollster for President Barack Obama's since the 2008 campaign, is currently serving as chief strategist on Secretary Hillary Clinton's campaign. Franklin, who joined the firm in 2006, will focus on developing the firm's corporate practice, building on its expertise in corporate reputation, crisis management and competitive scenarios. Franklin joined BSG in 2006 and has managed the firm's polling and strategy for President Barack Obama since the beginning of the 2008 campaign. He has served as lead pollster for Sen. Cory Booker and dozens of congressional and statewide campaigns. With a specialty in the science of building and deepening trust, Franklin has also consulted for some of the largest brands and corporations in the world. A former speechwriter for Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle and Maryland Lt. Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Franklin has also led messaging strategy work for ACLU, SEIU, the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Rockefeller Foundation and Share Our Strength. Benenson said that Franklin's appointment will help the firm move more aggressively into the corporate and public interest sectors, taking advantage of its new relationship with Burson-Marsteller, without losing touch with the firm's political roots. BSG joined the Burson-Marsteller network of companies in May. "The diversity of BSG's experience has always been critical to our success," Franklin said. "As the media landscape changes, the way brands and political campaigns communicate and compete are beginning to converge. It's exciting to be a leading player in helping clients understand how to win in this new landscape." About Benenson Strategy Group Founded in 2000 and headquartered in New York, BSG ran the award-winning research and polling programs for President Barack Obama's 2008 and 2012 campaigns, has advised Heads of State worldwide, and is currently lead pollster and strategist on the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton. Advising global corporations, political leaders and institutions in dynamic, competitive scenarios, Benenson Strategy Group has earned a reputation for expertise in the rhythm and nuances of language and words, and the underlying dynamics of consumer and political choices. In addition to New York, the firm has offices in Denver, London, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit: http://www.bsgco.com SOURCE Benenson Strategy Group Related Links http://bsgco.com PUNE, India, August 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The cloud infrastructure market is projected to be valued at $209.66 billion by 2022, growing at a CAGR of 12.9% driven by increasing ICT spending as well as big data and analytics trends, while BFSI industry is set to hold the largest share of the cloud infrastructure market. Complete report on global cloud infrastructure market spread across 209 pages, profiling 12 companies and supported with 93 tables and 69 figures is now available http://www.reportsnreports.com/reports/646508-cloud-infrastructure-market-by-type-hardware-server-storage-switch-services-platform-as-a-service-infrastructure-as-a-service-content-application-delivery-network-managed-hosting-colocation-end-user-industry-geography-global-forecast-to-2022.html . The cloud infrastructure market, comprising hardware as well as services, is growing at a rapid pace. The growth of this market is mainly caused by increasing ICT spending and trend of big data and analytics; rising demand from various organizations for agile, scalable, and cost-effective computing; increasing number of digital services and their applications; and high penetration of hybrid cloud. The BFSI industry comprises banks, insurance companies, & stock-brokers, and deals with large workforce, assets in different locations, and diverse customer profiles. In today's scenario, the economic and financial sector reform has strengthened its automation heling expansion of IT and cloud infrastructure market. This has transformed not only the operating environment for banks and financial institutions but also played a significant role in structuring and strengthening the economy of the countries such as Brazil, the UAE, and India. Thus, the cloud infrastructure hardware market for the BFSI industry is growing significantly. In Latin America, cloud services are increasing adopted across various sectors such as healthcare, banking and financial services, insurance, retail, manufacturing, and others. In this region, countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, and Peru have huge market opportunities for cloud-based services such as consulting, deployment and system integration, and support & maintenance. The driving factor for the rising adoption of cloud infrastructure market and cloud-based services in this region is the nascence of IT digitalization, which means huge volume as well as high velocity of digital data generation in the coming time. This would require high-end and secured cloud-based solutions to be deployed using superior quality cloud services. The key cloud infrastructure market players profiled in this report IBM Corporation (U.S.), Hewlett-Packard (U.S.), Cisco Systems, Inc. (U.S.), Dell, Inc. (U.S.), EMC Corporation (U.S.), NetApp, Inc. (U.S.), AWS (Amazon Web Services) (U.S.), Alphabet Inc. (Google) (U.S.), Salesforce.com (U.S.), Intel Corporation (U.S.), Lenovo Group Limited (U.S.), AT&T, Inc. (U.S.), Rackspace (U.S.), Oracle Corporation (U.S.), Quanta Computer Inc. (Taiwan), Foxconn Technology Group (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.) (Taiwan). Order a copy of Cloud Infrastructure Market by Type (Hardware: Server, Storage, Switch, Services: Platform as a Service, Infrastructure as a service, Content/Application Delivery Network, Managed Hosting, Colocation), End-User Industry & Geography - Global Forecast to 2022 research report at http://www.reportsnreports.com/purchase.aspx?name=646508 . In the process of determining and verifying, the cloud infrastructure market for several segments and sub segments gathered through secondary research, extensive primary interviews were conducted with key people. In Tier 1 (34%), Tier 2 (40%) and Tier 3 (26%) companies were contacted for primary interviews. The interviews were conducted with various key people such as C Level (32%), Director Level (28%) and others (40%) from various key organizations operating in the global cloud infrastructure market. The primary interviews were conducted worldwide covering regions such as North America (40%), Europe (30%), Asia-Pacific (20%) and Rest of World (10%). On a related note, another research on Cloud Collaboration Market Global Forecast to 2021 says, Emerging trend of mobility and Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) is driving the cloud collaboration market. The enterprise social collaboration solution is expected to gain the maximum traction during the forecast period. Latin America is expected to grow at the highest rate during the forecast period. The market size is estimated to grow from USD 23.39 billion in 2016 to USD 42.57 billion by 2021, at a CAGR of 12.7% from 2016 to 2021. Companies like IBM Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, Cisco Systems, Google Inc., Oracle Corporation, Salesforce.com, Jive Software, Intralink Holdings, Inc., Mitel Networks and Box have been profiled in this 138 pages research report available at http://www.reportsnreports.com/reports/328427-cloud-collaboration-market-by-solution-enterprise-content-management-document-management-system-unified-communication-project-management-enterprise-social-collaboration-worldwide-forecast-and-analysis-2014-2019-.html . Explore more reports on the IT & Telecommunication market at http://www.reportsnreports.com/market-research/information-technology/ . About Us: ReportsnReports.com is an online market research reports library of 500,000+ in-depth studies of over 5000 micro markets. Not limited to any one industry, ReportsnReports.com offers research studies on agriculture, energy and power, chemicals, environment, medical devices, healthcare, food and beverages, water, advanced materials and much more. Contact: Ritesh Tiwari UNIT no 802, Tower no. 7, SEZ Magarpatta city, Hadapsar Pune - 411013 Maharashtra, India. +1 888 391 5441 [email protected] Connect With Us on: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ReportsnReports/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/reportsnreports Twitter:https: //twitter.com/marketsreports G+ / Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/111656568937629536321/posts RSS/Feeds: http://www.reportsnreports.com/feed/l-latestreports.xml SOURCE ReportsnReports ALBANY, New York, August 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Packaging, especially flexible packaging, is one of the most dynamic industries today owing to its extensive application in the food and beverages, personal care, and pharmaceutical sectors. The rising demand for bi-axially oriented polypropylene (BOPP) in packaging, labeling, printing, and lamination can be primarily attributed to the booming growth in the aforementioned industries. Transparency Market Research predicts that the demand for BOPP will be in line with that of flexible packaging in the near future. It is also likely to be consistent with the growth of the food and beverages industry. By revenue, the BOPP market is poised to expand at a 5.8% CAGR from 2016 to 2024, with the value rising from US$12.7 bn in 2015 to US$20.9 bn by the end of the forecast period. The market is projected to register a 6.3% CAGR in terms of volume between 2016 and 2024. The global bi-axially oriented polypropylene market is undeniably fragmented; so much so, that the top seven players accounted for less than 20% of the overall market in 2015. The low shares of these manufacturers, namely, Jindal Poly Films, Taghleef Indsutries, Oben Group, Vibac Group, Cosmos Films, and Vitopel, have resulted in intense competition. Transparency Market Research predicts that the rivalry among the players is likely to be intensified by the entry of several local players. Browse Research Report with ToC & Free Analysis: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/biaxially-oriented-polypropylene-market.html "The degree of competition will rise from medium to high during the forecast period as an increasing number of local manufacturers lower the cost of the final product by raising the production," the author of the study states. The offerings of economical BOPP films by local or new players will enable them to compete with existing companies. The expansion of production capacities and geographical expansions form a key part of the growth strategy of several companies. A case in point would be Jindal Poly Films Ltd. In November 2015, the company announced its global expansion plan, which includes an investment of over US$15 mn and the addition of three new BOPP production lines in various facilities across India, the U.S., and Europe. BOPP Market to be deterred by Fluctuating Prices of Raw Materials The prices of BOPP are primarily dependent on the prices of polypropylene, which have a strong correlation with crude oil. As a result, any fluctuations in the prices of crude oil impact those of BOPP. This acts as a major impediment to the global BOPP market. Get Latest Industry Research PDF for more Professional and Technical Industry Insights: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=3525 On the other hand, a key opportunity for players in the BOPP market, as identified by TMR's team of analysts, is the growing need for unique packaging and specialty BOPP films. "Manufacturers can focus on the development of new and innovative BOPP films that cater to specific requirements such as flavor and color retention, transparent, colored, or opaque films, and heat sealable films," an analyst states. Food Leading Application Segment by Demand and Revenue TMR predicts that the BOPP market will expand at a 5.8% CAGR from 2016 to 2024 in terms of revenue. The value of the market was pegged at US$12.7 bn in 2015 and this is projected to increase to US$20.9 bn by 2024. By volume, the market is likely to register a 6.3% CAGR during the forecast period. Browse Research PR: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/pressrelease/biaxially-oriented-polypropylene-market.htm The food segment holds the lead position in the overall BOPP market by application in terms of volume as well as value. The segment is projected to touch US$14.4 bn in revenue the end of the forecast period. Geographically, Asia Pacific will continue leading the global BOPP market, accounting for a volume share of 63% by 2024. This review is based on the findings of a TMR report titled "Bi-axially Oriented Polypropylene (BOPP) Market: Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2024." BOPP Market, by Application Food Tapes Tobacco Others (medical, consumer goods, etc.) BOPP Market, by Region North America U.S. U.S. Northeastern region U.S. Southern region U.S. Western region U.S. Midwestern region Mexico Canada Central America Guatemala Costa Rica Panama El Salvador Honduras Nicaragua Rest of Central America Europe France U.K. Spain Germany Italy Rest of Europe Asia Pacific China Japan India ASEAN Rest of Asia Pacific Latin America Brazil Argentina Colombia Rest of Latin America Middle East & Africa (MEA) GCC South Africa Nigeria Angola Cameroon Ivory Coast Rest of MEA Browse Regional Market Research Blog: http://www.europlat.org/global-bopp-market.htm Browse Other Research Reports: Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer (EPDM) Market : http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/ethylene-propylene-diene-monomer-rubber.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/ethylene-propylene-diene-monomer-rubber.html Sulfur Chemicals Market: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/global-sulfur-chemicals-market.html About TMR Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The company's exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMR's experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information. TMR's data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports. Contact Transparency Market Research State Tower 90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany NY - 12207 United States Tel: +1-518-618-1030 USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453 Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com SOURCE Transparency Market Research BEIJING, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Bitauto Holdings Limited ("Bitauto" or the "Company") (NYSE: BITA), a leading provider of internet content and marketing services for China's fast-growing automotive industry, today announced its unaudited financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2016[1]. Second Quarter 2016 Highlights [2] Revenue in the second quarter of 2016 was RMB1.39 billion ( US$209.4 million ), a 31.1% increase from the corresponding period in 2015. in the second quarter of 2016 was ( ), a 31.1% increase from the corresponding period in 2015. Gross profit in the second quarter of 2016 was RMB850.5 million ( US$128.0 million ), a 24.7% increase from the corresponding period in 2015. in the second quarter of 2016 was ( ), a 24.7% increase from the corresponding period in 2015. Operating loss in the second quarter of 2016 was RMB0.4 million ( US$0.1 million ). Non-GAAP operating profit in the second quarter of 2016 was RMB169.4 million ( US$25.5 million ), a 32.1% increase from the corresponding period in 2015. in the second quarter of 2016 was ( ). in the second quarter of 2016 was ( ), a 32.1% increase from the corresponding period in 2015. Net loss in the second quarter of 2016 was RMB47.5 million ( US$7.1 million ). Non-GAAP net profit in the second quarter of 2016 was RMB124.8 million ( US$18.8 million ), a 1.8% increase from the corresponding period in 2015. in the second quarter of 2016 was ( ). in the second quarter of 2016 was ( ), a 1.8% increase from the corresponding period in 2015. Basic and diluted net loss per ADS in the second quarter of 2016 was RMB1.37 (US$0.21) and RMB1.37 (US$0.21) , respectively. Non-GAAP basic and diluted net profit per ADS in the second quarter of 2016 was RMB1.37 (US$0.21) and RMB1.33 (US$0.20) , respectively. Mr. William Li, chief executive officer and chairman of Bitauto, commented, "We are pleased to announce that we have maintained steady growth in the second quarter of 2016, with revenue growing 31.1% year-over-year. In particular, our automobile transaction services business made solid progress during the quarter with over 75,500 revenue-generating transactions executed, and our online automotive financial platform services business continued to gain momentum." "Bitauto is committed to providing automobile consumers with the best possible automobile purchasing experience. Based on our experience over the past two years exploring innovative business models, our focus will be geared to those business segments which have outstanding long-term growth and profit potential, including our Huimaiche platform and online automotive financial platform business." "Looking forward, Bitauto will continue to execute on our core business strategies to enhance our long-term competitiveness. First, we plan to further develop our automobile transaction services, including e-commerce, CRM and online automotive financial platform services, with better consumer purchasing experience and greater efficiency of our online and offline service infrastructure. Second, we will strive to further increase our mobile monetization capability as we continue to improve our mobile offerings with more targeted marketing solutions enabled by our big data analytics. Third, we will continue to strengthen our dealer services offerings particularly on mobile devices and social media." Mr. Andy Zhang, president and chief financial officer of Bitauto, said, "In the second quarter of 2016, we delivered steady top-line growth, as our transaction services business segment continued to make progress. The recently announced US$550 million funding in Yixin Capital from a consortium including Bitauto, Tencent, Baidu, JD.com and other investors will help us extend our leadership in China's automotive finance sector, while deepening our relationship with key strategic partners. Looking forward, we will continue to streamline our operations to enhance efficiency and ensure sustainable growth over the long term." Second Quarter 2016 Results Bitauto reported revenue of RMB1.39 billion (US$209.4 million) for the second quarter of 2016, representing a 31.1% increase from the corresponding period in 2015. The increase in revenue was attributable to the growth of the Company's advertising and subscription business, transaction services business and digital marketing solutions business. Revenue from the advertising and subscription business for the second quarter of 2016 was RMB890.3 million ( US$134.0 million ), representing a 15.5% increase from RMB771.1 million ( US$116.0 million ) in the corresponding period in 2015. The increase was primarily attributable to an increase in advertising and subscription fees spending by customers. for the second quarter of 2016 was ( ), representing a 15.5% increase from ( ) in the corresponding period in 2015. The increase was primarily attributable to an increase in advertising and subscription fees spending by customers. Revenue from the transaction services business for the second quarter of 2016 was RMB308.3 million ( US$46.4 million ), representing a 67.8% increase from RMB183.8 million ( US$27.7 million ) in the corresponding period in 2015. The increase was attributable to a higher volume of transaction services. for the second quarter of 2016 was ( ), representing a 67.8% increase from ( ) in the corresponding period in 2015. The increase was attributable to a higher volume of transaction services. Revenue from the digital marketing solutions business for the second quarter of 2016 was RMB192.8 million ( US$29.0 million ), representing an 81.2% increase from RMB106.4 million ( US$16.0 million ) in the corresponding period in 2015, which was primarily due to an increase in the number of advertising customers. Cost of revenue for the second quarter of 2016 was RMB540.9 million (US$81.4 million), representing a year-over-year increase of 42.6% from the corresponding period in 2015. Cost of revenue as a percentage of revenue in the second quarter of 2016 was 38.9%, compared to 35.7% in the corresponding period in 2015. Gross profit for the second quarter of 2016 was RMB850.5 million (US$128.0 million), representing a 24.7% increase from the corresponding period in 2015 in line with revenue growth. Selling and administrative expenses were RMB785.5 million (US$118.2 million) for the second quarter of 2016, representing an increase of 17.6% from the corresponding period in 2015. This increase was primarily attributable to the increase in headcount and related expenses. Product development expenses were RMB101.3 million (US$15.2 million) for the second quarter of 2016, representing a 32.2% increase from the corresponding period in 2015. The increase was primarily due to an increase in product development headcount and related expenses. Share-based payment expenses, which were allocated to related operating expense line items, were RMB16.6 million (US$2.5 million) in the second quarter of 2016, compared to RMB27.1 million (US$4.1 million) in the corresponding period in 2015. Operating loss in the second quarter of 2016 was RMB0.4 million (US$0.1 million), compared to an operating loss of RMB48.4 million (US$7.3 million) in the corresponding period in 2015. Non-GAAP operating profit in the second quarter of 2016 was RMB169.4 million (US$25.5 million), representing a 32.1% increase from the corresponding period in 2015. Income tax expense in the second quarter of 2016 was RMB35.9 million (US$5.4 million), compared to an income tax expense of RMB16.7 million (US$2.5 million) in the corresponding period in 2015. Net loss in the second quarter of 2016 was RMB47.5 million (US$7.1 million), compared to a net loss of RMB55.2 million (US$8.3 million) in the corresponding period in 2015. Basic and diluted net loss per ADS, each representing one ordinary share, in the second quarter of 2016 amounted to RMB1.37 (US$0.21) and RMB1.37 (US$0.21), respectively. Non-GAAP net profit in the second quarter of 2016 was RMB124.8 million (US$18.8 million), a 1.8% increase from the corresponding period in 2015. Non-GAAP basic and diluted net profit per ADS in the second quarter of 2016 amounted to RMB1.37 (US$0.21) and RMB1.33 (US$0.20), respectively. As of June 30, 2016, the Company had cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash of RMB3.89 billion (US$586.1 million). Cash used in operating activities, cash used in investing activities, and cash from financing activities in the second quarter of 2016 were RMB1.63 billion (US$245.4 million), RMB1.40 billion (US$210.5 million), and RMB1.91 billion (US$288.1 million), respectively. Bills receivables, representing short-term notes receivable issued by financial institutions that entitle the Company to receive the full face amount from the financial institutions at maturity, which generally range from three to six months from the date of issuance, was RMB61.1 million (US$9.2 million) as of June 30, 2016, compared to RMB147.7 million (US$22.2 million) as of December 31, 2015. Trade receivables was RMB2.59 billion (US$390.0 million) as of June 30, 2016, compared to RMB1.90 billion (US$285.9 million) as of December 31, 2015. This increase was in line with revenue growth. As of June 30, 2016, belonging to transaction services business, cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash was RMB705.6 million (US$106.2 million), finance leasing receivables was RMB5.12 billion (US$769.7 million) and interest-bearing borrowings was RMB2.11 billion (US$317.0 million). The number of employees totaled 6,246 as of June 30, 2016, including employees of the entities in which Bitauto acquired and holds controlling interests. This represented a 57.5% increase from June 30, 2015, which was primarily due to higher headcount in Bitauto's customer support service teams as the Company expands its offline service infrastructure to enhance the automobile buying experience, as well as increased headcount in Bitauto's mobile product development team. As of June 30, 2016, the Company had a total of 70,726,025 ordinary shares, with 34,388,244 ADSs issued and outstanding. Each ADS represents one ordinary share of the Company. Non-GAAP basic and diluted per ADS figures for the second quarter of 2016 were calculated using a weighted average of 62,058,455 and 63,683,459 ADSs, respectively. Recent Updates Bitauto announced that it has accepted the resignation of the Company's president, Mr. Jingning Shao, effective immediately. Mr. Shao will pursue professional interests outside of the automobile industry and remain a member of Bitauto's board of directors, serving as vice-chairman, a position in which he will be able to continue to share his industry expertise and resources with the Company. Mr. Shao joined the Company in 2009 and has made significant contributions to Bitauto's growth over the past seven years. Bitauto also announced the appointment of Mr. Andy Zhang, the Company's chief operating officer and chief financial officer, to president and chief financial officer, effective immediately. In his new role as president and chief financial officer, Mr. Zhang will leverage his experience in China's rapidly evolving automotive industry and deep knowledge of Bitauto's full range of business lines to focus on integrating the Company's automobile transaction services with its advertising and subscription businesses in order to realize sustainable top and bottom line growth while further increasing operational efficiencies. Third Quarter 2016 Outlook Bitauto currently expects to generate revenue in the range of RMB1.37 billion (US$206.1 million) to RMB1.42 billion (US$213.7 million) in the third quarter of 2016. This forecast takes into consideration seasonality factors in Bitauto's business, and excludes any impact of foreign currency fluctuation. It reflects management's current and preliminary view, which is subject to change. Conference Call Information Bitauto's management will hold an earnings conference call at 8:00 AM on August 9, 2016 U.S. Eastern Time (8:00 PM on August 9, 2016 Beijing/Hong Kong time). Dial-in details for the earnings conference call are as follows: US: +1-845-675-0437 or +1-866-519-4004 Hong Kong: +852-3018-6771 or 800-906-601 China: 800-8190-121 or 400-6208-038 International: +65-6713-5090 Conference ID: 48474461 A replay of the conference call may be accessed by phone at the following number until August 17, 2016: US: +1-855-452-5696 or +1-646-254-3697 International: +61-2-8199-0299 Conference ID: 48474461 Additionally, a live and archived webcast of this conference call will be available at http://ir.bitauto.com. [1] This announcement contains translations of certain amounts in Renminbi into U.S. dollars at specified rates solely for the convenience of the readers. Unless otherwise noted, all translations from Renminbi to U.S. dollars are made at a rate of RMB6.6459 to US$1.00, the effective noon buying rate as of June 30, 2016 in The City of New York for cable transfers of Renminbi as certified for customs purposes by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. [2] The unaudited condensed consolidated financial information for the year and for each of the quarters in the year ended December 31, 2015 have been revised after giving effect to the Company's change in accounting standards from International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) to accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (U.S. GAAP). The major impacts on unaudited condensed consolidated statements of operations were related to revenue, cost of revenue and non-operating income/expenses. In addition, the accretion of mezzanine equity was considered when calculating basic and diluted net profit/loss per ADS. About Bitauto Holdings Limited Bitauto Holdings Limited (NYSE: BITA) is a leading provider of internet content and marketing services for China's fast-growing automotive industry. Bitauto manages its businesses in three segments: its advertising and subscription business, transaction services business and digital marketing solutions business. Bitauto's advertising and subscription business offers advertising and digital marketing solutions to automakers and automobile customers in China. Bitauto provides a variety of advertising services mainly to automakers through its bitauto.com and taoche.com websites, which provide consumers with up-to-date new and used automobile pricing and promotional information, specifications, reviews and consumer feedback. Bitauto also offers subscription services via its EP platform which provides web-based and mobile-based integrated digital marketing solutions to automobile customers in China. The platform enables dealer subscribers to create their own online showrooms, list pricing and promotional information, provide dealer contact information, place advertisements and manage customer relationships to help them reach a broad set of purchase-minded customers and effectively market their automobiles to consumers online. In 2014, Bitauto began providing automobile customers with transaction services on its EP platform, including automobile transaction, CRM and online automotive financial platform services, which are intended to optimize the automobile purchase experience and facilitate completion of transactions. Bitauto's digital marketing solutions business provides automakers with one-stop digital marketing solutions, including website creation and maintenance, online public relations, online marketing campaigns and advertising. For more information, please visit ir.bitauto.com. Safe Harbor Statement This announcement contains forward-looking statements. These statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," "confident" and similar statements. Among other things, the business outlook of the Company and the quotations from management in this announcement, as well as Bitauto's strategic and operational plans, contain forward-looking statements. Bitauto may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its periodic reports to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in its annual report to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about Bitauto's beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement, including but not limited to the following: our goals and strategies; our future business development, financial condition and results of operations; the expected growth of the automobile industry and the internet marketing industry in China; our expectations regarding demand for and market acceptance of our services and service delivery model; our expectations regarding enhancing our brand recognition; our expectations regarding keeping and strengthening our relationships with major customers, partner websites and media vendors; relevant government policies and regulations relating to our businesses, automobile purchases and ownership in China; our ability to attract and retain quality employees; our ability to stay abreast of market trends and technological advances; competition in our industry in China and internationally; general economic and business conditions in China; and our ability to effectively protect our intellectual property rights and not infringe on the intellectual property rights of others. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in Bitauto's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its annual report on Form 20-F. Bitauto does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable law. All information provided in this press release and in the attachments is as of the date of this press release, and Bitauto undertakes no duty to update such information, except as required under applicable law. Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures Bitauto's management supplements the data it receives regarding U.S. GAAP profit with non-GAAP profit, which excludes from U.S. GAAP profit the charges relating to (i) share-based payments; (ii) amortization of intangible assets resulting from asset and business acquisitions; (iii) fair value adjustment of contingent considerations; (iv) share of amortization of equity investments' intangible assets not on their books; and (v) investment loss. This non-GAAP financial measure provides Bitauto's management with the ability to assess its operating results without considering the impact of non-cash charges resulting from share-based payments. Furthermore, this non-GAAP financial measure eliminates the impact of item(s) that Bitauto does not consider indicative of the performance of its business. The use of non-GAAP profit has certain limitations. Share-based payments have been and will continue to be incurred and are not reflected in the presentation of the non-GAAP profit. This non-GAAP financial measure should be considered in addition to results prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP, and should not be considered a substitute for or superior to U.S. GAAP results. In addition, non-GAAP profit may not be comparable to similarly titled measures utilized by other companies since such other companies may not calculate such measures in the same manner as Bitauto does. Reconciliation of this non-GAAP financial measure to the most directly comparable U.S. GAAP financial measure is set forth at the end of this release. For investor and media inquiries, please contact: China IR Department Bitauto Holdings Limited Tel: +86-10-6849-2145 [email protected] SELECTED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL DATA Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations For the Three Months Ended For the Six Months Ended June 30, 2015 June 30, 2016 June 30, 2016 RMB RMB RMB Revenue 1,061,298,833 1,391,413,309 2,474,916,881 Cost of revenue (379,227,510) (540,935,815) (893,439,243) Gross profit 682,071,323 850,477,494 1,581,477,638 Selling and administrative expenses (667,740,776) (785,508,699) (1,504,037,739) Product development expenses (76,618,578) (101,252,941) (199,559,048) Other gains, net 13,865,336 35,910,712 44,105,697 Operating loss (48,422,695) (373,434) (78,013,452) Interest income 10,606,633 6,264,870 10,413,317 Interest expense (1,091,369) (8,464,826) (13,509,843) Share of profits/(losses) of associates and joint ventures 529,491 (7,150,429) (13,576,872) Investment loss (136,256) (1,872,537) (1,534,345) Loss before tax (38,514,196) (11,596,356) (96,221,195) Income tax expense (16,664,631) (35,907,212) (59,491,622) Net loss for the period (55,178,827) (47,503,568) (155,712,817) Total comprehensive (loss)/income for the period (86,830,764) 90,612,044 (44,537,872) Net loss for the period attributable to: Ordinary shareholders of the parent company (57,499,709) (48,365,906) (157,462,782) Total comprehensive (loss)/income for the period attributable to: Ordinary shareholders of the parent company (89,151,646) 89,749,706 (46,287,837) Other financial data Non-GAAP net profit for the period 122,566,801 124,763,282 193,959,393 Reconciliation of net loss to non-GAAP net profit For the Three Months Ended For the Six Months Ended June 30, 2015 June 30, 2016 June 30, 2016 RMB RMB RMB Net loss for the period (55,178,827) (47,503,568) (155,712,817) Share-based payments 27,093,946 16,577,192 40,571,723 Amortization of intangible assets resulting from asset and business acquisitions 149,610,299 153,190,702 306,313,304 Fair value adjustment of contingent considerations 888,627 - - Share of amortization of equity investments' intangible assets not on their books 16,500 626,419 1,252,838 Investment loss 136,256 1,872,537 1,534,345 Non-GAAP net profit for the period 122,566,801 124,763,282 193,959,393 SELECTED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL DATA Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets December 31, 2015 June 30, 2016 RMB RMB Assets Cash and cash equivalents 2,940,874,390 2,304,918,786 Time deposits 100,000,000 - Restricted cash 350,654,400 1,589,976,741 Trade receivables 1,899,789,400 2,591,963,715 Bills receivables 147,660,156 61,074,696 Other current assets 2,446,069,562 3,222,806,318 Non-current assets 5,185,965,139 7,328,525,486 Total assets 13,071,013,047 17,099,265,742 Liabilities Trade payables 987,424,361 1,584,156,256 Other current liabilities 1,673,076,585 3,493,496,166 Non-current liabilities 88,222,874 719,337,000 Total liabilities 2,748,723,820 5,796,989,422 Mezzanine equity 1,697,717,536 1,770,742,762 Total equity 8,624,571,691 9,531,533,558 Total liabilities, mezzanine equity and equity 13,071,013,047 17,099,265,742 SOURCE Bitauto Holdings Limited RIVERVIEW, Fla., Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- BlueGrace Logistics ("BlueGrace" or "the Company"), a private third-party logistics (3PL) provider based in Tampa, Florida, announced today that funds affiliated with Warburg Pincus, a leading global private equity firm focused on growth investing, have agreed to make a minority investment of growth capital and additional funds available for strategic acquisitions. The total commitment by Warburg Pincus is $255 million. BlueGrace intends to use the funding to fuel the rapid growth of the business, including hiring 500-700 new employees, accelerating its national expansion plans and pursuing strategic acquisitions. BlueGrace is presently building out the remainder of its 55,000 square feet of headquarters space in Riverview, Fl., and is scouting for more space across Tampa Bay. BlueGrace expects to significantly increase employment in Tampa, Chicago, Boston and other markets. "This investment will give a major shot of adrenaline to our already fast-growing operations," said BlueGrace President and Chief Executive Officer Bobby Harris. "We're helping customers transform their shipping across the country. And for me, it's especially gratifying to see more and more employees come into the Company and find a great career." Founded in 2009, BlueGrace has developed a proprietary software platform that provides customers who need to ship goods with multiple offers from trucking companies. BlueGrace tracks the shipments, costs, routes and timing, and then provides customers with detailed data about where they can save money. BlueGrace can often save millions of dollars for a client, while providing unprecedented transparency into what's often a major expense for a company freight. BlueGrace works with more than 10,000 companies nationwide that make everything from auto parts and beauty products to pharmaceuticals and sporting goods. Many of the most popular products on shelves at major retailers made their way there through BlueGrace. "Warburg Pincus has been a long-term investor in the technology-enabled logistics market and BlueGrace is a rapidly growing innovator in that industry," commented Alex Berzofsky, Managing Director, Warburg Pincus. "We see meaningful opportunities for continued growth for the Company and we look forward to supporting the BlueGrace team." Through Warburg Pincus, BlueGrace received a combination of committed capital and direct investments of $255 million. Hyde Park Capital acted as advisor to BlueGrace in the transaction. Harris founded BlueGrace in January 2009 and the company has grown rapidly ever since. Last summer, BlueGrace employed about 170 people and announced plans to add 100 new employees, but has already "significantly exceeded that," Harris said. BlueGrace now employs more than 370 nationally and the Company will likely employ more than 1,000 people in the next several years through a combination of organic expansion and acquisitions. This year, BlueGrace bought more than two dozen of its franchise locations across the country, and the Company is rapidly expanding in new markets, with employment in the Chicago and Boston and Los Angeles. About BlueGrace Logistics: Founded in 2009, BlueGrace Logistics is one of the fastest growing leaders of transportation management services in North America. As a full service third party logistics provider (3PL), BlueGrace helps businesses manage their less-than-truckload and truckload spend through industry leading technology, high level freight carrier relationships and superior insight of the complex $750 billion U.S. freight industry. BlueGrace is headquartered in Riverview, Florida with over 60 corporate and franchise locations across the U.S. For more information, visit www.mybluegrace.com. About Warburg Pincus Warburg Pincus LLC is a leading global private equity firm focused on growth investing. The firm has more than $40 billion in private equity assets under management. The firm's active portfolio of more than 120 companies is highly diversified by stage, sector and geography. Warburg Pincus is an experienced partner to management teams seeking to build durable companies with sustainable value. Founded in 1966, Warburg Pincus has raised 15 private equity funds, which have invested more than $55 billion in over 750 companies in more than 40 countries. Within technology-enabled logistics, selected current and former Warburg Pincus investments include Coyote Logistics, MercuryGate, NewBreed Logistics and GTNexus in the U.S. and ZTO Express, ANE Logistics, Sequoia Logistica and Yunniao, among others internationally. The firm is headquartered in New York with offices in Amsterdam, Beijing, Hong Kong, London, Luxembourg, Mumbai, Mauritius, San Francisco, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, and Singapore. For more information please visit www.warburgpincus.com. Contacts For BlueGrace Logistics Richard Mullins W: (813) 228-0652 x-127 M: (813) 992-8139 [email protected] For Warburg Pincus LLC Mary Zimmerman 212.878.9207 SOURCE BlueGrace Logistics Related Links http://www.mybluegrace.com - CPGroup Latam adds four new partners and opens new office in Buenos Aires - TORONTO, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ - Retained executive search firm The Caldwell Partners International Inc. (TSX: CWL) today announced a significant expansion of the firm's Latin American team through the addition of four new partners and a new office in Buenos Aires. Adilson Parrella and Pedro Folque de Almeida have joined the Sao Paulo office, Eleonora Cajiao has joined the Bogota office and Estanislao Pena has opened the firm's new office in Buenos Aires. "With the addition of an office in Buenos Aires and four new partners in Argentina, Brazil and Colombia, we now have full coverage of the entire Latin American market," said Eduardo Antunovic, one of the founding partners of CPGroup Latam. "With President Mauricio Macri's recent economic reforms and pro-market agenda, now is the perfect time to start up operations in Argentina the third largest economy in Latin America." Antunovic added: "We have the pre-eminent search team in Latin America, comprising an impressive group of partners with experience in all industries and functions. We have the breadth and depth to serve our clients on a global basis across the major industries, yet we are nimble enough to move more freely through the market and provide more direct accountability to our clients." Adilson Parrella has extensive experience executing C-level and senior executive assignments in all disciplines including marketing, finance, sales, human resources, manufacturing and supply chain across several major industries, including consumer and industrial. Prior to joining Caldwell Partners, he led the Consumer and FMCG practices in Brazil and South America for one the largest global executive search firms, and also held full P&L responsibility for the start-up operations in Brazil of a European executive search firm. Outside of the executive search industry, Mr. Parrella had a 13-year career managing commercial and manufacturing operations for subsidiaries of multinational companies, demonstrating particular expertise in conducting business turnarounds and managing startups and multifunctional teams. He holds a BA and an MBA from Brigham Young University. Pedro Folque de Almeida specializes in executive recruitment in the Industrial sector. With more than 20 years of experience in executive search, he has held significant leadership positions at some of the world's largest executive search firms, in many cases holding full responsibility for the Industrial and Technology practices in the Iberian region, as well as driving business development and cross-border search execution. Mr. de Almeida holds a post-graduate degree in business management from Universidade Catolica Portuguesa and an academic degree in International Affairs/Political Science from Universidade Lusiada de Lisboa. Eleonora Cajiao draws on more than 20 years of experience in executive search, leadership consulting and senior executive positions, to recruit C-suite and functional leaders for clients across the FMCG, retail and industrial sectors. She joins Caldwell Partners from Korn/Ferry International, where she was a senior client partner. Prior to joining the executive search industry, she managed the international expansion of Eduparques S.A (a subsidiary of the Pedro Gomez group of companies) into several Latin American countries. Earlier she worked for Unilever Andina, where she held several executive level positions of increasing responsibility. Eleonora received her law degree from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogota. Later she pursued studies in international business at University of California at Berkeley and in marketing at the Unilever Marketing Academy. Drawing on a 26-year career in the telecommunications industry, Estanislao Pena specializes in recruiting senior executives and building high performance teams. Prior to joining Caldwell Partners, he held roles of increasing responsibility with Nextel, starting as a sales representative and eventually holding the role of CEO of Nextel Chile. In 2014, he led the sale of Nextel Chile to Novator Partners LLP, remaining an integral part of the organization as chairman of the board for the new WOM Chile (formerly Nextel), and was actively involved in the recruiting of the senior leadership team. Concurrently, he became the CEO of Paperless LatAm, leading the company's regional operations. Mr. Pena studied business administration at Buenos Aires University, and has a Bachelor of Science in business administration from the University of Phoenix. He furthered his education at Georgetown's McDonough School of Business, where he graduated from the senior leadership program. "We are extremely pleased by this expansion of our capabilities in Latin America," said John Wallace, chief executive officer. "We continue to solidify our ability to conduct international and cross-border searches, which drives the continuous improvement of our service to our clients and the creation of sustainable value for our shareholders." About Caldwell Partners Caldwell Partners is a leading international provider of executive search and has been for more than 45 years. As one of the world's most trusted advisors in executive search, the firm has a sterling reputation built on successful searches for boards, chief and senior executives, and selected functional experts. With offices and partners across North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia Pacific, the firm takes pride in delivering an unmatched level of service and expertise to its clients. The Caldwell Partners' Common shares are listed on The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: CWL). Please visit our website at www.caldwellpartners.com for further information. SOURCE The Caldwell Partners International Inc. PHANTOM GLASS COLLABORATES WITH CORNING INCORPORATED TORONTO, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ - Starting fall 2016, Phantom Glass is collaborating with Corning Incorporated an industry leader in glass technology. Phantom Glass, a screen protection brand, will fuse its patent pending, proprietary technology with Corning's aluminum silicate based Accessory Glass 2 by Corning to produce world class screen protectors for smartphones, tablets and digital cameras. (LOGO: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160808/396431LOGO) Existing Phantom Glass products are engineered to include a silicone nano-adhesion layer, which allows for easy installation and fills most existing minor surface scratches. The product is also treated with a specialized oleophobic nano-coating to ensure that fingerprints and residues wipe off with ease, while still maintaining 100% clarity. "We are constantly innovating to ensure Phantom Glass is objectively the highest quality product available on the market," said Richard Waters, founder, Phantom Glass. "Our innovation and product design, combined with Corning's glass technology, will further elevate our product offering far above the competition." Accessory Glass 2 by Corning is designed specifically for screen protector application and is strengthened through an ion-exchange process. Compared against standard soda-lime glass, it provides: Improved scratch resistance: up to 5 times improvement in the force required to cause deep strength-degrading scratches, often accompanied by chipping up to 5 times improvement in the force required to cause deep strength-degrading scratches, often accompanied by chipping Helps reduce breakage for drop events on various everyday indoor/outdoor surfaces: up to 25% increase in drop performance "Corning has applied its proven innovation model to address screen protector applications. Accessory Glass 2 by Corning is our newest product which provides consumers with an improved user experience," said Scott Forester, director, Corning Specialty Materials. "We are delighted to work with Phantom Glass to integrate our latest innovation to enable a high-quality screen protector product with advanced scratch resistance and reduced scratch visibility." Phantom Glass takes into serious consideration every element that makes up its product. Innovative manufacturing techniques, unique design and high quality components are what distinguish it from competing products. This mission for quality is the driving force behind the collaboration between Phantom Glass and Corning. Phantom Glass with Accessory Glass 2 by Corning will be available in fall 2016. FACEBOOK TWITTER INSTAGRAM ABOUT PHANTOM GLASS Phantom Glass offers premium screen protection that ensures maximum impact and scratch resistance with an innovative and proprietary technology. Established in 2013 by Toronto entrepreneur Richard Waters, the Canadian startup focuses on Apple devices, select Android smartphones and tablets, and digital cameras. Phantom Glass is compatible with over 158 devices and is available in over 190 countries online and in retailers across Canada and the United States. Accompanied by a lifetime warranty. www.phantom.glass ABOUT CORNING INCORPORATED Corning is one of the world's leading innovators in materials science. For more than 160 years, Corning has applied its unparalleled expertise in specialty glass, ceramics, and optical physics to develop products that have created new industries and transformed people's lives. Corning succeeds through sustained investment in R&D, a unique combination of material and process innovation, and close collaboration with customers to solve tough technology challenges. Corning's businesses and markets are constantly evolving. Today, Corning's products enable diverse industries such as consumer electronics, telecommunications, transportation, and life sciences. They include damage-resistant cover glass for smartphones and tablets; precision glass for advanced displays; optical fiber, wireless technologies, and connectivity solutions for high-speed communications networks; trusted products that accelerate drug discovery and manufacturing; and emissions-control products for cars, trucks, and off-road vehicles. SOURCE Phantom Glass Related Links http://phantom.glass/ NEW YORK, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Capgemini Consulting, the global strategy and transformation consulting organization of the Capgemini Group, today confirmed the appointment of Todd Rovak as Head of North America, in place since February. Rovak also retains his leadership role at Fahrenheit 212, an innovation strategy and design firm recently acquired by Capgemini and now part of Capgemini Consulting. In his dual role, Rovak will help drive Capgemini's digital innovation growth strategy by leveraging the combined capabilities of Fahrenheit 212 and Capgemini Consulting. Highly entrepreneurial and outcome-driven, Fahrenheit 212 has spent the last 12 years refining a proprietary, systematized innovation methodology that fuses consumer-centered inventiveness with deep commercial acumen. Fahrenheit 212 helps clients design innovations that drive predictable growth - a process that is now strengthened by Capgemini's ability to digitize operations and business processes, as well as develop and manage applications and IT infrastructure. Fahrenheit 212 has helped unlock new growth opportunities for clients such as The Coca-Cola Company, Marriott and Citi. "Together, Capgemini Consulting and Fahrenheit 212 represent a new breed of consultancy, designed to harness the power of innovation as a true capability that helps clients accelerate their growth trajectory, transform their industries and build lasting competitive advantage," said Rovak. "Delivering on this ambition requires an obsession over our people cultivating and mobilizing a distinctive talent base along with a focus on leveraging Capgemini's breadth of capabilities in new ways that enable innovations to scale into enterprise-level successes." Rovak joined Fahrenheit 212 in 2009, and was named its strategy practice lead in 2011. In 2013, he was named managing partner and CEO. Prior to joining Fahrenheit 212, Rovak held strategy roles in the Investment Management Division of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and at real estate private equity firm Tishman Speyer. He holds a masters in business administration from Harvard Business School in Cambridge, Mass., as well as a bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Rovak succeeds Dee Burger, who was appointed head of digital services for the Capgemini Group. In the first half of 2016, Capgemini's global digital and cloud offerings grew 32 percent as a result of client demand for innovation and digital transformation services. "Through the Fahrenheit 212 acquisition and under Todd's leadership, Capgemini is redefining consulting and how it's delivered to help clients define their future through a digital lens," said Cyril Garcia, Head of Capgemini Consulting and Member of the Group Executive Committee at Capgemini. "We also thank Dee Burger for his tremendous contributions in driving growth for Capgemini Consulting and its clients." About Capgemini Consulting Capgemini Consulting is the global strategy and transformation consulting organization of the Capgemini Group, specializing in advising and supporting enterprises in significant transformation, from innovative strategy to execution and with an unstinting focus on results. With the new digital economy creating significant disruptions and opportunities, the global team of over 3,000 talented individuals work with leading companies and governments to master Digital Transformation, drawing on their understanding of the digital economy and leadership in business transformation and organizational change. Find out more at: http://www.capgemini-consulting.com. Fahrenheit 212 is a global innovation strategy and design firm that joined the Capgemini Group in 2016. Based in New York and London, Fahrenheit 212 defines innovation strategies and develops new products, services and experiences for some of the world's leading companies, such as Coca-Cola, Marriott and Citi. The global team of innovation practitioners work across a wide range of industries and geographies. Team members bring together diverse capabilities of strategy, idea development, digital, research, branding and design. Find out more at: http://www.fahrenheit-212.com SOURCE Capgemini Related Links http://www.capgemini.com The Armand de Brignac Blanc de Noirs is crafted from 100% Pinot Noir fruit, from some of the best black-grape producing villages in Champagne. A winemaking signature of Armand de Brignac is extreme selectivity in juice extraction, with the winemakers taking solely the first and freshest portion of the gentle cuvee grape press. This no-compromise approach to producing the most exceptional quality, resulted in a release of less than 3,000 bottles. The inaugural assemblage (A1) is a trio of vintages, 2006, 2008 and 2009, which rested in the chalk cellars in France for more than six years, before its release last November. The champagnes are crafted by the Cattier family, 11 th generation Champagne growers, who have held family-owned vineyards in the region for more than 250 years. FINE Champagne Magazine, the only international publication devoted to champagne, have annually assessed the vast offering on the international markets since 2010 producing the ranking of '100 Best Champagnes'. On the debut year, Armand de Brignac Brut Gold was celebrated as the best champagne of the year. This year, FINE Champagne organized the ranking in association with the world's largest wine information source, Tastingbook.com. "Blanc de Noirs are a rare but exciting, up-and-coming champagne category and we were delighted to see Armand de Brignac's brand new release excel in our tasting. After all, FINE Champagne's ranking is all about picking the best wines on the market for the consumer, celebrating champagne's different styles" said Essi Avellan MW, the Editor of FINE Champagne Magazine. Juha Lihtonen, co-founder of Tastingbook.com, comments that "Armand de Brignac Blanc de Noirs charms with its refined, round and opulent nature. It possesses all necessary characteristics of a great Blanc de Noirs. Thanks to these qualities, it stood out in its category." Champagne Armand de Brignac Blanc de Noirs is available at select fine wine stores in key cities of the world at USD $850. To learn more about Champagne Armand de Brignac, please visit www.armanddebrignac.com. To explore the FINE Champagne Magazine's 'Best Champagne for 2016' results, please visit www.tastingbook.com. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160808/396487 SOURCE Champagne Armand de Brignac Related Links http://www.armanddebrignac.com GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo., Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Ciber, Inc. (NYSE: CBR), a leading global information technology consulting, services and outsourcing company, and a long-time Microsoft business solutions partner, was honored to be named a member of the 2016 President's Club for Microsoft Dynamics at the Microsoft Dynamics Partner Recognition Event on July 11th in Toronto, Canada. The Microsoft Dynamics President's Club honors high-performing Microsoft Dynamics partners with commitments to customers that are reflected in their business success and growth. This prestigious group represents the top 5% of Microsoft Dynamics partners worldwide. With more than twenty years as a Microsoft partner, this accolade confirms Ciber's commitment as a leader in delivering flexible, scalable and extendable solutions for managing key relationships alongside associated information and financial platforms. Ciber earned the 2016 President's Club distinction for transformative solutions delivered in the Financial Services, Public Sector and Education, Not for Profit, and Manufacturing sectors that incorporated the Microsoft platform including; Microsoft Dynamics CRM, ERP and Office 365. Ciber's deep domain expertise in these sectors enables its teams to concentrate on understanding the business drivers affecting each marketplace, and working in partnership with clients, develop practical solutions to help them gain competitive advantage. "Ciber is delighted to have our success and dedication to our clients recognized by Microsoft," said Andy Cowdrill, Client Partner, Ciber Microsoft Practice. "This induction into Microsoft Dynamics President's Club enables us to accelerate our ability to drive marketplace improvements and to help more clients succeed in reaching their goals." Ciber leverages the robust, scalable functionality of Microsoft Dynamics products to build frameworks and technologies that address an array of business challenges including supplier and customer management, document control and compliance, operational efficiency, cost reduction, information retrieval, centralized customer information and management information. Ciber's solutions also empower employees across all verticals by providing a single-source, 360-degree view of the customer. About Ciber, Inc. Ciber is a global IT consulting company with approximately 5,500 employees in North America, Europe and Asia/Pacific. Ciber partners with organizations to develop technology strategies and solutions that deliver tangible business value. Founded in 1974, the company trades on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: CBR). For more information, visit www.ciber.com and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google Plus and our blog. Contact: Scott Kozak Global Communications, Investor and Industry Relations 303-967-1379 [email protected] Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150708/234002LOGO SOURCE Ciber, Inc. Related Links http://www.ciber.com HONG KONG, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Highlights Bus shelter advertising revenue, net of value added tax, increased by 3.9% to HK$889.6 million . The depreciation of the RMB reduced revenue growth by approximately 5.2% . The depreciation of the RMB reduced revenue growth by approximately 5.2% EBITDA increased by 3.9% to HK$356.7 million . The depreciation of the RMB reduced EBITDA growth by approximately 5.2% . The depreciation of the RMB reduced EBITDA growth by approximately 5.2% EBIT increased by 2.0% to HK$169.1 million . The depreciation of the RMB reduced EBIT growth by approximately 5.3% . The depreciation of the RMB reduced EBIT growth by approximately 5.3% Net profit increased by 7.0% to HK$108.0 million . The depreciation of the RMB reduced net profit growth by approximately 5.6% . The depreciation of the RMB reduced net profit growth by approximately 5.6% Basic earnings per share increased by 6.5% to HK19.95 cents The Directors have proposed payment of a special dividend of HK37 cents per share (1H2015: Nil) Clear Media Limited ("Clear Media" or the "Company", together with its subsidiaries, the "Group") (SEHK Stock Code: 100), the largest bus shelter advertising panel operator in China, is pleased to announce its interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2016. The Group's total turnover for the six months ended 30 June 2016 increased by 3.9% year on year to HK$889.6 million. The depreciation of the RMB reduced revenue growth by approximately 5.2%. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation ("EBITDA") for the period increased by 3.9% year on year to HK$356.7 million (1H2015: HK$343.4 million). The depreciation of the RMB reduced EBITDA growth by approximately 5.2%.Earnings before interest and tax ("EBIT") increased by 2.0% to HK$169.1 million (1H2015: HK$165.9 million). The depreciation of the RMB reduced EBIT growth by approximately 5.3%. Net profit for the period increased by 7.0% year on year to HK$108.0 million (1H2015: HK$100.9 million). The depreciation of the RMB reduced net profit growth by approximately 5.6%. Basic earnings per share for the first half of 2016 increased by 6.5% year on year to HK19.95 cents (1H2015: HK18.73 cents). The Directors have proposed payment of a special dividend of HK37 cents per share (1H2015: Nil). As of 30 June 2016, Clear Media operated the most extensive standardized bus shelter advertising network in Mainland China, with a total of more than 47,000 panels (1H2015: 44,000) covering 26 cities. Revenue, net of value added tax, from the bus shelter advertising business increased by 3.9% year on year to HK$889.6 million (1H2015: HK$855.8 million). The depreciation of RMB reduced revenue growth by approximately 5.2%. The average selling price before value added tax (the "ASP") decreased modestly by 6.6% year on year during the first half of 2016 due to incentives offered to retain customers' spending with the Group. The average number of bus shelter panels increased by 7.6% year on year. The overall occupancy rate increased to 61.3% (1H2015: 59.2%). For the six months ended 30 June 2016, revenue before value added tax ("gross revenue") from the Group's bus shelter advertising operations in the key cities of Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing increased by 10.7% year on year to HK$542.1 million (1H2015: HK$489.7 million). Among the three key cities, the revenue performance was led by the operation in Shanghai, followed by Beijing and then Guangzhou. Gross revenue from Shanghai increased by 28.9% year on year to HK$134.5 million (1H2015: HK$104.3 million), attributable to a 9.5% increase in the average number of bus shelter panels and a higher occupancy rate at 58.1% (1H2015: 45.3%). The ASP decreased by 8.1%. Gross revenue from Beijing increased by 10.5% year on year to HK$248.8 million (1H2015: HK$225.1 million), mainly due to a 2.5% increase in the average number of bus shelter panels and a higher occupancy rate at 74.4% (1H2015: 66.2%). The ASP decreased by 4.0%. Gross revenue from Guangzhou slightly decreased by 0.9% year on year to HK$158.9 million (1H2015: HK$160.4 million), attributable to a 5.5% decrease in ASP and a decrease in occupancy rate to 60.1% (1H2015: 64.5%). The average number of bus shelter panels increased by 12.6%. Gross revenue from all mid-tier cities, where the Group has operations in, decreased by 4.0% to HK$393.8 million (1H2015: HK$410.0 million) for the six months ended 30 June 2016, mainly due to a 10.1% decrease in ASP and a decrease in occupancy rate to 58.4% (1H2015: 58.9%). The average number of bus shelter panels increased by 7.7%. As of 30 June 2016, the Group operated a total of 257 digital advertising panels in Nanjing (1H2015: 209). Sales generated from the new digital operation amounted to HK$6.7 million for the six months ended 30 June 2016 (1H2015: HK$7.0 million). Mr. Han Zi Jing, Chief Executive Officer of the Group, said: "We expect to maintain our capital expenditure budget for 2016 at a similar scale to 2015 as we continue to identify acquisition opportunities in major cities and new cities to extend the breadth and depth of the reach of our networks, capitalizing on the favorable asset price levels." Mr. Joseph Tcheng, Chairman of the Group, said: "The operating environment is expected to remain challenging in the second half of 2016. Our management expects revenue performance from customers in different industries to be mixed. In the long run, Clear Media maintains its optimistic stance towards prospects of the out-of-home advertising sector in China on the back of the country's persisting growth in consumer spending and continuing urbanization Financial Highlights Income statement highlights for the six months ended 30 June 2016 (HK$'000) 2016 (Unaudited) 2015 (Unaudited) % Change Turnover 889,568 855,794 +3.9% EBITDA 356,708 343,356 +3.9% Net profit 108,044 100,929 +7.0% Basic EPS (HK cents) 19.95 18.73 +6.5% Special DPS (HK cents) 37 Nil N/A Balance sheet highlights (HK$'000) 30 June 2016 (Unaudited) 31 December 2015 (Audited) Cash and cash equivalents 622,088 689,322 Net assets 2,745,688 2,802,442 About Clear Media Limited Clear Media is the largest bus shelter advertising panel operator in China, with leading market shares of more than 60% in top-tier cities, and also a broad presence in the fastest growing cities across the country. We provide one-stop solutions for countrywide advertising campaigns for our customers. Listed on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong since 2002 under the stock code 100, Clear Media's largest shareholder is Clear Channel Outdoor (NYSE: CCO), one of the world's largest outdoor media companies. For more information on Clear Media, please visit: www.clear-media.net. For further information: Clear Media Limited Mr. Jeffrey Yip Director of Investor Relations, Company Secretary Tel: +852-2235 3977 Fax: +852-2235 3911 Email: [email protected] iPR Ogilvy & Mather Natalie Tam/ Peter Chan / Clara Liu / Jenny Leung Tel: +852-2136 6182/ 2136 6955/ 3920 7631/ 3920 7678 Fax: +852-3170 6606 Email: [email protected] SOURCE Clear Media Limited Related Links http://www.clear-media.net DENVER, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A former Colorado governor, experts from the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), the World Bank, Patagonia, and the investment world will address the 27th annual SRI Conference November 911, 2016 in Denver. They will share their information and insights about climate change and renewable energy development to help guide investment decision-making in the months and years to come. For more information about The SRI Conference on Sustainable, Responsible, Impact Investing, go to http://www.SRIconference.com. "Climate change and renewable energy go right to the heart of the 'All in for Impact' focus of the 2016 SRI Conference," Steve Schueth, president of First Affirmative Financial Network and producer of The SRI Conference, said. "Long before climate and renewable energy became front-burner issues for other investors, the sustainable, responsible, impact (SRI) investment industry was concentrating on making sense of these topics from an investing perspective. The conversation this year will explore a number of cutting-edge topics, including climate risks for investors, the impacts on agriculture, and what this means for the empowerment of women." Among the key elements of The SRI Conference agenda are the following plenary sessions and breakout panels: Clean Energy: Policy and Opportunities in the New America . In the 21st century, our wealth of energy resources must be adapted to the challenges of sustainability. Very few Americans have a breadth of experience in this arena comparable to former Colorado Governor Bill Ritter and former National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) Director Dan Arvizu . Governor Ritter is now the director of the Center for the New Energy Economy, Colorado State University . Arvizu is a consulting professor at the Precourt Institute for Energy, Stanford University . . In the 21st century, our wealth of energy resources must be adapted to the challenges of sustainability. Very few Americans have a breadth of experience in this arena comparable to former Governor and former National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) Director . Governor Ritter is now the director of the Center for the New Energy Economy, . Arvizu is a consulting professor at the Precourt Institute for Energy, . Climate Change Risks and Solutions . Climate change is an ever-evolving risk to investors, though also an area of investment opportunity. With an eye to the recent Paris Accord, this panel will provide an overview of the different solutions that are available for investors and how they can better integrate climate change into their investment portfolios. Moderator: Heike Reichelt , head of investor relations and new products at the World Bank. Panelists will include: Stephan Bonte , director of sustainable investing, Standish Mellon; and Bill Page , senior vice president and portfolio manager, Essex Global Environmental Opportunities Strategy. Climate change is an ever-evolving risk to investors, though also an area of investment opportunity. With an eye to the recent Paris Accord, this panel will provide an overview of the different solutions that are available for investors and how they can better integrate climate change into their investment portfolios. Moderator: , head of investor relations and new products at the World Bank. Panelists will include: , director of sustainable investing, Standish Mellon; and , senior vice president and portfolio manager, Essex Global Environmental Opportunities Strategy. Social Implications of Climate Change and the Opportunity for Women's Empowerment. The impacts of climate change are disproportionately affecting the poor, with women carrying an outsized burden for their families and communities. Learn how investing in and empowering women can combat practical challenges and provide solutions, including the faster adoption of renewable energy solutions and sustainable agricultural practices globally. Moderator: Julie Gorte , senior vice president for sustainable investing, Pax World Management. Panelists will include: Najada Kumbuli, officer, strategic initiatives, Calvert Foundation; and Rich Ferlauto , former director, Corporate Governance and Pension Investment, AFSCME, and former deputy director of policy, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (invited). The impacts of climate change are disproportionately affecting the poor, with women carrying an outsized burden for their families and communities. Learn how investing in and empowering women can combat practical challenges and provide solutions, including the faster adoption of renewable energy solutions and sustainable agricultural practices globally. Moderator: , senior vice president for sustainable investing, Pax World Management. Panelists will include: Najada Kumbuli, officer, strategic initiatives, Calvert Foundation; and , former director, Corporate Governance and Pension Investment, AFSCME, and former deputy director of policy, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (invited). Agriculture and Climate Change: New Leadership for Impact Investors. New research indicates that restorative, organic agriculture, widely deployed in cultivated lands, may safely sequester enough carbon to reverse climate change in a significant way. Speakers will address the crucial role of investors in leading this transformation. Moderator: Alisa Gravitz , president and CEO, Green America. Panelists will include: Rick Ridgeway , vice president, Environmental Initiatives, Patagonia; Tom Newmark , founder and chair, The Carbon Underground; and Ricardo Bayon , partner and co-founder, Encourage Capital. For the full conference agenda, go to http://www.SRIconference.com. ABOUT THE SRI CONFERENCE The 27th annual SRI Conference will be held November 911, 2016, at the Hyatt Regency Downtown Denver, Colorado. The SRI Conference (http://www.SRIconference.com) is the premier annual forum for investors and investment professionals engaged in sustainable, responsible, impact (SRI) investing. Conference participation includes investment professionals, institutional investors, and related organizations. The SRI Conference features educational sessions and focused opportunities to network with hundreds of like-minded individuals, organizations, and leaders in the field of Sustainable, Responsible, Impact investing. The SRI Conference is produced by First Affirmative Financial Network, LLC ( http://www.firstaffirmative.com ), a Registered Investment Advisor offering investment consulting and asset management services through a nationwide network of investment professionals who specialize in serving socially conscious, impact-oriented investors (SEC File #801-56587). EDITOR'S NOTE For assistance with The SRI Conference registration and sponsorships, please contact Krystala Kalil, Conference Coordinator at 888-774-2663 or [email protected]Iconference.com. SOURCE First Affirmative Financial Network, Colorado Springs, CO Related Links http://www.firstaffirmative.com JACKSON, Mich., Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- CMS Energy's largest subsidiary, Consumers Energy, Michigan's largest utility and the fourth-largest U.S. combination utility, today announced three new changes to its leadership team. "I'm pleased to announce these changes which strengthen our leadership team and build on successful execution of our strategy," said Patti Poppe, president and chief executive officer. "Our strategy is built around our promise to Michigan to provide safe, reliable and affordable electric and natural gas service to our customers and the communities we serve." The following changes are effective September 1: Venkat (DV) Rao is named senior vice president of strategy and business planning, which includes corporate strategy, utility budget and sales forecast, CMS Enterprises, CMS Land and EnerBank. He formerly was vice president, treasurer, financial planning and investor relations. In his new role for this new business unit he will focus on strategy and supporting financial planning. He is a 17-year Company employee. Rao earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Mumbai and a postgraduate diploma in management from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Lucknow. He is a CFA charterholder and completed the Graduate Management Program at Harvard Business School . (IIT) in and a postgraduate diploma in management from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Lucknow. He is a CFA charterholder and completed the Graduate Management Program at . Sri Maddipati is named vice president, treasurer and investor relations, reporting to Tom Webb , executive vice president and chief financial officer. He joined the company in 2014 after serving as a vice president in the Financial Institutions Group, Investment Banking, at Goldman Sachs in New York, NY . He has a bachelor's and master's degree in engineering and an MBA, all from the University of Michigan . is named vice president, treasurer and investor relations, reporting to , executive vice president and chief financial officer. He joined the company in 2014 after serving as a vice president in the Financial Institutions Group, Investment Banking, at Goldman Sachs in . He has a bachelor's and master's degree in engineering and an MBA, all from the . Tamara Faber-Doty is named vice president of information technology, reporting to Brian Rich , senior vice president and chief information officer. She joined Consumers Energy in 2013, after serving as global manager at First Solar in Ohio , and as a manager at Visteon. She has a BBA from Western Michigan University and an MBA from Michigan State University . CMS Energy (NYSE: CMS) is a Michigan-based company that has an electric and natural gas utility, Consumers Energy, as its primary business and also owns and operates independent power generation businesses. For more information on CMS Energy, please visit our website at www.cmsenergy.com. To sign up for email alert notifications, please visit the Investor Relations section of our website. SOURCE CMS Energy Related Links http://www.cmsenergy.com NEWTON, Mass., Aug. 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The Invest in Others Charitable Foundation is pleased to announce the finalists for its Corporate Philanthropy Award in the categories of Advisory Firms and Financial Institutions as part of the 2016 Community Leadership Awards. Now in its tenth year, the Community Leadership Awards program recognizes the charitable work of financial advisors and financial services firms in communities across the country and around the world. Invest in Others launched the Corporate Philanthropy Award in 2015 to recognize the importance of encouraging philanthropy at a corporate level. The organization received dozens of nominations this year from a diverse range of companies in the financial services industry. Finalists were selected based on their community impact, contribution, inspiration, and incentives to encourage employees to give back. Each winner will receive a $1,000 donation from Invest in Others for a charity of its choice. "Our 2016 corporate finalists are a wonderful mix of small advisory firms and large financial services companies based in different communities across the country. Each finalist creatively incentivizes its employees to give back through programs such as volunteer time off, matching gifts, and volunteer events. What's most striking is how successful these programs are on average, 76% of employees and 82% of senior leadership participate - and the ten companies cumulatively volunteered 107,000 hours last year. The collective impact is incredible," said Megan McAuley, Executive Director & President of Invest in Others. By award category, the 2016 Corporate Philanthropy Award finalists are: Advisory Firms Budros, Ruhlin & Roe, Inc. The Kelly Group Lakeside Wealth Management North Star Resource Group Optivest Wealth Management Financial Institutions Advisors Excel Ameriprise Financial, Inc. CNL Financial Group National Life Group Natixis Global Asset Management Awards will be presented at the tenth annual Invest in Others Community Leadership Awards Gala, a premier event attended by over 500 financial advisors and financial services executives, on September 29, 2016 in New York City. In addition, five categories of awards will be presented to individual financial advisors in recognition of their philanthropic contributions. The Presenting Diamond Sponsor of the Gala is Fidelity Investments and Platinum Sponsors are Allianz, LPL Financial, Nuveen Investments, and TD Ameritrade. About the Invest in Others Charitable Foundation The Invest in Others Charitable Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that was founded by the financial services industry to make a difference in communities across the country and around the world by amplifying the charitable work of financial advisors and financial services firms. To realize our goals, we recognize and reward philanthropy, inspire volunteerism, and inform the investing public about the positive impact made by advisors and their firms in their communities. Today, Invest in Others is the premier, industry wide non-profit dedicated to recognizing, encouraging, and supporting the charitable work of financial advisors and the advisory industry. For more information, visit www.investinothers.org. Media Contacts: Jessica Dunham, Director of Marketing and Communications [email protected] 781.304.4812 SOURCE Invest in Others Charitable Foundation Related Links http://www.investinothers.org TROY, Mich., Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Crestmark is The Official Factor of The OFFPRICE Show to be held at the Sands Expo in Las Vegas August 13 - 16. Crestmark is returning as sponsor of the industry event. The OFFPRICE Show is expected to have more than 500 vendors, and last year had nearly 9,000 buyers from all 50 states, including more than 1,000 international buyers. Crestmark's Trade Services Division lends to small- and medium-sized businesses within the fashion and apparel industry in the United States, and as The Official Factor of The OFFPRICE Show, expects to create awareness among exhibitors and attendees for its financial products. "Crestmark is excited to be The Official Factor of The OFFPRICE Show a key event in the apparel industry," said Steven Turkish, director of Crestmark's Trade Services Division. "The OFFPRICE segment is growing, and Crestmark can help the small businesses in this segment maximize their opportunities. OFFPRICE is a good fit." Robert Harbers, national sales director for the Trade Services Division, said, "The OFFPRICE Show has been a leader in this segment. Crestmark can help small businesses in the fashion and apparel industry gain a business advantage with financial tools that ensure strong, stable operations, and growth. We look forward to connecting with Crestmark clients at the show, and helping other businesses in this segment." Four Crestmark representatives will attend The OFFPRICE Show: Steve Turkish, Robert Harbers, Elena Cardona and Carrie Jenkins. About Crestmark: Crestmark is an FDIC-insured bank that provides innovative financial solutions for businesses nationwide. Financing solutions include asset-based lending, accounts receivable financing, lines of credit, term loans, factoring, machinery/equipment financing and equipment leasing. Crestmark has extensive experience in helping many industries including transportation, manufacturing, staffing, petrochemical, government contractors, apparel/footwear/furniture distribution/manufacturing, hospitality/hotels, insurance agencies, and technology hardware/software. Headquartered in Michigan, with additional offices in California, Florida, Louisiana, Tennessee, New York, and Illinois; and representatives nationwide. www.crestmark.com SOURCE Crestmark Related Links http://www.crestmark.com For KasaMoto.ca, DECK's creative team found inspiration in the Japanese restaurant's contemporary interiors. On-site design elements - wallpaper and wall tiles, a black iron screen, a commissioned painting of koi fish, marble countertops, and black and white floor tiles - were repurposed as backgrounds and layering elements on the website. Reflecting Kasa Moto's day-to-night concept, when users scroll below bright white menus, they arrive at a starry night sky. To introduce The Chase Fish & Oyster's beach-inspired experience, thechasefo.com opens with a full-screen photograph of the ocean in which the camera is partially submerged. To convey the playful side of the restaurant's brand identity, the unique angle of this image places the viewer directly in the water. The lighthearted maritime theme is continued with an illustrated "How To Shuck An Oyster" section and circular-framed food imagery that suggests the view out a ship's window. "I'm really proud of our creative team for continuing to exceed our clients' expectations. Websites have become a commodity as of late, so being able to push the boundaries of design and coding is no easy task," said Jonathan Tick, President & CEO of DECK Agency. "We wish to recognize the singular achievements of small and medium-sized firms, and the creative professionals who represent the heart and soul of the global marketing communications industry," said Kenjo Ong, co-managing director for the Muse Creative Awards (MCA). Entries in the Muse Creative Awards' 128 categories were rated according to rigorous standards. With vetted panelists, tough criteria, blind judging processes, and strict bylaws limiting winners, only the best entries received recognition. Winners were selected in a broad scope of categories, from broadcast and print to social media and emerging platforms. ABOUT DECK AGENCY DECK is an award winning research-driven, full-service marketing, design and PR agency that delivers on its four pillars of business - Digital, Experiential, Communications and Knowledge. DECK is a trusted source for brands that want a strategy-driven and results-oriented partner. Working with lifestyle clients in the luxury sector, DECK combines the best of design and strategy to help clients create new value propositions, and new forms of competitive advantage. Website: www.deckagency.com Twitter: @deckagency Instagram: @deckagency Facebook: Deck Agency Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160808/396567 Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160808/396568 Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160808/396569LOGO SOURCE DECK Agency HOUSTON, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Deep Down, Inc. (the "Company") (OTCQX: DPDW), will hold a conference call and webcast on Monday, August 15, 2016 to discuss the Company's second quarter 2016 financial results. The teleconference will begin at 4:30 PM Eastern time (3:30 PM Central Time) and will be hosted by Mr. Ron Smith, President and CEO, and Mr. Gene Butler, Executive Chairman and CFO. The related press release will be issued Friday, August 12, 2016. To participate in the teleconference, please dial (877) 303-6187 a few minutes before the scheduled start time. International callers are invited to call (678) 894-3073. Please refer to confirmation code 62707031. A replay of the call will be available one hour after the completion of the call through August 29, 2016. To access the replay, please dial (855) 859-2056, or if you are calling internationally, dial (404) 537-3406. Please refer to confirmation code 62707031. The live webcast and archived replay also can be accessed on the Company's web site at www.deepdowncorp.com. About Deep Down, Inc. Deep Down, Inc. is an oilfield services company serving the worldwide offshore exploration and production industry. Deep Down's proven services and technological solutions include distribution system installation support and engineering services, umbilical terminations, loose-tube steel flying leads (LSFL), installation buoyancy, ROVs and tooling, marine vessel automation, control, and ballast systems. Deep Down supports subsea engineering, installation, commissioning, and maintenance projects through specialized, highly experienced service teams and engineered technological solutions. Deep Down's primary focus is on more complex deepwater and ultra-deepwater oil production distribution system support services and technologies used between the platform and the wellhead. More information about Deep Down is available at www.deepdowncorp.com. Forward-Looking Statements Any forward-looking statements in the preceding paragraphs of this release are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties in that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. In the course of operations, we are subject to certain risk factors, competition and competitive pressures, sensitivity to general economic and industrial conditions, international political and economic risks, availability and price of raw materials and execution of business strategy. For further information, please refer to the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, copies of which are available from the Company without charge. Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121204/LA23242LOGO SOURCE Deep Down, Inc. Related Links http://www.deepdowninc.com FLINT, Mich., Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Diplomat Pharmacy, Inc. (NYSE: DPLO), the nation's largest independent specialty pharmacy, announced financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2016. All comparisons, unless otherwise noted, are to the quarter ended June 30, 2015. Second Quarter 2016 Highlights include: Revenue of $1,089 million , an increase of 35% or $281 million 23% organic revenue growth , an increase of 35% or Total prescriptions dispensed of 241,000, an increase of 3% Gross margin of 7.6% versus 8.6% Gross profit per prescription dispensed of $339 , an increase of $50 or 17% Net income attributable to Diplomat of $8.5 million , an increase of 152% or $5.1 million , an increase of 152% or Adjusted EBITDA of $29.6 million , an increase of 30% or $6.9 million Adjusted EBITDA margin of 2.7% versus 2.8% , an increase of 30% or EPS of $0.13 per diluted common share versus $0.05 per diluted common share versus Adjusted EPS of $0.23 versus $0.16 Phil Hagerman, CEO and Chairman of Diplomat, commented, "This was a solid quarter for Diplomat with total growth of 35%, organic growth of 23% and continued leadership in the oncology space, as we gained access to new limited distribution drugs. While our overall business was impacted by a slowing Hepatitis C market, the remainder of our business was strong, growing almost 30% organically. This growth was driven by our oncology business increasing 38% and our specialty infusion segment growing by 22%. Overall prescription growth was much stronger than the 3% implies, as we exited the high volume, low profit compounding business in late 2015 and we intentionally moved away from other high volume, low revenue non-specialty business. Net of these changes, our volume increased approximately 13%." Mr. Hagerman continued, "I remain very confident in Diplomat's position in the industry, organic growth prospects, and opportunities to make strategic acquisitions." Second Quarter Financial Summary: Revenue for the second quarter of 2016 was $1,089 million, compared to $808 million in the second quarter of 2015, an increase of $281 million or 35%. This increase was the result of 23% organic revenue growth driven by approximately $64 million of revenue from drugs that were new in the past year, $63 million from the impact of manufacturer price increases and $57 million from a richer mix of those drugs that existed a year ago. The remaining increase was the result of approximately $96 million from our acquisitions, which consisted of nearly a quarter's worth of Burman's Apothecary, LLC ("Burman's") and one month of TNH Advanced Specialty Pharmacy ("TNH"). Gross profit in the second quarter of 2016 was $83.3 million, compared to $69.7 million in the second quarter of 2015, and generated gross margin of 7.6% compared to 8.6%. The expected gross margin decline in the quarter was primarily due to a continued shift in mix towards higher priced drugs, including the impact of Burman's and TNH, and the September 2015 sale of our low profit, but high margin, compounding business. This decline was partially offset by a slightly greater impact of pharma dollars. Selling, general, and administrative expenses ("SG&A") for the second quarter of 2016 were $69.4 million, an increase of $6.9 million, compared to $62.5 million in the second quarter of 2015. Of this change, $7.3 million related to an increase in employee cost, including employee cost from our acquired entities. The increased employee expense was primarily attributable to the increased clinical and administrative complexity associated with our mix of both acquired and organic business. We also experienced a $2.9 million increase in amortization expense from definite-lived intangible assets associated with our acquisitions and increases in other SG&A to support our growth; including software licenses, consulting fees, insurance and other miscellaneous expenses. These increases were partially offset by a $4.7 million decrease in the change in fair value of contingent consideration associated with our acquisitions and approximately $3.0 million decrease in bad debt expense. As a percentage of revenue, SG&A, excluding change in fair value of contingent consideration, accounted for 6.4% of total revenues for the three months ended June 30, 2016 compared to 7.1% in the prior year period. This decrease is attributable to natural leverage associated with managing high priced drugs and operating efficiencies. Net income attributable to Diplomat for the second quarter of 2016 was $8.5 million versus $3.4 million in the second quarter of 2015, an increase of 152%. Beyond the revenue, gross profit, and SG&A explanations above, net income was also better due to lower interest expense and a lower income tax rate for the three months ended June 30, 2016 versus the prior year period. Adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter of 2016 was $29.6 million versus $22.7 million in the second quarter of 2015, an increase of 30%. Earnings per share for the second quarter of 2016 was $0.13 per basic/diluted common share, compared to $0.05 per basic/diluted common share for the second quarter of 2015. Diluted non-GAAP adjusted earnings per share ("Adjusted EPS") was $0.23 in the second quarter of this year compared to $0.16 in the second quarter of 2015. Compared to the year ago period, our weighted average common shares outstanding in the second quarter of 2016 were approximately 5% higher, impacted by the use of shares as partial consideration for our Burman's and TNH acquisitions and as consideration for the BioRx, LLC earn out, and stock option activity. 2016 Financial Outlook For the full-year 2016, we are maintaining our previous financial guidance for revenue and adjusted EBITDA, and are raising the lower end of our guidance for Adjusted EPS. Our guidance is as follows: Revenue between $4.5 and $4.9 billion Adjusted EBITDA between $121 and $129 million Adjusted EPS between $0.90 and $0.95 , versus the previous range of $0.88 to $0.95 Our Adjusted EPS expectations assume approximately 68,000,000 weighted average common shares outstanding on a diluted basis for full year 2016, which could differ materially. Earnings Conference Call Information As previously announced, the Company will hold a conference call to discuss its Second Quarter 2016 performance this evening, August 9, 2016, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Shareholders and interested participants may listen to a live broadcast of the conference call by dialing 877-201-0168 (or 647-788-4901 for international callers) and referencing participant code 46845396 approximately 15 minutes prior to the call. A live webcast and transcript of the conference call will be available on the investor relations section of the Company's website for approximately 90 days. About Diplomat Diplomat Pharmacy, Inc. (NYSE: DPLO) serves patients and physicians in all 50 states. Headquartered in Flint, Michigan, the Company focuses on medication management programs for people with complex chronic diseases, including oncology, immunology, hepatitis, multiple sclerosis, specialized infusion therapy and many other serious or long-term conditions. Diplomat opened its doors in 1975 as a neighborhood pharmacy with one essential tenet: "Take good care of patients, and the rest falls into place." Today, that tradition continues always focused on improving patient care and clinical adherence. For more information, visit www.diplomat.is. Non-GAAP Information Adjusted EPS adds back, net of income taxes, the impact of all merger and acquisition related expenses, including amortization of intangible assets, the change in fair value of contingent consideration related to our acquisitions, as well as transaction-related costs. We exclude merger and acquisition-related expenses from Adjusted EPS because we believe the amount of such expenses in any specific period may not directly correlate to the underlying performance of our business operations and such expenses can vary significantly between periods as a result of new acquisitions, full amortization of previously acquired intangible assets or ultimate realization of contingent consideration. Investors should note that acquisitions, once consummated, contribute to revenue in the periods presented as well as future periods and should also note that amortization and contingent consideration expenses may recur in future periods. A reconciliation of Adjusted EPS, a non-GAAP measure, to EPS as prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States ("GAAP") can be found in the appendix. We define Adjusted EBITDA as net income (loss) attributable to Diplomat before interest expense, income taxes, depreciation and amortization, share-based compensation, change in fair value of contingent consideration and other merger and acquisition-related expenses, restructuring and impairment charges, and certain other items that we do not consider indicative of our ongoing operating performance (which are itemized below in the reconciliation to net income). Adjusted EBITDA is not in accordance with, or an alternative to, GAAP. In addition, this nonGAAP measure is not based on any comprehensive set of accounting rules or principles. You should be aware that in the future we may incur expenses that are the same as or similar to some of the adjustments in the presentation, and we do not infer that our future results will be unaffected by unusual or non-recurring items. We consider Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EPS to be supplemental measures of our operating performance. We present Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EPS because they are used by our Board of Directors and management to evaluate our operating performance. They are also used as a factor in determining incentive compensation, for budgetary planning and forecasting overall financial and operational expectations, for identifying underlying trends and for evaluating the effectiveness of our business strategies. Further, we believe they assist us, as well as investors, in comparing performance from period to period on a consistent basis. Other companies in our industry may calculate Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EPS differently than we do and these calculations may not be comparable to our Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EPS metrics. A reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP measure, to net income can be found in the appendix. Forward Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements give current expectations or forecasts of future events or our future financial or operating performance, and include Diplomat's expectations regarding revenues, net income (loss), Adjusted EBITDA, EPS, Adjusted EPS, market share, the performance of acquisitions and growth strategies. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based on management's good-faith belief and reasonable judgment based on current information, and these statements are qualified by important risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those forecasted or indicated by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include: our ability to adapt to changes or trends within the specialty pharmacy industry; significant and increasing pricing pressure from third-party payors; our relationships with key pharmaceutical manufacturers; bad publicity about, or market withdrawal of, specialty drugs we dispense; a significant increase in competition from a variety of companies in the health care industry; our ability to expand the number of specialty drugs we dispense and related services; maintaining existing patients; revenue concentration of the top specialty drugs we dispense; our ability to maintain relationships with a specified wholesaler and pharmaceutical manufacturer; increasing consolidation in the healthcare industry; managing our growth effectively; limited experience with acquisitions and our ability to recognize the expected benefits therefrom on a timely basis or at all; and the additional factors set forth in "Risk Factors" in Diplomat's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015 and in subsequent reports filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as may be required by any applicable laws, Diplomat assumes no obligation to publicly update such forward-looking statements, which are made as of the date hereof or the earlier date specified herein, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise. INVESTOR CONTACT: Bob East, Westwicke Partners 443-213-0500 | [email protected] DIPLOMAT PHARMACY, INC. Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets (Unaudited) (dollars in thousands) June 30, December 31, ASSETS 2016 2015 Current assets: Cash and equivalents $ 7,906 $ 27,600 Accounts receivable, net 317,200 254,682 Inventories 182,151 165,950 Deferred income taxes 13,630 5,311 Prepaid expenses and other current assets 8,462 7,427 Total current assets 529,349 460,970 Property and equipment, net 19,546 16,538 Capitalized software for internal use, net 53,517 37,250 Goodwill 315,380 256,318 Definite-lived intangible assets, net 222,121 224,644 Investment in non-consolidated entity 4,959 4,959 Other noncurrent assets 850 900 Total assets $ 1,145,722 $ 1,001,579 LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY Current liabilities: Accounts payable $ 379,468 $ 296,587 Borrowings on line of credit 17,057 - Short-term debt, including current portion of long-term debt 6,000 6,000 Accrued expenses: Contingent consideration 5,750 52,665 Compensation and benefits 5,028 5,563 Other 11,579 11,087 Total current liabilities 424,882 371,902 Long-term debt, less current portion 104,147 106,706 Deferred income taxes 10,018 7,425 Total liabilities 539,047 486,033 Commitments and contingencies Shareholders' equity: Preferred stock (10,000,000 shares authorized; none issued and outstanding) - - Common stock (no par value, 590,000,000 shares authorized; 66,353,071 and 64,523,864 shares issued and outstanding at June 30, 2016 and December 31, 2015, respectively) 499,472 451,620 Additional paid-in capital 32,119 29,221 Retained earnings 71,996 31,130 Total Diplomat Pharmacy shareholders' equity 603,587 511,971 Noncontrolling interests 3,088 3,575 Total shareholders' equity 606,675 515,546 Total liabilities and shareholders' equity $ 1,145,722 $ 1,001,579 DIPLOMAT PHARMACY, INC. Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations (Unaudited) (dollars in thousands, except per share amounts) Three Months Ended Six Months Ended June 30, June 30, 2016 2015 2016 2015 Net sales $ 1,088,506 $ 808,011 $ 2,084,376 $ 1,432,894 Cost of goods sold (1,005,236) (738,342) (1,921,868) (1,322,083) Gross profit 83,270 69,669 162,508 110,811 Selling, general and administrative expenses (69,416) (62,474) (123,610) (98,777) Income from operations 13,854 7,195 38,898 12,034 Other (expense) income: Interest expense (1,521) (1,903) (2,956) (2,224) Other 105 75 213 179 Total other expense (1,416) (1,828) (2,743) (2,045) Income before income taxes 12,438 5,367 36,155 9,989 Income tax expense (4,145) (2,254) (12,679) (4,204) Net income 8,293 3,113 23,476 5,785 Less: net loss attributable to noncontrolling interest (241) (277) (487) (464) Net income attributable to Diplomat Pharmacy, Inc. $ 8,534 $ 3,390 $ 23,963 $ 6,249 Net income per common share: Basic $ 0.13 $ 0.05 $ 0.37 $ 0.11 Diluted $ 0.13 $ 0.05 $ 0.35 $ 0.10 Weighted average common shares outstanding: Basic 66,085,149 62,610,850 65,312,155 57,279,670 Diluted 68,034,392 64,795,362 67,939,665 59,845,620 DIPLOMAT PHARMACY, INC. Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows (Unaudited) (dollars in thousands) Six Months Ended June 30, 2016 2015 Cash flows from operating activities: Net income $ 23,476 $ 5,785 Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by (used in) operating activities: Depreciation and amortization 22,389 10,875 Changes in fair values of contingent consideration (8,922) 5,169 Contingent consideration payments (382) (300) Net provision for doubtful accounts 4,010 5,359 Share-based compensation expense 3,152 1,232 Deferred income tax expense 11,178 1,450 Excess tax benefits related to share-based awards - (4,983) Amortization of debt issuance costs 581 371 Other 1 210 Changes in operating assets and liabilities, net of business acquisitions: Accounts receivable (49,246) (48,230) Inventories (11,358) (34,545) Accounts payable 52,878 12,221 Other assets and liabilities (1,808) 4,831 Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities 45,949 (40,555) Cash flows from investing activities: Payments to acquire businesses, net of cash acquired (69,072) (299,977) Expenditures for capitalized software for internal use (7,349) (6,118) Expenditures for property and equipment (3,705) (1,009) Other 1 8 Net cash used in investing activities (80,125) (307,096) Cash flows from financing activities: Net proceeds from line of credit 17,057 70,994 Payments on long-term debt (3,000) - Proceeds from issuance of stock upon stock option exercises 1,203 5,880 Contingent consideration payments (722) (700) Payments of debt issuance costs (56) (5,131) Proceeds from follow-on public offering, net of transaction costs - 187,271 Proceeds from long-term debt - 120,000 Payments made to repurchase stock options - (36,298) Excess tax benefits related to share-based awards - 4,983 Net cash provided by financing activities 14,482 346,999 Net decrease in cash and equivalents (19,694) (652) Cash and equivalents at beginning of period 27,600 17,957 Cash and equivalents at end of period $ 7,906 $ 17,305 Supplemental disclosures of cash flow information: Cash paid for interest $ 2,318 $ 1,217 Cash paid for income taxes 401 216 Adjusted EBITDA The table below presents a reconciliation of net income attributable to Diplomat Pharmacy, Inc. to Adjusted EBITDA for the periods indicated. For the three months ended June 30, For the six months ended June 30, 2016 2015 2016 2015 (dollars in thousands) (Unaudited) Net income attributable to Diplomat Pharmacy, Inc. $ 8,534 $ 3,390 $ 23,963 $ 6,249 Depreciation and amortization 12,271 8,069 22,389 10,875 Interest expense 1,521 1,903 2,956 2,224 Income tax expense 4,145 2,254 12,679 4,204 EBITDA $ 26,471 $ 15,616 $ 61,987 $ 23,552 Contingent consideration and other merger and acquisition expense $ 1,103 $ 5,308 $ (7,326) $ 6,727 Share-based compensation expense 1,649 670 3,152 1,232 Employer payroll taxes - option repurchases and exercises 28 605 71 1,176 Other items 392 394 779 744 Severance and related fees - 145 - 314 Restructuring and impairment charges - - - 150 Adjusted EBITDA $ 29,643 $ 22,738 $ 58,663 $ 33,896 Adjusted EPS (diluted) Below is a reconciliation of net income attributable to Diplomat Pharmacy, Inc. per diluted common share to Adjusted EPS for the periods indicated. For the three months ended June 30, For the six months ended June 30, 2016 2015 2016 2015 (dollars in thousands, except per share amounts) (unaudited) Net income attributable to Diplomat Pharmacy, Inc. $ 8,534 $ 3,390 $ 23,963 $ 6,249 Amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets 9,818 6,919 18,502 8,641 Contingent consideration and other merger and acquisition expense 1,103 5,308 (7,326) 6,727 Income tax impact of adjustments (3,639) (5,131) (3,731) (6,455) Adjusted non-GAAP net income $ 15,816 $ 10,486 $ 31,408 $ 15,162 Net income attributable to Diplomat Pharmacy, Inc 0.13 0.05 0.35 0.10 Amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets 0.14 0.11 0.27 0.14 Contingent consideration and other merger and acquisition expense 0.02 0.08 (0.11) 0.11 Income tax impact of adjustments (0.06) (0.08) (0.05) (0.11) Adjusted EPS $ 0.23 $ 0.16 $ 0.46 $ 0.25 Weighted average common shares outstanding: Diluted 68,034,392 64,795,362 67,939,665 59,845,620 Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140928/148820 SOURCE Diplomat Pharmacy, Inc. Related Links http://www.diplomat.is ATLANTA, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Dixie, a Georgia-Pacific brand and the leader in disposable tableware, today launched Deadzone Diners, a campaign inspiring people to disconnect from their mobile devices and connect over a meal. The initiative will transform the negative perception of cellular dead zones into unique opportunities for people to "Be More Here." Our phones are making it harder and harder to connect over a meal. So, Dixie is building pop-up restaurants in places where our phones can't distract us: cellular dead zones. Dixie(R) today launched Deadzone Diners, a campaign inspiring people to disconnect from their mobile devices and connect over a meal. The campaign comes to life August 26-28 in Los Angeles when Dixie opens up Deadzone Diners, pop-up restaurants in locations with no cell service. The Deadzone Diners will feature free food (first come, first served!), meaningful conversation, Dixie products and an ambience that is distraction free. Dixie is also encouraging families everywhere to establish Deadzone Diners in their homes and is providing quick-and-easy recipes and fun tips at Dixie.com on creative ways to ditch your phone during mealtime. "Cellular dead zones have historically contributed to moments of frustration for all of us, but we wanted to celebrate their ability to bring people together and foster face-to-face conversation," said Andrew Noble, senior brand director Dixie Consumer Products. "When we eliminate common distractions that come from our mobile devices, especially during meals, it is remarkable how much more present we are for family and friends during the moments that matter most." To drive home the impact of "Be More Here" moments, Dixie has partnered with noted chef and TV personality Carla Hall. As co-host of ABC's The Chew, a successful restaurateur and a popular cookbook author, Hall adheres to the philosophy of cooking with love and treating meals as important social occasions. Hall will appear at the Deadzone Diners in Los Angeles, which will feature her signature southern-inspired recipes that will also be available at Dixie.com. "I've been cooking long enough to realize that a memorable meal is just as much about the conversation around the table as it is about the food on the plates," said Hall. "We all have enough distractions in life that get in the way of real interaction, so I'm excited to join Dixie in encouraging people to put away their cell phones so they can better enjoy each other's company when they're sharing a meal." With a focus on family, friends and mealtimes, Dixie is committed to promoting environments where meaningful interaction can occur in the absence of distractions such as phone calls, social media and text messages. A new digital video on Dixie.com provides a humorous take on how our phones have actually made us less connected and illustrates how having "zero bars" can actually be the perfect time for people to come together. Visit Dixie.com for more information on the campaign, to view Hall's recipes and to learn where the Dixie Deadzone Diners will be popping up in Los Angeles. About Georgia-Pacific Based in Atlanta, Georgia-Pacific and its subsidiaries are among the world's leading manufacturers and marketers of bath tissue, paper towels and napkins, tableware, paper-based packaging, office papers, cellulose, specialty fibers, nonwoven fabrics, building products and related chemicals. Our familiar consumer brands include Quilted Northern, Angel Soft, Brawny, enMotion, Sparkle, Mardi Gras and Vanity Fair, as well as Dixie. Its GP Harmon subsidiary is among the world largest recyclers of paper, metal and plastics. The company employs approximately 35,000 people directly, and creates nearly 92,000 jobs indirectly. For more information, visit: gp.com. Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObYF-7zp1cE Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160809/396809 Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20030425/PAPLOGO SOURCE Georgia-Pacific Related Links http://www.gp.com ATLANTA, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Despite the red flags raised last year as workers expressed concerns about their perceived lack of job skills advancement, new findings from the 2016 Emerging Workforce Study (EWS) commissioned by Spherion Staffing reveal that employers and employees have made little progress to narrow the skills gap in the last 12 months. In fact, the study found that the skills gap actually may have grown wider. Conducted online by Research Now among 416 U.S. human resource managers and 2,810 employed U.S. adults ages 18 and older, the 2016 EWS reinforced the skills gap's impact on both the current and future workforce. While employees fear their companies are not doing enough to prepare them to thrive, employers worry that their teams' skills development and training discontent will make already-challenging retention efforts even more difficult. "Employees who believe their workplace does not provide relevant and practical skills development tools are more likely either to become unmotivated to seek growth opportunities or look elsewhere for positions more suitable to their abilities and training needs," said Sandy Mazur, Spherion Division President. "Either outcome is detrimental to long-term business success, and as our Emerging Workforce Study found, both businesses and workers are taking a dangerous risk by ignoring these skills development disconnects." The 2016 EWS found that employees are as equally concerned today as one year ago that their professional abilities not only are outdated, but will hinder their ability to move forward. Nearly one-third (32 percent) of workers believe their current skills will prevent them from earning a promotion. Likewise, a nearly equal number (35 percent) is concerned about falling behind in acquiring the new skills required to succeed in more advanced future positions. As they work to overcome this confidence crisis, more employees are holding their companies responsible for their lack of progress. Nearly one in three (32 percent) does not feel his or her company has provided adequate skills training. Additionally, 40 percent admit they find it difficult to devote time to pursuing skills development opportunities. Spherion also found that while employers believe they are making strides to address workers' skills concerns, significant room for improvement remains. Nearly half (45 percent) of companies say they have increased their investment in training and development programs during the last two years. In spite of these efforts, only a small number of workers (14 percent) would give their company's training and development programs an "A" grade. So why are workers who say they welcome new approaches to skills development so dissatisfied? According to the EWS, this discontent may stem from perceptions that the training programs their company offers are not relevant. Forty-five percent of workers believe that company-provided development programs are not applicable to their day-to-day job needs. Furthermore, today's workers seem to lack trust in their team's ability to provide valuable direct training, with significant numbers considering third-party experts (34 percent) and online training and certification courses (23 percent) more credible educators. An encouraging sign is that employers and employees appear to be on the same page regarding the main skills that will be required for future success, including problem solving, strategic thinking and the ability to understand and interpret data. The challenge for both parties remains finding the ideal strategies to enhance these skills, and ensure that workers feel prepared to meet the changing demands of their industry and individual workplace. "Closing the skills gap is the responsibility of both employers and employees, and better communication can help eliminate some of the disconnects that have prevented progress," said Mazur. "Through more frequent and open dialogue, both parties can identify which types of training and development programs are the best match for individual needs and examine how workers can enjoy continuous growth at their company." For more than 19 years, the Emerging Workforce Study has tracked the shifting opinions and attitudes of workers and their employers in the context of ongoing social and economic events The 2016 study also explores opinions on themes such as top workplace concerns, wages and benefits, recruiting challenges, the transformation of the modern "office" and work/life balance. To learn more about the Emerging Workforce Study, visit www.spherion.com/ews. Methodology The 2016 Emerging Workforce Study was conducted online within the United States between February-March 2016 by Research Now Group, Inc., on behalf of Spherion among 416 human resource managers. Results were weighted as needed to reflect the composition of U.S. companies, based on company revenue. An online survey of 2,810 employed adults also was conducted by Research Now on behalf of Spherion during the same time period. Results were weighted as needed for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income to represent the target population. No estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. A full methodology is available upon request. About Spherion Spherion Staffing Services is a leading recruiting and staffing provider that specializes in placing administrative, clerical, customer service and light industrial candidates into temporary and full-time opportunities. As an industry pioneer for more than 70 years, Spherion has sourced, screened and placed millions of individuals in virtually every industry through a network of offices across the U.S. To help clients meet their workforce goals, Spherion offers companies a unique combination of personalized customer service and in-depth knowledge and expertise of the communities where Spherion offices are located. Each local office is individually owned and operated by a team of staffing specialists who are well-known and acquainted with the community and supported by a strong network of talent. To learn more, visit www.spherion.com. Also, as part of one of the fastest-growing industries, Spherion is actively expanding into new territories, with more than 75 franchise markets available. To inquire, visit www.spherion.com/franchise. SOURCE Spherion Related Links http://www.spherion.com ATLANTA, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Equifax Inc. (NYSE: EFX), a global information solutions provider, today announced the release of its June 2016 Equifax National Consumer Credit Trends Report. The monthly report, analyzing data from over 220 million consumers, found the first mortgage write-off rate in the U.S. to be 3.3 basis points1 (100ths of a percentage point) of outstanding balances, while the total number of first mortgage defaults in June was 17,909, the lowest since January 2007. Equifax defines a write-off as a loan terminated in severe derogatory status, which for mortgage loans most often means a loan terminated when a bank seizes the collateral property through a foreclosure process. While the overall U.S. first mortgage write-off rate returned to historic lows, some areas remain elevated. For instance, at 12.9 basis points, the write-off rate in Puerto Rico is three times higher than the national average and in Nevada, the rate is twice as high (6.6 basis points). The following is a ranking of the 10 states or territories with the highest write-off rates: 1 Puerto Rico (12.9) 2 Nevada (6.6) 3 Florida (6.2) 4 New Jersey (6.2) 5 Delaware (5.1) 6 Mississippi (5.0) 7 Maryland (4.9) 8 New Mexico (4.8) 9 South Carolina (4.8) 10 Rhode Island (4.5) "The backlog of foreclosures from the financial crisis finally appears to be waning and write-offs are returning to historically-normal levels," said Amy Crews Cutts, senior vice president and chief economist at Equifax. "Rising home values have helped significantly, as have improving labor markets. Given the low inventory of homes for sale and the overall improving credit profile of the U.S. consumer, we expect home sales to maintain the upward trend we've seen in the first half of the year and for mortgage default performance to continue its downward path." For Home Equity Lines of Credit (HELOC) and home equity installment loans, write-offs, as a share of total balances, the year over year changes showed: A minor increase in home equity installment loan write-offs from 7.6 basis points to 8.0 basis points; and, A decrease in home equity revolving lines of credit from 4.0 basis points to 3.4 basis points. Additional data from the June 2016 Equifax National Consumer Credit Trends Report includes: First Mortgage The severe delinquency rate (as a share of balances 90-days past due or in foreclosure) is 1.40 percent, down from 2.07 percent in June 2015 ; ; As of June 2016 , the total number of first mortgages outstanding is 49.8 million, an increase of 0.7 percent from June 2015 ; and , the total number of first mortgages outstanding is 49.8 million, an increase of 0.7 percent from ; and The total balances outstanding on first mortgages are $8.33 trillion , a year-over-year increase of 2.8 percent. Home Equity Installment The severe delinquency rate (as a share of balances 90-days past due or in foreclosure) is 1.46 percent, down from 1.80 percent in June 2015 The total outstanding balances on home equity loans in June is $131.4 billion , a year-over-year decrease of 2.7 percent; and , a year-over-year decrease of 2.7 percent; and The total number of outstanding loans is 4.5 million. Home Equity Lines of Credit (HELOC) The severe delinquency rate (as a share of balances 90-days past due or in foreclosure) is 1.28 percent as of June 2016 , down from 1.45 percent in June 2015 ; , down from 1.45 percent in ; The total number of outstanding HELOCs is 10.9 million, a year-over-year decrease of 3.4 percent from June 2015 ; ; The total balances outstanding on HELOCs in that same time is $486.5 billion , a decrease of 3.5 percent. The Equifax National Consumer Credit Trends Report reveals population-level debt and lending insights, including originations, balances, number of loans, delinquencies and more from more than 220 million consumers in the United States. About Equifax Equifax powers the financial future of individuals and organizations around the world. Using the combined strength of unique trusted data, technology and innovative analytics, Equifax has grown from a consumer credit company into a leading provider of insights and knowledge that helps its customers make informed decisions. The company organizes, assimilates and analyzes data on more than 800 million consumers and more than 88 million businesses worldwide, and its databases include employee data contributed from more than 5,000 employers. Headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., Equifax operates or has investments in 24 countries in North America, Central and South America, Europe and the Asia Pacific region. It is a member of Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 Index, and its common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol EFX. Equifax employs approximately 9,200 employees worldwide. Some noteworthy achievements for the company include: Ranked 13 on the American Banker FinTech Forward list (2015); named a Top Technology Provider on the FinTech 100 list (2004-2015); named an InformationWeek Elite 100 Winner (2014-2015); named a Top Workplace by Atlanta Journal Constitution (2013-2015); named one of Fortune's World's Most Admired Companies (2011-2015); named one of Forbes' World's 100 Most Innovative Companies (2015). For more information, visit www.equifax.com ____________________ 1 A basis point is 1/100th of a percentage point. For example, 10 bps equals 0.1%. Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20060224/CLF037LOGO SOURCE Equifax Inc. Related Links http://www.equifax.com HOUSTON, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Evolution Petroleum Corporation (NYSE MKT: EPM) announced today that it is scheduled to present at EnerCom's The Oil & Gas Conference 21 in Denver, to be held at the Westin Denver Downtown Hotel on August 14-18, 2016. Randy Keys, President and Chief Executive Officer is scheduled to make a presentation at 9:45 a.m. Mountain Daylight Time (11:45 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time) on Tuesday, August 16, 2016. The presentation will be webcast live over the internet and can be accessed, along with the accompanying slides, from http://www.theoilandgasconference.com/togc-webcast/epm/. The presentation materials will be available on the Company's website the day of the event. About Evolution Petroleum Evolution Petroleum Corporation develops petroleum reserves and shareholder value by applying conventional and specialized technology to known oil and gas resources, onshore in the United States. Principal assets include our interests in a CO 2 -EOR project in Louisiana's Delhi Field. Additional information, including the Company's annual report on Form 10-K and its quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, is available on its website at www.evolutionpetroleum.com. Cautionary Statement All statements contained in this press release regarding potential results and future plans and objectives of the Company are forward-looking statements that involve various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or review any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations include, but are not limited to, those factors that are disclosed under the heading "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in our documents filed from time to time with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulatory authorities. Statements regarding our ability to complete transactions, successfully apply technology applications in the re-development of oil and gas fields, realize future production volumes, realize success in our drilling and development activity and forecasts of legal claims, prices, future revenues, income, cash flows, dividends and other comments that are not historical facts contain predictions, estimates and other forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that its expectations are based on reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that its goals will be achieved and these statements will prove to be accurate. Many factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those included in the forward-looking statements. Contact: Randy Keys, President and CEO (713) 935-0122 [email protected] SOURCE Evolution Petroleum Corporation Related Links www.evolutionpetroleum.com BEIJING, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- SouFun Holdings Limited (NYSE: SFUN) ("Fang" or the "Company"), the leading real estate Internet portal in China, today announced that it would hold its 2016 annual general meeting of shareholders at Building 5, Zone 4, Hanwei International Plaza, No. 186 South 4th Ring Road, Fengtai District, Beijing 100160, the People's Republic of China on September 8, 2016 at 10:30 a.m. (local time). The proposals to be submitted for shareholders' approval at the annual general meeting are the re-election of Ms. Zhizhi Gong as a member of the board of directors of the Company (the "Board") and change of the Company's name from SouFun Holdings Limited to Fang Holdings Limited. The Board has fixed August 8, 2016 as the record date (the "Record Date") for determining the shareholders entitled to receive notice of the annual general meeting or any adjournment or postponement thereof. Holders of record of the Company's ordinary shares at the close of business on the Record Date are entitled to attend the annual general meeting and any adjournment or postponement thereof in person. About Fang Fang operates the leading real estate Internet portal in China in terms of the number of page views and visitors to its websites. Through our websites, we provide marketing, e-commerce, listing and other value-added services for China's fast-growing real estate and home furnishing and improvement sectors. Our user-friendly websites support active online communities and networks of users seeking information on, and other value-added services for, the real estate and home furnishing and improvement sectors in China. Fang currently maintains about 100 offices to focus on local market needs and its website and database contains real estate related content covering more than 320 cities in China. For more information about Fang, please visit http://ir.fang.com. For investor and media inquiries, please contact: Mr. Kent Cangsang Huang CFO Phone: +86-10-5631-9668 Email: [email protected] SOURCE SouFun Holdings Limited Related Links http://ir.fang.com LUBBOCK, Texas, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- With its 2016 dividend payout, Farmers Cooperative Compress (FCC) will celebrate the unprecedented milestone of having distributed $1 billion to its producer-owners. Texas is the country's No. 1 cotton-producing state and the cotton industry has a $3.5 billion impact on the Texas economy. "The continued success of Farmers Cooperative Compress is a direct correlation to the hard work performed by our producer-owners," says Ron Harkey, president of FCC. "We are proud to be a part of such a significant achievement. This cash return on our producers' investment will help ensure the viability of farms across West Texas and shows the strength of U.S. cotton in the domestic and global markets." It has often been said that cotton is king in West Texas, which is home to the world's largest region of cotton-producing counties, with 41 counties comprising the area. There are 45 cooperative gins that deliver cotton to FCC facilities. FCC warehouses and delivers about 35 percent of the cotton ginned in Texas, which accounts for roughly 17 percent of the U.S. crop. Founded 68 years ago by producers who had a vision they could accomplish more collectively than individually, FCC was established as a way to successfully and affordably house cotton domestically and distribute it globally from West Texas. FCC collaborates with two other Lubbock-based cooperatives: Plains Cotton Cooperative Association, a producer-owned cotton marketing association, and PYCO Industries, a producer-owned cottonseed oil mill. The combined efforts of these three regional cooperatives, along with local cooperative gins, provide producer-owners with an effective means to process, market, warehouse and deliver/export millions of bales of cotton annually. About Farmers Cooperative Compress: Established in 1948, Farmers Cooperative Compress (FCC) has more than 8,300 members and is the largest cotton warehousing entity in the world. With 208 warehouses providing more than 11 million square feet of space, FCC has a USDA licensed capacity of more than 2.2 million bales. It is a producer-controlled and governed organization that serves members by responsibly storing and shipping cotton worldwide. Profitable every year since its inception, FCC is headquartered in Lubbock and owns warehouses in Lubbock, Plainview, Levelland, Floydada and Stanton. http://www.farmerscompress.com/ Mission Statement: FCC will enhance member profitability by providing efficient, reliable service to the cotton industry. CONTACT: Kim Davis 806-544-4255, Email SOURCE Farmers Cooperative Compress Related Links http://www.farmerscompress.com/ BRISBANE, Australia and CARLSBAD, Calif., Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- ImpediMed Limited (ASX: IPD), a global provider of medical technology to measure, monitor and manage fluid status and body composition, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued new guidance surrounding digital health. "These guidance documents could significantly impact those companies already in, or about to enter, the digital health space," said Richard Carreon, Managing Director and CEO of ImpediMed. The new FDA draft guidance, "Use of Real-World Evidence to Support Regulatory Decision-Making for Medical Devices," allows manufacturers of medical devices to use Real-World Evidence (RWE) to support their application for submission to the FDA for clearance and/or approval. RWE refers to evidence of a product's performance and outcomes in settings outside of clinical trials, such as in hospitals, doctors' offices and patients' homes. The new draft guidance can be accessed on the FDA website: http://www.fda.gov/downloads/MedicalDevices/DeviceRegulationandGuidance/GuidanceDocuments/UCM513027.pdf In addition, the FDA released their guidance document, "General Wellness: Policy for Low Risk Devices." The policy states that the agency does not intend to examine low risk, general wellness products. General wellness products include devices and software which monitor health information. Devices and apps marketed to promote healthy behaviors have also been exempted by the FDA. The FDA will continue to regulate devices and apps that make disease-specific claims. The policy can be accessed on the FDA website: http://www.fda.gov/downloads/medicaldevices/deviceregulationandguidance/guidancedocuments/ucm429674.pdf About ImpediMed Founded and headquartered in Brisbane, Australia with U.S. offices in Carlsbad, Calif. and Bloomington, Minn., ImpediMed is the world leader in the development and distribution of medical devices employing bioimpedance spectroscopy (BIS) technologies for use in the non-invasive clinical assessment and monitoring of fluid status in patients. ImpediMed has the first medical device with FDA clearance in the U.S. to aid healthcare professionals to clinically assess secondary unilateral lymphoedema of the arm and leg in women and the leg in men. For additional information, visit www.impedimed.com. Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160322/346772LOGO SOURCE ImpediMed Limited Related Links http://www.impedimed.com SALINAS, Calif., Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Aggrigator today announced that Pramod Kabra was elected to the Aggrigator's board of directors. Pramod is an angel investor in Aggrigator's mission as the world's first aggregated marketplace platform. "As a team we look forward to benefiting from Pramod's deep expertise in supplychain, financial services, logistics and organization leadership. Pramod will be working with the leadership team; investors and board of directors to set the foundation for Aggriator's business in enabling ecommerce in the general produce space," said Gerard Rego, Aggrigator's cofounder & CEO. "We are excited to have Pramod on the team as we scale the next phase of our growth said Dr. Benjamin Warr, Cofounder & CSO. "Aggrigator is in a space that is highly fragmented with a very long tail in the hundreds of billions of dollars in the United States, but also with the same dynamics in India, China, Africa, Europe and the South America. The food economy is critical industry that impacts everyone's daily lives. Technology, analytics and the ability to connect multi-sided markets is where the time has come with the opportunity to enable demand supply and fulfillment while removing friction in the transaction," said Pramod Kabra. Pramod Kabra serves as a Partner at India Value Fund Advisors Private Ltd., where he is responsible for creating and working with the portfolio of IVFA investee companies that span cable and ISP services, logistics, transportation, media, FMCG, financial services, microfinance and radio taxi services. Prior to joining IVFA in 2007, Pramod spent 23 years with Unilever across multiple roles in finance, M&A, Supplychain and held various leadership positions including that of head of treasury for Asia and Africa region and Board member of the Global Home Care Category Team. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Commerce and is a qualified Chartered Accountant. Aggrigator is a B2B "farm-to-shelf" marketplace: Our technology provides a platform for the buyers and sellers of fresh produce to access markets across the entire fresh produce transactional pipeline. We bring participants in food buy/sell/fulfill transactions together to create viable economies of scale and a fresh produce supply chain capable of servicing large demand markets. To learn more please visit our website, www.aggrigator.com Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160802/395053LOGO SOURCE Aggrigator Inc. Related Links http://www.aggrigator.com LAS VEGAS, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Nevada-based Findlay Automotive Group, recently purchased the Jaguar franchise to add to their existing Land Rover Las Vegas store. The franchise was previously owned by Gaudin Automotive Group who managed the brand for close to 30 years. As the only exclusive Jaguar Land Rover Centre in Southern Nevada, Jaguar Land Rover Las Vegas has become a leading retailer in the Western United States. Jaguar Land Rover Las Vegas "This is an extraordinary milestone for the luxury automotive sector in Las Vegas," stated Ray DiNardi, General Manager of Jaguar Land Rover Las Vegas. "The addition of the Jaguar brand to our existing Land Rover franchise will allow Jaguar Land Rover Las Vegas to offer the Las Vegas and surrounding communities with our elite fleet of vehicles while delivering the superior customer experience our patrons have come to expect." The recent launch of the all-new Jaguar F-PACE helped propel Jaguar Land Rover to its best ever May with retail sales jumping 18%, making it the company's fifth consecutive record-breaking month. "We couldn't have acquired this brand at a better time," continued DiNardi, "the New Generation of Jaguar has completely revolutionized the Jaguar line-up. With the additions of the all-new Jaguar XE and Jaguar F-PACE, we are poised for instant growth at Jaguar Land Rover Las Vegas and are confident the brand will continue its radical progression." While sales at Jaguar Land Rover Las Vegas are expected to grow, management is also committed to its continued philanthropic and civic efforts that support the Las Vegas community. "We are an active organization in the community, sponsoring the Boy Scouts, The American Diabetes Association and various other charitable organizations. Jaguar Land Rover Las Vegas is also proud to support The Conservation Fund. Our efforts have resulted in planting over 5,000 trees that have offset over 6,400 tons of CO2 to date, and we take great pride in continuing our support for these causes." said Ray DiNardi. The transaction of the Jaguar franchise to the Findlay Group was completed July 1st, 2016. Financial details were not disclosed. Jaguar Land Rover Las Vegas is located at: 5255 W Sahara Ave, Las Vegas, NV 89146 and store information can be found at jaguarlv.com and lrlv.com. About Findlay Automotive Group Jaguar Land Rover Las Vegas is part of the Findlay Automotive Group. Findlay has auto dealerships throughout Las Vegas, Henderson, Reno Nevada, Flagstaff, Bullhead City, Arizona, St. George Utah, Post Falls Idaho and Wilsonville Oregon. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160809/396867 SOURCE Findlay Automotive Group Related Links http://lrlv.com NEW YORK, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- UBM Fashion Group, the pre-eminent trade event partner to the US fashion industry and organizer of key trade events such as MAGIC, Coterie, Project and Stitch today announced the launch of FN PLATFORM in New York City. Since its launch in 2010 in Las Vegas, FN PLATFORM has earned a place as North America's most influential footwear business forum and offers the most comprehensive showcase in branded footwear. Launching February 2017, FN PLATFORM NYC will run bi-annually and take place during Coterie NYC inside the Javits Convention Center in New York City. The show will premiere alongside Stitch, Moda, Edit and Accessories the Show, to further cater to the women's market and offer a head-to-toe buying experience. FN PLATFORM NYC seeks to offer the same level of professionalism and product excellence to the New York market as its west coast counterpart. In addition to the launch of FN PLATFORM in New York City, Sole Commerce will further elevate its show through a highly edited selection of brands for entry. A juried event with particular attention to design, quality and price point; Sole Commerce will shift its focus to brands in the luxury market. The show will sit alongside accessories at the center of the Coterie show floor. "Each year, the show has continued to thrive and these additions will bring continued freshness and opportunity for both sides of the aisle," said UBM Fashion Group, President of Footwear, Leslie Gallin. "Footwear is a critical portion in the fashion landscape. The east coast launch will offer a one-stop shopping experience while creating welcoming interest for new brands and retailers from all over the world." FN PLATFORM debuted in February 2010 under the direction of UBM Fashion Group, President of Footwear Leslie Gallin. At its inception, FN PLATFORM spanned 40,000 square feet and in just 6 years, has grown to over 500,000 square feet at its Las Vegas showcase. These exciting changes will welcome new brands and increase attendance from the European market. For additional information or to apply, please visit www.magiconline.com. About FN PLATFORM Launched in February 2010 under the direction of UBM Fashion Group, President of Footwear Leslie Gallin, FN PLATFORM is North America's most influential footwear business forum - where the leaders and innovators converge to shape the industry, shop and sell shoes. Connecting the global fashion community at a single gathering, FN PLATFORM showcases the full spectrum of branded footwear for men, women, juniors and children, across all categories, price points and trends. The carefully curated selections of established and emerging brands segmented into easy-to-navigate lifestyle neighborhoods offer attendees a comprehensive one-stop shop opportunity that cannot be found anywhere else in the world. For more information, please visit www.fnplatform.com. About Sole Commerce A luxury trade show dedicated exclusively to footwear and handbags, Sole Commerce sits in the heart of Coterie's show floor and attracts the best domestic and international exhibitors and retailers. About Coterie Coterie is the premier global marketplace that bridges apparel and accessory designers to the international 'Who's Who' of Retailers. Coterie builds exclusive shopping experiences from the ground up so that designers and buyers can create a synergy that fuels their businesses. Coterie is a platform for generating revenue and inspiring trends. For more information, please visit: www.magiconline.com. About UBM Americas UBM Americas, a part of UBM plc, delivers events and marketing services in the fashion, technology, licensing, advanced manufacturing, automotive and powersports, healthcare, veterinary and pharmaceutical industries, among others. Through a range of aligned interactive environments, both physical and digital, UBM Americas increases business effectiveness for customers and audiences through meaningful experiences, knowledge and connections. The division also includes UBM Brazil's market leading events in construction, cargo transportation, logistics & international trade, and agricultural production; and UBM Mexico's, construction, advanced manufacturing and hospitality services shows. For more information, visit: www.ubmamericas.com. SOURCE UBM Related Links http://www.ubmamericas.com PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Most people believe Millennials are demanding in the workplace because they want to be in charge, but a new study finds they are more driven by a sense of purpose. All other generations need control to thrive at work. These findings emerge from a new study, called The Power of Choice at Work, from MARS DRINKS a 100 percent workplace-focused division of Mars, Incorporated that sought to understand what gives people a sense of well-being at work. "People want to know their opinions matter," said Dr. Tracy Brower, MARS DRINKS global vice president of WORKPLACE VITALITYTM. "The most important factor in fostering a sense of well-being is offering employees the opportunity to make meaningful choices." Drawing upon extensive literature review, focus groups, in-depth interviews, direct observation and conducted across 4,000 people in North America of all generations, regions, genders, and types of work, the study found: When people feel a sense of control, they are 57 percent more likely to be engaged, 55 percent more likely to collaborate, 53 percent more likely to be productive, and 86 percent more likely to enjoy a sense of well-being They are also more likely to report feeling satisfied with their lives, being healthy, having positive relationships, and experiencing a sense of overall happiness Organizations that participated in the study offered workers a wide range of choices, including options to decide when they work. They also empowered workers to decide where to work by providing a range of office settings from phone booths and huddle spaces to cafe-style lounges featuring a wide variety of workplace beverage choices. However, as the data also illustrates, the key is for companies to understand how workers view and utilize the various alternative workspace options, and this varies widely by generation. For example, the research showed that while workers of all ages enjoyed their in-office cafe experiences, there were significant differences: Millennial employees look at work cafes as an alternative work space; Generation X employees use work cafes to take a break and decompress; and, Baby Boomers are more inclined to socialize in cafes than focus on work. "The 'work cafe' experience attracts all generations, but for different reasons," said Dr. Brower. "Millennials, who thrive on collaboration, prefer to use the work cafe for informal collaboration sessions. On the other hand, Gen Xers equate productivity with effort, so they like to grab a cup quickly and get back to work. Baby Boomers feel friendships can enhance their well-being, which is why they are likely to socialize in the work cafe." "The major takeaway from the study is if you build it, they may not come," Dr. Brower pointed out. "If the company vibe says, 'you must be at your desk to be perceived as working,' it will be difficult to convince people to use the work cafe as alternative space," Dr. Brower said. The Power of Choice at Work study is part of a larger body of research around WORKPLACE VITALITY, a concept developed by MARS DRINKS, to help organizations understand how to foster vibrant, thriving workplaces. The research collectively demonstrates that for organizations to reach their full potential, they must create work environments where people have a sense of empowerment and belonging. MARS DRINKS calls this kind of place where collaboration, engagement, wellbeing, and productivity meet WORKPLACE VITALITY. To learn more about MARS DRINKS, its portfolio of workplace designed technology and products, and WORKPLACE VITALITY, visit www.marsdrinks.com. ABOUT MARS DRINKS MARS DRINKS creates great tasting moments at work by being at the center of workplace engagement, collaboration, productivity, and well-being. Throughout North America, Europe and Asia, MARS DRINKS supports businesses who want to provide great working environments for their people. Part of Mars, Incorporated, MARS DRINKS focuses its energy and resources on the workplace, with the belief that people are the most important asset to any business. In 1973 MARS DRINKS introduced KLIX, the first-ever fully automatic in-cup drinks vending machine that serves large manufacturing channels across Europe. In 1984 MARS DRINKS pioneered the single serve hot drinks category, introducing FLAVIA, the first system for making hot drinks using fresh ground coffee and leaf teas sealed in individual servings. Through its ALTERRA Coffee Roasters coffees, THE BRIGHT TEA CO. teas, and DOVE Hot Chocolate, MARS DRINKS creates more than 1 billion great tasting moments at work! Find MARS DRINKS online at www.marsdrinks.com. ABOUT MARS, INCORPORATED In 1911, Frank C. Mars made the first Mars candies in his Tacoma, Washington kitchen and established Mars' first roots as a confectionery company. In the 1920s, Forrest E. Mars, Sr. joined his father in business and together they launched the MILKY WAY bar. In 1932, Forrest, Sr. moved to the United Kingdom with a dream of building a business based on the objective of creating a "mutuality of benefits for all stakeholders" this objective serves as the foundation of Mars, Incorporated today. Based in McLean, Virginia, Mars has net sales of more than $33 billion, six business segments including Petcare, Chocolate, Wrigley, Food, Drinks, Symbioscience, and more than 75,000 Associates worldwide that are putting its Principles into action to make a difference for people and the planet through its performance. Mars, Incorporated is proud to have been ranked 85th in the FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For list, compiled by the Great Place to Work Institute, for the third consecutive year. SOURCE MARS DRINKS Related Links https://www.marsdrinks.com NEW YORK, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- FULLBEAUTY Brands Inc. launches Ellos, the leading Swedish fashion and lifestyle brand, as a women's plus size clothing brand in the U.S. in sizes 10 to 34. Ellos launches online at ellos.us on 08/08/16 and via catalog in late August. With a fresh approach to style, the brand has an effortless and modern aesthetic at an accessible price point. "This is such an exciting and relevant time for the plus size space in the U.S.! We are so proud to address this highly underserved market," says Michele Parsons, SVP and General Brand Manager of Ellos. "The Ellos brand targets a modern sensibility rooted in Swedish design that has never been offered before. With excellent style and fit, the collection has tremendous potential in the market." Ellos has an aspirational point-of-view that is unique, especially in the current plus size market. The brand designs clothes that inspire women to be themselves and find pieces fitting for all aspects of their lives. An exciting and modern assortment of styles is available in high-quality fabrics with elevated details and a best in class fit, all at a competitive price point and in a broad range of sizes. The collection includes tops, bottoms, dresses, outerwear, shoes, and accessories. "I have great expectations and high ambitions for the launch of Ellos in the U.S. There is a significant demand for our Scandinavian design in Europe and this partnership allows us to seamlessly increase our presence and visibility on a national scale," says Hans Ohlsson, CEO of Ellos Group. "The partnership with FULLBEAUTY Brands represents our dedication to continue developing a wider range of product through a dedicated online destination based in the U.S." For more information on Ellos, visit ellos.us and the brand's social media channels: http://www.facebook.com/ellosus http://www.instagram.com/ellos_usa http://www.twitter.com/ellos_us http://www.pinterest.com/ellos_usa About FULLBEAUTY Brands Inc. FULLBEAUTY Brands Inc. is the fashion authority for plus size women and men seeking fashion inspiration, style advice, and clothing tailored to their individual needs. Proprietary brands under the FULLBEAUTY Brands Inc. umbrella include: Woman Within, Roaman's, Jessica London, swimsuitsforall, KingSize, BrylaneHome, and fullbeauty.com, an online marketplace that offers a curated collection of countless brands and thousands of products, serving as the premier fashion and lifestyle destination for women in sizes 12 +. About Ellos Group Founded in 1947, Ellos is Sweden's leading online department store, offering fashion for women, men, and children, along with home furnishings. "Ellos" derives from the founding owner's name, Olle Blomqvist spelt backwards with an added "s". With head offices located in Boras, a historic center for Sweden's textile industry, each clothing collection reflects the Swedish lifestyle and design aesthetic. Pieces are developed with a feminine simplicity and a love for details, and the result is wearable, contemporary clothing with a European influence. SOURCE FULLBEAUTY Brands Inc. VANCOUVER, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ - Golden Queen Mining Co. Ltd. (TSX:GQM; OTCQX:GQMNF) (the "Company" or "Golden Queen") is pleased to announce its financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2016 from its 50%-owned Soledad Mountain gold-silver project (the "Project") located south of Mojave, California. The financial results will be filed today with the regulatory agencies in Canada and the United States. All amounts herein are in US dollars and reflect 100% of the financial results of Golden Queen Mining Company, LLC ("GQM LLC"), the Company's 50%-owned subsidiary that holds the Project, unless otherwise stated. Second Quarter Financial Highlights During the second quarter ended June 30, 2016, the net loss attributable to the Company was $2,108,781 (or $0.02 basic per share), compared to a net loss of $1,379,265 (or $0.01 basic per share), for the corresponding period in 2015. In accordance with US GAAP, the Company began to recognize revenues and expenses related to the sale of metals in the second quarter of 2016. The Company sold 2,362 gold ounces at an average realized gold price of $1,276 per ounce and 26,500 silver ounces at an average realized silver price of $17.02 per ounce for total revenue in the second quarter of $3,464,093. The Company expensed $3,563,009 in direct mining costs in the same quarter. The Company had, on a consolidated basis, $163,515,162 in assets, including $18,666,119 in cash, and a working capital deficiency of $29,001,254 as at June 30, 2016, compared with $169,444,179 in assets, including $37,587,311 in cash, and a working capital deficiency of $7,743,109 as at December 31, 2015. The financial position and results for the quarter ended on June 30, 2016 are summarized in the tables below and are presented on a 100% project ownership basis unless otherwise noted: Financial position as at: Select Items - On a consolidated basis * June 30, 2016 $ December 31, 2015 $ Cash 18,666,119 37,587,311 Inventory 8,520,112 1,935,599 Mineral property interests 136,024,353 128,562,572 Total assets 163,515,162 169,444,179 Working capital (29,001,254) (7,743,109) Current liabilities 56,492,063 47,722,334 Long term liabilities 25,472,814 27,330,560 Redeemable portion of non-controlling interest Temporary equity 26,398,125 27,123,741 Non-controlling interest Shareholders' equity 39,597,186 40,685,611 Shareholders' equity attributable to Golden Queen 15,554,974 26,581,933 Shareholders' equity 55,152,160 67,267,544 Select Items - On a consolidated basis* 3 Months Ended June 30, 2016 $ 3 Months Ended June 30, 2015 $ 6 Months Ended June 30, 2016 $ 6 Months Ended June 30, 2015 $ Revenue 3,464,093 Nil 3,464,093 Nil Direct mining costs (3,563,009) Nil (3,563,009) Nil Net income (loss) and comprehensive income (loss) attributable to the Company ** (2,108,781) (1,379,265) (11,034,557) (2,815,451) Basic income (loss) per share attributable to the Company** (0.02) (0.01) (0.11) (0.03) Diluted income (loss) per share attributable to the Company** (0.02) (0.01) (0.11) (0.03) *These consolidated results include the accounts of Golden Queen, Golden Queen Mining Holdings Inc. and GQM LLC. GQM LLC meets the definition of a Variable Interest Entity. Golden Queen has determined that it is the member of the related party group that is most closely associated with GQM LLC and, as a result, is the primary beneficiary who consolidates GQM LLC. Golden Queen's economic interest in GQM LLC is 50%. **Net income (loss) and comprehensive income (loss) attributable to Golden Queen and Golden Queen Mining Holdings only. Excludes net income (loss) attributable to JV Partner. Second Quarter Operating Performance The crushing and screening plant continued ramp up during the second quarter and 24-hour, 7-day per week operations commenced in June. Irrigation rates of ore on the heap were at the upper level of anticipated flow. A total of 660,000 tons of ore has been mined during the second quarter with a strip ratio of 1.8:1 waste to ore. A total of 951,000 tons of ore has now been mined since January 2016 with a strip ratio of 2.3:1 waste to ore. The Company has made steady progress with the production rate of the crushing and screening plant and the pad loading systems. HPGR performance continues to exceed expectations. The hourly throughput of the plant, when operating, was above the design rate and exceeded an average of 750 tons per hour. Run-time continues to improve but was hampered by higher than expected wear on some components. The daily average throughput for placing ore on the pad was 8,852 tons per scheduled operating day for the quarter and 8,744 tons per day in June. At the end of June, 1,007,765 tons, loaded in 2016, were under leach on the heap-leach pad. Agglomerate quality was excellent during the second quarter and the porosity and permeability of the heap-leach pad are high. The Company forecasts the 150-day recovery of the first pad lift to be approximately 70% to 75%. The average grade of ore processed during the second quarter was 0.013 ounces per ton gold and 0.40 ounces per ton silver. A total of 8,636 gold ounces and 261,021 silver ounces were placed on the heap leach pad during the second quarter. Gold production commenced in April 2016 and the Project produced 2,827 gold ounces and 33,346 silver ounces during the second quarter. Total site operating costs averaged $11.94 per ton processed during the second quarter. Cash costs per ounces of gold sold were $1,580 per ounce net of silver by-product. The Project continues to be in the ramp-up phase, and cash costs are expected to decrease as gold production escalates. Outlook A total of 272,000 tons of ore was mined in July with a strip ratio of 1.6:1 waste to ore. Approximately 250,000 tons of ore were loaded on the pad during the past month. The Company anticipates achieving an average throughput of 10,000 to 11,000 tons per day in the second half of 2016. "We are very pleased with the continued ramp up at Soledad Mountain during the second quarter, which culminated in over 2,905 ounces of gold and 29,284 ounces of silver being poured in July. This positions Golden Queen well for achieving steady state production and positive operating cash flow later this year" said the Company's Chairman and CEO, Thomas M. Clay. The Company raised gross proceeds of C$16.1 million in July, and the net proceeds will be used to repay a portion of the Company's loan due in December of this year. An updated video of the Soledad Mountain project is available at www.goldenqueen.com. About Golden Queen Mining Co. Ltd.: Golden Queen is an emerging gold and silver producer holding a 50% interest in an open pit, heap leach mining operation on the Soledad Mountain property, located just outside the town of Mojave in Kern County in southern California. Technical information in this news release was approved by Sean Ennis, P.Eng. P.E.; a qualified person under NI 43-101, and a consultant to the Company. Caution With Respect To Forward-looking Statements: This news release contains forward-looking information and statements within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities laws (herein referred to as "forward-looking statements") that involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. All information and statements in this news release that are not statements of historical fact may be forward-looking statements, including the expected production results, grade and quantities or ore, operating costs, plant capacity and other statements regarding anticipated results.. Such statements or information are only intentions and expectations of management and reflect the current beliefs of management and are based on information currently available to management. In addition, results of operations can vary significantly and past results may not necessarily be consistent with future results. Actual results and events may differ materially from those contemplated by these forward-looking statements due to these statements being subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. Undue reliance should not be placed on these forward-looking statements, as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are based will occur. By their nature forward-looking statements involve assumptions and known and unknown risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, that contribute to the possibility that the predictions and other forward-looking statements will not occur. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from the those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, unexpected regulatory issues, and changes in the general economic and business conditions pertaining to Golden Queen's operations. Should any risks or uncertainties that face Golden Queen and its subsidiaries materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results or achievements could vary materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements contained in this news release. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of risks is not exhaustive. Additional information on these and other factors that could affect the operations or financial results of Golden Queen and its subsidiaries are included in, Golden Queen's short form base shelf prospectus and supplements thereto, and Golden Queen's annual financial statements and Management's Discussion and Analysis for the year ended December 31, 2015, each of which has been filed under the Company's profile on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) or with the SEC (www.sec.gov). Any forward-looking statement herein contained is made as of the date of this news release and Golden Queen does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new information, events or circumstances, except as required by law. SOURCE Golden Queen Mining Co. Ltd. Related Links http://www.goldenqueen.com KINGSTON, Jamaica, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Tender Offer The Government of Jamaica ("Jamaica") announced today the commencement of an offer to purchase for cash (the "Tender Offer") Notes of each series listed in the table below (collectively, the "Old Notes" and each Old Note, a "series" of Old Notes) such that the aggregate Purchase Price to be paid for the Old Notes tendered and accepted for purchase pursuant to the Tender Offer is equal to a maximum purchase amount to be determined by Jamaica in its sole discretion (the "Maximum Purchase Amount"). The terms and conditions of the Tender Offer are set forth in the Offer to Purchase, dated Tuesday, August 9, 2016 (the "Offer to Purchase"). The Tender Offer is not conditioned upon any minimum participation of any series of Old Notes but is conditioned, among other things, on the pricing and closing of an international capital markets transaction on the long dated part of the curve in an amount acceptable to Jamaica, to be priced on or about three days after the date hereof (the "New Notes Offering", and the notes issued pursuant thereto, the "New Notes"), the funding of the Escrow Account (as defined in the Offer to Purchase) with a portion of the net proceeds from the New Notes, and the dealer manager agreement relating to the Tender Offer (the "Dealer Manager Agreement") not being terminated prior to or at the time of the settlement of the Tender Offer. The tender period (the "Tender Period") will commence on Tuesday, August 9, 2016 and will expire at 2:00 p.m., New York City time, on Thursday, August 11, 2016 unless extended or earlier terminated. The settlement of the Tender Offer is scheduled to occur on Friday, August 19, 2016 (the "Tender Offer Settlement Date"). The purchase price to be paid for the Old Notes of each series tendered and accepted pursuant to the Tender Offer will be the fixed price indicated in the table below (the "Purchase Price"). Holders whose Old Notes are accepted in the Tender Offer will also receive any accrued and unpaid interest (the "Accrued Interest") on these Old Notes up to (but excluding) the Tender Offer Settlement Date. The total amount paid for each tendered and accepted note will be the Purchase Price plus Accrued Interest (the "Total Price"). Old Notes Outstanding Principal Amount as of Monday, August 8, 2016 ISIN CUSIP Common Code Purchase Price (per US$1,000 Principal Amount) Purchase Price (%) 10.6 25% Notes due 2017 ("2017 Notes") US$400,071,000 US470160AR34 470160AR3 015014857 U.S.1,080.00 108.0% 8.000% Amortizing Notes due 2019 ("2019 Notes") US$744,212,000 US470160AW29 470160AW2 037254304 U.S.1,105.00 110.5% During the Tender Period, a holder of Old Notes may place orders to tender Old Notes ("Tender Orders") through any of the Dealer Managers (as defined below). Holders will not be able to submit tenders through Euroclear Bank S.A./N.V. ("Euroclear"), Clearstream Banking, societe anonyme ("Clearstream") or the Depository Trust Company ("DTC") systems. If a holder does not have an account with a Dealer Manager, such holder may place a tender offer through any broker, dealer, commercial bank, trust company, other financial institution or other custodian that it customarily uses. Your broker must contact one of the Dealer Managers to submit a Tender Order on your behalf. Citigroup Global Markets Inc., as the billing and delivering bank for the Tender Offer (in such capacity, the "Billing and Delivering Bank"), will consolidate Tender Orders and, upon instruction of Jamaica, accept Old Notes for purchase pursuant to the Tender Offer, subject to proration as described in the Offer to Purchase, on Friday, August 12, 2016 or as soon as possible thereafter. Each of Jamaica and the Billing and Delivering Bank reserves the right, in the sole discretion of each of them, not to accept any or all Tender Orders. Tender Orders by a holder of each series of Old Notes must be in principal amounts of at least the Minimum Denomination of such series of Old Notes ("Permitted Tender Amounts") as indicated in the Offer to Purchase. There is no letter of transmittal for the Tender Offer. If you hold Old Notes through DTC, they must be delivered for settlement no later than 3:00 p.m., New York City time, on the Tender Offer Settlement Date. If you hold Old Notes through Euroclear or Clearstream, the latest process you can use to deliver your Old Notes to the Billing and Delivering Bank is the overnight process, one day prior to the Tender Offer Settlement Date; you may not use the optional daylight process. Failure to deliver Old Notes on time may result (i) in the cancellation of your Tender Order and in you becoming liable for any damages resulting from that failure, and/or (ii) in the delivery of a buy-in notice for the purchase of such Old Notes, executed in accordance with customary brokerage practices for corporate fixed income securities, and/or (iii) in the case of Preferred Tenders (as defined in the Offer to Purchase), in the cancellation of your tender and in your remaining obligation to purchase your allocation of New Notes in respect of your related Indication of Interest. Holders will not have withdrawal rights with respect to any tenders of Old Notes in the Tender Offer. Old Notes accepted for purchase will be settled on a delivery versus payment basis with the Billing and Delivering Bank on the Tender Offer Settlement Date in accordance with customary brokerage practices for corporate fixed income securities (i.e., a "desk to desk" or "broker to broker" trade). If the aggregate Total Price of all Preferred Tenders exceeds the Maximum Purchase Amount, then each New Note Requestor shall have its Preferred Tenders for each series of Old Notes prorated down, proportionate to the relative size of such New Note Requestor's Preferred Tenders of that series of Old Notes to all Preferred Tenders, so that the aggregate Total Price of all Preferred Tenders equals the Maximum Purchase Amount. In such case, no non-Preferred Tenders will be accepted. For any prorated Preferred Tenders, the associated Indications of Interest will be decreased accordingly. If the aggregate Total Price of all Tenders exceeds the Maximum Purchase Amount, but the aggregate Total Price of all Preferred Tenders does not exceed the Maximum Purchase Amount, then the non-Preferred Tenders for each series of Old Notes shall be prorated down, so that the aggregate Total Price of all Tenders equals the Maximum Purchase Amount. All Old Notes that are tendered pursuant to Tender Orders placed through a Dealer Manager and accepted by Jamaica will, subject to the conditions set forth in the Offer to Purchase, be purchased by the Billing and Delivering Bank in such amounts as Jamaica shall determine. The Billing and Delivering Bank will only be liable for the payment of the Purchase Price and Accrued Interest for Old Notes accepted in the Offer subject to the satisfaction of the conditions set forth in the Dealer Manager Agreement, including, in particular, only to the extent of the amount of funds available from those deposited in the Escrow Account by Jamaica from the proceeds of the New Notes Offering in accordance with the Dealer Manager Agreement. Any holder who fails to make delivery in accordance with the Offer to Purchase shall not be entitled to receive any payment therefore unless Jamaica or the Billing and Delivering Bank, in their sole discretion, determine to waive any such failure. The Billing and Delivering Bank shall only have the obligation to sell to Jamaica the Old Notes validly tendered and accepted for purchase that the Billing and Delivering Bank has actually received pursuant to the Offer to Purchase on the date of settlement of the Tender Offer. The Tender Offer is subject to Jamaica's right, at its sole discretion and subject to applicable law, to instruct the Billing and Delivering Bank to extend, re-open, amend or waive any condition of, or terminate the Tender Offer at any time. In the event of a termination of the Tender Offer, the relevant Old Notes will be returned to the holder. Each of Jamaica and the Billing and Delivering Bank reserves the right, in the sole discretion of each of them, not to accept tenders for any reason. The Offer to Purchase may be downloaded from the Information Agent's website at http://www.gbsc-usa.com/Jamaica/ or obtained from the Information Agent, Global Bondholder Services Corporation, 65 Broadway Suite 404, New York, New York 10006 (Tel. (212) 430 3774, or toll free (866) 470-3900) Attention: Corporate Actions, or from any of the Dealer Managers. The Dealer Managers for the Tender Offer are: Citigroup Global Markets Inc. 390 Greenwich Street, 1st Floor New York, New York 10013 United States of America Attention: Liability Management Group Collect: (212) 723-6106 Toll-free: (800) 558-3745 Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated One Bryant Park New York, New York 10036 United States of America Attention: Liability Management Group Collect: (646) 855-8988 Toll-free: (888) 292-0070 Questions regarding the Tender Offer may be directed to the Dealer Managers at the above contact information. Contact information: Global Bondholder Services Corporation Attention: Corporate Actions 65 Broadway Suite 404 New York, NY 10006 Banks and Brokers call: +1 (212) 430-3774 Toll free: +1 (866) 470-3900 website: http://www.gbsc-usa.com/Jamaica/ Important Notice The distribution of materials relating to the Tender Offer or the New Notes Offering and the transactions contemplated by the Tender Offer and the New Notes Offering may be restricted by law in certain jurisdictions. Each of the Tender Offer and the New Notes Offering is void in all jurisdictions where it is prohibited. If materials relating to the Tender Offer or the New Notes Offering come into your possession, you are required by Jamaica to inform yourself of and to observe all of these restrictions. The materials relating to the Tender Offer and the New Notes Offering, including this communication, do not constitute, and may not be used in connection with, an offer or solicitation in any place where offers or solicitations are not permitted by law. If a jurisdiction requires that the Tender Offer or the New Notes Offering be made by a licensed broker or dealer and a Dealer Manager or any affiliate of a Dealer Manager is a licensed broker or dealer in that jurisdiction, the Tender Offer or the New Notes Offering, as the case may be, shall be deemed to be made by the Dealer Manager or such affiliate in that jurisdiction. Owners who may lawfully participate in the Tender Offer in accordance with the terms thereof are referred to as "holders." In any EEA Member State this communication is only addressed to and is only directed at qualified investors within the meaning of the Prospectus Directive. This Tender Offer does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an order to buy any New Notes. The New Notes will only be offered in jurisdictions and upon such conditions where it is legal to make such offers. The offer of the New Notes is restricted in certain jurisdictions by law. In any EEA Member State the offer of the New Notes is only addressed to and directed at qualified investors within the meaning of the Prospectus Directive. Austria Any materials relating to the Tender Offer do not constitute, and may not be used in connection with, any form of offer or solicitation in any place where such offers or solicitations are not permitted by law. If a jurisdiction requires that the Tender Offer be made by a licensed broker or dealer and the Dealer Managers or its respective affiliates is such a licensed broker or dealer in that jurisdiction, the Tender Offer shall be deemed to be made by the Dealer Managers or affiliate in such jurisdiction. The distribution of the Tender Offer in certain jurisdictions may be restricted by law. Persons into whose possession the Offer Document comes are required by Jamaica, the Dealer Managers, the Information Agent and the Billing and Delivering Bank to inform themselves about, and to observe, any such restrictions as set out in the "Jurisdictional Restrictions" section of the Offer to Purchase. Belgium The Tender Offer does not constitute a public offering within the meaning of Articles 3, 1, 1 and 6 of the Belgian Law of April 1, 2007 on takeover bids (the "Takeover Law"). The Tender Offer is exclusively conducted under applicable private placement exemptions and has therefore not been, and will not be, notified to, and any other offer material relating to the Tender Offer has not been, and will not be, approved by, the Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority (Autorite des services et marches financiers/Autoriteit voor Financiele Diensten en Markten). Accordingly, the Offer Document may only be advertised, offered or distributed in any way, directly or indirectly, to any persons located and/or resident in Belgium who qualify as "Qualified Investors" as referred to in Article 6, 3, 1 of the Takeover Law, and who are acting for their own account, or in other circumstances which do not constitute a public offering in Belgium pursuant to the Takeover Law. Canada The Offer is only available in Canada to persons that are accredited investors within the meaning of National Instrument 45-106 of the Canadian Securities Administrators. France The Tender Offer is not being made, directly or indirectly, to the public in France. Neither this announcement nor any other documents or materials relating to the Tender Offer have been distributed or caused to be distributed and will not be distributed or caused to be distributed to the public in France and only (i) qualified investors (investisseurs qualifies), other than individuals, acting for their own account, all as defined in, and in accordance with, Articles L.411-2 and D.411-1 of the French Code monetaire et financier and/or (iii) the other legal entities referred to in Articles L.341-2 1 and D.341-1 of the French Code monetaire et financier are eligible to participate in the Offer. The Offer has not been and will not be submitted to the clearance procedures (visa) of nor approved by the Autorite des marches financiers. Germany THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS ANNOUNCEMENT IS ADDRESSED EXCLUSIVELY TO THE HOLDERS OF THE OLD NOTES. NEITHER THIS ANNOUNCEMENT NOR THE TENDER OFFER NOR ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED THEREIN CONSTITUTE AN OFFER, OR AN ADVERTISEMENT, OR AN OFFER FOR SALE OF SECURITIES. NEITHER THIS ANNOUNCEMENT NOR THE OFFER CONSTITUTE OR ARE INTENDED FOR PLACEMENT OF SECURITIES. Hong Kong With respect to persons in Hong Kong, the Tender Offer is only made to, and is only capable of acceptance by, professional investors within the meaning of the Securities and Futures Ordinance (Cap. 571) of Hong Kong (the "SFO") and any rules made thereunder ("professional investors"). No person or entity may issue or have in its possession for the purposes of issue, whether in Hong Kong or elsewhere, any advertisement, invitation or document relating to the Old Notes or the Tender Offer, which is directed at, or the contents of which are likely to be accessed or read by, the public in Hong Kong (except if permitted to do so under the securities laws of Hong Kong, including in circumstances which do not result in the document being a "prospectus" as defined in the Companies (Winding Up and Miscellaneous Provisions) Ordinance (Cap. 32) of Hong Kong) other than with respect to Old Notes which are or are intended to be tendered only by persons outside Hong Kong or only by "professional investors" as defined in the SFO and any rules made thereunder. Italy The announcement has not been registered with the Commissione Nazionale per le Societa e la Borsa ("CONSOB") pursuant to Italian securities legislation and, accordingly, the Tender Offer may not be promoted, and copies of this announcement may not be delivered, to Holders resident or located in Italy, other than (i) to qualified investors (investitori qualificati) (as defined in Article 26, paragraph 1, letter d) of CONSOB Regulation No. 16190 of October 29, 2007, as amended (the "Intermediaries Regulation")), pursuant to Article 35-bis, paragraph 3 of CONSOB Regulation No. 11971 of May 14, 1999, as amended, or (ii) in any other circumstances where an express exemption from compliance with the restrictions on public offers to purchase applies. Holders or beneficial owners of the Old Notes may tender their Old Notes through authorized persons (such as investment firms, banks or financial intermediaries permitted to conduct such activities in Italy in accordance with the Italian Legislative Decree No. 58 of February 24, 1998, as amended, the Intermediaries Regulation and Italian Legislative Decree No. 385 of September 1, 1993, each as amended) and in compliance with any other applicable laws and regulations or with any requirements imposed by CONSOB or any other Italian authority. This announcement and the information contained herein are intended only for the use of its recipient and are not to be distributed to any third-party resident or located in Italy for any reason. No person resident or located in Italy other than the original recipients of this document may rely on it or its contents. Jamaica This announcement has not been and is not required to be registered with the Financial Services Commission pursuant to the Jamaican Securities Act. No purchase of any securities in connection with this Tender Offer can be completed in Jamaica unless the purchase is made by or through a securities dealer registered with the Financial Services Commission or an exempt dealer (being a bank). However, Jamaican law does not prevent a Jamaica resident from selling securities outside the jurisdiction. Luxembourg In Luxembourg, this announcement has been prepared on the basis that the USD Notes Offering and the Tender Offer will be made pursuant to an exemption under Article 3 of the Prospectus Directive from the requirement to produce a prospectus for offers of securities. Switzerland The Tender Offer is made in Switzerland on the basis of a private offer, not as a public offering. Neither this document nor any other offering or marketing material relating to the Tender Offer constitutes a prospectus as such term is understood pursuant to article 652a or article 1156 of the Swiss Code of Obligations, and neither this document nor any other offering or marketing material relating to the Tender Offer may be publicly distributed or otherwise made publicly available in Switzerland. United Kingdom Neither the communication of this announcement nor any other offer material relating to the Tender Offer has been approved, by an authorized person for the purposes of section 21 of the UK Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. This announcement is only being distributed to and is only directed at (i) persons who are outside the United Kingdom or (ii) to investment professionals falling within Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005, as amended (as so amended, the "Order") or (iii) high net worth entities, and other persons to whom it may lawfully be communicated, falling within Articles 49(2)(a) to (d) of the Order (all such other persons together being referred to as "relevant persons"). Any investment or investment activity to which this announcement relates is available only to relevant persons and will be engaged in only with relevant persons. Any person who is not a relevant person should not act or rely on this announcement or any of its contents. SOURCE Government of Jamaica CORAL SPRINGS, Florida, August 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The beauty industry's potential to continue to remain profitable as consumers spend millions for health and beauty products, salon experiences and other industry related services and products. The revenue of the U.S. cosmetic industry alone is estimated to amount to about 62.46 billion U.S. dollars in 2016. Green Endeavors, Inc. (OTC: GRNED), a majority owned subsidiary of Sack Lunch Productions, Inc. (SAKL) has filed its Form 10Q for the period ended June 30, 2016, reporting substantial improvements to revenues, operating income and net income. Revenues for the three and six months ended June 30, 2016, were $864,747 and $1,656,255 respectively, compared to $758,392 and $1,460,148 for the same periods in 2015; a 14% and 13.4% improvement. Net losses for the three and six months ended June 30, 2016, were $15,078 and $122,817, respectively compared to $354,725 and $632,524 for the same periods in 2015; a 96% and 81% improvement. Read the full Green Endeavors (GRNED) Press Release at: http://financialnewsmedia.com/profiles/grne.html Richard D. Surber, CEO of GRNE, commented "We saw improvements at nearly all levels of our operations. Each location saw improvements in net income and/or growth in top line revenues over the comparable periods in 2015. Our goal for the remainder of 2016 is to continue hiring stylists to further improve our top line growth. We will continue to improve our controls on inventory management while increasing our training budget to drive retail sales and improve margins. Lastly, we will continue our search for additional locations as part of our expansion plans." Green Endeavors, Inc, headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, is a holding company with operations in health & beauty. GRNE's wholly owned subsidiaries, Landis Salons, Inc., Landis Salons II, Inc., and Landis Experience Center LLC, operate hair salons built around the world-class AVEDA product line - owned by Estee Lauder Companies, Inc. (NYSE: EL) In other beauty products developments: Avon Products, Inc. (NYSE: AVP) recently announced that Avon International Operations, Inc., Avon's wholly-owned subsidiary (the "Issuer"), priced an offering (the "Offering") of $500,000,000 in aggregate principal amount of its 7.875% Senior Secured Notes due 2022 (the "Notes"). The aggregate principal amount of the Notes offered was increased from $400,000,000. The offering is expected to close on August 15, 2016. The Company intends to use the proceeds from the Offering, together with cash on hand, to complete tender offers for certain series of the Company's existing senior notes, which it launched concurrently with the Offering. In recent health & beauty board additions: Coty Inc. (NYSE: COTY) recently announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Camillo Pane as Chief Executive Officer and member of the Coty Board, each effective as of the day following the closing of the merger of P&G Specialty Beauty into Coty, expected to occur in October 2016. Bart Becht, currently Interim CEO and Chairman of Coty, will continue to serve as the Chairman of Coty's Board. Camillo Pane currently holds the position of Executive Vice President of Coty's Category Development and is a member of the Coty Executive Committee. The Board of Directors of Sally Beauty Holdings (NYSE: SBH) recently announced the appointment of Erin Nealy Cox as an independent director effective August 1, 2016. Ms. Nealy Cox will be a member of the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors. "Erin is a pioneer in the cyber-security field and has been a tremendous asset to the Board as we navigate through the complex world of cyber-security and data protection," said Bob McMaster, Sally Beauty Holdings Chairman. "We appreciate her willingness to serve as a director and we look forward to her continued counsel in cyber-security matters and her contribution as an accomplished business leader." FinancialNewsMedia.com is leading provider of third party publishing & news dissemination services. If you would like more information regarding our news coverage solutions, please visit financialnewsmedia.com for more details. Get an edge on the market with our Premium News Alerts that are FREE for a limited time at financialnewsmedia.com. Follow us on Facebook: facebook.com/financialnewsmedia and Twitter: twitter.com/FNMgroup. DISCLAIMER: FN Media Group LLC (FNMG) is a third party publisher and news dissemination service provider, which disseminates electronic information through multiple online media channels. FNMG is NOT affiliated in any manner with any company mentioned herein. FNMG and its affiliated companies are a news dissemination solutions provider and are NOT a registered broker/dealer/analyst/adviser, holds no investment licenses and may NOT sell, offer to sell or offer to buy any security. FNMG's market updates, news alerts and corporate profiles are NOT a solicitation or recommendation to buy, sell or hold securities. The material in this release is intended to be strictly informational and is NEVER to be construed or interpreted as research material. All readers are strongly urged to perform research and due diligence on their own and consult a licensed financial professional before considering any level of investing in stocks. All material included herein is republished content and details which were previously disseminated by the companies mentioned in this release. FNMG is not liable for any investment decisions by its readers or subscribers. Investors are cautioned that they may lose all or a portion of their investment when investing in stocks. For current services performed FNMG has been compensated one thousand nine hundred dollars for news coverage of the current press release issued by Green Endeavors by the company. FNMG HOLDS NO SHARES OF ANY COMPANY NAMED IN THIS RELEASE. This release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended and such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. "Forward-looking statements" describe future expectations, plans, results, or strategies and are generally preceded by words such as "may", "future", "plan" or "planned", "will" or "should", "expected," "anticipates", "draft", "eventually" or "projected". You are cautioned that such statements are subject to a multitude of risks and uncertainties that could cause future circumstances, events, or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, including the risks that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, and other risks identified in a company's annual report on Form 10-K or 10-KSB and other filings made by such company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You should consider these factors in evaluating the forward-looking statements included herein, and not place undue reliance on such statements. The forward-looking statements in this release are made as of the date hereof and FNMG undertakes no obligation to update such statements. Contact Information: Company: FN Media Group, LLC http://www.financialnewsmedia.com Phone: +1(954)345-0611 Contact email: [email protected] SOURCE FN Media Group LLC CINCINNATI, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- HealthWarehouse.com, Inc. (OTCQB:HEWA), the only VIPPS & Vet-VIPPS accredited online pharmacy licensed in all 50 states, announced financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2016. For the quarter ended June 30, 2016, net sales improved to $2,403,974 up 28.5% from the prior year ended June 30, 2015. Gross margins remained strong at 64.3% while net loss narrowed to 3.3% of sales in the quarter ended June 30, 2016 from 4.3% for the quarter ended June 30, 2015. Total net consumer sales grew to $2,302,215, an increase of $779,275 or 51.2% and core prescription sales grew to $1,810,053, an increase of $598,002 or 49.3% as compared to the quarter ended June 30, 2015. Core prescriptions sales were the highest level in the Company's history. For the quarter ended June 30, 2016, HEWA reported adjusted EBITDAS of $25,792, continuing the Company's trend of positive cash flow and based on strong sales growth for the quarter, net loss as a percentage of revenue decreased. The Company believes that adjusted EBITDAS (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, Amortization and Stock-Based Compensation), a non-GAAP financial measure, is useful in evaluating its operating performance compared to that of other companies in our industry. "During the second quarter, the Company reached historically record levels for direct consumer prescription sales volume and repeat prescription customer orders. We also made great strides in controlling costs and improving efficiencies while operating at a positive operating cash flow. This is directly attributed to the hard work and effort by our employees, who continue to provide excellent service to our customers," said Mr. Daniel Seliga, COO & CFO. "The Company continues to execute and fire on all cylinders as consumer awareness from national publications continues to drive new growth. In addition, consumers who added or transferred their prescriptions to HealthWarehouse.com in the first quarter came back in droves to make repeat purchases in the second quarter. We expect this trend to continue through the remainder of 2016 and into 2017," said Mr. Lalit Dhadphale, President & CEO of HealthWarehouse.com. 2nd Quarter 2016 Highlights: Net Sales: Net sales were $2,403,974 and increased by $533,134 or 28.5% compared to the 2nd Quarter of 2015, due to increased consumer awareness from continuing national press coverage and repeat business. Net sales were and increased by or 28.5% compared to the 2nd Quarter of 2015, due to increased consumer awareness from continuing national press coverage and repeat business. Net Consumers Sales: Total sales of $2,302,215 , an increase by $779,275 or 51.2% compared to the 2nd Quarter of 2015, due to continuing national press coverage and repeat business. Total sales of , an increase by or 51.2% compared to the 2nd Quarter of 2015, due to continuing national press coverage and repeat business. Core Prescription Sales: Total sales of $1,810,053 , an increase of $598,002 or 49.3% compared to the 2nd Quarter of 2015, the highest level in the Company's history. Total sales of , an increase of or 49.3% compared to the 2nd Quarter of 2015, the highest level in the Company's history. Core Over-The-Counter Sales: Total $492,162 , an increase of $181,273 or 58.3% compared to the 2nd Quarter of 2015. Total , an increase of or 58.3% compared to the 2nd Quarter of 2015. Gross Profit: Increased by $292,689 or 23.4% compared to the 2nd Quarter of 2015 due to sales growth solid gross margins of 64.3%. Increased by or 23.4% compared to the 2nd Quarter of 2015 due to sales growth solid gross margins of 64.3%. SG&A Expenses: Increased by $312,590 or 24.3% compared to the 2nd Quarter of 2015, primarily due to increased staffing and shipping costs resulting from processing higher order volumes of prescriptions and transfers. Increased by or 24.3% compared to the 2nd Quarter of 2015, primarily due to increased staffing and shipping costs resulting from processing higher order volumes of prescriptions and transfers. Net Loss: Decreased nominally compared to the 2nd Quarter of 2015 as the increase in gross profit and the lower interest expense offset the increase in SG&A expenses which was necessary to service our rapid growth. About HealthWarehouse.com HealthWarehouse.com, Inc. (OTCQB:HEWA) is a trusted VIPPS & Vet-VIPPS accredited online pharmacy based in Florence, Kentucky. The Company is focused on the growing out of pocket prescription market, which is expected to grow to over $80 billion in 2016. With a mission to provide affordable healthcare to every American by focusing on technology that is revolutionizing prescription delivery, HealthWarehouse.com has become the largest VIPPS accredited online pharmacy in the United States. HealthWarehouse.com is licensed in all 50 states and only sells drugs that are FDA-approved and legal for sale in the United States. Visit HealthWarehouse.com online at http://www.HealthWarehouse.com. Forward-Looking Statements This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly from management's expectations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, risks related to competition, management of growth, new products, services and technologies, potential fluctuations in operating results, international expansion, outcomes of legal proceedings and claims, fulfillment center optimization, seasonality, commercial agreements, acquisitions and strategic transactions, foreign exchange rates, system interruption, inventory, government regulation and taxation, and timing of cash flows. More information about factors that potentially could affect HealthWarehouse.com's financial results is included in HealthWarehouse.com's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings. Use of Non-GAAP Measures HealthWarehouse.com, Inc. (the "Company") prepares its consolidated financial statements in accordance with the United States generally accepted accounting principles ("U.S. GAAP"). In addition to disclosing financial results prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP, the Company discloses information regarding adjusted EBITDAS, which differs from the term EBITDA as it is commonly used. In addition to adjusting operating loss to exclude interest, depreciation and amortization, adjusted EBITDAS also excludes stock issued for services, and certain other non-cash charges. Adjusted EBITDAS is not a measure of performance defined in accordance with U.S. GAAP. However, adjusted EBITDAS is used internally in planning and evaluating the Company's performance. Accordingly, management believes that disclosure of this metric offers investors, bankers and other shareholders an additional view of the Company's operations that, when coupled with the GAAP results, provides a more complete understanding of the Company's financial results. Adjusted EBITDAS should not be considered as an alternative to net loss or to net cash used in operating activities as a measure of operating results or of liquidity. It may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies, and it excludes financial information that some may consider important in evaluating the Company's performance. A reconciliation of U.S. GAAP net loss to adjusted EBITDAS is included in the accompanying financial schedules. Contact Mr. Lalit Dhadphale, CEO [email protected] (859) 444-7341 Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160809/396783LOGO SOURCE HealthWarehouse.com Related Links http://www.healthwarehouse.com KANATA, Ontario, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- HubStor Inc., developer of the world's first data-aware cloud archive solution, today announced HubStor CoolSearch, a fully-managed search solution that makes storage, indexing, and discovery low cost and completely turn-key for enterprises. CoolSearch delivers searchable cloud archiving at petabyte scale, where the all-inclusive economics can be as low as $0.04/GB monthly. Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160806/396204LOGO Cloud-based search is ideal because it avoids enterprises having to license expensive search software along with installing and managing costly server and storage infrastructure. But other public cloud search solutions typically require work to integrate or adapt the indexing component to the target data, and importing workloads often means losing the original permissions on the data. Furthermore, they require work in order to make the security around search integrated with an organization's identity and access management. While enterprises increase their adoption of the cloud, such as moving email workloads to Microsoft Office 365, there is often the realization that significant amounts of data held in on-premises storage is orphaned the owner of the data is no longer at the organization. This presents a unique challenge not only for email but for files and other types of unstructured data too because the organization has no easy mechanism to store and manage it, and it is often unclear when deletion can occur. CoolSearch addresses these issues by providing a fully managed cold storage archive that is low cost with the option to have search scaled up and down based on the client's discovery requirements. In cases where search is infrequently needed, CoolSearch can be switched into an inactive state, further reducing the pay-as-you-go economics of the service. CoolSearch is designed for the following target workloads: Departmental file shares in organizational restructuring, mergers, and acquisitions. eDiscovery case data for in-house legal teams. Home directories and legacy email archives of former employees. Any large quantities of infrequently accessed data that need to be cost-efficiently stored in a discoverable manner. The CoolSearch technology stack embeds Elasticsearch, a distributed, open source search and analytics engine known for scalability and reliability. Beyond the underlying search technology, CoolSearch consists of five core components: Trusted Cloud Infrastructure: Delivered exclusively on Microsoft Azure, CoolSearch can run from any of Microsoft's 26 Azure datacenter regions around the globe, with the data protection of three synchronous copies, at a minimum. Directory Synchronization: Authentication and role-based access are connected to each client's corporate directory, making it safe and easy to adopt for sensitive data workloads. Fully Managed Data Aware Cloud Archive: CoolSearch uses HubStor's data-aware cloud archiving technology as the storage platform. Data aware storage provides automated analytics and auditing on all data imported to the service, offering clients ready insight into their storage and activities. HubStorConnector Service: CoolSearch includes installable software that cloud-enables existing on-premises storage, making it easy to securely import targeted workloads into CoolSearch based on policies. Features include versioning, synchronization of security access controls, bandwidth throttling, and the ability to import data on demand or automatically. Search As A Service: Each client's search cluster is deployed in a dedicated tenant, and delivered fully managed with no licensing and no hardware requirements. "CoolSearch offers a novel method for dramatically reducing the cost of archiving data for long periods", said Michael Osterman, Principal Analyst with Osterman Research. "By combining highly scalable, redundant, write-once-read-many storage functionality in a pay-as-you-go cloud model, CoolSearch offers a robust set of capabilities that can satisfy eDiscovery and regulatory compliance requirements." AVAILABILITY CoolSearch is now available for production workloads on a subscription basis with no upfront commitments or cancellation fees. Beyond the monthly minimum subscription price, pricing is based purely on consumption of cloud infrastructure. For inquiries, please contact HubStor at: www.hubstor.net/contact ADDITIONAL QUOTES "We see plenty of need in the marketplace for low-cost storage and search capabilities, particularly as part of a migration to the cloud," says Dale McVeen, CEO, Bishop Technologies, a cloud solution provider partner and user of HubStor. "Clients with large volumes of orphan user data should consider CoolSearch as an easy, discoverable place for managing this data in the cloud." "CoolSearch is unique because it allows organizations to cost-efficiently store and index their data in a highly secure manner at very low cost compared to traditional search approaches," says Geoff Bourgeois, CEO, HubStor. "In the enterprise archiving world, search has always been expensive and a real challenge to scale, but not anymore with CoolSearch." ABOUT HUBSTOR HubStor, developer of CoolSearch and the world's first data-aware cloud archive solution, simplifies archiving and discovery of unstructured data workloads in the cloud with greater security, usability, and compliance. Founded in early 2015, HubStor is partnered with Microsoft, serving enterprise clients in North America, Europe, Australia, and South Africa from Azure datacenter regions located around the globe. MEDIA CONTACTS Elizabeth Lam, VP Marketing HubStor Inc. [email protected] Related Files HubStor - CoolSearch Brief.pdf CoolSearch Messaging Positioning.docx Related Images image1.jpg image2.jpg Related Links CoolSearch Home Page Request Demo Related Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_vcoZW_mvs This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. For more info visit: http://www.newswire.com SOURCE HubStor Inc. MUMBAI, August 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Sheorey Digital Systems (SDS) is Delighted to Announce its Signing up With Leading Spanish Flag Carrier, Iberia for its Aviation ERP - ARMS V2 On the left is: Rafael Jimenez Hoyos, Chief Operating Officer, Iberia and on the right: Vivek Sheorey, Managing Director & CEO, Sheorey Digital Systems (PRNewsFoto/Sheorey Digital Systems Pvt. Ltd) Iberia, a member of International Airlines Group (IAG), has decided to go with ARMS V2 (Aviation Resource Management System) Operations and Crew Management Software with the intent of replacing its legacy software applications with a completely integrated state-of-the-art application suite that reduces about ten myriad applications in current use, to just two core applications. (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160809/396653 ) (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160809/396652LOGO ) ARMS V2 - Flight Operations Sub-System (FOSS) and Crew Management Sub-System (CMSS), along with three state-of-the-art decision support Optimizers, will be installed to address Iberia's requirements of deploying an integrated platform, with the accompanying benefit of having these systems reside on a unified database. Commenting on this outcome, MD and CEO of SDS, Vivek (Vicky) Sheorey said, "It is extremely gratifying for ARMS to have been chosen by a pre-eminent European carrier such as Iberia. Having come about after an exhaustive evaluation, we are all the more pleased for the confidence that Iberia has expressed in the systems' capabilities. As Iberia successfully moves ahead with its 'Plan de Futuro' (Plan for the Future), we firmly believe that an integrated system like ARMS, with its fundamental premise of bringing about efficiency across the organization by managing disruptions better, will provide a vital impetus to this plan." Rapidly growing and evolving, ARMS V2 already counts over 50 customers worldwide for its innovative capabilities as the only true integrated Aviation ERP in the market today, which seamlessly integrates all of the functional and operational areas of an airline/air operator with a unified database. About SDS: Sheorey Digital Systems (SDS) is an ISO 9001:2008 & 27001:2005 certified, established Indian InfoTech company specializing in Aviation and Information Management domains. SDS strives to provide radically efficient and cost-effective software solutions for the air transportation industry. SDS has pioneered the development of a highly integrated, flexible and scalable enterprise-class software solution exclusively for the air transportation industry viz. ARMS (Aviation Resource Management System). Offered as both, a seamlessly integrated suite or modular standalone applications, ARMS is helping airlines and air operators worldwide, successfully cope with uncertain and highly volatile bottom lines. For business/media enquiries: Prashant Kavi Vice President - Business Development Tel: +91-8025036000 [email protected] SOURCE Sheorey Digital Systems Pvt. Ltd. BANGALORE, India, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Vodafone India today announced a multi-million dollar five year agreement for IBM to manage IT services support for Vodafone India's IT infrastructure and applications environment. By bringing together Vodafone India's enterprise data and cloud ready applications into a scalable environment that keeps data local, private and secure, the new IBM hybrid cloud platform will enable delivery of faster and more insightful data intelligence and support faster decision-making. IBM will support Vodafone India's IT environment transition into IBM hybrid cloud, allowing the company to leverage and integrate existing IT resources and data assets with private cloud environments. It will support Vodafone India's speed to market and improve the efficiency of its network and IT operations. This agreement builds on the existing eight year relationship between the two organizations Vishant Vora, Director, Technology & Network, Vodafone India, said, "We are a technology driven organization and introducing the latest advances is key to delivering the best of experiences to our customers. Partnering with IBM will help us enhance customer experience with intuitive capabilities and build a cost optimized, flexible and scalable IT infrastructure." Vanitha Narayanan, Managing Director, IBM India, said, "We are delighted to continue our relationship with Vodafone India. IBM's leading edge capabilities will help strengthen Vodafone India's vision of delivering differentiated client experiences. I am grateful for Vodafone India's continued trust in IBM and look forward to an enduring partnership with them." About IBM India: For more information on IBM India, please visit http://www.ibm.com/in/en/ To know more about IBM: www.facebook.com/IBMIndiaNews www.twitter.com/ibmindianews MEDIA CONTACTS Sowmya Ramachandran External Relations IBM India/South Asia [email protected] +91 9845181220 Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20090416/IBMLOGO SOURCE IBM Related Links http://www.ibm.com NEW DELHI, August 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Calls for Indian Higher Education Institutions to Break Into World Rankings JGU Chancellor, Mr. Naveen Jindal presenting a token of appreciation to Shri Arun Jaitley, Hon'ble Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs in the presence of Ms. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairperson and Managing Director, Biocon Limited and JGU Vice-Chancellor, Prof (Dr.) C Raj Kumar and Registrar Prof (Dr.) Y.S.R Murthy (PRNewsFoto/O.P. Jindal Global University) Addressing a gathering of more than 2000 at the 5th Convocation and Founder's Day celebrations of O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU), Mr. Arun Jaitley, Indian Finance Minister, said, "In most developed countries population is reducing while we are increasing in numbers; human resource becomes a very important economic resource." (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160808/396317 ) He further noted that "to shape these minds, make them globally competitive, make them true global citizens, you need institutions of excellence. The Jindal Global University, I have no doubt is certainly going to be one of such institutions." The Minister further referred to his budget speech and reinforced that India must now concentrate on at least 20 higher education institutions, 10 run by the state and 10 by the private sector, and upgrade them so that they can become world global institutions. "JGU is now a part of that competitiveness and you have to strive to come within the category of the top ten, which then acquire the global rankings," said the Finance Minister. Congratulating the graduating batch, Mr. Naveen Jindal, Chancellor, O.P. Jindal Global University, said, "Today, JGU is being accepted as an exceptional private university in India that has produced high-quality research. At JGU, we are striving to develop world-class research and teaching that is socially beneficial and globally relevant." Defining the future vision for the university, Mr. Jindal said, "Our strategic goal is for some schools of JGU to break into the top 200 of the world universities in the next 5 to 10 years." In his address, Professor (Dr.) C Raj Kumar, Founding Vice Chancellor, O.P. Jindal Global University, lamented the lack of incentives to promote research excellence in Indian universities. He pointed out that a very small number of Indian universities have pursued internationalisation as a core strategy to promote deep institutional partnerships with universities across the world, and reap the benefits of international collaborations for teaching, research and the student experience. Speaking on internationalisation at JGU, Professor Kumar said, "We are proud that more than 80 percent of our faculty members have international qualifications from the leading universities of the world and nearly 20 percent of our full-time faculty members are international. This is significant given that we are a very young university." Media Contact Kakul Rizvi [email protected] +91-8396907273 Additional Director O.P. Jindal Global University SOURCE O.P. Jindal Global University TAIPEI, Taiwan, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Influenced by its rich geography and history, Taiwan has developed a unique and diverse culture that in recent years has inspired the creation of intricately-designed and unparalleled lifestyle products. To share the country's newest high-quality innovations with the U.S., the Ministry of Culture and the Taiwan Design Center selected the most creative and beautifully-crafted Taiwanese home and tech offerings to be displayed from August 21st - 24th at the "Fresh Taiwan Pavilion" located at booth 3871 in the Jacob Javits Center for the NY NOW tradeshow. "After carefully examining the craftsmanship and creativity behind a variety of Taiwanese brands, we are thrilled to have the opportunity to bring ten contemporary design brands to exhibit their most outstanding products at the NY NOW show," said Patrick Hung, Director of Exhibition Marketing at TDC. "Taiwan is ready for the world to discover its exquisite products and to be recognized as a global leader in design." Leading up to NY NOW, Fresh Taiwan showcased its distinctive offerings at Ambiented Frankfurt, Maison & Objet Paris, Tokyo International Gift Show, and BIG+BIH Thailand. From the world's first-ever tonal earphones to hand-blown glass vases, the Fresh Taiwan Pavilion will have a unique array of products at the NY NOW tradeshow. Below is a brief description of the brands you will see there: Chord & Major (C&M Audio Co., Ltd.) Combining technology and the love of music, this brand has developed the world's first tonal earphones that are custom-made for your favorite music genre. In 2015, it received the DIAPASON D'OR "Outstanding Product of the Year" Award, the most prestigious award in France . (C&M Audio Co., Ltd.) Combining technology and the love of music, this brand has developed the world's first tonal earphones that are custom-made for your favorite music genre. In 2015, it received the DIAPASON D'OR "Outstanding Product of the Year" Award, the most prestigious award in . Danzo (Danzo Studio Co., Ltd.) Integrating graphic design with out of the box ideas, this brand delivers quality products like dimmable tealights and tabletop landscape organizers. (Danzo Studio Co., Ltd.) Integrating graphic design with out of the box ideas, this brand delivers quality products like dimmable tealights and tabletop landscape organizers. DAQI CONCEPTD (Daqi Concept Inc.) Mixing traditional craft with technology, this brand developed unique items like a decorative birdcage with an ambient light and a Bluetooth stereo. (Daqi Concept Inc.) Mixing traditional craft with technology, this brand developed unique items like a decorative birdcage with an ambient light and a Bluetooth stereo. eye candle (Eye Candle Studio Co., Ltd.) This brand uses unique styles and colors to produce a variety of interesting decorative candles including a realistic French bulldog and goldfish. (Eye Candle Studio Co., Ltd.) This brand uses unique styles and colors to produce a variety of interesting decorative candles including a realistic French bulldog and goldfish. HMM (Kiwico Corp.) Breathing life into everyday products, this brand has created utility products such as a handy pen ruler and a beautiful tabletop glass coffee brewer. It received an honorable mention at the 2015 Red Dot Design Award for its product Rule/One. (Kiwico Corp.) Breathing life into everyday products, this brand has created utility products such as a handy pen ruler and a beautiful tabletop glass coffee brewer. It received an honorable mention at the 2015 Red Dot Design Award for its product Rule/One. PARSEC design studio (Parsec Design Limited Company) As the creator of Treether (tree + leather) a new natural material this brand offers attractive wallets that feature the craftsmanship and warmth of wood, yet are flexible and durable. (Parsec Design Limited Company) As the creator of Treether (tree + leather) a new natural material this brand offers attractive wallets that feature the craftsmanship and warmth of wood, yet are flexible and durable. Shiang Design (Shiang Design) Collaborating with designers and artists, this brand has developed modern desk organizers and stylish tabletop containers. (Shiang Design) Collaborating with designers and artists, this brand has developed modern desk organizers and stylish tabletop containers. Studio yenchenyawen (Yenchenyawen Design Studio) Merging scientific experimentation with a wide range of raw materials, this brand has created products like hand blown glass vases and whimsical LED glass nightlights. (Yenchenyawen Design Studio) Merging scientific experimentation with a wide range of raw materials, this brand has created products like hand blown glass vases and whimsical LED glass nightlights. TreAsia (TreAsia Design Co., Ltd.) With great attention to detail, this brand has created products like full-range phonographic bamboo headphones and a sliding bamboo card case. (TreAsia Design Co., Ltd.) With great attention to detail, this brand has created products like full-range phonographic bamboo headphones and a sliding bamboo card case. Ystudio (Ystudio co.,Ltd.) Observing culture and landscape, this brand creates products that blend in with the world around you, including a modern brass and copper paperweight and chic metal magnet set. For more information on the Fresh Taiwan Pavilion, please visit https://ccimarketing.org.tw/en/. To make an appointment to visit the Fresh Taiwan Pavilion and speak with a representative, please contact Caroline Aponte at [email protected]. Ministry of Culture & the Taiwan Design Center: Since May 2012, the Ministry of Culture has been working to promote various cultural & creative industry development plans from Taiwan across the globe. The group has partnered with the Taiwan Design Center, an integrated platform that works to inspire creativity in Taiwanese designers. Both the MOC and TDC have joined forces to introduce the world to "Designed in Taiwan" products. Taiwan Design Center is a platform that connects Taiwan made design goods with international organizations and promotes Taiwanese design through hosting international events and awards, such as the 2011 IDA Congress, 2016 World Design Capital, and the Golden Pin Design Award. Taiwan Design Center also collaborates closely with the Red Dot Design Award; the internationally renowned Red Dot Design Area is a part of the Taiwan Design Museum. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160805/396066 SOURCE Fresh Taiwan Related Links https://ccimarketing.org.tw/en/ MORRISTOWN, N.J., Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) today filed a petition with the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) for a transmission infrastructure project that will result in a stronger, modernized electrical system benefiting nearly 214,000 customers in Monmouth County. The $111 million Monmouth County Reliability Project (MCRP) uses a New Jersey Transit railroad right-of-way between existing substations in Aberdeen and Red Bank and includes a new 230-kV transmission line, substation enhancements and modern technology upgrades. The petition describes the need for the MCRP, the route selection process, and JCP&L's plans for complying with all regulations and obtaining the necessary permits to protect the health and safety of the public and the environment. It also includes a study conducted by a real estate expert that concludes the project won't impact area property values. The petition is available online for public review, and the BPU will schedule a public hearing to obtain input from interested parties. "At JCP&L, we're committed to delivering the dependable electricity our customers need to power their homes, businesses and communities," said JCP&L President Jim Fakult. "This filing marks the completion of many months of planning, design and engineering analysis and contains additional detailed information about the project." PJM Interconnection, LLC, the organization that coordinates the movement of electricity and oversees transmission reliability across New Jersey and 12 other states, has recommended this project be built. The MCRP will allow JCP&L to comply with federal electric transmission reliability requirements by providing an additional source of electricity to this area of Monmouth County. Following announcement of the proposed project in May of this year, JCP&L conducted a series of public open houses to share information and gather feedback. The company also hosted an informational hotline and launched a website, www.monmouthreliability.com, to provide additional details and answer common questions. Through these channels and its social media platforms, JCP&L has responded to approximately 380 inquiries about the project. The MCRP is part of JCP&L's multi-year "Energizing the Future" transmission system reliability enhancement program. If approved, construction is expected to begin in August 2017, with a planned in-service date of June 2019. In addition to creating approximately 245 temporary jobs, the project is expected to deliver economic benefits of nearly $43 million in compensation, nearly $60 million in gross domestic product and $12.6 million in state and local revenues. JCP&L is a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE). JCP&L serves 1.1 million New Jersey customers in the counties of Burlington, Essex, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Union and Warren. Follow JCP&L on Twitter @JCP_L, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/JCPandL, or online at www.jcp-l.com. Forward-Looking Statements: This news release includes forward-looking statements based on information currently available to management. Such statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties. These statements include declarations regarding management's intents, beliefs and current expectations. These statements typically contain, but are not limited to, the terms "anticipate," "potential," "expect," "forecast," "target," "will," "intend," "believe," "project," "estimate," "plan" and similar words. Forward-looking statements involve estimates, assumptions, known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, which may include the following: the speed and nature of increased competition in the electric utility industry, in general, and the retail sales market in particular; the ability to experience growth in the Regulated Distribution and Regulated Transmission segments; the accomplishment of our regulatory and operational goals in connection with our transmission investment plan, including, but not limited to, the proposed transmission asset transfer to Mid-Atlantic Interstate Transmission, LLC, and the effectiveness of our strategy to reflect a more regulated business profile; changes in assumptions regarding economic conditions within our territories, assessment of the reliability of our transmission system, or the availability of capital or other resources supporting identified transmission investment opportunities; the impact of the regulatory process and resulting outcomes on the matters at the federal level and in the various states in which we do business including, but not limited to, matters related to rates and the Electric Security Plan IV; the impact of the federal regulatory process on Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)-regulated entities and transactions, in particular FERC regulation of wholesale energy and capacity markets, including PJM Interconnection, L.L.C. (PJM) markets and FERC-jurisdictional wholesale transactions; FERC regulation of cost-of-service rates, including FERC Opinion No. 531's revised Return on Equity methodology for FERC-jurisdictional wholesale generation and transmission utility service; and FERC's compliance and enforcement activity, including compliance and enforcement activity related to North American Electric Reliability Corporation's mandatory reliability standards; the uncertainties of various cost recovery and cost allocation issues resulting from American Transmission Systems, Incorporated's realignment into PJM; economic or weather conditions affecting future sales and margins such as a polar vortex or other significant weather events, and all associated regulatory events or actions; changing energy, capacity and commodity market prices including, but not limited to, coal, natural gas and oil prices, and their availability and impact on margins and asset valuations, including without limitation impairments thereon; the risks and uncertainties at the CES segment, including FES, related to continued depressed wholesale energy and capacity markets, including the potential need to deactivate or sell additional generating units; the continued ability of our regulated utilities to recover their costs; costs being higher than anticipated and the success of our policies to control costs and to mitigate low energy, capacity and market prices; other legislative and regulatory changes, and revised environmental requirements, including, but not limited to, the effects of the United States Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan, Coal Combustion Residuals regulations, Cross-State Air Pollution Rule and Mercury and Air Toxics Standards programs, including our estimated costs of compliance, Clean Water Act (CWA) waste water effluent limitations for power plants, and CWA 316(b) water intake regulation; the uncertainty of the timing and amounts of the capital expenditures that may arise in connection with any litigation, including New Source Review litigation, or potential regulatory initiatives or rulemakings (including that such initiatives or rulemakings could result in our decision to deactivate or idle certain generating units); the uncertainties associated with the deactivation of certain older regulated and competitive fossil units, including the impact on vendor commitments, such as long-term fuel and transportation agreements, and as it relates to the reliability of the transmission grid, the timing thereof; the impact of other future changes to the operational status or availability of our generating units and any capacity performance charges associated with unit unavailability; adverse regulatory or legal decisions and outcomes with respect to our nuclear operations (including, but not limited to, the revocation or non-renewal of necessary licenses, approvals or operating permits by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or as a result of the incident at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant); issues arising from the indications of cracking in the shield building at Davis-Besse; the risks and uncertainties associated with litigation, arbitration, mediation and like proceedings, including, but not limited to, any such proceedings related to vendor commitments, such as long-term fuel and transportation agreements; the impact of labor disruptions by our unionized workforce; replacement power costs being higher than anticipated or not fully hedged; the ability to comply with applicable state and federal reliability standards and energy efficiency and peak demand reduction mandates; changes in customers' demand for power, including, but not limited to, changes resulting from the implementation of state and federal energy efficiency and peak demand reduction mandates; the ability to accomplish or realize anticipated benefits from strategic and financial goals, including, but not limited to, the ability to continue to reduce costs and to successfully execute our financial plans designed to improve our credit metrics and strengthen our balance sheet through, among other actions, our cash flow improvement plan and other proposed capital raising initiatives; our ability to improve electric commodity margins and the impact of, among other factors, the increased cost of fuel and fuel transportation on such margins; changing market conditions that could affect the measurement of certain liabilities and the value of assets held in our Nuclear Decommissioning Trusts, pension trusts and other trust funds, and cause us and/or our subsidiaries to make additional contributions sooner, or in amounts that are larger than currently anticipated; the impact of changes to material accounting policies; the ability to access the public securities and other capital and credit markets in accordance with our financial plans, the cost of such capital and overall condition of the capital and credit markets affecting us and our subsidiaries; actions that may be taken by credit rating agencies that could negatively affect us and/or our subsidiaries' access to financing, increase the costs thereof, and increase requirements to post additional collateral to support outstanding commodity positions, letters of credit and other financial guarantees; changes in national and regional economic conditions affecting us, our subsidiaries and/or our major industrial and commercial customers, and other counterparties with which we do business, including fuel suppliers; the impact of any changes in tax laws or regulations or adverse tax audit results or rulings; issues concerning the stability of domestic and foreign financial institutions and counterparties with which we do business; the risks associated with cyber-attacks and other disruptions to our information technology system that may compromise our generation, transmission and/or distribution services and data security breaches of sensitive data, intellectual property and proprietary or personally identifiable information regarding our business, employees, shareholders, customers, suppliers, business partners and other individuals in our data centers and on our networks; and the risks and other factors discussed from time to time in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings, and other similar factors. The foregoing factors should not be construed as exhaustive and should be read in conjunction with the other cautionary statements and risks that are included in our filings with the SEC, including but not limited to the most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and any subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for management to predict all such factors, nor assess the impact of any such factor on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. FirstEnergy expressly disclaims any current intention to update, except as required by law, any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp. Related Links http://www.firstenergycorp.com NEW YORK, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- BizBash C.E.O. and founder David Adler announced today that Kim Romano has joined the company as director of events. She previously was event manager for Penton's The Special Event Conference and Tradeshow. BizBash (BizBash.com) is the leading trade media for event and meeting organizers and event marketers with more than 200,000 monthly users. Romano will be integral to all BizBash events, including expos, conferences, and celebrations. "We are excited to add such a talented new team member to the BizBash family," Adler said when making the announcement. "She has a solid industry background, knows the top players, and comes to us with a solid network of fans." Romano is an experienced event industry veteran and was an integral part of The Special Event Conference and Tradeshow experience. She brings extensive experience and career-long relationships to the BizBash team and is also deeply entrenched in the event industry. She is an executive board member of the SEARCH Foundation and past president of the International Live Events Association (ILEA) Connecticut chapter. ABOUT BIZBASH In the dynamic live gathering industry, BizBash is the largest media source for both event pros and "hidden planners" with more than 200,000 monthly users. Live gatherings serviced by the BizBash suite of products include: exhibitions, conferences and meetings, training and learning, marketing and PR, fund-raising and galas, celebrations and weddings, incentive and travel, and government and ceremonial. SOURCE BizBash ATLANTA, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- LaaSer Critical Communications (http://www.laaser911.com/), developer of innovative location technology for emergency services, has entered into a strategic alliance with West. The alliance explores how the two companies can work together to empower superior location determination and call routing for the entire 9-1-1 ecosystem with no need to install new infrastructure. "LaaSer and West offer best-of-breed public safety technologies for the modern age, when emergency callers are increasingly calling 9-1-1 from mobile phones," says LaaSer CEO Fred White. "Together, we will help ensure that 9-1-1 calls go to the appropriate PSAP and provide that PSAP with the best possible information about the caller's location. Ultimately, LaaSer and West aim to solve a clear and present public safety issue and improve emergency response for all Americans." "As a market leader in E9-1-1, West is actively involved in understanding how new technology and operational approaches can further improve the nation's emergency service infrastructure," said John Kearney, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Mobility Solutions in West's Safety Services Division. "As such, we continue to work with key technology innovators like LaaSer to demonstrate the viability of new solutions." LaaSer is pleased to be joining West at APCO 2016 in Orlando from August 1516. Representatives of LaaSer will be in the Location Services section of the West booth to discuss how the company's patented solution quickly provides accurate location data through the existing 9-1-1 infrastructure. About LaaSer Critical Communications, LLC LaaSer Critical Communications, a Techstars company, is dedicated to solving the problems associated with calling 911 from mobile devices. LaaSer has created patented technology that pinpoints a 911 caller's location, using any mobile device, efficiently routes them to the appropriate 911 call center, and provides the 911 operator with precise location information. LaaSer's technology requires no upgrades on the part of 911 call centers or network operators. Contact: Jon Harmer, CMO 844-494-9111 Email SOURCE LaaSer Critical Communications, LLC Related Links http://www.laaser911.com WASHINGTON, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A lawsuit filed Monday in the D.C. federal district court challenges U.S. foreign aid to Israel. IRmep's Center for Policy and Law is holding a conference call briefing about the lawsuit August 11 at 10AM EST. Register online to receive the conference call phone number, access code and briefing materials at: http://IRmep.org/AidLawsuit.htm Registration closes 9PM on August 10. The U.S. is finalizing a ten-year memorandum of understanding which will reportedly boost aid to $4-5 billion per year. The director of the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy (IRmep) in the suit challenges the authority of the president and U.S. federal agencies to deliver such foreign aid to Israel. Such aid violates longstanding bans on aid to non-signatories to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) with nuclear weapons programs. Since the bans went into effect U.S. foreign aid to Israel is estimated to be $234 billion. The lawsuit reveals how in the mid-1970s during investigations into the illegal diversion of weapons-grade uranium from U.S. contractor NUMEC to Israel, Senators Stuart Symington and John Glenn amended the 1961 Foreign Assistance Act to ban any aid to clandestine nuclear powers that were not NPT signatories. Symington clarified the legislative intent of the amendments: "...if you wish to take the dangerous and costly steps necessary to achieve a nuclear weapons option, you cannot expect the United States to help underwrite that effort indirectly or directly." The Obama administration follows precedents established since the Ford administration by ignoring internal agency and public domain information that should trigger Symington & Glenn cutoffs and waiver provisions governing foreign aid. The administration has gone further in criminalizing the flow of such information from the federal government to the public. In 2012 the Department of Energy under U.S. State Department authority passed a secret gag law called "Guidance on Release of Information relating to the Potential for an Israeli Nuclear Capability." The gag law and related measures promote a "nuclear ambiguity" policy toward Israel. The primary purpose of the gag law is to unlawfully subvert Symington & Glenn arms export controls, the suit alleges. IRmep won unprecedented release of a Pentagon report about Israel's nuclear weapons program through a 2014 lawsuit. A 2015 IRmep lawsuit dislodged CIA files about the NUMEC diversion. IRmep is a Washington, DC-based nonprofit researching U.S. Middle East policy formulation. SOURCE Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy Related Links http://www.irmep.org "It's not a total surprise that children value relationships more than anything else, but seeing such an overwhelming amount of them put this first is a great reminder of who we need to be as adults and role models," said Steve Gross, Chief Playmaker for Life is Good. "As a clinical social worker for over 20 years, I have witnessed children struggle immensely when they lack healthy attachment relationships. When children are rooted in a foundation of love and care, they are far more capable of using social, emotional and cognitive skills that allow them to feel safe, focus on the good, and embrace all life has to offer." The contest, which ran from March 24-April 29, 2016, encouraged kids to hand draw what makes life good for them with a majority submitting by mail. For every entry received, Life is Good donated $1 to help kids in need. Also revealed today were three children's drawings selected by the Life is Good team to be made into Life is Good's first-ever Kids Art Collection. One hundred percent of the net profits of this collection will support the work of the Life is Good Kids Foundation, which partners with leading childcare organizations to positively impact the quality of care delivered to our nation's most vulnerable children. The final three artists also received a $2,000 college scholarship. The thousands of art submissions will live on as a traveling art exhibit at public outdoor spaces starting in Boston this fall. Additionally, the art will be turned into an interactive digital art display featured at some of the children's hospitals that partner with the Life is Good Kids Foundation. "It was incredibly inspiring to see life through children's eyes," said John Jacobs Chief Creative Optimist & Life is Good co-founder. "Life isn't easy, but we have the choice to approach it with optimism and to help make it good with great relationships and love. We are excited to share the artwork and inspiration with others." To shop the winning designs and see all of the entries, please visit: Lifeisgood.com/DrawingInspiration ABOUT THE LIFE IS GOOD COMPANY The Life is Good Company is a $100 million lifestyle brand dedicated to spreading the power of optimism. The company donates 10 percent of its net profits to help kids in need. To date, the company has donated over $11 million, principally through Life is Good products, events and community fundraising efforts. Life is Good is a registered trademark of The Life is Good Company. Please visit LifeisGood.com for more details and follow Life is Good on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. ABOUT LIFE IS GOOD KIDS FOUNDATION The Life is Good Kids Foundation is an accredited 501(c)(3) that partners with organizations serving the most vulnerable children to improve the quality of their care. The Foundation's Playmaker program connects with schools, hospitals, camps, and a variety of social service agencies to give childcare professionals the resources they need to make a positive, life-changing impact at a pivotal time in a child's development. For more information please visit LifeisGood.com. MEDIA CONTACT Marci Mollins [email protected] (310) 935-3883 Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160808/396603 SOURCE Life is Good Company Related Links http://www.lifeisgood.com SAN DIEGO, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Mast Therapeutics, Inc. (NYSE MKT: MSTX), a biopharmaceutical company developing novel, clinical-stage therapies for sickle cell disease and heart failure, today reported financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2016. "We continued to advance our assets toward valuable inflection points during the second quarter. Announcing top-line data from the EPIC study continues to be our top priority. With 388 subjects randomized at study sites around the globe, EPIC was the largest placebo-controlled study in sickle cell disease ever concluded and we look forward to announcing results next month. To support our NDA for vepoloxamer, we also continue to enroll patients in EPIC-E, our repeat exposure study for EPIC patients, and in a clinical pharmacokinetics study of vepoloxamer in individuals with varying degrees of renal insufficiency," stated Brian M. Culley, Chief Executive Officer. "In addition, clinical development of AIR001 in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction is progressing through multiple Phase 2 studies. In particular, we are pleased that the first patient was dosed in the 100-patient Phase 2 study being conducted by the Heart Failure Clinical Research Network," continued Mr. Culley. Second Quarter 2016 Operating Results The Company's net loss for the second quarter of 2016 was $10.7 million, or $0.05 per share (basic and diluted), compared to a net loss of $10.2 million, or $0.06 per share (basic and diluted), for the same period in 2015. Research and development (R&D) expenses for the second quarter of 2016 were $7.8 million, compared to $7.7 million for the same period in 2015. Increases of $0.5 million in external clinical study fees and expenses and $0.1 million in share-based compensation expense were offset by a $0.5 million decrease in external nonclinical study fees and expenses. The increase in external clinical study fees and expenses was due primarily to increased costs related to the Company's Phase 2 study of vepoloxamer in heart failure ($0.7 million) and the Phase 2 studies of AIR001 in HFpEF ($0.4 million), offset by decreases in costs for the EPIC study ($0.4 million) and the Phase 2 study of vepoloxamer in acute limb ischemia, which the Company began to wind-down in the third quarter of 2015 ($0.2 million). The decrease in external nonclinical study fees and expenses was due primarily to decreases in research-related manufacturing costs for vepoloxamer ($1.2 million) and nonclinical studies of vepoloxamer ($0.4 million), offset by increased costs related to preparing a new drug application for vepoloxamer ($0.9 million) and research-related manufacturing for AIR001 ($0.2 million). Selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses were $2.4 million in each of the second quarter of 2016 and the second quarter of 2015. Interest expense for the second quarter of 2016 was $512,000, $511,000 of which was related to the Company's debt facility. There was interest expense of $1,000 for the second quarter of 2015. Year-to-Date Financial Results The Company's net loss for the six months ended June 30, 2016 was $21.9 million, or $0.12 per share (basic and diluted), compared to a net loss of $19.8 million, or $0.12 per share (basic and diluted), for the same period in 2015. R&D expenses for the six months ended June 30, 2016 were $15.6 million, an increase of $1.8 million, or 13%, compared to $13.8 million for the same period in 2015. The increase was due primarily to increases of $1.0 million in external clinical study fees and expenses, $0.4 million in external nonclinical study fees and expenses, $0.2 million in personnel expenses and $0.2 million in share-based compensation. The $1.0 million increase in external clinical study fees and expenses was due primarily to increases in costs for our Phase 2 study of vepoloxamer in heart failure ($1.2 million) and the Phase 2 studies of AIR001 in HFpEF ($0.4 million), offset by a decrease in costs for the Phase 2 study of vepoloxamer in ALI ($0.5 million). The $0.4 million increase in external nonclinical study fees and expenses was due primarily to increases in costs related to preparing a new drug application for vepoloxamer ($1.4 million) and research-related manufacturing for AIR001 ($0.2 million), offset by decreases in research-related manufacturing costs for vepoloxamer ($0.8 million) and costs for nonclinical studies of vepoloxamer ($0.3 million). SG&A expenses for the six months ended June 30, 2016 were $5.3 million, a decrease of $0.7 million, or 12%, compared to $6.0 million for the same period in 2015. SG&A expenses for the first six months of 2015 included $0.4 million of severance expenses and $0.3 million of share-based compensation resulting from the termination of employment of the Company's former president and chief operating officer in February 2015 and the acceleration of stock option vesting pursuant to the terms of his option agreements. Interest expense for the six months ended June 30, 2016 was $1,031,000, $1,029,000 of which was related to the Company's debt facility. There was interest expense of $1,000 for the same period of 2015. About Mast Therapeutics Mast Therapeutics, Inc. is a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company headquartered in San Diego, California. The Company is developing two clinical-stage investigational new drugs for serious or life-threatening diseases and conditions. Vepoloxamer, the Company's lead product candidate, is in Phase 3 clinical development for the treatment of vaso-occlusive crisis in patients with sickle cell disease and in Phase 2 clinical development for the treatment of patients with heart failure. Enrollment in the Company's 388-patient Phase 3 study of vepoloxamer in patients with sickle cell disease, known as the EPIC study, was completed earlier this year. Enrollment in the Company's Phase 2 study of vepoloxamer in patients with chronic heart failure is ongoing. AIR001, the Company's second product candidate, is in Phase 2 clinical development for the treatment of patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). Enrollment in Phase 2 studies of AIR001 in patients with HFpEF are ongoing, including a 100-patient, multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, Phase 2 study in patients with HFpEF being conducted by the Heart Failure Clinical Research Network. More information can be found on the Company's web site at www.masttherapeutics.com. (Twitter: @MastThera) Mast Therapeutics and the corporate logo are trademarks of Mast Therapeutics, Inc. Forward Looking Statements Mast Therapeutics cautions you that statements included in this press release that are not a description of historical facts are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that are based on the Company's current expectations and assumptions. Such forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as "expect," "intend," "plan," "anticipate," "believe," among others, and include, but are not limited to, statements relating to prospects for successful development and commercialization of the Company's product candidates, including vepoloxamer for the treatment of vaso-occlusive crisis of sickle cell disease, and anticipated timing of achievement of development milestones, such as completion of clinical studies and announcement of study data. There are a number of factors that could cause or contribute to material differences between actual events or results and the expectations indicated by the forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to: the inherent uncertainty of outcomes in ongoing and future studies of the Company's product candidates and the risk that vepoloxamer may not demonstrate adequate safety, efficacy or tolerability in one or more such studies, including the Phase 3 "EPIC" study; the potential for additional delays in EPIC study closeout procedures, including blinded data validation and quality control and assurance procedures; risks associated with the Company's ability to manage operating expenses and obtain additional capital as needed; the Company's potential inability to continue as a going concern if it does not raise sufficient additional capital as needed; the risk that the Company may be required to repay its outstanding debt obligations on an accelerated basis and/or at a time that could be detrimental to its financial condition, operations and/or business strategy, including the prepayment of $10 million of the principal balance of its debt facility if results from the EPIC study are not positive and/or not available on or before October 14, 2016; the potential for the Company to significantly delay, reduce or discontinue current and/or planned development and commercial-readiness activities or sell or license its assets at inopportune times if it is unable to raise sufficient additional capital as needed; the risk that, even if EPIC study results are positive, the FDA may require a second Phase 3 study or other clinical or nonclinical studies to demonstrate substantial evidence of vepoloxamer's effectiveness for sickle cell patients or to provide additional safety and tolerability data or that the FDA may require changes to manufacturing controls or processes that could delay filing of a new drug application; delays in the commencement or completion of clinical studies, including as a result of difficulties in obtaining regulatory agency agreement on clinical development plans or clinical study design, opening trial sites, enrolling study subjects, manufacturing sufficient quantities of clinical trial material, being subject to a "clinical hold," and/or suspension or termination of a clinical study, including due to patient safety concerns or lack of funding; the potential that, even if clinical studies of a product candidate in one indication are successful, clinical studies in another indication may not be successful; the Company's dependence on third parties to assist with important aspects of development of its product candidates, including conduct of its clinical studies and supply and manufacture of clinical trial material, and, if approved, commercial product, and the risk that such third parties may fail to perform as expected, leading to delays in product candidate development or approval or inability to meet market demand for approved products, if any; the risk that, even if the Company successfully develops a product candidate in one or more indications, it may not realize commercial success and may never achieve profitability; the risk that the Company is not able to obtain and maintain effective patent coverage or other market exclusivity protections for its products, if approved, without infringing the proprietary rights of others; and other risks and uncertainties more fully described in the Company's press releases and periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company's public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission are available at www.sec.gov. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date when made. Mast Therapeutics does not intend to revise or update any forward-looking statement set forth in this press release to reflect events or circumstances arising after the date hereof, except as may be required by law. [Tables to Follow] Mast Therapeutics, Inc. Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations (In thousands, except per share data) Three months ended June 30, (Unaudited) Six months ended June 30, (Unaudited) 2016 2015 2016 2015 Total net revenue $ $ Operating expenses: Research and development 7,752 7,734 15,627 13,776 Selling, general and administrative 2,439 2,410 5,274 5,988 Depreciation and amortization 30 37 61 67 Total operating expenses 10,221 10,181 20,962 19,831 Loss from operations (10,221) (10,181) (20,962) (19,831) Interest and other (expense)/income, net (485) 30 (951) 64 Net loss $ (10,706) $ (10,151) $ (21,913) $ (19,767) Net loss per share basic and diluted $ (0.05) $ (0.06) $ (0.12) $ (0.12) Weighted average shares basic and diluted 196,554 162,128 187,335 160,801 Mast Therapeutics, Inc. Balance Sheet Data (In thousands) June 30, December 31, 2016 2015 Cash, cash equivalents and investment securities $ 35,072 $ 40,981 Working capital 10,455 19,079 Total assets 47,676 54,217 Total liabilities 31,250 30,328 Stockholders' equity 16,426 23,889 Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120612/LA22456LOGO-a SOURCE Mast Therapeutics, Inc. Related Links http://masttherapeutics.com ATLANTA, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- McAlister's Deli, a leading fast casual restaurant chain known for its Famous Sweet Tea and recently ranked as one of consumers' favorite chains by Restaurant Business, today announced it is looking for new partnerships with experienced multi-unit franchise owners as the brand continues its expansion into Pennsylvania. "Pennsylvania represents an important part of McAlister's growth strategy and we're excited about the brand's continued expansion into the region," said Jeff Sturgis, McAlister's Vice President of Franchise Development. "The McAlister's Deli brand has become a top choice for some of the most successful multi-unit franchise owners in the country, so we're excited to watch the brand grow in these areas due in large part to the talent of our franchisees." As the company looks to open additional locations in the area, they are actively seeking qualified franchisees to develop in the areas in and around Pittsburgh and Erie. Currently, McAlister's has one location in the state of Pennsylvania on the Pennsylvania State University campus. "The Pittsburgh and Erie markets are directly in the path of our existing growth with our recent and future opening in Ohio, and Western New York, specifically, Buffalo and Rochester. These openings have increased the awareness of McAlister's in these markets and the time is right to seek additional expansion in this region," said Sturgis. McAlister's had a successful year of franchise growth in 2015 with $548 million in system-wide sales, the opening of 27 new restaurants some in new markets, including Chicago, Rochester, and Orlando and nearly 60 commitments for new restaurants. This growth is fueled by both existing franchisees as well as new partnerships with experienced multi-unit franchise owners with notable portfolios. McAlister's currently operates more than 361 franchised locations in the U.S., across 28 states. The company has attracted a record number of franchise inquiries in recent years due to its quality leadership, healthy sales to investment ratio, and exceptional company performance. To learn more about franchising opportunities with McAlister's, please contact (888) 855-DELI (3354) or [email protected], or visit www.mcalistersdelifranchise.com. About McAlister's Founded in 1989, McAlister's Deli is a fast casual restaurant chain known for its sandwiches, spuds, soups, salads, desserts and McAlister's Famous Sweet Tea. In addition to dine-in and take-out service, McAlister's also offers catering with a selection of sandwich trays, box lunches, desserts, a hot spud bar and more. With numerous industry accolades, the McAlister's brand has more than 361 restaurants in 28 states. The company is headquartered in Atlanta, Ga. For more information, visit www.mcalistersdeli.com. About FOCUS Brands Inc. Atlanta-based FOCUS Brands Inc., through its affiliate brands, is the franchisor and operator of more than 5,000 ice cream shoppes, bakeries, restaurants, and cafes in the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and 60 foreign countries under the brand names Carvel, Cinnabon, Schlotzsky's, Moe's Southwest Grill, Auntie Anne's and McAlister's Deli, as well as Seattle's Best Coffee on certain military bases and in certain international markets. Please visit www.focusbrands.com to learn more. SOURCE McAlisters Deli Related Links http://www.mcalistersdeli.com With more than 30 years of occupational health and safety experience, Wright has held positions as a Regional Clinical Manager at caregiver equipment manufacturer ArjoHuntleigh, Safety and Health Manager at Austin Quality Foods and Occupational Health and Safety Specialist at Wausau Insurance Companies before joining MEMIC. Wright graduated with a master's degree in Public Health with a concentration in occupational health nursing from the University of North Carolina and a bachelor's degree in Nursing from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She has earned her Certified Safe Patient Handling Professional (CSPHP) and Certified Occupational Health Nurse Specialist (COHN-S) designations. With 10 years of experience as a safety specialist, LaCross has held positions as a Safety and Regulatory Compliance Manager at Middlebury College and Environmental Health and Safety Coordinator at Pike Industries, Inc. before joining MEMIC. LaCross graduated with a bachelor's degree in Occupational Health and Safety from Keene State College in New Hampshire. Natalie Campaneria brings more than 25 years of medical and ergonomics experience as a Physical Therapist to MEMIC. In her prior role, she founded the ergonomics department for a regional healthcare system with the goal of reducing repetitive strain injuries in the workforce. Campaneria has taught occupational rehabilitation and ergonomics for the Physical Therapy program at Florida International University. Additionally, she has presented at the National Safe Patient Handling and Mobility Conference, as well as the NIOSH Total Worker Health Conference. Campaneria earned a Bachelor of Science in Physical Therapy from Florida International University and she is currently enrolled in the Masters of Public Health program at the University of New England. Debra Willard Webb has more than 20 years of healthcare experience with 10 years as a Certified Occupational Health Nurse-Specialist with a focus on safety (COHN-S). She is certified by the Council for Accreditation in Occupational Hearing Conservation (CAOHC) and by NIOSH in spirometry. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Maine and a Master of Science in Nursing Administration from the University of Massachusetts. About MEMIC The MEMIC Group includes MEMIC Indemnity Company, MEMIC Casualty Company, and parent company Maine Employers' Mutual Insurance Company; all rated "A" (Excellent) by A.M. Best. As a super-regional workers' compensation specialty insurer, The MEMIC Group holds licenses to write workers' compensation in 46 states plus the District of Columbia. The group insures more than 20,000 employers and their estimated 300,000 employees, and holds more than $1 billion in assets. The MEMIC Group wrote more than $300 million in workers' compensation premium in 2015 and has grown by 30% in territories outside of its home state of Maine each of the last three years. The group maintains offices in Manchester, NH; Glastonbury, CT; Albany, NY; Weehawken, NJ; West Conshohocken, PA; Tysons Corner, VA; and Tampa, FL; in addition to its headquarters in Portland, ME. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160809/396749 Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20141021/153512LOGO SOURCE MEMIC Related Links http://www.memic.com SYRACUSE, N.Y., Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- For one family, the realization of different forms of communication came in 2000 with the birth of their third son. Graham Tresness, a nonverbal communicator with Cerebral Palsy is the son of Gregory Alan Tresness and Barbara Huntress Tresness based in Central NY. While, the Tresness family searched long and hard for a way to communicate with their son, it would take years to find an answer. The first part of that answer came during their first trip to the Bahamas for the Upledger Institute's Dolphin Assisted Therapy Program. Barbara Huntress Tresness with dolphin as she inspires others in her journey to pay it forward According to Barb, "During the first trip we took to the Bahamas in 2004 to work with the dolphins, our lives changed." Since 2004, the Tresness family has been on quite a journey. Barbara has become an author, disability advocate, Craniosacral Therapist, and founder of CHAT Collective. Graham the youngest child serves as the inspiration behind this work as they help the world better understand communication challenges. Barbara's memoir, "Beyond a Charmed Life: A Mother's Unconditional Love" was featured on Amazon in the 100 Best Sellers for Special Needs & Parenting and highlighted at the 2016 American Library Association Conference. It is available for purchase through Amazon, Barnes and Noble in print or ebook format. Reader comments include: "From heavy to humor, this story is beyond real. Tresness invites you to laugh, cry, but mostly to find hope, love, and joy for yourself." Barbara has also written a guidebook on the communication challenges of our world: "Everyone Communicates: Learn How to Talk to Me!" The guidebook to communicating and socializing with Non Verbal and Limited Communicators. For Barbara, her greatest joy comes in giving back to a program that provided hope when nothing else could. In an effort to make a difference in a child's life and pay acts of kindness forward, the Graham Fund was created with the intention of providing funds for children who might not otherwise be able to attend the Dolphin Assisted Therapy Program. "It is my wish to help children in the hope that others will experience what we did- a journey of healing and hope," shares Barb. In 2015, Barbara had the honor of awarding a scholarship fund to one of her first clients. In August 2016, that family will travel with Barbara to take place in the Dolphin Assisted Therapy Program in the Bahamas. To help continue the mission, consider donating to the Graham Fund through the Dr. John E. Upledger Foundation. Connect with Barbara Huntress Tresness, visit CHAT Collective or on Facebook. Recent Media highlighting Barbara's journey can be found at Syracuse Woman Magazine and WCNY Cycle of Health. About Barbara Huntress Tresness Her son Graham serves as inspiration for all her writings. She received a B.A. from University of Vermont, and currently lives with her husband and three sons in Manlius, NY, Connect with Barbara Huntress Tresness, visit CHAT Collective Media Contact: Laura Ponticello, [email protected] Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160803/395380 SOURCE Divine Phoenix Books Related Links http://barbarahuntresstresness.com SAN DIEGO, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Shareholder rights law firm Johnson & Weaver, LLP has launched an investigation into whether the board members of Monster Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE: MWW) breached their fiduciary duties in connection with the proposed sale of the Company to Randstad Holding. Monster provides online and mobile employment and recruitment solutions worldwide. On August 9, 2016, Monster announced it had signed a definitive merger agreement with Randstad. Under the terms of the agreement, Monster stockholders will receive $3.40 a share in cash. The investigation concerns whether the Monster board failed to satisfy their duties to the Company shareholders, including whether the board adequately pursued alternatives to the acquisition and whether the board obtained the best price possible for Monster shares of common stock. Nationally recognized Johnson & Weaver is investigating whether the proposed deal price represents adequate consideration, especially given one Wall Street analyst has a $7.50 price target on the stock. Monster's 52 week high was $8.23. If you are a shareholder of Monster and believe the proposed buyout price is too low or you're interested in learning more about the investigation or your legal rights and remedies, please contact lead analyst Jim Baker ([email protected]) at 619-814-4471. If emailing, please include a phone number where you can be reached. About Johnson & Weaver, LLP: Johnson & Weaver, LLP is a nationally recognized shareholder rights law firm with offices in California, New York and Georgia. The firm represents individual and institutional investors in shareholder derivative and securities class action lawsuits. For more information about the firm and its attorneys, please visit http://www.johnsonandweaver.com. Attorney advertising. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. Contact: Johnson & Weaver, LLP Jim Baker, 619-814-4471 [email protected] Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160211/332409LOGO SOURCE Johnson & Weaver, LLP Related Links http://johnsonandweaver.com ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 8, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Over the past several months, there has been a coordinated effort on the part of obligated parties to encourage policymakers to shift the point of obligation under the RFS from refiners and importers to "rack sellers." NATSO's Vice President of Government Affairs David Fialkov issued the following statement on these efforts: "Refiners and importers are obligated parties under the RFS to ensure that renewable fuels are integrated into the nation's fuel supply. The current policy creates a strong incentive for fuel marketers to blend renewable fuels into the fuel supply while lowering the price at the pump for consumers. Changing the point of obligation would have the opposite effect of discouraging fuel marketers from integrating renewable fuels into the fuel supply while simultaneously raising prices at the pump. It's important to remember that the entities seeking to shift the RIN compliance burden away from the refiners have spent considerable resources in recent years to repeal the RFS. Now, suddenly, they claim to have discovered the secret to making it more effective. Their claims today that they have identified an effective way to improve the efficiency and functionality of the program should be greeted with suspicion. In a recent petition to EPA to change the point of obligation, Valero Energy Corp. ominously warns EPA to 'pay careful attention to the motives of any opponents of the change; none are motivated to improve the efficiency and power of the RFS to promote renewable fuel.' In reality, those who oppose changing the point of obligation, including NATSO, are all motivated by the desire for an effective, efficient RFS. The renewable fuels groups representing renewable fuels producers also oppose the change. It would indeed be surprising if these groups are motivated by anything other than 'improving the efficiency and power of the RFS to promote renewable fuel.' In July NATSO filed comments with EPA detailing how fuel marketers, including NATSO members, prefer the current point of obligation because it results in a more diverse source of supply from which they can acquire product and then sell it to their customers. The fact that some marketers have made money by buying and blending renewable fuel into the fuel supply demonstrates that the RFS is working, not failing. The RFS was designed to create financial incentives for private actors to engage in behavior that policymakers have determined is beneficial for society at large. It has done this, and should be allowed to continue doing this." NATSO is the professional association of America's travel plaza and truckstop industry. Founded in 1960, NATSO represents the industry on legislative and regulatory matters; serves as the official source of information on the diverse travel plaza and truckstop industry; provides education to its members; conducts an annual convention and trade show; and supports efforts to generally improve the business climate in which its members operate. CONTACT: Tiffany Wlazlowski Neuman Phone: (703) 739-8578 E-mail: twlazlow[email protected] SOURCE NATSO, Inc. Related Links http://www.natso.com/ COLUMBUS, Ohio, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Navigator Management Partners ('Navigator', navmp.com), a management and technology consulting firm, today announced that it has become a Workday Services Partner. Workday (NYSE: WDAY) is a leading provider of enterprise cloud applications for finance and human resources. As a Workday Services Partner, Navigator will help education and government customers deploy Workday Financial Management and Workday Human Capital Management (HCM). Workday Financial Management and Workday HCM support a complete range of financial and people-based processes that provide clients with real-time operational visibility along with the speed and agility to adapt to business growth and change. With its deep expertise in helping education institutions and government agencies maximize their technology investments, Navigator understands the unique challenges these organizations face. Through this expanded partnership with Workday, which is a critical part of Navigator's expanding cloud-based strategy, Navigator is well-positioned to help education and government customers more effectively manage their most important assets their finances and people. "We're excited to help our customers transition to Workday because it will help transform the way they do business," said John Hrusovsky, executive vice president and chief client officer, Navigator Management Partners. "With this partnership, we are able to help clients leverage mobile and cloud technologies to maximize workforce effectiveness and provide leading applications designed to support future growth." Additionally, Navigator is an upcoming sponsor of Workday Rising, Workday's annual gathering of customers, prospective customers, partners, and employees that collaborate and learn how Workday helps organizations achieve their growth objectives and prepare for the future. Workday Rising is being held September 26-29, 2016 in Chicago. About Navigator Management Partners Navigator Management Partners is a management and technology consulting firm that was formed to advise clients on solving tough business challenges in ways that improve operational performance and drive sustainable results. When you hire us, you work alongside individuals who are leaders in their areas of expertise and are consistently requested by name by our clients. The majority of our work comes from repeat business and exceptional references, keeping our client satisfaction rate consistently above 98%. With years of experience in Strategy, Program / Project Management, Organizational Change Management, Business Intelligence, Business Analysis and Process Design, Testing and Deployment, Technical Architecture, and Software Solution Selection, including cutting-edge, cloud-based solutions, our team helps simplify the complexities of business and technology change, delivering the greatest business value. Navigator services clients nationally through its regional centers with offices in Columbus, OH (Headquarters), Baltimore, MD, Atlanta, GA, Phoenix, AZ, and Cleveland, OH. Learn more at navmp.com. Contact Navigator Management Partners John Hrusovsky, (614) 309-5797 [email protected] SOURCE Navigator Management Partners Related Links http://www.navmp.com NEW YORK, Aug. 8, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Trump Super PAC Get Our Jobs Back Inc. CEO Steven Hoffenberg, announced today that the 1993 New York Post newspaper take over contract will now be enforced by the 200,000 Towers Financial Corp. restitution victims against Rupert Murdoch. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160808/396463 Get Our Jobs Back In 1993, the 200,000 Towers Financial Corp. restitution victims did work with Rupert Murdoch in the takeover by Towers of the New York Post newspaper that went into bankruptcy blocking the Rupert Murdoch's purchase of the New York Post for owning too many media outlets in New York City. The 200,000 Towers restitution victims now demand the control of the New York Post newspaper based on the 1993 contract with Rupert Murdoch. No time restrictions apply to restitution Towers victims demand for ownership of the New York Post newspaper under well-settled law. "Towers victims will now once again take control of the New York Post newspaper," stated the Trump Super PAC CEO Steven Hoffenberg. "The Towers restitution 200,000 victims did file legal notice on August 8, 2016 on the New York Post newspaper and the law firm for the New York Post who did litigate with Mr. Hoffenberg in the New York City federal court house in 2014," added Hoffenberg. Mr. Hoffenberg said the 2014 New York City federal court house lawsuit filed by Rupert Murdoch failed to include the 200,000 Towers Financial Corp. restitution victims who now demand the ownership of the New York Post newspaper. The Towers victims will reduce the New York Post newspaper cost to .25 cents once again and .25 cents will be the new cost for the New York Post newspaper. For further details please contact: Trump Super PAC CEO Steven Hoffenberg CEO/Get Our Jobs Back Inc. Website: http://getourjobsbackinc.com CEO/Towers Investors.com Website: http://towersinvestors.com/ 235 E. 40 Street Pent House E. New York, NY 10016 Ph: 267-319-4420 Email SOURCE Get Our Jobs Back Inc. Related Links http://www.getourjobsbackinc.com WALLDORF, Germany, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced that human resources (HR) technology leader Kerry Sain will join the SAP SuccessFactors* executive leadership team as its chief revenue officer (CRO). In this new role, Sain will be responsible for expanding market demand for SAP SuccessFactors HR cloud solutions and the strategy for achieving its quarterly revenue goals. Sain will report to Mike Ettling, president of SAP SuccessFactors, and will take over leadership of the go-to-market (GTM) segments of the business. Sain brings over 25 years of experience in sales, benefits outsourcing, healthcare exchanges, retirement services and consulting. She was most recently CEO and president at bswift, an innovator in cloud-based benefits enrollment technology and subsidiary of Aetna. Sain introduced the "Tech-Enabled Choice" program while CEO to help clients and partners meet their strategic business goals, and to manage the healthcare cost curve through consumerism, decision support, wellness programs and active steerage of their employees. She was also formerly senior partner and global head of sales and marketing at Mercer, and has held senior-level sales and client service positions at Wachovia Bank, AllianceBernstein, Prudential Retirement Services, Strong Funds and Firstar Bank. "Kerry brings a history of execution at an exciting time in our business when our future growth is near limitless," said Ettling. For more information, visit the SAP SuccessFactors website. Follow SAP SuccessFactors solutions on Twitter at @SuccessFactors and SAP at @sapnews. Media Contact: Geraldine Lim, SAP, +1 (415) 418-0945, [email protected], PT *SAP SuccessFactors is a new brand name launched in January 2016 and is used here to mean the offerings, employees, and business of acquired company SuccessFactors, which continues to be our legal entity until integration with SAP is complete. Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "intend," "may," "plan," "project," "predict," "should" and "will" and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The factors that could affect SAP's future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including SAP's most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates. 2016 SAP SE. All rights reserved. SAP and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE in Germany and other countries. Please see http://www.sap.com/corporate-en/legal/copyright/index.epx#trademark for additional trademark information and notices. All other product and services names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110126/AQ34470LOGO SOURCE SAP SE Related Links http://www.sap.com NASHVILLE, Tenn., Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Kicking off its second decade of partnership with Habitat for Humanity, Nissan North America today announced a $1 million grant to help build more homes with families in need of decent, affordable housing. Nissan's cash contributions to Habitat for Humanity in North America total more than $14 million over the past 11 years. "Nissan values its partnership with Habitat for Humanity because it delivers strong results each year in building sustainable communities in the areas where our employees live and work," said Nissan Vice President Rebecca Vest. "Our employees look forward to working alongside future homeowners, and their experiences affirm our corporate mission to enrich people's lives." Portions of Nissan's contribution will be used to expand Habitat's vehicle fleet, which supports disaster recovery efforts. The largest portion will go toward the cost of building homes in areas of the country where Nissan has an operational presence. Nissan employees will volunteer to support construction or revitalization projects in 12 Habitat communities this year, including: Habitat for Humanity of Central Arizona in Phoenix, Arizona in Habitat for Humanity East Bay/Silicon Valley in Sunnyvale, California Northwest Metro Atlanta Habitat for Humanity in Atlanta, Georgia Fox Valley Habitat for Humanity, in Aurora, Illinois Habitat for Humanity of Oakland County in Detroit, Michigan in Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver in Denver , Colorado , Colorado Habitat for Humanity Mississippi Capital Area in Canton, Mississippi Habitat for Humanity of Greater Toronto in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in Habitat for Humanity of Greater Nashville in Nashville, Tennessee in Habitat for Humanity Williamson-Maury in Franklin, Tennessee Rutherford County Habitat for Humanity in Murfreesboro, Tennessee Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity in Dallas, Texas "We thank Nissan for continuing to give back to communities across the country," said Jonathan Reckford, CEO of Habitat for Humanity International. "We are grateful for their long-term support and commitment to help families build strength, stability and self-reliance." Nissan's partnership with Habitat began in 2005 when it donated 50 trucks and mobilized employees to assist in home building following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the Gulf Coast region. In the last decade, Nissan has donated an additional 88 vehicles. Since 2006, Nissan's employees have logged more than 80,000 volunteer hours with Habitat for Humanity, building 71 homes across the U.S. About Nissan North America In North America, Nissan's operations include automotive styling, engineering, consumer and corporate financing, sales and marketing, distribution and manufacturing. Nissan is dedicated to improving the environment under the Nissan Green Program and has been recognized annually by the U.S Environmental Protection Agency as an ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year since 2010. More information on Nissan in North America and the complete line of Nissan and Infiniti vehicles can be found online at www.NissanUSA.com and www.InfinitiUSA.com, or visit the U.S. media sites NissanNews.com and InfinitiNews.com. About Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., Japan's second-largest automotive company, is headquartered in Yokohama, Japan, and is part of the Renault-Nissan Alliance. Operating with more than 247,500 employees globally, Nissan sold 5.32 million vehicles and generated revenue of 11.38 trillion yen (USD 103.6 billion) in fiscal year 2014. Nissan delivers a comprehensive range of more than 60 models under the Nissan, Infiniti and Datsun brands. Nissan leads the world in zero-emission mobility, dominated by sales of the LEAF, the first mass-market, pure-electric vehicle. It is the best-selling EV in history with almost 50% share of the zero-emission vehicle segment. For more information on our products, services and commitment to sustainable mobility, visit our website at http://www.nissan-global.com/EN/. About Habitat for Humanity International Driven by the vision that everyone needs a decent place to live, Habitat for Humanity has grown from a grassroots effort that began on a community farm in southern Georgia in 1976 to a global nonprofit housing organization in nearly 1,400 communities across the U.S. and in over 70 countries. People partner with Habitat for Humanity to build or improve a place they can call home. Habitat homeowners help build their own homes alongside volunteers and pay an affordable mortgage. Through financial support, volunteering, or adding a voice to support affordable housing, everyone can help families achieve the strength, stability and self-reliance they need to build better lives for themselves. Through shelter, we empower. To learn more, visit habitat.org. Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20050501/NYSU020LOGO SOURCE Habitat for Humanity International Related Links http://www.habitat.org DALLAS, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Patty Hahn, a Licensed Vocational Nurse, faced three withering outbursts from her boss during the course of her employment at North DFW Urology Associates in Grapevine. Late Monday, a Dallas County jury found Dr. Scott Davidson liable for his workplace bullying, returning a $1.08 million verdict against the doctor and the clinic for sexual harassment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and retaliation. Shortly before the verdict was read, the two sides reached a $440,000 settlement, which cannot be appealed, according to Ms. Hahn's attorney Rogge Dunn. The case is Patricia Hahn v Scott Davidson, MD, et al, in the Dallas County Court at Law No. 5. "The jury verdict included $348,889 against the doctor individually for bullying. A verdict such as this should serve as a warning and wake up call to bosses everywhere that they cannot scream, demean or otherwise bully their employees," says Mr. Dunn. "This is one of the few verdicts I'm aware of in the country awarding an employee damages against their boss individually for bullying." Ms. Hahn described a hostile and threatening work environment, testifying that on three occasions Dr. Davidson had screamed at her with his hands raised and fists clenched, "Just shut up. Just shut up, I'm sick of you." On one occasion, he threw punches at her in the air, although he never touched her. Following company policy, Ms. Hahn reported the behavior to the practice's human resources department. Shortly after filing her complaint, Dr. Davidson called her into an office after business hours and gave her what he described in trial testimony as a "demonstration" of what screaming was to prove that he had not screamed at the nurse. "This verdict proves that employees are not helpless when they are bullied in the workplace," says Mr. Dunn. "They have the legal right to work in an environment free from bullying, harassment and intimidation. Employees don't have to sit back and endure this type of behavior. They do have options and can fight back." Mr. Dunn regularly represents executives in complex business and employment disputes. To learn more about Mr. Dunn and his practice, click here: http://www.cdklawyers.com/rogge_dunn.html. For more information, please contact Rhonda Reddick at 800-559-4534 or [email protected]. SOURCE Rogge Dunn Related Links http://www.cdklawyers.com HARRISBURG, Pa., Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- With the start of a new school year just around the corner, the departments of Health and Education are launching the "Don't Wait. Vaccinate." campaign to remind parents and guardians of the importance of updating children's immunizations before they start class. "Getting children all of the vaccines recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's immunization schedule is one of the most important things that can be done to protect kids from serious diseases," said Secretary of Health Dr. Karen Murphy. "When children are not vaccinated, they are at increased risk for serious illness and can also spread diseases to others in their classrooms and community including babies who are too young to be fully vaccinated and people with weakened immune systems. If you haven't done so already, now is the perfect time to check with your child's health care provider to find out what vaccines your child needs." "Preparing children to go back to school includes ensuring that they are properly vaccinated against serious illnesses, protecting them and their fellow classmates from getting sick," said Secretary of Education Pedro Rivera. "Immunizations play a critical role in maintaining the health and safety of all students so that schools can be a safe place for them to learn, interact, and grow." Vaccines help protect children against 14 childhood diseases that can be very serious and even life-threatening. In Pennsylvania, all children are required to have certain vaccines before entering kindergarten, seventh grade, or when attending a commonwealth school for the first time. Children in grades K-12 need the following immunizations for attendance: diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis (DTaP), measles, mumps, rubella (MMR), hepatitis B, polio and varicella (chickenpox). Children entering the seventh grade also need additional immunizations of meningococcal conjugate (MCV) and tetanus, diphtheria and acellular pertussis (Tdap). All of the vaccines listed above will be provided at vaccine clinics the Department of Health is holding across the commonwealth during the month of August. If a child doesn't have any insurance coverage or if insurance does not cover back-to-school immunizations, children who meet the requirements can get all of the vaccines listed above at one of the commonwealth's state health centers or local health departments. Immunizations are provided at little or no cost for children through 18 years of age who are Medicaid eligible, uninsured, underinsured, or American Indian or Alaska Native. The cost is $5 per child (payable by check or money order) for families above income guidelines; however, no child will be turned away because of an inability to pay. Parents whose children meet the requirements for the vaccine clinics must call 1-877-PA-HEALTH (1-877-724-3258) to schedule an appointment. Parents should have their vaccination records available when they call to make an appointment. A parent/legal guardian must accompany the child receiving immunizations. Department of Health staff will need to be notified prior to the appointment if someone other than the child's parent/legal guardian will be accompanying him/her. To help those who are unable to visit during regular working hours, evening and weekend hours will be available at certain locations. In addition to these special back-to-school vaccine clinics, the Department of Health regularly schedules immunization clinics throughout the year across the commonwealth. Interested individuals can call 1-877-PA-HEALTH (1-877-724-3258) any time to get more information. This month is also National Immunization Awareness Month (NIAM), which reminds people of all ages to keep up-to-date on immunizations. NIAM's goal is to increase awareness about immunizations, from infants to the elderly. "There is a misconception among many adults that vaccines are just for children," Dr. Murphy added. "The truth is, you never outgrow the need for immunizations. Even healthy adults can become seriously ill and can pass certain illnesses on to others. Immunizations provide protection that adults need particularly older Pennsylvanians or those with certain chronic medical conditions to help them stay as healthy as possible." For more information, visit www.dontwaitvaccinate.pa.gov or call 1-877-PA-HEALTH. MEDIA CONTACTS: Yasmin Coleman or Penny Ickes, DOH, 717-787-1783 Nicole Reigelman, PDE, 717-783-9802 SOURCE Pennsylvania Department of Health; Pennsylvania Department of Education Related Links http://www.state.pa.us "We're pleased to bring more of Dr. Seuss' animated world to life with the introduction of these new pet accessories and toys," said Rebecca Frechette, Senior Vice President, Merchandising for Petco. "The joyful characters are the perfect playtime companions for furry friends and we are thrilled to have Dr. Seuss' latest masterpiece to draw inspiration from!" "Dr. Seuss had a passion and gift for creating an imaginative world," said Susan Brandt, President, Licensing and Marketing, Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P. "We're excited to partner with Petco to continue to bring that world to life for human and pet fans alike!" Designed with bright colors and based on artwork from the book, the collection includes an assortment of dog and cat products that are both durable and engaging. Ranging in price from $5 to $10, the fun new products include: In addition to the beloved characters from "What Pet Should I Get?," the Dr. Seuss Pet Fans Collection also includes products featuring timeless characters that have been adored by generations, including Dr. Seuss Cat in the Hat Mouse Toys for Cats and Dr. Seuss Cat in the Hat Flat Dog Toy. For more information, please visit www.petco.com/drseuss, Facebook.com/Petco, Twitter.com/Petco and Instagram.com/Petco. About Petco and the Petco Foundation With more than 50 years of service to pet parents, Petco is a leading pet specialty retailer that focuses on nurturing powerful relationships between people and pets. We do this by providing the products, services, advice and experiences that keep pets physically fit, mentally alert, socially engaged and emotionally happy. Everything we do is guided by our vision for Healthier Pets. Happier People. Better World. We operate more than 1,450 Petco locations across the U.S., Mexico and Puerto Rico, including more than 115 Unleashed by Petco locations, a smaller format neighborhood shop; prescription services and pet supplies from the leading veterinary-operated pet product supplier, Drs. Foster & Smith; and petco.com. The Petco Foundation, an independent nonprofit organization, has invested more than $167 million since it was created in 1999 to help promote and improve the welfare of companion animals. In conjunction with the Foundation, we work with and support thousands of local animal welfare groups across the country and, through in-store adoption events, help find homes for more than 400,000 animals every year. About Dr. Seuss Theodor "Seuss" Geisel is quite simply one of the most beloved children's book authors of all time. His long list of awards includes Caldecott Honors for McElligot's Pool, If I Ran the Zoo, and Bartholomew and the Oobleck, the Pulitzer Prize, and eight honorary doctorates. Works based on his original stories have won three Oscars, three Emmys, three Grammys, and a Peabody. Geisel wrote and illustrated 45 books during his lifetime, and his books have sold more than 650 million copies worldwide. Though Theodor Geisel died on September 24, 1991, Dr. Seuss lives on, inspiring generations of children of all ages to explore the joys of reading. For more information about Dr. Seuss and his works, visit Seussville.com. Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P. The primary focus of Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P. is to protect the integrity of the Dr. Seuss books while expanding beyond books into ancillary areas. This effort is a strategic part of the overall mission to nurture and safeguard the relationship people have with Dr. Seuss characters. Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss) said he never wanted to license his characters to anyone who would "round out the edges." That is one of the guiding philosophies of Dr. Seuss Enterprises. Audrey S. Geisel, the widow of Dr. Seuss, heads Dr. Seuss Enterprises as CEO. Contacts: Megan Oxford, [email protected] Parinaz Farzin, [email protected] Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160808/396421 Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150817/259044LOGO SOURCE Petco Related Links http://Seussville.com WASHINGTON, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Planet3, an exploration-based learning company, today announced that it has appointed Larry Rosenstock, J.D., M.Ed, L.H.D, the founder and CEO of High Tech High, as a senior education advisor to the Company. High Tech High, based in San Diego, California, is a nationally acclaimed network of public charter schools focused on project-based learning. In his role as an education advisor to Planet3, Rosenstock will leverage his decades of education experience to advise on Planet3's instructional approach, with a focus on personalized, hands-on learning. "We are honored to have an educational visionary such as Larry Rosenstock join Planet3 as an advisor," said Dr. Albert Yu-Min Lin, Ph.D., Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer at Planet3. "Larry is a pioneer and his experiences will help guide us as we continue to develop our platform. Planet3 was founded because we believe that the way to take on the challenges of our changing planet is to foster a generation of creative and entrepreneurial change agents, and integrating the best practices of blended and project-based learning luminaries such as Larry is critically important to that." As an award-winning educator, Rosenstock brings decades of experience to his role as advisor for Planet3. Currently, he serves as CEO at High Tech High, where he is also a founding principal. Earlier in his career, Rosenstock taught carpentry in urban high schools for over a decade and served as Director of the Rindge School of Technical Arts and then Principal of Cambridge Rindge and Latin School. He went on to serve as the director of the New Urban High School Project, an effort funded by the U.S. Department of Education to develop new models for urban high schools. During his time with the New Urban High School Project, Rosenstock and his team created three design principles that seemed to be common in the successful urban high schools: personalization, real-world connection, and common intellectual mission. Those principles would later serve as the foundation for High Tech High. High Tech High Learning is an integrated network of schools spanning grades K-12, housing a comprehensive teacher certification program and a new, innovative Graduate School of Education. Rosenstock has served as a lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a Visiting Associate Professor at UC Berkeley School of Education. He is the recipient of the Ashoka Fellowship and the McGraw Prize in Education, and serves as an advisor to numerous commissions and boards nationally and internationally. "I'm honored to serve as an advisor to Planet3," said Rosenstock. "Science should be fun and engaging, and students should be immersed in the real world of science. Unfortunately, most students in schools today are learning about science rather than doing real science themselves. Planet3 offers the potential to change that!" Since 2014, Planet3 has brought on a host of world-renowned subject matter experts across education, science and technology industries to advise on various areas of the Company. Modeled on the Next Generation Science Standards, Planet3 is a personalized learning platform that uses the planet Earth as a laboratory for teaching Earth, Life, and Physical Science. The Company's long-term plans include K-12 curriculum for all Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (STEAM) subjects. The Planet3 platform utilizes compelling narratives, real-world data, and visualization to inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers, artists, and technologists. Planet3's curriculum, woven through immersive 3D experiences, illuminates new frontiers in science to empower teachers and students to construct deep understandings of the intricate connections between STEAM subjects, ourselves, and our planet. About Planet3 Planet3 is an exploration-based learning company that presents the entire Earth as a virtual living laboratory. Modeled on the Next Generation Science Standards, Planet3 delivers personalized learning via adventure and exploration to teach Earth, Life, and Physical Science. The digital platform utilizes compelling narratives, real world data and visualization to inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers, artists, and technologists. Planet3's curriculum, woven through immersive 3D experiences, illuminates new frontiers in science to empower teachers and students to construct deep understandings of the intricate connections between Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (STEAM) subjects, ourselves, and our planet. For more information, visit www.exploreplanet3.com. Media Relations Contact: Jennifer Moritz Zer0 to 5ive 917-748-4006 [email protected] SOURCE Planet3 Related Links http://www.exploreplanet3.com By Oleg Vukmanovic and Stephen Jewkes MILAN, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Italian oil firm Eni has wrapped up long-running talks to sell a multi-billion dollar stake in its planned Mozambique liquefied natural gas (LNG) development to Exxon Mobil, two sources with knowledge of the matter said. "The deal is done but won't be announced for several months at Exxon's request," one of the sources said. Eni declined to comment, while a spokesman for Exxon said, "We do not comment on market rumours or speculation". The offshore gas reserves already discovered by Eni in Area 4 are large enough to need a giant land-based LNG export plant whose proximity to Asian and Middle Eastern growth markets makes it potentially a highly-lucrative project. But talks to bring in a technically-savvy partner with deep pockets like Exxon have dragged on due to a differences over valuations in the light of falling oil and gas prices. In 2013 Eni sold 20 percent of its Area 4 licence to China's CNPC for $4.2 billion but since then oil and gas prices have come down by more than half. However, last year Mozambique awarded Exxon three offshore exploration licence blocks of its own which sit to the south of Eni's discoveries, giving a new dimension to development prospects. "As you are aware, on October 28, 2015, Exxon was awarded three offshore blocks in Mozambique," the spokesman for Exxon said. "We look forward to further discussions with the Mozambique government on the development of a production-sharing contract for the blocks." Eni has been reluctant to sell too much of its 50 percent stake in the Area 4 permit where as operator it has already found 85 trillion cubic feet of gas. But in recent weeks Eni Chief Executive Claudio Descalzi has raised the possibility of it selling up to a 25 percent stake, up from the 10-15 percent previously on offer. The two sources said after lengthy talks, Eni and Exxon have now agreed terms and "sealed" a deal that could give Exxon its desired operating stake in the onshore LNG export plant while Eni would retain control over the Area 4 gas fields feeding it. Story continues Last week Descalzi reiterated Eni's desire to remain operator for the gas fields. "Our model is to remain and keep the operatorship or keep, in any case, a clear control on the asset - the asset that we discovered," he told analysts. While Eni will export gas as LNG from at least one floating offshore platform in the Coral field development in Area 4, the main focus of work will be on the larger land-based plants. The Coral field will remain outside the scope of the deal with Exxon, the sources said, and Eni has earmarked LNG from the Phase I development of Coral to BP. (Additional reporting by Ron Bousso in London; Editing by Greg Mahlich) NEW YORK, Aug. 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- #1 SEO Company in India, Profit by Search offers local SEO services that prove helpful for business owners in developing well-understanding of search engine optimization and achieving success in this fierce competition. Individuals working in the digital marketing industry might be familiar about the term SEO or Search Engine Optimization, but the general public is still not aware of what SEO is, why it is done and how it is helpful in business promotion? Therefore, it is essential for the SEO companies to ensure beforehand that the clients they are working with have good knowledge about SEO or not. Those having proficient idea about SEO may understand that it takes time to gain online visibility and can help the SEO firms with every possible information. But, it can be challenging for many companies to educate a client that has nothing to say about SEO. This education can be vital for both clients as well as SEO companies, in smoothening their work processes and ensuring success in today's market scenario. With their team of highly skilled and dedicated digital marketers, Profit by Search aims at fully educating their clients with the latest local SEO techniques that help them in securing top position on multiple search engine results like Google, Yahoo and Bing. Their local listing SEO services in India are popular in the industry and give excellent exposure to their client's business products and services and allow them to reach out to a large number of targeted customers and get instant leads. Entrepreneurs looking to hire this renowned SEO Company India can contact them through a simple form present on their official website, ProfitbySearch.com. Apart from providing local SEO services, they also provide services like search engine marketing, social media optimization, PPC management, email marketing, multivariate testing and many others at the most competitive prices. A representative of Profit by Search made a statement in context to their local listing SEO services, "When we create local listing with Google, Yahoo and Bing, you gain a distinct online visibility that helps you stand out in the fierce competition. Local search offers excellent opportunities to carve a niche for your business in a given area. As our team of seasoned professionals simplifies the burdensome task of local listing for you and keeps enhancing your web visibility month after month, it drives targeted customers to your website from that specific geographical area so qualified leads pour in." About Profit by Search One of the premier providers of SEO Services in India, Profit By Search not only serves the purpose of increasing a client's website visibility on major search engines, but it also helps solve various technical problems of a website like providing a client with unique content to keep the website away from getting slapped by Google Panda, improvises on methods to improve lost rankings, helps fight better with the bounce rates, maximizes the rate of return on investment for advertising budget and many other such services. For more details, please visit https://www.profitbysearch.com/ Media Contact: Al [email protected] 646-688-5525 Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160803/395272LOGO SOURCE Profit By Search Related Links http://www.profitbysearch.com This past year, Protect-A-Bed enjoyed considerable gains in sales and product growth, across its three brands Protect-A-Bed, REM-Fit , and ThermalStrike . Thanks to an expanded and increasingly efficient warehouse, the doubling of drop-ship capabilities and a continued cultivation of new business accounts, the company's annual revenue reached $100,000,000 worldwide, a 15 percent growth from 2014. "We are extremely grateful to our entire team for working tirelessly in 2015," said Bell. "Year after year, they continue to demonstrate passion, innovation and expertise the core attributes of our company. The results we saw last year are a testament to the dedication, attention to detail and emphasis on partnership that they show our customers every single day." Bell shared Vision 2018 to serve as a roadmap to where he plans Protect-A-Bed will be as a company, both fiscally and culturally, by December 31, 2018. He foresees that the company will continue to be healthy and privately held, led by a professional executive management team focused on strategy and growth. By continuing to add value and honesty to its operations, Protect-A-Bed strives to achieve $100 million in North American sales with another $60 million in international sales within the next 3 years. Bell anticipates that customers will see the company as a great partner who champions Recovery & Sleep Technology expertise. As a key part of Vision 2018, Protect-A-Bed employees will enjoy an increased focus on the work/life balance. While employee growth and engagement programs will expand exponentially, the company now offers a significant increase in paid time off. "As a family-owned business that helps people improve the quality of their rest, we understand and appreciate the importance of spending time away from work to recharge and spend time with loved ones," said Bell. "Ensuring that our entire team has ample opportunity for respite throughout the year is crucial to our success moving forward." In addition to sharing Vision 2018 with the company, Bell and members of Protect-A-Bed's executive team provided details and training on the expanded line of bedding and accessories that were recently introduced at Las Vegas Market 2016. These include the Originals Collection, Naturals Collection and Therm-A-Sleep Collection; in addition, they introduced the Worlds Smartest Pillow and the REM-Fit Sleep Monitor, a non-wearable sleep tracker which supplements the REM-Fit Active. "We pride ourselves on continuous innovation so that our consumers can always rely on us for the very best in Recovery & Sleep Technology products," said Bell. "Whether it be pillows that measure heart and respiratory rates or sheets that feel cool to the touch, for example, Protect-A-Bed strives to set industry trends while constantly improving the quality of people's sleep." The annual meeting closed with a presentation of five excellence awards that highlighted the skills and contributions of the company's top-performing employees. The following were honored: Jennifer Wright received the Passion Award for her consistent drive for all things Protect-A-Bed. received the Passion Award for her consistent drive for all things Protect-A-Bed. Stephen Takashima received the Innovation Award for his work-style of continuously thinking outside the box. received the Innovation Award for his work-style of continuously thinking outside the box. Cathy Wold received the Expert Award for her adept company and industry knowledge. received the Expert Award for her adept company and industry knowledge. Lian Tan received the Team Player Award for her continued collaboration with coworkers. received the Team Player Award for her continued collaboration with coworkers. Julie Richardson received the Valor Award for commanding and encouraging her surrounding coworkers. In addition, the company recognized some of its longest-tenured employees. Rita Haney, Miguel Marrero, and Denis Sollinger all celebrated their 10-year anniversary with the company and will be rewarded with a trip to Mexico for themselves and a guest. Fifteen others reached the five-year milestone. Those honorees include: Nuby Arroyo, Warrick Bell, Jared Bell, Linda Bill, Jennifer Casas, Eva Chaney, Sandy Divito, Katie Gayle, Michael Graham, Danny Jones, Tim Kingsbury, Marilu Najera, Cathy Phillips, Julie Richardson and Judy Scalzitti. "At Protect-A-Bed, it's extremely important that we take the time to thank, recognize and congratulate all of those dedicated individuals who make this a successful company. We couldn't be more proud of the top-notch work they do every day," said Bell. About Protect-A-Bed: Protect-A-Bed offers consumers a complete line of protective bedding products because "Every Mattress Needs Protection." With more than 30 years of experience in bedding protection product development, 320 products in 40 categories, and a presence in 48 countries, Protect-A-Bed is recognized as a worldwide leader in mattress protection innovation. Protect-A-Bed products help create a dry, hygienic, bedbug-free and anti-allergy sleep zone while also protecting the mattress warranty. The company developed the proprietary Miracle Membrane, which is waterproof and protects mattresses against liquids and bodily fluids that may inhibit a mattress's warranty claim, and patented BugLock with SecureSeal and three-sided zipper system for encasements. Protect-A-Bed products are listed as Class 1 Medical Devices with the Food and Drug Administration, and have received the Good Housekeeping Seal. In addition, Protect-A-Bed's AllerZip Smooth Mattress and Pillow Encasements are Certified asthma & allergy friendly by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. Protect-A-Bed is based in Wheeling, IL. For more information, visit www.ProtectABed.com. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160809/396865 SOURCE Protect-A-Bed Related Links http://www.ProtectABed.com STATESVILLE, N.C., Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Purple Heart Homes, a national public charity based in Statesville, NC, announces the kick-off of its inaugural campaign, Operation Veteran Home Renovation. The campaign is designed to engage and recruit the credit union movement to help spruce up homes that mostly older veterans own. (www.purplehearthomesusa.org) Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160808/396443 Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160808/396444 Credit unions have had a close relationship with all branches of the military and support veterans who sacrificed so much for the freedom we value today. So to help make life a little easier for older veterans and their caregivers, Purple Heart Homes has joined forces with the Cornerstone Credit Union League, serving approximately 500 credit unions in Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas; Georgia Credit Union Affiliates, serving 121 member credit unions; and the Southeastern Credit Union League, serving 298 credit unions in Florida and Alabama. "It is fitting we officially launch this campaign on Purple Heart Day," said John Gallina, cofounder and executive director of Purple Heart Homes, a combat-wounded Iraq war veteran who received a Purple Heart during his tour of duty. "We were taught to never leave a soldier behind on the battlefield, and we are committed to not leaving them behind at home." "It is going to take a movement to thank the 9 million military U.S. veterans age 65 and older, but we'll do it, remembering their sacrifice by helping renovate veterans' homes. This is why we are launching this campaign with participating credit unions and their state associations." Credit unions who participate in Operation Veteran Home Renovation will identify a veteran whose home needs a ramp, grab bars, railings, a yard cleaned up, or a fresh coat of paint. Credit unions will raise the funds for the projects, most of which can be completed by credit union staff and community volunteers in a day or two. The average cost of a project is $5,000. Georgia Credit Union League Affiliates CEO Mike Mercer said, "In Georgia there are 304,270 veterans that served in Vietnam, Korea, and WWII. Older veterans are oftentimes overlooked and ignored. They live on fixed income and face increased taxes and a higher cost of living. Many times, because of age and disability, older veterans are not able to keep up with the maintenance on their homes, which is why we joined forces with Purple Heart Homes to do something special for them." Cornerstone President Dick Ensweiler said, "We are so committed to this campaign that our league and staff are going to help renovate a home for 99-year-old Santiago Diaz, a WWII veteran living in Fort Worth. We have reached out to all of our credit unions to urge them to either help renovate a home or donate directly to Purple Heart Homes/Credit Unions Care so they can help more veterans remain safely in their own homes." (purplehearthomesusa.org/donate-1) Tinker Federal Credit Union in Oklahoma City hosted a Wild West Casino Night fundraiser to help renovate four approved veterans' homes. "We worked with the Veterans Corner to help us locate and identify veterans that met the criteria developed by the Purple Heart Homes team. Veterans that need help don't self-identify and usually say 'someone else needs more help than me,'" said Dave Willis, executive vice president and chief operations officer. Tinker netted $26,780 from the Casino Night and will hold another fundraiser in the fall. The 2016 Purple Heart Homes campaign, Operation Veteran Home Renovation, officially kicks off the week of Aug. 8. Participating leagues and credit unions will have until Nov. 12 to complete a project or make a donation directly to Purple Heart Homes (purplehearthomesusa.org/donate-1). To learn more about the Purple Heart Homes campaign, Operation Veteran Home Renovation, and to join the movement to help renovate a home in your area for a deserving, approved veteran, contact the Purple Heart Homes office in Statesville, NC, at 704-838-4044 or go online at www.purplehearthomesusa.org to request information. ABOUT PURPLE HEART HOMES Purple Heart Homes is a 501(c)3entity founded by Dale Beatty and John Gallina, two Iraq combat-wounded veteran, that remain on a mission to provide housing solutions to service-connected disabled veterans and their families. Driven by the belief that no veteran should be left behind, Purple Heart Homes, together with the community, is committed to ensuring quality-of-life solutions for disabled American veterans from all eras. CONTACT: Vicki Thomas, PHH Special projects 203-984-2138 SOURCE Purple Heart Homes Related Links http://www.purplehearthomesusa.org DUBLIN, August 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Global Semi Trailer Market - Analysis of Growth, Trends Progress and Challenges (2015-2020)" report to their offering. The Global Semi trailer truck market is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 6.48% during the 2015-2020 period. Asia Pacific is the largest market for Semi trailers and will grow at the fastest pace going into 2020. Many of the Heavy Commercial Vehicles in India are outdated and due for replacement. Strict emission norms will result in replacement demand, driving the growth in the Semi-Trailer Market in India. Slow manufacturing growth in India will be a big restraint for the market as it is the largest single market outside the United States for Semi trailers in the world. Iran will be one of the most promising markets for the Semi-Trailers as the lifting of sanctions allows international players to enter a market, which has been starved of quality products. Daimler, Paccar and Volvo are some of the important players in the Global Semi Trailer market. The market has been segmented by vehicle type (Low boy, flatbed, refrigerated, dry van), by tonnage (Up to 50 tonnes, 50-100 tonnes, 100 + tonnes) and by Geography (North America, South America, Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa). The Report Offers: Market analysis for Global Semi Trailer Market specific assessments and competition analysis on global and regional scales Market definition along with the identification of key drivers and restraints Identification of factors instrumental in changing the market scenarios, rising prospective opportunities, and identification of key companies that can influence this market on a global and regional scale Extensively researched competitive landscape section with profiles of major companies along with their market shares Identification and analysis of the macro and micro factors that affect Global Semi Trailer Market on both global and regional scales A comprehensive list of key market players along with the analysis of their current strategic interests and key financial information Companies Mentioned: China International Marine Containers Daimler Ag Hyundai Translead Kogel Trailer Gmbh Navistar Paccar Scmitz Cargobull Ag Utility Trailer Manufacturing Company Volvo Wabash National Corporation Report Structure: 1. Introduction 2. Executive Summary 3. Market Overview And Trends 4. Market Dynamics 5. Global Semi Trailer Market, By Vehicle Type 6. Global Semi Trailer Market, By Tonnage 7. Global Semi Trailer Market, By Geography 8. Competitive Landscape 9. Key Vendor Analysis(Overview, Products & Services, Strategies) 10. Future Outlook Of The Market 11. Disclaimer For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/rpvfv8/global_semi Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets Related Links http://www.researchandmarkets.com LINCOLN, Neb., Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Sandhills Publishing kicks off its annual Global Forum, a three-day event that welcomes equipment and parts dealers, manufacturers, fleet owners and operators, rental and leasing companies, auctioneers, and other professionals across the agriculture, trucking, construction, heavy machinery, and aviation industries. Over 400 industry leaders from the United States, Mexico, and Canada will participate in open workshops, roundtable discussions, and forum-style seminars. Sandhills will also introduce its newest products and services, and announce rollouts for those on the horizon. The 2016 Global Forum is an opportunity for business leaders to gain industry insights, grow professional relationships, and leverage their partnerships with Sandhills to improve internal efficiencies through results-oriented, cost-effective business tools. On Wednesday, attendees will participate in a broad range of open workshops on topics that include leveraging Sandhills' cloud-hosted business apps, growing and measuring return on investment, establishing and maintaining an effective presence online, lucrative online equipment auctions, growing rental programs, moving equipment at wholesale, and capitalizing on viable international markets. Vendor expos provide forum guests with opportunities to consult with exhibitors across various sectors of the industries. Wednesday's afternoon keynote speaker, George Hedley, will address strategies for growing business through loyal customer relationships. A general contractor and successful business owner for more than three decades, Hedley is highly regarded for his insights on building lean, systemized, and profitable companies. Forum guests will also participate in industry-specific roundtable discussions, providing a chance to collaborate on challenges, share strategies, and network with other industry leaders. Wednesday's events will conclude with an evening reception at Sandhills' 68-acre campus headquarters in north Lincoln. At the Global Forum, Sandhills will introduce a number of new products including RentalYard (the marketplace for rentals), Fast Track Iron (a wholesale dealer network), Exclusive Groups (customizable networks for users looking to buy and sell at wholesale and auction), NeedADriverNow.com (a new service that connects drivers with companies looking to hire them), and FleetEvaluator.com (a web-based asset valuation tool). Sandhills will also outline key product feature updates; among them are PaySAFE (an escrow service for buyers and seller), Make An Offer (a direct connection to sellers for buyers looking to purchase assets right away), as well as text alerts for leads and new customizable features for premium websites hosted through Sandhills. Attendees will also learn about products not yet released, such as NeedAnInsurer.com, which connects insurance providers with those seeking policies, and NeedWorkToday.com, which connects employers with those seeking employment across the trucking, agriculture, construction, and aviation industries. About Sandhills Publishing Sandhills Publishing is an information processing company headquartered in Lincoln, Nebraska. Our broad range of products and services are aimed at gathering, processing, and distributing information in the form of trade publications and corresponding websites that connect buyers and sellers across the trucking, agriculture, construction, heavy equipment, aviation, and technology industries. Our integrated, industry-specific approach to hosted technologies and services offers solutions that help businesses large and small operate efficiently and grow securely, cost-effectively, and successfully. Sandhills Publishingwe are the cloud. Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150316/182003LOGO Contact: Sandhills Publishing 1-800-331-1978 [email protected] SOURCE Sandhills Publishing ATLANTA, Aug. 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- SCOUT, an integrated agency group based in Atlanta, has been appointed to handle brand strategy, creative development and new product launches for the STAINMASTER brand. SCOUT has supported INVISTA's commercial business ANTRON carpet fiber for the past three years. "We are thrilled that our partnership with INVISTA is expanding to include STAINMASTER," said Cheryl Maher, SCOUT SVP and director of client services. "STAINMASTER is a leading force in the flooring industry and we are excited to support the brand's innovations and look forward to driving its success." Since its launch in 1986, STAINMASTER, a division of INVISTA, has become the most trusted carpet brand in America. From its innovative stain-resistant technology to its family-friendly product lines like PetProtect and Active Family, STAINMASTER delivers on its promise to provide home comfort products that stand up to everyday life. "We chose SCOUT because they have been an incredible strategic partner on the ANTRON business, continuously demonstrating agility, creative excellence and analytical reasoning," said Lisa Connolly, Director of Global Brand Marketing. "They have also embraced our Market Based Management culture, thus creating a strong and seamless relationship that drives results. "SCOUT has become active on the STAINMASTER business over the last few years, partnering on several key initiatives," continued Connolly. "When the time came to select a strategic branding partner, we knew that SCOUT was the right team with the right virtues and talents. As STAINMASTER expands its product selection, we look forward to partnering with SCOUT to help tell our story and support the brand." About SCOUT Independently owned and operated for over 16 years, SCOUT is a full-service integrated agency with three offices across the United States in Atlanta, Chicago and San Diego. Serving clients in consumer/B2B and healthcare, SCOUT brings leading companies bold, brave thinking that creates value for its clients' brands. Learn more at www.findscout.com. About STAINMASTER brand The STAINMASTER brand is a leader in home comfort and dependability and offers an extensive portfolio of home products that hold up to everyday life. The STAINMASTER brand revolutionized the carpet industry in 1986 with a stain-resistant technology never before available in carpet. Today, STAINMASTER products continue to help keep homes looking and feeling new because they're constructed with lasting, high-quality materials and innovative designs. To find out more, go to STAINMASTER.com, Facebook.com/STAINMASTER or Twitter @STAINMASTER. About INVISTA With leading brands including that include LYCRA, COOLMAX, CORDURA, STAINMASTER and ANTRON, INVISTA is one of the world's largest integrated producers of chemical intermediates, polymers and fibers. The company's advantaged advanced technologies for nylon, spandex and polyester are used to produce clothing, carpet, car parts and countless other everyday ubiquitous products. Headquartered in the United States, INVISTA operates in more than 20 countries and has about 10,000 employees. For more information, visit INVISTA.com, facebook.com/INVISTAglobal and twitter.com/INVISTA. Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160323/347246LOGO SOURCE SCOUT Related Links http://findscout.com SEATTLE, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Online legal services provider Avvo today released the results of a study on the experiences and attitudes of renters in the United States, finding that 70% of renters believe residential rental prices in their city are too high. Despite high rental prices, most American renters feel happy and even lucky to have their rental. Seventy-three percent report feeling satisfied with where they live, even though 61 percent said it's hard to find a good place to rent in their city. Renters wary of high rental prices, blame tech industry and landlords The majority of American renters think their local rents are too high. People living in the West are slightly more likely to feel this way, especially when compared to people in the South and the Midwest. Seventy-six percent of people in the West don't like how high rent is where they live, compared to 71% of Northeasterners, 66% of Southerners, and 63% of Midwesterners who said the same. Some renters believe their landlord is to blame for high rents, and others blame the tech industry for causing rental prices to spike. Twenty-four percent of those surveyed believe their landlord is at fault for high rents, claiming that their landlord raises the rent too frequently. A slightly larger percentage of renters surveyed (28%) believe these rising rents are the fault of the tech industry. Given the presence of tech hubs in the region, it's not surprising that 38% of people living in the West region of the United States compared to 26% of people in the Southeast, 25% of people in the Northeast, and 22% of people in the Midwest say the tech industry has ruined real estate prices in their city. While the accelerated growth of the tech industry may make some unhappy with rental prices in key tech markets, many renters prefer that their landlords embrace technology to manage their rental agreement. Sixty-five percent of renters say they like the idea of paying their rent online, and 41% say they'd like to be able to sign their lease online. When it comes to modes of communication, 43% of renters would prefer a landlord or property manager that texts with them. Responsiveness, security, and other expectations for landlords Renters also expect a landlord to be responsive, to maintain the property well, to provide adequate security, and to be fair with security deposits. Twenty-three percent of renters surveyed said their landlord or property manager has refused to repair something, and 33% of renters said their current property manager is too slow to make repairs (86% believing that this is a serious offense.) Twenty-eight percent of renters said their current landlord doesn't provide adequate security, while 37% said they'd pay more for a rental with a security system installed. Nineteen percent of renters said they've had a landlord or property manager who did not provide adequate pest control. And in exiting a rental agreement, 25% of renters said they've had a landlord or property manager unfairly keep their security deposit, which 84% of renters believe to be a serious offense by a landlord. Bad neighbors, rental behavior and landlords Landlords and tenants alike need to stick to good behavior in order to stay on good and legal terms with each other. A tenant who violates their rental agreement can quickly impact the safety and quality of life for neighboring tenants. And many renters report interesting or questionable experiences with neighbors. Forty-one percent of respondents said they'd suspected a neighbor was involved in criminal activity. Renters also admit to their own shady behavior, such as hiding a pet from their property manager (17%), making an extra key to their rental in violation of their rental agreement (14%), and damaging their rental property without telling their manager (12%.) When asked about subletting their rental (such as renting it out on Airbnb), 16% of renters reported they'd had an extra person living with them without telling their property manager, and nearly one in five (18%) said they'd consider subletting if they had space - though only 4% had done so without their landlord knowing. For landlords, good behavior includes avoiding any unlawful discrimination, such as preferential treatment between women and men. Of the renters surveyed, 27% of women reported having had a landlord unfairly keep their security deposit, while 22% of men stated the same. Similarly, 26% of women and 20% of men both reported a landlord refusing to repair something. However, when asked about whether they'd had a landlord fail to provide adequate pest control, 23% of women said yes while only 14% of men had had their landlord withhold pest control. Renting around the country In surveying renters and landlord-tenant lawyers around the country, a sample of growing rental markets - Austin, Boston, San Francisco, and Seattle - uncovered specific beliefs and experiences in renting around the country: High rent and it's all the tech industry's fault : 82% of renters in Austin , 81% in Boston and San Francisco , and 83% in Seattle believe rent is too high. The majority of renters who feel this way blame the growing local tech industry - 76% in San Francisco , 57% in Austin , and 58% in Seattle with Boston as the exception, where only 29% agree. : 82% of renters in , 81% in and , and 83% in believe rent is too high. Keep Austin Weird and Airbnb alive: Two-thirds (66%) of renters in Austin wish people would stop moving to their city. Nearly one-third (29%) of Austinites would sublet their rental through Airbnb if they had space. Two-thirds (66%) of renters in wish people would stop moving to their city. Nearly one-third (29%) of Austinites would sublet their rental through Airbnb if they had space. Bostonians want to be left alone: 89% of Boston renters say disrespecting a tenant's right to privacy is unacceptable, and 89% dislike unexpected rent increases (and take them seriously.) 89% of renters say disrespecting a tenant's right to privacy is unacceptable, and 89% dislike unexpected rent increases (and take them seriously.) San Francisco area renters are the most litigious - 1 in 5 (20%) think lawsuits are the best way to solve problems with property managers, and 10% have actually sued or tried to sue to date (vs. 4% nationally.) 50% of unhappy renters have taken the common route of complaining directly to their landlord, and 14% have contacted city officials. 1 in 5 (20%) think lawsuits are the best way to solve problems with property managers, and 10% have actually sued or tried to sue to date (vs. 4% nationally.) 50% of unhappy renters have taken the common route of complaining directly to their landlord, and 14% have contacted city officials. Seattleites don't care to make friends with neighbors Known locally as the " Seattle freeze," Seattleites have a reputation for sticking to their established friends and habits in lieu of bringing new people into their circle, and don't care to make friends with neighbors. Fortunately, only 15% of Seattleites dislike most of their neighbors, although one in three (33%) have had an argument or fight with a neighbor. Nearly half of Seattle area renters (45%) have suspected a neighbor of criminal activity at some point. Additional insights for landlords on renter legal attitudes and behaviors will be shared during Avvo's free webinar with real estate marketplace Zillow: You've Been Served: Why Renters Sue. On Friday, August 12 at 3 p.m. EDT/12 p.m. PDT, Avvo Chief Legal Officer Josh King will share further results from this survey, discuss legal issues most commonly affecting landlords, and provide valuable insights on how to approach legal issues surrounding your property. For additional resources about residential or commercial lease agreements, tenant rights, or to find a lawyer who specializes in landlord-tenant or real estate law in your area, visit www.avvo.com. About this study Avvo conducts periodic studies of topics at the intersection of lifestyle and the law to better understand the issues facing individuals engaging with attorneys and the legal system. Given that nearly every working adult pays rent and/or taxes on property, and that real estate law represents one of the largest and most routine needs for legal help in the United States, understanding the tensions in the current rental/real estate market between is beneficial to the landlords, renters, property owners and real estate industry professionals and attorneys whom Avvo serves. "Avvo is committed to understanding American social and cultural experiences so that we can better understand the people we seek to help," said Nika Kabiri, Director of Strategic Insights at Avvo. "Millions of consumers seek legal help on Avvo every day and we want to interact with them in meaningful ways. We conduct several consumer studies every year to learn more about what matters to them." Avvo offers consumers legal help on-demand with fixed-fee, limited scope legal services from a local, experienced attorney of their choice, such as an advice session with an attorney specializing in landlord-tenant or real estate law, legal review of an eviction notice, or legal counsel in creating a residential lease agreement. Avvo lawyers additionally answer questions about residential or commercial property, lease agreements, landlord-tenant and real estate law in the company's Q&A forum for free every day, and are featured in the Avvo directory, which includes consumer reviews and detailed profiles for 97% of licensed attorneys in the United States. Methodology These are findings from a Research Now poll conducted in June 2016. For the survey, a sample of over 1,000 U.S. renters age 18 and over was interviewed online, with boosts to reach 500 respondents in Seattle, 501 in San Francisco, 504 in Boston, and 389 in Austin. The precision of Research Now is measured using a nonprobability sampling. In this case, the poll has a credibility interval of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points for all respondents. About Avvo, Inc. Avvo helps people find and connect with the right lawyer through industry leading content, tools and services. Founded in 2006 in Seattle, Avvo provides transparent information about attorneys, with Avvo-rated profiles for 97% of practicing lawyers in the United States. A free Q&A forum with more than 8 million questions and answers and on-demand legal services that provide professional counsel for a fixed cost, make legal faster and easier. For more information on how Avvo helps people through legal issues from research to resolution, visit www.avvo.com. Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130404/SF88839LOGO SOURCE Avvo, Inc. Related Links http://www.avvo.com "Despite well-established consequences, poor writing on government websites continues to be common," stated Fergal McGovern, CEO of VisibleThread. " In a country where the language of government is a second language for many of its citizens, poor communication will result in inefficiency and affect service delivery ." Governments that adopt plain language practices when crafting communication for citizens benefit from increased compliance, higher revenues and other positive outcomes. VisibleThread's analysis found that only 13 percent of Provincial Government websites meet recommended readability standards. Writing on most sites is at or above a college reading level above the capabilities of a majority of South Africa's citizens. South Africa does not have a mandated plain language policy for government. "Improving written communication is a relatively inexpensive undertaking for governments," added McGovern. "Yet, despite a quick return-on-investment and other positive long term benefits, many administrations overlook the opportunity." VisibleThread's index ranks the clarity of provincial website writing on four distinct measures. Specific departments performed better than others in the analysis. The company produces its Website Clarity Index reports through data extracted from its Clarity Grader language analysis software. Clarity Grader helps organizations extract deep insights from written content that appears online. About VisibleThread VisibleThread helps executives in large organizations govern content quality with less cost and risk. Sales and marketing teams in diverse industries use our technology to improve many functions, including proposal development, contract review and brand audits. Our software finds brand compliance, poor readability and other issues in websites and documents. Unlike consumer-grade analysis tools, VisibleThread processes hundreds of documents and web pages in minutes. Fuelled with greater organizational intelligence, customers drive efficiency and reduce cost across their organizations. For more information, visit www.visiblethread.com . Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160809/396724 SOURCE VisibleThread Related Links http://www.visiblethread.com The discussion was part of a forum hosted by U.S. Senators Bob Menendez and Cory Booker, (both-D-N.J.), and moderated by the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey's Executive Director Angelo Valente. It was held at Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, New Jersey on August 8, 2016. U.S. Surgeon General Murthy was joined by U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Under Secretary for Health Doctor David Shulkin for the forum. Dr. Murthy is visiting states, like New Jersey, that have been especially hard hit by the prescription opioid epidemic and will send letters to over two million prescribers and health care professionals, urging them to: improve prescribing practices, inform their patients about the risks of opioid addiction, and connect people with opioid use disorders to evidence-based treatment. Heroin deaths in New Jersey are up 160 percent since 2010, with more than 1,200 overdose-related deaths last year alone. In 2015, more than 28,000 New Jerseyans sought treatment for heroin or opioid abuse, significantly outpacing previous year's figures. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 78 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose, and heroin-related deaths more than tripled from 2010-2014 with approximately three out of four new heroin users report first abusing prescription opioids. Veterans are twice as likely to die from an accidental opioid overdose as non-veterans, according to a 2011 study of the VA system. "Both patient and prescriber education are crucial if we are to make inroads in preventing this epidemic", explained Valente. PDFNJ focuses on educating parents, physicians, and community leaders about the dangers of prescription pain medicine and the link between prescribed opiates and heroin abuse rates, according to Valente. He explained, the Before They Prescribe- You Decide PDFNJ 2016 public health campaign is geared at educating parents on the link between prescribed prescription pain medicine and heroin abuse and encouraging them to speak to their doctor regarding the addictive qualities of pain medicine and the possible alternatives. Turn the Tide is a national campaign based on the concept of "prescribers talking to prescribers." Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160808/396517 SOURCE Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey Related Links http://drugfreenj.org OBERLIN, Ohio, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Synapse Biomedical (www.synapsebiomedical.com ) has been awarded a GSA Schedule 65IIA contract and is now certified to provide goods & services to the Federal government. Federal officials appreciate GSA Schedules as a means of procurement, knowing that companies on GSA Schedules have been qualified by the General Services Administration (GSA). Synapse Biomedical will place their novel NeuRx Diaphragm Pacing Systems (DPS) for use in both ALS and spinal cord injury (SCI) on GSA Advantage!, the government's electronic ordering system www.gsaadvantage.gov . "This schedule opens doors for our company to continue to help veterans and service VA hospitals," stated Anthony Ignagni, CEO Synapse Biomedical, "Our unique device, the NeuRx DPS, will allow many veterans with spinal cord injury to replace or reduce their need for mechanical ventilation and its use in ALS has been shown to provide a survival benefit." The NeuRx DPS is an FDA approved device, under a Humanitarian Device Exemption (HDE) for use in patients with high spinal cord injury (SCI) as well as ALS patients with chronic hypo-ventilation. The device has implanted in over 1800 patients to-date and is offered in 27 countries.Dr. Onders, Interim-Chairman of Surgery & Remen Chair in Surgical Innovation at University Hospitals of Cleveland and Professor of Surgery at Case Western Reserve University, stated, "DPS has consistently been shown to be safe and a preferred mode of breathing for SCI patients. Newer data shows the benefit of DPS in other respiratory compromised populations including Lou Gerhrig's disease (ALS)." About NeuRx DPS Technology The NeuRx DPS received FDA approval for ventilator dependency from spinal cord injury on June 17, 2008. The NeuRx DPS was approved, September 28, 2011, by the FDA for treating chronic hypoventi-lation from ALS. The NeuRx DPS has demonstrated that it can help people with ALS live longer and sleep better than the current standard of care, alone. For more on current indications for use, visit www.synapsebiomedical.com/products/patientInfo.shtml Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20131113/CL14319LOGO SOURCE Synapse Biomedical Inc. Related Links http://www.synapsebiomedical.com DALLAS, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Tailwater Capital LLC ("Tailwater"), an energy-focused private equity firm based in Dallas, today announced an initial equity commitment of $80 million to Goodnight Midstream (formerly 1804 Operating). Goodnight Midstream provides trusted water handling and salt water disposal solutions to oil and gas clients in high-growth areas of North America. The committed capital will be used to further develop water gathering and disposal facilities in North Dakota, and to fund Goodnight's expansion into Texas, and other regions of interest. Headquartered in Dallas, Goodnight Midstream built its first water infrastructure in 2011 and has grown to become the leading independent water gathering and disposal service provider for producers in the Bakken. Goodnight now owns more than 150 miles of saltwater gathering pipelines connected to a network of 16 saltwater disposal facilities in North Dakota. The Company's co-founders Patrick Walker, Chief Executive Officer and Robert Rubey, Chief Commercial Officer, are joined by midstream industry veteran, Rich Rehm who serves as Chief Operating Officer, as well as Vice President of Engineering, Tommy Thompson. Joel Fry, Principal at Tailwater Capital, said: "Goodnight Midstream has a proven track record in providing midstream saltwater handling solutions. Producers, particularly in the current environment, are focused on reducing capex and lease operating costs without impacting production flow assurance. Goodnight Midstream has provided water handling solutions for many leading operators in North Dakota and we are thrilled to be partnering with this management team and investing behind its strategy to expand into other basins in North America." Goodnight Midstream Chief Executive Officer Patrick Walker, said: "Goodnight Midstream provides its E&P customers a comprehensive water gathering and disposal solution, allowing them to devote their capital and attention to develop reserves. Water is a critical component to hydrocarbon production and our customers require trusted water disposal operators. Goodnight Midstream's track-record in North Dakota provides assurance that we build best-in-class gathering systems and disposal facilities. This initial capital commitment from Tailwater gives us the financial flexibility to continue to grow with our producers and pursue larger development projects and acquisitions. Tailwater brings tremendous expertise in energy investing and we're glad to have them join our team." Concurrent with today's investment, 1804 Operating officially changed its name to Goodnight Midstream to reflect its midstream expertise and approach to fluids management as the first true midstream water company. About Goodnight Midstream Goodnight Midstream provides trusted professional fluids management services to oil and gas producers. The Company owns and operates an extensive network of water gathering pipelines and salt water disposal wells focused on gathering and disposing of produced saltwater. Goodnight's midstream approach minimizes environmental impact and improves health and safety while lowering lease operating expense and improving reliability for our customers. Goodnight is supported by a team of highly experienced engineers and operating professionals. In addition to Goodnight's leading position in North Dakota, Goodnight Midstream has an emerging presence in Wyoming's Powder River Basin and the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico. For more information, please visit www.goodnightmidstream.com. About Tailwater Capital LLC Dallas-based Tailwater Capital is a growth-oriented energy private equity firm with a well-established track record, having executed more than 35 energy transactions representing over $11 billion in transaction value. Tailwater currently manages over $1.6 billion in equity capital, over $700 million of which is available for new investments. Tailwater is focused on acquiring and growing midstream assets as well as participating in non-operated upstream opportunities in select basins. For more information, please visit www.tailwatercapital.com. Contacts: Joel Fry Patrick Walker [email protected] [email protected] Tailwater Capital LLC Goodnight Midstream SOURCE Tailwater Capital LLC Related Links http://www.tailwatercapital.com CHICAGO, Aug. 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Test400k, a national rape kit reform advocacy organization, stood with sexual assault survivors and elected officials today to launch a dynamic new campaign, called "Just Track It," by sending every United States governor a rape kit via two-day delivery and releasing the kit's tracking codes to encourage the public and media to follow their delivery. The campaign was launched at the McCormick Place Hyatt to coincide with the kickoff of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) annual conference, where leading state policy makers will converge from August 8-11. Speaking at the launch and awareness event will be rape survivor Michelle Kuiper, Julie Smolyansky, Co-Founder of Test400k, Washington State Representative Tina Orwall (D-WA), and Tim Stacy of STACS DNA. The Just Track It campaign highlights how easy and common it is to use tracking codes for packages sent around the world, but this courtesy shockingly evades most rape victims when it comes to their rape kits. This situation has forced many victims to anxiously wait months, years or even decades to receive information about the status of their rape kit, and provides no mechanism to hold law enforcement accountable for their pursuit of the investigation. Lack of such information significantly slows the rape kit process and can result in lost kits. This antiquated approach re-traumatizes victims who are awaiting results and limits the actions of the law enforcement and prosecutors who need the data to arrest offenders and protect the public. Each Test400K Just Track It package contains a standard rape kit as used in police investigations across the country, as well as a request that all governors sign and endorse the Test400K National Call to Action for three rape kit reforms: 1) Test every rape kit; 2) Test every rape kit within 15-30 days; and 3) Implement a Victim Notification & Rape Kit Tracking System. The packages will also include a unique login code for each governor to tour an online demonstration of the nation's first and only rape kit tracking system that offers a portal for victim notification among hospitals and law enforcement agencies. "Just Track It calls for an end to the systemic de-prioritization of the sexual violence that disproportionately impacts women and girls in our nation. The existence of an estimated 400,000 untested rape kits collecting dust across our country, and that few states provide sexual assault survivors with any form of notification about the status of their kit is outrageous. We hope our nation's governors will let us know that they feel the same way by endorsing our Test400K Call to Action within two weeks," said Test400K Co-Founder Julie Smolyansky, who is also the CEO of Lifeway Foods and an Executive Producer of The Hunting Ground documentary. "Statistics show that only three out of every 100 rapists will ever see a day in prison in the U.S., yet a significant majority of rape kits are never processed for DNA," said Test400K Co-Founder Jason Burdeen. "Faster processing with tracking means rape cases are investigated before any statute of limitations and ideally before a rapist brutalizes another innocent person. Our mission with 'Just Track It' is to bring awareness to politicians and the public about the enormous backlog of untested rape kits and how technology, such as an online tracking system, can streamline the testing process, establish accountability and make all of our communities safer." Joining Test400K to launch "Just Track It" and endorse the Call to Action were Michelle Kuiper, the survivor of a 1994 sexual assault in college and who was stalked and terrorized until her kit was matched to a serial predator in 2011; and Washington State Representative Tina Orwall, who sponsored the nation's first law that requires the establishment of a statewide rape kit tracking and victim notification system. "I was never able to fully live a life, without fear of my perpetrator finding me, until he was caught almost two decades later. A victim of their rapist not only has to survive the actual violence of rape itself, every feeling, thought, sound, image and smell but, they have to figure out how to survive that trauma and their life after. I will never be fully healed, until I am in Heaven," said Kuiper, who championed a series of reforms in Kentucky. "Had my state of Kentucky had in place the very simple systems being called for in the Test400K Call to Action sooner, maybe what happened in my case would have been different... maybe the other two victims would have been spared the pain that I have endured. I ask our nation's Governors to take a very close look at that Sexual Assault Forensic Exam kit, or S.A.F.E. kit they receive this week and realize that it is not only a "box," but someone's life in front of them, someone who "gave up" that evidence off their body in hopes for justice. Every governor has the opportunity to change a survivor's life for the better after a horrific tragedy has impacted them. Because one kit, one person, is one far too many." "I support the Test400K Call to Action to eliminate the backlog of untested rape kits and ensure justice for sexual assault victims," said Rep. Orwall. "I am pleased that we passed in Washington State the first-in-the-nation legislation to create a statewide tracking system for rape kits that allows law enforcement and victims to track the status and location of kits. This bill is about justice and transparency, and it's a critical step in rape kit reform to support survivors of sexual assault." The final speaker at the event will be Tim Stacy from STACS DNA. He will show how it is now easy for survivors to obtain information about rape kit status and how law enforcement can better track the kit's progress from the hospital, to the crime lab, and back to law enforcement using the Track-Kit system. He will also discuss how STACS created the nation's first and only system that currently includes a victim notification component. "Every governor will receive a unique login code to experience a Track-Kit demo. They can see for themselves how tracking could work for their state to support survivors. At any time, survivors can access resources and vital information regarding the completion of their case," said Stacy. Test400K will be releasing links to all the tracking codes for each governor on their website www.test400k.org. Throughout the next two weeks, the organization will also provide updates on which governors have endorsed the Test400K Call to Action. "Just Track It" Event Information 11AM to 12PM HYATT REGENCY MCCORMICK PLACE, Burnham A 2233 S. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. About Test400k The mission of Test400k is to eliminate the backlog of 400,000 untested rape kits in the United States, and empower healthy and safe communities by ending violence against women and children. Step 1 is to provide accountability and justice to victims. For more information, visit http://test400k.org. SOURCE Test400k Related Links http://www.test400k.org As the number one source of wild salmon in the world, Alaska's king, sockeye, coho, keta and pink salmon make up more than 90 percent of all the wild salmon harvested in the United States. As mandated by the Alaska State Constitution, Alaska's fishing methods are among the most sustainable in the world to guarantee that Alaska salmon is natural, sustainable and of the highest quality. For those looking to celebrate the taste of Alaska salmon in their home kitchens, some of the nation's top chefs have developed delicious recipes showcasing the flavorful fish: For additional inspiration in the kitchen, YouTube Creator Justine Ezarik aka iJustine created a video demonstrating how to cook wild Alaska sockeye salmon with herbs and garlic using a simple recipe from the Alaska Seafood website. "Alaska is home to some of the healthiest stocks of wild salmon in the world and as Alaskans, we take great pride in making sure our pristine waters continue to provide the best tasting, highest quality salmon for generations to come," said Alaska Seafood Communications Director Tyson Fick. "We're excited to have an official holiday to recognize our heritage and the chance to share it with the world through the hashtag #AskforAlaska." For more information on wild Alaska salmon, visit www.wildalaskaseafood.com and follow Alaska Seafood on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. For more reasons why to #AskForAlaska, check out 7 Reasons to Ask for Alaska Seafood. About Alaska Seafood: The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI) is a partnership of the State of Alaska and the Alaska seafood industry. ASMI works to promote the benefits of wild and sustainable Alaska seafood and offer seafood industry education. For more than 50 years, Alaska has been dedicated to sustainable seafood. It's so essential to our way of life that our constitution mandates that fish are "utilized, developed and maintained on the sustained yield principle." The seafood industry is Alaska's largest private sector employer, and as a result, Alaskans understand the need to protect the fisheries and surrounding habitats for future generations. We're proud of our leadership in sustainable management, which has led to an ever-replenishing supply of wild seafood for markets around the world. Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160808/396608 SOURCE Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute Related Links http://www.wildalaskaseafood.com SAN DIEGO, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The Forbes School of Business at Ashford University will host the third event in its 2016 Distinguished Speaker Series on Tuesday, September 13, 2016. The event will be held at the Plaza Club, 100 W. Houston St. #2100, San Antonio, Texas. More than 170 in-house participants are expected to partake in an opportunity to hear Fisher Investments Founder, Executive Chairman, and Co-Chief Investment Officer Ken Fisher discuss the topic of finance. Fisher is known for his prestigious Forbes "Portfolio Strategy" column. He is the second-longest running columnist in Forbes history and has authored 10 books about finance and investing. The Distinguished Speaker Series is a benefit for students of the Forbes School of Business at Ashford University. It provides a forum for guest speakers from the Forbes roster of business experts to share their extensive business knowledge with the Ashford community. For more information on the Forbes School of Business at Ashford University, visit www.ashford.edu/degrees/online/business.htm. About Ashford University Where heritage meets innovation that's Ashford University. At Ashford, students discover relevant degree programs, innovative technology, and cherished tradition. Ashford offers associates, bachelor's, and master's online degree programs. For more information, please visit www.ashford.edu, www.facebook.com/ashforduniversity, www.twitter.com/AshfordU, or call Marianne Perez, Media Relations Manager, at 858.513.9240 x11636. About Forbes Media Forbes Media is a global media, branding and technology company, with a focus on news and information about business, investing, technology, entrepreneurship, leadership and affluent lifestyles. The company publishes Forbes, Forbes Asia and Forbes Europe magazines, as well as Forbes.com. The Forbes brand today reaches more than 94 million people worldwide with its business message each month through its magazines and 36 licensed local editions around the globe, websites, TV, conferences, research, social and mobile platforms. Forbes Media's brand extensions include conferences, real estate, education, financial services and technology license agreements. Contact: Marianne Perez, Media Relations Manager 858.513.9240 x11636 [email protected] Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130228/LA68969LOGO SOURCE Ashford University Related Links http://www.ashford.edu NEW YORK, August 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The international jewelry and watches brand THOMAS SABO is expanding: on the 16th of August THOMAS SABO will open the first Flagship Store outside of Europe in the new Westfield WTC in New York City. The first THOMAS SABO Flagship Store opens outside of Europe in the new Westfield WTC in New York City on August 16th, 2016. #thomassabo (PRNewsFoto/THOMAS SABO GmbH & Co.KG) (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160809/396671 ) In addition, the US Wholesale team of THOMAS SABO has seen a recent entrant: Todd Tieche, formerly of Richemont, Morellato and Parmigiani, has joined as new Wholesale Director. "The opening of our first Flagship Store in the US is a big step for the company in terms of positioning THOMAS SABO as one of the leading premium jewelry and watches brands worldwide," says Thomas Sabo, founder and chairman of THOMAS SABO. "We are pleased to see Todd joining our team. His expertise on the market will support the brand's overall growth. THOMAS SABO also cooperates with industry renowned distributing partners for a fast, continuous and stable expansion across the US. We are looking forward to seeing further growth through Todd and his team," says Christoph Gerschutz, THOMAS SABO Head of Sales US and Canada. "I am thrilled to be joining the brand and am delighted by the upcoming opening of the New York Flagship Store. This represents a unique opportunity to show both existing and new partners the world of THOMAS SABO. I am sure that this calling card will push the US business," says Todd Tieche, Wholesale Director THOMAS SABO US. About THOMAS SABO THOMAS SABO is one of the globally-leading jewelry, watches and beauty companies, designing, selling and distributing lifestyle products for women and men. The company operates almost 300 of its own shops across all five continents and collaborates globally with approximately 2,800 trade partners. Press contact Felizia Kindermann I Head of International & Corporate PR +49-912397150-0 [email protected] SOURCE THOMAS SABO GmbH & Co.KG Best brings a wealth of knowledge in international commercial real estate and strategic consulting experience to this integral role. He will be responsible for positioning the Sacramento Region as the most efficient and productive market in which to do business in California. This will help advance the organization's mission of attracting and retaining high-quality jobs and investments for the six-county Sacramento Region. "We are thrilled to have Neal's experience joining our highly skilled team at the Greater Sacramento Area Economic Council," said Barry Broome, President and CEO of Greater Sacramento. "He has in-depth real estate knowledge with many connections in the Bay Area that will help move Sacramento forward. Neal could choose to be anywhere in the world, and he chose the value proposition of the Sacramento Region because he believes in what we have to offer." Best will use his relationships he has developed in the Bay Area to assist in efforts to keep jobs not only in the Sacramento region, but throughout the state of California. The Bay Area has been targeted by competitor states like Texas, Colorado and Utah due to aggressive recruitment campaigns. Greater Sacramento will target California-based companies considering out-of-state relocation and promote the region as a competitive California option. Best will focus on the many advantages of locating to California's Capital Region by applying his commercial real estate expertise. "I've lived and worked in Dublin, London and San Francisco, but the Sacramento Region is where I've decided I can best put my skills to use," Best said. "The more I've learned about the market and the region, the more impressed I am with what it has to offer. Sacramento has a highly educated, young workforce and I am excited by the possibility of helping to retain and grow talent in the region." Best will also drive six national trade missions to competitive markets across the United States. The Six Greater Sacramento "Road Shows" will travel to New York, Chicago, Dallas, Seattle, Atlanta, Los Angeles and the Bay Area over the next twelve months. These economic trade missions will include public and private-sector members of the Greater Sacramento Board of Directors, and are designed to promote and increase awareness of the Sacramento Region on a national scale. "On a personal level, the Sacramento region was appealing because my children can go to top public schools and with the comparative affordability of housing to the Bay Area, it provides us with an uncompromised lifestyle not to mention the proximity to Lake Tahoe, world class wineries and unrivaled leisure activities on my door step," said Best. Best relocated to the United States in 2013 having led the European Retail Research and Consultancy team for Cushman & Wakefield in London. He most recently worked for the company in its Strategic Consulting Group in San Francisco. Best is a licensed California Real Estate Broker with extensive experience in geo-demographic and labor market analysis, allowing him to advise large corporations on strategies for their real estate portfolios, new market entry and headquarter relocations. He graduated from Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh with a Bachelor of Science degree (with honors) in Estate Management. He also holds a Master's of Science degree in Applied Geographical Information Science (GIS) from Kingston University in London. About the Greater Sacramento Area Economic Council The Greater Sacramento Area Economic Council is the catalyst for innovative growth strategies in the Capital Region of California. The organization spearheads community-led direction to retain, attract, grow, and scale new businesses, develop advanced industries, and create jobs and investment throughout a six-county region. Greater Sacramento represents a collaboration between local and state governments, market leaders, influencers, and stakeholders, with the sole mission of driving economic growth. The Sacramento Region was founded on discovery, built on leadership, and fueled by innovation. Welcome to the New California Dream. For more information, visit selectsacramento.com. Contact: Michelle Willard Email: [email protected] Cell Phone: 813.951.2796 Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160808/396476 Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160128/327263LOGO SOURCE Greater Sacramento Area Economic Council MINNEAPOLIS, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- General Mills brand Totino's has announced the launch of two new tasty products, Totino's Pizza Sticks and Totino's Stuffed Nachos, as part of an effort to give consumers bold and diverse flavors that fit into their busy, on-the-go lifestyles. With the new flavor varieties, Totino's is not only tapping into Millennials' desire and craving for unique taste experiences, but their habit for replacing meals with snacks as well. Fans can expect to find both tasty offerings in retailers nationwide in August. Totino's(TM) debuts two new products, Stuffed Nachos and Pizza Sticks, giving millennials more convenient snack options that fit into their busy, on-the-go lifestyles. "We asked and our consumers told us they look for adventurous, new flavors from their favorite snacks that help them indulge in the things they love doing," said Brad Hiranaga, director of marketing at Totino's. "Stuffed Nachos take the nacho experience to the next level. They come in tasty Mexican flavors that are perfect for snacking any time of day. Pizza Sticks are portable pizza snacks that help provide a delicious option for our consumers' fun, on-the-go lives." TOTINO'S PIZZA STICKS Totino's Pizza Sticks are available in a unique stick form, perfect for on-the-go snacking. Pizza Sticks are ready in the microwave in 60 seconds and are available in pepperoni or cheese flavor with a delicious golden, soft crust. Built for convenience, Totino's Pizza Sticks are sealed within individually-wrapped microwavable portable pouches that allow for quick and easy, mess-free snacking. They are unapologetically fun and tasty! TOTINO'S STUFFED NACHOS Totino's Stuffed Nachos will launch again in August offering two new bold and tasty nacho flavors; Supreme with taco seasoned chicken and beef, red bell peppers and jalapenos, and Queso with cheese filing, onions and red bell peppers. Totino's Stuffed Nachos have a unique triangular shape, crispy crust and bold, savory Mexican-inspired flavors for a fun snacking experience to satisfy your nacho craving without the mess. Totino's has been making delicious pizza and pizza snacks for more than 50 years that deliver bite-sized fun people can't seem to get enough of. For more information about Totino's product offerings visit www.Totinos.com, and follow along on Twitter at @Totinos and on Facebook. About Totino's Totino's began in 1951 when Rose and Jim Totino opened Totino's Restaurant in Northeast Minneapolis. The restaurant was such a success that in 1962, Totino's built a frozen pizza plant in Fridley, MN to support their fast growing retail business. Totino's was sold to Pillsbury in 1975 and later acquired by General Mills. Born in the Midwest over 50 years ago, Totino's has been bringing tasty goodness to more Americans every day and will continue to do so with new product launches. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160805/396007 Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160414/355527LOGO SOURCE Totino's Related Links http://www.Totinos.com NEW YORK, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- TVSquared has closed a $3 million investment round from both existing and new investors, including private equity fund West Coast Capital. This latest round brings the total raised to date by the global business to $5.5 million. Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160809/396731LOGO TVSquared's platform brings same-day campaign measurement and optimization to the $180 billion global TV advertising industry. Underscoring its market lead, TVSquared's technology is deployed at 350 brands in 46 countries, improving TV campaign efficiency by 20-80%. TVSquared also announced Chris van der Kuyl as its chairman. van der Kuyl, a serial technology entrepreneur, leads a Board of industry professionals from the worlds of media, technology and investment, including Calum Smeaton (founder and CEO, TVSquared), Paul Davidson (West Coast Capital), Peter Kern (InterMedia Partners) and Joan Saywood (CFO, TVSquared). Commenting on West Coast Capital's investment, Davidson said: "Data analytics is a space we understand extremely well and, in assessing TVSquared, we saw a compelling analytics technology capable of making significant ROI for clients. Compelling technology, an experienced team and a global play made this an exciting investment." van der Kuyl added: "TVSquared's technology is changing the way advertisers, across the world, leverage TV. It has two of the most important ingredients for success the ability to disrupt a global industry and a proven team of talented people. As chairman, I look forward to helping TVSquared expand its footprint and realize further significant growth." Smeaton said: "TVSquared has made TV an optimizable marketing channel and the industry is taking notice. The latest round of funding, combined with our technology, global team and Board, puts TVSquared in the perfect position to change the way advertisers measure and optimize TV forever." About TVSquared TVSquared provides same-day measurement and optimization opportunities for TV advertisers. With TVSquared's timely insights into the "who, what, when and where" of TV, brands, agencies and networks proactively improve campaign performance. On average, TVSquared clients optimize campaigns by 25%, reduce cost per response by 25% and increase sales and registrations by 30%. The company is headquartered in Edinburgh, and has offices in New York, Los Angeles and London. This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. For more info visit: http://www.newswire.com SOURCE TVSquared Related Links http://www.tvsquared.com BOSTON, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- PatientPing, a groundbreaking health technology company that allows health care providers to get notified in real-time when their patients receive care elsewhere, announced today that it is partnering with UMass Memorial Health Care on a data-sharing initiative in the state of Massachusetts. This partnership represents a massive step forward in achieving higher quality care through better patient care coordination in a state whose efforts thus far have been challenged by competitive barriers. "The relationship between PatientPing and UMass Memorial showcases our stance as an innovator that adopts technology that we know will improve care coordination efforts for both our patients and our caregivers," said Eric Dickson, MD, UMass Memorial Health Care president and CEO. "This is an exciting time in health care, and we are thrilled to be at the forefront of the conversation in Massachusetts." PatientPing aims to enhance medical information transparency between once disconnected health care providers by implementing its technology to improve patient care. Upon joining PatientPing, providers receive "pings," or real-time notifications, whenever their patients receive care at a wide range of facilities in Massachusetts and beyond. At the facility where patients are getting care, providers receive care instructions that include contact information for others on the patient's care team as well as patient visit histories. By sharing this information in real time, providers can seamlessly coordinate their patient's care. "UMass Memorial has demonstrated outstanding leadership and commitment to improving quality of patient care by removing the data silos between itself and other health care providers that serve its patients," said Jay Desai, co-founder & CEO, PatientPing. "This represents a key turning point in health data-sharing conversation. We are starting to see once-competitive providers let down their walls so they can work together on shared patients. Massachusetts patients will benefit tremendously through this improved care coordination. For example, we'll avoid duplicative procedures and ensure that patients receive timely follow-up care when they are discharged from the hospital." Early data shows that a significant number of patients who receive care at UMass Memorial member hospitals also receive care from providers scattered throughout New England. Since the partnership began, over 200 New England provider organizations, stretching from Vermont to Connecticut, have cared for over 3,000 patients who have also visited UMass Memorial member hospitals. The PatientPing technology bridges the silos between all of these unaffiliated providers, allowing them to collaborate to provide better care at lower cost. PatientPing's nationwide community includes more than 15,000 providers and has a presence in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Vermont and New Hampshire. PatientPing is backed by Google Ventures, F-Prime Capital (the VC funds of FMR LLC, the parent company of Fidelity), and First Round Capital. PatientPing is rapidly accelerating its nationwide expansion so that any two or more providers that share patients anywhere in the country can simply coordinate with one another. About UMass Memorial Health Care UMass Memorial Health Care is the largest not-for-profit health care system in Central Massachusetts with more than 12,900 employees and 1,670 physicians, many of whom are members of UMass Memorial Medical Group. Our member hospitals and entities include Clinton Hospital, HealthAlliance Hospital, Marlborough Hospital, UMass Memorial Medical Center and Community Healthlink, our behavioral health agency. With our teaching and research partner, the University of Massachusetts Medical School, our extensive primary care network and our cancer, diabetes, heart and vascular, and musculoskeletal programs, UMass Memorial delivers safe, high-quality and compassionate care. Call 855-UMASS-MD (855-862-7763) for all your health care needs. Visit umassmemorialhealthcare.org. About PatientPing PatientPing is a Boston-based health technology company that is building a national community of engaged providers who are sharing information, coordinating care, and working together to get patients healthier faster. By joining the PatientPing community, providers get notified in real-time when their patients receive care elsewhere and are able to share care instructions with other providers. PatientPing's national care coordination community includes physicians, nurses, case managers, and care coordinators across hospitals, emergency departments, accountable care organizations (ACOs), physician practices, skilled nursing facilities, home health agencies, inpatient rehabilitation centers, payers and other providers. By connecting care teams through real-time information sharing, PatientPing enables providers to deliver higher quality and more cost-effective care, improving patient outcomes and experience. For more information, please visit www.patientping.com. Dominic Amenta | DPA Communications 781-789-5074 | [email protected] SOURCE PatientPing Related Links http://www.patientping.com "It is an honor to be recognized as the best in the region yet again," said Stuart Markowitz, M.D., president, Hartford Hospital; senior vice president, Hartford HealthCare. "Our commitment and reputation for excellence is cemented in the region thanks to the dedication of each Hartford Hospital staff member. Every day this team delivers the best possible care in the safest and most compassionate way. Our journey to excellence is a team effort, and we are so thankful to our staff and the patients who trust us with their care." U.S. News & World Report recently changed its methodology making it much more difficult to achieve a rank in "High Performing" banners. The new methodology recognizes the best of the bestthe top ten percent and Hartford Hospital ranks high-performing in five specialties and seven procedures: High Performing Specialties: Diabetes and endocrinology Gastroenterology and GI Surgery Nephrology Orthopedics Pulmonology High Performing Procedures: Aortic valve surgery COPD Colon cancer surgery Heart bypass surgery Heart failure Hip replacement Knee replacement A complete outline of how the new methodology works can be found here. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center is ranked # 2 in the nation among the top the hospitals specializing in cancer care. This marks the 27th year that MSK has been recognized as one of the nation's top 2 cancer hospitals. The Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute is proud to be the charter member of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Alliance. The Cancer Institute is comprised of five cancer centers one at each of Hartford HealthCare's acute care hospitals across Connecticut. The rankings, available at www.usnews.com/best-hospitals, will appear in the U.S. News "Best Hospitals 2017" guidebook (ISBN 978-1-931469-678), available in August from the U.S. News Store. About Hartford Hospital Hartford Hospital, founded in 1854, is one of the largest teaching hospitals and tertiary care centers in New England with one of the region's busiest surgery practices. It is annually ranked among America's Best Hospitals by US News & World Report and has been recognized nationally for the quality of many of its programs, including cardiology, cancer, stroke and joint and spine care. The 867-bed regional referral center provides high-quality care in all clinical disciplines. Among its divisions is The Institute of Living, a 114-bed mental health facility with a national and international reputation of excellence. Jefferson House, a 104-bed long-term care facility, is also a special division of Hartford Hospital. The hospital's major centers of clinical excellence include cardiology, oncology, emergency services and trauma, mental health, women's health, orthopedics, bloodless surgery and advanced organ transplantation. Hartford Hospital owns and operates the state's only air ambulance system, LIFE STAR. About U.S. News & World Report U.S. News & World Report is a digital news and information company that empowers people to make better, more informed decisions about important issues affecting their lives. Focusing on Education, Health, Personal Finance, Travel, Cars and News & Opinion, www.usnews.com provides consumer advice, rankings, news and analysis to serve people making complex decisions throughout all stages of life. 30 million people visit www.usnews.com each month for research and guidance. Founded in 1933, U.S. News is headquartered in Washington, D.C. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160804/395633 SOURCE Hartford HealthCare Related Links https://hartfordhealthcare.org SALT LAKE CITY, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Global nutritional supplement company USANA has once again been recognized in the 2016 Direct Selling Association (DSA) Code of Ethics Communication Initiative for taking its ethical business practices to the next level within the direct sales industry. This year's recognition marks the seventh consecutive year USANA has been named to the initiative, whose purpose is to encourage and promote the education and communication of the DSA Code of Ethics among member companies, members of the field and the general public. "USANA takes ethical business practices very seriouslythat is why we are proud to be a part of such an important initiative," said Dan Whitney, vice president of ethics and market expansion. "Every year, we voluntarily participate in the Code of Ethics Communication Initiative because of our commitment to the highest level of ethics in operating a direct sales business. Being accepted to this initiative is a testament that USANA wants all of its customers and the public to know about the code that guides ethical business practices and consumer services in this remarkable industry." Created in 2008, the initiative recognizes member companies that go above and beyond in their efforts to promote awareness of the code by fulfilling the necessary criteria and adhering to ethical business practices within direct sales. The initiative encourages companies to be truthful about their products, services, identity and privacy. It seeks to eliminate deceptive or unlawful consumer or recruiting practices and creates an environment of ethical business practices. To qualify for recognition, USANA had to complete at least five of 16 recommended activities before March of this calendar year, but went above and beyond and completed seven. USANA's qualifications were then reviewed by DSA staff and verified by DSA's code administrator. About USANA Founded in 1992, USANA Health Sciences (NYSE: USNA) is a U.S.-based nutritional company that manufactures high-quality supplements, personal care and healthy products in its FDA-registered facility in Salt Lake City. Learn more about USANA by visiting our website http://www.usana.com or the official USANA blog http://whatsupusana.com. Media Contact: Ashley Collins Executive Director of PR, Social Media and Communications (801) 954-7629 media(at)us.usana(dot)com Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120807/LA53885LOGO SOURCE USANA Health Sciences Related Links https://www.usana.com ATLANTA and WASHINGTON, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- A new report funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates that the National Accuracy Clearinghouse (NAC), a state-to-state data sharing program, could save up to $193.4 million annually by reducing dual participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), if used by states nationwide. The report, prepared by Public Consulting Group (PCG), evaluated the effectiveness of the NAC's pilot program in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi. The report stated: "A strong argument can be made that the pilot savings and the NAC's potential warrant continuation and expansion of the project." The NAC is a technology-based solution developed by LexisNexis Risk Solutions to identify dual participation across states and public assistance programs through a shared database of eligibility information that is updated daily. The project, led by the State of Mississippi, initially was funded by a $2.5 million grant from the USDA's Food and Nutrition Service. Although the NAC was developed and piloted in these five states, it was designed for expansion to other states, as well as other programs (e.g., Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF); Medicaid; Unemployment Insurance; Public Housing; etc.).1 "The USDA's Food and Nutrition Service has saved millions in just the five states participating so far," says Haywood Talcove, CEO, Government, LexisNexis Risk Solutions. "We are excited the report found that the NAC performed brilliantly and has been recommended to create multi-state data sharing models nationwide. We are proud that our advanced computing, linking and identity matching technology enabled this successful public project." The report focused on four key findings: Has the NAC resulted in a reduction in dual SNAP participation? The report reviewed dual participation rates before and after the pilot and found that a reduction occurred in each of the pilot states. For example, Alabama and Mississippi each experienced an 81 percent reduction in dual participation, followed by Louisiana , which saw a 71 percent decline in dual participation. How effective have states been in utilizing the NAC to prevent dual SNAP participation? All the pilot states successfully utilized the NAC to achieve reductions in dual participation. The report found that Alabama and Mississippi's prevention efforts have been "extremely successful (sic), with consistently less than 10 percent of possible instances resulting in dual participation." Each participating state identified significant value through the use of a real-time solution that identifies dual participants prior to benefit issuance. How does the NAC compare to the use of the current Public Assistance Reporting and Information System ( PARIS )? The report found that the NAC is "a more robust and effective means for curbing SNAP dual participation." It indicated the NAC had the following strengths in comparison to PARIS : "in the capacity to support the prevention of dual participation, supports constructive interstate communication, allows for easier identification of 'false positives,' and identifies individuals that would not be flagged by matching only Social Security Numbers." What is the NAC's return on investment? The report noted that the "pilot-wide net impact of the NAC totals more than $5.6 million " in just the five pilot states in SNAP overpayment prevention. The report indicated "that this estimate is conservative it focuses on the prevention of dual participation and not early (nearly immediate) detection that the NAC can also support" The NAC also identified over $4.4 million in improper payments during its initial identification of dual participants. Since the pilot period ended in June 2015, the NAC has been saving the five states an estimated $5.6 million per year. Additionally, LexisNexis Risk Solutions began accepting data at that time from new states and Health and Human Services (HHS) programs to determine their impact and savings as the NAC expands and adds these new states and HHS programs to the solution. "Leveraging outside data sources and looking at each component of an identity as it is submitted, the NAC states have been able to benefit from a wealth of identity intelligence," said Richard Grape, NAC Director, State and Local Government HHS Programs, LexisNexis Risk Solutions. "While cross-program savings are currently undergoing evaluation, all indications reveal substantial cost savings for public assistance programs significantly beyond those currently witnessed in SNAP." The report was submitted to the Committee on Agriculture of the House of Representatives, and the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry of the Senate, under Section 4032(c) of the Agricultural Act of 2014, following completion of the pilot program. For more information on the NAC, please visit www.NationalAccuracyClearinghouse.com. About LexisNexis Risk Solutions LexisNexis Risk Solutions is a leader in providing essential information that helps customers across industries and government predict, assess and manage risk. Combining cutting-edge technology, unique data and advanced analytics, LexisNexis Risk Solutions provides products and services that address evolving client needs in the risk sector while upholding the highest standards of security and privacy. LexisNexis Risk Solutions is part of RELX Group plc, a world-leading provider of information and analytics for professional and business customers across industries. http://www.lexisnexis.com/risk/ 1 Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) for the Interstate Data Exchange between Participating States Utilizing the National Accuracy Clearinghouse (NAC) *** SNAP and DSNAP *** Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160120/324390LOGO SOURCE LexisNexis Risk Solutions Related Links http://www.lexisnexis.com/risk/ ASHEVILLE, N.C., Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- SimplyHome, LLC, a leader in the field of customized assistive technology, is pleased to announce that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has awarded them a $200,000 Specially Adapted Housing Assistive Technology (SAHAT) Grant to develop a new platform simplifying the user experience of voice commands to control assistive technology in the home environment of Veterans and Servicemembers. The purpose of the SAHAT Grant Program, authorized by Congress, is to expand home modification options for Veterans who apply for VA's Specially Adapted Housing (SAH) benefit, and to augment their options for living independently in their own homes. When using the new SimplyHome platform, Veterans and Servicemembers with physical disabilities will be able to issue single voice commands to accomplish complex sequences of pre-customized actions. A single command such as "time to go to bed" can lock doors, set the thermostat, and turn off lights in the home. "Empowering our Veterans to control their home environments is important not only for the quality of life of the individual Veteran and his/her family, but also vital to maintaining the fabric of our communities that depend on these Servicemembers," says Jason Ray, Vice President of Business Development at SimplyHome. While the platform that will be developed through the VA Grant is new, SimplyHome has been providing innovative in-home assistive technology solutions since 2004. These solutions address a broad range of concerns, including the management of an individual's medication, home environment, and health, and can provide immediate notifications to family members or caregivers of the individual. North Carolina State Senator Thom Tillis and State Representative Mark Meadows recently expressed their support of the VA grant. Tillis attested, "As our communities face an increasing demand for this technology, I believe that SimplyHome will help meet the technological advancements needed." In a recent Benefits and Services report published by the VA, more than 4,000,000 Veterans received Disability Compensation in 2015. The SAHAT Grant project, totaling $783,421, will be in effect through September 30, 2017. About SimplyHome: SimplyHome designs and installs wireless technology products and related care-focused services. The company is committed to providing affordable and dignified solutions for independent living specifically to aging and disabled populations nationwide. SimplyHome is known for its highly customizable systems that are tailored to meet each individual's specific needs. To learn more about SimplyHome, visit our website or email [email protected]. This article was funded in part by a grant from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. The opinions, findings and conclusions stated herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. Media Contact: Kristen Suttles, 1-828-684-8441, [email protected] SOURCE SimplyHome, LLC Related Links http://www.simply-home.com BOSTON, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Veolia in North America through its subsidiary (Veolia ES Alaron, L.L.C.) has partnered with customer Mitsubishi Nuclear Energy Systems (MNES), Inc. to build a training facility at Veolia's Alaron Nuclear Services site in Wampum, Pa. MNES will conduct hands-on training and qualification of the Mitsubishi Water Jet Peening (WJP) process in the facility's radiological controlled environment. Completed at the end of May 2016, Veolia built the facility at its radioactive-licensed site to allow MNES, the U.S.-based nuclear subsidiary of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., to train engineers on its water jet peening process. By building the facility at the Alaron site, MNES is able to provide training under realistic plant environments with actual WJP equipment in advance of project implementation, thereby presenting a highly qualified workforce to its own customers' worksites. "We are pleased we could help MNES provide an authentic training setting for their engineers," said Bob Cappadona, senior vice president for Veolia North America Industrial Business. "When we have the opportunity to help our customers achieve operational and workforce excellence, we take it. It's a way for us to reinforce our commitment to them and ultimately develop stronger, mutually beneficial relationships." Earlier this year, Veolia acquired Kurion, a nuclear facility cleanup specialist credited for stabilizing Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in the wake of the 2011 tsunami. Branded Kurion Veolia, it is Veolia's worldwide nuclear services division providing an integrated offering in nuclear facility cleanup and treatment of low and medium-level radioactive waste. Veolia's Alaron Nuclear Services will roll up into Kurion Veolia at the start of 2017. Veolia group is the global leader in optimized resource management. With over 174,000 employees worldwide, the Group designs and provides water, waste and energy management solutions that contribute to the sustainable development of communities and industries. Through its three complementary business activities, Veolia helps to develop access to resources, preserve available resources, and to replenish them. In 2014, the group Veolia supplied 96 million people with drinking water and 60 million people with wastewater service, produced 52 million megawatt hours of energy and converted 31 million metric tons of waste into new materials and energy. Veolia Environnement (listed on Paris Euronext: VIE) recorded consolidated revenue of $30.3 billion in 2015. www.veolia.com SOURCE Veolia Related Links http://www.veolia.com NEW YORK, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- International luxury travel network Virtuoso is answering the question on everyone's minds: what are the hottest upscale destinations for this year's holiday season? Acknowledged as a prominent trend predictor in the industry, Virtuoso has sourced data from its warehouse of more than $35 billion in transactions to disclose the top destinations for the coming fall and holiday period. Luxury travelers are remaining true to European favorites, while turning their attention to warmer climes as the weather shifts at home. They also are seeking out more exotic locales worldwide, including a boom for African countries. The Virtuoso Top 10: The most popular fall and holiday travel destinations based on future bookings. 1. Italy 2. France 3. United Kingdom 4. South Africa 5. Spain 6. Mexico 7. China 8. Australia 9. New Zealand 10. Israel The Top 10 analysis: Europe's unrivaled popularity for summer travel continues into the fall. Travelers are enjoying lower average daily rates (ADRs) at Virtuoso partner hotels in major European cities as summer ends. In particular, Paris is down two percent ($1,087), Rome is six percent lower ($949), London is down seven percent ($704) and Barcelona comes in 15 percent lower than summer rates ($596). London and Barcelona in particular represent great value to travelers this fall and holiday season, as they are respectively 21 and 43 percent below the average ADR for Virtuoso partner properties in Europe, which is $853. Also noteworthy: Mexico's appeal as a warm-weather getaway for Americans and Canadians holds fast despite Zika cautions. Australia and New Zealand are always favored destinations once the Northern Hemisphere cools. In spite of continued Middle East unrest, Israel's popularity is undiminished. It is a sought-out destination not only for its religious significance, but also for its history, food, culture and adventure experiences. The Virtuoso Hot 10: The countries that have seen the largest percentage of growth in year-over-year bookings. 1. Kenya (+59%) 2. Iceland (+56%) 3. Saint Martin (+39%) 4. China (+35%) 5. Ecuador (+34%) 6. Japan (+32%) 7. South Africa (+28%) 8. Tanzania (+27%) 9. Croatia (+25%) 10. Jamaica (+23%) The Hot 10 analysis: Africa continues to surge in popularity, a continuation of the trend Virtuoso noted for summer travel. With sales up 28 percent year over year, Africa is the only continent to post such an increase. Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa, all strong safari destinations, will benefit from a projected 17 percent increase. According to Virtuoso's travel advisors, safaris are particularly appealing for multigenerational family trips with plenty to see and enjoy for travelers of all ages. Iceland has been a growing favorite in recent years, and its prominent showing on the Hot 10 proves that its popularity is extending into the fall. China has been trending upwards with luxury travelers over the past few years. While travel there is steady year round, the last quarter of the year is the most popular time for visitors, aided by ADRs that are five percent below average. Select Caribbean and South American destinations continue to see growth, with Saint Martin, Ecuador and Jamaica experiencing double-digit increases over last year. Data is drawn from Virtuoso's United States and Canadian-based travel agency members and reflects future travel for September through December 2016. The Top and Hot 10 lists represent international travel only, so neither the U.S. nor Canada is mentioned. The findings were announced during the annual Virtuoso Travel Week event taking place in Las Vegas. About Virtuoso Virtuoso is the leading international travel agency network specializing in luxury and experiential travel. This by-invitation-only organization comprises over 390 agency members with more than 11,400 elite travel advisors in 40 countries throughout North America, Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa and the Middle East. Drawing upon its preferred relationships with 1,700 of the world's best hotels and resorts, cruise lines, airlines, tour companies and premier destinations, the network provides its upscale clientele with exclusive amenities, rare experiences and privileged access. More than (U.S.) $15.5 billion in annual travel sales makes Virtuoso a powerhouse in the luxury travel industry. For more information, visit www.virtuoso.com. Media Contacts: Misty Ewing Belles Lauren Wintemberg Managing Director, Global Public Relations Account Manager Virtuoso Alice Marshall Public Relations 202.553.8817 212.861.4031 [email protected] [email protected] SOURCE Virtuoso Related Links http://www.virtuoso.com LOS ANGELES, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Waiakea Hawaiian Volcanic Water announced today the successful sponsorship of six new Elephant Pumps in rural Malawi through its longstanding partnership with Pump Aid. The pumps, which provide clean water to disadvantaged communities, have already transformed the lives of hundreds of individuals this year alone, resulting in more children in school, fewer water-borne illnesses, more nutritious food, and an increase in local employment. Since its founding in 2012, Waiakea Hawaiian Volcanic Water has implemented some of the most significant ethical and sustainability initiatives in its industry, its clean water projects being particularly impactful. Already, its alliance with Pump Aid has resulted in more than 500 million liters of donated water. "From the start, Waiakea has been on a mission to sustainably provide a healthy and delicious product, while also working toward better clean water access, conservation, and education for those in need," said Ryan Emmons, founder of Waiakea Hawaiian Volcanic Water. "It's a tall order, but through our work with both local programs here in Hawaii and larger initiatives, like our work with Pump Aid, we are getting closer and closer to our goal each day." A charitable organization dedicated to direct-to-community implementation of clean water supply and sanitation services, Pump Aid regularly establishes clean water producing "Elephant Pumps" throughout rural Africa. Once installed, the organization then teaches local villagers how to work and maintain the pumps, ensuring communities have safe water for life. For every liter of Waiakea that is sold, the premium water brand donates the equivalent of 650 liters of safe water through Pump Aid. "We are very proud of and grateful for the impact we've managed to make in Malawi with Pump Aid," said Emmons. "Some of these villages are incredibly smallas little as 48 peopleand so they often go unnoticed. But whether it is a village of hundreds of people, like Makata, or a smaller one, like Puwere, at the end of the day this is someone's home. All people deserve to have access to safe water and children should not have to worry whether or not the water they drink will make them sick. So far this year, we have sponsored six pumps in six communities. I'd like to see at least six more before the year is done." In addition to its impressive work with Pump Aid, Waiakea Hawaiian Volcanic Water is also regarded for its particularly sustainable and healthful water source. In fact, the naturally alkaline and electrolyte-rich water brand is the first of its kind to be certified CarbonNeutral for its outstanding eco-initiatives. To find out more about Waiakea Hawaiian Volcanic Water, please visit http://waiakeasprings.com. About Waiakea Hawaiian Volcanic Water Originating as both snowmelt and rain on the Big Island's Mauna Loa volcano, Waiakea Hawaiian Volcanic Water is filtered through thousands of feet of porous volcanic rock, producing one of the most delicious alkaline and electrolyte-rich natural waters in the world. The company was founded in Hawai'i in 2012, marking the first volcanic water brand of-its-kind to implement a triple bottom line platform grounded in award-winning health, sustainable, and ethical initiatives. Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160809/396864LOGO SOURCE Waiakea Hawaiian Volcanic Water Related Links http://www.waiakeasprings.com American Dream U has been answering the call and bridging the gap between military and civilian life since 2013, and now, national financial services firm Advisors Excel has joined the effort. The company, which offers a wide spectrum of services and support to independent financial professionals, has pledged $250,000 over the next two years to start a new initiative through American Dream U to help place newly inactive military members in careers in the financial services industry. "We were very excited to be able to partner with American Dream U," said Cody Foster, co-founder of Advisors Excel. "The members of our military have given the very best of themselves in their service to keep our country safe and it's our feeling that they deserve the very best in return. Beyond that, those who have served bring a high level of discipline, integrity and commitment to serving others, which are critical to a career in financial services. We would love to see those who are leaving the military consider a career in the financial services industry." American Dream U was the perfect partner to help open the door to a financial services career to members of the military and their families, Foster said. The organization provides active military, veterans and their spouses access to tools to help make the transition to civilian life, including an online education program, professional development counseling, a transition book highlighting veteran success stories, a start-up accelerator program, quarterly live events and monthly meet-ups on bases across the country. American Dream U helped Yandell, a 14-year Army combat veteran, successfully launch his own business, Uncommon Human, a human resources consultancy group dedicated to tackling business transitions. "This program has given me the confidence and desire to start a new amazing chapter in my life," said Yandell, U.S. Army Retired. "My future will be so much greater than my past. I now have the skills required to chase both my purpose and passion, I will not have to settle for a position, instead I will pursue the job that is the right fit for me. American Dream U assisted me in creating a robust network, finding a mentor and provided me the tools to reach my desired end state." Yandell is just one of nearly 20,000 military members transitioning out of the armed forces every month. It's estimated that a total of 220,000 military members will make that transition in 2016 alone. Many of them will have families to support, making the fear of an unknown future even more real. Phil Randazzo, founder of American Dream U, is committed to helping alleviate that fear for service men and women, who he says bring a highly desirable mix of character traits and skills to the job market. "Those who have served in our armed forces have all the qualities that make them outstanding employees and business owners," Randazzo said. "They can take direction, but are also quick on their feet; they can problem solve and bring a high level of intelligence, discipline, loyalty and ethics to whatever they do." He believes success stories like Yandell's are possible when companies like Advisors Excel get behind an organization like American Dream U. "With Advisors Excel's generous pledge of $250,000, we are excited to add a new financial service education initiative to the arsenal of tools we employ to help transition military, veterans and their families to civilian life," he said. About Advisors Excel: Advisors Excel was founded in 2005 by David Callanan, Cody Foster and Derek Thompson to bring unparalleled service to independent financial professionals while supporting every aspect of their business. Advisors Excel provides access to proprietary products, unequaled training, powerful marketing and lead generation support, as well as a culture in which many of the nation's top independent financial professionals continually refine their skills to better serve their valued clients. Through this holistic approach, Advisors Excel seeks to raise the expectations of these professionals, both for their own businesses and for the solutions they bring to the families and individuals with whom they work. About American Dream U: American Dream U is a non-profit dedicated to helping our military get the education and access to resources they need to find their dream job or to start a business of their own. Since its beginning, American Dream U has always focused on the very important mission of the career, business and professional development of our brothers in arms. Overall we are a team dedicated to bridging the gap between military and civilian life. We provide tools to active military, veterans and their spouses. The arsenal of tools we provide is always growing and includes: national events, professional leadership and mentorship speeches, monthly meet-ups, an online educational program, a transition book that highlights veteran success stories and a start-up accelerator program. For more information: Tracey Stratton, Advisors Excel 866.363.9595 [email protected] Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160808/396525 Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150903/263647LOGO SOURCE Advisors Excel Related Links http://www.advisorsexcel.com TAMPA, Fla., Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- WilsonHCG, a global talent solutions leader, today announced it has received two recognitions from Profiles in Diversity Journal. CEO John Wilson has been named a 2016 CEO in Action and Kim Pope, executive vice president of recruitment solutions, was recognized in the 2016 Women Worth Watching. "These recognitions are truly an honor, and a testament to our commitment to fostering a diverse and inclusive culture," Wilson said. "Building a culture on an open and transparent foundation that encourages individuals to contribute ideas freely at all levels within the organization is critical not only to maintain an engaged workforce but exceed customer expectations." WilsonHCG believes that promoting a diverse and inclusive corporate culture, which goes beyond the traditional dimensions of diversity to include diversity of thought and experience, begins with leadership and the executive team. Profiles in Diversity Journal's CEO in Action award articulates Wilson's commitment to that collaboration alongside appreciation are the keys to company success. Wilson understands that a diverse workforce builds a dynamic company and enables people to thrive, which in turn has a lasting effect on innovation and growth. WilsonHCG executive vice president of recruitment solutions, Kim Pope, was also honored for her commitment to inclusion with Profiles in Diversity Journal's 2016 Women Worth Watching list. "I am grateful to be named to the 2016 Women Worth Watching list and want to continue spreading the message that it is our job as leaders to mentor younger generations, drive engagement and encourage young women to always reach for more," Pope said. "At WilsonHCG it is our goal to provide leadership opportunities and development for employees across all tenures and departments. As an executive, I am proud to help set the example and continue encouraging others to forge ahead." Profiles in Diversity Journal's 15th Annual Women Worth Watching Awards celebrates the women forging ahead with global acclaim and making a difference not only in their workplace but around the world. Pope was recognized for her dedication to driving WilsonHCG's global growth strategy and her commitment to helping the next generation of women leaders. Pope, along with the other winners, will be profiled in an upcoming issue of Profiles in Diversity Journal. For a full list of winners, visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2016/06/prweb13498830.htm ABOUT WILSONHCG WilsonHCG is a global talent solutions leader that operates on the principle of providing true partnership to its clients. Delivering business-impacting talent solutions including recruitment process outsourcing (RPO), talent consulting, contingent workforce solutions and executive search WilsonHCG is transforming its clients' businesses through their talent. Founded in 2002, the company's global headquarters is located in Tampa, Florida. While optimizing clients' talent strategies is essential, WilsonHCG recognizes the relationships it develops lead to the results its clients realize. Better People, Better Business. Contact: Jessica Lang, (813) 280-7746, [email protected] Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110823/FL55876LOGO SOURCE WilsonHCG Related Links http://www.wilsonhcg.com With a clear vision and understanding that technology drives the real estate industry forward, Century 21 New Millennium offers its agents access to libraries of digital forms powered by zipLogix technology. The engine driving its agent's transactions is zipForm Plus, the industry-leading digital forms platform, offering many time-saving features and functionality. Empowered with zipForm Plus, Century 21 New Millennium agents can easily take a client from initial purchase agreement to the closing table and never need a piece of paper. "In real estate, forms are a universal necessity for every agent, and zipLogix has really cracked the code when it comes to delivering a digital transaction platform," said Century 21 New Millennium Chief Executive Officer Todd Hetherington. "We've tested multiple solutions from other vendors, and the products and features available from zipLogix are easily the best in the business." "The best aspect of working with zipLogix has been the timely delivery of updates to better meet our needs," he said. "Having updates delivered in days, not in quarters, provides our brokerage a clear competitive advantage. I am very proud to say our relationship with zipLogix has been more partnership than purchase." "Delivering products that produce results and exceed the expectations of our users are what drives our company," said zipLogix Chairman of the Board Mark Peterson. "We look forward to growing our relationship with Century 21 New Millennium, and continuing to see their agents leverage our technology to their competitive advantage." To learn how zipLogix can elevate your brokerage above the competition, please call (866) 693-6767 or visit www.ziplogix.com/company/salescontact.asp. CENTURY 21 New Millennium, www.c21nm.com, is a full service real estate brokerage in the greater Washington, D.C. area. In addition to its Capitol Hill location in Washington, D.C., the company has branch offices in Alexandria, Centreville, Culpeper, Fredericksburg, Gainesville, Loudoun, McLean, Stafford, and Woodbridge, Virginia. Maryland offices are located in Annapolis, Columbia, La Plata, Lexington Park, Lusby, Prince Frederick and Waldorf. The company, which specializes in residential and luxury properties, joined the CENTURY 21 System in 1998 and has established a sound and successful organization providing traditional residential and commercial services, on-site mortgage, title, property management, and access to a vast network of relocation and other real estate service providers worldwide. With seventeen locations and approximately 750 real estate professionals, New Millennium is consistently included in REALTOR Magazine's Top 100 Companies List for all real estate firms nationwide regardless of brand. It is also a past winner of the prestigious Cartus Masters Cup, the Network's highest honor. The Cartus Broker Network is the largest relocation network in the world and includes more than 775 hand selected brokerages in the United States. Fraser, Mich.-based zipLogix is a technology company created by, owned by and working for real estate professionals to improve productivity and efficiency industry wide. Its software automates and simplifies the repetitive and complex steps of real estate transactions, and is used by more than 650,000 real estate professionals across the country. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160808/396376 Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160808/396377LOGO Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160614/379285LOGO SOURCE zipLogix Related Links http://www.ziplogix.com New Delhi, Aug 4 : The Lok Sabha on Thursday approved an additional spending of Rs 1.03 lakh crore by the central government during the current fiscal, including a cash outgo of Rs 20,948.26 crore based on the Supplementary Demand for Grants moved by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. During the debate, Jaitley said the states and central government need to stick to their fiscal expenditure. "We need to optimise tax revenues at central and state level. I am hopeful we will maintain our projections as far as fiscal deficit is concerned," he said. "The Union government needs funds. Pay commission has put a burden of Rs 1.03 lakh crore, OROP (one rank one pension) has put a burden of Rs 12,000 crore," he said. The spending is in addition to the total expenditure of Rs 19.78 lakh crore, consisting of Rs 5.50 lakh crore under Plan and Rs 14.28 lakh crore under Non-Plan, projected in the Union Budget 2016-17. The Supplementary Demands for Grants for 2016-17 include Rs 5,000 crore towards the National Employment Guarantee Fund and Rs 1,000 crore for funding the Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves for Sovereign Strategic Crude Oil Reserve at Vizag, Mangalore and Pudur. The Demands For Grants also include Rs 40,000 crore as Ways and Means Advance to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to meet the working capital requirements towards procurement of food grain for targeted public distribution system. It also includes Rs 5,000 crore towards the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), Rs 2,000 crore to states affected by natural calamities like hailstorm and non-seasonal rain under the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF), and Rs 31,957 crore to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways under various heads. Tehran, Aug 4 : Iranian authorities executed 20 Sunni prisoners at the Rajai Shahr Prison near here in a single day, Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri said. The prisoners were executed on Tuesday after an Iranian court convicted them of crimes including homicide and endangering national security, Montazeri was cited as telling the media. "These people had murdered women and children, caused destruction and acted against state security," he said. "They killed Sunni religious leaders in several Kurdish regions." The Iran Human Rights watchdog deplored the executions and called on the international community to condemn them. New Delhi, Aug 4 : Cutting across party lines, states across the country have expressed willingness to join hands with the central government in rolling out the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime -- but with riders to protect their interests. The GST bill, which was long stuck in the Rajya Sabha where the Narendra Modi government did not possess a majority, was finally passed by parliament's upper house on Wednesday. The Lok Sabha had passed it last year. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee sought that as states wanted to give relief to micro and small businesses, they must remain under the control of the states. Endorsing Banerjee's views, West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra said the GST's primary focus was to benefit micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). "In the single-tax regime, MSMEs must be benefitted. Bigger industries can manage a multiple-tax regime but smaller players are fed up with multiple taxes," said Mitra, who is also Chairman of the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers on the GST regime, in Kolkata. "Dual control will be allowed for entities with annual turnover of more than Rs 1.5 crore, while small players, with less than Rs 1.5 crore annual turnover, will be in the state's control," he said. Terming the passage of the GST Bill unanimously a historic moment, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said as the GST was the brainchild of the earlier UPA government, the NDA regime had to amend the Bill to meet the demands of the Congress in order to safeguard the interests of the people and the states. "The GST Bill was originally drafted by the UPA government to usher in the concept of aone nation, one tax. As the NDA government's Bill had some lacunae, our party suggested certain amendments, which were conceded for its smooth passage in a bipartisan spirit," he told reporters in Bengaluru. Siddaramaiah, who also holds the finance portfolio, said Karnataka was ready to implement the GST regime from April 1, 2017. Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh also said it was the previous Congress-led UPA government that conceived the GST Bill, while rincipal Secretary Finance Shrikant Baldi said the state would definitely be benefitted with the GST. Bharatiya Janata Party MP Anurag Thakur, who is from Himachal, said the GST would have a positive impact on the Indian economy. Haryana Finance Minister Capt Abhimanyu announced that the state was prepared to implement the GST regime. "The state excise and taxation department was preparing a roadmap to implement the GST regime. The concerned officials have been imparted training on how to implement it effectively," he told reporters in Chandigarh. Political parties and their leaders in Odisha expressed hope that the GST Bill would bring tax reforms in the country. "The GST Bill will bring uniform tax rate throughout the country and help in seamless movement of goods and services across the states," Odisha Finance Minister Pradeep Amat said in Bhubaneshwar, adding that the GST regime would provide more relief to the economy, industry, trade and agriculture. "The state will also be empowered to tax on services," Amat asserted. In Kerala, Jose Sebastian of the Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation said the e-commerce segment would come under the tax net in the GST regime. "Being a consumer state, Kerala will get Rs 4,000 crore every year once GST is in place. When GST become a reality, tax revenue which has been going to states from where the goods were purchased, will come to our state," Sebsatian told IANS in Thiruvananthapuram. CII's Kerala State Council chairman Harikrishanan Nair said traders would benefit from GST on account of zero rate tax on exports. In Maharashtra, Gera Developments Managing Director and CREDAI Vice President Rohit Gera said the GST, should take care of home buyers by ensuring it does not increase the cost by raising the tax incidence on them. SBI Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya said in Mumbai that GST would result in efficiencies by enabling seamless movement of goods and integration of markets across the country. "The structural transformation of GST in the long term will be enormous and our bank is fully geared to meet the implementation challenges and the necessary IT support will be in place in due time," she added. (with inputs from Kolkata, Bengaluru, Shimla, Chandigarh, Bhubaneshwar, Thiruvananthapuram and Mumbai). New Delhi, Aug 8 : A national-level gold medallist athlete has been arrested on the charge of helping a dreaded gangster escape from police custody, Delhi Police said on Monday. Accused Parveen Panchi alias Lara, 22, was arrested on August 5 from Narela in west Delhi for helping Jitender escape when four armed Delhi Police guards were escorting him for appearance in a Narwana court in Haryana on July 30. Panchi, a resident of Sonepat in Haryana, was a gold medallist in 400 metres race in a national-level meet in 2013. Panchi committed the crime with the help of accomplices Gulshan, Sanjay, Rohit, Mohit, Boxer, Deepak, Irfaan and two others. "The gang snatched a car from Bawana (west Delhi) to commit the crime. Most of them were armed with weapons," Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Ravindra Yadav said. Panchi told the police that he along with two others boarded the bus in which Jitender was being taken for court appearance from the Maharana Pratap Inter-State Bus Terminus in Delhi. "On the way, another accomplice boarded the bus and kept its back door open, as planned. "The bus was intercepted by other armed assailants in two cars near Bahadurgarh in Haryana. They threw chilli powder in the eyes of the police escort party members and whisked away Jitender. They also robbed an automatic firearm from policemen," Yadav said. Two accused -- Boxer and Mohit-- were arrested in the case on August 2. Kolkata, Aug 8 : The Calcutta High Court on Monday rejected the anticipatory bail plea of veteran Congress legislator Manas Bhunia who is an accused in the murder of a Trinamool Congress activist in West Bengal's West Midnapore district. Bhunia was named as one of the prime accused by the family of Joydeb Jana who was allegedly murdered in Sabang in April during the assembly polls. A former state Congress chief, Bhunia moved the high court after a West Midnapore court rejected his anticipatory bail in June . However, he also failed to obtain any relief with a division bench of Justice Nadira Patherya rejecting his plea. Notwithstanding the party's growing difference with him, state Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury extended support to Bhunia. "The court order is unfortunate but the entire party stands behind Bhunia. The people of Sabang as well as we all know that Bhunia can't be a murderer. He has been falsely implicated by the Trinamool in pursuance of a conspiracy," said Chowdhury. Defying the party stand, Bhunia took up the post of the Bengal assembly's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman. The Congress subsequently issued him a show cause notice. New Delhi, Aug 8 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday met at his residence here the village pradhans (heads) from his Varanasi parliamentary constituency. The Prime Minister encouraged the village heads to work towards total vaccination, zero school dropouts and cleanliness in their respective villages. "The Prime Minister also urged the group to eliminate any discrimination between daughters and sons," the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement. The group expressed its willingness to celebrate the birth of a girl child by planting a tree as a celebratory gesture. "The Prime Minister also asked them to share the experience of their visit to Parliament and the Capital with the residents of Varanasi," the statement added. New Delhi, Aug 8 : Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Monday pitched for peace talks to solve the Kashmir problem and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to step in to heal wounds of the people of the turmoil-hit state, battling a month of a violent unrest that has claimed over 55 lives. Mehbooba Mufti arrived here on an unannounced trip and met Home Minister Rajnath Singh and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. She is expected to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday. Officials said the Chief Minister and the Home Minister discussed the month-long unrest in the Kashmir Valley that has left more than 5,000 civilians and security forces personnel injured. "I believe there is a need to heal wounds (of Kashmiris). If dialogue can do that, let us do it," she said, referring to a political initiative involving India, Pakistan and the people of the state, to end the Kashmir dispute. Mehbooba Mufti was speaking to reporters after her meeting with the Home Minister in the North Block here. "The situation in Jammu and Kashmir has been bad for the past one month. I am hopeful that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will take this opportunity to try to heal the wounds of the Kashmir people." She said the central government must initiate the "peace process" that former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had started to resolve the long-standing dispute. "There will be a chance to continue the dialogue that was begun during the government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee "We want peace in Jammu and Kashmir and I am hopeful that the Centre will extend the hand of friendship to the Kashmiris. Jammu and Kashmir can become a bridge between India and Pakistan." Some 56 people have been killed and thousands injured in the weeks of turmoil, triggered by the July 8 killing of rebel commander Burhan Wani. Normal life in the Kashmir Valley has been completely thrown out of gears for the past one month due to a government-enforced curfew and separatist-called shutdown. The curfew was imposed immediately after the death of the militant commander to prevent people from taking to the streets for pro-freedom demonstrations. But despite the restriction, people frequently come out on roads. Many of these protests have turned violent. Protesters throw stones at security forces who retaliate with bullets and pellet guns. Opposition parties in New Delhi have criticised the Prime Minister's silence over the unrest in Kashmir. Lawmakers in the Rajya Sabha demanded a discussion and also asked the government to call an all-party meeting on the issue. "Today it's one month of curfew, everything has stopped. I don't think any state had curfew for 30 days after Independence. School, colleges are shut, there is almost nil attendance in secretariat," Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said. "The government, and specially the Prime Minister, are mute spectators. India's crown is on fire but the heat is not reaching the government in Delhi." Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury said the the situation in Kashmir was worse than Israel-Palestine conflict. "In such a situation how can we remain silent? Why are we using pellet guns? It's inhuman, it's criminal, even Israel does not use it against Palestinians," Yechury said. Janata Dal-United leader Sharad Yadav said that the government's "silence on this issue is hurting". Following this, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the government is ready to debate the issue. "We want peace in Kashmir... and people of Kashmir have repeatedly defeated powers that have tried to disrupt peace. We are ready to debate on the issue," Naqvi said. New Delhi, Aug 8 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said the Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill will go a long way in helping states, support small entrepreneurs and also curb the menace of corruption. Intervening during a debate on the GST bill in the Lok Sabha, the Prime Minister asserted that the new tax law will be an important step towards getting the country rid of "tax terrorism" and also make "consumers the king". "In our country there is a trend of kaccha bill-pucca bill (fake bills and original bills)," Prime Minister said, and asserted that the proposed uniform tax law will be technology based. Henceforth business houses and entrepreneurs "will be forced" to insist only on pucca bill (original) bill which will "end corruption in the long run". He described GST as a "Great Step by Team India, Great Step towards Transformation and Great Step towards Transparency". Trying to answer various issues raised by members, including M. Veerappa Moily and Mallikarjun Kharge (both Congress), the Prime Minister said that the new law will benefit states, especially those which are considered backward. "It will address the problem of imbalanced development," he maintained. The Rajya Sabha had on August 3 unanimously passed the Constitution amendment bill to pave the way for introduction of a pan-India Goods and Services Tax regime. Prime Minister's absence in the Rajya Sabha during last week's debate fetched him strong criticism from opposition parties, including Congress. For greater part of the day Modi on Monday sat through during the debate and was also present in the house after making his speech in the evening. Explaining on how GST will contribute to end corruption, Modi said the new mechanism will also end leakage or pilferage in the entire supply chain. Prime Minister said while the country often hears people and public leaders talk about corruption, there is also a need to ensure that the system is corrected. Modi said he has always maintained that small businesses are the country's strength and his government has worked hard to bring necessary changes in the GST law to ensure that "consumer and small businesses will gain tremendously". Small business will feel more secure with this, he said. He also said a big message of the GST law will be that "consumer will be the king". Prime Minister said the Goods and Services Tax Bill was "a very big and important step" towards getting the country rid of "tax terrorism". Earlier, Modi started his speech by paying tributes to freedom fighters on the eve of the anniversary of the Quit India movement. "As we remember them (the freedom fighters), the two houses of parliament, the parliamentarians collectively are taking a very big and important step towards getting rid of tax terrorism," Modi said, referring to the Quit India movement that was launched on August 9 in 1942. Trying to dispel notions of a few opposition leaders that the BJP-led government would try to steal the limelight and take all the credit for passing the GST, he said "this should not be seen as a victory of any single party". "It is due to the victory of all political parties and victory of Indian democracy," Modi said. The Lok Sabha, which had already passed the GST Constitution Amendment Bill in May 2015, took it up on Monday again to approve the modifications made in it by the Rajya Sabha last week. The government had moved six official amendments, including scrapping of 1 per cent additional tax. Congress floor leader Mallikarjun Kharge earlier bluntly asked BJP leaders, including the Prime Minister, on why their party had opposed the GST Bill when the UPA was in power. "We are getting all the blame, a perception has gone that we (Congress) stalled the GST. Actually it is you all (BJP) who opposed it," Kharge said in the Lok Sabha while participating in the GST bill. During his reply, Modi maintained that having seen the issues concerning GST as the Gujarat Chief Minister, now that he is Prime Minister "I find it easy today to address these problems". He said it is true, a trust deficit had come to stay between states and the Centre earlier. However, he said now good relation has developed as members rose above party affiliations in Parliament to talk about GST. Modi also strongly countered Veerappa Moily's contention that the NDA government had consulted only Rajya Sabha leaders on the uniform tax law and thereby reduced the Lok Sabha to a "junior partner". "Such description was uncalled for," PM said and maintained that when his government began consultation on the GST, he had met both Congress president Sonia Gandhi, a member of Lok Sabha, and Manmohan Singh, a Rajya Sabha MP. "One is a Lok Sabha MP and other is from Rajya Sabha. I treated both the house equally. Question of treating Lok Sabha as a junior house does not arise," he said. Modi said passing the GST bill would go a long way in creating a new tax mechanism. He directed Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to ensure that 16 states ratify the bill at the earliest and also that adequate steps are taken to ensure early passage of the draft legislation on integrated GST, the central GST and the state GST. Quetta, Aug 8 : A suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowded hospital here on Monday killing 70 people and injuring over 100 in one of the worst terror attacks in Pakistan this year, authorities said. The Quetta media, however, put the death toll at 93. The powerful blast ripped through the emergency ward of the Civil Hospital when nearly 100 lawyers had gathered to collect the body of a prominent lawyer shot dead hours earlier in the city. The deafening explosion, heard clearly on video, instantly killed dozens, including two television cameramen. The hospital presented a ghastly scene with bloodied bodies and body parts strewn in a small area. Samaa TV said bodies were strewn on the floor, some still smoking, "amid pools of blood and shattered glass". A bomb disposal squad said the suicide bomber had around 10 kg of explosives hidden in his vest, Xinhua news agency said. Police found the limbs of the bomber. The Pakistan Taliban faction Jamaat ur Arhar claimed responsibility. ARY News said the dead included at least 25 lawyers. As the explosion ripped through the hospital, Aaj TV cameraman Shehzad Khan could be heard on the camera reciting the "Kalma" in a groaning voice as he died. The other cameraman to get killed was Mehmood Khan of DawnNews. Quetta's Urdu media -- Daily Millat, Baaghi TV and Urdu Post -- however, put the death toll at 93. In any case, doctors warned that the toll could rise because some of the injured were in a serious condition. It was the worst terrorist attack in Pakistan this year since the March 27 bombing at Gulshan-e-Iqbal park in Lahore that left 75 people dead. As Balochistan, Pakistan's biggest province by area, declared three days of mourning, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif flew to Quetta. Army chief Raheel Sharif visited the injured in the Civil Hospital. Gen Sharif ordered intelligence agencies to initiate "special combing operations to target those involved in terror attacks", a spokesperson for the military said. Balochistan Chief Minister Sanaullah Zehri blamed the Indian intelligence agency RAW, saying it was responsible for incidents of terror in Quetta. His comments came even before the police could say who was responsible for the horrific attack. The lawyers were at the hospital to take the body of Bilal Anwar Kasi, president of the Balochistan Bar Association who was killed earlier in the city, Dawn reported. Gunfire erupted after the explosion. A stampede too broke out, causing chaos at the hospital. Smoke filled the corridors of the emergency ward. Lawyers who survived the blast rushed out to fetch stretchers. Shocked survivors wept and comforted one another. One journalist broke down after seeing the bloodbath. Many of the dead were in black suits and ties -- the lawyers' uniform. Police and Frontier Corps surrounded the hospital. An emergency was declared in all Quetta hospitals. Many of the wounded were rushed to the Combined Military Hospital. Some were flown to Karachi. "This was a security lapse and I am having this personally investigated," Balochistan Home Minister Sarfaraz Bugti said. Prime Minister Sharif expressed his "deep grief and anguish over the loss of precious human lives". Former Chief Minister Abdul Malik called it the "blackest day" in the history of Balochistan. Lawyers across Pakistan denounced the killings in Quetta. Lawyers in Karachi boycotted the courts. The Bar Association of Pakistan called for a three-day mourning. Lawyers have been frequently targeted in Balochistan. One lawyer, Jahanzeb Alvi, was shot dead on August 3. Bilal Kasi, who himself was shot dead on Monday, had condemned Alvi's murder and announced a two-day boycott of courts. The principal of University of Balochistan's law college, Barrister Amanullah Achakzai, was also shot dead in June. Balochistan has experienced violence and targeted killings for more than a decade. Balochistan is home to a low-level insurgency by Baloch separatists. Al Qaeda-linked and sectarian militants also operate in the region. Islamabad routinely blames New Delhi for the unrest in Balochistan. Islamabad, Aug 9 : The Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) and the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) on Tuesday announced a week of mourning and a three-day strike to express solidarity with lawyers, mediapersons and others who lost their lives in the tragic hospital attack in Quetta on Monday. A suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowded hospital in Quetta on Monday killing 70 people and injuring over 100 in one of the worst terror attacks in Pakistan this year. The Quetta media, however, put the death toll at 93. PBC vice chairman Farogh Naseem and executive committee chairman Abdul Fayyaz condemned the targeted killing of Balochistan Bar Association (BBA) president Bilal Anwar Kasi and the subsequent suicide attack on Quetta's Civil Hospital, Dawn online reported. Most of those killed were advocates, including former BBA president Baz Mohammad Kakar, while several others were seriously injured. Both associations have appealed to the lawyers community to observe a country-wide strike on Tuesday as a mark of respect to the fallen and injured lawyers. The PBC has also announced a week's mourning, during which time lawyers will hold protest meetings in their bar rooms and wear black armbands to condemn the incident, Dawn online said. Deploring the "utter failure" of the federal and provincial governments in maintaining law and order in Balochistan, the PBC has demanded immediate arrest of those responsible for the heinous attack and that they be brought to justice as soon as possible. The council urged the federal and the provincial governments to provide compensation to the families of the deceased; 7 million Pakistani rupees ($66,900) for each lawyer who was killed and 3.5 million Pakistani rupees for each injured, Dawn online noted. Expressing solidarity with the families of the victims, SCBA leader Syed Ali Zafar said this was the first time in the history of the Supreme Court that a strike had been called, adding that it was an attack on the country's judicial system. The Malir Bar Association also staged at sit-in on the National Highway to condemn the bombing. Its president Ijaz Bangash said that lawyers would also stay away from courts for the next two days. This was the worst terrorist attack in Pakistan this year since the March 27 bombing at Gulshan-e-Iqbal park in Lahore that left 75 people dead, Dawn online added. New York, Aug 9 : The beleaguered micro-blogging website Twitter is looking to rent space at its headquarters in San Francisco to other companies. According to sfgate.com, Twitter has contacted San Francisco brokerage firm Cresa to market 183,642 square feet of "fully furnished" office space at its two buildings in Market Square. "We're always looking at ways to use our office spaces more efficiently and effectively. We remain committed to our home in San Francisco's Mid-Market area," a Twitter spokesperson was quoted as saying. Earlier this year, Twitter was considering renting out a partial floor of its Market Street headquarters to financial technology firm Affirm but the deal fell apart. According to reports, Twitter is also seeking to rent out 24,000 square feet in its Manhattan office. Earlier this month, there were rumours saying that former Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer was buying the micro-blogging website. There were multiple reports, saying that Ballmer and Saudi Arabia's Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal were getting ready with a bid to buy Twitter. Twitter was yet to respond to the rumour. Earlier, although it added three million users -- one million more that what analysts had expected -- the not-so-promising second quarter earnings results led to the shares of micro-blogging website Twitter tumbling. The company posted quarterly revenue of $602 million, up 20 per cent year-over-year and reported $107 million GAAP net loss ($0.15 per share) with quarterly non-GAAP net income of $93 million ($0.13 per share). A year ago, the year-over-year growth was 61 per cent and two years back, it was a whopping 124 per cent. The average monthly active users (MAUs) were 313 million for the quarter, up only 3 per cent compared to 310 million in the previous quarter. The micro-blogging website is now looking at the video and news streaming space to revive its fortunes. New Delhi, Aug 9 : Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday expressed shock over the suicide of former Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Kalikho Pul. Extending her condolences to the family of Pul, Gandhi said: "I pray for the peace of the departed soul." Pul, 47, was found hanging from a ceiling fan at the Chief Minster's Residence in Itanagar. Pul assumed office on February 19, unseating the then Chief Minister Nabam Tuki and continued till July 13 when the state Congress Legislature Party (CLP) elected Pema Khandu as its leader. Khandu became the Chief Minister on July 16, but Pul was yet to vacate the official residence. Islamabad, Aug 9 : A day after Quetta hospital bombing left at least 72 people killed in Pakistan, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday vowed to continue military operations against terrorists. After a meeting with Awami National Party's legislator Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, Sharif said the military operations -- Zarb-e-Azb and the National Action Plan -- would continue against terrorists at all costs, News International reported. Quetta blast, which also left more than 100 people injured, was an indication of the hate that terrorists harboured towards every institution of the state, Sharif said. "Terrorists are attacking the pillars of the state," he said. "They are trying to impose old, outdated ideologies on the state and society." A suicide bombing struck Civil Hospital in Quetta on Monday, killing 72 persons -- most of them lawyers. The attack occurred when nearly 100 lawyers and some journalists had gathered at the hospital as the body of Balochistan Bar Association president Anwar Kasi, who was shot in another incident earlier in the morning, was brought to the hospital. Jodhpur, Aug 9 : The Rajasthan High court here on Tuesday rejected the bail application of self-styled godman Asaram in a case of sexual assault on a minor girl. Asaram has been lodged in the Jodhpur Central Jail since September 2, 2013. Justice Nirmaljit Kaur, while rejecting Asaram's plea, said this is not a fit case for granting the bail to the accused when the trial is almost at its fag end. It was the third bail application of Asaram before the high court. He had also moved an interim bail application which was rejected by the high court on July 18. Asaram's counsel Sewa Ram told IANS over phone, "We plan to approach the Supreme Court soon." A 16-year-old girl had lodged a police complaint accusing Asaram of sexually assaulting her at his ashram near Jodhpur. The girl complained that Asaram's aides sent her to his Jodhpur ashram on the pretext that she was under the influence of an "evil spirit" which he could exorcise. Acting on the complaint, the police arrested Asaram at his ashram at Indore in Madhya Pradesh and brought him to Jodhpur on September 1, 2013. Agartala, Aug 9 : Trinamool Congress President and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee vowed here on Tuesday to oust the Left Front from power in the state in 2018 Tripura assembly elections. Addressing a gathering at the Vivekananda Stadium, Mamata said: "I would come to Tripura again and again and my entire party leadership will be with the Tripura leadership to defeat the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) led Left Front government. Entire Bengal will plunge into Tripura to throw out CPI-M from power." Banerjee said: "There is no industry in Tripura, there are no good educational institutions or health centres here. Millions of youths are jobless. If TMC comes to power in Tripura, everything will change." Referring to various schemes, allowances and projects launched by her government in West Bengal, the TMC Chief said that the CPI-M only knows how to conspire against her, loot public money and spread violence. Mamata also lashed out at Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and made veiled referrences to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), when she said, "BJP only knows how to conduct riot, give advertisements and use agency against us. We do not fear all these things because the people are with us." Apart from Banerjee, TMC Vice President Mukul Roy, and her other ministers Firhad Hakim, Arup Biswas and Indranil Sen were present at the rally. New Delhi, Aug 9 : Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar on Tuesday summoned Pakistani envoy Abdul Basit and served him a "strong demarche" over continued cross-border terrorism from Pakistan. "Foreign Secretary Jaishankar called in Pak HC Basit today, issued strong demarche on continuing cross border terrorism from Pakistan," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted. "Demarche made specific reference to LeT (Lashkar-e-Taiba) terrorist and Pak national Bahadur Ali who was apprehended recently," he added. New Delhi, Aug 9 : The situation in the Kashmir Valley is tense and the state government must act tough against the separatist forces, BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav said on Tuesday. "The central government is extending all support to normalise the situation in the state, but more work needs to be done," Madhav said, speaking to CNN News18 television channel. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, a former Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh 'pracharak', also asserted that the Kashmir policy of the Narendra Modi government is the same as that of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. "Our policies for Kashmir have not changed. And there is only one policy -- that Kashmir is an integral part of India," Madhav said, adding, "And this has been our stand." Madhav's remark comes a day after Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti urged the central government to adopt Vajpayee-like approach towards Kashmir. The BJP leader also attacked Pakistan for its involvement in terror attacks in Kashmir. He said the state government has a double task -- one to curb the violence and second to make the life of common man in the state comfortable. Agartala, Aug 9 : Speculation is rife here on whether former Tripura Chief Minister and veteran Congress leader Samir Ranjan Barman is likely to join the Trinamool Congress. Barman, father of Tripura Trinamool leader Sudip Roy Barman, was present on the dais with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee when she addressed a meeting of party activists on Tuesday. In her speech, Banerjee exhorted workers to oust the Left Front government in Tripura. Banerjee felicitated Samir Ranjan with a bouquet. "Samir-da is with us," state Trinamool leader Ratan Chakraborty said when asked why there was no announcement on Barman's joining the party. Barman, 78, who was also the state Congress President, had earlier criticised central leadership of the party for its electoral alliance with Left parties in West Bengal. Barman was unavailable for comments. New Delhi, Aug 9 : India on Tuesday summoned the Pakistani envoy and served a "strong demarche" against continued cross-border terrorism, as bilateral ties took another dip. Days after India and Pakistan clashed over the turmoil in Kashmir at a Saarc meet in Islamabad, Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar summoned Pakistani High Commissioner Abdul Basit and "issued a strong demarche on continuing cross border terrorism from Pakistan" a Ministry of External Affairs statement said. The demarche made specific reference to LeT (Lashkar-e-Toiba) terrorist and Pakistan national Bahadur Ali who was apprehended recently, MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup said. The demarche stated that Pakistani national Bahadur Ali alias Abu Saifullah was arrested by Indian authorities in Jammu and Kashmir on July 25 along with weapons, including an AK-47 rifle, live rounds of ammunition, grenades and grenade launcher, as well as sophisticated communication equipment and other material of Pakistani and international origin. It said Bahadur Ali, born on December 17, 1995, is son of Mohammed Haneef, a resident of Jia Bagga village in the Lahore district of Pakistan's Punjab province. "Bahadur Ali has confessed to our authorities that after training in Lashkar-e-Toiba camps, he was infiltrated into India," the demarche said. "He was thereafter in touch with 'operations room' of LeT, receiving instructions to attack Indian security personnel and carry out terrorist attacks in India." The demarche said India "strongly protests against the continued infiltration from Pakistan of trained terrorists with instructions to carry out attacks". This was contrary to assurances given by Pakistani leaders at the highest level, it added. It also said that Bahadur Ali wrote to the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi seeking legal aid and assistance to meet his family. "We are prepared to grant the Pakistan High Commission consular access to Bahadur Ali," the demarche concluded. The Indian action comes less than a week after a Saarc ministerial meet in Islamabad saw the bilateral tensions over Kashmir come to the fore. Pakistani Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had slammed the "use of excessive force", referring to the unrest in Jammu and Kashmir, while Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh criticised the "glorification of terrorists as martyrs". Both sides did not hold a bilateral meeting, and Rajnath Singh also did not stay for a lunch for the Saarc interior ministers as his Pakistani counterpart, despite giving the invite, left early. Pakistan had also observed a Black Day last month to protest the deaths in Jammu and Kashmir and also termed Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani a "martyr". The killing of Wani on July 8 has led to a spiral of protests and violence in Kashmir, leaving over 50 people dead in clashes with security forces. Chennai, Aug 9 : A string of celebrities including Sidharth, Hansika Motwani and Radikaa Sarathkumar have mourned the death of popular writer producer Panchu Arunachalam, who passed away on Tuesday here at the age of 75. It's a huge loss to the industry, they said unanimously. Several celebrities took to Twitter to mourn the demise of Arunachalam, popular for writing over 100 Tamil films, including hits like "Murattu Kaalai", "Sakalakala Vallavan" and "Apoorva Sagodhargal". Here's what they wrote: Actor-comedian Santhanam: Saddened by the demise of Legend Panchu Arunachalam sir. My condolences to the bereaved family. May God bless the departed soul. Filmmaker A.R. Murugadoss: RIP Panchu sir, the master storyteller best in dual action subject, always wanted to work with him. But lots of respect for your work sir. Actress Aishwaryaa R. Dhanush: Rest in peace #PanchuArunachalam uncle... You will always be loved and remembered as fondly as ever. Actor Sidharth: Panchu Arunachalam sir was a passionate creator. His contribution to Tamil cinema will live on forever. RIP sir. Strength to the family. A tweet from the official page of the South Indian International Movie Awards (SIIMA), who presented him with a lifetime achievement award earlier this year read: A Big Loss to the Industry RIP Legendary Film Personality. Panchu Arunachalam Honored to have presented him Lifetime Achievement Award. Actress Hansika Motwani shared: "RIP legendary producer PanchuArunachalam sir. My prayers to the family Subbu Panchu" Actress Radikaa Sarathkumar, who has worked in films like "Theri" and "Poojai" said that she was shocked to hear of the sudden demise of the veteran. Calling it a "big loss" for everyone, National Award winning writer Dhananjayan Govind, who made the documentary "The Creator With Midas Touch" on the veteran, tweeted: "Panchu Arunachalam sir was born on 22nd March 1941, 75 years old now. Big loss to everyone and I am still unable to believe as I spoke recently." Director of Tamil films like "Podaa Podi", "Naanum Rowdy Dhaan" and upcoming "Kaathuvaakula Renduu Kaadhal", Vignesh ShivN wrote: "Can't believe! Just saw him and felt his energy at Siima and now, shocking to realise he is no more! RIP Panchu Arunachalam - a legend has left us. While late filmmaker K. Balachander might have launched superstar Rajinikanth, Panchu was responsible for taking the 65-year-old star to the masses. They worked together in 23 films, including "Kazhugu", "Pokkiri Raja" and "Paayum Puli" among others. Arunachalam also came to be known for his association with Kamal Hassan, and they worked together in 13 films. Some of these were titles like "Thoongadhey Thambi Thoongadhey" and "Uyarndha Ullam". That apart, the writer-producer was also responsible for launching the career of music maestro Illayaraja. He introduced the latter in 1976 Tamil film "Annakilli". Panchu is survived by son Subbu Panchu Arunachalam, a popular Tamil actor. Chandigarh, Aug 9 : Punjab Police announced a reward of Rs 10 lakh and a police job to anyone providing information about the assailants of top Punjab RSS leader Brig. (Retd) Jagdish Gagneja, an official said on Tuesday. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader, who was shot thrice in the abdomen from close range by two unidentified motorcycle riders in a busy area of Jalandhar city on Saturday evening, continues to be in a critical state at the Hero DMC Heart Institute in Ludhiana. "The Punjab Police has offered a reward of Rs 10 lakh and a job in the police to anyone providing information on the two assailants who have been seen in some CCTV footage," a senior Punjab Police officer said here on Tuesday. The Jalandhar police has got hold of CCTV grabs of different places in which two youths, wearing 'patkas' (a Sikh religious headgear worn by young Sikh boys) and with their faces covered with cloth, were seen moving around on a motorcycle. The CCTV footage also indicated that the suspected assailants had trailed Gagneja, who retired from the army as a Brigadier in 2003, for some time before firing at him near the Red Cross market in the busy Jyoti Chowk area in the heart of Jalandhar city, 155 km from here. Police sources said that the investigation teams had not made any arrests so far and were only following various leads, including the CCTV footage. The Punjab RSS and the state BJP leadership have taken the attack on Gagneja very seriously. The RSS and BJP leaders met Home Minister Rajnath Singh in New Delhi on Tuesday. They had met Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, who is also the Punjab Home Minister, here on Monday and demanded immediate and strict action. Parkash Singh Badal told media in Hoshiarpur on Tuesday that the attack on the RSS leader was "not an ordinary law and order problem". "The Punjab Police is enquiring into this attack and the forces behind this attack would be exposed soon. It is a deep rooted conspiracy," the senior Badal said. The Shiromani Akali Dal and BJP have an alliance government in Punjab since 2007. The state goes in for assembly polls in February next year. Kathmandu, Aug 9 : The newly elected Nepali Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal "Prachanda" on Tuesday expressed his commitment to amend the Constitution to address the demands of all indigenous communities. Addressing a programme organised by the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities here to mark the 22nd International Day of the World's Indigenous People, Prachanda said the government will put maximum efforts to make the Constitution acceptable to all quarters of society, Xinhua news agency reported. "Nepal is moving ahead in a critical time, but the government will make an honest attempt to address the sentiments of people in the Constitution through amendment," Prachanda said while commiserating with the indigenous nationalities, who have been demanding the amendments to the Constitution in order to address their rights and demands. The Prime Minister promised that the International Day of the World's Indigenous People will be celebrated jointly by the government and the federation from the next year. Stating that the Constitution promulgated in September last year is incomplete, the indigenous nationalities have been demanding the identity based federalism to be incorporated in the statute. Locally known as aadivashi-janajati, the nationalities, which have distinct language and lifestyle, are legally recognised by the National Foundation for Development of Indigenous Nationalities Act, 2002. However, they are in continuous struggle demanding the enforcement of agreements made in favour of the rights of indigenous peoples and seeking the guarantee of proportional representation in every state apparatus. Patna, Aug 9 : Following communal tension in Bihar's Saran district, a citizen's forum for communal harmony and peace on Tuesday met former Chief Minister Lalu Prasad, whose RJD is a major ally of the ruling Grand Alliance. Lalu Prasad assured the forum members that the state administration will take action against anti-social elements involved in the communal trouble, according to Satish Kumar, a member of the delegation. Lalu told the delegation that maintaining communal harmony is the main priority of the Grand Alliance government in Bihar. "Our government will not allow communal Hindutva forces to spread communal trouble and hatred," Neelu, another member of the delegation, quoted him as saying. The forum members were upset at Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for not giving them time for a meeting. Lalu also spoke to the Saran district magistrate and instructed him to take quick and tough action against troublemakers. "Lalu told us that the communal tension was part of a well designed conspiracy by communal forces, particularly Bajrang Dal and VHP, after an objectionable video clip was posted on Facebook by a Muslim youth," Rohit Kumar said. According to reports reaching here, the situation in Saran is under control but tension is still in the air. Schools and colleges opened on Tuesday and markets were also reopened, a district official said. The administration said that internet services will continue to be suspended till further orders. All cyber cafes also remained closed. The district officials said heavy deployment of security forces will continue for the next few days. So far 34 people have been arrested and nearly two dozen FIRs lodged by police. A Bihar Police team was on Monday sent to Bengaluru to arrest the prime accused behind an objectionable video clip posted on Facebook. According to reports, a gang of motorcycle-borne Bajrang Dal and VHP activists attacked shops and houses belonging to the minority groups at several places. In retaliation some shops belonging to Hindus were also attacked in Chapra, the district headquarters of Saran. The trouble began when some youths of Balha village under Parsa police station and other youths from Maker village blocked roads last week to protest against police failure to take action against the accused who had posted an objectionable video clip online, including WhatsApp. The trouble escalated and angry mobs attacked the houses and shops of Muslims on Friday. Some youths attacked the house of the prime accused, which led to the communal tension, an official said. On Friday, violent clashes took place between both communities and shops and houses were targeted at several places. The district administration issued prohibitory orders under section 144. On Saturday too, violent clashes were reported and VHP and Bajrang Dal called a day long bandh forcing shops, schools and colleges to remain closed. Over a dozen people including policemen were injured. New Delhi, Aug 9 : The Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, which the opposition opposed on the technical ground that the draft bill was not circulated among the members in advance. The bill proposes hefty penalties for violation of traffic rules and up to Rs 10 lakh as compensation in case of road fatality. A penalty of Rs 10,000 for drunken driving and Rs 2 lakh compensation for hit-and-run cases is proposed in the proposed law. Extending their in-principle support to the bill moved by Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, members like Mallikarjun Kharge (Congress), Saugat Roy and Kalyan Banerjee (both Trinamool) and Mohammad Salim (CPI-M) said they wanted to study the bill properly as it related to improving road safety. Among other things, the new bill provides for holding a guardian/vehicle owner guilty in case of a road offence by juveniles and cancellation of the vehicle's registration. "A detailed discussion has to be done. Nearly 79 clauses are there in the bill. We are very enthusiastic to support all the proposals of the minister (Gadkari) because he is taking some interest to improve road safety. So we do not want to block him. But we should go according to the rules," Kharge said while supporting Saugat Roy, who opposed the very introduction of the bill. "We would like to bring amendments to the bill. Let the bill be circulated today (Tuesday). The scrappy work of the (Road Transport) ministry should not be condoned by Parliament," Roy told Speaker Sumitra Mahajan. Mahajan, however, allowed its introduction, saying all issues related to the bill could be raised during the debate. "It is only an introduction stage," she said. Communist Party of India-Marxist member Salim said he got a copy of the bill only in the morning. "It is a voluminous bill and we require to apply our minds as we are all stakeholders," he said amid interruptions. Gadkari said the bill was, in effect, pending for a year and he did not want to delay it further since it related to road safety. "The bill has been prepared in consultation with 18 state transport ministers, including those of West Bengal and Kerala. If we delay further, it may have to be postponed till the next session as the Rajya Sabha will also need some time," Gadkari said. With the chair's consent, the bill was later introduced in the Lok Sabha. Later, at a function, Gadkari sought the cooperation of all political parties for the passage of the crucial bill, saying it will go a long way in curbing fatal road accidents in the country. Officials say India accounted for one of the highest accident rates globally at 5 lakh per annum, in which 1.5 lakh people are killed. The minister said instead of sending the bill to a joint select committee, he has requested Lok Sabha members to hold discussions and pass it because "priority" should be to save human lives. The union cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave its nod to the bill on August 3. In the present Motor Vehicle Act, there are 223 Sections. The bill proposes to amend 68 Sections. New Delhi, Aug 9 : Union Environment Minister Anil Dave on Tuesday informed Parliament that there are an estimated 6,566 to 9,181 leopards in tiger range states. The estimation is based on the camera trap captures while estimating the tiger population by Wildlife Institute of India in 2014. "Ministry has not undertaken any national leopard census in the country," Dave said. The Minister said that the survey helped with understanding the condition of leopard habitat across the tiger range states and reported that some of the studied areas are deficient in prey of leopard. On the positive note, Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB)had reported a drop in the cases of leopard poaching. The record is based on the drop in recovery of leopard parts. As per the WCCB, total 23 cases of recoveries of Leopard parts such as bones and skin, had been reported in 2016 till June 30. In contrast to this, total 95 recoveries were made in 2013, 63 in 2014 and 49 in 2015. The minister said that to stop poaching various steps are being undertaken including collection, collation and dissemination of intelligence on illegal trafficking of wildlife, assisting state, involving other stakeholders like Coast guards and custom officers and providing special training to the foresters. He added that WCCB trained 1,254 forest and police officials in 2013, 798 in 2014, 1,009 in 2015 and 309 in 2016 upto June 30 in investigation of wildlife crimes. Islamabad, Aug 9 : Pakistan has urged United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Prince Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein to make efforts to end the "persistent and egregious" violation of human rights in Jammu and Kashmir, a statement from the Prime Minister's House said on Tuesday. In two separate letters, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif called upon the world bodies to implement UN Security Council Resolutions thast provide for the self-determination of the Kashmiri people. He also sought to bring the world's attention to recent unrest in the Kashmir Valley which has left over 50 persons dead and thousands injured. Sharif also highlighted the use of pellet guns that had inflicted severe eye injuries on many Kashmiris. He said that pellet guns "were aimed with the deliberate intention of causing serious permanent injuries", adding, "this was unacceptable". He said that force was being used to prevent access to hospitals, to harass doctors and prevent access to medical facilities, which he said, was "a clear manifestation of Indian state terrorism to suppress the Kashmiris' struggle for their inalienable right to self-determination". Vatican City, Aug 9 : Pope Francis has condemned the suicide bombing at a hospital in Pakistan's southwest city of Quetta on Monday that killed at least 70 people and injured over 100, calling it a "senseless and brutal act". "His Holiness Pope Francis sends heartfelt condolences to the relatives of the deceased, to the authorities and to the entire nation, as he offers the assurance of his prayers for the many injured victims of this senseless and brutal act of violence," read a telegram sent by Vatican Secretary of Atate, Cardinal Pietro Parolin on Tuesday. A faction of the Pakistani Taliban called Jammat-ul-Ahrar and the Islamic State group (IS) both claimed the attack on a crowd of some 200 people gathered at Quetta's Civil Hospital after the fatal shooting of a senior local lawyer earlier in the day. Fifty-five lawyers and two TV cameramen were among the dead. The bomber was wearing a suicide vest packed with eight kg of explosives and laced with ball bearings and shrapnel, according to Balochistan Home Minister Sarfaraz Bugti. JAKARTA, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Indonesia's mines ministry has issued a letter of recommendation for Freeport McMoran Inc Indonesian unit to get a permit to export 1.4 million tonnes of copper concentrates until Jan. 11 next year, an official with the ministry told reporters on Tuesday. Freeport Indonesia still cannot export its copper concentrates until the trade ministry issues an export permit based on the mines ministry's recommendation. Bambang Gatot, the mines ministry's director general for coal and minerals, said the government will impose a 5 percent export tax on the shipments. (Reporting by Wilda Asmarini; Writing by Gayatri Suroyo; Editing by Greg Mahlich) Paris, Aug 9 : The son of Iran's late Shah has called on Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi to prevent the extradition of an Iranian dissident arrested at the weekend while vacationing in Italy. Mehdi Khosravi, 37, was detained in a hotel near Lake Como in northern Italy on Saturday on an international arrest warrant issued by Iran's authorities for alleged corruption. He was reportedly briefly hospitalised after being taken ill upon his arrest and is now in an Italian prison. A judge has yet to make a decision on whether there are grounds to keep him in jail. "Any attempt to force Mr Khosravi's return to Iran will lead to his incarceration, torture and possible conviction and execution as a political and human rights opponent of the regime," wrote Reza Pahlavi in a letter published on social media. "This critical humanitarian matter requires your indispensable intervention so that Mr Khosravi can return to the United Kingdom," Pahlavi told Renzi. Britain granted Khosravi asylum after he fled the 2009 purges that followed Iran's rigged presidential election that returned hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power, Pahlavi said. He heads the Paris-based National Council of Iran, a group that advocates free and fair elections in Iran. Pahlavi is the son of the last shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was deposed during the 1979 Islamic Revolution and died in Egypt in 1980. In a statement to Adnkronos International, the head of the Iranian human rights group Neda Day also urged Renzi to refuse Khosravi's extradition. "He would be tortured and killed in that country as a spy for western powers," Taher Djafarizad said, condemning the recent spate of hangings in Iran. Mumbai, Aug 9 : Director Shoojit Sircar says that he is repaying Amitabh Bachchan with films such as "Piku" and "Pink" for the film "Shoebite" which could not be released. At the trailer launch of "Pink", Amitabh, asked about the status of "Shoebite", quipped: "He (Sircar) is still cutting the shoes" but Sircar said: "When a film does not release, it is very saddening and you feel really bad for it. But we have moved on. "We are making films and we are still trying if something can happen but I think that I am repaying back Mr. Bachchan with 'Piku' or even 'Pink' as we could not do that film and that film could not release. So this is my debt that I am repaying him." Sircar had taken "Shoebite" to production house UTV after it could not release with Percept Picture Company. Percept Picture Company had filed a lawsuit against UTV to stall the release which was later dismissed. Sircar later had blamed the producers of the film UTV Disney for the way they had handled the film and for insulting a star like Amitabh. While Sircar's directorial "Piku" saw Amitabh winning the National award for Best Actor, "Pink" - which Sircar has presented - sees him in an interesting avatar of a lawyer. About his look in the film, Amitabh said: "Whatever is given to me to do, to say or wear, I leave it to the director. Shoojit said that this should be the look, the hair, the beard and the clothes I would wear should be this way. "The mask on the face is mine, that was because one of the days I was training with it, and Shoojit liked it and said that we will use it in the film, also because there is a problem of pollution in Delhi so I roamed around with the mask. And except for that, whatever weapons I got was given to me by Shoojit." "Pink", directed by Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, also stars Taapsee Pannu among others. Mumbai, Aug 10 : In a major swoop, Mumbai police late on Tuesday arrested five top medicos of the reputed Dr L.H. Hiranandani Hospital here in connection with a kidney sale racket. Contacted for comment, an official spokesperson for Hiranandani Group told IANS that they are conducting their own internal probe and declined comments till it was completed. Powai police late tonight nabbed the five medicos who include the 12-year old hospital management's top brass. The accused doctors are Dr Sujit Chattarjee (CEO), Dr Anurag Naik, Medical Director, Dr Mukesh Shete, Dr Mukesh Shah and Dr Prakash Shetty. The accused will be produced for remand at Andheri Court on Wednesday. The Mumbai police initiated a probe after a recent complaint alleging a kidney sale racket in the 240-bed hospital in Powai. They have been charged under Section 12 and 21 of The Transplantation of Human Organ Act, 1994, said the police. Infolinx System Solutions Today, Infolinx System Solutions, a leading provider of enterprise physical records management software, announced the addition of Virginia Tech to their portfolio of enterprise clients. As the commonwealths most comprehensive university and its leading research institution, Virginia Tech offers 240 undergraduate and graduate degree programs to more than 31,000 students and manages a research portfolio of more than $513 million. Founded in 1872, Virginia Tech has approximately 135 campus buildings, a 2,600-acre main campus, statewide educational facilities in six regions, a study-abroad site in Switzerland, and a 1,800-acre agriculture research farm near the main campus. The campus proper is located in the Town of Blacksburg in Montgomery County in the New River Valley and is 38 miles southwest of Roanoke. Reflective of their thriving research standards, the implementation of Infolinx WEB will provide the universitys records management office with state-of-the-art tracking of over 50,000 boxes within a retention schedule containing almost 500 individual record series. In addition to replacing an aging, non-supported legacy software product, the solution includes space management, a configurable storage module, facilitating the storage of boxes in several locations including a university-owned facility with 20,000 linear feet of storage space. About Infolinx Infolinx System Solutions is a leading provider of DoD5015.2-certified enterprise physical records management software. Full life-cycle records management for archives, records centers, and file rooms includes integrated Enterprise Content Management, third-party warehouse integration, robust searching, online requesting, complete audit history, location reconciliation, supply item ordering, retention schedule and legal holds management, integrated RFID technology, space management with charge-back functionality, extensive reporting capability, advanced security configuration, workflow email notifications, and legacy data sharing. Available as an on-premises or cloud-based solution, Infolinx maintains clients within all major business segments and the public sector.Infolinx System Solutions Demo. "Now, I have one of the best looking websites within my target market, and the fact it is managed within the entire IXACT Contact ecosystem is an added bonus. IXACT Contact announces the winners of the successful Best REALTOR Website contest, celebrating the overwhelming success of its REALTOR Websites product. After receiving a high volume of contest entries, a team of real estate marketing experts gathered to judge the websites based on customization, functionality, creativity, and use of features. IXACT Contact is proud to announce Flint Adam of Nolensville Realty as the first place winner. Flints Nolensville Realty page is a strong example of how Realtors can customize IXACT Contacts websites. Visitors to Flints website can browse listings, search according to their preferences, and even sign up to receive alerts about specific properties and areas. Using these features, Flint is able to generate more leads, as the website visitors who register on his website are automatically added to his IXACT Contact CRM where he can begin nurturing them by email. Judges were impressed by Flints customized homepage with a video, comprehensive neighborhood profiles, personalized blog posts, and testimonials page. As first place winner, Flint will receive 3 months free of his basic IXACT Contact subscription. I had previously used another popular vendor for my website and found the product to be pretty archaic in features and appearance, says Flint, I was already a user of IXACT Contacts CRM, but after seeing the companys agent website product, it was a no-brainer to immediately switch over. Now, I have one of the best looking websites within my target market, and the fact it is managed within the entire IXACT Contact ecosystem is an added bonus. Second place is awarded to Birdy Perry of Coldwell Banker. Birdys website is beautiful and engaging with her color theme matching her branding perfectly. To offer ongoing value to her clients and website visitors, Birdy added her IXACT Contact Business Directory, showcasing trusted service providers in the local area. Customized blog posts are another way she offers value to her website visitors. She uses a mix of pre-written IXACT Contact posts along with her own original content to educate her prospects and establish herself as a real estate professional. Birdy leverages IXACT Contacts advanced Facebook app to pull listings data into her Facebook page. Prospects can search and view properties without leaving the social network. Third place is awarded to Real estate team Matt Blashaw and Russ Evans of Birkshire Hathaway. To offer website visitors more information about Orange County, the team created a new page of their Favorite OC Places. The page describes the best local dining, shopping and activities. By integrating their Facebook feed into the website, Matt and Russ make it easy for prospects to connect with them online. Theyve also done a terrific job of customizing a Testimonials page to highlight some feedback theyve received from happy past clients. Since launching in September 2015, over 2,000 real estate agents have created beautiful, mobile-friendly websites using IXACT Contact. Real estate agents are pleased by how quick and easy it is to set up and customize their own real estate website. With IXACT Contacts websites, REALTORS are able to grow their online reputation and capture leads which are automatically transferred into their real estate CRM. Real estate professionals who dont currently subscribe to IXACT Contact can sign up now to take advantage of the 5 week trial including a real estate CRM, email marketing platform, and website. About IXACT Contact Solutions Inc. IXACT Contact is an easy to use cloud-based real estate CRM that helps REALTORS stay organized and build lasting relationships. The integrated solution offers three powerful elements including a real estate CRM, email marketing platform, and mobile-friendly REALTOR website all for one low price. With IXACT Contact, real estate agents can convert more leads into clients and attract more referrals and repeat business. Sign up for a five-week trial today at http://www.ixactcontact.com. (Rookies get IXACT Contact for 6 months.) The Naples Hotel Group, a leading hotel management company, is pleased to announce it has been awarded the management contract for the Fairfield Inn & Suites Fort Myers Medical District. The hotel will be brought into the Naples Hotel Group portfolio under the leadership of Andrew Bou-Sliman, Vice President of Development & Acquisitions, and Paul Tyson, Vice President of Operations. The Florida hotel has a great location in the southwest Florida area off of South Tamiami Trail and Daniels Parkway. Nearby amenities and attractions include Lee Memorial Hospital and HealthPark Medical Center, Bell Tower Shops, Florida Gulf Coast University and more. The hotel recently completed a renovation and boasts 100 guest rooms, outdoor pool and fitness center. The new management contract reflects Naples Hotel Groups recognized expertise in developing and operating premium branded products. Naples Hotel Group continues to grow in the Southeast United States with its third-party managed portfolio doubling within the last year. For more information or media inquiries, please contact Brittany Bou-Sliman at brittany(at)napleshotelgroup(dot)com or 239-206-4273. About Naples Hotel Group Naples Hotel Group is a hotel development and management company founded in 2010. NHG has achieved superior results and has a proven ability to enhance the performance of hotels through the use of their experience, responsiveness and extensive resources. NHG, based in Naples and Orlando, prides itself on building long-term relationships with quality people and organizations. To learn more visit, http://www.napleshotelgroup.com. BrightBytes Technology & Learning Module Were excited to pair Seppys understanding of the pain points that district leaders face, with insights and tools that can help them to make informed, in-the-moment decisions that drive positive learning outcomes. BrightBytes, the leading provider of K-12 learning analytics, announced today the addition of Giuseppe Seppy Basili as Chief Revenue Officer. In his new role, Basili will be responsible for spearheading the companys growth strategies to provide K-12 school leaders with actionable, data-driven insights to make informed decisions about district investments and student interventions. With almost two decades of experience collaborating with the leadership of the nations largest school districts, NGOs and foundations, including New York City Department of Education, LAUSD, Chicago Public Schools, Pinellas County, and the School District of Philadelphia, Basili brings unparalleled insight to the priorities and processes that drive K-12 decision making. Prior to joining Brightbytes, Basili focused on the implementation of college readiness initiatives in over 400 districts as General Manager of Kaplan K-12 Learning Services. Seppys experience in working with some of the most innovative school districts and programs in the country will bring a practical perspective to our product strategy, and play a critical role in supporting Brightbytes increasing number of larger scale partnerships, said Traci Burgess, CEO of BrightBytes. His passion and commitment to improving education for all students aligns well with our mission to improve the way the world learns. Basili has also served as the Senior Vice President and Chief Academic Officer of Catapult Learning, where he led the ed tech companys product and professional development teams. In addition to his background in education technology, he has experience in the nonprofit sector, most recently as the Director of Strategic Initiatives at The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. Were excited to pair Seppys understanding of the pain points that district leaders face, with insights and tools that can help them to make informed, in-the-moment decisions that drive positive learning outcomes, said Hisham Anwar, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at BrightBytes. He cares deeply about the potential for research to inform decision making, and how technology can create feedback loops that foster improvement over time. BrightBytes tools are currently used one-in-five U.S. schools. The companys Clarity platform combines research, data, and user-friendly design to provide fast answers for K-12 administrators grappling with technology implementation and efficacy, dropout prevention, data privacy and security, and leadership development. # About BrightBytes BrightBytes' cutting edge analytics platform gathers research from the best experts in the world and creates evidence-based frameworks that help educational leaders make better decisions for students. More information about BrightBytes can be found at: brightbytes.net. Many IoT applications require local intelligence in the gateway. To meet this need, Systech Corporation is now including SysSCRIPT Lite at no cost to its entire line of SysLINK IoT hardware gateways. SysSCRIPT provides if this then that functionality without the need for Internet connectivity. SysSCRIPT is a beginner-friendly scripting solution using visual elements to make IoT programming simple to do, without requiring technical training. Instead of months of expensive development time, this is reduced to just a few minutes and can be done by non-technical resources. For example, with just a few clicks of the mouse, SysSCRIPT can be programmed to open a valve when the temperature goes up, or sound an alert if flooding is detected, or contact a manager if a safety issue is detected. The scripting possibilities are endless. In a traditional IoT solution, custom software is created to execute on an embedded Linux operating system located on the gateway. This custom software may be created in Python, C, JavaScript, or any other programming language supported by Linux. This is a good solution, but requires significant development time, and must be created by experienced software engineers. With SysSCRIPT, the software development process is streamlined with point and click simplicity. IoT development becomes more practical when integrators, VARS, and even end users are able to create IoT applications to meet just about any need. Email and text alerts can be generated with simple scripts. SysSCRIPT Lite allows simple decision-making based on gateway attributes such as cellular connectivity, temperature, and motion. Additionally, with the full version of SysSCRIPT, external devices may be monitored and controlled, such as switches, valves, temperatures, lighting, sound, and physical vibrations. Systech has simplified how IoT solutions are implemented hardware and software. Earlier, Systech introduced the SysLINK IoT modular gateway that can be configured off-the-shelf with optional hardware cards. The option cards provide connectivity to a wide variety of IoT sensors and actuators with interfaces such as cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, ZigBee, and Z-Wave. Now, with the introduction of SysSCRIPT, software development can be equally simple. Architected for ease of use, the power of IoT edge computing is now available for just about any application. IoT software can be developed by anybody, without the need of a software development team. This simplicity also provides a dramatic reduction in software development time. We are not talking about just an incremental improvement, highlights Robert Lutz, Systechs Senior Business Development Director. Systechs new SysSCRIPT solution provides an order of magnitude improvement in IoT deployment time. And, sooner to market means sooner to revenue. IoT applications can be developed in just minutes. This was demonstrated at the recent IoT Evolution trade show. Attendees were provided the opportunity to create their own IoT applications, using Systech hardware and software in the exhibit. Many IoT applications were created in under five minutes. SysSCRIPT brings the power of if this, then that programming away from the cloud, and into the local gateway. This can eliminate unnecessary network delays, and provide application-specific functionality independent of the availability of network access to the cloud. Systechs SysLINK modular IoT hardware gateway and SysSCRIPT Lite beginner-friendly software are available today. Contact Systech for further information. About Systech Systech Corporation, established in 1981, is an industry leader in network conversion gateways, servers, and switches, supporting a wide variety of interfaces. Systech brings network connectivity to IP and non-IP based systems for a wide variety of applications including ATM, point-of-sale, vending, remote electronic signage, building automation and security, and remote monitoring. Additional information can be found at http://www.systech.com. Contact: Systech Corporation, info(at)systech(dot)com, 800-800-8970 The Wise Company is proud to support young adults continuing their education and applauds all applicants of the spring scholarship contest. The Wise Company is excited that they will be awarding scholarships to three promising young scholars as part of their bi-annual scholarship essay competition. The spring Wise Company scholarship winners are: 1st Place: Zachary Field, studying film and television production at New York University. Mr. Field will receive a $1,500 scholarship. 2nd Place: Anthony Serra, B.Sc. Biology, McGill University. He is currently working toward a MPA/MSES in Environmental Management at Indiana University. Mr. Serra will receive a $1,000 scholarship. 3rd Place: Tanian Browning, studying Kinesiology at Boise State University. Mr. Browning will receive a $500 scholarship. Applicants were asked to submit a 600800-word essay on the social impact of a complete failure of the aging U.S. power grid on our country, as well as what residents can do to better prepare for such a potential catastrophe. Essays were judged on originality and creativity, emotional impact, and relevance to topic. All applicants were required to carry a minimum GPA of 3.5 and provide at least one letter of recommendation. Preparation is the key to success in every area of life, said CEO, Aaron Jackson. We are so thrilled to see young people not only planning for their personal future success, but also giving thoughtful consideration to our aging power grid and how best to plan for future disaster situations. The Wise Company is proud to support young adults continuing their education and applauds all applicants of the spring scholarship contest. About Wise Company Wise Company, based out of Salt Lake City, Utah, is a leading provider of high-quality, long-term food kits, emergency food kits, dehydrated or freeze-dried food items for camping, long-term-storage or emergency purposes. Many of the companys prepared foods can last for up to 25 years and Wise Companys products have been featured on a number of television channels, including FOX News, The Weather Channel, National Geographic Channel, The History Channel, and American Heroes Channel (formerly the Military Channel). For more information, please visit http://www.wisefoodstorage.com. More than just being a cloud hosting provider, Cloudnine Realtime is positioning itself to be a complete IT Solutions company. Cloudnine Realtime (formerly Cloud9 Real Time), has undergone a total brand transformation and today unveiled its new brand and website, http://www.cloudninerealtime.com. The rebranding reflects both the evolution of the company as well as its vision for the future. Born from the accounting industry in 2000, Cloud9 quickly emerged as a leading Quickbooks hosting company. Today it is much more, providing technology solutions for thousands of the most discerning, forward thinking firms in the United States and around the globe. Now, in its continued effort to take new ground in the industry, Cloud9 Real Time has been reborn as Cloudnine Realtime. We believe that cloud hosting technology is no longer an innovative idea, but an adoption that is critical to the continued success of businesses everywhere, stated Sr. VP, Josh Clark. More than just being a cloud hosting provider, Cloudnine Realtime is positioning itself to be a complete IT Solutions company. The new Cloudnine Realtime identity is all about the power of possibility. Its the possibility that only comes from the ideation and infrastructure found in the Cloudnine environment, and a new level of unprecedented customer control offered within it. Over the last several years weve noticed a significant increase in the number of professional services firms making the move to the cloud, said Robert Chandler, Founder and CEO of Cloudnine. However, there remains significant confusion about how to make SaaS and On-Premise solutions work together. Thats where we come in. Our future is focused around the customer experience. We know that with the right team standing behind them, our customers can pursue innovation, growth, and opportunity with incredible efficiency. Both Josh and Rob hinted at a planned release of new technology designed to give customers unprecedented control over their virtual environments. These significant developments will be unveiled in the coming weeks. About Cloudnine Realtime: Cloudnine Realtime, headquartered in San Diego, CA, is an accredited, managed service provider delivering custom cloud solutions for anytime, anywhere access. An Inc. 5000 company for three years running, Cloudnine is honored to have been voted "Best Hosting Company" by the CPA Practice Advisor Readers' Choice Award 5 years in a row. Cloudnine is recognized as an industry leader because it builds its services and processes around the client experience, always seeking top satisfaction. For more information, please visit http://www.cloudninerealtime.com. KELOWNA, BC / ACCESSWIRE / August 8, 2016 / Laguna Blends Inc. (CSE: LAG ) (OTC: LAGBF ) (Frankfurt: LB6A.F ) (the "Company" or "Laguna") is pleased to announce it has appointed Bryan Loree as Chief Financial Officer, Corporate Secretary and to the board of directors effective immediately. Mr. Loree has approximately ten years of experience providing chief financial officer, accounting, financing, and management services to numerous issuers on the TSX Venture Exchange, Canadian Securities Exchange, and private companies. Mr. Loree is a CPA, CMA and possesses a BA from Simon Fraser University. Mr. Loree will replace Mr. Stuart Gray, who was acting Chief Financial Officer. In addition, Bryan Loree will replace Negar Adam as Corporate secretary and director. Mr. Bryan Loree, CFO of Laguna Blends said, "It's a pleasure to have the opportunity to join the team at Laguna during this rapid growth phase of the Company. Laguna is operating in an exciting sector and I look forward to being involved in the future milestones of the Company." Stuart Gray, CEO and founder of Laguna Blends Inc. said, "It's a pleasure to have Mr. Bryan Loree join our management team. His financial and accounting experience is impressive and will strengthen Laguna's ability to seek quality business opportunities, financings and increase sales to profitability." About Laguna Blends Inc. Laguna is a network marketing company that generates retail sales through independent affiliates. Affiliates utilize tools and technology that enable them to build an international business from their own home or anywhere else in the world. This technology replaces the need for expensive travel and hotel meetings. The Company is currently focused on the nutritional health benefits derived from hemp. Laguna's first product category as an entry to market are functional beverage products that contain hemp and other efficacious ingredients. Laguna's initial products to market are the following: Story continues " Caffe " is an instant, "just add water" hot coffee beverage that is infused with both whey and hemp protein. With 2 grams of protein in every serving, Laguna's proprietary product packs a powerful protein punch. Caffe, contains Instant coffee, whey protein hydrolysate, hemp protein, natural flavors. "Pro369" is a single serving, "on-the-go," plant based, instant, hemp protein that is served cold and comes in 4 delicious flavors. Pro369 is water soluble and can be directly mixed in water, added to milk, almond milk or coconut milk. Pro369 can also be blended in a shake or smoothie. Pro369 is also a source of Omegas, 3, 6 and 9 and contains ginseng. Laguna Blends has been granted approval from Health Canada for four powdered Pro369 flavours: Chocolate Banana, Mixed Berry and Vanilla Caramel and Tropical Powder. Pro369 contains Hemp protein, natural flavors, stevia, and American ginseng. The Minister of Health from Health Canada has granted Laguna a product license along with a Natural Product Number ("NPN") for all four of the Pro369 Flavours. They are all listed under the same NPN. A source of protein that helps build and repair body tissues. Source of amino acids involved in muscle protein synthesis. Assists in the building of lean muscle. An adaptogen to help maintain a healthy immune system. Supportive therapy for the promotion of healthy glucose levels. Hemp has long been recognized by the health and nutrition industry as a super food, cited in many publications as a balanced source of all ingredients required to achieve health and wellness. HempOmega HempOmega is an environmentally sustainable, vegetarian source of Omegas 3 and 6 that boasts a superior nutrient profile. A water soluble, homogenous, powdered ingredient, it can be easily integrated and/or manipulated, with no unpleasant taste or chemical contamination opening up entirely new product formulation opportunities. Hemp Omega's greater ability to endure the digestive process delivers unmatched bioavailability, thereby maximizing its potential health benefits. The Company sells its products through its independent affiliates in the USA and Canada. HempOmega is a Trademark owned by Naturally Splendid Enterprises, Ltd. and is used under license by Laguna Blends Inc. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD "Stuart Gray" Chief Executive Officer CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS: QualityStocks Scottsdale, Arizona www.QualityStocks.com 480.374.1336 Editor@QualityStocks.net COMPANY: Laguna Blends ir@lagunablends.com www.lagunablends.com www.lagunaworld.com Join Us On FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/LagunaBlends/ Twitter: @LagunaBlends Forward-Looking Information: This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws relating to statements regarding the Company's business, products and future the Company's business, its product offerings and plans for sales and marketing. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward looking information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Readers are cautioned to not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Such forward looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance and developments to differ materially from those contemplated by these statements depending on, among other things, the risks that the Company's products and plan will vary from those stated in this news release and the Company may not be able to carry out its business plans as expected. Except as required by law, the Company expressly disclaims any obligation, and does not intend, to update any forward looking statements or forward-looking information in this news release. The statements in this news release are made as of the date of this release. SOURCE: Laguna Blends Inc. President of New York Chiropractic College, Dr. Frank Nicchi, (left), presented the Standard Process scholarship to recipient, Marty L. Rueckert. In addition to seminars, trainings and quality products, this represents yet another way Standard Process supports the chiropractic profession. New York Chiropractic College (NYCC) student, Marty L. Rueckert, of Seneca Falls, New York, received a $2,000 scholarship from Standard Process Inc. on July 28. The scholarship was presented during the schools Seventh Trimester Transition Ceremony held in the Standard Process Health and Fitness Center located on the NYCC campus. Standard Process, a visionary leader in whole food nutrient solutions, awards three $2,000 scholarships annually to students pursuing chiropractic degrees at NYCC. "I am honored and grateful to be the recipient of this scholarship, said Rueckert. This award is a huge blessing for my wife, newborn baby girl and me. In addition to seminars, trainings and quality products, this represents yet another way Standard Process supports the chiropractic profession." Rueckert is in his seventh trimester of a 10- trimester program and expects to graduate in July 2017. Standard Process has offered scholarships to NYCC students for the past six years. The company also provides a $2,500 scholarship to an acupuncture student studying at the NYCC Finger Lakes School of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. Standard Process promotes education in whole food nutrition by providing scholarships to students who will be developing their practice in alternative health care. The students exemplify scholastic excellence and share the same passion for wellness that Standard Process exudes. To qualify for a Standard Process scholarship, NYCC candidates must meet the following criteria: Have at least one trimester remaining before graduation Have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher Provide a list of their contributions to the chiropractic profession, to the college and the community Provide a written response to the essay question provided, which applies to their field of study If you would like to learn more about Standard Process scholarship opportunities, contact Lisa Hackett, professional development coordinator, at 800-848-5061, or by email at lhackett(at)standardprocess(dot)com. ### About Standard Process Inc. Standard Process is the visionary leader in whole food nutrient solutions. Based in Palmyra, Wisconsin, Standard Process offers more than 300 high-quality supplements made with whole food and other ingredients through three product lines: Standard Process Standard Process Veterinary Formulas MediHerb herbal supplements. The products are available exclusively through health care professionals, including chiropractors, acupuncturists, medical doctors and veterinarians. Dedicated to the whole food philosophy of its founder Dr. Royal Lee, Standard Process goal is to ensure its nutritional supplements deliver complex nutrients as nature intended. To accomplish this, Standard Process grows the majority of its raw plant ingredients on company-owned, organically certified farmland. Using state-of-the-art manufacturing processes to retain vital nutrients within each ingredient, Standard Process manufactures its supplements in its certified organic manufacturing facility. Standard Process employs high-quality control standards and follows the Food and Drug Administrations current good manufacturing practices (cGMPs). Standard Process also owns two subsidiaries, Cultivate by Standard Process and Lee Engineering. Both offer unique wellness solutions. Cultivate delivers scalable wellness programs to businesses, using on-site chiropractic as a central component of the program, to impact individual employee and overall company health. Lee Engineerings Royal Lee Organics offers Intelligent Healthful Living solutions for home flour milling. Standard Process employs over 370 people and has been in business since 1929. The company is recognized as a distinguished leader and innovator in workplace wellness and an exemplary environmental steward. It is a recipient of the Platinum Well Workplace Award from the Wellness Councils of America, and a Tier I participant in the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Green Tier program, which recognizes companies with strong environmental compliance records. For additional information about Standard Process, visit standardprocess.com. Here is Los Angeles before the American conquest, a portrait of the land and the people painted in brilliant colors. As our climate changes, watereither as floods or droughtscreates massive problems. Author Barbara Cranes newest novel, "When Water Was Everywhere" shows how one urban landscape was transformed over little more than a century. It invites readers to examine and question -- the changes in their own regions landscape. Set in what is now Long Beach, California and in the pueblo of Los Angeles, Cranes novel provides a vivid picture of the people who once lived here, their sorrows and their triumphs. American immigrants, Mexican Californios, Tongva/Gabrieleno Indians and Spanish padres come to life in her imaginative re-telling of Californias Mexican era. As the novel unfolds, its themes of loss, hope and redemption resonate from every page. "When Water Was Everywhere" is particularly timely as Southern Californias drought approaches its fifth year. Readers will visit life in Los Angeles before concrete and rebar covered the land. They will understand the role of the Los Angeles River in the growth of a metropolis and experience the tumultuous years prior to Californias statehood. "When Water Was Everywhere" is available in paperback and as an e-book on Amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com. Barbara Crane is a novelist, journalist and teacher. Her work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Long Beach Business Journal, Sun magazine and other publications. Her first novel, The Oldest Things in the World, won the Silver Medal award from ForeWord magazine. Barbara lives in Long Beach, California with her husband and family. We will utilize our experience, capabilities, and skilled personnel to perform all the requirements of the Technical Services for the NDT CoE task. Intuitive Research and Technology Corporation (INTUITIVE) is proud to announce it is the new Prime contractor for support to the Aviation and Missile Life Cycle Management Command (AMCOM) Corrosion Program Office (CPO) Nondestructive Testing (NDT) program mission. With this contract, INTUITIVE and its team members will provide Technical Services for the Aerospace Materials Function Nondestructive Testing Center of Excellence (CoE), Weapons Development and Integration (WDI) Directorate, AMRDEC. The Armys NDT Program contains many facets that require technical and logistic expertise to successfully support Army Aviation operations. The focal point of the Armys NDT program is the NDT CoE. The NDT effort has a five year performance period. While this may be INTUITIVEs first time to prime the Nondestructive Testing (NDT) task order, they are no strangers to the Corrosion Program Office and its operations. INTUITIVE has supported Corrosion efforts for the last 5 years, where they have established a reputation as a prime contractor with well-defined technical solutions and competitive costs. INTUITIVEs management approach has been proven successful on other EXPRESS tasks with the Corrosion Program Office, which contributed to their receipt of this new award. This new award reflects the Corrosion Program Offices trust that INTUITIVE will provide the highest quality, low risk solutions, both on-time and within budget. INTUITIVE teamed with incumbent, Huddleston Technical Services to help meet the needs of the CPO NDT mission. Since the launch of the NDT CoE, Huddleston has played a key role in providing NDT engineering expertise, logistical support, and both classroom and on-site training to hundreds of Warfighters worldwide. Huddlestons 13 years of experience with the NDT CoE organization coupled with INTUITIVEs keen managerial skills is sure to exceed the expectations of the CPO. INTUITIVEs President, Harold Brewer, stated, We are excited to support the Corrosion Program Office in this new capacity. INTUITIVE is committed to the success of the NDT CoE mission and we will utilize our experience, capabilities, and skilled personnel to perform all the requirements of the Technical Services for the NDT CoE task. About Intuitive Research and Technology Corporation: INTUITIVE is an aerospace engineering and analysis firm headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama that provides production support, software and systems engineering, programmatic support, product development, rapid prototyping, and technology management to the Department of Defense, other State and Federal Government agencies, and commercial companies. Our approach couples the latest technology with engineering expertise, analytical proficiency, and keen managerial oversight. From design through production to sustainment, we proudly provide management and technical solutions throughout all phases of the systems lifecycle. For More Information: Tonya Maurice 1-256-922-9300 ext. 1107 tonya(dot)maurice(at)irtc-hq(dot)com http://www.irtc-hq.com ### Portage Christian School, a non-denominational K 12 school, will host a groundbreaking ceremony during on August 11 as part of its family orientation at its campus located at 3040 Arlene St. in Portage. The groundbreaking ceremony will take place at 6:30 p.m. The expansion is necessary to accommodate the schools growth of more than 33 percent since 2013. Portage Christian School has seen solid growth in all grades over the past few years, said Larry Pender, superintendent of the school. Parents are seeing the value of a Christian education, and our partnership with local churches coupled with the Indiana Choice Scholarship program are making a high-quality Christian education affordable for many families looking for an alternative to their current public, private or homeschooling situation. This expansion gives us the space and tools to continue to upgrade our academics as we add additional classes that enable our students to be successful in whichever college and career path they choose. The addition will house the middle and high school classes and include new science labs as well as classroom technology improvements. Construction will be performed by HP Construction of Westville. Approval for the project has been granted by the City of Portage and the State of Indiana, and the school expects to take occupancy of the building at the start of the second semester in January, 2017. The school currently has openings in every grade except for 7th grade. Many of the classes have only a few openings, and parents who are interested in enrolling are encouraged to act quickly before the classes are closed. For the 2016-17 school year, the school will have one Kindergarten, two- 1st, two-2nd, two-3rd grade classes, two -4th grade classes and single classes for grades 5-12. For additional enrollment information, parents can call the school at 219.762.8962 or visit the schools website at http://www.portagechristianschool.org. Portage Christian School, a non-denominational school, had more than 270 students in its pre-K-12 classes in 2014-2015, and has been adding classes each year for the past two years. The school is accredited by the State of Indiana and participates in the Indiana School Choice Program and the ISTEP+ testing program. Additional information about the school can be found at http://www.portagechristianschool.org or by calling the school at 219.762.8962. Today grandPad, a provider of technology solutions specifically designed for senior citizens, announced the hiring of the companys Chief Gerontologist, Dr. Kerry Burnight. Today, grandPad, a provider of technology solutions specifically designed for senior citizens, announced the hiring of the companys Chief Gerontologist, Dr. Kerry Burnight. A renowned researcher, social entrepreneur, and advocate, Dr. Burnight served as a Professor of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology at the University of California, Irvine for 17 years. Burnight is the Co-Founder and Director of the nations first Elder Abuse Forensic Center who leads a team of attorneys, law enforcement officers, social workers, and physicians who wrestle with the county's most difficult cases of elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation. Together they have served over 1,300 older adults. Burnight is also the founder of Ageless Alliance: United Against Elder Abuse. This national non-profit organization is about, and for, elder abuse victims, survivors, and their families. Burnight was recognized for her work by the Department of Justice with the U.S. Victims of Crime Award and has appeared on the Dr. Phil Show, Money Matters, and CBS news. In 2014, she was voted OC Register 's Most Influential Person in Orange County for her work in addressing the needs of older Americans and their families. We are delighted to have Dr. Burnight join our team, notes Scott Lien, CEO of grandPad. As one of the leading experts on aging, Dr. Burnight brings a wealth of experience to grandPad that will accelerate our mission of helping millions of seniors by reconnecting them with their family, friends and caregivers. About grandPad Empowering seniors to connect easily and effortlessly, the grandPad tablet connects to family members via a smartphone app or desktop web portal. With grandPad, seniors can video chat with the family, check e-mail messages in real-time, share photos, play games, make phone calls, and much more. There are no confusing buttons, no passwords, or pop-up ads. The intuitive, easy-to-use design turns technology into a gateway instead of a barrier. grandPad is a privately held company based in Los Angeles, CA. For more information, please visit https://www.grandpad.net or follow on Twitter @grandpad_social . Live Grand with grandPad! Ty Beba We are truly excited to have Ty focus his talents and efforts on our organic growth within AssuredPartners. said CEO of AssuredPartners, Jim Henderson. AssuredPartners, Inc. is proud to announce that Kutay Ty Beba will assume the role of Executive Vice President and Chief Organic Growth Officer for AssuredPartners. In this capacity Ty will be responsible for increasing overall organic growth, recruitment of sales talent - including training and development initiatives for the Production Team. In addition, he will bring focus to the utilization of industry verticals as well as specialty products expertise which exists throughout AssuredPartners. Prior to joining AssuredPartners, Ty worked with a national insurance brokerage firm for 14 years where he most recently held the position of President of the Metro Area. In this role he was responsible for a group of offices located in New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia and Delaware generating approximately $55M in Annualized Revenues. Ty graduated from the University of Colorado (Denver) with a BS in Business with a concentration in finance. He has earned the designations of Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU), Certified Insurance Counselor (CIC), Associate in Risk Management (ARM), Associate in Claims (AIC), and holds licenses in 36 States. We are truly excited to have Ty focus his talents and efforts on our organic growth within AssuredPartners. said CEO of AssuredPartners, Jim Henderson. We have watched Tys career from a distance and we are impressed by his performance and look forward to his continued success here. Expanding our business model with the addition of Ty fits adequately into our growth model. said Tom Riley, President and COO of AssuredPartners. Having a focus on our customer base expansion, new product development and producer involvement will only allow for greater operational efficiencies. We would like to welcome Ty to the team. ABOUT ASSUREDPARTNERS, INC Headquartered in Lake Mary, Florida and led by Jim Henderson and Tom Riley, AssuredPartners, Inc. acquires and invests in insurance brokerage businesses (property and casualty, employee benefits, surety and MGUs) across the United States and in London. From its founding in March of 2011, AssuredPartners has grown to over $625 million in annualized revenue and continues to be one of the fastest growing insurance brokerage firms in the United States* with over 150 offices in 30 states, Canada and London. Since 2011, AssuredPartners has acquired more than 150 insurance agencies. For more information, please contact Dean Curtis, CFO, at 407.708.0031 or dcurtis(at)assuredptr(dot)com, or visit http://www.assuredptr.com. *As ranked by Business Insurance in the July 18, 2016 edition, featuring the 100 largest brokers of U.S. business. ### The collaboration is centered around the continued development and commercialization of Intellectual Property (IP) assets in the field of microfluidics. Zyxogen, LLC has announced a collaborative partnership with Dr. Rafael Castrejon-Pita, lecturer and lead researcher at the Laboratory of Applied Science at Queen Mary, University of London. One of the UKs most respected universities, Queen Mary held the number one ranking for Material Science according to a 2011 National Union of Students report. The collaboration is centered around the continued development and commercialization of Intellectual Property (IP) assets in the field of microfluidics. This partnership is part of Zyxogens technology transfer efforts, which significantly differ from traditional tech transfer models through the purposeful compilation of a broad global network of research institutions aimed at the commercialization of a particular set of technology and applications. Namely, Zyxogen has built a diverse and highly experienced brain trust in the area of microfluidics and disbursement by securing exclusive licensing rights and joint development capabilities with top researchers in the field. However, Zyxogen has ensured this knowledge base is broad enough to be applicable in wide array of verticals and industries. The partnership with Dr. Castrejon-Pita is no exception. Prof. Castrejon-Pitas expertise and his ability to apply research in a commercially targeted manner make him a valuable and dynamic member of the Zyxogen ecosystem, commented Stayko D. Staykov, Executive Director of Zyxogen. Zyxogen communicates extensively with large corporations to understand specific pain points and problems and then deploys IP assets and prototype capabilities utilizing its research partners in order to provide precise and particular solutions. This approach further differentiates Zyxogen and positions it to be highly responsive and agile in the corporate environment. Indeed, large corporations find in Zyxogen a partner that is able to quickly assemble already committed resources and known experts from a broad and ever expanding network. For more information, please contact Stayko D. Staykov at (615) 436 0437, or at stayko(at)zyxogen(dot)com, or by visiting Zyxogens website at http://www.zyxogen.com. **** About Zyxogen: Zyxogen, LLC is a global prototyping and licensing company of sophisticated proprietary atomization and micro disbursement technology with capabilities of dispersing liquids and materials with viscosity properties in an unprecedented precision, uniformity, and size (to the nano-level). Zyxogen provides solutions to industries ranging from cosmetics, heavy manufacturing, electronics, food, medical devices, aerospace, and others. Zyxogen is headquartered in Nashville, TN, USA. About Queen Mary University of London: Located in London, England, Queen Mary is a constituent college of the University of London. Founded in 1785, the public research university offers numerous tracts of study and boasts seven Nobel Laureates in its history. "Restaurants can dramatically increase their customer base while being a hero in their communities" Restaurant Raise, a unique new fundraising hub for restaurant owners who wish to attract large charity events, has confirmed that its platform has made 3-month trial memberships available for just $1. A restaurant using the service reported a 30% increase in bookings in July 2016 compared to the same month last year. Founded by multi-award winning restaurateur, Ryan Gougeon, the company is so confident in its roll out for the charity party booking website that it is allowing restaurant owners to test-drive the platform for 3 months for just a buck by using the special code, 3FREE. Restaurant Raise is giving restaurant owners the ability to truly get involved in a meaningful way within local communities, expressed Ryan Gougeon, the founder of Restaurant Raise. Everybody wins with Restaurant Raise as not only do restaurants receive many more bookings for larger parties but we also give them the opportunity to expand their existing customer base while giving back to charitable causes. The Founder of the subscription-based service is also the Owner of the James Joyce Irish pub and eatery in Ybor City, Florida, which has won the Tampa Bay Times Ultimate Bar Award for the past six years in a row. Ryan Gougeon developed the Restaurant Raise portal as a way to give back to his community while allowing fellow restauranteurs the opportunity to grow their businesses. From its headquarters in Tampa, Florida, Restaurant Raise and its strong team also provide valuable in-house marketing materials for restaurants to make customers aware of the fundraising service. The first thing we do is send a new restaurant our free marketing package complete with flyers, posters, and our branded drop box says Gougeon. How it works: Restaurant raise is a party booking platform that is subscription based. Restaurants pay a monthly fee and get their own branded portal that allows them to change, modify, and accept parties, and even track sales and payouts. When a customer books a charity event, the restaurant typically gives back 15%-20% of sales from the party to the charity of their choice. Restaurants can dramatically increase their customer base while being a hero in their communities. In addition, days that are typically slow are all of a sudden busy, due to the large parties that are booked. It is easy to book your party today to help great causes and to share your event via Social Media. Visit our website: http://www.restaurantraise.com/ Media Contact: Ryan Gougeon, Founder, Restaurant Raise. Email: RestaurantRaise(at)gmail(dot)com Tel: 813-362-6388 Ends. ### Polin's combo waterslides at the new waterpark in Johor help attract the tourists so vital to the country's development efforts Fun is serious business in Malaysia. The country has targeted the tourism sector as an area in which to encourage investment, and the theme park industry has taken note. The result has been a boom in amusement park development. The most recent achievement? The opening of Austin Heights Water and Adventure Park in Johor, Malaysia. The waterpark will no doubt help spur additional growth in the area's increasing tourism sector. During the first six months of 2015, the state already had recorded an improvement of 12.81 percent in visitors, allowing state officials to identify Johor as a top destination among tourists. Domestic visitors currently outnumber foreigners, but new attractions - including now Austin Heights Water and Adventure Park - will undoubtedly increase the number of international guests. The trend of amusement park growth is not limited to Malaysia. Asia as a whole has seen a significant escalation in the sector. A colorful wonderland of fun Austin Heights Waterpark opened in January 2016 and expects to serve close to 300,000 visits in its first year. The tropical-themed park offers 12 outdoor attractions in a 33,450-square-meter (360,052.8-square-feet) area on 8 hectares (19.8 acres) of land, along with a variety of indoor options such as adventure park, trampoline park, tropical skating rink and drift kart. Unique combination waterslides designed and installed by Polin Waterparks also set the park apart from other venues. Park is hosting Polin's Black Hole & Turbolance Fusion Waterslide as one of the signature rides. Along with Polin's Multi Surf, Flying Boats and Uphill Flying Boats, Racer Twin Space Boat, and Black Hole and Flying Boats Combination - plus an Aquatower in the kids' Paradise Island section - they have a multitude of options to get their adrenaline pumping. The features of the premiere offerings include: Black Hole & Turbolance Combo Waterslide: A truly unique fusion waterslide Multi Surf: Guests slide on their bellies on racing mats in head-to-head competitions on this action-oriented attraction. Flying Boats and Uphill Flying Boats: Austin Heights offers both versions of this attraction: both its downhill option along with its uphill, rollercoaster-style ride, which propels guests along a slide path on jetted water. Whichever ride guests brave, they experience a journey of surprises, rushing downhill, uphill and then ending in a surprise drop. Racer Twin Space Boat: This competitive attraction has an innovative, circular slide path that allows two double-tubes to compete side by side. The two-rider rafts provide a high-capacity attraction that keeps the adrenaline pumping during the ride's twisting, turning path before guests exit into a huge open bowl. Guests continue swirling around the insides of the bowl before exiting out the center hole and down the final slide. Black Hole & Flying Boats Combo Waterslide: This combo option takes Polin's Black Hole slide and fuses it with its Flying Boats design. The thrilling combination creates a unique slide path that shoots riders along a high-speed, special-effects-fueled ride and continues the thrill with additional rushes up-and-down before a final downhill and unexpected drop. Aquatower (Water Play Structure): Designed especially for the park's youngest guests, Polin's Aquatower at the park incorporates play-enhanced creative activities to keep little ones busy. The oversized attraction includes lots of unique attractions that can be specially designed to match any park's theming. Future enhancements will keep guests coming back The waterslides are the main attraction at Austin Heights, but its founder and managing director Dato' Ir Steve Chong Yoon On says they are only the beginning. "We're already planning more exciting facilities to complement our existing ones," he says. "The new additions include an enrichment park, a 300-room hotel, a village mall and an international convention and banquet hall." He says those enhancements should be completed by the end of 2016 and have a gross development value of about RM140 million (US$34 million). The waterpark is a key part of getting the project moving successfully in the right direction, however Dato' Ir Steve Chong Yoon On, the owner, says he appreciated how Polin's expertise made the entire project so smooth. "We felt confident from the beginning that partnering with Polin was the right choice. Their experience proved to be extremely valuable in all areas of the project's ultimate success," he adds. Brian Collett, AspireHR Labs president: "I believe that Cloud Benefits provides a compelling combination of mobility, simplicity, security and integration to our customers, and I look forward to showcasing it at SuccessConnect." AspireHR Labs today announced that it will partner with Gold-level sponsor AspireHR for SuccessConnect 2016 SAP SuccessFactors annual conference and the premier event for HR professionals, where industry influencers, current and prospective customers, technology partners and solution experts come together to share experiences, best practices and new innovations. The conference will be held from August 2931 at The Venetian|Palazzo Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. As an HCM solution specialist, AspireHR Labs is on the leading edge of software design. Understanding and employing the latest technologies has enabled the company to design software solutions that enhance the SAP ERP Human Capital Management (SAP ERP HCM) and SAP SuccessFactors solutions. Its latest release, Cloud Benefits, holds true to the goal of helping customers Run Simple. Cloud Benefits is designed for customers of SAP ERP HCM and SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central that prefer to self-administer U.S. and Canadian benefits. These companies need a modern, mobile benefits communications and enrollment solution that can also integrate with the SAP Payroll Processing application or SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll. A demo and information about Cloud Benefits will be available at the AspireHR booth at SuccessConnect. Brian Collett, AspireHR Labs president, said, SuccessConnect is an exciting way to reach out to customers of SAP ERP HCM and SAP SuccessFactors solutions and help them simplify benefits administration. Cloud Benefits is a unique, SAP-certified integration that follows the SAP Fiori user experience while also safeguarding private benefits information with deployment on SAP HANA Cloud Platform. I believe that Cloud Benefits provides a compelling combination of mobility, simplicity, security and integration to our customers, and I look forward to showcasing it at SuccessConnect. To register and for more information on SuccessConnect 2016, please visit: http://sapsuccessconnect.com/en_us/las-vegas.html About AspireHR Labs At AspireHR Labs, our sole mission is to deliver software excellence in Human Resources and Human Capital Management. That is all we do. We are laser focused on solving problems and bringing the best possible software solutions to our clients and prospects. The professionals within AspireHR Labs are former HR professionals themselves. This gives us a clear insight into the unique needs and issues facing the HR organization. Our proven capabilities and focus areas are Employee Benefits, HR Data Management, HR Data Integration, and HR Data Visualization. As an SAP silver partner, AspireHR can also deliver leading-edge solutions around those world-class technologies. For more information, please visit http://www.aspirehrlabs.com. ### SAP, SuccessFactors, SAP HANA, SAP Fiori and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE (or an SAP affiliate company) in Germany and other countries. See http://www.sap.com/corporate-en/legal/copyright/index.epx for additional trademark information and notices. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies. Tether Box - The Modern Twist on the Classic College Care Package Most of us dont have time to bake cookies and wait in line at the Post Office. Thats where TetherBox comes in. TetherBox (http://www.tetherbox.com) announced today its national rollout to colleges and universities across the United States. Parents and loved ones collectively spend hundreds of Millions of dollars annually on college care packages while subscription boxes (think Birchbox) represent a Billion dollar industry, says Lynn Holdsworth, co-creator of TetherBox. Offering a convenient and needed service while combining these two markets provided an excellent opportunity to tap into. TetherBox college care packages are filled with five to seven specially curated snacks, unique personal care products, useful gadgets and fun surprises hand-picked by the companys network of student ambassadors from colleges around the U.S. Our mission is two-fold, says Holdsworth. First, find unique content for each monthly box that college students will love and second, provide a fun, easy and affordable service that allows loved ones to send the perfect gift, a Hug from Home, to their student every month. Everyone is incredibly busy these days but we also miss our kids dearly when they are away at school, stated Holdsworth. Most of us dont have time to bake cookies and wait in line at the Post Office. Thats where TetherBox comes in. Our service gives parents the opportunity to connect with their student in a special way every month and it reminds their child know how much they are loved and missed. TetherBox held its soft launch in April of 2016 with its introductory Finals Box. Holdsworth recounts that, Our soft launch was a huge success. The reception we received from customers and from vendors wanting to be included in our boxes well exceeded our projections. We quickly built scalability into our process, launched our new website and video, amped up our marketing and are looking forward to the new school year with great excitement and anticipation. TetherBox offers Month to Month, Semester, and School Year subscription plans. About TetherBox TetherBox (http://www.tetherbox.com) is the Modern Twist on the Classic College Care Package. Each month, TetherBox sends care packages filled with meticulously selected all natural snacks, personal care items, fun gadgets and surprises gifted by loved ones to their college students around the country. TetherBox is the easy, fun and affordable way to Send a Hug from Home. Heidelberg Village construction workers and prospective residents meet for a weekly free lunch Meeting the person who builds your four walls makes living there an entirely different experience. Sustainable architectural firm Frey Architekten has started a soup kitchen initiative at their Heidelberg Village construction site to unite both construction workers and the residents who will be dwelling in the complex they are building. Every week the firm offers a free lunch to bring both worker and home dweller closer together. According to sustainable architect Wolfgang Freys Five-Finger-Principle, sustainability is a holistic concept that includes five different aspects: ecology, affordability, integration, innovation and profitability. It is not just about building more energy-efficient housing, but about building a home environment to last a lifetime. Our goal is to build a strong community identity by inviting potential residents to our weekly soup kitchen to meet the construction workers and learn more about the people behind the scenes, says Wolfgang Frey. Through consistent interaction the entire complex will bond over food and friendship. By exposing potential residents to the people developing the property, Frey Architekten seeks to develop a sense of ownership and responsibility in the home dwellers while manifesting relationships among residents and the workers themselves to serve as the foundation of a living, long-lasting community. This concept has shown great success during the construction phase of other properties around Germany developed by the Frey Group, a vibrant network of over 30 experts in the construction industry, under which the sustainable architectural firm Frey Architekten is managed. The initiative will continue weekly until the Heidelberg Village project is completed in late 2017. The Frey Group, which includes the project and property development company, Freie Liegenschaftsverwaltung GmbH, the leasing company pro scholare GmbH, and Frey Architekten, is a part of a vibrant network of around 30 employees with many years of experience and expertise in the construction industry. The Frey Group pursues sustainable urban development and considers the social and environmental aspects in every one of its projects. http://www.freyarchitekten.com Radixweb OnPrintShop Wins Must See 'EMS Award 2016 Unveiling Unified W2P Advanced B2B nConnect to Simplify, Integrate, and grow PSPs print business with one solution. Booth #2278 Graph Expo 2016 The Radixweb OnPrintShop Unified W2P Advanced B2B nConnect has won a 2016 MUST SEE EMS Award in Sales and Order Entry and heading to North Americas largest Print-Centric tradeshow Graph Expo 2016. Selected by a panel of industry-leading experts, the annual Must SEE EMS Awards recognizes the most innovative technology and convincing products being showcased at Graph Expo. The award-winning Unified Advanced B2B nConnect a Radix Framework been developed into a powerful platform to quickly integrate proven capabilities. OnPrintShop team works as IT team to customize/integrate, provide real-time support 24*5, consistent upgrades and migration services. Advanced B2B nConnect making its debut at the show to address the flexibility and productivity needs of todays print providers. The Graph Expo visitors can schedule meet now to confirm live demo and one-on-one discussion with OnPrintShop experts at Booth #2278. We are honored to be recognized for our commitment to developing the most innovative web-to-print technologies and bringing the most easy-to-use products to the printing industry, said Dharmesh Acharya, COO, Raidxweb, OnPrintShop. Print Service Providers looking for ways to optimize print business and enjoy flexibility & productivity should by all means visit us at booth #2278 Graph Expo 2016. We are especially excited to launch our award winning Unified-W2P Advanced B2B nConnect and V5.3 which promises to be a striking change for the Print Service Providers. To continue growing in todays competitive market is to ensure, PSPs platform gives them control to quickly adapt to fast changing needs of client and business, said Naresh Bordia, VP, OnPrintShop. Currently, PSPs are having 3 major challenges 1. Losing Corporate/franchisees clients for not able to meet the varied need for print orders, 2. Investing in multiple w2p to match clients ordering needs, ultimately managing getting time-consuming, complex and costly, 3. Struggling to have a single platform where both business strategy and client needs get accomplished. Unified-w2p-Advanced-B2B-nConnect platform was introduced to bring innovation by offering single platform & flexibility to PSPs to optimize strengths & grow. Unveiling W2P Advanced B2B nConnect Offering Even More Flexibility and Productivity Unified-W2p Advanced B2B nConnect offers scalable Radix w2p framework to integrate PSPs unique business model, such as multiple sales channels like B2C, B2B, Re-sellers, and Advance B2B to manage complex print ordering for B2B/Franchisees on a single platform with the flexibility to customize and integrate multi-vendor technologies. PSP selects the base solutions according to its business model from the wide range of easy-to-use solutions specially designed for the print industry over 9 years with all ecommerce, business logic and print order management features. Advanced B2B has everything built into setup complex print ordering B2B Branded store fronts with corporate admin to manage departments & users, approval rules, store & user profiles, corporate specific products & templates, reports, secured login, client specific databases, taxation, profile & complex rule based HTML template personalization and kit products. It also provides a platform and Modular architecture allows easy customizations, third party integrations such as design tools, LDAP/SSO, payment & shipping gateway, Workflow, Order fulfillment API, CRMs, Accounting, Marketing tools and the like. At Graph Expo 2016 Visit Radixweb OnPrintShop in booth #2278 at Graph Expo featuring MUST SEE EMS award winning Unified-W2P Advanced B2B nConnect, launching advanced and more powerful V5.3 along with wide range of cutting-edge web2print technologies and one-one-one consultation. About OnPrintShop: OnPrintShop is a flagship product of Radixweb, an ISO 9001:2008 certified IT services provider with 16+ years of experience in delivering enterprise-class solutions for diverse industry verticals. With over 9+ years experience delivering SaaS to custom Web to Print Software from start-ups to large PSPs & Fortune 500 companies, OnPrintShop has been recognized as the most simple & easy to use Online Printing Software provider to automate the print process from online order to delivery. Delivering personalized support 24/5 & work as a PSPs IT team. The range of solutions is powered by advanced technologies with flexible investment options-SaaS & highly customizable License Solutions. The Solutions - Platinum W2P, Online Photobook, Trade Printer, Multi-Store W2P Central Admin, Book Module, Custom-made Solutions. For details, please visit http://www.onprintshop.com Devault Foods Signature Meatball Kabobs A fitting tribute to these American workers is something that requires a little bit of construction, says Brett Black COO. As the Labor Day holiday approaches, the Devault Kitchen Magician team decided to unveil some favorite Devault dishes. The purpose is to share appreciation for those American workers who contribute every day to the strength, prosperity and well-being of the country. Over the coming weeks, a series of delicious recipes and tips will be released to express an appreciation and gratitude for some of the hardest working men and women in the country, says Brett Black, Chief Operating Officer. Devault Foods believes that these workers deserve the best offering and hope that they enjoy these dishes while relaxing with family and friends on Labor Day. The series kicks off with a tribute to construction workers. These workers are responsible for the gorgeous skylines, favorite museums, neighborhoods and community centers. They work long hours under difficult conditions and nearly impossible deadlines. They are often small business owners and entrepreneurs who take risks most would choose to pass. Contrary to stereotypes, they are intelligent, highly skilled workers who are essential to the growth and vitality of the country. The hardhats are off to the hard-working men and women who make up all segments of the construction industry, from the engineers and architects, to the equipment operators and laborers. Thank you for literally building the foundation for a strong economy. The Kitchen Magician team felt that a fitting edible tribute should involve a bit of construction. continues Brett Black. The team offers a delicious and simple take on a classic kabob for an exceptional Labor Day barbeque. Beef Kabob: Devault Signature Beef Meatball Red Onion Button or Baby Bella Mushroom Zucchini Cherry or Grape Tomato Sauce: Rosemary and Garlic infused Olive Oil, Greek Salad Dressing, or Stubbs Beef Marinade Chicken Kabob Devault Signature Chicken Meatball Pineapple Red Bell Pepper Yellow Onion Sauce: Mango Ginger Habanero Sauce, or Sweet and Sour Sauce If using wooden kabob sticks, soak them in water for at least 20 minutes before assembling the ingredients. The kabobs can be assembled hours before cooking and stored in a refrigerator. The kabobs can be prepared on a grill or in an oven. To prevent the ends of a wooden kabob stick from burning, wrap the exposed tips with aluminum foil. Building a kabob with a Devault Signature beef or chicken meatball makes prep simple as the meatball is prepared with the best cuts and seasonings. It also makes clean up easy. The vegetables and fruit should be cut into large cubes. Assemble the kabob by alternating meat, vegetable and fruit options on the kabob stick. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Cook on a grill over medium heat or in an oven that has been pre-heated to 425 degrees. Cook to get a toasty char on the edges and the meat is cooked through. Remove from heat and allow to cool for 2 minutes. The kabob can be enjoyed with or without sauce. The sauce can also be served on the side for dipping. The Kitchen Magicians suggest a simple infused oil or prepared bottled sauce to keep preparation easy-breezy for the holiday. They also suggest that the kabobs can make a great sandwich by deconstructing the kabob onto a toasted roll and adding a drizzle of sauce. Now thats a treat! The American culture is rooted in family values and a deep appreciation for the privileges extended to citizens of this great country. Like the many working people who look forward to a bright future, Devault Foods creates new products and services which will continue to bring the best taste and value to customers. At this time, Devault Foods extends the best taste, recipes and wishes for a great Labor Day Weekend, concludes Black. Devault Foods is built upon seven (7) decades of the Fillippo family's experience. The heritage includes cattle farmers, butchers and recently leaders in the food service industry. Devault Foods is unrivaled in operational excellence and is a market leader in portion-controlled meat packaging. Today, Devault Foods is focused on current trends and the future needs of the marketplace. Commitment to quality and excellence goes beyond industry standards and provides a platform to deliver exceptional products well into the future. For more information, please visit http://www.devaultfoods.com Argen Digitals SLM NP 14-unit bridge made by Concept Lasers LaserCUSING technology (3D metal printing) Argen has over 2 decades of experience in alloy development so we were attracted to Concept Laser machines because they dont restrict us to use certain materials, or exclusively enforce the use of an OEMs powders. Argen Corporation, the leader in dental digital technology, has chosen Concept Laser machines for 3D metal printing of high noble, noble, and non-precious alloys. With 3D metal printing, also known as metal additive manufacturing, Argen manufactures their portfolio of digitally fabricated dental restorations from single unit to long span bridges using LaserCUSING which builds these products layer by layer directly from 3D CAD data. The metal powder is melted entirely to provide a fully dense, homogenous structure. The end result is high detail resolution and exceptional surface finish. Argen currently has 9 Concept Laser Mlab cusing machines in their 40,000 sq. ft facility in San Diego. Argen has over 2 decades of experience in alloy development so we were attracted to Concept Laser machines because they dont restrict us to use certain materials, or exclusively enforce the use of an OEMs powders. It is this flexibility, coupled with developing our own parameters, that made Concept Laser a winner, says Paul Cascone, Sr. VP of Research and Development at Argen. Argen is actively developing alloys to specifically run on the Mlab cusing machines. The Mlab cusing machines are the most compatible for Argens business, given its smaller build volume is ideal for precious metals as it allows the user to work with smaller batches. Our digital outsourcing business has continued to double each year. The Concept Laser Mlab cusing machines have given us the flexibility to grow at a rapid pace, while continuing to innovate with new materials. The smaller build plate allows us to utilize high cost precious metals in a lean work flow, says Anton Woolf, CEO of Argen. Concept Laser is pleased to be chosen as a platform for Argens metal additive manufacturing. We admire their approach to innovation and their thought leadership in digital dental technologies, says John Murray, President and CEO of Concept Laser Inc. ABOUT ARGEN CORPORATION Argen Corporation is a worldwide leader in dental alloys, dental zirconia, digital dentistry and scrap refining services with a reputation for consistent quality and superior customer service. Argen is the largest dental alloy manufacturer in the world, offering over 600 precious and non-precious alloys to more than 100 countries. Argens innovative digital services provide the most complete digital solution to the dental laboratory including: Selective Laser Melted (SLM) copings in high noble, noble and non-precious, Digital Precious Metals in 20 of Argens Most Popular Alloys, SLM Captek, Custom Abutments, ArgenZ Zirconia discs and milled units, Digital Models, ArgenPMMA Temps, ArgenWAX and Digital Scanners. Argens headquarters have expanded to include a 40,000 sq. ft. facility and an additional 80,000 sq. ft. facility in San Diego, CA. Argen Corporation manufactures products under the following brand names: Jelenko, Pentron, Aurium, Leach & Dillon Alloys, Wilkinson Alloys, World Alloys, Gateway Alloys, Dent-Gold, and Dental Alloy Products. To learn more about Argen, please visit http://www.argen.com or call (800) 255-5524. ABOUT CONCEPT LASER Concept Laser GmbH is one of the worlds leading provider of machine and plant technology for the 3D printing of metal components. Founded by Frank Herzog in 2000, the patented LaserCUSING process powder-bed-based laser melting of metals opens up new freedom to configuring components and also permits the tool-free, economic fabrication of highly complex parts in fairly small batch sizes. Concept Laser serves various industries, ranging from medical, dental, aerospace, toolmaking and mold construction, automotive and jewelry. Concept Laser machines are compatible with a diverse set of powder materials, such as stainless steel and hot-work steels, aluminum and titanium alloys, as well as precious metals for jewelry and dental applications. Concept Laser Inc. is headquartered in Grapevine, Texas and is a US-based wholly owned subsidiary of Concept Laser GmbH. For more information, visit our website at http://www.conceptlaserinc.com LaserCUSING is a registered trademark of Concept Laser. We are excited to be moving forward on Absecon Island. Support for our services from the local community has been overwhelming, states Brian Snyder, Vice President of Marketing and Sales. We look forward to giving consumers in this market a choice for Hammer Fiber Optic Investments d/b/a/ Hammer Fiber, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hammer Fiber Optics Holdings Corp. (OTC: HMMR) announced today that it will begin the second phase of closed beta testing on Absecon Island in New Jersey, having completed their initial testing phase. The second beta test comes ahead of the companys highly anticipated residential services launch, slated for later this year. Hammer Fiber is bringing broadband service to residential homes as well as small and medium businesses through a combination of fiber optic backbone and proprietary wireless technology. Upon completion of the second round of beta testing, the company intends to add voice and video services to its suite of available products in the market. Through the use of the wireless technology, Hammer Fiber is bringing a new level of access to a region that has been plagued by underdeveloped service offerings. Coinciding with the beta launch, Hammer Fiber will be opening its first Hammer Store in Ventnor City, NJ. The location will be used as a distribution hub for service installation, a customer support center, as well as a public showroom where potential subscribers can experience the entire suite of Hammer Fiber products, just as they would in their own homes or business. The location at 5014 Wellington Ave, in Ventnor City Ventnor Plaza represents the first such location of its kind for Hammer Fiber, with other locations planned as Hammer Fibers network expands into other markets. The company selected a location that has a high visibility in the market, located in a large neighborhood strip center, which includes the US Post Office as well as the only Supermarket on Absecon Island, giving the company plenty of exposure as it continues to advance its offerings in the area. About Hammer Fiber Hammer Fiber Optic Investments Ltd. D/B/A Hammer Fiber (OTC:HMMR) is a registered Competitive Local Exchange Carrier in New Jersey that offers services throughout the New Jersey region, as well as Philadelphia and New York. Along with fiber transit solutions, VoIP platforms, Ethernet connectivity and managed services to businesses ranging from small to enterprise; Hammer Fiber also serves residential and small business markets with broadband, voice and video. For more information visit http://www.hammerfiber.com Forward Looking Language This press release contains projections and other forward-looking statements regarding future events or our future financial performance. All statements other than present and historical facts and conditions contained in this release, including any statements regarding our future results of operations and financial positions, business strategy, plans and our objectives for future operations, are forward-looking statements (within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended). These statements are only predictions and reflect our current beliefs and expectations with respect to future events and are based on assumptions and subject to risk and uncertainties and subject to change at any time. We operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks emerge from time to time. Given these risks and uncertainties, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Actual events or results may differ materially from those contained in the projections or forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this release are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Lucas Group The Midwest is heavily industrialized, and we look forward to continuing to be the recruiting firm of choice for manufacturing employers in the area. Lucas Group has expanded its footprint in Cincinnati with the addition of a new Manufacturing branch in the area. The leading manufacturing executive recruitment firm in North America will now service clients and candidates in four practice areas in CincinnatiAccounting & Finance, Human Resources, Information Technology and the newest branch, Manufacturing. Lucas Group has been servicing clients throughout the Cincinnati area for a number of years, said Charlie Wilgus, General Manager of Lucas Groups Manufacturing practice group. This new branch will allow our expert executive recruiters to have a more hands-on approach to working with leading manufacturing and supply chain employers throughout the Midwest. Jimmy Dwertman has been hired to lead the new Manufacturing office and will be expanding the team of executive recruiters in Cincinnati, adding key individuals to grow the branch. Dwertman brings to the table diverse experience in talent acquisition, leadership and sales, and he also spent four years serving in the U.S. military. A native of Cincinnati, Dwertman understands the local job and talent market and offers a unique perspective to his clients and candidates. Lucas Groups 46 manufacturing recruiters provide consultative recruiting services for mid-tier to Fortune 500 corporations throughout all sectors of the manufacturing industry, said Wilgus. The Midwest is heavily industrialized, and we look forward to continuing to be the recruiting firm of choice for manufacturing employers in the area. In addition to Lucas Groups practice areas represented in Cincinnati, the firm provides executive recruiting services across three other areasLegal, Military Transition and Sales & Marketing. For more than 40 years, Lucas Group has strategically sourced top talent for exceptional employers, yielding long-term, successful placements and careers. With 15 offices located throughout the U.S., including Cincinnati, Lucas Group offers broad, national reach combined with localized, expert search techniques. For more information about Lucas Groups new manufacturing branch, contact them at the information below: Lucas Group 221 E 4th St #2750 Cincinnati, OH 45202 General Contact: 800-466-4489 About Lucas Group Lucas Group is North Americas premier executive search firm. Since 1970, our culture and methodologies have driven superior results. We assist clients ranging in size from small to medium-sized businesses to Fortune 500 companies find transcendent, executive talent; candidates fully realize their ambitions; and associates find professional success. To learn more, please visit Lucas Group at http://www.lucasgroup.com and connect with us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Added GDP to the State of Utah Beyond the money that is brought into the state of Utah through this industry, there are 6,400 jobs and 6,066 clients receiving services, which is almost a 1:1 ratio, The study was created and compiled by the the Kem Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah, revealing the total economic impact of the industry on the sum of its direct, indirect and induced effects on the state of Utah. The study also revealed that 6,400 jobs are created, which is surprisingly more than the famed Sundance Film Festival. In Utah, 21 of the 29 counties have at least one treatment program operating and creating employment. The study included 59 of the 72 programs for teens and young adults ranging from residential treatment centers, therapeutic boarding schools, psychiatric hospitals, to wilderness therapy programs. Families pay out-of- pocket for this type of treatment. This study does not include primary substance abuse treatment, publicly funded or insurance-driven facilities in Utah. Jenney Wilder, M.S.Ed., the founder of All Kinds of Therapy, sponsored the study to measure the economic impact of the industry in the state of Utah from an academic, independent source: the Kem Gardner Policy Institute. She collaborated with the National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs (NATSAP) which had 40 of their 47 Utah members participate in the study. Moving to Utah four years ago, I realized that everyone had heard of parent choice behavioral healthcare programs in the state, but I did not fully realize the depth of its impact on the states economy said Wilder. I learned how the Kem Gardner Policy Institute specializes in economic impact studies of how industries bring money into Utah and asked them to perform the study. This is a huge economic impact that would not be in Utah if these types of facilities were abundant throughout the state. 85.5 of the 6,066 clients treated in Utah in 2015 were from other states and countries. The study breaks down the spending attributed to the treatment programs and families who place their troubled teens in Utah. As part of treatment process, most families visit Utah several times for parent workshops or to transport from one program to another. On average, each treatment programs visitors are responsible for $206,400 for a total of $16,304,000 in hospitality dollars spent on local accommodations while they are visiting Utah. Beyond the money that is brought into the state of Utah through this industry, there are 6,400 jobs and 6,066 clients receiving services, which is almost a 1:1 ratio, said Wilder, I knew that Utah state licensing requirements for many programs have high staff to student ratios, but that number means that almost every client coming into Utah represents one new job created. Additionally, 56.9% of the employees in this industry have a bachelors degree or higher, and the median pay is 22% higher than the average Utahn. The last time this industry was examined broadly was by Forbes Magazine in October 2002. That article stated that this was a growth industry (Brown, Erika. "When Rich Kids Go Bad." Forbes, 14 Oct. 2002. Web.) Their research revealed that 10,000 students per year were enrolled in family choice behavioral healthcare treatment programs and estimated this was a $2 billion-a-year national industry. Based on these new numbers from Utah alone, which only accounts for 30% of the membership of NATSAP, it is safe to estimate that there are more than 15,000 clients being treated, nearly 50% growth from 2002, despite the recession. Lastly, the report uncovered that the industry also has a strong charitable presence. Wilder previously worked as a therapeutic consultant, helping families to place clients in treatment programs in Utah and around the country. I knew that there were discounts for those who qualified for tuition assistance. It was no surprise to me that the 59 programs that participated in the study reported that they offered discounts and scholarships for a total of $19,385,589 in 2015, said Wilder. To read the Research Brief please visit, https://www.allkindsoftherapy.com/economic-impact-treatment-programs-utah About All Kinds of Therapy All Kinds of Therapy (allkindsoftherapy.com) is located in downtown Salt Lake City, UT. It is surrounded by cutting-edge private pay, parent choice behavioral health and substance abuse treatment programs for troubled teens and young adults. The website is the only independent, comprehensive online directory available with the ability to search and compare the vast options available to families in search of residential treatment options like Wilderness Therapy programs, psychiatric assessment and treatment facilities, and Therapeutic Experts. All Kinds of Therapy will donate 1% of its net income to nonprofits that they believe encompass all types of education, all types of learning, and all types of therapy. After about 50 years of academic research and thousands of publications, SB Gel has a chance to be the first material in this family of temperature-responsive polymers used to deliver medications in people. Sonoran Biosciences, an early stage pharmaceutical company based on technology developed at Arizona State University, has been awarded a $1,484,417 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II grant by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases of the National Institutes of Health. The companys SB Gel is an injectable liquid at room temperature that thickens at body temperature, where it conforms to an implant or surgical site surface, slowly releases its drug payload, and then dissolves after the drug is released. The SBIR award will fund the next phase of research required to proceed to clinical trials for a formulation that releases antibiotics for the treatment of prosthetic joint infections. After about 50 years of academic research and thousands of publications, SB Gel has a chance to be the first material in this family of temperature-responsive polymers used to deliver medications in people, said Derek Overstreet, co-founder and chief scientific officer of Sonoran Biosciences. This generous grant gives us the funding we need to optimize the formulation and commence the safety studies needed to advance our antibiotic product to the clinic. Prosthetic joint infections are devastating to patients and costly to the healthcare system. The total costs associated with treatment in the United States are estimated to approach $4 billion in 2016. In the next 10 years, as an aging population increases the number of joint replacement surgeries, the number of associated infections is projected to more than double. Prosthetic joint infections are caused by bacteria that adhere to implant and tissue surfaces to form a slimy layer called a biofilm, which makes the bacteria less susceptible to antibiotics. Treatment requires surgical removal of the vast majority of the infection and very high concentrations of antibiotics for a sustained period of time to kill any remaining biofilm bacteria. Currently, this requires a two-surgery treatment regimen, where the implant and infected surroundings are removed and dosed with an antibiotic-loaded bone cement spacer, then the patient is operated on again to replace the spacer with a new permanent implant. The SB Gel formulation is intended to enable treatment in a single surgery by providing high antibiotic concentrations around a new permanent implant, avoiding the need for a spacer. In early 2016, Joseph Cooper joined Sonoran Biosciences as interim CEO. He connected to the company through the ASU Startup Mill, where he serves as an entrepreneur-in-residence. Cooper previously served as executive vice president for Medicis Pharmaceutical Corporation and in senior roles with Schein Pharmaceutical, Smith and Nephew, and GD Searle. The stringent requirements for a Phase II SBIR award constitutes strong validation for the potential of our lead product to provide first-in-class treatment for orthopaedic infections, said Cooper. Throughout every phase of Sonoran Biosciences development, including this SBIR application, ASU has provided critical support and guidance. We appreciate the work ASU continues to do as we move towards an IND filing and future partnerships and funding of our programs. About Sonoran Biosciences Sonoran Biosciences is a privately held early stage pharmaceutical company that has developed SB Gel, a novel viscous sustained release carrier based on technology developed at Arizona State University. SB Gel enables sustained release of a wide variety of drugs to new sites in the body, including surgical sites, device surfaces, and healing tissues. We develop new formulations using approved active ingredients, requiring reduced development cost and risk while retaining the exclusivity of a typical pharmaceutical. Formulations based on SB Gel have potential in a number of therapeutic areas including infection, pain management, and osteoarthritis. Sonorans lead product candidate, SB Gel with a combination of antibiotics, is being developed for treatment of prosthetic joint infection. http://www.sonoranbiosciences.com/ Editors Note: Research reported in this publication is being supported by the National Institute Of Arthritis And Musculoskeletal And Skin Diseases of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R44AR070685. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. Sustainable Energy, Water & Food Security The Three Most Important Global Issues Clean energy is the Holy Grail for the future of energy. President Obama and the leaders of Canada and Mexico signed a pledge at the 2016 Ottawa Summit, to supply 50% clean energy by 2025. [http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-27/u-s-mexico-said-to-pledge-50-percent-clean-power-by-2025 Jack Katz, the CEO of Zphere Works a Mexico City company states, The Ottawa Summit pledge is an ambitious goal; however we have the plan and our Monarca Project will produce and supply 30 million gallons of Green aviation grade fuel for Mexicos aviation industry within 36 months. Katz says, However, the Monarca Project is more than just about fuel. It encompasses the three most important issues facing the world Energy, Water and Food, as well as regional social and economic issues of the sustainability. Katz continues, This project will be the most efficient large scale Jatropha plantation, and it will be on the cutting edge utilizing new high yield sustainable agriculture practices brought to the project by Michael Chaplinsky, the president of Turf Feeding Systems. It will also be vertically integrated with its own high quality refinery to produce and supply clean sustainable fuel locally. This will be true sustainability from the plant to finished shipped BioFuel on the same location. Michael Chaplinsky states, We will create the first truly sustainable agriculture project in the world using 50% less water, 60% less fertilizer and chemicals while producing 50% to 100% more Jatropha fruit production from any hybrid plants. Chaplinsky continues, Sustainability combines economics, social benefits as well as environmental values, and sadly most use it only as an advertising slogan. Few really have the means or the desire to correctly implement sustainability into a project to achieve the values and benefits they state, and most project owners only want to make money. Katz states, For those reasons we have turned to Green Security and its network of experts, to help us achieve the level of standard set by Green Security to achieve high reaching goals and values that are of global importance. James P. Flynn, founder of Green Security asserts that there is a fundamental, symbiotic and indivisible relationship between the self-sustainability of basic resources and matters of National, Regional and Global Security, e.g., Food, Water & Energy; issues which permeate all aspects of social, economic and political spheres on a global scale, and help insure the sustained survival of our basic unalienable rights. http://www.greensecurity.us Flynn states, We will encourage and support initiatives such as the Monarca Project, which represent a major paradigm shift in global sustainability that is critical to matters of long term security. Chaplinsky adds, Sustainability also includes social, cultural and economic elements, which is the foundation of the Monarca Project. For the first time we will have a project certification for the sustainability of our work. Most just claim it in their web site of in their literature. Katz states, We are now well positioned launch the Monarca Project to create one for the most efficient BioJet fuel projects that will follow the critical sustainability values that are in line with Green Security. We welcome Green Security as a valued team member. Contact Information Jack Katz, CEO - Zphere Works, S. de R.L. de C.V., a Mexican Limited Liability Company - Cerrada Manchester 13, floor 3 - Mexico City, 06600 +52.1.55.20954727 jkatz(at)blacksmithicg(dot)com Michael Chaplinsky, President Turf Feeding Systems, Inc. Houston, Texas USA +1 713.849.9040 mc(at)turffeeding(dot)com http://www.turffeeding.com Bio: Mr. Jack Katz is the CEO of Zphere Works, S. de R.L. de C.V headquartered in Mexico City. Mr. Katz has been in the waste to energy business for over 10 years. His background has been focused on integrating government agencies with solutions in waste and environmental issues. He has brought together teams of designs and implementers to structure and install systems that address municipal waste and water quality. Mr. Katz has just launched a municipal waste to energy project for Cancun. Michael Chaplinsky is the President of Turf Feeding Systems a world leading company in fertigation, headquartered in Houston, Texas. Mr. Chaplinsky has developed new technologies integrating fertigation, new irrigation technologies and special soil treatments to reduce irrigation water up to 50%, reduce fertilizer and chemicals 60% while increasing crop production as much as 50%. Mr. Chaplinsky works and speaks at many agriculture conferences worldwide. He is a world expert in Soil Restoration, Water Efficiency and Sodium Issues in water and soil. He developed a new sustainable agriculture program that restores poor soil and produces higher crop production, while reducing water, fertilizer and chemicals. He states, The world population has passed 7 billion and will pass 9 billion by 2050; however tillable productive farmland in the world is diminishing. My mission is to restore damaged farmland not bulldoze native forests to increase farmland. A woman looks at her phone as she passes by a Lending Club banner on the facade of the the New York Stock Exchange December 11, 2014. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid By Sudarshan Varadhan and Heather Somerville (Reuters) - LendingClub Corp, which matches borrowers and lenders online, on Monday posted a bigger-than-expected quarterly loss as growth slowed, and said its chief financial officer had resigned. CFO Carrie Dolan is the first high-profile exit after the company's founder and CEO, Renauld Laplanche, was ousted in May following an internal review over loan irregularities.. LendingClub's shares were down about 1.7 percent at $4.71 in after-market trading on Monday. The shares had fallen 33 percent since Laplanche's departure through Monday's close. Loan originations, a key metric indicating the volume of loans processed by the company, rose only 2.3 percent in the second quarter ended June 30, a steep drop from the 68 percent growth in the preceding quarter and 90 percent in the year-earlier quarter. The company said it expects loan originations to be flat over the next two quarters. The fall reflects the alternative lending industry's struggles with faltering investor appetite for loans, rising defaults and the possibility of heightened regulation. For the third quarter, the company expects operating revenue to range between $95 million to $105 million, below analysts' current average estimate of $106.1 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. LendingClub said its second-quarter net loss widened to $81.4 million, or 21 cents per share, from a loss of $4.1 million, or 1 cent per share, a year earlier. Excluding items, LendingClub lost 9 cents per share, much bigger than the average analyst estimate of 2 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Operating revenue rose 6.5 percent to $102.4 million. Operating costs rose 87.5 percent to $188.7 million, as the company took an impairment charge and paid incentives to investors. The company named Bradley Coleman as interim CFO while it seeks a replacement for Dolan, it said in a statement. LendingClub also said it has appointed Timothy Mayopoulos, president and CEO of Fannie Mae, to its board as an independent director. Also on Monday, fellow online lender On Deck Capital Inc reported a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss and said origination volume rose 41 percent in the second quarter. (Reporting by Sudarshan Varadhan and Nikhil Subba in Bengaluru and Heather Somerville in San Francisco; Editing by Richard Chang and Matthew Lewis) Vital Data will provide automated workflows, letter generation and reporting that will help the CCC improve our case management processes, communication and workflows and allow CCC Case Managers to become more efficient and to reach more clients in need Vital Data Technology (Vital Data), is pleased to announce that it has entered into a contract with Community Care Collaborative (CCC) of Austin, Texas to deploy the integrated Case Management system of Vital Datas Quality Management Platform. The CCC is a public/private partnership between Central Health (the taxing healthcare district in Travis County, Texas) and Seton Healthcare Family. CCC was designed to develop an integrated delivery system to better manage the care of low income and uninsured populations by providing high quality, cost-effective, person-centered care that improves health outcomes. The CCC will utilize the Vital Datas Case Management and Care Coordination module to improve care management across its diverse population. Vital Datas comprehensive tool set will provide automated workflows, letter generation and reporting that will help the CCC improve our case management processes, communication and workflows and allow CCC Case Managers to become more efficient and to reach more clients in need, said Dr. Mark Hernandez, the CCCs Chief Medical Officer. We are excited to be working with the CCC in its mission to provide needed health services to the uninsured and underinsured populations. The ability to utilize Case Management tools to coordinate care among all care providers for low income populations is a growing need for any organization accountable for the quality and cost of care in todays healthcare environment, said Matt DAmbrosia, President and CEO of Vital Data Technology. Additionally, we believe our solution optimizes existing care management programs, complementing current workflow processes while enabling our clients to maximize the effectiveness of their care coordination initiatives. About Community Care Collaborative The Community Care Collaborative is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit public/private partnership between Central Health and Seton designed to better manage the care for the low income and uninsured populations of Travis County. The CCC works closely with the Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin, Seton Healthcare Family, Austin Travis County Integral Care and local federally qualified health centers to develop an integrated delivery system for patient care in Travis County. The IDS will offer coordinated health care services across a spectrum of primary care, specialty, hospital and social service providers. http://www.ccc-ids.org/ About Vital Data Technology Vital Data Technology offers a cloud-architected platform which provides Integrated Analytics, HEDIS Management, Care Coordination and Patient/Member Engagement solutions to a variety of health care clients. Vital Data was founded in 2005 with the vision of providing timely access to insightful and actionable information to support decision-making that optimizes care and lowers cost throughout the continuum of care. Vital Data was an early purveyor of cloud-based technologies for its unmatched capabilities to gather, process and share care data across a broad network of stakeholders involved with delivering quality care to a geographically dispersed population. We were awarded patents for several of our innovations. Today, the Vital Data Technology Quality Management Platform aggregates millions of transactions every month, supporting almost a million Medicaid member lives via several health plan clients. The Vital Data Technology Quality Management Platform supports thousands of physicians, along with a variety of ancillary healthcare providers throughout the country. Vital Data Technology has received NCQA HEDIS Certification for 2014, 2015, and 2016. http://www.vitaldatatech.com ### To be recognized as an Innovator by Inman, one of the true trailblazing organizations in our industry, is a great honor. Chicago-based @properties, the largest independent real estate brokerage firm in Illinois, was named Most Innovative Brokerage at the 2016 Inman Innovator Awards, held August 4 in San Francisco. Inman, a real estate information and media company, based in Emeryville, Calif., produces the annual awards program to recognize and celebrate the most innovative companies in the real estate industry. @properties was among 21 national finalists in the Most Innovative Brokerage category. Other award categories recognized the most innovative technology, agent, non-brokerage real estate company, marketing campaign and MLS or association. One winner and two runner ups were chosen for each category. To be recognized as an Innovator by Inman, one of the true trailblazing organizations in our industry, is a great honor, said Thad Wong, co-founder of @properties. This award is a responsibility as much as it is an achievement. Its a mandate to keep striving, keep evolving. Innovators must never be content. According to Wong and @properties co-founder Michael Golden, innovation is central to @properties continued growth and success. One of our core values is Improving Innovation. It summarizes a principle we live by every day, said Golden. We are constantly challenging ourselves to introduce new marketing initiatives and technologies that will better serve our brokers and clients, and raise the bar in our industry. Established in 2000 by Wong and Golden, @properties has grown into the largest residential brokerage firm in the city of Chicago and one of the top 11 residential brokerage firms in the U.S. by sales volume. Over the last few years, the firm has invested in and partnered with a number of local tech startups, including Yapmo, TurboAppeal and PointDrive, to develop products and services that are now used by thousands of real estate brokers and consumers both within and outside of @properties network. Inman Innovators are on the forefront of change in the industry, said Brad Inman in a recent announcement. By consistently asking what can be better about the industry and trying to make their dreams reality, they are pushing every one of us to view the industry using a different lens. About @properties @properties is the No. 1 independent residential brokerage firm in Illinois and one of the top 11 residential brokers in the U.S. by sales volume. @properties has more than 2,000 licensed brokers in 23 offices throughout downtown Chicago, surrounding suburbs, southwest Michigan and Lake Geneva, Wisc. For more information, visit http://www.atproperties.com. Year Up NCR Board Members, Left: Cary Hatch, CEO of MDB Communications, Right: Mike Corkery, President & CEO of Deltek Were thrilled to have Michael and Cary join our board and provide their expertise in strengthening our position in the DC market, said Guylaine Saint Juste, Executive Director of Year Up NCR. Continuing to scale its innovative and effective approach to workforce development, Year Up National Capital Region (NCR) announced today that Mike Corkery, President and CEO of Deltek, and Cary Hatch, CEO of MDB Communications, have joined its Local Board of Directors. Year Up NCR is a nonprofit job-training program that provides urban young adults with six months of technical and professional training, followed by a six-month internship at top companies like Deltek. Were thrilled to have Michael and Cary join our board and provide their expertise in strengthening our position in the DC market, said Guylaine Saint Juste, Executive Director of Year Up NCR. They know what growing companies are looking for in terms of skilled entry-level talent, and will help us communicate the value of our young adults to even more organizations the Greater Washington Region As Delteks CEO, Corkery leads more than 2,300 employees that deliver enterprise software and solutions to 22,000+ customers around the globe including many of the worlds largest government contracting and professional services firms. He has held a variety of senior financial and operational executive positions for leading technology companies. Deltek has been partnering with Year Up since 2011, and Ive seen first-hand just how talented and motivated these young adults are, said Corkery. Im excited to join Year Up NCRs board to connect even more young adults in need of an opportunity with companies in need of talent. With more than 30 years of experience in advertising and marketing, Hatch has led business and consumer communications initiatives for organizations including National Geographic, Fannie Mae, Destination DC, International Spy Museum, Sprint and many others. Year Up NCR addresses two critical issues the skills gap and the Opportunity Divide by redefining where talent comes from and what it looks like, said Hatch. Im delighted to join Year Up NCRs board to help more low-income young men and women launch exciting careers in IT and finance. Year Up NCR currently serves more than 320 students each year. Since its launch in 2006, the site has helped nearly 2,000 young adults (ages 18-24, without college degrees) gain in-demand technical, professional and communication skills in Information Technology and Financial Operations. Nationwide, 85 percent of Year Up graduates are employed or attending college full-time within four months of completing the yearlong program, with an average starting salary of $36,000/year. Learn more about Year Up NCR by following us on Twitter @YearUp_NCR and on Facebook. About Year Up Inc. Year Up's mission is to close the Opportunity Divide by providing urban young adults with the skills, experience, and support that will empower them to reach their potential through professional careers and higher education. Year Up achieves this mission through a high support, high expectation model that combines marketable job skills, stipends, internships and college credits. Its holistic approach focuses on students' professional and personal development to place these young adults on a viable path to economic self-sufficiency. Year Up currently serves more than 3,000 students a year at sites in Arizona, Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Jacksonville, the National Capital Region, New York City, Philadelphia, Providence, Puget Sound, San Francisco Bay Area, and South Florida. To learn more, visit http://www.yearup.org or http://www.youtube.com/yearupinc. GiveWill Backpack As we see budgets get smaller while needs get greater, we as a company see an opportunity for our brand to be of service, said Adler. I believe that by inspiring students to dreamand dream bigwe are making an investment in our future. Luxury leather brand, Will Leather Goods, is announcing a special buy one, give one program designed to support students in underfunded schools across America with in-kind backpack donations. Through the Back-to-School Will Leather Goods Get & Give Will Initiative, for every backpack or messenger bag purchased now through October 1, 2016, the company will donate one backpack stocked with school supplies to a child in need in the U.S. Will Leather Goods founder and creative director, Will Adler, made the announcement. The campaign supports the companys established social initiative Give Will that Adler created to provide elementary children in underfunded schools with the everyday essentials that they need to be confident, secure, successful and inspired. The specially-designed colorful backpacks, with a space for the child to write his/her future aspirations, are intended to serve as a bag to carry your dreams. To date, Will Leather Goods has donated more than 8,500 backpacks to children in underfunded schools across the U.S., with the goal of providing 500,000 backpacks nationwide by 2025. Adler attended public schools while growing up Detroit and since those impressionable years, he recognized the importance of education as a foundation for success. As we see budgets get smaller while needs get greater, we as a company see an opportunity for our brand to be of service, said Adler. I believe that by inspiring students to dreamand dream bigwe are making an investment in our future. A former actor, Adler started a belt stand on the Venice beach boardwalk in 1981 to support his young family. Today, the family-owned company has eight Will Leather Goods retail stores in the U.S., a growing e-commerce website and over 300 retailers across the world carrying products supported by a 100 percent lifetime guarantee. About Will Leather Goods Based in Eugene, Oregon, Will Leather Goods is a family-owned company that creates innovative leather goods rooted in the past, designed for the present and built for the future. A leather craftsman for 35 years, founder and creator Will Adler travels the globe to work with worldwide artisans, sourcing materials and producing unexpectedly classic product. From its humble beginnings as a small belt stand started on the boardwalk of Venice Beach, California in 1981, today, there are eight Will Leather Goods retail stores in the U.S., a growing e-commerce website and over 300 retailers across the world carrying products supported by a 100 percent lifetime guarantee. Through its Give Will initiative, the company gives back by donating backpacks to underfunded elementary schools across America while mentoring children to follow their dreams. For more information, visit http://www.willleathergoods.com. Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/WillLeather Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/WillLeather Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/willleathergoods Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/willleather Disassembly after training TRIC's equipment is superp! The tools are high performance, easy to operate and easy to handle for our projects. On July 14th, Gennady Belous of Z-Techno traveled to Tel Aviv Israel to work with Meiri and Sons, Ltd. In February 2016, Meiri and Sons, Ltd. purchased TRICs M50 Pipe Bursting System. TRIC Tools Director of Marketing and Product Support John Raffferty traveled to Tel Aviv for TRICs initial training. Two months after the training, Guy Meiri asked TRIC if John could return for follow-up training in July. Meiri had some challenges with setting up the equipment on a few of the jobs following the training. Mr. Meiri wanted to make sure his team was following the right procedures to create a safe operating environment. Due to Johns busy schedule, TRICs International Business Development representative, Mrs. Miriam Brenner, suggested that TRIC contact Z-Techno, their long-time Distributor in Russia. In early July, Mrs. Brenner coordinated the training, transportation and lodging for Gennady. TRIC felt under the circumstances travel from Russia would be more convenient both for Gennady and Guy than a flight from California. Z-Techno has been TRICs most successful pipe bursting distributor for the last 8 years. In May of 2008, TRIC traveled to Moscow for the Moscow "No Dig" Trade Show. John Rafferty, Miriam Brenner and Director of Sales Gregg Abbott met with Z-techno and Rosvodakanal (Moscow Water Company). Mr. Rafferty trained both Z-techno and Rosvodakanal during the trip. In 2011, Z-Technos General Director Rustam Baltakhanov traveled to Berlin to meet Mr. Abbott and TRICs Operation Director at the Wasser Berlin & Trenchless International Trade show. Since 2008, Z-Technos Management has been proven to be a good trading partner and a close friend. Both Gennady and Guy enjoyed the July training experience and Meiri and Sons enjoyed experiencing training from another pipe bursters perspective. "TRIC's equipment is superp. They are high performance, easy to operate and easy to handle for our projects," said Meiri. TRIC invented and patented the first Lateral Pipe Bursting System while simultaneously gaining national approval of the HDPE pipe for its use, thus opening the market for trenchless home sewer replacement in America. For more information about Trenchless Pipe Bursting equipment or the Trenchless Industry in general - please call 888-883-8742 or visit TRIC's website at http://www.trictrenchless.com to see how they can answer any of these questions for you. In less than a month since launching their powerful new website (http://www.2016tweets.live) that provides the public with real-time data from the worlds tweets regarding Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, tech start-up Aicial has just analyzed its one-hundred-millionth tweet on the Presidential candidates. In addition to this epochal milestone, the company recently began tracking and reporting on the number of bots that follow, like, and retweet the two major accounts. As bots can confuse and often mislead voters into thinking one party has more support than the other, this analysis allows the public to see the competing candidates on a more even playing field. So far Aicial has analyzed over 109,000 unique Twitter accounts that are engaging with Clinton and Trump. Aicial Co-Founder and CEO, Troy Kelly said the company is committed to further development of the social engine and is quite interested in discussing potential partnerships with news and media outlets. The company is highly agile and able to develop bespoke, station branded dashboards along with geographically filtered data to suit any organizations community. Aicial is a Machine Learning Social Intelligence platform currently being built in San Francisco, CA by Aicial, Inc. Founded by three Australian's the technology startup is currently seeking founders and investment. Aicial is a machine learning platform that understands consumers through their posts and interactions, to guide better content for publishers. Gorilla-Snot was applied to create a surface crust covering 320 acres of the problem area closest to the freeway. After touring the site, we knew we had a solution to limit the intense dust problems that have impeded traffic and commerce along the I-10. Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) has chosen Scottsdale-based Soilworks, the worldwide leader in dust control and soil stabilization, to solve the dust problem causing freeway closures along Interstate 10 in San Simon with almost 1 million gallons of its eco-friendly copolymer, Gorilla-Snot. After touring the site, we knew we had a solution to limit the intense dust problems that have impeded traffic and commerce along the I-10, said Chad Falkenberg, president and founder of Soilworks. Our Gorilla-Snot product offers an environmentally safe solution to the problem. Gorilla-Snot is an eco-safe, biodegradable, liquid copolymer used to provide erosion control and dust suppression. The product, similar in consistency to the non-toxic white glue found in school classrooms, was applied to create a surface crust covering 320 acres of the problem area closest to the freeway. The area gained national attention in April when a local farmer tilled more than 640 acres of farmland near the I-10 Freeway. During periods of high wind, the field created extremely dusty conditions that required the Arizona Department of Public Safety to shut down a 62-mile stretch of the interstate ten times due to dust-related accidents and reduced visibility. San Simon is located approximately 40 miles east of Willcox in southeast Arizona. The closures forced motorists to use a 110-mile detour. What is Gorilla-Snot? Gorilla-Snot is a biodegradable copolymer engineered to penetrate into the ground to create a strong and resilient, yet flexible surface that can withstand intense environmental conditions without harming the soil. This military-grade product is designed to solve the most difficult dust suppression challenges. It is field-tested by military organizations such as the U.S. Department of Defense Army Corps of Engineers and is the product of choice for mines across the globe to eliminate tailings impoundments erosion. A modest application of Gorilla-Snot will create a light surface crust that remains water permeable for air and water, yet perfect for controlling dust and suppressing PM10 and PM2.5 particulate matter to maintain air quality and visibility. Gorilla-Snot does not migrate away from treated areas and does not leach into groundwater. Its water-insoluble formulation prevents it from washing away in the rain. For more information on Soilworks, please visit http://www.soilworks.com. About Soilworks Soilworks provides engineered solutions to meet the broad needs of the dust control and soil stabilization industry. Whether the market is commercial, industrial or military, Soilworks has the innovative tools, unmatched technical support, and environmentally friendly technologies to fulfill specific requirements. Soilworks performance-driven portfolio of industry-leading products include the Patented U.S. Dept. of Defense Surtac, Soiltac, Powdered Soiltac, Gorilla-Snot and the newly patented Durasoil. Soilworks international sales network, global distribution centers and integrated customer service provide an ideal platform to satisfy all its customers needs. Get to know Soilworks better at http://www.soilworks.com or call 1-800-545-5420. Roger Nielsen, COO, Daimler Trucks North America LLC Mr. Nielsen is no stranger to SAE COMVEC. He has appeared on previous executive panels for the event, as well as participated in mentoring initiatives for young professionals attending COMVEC. SAE International announces that Roger Nielsen, Chief Operating Officer for Daimler Trucks North America LLC (DTNA) will be the Keynote Speaker at the SAE 2016 Commercial Vehicle Engineering Congress (COMVEC) Industry Keynote and Awards Luncheon on Thursday, October 6. Mr. Nielsen is no stranger to SAE COMVEC. He has appeared on previous executive panels for the event, as well as participated in mentoring initiatives for young professionals attending COMVEC. His most recent appearance was at COMVEC 2014 where he anchored a high level talented group of industry leaders for the Blue Ribbon Panel Engineers as Leaders. Named as Chief Operating Officer in 2001, Mr. Nielsen is responsible for the entire DTNA manufacturing network, as well as all levels of operations in quality, supplier management, logistics, and customer application engineering. In addition, he oversees Thomas Built Buses, Freightliner Custom Chassis Corporation and DTNAs continuous improvement programs. In 1986, Mr. Nielsen joined DTNA (then Freightliner Corporation) as an Industrial Engineer. In the early years of his career at Daimler, he served as Industrial Engineering Manager and then moved into operations as Plant Manager of the Gastonia North Carolina Parts Manufacturing Plant before becoming General Manager of Materials and Manufacturing Operations. In 1998, Mr. Nielsen transferred to Daimler-Germany, where he served as Director of Production Network Planning and Technical Clearing, within Daimlers Commercial Vehicles Division. In January 2001, Mr. Nielsen was promoted to President of Freightliner Specialty Vehicles Group, where he was responsible for American LaFrance, Freightliner Custom Chassis Corporation, Orion Bus and Thomas Built Buses units. Mr. Nielsen earned his Bachelors degree in Industrial Engineering from Oregon State University and is a registered professional engineer. SAE 2016 COMVEC will be held Oct. 4-6 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Ill. Daimler will provide Executive Leadership for the event. The three-day event will feature a theme of Connectivity and will showcase pilot programs for a potential new event format to be launched in 2017. These pilots include two symposia one on Autonomous Commercial Vehicles, Promises and Challenges and the other on Meeting the Challenges of Phase 2 GHG: Implications and Effects. COMVEC 2016 will also feature Executive Panel Discussions with four different moderated groups covering the topics of Telematics, Commercial Vehicles and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT), Connectivity from the Customer Perspective, and the connected future of mobility. The most up to date information about keynote speakers, panel discussions, technical sessions, integrated technical displays, along with information for the two Symposia pilots can be found on the SAE International website at http://www.sae.org/comvec . To request press credentials, email pr(at)sae(dot)org or call 1-724-772-8522. SAE International is a global association committed to being the ultimate knowledge source for the engineering profession. By uniting over 127,000 engineers and technical experts, we drive knowledge and expertise across a broad spectrum of industries. We act on two priorities: encouraging a lifetime of learning for mobility engineering professionals and setting the standards for industry engineering. We strive for a better world through the work of our charitable arm, the SAE Foundation, which helps fund programs like A World in Motion and the Collegiate Design Series. http://www.sae.org North-West College Team Members Bring their Kids to Work By introducing these children to the health care field at an early age, we're helping to spark an interest that will hopefully lead to a bright and rewarding future. From August 24, Success Education Colleges (SEC) welcomed more than 60 children of Team Members to its campuses for the Colleges' first Bring Your Child to Work event. Designed to give Team Members the opportunity to share their professional roles with their kids ages 9 to 16, the event also provided children with an introduction to the health care field. SEC intentionally scheduled three consecutive Bring Your Child to Work days to allow individuals with multiple children to bring one child with them each day. "One of our goals was to show children what their parents do here at Success Education Colleges and help them understand how important their parent's individual role is to the Colleges as a whole," explained Riverside Campus Director Irma Pirone. "They were so excited to find out how their parents make a difference at SEC." In addition to hearing about their parents' responsibilities, children who attended the event participated in several activities designed to give them a glimpse into allied health careers. From learning how to make toothpaste in the Pharmacy Technician lab to watching a mock surgery and touring the Medical Assisting and Vocational Nursing labs, the days were filled with hands-on, enriching moments. "The Bring Your Child to Work event also served as a mini career day for the kids who came," Pirone said. "At the end of the day, we had some children share that they wanted to become a Surgical Technologist. Others were interested in Nursing or working as a Pharmacy Technician. By introducing these children to the health care field at an early age, we're helping to spark an interest that will hopefully lead to a bright and rewarding future." SEC President Mitchell Fuerst shared that, from start to finish, Success Education Colleges' first Bring Your Child to Work event was a complete success. "It was so awesome for these children to see what their parents do every day to help students change their lives for the better," Fuerst said. "We are excited to make this an annual eventnext year, we would love to see 100 kids visit our campuses!" About Success Education Colleges A leader in allied health education, Success Education Colleges (SEC) has been committed to training individuals to enter and advance in the health care field for 50 years. SEC is a system of nine postsecondary colleges and includes North-West College (7 campuses), Glendale Career College, and Nevada Career Institute. Success Education Colleges offers a supportive educational environment for those ready to start a health care career. To date, SEC has graduated more than 45,000 studentsindividuals who have gone on to raise the standard of excellence at health care organizations of all types. For more information about Success Education Colleges, please visit http://www.success.edu. The NSHSS Back to School Event is a powerful way for students to explore their higher education pursuits by live chatting with many top colleges and universities across the country. CollegeWeekLive, the leading website where students and colleges connect online, is proud to partner with the National Society of High School Scholars (NSHSS) in co-hosting the "Back to School Event," a virtual college fair on Thursday, August 25, 2016. This online event presents a unique opportunity for students and their families to chat live with admissions counselors from colleges and universities around the country. During the event, students can ask direct questions about topics such as degree programs and career paths, scholarships, and campus life to help them in their college search. Many participating schools also have chats hosted by some of their current students, so that high school students can hear directly about college students experiences. In addition, education and financial aid experts will be on hand throughout the event to help students and their parents navigate the complexities of college admissions. Participating students can also register to win a $1,000 scholarship. More than 80 colleges and universities are expected to participate in the Back to School Event. Were excited to partner with NSHSS to help provide students with an edge in the college admissions process and give them the insights to find the right college match, said CollegeWeekLive President Sumant Mauskar. This is also a tremendous opportunity for universities to connect with high-achieving, highly-motivated students from around the United States. NSHSS is an international honor society dedicated to highlighting the accomplishments of students who have demonstrated outstanding leadership, scholarship and community commitment. We continually seek new ways to support our scholars academic, leadership and career goals, said James W. Lewis, president of the National Society of High School Scholars. The NSHSS Back to School Event is a powerful way for students to explore their higher education pursuits by live chatting with many top colleges and universities across the country. For more information about participating in the Back to School virtual college fair, please contact colleges(at)collegeweeklive(dot)com or 800-828-8222. Seeing Lion Streets vision turned reality is amazing. What started as a handful of independent financial Advisors has grown to be the national network of life-centric Advisors fiercely valuing independence, ownership, and influence. -Bob Carter With the addition of a significant group of new Owner-Firms in 2016 and new employee hires in every department to support accelerated company growth, Lion Street has outgrown its office space for the third time in five years. Bob Carter, Lion Streets Founder and CEO states, Seeing Lion Streets vision turned reality is amazing. What started as a handful of like-minded independent financial Advisors has grown to be the national network of life-centric Advisors fiercely valuing independence, ownership, and influence. Lion Street consists of 125 Owner-Firms nationwide in 40 states. The companys headquarters are located in downtown Austin at the corner of Sixth Street and Congress Avenue in the Bank of America building. This expansion results in Lion Street taking over an entire floor in the centrally located building in downtown Austin. The expanded space will enable Lion Street to house its continually growing workforce and to better service more Owner-Firms now and in the future. The company has seen substantial growth especially in Lion Street Financial, its broker-dealer. Lion Street built a life-centric broker-dealer specifically to meet the needs of our Advisors and their sophisticated clients. Leveraging our relationship with Pershing has resulted in a cloud-based, integrated platform that is truly second to none, Carter added. About Lion Street Lion Street is a leading financial services distribution company based in Austin, Texas. Lion Street provides elite independent life insurance producers and financial advisors access to the financial products, intellectual capital, and specialized resources they need to meet the sophisticated needs of their high-net-worth and corporate clients. To learn more about Lion Street, please visit http://www.lionstreet.com. Lion Street Media Contact: Cami Gueguen, Director of Marketing and Communications cgueguen(at)lionstreet(dot)com 512-776-8466 The Baitul Futuh Mosque at Morden, London - headquarters of Ahmadiyya Muslim Association UK Our thoughts and prayers are with Mr Shah and his family who have suffered immensely as a result of this brutal killing. No one should suffer or be murdered, least of all for their faith The extremist hate of Tanveer Ahmed took the life of much loved Glasgow shopkeeper Asad Shah, but it could not kill the indomitable spirit of people in Britain to rise above such hate. On the day that the killer was expected to be sentenced, that was the view of leaders of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in UK, of which Asad Shah was a member. Rafiq Hayat, National President Ahmadiyya Muslim Association UK said: In Glasgow, as in many parts of the world, we have witnessed the evil of a warped and poisonous ideology of hate, that is at war with the whole of humanity. Our thoughts and prayers are with Mr Shah and his family who have suffered immensely as a result of this brutal killing. No one should suffer or be murdered, least of all for their faith. But out of this dark episode we also saw the spirit of humanity, as the city came together in a show of solidarity to show their support for Mr Shah and to take a united stand against extremism. Mr Shahs only crime was to spread a message of love and compassion and the whole city paid tribute to him for his kindness and care. No matter how brutal the crime and how evil the ideology, the people of Glasgow and the UK have made clear that we will not let hate prevail. We welcome the fact that justice has been served and our community will continue to work with others in this proud and great city to build a legacy of love. The murder of Asad Shah represents the first time that an Ahmadi Muslim has been killed on British soil because of his beliefs. They are routinely attacked by extremist zealots and it is disturbing to see such hate reach the shores of Britain. However while in other parts of the world, such crimes are committed with impunity, we are proud to live in the UK, where the rule of law and principle of justice plays a formidable role in responding to such hate. In this regard we pay tribute to the authorities in the UK and in particular in Scotland, who have stood up against such brutality. In Islam it is important for due consideration to be given to the thoughts and sentiments of the family of the victim. Our thoughts and prayers are with Asad Shahs family and if they consider that justice has been served then we then we commend the authorities for this. We appreciate the work of the authorities and, based on the intelligence and information they have access to, they must continue to work diligently for the protection and safety of all citizens. This pre-meditated murder highlights how vigilant we all must be to the evil of extremism and we hope and pray that no one else has to suffer at the hands of extremists. Through initiatives such as our United Against Extremism campaign we will continue to remove misunderstandings, promote respect and build bridges with all communities and send a clear signal that the UK will not tolerate such hate and nor will such hate divide us. Rafiq Hayat added that the members of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, whose ethos is Love for All, Hatred for None, had seen an outpouring of love and goodwill from the people of Glasgow which the members had reciprocated. Time and time again people in Britain have shown that they can rise above the hate and the division that extremists seek to cause. As Ahmadi Muslims, we give thanks to the country that has given us safe refuge, that has allowed us to practice our faith freely and which treats us with equity and justice. We mourn the loss of a much-loved member of this city and community and pray that his sacrifice marks a new era in the history of Glasgow when we declare that we will never let hate divide and destroy us. Members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community Glasgow have planned to mark the legacy of Asad Shah. A fundraising Peace Walk in Glasgow aiming to raise 25,000 took place last month. This was in addition to the online fundraising page that had raised more than 100,000 to support directly his family. Contact details: Name: Basharat Nazir +447703 483384 E-mail: media(at)ahmadiyya.org.uk Mahmood Rafiq +447971 060 962 Twitter: @JalsaUK @AhmadiyyaUK http://www.alislam.org/ http://www.loveforallhatredfornone.org/ http://www.UnitedAgainstExtremism.com Note to editors: Ahmadi Muslims one of the oldest Muslim groups in Britain, accept Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, a 19th century spiritual reformer from India, as the Messiah awaited by all major religions. The Community, now established in some 200 countries, is at the vanguard of the revival of true Islam. His Holiness Mirza Masroor Ahmad, the Caliph of the Worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, currently based in West London, will host the annual convention and address it on each of the three days. Ahmadi Muslims are active in their communities; they raise hundreds of thousands of pounds for charities each year and have their own charity Humanity First that is serving humanity locally as well as in all parts of the world irrespective of colour, race or religion. Ahmadi Muslims are the pioneers of interfaith dialogue. In 2003 they opened the largest purpose built mosque in Western Europe in Morden Surrey, which can accommodate more than 13,000 people. The community also built the first mosque in London in 1924. ATD's publications sweep the EXCEL awards in the app category. Excellence in journalism and design is a top priority. Three Association for Talent Development (ATD) publicationsTD (formerly T+D), The Public Manager, and CTDO (Chief Talent Development Officer)swept the Magazine App category of the Association Media & Publishings annual EXCEL Awards. All three award-winning magazines are available in the ATD Publications app. The free app provides the best reading experience across devices. TD magazine won gold. ATDs flagship magazine has covered talent development best practices, emerging technologies, and trends for 70 years. The Public Manager won silver. This digital magazine publishes proven best practices and real stories of unstoppable innovation in U.S. government. CTDO won bronze. CTDO is ATDs new app-based magazine for C-suite executives responsible for talent development efforts in their organization. The EXCEL Awards recognize the best in nonprofit digital and print publishing, design, marketing, advertising, and communication. Excellence in journalism and design is a top priority, said ATD editor Paula Ketter, who oversees production of all three magazines. We strive to offer the absolute best content to our profession and ensure readers are able to access it using the devices they rely on. It is truly an honor to be recognized. Visit http://www.td.org/pubsapp to download the free ATD Publications app and read sample content from TD, The Public Manager, and CTDO. The app is available for iOS and Android smartphones and tablets. ABOUT ATD The Association for Talent Development (ATD) is the worlds largest professional membership organization supporting those who develop the knowledge and skills of employees, improve performance, and help to achieve results for the organizations they serve. Originally established in 1943, the association was previously known as the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD). ATDs members come from more than 120 countries and work in public and private organizations in every industry sector. ATD supports talent development professionals who gather locally in volunteer-led U.S. chapters and international member networks, and with international strategic partners. For more information, visit http://www.td.org. Bonomi low-torque three-way brass ball valves are available with spring return handles. The low-torque seat design makes Bonomi brass three-way deadman valves the easiest to open and close. Bonomi North Americas unique new low-torque three-way, four-seated brass ball valves with spring return handles provide deadman mixing or diversion operations in either L-port or T-port configurations. They are available now in sizes 1/4-inch to 2 inches with FNTP end connections. Bonomi 355NSRL (T-Port) and 365NSRL (L-Port) valves change flow paths with a quarter turn of the spring-loaded handle and return to the original flow path when the handle is released. Unlike conventional two-seated three-way ball valves, the Bonomi four-seated 355NRL can offer straight through flow, diversion, and shut-off capabilities. Like all Bonomi ball valves, they are 100% tested before shipping. Other manufacturers use downstream crusher seat designs, elevating the torque required to effectively operate the handle. The Bonomi seat design utilizes Viton o-rings behind each seat allowing lighter energized seat to ball contact, making operation smoother and easier and extending valve life. Bonomi 355SNRL/365NSRL valves also feature forged brass bodies that are stronger and lighter than typical sand-cast bodies. Standard chrome-plated balls and blowout proof stems, PTFE seats and double O-ring stem seals assure leak-free service. Maximum working pressure is 600 WOG. The adjustable spring-return lever handles are made from heavy-duty corrosion-resistant stainless steel components that stand up to the environment and the stress of frequent use. Bonomi also offers two-way full port brass valves with spring return handles for extremely fast filling or dumping. The two-way 250NSRL is made with a regular forged brass body and is available in sizes to 3. The 250NLFSRL is lead-free and available in sizes to 2. About Bonomi Bonomi North America has served the U.S. and Canada since 2003 and is part of the Bonomi Group of Brescia, Italy. Bonomi Group brands include Rubinetterie Bresciane Bonomi (RB) brass ball valves and check valves; Valpres carbon and stainless steel ball valves; and Valbia pneumatic and electric industrial actuators. Bonomi North America maintains an extensive distribution network for these products from its headquarters in Charlotte, N.C. and a facility in Oakville, Ontario, Canada. For more information on Bonomi ball valves with spring return handles or other Bonomi products, contact Bonomi North America at (704) 412-9031 or visit http://www.bonominorthamerica.com. Fonolo In-Call Rescue with On-Premise Appliance Now Available through Avaya DevConnect Select Product Program Achieving compliance with Avaya allows Fonolo to continue to deliver a valuable solution that helps businesses manage the increasing demands of their contact centers. Fonolo, the pioneer in cloud-based call-back solutions for the call center, today announced that its In-Call Rescue with On-Premise Appliance solution is compliant with key contact center solutions from Avaya, a global provider of business collaboration and communication software and services. In-Call Rescue helps businesses improve the call center experience by replacing hold time with a call-back. Using Fonolo's On-Premise Appliance allows companies to keep all voice traffic on-site, while still using the convenience and efficiency of the cloud. The solution is now compliance-tested by Avaya for compatibility with: Avaya Aura Communication Manager R7.0 and Avaya Aura Session Manager R7.0 using SIP Trunks. Fonolo is a Technology Partner in the Avaya DevConnect programan initiative to develop, market and sell innovative third-party products that interoperate with Avaya technology and extend the value of a companys investment in its network. As a Technology Partner, Fonolo is eligible to submit products for compliance testing by the Avaya Solution Interoperability and Test Lab. There, a team of Avaya engineers develops a comprehensive test plan for each application to verify whether it is Avaya compatible. Doing so enables businesses to confidently add best-in-class capabilities to their network without having to replace their existing infrastructurespeeding deployment of new applications and reducing both network complexity and implementation costs. Quotes: Achieving compliance with Avaya allows Fonolo to continue to deliver a valuable solution that helps businesses manage the increasing demands of their contact centers, while making it easy for them to add call-backs to their call centers, web sites and mobile applications. -- Shai Berger, CEO, Fonolo By offering compliance testing to the many innovative companies like Fonolo who are members of our DevConnect community, Avaya promotes fully interoperable solutions that help businesses unleash powerful new possibilities." --Eric Rossman, Vice President, Developer Relations, Avaya Additional Resources http://www.devconnectmarketplace.com http://www.avaya.com/devconnect About Avaya Avaya is a global provider of business collaboration and communications solutions, providing unified communications, contact centers, networking and related services to companies of all sizes around the world. For more information please visit http://www.avaya.com. About Fonolo Fonolo is the leading provider of cloud-based call-back solutions. The companys innovative products improve the way call centers interact with their customers by seamlessly replacing hold time with a call-back. Regardless of where the conversation begins on the web, mobile or by phone Fonolo quickly and conveniently routes customers through the call center, connecting them to the right agent and eliminating hold time. A growing list of organizations trust Fonolo to improve the call center experience for their customers. Fonolo was named Top Technology Provider by the 2015 Call Center Week Awards. To learn more about how Fonolo can help reduce abandonment rates, improve your customer experiences, and lower costs, visit fonolo.com. ITsavvy, one of the fastest growing IT products and technology solution providers in the U.S., just announced the rollout of IT Lifecycle Management--a no-cost service to manage each clients hardware assets, software licenses/subscriptions, existing warranty support as well as any service contracts within the client organization--from design, procurement and deployment to maintenance, decommissioning and final disposal. Anil Jagtiani, V.P. Professional Services for ITsavvys Advanced Solutions Group said, Although ITsavvy has been providing these services for clients--that include Fortune 500 companies-- for many years, this marks the official rollout of the service as a value-add for our existing clients and a courtesy for those who are not yet our clients. ITsavvys IT Lifecycle Management team tracks licenses and warranties; negotiates and renews contracts; and provides analytics that help clients plan and budget for replacements and upgrades and maintain expenditure transparency. For software assets, ITsavvy ensures that clients are complying with licensing usage, that versions are up to date, and that contracts have been negotiated favorably. For hardware assets, ITsavvy tracks the products along the lifecycle, providing strategies for upgrading or replacing as warranty or end of life nears. ITsavvy partners with clients for the long term, supporting them with every aspect of their IT infrastructure, from the layout of an initial technology roadmap, all the way to the refresh and decommission process. Services include: Identifying and tracking all hardware and software solution components, including location, number of assets and users, type of asset, manufacturer, model/serial number. Maintaining advanced partner-level vendor relationships for continual access to proactive support and alerts that will ensure business continuity and product assurance. Helping clients bundle and negotiate contracts for optimum cost savings: ITsavvy leverages its own vendor partnerships and bundled services to reduce contract costs, ensure licensing doesnt lapse and improve the speed of the negotiation process. Providing monthly and quarterly reports that help with asset decision making, including reports and alerts on asset inventory, updates, warranties, end of life, lease expiration. Chris Kurpeikis, ITsavvys Executive Vice President said, The IT operation is moving from a contained datacenter to a diversified infrastructure. Complex IT environments make it difficult to monitor the life of IT assets manually. We offer this as a free service to help companies improve asset reliability, streamline procurement and enable strategic planning. Jagtiani added, When organizations try to manage this internally it can be very frustrating for them. Through IT Lifecycle Management, we bring systemization to the table. For example we will examine contracts for every IT asset that they already own and create a common date for all renewals. This also helps them analyze what they currently have, determine what they really need and budget for upcoming costs. For more information on ITsavvys IT Lifecycle Management solution, visit: http://www.itsavvy.com/advanced-solutions-group/it-lifecycle-management/. Existing clients can also contact their client executive. ITsavvy is a leader in tailored, end-to-end IT product and service solutions. ITsavvy built its reputation as a value-added reseller with industry-leading product availability, design and implementation, client support and delivery speed through 46 distribution centers across the U.S. ITsavvy also has datacenter locations in Cedar Knolls N.J. and Oak Brook, Ill. The companys user-friendly website provides concise, leading-edge IT decision-making resources, including an e-commerce site with real-time pricing and availability. ITsavvy is headquartered in Addison, Ill., with offices in Chicagos Loop; Hauppauge, N.Y.; New York, N.Y.; Naples, Fla.; Miami; Indianapolis; Warren, N.J.; Aurora, Ill.; Davenport, Iowa; Hayward, Calif.; and Beavercreek, Ohio. Call 855.ITsavvy (855.487.2889), email info(At)ITsavvy(dot)com, visit http://www.ITsavvy.com. Full release at: http://www.itsavvy.com/itsavvy-announces-complete-lifecycle-management-solution Visit ITsavvys Media Center at http://www.ITsavvy.com/about/media-center VP of Marketing, Tara Grant We are excited that our new website provides all Microsoft Dynamics users, and our global customer base, with valuable, practical information they can use today." Jet Reports has launched a brand-new website today, located at http://www.jetreports.com, focused on providing companies using Microsoft Dynamics ERP solutions with clear examples of how they can use financial reporting and business intelligence (BI) to transform business results. Built with an educational framework, Jet Reports VP of Marketing, Tara Grant, said it was vitally important that the website itself provide the public with a comprehensive understanding of the value technology and analytics brings to business today. We are excited that our new website provides all Microsoft Dynamics users, and our global customer base, with valuable, practical information they can use today, Grant said. We wanted to give people a full, applied picture of how reporting and business intelligence is used, and give them the information about how to leverage it themselves, she added. This site represents that we arent just here to sell software we are passionate about data and want to spread our enthusiasm and knowledge to the world for everyone to use. The result is a website that is rich in content, with more than 30 pieces of downloadable educational materials on subjects like how to build KPIs, the best practices for financial reporting, Excel tutorials, a video demo on Jet Reports products, plus scores of practical case studies from Jet Reports users around the globe including the multinational non-profit Amnesty International and well-established manufacturer Kinseys Archery Products. The site offers a visitor-focused interface, and is easy to navigate whether someone is new to BI applications or has a long-standing experience with business analysis tools. Product support, plus product downloads are all available directly from the main menu. Finally, in recognition of the large number of Microsoft Dynamics users who incorporate Jet Reports around the globe, the website is organized by familiar Dynamics terms so that everything is easily accessible by the reporting/analytics task at hand, or by the role the individual plays within their organization, or even by the Dynamics product line. No matter what your business analytics needs are, thats how we have laid out the site. This will be beneficial to Microsoft Partners as well, who want to educate customers about BI and reporting concepts and topics prior making a final decision about what they adopt, Grant said. Finally, the intuitive design is easily navigated whether on desktop, tablet or mobile, and uses the latest technology for swift downloads with high retina displays. About Jet Reports Jet Reports delivers unparalleled access to data through fast and flexible reporting and business analytics solutions that are cost effective, provide rapid time-to-value, and are built specifically for the needs of Microsoft Dynamics ERP users. Founded in 2002, Jet Reports is headquartered in Portland, OR, and has distribution offices in 14 countries around the globe. Over 10,000 companies in 94 countries, rely on Jet Reports every day for their financial reporting. Learn more about Jet Reports at: http://www.jetreports.com -30- Contact: Tara Grant Vice President of Marketing Phone: 503-608-3644 Email: tarag(at)jetreports(dot)com Dr. Matthew Goldenberg, Promises Professionals Program I am eager to work alongside a world-class team that helps professionals suffering from the disease of addiction preserve their lives and careers. Promises Treatment Centers is proud to welcome Matthew Goldenberg, D.O., as Associate Medical Director of Professionals Health Services in its drug rehab for professionals. Dr. Goldenberg, a member of the medical staff at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centers Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, completed an addiction psychiatry fellowship at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA/Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He performed his psychiatry residency at Banner University Medical Center-Phoenix. Dr. Goldenberg has published several peer-reviewed articles, given Grand Rounds presentations, and has presented research findings at numerous national conferences. At Promises Treatment Centers, I am eager to work alongside a world-class team that helps professionals suffering from the disease of addiction preserve their lives and careers, Dr. Goldenberg said. Many people feel shame for seeking the care that they need and doctors and other professionals are no exception. A diagnosis of addiction or mental illness should not be judged as a character flaw, but rather as symptoms of complex interactions between biological, psychological and social factors that require proper diagnosis, treatment and healing. It is on that basis that we develop client-centered and individualized treatment plans at Promises Professionals Treatment Program. Dr. Goldenberg, who has advocated for improving the delivery of mental health and addiction treatment on both the state and federal levels, believes it is vitally important to talk about mental illness in the same way as physical illness. By shining a light on mental illness and addiction, we bring hope and improved access to care to those who are suffering, Dr. Goldenberg said. Located in the beautiful beach community of Santa Monica, California, Promises Treatment Centers serves professionals in a discrete setting with a highly individualized program. It is designed for licensed professionals, such as pilots, doctors and attorneys, who require fitness-for-duty evaluations and exceptional drug and alcohol treatment that builds on the 25-year success of state physician health programs. We are extremely pleased to welcome Dr. Goldenberg to the Promises family, said Greg Skipper, M.D., Director of Professionals Health Services. His passion for treating the whole individual, mind, body and spirit, perfectly aligns with the Promises treatment approach. Dr. Goldenbergs knowledge and experience will be of immense benefit to our clients and their families. About Promises Treatment Centers Promises Treatment Centers in Malibu, CA, West Los Angeles, CA, and Austin, TX are among the nations premier addiction treatment centers. Led by some of the countrys leading addiction specialists, Promises has built an international reputation for innovative addiction treatment and exceptional service. Whether an individual requires detox, residential drug rehab, outpatient treatment, extended care or a sober living environment, Promises has been a drug rehabilitation center of choice for more than 25 years. For more information, visit http://www.promises.com or call (866) 285-9441. Promises Treatment Centers is a member of Elements Behavioral Health, an owner of a series of behavioral health programs located throughout the United States. The Elements Behavioral Health family of programs offers comprehensive, innovative treatment for substance abuse, sexual addiction, trauma, eating disorders, and other mental health disorders. Through its programs, the company is committed to delivering clinically sophisticated treatment that promotes permanent lifestyle change, not only for the patient but for the entire family network. For more information, visit elementsbehavioralhealth.com. This Summer, for the 12th straight year, Special Events Magazine has released its list of the Top 25 Destination Management Companies in the World. And this year, Special Events Magazine has once again named RMC: Resorts Mountains Cities to an exclusive list of the worlds best Destination Management Companies, known as DMCs. RMC has now been recognized as one of the worlds top DMC for four years in a row. Being named as one the worlds top DMCs is a great honor, said Shawn Thomson-Palermo, RMCs Owner and CEO. RMC is all about its people. Im so proud of our amazing employees. At RMC, we know that quality Destination Management requires creativity, local connections, and unyielding passion. We love creating extraordinary experiences with our clients. Over the past twenty years, the demand for destination corporate events has expanded dramatically. Giving employees and executives experiences in spectacular locations has proven to be both rewarding and beneficial for business development. When colleagues come together in spectacular destinations, inspiration increases and innovative ideas are discovered. Team building, relaxation, and creativity are just some of the many benefits that businesses have received while embracing destination events. The expansion of corporate events has led to the rise of Destination Management Companies, professional destination specialists who connect corporations with amazing locations. When big companies and large groups seek to create exceptional events and extraordinary experiences at the finest destinations in the world, they now employ Destination Management Companies. DMCs ensure personalized planning with local businesses and seamless execution of large events. RMC: Resorts Mountains Cities has been at the forefront of Destination Management for over 25 years. Founded in Aspen, Colorado, RMC is known for its consistent services in the worlds top destinations. As RMC has expanded to new locations, like Cabo San Lucas, MX, and Austin, TX, the company has maintained a high level of personalized service. "RMCs leadership team is structured to oversee all 500-plus programs with the same attention to detail, no matter which office youre operating your program in," said Shawn Thomson-Palermo. Because Destination Management requires forward thinking, Special Events Magazine was sure to highlight how Top DMCs are addressing trends in the industry. Many DMCs are noticing increased demand and confidence as well as expanding markets in Latin America and across the globe. RMC pointed out that industry growth requires creative thinking and innovative planning. "Space is becoming limited, said Shawn Thomson-Palermo. Businesses are demanding new and creative ideas, activities, and venues for their events. We have amazing plans for 2017. The future of Destination Management is very bright." RMC: Resorts, Mountains, Cities was founded in 1989. From its first location in Aspen, Colorado, RMC has expanded to thirteen distinguished destinations across North America and Mexico. Through a powerful network of destination offices and preferred resort partners, RMC creates custom designed experiences and events for premier clients. For more information, contact: Nathan Boyd. Skip Hop's Otis Owl Rolling Luggage is Featured Prominently in Heathrows Television Campaign As a global brand, we are honored for Skip Hop to be included in the Heathrow's first ever television campaign Last week, Heathrow began airing its first ever television campaign, First Flight, celebrating 70 years of flight at the airport. Global lifestyle brand Skip Hop is thrilled to have played a key role in the advertisement. Set to David Bowies When I Live My Dream, the commercial captures the magic of flying through the eyes of a 5-year-old girl, Harriet, accompanied by her travel companion Owly, i.e. Skip Hops Otis Owl rolling luggage. Harriet journeys from home to Heathrow and then onto a flight, marveling at all the magic around her with her trusty suitcase by her side. "As a global brand, we are honored to be included in the Heathrow Airports first ever television campaign," says Ellen Diamant, Founder and Chief Creative Officer at Skip Hop. "Our Zoo collection is all about encouraging childrens independence through every milestone. We think Otis Owl makes the perfect 'first flight' companion. Otis Owls star turn should come as no surprise to frequent fliers, who are more than likely to spot Skip Hops Zoo Collection in the overhead bins or rolling through the airport concourse. But while Otis Owl Rolling Luggage is already one of Skip Hops most popular items, the brand reports that Amazon.uk sales of the product have tripled since the commercial began airing. Jonathan Coen, Heathrows Commercial Director said: The role of our heroines luggage was a key position to cast for our first ever television commercial. Otis Owl perfectly complemented the wonder, magic and whimsy of a first flight from Heathrow and we were delighted he could join us for our 70th birthday celebrations. Skip Hops Otis Owl Zoo Kids Rolling Luggage retails for $35.00 USD and is available at SkipHop.com and global retailers. For those traveling to Heathrow, the suitcase may also be purchased at the airports Terminal 2s John Lewis. ABOUT SKIP HOP INC.: At Skip Hop, we know that the world of new parenthood is a fine balance of being overjoyed and overwhelmed. Were here to tip that balance with stylish, well-curated products known as Must-Haves made Better. Skip Hop products are embraced by families who crave smartly designed, highly functional solutions that simplify decision-making. Founded in 2003 and based in New York City, Skip Hop is one of the best-selling and most globally recognized brands for parents, babies and kids. For more information, visit http://www.skiphop.com or join the conversation on Facebook or Instagram by using #skiphop #MustHavesMadeBetter. ABOUT HEATHROW: Now in its 70th birthday year, Heathrow is the UKs hub airport, home to more than 80 airlines connecting to more than 180 destinations. Every year Heathrow welcomes over 70 million passengers with a commitment to making every journey better. Following an investment of more than 11 billion since 2004, passengers have voted Heathrow the Best Airport in Western Europe, Best Airport Terminal for Terminal 5 and Best Airport for Shopping 7 years in a row. If you are new to iQ you can schedule a demo and learn more about this opportunity. PSFK iQ - Where Innovators Turn for Research. Our professional-grade research platform is designed specifically for Retail and CX leaders who want to know whats next. Whether youre staying current on trends or need a real-time research partner to help you get ahead, count on PSFK iQ to deliver the info you need to make your next move. Cookies What are cookies ? How do we use cookies? How to control cookies? Managing cookies in your browser see what cookies you have got and delete them on an individual basis block third party cookies block cookies from particular sites block all cookies from being set delete all cookies when you close your browser X A cookie is a small text file that a website saves on your computer or mobile device when you visit the site. Cookies are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site.Website use Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. ("Google") to help analyse the use of this website. 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You can delete all cookies that are already on your computer and you can set most browsers to prevent them from being placed.Most browsers allow you to:If you chose to delete cookies, you should be aware that any preferences will be lost. Also, if you block cookies completely many websites (including ours) will not work properly and webcasts will not work at all. For these reasons, we do not recommend turning cookies off when using our webcasting services. Last month the American Booksellers Association and Candlewick Press cosponsored the fifth annual Find Waldo Local national event to promote shopping local. Hundreds of booksellers and their neighboring businesses hid Waldo, often in plain sight. Kids filled out passports at each store they visited and spotted Waldo to win a prize. The festivities concluded at the end of the month with parties and, of course, cake. Hiding in plain sight, at Book Cellar in Chicago. Seeing double at Book Cellar. Waldos relax at the Book Cellars Find Waldo Local party. Curious Iguana in Frederick, Md., distributed more than 500 Waldo passports. One hundred guests attended their party to celebrate Find Waldo Local. At Curious Iguana, one young man got a lot of loot. Drawing the winners, at Curious Iguana. We had a spectacular time with Find Waldo Local, said Christine Patrick, co-owner of the Winchester Book Gallery in Winchester, Va. With 48 businesses hiding Waldo, more than 800 people searching for Waldo, and 61 completed passports, this was a roaring success for our small town. All reports are that everyone had a great time, particularly businesses that were able to reintroduce themselves to all kinds of folks hunting for Waldo. Happy contest winner at Byrds Books in Bethel, Ct. Waldo joins little Waldos for dress up and storytime at Bluebird Books in Hutchinson, Kan. Surprise storytime visit by Waldo himself at Bluebird Books. Mother and daughter Waldos at House of Books in Kent, Ct. Scout & Morgan Books in Cambridge, Minn., gave away more than 70 prizes for kids who turned in their completed passports and participated in the Waldo, Wenda, Woof costume contest. Brendan Lindberg gives a fist pump and shout after he was declared winner of the Waldo costume contest at Scout & Morgan Books. Waldo starts his weekend with a traditional beverage, next door to Book Passage at the Ferry Building in San Francisco. These keen-eyed gentlemen from England spotted all 27 Waldos (or Wallys, as theyre known across the pond) in Ferry Building shops one morning. Photo: Book Passage. Ten-year-old Waldo, Evan Phillips, at DDG Booksellers in Farmington, Maine. Waldo photobombs a family during DDG Booksellers coloring contest. The grand prize winner #FindWaldoLocal celebrates at Blue Marble Books in Fort Thomas, Ky. Two additional winners smile for the camera at Blue Marble Books. McLean and Eakin Booksellers in Petoskey, Mich., hosted a Waldo party in the park with cupcakes, games, and coloring. Over 30 downtown stores participated in the contest this summer. Staffer Jenny W. gets into the spirit for the Find Waldo Local party at Book Ends in Winchester, Mass. Book Ends store owner Judy Manzo with Laney, the grand prize winner of the raffle. Waldo answers questions from his fans at R.J. Julia Booksellers in Madison, Ct. Olivia the cat found Waldo at A Classic Tale in Ramona, Calif. Party time at A Classic Tale. Grand prize winner at Square Books in Oxford, Miss. Darren Oberto, co-owner of The Alley Gallery, one of the participating Evanston, Ill., businesses, awarded a prize to a Find Waldo Local winner. His three-year-old daughter Olivia sits nearby on the floor. Photo: Bookends & Beginnings. Bookends & Beginnings paired the Waldo scavenger hunt with a Wheres Warhol contest for adults, celebrating the new book from Laurence King. Warhol himself, or rather herself (store co-owner Nina Barrett) also showed up for the party. A big crowd turned out for the Waldo prize drawing at [words] Bookstore in Maplewood, N.J. Here the grand prize winner is congratulated by the Zimiles family, owners of [words] Bookstore. These brothers were among the first to visit all 25 local shops, including a pizzeria, yarn shop, toy store, and the childrens museum and to claim their reward at Eagle Harbor Book Company on Bainbridge Island, Wash. Waldo Jr. wins the look-alike contest at Changing Hands in Phoenix, Ariz. We had a lot of fun this year and cant wait to join in on the fun again next year! said childrens book buyer Brandi Stewart. Waldo hunters show off their passports at Changing Hands, in Tempe, Ariz. Hera, aka Woof, dresses up for the Waldo party at Orinda Books in Orinda, Calif. Susan Reckers at Orinda Books shows off the Waldo passport and sticker book. Two kids pose with Waldo at the Find Waldo Local party at BookPeople of Moscow, Idaho. We had an open house celebration that went on all day long on Thursday, July 28, to cut down on the chaos weve experienced in years past when the almost 100 people who searched for Waldo all showed up at the same hour for a party. We got many compliments on our open house format this year; parents really appreciated the less stressful prize pick-up and celebration cookie scene, said manager/co-owner Carol Spurling. Prepping for BookPeople of Moscows costume contest. Our party started off with a store-wide game, which filled the air with red and white balloons, said Beth Albrecht, owner of the Magic Tree Bookstore in Oak Park, Ill. After that, our three Waldos hid all over our historic building for a great game of Find Waldo. We concluded with cake and treats. Hunting balloons at Magic Tree Bookstore. Waldo, aka Kendra Peterson, owner of King City Books in Mt. Vernon, Ill., waves to fans. Waldo poses with King City Books grand prize winner. We had an incredibly special Waldo party for all of our finishers last Friday, said Suzanne Droppert, owner of Liberty Bay Books in Poulsbo, Wash. Before the party, we received a call from Lt. Cdr. Brian Ross, who had just landed at SeaTac airport, home from being stationed overseas. He knew his very pregnant wife, Jessica, and their three children would be attending our Waldo party and asked if we would help him surprise his family. We hid Brian in a neighboring restaurant and dressed him up as Waldo. He sat down and started talking to his kids in costume and they didnt recognize him. He took his glasses off and they still didnt recognize him. He took his hat off, and his daughter Eden looked up and said, Daddy?! Photo: Suzanne Droppert. Waldo (Brian Ross), wife (Jessica) and children (Eden, Koban, and Nolan) at Liberty Bay Books. Photo: Suzanne Droppert. July 31 was a busy day at Titcombs Bookshop in East Sandwich, Mass. In the morning the store celebrated the new Harry Potter release, and in the afternoon it cleared the decks for a Waldo party. Here are some of the winners of the Wheres Waldo contest. The grand prize winner poses near the cake at Titcombs Bookshop. Party time at Lake Forest Book Store in Lake Forest, Ill. Waldo hides in plain sight at Lake Forest Book Store. We decided to ride in the local Memorial Day Parade in an old former fire department truck belonging to one of our employees, said marketing and events coordinator Rachel Bellavia of Read Between the Lynes in Woodstock, Ill. We had Waldo ride in the back while owner Arlene Lynes and I walked and tossed candy with information about the Waldo hunt on it. It was a hot day but a lot of fun. The whole way we heard delighted exclamations of I found Waldo! Waldo leads storytime at the We Found Waldo party at The Bookshelf in Thomasville, Ga. Heres Waldo at Apricot Lane, a store near Fairfield University Bookstore in Fairfield, Ct. Even the school mascot joins in the fun at the Waldo party at Fairfield University Bookstore. The children loved Waldo, said Theresa D-Litzenberger, events coordinator at A Book for All Seasons in Leavenworth, Wash. This is our fifth time participating in this great event, and our community looks forward to it every July, said Mindy Kemper, events coordinator at Sparta Books in Sparta, N.J. For the final celebration, she hid 20 Waldos in the bookstore. Grand prize winner at Sparta Books. Waldo and Wenda with party-goers at Phoenix Books in Rutland, Vt. We had such a great time and a huge turnout. We cant wait until next year, Clare Brooks, owner of Little Village Toy & Book Shop in Littleton, N.H. Here she poses with a prize winner. A lawsuit filed in May accusing Simon & Schuster of cheating authors on e-book royalties has been dropped, but the legal action may not be over. In a short notice filed in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, attorneys for Sheldon Blau, author of the 1997 book How to Get Out of the Hospital Alive, officially discontinued the action, which had accused S&S of incorrectly treating e-book transactions as sales rather than licenses. There was one glaring problem with the suit from the start, however: Blaus book was never published in a digital edition by Simon & Schuster. While the book was initially published by Simon & Schusters Macmillan professional and reference division, S&S officials told PW that division was in fact sold in 1998. The books current publisher is now listed as Wiley. But with S&S now off the hook, lawyers for Blau told PW on Tuesday morning that they are planning on filing suit against Wiley, although at press time that action was not yet filed. Blau's initial suit sought to certify a class to represent all authors being underpaid for the sale of the e-book. Created in response to the Arab oil embargo of 1973-74, the U.S. government created the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). Deep inside underground caverns at four storage facilities along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coasts, the SPR has a max capacity of 727 million barrels of crude oil. Its purpose to serve as an emergency stockpile of crude oil to help blunt the impact of disruptions to the flow of crude oil to the American marketplace. In theory, the SPR would prevent the use of crude oil as a potential weapon, as with the 1973-74 Arab embargo, and to mitigate the impact of global crises on the U.S. economy. CHICAGO -- Months after announcing it was closing its Quad-Cities Generating Station, Exelon on Tuesday announced it will assume ownership of the FitzPatrick plant in upstate New York, saving it from closing. A week ago, New York regulators adopted a subsidy policy for nuclear power plants. The Entergy Corp. plant by Lake Ontario employs more than 600 people and produces enough electricity to power more than 800,000 homes. Exelon officials had hoped Illinois lawmakers would approve similar subsidies for its nuclear stations near Cordova and Clinton, Ill. That bill was not approved by the end of the General Assembly's spring legislative session. On June 2, Exelon announced plans to close the rural Clinton facility next year and the rural Cordova facility in 2018. According to Exelon, the two stations have lost a combined $800 million in the past seven years, despite being two of Exelons best-performing plants. On Tuesday, a coalition of mayors and community leaders sent a letter Gov. Bruce Rauner and legislative leaders urging them to follow New Yorks lead in adopting a new energy program that will preserve the economic and environmental benefits of nuclear plants. It is disconcerting that our elected officials have failed to pass meaningful legislation for two entire sessions now, said Cordova Mayor Dean Moyer. Their inaction comes at a huge cost to Illinois families and communities like mine. None of us can move forward if our elected officials dont either. In New York, Exelon will benefit from ratepayer subsidies that compensate nuclear reactors for clean emissions. The total subsidies would come to an estimated $965 million the first two years and could reach $7.6 billion over 12 years. "This monumental regulatory approach to providing an economic basis to the nuclear plants in these communities is huge," Exelon President Chris Crane said at a press conference at the power plant. "It allows us as Exelon to turn around and start today to invest four to five hundred million dollars to these plants to keep them safe and secure and the jobs that they'll provide," he said. "It also allows us to have the platform to start the dialogue across the country." In November, Entergy announced plans to close its 41-year-old plant on Lake Ontario, citing high operational costs, low natural gas prices and a "flawed" energy market. The $110 million deal with Excelon, subject to regulatory approval, is expected to close in the second quarter of next year. In July, Exelon sent formal notice to PJM Interconnection, a power grid operator, about the planned closure of the Quad Cities Generating Station near Cordova in 2018. In June, the company also formally notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of its closure plan. The Quad Cities Generating Station is the largest property taxpayer in Rock Island County and has about 800 employees. SPRINGFIELD The National Federation of Independent Business said Tuesday that its Index of Small Business Optimism rose one-tenth of a point in July to 94.6, a meager increase showing no real enthusiasm for expansion, expected sales, and making capital outlays. Small business optimism was pretty much unchanged during the month of July, and small businesses continue to be in maintenance mode, said NFIB chief economist Bill Dunkelberg. Uncertainty is high, expectations for better business conditions are low, and future business investments look weak. Our data indicates that there is little hope for a surge in the small business sector anytime soon. State-specific data is unavailable, but NFIB state director Kim Clarke Maisch said the national trends reflect what's happening in Illinois. Small-business owners want certainty, and, without it, they're not going to expand or create jobs, she added. The index remains well below the 42-year average of 98. The outlook for business conditions in the next six months continued to improve, gaining 16 percentage points since January, but still more owners still expect conditions to be worse than expect improvement. Owners still report they cannot find qualified workers, citing it as their third Single Most Important Business Problem. Earnings trends and expectations of higher sales also worsened, and the political climate continues to be the second most frequently cited reason for why owners think the current period is a bad time to expand after economic conditions. Small business optimism has been absent for 89 out of the last 91 months, said NFIB President/CEO Juanita Duggan. Without that optimism, small business owners will not invest, borrow, or create jobs. Small business owners need lower taxes and fewer government mandates and regulations in order to break out of this slump. Darren Hauck | Getty Images. Donald Trump outlined his economic proposals, expanding on reforms he has struggled to pin down consistently. Donald Trump outlined his economic vision in a crucial speech Monday, raising his proposed top income tax rate to 33 percent and expanding on some reforms he has struggled to pin down consistently as a presidential candidate. In the biggest shift from his past plans, Trump said he would seek three income tax brackets of 33 percent, 25 percent and 12 percent, but did not outline which income levels would pay each rate. He previously sought a top rate of 25 percent versus the current rate of nearly 40 percent. "The rich will pay their fair share, but no one will pay so much that it destroys jobs or undermines our ability as a nation to compete," Trump said in the speech at the Detroit Economic Club. Trump paused several times as protesters interrupted. Staying largely on script after a series of recent comments drew broad criticism, he restrained himself from responding to protesters as he has done in the past. A group of more than a dozen women claimed to be behind the disruptions, protesting a past comment that he would move auto plants out of Michigan. The remarks came as the Trump campaign looked to refocus after a series of gaffes by the billionaire developer. Trump has repeatedly claimed he is better suited to steer the American economy than Democrat Hillary Clinton , and respondents in recent polls have narrowly favored Trump as more prepared to do so. Trump did not go into painstaking detail on his policies or explain how he will trim spending to offset the lost revenue from tax cuts. He said he will offer more detail on his proposals "in the coming weeks." Trump pledged to protect American industries like auto manufacturing, steel and coal, saying his policies will create "millions of good-paying jobs." He said he had "the campaign of the future" without mentioning technological innovation. Trump tried to contrast his plans to what he called "the job-killing, tax-raising, poverty-inducing Obama-Clinton agenda." Story continues In a statement ahead of Trump's speech Monday, Clinton's campaign bashed his proposals. "The core of Donald Trump's economic plan involves reckless tax cuts that will add trillions to the debt to benefit the wealthy, Wall Street, and big corporations," Clinton policy advisers Jake Sullivan, Maya Harris and Jacob Leibenluft wrote in a statement. "Donald Trump is temperamentally unfit to lead and would tear our country apart with his dangerous ideas, divisive rhetoric, and history of harming hardworking Americans." Clinton is slated to give an economic speech of her own on Thursday. A Moody's analysis of both plans said Clinton would bring a "somewhat stronger" economy while Trump would cause a "lengthy recession." Trump largely rehashed previous pledges to cut business taxes, renegotiate trade deals and reverse climate-related executive actions issued under President Barack Obama. But he rolled out new wrinkles in the speech, like putting a moratorium on "new agency regulations" and making child care tax deductible. "It is time to remove the anchor that is dragging us down. And that's what it's doing, it's dragging us down," Trump said about "over-regulation" of the U.S. economy. Trump said he wants to ensure the wealthy "pay their fair share" while reducing taxes for the middle and working class. Analyses of Trump's original income tax plan said it could expand the U.S. deficit by as much as $10 trillion, but CNBC contributor and informal Trump adviser Larry Kudlow claimed income tax changes could help to reduce that hit. Trump once again pledged to cap business taxes at 15 percent for businesses of all sizes, versus the current rate of more than 30 percent. Trump highlighted these economic proposals on Monday, among others: He called to end the estate or "death" tax, which is levied on the transfer of property after death. It currently applies to estates of more than $5.45 million. He pledged to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement and stop the passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Trump has repeatedly railed against those trade deals, saying they harm American workers. Trump has been criticized for discussing the issue while some Trump-branded products are made outside of the United States. Trump proposed reversing Obama administration efforts like the Climate Action Plan and Waters of the U.S. rule. He also wants to renew the Keystone XL Pipeline project, which Obama opposed, while backing out of the Paris climate accords. More From CNBC If you have heel pain when you get out of bed every morning, it could be plantar fasciitis. According to the American Academy of Orthopeadic Surgery, the condition affects about two million people per year. While it often can be successfully treated at home, its important to respond at the first signs of pain. Benjamin Cullen, a podiatrist affiliated with Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego, Calif., says although the condition is more common in middle-aged people, it can happen to anyone at any age. Plantar fasciitis can affect everyone from sedentary, overweight people to athletes. Cullen says people with flat feet or hereditary foot structure problems can be more susceptible to developing the condition. While the pain often manifests itself in the heel, the problem is rooted in the lower leg, says Bob Baravarian, a board certified podiatric foot and ankle specialist at Providence Saint Johns Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif. Baravarian says in many cases, a tight calf muscle or Achilles tendon can result in pronation and a collapse of the arch of the foot. This pulls on and inflames the plantar fascia, a thick band of tissue that runs on the bottom of the foot between the heel bone and the toes. Pain from plantar fasciitis typically is worse in the morning and decreases as the person walks around and it becomes more limber. The condition usually is diagnosed by physical examination. In many cases, x-rays can reveal heel spurs, which are calcium build-ups on the heel bone that are caused by strains on foot muscles and ligaments. Baravarian says most people can remain active in the early stages of plantar fasciitis. Patients should start by ensuring theyre wearing supportive shoes and may consider a small heel lift to decrease the pull of the Achilles. There are a number of inserts on the market specifically designed for plantar fasciitis as well as custom orthotics, which can be molded and conformed to the exact shape and size of the foot. Baravarian says most people can manage their plantar fasciitis if they take steps early on to reduce inflammation and continued agitation of the plantar fascia. As it becomes chronic, it becomes harder to stay active because it wont go away after some minutes in the morning, he says. Dr. Ken Jung, a foot and ankle surgeon at Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic in Los Angeles, says its worth considering a variety of treatments since there is no one-size-fits-all solution for plantar fasciitis. Doctors also can prescribe anti-inflammatory medications, steroid shots and even extracorporeal shock wave therapy. Few patients need surgery, but it is a last resort when all other options have been exhausted. Jung says that while plantar fasciitis can be resolved 90 percent of the time, he still instructs patients to maintain a regimen of stretching to maintain flexibility. Once pain subsides and the plantar fasciitis is resolved, patients still could be susceptible to the condition if they do not continue to stretch and manage their plantar fascia. Effective exercises include calf raises, straight leg calf stretch, calf rolls with a foam roller and moderate foot stretching. Jung says regularly massaging the heel with an ice bottle and ball also can help maintain flexibility. It may take a combination of therapies, but I cant emphasize enough how important stretching is. Symptoms may recur if the tissues become tight, Jung says. Cause will proceed in Henry County Circuit Court against a Chicago man charged with aggravated battery of an officer and resisting arrest. Chrysten D. Richardson, 21, remained in custody Monday in the Henry County Jail on a $35,000 bond charged with Class 2 felony aggravated battery of an officer and Class 4 felony resisting a peace officer. Kewanee Police Officer Eric Peed testified at Monday's preliminary hearing that on Aug. 4 he and another officer recognized Mr. Richardson as he walked two small children. Police determined there was a valid Henry County warrant for Mr. Richardson's arrest and offered to drive the children to a friend of Mr. Richardson's. Officer Peed said Mr. Richardson put the children in the squad car and pulled a small bag of cannabis from his pocket when he was searched. Officer Peed said when he tried to take the bag, Mr. Richardson twisted it and ran to the next intersection, then returned citing his children. Officer Peed said he was treated for a sprained finger and had to do physical therapy exercises for three days. Judge Terry Patton set a pretrial hearing for Aug. 18. ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. (AP) Cook and Lake counties plan to remove three obsolete dams this fall on the Des Plaines River to improve wildlife habitat and water quality. The counties have been working with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to continue a program that began several years ago but stalled in part because of state funding issues, the (Arlington Heights) Daily Herald (http://bit.ly/2b7tTxw ) reported. Lake County leaders who tired of waiting for approval for a grant they might never receive have budgeted $690,000 to remove the last two dams on their stretch of the river. The two dams are located at the MacArthur Woods forest preserve near Libertyville and the Captain Daniel Wright Woods forest preserve near Mettawa. "Everything is in place and now is an excellent time to be working in the Des Plaines River because there's no water," said Jim Anderson, director of natural resources for the Lake County Forest Preserve District. Additionally, Cook County is set to begin removing the Dempster Avenue Dam in Des Plaines in mid-August. Three dams will remain in the county's portion of the Des Plaines River after the dam is completely removed by the end of October, said Eric Otto, an engineer with the Forest Preserve District of Cook County. "We're anticipating removing them whenever funding comes from the state," Otto said. "The projects aren't on hold. We're moving ahead with the permitting and design." The dams were originally built for recreation, sanitary waste purposes, or as farm equipment crossings, but they've become obsolete because of highway bridges and wastewater treatment facilities. They trap silt, pose potential hazards to paddlers and prevent the movement of fish. "Our senior wildlife biologist is always excited by the fish species he sees after the dams are removed," Otto said. Lake County previously removed the dam at Ryerson Woods in Deerfield in 2011. Press release submitted by Rick Roseneck PEORIA, Ill. (Aug. 9, 2016) The American Red Cross urges blood donors to give in the final weeks of summer to help overcome a critical summer blood shortage. The summer months are among the most challenging times of years to collect enough blood and platelet donations to meet patient needs. Many regular donors delay giving while they take vacation and participate in summer activities. The need for blood doesnt take a summer break though. Two summers ago, Kelly Griswold was involved in a life-threatening jet-ski accident while vacationing. She was airlifted to a hospital and underwent three surgeries over the course of two days. Griswold, a blood donor prior to the accident, suddenly knew what it was like to be on the receiving end of blood donations. Without the support of people that can give blood, the ones who have needed it would not be here today myself included. Donors of all blood types are urgently needed to give now to help ensure blood is available for patients in need. Those who donated blood earlier this summer may be eligible to donate again. Blood can be safely donated every 56 days, and double red cells can be donated every 112 days. In appreciation for helping to save lives, those who come to donate blood or platelets with the Red Cross now through Aug. 31 will receive a $5 Amazon.com gift card claim code. Schedule an appointment to give blood by downloading the free Red Cross Blood Donor App, visiting redcrossblood.org or calling 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767). To help reduce wait times, donors are encouraged to make appointments and complete the RapidPass online health history questionnaire at redcrossblood.org/rapidpass. Upcoming blood donation opportunities Kewanee 8/18/2016: 7 a.m. - 12 p.m., Kewanee OSF Saint Luke Medical Center, 1051 W. South St. 8/18/2016: 12 p.m. - 5 p.m., Kewanee OSF Saint Luke Medical Center, 1051 W. South St. Dixon 8/16/2016: 9:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m., Katherine Shaw Bethea Hospital, 403 E. First Street 8/16/2016: 1:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m., Katherine Shaw Bethea Hospital, 403 E. First Street 8/22/2016: 1 p.m. - 5 p.m., Dixon Rehabilitation and Health Care Center, 800 Division Street 8/25/2016: 1 p.m. - 6 p.m., First Presbyterian Church, 110 E. 3rd Street Aledo 8/16/2016: 11:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m., VFW Hall, 106 SW 3rd Ave. Alexis 8/24/2016: 2 p.m. - 6 p.m., Alexis Community Center, 204 W. Palmer Ave. Sherrard 8/28/2016: 12 p.m. - 4 p.m., Sherrard Fire House, 101 E. 1st St. Rock Falls 8/17/2016: 9 a.m. - 2 p.m., Rock Falls Blood Donation Center, 112 W. Second St. Fulton 8/23/2016: 8 a.m. - 1 p.m., Robert Fulton Community Center, 912 4th Street Morrison 8/31/2016: 10 a.m. - 3 p.m., Morrison Resthave, 408 Maple Avenue How to donate blood Simply download the American Red Cross Blood Donor App, visit redcrossblood.org or call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767) to make an appointment or for more information. All blood types are needed to ensure a reliable supply for patients. A blood donor card or drivers license or two other forms of identification are required at check-in. Individuals who are 17 years of age (16 with parental consent in some states), weigh at least 110 pounds and are in generally good health may be eligible to donate blood. High school students and other donors 18 years of age and younger also have to meet certain height and weight requirements. Blood donors can now save time at their next donation by using RapidPass to complete their pre-donation reading and health history questionnaire online, on the day of their donation, prior to arriving at the blood drive. To get started and learn more, visit redcrossblood.org/RapidPass and follow the instructions on the site. About the American Red Cross The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters; supplies about 40 percent of the nations blood; teaches skills that save lives; provides international humanitarian aid; and supports military members and their families. The Red Cross is a not-for-profit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to perform its mission. For more information, please visit redcross.org or cruzrojaamericana.org, or visit us on Twitter at @RedCross. DAVENPORT -- Replicas of the Nina and the Pinta, two of the three ships used by Christopher Columbus in 1492, are scheduled to arrive at 1 p.m. today in Davenport. The ships will be docked at Oneida Landing, 1201 E. River Drive, Davenport. The ships will be open to the general public Aug. 11-22. The Nina -- built by hand without the use of power tools -- is considered to be the most historically correct Columbus replica ever constructed. The Pinta, recently built in Brazil, is a larger version of the archetypal caravel. The general public can visit the ships while they are in port for a walk-aboard, self-guided tour. Admission is $8 for adults, $7 for seniors and $6 for children 5 to 16 years old; younger children are free. The ships will be open daily 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. No reservations are necessary. Teachers and groups wanting to schedule a 30-minute guided tour with a crew member may call 787-672-2152 or visit ninapinta.org for an online form. Group tours require at least 15 people at a rate of $5 per person. CALDCs Halloween Celebration A Real Treat! The Central Astoria LDCs 7th annual Batty Over Halloween Celebration held on Sunday, October 23rd was a real treat for everyone who came out. Despite... Meng Brings NASA Astronaut To Queens On October 17, U.S. Rep. Grace Meng (D-Queens) brought NASA astronaut Dr. Jonny Kim to Queens where he met and spoke with students at Francis... Celebrating Columbus The Federation of Italian-American Organizations of Queens (FIAO) held their annual Columbus Day parade in Astoria, on Saturday, October 8, during Italian Heritage Month. The... 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! Welcome to Railway Gazette. This website uses cookies to improve your experience. By continuing to browse this site you are agreeing to our use of these cookies. You can learn more about the cookies we use here. OK In the past decade, Sino-Japanese ties have progressively deteriorated over opposing claims to islands in the East China Sea to the point where some analysts have begun to worry about the possibility that China might initiate a conflict with Japan. Other experts have suggested that economic links between the two countries would prevent a war. While it is likely correct that economic ties provide strong disincentives for conflict, it is also true that such linkages are not the only, or even the most important factors, in policymakers' minds. Chinese policymakers are likely to ask themselves three questions: Do we need to fight? If we fight, can we win? And third, what will the costs be? Disturbingly, none of the answers to these questions are currently trending in a positive direction. Since the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989 and the end of the Cold War discredited its communist ideology, China has cultivated a sense of wounded nationalism focused on the country's suffering at the hands of Imperial Japan in WWII to serve as a legitimating ideology. Simultaneously, as China has grown stronger economically and militarily over the past 35 years, it has become markedly more assertive internationally, a trend that has deepened since Xi Jinping took power in 2012. Internally, Xi has cultivated a tough-guy image and purged his political rivals, creating an environment where it serves Xi's interests to appear tough on Japan. Externally, Xi's push for a greater role in defining regional order includes building a stronger military to press China's expansive claims to maritime features and waters long occupied by other states, a development that puts the Senkakus squarely in the cross-hairs. The Senkakus have been a source of tension since 2010 when a drunken Chinese fishing boat captain rammed two Japan Coast Guard vessels and was detained. In response, China cut off official contacts, cancelled tour groups, arrested Japanese nationals inside China, and blocked exports of rare earth elements to Japan. Tensions flared again in 2012 when Japan nationalized three of the islands. Beijing launched a global campaign to condemn Tokyo and followed this up by dramatically increasing its intrusions into the waters around the islands. It also unilaterally announced an air defense identification zone that extended over the Senkakus, and its military and coast guard have taken additional actions that appear intended to escalate the risks of accidental collision or conflict. In response, Japan has devoted additional coast guard assets to the Senkakus, repositioned military forces in the Southwest Island Chain, and in 2014, welcomed a statement by President Barack Obama that the U.S.-Japan mutual defense treaty applies to the Senkakus. In 2015, the allies issued new defense guidelines to plan for the possibility of gray zone contingencies that might occur if China were to send paramilitary forces or armed fishermen to seize the Senkakus. To date, China's efforts to challenge Japanese control over the Senkakus have not led to war in part because China knows that its military forces cannot win against the combination of Japan and the United States. But precisely because of this, its military leadership continues to explore ways to split the allies and neutralize their military advantages. Turning to the question of economics, Chinese trade and investment linkages with Japan are substantial, but they have been declining in recent years, making them less of a constraint on policymakers than in the past. When China was poorer and Japan was giving it substantial development assistance, the countries' trade and investment ties were of much greater importance to Beijing. Today, with China moving up the value-added chain into competition with Japanese firms (in part through the theft of intellectual property, such as Japan's high-speed rail technology), economic ties are less of a constraint on conflict than in the past. For Japanese firms, the China market is still attractive, but since the Senkakus crisis of 2012, Japanese investment into China has plunged approximately 33 percent, as firms look to diversify their investments away from China. Rising wage levels in China also help reinforce its image as an attractive market but a less appealing production site. The Japan External Trade Organization reported that two-way trade plummeted by nearly 12 percent in 2015 to just over $300 billion. Japan's 2015 imports of roughly $160 billion of Chinese goods represent just 6 to 7 percent of China's overall exports of $2.27 trillion, a figure that is probably too small to represent an insuperable barrier to conflict. Looking ahead, a June 2016 CSIS-Nikkei survey of more than 2,800 Japanese business employees found more than 77 percent of respondents expected the importance of China as a production venue for their firms to decline in the future, while over 60 percent anticipated the importance of the China market for their company to shrink as well. These current and anticipated reductions in economic ties could further reduce China's reluctance to initiate an armed conflict with Japan. The two countries are also at loggerheads over questions of regional economic architecture. China's efforts to set up the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank as a rival to the Japanese-led Asian Development Bank provide a further fillip of tension. And Beijing, for its part, has at times implied that it regards the U.S.-Japan effort to push through the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement as a form of economic containment directed at China. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given all these tensions, the proposed China-Japan-Korea free trade agreement that would link the countries more closely economically remains stalled. In conclusion, China's domestic politics incentivize its leadership to confront Japan over the Senkakus as a way to bolster the Chinese Communist Party's leadership domestically and drive a wedge between the United States and Japan. While to date, China has been constrained by the strength of the U.S.-Japan alliance, Xi Jinping's calls to build a military that can fight and win wars suggests that the Chinese leadership will continue to seek ways to overcome their current military inferiority. And unfortunately, the economic ties that bind China and Japan together are no guarantee that conflict won't occur. Moreover, the two countries' economic links are trending downwards, suggesting a potential further erosion of the economic constraints on war. For these reasons, ensuring the continued strengthening and deepening of the U.S.-Japan alliance has emerged as a key pillar of U.S. and Japanese foreign policies in recent years, a trend likely to continue for as long as China seeks to challenge the status quo in the East China Sea. Scott W. Harold is the associate director of the RAND Center for Asia Pacific Policy, a political scientist at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation and a member of the Pardee RAND Graduate School faculty. This commentary originally appeared on The Cipher Brief on August 9, 2016. Commentary gives RAND researchers a platform to convey insights based on their professional expertise and often on their peer-reviewed research and analysis. In the third move of its kind in recent weeks, owner of the NAGRA content protection brand Kudelski has settled a patent litigation battle with a leading US provider. After burying the hatchet with Apple and Yahoo , Kudelski has announced that, due to its agreement with RPX Corp an American worldwide provider of patent risk management services as well as the OTT companys similar membership, all its pending patent litigation between Hulu and the Kudelski Group will be dismissed.Under the terms of the agreement, RPX will receive the right to sublicense a limited number of companies to Kudelski Group patents. Kudelski will receive an upfront payment, mutual patent risk clearance, and a future transfer of patents from RPX. Additionally, Kudelski has joined the RPX client network. Mark Lyons | Getty Images. Donald Trump's energy plan says little about the market forces that have sent crude oil prices spiraling and reduced U.S. dependence on coal. Donald Trump has vowed to resuscitate the U.S. coal industry and unlock the energy sector's potential by paring back restrictions and ending the nation's commitments to international efforts to battle climate change. "A Trump administration will end this war on the American worker and unleash an energy revolution that will bring vast new wealth to our country," Trump said Monday during a speech outlining his economic policy . But the campaign's proposals and promises say little about the fundamental market forces that have sent oil prices spiraling in the last two years and reduced U.S. dependence on coal for its electricity needs. For example, Trump's campaign says he would "save the coal industry and other industries threatened by Hillary Clinton 's extremist agenda." But the coal industry actually needs to be saved from another threat: natural gas. More specifically, it needs to be rescued from the natural gas boom made possible by horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing "fracking" the process of freeing oil and gas from underground shale rock formations by pummeling them with a mix of water, minerals, and chemicals. The Energy Information Administration forecasts that 2016 will be the first year that cheaper natural gas-fired power generation will exceed coal generation in the United States. EIA says the demise of coal and rise of natural gas is "mainly a market-driven response to lower natural gas prices that have made natural gas generation more economically attractive." The EIA does, however, ascribe part of the effect of coal-fired power plant retirements to the EPA's Mercury and Air Toxics Standards regulations. Trump also says he would "lift restrictions on American energy, which will increase GDP annually by $100 billion, create 500,000 new jobs and increase wages by over $30 billion over the next seven years." Those figures, he said in his speech in Detroit, come from the Energy Research Institute, a nonprofit affiliated with the Koch Brothers, GOP backers whose Koch Industries are heavily invested in the energy industry, according to SourceWatch. Story continues "The Obama-Clinton administration has blocked and destroyed millions of jobs through their anti-energy regulations while raising the price of electricity for both families and businesses," Trump said Monday. Electricity prices have increased by a little more than 1 cent per kilowatt hour during President Barack Obama's tenure through 2015, according to the Energy Information Administration. Costs are flat for industrial consumers, and up by less than 1 cent per kilowatt hour for commercial users. Further, employment growth in the U.S. energy patch grew steadily during the shale oil and gas revolution, despite regulations on the industry. Total U.S. employment in the oil and gas extraction, drilling and support services sectors amounted to over 644,000 jobs at the end of 2014, more than doubling over a 10-year period, according to CNBC analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Since the oil price downturn began in the second half of 2014, more than 291,500 energy jobs have been lost worldwide, estimates recruitment agency Airswift. Goldman Sachs estimates that U.S. drillers will need to hire 80,000 to 100,000 workers by the end of 2018 to operate the rigs the bank forecasts will be operating at that time. But recruiters warn that many of those oil workers have left the industry for good , and with U.S. unemployment hovering at 4.9 percent, it could be hard to draw them back. Few analysts see oil prices returning to their highs above $100, and some make the point that more oil production would actually make matters worse for U.S. drillers in the medium term. John Kilduff, founding partner at energy hedge fund Again Capital, told CNBC the Obama administration may have done drillers a favor by holding back some drilling on federal land. "Clinton not only embraces President Obama's job-killing energy restrictions, but wants to expand them, including going after oil and natural gas production that employs some 10 million Americans," Trump said. Clinton indeed aims to reduce U.S. oil consumption by a third by 2027 by adopting cleaner fuels and making vehicles, ships and boilers more efficient. However, she has called natural gas a "bridge" to cleaner fuels and as secretary of state, advocated exporting U.S. fracking capability overseas to help reduce Europe's dependence on Russian natural gas. As for his claim that the oil and gas production employs 10 million Americans, that figure is roughly 10 times the number of workers employed in the oil and gas extraction, drilling and support services sectors, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. In any case, it would appear that saving the coal industry and putting oil and gas workers back to work are irreconcilable projects, since gains by natural gas cut into coal's share of the market. Trump also said he would invite TransCanada (Toronto Stock Exchange: TRP-CA) to renew its permit application for the Keystone XL Pipeline, a project that has divided Republicans, who generally support it, and Democrats, who typically oppose it. Despite falling oil prices, TransCanada says on its website it "remains committed to building the Keystone XL Pipeline." After Obama denied the project a permit, TransCanada challenged the decision under NAFTA rules. But as far back as 2014, experts were saying the math no longer makes sense for the project, which would carry heavy oil extracted from sand in Alberta, Canada, to Nebraska and then onto the Gulf Coast. That's because such crude oil is some of the most expensive to produce, and in an era of low oil prices, its breakeven is far above the cost it now can fetch. More From CNBC 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. By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 08/09/2016 ADVERTISEMENT Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade. By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 08/09/2016 ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade. BOISE, IDAHO--(Marketwired - Aug 8, 2016) - U.S. Geothermal Inc. (NYSE MKT:HTM) (the "Company") announced today that it has deepened two wells at the San Emidio project. Both wells intersected high temperature geothermal fluid and high permeability. In a follow up to the five well temperature gradient drilling program completed last year, two wells were deepened based on their high thermal gradient and bottom hole temperature. Well 17-21, intersected the geothermal resource at 1,766 feet and has a measured flowing temperature of 319F. Well 25-21 intersected the geothermal resource at 2,206 feet and has a measured flowing temperature of 322F. Both wells flow under artesian pressure. "These two wells have extended the size of the San Emidio Phase II reservoir. Also significant is that this area of the reservoir has temperature that is 40F higher than we are currently producing in the San Emidio Phase I reservoir," said Dennis Gilles, CEO. "This is an exciting outcome for the project and confirms our confidence that the San Emidio resource is large enough to support additional power generation." Both wells will undergo further testing to obtain data to be used to optimize the numerical reservoir model. About U.S. Geothermal Inc.: U.S. Geothermal Inc. is a leading and profitable renewable energy company focused on the development, production and sale of electricity from geothermal energy. The Company is currently operating geothermal power projects at Neal Hot Springs, Oregon, San Emidio, Nevada and Raft River, Idaho for a total power generation of approximately 45 MWs. The Company is also developing an additional estimated 90 MWs of projects at: the Geysers, California; a second phase project at San Emidio, Nevada; at Crescent Valley, Nevada; and the El Ceibillo project located near Guatemala City, Guatemala. US Geothermal's growth strategy is to reach 200 MWs of generation by 2020 through a combination of internal development and strategic acquisitions. Story continues For more information, please visit our website at: http://www.usgeothermal.com. The information provided in this news release may contain forward-looking statements within the definition of the Safe Harbor provisions of the US Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Readers are cautioned to review the risk factors identified by the company in its filings with US and Canadian securities agencies. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein, without limitation, statements relating to the future operating or financial performance, development schedules or estimated resources of U.S. Geothermal, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are frequently, but not always, identified by words such as "expects", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "potential", "possible", and similar expressions, or statements that events, conditions, or results "will", "may", "could", or "should" occur or be achieved. These forward-looking statements may include statements regarding perceived merit of properties; interpretation of the results of well tests; project development; resource megawatt capacity; capital expenditures; timelines; strategic plans; or other statements that are not statements of fact. Forward-looking statements involve various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from U.S. Geothermal's expectations include the uncertainties involving the availability of financing in the debt and capital markets; uncertainties involved in the interpretation of results of well tests; the need for cooperation of government agencies in the development and operation of properties; the need to obtain permits and governmental approvals; risks of construction; unexpected cost increases, which could include significant increases in estimated capital and operating costs; and other risks and uncertainties disclosed in U.S. Geothermal's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015 filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and Canadian securities regulatory authorities and in other U.S. Geothermal reports and documents filed with applicable securities regulatory authorities from time to time. Forward-looking statements are based on management's expectations, beliefs and opinions on the date the statements are made. U.S. Geothermal Inc. assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if management's expectations, beliefs, or opinions, or other factors, should change. The NYSE MKT does not accept responsibility for the adequacy of this release. While many students were away during the summer studying abroad, interning or otherwise, a few amendments were made and changes were proposed to state and local law and university policy which could have an affect on students when they return to the University of Georgia campus. Greg Barnette/Record Searchlight A Cal Fire firefighter helps fight a fire near a lumber yard on Iron Mountain Mine Road on Tuesday afternoon. SHARE Update 5:15 p.m. The fire is 35 acres and 50 percent contained. The closure of Iron Mountain Road, between Sanders Road and Keswick Dam Road, and evacuations have been lifted for residents. The general public should be allowed in at about 7 p.m., according to the California Highway Patrol. UPDATE 1:40 p.m. The fire near Iron Mountain and Keswick Dam roads is about 50 percent contained. It's burned 25 acres. So far there have been no injuries or damaged structures. Fire officials on the scene said shifting winds proved challenging for the firefighters, but they have stopped its forward spread. Iron Mountain Road between Highway 299 and Keswick Dam Road remains closed. Original story: A fire is burning north of a lumber yard off Iron Mountain Road. Fire crews are responding to the area and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection are asking for roads in the area to be closed. Evacuations are being called for residents from Highway 299 east to Keswick Dam Road off Iron Mountain Road, according to dispatchers. The fire is burning near Keswick Dam Road and evacuations are in order for residents in the area, according to scanner reports. Multiple structures are threatened at this time and the fire is under power lines. There are multiple spot fires on Iron Mountain Road. Crews are calling in air tankers to the scene. The Red Cross was contacted to set up an evacuation shelter at Shasta High School, according to scanner reports. Several local fire agencies are responding to the scene. SHARE Frank Nienburg Updated at 4:35 p.m. The Fortuna Police Department report Frank Stuart Nienburg was found safe. Original story Police in Fortuna, a city in Humboldt County, issued an alert late Monday for a 79-year-old man reported missing. Frank Stuart Nienburg was last seen at about 3:15 p.m. Monday driving from his home in Fortuna. Nienburg suffers from a medical condition and may become disoriented, according to the Fortuna Police Department. Nienburg drives a 1985 Ford Ranger pickup with a dark canopy and California license plate 2N27462. Police describe him as 5 feet, 8 inches tall and about 170 pounds. He's also bald with blue eyes, police said. Fortuna police ask anyone with information on his whereabouts to call 707-725-7550 Andreas Fuhrmann/Record Searchlight Michael Flowerdew, right, appeared Monday in Tehama County Superior Court on charges he and three others had sex with a 14-year-old boy. SHARE Andreas Fuhrmann/Record Searchlight Chance Isaacson appeared in Tehama County Superior Court on charges he had sex with a 14-year-old boy. Andreas Fuhrmann/Record Searchlight Thomas Seagraves appeared in Tehama County Superior Court on charges he had sex with a 14-year-old boy. By Joe Szydlowski of the Redding Record Searchlight Four men, including the son of a former Red Bluff Police lieutenant, had their trial dates set Monday on charges they had sex with a 14-year-old boy. Michael Flowerdew, 20, Thomas Seagraves, 22, Bryan Morrison, 19, all of Red Bluff, and Alexander Chance Isaacson, 20, of Gridley, face charges related to performing sex acts on a 14-year-old Gerber youth within the previous year. All four have pleaded not guilty, and on Monday Tehama County Superior Court Judge Richard Scheuler set Isaacson's trial for the end of October. Morrison, Seagraves and Flowerdew, son of retired police Lt. Dan Flowerdew, face trial in early or mid-November, Scheuler said. They will not, however, serve as co-defendants because they did not conspire to victimize the boy, said Gregg Cohen, the Tehama County district attorney. "We normally do but with these guys, they're charged with similar conduct but they didn't act together," Cohen said. Family and friends of some of the defendants at Monday's hearing declined to comment. Red Bluff police learned about the case in March when the victim presented a forged note to get a ride to Seagraves' home instead of his aunt's, where he had been living, according to a police report. Staff then called school resource officer Heidi Thomas. She wrote in her report that she interviewed the teen and searched the messages on his phone, where she allegedly found written messages between the victim and suspects explicitly referencing sexual encounters. Based largely on those messages and the victim's statements police arrested all four men April 19 on suspicion of various charges, including oral sex with a minor. Morrison and Flowerdew later posted bail, while Seagraves and Isaacson remain in custody on $130,000 and $505,000 bonds, respectively. Therapists say the prevalence of sexual abuse is difficult to nail down because of the secretive nature of the crime. "It changes all the time, and it depends on how they collect the data too," said Lynn Fritz, a licensed marriage, family therapist in Redding. The National Center for Victims of Crime cites studies that say one in five girls and one in 20 boys are victims of sexual abuse. According to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, which operates a 24-hour rape crisis hotline, the numbers are about double that. But some aspects are well known, such as the pre-sexual relationship between the suspect and victim. "It happens obviously with strangers as well, but it's predominantly someone known to the child," said Patricia Shaw, a Redding-area licensed marriage and family therapist. According to RAINN's website, more than 90 percent of perpetrators know the victim, most as an acquaintance. Perpetrators begin offering gifts and innocent fun to woo victims and begin "pushing boundaries little by little so the child becomes comfortable with the behavior," Shaw said. "Anytime a child's isolated alone with an adult or older person for long periods of time, it's really concerning if someone's always trying to get the child alone," she said. "By itself, it's not troubling, but (it's) when it accompanies other signs." The internet has become a source of worry for older youths, who face additional concerns, she said. Teens are impulsive, feel invincible and believe they possess more knowledge and experience than actually they do, she said. That makes them vulnerable, including online, she said. Those who have suffered abuse as a child should seek treatment, Fritz said. Most mainstream therapy works to build up self-worth and confidence for a re-examining of the abuse to overcome it, she said. The agony doesn't go away on its own, even if victims try to tough it out, she said. "If it happened when someone's 10-years-old. Until they process it therapeutically, they can be 90-years-old and still be impacted by it," she said. People can also volunteer at one of several places, such as One Safe Place Shasta and the Crime Victims Assistance Center with the Shasta County District Attorney's Office, Shaw said. Also, they should keep an eye out for signs, which can range from a child acting out in sexually inappropriate ways to becoming non-sexual, Fritz said. She said anyone with concerns should talk to the youth. They also should report it, even if they merely suspect something is wrong, Shaw said. "What I most hear from survivors of abuse: All the adults they hinted to, tried to tell or even told, the adult never took action," she said. "People think they need all the facts. People should trust their instincts. Make that call." She added one report doesn't mean officials will launch an investigation. Often, they move in when they see a pattern of reported abuse, Shaw said. In Shasta County, abuse can be reported at 225-5144 or nationally at 1 (800) 422-4453. Suspect child sex abuse? Recognize the signs: Behavioral signs include avoiding physical contact, changes in hygiene habits, falling back into behaviors (sucking thumbs, for example), that are age-inappropriate sexual behaviors Verbal signs can include using language thats too-adult for their age, suddenly being less talkative or having unexplained silence. Physical signs usually involve bruises near the genital areas or blood on sheets and underwear. Talk with the child Speak with any children in a safe environment and a casual tone using words they understand. Also, be patient and reassure the children no one is in trouble. Reporting it Some professions, such as law enforcement and educators, are required by law to report suspected abuse. For those who suspect abuse, they can call the authorities or call the national child abuse reporting line, 1-800-422-4453, which will help them along with reporting their suspicions. Other ways to help: Become a supportive, engaged person in a youths life, especially if they have only one parent in the home. Donate to and volunteer for one of several charities, such as One Safe Place Shasta, the Shasta County District Attorneys Crime Victims Assistance Center or the Child Abuse Prevention Council, that work with victims of abuse or at-risk youth. Speak with your children about whats OK and not OK touching. Stay engaged with them, and tell them they wont get in trouble if they tell you. Sources: RAINN, Redding marriage and family therapists SHARE Terrorism was clearly trending down globally as President Barack Obama took office, according to the University of Maryland's Global Terrorism Database. But that desirable trend has reversed, and nowhere is the upswing in terror activity more glaring than here in the American homeland. Since Sept. 11, 2001, at least 89 Islamist-related terrorist plots have been aimed at U.S. soil, according to a database maintained by the Heritage Foundation. And both the number and frequency of plots have dramatically increased on Obama's watch. Of the 89 plots, only 30 percent occurred in the Bush era (2001-2008). Fully 70 percent emerged under Obama, and the pace is quickening. Twenty-five plots have been uncovered since the start of last year. And terrorists have launched five successful attacks since July 2015. While plots are proliferating, there is less diversity in who is behind them. Of the 25 most recent plots, 21 are connected to the Islamic State. And unlike the 9/11 attacks organized from abroad and conducted by foreigners the vast majority of plotters are now being recruited and inspired right here in the homeland. Seventy-eight of the post 9/11 plots involved a homegrown element. Of course, no one is to blame for terrorism other than the terrorists. The growth of the terrorist threat is largely attributable to deteriorating stability in the Middle East arising from post-Arab Spring economic and political chaos, a deepening Sunni-Shia divide, and constant meddling by Iran. Yet the dramatic uptick and transformation of the threat also can be traced at least partly to a gap created by the Obama administration a gap that the terrorists were only too happy to fill. In 2011, the administration published its new counterterrorism strategy. The guidelines reflected changes the president had implemented at least a year earlier. The strategy was clear: Obama looked to withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan and to de-emphasize most aspects of the global war on terror except for drone and special operations focused on core al-Qaida leadership. The decision to "lead from behind" for most of the war on terror helped create massive new space for terrorism activity. In addition to the botched withdrawal from Iraq, the absence of a post-conflict counterterrorism plan in Libya (following the 2011 ouster of Moammar Gadhafi) opened the gates to a dramatic expansion of Islamist terrorist activity throughout North Africa. As a result, today transnational Islamist terrorism has a larger global footprint than it did when Obama took office. According to the Global Terrorism Index, for example, terrorist attacks soared 80 percent in 2014 compared with the previous year. Far more people are dying from Islamist terrorism. Far more regimes are under attack. The Islamic State is the most visible threat. While the administration says it supports operations to reduce the territory controlled by the Islamic State in the Middle East, its efforts have been "too little, too late." The Islamic State has now built a global network animated by a narrative of re-establishing the historical caliphate. As a result, it can orchestrate terrorism worldwide as demonstrated by this year's string of attacks from San Bernardino to Bangladesh, including attacks on Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iraq, France, Belgium and Germany. While the face of the Islamic State looks different in different parts of the world, the cold truth is that the Islamic State has built a worldwide global terrorist infrastructure. And it did so under Obama's watch. What's more, the Islamic State isn't the only problem. Al-Qaida has been quietly rebuilding its base. In some ways, al-Qaida is more insidious. Not wanting to attract the global attention that the Islamic State relishes, al-Qaida has in some cases instructed its leaders to keep their affiliation secret. As one leader of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb wrote: "We should also take into consideration not to monopolize the political and military stage. We should not be at the forefront. Better for you to be silent and pretend to be a 'domestic' movement that has its own causes and concerns. There is no reason for you to show that we have an expansionary, jihadi, al-Qaida or any other sort of project." When Obama took office, the terrorists were on the run. His successor will inherit a full-blown global Islamist insurgency. Jim DeMint is president of the Heritage Foundation and a former U.S. senator. James Jay Carafano is a Heritage vice president, directing the think tank's research on issues of national security and foreign relations. They wrote this for The Philadelphia Inquirer. SHARE Given the rapid spread of Zika throughout Latin America and the Caribbean earlier this year, it was only a matter of time before the virus showed up here. But until recently, virtually all U.S. cases of Zika had involved people infected by mosquitoes while traveling in countries where the disease is epidemic or by having sex with partners who were bitten there. That changed when health officials reported more than a dozen new cases of Zika that appear to have been transmitted by mosquitoes in Florida. The epidemic has entered a worrisome new phase that ought to have Congress scrambling to stop Zika in its tracks. But instead lawmakers in Washington decided to go on vacation. The Aedes aegypti mosquito that spreads the virus is common in the tropical countries where Zika is rampant. But it's also present across much of the southern U.S. as far north as Maryland. There's no cure for the illness, nor is there a vaccine yet that would prevent people from being infected by it. The only defense against the disease's spread is a well-coordinated mosquito control program aimed at killing the adult insects and their larvae to prevent them from transmitting the virus. But so far Congress has refused to fully fund such an effort, even though allowing the epidemic to spread out of control risks a public health crisis of massive proportions. Although most cases of Zika are relatively mild many infected people don't even realize they have the disease the virus can have serious consequences for pregnant women and newborns. In Brazil and other countries, the virus has been linked to a sudden upsurge in cases of microcephaly, a devastating condition that causes babies to be born with abnormally small heads, deformed skulls and severe brain damage. The damage is irreversible and infants born with the illness will suffer its effects for the rest of their lives. Zika has also been linked to a temporary but debilitating form of paralysis in adults that can last for years. There have been more than 1,600 confirmed Zika cases in the U.S. Officials believe the epicenter of the locally transmitted cases of Zika in Florida was a 1-square-mile area in the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami known for its trendy restaurants, bars and shops. That is where they have concentrated mosquito control efforts using insecticide sprays to kill adult mosquitoes and water treatments to kill larvae. They've also asked people living and working in the area to remove standing water where mosquitoes can breed, and they have collected urine and blood samples to gauge how rapidly the virus spread. The Centers for Disease Control this week issued a warning for people to stay away from the area, something it had never done before in the continental U.S. But officials still don't know whether they have stopped the virus' transmission there completely, or whether its spread may be continuing in other neighborhoods. Given that the mosquito season in much of the country is likely to last for at least another couple of months, officials can't afford to let down their guard. If Florida's experience is any example, eradicating the insects is a costly, time-consuming process. States are going to need federal help to avert catastrophe, and the fact that lawmakers have chosen this moment to go on vacation only makes their abdication of their responsibilities all the more unconscionable. The Baltimore Sun Not long after two Chicago police officers shot and killed an unarmed Esau Castellanos after a brief car chase on the city's North Side, the FBI began a criminal investigation into whether police had violated the civil rights of the pizza delivery man and father of three. The March 2013 shooting seemed ripe for federal intervention. The officers had said Castellanos fired at them from close range, forcing one officer to dive for safety, but a gun was never found. Then, the officers' accounts shifted, and they suggested a second person might have been involved. Advertisement More than three years after Castellanos' death, no charges have been brought, and the direction of the federal inquiry is uncertain. To many, the FBI and, with it, the U.S. attorney's office are law enforcement agencies of last resort, federal authorities to whom victims of police abuse or misconduct can turn when local officials fail to respond. Unelected and largely immune to political pressure, they are, by design, seen as white knights of law enforcement. Advertisement And, indeed, community activists and the family members of those shot by police have urged federal officials to take a more active role in investigating the incidents, hoping they will be more aggressive than local authorities. Earlier this year, the families of two black Chicago teens killed in separate shootings in 2013 called upon federal authorities to take a fresh and independent look at what transpired. Critics of Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez's handling of the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald the 17-year-old whose videotaped shooting roiled the city and contributed to Alvarez being ousted from office pointed to federal officials as a model for how to investigate and prosecute police use of deadly force against citizens. They believed federal officials would have moved more aggressively. Nearly two years after McDonald's death, and eight months after the release of the dashcam video, federal prosecutors have yet to bring any criminal civil rights charges against Officer Jason Van Dyke for the shooting or against any of the officers on the scene whose official police reports of what allegedly happened were contradicted by the video. Van Dyke has been charged with murder, but by Alvarez's office. Laura de la Fuente talks about her late boyfriend, Esau Castellanos, who was shot and killed by police in March 2013. Police said Castellanos died during an exchange of gunfire, but an investigation revealed he had no gun. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune) Federal officials' lack of movement on the McDonald and Castellanos cases are just the latest examples of their reluctance to bring criminal charges in police shootings. Chicago police have shot 702 citizens killing 215 in the past 15 years, according to Police Department records obtained by the Tribune under the Freedom of Information Act. Not once have federal law enforcement officials brought criminal civil rights charges against an officer in those shootings. The office of U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon declined to answer questions about why the federal investigations have taken years, and why no Chicago cop involved in a police shooting has been charged. An examination of government data and interviews show federal authorities have brought civil rights charges against law enforcement in the Chicago area in two dozen cases over that time period, but none of them involved shootings of citizens by the police. "They're almost an irrelevancy to us. They don't reach out to us and we don't bring them things," said the prominent civil rights lawyer Jon Loevy. "Maybe it's a question of their priorities. A lot of these things that have been happening, they certainly could look at them." Advertisement Higher standard to charge U.S. Department of Justice officials say that as much as they would like to bring more federal civil rights cases, their hands are tied by laws that require them to prove that officers acted willfully that is, they intentionally sought to deprive someone of their constitutional rights. Incompetence, bad training or mistakes in judgment do not meet that standard. It is, by all accounts, a high bar to clear for a prosecutor. State and local prosecutors can charge officers with a variety of crimes for conduct that is reckless or negligent; in the case of a fatal shooting, say, they can charge first- or second-degree murder or manslaughter. Federal prosecutors, by comparison, have fewer options. "At the federal level, it would be better to have a bigger toolbox," said Jonathan Smith, executive director of the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs and a former section chief in the Justice Department's civil rights division. "They have a screwdriver when they need a hammer." When federal prosecutors have brought cases, the incident often was captured on video or the officers' accounts were undermined by other evidence, according to a Tribune examination of government data. Justice Department statistics show 18 law enforcement officials including two prison guards and one U.S. marshal who had charges dropped against him have been indicted in federal court in Chicago on criminal civil rights charges from Jan. 1, 2000, through Dec. 31, 2015. Advertisement Among the cases: former Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge for perjury in connection with the torture of suspects; three Cicero officers caught on video beating someone; a Cook County sheriff's deputy for mistreating a Maywood detainee, also caught on videotape. Indeed, many of the cases federal officials brought involved beatings of people in custody. Those tend to involve a restrained victim and occur over a period of time even a short period which indicates willfulness, compared with shootings, which by their nature are more likely to be a result of split-second decisions. The U. S. attorney's office in Chicago provided the names of six additional police and correctional officers it said were indicted on criminal civil rights charges during that period. One of those was James Micetich, a Cook County sheriff's deputy accused of hitting a jail inmate in the waiting room area of Cermak Hospital, the facility that often treats jail inmates. That case is pending in federal court. Lack of data The FBI and U.S. attorney's office in Chicago, in fact, have burnished their reputations on investigations and prosecutions of political corruption and organized crime. They also have increasingly focused on terrorism, as have federal law enforcers around the country. Here in Chicago, it is difficult to get a handle on exactly the role federal authorities play or how often they are asked to investigate questionable police shootings. Cook County prosecutors do not keep statistics on how often they seek assistance from the FBI or the U.S. attorney's office. The Independent Police Review Authority, the city agency that investigated more than 400 shootings by Chicago police officers since it was created in fall 2007, only began this year to track cases referred for possible federal investigation. Advertisement For its part, the federal government also lacks complete or accurate data on police shootings. The Justice Department could not say how many times a police officer has been prosecuted on civil rights charges for wrongly shooting a citizen. In the wake of a series of shootings by police recently, FBI Director James Comey called the lack of data on officer-involved shootings "embarrassing and ridiculous." The U.S. attorney's office in Chicago could not determine if a city officer has ever been prosecuted federally for an on-duty shooting. The FBI, the lead agency for investigating what are called color of law violations, investigated 368 cases across the country in 2014, with charges being brought against officers of various departments police officers as well as prison and jail guards in 72 cases. The FBI refused to say how many were handled by its Chicago office. Federal officials decline to act on the vast majority of allegations against law enforcement. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review found that from 1995 through 2015, federal prosecutors declined to pursue civil rights charges against law enforcement officers 96 percent of the time. Smith, the former Justice Department section chief, said a willful intent standard often makes it difficult to bring charges. He said that he favored a less stringent standard of "recklessness," where an officer was aware but indifferent that his conduct would violate someone's rights. "We have a crisis in policing," he said. "Up until recently, the federal government did not meaningfully commit to its role of holding police accountable." Advertisement This excerpt from video released to the public shows the most complete version of the shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. It is edited for length by the Chicago Tribune. Warning: This video contains graphic images. (Chicago Tribune) 'They are all law enforcement' Lawyers who handle civil rights cases say federal law enforcement officials are as much a part of the tightly knit law enforcement community as state and local prosecutors, often working together on task forces and other efforts. As a result, they have been reluctant to pursue cases against local police. The Justice Department is conducting a separate, civil investigation of the Police Department's practices in police shootings. "Whenever law enforcement has to police law enforcement, they have a difficult time having an objective view," said Chicago lawyer Ed Fox, who has filed numerous lawsuits against city police. "They are all law enforcement. They can see themselves in that position." Activists, too, say that the federal authorities could do more on police shootings. That, they say, would send a signal both to police and to other enforcement officials that the federal government takes seriously its role in investigating and prosecuting criminal civil rights cases. "The federal government in many ways has turned a blind eye to the overpolicing of black people and to the violation of their civil rights," said Charlene Carruthers, the national director of the Black Youth Project 100, which hopes to focus the attention of young people around justice issues. "The issue is not just that the local governments aren't listening. The federal government isn't listening." Advertisement Yet Carruthers acknowledged that protesters have not targeted federal officials the way they have Alvarez and others. Protesters have gathered in Daley Plaza, at City Hall and hearings of the Chicago Police Board, but not the Dirksen Federal Building, where the offices of the U.S. attorneys are located. Carruthers offered a rather pedestrian reason why demonstrators avoid the Dirksen building. "It's hard to get the ears of the folks who are more than a dozen floors away," she said. Federal authorities in the Chicago area have, of late, attempted to defuse some of that criticism, as well as educate the public about their role in civil rights investigations, appearing at community forums around the city to explain the limitations of the nation's civil rights laws. In many instances, federal law enforcement officials allow local prosecutors to take the lead, employing what they call a backstop approach stepping in when those local prosecutors do not bring charges, the case is mishandled or when a jury returns a not-guilty verdict that officials believe is a miscarriage of justice. One example: the Rodney King case, in which four Los Angeles officers in the 1990s were acquitted by a jury of beating King during a traffic stop. Cases investigated for years The most recent federal criminal civil rights case involving a deadly shooting was brought against former South Carolina police Officer Michael Slager, who shot and killed Walter Scott as he fled a traffic stop in April 2015. That shooting was caught on video by a bystander with a cellphone. Advertisement Slager had already been charged in state court with murder by prosecutors in North Charleston. The Charleston County prosecutor, Scarlett Wilson, has said she believed prosecutions on separate but parallel tracks made sense as they "vindicate separate interests." The murder charge addresses his death, she said, while the federal charges address the alleged violation of his constitutional rights. That contrasts with how the deaths of McDonald and Castellanos have played out. Federal officials have not brought charges in connection with McDonald's shooting, though it seems to bear similarities to Scott's shooting, and has the added element of officers writing questionable police reports acts that suggest the officers may have intentionally covered up for a fellow officer. The Castellanos shooting appears to involve officers shifting their accounts of what happened. Officers Juan Martinez and Shawn Lawryn had told detectives that, after they began to pursue Castellanos' vehicle, he crashed. As they approached the wreckage, they said, he opened fire, forcing them both to dive to the ground to dodge the bullets. They responded by firing 19 shots, hitting Castellanos three times. Martinez even said he had been shot in the head, although in fact he had not been shot and officers never recovered a gun. Martinez simply had scrapes and bruises. Advertisement Two years later, the officers suggested in sworn depositions for the first time that a second person might have been in the vehicle with Castellanos. Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. > It is unclear where the federal investigation now stands. Martinez said in a sworn deposition as part of a lawsuit from the Castellanos family that he had been interviewed by the FBI, perhaps in the summer following the shooting. Lawryn said in his deposition he had referred the FBI to his lawyer. The officers are on administrative duty. The city of Chicago, in the meantime, has settled the lawsuit from Castellanos' survivors. The city will pay them $3.75 million. smmills@chicagotribune.com tlighty@chicagotribune.com Advertisement Twitter @smmills1960 Twitter @tlighty With summer travel season in full swing, the stress of planning a trip can be overwhelming, especially if you have a furry friend to think about. As much as you'd love to take your pet EVERYWHERE (because obviously), it's not always possible. But when you do decide to embark on a journey with your beloved animal in towwhether you're leaving for a weekend getaway or just headed for a quick trip to the vetit all comes down to planning and preparation. Advertisement Here are a few tips from The Anti-Cruelty Society on how to ensure a safe and happy trip with your pet: Make sure to clarify what "pet friendly" means. Some hotels, parks and campgrounds have weight and breed restrictions. Be sure your pet is wearing an identification tag. Bring your pets regular food, toys, treats and dishes to make them feel more comfortable. Traveling by car? Take your pet on a few short rides prior to a long one to ease anxiety. Dogs should never be allowed to ride in the passenger seat or on your lap while you're driving. Cats should always be confined to a carrier. Traveling by air? Use approved transport crates and carriers, notify your airline that youll be traveling with a pet prior to departure, and try to schedule a nonstop flight to your destination and avoid peak travel times. It's important to do your homework before you begin a trek with your precious fur baby. Lucky for you, we've gathered a list of pet policies for you to study up on. You're welcome. Advertisement CTA "Only small pets in protective carriers are allowed on CTA buses and trains," CTA spokesman Jeff Tolman said in an email. "Carriers cannot take up seats, seating areas or obstruct pathways on buses, trains or in stations and must be able to be carried on by a single person." To ensure the comfort of other riders, make sure your pet behaves in a way that's not disruptive because CTA reserves the right to remove them. That said, service animals are permitted at all times. Metra "We, as of January of this year, voted to allow pets on weekend trains, but basic rules apply," Metra spokeswoman Meg Reile said. "Only small pets in closed carriers are allowed; carriers are not allowed to take up seats or obstruct pathways on the train and must be small enough to be carried by a single person. Metra reserves the right to remove passengers with noisy pets, and owners are responsible for the behavior and cleanup of their pets." Uber According to Uber spokeswoman Jennifer Mullin, drivers are expected to comply with all state, federal and local laws regarding the transportation of riders with disabilities and the use of service animals. Advertisement "We have a very explicit policy related to service animals, but if it's a non-service animal, it's up to the discretion of the driver to take the pet or animal into the car," Mullen said via email. Lyft Unless a passenger has a service animal, it's up to the driver whether to allow the passenger's pet in the vehicle, spokeswoman Mary Caroline Pruitt said. "If a passenger is planning on bringing a pet, we advise them to call their drivers right after their requests are accepted to confirm that it's OK," Pruitt said via email. Eat. Watch. Do. Weekly What to eat. What to watch. What you need to live your best life ... now. > O'Hare/Midway airports Each airline has different specifications, requirements and fees for flying with pets, so it's a good idea to check out those policies before hopping on a plane. Advertisement "Chicago's airports have several amenities available to assist travelers and their pets," Karen Pride, Chicago Department of Aviation media relations director, said in an email. "There are outdoor pet relief areas at all four terminals at O'Hare and one at Midway." An indoor service animal/pet relief room opened in O'Hare International Airport last fall, and it's designed to accommodate passengers traveling with service animals or pets, Pride said. "The room has two, 2-foot by 4-foot pet relief areas complete with artificial grass covering, miniature fire hydrants and pop-up sprinkler systems to wash away liquid waste into a drain," Pride said. "In addition, a mounted hose bib and reel is available for manual spraying and plastic bags are provided for cleanup." @RianneCoale | rcoale@redeyechicago.com The Transit Diaries runs in RedEye's print edition every Tuesday on Page 4. If you have a story you'd like to share, email us at redeye@redeyechicago.com with "Transit Diaries" in the subject line. The Loyalist is now open in West Loop (Eugene (Huge) Galdones) Chicago Musical Theatre Festival, a new West Loop restaurant and more things to do in Chicago on Tuesday, Aug. 9. EAT Now Open Advertisement The Loyalist 177 N. Ada St. 773-913-3774 Advertisement The West Loop restaurant from chefs John Shields and Karen Urie Shields of Charlie Trotter's and Alinea serves seasonal, locally sourced dishes including biscuits with ramp honey ($6), roasted beets and avocado with pumpkin seed butter ($12) and broiled sea trout with charred cucumber ($24). 4 p.m.-midnight. DRINK Summer Beers Dinner Beef & Barley 3001 N. Ashland Ave. 773-248-0990 A four-course menu of summer-inspired fare including dessert from Southern France Patisserie is paired with fruity beers such as New Belgium Tart Lychee wood-aged sour ale and 21st Amendment Hell or High Watermelon wheat beer. $45. 7-10 p.m. Tickets: beefandbarleychi.com DO Two Cookie Minimum Comfort Station 2579 N. Milwaukee Ave. The monthly reading series for emerging writers and the Chicago zine community features performances by Story Sessions host Jill Howe, "Like a Dog" author Vincent Francone and others plus music from Mark Piekarz. 8 p.m. Donations benefit the Chicago Publishers Resource Center. Chicago Musical Theatre Festival. Chicago Musical Theatre Festival Advertisement Eat. Watch. Do. Weekly What to eat. What to watch. What you need to live your best life ... now. > Victory Gardens Richard Christiansen Theater 2433 N. Lincoln Ave. 773-871-3000 Catch performances of "That Lovin' Feelin'," a musical biography of The Righteous Brothers, at 6 p.m. and "Flight," Kokandy Production's take on the myth of Icarus, at 8:30 p.m. as part of Underscore Theatre Company's third annual fest, which runs through Aug. 28. $20 per show, $200 for a festival pass. Tickets: cmtf.org 'Poetry Talk' The Public House Theatre 3914 N. Clark St. 773-230-4770 Hear readings from local poets and see the premiere of the first act of Peter Storey's four-part dramatic epic "Burn" at the monthly talk show. 8 p.m. $10. Tickets: thepubtheatre.com HAPPY HOUR OF THE DAY The Bristol. The Bristol (2152 N. Damen Ave. 773-862-5555) offers half-price glasses and bottles of wine, draft beers and small plates from 5:30-6:30 p.m. Advertisement For more Eat & Drink news, click here. 'You cannot say that I have blocked a thousand Web sites (operated by IS) and so I am happy.' 'They will immediately open another thousand such Web sites.' Praveen Dixit, below left, who recently retired as Maharashtra's director general of police, tells Rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore about tackling terrorists who make use of social media to influence young minds. What kind of problems do social media platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook pose for policing? These are just platforms, technologies (used by criminals and terrorists). These are advanced systems that make the use of the Internet to enable criminal activities and terrorism. But technology is neutral and the person using a given technology may have good or bad intentions and accordingly makes use of such technologies. Some may use it for criminal activity; some may use it for wrong advocacies; it all depends on the mentality of people using these technologies. One cannot find fault with a technology if it is used by wrong people for wrong purposes. But whenever people with such criminal intent are found they must be tackled according to existing laws. What measures need to be taken or are taken to deal with such people? Every city, including a big city like Mumbai, has a large number of cyber experts whose help should be sought to expose those using these technologies for criminal or terrorist activities. Such activities can be brought to the notice of local police stations. Or, the police can and must co-opt cyber experts to find out more about the misuse of these technologies. For example, a private service in Pune has opened a cyber helpline. It is possible that all victims of cyber crime may not go directly to the police. Specifically speaking, how does one neutralise the influence of terrorist organisations like IS (Islamic State) have on young minds by using social media? IS keeps on spreading their propaganda and attracting young minds across various spaces. Once you notice their propaganda on a given Web site and you proceed to block it, they go for a new one the moment it is blocked. You cannot say that I have blocked a thousand Web sites and so I am happy. They will immediately open another thousand such Web sites. It is an untiring, continuous process. The other way to deal with such influence in India is to have thousands of police friends ('police mitra'), systematically ensconced in various localities in small groups, who can report directly to the police about any such incident of terror brainwashing. The police, too, has its informants who are part and parcel of groups that indulge in such terror activities and anybody coming across any wrongdoing shares it with the police immediately. Does the Maharashtra police have an advanced technological backbone to tackle IS propaganda on social media? There is no problem here (in Maharashtra), though one can never say that we are foolproof and we are comprehensive. You have to take help of cyber experts, you have to take help of society and other people. It is a collective effort and only through such efforts can this (neutralising the spread of IS propaganda online) happen. In addition, we had also organised seminars for creating awareness in colleges and universities everywhere (across the state), where cyber experts, parents, teachers, and students would come together and they are sensitised about such things. As far as IS is concerned, a lot of senior Muslim leaders have come forward and through whom these seminars and workshops have been organised in all the sensitive pockets in Maharashtra. And this has created a very good impact. Is Parbhani (in Maharashtra) emerging as a hub for IS recruiters? Reports these days speak of IS 'commanders' being arrested from Parbhani. It could be a specific module, which is being identified and neutralised. One must understand that this (neutralising IS or any terror module that operates online) is a challenging area and there are no easy solutions. ALSO READ IMAGE: Firebrand Adivasi leader Soni Sori. Photograph: PTI 'India is my country and we will raise our voice against anybody who harms the interests of Adivasis, be it the state government or the Maoists.' Firebrand Adivasi leader Soni Sori -- who has allegedly suffered sexual exploitation by the police as well as acid attacks for her fight for the tribals of Chhattisgarh -- will lead a 200 kilometre-long padyatra from Dantewada to Gompad village, where an Adivasi teen, Madkam Hidme, was allegedly raped and killed by security forces. The march will highlight the brutalities faced by the people in the battle between the government and the Maoists in the tribals' name. Sori spoke to Rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore about her "historic fight" to seek justice for Hidme and many other women by hoisting the Tricolour in the remote village of Gompad. What is the main purpose of your padyatra from Dantewada that begins August 9 and culminates on August 15 in Gompad with the hoisting of the Tricolour? August 9 is the day when Mahatma Gandhi launched the Quit India movement against the British. August 9 is also considered as International Adivasi Diwas. We will be highlighting the injustices done to the Adivasis of Chhattisgarh by the police during this padyatra and raise questions about fake encounters of the Adivasis by the police and sexual exploitation of Adivasi women by the state. We have chosen Gompad to end our padyatra because it was in this village that the police brutally killed Madkam Hidme (the Chhattisgarh police claim she was a Naxalite and killed in an encounter with the police) after sexually assaulting her. These areas happen to be 'liberated zones' of the Maoists where hoisting the Indian national flag is not allowed. By hoisting the Tiranga we will highlight the police atrocities against the Adivasis of these tribal areas and also send a message to the nation that even these so-called 'liberated zones' are part of this country. What is the route you will be taking? Beginning August 9 from Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Park in Dantewada we will be covering over 200 km across the state and reach Gompad on August 15. The Chhattisgarh police have begun a devious campaign of dividing the Adivasis and inciting the tribals against me by saying that I purposely started my padyatra on August 9 -- International Adivasi Diwas -- to disturb the various programmes planned by various tribal associations in the state. They are telling the gullible Adivasis that I am not fighting for their rights and upliftment. I have met all my Adivasi brothers and sisters (24 Adivasi organisations are part of this padyatra) and convinced them the police is trying to divide the Adivasis by such dangerous propaganda. How is the Chhattisgarh police trying to scuttle your padyatra? Till now, they have kept us hanging as far as the permission for the padyatra is concerned. They are trying to create a rift among the Adivasis by saying that Soni Sori is only interested in her welfare and political career. I have succeeded in convincing my fellow Adivasis how the Chhattisgarh government is trampling the rights of the Adivasis, killing them in fake encounters, sexually exploiting our mothers and sisters and we have to fight against such injustices now. We can't stand such atrocities any more and the government and the police should now know that we have lost our patience with this system that only suffocates the Adivasis. It is amply clear that the police don't want us to succeed in taking out this padyatra and highlight such gross injustices. 'I have immense faith in the people of this country. With support from them I think it will be very difficult for the Maoists to attack us or forcibly stop our flag hoisting ceremony on August 15 in Gompad.' Do you think the police can detain or arrest you in their bid to stop this padyatra? Both possibilities cannot be ruled out. These people (the police and the state government) can do anything to me. But let me warn them that such intimidators cannot hold us back now. This is not just Soni Sori's padyatra; this is the padyatra of the Adivasis of Chhattisgarh who are affiliated to almost 24 organisations under the banner of the Sanyukt Sangharsh Manch for saving Bastar. So, the padyatra will go on even if you are arrested? Zaroor chalegi! (of course, the padyatra will go on!). If they arrest us then on the day Irom Sharmila has decided to end her indefinite fast in Manipur (August 9), we will be launching a similar fast in Chhattisgarh. If the police create a Manipur-like situation here, we will have to do what Irom Sharmila did there. Gompad is part of the area that the Maoists of Chhattisgarh call a 'liberated zone' and you will be hoisting the Indian flag there on August 15. Have you received any threats from the Maoists? Not yet. I haven't been threatened by the Maoists yet. But there are chances that the Maoists will try to disturb your flag hoisting programme in Gompad. I have the interests of the people of Bastar and Chhattisgarh in my heart. So, I am not scared of the state government or the Maoists. It will be an open padyatra through the main roads and villages. Let them (the Maoists) do anything they want to stop this padyatra, but we will go on with our programme. Why should I hide from anybody? My struggle is very clearly for the justice of the people of Chhattisgarh and against the atrocities of the state police. It will not be just Soni Sori, but the people of Bastar who will be a part of this padyatra. Ten women who have been raped by the police will be part of our padyatra; the state government is responsible for their rapes; the police are just the perpetrators. Don't the Maoists also indulge in sexual assaults on the tribal women who oppose their ideology or who side with the state government? Whenever such incidents come to our notice we will raise our voice against such acts. We will speak against the Maoists too. 'What better way to highlight the atrocities committed against a poor tribal by the police on the orders of the state government but to hoist our national flag and organise people to fight against the exploitation of Adivasis?' Ours is not a one-sided fight; we have chosen this path because we want to fight all kinds of injustices against the poor tribals of this region. India is my country and we will raise our voice against anybody who harms the interests of Adivasis, be it the state government or the Maoists. Don't the Maoists wave black flags on Independence Day instead of the Tricolour? You are right. They (the Maoists) do what they think is right, but we will do what we think is good for our brothers and sisters. Accordingly, we are charting our path. Aren't you scared that the Maoists can attack you? On the one hand, the police are making, as you say, all efforts to scuttle your padyatra and then there are the Maoists who use violence to oppose the hoisting of the national flag in their so-called 'liberated zones'? I have immense faith in the people of this country. With huge support from them I think it will be very difficult for the Maoists to attack us or forcibly stop our flag hoisting ceremony on August 15 in Gompad. I am fighting a battle in a democratic and Constitutional way and that gives me the strength to fight against the police brutalities and the violence of the Maoists. This government (in Chhattisgarh) is blatantly violating the Constitution of India and those sitting in power are exploiting the hapless Adivasis by making use of the state's law and order machinery. This government has refused to accept the basic human rights of Madkam Hidme, who was brutally raped by men in uniform in Gompad. They are labelling the Adivasis of Chhattisgarh as 'Naxals' and using that as a ploy to illegally eliminate them in fake encounters and sending them to jail in false cases, and they call it development. We will restart the schools in Gompad under the banner of the Indian flag and also highlight the grave injustices suffered by many women like Madkam Hidme. These people have no voter IDs, no ration cards, no human rights, enjoyed by the other citizens of India. If the Maoists want to oppose our just fight against the system, it is their wish. But they won't be able to stop us. We will fight for the rights of the Adivasis and are ready to pay any price for it. The day these Adivasis come out against the Maoists and say they also exploit them, then we will also voice our opposition to the Maoists too. But the people have to come out against the Maoists. IMAGE: A protest against the fake encounters of Adivasis. Photograph: Reuters Why is your padyatra culminating in Gompad? What is the message that you want to send to the state government and the Maoists? This is a fight for seeking justice for Hidme and we will wage it in a democratic way. What better way to highlight the atrocities committed against a poor tribal by the police on the orders of the state government, but to hoist our national flag and organise people to fight against the exploitation of Adivasis? Hidme is one of the many Adivasi sisters, who was dragged out of her house, raped in the jungle by the police, and then killed in cold blood and labelled a Maoist. While the focus of our padyatra and flag hoisting is seeking justice for Hidme, our overall plan is to highlight how brutally the state government is suppressing its own people in the name of development. The fight for justice for Hidme will become a historic fight and we will continue our fight till we get justice for the women of Chhatisgarh who have met Hidme's fate. Hidme has become a symbol of rapes against the tribal women of Chhattisgarh. We will also be questioning the system that allows 76 of its own policemen to be killed in a violent encounter with the Maoists (in one of the deadliest attacks on security forces 76 Central Reserve Police Force personnel were killed by Maoists on April 6, 2010 in Chhattisgarh's Chintalnar village). As a reaction to such brutal killings the state government requisitions more police force to quash the Maoists, but despite getting more additional forces the fight against the Maoists continues forever. The 76 CRPF personnel who were killed by the Maoists are our brothers too and fought for the security of the country. But the question is: Why do these jawans have to sacrifice their lives? Why hasn't the fight against the Maoists come to a definitive end? Why is this war still raging on in Chhattisgarh? Instead of putting a lid on Maoist activities more police forces in the state has led to more killings, rapes and arrests of the Adivasis. Till when will this bloodshed continue? So, you will also seek justice for the 76 CRPF personnel who were killed by the Maoists during this padyatra? I will question the state government on why our jawans are dying in Chhattisgarh. Despite sacrifices of so many of our jawans as well as innocent Adivasis, the state government is still fighting against the Maoists with no success. Why hasn't the state government succeeded in diluting the influence of the Maoists among the tribals of Chhattisgarh? We want to ask the state government if this strategy of employing more police force into Chattisgarh against the Maoists has failed. If so, isn't it time they change tack and put an end to this bloodshed of the people? But, on the contrary, we are seeing more forces being called in, more money being spent on them, more arms and ammunition being bought and in effect, fanning the flames of further bloodshed. Why is there no peace in Chhatisgarh? Benghazi has returned to haunt Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton once again after parents of two Americans killed in the 2012 attack on a United States diplomatic mission in Libya filed a lawsuit against the then US secretary of state, saying that her extreme carelessness in handling confidential and classified information contributed to the conditions that led to their sons deaths. In a petition filed in US District Court for the District of Columbia by Patricia Smith, the mother of Sean Smith, and Charles Woods, the father of Tyrone Woods -- both of whom were killed during the Benghazi attack -- Hillary is accused of having made false and defamatory statements negligently, recklessly and purposefully and/or intentionally with malice in her public comments, including those about the connection between the attack and an anti-Muslim YouTube video. The petition says, "Islamic terrorists obtained the information sent and received by Clinton about the location of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and thus the US Department of State and the covert CIA and other government operations in Benghazi and used it to plan, orchestrate, and carry out the horrific and devastating attack on the American diplomatic compound." "Immediately after the attack, Clinton, in an effort to save the re-election chances of President Barack Obama, and in turn, her own chances at the 2016 presidency, lied to the plaintiffs (victims' families) and the public at large that the Benghazi attacks were caused by Islamic reaction over an anti-Muslim YouTube video that had been posted on the internet. "These lies were perpetrated despite the fact that she knew immediately that this video was actually not the cause of the attackinformation that she shared with the prime minister of Egypt and her own daughter, Chelsea Clinton, but hid from plaintiffs and the public at large. Defendant Clinton even promised plaintiffs that the person responsible for the video would be arrested. Woods recorded the conversation with Clinton contemporaneously in his diary, which he has recorded in for many years. "Now, Clinton, in an attempt to save her reputation and intimidate Plaintiffs and their surviving family members into silence as she attempts to be elected President in the November, 2016 election, has gone on a defamatory smear campaign to paint the Plaintiffs as liars in the public eye in order to discredit them, who have been vocal about Clinton's pattern and practice of dishonesty regarding what caused the Benghazi attack, its aftermath, and the death of their sons." Responding to the charges, Nick Merrill, a spokesman for Clinton, said in a statement, "While no one can imagine the pain of the families of the brave Americans we lost at Benghazi, there have been nine different investigations into this attack and none found any evidence whatsoever of any wrongdoing on the part of Hillary Clinton." In an interview last week on Fox News Sunday, Clinton had denied telling family members of those killed that the attack was sparked by an anti-Islam video, and was not terrorism. She instead suggested the family members misunderstood her because they were overwhelmed by grief. "I understand the grief and the incredible sense of loss that can motivate that," Clinton said. "As other members of families whove lost loved ones have said, that's not what they heard. I don't hold any ill feeling for someone who, in that moment, may not fully recall everything that was or wasn't said." Photograph: Win McNamee/Getty Images Police officers in Bihar are up in arms over the suspension of 11 Station House Officers for not enforcing the liquor ban in the state. Bihar Police Association general secretary Murtunjay Kumar Singh said, "Nearly 250 SHOs of different police stations across the state have already informed their Superintendents of Police that they would not like to continue on their posts in view of suspension of 11 of their colleagues for their reported failure to check and control the manufacture of illicit country-made liquor in areas within their jurisdiction." The association has described the suspension as an act that will demoralise police officials who have been working hard to implement the liquor ban. For the first time, the police officers have issued an ultimatum to the their superiors to withdraw the suspension or they would be forced to launch an agitation. "If the suspension is not revoked by August 28, around 21,000 officers from assistant sub inspector to inspector rank will go on a week-long mass leave," Singh said. Over 1.5 lakh litres of banned liquor -- 96,878.66 litres of country-made liquor, 52,530.446 litres of Indian Made Foreign Liquor and 13,153 litres of spirit -- have been recovered within four months, something that could not have been possible without the alertness displayed by the police officers, Singh claimed, adding that instead of rewarding the officers, the state government was punishing them. However, the police top brass has defended the suspension. "Despite the liquor ban being in place for the last four months, these SHOs did not take any step to crack down on the manufacture of illicit country-made liquor in their respective jurisdiction. That is why they were suspended, Additional Director General of Police Sunil Kumar said. Kumar said the suspended SHOs would not be made in charge of any police station for the next 10 years. The officer also informed that 4,707 people have been arrested and and 3,719 FIRs lodged since the ban was enforced. Former Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister and Congress rebel Kalikho Pul, who stepped down from the top post last month after the Supreme Court ordered removal of his government, allegedly committed suicide on Tuesday. As soon as the news of Pul's death spread, scores of his supporters gheraoed Chief Minister Pema Khandu's bungalow in Niti Bihar area and demanded a probe into Pul's "unnatural" death. They also set on fire an under-construction building of the Deputy chief minister and damaged two official bungalows. A top police officer said that 47-year-old Pul allegedly hanged himself from the ceiling fan in his bedroom. One of his wives found him hanging at the Chief Minister's official residence which he was yet to vacate. According to the doctors, the death occurred between 7 and 7:30 am. Pul, who is survived by three wives and four children, had not met any outsider for the past seven days, according to his family. Pul briefly served as the chief minister from February 19 replacing Nabam Tuki and remained in the post till July this year. Soon after the news of his death, Pul's supporters gheraoed Chief Minister Pema Khandu's bungalow area. They said they would not allow Pul's body to be taken out from his bungalow at E S S sector and demanded that he be buried inside the premises. A coffin, which was brought from outside, was damaged and set on fire by the crowd before the assembled media. A section of the supporters headed towards the official residence of Deputy CM Chowna Mein, less than 100 metres away, damaged the outer wall and at least 10 vehicles parked in the premises. An under-construction premises of the Deputy CM was also set on fire, police said, adding there were no casualties Protestors also damaged the official bungalow of Industries Minister Tapang Taloh. A high-level cabinet meeting was on and police reinforcements, including state police and ITBP, were sent to the high-security VVIP zone where the ministers' residences were located. Pul's body will be kept at his bungalow to enable the public to pay respects, official sources said. Pul had served as CM for a brief time with the Supreme Court last month reinstating Nabam Tuki who then made way for Pema Khandu who is presently the CM. Pul had led a group of dissident MLAs from Congress against Tuki early this year and was sworn-in as chief minister a few hours after President's Rule was revoked in the state on February 19. Photograph Courtesy: Kalikho Pul/Twitter The 44-year-old iconic rights activist turned emotional as she licked honey from her palm to end the fast that she undertook in protest against the AFSPA. Breaking into tears, Manipur's 'Iron Lady' Irom Sharmila on ended her 16-year-long hunger strike, the world's longest such campaign, and declared that she wants to become the chief minister so that she could repeal the contentious Armed Forces Special Powers Act. Outside a government hospital, a room of which was turned into a jail for her, the 44-year-old iconic rights activist turned emotional as she licked honey from her palm to end the fast that she undertook in protest against the AFSPA. During her fast she was force-fed through a nasal tube to keep her alive. Now the familiar Ryles tube hanging from her nose was missing as she broke the fast. "I want to be the chief minister of Manipur to make positive changes..... If I become chief minister, the first thing I will do is to remove the AFSPA," she told reporters in Imphal. "I need power. In Manipur politics is so dirty and everyone knows it. But people don't realise that the people are also involved in this dirtiness," Sharmila said, adding "I want to invite 20 independent candidates to join me and topple Chief Minister Ibobi". Asked about Narendra Modi, she said, "Mr prime minister, you need non-violence in this age. Without this draconian law (AFSPA) you would be able to connect with us. PM Modi needs to follow the path of non-violence of Gandhiji". She said that she would now stay in an Ashram and wouldn't need any security. "I don't like to be called a Goddess of Manipur. I am a human being," she said. IMAGE: Irom Sharmila being brought to the court in Imphal on Tuesday . Photograph: PTI Earlier in the day, Imphal West district's chief judicial magistrate Lamkhanpau Tonsing in his order said as the offence under section 309 (attempt to suicide) is a bailable offence he is inclined to allow her on bail on her furnishing a personal bond of Rs 10,000. After the bond was furnished, it was accepted by the court and a release order issued. She has been asked to appear before the court again on August 23. Sharmila also expressed her intention not to start eating food immediately. Doctors attending on her said that since she was on a liquid and semi-solid diet taken through a nasal tube for 16 years, she should avoid start eating solid food immediately. "She has to start slowly so that her digestive system can once again start absorbing sold food," they said. Sharmila wasn't shy in accepting that she knew nothing about the world of politics which would be her future from now. "I know nothing about politics or academics. My education is very low but I want to convince our people," said the activist, often described as the "Prisoner of Conscience". She also made it clear that she would not go home till her goal of repealing the AFSPA was achieved. IMAGE: Irom Sharmila speaks to the media. Photograph: PTI It was also evident that some of her supporters was against her quitting the hunger strike. "Some people remain negative towards me over my decision. They don't want it (dropping fast). They want me to remain a symbol of resistance," she said. Sharmila will soon contact the Election Commission in order to fight the Assembly election, due early next year, as an independent candidate. Asked about her love life and boyfriend, who is a British national of Indian origin, she said it was her personal life and that it was natural to fall in love. She said she would tie the knot only when her goal was finished. On protest against AFSPA in Kashmir, she said that the people there should be given a chance for self-determination. "In Manipur also people want self-determination. People want the basic necessities of life," Sharmila said. Anguished over the prospects of missing classes as his school bus was being acquired for prime minister's rally in Madhya Pradesh's Alirajpur district on Tuesday, a class VIII student has written an emotional letter to Narendra Modi, which prompted the district administration to withdraw their order requisitioning vehicles for the event. Modi is slated to visit the birth place of revolutionary leader Chandrashekhar Azad at Bhabhra village, and will address a public meeting at Jothrada village near there where he will launch "70 saal Azaadi, Yaad karo Qurbani" campaign. Devansh Jain, a student of Vidyakunj School Khandwa, became aggrieved after his teachers told him that school will remain closed on August 9 and August 10 as buses were being acquired by the administration for ferrying people for PM's programme. In his letter addressed to the prime minister, Devansh said, "Is your meeting is more important than school?" "I have also listened to your addresses in America where a lot of people were present, but they have not come to the venue in school buses". Describing himself as Modi's fan, Devansh stated that he has never missed the PM's "Mann Ki Baat" radio talk and had even picked up fight with his classmates who were teasing him for following Modi. He also requested Modi to tell "Shivraj Mama" (as the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is popularly known) not to acquire school buses for the purpose as "you are not like Congress leaders and you have concern for our studies and future". "If you do so then I will tell with vigour that in the meetings of my Modi uncle, crowd comes on its own and it is not managed," the letter said. As the letter went viral on social media, an order on the instruction of the district collector was issued by the joint collector directing officials to immediately stop acquisition of vehicles/buses for ferrying people for the prime minister's Bhabhra visit. Earlier, the joint collector had issued an order to the school with bus numbers and directed it to provide them to the concerned authorities for sending people to Bhabhra. Assistant Transport Officer, Sunil Gaud has also issued the order directing officials to acquire vehicles/buses for the law and order purpose for the PM's visit. Following persistent demand by a united Opposition, the government on Tuesday agreed to have a debate on the prevailing Kashmir situation in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday with Home Minister Rajnath Singh seeking support from all sections to resolve the "complicated" issue. Opposition leaders, including those of the Congress party, the Communist Party of India-Marxist, the Samajwadi Party and the Janata Dal-United, also expressed serious concern over the continuance of curfew for over a month in the Kashmir valley. IMAGE: The unrest in Kashmir has forced the government's hand into agreeing for a debate with the Opposition. Photograph: Umar Ganie/Rediff.com They sought a stop to the use of pellet guns on protestors, sending of a parliamentary delegation there to talk to all sections of people and an all-party meeting. As they raised the issue during the Zero Hour, Home Minister Rajnath Singh walked in to the House and promptly concurred with Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad for a discussion on the Kashmir situation on Wednesday Deputy Chairman P J Kurien said there was no problem as both sides have agreed to discuss the matter. Singh also admitted that the situation was "serious" and sought the support of all sides in resolving the "complicated problem". Earlier, Azad referred to the situation and said "curfew has entered 31st day in Kashmir on Tuesday. We don't want to accuse the government on the situation; rather we are ready to help control the situation there. Innocent women and children are dying. Your security forces are dying. Why are you shying away from debate?" "Why are we witnessing a tamasha," he said and added that no doubt there was bad situation in Kashmir in 2008 and 2010 when he and Omar Abdullah headed the government there. "Convene an all party meet in Delhi in a day or two and send a delegation to Kashmir" as the whole nation is watching, Azad said. CPI-M secretary general Sitaram Yechury asked "why are you not sending a delegation to Kashmir...Send it on August 12 itself and for heaven's sake, make an announcement to stop the use of pellet guns." He also stressed the need for "starting a political process" to end the turmoil in Kashmir. JD-U leader Sharad Yadav sought to know the government's strategy on Kashmir saying whole country was concerned. He also demanded immediate stopping of the use of pellet guns. Ram Gopal Yadav of SP said the "people can question us as to what we did. We want a delegation to be sent to Kashmir as a part of the country is burning and it is impacting the entire nation." Bahujan Samaj Party Supremo Mayawati also demanded an immediate debate on it and attacked the prime minister for his statement on Dalits as "mischievious" and "driven by politics". Mayawati said "there have been atrocities on Dalits for the last two years. When Parliament session was on, the prime minister gave his comments on the issue outside the House. It would have been better if he says this in Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha. He did not make his statement in the house and the statement outside shows that his Dalit policy is mischievous and driven by politics." She also demanded a debate on Kashmir in the House in presence of the prime minister. Sukhendu Sekhar Roy (Trinamool) said the situation in Kashmir has worsened due to mismanagement by the government and it is still alarming. Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, however, said we have asked the home minister and debate can be held on Wednesday as the government too wants to bring Kashmir developments to the mainstream. Kurien said, "I concede that it is a very important issue ...I am directing Naqvi to contact the home minister and convey his availability today or tomorrow", to which Naqvi said that home minister has already consented for Wednesday. Naresh Agarwal of SP also sought to know as to why it was not taken up despite the government agreeing to it on Monday. Amid the din, Yechury said every day's delay on Kashmir was resulting in loss of lives of innocent youths there. When CPI-M member T K Rangarajan said the debate could be initiated in the presence of other ministers, the deputy chairman said he too wanted a debate on the issue but felt that home minister should be present. "What is the point in Defence Minister or Civil Aviation minister giving a reply on the issue," he asked. At this juncture, Azad agreed that there would many things which only the prime minister and home minister would be privy to. The "follow-up" action after the discussion would also have to be taken by the home minister, Azad said and suggested that rather than have the Zero Hour and Question Hour, the Kashmir situation should be discussed from 11 am onwards. The home minister also said that he believed that the J&K situation is "serious" and said that he would not claimed that he can resolve this "complex problem" alone. "We will resolve it through everyone's cooperation," he told the Upper House. Earlier, Azad complimented various parties raising the issue, for sharing the pain which Kashmir was going through. "Why is the government scared of a debate," he asked. When Congress member Satyavrat Chaturvedi said that Kurein himself had said the debate would take place today, the Deputy Chairman said it was a miscommunication. "This is what happens when people like me speak Hindi," Kurien said. Peoples Democratic Party MP Mir Mohammed Fayaz however raised questions about the utility of sending a parliamentary delegation to Kashmir. "Who will meet them," he asked. He said there is a roadmap for development of Kashmir and if that is discussed, he would welcome it. As some Congress members interrupted him, he said "it is because of you that people of the state are suffering." Here's a recap of events that occurred in India in the past 24 hours. A man takes out school bags from a bus which fell into a river after 50 children were rescued by locals during rains, at Bijolia in Rajasthan's Bhilwara on Monday. Photograph: PTI A Kolkata police officer salutes West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as she leaves for Tripura at Howrah near Kolkata on Monday. Photograph: PTI Jitendra Depuriya, a member of a vigilante group established to protect cows, hugs a cow, they claimed to have saved from slaughter, in Agra. Photograph: Cathal McNaughton/Reuters The National Disaster Response Force tries to locate the remains of swept away vehicles using a Eco Source Sensor in Mahad on Monday. Photograph: PTI Police try to stop National Conference MLAs and MLCs protest march against civilian killings in Srinagar on Monday. Photograph: S Irfan/PTI Former Bahujan Samaj Party's Other Backward Class leader Swami Prasad Maurya with Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah after joining the latter's party in New Delhi. Photograph: Shirish Shete/PTI A Kanwariya dressed as Lord Shiva takes part in a religious procession during the holy month of Shravan, in which devotees fast and worship Lord Shiva for the happiness of their families in Agartala. Photograph: Jayanta Dey/Reuters Devotees whisper wishes in the ears of Nandi at the Shiva temple during the holy month of Shravan in Patna on Monday. Photograph: Amrit Jai Kishan/PTI Security jawans conduct security checks during the 31st day of curfew and strike in Srinagar on Monday. Photograph: S Irfan/PTI A combination photo shows Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other BJP members looking at the vote counting panel during the voting on the GST bill in the Lok Sabha on Monday. Photograph: PTI People carry their belongings as they wade through the flooded banks of River Ganga after heavy rains in Allahabad. Photograph: PTI Irom Sharmila, the iconic activist who had not eaten a morsel for 16 years in protest against alleged army atrocities in Manipur, ended her epic fast on Tuesday. After 16 long years, she is ready to take a different route to this goal. She has said that she will contest elections as an independent candidate. On the occasion of her breaking the worlds longest hunger strike, Rediff.com reproduces this 2011 feature on the activist and her life. IMAGE: Irom Sharmila arrives at the chief judicial magistrate's court in Imphal, where she is produced every fortnight. Photograph: Chitra Ahanthem The Iron Lady of Manipur, who has been on hunger strike for 11 years against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, is an ordinary woman fighting an extraordinary struggle, finds Sumit Bhattacharya. On the cloudy morning of November 30, as you sit in a car outside the chief judicial magistrates court in Imphal, the capital of Manipur, Delhi band Imphal Talkies N the Howlers song India, I see blood in your hands (external link) can play as the soundtrack: India, have you ever crawled down enough to smell the soil of Kashmir... India, have you ever heard of a lady named Sharmila? Since November 4, 2000, Irom Chanu Sharmila has been on hunger strike against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act in Manipur. The AFSPA, applicable only in Kashmir and the northeast, gives Indias central forces sweeping powers including shooting anyone on suspicion of militant activity. The government re-arrests Sharmila, 39, every year -- the maximum permissible term for attempted suicide, the charge she is arrested under. A fluid mixture of vital nutrients is pumped into her nose in her hospital ward prison cell to keep her from dying. November 30, she is being produced in court, a fortnightly ritual in which she is asked questions -- including whether she wants to continue her fast -- and sent back to the hospital. As the ambulance comes to a halt in front of the magistrates office, nine police commandos with AK47s get off from the Gypsy piloting it. Inside the new Tata ambulance sit a couple of constables, and Sharmila. She is wearing a pink phanek, the sarong worn by almost every Manipuri woman. A grey shawl is wrapped around her, and from its depths emerges a tube that goes into her left nose. She looks at you, smiles, turns her head away quickly. It hurts to look at the tube, forget having it on for 11 years. She gets off the ambulance and walks into the courtroom, where one of her brothers and people from her Just Peace Foundation sit with her in a huddle. Interviewing Irom Sharmila involves a bureaucratic process that is too long for your stay at Imphal. So you are here to speak to her. But though you are the only journalist, you dont want to intrude. This is the only time she gets with people close to her. As she emerges from the courtroom, you request a Manipuri friend to ask Sharmila a question in the local language: What does she think of the politics of blockade, which has crippled Manipur as rival tribal groups fight over the proposed demarcation of the district and the government does precious nothing? Sharmila walks up to you, and says in clear English: I think the government is really deaf -- regarding governance. The nails on her big toes are long, light yellow. Her hair is thick black. She is pale. Impossibly thin. But frail she is not, her voice insists. The people, their suffering, our suffering, is known by the government and even then they wont change... Misgovernance is the root cause of suffering, she says, fiddling constantly with a piece of bare skin hanging loose from her chapped lips. She looks into your eyes when she says: They have no sacrifice. IMAGE: No one -- not even one of her many supporters -- has filed a PIL on the blanket ban on visitors to Irom Sharmila. Photograph: Chitra Ahanthem On November 2, 2000, in Malom, Imphal, an Assam Rifles team was marching on Tiddim Road, which connects Imphal with Myanmar, when a bomb exploded in front of them. In return, according to eyewitness accounts, the paramilitary troopers killed 10 people who were standing at a bus stop. Among them was a 62-year-old woman, and an 18-year-old boy who had won the National Bravery Award for children from the President. When local newspapers published graphic images and banner headlines the next day, Sharmila took her mother Shakhi Devis blessings to fulfil what she said was her beholden duty. Ima(mother), I am going to do something for the whole nation, is all she is supposed to have told her mother. The next day she began her fast against the AFSPA, which gives soldiers immunity from prosecution for murder. Three days later, she was arrested. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said the AFSPA will be replaced with a more humane law. Okaying the AFSPA for one more year, Home Minister P Chidambaram said he shared Sharmilas disappointment. Indias new anti-corruption icon Anna Hazare has promised to visit her and support her cause. She is at the centre of a strong womens movement against militarisation of Manipur that is spearheaded by the Meira Paibis (literally women with torches) and Apunba Lup. But in a country where angry public interest litigations have been filed about a Hollywood actor kissing a Bollywood actress, no one -- not even one of her supporters -- has filed a PIL against the blanket ban on visitors to Sharmila. IMAGE: I n her hospital ward prison, Irom Sharmila reads books, writes, does yoga. Photograph: Chitra Ahanthem The security mania around Sharmila is insane, says Babloo Loitongbam, at whose organisation, Human Rights Alert, Sharmila was an intern before she started her fast. There is no precedent for it, except during the time of (the arrest of) Jayaprakash Narayan, and that too just for a few months. And this for a lady who has never killed a fly. Others recount an incident in the hospital ward when there were lots of ants on Sharmilas bed. She was not bothered. They are only ants, what will they do except bite, she is supposed to have said. She is a deeply spiritual person far removed from petty politics, says another person who has known Sharmila personally over the years. She will never ask for anything. Even the police who guard her respect her and love her. She is an ordinary person undertaking an extraordinary struggle, says Loitongbam. She is very quiet, and extremely determined. In 2000, when they were gathering testimonies of victims of human rights violations for an Independent Peoples Inquiry into the Impact of AFSPA in Manipur, Sharmila, Loitongbam says, was the only person never absent for a single day. A case that moved her deeply, he says, was that of Mercy, a village headmans daughter-in-law, who was -- according to a police case -- raped by Central Reserve Police Force personnel while her father-in-law and husband were held at gunpoint. Sharmila gathered eyewitness accounts, statements, facts about the incident as part of her work. IMAGE: Irom Sharmila's mother Shakhi Devi, left, has not met her youngest daughter for over 11 years. On right is Sharmila's brother. Photograph: Chitra Ahanthem Irom Sharmila comes from a family of strong women. Her mother gave birth to nine children including Sharmila, the youngest, at 44. Sharmilas paternal grandmother Irom Tonsija Devi, who died in 2008 at age 105, fought in the second Nupi Lan (also called Nupilan or Nupi Lal) or 1939 womens war against the British Raj. Sharmilas father Nando Singh, a state government veterinary department clerk, died in 1989 of cancer. Those who know Sharmila say she was an average student, and she was always interested in famous people -- Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King. After completing school, Sharmila joined a course in journalism in the early 90s, writes Deepti Priya Mehrotra, author of Burning Bright: Irom Sharmila and the Struggle for Peace in Manipur, began writing articles and poetry, and worked with social organisations like the BlindSchool for Children, and Universal Youth Development Council. She attended seminars and workshops, coming close to several womens organisations. In 1998 she attended a course in nature cure and yoga. In October 2000, she took up a month-long internship with Human Rights Alert. Alone in her hospital ward, Sharmila still does yoga. She is allowed to walk in the corridor too. She still writes poems and, rarely, statements she wants to transmit. She loves to read. After she reads a book, she donates it to the Imphal Public Library, which has gathered a shelf of her books over the last 11 years. IMAGE: Irom Sharmila with the soft toy Desmond Coutinho sent her. Photograph: Chitra Ahanthem Sharmila is allowed and enjoys being written to, and quite a few people send her books. Some write to her too. Like Desmond Coutinho, the Zanzibar-born, Goan origin, European Union-passport holder man who caused a huge flutter in her life early this year. Coutinho and Sharmila had exchanged letters -- among the things he sent her were a teddy bear and a Radha-Krishna painting -- and he fell in love with her even without meeting her. When he travelled to Imphal to meet her, he was seen by many as an Indian agent out to kidnap Sharmila away from her struggle. When the eastern Indian daily The Telegraph published an interview with Sharmila in which she said that she loved Coutinho and that her supporters did not allow him to meet her, it caused a furore in Manipur. Local groups burnt copies of the newspaper and banned it from the valley till the newspaper apologised. Coutinho sat on a 36-hour fast to be allowed to meet Sharmila during the one-day window she gets every year outside her prison. The man in charge of her supporters never relented and never gave permission for us to say our farewells, he told the Asian Window. Coutinho was insensitive to the cultural nuances, it was unfortunate, says Babloo Loitongbam, who is a key person in Sharmilas Just Peace Foundation. Our position is that this is entirely her private matter, she is free to decide what she wants to do... Once AFSPA is removed... She is absolutely free to decide whether she should marry anyone. Coutinho did not respond to Rediff.coms e-mails. Some said he does not want to put Sharmila in any more discomfiture. Back at the Imphal courthouse, you realise you can get one more question in before the police commandos intervene. She seems taken aback by the question. What do I miss the most? she repeats, as if no one has asked her that. Her eyes widen. She tries to say something, then laughs. Let it be, she says, still laughing, before she gets back into the ambulance in one swift motion. A case has been registered by Mumbai police against an employee of controversial preacher Zakir Naiks Islamic Research Foundation and three others, including two arrested earlier by Kerala police in connection with alleged Islamic State recruitment, a senior official said Tuesday. Based on a complaint lodged by father of Ashfaque, one of the 21 youths from Kerala reported missing and suspected to have joined IS, a case was registered on Monday against IRF employee Arshid Qureshi, Rizwan Khan and two others at Nagpada police station, the official said. They have been booked under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and Indian Penal Code Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy), he said. Qureshi and Khan were earlier arrested by Kerala police. In a joint operation by Kerala Police and Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad, Qureshi was nabbed from Navi Mumbai on July 21 for allegedly radicalising youths. The Kerala police traced Qureshi to Mumbai following a complaint lodged in Kochi by the brother of a young woman, suspected to have joined the IS along with her husband and left the state. Ebin Jacob, 25, brother of Merin alias Mariam who is missing along with her husband Bestin Vincent alias Yahia from Kerala, had told Palarivattom police in Kochi that there was an attempt to forcibly convert him to Islam and make him join the IS, and that Bestin and Qureshi were behind it. In a similar operation, Khan, also allegedly instrumental in recruiting youths to the IS, was apprehended from his residence at Kalyan in neighbouring Thane district on July 22. At least 21 youths from Kerala were reported missing and suspected to have joined the IS. Qureshi had been taken to Kerala after a Mumbai court granted his transit remand. Meanwhile, in a statement issued against the backdrop of the report on the preacher submitted by Mumbai police to state Home department, the IRF said that all allegations leveled against Naik were false and baseless. (The) IRF is not privy to the police commissioners report, but from reports put across in the media, (the) IRF wants to reiterate that the allegations are false and baseless. Dr Zakir Naik firmly believes in promoting peace and harmony and has been doing that for decades, it said. The foundation said that neither Naik nor the IRF have received any notice from the MHA or any government agency as of now, and hence they won't be able to comment on it. (The) IRF is a research body that promotes greater awareness of Islam and its tenets. Dr Zakir Naik is an expert in comparative religion and has been conducting well-researched talks on Islam and other religions across the world, it said. Naik emphasises on teachings of Islam which is not unconstitutional and preaching and propagating ones religion is allowed by Article 25 of the Constitution, it said. The IRF also said that conversion (of religion) has never been its objective. Conversion is not the objective of (the) IRF. The organisation only spreads the message of Islam and clears misconceptions. This is fully permitted by our Constitution, it said. The statement also said IRFs Guest Relations Manager Arshid Qureshi never forced anyone to convert religion. Qureshi has never forced a single person into conversion against his or her free will, as it is against Islam. We emphatically deny all allegations, it said. IMAGE: Samuel Stokes in a photograph taken in Pennsylvania with his Indian wife and his first born. Photograph, kind courtesy Asha Sharma Samuel Stokes made India his home and participated in the freedom struggle. He was the only American to be imprisoned for sedition; the British CID even maintained a special file on him. Stokes also bought apples to Himachal Pradesh and transformed the lives of the state's farmers. As India celebrates its 70th Independence Day next week, Asha Sharma, Samuel Stokes' grand-daughter, tells Rediff.com's Archana Masih about her extraordinary grandfather and wonders why he is hardly remembered today. When Samuel Stokes left home in Philadelphia and set sail for India aged 22, his parents had hoped he would return home after a year or two. But this did not happen. Instead, Stokes made India his home. A young man from a wealthy American Quaker family, he had come to India to work for a home for the leprosy-afflicted in 1904 and went on to become an active participant in India's struggle for freedom. The brutality of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in April 1919 drew him into the freedom movement. Stokes worked closely with Mahatma Gandhi and took part in the Non-Cooperation Movement. He was imprisoned for six months for sedition in the Lahore jail and refused bail, the only American to be jailed in India's struggle for Independence. The British CID also maintained a special file on him. He also fought against begar or forced labour that the British exacted out of Indians, which was finally abolished. He wore Khadi, married an Indian, learnt Sanskrit, became a Hindu, set up a school and introduced apples to Himachal Pradesh. The hill state's most famous produce owes its origins to the apple cuttings Stokes had brought from America to persuade farmers to start apple cultivation. Samuel Stokes renamed himself Satyanand and never went back to the United States after a trip he made with his young wife in 1914. His family still maintains roots with Kotgarh in Himachal Pradesh where Stokes started it all. Stokes, who was born on August 16, did not live to see India gain freedom. He died in 1946 and was cremated in the hills he loved so dearly. The letters and articles he wrote are preserved in the Nehru Memorial Library. There is also a picture of him on its walls, but his contribution has largely been ignored. A few years ago, his granddaughter Asha Sharma, wrote a biography on Samuel Stokes, An American in Khadi which was published by Penguin Books India. An American edition of the book titled An American in Gandhis India with a foreword by HH the Dalai Lama was published in 2008 by Indiana University Press. The author, who divides her time between California where her children live and Himachal Pradesh, tells Rediff.com's Archana Masih about Samuel Stokes' extraordinary life and wonders why he is hardly remembered in India. What was Samuel Stokes' contribution to our freedom? His contribution to our freedom was very substantial. He was very active in the first Non-Cooperation Movement and worked closely with Mahatma Gandhi, Lala Lajpat Rai, Motilal Nehru, C R Das and other national leaders. He wrote articles, gave speeches and organised meetings. Though he was an American his fierce denouncement of imperialism and absolute identification with Indians had a deep impact. His unequivocal support of Gandhi through these years was valuable to the cause. He had full faith in Gandhiji and believed that he was the only one who could lead India to independence and so he gave his wholehearted support to him and urged others to do the same. What was Mr Stokes' friendship with C F Andrews (Gandhiji's friend and a Christian missionary who supported India's freedom from British rule) like? How did they become friends and how did Mr Stokes become associated with Gandhiji? Stokes knew Andrews for a long time. Andrews lived in Delhi, but used to come up to the hills to escape the heat of the plains and that is where he met Stokes. Both men were very much alike in their thinking and so it was easy for them to become friends. It was Andrews who brought Gandhiji and Stokes together. It was at the time when Stokes was fighting against begar in the hills. Gandhi came to know about Stokes and his work through Andrews. In September 1920, when the viceroy of India, made a trip to Baghi in the interiors of Himachal Pradesh, thousands of poor villagers were called upon as begar labour to serve him. The villagers were in the midst of sowing winter crops, so it was hard for them to get away at this time. Stokes was greatly troubled to see the plight of the people and wrote an article 'The Viceregal Trip' describing their situation. The article was published by Gandhi in Young India and drew national attention. It also brought Stokes closer to Gandhi. Can you elaborate on Mr Stokes relationship with Gandhji? Stokes always admired Gandhi and had a very close relationship with him. A long abiding friendship was forged between the two men during the early years of the Non-cooperation movement when Stokes worked closely with Gandhi, travelled and toured with him, gave speeches in support of his programme and lived in the Sabarmati Ashram with him. Their friendship sustained through life his even though they did not meet much in later years. Gandhi and Stokes did not always agree with each other but this did not affect their relationship. If anything it brought them even closer as they could discuss their differences without any reservation. Stokes always felt that Gandhi was one of the 'greatest and noblest of men both simple and profound. I doubt if there is such another in the world today,' he wrote in 1921. He stands for the noblest in our nature. He often said that his association with Gandhi was the part of his life of which he was most proud. Gandhi in turn held Stokes in high regard and spoke of him as an example to others. 'Non-co-co-operators worship Andrews, honour Stokes,' he said. He also admired Stokes' courage of conviction and his love for India. 'He has made India his home in a manner no other American or Englishman has,' Gandhi wrote in Young India at the time of Stokes' arrest. He also took to khadi as a response to the Mahatmas call? Yes he did take to Khadi as a response to Mahatma Gandhis call. In fact he took to wearing Khadi in the presence of Gandhiji when he put his own clothes in a fire lit by Gandhiji himself in Parel, Bombay on 31st July 1921. Thereafter he embarked on a tour of UP with Gandhiji dressed in khadi coat, dhoti and cap. From then on he always wore khadi. His wife and children did the same. He and his family also took to spinning everyday. As his biographer, what do you find extraordinary about his life? His life was extraordinary in many ways. The most remarkable trait of his personality was perhaps his empathy for those who needed help. For example, when his father gave him money to start a business, he used it to start a Neighbourhood House in Philadelphia where the poorest boys of the area were taught skills like carpentry so that they could earn a living. It was the same when he came to India. He was always willing to share what he had with those who had less. His intolerance of any kind of discrimination and injustice and his quest to remedy it wherever he found it led him to fight against begar and join India's freedom struggle. Your mother was his eldest daughter. What stories did she tell you of your grandfather? My mother did tell me many stories about her father which reflect the kind of person he was. I have included all this information in the book. For example, she told me that she and her brothers and sisters always dressed very simply, just like the other village children. She said her father would not encourage or even allow his daughters to wear fancy clothes or jewellery because the village girls could not afford to wear them. 'How would they feel seeing you dressed up in such finery?' he would tell them. Did he speak Hindi well? Yes, he spoke Hindi well even though his accent remained foreign. In fact, he started learning the language soon after he arrived in India in 1904 to work in a leper home in Subathu in the Simla Hills. The motivation came from his desire to interact with the patients at the Leper Home and with other locals who only spoke in the pahari dialect or in Hindustani. Knowing the language helped him in coming closer to the ordinary people. He was a great advocate of Hindi and encouraged his children to speak in Hindi rather than in English. He himself spoke with them in Hindi. He was also in favour of first making children proficient in Hindi and only then teaching them other languages like English. In his own Tara School in Kotgarh, all teaching was done in Hindi for the first few years. English was introduced only in the 4th, 5th class. He also learnt Sanskrit in his later life. His interest in Sanskrit grew from his interest in Indian religious philosophy. After studying the English translations of the Upanishads he wanted to study the original texts and hence learnt Sanskrit. Did he like being called by his Indian name Satyanand or was he called Samuel too? I do not know if he liked being called Satyanand or not, but I presume he must have. In my interviews with his contemporaries in Kotgarh, I saw that he was addressed in several different ways -- Sahibji, Stokes Sahib, Satyanandji and even Mr Stokes. For the locals, the affectionate name for him was Sahibji. IMAGE: Samuel Stokes teaches an outdoor class in Shimla in 1930. Photograph, kind courtesy: Asha Sharma Did he miss anything about Philadelphia? He did miss Philadelphia especially at first -- not the place so much as his family and friends. In his early letters he often wrote of how home-sick he was and wanted to meet everyone. But this changed with the passing of time and with his involvement in his work. But he remained connected with his American roots through his correspondence with his mother. What was it about India that never made him never want to leave? I believe he never went back to America after making one trip with his wife very early on in their marriage. He seemed to have fallen in love with India and its people from the time he landed here. When he left home in Februray 1904, his parents had hoped that he would return home after a year or two. But this did not happen as within months of his living in India he decided to remain here permanently. While the beauty of the Himalayas was a strong attraction for him it was the simple, trusting pahari people who truly won his heart. He did go back to America a few times during the early years, but after his marriage in 1912, he went only once. He was keen for his wife to get to meet and know his mother and other members of his family when he took her and their infant son to Philadelphia for an extended visit in early 1914. They stayed there for about a year-and-a-half. He could never return to Philadelphia after that. He was too involved with Indian affairs, both national and local. Also traveling with his large family was unaffordable for him. But his mother came to India twice to visit him. His brother also came a couple of times. How has India preserved and honoured his memory and contribution to India's freedom struggle? Hardly -- only his photograph hangs in the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library in New Delhi beside those of other national leaders of the freedom struggle. As a result the younger generation do not know much about him at all. This is perhaps due to the fact that he passed away just before India became independent. Even in his lifetime very little was known about my grandfather's life even though he had done so much for the country. Most people knew he introduced the American Delicious apples in the Simla Hills, but that is about all. Even the family did not know much about his other accomplishments. We had heard, of course, that he knew Gandhiji well and went to jail during the freedom struggle, but that is all. There were occasional articles, but they did not add too much. When I began researching the book, I discovered a wealth of information about his life -- the hardships he went through and the sacrifices he made in the service of the country. I hope that he will get his due recognition. How and when that will happen I do not know. But I do know that many of those who have read his life story are over-awed and feel the richer for having read it. They invariably ask why there is no mention of him anywhere among other freedom fighters. What drew him to be a part of India's struggle for freedom? The brutality of Jallianwala Bagh and the treatment of Punjab in its aftermath affected him deeply and made him join the struggle for freedom from British rule. Mr Stokes responded to Gandhiji's Non-Cooperation Movement. Do you have any letters by him that reveal what it must have been in those days? He made a compilation of excerpts from his letters for his children and grandchildren which give a fare account of his life in India. The letters reflect his thinking and also describe the situation in the country at that time. About how was it being an American fighting for India's freedom? He identified himself as an Indian, so this was not an issue. I understand he was a prolific writer. He was a prolific writer. He wrote letters, journals, newspaper articles as well as a number of books. What struck me most was his determination and truthfulness in all he did. There were no compromises in his life. He was very hardworking and continued to work till the end of his life -- even when he was in poor health. His papers are with members of the family and some are also in the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi. Was he the only foreigner to be imprisoned for sedition in India's struggle for freedom? What were his days in prison like? I understand he refused to be put in a cell set aside for Europeans. I do not know about other foreigners, but he was the only American to be imprisoned during India's freedom struggle. It is true that he did not want to stay in a European cell. He said he was an Indian and wanted to be treated as such. He requested for a change of his cell, but the administration did not agree. He had arrived in India as a Christian missionary to work in a leper home and spread the word of Christianity, but ultimately converted to Hinduism. What brought about that transformation? One of the chapters in my book is titled 'Came to teach and stayed to learn.' It describes his spiritual journey. Though he spent the greater part of his life fighting for justice and the rights of the common man he was also a seeker of truth. In that sense his life was also a spiritual journey in which he was willing to take the best of what he found along the way. Thus when he discovered that there was a lot to learn from ancient Hindu scriptures he began to study these in earnest. He even learnt Sanskrit so that he could read some of the original texts in the language. There was no conflict in his mind about religion as he found much in common between Vedanta and his own Quaker beliefs. His conversion had more to do with his family and social concerns than with religion. Did he build a temple? Is it still there? Yes, he built a temple near his home in Kotgarh. It is called Paramjyotir Mandir (temple of eternal light). It is a small, simple, temple built in keeping with local architectural style. The temple has wooden panels engraved with shlokas from the Vedas engraved on them. It was Stokes' hope that the temple would become 'a means to show the way to those looking for peace and internal strength, more so during times of difficulties and trials.' 'It is my prayer that the temple and this little booklet may bring peace to many,' he wrote in a booklet when the temple was completed. Mr Stokes brought apples to Himachal and brought in a revolution. How difficult was it for him to do this? How is he remembered by the orchard-owning families and farmers of the region? He was struck by the extreme poverty of the local people and wanted to help them in whatever way he could. Once he settled in, the area finding a solution to the poverty of the people became a top priority for him. The answer to his search came in the form of apples. Some British variety of apples were already growing in the region, but they were not good in taste and were not popular, so he knew he would have to find a new strain of apples which would be commercially viable. During a visit to Philadelphia in 1914 he studied apple growing in America and also brought some apple cuttings with him on his return which he planted near his house. In the following years he imported and experimented with over 33 varieties of apples to determine which would be most suitable for the area. Finally, he selected the American Delicious variety which had already proved a success in America. He first planted the trees on his own land and only when he was satisfied with the results did he encourage others to do the same. But persuading farmers to switch to apples was not easy because of the long gestation period of apple trees, and though he distributed free saplings and offered to help the farmers to grow and nurture them, their response was very discouraging. But he persisted in his efforts and slowly the people began to be convinced. Once the apple trees started bearing fruit, there was no turning back and many farmers became enthusiastic about growing apples. The rest is history! Is there a statue/memorial in his remembrance in Kotgarh? How have his memories and his contribution to India been preserved and remembered? A Stokes Memorial Farmer's Community Centre was built in Kotgarh in 1974. A bust of Stokes was installed in it subsequently. Are there any anecdotes about him that have been passed down in the family that you can share? We were always hearing stories about him like the time he lived as a sadhu in a cave and had two snakes as pets and when he slept in the cremation ground one night to prove to the villagers that they should not be afraid of the dead. How does the American part of the family remember him? The American branch of the family remember him with great pride and affection. Some distant cousins have visited Kotgarh. How is he best remembered by family and the families of acquaintances that knew him or knew of him? I have heard of the free dispensary he ran in his house and of the way he tried to educate people about basic health care; of instances when he rushed the critically ill to Simla in his own dandi or in hired rickshaws, or brought in specialists doctors from the plains to fight epidemics in the area, all at his own expense. What was forced labour begar in those days like and how did it move him so much to be a part of the campaign to end it? He was largely responsible for getting begar or impressed labour abolished in the Simla Hills. Begar was a system under which villagers were obliged to provide services to traveling officials and others either free or for a pittance. The practice was not only demeaning for them, but it also affected their livelihood as the farmers were often called in for begar during planting or harvesting times, and they lost their crops in the bargain. Some begar, like the dak begar was dreaded most by the villagers as they had to walk long distances in the cold and snow to distribute letters in different villages and many villagers lost their lives. When Stokes saw this injustice he decided to fight it tooth and nail. He criticised the practice in the press and complained against it to the British administration. When despite all his efforts no action was taken he decided to get the villagers together and protest against the injustice. This organised resistance to the practice -- a kind of Satyagraha was Stokes' first battle against the British administration and brought him into the limelight and drew the attention of Mahatma Gandhi and other Indian leaders. Would you have any idea of how the British in India thought of him? Some Britishers admired and respected him. Others couldn't stand him. He had many British friends and could count on their support when it came to getting any kind of help for the local people. However, the British administration had very early noted his empathy for Indians and had kept a watch on him. The CID had a special file on him even though he did not know about it. Cite as UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), Nigeria: WHO is doing/planning WASH in Emergency WHERE? (updated on the 4/08/2016), 4 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a988584.html [accessed 28 October 2022] 2016 Global Report on Internal Displacement - Yemen: An overlooked crisis with no end in sight Publisher Norwegian Refugee Council/Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (NRC/IDMC) Publication Date 1 May 2016 Cite as Norwegian Refugee Council/Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (NRC/IDMC), 2016 Global Report on Internal Displacement - Yemen: An overlooked crisis with no end in sight, 1 May 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a98bf424.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. The political and security situation in Yemen deteriorated dramatically in 2015, and the ensuing humanitarian crisis shows few, if any, signs of abating. Violence displaced eight per cent of the country's population, or 2.2 million people, during the year more than in any other country in the world and people fled their homes in all but one of its 22 governorates.[4] Humanitarian and protection needs among IDPs and the rest of the civilian population are acute, and neither the national nor international response have gone far enough in addressing them. The only unaffected governorate, Socotra, was hit by two freak tropical cyclones that traversed the Gulf of Yemen in November. Between them, cyclones Megh and Chapala forced 56,000 people to flee their homes across three governorates, and by the end of the month around 23,000 people remained displaced.[5] By the end of the year, people were living in displacement in every region of Yemen, an unprecedented situation in the country's history. Humanitarian needs were already acute before the conflict escalated in March 2015. Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the Arab world. It has few natural resources, weak governance and social services, high youth unemployment and almost 50 per cent of its population of 26.8 million lived below the poverty line in 2014.[6] Half of the population, of whom 70 per cent live in rural areas, had no access to safe drinking water and three-quarters no access to safe sanitation.[7] Gender inequality is widespread. Yemen has ranked last in the World Economic Forum's annual global gender gap report in each of the ten years it has been published.[8] The escalation of violence made human suffering and the country's displacement crisis significantly worse during the year. As of the end of 2014, there were around 334,000 people displaced.[9] By the end of 2015, the figure had increased more than seven-fold to more than 2.5 million. The upsurge in violence has largely been attributed to the Saudi-led military intervention in the conflict. The sharp deterioration in living conditions, however, is predominantly the result of sea, land and air blockades of commercial and humanitarian imports.[10] Taizz, Amran and Hajjah governorates had the highest number of IDPs, between them accounting for 900,000.[11] Many more people may have wanted to flee, but found a range of physical, economic and social obstacles prevented them from doing so. Flagrant disregard for international humanitarian and human rights law, and indiscriminate warfare that has targeted civilians and civilian infrastructure, were the main triggers of displacement. The destruction of infrastructure including hospitals, schools, markets, shops and water supplies has left 82 per cent of Yemen's population in need of humanitarian assistance, including 14.4 million people who suffer from food insecurity.[12] Calls for an independent international human rights monitoring and reporting mechanism have gone unheeded.[13] The majority of IDPs live in overcrowded rented accommodation, schools and other public spaces, or tents and other forms of makeshift shelter.[14] They face a wide range of protection needs and vulnerabilities including lack of shelter options, lack of safety and security, harassment, lack of livelihood options, gender-based violence, loss of documentation, food insecurity and limited access to healthcare, education, water and sanitation. Displacement has also forced many families to separate, and there are large numbers of unaccompanied minors.[15] IDPs have few livelihood options, and most are dependent on charity or humanitarian assistance for survival.[16] Cyclones Megh and Chapala brought the equivalent of five years' of rainfall to Hadramaut, Socotra and Shabwa governorates in just two days, leading to flash floods and widespread devastation.[17] More than half of those who fled their homes returned within a month, and the majority of the 22,970 people still displaced were living with host families or in rental accommodation. The warring parties have enforced import and movement restrictions, which have led to scarce commodities, fuel shortages and price hikes, and left the country with little or no capacity to rebuild or repair damaged homes and infrastructure. The damage the cyclones inflicted is relatively small compared with destruction the conflict has caused, but people in Yemen are highly vulnerable to such shocks, which compounds the risks they already face. The international media and political discourse have widely overlooked the human narrative and widespread suffering in Yemen, and there has been little political resolve to stop the violence and improve humanitarian access. As a result, and because of competing crises in the region such as Syria, the response is seriously underfunded. Even if a stalled peace process bears fruit in 2016, economic and political recovery will take many years. Given that there are no prospects for return or other durable solutions in sight, there is high risk that displacement will become protracted and IDPs' resilience to future shocks, including environmental hazards, will be further compromised. 4 Protection cluster Yemen, Task Force on Population Movement, 6th Report, 10 December 2015, available at http://goo.gl/ygSK0O 5 European Commission, ECHO Daily Flash, 9 November 2015, available at http://goo.gl/gBe8sG; OCHA, Humanitarian Bulletin Yemen, 30 November 2015, available at http://goo.gl/EdsRDM; Protection cluster Yemen, Task Force on Population Movement 6th Report, 10 December 2015, available at http://goo.gl/ygSK0O 6 BBC, Yemen crisis: How bad is the humanitarian situation? 15 December 2016, available at http://goo.gl/JDuYOg; World Bank data, 2014, available at http://goo.gl/fOf8sK 7 Christopher Ward, The water crisis in Yemen: Managing extreme water scarcity in the Middle East, IB Tauris, 30 August 2015, p xxviii 8 WEF, Global Gender Gap Report, Yemen Country Profile 2015, available at http://goo.gl/0TZqH3 9 OCHA, Humanitarian Dashboard, 6 November 2014, available at http://goo.gl/97U63n 10 HRW, Yemen: Coalition Blocking Desperately Needed Fuel, 10 May 2015, available at https://goo.gl/8aIfbt; the Guardian, Saudi-led naval blockade leaves 20m Yemenis facing humanitarian disaster, 5 June 2015, available at http://goo.gl/m7NQLI 11 Protection cluster Yemen, Task Force on Population Movement 6th Report, 10 December 2015, p 3, available at http://goo.gl/ygSK0O 12 Ibid 13 HRW, UN: Rights Council Fails Yemeni Civilians, 2 October 2015, available at https://goo.gl/iCnQLb 14 Protection cluster Yemen, National Protection Cluster Yemen Protection Strategy September 2015, pp 7,8, available at https://goo.gl/MniOce; Protection cluster Yemen, Task Force on Population Movement 6th Report, 10 December 2015, p 5, available at http://goo.gl/ygSK0O 15 Protection cluster Yemen, Yemen Protection Strategy, September 2015, p 7, available at https://goo.gl/MniOce 16 Ibid, pp 7,8 17 ECHO, Yemen Tropical Cyclone Chapala, 5 November 2015, available at http://goo.gl/u9qk9o 2016 Global Report on Internal Displacement - Syria: Trapped in the country, and out of the picture Publisher Norwegian Refugee Council/Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (NRC/IDMC) Publication Date 1 May 2016 Cite as Norwegian Refugee Council/Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (NRC/IDMC), 2016 Global Report on Internal Displacement - Syria: Trapped in the country, and out of the picture, 1 May 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a98bf511.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. By any measure, the humanitarian situation in Syria worsened significantly in 2015. The country's civil war is now in its sixth year, with four of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council actively engaged in the hostilities, and it has caused one of worst displacement crises since World War Two.[81],[82] As of December, intense fighting and violence had forced more than 10.9 million people, or over half of the country's pre-war population, to flee their homes. Put another way, an average of 50 families have been displaced every hour of every day since 2011.[83] Of the total, at least 6.6 million people have been internally displaced.[84] The bulk of international attention has focused on the millions of people who have risked their lives and those of their children to seek safety elsewhere in the region or in Europe, with diminishing hope of finding safety, acceptance and opportunity. Having initially admitted large numbers of refugees, however, neighbouring countries have increasingly restricted the flow of people out of Syria, or sealed their borders altogether.[85] As a result, hundreds of thousands of people are trapped inside the country, abandoned in camps or staying with host communities near border points with no legal escape route and often living in subhuman conditions.[86] The main causes of casualties and displacement in Syria are well known. They include indiscriminate attacks in populated areas, the deliberate targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure such as schools and healthcare facilities, and sieges during which people are deliberately deprived of aid and basic services such as food, water and medical care.[87] Such acts were relentless in 2015, and as of October, at least 1.3 million people had been newly displaced, many for the second or third time.[88] Despite a broad awareness of these drivers, there is relatively little understanding of their specific consequences: who the IDPs are, where they flee to and in what number, and what their needs are. This incomplete picture and the failure to conduct an accurate assessment of the situation mean that the humanitarian response, which is already overwhelmed, is unlikely to be using the resources available efficiently. The limitations of current data collection efforts worldwide, as outlined in our confidence assessment tool (see methodological annex), can be broadly grouped into three categories in Syria security and access restrictions, the political environment and methodological challenges. More than 4.5 million people were living in areas of the country that the UN considered to be either difficult or near impossible to reach in 2015, including besieged cities, and humanitarians had less access than in 2014.[89],[90] The number of people living in areas OCHA classified as besieged more than doubled from 2014 to almost 500,000 people in early 2016, of whom less than one per cent received food aid.[91] Monitoring internal displacement was further hampered by the intensity of the conflict and the volatility of its frontlines. The presence of the Islamic State (also known as ISIL and ISIS) made the north-eastern governorates of Ar-Raqqa and Deir Ez-Zor particularly difficult to access, and the lack of data collection in such areas is likely to have led to significant under-reporting. The unpredictable complexity of Syria's political environment also impedes the collection of reliable data. OCHA's displacement estimates, for example, which are only aggregated at the country level once a year, are based on information gathered from various government entities, UN agencies and the Syrian Red Crescent Society. In areas under opposition control, it has also had to rely on NGOs active there and local authorities. As such, data collection and reporting are subject to the influence of parties to the conflict, including some that have played a central role in causing displacement in the first place.[92] Methodological challenges meantime may result in under-reporting or double counting, and a distorted understanding of the needs of people fleeing within and beyond Syria. The estimated 6.6 million IDPs in the country as of the end of 2015 is fewer than the 7.6 million at the end of 2014,[93] but the figure relative to the population as a whole has most likely increased, given the number of people who have fled abroad. The current reporting systems for refugees and asylum seekers also make it very difficult to know how many were formerly IDPs. As such, when figures for IDPs and refugees are combined, many people are counted twice. The fact that many, if not most IDPs have been forced to flee more than once presents another methodological challenge. Multiple displacements are difficult to track in any context, and particularly so in Syria. One the one hand, such people may not be counted at all because they live in host communities where they are largely invisible, but on the other multiple displacement may mean that people are counted more than once each time they are displaced. Agencies that estimate the number of IDPs in different parts of the country use different methodologies, and those trapped in besieged cities will have been displaced relatively short distances given their inability to leave the area. Efforts to count these IDPs effectively are hampered both by the methodological challenge of identifying them among the besieged population as a whole, and by the lack of access to areas under siege. Compared with the attention given to Syrian refugees, the country's IDPs have been neglected, with significant implications for humanitarian funding and assistance, not to mention the lives of those affected.[94] The pace of displacement remains relentless, and people are likely to continue to uproot their families at a similar rate unless the fighting is brought to an end.[95] Despite needs increasing throughout 2015, it was harder than ever to get aid to the most desperate.[96] Data gathering is a vital part of saving lives. Timely and reliable information on the trajectories of families fleeing violence within Syria and the tipping point to cross the country's border contribute to a better understanding of their situation. This in turn improves the quality of advocacy and programming on their behalf, and ultimately the likelihood that efforts to protect and assist them will be better resourced and targeted. 81 NRC, Fuelling the Fire: How the UN Security Council's permanent members are undermining their own commitments on Syria, March 2016, available at http://goo.gl/WRFme7 82 OCHA, Syria: Humanitarian Need Overview 2016, October 2015, p 4, available at http://goo.gl/iFCeyJ 83 Ibid, p 6 84 Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O'Brien, Statement to the Security Council on Syria, October 2015, available at https://goo.gl/dNRfvd 85 IRIN, No way out: How Syrians are struggling to find an exit, 10 March 2015, available at http://goo.gl/sqH9eO 86 NRC, Fuelling the Fire: How the UN Security Council's permanent members are undermining their own commitments on Syria, March 2016, p 9, available at http://goo.gl/WRFme7 87 OCHA, Syria: Humanitarian Need Overview 2016, October 2015, p 7, available at http://goo.gl/iFCeyJ 88 Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O'Brien, Statement to the Security Council on Syria, October 2015, available at https://goo.gl/dNRfvd 89 Ibid 90 NRC, Fuelling the Fire: How the UN Security Council's permanent members are undermining their own commitments on Syria, March 2016, p 5, available at http://goo.gl/WRFme7 91 Ibid, p 6 92 Foreign Affairs, Aiding Disaster: How the United Nation's OCHA Helped Assad and Hurt Syrians in Need, 1 February 2016, available at https://goo.gl/YWDgLn 93 IDMC, Global Overview 2015: People internally displaced by conflict an violence, May 2015, available at http://goo.gl/fotxpj 94 WFP, WFP Forced To Make Deeper Cuts In Food Assistance For Syrian Refugees Due To Lack Of Funding, 1 July 2015, available at https://goo.gl/wSlsQA 95 Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O'Brien, Statement to the Security Council on Syria, October 2015, available at https://goo.gl/dNRfvd 96 UN, Report of the Secretary-General on the implementation of Security Council resolutions 2139 (2015), 2165 (2014), 2191 (2014), and 2258 (2015), 23 March 2016, p 9, available at http://goo.gl/F4ochy 2016 Global Report on Internal Displacement - Nepal: Obstacles to protection and recovery Publisher Norwegian Refugee Council/Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (NRC/IDMC) Publication Date 1 May 2016 Cite as Norwegian Refugee Council/Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (NRC/IDMC), 2016 Global Report on Internal Displacement - Nepal: Obstacles to protection and recovery, 1 May 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a98bf6c.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Two major earthquakes in April and May 2015 and thousands of associated aftershocks took a devastating toll on the already fragile nation of Nepal. They affected almost a third of the country's population of 28.2 million, killed 8,700 people, damaged or destroyed more than 712,000 houses and displaced more than 2.6 million people.[30] They hit both urban and rural areas hard, and triggered landslides and avalanches in high mountain areas, razing entire villages and leaving hundreds of thousands of people with acute shelter, livelihood, protection, food, water and education needs. Most of those displaced stayed at least initially in makeshift or temporary shelters near their damaged or destroyed homes.[31] Those who took shelter in open spaces or public buildings began to return to their homes within a week of the first earthquake. Displacement patterns changed, however, after the second earthquake. Many people who feared their homes were structurally unsound went back to open areas such as fields. Many others fled the worst-affected rural areas toward displacement sites in the densely populated urban areas of the Kathmandu valley.[32] Among the IDPs who sought shelter in collective urban sites were many poor people, including Dalits and female-headed households, whose homes had been badly damaged or destroyed, and whose access to jobs and basic services had also been disrupted. The vast majority did not own the property they lived in, and the earthquakes severely reduced the amount of rental accommodation available and inflated rents. Around June, IDPs in just under half the sites assessed by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said they had not received adequate assistance, and women and children in around half the sites felt unsafe.[33] Sixty-eight per cent of the IDPs surveyed said damage to their homes was the main obstacle to their return. Other issues included personal security, family separation, damage to infrastructure such as roads and a lack of food.[34] In the absence of medium-term plans to settle IDPs, some lived in fear of eviction from their shelters, particularly in Kathmandu.[35] The monsoon and winter seasons that followed brought further hardship. Around 200,000 households were still living in temporary shelters as of November at an altitude of over 1,500 metres.[36] Since Nepal's last major earthquake in 1934, only the last decade has seen significant investment in disaster preparedness and coordination. Much of the focus, however, has been on preparing communities in the Kathmandu valley, to the neglect of less populated but highly vulnerable towns and villages in higher mountain areas.[37] Over the last four years the UK government, one of Nepal's major bilateral donors, has invested more than $30 million in earthquake resilience programming.[38] Despite such initiatives, the 2015 earthquakes caused large-scale destruction. The delivery of humanitarian assistance was slow and vulnerable groups were not well protected. The country's national disaster response framework, which the Ministry of Home Affairs adopted in 2013, established coordination mechanisms that were implemented in the aftermath of the earthquakes.[39] Their impact was largely determined by the poor quality of buildings unable to withstand the seismic activity, and their exposed location on steep mountain slopes.[40] The government approved a national building code in 2003, but when the earthquakes struck only 26 of 191 municipalities had begun implementing it.[41] Poverty, rapid urbanisation and weak institutional oversight have led to hasty and low-cost construction.[42] Enforcement has also been undermined by corruption, judicial delays and a lack of building inspectors.[43] Political instability and weak institutions have also hampered the humanitarian response.[44] National and local government capacity had been significantly weakened by civil war and more than 12 years without local elections.[45] After the end of the war in 2006, Nepal struggled to adopt a federal constitution and key legislation on disaster risk management was overdue.[46] After the earthquake, the stalled process of finalising the constitution was expedited and it was adopted on 20 September 2015.[47] Its content, however, sparked protests and a trade blockade on the border with India that lasted from September 2015 until February 2016.[48] The blockade prevented fuel and other essential supplies from entering Nepal, raised commodity prices and created a rampant black market.[49] Fuel shortages complicated the delivery of muchneeded shelter, food and medical supplies.[50] Delivery was further impeded by lengthy administrative procedures and new customs duties introduced just five weeks after the earthquake.[51] Feedback from affected communities on the fairness of aid distribution and reporting by international agencies pointed to discrimination associated with a failure to recognise people's specific needs and protection concerns according to social caste, ethnicity, gender, disability and age.[52] Human rights advocates also raised concerns about nepotism and political favouritism, and the exclusion of certain people or groups from needs assessments.[53] The failure to respect the humanitarian principle of needs-based assistance made the risk of impoverishment for vulnerable groups worse.[54] Resolving IDPs' ongoing needs in Nepal will require long-term financial and technical engagement by both federal and local governments and the international community. In December 2015, a new authority responsible for leading the reconstruction of more than 500,000 homes, public buildings and infrastructure began its work with $4.1 billion in aid donations.[55] The government's reconstruction policy promises financial compensation to every homeowner whose house was damaged beyond repair. Vulnerable IDPs, however, including squatters, undocumented citizens and owners without formal title deeds risk exclusion from the policy, along with people whose homes were partially damaged and those who lived in rented accommodation. Despite progress in Nepal's social legislation in recent years, women, undocumented residents and refugees are also still denied equal inheritance and property rights.[56] Rebuilding the country according to building and safety standards is of vital importance if the risk of future disasters and displacement is to be reduced. The value of retrofitting existing buildings to make them resilient to earthquakes is well proven.[57] Reconstruction following such a major disaster can be expected to take many years, and is likely to be delayed because of a shortage of technical and skilled labour, complex land issues and continuing political instability.[58] Careful land use planning, strengthened tenure and protection for vulnerable groups, along with support for broader strategies to reduce poverty and increase community resilience will also be vital if progress is to made and sustainable solutions for IDPs achieved. 30 Shelter cluster, Nepal factsheet, November 2015, available at http://goo.gl/UgjJgP; Government of Nepal, Post Disaster Needs Assessment 2015, p 4, available at http://goo.gl/6Vy39f 31 IOM, DTM Round 1 Report, Earthquake Response Nepal, 2 to 7 May 2015, available at https://goo.gl/soCwZA 32 Ibid; IOM, DTM Round 2 Report, Earthquake Response Nepal, 15 June 2015, available at http://goo.gl/vTwDZY 33 Ibid 34 Ibid 35 CARE, Housing, land and property issues in Nepal and their consequences for the post-earthquake reconstruction process, February 2016, available at http://goo.gl/wp3SvK 36 Shelter cluster Nepal, Winterisation update, November 2015, available at https://goo.gl/eKkncM 37 Groupe URD and British Red Cross, Urban Preparedness: Lessons from the Kathmandu Valley, 2014, pp 14-15, available at http://goo.gl/LpWFQn 38 BBC, Where is Nepal aid money going? 21 May 2015, available at http://goo.gl/A477KS 39 WEF, Building Resilience in Nepal through Public-Private Partnerships, October 2015, p 8, available at http://goo.gl/JsLUFG 40 OSOCC, Situation Analysis Nepal Earthquake, 15 May 2015, available at http://goo.gl/YIi6bT 41 WEF, Building Resilience in Nepal through Public-Private Partnerships, October 2015, p 10, available at http://goo.gl/JsLUFG; EERI, Nepal Earthquake and Aftershocks Building Codes, 27 July 2015, available at http://goo.gl/93QdOS 42 WEF, How can we build peace in post-earthquake Nepal? 16 October 2015, available at https://goo.gl/MI7GJn 43 WEF, Building Resilience in Nepal through Public-Private Partnerships, October 2015, available at http://goo.gl/JsLUFG 44 IRIN, Fuel shortage threatens Nepal aid as winter comes, 12 October 2015, available at http://goo.gl/PkmHvM; Reuters, Nepal ethnic minorities call off blockade over charter, 8 February 2016, available at http://goo.gl/dV9I1l; TIME, Nepal Has Finally Passed a New Constitution After Years of Political Turmoil, 17 September 2015, available at http://goo.gl/mc2jtL; HRW, "Like We Are Not Nepali": Protest and Police Crackdown in the Terai Region of Nepal, October 2015, available at https://goo.gl/BghwLo 45 Amnesty International, Nepal Earthquake Recovery Must Safeguard Human Rights, June 2015, p 9, available at https://goo.gl/QUl6Kg; Transparency International, Corruption Perception Index 2015, available at https://goo.gl/YmJJYX; WEF, How can we build peace in post-earthquake Nepal? 16 October 2015, available at https://goo.gl/MI7GJn 46 Brookings Institution, A Critical Disconnect: The Role of SAARC in Building the DRM Capacities of South Asian Countries, May 2015, p 23, available at http://goo.gl/T782z2v 47 HRW, "Like We Are Not Nepali": Protest and Police Crackdown in the Terai Region of Nepal, October 2015, available at https://goo.gl/BghwLo 48 IRIN, Fuel shortage threatens Nepal aid as winter comes, 12 October 2015, available at http://goo.gl/PkmHvM 49 The Guardian, Running on empty: Nepal's fuel smugglers defy border blockades, 3 February 2015, available at http://goo.gl/E32LI4; TIME, No Respite for Shortage-Hit Nepal as Political Efforts Fall Short; 25 January 2016, available at http://goo.gl/NR8lpz; Reuters, Nepal ethnic minorities call off blockade over charter, 8 February 2016, available at http://goo.gl/dV9I1l 50 UN, Ongoing border blockade on imports sends food and fuel prices 'skyrocketing' in Nepal, 11 December 2015, available at http://goo.gl/msNFgt 51 Amnesty International, Nepal: Reconstruction must not leave behind those most affected by the earthquake, 24 June 2015, available at https://goo.gl/cKv8ea; NRC and Handicap International, Principles and pragmatism in crisis: Perspectives from the field, 2016, forthcoming 52 Inter-Agency Common Feedback Project, Community Perceptions of Aid Distribution Fairness, September 2015, available at https://goo.gl/gs54wG; Amnesty International, Nepal Earthquake Recovery Must Safeguard Human Rights, June 2015, p 10, available at https://goo.gl/QUl6Kg; IDSN, Waiting for Justice in Response: Report of Initial Findings from Immediate Needs Assessment and Monitoring Responses towards Affected Dalit Communities in Nepal Earthquake 2015, p 5, available at http://goo.gl/Jcm8NR; NRC and Handicap International, Principles and pragmatism in crisis: Perspectives from the field, 2016, forthcoming 53 Amnesty International, Nepal Earthquake Recovery Must Safeguard Human Rights, June 2015, pp 11, 12, available at https://goo.gl/QUl6Kg 54 Centre for the Study of Labour and Mobility, Migration and Resilience: Experiences from Nepal's 2015 Earthquake, June 2015, available at http://goo.gl/FNJucG 55 AFP, Nepal quake survivors fight freezing temperatures, 5 February 2016, available at http://goo.gl/951TITLE2; WEF, How can we build peace in post-earthquake Nepal? 16 October 2015, available at https://goo.gl/MI7GJn 56 CARE, Housing, land and property issues in Nepal and their consequences for the post-earthquake reconstruction process, February 2016, available at http://goo.gl/wp3SvK 57 WEF, Building Resilience in Nepal through Public-Private Partnerships, October 2015, p 12, available at http://goo.gl/JsLUFG; UN News Centre, Nepal's emergency preparedness saved lives in earthquake aftermath UN health agency, 13 May 2015, available at http://goo gl/1igT39 58 CARE, Housing, land and property issues in Nepal and their consequences for the post-earthquake reconstruction process, February 2016, available at http://goo.gl/wp3SvK 2016 Global Report on Internal Displacement - Honduras: Unearthing a hidden displacement crisis Publisher Norwegian Refugee Council/Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (NRC/IDMC) Publication Date 1 May 2016 Cite as Norwegian Refugee Council/Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (NRC/IDMC), 2016 Global Report on Internal Displacement - Honduras: Unearthing a hidden displacement crisis, 1 May 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a98bf723.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Long notorious for some of the highest homicide rates in the world,[119] Honduras has recently experienced enough of an increase in displacement caused by criminal violence to bring the issue into the political limelight. To begin tackling its impacts, the government created the Inter- Agency Commission for the Protection of Persons Displaced by Violence (CIPPDV) in late 2013, and tasked it with driving "the creation of policies and the adoption of measures to prevent forced displacement caused by violence, as well as to care for, protect and find solutions for displaced people and their families".[120] As a first step, the commission launched a research project in 2014 to reveal the country's invisible displacement crisis and determine its scope and scale. An inter-agency team was created to carry out a study, led by CIPPDV and supported by the National Statistics Institute, the Jesuit Reflection, Investigation and Communication Team, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the Joint IDP Profiling Service (JIPS).[121] The aim was to collect information on people who had changed their place of residence within Honduras between 2004 and 2014 for "specific reasons relating to violence and general crime". For the purposes of the survey, the specific reasons were "forced recruitment, extortion, murder, threats, injury, sexual violence, insecurity in the community [conflict, shootings], kidnapping, forced disappearance, torture, discrimination, arbitrary detention and dispossession of land and dwellings". People who reported having changed their place of residence because of robbery or assault were not classified as displaced.[122] A total of 2,138 households were surveyed across 20 municipalities identified as having the highest concentrations of displaced people.[123] Based on an extrapolation of the findings it is estimated that they are home to around 174,000 IDPs, including children born in displacement.[124] Of those surveyed, 67.9 per cent said their decision to move was influenced only by violence and insecurity, and without consideration of other factors that usually determine migration, such as employment or living conditions.[125] A deeper examination confirms a correlation between the intensity of criminal violence and population movement. As depicted in the graph, displacement levels remained relatively stable between 2004 and 2008, but rose noticeably between 2009 and 2013.[126] This trend coincides to some extent with the rise in homicide rates, an indication of the degree of violence to which people were exposed.[127] The dynamic is contradicted somewhat by a spike in displacement in 2014, when homicide rates fell.[128] This anomaly may in part be explained by respondents' tendency to report more recent events to a greater extent than those that happened long ago.[129] Alternatively, the surge in the number of IDPs may reflect a broader reality of people fleeing a general deterioration of their security and daily lives. Be that as it may, the progressive increase in the number of people displaced accentuates the Honduran authorities' need to create a clear and shared conceptual framework within which to understand why and at what point people flee areas plagued by criminal violence. The need is reiterated in one of the study's main recommendations, "to establish a definition of who may be considered a victim of forced displacement, in accordance with the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, with the aim of identifying the range of people who may receive the State's attention".[130] The UN special rapporteur on the human rights of IDPs stressed the point further during his official visit to Honduras in November 2015.[131] He welcomed the government's recognition of internal displacement, and highlighted the need for concerted action to tackle its causes and protect IDPs' rights. He urged the government "to strengthen its efforts to stop an internal displacement epidemic" caused by organised and gang-related crime and violence. Protracted displacement in Japan and Haiti Most of the protracted displacement associated with disasters is in low and lower-middle income developing countries, but there have also been significant cases in some of the world's richest and poorest countries which reveal some striking similarities and differences. 119 UNODC, Global study on homicide 2013, available at https://goo.gl/4ZPnJq 120 Official Journal of the Republic of Honduras, Executive Decree No PCM-053-2013, November 2013, available at http://goo.gl/qo0dWA (Spanish) 121 CIPPDV, Characterization of internal displacement in Honduras, November 2015, p 10, available at http://goo.gl/TXqrBm 122 Ibid, p 11 123 Ibid 124 Ibid, p.12 125 Ibid, p 14 126 Ibid, p 13 127 Ibid, p 44 128 Ibid 129 Ibid, p 13 130 Ibid, p 16 131 OHCHR, Honduras: Concrete action crucial to stop epidemic of violence-induced internal displacement UN expert, November 2015, available at http://goo.gl/ahCyBs 2016 Global Report on Internal Displacement - Japan's Fukushima IDPs Publisher Norwegian Refugee Council/Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (NRC/IDMC) Publication Date 1 May 2016 Cite as Norwegian Refugee Council/Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (NRC/IDMC), 2016 Global Report on Internal Displacement - Japan's Fukushima IDPs, 1 May 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a98bf74.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. In March 2011, a devastating magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami struck Japan's Tohoku region, triggering the meltdown of three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and major radiation leaks. The disaster displaced around 470,000 people. Five years later, tens of thousands of people whose homes and villages were destroyed across three prefectures have yet to re-establish their lives in new or former homes and communities. Plans to rebuild destroyed homes and relocate displaced communities to higher ground or other areas have been reduced by 30 per cent over the past three years and in some cases abandoned, the result mainly of soaring construction costs and the time local authorities have taken to overcome land issues and prepare plots on new sites. Those able to afford it, most often younger families, have rebuilt their lives elsewhere, but others have been unable to afford reconstruction and have moved into rental accommodation provided by the government.[71] In Fukushima prefecture, 99,000 of the 160,000- plus people evacuated from contaminated areas around the crippled nuclear plant are still living in displacement.[72] They face a difficult decision in whether to return home or not to areas where government evacuation orders have been lifted, but where radiation risk remains a concern, particularly for younger generations. Those affected also worry about the lack of basic infrastructure such as schools and hospitals in their former home areas, and about becoming isolated given that few of their family members, former neighbours and friends plan to return.[73] A lack of trust in official information and poor consultation with affected communities have also delayed solutions for IDPs unable or unwilling to return, and social tensions with host communities have left social and psychological scars. A 2015 survey of evacuees revealed that many were suffering from anxiety, loneliness and depression.[74] In Fukushima, the number of people who have killed themselves or succumbed to health problems related to the disaster exceeds the death toll from its direct impacts. 71 Asahi Shimbun, Housing relocation plans slashed in Tohoku disaster areas as costs skyrocket, 16 February 2016, available at http://goo.gl/2yef8N 72 Japan Reconstruction Agency, Current Status of Reconstruction and Challenges, March 2016, available at http://goo.gl/g6rUI5 73 IDMC, Five years on for Fukushima's IDPs: Life with radiological risk and without a community safety net, 11 March 2016, available at http://goo.gl/AUX5hW 74 Fukushima prefecture, Overview of Fukushima evacuee survey results, 27 April 2015, available at https://goo.gl/SHKC3l (Japanese) 2016 Global Report on Internal Displacement - Haiti's earthquake IDPs Publisher Norwegian Refugee Council/Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (NRC/IDMC) Publication Date 1 May 2016 Cite as Norwegian Refugee Council/Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (NRC/IDMC), 2016 Global Report on Internal Displacement - Haiti's earthquake IDPs, 1 May 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a98bf815.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. In January 2010, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti, killing more than 160,000 people and displacing nearly 1.5 million. Six years later, there were still nearly 62,600 people living in deteriorating conditions in 36 displacement camps in and around Port-au-Prince. IDPs in 16 of these camps are highly vulnerable to the impact of future natural hazard events.[75] Living conditions in the camps were always poor, but have become worse still as basic services are wound down. There is ever less humanitarian funding available and fewer organisations providing assistance. People living in the camps are exposed to criminal gang violence, abuse, exploitation and forced eviction that displaces them again. Women and girls have been particularly susceptible to increasing insecurity and health hazards. IDPs' lack of civil documentation also continues to hamper their access to basic services, their children's enrolment for school exams, and their right to own land, vote and open bank accounts.[76] Obstacles to urban integration and other solutions for camp residents include the poor conditions in the neighbourhoods where they lived before the earthquake and high unemployment levels. Unemployment among IDPs is estimated at 83 per cent, more than double the rate for the urban work force.[77] Some, meantime, are gradually turning their temporary shelters into more permanent, unplanned informal settlements. Ultimately, real solutions for Haiti's remaining IDPs and as many as 3.5 million others living in urban poverty with similar vulnerabilities will depend on reducing socio-economic deprivation, insecurity and disaster risk. Improving national capacity to plan and manage land issues to complement the implementation of the 2013 National Housing and Habitat Policy would enable access to safe, affordable housing and tenure security for Haiti's poorest people, including IDPs.[78] Political instability and declining development assistance, however, have wide-reaching implications for the responses required, without which the risk of another major disaster is high. As the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the country has said: "Haiti cannot afford to become a forgotten crisis."[79] 75 UN, Haiti Humanitarian Response Plan, January-December 2016, April 2016 Citing IOM data as of February 2016 https://goo.gl/jBLEaA 76 UN, Haiti Transitional Appeal 2015-2016, 11 March 2015, pp 15-17, available at http://goo.gl/rJoo8Q 77 Ibid, p 19 78 Ibid, p 19 79 UN News Service, Haiti: six years after quake, UN cites progress but warns of 'deteriorating' situation for those still in camps, 16 January 2016, available at http://goo.gl/bl6y4C UN rights experts 'gravely concerned' by reports of reprisals against Burundian lawyers Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 8 August 2016 Cite as UN News Service, UN rights experts 'gravely concerned' by reports of reprisals against Burundian lawyers, 8 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a98bf942b.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. 8 August 2016 - Gravely concerned by reports that four Burundian lawyers who provided information to the United Nations Committee on Torture (CAT) are being subjected to reprisals, the body said today that it has sent a letter to the Ambassador of Burundi to the United Nations in Geneva seeking assurances that no member of Burundian civils society would be subjected to such treatment for cooperating with the CAT. In a press statement issued by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the Committee said the four lawyers - Armel Niyongere, Lambert Nigarura, Dieudonne Bashirahishize and Vital Nshimirimana - had contributed to an alternative report by a coalition of Burundian non-governmental organizations for the its review, and three were present at the review in Geneva on 28 and 29 July. According to the Committee, on 29 July, a Burundian prosecutor asked the President of the Bujumbura Bar Council to strike the lawyers off the professional register, alleging that they had committed several offences, including involvement in an insurrectionist movement and an attempted coup. The Committee's letter, signed by Chair Jens Modvig and Rapporteur on Reprisals Alessio Bruni, notes that the prosecutor requested sanctions against the lawyers, rather than an inquiry to establish the facts, "which raises concerns with respect to presumption of innocence." It goes on to state that this concern "is all the stronger given that the (prosecutor's) request came on the same day that the Burundian delegation, presided over by the Minister of Justice, indicated they would not be participating in the second session of dialogue with the Committee, citing the alternative report by Burundian civil society in particular as the reason." Mr. Modvig and Mr. Bruni also point out that the Committee raised the issue of reprisals after the last regular review of Burundi in 2014. They reminded the Burundian Government that reprisals contravene Article 13 of the Convention against Torture, to which the country has been a party since 1993. Article 13 states that complainants and witnesses should be protected against all ill-treatment or intimidation as a consequence of making a complaint or giving evidence. Given the gravity of the cases detailed in their letter, Mr. Modvig and Mr. Bruni have asked for a reply from the Burundian authorities by 11 August and stressed that they remain available for any meeting with the Burundian ambassador before then. The Committee is due to publish its findings on Burundi on 12 August. Members of the CAT are independent human rights experts drawn from around the world, who serve in their personal capacity and not as representatives of States parties. The Committee's concluding observations are an independent assessment of States' compliance with their human rights obligations under the treaty. 2016 Global Report on Internal Displacement - DRC: Multiple and chronic displacement Publisher Norwegian Refugee Council/Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (NRC/IDMC) Publication Date 1 May 2016 Cite as Norwegian Refugee Council/Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (NRC/IDMC), 2016 Global Report on Internal Displacement - DRC: Multiple and chronic displacement, 1 May 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a98bfa6.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Conflict in DRC is intractable, and the internal displacement crisis it has caused is multifaceted. Despite apparent similarities among the waves of displacement, their causes, dynamics and perpetrators vary from one situation to the next. Our estimates show that over the past 15 years, there have consistently been more than a million IDPs in the country, and in peak years such as 2003 more than three million. The implication is that DRC is faced with a range of both protracted and new displacement situations, sometimes in the same places, which in turn means IDPs have varying needs and challenges. Both national and international responses need to take this complexity into account if all IDPs are to achieve durable solutions. There were an estimated 1.5 million IDPs in the country as of December 2015, the ninth highest figure worldwide. Most have fled violence and human rights abuses committed by armed groups and the military, but inter-communal tensions and disputes over land and the control of natural resources have also caused displacement, as have natural hazards. Conflict and violence are concentrated in eastern DRC, as are the country's IDPs. More than half live in the provinces of North and South Kivu, and the remainder in Orientale, Katanga, Maniema and Equateur. Multiple and chronic displacements are commonplace, particularly in the Kivus but also in other provinces. Many IDPs in North Kivu have been displaced two, three or even more times in the last 18 months alone, and surveys suggest that a significant majority in North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri have been displaced more than once since 1993.[68] Each time people flee, they lose almost everything and are forced to start rebuilding their lives from scratch. They lose their homes, material assets and often their jobs and livelihoods. Their children's education is interrupted, and they become separated from their communities and support networks. Their sense of cultural identity may suffer, and the trauma and upheaval of fleeing conflict and violence leave many with psychological and physical scars. Whether it is the first or the fifth time that a person is displaced in DRC, they face a long struggle to try to recover their assets, access basic services and re-establish their social and psychological wellbeing. The longer and more often they are displaced, the more difficult these challenges become, and the more their ability to cope is eroded. 68 DMC, DRC: Multiple crises hamper prospects for durable solutions, January 2014, available http://goo.gl/I8Bwm1 Perpetrators of sexual violence in South Sudan 'will be held accountable' UN envoy Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 8 August 2016 Cite as UN News Service, Perpetrators of sexual violence in South Sudan 'will be held accountable' UN envoy, 8 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a98caf40b.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. 8 August 2016 - Vowing to fight to the end to see that all perpetrators of rape and violence against women and girls in crisis-torn South Sudan are held to account, the United Nations envoy on sexual violence in conflict today said it is extremely important for the Government to take all necessary action to put an end to such crimes. In an interview with UN Radio Miraya, Zainab Hawa Bangura, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Sexual Violence in Conflict, said she is very angry and very disappointed that after several round of meetings with South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and First Vice-President Riek Machar and in the wake of the communiques signed in 2014 by the two leaders on commitments to end and prevent sexual assaults, such crimes are still being committed. I am an African woman and I have seen how these women have suffered. They suffered through a [years-long] civil war. Then they celebrated, for the first time in their lives, after the country achieved independence, only to have their hopes and expectations shattered, when the country subsequently plunged back into war, she said. Having long deplored sexual violence crimes as a brutal feature in the South Sudan conflict, which initially broke out in December 2013 when a political face-off between President Kiir and Mr. Machar boiled over, Ms. Bangura said she has been particularly angered by the new allegations that surfaced in the aftermath of the latest clashes between the rivals and their respective factions. According to the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, a preliminary UN investigation into the recent fighting and its aftermath revealed that Government security forces carried out killings and rapes, and looted and destroyed properties. At least 217 cases of sexual violence were documented in the capital, Juba, between 8 and 25 July. Ms. Bangura expressed her profound sympathy for the civilians and said: All action should be taken by the Government to put an end to this. The first obligation for any government is protecting its own citizens; children can't go to school; people can't go to work; women can't get water they cannot do anything without peace. These are their people. If you don't protect your own people, you're actually inviting the international community to come provide protection for your own citizens, she continued, stressing that the United Nations will do all it can to ensure that victims of rape receive adequate care, assistance and support and to put a relevant mechanism in place. But for me, one thing I will fight for until I leave the UN is to make sure all the people who are committing these crimes in South Sudan are held accountable. The women and children of South Sudan do not deserve [to be treated like] this, said Ms. Bangura. Indeed, she continued: Those who think they will get off 'scot-free' must be joking because we will go after them. It doesn't matter who they are or where they are. We will go after them and hold them accountable for these crimes. Pakistan: Ban condemns 'appalling' terrorist attack at hospital in Quetta Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 8 August 2016 Cite as UN News Service, Pakistan: Ban condemns 'appalling' terrorist attack at hospital in Quetta, 8 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a98d5d40b.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. 8 August 2016 - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned today's terrorist bombing at the Civil Hospital in Quetta, Pakistan, underscoring that the targeting of mourners at a civilian hospital made the attack "particularly appalling." In a statement issued by his spokesperson, Mr. Ban urged the Government to do its utmost to ensure safety of the population and bring to justice the perpetrators of today's attack. According to media reports, more than 50 people were killed earlier today Quetta, which is in the Baluchistan province of Pakistan, a when an explosion struck a hospital where dozens of lawyers had gathered to mourn the killing of a prominent colleague. "He extends his heartfelt condolences to the victims and their families, and wishes a speedy recovery to the injured," said the statement, adding that the Secretary-General expresses his solidarity with the people and Government of Pakistan. Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples - Russian Federation : Karelians Publisher Minority Rights Group International Publication Date May 2018 Cite as Minority Rights Group International, World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples - Russian Federation : Karelians, May 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a995687.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Profile According to the 2010 national census, there are 60,815 Karelians in the Russian Federation - a significant reduction from the 93,344 recorded in the 2002 census. The Karelian population in Russia has been steadily declining since the turn of the century due to assimilation by Russians and migration to Finland. Karelians are Finns who adopted Eastern Orthodoxy. The Karelian language is primarily a Russified form of Finnish. The majority of Karelians live in the Karelian Republic: nevertheless, notwithstanding their status as titular nationality in the region, Karelians comprise a very small numerical minority there: 7.4 per cent versus 82.2 per cent Russians, according to the 2010 Census. Historical context The Karelian Republic had a variety of administrative designations and was the subject of a dispute between the Soviet Union and Finland from the time it was created. The Karelian Labour Commune was established in June 1920 and became the Karelian ASSR in July 1923. In March 1940 the status of Karelia was upgraded to that of the Karelo-Finnish SSR in connection with Soviet plans to incorporate Finland into the Soviet Union. The region's status was reduced in July 1956. Karelia was the first ASSR to declare sovereignty in 1990. Although Finland renounced any claims to the territory of Karelia in December 1991, the Karelian Association in Karelia continues to campaign for unification with Finland. In November 1992 the First World Congress of Finno-Ugrian Peoples took place in the Komi Republic. Delegates called for self-determination for all indigenous peoples and national minorities and condemned 'Russian imperialism'. The Second Congress of Finno-Ugric Peoples was held in July 1995 to demand new rights, including property rights in their traditional areas of settlement and language privileges. Karelia is also home to a small population of Veps, a related Finno-Ugric people. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union Karelia has experienced increased contact with neighbouring Finland, which, together with economic decline and Russian cultural influence has further encouraged the decline of the ethnic Karelian population through the assimilation of Karelians into a Finnish cultural identity. Increased contact with Finland also reinvigorated debates regarding the transfer of various parts of Finland to Soviet jurisdiction in the treaty ending the 1939-40 'Winter War' between Finland and the USSR. The Karelian population of these territories was forcibly resettled to Finland. In 1999 representatives of this population and its descendants formed an organization named ProKarelia with the aim of campaigning for the peaceful return of those territories to Finnish sovereignty. The government of Finland does not support these claims. In February 2005 a European Union-financed joint Russo-Finnish project was launched to improve the standard of teaching of the Finnish language in Karelia. The project reflected the increasing demand for Finnish in Karelia due to strengthened ties with neighbouring Finland, despite the demographic decline of the Karelian minority in Karelia. As well as Finnish, Veps, another Finno-Ugric language, is also taught in Karelian schools. In March 2005 Karelian President Sergey Katanandov reiterated the rejection of calls for parts of Karelia annexed by the Soviet Union after the 1939-40 Russo-Finnish War to be returned to Finland. The statement was a response to the publication of a book in Finland advocating the return of the territories. The Finnish government has repeatedly affirmed that it has no territorial claims on Karelia. Current issues While titular nationalities in ethnic republics benefit from a range of rights, including in language and education, in the case of Karelia, the concrete advantages deriving from titularity are minor, given that Karelians are only a very small numerical minority (7.4 per cent in the 2010 Census) within the republic. Karelian is studied as an optional subject only, and classes amount to two to three hours a week until grade 11. Provisions passed in 2012 require Russian NGOs to register as 'foreign agents' when they receive funds from abroad and implement 'political activities'. The organization Nuori Karjala (Young Karelia), which promoted the languages and cultures of the Finno-Ugric indigenous communities of the Republic of Karelia, was included by the Ministry of Justice in the register of 'foreign agents'. As a result the organization decided to cease activities in August 2015. The only non-Russian institution from which the organization had received funding was the UN, which had given a grant of US$10,000 for an education project. The case highlights the challenges facing minority and indigenous community organizations in the Russian Federation, even when conducting educational and cultural promotion activities. Copyright notice: Minority Rights Group International. All rights reserved. North-eastern Nigeria and Conflict's Humanitarian Fallout? Publisher International Crisis Group (ICG) Publication Date 4 August 2016 Cite as International Crisis Group (ICG), North-eastern Nigeria and Conflict's Humanitarian Fallout?, 4 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a999d36d.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Children are dying in Bama, a town in Borno state, north-east Nigeria, suffering from lack of food, clean water and medical care. They are the most tragic manifestation of the humanitarian fallout of the Boko Haram insurgency and the state response to it, a crisis that now impacts the lives of millions. The insurgency itself, the aggressive military response to it, and the lack of effective assistance, both national and international, to those caught up in the conflict threaten to create an endless cycle of violence and depredation. Unless efforts to contain and roll back the current crisis are quickly scaled-up, peace is likely to remain a distant prospect in this region of Nigeria. Once a city of 300,000, Bama is now an army-controlled camp of 30,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs), some forcibly moved there by the military. There are around a dozen sites like Bama, hosting at least 250,000 people living under the security forces' scrutiny. The number will likely grow as military campaigns continue. Neither the army, nor the Nigerian emergency services are up to the task of caring for them. There have been and still are too many bottlenecks. Authorities must pay more attention and commit more resources, clarify and rationalise the country's assistance structure, improve aid governance, promote transparency (more NGO and media reporting), facilitate humanitarian access and address the widespread suspicion that many IDPs support Boko Haram. Humanitarian agencies have also struggled to respond adequately, both in recognising the scale of the problem and reacting sufficiently promptly. For their part, UN agencies and international humanitarian NGOs need to engage authorities more proactively and improve their collaboration in responding to one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world today. Doing so will mobilise more international funding currently grossly lacking and make better use of international expertise.If the humanitarian crisis is not addressed soon, it will have serious security and political implications. In the short term, it may push people back into areas under Boko Haram's control, or to other parts of Nigeria whose capacity to sustain them is questionable, or across international borders, from where some could be trafficked into an already vulnerable Sahel region, and on to Libya an important gateway to Europe. In the long term, it could leave the Nigerian state and its international partners tainted, undermining further their legitimacy and capacity to control violence in the north east and the Lake Chad region. Dying in a "Safe Area": The Situation in Bama Situated 72km south east of Maiduguri, Borno's capital, Bama was once a major trade hub on a main road to Cameroon. Overrun by Boko Haram in September 2014, the army recaptured it in March 2015. Most of its inhabitants had already left by then and thousands had been killed by Boko Haram, but the army began bringing in civilians it found during operations in the surrounding rural areas. Citing security concerns, the army has itself been running the Bama camp, notionally the responsibility of the Borno State Emergency Management Agency (BOSEMA). It has banned IDPs from travelling in the camp's vicinity or to other "safe areas". The security forces and state-supported civilian self-defence groups, known as vigilantes, also have been "vetting" the newly arrived.While Bama camp is safe from the Boko Haram threat that hovers over the wider local government area, it is, for many, a place of death. In June, the rate of severe acute malnutrition was 19 per cent among children the emergency threshold is 3 per cent. According to the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 244,000 children are suffering from acute malnutrition in Borno state and on average 134 die every day from this. A few health ministry officials have been brought in under military escort for short stays and some humanitarian partners have been intermittently giving the army supplies to distribute to the IDPs, though with little supervision. This is not enough and with major deficiencies in water, sanitation and hygiene and the rainy season (June-September) under way, many are concerned that a cholera epidemic could break out. The rains, furthermore, will make many roads and tracks impassable. The Humanitarian Costs of Insurgency and Counter-insurgency Most officials blame Bama's dire humanitarian crisis on Boko Haram: people began starving while they lived under the insurgents' control, and the military rescued them. The insurgency has indeed done terrible damage to the lives and livelihoods of many in Borno state, as well as in neighbouring Yobe, Adamawa and Gombe states. Boko Haram ruthlessly targeted some communities, particularly those that set up vigilante forces or helped the military, killing many civilians and forcing many more into exile. Those who tried to stay and live under Boko Haram's control faced significant difficulties. The insurgents heavily taxed communities, plundered and forcefully recruited among them and fighting disrupted harvests.But the humanitarian crisis has been exacerbated by the nature of the counter-insurgency campaign. An aggressive, regional military operation has deliberately stifled economic activities, denying Boko Haram supplies, trade and income from protection rackets. Military operations have also made producing and accessing food a lot more difficult for all living in and close to Boko Haram-controlled areas. Trade and mobility, essential for making a living in the Sahel, have become extremely difficult and dangerous. Attitudes toward those Displaced Many among the military and many civilians are quick to look with suspicion on people coming from Boko Haram-held areas. Though there is no evidence to suggest a deliberate attempt to punish a population suspected of complicity with the insurgents, there are alarming signs that their welfare is not being prioritised, whether out of a lack of capacity or concern or due to security concerns. Even women captured, abused or forced into "marriage" by Boko Haram bear the stigma of their association, and their children are suspected of having "bad blood". This fear of "contagion" and, more concretely, of suicide attacks by women and children, is part of the problem. This is one reason the only IDPs the army lets into Maiduguri, which already hosts an estimated 1.5 million, are children requiring sustained medical support, though sometimes without their carers.Conducting security operations should be kept distinct from humanitarian actions. If not, those in genuine need of assistance risk being denied help; while entire communities stand in danger of neglect. In such an environment, people are likely to feel increasingly alienated from the state, driving them to seek support elsewhere. Humanitarian assistance must remain impartial and needs-based; while security measures must be proportionate to the risk which will likely be reduced, not increased, by greater freedom of movement and non-discriminatory. Inadequate National and International Assistance At the end of 2015, 3.9 million people in north-east Nigeria out of a total of 5.2 million across the Lake Chad Basin were in urgent need of food assistance. In April 2016, the Borno state Governor Kashim Shettima and UN Regional Humanitarian Coordinator Toby Lanzer visited Bama. Shettima said afterward that his state was "hanging between malnutrition and famine . People [were] dying like flies". Of the $248 million required for the emergency response in north-east Nigeria in 2016, less than 20 per cent was available by May. Donor pledges were higher for Chad and Niger, where the number of persons in need was smaller. The World Food Program (WFP) supported fewer than 2,000 people in the north east in March 2016; that figure had increased to 50,000 in May, but was still way behind target given that more than half of the 1.5 million IDPs just in Maiduguri are judged by the UN to be malnourished, and the situation in rural areas is often worse. In neighbouring Cameroon, also affected by Boko Haram, UN agencies helped four times as many people (90 per cent of the most food insecure). In July, the total number of IDPs in this part of Cameroon was around 190,000. Recent reports of the shocking conditions in Bama did draw some attention, but it took a controversial 22 June communique by Medecins Sans Frontieres to bring the starving into the limelight. The Nigerian government's response has been hampered by constrained resources and multiple pressing security problems. It is facing a resurgent rebellion in the Niger Delta, separatist agitation in the south east, and increasing violence in the Middle Belt, including recent clashes between pastoralists and farmers over land and water, as well as a severe economic and budgetary crisis. Neither the National Emergency Management Agency nor its state-level counterparts have the funds or the capacity and experience to manage a prolonged, large-scale humanitarian operation. Already overwhelmed by IDPs in Maiduguri and other established sites, Nigerian agencies have struggled to serve new camps. Attempts to improve the government's response have lagged. The Victims Support Fund (VSF) is constrained by the lack of clarity in Nigeria's overall framework for humanitarian response. In July 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari established a Presidential Committee on North-East Interventions (PCNI) to coordinate domestic and international humanitarian efforts, but as of July 2016, the committee had still not been inaugurated. Some government sources say the president is waiting for the National Assembly (federal parliament) to create the North East Development Commission (NEDC), which includes a humanitarian portfolio, but some interviewed by Crisis Group fear it may become merely another platform for the region's elite to share patronage rather than for boosting humanitarian aid. Many implementation partners of UN agencies lack the capacity to work in the region's remoter parts where the terrain is extremely challenging and where they do not enjoy the relative protection of Maiduguri (which itself faces significant humanitarian needs). So far, humanitarian workers have been unable to establish credible contacts with Boko Haram to negotiate access and obtain guarantees that can reduce risks to acceptable levels. Particularly in areas of Borno state outside the Maiduguri metropolitan area, some organisations including from the UN have depended on the army for protection, assessments of local security conditions and sometimes humanitarian service delivery. Nigeria, with Africa's largest population and economy, is sensitive to foreign criticism and, understandably, keen to ensure that foreign support in addressing the crisis does not compromise its sovereignty. Many officials remember the civil war (1967-1970) when Nigeria was condemned for the terrible famine in the self-proclaimed Republic of Biafra and some secessionist supporters provided military aid under the guise of international humanitarian assistance. As a result, authorities are sensitive to outside aid or reporting. Yet the lack of reporting has made it difficult to mobilise international support for resources. The Risks Ahead Failure to adequately support IDPs, in part because of suspicion that they support Boko Haram, may push them back into, or discourage them from leaving, insurgent-controlled areas. Furthermore, it is entirely possible that Boko Haram's attacks and suicide bombings in and around IDP camps are attempts by the insurgents to staunch the flow of people from areas under their control. It may be working to an extent. Some IDPs reportedly are choosing to return to their home areas, despite the risk of Boko Haram attacks, rather than staying in dire camps.In the long term, failure to help those in need could further undermine the state's legitimacy and capacity to control violence. While the Nigerian military and its regional and international partners may be able to contain Boko Haram, unless the state addresses poor governance and other structural factors that drove people to support the movement, there is a high risk either that Boko Haram will be revived or similar groups will emerge. What Should Be Done To prevent the current humanitarian emergency from claiming more lives, prolonging the conflict and fuelling longer term insecurity in the region, the government must match its military campaign against Boko Haram with strong commitment to addressing the immediate humanitarian needs and longer-term development and reconstruction assistance to rebuild the north east. That includes granting access to, and facilitating, independent local and international reporting and assessments. This is necessary not only for proper resource mobilisation, but even more importantly as a way to provide independent analysis of outstanding emergency relief requirements. Borno state Governor Kashim Shettima and President Muhammadu Buhari, as well as some army commanders, have been remarkably willing to talk to journalists. However, the president should pay special attention to the governance of aid. Reports of the embezzlement and diversion of food and other aid need to be properly investigated and officials found to have stolen or mismanaged aid must be sanctioned. For example, the report of the Borno state House Verification Committee into allegations of aid diversion, which should be completed soon, should be made public and quickly and openly acted upon. The government and international partners should have fewer qualms about bringing assistance closer to the war zones. It is possible that some of it could leak to Boko Haram members, but this marginal price should be balanced with the immense relief it would provide, the lives it would save and the goodwill it would generate for the government. Furthermore, improved assistance would probably be more efficient in attracting civilians to government areas than military mop-up operations. Where Boko Haram can no longer use the "rhetoric of plenty", as it once did, offering feasts of meat and cold drinks to potential recruits, authorities now have that card to play. Equally, the reluctance to allow IDPs encamped in secondary towns like Bama to move around should be revised. The arguably marginal benefit in security which the ban on movement provides will be far outweighed by the humanitarian gains and goodwill generated by easing up this restriction. As an immediate measure, all those most in need should be allowed to temporarily move to Maiduguri or other cities where appropriate treatment is available. While vigilante groups have done much to defend their communities, Borno state authorities should stop using these irregular forces to vet IDPs. Further, the Federal Government should begin to put in place a demobilisation process lest longer-term problems result, including increased risks of communal violence based on revenge between vigilante group members and displaced persons. International partners must drastically increase their humanitarian response, including by releasing all funds pledged to the UN and other humanitarian agencies for the emergency. They must lend greater support to the government, preferably in a high-level forum that includes the military, UN agencies, international NGOs, as well as local civil society and NGOs. This forum should provide a platform for all actors to share knowledge, including their assessments of the gravity of the humanitarian situation and areas of greatest needs as well as clarify guiding principles and improve working relations. The Buhari administration for its part needs to be far more proactive. A clarification of its assistance framework is pressing, and senior officials need to make clear that they regard the unfolding humanitarian crisis as a first-order priority. The government should accelerate the implementation of its response, for instance in disbursing the 12 billion naira (about $41 million) which it announced, in May 2016, would be used to rebuild the north east and also in implementing the programs of the Victims Support Fund. It is also essential that accountability mechanisms are strengthened. The authorities should not forget that they announced the North East Marshall Plan (Nemap) in October 2015 with the aim of providing "intermediate and long-term interventions in emergency assistance, economic reconstruction and development" a vital component of efforts to bring peace to the region. The first action of this ambitious plan should target camps for the displaced. In order to rebuild state legitimacy, the authorities should scale down reliance on security forces to manage the camps and give greater room to civil authorities. Finally, periodic visits by senior leaders, including President Buhari himself, to the camps and major communities hosting IDPs are essential to begin breaking down the suspicion faced by the newly displaced, and to affirm to them, as well as to state and government officials, that as Nigerian citizens and victims of the insurgency, they should not be left without food or medical assistance. Governor Shettima's visits are welcome moves. He should make more and his fellow governors should follow his example. Without a visible and genuine commitment to providing the humanitarian support needed in these areas, insecurity will persist and could become worse and peace will remain far out of reach. Azerbaijan: Prisoners tortured, authorities deny torture happened Publisher Forum 18 Publication Date 5 August 2016 Cite as Forum 18, Azerbaijan: Prisoners tortured, authorities deny torture happened, 5 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a99a5c4.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. The trial of 18 Muslims accused of serious violent crimes, which they and human rights defenders deny, began on 3 August. Many encouraged Islam outside state control. They have testified to being tortured, but the authorities have not arrested and tried the officials concerned. The trial of 18 defendants accused of a range of serious crimes began on 3 August at the Serious Crimes Court in Azerbaijan's capital Baku. Prominent Shia Muslim and Muslim Unity Movement leader, Imam Taleh Bagirov (also known as Bagirzade), and 17 other defendants - some of whom have little connection to him - could face life imprisonment if convicted. Many are on trial for reasons connected with their exercise of freedom of religion and belief, for encouraging Islam outside state control (see below). Many have testified in court that they were tortured by the Interior Ministry's Main Directorate for the Struggle with Organised Crime in Baku. The authorities have denied that the torture took place, and have not followed their international human rights obligations to arrest and try officials suspected of torture (see below). The authorities claim that the defendants intended and committed violence, but have not produced proof of these claims. The defendants strongly deny them, as has a presidential adviser shortly after an armed assault by the authorities on the village of Nardaran. One defendant's "crime" was to point out that the authorities' violence, which resulted in at least seven deaths, and to call for the villagers and defendents to be allowed their full legal rights (see below). The trial of the 18 Muslims is due to resume on 10 August. They are: Shamil Abdulaliyev, Bahruz Askarov, Jahad Babakishizade, Farhad Balayev, Fuad Gahramanli, Abbas Huseynov, Aqil Ismayilov, Etibar Ismayilov, Jabbar Jabbarov, Rasim Jabrayilov, Ibrahim Khudaverdiyev, Zakir Mustafayev, Ali Nuriyev, Abbas Quliyev, Abbas Tagizada, Alibaba Valiyev and Ramin Yariyev. They are being held in the Justice Ministry Investigation Prison in Kurdakhani, in Sabunchu District in north-eastern Baku. The address is: AZ-1104, Baki shahari Sabunchu rayonu Zabrat-2 qasabasi Baki Istintaq tacridxanasi Azerbaijan Who is violent? Many of those on trial, including Imam Bagirov, were arrested during or immediately after an armed assault by the authorities on the village of Nardaran, north of Baku. During the 26 November 2015 raid, two police officers and at least five villagers were shot dead and police then detained 14 Muslims as prisoners of conscience. More villagers were detained later. The raid was a major escalation of the authorities' attempts to suppress the Muslim Unity Movement (see F18News 1 December 2015 http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2127). The authorities claim the Muslim Unity Movement under Imam Bagirov was planning an armed uprising and had collected weapons. Many of the 18 are accused of terrorism and related crimes (see below). However, five days after the Nardaran attack, Etibar Najafov, Chief Adviser on Multiculturalism, Ethnic and Religious Affairs in the Presidential Administration, told Forum 18 that the Muslim Unity Movement had not killed or proposed killing anyone. He also could not explain what, if any, laws they might have broken (see F18News 1 December 2015 http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2127). After the preliminary hearing on 19 July, Elchin Sadiqov, the lawyer for Imam Bagirov, told Caucasian Knot that no evidence was present in the indictment proving that anyone in the village had fired guns at the authorities during their assault on Nardaran. Nor was any evidence included that the two dead men the authorities say were police officers worked for the police. Sadiqov had asked during the hearing for the two men's police files to be included in the case materials. Following the authorities' attack on Nardaran, they forcibly closed several mosques and removed imams from office. The imam of the closed Rahima Hanum Mosque, Nuhbala Rahimov, was given an 18-month prison term on 27 May, apparently without a trial (see F18News 22 June 2016 http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2190). Human rights defender Elshan Hasanov, who visited Nardaran at the end of Ramadan in early July, told Forum 18 that army and police stand outside all the mosques. He said villagers remain "intimidated" (see F18News 27 July 2016 http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2202). "These people didn't commit any violence," journalist and former prisoner of conscience Khadija Ismayilova told Forum 18 in June. "The government sees them as a threat because they are popular and they are not controlled by the government" (see F18News 22 June 2016 http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2190). One of those on trial is an opposition politician, Fuad Gahramanli, Deputy Head of the Popular Front party. He is accused of violating Criminal Code Articles: 220.2 ("Appeals for active insubordination to the legal demands of representatives of authority and to mass disorders, as well as appeals to violence against citizens"); 281.1 ("Public appeals by an individual for violence directed against the state"); and 283.2.1 ("Inciting with violence or the threat of violence national, racial or religious hatred"). The nature of his "crimes" was to publish a Facebook commentary denouncing the assault on Nardaran, suggesting that the government among other motives intended to persuade the international community that it was countering alleged "terrorism" and so justify the continuance of the dictatorship. The commentary noted that "such inhuman behaviour" as the raid encourages violence, and called for Nardaran's villagers and those detained to be given their full legal rights. The government's politically-binding Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) human dimension commitments make a similar point, repeatedly stating that respect for human rights and the rule of law are essential for peace and security (see http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=1351). Suppressing the Muslim Unity Movement The authorities have sought to suppress the Muslim Unity Movement since it was established on 13 January 2015 (see F18News 1 December 2015 http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2127). The state regards it as a key promoter of Iranian-oriented Shia Islam outside the control of the state-backed Caucasian Muslim Board. Its leaders organised prayers and sermons without asking state permission, and often criticised the subservience to the authorities of the Muslim Board. The Board has a state-backed extra-legal monopoly over all Muslim exercise of freedom of religion and belief (see Forum 18's Azerbaijan religious freedom survey http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2081). Prisoner of conscience Bagirov facing serious charges Prisoner of conscience Imam Bagirov - a 32-year-old former prisoner of conscience as well - ignored the state-imposed requirement to be approved by the State Committee for Work with Religious Organisations and the state-backed Muslim Board before being allowed to preach and lead prayers in a mosque. His sermons were often critical of the authorities (see F18News 7 November 2013 http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=1894). Shortly before Imam Bagirov's 26 November 2015 arrest in Nardaran, he was briefly arrested and tortured on 3 November and tortured by police as he began to pray. During court hearings he has given testimony of also being tortured after his Nardaran arrest (see below). His Muslim Unity Movement colleague Imam Elchin Qasimli was arrested for protesting against the first November 2015 torture of Imam Bagirov (see F18News 12 November 2015 http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2120). Prisoner of conscience Qasimli was himself then tortured and is still under arrest in pre-trial detention (see F18News 29 July 2016 http://forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2203). Under the United Nations (UN) Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Azerbaijan is obliged to arrest and try under criminal law any person suspected on good grounds of having committed torture. The Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) has strongly criticised Azerbaijan's record (see Forum 18's Azerbaijan religious freedom survey http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2081). No officials appear to have been arrested or tried for torturing prisoners of conscience Bagirov and Qasimli, officials instead denying that torture happened (see below). The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the UN Committee Against Torture have both also condemned the government's record (see F18News 22 June 2016 http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2190). Prisoner of conscience Bagirov is facing serious criminal charges brought by the General Prosecutor's Office's Serious Crimes Investigation Department. These include Article 29 ("Intent to commit a crime"), Article 120 ("Murder"), Article 214 ("Terrorism"), Article 220 ("Mass disorder"), Article 228 ("Illegal purchase, transfer, selling, storage, transportation and carrying of firearms, accessories to firearms, ammunition and explosives"), Article 233 ("Organisation of actions promoting infringement of the social order or active participation in such actions"), Article 278 ("Violent attempts to seize power"), Article 279 ("Creation of illegal armed formations or groups"), Article 281 ("Public appeals for violence directed against the state"), Article 283 ("Inciting national, racial or religious hatred"), and Article 315 ("Use of violence, resistance with the use of violence against a representative of authority in connection with performance of official duties by him, or the use of violence not dangerous to life or health concerning his close relatives, as well as threat of the use of such violence"). (see F18News 27 January 2016 http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2143). Tortured prisoner of conscience Agayev "punished because of his faith" The lawyer for the defendant in the related case of 36-year-old Elman Agayev (also known as Agazade), insists his client has never visited Nardaran and has had only intermittent contact with Imam Bagirov since they studied Islam together in Iran in the 1990s. A graduate of Baku's Islamic University before his studies in the Iranian city of Qom, Agayev is not an Imam. But he was known in his home town of Lankaran, 300 kms (185 miles) south of Nardaran, as a theologian and expert on the Koran. "He fought against extremism," his lawyer Aliyev insisted to Forum 18. "He is being punished because of his faith." Agayev, one of about 20 others being investigated for alleged links to the Muslim Unity Movement, "didn't have close contacts with Bagirov", his lawyer Akif Aliyev told Forum 18 from Baku on 25 July. He has never visited Nardaran and has had only intermittent contact with Imam Bagirov since they studied Islam together in Iran in the 1990s, the lawyer added. "Indeed, Elman had warned Bagirov to stay clear of politics." The cases of Agayev and others were separated from that of Bagirov in late June. Prisoner of conscience Agayev was arrested in Lankaran on the day of the Nardaran assault. On 26 November 2015, the same day as the armed assault on Nardaran 300 kms away, two police officers came to Agayev's Lankaran home. He invited them to join him and other visitors for tea. Then masked officers of the Organised Crime Police raided the home and arrested him. They then transferred him to the Main Directorate for the Struggle with Organised Crime in Baku (see F18News 1 December 2015 http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2127). "Elchin was not touched in Lankaran, but once in Baku he was brutally beaten at the Main Directorate for the Struggle with Organised Crime," Agayev's lawyer Aliyev complained to Forum 18. "When he appeared at Baku's Nasimi District Court at the end of November to be placed in pre-trial imprisonment, Elchin could barely stand because of the beatings." Aliyev said his client was taken from Court back to the Main Directorate for the Struggle with Organised Crime rather than to an Investigation Prison, as officers wanted his bruises to heal. Under the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Azerbaijan is obliged to arrest and try under criminal law any person suspected on good grounds of having committed torture (see Forum 18's Azerbaijan religious freedom survey http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2081). No officials appear to have been arrested or tried for torturing Agayev, officials instead denying that torture happened (see below). Prisoner of conscience Agayev is being held in pre-trial imprisonment being investigated under Criminal Code Articles: 214.2.1 ("Terrorism committed by preliminary arrangement by a group of persons, an organised group, or a criminal organisation"); 214.2.3 ("Terrorism committed with firearms or an object used as a weapon"); 214-2 ("Public appeals for terrorism"); 228.2 ("Illegal purchase, transfer, selling, storage, transportation and carrying of firearms, accessories to firearms, ammunition and explosives by a group of people with prior conspiracy or repeatedly"); 228.3 ("Illegal purchase, transfer, selling, storage, transportation and carrying of firearms, accessories to firearms, ammunition and explosives by an organised group"); 228.4 ("Illegal manufacture of firearms, accessories to firearms, ammunition and explosives by an organised group"); 233 ("Organisation of actions promoting infringement of the social order or active participation in such actions"); 278 ("Violent attempts to seize power"); 279.3 ("Creation of illegal armed formations or groups leading to the killing of people or other serious consequences"); 281.2 ("Public appeals repeatedly or by a group for violence directed against the state"); and 283.2.3 ("Incitement by an organised group of national, racial or religious hatred"). His lawyer Aliyev told Forum 18 that he expects the investigation to be completed at the end of August 2016, with a trial at Baku Serious Crimes Court possibly in October. "The authorities intend to use the convictions from the Bagirov trial in the next court case." More torture testimony at Baku mass trial preliminary hearings The trial of Imam Bagirov and the other 17 defendants began at Baku Serious Crimes Court under Judge Aliovsat Abasov with a preliminary hearing on 19 July. the authorities for a time blocked the road outside the court. A group of up to 15 supporters of the defendants were allowed to gather outside, Caucasian Knot news website noted the same day. Only two relatives or friends of each defendant were allowed into the small courtroom, as well as a few journalists and diplomats. Lawyers for several of the defendants asked for their clients to be freed from prison and transferred to house arrest as the trial proceeded. Among them was the lawyer for Abdulaliyev, who complained that despite his client's injuries, he had been taken directly from hospital to court and then to prison after his arrest in late November 2015. Two of the three bullets that hit him as the authorities raided Nardaran remain in his body. Judge Abasov rejected all the requests for transfer to house arrest. Defendant Jabbarov complained in the hearing about being tortured at the Main Directorate for the Struggle with Organised Crime. He renounced his state-appointed lawyer, noting that when he had complained of this torture his lawyer "all but began to beat me himself". Several of the 18 defendants did not have their own lawyers, the local media noted. A further preliminary hearing was held on 22 July. Lawyers for three further defendants applied for their clients to be transferred to house arrest. Judge Abasov rejected these appeals. Imam Bagirov told the hearing that he had been tortured over three days in custody of the Interior Ministry's Main Directorate for the Struggle with Organised Crime. Investigators were trying to pressure him to give testimony incriminating two opposition leaders, Popular Front leader Ali Kerimli and National Council of Democratic Forces leader Jamil Hasanli. "It is one thing to beat or put an electric current through a person," Caucasian Knot quoted Imam Bagirov as telling the hearing. "But we are speaking here of horrific tortures." He said he had resisted all the pressure to give false testimony against the two politicians. He noted that only after his refusal to give incriminating testimony had the authorities arrested the politician Gahramanli using a Facebook post as an excuse. On 4 August (see below), Imam Bagirov repeated his earlier testimony of being tortured. He said as soon as he was placed in a police car, officers hit him in the face with their rifle butts. Torture continued at the Main Directorate for the Struggle with Organised Crime to such an extent that even the Prosecutor complained. Another of the defendants, Huseynov, similarly confirmed that officers of the Main Directorate for the Struggle with Organised Crime had tortured individuals. While being tortured by the Main Directorate for the Struggle with Organised Crime, Imam Bagirov sustained a broken nose (see F18News 27 January 2016 http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2143). Under the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Azerbaijan is obliged to arrest and try under criminal law any person suspected on good grounds of having committed torture (see Forum 18's Azerbaijan religious freedom survey http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2081). No officials appear to have been arrested or tried for torturing Jabbarov or Imam Bagirov, officials instead denying that torture happened (see below). "A courageous and steadfast person" Professor Hasanli, who had attended the 22 July hearing, praised Imam Bagirov to Caucasian Knot as "a courageous and steadfast person" who had shown "how to resist evil". Prominent film director Rustam Ibragimbekov spoke of the "distressing impression lasting many days" made on him on learning of Bagirov's testimony in court at the 22 July hearing. "The man of God told the judges of the terrible tortures the investigators subjected him to," he wrote In a 28 July commentary for the Contact.az news website. "However, the court ignored the information about the investigators' serious official crimes." Officer denies torture An officer of the Main Directorate for the Struggle with Organised Crime in Baku denied absolutely that officers of his service tortured any of the defendants, including Agayev and Imam Bagirov. "There was no torture here, none at all," the officer - who would not give his name because it is a "secret" - insisted to Forum 18 on 4 August. "Our officers did everything in accordance with the law." The officer - who said he had been present in Nardaran during the authorities' assault on 26 November 2015 and had testified at the trial of the 18 - claimed that the defendants were trying to justify themselves by accusing others. "Do you know what serious crimes they're accused of?" he asked Forum 18. "They're guilty of the deaths of the two police officers," the officer added. Told that defendants deny any wrongdoing, and the court has not made any determination of innocence or guilt so they enjoy the presumption of innocence, the officer dismissed this. "They're guilty - I was there." Full trial begins, prisoners of conscience deny charges The full trial of Imam Bagirov and the 17 other defendants began on 3 August. The Prosecutor accused the defendants that "with the aim of violently overthrowing the constitutional set-up of the country, the creation of a religious state ruled by Sharia law, they created a movement named 'Muslim Unity'," Caucasian Knot noted. The Prosecutor accused the group of finding supporters across the country and supplying them with weapons. The prosecutor added that the group was holding an "illegal" meeting in Nardaran to plan specific "terrorist" attacks. Imam Bagirov told the hearing that on 26 November 2015, he and his friends were praying the Friday namaz when the authorities stormed the house in Nardaran where he was (see F18News 1 December 2015 http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2127). He insisted that neither he nor his friends put up any resistance to the authorities and added that one of the villagers, Haji Farahim, died not from gunshot wounds but from being beaten to death in a police car. Imam Bagirov said two dead police officers were killed by the authorities, the lawyer Fariz Namazli told journalists after the hearing. Popular Front leader Kerimli also said after the hearing that the authorities had tried to incriminate his party in the case. However, despite "incredible tortures", Imam Bagirov had refused to provide testimony to incriminate the party. The trial continued on 4 August. In his testimony, Imam Bagirov described as "rubbish" accusations that he and his supporters had weapons or were trying to create an Islamic state. He told the court that the two police officers had been killed in careless shooting by other police officers. Another of the defendants, Huseynov, similarly rejected the charges of storing weapons and preparing to seize power. The trial of the 18 Muslims is due to resume on 10 August. Mustafayev's trial continues Also on trial at Baku's Serious Crimes Court in a separate case is 41-year-old Shia Muslim Elshan Mustafaoglu Mustafayev. His closed trial under Judge Sabuhi Huseynov, which began with a preliminary hearing on 12 July, is due to resume on 9 August, his lawyer Afgan Mamedov told the local media after the 2 August hearing. Prisoner of conscience Mustafayev is being punished for exercising the right to freedom of religion or belief by encouraging approaches to Islam outside state control. He has been held in pre-trial imprisonment since the then-NSM secret police arrested him on 17 December 2014. He is accused of being a spy for Iran, being recruited in 1992 when he was 17. He faces treason charges which could lead to life imprisonment if convicted (see F18News 29 July 2016 http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2203). (END) For more background information see Forum 18's Azerbaijan religious freedom survey at http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2081. More coverage of freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Azerbaijan is at http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?query=&religion=all&country=23. A compilation of Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) freedom of religion or belief commitments can be found at http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1351. For a personal commentary, by an Azeri Protestant, on how the international community can help establish religious freedom in Azerbaijan, see http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=482. A printer-friendly map of Azerbaijan is available at http://nationalgeographic.org/education/mapping/outline-map/?map=Azerbaijan. Twitter @Forum_18 Follow us on Facebook @Forum18NewsService All Forum 18 News Service material may be referred to, quoted from, or republished in full, if Forum 18 is credited as the source. Uganda: Minister's remarks against LGBTI people amount to advocacy of hatred Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 8 August 2016 Cite as Amnesty International, Uganda: Minister's remarks against LGBTI people amount to advocacy of hatred, 8 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a9a0f04.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Reacting to threats by Uganda's Minister of Ethics and Integrity Simon Lokodo that he will suppress the activities of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) rights activists and "rehabilitate" LGBTI people, Amnesty International said: "The minister's remarks coming only a few days after police assaulted peaceful attendees at a private LGBTI Pride event in Kampala are hugely irresponsible and are tantamount to advocacy of hatred and incitement to discrimination," said Sarah Jackson, Amnesty International's Deputy Regional Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes. "The Ugandan government should be working to bring to account those responsible for the criminal attack that left one person hospitalised with serious injuries, and dozens more injured, instead of condoning these attacks and inciting further hostility against LGBTI people." Background In his remarks today in Kampala, Lokodo publicly backed the police raid on 4 August on a nightclub last Thursday in which LGBTI people were beaten and undressed. Lokodo told journalists that his office was also developing a programme to "rehabilitate" LGBTI people "with the ultimate aim of giving them a chance to live normal lives again". Copyright notice: Copyright Amnesty International Jordan/United States: Transfer 70,000 Trapped Syrians Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 5 August 2016 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Jordan/United States: Transfer 70,000 Trapped Syrians, 5 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a9a1974.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. The United States should help Jordan transfer an estimated 70,000 Syrians stuck in appalling conditions at its northeastern border to a safe location, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to President Barack Obama that was released today. The United States should also step up its efforts to resettle Syrians who are living in Jordan and other neighboring countries. "It is critically important to help Jordan find a solution to move these highly vulnerable people to a safe place where they can be screened for security concerns and protection needs," said Bill Frelick, refugee rights director at Human Rights Watch. "We are urging President Obama not only to help Jordan increase its capacity to provide asylum, but also to step up efforts to resettle the refugees in the US and to encourage other countries to do the same." Jordan hosts 657,000 Syrian refugees. But, since July 2014, the Jordanian authorities have trapped tens of thousands of other Syrian asylum seekers for months at a time in a barren desert area just north of a raised sand barrier, or "berm." The barrier marks the limit of a demilitarized zone inside Jordan, several hundred meters south of the Syrian-Jordanian border. Until June 21, 2016, Jordan had allowed aid agencies to provide limited food, water, and medical aid to the increasing numbers of people stuck in the area, while they awaited transfer to refugee screening centers. Since June 21, however, when an explosives-laden truck from the armed extremist group Islamic State killed seven Jordanian soldiers at a border post, Jordan has allowed no one in the berm area to enter farther into Jordan. Between June 21 and August 3, Jordan blocked all deliveries of food and medical assistance, which people in the berm area depend on for survival, to the estimated 70,000 people there, half of them children. On August 3-4, Jordan permitted the UN agencies to temporarily resume limited deliveries. Jordan has asked the UN to lay out other options for providing assistance to the Syrians at the berm, and various options have been discussed with interested government and UN agency representatives in New York and Beirut. Among the proposals discussed were to move the people at the berm 10 kilometers inside Syria, to allow aid deliveries across the Syrian border or internal conflict lines, or to use air drops or a crane to deliver food and assistance. No agency has announced a practical method to provide aid inside Syria in these remote desert locations. "Providing sporadic assistance, while necessary in terms of immediate needs, is not a sufficient solution: what is imperative is to bring these people to safety," Frelick said. "Aid can't be a substitute for protection." In December 2015, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that Jordan was putting the lives of refugees at risk by trapping them at the berm, including "women giv[ing] birth in unsanitary and unhygienic conditions, [people with] respiratory tract infections, gastroenteritis, skin disease diarrhea, vomiting and acute malnutrition." Since that time, conditions at the berm have significantly deteriorated. In the July 28 letter to President Obama, Human Rights Watch urges the United States, which will host a major summit on the Global Refugee Crisis on September 20, to show leadership by working with Jordan, a close ally, to move the stranded asylum seekers to a safe location. The letter says that the United States and other donor governments should provide financial, technical, and logistical support to enable Jordan to transfer asylum seekers from the berm to a secure location and that the US should step up its efforts to resettle or accept Syrian refugees into the US. One suggestion from Human Rights Watch is to fly some of the asylum seekers directly to places where they would have the right under US law to lodge asylum claims and where they could stay in safety and dignity while undergoing screening. As of August 1, UNHCR had registered 657,000 Syrians in Jordan. Human Rights Watch has repeatedly called for other countries to increase their assistance to Jordan and to resettle greater numbers of the Syrian refugees living in Jordan. International donors should also step up assistance to Jordan and aid agencies working on the Syria crisis, including through long-term development funding. UNHCR Jordan has received 59 percent of its budget request for 2016. "The crisis at the Jordanian border gives the United States the opportunity to demonstrate to the world that refugee crises can be managed in compassionate ways that both save lives and provide for greater regional and global security," Frelick said. Copyright notice: Copyright, Human Rights Watch Oman: Journalists Arrested for Criticizing Judiciary Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 5 August 2016 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Oman: Journalists Arrested for Criticizing Judiciary, 5 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a9a2044.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Omani police have arrested two journalists over a July 26, 2016 article that criticized the country's judiciary. Ibrahim al-Ma'mari, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Azamn, was arrested on July 28, and Zaher al-Abri, who oversees the newspaper's local coverage, was arrested on August 3. The Azamn article, "Higher Authorities Tie the Hands of Justice," claimed that the chairman of the Omani Supreme Court had been involved in unlawfully influencing and overruling an appeal court's verdict in a high-profile inheritance case. The article accused the Supreme Court chair of undermining the judiciary's independence by carrying out instructions from "higher authorities." "Journalists who allege officials' abuse of power shouldn't face criminal charges and retaliation," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director. "If the authorities think such allegations are wrong, they should debate them publicly, not lock up the messengers." Al-Ma'mari is believed to be held incommunicado at the Special Branch of the Royal Oman Police, a source familiar with the case told Human Rights Watch. There is currently no information available about Al-Abri's place of detention. Omani authorities should immediately release al-Ma'mari and al-Abri unless they promptly bring recognizable criminal charges against them and guarantee them a fair trial, Human Rights Watch said. In an interview published on July 30, in the local news outlet Atheer, a representative of the Public Prosecution Department said al-Ma'mari is accused of violating articles 25 and 29 of the Publications and Publishing Law, which prohibit "publishing anything that explicitly or implicitly defames the person of his Majesty the Sultan or members of the Royal Family or... disrupts the public order," and "publishing details of investigations or court proceedings related to personal status or other personal matters whose publishing is banned by standing court instructions." The prosecution spokesman also said that al-Ma'mari is accused of violating article 135 of the penal code, which proscribes "undermining the prestige of the state," and article 19 of the cybercrime law, which prohibits publishing materials that "undermine religious values or the public order." The representative claimed that al-Ma'mari had declined his right to be represented by a lawyer. Some of these vaguely defined charges appear to violate international standards of freedom of expression, including the right to criticize government authorities, as well as raise serious due process concerns surrounding the arrests, Human Rights Watch said. Authorities have also denied al-Ma'mari due process, as "no one has been able to speak to him since Thursday [July 28], no one knows where he is being held, and he hasn't been able to see a lawyer," an individual with details of the case told Human Rights Watch on August 1. The source also claimed that the Information Ministry had issued orders prohibiting Azamn from publishing an article defending al-Ma'mari and reporting on his arrest. The arrested journalist Al-Abri also stated on July 31, on Twitter, that the information minister himself threatened Azamn newspaper if they reported on this topic. Following al-Ma'mari's arrest, Azamn published a blank front page to protest being silenced. Human Rights Watch has documented a pattern of repression of freedom of speech in Oman, as well as previous attempts to intimidate and persecute Azamn employees, including al-Ma'mari. In September 2011, an Omani court sentenced al-Ma'mari and fellow journalist Yousef al-Haj to five months in prison for insulting the justice minister in an another article that alleged corruption in the judiciary. That ruling violated international standards for freedom of speech. The court subsequently suspended the sentences. Copyright notice: Copyright, Human Rights Watch Gambia: Opposition Politician's Death Must Prompt Human Rights Reform Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 5 August 2016 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Gambia: Opposition Politician's Death Must Prompt Human Rights Reform, 5 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a9a2724.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Opposition supporters demonstrate on April 16, 2016 in the Gambian capital, Banjul, following the death in custody of opposition activist Solo Sandeng. Gambian security forces broke up the protest and arrested more than 20 demonstrators, including opposition leader Ousainou Darboe. Gathered together on the floor of a dusty house, Solo Sandeng's children remember their father with a mix of sadness, anger and pride. "We want him to be remembered for what he did," Aminata, 24, tells me, "But we also want justice." Her sister, Fatoumatta, 22, listens to my questions with her eyes fixed to the floor, her head wrapped in a black headscarf. When she looks up, the calm authority in her voice suggests she will continue her father's struggle. "The Gambian government wants to silence us," she says. "But what they did to Solo, they created an anger that will not relent." Sandeng, a prominent Gambian opposition politician, was allegedly beaten to death by members of the Gambian security services within hours of his arrest on April 14. That day, he and a small group of activists had taken part in a demonstration calling for electoral reform ahead of December's presidential election. The protest was a rare example of dissent in a country that a former army officer, Yahya Jammeh, has ruled with an iron fist since coming to power in a 1994 coup. Human Rights Watch (HRW) has documented how Jammeh's regime uses arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances and torture to create a climate of fear that suppresses opposition. The government's response to the protest in April was a stark reminder of the risks that opposition parties face in the run-up to elections. "In a country where there was any sort of democracy, my father's actions would have been taken with grace," Fatoumatta told me. Instead, Gambian police quickly descended on the protest, arrested Sandeng and his fellow protesters and eventually charged 25 with public order offenses. Several allege that, like Sandeng, they were badly beaten while in detention. Upon hearing media reports of her father's death in the early hours of April 16, Fatoumatta and her brother, 19-year-old Muhammed, marched with leaders of Sandeng's political party, the United Democratic Party (UDP), toward the police headquarters where Sandeng had initially been detained. The demonstrators chanted, "Release Solo Sandeng, Dead or Alive." Fatoumatta recalled that as they walked, she kept thinking that "after all they did to Solo, they will leave us alone." But the police fired teargas to disperse the crowd and beat protesters with batons. Fatoumatta escaped after being ushered hastily into a taxi. Muhammed was chased by police officers and struck on the arm, but eventually got away. More than 20 other protesters, including UDP leader Ousainou Darboe and several UDP executive members, were arrested. News of Sandeng's death and the arrest of the UDP leadership led to widespread condemnation from African human rights bodies, the United Nations, the European Union, and the United States. President Jammeh responded in May, saying that human rights groups and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon could "go to hell." On June 22, Saihou Omar Jeng, a senior official at Gambia's National Intelligence Agency, stated that Sandeng had died in custody of "shock" and "respiratory failure" but provided no explanation of the circumstances that led to his death. Half an hour after Fatoumatta and Muhammed arrived home on April 16, a police convoy drove up to their gate. They understood what it meant. "Family members of people involved in the April 14 and 16 protests were being targeted," Fatoumatta says. "So we knew it wasn't safe, we never went back to our house." A subsequent protest on May 9 in solidarity with those arrested on April 14 and 16 was quickly suppressed. Now in exile, Sandeng's children hope that people remember the call for electoral reform that led to their father's death. On July 20, Darboe and several UDP executives were sentenced to three years in prison, meaning the UDP's leadership will remain in detention during the upcoming presidential elections. Eleven protesters arrested with Sandeng were also sentenced, on July 21, to three years in prison. Gambian government officials told HRW that opposition groups are able to operate without restrictions. But leaders from opposition parties decry their lack of access to media, with state radio and television dominated by Jammeh and the ruling party. An inter-party dialogue intended as a forum to discuss electoral reform has stalled. As the elections approach, the U.S. and EU should consider imposing targeted sanctionssuch as travel bans and asset freezeson senior officials implicated in human rights violations unless the government begins an impartial and transparent investigation into Sandeng's death, releases all peaceful protesters, and engages in a genuine dialogue over electoral reform. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) should consider suspending Gambia from ECOWAS decision-making bodies if the human rights situation does not improve, and improve quickly. Fatoumatta hopes that her father's death will be a turning point for Gambia. But she acknowledges that the threat of arrest still stifles independent voices. "Fear still rules in Gambia," says Fatoumatta. "Only if that changes can we really talk about free elections." Jim Wormington is an Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. He tweets @jwormington. Copyright notice: Copyright, Human Rights Watch Uganda: Police Attack LGBTI Pride Event Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 5 August 2016 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Uganda: Police Attack LGBTI Pride Event, 5 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a9a2d14.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Ugandan police unlawfully raided an event late in the evening of August 4, 2016, the third night of a week of Ugandan LGBTI Pride celebrations, brutally assaulting participants, seven human rights groups said today. The event was a pageant in Kampala's Club Venom to crown Mr/Ms/Mx Uganda Pride. Police claimed that they had been told a "gay wedding" was taking place and that the celebration was "unlawful" because police had not been informed of the event. However, police had been duly informed, and the prior two Pride events, on August 2 and 3, were conducted without incident. "We strongly condemn these violations of Ugandans' rights to peaceful association and assembly," said Nicholas Opiyo, a human rights lawyer and executive director at Chapter Four Uganda. "These brutal actions by police are unacceptable and must face the full force of Ugandan law." The police locked the gates of the club, arrested more than 16 people the majority of whom are Ugandan LGBT rights activists and detained hundreds more for over 90 minutes, beating and humiliating people; taking pictures of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) Ugandans and threatening to publish them; and confiscating cameras. Witnesses reported that the police assaulted many participants, in particular transgender women and men, in some cases groping and fondling them. One person jumped from a sixth-floor window to avoid police abuse and is in a hospital in critical condition. By approximately 1:20 a.m., all those arrested had been released without charge from the Kabalagala Police Station. This episode of police brutality did not happen in isolation, the groups said. It comes at a time of escalating police violence targeting media, independent organizations, and the political opposition. "Any force by Ugandan police targeting a peaceful and lawful assembly is outrageous," said Frank Mugisha, executive director of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), who was among those arrested. "The LGBTI community stands with all Ugandan civil society movements against police brutality." "The Ugandan government should condemn violent illegal actions by police targeting the LGBTI community and all Ugandans," said Asia Russell at Health GAP. "The US and all governments should challenge President Museveni to intervene immediately and hold his police force accountable." LGBTI Ugandans routinely face violence, discrimination, bigotry, blackmail, and extortion. The unlawful government raid on a spirited celebration displays the impunity under which Ugandan police are operating. "The state has a duty to protect all citizens' enjoyment of their rights, including the right to peacefully assemble to celebrate Pride Uganda," said Hassan Shire, executive director at Defend Defenders. "A swift and transparent investigation should be conducted into last night's unacceptable demonstration of police brutality." Activists called on the governments to immediately and publicly condemn the raid and to take swift disciplinary action against those responsible for the gross violations of rights and freedoms. The organizers said that Pride Uganda celebrations will continue as planned, with a celebration on August 6. "Our pride and resilience remain steadfast despite these horrible and shameful actions by Ugandan police," said Clare Byarugaba of Chapter Four Uganda. "Celebrating with LGBTI people and demonstrating solidarity in calling for their rights to be respected is as basic a show of free expression and association under human rights law as you can get," said Maria Burnett, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. "Ugandan authorities should not only refrain from trying to stop such activities, but they have binding legal obligations to ensure others do not interfere in this fundamental exercise of basic rights." Signatories: Chapter Four Uganda Defend Defenders Health GAP Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum Human Rights Watch Sexual Minorities Uganda Uganda Pride Committee Copyright notice: Copyright, Human Rights Watch Armenia: Arbitrary Detentions, Brutal Beatings Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 5 August 2016 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Armenia: Arbitrary Detentions, Brutal Beatings, 5 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a9a3364.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Armenian authorities have arbitrarily detained dozens of people linked to the ongoing, largely peaceful, protests and beaten many of them, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities also have pressed unjustified criminal charges against numerous protest leaders and some participants and denied them basic rights of detainees. "The Armenian authorities' response to Yerevan's largely peaceful protests has been excessive and cruel," said Jane Buchanan, associate Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "The tense atmosphere at some protests is no justification for detaining people arbitrarily, beating them, and bringing disproportionate criminal charges against them." There have been protests in Armenia's capital, Yerevan, almost every night since July 17, 2016, after a group of armed men from a radical opposition group seized a Yerevan police station, killing one policeman and taking several hostages. Before the gunmen surrendered on July 31, public support for them and disaffection with the government grew into a wide protest movement in Yerevan. The protests have been largely peaceful, with isolated incidents of violence by some protesters. Police in some cases responded to protests with excessive force and with large-scale arbitrary detentions. Human Rights Watch interviewed victims of arbitrary detention and police beatings, witnesses to the detentions and abuse, and lawyers for many of those detained. Police beat many detainees, in some cases severely, and in some cases did not allow them to get prompt medical care for their injuries. For example, on July 18, police detained a 26-year-old activist, Andranik Aslanyan, at Yerevan's Liberty Square and severely beat him and two other men in the back of a police van. Police kicked, punched, and beat Aslanyan on the head, face, back, and legs, spat on him, and rubbed his face on their boots to humiliate him. He was then held for three hours before being taken to a hospital even though he, and others, asked for and needed immediate medical attention. Armenia's Special Investigative Service has opened investigations into the police behavior, and these investigations should be swift, thorough, and lead to accountability for police who engaged in unlawful conduct, Human Rights Watch said. The Special Investigative Service told Human Rights Watch on August 3, that it has also opened investigations into the police actions on July 29, as well as into the police behavior on other protest nights, and that investigators have not yet identified any suspects or made any arrests among law enforcement agencies. Police have detained hundreds of people since July 17, but law enforcement authorities have not publicly disclosed exactly how many people were detained, where they were held, how many have been released, or how many are under arrest and facing criminal charges. The Armenian Ombudsman's Office told Human Rights Watch that authorities detained at least 220 people from July 17 through 30, and brought criminal charges against approximately 45 of them. Police can detain protesters who commit acts of violence or violate public order laws. But detention is considered arbitrary if it does not comply with the legal framework for detention and is not based on the person's specific behavior but instead is a response to the person's legitimate exercise of rights or freedoms guaranteed under international law. In some cases, police held detainees for up to 12 hours without documenting the detentions. Under Armenian law, police have three hours to prepare a detention record or release the detainee. In at least two cases, police held groups of people in one case more than 100 people for longer periods in a gymnasium on a base belonging to interior troops. The authorities released many detainees without charge. Of the approximately 45 in pretrial detention, many face criminal charges for allegedly "organizing mass disorder," which carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison. In some cases, authorities have brought, or threatened to bring, charges against political activists for illegal weapons possession. In two of the cases, detainees claim that police planted the weapons on them. Authorities denied many detainees their basic rights, including prompt access to a lawyer of their choosing and the opportunity to inform a relative of their detention and whereabouts. In some cases, people searched desperately for their relatives before finding out they had been detained. Among the vocal protest leaders facing charges of organizing mass disorder are Andreas Ghukasyan, an opposition politician, and Hovsep Khurshudyan, David Sanasaryan, and Armen Martirosyan, all senior members of the opposition Heritage Party. The men's lawyers told Human Rights Watch that the primary basis for the charges in all cases is police testimony. Witnesses and the men's lawyers told Human Rights Watch that the police beat Ghukasyan and Sanasaryan in detention and denied them basic medical care. On August 1 and 2, courts ordered the four leaders be held for two months in pretrial detention, ruling that each is a flight risk and would hinder the investigation or commit another crime if freed on bail. The men's lawyers said that investigators did not provide the court specific facts to support the need for custody, but simply stated all possible legal grounds for denial. Without explanation, the judges rejected all defense motions to release the men, referring only to the gravity of the crime and envisaged sanction for it. In determining whether to authorize a person's detention, human rights law requires the judicial authorities, at a minimum, have enough evidence to establish a reasonable suspicion that the person committed an offense. To justify pretrial detention, the European Court of Human Rights, whose rulings are binding on Armenia, has repeatedly clarified that a court needs evidence of specific facts and personal circumstances relevant to the accused justifying pretrial detention, and cannot rely on "general and abstract" reasons for detention. "The authorities have presented no meaningful grounds for holding these four protest leaders," Buchanan said. "They should be released immediately on bail, pending the outcome of the investigation and a fair trial." The authorities have also denied the men the opportunity to make phone calls and to have family visits, claiming that contact with family members or others could compromise the investigation. Under Armenian law, detainees have the right to one phone call per week and one family visit every two weeks. Under Armenian law, the crime of "organizing mass disorder" requires that the disorder be "accompanied with violence, pogroms, arson, destruction or damage to property, using fire-arms, explosives or explosive devices, or by armed resistance to the representative of the authorities." Charging leaders and participants of the July 29 protests with this crime is unjustified and disproportionate, given that, although at times tense, the demonstration was largely nonviolent, Human Rights Watch said. Such over-charging, when the facts on the ground do not support them, appears intended to intimidate protesters and deter them from exercising their rights to freedom of expression and assembly to demonstrate against the government, rather than any genuine effort to uphold law and order. The majority of those in pretrial custody are at the Nubarashen pretrial detention facility, which has a significant overcrowding problem. An independent expert with a monitoring group that, under the auspices of Armenia's Justice Ministry, observes conditions in facilities for detainees and prisoners, told Human Rights Watch that the facility's capacity is 840 inmates, but in January, it held 942 detainees. Excessive use of pretrial detention following the recent protests and dozens of new detainees may exacerbate overcrowding. One lawyer reported that his client, detained on July 20 in relation to the protests, is held in a cell with 14 inmates sleeping in shifts because there are only 12 beds. Armenia is a party to multiple human rights treaties, including the European Convention on Human Rights and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, that require it to ensure effective investigations and appropriate prosecutions and punishment of officials responsible for serious violations of human rights, including ill-treatment. "The authorities' detention of protest leaders and denial of basic detainee rights are unjustifiably punitive and seemed designed to send a message to others that public expression of discontent can carry tremendous risks," Buchanan said. For detailed accounts, please see below. Human Rights Watch conducted interviews in Yerevan from July 30 to August 4, with 12 victims of police beatings and arbitrary detention from July 17 to July 30. Human Rights Watch also interviewed eight lawyers for people facing criminal charges in relation to the July protests. Some of those facing charges were also victims of police violence. Human Rights Watch also interviewed one lawyer for two people who were released without charge and relatives of two men charged with crimes related to the protests. Beatings, Delays in Medical Care Andranik Aslanyan Police detained Andranik Aslanyan, the 26-year-old activist, on July 18 at Yerevan's Liberty Square, severely beat him in a police van, then took him to a gym at interior troops base no. 1033, Aslanyan said: Four policemen grabbed me, twisted my arms behind my back and stuffed me into a police van together with two other men. When they closed the doors, they started to beat us, kicking, punching, and beating me on my head, feet, face, and back. They handcuffed me so tightly that it cut into the flesh. I was thrown to the floor of the van, face down, and they continued to beat me. They spit on us to humiliate us even further. Then one of the policemen pushed his boot under my face, kicked me several times and then grabbed my head and pinned it to his boots, trying to put my lips on them. I told them that they'll be held accountable for this, and every time I said this, they'd beat me even more. I had bruises all over my back and face, swelling, and a large lump on the back of my head. Every part of my body was in pain. Police took Aslanyan, along with David Sanasaryan and a third activist, both of whom had also been beaten, to the troop base. At the base's gym, policemen lined them up, facing the wall, searched them, and confiscated their cell phones before taking their handcuffs off. One policeman told Aslanyan to sign a document saying that he disobeyed the legal order of a policeman. Aslanyan refused. Despite Aslanyan's repeated requests for medical assistance, police called an ambulance only three hours later. Both Aslanyan and Sanasaryan were taken to a hospital for treatment. The following day, the Special Investigative Service interviewed Aslanyan regarding his treatment. An investigator also sent him for a forensic medical exam. Several days later, Aslanyan received a letter from the Special Investigative Service that it had opened a criminal investigation, but without any details. David Sanasaryan Aslanyan said that although his face was pressed to the van's floor, he was aware that the police were also kicking and hitting Sanasaryan, who was also in the van. Aslanyan said: "When we got to the military unit, policemen dragged David out, dropped him on the ground, and continued to beat him. Four or five policemen kicked and punched him, so that at some point David lost consciousness." Ara Petrossyan, another protester, was also held at the interior troop base on July 18. He spoke with Sanasaryan and tried to help him. Petrossyan saw police bring Sanasaryan, his hands handcuffed behind his back, into the gym and throw him to the floor, and saw him lose consciousness. Petrossyan said: We wanted to help, but they [police] wouldn't let us. The police did nothing. As he lay on the floor for about 5 to 10 minutes, police checked his pulse a few times. David regained consciousness, but could hardly speak. He asked for water; he said he was nauseated. We feared he had a concussion. The police said maybe he just ate something bad. The doctor from the base checked his blood pressure and pulse and claimed that David was fine. David lay down on the floor, with his bag under his head. After three hours an ambulance took David to the hospital. Arsen Tadevosyan Police beat Arsen Tadevosyan, a 30-year-old activist, on July 21, fracturing his jaw. Tadevosyan went to Khorenatsi Street, the location of the besieged police station, at about 10 p.m. on July 20, shortly after skirmishes between police and some protesters. He told Human Rights Watch that together with other activists he was trying to calm the crowd, to avoid further clashes. Shortly after 3 a.m., activists noticed a growing number of police in the area. Tadevosyan said that around the same time another group of protesters arrived, apparently drunk, and that they behaved aggressively, cursing both police and protesters. Police did nothing to isolate them, but instead deemed the entire protest illegal and used a loudspeaker to tell the crowd to disperse within 15 minutes. Police made another announcement five minutes later, then quickly moved in. Two policemen grabbed Tadevosyan, twisted his arms, and took him behind the police cordon and assaulted him, he said. Police took him to Yerevan's Shengavit police station around 4 a.m. It was only at around 10 a.m. that an ambulance took him to a hospital. He said: Four policemen started to beat me. They were hitting me on my head and punching me in the face, breaking my jaw in two places. They were hitting nonstop. After my jaw was broken, I put my hand on my face, saying, "Don't hit me on my head, please, don't." But they continued to beat me even more. At some point I lost consciousness, and came back to my senses after searing pain from another blow. They were punching and kicking all over my body, my ribs, back, everywhere. When they were done beating they wanted to put me in a police car. I was holding my jaw and I was bleeding. There was no space in first two police cars that drove by, as they were full with other detainees. Police continued to beat me until they found a space in the third car and drove me away with three other detainees. I thought that the beating part was over, but as we arrived at a police station, police created a sort of a corridor from the car to the station, about 5 to 6 meters long and they continued to kick and punch as we were taken from the car to the station. The beating continued inside too, as they lined us all up along the wall, searched us, took our phones and punched us few times. I was telling everyone that my jaw was broken, my face was swollen and bleeding. I was in so much pain; I was screaming from pain. Policemen were telling me that I was exaggerating, although it was very visible that my jaw was broken, my whole face was swollen. Tadevosyan was told to sign several documents, which he did not read. "I was in so much pain, that I was just signing anything they [police] were giving me, in the hope that they would call an ambulance," he said. Doctors at the hospital treated Tadevosyan for multiple fractures to the left side of his jaw and near the chin, as well as a concussion. At about 2 or 3 p.m., Tadevosyan was released from the hospital and went back to the Shengavit police station to retrieve his cell phone. After he waited several hours, an investigator arrested Tadevosyan on suspicion of participating in mass disorder and ordered his transfer to a temporary detention facility. Tadevosyan continued to have severe pain and requested medical assistance again, but police refused to call an ambulance. After Tadevosyan arrived at the temporary detention center, an official called an ambulance, which transferred him to a local hospital. After he spent a day in the hospital, the authorities transferred Tadevosyan to a prison hospital at Erebuni, where police guarded his medical ward. On July 23, Tadevosyan was released without charge. Human Rights Watch documented numerous due process violations in Tadevosyan's case. Police did not allow him to call his family until his second day of detention. Tadevosyan was detained and designated a suspect without having a chance to retain a lawyer of his choosing. He was also compelled to sign documents that he did not understand. An investigator from the Special Investigating Service, the agency in charge of investigating crimes by law enforcement officers, questioned Tadevosyan several days later and on August 1, granted him victim status in an investigation. Andreas Gukasyan Police detained Andreas Gukasyan, the politician with the opposition Heritage Party, late on the night of July 29, his lawyer, Yervand Varusyan, told Human Rights Watch. During the arrest, the police knocked Gukasyan down and beat him extensively with truncheons on his body and legs. The lawyer said he saw Gukasyan's bruises when he visited him in detention on July 30. The lawyer said that Gukasyan has constant pain in his knees and other areas, and needs help walking. He made four requests to the investigator to be taken to the hospital for an X-ray, but received no response and no explanation until August 1, when authorities allowed him to be taken to a hospital for an X-ray and examination. Armen Oganesyan Human Rights Watch spoke with the lawyer representing Armen Oganesyan, a protester detained on July 29, when police violently dispersed protesters. Oganesyan helped a journalist, Robert Ananyan of A1+ information agency, bandage his fragmentation wound from the stun grenades police used to disperse the protesters. When a local resident offered to drive the journalist away from the scene, Oganesyan also got into the car. Police stopped the car after a few hundred meters, took the driver and Oganesyan out, and started beating them. Police punched and kicked Oganesyan and struck him with clubs, causing multiple bruises to his left ear and leg, and a lump on the back of his head. One policeman tried to choke him, almost causing him to lose consciousness. Human Rights Watch independently corroborated the circumstances of Oganesyan's detention in an interview with Ananyan. Police took Oganesyan to Nor-Nork police station, where he was arrested on suspicion of participating in mass disorder and taken to a temporary detention site in Erebuni. Oganesyan did not have access to a lawyer of his choosing until 4 p.m. the next day, on July 30. He was released on August 1, for lack of evidence to support the charges. Human Rights Watch also documented separately how police beat journalists and protesters during the dispersal of the July 29 demonstration. Arbitrary Detention and Denial of Due Process Authorities routinely denied detainees the opportunity to inform a relative or loved one about their detention and have prompt access to a lawyer of their choosing, fundamental rights of detainees and important safeguards to prevent ill-treatment and guarantee an effective defense. In many instances, police also violated the requirement under Armenian law to prepare a detention report within three hours or release the detainee. On at least two occasions, on July 18 and July 28, police arbitrarily detained people at bases in Yerevan belonging to the interior troops. Police denied entry to lawyers, did not allow those detained to inform their relatives of their whereabouts, and denied them food, detainees said. Some people reported beatings on the way to the bases. Police also held detainees in police stations in and around Yerevan. In some cases, unidentified men in civilian clothes, driving civilian cars, detained people and took them to police stations. On July 18, the authorities held over 100 people for at least 12 hours in a gymnasium at interior troop base no. 1033. Among them was a political activist, Albert Bagdasaryan, 56. Police had detained Bagdasaryan during a gathering of people on July 17 on Korenatsi Street, near the captured police station. Bagdasaryan said: Two or three policemen grabbed me, pushed my head down, and stuffed me into a car. They were rude. They didn't introduce themselves. They sped to the base. There were at least 10 guys with automatic weapons in a line guarding us. They didn't say anything to us; they didn't explain anything. There were women and young women too among detainees. They gave us water but didn't give us any food. At one point one policeman started swearing aggressively at us detainees. We got agitated and wanted to retaliate. But a more senior officer intervened and stopped the swearing. Petrossyan, detained at a protest on Liberty Square in the evening of July 18, described detention at the same base: There was a protest, I went with my friends. The goal was to be peaceful. I saw how some policemen very rudely dragged David Sanasaryan to a police car. We ran and tried to help him. I tried to grab David from behind, but police surrounded me and put me into a small police car with four other people. They took us to a base [of the interior troops], not to a police station. There were guys there with masks, automatic weapons, truncheons. They made us stand facing the wall with our hands up. After maybe 40 minutes they gave us some water and allowed us to smoke. Then they let us sit down. I was released after two hours. A lawyer for three other men detained at the interior ministry troop base no. 1033 confirmed this description of events: Police again detained Petrossyan at around midnight on July 30, about a kilometer from the besieged police station, where police had, about an hour before, violently dispersed protesters. There was about 30 of us. We hadn't participated in [the main protest]. Three or four police cars drove up. We started to run. They screamed "stop" and ran after us. They detained us really aggressively. They hit me on the head, and put my brother into a car with real force. It was a small car, and they stuffed a lot of us in the back, so we could hardly sit. They didn't explain where they were taking us. They swore at us in the car and told us to shut up. They took us to the yard of some building, I don't know where. There were a lot of police. A policeman there took my phone and I haven't gotten it back. They pulled us out of the car and stuffed us into a different police car. They took us to a police station in Malatia [district]. They held me there for 12 hours or so, letting us go at about noon. My brother was held in a police station in another town, in Echmiadzin. They let him go about the same time. One guy [detained when we were], and in a different car, got beaten on the way. A policeman kicked him with his knee and broke a rib. The whole time I was there, I couldn't make any calls. They had my phone. Some guys asked to call, and the police said, "No, no way!" They threatened us and told us not to go to more demonstrations, saying, "If you get caught again, it will be very bad for you." Detention of Yerishe Petrossyan A lawyer for Yerishe Petrossyan, a well-known composer and musician, told Human Rights Watch that police detained Petrossyan and dozens of others on July 28, at a protest on Khorenatsi Street. Police put the detainees on buses and took them to interior troop base no. 1032 in Davitashen district. The lawyer, who had spoken with Petrossyan, said that police kept the detainees for 10 hours, with armed police guarding them. Police provided no food and insufficient water and denied lawyers' access to the detainees. Police released the detainees later that night and in the early morning hours of July 29. Soso Markaryan Soso Markaryan, 23, participated in a protest on the evening of July 20 on Khorenatsi Street. At around 10 p.m., some protesters clashed with police. Markaryan's lawyer said that later in the evening police fired stun grenades into the crowd to disperse it, and one exploded near Markaryan, injuring him in the legs. As he fled, he threw rocks at police who were attempting to detain some protesters. Markaryan went home, where he treated his wounds himself. The next morning, on July 21, police detained Markaryan at his workplace and took him to a police station. The authorities did not give Markaryan the opportunity to inform his family of his detention or request a lawyer of his choosing. Instead, they assigned him a public defender, claiming that they needed urgently to conduct numerous procedural steps and did not have time to wait for his preferred lawyer to arrive. Markaryan's relatives had a lot of difficulty determining his whereabouts, learning his location only on July 22. On July 23, a Saturday, Ara Zakharyan, the lawyer Markyan's family hired to represent him, asked the authorities to let him meet with Markaryan. However, an investigator claimed it was not possible to visit Markaryan in the temporary detention facility on Saturday or Sunday. On Monday, July 25, the investigator claimed to be too busy. Under Armenian law, the investigator must be present to confirm the choice of a defense lawyer with the detainee. Zakharyan met with Markaryan for the first time only at noon on July 26, more than five days after he was detained. A court had already ordered Markaryan be held for two months in pretrial detention. He faces charges of organizing mass disorder. "Karen" Karen, whose name was changed for security considerations, was detained on July 29, just before the police violently dispersed protesters in the Sari Tagh neighborhood. His lawyer said that at around 10 p.m., several policemen dragged Karen behind the police cordon, roughed him up, put him into a police car and took him to Nor-Nork district police station. Karen managed to call his wife and tell her about his detention before police confiscated his cell phone. Law enforcement officials designated him a suspect in mass disorder, and transferred him to the Erebuni temporary detention facility. Karen spent three nights in official custody. Despite his lawyer's persistent efforts, she was denied an access to her client for the entire period. The lawyer was outside the temporary detention facility on July 30 and 31, after being asked by Karen's wife to represent him. The lawyer repeatedly called investigators, requesting access to her client, which required an investigator's presence at their initial meeting. Investigators first said that no investigators were available to go to the temporary detention facility for the meeting. Then investigators stopped responding to her calls. The lawyer found out later that the investigator had compelled Karen to agree to accept a government-appointed lawyer. Karen's wife was allowed to visit him only a few hours before his release, on August 1. Alleged Planting of Evidence to Bring Weapons Charges Armen Mikaelyan Authorities detained Armen Mikaelyan after a protest at approximately 2:30 a.m. on July 27. He alleges that they planted a weapon on him when they detained him. Mikaelyan is a member of Sasna Tser, the informal group whose members violently took over the Erebuni police station on July 17. Mikaelyan did not participate in the takeover. His wife told Human Rights Watch that as she, Mikaelyan, his parents, and sister left the protest near the police station, two civilian cars with tinted windows and without license plates pulled up next to the family. Eight men in civilian clothes who did not identify themselves grabbed Mikaelyan, forced him into one of the cars, and drove him to a police station on the outskirts of Yerevan. Other men forcibly held Mikaelyan's wife and father, apparently to prevent them from interfering. Mikaelyan's lawyer, who met with him in detention later in the morning of July 27, said Mikaelyan told him that police planted a gun on him while he was handcuffed in the police car. Mikaelyan's wife told Human Rights Watch that at the protest Mikaelyan was wearing a summer shirt and loose-fitting jeans, which would have made it very difficult for him to hide a gun on his person. Mikaelyan was charged with carrying an illegal weapon and sent for two months in Nubarashen pretrial detention center. Albert Bagdasaryan Albert Bagdasaryan, the political activist detained on July 18, was again detained on July 29, after meeting with other political activists in central Yerevan. Two cars stopped and eight men in civilian clothes grabbed him and ordered him into the car. He said: They took me to Arabkir police station. When we pulled into the station yard, about 20 police gathered around the car. One officer put handcuffs on me, behind my back. He yelled at others to grab me, "Pull his arms up, push his head down!" They took me to a room in the station and I could feel something in the back pocket of my jeans. In all that chaos in the police yard, they planted a knife on me. I reached over as I could with my handcuffed hands and felt the handle. And that way my fingerprint was on it. They took the knife as evidence. They wrote up a document, but then put it away. They didn't charge me. My lawyer was waiting outside in the station yard, but they didn't let him in. I started to feel sick while I was there. My blood pressure went way up. They let me go and said that I should go home and call an ambulance from there. I have had no more information about the case, but I worry that they will bring it up again and use it against me. Copyright notice: Copyright, Human Rights Watch Iran: Mass Execution on Terrorism Charges Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 8 August 2016 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Iran: Mass Execution on Terrorism Charges, 8 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a9a3f84.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Iranian authorities announced on August 2, 2016, that they had executed 20 members of a group Iran considers a terrorist organization, Human Rights Watch said today. Authorities have yet to formally confirm the identities of those executed and so it is not yet possible to verify independently how many were killed and who they were. Revolutionary courts had allegedly found the men guilty of "enmity against God," which carries the death penalty in Iran. They are alleged members of a group called "Jihad and Tawhid." The government statements said that authorities executed the men by hanging after they were convicted "of establishing a terrorist group" and "killing a Friday prayer Imam and several local guards," among other crimes. "Iran's mass execution of prisoners on August 2 at Rajai Shahr prison is a shameful low point in its human rights record," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "With at least 230 executions since January 1, Iran is yet again the regional leader in executions but a laggard in implementing the so far illusory penal code reforms meant to bridge the gap with international standards." Two lawyers who represented some of the men told Human Rights Watch that their clients did not get a fair trial and that their due process rights had been violated. Deutsche Welle Persian service reported that on the evening of August 1, prison officials called family members of more than 20 prisoners detained in Ward 4, Room 10 of Rajai Shahr prison and informed them that they could visit their imprisoned family members one last time. The prisoners are believed to have been part of a group of 33 Sunni Muslim men, including possibly a child offender, whom human rights groups previously identified as having been convicted of "enmity against God" (moharebeh). One member of the family of Shahram Ahamdi told Human Rights Watch that on August 2, before they had reached the prison, they were directed to the medical examiner's office where they saw the bodies of 10 people, including their son. The announcement on August 2 was made by the judiciary in northwestern Kurdistan province, who said that 20 members of a "terrorist Takfiri group" (a group accusing others Muslims of apostasy), had been executed after a six-year judicial proceeding. The Iranian government refers to this group as "Jihad and Tawhid." Following the judiciary's announcement, the Ministry of Intelligence published an open letter comparing the group to the extremist group Islamic State, also known as ISIS, and claiming that 102 of its members and supporters had been identified and prosecuted in Iran. Rights groups believe that these 33 men were arrested in 2009 and 2010 and appeared before Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran, where they were charged with "enmity against God," convicted, and sentenced to death. One person was tried by Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran, and another by a branch of the Revolutionary Court of Sanandaj, the capital of Kurdistan province. Both were also sentenced to death for the same crime. In 2014, Human Rights Watch reported on several patterns of due process violations in Rajai Shahr prison and said that the 33 men were at imminent risk of execution. Iran's penal code, which went into force in 2013, provides that the crime of "enmity against God" refers to "drawing a weapon on the life, property or chastity of people or to cause terror as it creates the atmosphere of insecurity." Recent changes require the judiciary to review and vacate sentences of people sentenced to death on that charge if they had not personally used weapons in committing the crime. On March 4, 2015, Iranian authorities executed six men out of this group identified as Hamed Ahamadi, Kamal Molaie, Jamshid Dehghani, Jahangir Dehghani, Sadigh Mohamadi, and Hadi Hossein. Sources familiar with those cases had told Human Rights Watch in 2014 that all six denied that they had killed anyone or had any involvement in violent acts. The men also alleged severe torture, including the use of electric shocks and threats of sexual assault, prolonged solitary confinement, and coerced confessions at the hands of Intelligence Ministry officials during their pretrial detention in the city of Sanandaj. On July 5, the Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA) published a letter said to be from Shahram Ahamdi to Ahmed Shaheed, the United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran. In the letter, Ahmadi described being tortured by his interrogators and asked Shaheed to help him get a fair trial. Lawyers who represented the prisoners believed to have been executed on August 2, 2016, told Human Rights Watch that their clients had not received due process in accordance with the new changes in the penal code. One of the lawyers, Osman Mozayan, who represented at least four of those prisoners, said he did not know for certain whether his clients were among those executed. Rights groups have reported that Iran has executed at least 230 people since the beginning of 2016. International standards require countries that retain the death penalty to use it only for the "most serious crimes," and in exceptional circumstances. In 2012, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions stated that where used, the death penalty should be limited to cases in which a person has been convicted of an intentional killing, which has not been the case in Iran. Human Rights Watch opposes capital punishment in all countries and under all circumstances. Capital punishment is unique in its cruelty and finality, and it is inevitably and universally plagued with arbitrariness, prejudice, and error. "It is shameful that Iran takes pride in the growing number of executions it carries out rather than being able to boast about its adherence to international fair trial standards," Whitson said. "It is critically important to give everyone accused of a crime due process and fair trials, not least when their lives are at stake." Copyright notice: Copyright, Human Rights Watch Singapore: Reject Overly Broad Contempt Law Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 8 August 2016 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Singapore: Reject Overly Broad Contempt Law, 8 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a9a4544.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. The Singapore parliament should recommend a review of the proposed new Administration of Justice (Protection) Act to better protect freedom of expression, as required by international law and the Singapore Constitution, Human Rights Watch said today. The draft legislation, which was tabled in July and will have its second reading in parliament on August 15, 2016, broadly defines the conduct that can be penalized as contempt of court. "As drafted, this bill could easily become the next handy tool for the government to suppress critical speech in Singapore," said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "People should be free to express their views of the justice system without fear of being imprisoned or bankrupted by onerous fines." The draft act includes broad restrictions on freedom of expression. In particular, the bill codifies the archaic offense of "scandalizing the court," which prohibits not just disrupting judicial proceedings but criticizing the court or judicial administration generally, as well as reporting on ongoing cases if it could "risk" prejudicing the trial, even if a professional and presumably independent judge presides. The proposed law should be revised to narrow its scope and reduce disproportionate penalties, Human Rights Watch said. The draft law provides penalties of up to S$100,000 (US$74,200) and three years in prison for several forms of contempt of court, including the archaic offense of "scandalising the court." Moreover, contempt is made an "arrestable" offense, meaning that those suspected of contempt can be subjected to warrantless searches and arrests. "Scandalizing the court" is a common law offense dating from Singapore's British colonial past that contradicts the right to free speech, Human Rights Watch said. The United Kingdom and several other Commonwealth states, including New Zealand, Canada, and Brunei Darussalam, have long since ceased to prosecute this type of contempt charge. Under the draft bill, the "scandalizing the court" offense includes intentionally publishing anything that imputes improper motives to the court or impugns its integrity, or "poses a real risk of prejudice" to any pending case. While the accompanying legislative notes to the bill state that "fair criticism" (which is left undefined) is meant to be exempted, it will be not be an acceptable defense to contend that one didn't intend to scandalize the court. The vagueness of the offense, combined with the harshness of the potential penalty, will likely cause many persons to self-censor rather than risk prosecution, thereby significantly curtailing open discussion of the administration of justice in Singapore, Human Rights Watch said. In 2015, blogger and activist Alex Au was found guilty of "scandalizing the court" in a blog post commenting on the scheduling of two constitutional challenges to Singapore's sodomy law. Au noted that the High Court ruling in the first case had been delayed and speculated that the reason might be so that the new chief justice, who had been the attorney general at the time the first case was filed, could sit on the bench hearing the challenge. The court found that his post suggested that the chief justicewas partial, and he was convicted and fined S$8,000 (US$5,935). In 2013, cartoonist Leslie Chew was charged with "scandalizing the court" in four satirical cartoons posted on his Facebook page "Demon-cratic Singapore." The cartoons satirized court decisions for allegedly favoring foreigners, ruling for a celebrity and against a serviceman, imposing disparate sentences for the same offense, and joining a government vendetta against an opposition politician. Charges were dropped only after Chew agreed to delete the four cartoons and publicly apologize. Author Alan Shadrake was sentenced to six weeks in prison and a S$20,000 fine (US$14,840) in 2010, for "scandalizing the court" in his book Once a Jolly Hangman, which suggested that Singapore's mandatory death penalty for drug trafficking offenses is not always equitably applied. Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is broadly recognized as reflective of customary law, protects the right to freedom of expression. International standards only allow content-based restrictions on expression in extremely narrow circumstances, such as threats to national security or public order. Restrictions must be provided by law, strictly construed, and necessary and proportionate to the interest protected. The United Nations Human Rights Committee, in its General Comment No. 34 on the right to freedom of expression, states that "the mere fact that forms of expression are considered to be insulting to a public figure is not sufficient to justify the imposition of penalties." The Human Rights Committee monitors the compliance of states parties to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Singapore has not joined. Other international bodies interpreting freedom of expression, including the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, have also disfavored laws that penalize criticism of public authorities. The Administration of Justice (Protection) Act's broad restrictions on discussion of ongoing court matters are also problematic. While restrictions on speech that poses a substantial risk of prejudice to a fair trial are permissible under international law, they should be narrowly drawn to interfere with good faith reporting as little as possible. In particular, it should be presumed that a professional judge is generally capable of ignoring or resisting improper influence from commentary outside the courtroom. In addition, under the draft law, while citizens will be prohibited from discussing ongoing proceedings under the proposed new law, it specifically permits the government to comment whenever it feels it "is necessary in the public interest," regardless of whether doing so could prejudice the ongoing proceedings and the presumption of innocence. Finally, the proposed law gives the attorney general the power to seek a court order requiring the removal of potentially "contemptuous" material without giving notice of his application to those most affected. In fact, the law requires that the application be heard "without the presence" of the author or the person who will be ordered to take down the material. The court "must" grant the order if the government makes a prima facie case that the material falls within the law's broad definition of contempt. Failure to comply with the order can result in a sentence of 12 months in prison, a S$20,000 (US$14,480) fine, or both. "This proposed legislation is a one-sided law that as drafted will effectively gag any discussion of courts and justice in Singapore, so the government should send it back to the drawing board," said Robertson. "It demonstrates, once again, just how far Singapore is willing to go to restrict freedom of expression and shield its justice system from scrutiny." Copyright notice: Copyright, Human Rights Watch Egypt: Prosecution Undermines Anti-Corruption Efforts Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 9 August 2016 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Egypt: Prosecution Undermines Anti-Corruption Efforts, 9 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a9a5714.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Egyptian prosecutors should drop a case against the country's former chief corruption auditor that violates the right to free speech and harms efforts to combat corruption. A Cairo court for minor offenses convicted Hisham Geneina of disseminating false information and gave him a suspended one-year sentence on July 28, 2016. Geneina is appealing the verdict but had to pay a fine of 20,000 Egyptian pounds (US$2,252) and 10,000 (US$1,126) for bail. Geneina's defense said that the charges against him were based on a misquoted statement to the media about the cost of corruption. "The abuse of free speech in Egypt has heightened to the point of turning a misunderstanding into criminal charges punishable by prison," said Nadim Houry, deputy Middle East and North Africa director. "This escalation can have a dangerous chilling effect, especially on officials responsible for reporting corruption." President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi set a precedent by removing Geneina as head of the Central Auditing Organization, a key financial watchdog, in March, after Geneina made several statements to the media asserting that state institutions and prosecutors were ignoring or stymying action on his reports of corruption. Geneina was the only remaining senior official from the administration of President Mohamed Morsy, who was removed in a July 2013 coup led by then-Defense Minister al-Sisi. Geneina has repeatedly alleged endemic government corruption and said that the country's prosecutor general was not investigating many of his hundreds of corruption reports, including against the Interior Ministry. In December 2015, the independent newspaper al-Youm al-Sabaa quoted Geneina as saying that corruption had cost Egypt more than 600 billion pounds (US$67.6 billion) that year. A few days later, Geneina issued a statement clarifying that the figure represented money lost due to corruption between 2012 and 2015, not just in 2015, and his office issued a 350-page report about corruption. But a committee formed by al-Sisi to investigate the claim accused Geneina of "defamation of state apparatuses," and some members of parliament called for investigating him. Independent reviews of Geneina's report by economic journalists and researchers found that despite methodological weaknesses, it did not exaggerate the cost of graft and may have underestimated it. On March 28, al-Sisi fired Geneina and replaced him with Hisham Badawi, his recently appointed deputy and a former senior member of the Supreme State Security Prosecution who, according to media reports, had investigated corruption cases against former President Hosni Mubarak and several business tycoons, most of which ended with their acquittal. On May 17, Geneina's lawyers filed suit at the Administrative Court to contest his dismissal, saying it was unconstitutional and unlawful. They also claimed he was fired after pro-government TV anchors systematically targeted him. A court postponed a hearing on the lawsuit until September 5. On June 2, the Supreme State Security Prosecution referred Geneina to trial before the New Cairo Minor Offenses Court on charges of disseminating false news that harmed the national interest. Geneina called the case retaliation for speaking out and challenging his dismissal and refused to pay a 10,000-pound (US$118) bail to avoid pretrial detention. He was detained briefly before his family paid the bail. On June 28, Geneina's defense team asked the court to suspend his trial until a verdict was reached in a separate lawsuit Geneina had filed against al-Youm al-Sabaa for misquoting him, since the outcome could affect the charges against him, but the court released its verdict as planned on July 28. The judge imposed the maximum sentence under Article 188 of the penal code for disseminating false news. By law, Egypt's president appoints the head of the Central Auditing Organization and other independent agencies but cannot fire them before their term ends. But in July 2015, in the absence of a parliament, al-Sisi issued Decree 89 of 2015, granting himself the authority to dismiss agency heads in certain cases, including if they pose a threat to national security, fail to perform their duties, or lose trust. According to various studies by economic researchers, Egyptian government corruption is widespread and was one of the main drivers of the 2011 uprising. World Bank research found that firms with political connections to the Mubarak government enjoyed policy privileges that not only made them more profitable, but also suppressed aggregate economic growth and catalyzed unemployment. One study by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, a prominent local human rights group, found that Egypt lost US$10 billion in gas revenues between 2005 and 2011 as a result of corrupt contracts that allowed gas to be sold abroad for below-market prices. Egypt subsequently faced a drastic energy shortage that has caused daily blackouts in parts of the country, interrupting the lives and work of millions of Egyptians, including at vital facilities such as hospitals. After Mubarak's ouster, prosecutors charged many of his high-level officials with corruption offenses, though few have been convicted. Mubarak's interior minister, Habib al-Adly, was acquitted in corruption cases that could have led to 45 years in prison, though he was convicted and served a three-year sentence for forcing Interior Ministry conscripts to work for him and his family without pay. In May 2016, an aide to Egypt's health minister was arrested after allegedly receiving bribes worth 4.5 million pounds (US$507,000) from a medical device company. The charges against Geneina violate international human rights laws that protect free speech. Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Egypt is a party, guarantees freedom of expression and opinion. Limitations are only permissible when they are stated clearly by law and necessary for the protection of the rights or reputation of others, or the protection of national security, public order, public health or morals. The United Nations Human Rights Committee, which monitors the implementation of the ICCPR, has stressed that freedom of expression "is a necessary condition for the realization of the principles of transparency and accountability that are, in turn, essential for the promotion and protection of human rights." The firing and prosecution of Geneina raise concerns about government attempts to undermine the independence and efficacy of anti-corruption bodies. The Egyptian government should uphold its obligation to foster the autonomy of investigating authorities under its 2005 ratification of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption. As the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights asserts, "corruption is an enormous obstacle to the realization of all human rights civil, political, economic, social and cultural, as well as the right to development." Transparency International, which ranks Egypt 88th out of 168 countries in terms of corruption, found that bribery is also pervasive both within Egypt and the entire Middle East and North Africa region. It stated that nearly one out of three citizens who try to obtain basic services in the region must resort to paying bribes, which clearly violates the principles of nondiscrimination and equal access embodied in the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, which Egypt ratified in 1982. Another study by Transparency International found that two out of three Egyptians believe the parliament, media, judiciary, police, and education system to be corrupt, with more than 80 percent believing that corruption either stayed the same or increased following the 2011 uprising. "If Sisi is serious about fighting corruption within Egypt, as he has said time and again, he should empower the regulatory agencies charged with investigating graft instead of single-handedly weakening the autonomy they depend on," Houry said. "Protecting the independence of anti-corruption organizations and their officials protects the freedoms and rights of Egyptians." Copyright notice: Copyright, Human Rights Watch Turkish-Russian Rapprochement Turbocharged by Istanbul Coup Attempt Publisher EurasiaNet Author Dorian Jones Publication Date 27 July 2016 Other Languages / Attachments Russian Cite as EurasiaNet, Turkish-Russian Rapprochement Turbocharged by Istanbul Coup Attempt, 27 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a9a9dc4.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. The recent failed military coup in Istanbul is pushing the Turkish government to prioritize a rapprochement with Russia, as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is due to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg on August 9. The meeting comes at an opportune time for Putin. Turkey is a key geopolitical player in the Black Sea region. But its Western orientation is now coming under stress. Ankara's ties with nearly all of its western allies are now strained amid suspicions of complicity in the unsuccessful July 15 putsch and growing criticism by both the United States and European Union over Erdogan's escalating crackdown in the coup-attempt aftermath. Ever the opportunist, Putin seems content to set aside Turkish-Russian rancor. Relations between Ankara and Moscow were plunged into the deep freeze following Turkey's downing of a Russian bomber operating from a Syrian airbase in November. Even before the Istanbul coup attempt, relations had begun to thaw following Erdogan's apology in June, but that process now seems set to accelerate. "There is a mutual understanding these deteriorated relations do not benefit both countries," said Ayse Sozen Usluer, a foreign policy aide to Erdogan. "I can see a political will to normalize these relations; I guess these relations will be back to what they were before the plane was shot down." In a possible gesture to Moscow, Turkish officials have noted that among those detained following the botched military takeover is the pilot who shot down the Russia plane. Conveniently, Turkish officials have even suggested in the media that the downing could have a connection to the coup conspiracy against the government. Moscow was among the first foreign governments to offer support to Erdogan during the failed military takeover - crucially when its outcome was far from clear. This endorsement has provided powerful impetus for August's talks, said international relations expert Soli Ozel of Istanbul's Kadir Has University. "Putin has given his support to Erdogan. There are unconfirmed reports Russia was the first one to warn the Turks about the possible coup," Ozel said. "The fact that this will be the first major [post-coup] meeting by President Erdogan with any world leader makes it significant." Putin will surely point out a contrast between his quick support for the Turkish government and the comparatively slow reactions of many of Turkey's western allies, which were widely seen as taking a more "wait and see" approach. Nearly all condemnations from Ankara's allies of the putsch came after it was clear it was failing. There is a deep sense among leaders in Ankara that many politicians among its allies were not on their side. The United Kingdom only made a statement at 11 AM local time the following morning. In the US, one Virginia state senator and former Marine, Dick Black, tweeted: "Good news of the day: Military attempting to oust Turkish dictator." Erdogan advisor Usluer was clear in thanking US President Barrack Obama for his support, even though it came in the early hours of the morning local time when the coup attempt was collapsing. "There is a lot of anger, anti-Western articles and statements from individuals and from government members," cautioned veteran diplomatic columnist Semih Idiz of Turkey's Cumhuriyet newspaper, "[There is] a lot of anti-Americanism, a lot of anti-NATO sentiment, so foreign policy appears to be heading for some kind of crisis." Meanwhile, Iran is working hard in the aftermath of the coup attempt to drive a wedge between Turkey and some of its closest regional allies, said Ozel. "The Iranians were very quick to condemn the coup. They also say the Qataris and Saudis were involved in the coup. I don't know if one can take this credibly at all. They also said it was the Russians, who warned the coup first and foremost," he added. Seizing the moment, Moscow is accelerating the process of lifting economic sanctions against Ankara. Russian Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said on July 26 that talks will resume on the lifting of a ban on Turkish foodstuff and a resumption of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline. The pipeline project initiated in December 2014 links Russia to European markets, crucially bypassing Ukraine. The project was put on hold during the freeze in bilateral relations. "Political decisions are in place to settle the issue of further implementation of the project," Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci said on July 26, referring to the pipeline. Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek, who accompanied Zeybekci on an official visit to Moscow, went so far as to characterize Russia as "a strategic partner." Ankara's embrace of Moscow could come at a high diplomatic price. "It is not only about bilateral relations or how we carry out trade, investment, and mutual projects," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said July 22, commenting on the rapprochement process. "It is also about the cooperation over solutions to the Syrian crisis." The two countries support opposing sides in the Syrian civil war. Turkey serves as one of the main supply lines to the Syrian rebels, although Ankara insists it only allows humanitarian aid to go to the rebels, a claim few believe. Syria is expected to be a key issue when Putin sits down with Erdogan. "We will talk about all the issues that affect both countries," confirmed Usluer, Erdogan's foreign policy aide. Entering the talks with Putin, Erdogan is at a geopolitical disadvantage. "Turkey is not in a strong position after this coup attempt," suggested diplomatic columnist Idiz. "It will not be able to impose its will." Putin could be tempted to play a long game, not seeking immediately to exploit Ankara's vulnerabilities, and instead seeking to draw it away from its western allies. Erdogan is aware that sitting down with Putin could give him leverage with its Western allies. Usluer, the foreign policy aide, stressed that Ankara remains committed to NATO and its relationship with Washington. But she also said Turkey will be pragmatic. "Turkish foreign policy has been balanced since the end of the Cold War, it has quite the same distance from all countries, based on a win-win policy," Usluer said. --This story originally identified Dick Black as a US senator. Rather, he is a Virginia state senator. The mistake was corrected on July 29, 2016. Editor's note: Dorian Jones is a freelance reporter based in Istanbul. Copyright notice: All EurasiaNet material Open Society Institute Kyrgyzstan: Antagonism Grows with Turkey Over Gulen Links Publisher EurasiaNet Publication Date 9 August 2016 Other Languages / Attachments Russian Cite as EurasiaNet, Kyrgyzstan: Antagonism Grows with Turkey Over Gulen Links, 9 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a9ab404.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. The privately run Chingiz Aitmatov Kyrgyz-Turkish Boys High School stands out in its dusty setting in a northern suburb of Kyrgyzstan's capital, Bishkek. Its record of academic achievement, drawing on the philosophy of US-based Islamic educator Fethullah Gulen, easily upstages anything most local public educational establishments can offer. But in the eyes of the government of Turkey, where Gulen is from, the sprawling building immaculately cast in the bright colors of the red Kyrgyz flag is little short of an incubator of terrorism and plots to subvert the state. Ankara's antagonism to Gulen's international influence has deep roots, and the Turkish government's attempt to link the educator with the recent failed coup is intensifying that animosity. But Kyrgyzstan, which is host to at least a dozen Gulen-linked schools and one university, is holding its ground - up to a point. "In Kyrgyzstan, the [Gulen] gang is very powerful," said Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, during a working trip in the Antalya region on July 24. If Turkey's "brother" does not rid itself of links to the Islamic educator, "the way we look at you will be different," Cavusoglu said, referring to Kyrgyzstan. The remarks created a stir in Kyrgyzstan, which is accustomed to viewing Turkey as a no-strings-attached alternative for diplomatic engagement to Russia and the United States. The tone in Turkey has shifted markedly in the last few weeks, however. As of July 26, 10,000 purported Gulenists have been arrested and many more judges, government officials and teachers fired. Cavusoglu's rhetoric has been fittingly proactive. "This terrorist organization has chosen Kyrgyzstan as a base. Its influence has grown so much that its members are part of the country's leadership. We warned Kyrgyzstan that they are planning to land a blow," Cavusoglu said in comments projecting a future coup in the Central Asian country. Kyrgyzstan's Foreign Ministry was nonplussed, castigating Cavusoglu on July 25 for raising the Gulen question "in the language of blackmail and ultimatums." But the statement fell short of promising to keep the schools open, leading many to speculate over their future. One present concern for Kyrgyz citizens is that Turkey could revoke the right to visa-free travel in order to get its way. Other states enjoying warm relations with Turkey are for various reasons falling into line with Ankara's aggressive new diplomatic stance. Earlier this month, Azerbaijan gutted the administration of a popular private university linked to Gulen, who casts himself as a bridge between Islam and the secular, globalized world. That move was a natural evolution of established policy that saw Baku shuttering over a dozen Gulen-inspired schools in 2014. Uzbekistan got a head start by phasing out the schools in the 1990s. Turkmenistan put the squeeze on the schools in 2011, back when Turkey's conservative ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) was still actively working together with its Gulenist then-allies to undo Kemalist political influences in Turkey. But as independent political analyst Sheradil Baktygulov told Eurasianet.org, Kyrgyzstan "is a different type of state from Azerbaijan or Uzbekistan, with its different system of government and identity." "Shutting down private schools that local parents have invested thousands of dollars in for their children's education without strong evidence of the threat they pose to Kyrgyzstan or Turkey is far more politically and legally problematic for us," Baktygulov said. Anecdotal evidence suggests that Cavusoglu's conspiracy-mongering about a Gulenist-inspired takeover of the Kyrgyz government is wildly far off the mark. One source close to graduates of the Gulen-inspired Sebat foundation currently working in government told EurasiaNet.org that none are ardent followers of Gulen himself. "They are younger than 40. They tend to prefer speaking Kyrgyz and English, rather than Russian, and often have a good knowledge of Turkish," the source, who has experience working high up in the executive branch of government, told EurasiaNet.org. Notable graduates cited by Sebat representatives in online media include Kyrgyzstan's current ambassador to the United States, Kadyr Toktogulov, and Mar Topoyev, who worked as protocol chief in the presidential apparatus prior to 2010, before being transferred to a similar position in the prime minister's office. "Their age has kept them out of government, but they will come through soon as they have political ambitions. They are quite united and gather regularly. I think they are mostly good patriots with the right values. I don't see any danger in them, for now," said the source, who requested anonymity due to the political sensitivity of the issue. For most of Kyrgyzstan's post-Soviet history, Gulen educational institutions operated quietly in parallel to educational institutions that receive funding directly from the Turkish government. According to graduates from both streams, there was not a lot of interaction between the rival institutions - which are now embroiled in an all-out slanging match in the Kyrgyz press - although their combined presence contributed to a positive image for Turkey. "Of the two, the Gulen institutions are stricter," said Daria Mamontova, an alumnus of the Turkish government-owned Kyrgyz-Turkish Manas University, whose rector last week made a speech foreshadowing Cavusoglu's by touching on the havoc Gulenists might wreak in the country. "Of course, both have their agendas. For Kyrgyz-Turkish Manas University it is Pan-Turkism. For the Gulen institutions, it is their ideal and earning money [for the network]," Mamontova told EurasiaNet.org. "But these are only [pushed] to a certain extent." Any reservations about the overall goals of the foreign-funded schools in a country where state-funded learning is riddled with graft will inevitably be weighed against their superior academic standards by middle-class parents and the under-pressure government alike. "Tutors [at Gulen schools] actually motivate pupils to study," Diana Jarkynbek Kyzy, the daughter of a doctor and lawyer and an alumnus of the Gulen-inspired Aichurek Girls' school told EurasiaNet.org. "The closure of these schools would be a great pity." Copyright notice: All EurasiaNet material Open Society Institute Uzbekistan: Raids, prison, fines for home religious meetings Publisher Forum 18 Author ushfig Bayram Publication Date 9 August 2016 Cite as Forum 18, Uzbekistan: Raids, prison, fines for home religious meetings, 9 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a9abf84.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. After police raided a religious meeting in a home in Bukhara Region, four Sufi Muslims were imprisoned for four years each for participating in an "illegal" religious group. Eleven more were fined. Protestants have been tortured and fined for "illegal" literature in homes. Putin and Erdogan Prepare for a Decisive Russo-Turkish Summit Publisher Jamestown Foundation Publication Date 28 July 2016 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Putin and Erdogan Prepare for a Decisive Russo-Turkish Summit, 28 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a9acdc4.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Link to original story on Jamestown website Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will make his first foreign trip after the unsuccessful military coup to St. Petersburg to meet his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on August 9. In the aftermath of the July 15 coup attempt, thousands of Turkish soldiers, police officers, judges, prosecutors, journalists, and academicians have been either arrested or suspended, while relations with Europe and the United States have deteriorated. Turning to Russia seems like the only option open for Erdogan. The Russian-Turkish fray began after a Russian Su-24 bomber was shot down by a Turkish jet on November 24, 2015, on the Turkish-Syrian border. The Russian pilot was killed, a Russian marine perished, and an Mi-8 helicopter was downed during a subsequent search-and-rescue operation. Recent reports from Turkey claim the Su-24 was shot down by pilots loyal to US-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen, who, according to Erdogan, was the mastermind behind the failed coup. Former Turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu, a supporter of Erdogan, has recently insisted he personally signed the rules of engagement that allowed the downing of the Su-24. Davutoglu says he still stands by his decision to authorize the attack, which was a consequence of constant violations of Turkish airspace by Russian jets (RIA Novosti, July 28). Moscow and Ankara previously enjoyed a close strategic partnership. Russian forces began a military operation in Syria to prop up the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Russia anticipated a partnership with Turkey and Israel and a measure of understanding from the US-led coalition against the Islamic State. But after the Russian Su-24 was shot down, Putin accused Turkey of treachery, of supporting terrorism, and of "stabbing us in the back" (Kremlin.ru, November 24, 2015). Putin refused to speak by phone or meet with Erdogan for months after that. Punitive economic sanctions were imposed; the Kremlin demanded an apology, compensation for the Su-24, and punishment of those responsible (Interfax, November 26, 2015). A month ago, Moscow and Ankara U-turned from confrontation to reconciliation (see EDM, July 7). On June 27, it was announced Erdogan sent Putin a letter apparently apologizing for the loss of the Su-24. The apology was accepted, though some commentators interpreted the letter's sentiments as merely an expression of regret. Ankara made no immediate offer of compensation (Kommersant, June 28). This week (July 26), Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek and Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci visited Moscow to prepare the groundwork for the August 9 summit. According to Simsek: "We want to restore relations to the level from before November 24 [the downing of the Su-24] and then work to improve them further." Turkey appreciates Russia's support of its legitimate government during the failed coup as well as Putin's subsequent phone call to Erdogan on July 16, continued Simsek. The Turkish authorities will continue arrests "to wipe out the terrorist structures, the leader of which [Gulen] is in the US," he noted (Kommersant, July 27). While in Moscow, Simsek and Zeybekci discussed with their hosts the lifting of economic sanctions and the resumption of charter passenger flights to take Russian tourists to Turkish Mediterranean Sea resorts. Russia and Turkey expressed interest in resuming two major energy projects-the building of the "Turkish Stream" natural gas pipeline under the Black Sea and the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant in southern Turkey-which were effectively frozen last November. Both projects are, to a large extent, political in nature. Moscow is ready to invest billions to build a nuclear plant to dominate the Turkish energy market and to bypass the Ukrainian transit pipeline system by sending gas to Southeastern Europe through a hub in Turkey. Previously, Moscow wanted to build the "South Stream" pipeline under the Black Sea to Bulgaria to bypass Ukraine, but the European Commission's objections stopped the project. Gazprom has instead invested heavily in Turkish Stream-buying pipes in advance and building ground infrastructure-and is interested in resuming the project (Kommersant, July 27). Of course, problems with Turkish Stream and the two countries' bitter natural gas pricing dispute began long before the Su-24 incident (see EDM, September 22, 2015). A number of Russian oligarch-connected companies have, in recent months, invested in domestic vegetable production to replace Turkish supplies, and there is resistance to lifting the trade embargo. Moreover, since November 24, the Russian state has been pouring out hate propaganda about Turkey, alleging Erdogan is an enemy who sponsors the Islamic State. Today, the Russian public seems somewhat baffled by the sudden Orwellian change of Turkey from hated arch-nemesis back into a friend and partner. According to a recent poll, some 71 percent of Russians believe relations with Turkey must not be hastily restored until compensation for the Su-24 is paid and the culprits that shot it down are punished. Political decisions may be taken at the upcoming Putin-Erdogan summit to overrule any other considerations, but the summit will also be dominated by hotly contested geopolitical considerations-Syria, al-Assad and Turkish support for his opponents, the Kurds, respective Russian and Turkish relations with the US, among others (Vedomosti, July 27). Meanwhile, against the background of the Putin-Erdogan summit, the situation in and around the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo-close to the Turkish border-is reaching a breaking point. On July 27, military commanders loyal to al-Assad demanded that opposition forces (whom they describe as terrorists) in Aleppo surrender or leave the besieged city. In Moscow, the fall of Aleppo is seen as leading to total victory by al-Assad in the Syrian civil war (Isvestia, July 27). Damascus's ultimatum has been backed up by Moscow. Defense Minster Sergei Shoigu has announced a "massive humanitarian operation in Aleppo, together with the Syrian government." Russian and Syrian forces besieging the rebel-held half of Aleppo will establish "safe corridors" for civilians and opposition fighters to leave the city. At the same time, al-Assad announced a limited amnesty for opposition fighters (Mil.ru, July 28). Hundreds of thousands of civilians are apparently still in Aleppo along with an unspecified number of different opposition fighters, including those of the al-Nusra Front. A massive assault to retake the city may soon follow Russia's ultimatum demanding the surrender or retreat of opposition forces. The possible fall of Aleppo puts Erdogan in a tight spot. According to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, in St. Petersburg Putin and Erdogan will discuss jointly fighting the Islamic State and al-Nusra "terrorists" (TASS, July 28). It seems everything will be on the table at the summit, and Erdogan could be ready to reverse his previously established positions and possibly go along with Russia in Syria. Copyright notice: 2010 The Jamestown Foundation Salafists in Ingushetia Emerging as a Mainstream Force Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Mairbek Vatchagaev Publication Date 28 July 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 137 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Salafists in Ingushetia Emerging as a Mainstream Force, 28 July 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 137, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a9ad414.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Link to original story on Jamestown website Ingushetia's governor, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, recently declared: "There are no Wahhabis [Salafists] or Wahhabi mosques in Ingushetia; it is time for everyone to realize that! Those differences that we have today, we are gradually overcoming." Even though Ingushetia is Russia's smallest republic, it is far from the calmest place in the North Caucasus (Islamnews.ru, July 21). Yevkurov warned that anybody who continues to label the republic as Wahhabist will be held legally accountable. It was unclear what law he could use to make such people accountable. Also, Yevkurov practically spoke against Ingushetia's parliament, which had submitted a bill to Moscow that would introduce tougher penalties for the followers of radical teachings-above all, Wahhabism/Salafism (Asozd2.duma.gov.ru, June 30). In the supplementary note to their legislative proposal, members of Ingushetia's parliament said the republic had a number of mosques and religious groups that were not under the control of the state and adhered to radical beliefs (Kavtoday.ru, July 21). Ingushetia's parliamentary deputies attempted to repeat the experience of their Dagestani colleagues. After Salafists under the leadership of the well-known Dagestani sheikh Bagaudin Kizilyurtovsky (Bagaudin Kebedov) invaded Dagestan in 1999 and declared the Dagestani Islamic Republic (Kavkazsky Uzel, March 20, 2012), , the Dagestani parliament swiftly passed a law, on September 22, 1999, "On Banning Wahhabi and other Extremist Activities on the Territory of the Republic of Dagestan" (Kavkazsky Uzel, August 6, 2001). Since then, no other Russian region has adopted similar legislation, and even members of the Dagestani parliament have advocated abolishing their republic's law (Regnum, May 15, 2014). According to Ingushetia's parliament, the republic's municipal authorities, the Spiritual Board of Muslims, and the police do not control 13 mosques operating on republican territory. Thus, the Ingush authorities regard 13 mosques in the republic as Salafist. Ingushetia's parliament estimates the total number of parishioners of all the Salafist mosques in the republic to be "over 20,000 people." The Ingushetian authorities also do not control 70 unregistered religious groups in the republic (Galgayche.org, July 14). Even if these numbers only approximately reflect the real situation in Ingushetia, they demonstrate the degree to which people there have abandoned Sufism for Salafism. Twenty years ago it was hard to find even a single Salafist in Ingushetia. If there are already 20,000 Salafists in Ingushetia, Sufis no longer can be considered a majority there. Meanwhile, Yevkurov continues his efforts to resolve the conflict between the republican mufti, Isa Khamkhoev, and the prominent Salafist activists Khamzat Chumakov and Isa Tsechoev (magaslife.com, July 15). A conciliation group meets twice every week, but so far has not succeeded in bringing together the conflicting sides. When the mufti shows up for the meeting, Chumakov does not attend, and vice versa. Still, there appears to be a vague agreement to resolve the differences via direct dialogue rather than posting diatribes against each other on YouTube. The situation in Ingushetia is paradoxical. Yevkurov, who is a Sufi, finds common ground with the Salafists, who do not reject dialogue with the authorities, while the Sufi mufti is opposed to him. When Yevkurov says that there are no Salafists in the republic, however, he is trying to refute obvious facts, thereby alienating people in the republic. Salafists are present in Dagestan, Chechnya, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachaevo-Cherkessia, Moscow and in the Volga region; and it is only Yevkurov who claims there are none in his republic (Kavpolit.com, July 22). Dismissing obvious facts does not help resolve the problem. Yevkurov is trying to create the same conditions for all Islamic players, instead of favoring the Sufis, who until now have been considered the majority in the republic. According to experts, the influence of the state has an effect on society as a whole, and what happens in the North Caucasus becomes a national problem (Carnegie.ru, July 6). The conflict between the various schools of Islamic thought in Ingushetia has spread as multiple forces, including the governor, members of the parliament, political parties and unofficial organizations like the Myakhk Khel (Council of Elders), have become involved. The Ingushetian parliament's estimate of the numbers of Salafists in the republic show the degree of radicalization and the loss of Sufi culture and tradition within part of the republican population. The mufti of Ingushetia, along with the muftis of other North Caucasian republics, cannot offer anything to counter Salafism. The real reason for the decrease in insurgent violence in the North Caucasus is the transformation of Salafism from an underground Islamic movement into a respectable movement that is increasingly being accepted by the government. The Salafists do not have to use violence or join the insurgency because they have achieved many of their objectives. The process of strengthening Salafism at the expense of Sufism is likely to continue, which will eventually undermine the power of the republican authorities. Copyright notice: 2010 The Jamestown Foundation Is Russian-Occupied Abkhazia Governable? Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Vasili Rukhadze Publication Date 28 July 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 137 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Is Russian-Occupied Abkhazia Governable? , 28 July 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 137, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a9ade54.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Link to original story on Jamestown website The Russian-occupied separatist Georgian region of Abkhazia held a referendum on July 11 to decide whether the population supported holding early presidential elections. The referendum, which the opposition had demanded, ended up being declared invalid by the Abkhazian Central Election Commission (CEC) because barely 1 percent of voters participated (see EDM, July 11). The failed referendum capped another round of prolonged political chaos in the occupied territory. Abkhazia's separatist president, Raul Khajimba, had signed a decree back on June 1 (less than three months after the opposition filed its petition to the CEC), scheduling the referendum for July 11. The opposition, however, had wanted the referendum to be held in the fall in order to have sufficient time to prepare and disseminate its message to the voters. Angry that the referendum would be held so soon, the opposition organized a rally in the capital, Sukhumi, on July 5. But this demonstration quickly deteriorated into violence after several hundred protesters tried to storm the building of the Ministry of Interior and demanded the resignation of the minister, Leonid Dzapshba, who had tried to sabotage the referendum. More than a dozen people were injured in the clashes. The separatist regime backed down, but only partially. It sacked Dzapshba but refused to postpone the referendum. Subsequently, the opposition ended up boycotting the referendum and threatened to hold additional protests (Civil Georgia, EDM, July 11). The July protests were not the first case of political upheaval in Abkhazia and most likely will not be the last. In fact, for the last 10-12 years, this breakaway region has been engaged in near constant political turmoil as various separatist regimes rose to power and fell. Even a brief review of Abkhazia's political instability reveals the dire political picture in this unruly region. Exactly two years ago, in June 2014, then-separatist president Alexander Ankvab was ousted from office. His term was supposed to expire in 2016. Ankvab faced a particularly organized opposition. On May 27, 2014, several thousand opposition activists, some of them armed with machine guns, stormed and seized the buildings of the government, the presidential administration, and state television in Sukhumi. Ankvab fled the city to an undisclosed location and called the ongoing political turmoil a "coup attempt." However, facing the inevitable, Ankvab resigned on June 1. The separatist parliament scheduled early presidential elections for August 2014, which were won by the current president, Raul Khajimba, a Soviet-era KGB officer and Moscow's long-preferred candidate for leader of Abkhazia (TASS, June 1, 2014; see EDM, June 12, 2014). Violence was not just limited to the end of Ankvab's presidency. His tenure in power was equally chaotic. Since 2005, first as prime minister and then as president, Ankvab survived six assassination attempts from different rival clans in breakaway Abkhazia (News.ge, February 22, 2012). Prior to Ankvab, Sergey Bagapsh's ascendancy to power in 2004-2005 was also tumultuous. In the October 2004 presidential election, the Abkhazian CEC had initially declared Khajimba (Moscow's preferred choice) as the winner of the vote, with Bagapsh (then a united opposition candidate) coming in a distant second. However, the Supreme Court ruled that the results had been falsified and that, in fact, Bagapsh won with 50.3 percent of the total ballots cast. Yet, after Khajimba's enraged supporters stormed the Supreme Court, the judicial body backed off and reversed its decision. In retaliation, Bagapsh's supporters vowed to hold a separate inauguration for their candidate. Overall, the political mayhem lasted for weeks and entirely paralyzed the region. Eventually, when Moscow saw the balance of power on the streets tilting toward Bagapsh, it intervened and forced Bagapsh to run on a joint ticket with Khajimba-Bagapsh for president and Khajimba for vice president. Although, in 2004-2005, Moscow failed to install its loyal Soviet KGB officer Khajimba as Abkhazia's president, it still managed to seat him as the second in command. In January 2005, the Bagapsh-Khajimba tandem easily won the re-run election (see EDM, December 5, 2004; January 11, 2005). As illustrated by the above-cited brief review of Abkhazia's key political events, the region has been gripped by near-perpetual political turmoil for over a decade. Violent power struggles among different local clans, with at least one usually backed by Moscow, have been a key feature of Abkhazian politics. Although, Russia casually portrays itself as a guarantor of peace and stability in the region (Sputnik News, September 27, 2011), in fact it has been a part of the problem and a major contributor to Abkhazia's constant instability. Granted, the separatist Abkhazian elites have certainly not helped the situation either. Their political ambitions-combined with endemic corruption, criminal links, and their utter lack of governing experience-have produced a recipe for permanent instability. Moreover, the prevailing economic impoverishment in breakaway Abkhazia creates fertile ground for any opportunistic political clan to steer unrest with the promises of better economic outcomes and new Russian subsidies. As the June-July events of the current year show, political volatility is not subsiding in Abkhazia. As long as the Russian occupation remains in place and Abkhazia's squabbling separatist elites stay in power, stability and peace will remain elusive for this conflict-ridden breakaway Georgian region. Copyright notice: 2010 The Jamestown Foundation NATO Aspirant Georgia Still Defenseless After All These Years Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Vladimir Socor Publication Date 29 July 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 138 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, NATO Aspirant Georgia Still Defenseless After All These Years, 29 July 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 138, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a9b7b04.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Link to original story on Jamestown website It was a summit of modest expectations and modest results for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Warsaw on July 8-9. These results are of an interim nature: building-blocks for further decisions at upcoming ministerial meetings, not waiting until the next summit. The Warsaw results do not, as yet, correlate with the growth in Russia's capacity to threaten, intimidate, or subvert the Alliance generally and its eastern-now "frontline"-member countries in particular. NATO's political pronouncements and official documents recognize that Georgia has contributed to Allied operations far more than any of the countries that were invited to join the North Atlantic Alliance during the last ten years-and more indeed than most of the "old" NATO member countries. NATO's recent summit in Warsaw again acknowledged Georgia's contributions (see EDM, July 27). Georgia spends more than 2 percent of its gross domestic product on defense, year after year-a NATO benchmark that only five NATO member countries (out of 28) actually meet. This effort places an additional burden on Georgia's impoverished population. And much of this spending supports Georgia's participation in NATO operations outside Georgia's own territory (see above). Georgian public support for the goal of joining NATO stands at 68 percent, according to the most recent opinion survey (NDI press release, April 11, 2016)-a level of support that has persisted through the years, and actually exceeds the pro-NATO sentiment in many NATO member countries. Georgia has successfully protected itself and the neighboring countries from terrorist activities; it guarantees the security of international oil and gas pipelines that cross Georgia's territory; and it has made its territory unconditionally available in the last 15 years for expeditionary operations led by the United States. In sum, Georgia is a major net donor to regional and international security. This fact is generally recognized, tacitly or explicitly, for a decade by now. NATO takes the position that an aspirant country must be an international security producer, rather than (merely) a security consumer, in order to qualify for membership or at least for the membership track. Yet net security donor Georgia has again been blocked from the membership track, let alone the Open Door to membership, at NATO's recent summit in Warsaw (see EDM, July 27). Fear of aggravating relations with Russia is a basic explanatory factor, but it is not publicly expressed in this form. In parallel, Germany introduced the argument and others adopted it that a NATO-aspirant country involved in an unresolved conflict cannot qualify even for the membership track, let alone membership. This argument is tailored to fit the Russian-orchestrated "frozen conflicts" on Georgia's territory in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. But the same argument can be recycled if and when Ukraine applies for the membership track. Even if the situation in Donbas becomes "frozen" like that in Crimea, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the same argument can be invoked to frustrate Kyiv's aspirations. Meanwhile, Georgia's own territory remains defenseless. The Georgian military has been involved in out-of-area counterinsurgency or peace-support operations for more than a decade, but it lacks defensive weapons and training for homeland defense. Georgia is fully exposed to Russian threats, the gamut of which can include military invasion or incursions, moving boundaries forcibly by a few hundred meters in selected places, or snipping highways and pipelines just across the boundary inside Georgia's east-west corridor. When Russian troops have pushed boundary lines deeper into Georgian territory ("borderization") or actually seized a two-mile segment of the Baku-Supsa oil pipeline (astride which Russian troops now sit, half a mile from the East-West highway), Georgia has been advised merely to keep quiet and avoid being "provoked." NATO and the United States have no contingency plans for responding to Russian threats in Georgia. And since 2008, the US and NATO countries generally have declined to provide Georgia with "lethal" weaponry (anti-tank, air defense) or troop training for homeland defense. The Barack Obama administration has actually regressed from the level of military assistance that the George W. Bush administration had provided through the Train-and-Equip Program for Georgia. At present, there is no serious deterrence-whether allied or national-in place in Georgia vis-a-vis Russia. Last year (2015), Georgia committed one infantry company to participating in the NATO Response Force (NRF). That force is designed primarily for high-end combat while also necessitating some niche-capability contributions from participant states. The Georgian company's role should become clear in the course of further exercises. Thus far it has participated in the Noble Partner exercises (2015 and 2016), both led by US European Command (EUCOM) at the Vaziani base in Georgia. The first of these exercises involved a combination of 600 US and Georgian troops, with 14 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles shipped to Georgia for the duration of this exercise. The second exercise, "the most robust to date," involved well over 1,000 troops (650 US, 500 Georgian, 150 British), with eight Abrams main battle tanks and eight Bradleys, also shipped in and out. Noble Partner is designed to advance NRF inter-operability (Eucom.mil, accessed July 20). Georgia's NRF-dedicated company seems destined to become a showcase unit of the Georgian army, but (yet again) for multinational operations outside Georgia. Meanwhile, deterrence through appropriate defensive weapons and training of troops for homeland defense remains an unresolved problem for Georgia, and not yet addressed by its allies. NATO's cooperation programs for Georgia (NATO-Georgia Commission, Annual National Programs), were initiated mainly for symbolic effect in the immediate wake of Russia's 2008 invasion, and achieved little for Georgia in terms of deterrence and defense. Those programs were bilateral, NATO-Georgia. The Alliance's 2014 Wales Summit announced a number of fresh projects, and the 2016 summit in Warsaw gave the start to their implementation. These new projects are multilateral, embedding Georgia in common activities with member and partner countries. Copyright notice: 2010 The Jamestown Foundation Russia's Futuristic Military Plagued by Old Problems Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Roger McDermott Publication Date 29 July 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 138 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Russia's Futuristic Military Plagued by Old Problems, 29 July 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 138, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a9b81f4.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Link to original story on Jamestown website As Russia's military operations continue unabated in Syria, despite an earlier order to commence withdrawing deployed forces, the conflict has certainly succeeded in changing how the Russian Armed Forces are perceived both at home and abroad. Indeed, the intervention in Syria, marking Moscow's first experience of expeditionary warfare beyond the former Soviet space since its withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989, permitted the top brass to test and showcase some of the advances in modern military hardware and weapons systems. This has been by no means a cheap exercise in the use of hard power. And yet, Russia's operation in Syria has promulgated a one-sided view of the transformation of its Armed Forces: that of Moscow making significant progress toward developing 21st century warfare capabilities. However, this oversimplified assertion is challenged by ongoing problems linked to military manpower (Voyennya Mysl, No. 1, 2016). President Vladimir Putin has revamped the assertion that Russia retains "one million" men under arms, despite evidence of undermanning in the Armed Forces. In December 2015, the Ministry of Defense confirmed that it is on schedule to achieve its aim to recruit sufficient numbers of contract personnel (kontraktniki) based on annual targets and boasted that it passed the milestone of possessing more contract personnel than conscripts. The defense ministry's official figure for the number of kontraktniki serving in the Armed Forces was 352,000, noting that the target for 2016 was set at recruiting an additional 31,000 and proclaiming that its units were 92 percent manned (RIA Novosti, December 24, 2015). While the kontraktniki numbers in the military consistently increased in recent years, there is stony silence from the defense ministry on the thorny issue of the number of contract personnel annually leaving the Armed Forces-thus, removing any reliable way to measure overall retention levels. Moreover, there is even less information released on the issue of the quality of recruits and progress in combat training. One worrying indicator that all is not as well as officially presented came from the Main Military Investigation Directorate (Glavnoye Voyennoye Sledstvennoye Upravleniye-GVSU). According to the GVSU, the number of crimes in the Armed Forces increased by 20.9 percent in the first six months of 2016. By itself, the statistic should cause concern for the top brass. But to make matters worse, the GVSU also reported that the crime figures increased by 40 percent based on the same period in 2015; corruption-linked crimes increased by 1.5 times, and crimes perpetrated by individuals while intoxicated or using narcotic substances grew by 1.4 times (Arms-expo.ru, July 22). The role of Russia's Armed Forces in operations in Syria, meanwhile, received closer scrutiny recently with the publication of a book by Colonel (retired) Anatoliy Tsyganok, the director of the Center for Military Forecasting. Voyna v Sirii i yeye posledstviya dlya Blizhnego Vostoka, Kavkaza i Tsentral'noy Azii: russkiy vzglyad (The War in Syria, and its Implications for the Middle East, Caucasus and Central Asia: a Russian Opinion) examines a broad range of factors related to Moscow's involvement in the conflict. Tsyganok argues that Russia's military operations constitute a new form of warfare, but he also suggests that the military requires further force integration in terms of communication systems and a fundamental review of the theory of using aviation, naval power and special forces (Voyenno Promyshlennyy Kuryer, July 19). Vladimir Gundarov noted in Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozreniye that the Russian defense ministry recently confirmed the acceptance of 47 Kalibr cruise missiles for the Navy. Referring to the combat use of this missile type by the Russian Navy to support operations in Syria, Gundarov attempted to estimate the costs involved. In October 2015, the Caspian Flotilla fired 26 Kalibr missiles, striking 11 targets in Syria, while the following month an additional 18 were launched against seven targets. Based on sales of the export version of this missile to India, Gundarov suggests each Kalibr cost $6.5 million; but he concludes that the 44 missiles sold domestically to the Russian defense ministry and fired off last October amounted to 2.7 billion rubles ($41 million-approximately $980,000 per missile) (Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozreniye, July 22). Other than testing or advertising the missile capability, some of which landed in Iran, there was no real underlying military purpose for using Kalibr missiles in Syria. Either way, the process was certainly expensive. If there is, in fact, an underlying need to display these weapons, then it perhaps lies in promoting an image of the Russian Armed Forces as more advanced than they are in reality. Moscow's interest in using such opportunities to showcase its most advanced systems was repeated in its efforts to strengthen air defenses following the November 2015 Turkish Air Force downing of an Su-24M after the latter breached Turkish airspace. But with the recent improvement in Moscow's relations with Ankara, some commentators expressed surprise at the extent of Turkish top brass involvement in the attempted military coup on July 15 (Voyenno Promyshlennyy Kuryer, July 19). However, Moscow's concerns about Turkey, or its efforts to rebuild damaged bilateral relations with Ankara pale in comparison to growing attention to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) military exercises. As always, these are presented in the Russian media as potentially threatening to Russia. One analysis in the military media tried to assess the NATO strategy underpinning the Poland-based exercise Anaconda 2016. The author makes the following claims: it emphasized indirect action, using economic, financial, technological and informational tools against the enemy; military actions were rehearsed in pursuit of economic interests with a widespread use of information and communication technologies; it practiced avoiding a decisive clash with the main factions of the armed forces of the enemy, using detachments of insurgents from the local population and mercenaries and supplying them to attract allies and partners; it exercised targeted destabilization of administrative-political, socio-economic, cultural and ideological spheres of the enemy state. The author alleges that NATO strategy is to rehearse a form of "hybrid warfare" against Russia (Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozreniye, July 24). Moscow's military response to these perceived developments is to strengthen units and reorganize the disposition of forces in the Western and Southern Military districts. It also places great emphasis on the role of stand-off weapons systems, including Kalibr, to help build a response to US/NATO missile defense (Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozreniye, July 22). These response measures are by no means complete, but what is clear from some of the reporting in the military media and supported by the GVSU is that Moscow has not yet resolved deep and systemic issues within its military. And these serve as a long-term barrier to building a modern network-enabled military. Copyright notice: 2010 The Jamestown Foundation Dagestani Authorities Create 'Control and Prophylactic Lists' for Suspected Salafists Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Mairbek Vatchagaev Publication Date 29 July 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 138 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Dagestani Authorities Create 'Control and Prophylactic Lists' for Suspected Salafists, 29 July 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 138, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a9b89b4.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Link to original story on Jamestown website Mass arrests of parishioners of mosques associated with the Salafist movement have become routine in Dagestan. For example, on July 15, the police cracked down on the mosque on Vengerskikh Boitsov Street, in Makhachkala, when up to 50 parishioners were detained (Newsru.com, July 15). Exactly a month earlier, on June 17, the police detained up to 80 of the mosque's parishioners (Newsru.com, June 17). The majority of the detainees showed documents issued by the police indicating they had previously been put on the Interior Ministry's control and prophylactic list. However, the police nonetheless detained them "for identification purposes," and if they resisted, the police could put them under arrest for 15 days for disobedience. The authorities use various methods of harassment, including mass arrests of mosque parishioners as they exit mosques. Sometimes, the police enter mosques, install a video camera inside and then ask everyone to state their name, surname and address on camera (YouTube, May 9, 2015). According to Dagestan's Interior Minister Abdurashid Magomedov, the police, using such methods, registered 20,000 adherents of Salafism. The figure may be even larger than the one Magomedov cited in his report for the Dagestani parliament (Regnum, June 2). That there are 20,000 active followers of Salafism in Dagestan is quite impressive. It explains why the republic remains one of the hotbeds of insurgency in southern Russia. Ironically, the authorities themselves allowed the Salafists to operate legally (Gimry.ucoz.com, May 3, 2012). Now, the government cannot either take away the Salafist mosques or shut them down. The authorities also cannot force the Salafists to reject their view of Islam in contemporary society. The police, however, reverted to Soviet methods of total control over the population. Now, the officials say that those on the police's list cannot leave the republic or change their telephone number without informing the authorities or face repercussions if they do. The new rules came to light after one such registered individual was served notice in a police "warning" issued "to prevent violations of public order and safety" and "counter terrorism and extremism." Recipients of such warnings are required to inform the authorities "about all facts and information" that concern extremism. Legal experts were particularly indignant about the warnings' requirement that those who receive them must inform the police of any change of address, telephone number, and travel plans outside Dagestan (Kommersant, July 27). It later turned out that other Salafist mosque parishioners also received such "warnings." The police apparently summoned the registered individuals to the police station under the pretext of removing them from the registration list. Instead of removing them, however, they were issued these "warnings." During the Soviet period, the police and KGB used such restrictive measures against regular criminals and political dissidents. According to Russian experts, the present-day authorities have devised legislation that allows them to jail any civil activist who speaks out against just about anything, for alleged "extremism" (Vedomosti, July 26). Human Rights Watch has documented multiple cases of individuals who were registered by the police, excessively questioned, photographed, fingerprinted, and forced to submit DNA samples (Hrw.org, June 18, 2015). Maksim Shevchenko, a journalist who is also a member of the Russian president's Council for Human Rights, discussed the issue with Dagestan's governor, Ramazan Abdulatipov. Shevchenko accused the Dagestani interior ministry of illegally putting people on the "prophylactic list" based on their personal convictions (Regnum, June 1). It would be naive to think that the rights activists opened the eyes of the regional authorities concerning human rights violations in the republic. Regional authorities are themselves ready to violate human rights and cannot correct the rights violations of the police. Rather than acting to correct the rights violations, the regional authorities regarded the visit of the rights activists from Moscow as an attempt to put pressure on them. The police put not only adults on the "prophylactic list," but also children as young as two years old. The registration term extends to 2060-that is, for 40-45 years (Memohrc.org, August 6, 2015). The strategy of the police is unlikely to lower interreligious tensions between Dagestan's Sufis and Salafists. In 2014-2015, many prominent Salafist leaders fled Dagestan. They included Abu Umar Sasitlinsky, who is now in a Turkish prison, Nadir Abu Khalid, who joined the Islamic State, and others who felt that the government's stance on Salafists was changing. As the authorities increase pressure on the Salafists, they will increasingly join the underground movements, which will escalate Dagestan's civil conflict. Copyright notice: 2010 The Jamestown Foundation Intellectuals Lobby For More Freedom As President Xi Faces Pushback From Party Rivals Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Willy Lam Publication Date 1 August 2016 Citation / Document Symbol China Brief Volume: 16 Issue: 12 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Intellectuals Lobby For More Freedom As President Xi Faces Pushback From Party Rivals, 1 August 2016, China Brief Volume: 16 Issue: 12, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a9ba174.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Link to original story on Jamestown website Academics, journalists and other free-thinking intellectuals have taken the bold step of calling for more freedom of expression and less Internet censorship. Others want to resuscitate long-stalled political reform. For the first time since Xi Jinping took power in late 2012, the official media have also run articles that seem to challenge the supremacy of the President and General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In the Chinese tradition, open expressions of dissent usually occur when major factions of the party are engaged in a power struggle. Given the overall conservative nature of the leadership, however, it is unlikely that a new round of what late patriarch Deng Xiaoping called "thought liberation" is in the offing. In June, seventy-eight scientists from the elite Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and other top scientific and engineering institutes sent a petition to the CCP calling on General Secretary Xi to lift censorship of the Internet. The petition said Chinese researchers' failure to have access to the Internet would "greatly impede progress of science and technology in China." The official China Science News quoted one academic as saying that "stringent Internet control has resulted in severe losses to people engaged in scientific research" (Voice of America, June 6; Radio Free Asia, June 2). This show of defiance is notable as President Xi's power struggle with other factions of the party-particularly the Communist Youth League (CYL) Faction headed by former president Hu Jintao and the Shanghai Faction led by ex-president Jiang Zemin-intensifies in the run-up to the 19th Party Congress scheduled for next year (China Brief, May 11). Even bolder than the academics' petition was a recent article in People's Daily that was construed as casting indirect aspersions on Xi's dictatorial statecraft. In a piece entitled "Absolutist egomania will bring a nasty demise to top cadres," commentator Hou Lihong appeared to zero in on Xi's power grab and one-upmanship. Although Hou cited mostly regional officials in her article, it is obvious that her critique could also be applied to supreme leader Xi. For example, Hou warned that yibashou ("No. 1 bosses"; ) often made the mistake of "megalomania and the wanton use of power." "If the big boss regards his public authority as private power and looks upon own his words as policy, this egoistic use of power becomes very dangerous and will lead to a dismal end for the top leader," Hou noted (People's Daily, June 13; Radio French International, June 13). That the People's Daily dared run such an article has been attributed to behind-the-scenes maneuvers by Politburo Standing Committee (PBOC) member in charge of ideology and propaganda Liu Yunshan, who is considered a protege of former president Jiang (Apple Daily [Hong Kong], June 17). Xi's dissatisfaction with Liu was evidenced by the president's visit to the People's Daily, Xinhua News Agency and CCTV last February, in which party chief called upon the three top media to xingdang () or "take the CCP as its surname." Xi's implicit criticism was that these mouthpieces had deviated from instructions laid down by the zhongyang, or central party authorities led by the General Secretary (People's Daily, March 9; Xinhua, February 19). In what is seen as an attempt to rein in PBSC member Liu, President Xi earlier this year asked the Central Commission for Disciplinary Commission (CCDI) to assign a Central Inspection Team to the Department of Propaganda, which reports to Liu. The CCDI is headed by PBSC member Wang Qishan, a princeling who is considered Xi's closest ally. It is significant that instead of focusing on issues related to corruption, Wang Huaichen, the head of the inspection team, dwelled on the poor ideological standards of propaganda officials. In a report that was carried by most central media in June, Wang noted that cadres in the department "do not have a high political alertness, and there are discrepancies [with central edicts] in implementation of policies." Wang, a former head of the Political-Legal Department of the Sichuan Province Party Committee, also faulted the Propaganda Department for its failure to observe the "four consciousness" ("consciousness about politics; consciousness about the whole situation; consciousness about [obeying] the core [of the party]; and consciousness about seeing eye-to-eye [with the zhongyang]." The last two requirements-about cleaving to the "core" and the zhongyang-are understood to represent Xi's demands that his edicts must be followed (China.com, June 8; Sina.com, June 8). Xi's well-documented disagreement with Premier and PBSC member Li Keqiang-who heads the CYL Faction-has also resulted in a rare clash of views in the official media. A case in point is the now-famous interview given by an "authoritative figure" to People's Daily that was splashed across its front page on May 9. The authoritative figure, widely thought to be Liu He, Xi's chief economic adviser, disputed views given by the State Council (China's cabinet, which is headed by Premier Li) that the Chinese economy had attained a "rosy start" in the first quarter of this year. "The entrenched contradictions in the economy have not been defused, while new problems are more than anticipated," the article noted. The authoritative figure was quoted as saying the Chinese economy was headed toward an "L-shaped trajectory" and that this trend would last for "more than one, two years." He then laid into government officials who favored aggressive monetary and fiscal policy to boost the economy through means including infrastructure projects that are bankrolled by loans. "Our economy has sufficient potentials and resilience the speed of growth will not fall much even without stimulus," he concluded. As to what can be done, the authoritative figure suggested measures recommended by President Xi: "lowering [production] capacity, reducing inventory, deleveraging, cutting production costs and boosting weak sectors" (People's Daily, May 9; New Beijing Post, May 9). Li's forces struck back within a week. Guo Tongxin (a collective pen name for the National Statistical Bureau of the State Council) published an article in the May 16 edition of People's Daily arguing that "our economy has attained a relatively good start [and that] it is being run in a stable mannerThe economic structure is being optimized and people's livelihood has improved." "The national economy has on the whole followed a steady track and progress has been made in the midst of stability." The piece also denied that economic growth had been attained due to over-leveraging, or excessive debt accumulation. It noted that steady expansion of the economy was due to "the ignition of reform, the boosting of innovation, and the push of [structural] transformation" (Xinhua, May 16; People's Daily, May 16). Apparently because of the "struggle between the two lines" at the apex of the party, a number of academics have expressed dissimilar opinions on the future directions of the economy. While some support the stance favored by Xi and Liu He, quite a few experts have faulted the views of the "authoritative figure" as contained in the May 9 People's Daily article. For example, well-known Fudan University economist Zhang Jun pointed out that "boosting economic growth is more important than deleveraging." Yao Yang, an expert on development economics at Peking University, stressed that excessive curtailment of capacity would hurt economic growth: "Lowering production capacity, reducing inventory and deleveraging will depress overall demand and hurt economic expansion" (Ming Pao [Hong Kong], June 9; Phoenix TV Net, June 8). Free-thinking intellectuals who were hemmed in by Xi's apparent restoration of Maoist norms have also spoken out. This is true particularly of retired cadres who once worked for former party secretaries Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang, who are still revered as the CCP's icons of liberalization. For example, Li Rui, who once served as Mao's personal secretary, pointed out in an article this spring that without overall political reform, the country would remain backward and it would be unable to claim a leading place in the community of nations. "Reform of the party and improvement in society depends on science and democracy," Li wrote. "These are universal values" (VOA, April 18; Sohu.com, April 18). In a similar vein, former head of the America Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Zi Zhongxun noted that "when there is absence of freedom of expression and rule of law, coupled with severe social inequality, social elite such as public intellectuals should speak out to uphold justice" (360doc.com [Beijing], June 19; Sohu.com, June 17). Despite the challenges he faces, Xi is still the most powerful CCP leader since Mao Zedong. Political circles in Beijing are watching whether the supreme leader will allow this relatively daring outpouring of opinions to continue. On the one hand, it is in the vested interest of the party General Secretary to at least project a facade of unity within the party as preparations for the Congress are switching into high gear. On the other hand, if Xi succeeds in marginalizing his political foes, he may soon be tempted to reintroduce Chairman Mao's notorious "one voice chamber." Xi's ambivalence regarding giving more leeway to intellectuals is reflected in two recent talks. In a seminar with intellectuals, model workers and youth representatives in Hebei, Anhui Province last April, Xi sounded a conciliatory note to members of the educated class. "To bravely set trends and to spearhead innovation is the requisite characteristic of the great masses of intellectuals," the President said. "We should enthusiastically welcome the ideas and criticisms of intellectuals provided that they are well motivated," Xi said, adding that the party should adopt the "right" kind of suggestions from the educated classes. "We should be more tolerant and magnanimous toward ideas and criticisms that are off the mark or even wrong," Xi argued. Using a well-known Chinese proverb, Xi said the authorities should not "grab hold of the pigtails [of intellectuals], pin [pejorative] labels on them or hit them with sticks" (Xinhua, April 30; South China Morning Post, April 30). That Xi is not prepared to give intellectuals a significantly longer leash, however, is evident from his much-noted speech on the role of philosophy and the social sciences in nation-building. While talking to an elite group of scholars and professors in May, Xi pointed out that they must always regard Marxism as the be-all and end-all of knowledge. "The facts have proven that, irrespective of changing times Marxism still demonstrates the powerful force of a scientific theory and it still occupies the high ground in terms of truth and morality," Xi said. Academics, researchers and cadres in general should "self-consciously insist upon the guidance of Marxism," Xi noted. "They should have clear-cut theoretical consciousness, resolute political beliefs, and a scientific way of thinking" based on Marxism and socialism with Chinese characteristics, the party chief said (People's Daily, May 18). Yet taking the old road of orthodoxy could stifle creativity and innovation that the CCP badly needs to inject new momentum to reform, which remains the most potent pillar of legitimacy for the 95-year-old party. Dr. Willy Wo-Lap Lam is a Senior Fellow at The Jamestown Foundation. He is an Adjunct Professor at the Center for China Studies, the History Department and the Program of Master's in Global Political Economy at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is the author of five books on China, including "Chinese Politics in the Era of Xi Jinping: Renaissance, Reform, or Retrogression?," which is available for purchase. Copyright notice: 2010 The Jamestown Foundation Growing PLA Transparency as a Means of Employing Soft Power Part 2: PLA External Signaling since the 18th Party Congress Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Kenneth Allen Publication Date 1 August 2016 Citation / Document Symbol China Brief Volume: 16 Issue: 12 Related Document(s) Growing PLA Transparency as a Means of Employing Soft Power, Part 1: PLA Internal Signaling Since the 18th Party Congress Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Growing PLA Transparency as a Means of Employing Soft Power Part 2: PLA External Signaling since the 18th Party Congress, 1 August 2016, China Brief Volume: 16 Issue: 12, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a9ba944.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Link to original story on Jamestown website This article, the second of a two-part series, examines the PLA's use of soft power for external signaling. The first article, available, here examines Chinese military soft power as part of internal signaling. As noted in part one of this series, China has made major improvements in its military transparency. Though much of it is focused on a domestic audience, the increasingly number of English-language materials and programs, such China Armed Forces magazine-not to mention China Daily and English editions of the Ministry of Defense's website, CCTV, and the Global Times all highlight PLA activities as a matter of course. Specifically, one of the common PLA themes since the 18th Party Congress in November 2012, concerning transparency is that the PLA is becoming more open and confident as a result of engaging in more combined arms, joint, and combined exercises. [1] Highlighting the Chinese military's progress, and even its shortcomings, have important roles in both helping the PLA improve and as a deterrent to potential enemies. Zhang Junshe, a researcher at the Naval Military Academic Research Institute, reflecting on 2014's accomplishments noted that all of the training and exercises that year allowed the PLA to make remarkable achievements, while also exposing some weaknesses in operational command and information technology application. He also noted that improvements were needed in strategic delivery, rapid reaction and joint operations. According to Hou Xiaohe, an associate professor with the PLA's National Defense University, all of the drills and exercises address problems that could be resolved in order to be able to fight real battles (China Military Online, December 17, 2014). Combined Training, Meetings, and Agreements with Foreign Militaries Since the 18th Party Congress, the PLA has been actively involved in bilateral and multilateral combined training with foreign militaries, including Russia and the United States. [2] Russian and Chinese forces held the "Maritime Joint Exercise 2013" (2013) in the waters and airspace near the Peter the Great Gulf from July 5-12, 2013. Meanwhile, their forces held the "Peace Mission-2013" (2013) combined anti-terrorism exercise in Russia's Chelyabinsk Region from July 27 to August 15, 2013. Subsequent exercises the following years, the mechanized combined "Peace Mission-2014" exercise with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in August 2014 and "Maritime Cooperation-2014" [Joint Maritime-2014] exercise, yielded new breakthroughs with notable progress in coordination and real-combat capacity. 2014 also saw the PLA Army (PLAA) and PLAAF compete in separate international competitions (Tank Biathlon-2014, Aviadarts-2014) in Russia in July and August 2014, respectively, which was the first time that the PLA had ever competed in an international competition. China has continued to attend these events in 2016 (Reference News, July 16; China Air Force Online, July 26). Military exercises have also formed an important part of building trust between the U.S. and Chinese militaries. There was a breakthrough in China-U.S. practical cooperation at the 9th seminar on Humanitarian Assistance/ Disaster Relief (HA/DR) drill held from November 10-20, 2013 in Hawaii. Although the PLAN attended the biennial Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise as an observer in 1998, it was a full participant in the 24th exercise in June to August 2014 for the first time, "an important step toward building the new-type major-country relationship and military relationship between China and the United States. It will play a positive role in pushing China's friendly cooperation with the U.S. and other Asian-Pacific countries and enhancing the PLAN's capability to carry out diversified military tasks." The Chinese and American presidents jointly announced on November 12, 2014 that the two sides had signed Memorandum of Understandings (MOUs) establishing "two mutual trust mechanisms," namely the mutual reporting and trust mechanism on major military operations and the code of safe conduct on naval and air military encounters between the two sides. The Chinese military has also taken a more active role in international search operations, including the PLAN and PLAAF's unprecedented efforts to search for the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 passenger plane beginning in March 2014. China also assisted Vietnam's search for missing military aircraft in the South China Sea (Sina, June 20). The PLA also appears to have seized on the importance of international for a as a method of presenting its ideas. In November 2014, the 5th biennial Xiangshan Forum was held in Beijing. Compared with the previous four forums, 2014's Xiangshan Forum was upgraded from a track-2 unofficial event for exchanges to a track-1.5 high-level security and defense forum integrating both official and unofficial features. It was the first time that the PLA organized such a high-level multilateral security dialogue. Notably, there are indications that China made this move to compete with the annual Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore, which itself has featured important speeches by senior PLA figures in recent years. Additionally, two in high-profile events, China showcased its military at home and abroad during the September 3, and May 9, 2015, parades in Beijing and Moscow celebrating the 70th anniversary of end of World War II. Joint and Combined Arms PLA Exercises and Training Besides combined training, the PLA has been expanding its joint (e.g., two or more services) and combined arms (e.g., two or more branches within the same service) training under actual-combat conditions. During 2014, the PLA conducted numerous exercises and training events under actual-combat conditions, including an exercise that was held at the Zhurihe training base in Inner Mongolia during May to June and was observed by foreign military attaches. In 2015, the entire military expanded the development of actual-combat strategic and campaign training, including joint and combined arms training, night training, training in a complex electromagnetic environment (CEME) and difficult terrain and weather conditions, as well as combined training with foreign militaries. PLA Navy Activities Since the 18th Party Congress, the PLAN has been at the forefront of showing the flag overseas, to include combined exercises, Peace Ark hospital ship visits, round-the-world voyages linked with escort task force missions in the Gulf of Aden, evacuation of Chinese and other citizens from Yemen, and hosting the Western Pacific Naval Symposium (WPNS). PLAN "Maneuver-5" (-5) open-sea combat exercise involving all three fleets in the Western Pacific from October 18 to November 1, 2013. Ironically, although not a bilateral or multilateral combined exercise, this was identified as a military diplomacy event. The Peace Ark hospital ship () provided post-typhoon humanitarian medical aid to the Philippines from November 21 to December 15, 2013. From June 17-20, 2013, the Peace Ark and 110 personnel participated in a joint disaster relief and military medical science exercise in Brunei under the mechanism of the ASEAN Defense Ministers' Plus (ADDM-Plus). During a voyage through the Western Pacific from September 3 to December 11, 2013, three PLAN South Sea Fleet (SSF) vessels (Lanzhou guided missile destroyer, Liuzhou guided missile frigate, and Poyanghu comprehensive supply ship) passed through the Strait of Magellan for the first time and visited Chile, Argentina, and Brazil. [1] They then passed back through the Strait on their way home. Following the commissioning of the Liaoning aircraft carrier into the fleet in 2012, the PLAN established the first flight group () in May 2013. In April 2014, the PLAN hosted the 14th biennial WPNS for the first time, which was joined by more than 150 naval leaders and representatives from 25 countries. To help celebrate the 50th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations with several African countries, three vessels from the PLAN's 13th Gulf of Aden escort task force sailed all the way around Africa from September to December 2014 for the first time and visited eight countries. During March 2015, the PLAN evacuated 613 Chinese plus 279 foreign nationals from 15 countries out of Yemen thus emphasizing the PLA's ability to respond to emergencies abroad. PLA Air Force Activities in the East China Sea ADIZ Aircraft of the PLA Air Force also continue to play an important role in highlighting growing Chinese strength. The PLAAF sent seven J-10s from the August 1st (Bayi) Aerobatics Team to the PLAAF's first airshow abroad in Russia on August 21, 2013. On November 23, 2013, China established an ADIZ in the East China Sea. Besides being involved in search efforts for the Malaysian airliner, it has also been actively involved in implementing the Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) established in the East China Sea in November 2013. On November 27, 2015, PLA Air Force H-6K bombers and other aircraft flew through the Miyako Channel past the first island chain into the Western Pacific for the fourth time to conduct training. It also sent multiple fighters, bombers, and airborne early warning aircraft to conduct patrols in the East China Sea ADIZ. Together, these activities have increased the PLAAF's far seas deployment and combat capabilities (Xinhua, November 28, 2015). United Nations Peacekeeping Although the PLA first became involved in United Nations Peacekeeping Operations (UNPKO) in 1990, it has gradually expanded its participation over the past three years, including dealing with the Ebola outbreak and deploying its first infantry units. Since the 1990s, China's UNPKO participants included engineering, transportation, medical support, and police () units. In December 2013, China sent its first peacekeeping task force to the Republic of Mali, which included the first small group of PLA security forces (/) consisting of infantry troops. In September 2014, the PLA assigned troops to aid West Africa in fighting Ebola for the first time. It successively assigned about 300 people in multiple medical teams to Sierra Leone and Liberia, areas in West Africa that are seriously hit by Ebola, since mid-September. In April 2015, China deployed its first PLA Army infantry battalion to a UNPKO in South Sudan, whose mission was to protect China's own non-combat troops. Both groups have subsequently taken casualties due to terrorist attacks and domestic unrest (SOURCE). Understanding Chinese Exercises After reviewing Chinese military exercises, one of the key questions, remaining is how much has the PLA shaped the view of itself in the international arena and to what affect? The simple answer is that PLA writings about itself have clearly affected how the foreign press views it, whether positive or negative. One of the problems, however, is that very few articles provide a comparison of the PLA and the U.S. military in terms of international relations. Because most U.S. military relations activities are "normal," they do not receive as much press as when the PLA does something for the first time. For example, from 2002 through 2012, the PLA held 28 combined exercises and 34 combined training sessions with 31 countries in accordance with relevant agreements or arrangements (MOD, April 16, 2013). However, this pales in comparison with the U.S. Pacific Command that participates in more than 1,500 exercises and other engagement activities with foreign military forces each year, and the U.S. Navy component is involved in 700 training events and 170 exercises each year in the Asia-Pacific region (China Brief, May 1, 2015). In 2015 alone, Pacific Fleet ships sailed about 700 combined days in the South China Sea (Navy Times, March 3). What does draw attention to individual U.S. and Chinese military activities, however, are certain single events. For example, in May 2015, PLAAF H-6 bombers flew their first ever mission in the Western Pacific after transiting the Bashi Channel (CRI, January 4). It then flew three additional missions during 2015 through the Miyako Strait and Bashi Channel. On the U.S. side, much press attention was given to freedom of navigation operation (FONOP) missions in the South China Sea by the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Lassen (DDG-82) in October 2015 and by two U.S. Air Force B-52 bombers in November (The Diplomat, January 6; The Diplomat, November 13, 2015). Conclusion As Chinese military exercises continue to grow and expand, they deserve to be closely monitored. However, such analyses should keep the exercises purpose and frequency in perspective. China, as with all countries that participate in them, use such exercises to practice real world skills, improve domestic and foreign interoperability and signal resolve. Kenneth W. Allen is a Senior China Analyst at Defense Group Inc. (DGI). He is a retired U.S. Air Force officer, whose extensive service abroad includes a tour in China as the Assistant Air Attache. He has written numerous articles on Chinese military affairs. A Chinese linguist, he holds an M.A. in international relations from Boston University. Notes 1. Joint exercises involved two or more services. Combined arms exercises or drills involve two or more branches. 2. Of note, whereas the international community refers to this as combined training, the PLA refers to it as joint training. 3. Zeng Xingjian and Hong Yihu, "Passing the Strait of Magellan," China Armed Forces, No. 24, Vol. 6, 2013, pp. 80-83. Official Chinese English-language publications, such as the biennial Defense White Paper, refer to the South Sea Fleet as the Nanhai Fleet. Copyright notice: 2010 The Jamestown Foundation NATO-Georgia: Varied Menu, Uncertain Financing Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Vladimir Socor Publication Date 1 August 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 139 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, NATO-Georgia: Varied Menu, Uncertain Financing, 1 August 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 139, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a9bafa4.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Link to original story on Jamestown website It was a summit of modest expectations and modest results for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Warsaw on July 8-9. These results are of an interim nature: building-blocks for further decisions at upcoming ministerial meetings, not waiting until the next summit. The Warsaw results do not, as yet, correlate with the growth in Russia's capacity to threaten, intimidate, or subvert the Alliance generally and its eastern-now "frontline"-member countries in particular. Decisions adopted at the Warsaw Summit have changed the framework of NATO's relations with Georgia, the top performer among countries aspiring to NATO membership (see EDM, July 27, 29). From 2008 (when NATO formalized Georgia's aspirant country status) to date, partnership programs operated in a NATO-Georgia framework. The Alliance's 2014 Wales summit, however, endorsed a number of fresh projects that would embed Georgia in common activities with variable groupings of NATO member and partner countries. The Alliance marked time for two more years until announcing the start to the implementation of these new projects at the Warsaw summit just held (Warsaw Summit Communique, Nato.int, July 9, pars. 101, 110-113; NATO-Georgia Commission joint statement, Nato.int, July 8). The new projects include: The Substantial NATO-Georgia Package (SNGP), aiming "to strengthen Georgia's defense capabilities and to develop inter-operability with NATO members" through liaison and advice, training and exercises. The NATO-Georgian Joint Training and Evaluation Center (JTEC) at Krtsanisi, defined as SNGP's "key element," inaugurated in 2015 and confirmed as "up and running" at the Warsaw Summit just held. Defense Capacity Building Initiative (DCBI), including JTEC, which is defined as the "cornerstone of the implementation of DCBI." Moldova and Jordan are also included in DCBI. Defense Institution Building School (DIBS), just inaugurated in Georgia, as reported at the Warsaw Summit. Apparently it is designed to offer training in the good governance and management of the defense and security sector for the Georgian military. Enhanced Opportunities (EO) partnership, in the framework of NATO's Partnership Interoperability Initiative (IPI) being offered to Georgia as well as to non-member countries Finland, Sweden, Jordan, and Australia. Each one of these countries shall have an individual ("tailored") program with NATO. Of all these projects, JTEC seems the most tangible thus far. Co-located with Georgia's own Training and Military Education Command (TMEC) at Krtsanisi, JTEC is staffed by some 30 officers from NATO member and partner countries. It is designed to host a NATO interoperability team, assist in the planning, execution, and evaluation of multinational exercises, conduct trainings and simulations based on threat scenarios. It is also intended to assist the Georgian army with professional development programs on cyber defense, strategic communications, crisis management procedures (Nato.int, accessed July 20). This broad portfolio will require commensurate financing in order to avoid a selective implementation. The NATO-Georgia Commission (NGC) met at the foreign ministers' level in the 28+1 format during the Warsaw Summit, marking the shift from the Annual National Plans (ANP, launched in 2008) to the new formats of flexible cooperation. The ANPs had failed to assist Georgia with training and arming for homeland defense. This failure was a NATO-wide policy. This time, the Commission's communique opens the door slightly for "Allies bilaterally to implement programs to enhance Georgia's defense and resilience capabilities." Whether NATO's trend-setting members interpret "defense" as permitting "lethality," in Georgia's or Ukraine's case, remains to be seen. Georgia hosted the NATO exercises Agile Spirit annually from 2011 through 2014 in a bilateral United States-Georgian format. Agile Spirit became a multilateral exercise in 2015 (battalion-size Georgian troops, two US marine companies, and platoon-size units from Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Bulgaria), with out-of-area peacekeeping and peace-support scenarios, rather than combat for homeland defense. The next Agile Spirit is due in November 2016, again as a multilateral exercise; its scenario may provide another test of NATO's seriousness of purpose in Georgia. Meanwhile, the bilateral format of US-Georgia exercises has shifted to Noble Partner, held in May 2015 and May 2016 on more robust combat scenarios, involving a small number of Georgian troops (see EDM, July 29). This summit's communique is filled with acronyms, abbreviations, and upper-case initials of program titles, more heavily than any past summit communique regarding partnerships generally and Georgia specifically. To what extent this alphabet soup translates into real actions will depend on financing. According to NATO's and the Georgia-NATO Commission's communiques from Warsaw, the Allies discussed financing of those programs through possible trust funds. Such trust funds were initiated for Ukraine and for Georgia at the 2014 Wales summit. The amounts collected since then are mostly unknown, and are generally believed to be meager. Only five NATO member countries (out of 28) meet the benchmark of spending 2 percent of their GDPs for defense. Non-member Georgia does, and the summit did acknowledge that "Georgia is doing its part in allocating significant resources to this effort." Outside NATO's framework, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili signed, on July 6, in Tbilisi, a "Memorandum on Deepening the Defense and Security Partnership between the United States and Georgia" (see EDM, July 18) On July 19-20, in Washington, a regular round of US-Georgia security and defense consultations took place, aiming to identify ways for the practical application of the Memorandum. The lengthy document is seen in Tbilisi as a consolation prize for the NATO summit's expected decision to withhold a Georgian membership action plan (MAP). The Memorandum, however, envisages no specific actions and no time-frame. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) would at least have contained some specifics, even if non-binding ones. Any further action will probably have to await the presidential election in the US (State.gov, July 6; Civil Georgia, July 6, 7, 21). Nominally at least, the July 19-20 consultations (see above) were held within the framework of the US-Georgia Charter of Strategic Partnership, crafted by then-Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza in the final days of the George W. Bush administration, in January 2009. That Charter remains an unrequited affirmation of what used to be a bilateral strategic partnership. On a bilateral level again, Georgia is in the process of buying an air defense system from France. This system includes a ground-based radar, command-and-control system made by ThalesRaytheonSystems, as well as a surface-to-air missile system produced by MBDA (a France-headquartered association of several major European arms producers). Contracted in mid-2015, at a combined cost 78 million ($87 million at today's exchange rate), the purchase is financed through a loan from Societe Generale, guaranteed by France's export credit agency Coface. The system is due to become operational in Georgia in 2017 (Civil Georgia, July 8, 9). Copyright notice: 2010 The Jamestown Foundation Russian Military Build-Up in Arctic Highlights Kremlin's Militarized Mindset Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Aleksandr Golts Publication Date 1 August 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 139 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Russian Military Build-Up in Arctic Highlights Kremlin's Militarized Mindset, 1 August 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 139, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a9bb674.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Link to original story on Jamestown website Despite Russia's economic crisis, which has already imposed restrictions on military spending (see EDM, May 3), the Kremlin is trying to implement a questionable buildup in the Arctic, aimed at strengthening Russian military might. During a recent board session of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Minister Sergei Shoigu paid special attention to the implementation of the "2020 Activity Plan by the Northern Fleet." He reminded the participants that the Northern Fleet, an "inter-service strategic formation," was formed over two years ago "in order to protect [the] northern borders of Russia" (Mil.ru, July 27). He mentioned in particular that the construction of "closed-loop" (self-sustaining) military towns will be finished on the Franz Josef Land archipelago and the Novosibirsk Islands in 2016. A joint situational awareness system is being created to support air defense. The Russian defense ministry intends to build or reconstruct ten airfields in the Arctic. "Russia's Federal Agency for Special Construction [Spetsstroy] is building military infrastructure facilities on six islands in the Arctic," Izvestia quotes a ministry official. According to this source, over 100 tons of military equipment for more than 150 facilities are planned to be delivered to these remote military garrisons. In addition to the materiel supply, more than 190 tons of construction materials-including precast concrete, cement, metal, pipes, fittings and equipment-will be delivered to the Arctic for building the facilities (Izvestia, July 11). The construction and renovation of runways and other structures is ongoing at Severomorsk-1 airfield (Murmansk oblast) as well as Nagurskoye air base (Alexandra Land Island, in the Franz Josef Archipelago). The airfields at Rogachevo (Arkhangelsk oblast), Tiksi (Yakutia Republic) and Temp (Kotelny Island in the Arctic Ocean) are also under construction. It was announced that beginning next year, Tiksi is to become the permanent base for a formation of high-altitude MiG-31 interceptors (Rossiiskaya Gazeta, July 19). Meanwhile, troops deployed in the Arctic are undergoing intensive training. Specifically, units of mobile rapid-reaction forces are being exposed to the conditions of the Far North. During several snap inspection exercises in the past year, the Russian General Staff has concentrated on the ability to reinforce three land-based brigades in Murmansk oblast-the 200th Motorized Rifle Brigade (Pechenga), the 80th Arctic Motorized Rifle Brigade (Alakurtti) and the 61st Marine Brigade (Sputnik)-with airborne units based in Ivanovo and Pskov (western-central Russia) (Mil.ru April 9, 2015). Over the last decade, the Russian leadership has become obsessed with the notion that climate change will result in the imminent melting of the polar ice cap in the Arctic Ocean. At this point, these politicians argue, Russia will be able to tap a wealth of heretofore inaccessible natural resources, such as oil and natural gas from the seabed. In addition, the role of the Northern Sea Route (which hugs Russia's Arctic coast) will increase dramatically, providing huge revenues to Moscow from cargo ships allowed to pass through this transit corridor connecting Europe, Asia and North America. However, climate change is unlikely to bring only benefits for Russia. In addition to polar ice, the Arctic permafrost will also melt. Consequently, a belt of Russia's northern coast is expected to turn into a swamp many kilometers deep, making it impossible to build the infrastructure necessary to serve the Northern Sea Route or the facilities required to extract the region's oil and gas. Moreover, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) prohibits parties to the agreement from placing restrictions on foreign ships passing along the Northern Sea Route. Thus, Russia (a party to UNCLOS) is obligated to provide passing foreign vessels with communications as well as meteorological, hydrological and rescue services at its own expense. This means that President Vladimir Putin's dream of cashing in on the route is wishful thinking. Even now, his plans clearly diverge from reality. Transit traffic via the Northern Sea Route has dropped catastrophically: from 1.18 million tons in 2013, to 39,000 tons in 2015 (Regnum, December 8, 2015). For almost 80 years of this route's existence, no one had any reason to question its economic viability. Military bases and prison camps were the main destination and departure points along the Northern Sea Route. Now, with transcontinental cargo traffic having collapsed, Moscow's main hope is that this route will be used for transporting offshore oil. However, all major Western oil companies have so far refused to develop the Arctic shelf: it is too dangerous and expensive. Furthermore, sections of the Northern Sea Route are inaccessible to larger ships. Vessels with a draught of over 12 meters cannot operate in the vicinity of the Novosibirsk Islands, for example (Fni.no, November 8, 1999). Future prosperity in the Arctic looks highly doubtful, but the Kremlin lives according to a different logic. It believes that the possession of even hypothetical treasures in the Far North will inevitably encourage other countries to forcibly take them from Russia. Therefore, the Kremlin has demanded that the defense ministry "strengthen the battle capability" in the region. In executing this order, the Russian military is bound to redevelop old Cold War-style scenarios, even though none of the other Arctic-region countries have shown any sign of militarization in recent years. Nearly Russia's entire military potential in the Far North is currently concentrated on the Kola Peninsula-the extreme west of the Russian Arctic. This was no accident, and it stems from the Arctic region's role as a zone of military confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States throughout the Cold War. It was convenient to deliver nuclear strikes against the enemy from the depths of the ice-covered ocean. The main task of all Soviet Armed forces in the Arctic-the naval surface fleet, the air force and ground troops-was to ensure nuclear submarine combat patrols and the protection of their bases on the Kola Peninsula. No one at that time suggested the need to control and defend thousands of miles of ice desert. Surface vessels of the Northern Fleet, in fact, cannot operate east of Novaya Zemlya-beyond this point they lack ground support and air protection. To ensure wide-scale patrols, it is not enough to restore Soviet-era airfields and station there a few dozen jets. Thousands of tons of fuel will also be required. Deploying small garrisons in the Arctic makes no military sense either. Thus, Russia is spending massive resources simply for Shoigu to be able to report to Putin that the country's unobtainable natural wealth is being protected. Copyright notice: 2010 The Jamestown Foundation Possible Nuclear Power Plant Accident in Belarus Sheds Light on Minsk's Internal Political Process Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Grigory Ioffe Publication Date 1 August 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 139 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Possible Nuclear Power Plant Accident in Belarus Sheds Light on Minsk's Internal Political Process, 1 August 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 139, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a9bc624.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Link to original story on Jamestown website The Belarusian Ministry of Energy confirmed, on July 26, that an emergency situation occurred earlier that month at the construction site of the Belarusian nuclear power plant (NPP) (Energobelarus.by, July 27). The power station is being built 18 kilometers from the town of Ostrovets (Grodno oblast), and some 50 km from Vilnius, Lithuania. According to the energy ministry's press release, the situation took place on July 10, at the warehouse facility, while the reactor was being moved horizontally. This confirmation was preceded and, in fact, triggered by speculations of a local resident, Nikolai Ulasevich. A member of the opposition United Civic Party, Ulasevich is running for a seat in parliament (the election is scheduled for September 11). On July 25, on his Facebook page, Ulasevich related persistent rumors that a 330-ton nuclear reactor fell from a height of 2-4 meters during a planned rehearsal of its installation on July 10. Ulasevich claims that he received this information from at least ten unrelated people, who shared it with him on condition of anonymity during his electoral signature-collecting campaign. This posting launched a frenzy of activity within the opposition media. Lithuania, meanwhile, sent a diplomatic note to the Belarusian ambassador in Vilnius, urging the government in Minsk to carry out a careful and transparent investigation of the alleged accident (Tut.by, July 28). On July 26, the Russian state-owned company Rosatom, the Ostrovets NPP project's prime contractor, denied any alleged damage to the reactor shell (Sputnik News, July 26). Reportedly, the reactor will be installed as scheduled, once the supervisors issue their permission. However, in the opinion of Belarusian opposition-minded experts, Russian contractors are predisposed to downplay the scale of an accident, and dropping the reactor from a height of 2-4 m, if it indeed occurred, may be extremely dangerous. Lots of even more ominous rumors have been circulating in the Belarusian media alongside the more established facts. It is true, however, that the alleged whistleblower, Ulasevich, is now leading a civic protest campaign, "Ostrovets Station Is a Crime" (Naviny.by, July 26). According to Valer Karbalevich of Radio Liberty, the Belarusian authorities are behaving like their Soviet counterparts in April-May 1986, when no public information was issued about the meltdown in Chernobyl for ten whole days following the initial explosion at the plant. According to Kabalevich's colleague, Vital Tsyhankou, President Alyaksandr Lukashenka needs to say something about the alleged accident. Moreover, this would be an opportune moment for his intervention, as it would allow him to show his human side and restore order (Svaboda.org, July 27). The Belarusian leader has, nevertheless, kept silent-as he has throughout Belarus's two-month conflict with Russian Gazprom over the price of natural gas purchased from Russia. Considering Lukashenka's putative behind-the-scenes behavior during the latter conflict, Yury Drakokrust of Radio Liberty shared his understanding of Lukashenka's similarity with United States presidential candidate Donald Trump, a seemingly popular and tenacious idea broached by yet another Belarusian journalist, Vadim Livnev (Salidarnasts, July 20). Specifically, Drakokhrust draws a parallel between the bargaining styles of both politicians. Thus, in order to lower prices on Russian natural gas, Lukashenka just began to pay less, but then he had to repay the accumulated debt (see EDM, July 29). His maneuver, however, was not entirely in vain, as previously lowering of the price was not even discussed, whereas today Moscow has promised a price drop in exchange for Belarus fulfilling its obligations to deliver refined oil to the Russian market and also in exchange for eventually selling some Belarusian industrial giants to Russian owners. While the former promise will have to be abided by, it is still possible for Minsk to procrastinate on the latter. This is emblematic of Lukashenka's tactics of wresting small gains. Likewise, Donald Trump threatened that he may not defend the US's allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) that do not fulfill their defense budget obligations. Within days of this threat, Estonia's President Toomas Ilves stated that his country does indeed live by the standard NATO commitment to spend at least 2 percent of its GDP on defense. That implies that other NATO allies may soon be urged to toe the line and fulfill their own 2 percent obligations. So Trump's threat might not be in vain either, Drakokhrust argues (Tut.by, July 25). Yet, Lukashenka is not only using his specific bargaining style to benefit Belarus economically; he has also positioned himself as the guardian of his country's independence. During the 13th Warsaw East European Conference (July 18-21), a member of the Belarusian opposition, Dmitry Bondarenko, asked former Georgian president and current governor of Odesa Mikheil Saakashvili why Ukrainian and Georgian authorities "maintain good relations with the authoritarian regime of Lukashenka." "There is no alternative to a free Belarus," Saakashvili responded. "But in order for Belarus to be free one has to ensure first that Belarus is retained as a state" (Tut.by, July 21). The Belarusian opposition, however, is no longer perceived domestically as a possible savior of Belarusian independence. Even Pavel Usov-perhaps the most ardent proponent of a boycott of the upcoming parliamentary election by the opposition-had to acknowledge: "the West is noticeably disappointed in the Belarusian opposition" (Naviny.by, July 28). This being the case, the Belarusian authorities have allowed only token participation of the opposition in the electoral process. Out of 303 opposition candidates to serve as members of almost 6,000 local electoral commissions (EC-bodies tasked with actually counting the votes), only 53 (17 percent) made the cut. Considering that the overall ratio was 90 percent (65,857 filled EC seats out of 73,278 candidates put forward), the opposition obtained a raw deal yet again (Tut.by, July 29). Such are the informal rules of the political game in Belarus-and arguably most non-Western countries. These rules are easy for the authorities to enforce when the personal prestige of the members of the opposition is not particularly high. But if the Ostrovets NPP whistleblower, Nikolai Ulasevich, manages to win a parliamentary seat in the upcoming election, it remains to be seen what this may mean for Belarusian politics in the long term. If he loses, Ulasevich will only have succeeded in using the electoral campaign to disseminate information unflattering for the authorities. And this is the utmost that many members of the opposition acknowledge they themselves are shooting for. Copyright notice: 2010 The Jamestown Foundation ASEAN-China Dialogue Relations at 25 Publisher IRIN Publication Date 9 August 2016 Cite as IRIN, ASEAN-China Dialogue Relations at 25 , 9 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a9bcd54.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Link to original story on Jamestown website During his remarks at the 18th ASEAN-China Summit last November in Kuala Lumpur, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang lauded the "new progress" that could be made in the relationship between the two sides as they prepared to commemorate the 25th anniversary of their dialogue partnership in 2016 (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, November 22, 2015). But with uncertainty still hanging over some of China's new economic initiatives and a much-awaited ruling on China's South China Sea territorial claims last month going decisively against Beijing, it is unclear how friendly relations between the ASEAN states and China will be. Economics continues to be the heart of ASEAN-China relations. China has been ASEAN's largest trading partner since 2009, and ASEAN has been China's third largest since 2010. Last year, both sides agreed to double their bilateral trade to $1 trillion as well as to upgrade the ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement (FTA), the world's largest such agreement by population. Both sides have focused on a few priority areas this year. One of them is production capacity cooperation, which has emerged as a key focus of China's economic diplomacy. Beijing sees this as a way to both deal with the surplus of production capacity in the Chinese economy while also meeting the demand for more investment, technology and labor in emerging markets including Southeast Asia (Xinhua, June 15, 2015). ASEAN and China are expected to ink a joint statement on this issue later this year. Meanwhile, at the sub-regional level, China has been focusing on developing its new Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) Framework with mainland Southeast Asian countries along the Mekong River. Beijing has characterized the initiative as designed not just to promote its own economic interests, but to help narrow development gaps within ASEAN and to support the building of an ASEAN community. In March at the inaugural LMC leaders' meeting in Sanya, Hainan province, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said that China had committed to $11.5 billion in loans and credit for Mekong countries (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, March 23). ASEAN countries are also benefiting from the rollout of new Chinese economic initiatives such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the One Belt One Road (OBOR). According to Citibank, Southeast Asian infrastructure is already emerging as a major beneficiary of OBOR, with Chinese companies accounting for 17 percent of infrastructure investment across the region in 2015 (Supply Chain Asia, July 11). Last month, Indonesia also became one of the first four recipients of AIIB projects (Jakarta Globe, June 26). Other ASEAN states are keen to follow suit. China-ASEAN Security Cooperation On the political-security side, while observers tend to overwhelmingly focus on the South China Sea issue, there is in fact a whole series of areas where ASEAN and China already cooperate, particularly in non-traditional security areas like natural disaster response, transnational crime and countering drug trafficking. Over the past few years, Beijing has also been attempting to deepen its ties with ASEAN as a whole as well as with individual Southeast Asian states. Last year, ASEAN and China held their first ever informal defense ministers' meeting in Beijing, which was viewed as a landmark development. China has been looking to deepen ties even further this year. At the sixth China-ASEAN Defense Ministers' Informal Meeting in Vientiane in May, Chinese State Councilor and Defense Minister Chang Wanquan said that China intended to strengthen cooperation with ASEAN in several areas (China Daily, May 26). Of particular note was his mention of greater anti-terrorism cooperation in terms of intelligence sharing and exercises, given that a number of maritime Southeast Asian states-most notably Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines-have grown increasingly wary of the threat of the Islamic State to their national security. Chang also said that Beijing would be willing to enhance collaboration between the People Liberation Army's Southern Theater Command and the militaries of ASEAN nations in a wide range of fields including border and coastal defense, maritime security and anti-terrorism. ASEAN and China have also looked to better manage the South China Sea issue. One of the concrete outcomes expected for the year is an ASEAN-China joint statement on the implementation of the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea (CUES)-a series of protocols for the safety of naval vessels initially negotiated at the 2014 Western Pacific Naval Symposium. A number of members including Singapore, the country coordinator for 2016, are looking to advance this as a way of better managing potential tensions. Another expected outcome is the establishment of a hotline between foreign ministries to manage maritime emergencies. As a confidence-building measure, China has also proposed a joint exercise with militaries from ASEAN nations including maritime search and rescue, disaster relief and application of CUES. Beijing proposed the exercise be held in Zhanjiang, Guangdong province-the headquarters of the South Sea Fleet-and its coastal waters in the second quarter of 2017. The two sides also continue to work toward the implementation of the 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) and the conclusion of a binding code of conduct (COC). At the 12th ASEAN-China Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM) on the Implementation of the DOC in Vietnam in June, ASEAN countries once again stressed the need for the early adoption of an effective COC, including through increasing the frequency of the SOM as well as joint working group meetings on the implementation of the DOC (Vietnam News, June 10). The next round of meetings will be held in China this month. The third and final component both sides have emphasized this year is people-to-people ties. A number of activities are planned for the rest of the year in this realm, including the organization of an ASEAN-China Young Entrepreneur Forum as well as a Second ASEAN-China Youth Exchange Visit. This year, the focus has been on education, with both sides designating 2016 as the Year of China-ASEAN Education Exchange. Yang Xiuping, the Secretary General of the ASEAN-China Center, reiterated last month at the ASEAN-China Forum of Youth and Humanities in Jilin province that the target for the next few years is to have 100,000 ASEAN students studying in China by 2020 (Embassy of the Philippines, June 20). Another important field within the people-to-people realm is tourism. At a speech on July 12 in Jakarta to commemorate the 25th anniversary of China-ASEAN dialogue relations, China's ambassador to ASEAN, Xu Bu, said that the two sides were considering the possibility of designating 2017 as the Year of China-ASEAN Tourism Cooperation (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, July 11). Though China has already emerged as the largest source of foreign tourists to ASEAN countries, a number of Southeast Asian countries have expressed interest in further increasing that number. Indonesia's Tourism Minister Arief Yahya, for instance, has said that he wishes to double the number of Chinese tourists visiting Indonesia at the earliest possible date. While there are advances that both sides intend to make in their relationship this year, it is clear that significant challenges remain. Despite some progress, there are still some challenges to China's broader economic objectives in Southeast Asia. Beijing's long-term goals for infrastructure development within the framework of the broader OBOR project include the ambitious plan to build a Pan-Asia Railway Network that will see three 4,500-5,500 kilometer railway lines link China with Southeast Asia. Central, western and eastern routes of this planned railway network will run from Kunming through Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam and Cambodia and Malaysia and Singapore. However, such a large scale and ambitious project has predictably run into trouble in the negotiation of its details between Beijing and the seven governments upon whose land the rail lines will be built. For example, in March, Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha announced that the Thailand-China high-speed rail project would be canceled due to disagreements over terms. Though the Thai government has said it will proceed with the 250 kilometer section of the rail line that links Bangkok to the northeastern city of Nakhon Ratchasima, it was nonetheless a serious blow to Beijing, as Bangkok is the planned center for all three of the lines (Bangkok Post, March 24). Similar hiccups and delays have also occurred previously in Myanmar and Laos. Beyond political issues in individual countries, there are also structural and engineering concerns in building such an extensive network including challenging landscapes, different railway gauges and poor track conditions. Meanwhile, as China seeks to boost its economic ties with ASEAN states, there continues to be unease in some Southeast Asian capitals about their implications. Though China has argued that its economic initiatives can help forge ASEAN unity, some fear that the gravitational pull of Beijing will lead individual Southeast Asian states to put their relationship with China ahead of regional interests. Cambodia has been repeatedly accused of toeing Beijing's line in recent years, while the rhetoric of the new Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte has led some to believe that he may advance an economics-first approach that makes Manila overly dependent on Beijing (Rappler, July 8). In April, prominent Malaysian commentator Tan Sri Munir Majid rather soberly wrote "Like individuals, some countries may sell their soul for money. Others may even trade territorial integrity" (The Star, March 26). South China Sea Dispute: The Elephant in the Room On the security side, the South China Sea issue has been the proverbial elephant in the room in 2016, even before the verdict this month. For instance, multiple diplomatic sources confirmed that at the ASEAN-China Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Yuxi in June, China made a heavy-handed attempt to pressure ASEAN to adopt Beijing's preferred stance on the South China Sea and then divided the grouping when it was going to act against Chinese interests, thereby preventing it from issuing a joint statement (The Diplomat, June 21). Even though this statement was not eventually adopted, its nature and content revealed the seriousness of the South China Sea issue for Southeast Asian states. Apart from the fact that the statement was unprecedentedly set to be issued solely by ASEAN rather than in concert with Beijing, the language was also as close as ASEAN has ever come to a direct rebuke of China on the South China Sea question: "We expressed our serious concerns over recent and ongoing developments, which have eroded trust and confidence, increased tensions and which may have the potential to undermine peace, security and stability in the South China Sea." [1] Across regional capitals, Yuxi was seen as an early warning for ASEAN ahead of the 49th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting (AMM) in Vientiane (PacNet, June 24). Though the AMM did see ASEAN avoid a repeat of Phnom Penh in 2012-where disagreements over the South China Sea prevented the issuance of a joint communique for the first time in the grouping's history-the statement was also weaker than even the minimum standard of what was expected. Most clearly, the phrase "full respect for legal and diplomatic processes," a reference to the ruling included in both the U.S.-ASEAN Sunnylands Statement and the Yuxi non-statement, was removed from the South China Sea section of the statement and shifted to the introductory part to accommodate Cambodia's South China Sea-specific concerns. While Beijing once again denied a hand in Phnom Penh's obstructiveness, its announcement of $600 million in aid to Cambodia just days ahead of the AMM did not help its case. Although China continues to insist that the South China Sea issue ought to be kept in perspective and not undermine broader ASEAN-China relations, Beijing's own actions-be they its assertive actions or its efforts to undermine regional consensus-have themselves heightened regional anxieties and led ASEAN to have to speak out even as it tries to advance ties with the Asian giant. As the ASEAN statement at Yuxi noted, "[W]e also cannot ignore what is happening in the South China Sea as it is an important issue in the relations and cooperation between ASEAN and China." How China chooses to respond on the South China Sea issue following the ruling will play a major role in how the issue affects ASEAN-China relations in the coming months. . Beyond the South China Sea issue, structural limits on how far ASEAN-China security ties can advance have continued to play themselves out in 2016. Southeast Asian states are only beginning to see the benefits of joint exercises with China, and even so, they are fully aware that their militaries do not gain nearly as much practical experience or technical expertise as when they conduct such drills with the United States. Following the visit of Xu Qiliang, Vice-Chairman of China's Central Military Commission, a Malaysian defense official noted this was "why you see how slow [Sino-Malaysian defense ties] moved since we started." [2] Furthermore, most ASEAN countries have tended to source their military equipment from Western countries or Russia, which raises issues of compatibility, interoperability, or familiarity when it comes to entertaining Chinese proposals in areas such as defense purchases or industry collaboration. For instance, despite China's unlikely victory over Germany and South Korea in the race to build Thailand's first submarines in June, Bangkok continues to face questions about its choice, ranging from the reliability of Chinese equipment to the effects that further Chinese involvement in the country's defense industry could have on its alliance with the United States (Bangkok Post, July 1). Conclusion To be sure, some of these challenges can be overcome by ASEAN and China in the coming months and years. Overall, there is still optimism about ASEAN-China relations in spite of lingering uncertainty in both the economic and security realms. However, after 25 years, it is still unclear how sunny the future of the China-ASEAN dialogue will be. Prashanth Parameswaran is Associate Editor at The Diplomat magazine and a Ph. D. candidate at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University based in Washington, D.C. His research and writing focuses on Southeast Asia, Asian security affairs and U.S. foreign policy in the Asia-Pacific. Notes 1. Interview, June, 2016. 2. Author's copy of the statement. Cautious Belarus-Poland Normalization Reflects Changing Regional Patterns Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Yauheni Preiherman Publication Date 2 August 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 140 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Cautious Belarus-Poland Normalization Reflects Changing Regional Patterns, 2 August 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 140, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a9bf174.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Link to original story on Jamestown website Recent months have seen conspicuously positive developments in Belarusian-Polish relations after years of political tensions. On July 20, Warsaw hosted political consultations between the foreign ministries of the two states, where the head of Polish diplomacy, Witold Waszczykowski, expressed satisfaction with the "progressing normalization of the relations" (Tut.by, July 20). According to him, "it means progress in all cooperation spheres-not just in the realm of political and parliamentary contacts." The Warsaw meeting was an important bilateral development in itself, as until only recently the two neighboring countries remained in a state of permanent low-key conflict, driven by numerous historical, political and ideological disagreements. At the same time, the ongoing normalization of relations seems to reflect changing regional patterns. It corresponds to the spirit of the European Union's recent European Neighborhood Policy review, which emphasizes Brussels' willingness to put its relations with immediate neighbors in the East on a more pragmatic and differentiated footing (Eeas.europa.eu, November 18, 2015). It also reflects the need to look for new approaches to regional cooperation amidst the unpredictable security implications of the military-political confrontation between Russia and the West. The year 2015 saw significant events in Poland: presidential and parliamentary elections, which returned to power the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party. The Belarusian government observed the elections in Poland with cautious optimism, even though the overall state of bilateral relations did not suggest the possibility of a breakthrough. In mid-2015, Warsaw decided to change its top envoy to Belarus. Having left Minsk, the former ambassador, Leszek Szerepka, published an extensive op-ed in which he concludes that Warsaw and President Alyasandr Lukashenka are destined to part ways eventually (Tut.by, October 8, 2015). However, already at the beginning of 2016, Polish diplomats began talking about "considerable progress" being made in the two countries' bilateral relations (BelTA, February 22). Poland's new Foreign Minister Waszczykowski listed the goal he would pursue in relations with Minsk: "We want not to make deals with Lukashenka but rather to build normal European relations based on European standards" (Radiopolsha.pl, February 11). And he made it clear that no preconditions should undermine the effort. At the end of March, Waszczykowski traveled to Minsk-the first official visit to Belarus by a Polish foreign minister in eight years. During the meeting with the Polish foreign minister, President Lukashenka stated: "we can solve any problems if there is willingness on two sides. The main thing is to determine the criteria." He later specified: "We will protect our sovereignty and independence just like you do We will use your example of implementing the social and economic policy in the country" (President.gov.by, March 23). He also praised Warsaw for not pushing Minsk to choose between Russia and the EU, because such a choice would automatically put the independence and stability of Belarus at risk, he argued. According to Belarusian Foreign Minister Uladzimir Makei, during Waszczykowski's visit they agreed on "a specified cooperation algorithm" in order to resolve all pending issues (Mfa.gov.by, March 22). Most important among them are the historical dialogue (including the "Katyn List"-a missing document with the names of almost 4,000 Poles killed by the Soviet NKVD on the territory of Belarus in 1940, which Warsaw requests that Minsk hand over to it); the problems of the Polish diaspora in Belarus; and small cross-border movement (Euroradio, June 15). The latter was regulated by an agreement, signed in 2010, which liberalizes cross-border movement for Polish and Belarusian nationals residing in the border's proximity. However, Minsk refused to ratify this document after another crisis in bilateral relations broke out at the end of 2010 (Zautra.by, November 20, 2015). A separate persistent concern for the Belarusian government is the so-called "Pole's Card," which offers Belarusian citizens with Polish roots who hold such a personal document numerous rights in Poland (Tut.by, February 15, 2008). According to the new Polish ambassador in Minsk, Konrad Pawlik, about 75,000 Belarusian nationals have received this card to date (Euroradio, June 15). Observers name several factors behind the current normalization in Belarusian-Polish relations: Firstly, it can be seen as part of the EU's overall reconsideration of its cooperation with its Eastern neighbors: the European Neighborhood Policy was reviewed in 2015 and now claims to prioritize stability, pragmatism and a country-specific approach over previously more abstract values-driven goals (Eeas.europa.eu, November 18, 2015). It also goes hand-in-hand with the rapprochement between Belarus and the EU, which saw the abolition of European sanctions in February. Poland's government supported the move actively (Radio Poland, February 15). Secondly, Minsk's efforts to stabilize the situation in Ukraine's Donbas and its neutral position on the Russia-Ukraine conflict serve confidence-building purposes in Belarus's relations with Poland. Belarus's refusal to host a Russian military base on its territory does the same (see EDM, October 7, 2015). At the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's summit in Warsaw (July 8-9), Foreign Minister Waszczykowski even spoke about a positive dynamic in the Alliance's dialogue with Belarus and stated that, "Poland wants to be in the role of an intermediary, which would be bringing Belarus closer to cooperation with NATO" (Belsat, July 8). Finally, some commentators have spoken about about an ideological convergence between the incumbent conservative government in Warsaw and the authorities in Minsk (Eurasia.expert, April 24). With all these recent developments in mind, one can hardly be sure that the dynamic currently defining Belarusian-Polish relations will remain in the positive mode in the medium- to long-term perspective. Many internal and regional factors could potentially derail the current cautious rapprochement. The bilateral relationship's vocal opponents can be found among Belarusian opposition circles, especially those who reside abroad, including in Poland. They find support among some representatives of Poland's elite. In addition, some in Belarus argue that Poland will inevitably return to its "mentoring approaches" toward Minsk. While others perceive Minsk's cooperation with Warsaw in conspiracy terms and as a threat to the Belarus's special relationship with Russia. For now, however, the trend remains pointed toward a gradual warming of ties, and this is likely to remain the case as long as Belarus's relationship with the wider West continues to move in the same direction. Copyright notice: 2010 The Jamestown Foundation NATO's New Force Posture in the Baltic Region: Pluses and Minuses Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Vladimir Socor Publication Date 3 August 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 141 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, NATO's New Force Posture in the Baltic Region: Pluses and Minuses, 3 August 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 141, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a9bf924.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Link to original story on Jamestown website It was a summit of modest expectations and modest results for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Warsaw on July 8-9. These results are of an interim nature: building-blocks for further decisions at upcoming ministerial meetings, not waiting until the next summit. The Warsaw results do not, as yet, correlate with the growth in Russia's capacity to threaten, intimidate, or subvert the Alliance generally and its eastern-now "frontline"-member countries in particular. Political debates on NATO's force posture in the Baltic region could have been better served by a higher degree of openness and candor in the run-up to the Warsaw Summit. Unnecessary constraints on those debates were partly responsible for delaying NATO's arrival to the Baltic region in a military sense during the whole post-enlargement decade. Those political inhibitions also partly explain the insufficiency of the Warsaw Summit's decisions on the Allied force posture in the three Baltic States vis-a-vis the potential threats from Russia. On the positive side, the summit's decisions signify that the three Baltic States' accession to NATO is not merely a political process, which is how NATO had essentially treated it since 2004. First, NATO has now taken the initial (albeit tentative) steps toward integrating Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania into the Alliance's defense system. Second, the three Baltic States no longer face the possibility of becoming de facto a buffer zone devoid of Allied forces (a possibility that had been discussed apprehensively in the region long after NATO's political enlargement there). And thirdly, the Alliance's force posture is now shifting from symbolic reassurance of the Baltic States toward deterrence of Russia, at least in aspirational terms for the time being. Under the Warsaw Summit's decisions, NATO shall establish an "enhanced forward presence" in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. This shall consist of four battalion-sized battlegroups, stationed on a "rotational basis," but nevertheless "present at all times" in each of these four countries, beginning in early 2017. These Allied battalions, multinational in their composition, shall "operate in concert with national forces, and "underpinned by a viable reinforcement strategy" from a pool of NATO forces in Europe. NATO's decision stipulates up front that this Allied force would "trigger an immediate Allied response to any aggression": the allusion to a "tripwire" function seems fairly clear (Warsaw Summit Communique, Nato.int July 9, para. 40). A "framework nation" is assigned to each of the four multinational battalions: the United Kingdom in Estonia, Canada in Latvia, Germany in Lithuania, and the United States in Poland. These battalion battlegroups shall provide a "persistent presence" through continuous rotations of their elements. The framework nations have "offered" to play that role; and they shall generate "voluntary troop contributions" from other Allied nations to the respective battalions. Thus, the arrangements for each nation are flexible, potentially time-limited and re-negotiable. The authorized strength is envisaged at approximately 1,000 troops in each battalion battlegroup. The troop commitments look as follows in the summit's aftermath: 850 troops confirmed for the battalion in Estonia (500 British, 200 Danish, 150 French); 600 confirmed for the battalion in Latvia (450 Canadian, 150 Polish), with additional possible but unconfirmed Italian, Slovene, and Portuguese troop contributions; 1,250 to 1,300 troops confirmed for the battalion in Lithuania (600 German, 200 Norwegian, 150 Croatian, 150 Belgian, 100-150 from the Netherlands, and 50 from Luxembourg), plus a tentative French offer; and 1,300 troops confirmed for the battalion in Poland (1,000 US, 150 British, and 150 Romanian troops). It is further understood that the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary-members together with Poland in the Visegrad Four group of countries-are willing to contribute one company each to be stationed in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, respectively (Osw.waw.pl, July 13). Whether the US military will continue its rotational presence in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania is not clear at this stage. The United States is currently deploying one company-size unit on continuous rotation in each of the three Baltic States. These countries are concerned to retain the US companies' presence in the framework of the battalion battlegroups. A possible removal of the US presence (for example, in order to make troops available for stationing in Poland, or outside Europe) would seriously disappoint the Baltics. Poland is providing an existing (Polish) division headquarters, as a basis for the establishment of a multinational division headquarters, pending agreement on the modalities by the North Atlantic Council. This headquarters is designated for command and control of the four battalion battlegroups in Poland and the three Baltic States (Nato.int July 9, para. 40). NATO needed two years to work out a political decision to create those four battalion-size battlegroups. The 2014 Wales Summit had merely approved four US company-size units, with 150 troops each, for stationing in Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, respectively, on continuous rotations. The 2014 summit had additionally approved four platoon-sized, non-combat NATO Force Integration Units (NFIU) to be stationed in each of those four countries. NFIUs are logistical staff units, tasked to facilitate the deployment of larger Allied units to these four countries, whether for peacetime exercises or in crisis contingencies that would involve NATO Response Forces. The battalions themselves are not intended for defense against possible conventional military aggression. They are, rather, intended to provide the minimal level of deterrence, that of a "tripwire," admittedly insufficient for opposing Russian conventional forces in battle. NATO's Response Forces are tasked with defense against conventional military aggression, but they are stationed far away from the Baltic region. The battalions' role would be to delay an invader's advance and trigger the application of NATO's Article V, with intervention by NATO Response Forces. The battalions themselves could, however, support the Baltic States' forces in "hybrid" conflict scenarios, dealing for example with limited incursions by unmarked Russian special force units, paramilitary troops and local armed proxies. Copyright notice: 2010 The Jamestown Foundation Attack on Gulen Movement Increasingly a Cornerstone of Turkey's Foreign Policy in the Balkans Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Ebi Spahiu Publication Date 3 August 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 141 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Attack on Gulen Movement Increasingly a Cornerstone of Turkey's Foreign Policy in the Balkans, 3 August 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 141, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a9bfe94.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Link to original story on Jamestown website The recent coup attempt in Turkey (July 15-16) and the government's domestic response have occupied a great deal of media attention over the past several weeks. But the broader geopolitical implications are also gradually coming to light as the fallout from the failed plot continues to affect international and inter-state relations, including those in the Western Balkans. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused exiled Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen of being behind the coup plot and of mobilizing closed communities inside Turkey into "parallel state" structures. Indeed, Gulen's influence over the Turkish judiciary and media has been the target of Erdogan's crackdown campaigns in the past, which had intensified over the past several years (Opinion.al, March 5). In recent weeks, the crackdown on Gulenists inside Turkey reached new heights, with thousands arrested or dismissed from their jobs and many businesses closed due to alleged ties to the movement (Gazeta Tema, July 16). Abroad, the Turkish president is leveraging Turkey's important investments and economic influence in order to intensify his calls to close down Gulenist schools and even investigate and arrest anti-Erdogan journalists on foreign soil. In the past several years, countries in the Western Balkans, such as Albania, Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina, have felt pressure from Turkey to reject Gulenist influence in their societies. This pressure is now growing, as Turkey threatens to curtail its economic ties with these states. At the same time, this situation is exposing the region's susceptibility toward Turkish assertiveness, as Ankara attempts to revive its historical role in the geopolitical matters of the Balkans. As early as the 1990s, the Gulen movement expanded its reach in the Balkans through educational institutions, which are now based in major cities across the region. In Albania, Gulenists established their presence when Communism fell and borders were once again opened to charity organizations and development programs from abroad. Since then, the Gulen movement has financed large educational programs, boarding schools and madrassas (religious schools) operated under the Turgut Ozal Education Company and the Gulistan Educational Foundation (Shqiptarja.com, May 14, 2015). At the time, these new schools were favorable to Albania's growing upper-middle class. This group was attracted by the Gulenist schools' reputation for rigorous curriculums, the provision of English classes and affordable tuition, as an alternative to a deteriorating public school system following decades of Soviet-style education. As a result, the schools' reach extended. Naturally, many Albanian graduates from these institutions now serve in non-governmental organizations (NGO) and high-level positions within the public administration. But to critics and pro-Erdogan analysts, Gulen's continuing control over the lives and professions of these graduates is unprecedented and strictly hierarchical, making them into trusted Gulenist militants, constituting the "parallel state" often referred to by Erdogan (Gazeta Tema, September 26, 2014). Entirely unassailable evidence for such accusations is difficult to come by. Nonetheless, anti-Gulen analysts speak of money laundering activities, terrorism, and civil society organizations that purportedly aim at challenging the legitimacy of state structures. Though it should be said that Gulen also finances the moderate, state-recognized religious organization Muslim Community of Albania (Java News, July 18). Pressure from Ankara on Balkan officials about Gulen and the threats of "parallel state" structures is now becoming a key component of Turkish foreign policy in this region (Gazeta Impakt, July 22). During his last visit to Albania in 2015, Erdogan urged the country's Prime Minister Edi Rama to suspend Gulen's activities and close down Hizmet (Gulenist) schools and universities. Rama, who maintains a close relationship with the Turkish president, declined this call. But he now finds himself once again being compelled by Ankara to tackle the Gulenist presence in public institutions. Turkey alleges that Albania is serving as a stronghold for the "terrorist" Gulen movement (Shqiptarja.com, May 14, 2015). Shortly after the coup in Turkey, Tirana's local media reported that the Albanian Ministry of Interior received an official diplomatic request from Ankara to investigate and ultimately arrest a number of individuals allegedly supporting Gulen (Te Sheshi, July 19). The government in Tirana has yet to comment on the leaked news, but the media is already speculating that some of the individuals on the list may include public figures, journalists, analysts and even high-ranking officials, such as the current minister of foreign affairs, Ditmir Bushati (Almakos, July 29). Similar pressure is mounting in Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Reportedly, Turkey is pushing these governments to investigate anti-Erdogan journalists. Berat Buzhala, a leading Kosovo journalist and founder of Gazeta Express in Pristina, is one of the latest targets. Specifically, Turkish diplomatic representatives have urged Kosovo's authorities to investigate Buzhala on terrorism charges over his satirical Facebook comments that called on Kosovar citizens on holiday in Turkey to "align with the army" (Balkan Insight, July 26; Illyria Press, July 26). In Bosnia-Herzegovina, journalists similarly accused of lobbying for Gulen are also facing mounting government pressure and enduring smear campaigns from pro-Erdogan supporters (Balkan Insight, July 26; Civilrightsdefenders.org, July 26). On the flip side, the attempted coup in Turkey has exposed growing support among local populations across the Balkans for President Erdogan. This was particularly visible on social media, where Balkan-based users posted images of Erdogan as a protector of democracy and Islamism in Turkey (Opinion.al, July 17). In addition, the Turkish president's supporters staged demonstrations in the streets of Skopje and Prizren (Gazeta Express, July 20). Moreover, Albanian and Turkish students who had attended Gulenist schools in Macedonia ripped up their diplomas in a symbolic gesture against Fethullah Gulen (Shenja.tv, July 16). This growing pro-Turkey and pro-Erdogan sentiment in the region comes as a result of visible Turkish investments in heavy industries, communications networks and infrastructure throughout the Balkans. But it can also be traced to increasing soft-power and religious initiatives by Ankara, which aim to restore a positive perception of the Ottoman Empire's historical role in the region (Balkan Insight, February 26; Gazeta Express, July 21). In Kosovo or Albania, these Turkish investments and soft-power programs have not interfered with the Balkan countries' pro-European Union and pro-Western orientations as long as Turkey and the United States maintained strong diplomatic relations as close allies. However, recent rifts over Fethullah Gulen, who lives in exile in Pennsylvania, and Turkey's pressure over domestic matters indicate a serious shift in rhetoric and, increasingly, policy. Thus, divergent outside interests may once again lead to disruptive geopolitical competition in this already fractured region. Copyright notice: 2010 The Jamestown Foundation Iraq: Islamic State Targets KRG-Administered Oilfield Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Alexander Sehmer Publication Date 5 August 2016 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Iraq: Islamic State Targets KRG-Administered Oilfield, 5 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a9c3974.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Link to original story on Jamestown website Islamic State (IS) fighters attacked the Bai Hasan oil field in Kirkuk, northern Iraq on July 31, killing at least four people, including oil workers and security guards. Two coordinated attacks saw suicide bombers hit the oilfield and a nearby gas compressor station, causing a fire to break out (Iraq Oil Report, July 31). The attack temporarily closed the oil field, but the facility - despite the fire, which at that point was not yet fully extinguished - was reportedly back in operation less than 24 hours later (Rudaw, August, 1). In the following days, Kurdish security forces rounded up suspects of an alleged IS sleeper cell, arresting four people linked to the attack. Security forces tracked down the suspects using a mobile phone signal (Rudaw, August 4). The presence of IS agents in Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) territory is not a new phenomenon. Several radical Kurdish clerics with links to IS were arrested last year, and there are claims that as many as 500 Kurds joined the group in 2014 (Rudaw, February 27, 2015; see also Terrorism Monitor, March 20, 2015). These agents, however, have staged few significant operations in the past. The Bai Hasan attack was a serious blow, especially in the context of efforts against IS in Iraq. Even so, it was not as disruptive as it might have been. The KRG has had responsibility for Bai Hasan since July 2014, after IS fighters drove out the Iraqi army from large parts of northern Iraq. Declining oil prices and a disagreement with Baghdad over oil revenues, which has seen the central government block funds due to the Kurds, have left the KRG mired in an economic crisis (Kurdistan24, January 16). As a consequence, the KRG can ill afford for Bai Hasan, which produces 175,000 barrels a day, to be offline. Though curtailed by U.S. airstrikes, IS has also benefited from oil sales, using smuggling networks in western Iraq and reportedly paying-off KRG middlemen (Ekurd Daily, March 31). Possibly the group hoped to reap some financial benefit from the Bai Hasan attack - the attackers held the facility for more than an hour before peshmerga fighters were able to recapture it - but more likely it was a calculated move aimed at weakening the KRG economically. With efforts against IS in Iraq continuing, there are likely to be more such attempts. Copyright notice: 2010 The Jamestown Foundation A New Threat to Libya's Stability Emerges Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Nathaniel Barr & Madeleine Blackman Publication Date 5 August 2016 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, A New Threat to Libya's Stability Emerges, 5 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a9c4ac4.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Link to original story on Jamestown website While Islamic State (IS) is in decline in the central Libyan city of Sirte, another armed group with ties to the global jihadist movement is threatening to usher in a new period of instability in Libya. In a written statement posted on Twitter on June 2, commanders representing a number of Islamist militias in Libya announced the formation of the Benghazi Defense Companies (BDC), a group established to "defend [Benghazi] against the criminal followers of the former regime" (Twitter, June 2). Soon after the statement was released, the BDC launched a military campaign against units aligned with the Libyan National Army (LNA), a fighting force led by the deeply polarizing Khalifa Hifter, which controls much of eastern Libya. In recent months, the LNA has made considerable gains against Islamist and jihadist militias in Benghazi, but the BDC threatens to reverse these gains and throw Benghazi back into a state of total conflict. The BDC's ties with both jihadist groups and influential Libyan Islamist factions allow the group to draw support from a range of armed actors in Libya, making the BDC a potent military force. The BDC's operations also shed light upon al-Qaeda's covert strategy and growing influence within the Libyan militant landscape. Al-Ghariani's Fighting Force The BDC represents the latest effort by Islamist actors based in western Libya to weaken Hifter's grip on power in the east. The BDC's relationship with the Islamist coalition, which has been embroiled in a conflict with Hifter since May 2014, was revealed in the BDC's founding statement. According to the statement, the group's "sole source of reference regarding funding and fighting" was the Dar al-Ifta (Fatwa Office), a religious authority headed by Sheikh Sadiq al-Ghariani, who is recognized by some factions as Libya's Grand Mufti (Twitter, June 2). Al-Ghariani has been one of Hifter's leading critics, and he has repeatedly expressed support for Islamist and jihadist factions fighting against the LNA (al-Monitor, June 11, 2014). Al-Ghariani has emerged as one of the BDC's strongest advocates and has urged Libyan armed factions to unite behind the BDC (YouTube, June 12). An examination of the BDC's leadership cadre reveals further links between the group and the broader anti-Hifter coalition. Mustafa al-Sharkasi, one of the BDC's top field commanders, previously served as the spokesperson for the air force of the Islamist-dominated General National Congress (GNC). Additionally, Ismail al-Salabi, another BDC official and the commander of the Benghazi-based Rafallah al-Sahati Brigade, has developed close ties with Islamist actors opposed to Hifter in western Libya (see Militant Leadership Monitor, June 2). The BDC and al-Qaeda While the BDC has done little to hide its relationship with Islamist actors in western Libya, it has repeatedly asserted that it is unaffiliated with any "domestic or foreign organization." However, mounting evidence suggests that the BDC possesses ties with both local and regional jihadist groups, including al-Qaeda affiliates, and is collaborating with jihadist groups on the battlefield. The BDC's intimate relationship with the Benghazi Revolutionaries Shura Council (BRSC) - an Islamist coalition that includes the al-Qaeda-linked Ansar al-Sharia in Libya and several other figures associated with al-Qaeda - provides the clearest indication of the BDC's links with jihadist actors in Libya. In its founding statement, the BDC claimed that it would act "in conjunction" with the BRSC in the latter's fight against Hifter's forces in Benghazi. A day after its establishment, the BDC announced that the Bushra Media Establishment, a pro-BRSC online media group, would become the BDC's official media outlet. [1] Several high-ranking BDC figures command forces that are either a part of, or are affiliated with, the BRSC. Ahmad al-Tajuri, one of the men who featured in a video announcing BDC's establishment, currently serves as the commander of BRSC forces in western Benghazi. Faraj Shiku, another BDC leader, also serves as the commander of the February 17 Martyrs Brigade, one of the key factions within the BRSC. [2] In addition to its close ties with the BRSC, the BDC has received rhetorical support from al-Qaeda affiliates. On June 25, al-Qaeda-backed social media outlets launched an online messaging campaign praising the BRSC and urging militants from across Libya to join the fight in Benghazi. Several prominent al-Qaeda figures participated in the campaign, including Hisham al-Ashmawy, the emir of the Egyptian group al-Murabitun, who praised militants in Benghazi for "defending Islam and its people in the face of the oppression and injustice," and beseeched others to support the "mujahideen brothers" in any way possible (Twitter, June 29). Abdallah Muhammed al-Muhaysini, a leading jihadist ideologue based in Syria, similarly urged Libyans to "rush forth to support your brothers" in Benghazi. [3] It is notable that none of the statements released during al-Qaeda's messaging campaign explicitly mentioned the BDC. Nevertheless, it is likely that the campaign was intended to generate support for the BDC, given the fact that the messaging initiative was launched just three weeks after BDC's establishment. Indeed, the fact that al-Qaeda officials never publicly expressed support for the BDC is consistent with al-Qaeda's efforts to mask its influence in Libya and across the globe. Al-Qaeda has calculated that concealing its relationship with local actors in North Africa and maintaining a covert presence will allow the group to expand without attracting the attention of counterterrorism forces. Spoiler in Libya In an article published this March in al-Masra, an al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula newsletter, Abu-Abd-al-Iylah Ahmad, a senior al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) official, alluded to al-Qaeda's clandestine growth model in Libya (Jihadology, March 15). Responding to a question about whether al-Qaeda had a branch in Libya, Ahmad explained that, for Libyan groups, pledging allegiance to al-Qaeda was of a lesser priority than combatting the "aggression" of the West and its local allies. Ahmad further explained that uniting all Libyan jihadist groups under al-Qaeda's banner would take "time, effort [and] sacrifices from all parties." Ahmad's statements illustrate that al-Qaeda has chosen not to reveal its ties with local groups, an approach that the group has likely maintained in the case of the BDC. Another indication of al-Qaeda's clandestine relationship with the BDC and its allies emerged in late July, after the BDC claimed to have shot down a helicopter carrying three French soldiers (some sources refute the BDC's claim, instead asserting that the helicopter crashed after a technical error). Several days after the incident, a statement attributed to the elusive al-Qaeda commander Mokhtar Belmokhtar was posted online (Jihadology, July 23). After lambasting the French for intervening in North Africa and the Middle East, the author of the statement exhorted Libyans to "rally around their righteous scholars," and specifically praised Sheikh al-Ghariani for "exposing the truth in the face of falsehood." The expression of support for al-Ghariani could be interpreted as an endorsement of the BDC, given the group's stated links with the Libyan sheikh, and it further illuminates the BDC's shadowy ties with al-Qaeda. The BDC is now well positioned to play the role of spoiler in Libya's ongoing political negotiations. As the new group continues its military offensive, it could disrupt United Nations-led efforts to bring Hifter and his allies to the negotiating table, instead galvanizing Hifter to pursue a military solution. This would further destabilize Libya and play directly into the hands of al-Qaeda, which continues to exploit civil conflict and chaos across the Middle East and North Africa. NOTES [1] Wikalat Bushra al-Ikhbariyah Facebook post (June 3, 2016) [2]A message posted on Al-Nabaa Television's Facebook page on June 20, 2016 identified several key BDC commanders. The post is no longer available on al-Nabaa's Facebook page. [3]Message posted on Twitter by Ifriqiyah al-Muslimah (@Africa_Muslima7) on June 26, 2016. This account has subsequently been suspended. Copyright notice: 2010 The Jamestown Foundation Why Islamic State Is Clinging on to the Syrian City of Manbij Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Wladimir van Wilgenburg Publication Date 5 August 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Terrorism Monitor Volume: 14 Issue: 16 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Why Islamic State Is Clinging on to the Syrian City of Manbij, 5 August 2016, Terrorism Monitor Volume: 14 Issue: 16, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a9c5074.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Link to original story on Jamestown website The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) officially launched its operation to take the city of Manbij on May 31. It is one of the most strategic and difficult operations the SDF - an alliance that includes Kurdish People's Protection Unit (YPG) fighters as well as Syrian Arab groups - has undertaken to date. In smaller cities, such as Shadadi, Sinjar, and Tal Abyad, the fight was over quickly, but in Manbij, it seems, Islamic State (IS) militants have decided to stand firm. The SDF now controls over 70 percent of the city, and it appears IS could soon be defeated in Manbij. Nevertheless, the operation has been severely hampered by the presence of civilians, as well as thousands of landmines. It has been a tough fight for the SDF, with their forces going from house to house and from street to street. IS, it seems, wants to inflict heavy casualties on the SDF, forcing it to spend time recruiting and training new fighters for upcoming operations like in Raqqah and so delaying further operations against IS in the future. Initial Delays The operation for Manbij was delayed for several months from the outset because of Turkish government opposition. Initially, the SDF wanted to capture Jarabulus, but Turkey blocked the operation so instead the SDF moved towards the Tisreen dam (Daily Sabah, June 2). The Turkish government fears the Kurds will use the Manbij operation to create a unified territory along the Turkish border from the town of Derik all the way to Efrin in the northwest by uniting the three local administrations into one federal region. Until now, the IS-held territories and a small pocket of opposition-held territory in Azaz and Marea separated the Kurdish-held territories. But the Kurds hope to push further from Manbij to al-Bab, and eventually on to Efrin. Despite Turkish opposition, the U.S.-led coalition backed the SDF in order to annihilate IS and limit the flow of foreign fighters. According to French intelligence, about 100 foreigners continue to enter Syria from Turkey each week to join IS (Reuters, July 20). Kurdish officials suspect that Turkey is turning a blind eye in order to weaken the SDF forces in Manbij, and they even accuse Ankara of supplying weapons to IS. Turkey has always denied any form of support for IS (Daily Sabah, August 12, 2015). Heavy Losses It is unsurprising that IS is putting up a fierce fight for Manbij. The city is the most important corridor for the group to the outside world. Syrian anti-government insurgent groups have not been able to push towards Jarabulus and are less of a threat to the group as they are largely focused on the fight against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. In contrast, the Kurdish-led SDF forces are almost solely focused on tackling IS. The fight has been costly for the SDF forces, with weekly funerals in towns such as Kobani, Qamislo, and Amude. A number of senior commanders have been killed, including Faysal Abu Layla, who was leading operations in Manbij until he was shot and killed by a sniper on June 3 (ARAnews, June 6). Partly in consequence, the local administration in the town of Kobani implemented an unpopular conscription law just after the operation started (ARAnews, June 21). Now conscripted fighters protect the city of Kobani, while more experienced fighters are deployed to Manbij city. That has had consequences. On July 28, due to security gaps, more than 50 civilians were killed in an IS attack in Qamishli (ARAnews, July 28). Most of the Kurdish security police were away assisting the Manbij operation. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 214 SDF fighters have been killed so far, but in reality this figure could be higher (SOHR, August 2). The SDF is known to have had to bring in reinforcements from the Hasakah province due to heavy losses. Laying Siege to Manbij The SDF expected an internal uprising by Arabs from Manbij. Such a rebellion was promised by local Free Syrian Army (FSA) groups, which claimed that they had weapons and people inside the city. This has failed to materialize. As a consequence, the SDF was forced to dig in and besiege the city, but IS militants inside Manbij, for whom there was no escape, seemed well-prepared for a lengthy battle and have deployed snipers and used civilians as human shields. According to a senior SDF official, initially the plan had been to leave a corridor open for civilians to escape and IS fighters to retreat from the city. [1] IS instead used the corridor to bring in reinforcements. "So, ISIS were getting reinforcements and weapons, that's why we completely surrounded the city. For ISIS, there are only two solutions: surrender, or die," a SDF official was quoted as saying, using an alternative acronym for Islamic State (ARAnews, July 31). "In the past, we didn't make a full siege on cities." The SDF has also offered IS two opportunities to allow civilians to leave Manbij city, but so far IS has not responded. According to the SDF official, Manbij is too strategic a prize for IS to walk away. "After the capture of Manbij, the existence of ISIS [in Syria] will be under threat. It's not a tactical battle, but a strategic one quite different from Tal Abyad, and Shadadi," he said. "If Manbij is captured by the SDF, the relation between ISIS and the Turkey [border] and the countryside of Aleppo, will be cut," he added. Fateful Campaign In September 2014, IS made the mistake of attacking Kobani, losing thousands of fighters in the process. According to some estimates, IS lost 4,000 to 5,000 fighters in Kobani (Daily Beast, November 16, 2015). "The disregard for the lives of their own soldiers in Kobani is one of the key causes for their downfall," a Jabhat al-Nusra member said. [2] Now, it appears that IS is hoping the SDF will make a similar mistake. With the city surrounded, Manbij is a battle IS will inevitably lose, but in the meantime the group is intent on inflicting major casualties on the SDF, in the hope of weakening them and eroding their ability to conduct operations elsewhere. Unlike battles elsewhere, IS has not fled. Instead it has tried to break the siege with counter-offensives from the direction of al-Bab, Raqqah (including Ayn al-Issa, and near Tisreen dam), and Jarabulus. It has also attempted to undermine the campaign against it further by spreading disinformation about civilian deaths from coalition airstrikes through its semi-official news agency, Amaq (SITE, August 2). As a consequence, the Syrian opposition has called for a halt to airstrikes, but the U.S.-led coalition has promised to continue the battle and support the SDF-forces. Mounting SDF casualties have led to calls from rival Kurdish parties for Syrian Kurdish Peshmerga forces, receiving training in neighboring Iraq, to return to the country. This, however, is unlikely to happen as the SDF refuses to allow them to join the fight as a separate military force. Ultimately, the Manbij operation will provide a great deal of intelligence to the U.S.-led coalition and help to isolate Raqqah, IS' de facto capital, from the Turkish border. It could also have longer-term consequences for the region by giving SDF-forces the opportunity to unite their local administrations into one federal area. NOTES [1] Author's interview with Dr. Nassir Haji Mansour, a senior SDF official (July 13, 2016) [2] See: https://pietervanostaeyen.com/2016/06/26/thoughts-on-the-ideology-of-the-global-jihad-movement-embodied-by-al-qaeda-2/ Copyright notice: 2010 The Jamestown Foundation Al-Shabaab Leader's First Audio Message Suggests Morale Is Low Among Somali Militants Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Sunguta West Publication Date 5 August 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Terrorism Monitor Volume: 14 Issue: 16 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Al-Shabaab Leader's First Audio Message Suggests Morale Is Low Among Somali Militants, 5 August 2016, Terrorism Monitor Volume: 14 Issue: 16, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a9c5774.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Link to original story on Jamestown website After nearly two years of silence, al-Shabaab leader Sheikh Ahmad Umar Abu Ubaidah has released his first audio message, a fiery rant that appears aimed at motivating his beleaguered fighters as they battle African Union (AU) troops in southern Somalia. The 44-minute audio recording, released on July 12 in time for the Eid al-Fitr holiday, comes nearly two years after Umar took over as emir of al-Shabaab. Delivered in Somali and titled "Sharia or Martyrdom" (two areas supposedly highly valued by al-Shabaab members), the message has been widely circulated on social media and broadcast on Radio Andalus, a channel associated with the militant group. The message singled out the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), the firepower of which has been destroying the group's bases, killing thousands of fighters and sending others fleeing across the southern region. Umar also specifically threatened Turkey, the first time the country has been explicitly named as an enemy in a media message from the Somali militants. Ahmad Umar Abu Ubaidah Umar, a member of the minority Dir clan, is believed to be in his early 40s and is known to be a hardliner within the movement (WardheerNews, September 10, 2014). He was born in the Kalafe area of the Ogaden region before moving to southern Somalia, where he helped establish Islamic schools. He also served as al-Shabaab's governor for the Bay and Bakool regions (Somali Current, September 6). A religious hardliner who goes by a number of aliases, including Ahmad Diriye and Abu Ubaidah, Umar took over the leadership of al-Shabaab following the death of the group's supreme leader, Ahmed Abdi Godane, on September 6, 2014. Godane, a supporter of global jihad, had been killed in a U.S. airstrike a few days earlier (Daily Nation, September 5, 2014). The statement declaring Umar as the new leader of al-Shabaab and also restated al-Shabaab's allegiance to al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. Before he gained the leadership, Umar was a little known cleric and allegedly a member of the amniyat, a secret intelligence group Godane formed to expose and eliminate dissidents within al-Shabaab. He is also believed to have participated in a purge of dissidents ordered by Godane. While analysts expected the cleric to leap into the saddle with his finger on the trigger, there was an uncomfortable silence in the weeks and months following his appointment, sparking speculation that the poorly educated cleric lacked the leadership skills to establish himself (Sabahi, October 31, 2014). In 2015, the United States offered a $6 million bounty for information that could lead to the capture of Umar (Hiiraan Online, November 11, 2015). Taking on Turkey In his message, Umar referred to Turkey as the "enemy nation." He charged that Turkey had invaded Somalia economically and brought about economic collapse. Turkey's aim, according to Umar, is to keep the war-torn horn of Africa nation in poverty. Umar's attack on Turkey is a result of increased Turkish involvement in Somalia. Turkey has significantly increased its activities in the country, funding reconstruction work and providing aid for thousands of people displaced by the fighting. In June, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan travelled to Mogadishu as part of an African tour, where he signed key investment deals with the Federal Government of Somalia and opened one of the country's largest embassies (Daily Nation, July 13). Al-Shabaab appears to have taken exception to these actions, with the group consequently heightening its attacks on Turkish interests in the country. A day before Erdogan's arrival in Mogadishu, suicide attackers, believed to have been sent by Umar, blew-up a vehicle near a hotel where Turkish delegates were staying. Two police officers were killed in the attack, their deaths claimed by the group. (Somtribune, June 2, 2016) Earlier this year, gunmen from the militant group opened fire on vehicles transporting doctors, killing two Turkish and three Somali medics. Al-Shabaab has targeted Turkish interests before. In 2013, al-Shabaab militants drove a vehicle loaded with explosives into a business premises accommodating Turkish embassy staff. The attack, claimed by the group, left three people dead (Africa.tvcnews.tv, July 28, 2013). Weakened but Still Deadly In his audio message, Umar also turned his attention to AMISOM, describing the AU troops as an occupying force, invaders and "Christian crusaders" that Somalis had accepted only after being "deceived" by the international community into believing it was a peacekeeping force. He added that the troops aim was to plunder Somalia resources. AMISOM's 22,000-strong force includes a police unit, but the main military component is made up of 5,432 troops from Burundi, 1,000 from Djibouti, 3,664 from Kenya, 850 from Sierra Leone, 4,395 from Ethiopia and 6,223 from Uganda. It is the biggest combat force ever deployed by AU, and it has a number of successes against al-Shabaab in the nine years it has been deployed. Until AMISOM's intervention in 2007, al-Shabaab had controlled large swathes of central and southern Somalia, including strategic towns and ports on the Indian Ocean, which allowed the group to earn revenue (Namibian Sun, September 30, 2015). Al-Shabaab's major sources of income include taxation and extortion in the areas and towns it controls. With territorial control came control of commerce, illegal charcoal export, and import of contrabands through the seaports. Relief agencies working in Somalia have also been targets in the group's extortion rackets. Al-Shabaab also receives contributions through the hawalas (an informal system of transferring money) and support of groups following a similar Islamist ideology, such as, al-Qaeda (Kenya Today, September 30, 2013; SomaliaReport July 24, 2011). Weakened by persistent AMISOM attacks, as well as its own internal divisions, al-Shabaab has lost ground, including strategic towns and seaports along the Indian Ocean like the lucrative port of Kismayo. The loss of these towns has been a big blow to the group's finances (New Vision, December 1, 2015). It has also been hit by desertions, in particular by foreign fighters who are have recently been leaving to join Islamic State (The Star, April 28). Now, it can be argued the group is feeling the squeeze, as AMISOM troops take control of the towns, cutting off trade routes and ending the illegal taxation system in its towns (Daily Nation, July 7, 2014). Suicide Attacks Nonetheless, with Umar at the helm, al-Shabaab has executed some of its most deadly attacks. It has turned to suicide and surprise attacks on government interests and allies, with a fair degree of success (Shabelle News, July 13; Daily Nation March 10). Al-Shabaab's suicide attacks have been concentrated in the capital Mogadishu, where AU troops forced out al-Shabaab fighters in 2011. In the latest incident, a twin car bomb attack killed 13 people near the entrance of Mogadishu's airport on July 26. At present, an attack occurs in the capital nearly every day (Africanews, July 26, 2013). In July 2015, nearly a year after gaining the leadership, Umar made public his intention to escalate al-Shabaab attacks beyond Somalia, just like his predecessor Godane. In an Eid message in July 2015, he called on new recruits to help "lift the pain of Muslims" across East Africa (eNCA, July 17, 2015). He had warned that the "mujahedeen's swords" were drawn and welcomed attacks against the enemy countrywide, but called for further attacks against the "infidels." He singled out Kenya, warning of further attacks and promising that the militants would continue to help their brothers living under "colonization" in Kenya. This is also the first time he mentioned the Garissa University College attack, one of the most deadly in Kenya's history. Umar praised the attack in which four militants armed with AK47s stormed the college, killing 148 people, the majority of them Christian students. He sought to justify the attack, calling it revenge for what he claimed was the organized killing of Muslim clerics and disappearance of Muslim youth in Kenya (eNCA, July 17, 2015). Tactical Shift Despite AMISOM's hard-won gains, al-Shabaab has seen some recent successes, due in part to a change in its tactics. About a year ago, al-Shabaab started using vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs) to breach AMISOM camps. The strategy was first seen June 2015, when al-Shabaab successfully broke into a base manned by Burundian soldiers in Lego village, in Lower Shabelle region. Similar attacks have since been used to target bases hosting Ugandan, Kenyan, and Ethiopian troops. The latest raid on foreign troops occurred in June of this year, when the militants targeted an Ethiopian army base in Halgan, in Hiran region, central Somalia. The group claimed it had killed 43 Ethiopia soldiers, while Ethiopia claimed it killed more than 100 jihadist attackers (The Star, June 9). The attack started after suicide bombers exploded a VBIED at the entry into the base, allowing fighters to make their way into the base (The East African, June 9). The group has used the strategy on a number of earlier occasions, including in a devastating attack in January, when between 70-100 militants used vehicles loaded with explosives to over-run a Kenyan base in El-Adde in southern Somalia. The attack, which the militants executed in three waves, is believed to have killed more than 100 soldiers, although Kenya has never made public the number of soldiers killed. Kenya's intelligence agents have, though, drawn parallels with the recent Paris attacks, Libya, and the Westgate attack from 2013 (The Standard, January 21). The vehicle used in the attack is believed to have been looted during the attacks on Burundi and Ugandan bases the year before. A Ugandan camp in Jenale was targeted in September 2015, with reports indicating more than 50 soldiers were killed. Al-Shabaab claimed that more than 70 people were killed in the attack. The militants again used a suicide car bomb to ram the base, and then they sent in more than 200 militants to overrun the camp (Daily Nation, September 2, 2015; Observer, September 2, 2015). In the Burundi attack, an estimated 45 Burundian soldiers were killed. AMISOM confirmed that attack in which the groups said it had confiscated vehicles and heavy weapons (Radio Dalsan, June 26, 2015). Protracted Conflict Al-Shabaab has been weakened and dispersed by AMISOM, but it is not yet defeated. The group remains dangerous and the conflict with AMISOM will be bloody and protracted, with some warning it could last more than three decades (New Vision, March 7). Al-Shabaab's use of suicide bombers, roadside Improvised Explosive Devices and VBIEDs has delivered some recent successes for the group, although AMISOM's own weaknesses, including underfunding and an inadequate command structure, may have contributed to these success (Africa Review, January 24). The unexpected release of Umar's recorded message is possibly an attempt by the militant leader to capitalize on these recent successes, and an attempt to inspire further attacks. Given Umar's earlier two-year silence, it may also be a tacit acknowledgement that, after substantial territorial losses at the hands of AMISOM, the morale of his fighters has been in decline. Copyright notice: 2010 The Jamestown Foundation Bahrain: Stop prosecution of Nazeeha Saeed and put an end to reprisal prosecutions and reporting restrictions Publisher Article 19 Publication Date 29 July 2016 Cite as Article 19, Bahrain: Stop prosecution of Nazeeha Saeed and put an end to reprisal prosecutions and reporting restrictions, 29 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a9c6154.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. ARTICLE 19 joined others around the world to call for the prosecution of Radio Monte Carlo Doualiya and France24 correspondent, Nazeeha Saeed, to be dropped. Together with others, we also call for the lifting of arbitrary reporting restrictions and other measures that seriously limit journalist freedom in Bahrain. We, the undersigned, express our deep concern with the Bahraini Public Prosecution's decision to charge Nazeeha Saeed, correspondent for Radio Monte Carlo Doualiya and France24, with unlawfully working for international media. We consider this an undue reprisal against her as a journalist and call on Bahrain's authorities to respect fully the right of journalists to practice their profession freely. Nazeeha Saeed is an award-winning journalist and correspondent for Radio Monte Carlo Doualiya and France24. She has previously reported on the protest movement in 2011, and has reported on the mounting dissent against the Bahraini government for the last several years. On Sunday 17 July 2016, the Public Prosecution summoned Nazeeha Saeed for interrogation based on a legal complaint from the Information Affairs Authority (IAA). The prosecution charged her under article 88 of Law 47/2002, which regulates the press, printing and publication. Article 88 states that no Bahraini can work for foreign media outlets without first obtaining a license from the Information Affairs Authority (IAA), which must be renewed annually. Prior to the expiration of her license, Nazeeha Saeed applied for a new one at the end of March 2016, at which point, the IAA refused a renewal. This is the first time she has received such a rejection. Following this, Saeed continued to work as a correspondent for France24 and Radio Monte Carlo Doualiya. She now faces trial in the civil courts and a fine of up to 1000 Bahraini Dinars (USD $2650) if found guilty. This is not the first time Nazeeha Saeed has been subjected to harassment by the Bahraini authorities. In May 2011, during a state of emergency imposed in response to Arab Spring protests, police summoned Saeed to the station and detained her there. For her coverage of events in Bahrain - Nazeeha Saeed witnessed police killing a man at a protest and rejected the government narrative of events - police allegedly subjected her to hours of torture, ill-treatment and humiliation, which only ended when she signed a document placed before her. She was not allowed to read it. Despite complaining to the Ministry of Interior and the new Special Investigations Unit, the body under the Public Prosecution charged with investigating claims of torture and abuse, in November 2015 the authorities decided against prosecuting the responsible officers on the basis of there being insufficient evidence. In June 2016, Bahrain's authorities placed Nazeeha Saeed on a travel ban, preventing her from leaving the country. The ban was applied without informing Saeed, who only discovered it after she was refused boarding on her flight. The police officer at the airport was unable to explain the reason for this travel ban, and officials from the immigration department, the public prosecution and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), told the journalist that they were not even aware of its existence. Saeed is one of approximately twenty individuals known to have been banned from travel in Bahrain since the beginning of June 2016. Other journalists working for international media face similar threats and have also reported facing increased pressure from the government in the last year, making their work difficult. RSF and the Committee to Protect Journalists both list Bahrain as one of the leading jailers of journalists in the world. One of them, Sayed Ahmed Al-Mousawi, was stripped of his citizenship by a court in November 2015. As organisations concerned with the right to freedom of expression, we call on the Government of Bahrain to end the reprisals against Nazeeha Saeed, lift her travel ban and drop the charges against her. We also call on the authorities to stop arbitrarily withholding license renewals and to allow journalists to report with full freedom of expression as protected under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Signed, Adil Soz, International Foundation for Protection of Freedom of Speech ACAT Albanian Media Institute Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain ARTICLE 19 Bahrain Center for Human Rights Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy Bahrain Press Association Bytes for All Canadian Journalists for Free Expression Cartoonists Rights Network International Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility Committee to Protect Journalists Egyptian Organization for Human Rights English PEN European Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Foro de Periodismo Argentino Freedom Forum Freedom House Free Media Movement Front Line Defenders Gulf Centre for Human Rights Hisham Al Miraat, Founder, Moroccan Digital Rights Association Human Rights Network for Journalists - Uganda Independent Journalism Center - Moldova Index on Censorship Institute for the Studies on Free Flow of Information Instituto de Prensa y Libertad de Expresion - IPLEX International Press Institute Justice Human Rights Organization Maharat Foundation Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance Media Watch Norwegian PEN Pacific Islands News Association Pakistan Press Foundation Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms - MADA PEN American Center PEN Canada PEN International Reporters Without Borders Social Media Exchange - SMEX Vigilance pour la Democratie et l'Etat Civique Copyright notice: Copyright ARTICLE 19 India: End of Irom Sharmila's hunger strike an opportunity to repeal AFSPA Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 9 August 2016 Cite as Amnesty International, India: End of Irom Sharmila's hunger strike an opportunity to repeal AFSPA, 9 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a9d37f4.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Amnesty International Prisoner of Conscience Irom Chanu Sharmila ended her 16-year-long hunger strike against the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) today. Amnesty International India calls on authorities to drop all charges against her, and take steps to repeal the AFSPA. At a hearing in a local court, Irom Sharmila said, "I have been fasting for the last 16 years. I haven't got anything from it yet. I am ending my fast today. I want to try a different agitation now. I will contest against the Chief Minister of Manipur in the upcoming state elections." The activist signed a bail bond and is likely to be released on bail soon. "Irom Sharmila's hunger strike over the last 16 years has been a testament to her passion for human rights, and her belief that a draconian law like the AFSPA has no place in any society. The government arrested her, confined her to a hospital room and force fed her for 16 years, seemingly to break her will. There was zero dialogue. A peaceful protest was criminalized," said Abhirr VP, Senior Campaigner with Amnesty International India. "Irom Sharmila's decision to break her hunger strike gives India another chance to start a dialogue and recognize how the AFSPA has alienated Manipur for over 35 years." The activist was arrested by the Manipur police after she began her hunger strike on 2 November 2000, and has been repeatedly charged with attempting suicide, but never convicted. She has pleaded not guilty to the charges of attempting to commit suicide, saying she is involved in a non-violent protest. Courts in Manipur have repeatedly ruled that her hunger strike is a form of peaceful protest, and not an attempt at suicide. Although attempting to commit suicide is a bailable offence, Sharmila had earlier refused to sign bail bonds, maintaining that she had not committed any offence. The AFSPA in Manipur has provided impunity for perpetrators of grave human rights violations, including extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, rape, torture and other ill-treatment, and excessive use of force. On 8 July, the Supreme Court, while hearing a public interest litigation filed by the Extrajudicial Execution Victims' Families Association of Manipur and Imphal-based NGO Human Rights Alert said that 1528 cases of alleged extrajudicial executions committed by security forces from 1979 to 2012 in Manipur needed to be looked into, and offences committed by security forces could be prosecuted in civilian courts. It asked for more information about the cases. Proceedings will resume in September. The Supreme Court said, "If members of our armed forces are deployed and employed to kill citizens of our country on the mere allegation or suspicion that they are the 'enemy' not only the rule of law, but our democracy would be in grave danger." "The Manipur and central governments must heed the words of the Supreme Court. The ruling makes it clear that security force personnel accused of human rights violations must not be allowed to get away with impunity," said Abhirr VP. The AFSPA is inconsistent with India's obligations under international human rights law to respect and protect the rights to life, liberty and security of person, to freedom from torture and other ill-treatment, and to an effective remedy. Several Indian and international bodies have called for its repeal. Copyright notice: Copyright Amnesty International RSF and JED alarmed by police colonel's threats against Radio Okapi journalist Publisher Reporters Without Borders Publication Date 5 August 2016 Cite as Reporters Without Borders, RSF and JED alarmed by police colonel's threats against Radio Okapi journalist, 5 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a9d80d4.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and Journalist in Danger (JED) call on the police and military authorities in Democratic Republic of Congo to put a stop to the repeated threats against journalists by their personnel and to end the impunity enjoyed by those responsible for such threats. RSF and JED also call on the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) to do everything possible to provide effective protection for Radio Okapi journalists who are the target of such threats. Gabriel Wameyna, a journalist working for MONUSCO-backed Radio Okapi in the eastern province of Nord-Kivu, was explicitly and aggresively threatened by Col. Van Kasongo, the deputy commander of the Nord-Kivu police, while in a MONUSCO helicopter with Kasongo Gabriel Wameyna, a journalist working for MONUSCO-backed Radio Okapi in the eastern province of Nord-Kivu, was explicitly and aggresively threatened by Col. Van Kasongo, the deputy commander of the Nord-Kivu police, while in a MONUSCO helicopter with Kasongo and other provincial officials on 23 July. Accusing Wamenya of spreading "lies" in a Radio Okapi report, Col. Kasongo added: "I am strict in my habits (...) I am going to pursue you to the end." Since then, Wamenya says he has been followed by policemen while out reporting and has received telephone threats at night. "We condemn in the strongest terms the threats against this Radio Okapi journalist and we call on the police authorities to send a clear message to their men to end such behaviour, which is unworthy of law enforcement personnel, and to punish those responsible," said Clea Kahn-Sriber, the head of RSF's Africa desk. "We also call on Col. Kasongo to immediately retract his threats, failing which we will hold him responsible for anything that may happen to Gabriel Wamenya," JED secretary-general Tshivis Tshivuadi said. Broadcast on 21 July, the offending report on Radio Okapi was about the severe beating received by a youth in Goma, the capital of Nord-Kivu, and his subsequent death. The director of the Nord-Kivu branch of Radio Okapi confirmed that the report was balanced and that all relevant parties were interviewed. Wamenya interviewed the youth's family, who said they saw him being arrested and beaten by the police. The police dumped him outside the hospital morgue, but he was still alive and doctors tried to save him until he finally died of his injuries a week later. When Wamenya then contacted the police for a comment, Col. Kasongo said he was not aware of these events but, if they proved to be true, he would ensure that those responsible were prosecuted. After the threats were made, MONUSCO officials suggested a mediation meeting but their proposal was rejected by Col. Kasongo. He instead sent a letter to Radio Okapi and MONUSCO with an attached police report dated on the night of the event claiming that police officers found the young man in a gravely injured condition and took him to the hospital. If the police filed this report on the night of the event, it is astonishing that Col. Kasongo was not aware of it when interviewed by Wamenya a week later. When reached by RSF, Col. Kasongo denied threatening Wamenya, called him a liar and accused him of trying to defame the police. Paradoxically, he also said the police were very busy and did not have time to worry about Wamenya. "I am not this journalist's keeper," he concluded cryptically. "We call on the MONUSCO authorities to quickly implement the protective measures that are needed to guarantee the safety of this journalist, who is currently threatened," RSF added. RSF has registered a total of 63 acts of persecution by the authorities against journalists in the Democratic Republic of Congo since the start of the year, 20 of them in Nord-Kivu. Two Radio Okapi journalists, Serge Maheshe and Didace Namujimbo, were murdered in Bukavu, the capital of the neighbouring province of Sud-Kivu, in 2007 and 2008 respectively. Their murderers were never definitively identified and punished. The DRC is ranked 152nd out of 180 countries in RSF's 2016 World Press Freedom Index. Bangladesh: RSF condemns government blocking of 35 news sites Publisher Reporters Without Borders Publication Date 8 August 2016 Cite as Reporters Without Borders, Bangladesh: RSF condemns government blocking of 35 news sites, 8 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a9d8984.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the Bangladeshi authorities to rescind the blocking of 35 news websites that the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) implemented today without giving any official reason. RSF also calls for the withdrawal of all charges against Probir Sikdar, the editor of the Daily Bangla 71 newspaper and the U71news.com website, who is accused of defaming government officials on Facebook in August 2015. The 35 blocked news sites include such much-visited pro-opposition sites as Sheershanewsbd.com and AmardeshOnline, which have been in the government's sights for several years. The authorities gave no reason and did not refer the matter to the courts before taking action. "This wave of administrative blocking by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government represents a significant escalation in its policy of suppressing news reports and opinions critical of the government," said Benjamin Ismail, the head of RSF's Asia-Pacific desk. "Previously, the government seemed to think any reason - national security, public order, preventing the spread of hate messages or preventing messages that could incite violence - was legitimate. But now it no longer even bothers to explain its flagrant violations of freedom of information. We demand the lifting of this blocking, which flouts basic freedoms protected by Bangladesh's constitution and the principle of proportionality that the authorities should always respect." Systematic suppression of online criticism The government has in recent months been stepping up its offensives against opposition journalists, bloggers and social network commentators. On the eve of today's mass website blocking, a Dhaka court ordered that Sikdar should be tried on a charge of defaming Khandker Mosharraf Hossain, who is minister of local government and rural development and at the same time father-in-law of the prime minister's daughter. Sikdar is now facing possible imprisonment under the ICT Act over the message he posted after the police refused to register his complaint about a threat he had received on Facebook in August 2015. In the message, he said he held Hossain and the threat's instigators responsible for anything that might happen to him. Harassment of news websites and their journalists is not new in Bangladesh. Ekramul Haque, the editor of the Sheershanews.com site, has been persecuted for the past five years because of his investigative reporting on corruption and his criticism of the authorities. The newspaper Amar Desh is also one of the government's favourite targets. The authorities closed its print version in 2013 but it had managed to maintain its online versions until now. List of the sites blocked by the BTRC: www.rtnews24.com, www.haquekotha.com, www.amrabnp.com, www.real-timenews.com, www.bnation24.com, www.nationnewsbd.com, www.bhoreralap.com, www.banglapost24.com, www.dailytimes24.com, www.mynewsbd.com, www.livekhobor.com, www.rikhan.com, www.sheershanewsbd.com, www.natunerdak.com, www.sylhetvoice24.com, www.somoybangla.com, www.prothom-news.com, www.banglalatestnews.com, www.bdmonitor.net, www.bdupdatenews24.net, www.newsdaily24bd.com, www.amardeshonline.com, www.doinikamardesh.com, www.onnojogot24.com, www.amarbangladesh-online.com, www.desh-bd.net, www.crimebdnews24.com, www.natunsokal.com, www.sheershakhobor.com, www.onb24.com, www.dinkalonline.net, www.sarabangla.com, www.parstoday.com, www.weeklysonarbangla.net and www.24banglanewsblog.wordpress.com Bangladesh is ranked 144th out of 180 countries in RSF's 2016 World Press Freedom Index. After two journalists killed in bombing, RSF urges Pakistan's media to anticipate risks Publisher Reporters Without Borders Publication Date 8 August 2016 Cite as Reporters Without Borders, After two journalists killed in bombing, RSF urges Pakistan's media to anticipate risks, 8 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a9d93d4.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Condemning today's suicide bombing at a hospital in Quetta (in the southwestern province of Balochistan), which killed around 100 people including two local journalists, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the authorities to carry out a thorough investigation and urges media outlets to anticipate the risks involved in news coverage in the entire region. Aaj TV reporter and cameraman Shehzad Ahmed died on the spot while Dawn News cameraman Mehmood Khan died as doctors tried to save his life. A third journalist working for Dunya News, identified only as Faridullah, was being treated for injuries sustained in the blast. The explosion occurred shortly after the body of a prominent lawyer, Bilal Anwar Kasi, who had been the victim of a shooting attack in another part of the city, was brought to the hospital. Many lawyers had rushed to the hospital in response to the news of the shooting, while media outlets sent reporters to cover the scene there. "We offer our heartfelt condolences to the families and colleagues of the victims of this barbaric crime and we call on Balochistan's government to do everything possible to catch those who were behind it," said Benjamin Ismail, the head of RSF's Asia-Pacific desk. "At the same time, the media must take additional measures to forestall the risks for their reporters. The modus operandi of today's attack was similar to the notorious 'twin blast' method often used by terrorists to maximize the number of victims. Media outlets must not yield to the temptation of instant, on-the-spot coverage if it puts their reporters in danger." The "twin blast" method is often used by terrorists in Pakistan and Afghanistan. After an initial explosion, police, emergency services and reporters rush to the scene, where many of them fall victim to a second explosion. Samaa News cameraman Imran Shaikh, Samaa News reporter Saifur Rehman and Mohammad Iqbal, a photographer with News Network International (NNI), a privately-owned news agency, were killed in such a double bombing in Quetta in January 2013. In March 2014, RSF called for an increase in security for journalists covering the Afghan presidential election, in which they were exposed to the threat of the double bombing strategy. And RSF continues to distribute its Safety Guide for Journalists, produced jointly with UNESCO. As a result of a fall in the number of journalists killed in 2015, Pakistan improved its position in RSF's World Press Freedom Index and is currently ranked 147th out of 180 countries. Madagascar: municipal authorities short-circuit overly critical radio station Publisher Reporters Without Borders Publication Date 9 August 2016 Cite as Reporters Without Borders, Madagascar: municipal authorities short-circuit overly critical radio station, 9 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a9da014.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is appalled to learn that the municipal authorities in Ilakaka, a mining town 700 km south of the capital, Antananarivo, have allowed a local privately-owned power company to censor an independent radio station by turning off its electricity supply. RSF calls on the Madagascan government to bring this illegal state of affairs to an end and to ensure that the local authorities behave in a legal manner. Ilakaka-based Radio Jupiter has been deprived of electricity since 1 August, when employees of Maherlla, the power company, went to the radio station to disconnect its supply. In response to the incomprehension of the station's management, who knew they were up to date with the electricity bills, Maherlla's employees produced a letter justifying the action on the grounds of "defamation of the electricity supply company, meaning its services are not needed" and "disrespect and contempt towards the authorities." "We condemn this blatant act of censorship of a radio station regarded as overly independent of the local economic and political centres of power," said Clea Kahn-Sriber of RSF's Africa desk. "We call on the municipal authorities and the power company Maherlla to respect the law and to restore the radio station's electricity supply at once." Radio Jupiter is the only outlet in Ilakaka offering an alternative to the official media mouthpieces, which is perhaps why the town's mayor, Ratsimanoitry "Zidane" Razafiarison, chose to have a debate about the municipality's management on Radio Jupiter on 28 July. He was accompanied by his chief of staff, Benjamin Ravelonirina, who happens to be Maherlla's owner. However, they were quickly disconcerted by the questions posed by listeners and other guests, especially questions about mismanagement of refuse removal. The mayor finally stormed out in mid-broadcast when the journalist Fernand Cello asked about a 3% municipal tax that Maherlla has added to consumer electricity bills although no trace of this tax can be found in the municipal accounts. Cello regards the disconnection of Radio Jupiter's power supply as a "political decision and abuse of power." The radio station has decided to file a formal complaint. Cello is known for his coverage of corruption and environmental destruction caused by Ilakaka's sapphire mines. After revealing the existence of a clandestine mine, he had to flee to Antananarivo in late to 2014 because of threats from local officials. In January 2016, he was physically attacked and had to be hospitalized after a report about organ trafficking. Local residents who appreciate Radio Jupiter's independence staged a demonstration in Ilakaka on 6 August in protest against the censorship of the station. Madagascan journalists are meanwhile combatting the adoption of a draconian new communication law, which they say would make it easier for the authorities to control media outlets. Madagascar is ranked 56th out of 180 countries in RSF's RSF's 2016 World Press Freedom Index. Killing spree: Iranian authorities execute scores of Sunni prisoners in a single day Publisher International Federation for Human Rights Publication Date 4 August 2016 Cite as International Federation for Human Rights, Killing spree: Iranian authorities execute scores of Sunni prisoners in a single day, 4 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a9f4024.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. FIDH and its Iranian member organisation, League for the Defence of Human Rights in Iran (LDDHI), condemn in strongest terms the execution of scores of Sunni prisoners in Iran on 2 August. It is believed that at least 21 people were executed, although the authorities have not provided any official numbers and only reported the execution of "convicts of a terrorist splinter group." 4 August 2016 - Update : After this press release was published, Iran's prosecutor general confirmed that 20 persons had been executed on 2 August. On Monday 1 August, special guards stormed Ward 10 in Rajaishahr prison, northwest of the city of Karaj, and took 36 death-row prisoners to solitary cells. Death sentences against 29 of these prisoners, at least one of whom was under 18 years of age at the time of arrest, had been confirmed and apparently communicated to the Sentences Implementation Division of the Judiciary. The other seven prisoners are still awaiting the outcome of their appeals against their death sentences. Also on Monday 1 August, families of 21 of these prisoners were asked to go to the prison the next day to visit their relatives for the last time before the implementation of their death sentence. However, while on their way to the prison, some of the family members received calls notifying them to collect the bodies of their relatives from a forensic medicine centre. A statement issued by the Ministry of Intelligence on 3 August implied that all 29 prisoners whose death sentences have been confirmed will be executed imminently if they haven't been already, and that there could be more group executions soon. These 36 prisoners are believed to have been arrested in 2009 and 2010, charged with "taking action against the national security," "spreading propaganda against the State," "membership of Salafi groups," "corruption on earth and moharebeh [1]," and accused of affiliation to armed groups, armed clashes with the security forces and assassination of Sunni clerics. Reports indicate that they spent long periods in pre-trial solitary confinement, were tortured or otherwise ill-treated and forced to make "confessions." They all later retracted the "confessions", saying they had confessed under torture. Rejecting any involvement in violence and armed activities, the prisoners stated that they had been detained for their religious beliefs, organising and taking part in religious meetings and distributing religious material. Nevertheless, they were sentenced to death after grossly unfair trials which disregarded basic due process safeguards and international fair trial standards. The 21 prisoners whose executions have been confirmed by their families or sources close to them were all members of the Kurdish ethnic community, who have faced systematic discrimination and have been deprived of cultural and political rights for several decades. Most Kurds are Sunni Muslims, who additionally face religious discrimination in law and practice in Iran. Kurds in Iran are also disproportionately subjected to the death penalty, either for religious "crimes" or political activities. The executions on 2 August bring the total number of victims of death penalty in Iran in 2016 close to 300. In 2015, the Islamic Republic of Iran reportedly executed at least 977 persons, according to international human rights organisations. Our organisations call on the international community, in particular those States with economic and political ties with Iran, to - take immediate action to prevent the execution of the remaining prisoners before it is too late, and - put such serious violations of human rights at the forefront of their negotiations with Iranian authorities and to urge them to respect their obligations under international law, notably the ICCPR, which Iran ratified over 40 years ago. Footnotes [1] Waging war against God Statement on unrest in Armenia by FIDH member organisation Civil Society Institute (CSI) Publisher International Federation for Human Rights Publication Date 3 August 2016 Cite as International Federation for Human Rights, Statement on unrest in Armenia by FIDH member organisation Civil Society Institute (CSI) , 3 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a9f4594.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. (Yerevan) Early on the morning of 17 July 2016, a group of armed men [1] referred to as "Sasna Tsrer" stormed a patrol service police regiment in Yerevan's southern Erebuni district. One serviceman (Col. Artur Vanoyan) was killed. In addition, a number of police officers and two of the armed man were wounded, [2] though no exact official confirmation the number of wounded was given. According to available information, nine people, including two high ranking police officers and an emergency service medical driver were taken hostage. [3] Contradictory information on the hostage crisis issued by police and opposition media sources has meant that information is often incomplete, disputed and difficult to verify independently. Nevertheless, it has been confirmed that negotiations between the state authorities and representatives of the armed group saw all hostages, including Deputy Chief of Armenian Police Vardan Yeghiazaryan and Deputy Chief of Yerevan Police Valery Osipyan, eventually released by 23 July. These releases were secured on the condition that a press center be established in the territory of the police regiment. During a press conference held by the representatives of "Sasna Tsrer" on July 23, two main demands were formulated: (1) the immediate release of political prisoners, including the group's leader, Jirayr Sefilyan (arrested on 20 June 2016 and charged with possession of an illegal weapon); and (2) the resignation of the incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan [4] with a view to a further transition to a government of national confidence. On 27 July, police reported that "Sasna Tsrer" had once again taken four medical personnel hostage. The hostages had been sent to provide medical assistance to members of the group, who had been wounded during an exchange of with police forces. [5] Although one hostage has now been released, two doctors and a nurse remain in the custody of the armed group. [6] Whilst some among the armed group are wounded and five others apprehended during police operations, the hostage crisis now enters its 13th day. Those arrested are currently subject to charges of unlawful seizure of buildings by an organized group and illegal possession of arms. A number of people affiliated with a radical opposition party that "Sasna Tsrer" also identifies with, were arrested for two months and charged with aiding and abetting the group for calling upon members of the armed group and expressing support or giving information on the current situation. [7] Unlawful Detention and arbitrary arrests In the meantime, since the early morning of 17 July, dozens of citizens have been apprehended by Armenia's Police and Security forces without being properly informed of the reasons for their detention nor charges against them. According to information available to CSI, minors are among those detained. The detainees have reportedly had no opportunity to inform their close relatives about the place and details of detention. They have been deprived of the right to legal aid and lawyers were not granted access to the police stations. While most of the detainees have been released, their detention without charge was longer than that prescribed by the law. Dozens were kept for hours without food in a gym situated on the premises of police force. A number of detainees stated that they were subjected to violence by policemen. Aside from press releases by the National Security Service and press conferences by the Deputy Police Chief of Armenia, no other official reaction has been issued by the Government or President. Only on 22 July, five days after the seizure of the police regiment, did a statement appear on President Sargasyan's website condemning the militants. The first official statement on the situation was issued by Police on the 8th day of the crisis. Violation of the right to peaceful assemblies In response to the government's approach to the handling of the hostage crisis and in support of "Sasna Tsrer", anti-government protesters have been gathering in the vicinity of the seized police regiment since 18 July, leading to violent clashes with police and dozens of injured on both sides. [8] On a number of occasions between 17 and 27 July, police disproportionately intervened in the exercise of the right to peaceful assembly, not only dispersing protestors but detaining them without notifying them of the grounds for their detention. As a result, over one hundred persons were apprehended from the streets in Yerevan, without charge. The whereabouts of some of the de facto detainees was not disclosed to their family members. The police continue to follow the same pattern of detaining people at unauthorized locations, hindering access to lawyers, and keeping people in detention without charge for longer hours than legally permitted. Detention of a human rights activist Levon Barseghyan Human rights activists who were particularly active during protester rallies have also been targeted by police arbitrariness. At around 3am on 27 July, a human rights defender, Levon Barseghyan, was summoned to the police station and de facto detained for over 15 hours. Only at around 7pm was he officially arrested under a made-up charge of possession of weapon (a penknife) and placed in a temporary police detention facility. While in police custody on 27 July, police hindered Barseghyan's access to legal counsel of his choosing and detained him without legal grounds. On 29 July 2016, after receiving an expert opinion on the knife, Barseghyan was released and his prosecution dropped. However, his detention was widely seen as a way of silencing him and preventing from participating in protests or criticizing the President or police. The Civil Society Institute (CSI) condemns in the strongest possible terms the unlawful practices of the Armenian police and calls upon the Armenian authorities to ensure that any response respects domestic and international obligations protecting human rights and freedoms and demands that police and the government: - Immediately put an end to arbitrary arrests and unlawful detentions coupled with unlawful use of force; - Not hinder in any way the effective exercise of the right to a peaceful assembly; - Put into place measures to prevent further abuses, such as investigation by law-enforcement agencies of the above mentioned violations and prompt identification and prosecution of persons found responsible and the compensation for victims whose rights were infringed as a result of the illegal activities of the police; - Ensure the proper treatment of those in detention, especially the wounded. Footnotes [1] The exact size of the group is not known but various sources speak of around 30 men. They group calls itself "Sasna Tsrer" (Daredevils of Sasoun) after the after the title of a medieval Armenian epos about the heroes of Sassoun (a historic region of Armenia) and their struggle against Arab occupation. [2] http://news.am/eng/news/337737.html [3] http://www.police.am/news/view/zn2507.html; http://www.sns.am/index.php/ru/news/323-20072016 [4] http://armlur.am/559610/ at 41'', 48'', 60''' [5] http://www.police.am/news/view/27_07_16.html [6] http://www.moh.am/?section=news/open&id=143&nid=4319 [7] http://news.am/eng/news/339092.html [8] http://www.police.am/news/view/hj2607.html Indonesia: Drop defamation complaints against human rights defender Haris Azhar Publisher International Federation for Human Rights Publication Date 8 August 2016 Cite as International Federation for Human Rights, Indonesia: Drop defamation complaints against human rights defender Haris Azhar, 8 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a9f5a54.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. The Indonesian police must immediately stop the judicial harassment of KontraS Executive Director Mr. Haris Azhar, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (an FIDH-OMCT partnership) said today. The call was made after the Indonesian military and police had filed criminal defamation complaints against Haris Azhar in relation to an article he had written containing allegations that top-ranking Indonesian police officials accepted bribes from an international drug trafficking network. On August 2, 2016, the National Police, the Indonesian Military (TNI), and the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) each filed complaints against Haris Azhar for defamation under the 2008 Electronic Information and Transactions Law. The law, which prohibits any person from distributing, transmitting, or making accessible electronic information "with contents of affronts and/or defamation", carries a penalty of up to six years in prison and a one billion Rupiah (approximately 68,500 Euro) fine. The defamation complaints stem from an article that Haris Azhar wrote and subsequently published on social media on July 28, 2016. In the article, titled "The Dark Story of a Bandit: testimony from a meeting with Freddy Budiman in Nusakambangan Prison (2014)", Haris Azhar detailed statements made by the convicted drug lord who was executed on July 29, 2016. According to him, police officials, including officials from the National Police and BNN, regularly received kickbacks from his drug business. " Instead of pursuing defamation charges against Haris Azhar, the authorities must investigate the alleged corruption of police officials. The right to scrutinise institutions and report on allegations of corruption is a legitimate exercise of Haris' right to freedom of opinion and expression", said FIDH President Karim Lahidji. Police are now considering summoning Haris Azhar for questioning. Police Chief Spokesman General Boy Rafli Amar said that the allegations made by Haris Azhar needed to be backed by proof. Drug smuggling is a prominent issue in Indonesia. In 2015, Indonesia executed 14 individuals who had been convicted of drug-related offenses. So far, four individuals have been executed for drug crimes in 2016. " Authoritative UN jurisprudence has confirmed that criminal defamation laws should not be invoked if there is a public interest in the subject matter of the criticism. We urge the Indonesian authorities to drop all charges seeking criminalisation of the legitimate human rights activities of Haris Azhar", said OMCT Secretary General Gerald Staberock. Finally, the Observatory calls upon Indonesian authorities to protect Haris Azhar from any acts of reprisals committed in response to his legitimate human rights work. Woodland Park, CO -- (ReleaseWire) -- 08/09/2016 --Woodland Park is now home to a unique type of workspace facility called Basecamp WP. Basecamp WP Your Mountain Office located in the Gold Hill shopping plaza at 701 Gold Hill Place, Suite 204, provides co-working office accommodations to meet the needs of local business people who require a safe, accessible, affordable office space that is always available, has excellent internet access, and is unencumbered by long-term leases agreements. Although similar facilities exist in the Colorado Springs and Denver areas, Basecamp WP is unique in Teller County. Basecamp WP provides a bright, modern office space, including excellent Wifi, copier, conference rooms, coffee, podcasting equipment, and other work amenities with 24/7 access. After a $25 registration setup, members are welcome to use the facility anytime for $15 per day or memberships for part time use - 2 days per week (10 days/mo) for $120 per month, and unlimited access for only $220 per month (upon approved membership). "We value the power and importance of small business entrepreneurs in our community and wanted to create an environment where they could work productively on their endeavors without having to leave our beautiful mountain town," said Basecamp founder Ed Shirk. Basecamp has a members' covenant that must be affirmed upon registration to insure co-workers will have an environment that promotes small business and entrepreneurship. Confidentiality is expected among members and they must agree not to solicit each other for business purposes and maintain a collaborative spirit. "The purpose of a members' covenant is to set up a mutually beneficial understanding of how members will treat each other while working together at Basecamp," explained Shirk. "It is easily understood that all of us have different needs with respect to our environment while working some like background noise, some require absolute quiet, for example. An effort has been made to offer a number of different types of work spaces, as well as safety and comfort of a well-maintained building and parking area with 24/7 office access to help meet each person's expectations." "We believe people come to this part of the country for its beauty, tranquility and offerings of outdoor adventure. Since many people work from home or have the ability to work from anywhere there is phone and internet access, we offer you a place to work without having to travel far from home" continued Shirk. Local business people who would need more information or would like to become a member should contact Ed Shirk at 719-650-7782. CALENDAR NOTE: The public is invited to Basecamp's Greater Woodland Park Chamber of Commerce Ribbon Cutting ceremony on Tuesday, SEPT 6th at 4pm. About Basecamp Basecamp is located in the Gold Hill shopping center directly across from Wendy's at 701 Gold Hill Place, Suite 204. For more information, visit us on the web at www.basecampwp.com or call 719-650-7782. About Perini & Associates Perini & Associates. Taking public relations to new levels. For information about this news release contact perini & associates at 719-651-5943 or email newsmedia@periniassociates.com. Gili Islands, Indonesia -- (ReleaseWire) -- 08/08/2016 --The latest 2017 PADI IDC Indonesia Schedule allows 10 opportunities for professional divers to take advantage of the extreme level of quality education offered by Holly Macleod on the program Duration Dates for Prep + IDC + IE +EFRI Session 1 - January 9th - January 29th Session 2 - February 13th March 5th Session 3 - March 19th April 8th Session 4 - April 23rd - May 13th Session 5 - May 21st June 10th Session 6 - June 21st July 10th Session 7 - July 30th August 19th Session 8 - September 10th - September 30th Session 9 - October 23rd - November 12th Session 10 - November 20th December 10th The Professional PADI Instructor Development Course (IDC) takes place in the Gili Islands, Indonesia which offers a thriving and growing tourism destination combined with some excellent dive training sites. The program takes place at Trawangan Dive; the only PADI 5 Star IDC Career Development Center (CDC) in Gili Trawangan and benefits from world class dive training facilities. The Instructor training is split between classroom knowledge development sessions; where candidates will learn the standards, procedures and conduct techniques of each individual program within the PADI system of dive education; and practical training workshops where examples are demonstrated of how to organize and run training sessions at each level of training. The program is ultimately designed to prepare candidates to work as Instructors providing opportunities as you need to practice teaching students. It starts with how to teach the theory part of dive courses from Open Water onwards, The PADI Course Director will show you how to teach dive skills in confined water before handing over to the candidates to practice by themselves. Each presentation is evaluated and candidates receive immediate feedback on their performance allowing them to improve their teaching technique and develop their own unique teaching style. Once candidates are comfortable teaching in confined water we progress to running dive training in open water where you will learn how to teach from the full range of PADI training courses from Open Water, Advanced, Rescue, and Divemaster. The program is entirely conducted by Multi Award Winning Platinum PADI Course Director Holly Macleod who has a passion for training and the training activities that lead to creating successful scuba diving instructors. Having worked within the diving industry of well over a decade in a variety of dive-related roles and in a range of different locations Holly has devised a program that exceeds the basic requirements of the PADI IDC Syllabus, and has created addition components that are based on previous experience and can only assist the newly qualified Instructor allowing the transition into working life as easy as possible with the knowledge and skills to succeed. More information can be found on the PADI IDC Indonesia Facebook Fan Page, which has all of the latest news and updates including updated progress of current and previous candidates. For further information check out the PADI IDC Gili Islands Course Outline or contact Platinum PADI Course Director Holly directly through the PADI IDC Indonesia website. Contact: JT Dive Advice The Gili Islands IDC idc@trawangandive.com +62 (0)821-4785-0413 http://www.idc-gili.com/ 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. West Texas cotton farmers are having withdrawal pains about coming anywhere near predicting fall harvest yields after weeks of triple digit temperatures which has put the crop in a state of stress from heat and lack of moisture. Statewide, persistent high temperatures and dry weather stressing the cotton crop represents a trend, and nobody likes such a trend, according to the AgFax Southwest Cotton Reports. For dryland fields that don't receive a rescue rain, the prognosis is quick and deadly. 'It's hot and dry and we're starting to kick off some fruit,' reports Brad Easterling, integrated pest manager for Glasscock, Reagan and Upton counties. 'We're holding on by the skin of our teeth and waiting on rainfall. The majority of the dryland and most of the irrigated cotton is at cutout. Some dryland is blooming at cutout.' Cutout in cotton is the final stage of the plant growth before the boll opening. Across the Concho Valley, some early planted cotton is approaching cutout,' said Joel Webb of Ballinger, integrated pest manager for Runnels, Tom Green and Concho counties. 'Most cotton is in early bloom and white flowers are everywhere,' he said. 'Unfortunately, we keep missing a chance for rain.' Despite the hot, dry weather, a lot of dryland fields on the South Plains around Lubbock still look pretty good, said Seth Byrd, cotton specialist for the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service. 'Everything is blooming and many fields are at peak bloom, which is the highest water demand level,' Byrd said. 'Some rough looking fields have done what they are going to do production-wise, but the vast majority of dryland could benefit from rain and put on additional fruit. 'In irrigated fields, the subsurface drip fields look good,' he said. 'With the hot and dry July and parts of June, fields lost a lot but the drip helped fill that void of soil moisture.' Cotton needs heat units to grow, but we don't need them all in one or two days a farmer told me the other day. Actually, heat units are measured by the number of days with temperature above the threshold of 60 degrees during the development stages of the cotton plant. From planting to harvest, cotton should reach from 2,200 to 2,600 heat units in 130 to 160 days. Meanwhile, farmers can expect prices to hover between 65 cents and 78 cents over the next few months, according to John Robinson, cotton economist at Texas A&M University in College Station. 'The Texas cotton crop has been hit hard with excessive hot, dry weather over the past 30 days,' he said. 'Harvest projections for Texas are seven million bales on the upside. The low side would be the five-year average for Texas, excluding the 2011 drought, of about 5.5 million bales. 'The U.S. Department of Agriculture has forecast 6.6 million bales in 2016, which is splitting the difference,' Robinson said. Just the mention of 2011 the worst drought year in Texas history brings about sudden chills to cotton farmers (and ranchers, too). Cotton production across the 12-county Southern Rolling Plains totaled 26,526 bales in 2011. Excluding that worst production year, the five-year average since record keeping started in 1990 was 160,478 bales. Cotton production in 2007 was a record breaker at 301,848 bales. The Southern Rolling Plains region comprises Tom Green, Runnels, Concho, Coke, Coleman, Brown, McCulloch, Mason, Menard, Irion, Schleicher and southern Taylor counties. Jerry Lackey is the agriculture editor emeritus. Contact him at jlackey@wcc.net. Richard O'Shields letter: What have Republicans done for us? TUESDAY Business workshop The Texas Tech Small Business Development Center Abilene will conductits 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. THURSDAY Women's luncheon A Christian Women's Connection luncheon will begin at 11:30 a.m. at the Abilene Country Club, 4039 S. Treadaway Blvd. Tomi Calmes will be the guest speaker. Tickets are $16. For reservations, or for more information, contact 325-370-6567 or AbileneCWC@aol.com. ArtWalk ArtWalk, a program of the Center for Contemporary Arts, will take place from 5-8 p.m. in downtown Abilene. The theme will be 'DogWalk.' Participants are encouraged to bring their dogs; a variety of activities for dogs, including a costume contest and swimming pool, will be available. Grace After Dark Screenings of several short films will be presented during Grace After Dark at 8:30 p.m. on the roof of The Grace Museum, 102 Cypress St. Food trucks will open at 6:30 p.m., and a cash bar will be available. Admission will be free, but will be limited to 100 viewers. Participants must be 18 or older. Movie at the park A free showing of the movie 'Inside Out' will begin at 9 p.m. at Rose Park, 2910 S. Seventh St. Participants are encouraged to bring blankets, lawn chairs and snacks. Other ... Abilene Garden Club, 10 a.m., 300 Westwood St. Chronic Pain and Depression Group, 11 a.m. to noon, Mental Health Association of Abilene, 333 Orange St., 325-673-2300. Abilene Founder Lions Club, 11:30 a.m., Al's Mesquite Grill, 4801 Buffalo Gap Road. Kiwanis Club of Greater Abilene, noon, Beehive Restaurant, 442 Cedar St. 325-695-0092. Mental Illness Open Support Group, 1-2 p.m., Mental Health Association of Abilene, 333 Orange St. 325-673-2300. Blood drive, 1-6 p.m., First Baptist Church, Albany. Abilene 42 Club, 6 p.m., Rose Park Senior Center. PEP (People Enjoying People) Club, 6 p.m., Wylie Baptist Church, 6097 Buffalo Gap Road 325-692-4909. Teen Recovery Group, 6-7 p.m., Mission Abilene, 3001 N. Third St. Free certified nurturing parent class (all ages), 6-8 p.m., Mission Church, North Third and Mockingbird streets. 325-672-9398. Take Off Pounds Sensibly, 6:30 p.m. Brook Hollow Christian Church. Weigh-in begins at 5:30 p.m. 325-665-5052. Free swim class for people with multiple sclerosis, 6:30 p.m., YMCA, 3250 State St. Gambler's Anonymous, 6:30 p.m., Unity Spiritual Living Center, 2842 Barrow St. 325-338-2575. West Texas Genealogical Society, 6:30 p.m., Rose Park Senior Citizen Center. Round Dancing, 7 p.m., Wagon Wheel. 325-829-1517. Tea Party Patriots of Eastland County, 7 p.m., Myrtle Wilks Community Center, Cisco. South Pioneer Al-Anon Group, 8 p.m., 3157 Russell Ave. Unity Group of Alcoholics Anonymous, 8 p.m., Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest, 602 Meander St. Hendrick Hospice Care sponsors a 'Gone But Not Lost' support group the second Thursday of each month for any bereaved parent who has lost a child of any age. Information: 325-677-8516 or 1-800-622-8516. FRIDAY Trade Days of West Texas An opening celebration of Trade Days of West Texas will be 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 2501 E. Highway 80. Crafts, antiques, food trucks and more will be available. Alumni meeting DESDEMONA An annual alumni and community meeting will begin at 5 p.m. at the Desdemona Activity Center. Doors will open at 2 p.m. A meal will begin at 5:30 p.m. Concert A concert featuring the Booth Brothers will begin at 7 p.m. at Pioneer Drive Baptist Church, 701 Pioneer Drive. Admission is free, but an offering will be taken. 'Giant' As part of the Paramount Film Series, 'Giant' will be shown at 7:30 p.m. at the Paramount Theatre, 352 Cypress St. Film historian Robert Holladay will give a lecture on the film at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $6 for adults and $5 for students, seniors, military and children. For more information, visit paramount-abilene.org. Dance OPLIN A dance featuring Midnight Blue will be 7:30-10:30 p.m. at the Oplin Community Center. Admission is $5. Information: www.grandoleoplin.com. Other ... Blood drive, 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Hendrick Medical Center, Tom Roberts Conference Center. Abilene Chinese Corner, 5:30-6:30 p.m., Abilene Christian University library. lld09a@acu.edu. Disabled American Veterans and Auxiliary, 6 p.m., 2555 Grape St. 325-793-9699 or 325-480-6175. Mid-City Al-Anon, 7 p.m., First Christian Church. 325-670-4304. New viruses are becoming part of the human experience more often. Who can forget the rise of HIV around the world in the early 1980s? In the 1987 book, 'And the Band Played On,' the author identified flight attendant Gaetan Dugas as 'Patient Zero,' the person who introduced HIV into the U.S. However, a recent genetic analysis reveals that this was wrong. In June 1981, the Centers for Disease Control published a report of five previously healthy gay young men in Los Angeles with a rare lung infection with Pneumocystis carnii. or PCP. This infection is indicative of a weakened immune system. Little did we know that this was the start of the U.S. AIDS epidemic. In addition, doctors also reported cases of a rare, aggressive form of skin cancer called Kaposi's sarcoma in some gay men. On June 8, the CDC began to look for risk factors and to create case definitions for this new disease. By the end of 1981, 270 gay men were diagnosed with severe immune deficiency and 121 of them had died. On Sept. 24, 1982, the CDC coined the term AIDS Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. In the 1987 book, the original carrier of HIV who brought AIDS into the U.S. was named as Gaetan Dugas, a Canadian flight attendant. Gugas died of Kaposi's sarcoma in 1984 at 31. It was claimed that he was Patient Zero who spread HIV to the gay bathhouses in San Francisco and Los Angeles, sparking the AIDS epidemic. Evolutionary biologist Michael Worobey at the University of Arizona has compiled evidence, however, proving that Dugas was not Patient Zero. After the AIDS virus was identified, scientists tested for HIV in stored blood samples taken from gay and bisexual men in the late 1970s in San Francisco and New York. Worobey determined the sequences of the genomes of those HIV viruses. When HIV replicates its genome, errors are made producing mutations. Using these sequences, it was determined how these HIVs are related. Results indicated that the epidemic most likely started in New York City around 1970. The U.S. HIV resembles older HIV isolates from Caribbean countries and that HIV reached San Francisco in 1975. Although Dugas did visit Haiti in 1977, he does not appear to be the key person in starting the U.S. epidemic. In fact, the virus he carried fell in the middle of the family tree, not at the beginning. So Dugas was wrongly vilified in the book and in the press. Two of his doctors are quoted accusing Dugas of being a 'sociopath' for his large number of sexual partners. However, it was not until 1983 that there was consensus that AIDS was transmitted sexually and in contaminated blood. Dugas was not aware he was passing on AIDS as the result of his sexual activity until the year before his death. We now also know that he is unlikely to have been the man who brought HIV to the US. Unfortunately, his lifestyle likely led to him infect many partners contributing to the scale of the epidemic. The Abilene ISD board of trustees unanimously approved a compensation plan Monday night that will give employees a 2-percent pay raise and $600 to help offset an increase in insurance premiums. The pay raise for teachers will be based on the district's mid-range salary of just more than $49,000. Paraprofessionals will see their minimum pay go from $7.75 per hour to $9.24. The board will approve a budget for the 2016-17 school year, as well as the tax rate, at its Aug. 29 meeting. The board had discussed at its agenda review meeting Aug. 1 the possibility of giving employees a $500 one-time payment to help pay for an increase of 12 percent in First Care, the insurance used by 70 percent of the employees in the district. Melissa Irby, the chief financial officer for AISD, said 83 percent of the employees using First Care would see their rates go up anywhere from $11 to $130 per month. She said 62 percent of those employees would see their rates go up more than $50 a month. On Monday, the district recommended a payment of $600, which would be paid in a $300 check in December and a $300 check in May. The discussion then centered on whether to make the payment as part of a flex card, where the money would not be taxed but could only be used on medical expenses. In a flex card, unused money would go back to the district. The board decided on the payment of two checks. There was much more discussion on the one-time payment than on the salary schedule for the coming school year. Board members Randy Piersall and Stan Lambert said the compensation for paraprofessionals was too low. 'We're not doing as much as we need to be doing for some of our paraprofessionals,' Lambert said. Scott McLean, associate superintendent for operations, said that figures for the paraprofessionals was based on 'market figures,' what other school districts paid. Board member Daryl Zeller said the district didn't compete with other school districts for paraprofessionals. 'I remember something Mr. (Sammy) Garcia (Zeller's opponent in May) said during our election,' he said.'We don't compete with other school districts. We compete with other businesses in town for our employees.' McLean said the compensation plan could be amended at a later date to include a larger pay increase for paraprofessionals, if that is what the board wanted to do. 'It's a step in the right direction,' said Piersall of the compensation plan.'Let's keep (paraprofessionals) in mind as we move forward.' The cost of the $600 to school district employees will come at a cost of $1.5 million. The decision will almost certainly mean that the board will be accepting a deficit budget at the end of the month since the administration was forecasting a shortfall of nearly $370,000 for the upcoming budget. Some of the shortfall could be eased by improved attendance, but Lambert said he didn't want to make the $600 payment conditional on other factors. 'What happens if attendance goes down?' he asked. In other board action, the board discussed ways to make itself more diverse. Superintendent David Young said he had spoken with the superintendent of the Hurst-Euless-Bedford district in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, which has used a school board training program to identify people in the community who would be willing to serve on the school board and train them. Like Abilene, the H-E-B district has at-large members on its board. 'The board academy there has been wildly successful,' Young said. The board also approved a $634,000 bid from the Crowe Group to make safety and security upgrades for the Jefferson Center and to Woodson High School. Richard O'Shields, Abilene A couple months ago, Dave Canon, in a letter to the editor, said, 'Obamacare medical fiasco which allowed no Republican input or any input from experts or government agencies' (Reporter-News, June 3). I was a billing supervisor at that time for the local MHMR and attended meetings in Austin where HHSC staff gave us updates on them furnishing information and working with the Feds on best practices, cost controls, etc. You see, we were interested in this legislation because it gave our patients, diagnosed with a mental illness and employed but without employer health insurance, a way to continue working and getting their medications to keep them stable. Since most of them also had health problems, it would help stabilize their health issues and keep them off Medicaid. On March 5, 2009, 120 people representing doctors, insurers, drug companies, consumer advocates and lawmakers attended a health summit. Fourteen Republicans, reps from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, American Medical Association, Federation of American Hospitals, Blue Cross, American Cancer Society and others attended the breakout sessions. A number of other Republicans as well as other interested people attended. Sen. Mitch McConnell said the party was ready to work with the administration, but they wouldn't accept a government expansion. Obama wanted a single-payer system, but he was willing to compromise, as did others, including hospitals, insurance companies and drug companies, on a Republican idea of the early 1990s, individual mandate. Everyone compromised except for guess who? The House voted March 21, 2010. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below This just in... The 50th anniversary of Chinas disastrous Cultural Revolution this year received considerable media attention, but little of that attention focused on what a catastrophe it was for Tibet. Following Mao Zedongs unleashing of the Cultural Revolution in the spring of 1966, Tibet became the target of a Chinese campaign to create the new by smashing the old. Most of Tibets monasteries had already been destroyed prior to the Cultural Revolution. Now what was left was ransacked and looted. Red Guards broke into homes to search for religious objects. The first Red Guards to emerge in Tibet included Tibetan students who had been educated, indoctrinated, and radicalized at nationalities universities in China. They then returned to Tibet as devout Maoists determined to help launch the Cultural Revolution. The Red Guards at a teacher training college in Lhasa put up posters demanding the eradication of feudal culture. They and other radicals advocated the destruction of Tibetan prayer flags, religious art, incense burners and sacred texts along with all photographs of the revered Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama. On Aug. 25, 1966, Red Guards called on schools to take part in the destruction of Tibets holiest shrine, the Jokhang Temple located in the center of Lhasa, the Tibetan capital. The Red Guards went into the temple and started ransacking sacred ritual objects and ranting against superstition, recalls Drikhung Chetsang Rinpoche, whose account appears in a biography focused on his life story titled From the Heart of Tibet. Then children rushed in to dismantle shrines and dragged sacred statues with ropes through the streets. 'Theater of cruelty' Historian Tsering Shakya explains that many Tibetans were swept up in the fervor of the times, just like the rest of China and went on to denounce friends, relatives, and teachers as reactionaries or capitalists. The brave few who refused to participate in the madness paid the price of being branded as enemies of the people and subjected to mass struggle sessions, he said. Tibet became a Theater of Cruelty, according to Drikung Chetsang Rinpoche. From May until the end of 1967, two armed rival factions in Tibet, each claiming to include true followers of Mao Zedong, fought numerous battles in the streets of Lhasa. Red Guards, meanwhile, ousted Party cadres and took over their positions. Chaos ruled. In early 1968, Mao dispatched Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) troops into Tibet to contain the fighting and establish control. The troops took over the schools and began a series of public executions. But Tibetan culture itself, in all of its manifestations, continued to be the target of a battle to destroy the four olds--old ideas, old culture, old customs, and old habits. In 1969, the PLA disarmed the Red Guards across China. Then, with Maos death in 1976, the Cultural Revolution officially came to an end. Taboo subject Fifty years after the launch of the Cultural Revolution, public discussion of Maos role in unleashing a violent chain of events is banned. In 1981, the Communist Party issued an official resolution concluding that the Cultural Revolution was a catastrophe and that Mao had made mistakes during those years. But the Party has suppressed discussion ever since, apparently because of a fear that any public debate over that dark decade might irrevocably damage the reputation of Mao Zedong, the founder of Chinas communist state. Fortunately, although many would prefer to forget, the memory of what happened during those years has been kept alive by elderly survivors and a number of Tibetan scholars, such as Tsering Shakya. Tsering Woeser, a Tibetan activist and blogger, who was born in 1966 when the Cultural Revolution began, has little direct personal of the events that tore Tibetan society apart. But she has kept others memories alive, partly through interviews with survivors, intensive research, and finally through black-and-white photos taken by her father, who was a high-ranking PLA officer during the period. Although five decades have now passed, Tibetans of a certain age can still recall the beatings, public denunciations, and struggle sessions which their friends and relatives endured through during the Cultural Revolution. A scholars personal story A Tibetan scholar in exile told RFA of his experience as a child during the period from 1966 until 1976, when members of his entire family were designated as class enemies or as a part of a black class. In 1968, he was 13 years old. The children along with everyone else in his family had to be re-educated. Every evening we had to go to meetings and read Maos writings and slogans, he said. We were asked, what did your family do today? What did they say? They wanted us to spy on our families. I often had to apologize because I hadnt watched all of my familys activities on that day. I told them that I would be careful to do so the next day. His family lived on the Barkhor, the street circling the sacred Jokhang Temple in the center of Lhasa. It was a goal of pilgrims coming from outside Lhasa to prostrate themselves on the Barkhor as they followed the circuit around the temple. One day the boy encountered an astonishing sight. I was playing with the other children. Then I saw my grandfather dressed in a kind of costumeHe held heavy metal in his hands. These were irons used to restrain horses legs so that they wouldnt stray. My grandfather was a businessman and a trader. He used horses for his travels, he said. He was wearing a paper hat. I was excited, because I thought he had become an actor. But this was no play. Some people in the crowd claimed that he had used the irons he was holding to restrain serfs, or slaves. They spat on him and hit him with their fists, the grandson said. He survived the beating, but his health was never the same. The Tibetan scholar who recalls these events cannot be identified because he fears that his relatives in Tibet may suffer retaliation if he makes his identity known. Tibetan Buddhism Today Following the Cultural Revolution, many Tibetan monasteries were rebuilt, but police controls over them have increased in recent years. Tibetan monks and nuns have also been forced to denounce the Dalai Lama, a painful ordeal for many Tibetans, who regard him as their spiritual leader. And in 1995, rather than respect Tibetan tradition, China chose its own Panchen Lama, a religious leader long recognized in Tibet as second in stature only to the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama had selected another Tibetan boy as Panchen Lama. That boy quickly disappeared and is believed to be under a kind of house arrest somewhere inside China. Chinese spokesmen say that he is leading a normal life but that he and his family do not want to be disturbed. Another cause for Tibetan distress today was a Chinese government decision in 2007 that China would begin to oversee the recognition of all reincarnate Tibetan lamas, or Living Buddhas, as the government calls them. This is presumed to include the next incarnation of the Dalai Lama himself. Dan Southerland is RFAs executive editor. This official photo shows members parliament raising their hands during a meeting at the National Assembly building in Phnom Penh, April 4, 2016. A Khmer-Australian politician is refusing to apologize or back away from comments he made earlier this month when he criticized Prime Minister Hun Sens rule following the murder of government critic Kem Ley. Hong Lim, who was born in Cambodia but is an Australian lawmaker from Victoria, delivered his original criticism in an Aug. 4 interview with Radio Free Asia. During the interview he discussed Kem Ley and the political climate in Cambodia. Cambodia has been struggling to come to grips with Kem Leys death since he was murdered on July 10. While the government arrested a former soldier for the murder, there appears to be little confidence in the ability of authorities to solve the crime. During the RFA broadcast Lim referred to the Hun Sen and his Cambodian Peoples Party as a savage regime. Those remarks, among others, led to a series of rebukes by Phnom Penh, with government spokesman Phay Siphan demanding an apology two days later, and the National Assembly and the Cambodian Senate issuing separate letters condemning Lim on Aug. 8 and 9. Phnom Penhs criticisms did little to sway Lim, who told RFAs Khmer Service on Tuesday that the Cambodian parliament is merely a puppet controlled by Hun Sen. Whatever move Hun Sen wants it to make, the parliament just blindly follows suit no matter how nonsensical it looks and sounds, he said. The government lacks conscience and fails to represent Cambodian people. Lim also hit out at Hun Sen on the sensitive topic of Vietnam. Since Hun Sen came to power with Vietnamese backing in the late 1970s, opponents have attempted to paint him as a stooge to Hanoi. The government arrested opposition senator Hong Sok Hour in 2015 after he posted comments on social media that claimed an article in the 1979 Cambodia-Vietnam Friendship Treaty was meant to dismantle, rather than define, the border between the two countries. On April 12, opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party lawmaker Um Sam An with charged with a pair of criminal offenses over his accusations that the government and the ruling Cambodian Peoples Party conceded land to Vietnam along its border. Lim told RFA that the Hun Sen regime turns its blind eye to the key issues such as environmental destruction, Yuon [Vietnamese] troops presence in Cambodia, rampant and widespread corruption, unemployment and huge poverty. Dr. Kem Ley has found out that 85 percent of the Cambodian population makes only $3 a day. Why does it not address these issues instead? Reported by Sarada Taing for RFA's Khmer Service. Translated by Nareth Muong. Written in English by Brooks Boliek. Laos Foreign Minister Saleumxay Kommasith (C) delivers the opening speech at the planary session of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' (ASEAN) 49th annual ministerial meeting in Vientiane, July 24, 2016. Laos representatives attending a meeting of civil society organizations that is held each year during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit said little about human rights issues inside their own authoritarian country because they were selected by the government in Vientiane, sources tell RFA. While the ASEAN Peoples Forum is designed to highlight human-rights issues in the 10 countries that make up ASEAN, the Lao government made sure that rights criticisms of that country were kept to a minimum by hand-picking the Lao civil society representatives attending the forum, according to the sources. Most Lao representatives are selected by the Lao Ministry of Home Affairs to participate the 2016 APF in East Timor, a civil society official told RFAs Lao Service, on condition of anonymity. They are fully registered and verified Lao civil society organization members, but those with temporary registrations were not selected. Laoss single-party government likes to keep civil society organizations on a short leash by granting organizations that dont toe the party line temporary status, making it easier to pull the plug on an organization if it bucks the government. A reminder Just days before the ASEAN Peoples Forum was to begin, the Ministry of Home Affairs conducted a meeting with Lao representatives to the forum reminding them they should avoid politically sensitive issues and fully follow the Lao Peoples Revolutionary Party philosophy and the governments rules and policies, the source told RFA. During the meeting, we were told to talk about human rights problems in Laos indirectly and were told we cannot say something on a specific case, the source said. We can only say or raise topics in general terms that relates to any problem or issues about human rights in Laos during the meeting. Laos has tried to keep a lid on discussion about rights abuses since it took over as ASEAN chair. The country refused to allow the ASEAN Peoples Forum to meet in Laos, host of the ASEAN summit. Lao officials cited the potential criticism by participants of the regions governments and inadequate resources as the reasons for keeping the forum outside of Laos. Instead the ASEAN Peoples Forum was conducted in East Timor. Maydom Chanthanasinh, who headed the Lao delegation, was critical of the forum, saying it has lost credibility because people who lost economic interest and political power have come to use it simply as a way to criticize their governments. The attempt to keep criticisms to a minimum worked for most of the Peoples Forum as discussions about the arrest of government critics, the lack of press freedom, unsustainable development, dam construction and land seizures were minimized. "Where is Sombath Somphone?" While the disappearance of Sombath Somphone was among the topics that Lao representatives were told was off limits, supporters of the Lao agricultural and community development worker attempted to be heard in spite of the obstacles. Sombaths 2012 abduction remains unsolved even though there is video footage of Sombaths Jeep being stopped at a police checkpoint that also shows Sombath being herded into a white truck and taken away. In the video, a man dressed in white returns and drives off in his Jeep. He is well known in Laos for his decades of work on behalf of farmers and sustainable agricultural practices. He pioneered an agricultural approach in Laos that aims to incorporate the knowledge and opinions of rural people in the planning and management of development projects. Sombath was generally apolitical, but just before his abduction he challenged the massive land deals the government negotiated that left thousands of rural Laotians homeless with little compensation. The deals sparked rare popular protests in Laos where political speech is tightly controlled. While the Lao government was apparently successful in keeping the delegation quiet inside the forum, it was unable to muzzle protests and other events outside the forum. A member of the Alliance for Democracy in Laos, an overseas pro-democracy organization, told RFA the alliance was able to set up a workshop and discuss human rights violations in Laos including the disappearance of Sombath Somphone. Demonstrators also carried a large poster of Sombath inscribed with Where is Sombath? as they also yelled out the question. Reported by Lanxang for RFA's Lao Service. Translated by Max Avary. Written in English by Brooks Boliek. A Tibetan political prisoner and monk who was jailed by authorities for five years for refusing to participate in a "patriotic reeducation campaign" died on Monday in western Chinas Tibet Autonomous Region, RFA has learned. Khenrab Tharchin, who was about 40 years old when he passed away, was jailed in 2008 and had suffered beatings and torture while in prison, said a Tibetan source in Nepal. He was released in 2013 because of poor health, and his health continued to deteriorate thereafter, he said. His relatives took him to the hospital, but he died on the way there, the source said. Tharchin hailed from Drushe village, Shelkar township, in Dingri county of Shigatse (in Chinese, Xigaze) prefecture in southwestern Tibet. At the time of his arrest in May 2008, he was one of several monks at Dingri Shelkar Choedhe monastery who opposed a patriotic reeducation campaign imposed upon them by local Chinese authorities, the source said. Authorities began conducting new patriotic reeducation campaigns in Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and nunneries in April 2008 following unrest a month earlier that spread across region as a result of protests that started in the Tibetan capital Lhasa and led to rioting, burning, looting, and ethnic killing. The campaigns were conducted in an effort to control religious practices, suppress support for exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, and quash notions of independence or genuine autonomy for Tibet. Under the reeducation program, work teams temporarily moved into religious institutions and provided instruction on the Chinese governments official version of Tibet's history as well as religious policy and the law. Monks and nuns were required to comply or risk arrest or expulsion. Open opposition When Tharchin was arrested, he was 32 years old and a member of the monasterys democratic management committee set up by Chinese authorities to ensure that the monks did not disrupt social order through protests or self-immolations, according to an article on the Tibetan news site Phayul.com on June 1, 2008. Tharchin stood up while the reeducation campaign was in session, openly opposed it and told the visiting work team that he could not denounce the Dalai Lama as required under the campaign, the article said. Eleven other monks also stood up and opposed the campaign. That night, Chinese security forces raided Dingri Shelkar monastery and arrested the 12 monks, taking them to unknown locations, the article said. It later came to be known that authorities had sentenced three of the monks to 18 months in prison and had handed Tharchin a five-year sentence, the Tibetan source said. Tharchin was first detained at a facility in Shigatse but later moved to Chushul (Qushui) prison on the outskirts of Lhasa. Reported by Sangye Dorjee for RFAs Tibetan Service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin. Police in Afghanistan say a suicide attack in a crowded market in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif has killed at least one person and wounded more than a dozen. Munir Ahmad Farhad, the provincial governor's spokesman, said the attacker had explosives strapped to his body. No group has immediately claimed responsibility for the August 9 attack. Taliban insurgents have intensified attacks across the country in their efforts to overthrow the Kabul government. However, Mazar-i-Sharif, an important commercial center near the border with Uzbekistan, has generally been spared the violence. The UN mission in Afghanistan says more than 1,000 civilians have been killed in the first half of this year, most of them by the insurgency, now in its 15th year. Based on reporting by AP and Reuters The American University of Afghanistan is expected to reopen on August 9, days after being closed in the wake of the kidnapping of two teachers. The two faculty members -- one Australian and one American -- were abducted at gunpoint from a road near the university in Kabul on August 7, Afghan officials said. Since then, the campus has been closed while senior management reviewed the security situation, the university said in an online statement on August 8. Kidnapping is a major problem in Afghanistan. Most of those abducted are Afghans, but foreigners are being increasingly targeted as well. An Indian aid worker was released last month after being abducted from downtown Kabul in July. At least two other foreigners were kidnapped in Kabul last year and later released. At least one Australian woman remains unaccounted for after being kidnapped in the eastern city of Jalalabad in April. Based on reporting by Reuters 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." Officials in Russia's North Caucasus region of Daghestan say an investigation has been launched after a burned-out car with the bodies of two men was found on August 8 in the southeastern village of Dyuzlyar. Investigative Committee spokesman Rasul Temirbekov said on August 9 that the two men had been identified. According to Temirbekov, a preliminary probe indicated the two were transporting an explosive device when it accidentally detonated inside the vehicle. In a related development, Daghestani officials said police had found two improvised explosive devices in the region's central region of Gergebil on August 8. Daghestan has been at the epicenter of a wave of violence by armed criminal groups and militants seeking to establish an Islamic caliphate in the North Caucasus. Organized crime, business turf wars, political disputes, and clan rivalry also contribute to the bloodshed in the region. Based on reporting by RIA and Interfax You've really got to hand it to Sergei Lavrov for being able to say the things he says with a straight face. The Russian foreign minister says Moscow is "seriously concerned" about the escalating violence in the Donbas. And as Lavrov was expressing his concern, Russia-backed separatists continued to escalate the violence in the Donbas, attacking Ukrainian positions with Grad rockets and heavy artillery. And as Lavrov was expressing his concern, Moscow continued to escalate tensions with Kyiv on another front -- moving troops and long convoys of heavy weapons to the north of the occupied Crimean Peninsula near the Ukrainian mainland. Lavrov's concern about the escalation in Ukraine amid Russia's escalation in Ukraine illustrates one of the fundamental flaws in the Minsk peace process. Moscow has been allowed to pretend that it is a mediator in a conflict in Ukraine in which it is, in fact, the aggressor. The Kremlin is able to express concern over violence that it is, in fact, perpetrating itself. It's a game Russia has played before -- in Abkhazia, in South Ossetia, and in Transdniester. In fact, it's the same playbook Moscow used in the run-up to its 2008 invasion of Georgia. And it's a game the Kremlin will continue to play, as long as everybody keeps going along with the charade. Keep telling me what you think on The Power Vertical's Twitter feed and on our Facebook page. The European Union (EU) has added two Russian citizens to its sanctions list of people with links to the Al-Qaeda and Islamic State (IS) terrorist organizations. The EU said in its Official Journal on August 9 that Aslan Byutukayev, 41, from Russia's North Caucasus region and Ayrat Vakhitov, 39, from Russia's Tatarstan region had been added to the list a day earlier and the "regulation should enter into force immediately." The two were added by Washington in July to the list of persons who had joined IS and "threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States." Russian officials have said that some 2,500 citizens of Russia and other former Soviet republics have joined Islamic militants in Syria and Iraq in recent years. With reporting by TASS India has summoned Pakistan's high commissioner in New Delhi to protest against what it said was the continued infiltration of militants from across the border. "The government of India strongly protests against the continued infiltration from Pakistan of trained terrorists with instructions to carry out attacks," the Foreign Ministry said on August 9. It said an arrested Pakistani national, Bahadur Ali, had confessed that he was "infiltrated into India" after being trained by the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant group. Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said Islamabad was committed to not allowing the use of its territory for any militant activity against anyone. India and Pakistan have fought three wars, two over control of Kashmir, since they won independence from Britain in 1947. India accuses Pakistan of training and arming militants in the portion it controls and sending them to the Indian side, something which Islamabad denies. Based on reporting by Reuters and Dawn An Iraqi court has dropped corruption charges against parliament speaker Salim al-Jaburi. The allegations of graft were raised in parliament on August 1 by Defense Minister Khalid al-Obeidi, who alleged that Juburi and several other lawmakers were corrupt and had sought to blackmail him. The accused have denied the allegations. A travel ban was later placed on the accused and an investigation was launched. But a judiciary spokesman said on August 9 that a Baghdad court had dropped the charges against Jaburi that day due to lack of evidence. The fate of the others who were accused by Obeidi was not immediately clear. The court ruling came hours after parliament voted to strip Jaburi of immunity. The government of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has faced growing antigovernment protests demanding reform and calling for a fight against rampant corruption. Based on reporting by Reuters, dpa, and AP Opposition lawmakers in Kosovo have launched tear gas to disrupt the work of a parliamentary commission on a border demarcation agreement with neighboring Montenegro. The meeting of the parliamentary foreign committee on August 9 was interrupted after an opposition lawmaker opened a tear gas canister. The opposition says that Kosovo has lost over 8,000 hectares because of the deal. The opposition has been disrupting parliamentary work since last September to protest the Montenegro deal and another one with Serbia that gives more powers to ethnic Serbs in Kosovo. In May, the European Commission recommended allowing Kosovars to travel throughout Europe's so-called Schengen zone without visas, but only after Kosovo fulfils certain conditions, including ratifying the border agreement with Montenegro. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, something that Belgrade still rejects. Based on reporting by AP Strange mid-summer news: A U.K.-based pundit, in an op-ed piece in RT, sensationally claims that the late Slobodan Milosevic has been "exonerated" by the UN court that deals with war crimes that took place during the Balkan wars of the 1990s. Milosevic, the former president of Yugoslavia who died in his cell in The Hague a decade ago while awaiting trial on a host of war crimes charges, has long been accused of masterminding those wars. But in discussing the verdict from a separate case issued by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Neil Clark argues in RT that it had quietly cleared Milosevic of responsibility for war crimes. "The ICTY's conclusion, that one of the most demonized figures of the modern era was innocent of the most heinous crimes he was accused of, really should have made headlines across the world," Clark writes. "But it hasn't. Even the ICTY buried it, deep in its 2,590-page verdict in the trial of Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, who was convicted in March of genocide [at Srebrenica], war crimes and crimes against humanity." Clark asks why there was no official announcement or press conference regarding Milosevic's "exoneration." He goes on to thank journalist and researcher Andy Wilcoxon, who wrote early this month about the March 24 Karadzic judgment, for this supposedly game-changing discovery regarding international justice. So, has the man who oversaw the worst atrocities committed in Europe since World War II been declared innocent? Clark has been making a name for himself as a leading apologist for Milosevic, for Serbian war crimes, and more recently for Putin's actions in Ukraine. But this time he has really gone too far. This is a perfect example of fact-bending journalism. I sent an e-mail to the ICTY to get their reaction to the Wilcoxon and Clark reports on Milosevic's supposed exoneration. The ICTY replied: "The Trial Chamber of the Karadzic case found, at paragraph 3460, page 1303, of the Trial Judgement, that 'there was no sufficient evidence presented in this case to find that Slobodan Milosevic agreed with the common plan' [to create territories ethnically cleansed of non-Serbs]. The Trial Chamber found earlier in the same paragraph that 'Milosevic provided assistance in the form of personnel, provisions and arms to Bosnian Serbs during the conflict'." The Trial Chamber did not in fact make any determination of guilt with respect to Milosevic in its verdict against Karadzic. Indeed, Milosevic was not charged or accused in the Karadzic case. The fact that a person is, or is not, found to be part of a joint criminal enterprise in a case in which he is not charged has no impact on the status of his own case or his own criminal responsibility. In short, the trial against Karadzic was against him and him only, and therefore has no impact on the separate case against Slobodan Milosevic. Karadzic, meanwhile, was found guilty of crimes against humanity and genocide, in case Clark has any reservations about Karadzic's role in the Balkan wars. The full judgement against Karadzic is publicly available here. If one rather bland, months-old, morsel of legalistic caveat is the prize catch for Clark after trawling through several thousand pages of transcripts of the Karadzic trial, then it is a rather poor one. One is left with the impression that apologists for dictators and deniers of mass crimes continue to excel in the mendacious art of clutching at straws -- in this case, a single straw. Milosevic's Army, Media Milosevic's death in custody means that his trial will never resume, and the facts of the case against him will never be established in a court of law -- and so Clark and his ilk can continue to imagine an alternate reality. While that is unfortunate, I can only confront Clark (and Wilcoxon) with my own experience. I remember the morning in early April 1992 when the tanks of the Yugoslav Army besieged Sarajevo. (At the time, Branko Kostic was acting president of Yugoslavia, but Milosevic -- as president of Serbia -- held most of the real power.) I lived in the Kosevsko brdo neighborhood, and because of shelling I was unable to make it to the newspaper where I worked. I could see the smoke rising from buildings downtown. From my balcony, I could also see the heavy artillery in the hills above my neighborhood. My phone was still working, as the main post office and telephone exchange was not burned down until May 2. To my surprise I received a call from the Belgrade radio station Politika. A journalist wanted me to describe what was going on in Sarajevo. For a moment I was happy that someone from Belgrade wanted to know about the suffering of civilians. Many people in Belgrade had friends and relatives in Sarajevo. I was naively hoping that if people in Belgrade found out what was going on, that the army was waging war on civilians in Bosnia, they would be moved to protest its actions. Concerned that the line could be cut at any moment, I described everything I knew about the Yugoslav Army's attack on the city, without pausing to catch my breath. The Belgrade journalist on the other end told me that we would go live in a few minutes. He then asked me if I could repeat what I had just told him, but without mentioning the Yugoslav Army. "Could you just report on the damage you see, since we do not know who is shooting?" he requested. In despair I explained to my colleague in Belgrade that I did know who was shooting -- that was the point. I told him that from my window I could even make out the red-star insignia of the Yugoslav Army painted on tanks whose barrels were smoking. He then asked me: "Are you a Serb?" I said yes, but I still have eyes and ears. He apologized, and explained that they could not put me on air after all. They just needed a report on the damage done to the city. They were not allowed to mention the Yugoslav Army. Being under fire and besieged in my city was bad enough, but not being able to report on what I could see around me made it even worse. I felt helpless, humiliated. The media in Belgrade were controlled by Milosevic, and the army was under his control. This was just the beginning of the siege of Sarajevo that would last more than 1,000 days, from April 6, 1992, to February 29, 1996. Nearly 14,000 people (civilians) were killed, including almost 2,000 children. 'Creeping Rehabilitation' The fact that the trial against Milosevic was never brought to a conclusion does not change his role in the history of Serbia and of the Balkans. Serbia still refuses to deal with that past -- not only with its actions in neighboring states, but crimes committed in Serbia itself. Several assassinations of prominent politicians during Milosevic's rule are still unsolved. The most prominent is that of Ivan Stambolic, who was preparing to oppose Milosevic in the Serbian presidential election in 2000 when he was killed by security forces while jogging. There is also the slaying of Serbian journalist Slavko Curuvija. Or the attempted assassination of former Foreign Minister and opposition party leader Vuk Draskovic. The list of Milosevic's victims, or would-be victims, is much longer, of course. The witnesses are disappearing, while people who were part the Milosevic regime are back in power, or inching closer. The leader of the Serbian Socialist Party, Ivica Dacic, was parading Milosevic's grandchild around during his election campaign in April. This creeping rehabilitation of Milosevic and his regime in Serbia is being abetted by outside forces with their own agendas, whether anti-NATO, pro-Russian, or reckless indulgence of conspiracy theories -- like the Texas-based Ron Paul Institute, which helped carry the invented news on Milosevic's "exoneration." This article in the Daily Beast helped me understand the background and motives of Milosevic's apologists abroad According to Serbian historian Latinka Perovic, Serbia's failure to rebuild relations with its neighbors is due to the failure of Serbian society to understand -- and deal with -- the causes of the breakup of Yugoslavia, and Serbia's role in the wars. The mentality of the 1990s endures, she explained in an interview with RFE/RL. There are many reasons why Serbia has yet to shed the dangerous delusions that led to the catastrophic wars of the 1990s, including the sense of victimhood that is behind the continued denial of war crimes committed in its name. But the process of truth and reconciliation in the region is not helped by unscrupulous war crime deniers like Clark. He seems to enjoy the notoriety of being contrarian, even if it means proclaiming the innocence of war criminals and mass murderers. NOTE: This article has been revised to identify Branko Kostic as acting president of Yugoslavia in 1992, and to correct Milosevic's status at that time. Pakistani lawyers are staging a nationwide strike after dozens of colleagues were killed in a suicide bombing at a hospital in the southwestern city of Quetta. Medical staff said up to 60 of the 70 slain in the bombing on August 8 at a government hospital were lawyers who had gathered to mourn the assassination earlier in the day of Bilal Kasi, president of the Balochistan Bar Association. Islamic State was one of two Islamist militant groups to claim responsibility for the atrocity, although officials and analysts said they had doubts over whether the Middle East-based movement was behind the blast. It was the latest, and deadliest, in a string of attacks against lawyers in Pakistan, seen by some militants as an extension of the government and so legitimate targets. "How weak and pathetic are these people who target hospitals, where women and children, where patients, go to get treatment?" Ashtar Ausaf Ali, Pakistan's attorney general, said on August 9 at a protest outside the Supreme Court in the capital, Islamabad. Based on reporting by Reuters The presidents of Russia and Turkey vowed to open a new period of close relations as they rebuild ties between their countries after a nearly seven-month rupture over Ankara's shooting down of a Russian warplane last year. Speaking on August 9 during a visit to St. Petersburg, Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Vladimir Putin that Turkey was entering a "very different period" in relations with Russia, and that cooperation between the two countries would help solve regional problems. He also vowed to rebuild military, economic, and cultural cooperation. "Your visit today, despite a very difficult situation regarding domestic politics, indicates that we all want to restart dialogue and restore relations between Russia and Turkey," Putin said. Turkey, whose economy has also slowed in recent years, has come under increased Western criticism over Erdogan's crackdown on opponents following an unsuccessful coup attempt on July 15, during which 230 people were killed. Russia remains mired in economic crisis following a steep decline in world oil prices and the imposition of U.S. and European Union sanctions in response to Moscow's 2014 takeover of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula and support for armed separatists in eastern Ukraine. "Both have good reasons to mend fences," says Kristian Brakel, an Istanbul-based analyst for the German Council on Foreign Relations. "Both are in economic difficulty and both are looking for a counterbalance to the West." But for all the statements of good will and restoring ties, one of the biggest issues vexing the two countries' relations -- the conflict in Turkey's neighbor Syria -- appeared to go unresolved. Erdogan has been a vocal foe of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and has actively participated in the U.S.-led effort to hit terrorist groups in Syria as well as bolster moderate rebels. Moscow, for its part, has been a longtime backer of Assad, supplying his regime with weapons and using the Mediterranean naval port of Tartus. Russia's air campaign, launched in September 2015, has helped Assad's forces on the battlefield. Putin told reporters he and Erdogan would hold further discussions on Syria later on August 9. "I think it is possible to align our views and approaches," he said. Erdogan also signaled that the Syria issue was a priority, telling the Russian state news agency TASS ahead of the visit that Russia was "a main, key and very important player in establishing peace in Syria." Still, Brakel said, the two leaders' visions for Syria are so dramatically opposed that it is clearly difficult to find some common understanding on it. "It's very hard reconcile these two approaches; one is black, the other is white," Brakel told RFE/RL. Coup Fallout In the wake of last month's coup, Western powers rallied to Erdogan but have also expressed concern over his mass purges of alleged supporters. Ankara has arrested or detained over 20,000 people and suspended or fired tens of thousands from their jobs on suspicion of being associated with the movement of cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former Erdogan ally living in self-imposed exile in the United States. Erdogan rejected the Western criticism as he met with Putin on his first foreign trip since the attempted coup. Turkey's justice minister warned earlier on August 9 that the United States would "sacrifice relations" unless it extradites Gulen as Ankara has requested.But Washington insists that Ankara must present convincing evidence of the cleric's involvement in the coup, something Gulen himself has denied. "I want to again say that it's our fundamental position that we are always categorically against any attempts at unconstitutional actions," Putin told the news conference. "I want to express the hope that under your leadership the Turkish people will cope with this problem [the coup's aftermath] and that order and constitutional legality will be restored." For both leaders, the visit appeared to publicly put an end to their own dispute, which saw ties plunge following the shooting down of a Russian jet by a Turkish F-16 near the Syrian border in November. As punishment, Russia imposed a ban on the sale of package tours to Turkey -- a popular destination for Russian vacationers -- and slapped an embargo on Turkish agricultural imports and construction firms. Trade between the two countries reportedly plummeted 43 percent to $6.1 billion in January-May this year, and the number of Russian tourists visiting Turkey fell by 87 percent in the same period. But Moscow also paid a price as the spat shelved progress on Turk Stream -- a proposed Russian natural gas pipeline that is to pump 31.5 billion cubic meters of gas to Turkey annually. Russia's construction of a nuclear power station on Turkey's Mediterranean coast was also put on hold. At times, the dispute over the Russian warplane's downing appeared to take a distinctly personal tone. Putin called it a "stab in the back" and accused Erdogan of and having links to the illegal trading of oil with the extremist group Islamic State. In late June, however, Putin accepted Erdogan's expression of regret as an apology and signaled that Moscow was ready to do business again. With reporting by RFE/RL correspondent Mike Eckel; Reuters, AP, AFP and TASS Several hundred people have protested in a wooded park in northeastern Moscow against new antiterrorism legislation that critics have denounced as a massive state encroachment on privacy and civil liberties. The package of laws and amendments to the legislation signed into law by President Vladimir Putin last month includes provisions stiffening punishment for extremism and terrorism and holding individuals criminally responsible if they fail to report others to the authorities in connection with certain crimes. It also increases the government's surveillance capabilities, requiring communication providers to store users' calls, messages, photographs, and videos for six months. At the August 9 demonstration in Moscows Sokolniki Park, some people carried banners reading "Down with political repression." "There are lots of terrible things in this legislation, many unconstitutional things that we can object to as citizens," Kremlin critic Anton Nossik said. "We should return to the streets," opposition leader Aleksei Navalny told the crowd. "We'll make Russia free." Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP 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." Now that the conventions are over and the election is in full swing, its time to discuss best practices for employers in creating guidelines and expectations for discussing politics at work. During every election cycle, opinions regarding the presidential candidates can be polarizing. This year is no different. Many of us share strong opinions about the candidates and can develop a strange disdain for others with a differing view. I have admittedly unfriended several people over the last month because of comments theyve made reflecting their political views. It can be hard to listen to if you have a differing opinion. In the end, there may be no value in having a debate. People are probably not going to change their minds anyway. At work, avoiding the views of others isnt as easy as hitting the unfriend or unfollow button. Co-workers have to interact long after Nov. 8, and statements made in the next 100 days could forever change workplace relationships. Whether you are in management, own the business or work in any environment, this advice could save your workplace relationships and career. First, in the private sector employees have no legal right to discuss politics during work time. Non-supervisory employees may have the legal right to discuss matters that may improve working conditions, such as pay and benefits during non-work time. Thus, during non-work time, non-supervisory employees may have the right to discuss, or even encourage, support for a candidate that the employee feels could improve working conditions. For example, if an employee says to another, Im supporting Bernie Sanders because he will increase wages and then our employers will have to pay us more, the employee may have protections from employer discipline under the National Labor Relations Act. However, employees do not have a right to be disruptive. If employees make comments or statements that are offensive or disruptive to others, it could violate your organizations Standards of Conduct and this could result in legitimate discipline. Displays of support for candidates While employees may be technically permitted to wear certain articles of support for a variety of workplace improvements, I suggest employers nonetheless prohibit any type of political propaganda in the workplace, including signs, hats, bumper stickers, bracelets, buttons, T-shirts and the like. This could get complicated, of course, because an employee could simply prepare a poster that says, Im with her or Make America great again and claim these statements are generic and not related to the election. In these cases, employers need apply some common sense and use logic on how to handle them. Political discussions Employers should consider letting employees know that to maintain a positive working environment, they should avoid discussing political matters at work. While an absolute prohibition seems relatively harsh and unnecessary, this puts employees on notice that there is risk in discussing political matters at work as it could impact work relationships. Manager/corporate support of candidates Managers should avoid any open display of political preference, and organizations are ill-advised to publicly support a particular candidate. Alienating employees because of their political affiliation may leave them feeling diminished. And while they may not be able to file discrimination claims under federal law in the private sector, an unhappy and disgruntled employee may become unproductive, disengaged and likely to sue over something else. Employers should communicate, as soon as possible, expectations of being respectful of others views and avoiding disruptive behaviors. They need to know that their actions, if viewed by others as offensive or disruptive, and if a reasonable person would find those behaviors offensive or disruptive, could result in discipline or termination. Note that unreasonable reactions to conduct (such as Emory University, where students said they didnt feel safe and received emergency counseling after someone chalked the word Trump 2016 on campus), should be treated with the appropriate level of concern very little. Employees need to know that their conversations about political affiliation or candidate preference could impact not just their workplace relationships, but also their employment. Managers should let employees know that when they discuss these matters at work, they assume the risk of consequences, and they need to decide whether it is worth it ahead of time. Register for more free articles. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. A former Old Dominion University student whose life inexplicably spiraled out of control was sentenced to serve more than a dozen years in prison Tuesday for abducting and carjacking a Chesterfield County woman in the first case of a local Uber driver being robbed by a patron. Kefha S. Nyaanga, 22, whose life began to unravel after he was dismissed from ODU for stealing a laptop computer, pleaded guilty in Chesterfield Circuit Court to abducting and carjacking Uber driver Diana Winchell last October and stealing credit cards belonging to her and a former work colleague of his. Under terms of a plea agreement, substitute Circuit Judge John F. Daffron Jr. sentenced Nyaanga to 53 years in prison with 40 years and two months suspended after he pleaded guilty to carjacking, abduction, felony use of a firearm and two counts of credit card theft. In return, the prosecution withdrew a second count of abduction and two charges of credit card fraud. Never in a million years would I suspect that this respectful, intelligent, polite young man would do something like he did on Oct. 25, defense attorney John Rockecharlie told the court of his client, whose family immigrated to the U.S. 25 years ago from Kenya. When asked by the judge what went wrong, Rockecharlie replied, Thats the $64,000 question. We dont know, the attorney added. We tried to put our finger on it but came up empty. Even a clinical neuropsychologist who examined Nyaanga could not determine what may have prompted him to begin committing a series of crimes. He led an exemplary life until he left home for ODU in 2013 after graduating from Clover Hill High School. It is a sad, sad case, Rockecharlie said. On the evening of Oct. 25, Winchell accepted an Uber fare. After she arrived at the Walmart off Midlothian Turnpike to pick up her patron, a man later identified as Nyaanga got into the back seat of her 2012 Hyundai Accent, said Chesterfield Assistant Commonwealths Attorney Reneen Hewlett in a summary of evidence. After she began driving, Nyaanga said he needed to go to an ATM, and they stopped at the Union Bank branch at 13700 Midlothian Turnpike. Once there, Nyaanga pulled a handgun and ordered Winchell to get out of the car and climb into the cars trunk, or hatchback. She complied; Nyaanga drove away with her still in the hatchback, but she was able to see where they were going, Hewlett said. He demanded money and, as Nyaanga continued to drive, he stopped at three ATMs, Hewlett said. At one stop, Nyaanga used Winchells debit card to obtain cash at the Village Bank branch at 1120 Huguenot Road, police said. Nyaanga then drove the victim to Rockwood Park at Hull Street and Courthouse roads, where he told Winchell to remain in the car for 10 minutes. Nyaanga fled the scene with the victims two cellphones, including the one she used for her Uber work. Winchell eventually escaped and walked to a friends house nearby, where police were called, the prosecutor said. When police eventually identified Nyaanga as the gunman through surveillance video from Walmart and the ATMs, he was already sitting in jail for stealing a credit card from a work colleague at Goodwill and using it to make illegal purchases, Hewlett said. The abduction and carjacking in Chesterfield was the end of a series of crimes that began two years earlier at ODU. In May, Nyaanga was sentenced in Richmond Circuit Court to five years in prison with four years suspended for stealing cartons of cigarettes in February 2015 while working at the University of Richmonds student union convenience store. He also pleaded guilty to an accompanying charge of unlawful entry and was given a 12-month suspended jail term. After being fired from the UR job and banned from campus, police discovered Nyaanga passed out on the schools Westhampton campus from a mixture of alcohol and marijuana, according to authorities. A trespassing charge against him was later dropped. In Norfolk, Nyaanga pleaded guilty in February 2014 to two counts of grand larceny in the 2013 laptop theft at Old Dominion. He was sentenced this March to eight months in jail on one count and two years in prison with all time suspended for the second count, online court records show. About 10 members of Nyaangas family attended Tuesdays hearing in Chesterfield. Rockecharlie said his parents, who own and operate local retail businesses, are heartbroken by the developments. One woman wept in court. In a clear, articulate voice, Nyaanga apologized before the judge for his actions, saying he was remorseful after having time to reflect on his behavior while sitting in jail. Hewlett, the prosecutor, said Nyaanga admitted in an interview with police that he abducted and robbed the Uber driver but said he used an Airsoft pellet gun in committing the crimes. He never explained why he did it, the prosecutor told the court. There wasnt anything that would lead us to believe that he could commit such offenses. The judge said he was pleased with Nyaangas strong family support. Its a sad case, Daffron said from the bench. After serving time, hopefully youll get back into the community and get on with your life. The Chesterfield County School Board on Monday approved a $22.6 million contract for the renovation of Providence Middle School. It was a bittersweet result for the school division as the final bid came in $2 million above the anticipated project cost. The money will come from the school systems five-year capital improvement plan fund, leaving a balance of about $2.3 million. The fund includes a total $25.9 million for the renovations at Providence Middle School. Chesterfield voters approved the project in 2013 as part of a $304 million bond referendum for the revitalization of 10 county schools. Only the renovation of Monacan High School is currently underway to be completed this summer. The planned Providence Middle School renovation includes improvements to the entire school facility such as HVAC upgrades, electrical upgrades, roof replacement, kitchen renovation, site improvements and upgrades to instructional areas. Branch Construction won the contract July 26, beating out two competitors in what was the second round of bids. In the first round, the bid came in $5.6 million above the estimate, forcing school officials to go back to the drawing board and cut costs. We reduced the phases from 10 to four, and there is only one completion date at the end of the project, said the Nita Mensia-Joseph, the divisions chief of operations. We also did a little bit of standardizing in terms of the ceiling, we simplified the courtyard and we made the drawings electronically available, which made it easier for contractors to send out bids to subs and for them to respond rather quickly, Mensia-Joseph said. Three companies submitted bids in both rounds of bidding; only one company submitted a bid during both rounds. Contractors cited concerns with the number of planned construction phases as a reason for the lack of bids, among others. Taipei, Aug. 9 (CNA) Following the latest in a series of telecom fraud cases in which Taiwanese suspects caught in Kenya have been taken to China to face trial there at the demand of Beijing, a Foreign Ministry official said Tuesday that Beijing will seek to bring more Taiwanese suspects to China to be tried there. Virginias redrawn congressional map has already opened a door for Sen. A. Donald McEachin, D-Henrico, but two other Richmond-area Democrats are eyeing the possibility of moving up if McEachins state Senate seat comes open. Dels. Jennifer L. McClellan, D-Richmond, and Lamont Bagby, D-Henrico, have expressed interest in the 9th District Senate seat that could become vacant if McEachin wins his run for Congress in the Democratic-leaning 4th District. If McEachin prevails against his Republican opponent, Henrico County Sheriff Mike Wade, Gov. Terry McAuliffe would call a special election to fill the state Senate seat. That election would probably occur near the end of the year to ensure the district is represented in the 2017 legislative session beginning in January. McClellan, a corporate lawyer who has served in the House of Delegates for roughly a decade and is often mentioned as a prospect for statewide office, would likely have the upper hand against Bagby, a former Henrico County School Board member elected to the House last year. In an interview Monday, McClellan said the Richmond area is facing a critical time after losing seniority and experience in the Senate. Moving to the upper chamber, she said, would give her a stronger voice on issues like education, economic development and public safety. I think the 9th District needs someone who can come in and hit the ground running to continue the type of representation that weve had in the past, McClellan said after speaking as a surrogate for the Hillary Clinton campaign at an event in Libby Hill Park. McClellan has also been mentioned as a possible replacement for U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., if hes elected vice president in November on the Clinton ticket. On Monday, she downplayed the prospect of McAuliffe picking her as Kaines successor, calling it down the road. That is something the governor will decide, McClellan said. I think he and I and many other people are focused on making sure that Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine win in November. Though McClellan has a longer resume and stronger ties at the Capitol, Bagbys experience at the local level may give him a boost with Henrico residents, who make up more than half of the Senate districts voters. While Im grateful for the amount of encouragement for me to consider filling the potential vacancy, its way too soon, said Bagby, who works as director of operations at Peter Paul Development Center, a community outreach organization in Richmonds East End. Theres no vacancy yet. Im focused on doing what I can to help send my friend Donald McEachin to Congress. The Senate district covers all of Charles City County, stretches through Henrico to Richmonds central and northern neighborhoods and extends north to parts of Hanover County. McEachin has held the seat since 2007 without facing serious Republican opposition. McEachin said he has no intention of resigning from the seat early to create a vacancy that could be filled in November without the need for a special election. We have not taken anything for granted, McEachin said. Were working hard to win this seat. McEachins congressional opportunity arose after a federal court redrew the 4th District boundaries while fixing constitutional flaws in the neighboring 3rd District, represented by Democratic Rep. Robert C. Bobby Scott. A three-judge panel found that the General Assembly packed too many African-American voters into the 3rd District, diluting their influence elsewhere. The new 4th District was tough enough that Republican incumbent Rep. J. Randy Forbes jumped to the more Republican-friendly 2nd District, where he lost a primary battle to Del. Scott W. Taylor, R-Virginia Beach. McEachins possible departure from the Senate would follow the retirements of former state Sens. Henry L. Marsh III, a Democrat, and John Watkins, a Republican, both of whom represented the Richmond area in the General Assembly for decades. The November trial of quadruple-murder suspect Alexander R. Hill Jr. is expected to be delayed as a result of seven new indictments six for capital murder that Petersburg Commonwealths Attorney Cassandra Conover has obtained in the April 2014 killings. Hill, 50, who is accused of killing four generations of the same family in their Harding Street home in Petersburg, was scheduled to stand trial starting Nov. 1. Two weeks have been scheduled to hear the case. But defense attorney John Rockecharlie said he expects the trial will be delayed because of the new indictments and the appointment of the Virginia Capital Defenders Office to the case. Rockecharlie previously was appointed to represent Hill and will remain as one of his attorneys. There is absolutely no way that a capital case can be put together from a defense standpoint in two months, Rockecharlie said. And we will be filing a motion to continue shortly, and I would be shocked if its not granted by the court. The regions top capital defender, Doug Ramseur, will be meeting with Hill for the first time today. How is he going to be able to do a capital murder case two months after he just met the client? Rockecharlie said. Theres just no way. Conover, however, said shes proceeding as if the trial will begin in November. I hope not, but who knows? Conover said of a delay. I havent heard anything from anybody. On July 21, Conover obtained from a Petersburg Circuit Court grand jury six capital murder indictments against Hill and a single count of arson, also a new charge. Hill previously was charged with four counts of first-degree murder. Conover said she obtained the six capital murder charges under two separate theories of the case, only one of which will be prosecuted. Under one theory, Hill is charged with killing Vicki Chavis-Ansar, 46, while killing Pauline Wilkins, 67, within the same act or transaction; and killing Delvair Chavis, 2, while killing his mother, Tanique Chavis, 22, within the same act or transaction. Chavis-Ansar and Wilkins were stabbed to death, and Chavis and her child died of injuries suffered as a result of a fire that authorities say Hill set at the familys home. Under a separate capital murder theory, Hill is charged with four counts of capital murder one count for each victim for allegedly killing more than one person within a three-year period. You can always charge (a defendant under) multiple theories; you just cant have multiple prosecutions, Conover said. Conover said her decision to seek capital murder charges was not brought by any new evidence or developments in the case. I think it was just the next logical step, she said. Despite obtaining the capital murder counts, Conover said she had not made a decision to pursue the death penalty. A finding of guilty of capital murder carries only two possible punishments: life in prison or death. Hill, a former handyman known as Real Deal, eluded capture for more than a year after the 2014 Easter weekend slayings. He was apprehended April 23, 2015, after the U.S. Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force tracked him to Buffalo, N.Y., where he was using an assumed name while staying at a mens homeless shelter at St. Lukes Mission of Mercy. Authorities said Hill apparently had been living in Buffalo since at least February 2015 and staying at the homeless shelter since early March of that year. When arrested, Hill insisted he was a man named Trent Dales. The office of Gov. Terry McAuliffe on Monday announced it had cleared state Inspector General June W. Jennings after a whistle-blower complaint alleged that her office failed to investigate thoroughly the death of a mentally ill 24-year-old man. Paul Reagan, McAuliffes chief of staff, expressed full faith in Jennings in a statement that said no personnel action was warranted as a result of the 18-page complaint filed July 18 by a veteran member of the inspector generals staff and two independent contractors. Reagan and Carlos Hopkins, the governors counsel, reviewed the complaint extensively and determined that there was no need for further action, McAuliffe spokesman Brian Coy said. But no one from the state called the employee at the heart of the complaint, Cathy Hill, or former contractors Ann White and William Thomas to discuss their concerns, including that their employer had violated federal privacy laws and state open records statutes; and had failed to investigate properly the death of Jamycheal Mitchell in a Portsmouth jail cell last year. Coy did not say why Hill, White and Thomas were not contacted after they sent the letter to state Attorney General Mark R. Herring. Hill learned the review had been completed when a reporter contacted her Monday. She said she had yet to receive acknowledgment that her complaint had been received. Were all extremely shocked and dismayed that the investigative process does not appear to have been completed by someone independent and that the process did not include us, Hill said. Jennings, by statute, is appointed by the governor, subject to confirmation by the General Assembly. McAuliffe recently reappointed Jennings to a full four-year term ending June 30, 2020; she assumed the post in June 2014, after serving as deputy to Michael Morehart, who retired that May. She makes about $158,000 annually. Jennings previously oversaw internal audits for the Virginia Department of Corrections as the agency's inspector general. She worked as a senior auditor at the state Auditor of Public Accounts before joining the Office of the State Inspector General, which is tasked with ferreting out waste, fraud and abuse in state government. Hills former supervisors at the agency voiced support for her after the complaint was filed. They praised her integrity and questioned the expanded use of so-called desk reviews to vet complaints in the offices behavioral health and developmental services unit. In those instances, investigators wholly or substantively rely on reports and phone interviews to vet complaints. About 80 percent of the offices review of Mitchells case was completed from behind a desk, according to the whistle-blower complaint. Reached by phone Monday, G. Douglas Bevelacqua, a former inspector general over behavioral health who worked with all three whistle-blowers, said the governors office failed Mitchell. Once again, officials in the commonwealth of Virginia are dodging the real question: Did Jamycheal Mitchell receive a full and complete investigation the investigation he deserved? Bevelacqua said. The agency has drawn criticism this year from state lawmakers, mental health advocates and civil rights organizations who alleged the investigation into the events surrounding Mitchells death left basic questions unanswered. Mitchell died after he lost 46 pounds during a 101-day stay at Hampton Roads Regional Jail in Portsmouth. A judge had ordered him transferred to a state mental hospital for treatment, but he was never added to the facilitys waiting list because of clerical errors. He was charged with stealing $5 in snack items from a 7-Eleven store. By failing to go to the facilities during the course of the seven-month review/investigation of the Mitchell case, the OSIG missed a critical opportunity to hear from concerned staff that may have wanted desperately to share concerns of inadequate care and possibly abuse and/or neglect, the whistle-blower complaint states. At least seven reviews of critical incidents reported from December 2015 to April 2016 were completed from behind desks, according to Hill, White and Thomas, who say Jennings and Priscilla Smith Hills supervisor should have been more transparent with lawmakers about the offices handling of the Mitchell case. Jennings and Smith told a legislative committee in April that an investigator had visited the jail. The visit did occur, but Hill, White and Thomas said Jennings and Smith should have disclosed to the committee that site visits and interviews were not conducted at the other agencies that were responsible for handling Mitchells case. Jennings said last month that the agency never intended to mislead anyone. The office has limited resources and must exercise judgment in determining when and how to review a complaint, she said in an email. A number of things are considered going into a review including the qualifications of the person(s) doing the review, the severity of the incident, whether the incident points to systemic problems, the types of information that may be available, etc., Jennings stated. Due to the number of behavioral health complaints this office receives while being mindful of limited commonwealth of Virginia resources OSIG does not have the capacity to review all complaints. Jennings did not immediately return a request for comment Monday, but agency spokeswoman Julie Grimes said the office welcomed scrutiny. Now that the Governors Office has completed its review and reiterated their confidence in State Inspector General June W. Jennings, (the office) will continue working to meet its mission and make recommendations to ensure the highest quality of behavioral health services and care, Grimes stated in an email. Coy did not detail the steps Reagan and Hopkins took to investigate the contents of the complaint. Bevelacqua, who quit his post in 2014 amid concerns the inspector generals office was watering down an investigative report he wrote, said the statement provided by McAuliffes office was a non-answer to the concerns of Hill, White and Thomas. Im afraid this was another desk review done by a bureaucrat determined not to find the truth, he said. State government workers who report suspected wrongdoing under the Fraud and Abuse Whistle Blower Protection Act may not be discharged, threatened or otherwise subjected to discrimination for notifying authorities. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump returns to Virginia today to speak at an education event in Abingdon. The 3 p.m. event at Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center is not open to the public. Trump is giving no indication that he thinks Hillary Clintons addition of Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., as her vice presidential running mate, has taken Virginia off the board. This will be Trumps third campaign stop in Virginia since Kaine became Clintons running mate. Trump and his vice presidential choice, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, held a town hall meeting in Roanoke July 25. Trump held a rally at a Loudoun County high school Aug. 2. On Thursday Pence made solo campaign stops in Virginia Beach and Norfolk. We value your privacy. Focus Taiwan (CNA) uses tracking technologies to provide better reading experiences, but it also respects readers' privacy. Click here to find out more about Focus Taiwan's privacy policy. When you close this window, it means you agree with this policy. It looks like nothing was found at this location. Maybe try a search? Search for: Search A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind. A community meeting to discuss the troubled Rockbridge Area Department of Social Services is scheduled for Thursday. We are interested in hearing citizens concerns, questions, and ideas on past issues and future plans for the agency, organizer Susan Lawrence wrote in an announcement of the 5 p.m. meeting at the Rockbridge Area Relief Association building in Lexington. The meeting is the first invitation for public comment since an internal review found widespread problems in the social services department, including a failure to respond to complaints of child abuse and neglect. Lawrence, a Rockbridge County resident who in the past has been critical of the agency as an adoptive parent and the administrator of a private preschool, said she has invited concerned citizens, local elected officials and representatives from law enforcement agencies and social services. William Bill Burleson, who was appointed interim director of the Rockbridge social services department last month, said he plans to be there. Im here to take this agency from where it is right now and make it work, Burleson said. A community discussion will help bring transparency to that process, he said. In May, a review by the social services Piedmont Regional Office found 41 violations of state regulations in a department that serves Rockbridge County and the cities of Lexington and Buena Vista. A supervisor no longer employed by the agency shredded some reports of suspected child abuse before they could be investigated by the Child Protective Services unit and was a key source of low morale in the department, according to the report. Other problems included missed deadlines, altered paperwork, inadequate staff training and a failure to conduct criminal background checks on job applicants, volunteers and current employees. Earlier this week, Rockbridge County Commonwealths Attorney Christopher Billias said he will impanel a special grand jury as part of an investigation into whether crimes were committed at the agency. Thursdays meeting will be held in the community table room of the Rockbridge Area Relief Associations office at 350 Spotswood Drive, next to Carilion Stonewall Jackson Hospital in Lexington. MUSIC charity boss Genya Johnson is hoping that she will hit the right notes after being shortlisted for a top award. Genya Johnson, executive director of Get Sorted Academy of Music in Rotherham, has been shortlisted in the not-for-profit category of the national Women in Business Awards. She will now go through to the Yorkshire, North East and Scotland regional finals to be held in Newcastle on October 14 and if successful will attend the grand final in Leeds in December. Get Sorted Academy of Music, on Westgate, has been providing music lessons, activities and workshops since 1995 and operates an open-door policy to anyone interested in music. It currently works with more than 300 people aged\!q from five to 80. Genya said that she was delighted at being selected for the honour. She said: Its a wonderful feeling to be recognised for this prestigious award and to have been shortlisted. It strengthens my belief that after 20 years of running a small local charity I am still doing something recognisable for the people in Rotherham. I hope this nomination helps to raise awareness of the valuable work and support we have given to local musicians, hard to reach and vulnerable young people and the group activities we deliver in the communities. I feel really proud to have been shortlisted and to know that people appreciate all the hard work that goes in to running a small charity that changes peoples lives through music. The journey over the last 20 years has been challenging but just knowing that we are helping and supporting people, meeting their needs as well as supporting children and young people who get so much enjoyment out of playing an instrument makes everything worthwhile. CORBYN is a proven winner and was leading the Tories in the polls until the MP rebels mounted their coup to undermine, dis-unite and sabotage the partys electoral chances. He has won nine general elections as a campaigning and fighting back MP. He has successfully forced the Government to drop policies by mounting challenges. He has grown the party and quadrupled its membership. Therefore, its hard to fathom the true motive for this utter disgraceful attempt at destroying him and in the process, with daily venomous attacks on him, destroying the Labour Party. Discredited King of Spin Alistair Campbell, Aussie henchman John McTernan and others have been behind the plotters agenda. There is no doubt that the damning report by the Chilcott Inquiry claiming that Tony Blair and all those that voted for a war had ensured that most terrorist atrocities up to this day from around the world are linked to that war. Many of the plotters fall into the blood on their hands group and knew that Jeremy, who along with Tony Benn and Denis Skinner and others in Labour and across other parties voted against that war, had declared in May he would apologise to the British public on behalf of the Labour Movement. The trade union movement and all faiths were against the illegal war lauded by Blair and the majority of his crony PLP. Is this the key factor that underpins the plotters real cause of trying to get rid of a successful leader? Chilcot is the most damning report ever about any individual the history of Parliament. Tony Blair as Prime Minister and all those that voted for this war were rightly dammed. This made it certain that there would be a group with blood on their hands that would oppose Corbyn at any costs as a total distraction to protect their own skins but not conscience. British media and its press barons refuse to take up the findings of Chilcot because the whole of the British media promoted this war and they also have blood on their hands and that is why there is so little coverage. This means that the whole of the British establishment are found more than wanting on this very serious issue that has made Britain a country that many will not want to do deals with. Surely we should all be very concerned about this? The public should be aware of the contender. A wolf in sheeps clothing who is attempting to claim he is a truly better left winger than Jeremy. Its farcical. In fact, Smith has either voted for or abstained for a Conservative budget that attempted to take away finance for disabled peoples tools and aids to make their life experiences tolerable. He and many of his supporting MPs backed or abstained on Tory Ian Duncan Smiths pernicious welfare cuts against the poorest and the evil workfare scheme. The stooge Labour contender said: The truth is, we must still support overall reductions in welfare spending. He comes out with this offensive tripe at a time of spending billions to cut taxes for the very richest families and also the 100s billions on tax avoidance. The contender and former drugs lobbyist is backed by drugs firms, big business and press barons. He supported and lauded PFI/privatisation of our NHS. He recently voted for air bombing strikes against Syria and Iraq and he goes to arms fairs. The se are not Labour values. A few years ago the same fella said he wanted to be more Blairite than Blair! But now, post Chilcott, the word Blairite is a banned offensive word. He must also learn not to do a Mrs Trump and steal Jeremys policies and speeches or jackets! Its becoming a joke. He's making himself look ridiculous and phoney. It would be wise to greet his Damascus conversion with caution. One year ago, he supported the public-sector pay freeze, which is affecting workers like fire fighters, nurses and our junior doctors, for the sixth consecutive year! Whereas, Jeremy is a decent, honest man with integrity. He has real Labour convictions and is respected and trusted by the whole movement. He has proved how strong he is in the face of the bullying from the rebels and their flunkies. He has stood up his whole life for our schools, NHS, public services and human rights. He is for public ownership of our Royal Mail and railways, not the current third world standards. He is a champion to workers, to the elderly and the disabled. He has made the most progressive change to Labours housing policy for decades. He stands up for secure and safe workplaces. He will invest in our communities and protect our local councils. The public like to be entertained but are fed up with the circus of shallow politicians who can talk the talk but then do the opposite of what they claim. Jeremy is a threat to the plotters, the mass media and establishments cosy and incestuous set-up. What Jeremy says he does. The public have had enough of Blairite types with their slick spiel, with no substance. We need a leader who is strong, trustworthy and genuine. Willing to stand up and fight for the people. That man is Corbyn. Ged Dempsey, Wath-upon-Dearne Angola Polishing Diamonds exported 4,462 carats of cut diamonds to the United Arab Emirates last June, raking in $3.1 million. Macau Daily quoted the countrys mines ministry as saying that the diamonds attracted an average price of $694.5 per carat. The country also produced 753,000 carats worth $75.35 million during the period under review compared to 736,700 carats produced in May at a value of $74.9 million. The stones recorded an average price of $100 per carat and were produced from eight of the 12 operational mines in the country. The improved output was attributed to a marginal 0.82 percent increase in output at Catoca mine, which produces the bulk of the countrys diamonds. The mine accounted for 620,500 carats of the total output recorded in June. Macau Daily also noted that the diamond companies operating in Angola paid $5.6 million in industrial tax and royalties during the period under review. Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished Anton Siluanov, Finance Minister of the Russian Federation has been reelected as the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of PJSC ALROSA, the world leader in diamond mining. On June 30th 2016 the Annual General Meeting of ALROSAs Shareholders has elected the new Supervisory Board of the Company. On August 5th the Chairman of ALROSAs Supervisory Board, the First Vice Chairman and the Vice Chairman were elected. After a vote, Anton Siluanov, Finance Minister of the Russian Federation, was reelected as the Chairman of ALROSAs Supervisory Board. Yegor Borisov, Head of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), was reelected as the First Vice Chairman and Alexander Galushka, Minister for the Development of the Russian Far East, was confirmed to continue as the Vice Chairman. Lucara Diamond said its first half revenue leaped to $191.4 million or $1,233 per carat compared to $67.8 million or $340 per carat realised a year earlier. Revenue, it said, was higher compared to the previous year due to the sale of the 813 carat Constellation diamond which raked in $63.1 million at an average price of $77,649 per carat and an exceptional stone tender which achieved $51.3 million in proceeds or $33,632 per carat. Second quarter revenue of $140.8 million or $1,824 per carat was recorded and it excluded $8.3 million received post end of the second quarter. "Lucara's consistent recovery and sale of high quality stones demonstrates the strong cash generation from the Karowe mine which translated to the company achieving a significant cash balance at the end of June, said Lucara chief executive William Lamb. Companys net cash position was $210.8 million at the end of June. Lucara also declared and announced a special dividend of CA$0.45 per share in addition to its quarterly dividend of CA$0.015 per share for a total payment of CA$177.5 million to be paid on September 15, 2016. We remain focused on advancing our growth opportunities while continuing our dividend policy for our shareholders to share in the continued value recreation of the company," said Lamb. Meanwhile, Lucara said diamond recovery at its Karowe mine in Botswana remained strong with a total of 340 special stones (+10.8 carats) recovered during the first half of the year including 12 stones over 100 carats. The mine continued to forecast between 2.2 to 2.4 million tonnes of ore processed, producing over 350,000 carats of diamonds in 2016, it said. Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished TransHex said Cream Magenta and Metcap 14 Proprietary have collectively acquired a 47.08 percent stake in the diamond junior. It also said in a statement that a consortium comprising of Cream Magenta, Metcap and RAC Investment, which owns 25 percent in the company, had made a mandatory cash offer to acquire the entire ordinary share capital of TransHex, other than the ordinary shares already held by the offerors. Together we can hopefully add value to TransHex over time, RAC director Piet Viljoen was quoted as saying with Bloomberg. It might take some capital but TransHex now has strong shareholders with capital. Trans Hex has operations in South Africa and Angola. The groups diamond sales from its South African operations fell by 28.6 percent to R671.4 million in the year to March from the previous year. Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished The India International Jewellery Show (IIJS 2016), organised by the Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council of India (GJEPC) concluded on 8th August on a positive note. Exhibitors expressed satisfaction at the footfalls of genuine buyers in good numbers at the Show. Some exhibitors expressed awe at the retailers and wholesalers who had converged to the Show from every nook and corner of the country. In terms of serious business enquiries, networking and building new contacts/clients all participants and visitors expressed happiness. Praveen Shankar Pandya, Chairman, GJEPC said that We have seen a good number of footfalls from day one. More than 1500 foreign visitors have registered and over 15 overseas delegations have arrived. Overall the trend is positive. The exact number of visitors will be made available in the next few days. Describing the Show as exceptionally good, Sabyasachi Ray, Executive Director, GJEPC said, The last few months were not good for the industry, but IIJS has showed the turnaround. Right from the loose diamonds sellers to the jewellery manufacturers, the exhibitors are happy. The plain gold jewellery exhibitors have got the orders of their lifetime. IIJS has once again proved that it the show of the industry, which brings business to the industry, he added. For the Indian gem & jewellery industry, which was going through a rather dull phase, the success of IIJS 2016 has given an impetus to look forward with more confidence. From Day 1, till the last day, there were steady stream of visitors, though overseas visitors were fewer in number. But, the domestic visitors made up by thronging in great numbers. In the past few months, retailers who had not stocked up their inventory because of negative market sentiments, saw IIJS 2016 as an opportunity to increase their stock for the ensuing festival and wedding seasons in the country. Aruna Gaitonde, Editor-in-Chief of Asian Bureau, Rough & Polished The man accidentally signed the paperwork for asylum claims and was sent to a refugee center 220 miles away in the northern town of Duelman. His passport was taken, his fingerprints were taken a medical examination was performed. He received shelter, food and spending money but he became a victim of the bureaucracy trying to clarify his situation. Only after two weeks the mistake was discovered when the authorities had the idea to ask help for translation at a Chinese restaurant. The refugee was finally discharged from the care of the Red Cross. He reportedly thanked everyone for the kind treatment he received and set off to travel further in France and Italy.The conclusion of the story was however a tricky one: he simply did what he was told, and he received what he asked based on his signature. It was finally a lucky man because if no one had found the truth, the Chinese national might have been stuck at the refugee shelter for up to a year. It was probably rapped. the police believes. People run all the time. This town is very safe, residents say. Nothing at this pointwas found to connect Marcottes killing to last weeks murder of Karina Vetrano, who was killed while jogging near her home in Queens, N.Y. Marcotte graduated from Boston University in 2011, stayed in the Boston area for several years and worked at WordStream, an online advertising company, and Vistaprint. In January 2015, she started a new job as a health-care account manager at Google in New York City. Vanessa Marcotte was a much loved member of the Google team, working in our New York office for the last year and a half, and known for her ubiquitous smile, passion for volunteer work, and love of Boston sports, a Google statement said. Patriot Rail Company yesterday appointed Matthew Reddell as vice president and chief safety officer. Reddell joined the company in January 2015 as vice president and chief mechanical officer. A veteran of the rail industry for 15 years, he is now expected to lead safety efforts relating to all of the companys rail services holdings as Patriot Rails senior safety executive. He joins the Senior Leadership Team reporting to John E. Fenton, president and CEO. Matthew is a highly regarded leader in our industry, and has built a well-deserved reputation as a zealous guardian of employee safety, Fenton said. He brings a keen understanding of what it takes to deliver top results the right wayby creating a just culture where people willingly engage in the mission. I know he will use those abilities to engage the entire workforce as we pursue our goal of an absolute culture of safety. Reddell has previously held several transportation, engineering, mechanical and procurement roles with Amtrak, Southern Pacific, Union Pacific, Canadian Pacific, RailAmerica, Genesee & Wyoming and Bombardier. Also a military veteran, Reddell is currently assigned to U.S. Army Central Command and serves as an Armored Cavalry Officer. He received his Master of Science in Industrial Technology from the Command and General Staff College and is certified in Quality and Lean Manufacturing, as well. Canadian stocks continued their bull run Monday as rebounding oil prices boosted the energy sector. The S&P/TSX Composite Index jumped 106.85 points, or 0.73 percent, to 14,755.62 -- its highest in more than a year. The index is up more than 20 percent from its January lows. Whistler Blackcomb Holdings Inc skyrocketed 46 percent to $35.92 after Vail Resorts Inc said it would buy the operator of the BC ski resort for about $1.39 billion. BCE (BCE.TO) said it has reached an agreement to buy Q9 Networks from Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan and U.S. private equity firms Providence Equity Partners and Madison Dearborn Partners. Other big gainers include Echelon Financial (EFH.TO) and Fortuna (FVI.TO). Energy stocks were up about 2 percent, as U.S. WTI crude oil rallied above $43 per barrel. OPEC announced a special meeting where they will reportedly talk about a cap on production. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Market Analysis Latvia's foreign trade deficit decreased in June from a year ago, as exports rose and imports fell, figures from the Central Statistical Bureau showed Tuesday. The trade deficit fell to EUR 168.7 million in June from EUR 213.9 million in the corresponding month last year. However, it was above May's shortfall of EUR 160.5 million. Exports rose 0.4 percent year-over-year in June, while imports dipped by 4.1 percent. On a monthly basis, both exports and imports dropped by 3.1 percent and 1.8 percent, respectively in June. The country's main export partners during May were Lithuania, Estonia, Germany and Sweden. Imports also largely came from Lithuania, Germany, Poland and Estonia. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Economic News What parts of the world are seeing the best (and worst) economic performances lately? Click here to check out our Econ Scorecard and find out! See up-to-the-moment rankings for the best and worst performers in GDP, unemployment rate, inflation and much more. Millennial Moms Review: 2022 Acura MDX is pretty close to the perfect family car I dont know if perfect is attainable, especially considering weve got the world of options when it comes to modern vehicles. Were spoiled and, as such, we have very specific needs and wants. Driving-wise, the 2022 Acura MDX is one of my favourite ... Times are tough. You know it, we know it; everybody knows it. This is not confined to Samoa. Its happening all over the world. Whether its a small island in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean or the biggest country in the world, these are difficult days. One gets the feeling that everything is being shaken. The environment for instance is being shaken. Take a good look at the economies of the world and youll find that theyre all slowly but surely trembling. Think about the state of some of the worlds strongest economies including the United States and China. Even theyre struggling. The fear is that if those countries are struggling, what hope is there for smaller economies like ours? The political systems are also increasingly coming under attack. Think of the political upheaval in countries near and far being torn apart by strife, wars, corruption, betrayal and the deadly abuse of power. In Samoa, we are not immune. Thats why its hardly surprising to see how slowly but surely our cultural and religious values are disappearing. They are instead being replaced by evil and thinking motivated by a system driven by greed material wealth and corruption. With so many problems around us today, we at times ask where they came from? Well, the truth is simple enough. They came from us. They are part of a system we mankind created. You see, sometimes we forget that with every good and wonderful development, there is always another side. And that is often evil, undesirable and far more damaging than we can ever imagine. And thats where most of our problems. There is no denying that we have many wonderful developments in this world. But with the good also comes the bad. Unfortunately, it is the bad that is often highlighted and magnified. In a way, its okay as I suppose that allows us to pay more attention to creating solutions that work. The tragedy is that every time the going gets tough, there are sad consequences. Confronted by one problem after another, mankind is finding that he doesnt have the ability to cope. So what does he do? Well, in some cases, he resorts to the unthinkable by committing the ultimate act of ending his life. Weve seen this in country. Think of the number of suicide cases during the past few months. There have been far too many. But thats not the only symptom of a sick world we are living in today. In some cases, man has taken out his frustration on his wife, children and the people around him. Thats why cases of murders, abuse and domestic violence are among the biggest challenges the world is facing today. Some people turn to alcohol as if its the solution to everything. And when youve had one too many drinks, well we dont need to tell you what happens. Others turn to a life of crime, a life where they seek to discover themselves through all sorts of wrongdoing. So they live a life based on stealing, robbery and consumption of illicit drugs. The sad part is that by the time they discover who they really are, its lucky if theyre alive. In most cases, theyre killed. Indeed, the problems we are seeing in Samoa are sending a shock wave with the suggestion that a terrible illness has invaded society. They need to be addressed, and removed. So where are we going from here? What can we do to make this country a better place? Is there a solution to all these problems? There are many answers. Yours is likely to be different from mine. If only we lived in a world where there is a one solution fits all. Unfortunately, each case is unique. In Samoa, despite the laws put in place, there are far too many kids selling goods around town instead of attending school. In villages near and far from Apia, income earning opportunities are very limited and thats why many families are finding it increasingly difficult to get by. Given their desperation, they can hardly cope with the demands of everyday life. Thats why they are failing both financially and emotionally. It is also why they are committing acts that are simply unthinkable including suicide. So where do we go from here? And where do we find solutions? The answer is simple. These problems are a part of systems created by mankind. It means the solutions should also be found through mankind. In times like these, we need to look at the pillars of our society. We need to get back to finding out who we are. To move forward, we need to step back a bit to rediscover ourselves. We need to look to the pillars of our community. Where are our family values? What about the Churches? Do they have a role to play? Where are the Village Councils and our matai system? Where does our culture come into play? What about the government? Does it have a role to play? Can people find refuge with them? Looking at whats happening today, its hard not to be alarmed. But in difficult times such as what we are seeing today, people need to find refuge, comfort, help and real solutions when they look to their leaders. They dont need to be insulted, hurt and rejected. They need love, care and strong words of encouragement. Why dont you try and encourage or help someone today? That would be such a wonderful start, wouldnt it? Have a great Wednesday Samoa, God bless! A collision between a bus and a car at Tuanai last Friday has claimed one life. This was confirmed by the Police Media Officer, Sua Lemamea Tiumalu, yesterday. The deceased man is the 24-year-old driver of one of the vehicle involved in the collision. The driver was taken to the hospital with serious injuries but he later died due to the seriousness of the injuries, he said. The Police are investigating. The Beautiful Aana bus was heading from Apia towards Manono when the incident occurred. From what weve found, one of the vehicles overtook another vehicle at a curve while the bus was coming the opposite direction, he said. We suspect that thats what might have caused the incident but we are still continuing our investigation. Sua added that the bus driver was not at fault. Speed is also suspected, he said. A passenger on the Manono bus, Ielu Elia, recalled what happened. One car was trying to overtake the one in front of them when it saw that the bus was coming towards themit was at that time that our bus driver tried to pull over to the side of the road but it was too late. The speeding car was going too fast then it crashed into the back of our bus taking off the wheels. According to Mr. Elia some of the passengers received minor injuries and were not taken to the hospital. It was the passengers in the speeding car that were rushed to the hospital. A villager of Tuanai, Saimoli Tavui was one of the first people at the scene. Mr. Tavui who lives across from where the accident happened said the collision happened so quickly. He was sitting in his house when he heard a loud bang and his children called to him that there was an accident. I came down here and saw that one of the cars has swirled off the road with major damages, he said. Carefully, he reads out the words that are displayed on the screen in front of the eight boys and encourages them to repeat what they just listened to. With a noticeable amount of enthusiasm in their voices, the young students join in; ready to learn everything possible about the different vowels of the English language. At 81-years-young, a glance at Brother Humphrey OConnors eyes reveals that despite of his age, the man still has preserved the sparkle of his youth which inspired many young Samoans over the last decades to make something out of their lives. The other brothers always often tell me I should not work too hard because I am so old now, he says.But I am only teaching in the morning, and its still enjoyable for me. Sometimes, the definition of the term father does not always have to be used in a biological sense. In the case of Brother Humphrey, the upcoming Fathers Day should also be used to celebrate one of Samoas most well known teachers, who certainly has been and still is an academic role model for so many generations in the country. Having first visited the country only a few days after its independence from New Zealand as a 27-years old, Brother Humphrey has been a teacher his whole life long. Ive been teaching for 61 years now, and I am still enjoying it, he says with a smile on his face. The idea of becoming a Marist Brother had grown deep in Humphrey OConnors heart when he had made his first experiences with the religious community. When I was thirteen years old, my parents sent me to a Marist Brothers school in Auckland, the Sacred Heart College, which was run by brothers. I was so impressed by their way of teaching, that it got me thinking about joining them. By the age of 17, Brother Humphrey had made a decision that would determine his future. His decision of becoming a teacher and Marist Brother was one he never regret throughout his whole life. While having started again to teach primary students at Marist Brothers Primary School inMulivai since this March, the experienced lecturer has taught many different subjects throughout his career. I taught English, Religious Education, Music, Geography and a very good subject called Commercial Practice, he says. The last of these different subjects is one Brother Humphrey is particularly proud of. It was sort of an introduction to business practice, dealing with the processes of taxation, insurance or how to set up a small firm. In all these years, the clerics task of teaching has led him to many different places and schools Ive taught at St. Josephs College here in Mulivai from 1962 to 1967 and Ive been teaching in every year since, except for the last five years in which I was looking after some of our older brothers, but Ive done a little bit of help for boys with reading difficulties during that time.. Other stations of his academic life as a teacher include many years of lecturing at different facilities in his home country but also a short stay in the Philippines, where Brother Humphrey taught English to other Marist brothers. Of course, during all these years of teaching, Brother Humphrey has seen many young faces in his classrooms which would take over leading roles in the development of Samoa as an independent Pacific island nation including the one of current Prime Minister TuilaepaSaileleMalielegaoi. Back then, the Prime Minister would have been around fifteen or sixteen years old, he says. I remember him and his classmates from the years of 1962 up to 1967 as some of the hardest working boys Ive ever taught. They really did work so hard. There was a certain work ethic among them and they didnt have cell phones or television in these days, which might be the reason why they were able to give their full attention to their education. Still being impressed by the achievements of these boys after all these years, Brother Humphrey is able to recall some of their names, with the P.M. certainly being their most prominent one nowadays. The relationship to Prime Minister Tuilaepa is still alive after all these years, as the teacher was able to explain. He used to send me a Christmas card every year and we sort of kept in touch. When I came back to teach here [this year], he visited me and we had a simple family meal. It really was a nice experience for me, because I do not consider myself as the former teacher of the P.M., I was just one of his teachers, along with many other Brothers. But not only the students from the past are the ones that Brother Humphrey praises. It is very enjoyable for me to teach those young boys, because they are very polite and you can tell that they are willing to learn new things. Sometimes, I ask them: What do the players of the All Blacks or the Manu Samoa do, when theyre not playing on a Saturday? They practice. And if those boys do the same, they will be winners too. Theres no easy way but if you make up your mind to discipline themselves and concentrate on their work, they will find satisfaction in it. Brother Humphrey finds it amusing that so many students in Samoa can look back to him as their academic father, as he says: I am as old as their grandfathers. As a matter of fact, I am teaching grandsons of boys I taught in the 1960s. Former students do appreciate that I am still doing this and it just makes me happy to look back at all these generations, it is really interesting. For his future, the teacher does not think about giving up what he has done his whole life: I am not interested in retiring, because I think if you still have enough energy to do something good, youre a much happier man if you continue doing it. This decision might seem unusual considering the fact that Brother Humphrey OConnor now is 81 years old. But maybe if his role as a teacher is compared to the one of a father, his decision makes more sense. A father always stays a father, there is nothing to change that. In the case of Brother Humphrey, it might be the same for him with being a teacher. Students from 1962 Brother Humphrey OConnor remembers: Sailele M Veni Francis McKenzie Elijah Stanley William Robinson John McFarland Steve Laban ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) Turkey's president cozied up to his "dear friend" Vladimir Putin on Tuesday in a visit intended to send a message to his allies in the West, whom he blames for what he considers a lack of support after a failed coup. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has pressed the United States to extradite the man he claims was behind the failed insurrection, and has sought more funds and visa-free travel from the European Union, but it's unclear what leverage improved ties with Russia could give him. Putin, in turn, expects Turkey to become more accommodating of Russia's interests in Syria and move faster on major energy projects demands Ankara could find difficult to meet. After their talks in St. Petersburg's ornate Konstantin Palace, both leaders emphasized their shared desire to rebuild ties, but it remained unclear if they could reach common ground on the Syrian crisis. While Moscow has backed Syrian President Bashar Assad throughout the nation's civil war and further bolstered that support by launching an air campaign last September, Turkey has pushed for Assad's removal and helped his foes. Putin said he and Erdogan would have a separate discussion on Syria later Tuesday involving top diplomats and intelligence officials. Repeatedly calling Putin his "dear friend," Erdogan refrained from mentioning any sticking points after the talks, saying he expects ties to fully blossom again soon. He said Turkey is ready to implement a natural gas pipeline project proposed by Moscow and a deal for Russia to build Turkey's first nuclear power plant. Both projects were announced years earlier, but had been held back by commercial disputes even before Turkey's downing of a Russian jet at the Syrian border last November. The shoot-down, which Putin called a "treacherous stab in the back," brought relations to a freezing point where they remained for seven months until Erdogan apologized to Russia in June. Putin responded by ordering his government to start rebuilding ties with Turkey, and when Erdogan faced the botched coup attempt on July 15 the Russian leader quickly offered his support. Erdogan emphasized that pledge of support, saying "it was very important for us psychologically. It offered us moral support and showed Russia's solidarity with Turkey." While Putin also spoke of rebuilding ties, he sounded more cautious, warning that it will take time to fully restore them. Moscow has accused the Turkish government of turning a blind eye to the flow of weapons and supplies to the Islamic State group and other extremists in Syria. While the Kremlin has tempered its rhetoric amid the rapprochement, Putin will most certainly push Erdogan to cut support for the rebels engaged in a fierce battle with Assad's forces in Aleppo. Moscow could use economic levers to force Turkey to compromise on Syria. Turkey badly needs the flow of Russian tourists to resume, and Turkish farmers, construction companies and other businesses badly need to regain access to the Russian market, which has been shut to them after the plane's downing. Putin said Tuesday that charter flights to Turkey could resume "in the near future," but added that "painstaking work is ahead to revive trade and economic cooperation." "This process has been launched, but it will take some time," the Russian leader said. While ties with Russia can't substitute Turkey's economic and security cooperation with the U.S. and the EU and its membership in NATO, Erdogan clearly hopes to use the Russia card to strengthen his hand in disputes with his Western partners. Turkey has pressed the United States hard to extradite Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric the government blames for the failed coup. Gulen has repeatedly denied any involvement. The dispute has strained U.S.-Turkish ties, with some Turkish officials implying Washington could have been behind the coup. The Obama administration has strongly denied that. Speaking after the talks with Putin, Erdogan reiterated his contention that Gulen was behind the failed insurrection and alleged that the coup plotters were also responsible for the crisis in relations with Russia. He didn't touch on Ankara's demand for Gulen's extradition. The failed coup saw renegade Turkish military officers using jets, helicopters and tanks try to take power in a night of violence that left more than 270 people dead. Since then, about 18,000 people have been detained or arrested and nearly 70,000 others suspected of links to Gulen have been suspended or dismissed from the civil service, judiciary, education, health care and the military. Turkish officials have fumed at expressions of concern over the sweeping crackdown from European officials and rights groups, and accused the West of failing to show support for a democratically elected government. Ankara also lashed out at the EU for failing to uphold its end of an EU-Turkey agreement on migration. The deal, struck in March, helped stem the flow of migrants from Turkey to the nearby Greek islands in exchange for an EU pledge of funds and visa-free travel for Turks. But plans to ease visa rules have run into trouble and Erdogan accused the EU earlier this month of failing to deliver the promised funds. In contrast with his criticism of the U.S. and the EU, Erdogan heaped praise on Putin for offering support after the coup, saying: "We are strongly determined to take our relations to the pre-crisis and even higher level." Putin responded in kind, saying that "higher interests of our peoples, our nations require the restoration of our ties." N.J. car shop sued for allegedly refusing to sell to man over Taliban concernsTHE ASSOCIATED PRESSFirst posted: Monday, August 08, 2016 04:29 PM EDT | Updated: Monday, August 08, 2016 05:46 PM EDTPARAMUS, N.J. -- An Indian national living in the U.S. has sued a car dealership for more than $1 million, alleging it refused to sell him a luxury vehicle because a manager thought he might ship it to the Taliban.Surjeet Bassi, of Wallkill, New York, says in a federal lawsuit he and his business partner went into Prestige Motors in Paramus in June to trade in his Mercedes-Benz SUV for a newer model.Bassi said that after passing a credit check, charging a $1,000 down payment and showing Prestige his bank statements, he and the salesman reached a deal. But Bassi said the manager called him into his office and said he couldn't sell him the car.The manager told Bassi he came from a "high-risk area" where people buy cars and export them to the Taliban, according to the lawsuit.The lawsuit says Bassi, who has lived in the region for 30 years, told the manager he is an East Asian Indian and has nothing to do with the Taliban, which controls parts of Afghanistan. Bassi said a search of his name on a federal database of those banned from exporting turned up nothing.Bassi said he was willing to sign a waiver promising not to export the car for three years, which he's done before."I had a Mercedes already," Bassi told The Middletown Times Herald-Record. "If I wanted to export it I would sell that one."But according to the lawsuit, Prestige still refused, which the lawsuit says is "racial stereotyping, premised on the plaintiff's race and appearance" and wouldn't have happened if he'd been "a white citizen of the United States."A request for comment from the dealership's lawyer wasn't immediately returned Monday. White man on neighbourhood watch shoots black 'hoodlum'Jonathan Drew And Tom Foreman Jr., THE ASSOCIATED PRESSFirst posted: Monday, August 08, 2016 04:35 PM EDT | Updated: Monday, August 08, 2016 05:53 PM EDTRALEIGH, N.C. -- A white man who apparently called police to complain about "hoodlums" near his house was charged with murder after he shot and killed a black man outside, authorities said.The shooting happened early Sunday morning when 39-year-old Chad Cameron Copley fired a shotgun from inside his garage and hit the victim, according to a Raleigh Police Department news release. He was arrested hours later, and jail records show the suspect was being held on a murder charge.Kouren-Rodney Bernard Thomas, 20, suffered a gunshot wound and was pronounced dead at a hospital. Police spokeswoman Laura Hourigan said Thomas was black.A male relative who answered the phone Monday at a listing for members of the victim's family said they weren't doing well."We're broken apart torn apart, not doing well. Trying to get our lives back on track the way it was but it's hard. We lost somebody very special to us," said the man, who hung up before giving his name.Police released an audio recording of a 911 call that came in shortly before 1 a.m. Sunday in which a male caller tells a dispatcher that he's "locked and loaded" and preparing to go outside. Saying there are people outside with guns, he tells the dispatcher he is on neighbourhood watch and asks them to send police."We've got a bunch of hoodlums out here racing," he says. "I am locked and loaded. I'm going outside to secure my neighbourhood."The dispatcher then attempts to get a numeric address for the caller, but he declines and hangs up.About seven minutes later, an upset female caller gives the dispatcher an address that authorities would later identify as Copley's house. The dispatcher asks what happened."I don't know. I'm upstairs with our children," the female caller says.She then gives the phone to what sounds like the same male caller from earlier."We have a lot of people outside of our house yelling and shouting profanity. I yelled at them 'please leave the premises.' They were showing firearms so I fired a warning shot," he says. "And, uh, we got somebody that got hit."After the dispatcher asks if someone was shot, the male caller responds: "I don't know if they're shot or not. I fired my warning shot like I'm supposed to by law. ... They do have firearms and I'm trying to protect myself and my family."After the dispatcher asks who was outside, the caller says: "There's black males outside my freaking house with firearms."Hourigan said state law prohibits the police from releasing the identity of emergency callers.Copley lives in a subdivision in the northeastern stretches of the city where tidy two-story homes sit on tree-shaded lots. The surrounding Census tract is about 60% white and almost 30% black, with a median household income of about $76,000 -- well above the state as a whole, according to 2014 Census estimates.The news release says Thomas was among people who were outside of Copley's home, but Hourigan declined to elaborate on where he was when he was shot.Two people who called 911 tell the dispatcher that the shots came from inside the house, with one giving the address for Copley."Someone just got shot," one of the callers says. "Someone shot him out of his house."A dispatcher tells another caller not to move the victim as commotion and profanity can be heard in the background."Tell him help's already on the way," the dispatcher says.Police announced Copley's arrest on a murder charge Sunday afternoon.Copley appeared before a judge during a short hearing Monday, and he was denied bail. The Capital Defender's Office said it hadn't assigned an attorney to Copley's case as of Monday afternoon.------Foreman reported from Charlotte. Singapore -- (SBWIRE) -- 08/08/2016 -- Bronze Media Singapore, a branding and marketing agency headquartered in Singapore, has today announced its next growth phase: expansion of business operations to serve more Asian markets. Founded in 2013, the Singaporean agency has established a name for itself by launching successful branding campaigns and online reputation management services, using the latest technologies in digital, social and content marketing. It now plans to do the same for brands based in Malaysia, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand and the Philippines. Said Jeremy Lee, Business Manager of Bronze Media Singapore, "Our core services are branding and online reputation management, as well as digital marketing, social marketing and content marketing. These services use innovative ideas and digital technologies to achieve traditional marketing and branding objectives." "Our digital marketing and online reputation management services have gained steady traction amongst our Singaporean clients, who enjoy visible results that are cost-efficient, transparent, and trackable," he added. "But there are many overseas brands which also want to expand their regional presence. Bronze Media has decided to embark on a new chapter by making our services available to these businesses, to help them grow their brands across Asia." In the past year, Bronze Media has successfully helped Singaporean brands like NetGain Systems Singapore increase their regional reach. The agency is working with Asian brands such as PayEasy, brand owner of Taiwanese cosmetics giant BeautyMaker, to increase their presence in the region. Bronze Media was also recently engaged to launch Khun Thai Tea, a beverage brand based on a 60-year old Thai tea recipe, in the Philippines. About Bronze Media Singapore Founded in 2013, Bronze Media Singapore is a digital marketing, branding and online reputation management agency that uses the latest marketing techniques, social media platforms, digital distribution solutions, and creative content strategies to deliver visible, quantifiable results. The agency now serves markets in Singapore, Malaysia, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand and the Philippines. Contact: Jeremy Lee, Business Manager Email: bishop@bronzemedia.com.sg Web: www.bronzemedia.com.sg Good question. Here's another one. Where are the Muslims not happy? They're not happy in Gaza. They're not happy in Egypt. They're not happy in Libya. They're not happy in Morocco. They're not happy in Iran. They're not happy in Iraq. They're not happy in Yemen. They're not happy in Afghanistan. They're not happy in Pakistan. They're not happy in Syria. They're not happy in Lebanon. They're not happy in Indonesia. So, where are they happy? They're happy in Australia. They're happy in England. They're happy in France. They're happy in Italy. They're happy in Germany. They're happy in Sweden. They're happy in the USA. They're happy in Norway. They're happy in almost every country that is not Islamic! And who do they blame [for their unhappiness]? Not Islam...not their leadership...not themselves... They blame the countries in which they are HAPPY! And they want to change the countries in which they're happy, to be like the countries they came from, where they were unhappy. Boston, MA -- (SBWIRE) -- 08/09/2016 -- China is a world leading producer and exporter of garments. However, it is undeniable that the comprehensive cost of textile and garment industry continuously rises and its advantage weakens. Confronted with these difficulties, part of garment manufacturing enterprises transfer their production bases to countries with lower costs such as Vietnam, Cambodia and Philippines. Cambodia, situated in the core area of south-east Asia, is one of the least developing countries in the world. It is experiencing a relatively rapid growth in recent years. From 2010, the economy remained an annual growth rate of over 6% in Cambodia. From 2013, the economic annual growth rate remained above 7%. The Cambodia government claimed to maintain an annual growth rate of above 7% by 2018 in the newly developed 2015-2025 Industry Development Plan. Under the context of free economic system, Cambodia is one of the most open economies in Asia. Products manufactured by Cambodia can be exported with generalized system of preference (GSP) and most favored nations (MFN) treatment in many countries such as the U.S.A., Europe and Japan. Particularly, with regards to textile and garment products imported by Cambodia, the U.S.A. gives looser quotas and cuts raised import tariffs, the European Nations have no barriers and Canada provides preferential measures such as granting the exemption of import duties. Garment manufacturing industry is one of the mainstay industries in Cambodia. By the end of 2015, garment manufacturing enterprises registered in Cambodia reached over 1,400. According to CRI, about 1,100 enterprises among them are in normal operation. Garment manufacturing enterprises in Cambodia mainly operate with foreign capital from areas such as China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea. They mainly concentrate in Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville with convenient traffic. Most raw materials of garments and foot-wears in Cambodia are mainly imported from Asian countries, especially from China, Japan and South Korea. At present, Cambodia garment factories can manufacture garments with technics of washing, tie-dyeing and embroidering, but still lack dyeing and finishing skills. In 2015, the minimum wage of garment manufacturing industry is USD 140 per month, increased by USD 12 per month, but is still at a relatively low level in the world. Garment manufacturing industry provides over 700 thousand jobs for Cambodia, and creates plentiful indirect job offers as the primary pillar industry of Cambodia. In Cambodia, there are many newly established garment manufacturing enterprises as well as dozens of bankrupting ones each year mainly for weak competitiveness, strike issues and rising costs. In 2015, the product export value of garment in Cambodia reaches USD 6 billion, accounting for approximately 70% in the total export value. The major export markets of Cambodia textile garments and foot-wears include Europe, the U.S.A. and Canada. Cambodia is ready to join TPP in the future. It is estimated that the Cambodia garment manufacturing industry will be confronted with more development plans in the next few years. Get More Details on this Report and a Full Table of Contents at Cambodia Garment Manufacturing Industry Overview, 2011-2020 Through this report, the readers can acquire the following information: -Definition and Classification of Garment -Research Methods, Parameters and Assumptions -Analysis on Competition in Cambodia Garment Industry -Analysis on Leading Enterprises of Cambodia Garment Industry -Development Opportunities and Driving Forces Faced by Cambodia Garment Industry -Risks and Challenges in the Development of Cambodia Garment Industry -Analysis on Prices of Raw Materials and Products of Cambodia Garment About Fast Market Research Fast Market Research is a leading distributor of market research and business information. Representing the world's top research publishers and analysts, we provide quick and easy access to the best competitive intelligence available. Our unbiased, expert staff is always available to help you find the right research to fit your requirements and your budget. For more information about these or related research reports, please visit our website at http://www.fastmr.com or call us at 1.800.844.8156. Browse all Consumer Goods research reports at Fast Market Research You may also be interested in these related reports: -Vietnam Garment Manufacturing Industry Overview, 2011-2020 -China Health Food Manufacturing Industry Overview, 2011-2020 -Apparel & Non-Apparel Manufacturing: Global Industry Almanac -Manufacturing Analytics Market - Global Forecast to 2021 -Manufacturing Execution System Market - Global Forecast to 2020 Valley Cottage, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 08/09/2016 -- Electronic toll collection system is an automated system, eliminating manual operations by toll payers and receivers. The global ETC market is expected to steer towards a strong double-digit growth rate in the coming five years (2015-2020). The primary drivers of the upcoming growth comprise the need to save travel time, cashless travel facility, the need to stop/minimize the traffic congestion and fast toll transaction. However, factors like high installation cost and a high dependence on government are hindering the growth of this market to some extent. The ETC market is expected to continue its rapid expansion to meet the surging demand for an improved, safe and secure infrastructure. The ETC system provides fast, efficient and cost-effective services. They have easy to operate buttons with a user-friendly design. They are also beneficial for traffic agencies and companies as these systems eliminate the need for multiple toll plazas, acting as a cost-saving factor for road operator agencies. Electronic toll collection systems have a positive impact on the environment as it reduces the amount of exhaust emitted from vehicles during start-up and stop at manual toll booths. The ETC market can be categorised into products, technologies, applications and geographies. Transponders, antennae, communication systems, treadles, inductive loops, scanning devices, weigh-in-motion devices, cameras and film storage devices are some of the major products of the system. An electronic toll collection system consists of various subsystems, such as automatic vehicle identification (AVI), automatic vehicle classification (AVC), back-office &integration and violation enforcement system (VES). These subsystems are useful for specific functions -AVI for vehicle identification, AVC for vehicle classification, toll collection transaction by integrating the back-office and payment system and VES to reduce unpaid tolls, by vehicle imaging. Request Free Report Sample@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-76 On the basis of technologies, the ETC market can be segmented into various categories, such as radio-frequency identification (RFID), dedicated short-range communications (DSRC), video analytics, global navigation satellite system (GNSS) and global positioning system (GPS).Currently RFID and DSRC are the leading technologies. On the other hand, the GNSS and GPS are expected to show a high growth rate in following five years (2015-2020). Based on applications, the ETC market can be categorized into segments like highway, urban and bridges. Undoubtedly, ETC systems have been installed majorly on highways, but installation in urban areas and on bridges has a bright future opportunity. Geographically, the ETC market can be segmented into North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Japan, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, and Middle East & Africa. Present market scenario represents a strong presence of ETC system in the US, Canada and Mexico in North America, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Philippines and Singapore in Asia Pacific, and the UK, Ireland, Portugal, France, Germany, Italy and Spain in Europe. Visit For TOC@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-76 Some of the key players in the ETC market are Honeywell International, Inc., Transurban, Transtoll Pty Ltd., Transcore Holdings, Inc., Toll Collect GmbH, TRMI Systems Integration, Sensor Dynamics, Xerox Corporation, 3M, Connect East, EFKON, SAIC, DENSO, Q-Free, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., Perceptics, Thales Group and Kapsch TrafficCom AG. The ETC ecosystem participants offer a wide range of solutions, such as software services and system integration and toll system operations including maintenance, payment handling and revenue assurance. It is the future solution to alleviating traffic congestion problems. Bergamo, Italy -- (SBWIRE) -- 08/08/2016 -- Italian online appliances store Elettrodomestici a Casa has recently launched a new line of products mainly comprising of refrigerators of well-known brands like Samsung, Haier, LG, Bosch and Sharp. The spokesperson at elettrodomesticiacasa.it maintained, "The fridges come in different capacities and prices fittingly perfect for any modern kitchen. As an introductory offer we will be offering almost all of the new products at discounted prices." The spokesperson added, "Our store is dedicated to delivering only quality products and this is why we have put on sale products of only the most reliable brands on the market. We will be launching other kitchen and home utility products in the days to come." It may be noted that Elettrodomestici a Casa has been a respectable website specializing in varied kinds of home appliances, machines and electronic items. The site also offers additional services like installation of the machines once they have been delivered. Refrigerators are considered one of the most essential home utilities in the present home living. They help keep the food fresh for longer periods, besides offering a sort of storage area to keep different kitchen items and eatables. Today, refrigeration systems are available with variety of new features. Some are designed to be energy-efficient while also providing the required temperature to keep the food cold. As per the spokesperson, "At present our store has two types of refrigerators and we request our visitors to go through the catalog of products to find their desired model. Once the payment for the products has been made we will respond to deliver them within 3 to 15 days, or as per the location of the shipping address provided." Besides refrigerators, the site also sells various kitchen items, dryers, washing machines, dishwashers, freezers, microwave ovens, coffee machines, electric stoves, grinders, fryers, and several others. For more details go to http://www.elettrodomesticiacasa.it/6-lavatrici-asciugatrici About Elettrodomestici a Casa It is an Italian online shopping store that deals in a wide range of kitchen and home items, machines and appliances for sale at reasonable rates. Contact media: elettrodomesticiacasa Bergamo, Italy info@elettrodomesticiacasa.it http://www.elettrodomesticiacasa.it/6-lavatrici-asciugatrici High Point, NC -- (SBWIRE) -- 08/09/2016 -- ImageFIRST North Carolina, providers of medical laundry services in Charlotte, NC and the surrounding areas, is making a difference in the communities that they work in. The company has worked tirelessly to improve the patient experience in the medical facilities that they serve, but has done even more by donating their time and resources to the institutions that need them the most. In late June, ImageFIRST North Carolina associates traveled to Oak View Elementary School. Schools are always in need of supplies to enrich the education of their students and Oak View is no exception. ImageFIRST North Carolina donated blankets and clean sheets to the art department, as well as other classroom supplies. In addition to the supplies, the company donated a check for $250 to go towards improving the educational experience of the students. For ImageFIRST North Carolina, this is their third community giving event for the quarter. The company emphasizes the importance of giving back and associates regularly go out on missions into the community to do just that. Because of the company's prowess in laundry service, they were able to donate sheets and blankets to the school. ImageFIRST North Carolina's linens are free from up to 99.999% of pathogens, well above the industry standard. Their excellence in healthcare laundry service in Charlotte, NC and across the area, has earned them their reputation as the premier medical laundry service in not just North Carolina but across the nation. To learn more about ImageFIRST North Carolina, the areas they serve and their innovative products, interested parties are encouraged to visit the company's website. About ImageFIRST Founded in 1967, ImageFIRST is the largest and fastest growing national linen rental and laundry service specializing in the outpatient medical market. ImageFIRST's 36 locations nationwide serve over 5,500 medical offices every week, providing linen, patient gowns, scrubs and much more while partnering with facilities to better manage linen inventory. With a customer retention rate of over 95%, ImageFIRST is dedicated to improving patient satisfaction through quality linens and remarkable service: their Comfort Care gowns product line increases patients' favorable perception of a facility by more than 50%. To learn more about all of the healthcare laundry services available at ImageFIRST North Carolina, please visit http://north-carolina.imagefirst.com/. Manila, Philippines -- (SBWIRE) -- 08/09/2016 -- The team at Lifeline is pleased to announce their easy to use telemedicine platform is now available in the Philippines for their Lifeline members. The new service offers virtual medical services that connect medical professionals and patients seamlessly using a mobile app that has been successful in the United States. The new platform will offer a real-time experience for Lifeline patients, offering everything from free video consultations with doctors, comprehensive patient education, free delivery of prescriptions and medications and free doctors/nurse home visits in the greater Metro Manila area. This comprehensive service will be offered as a monthly subscription plan for a fixed monthly fee of PHP 400 per member. "All these services are combined in a single user experience with mobile app called Avizia MyCare, not available in any other country in Asia" Michael Deakin, CEO Lifeline. Lifeline is partnering with Philippine based company MyDocNow and US-based company Avizia, a pioneer in the delivery of a telehealth platform that works with large health systems and insurance providers to connect patients to healthcare specialists anywhere in the world. Lifeline works through a call center, which is a 24/7 facility fully staffed by highly skilled nurses who are trained to perform basic triage, use the functions of telemedicine to manage the doctor/patient connection in order to facilitate a consultation and follow up with a patient and doctor satisfaction survey. Since it is estimated that 65% of interactions with healthcare organizations will be conducted via mobile devices by 2018, Lifeline is proud to offer a streamlined mobile platform that will bring both Lifeline medical professionals and patients in the Philippines into the next generation of healthcare. The company will offer its services to its 165,000 Lifeline members (via apps in Google Play and Apple Stores) under the name Avizia MyCare. For its introduction service, Lifeline offers a free 3-month subscription service for its exiting Lifeline members. Call 24/7 Hotline 16-911to enquire on how to become a Lifeline member or its telemedicine service. Doctors are available Mon-Fri 9am to 9pm. About Lifeline Lifeline Rescue is the first and only dedicated "Emergency Quick Response" (EQR) service in the Philippines. Lifeline has seen more than 120,000 lives saved over the last 21 years and has a membership-based service covering up to 3.5 million people. Being the only fully-equipped ambulance rescue service able to respond to life-threatening situations. Within greater Metro Manila area, it offers a yearly membership program of PHP 1,000 for individual members which includes a range of free services and discounts. About Avizia Avizia is revolutionizing the Telemedicine industry - the first to deliver an end to end telemedicine platform combing HIPAA compliant communication with clinical encounter management software and industry leading video devices. About MyDocNow MyDocNow is a Philippine based company developing telemedicine applications for health care delivery companies. Contact: Michael Deakin Lifeline CEO Manila, Philippines E-mail: michaelhdeakin@gmail.com Website: http://www.lifeline.com.ph Dallas, TX -- (SBWIRE) -- 08/09/2016 -- "Everyone deserves the best defense when faced with criminal accusations," says Nick Oberheiden, leading defense attorney at Oberheiden Law Group, PLLC. With this belief, Mr. Oberheiden and his team of defense attorneys have united with several former state and federal prosecutors to expand the firm's practice area into Tyler and East Texas as well as launching a new website: TylerCriminalLawyer.com. The new site provides a wealth of information regarding the firm's practice areas, which include healthcare law, business litigation, and criminal defense. "Our experienced team of attorneys are trained and skilled in handling a broad range of unwarranted accusations such as money laundering, bank fraud, health care fraud, internet crime, and embezzlement. Moreover, we are equipped to handle any legal case that goes before a Grand Jury," Oberheiden says. "Our new website goes into extensive detail about how we can help our clients defend themselves in the court of law," he adds. "Moreover, we have teamed up with the best minds in the state and federal prosecution arena. These former prosecutors now work with us to help us build solid defense cases. They know what tactics an attorney may use in the courtroom, and help us anticipate and counter these tactics to provide our clients with the best criminal defense possible." Oberheiden encourages people throughout Eastern Texas to visit the firm's new website at TylerCriminalLawyer.com and request a free, no-obligation case evaluation. For more information about Oberheiden Law Group, PLLC., visit www.tylercriminallawyer.com or call 903-472-0000. CONTACT: Nick Oberheiden Oberheiden Law Group, PLLC Address: 5710 Lyndon B Johnson Fwy. Suite #120, Dallas, TX 75240 Phone: 800-810-0259 Email: nick@federal-lawyer.com Website: www.tylercriminallawyer.com Singapore -- (SBWIRE) -- 08/08/2016 -- It is no secret that Singapore exists and prospers because of international trade. An incredibly diverse and vibrant country, the success of Singapore comes down to maintaining lines of trade with the rest of the world. So, how does the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom affect trade in Singapore? Our findings may surprise you. Global Tensions Playing Out Locally The UK has always had a troubled relationship with mainland Europe. Fighting to maintain some semblance of independence while simultaneously becoming a part of a larger trading union as part of the EU, the relationship has never quite sat right with UK citizens. With Brexit, the citizens of the UK have spoken and rejected closer relationships with Europe, throwing into the air trade partnerships and free access to one of the largest markets in the world. Whether through fear or a sound belief that a British exit from the EU would do the country better, the country is now locked into re-negotiating its deals with mainland Europe. What is turning into a major headache for the UK is only a minor issue for Singapore. Down The List Of Trading Partners Of all the countries that Singapore trades with, the UK is #22. What this means is marginal differences from Singapore in the short term. Before the vote to leave the EU, trade between Singapore and the UK was up from $4.69 billion to $4.94 billion over 5 months. The Brexit will potentially diminish the amount of investments to the UK from Singapore. However, at this early stage there is still a lot to be decided. The EU represents the world's largest trading block, and how the UK and the EU determine their trading relationship will make a big difference in the future of trades with Singapore. The Pros & Cons of a Fluctuating Pound The Brexit vote has seen one of the most substantial drops in the British Pound in modern history. Fantastic for exports, companies that sell to the UK are making significantly more money. Companies like Hart Technologies are reporting better than expected profit forecasts. A volatile pound means significantly less stability for many Asian and Singaporean companies that have holding and investments in the currency. The best way for Singapore companies to take advantage of the situation is to increase import trade, advertise itself as a solid trading platform, and new outreach to bring in tourists from other parts of the world instead of primarily from the UK. Where Does That Leave Us? The only certainty to come out of the Brexit vote is the knowledge that uncertainty and instability are going to plague markets for years to come. With a major change in the global marketplace, it will take quite some time for the dust to settle and for Singapore to gauge where it is at in regards to trade. Luckily, Singapore has shown itself capable of quickly adapting to changing circumstances and is uniquely situated to pivot in response to whatever market trends may come its way. For now, we are left with minor short-term changes and a cloudy, uncertain future. About Morris Edwards Morris Edwards is a content writer at companyregistrationinsingapore.com.sg, he writes different topics like Why is Singapore an ideal place to set up business?, Major global technology companies are expanding their operations in Singapore, Doing Business in Singapore and all topics related to Company Registration. Contact: Singapore Company Incorporation Consultants Pte Ltd Telephone: +65 66531211 Address: 10 Anson Road International Plaza #27-15, Singapore 079903 E-mail: info@companyregistrationinsingapore.com.sg Website: http://www.companyregistrationinsingapore.com.sg Gateshead, UK -- (SBWIRE) -- 08/09/2016 -- WeCanPayMore.co.uk enables fast property sales across the UK at up to 100% market value. Interested sellers may apply on the company's website and benefit of a free online valuation. Any type of property can benefit of the current offer. We Can Pay More helps property owners make the most of their house as they are opting for a quick sale. The company facilitates urgent sales and offers genuine cash, treating its clients to a quick and hassle free application process than takes only 60 seconds. For this first stage, only very few details are required. The staff at WCPM inform their clients that it can take only 7 days to sell their home. Or, they are willing to work with whatever time frame suits the seller, in order to maximize the sum to be obtained. WCPM is one of the very few British companies that are actual investors and can thus offer such a fast service. The cash buying firm boasts with solid knowledge of every area and also of the investors most willing to buy in specific regions or neighbourhoods. It is this particular knowledge that enables a quick match and makes it possible to close the deal shortly. This method separates WCPM from other fast cash sale companies. Sellers will be made a cash offer which, once accepted, guarantees the sale; this is also facilitated through the help of in-house real estate experts. The company's national cash property buyers team will assess the property based on the information received and will verify it accordingly. According to its website, WCPM guarantees the presence of funds in maximum 10 days, all with a minimum of paperwork and a short, comprehensible contract. The company is registered with the Property Ombudsman as well as with the NAPB, thus ensuring a safe and reliable service. About WeCanPayMore.co.uk WeCanPayMore.co.uk is a specialist fast home sale agent, now able to sell any house in the United Kingdom quickly and without any fees, promising up to 100% of the market value. Get more details and obtain a free quote at https://www.wecanpaymore.co.uk Contact: David Sessford We Can Pay More Address: Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, United Kingdom Phone: 0800 612 7917 Email: info@WeCanPayMore.co.uk https://www.wecanpaymore.co.uk Spaceports are being licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the United States, which now adds to 10 licensed spaceports or launch site operators. What is interesting is they have also licensed 12 active launch providers which does not include NASA. However, FAA paves way to the future of space exploration when they recently approved a commercial venture to the Moon from a company called Moon Express. Moon Express aims to win the Google Lunar X prize, an international competition to send the first privately funded vehicle to the Moon's surface, The Verge reported. Moon Express needs to get to the Moon by 2017 to meet the competition's deadline. The company has been reported to have purchased a vehicle from Rocket Lab to hurl their Electron rocket to the moon. Rocket Lab launches from New Zealand, Rocket Lab reported. This poses a concern as the FAA list of Active Launchers does not include them. Perusing on the rules, it seems that United States citizens must comply with the rules wherever in the world they launch. The circumstance may lead to people questioning why does FAA or any other government need to impose their jurisdictional rights on accessing the Moon. Furthermore, will the granter be liable for any mishaps that arise during the launch? In the past, a furor was raised on whether the United States was found liable over the Skylab vessel re-entering on top of Australia in 1979. This is where 51 USC Code 50914 comes in, which shows that the licensing is apparently all about managing the risk. Nevertheless, while uncertainties remain, progress is seen as the basis of an international system is in place now. Meanwhile, there is still no regulatory framework that exist for a commercial space mission to another world. However, Moon Express came up with its own temporary framework for its 2017 launch that the US government could use to oversee its mission. It has been reported that after a meeting between the FAA, the White House and the State Department, the company was given approval to launch to the Moon. The Indian government is wasting huge amounts of solar power because the panels are too expensive to operate, according to a letter sent to the government Monday by the countrys green energy ministry.The letter explains that the Indian government is shutting down solar panels because they are unreliable and conventional energy from coal plants is almost always cheaper.Some load dispatch centres (LDCs) are asking solar projects to back down due to various reasons, Tarun Kapoor, Joint Secretary of Indias Ministry of New and Renewable Energy wrote in a letter to the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission. This problem has been going on for the past two months. There are shutdowns for up to two hours a day, resulting in daily losses of several [hundred thousand Indian rupees].The amount of electricity generated by wind turbines and solar panels is inefficient and doesnt coincide with times of day when power is most needed. This poses an enormous safety challenge to grid operators and makes power grids vastly more fragile.The governments green energy ministry wants to solve the problem by paying solar companies for any electricity generated, even if it isnt used.mo Southern Cornwall gives visitors the feeling of being close to nature. There are a lot of places to visit such as the beach resorts of Newquay and St. Ives and wonderful places to eat such as the Jamie Oliver's Fifteen restaurant and Rick Stein's St. Petroc's Bistro. All of these make visitors feel the warmth of Cornwall and appreciate the variety of Cornish experience which are not aimed just for families, but also for couples without kids. To feel the warmth of bright sunny morning, visitors can head to the north coast of the county and the must-visit beach resorts of Newquay and St Ives. To satisfy seafood cravings and hungry stomachs, Rick Stein's St. Petroc's Bistro in Padstow is tucked away on a picturesque side street that gives strong emphasis on seafood menu. There is also a restaurant new Newquay that overlooks the beautiful Watergate Bay of Cornwall that offers a selection of cuisine at good value called Jamie Oliver's Fifteen restaurant. Cornwall's treats continue to a few miles north of Padstow where the luxury St. Moritz Hotel is located, Daily Mail reported. The hotel features a Cowshed spa that offers everything from soothing facials to all over body scrubs. For more outdoor Cornwall experience, visitors can head to the Cornish Seal Sanctuary in the Gweek village near Lizard Point. The walk to Lizard Point through the idyllic beach at Kynance Cove or a little further north is a surfer's paradise called the Poldhu Beach. St. Michael's Mount can also be enjoyed by visitors. It is a national trust-run castle located on an island in Marazion near Penzance, Mirror reported. Cornwall is 100 miles long with a limited rail networks so it is best to prepare before heading to the place. It is not easy to get around without a car so visitors need to rent one. Visitors should also bring lightweight raincoats if ever some rains pour because the place has a changeable weather. A new study reveals that being overweight ages your brain by 10 years compared to that of the leaner person with the same age. The researchers discovered that there is a reduction of white matter (the part that transmits information) for those who are overweight. The study was printed in the journal Neurobiology of Aging. It was led by researchers from the Cambridge Centre for Ageing and Neuroscience, according to Tech Times. The study involved 473 people between the ages of 20 to 87. The team examined them and divided them into two categories namely the lean and the overweight. The results showed that overweight people had less white matter in their brains compared with the lean persons. It indicates that a 50-year-old overweight had a brain scan similar to that of a lean person aged 60.On the other hand, the difference can only be seen with the middle-aged. Professor Paul Fletcher, the senior author of the study explained that the fact that they only saw these differences from middle-age onwards raises the possibility that they may be particularly vulnerable at this age. He further explained that you are living in an aging population, with increasing levels of obesity. It is essential then that you establish how these two factors might interact since the consequences for health are potentially serious, as noted by NY Daily News. Dr. Lisa Ronan of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge said that as the brains age, they naturally shrink in size, but it isn't clear why people who are overweight have a greater reduction in the amount of white matter. She further said that they can only speculate on whether obesity might in some way cause these changes or whether obesity is a consequence of brain changes. On the other hand, even though there are differences between obese and lean individuals, there are no associations of an overweight individual's intelligence or cognitive functions. A man on the Gatwick Express in London was killed when he stuck his head out a train window. He died instantly after sustaining serious head injuries just after 5:30 PM last Sunday. Man reportedly decapitated after sticking head out of train window in London https://t.co/1zOJJyEOrt pic.twitter.com/gSkSWJYILO RT (@RT_com) August 8, 2016 ITV News noted that a London Ambulance Service Spokesperson said, that they were called to report a man hit by a train, but when they arrived, he was already pronounced dead at the scene by doctors. There have been reports on social media that the man was decapitated, but this simply isn't true, said the British Transport Police. A spokesman said, "Emergency services rushed to the scene but despite their best efforts, nothing could be done to save him. Our investigation remains at an early stage, but initial enquiries suggest the man may have been leaning out of a train door window when he suffered a blow to the head." Police later confirmed that the man was a 24-year-old from East Grinstead, Sussex, but he has not been identified by name yet as his next of kin is still being informed. An onlooker said that the man's head "flew off." The witness, known only for her first name, Rihanna, shared, "The head flew off basically. I actually ran because it was disgusting but all I saw was a head (that) flew away. People screamed, the train stopped and people were screaming and they were coming out." Despite her account of the traumatizing event, police have been keen on saying that this is not the case, however his injuries were serious. According to the Daily Mail, officers stated that "The death is being treated as non-suspicious and the circumstances, including what caused the head injuries, are still being investigated." The incident is still being investigated, but police said that initial findings noted that the man may have been "leaning out a train door window when he suffered a blow to the head." Following the incident, several officers were seen carrying a man's body wrapped in a blanket to the back of a private ambulance, and the Gatwick Express service had been disrupted along the southern routes, including ones from Victoria to East Grinstead, Brighton, Bognor Regis, and Hastings. The small yet incredible Lockheed Martin's SkyFire nanosatellite will be launched in space with Orion's Exploration Mission-1 to the moon in 2018. The SkyFire is developed to fly to the moon to gather data on the lunar surface using infrared technology. James Russel, the principal investigator said that SkyFire, which will be built at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Jefferson County, is about 14 inches long. Its infrared camera is about one-third of the small satellite's volume, which is about the size of two loaves of bread. He added that you could put it in your hands and carry it around, as noted by Denver Post. Small-but-mighty SkyFire moon nanosatellite cleared to ride with Orion into space https://t.co/rfWu26wtRP pic.twitter.com/9O5w0sgcAQ RidingWithRobots (@ridingrobots) August 8, 2016 Despite its minute size, it has an incredible purpose. SkyFire's aim is that of Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) technology. It will perform a lunar flyby and collect spectroscopy and thermography for surface characterization, site selection, and remote sensing. It involves two deployable solar arrays. It was developed by Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver. The company has finalized the contract with NASA worth $1.4 million for further development. Lauren Duda, a Lockheed Martin Space Systems spokeswoman said that Lock Heed is proud to support NASA in its quest to advance space exploration technology through the NextSTEP program. She further said that they are working with NASA to determine which SkyFire technologies can best fulfill NASA's strategic knowledge gaps, as satisfying these knowledge needs will have major implications for future deep space exploration. Meanwhile, Russel stated that if SkyFire is a success, it could spark more missions using nanosatellites equipped with infrared cameras. This leads to future exploration and discoveries. He cited examples as scientists could examine the makeup of asteroids or planets to better understand how the universe formed. Besides these, explorers could look for resources such as ice water to drill while travelling through space. A new study has found that one out of every eight U.S. adults currently smoke marijuana. The number of people who smoke weed has almost doubled in less than three years' time. According to a recent Gallup poll, around thirteen per cent of adults in the U.S., which is equivalent to 33 million people, have admitted that they smoke marijuana, up from seven per cent in 2013 and 11 per cent in 2015. The percentage of people who admitted to have tried marijuana also increased to 43 percent, up from 38 percent in 2013. The Gallup poll results were based on telephone interviews which were conducted from July 13 to July 17 among 1,023 American adults. The study has a 5 percent margin of error, reported Live Science. It is to be noted that while the federal law still prohibits marijuana use, several states including Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Washington, D.C. have legalized recreational marijuana use. In fact, five more U.S. states will decide whether or not to legalize marijuana for medicinal use in November. According to Gallup, marijuana legalization could be a reason for the increase in the percentage of Americans who smoke marijuana. The study added that residents of all four states that have legalized recreational marijuana use are more likely to smoke marijuana than those in other parts of the country, reported Tech Times. The Gallup poll results showed that one in five U.S. adults under age 30 currently use marijuana. It was found that nearly half of the adults aged 30 to 64 had tried the drug, whereas only 38 percent of people aged 18 to 29 reported having tried marijuana. People who attend church weekly were much less likely to smoke marijuana than those who rarely or never attend church. Only 2 percent of weekly churchgoers reportedly smoke marijuana as compared to 14 percent of those who do not go to church. Do you think U.S. states' decision to legalize marijuana use is correct? Let us know in the comments below. The approved medical marijuana law is only a month away from taking effect and handing out marijuana business licenses may take longer than that, but people from Lakewood, Ohio and other communities in the state are already doing what they can to make sure marijuana businesses are blocked in their communities. According to cleveland.com, there are a number of cities in Ohio that is on a mission to a six-month delay on handing out licenses to marijuana planters, processors, and sellers. Some of them are even thinking about causing temporary ban on the new law which will take effect on September 8. Marijuana businesses have already been set to be legalized in the next six months. The new law has assigned three government agencies to set up the regulations and licensing processes and the first deadline will be in May 2017. Officials in the different communities say they're not planning to prohibit marijuana businesses but said they needed more time to decide what other laws need to be in place. Other cities including Brecksville and North Royalton, share the same sentiment about the effectivity of legalizing marijuana businesses. Brecksville Law Director David Matty told cleveland.com Friday that he will recommend a marijuana moratorium to Brecksville City Council. "I want to give council and (Mayor Jerry Hruby) a preliminary education on a 120-page bill," Matty said. "They will have to decide how this will go forward in Brecksville." North Royalton's assistant law director, Donna Vozar, said the Law Department will also suggest a six-month delay to North Royalton City Council on Sept. 6, two days before the law goes into effect, fxtribune.com reported. "Council and the administration would have time to determine how they want to proceed, whether they want to limit (the growing, processing and selling of) medical marijuana or prohibit it entirely, or what kind of regulations they want to impose," Vozar said. It seems that days when people will be planning a vacation to the moon isn't far away. California-based private spaceflight company, Moon Express, is the first ever to get an approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to land on the moon. Until now, only national government agencies have launched missions beyond Earth orbit. Moon Express is planning to land a robotic spacecraft on the lunar surface in 2017. The lander will be equipped with several retroreflectors designed to reflect light back to earth, telescopes and other tools to conduct science experiments and sent back pictures and videos back to Earth. The company also plans to mine for resources on the moon, such as platinum group metals and helium-3, reported PerfScience. In fact, while on the moon, MoonEx's lander will also compete for the Google Lunar X Prize of $20 million. To be eligible for the prize money, a private entity must land on the moon, travel at least 500 meters from its original position, and beam high-definition video and images back to earth. The company will unveil the spacecraft, known as MX-1, in September. "We are now free to set sail as explorers to Earth's eighth continent, the Moon, seeking new knowledge and resources to expand Earth's economic sphere for the benefit of all humanity", said co-founder Dr Bob Richards, reported The Mirror. Co-founder and chairman of Moon Express, Naveen Jain, said that the FAA's approval has put the company in league with the superpowers and showcases the capability of a small group of people to accomplish great things, regardless of their background. He added that the company is planning to bring precious resources, metals and moon rocks back to Earth. "In 15 years, the moon will be an important part of Earth's economy, and potentially our second home," said Jain. "The sky is not the limit for Moon Express - it is the Launchpad. This breakthrough ruling is another giant leap for humanity. Space travel is our only path forward to ensure our survival and create a limitless future for our children." What do you think about the Moon Express? Let us know in the comments below. Leaders from three West Side gang factions allegedly met last week to discuss plans to shoot members of the Chicago Police Department in response to the fatal police shooting of Paul ONeal.The meeting took place Thursday between higher-ups from the Vice Lords, Black Disciples and Four Corner Hustlers, according to an alert issued to department members the day after the meeting.The Four Corner Hustlers provided guns and have a sniper in place though authorities do not know where, according to the alert. The Four Corner Hustlers also are supplying the other two gangs with automatic weapons, which all three factions also have agreed to use against police, the alert states.The three gangs are located primarily in the Austin and Harrison districts, which cover much of the West Side.In an email Monday afternoon, department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said: To safeguard the integrity of operations, the department does not comment on any security measures.According to police sources, department members have also been advised to limit interactions and visibility.mo The AP article published Thursday in the Morning News says "researchers have found few cases of fraud at the ballot box." Wow! I guess they missed the instances where, during the last national election, some districts were reporting 100 percent of votes for one candidate and none for their opponent (unlikely), or reporting more votes than registered voters (impossible)! They also missed the individuals who blatantly (and proudly) claimed to have voted multiple times or helpfully filled out discarded absentee ballots for those who threw them away. To my knowledge none of this was ever investigated or punished. I have also viewed video of people attempting to vote for their choice on an electronic voting machine and having the vote register for another candidate. And these are the most obvious examples. The ease with which electronic machines can be manipulated and recent judicial decisions to disallow efforts by states to reduce the possibility of fraud increase the odds that your vote won't count. Bill Clinton actually urged illegals to vote (illegally) in his address at his wife's coronation. If an election is close, chances are the results will be "rigged"! JOHN MAGURN Florence County Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) Program is proud to announce that two new CASA advocates were sworn-in by Judge John Steinheider this summer. A brief reception was held following the swearing in to wish the new CASA advocates well in their advocacy for Cass Countys abused and neglected children. The new CASA advocates are Kyle Baumann and Brian Coffman. There are a total of 52 Cass County children who are under the jurisdiction of the court because of abuse and/or neglect. Children range in age from birth to 19 years old. Currently, 16 active CASA advocates are serving these children. CASA advocates usually work with one case at a time. They get to know the children and write reports for the Judge, making recommendations about what would be best for the child. They become a stable, reliable presence in the childs life during a very difficult time, and advocate for the child to have a safe and permanent home as quickly as possible. Cass County CASA program was started in 2006. CASA advocates are ordinary people doing an extraordinary thing by having an impact on the lives of abused and neglected children. Most volunteers donate about 2 hours per week (or 8-10 hours a month) and all training is provided. A portion of the pre-service training expenses were paid for by a grant from the Nebraska CASA Association. If you are interested or want more information, please call or e-mail Angie Neumiller, Executive Director at 402-296-9521 or director@casscasa.org or visit our website at www.casscasa.org. Cass County CASA program is a 501c3 program that is funded by donations, grants, Keno funds and fundraisers. LINCOLN Two Cass County natives will use stipends from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to fund their research projects in the upcoming school year. Elmwood native Cody James Brown and Plattsmouth native Autumn Nicole Dunn will receive stipends from UNLs Undergraduate Creative Activities and Research Experience (UCARE) Program. The program supports undergraduates to work with faculty mentors on either research or creative activities during the 2016-17 school year. Brown is majoring in German at UNL. He will receive a stipend for a research project entitled Genetic Modification of the Killer Yeast Debaryomyces Hansenii. Dunn is majoring in fisheries and wildlife at UNL. She will receive a stipend for a research project entitled Using Macro and Micro Invertebrates to Understand the Impacts on Root Growth. The UCARE Program provides undergraduates with stipends of $2,400 to engage in intensive research or creative activity for ten hours per week. Student projects can span across a wide host of academic disciplines. This years list of projects includes work in engineering, chemistry, modern languages and literatures, psychology, art history, architecture, special education and fisheries and wildlife. RICHARD GENE DICK LYONS 1922-2016 Richard Gene Dick Lyons, age 65 of Nehawka died August 6, 2016 at the Bellevue Medical Center in Bellevue. Dick was born December 14, 1950 in Nebraska City, the son of Edwin Gene and Pauline Marie (Lechner) Lyons. Dick was a longtime resident of Nehawka, and had worked for Midwest Coop for many years. Dick served in the U.S. Army and was stationed in Germany during the Vietnam War. Survivors include his wife Cassie of Nehawka; son, Jared Lyons and his girlfriend Torie of Elkhorn; daughter, Nicki Sievering of Lincoln; grandson, Gus Sievering; brother, Randy Lyons and his wife Vicki of Gretna; sister, Maxine Johnson of Gretna; many other relatives and friends. Dick was preceded in death by his parents. Funeral Services were at 11:00 A.M., Thursday, August 11, 2016 at the First United Methodist Church in Weeping Water with burial in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery near Nehawka. Full military honors will be conducted by Nehawka American Legion Post No. 157. Visitations were from 1:00 to 8:00 P.M., Wednesday at Marshall Funeral Chapel in Nebraska City. The family will greet friends from 5:00 to 7:30 P.M. Memorials are suggested to the Nehawka American Legion Post No. 157 or Mt. Pleasant Cemetery Association. Online condolences may be expressed at www.marshallfuneral.com Marshall Funeral Chapel of Nebraska City, Nebraska is in charge of arrangements. I recently met a member of our military at Walter Reed Hospital near Washington, D.C. who had suffered severe wounds fighting for our country. His trauma was so bad that he had been in the hospital for years, having been revived several times in the aftermath of his initial injuries. He endured a coma for so long the doctors told his wife there was nothing more they could do. His wife said, I know hes in there. Stay with him. So the doctors gave him a little more time. Eventually came the time when the support systems were to be removed. When the day arrived, the care team gathered in the room unsure of what would happen. Sure enough the soldier awoke and said, Is my wife here? She ran to his bedside and said, Honey, Im here. Then the completely unexpected happened. He asked his wife, Did you pay our taxes? I burst out laughing when I heard the story. What a dutiful American! I told this story at the beginning of several town hall events this week. In the midst of all his suffering, here is a soldier who was still focused on his duty. Our time is marked by a yearning for deeper meaning and a need for ideals and vision. During meetings with constituents in Bellevue, Lincoln, Fremont, Blair, Columbus, and Norfolk, we discussed a number of issues including the budgetary situation in Washington, health care, immigration policy, environmental policy, and the dynamics around issues affecting our veterans. The questions I received did not focus as much on pieces of legislation; instead, I believe they indicated a deeper anxiety about the direction of the country: what is at stake for all of us, and how do we find our purpose as a people? How can we regain that sense of duty to one another and our country? To me one of the best encounters was with a young man who is getting ready to go into first grade. He sat politely with his Dad. I spoke with him after the meeting. Many Americans no longer believe that our country will be better for the children. The challenge is to acknowledge this weightiness and lean into the solutions. At the end of the meeting, I shared a story about one of those old metal kitchen chairs with two little steps that pull out. My grandmother had one in her house, and when I was young, I sat on it in her kitchen and talked on the phone. When I saw this chair at an estate sale, sentiment overcame me. I bought it, and paid way too much given the condition. I paid a dollar. My kids took one look at the chair and said, Dad, we think you have a problem. We think youre a hoarder. But, I thought the chair could be repurposed, could be made whole again, and I had a vision for its potential. Beneath the rust, paint, torn vinyl, and twisted parts, I saw a solid structure. It took a lot of effortrust removal, new paint, and replacement partsbut after about $40 and around 20 hours of work, I think it turned out beautifully. Could that be America? If you were able to attend the meetings, thank you for participating in this important civic tradition. If you were unable to attend a meeting, I invite you to share any thoughts or comments with my office at http://fortenberry.house.gov. A Fremont man was sentenced to prison Monday morning in Dodge County District Court after pleading no contest in reference to two felony offenses. Neal R. Connick, 30, was sentenced by Judge Geoffrey Hall to spend one year in the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services after being found guilty on two separate charges. In one case, the defendant was found guilty of being in possession of a controlled substance methamphetamine, a Class IV felony. If prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, Connick could have faced two years in prison, a $10,000 fine and nine to 12 months of post-release supervision. Connick was also found guilty of violating the Nebraska Sex Offenders Registration Act for the second time. Violating the act constitutes a Class IIA felony, and has a maximum penalty of the violator spending 20 years in prison. Through a joint agreement with the prosecution and defense, Connicks sentences will run concurrently together. Conick was credited with serving 102 days in Saunders County Jail and under the Good Time Law of Nebraska, the defendant could be eligible for release in six months. The defendant was arrested July 20, 2015, when investigators witnessed Connick operating a motor vehicle during a time when his license was suspended, Dodge County Attorney Oliver Glass said while providing factual basis about the case. After being stopped, a K-9 unit was called and drugs were detected in the car. A bag with white residue was found which subsequently tested positive as being methamphetamine. On June 17, Connick was arrested for violating the Nebraska Sex Offenders Registration Act when a member of the Nebraska State Patrol conducted a compliance check to make sure Connick was working where he was registered Selectel Wireless. It was determined that he wasnt, and Connick was arrested for failing to contact the Sheriffs Office within the proper timeframe updating his movements. Connick, who is required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life, spent 2 years in prison for sexual assault of a child before being released in 2009. The incident that led to him obtaining his sex offender status occurred when he was 14, but the victim didnt come forward until later. Connick said that he is working hard to make some changes. Ive been using this time to straighten my life out, he said. Its lit a fire under me. Built by Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) in Ulsan, South Korea, the 123mtr long by 78mtrs wide rig is owned by the Houston-based drilling contractor Diamond Offshore. The new MOSS CS60E design is suitable for operations in harsh environments and will be tested thus, chartered to oil major BP for a contract in the Great Australian Bight. Ocean Greatwhite is also the first new-build rig to receive the DNV GL Integrated Software Dependent Systems (ISDS) notation. ISDS are systems whose performance is dependent on the overall behaviour of their integrated software components. The certification ensures that software and integration issues are identified and resolved early on during the project design stages. It also represents a new approach to verification, DNV GL claims, emphasising a review of the working methods and processes that lead to the delivery of the systems, rather than focusing on the final review of documents and installations to ensure they meet product requirements. Industry data suggests that high specification mobile offshore drilling units may experience 30% down-time during their first years of operations, which makes a systematic framework for ensuring that ISDS achieve the required reliability, availability, maintainability and safety essential. Ocean Greatwhite is capable of operating in depths of up to 3000 metres and can drill down to a depth of 10,670 metres. It represents the state of the art in the semi-submersible sector and we are very pleased to have been asked to contribute our expertise to this project, says Paal Johansen, vp and regional director, Americas at DNV GL. DNV GLs ISDS teams in Korea, Norway, and the USA all contributed to the project. DNV GL also provided advisory services to HHI on the integration of the various systems throughout the newbuilding process. We expect that the operational performance of Ocean Greatwhite will demonstrate how the ISDS notation can contribute to increasing the reliability of the complex systems onboard, adds Paal Johansen. Youngseuk Han, senior executive vp at HHI hailed the new build, saying: We will keep moving the boundaries of technology by completing following large-scale and innovative projects. Diamond Offshore provides contract drilling services to the energy industry around the globe with a total fleet of 30 offshore drilling rigs, including one under construction. Diamond Offshore's fleet consists of 21 semisubmersibles, of which one harsh environment semi is under construction, four dynamically positioned drillships, and five jack-ups. An oil spill has been reported following the incident on Sunday, which saw the 1990-built 465 dwt Keihin Maru 8 collide with the 5,025 dwt Eastern Phoenix resulting in the smaller vessel sustaining serious damage with its fore port breached, causing flooding and partial sinking. The Japanese-flagged Keihin Maru 8 reportedly had around 300mt of bunkers onboard at the time of the incident. The Eastern Phoenix reportedly sustained only slight damage and remained afloat without water ingress. Meanwhile all crew have been evacuated from the Keihin Maru 8 although there were no reports of injuries. Salvage operations are reportedly underway with oil booms around the stricken vessel and two rescue vessel performing water cleansing. An investigation into the incident is under way. The 15,000 dwt chemical tanker arrived in Rotterdam on August 7 to offload naphtha and gas oil at Vopak in the Botlek before moving to the Willem Alexanderhaven terminal the following day for the cooling process. With the aid of nitrogen over 18 hours, Ternsund went from an ambient temperature of +20 C to an operational temperature of -162 C to prepare for bunkering which began this morning. The physical bunkering of Shell LNG, by way of quayside trucks, is scheduled to be completed on Wednesday morning (European time) before the vessel sets sail for Gothenburg. Ternsund becomes the first vessel to receive The Port of Rotterdam Authoritys LNG bunkering incentive, amounting to a 10% discount on seaport dues. The port authority aggressively attempting to position Rotterdams historic port as a major European LNG hub by actively promoting shippings admittedly slow transition from fuel oil to cleaner LNG. By using LNG, inland vessels, coasters, ferries and heavy transport reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions up to 20 percent and nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions up to 85 percent. Sulphur and particulate matter emissions are reduced to practically zero, Rotterdam Port said. This is an important reason for the Port of Rotterdam Authority to encourage the use of LNG. The Port of Rotterdam Authority will welcome a new bunker vessel next year which Shell will use to supply sea-going vessels with LNG from the water. Terntank took delivery of Ternsund from Chinas Avic Dingheng Shipbuilding Co in late June. She will be joined by three sisterships of the same specifications 147mtrs long by 22mtrs beam by the end of 2017. The LNG-powered vessel is a result of the EU co-funded project Into the Future Baltic SO2lution, a co-operation between Terntank, marine solutions provider Wartsila, fuel and bio-products supplier North European Oil Trade (NEOT) and energy and environmental consultant Wega under the Zero Vision Tool. Tertank says Ternsund will primarily be deployed to distribute refined oil products from NEOTs refinery in Gothenburg, Sweden, meeting strict SOx limits in sulfur emission control areas (SECAs) along the way. Male dog fertility has sharply declined over the past three decades, according to a new study that suggests some commonly available pet foods are contributing to the problem. Environmental contaminants found in many dog foods, including some puppy chow formulations, appear to be the culprits. The findings, published in the journal Scientific Reports, link the contaminant-containing food to the drop in male dog sperm quality. RELATED: Popular Dog Breed May Be Erased for Health Concerns "This is the first time that such a decline in male fertility has been reported in the dog and we believe this is due to environmental contaminants, some of which we have detected in dog food and in the sperm and testes of the animals themselves," Richard Lea, a reproductive biology specialist at the University of Nottingham's School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, said in a press release. Earlier studies found chemicals such as PFCs, PCBs and pesticides like DDT in foods, including pet foods. Many of these substances were banned some time ago, but because they don't break down well in the environment, they can persist. Lea says dogs may serve as sentinels for humans who are exposed to these types of chemicals from different sources since a dog "shares the same environment, exhibits the same range of diseases, many with the same frequency and responds in a similar way to therapies." The study, conducted over a period of 26 years, centered on five dog breeds: Labrador retriever, golden retriever, curly coat retriever, border collie and German shepherd. Semen was collected from between 42 to 97 dogs for each of these breeds every year over the course of the study. Lea and his colleagues analyzed the samples to assess the percentage of sperm that showed normal movement and that appeared healthy. RELATED: Dogs Labeled 'Pit Bull' Spend Triple Time in Shelters Between 1988 and 1998, healthy sperm movement (motility) declined by 2.5 percent per year. Following a short period when the male breeding dogs of compromised fertility were retired from the study, sperm motility from 2002 to 2014 continued to decline at a rate of 1.2 percent per year. The researchers also discovered that male puppies fathered by the dogs in the study with declining semen quality had an increased incidence of cryptorchidism, a condition in which the testes of the pups fail to correctly descend into the scrotum. Sperm collected from the same breeding population of dogs, and testes recovered from dogs undergoing routine castration, were found to contain environmental contaminants at concentrations able to disrupt sperm motility and health, according to Lea and his team. The scientists detected the same chemicals in a range of commercially available dog foods, including brands specifically marketed for puppies. "We looked at other factors which may also play a part (in reducing male dog fertility), for example, some genetic conditions do have an impact on fertility," Lea said. "However, we discounted that because 26 years is simply too rapid a decline to be associated with a genetic problem." WATCH VIDEO: Why Do Dogs and Cats Eat Grass? There have been no new antibiotics developed in 20 years. This is made all the more concerning by the fact that resistance to current antibiotics in hospitals runs between 40-60%. It takes about 15 years for a new drug to legally get to market, meaning that time is of the essence for scientists to find something new. Drug resistant superbugs are on the rise and many have already taken the lives of thousands. Currently, 20,000 people die every year from drug resistant bacteria infections. Roger Linington, Associate Professor at UC Santa Cruz, says this drug resistance is so serious that we're on the brink of returning to an era of pre-antibiotics when death could occur from even the simplest infections. Research and development of new antibiotics has been significantly underfunded. One reason for this is that antibiotics are not the most lucrative of drugs. Medication for a chronic illness like asthma will likely be taken by those affected everyday for the rest of their lives. From an economic perspective it's much more worthwhile to develop a drug like that than to develop a drug someone will take for 3 days every few years. However, there is one new antibiotic called Teixobactin that's showing promise. So far it's been very effective in killing Clostridium difficile, usually referred to as C. Diff, which is a bacteria that causes severe nausea and diarrhea, and is most commonly treated by fecal transplants. Teixobactin has not been effective in killing all types of bacteria that lead to infection, but it has been successful in many trials. It's likely that over time, most bacteria will become resistant to Texicobactin as well, but scientists predict it wouldn't happen for at least 30 years, meaning it could still prove to be a very useful antibiotic, given our current crisis. The success of Teixobactin is also a big win for the discovery of microbes in nature. Currently, divers are collecting sand at the bottom of the ocean in places like the Monterey Bay in Santa Cruz, California in hopes of finding additional microbes that might hold the answer to new antibiotics. The earth still has millions of untapped resources, and the possibilities for medical advancement are vast. Scientists are hoping to find these resources and develop new antibiotics before it's too late. Watch more Seeker Stores: Rescuing Imprisoned Moon Bears in Vietnam Read more about antibiotic research and development: Forbes: Has Antibiotic Resistance Been Solved? Not Yet. NPR: LA Hospital: 179 Patients Exposed To Drug-Resistant 'Superbug' Weeks after the failure of an attempted military coup, Turkey remains a chaotic place, caught between East and West. But despite calls for an Islamic overhaul to the country's constitution, Turkey is still a secular nation. Technically. For now. As Jules Suzdaltsev explains in today's Seeker Daily report, Turkey has maintained a secular government and constitution since its founding in the 1920s. Turkey's first president, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, believed that a secular political system was the only path to true modernization. He established the former Ottoman-Turkish state as a republic under the Western ideology now known as Kemalism. A military coup in the 1980s encouraged the return of Islamic practices into public affairs, and various power struggles since then have centered on the issue. Turkey's public school system is a useful barometer of the country's ongoing debate. Religious education had always been a part of public school education, but after the coup it became mandatory. Turkey also saw an increase in the number of Imam Hatip schools, which base their entire curriculum on the teachings of Islam. RELATED: Will Turkey Ever Be Able To Join The EU? Under Turkey's current president Recep Yayyip Erdogan, many secular schools have been converted into religious schools. These changes have been met with resistance from parents, and in fact there is widespread public opposition to the government-sponsored "Islamization" of Turkey. This may seem surprising, since official reports show that 99 percent of the country is Muslim. But keep in mind that every Turkish citizen is automatically registered as Muslim at birth, and many Turks identify as Muslim without being particularly religious. In fact, according to a 2016 Pew Research study, only 13 percent of Turks think that the Quran should directly influence their country's laws. Calls for a fully Islamic constitution have been resisted so far, even by president Erdogan, who is a devout Muslim himself. The conflict is not strictly religious, either: Turkey's most serious divisions are largely political and ethnic. The recent attempted coup and subsequent backlash have confused matters even further. Turkey has also been the target of increasing terrorist attacks -- you can learn more about that here. Clearly, Turkey is in a state of historic upheaval, but its government remains secular for the time being. -- Glenn McDonald Learn More: BBC: Turkey parliament brawls over changes to constitution New York Times: Turkey Promotes Religious Schools, Often Defying Parents The Atlantic: 4 Jarring Signs of Turkey's Growing Islamization Pew Research: The Divide Over Islam and National Laws in the Muslim World The Pando, a grove of Aspen trees in Fishlake National Forest in Utah, got its name from a Latin word that means "I spread." It grew from a single aspen seed that sent up scores of shoots from its root system, forming a community of some 40,000 genetically identical individuals spread over 106 acres, with a collective weight of 6,500 tons. According to the U.S. Forest Service, the sprawling Pando is the largest single organism on the planet, though some sources bestow that distinction upon a giant honey fungus in eastern Oregon's Blue Mountains, which covers a bigger surface area. And though estimates of the Pando's age vary widely, from thousands to as much as 1 million years, there's a good possibility that it may be the oldest organism as well. RELATED: Tallest Tropical Tree Discovered in Malaysia But regardless of whether it qualifies for the Guinness Book of World Records, in recent years the Pando has been in trouble. As New Scientist reports, many of its oldest trees are reaching the end of their natural lifespan, and hungry animals such as deer and elk have been eating the young stems that would replace them. "It's falling apart on our watch," Paul Rogers, a Utah State University ecologist who directs the Western Aspen Alliance, a partnership between the university and the federal government, told the science magazine. "The old trees are dying, and the young ones are being eaten." The upside is that there's a possibility of saving the Pando by putting the entire grove inside a fence and taking other steps to help it regenerate. PHOTOS: World's Tallest Trees at Risk With the help of federal funding, a 67-acre section of the Pando already has been fenced off to prevent new tree shoots and saplings from being consumed. Additionally, the young aspens in that area have been assisted through management measures such as clearing vegetation, to allow more sunlight and stimulate regeneration. According to New Scientist, Rogers and colleagues found that over a single three-year period, the fenced-in part of the Pando contained eight times as many aspen stems as an unfenced area. "It was a neat surprise that we can get pretty good results with fencing alone," Rogers told the magazine. For more information, here's the U.S. Forest Service video about the Pando, and an in-depth Atlas Obscura article. WATCH VIDEO: Humans Can Be Dated Like Trees Oregon Zoo has released the last of more than 400 Oregon silverspot butterflies it reared at its facilities this summer. Oregon silverspots are listed as endangered due to loss of habitat in their native northwest range along with the dwindling of the early blue violet, their larvae's host plant. Over the past month, staff from the zoo have made weekly pupae transports to a U.S. Forest service site on Mount Hebo, in Tillamook County. Mount Hebo has been a key site for releases of the butterfly, which has been under a recovery program that has been running since 1998. RELATED: Monarch Butterfly Population Surges in Mexico As the accompanying video shows, zoo staff carry pupae -- protected in mesh pens -- into meadowlands on Mount Hebo, one of the last wild habitats for the silverspots. Within weeks, new butterflies will emerge and fly out into the meadow, free as butterflies. They have to make tracks, though. They only live for about two weeks, in which time they have to find mates and find early blue violets where they can stash their eggs. Their short life will have been a complete one if they can accomplish those things. Before its habitat became depleted, the butterfly was once abundant in coastal grasses from Northern California up through British Columbia. Only five population sites remain, making the recovery effort all the more critical. "The goal of the recovery program is to help each population grow large enough to be self-sustaining," said Oregon Zoo researcher Karen Lewis in a statement. "If it weren't for this program, three of the five remaining silverspot populations would likely be extinct." VIEW PHOTOS: Butterflies on the Verge of Collapse Widespread local extinctions of butterflies are expected to happen within the next three to four decades, according to new research on these insects that are key pollinators. Climate change, as well as habitat loss and degradation, are the biggest threats, according to the authors of the study, which is published in the journal Nature Climate Change. The extinctions would not only be a loss for admirers of butterflies, but they would also hurt ecosystems, affecting human well-being too. Lead author Tom Oliver explained to Discovery News that many butterfly species "provide important functions for humans -- they are part of our natural heritage, so they are important culturally, whilst they also pollinate wildflower plants." Oliver, a researcher at the Center for Ecology and Hydrology, conducted the study with his colleagues from the center, in addition to researchers from the charity Butterfly Conservation, Natural England and the University of Exeter. While the research focused on butterflies in the U.K., the scientists are also paying attention to butterfly populations worldwide. For example, Oliver said that the Monarch butterfly in North America "is thought to be declining, in large part due to loss of food plants in agricultural habitats." He says that "climate change could make this problem worse if it hastens the decline of the milkweed plants that they feed upon." Video: Monarch Butterfly in Danger The ringlet butterfly is one of six drought-sensitive butterflies in the U.K. that is expected to experience local extinctions in the U.K. by as early as 2050. Oliver and his team gathered data from 129 sites for 28 species targeted as part of the U.K. Butterfly Monitoring Scheme. They combined this information with data on climate history, habitat, and climate projections from 17 global circulation models. Even among the most favorable greenhouse gas emissions scenarios, this butterfly and many others were found to have an extremely low probability of persistence by the year 2050. Rare Half-Female, Half-Male Butterfly Emerges in Museum The green-veined white butterfly is a favorite among naturalists. Aside from its natural beauty, humans can actually smell when romance is in the air for this species. That is due to pheromones released by males that smell nearly identical to lemon peels. It, and related "large white" and "small white" butterflies, were identified in the study as being at risk for local extinctions within the next three to four decades. Photos: Strange and Beautiful Butterflies The large skipper butterfly is another of the six U.K. butterflies that are expected to go extinct. This is unless substantial greenhouse gas reductions are combined with better management of landscapes, such as reducing habitat fragmentation. Monarch Butterflies Use Magnetic Field to Navigate The speckled wood butterfly lives up to its name, given its appearance that resembles painted wood. Its population decline is expected to continue in the years to come due to increased drought associated with climate change. Oliver explained, "Severe heatwaves can affect adult insects directly, but in the case of butterflies, the larval (caterpillar) forms are much more sensitive." He added, "If their host plants dry out under prolonged severe drought then this can cause death of the larvae, or, at the very least, reduce the quality of their food so that they grow very slowly." Butterflies Inspire Ultra-Waterproof Materials The Edith's checkerspot is one of two very similar butterflies that are projected to undergo local extinctions within our lifetimes. Oliver said that they are particularly vulnerable to climate change effects. One reason is that not all butterflies are able to easily recolonize after population decreases following droughts, habitat loss and other threats. Some butterflies, for example, are less mobile than others, being more adapted to very specific environments. Don't Move a Monarch Butterfly, It Could Get Lost The critically endangered Bay checkerspot exemplifies butterflies that have evolved for a particular habitat and climate. This butterfly used to be common in the San Francisco Bay Area, but has experienced steep population declines in recent years due to habitat loss and other threats. Butterflies are of great interest to many scientists now. Oliver explained, "Because butterflies are a well-studied group, it may be possible to use them as an indicator for the potential impacts on other groups -- a 'canary in a coal mine,' if you will." Other insects being impacted by climate change include dragonflies, bees, moths and beetles. Photos: Faces of Bees, Flies and Friends Bhutan glory is native to its namesake country, as well as to parts of northeastern India and Southeast Asia. Its numbers are so few now that many conservation organizations simply describe the species using one word: "rare." "There's good news and bad news here," co-author Mike Morecroft says about the study. "The good news is that we can increase the resilience of species to climate change by improving our natural environment, particularly increasing areas of habitat, and we are working hard at this (referring to efforts in the U.K.). However, this approach will only work if climate change is limited by effective controls on greenhouse gas emissions." Oliver added that "at the international level, binding agreements and actions on climate change mitigation are essential, and President Obama's new plan is certainly a step in the right direction." Wallace's golden birdwing was formerly listed as "vulnerable" by the IUCN, but its continual decline has more recently led to an "endangered" listing. Co-author Christel Prudhomme says that efforts to save butterflies are most effective when they involve collaborations between researchers from different disciplines. The new paper by De Groote and colleagues, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, identifies Charles Dawson as the forger. With Piltdown Man labeled a fake, the list of suspects in the 1950s and onward grew like a puzzling cast of characters in a mystery novel. They included Dawson, Woodward, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (who, through his Sherlock Holmes books, was known for his trickery and scientific savvy), Teilhard de Chardin (a French Jesuit priest present at some of the supposed excavations), Martin Hinton (a volunteer in Woodward's department) and others. Studies of the fossils were undertaken in the early 1950s and concluded that a recent ape jaw and tooth, as well as a recent human skull, had been artificially modified, stained and planted at the site in Piltdown where the remains were supposedly found. As time went on, however, people became suspicious of the remains, which consisted of an ape -like jaw and a large braincase like that of a human, as well as fossils found at the sites of the purported finds. During the 1920 and 1930s, actual ancient human fossils were unearthed in China, Indonesia and Africa, none of which showed the peculiar mishmash of features found in "Piltdown Man." "Also," she continued, "discussion at the time focused more on the interpretation and the place of Piltdown Man in our family tree, such that the fossils themselves became less important." "Few people were allowed to study the originals so the clues of them being fakes weren't seen," Isabelle De Groote, a researcher in the school of Natural Sciences and Psychology at Liverpool John Moores University and lead author of a new paper on Piltdown Man, explained to Discovery News. At first the scientific community and the public were captivated by the "discoveries." Its remains were claimed to have been found in Piltdown, Sussex, U.K. Before he died in 1916, Dawson said he discovered further evidence at a second site. The scam centered around the supposed remains of "Piltdown Man." Between 1912 and 1914, Piltdown Man was presented by Natural History Museum of London paleontologist Arthur Smith Woodward and amateur antiquarian Charles Dawson as a species that they said provided a new evolutionary link between furry apes and humans. The perpetrator of one of the greatest scientific frauds of all time has just been identified, helping to solve a century's-old mystery involving everyone from Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to imminent scientists of the early 1900's. DNA analysis determined that both the canine tooth from the first Piltdown site and a molar tooth from the second site probably came from one orangutan related to the orangutans that now occupy Southwest Sarawak, Borneo. The shape and form of a molar tooth from the second Piltdown site was also found to have originated from the other side of a jawbone that had been planted in the first site. "Our work shows that a century on, we can add a new chapter to the Piltdown story through new investigative techniques," senior author Chris Stringer, a human origins expert at the Natural History Museum, said. "For example, we found surprising evidence that the forger had even removed the molars in order to modify them, and had then replaced them in the jawbone." 3D x-ray imaging further showed that many of the bones and a tooth were filled with Piltdown gravel. The openings in the "remains" were plugged with small pebbles, while holes in the skull were filled with the same dental putty used to reset the teeth in the jaw, and to reconstruct one of the teeth that fell apart while it was being ground down. Stringer and his colleagues believe that, because of the identified consistency in the manner that the fraud fossils were crafted, Dawson was the perpetrator. RELATED: Loch Ness Monster Find Is a Film Prop "A single forger was at hand here," De Groote said. "Dawson definitely had the connections to acquire the specimens, the skills and means to do this himself. Whether he had a technician carry out the work is unclear, but we believe he was the mastermind behind all the finds." As for why Sir Doyle was ruled out, she explained, "It is highly doubtful that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was involved. He lived nearby and Dawson may have been inspired by his books. Who knows? But Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would not have had the knowledge to carry this out." Intriguingly, Dawson's highly successful younger brother, Arthur Trevor, received a knighthood and public acclaim in November 1909, not too long before the great public unveiling of Piltdown Man. Dawson's wife Helene wrote a letter on December 28 of that year to the Home Secretary Herbert Gladstone, asking that her husband's scientific work be acknowledged because "he is entitled to some recognition." It appears that Dawson might have started off as an ambitious scientist, did not achieve his career goals, became bitter and disillusioned, and then turned to a life of fraud, which proved to turn things around for the better for him. At least 38 forgeries are now associated with Dawson. "If he hadn't given in to this dark side of himself that wanted fame and fooled scientists, he could have been a well-established scientist," De Groote said. Stephen Donovan, a professor at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center who has also extensively studied Piltdown Man said, "People have been saying for years that Dawson couldn't have done it, he was an amateur, he didn't have the resources or know-how, most of which isn't true and none of which is relevant. He was a serial scientific forger, talented at what he did and Piltdown Man was his greatest forgery, fooling the entire British paleoanthropological community. We should, in truth, marvel at his unique suite of abilities that enabled him to be so successful." Donovan added that the new research offers "a fine example of applying new techniques to old specimens. If we didn't preserve specimens in museums, such studies would not be possible." Dawson died 100 years ago this month. Piltdown Man is still kept at the Natural History Museum. SEE PHOTOS BELOW Related on TestTube Could ISIS Take Over Turkey? How Powerful Is Turkey? Earlier this month, a terrorist attack at a peace rally in the Turkish capital of Ankara killed nearly 100 people. It was the deadliest attack of its kind in modern Turkish history. Many looked to Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan to unite the country in the wake of such a tragedy, but, as detailed in this edition of TestTube News, the Turkish leader remains a controversial figure. Erdogan has a history of corruption and scandal. Although Erdogan has been a popular figure at times, he is struggling to bring Turkey together today as it faces some extreme challenges. One of the major issues in Turkey is the Kurdish population and its call for independence. Separatists have been fighting with the Turkish government for years, although tensions have become increasingly violent in recent years. Kurdish leader Selahattin Demirtas quickly blamed the deadly bombing on Erdogan's administration. Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) has been in power for 13 years. For a time, Erdogan seemed equipped to tackle some of Turkey's biggest challenges: balancing secular and religious communities, fighting inequality, navigating negotiations between Turks and Kurdish militias. Now, the population is deeply divided between government supporters and anti-government movements. In addition to internal conflicts, Turkey is fighting against ISIS forces in Syria as well as Kurdish separatists. It'll be worthwhile to keep an eye on Turkish parliamentary elections, slated to take place in early November. Learn More: The End of the Erdogan Era? (newyorker.com) "Whether abroad or at home, it's easy to get disheartened by democracy: sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But every now and then a moment arrives that wipes away our doubts and reaffirms our hopes in the wisdom of the democratic idea. " A "Kurdish Reset": Erdo?an's Last Chance? (turkishpolicy.com) "The recent resurgence of PKK violence, coupled by a noticeable lag in the constitutional reform process, has led critics to assume that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an's promises to the Kurds, Turkey's largest minority population, were insincere." Erdogan's Rivals Accuse Turkish Government of Arming Radicals in Syria (vocativ.com) "Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdo?an's government stands accused of funding Islamist militants in Syria-maybe even Al Qaeda-by backers of his political rival in the latest twist of a knock-down, drag-out war of accusations between Turkey's Islamist power brokers." Turkey worst jailer of journalists for second year in a row (cpj.org) "For the second consecutive year, Turkey was the world's leading jailer of journalists, followed closely by Iran and China." Granny flats are a major step closer to coming to a college town near you. An ordinance that would allow the addition of granny flats, technically known as accessory dwelling units, to single-family homes in the city of Ann Arbor has been recommended for approval by the city's Planning Commission. A vote for approval of the ordinance could come before the end of summer. Accessory dwelling units are small apartments homeowners building on their property. It could be anything from constructing a mother-in-law suite above a garage or a basement apartment for a son who just graduated. Theses units are typically used to house family members while giving them their own private space or to allow older people to generate a little rental income. "They increase the opportunities for the homeowner to age in place," says Chris Cheng, planner for the city of Ann Arbor. The ordinance has run into some opposition from people who are afraid this will open the door to create more student rentals in traditionally family oriented neighborhoods. And there has also been the predictable backlash of NIMBYs who dont react well to change. However, Cheng says the city has taken steps to help ensure this doesn't turn into a loophole for owners of single-family homes to turn them into student-rental duplexes. For instance, the property must be the homeowners principal residence except for temporary absences up to six months. "We are trying to make this as simple as we can but still keep up with the neighborhood concerns," Cheng says. The granny flats ordinance received its first reading in front of Ann Arbor's City Council in July. The second reading is set for August. Once that happens the City Council can vote on it or table the issue. Press Release August 9, 2016 Cayetano: Grant & Expand President's Emergency Powers to end traffic, congestion ASAP Making good on his vow to help President Rodrigo Duterte fulfill a campaign promise that their tandem made in the last elections, Senator Alan Peter Cayetano is proposing a measure that would give the President wide-ranging emergency powers to address the country's traffic crisis. The senator on Monday (Aug. 8) filed Senate Bill No. 999 or the "Freedom from Traffic and Congestion Act of 2016," as he vowed to put in effect a "more holistic and inclusive approach" to address the worsening traffic and congestion problem. What makes Cayetano's bill different from similar proposals is that it aims to address not only land transportation traffic, but air-based and sea-based transport congestion as well. Additionally, SBN 999 shall cover not only Metro Manila, but all other urbanized areas that experience the same level of traffic and congestion, such as Rizal, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, and Metro Cebu. Citing a report by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Cayetano said the cost of traffic in Metro Manila could likely increase from P2.4 billion to P6 billion a day if left unresolved. This means that low-income households will have to allocate more of their income for higher transport costs, he said. "Traffic does not plague Metro Manila alone. It also affects other highly urbanized cities with no relief in sight," Cayetano added. "Worse, our kababayans in other regions have to wait for Manila to solve their problem. This is the fate that awaits other highly urbanized cities in the years to come if we do not create changes now. We should prevent a repeat of the past administration's fiasco. We can't wait for two years just to finish procurement procedures. Let's expedite the construction of major infrastructure projects to ease traffic congestion." Cayetano further noted how severe congestion in NAIA's major runways has caused regular delays in flights, disrupting people's productivity and work flow while also affecting the country's image before the international community for having one of the world's worst airports. "The country's traffic problem, both land-based and air-based, in Metro Manila and in other highly urbanized cities, has assumed the nature and magnitude of a public calamity," said the senator. "The situation has reached crisis levels and this requires no less than emergency powers for the President and concerned agencies if we are to provide urgent relief to our people's suffering,." If passed, Cayetano's bill shall give emergency powers to the President, along with heads of executive departments and agencies related to the transportation sector, to urgently utilize necessary government resources, employ executive actions, and reconfigure and harmonize government projects with the goal of addressing the crisis. It will take effect for three years. SBN 999 shall authorize the executive branch to direct the formulation of a "comprehensive, integrated and sustainable Decongestion and Transportation Network Reform Plan," which will provide a roadmap for the national and local transportation system - land, sea, and air - to decongest Greater Metro Manila and other highly urbanized cities. The Secretary of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) shall be the designated Traffic Czar to oversee the implementation of the plan. Upon filing his bill, Cayetano stressed the need to adopt a strong system of transparency in addressing transport woes. He said any emergency measure proposed to solve the crisis should be powerful enough to prevent oligarchs from securing government projects to advance their own interests. "We assure the public that we will put in effect adequate safeguards to guard against graft. We believe that the President will deal harshly with any person or agency that abuses these powers for their own gain," he said. The senator repeatedly said decongesting the National Capital Region (NCR) by providing sufficient transport infrastructure and linkages in other regions is the first step towards decentralization and attaining inclusive growth. During their campaign, the Duterte-Cayetano tandem presented various proposals to achieve this goal, such as constructing a Mindanao railway system and a Panay railway system, rehabilitating airports and seaports, and developing the Clark International Airport as an alternative to NAIA, among others. Press Release August 9, 2016 De Lima seeks to lower number of persons involved in illegal recruitment syndicate In a bid to add teeth to the government's campaign against illegal recruitment, Sen. Leila M. de Lima has filed a measure in the Senate seeking to lower the number of perpetrators from three to two to qualify as large-scale illegal recruitment. De Lima, chairperson of the Senate justice committee, filed Senate Bill No. 961 redefining the crime of illegal recruitment committed by a syndicate as a group of three or more persons formed to carry out illegal deployment of Filipino workers abroad. "Illegal recruitment is a menace to the society. It is one of the most detestable crimes a Filipino can commit to another Filipino, a crime that has brought about sufferings to thousands of poor and innocent victims and their families," she said. "Their victims, who dreamed of landing high paying jobs abroad, instead find themselves financially and emotionally distressed. Worse, many of them fell into the hand of traffickers or landed in jails as a consequence." The US Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report once downgraded the Philippines to Tier 2 watch list, which includes countries whose government do not comply with the minimum standards of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of the US. It was through the efforts of the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) chaired by De Lima as Justice Secretary under the previous administration that the Philippines has been upgraded to Tier 1 status, in recognition of its compliance with the global standards. "The challenge ahead is how to maintain such Tier 1 ranking as to decisively and palpably defeat the scourge which is human trafficking. Illegal recruitment continues to proliferate despite government campaigns and stiffer penalties," she emphasized. Under the Labor Code of the Philippines and Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipino Act of 1995, illegal recruitment is generally committed by a syndicate or a group of three or more persons who intend to carry out illegal transactions or scheme. "Unfortunately, persons accused of illegal recruitment by a syndicate often evade by simply alleging that the victim failed to establish that the crime was carried out by a group of three or more persons conspiring with one another," she noted. "Despite government campaigns and stiffer penalties imposed, illegal recruitment continues to proliferate. Every year, hundreds of victims still fall prey to illegal recruiters," she added. Under the present law, illegal recruitment by a syndicate is meted with life imprisonment and a fine of not less than PhP 2 million but not more than PhP 5 million. If passed into law, SB No. 961 will amend the definition of syndicate by lowering the number of perpetrators from three to two to qualify as illegal recruitment by a syndicate. "Sa panukalang batas na ito, tatapusin natin ang maliligayang sandali ng mga umaabuso sa mga butas ng batas. Wawakasan natin ang modus ng mga sindikatong ito, at sisiguruhing marangal na makakapagtrabaho ang ating mga OFW," she added. Press Release August 9, 2016 Drilon urges Duterte admin to reform justice system Senate President Pro-Tempore Franklin M. Drilon today urged the Duterte administration to come up with a comprehensive reform package and long-term solutions to solve criminality and bring back the people's trust in the justice system. "The challenge to all of us is to come up with a complete and significant reforms in our justice system, so that the government does not have to resort to a 'shame campaign' strategy in an effort to solve criminality," Drilon said. Drilon stressed the need for the Duterte administration to look for a long-term solution to crimes, saying that "shame campaigning" would not put criminals behind bars. "What we need is an effective justice system that will make punishment a deterrent against crimes. We must work all together - the three branches of government - for a justice system that is capable to punish criminals on time," Drilon stressed. "The effective deterrent against the commission of crimes is the certainty of punishment and expeditiousness of the proceedings," he emphasized. Drilon also said he was appalled by the lack of public indignation over the spate of killings of alleged drug suspects. But he said he could understand that such was "a manifestation of public's frustration brought about by inefficiency in the country's justice system." "There is a failure of the justice system. Our people are upset because of the inability of our justice system to address criminality and punish the criminals with dispatch," Drilon said. "But because in our present justice system where punishment may come decades after the crime was committed, there was no effective deterrent against crimes, which is why criminality in the country is always high," Drilon lamented. Earlier, Drilon said that a shame campaign as an effort to solve drug problems in the country is not based on evidence and has significant margin of error. "The problem is that the shame campaign is not evidence-based. It is based on intelligence reports, which may or may not be true. In fact the President admitted that he might be wrong or right. But a single mistake could lead to a error, say death, which could no longer rectify," Drilon said. Press Release August 9, 2016 Hontiveros to Duterte: You can't destroy oligarchy by giving Marcos a hero's burial "For someone who publicly disapproves of oligarchs, President Duterte's decision to give the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos a hero's burial is the height of contradiction." This was the statement issued today by Akbayan Senator Risa Hontiveros as she opposed the plan by the government to bury the remains of Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (LNMB). In a resolution she filed on Monday, Hontiveros said that allowing the former President to be buried at the cemetery will only cause further divisiveness and reopen old wounds, especially as the country is in the process of providing reparations to Martial Law victims. "President Duterte cannot end the rule of oligarchs in the country by honoring the very man who created a crony oligarchy during Martial Law," Hontiveros said. Hontiveros argued that Marcos does not qualify to be buried at the heroes' cemetery. She said that while the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) regulation regarding the allocation of cemetery plots at the LNMB allows for the burial of former presidents, an exception was provided for those who were convicted of offenses involving moral turpitude. "In the case of Hilao v. Estate of Marcos, the jury found the estate of defendant Ferdinand Marco liable to 10,059 plaintiffs for the acts of torture, summary execution and disappearance. This conviction should suffice to disqualify Marcos from being buried at the heroes' cemetery," Hontiveros explained. The neophyte senator said that the Duterte government should just lay the remains of the late strongman in his hometown or some other place "that will not serve to distort history, assail democracy and insult all those who fought and died to end the dictatorship." "This is the more appropriate resolution that the government can pursue on this matter rather than yield to the Marcoses' attempt to paint a rosy picture of the dictatorship, rehabilitate their image and whitewash their crimes against the people," Hontiveros ended. SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE ) REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES ) First Regular Session ) SENATE P.S. Res. No. _______ INTRODUCED BY SEN. ANA THERESIA "RISA" HONTIVEROS BARAQUEL A RESOLUTION EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE SENATE THAT THE CRIMES OF THE FORMER PRESIDENT FERDINAND MARCOS TO THE REPUBLIC, AND THE HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS COMMITTED UNDER HIS REGIME, RENDER HIM UNFIT TO BE BURIED AT THE LIBINGAN NG MGA BAYANI WHEREAS, the Libingan ng mga Bayani (hereafter, Libingan) is the designated resting place for Filipino soldiers, war veterans, and citizens considered as heroes and martyrs; WHEREAS, given the long history of the Filipino people with tyranny and oppression, the Libingan has been created to honor the memory of our brave countrymen who fought for freedom and liberties even in the face of superior force, so that the present generation may remember and emulate their legacy; WHEREAS, President Rodrigo Duterte has declared his intention to allow former President Ferdinand Marcos to be buried at the Libingan in fulfillment of a promise made during the campaign to the Marcos family; WHEREAS, while according to Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Regulation The Allocation of Cemetery Plots at the LNMB issued on 9 April 1986, former Presidents may be buried at the Libingan, an exception was provided for those "who were dishonorably separated, reverted or discharged from the service, and those who were convicted of an offense involving moral turpitude (emphasis supplied)"; WHEREAS, in the case of Hilao v. Estate of Marcos (In re Estate of Marcos Human Rights Litigation, 910 F. Supp. 1460), the jury found the estate of defendant Ferdinand Marcos liable to 10,059 plaintiffs for the acts of torture, summary execution, and disappearance; WHEREAS, testimonies of the plaintiffs revealed that during the Martial Law period, of which former President was the architect, human rights violations included, but were not limited to: beatings while blindfolded, the "telephone", where a detainees ears were clapped simultaneously, insertion of bullets between the fingers of the detainee and squeezing the hand, the "wet submarine" where the detainee's head was submerged in a toilet bowl full of excrement, the "water cure" where a cloth was placed over the detainee's mouth and nose, and water poured over it producing a drowning sensation, the "dry submarine" where a plastic bag was placed over the detainee's head producing suffocation, use of a detainee's hands for putting out lighted cigarettes, use of flat-irons on the soles of a detainee's feet, forcing a detainee while wet and naked to sit before an air conditioner often while sitting on a block of ice, injection of a clear substance into the body a detainee believed to be truth serum, stripping, sexually molesting and raping female detainees; one male plaintiff testified he was threatened with rape, electric shock where one electrode is attached to the genitals of males or the breast of females and another electrode to some other part of the body, usually a finger, and electrical energy produced from a military field telephone is sent through the body, Russian roulette, and solitary confinement while handcuffed or tied to a bed; WHEREAS, this conviction should suffice to disqualify former President Marcos from being remembered in history as a hero, and from lying beside those who have demonstrated extraordinary heroism and valor in the service of the country; WHEREAS, allowing the former President to be buried at the Libingan will only cause further divisiveness, and will reopen old wounds, especially as the country is also in the process of providing reparations to Martial Law victims; WHEREAS, President Duterte cannot end the rule of oligarchs in the country by honoring the very man who created a crony oligarchy during Martial Law; NOW THEREFORE BE IT, RESOLVED AS IT IS HEREBY RESOLVED, to express the sense that former President Marcos should not be allowed to be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, given findings of crimes involving moral turpitude as well as the human rights violations that occurred during his administration. SEN. ANA THERESIA "RISA" HONTIVEROS BARAQUEL Koko: Federalism benefits indigenous people As the country observes National Indigenous People's Day, Senate President Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III expressed hopes that the proposed shift in government will be beneficial for the different indigenous groups in the country. Koko said, "We should recognize the potential of expediting the delivery of services and assistance to the indigenous groups if we start empowering communities." This is in relation to what he said in a speech delivered in a forum last week. He said, "A federal society is one which recognizes the diversity that exists among the people." To this, he added, "Federalism is also meant to preserve cultural identities and practices." In the recent data of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), ethno-linguistic groups in the Philippines are mostly concentrated in Mindanao (61 percent) and the Cordillera Administrative Region (33 percent). In the present system, around 14- 17 million IPs in the country are singlehandedly assisted by the National Commission on Indigenous People. The National Indigenous People's Day is observed every August 9 to promote awareness of the rights of indigenous peoples in the country. Travel delays for Delta Air Lines customers spilled into a second day Tuesday as the air carrier canceled at least 680 flights, a day after a power failure prompted it to ground 1,000 flights worldwide. Delta officials said the flights were being grounded, with hundreds more delayed, in an effort to reset operations and get crews and aircraft back to where they need to be. Unaccompanied minors who havent begun travel also wont be allowed to fly until Wednesday, company officials said. The company faced widespread cancellations and delays after a power failure knocked out its computer system about 2:30 a.m. Monday in Atlanta (11:30 p.m. PDT Sunday). The power failure Monday grounded at least five flights, and delayed several more, at San Francisco International Airport, Oakland International Airport and Mineta San Jose International Airport. Monday evening, many Delta flights were still delayed at Bay Area airports, but the airline appeared to be catching up. Bay Area airports were still facing some residual effects of the blackout throughout the day Tuesday. Along with several delays, 10 Delta flights were scraped at SFO by Tuesday afternoon while several others were delayed. Five flights were canceled at the San Jose airport, and four flights were grounded in Oakland. More for you After outage, Delta seeks forgiveness with refunds, vouchers We were able to bring our systems back online and resume flights within a few hours yesterday (Monday), but we are still operating in recovery mode, Dave Holtz, Deltas senior vice president for operations, said in a statement posted online Tuesday morning. We are sorry for what many of our customers have experienced over the past 24 hours, including those who remain at airports and continue waiting for their flights. Deltas troubles along with a technical glitch that caused Southwest Airlines to cancel 2,300 flights over four days last month illustrate the fragility of the air travel industrys heavy reliance on technology that controls everything from when and where planes are dispatched to consumer websites. Delta CEO Ed Bastian apologized to customers Monday in an online video, saying operations and customer service employees were working to fully restore the system. Delta officials offered travel waivers to customers whose flights were impacted. They also provided $200 travel vouchers to all customers who experienced at least a three-hour flight delay or cancellation. Many customers across the Bay Area were frustrated with the companys service. Some complained of long lines. Others camped out in airports overnight. Those customers said Delta didnt offer hotel or other arrangements to make them comfortable. Delta officials said they were making hotel and other accommodations for customers where they were available. Customers traveling Tuesday were told to check the status of their flights at www.delta.com or the Fly Delta app. Officials said customers can rebook their flight via the Delta website. Kevin Schultz is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kschultz@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kevinedschultz This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate A city that releases a prisoner usually cant be held responsible when the former prisoner harms a random victim. San Francisco officials cited that long-standing legal doctrine in asking a federal magistrate to dismiss a lawsuit by the parents of a woman who was shot to death by an immigrant who had been freed from city custody 2 months earlier. But a lawyer for Kathryn Steinles parents says their case is different because a similar tragedy had taken place in San Francisco seven years earlier a triple killing by an unauthorized immigrant, formerly in city custody and city officials knew what could happen by turning loose the man who would later be charged with killing Steinle, Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez. Ross Mirkarimi, who as sheriff refused to tell immigration officials in 2015 that his office was releasing Lopez-Sanchez, was on the Board of Supervisors in 2008 when gang member Edwin Ramos fired shots into a car that killed Tony Bologna and his two sons, Michael and Matthew. Bolognas survivors sued San Francisco because the city had not notified immigration agents before releasing Ramos from custody several years earlier. A federal judge dismissed the suit, citing the rule that shields government officials from liability for harm caused by a released inmate unless they had reason to know that a specific victim was in danger. From that case, an attorney for Steinles parents said in a court filing Monday, Mirkarimi knew that a policy of not cooperating with federal immigration officials could result in yet another undocumented felon, with a history of erratic and criminal behavior, being free on the streets of San Francisco and committing a heinous crime. The sheriff acted with full knowledge and awareness that it foreseeably would result in the loss of innocent lives, attorney Alison Cordova said in opposing the citys motion to dismiss the Steinle familys lawsuit. U.S. Magistrate Joseph Spero has scheduled a hearing for Sept. 23 on whether the case should proceed. Steinle, 32, was shot to death in July 2015 as she walked with her father along Pier 14 in San Francisco. Lopez-Sanchez, released from jail in April 2015, has been charged with murder. He has admitted firing the fatal shot, but his lawyers contend it was an accident, citing evidence that the bullet bounced off the pavement before striking Steinle. Lopez-Sanchez had been deported to his native Mexico five times and had just spent 46 months in federal prison for illegal re-entry into the U.S. when federal officials turned him over to San Francisco in March 2015 to face an old marijuana charge. City prosecutors dropped the charge, and Mirkarimis office released Lopez-Sanchez, disregarding federal agents request to return him to them. Mirkarimi invoked San Franciscos sanctuary-city ordinance, which allows local officers to ignore federal agencies orders to keep unauthorized immigrants in custody and turn them over for deportation. The ordinance is intended to encourage immigrants to cooperate with police without fear of deportation. But the lawsuit filed in May by Steinles parents, Jim Steinle and Elizabeth Sullivan, said Mirkarimi had been acting on his own because the ordinance did not prohibit communication with federal officials. The parents have also sued federal immigration officials, saying they knew before Lopez-Sanchez was released that Mirkarimi was refusing to comply with their detention orders. Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate BARTs highly anticipated introduction of new train cars was hit by a five-month delay, but officials said Tuesday that customers should still expect to be riding a full new fleet within five years. The transit agency plans to press 10 new test cars into service by the end of the year as part of a pilot program in which it is running and studying the cars and trying to fix problems. The five-month delay was caused primarily by the need for extensive wiring modifications in the cars, BART officials said. They said the new trains also continue to experience troubles with the reliability of equipment that powers lights, air conditioning, heating and part of a braking system. These issues, among others, will need to be fixed before more cars can roll off the assembly line. The problems, which BART has been aware of for more than a year, mean that the agency wont receive the first new railcars until at least May, officials said. They insist the problems should have only a temporary impact on the arrival of 775 new cars BART has ordered from Bombardier, a Canadian railcar manufacturer. Were still on track to meeting the schedule of when those cars go into service, said Alicia Trost, a BART spokeswoman. The schedule calls for BART to have 60 new cars by the end of 2017, 230 by 2018, 420 by 2019, 610 by 2020 and all 775 by 2021. BART is counting on the delivery of the new railcars to help relieve the overcrowding, breakdowns and service delays that have increasingly plagued the system over the past few years as the agency has been simultaneously hit with aging equipment and surging ridership. The first of the pilot cars arrived in March, about three months behind schedule, and was put into testing at BARTs Hayward maintenance yard. Another three have arrived since, and six more are expected by the end of the year. BARTs contract with Bombardier calls for the manufacturer to deliver 10 cars that will be tested for a year to discover and fix problems before it cranks up the production line at its assembly plant in Plattsburgh, N.Y. The biggest problem that BART is dealing with involves the auxiliary power system, which provides electricity for tasks other than propelling the train. That includes lighting, air conditioning and heating as well as pumping hydraulic fluid to one of the braking systems used to slow and stop trains. The power system failed what BART called longevity testing intense shaking and vibrations that showed it would not last 30 years as designed. BART engineers also found that the system tended to shut down when it reached 300 degrees, said agency spokesman Taylor Huckaby, and that it shut down when maintenance workers plugged in multiple floor cleaning machines. This is stress testing, he said. Were trying to break the test train in essence. BART was aware of problems with the power system, Trost said, but agreed to accept the 10 test cars anyway so they could inspect other parts and not slow the arrival of the new cars more than necessary. BART engineers are working with Mitsubishi, the manufacturer of the power system, to resolve the problems and expect theyll be rectified. We dont have any concerns at this time, Trost said. Theres no reason to believe we wont fix the problem. While it will start late, Bombardier has agreed to step up production to meet BARTs needs for new cars, which will increase when the Warm Springs extension in Fremont opens this fall and the Berryessa extension to San Jose joins the system by 2018. Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate The arrival of an unnamed black Labrador caused a small commotion round noontime Tuesday when he sauntered into the Solano County animal shelters intake room. The pooch, its fur unkempt and covered in fleas, was found wandering near a highway in Suisun City before a concerned woman brought him in. A technician gave him a syringe-full of vaccine to protect against parvo, a contagious virus, and kennel cough. Another woman waved a wand that turned up no sign of a computer chip that would have identified the stray and linked it to an owner. No microchip, no tags on the collar, Lt. Cathy Raymos of the Solano County Sheriffs Office, who runs the shelters operations, noted with disapproval. At the end of the evaluation, kennel worker Aunie Winn pulled out a point-and-shoot camera and tried to get the dog to stay relatively still. Too close, too close, she told the pooch, before handing the camera off to Amanda Hoover, whos in charge of outreach and volunteers for the shelter. Hoover meowed to get the dogs attention and snapped his photo. The picture, not unlike booking photos for inmates at the jail adjacent to the shelter, was uploaded to a database that keeps kennel inventory and has details on each animal. Starting this week, some of that information will also be sent to an app that uses facial recognition technology to match missing dogs to those that have been found. Officials in Solano Countys animal care department and the Sheriffs Office, which oversees the often-at-capacity shelter, hope the technology will increase the percentage of animals reclaimed by their owners right now, only 10 to 15 percent. They also want the app to cut down on the time animals spend in the shelter, which can rack up boarding fees for owners when they finally come in. Data from the app, Finding Rover, is shared with up to 180 municipal shelters across the county, in hopes of reuniting pet owners with their lost furry friends. And Solano County, like the app users, didnt have to shell out any money to get the technology. Owners upload photos and details of their dogs to the database, and if Sparky or Buster ever runs away, someone who finds the animal can upload another photo, which will match to the first one and alert the owner. For shelters, the photos are automatically sent to the network. The technology which notes 128 facial points and features, like eye-to-nose geometry is accurate 98 percent of the time and will soon be available for cats, said John Polimeno, founder of Finding Rover. Its one more way for people to recognize their animal, Hoover said inside the intake room. We need, like, 500 more ways. Veterinarians and shelter workers still hope pet owners use traditional means of keeping track of their animals: microchips, licenses and tags on collars. Raymos said the app may help people who cant travel to the shelter or who are too lazy to do so. Its amazing how many people want to sit on their couch and find their animals, she said. But Polimeno, who commissioned the technology to be developed at the University of Utah, said owners looking for lost dogs often have to return to shelters every day. With the app, that becomes unnecessary, he said. When Harley, our black Lab, jumped the fence, those were probably the worst three days of my life, said Polimeno, who lives in Brentwood. He put his children in the backseat and they searched for three days, eventually finding the dog safe at a neighbors house. Years later, in 2013, a lost-dog poster at a coffee shop brought back the unpleasant memory and spurred Polimeno to look for a more innovative way of reuniting lost pets to their humans, eventually spawning Finding Rovers creation. I cant make people come down here, Raymos said, so if this is an avenue to help reunification, Im happy. Kimberly Veklerov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kveklerov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kveklerov Number of the day 6.23% Thats how much shares of Gap fell Tuesday on the news of its July sales Monday. They slipped $1.59 to close at $24.01. A dismal July, which saw sales fall by 4 percent, put a halt to the turnaround that the San Francisco retailer had reported in June. Banana Republic had the worst showing, with a 14 percent decline, Gap stores saw a 4 percent drop, and Old Navy sales were flat. High-speed delay Google has told Mountain View and Palo Alto that it is putting plans to provide lightning-fast fiber Internet service on hold while it explores a cheaper alternative, Bay Area News Group reported. And nearly 100 employees hired to install Google Fiber in San Jose were told that project was being delayed, according to workers. Googles parent company, Alphabet, recently acquired Webpass, and is expected to adopt its technology, which involves sending aerial data between transmitters on top of buildings, avoiding digging up city streets. Want to save money? Move away Whats the worst place to live in the U.S. if you want to save money? Oh, come on, take a wild guess. Yes, San Francisco indeed topped a list put together by Go BankingRates and published by Business Insider. Oakland was third and San Jose 13th (it didnt rank higher only because average workers earned so much). Of the 15 cities on the list, only New York and Miami were outside California. The Daily Briefing is compiled from San Francisco Chronicle staff and news services. See more items and links at www.sfgate.com. Twitter: @techbriefing Nearly six years after a defective natural gas pipeline exploded in San Bruno, killing eight people and destroying 38 homes, a federal court jury convicted Pacific Gas and Electric Co. on Tuesday of obstructing the federal probe of the blast and of violating pipeline safety laws both before and after the disaster. The jury found PG&E guilty of five felony counts of knowingly failing to inspect and test its gas lines for potential dangers, in addition to the felony obstruction count. The panel also found that company officials had tried to derail the San Bruno investigation by denying a practice of pumping natural gas through aging pipelines at excessive pressures. Jurors acquitted the company of six charges of deliberately failing to maintain proper records of pipeline tests and repairs. The 12-member panel deliberated for just over seven days in San Francisco before returning their unanimous verdicts. Jurors declined to speak with reporters before leaving the courthouse. PG&E faces a maximum total fine for the convictions of $3 million, far less than what prosecutors had sought before a judges ruling during the trial prompted them to scale back the potential penalties. U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson did not schedule a sentencing date Tuesday. PG&E did not say immediately whether it would appeal the verdict, but lawyers for the company said they would ask Henderson to overturn the convictions and dismiss the charges. We have made unprecedented progress in the nearly six years since the tragic San Bruno accident and we are committed to maintaining our focus on safety, PG&E said in a statement after the verdict. We want our customers and their families to know that we are committed to re-earning their trust. San Bruno Mayor Jim Ruane said city officials had wanted federal prosecutors to file criminal charges against top PG&E executives, who made conscious decisions to put safety on the bottom of their list. Only the company was charged, not its current or former officials. But Ruane said it was still gratifying to see the company convicted, saying the verdicts put a very dark stain on the corporate seal. The explosion, early in the evening of Sept. 9, 2010, sent flames 1,000 feet into the air and devastated San Brunos Crestmoor neighborhood. In addition to the dead, 58 people were seriously injured. The cause was a defective seam weld in a 30-inch transmission pipeline from the 1950s that PG&E charts had labeled seamless. The state Public Utilities Commission fined the company a record $1.6 billion for the explosion. Prosecutors in the criminal case initially sought a fine of up to $562 million for convictions on all 12 counts, which they said was twice the amount PG&E saved by illegally cutting safety programs. But after Henderson ruled that prosecutors could not use new state safety standards to prove illegal cost-cutting, they backed off from the higher penalties and instead sought standard fines of up to $500,000 for each conviction. That means the maximum the company could be fined for the convictions Tuesday is $3 million. Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough, whose district includes the neighborhood devastated by the explosion, said in a statement that the punishment to these serious charges is woefully inadequate. A paltry maximum fine of $3 million or 0.3 percent of PG&Es $888 million profits in 2015 is not a strong message to industry that safety must take priority over profits. Fines are paid by company shareholders, rather than the customers. But the state commission said ratepayers would bear 55 percent of the long-term costs, or $125 million, for upgrades in PG&Es pipe inspection and safety programs. From the outset of the trial, the opposing sides clashed over references to San Bruno, with prosecutors seeking to keep the explosion at the forefront and PG&E opposing all references to it. Henderson allowed evidence about the blasts effects on PG&Es inspection practices and interactions with regulators, but rejected prosecutors attempts to refer during the trial to the deaths and damage that the explosion caused. He also refused to let prosecutors haul the wrecked 28-foot-long, 3,000-pound pipe to the front of the courthouse on Golden Gate Avenue so jurors could see it. This is not a trial about the San Bruno explosion, the judge told lawyers in a pretrial hearing. But the blast prompted a National Transportation Safety Board investigation that led to the rare criminal prosecution on issues normally handled by regulatory agencies. Prosecutors said investigators had found that PG&E ignored its legal obligation to closely monitor older pipelines, like the Peninsula line that ran through San Bruno, and to test or replace them when gas pressures exceeded federally prescribed limits. One charge that led to a conviction was that the company knew of two previous leaks, one of them in the San Bruno line in 1988, but failed to enter them in its database or consider them in inspection and testing plans for the pipelines. The database contained a ton of errors, according to a company memo, and prosecutors said in another set of charges that PG&E managers had known they were relying on flawed records in making safety-related decisions. PG&E denied knowingly failing to maintain adequate records, and the jury acquitted the company of those charges. Jurors convicted PG&E, however, of the most substantive charges of violating safety laws failing to identify and evaluate potential risks, to use the most accurate assessment methods and to give the highest priority to the most serious hazards. Prosecutors said PG&E had regularly boosted gas pressure above legal limits on numerous aging pipelines including 84 miles of pipes identified in a company memo in early 2010 but had deliberately chosen a low-cost inspection method that was incapable of detecting internal welding flaws, violating laws that require pipeline operators to conduct effective scrutiny. The motive was profit over safety, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Schenk said in closing arguments Tuesday. Prosecutors cited a PG&E memo from 2008 on its priorities that listed a number of topics up for executives debate, including safety and reliability, but said ensuring shareholder returns of 8 percent was not negotiable. PG&E denied engaging in unsafe cost-cutting and accused prosecutors of trying to tap into anticorporate resentment the common view, as defense attorney Steven Bauer put it in closing arguments, that a big company might be a little greedy. He and other defense attorneys sought to present Californias largest utility in human terms, as hardworking people who live in the neighborhoods they serve. The defense even presented a map showing that some employees live near large transmission pipelines, though prosecutors noted that none was a company manager or executive. The obstruction charge involved PG&E documents, dating back to 2009, that described a practice of allowing pipeline pressures up to 10 percent above federal limits. As PG&E was about to be audited by the state Public Utilities Commission in April 2011, the company sent a letter to federal regulators saying the alleged 10 percent policy was only a draft that had never been approved or implemented. Several past and present company employees echoed that assertion during trial testimony. But prosecutors said company memos and other evidence showed that PG&E had pressured pipelines up to 10 percent above the limits for several years, and that the company had sent the letter in hopes of misleading the San Bruno investigators. Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko UC Berkeley police believe theyve finally solved the 1992 homicide of Grace Asuncion, a junior who was stabbed to death in a campus building. Police identified John Iwed, an Alameda resident who died of a drug overdose less than a year after Asuncions death, as the killer in the cold case. Iwed, who was 24 when he died, had been a suspect in the investigation, but police had ruled him out after interviewing him. In a statement released Tuesday, police officials said they recently reinterviewed witnesses and came upon new information that pointed to Iwed. We identified Iwed as a suspect early on in the case but did not have enough corroborating evidence to charge him at the time, said Sgt. Sabrina Reich, a UC police spokeswoman, in a statement. New information made us confident we had identified the right person. Reich said the Alameda County district attorneys office had reviewed the new information and determined they would have charged Iwed in the killing if he was still alive. Asuncion, 20, was a premed student who was working in the Eshleman Hall offices of the campus Pilipino American Alliance the afternoon she was killed, on Feb. 7, 1992. Shed been stabbed multiple times in the neck, and her body was found by a custodian. She had not been raped or robbed. Her death sparked campus-wide anger and concern around a lack of security in Eshleman Hall, which was located at the edge of campus on Bancroft Way and housed offices for student government and other groups. The building was demolished in 2013 and rebuilt. The university settled a wrongful-death lawsuit with Asuncions family, paying $750,000. Not long after the homicide, Iwed apparently confessed to his wife that he thought he had killed Asuncion. An attorney hired by Asuncions family said Iwed admitted that hed taken drugs and gone into the campus building loaded. In their statement, UC Berkeley police said, We never gave up on the Grace Asuncion homicide case. Our students safety is important to us and we wanted to be able to help bring a resolution to the case. The upcoming Spierig brothers "supernatural thriller" about the storied San Jose Winchester Mystery House now has a plot line (and a second character!). Starring Dame Helen Mirren as the wealthy and superstitious eccentric Sarah Winchester, the film will tell the story of the widowed heiress as she begins building and rebuilding the twisty mansion she lives in, in a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week attempt to keep evil ghosts away. As many locals familiar with the tale know, Winchester believed she was being haunted by spirits killed by Winchester repeating rifles, the product of her late husband's company that made her obscenely rich. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 KARSTEN MORAN/NYT Show More Show Less 2 of 3 KARSTEN MORAN/NYT Show More Show Less 3 of 3 Guitar greats Jeff Beck and Buddy Guy are on a co-headlining tour, performing songs that span decades and eras all the way from Fever, which appeared on 1968s This Is Buddy Guy, to The Revolution Will Be Televised, from Becks new release, Loud Hailer. Theres plenty of other good stuff in the mix, too. Guy, 80, is a natural showman who peppers his blues classics with a couple of jokes and a lot of history. Beck, who made his name with the Yardbirds, is having a banner year that also sees the release of his autobiography, BECK01. One of the wonderful things about opera is that most of them can be happily unmoored from their original settings. Unless youre a literalist of the most dogged kind, you can see the dramatic possibilities of Fidelio in a modern totalitarian state or the comic virtues of The Mikado set in Renaissance Italy. And that, boys and girls, is how we wound up with a Star Trek-themed Abduction From the Seraglio. Mozarts youthful comic opera turns out to operate reasonably well in a world of phasers, Klingons and Vulcan hand salutes. And the performance Monday, Aug. 8, at Oaklands Holy Names University, a co-production by Festival Opera and the Oakland Symphony, had the necessary virtue of treating Mozarts music with a full measure of respect and virtuosity under the leadership of conductor Michael Morgan. I wouldnt have said going in that a sci-fi Abduction was something anyone was crying out for very loudly especially since the result was more intent on using Mozart to make Star Trek jokes than the other way around. But it did no one any harm, and there were certain moments of high jollity scattered amid the musical rewards. The piece is the handiwork of director Josh Shaw, who created the English libretto two years ago for Pacific Opera Project, the company he runs in Los Angeles. It takes the basic narrative framework of the original in which several European travelers need to be rescued from the clutches of a savage Turkish potentate and neatly transfers it to the familiar world of 1960s television. Belmonte, the leader of the rescue mission, becomes a thinly veiled Capt. Kirk, while his sidekick, Pedrillo, is Spock; the Turks are Klingons; and Constanze the female lead and Belmontes beloved is recast as Lt. Uhura. The remaining principal role, Blondie, evidently corresponds to a character existing somewhere beyond my limited Star Trek ken. The premise is a fertile one, since the clash of civilizations underlies not only Abduction but a whole tradition of operas that were popular during the decades in the 18th and early 19th centuries when tensions between Christian Europe and the Muslim Levant were high (sound familiar?). Space wars make a neat analog, and the Berkeley Opera years ago gave a similar treatment to Rossinis Italian Girl in Algiers, an opera with a more or less identical plot. But Shaws production is mostly committed to an anything-for-a-laugh aesthetic, which yielded mixed and unpredictable results. For every inventive witticism and ingenious plot turn, there was another scene milked too long for payoff that never arrived. Some of Mondays audience laughed uproariously throughout, while others seemed to be sitting quietly and rolling their eyes. There was, at any rate, no disputing the musical values on display. Soprano Shawnette Sulker sang Constanzes famously demanding coloratura with high-flying precision and flair, and tenor Brian Cheney, though he overplayed the Kirk/Belmonte physical shtick relentlessly, sang the role with plenty of freshness and ardor. Tenor Robert Norman, like Cheney a veteran of this production, made an amusingly poker-faced Spock, and brought nimble vocal clarity to the part. Soprano Sara Duchovnay had a couple of screechy moments as Blondie but otherwise acquitted herself splendidly, and Michael Crozier was a sonorous Selim. Sonorous, though, doesnt even begin to describe the powerful, capacious and indefatigable singing of bass Kevin Thompson as Osmin, the ferocious Klingon responsible for overseeing the prisoner. This is a role renowned for its punishing low notes and big gestures, and Thompson handled it all with terrifying ease. Joshua Kosman is The San Francisco Chronicles music critic. Email: jkosman@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JoshuaKosman WASHINGTON The parents of two Americans killed in attacks in Benghazi, Libya, say in a lawsuit that Hillary Clinton is responsible for the deaths of their children. A Clinton campaign spokesman rejected the accusations. The wrongful death lawsuit against Clinton, filed Monday in federal court in Washington, attempts to tie Clintons use of a private email server while secretary of state to the deaths of four Americans, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, in the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks. WASHINGTON Sen. Susan Collins, one of the most moderate Republicans in the Senate, said Monday she will not be voting for Donald Trump for president. This is not a decision I make lightly, for I am a lifelong Republican, Collins wrote in an opinion column in the Washington Post. But Donald Trump does not reflect historical Republican values nor the inclusive approach to governing that is critical to healing the divisions in our country. Collins also said she does not support Trumps rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton. The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In the essay posted Monday night on the Post website, Collins wrote that, over time, she has become increasingly dismayed by Trumps constant stream of cruel comments and his inability to admit error or apologize. Associated Press Quetta, the capital of Pakistans beleaguered southwestern Balochistan Province, is in mourning after a suicide attack at the main gate of a hospital killed 71 civilians. The August 8 bombing, claimed by a splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban, targeted lawyers who had gathered to collect the dead body of a colleague assassinated earlier in the day. Local lawyers said more than 40 of their colleagues were killed in the attack while a majority of the 110 injured are also lawyers. The attack has prompted politicians and critics to question Islamabads sincerity in going after all the Islamist militant factions operating out of Pakistan. Some of them have claimed credit for attacks on Pakistani state and security forces while others mainly fight insurgencies or launch attacks in neighboring India, Afghanistan, and Iran. Critics accuse Pakistans powerful security institutions of aiding and protecting the good militants -- those who launch attacks in India and Afghanistan -- while going after the bad terrorists whose attacks have killed more than 60,000 civilians and soldiers since 2004. Does the security establishment exist to protect Pakistan, or does Pakistan exist to [perpetuate] the security establishment? asked lawmaker Maulana Muhammad Khan Sherani, employing a common euphemism for Pakistans powerful army. We deserve to know the truth. Powers within this country are backing the terrorists. These people attacking us are from among us, he told the National Assembly or lower house of Pakistani Parliament, where he represents Balochistan. Sherani rejected claims by a senior Balochistan official that Indias main foreign intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), orchestrated the attack. Barely an hour after the attack on August 8, Balochistans most senior elected official, Chief Minister Sanaullah Zehri, blamed RAW for the attack. Pakistani officials frequently blame its regional archrival for the countrys domestic security woes. There is no RAW in Balochistan, Sherani told lawmakers. They are the same people we nurtured, he said, referring to Pakistans decade-old support for Afghan insurgents and Islamist factions often blamed for launching attacks in India. Blaming RAW for everything will not work, politician Mahmood Khan Achakzai told the Pakistani National Assembly in an impassioned speech on August 9. Our [intelligence] agencies can find a needle in a haystack, and now they should also do this [unmasking the perpetrators of the Quetta attack]. Achakzais Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party is part of the provincial administration in Balochistan, yet he has consistently criticized the alleged covert support Pakistani intelligence services extend to factions of the Afghan Taliban and Salafist factions such as Lashkar-e Taiba, which New Delhi and Western government blame for attacks in India. Many in Pakistan are deeply disappointed by Islamabads failure to implement the comprehensive counterterror National Action Plan (NAP) that the political and military elite adopted in response to a school massacre. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the December 2014 attack on the Army Public School in the northwestern city of Peshawar in which gunmen killed nearly 150 schoolchildren and teachers. A complete ban on militant factions topped NAPs 20 points, which included a range of legislative and administrative measures to prevent terrorist attacks and reverse religious extremism, which fuels recruitment for militant factions. Unfortunately, the state couldnt muster the political will to implement NAP, said former lawmaker Afrasiab Khattak. The only point fully implemented was the creation of military courts. Reforms in seminaries, disallowing proscribed organizations to function under new names, mainstreaming the tribal areas, and taking action against militants in [the eastern province of] Punjab were never implemented. Khattak said the Pakistani security establishments support for the Afghan Taliban is an open secret. It is also public knowledge that non-state actors find no obstacles to their agenda, he said, citing examples of how pro-Taliban and anti-India Islamist organizations still openly advocate that their approaches be adopted as official state policy. Proscribed organizations not only indulge in public activities but also give themselves the right to determine Pakistan's regional policy, he said. Khattak, a longtime critic of Islamabads support for hard-line Islamist groups, said he sees no benefit to the current approach. Our country is at daggers drawn with three out of four neighbors and faces growing international isolation, he concluded. CEDAR RAPIDS A day after job-shadowing emergency room personnel at a Waterloo hospital, U.S. Rep. Rod Blum toured a Cedar Rapids community health center he believes can expand access to affordable health care. This was really beautiful coming from the emergency room job shadow yesterday, Blum said Tuesday, a day after visiting the ER at Allen Memorial Hospital Monday. This was a great contrast. The visit to the Eastern Iowa Health Center reinforced for Blum the benefits to patients as well as taxpayers of the community health care center concept. The first-term Republican who is up for re-election said he was impressed by the time staff members spent with patients and their emphasis on patient education. Its front lobe here on how to educate their clientele on how to stay out of the emergency room, care for a newborn, for examples, how to treat chronic conditions, Blum said after an hour-long tour. Along the way he fist-bumped young patients and talked with children and their parents as well as discussed the health care centers services with staff members. The visit, the second Blum has made to Eastern Iowa Health Center, is a way for him to hear from people on both the delivery and receiving ends of the health care services process, said Blum staffer John Ferland. The congressman often hears about issues and legislation from people who are passionate about them. That was the case Tuesday. Diane Sorenson, a social worker who specializes in working with obstetrics patients, talked to Blum about the cost of diapers. A typical child will use an average of 50 diapers a week before being potty-trained, she said. Its not uncommon to see children whose parents have reused disposable diapers because of the cost. She encouraged him to support a bill in Congress that would provide diaper assistance funds to families that qualify for day care assistance. Are there any Republicans on it? he asked referring to co-sponsors. There should be, Sorenson replied. How can you get a job if you cant get day care? Blum said before asking Sorenson for more information about the bill. Blums tour, which coincided with National Health Center Week. Observance, is part of the effort to expose members of Congress to the work being done in their districts, said Sarah Dixon, senior director of the Iowa Primary Care Association. Seeing it means more to them than just hearing about it, said Dixon, who was on hand for the tour. Were able to demonstrate innovations and our specific programs to meet the unique needs of our clientele. Thats important because of the significant federal investment in community health centers, Dixon said. CEO Joe Lock said Eastern Iowa Health Center had more than 40,000 patient visits last year up from 25,000 the previous year. He estimated 98 percent of the patients have incomes ranging from 0 to 200 percent of the federal poverty level and 80 percent are Medicaid-eligible. Community health centers play a key role in health care delivery, especially from a cost standpoint, Blum said. We needed to do things to bring costs down, he said after the tour. One of the pieces of the puzzle is to have community health centers for people who cannot afford health care insurance. DES MOINES In the wee morning hours of Feb. 2, Hillary Clinton stood on a stage in Des Moines and celebrated a narrow victory in the Iowa caucuses. That victory in Iowa was Clintons first step on a history-making journey across the country that concluded with her becoming the first woman to earn a major U.S. political partys nomination for president. On Wednesday, more than six months after that caucus victory speech, Clinton makes her return to Iowa to hold another campaign rally, this time as the Democratic candidate for president. Clintons national political director, Amanda Renteria, with the Globe Gazette Des Moines Bureau last week about Clintons return to the state where it all began and the campaigns plans for Iowa. We kicked it off here. This place is pretty special for us, Renteria said during an interview in the Clinton campaigns headquarters in downtown Des Moines. We won the caucus here. It was a big deal to have won that caucus. Its special for our entire campaign that this is where it all started, and we did it, and we learned a lot from it as well. Clintons remarks Wednesday will focus on the economy, including her proposal for the largest investment in job creation since World War II, according to the campaign. Renteria said Iowans can expect to see plenty of Clinton and her campaigns high-profile supporters in the months leading up to the Nov. 8 election. Shes going to be traveling all the battleground states obviously and not stopping. Youre also going to see surrogates out here, some of our other main principals, Renteria said. Iowas used to it, so of course, (Clinton will campaign here). Polls of the presidential race in Iowa conducted before the parties national conventions showed a tight race in Iowa. A new poll, the first in the state since the conventions, was scheduled to be released Tuesday afternoon. Most election forecast maps have Iowa marked as a toss-up state or leaning slightly toward Clinton. We know this thing is going to be tight all the way to the end. I dont see any change in that, Renteria said. Were under the assumption it will be close all the way through, and were under the assumption that weve got to make sure that were earning every single vote. Renteria said it is important to Clinton that Democrats are successful not only in keeping the White House but also in congressional and Statehouse races. Without being asked, Renteria noted the state Senate races in Iowa, where Democrats cling to a 26-24 majority that if flipped would give Republicans full control of the Capitol. If we build the right kind of organization here, and we are, and were really coordinating as much as we can, we can make some real headway on whats happening in the state, Renteria said. One of the things as Ive gone around talking to folks, the (state) funding thats been cut is hard for these community organizations and I can only imagine what that might mean if the Senate were to go in a different direction. So (Clinton) wants to help make sure that were building the party out here. Renteria also said the Clinton campaign is reaching out to leaders in minority communities to engage voters, and she is confident most people who supported Bernie Sanders during the closely contested and sometimes contentious primaries will vote for Clinton in November. MASON CITY John McMurray suspected trouble as soon as he saw a State Patrol vehicle parked on the side of the Avenue of the Saints on Monday. The vehicle was by itself. McMurray has farmed along the busy highway long enough to know thats not a good sign. (Then) I seen this definite path out there in the field and I knew exactly there was a car out there in the field, he said. The six-foot-wide, nearly one-mile long swath of flattened cornstalks was made by a stolen car police say was driven by a 14-year-old Kentucky boy trying to flee a traffic stop. The boy was apprehended in a nearby soybean field after a massive search that lasted four hours and involved more than 20 law enforcement vehicles from several agencies, search dogs, an Iowa State Patrol plane and a privately-owned drone. He was turned over to Juvenile Court Services. McMurray, who saw the boy surrender, is now working with an insurance company to determine the damage and recover what he can. The crop is destroyed. Theres no way the seven-foot stalks can recover. This corn is so flat, McMurray marveled as he walked over the foot-long ears and stalks pressed flat against the dirt. This corn is like that the whole way. Theres no way of ever recovering anything. He figures the teen became disoriented once the car, a Nissan Altima, was surrounded by the tall stalks. A photograph shot by a drone owned by Joe McGrath shows a the cars winding path that cut through the field all the way to the end rows a few hundred feet from 240th Street. He was definitely trying to run, McMurray said. UPDATE: Juvenile in custody after intense search near Avenue of the Saints MASON CITY A male juvenile was taken into custody Monday after an intense law enforcement The crop damage from Mondays chase was the worst McMurrays ever had due to a car, but far from the only incident. Its not unusual for someone to drive through McMurrays crops a month ago, someone drove off Avenue of the Saints into a bean field not far away from Mondays incident. However, no one has ever made it as far through the fields as the teenagers. Weve had em just get in the edge of the fields, he said. Never cross a field. SIOUX CITY | Donald Trump's "no nonsense" approach to politics is refreshing, his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, told an audience in Sioux City Monday. Pence made no direct mention of the recent controversies that have dogged Trump's campaign in the last week and contributed to a sharp drop in his standing in the polls against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Hes a doer in a game usually reserved for talkers, and when Donald Trump does the talking he doesnt go tip-toeing around a thousand rules of political correctness, Pence said. He just says it like it is. Pence campaigned in Siouxland for the first time since being picked for the vice president spot in July. During his nearly hour-long speech Monday, he divided his time between extolling Trump's virtues and blasting Clinton. As I look at what shes planning, I want to say from my heart, for the sake of our security, the sake of our prosperity, for the sake of preserving standards for integrity, lets decide Hillary Clinton will never be elected president of the United States of America, he said, drawing applause. Iowa 4th District Rep. Steve King, who introduced Pence to the crowd of more than 200 people Monday, endorsed Trump for the first time. In the runup to the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1, King, R-Kiron, was a vocal supporter of Ted Cruz and served as the Texas senator's national campaign co-chair. For months after Cruz dropped out of the race in April, King was tepid in his support for Trump, who came in second in Iowa. "I'm walking into the polls and I'm voting for Donald Trump and Mike Pence for our new administration," said King, who praised Pence for his performance during the years they served together in the House. Pence, a favorite of social conservatives, is expected to help shore up support for Trump in Republican strongholds of Northwest Iowa. After leaving Sioux City, he spoke at a rally in Council Bluffs. The western Iowa stops were Pence's first campaigning solo in the state, a key battleground in this fall's election. Last week, he appeared with Trump in central and eastern Iowa. During Monday's rally in Sioux City, Pence said a Trump administration would end negotiations with terrorists and threats to the U.S. that have increased in frequency under the Obama administration. When Donald Trump is leader of the free world, America wont be paying ransom to terrorists. Terrorists and their sponsors will be paying a price for threatening, for detaining, for fighting the people of the United States, Pence said. Pence referred to last week's disclosure that the U.S. government flew $400 million in cash to Iran in January. The payment was made the same week that Iran released four captured U.S. sailors. President Obama denied that it was a ransom payment for the Americans, but was instead settlement of a decades-old dispute over a failed military equipment deal dating to the 1970s, before the Islamic revolution in 1979. The Indiana governor also highlighted the major economic policy speech Trump delivered earlier in the day in Detroit. Trump, a billionaire businessman, promised deep tax cuts to jolt middle-class workers back to prosperity. He revamped his previous proposal, unveiled during the GOP primary, by increasing the amount that the highest individual income earners would pay. Pence said Trumps proposal reflects his attention to and care for the average citizen. Donald Trump gets it, he told the audience at the Sioux City Convention Center. He understands the aspirations and frustrations of the American people more than any other American leader in my lifetime since Ronald Reagan. DES MOINES | The head of the states largest public employees union warned Tuesday that correctional officers and staff at the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison are at risk due to understaffing that needs to be addressed. Danny Homan, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Iowa Council 61, issued a statement calling Iowas only maximum-security prison a dangerous place for workers, saying staffing is so critically low there arent enough employees to respond to medical or behavioral emergencies. The working conditions at ISP are an outrage, Homan said in a statement. The men and women protecting our inmates are, in their own words, walking into ISP not knowing if they will walk out at the end of the day. They are truly, and reasonably, afraid for their safety. Homan said there recently was a series of fights involving about 16 inmates and the discovery of makeshift weapons led to a lockdown without the staff necessary to ensure both inmate and officer safety. Also, he said, on multiple occasions in the past two weeks, at least 15 officers from state correctional facilities at Oakdale and Mount Pleasant were dispatched to the Fort Madison penitentiary to assist with shakedowns -- a clear indication that ISP is desperately in need of more support. The AFSCME leader called on Gov. Terry Branstad, Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds, state lawmakers and the Iowa Department of Corrections to examine staffing trends at the penitentiary and allocate the staff funding to run a safe and secure facility. We have to do better for our public servants, Homan said in his statement. We cant sit by and let them walk into preventable danger day after day. Fred Scaletta, spokesman for the state Department of Corrections, declined to comment on Homans statement. On July 31, officials at the Fort Madison prison said the penitentiary had been placed on restricted movement with inmates confined to their cells following several altercations. The incidents involved multiple offenders with no serious injuries to inmates and no staff injuries, according to the departments July 31 news release. Rep. Gary Worthan, R-Storm Lake, co-leader of the Legislatures joint justice systems appropriations subcommittee, said he has not heard of any concerns specific to the Fort Madison facility but added he is aware the is stress system-wide given the tight funding allocations within the states fiscal 2017 budget. Weve got situations where the manpowers just not there, said Worthan, noting it is difficult to schedule vacations when state agency budgets are tight. Thats been true for state troopers who have seen extra duties related to the National Governors Associations summer meeting in Des Moines, the statewide RAGBRAI bike ride and now the Iowa State Fair, which opens an 11-day run on Thursday. The entire justice systems budget, it put some stress on it, theres no way around it. Nobody got enough money for salary annualization, he said, let alone any increase in manpower. At the same time, he said, he has not heard from corrections officials regarding any need for supplemental funding. Worthan said he had not seen Homans statement but he noted union officials occasionally raise staffing concerns to get the top on the publics radar before the next legislative session convenes in January. Mondays front-page New York Times story Scholarship or Business? Think Tanks Blur the Line reports that while think tanks in general are seen as researchers independent of money interests, some think tank biggies chase money from corporate donors. And they are doing so while reaping the benefits of their tax-exempt status, sometimes without disclosing their connections to corporate interests. Corporate interests top the lefts enemies list. The story starts with the liberal Brookings Institution, of all places, which talked up the $8 billion San Francisco Shipyard project while receiving some $400,000 from its developer, the Lennar Corp. The story asks: Is there a conflict of interest? Thats one interpretation. Another is that a big developer in liberal cities gave money to a liberal think tank that supports urban development because they have a shared interest. Pro tip: Like people, corporations tend to give to nonprofits that share their philosophy. Next angle: Not enough transparency. But rather than hide its ties with Lennar, Brookings named Lennar exec Kofi Bonner a senior fellow. But that was not sufficient. When think tank scholars testify before Congress or speak at other events, the Times warns, the public is often not aware of the financial relationships between these scholars and for-profit companies that hire them. On an accompanying video, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., explains that corporations have to register to lobby, but they dont have to register to contribute to a think tank. Under the glossy name of independence, Warren warns, think tanks can engage in thinly disguised lobbying. Gullible politicians could be misled by slanted scholarly testimony and thats what makes it so dangerous. Dangerous? Like speeding on ice? Apparently Warren believes that politicians presume think-tank and university research is independent and hence reliable, that there should be loud warnings to discredit those with wrong positions. When Brookings economist Robert Litan testified against a financial disclosure rule supported by Warren, he cited his own study, which disclosed it was supported by a large mutual fund asset manager. Warren nonetheless wrote to Brookings to complain that Litans disclosure was broad but vague. Litan then resigned from Brookings. Attorney Cleta Mitchell, who represents conservative groups, has seen this dance before. The fact is, she told me, universities and think tanks often have to shop their ideas to bankroll their studies. Money funds both sides, but the more the left wins with disclosure rules, the easier it becomes to bully dissent. In her new book, The Intimidation Game: How the Left is Silencing Free Speech, Kimberley Strassel writes how politicians such as Warren have flipped the concept of disclosure on its head: The American people know almost nothing about the working of government. Instead, disclosure is trained on the electorate, allowing the government to know everything about the political activities of Americans. It may start with the liberal Brookings, but we know where it ends. Debra J. Saunders is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dsaunders@sfchronicle.com Note: My husband, Wesley J. Smith, is a senior fellow with the Discovery Institute. Also, the New England Center for Investigative Reporting worked jointly on the story with The New York Times. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Twitter is renting out more than 183,000 square feet of office space in its Mid-Market headquarters, the company confirmed Monday. The flailing social media company has tapped San Francisco brokerage firm Cresa to market 183,642 square feet of fully furnished office space spread out between the two buildings Twitter occupies in Market Square: 1355 Market St. and One 10th St. Asking rent is listed as negotiable. Twitter, which has for nearly a year struggled with stalled user growth and undershot investor expectations, has previously looked to subleasing as a way to cut costs. Earlier this year, Twitter was considering renting out a partial floor of its Market Street headquarters to Affirm, a financial-tech company led by a PayPal co-founder. Affirm pulled out of that deal. Twitter has also sought a tenant to take over 24,000 square feet in its Manhattan office for the next two to three years, according to reports. Were always looking at ways to use our office spaces more efficiently and effectively, a Twitter spokeswoman said Monday. We remain committed to our home in San Franciscos Mid-Market area. This year, office rental prices in San Francisco overtook those of Manhattan to become the priciest in the country, according to a report from commercial real estate and investment firm CBRE Group, with companies paying about $72 per square foot for an office in the city. Twitter occupies more than 600,000 square feet between the two buildings on the corner of 10th and Market streets. Late last year, after co-founder Jack Dorsey was again appointed CEO, Twitter scrapped plans to expand into 1455 Market St. about a week before the company laid off about 8 percent of its workforce. The news of Twitters new space offering, initially reported Monday by the San Francisco Business Times, broke as Twitter shares had begun to rebound following another disappointing earnings report last month. Marissa Lang is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mlang@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Marissa_Jae IRBIL, Iraq As operations to retake the militant-held city of Mosul ramp up, Iraqi Christians displaced from the area by the Islamic State group say that even if the militants are defeated militarily, the country will not be safe for minorities. Qaraqosh, the biggest Christian town on the Nineveh plains in Iraqs north, fell to the Islamic State group more than two years ago and remains under militant control. Most of its displaced inhabitants are living in camps in Iraqs Kurdish region. Hundreds of others fled to neighboring countries, Europe, the United States and further afield. On the edge of Irbils historically Christian neighborhood of Ankawa, 1,200 identical white trailers arranged in neat rows shelter nearly 5,000 people. A handful of families say they will return home the day their town is liberated. But many say they would rather leave for abroad. Despite the string of military defeats suffered by Islamic State group, they say the militants incursion into Iraq has thrown the future of the countrys minority groups into further uncertainty. If organized migration were possible, then I can say that 90 percent of the inhabitants of this camp would leave, said camp manager the Rev. Emanuel Adel Kelo. Raad Bahnam Samaan, his wife and five children fled their home in Qaraqosh in early August 2014, joining the 150,000 Iraqi Christians who left towns and villages around Mosul for areas under Kurdish control. In the face of Islamic State advance, Kurdish forces known as the Peshmerga largely withdrew from the outskirts of Mosul, and the towns and villages fell rapidly into the militants hands. After months of living in cramped quarters in a dusty camp for displaced civilians, Samaan and his family tried to leave the country through a U.N. resettlement program but without success. Samaan says the more than two years of being stuck in limbo has dulled his sense of optimism. There is always hope, he said of returning home, but when? Nobody knows. It might be a year, two years, a day, a couple of days. Three or four years from now, if we go home, there wont be anything left of our house. Christians once constituted a sizable minority in Iraq but their numbers have dwindled since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion as many have immigrated to the West to escape violence. I see no future for us here, Samaan said. When Samaan reflects on what life may be like in a liberated Mosul, he says he worries the upheaval caused by the Islamic State will have strained sectarian tensions in Iraq beyond repair, making enemies of people who were once his neighbors. Well still be afraid. I will go to Mosul, and I will be afraid because they will say, here comes the Christian, he said. QUETTA, Pakistan Many Pakistanis were in deep mourning Tuesday, a day after a suicide bombing directed at lawyers killed 70 people in the city of Quetta, touching a chord in the countrys long-simmering culture war. By singling out lawyers, Islamic radicals appeared to take aim at a pillar of the countrys budding civil society and a symbol of the supremacy of secular law in a modern state. Across the country, many courts were closed and lawyers staged rallies in support of their colleagues. But in Quetta, the capital of the southwestern province of Baluchistan, the streets were deserted. Shops were shuttered, and markets and schools closed to mourn those killed. People are scared, and they ask, For how long the violence will continue? said Mohammad Saleem, who works at the market. Senior attorney Mohammad Ashraf stood with several fellow lawyers outside a Quetta court building, a spot where he had often gathered for breaks with many of the lawyers killed in the bombing. The perpetrators cannot be called humans, he said with anger. We request that the government tracks down and punishes all those who killed innocent lawyers and other people, he added. Tariq Lodhi, a former head of Pakistans main civil spy agency, said the attack was carried out by militants to terrorize lawyers and judges, who are handling cases involving militants accused of carrying out attacks in the country. A prominent local lawyer, Bilal Kasi, the president of the Baluchistan Bar Association, was on his way to work when he was shot dead by gunmen early Monday. After his death, about 100 lawyers gathered at Quettas government-run Civil Hospital, where a suicide bomber attacked those mourning. Survivors later described scenes of panic as the blast ripped through the emergency room, littering it with body parts. Two journalists who had been covering the event for Pakistani TV were killed, but many of the dead and wounded were lawyers. In a statement, Ahsanullah Ahsan, a spokesman for the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar a breakaway faction of the militant Taliban group said its fighters killed Kasi and dozens of lawyers at the hospital. Ahsans group has been behind several attacks in Pakistan in recent years, including a deadly Easter Sunday bombing in a park in the eastern city of Lahore that killed at least 70 people. But in what was likely an opportunistic statement, the Islamic State group also claimed responsibility for the Quetta attack later on Monday. There have been instances of competing claims in previous attacks in Pakistan. SANAA, Yemen Air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition bombed a food factory in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa early Tuesday, killing 14 civilians working on an overnight shift, according to a factory official and medics. Five women were among those killed in what effectively was the resumption of heavy bombardment by the Saudi-led alliance targeting Yemens Shiite rebels and allied forces loyal to Yemens ousted president. The resumption comes after U.N. peace talks on Yemen collapsed over the weekend in Kuwait. The air strikes also signal the end of a fragile truce declared by the United Nations in April to pave the way for peace talks. The conflict in Yemen pits the internationally recognized government of Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and his allies, backed by the Saudi-led coalition of Arab states, against Shiite rebels known as Houthis who overran and captured Sanaa in September 2014. Since the Saudi-led coalition launched air strikes against the Houthis, the war has claimed 9,000 lives, displaced about 2.4 million people and pushed the Arab worlds already impoverished country to the verge of famine. The bombing of the factory located in western Sanaa is one of series of air strikes that rocked the capital and at least five other provinces, presumably on suspected rebel positions such as barracks housing Houthis and their allies, ousted President Ali Abdullah Salehs forces. According to medics and the factory official, a large hangar used by the al-Aqel food company in Sanaa was hit in one of the overnight air strikes. Photographs posted by activists on social media show torn and charred bodies at the location. The same factory was hit in air strikes in January, though there are no visible Houthi camps or barracks in the vicinity of the factory. The nearest rebel post is nearly a mile away. The factory official and the medics spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing retribution by the Houthis. Yemens SABA news agency, which is now under Houthi control, said dozens of air strikes pounded Sanaa, the Houthis northern stronghold of Saada, the western cities of Taiz and Jouf, and the Red Sea ports of Makha and Houdeida over the past 24 hours. In the past three days, security and medical officials said the fighting has claimed the lives of dozens of fighters from both sides, in the region which is only 40 miles from Sanaa. LONDON A 19-year-old Somali-Norwegian man accused of carrying out a stabbing rampage in Londons Russell Square was remanded into custody Saturday after a court appearance in the British capital. Zakaria Bulhan of London is accused of slaying a retired American teacher, 64-year-old Darlene Horton, on Wednesday. Bulhan also faces five counts of attempted murder in the same attack that wounded two Australians, an Israeli, another American and a British citizen. The victims were named in court Saturday for the first time. ST. PETERSBURG, Russia Turkeys president cozied up to his dear friend Vladimir Putin on Tuesday in a visit intended to send a message to his allies in the West, whom he blames for what he considers a lack of support after a failed coup. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has pressed the United States to extradite the man he says was behind the failed insurrection and has sought more funds and visa-free travel from the European Union, but its unclear what leverage improved ties with Russia could give him. Putin, in turn, expects Turkey to become more accommodating of Russias interests in Syria and move faster on major energy projects demands Ankara could find difficult to meet. After their talks in St. Petersburgs ornate Konstantin Palace, both leaders emphasized their shared desire to rebuild ties, but it remained unclear if they could reach common ground on the Syrian crisis. While Moscow has backed Syrian President Bashar Assad throughout the nations civil war and further bolstered that support by launching an air campaign in September, Turkey has pushed for Assads removal and helped his foes. Putin said he and Erdogan would have a separate discussion on Syria later Tuesday involving top diplomats and intelligence officials. Repeatedly calling Putin his dear friend, Erdogan refrained from mentioning any sticking points after the talks, saying he expects ties to fully blossom again soon. He said Turkey is ready to implement a natural gas pipeline project proposed by Moscow and a deal for Russia to build Turkeys first nuclear power plant. Both projects were announced years earlier but had been held back by commercial disputes even before Turkeys downing of a Russian jet at the Syrian border in November. The shoot-down, which Putin called a treacherous stab in the back, brought relations to a freezing point where they remained for seven months until Erdogan apologized to Russia in June. Putin responded by ordering his government to start rebuilding ties with Turkey, and when Erdogan faced the botched coup attempt on July 15 the Russian leader quickly offered his support. Erdogan emphasized that pledge of support, saying it was very important for us psychologically. It offered us moral support and showed Russias solidarity with Turkey. While Putin also spoke of rebuilding ties, he sounded more cautious, warning that it will take time to fully restore them. Moscow has accused the Turkish government of turning a blind eye to the flow of weapons and supplies to the Islamic State group and other extremists in Syria. Turkey has pressed the United States hard to extradite Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric the government blames for the failed coup. Gulen has repeatedly denied any involvement. The dispute has strained U.S.-Turkish ties, with some Turkish officials implying Washington could have been behind the coup. The Obama administration has strongly denied that. ALBERT LEA | A Clear Lake man escaped injury when he crashed into the back of a semitrailer Tuesday on Interstate 35 in Minnesota, authorities say. Adam Schwenn, 34, was driving north in a pickup north of Albert Lea when he rear-ended a semitrailer near mile marker 22, according to a Minnesota State Patrol crash report. The crash happened about 8:30 a.m. Schwenn was not hospitalized. His 2005 Chevrolet pickup was severely damaged. The driver of the semitrailer, Kenny Fouts, 55, was taken to a hospital in Albert Lea with injuries troopers say were not life-threatening. -- Molly Montag Property developer Paul Bublitz and other directors of failed finance companies Viaduct Capital and Mutual Finance say they werent part of any conspiracy to deliberately mislead investors for their own benefit and to the detriment of the companies. Bublitz and his co-accused, Bruce McKay, Richard Blackwood, and Lance Morrison, have pleaded not guilty to charges of theft, making false statements in a prospectus, and making false statements to a trustee at the start of a 12-week trial in the Auckland High Court. The Crown yesterday claimed investors in the two failed finance companies, which went under in 2010 owing about $17 million, along with the Treasury through the Crown retail deposit guarantee scheme, were misled over related party transactions designed to get Bublitzs property company, Hunter Capital, out of financial strife. Bublitzs lawyer Rachael Reed told the court there was no conspiracy and that Viaduct and later Mutual Finance are examples of proper commercial evolution at play in a difficult financial market. The failure of the two companies doesnt rest on related party transactions; rather the fact Bublitz put his own assets into Viaduct and lost some $5 million to $6 million shows he didnt misuse those companies to benefit himself or Hunter Capital, she said. This is a case of commercial daring, not fraud, Reed said. Bublitz and the late Nick Wevers wanted to buy a Crown guaranteed finance company to take advantage of opportunities in the property market post the global financial crisis because spooked investors would not risk their funds on finance companies in the wake of the collapse of many such companies, Reed said. There was no secrecy about the plan and the structure the pair used to buy Viaduct, then named Priority, followed top-shelf advice from experts in auditing and securities law in the form of BDO and DLA Philips Fox, she said. As a related party, Hunter Capital was not able to sell assets into Viaduct to fund its purchase and the final structure was therefore changed from what was originally intended, Reed said. This is where the first and fundamental gap arises between the Crown and defence. The Crown misconstrues the natural progression of a commercial deal and alteration of the resulting entitys structure to meet regulatory requirements as being nefarious when it is in fact evidence of the parties commitment to abide by and respect the regulatory requirements. BDO also gave legal advice that Bublitz was not a key management personnel of Viaduct and therefore no related party transactions took place, she said. The Crown yesterday said Bublitz received a $240,000 annual fee as a management consultant to Viaduct, the same as Wevers got as chief executive. The other co-accused denied being part of any conspiracy. McKay, a director of Viaduct and a chartered accountant formerly on the board of the Institute of Financial Professionals (INFINZ), also denied he was aware of the relationship between Wevers, Bublitz, Hunter Capital and Phoenix, the shelf company used to buy Viaduct, said his counsel Greg Bradford. The Crown alleged McKay failed to disclose to advisors the relationship between the parties and the content of discussion about Hunter Capital taking a shareholding in Phoenix. But Bradford said to the best of McKays knowledge, he fully and fairly informed the advisers of what he knew about the proposed transactions and who was involved. Blackwood was initially employed as a contractor to Viaduct to source and manage lending and was appointed a director of the company in September 2009 until it went under in early 2010. He had a similar role at Mutual though was not on the board. His lawyer Shane Kilian said throughout Blackwoods engagement with both companies he believed the structures, transactions, and arrangements put in place by others were legitimate. He relied on what he was told by others, and drew comfort from the fact that they had legal advice, he said. Blackwood had only been a director for around 10 days when he signed a prospectus for Viaduct and hadnt fully reviewed or understood the documents, but relied on legal advice given during the drafting of it, he said. Lance Morrison, whos representing himself, said he relied on expert advice that Viaduct and Mutual Finance were not related parties. He questioned whether it was fair to hold him to a standard that even financial experts cant agree on. Morrison, who had been Bublitzs accountant for many years, said he had no involvement in the day-to-day running of Hunter Capital, and had no reason to think Bublitz controlled or owned Viaduct, although that was originally intended. He was appointed to the Mutual board until the company could afford a more high profile director. Morrison said he believed documents he saw from outside experts on the question of related party transactions were the same as those put before two other Mutual directors, Paul Hocking and Lindsay Kincaid, both of whom have not been charged. If those statements were incorrectI made a honest mistake, which was also made by others, he said. BusinessDesk.co.nz Comments from our readers No comments yet Add your comment: Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Anti-spam verification: Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process. Related News: SKO - FY23 Interim Results Announcement Date - 23 November 2022 Downer awarded $490 million road maintenance contract SKC - 2022 ANNUAL MEETING OF SHAREHOLDERS AND TRADING UPDATE TCL - Result of AGM TradeWindow secures U.S. footprint with FoodChain ID October 28th Morning Report October 25th Morning Report Mainfreight Investor Day / Market Update GFI - Greenfern - Offer closes 27th Oct MCY - Quarterly Operational Update Hawaiki Submarine Cable, which plans to build a new trans-Pacific high speed internet cable, is mapping out the route for the 14,000 kilometre cable, which is expected to take at least five months and cost millions of dollars. The cable will provide another link between New Zealand, Australia, Hawaii and mainland US, with options to include several South Pacific Islands, and is scheduled to be completed in mid-2018, the company said in a statement. Earlier this year Hawaiki signed a contract with TE SubCom to supply and install the cable, which will deliver more than 30 terrabits per second of capacity, providing competition to the Southern Cross Cable. "We are extremely pleased to launch the marine route survey which will give us data necessary to safely and properly deploy the system in the coming months," Hawaiki chief executive Remi Galasso said. "We are confident that with our trusted supplier, TE SubCom, our cable will be delivered as planned in mid-2018, less than two years from now." The government committed $65 million over 25 years to secure the cable in July 2014, following the failure of Pacific Fibre, which shut up shop in 2012 when it couldn't attract the $400 million it needed to fund its cable project. The project is headed by Galasso, a former Alcatel-Lucent executive who founded Noumea-based telecommunications infrastructure company Intelia in 2005, investor and philanthropist Eoin Edgar and Malcolm Dick, who co-founded telecommunications firm CallPlus, which was sold a year ago for $250 million to Australia's M2 Group. BusinessDesk.co.nz Comments from our readers No comments yet Add your comment: Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Anti-spam verification: Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process. Related News: SKO - FY23 Interim Results Announcement Date - 23 November 2022 Downer awarded $490 million road maintenance contract SKC - 2022 ANNUAL MEETING OF SHAREHOLDERS AND TRADING UPDATE TCL - Result of AGM TradeWindow secures U.S. footprint with FoodChain ID October 28th Morning Report October 25th Morning Report Mainfreight Investor Day / Market Update GFI - Greenfern - Offer closes 27th Oct MCY - Quarterly Operational Update Preliminary hearing rescheduled The preliminary hearing previously scheduled for Aug. 8, 2016, to examine the charges preferred against Col. William Jones, has been rescheduled to Aug. 25. The preliminary hearing will be conducted on Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina. For additional questions, please contact the 20th Fighter Wing Public Affairs office at 20fwpublicaffairs@shaw.af.mil. SIOUX CITY Saying the intersection is dangerous and creates a backlog of cars, a delegation of Floyd County officials on Tuesday asked Iowa Transportation Commission members to intercede with a fix on well-traveled U.S. Highway 218. It is an unsafe intersection, Floyd County Board of Supervisors Chairman Mark Kuhn said. The intersection Kuhn was referring to is Quarry Road, which takes vehicles to the south. The Avenue of the Saints a four-lane highway separated by a median brings high-speed traffic east and west through the intersection. Kuhn said the county appreciates having a modern four-lane highway but stated the intersections create problems in Floyd, population 330. There are many decision points here. Motorists have to make a split-second decision at this intersection as to who has right of way (to proceed), Kuhn said. Floyd rallies for Saints overpass after crash death FLOYD Driving west on the Avenue of the Saints, Sara McDonnell had a sick feeling when she It is really confusing on who goes first, Floyd County Engineer Dusten Rolando said. The Floyd County officials made their presentation during a monthly DOT meeting in Sioux City. The Highway 218 topic was slated for discussion but not a decision, so commission members did not respond during the meeting. Kuhn said a petition with more than 3,000 signatures of people wanting intersection changes will soon be presented to the commission. Rolando said the best change for the intersection would be an overpass. Floyd County Deputy Sheriff Jeff Crooks said there have been 35 crashes at the intersection since 2011. Crooks said people also sometimes turn into the wrong lane and drive into oncoming traffic. After traffic fatality, public asked for input on Floyd intersection FLOYD A public meeting will be held Tuesday to discuss whether safety improvements are nee T.J. Houdek, a 23-year-old Charles City man, was killed in July when he drove a motorcycle in front of an oncoming semitrailer. Kuhn explained that the intersection is very close to the nearby Valero ethanol plant and a Loves Truck Stop that is currently under construction. He noted that about 190 trucks carrying corn come through the intersection daily. Floyd Mayor Trevis OConnell said he lives a block from the intersection and often watches the congestion. Almost daily you see near-misses out there, OConnell said. State Rep. Josh Byrnes, R-Osage, once represented Floyd before redistricting. Byrnes said Iowa Department of Transportation Director Paul Trombino emailed him Sunday with a list of short-term improvements to help with congestion in Floyd. Byrnes said he appreciates those steps, but added that more is needed. Ive got a lot of friends and families that go through that intersection every day ... We need to find that final solution and resolution for that intersection, and not just kick the can down the road, Byrnes said. MASON CITY Citizens with questions about the city budget can now go to the citys website, www.masoncity.net, to get many of those questions answered. The Open Budget Website link will provide up-to-date information on the citys revenues and expenses. Open Budget is part of Mason Citys commitment to improving transparency to our citizens by providing a guided view through the citys budgeted financial information, Finance Director Kevin Jacobson said. The charts, graphs and tables are all highly interactive, and we invite everyone to explore them, he added. The City Council has an ongoing goal of transparency that includes links to all city departments, committees and commissions on its website. Included are agendas of future meetings and minutes of previous meetings as well as contact information for department heads and supervisors. Viewers will see links to Revenue and Expenses. Clicking on either of these links will lead the viewer to details relating to each. Jacobson said the site will be updated regularly. Anyone seeking further information is asked to contact him at kjacobson@masoncity.net or by calling 641-421-3613. CHARLES CITY Can a name be destiny? In the case of DeRailed, a bar at 1130 N. Grand Ave., it appears so. A Canadian Pacific railroad car tipped over on the adjacent tracks early Tuesday and crushed a corner of the metal storage shed at the back of the bar. Chief Hugh Anderson of the Charles City Police Department said the derailment occurred about 4 a.m. while crews were moving cars and changing hook-ups. Kind of ironic that it derailed, said Lori Eckenrod of Charles City, as she sat at the bar in DeRailed shortly before noon. Kind of been the talk of the town and everywhere else, from what I heard. Her husband, Tom, is one of four co-owners of the bar.He got called at 4:15 in the morning, she said. No one really knows what happened. Eckenrod added, At least it happened at the end of the bar. Thats all storage. Anderson was alerted by a patrol officer that a train car had derailed into DeRailed. Its not every day you get to say that, the police chief quipped. He said it appeared the track separated, and a grain car rolled into the bar caving in the back corner. The owner estimated damage at $10,000. No one was in the bar and no injuries were reported. Workers were on the scene throughout the morning assessing the situation. Heavy equipment arrived at 12:15 p.m. and workers began attaching cables to the railroad car. About 35 minutes later, the car was pulled upright. Despite the accident, DeRailed was open for business Tuesday. Patrons were stopping in and the seats at the bar near the front of the building were full around noon.Lucky it didnt hit the bar, or we wouldnt be in here, Teresa Smith of Osage said with a smile. She and Starla Tindell of Floyd stopped in for a drink following a business meeting in town. A quarter after 8 this morning, I caught it on my Facebook, Tindell said of the derailment. She didnt believe me, Tindell added, pointing to Smith.I just found out about it when I got here, said Fuzzy Hollander of Floyd. Like other patrons, he seemed unconcerned about the incident. Outside, there was a little more interest. A steady stream of people was driving by or stopping in the parking lot to get a look at the damage. Howard Iverson of Charles City made his second stop during the noon hour, taking some pictures. He first learned about it in the morning over coffee with a friend. He went to get a look around 8:30 a.m. but was chased away by railroad employees after taking a few photos. That building didnt have much of a chance, did it? he said. I mean, hell, thats all the excitement we have in a small town. NEW DELHI: San Francisco-based startup 8TV has raised USD 500,000 funding (about Rs 3.34 crore) from investors including Redcliffe Capital Managing Partner Dheeraj Jain, Google executive Tidhar Carmeli and angel investor Thomas Korte. The company, which offers short form video network for brands, is also supported by the US tech giant Amazon that has invested about USD 100,000 worth of AWS services credit. The startup graduated from Angelpad, a tech accelerator in Silicon Valley, and its customers include firms like Unilever. "We have received a USD 500,000 investment from Dheeraj Jain (Managing Partner at Redcliffe Capital), Tidhar Carmeli and Thomas Korte (ex Google and Angelpad), with additional USD 100,000 invested by Amazon in form of AWS services," 8TV founder Leon Crutchley told PTI. The investments will be used to strengthen the platform and for foraying into newer markets, including India. "Redcliffe's investment opens up the Asian market for 8TV starting with India. The booming digital native space makes India a very attractive proposition for 8TV," Redcliffe Capital Early Stage Investments Lead Aakaar Gandhi said. Brands are working hard to catch up with and stay relevant for the digitally empowered consumer and that offers a huge potential to companies like 8TV, he added. "We've worked with a lot of FMCG brands and noticed most were broadcasting their products at their customers rather than communicating with them. Brands need a way to build direct meaningful relationships with their customers or die," Crutchley said. That is a problem that 8TV seeks to solve, he added. 8TV will begin piloting in India with The Man Company, a men's grooming products maker. According to the 'Digital Advertising in India' report, jointly published by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB International, the digital advertising market in India that was pegged at Rs 5,200 crore at the end of December 2015. Digital advertising spends were about 12 per cent of the total advertisement spends in the country. The spending is projected to reach Rs 7,044 crore by the end of this year at a CAGR of 35 per cent. Read Also: Warehousing To Attract Up To Rs 15K Cr Investment Every Year Key Indian Equity Indices Open In Green SAN FRANCISCO: Taking another foray into the field of artificial intelligence(AI) and machine learning and to make its digital assistant Siri better, Apple has acquired Seattle-based machine learning startup Turi for nearly $200 million. According to a GeekWire report, the move is set to increase Apple's presence in the Seattle region where the tech giant has been building an engineering outpost for the past two years. "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans," said Apple in a statement given to GeekWire. Turi offers tools that are meant to let developers easily scale machine learning applications. The startup is expected to remain in the Seattle region and continue to grow as Apple builds out further expertise in data science, artificial intelligence and machine learning, the report added. The Cupertino-based company has recently bought some machine learning and AI startups like VocalIQ and Perceptio and facial recognition startup Emotient, among others. Apple has recently been making a push into artificial intelligence through Siri personal assistant and related technologies. Read Also: Flipkart To Counter Amazon Prime With F-Assured Alterbeat, Only Indian Start-Up Selected For The MaGIC STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- For the first time since closing on Broadway, the musical "Big Fish" is making a New York City comeback courtesy of Hemlock Theatre Company. Like the John August book and the movie that share its name, "Big Fish" the musical follows the relationship between a tall-tale-telling father and his dubious son. Hemlock will produce the play on August 12 (8 p.m.), August 13 (2 p.m. and 8 p.m.) and August 14 (7 p.m.) at Wagner College's Stage One Theatre, 614 Howard Avenue. Ticket info here. The musical, with music and Lyrics by Andrew Lippa, finds the father at his deathbed, hoping for one last chance to see his son discover the power of a really good story. It was famously retold in a film directed by Tim Burton in 2003, for which it snagged four Golden Globe Award nominations, an Oscar and a Grammy Award nomination for Danny Elfman's original score. Hemlock director and choreographer Brendan Stackhouse describes the show as "a beautiful and deeply human story that centers around loss, legacy, and the things we leave to our loved ones after we go." "The show is also about three generations of a family, and so there's a level of connection with anyone who comes to see it," he added. Hemlock's production will have a few variations on the Broadway version -- but you won't find any spoilers here. Stackhouse said the show's designers have sought to make the show pop, and the story is punctuated by some entertaining singing and dancing. "The show is fascinating to me because it manages to seamlessly be both epic and intimate," Stackhouse said. "It truly has something for everyone." Check out a teaser video for the show here: AX090_275E_9.JPG Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump delivers a policy speech on taxes and the economy to the Detroit Economic Club, Monday, Aug. 8, 2016, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Saying he wanted "a conversation about how to make America great again for everyone, and especially those who have the very least," Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump called for a "tax revolution" that he said would both lower taxes and simplify the system. "I want to jump-start America," Trump said in a campaign speech Monday before members of the Detroit Economic Club. His tax and economic proposals would: Simplify the tax code to three brackets, from the current seven. Tax brackets would be set at 12, 25 and 35 percent of earnings. Business and corporate taxes would be capped at 15 percent, down from the current 35 percent. Let families fully-deduct costs for child care. Eliminate the inheritance tax survivors pay on estates of deceased loved-ones. Place a 10 percent tax on earnings of U.S. firms who profit by sending jobs overseas. Eliminate a tax loophole on hedge funds. Trump's economic proposals also call for scrapping the Affordable Care Act, aka "ObamaCare", restricting the flow of jobs overseas, and reviving the Keystone pipeline project, an oil pipe project that runs from Canada to Texas and Oklahoma. (What's your take on Trump's tax and economic policies? What will it mean for your family or business? Use the Comment section below to tell us what you think.) STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A former Port Richmond resident who has spent the last 37 years in prison for murdering his 14-year-old girlfriend 40 years ago, dumping her body in a barrel, and then lying to authorities and the victim's family about the crime, can be a free man again - provided he is deported to the United Kingdom. In a split decision of sorts, a state parole board has denied Dempsey Hawkins, 56, parole in the United States, but said he could be conditionally paroled if he is shipped back to his native England by July, 2018. Hawkins is serving a sentence of 22 years to life for strangling Susan Jacobson to death on May 15, 1976. Hawkins was 16 then. According to the parole board, a final deportation order to the United Kingdom has been issued against Hawkins. A spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections and Community said Monday that Hawkins remains incarcerated. She could not immediately say if arrangements have been made to deport him. Hawkins had been denied parole on nine prior occasions. In its decision, parole commissioners cited Hawkins' good disciplinary record and the "numerous rehabilitative achievements," including a college-level education, he's attained while behind bars. But commissioners also found "troubling" Hawkins' "denial and deletion of, or failure to recall certain facts" about the crime during a recent interview three weeks ago. "In short, you still seem capable of deception regarding criminal thoughts and behavior. We find your deceit and actions in support of your deception to be aggravating factors," the board wrote. "Your actions exhibit a cruel deliberation and contempt that prompt us to find that your release in the United States would deprecate the seriousness of the crime as to undermine respect for the law," said the board. Still, commissioners said Hawkins has remained behind bars nearly 16 years beyond his minimum 22-year sentence and granted him conditional parole for deportation only. If deported, Hawkins is not to contact Ms. Jacobson's family and can't financially profit by telling his story. Janice Blanchard, a sister of the victim, said her family is not aware of the complete details of the parole board's ruling, and did not wish to comment on it. In a brief interview in April, Blanchard said Hawkins had shown no remorse for the crime. "Everyone deserves a second chance at life, but not when you don't own up to your mistakes,'' she said then, after a state appellate court ordered the parole board to consider Hawkins' age at the time of the murder. In ordering a new hearing on the parole board's 2014 denial, the appellate court said the Eighth Amendment requires a juvenile offender's youth and "its attendant characteristics," be weighed by parole commissioners. Commissioners must consider whether the crime reflects, "transient immaturity." Hawkins' civil lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment. Prosecutors said Hawkins killed Ms. Jacobson during a quarrel in which she sought to end their relationship. Hawkins then hid her body in a 55-gallon oil barrel inside an underground bunker at the former Downey's Shipyard in Mariners Harbor. Ms. Jacobson's grieving family, whom Hawkins pretended to aid, searched relentlessly for her body for months. They even sought a nationally-known psychic's help. But her decomposed corpse wasn't recovered for nearly two years -- and then, by chance. Three boys came across Ms. Jacobson's skeletal remains on March 25, 1978, as they were exploring in the area. A Feb. 21, 1979, Advance story described the site as a "bleak, desolate area," off Richmond Terrace, between Holland and Western avenues, near the former Procter & Gamble Co. plant. Neighborhood residents referred to the area as "Down-back." Afterward, Hawkins, a native of England, was arrested in Joppa, Ill. He had gone there in April, 1977, to live with his father, Advance records show. Prosecutors' star witness during the trial was Hawkins' cousin, Willie (Puckie) Hawkins. Willie Hawkins testified that his cousin, Dempsey, admitted to choking Ms. Jacobson to death with a shirt. At a re-hearing in June, in which the board reaffirmed its 2014 denial, Hawkins expressed regret for his actions and vowed to lead a crime-free life if released, according to a transcript. "I am remorseful for the crime," he said. "I am deeply, I'm terribly sorry. I wish I had never committed that crime . . . I will never in my life commit another crime. I will never harm another human being, and I mean that." Hawkins said he had been in touch with a vice consul in the United Kingdom, as well as a criminal justice organization there which could assist him with housing, employment and other services. He also said he could stay with relatives living outside of London. Despite the denial, Hawkins was eligible in July for another hearing for the year 2016. Inmates serving indeterminate sentences can apply for parole every two years. If Hawkins is not deported by July, 2018, he can reapply for parole then, the board said. Andrew Cuomo Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently signed a law requiring the phone number for the New York State Child Abuse Hotline to be posted in all public schools. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A new law in New York is requiring that all public schools -- including charter schools -- post the state's child-abuse hotline phone number. Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently signed the law, which requires the phone number to be posted in both English and Spanish. The New York State Child Abuse Hotline toll-free number is 1-800-342-3720. The hotline is operated by the Office of Children and Family Services, and calls are accepted 24 hours a day, seven days a week. AX196_0747_9.JPG A new study suggests that people who regularly read newspapers and books may live longer than their peers. (Staten Island Advance) STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- If you've got books, newspapers and magazines piled in your home, waiting to be read, don't give up on them. A new study suggests that people who regularly read books and newspapers may live longer than their peers. A recent study by the the Yale University School of Public Health, looked at the reading patterns of 3,635 people who were 50 or older. On average,readers were found to live for almost two years longer than non-readers. Although the study focused primarily on reading books, it noted similar benefits were derived from reading newspapers and periodicals. Reading was linked to improved cognitive function in older adults, an adaptation of the old saying "use it or lose it." The study divided the sample into three groups: those who read no books, those who read books up to three and a half hours a week, and those who read books more than three and a half hours. Compared with those who did not read books, those who read for up to three and a half hours a week lived an average of almost two years longer than those who did not read at all, the study found. "People who report as little as a half-hour a day of book reading had a significant survival advantage over those who did not read," Yale professor Becca R. Levy, one of the study's three authors, told the New York Times. The report suggests "that reading books may not only introduce some interesting ideas and characters, it may also give more years of reading." In other words, enjoy life, and keep reading. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Shooting and wounding a 63-year-old woman and her 71-year-old husband in New Brighton last year will earn a reputed Bloods gang member a lengthy stint upstate. Joshua Burgos, 28, pleaded guilty Tuesday in state Supreme Court, St. George, to first-degree assault stemming from the May 3, 2015 incident, in which, authorities said, he fired several shots from a .40-caliber handgun, wounding Pat Vamosy-Schmidt and her spouse, Ed Schmidt, as they stood in front of 224 Jersey St. First-degree assault was the top charge, along with attempted second-degree murder, against Burgos, who entered the plea in exchange for a sentence of nine and a half years in prison and five years' post-release supervision. "The reckless and dangerous actions committed by this defendant show a blatant disregard for the safety and well-being of both the public and those in law enforcement," said District Attorney Michael E. McMahon in a statement. "By pleading guilty, Mr. Burgos has admitted to his role in this incident, and the people of Staten Island will be safer with him behind bars." Police said Burgos was riding a dirt bike at about 5:30 p.m. when he squeezed off several rounds, hitting the victims once. At the time, police said they did not have a motive; neighbors said they did not believe the couple was targeted and they were likely in the wrong place at the wrong time. Neighbors said it was typical for groups of people to ride dirt bikes up and down the block. EMS responded and transported the couple to Richmond University Medical Center in West Brighton, where they were admitted and later released. Neighbors had described the victims as sweet and caring "pillars of the community." Two days after the shooting, police released photos of a group of dirt bikers wanted for questioning. Subsequently, on June 9, cops released Burgos' name, identifying him as the shooter, in a statement to the media. However, Burgos had already vanished, skipping a conference in Stapleton Criminal Court on May 20 in connection with a Dec. 10, 2014, arrest in Port Richmond in which he was accused of hurting a detective while trying to speed away from the scene. Burgos, who had a suspended license and a bag of marijuana in his pocket, hit a detective's hand with the side mirror of his car, and backed into a police van, during an attempt to avoid getting pulled over for running a stop sign, police said. He was later arrested in August of last year. Burgos also pleaded guilty Tuesday to second-degree assault, the top charge against him in the 2014 case. He will be sentenced to four years in prison and five years' post-release supervision to run concurrently to the shooting sentence. The two sentences will also run concurrently to any sentence Burgos receives in a felony robbery case pending in Brooklyn arising from an alleged episode on Aug. 1, 2015. Burgos will be sentenced on Staten Island as a second felony offender. He was previously convicted in 2011 of felony drug possession and sentenced to nine months in jail, according to statements made in court. He also has prior misdemeanor convictions for criminal weapon possession and reckless endangerment, according to Advance reports. A stocky, bearded man garbed in a black dress shirt and gray pants, Burgos responded to Justice Mario F. Mattei's questions in a low voice. In pleading guilty to first-degree assault, he admitted to shooting Pat Vamosy-Schmidt. "My client and I made the decision not to subject the elderly victims to the rigors of a trial," said Burgos' lawyer, Mark J. Fonte, outside court. "My client accepted responsibility and is remorseful for his conduct." A sentencing date has not been set. Pope Francis Pope Francis walks through the gate of the former Nazi German death camp of Auschwitz in Oswiecim, Poland, on July 29, 2016. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski) STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Staten Islanders are predominantly Roman Catholic, and -- as the church teaches -- revere the teachings and guidance of its leader, Pope Francis. The first Jesuit Pope, he chose Francis as his papal name in honor of St. Francis of Assisi. Since his first days at the Vatican, Pope Francis has -- often to the surprise of the more conservative segments of the Catholic Church -- taken strong stances on tolerance, human rights and interfaith dialogue. He's been noted for his deep sense of humility and having a less formal approach to the papacy than his predecessors. For example, he resides in the Vatican guesthouse, and not the papal apartment at the Apostolic Palace used by his predecessors, and he routinely appears in vestments without the traditional papal mozzetta cape. In his continued effort to shape the Church as more more open and welcoming, Pope Francis said recently that Christians owe apologies to gays and others who have been offended or exploited by the Catholic Church, and said they need to be "respected" by Catholic faithful. "I think that the Church not only should apologize ... to a gay person whom it offended. . . I repeat what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says: that they must not be discriminated against, that they must be respected and accompanied pastorally," he said. The pontiff spoke during a press conference aboard the papal plane returning from Armenia. His remarks were prompted by a question asked about the mass shooting at a popular Orlando gay club. ANOTHER EXAMPLE And not long after, on an entirely different level, Pope Francis showed the world the fruits of tolerance and his interfaith efforts. Pope Francis' visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau last month included an encounter with 25 Christian Poles who rescued Jews during the Holocaust -- a symbolic meeting that was primarily the result of efforts by Poland's chief rabbi. Rabbi Michael Schudrich, a native of New York City whose grandparents all immigrated from Poland, had long hoped to see such a meeting in Poland between a pope and some of the remaining Poles who risked their lives during World War II to help and protect Jews. Yad Vashem in Israel has recognized 6,620 Polish gentiles who sheltered Jews among the so-called "Righteous Among the Nations." Today fewer than 240 in Poland are still alive, according to the Associated Press. Remembering their sacrifices is an important part of Schudrich's mission as the spiritual head of Poland's Jewish community. In a telephone interview with the AP, Shudrich said the pope's meeting with survivors was "something I have been thinking about for a while: what kind of non-material present, what kind of thank-you, can we give to the 'Righteous'?" The examples are just two, very different, illustrations of the forgiving, loving spirit the Pope embodies -- and they are inspirations to everyone, Roman Catholic or not. CLARION Discussion at the Wright County Board of Supervisors meeting Monday quickly turned from establishing an urban renewal area to opinions about Prestage Foods of Iowa. About 35 people attended the meeting that included a public hearing on a proposed urban renewal plan. The plan would be used by the county to finance developing the area where Prestage wants to locate its $240 million hog-processing plant. County officials say creating the renewal area will allow it to support construction of wastewater treatment facilities, resurface and improve Highway 17 and County Road C-56 near the plant and support development of the plant. Opponents voiced concerns with schooling, work force and environmental issues, including water quality and flies. The majority of the 16 people speaking at the hearing made points against the plant. Brad Michaelson showed a poster board with four sticky paper strips covered in flies to show the problem his neighbors have living near a hog confinement. Both Mary Lindstrom of Eagle Grove and Diane Keyser of Fort Dodge were near tears when speaking about their concerns. Lindstrom said her family never received incentives when her family ran Lindstrom Plumbing. Keyser, concerned about water quality, said her husband fishes in the Des Moines River but does not eat the fish due to pollutants. Chairman Stan Watne responded to some environmental questions, saying that the Iowa Department of Natural Resources handles water quality. Thats above our pay grades here, he said. Auditor Betty Ellis read a letter submitted to the board by June Knutson of Eagle Grove. Knutson questioned how the school system will handle the influx of non-English speakers. Do we want to turn our community into a foreign land? she wrote. The least you can do is put it to a vote, not ram it down our throats. Kathy Schnell of Belmond was against providing Prestage with tax incentives, saying that Wright County residents hard-earned tax money shouldnt go to a wealthy company. Even if it meant great jobs with great benefits for our Wright County residents. Even if they could guarantee that it wont stink, it wouldnt foul up the air, water or soil, Schnell said. I would still ask you to vote no. Watne and Economic Development Director Davis emphasized that existing tax money from Wright County residents will not go to Prestage. It would not be coming from the general fund, Watne said. Our property taxes will not go to these incentives. Davis said the money for tax rebates to Prestage does not exist yet and is not public taxpayer money. Any rebates to Prestage will be from new taxes the company pays. Gary Woodley said he listened to a lot of interesting opinions, but as a Clarion farmer he supports the project. When I hear the opposition, I take it as a slap in the face to agriculture, Woodley said. Weve lost population. He said he was frustrated by the opposition repeating the same opposition and he believes that the plant will help increase the population. The second reading for the urban renewal area plan is Aug. 15. The final votes for the development agreement and urban renewal area are Aug. 22. Both meetings begin at 9 a.m. in the Wright County Courthouse. If approved, Prestage plans to employee around 1,772 workers once the plant is fully operational. The company must do so through Dec. 30, 2030, to be eligible for tax incentives 10 years of annual property tax rebates up to $8 million. Prestage says annual salaries will begin at $37,000 plus benefits, with the average worker earning more than $47,000. By clicking Agree, you consent to Slates Terms of Service and Privacy Policy and the use of technologies such as cookies by Slate and our partners to deliver relevant advertising on our iOS app to personalize content and perform site analytics. Please see our Privacy Policy for more information about our use of data, your rights, and how to withdraw consent. Agree NEW YORK, Aug. 08, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Embraer S.A. (Embraer or the Company) (NYSE:ERJ) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, Southern District of New York, and docketed under 16-cv-06277, is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons or entities who purchased or otherwise acquired Embraer securities between April 16, 2012 and July 28, 2016 inclusive (the Class Period). This class action seeks to recover damages against Defendants for alleged violations of the federal securities laws under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the Exchange Act). If you are a shareholder who purchased Embraer securities during the Class Period, you have until October 7, 2016 to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll free, ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and number of shares purchased. [Click here to join this class action] Embraer designs, develops, manufactures, and sells aircraft and systems in Brazil, North America, Latin America, the Asia-Pacific region, Europe, and internationally. The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements, as well as failed to disclose material adverse facts about the Companys business, operations, and prospects. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) the Company had paid bribes to officials in the Dominican Republic to secure contracts for the sale of aircraft; (ii) Embraers President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Defendant Frederico Pinheiro Fleury Curado (Curado) was aware of the bribery scheme; (iii) the foreseeable consequences of the foregoing conduct would cost Embraer hundreds of millions of dollars; and (iv) as a result of the foregoing, Defendants statements about Embraers business, operations, and prospects were false and misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis. On November 1, 2013, after the market closed, The Wall Street Journal reported that Embraer was under investigation by the U.S. and Brazilian governments concerning bribery of Dominican Republic officials to secure a contract for the sale of military aircraft. On this news, Embraers ADRs fell $0.17, or 0.57%, to close at $29.55 on November 4, 2013, the next trading day. On September 23, 2014, shortly before the market closed, The Wall Street Journal reported that Brazilian authorities had filed bribery charges against eight Embraer employees, claiming that they had bribed officials in the Dominican Republic to secure a $92 million contract. On this news, Embraers ADRs fell $0.26, or 0.68%, to close at $38.25 on September 24, 2014. On March 16, 2016, after the market closed, various media outlets reported that Elio Moti Sonnenfeld (Sonnenfeld), a sales consultant who purportedly paid bribes on behalf of Embraer, had told Brazilian prosecutors that he believed the Companys top managers, including Defendant Curado, then CEO of Embraer, knew of the illicit payments made in connection with the Dominican Republic sales. On June 9, 2016, after the market closed, Embraer announced that Defendant Curado was stepping down from his position as CEO after 32 years with the Company, and that Paulo Cesar de Souza e Silva would replace Curado as of July 2016. On this news, Embraers ADRs fell $1.18, or 5.44%, to close at $20.51 on June 10, 2016. On July 29, 2016, Embraer filed a Form 6-K with the SEC, stating, in relevant part, that: [N]egotiations with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the settlement of the allegations of non-compliance with the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) have significantly progressed, to the point that Embraer is recognizing a US$ 200 million loss contingency in the quarter ended June 30, 2016. Embraer also announced its financial and operating results for the quarter ended June 30, 2016. Embraer reported, inter alia, the $200 million loss contingency and a net loss for the quarter totaling $99.4 million, or $0.55 per share. On this news, Embraers ADRs fell $2.93, or 13.82%, to close at $18.27 on July 29, 2016. The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Florida, and Los Angeles, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28: 29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:948 /var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. 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I didn't want to wash my hair any more and my parents cut off the hair after a week and I actually still have it at home. It was years later that I won his competition and he offered to let me study with him. That was, of course, the chance of my life." He says he has a penchant for both romantic and modern repertoires. "As I am also a conductor I love the orchestra repertoire too and then as a chamber musician I'm very flexible," he says. "The American composer Edgar Meyer wrote a double concerto for double bass and cello which is a little bit jazzy, and he recorded it with Yo-Yo Ma. I was introduced to Meyer and he liked my playing and asked if I'd like to play his concerto with him. It was really cool, but generally I don't play jazz or improvise." Schmidt plays a Matteo Goffriller cello which previously belonged to Hugo Becker. "It once belonged to the British cellist Beatrice Harrison who gave first performances of several important English works, especially those of Frederick Delius, and she also premiered the Elgar cello concerto, so my instrument has a nice history." Koch plays a Guadagnini violin which was made in 1751. "I'm totally in love with it," she says. "I found my violin in Munich. I didn't even try it out in a concert hall; I just played it and it's been mine for 20 years now. I'm very lucky. I take it everywhere with me. It doesn't react to weather conditions; even when I took it to India. I've never even changed its bridge." Is the work that they will perform together at this concert, the Brahms Double Concerto, the ideal work for a husband and wife to perform together? Koch laughs and calls for her husband's opinion. "In a way, yes," she says. "We just love performing together. And we feel very comfortable with this piece. It's very romantic. We're quite direct with one another." And there seems to be an intuitive element; she explains that as they were rehearsing a little while ago, they both just opened the music at the same place without conferring. "When we played in New York 10 years ago my sister was in the audience and she heard a lot of people around her saying, 'Oh, do you think they are married? They keep looking at each other. They must be together.' " Schmidt says, "Well, the violin is feminine. The German words are violine or geige and the word for cello is neuter, but I think a cello is definitely masculine. Brahms wanted to write a piece for a big violin one with a large range from base to top but such an instrument doesn't exist so he chose to divide the parts for two instruments. So, as a couple, I would say that we are one instrument." Schmidt explains that as a cellist his favourite concertos are by Schumann, Elgar and Shostakovich. "Dvorak as well, of course, the greatest cello concerto ever written but it's not as personal for me as Schumann and Elgar." In a plan concocted over eight months, a Canberra man staged a car accident to have his insurance company cover the cost of surgery on a bad knee injured over years of martial arts fighting. Daryoush Zargari Samani, 38, co-opted his nephew and brother-in-law in the offence one to feign seeing a child run out and the other to crash into the back of the suddenly stopped car. He pleaded guilty to six charges, including several relating to dishonestly obtaining a financial advantage, and one of obstructing or hindering a police investigation. On Tuesday in the ACT Supreme Court, Justice John Burns sentenced Samani to two years and four months imprisonment. The scene of the pre-arranged accident was Ormiston Street in Harrison, where in May 2014 Samani had his nephew drive a car in which Samani was a passenger, pretend to see a child suddenly run onto the road and then suddenly slam the brakes. Holding her son's ashes outside the ACT Magistrates Court in May, Kay Catanzariti warned there would be more deaths on Canberra work sites. Now she says she has been proved right. The mother of the man crushed on a Canberra construction site in 2012 has renewed her push for a senate inquiry into fatalities on industrial work sites, after another worker was killed in the ACT last week. Kay Catanzariti at her home in Griffith, NSW. Mrs Catanzariti is still grieving the loss of her son Ben. Credit:Anthony Stipo/Area News A 62-year-old Sydney man died when he was struck by a fallen crane in Belconnen on Thursday night. His death comes four years after Mrs Catanzariti's son, 21-year-old concreter Ben Catanzariti, was killed when a faulty concrete pump boom collapsed on him at a construction site on the Kingston Foreshore . Hawthorn forward James Sicily will miss his side's crucial AFL clash with North Melbourne after accepting a one-match ban for belting Bernie Vince. Sicily was charged with striking the Melbourne veteran in round 20 and would have risked a two-game suspension if he'd taken the case to the tribunal. The undermanned Hawks, who are coming off a shock loss to the Demons, risk slipping outside the top four if they're unable to defeat North. The tribunal won't sit on Tuesday. Swiss watchmaker TAG Heuer has re-opened its Sydney flagship store at its landmark Pitt Street mall, Sydney address, after a major refurbishment. It will use the site to showcase for the first time globally its new retail design concept and launch its new brand ambassadors, actor Chris Hemsworth and Formula One driver Daniel Ricciardo. Swiss watchmaker TAG Heuer will re-open its Sydney flagship store at its landmark Pitt Street Mall address after a major refurbishment. The new TAG Heuer flagship at Westfield Sydney continues the brand's retail development strategy in Australia, which saw the opening of a new flagship store in Melbourne's new luxury precinct, St Collins Lane in May, and the first store in the Gold Coast in the newly redeveloped Pacific Fair shopping precinct in November. Another boutique at Chadstone shopping centre in Melbourne is due to open early next year. The new look for the luxury brand comes as Sydney's CBD continues to lead the way nationally in terms of retail rent growth, recording a 28.4 per cent increase in NSW prime rents for the year to June 30, 2016. A consortium headed by Melbourne businessman John Shalit has moved to offload a two-tower development site in Albert Road opposite Melbourne's famed Shrine of Remembrance. The site, which has planning approval for two 19-level buildings, spans an L-shaped block between Albert Road and Palmerston Crescent and is expected to fetch more than $40 million. A two-tower development is proposed for 28-32 Albert Road and 13-21 Palmerston Crescent in South Melbourne. Mr Shalit controls the Construction Engineering group that occupies a small office at 28-32 Albert Road. Interests associated with the group also control the multi-level car park behind Construction Engineering's office that faces the street at 13-21 Palmerston Crescent in South Melbourne. Names and addresses have helped the Australian Bureau of Statistics identify instances of double counting, as well as vital accuracy in terms of accounting for all people in a household since 1911. The ABS collates important statistics on population trends and movements, projections for the future which assist governments of all political persuasions to plan for the future needs of our biggest cities and smallest regional communities, especially for Indigenous life expectancy. Thanks to the participation of more than 98 per cent of Australians at the last census, the inclusion of this detail helps the ABS paint the best possible picture of Australia. The Census website crashed as an estimated 16 million people tried to log on on Tuesday. Credit:gizmodo.com.au Australians can be assured their data the ABS has never had a breach of security in relation to the census. Additionally, no minister, no prime minister and no court can access this data under any circumstances. This means the ABS treats your information as absolutely confidential and absolutely sacrosanct. The census paints a picture of the fact a baby is born in Australia every one minute and 46 seconds. At Royal Melbourne Women's Hospital, that's 25 bubs a day. CHICAGO, Aug. 09, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Krakus, The True Imported Polish Ham, is celebrating the 58th annual Chicago Air and Water Show in a fun and unique way. The Krakus Ham Train returns to the citys Blue Line with two train cars covered in a special design reminiscent of its mouth-watering, traditional deli ham. In addition, commuters traveling to the Lakeshore area will spot 102 buses displaying images of Krakus Ham sandwiches. Chicagos Blue Line train and buses serving the North Park and Forest Glen garages will have the new, delicious look from August 8 through September 11. Additional Krakus imagery will be featured on digital signage throughout the city. "This is one of our favorite projects for Krakus," said Michael J. Sargent, Senior Brand Manager, Krakus. Chicago has been such a great market for us and were proud to be the #1 deli ham in the Windy City. The Krakus train and buses will be turning heads in Krakus colors and were encouraging ham lovers to join in the fun by sharing their encounters on social media." The 58th Annual Chicago Air and Water Show, presented by Shell and the City of Chicago is August 20 and 21 along the lakefront from Fullerton to Oak Street, with North Avenue Beach serving as show center from 10 am to 3 pm daily. Strong in tradition and one of the largest free admission events of its kind, the show headliners include the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds and the U.S. Army Parachute Team Golden Knights. New this year, the U.S. Air Force F-35 will take part in the show for the first time. For complete show details visit, chicagoairandwatershow.us. Krakus is an official sponsor of the 58th Annual Air and Water Show. As part of its involvement, Chicagos #1 deli ham will be on North Ave. Beach August 20 and 21 sampling, handing out coupons and other great giveaways (while supplies last). Throughout August, select stores in the Chicago area will also host Krakus cooking demonstrations and sample Krakus ham to celebrate the Air and Water Show. Krakus will also be hosting representatives from the Polish Legion of American Veterans, and will make a donation to its Illinois Chapter on August 21 during a special presentation at the show. The Polish Legion of American Veterans is an organization committed to the ideals of patriotism, charity and volunteerism, whose mission is to aid in the rehabilitation of disabled veterans. For more information on Krakus, log on to KrakusFoods.com. Krakus is a brand of Smithfield Foods. About Krakus Crafted with care and expertise in Poland, Krakus is authentic Polish Ham. Krakus is cured naturally with only the finest hand-selected ingredients and recipes passed down through centuries. The result is truly delectable. A one-of-a-kind, mouthwatering taste only experienced with true imported Polish ham. Treat your family to the incomparable taste of Krakus, ideal for sandwiches, salads and other recipes. Accept no imitations. For unrivaled quality and unsurpassed flavor, there is only Krakus. 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. The 160,000-odd Filipino-Australians are entitled to be distraught at the way new president Rodrigo Duterte is conducting an anti-drugs purge in their homeland. Driven by concern over corruption of public officials and what he claims to be a pandemic in which 3 per cent of the population are addicts, Mr Duterte has stepped up his search-and-destroy project against those he suspects of supporting the illicit drugs industry. "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 on Sunday. Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte wants to reinstate the death penalty. Credit:AP Mr Duterte named almost 160 lawyers, judges, military officers and even the police as suspects in a national TV address, saying they would be stripped of their gun licences in a nation wracked by crime gangs. But some on the hit list are dead or have already been dismissed, raising concerns about an approach already under fire for being based more on conspiracy theories than publicly available evidence. The vocal republican activists in Australia have become unusually quiet of late. Could it possibly be out of embarrassment at what is going on in the US? Most certainly so. The US Presidential election shows everything the republican movement doesn't want us to see about their favoured model, a popularly elected presidency. Australian republicans must hate Hillary and Donald. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Credit:AP The problem with a popularly elected presidency is that it puts real power in the hands of people who could be as unreliable as, well, Hillary and Donald. In spite of hagiography of the Hillary Clinton cheer squad which seems to exist in the Australian media, she is not well liked at home. In fact recent polls show that as many as 66% of Americans don't trust her. There are good reasons for this. I have $2 million in my allocated pension account. I am 70, my wife is 73 and she has taken no interest whatsoever in money matters even though she has been with me to all seminars and interview with the super fund. I even pay all the bills (not my choice but hers). We have been married 49 years so are unlikely to split up. I did not use the re-contribution strategy to equalise our balances as I could not see the benefit in it as the revisionary benefit would go to her if I died. This means that she would be well looked after then, which was my aim. Illustration: Simon Letch Unfortunately, your situation is far too common, which means there could be problems in the future if you become unable to use all your faculties. I assume you have done some estate-planning strategies and you have an enduring power of attorney in place. There is no regulation in place yet, but to me the simple solution would be to withdraw enough of your balance tax free next June to reduce it to the required $1.6 million. If the balance is $2 million now this may be around $400,000. This could be placed in your wife's name, or even in joint names, and provided there was no other family income would then be in a tax-free environment as you would be below the tax-free threshold. The proposed changes give you the perfect opportunity to start to get your wife involved in your financial affairs. "After the fourth attack, which took place just after 7.30pm [on Tuesday AEST], the ABS took the precaution of closing down the system to ensure the integrity of the data. An error message seen when trying to submit the census. Credit:Liam Phillips "I can certainly reassure Australians the data they provided is safe," Mr Kalisch said. Australian Signals Directorate - an intelligence agency within the Australian Department of Defence - is investigating the DDoS source. Contradictions: ABS attack, hack or 'draw' In a press conference on Wednesday, Mr Kalisch described a "confluence of events" that caused the fiasco: the system's geo-blocking protection was not working effectively, a hardware router failed, and a monitoring system "threw up queries we needed to investigate". Asked why he had not informed the public of the disruptions earlier in the day, Mr Kalisch said" "I didn't think it was appropriate for me to signal that was happening ... we had managed it effectively, the system was operating." Despite the ABS chief repeatedly referring to the incidents as "attacks", the minister in charge of the census, Assistant Treasurer Michael McCormack said it was not an "attack". "This was not an attack. Nor was it a hack but rather, it was an attempt to frustrate the collection of Bureau of Statistics Census data," Mr McCormack said. "ABS census security was not compromised. I repeat, not compromised, and no data was lost." "The good news is the firewalls held up," the minister said. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's cybersecurity adviser said the tussle between ABS protections and the would-be hackers ended in "a draw". "I would say they successfully caused frustration," Alistair MacGibbon said. "In this case what I'd say, it almost ended up a draw. They managed to tip over some systems. The ABS made a decision to turn that website off in order to ensure that the data wasn't compromised," Mr MacGibbon. Mr Turnbull promised a standard post-census review would investigate what went wrong, but emphasised that "there was no penetration of the ABS website" and that no private information had been compromised. ABS 'not prepared' for attack a child could pull off As investigators probe the source of the attack, the government declined to give credence to suggestions the hackers could be a foreign power, or bit-players operating in their bedroom. But at face value, the DDoS attack appears to be little more than the kind of cyber mischief that causes minor annoyances to countless sites everyday. "What is surprising is that they weren't resilient. With a massive system like this ... this is what you should expect," security adviser Troy Hunt told Fairfax Media. "Many times it's literally just children mounting these attacks," he said. "It [raises] the question of what DDoS mitigation they had in place. Because it clearly didn't work." A handful of Twitter users from the IT crowd pointed to digital attack maps that showed no DDoS activity in Australia on Tuesday. Privacy Commissioner investigates Australian privacy commissioner Timothy Pilgrim will investigate the ABS over cyber attacks that threatened the census. "Based on these reports, I am commencing an investigation of the Australian Bureau of Statistics in regards to these cyber attacks, under the Australian Privacy Act 1988," Mr Pilgrim said in a statement. "My first priority is to ensure that no personal information has been compromised as a result of these attacks," he said. The commissioner said his office was briefed by the ABS on the privacy protections in place for the census. How census night unfolded The bureau had dismissed suggestions an overload could cause the system to crash earlier in the day. But as an estimated 16 million people logged on to the census website on Tuesday night, they were met with error messages and told the system was "overloaded" before the website crashed. The troubles began about 5pm on Tuesday, when people trying to access the form were stopped by messages including a "code 31" error, which said the request "could not be completed because a problem was encountered". The frequency increased as the evening neared and many Australians trying to reach the census site after 7pm couldn't connect. Over the past 24 hours, #censusfail had amassed more than 80,000 tweets. The tweets peaked about 9.30pm on Tuesday, hovering about 300 tweets a minute. The ABS had shut down the site at 7.45pm. But the bureau did not release a statement advising the website was unavailable until about 11.30pm. Earlier advise from the ABS was that they were "experiencing an outage". The ABS chief said he believed the details of people - including the Prime Minister - who had successfully accessed the site were secure. "Steps have been taken during the night to remedy these issues and I can certainly reassure Australians that the data they provided is safe," Mr Kalisch said. Mr Kalisch said he expected the site would be back online about 9am on Wednesday. However, by 1pm the site still was not back up. Australians who failed to fill out the census because of the website outage will not be fined, and have until September 23 to complete the survey, the federal government says. Boycott justified? The census was plagued by a growing boycott over fears of potential privacy breaches. Asked if the debacle confirmed fears over the security of the information, Mr Kaslisch said: "If anything, it actually confirms the strong position that the ABS has taken in terms of security the integrity of the data." "The data that comes to ABS is encrypted and it was secured and received safely at the ABS ... we have it at the ABS no one else has it," he said. The ABS controversially switched to an opt-out online format this year and moved to store personal data for four years rather than 18 months. Although the names will be destroyed after those four years, the ABS created linkage keys that link names to other data it collects, which will be kept indefinitely. However, the ABS says that staff cannot get back to the name, once it is destroyed, from the other data via the key. The census was delivered by technology company IBM using its Australian SoftLayer cloud. Figures from the Australian government's procurement agency AusTender show IBM was paid more than $9.6 million in 2014 to design, develop and implement the "eCensus". Melbourne-based company Revolution IT was also paid $378,332 for IT consulting and "load testing" on the census and agricultural census. "Load testing" is a process intended to ensure a website can handle a high volume of simultaneous users without crashing. 'Worst-handled census in history' Independent senator Nick Xenophon, who had refused to put his name to the census, questioned how the public could still trust the ABS and its privacy assurances. He demanded the agency explain where the attack came from and whether it really was an attempted hack or just a system overload. "I think they need to 'fess up," he told ABC radio, demanding a Senate inquiry. Labor stopped short of calling for Mr McCormack, to resign. Shadow assistant treasurer Andrew Leigh told Fairfax Media there should be "a full reckoning" in the form of an inquiry. "We need an open and transparent inquiry as to what went wrong in the 2016 census, which looks to be the worst-handled census in Australian history," he said. Dr Leigh said the Turnbull government had taken a "hands-off approach" to the census, including appointing three different ministers over 12 months, and could not "palm off" responsibility for the failure on to ABS bureaucrats. No matter what happens next, he suggested the value of the census had been gutted because it had failed to take a "snapshot" of the country on the night of August 9. "The quality of the data for the 2016 census has clearly been compromised," Dr Leigh said. "That's because we haven't got the high on the night response rate that we've seen in previous censuses." Timeline to meltdown Tuesday 10.08am: Australian Bureau of Statistics online monitoring systems detected a significant increase in traffic. It lasted 11 minutes causing a system outage of five minutes. The traffic increase was suspected to be a denial of service and investigations were commenced by ABS and IBM. 11.46am: Another increase in traffic was observed consistent with a second denial of service. A mitigation response plan to block all international traffic was activated at 11.50am, which immediately stopped the event. The ABS kept the block on all international traffic until midnight. 11.55am: The incident was reported to the Australian Signals Directorate to seek advice on prevention of further incidents or any intelligence-related threat to the ABS. 4.58pm: An increase in traffic was defended by network firewalls. Additional measures were taken to prevent further attempts of this type. 6.15pm: A small-scale denial of service was attempted on the ABS website and stopped by the standard denial of service protections. 7.30pm: The online census form monitoring systems detected a significant denial of service. This event took a different form from those before, as there was a large increase in traffic with thousands of Australians logging on to complete their census. 7.45pm: The ABS shut down the online form to protect the system from further incidents. 8.10pm: Assistant Treasurer Michael McCormack's office was informed. 8.14pm: Mr McCormack was called and returned to Parliament House. 8.32pm: Mr McCormack notified Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Treasurer Scott Morrison. 8.50pm: The online form system was restored. However, overload protocols were activated to prevent connections until the systems and their integrity could be assessed. At this time the ABS provided a public message through social media and the ABS website to indicate there was a system outage and to try again later. Loading Some of the state's most vulnerable students are being subjected to sexual and physical assaults, with the peak advocate claiming schools are failing to adequately address allegations of abuse. Documents obtained under freedom of information laws reveal scores of disturbing allegations about bullying and abuse of students with disability in NSW public schools. Abused and abandoned: A woman comforts her son who has autism and suffered ill treatment at school. Credit:James Alcock The documents, obtained by peak advocacy body Children and Young People with Disability Australia (CYDA), show many allegations against staff were sustained but ruled as not amounting to misconduct with no action taken. The allegations put by complainants include a case where a teacher dragged students to their chairs by their wrists and ankles, an incident in which a teacher engaged in sexual contact with students and a claim that an assistant principal allowed children to hit and bite a student. The founder of the Australian Muslim Party is facing criminal charges after allegedly carrying out a lucrative fraud racket worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Political hopeful and western Sydney businessman Diaa Mohamed was arrested and charged with nine fraud offences in May following a lengthy and wide-ranging NSW Police probe. The 35-year-old's case is due on Wednesday to come before Parramatta Local Court, where an additional drug supply charge will be laid. It is understood the charge stems from cocaine allegedly found at Mr Mohamed's home during a search warrant. Police will also present him with further fraud charges. Convicted former Labor minister Eddie Obeid has had his sentencing for misconduct in public office delayed by weeks and separate criminal proceedings postponed for months after his lawyers argued he had suffered a stroke and was too ill to proceed. "It's not a delaying tactic at all," Obeid's barrister, Brad Hughes, SC, told the NSW Supreme Court on Tuesday. A Supreme Court jury found Obeid, 72, guilty on June 28 of misconduct in public office for concealing his family's business interest in two Circular Quay cafes when lobbying a senior bureaucrat about the rights of waterfront retailers. Justice Robert Beech-Jones was expected to hear submissions from the parties on Friday about the appropriate sentence. The Crown has urged the court to impose a jail sentence. More than $100,000 has been awarded to five Queensland Youtube creators as part of the Queensland government's partnership with YouTube, a first of its kind in Australia. Deputy Premier and Minister for Trade and Investment Jackie Trad congratulated the winners of the Creator Originals awards, which is part of the Create Queensland partnership with YouTube. Deputy Premier Jackie Trad with YouTube content director Sanoop Luke and Queensland YouTube creators. "I am very proud that Queensland was the first state government in Australia to secure a partnership of this nature with YouTube," Ms Trad said. "The Creator Originals awards are key to establishing Queensland as a market of choice for digital innovators and entrepreneurs. Australia is going back into space with the launch of the first locally built satellites in more than 15 years. Early next year 50 tiny satellites the size of bedside lamps will be shot out of the International Space Station like planetary probes, in an attempt to discover more about the least understood layer of the atmosphere. Three of the mini-spacecraft, known as CubeSats, were made in Australia. They form part of a European-funded project called QB50 that will explore the volatile thermosphere between 200 and 400 kilometres above the Earth's surface. It is the first line of defence against cosmic rays, solar flare radiation and other unpredictable space weather that can cause GPS to malfunction, cause power grid fluctuations or potentially trigger mass blackouts. Work has begun to duplicate the rail line between Deer Park and Caroline Springs, making way for an upgrade to the Ballarat corridor that is designed to improve regional and metropolitan train services. The work coincides with the construction of the new Caroline Springs railway station - built to accommodate booming population growth in Melbourne's outer west. It is scheduled to open next year. Public Transport Minister Jacinta Allan Public says the work will transform the Ballarat train corridor. Credit:Joe Armao The Andrews government has allocated more than $500 million to upgrade the Ballarat line. The work is set to begin next year and be completed in 2019. Under the Ballarat line upgrade, the track will be duplicated down to Melton. An additional three kilometres of single track will also be built west of Warrenheip. NEW YORK CITY, N.Y., Aug. 9, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- This summer Kontextur literally dives into uncharted waters launching Shark and Diver, the first in a series of exciting and imaginative DIY toy assembly kits in collaboration with Brooklyn-based designer Matt Cavanaugh. Cavanaugh masterfully casts minimalist design into the orbit of PLAY, transforming a system of flat die-cut vinyl and screws into remarkably life-like kinetic creatures. The first two designs in the series, The Shark and Diver, are inspired by complex paper airplanes (and other instructive DIY toys) that challenge the mind, stimulate connections of brain and hand and give insight into how things are made. The DIY kits also encourage endless hours of creative play once complete. Kontextur's founder Kenneth Schiller said, "I was intrigued by objects that serve not just for their aesthetic truth but to encourage our explorative, playful instincts. Matt captures the pure enjoyment of using your hands to assemble and create durable pieces of art by imbuing life into simple industrial materials. This collaboration with Kontextur is proof of the amazing things that come from PLAY." The Shark: Kontextur celebrates the glory of the Great White with this minimalist designer toy. Articulated joints allow the tail to swing from side to side mimicking the graceful and powerful tail thrusts of a real shark and the hinged monstrous jaws open and close. The Diver: The Scuba Diver, with oxygen tanks in tow, plunges with equal parts excitement and fear into the unknown. Put your fingers inside the diver's torso to make the legs flutter kick as the Diver observes the wonders of the ocean with newfound respect for the awesome universe below. Kontextur honors this spirit of curiosity, exploration and conservation. The Designer: Matt Cavanaugh arrived at the final designs using an organic process that adheres to the Kontextur PLAY focus on creating a hands-on experience that is intrinsic to human nature. "From early on in my discussions with Kontextur, it became obvious that the way I was building the prototypes, pinning the paper pieces with binding posts, could make a great DIY kit. People could build the Shark and Diver themselves and experience first hand the imaginative solutions I arrived at to fold and bend flat materials to create complex forms," said Matt. The Whole Package: Schiller and Cavanaugh worked to integrate Matt's design process into the packaging. An accordion style folder opens to reveal that's needed to build the toys - cut vinyl filets and screws of the process - with graphic art and a descriptive how-to. The packaging presentation aims to reflect the experience while also having some fun with it. The spirit of PLAY is 21st Century ready. It is brought to the user with an interactive, step-by-step visual instruction-guide online at Kontextur's website. The DIY kits retail for $39.50 each. For ages 6 and Up. About Kontextur Kontextur is a New York-based company known for reimagined and unexpected home accessory design. Their playful approach to home objects is result of their commitment to evolve the perception of everyday tools, while keeping an eye toward the future of modern decor. With and abiding drive to only make sleek and cool things, founder and creative director, Kenneth Schiller, leads a diverse cadre of emerging and established global designers to continuously push boundaries and rethink the ordinary. Photos accompanying this release are available at: http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=41057 http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=41058 Professor Billie Giles-Corti, director of the McCaughey VicHealth Centre at Melbourne University, said Australians should remember that the ABS has never had a breach of its data. "It already has had names and addresses for a period of time and this is just extending that," she said. "The ABS is really critical, it saves lives. "It's a way of collecting data on the entire populations that helps with all sorts of planning, and in that sense it's critical that we complete it and complete it in a way that makes the data usable." What is the census? The Census of Population and Housing is the largest statistical collection of information about Australians. It is carried out by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). It provides a detailed "snapshot" of every household, and of every person in that household, on one specific night. #MyCensus I'm so excited it's Census Day. I love it & the ABS. The data is invaluable for our country. Fill it in and reap the benefits Bernadette Foley (@BernadetteMF) August 8, 2016 The information collected will help determine where taxpayers' money will be spent in areas such as health, education, transport and infrastructure. When is the census? Police have found a burglar asleep after a break-in at a Moorabbin shopping centre. Credit:Getty Images Wake up, it's today. Tuesday, August 9, 2016. Australians can fill out their forms from now to avoid online traffic later on Tuesday and even have until September 23rd to complete the online form. What will I be asked? The census asks residents personal information such as marriage status, religion, racial background, how much they earn, and their relationship with other people in their household on census night. What do I have to do? From August 1, most households will receive a letter from the ABS, addressed "To the Resident". The letter includes a unique 12-digit login code for that household, and instructions on how to complete the census online. Most households are expected to complete the census online. Paper forms are still available for those who wish to use them. If a household is unable to access the internet or would prefer to fill out a paper form, they can call the ABS to request one. Anyone doing so will need their 12-digit census login that arrives in the mail. The paper census form takes seven more minutes to complete than the online form. Credit:Robert Pearce Paper forms must be completed and returned immediately in the reply-paid envelope. What if I'm not at home on census night? The census provides a snapshot of where people are on one particular night. If you're staying with relatives or friends on that night, make sure you're included on their census form. If you have guests staying with you, make sure to include them on your form. For those staying at an accommodation service - such as a hotel, serviced apartment, hostel or caravan park - your accommodation service provider will give you a form when you arrive. ABS field officers will be found at certain locations in remote areas such as truck stops and caravan parks. They will provide you with a census form or information on how to complete the census online If you are overseas on census night, you do not need to complete the form. Is the census compulsory? Yes. The ABS says it is "committed to the protection of the privacy and confidentiality of everyone who completes the census". It says names will be stored separately from the rest of the census data, and will be kept for up to four years and released only in an "anonymised" form for projects "approved by a senior-level committee and subject to strict security provisions". Those projects will link what the bureau knows about people from the census with other information authorities know about them, "in the public good". No one working with the data will be able to view the identifying information at the same time as other census information. The level of risk to personal privacy was assessed as being "very low", the ABS said. Names and addresses will be destroyed four years after collection, in August 2020. Will I be fined for not completing name and address at all or accurately? According to the ABS, all forms must be "completed fully and accurately". "Names and addresses have always been a critical part of an accurate census data, so without this information, people would be letting down their community and the planning for services they use," a statement said. "The decision to consider prosecution needs to be made on a case by case basis considering individual circumstances it is always a last resort and very rarely required." Fewer than 100 people were fined in 2011, and the ABS expects a similar figure this time round. Can the ABS tell if you're lying? As demographer Glenn Capuano of consultancy .id puts it, in every census you find a 99-year-old Indigenous person who was born in Burkina Faso. He said the optional religion question attracts the most troll answers, with thousands opting to class themselves as Jedis - the fictional religious order from the Star Wars films. At last count five years ago, there were 64,390 Jedis nationwide, which means there were more followers of The Force than there were Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons. All rigorous surveys - even country-wide ones - have some safeguards in place to make sure the outliers get filtered out. Any self-respecting survey-taker knows there are biases that can creep into the data, and can sniff out any responses that smell a bit off. Can I be fined for not completing the census? Yes. If a person fails to return a census form, the ABS will firstly notify that person of their legal obligation to do so. An alleged far-right extremist charged with terrorism-related offences says he is suffering from hallucinations from the stun grenade thrown at him before he was arrested. Phillip Michael Galea, 31, appeared at the Melbourne Magistrates' Court Tuesday for a filing hearing. The raided house in Ballarat Road, Braybrook Credit:Craig Sillitoe Fairfax has previously reported Mr Galea is a member of the anti-immigration group Reclaim Australia. He is the first right-wing extremist to be charged under Commonwealth anti-terror laws. The fight over the proposed sale of Melbourne's Celtic Club has become so toxic that a new deal to be put to members would have a "poison pill" clause sell the venue or pay $100,000 to the developer. Last month, members of the ailing Irish club voted against accepting a $25.6 million offer from Beulah International to purchase the site at 320 Queen Street. Protesters opposed to the sale of the Celtic Club. Credit:Pat Scala The lucrative deal needed 75 per cent support in a vote by members, but fell short at 71.6 per cent. Amid growing animosity between rival groups, a new sale plan is set to be put to members. A Midvale business owner says she was "gobsmacked" by security footage showing a man dressed in women's clothing committing a lewd act, then defecating, wiping his backside and tossing toilet paper away in a car park. Footage of the incident - posted on the Perth Have A Whinge Facebook page - shows the man, who appears to be wearing a bra and high heels, climbing into a white utility before he strips off and apparently starts pleasuring himself. The events transpired outside the WA Salon Supplies business and security cameras were triggered when the man drove around the back of a Caltex service station. Footage viewed by WAtoday shows the bespectacled man seeming to defecate, then reach for the toilet paper - a used portion of which he then casually tosses away. A young boy is in a serious but stable condition in hospital after he was hit by a car while riding a scooter in Swan View on Monday. Police spokeswoman Susan Usher said the boy was scooting along Harold Road and as he crossed Morrison Road he crashed into a Jeep Cherokee driving in a westerly direction. The boy was seriously injured in the crash and was taken to Midland Hospital before being transferred to Princess Margaret Hospital. Major Crash officers are investigating the crash and are looking for information from anyone who saw the boy on his scooter or the Jeep Cherokee. London: The 19-year-old man charged with murdering an American tourist and the attempted murder of five others, including two Australians will stand trial in February next year. Zakaria Bulhan appeared at the Old Bailey via video link with no legal representation. He sat with his hands clasped in front of his face covering his mouth and nose. He was remanded in custody until another hearing in October ahead of his trial on 6 February, 2017. He is charged with murdering 64-year old American woman Darlene Horton in a stabbing attack at Russell Square in Central London last week. He is also charged with attempting to murder five other people who were stabbed, including Australians David Imber and Lillie Sellentin, a 59-year-old American man and an 18-year-old Israeli woman. South Korea will arm itself with nuclear weapons if its rogue neighbour, North Korea, continues to develop the bomb. This would be a revolutionary step, overturning half a century of opposition to nuclear capability. South Korea has committed to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. "It will become a domino effect and even South Korea will become concerned and develop nuclear weapons, and maybe Japan as well," according to a senior official in the Seoul government. "This will all lead to a big security threat," the director-general for reunification policy in the Ministry of Unification, Lee Duk-haeng, told Fairfax Media. Three girls who fell as far as 15 metres from a malfunctioning Ferris wheel in eastern Tennessee on Monday will live to tell about it, police said. Greenville Police Detective Captain Tim Davis said the children were riding the Ferris wheel at the Greene County Fair when their basket collided with another basket and tipped over, throwing them out, according to WBIR. Police said they fell between 10 and 15 metres. Witnesses told WJHL that the girls bounced off the metal bridging of the ride before hitting the ground. Miraculously, all three survived. Washington: Fifty prominent Republican national security officials, including a former CIA director, have called party nominee Donald Trump unqualified to lead the country and say he would be "the most reckless president in American history." The statement on Monday was the latest repudiation of Trump's candidacy by veteran Republican national security specialists, and was remarkable for the harshness of its language. "Mr Trump lacks the character, values, and experience to be president. He weakens US moral authority as the leader of the free world. He appears to lack basic knowledge about and belief in the US Constitution, US laws and US institutions, including religious tolerance, freedom of the press, and an independent judiciary," the statement said. "None of us will vote for Donald Trump," said the statement, which noted that some signatories also have doubts about Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. For full functionality of this site it is necessary to enable JavaScript. Here are the instructions how to enable JavaScript in your web browser LISLE, Ill., Aug. 09, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Eckrich, the makers of naturally hardwood smoked sausage and savory deli meats, partnered with TOPS Friendly Markets and Operation Homefront, a national nonprofit whose mission is to build strong, stable, and secure military families, to honor a Liverpool, New York military family. A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/355ca92b-efe7-47d7-a520-e8be3187609f Joining them for the surprise event was a special guest, platinum-selling country music star Randy Houser. Eckrich and Houser invited the Bredberg family backstage before his performance and surprised them with a gift of $5,000 in free groceries at TOPS. Together, Eckrich and Houser have partnered to honor U.S. military families since 2014. Houser is known for top hits including his four No. 1 singles How Country Feels, Runnin Outta Moonlight, Goodnight Kiss and We Went as well as the Top 5 smash Like A Cowboy. He recently released his fourth studio album, Fired Up, via Stoney Creek Records. The 17-song project follows Housers breakthrough album, How Country Feels, and features his latest No. 1 hit We Went and new single, Chasing Down a Good Time. It is always a lot of fun to meet our military families, said Houser. Tonight, I was honored to meet the Bredberg family and present them with a check for $5,000 in free groceries, courtesy of Eckrich. Its our way of saying thanks for everything they have done for us. Timothy Bredberg served in the United States Army from 2003 to 2006 as a combat medic. During his time, Bredberg received a Purple Heart, in addition to many other awards and medals. His wife, Stacey, has been Timothys caregiver for the past ten years. Together the family has three children. "I cannot begin to describe how much this means to our family," said Bredberg. "Thank you to Eckrich, Randy Houser, and TOPS for your support of military families." The event is part of the ongoing campaign by Eckrich to honor, thank and support military families through its partnership with Operation Homefront. The Bredberg family is supported by Operation Homefronts Hearts of Valor program, a network of nearly 3,000 caregivers for wounded, ill or injured service members. Operation Homefront supports these caregivers through annual retreats, support groups and online communities. Eckrich, in its fifth year of partnership with Operation Homefront, has donated more than $2.5 million to the organization since 2012. Eckrich continues its mission to honor, thank and support our military families across the country, said Chuck Gitkin, Senior Vice President, Marketing, Smithfield Foods. We are thankful for the help of Randy Houser in giving back to the Bredberg family. We thank the Bredberg family for their sacrifice and hope they enjoy the $5,000 in free groceries at TOPS. For more information about Eckrich, please visit www.eckrich.com or follow Eckrich on Facebook and Twitter. About Eckrich Founded by Peter Eckrich in 1894, Eckrich has a rich heritage starting from a small meat market in Fort Wayne, Ind. Through it all, Eckrich meats have been recognized for their great taste and supreme quality, craftsmanship, care and pride. For more information, visit www.eckrich.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 Operation Homefront A national nonprofit, Operation Homefront builds strong, stable, and secure military families so that they can thrive in the communities they have worked so hard to protect. With more than 3,200 volunteers nationwide, Operation Homefront has provided assistance to tens of thousands of military families since its inception shortly after 9/11. Recognized for superior performance by leading independent charity oversight groups, 92 percent of Operation Homefronts expenditures go directly to programs that provide support to our military families. For more information, go to www.OperationHomefront.net. About Randy Houser With an inimitable voice the New York Times describes as wholly different, thicker and more throbbing, a caldron bubbling over, Randy Houser racked up three consecutive No. 1 hits and more than four million in singles sales to date with his Stoney Creek Records album, How Country Feels. He topped the charts with the title track, Runnin Outta Moonlight and Goodnight Kiss (also his first No. 1 as a songwriter) and earned critical acclaim for his powerful delivery of the Top 5 smash and CMA Song of the Year-nominated "Like A Cowboy." Houser added a fourth No. 1 to his catalogue with We Went from his latest album, Fired Up, and recently released a new single, Chasing Down A Good Time. He is currently on the Somewhere On A Beach Tour with Dierks Bentley. For more information, visit www.RandyHouser.com or follow on Twitter @RandyHouser and www.Facebook.com/RandyHouser. PHILIPSBURG:--- Police has arrested three men in connection with the ill-treatment of a police officer while on duty. The incident took place on Saturday, August 6th on Rhine road in the vicinity of Tantra Night Club. The officers were sent to that location in connection with a fight that had taken place. While on the scene the officers intervened in a fight among a group of men. This is when one of the officers was attacked from the back. As a result of the attack, the officer suffered an injury to his left shoulder. Immediately reinforcement was called in to assist in the situation. The suspects were all taken to the police station in Philipsburg where they remain in custody pending further investigation. The officer was treated at the Sint Maarten Medical Center for his injuries and is presently on medical leave. The investigation is ongoing. KPSM Police Report PHILIPSBURG:--- Parliament invites the public to send in nominations for the Annual President of Parliament Award. The application documents are on the parliaments website. Persons have until August 15, 2016 to submit their nominations. The website address is: www.sxmparliament.org and can be found under the documents section of the site. Select the link and you will be able to download the application form. The purpose of the award is to honour young persons on Sint Maarten that are a great example to the youth and who have contributed positively to the community and the country. Nominations can be submitted by any citizen of Sint Maarten who believes that the individual that he/she is nominating meets the criteria. The eligibility criteria are: the candidate must have the Dutch nationality and/or has been legally residing in Sint Maarten for 10-years or more consecutively, and has been registered in the Civil Registry for that period of time; must be between the ages of 15-24 years; has made a worthwhile contribution to the development of the community and the country; these contributions/achievements must have taken place within the last three years; contributions/achievements must have been made while the individual was acting as a private citizen, not as an appointed or elected government official; and must have demonstrated capacity for leadership and ability to motivate. An award committee will be established each year consisting of three members of Parliament. Members of the committee will review the nomination documents prior to the selection meeting and select three nominees. During the selection meeting, the President of Parliament selects the recipient of the award based on the recommendations of the award committee. The award will be presented yearly to the recipient during the reception ceremony at the Opening of the Parliamentary Year. Nominations for the Annual President of Parliament may be submitted to The Parliament of Sint Maarten, attention, Annual President of Parliament Award Committee, Wilhelminastraat 1, Philipsburg. PHILIPSBURG:--- At least three French nationals were seen on Jacks Hill on Cole Bay Hill harassing tourists that stopped at the lookout point to get view of the island. The three OPCs are operating illegally on the Dutch side are menacing the island visitors as they try to enjoy their vacation on the island. On Tuesday morning, at least three French nationals, one female and two males were on the location. SMN News reporter approached the OPCs and asked them what they were doing at the Lookout point where visitors try to enjoy the peace and tranquility on the island. The female OPC was not at all nice as she responded very rudely saying she was doing the same as everyone else. Not only that when SMN News reporter decided to take a photograph of the nuisances, the female tourist stretched her tongue out and after that decided she too will take a photograph of SMN News reporter. Police were informed of the illegal businesses and the harassment the island visitors have to endure at the hands of the persons at the Lookout point. Police Spokesman Ricardo Henson said that a patrol vehicle was dispatched to the area but he was not sure if they went and if they did anything to stop the illegal activities of the OPCs 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. Global Digital Marketing Group Names Mark Hassin as CRO AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS (Marketwired) 08/09/16 , the digital performance marketing company that empowers the worlds leading brands and agencies to engage global audiences, today announced that it has appointed Mark Hassin as its first chief revenue officer. Hassin will be based in Menlo Park, CA and will report to Dmitry Atamanyuk, CEO of GDM Group. In this new role, Mark will be leading all GDM Groups global revenue-related activities. As the head of the companys sales team, he will be responsible for the sales operations, business development, advertisers/publishers sales and account management teams. We are thrilled to welcome Mark to the GDM Group team, said Dmitry Atamanyuk, CEO of GDM Group. His impressive work experience in fast growing companies, as well as with well-known brands, will play a large role in his ability to grow GDM Group. Prior to GDM Group, Hassin spent three years at Tipalti, a global mass payment solution, as the chief revenue officer. Mark established Tipaltis office in Silicon Valley and built a sales team that led the company to over 200 percent growth year-over-year and over two billion in transactions. Before Tipalti, Mark was VP of strategic accounts at BlueSnap (formerly Plimus, acquired by a private equity for $115M) and CEO of a top 10 digital agency in Israel, Publicis Webimage. As a full cycle digital company with unique technical solutions driven by performance, GDM Group is opening a new frontier in internet marketing, said Hassin. Im enthusiastic to join a team of performance-focused innovators who are helping brands and agencies engage new audiences and scale their businesses. Global Digital Marketing Group (GDM Group) is a digital performance marketing company that empowers the worlds leading brands and agencies to engage global audiences. GDM Groups family of solutions delivers a comprehensive set of marketing services, including performance, mobile, video, programmatic marketing and media buying. Through the GDMG umbrella, clients are able to drive revenues and increase brand awareness while expanding their existing markets and entering new ones both domestic and global. Headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands, GDM Group is operating through its 6 offices, located in Toronto, Shanghai, Amsterdam, Tel Aviv, Berlin and Kiev. The worlds largest brands including Alibaba Group, Baidu, Booking.com, LightInTheBox, RocketInternet and more rely on GDM Groups global footprint and dedicated teams to expand their business and accelerate growth. Learn more at . Brook Terran Blast PR for GDM Group 805-570-3309 ComputerCare Earns Apple Premium Service Provider Designation; Meets Highest Standards in Customer Care SANTA CLARA, CA (Marketwired) 08/09/16 , a world-class managed services and repair provider for warranty and non-warranty computers, mobile devices and servers, today announced it has achieved status from Apple. This coveted accolade is given only to an elite tier of Apple Authorized Service Providers in recognition of their extraordinary commitment to technical excellence and customer service. According to Apple, Premium Service Providers consistently deliver exceptional repair support and customer experience that meet Apples exacting standard for high-quality repair and prompt service. With locations in Santa Clara, Calabasas, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, New York and Dublin, Ireland, ComputerCare adheres to the strictest levels of warranty and non-warranty support and repair for a host of Apple products, including iPhones, MacBook Pros, MacBook Airs, iPads and more. The company also recently launched a same-day iPhone display repair service in the Bay Area. This service, which requires no appointments or waiting at a Genius Bar, will expand to other locations in the future. At home or at work, most of us cant live without our computers and mobile devices. When they break, we need them fixed as soon as possible. While hardware support and repairs should be a painless process, thats often not the reality. At ComputerCare, our goal is to deliver the absolute best level of customer service and complete repairs quickly and conveniently, said Georgia Rittenberg, Vice President of ComputerCare. Im very proud of our Apple certified technicians and staff who helped us achieve this exclusive Premium Service Provider certification. In addition to being an Apple Premium Service Provider, ComputerCare is also certified to provide warranty service and repair for Lenovo, Toshiba and HP devices. With experienced, dedicated technicians, ComputerCare handles all repairs from start to finish, eliminating the need for IT departments to rely on manufacturer support, phone troubleshooting, coordination of shipments to depot, and store appointments. Founded in 2004, ComputerCare is an authorized repair center for the worlds leading hardware manufacturers, including Apple, Lenovo, Toshiba and HP. In addition, the company provides a variety of managed IT services, delivering specialized hardware support tailored to the needs of businesses of all sizes. ComputerCare promises the highest level of support, while providing added value services, and fast turn-around times. For more information about ComputerCares range of services, contact (650) 475-5500 or . Visit us on the web at , or follow us on Twitter (), or . Media contact: Mark Chisholm E: T: +1-253-444-5477 Corel Painter 2017: New Brushes and Customized Workflows Set the Standard for Digital Art Software OTTAWA, ONTARIO (Marketwired) 08/09/16 Editors Note: There are four images associated with this release. Introducing , the latest version of the industrys most powerful and creative digital paint software which continues to set the standard for professional artists. With an expansive collection of painting tools, Painter 2017 not only offers an unrivaled ability to emulate traditional art, but also the power to redefine whats possible in digital art. Ground-breaking features like Texture Painting, Dab Stencils and Glazing Brushes offer incredible power to a range of creative sectors and workflows. Boosted performance comes together featuring an easier-to-use interface with enhanced property bars, new Artist Layouts and Palette Drawers, making it faster than ever to create your masterpiece. Each version of Painter pushes the envelope by consistently adding new features that quickly become the benchmark for professional artists of every background and industry, said Chris Pierce, Product Manager for Corel Painter. With Painter 2017, were innovating with features like Texture Painting which provides new possibilities for your artwork and can even help transfer your Painter techniques to the world of 3D. Artist Layouts give you the tools you need to work in any style, while performance enhancements deliver the power you need to create on a deadline. Whether youre making characters come to life for a video game or animation, capturing someones soul in a portrait, or captivating readers with a manga adventure, youve never experienced a more creative or inspiring artistic environment, added Pierce. New features in Painter 2017 deliver incredible creative possibilities to artists working in fine art, gaming, film, comics, manga, photography, illustration and beyond: Pricing and Availability: is available in English, German, French, Japanese and Traditional Chinese for $429 USD/ $499 CAD / EUR 424.95 / GBP 314.95. Registered owners of any previous version can purchase for the upgrade price of $229 USD/ $269 CAD / EUR 218.95 / GBP 159.00. Find the 30-day free trial, box and electronic download versions at . Join the Conversation Connect with Corel Painter users on Facebook: Follow our Twitter updates at About Corel Paint Programs: Corel is the proud creator of , the worlds most realistic paint program. Whether youre a budding artist or a creative professional, Painter gives you the freedom to create digital art without boundaries. The Corel Painter portfolio also includes , the complete home art studio, , a Particle brush plugin for Photoshop, CorelDRAW and PaintShop Pro, and mobile apps that let you create digital art on the go. Boasting some of the industrys best-known brands, Corels product lines also include CorelDRAW Graphics Suite, Corel PaintShop Pro, Corel VideoStudio, Corel WordPerfect Office, Roxio, Pinnacle and WinZip. For more information about Corel Paint Programs, please visit . 2016 Corel Corporation. All rights reserved. Corel, the Corel logo, the Corel Balloon logo, Painter, CorelDRAW, Essentials, PaintShop, Particle, ParticleShop, Pinnacle, Roxio, VideoStudio, WinZip and WordPerfect are trademarks or registered trademarks of Corel Corporation and/or its subsidiaries in Canada, the U.S. and elsewhere. All other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners. Patents: To view the images associated with this release, please visit the following links: Contacts: Media Contact Alex Brazeau Corel PR eShore Ltd inspires the next generation of Information Security leaders Cayman-based eShore Ltd has helped inspire 15 IT security professionals to obtain the industry accredited Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certification in a 5-day, on-island bootcamp with instructor Jay Ranade. IT security professionals from leading organisations including Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA), Fidelity Bank and XSOMO International joined the 1-to-1 interactive and web-based session. With IT security, cyber threats, and new CIMA guidelines on everyones mind, eShore Ltd offered the opportunity to leading Caribbean businesses who are looking to strengthen their information security program and protect their data from increasingly sophisticated attacks. Polly Pickering, Managing Director at eShore Ltd, said: It was good to see so many IT security professionals taking advantage of the opportunity. Jay teaches security, risk, and audit classes globally and has written and published more than 35 IT related books, so our attendees couldnt have asked for a better instructor. It was a great week had by all! Cyber attacks on business email and data breaches continue to rise at an unprecedented rate. This is our way of giving something back to the community to ensure that regional businesses not only recognise the increasing threats, but have access to the gold standard in security certification. While eShore Ltd can offer state-of-the-art teams and technology, it is awareness and training coupled with executive buy-in that really makes the difference, Polly continues. Due to the success of the event, eShore Ltd will be running another CISSP bootcamp with instructor Jay Ranade on the week commencing 5th December. To reserve your place, sign up online today caymancisspbootcamp.eventbrite.com. NEWPORT NEWS, Va., Aug. 09, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Huntington Ingalls Industries (NYSE:HII) announced today that its Newport News Shipbuilding division has reached a major milestone in the construction of the submarine Indiana (SSN 789). The 16th Virginia-class submarine has reached pressure hull complete, signifying that all of its hull sections are joined to form a single, watertight unit. Ships Sponsor Diane Donald, wife of Adm. Kirk Donald (U.S. Navy, Ret.), and Ray Shearer, chairman of Indianas commissioning committee, visited the shipyard to see the progress being made on the submarine and meet with its crew. Witnessing Indiana come to life is one of the most gratifying experiences of my life, Mrs. Donald said. The countless hours of hard work the shipbuilders have put into constructing and perfecting this boat is apparent, as Indiana has now taken on the shape of a submarine. I also had the pleasure of spending time with the ships crew. As the wife of a submariner, its been a real honor getting to know a new generation of sailors and witnessing their enthusiasm and dedicated service to our nation. As Indiana moves closer to joining the Navys fleet next year, I look forward to continuing to share this journey with her shipbuilders and crew members. A photo accompanying this release is available at: http://newsroom.huntingtoningalls.com/file?fid=57aa20782cfac21e75b68cfd. Pressure hull complete is the last major milestone before the submarines christening. Construction began in September 2012 under a teaming agreement between Newport News and General Dynamics Electric Boat. The submarine is about 82 percent complete and is scheduled for delivery to the Navy in the third quarter of 2017. We are on track to meet our budget and schedule commitments to the Navy, and Im proud of the progress that the Newport News Shipbuilding-General Dynamics Electric Boat team is making, said Jim Hughes, Newport News vice president, submarines and fleet support. Our progress demonstrates the efficiency of the Navys two-per-year build plan, which helps ensure Americas undersea superiority. Cmdr. Jesse J. Zimbauer, Indianas commanding officer, said, Newport News Shipbuilding has completed the pressure hull on time for the Indiana, continuing the momentum of the Navys most successful build program and moving us another step closer to taking our submarine to sea. Huntington Ingalls Industries is Americas largest military shipbuilding company and a provider of engineering, manufacturing and management services to the nuclear energy, oil and gas markets. For more than a century, HIIs Newport News and Ingalls shipbuilding divisions in Virginia and Mississippi have built more ships in more ship classes than any other U.S. naval shipbuilder. Headquartered in Newport News, Virginia, HII employs nearly 35,000 people operating both domestically and internationally. For more information, visit: rkartikeya wrote: Hello Leizel, This is coming a bit late, but I thought I should clarify this anyway. I've interviewed in R1 and am now awaiting the final result. INSEAD is one of only two schools I applied to, the other being the Indian School of Business (ISB) as back-up. I had originally planned to apply for the Sept intake, but on the advice of a few alums during an info session at the Singapore campus, decided to defer my application to the Jan intake, where I could get the opportunity to intern after 4 periods. I got the admit call from ISB in the meanwhile, and since their classes start in April, was compelled to join. I highlighted this point to my interviewers at the very outset, and assured them that I would drop out of ISB, if admitted to INSEAD. I also elaborated on the aformentioned reasons for applying to INSEAD after ISB. To further stress on my commitment to INSEAD, I had an alum of 12D, with whom I've interacted extensively over the past year to better understand the school, write an additional third recommendation. Do you feel I have done enough to alleviate any concerns that the adcom may have, or atleast followed due process in such circumstances? I didn't write to my admissions officer directly since I felt I wouldn't be able to explain the full context of the situation, and therefore decided to explain to my interviewers. Regards, Kartikeya _________________ We have added a fourth round of admissions to allow us to better manage the influx of incoming applications and to provide some additional flexibility to our applicants. For more info on current intakes, please click here http://mba.insead.edu/admissions/dates_deadlines.cfm INSEAD MBA Admission http://mba.insead.edu/home/ Twitter: Facebook: LinkedIn: Twitter: https://twitter.com/insead Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/insead LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/insead Signature Read More Dear Kartikeya,Apologies for the delayed response. It is highly advisable to liaise directly with the Admissions Officer in-charge of your application as they are the only team deciding on deferral requests and final results. As stated in the website's FAQ's on Admissions, in truly exceptional circumstances, the Admissions Committee may grant a deferral. All requests should be made in writing and will be reviewed on a case by case basis.Regards,Leizel_________________ Sounder News Susan Yates and Tobi Elliott will be the Island Trustees for the Gabriola Local Trust Area for the next four years winning against four other opponents in the Islands Trust part of the 2022 Local Government Elections. Yates took in the most votes, with... 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. walker wrote: Students in the metropolitan school district lack math skills to such a large degree as to make it difficult to absorb them into a city economy becoming ever more dependent on information-based industries. (A) lack math skills to such a large degree as to make it difficult to absorb them into a city economy becoming (B) lack math skills to a large enough degree that they will be difficult to absorb into a citys economy that becomes (C) lack of math skills is so large as to be difficult to absorb them into a citys economy that becomes (D) are lacking so much in math skills as to be difficult to absorb into a citys economy becoming (E) are so lacking in math skills that it will be difficult to absorb them into a city economy becoming Meaning is crucial to solving this problem: Concepts tested here: Idioms + Meaning + Verb Forms+ Tenses + Redundancy/Awkwardness A: B: C: D: E: Correct. Hence, E is the best answer choice. Dear Friends,Here is a detailed explanation to this question-Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended meaning of this sentence is that students in the metropolitan school district are so lacking in math skills that it will be difficult to absorb them into a city economy that is becoming ever more dependent on information-based industries. enough + to is a correct, idiomatic usage; besides, enough is used to show adequacy and generally not used to show a cause-effect relationship; rather, so + cause + that + effect or so + cause + as to + effect are some of the preferred constructions for conveying a cause-effect relationship. The simple present continuous tense is used to refer to actions that are currently ongoing and continuous in nature. The simple present tense is used to indicate actions taking place in the current time frame, indicate habitual actions, state universal truths, and convey information that is permanent in nature.Trap. This answer choice fails to maintain the idiomatic construction so cause as to effect, as it omits the word so; please remember, the correct, idiomatic usage is so causeas to effect or so causethat effect. Besides, Option A uses the needlessly wordy phrase to such a large degree as to make, leading to awkwardness.This answer choice incorrectly uses the simple present tense verb "becomes" to refer to an action that is currently ongoing and continuous in nature; remember, the simple present continuous tense is used to refer to actions that are currently ongoing and continuous in nature, and the simple present tense is used to indicate actions taking place in the current time frame, indicate habitual actions, state universal truths, and convey information that is permanent in nature. Further, Option B fails to maintain the idiomatic construction so causethat effect, as it omits the word so and incorrectly included the word enough; please remember, the correct usage is so causeas to effect or so causethat effect, and enough is generally not used to show a cause-effect relationship. Besides, Option B uses the needlessly wordy phrase to a large enough degree that they will be, leading to awkwardness.This answer choice uses the noun phrase lack of math skills, leading to an incoherent meaning; the intended meaning of this sentence is that students in the metropolitan school district are so lacking in math skills that it will be difficult to absorb them into a city economy that is becoming ever more dependent on information-based industries. Further, Option C incorrectly uses the simple present tense verb "becomes" to refer to an action that is currently ongoing and continuous in nature; remember, the simple present continuous tense is used to refer to actions that are currently ongoing and continuous in nature, and the simple present tense is used to indicate actions taking place in the current time frame, indicate habitual actions, state universal truths, and convey information that is permanent in nature.Trap. This answer choice fails to maintain the idiomatic construction so causeas to effect, as it introduces the superfluous word much and places so within the phrase expressing the cause are lacking in math skills, leading to awkwardness; please remember, the correct, idiomatic usage is so causeas to effect or so causethat effect.This answer choice correctly uses the idiomatic construction so cause ("lacking in math skills")that effect ("it will be difficult to absorb"), conveying the intended meaning of the sentence- students in the metropolitan school district are so lacking in math skills that it will be difficult to absorb them into a city economy that is becoming ever more dependent on information-based industries. Further, Option E avoids the tense error seen in Options A and C, as it uses the present participle (verb+ing - becoming in this sentence) to refer to a currently ongoing action; please remember, the present participle (verb+ing - becoming in this sentence) is used to refer to ongoing actions in any time frame. Additionally, Option E is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.To understand the concept of "Simple Tenses" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):To understand the concept of "Simple Continuous Tenses" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):All the best!Team_________________ A man who was being escorted out of a Bronx deli by police officers grabbed one of the cops' guns and fatally shot a deli worker early this morning. The other officer fired his gun, wounding the suspect. The incident occurred at A&M Deli at 230 East 198th Street at the corner of Valentine Avenue around 1 a.m. today. Two officers responded to the scene, where two deli workers were in an altercation with a third man, 30-year-old Efraim Guzman. NYPD Assistant Chief Larry Nikunen, Commanding Officer of Patrol Borough Bronx, described a "physical struggle" between the workers and Guzman. Assistant Chief Nikunen told reporters: As the officers were escorting Mr. Guzman out of the store, Mr. Guzman was able to grab a gun from one of the officers holsters. Officers struggled with Mr. Guzman, who regained control of the gun. A second officer fired three shots at Mr. Guzman, striking him twice. Mr. Guzman fired numerous shots from the officers gun, one of which we believe fatally struck a 49 year-old male who works in a store across the street. This 49 year-old male had a dispute with Mr. Guzman just prior to this incident. Apparently Guzman was trying to sell phone chargers, and had been kicked out of another store by the 49-year-old deli worker. When Guzman went to A&M Deli, the deli worker followed, reportedly warning employees there "that Guzman was up to no good." "Their argument became so heated that several 911 calls were made and witnesses flagged down two patrolling NYPD officers, who found the pair brawling," the Daily News reports. One police official said, "Guzman made a very fast move and basically ripped the gun out of the officer's holster." The 49-year-old deli worker died at St. Barnabas, which is where Guzman was also taken. Police at the scene (David Torres) As many as 15 shots may have been fired during the incident. Surveillance footage reportedly backs up the police version of events. The News adds, "Its unclear how Guzman managed to swipe the firearm or if he aimed it at the officers, but cops are investigating the incident" because the holster apparently needs to be unclasped before the gun can be removed. Welcome to SwanseaOnline - your home for the best news, sports and what's on coverage of the city. Never miss a Swansea story with our daily newsletter Sign up to comment on our stories here Follow us on Facebook and Twitter | Swansea City news | Ospreys news | InYourArea Artist's conception of an Earth-like world that could be similar to the fictional Vulcan, from the "Star Trek" universe. In the fictional universe of "Star Trek," the alien Spock comes from a world called Vulcan in the triple-star system 40 Eridani. Vulcan was destroyed in a previous movie, forcing Spock's race to immigrate to a planet called New Vulcan. While Vulcan is one of the most well-known worlds in science fiction, the planet is entirely fictional. However, the star system it belongs to in "Star Trek" is for real. And scientists haven't ruled out Earth-like planets in that system, 40 Eridani, which is 16.5 light-years from Earth. "Could there be an Earth-like planet in this system? We have no way of knowing that now," Karl Stapelfeldt, chief scientist of NASA's Exoplanet Exploration Program, said in a statement. If an Earth-like world does exist, he added, "we don't yet have a way to detect it, but NASA is working on the technology to make it possible." NASA principally searches for Earth-like worlds using the Kepler space telescope. The telescope, however, focuses on looking for planets that are very far away from Earth. NASA's planned orbiting observatory TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite), which will launch next year, can look at closer worlds around brighter stars but NASA has not made it clear whether TESS can search for a planet like Vulcan. When Spock was growing up, he would have been treated to triple sunsets on his home planet. The star his planet orbited, 40 Eridani A, is a dwarf star that is a short distance from the other stars in the system, a binary pair including 40 Eridani B (a white dwarf) and 40 Eridani C (a red dwarf). Dwarf stars emit less energy than our own sun. So for Vulcan to be habitable, it would need to huddle closer to 40 Eridani A than Earth does to the sun. Scientists define a "habitable zone" as the region around a star where a planet could have liquid water. If the planet is too close, it loses most of its water (like Mercury). If it's too far, the water freezes out (like Pluto). There are other factors as well that affect a planet's habitability, such as its atmosphere. Venus and Mars are pretty close to the sun's habitable zone. But Venus has a very thick atmosphere probably enough to crush life-forms on the surface while Mars' is wispy thin. There could be microbes on Mars, but any unprotected Vulcan on its surface would suffocate immediately. Vulcan was actually not as temperate as Earth is, according to "Star Trek." Because it was on the inner edge of the habitable zone, the planet was more desert-like than our own planet. While the planet was destroyed in the 2009 "Star Trek" movie, in the original series and other "Star Trek" shows it remained a friendly location for the USS Enterprise to visit. Follow Elizabeth Howell @howellspace, or Space.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com. The sun as seen on May 23, 1967. A powerful flare erupted from the bright area in the top-center of the solar disk. A powerful solar storm nearly heated the Cold War up catastrophically a half century ago, a new study suggests. The U.S. Air Force began preparing for war on May 23, 1967, thinking that the Soviet Union had jammed a set of American surveillance radars. But military space-weather forecasters intervened in time, telling top officials that a powerful sun eruption was to blame, according to the study. "Had it not been for the fact that we had invested very early on in solar and geomagnetic storm observations and forecasting, the impact [of the storm] likely would have been much greater," Delores Knipp, a space physicist at the University of Colorado Boulder and the study's lead author, said in a statement. "This was a lesson learned in how important it is to be prepared." [The Sun's Wrath: Worst Solar Storms in History] Frightening false alarm The storm began brewing on May 18, 1967, when researchers noticed a big group of sunspots with strong magnetic fields clumped on one part of the solar disk. Sunspots dark, relatively cool areas on the sun's surface serve as launching pads for powerful bursts of high-energy radiation known as solar flares, as well as eruptions of solar plasma called coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which almost always accompany strong flares. Intense flares that hit Earth can disrupt radio transmissions and satellite communications, among other effects. Earth-directed CMEs can be even more damaging; big ones can spawn "geomagnetic storms" that blow out transformers in power grids, for example. On May 23, 1967, the sun fired off a flare so powerful that it was visible to the naked eye, and began emitting radio waves at a level that had never been seen before, study team members said. Notes on the region of the sun where the May 1967 solar flare occurred, from May 18, 20, 21, 23, and 28. (Image credit: National Solar Observatory historical archive) That same day, all three of the Air Force's Ballistic Missile Early Warning System radar sites in the far Northern Hemisphere which were located in Alaska, Greenland and the United Kingdom appeared to be jammed. Air Force officials initially assumed that the Soviet Union was responsible. Such radar jamming is considered an act of war, so commanders quickly began preparing nuclear-weapon-equipped aircraft for launch. (These newly scrambled aircraft would have been "additional forces," according to the study authors; the U.S. kept nuke-bearing "alert" planes aloft pretty much continuously throughout the 1960s.) "This is a grave situation," Knipp said. "But here's where the story turns: Things were going horribly wrong, and then something goes commendably right." Those additional forces never launched. So what happened? Solar forecasters at the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) a joint U.S.-Canadian effort that looks out for incoming missiles and other possible threats and elsewhere figured out that the flare, not the Soviets, had disrupted the radars. (The U.S. military had begun keeping tabs on solar activity, and its effects on Earth, in the 1950s; by 1967, NORAD was getting daily updates on the subject, study team members said.) Knipp and her colleagues think this information made it in time to Air Force commanders and other high-ranking officials including, perhaps, President Lyndon Johnson. "Oftentimes, the way things work is, something catastrophic happens, and then we say, 'We should do something so it doesn't happen again,'" Morris Cohen, an electrical engineer and radio scientist at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, said in the same statement. "But in this case, there was just enough preparation done just in time to avert a disastrous result," added Cohen, who was not involved in the new study. A solar superstorm The flare on May 23, 1967, was accompanied by a CME, which hit Earth about 40 hours later. (CMEs travel through space at millions of miles per hour fast, but not nearly as fast as solar-flare radiation, which, of course, moves at the speed of light.) The CME triggered a powerful geomagnetic storm, which disrupted American radio communications for nearly a week, study team members said. This storm also ramped up the northern lights, making them visible as far south as New Mexico. "As a magnetospheric disturbance, the 25-26 May event ranks near the top in the record books," Knipp and her colleagues wrote in the new study, which has been accepted for publication in the journal Space Weather. You can read the abstract of the paper for free here. The top spot in the record books, incidentally, likely belongs to the famous Carrington Event of September 1859. That geomagnetic storm caused telegraph systems to fail all over North America and Europe, and the northern lights were visible as far south as the Caribbean. A Carrington-like storm today would likely be devastating, given how much more dependent the world is on technological infrastructure such as power grids and satellite networks, experts have said. Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.